USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne County [Pa.] > Part 18
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The Osborn family, also, contributed to enlarge the settlement. The post-office is Arlington. No. 19 is situated at the head of Jones pond, on the light track of the Pennsylvania Coal Co's Railroad, to which position it owes its importance. The village has all the buildings necessary for the convenience of a thriv- ing population. The post-office is Ariel. Number 12 is situated on the loaded track of said railroad, north of No. 19, and is fast increasing in all that is necessary to form a prosperous village. Hamlinton has two stores, one tavern, a Methodist Episcopal church, a Presbyterian, and an Episcopal church.
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
Hon. Butler Hamlin is postmaster. The situation of the place is very pleasant. Hollisterville, situated on Potter creek, has a post-office, two grist-mills, two saw-mills, two rake-factories, three stores, two black- smith-shops, two wheelwright-shops, one carding-mill, one Baptist church, and one Protestant Methodist church.
Ledgedale, situated on the Wallenpaupack, owes its origin to the establishment of a tannery at the place by G. B. Morss. It contains a saw-mill, grist-mill, and store, with all other conveniences appurtenant to a village. The population is Irish and German. The Saint Mary's Roman Catholic church is located near by in Pike county. Services are held monthly. There is a Methodist Episcopal church in Bidwelltown, and a Baptist church in Jonestown. The first store in Sa- lem was kept by George Harberger, in a part of Major Woodbridge's new house. He kept salt at five dollars per bushel, leather, paper, bohea tea, and pepper, and took in pay fox and deer-skins. Oliver Hamlin kept the next store at Hamlinton. Major Woodbridge was the first post-master and he was succeeded by his son, William. There were but two newspapers taken in the town up to 1815. Theodore Woodbridge and Seth Goodrich took one copy of the Hartford Courant, and Joseph Woodbridge and John Weston another. At that time John Searle carried the mail from Milford through Salem to Wilkesbarre every fortnight. When the papers came the men gathered in to hear and discuss the news. It took four months
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for the news about the battle of Waterloo to reach the Beech Woods. Facts illustrative of the suffer- ings of the first settlers are given elsewhere.
There are ten public schools in Salem, and the same number in Lake. Number of taxables in Salem in 1878, 455. Number in Lake, 371.
CHAPTER XXII.
TOWNSHIPS-STERLING AND DREHER.
STERLING, including what is now Dreher, was sep- arated from Salem, April 25th, 1815. It is bounded north by the west branch of the Wallenpaupack, east by the south branch thereof, south by Monroe county, and west by Lackawanna. Other streams of less note are Butternut and Mill creek. There are no lakes. The south-western part of the township, about the head- waters of the Lehigh, is sterile and unimproved. The lands about and westward of Nobletown and in the northern and eastern part, along the south branch, are of good quality and are well cultivated. Below and eastward of Captain Howe's location and between there and the old Bortree settlement, is a high hill of broken ground, worthless except for pasturage.
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
Henry Stevens, a German, was the first settler on the old north and south State road, near Butternut creek. He had received a good education in his native country. In 1800 he was taxed as a laborer, and in 1803 paid taxes on two hundred acres of land. He was the father of Valentine, George, Nicholas, and Henry, who were all farmers, and of Jane and Martha Stevens.
In 1805, Robert Bortree, Sen., Edward Cross, Jno. Clements, and James Simons, each paid taxes on four hundred acres of land, from which it appears that each one took up a warrantee tract. These men bought their lands of Edward Evans, of Philadelphia. the deed of John Clements being dated in March, 1804, that of Robert Bortree in May, 1805, and that of James Simons, in July, 1806. The lands of the above were described as located on the south branch of the Wallenpaupack. In the same year (1805) Jo- seph Simons and Abraham Simons paid taxation on two hundred acres each. The above named came up from Philadelphia and from Pocono by the old north and south State road, from which they marked out a route to their possessions. What few goods they had were brought in on pack-horses. With axes and au- gers they constructed their huts. Of so little value were they that the assessors neglected to assess them.
Phineas Howe, Sen., or Captain Howe, a title which he acquired in Massachusetts, began on the old north and south road and, in 1805, paid taxes on thirty acres of land, and subsequently on 2744 acres;
TOWNSHIPS-STERLING AND DREHER. 281
consequently he paid the highest tax that was levied in the township. During his life he was a noted inn- keeper, and erected costly and convenient buildings which, in or about the year 1826, were consumed by fire. He lost all, as he had no insurance. He was the father of the late Hon. Phineas Howe, Jr., for- merly an associate judge of the county, and grand fa- hter of Hon. A. R. Howe, once register and recorder and Representative of the county. He had one other son, named S. Howe, now deceased; some of his chil- dren are yet living in the township. Ezra Wall, Esq., a merchant of Nicholson, Luzerne county, Pa., married one of his daughters, and Capt. A. H. Avery, of Sa- lem, who removed to Illinois, married another.
