USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne County [Pa.] > Part 25
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The Dyberry glass-factory was started in 1816, and, with short intermissions, was kept in operation for twenty-five years.
The manufacture of axes and edge-tools by Ezekiel White was commenced in 1820, and was continued by
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Ephraim V. White at Seelyville and Tracyville during his life-time. The business is now vigorously carried on by his son, Gilbert White, at Tracyville.
James Hendrick, in the early days of Honesdale, carried on the making of scythes and axes, and the business was continued by others after him.
Henry Kemmerer, in 1835, started a large powder- mill near Shaffer's Mills, in South Canaan. The bus- iness was prosperous until the mill was blown up in the summer of 1837 and three persons were killed. The mill was not rebuilt.
James Birdsall commenced the manufacture of wool- en cloths at Seelyville in 1846, and the business, hav- ing been continued and being constantly on the in- crease, has assumed a most respectable importance un- der Birdsall Brothers. This is one of the most useful of all branches of manufacture, and can be contin- ued from time to time, and from age to age, without any prospects of a discontinuation of its usefulness. Seelyville has ever been an attractive point for manu- facturing. Window-sashes, blinds, and doors were made here for some years by Messrs. Costins & Erk. Chris- tian Erk is now doing a large business in the manu- facture of umbrella and parasol sticks.
John H. Gill has had a small foundry in operation a short distance above Seelyville for a number of years. It is now carried on by his son.
George W. Hall, of Prompton, has been, for forty years, engaged in the manufacture from wood of all needed household furniture, and has not intermitted
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his labors. Having associated with him his son, Ar- thur, as copartner, the business is now conducted under the firm name of G. W. Hall & Son.
The great glass-works of Christian Dorflinger, at White Mills, established within the last twelve years, are the most colossal manufacturing works in the county. In 1842 Jacob Faatz started glass-works at Tracyville, but for want of capital they were discon- tinned, and they fell into the hands of James Brook- field but were mostly destroyed by the breaking away of a dam at the mouth of a pond above. The Hones- dale Glass Company, in 1873, commenced the making of hollow glass-ware in the same place, and are doing a large and profitable business.
The manufacturing done in Honesdale is by Dur- land, Torrey & Co., in the boot and shoe business; Gilbert Knapp in the foundry business; B. L. Wood & Co., prepared lumber; M. B. VanKirk, umbrella- stick factory; C. C. Jadwin and Dr. Brady, medicines ; John Brown, furniture ; P. McKenna, cooper; and P. J. Cole, flour and feed. Probably there are others not mentioned.
Under the patronal charge of Rev. J. J. Doherty, pastor of the St. John's Catholic church of Honesdale, an industrial school was established in 1879. The manufacture of shirts is the only branch of business carried on at present, and employment is given to about twenty-five girls. The intention, however, is to add other branches of industry to the institution, the object of Father Doherty being to give to the youth,
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male and female, a practical education, and, also, give employment and bring up to habits of industry and usefulness scores who are being reared in enforced idleness. The enterprise is in its infancy but is likely to grow into an important and beneficent industry.
Erastus Baker, of Mount Pleasant, more than forty- five years ago, established a carding-machine on the Lackawaxen in Mount Pleasant and dressed and dyed cloths during his life, and the works are carried on to this day.
The manufacturing of chairs and other kinds of wood-work is carried on at Forest Mills, Lake town- ship, by Henry Silkman.
One of the most important branches of industry in Wayne county has been the manufacture of leather, and has yielded a large amount of money. Its begin- nings were small. The first tannery that we remem- ber was run by Samuel Rogers, in Canaan, and was afterwards called the Cortright tannery. Asa Smith, in Mount Pleasant, Thomas S. Holmes, of Bucking- ham, and Levi Ketchum and Osborn Olmstead, of Bethany, carried on the business for several years on a small scale. About 1830 Isaac P. Foster establish- ed the first great tannery in the county, which, having been profitably run for many years, has been discon- tinued. The tanneries that are now in successful operation and doing a large business are owned by H. Beach & Brothers, at Milanville; E. P. Strong, at Starrucca; Coe F. Young, at Tanners Falls; G. B. Morss, Ledgedale; Hoyt Bros., at Lake Como; R. H.
51
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Wales, at High Lake; Win. Holbert, at Equinunk ; Hoyt Bros., at Manchester. Those doing a moderate business are Wm. Gale, at Middle Valley; L. H. Al- den & Co., at Aldenville; Brunig & Co., at Oregon; Nichols & Co., at Mt. Pleasant; and Samnel Saun- ders, at Texas.
