USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne County [Pa.] > Part 12
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
We made our sugar and sold some. Bees were abun- dant in the woods and the streams were alive with trout. The first bolting grist-mill was built in South Canaan by John Shaffer. Before that a mill was built west of Lerch's for grinding corn. The first saw-mill was built by Amos Bronson and his brother. Iron being scarce, they made the crank of a natural-crooked white oak. The first man that settled and made a clearing between us and the Shaffer Settlement was John Bunting. He began near the Cortright tannery. Daniel Stevenson, of Barnegat, N. J., was the first man that settled between father's and Samuel Stanton's. Samuel Chumard settled about one mile and a half above us, on the old road. He sold out to Hezekiah Leach. Samnel West, a Baptist elergyman, next be- gan north of us. His son, David S. West, who occu- pied his father's improvements, was a man of educa- tion and a noted surveyor. John Fobes, Esq., a justice of the peace, began at Canaan Corners in or about 1806, and Caleb Fobes settled on the widow Jonas Stanton place. JJonas Stanton lived on the flat called the New- man place, in 1811. Jacob Stanton, who settled and died at Little Meadows, in Salem, was a distant rela- tive of father. My parents, in 1817, went on a visit down East, and on their return in crossing the Dela- ware, a sudden storm arose and the boat filled with water. Father saved mother, but having on a heavy overcoat was carried down the stream and drowned. This was on the 12th day of November, 1817, at Co- checton, N. Y. Seth Eaton settled at an early day
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on the old road leading from Canaan to Bethany. I used to hunt considerably on the head waters of the Lehigh and Tobyhanna and trap beavers and mar- tens. There used to be many beavers caught in Canaan and I have seen their houses built three stories high. Father killed a number of elk, and Charles Stanton killed one that had horns each four feet long and they weighed twenty-five pounds. I killed six deer in one day, and one hundred and two in one year, besides several bears and foxes. I have the horns of the great elk killed by Charles Stanton.
The winters were not as cold then as they are now, but were longer and attended with more snow. On the last day of March, 1804, father sent me to Major Ansley's, in Palmyra, to get a horse shod. The snow fell three feet deep and I was gone three weeks. I was born in Canaan."
Among the other settlers who commenced at an early date may be named James Carr. He had four sons, namely, John, Thomas, Erastus, and James. John A. Gustin married one of his daughters, and Randall Wilmot, father of David Wilmot, married another. Mrs. Gustin is yet living in Honesdale. There are many descendants of James Carr, Sen., in the county. In 1805, Elias Van Auken was assessed for two hundred and sixty-four acres of land. He gave the name to the creek on which he lived. Geo. Rix was assessed with two hundred and ten acres, and Justus Cobb with four hundred acres. Each was assessed for a house and a few acres of improved
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land, the remainder of the lands being in a wild state.
Amos Bronson and his brother were from Schoharie, N. Y. The latter was an ingenious, self-taught mill- wright. In 1807, Daniel Jaggers was assessed with four hundred acres, mostly wild land, lying east of the Shaffers. Wareham Day, from Connecticut, mar- ried a daughter of Abraham Hoagley, a former justice of the peace, and was elected county commis- sioner. Vene Lee, of Connecticut, was a farmer and had two sons, Horace and John. Horace married Catherine Hamlin, and John married Eliza Chumard.
William Griffin, from Connecticut, was a farmer and cabinet maker. He was also a Methodist local min- ister, who held meetings in barns in summer and in private dwellings in cold weather.
Silas Hoadley, a farmer, settled above William Griffin's and was a man highly respected in his day. He had three sons: one, named Eli, was killed by a tree; one, named Oliver, died suddenly of heart dis- ease ; and the other, whose name was Luther, lived and died on the old place. Mrs. Mary Ann Sampson, late of Honesdale, deceased, the widow of Ward W. Samp- son, late of Canaan, deceased, was a daughter of Silas Hoadley.
Abraham Hoadley, who was no relative of the above family, settled on land north-east of George Enslin. He had two sons: one of them, John P. Hoadley, was the father of John R. Hoadley, Esq .. of Cherry Ridge. Miles Hoadley, the other son, left
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a large family. The Hoadleys were all from Connect- icut.
