History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 133

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 133
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 133
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 133

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).

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ment and added to the plant machinery for the manufacture of hay rakes and other agricultural implements. The establishment now consists of a large saw-mill and factory driven by water-power, and makes a specialty of building lumber, boxes, wire mattress frames and agricultural implements.

Just above the upper bridge over Carley Brook is the tannery which Samuel Saunders built in 1858. It is a thirty vat plant, and ran full capacity until two years ago, when the heavy competition of the large establishments in the New England States absorbed the profit of smaller concerns. At pre- sent, the operations are limited to the pulling and pickling of sheep-skins, and dealing in hides and calf-skins. Just below the tannery is a large reser- voir for the Delaware and Hudson Canal.

In 1822 or 1823, Benjamin F. Kimble, a son of Daniel Kimble, commenced a grist mill at Tracey- ville. It was of very primitive construction, and had one run of stone, which he brought from Easton, having rafted lumber to that point to pay for them. The mill was built almost entirely by Mr. Kimble's own hands, and its construction occu- pied him for nearly a year. In 1829, the mill was completely rebuilt, and its capacity was doubled ; it did service until the new steam mill was erected. The old mill was burned in 1881. In the fall of 1868, J. P. Kimble, a son of Asa, went into busi- ness with Benjamin F. Kimble, and that year the steam mill was built. Later on, Wyman, a son of Benjamin F., succeeded to his father's interest, and, in 1876, sold it to J. P. Kimble, the present owner. The mill has four run of stone, and is driven by a forty horse-power engine. It does a thriving custom business. Benjamin F. Kimble married Prudenee Vastbinder, and his children were, Ellen J. (Mrs. R. E. Bailey), Olive (Mrs. Jerry E. Hawker), Ben- jamin F., of Damascus, Wyman and Clarence, who live in Honesdale.

LEONARDSVILLE owes its name to John Leonard, who settled there soon after the Delaware and Hud- son Canal was finished, and commenced the build- ing and repair of canal boats. The favorable loca- tion for this business soon led other good mechanics to locate ncar him, and for a number of years con- siderable business was done there. In 1835 Mr. Leonard built the dry dock, and ran it but a short time, when it passed into the hands of W. M. Tur- ner, who did a thriving business until 1851, when

James Pinkney bought it. It was operated under his direction until 1866, when Mr. C. C. Lane pur- chased it and has conducted the business up to the present time. The growth of Honesdale effectually killed the prosperity of Leonardsville, and little business beyond the dock is now carried on there. One of the earliest settlers was John Whittaker, who moved from Pike County in 1835, and erected the first frame house in the hamlet, near the site of his present residence. The sehool-house was built in 1839, and services are occasionally held there by several of the evangelical denominations.

A central figure in the history of Leonardsville, is that of Jabez Rockwell, whose grave is in the Methodist cemetery at Honesdale. He was born near the town of Ridgeway, Conn., October 3, 1761. When but little more than fifteen years old, he en- listed in a regiment that was recruiting under the supervision of Benedict Arnold, in whose division he fought at the battle of Saratoga, and was there wounded. He was afterwards transferred to a part of the army under General Putnam, near New York City, and later went under the direct com- mand of Washington, and with him passed the winter at Valley Forge. During the following year Mr. Rockwell was wounded again, receiving a slight hurt at the battle of Monmouth, and after a short furlough returned to the ranks, and was at the surrender of Cornwallis at Yorktown. At the close of the war he returned to Connecticut, and on July 4, 1784, was married to Sarah Rundel. He emigrated to Pennsylvania in 1795, and located near the present site of Milford, in Pike County. He had seven children by his first wife, and one of them, Lewis, was the sheriff of Pike County from 1844 to 1847. Mrs. Anna Wells, the youngest child of that marriage, is still living at Milford, and celebrated her eighty-seventh birthday in March last, surrounded by all her children. In 1799 Mr. Rockwell was married a second time, Elizabeth Mulford, daughter of the third sheriff of Wayne County, becoming his bride. He had served as deputy under her father for three years. Seven children were born of this union also, some of whom are still living, Miss Sally Rockwell and Mrs. Catherine Broden, of Stroudsburg ; Mrs. Gainford, of Ellenville; Mrs. Harrison Valentine, of New York, Henry Wells (of Milford), Edgar and Peter Wells (of Port Jervis), Moscs B. Rockwell

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(of Milford) and ex-Treasurer Charles F. Rockwell (of Honesdale), are grandchildren of the Revolu- tionary hero.