Several tanneries have been discontinued, and the business as to the amount of leather tanned is dimin- ishing. Ten or fifteen years ago the leather tanned in the county amounted to $2,200,000, or was sold for that amount yearly. Men well acquainted with the whole tanning interests throughout the county are cautious about making an estimate of the proceeds which have been received therefrom, admitting, how- ever, that they have been enormous.
When we take into consideration the great amount of water-power in the county unused, it is to be re- gretted that we have no more manufacturing estab- lishments within its limits. It is, therefore, pleasant to be assured that a silk-factory is to be established on the Paupack at Hawley. If I am rightly inform- ed, the building will be built of stone, to be three hun- dred and sixty feet by forty-four feet, with an exten- sion of eighty feet by twenty-three feet, and to be three stories high with a basement. A hub and spoke factory is also carried on at Hawley by J. G. Diamond.
The first settlers of Wayne county came hither for the purpose of taking up lands for cultivation. Along the rivers and streams they were to a great extent diverted from their original purpose by engaging in
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the cutting, preparing, and running of lumber to mar- ket, which business as they considered it more immedi- ately lucrative, was followed by the settlers on the Del- aware and Lackawaxen rivers. But the townships of Canaan, Salem, Sterling, Clinton, and Mount Pleasant gave greater attention to the improvement of their lands. When the most valuable timber was removed from the river townships, they turned their attention to the cultivation of the soil, and they have made rapid progress. Such is the case in the townships of Damascus, Preston, Manchester, Scott, and Cherry Ridge. The timber in those townships is becoming scarce, and resort must be had to the cultivation of the soil, to the raising of cattle, and to the dairy business, for which our natural grasses are peculiarly adapted. What the county needs is a more ready market for the gross articles of production, such as fruit, potatoes, etc. Every branch of manufacturing interest should therefore be encouraged and promoted for the purpose of supplying a home market. Many farmers are also raising their own wheat, thereby saving much money. When the lands were first cleared up they were rich in humus, potash, and phosphates, which have been exhausted by cultivation. Fifty or sixty years ago three hundred bushels of potatoes, fifty bushels of oats, and thirty bushels of rye to the acre, were not unusual crops. By the use of clover and plaster, and the judicious application of lime, phosphates, and other fertilizers, our farmers are struggling to restore the former fertility of their lands. It must be conceded
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
that much greater crops of corn are now raised than were obtained in former times. Within a few years past the best stock has been brought into the county by the importation of the Alderney and Jersey cattle. Anxious to avail themselves of every aid, our farmers have at different times organized agricultural societies. The present one was organized in 1862, and it owns the present pleasant fair-grounds upon the Dyberry, one and one-half miles north of Honesdale. By law the county pays from its treasury, yearly, $100 to the society. It is supposed that it exercises a salutary in- fluence upon the agricultural interest of the county.
In describing Honesdale we were led to notice the Delaware & Hudson Canal and Railroad Company, as it was the prime agent in starting the town into ex- istence and the main artery which supplies it and the country around with the sustaining force of life. With equal propriety, the Pennsylvania Coal Company might have been described in connection with Palmy- ra township. It is of sufficient importance to be sep- arately described.
The company was organized in 1839, but the road was not completed until 1850. It is a gravity road worked by stationary engines for transportation of coal mined by the company. No locomotive power is used in operating it. The length of the main line from Hawley to Port Griffith is forty-seven miles. The gauge of the line is four feet three inches. In 1879, the average number of persons regularly em- ployed by the company on its road and in its mines
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etc., including officials in Pennsylvania, amounted to 4,100. This road took to market, in 1850, 111,014 tons, and, in 1879, 1,372,759 tons of coal. Passen- ger cars are run daily from Dunmore to Hawley and return. The coal is run from Hawley by the Hawley Branch of the Erie Railway to Lackawaxen, distant fifteen and eighty-seven one-hundredth miles, and thence by the Erie Railroad to New York. This road is doing an immense amount of business. Its loaded and its light tracks widely diverge from each other. The building and operation of this road have been of great importance and value to Lake and Sa- lem townships. The capital stock amounts to $5,000,- 000, and $600,000 dividends were paid the past year, or twelve per cent. The road is most admirably con- ducted. Its officers are George A. Hoyt, President, Stamford, Connecticut; William E. Street, Secretary, Darien, Connecticut ; Edwin H. Mead, Treasurer, South Orange, N. J. ; Charles F. Southmayd, General Solicitor, New York; John B. Smith, Chief Engineer, General Manager, General Superintendent, and Divis- ion Superintendent, Dunmore, Pa.