The resident taxables in the township, at the time of its erection, were Wm. Akers, Bartle Bartleson, John Bennett, Jeremiah Bennett, Nathaniel Bennett, Robert Bortree, Sen., Wm. Bortree, John Bortree, Thomas Bortree, Jr., John Burns, John Clements, Edward Cross, Andrew Cory, Richard Gilpin, Wm. Gilpin, Wm. Hollister, Phineas Howe, Jonathan Rich- ardson, and John Brown. We remember that in or about 1821, Edward Bortree, Thomas Bortree, Sen., Benjamin Beach, Robert Cross, George Dobell, Jas. Dobson, George Frazer, Dawson Lee, Thomas Lee, William Lancaster, Richard Lancaster, Amasa Megar- gle, Joseph Megargle, William Mc Cabe, Edwin Mul- linsford, John Nevins, Heman Newton, David Reed, David Noble, John Simpson, Henry Trout, and Levi Webster, together with those aforementioned, and
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
their children, with some others, were then residents of Sterling township.
Prominent among the above named was Robert Bortree, Sen. He built the first grist-mill and saw- mill in the township; he did many other things for the benefit of the public, and was an open-handed and free-hearted Irishman. William Bortree, his oldest son, for several years a farmer and merchant, died a few years since, aged over ninety years. His other sons were John, Edward, Thomas, and Robert. Much to their credit, they settled near their old homestead. If rightly informed, Robert, who lives on the east side of the south branch of the Wallenpanpack, is the only survivor of the family. Thomas Bortree built an ex- cellent mill on the south branch of the Wallenpau- pack, about one mile from the mill that his father constructed, and ran it many years with success. Then he bought a farm of Ashbel Miller, situated in the eastern part of Salem, on the old turnpike road, at which place he died. His wife was a daughter of Rev. Benjamin Killam, of Palmyra. There was an- other Thomas Bortree, who was an older man and was either an uncle or a relative of the younger Thomas, who began at an early date on a farm on the eastern side of the road north of Nobletown.
William Gilpin was the first constable, and Jere- miah Bennett the first assessor. He was the son of John Bennett, and held the office of county commis- sioner and other offices, and was captain of a militia company. He was a generous and public-spirited
TOWNSHIPS-STERLING AND DREHER. 283
man and wielded great political influence. He, for many years, kept a public-house in that part of the town called Newfoundland. Nathaniel Bennett, a man much esteemed in his day, was Jeremiah's brother.
David Noble was the first merchant in the town. He bought a large tract of land and he and his sons commenced and built up the village of Nobletown, and, judging from the social and moral character of the people, the name of the place is very appropriate. William T. Noble, a brother of David, was for many years a merchant in said village.
William Hollister, from Connecticut, in early days, was interested in building the grist-mill always known as the Edmund Hartford mill. After clearing up a farm, he returned to his native place and remained a few years, then came back, and died at Salem. Asa Hollister, his only son, is living at Hollisterville. Three of his daughters are living. James Waite married one, Leonard Clearwater one, and A. B. Walker an- other. Mrs. Polly Hollister, his widow, is yet living, aged over ninety years. Mr. Hollister was an excel- lent man. He was in no way related to the families of Timothy Hollister and Amasa Hollister.
Jonathan Richardson was from Philadelphia, and was a man of capacity and education.
Richard Lancaster was an Englishman and a silver- smith by trade. He used to work at his business of making silver spoons, and took them to Philadelphia for sale. He held the office of justice of the peace, and was elected treasurer and sheriff of the county,
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
and discharged all the duties pertaining to these offices with fidelity.
Dawson Lee and Thomas Lee lived near Thomas Bortree, Sen., on the Newfoundland turnpike. Daw- son Lee was a shrewd, witty man. They were both good farmers. Thomas Lee once had a number of fine shoats in a pen which one by one mysteriously dis- appeared. At last he set a trap and caught a large black bear which thus fell a victim to his unjewish appetite for pork.
Amasa Megargle was a miller, and, for many years, was employed in the Honesdale mill. All the Me- gargles were ingenious mechanics.
Levi Webster, in 1815, moved into Salem, and after a few years took up a farm in West Sterling, where he remained the rest of his life. He was a man of quick wit and well read, particularly in natural histo- ry. He has three sons in the county, who are very much like what their father was.
