USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne County [Pa.] > Part 20
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Nathaniel B. Eldred, son of Elisha and Mary Eldred, was born in Dolsontown, Orange county, N. Y., in 1795. He studied law in the office of Daniel Dimmick and Edward Mott, in Milford, where he was admitted to the practice of law in 1816, and in that year removed to Bethany where he practiced in his profession for nearly twenty years. During some of said time he was in the mercantile business. He was elected to the State Legislature for four terms, and was county treasurer two years. In 1835 he was ap- pointed, by Gov. Wolf, president judge of the eight- eenth judicial district, and served four years, and in 1839, by Gov. Porter, president judge of the sixth judicial district, in which position he served four years, and then he was appointed president judge of the twelfth district, composed of the counties of Dauphin. Lebanon, Schuylkill, etc .; whereupon he removed to
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BOROUGH OF BETHANY.
Harrisburg and resided, until, in 1849, the twenty- second judicial district, composed of Wayne, Pike, Monroe, and Carbon, was erected, of which district he was appointed president judge by Gov. Johnston, and then returned to Bethany where he resided the re- mainder of his life. After. the Constitution was amended making the judiciary elective, he was unani- mously elected president judge of the twenty-second district aforesaid. In Polk's administration he served four years as naval officer at the port of Philadelphia. Judge Eldred was often appointed to act in other posi- tions. He was a very straight-forward man. As a judge he was always desirous to reach the justice of a case and to put the law and facts in so clear and con- spicuous a light as to leave little room for mistake or misapprehension by a jury. He seldom or never took a case away from a jury and decided it himself, conse- quently he was highly esteemed for his impartiality. He died at his residence in Bethany in January, 1867. He had seven children, four of whom died young and unmarried. Mary, the first wife of Hon. E. O. Ham- lin, and Lucinda, the wife of Ara Bartlett, are dead. Charles, who removed to Warsaw, Wisconsin, and Carrie, the wife of Mr. Watson, of Warren county, are living.
Isaac Dimmick, always in his latter days called Judge Dimmick, was from Orange county, N. Y., and came into Bethany in 1805. He bought and cleared up the farm now owned by Edwin Webb. He was an associate judge of the county, and was often employed in the county offices. He married a daugh-
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
ter of Hon. Abisha Woodward. He sold his farm to Robert Webb, Sen., and removed West.
James Manning was born in Coventry, in Tolland county, Connecticut, in the year 1792. He came to Bethany in 1815, and began as a merchant, which business he successfully pursued for twenty years. He was a shrewd, enterprising business man. He married Charity B., the only child of David Wilder, and she is yet living in the mansion house, which belonged to her husband at the time of his death. Mrs. Manning and Asa Torrey alone remain, and have continued to live in the place where their parents were original set- tlers. Mr. Manning was register and recorder, and for many years an associate judge. He was an am- bitions man, but his ambition benefited others. Born in a land where the school-house and spelling-book are considered indispensable, where every patriot deems it his duty to spread knowledge with a broad and boun- tiful cast, he at once recognized the newspaper as the most effectual agent in the diffusion of knowledge. Alone and unaided he bought a printing press and type and started the first newspaper in Wayne county, entitled the Wayne County Mirror. Its first number was dated in March, 1818. It was well conducted, and was in those days considered a wonderful wonder.
The Mirror gave way to the Republican Advocate, which was published by Davis and Sasman. Manning furnished the printing-press and capital. The concern gave notice that they would take tallow and maple sugar in payment. The first number was issued in
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November, 1822. Jacob S. Davis, having become unpopular, the paper took the name of the Wayne Enquirer, and was published by William Sasman, Manning furnishing the press. It was twenty by twelve and one-half inches in size and gave the home and foreign news. The second number, dated January 6th, 1830, gives an account of the borough as it then was, as follows: "Bethany is the seat of justice for Wayne county. It is situated on a commanding emi- nence which declines on every side except the north, and overlooks the adjacent country. It contains forty dwelling-houses, a court-house, a county fire-proof building, a Presbyterian church, an academy, two tav- erns, four stores, a post-office, and several artisan and mechanical establishments. It is thirty-six miles from Milford, one hundred and ten miles from New York, and one hundred and twenty-three miles from Phila- delphia. The borough was incorporated March 31st, 1821." Such, in 1830, was what is now the beautiful village of Bethany.
