History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 132

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 132
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 132
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 132

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

Ephraim Kimble married Eunice Ainsley, and was the father of William, Asa, John, Ephraim and eight daughters. Abel was united to Sibyl Conant, and their children were Uriah, Erastus, Philip, Arthur, Betsy, Clara, Sarah and Mahala. Jacob married Annie Ainsley, and of this union Mo- ses, James, Jacob, Walter and Milton were born. Benjamin's wife was Elizabeth Cole, and his chil- dren were Amelia, Fannie, Dency, Phœbe, Abra- ham, Ira, Jacob and Simon. Daniel married Jane Ross, and there were born to him Samuel, Benjamin, Daniel, Joseph, Abisha, Percy, Scott, Amanda, Milly and Lucretia.

Walter Kimble was married to Betsy Jennings before he came from Connecticut, and had seven children,-Stephen, Hiram, George, Charles, Phobe, Lucretia and Lucinda. Stephen mar- ried Catherine Davis, and lived at Traceyville, on what is known as the Carley Brook property. He left eight children-Jacob, George, Stephen D., Polly, Esther, Minerva, Lucinda and Betsy. Hiram and George, the second and third sons of Walter Kimble, moved to Ohio, where they mar- ried and left many descendants. Charles, the fourth son, married Margaret Cole, and his survi- ving children are Louis, David, Esther, Lavinda, Betsy. All of them reside in Michigan. Polly, the first daughter, married Robert Beardslee, and their children were Charles, Hiram, David, Rob- ert, Lewis, Jackson and Sadie. Lucretia, the second daughter, married Bulkley Beardslee, and the children from this union were Eliza, Walter, Howkin, Bulkley, Abby, Phoebe, Andrew, Sarah and Charles. Lucinda, the youngest daughter, married a Howard, and left several children, among whom were Frank and James. In 1835 Walter Kimble sold his property to Bulkley Beardslee, and moved to Ohio, where he died.

Thomas Schoonover was almost contemporary with the Kimbles. He came from New Jersey, where

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he had previously married Margaret Cadrow, and settled on the Holbert farm, near the junction of Holbert Brook with the Lackawaxen. His chil- dren were William, Elijah, Polly and Margaret. William married Lizzie French, and left a number of children. Elijah wedded Rachel Bishop. Their children were Maria, Thomas, Amelia, John, George and Elijah. Polly married Lester Adams, one of the early settlers of Oregon, and their chil- dren were William, Elijah, George and Lester. Margaret married Jacob Kimble, and moved with him to Michigan, where their descendants now live.

William Schoonover was one of the first settlers on the Dyberry, and took up and patented a large tract of land, which included all of the upper portion of Honesdale. He located at the place afterward occupied by Daniel, as early as 1794, and was the father of Levi, the first white child born on the Dyberry. His descendants were Daniel, Levi, Jacob and Simon.

About 1796, Cornelius Corryelle came from Lambertville and located on the place now occu- pied by Christian Dorflinger, at White Mills. At this time he was a widower with one daughter, who subsequently married a Mr. Byles, and moved West. Mr. Corryelle was married a second time to Catherine Consaulus, and there were born of this union : John, who married Eliza Compton ; Sarah ; Nancy, wife of Frederick Seward ; Amelia, wife of Lyman Solomon ; and Lewis, who married Olive Bishop. Lewis Corryelle figured in a law- suit that was quite notorious during the first decade of the present century, when, in company with Daniel Kimble, he brought an action against Jonathan Brink for erecting a dam in the Lacka- waxen, just below the site occupied by White Mills saw-mill.

Bulkley Beardslee came to Indian Orchard in 1811, from the home of his father, Robert Beards- lee, one of the . arly settlers of Bethany. He was married to Lucretia Kimble in 1815, and was the father of Hon. Howkin B. Beardslee, who was elected register and recorder of the county in 1845. Afterwards he edited the Wayne County Herald, and was elected first Representative and then State Senator. Mr. Beardslee is now the editor of the Luzerne Union, a Democratic paper of Wilkes- Barre.

