History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 144

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 144
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 144
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 144

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).

bowl of eggs would be on the table, and the Dom- inie would take an egg and some brandy for the good of his health.

"My father and mother both being companionable people, they for years kept the ministerial hotel. It should be here mentioned that when the ‘Tem- perance Reform' was first agitated, Mr. Thrall, my father and many others banished liquor from their homes forever.

"The ministrations of Mr. Grier were greatly blessed and the Sunday-school of which this writer was one of the first members was large and suc- cessful, and on the 25th of September, 1825, the Presbyterian Church was organized. James Wallace, Jacob Quick and my father were the first elders, with my mother and three or four other ladies as members. The court-house soon became too small for the congregation, and I well remember the earn- est conferences in regard to the building of a new church. Finally, Mr. Grier preached a sermon from the text 'Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build an house and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified saith the Lord.'-Haggai i. 8. As a result, to the mountains did the people go, and a church very respect- able in size and appointments was built on the spot where the Presbyterian parsonage now stands, and as a lad of a dozen years I, with others, held the studs at 'the raising' while the frame was going up. To me it was always one of the most interesting buildings in Milford, for there I heard the gospel preached in its power and there was an almost constant revival, when, on the 29th of Au- gust, 1832, this writer became a member of the church. This was probably the controlling act in his personal history, for though short-comings have marked my life-work, to it I owe the small measure, morally and otherwise, of success the Lord has granted me. This remark is specially commended to all young people who may chance to read these lines.

" During the time above referred to nearly all the leading people of the town had become members of the church. A more complete reformation was, per- haps, never effected, and most happily the influence of those early movements has continued down to the present. About 1830 or 1831 . Mr. Grier removed to some other charge, and Rev. Edward Allen came from New Jersey, and besides supplying the church, took charge of the Academy, the building of which had followed that of the church. Under his preaching and that of his most faithful associates, George and Peter Kanousc and others, nearly all the remaining citizens were gathered into the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, the latter having been built a few years before. Many of his pupils also joined the church, and under Mr. Allen and his excellent broth - er-in-law, Dr. Alexander Linn, commenced a classical education. As to one of them, it is here remarked, it is charged that he went through Williams College

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a charity student. To some extent this is true, and for this purpose Milford furnished exactly one dollar and credit for a suit of clothes. For that dollar he handed a leading lady of the Milford Church a ten- dollar bill for benevolent purposes, and the clothes were paid for in a month or two after he graduated, in 1838. But the society to which Rev. Mr. Allen, one of the ablest teachers aud preachers, and in all respects one of the best of men, introduced me and some of his other students, loaned me just $305. In addition to this, I taught school in Massachusetts every winter, and yet I found myself $600 in debt when I graduated. One-half of this was secured by a policy on my life, and the other was loaned me by Eastern friends. This was all paid with interest in two or three years, and the $305 were paid with com- pound interest, amounting to some $2800, by consent of the society that loaned it, to two of our colleges. I hope to be able to give two or three times that sum to our Christian benevolent and educational institutions every year during my life. For these reasons I am thankful that I was educated at all, and have no re- grets or false modesty to own that I was educated as a charity student.

" In 1834 Mr. Allen had removed with his school to Libertyville, New Jersey, and in the opening of that year, with my small wardrobe tied in an old bandan- na handkerchief swung on a stick across my shoulder, I crossed the mountain on foot and spent the summer completing as best I could my preparation for col- lege. Of course I reluctantly bade good-by to Mil- ford as a home forever.

" THE BAR .- The bar of Milford at this early day was composed of very able and eloquent men. Judge Scott, of Wilkesbarre, presided over the court with great dignity, with Associate Judges Dingman on his right, and Coolbaugh on his left. Judge Dingman was an active, wiry man, and generally held a polit- ical meeting during court-week, at which resolutions were passed thoroughly commending the national and State administrations.