Abisha Woodward, son of Enos Woodward, of Cherry Ridge, was elected sheriff of Wayne in 1807, and was for a long time an associate judge. He lost his left arm, but for all that he bought and cleared up the farm now owned by Henry Webb, which lies westward one-half mile from the borough. He 'mar- ried Lucretia, a daughter of Jacob Kimble, Sen., of Palmyra, Penn. Among the children were, 1st, John K. Woodward, who married Mary, a daughter of Silas Kellogg, Esq .; their children were Warren J. Wood-
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
ward, late judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsyl- vania; Jackson K. Woodward, attorney-at-law, late of Honesdale, deceased; and Densey, who married Dr. Johnson Olmstead, of Dundaff, Penn. 2d, Nathaniel Woodward, who once represented the county in the Legislature and removed to the West. 3d, George W. Woodward, who held various important offices, and was once a member of Congress, and a judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Hon. Isaac Dim- mick married the oldest daughter, and George Little, Esq., attorney-at-law, married the youngest. All the family above-named are dead.
Capt. Charles Hole* was, according to old records, an early resident, as he or David Wilder was employed as supervisor of the roads, then considered the most important township office. He had a brick-yard where all the brick that were used in the town were made. He built the house where George Hauser now lives. He had two sons; John, deceased, and Washington. The latter is now living in Lake township, and for a second wife married a daughter of Amasa Jones, de- ceased. He had four daughters, namely, Louisa, first wife of Dr. Otis Avery; Martha, wife of Rezzia Woodward; Joanna, wife of Ezekiel Birdsall; and Mary, wife of John J. Schenck, deceased. Mrs. Schenck is the sole survivor of the daughters.
Charles Hole and Jacob Hole were twins. Jacob Hole settled in Dyberry. Lewis Hole was his son, and
*The orthography of this name has been changed and is now spelled "Hoel."
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he had a daughter named Phebe. Caleb Hole lived on the William Hensey farm and was the father of Ira, Elijah, and Cornelia Hole. Cornelia is not living.
Randall Wilmot married a daughter of James Carr, of Canaan, and David Wilmot, of Wilmot Proviso notoriety, was their son. John A. Gustin, a noted mechanic, also, married a daughter of James Carr. Gustin for many years was a merchant in Bethany, and removed to Honesdale and there was postmaster. His widow and some of his daughters are yet living. Randall built the house and store now occupied by Hon. A. B. Gammell. John A. Gustin was the main carpenter and workman in erecting it.
Amzi Fuller, from Litchfield county, Conn., studied law in the office of Hon. Dan Dimmick, of Milford, and came to Bethany about 1816, from which time he practiced law, until the removal of the county seat to Honesdale, when he disposed of his property and re- moved to Wilkesbarre, Pa. He was not an easy, flu- ent speaker, but his opinion upon difficult and knotty questions in law was seldom controverted. He had but one son, Hon. Henry M. Fuller, who was a mem- ber of Congress, from Luzerne county, of acknowedg- ed ability, but who died in the meridian of life. Thomas Fuller studied law with his brother Amzi, and was not admitted to the Bar until many years afterward. He was argumentative and persuasive and a much better speaker than his brother. He never attempted to make the worse appear the better reason. He was too conscientious to take any unfair advantage
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
of his client's opponent. After the removal of the court to Honesdale, he took up his abode there, and soon after died in the meridian of life. Hon. John Torrey married one of his sisters. Mr. Fuller left one son, William, who is now living in the house which his father built. His only daughter, Mary, married Dr. Ralph L. Briggs, who died in Wisconsin, November 4, 1863. At the time of his death he was postmaster of Honesdale.
Levi C. Judson lived some time in Bethany, and his son, who writes under the nom de plume of " Ned Buntline," was born in the village.
By the assessment of 1825, Hon. E. W. Hamlin was mentioned as a single man. A full notice is giv- en of him in another part of this book.
Besides the persons aforementioned, it appears by an assessment, made by Henry W. Stilley, 1825, that there were then other prominent men living in the borough, among whom were Daniel Baldwin, a hatter, who married Ruey Hamlin, sister of E. W. Hamlin. and afterwards removed with his family to Minne- sota; Levi Ketchum, who was a tanner and shoe- maker, and, as a boot-maker, could not be excelled, his children being Lawrence, deceased, William, of Susquehanna, Pa., and Eliza, wife of Spencer Keen, of Honesdale; Osborn Olmstead, who came in about 1819, from Connecticut. He was a shoe-maker and tanner. His children were as follows: Raymond, de- ceased; Isaac P., of New York city; Johnson C., physician, in Dundaff, Pa .; Hawley Olmstead, de-
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ceased ; Harriet, of Dundaff; and Arney, who married Wm. V. R. Sloan, deceased.
