History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 164

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216

USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 164

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1 From the erection of the township in 1781 till 1803 it was an inde- pendent district. Morris, however, was erected from its territory in 1788. By the act of 1803 Amwell and Morris became District No. 10, and so continued till 1838, when each became independent, and the of- fice of justice of the peace became elective.

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AMWELL TOWNSHIP.

Jesse Bane, the oldest of the five brothers, died upon his original farm at a very great age. Isaac Bane, who had married Sarah Ferguson before he left Vir- ginia, was nearly ninety-three years old when he died at his home in Amwell. He left a family of four sons and five daughters. Daniel, the oldest, died in infancy, and Elizabeth died in 1818. John married Polly Milliken, reared a large family, and died near Clarkstown. William Bane, another son, who mar- ried Polly McGuire, died in Illinois in 1856, leaving many descendants. Sarah Bane, who became the' wife of Zebulon Cooper in 1818, removed with him to Butler County, in this State. She died there in 1840, and left a numerous family. Ruth Bane was the wife of Goodwin Goodrich, and lived and died at Clarksville, Greene Co., Pa., her family being one son and two daughters. Rebecca Bane married John Lacock, reared a number of children, and died in 1858. Anna Bane's husband was Ira Lacock; their family consisted of four sons and one daughter. She died in 1874, and Mr. Lacock in 1876, in Washing- ton, in this county, and both are buried in the cem- etery at that place. Isaac Bane, Jr., son of Isaac Bane, married Anna Wick, and very soon after their marriage they purchased "Forlorn Hope," the tract of land in this township which was located by Wil- liam Vineard. They lived and died upon this farm, he in 1854, aged seventy-eight years, and his wife in 1857, at eighty-one years of age. Both were buried in the cemetery at Amity village. Their farm is now owned by Charles Banfield. Their children married and settled in life as follows: Mary, the oldest, was the wife of William Ringland, and her children were two sons and two daughters. They have all died save Mary Ringland, the youngest, who became Mrs. Nicodemus Moninger, and lives in Marshall, Conn. She has two sons and one daughter. The second child of Isaac and Anna Bane was a son, Thomas L. Bane, who was a physician, and studied for his pro- fession with Dr. George Cook at New Lisbon, Colum- biana Co., Ohio. He married his cousin, Matilda L. Wick, by whom he had two sons, Lycurgus G. and Thomas L. Bane, Jr. Lycurgus G. died at the age of twenty-four years, leaving no heirs, and Thomas L., Jr., died in Geneva, Ashtabula Co., Ohio, at forty years of age, leaving a wife and three daughters. Thomas L. Bane, Sr., and his wife, Matilda L. Bane, were devoted members of the Disciple or Christian Church, with which they united in 1838 at Youngs- town, Ohio, being baptized at that time and place by Rev. John Henry. Mrs. Bane died in Youngstown, Ohio, in 1845, and Mr. Bane died in Geneva, Ohio, in the seventy-first year of his age.

Deborah Bane was the third child of Isaac and Anna Bane. She married John Curry, and became the mother of six children, five sons and one daugh- ter. Of these, Albert G. Curry died single in 1859, in the thirtieth year of his age. Thomas B. Curry, the second child, married Sarah Frazer, and resides