In 1824, accompanied by Samuel Whitehead and Joshua Hutchings, two companions-in-arms, Mr. Rockwell walked from Milford to New York, to see Lafayette, by whom they were warmly wel- comed. The last years of Mr. Rockwell's life were spent in Leonardsville, to which village he moved in 1837. He died in January, 1847, and was buried with military and Masonic honors.

WHITE MILLS .- The first settler of whom there is any authentic record is Cornelius Corryelle, who came from Lambertville, N. J., and located on the farm now owned by Christian Dorflinger. He owned a large tract of land and was a man of much energy and enterprise, so that in a few years he had made a considerable inroad on the virgin forest that covered the entire region. Soon other settlers came, and, in the course of time, Daniel Kimble and Mr. Corryelle became jointly interested in the property adjacent to the site of the present saw-mill. This tract, as is stated in the records of the lawsuit before referred to, contained three acres, and was bought September 14, 1816. About the time that the transfer took place, Jonathan Brink, who owned the property adjoining them on the lower side, erected a dam, which caused the Lackawaxen to overflow the Kimble mill site, and render valueless the improvements that had already been made on the property. The facts in the case very ably set forth and, on trial of the case at the next sessions, the plaintiffs were suc- cessful, and were awarded damages. Brink re- moved the objectionable dam in a short time and the mill was commenced shortly after. In 1823 Daniel Parry came from New Hope, Bucks County, Pa., and bought the mill property, completing the struc- ture which had been begun a few months previous. Lewis Corryelle, a son of Cornelius, was associated with him in this undertaking, the firm being Daniel Parry & Co. Although the owner of considerable property, Mr. Parry did not reside in White Mills, but had for the manager of his interests Enos Woodward, who built and laid out the handsome place now occupied by Hon. F. W. Farnham. About 1854 the mill property passed into the hands. of Cornelius Hombert, and in 1854 was sold to Mr. Farnham, the present owner. It was then a double

up and down mill, but, perceiving the great ad- vantage to be derived from the change, the new owner converted it into a circular mill, one of the first successful ones in Wayne County, in 1857.

Enos Woodward, who carried on the business for Daniel Parry, was a son of John Woodward, and a grandson of Enos Woodward, the Revolu- tionary soldier. In 1836 he erected the house on the Farnham place, and two years later was elected county commissioner, in which office he was very popular. More concerning him will be found in the chapter devoted to Cherry Ridge.

Hon. F. W. Farnham came from Oxford, She- mango County, N. Y., in 1832, and in 1840 was united in marriage to Miss E. A. Gunn, of Oneida County in the same state. Three sons were born of this union, and reside near the homestead. In 1872 Mr. Farnham was appointed an associate judge of Wayne County, to fill out the unexpired term caused by the death of Judge Arnold, and filled the office much to the satifaction of the people.

The first frame house in the village proper was erected in 1846 by Daniel Kimble, and stands on the hill just beyond the glass works. It is now oc- cupied by Patrick Slavin. B. F. Daniels opened the first store on the place in 1854. He occupied a small building near the canal lock, and con- ducted business there for two years. The post- office was established in 1850, and A. M. Atkinson was the first postmaster.

THE DORFLINGER GLASS WORKS .- The large and interesting industry carried on by Christian Dorflinger & Sons at this place had its inception in 1865, the senior member of the present firm (of whom a biographical sketch is appended) being its founder. He began making glass in the fall of the year in what is known as a " five-pot furnace," and employed a small force of men. In the second year he had fully a hundred men and boys at work, and in 1867 he introduced a glass-cutting establishment, which was carried on in a small way and gave employment to half a dozen men. From the beginning even a careless observer would not have failed to notice that the proprietor of the glass works was a man of progressive ideas, for improvements were constantly made, and the capacity of the works gradually increased until the establishment was made, perhaps, the largest

UPPER FLOOR OF GLASS CUTTING DEPARTMENT, DORFLINGER & SONS, PROP'S, WHITE MILLS, PENNA.