Early in the spring of 1813, Peter Cole, his wife

and his son Josiah, came from New Jersey and settled in the woods on what has since been known as Cole's Hill, one mile northwest of Honesdale. For miles around there was only dense forest, infested by wolves and bears. Assisted by his son, who was then but sixteen years old, Mr. Cole built a cabin without windows, and hung up a bed-quilt for a door. Then he and his son went back to New Jersey to assist in the harvesting ; and Mrs. Cole was left with only a faithful dog for companionship and defense. Mrs. Cole was more than equal to the task that circumstances imposed upon her, and not only guarded the cabin, but found time to do much to increase the comfort of the male members of the family on their return several weeks after. Peter Cole was succeeded in his estates by Josiah, who had four children. One of his sons, Lewis R. Cole, was wounded at Fort Fisher, and died in the hospital in 1865 ; the other son, P. J. Cole, rents and conducts the Honesdale Mill. One of Peter Cole's daughters married Reynolds Case, and is now dead ; the other is the wife of Charles H. Peck, and resides in Preston township. Elizabeth Cole, who married Benjamin Kimble, Sr., was a sister of Peter Cole, and the mother of Mrs. Fanny Atkinson, of Paupack Eddy.

Robert Beardslee settled on lands adjoining Peter Cole about 1812, and was identified with the early history of the township. He married a sister of Charles Kimble, and had two sons, Lewis and David. The family was originally from Litchfield County, Connecticut.

Robert Compton, one of the early settlers in the vicinity of White Mills, is a son of John R. Compton, one of the early settlers of Palmyra. Robert came with his father from New Jersey in 1838, and settled on the edge of Texas. He has four children,-Frank H., who lives at the home- stead with his family ; Edward and Mary, wife of John McCarty, both of Texas; and Ellen D. A. Compton, who lives near Hawley.

One of the oldest living pioneers in what is now Texas is Thomas Loud, who came to White Mills in 1827 from Portsmouth, New Hampshire, and was employed on the Delaware and Hudson Canal until its completion. In 1832 he married Eliza, the oldest daughter of Jonathan Brink, and of this union there were born four children,-Helen, who married Hiram Bishop, and lives at Hawley ;

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Janett D., now a resident of Honesdale; Ophelia, the wife of Edward Rosekranz, of Port Jervis ; Parmelia D. (Mrs. Frank Westfall), of Honesdale. Mr. Loud is now in his seventy-ninth year, and is in full possession of all his faeulties. His recol- lections of early events are vivid and aceurate, and much information concerning the early settlers was obtained from him.

The Dyberry assessment list for 1805 shows that the lands adjacent to, and now occupied by Daniel M. Eno were assessed to Isaae Seaman, the father of Charles W. Seaman. This property was after- wards sold to Peter Smith, who in turn disposed of it to Deming & Eno.

SEELYVILLE .- It was a summer day in the year 1760 that Rev. Jonathan Seely, a elergy- man of Connecticut, who seems to have been imbued with a spirit of speculation and adventure, piloted by an Indian guide, threaded his way through the dense forests of the Lackawaxen Valley, and from a jutting rock on the bank surveyed the picturesque wildness of the spot where Seelyville now stands. The whilom hills of gray were emerald with the luxuriant foliage of June, and the free banners of the forest were flung from a thousand airy battlements under a perfect sky. Here the silvery stream came tumbling over the rocks, and, broken into long lines of skurring foam, fretted the fern fringes of the bank at their feet. Beyond the boisterous falls the hills stretched gently upward, laden with the forest growth of many centuries, the dense foliage of laurel and rhododenron pressed close to the trunks of the hemlocks and pines, and the air was perfumed with the breath of half-hidden wild flowers. They had come through acres of inajestic solitude, where the air was silent save for the music of the birds and the crackling of the twigs under their moccasined feet, and now stood where, fifty years afterward, the murmur of the creek and the singing of the zephyr was destined to be broken by the whir of the mill-stone and the fret of the saw.

Jonathan Seely is believed to have been the first white man to set foot on the virgin soil of the Laekawaxen Valley, and, accompanied by his friendly guide, he visited otlier localities in the vieinity.1 His object, as is shown by the record

of his operations, was to secure large traets of land contiguous to and including valuable water privileges, with a view to their greatly enhanced value, when, in the progress of time, the country should have become developed and mills of various kinds become a necessity to the growing popula- tion. Lands at Wilsonville, on the falls of the Dy berry, and those of Middle Creek and Jennings Brook were thus taken up, generally by, or in the names of, some of his children, as was the case with the Indian Orchard tract by Colonel Jonas Seely, as is elsewhere narrated.

