History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 143

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 143
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 143
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 143

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).

SAINT PATRICK'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH was built in 1877, principally for the use of the workmen in the silver watch-case factory, and since that industry has declined, services are seldom held.

SUNDAY-SCHOOLS AND EARLY SECULAR SCHOOLS .- According to the recollection of Mrs. Caroline Wells, the Presbyterian Sunday- school was organized in the old stone court- house, June 3, 1823. There were present at the first organization James Wallace, Samuel Depui, William Freel (not a professor, but a good man), Louisa Ross (a daughter of Hugh Ross, a Methodist, afterward the wife of Colo- nel John Brodhead, and a member of the first Methodist class), Miss Jane De Puy, Miss Car- oline Wells. James Wallace was the first superintendent. There were more than 'fifty children present the first Sunday. Miss Austin had the Bible-class, consisting of twenty-five pupils. The Methodist school was organized after the Presbyterian, perhaps as early as 1824. The sessions were in the afternoon, and many attended both schools. Miss Austin taught in both for a number of ycars. John Wallace had a Bible-class of boys. The books used were the Bible and Noah Webster's Spelling-Book. The Presbyterian Church has eighty members and one hundred and fifty Sunday-school schol- ars. The school, as at present organized, has George Mitchell as superintendent ; Miss Han- nah P. Nyce and John Warner, librarians ;

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John C. Wallace, Bible-class teacher ; Miss Hulda Bull and Miss Mamie Dietrick, infant- class teachers ; and Miss Blanche Crissman, Miss Lizzie Bull, Miss Kate McCarty, Mrs. Hannah Williamson, Mrs. Josephine Bensell, Mrs. J. H. Van Etten, Miss Bettie Cornelius aud Miss Lizzie Finley are the other teachers. The Methodist and Episcopalians have Sunday- schools in connection with their churches.

Mrs. Caroline Wells, now eighty-four years of age, was one of the first teachers in this re- gion, and we shall give her account of these schools nearly in her own words, aud in con- nection therewith reminiscences of her life. She is the only member of the Dutch Reformed Church of Minisink, on this side of the river, in Milford. Caroline Austin was born in Mon- tague, N. J. Her father was a New Englander, and hier mother of Dutch descent. "I lived with my grandmother Mullin, who was Dutch to the foot, and an excellent woman. She was eighty-seven years old when she died. He used Webster's Spelling-Book, the American Preceptor, Columbian Orator, the Bible, Da- boll's Arithmetic and Murray's Grammar. Lemuel Thrall is the first teacher I went to, in 1805, at Haiuesville, when I was four years old. He was a good man, and meant well. He taught me 'Now I lay me down to sleep.' I told him I didn't want to go to sleep. I told him I could learn 'Our Father' as well as the older ones. My next teacher was Mr. Hyde. I went to school to Mr. Hamlin, in Walpack, in my tenth year. There I first heard the gospel preached by Rev. George Banghardt. He was a shouting Methodist, but I liked him because he was handsome, and he knew it. He could sing, and he knew that, too. He told stories. He would name persons that he said went to hell, and that the devil stood ready to take them. He used to scare me. We moved up to the 'Brick House,' and I went to school to Erastus Starkweather. He wrote my name and date in my geography June 10, 1810, and I said, " I thought the price was fifty cents, and here you have it 1810;" then he told me that was the date, which was the first time that I ever knew what a date was. I weut to Mr. Drake to school in 1808-9, in Milford. He

taught in a little house opposite the old court- house. My husband went to school to a Mr. Jackson, upon a hill back of the cemetery, as early as 1805-6. The early teachers were all Yankees but one, that I went to, and he was a coarse, ugly man. Some of my teachers were terribly cross and brutish. It was ignorance that made them so. The people were very igno- rant, but they were worse on the other side of the Delaware than this. Mason Dimmick was an early teacher. We had to pay two dollars per quarter for schooling. I went through Daboll's Arithmetic, commenced to teach when I was fifteen years old, and taught seven years. The last year I taught on this side, down by Dietrick's, and I had a school in Milford when I was married. Iva Burral Newman taught select school in the De Berhle house, where Mrs. Wm. Cornelius lives, for about ten years. Edward Allen and Philetus Philips taught in the academy. Mason Dimmick's nephew taught here when the free schools were first started, in 1835.