on Brush Run, in this county. Milton and Mary Curry, twins, were the next children of Deborah Bane Curry. Milton emigrated to Illinois, where he lives with his family, and Mary, who married Aaron Bane, a distant relative, has two sons and one daughter. The two youngest children are sons, and both, un- married, live upon the homestead with their mother, Mrs. Deborah Curry, the father having died Aug. 6, 1880. Henry Wick Bane, the second son and fourth child of Isaac and Anna Wick Bane, emigrated to Columbiana County, Ohio, in 1831, and is now a resi- dent of Portage County, in that State. His wife was Ann M. Rickart, of Youngstown, Ohio, and two sons and three daughters compose their family. The old- est of this last-named family is Harriet A., who became the wife of William C. Van Kirk in 1864. They live in Amwell township, their farm adjoining that known as " Forlorn Hope," formerly owned by Isaac Bane, Jr., but now in the possession of Charles Banfield. Sarah E. Bane, second child of Henry Wick Bane, married James M. Hughes in 1867. Their home is in Washington, in this county. Mary R. Bane, third daughter and third child of Henry Wiek Bane, was married in 1869 to James Koontz, Jr., and their home is also in Washington. Benja- min F. Bane, the fourth child of Henry Wick Bane, is living at Clarksburg, West Va., while the fifth child, Allison C. Bane, is a merchant in Allegheny City, and both are unmarried. Asenath Bane died in infancy. - William died in his second, and Orlando in his ninth, year. James Blaine Bane, the youngest child of Isaac, Jr., and Anna Wick Bane, is a Cum- berland Presbyterian minister. He emigrated to Athens County, Ohio, in 1840, and married Louisa Fuller. They now reside in Beverly, Washington Co., Ohio.

Joseph Bane, one of the five brothers Bane, never married. He was elected captain of a company of militia, and one time with his company followed a band of Indians to the west side of the Ohio River, crossing the stream below Wheeling. They .overtook and attacked the enemy, but the bat- tle resulted in victory for the Indians. Bane and his men beat a hasty retreat, but Bane was shot. He was carried by his men five days on horseback back to Amity village, where he soon recovered and went to Kentucky. On his way out he killed two Indians and took their scalps, which he sent to his friends in Amwell township. He died in Kentucky.

In the autobiography of Thaddeus Dodd, written in 1764 (published by the Rev. Cephas Dodd, in the Presbyterian Magazine, August, 1854), he says, " I was born near Newark, N. J., on the 7th of March, 1740 [O. S.]. From there my parents removed to Mend- ham, N. J., where the greater part of my life was spent." He was the son of Stephen Dodd, a native of Guilford, Conn., and grandson of Daniel Dodd. (The brothers of Stephen Dodd were Daniel and John, of whom Thaddeus Dodd speaks as his uncles.) He

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

mentions his father's death as having occurred in the year the autobiography was written, and his conver- sion also occurred in June of that year. The follow- ing is from a historical sketch delivered at the cen- tennial celebration of the Ten-Mile Churches, Aug. 28, 1879, by the Rev. James Allison :

"But it was not until seven long years after making a confession of faith, and in the thirty-first year of his age, that Thaddeus Dodd was permitted to enter Princeton College, then under the presidency of the celebrated Dr. Jolin Witherspoon. He was graduated in the fall of 1773. Among his classmates were Revs. Drs. James Dunlap, John MeKnight, John B. Smith, and Rev. William Grabam. He was one year and a half in college with Dr. John McMillan, though not in the same class. Soon after graduation he went to Newark, N. J., where he married Miss Phoebe Baldwin, and entered upon the study of theology under the di- rection of Rev. Dr. Mcwhorter. One year later be removed to Morris- town, N. J., and continued the same line of study under Rev. Dr. Johnes, who had been his first instructor in Latin. He was licensed to preach the gospel by the Presbytery of New York, but there is no existing record of the date at which this took place. Through the winter of 1776-77 he suffered from a severe attack of inflammatory rheumatism. But in the month of March, though still feeble, he started upon a jour- ney to the West. After preaching in parte of Virginia and Maryland, he crossed the mountains, visited the settlements on Georges Creek, Muddy Creek, and Dunlap's Creek, and then came to Ten-Mile. He re- mained here until August, preaching in private houses, in the woods, and in Lindley's and Bell's Forts. After his return to the East he was or- dained by the Presbytery of New York as an evangelist on some day of the week preceding Sabbath, Oct. 19, 1777, as there is a record of bap- tisms by him on that Sabbath, in which it is said that this was the first Sabbath after his ordination.