The Seelyville tract was taken out by virtue of a warrent issued to Colonel Sylvanus Seely, August, 6, 1769, and was surveyed October, 30, 1790. Thirty years afterward, 1820, the patent was issued. The traet was surrounded by almost impenetrable forest, and a faintly marked trail was the only route by which chattels could be transported to the location the pioneer had decided upon as his future home. Nothing daunted by the isolation of the place, and the hardships that settlement in so remote a region would entail, he went energeticlly to work. It is not accurately known just when Colonel Seely commenced his improvements, but it was probably about the close of the last century. According to the recollec- tions of Esquire Thomas Spangenburg, there were no mills in operation above Wilsonville when he first visited this part of the county, in 1794. After Bethany was made the county seat, and lumber was required for the first buildings erected there, the mills were in operation at Seelyville. It is probable that the saw-mill was erected in 1802. It was located just below the falls, and afterwards he built a little log cabin, into which he moved his, family three years later. They came from New York to the Cherry Ridge settle- ment, and from that point Colonel Seely cut a road to Seelyville which he then called "Jane Mills." The grist-mill was erected a few years afterward, and was located just below the saw- mill. The stones which did the first grinding were obtained on the top of the Moosic Mountain, and were of the hard white conglomerate that forms some of the highest ledges of that range. A portion of one of these stones is now used as a carriage-block in front of the residence of Mr. W. S. Birdsall, and the marks of the burr-pick

I From a newspaper sketch by T. J. Ham.

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made seventy-five years ago are still quite dis- tinct.

The only lumbering that would pay at this time was the sawing of pine and hard woods. Small rafts of curled maple and cherry, containing seven or eight thousand feet eachi, were floated to the ground where Birdsall Bros. woolen factory now stands, and were there sawn, made into still more compact rafts, and sent down to Philadelpia. Colonel Scely had a blacksmith shop, and was the leading spirit of the place, which had by this time become a prosperous settlement; but, as he devoted most of his attention to milling and luni- bering, little was done toward the development of the agricultural resources of the vicinity. Toward the close of his life, Colonel Secly became finan- cially involved, and at his death, in 1821, his entire estate, including the mills, was sold.

There was then an interim when the growth of the village ceased, and though the mills were kept in operation, there was little sign of growth or progress. It was during this time that R. L Seely, of Warren, Trumbull County, Ohio, came east on a visit, and, a year later, in 1825, returned with his father, John W. Seely, and bought the property, consisting of three hundred and thirty- six acres, for nine hundred dollars. He arrived to take possession on March 16, 1826, coming by the way of Cherry Ridge, over the road that Col. Sylvanus Seely had cut. This went on to Bethany, and was the only road to the mills. The uninviting isolation of the place did not dis- courage him, however, and he went briskly to work. A new saw-mill was built, and the grist- mill was repaired. His aid and advisor at this time was Jonathan D. Simpson, and under disad- vantages that would have overpowered most men, he showed pluck and enterprise. The Delaware and Hudson Canal and the line of the railroad were located in 1827, and this infused new life into business. Hundreds of laborers were soon employed on the new work, and the products of Seely's mills were in demand. Not only was there closer and better connection with the eastern market; but, better still, Honesdale began to flourish, and the impetus of a new town within so short a distance of the mills, made Seelyville an important location.

The year 1830 brought several new enterprises.

Ross, Baldwin & Co. began the manufacture of edged tools ; Casper Hollenback started a small foundry ; and John H. Bowers commenced build- ing a turning-shop. These improvements, together with the saw and grist-mills, gave the place a busy aspect. The next year brought some changes : the Ross interest in the edged tool works was sold to Joseph Whitmore and the firm became Whit- more, Baldwin & Co., Col. R. L. Seely being the " Co.," early in February, and the shop was en- larged the next summer; a number of new settlers also came in. In 1832, Levi Bronson started a shovel handle factory in the loft over John H. Bowers' turning-shop, which had meanwhile been bought out by Gilbert, Knapp & Co. The firm of Thomas T. Hoyt & Co. also succeeded the firm of Whitmore, Baldwin & Co. in the tool business, and soon gave place to Burk, Story & Co. It was this year too, that Isaac P. Foster, Ezra Hand, Daniel P. Kirtland and John F. Roe started a tannery on a tract of land that I. P. Foster had bought from Jonathan D. Simpson, in 1829. It was part of the Stephen Day warrant, and had been patented to Col. Sylvanus Seely. After a few months, the firm was changed, and I. P. Foster bought out the interest of his partners. He continued to run the business until 1848, when it became I. P. Foster & Sons, and so con- tinued until 1861, when Foster Brothers & Co. succeeded, in whose hands the business remained until 1874, when it was abandoned.