The population of Wayne and Pike counties in 1800 was 2,562; in 1810, 4,125. The population of Wayne county, alone, in 1820, was 4,127; in 1830, 7,663; in 1840, 11,848; in 1850, 21,890; in 1860, 32,239; 1870, 33,188. The greatest increase was be- tween 1820 and 1830, being eighty-five and six-tenths per cent. gain, while the gain between 1860 and 1870 was scarcely three per cent. Although the late war was
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
between the latter periods, yet it is not reasonable to suppose that it caused such a hiatus in the advance of population. The census of 1880 will settle the ques- tion.
CHAPTER XXXIV.
PIKE COUNTY.
HE Hon. George W. Woodward designed in his - contemplated history of Wayne county to include the county of Pike. We should be pleased to do what he proposed if we had space and the necessary data wherewith to construct such a history. A long journey through the county would be necessary to gather up material for such a work, and a careful ex- amination of the public records required. Milford, the county seat of Pike county, should not be forgot- ten. It was the first place where the first courts were held, when Wayne and Pike were one. There Dan Dimmick, the father of Melancthon Dimmick, Oliver S. Dimmick, and William H. Dimmick, Sen., was first admitted to the Bar, and he was entrusted with one- half of the legal practice in the county for a long course of years. His cotemporaries in practice were Daniel Stroud, Job S. Halstead, John Ross, Thomas
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B. Dick, Hugh Ross, Daniel Grandin, and George Wolf, who was twice governor of the State. There afterwards lived Lewis Cornelius, the corpulent tavern- keeper, who at one time weighed six hundred and six- ty-seven pounds. There was Dr. Francis A. Smith, by birth an Austrian, and who was the first man that was naturalized in the county, he being admitted a citizen September 12, 1799. He was the father of the two noted women, Mrs. Thomas Clark, and Mrs. Jeffrey Wells. Milford is beautifully situated upon the Delaware, has pure air and good water, and is noted for its salubrity. The excellence of the roads up and down the river is widely known. We should be pleased to give sketches of the original inhabitants, some of whom were the Westbrooks, the VanAukens, the Ridgways, the Nyces, the Newmans, the Watsons, the Westfalls, the Motts, and many others. We should like to follow the route where the old pioneers "colum- bused " their way through the forests to Paupack and then onward to Lackawanna and Wyoming valleys; and to contrast the present state of the country with what it was then. Sixty years ago we traveled that supposed old route. Beginning at Milford we went to Blooming Grove, where Solomon Westbrook, Esq., now keeps a hotel; thence to Paupack Settle- ment, from which all the old settlers and their chil- dren have departed; thence through the Seven Mile Woods, then a dense wilderness, now dotted with houses and improvements, to Little Meadows; thence to Salem Corners, where Oliver Hamlin kept a store,
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HISTORY OF WAYNE COUNTY.
then onward through Salem township, which has greatly improved since that time, to John Cobb's, at the foot of Moosic mountain; thence, directly over the mountain to Philip Swart's tavern, which had been kept by Wm. Allsworth, the place being now in Dunmore ; thence, turning to the left and going down- ward, we came to Slocum Hollow, where were a saw- mill, grist-mill, foundry, and, we believe, a distillery, now in the vicinity of the city of Scranton, which city seems to us to have been built by enchantment, like the palace of the Princess Badroul Boudour. There lived in or about Lackawanna valley, in those days, the Slocums, Trips, Athertons, Coons, Griffins, Phillipses, and the Benedicts. The old road, above described, was the route taken by the original settlers to reach the Lackawanna and Wyoming valleys. By it they fled after the battle of Wyoming. The road in former times was always a very bad one except when frozen up in the winter, yet the travel upon it was immense. All the travel between Wilkesbarre and Milford on to Newburg was by or near that road. But we return to Milford and find that it has been greatly improved and enlarged within sixty years past.
In drawing this history to a close we would have it understood that we never entertained the idea of writ- ing it until we were past the age of three-score years and ten. We ask the reader to make due allowance
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for our failing memory and inability to present facts in an attractive dress. It would be very strange if the work should be found without errors and contra- dictions. Many worthy persons and families, we are well aware, have not been mentioned; their history did not come in our way. "One Cæsar lives, a thousand are forgot." No one has been purposely neglected; no one spoken of disparagingly. Now, at the age of seventy-six years, standing on the shore of that vast ocean, over which we must soon sail, we bid our read- ers an affectionate farewell.
THE END.
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