Such were the original settlers of Sterling, the foundation of the present excellent superstructure of its society. After the erection of the township, constant accessions of the same moral excellence were made to the population. Excepting Capt. Howe, Jer- emiah Bennet, and David Noble, the most of the first settlers were Irish.
It is a surprising truth that notwithstanding the mingled nationalities of the people, no township in the county has had fewer criminal prosecutions and civil controversies in our courts than Sterling. Between
TOWNSHIPS-STERLING AND DREHER. 285
thirty and forty years ago, a settlement was made in East Sterling, or Newfoundland, by a body of worthy and industrious Germans, who have greatly promoted the wealth and advancement of the township. When the Bortree, Simons, Gilpin, Cross, and Clements families, fresh from the Emerald Isle, first marked their way into the woods and built their huts midst gloom and solitude, how desperate was their condition, contrasted with the enchanting scenes which they had left forever behind them! They suffered, struggled, and agonized to live and provide homes for themselves and their children; and let it not be forgotten that they succeeded. After the German settlement began to flourish, a turnpike was constructed from the old turnpike through Newfoundland, etc. It has since been thrown up.
Since the plan for this history was adopted the town has been divided and the southern part erected into a new township and named Dreher, in honor of Hon. Samuel S. Dreher, late president judge of Wayne and Pike counties. In the south-western part of Dreher, the Delaware, Lackawaxen and Western rail- road crosses a narrow strip of the county at a place called Sand Cut, where there is a depot and a post- office. Though the village is small, the business is large.
South Sterling is a small, thriving village with a post-office and a M. E. church.
There is a post-office at Newfoundland and an Evangelical church. Nobletown has a post-office and
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
a M. E. church. In 1878 Sterling had ten common schools, including those in Dreher. The number of taxables in both was four hundred and ninety-one.
CHAPTER XXIII.
TOWNSHIPS-CHERRY RIDGE.
THIS township was formed from parts of Texas and -
Canaan townships, at December sessions, 1843. It is bounded on the north and north-east by Tex- as, on the south-west by Palmyra and Paupack, south by Lake, and west by South Canaan and Canaan. The chief natural ponds are Sand and Cajaw. The Middle creek, Collins brook, Stryker, and Pond brooks are the chief streams. There are no very high hills, and the greater part of the land is cultivatable. There is much land in the township of superior quality, but the lands south of Middle creek are mostly rough and uninviting, excepting about the Sand pond and in the neighborhood of John R. Hoadley's. This town- ship was early benefited by the passage of the Milford and Owego turnpike road through it, and at a later period by the Honesdale and Cherry Ridge turnpike, which was afterwards continued to East Sterling. A
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TOWNSHIPS-CHERRY RIDGE.
settlement was commenced in this township before the organization of the county, but at what exact time we cannot ascertain. By an assessment of Canaan town- ship, made, in 1799, by John Bunting, Esq., it appears that Enos Woodward, John Woodward, Silas Wood- ward, Asahel Woodward, and John H. Schenck had at that time made quite an opening in the woods. Enos Woodward had then more land cleared than any man in the township, excepting Moses Dolph; having fifty acres of improved and one hundred and seventy- five acres of unimproved land. John Woodward had seventeen acres of cleared and three hundred and eighty-three acres of uncleared land; Silas Woodward and Asahel Woodward each had twenty acres of int- proved, and each three hundred and eighty acres of unimproved land; and Col. John H. Schenck had forty acres of improved and four hundred acres of un- improved land. About 1794, Benjamin King went from Paupack and began on the Schenck farm, and, in 1796, left it and went to Mount Pleasant. It is supposed that about this time Enos Woodward with his sons and Col. John H. Schenck commenced and made the first permanent improvements. They were soon after joined by Daniel Davis and Abraham J. Stryker.
Enos Woodward was a native of Massachusetts. He was a soldier in the Revolutionary war, and, while at home upon a furlough, mixed in an Indian fight on the Paupack. He was tall in stature, noble in bear- ing, and much resembled his grandson, Hon. George
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
W. Woodward, deceased. He had several sons, namely, John, that quiet and unobtrusive man who lived and died upon the great Woodward farm near the resi- dence of J. Jordan; Silas, who bought the farm of Phineas Coleman in Dyberry; Ebenezer, who owned the farm west of Clark's Corners; and Abisha Wood- ward, whose history will be found under the head of Bethany.