Abram Frisbie, a farmer, had three sons, namely, Solomon, Hiram, and Philemon. Solomon married Charlotte, the youngest daughter of Jesse Morgan. Hiram, yet living, moved to Carbondale and kept boarders and wayfaring men in the first house built in the place. It was excellently kept, as we well remem- ber. It is claimed that he took the first coal to mar- ket that was ever taken over the mountain to the Lackawaxen. Philemon moved from the county.
Probably there are some persons living in Canaan who remember the widow Frisbie, whose peculiarities were such as to excite their recollection of them. Her clothing, which was white, she manufactured from wool taken from living sheep. She had her shoes made from the hide of some animal that died a nat- ural death. She ate no animal food, and claimed that the command, "Thou shalt not kill," forbade the tak- ing of the life of any living creature, and replied to the assertion that animal food is necessary to give men strength, that elephants, horses, camels, and oxen, which are the strongest of animals and have the greatest powers of endurance, live wholly upon vegeta- ble food and refuse to eat flesh ; that the killing and eating of animals makes us gross, sensual, and cruel; and that the person who can with indifference see pain and anguish inflicted upon any of God's creatures, is but one remove above an idiot or a devil. To one who sought to convince her that her belief was but a
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delusive vagary, she replied that she was not afraid of going to any part of God's universe where she should repent of having been merciful to all his creatures. Noble woman! She was in advance of her age. She could say, in the words of Goldsmith's hermit :
"No beasts that range the forests free, to slaughter I condemn ; Taught by that power that pities me, I learn to pity them."
Her countenance was radiant with beneficence and very attractive. She finally returned to Connectient, from whence she came.
Joseph Cobb was from Tunkhannock and married Abigail Stephens. He had several sons, namely, Jesse, Joseph, Lovell, Noah, John, and Ebenezer. Asa Cobb, a brother of the said Joseph, lived on the east side of the Moosic mountain, on the road leading from Salem to Providence. He married Sarah Stephens, a very noted woman in her day, as she rode far and near in the practice of obstetrics. Providence was always spoken of as belonging in Salem, although it was in Luzerne county. Asa Cobb kept a tavern dur- ing his life and was succeeded in the business by his son, John Cobb, who married a daughter of Conrad Swingle. Her fame was known far and near, as she, in a fierce battle, with nothing but a stake, killed a large wolf, that was chasing her sheep. According to Mrs. Bryant, each family had a Noah, John, and Ebenezer. Cyprian Cobb and Ebenezer Cobb, of Salem, were sons of Asa Cobb.
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Elisha Ames, who was an early settler near Pau- pack Eddy, is mentioned in an assessment of Palmyra inade in 1801, as being in Canaan. He is supposed to be the progenitor of the Ames family. H. Ames, who lives on the old Milford and Owego turnpike, has been a resident in the town for many years.
Matthias Keen, better known as Captain Keen, a native of Orange county, N. Y., first moved to Mil- ford, Pike county, and thence to Canaan, in 1815. He first lived on Orchard hill, and made a dam at the mouth of Keen's pond, then called "Canoe pond," and built the frame for a grist-mill. About this time, in drawing a gun towards him in a canoe, it went off and the ball was lodged in his hip. After he had suf- fered much, Dr. Mahony extracted the ball, but he was left a cripple for life. He erected the first carding- machine in that region of the country, and to it there was a wool-picker attached. Before this all the wool was picked and carded by hand, but the machine diminished much of the labor of the women, and Cap- tain Keen was complimented as a public benefactor. He built the first grist-mill in that part of the town, and Deacon Rufus Grenell was the mill-wright. In 1834, that well-known mill-wright, Huntington Collins, put up a saw-mill for him. Captain Keen, who was a prominent Freemason, was a man highly esteemed, and was at one time captain of a uniformed company in Orange county called the "Republican Blues." He died in 1835. He had a large family, most of whom are in the grave. The following named were his sons:
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George M. Keen, late of Prompton, deceased, who was a man of culture and of great moral excellence ; he has two sons, Spencer and Frederick, who reside in Honesdale, one named Mott, a resident of Prompton, and one daughter, who is the wife of William F. Wood, Esq., a former sheriff and prothonotary of the county. Matthias Keen, Jr., a farmer who lived and died in the county. James R. Keen, now living in Honesdale, aged ninety-one, who was many years a most efficient clerk of the commissioners of the county, and register and recorder. Jacob L. Keen, once a popular commissioner of the county, is yet living in Canaan, near the Keen's mills, of which he is now owner. Eli C. Keen, who settled near Keen's pond, was a soldier in the war of 1812. James B. Keen is his son.
