USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne County [Pa.] > Part 15
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discontinued in 1796. Afterwards Samuel Meredith undertook the manufacture of potash near Belmont and could not make it pay. An undertaking like that of the Union Society under like circumstances in the present day, on account of a better understanding of the business, could probably be made profitable. It is not probable that the motives of the Society were mercenary, but the land-holders were benefited by having their lands brought into notice.
The main streams in the town are the Big Equinunk and its south branch, and Little Equinunk with its divers tributaries. The main branch of this stream is the outlet of Duck Harbor lake. The chief ponds are Price's and Lord's. High steep hills crowd the Dela- ware. The south-western and south-eastern parts are thinly settled, while the central portion and the lands along the Little Equinunk are the most thickly peo- pled. There is yet much good land which lies in its primitive state, though it may have been stripped of its timber.
According to the first triennial assessment made in 1827, there were twenty-nine taxables with twenty-one houses valued at $410. Nathan Mitchell was assessed as living in this town in 1804 and called a mill-wright. James Lord, American born, though his father was an Englishman and his mother a Welsh woman, was as- sessed, in 1812, as owning four acres of plow-land, and 439 acres of unimproved land, and one house, though it is claimed that he began in 1810. He set- tled on the farm now owned by the Taylors, one mile
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below Equinunk bridge, and, in or about 1836, sold out said lands and farm to William Weston, Esq., and removed and bought land about the pond which was named after him. "There are Lords many." James Lord was the progenitor of the Lords in Manchester, except the one called "Equinunk John," who lived at Lordville depot.
The following names are found upon said assessment of 1827: Jonathan Adams, farmer ; William Adams, single; James Carter, farmer; Isaac Cole, farmer ; Emanuel Cole, farmer; Abraham Hoover, laborer; David Howell, mechanic; John Kellam, farmer; Jacob Kellam, farmer; George Kellam, single; Zepthah Kel- lam, single ; John Jenkins, farmer; James Lord, farm- er; John Lord, Jr., farmer; Richard Lord, steersman ; David Layton, farmer; Jacob Lord, single; Samuel R. Mogridge, farmer; Charles Mogridge, farmer; Mat- thias Mogridge, farmer; Anna Mitchell, widow; Sam- uel Price, blacksmith; Jonathan Peirce, single; Henry Peirce, single; Sabina Smeed, laborer; Thomas Todd, tailor; Nathaniel Tyler, farmer ; Anson Tyler, single; Jacob W. Welsh, justice.
John Kellam was taxed in 1818 as having eighteen acres of improved land and three hundred and fifty acres of unimproved, and in 1827 as having ninety acres of improved and three hundred and eighty acres of unimproved land and one mill. Jacob Kellam, who was a farmer and lumberman extensively known, lived near the month of the Little Equinunk, and had sixty acres of improved and five hundred and sixty-nine
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acres of unimproved land. George Kellam, a mer- chant for many years at Pine Flats, had forty-six acres of improved and two hundred and ninety-four acres of unimproved land, and two houses assessed at one hundred dollars each. Jacob Kellam had a large number of sons of vigorous, powerful physiques, some of whom are yet residing in the neighborhood of Lit- tle Equinunk. Jacob W. Welsh was by trade in Lon- don a cabinet-maker, and came to this country about 1813. He was taxed in 1827 as having seventy-five acres of improved and seventy-five acres of unimprov- ed land. He was an intelligent man and was for many years a justice of the peace. He had two sons, George and Henry. The latter is a practicing attor- ney in Hancock, N. Y. George is dead. William J., a son of Henry, is engaged in the practice of the law in partnership with his father, and in 1877 repre- sented his district in the State Assembly. William Adams made said assessment; he was from Delaware Co., N. Y., and afterwards removed to Lebanon.