" In 1815 Bartholomew West tried to preach in Milford. He went to Philadelphia after- ward, and became a full-fledged Methodist preacher. Rev. Phineas Camp preached here in 1815, and his sermon from 'The Prodigal Son ' and ' Mary hath chosen that better part ' convinced me, and at fifteen years of age I joined the Dutch Reformed Church at Mon- tague, when Rev. Cornelius C. Elting was preacher, and he was one of the old-fashioned kind. He believed in predestination, was strict in Sabbath observances and about amusements." Mrs. Wells imbibed these doctrines and believed them fully.

PUBLIC SCHOOLS .- Milford since 1877 has been a special school district. It lias three school-houses, all in good condition and seated with folding chairs and desks. There are in the two primary schools eighty-four pupils, in the intermediate sixty-six and in the grammar school forty-six, making a total of one hundred and ninety-six scholars in attendance. The principals since the formation of the distriet have been as follows : 1877-78, J. S. Freeman ; 1878-79, William Van Sickle ; 1879-83, Ham- ilton Armstrong; 1883-84, G. R. Smith ;

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1884-85, I. C. Taylor ; 1885-86, Mrs. C. M. Blanehard.

PHYSICIANS.

were Hannah, wife of Jeffrey Wells, who was at one time tavern-keeper at Salem Corners, Wayne County, and afterwards moved West ; and Jane, wife of Thomas Clark, hotel-keeper in Waymart, Wayne County, Pa.

DR. GEORGE F. SHOTWELL was one of the early physicians in Milford. He lived on Hartford Street and praetieed medicine from about 1827 till 1841. His wife was Catharine Clarke, granddaughter of James Barton. Sheriff Wil- liamson married one of his daughters.

DR. DU FRENE praetieed medieine in Mil- ford for a number of years and finally moved to Port Jervis, where he died. Dr. A. A. Lines was a practitioner in Milford for a number of years and then removed from the place. He was a skillful physician.

DR. JOHN SCHIMMEL was born near Frank- fort-on-the-Main, in Germany, July 11, 1811. He graduated at Wurtzburg University and took the medieal course connected with the uni- versity. He eame to Ameriea in 1833 and con- tinued his medical studies at the medieal col- lege at Fairfield, Herkimer County, N. Y., where he began the practice of medicine with the late Dr. Stewart. Dr. Sehimmel settled in Milford in 1837, remaining there until 1847, when he aeeepted a position as professor of modern languages in the Randolph Maeon College, Virginia. In 1848 the development of the disease which ultimately resulted in his death, foreed him to give up this position, when he returned to Milford. In 1854 he filled a responsible place in the United States Custom- House at Philadelphia, where he remained four years. In 1856 he returned to Milford and again commenced the praetiee of his profession, where he lived until his death, in 1882, aged seventy-one years.

DR. FRANCIS AL. SMITH, oldest son of Josephus Jacobus Aerts, or Dr. Franeis J. Smith, as he called himself, was born in Franee or the Netherlands, and probably he eame to America with his father in 1877, a full ae- count of whom will be found in the history of Monroe County. Dr. Franeis Al. Smith lived and died in the old Harford house, where he was interested in the publication of the Northern Eagle and Milford Monitor for five or six years. He was the first druggist in the place and one of the earliest resident physicians. He taught his wife, Margaret Quiek, mid- wifery. Dr. Smith appears to have been some- thing of a politieian also, as he filled the office of high sheriff of Pike County in 1821. He believed, as do some of the deseendants, that there is an estate in Brussels, or near it, which belongs to the descendants of De Aerts, who elaimed that his father was Lord of Opdorp and Boom, and from letters of Dr. Francis Al. Smith it appears that he made an effort to ob- tain his rights in 1821, as eited in a letter written partly in French and partly in Eng- lish, a copy of which is in the possession of Helen M. Cross and from which the follow- ing extraet is taken : The letter is written from Brussels, dated April 26, 1821, and addressed to the United States Minister at Madrid, Spain. Dr. Smith complains that his uncles, James De Aerts and Canton De Aerts, had taken all his grand father's and Uncle Jean Baptist De Aerts' property. He wants the minister to make some seareh in relation to his uncle Jean, who was a soldier in the Royal Gardes Walones. He says his father, Josephus Jacobus Aerts, made the aequaintanee of Dr. Franklin, and being He was one of the founders of Milford Cem- etery, of which he was seeretary and treasurer for sixteen years. In 1843 he married Miranda H., a daughter of Riehard Eldred, who is now residing in Milford, and one daughter, Jeanette M., wife of Charles P. Mott, a merehant in Mil- ford, resides with her. recommended by him to Congress, was made a major in the service of the United States, and that he died in the State of Pennsylvania in 1802. He gives as a reason why he cannot go to Spain to investigate the matter, that he must return to his family in the United States, " and as it is absolutely necessary that I must attend DR. VINCENT EMERSON was born near Do- ver, Delaware, June 1, 1822. He studied medi- our August court in Pike County, Pa., being the high sheriff of said county." His children ! eine in Pennsylvania College (Medieal Depart-