Thomas Starkweather, generally known as Captain Starkweather, according to the remembrance of Asa Stanton, was an Eastern man and came into Canaan in 1811. Being an industrious, energetic man, he bought and cleared up a valuable lot of land, and finally set- tled at Canaan Corners, at a point at the intersection of the Milford and Owego turnpike with the Belmont and Eastern turnpike road, which was afterwards called Wayneville. The travel upon said roads being great, Mr. Starkweather built there a large hotel which he kept for many years to the satisfaction of all travelers and with credit to himself. He built, also, a large store-house, called the "Variety Store," kept by Stark- weather and Robert Love. The place once had the promise of becoming a prosperous village, but it was
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finally overshadowed by Waymart. Wayneville, how- ever, was for many years a prominent place. George A. Starkweather, Esq., now living in Waymart, is a son of Captain Starkweather. Leonard Starkweather built the first tavern house in the vicinity of Waymart, about 1832, at or near the residence of Roswell P. Patterson, Esq., and the same was kept as a publie house for many years. Previous to building there he was eight or ten years constable of Canaan.
Thomas Clark came from near Milford, Pa., and, in 1825, was licensed as a tavern-keeper, and rated as a merchant in South Canaan; afterwards he removed to Canaan Corners and erected a tavern and a store which were attended by himself. After it became apparent that Waymart would be a place of impor- tance, Mr. Clark removed thither and built a public house, where he lived to the end of his days. He was an active politician, and once treasurer of the county. His wife was the daughter of Dr. Francis Smith, of Milford. The great celebrity of Clark's house was, no doubt, owing to the ability and taste of his wife. Said Thomas Fuller to Clark, whom he liked at once to flatter and to tease: "Tom, you do keep the best tavern and set the best table that can be found within my knowledge, or rather your wife does."
John Spangenberg, a brother of Thomas Spangen- berg, Esq., late of Bethany, while Canaan was covered with woods, began in the west part of the town, and many of his descendants are living in that vicinity.
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
The Spangenbergs came from New Jersey, and were of German descent.
George Morgan, who died recently, aged nearly 100 years, was a son of Jesse Morgan, and moved from Salem. They came at first from Connecticut.
George Rix located at the foot of the Moosie moun- tain, and the Milford and Owego turnpike was built past his house. In 1805 he was assessed as a farmer and owning 208 acres of land. He was always called Captain Rix, and was a prominent man in his day.
Levi Sampson lived on the place afterwards owned by John B. Tuthill, Esq. There were three others of the family, viz: William, Elijah, and Ward W. Samp- son. They came from Connecticut, but at what exact time cannot be stated. Some of the family lived on the Easton and Belmont turnpike road and kept the gate south of Canaan Corners for a long time.
At a place called Millville, in the southern border of the township, is a thickly settled neighborhood or a scattered village which takes its name from the num- ber of mills on Middle creek. The site of the old Shaffer mill is yet to be seen.
Lerch's Corners, so called from the fact that P. W. Lerch, many years ago, commenced a store and tavern there, has all the conveniences of a village and is the only post-office in South Canaan. In and about this place is some very choice land. Near here, about forty years ago, a Protestant Methodist church was built. and twelve years ago a Methodist Episcopal church. In the western part of the town is a Free Methodist
TOWNSHIPS-CANAAN. 185
church. South Canaan has three hundred and thirty- three taxables, with nine common schools. Canaan has one hundred and ninety-one taxables with five common schools.
Waymart, as has been already stated, was incorpor- ated in 1851. It appears young to me who can remen- ber sixty or seventy years back ; it must appear so to our venerable friend, Asa Stanton. But though young, it has acquired an excellent character. Without flattery it must be said that as a law-abiding people, of high intellectual culture and moral exellence, they occupy an envied position. We wish to be relieved from the task of describing them individually. It would be like taking a measure of wheat and examining each grain separately and ending perhaps in not finding one false or smutty kernel. C. H. Rogers keeps the old Thomas Clark tavern, and is a popular landlord. There is one Presbyterian and one Methodist Episco- pal church, and two common schools. Number of taxables, one hundred and sixty-five.
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
CHAPTER XVI.
TOWNSHIPS-MOUNT PLEASANT.