Judd Raymond was a carpenter, and the father of John Raymond, Esq., and Wm. Raymond. Philan- der K. Williams, Esq., married one of his daughters, and Joseph Miller, Jr., another. John Raymond is then noticed as being a carpenter and owning a good dwelling-house.
Moses Ward, who was a joiner by trade, was assess- ed in the borough, in 1825. He was from Chatham, N. J., and first settled or lived on the Dyberry. He was the father of Rev. E. O. Ward, and lived to be eighty-one years of age. The Rev. E. O. Ward, pastor of the Presbyterian Church, came from Dun- daff to Bethany, in 1851. In his ways he reminds us of the village preacher described in Goldsmith's "De- serted Village."
The house, which is now the M. E. parsonage, was built by J. S. Davis, who was many years a commis- sioners' clerk and deputy county treasurer, and who proved to be a defaulter to the county for several thousands of dollars, the most of which was lost.
The county seat was removed to Honesdale by act of Assembly, passed 1841. After the removal of the courts the court-house was used as an academy until the University of Northern Pennsylvania was char- tered, in 1848, when the old court-house was changed and enlarged for the use of said University, and a school opened therein in the fall of 1850. The next year, Professor John F. Stoddard was elected princi-
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
pal of the institution. It was patronized by over two hundred students, and gave a most salutary impetus to the cause of education. Then for a time the insti- tution was managed by the Methodist Episcopal Church. Professor Stoddard finally purchased the whole building and grounds, and while under him at the time of its greatest prosperity, the building was burned on the night of the 19th of April, 1857. Mr. Stoddard generously gave the fire-proof building and public square to the borough for the use of the com- mon school. But the University was not the only institution of learning with which Bethany has been favored. In 1813, the Beech Woods Academy was chartered, and the State aided it by an appropriation of $1,000. A substantial brick building was erected, the best teachers that could be found were em- ployed, and here many young men were educated, among whom were Benjamin Dimock, Esq., Isaac P. Olmstead, Warren J. Woodward, late Judge of the Supreme Court of the State, and David Wilmot. In 1853, the building, which is now the property of the Westons, was sold and the proceeds turned over to the University aforesaid. The Presbyterian church, which cost $5,000, was commenced in 1822, and was com- pleted in 1835. There is a Methodist Episcopal, and a Baptist church, one school, two stores, no licensed tavern, a lodge of Independent Order of Odd Fellows, and a Good Templars' lodge.
By request, we insert the following piece of poetry, written by Alonzo Collins, fifty years ago. It will
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probably apply to different latitudes and meridians:
"Come, oh ! my muse, with heavenly fire, Assist my pen, and tune my lyre, That I may write with ease and grace While I describe a little place, A country town not far from here, Where people of all grades appear ;
They are a wrangling, jangling crew, And disagree like Turk and Jew. Religion is contested here In terms most rigid and severe;
Each sect affirms its doctrines stout,
And twists the Scriptures wrong-side out ; The Baptists do affirm and say Immersion is the only way, And if we will not dive like trout, From heaven we'll be blotted out;
Others declare it is no matter, How small the quantity of water ;
That it's a type, designed to show Who're the church militant below. See gamblers, sharpers, speculators, And hypocrites, and Sabbath-breakers, And doctors, too, of wondrous skill, Who sometimes cure and sometimes kill ;
The friendly clods their errors screen, And hide their faults from being seen. The ladies here in Bethany, Of different shades of dignity,
Bring in their hats from Yankeetown, Of different shades, pink, white, and brown, Tipped off with artificial flowers, Which look like squash-blows after showers,
Or bean-vines running up a pole ; They make me laugh, they look so droll. The office-holders here increase,
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
Disturbers of the public peace ; They hunt for office as sincere,
As hounds do hunt the weary deer; With public money strut about, While honest people go without. Dandies are here of every grade, Gallanting ladies is their trade ; They swell around with stuffed cravats, And polished boots and tippy hats; They lug a lady on each side, As sacks upon a jackass ride. But I would have it understood,
Many are virtuous, pure, and good ;
And but for them the rest would sink,
And go where sinners howl for drink."
CHAPTER XXVI.
TOWNSHIPS-CLINTON.