"Judge Coolbaugh was a large, portly man and, so far as is now remembercd, was very dignified and un- obtrusive. Among our Milford lawyers D. M. Brod- head stood first, a man of splendid presence, able, elo- quent and commanding the respect and confidence of the bar and the public. He afterward figured largely among the leading men of the State. Richard Eldred, O. S. Dimmick, Edward Mott and some others de- serve more extended mention. Bethany seut us N. B. Eldred, one of the most valuable, eloquent and suc- cessful lawyers of the time. Wilkes-Barre sent us sev- eral oflier most distinguished lawyers. First in learn- ing and, it is believed, in substantial character and clear judgment, was Garret Mallory, afterward a lead- ing judge in Pennsylvania. Then there were Fuller & Cunningham (probably Conyngham), and perhaps others should be mentioned. Notably among them was Benjamin F. Bidlack, a splendid man in pre-

sence, learning and ability. He was captured by the second daughter of Deacon James Wallace, and settled among us. Being ambitious to become widely known, he established the first newspaper ever pub- lished in the county. It was called The Northern Eagle and Milford Monitor. Between the first two words there was a villainous picture of an eagle, which the boys, by a very easy mental process, called a 'crew.' My father was a great friend of Bidlack's and secured the position of carrier for his eldest son. As he wended his way from the house of one Milford nabob to another, with a bundle of papers under his arm, he would hear the cheerful salutation, 'There comes the Northern crow.' This would often produce a belligerent state of society between the sturdy car- rier and his fellow-urchins, and not seldom there were blows to take as well as slang to hurl at him. From this humble position he found himself half-owner of a paper in Chicago in 1849, and for more than a third of a century he has been connected with the daily press in the city of Chicago. Mr. Bidlack was very successful. He became member of Congress, and died as United States minister resident in Columbia, in South America.

"PERSONAL SKETCHES .- Perhaps some personal sketches of the leading men of Milford sixty years ago may be of interest.

" I will begin at the lower end of the town, where, upon the bluff, lived Samuel S. Thrall. He was a large, portly man, very kind and benevolent, and in all re- spects a good citizen. He stopped the objectionable part of the hotel business, as did my father, viz., sell- ing liquor, when temperance principles were agitated. He became an elder in the church, and was ever con- sidered one of our best citizens. James Wallace kept store nearly across the way from Mr. Thrall, where the streets fork at the top of the hill, as one then went west from Biddis' mill. He was an example of all that was dignified and good in human character. A nian of medium height, sturdy frame and benevolent expression, he was a man to commaud the respect and the confidence of the entire community. He spent the latter years of his life on a fine farm now occupied by Mr. Bull, somne two miles north of Mil- ford, on the Port Jervis road. He had considerable wealth, which he used as such a man is most likely to do, for the wisest benefit of his family and his fel- low-men. His two sons, John and James, were al- ways leading men in Milford, aud Frank, the young- est, became a very successful and wealthy broker in New York. Colonel John N. Brodhead was a leading merchaut, dealing largely in lumber, whose house was on the first corner west of that of Mr. Wallace. He was a kind and most excellent gentleman, to whom this writer was indebted when a boy for some favors that were never forgotten. He filled for many years of his later life an important position in the Treasury Department at Washington. His youngest daughter is the wife of Senator General Van Wick, of Nebras-

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ka. Next west, on the south side of the street, ever to be found ou his work-bench, was Henry Barnes, an industrious, pleasant, honest man, with a never- failing fund of kindly feeling which made a chat with him always agreeable and instructive. Westward, on the right-hand of the street, the nearest house to the Cornelius Hotel, lived James Barton, a marked figure among the denizens of Milford. Tall and com- manding in figure, with a fine, open, benevolent coun- tenance, and head as white as snow, easily approached by the humblest of the people, he was always popular. He was wealthy and very enterprising, building Bar- ton's grist-mill, at the west end of the town, and tak- ing an active interest, if, indeed, he was not the pro- jector and father, of the Milford water-works. These facts made the people forget, if it was ever true, that he received a pension from the English Government for services rendered during the Revolutionary War. Be that as it may, he always used his money for the good of the community among whom he lived. His family of daughters were very intellectual and accomplished women, and whose husbands were among our leading citizens. Probably the most widely-known man Mil- ford had was Lewis Cornelius. He kept both store and hotel in the house his family still occupy. Hon- est and socially an agreeable man, he was always pop- ular. His hotel attracted custom from far and near. The first and most important requisite was that his wife and her daughters were among the very best cooks and housekeepers that could be found in the whole country, and Mr. Cornelius himself attracted the travelling public by his great size.