THIS was one of the original townships, but por- tions were taken from it to form the townships of Dyberry, Preston, and Clinton. But notwithstand- ing all that has been plundered from it, Damasens alone exceeds it in dimensions. It is bounded north by Preston, east by Buckingham and Lebanon, south by Clinton and Dyberry, and west by Susquehanna county. Some part of the Moosic mountain on the western verge of the township is uncultivatable. The rest of the township is hilly ; still the most of the hills admit of tillage to their very summits. The various hills and valleys present some of the most enchanting scenery in the county. Mount Pleasant may be call- ed the Switzerland of Northern Pennsylvania. In the summer months it is almost a paradise; in the win- ter it has the climate of Siberia, a condition which, with slight modifications, is incident to the whole county.
The western branches of the Lackawaxen and Dy- berry and their tributaries furnish abundant water- power. The natural ponds are Rock lake, Bigelow lake, and Miller's pond. More turnpike roads were made in this township than in any other. The Co- cheeton and Great Bend turnpike road, passing
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through the central part, was incorporated in 1804. The road was finished in 1811, and the travel on it was very great, it being the nearest route from New- burg to Western New York. Daily mail-coaches, drawn by two span of horses, ran upon the road for years. Numerous droves of cattle, sheep, and hogs were driven upon it towards New York market. Al- most half of the houses on the road were taverns. After the Erie canal was built the travel was less, but it was not until the completion of the New York & Erie Railroad that it was almost wholly suspended.
The Bethany and Dingman's Choice turnpike was incorporated in 1811. It afforded convenient means of getting to and from the county seat, and was kept in order for many years by moneys received for tolls. Its course was south-east from Pleasant Mount. The Belmont and Easton turnpike was chartered in 1812. It passed through the western part of the township and opened up a direct communication with Easton and Philadelphia, and for many years attracted a con- stant stream of travel, with daily mail-coaches, and droves of all kinds of live stock. The State of Penn- sylvania appropriated $10,000 to aid in the construc- tion of the road. It was of great importance to that part of the county through which it extended. But the building of other roads, particularly of the Dela- ware & Hudson Canal and Railroad, and of the New York & Erie Railroad, diverted the travel into other channels, until this once celebrated road was almost abandoned by the traveling public.
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
The Belmont and Oghquaga turnpike, chartered in 1817, owed its existence chiefly to the exertions of T. Meredith, Esq., who owned large tracts of land along the route of the road. The settlers in the western part of Preston were benefited by it and it was sus- tained many years by the tolls taken on the road ; but the same causes that lessened travel on other turnpikes. operated equally unfavorable to this. The turnpike up the west branch of the Lackawaxen, built many years ago, although a very useful road, not being self- sustaining, has been thrown up, and all the above- named turnpikes, having served their day and genera- tion, have reverted to the several townships through which they extend, and are kept in repair by them, as necessary for public use. The road from Pleasant Mount to Stockport is an old one, and was laid out in or about 1799, and has been, and probably it always will be, one of the most indispensable thoroughfares in the county. What has been the enterprise of the people of Mount Pleasant may be inferred from the amount of labor which they expended in the building of the above-described roads. The early history of this township is exceedingly interesting and worthy of historical preservation.
The first settler was Samuel Stanton, of Preston, Conn. He came in June, 1789, and bought or con- tracted for three thousand acres of land, and the next year built a house on it, and commenced a clearing. His cabin was a little east of the old Easton and Bel- mont turnpike, near the present residence of H. W.
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Mumford. It was made of small logs and poles, cov- ered with bark, having no partitions, and without windows. The floor and door were made of boards split out of logs. His household furniture was scanty, and as homely as his dwelling. He moved his family into this cabin in the spring of 1791. Other settlers came in that year to commence clearing, but they all left in the autumn, leaving Stanton and his family alone in that vast wilderness .* During the long and dreary winter they suffered from want of food and from sickness produced by destitution and, when on the very verge of starvation, a man from Canaan, by the name of Church, came along, who shot an elk and gave the meat to Stanton, which relieved the wants of his family. At that time the snow was deep and the weather intensely cold and Stanton's nearest neigh- bor, Asa Stanton, his cousin, lived twelve miles distant. Another hunter, named Frederick Coates, happened along, who, with said Church, went and procured other provisions for the relief of the family. In a few years, Stanton, by his industry, began to prosper. He kept, to the best of his ability, a public house. Iu a letter dated Oct. 5th, 1795, directed to Judge Preston, he wrote: "I had my house-frame raised last Thursday. and no one was hurt by the timber. I will keep a civil house or none. Many judges, squires, and gen- tlemen have lately traveled this road to and from New York. I make more from people of this character than I can hope to from a pack of drunken scoundrels.