INTHIS township was erected November 17th, 1834. It is bounded north and north-east by Mt. Pleasant, east by Dyberry and Prompton, south by Prompton and Canaan, and west by Lackawanna and Susquehan- na counties. More than one-quarter of the township is taken up by the acclivities and declivities of the Moosic mountain, and is sterile and unfit for tillage. In the western part, as the line extends over the Lack-
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awanna river, there is anthracite coal, the only por- tion of the county in which it has been found. The west branch of the Lackawaxen and its tributaries af- ford ample water-power for mills. As said before, the Lackawanna river runs over into this township for several miles and a short section of the Jefferson Rail- road, at a place called Forest City, where the D. & H. Company has a large saw-mill, crosses over into the township, The chief ponds are the Elk, Forest, and White Oak. The lands east of the mountain are good, are mostly susceptible of a high state of cultiva- tion, and produce good crops of grass, corn, rye, oats, buckwheat, and potatoes equal to any part of the county. There are some large orchards stocked with rare varieties of fruit. The Nortons and David S. West led the way in the selection and cultivation of good fruit, and their success stimulated others to fol- low their example. This may be called the Pomonia of the county. The old north and south state road, and the Easton and Belmont turnpike road, subse- quently following nearly the same route, afforded an early access to the township, and invited an enterpris- ing class of farmers.
The following from Alva W. Norton is an accurate account as to who were the first settlers in the town- ship :
" My father was born in Goshen, Litchfield county, Conn., May, 1759. In 1775, when in his sixteenth year, he went as a substitute for his older brother, Samuel, to defend New York. He enlisted under
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
' Old Put' for five years, in the Light-horse, and it was three years before he saw home again. When he was discharged, he received what were called pay certifi- cates for what was due him and, in the spring of 1783, went into the township of Winchester, now called West Winsted, Conn., and purchased three hun- dred acres of land, paying for it at the reduced rate of sixpence on the pound. In 1784, he married Olive Wheeler and removed to his new purchase, where he continued to reside until 1812. His children were War- ren W., Alva W., Sheldon, Clarissa, and Samuel. In Sept., 1810, Levi Norton, David Gaylord, Rufus Grinnell, S. E. North, and some others came to Penn- sylvania looking for a better country, where they could worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. In pursuance of that purpose, they examined the wild land in Wayne and Susquehanna counties. After that examination, Levi Norton went to Philadelphia and purchased nine tracts of land, sit- uated in the north part of old Canaan, now Clinton Center. In December, 1811, he fitted out his second son, Alva, and started him for the wilderness, and this son came into Wayne county, Christmas day. At Mount Pleasant he found a young man who had been sent out with some sheep, and the two came down the old north and south road to the base of the mountain, opposite what is now the Clinton Center Baptist meet- ing-house, built a cabin ten by twelve, and split bass- wood poles for a puncheon floor. Here they tarried during the winter, but very little improvement could
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be made, as the snow was four feet deep. Some time in March, Warren W. Norton, with his wife and one child, and Benjamin Johnson, with his wife and five children, came. The first week in June, 1812, Levi Norton, his wife, and the balance of his family, Hor- ace G. Squire, and Michael Grinnell came ; they were followed in September by David Gaylord and wife, and D. S. West and wife. At the same time Amasa Gaylord and son, Myron, arrived and made arrange- ments to move the family the next year and, in No- vember, Rufus Grinnell's wife and eight children came, which closed the colony for 1812.
In May, 1813, Amasa Gaylord, wife, and family arrived. About the same time Capt. Wm. Bayley came and lived with my father until he paid for one hundred and seventeen acres of land. In the fall of 1813, John Griswold, Sen., and some of his family came from Torrey lake, and put up a log-cabin on land adjoining that of Rufus Grinnell, and, in Janu- ary following, moved his family down on an ox-sled. In 1814, S. E. North and wife, and Fisher Case and family came."
Mr. Norton gives also the following account of a great wolf hunt: "In the fall of 1837, a pair of black wolves from the Rocky mountains" (or Canada,) "made their appearance in Wayne and Susquehanna counties. During the fall and early winter, in Her- rick township, Susquehanna county, and Mount Pleas- ant and Clinton townships, Wayne county, they de- stroyed over five hundred sheep. In Mount Pleasant
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
and Clinton there were societies formed for the pur- pose of raising money to exterminate them and pay the bounty. The amount of premium raised was ninety dollars. In addition to this sum, Alanson Til- den, of Herrick Center, Susquehanna county, and A. W. Norton, collected forty dollars, making a total of one hundred and thirty dollars. My brother, Sheldon, offered one dollar extra for the scalp of the he-wolf. On the first of March, 1838, Merritt Hines, keeping the toll-gate on the Belmont and Ohquagua turnpike, near Sugar-loaf mountain, received information from a traveler going north, that south of the Pete Stevens place he saw two large black animals cross the road towards the Moosic mountain. He supposed them to be bears until he saw their brushes. Hines imme- diately equipped himself for the chase and followed on, sending a messenger to Col. Calvely Freeman at Belmont, to follow him. Col. Freeman equipped him- self, took the track, and followed Hines. These two men pursued the wolves eleven days and were in at the death. On the third day, having driven them south nearly opposite the Dimock settlement in Frost Hollow, about midday, Hines and Freeman called at a farm-house for refreshments and to replenish their knapsacks. The wolves, wanting their dinner, entered a farmer's yard and killed fifteen sheep. That was the only time that Hines and Freeman gave the wolves any time to satisfy their hunger, for they followed them so closely that when they lay down at night, the hunters could see by the place wherein the animals
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had lain that they never left it to procure anything to eat."