Samuel R. Mogridge started for the United States in 1812, before the declaration of war by the United States against Great Britain, and the ship in which he and his family took passage was diverted from its intended destination and put into Quebec. It caused him much trouble, delay, and expense to make his way through the two armies to Manchester township, which was afterwards named by him. But the noble old Englishman, inspired by that resolution which characterized the early settlers of New England, never
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faltered, but settled in the very heart of Manchester, midst the dark and tangled forests, encircled at night by hooting owls and howling wolves. He was the nucleus around which many of his countrymen gathered, until it was called the Union English Settlement. The assess- ment aforesaid stated that he had thirty acres of improv- ed and seventy acres of unimproved land. Afterwards he acquired other lands. He was the father of Maria Mogridge, the wife of Paul S. Preston, that noble woman whose deeds of goodness and charity cannot be forgotten, and whose mantle, upon her departure, fell most gracefully upon Ann, her only surviving daughter. Matthias Mogridge was a nephew of Sam- uel R. Mogridge and, of course, was a cousin of Mrs. Paul S. Preston. To use the language of Mr. Mog- ridge, he says: "I was born in England, and sailed in a British frigate that fought Jackson at New Orleans under Packingham and Gibbs and took back to Eng- land what few the Yankees left alive. Then I went in the Northumberland, that conveyed Napoleon Bo- naparte to St. Helena. I was an officer's servant, or, in other words, a "powder-monkey." I returned to Eng- land, was paid off, took my money, and shortly sailed to New York, in 1817. In 1820, I came to Wayne county, and have lived here ever since. After the organization of the township, I sat at the first election board, voted the first ticket, and had the first child born in the new township. I have now thirty-two grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren, and ex- pect more soon. One of my grandsons served three years
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in the late civil war. I am seventy-eight years old. When I first came into these woods I left my trunk and box of tools at Benjamin Conklin's tavern, on the Newburg turnpike, eight miles from uncle Samuel's house. I wanted uncle to let me take the oxen and sled and go for them. He said it was impossible as the road was full of trees turned up by the roots ; but at last I went. Some of the trees I cut out, some I drove over, some I went under, and some I drove around. It took me longer to make that trip than it would now to go to New York city and back."
Mr. Mogridge had some peculiar gifts. He had a strong, sonorous, far-reaching voice. "If I had his voice," said the Hon. Geo. W. Woodward, " I could command or control any legislative body in the United States." Besides, he had an inexhaustible fund of wit, and in amplification was unrivaled. He could transform a minnow into a whale, enlarge an ant-hill into a mountain, and magnify a lightning-bug into a thunder-storm. Mogridge, having been naturalized, was elected constable of the township, and afterwards elected justice of the peace, and, being in the central part of the township, was appointed postmaster. As the two offices cannot by law be held at once by the same person, some one, envious of his popularity, caused him to be indicted for holding two offices of profit and trust, one under the State and the other un- der the general government. Upon being asked whether he was guilty or not guilty, he assured the court that he was wrongfully indicted for holding two
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offices of profit and trust ; he admitted that he held the two offices, but declared that there was no profit in either of them, and that they were purely offices of trust, as he trusted all his fees and all the postage. The judge was very much amused upon hearing Mat's plea, and in consequence of some flaw in the indictment, a nolle prosequi was entered. Mogridge went over to see the great exhibition at the Crystal Palace, at Lon- don. " Having been adopted as an American citizen." says he, "I passed myself off for a Yankee. I knew that I should not attract much attention as an English- man, as they can see one, there every day, and having become well acquainted with Yankee slang, they gave me credit for being a live American. I could out-talk the best of them. I told them that their island was a very neat, pretty place, and had been well looked af- ter, but that it lacked size; that their rivers were mere brooks, and their mountains small hills; that some of our rivers are so long that we never before strangers speak of their whole length at once; that our moun- tains are so high that presumptuous persons in trying to reach their summits had either starved or frozen to death. That their cataracts compared with our Niagara were only like a stream from the nozzle of a coffee-pot; that if some power could steal away from our territories an area of land as large as all the British Isles, it would not be suddenly missed, but there would be a muss when the theft was found out. That you have produced great men in everything, we admit; we are proud of you as our relations, but when we swarm-
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ed and went to America, you claimed our honey, we would not give it up, and you stung and we stung back, until you concluded not to disturb our hives. If you could do such wonders on your little island, what could you expect that your sons could not do in the vast fields of America; and they caved."
The reader who is not acquainted with Mogridge, should understand that he can outtalk any Yankee living, and that he never gives up an argument, and, though vanquished, he can argue still. Being a great admirer of Horace Greeley, whom he resembles and whose paper he always took, and being in New York, he called on Greeley, introduced himself, told how he went to New Orleans, thence to St. Helena, Cape of Good Hope, and other places, told what he had seen in England, and what he had experienced in America. Then said he, "Now, Horace, you talk." "No," said Greeley, "Mr. Mogridge, I give up. I can write some, but, in rapidity of delivery, you exceed any man that I ever knew. I thank you for your visit, for I have been amused, surprised, and instructed." Shortly after, Greeley, in the Tribune, gave an amusing account of his interview with Mr. Mogridge.