*See Whaley's History of Mount Pleasant.
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
even if I did not abhor their practices." Such was the first settler and innkeeper of Mount Pleasant.
The next year, 1792, new settlers arrived, namely, Silas Kellogg, Elijah Dix, Jirah Mumford, JJohn Tif- fany, and Joseph Stearns; and the next year Joseph Tanner and Amasa Geer, all from Connecticut, ex- cepting Kellogg, who was from the State of New York. He was the father of Azor Kellogg and Jirah Kellogg. Mary, his oldest daughter, was the wife of John K. Woodward, and mother of the late Warren J. Woodward, deceased, and Jackson K. Woodward, late of Honesdale, deceased. Mrs. Woodward is still living, having outlived all her children. Silas Kel- logg was elected sheriff of the county in 1813. He died at Mount Pleasant at a very advanced age.
Jirah Mumford, from Connecticut, came into the town with Joseph Stearns, in 1792, but did not move his family until the next year. His sons were Thomas, Jirah, Jr., Minor, and John. His descendants are spread over the county.
John Tiffany, of Massachusetts, in 1792, started with his wife and three children to go to Nine Partners, in Susquehanna county, but, coming to Mount Pleasant, concluded to stay and build a house on the Christopher farm. He was a useful man.
Joseph Tanner, in 1795, built a frame house north of the present village of Pleasant Mount, and, in 1806, in company with a man named Granger, opened the first store and built a public house near it. Clark
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Tanner was a brother of Joseph. He was a farmer and brought up a family in the township.
In 1795, John S. Rogers, a Quaker from New Jer- sey, moved upon the farm since known as the Paul O'Neill place, and kept a tavern there during his life. He had eight children.
In the same year Joseph Stevenson, from New Jer- sey, bought near the stone school-house, a part of which is now the farm of Henry Gager. James and Isaiah Stevenson were his sons. Oliver Stevenson. formerly sheriff of Wayne county, is a son of James Stevenson ; and Godfrey Stevenson, the present treas- urer of the county, and Arthur Stevenson, are sons of Isaiah Stevenson.
In November, 1873, Jabez Stearns, then living in Damascus, but since deceased, gave me the following account : "Joseph Stearns, my father, and Jirah Mumford, came to Mount Pleasant from Tolland county, Connecticut, in the winter of 1792. They started from home on a snow-sled, each having a yoke of oxen, designing to go to a settlement called Nine Partners, in Susquehanna county. Finding that they could buy land to suit them near Samuel Stanton's location, they concluded to go no further. In the fall father went back and the next spring brought mother and eight children, and moved into a house that said Jirah Mumford had built, and lived there the first winter. In the spring he moved to a place near the residence of the late Russell Spencer. I was born there, June 18th, 1793. Our folks brought clothing for
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
themselves and children with them. Luxuries and superfluities were not thought of. The struggle was to obtain the indispensable necessaries for sustaining life. To tell the truth there were times when our family suffered for food. Father went on foot several times to Great Bend after four and brought it home on his back. Wild meat was not always to be had, and other meat was out of the question. When it seemed as if we should starve, a deer would come, to all appearances providentially, in the way and be kill- ed, which would afford food for awhile. The settlers all suffered about alike. Those who had kettles made their own sugar. Mother used to tell me that she once went into the woods to gather sap, laid me down in a sap trough by a log, and went about her work. After a time, looking towards me, she saw a large black bear taking a look at me and standing on the log by which I was laid. In terror she screamed aloud. caught up a club, and, her faithful dog running to her. they together made for bruin. He walked away very leisurely, looking back at them and seeming to say, "You make a great fuss about a very small matter." She did not, as has been told, faint away. She was not subject to that infirmity. It has been told that it was my brother Ashbel that the bear interviewed, but I tell it as mother told it to me. At another time my brother Otis was carrying me; another brother, my mother, and that old dog were along; we went down to near Zeb Hut creek where a log lay across the path. and there a bear, large enough to have devoured the
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