There are several persons named in Mr. Norton's sketch who deserve further notice. David S. West was spoken of under Canaan township. Alva W. Norton, Esq., now aged about eighty-eight years, taught school at Salem Corners, 1816, and afterwards in Bethany. He was considered a competent teacher, and was for more than forty years a practical surveyor. He was county commissioner for three years, and it is probable he was in that office when those destructive wolves were killed, which made us state, in another place, that he was chiefly instrumental in their capture. He lives with his son, L. F. Norton, and to a remark- able degree retains his physical and mental capacities. Ira B. Stone, Esq., once a county commissioner and now a resident of the town, married a daughter of Mr. Norton. Sheldon Norton was for three years prothon- otary of the county. He was a very prominent man in the Baptist church. In 1815 he was assessed as owning forty-five acres of improved, and two hundred and fifteen acres of unimproved land. His son, E. K. Norton now owns the homestead which is considered one of the best farms in the town.
Michael Grennell, Sen., who lived to be one hun- dred and two years old, settled about one-half mile west of the Baptist church, where Horace G. Squire once lived, and which is now owned by A. R. Squire. He was the father of Michael Grennell, Jr., who mar- ried a sister of Mrs. Pope Bushnell. He was also the
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
father of Deacon Rufus Grennell. The sons of the latter were Virgil, once associate judge, Homer, Ovid, Jasper, Michael 3d, and Rufus M., who was once pro- thonotary.
Amasa Gaylord settled on the north and south road. His sons were David, Carmi, and Giles, all of whom sleep with their fathers. Giles Gaylord married Joanna W., a daughter of Elder Elijah Peck, Sen., and she is still living.
John Griswold, Sen., was the father of Francis Griswold, who for many years kept what was called the Cold Water tavern; so called because it was near a stream of cold water that came rushing down from the mountain. Sumner was another son, and was a farmer. Horace was a son or grandson of John Gris- wold, Sen.
Sylvester E. North, a farmer, is yet living. He and his family were noted for making the best butter and cheese to be found in the county.
Fisher Case was the father of Ralph, Jerome B., and Robert Case. There are none of them living.
There were many families that have not been mentioned which from time to time added materially to the wealth and importance of the town, among whom were Daniel Arnold, a mason; Chester, Lewis, and Horace Buckland; David Bunting, Daniel Bunt- ing, Jr., and John Bunting, who lived on the west branch ; Bunting and Randall, who owned a saw-mill and tannery; John Belknap, who lived and kept tav- ern on the Judson place; Seth Hayden, and George
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TOWNSHIPS-CLINTON.
Hopkins, on the west branch; Joseph Kingsbury, a farmer; Luther Ledyard, a farmer, who lived adjoin- ing Francis Griswold ; Pliny Muzzy, a farmer; James and George Mc Mullen, farmers, of Scotch descent, famed as hunters; and Reuben, Cyrus, and Rufus Peck. These latter were the descendants of Elder Elijah Peck, of Mt. Pleasant, whose children were Elijah, Jr., William, Reuben, Lewis, Myra, and Joanna W. Elijah Peck, Jr., had nineteen children. The Sanders family were numerous. There were Samuel, David, Jonathan, Nathaniel C., David 2nd, Selma, and Shep- pard, who were all farmers. The following persons were all farmers : Ashbel Stearns, Levi, Levi, Jr., Jason, Ja- son D., Alfred, and Elisha Stanton; John Sears; John Sherwood, and William, his son; Charles L. Tenant, Sen., Charles L., Jr., and John A. Tenant; Washington Williams ; Nathan Wheeler, son of Benjamin Wheel- er; Jabez Welch, who was also a lumberman; and John K. Davison, who lived first in Dyberry and then removed to and died on the farm now occupied by his son, Warren W. Davison. The farms in Clinton are well cultivated for the reason that very little attention was ever paid to lumbering. Almost the whole of the original settlers were of Puritanic origin.
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