Colonel John H. Schenck was from Orange county, N. Y. Owning a good property in his native place, he mortgaged it to raise money to equip a regiment to serve in the Revolutionary war. Such was the pov- erty of the country in those days that he was poorly remunerated for his services, and, though made colonel of the regiment that he raised, he was not able to re- deem the farm that he mortgaged. He removed to Cherry Ridge and took up the land known as the Darling farm. He was finally pensioned by the gov- erment and died at the house of Dr. Sweet in Canaan township. He was a patriot whose name deserves to be remembered. Some of his descendants are living in the township. Colonel Jacob Schenck was a son of Colonel John HI. Schenck. Jacob had the following sons: John J., who lived and traded many years at Clark's Corners, a most estimable man ; Apollos D., Henry, Caleb D., and Isaac, and, also, two daughters.
Abraham J. Stryker bought a large quantity of land south of the Enos Woodward farm, and made improvements thereon. In his old age he removed to
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TOWNSHIPS-CHERRY RIDGE.
Honesdale. His only son, Abraham A. Stryker, is living in Damascus.
Daniel Davis located upon the farm now owned by H. L. Phillips. When there was much travel upon the turnpike, Mr. Davis kept a good public house for many years. Stephen Kimble, married Catharine, a daughter of Daniel Davis.
Thomas Lindsley, for many years, kept a tavern in Cherry Ridge.
Dr. Lewis Collins was born in Litchfield, Connecti- cut. He married a daughter of Hon. Oliver Hun- tington, of Lebanon, in that State. He removed his family to Salem, in 1801, and bought of Moses Dolph the old Jacob Stanton farm at Little Meadows. About this time the county seat was fixed at Bethany, and the doctor wishing to locate nearer the centre of the county, where he could have a larger field for his prac- tice, sold out to Seth Goodrich, removed to Cherry Ridge in 1803, and bought the possessions of Enos Woodward aforesaid. The farm that he purchased is now owned by his grandson, Lewis S. Collins, Esq. The practice of the doctor was very extensive and em- braced the whole circuit of the county. He had a sar- castic way of giving gratuitous advice to his patients, which, although salutary, was not always agreeable. He advised a woman who asked for medicine to re- store her appetite, to go without eating for eight and forty hours, and if that failed, to go without, eight and forty hours longer, and then to eat old bread and ap- ple-sauce. The following were the names of the chil-
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
dren of Dr. Lewis Collins, viz: Augustus, who owned and lived upon the farm now the property of Charles G. Reed in Dyberry ; Oristus, attorney-at-law, generally known as Judge Collins. He located at Wilkesbarre, and at times practiced at the Bar in Wayne county. He was ten years president judge of the several courts in Dauphin county, Pa. He is yet living with his son in Princeton, New Jersey; Abner, a farmer, died in Salem an aged man; Lorenzo was a farmer and sawyer and died in Cherry Ridge, leaving no enemies. Decius, a farmer, removed to Salem and bought a farm there, at which place he died. Lucius was twice elected sheriff of the county ; consequently he lived several years at Bethany and was known by almost every man in the county. He returned to the old farm of his father and has been dead but a few years. Alonzo, a farmer, bought a farm in Canaan and died there. He was a man of reading and culture. Huntington, who was a mill-wright, learned his trade of Zenas Nichol- son and Henry Heermans, and built more mills than any other man living or that ever lived in Wayne and Pike counties. Theron, a farmer, has been dead many years. Philena, the only daughter, married Virgil Diboll, a physician, who removed to the Wyoming Valley.
At the erection of the town there were many good farms, (which number has been largely increased since,) assessed to the following named persons: Samuel Bar- tron, E. H. Clark, Lucius Collins, Samuel S. Darling, John P. Darling, John Kirby, Jacob S. Kimble,
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TOWNSHIPS-CHERRY RIDGE.
David Kenner, Lewis Leonard, Wm. R. Mc Laury, Edward Murray, John G. Schenck, A. A. Stryker, and Isaac V. Writer. The heavy track of the Penn- sylvania Coal Co's railroad runs through the southern part of this township, and it crosses the Middle creek above the most splendid fall on that stream. Here, in coming times, will be found a manufacturing village.
Middle Valley owes its importance and develop- ment to the establishment there of the great tannery of L. A. Robertson & Co. Ten years ago, it did the largest tannery business in the county. The com- pany, for the benefit of themselves and the region about them, cleared up a large quantity of land, and, by selling a portion to their workmen, were the means of causing several farms to be made. The place is conveniently located near the loaded track of the Pennsylvania Coal Co's railroad; it has a large store, a post-office, and a flourishing school. The tannery is now run and controlled by William Gale, Esq. A daily mail passes through Middle Valley, running from Honesdale to Hamlinton. The post-office, call-
ed Cherry Ridge, is located at the intersection of the Honesdale and Cherry Ridge turnpike with the old Milford and Owego turnpike road. The office was kept in the dwelling-house of the late E. H. Clark, Esq., deceased, until the house was burned down, a year or two ago. There is no licensed public house in the town. The people are made up of Irish, German, English, and American-born citizens, the Irish ele- ment probably predominating. The township of
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
Cherry Ridge has one church, formerly called the Union church, but now the M. E. church, and five common schools. The abundance of cherry-trees on the old Enos Woodward, John H. Schenck, and John Woodward lands gave name to the place long before it was erected into a township.