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ment), graduated in 1848 and commenced practice April 1, 1848, at Willow Grove, Del., remaining there until May 1, 1859, when lie removed to Milford. Here he has since been actively engaged in the practice of his profes- sion. He was one of the examining surgeons during the draft in the War for the Union. The Emersons were originally Friends, and came to this country in 1720. John Emerson, from whom Dr. Vincent Emerson sprang, settled near Frederica, in Kent County, Del., in a rich agricultural region.

Dr. Emerson's first wife was Elizabetlı Mar- vel, of Willow Grove. Their son, Dr. Gouv- erneur Emerson, was born in Delaware township, Pike County. " Following in the footsteps of his father, he began the study of medicine at an early age and passed a most excellent examina- tion shortly after he reached his majority. He was a painstaking student, in love with his pro- fession, and, as a result, lie became a skillful physician and his services were in constant de- mand." He was kind-hearted and had a facil- ity of making and keeping friends. He died in the flower of his manhood in the thirty-third year of his age.

DR. I. B. CRAFT came to Milford township from New York in 1865, and died in 1880. He was succeeded in his practice by his son, Dr. Walter B. Craft, who died in February, 1886. He had an extended practice and was very charitable to the poorer class of patients. Stephen D. Wells, of Shohola, married one of Dr. I. B. Craft's daughters. Another son is a Catholic priest, or doctor, in Dakota.

DR. JOHN SIMS was assessed as a physician in 1819. A number of young physicians have practiced medicine in Milford and vicinity for short periods, but the oldest physicians prac- ticing here lived in Port Jervis and across the river in New Jersey. Among these may be mentioned Drs. Hornbeck and Van Deusen, and Drs. Rosecrans and Hunt, who lived op- posite Dingman's Ferry.

DR. W. W. BIDLACK, son of Hon. B. A. Bidlack, was with his father at Bogota, United States of Columbia, S. A., when he died. He returned to the United States, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1852 and

commenced practice in Luzerne County. He then traveled in Europe and Africa, where he spent two years, most of the time in Africa. From there he returned to Philadelphia and practiced medicine from 1856 till the outbreak- ing of the Rebellion, when he entered the army as a surgeon. After the war he went to Mis- sissippi, attached to a negro regiment during the reconstruction period. Returning to Phil- adelphia and Stroudsburg, he practiced medi- cine for a short time at each place, and next went as a surgeon under General Crook's com- mand in 1872, when the latter was sent to Arizona to repulse the Apache Indians. In 1874 he removed to California and practiced medicine at San Francisco and Santa Barbara. In 1883 he returned to Milford, where he is now in practice.

MILFORD LODGE, No. 82, F. AND A. M., was the first lodge in this county or Wayne. The warrant for this lodge was granted April 25, 1800. Samuel C. Seely was W. M. ; John Brink, S. W .; Eliphalet Kellog, Jr., J. W. The charter for the lodge was lost and the lodge became extinct. Years afterward the charter was found in New Jersey and when the present Masonic lodge was organized in Milford they petitioned to be restored to their former num- ber, but the Grand Lodge would not permit it and the old charter was surrendered to them.

