History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 104

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 1438

USA > Pennsylvania > Monroe County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 104
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 104
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 104

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

tainly laudable, and it is to be regretted that loss attended their enterprise.

EARLY SETTLERS. - Other people were eer- tainly living on the Delaware within the present limits of Manchester as early as 1800. Nathan Mitchell built a saw-mill at Rock Run but little later than this. Before the writer is a list (found among the papers of Judge Samuel Preston) of names of families living on the Delaware, between Coehecton Falls and the forks of the river, at Shehawken, eighty-nine in all, as early as 1807. The list eomprises those living on both sides of the river. Among the names appear those of James Lord, Jonathan Adams, Joseph and William White, Abner Lane, Simon Peter Cole, Adam Niven and John Sim- mons, all of whom, careful inquiry has satisfied the writer, lived within what is now Manehester. John Kellam settled at Pine Flat in 1816. Between this and 1820 he was followed by his brothers Jaeob, Peter, Jeptha, George and Wil- liam. Jacob, George and Jeptha settled within the present limits of Manchester, William in Damaseus, Peter on the Laekawaxen. The family were from near Milford. They were all men of energy and push-men who believed in keeping well up to the front in the raee of life. Jacob settled on the Delaware above the month of the Little Eqninunk Creek, where he eleared a large farm. In 1827 he was assessed for sixty aeres of improved and five hundred and sixty of unimproved land. The large farm he cleared, with the necessary buildings, orehards and miles of stone wall attests his energy. "The laek of common prudenee, however, left his fine estate somewhat eneumbered, and dying intestate, litigation followed, and most of the property passed to lawyers and eourts, little re- maining to his heirs. Nine of his eleven ehil- dren, are yet living in the vieinity. Most of the farm is owned and occupied by Warner P. Adams. John Kellam, in 1827, was assessed for ninety aeres of improved land. He died at thead- vaneed age of ninety years. The large real estate ·owned and improved by him passed entirely out of the family. George Kellam settled at Pine Flat, where he engaged extensively in farming, lumbering and mercantile business. He was very eccentric ; he left a large and, for the ! Samuel R. and Alexander Mogridge. From

times, a fine mansion; never married, but dwelt in solitary state. He died at an advanced age the vietim of a maniaeal melancholy. The mansion and farm are now owned and oceupied by Joseph Ross. Jeptha reared quite a family, . most of whom yet live in Manchester.

Nathaniel Tyler settled at the extreme lower end of Pine Flat, at an early period. He ap- pears in the first assessment as a farmer ; he died within the last deeade.

From the best data obtainable it appears that Simon Peter Cole settled at the Cole Flat as early as 1805. Two of his sons, Isaae and Emannel, appear in the first assessment as farmers. Through want of attention to titles, they lost their improvements and land and left the township. Emanuel settled in Sullivan County, N. Y., and was there killed in an affray by one Adams. Two of his sons reside now in Manchester. Harrison, a farmer, and Amon W., a blacksmith and respeeted resident of Equinunk.

James Lord settled on the Delaware about two miles below Equinunk, as early as 1807. Here we may mention that the progenitor of the numerous families of Lords living in this vicinity was an Englishman who came to this seetion at an early date. Bnt little eoneerning him is obtainable. In 1836 James sold his property on the Delaware to W. Weston, Esq , and removed to the pond bearing his name, where he eleared a large farm and where he died at an extreme old age. Some of his family still own the farm.

About three miles from Eqninunk is the neighborhood long and widely known as the " Union." Some of the farmers are on the highest lands in the township. Settlement here was made about the year 1813. The first set- tlers were from Manehester, in England, henee the name of the township. Among these, and probably the first, was Samnel R. Mogridge, who left England in 1812. He landed at Que- bee, and, after considerable difficulty (England and the United States being at war), reached Philadelphia and thenee eanie to Manehester in 1813. Before us lies a letter written by John Warder, of Philadelphia, in 1813, addressed to