Samuel Price, an Englishman, who was a black .. smith, was an early settler. His wife was a very use- ful and excellent woman, who went far and near in the exercise of her obstetrical knowledge. A descrip- tion of her may be found in the 31st chapter of Pro- verbs, from the 10th to the 21st verse, inclusive.
There were afterwards many settlers who deserve
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
honorable mention, among whom were Gideon Chase, who was of New England origin, and Anthony Lloyd. who settled on the south branch of the Equinunk and built his house near the stream, which house was swept away in the night during a thunder-storm, him- self and family barely escaping with their lives. Hle afterwards sold out his property and lands and remov- ed to Equinunk village, where he kept a temperance tavern during his life. He was a self-taught, ingen-
ious mechanic. The Teeple family were English. Phineas Teeple climbed every hill and crossed every stream in Manchester and adjoining townships as a hunter. He had the honor of killing the last wolf that ever howled in the county. Christopher Teeple was for many years the constable of the township. The Denny and Gifford families are old residents, and Moses Billings is well remembered as an old farmer. In or about the year 1830, Paul S. Preston sold the Equinunk Manor to Israel Chapman and Alexander Calder, who then began improvements thereon. The mouth of the Big Equinunk has always been an im- portant rafting place.
The village of Equinunk was commenced soon after the building of a tannery in the place by Isaiah Send- der and brother. The large tannery now in the place, belongs to William Holbert, Esq. The village is di- vided by the creek. The western part is in Bucking- ham, where are situated the residence of the Hon. William M. Nelson, State Senator, the residences and stores of Knight & Gardiner, and of H. N. Farley,
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the M. E. Church, and other buildings. But the larg- er part of the village is on the east side of the creek. One-half mile below the town is a bridge across the Delaware to the Lordville depot. Chapman and Cal- der divided their lands. Chapman took the upper flats and built a house and saw-mill. He was a man of perseverance and industry. Both he and Calder
were local Methodist preachers. Alexander Calder took the lower part of Equinunk. He was a lumber- man of great business capacity, and a man of merit and talent. He died at Equinunk, May 26th, 1879, aged eighty-one years. Equinunk is well situated for trade. The Delaware river road passes through the place. Here end the roads coming down the south. branch, and from Preston and High Lake, and from Da- mascus, through the middle of Manchester. The great tannery at Little Equinunk is now owned by Hoyt & Brothers, of N. Y. There is a turnpike leading up the Little Equinunk from its mouth to the road lead- ing from the old "gate house" to Big Equinunk. The number of taxables in the township, in 1878, was 367. Number of common schools, 10.
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CHAPTER XIX.
TOWNSHIPS-SCOTT.
A T its erection, this township, in 1821, included a part of Preston. It is now bounded north by the State of New York, east by the Delaware and Buckingham, south by Preston and Starrucca, and west by Starrueca and Susquehanna county. It is the fourth township in point of size. It is watered by the branches of the Shehawken, running south-east, Shrawder's creek, running north-east to the Delaware, and by Hemlock creek, in the north-west, and which runs northward into New York State. The chief nat- ural reservoirs of water are Four Mile pond, in the south- ern part, and Island pond above Stanton Hill. The south-western and north-eastern parts, and the region about the Four Mile pond are sparsely inhabited. The river hills are precipitous and unfit for cultiva- tion. The land is high in the center of the township, from which the streams descend in every direction. Though some of the lands are rough yet there are many good farms which produce as good crops as are raised in other parts of the county. The orchards are flourishing and productive. There is yet much un- cleared land of good quality, and it has been and is still a matter of surprise that the township is not
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more thiekly populated as it has great advantages for reaching market, having the Jefferson Railroad at Starrucca, and the Erie Railroad near its eastern bor- ders. Within a few years an enterprising body of men have built up a village in the north part of the town, called Sherman, (alias New Baltimore,) estab- lished or built a tannery, manufacturing shops, stores, &c., and erected a fine building for religious purposes, called the Union church.