"Shortly after this he left New Jersey with his wife and daughter three years old and a son still younger, accompanied by two brothers and their families. On the 10th of November they arrived at Patterson's Creek, Hampshire County, Va., and after hearing of the formidable attack which had been made by the Indians upon Wheeling, and the consequent alarm and confusion prevailing in all the frontier settle- ments, it was thought best not to proceed any farther at that time. But in a few days he crossed the mountains alone, came to Ten-Mile, prenched in the forts, and baptized the children. In a short time he returned to his family, and it is not known that he visited this place again until he brought his family and settled down permanently in the fall of 1779, one hundred years ago. In the interval he had not been idle but busily engaged in preaching the gospel in the adjacent parts of Virginia and Maryland, where no churches seem to have been then organized, at least there were no church buildings, as all the services were held at private houses or in the woods. He was entreated to remain, and in- ducements apparently stronger than any held out by Ten-Mile were brought to bear upon him, but he had given his pledge to the people here; his heart was here, and hither he came in September, 1779."

In a letter by the Rev. Dr. Jacob Lindley (one of Mr. Dodd's pupils from 1782 to 1784) he says, "In the latter part of 1785, I think, Mr. Dodd sold his farm where his school was, and moved into his lower congregation." It is evident from this that Mr. Dodd first resided in what is now Morris township, near the Lindleys, and from the survey book's of the county it is found that he took out a warrant for a tract of land on the middle fork of Ten-Mile Creek, which was sur- veyed to him Nov. 22, 1786, as " Tusenheim," contain- ing four hundred acres. On this tract he lived till his death, which occurred May 20, 1793. He left a wife, two sons, and three daughters. Both of the sons be- came physicians, and the elder, Cephas, became a minister of the Presbyterian Church, and the second successor of his father as pastor of the Ten-Mile con- gregations. The descendants of Mr. Dodd are numer- ous. Of the children none are living. There have

been among them one minister, two elders, and two deacons in the Presbyterian Church, six physicians, and one lawyer. Thirty-five of the descendants are members of the Lower Ten-Mile congregation.

The Rev. James Allison, in the address before men- tioned, says of the classical school founded by Mr. Dodd, " He felt the importance of a better common- school education, and in order to promote it he visited the schools, and counseled and encouraged instructors. But for the special purpose of educating young men for the ministry; Mr. Dodd erected a building a short distance from his own dwelling, in which he opened a classical and mathematical school in the spring of 1782 ; of the five students present at the opening four are certainly known to have been looking to the min- istry of the gospel as their life work. This school was successfully conducted for three years and a half. And he had nearly all the intervening time several students under him whose studies he directed. In the beginning of 1789, Mr. Dodd accepted the ap- pointment of principal to the academy opened in the town of Washington on the 1st of April of that year, with the understanding that he was to hold the office only for one year, as he did not wish to relinquish the pastorate at Ten-Mile; at the expiration of the year he was constrained to continue three months longer. Some time during the following winter the court- house, one of whose rooms had been occupied by the academy, was burned, and no other suitable building could be obtained."

Daniel Dodd, a brother of the Rev. Thaddeus Dodd, came out to this country soon after his brother, and settled near him. His name is mentioned in the sur- vey of Jacob Cook and others as adjoining them. He purchased land which Nehemiah Scott patented, and where the village of Amity now stands, and laid out that town in 1797. He also purchased land adjoining that of John Carmichael, which was part of a tract patented by Carmichael and known by the name of " Cook's Delight." On this land Henry Wick at the time of purchase had a distillery. In 1799, Dodd sold the land to Wick. Mr. Dodd lived on the farm till his death. Daniel Dodd married Charity Free- man, and had one son and six daughters,-Mary, Ziba, Phebe, Azuba, and Sarah. They all removed West. The son, Daniel Freeman Dodd, remained in the township, and lived to an advanced age. He also left a son, Daniel Freeman Dodd, who died in the township in the fall of 1880.