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the tenor of the writing it appears that Warder owned twenty-seven tracts of land in what is now Manchester. These lands had been sur- veyed in 1809 by Jason Torrey. The Mog- ridges were to have general supervision of the lands and in the western portion were to select compact tracts for which he (Warder) was to give them a lease, rent free, for fourteen years. The other of the twelve tracts in the western di- vision was to be sold, if possible, by the Mog- ridges, and the proceeds arising from such sale to be used in the improvement of the land leased to them. On these lands Samuel R. set- tled. We find no further trace of Alexander. That Mr. Mogridge unflinchingly met the diffi- culties attending a settlement in the wilderness, far from roads or any of the conveniences of civilized life, is shown by the assessment of 1827, which gives him thirty acres of im- proved and seventy of unimproved land. Those who remember him speak of him as an honest man and good citizen. Long since he passed to his rest, and the grass has long been green over him, very near to where his toil brought smiling fields from wild forbidding forest. His only living descendant in this section is Miss Ann Preston, of Stockport, daughter of the late Paul S. Preston ; his mother having been a daughter of Mr. Mogridge.

Near Mr. Mogridge's settled very soon a num- ber of his countrymen. Jacob W. Welch came in 1813. He was a very intelligent and industrious man. He was assessed in 1827 for seventy-five acres of improved land. He left, at his death, a fair property to his sons, Henry and George. The latter is dead. Henry is an attorney at Hancock, N. Y. Mr. William Parks owns and occupies the old farm.

Samuel Price, James Carter and Thomas Todd were among those who settled in that neighborhood, forming what was first known as the " Union English settlement," afterwards abbreviated to " The Union."

In 1820 there dropped in upon Mr. Samuel Mogridge his nephew, Mathias Mogridge, thien a youth aged about eighteen. He was talking when he walked into his surprised uncle's house, and he kept right on talking, except when sleeping, until the universal silencer, Death,

stopped him on the 17th of September, 1885. He is entitled to more than a passing notice. Born in London in 1802, when very young he was taken on board an English man-of-war. The vessel on which the young Briton served was one of the fleet which carried Englishmen to disaster and defeat at New Orleans. Return- ing to England, he went next in the " North- umberland," when it carried the Corsican At- tila, Bonaparte, to St. Helena. Being dis- charged from the navy he came, in 1817, to America, and, in 1820, to Manchester. Here he located in the wilderness. By his industry he cleared up a farm. Here he reared a family of six children, and here, very near the scene of his labors, he rests. He was a good citizen, an honest, upright man. He was remarkable for his conversational powers. He never wearied of talking. He possessed a wonder- fully retentive memory and an inexhaustible fund of anecdote and reminiscence. He would start off on an anecdote, to illustrate which he would commence another ; this, in turn, needed supplementing. Thus, when the first was completed, a dozen or so had been told, and the end seemed further off than ever. On the oc- casion of the first World's Fair in London, he returned for a visit to his native country, and astounded the people there by his unceasing talk. He was celebrated there as the " talking Yankee. His son, Mathias, Jr., lives on the old homestead. .

At an early date two brothers, named Smeed, built a mill on the Little Equinunk Creek, at what is now as "Braman's." The mill subsequently came into the possession of Mr. George Kellam, who also erected a grist- mill at the same place. After many changes, the property came into the hands of Mr. Hamilton Braman, the present proprietor. A saw-mill and a factory for turning is still main- tained tliere.

Many of the other early settlers of the townl- ship are worthy of especial mention. Christo- pher Teeple, who came from the vicinity of the Delaware Water-Gap, in 1822, and located first near the mouth of Equinunk Creek, from whence, after a few years, he removed to the Union, where he cleared a large farm, which

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

is now in possession of his sons, Christopher, Jr., and Abraham. The eldest, William F., yet lives in the township, and is widely known as "Finn Teeple, the Deer-Slayer." It is safe to assume that there is not a man now living in Northeastern Pennsylvania who has made the havoc among the wild beasts of the forest that Finn has. He has linnted over almost the entire county. Pike County, as well as Delaware County, N. Y., has heard the craek of his rifle, and to some denizen of the forest it was the eraek of doom. He has kept no record of deer, bear and wolves he has killed, but it is safe to declare that the number of deer would reach into the thousands. Many a time has he driven Bruin from his lair, and followed him like a remorseless fate. The howl of the wolf was musie to Finn, yet he tells the writer that he never met that terror of our forests, the pan- ther. Had he done so, we may be sure the panther's fate would have been like that of Roderiek Dhu at the hand of Fitz-James. His whole life has been given to hunting. He has sold thousands of dollars' worth of game and peltries, but is something poorer to-day than though he had never owned a rifle or a trap. Oeeasionally we meet him yet, stalking over the country, trap or rifle in hand, lamenting, like "Leather Stocking," over the destruc- tion of the forest and the disappearance of the game.