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in the world. The works which have been in use for the past twenty years have just been supple- mented by new ones built in the most substantial manner, and embodying every possible convenienee which a life-long study of glass manufacture, coupled with a high degree of ingenuity, could suggest. What are now ealled the " old works " comprise a " glass-house," in which the furnaees are located and the various forms of glassware are blown by the workmen, and a cutting room, now used for packing and other purposes. The glass- house proper is one hundred by fifty feet in dimen- sions, and contains two seven-pot furnaces, a fin- ishing furnace, and two annealing ovens. The building in which the eutting-room is located is one hundred and seventy-six by forty feet, and two stories high. There is also a three-story wing, eighty by thirty-five feet, and a building in which the great glass erueibles or pots are made, which is thirty by fifty feet. These figures give some idea of the spaee which has been necessary for carrying on the complicated manufacture, but the dimensions of the new works show how materially, in view of inereasing business, it has been deemed advisable to enlarge the plant. The new glass- house is quite an imposing structure, fifty to sixty feet high and eighty feet long by sixty in width. A basement built of iron and stone extends under the whole building. This house contains one eight- pot furnace, three annealing ovens and other deviees essential to the work to be carried on there. The building in which the new cutting- room is located, is three stories in height, one hun- dred and sixty feet long by thirty-five in width, built in solid fashion of stone and made fire-proof throughout. There is a seventy-five horse-power engine on the second floor which turns the hun- dred or more wheels in the eutting-room, and has been made by thoughtfulness to perform some other work.

To this cutting-room from whence comes the flashing, ehaste and beautiful ware, which now more than ever, is faseinating the artistie and fashionable world, we shall in due time return. For the pres- ent let the reader take a glance at the genesis of glass.

The process of manufacture savors a little of magic, or at least the marvelous, for who, without previous knowledge, looking at a pile of sand,

another of oxide of lead, and a third of pearl ash, would imagine that sueh eoarse, opaque, and sodden materials could be transformed by fire into the most transparent, glittering flint glass. Yet sueh is the faet. The workmen in the mixing room take, for instance, six hundred pounds of sand (it is from Berkshire eounty, Massachusetts, and no- where else is found so good) with which he mixcs four hundred pounds of oxide of lead, and two hundred pounds of pearl ash. To this compound he adds very small proportions of saltpetre, arsenic and manganese, and the whole, well stirred together, goes into one of the pots or erueibles set in a huge furnace of terrific heat. These pots hold from fifteen hundred to three thousand pounds. The mass is subjected to the influence of the roaring fire for forty hours, and then the " metal," as it is ealled, is ready for the deft manipulations of the skilled blowers, who hover about the furnace, and remove small portions of it at intervals upon long tubes or "blowers' pipes," something as a child might boiling sugar upon a stick. The glass blower handles his long tube as a fairy, or at least a eolum- bine, does her wand, and with more of marked and marvelous result. His graceful sweeps and twirl- ings of the rod are not for appearance, but for practical effect in giving the bit of molten glass some peculiar desired shape, dependent upon whether it is to be a bottle, a pitcher, a punch- bowl, a wine-glass, or any one of a hundred other things. He swings the tube, blows through it carefully, expanding the red-hot bubble to the proper proportion, rolls it upon an iron plate, revolves the rod while he holds a tool against the pliant mass to give it form, heats it again and repeats the process, or delicately and rapidly touches it with two or three other tools, perhaps being assisted by a "helper " in some of these rapid manœuvres-and lo ! the shapeless lump has beeome a wine decanter or a salad dish, or something else of most graceful form. Then away it goes to the finishing furnace, and finally to the annealing fur- nace, where, with hundreds of other pieces, it is very gradually eooled by being drawn slowly from the fire through fifty or sixty fect of brick arehing. The whole process is more in the nature of an ex- quisite art, with something of soreery about it, than a trade or manufacture. Yet it is hard work, and has more of utility in it than of the poetie or

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picturesque, for the busy groups of skilled men surrounding the furnaces. Their tools are simple -a few rude iron implements, a stick, a heavy, uncouth pair of iron shears, and his blow-pipe, are all that the glass-blower needs to perform his wonders. His work must be done while the glass is hot, and so there is intense activity, relieved only by the occasional waiting for the reheating of a half-formed object.

The greater portion of the glass manufactured here is white, or rather transparent. If color is desired it is made by throwing in various minerals. To produce the beautiful ruby color, which is so much admired by connoisseurs in glass, gold must be used, and into a pot of the sand and lead and potash mixture is thrown a hundred and forty dollars worth of the virgin yellow metal.