Soon after the erection of Scott, in 1821, when it embraced one-half of Preston, there were only thirty- seven houses all valued at $250; seven mills all valued at $1,300; fifty-seven cows valued at $750. The whole number of taxables was forty-seven, the tax on all seated property being $53.183, according to a trienni- al assessment, made by John Starbird, Jr., Esq., for the year 1823. Elihu Tallman, one of the first set- tlers, and Jirah Mumford, Jr., were each taxed for a mill, and so were Gershom Williams, 'Squire Sampson, Jacob Edick, Silas Crandall, and David Babcock. Some of the other settlers, named as farmers, were Samuel Alexander, Abel Belknap, John and David Cole, George Cortright, Ezra Cargill, Beniah Jayne, of Maple Hill, Harvey Kingsbury, Elias Kingsbury, Uriah Smith, William Starbird, Jesse and 'Squire Whittaker, Michael and Townsend Weyant, Rev. Gershom Williams, father of Melancthon B., Calvin P., Philander K., and Hervey D. Williams. The said John Starbird, Jr., was justice of the peace at the time that he made said assessment. The Rev. Gershom
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
Williams settled in the central part of the township at an early day. Ile was from the State of New Jersey. Hle bought at different times many tracts of land, and, being a man of means, contributed much to encourage the settlement of the township. In 1847 his second wife was murdered by a tramp, who called himself Harris Bell. (Upon his trial it came out that this' ยท was an assumed name.) The murderer was convicted and hung at Honesdale in 1848. Beniah Jayne, brother of the celebrated Dr. D. Jayne, of Philadel- phia, was one of the early settlers.
Jirah Mumford, Elihu Tallman, and others, are men- tioned in the sketches of Mount Pleasant and Preston.
Under the head of Preston will be found a detailed account of the hardships and privations of the old pi- oneers in the northern townships.
In December, 1774, David Rittenhouse, on the part of Pennsylvania, and Samuel Holland, on the part of New York, set a stone on a small island in the west- ern branch of the Delaware river, for the north-east corner of Pennsylvania. They marked the stone with the letters and figures, "New York, 1774," cut on the north side, and the letters and figures "Lat. 42 de- grees, var. 4 degrees 20 min.," eut on the top of the stone. The island is at Hale's Eddy, and the north-east cor- ner of Pennsylvania is the north-east corner of Scott township.
In 1878 there were eleven public or common schools, and three hundred and thirteen taxables in the town- ship.
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TOWNSHIPS-PRESTON.
CHAPTER XX.
TOWNSHIPS-PRESTON.
THIS township was formed April 28th, 1828, from parts of Mount Pleasant and Scott. It is the third township in size, and is bounded north by Starrucca and Scott, east by Buckingham, south by Mount Pleasant, and west by Susquehanna county. With great propriety it might have been called Lake town- ship, as it abounds with lakes or ponds of uncommon beauty, among which are the Shehawken, Como, Twin, Sly, Spruce, Seven Mile, Poyntell, Long, Big Hickory, Little Hickory, Five Mile, Bone, Long Spruce, Independence, Wrighter's and Coxtown ponds, and perhaps some others. These ponds are the head-waters of streams running in every direction. From Five Mile and Independence ponds starts the Lackawanna; from the Wrighter, Coxtown, and Long Spruce ponds, the Starrucca; from the Shehawken, the creek of that name; and from Poyntell, Little Hickory and Big Hickory ponds, the Big Equinunk. Water-power is abundant and conveniently extended. Ararat and Sugar-loaf mountains are in this township. At the formation of the town it was proposed, as ap- pears from the records, to name it Ararat; but, as it was mostly taken from Scott, which was named after
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
Judge David Scott, the Judge deemed it proper to name it Preston, in honor of Judge Samuel Preston, who was the first settler in Buckingham, to which township Scott and the most of Preston originally be- longed. By an assessment made by Peter C. Sher- man, in 1829, the number of taxables was sixty-nine; munber in 1878, four hundred and fifty-eight; num- ber of houses in 1829, thirty-nine; valuation of same, $488. Valuation of neat cattle in 1829, $1,986, and of same in 1878, $13,160.