" At his death he weighed, as I remember, six hun- dred and seventy-five pounds-probably considerably less than he would tip the beam at when in good health. But if people wanted to see him, they must give no sign that they came for that purpose, or he would at once become invisible. In spite of his im- mense size, he always kept at the head of his busi- ness, and no one could ever complain of negligence when stopping at his hotel. His son John, now dead, became sheriff of the county, and his sisters have continued the business down to the present day. Across the road lived Hon. D. M. Brodhead, above referred to, and opposite, on the main street, was the residence and drug-store of Dr. Francis A. L. Smith. With his father, then living in Belgium, near Brus- sels, he escaped during the early wars with France, and, after many startling incidents and hair-breadth escapes, they arrived in America. Being of a leading wealthy family, they did not wish their friends at home to know where they were, and so changed their names De Aerts to Smith, the nearest possible to be- ing anonymous. He was an accomplished scholar, speaking German and French fluently, and, being a man that everybody liked, he was always a leading man in the community. On the same side of the street, and opposite from Port Jervis, was the hotel of Samuel Dimmick. His active habits and close at-

tention to business, and withal his great courtesy and kindness, made him a popular landlord and a good citizen. Opposite, ou the northeast corner, was the residence of C. C. D. Pinchot, his house being in the rear and his store in front. He was a man of great energy and enterprise, and accumulated a large for- tune. As a member of the Presbyterian Church, he was as earnest and his influence was as widely felt in religious as in the business interests of the town. Of his sons, one has been judge and another is a leading New York manufacturer and capitalist of that city. West of the corner, on the opposite side of the street, lived Theophilus H. Smith. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church, a good business man and an excellent citizen. On the west side of the street (Harford, I think it is) was the hotel of George Bow- hannon, still occupied by his daughters. Opposite was the store of John B. Le Forge. He was a large, fine-looking gentleman, and had the reputation of keeping the best and choicest goods in town. Taci- turn, yet polite and dignified, he always held a lead- ing place among his fellow-merchants. Of course he was prosperous. Sheriff James Hatson occupied the court-house. He was popular and an excellent officer. As to the old court-house, there it has stood, to my certaiu knowledge, for more than sixty years. Not a change outwardly, and I presume internally, has come over it, while those eloquent men who once waked the echoes within its walls have all passed away. Such is life.

"Northward still, and on the same side of the street, was the 'Old French Store.' The firm was first Pinchot & Muclare, but, both these dying, it fell under the direction of Madame Pinchot aud her son Cyrille. The firm from the beginning was managed with all the tact, energy and shrewdness always man- ifest in the French character. It had a marked suc- cess from the beginning, and it was believed did a larger and more successful business than any other store in Milford. Madame Pinchot was a courteous, excellent woman, whose memory is cherished by all who knew her. An only daughter, Hortense, the wife of J. C. Westbrook, of Port Jervis, a most ac- complished and excellent woman, still survives her. Westward, on the same street, lived Richard Eldred. He was a successful lawyer and a good citizen. No man ever had a better wife 'whose price is far above rubies.' I say this entirely without regard to the fact that she was the woman that handed my father the dollar to assist me in getting my education. Westward still, the house standing directly next to the bridge below and across the Vandemark Creek, stood the house of my uncle, Daniel Beecher. His wife was my mother's oldest sister. He was a well- known character, for he utilized, to the best possible advantage for himself, the tax deeds of the back ridges of Pike County by trading them off for goods, cattle, horses, almost anything, with the New England people anxious to become proprietors of Western

JA J. Wilcox Boston,

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lands. Scarcely any one of them ever occupied those lands, and hence the population of the county was not specially increased by his efforts. Directly below was the expensive wagon manufactory of Roys & Benton, two enterprising Yankees from Connecticut. They did a large and successful business. It was continued by John M. Heller, who afterward moved his establishment to Port Jervis. He was one of the best of men, the father of Judge George P. Heller, for many years a leading politician and judge in the county. I should have said in the proper place he married Helen, one of the best of her sex, the daugh- ter of John H. Wallace, and lived nearly opposite and near the Cornelius Hotel, a righteous judge and an honest man. Directly across the bridge, to the left hand, lived Hugh Ross, a lawyer and always a man of mark. The house is now occupied by Hon. D. M. Van Auken, whose wife was his grand- daughter. .