Another noted character was William Tyler, familiarly known as " Rock Run Tyler." He was born in the adjoining county of Sullivan, N. Y., his immediate progenitors being among the earliest settlers on the Delaware. As a farmer and lumberman he was noted for his energy. He cleared a large farm in that por- tion of the township known as the " Tyler Woods," and was celebrated for the large rafts which he got out, and ran down the Delaware. He was unfortunate in business, and with age came the loss of his property, but he retained great physical vigor till past four-seore, and piloted large rafts down the Delaware when past seventy-four. He was a member of St. Tammany Lodge, of F. & A. M. which was instituted at Damascus in ante-Morgan days. The craft kindly eared for him in his last days.

Two sons and three daughters yet live in the township. He died in 1876, aged eighty-six.

In 1840, Thomas, Robert and Nesbitt Gregg, settled in the forest in the extreme sontheril part of the township. They were natives of Ireland and have proved excellent eitizens. Large fine farms attest their industry and im- mense families of sons and daughters their value as settlers in a new country. The writer's feelings would induce us to treat individually of many who have been, and are yet residents of the township; who have by their industry subdued the forests, and shaped the interests of the community, but the limits of a work of this nature will not allow it. Anthony H. Lloyd, Gideon B. Chase, John and Peter Lord, Patrick and Riehard Osborne, Moses and Oliver Billings, David Layton, the Dennys, Giffords, and many others have passed the best years of their lives in the township, and have given to it years of toil. Many of them yet reside amid the scene of their labors, while others have been called " from labor to refresh- ment."

The first birth of a white ehild in the town- ship was no doubt that of a daughter born to Josiah Parks and wife, in the rude shelter of a eave in the rocks at Equinunk, some time be- tween 1776 and 1782. Doubtless in our eonntry's history many like events oeeurred.

The road mentioned in the sketeh of the " Union Sugar Company," as having been built from Fort Penn through to the " Port- age," evidently passed through a corner of the township; henee was the first road laid out in the township. In 1830 a road was laid ont along the Delaware from Damaseus to Little Equinunk. Name of surveyer not obtainable. Other roads were laid out from time to time as the needs of the people made them necessary.

RELIGIOUS MATTERS .- In the early settle- ment of the township the people were too widely seattered to be able to do or effect any organized religious work. We judge, too, that the people, either from laek of inclination or want of time, gave little attention to spiritual matters. As the population inereased, the gospel eame fitfully to the people. No date can be given for the first religious services. About

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1827 the Methodist Episcopal Church mani- fested its usual zeal and enterprise by sending itinerants into this section. Later it was made a part of the Hancock, N. Y., charge. Who the early ministers were who labored in this uninviting field, we cannot learn. No regular church organization was ever effeeted in the township. A society of the Methodist Episco- pal Church was formed about 1840 at the " Union." It belonged to the Hancock charge until a separate charge was created at Equi- nunk, when it became a part of that charge. A church building was erected there in 1854 --- a plain but substantial building, sufficiently. com- modious for the wants of the community. Probably as much attention is given to religious matters as in any similarly situated community. In the township there are probably two hun- dred nominal members of Protestant churches, the majority Methodists, and forty or fifty Catholics.

SCHOOLS. - A state of ignorance exists through the township as to when, where and by whom the first school was established. A school was certainly established in the " Union " as early as 1827, but it is impossible to ascer- tain how it was established or maintained. No doubt it was at first altogether at the cost of the community. A school was established in like manner at about the same time in the vicinity of Little Equinunk. The township cannot be said to be divided into districts. School-houses have been built where needed, and are designated by name of locality. There are ten schools, with two hundred and sixty scholars, and two passably respectable school- houses. The other eight are a disgrace to a civilized community. In building them the time-honored custom of building school-houses where they would be most out of the way, and where the land on which they were built could not possibly be put to any other use, has been carefully followed.

MILLS, TANNERIES, ETC .- The credit of building the first saw-mill may be divided be- tween Samuel Preston, of Stockport, and Nathan Mitchell.' Each built at the extreme

limits of the township-Preston on the big Equinunk, near its mouth; Mitchell at Rock Run, both as early as 1805. The first grist- mill in the township was built by George Kellam at what is now known as Bramans.