MILFORD LODGE, No. 344, F. AND A. M., was organized December, 18, 1862, the following persons being present at the organization of the lodge : John C. Westbrook, John Canfield, Jeffrey Wells, Horace St. John, John Dekin, Henry S. Mott, George Wiggins, Erastus Slauson, John Mahon, Philip J. Fulmer, John Schunell, William Cornelius, Alexander Reviere, John C. Mott, Daniel M. Van Auken, Eli Fuller, Jacob Kleinhaus, Thomas J. Ridgway, Philip Lee, Thomas Sharpe, Henry Stewart, John Leforge, George P. Heller, Giles Greene and otliers.

The following were the first officers : D. M. Van Anken, W. M .; George P. Heller, S. W .; John C. Mott, J. W .; Eli Fuller, Treasurer ; William Cornelius, Secretary ; Desire Culot, S. D .; A. Reviere, J. D.

John B. Newman was also a charter member.

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

The lodge meets every Wednesday night, on or before the full of the moon, in the hall at the Sawkill House. There are now fifty-six mem- bers.

VANDERMARK LODGE, No. 828, I. O. O. F., was organized in the Masonic Hall, at three P.M., April 24, 1873. For the above purpose the following grand officers were pres- ent :

William Stedman, M. W. G. M .; John W. Stokes, R. W. D. G. M. pro tem .; James B. Nicholson, R. W. G. S .; John Sharp, R. W. G. W. pro tem .; Ira Olm- sted, R. W. G. T. pro tem .; Daniel Romaine, R. W. G. C. pro tem .; S. A. J. Conkling, W. G. C. pro tem .; Tunis Rowland, W. G. M. protem .; Oliver E. Wheat, W. G. G. pro tem .; George Norris, W. G. H. pro tem.

The applicants, nineteen in number, having presented themselves, were duly constituted a Lodge of I. O. O. F., after which the following officers were elected and installed :

N. G., James H. Dony ; V. G., Thomas Armstrong ; Secretary, Henry M. Beardsley ; A. S., Frank Cooley ; Treasurer, Vincent Emerson.

The following officers were appointed and installed :

C., Thomas L. Armstrong; W., Henry Beam ; I. G., John McCarty ; O. G., Jolın Reasor ; R. S. S., William Wood; L. S. S., Jacob De Witt ; R. S. N. G., M. W. Van Auken ; L. S. N. G., W. H. Court- right ; R. S. V. G., Frederick C. Almer ; L. S. V. G., Russling De Witt; Chaplain, Rev. Theo. D. Frazee.

Highly interesting and appropriate remarks were then made by the Grand Master, William Stedman, John W. Stokes, P. G. M., James B. Nicholson, G. Sec'y and P. G. Sire, and Bro- ther Romaine, of Ustayantha Lodge, No. 143, after which a recess was declared for the pur- pose of refreshing the inner man.

The Cornelius Brothers proved themselves equal to the occasion, and about seventy of the order sat down to one of those suppers for which the Sawkill House is so justly famous.

The lodge meets every Thursday night in the hall over Wallace's store, has about seventy members, and is financially in good condition.

DELAWARE POST, G. A. R., was brought into existence in February, 1884, chiefly through the efforts of R. B. Thrall. The following soldiers enrolled their names and were the charter or original members :

E. G. Loreaux, Co. B, 179th Regt. Pa. Vols. James Bosler, Co. B, 142d Regt. N. Y. Vols. R. B. Thrall, Co. B, 2d Regt. N. Y. Vols. Jacob O. Brown, Co. D, 39th Regt. N. J. Vols. Daniel D. Rosencrance, Co. M, 18th Regt. Pa. Cav. Michael B. Pitney, Co. B, 151st Regt. Pa. Vols. Ira B. Case, Co. B, 151st Regt. Pa. Vols. Daniel V. Drake, Co. D, 45th Regt. Pa. Vols. Linford West, Co. A, 41st Regt. Pa. (Col.) Vols. William E. Sigler, Co. B. 179th Regt. Pa. Vols. John T. Armstrong, Co. B, 179th Regt. Pa. Vols. John C. Thomas, Co. C, 67th Regt. Pa. Vols. William M. Watson, Co. D, 45th Regt. Pa. Vols. John West, Co. H, 4th Regt. N. Y. Art. C. M. Leidel, Co. B, 152d Regt. Pa. Vols.