"My father lived, as above stated, on the point just above the mouth of the Vandemark Creek. He was a tall, spare man of great energy and wide intelligence in all matters derived from books and newspapers. His knowledge of the Scriptures was accurate, and em- braced nearly every fact brought out and principle stated in Bible history. A thoroughly honest and sincerely religious man was Moses Bross. He lived a life of toil and devotion to his large family and the best interests of the church which he loved so well. Regarding the church he helped to organize, it has often been a matter of discussion in my own mind whether all his sons put together can ever have a tithe of the influence for good to which he is justly entitled. He left Milford somewhere in the sixties, and moved to Panther Brook, a mile above Shohola, where he lived till 1865, when his oldest son moved him and his blessed mother to Morris, Ill. The mother died February 22, 1868, and he lived on in peace and com- fort till August 19, 1882, when he peacefully passed away, lacking but two months and twelve days of being ninety years old. Many others might and per- haps ought to be mentioned, and it may be asked, ' Had you no bad men in those early days ?' True, we had ; but 'speak only good of the departed ' is a good rule, old as history and morals. Most of those that were worth saving, as above stated, reformed and were gathered into the churches between 1826 and the few subsequent years. 'Their works do follow them,' and the doctrines of heredity are fully illus- trated in their children, while I make no invidious comparisons among them ; yet as their fathers were, so are they-the leaders of the people among whom they live; granting that their morals are good, so will they continue to be. May I be permitted the remark, in closing, that I always visit Milford with the greatest pleasure. Alas! the old house on the hill, where my father lived, and where all his younger children, but one, were born, was burned a few weeks ago, and the church which in my boyish days, I helped to

build, and in which I joined myself with the Lord's people, have passed away, but in one heart, at least, their memory is precious.

" Though Milford now contains, perhaps, ten times as many people as when I first knew it, and the resi- dences are many, and not a few of them large and elegant, there will not be a man sixty years hence who will have a more interested and pleasant memory of it than the writer of this sketch.

HON. WILLIAM BROSS is one of the founders, edi- tors and proprietors of The Chicago Tribune. He is among the earlier graduates of Williams and one of the distinguished alumni who have reflected lustre upon their alma mater. He was born in New Jersey, November 4, 1813, and was reared to manhood at Milford, Pa. His paternal and maternal ancestors were excellent people. He graduated with high lionors from Williams with the class of 1838. In 1866 he delivered the alumni address, and has re- ceived numerous evidences of the high estimate in which he is held by the friends of that institution, which has conferred upon him its higher degrees. After graduating he taught an academy in Orange County, New York, for nearly ten years, with decided success. He was a thorough classical scholar, and a student of the arts, sciences and of history. He came to Chicago in 1848, engaged in the book trade for a time, and bought out the then Prairie Herald, and continued it two years, when he united with John L. Scripps in establishing the Democratic Press, a daily and weekly newspaper, Democratic in politics up to the time of the organization of the Republican party, when he championed that cause, and was one of its ablest and most eloquent advocates, and has been since. He was the first man in the West to indorse the nom- ination of John C. Fremont for President. In 1859 he consolidated his paper with The Tribune. In 1860 he was a prime mover in securing the nomination of Lincoln for President, and was among the foremost in planning and executing the remarkable campaign which resulted in his election, and was one of his trusted and confidential advisers during his Presi- dency. In 1864 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Illinois, and served four years with great credit to himself and satisfaction to the people, and as presid- ing officer of the Senate was the first official in the United States to sign the resolution passed by the Illi- nois Legislature ratifying the amendment to the Con- stitution prohibiting slavery, Illinois being the first State to take action. In 1868 he visited the Rocky Mountains, and the miners on a then nameless peak, near Mount Lincoln, named it Mount Bross, in honor of hini and his visit, and it bears that name to-day, made permanent by the map-maker, by official action, and by the artist.