The first tanncry was built in 1848 by Isaiah and Daniel C. Scudder, under the firm name of I. & D. C. Scudder. Sole leather only was manufactured. It had a capacity of about two thousand five hundred sides a year. After many changes of owners, it finally became the property of William Holbert. It was burned down in 1875. Another was built at Little Equinunk in 1857 by S. D. Wood and Aaron and Calvin Van Benschoten; firm known as Wood & Van Benschoten. Capacity, two thousand eight hundred sides a year. After several changes it became the property of Hoyt Brothers, of New York. It was burned down in 1879, was rebuilt at once, and ran until 1881, when work in it was discontinued, bark being no longer obtainable.

There have been as many as fifteen saw-mills in the township. There is a factory for turn- ing wood at Bramans, owned by Rothchilds, of New York.

A POST-OFFICE was established in the " Union," and called Priceville. Matthias Mogridge was the first postmaster. Mail reached it from Equinunk. It was discontin- ucd in 1871. A post-office was established at Bramans in 1882; Hamilton Braman, post- master. Mail reaches it from Hankins, N. Y. Bee-keeping has lately become one of the in- dustries of the township. Several quite exten- sive apiaries are maintained.

The population of the township in 1870 was 1269 ; in 1880, 1326. Maneliester deserves especial mention for the prompt and ready re- spouse it made to every call for men during the Rebellion, and that matter is dwelt upon at length in the military history of the eounty.

BIOGRAPHICAL.

JOSEPH G. HOLBERT.

Joseph G. Holbert was born at Lackawaxen,

' The writer considers it strange that when writing of the first saw-mill that he should have ignored the one

built by the " Union Sugar Company," certainly as early as 1794.

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

Pike County, Pa., December 14, 1850, eldest son of William and Emma (Poole) Holbert.

William Holbert, who was born in the Con- necticut Valley in 1755, came to Pennsylvania about 1770, and located on the Delaware River in Montague township, Sussex County, N. J., also owning land on the Pennylvania side at the point since called Holbert's Bend. Shortly after making a home he and his wife, Mary, [ tion following the steps of the parent, and

small in stature, their sons, Joseph and Benja- min, were the reverse, being tall and bony men. Benjamin, born December 15, 1781, and Mary Rider, his wife, born July, 1783, settled on the river opposite, and had thirteen children, of whom Joseph G. was the third, born March 2, 1803. Lumbering has always been a large in- terest with the family, each succeeding genera-

& .. Holbert

were captured by Indians at Indian Orchard, near Honesdale, and kept in captivity near Cochecton, N. Y. After a somewhat protracted confinement they escaped from their savage captors and went down the Delaware to Mini- sink, where they stayed until the close of the conflict enabled them to return to their home. William Holbert died April 30, 1819, his wife surviving him until June 27, 1834. Both very

very frequently enlarging the field of opera- tions.

Joseph G. married Sabra Brown, December 24, 1824, who bore him nine children, five sons and four daughters. William was the eldest son, and on the death of his father, May 14, 1848, when but eighteen years of age was placed by the will in charge of the entire fam- ily affairs.

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WAYNE COUNTY.

About 1862, in company with John D. Bran- ning, of Damascus township, Wayne County, he purchased some seven or eight thousand acres. of land, part now called Duck Harbor and the other part Equinunk. He commenced at once active operations, and is undoubtedly en- titled to be called the father of the immense lumber interest which has since become so im- portant an item for the county.

Joseph G. Holbert was placed in the district school, and after imbibing the instructions there presented, was sent to Lowell Commercial Col- lege, from which institution he was graduated with honors December 7, 1866. Still dissatis- fied, he went to Monticello, N. Y., Academy some time, from whence he entered a practical business career with his father, July 3, 1869, who had in the meantime removed his home to Equinunk. Under such valuable training he rapidly acquired full acquaintance with the de- tails and necessities of business. In 1876 he removed to Camden, N. J., and erected large lumber mills under style of Holbert's & Branning, still in operation as Stanton & Bran- ming, change being effected by the retirement of our subject, in 1878, at which time he bought the Equinunk tannery property and launched out upon an active and aggressive business ca- reer.