M. H. Layton, Co. G, 142d Regt. Pa. Vols. G. M. Quick, Co. K, 1st Regt. N. Y. Engineers.

A. S. Dingman, 1st lieut., Co. B, 179th Regt. Pa. Vols.

C. Hermann, Co. B, 142d Regt. N. Y. Vols. Wesley Watson, Co. B, 151st Regt. Pa. Vols.

COLORED PEOPLE IN MILFORD AND VICIN- ITY .- The old Dutch pioneers of the Minisink brought their slaves with them, and the leading families on both sides of the Delaware were slaveholders. There are about fifty negroes in Milford, and in Port Jervis many more. They are the descendants of these former slaves and have generally left the country districts and congregated in the towns, where they serve in hotels and are ready to do odd jobs of work, but they are seldom thrifty or frugal. Some of them are more than half white. Of this char- acter are Richard Piggery and his wife, Ros- anna, an aged couple who have a very vivid recollection of the old settlers and a very quaint way of expressing their opinion of them, views which our researches verify most strikingly. Michael Scott is their preacher here and Lewis Milligan in Port Jervis. Sister Minor, a ne- gress from Port Jervis, sometimes talks to them.

" Old Black Jerry " lives in Delaware town- ship with the Widow Angle. He was born a free man, near Richmond, and when eight years of age was brought to Delaware by Colo- nel Brodhead. When Brodhead left, " Black Jerry" went to live with Cornelius Angle, where he stayed for forty years, and has lived twenty years with one of his sons. "Black Jerry " has never been married and is quite a character in his way. He says " he don't want no woman

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to be bossing him around." He can be seen! in his shirt-sleeves, with his breast exposed in cold winter weather. He is a very respectable old darkey and is now about eighty years of age.

BROSS'S RECOLLECTIONS OF PIKE COUNTY AND MILFORD.1

" My father, Moses Bross, moved to Milford in 1821 or 1822, the precise date I cannot determine. At that time Milford was a small but prosperous town. The turnpike came in from the west, and the road from Carpenter's Point from the north, and the two met, as now, where Pinchot's store and Dimmick's Hotel are situated. In the town they were dignified with the name of streets, which names they still re- tain. Besides these there was a street diagonal most of the way from the top of the hill, above Bidde's Mill, to the old Court-House. The fish on the top of it did duty then, as now, as a weathercock, from which for more than three-score years it has never been re- lieved. My father lived on the point, at the Upper Eddy, immediately above the mouth of the Vander- mark Creek, and S. S. Thrall on or near the high point on the banks of the Delaware at the Lower Eddy. Both these houses were hotels devoted almost exclusively to the entertainment of raftsmen, and in the rafting season were filled to overflowing. Nearly all the residences and stores were on the two streets above named. In the triangle between thein, where the academy used to stand, there was quite a depres- sion, rocky as possible, and covered with scrub oaks wherever they could find room to take root. The people were mainly from New England and the sur- rounding districts, and, like most men who settle new countries, were intellectual, enterprising and very energetic,-just the men to achieve success wherever they might settle.

"WHENCE WAS THE PROSPERITY .- It has been said the town was prosperous; for this there were rea- sons not difficult to find. The ridges west of it for scores of miles were covered with a dense forest, much of the timber being white pine of an excellent quality. The inhabitants scattered all over these ridges, and in the valleys manufactured the pine forests into boards, planks, scantling and shingles, lath, etc., which were in due time carted to Milford and tradcd with the merchants. At that time the farmers in Sussex, Morris and perhaps other counties in New Jersey had become, if not rich, at least possessed of a surplus of farm products, and these they handled at Milford, and exchanged with our merchants for lum- ber to build barns and more elegant homes for their families. Any surplus that might remain was rafred down the Delaware for a market. The Milford mer- chants thus selling goods to the lumbermen, and also