Mr. Bross has led an active, useful, and beneficent life, as teacher, journalist, statesman and citizen, and there are few men whose personal history is so in- scparably connected with the history of Illinois dur-

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

ing his time, the annals of which he has so conspicu- ously illustrated. He will transmit a fortune and an example of how a guided mentality can assert a mas- tery over difficulties and even adverse circumstances in shaping the character and destiny of a man, if balanced by a true manhood and a high moral pur- pose. His life work is written in the history of his time. All attempts to assail his integrity have been fruitless. He has led the life of a Christian gentle- man in private and in public. He has traveled ex- tensively in this and in foreign countries, and the chronicles of his intelligent observations liave graced the columns of his own paper and other publications.

In 1839 he married the only daughter of the late Dr. Jolın T. Jansen, of Goshen, N. Y., a most estima- ble lady. They have had mnuch affliction, having buried four sons and three daughters, the last resting- place of the mortal remains of whom is marked by a beautiful monument in Rosehill Cemetery. Only one child survives, Mrs. Henry D. Lloyd, a lady of rare mental endowments, whose presence adorns polished society. Before the recent death of his father, four generations, on both sides, were represented in a group at one time,-an isolated instance of the kind, so far as is known.1

1 The following is inserted, as it contains a condensed history of Gov. Bross' family.

To MY WIFE. MRS. MARY JANE BROSS,

DAUGHTER OF THE LATE DR. JOHN T. JANSEN, OF GOSHEN, N. Y. On Her Sixtieth Birthday.

Bright and blessed be the coming Of thy sixtieth birthday morn, Thankful that through joys and sorrows By my side thou'st stood so long .* 'Mid old Orange hills I found thee, ; There our wedded love began ; 'Mid Chicago's surging progress, Pass we most of life's short span,

Scourgings oft have been our portion, Toils and sorrows bitter, deep ; Seven sweet babes in mercy sent us, Safe in Abraham's bosom sleep .¿ From our happy home in fire ? Drove us, life to start anew ;

Worse than all the loss we've suffered, Faithless friends have stung us, too.

But from sorrows look we, cheerful Down the rapid stream of time, And whate'er the Father sends us, Bowing to His will divine ; Thankful that our darling Jessie || Lives to bless our waning years,

* Married October 7, 1839.

+ Orange County, N. Y.

| Now Mrs. Henry D. Lloyd. Has two sons, William Bross Lloyd, in his eighth, and Henry Demarest Lloyd, Jr., in his fifth year.

# Interred at Rosehill. ¿ October 9, 1871.

CEMETERY .- The beautiful Milford Ceme- tery, purchased and laid out by an association, was dedicated on May 26, 1868, with appropri- ate exercises in the presence of a great concourse of people. The address was delivered by Lu- cien F. Barnes, who died not long afterwards and was the first person buried in the grounds he had done so much to provide. A poem was read by John D. Biddis, Esq., addresses were delivered by Rev. R. H. Beattie and Rev. C. S. Rymall and a choir sang several selections and a hymn composed especially for the occasion. Following is Mr. Biddis' poem :

For half a century back our fathers' bones have slept In the old orchard, where the little knot Of cluster'd pine trees have their vigils kept, Lonely, but watchful o'er the sacred spot.

Nought marks the grave but the rude mound of earth, Or tott'ring slab of marble or rough stone ; No epitaph to tell us of their worth- That to their deeds and time is left alone.

Deserted now, this first old burying-ground ; Uncared for now, decaying with its dead ; But many a chiseled shaft and tell-tale mound Cluster about our churches in its stead.

Children and friends have fallen, one by one ; Father and mother rest beneath the sod ; Their joys and sorrows felt, their journey done, And their immortal spirits with their God.

But now within the small allotted space, Scarce room is left for mourning friends to tread, Who fain with loving hands would gladly grace With flowers the turf that closes o'er their dead.

The cheerless wind sweeps, howling, bleak and drear ; The spectral army, only, points the sky; And no protecting tree or hill-side's near To make the wind's loud roar a gentle lullaby.

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 144

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