For several years he spent his winters in Equinunk and summers in Philadelphia, look- ing after lumber interests, and in 1882 erected the Excelsior factory and grist-mill, and on April 1, 1883, commenced to build the Hub factory. Misfortune overtook the enterprise, a fire on October 13, 1885, cleaning out the grist- mill and Excelsior factory, which had been en- larged some few months previously to more than double the former capacity. With strong faith and energy he set to work to rebuild, and to-day, December 2, 1885, the works are ready to be started again.

Strictly a business man, and entertaining the belief that a business man's attention should be devoted to such matters, he has declined politi- cal preferment, although in 1876 his name re- ceived a highly complimentary vote at the Republican caucus of Wayne County for nomination for sheriff. Desirous of protecting

the interests of his township he consented to serve as auditor for some years, and his co-op- eration has been of great value.

On June 11, 1873, he was united to Miss Maria, daughter of the late Munson Sher- wood, and their union has been blessed with three children,-Lue Verne, born July 25, 1874; Claude, born May, 1876, died March, 1877 ; Edith, born January, 1879.

CHAPTER XXIII.

MOUNT PLEASANT.1

THIS township is the second in size in Wayne County. It is situated in the western part of the county, and is bounded on the north by Preston, on the east by Buckingham and Leb- anon, on the south by Dyberry and Clinton, and on the west by the Susquehanna County line. A part of the original township was taken in 1828 to form a part of Preston, and a por- tion taken in 1834 to form a part of Clinton. The surface is uneven and broken up into hills and valleys, while the scenery is unsurpassed for beauty and variety. It has, by some, been aptly termed the Switzerland of Northern Penn- sylvania. The highest elevation is the Moosic Mountain, which rises to a height of from twenty-one hundred to twenty-two hundred feet above tide. Most of the land is fertile, the hills being cultivated to their tops. The Lack- awaxen and Dyberry are the principal streams. They flow southward, and, with the Johnson, a tributary of the Lackawaxen, drain nearly all of the township, the water finding its way to the Delaware. The water of a small portion of the western part flows into the Lackawanna, and thence into the Susquehanna Valley. The natural ponds are Rock Lake, Bigelow Lake, and Howe's Pond. Near the sources of several of the streams were originally located wide level stretches of marsh and pond; occupied by beaver. These have been dammed and the water stored for the use of the Delaware and Hudson Canal. Belmont Lake, Hankins Pond,

1 By J. H. Kennedy, County School Superintendent.

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

and Miller Pond have been thus formed. The rocks belong to the Catskill series, except along the plateau of the Moosic range, in the western part of the township, where the lower section, the carboniferous formation, occupies the sum- mits of the highest peaks. A striking geologi- cal feature of this section is a curious conglom- erate which is found in large blocks in different parts of the township, and which occurs in situ in one locality only, near the public school- house in Pleasant Mount, where it covers about one half of an acre. This has been named by Prof. White, of the State Geological Survey, the Mount Pleasant Conglomerate and is identical with the great cliff rock at Prospect View, on Elk Mountain in Susquehanna County. The matrix is a dark coarse sand and is filled with numerous angular, white and reddish quartz pebbles about the size of a chestnut. The soil is chiefly a sandy loam, but red shale prevails in various places. The whole partakes of the gritty character of the Catskill group. The surface was originally covered with a heavy growth of timber. The trees were mostly beech, maple and hemlock, with some ash, basswood, cherry and elm, interspersed. This timber is nearly exhausted, and, in consequence, the sup- ply of water from living springs is measurably diminished.

INDIANS .- There are no evidences that this was the home of any Indian tribe. No trace of battle-ground or permanent village is found, still there are abundant indications that it was once occupied by them as a hunting-ground. The deer and beaver made this region a rich field for the red hunter. Large numbers of ar- row-heads made of flint, and mortars and pes- tles, for grinding corn have been found. Traces of Indian encampments have been noted near the head waters of the Dyberry. An Indian trail or path ran through this place, which connected the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers. It is said to have presented the appearance of being much traveled, and traces of it were dis- tinctly seen and followed by the carly settlers. The femur, or thigli bone, of a man who must have been of gigantic statnre, was some years since, ploughed up, on the farm of J. J. Folk- erson, two miles north of the village of Pleasant

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 104

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co. Number of Pages: 1438

Author: Mathews, Alfred, 1852-1904. 4n
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : R.T. Peck & Co.
Number of Pages: 1438