CHAPTER XXIV.
TOWNSHIPS-DYBERRY.
THIS township was erected in 1805, and was the first one taken out of the original townships. It was taken from Damascus, Palmyra, and Canaan. The excision of Texas and Berlin greatly diminished its area. It is now bounded by Mount Pleasant and Lebanon on the north, on the east by Oregon, on the south by Texas, and west by Canaan and Clinton. The main streams are the Dyberry and its tributaries, and the Jennings creek. Part of the Sand pond is in the north-west part, and there are also the Third, Sec- ond, and First ponds; from the last two most of the water is derived which supplies the borough of Hones- dale. There are no high, uncultivatable hills, except- ing in the upper north-eastern section. The soil is
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TOWNSHIPS-DYBERRY.
varied, but much of it is of superior quality. Accord- ing to Thomas Spangenburg, Esq., he moved up from New Jersey, in February, 1798, with one ox, har- nessed like a horse, and moved into a hut which one Kizer had built, the year before, on the place where John Nelson now lives. There was nobody then in Bethany. Samuel Smith built on the other side of the George Van Deusen place. The very night that Esquire Spangenberg arrived, Richard Nelson, and Conrad Pulis, a German, came. The latter began and cleared up a farm. So numerous were his sons that we may fail to mention them all, but among them were Abraham, Peter, Henry, William, and Ephraim. The farm of Conrad Pulis was below Day's bridge, on the Dyberry.
Richard Nelson bought against Big eddy, on the same stream. He had five sons, namely: Richard, Jr., deceased; John, who has been an honest, hard-work- ing farmer and lumberman, yet living near the old homestead; Charles, who is an expert steersman on the Lackawaxen and Delaware rivers; Stephen, who located in Lebanon and died there; and James, who first settled in Girdland and then removed to Nebras- ka. Henry Brown married one of the daughters of Richard Nelson, William Bolkcom one, and Osborn Mitchell another.
About 1799, Jonathan Jennings began on the west- ern side of the Dyberry, near the junction of Thomas creek therewith, from which place he removed to and bought the farm now occupied by Hiram G. Chase,
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
Esq. Jonathan Jennings was many years crier of the courts, and held important township offices. His son, Henry, exchanged farms with Mr. Chase, taking the one where he spent the remainder of his life. He was a justice of the peace, and two of his daughters now own his last residence.
A man by the name of Dye first made some im- provement on or near the residence of Martin Kimble. The property belonged to Sylvanus Seely, who sold it to Isaac Brink, from Brodhead's creek. After a while Brink sold it to Asa Kimble, who was a son of Eph- raim Kimble, Sen., of the Narrows, Pike Co., and brother of the first wife of Joseph Atkinson, deceased. Kimble married Abigail, a daughter of John Pellet, of Palmyra, Pike Co., and Mr. Kimble and his wife lived and died where his son, Martin, now lives. Their children are Ephraim B., Isaac P., George W., John P., William, and Martin, and Mrs. Nancy Ge- nung, widow of the late Ezra M. Genung, of Hones- dale, deceased. They are all living in the county and partake of the virtues of their parents, whose memory is blessed.
Philip Thomas began before the year 1805, on the farm of Albert Butler, on the road from Bethany to Seelyville. None of his family are now living.
Abraham Brink, from Monroe county, Pa., built a grist-mill on the outlet of the First pond, upon the premises now owned by Thomas O'Neill. In the first as- sessment made in the township by Jonathan Jennings, in 1805, the mill was assessed at $640.00. It was a
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TOWNSHIPS-DYBERRY.
popular mill and of great advantage to the settlers. Pope Bushnell, Esq., says that it used facetiously to be said that the mill could grind wheat so that it was almost as good as rye. But let it be remembered that the millstones were made from a hard quartz rock found on the Moosic mountains. Brink, or somebody else, afterwards built a saw-mill below the grist-mill. The whole premises afterwards fell into the hands of Colonel William Greeley, the father of Willard Greeley, of Honesdale, and of Robert Greeley, of Prompton, a brave soldier in the war of the Rebellion.
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