In 1833 the old edged tool shop was torn down and Col. R. L. Seely erected a new one, thirty by thirty-six, two stories high, and leased it for ten years to Burk & Story. A few months afterwards, David Burbank took Story's interest, and the style was changed to Burbank & Burk. Mr. Burbank lived in Hartford, Conn., and his interests were looked after by Abi Marsh.

Early in 1834 Daniel C. and Bester Payne leased the second story of the axe factory for drawing lead pipe. The same year Jason Torrey and R. L. Seely, who commenced the manufac- ture of scoop shovels, and two years afterwards the Paynes gave up the pipe business and took charge of the shovels to finish them.

Omitting a number of minor business changes, we find that in 1838, Simpson and Gill were run- ning the turning-shop, and Hand and Kirtland

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had leased the loft over the axe shop as a sash-fac- tory. D. C. White had succeeded Burbank & Burk in the tool business. A new industry was given to the place in 1841, when Leonard & Bart- lett started a pail-factory ; they did quite a busi- ness for two or three years. In 1844 John H. Gill, a native of Yorkshire, England, started a foundry at Seelyville. He had come to the place many years before, and was the builder of the new mill and several other buildings in the village. This foundry is still carried on by B. F. Gill, and keeps half a dozen men employed.

The year 1847 witnessed the starting of two important industries. M. F. Van Kirk and Wal- ter Knight started an umbrella stick manufactory, on the south side of the river, and ran it for several years. The firm was dissolved in 1853, and Mr. Van Kirk then moved to Tyler Hill, in Damascus township. He re-located in Honesdale, in 1856, and is still carrying on the business there.

The second enterprise was the starting of the Birdsall woolen-mill, now the most important manufactory in the place. James Birdsall, its founder, came to Seelyville in 1846, having for several years previous resided in Carbondale. He leased land of Col. R. L. Seely, and started card- ing rolls as first machinery. The mill was burned on December 24, 1850, entailing a serious loss, as there was no insurance, but a new mill, four stories high and sixty by thirty-six was soon com- menced, and Mr. Birdsall was ready for business a few months after. By good management the business continued to grow, and he was constantly making improvements until his death which oc- curred in January, 1857, when the business descended to his sons, William S. and James C. Birdsall, the present owners. When the mill was first started it used probably ten thousand pounds of wool per year, and employed ten or twelve hands ; to day it is spinning one hundred and twenty-five thousand pounds a year, and there are nearly a hundred employees on the pay roll. The mill is what is known as a " two set " mill, and manufac. tures cassimeres, flannels, yarns and blankets.

Colonel Seely rebuilt his saw-n ill in 1849, and the same year Christian Erk started the umbrella stick manufactory he is still running. The first firm was Erk, Merz & Co., and the machinery was in the sash and blind shop of Hand & Kirtland.

This building was burned in September, 1855, and the present factory was erected on its site. This same year M. B. Bennett & Co. started a foundry and machine shop in a large frame building erected by Colonel Seely on the south side of the stream. This was occupied by various firms and finally burned, and was replaced by the substantial brick building standing at present. Seelyville has a number of other industries of more recent date.

The first school in Seelyville was held in an old log building which stood on a spot now in Mr. Birdsall's orchard, and was on the old road to Bethany. It was erected about 1835 or 1836. In 1842 the building now used by Mrs. Bissell as a residence was erected for a school-house, and was occupied until the present central building was put up, in 1858. Seelyville was at first an independ- ent school district, including a portion of Texas township, and when this was erected in 1857 Prof. G. W. Trim, now of Jermyn, Pa., was engaged to teach in the new building. He filled the position acceptably for fourteen years, and was succeeded by Miss E. J. Avery and late by W. T. Butler. In 1865 the village of Seelyville was cut off from the Texas district before referred to and erected as an independent district. The average number of pupils on the roll is one hundred.

The post-office was established in 1874 and G. Smith, the first appointee, is still postmaster.