The McCrackens were natives of the Highlands of Scotland, but early removed to County Down, Ire- land, from which place, in about 1768, David Mc- Cracken emigrated to this country. After a short time spent in the East, he emigrated West and settled on the waters of Ten-Mile Creek, where he purchased a claim of a man who had made a clearing. This was the land which he afterwards purchased. It is un- derstood that a tract, warranted and surveyed by Nathaniel Coleman, by the name of " Rabbit's Cove,"

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AMWELL TOWNSHIP.

and patent obtained July 2, 1790, was to be divided between Coleman and McCracken. It was not, how- ever, until the 16th of April, 1796, that a deed was given from Coleman to McCracken, and in which the following passage occurs: "In consideration of one hundred cents and divers other considerations to them well known." On this tract of land David McCracken lived the remainder of his days. He left four sons. Thomas, the eldest, was killed at a raising when a young man, the others emigrated to the West. The property is now owned by Andrew Vandyke and Joseph Hannah.

Andrew McCracken, a brother of David, remained in Ireland until 1792, when he emigrated to America and came directly to this county, and lived with his brother two years before he made a purchase of land. On the 12th of April, 1794, he bought sixty-three acres of land of Jacob Housong, and on the 10th of May, 1806, forty-one acres of William McClenahan. This land was part of a tract warranted to Luke Brown on the 28th of August, 1792, and in the sur- vey was named "Desart." Brown sold to Housong on the 16th of October the same year. On this land Mr. McCracken passed the remainder of his days. He died in 1837 while on a visit to his daughter, Mrs. John Finacle, then living in Athens County, Ohio. He left two sons,-John and Archibald. John emi- grated to Ohio, and later to Iowa, where he died. Archibald married Lusany, the daughter of Luther Axtell, Sr., and settled on the homestead where he was born and still resides at eighty-three years of age. M. L. A. McCracken, an attorney in Washington, is a son. The daughters of Andrew McCracken all married and emigrated to Ohio.

Maj. Daniel Axtell was an original purchaser of land of the proprietors of East and West Jersey, to which they obtained title in 1682. About the year 1740 he purchased a tract of two thousand acres, now in the township of Bedminster, Somerset Co., N. J. Within the succeeding ten years his death occurred, and the land came into possession of his son William, by whom part of it was sold in 1750 and part in 1760. Of his family three sons came to this county about 1780, and settled in Ten-Mile Creek. But like most of the settlers of that day they did not secure titles till several years later. At what time the warrant was secured and survey made of a tract of four hun- dred and four acres called "Green Mount" is not known; the patent was secured July 7, 1797. On the 6th of October, 1799, one hundred acres was sold to James Tucker, and on the 10th of February, 1801, one hundred and thirty-seven acres to Jonas Conduit. Mr. Conduit lived there many years, and was ap- pointed justice of the peace in 1813. These sales of land were made from the "Green Mount" tract.

A tract called "Winter Green," adjoining Caleb and Levi Lindley, Samuel Clutter, and others, had been warranted, surveyed, and patented to Ebenezer Goble, and part of it was purchased by Daniel Axtell,

April 7, 1794, and on the 12th of February, 1798, Mr. Axtell sold one hundred and ten acres to Daniel Johnston. On the 28th of September, 1795, Daniel Axtell was appointed attorney for the sale of a tract of land called " Pleasant Grove," belonging to Samuel Tuttle, of Morris County, N. J., and on the 21st of March, 1796, he sold two hundred and eighteen acres of it to Col. Daniel McFarland. In the tax-list of 1784 the name of Thomas Axtell appears, but little is known of him or his descendants.