Even the construction of the pots in which the glass is made is an art and mystery, and requires knowledge and skill which only a very few work- men possess. At the Dorflinger works they are made in a long, low room-heretofore mentioned- which is kept at an equal temperature, that the great dome-shaped crucibles may become thoroughly seasoned or dried. The clay for their manufacture comes principally from Germany, though an article from Missouri is used with some success. This clay, properly moistened, is kneaded in a huge box by a man with bared feet, who treads it back and forth with peculiar sidelong steps, ten hours a day, for three weeks. No machinery has been invented which can take the place of this odd method in giving the clay the required tenacity. Another man builds up the pots in lots of eight, very much as a rubble house is built, making his circular wall of clay a few inches high, and then awaiting the drying process before carrying the wall higher. The pots are four feet high. It takes about three weeks to build a set of eight; often the clay is kneaded three days to heat them, and then they last but three months in the intense heat of the furnace.

From the glass-house the various objects or " blanks," as they are technically termed-decant- ers, bottles, bowls-a hundred styles of ornamental and useful dishes are taken to the cutting-room. They have the grace of shape, but lack the lustre and brilliancy that cutting will give. A hundred workmen are ready to make them flash and gleam

with prismatic light. Here again the tools are simple-the skill of the workmen everything. A long shaft, running through the narrow room, whirls a hundred wheels placed in frames down each side of the well-lighted work-shop. At each one sits an operator. Many of them are young, scarcely beyond boyhood, but young eyes are good for the kind of work that is done here. The men work in three divisions, and there are three distinct processes in the cutting. First comes the " roughing," the deep cutting or grinding of the pattern, of which the principal points have first been marked upon the glass with red paint, For this work a thin iron wheel, to which sand and water are applied, is employed. The workman needs perfect eyesight, perfect nerves and much skill of hand, for the pattern must be cut with geo- metric precision. The second process, " smooth- ing," is done with fine, stone wheels, of which, as of the iron ones, there are a great variety for different kinds of work. From the "smoothers" the arti- cles are passed to the polishers, who use wheel- brushes and wooden wheels, kept constantly smeared with what looks like yellow mud, but is in reality a compound of finely-ground oxide of zinc and lead called " putty." These leave the deeply cut lines and the facets of the glass as smooth as diamonds and almost equaling them in brilliancy of glitter and purity of light.

After careful washing the finished goods are taken to the stock or show-room, or shipped to the New York or Philadelphia market. In the show- room alluded to, in comparatively small space, may be seen from forty to fifty thousand dollars' worth of this beautiful ware, and upon a single table there is over three thousand dollars' worth. The variety of articles is almost bewildering, and there is also wide variance in the styles of cutting. There are ice cream and salad sets in the cut known as "the Parisian " vases, fancy dishes and bon bons in the " hob-nail " cut with double star, punch-bowls, etc., in the "brilliante" cut, with glass-handled ladles to match, and cut-glass, table- bells in various colors, which give forth a very musical tinkle. Special mention should be made of the Russian stem-ware and the line of elegant lamps, cut-glass throughout, with dome shades. There are also flower-vases, decanters, water bottles, jugs (the new " tusk " and " Flemish " styles par-

GLASS BLOWING DEPARTMENT. DORFLINGER & SONS, PROP'S, WHITE MILLS, PENN'A.

6. Dorfinger

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ticularly), cologne bottles and other vessels in almost endless profusion. These goods are com- prised in those general lines or classes known as " rich-cut table and toilet glass, "druggist's " and " lamp goods." Almost daily new designs are brought out and new ones found for cut-glass, and the taste of the public for this elegant line of things useful and things beautiful is fast growing, so that the demand promises to be much larger than heretofore.

Since 1881 Mr. Dorflinger's sons, William, Louis J., and Charles, have been in partnership with him, and each one occupies a position of prac- tical usefulness in the management of the large business. William is at the store of the firm, No. 36 Murray Street, New York, Louis J., and Charles at the works, the former residing at Honesdale.

The works give employment to about three hun- dred persons, and the pay-roll amounts to ten thousand dollars or thereabouts per month, a sum sufficient to support (as it does almost entirely) the village of White Mills.