TRACEYVILLE .- Although just outside the limits of the borough of Honesdale, Traceyville had settlers long before the hemlocks and laurels at the confluence of the two branches of the Lack- awaxen disappeared before the axes of the pio- neers. The main settlements were at the mouth of Carley Brook, and at this point, it is stated on the authority of Esquire Thomas Spangenberg, there was, in 1794, a tub-mill built by Israel Kelly. So sparsely was the country inhabited at this time and so small the production of grain that the mill would not pay for the tending, and each pioneer came and ground his own corn. This old mill remained standing until the Honesdale Glass Company erected its works, and, when it was torn down, meal was found on some of the rafters that was ground perhaps during the first year of this century. In 1812 Stephen Kimble built a saw- mill on Carley Brook and ran it for many years. It was finally torn down in 1846, when Ephriam

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

V. White erected his axe-factory there. The latter business is one of the oldest in Wayne County, and was established soon after the summer of 1820. During that year E. V. White accompanied his father, who walked from Massachusetts to Wayne County. They first stopped at a small blacksmith shop in Damascus, and after a few months located at Mount Pleasant. In 1826 they moved to Dun- daff, and from there came to Seelyville in 1835.

Three years after this a place on the road be- tween Prompton and Honesdale was selected, and here the works were carried on until 1846, when the present location was secured. The founder of the industry was succeeded by his sons Gilbert G, Joseph and C J., in 1857, under the firm name of G. White & Brothers, and the business was so conducted until 1862, when the brothers retired, and Gilbert White became sole owner. In 1872 R. W. Ham was admitted to a partnership, and the style assumed was G. White & Co., the firm which is now conducting the business. The present capacity of the works is twenty dozen axes a day, and between twenty and twenty-five men are employed.

About the beginning of the present century what was afterwards known as the Earl Mill was built just below where Saunders' tannery now stands. It was a very small affair, and did little until it was rebuilt by Mr. Earl in 1828. About 1849 it passed into the hands of Mr. Tracey for the Delaware and Hudson Company, and, after the destruction of the mill, the dam was retained as a reservoir for the Canal.

One of the early industries of the place. was a small axe and scythe-shop, which John Bangs started near the site of the old tub-mill about 1832. It was afterwards closed, and what remained of the plant sold to the Whites.

· The Honesdale Glass Works had their genesis at Bethany, where Christian Faatz, one of the first glass manufacturers in this county, commenced operations in 1816. After various vicissitudes re- lated in the history of that town, the establishment passed into the hands of his son, Jacob. Faatz, who removed the works to Traceyville in 1847, the first stake being driven on June 4th. During the next three years Mr. Faatz lost money, and, in 1840, Henry Dart and James R. Dickson became the owners. They made a large shipment of glass

to California overland, and it was nearly a year on the way and seemed to be a dead loss, occa- sioning embarrassment which caused the works to pass into the hands of R. F. Lord and T. H. R. Tracey, who managed the business until they were succeeded by James Brookfield, who purchased the works in 1849, and engaged J. Sloan as his general manager. A number of improvements followed, and the next year Mr. Brookfield crected a store and a number of dwellings for the use of his employees. It was at this time that H. A. Clark erected a new dwelling and store, and Mr. Gilbert, of Oregon, made some improvements. Traceyville was a busy place, and during the next year the glass works employed betwcen fifty and sixty men, and were making from eighteen to twenty thousand boxes of window-glass a year. Mr. Brookfield also had a shop for the manufac- ture of a patent pump.

During the great storm of 1861 the dam of a reservoir belonging to the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, far up the Carley Brook, gave way and carried the works of Mr. Brookfield into the river. For ten years nothing was done with the works, and then, under the firm name of The Honesdale Glass Works, Christian Dorflinger, W. W. Weston, C. S. Minor, William Weiss, W. II. Ham and S. A. Tyrrell bought the property and rebuilt the works. During this work of re- building, in 1873, the old tub-mill, the first indus- try of the place, was torn down to make room for one of the wings of the glass house. In former years the plant was used for the production of both bottle and window glass, but now only the latter is manufactured. The equipment consists of two five-pot furnaces, with a capacity of four tous daily, and facilities for shaping that much material, a saw-mill and a box-factory. Both steam and water-power are used, and the capacity of the works has been quadrupled since 1873. About one hundred and fifty hands are employed, and the annual disbursement for wages is over fifty thousand dollars.

In 1845 or 1846 Robert J. Knapp and Lewis M. Sears started a. wheel-barrow-factory on Carley Brook, just above the axe-factory, aud met with fair success. The business was carried on by this firm until April, 1864, when B. F. Frailey, a na- tive of Ulster County, N. Y., bought the establish-

WAYNE COUNTY GLASS WORKS. C. DORFLINGER & SONS, PROP'S, WHITE MILLS, WAYNE CO, PENN'A,

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 132

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