Caleb Goble had made application to the land-office for a tract of land lying on a small branch of Ten- Mile Creek, adjoining Samuel Craig, John Hughes, and William Bryson, which had been warranted and surveyed to him, and on the 5th of October, 1790, Goble conveyed to Luther Axtell all his right, title, and interest in the tract, and on the 9th of July, 1797, he received a patent for it. On the 27th of April, 1804, he conveyed fifty acres of it to Abigail Dickin- son, and the same day one hundred and eight acres to Thomas Wier. On the remainder of this tract Luther Axtell resided till his death. He left four sons,- Daniel, the eldest, died at the age of twenty-four years; Silas settled in Greene County ; Philip and Luther became ministers of the Cumberland Presby- terian Church. The former is now in charge of the church of that demonination in East Pittsburgh, Allegheny Co., and the latter in charge of Pleas- ant Hill Church, East Bethlehem township, Wash- ington County. Lusany, a daughter of Luther Ax- tell, Sr., became the wife of Archibald McCracken, who settled near the Axtells on the old MeCracken homestead.

Col. Daniel McFarland emigrated from Scotland to Massachusetts, where he lived a number of years. He obtained a commission as colonel in the Conti- nental army and served through the Revolution. At its close he came to this county well advanced in life, and with sons and daughters of mature years. He purchased of John Barber four hundred acres of land on the 1st of January, 1785, which was warranted to Barber, Sept. 17, 1784, surveyed as "Elk Lick," Jan. 20, 1785. On the 20th of June, 1791, he purchased of Ephraim Bates four hundred and nineteen acres on the middle fork of Ten-Mile, and on the 21st of March, 1796, purchased two hundred and eighteen acres of Daniel Axtell, attorney for Samuel Tuttle, of Morris County, N. J., which was surveyed to Tuttle as "Pleasant Grove." This last tract he made his homestead, and in 1817 died at the advanced age of eighty-seven years. His remains were buried in the graveyard of Lower Ten-Mile Church. His wife, Sarah, died in 1810, aged eighty years. His great- grandson, Abel M. Evans, Esq., of Ten-Mile village, I resides on the old homestead. The property on which 1 stood the old fulling-mill, owned and operated by Col. Daniel McFarland, is now owned by Mr. Overholt, of Westmoreland County.

William McFarland, a son of Col. Daniel, early

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

took a commanding position in the county. He was appointed coroner of Washington County by the Su- preme Executive Council in 1781, and was appointed justice of the peace of Amwell township, Sept. 30, 1788, and at the same time commissioned justice of the Court of Common Pleas of Washington County. He retained his office of justice of the peace till April 2, 1802, when he was succeeded by Ziba Cook, of Amity. He always endeavored to settle differences between contending parties without resort to legal measures, and his influence was felt for good through- out the community. He was an elder in the Lower Ten-Mile Church. His death occurred at the age of sixty-seven years. His children were Rebecca (Mrs. John Carter), James (the father of Judge N. C. Mc- Farland, of Topeka, Kan.), Sarah (Mrs. Joseph Evans, Sr., whose son, Abel M. Evans, lives on the old homestead), Mary (Mrs. Ezra Dille), William S., Patty (who died at twenty-one years), Samuel Mc- Farland (late of Washington, long known as a leading attorney and active in the temperance cause and the abolition of slavery ), Phebe (Mrs. Silas Clark), Thomas (late of Bethlehem township), and Hannah (Mrs. Boyd), of Ohio.

Jacob Cook and his family were of those who came out in 1773 and settled on the waters of Ten-Mile Creek, at what was known as the Lower Settlement. The warrant for his land was not obtained until Feb. 28, 1785. It was situated on the north side of middle fork of Ten-Mile, adjoining lands of Jesse Bane, William Wilson, and Daniel Dodd. It was surveyed June 25, 1785, and contained four hundred acres, with six per cent. allowance. The place is now owned by John Swart. Jacob Cook died in the spring of 1808, and left two sons, Stephen and Noah (to whom he left the real estate), and three daughters, Rhoda (Mrs. Carmichael), Hannah (Mrs. Morris), and Jemima. . Ziba Cook was also an early resident, and kept tavern from 1797 many years, and was appointed justice of the peace April 2, 1802. There was also living near them a Joseph Cook, who died March 27, 1782, and left in his will £50 to the Presbyterian Church of Ten-Mile.