Although some parts of the lands are hilly, yet they are not of such height as to interfere very ma- terially with cultivation. Good crops of rye, oats, corn, and buckwheat, are raised, and abundance of po- tatoes. But the lands are more particularly fitted for grass, and the township bids fair to be one of the most important butter-making districts in the county. A small section only of the township was benefited by the Oghquaga turnpike, and there were not roads to invite the taking up of lands at an early day. The lands lying near the road from Mount Pleasant to Stockport were first bought, as a public road was laid out from Stockport through this township to Mount Pleasant in 1799. Among the early settlers werc Peter Spencer and Ezra Spencer, who came from the State of Connecticut, in or about the year 1812. The first named commenced on the farm now owned by Nathan A. Monroe. He bought about 340 acres of land, of one Poyntell, of Philadelphia, and gave his bond and mortgage for the purchase money. He
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was ejected from the land by Peter Gaskell, and took title under Gaskell. The heirs of Poyntell, after the death of Spencer, made vigorous efforts to collect the moneys due on the mortgage, but failed. Deacon Spencer was an ingenious mechanic, an industri- ous farmer, and morally, without spot or blemish. Russell Spencer, late of Pleasant Mount, was his son. He had three daughters; Dr. Urial Wright married the oldest one; Silas Freeman the second; and Wil- liam Labar the youngest. Ezra Spencer settled about a mile southward of his brother, paid for his land, and lived there during the rest of his life. His son, Ezra Spencer, now owns the old homestead.
Joseph Dow moved from Deerfield, Massachusetts, about 1817, and settled in Dyberry township, on the place where John Hacker lived before the death of his father, cleared up some land, built a house and barn, made some payments, and lost the whole. As property depreciated in value he could not keep up his payments, and he was left quite poor. After this he moved to Preston and ran the Shadigee mill for Manning, King, and Lillibridge. He and his wife were well educated and descended from very respecta- ble families. He was a relative of Lorenzo Dow, the great preacher. He died near Tallmanville, in 1852.
Daniel Underwood removed from Connecticut, in 1830, and settled upon the Stockport road, north-east of Amos O. Sherwood's. Lewis A. Underwood, Nel- son F. Underwood, present Representative of Wayne county in the Legislature, W. G. Underwood, and
31
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
Prescott Underwood are sons of the said Daniel Un- derwood. Prescott Underwood removed to Kansas; the other sons are living in the county. Said Daniel Underwood was a noted carpenter and built the Meth- odist church near Nathan Kennedy's, in Mt. Pleasant.
John Stephens, an Englishman, began in the early settlement of the town upon the farm now occupied by Stanley H. Hine. The exact date of his settle- ment cannot be ascertained. In 1829, he was assess- ed as having two hundred and twenty-five acres of land, much of which was of superior quality. In 1830, he was licensed to keep a public house, in which business he continued during his life. The farm is now in the possession of Perry Hine.
All the Spencers in Mount Pleasant and Preston are lineal descendants of either Peter or Ezra Spen- cer. John and William Fletcher were from New England, and were early settlers and worthy and in- dustrious farmers.
The Starbird family. John Starbird, Sen., was born in the state of Maine, in 1754, and served in the Revolutionary war; then, after teaching school in Trenton and in Easton, he came to Stroudsburg and taught one term, and, in 1783, was there married to Hannah Stroud. Their son, John Starbird, Jr., was born in 1786, and William Starbird in 1798. Said sons moved from their old homestead, in East Strouds- burg, into what is now Preston township, March 20. 1817. John Starbird, Jr., made his first clearing in 1818. He made an assessment of what then (1823) was
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Scott township, and no school-teacher of the present day would be ashamed if the handwriting should be imputed to him. He was, at that time, the only jus- tice of the peace in the township. In 1824, he built a saw-mill on Shehawken creek. William Starbird, now living, made his first clearing in 1822. He had thirteen children, all of whom grew up to manhood or womanhood. One of his sons, Alfred, was killed in the late civil war. In 1851, he rebuilt the saw- mill, erected by his brother John, doing all the work himself, excepting the ironwork, and raised it without tackles, with only two of his sons to help him. The timbers were very heavy; the plates were sixty feet long and twelve inches square. This mill was rebuilt by S. T. Whittaker, last year. William Bortree, late of Sterling township, married a sister of William Starbird.
Abner Stone began at an early day upon the beau- tiful place now occupied by H. K. Stone, north of Samuel Brooking's, but business connected with the settlement of his father's estate, induced him to return to Connecticut.
After the building of the Oghquaga turnpike road, Clark Gardner took up the farm now owned by W. H. Chamberlain, lived there several years, kept the toll-gate and then removed to Mount Pleas- ant. The toll-gate was removed to Hine's Corners, and continued there as long as toll was taken. Royal Hine and his father started and built up the place which has been improved and enlarged by the family.
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