CHRISTIAN DORFLINGER, the founder and con- tracting genius of these works, is one of the vast number of foreign birth whose energies and skill have contributed to the sum of America's pros- perity. He was born in the Canton De Bitsche, in Alsace, France, March 16, 1828. His parents were Francis and Charlotte (Clemens) Dorflinger. He early left them to join an uncle over the line in the province Loraine, city of St. Louis, where he learned the trade of glass-making in one of the largest establishments in Europe. He remained there eight years, becoming a master in his chosen art, and then, desiring a field for more in- dependent action and broader achievement, decided to come to America. This was in 1845. His father had died, and he brought his mother and other members of the family with him. They re- moved to the West, where his mother is still living, and the young man who is our subject went to Philadelphia, where he worked as a journeyman glass-blower. In 1852 he removed to Brooklyn, where he established the Long Island Flint Glass Works, a comparatively small concern, having what is known as a five-pot furnace. His first year's business amounted to thirty thousand dollars ; the third year's to fifty thousand dollars. In 1858

he built a new factory at a cost of thirty thousand dollars, and, in 1860, a second one at a cost of sev- enty-five thousand dollars. He then carried on both, and did a business amounting to three hun- dred thousand dollars per year. The latter estab- lishment, known as the Green Point Glass Works (in Brooklyn, E. D.), he still owns, and leases to E. P. Gleason. Mr. Dorflinger conducted both factories until 1863, when he sold the one first built-the Long Island works, and, with a view of partial retirement from business and of establish- ing a summer retreat, came to the picturesque banks of the Lackawaxen, and bought of Captain Fowler the three hundred-acre tract of land east of White Mills, which formed the nucleus of his present estate of about one thousand one hundred and fifty acres. This step, taken with a view of seeking rest, resulted in larger activity, and ulti- mately in the great establishment of to-day. He came out to his farm-home again in 1864, and in the spring of 1865 began building a glass-factory, in which an industry, entirely new to this half-wild region, was begun in the fall of that year. The story of the development of the works, from the first pot-furnace to their present extent, has already been told. It is a story involving the persistent applications of thorough, practical knowledge and of business acumen. But Mr. Dorflinger's en- ergies were not confined to the management of the works and their improvement. He built seven dwellings the first year that he carried on business here, erected a hotel in 1867 and his present dwelling (suggesting by its appearance the casy hospitality for which it is widely known) in 1870. Altogether, he has built in the vicinity of the factory seventy-five houses, and he has aided many of his operatives to make houses by advan- cing them money. He now owns about fifty houses. His interest in the welfare of his em- ployees has been manifested in various ways, and he liberally aided local institutions for their benefit.

Mr. Dorflinger is not pronounced in politics or dogmatically assertive in religion, yet holds intelli- gent and thoughtfully-constructed opinions on these and other topics of vital interest. His energies have been largely absorbed by the building up of what is probably the largest glass-works of the kind in America, if not in the world. There is a generous proportion of domesticity in his nature,

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and he has found relief from extensive and intricate business cares in the comfort and cheer afforded by his family, the oldest members of which have been for several years his aids as well as companions. He was married in Brooklyn, April 25, 1852, to Miss Elizabeth Hagen, a native of New York. Their children are William F., Louis J., Charles H., Mary E., Nellie J., Katharine and Lottie.

CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS .- It is very difficult to determine when and by whom the first religious services were held, as the gatherings were very informal, no records were made, and most of those who participated have passed to another world. Among the early workers in the field were (pre- sumably) Rev. Joseph Seely, the Methodist clergy- man first to set foot in Seelyville, Elder Peck, of Mount Pleasant, Elder Curtis, of Clinton, and Elder Chase, of Damascus. The three latter gen- tlemen were frequent visitors at Daniel and Walter Kimbles', and Cornelius Corryelle's, and on pleasant Sunday afternoons a handful of hardy men and women assembled to hear the Word of God, and listen to exhortation to a higher, holier life. Before 1811, the old plank school-house at Indian Orchard was built, and after that, meetings were held once in two months, or oftener. Mr. Henry Bishop, of Berlin, who is now in his ninetieth year, says that the meetings here were the first that he can remem- ber, except those held in private houses. This was the first school-house in the territory now included in the limits of Texas township, and Robert Beardslee was one of the first teachers employed there. This school was supported by private sub- scription, and under the school law passed in 1809, the county commissioners were obliged to return the names of all the children whose parents were too poor to pay for their schooling, and have them taught in the regular subscription schools. The bills were made out by the teacher for the stationery he had supplied, as well as the tuition, and when this had been approved by the trustees, if there were any, otherwise by three citizens, subscribers of the school, and duly sworn to, an order for the amount was drawn by the commissioners. One of the first bills presented under this law was that of Robert Beardslee. It is for the schooling of Abraham, Altram and Roger Haynes, and tuition and board together bring the amount to $12.91. The bill is approved by Ben. Kimble, Walter

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 133

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