John Hughes was of Irish ancestry and a native of New Jersey, and in his youth removed to Carlisle, where he entered the Continental army under Capt. Hendricks. The company in which he was placed was formed with eight others into a battalion of rifle- men in July, 1775, and placed in command of Col. William Thompson. A New York paper of that date says that between the 28th of July and August 2d, " The riflemen under command of Capts. Smith, Lowdon, Doudel, Chambers, Nagel, Miller, and Hen- dricks passed through New Windsor (a few miles north of West Point), in the New York government, on their way to Boston." They arrived in camp at Cambridge Aug. 13, 1775. In the month of Septem- ber of that year Capt. Hendrick's company, with others, left for Canada under the command of Col.

Arnold, and were in the attack upon Quebec. Mr. Hughes rose from the ranks to a captaincy. He re- mained with the army during the war, and was present at the battles of Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, and Monmouth. After the war he removed to Wash- ington County with Timothy Ryan. Together they purchased warrants for several large tracts of land on Fish Creek, now in Greene County, to which they received patents in August, 1785, and in 1786 he pur- chased Ryan's interest. John Hughes purchased a warrant for a tract of land on the 18th of October, 1784, of Albert Simonson on what is known as Hughes' branch of Ten-Mile Creek, adjoining James Tucker. This was surveyed to him as "Green Spring" on the 2d of March, 1785. An account book of his, now in possession of his great-grandson, Workman Hughes, recorder of Washington County, extends from Oct. 13, 1784, to 1816. In 1784 and 1785 the names of Demas Lindley, Michael Tygart, Van Swearingen, Esq., Daniel Harris, John Gregg, James Lloyd, Dr. David Holmes, John Dodd, Patrick Allison, Capt Samuel Brady, William Bryson, William Jarret, Maj. Cra- craft, George Biggs, William Meetkirk, George Fox, David Long, John Brownlee, William Forbes, Wil- liam Markland, James Tucker, Mr. Douglas, James Clemens, David Parkison, Alexander Beer, James Castor, Francis Biddle, Daniel Bigle, Henry McClel- land, Daniel Leet, and William Leet are found en- tered. The most of the names here given were resi- dents on or near the waters of Ten-Mile Creek. There is a space of nine years before the account is again taken up, and it is probable that the store was kept at Ten-Mile during that time.

In 1802, Mr. Hughes purchased a lot adjoining No. 18 on Main Street, in Washington, of Joseph Day, and in 1809 two lots on Maiden Street of Archibald Kerr. He was a hatter by trade, and opened a store in Washington. The accounts were kept in the book commencing in 1784. In later years he returned to Amwell township, where he died Sept. 15, 1818, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. He was buried with military honors by the companies of Capt. McCluney, of Washington, and Capt. Lacock's rifle rangers, of Amwell township.

Of his children, Mary Ann married Gabriel Blake- ney, of Washington. She died, leaving no children. James married Mary, daughter of Gen. Abner La- cock, and settled in Amwell township. They left five children, of whom Sally (Mrs. Daniel Carter) resides at Monongahela City. Susan became the wife of Jesse Carter, and settled in Greene County. Marga- ret married Samuel Andrews, and afterwards John Horn. Samuel L. Hughes settled in Amwell town- ship. He was elected a justice of the peace April 14, 1839, and held the position for thirty-two years. His death occurred Nov. 29, 1880, at the age of seventy years. Four sons reside in Washington, and one son, John, is in South America. Samuel, a son of John Hughes, married Mary, the daughter of Hugh

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History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 164

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1216

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216