lumber to the Jersey farmers, realizing in this way a double profit, became rich, and the town was of course prosperous. The building of the Delaware and Hud- son Canal and the Erie Railway up the Delaware also made large demands upon Milford for supplies. As in the distant past the rich trade of Asia meeting at Palmyra, Venice and Genoa with the demands and wants of Europe, made them great and prosperous, but when the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope changed the traffic of the world and diverted it from its ancient channels, these great cities sank into in- significance, so, when the canal and the Erie Railway had been built and diverted from Milford the sources of its wealth, it suffered severely. It had not then been discovered that it was one of the most beautiful and healthy summer resorts in the whole Union, and since then it has grown and prospered wonderfully, as its fine hotels, splendid streets and elegant dwellings abund- antly testify. Having compared its situation with most of those in every other State of the Union, I am sure it cannot be deprived of the proud position it has attained among summer residents from New York, Philadelphia and other cities. The high, beau. tiful plateau on which it stands, the noble Delaware laving its eastern bluff; the scores of miles of un- equaled drives, the bluffs to the north of the moun- tains, and the hills that surround it, and withal the large spring that supplies the town with water, sweet and pure as crystal, all secure Milford in the enjoy- ment of every enduring prosperity.

MORALS .- " While the town was very prosperous in all its carly history, the morals of the people were at a very low ebb. When my father moved there from New Jersey, in 1821 or 1822, there certainly were not as many righteous men in the town as there were in Sodom. The stores were all open on the Sabbath, and the streets werc full of teams loaded with lumber from the back districts, or with those from New Jersey exchanging their produce for lumber. In fact, Sun- day was the great market and gala day of the week. Horse-racing, gambling and drinking were rife, and at general trainings, elections and other public occasions, personal encounters and black eyes were only too common. Fortunately for myself, at least, I was too young, and had too good an example and instruction at home to be anything more than a valiant spectator on all such occasions.

"Our politics are now thought to be bad enough, but they are decency and honor compared with what was everywhere seen in the early days of Milford. Candidates were plenty, and as King Caucus had not yet moved upon the polls-at least he had never been heard of in Pike County-cach one boldly nominated himself. Standing on the counter, notably, of the old French store was a bottle of apple-jack, old rye brandy, in fact, that could not fail to suit the tastes of the inultitude, with the name of the candidate who furnished the liquor. These bottles were kept full, and the candidates, ever watchful, would meet cach

1 By Lieutenant-Governor William Bross, of Illinois.

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

arriving voter, and with the choicest blandishments, lead him by the arm to the counter and his bottle. The quality of the fluid being high-brandy, for in- stance . in proportion to the dignity and the profit of the office-hunter's seeking-so it was that the man that had the longest purse and shortest conscience was sure to be elected.

" A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER .- From this sad and truthful-perchance, disgusting-picture, as presented to me when a boy, more than sixty years ago, let us turn to the great changes for the better that, a few years later, came over the town, and the causes that produced them. Before my father moved to Milford there was not a male church-member in the town, certainly not one that made himself known and his influence felt as a Christian. There was not a church of any kind whatever. My father was a man who had the courage of his convictions, and coming from the Dutch church across the river, presided over by Dominie C. C. Elting of blessed memory, his first move on the forces of the enemy was to establish a prayer-meeting, by permission, in the court-house. As a new thing it attracted attention, and my father often told of his embarrassment, and how his knees smote together, when a few of what he called the ' tall sons of Anak,' for the want of amusement, came to the meetings. In these efforts he was cordially and ably seconded by James Wallace, a leading merchant, but not then a member of any church-a most excel- lent Scotch-Irishman. Out of the prayer-meetings soon grew a Sunday-school, the first in all that country. This writer was one of its first pupils, and during his membership Matthew, Luke and John were all learned by heart, a valuable acquisition during all his subsequent history. These Christian efforts, and the success following them, induced other friends to can- vass the prospect of engaging a minister. What con- trolled the selection I do not know, but it certainly proved to be a most excellent one. How the parson was obtained is worthy of note. My father, then and never after, being blessed with much of this world's goods, borrowed a horse from Mr. Wallace, as I remember, a harness of some one else, and a buggy of another, and he and my mother went over to West- town and presented the matter to Rev. Thos. Grier. The subject was laid before the Hudson Presbytery, and it was agreed that Mr. Grier might be spared from that town one Sabbath in three, giving one-third of his services to the town of Milford. Mr. Grier was a man of splendid presence, an excellent preacher, whose earnest discussion and application of gospel truth had a marked effect upon the community. The services were held, as were all other public meetings, in the court-house. As an illustration of the habits of the time, it is here mentioned that every Friday morning, when he was expected to arrive, my father would say to me, 'William, take the decanter and go to La Forge's store and get a quart of his best brandy,' and before every meal the brandy and a

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 143

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