History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 147

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 147
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 147
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 147

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).

1 This road was first cut through by the Connecticut set- tlers in 1762.

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crossed the Sawkill, passed np to Frank Olm- stead's present home and thence through Bloom- ing Grove to Major Ainsley's, on the " Dolph Bingham " place, where it crossed the Wallen- paupack near the Marshall Purdy place. Thus on through Purdy settlement, Little Meadows, in Salem, and Cobb's Gap to the Lackawanna and Wyoming Valleys. Afterward a turnpike was built, as also a turnpike from Milford to Carbondale, in Pennsylvania, and Oswego, in New York. Those were halcyon days for the tally-ho stage-coach and this was a thorough- fare of travel en route for what was then the great West. Courtright Middagh, a large, coarse-grained, bony man, who lived on the Pennsylvania side, was kept bnsy ferrying trav- elers over the Delaware with his flat ferry-boat that would carry one loaded wagon with two teams attached, propelled by paddles and shoved by poles. All is now changed. There is a snspen- sion bridge above the old ferrying-place that connects Port Jervis and Matamoras and the New York, Lake Erie and Western Railroad carries the passengers with mighty steam-power, in place of the old " tally-ho" to Western lands never dreamed of by our ancestors. Port Jer- vis, with its eleven thousand inhabitants and constant puffing of engines, has superseded Car- penter's Point, and Matamoras, which is in Westfall township, just opposite, is a village of some seven hundred inhabitants. In 1844 Gabriel Mapes built a hotel where Matamoras now is. Oliver S. Dimmick, son of Dan. Dimn- mick, purchased the hotel and ferry in connec- nection with it in 1846. The ferry was first started by Simeon Westfall, abont 1830. Mr. Dimmick laid ont the town about the time of the Mexican War, which accounts for its name. Besides keeping a public-house, he carried a stock of goods and was the first postmaster of the place. He represented his district twice in the Assembly of Pennsylvania and was asso- ciate judge of Pike County for five years. He married a daughter of Major Hornbeck, and had five children. Of these, Jacob Dimmick, a lumber dealer in Port Jervis, has represented his district twice in the Assembly of New York, and William H. Dimmick is an attorney-at-law in Honesdale.

The first bridge was built above the present location about 1850, and after its destruction by high winds the present suspension bridge was built. After Dimmick, Adolph Kessler had a small store. There are now three stores, three hotels and a school-house that cost about five thousand dollars and embraces four de- partments. It is too near Port Jervis to be a business centre, and is therefore more a place of residence for the Port Jervis overflow.

A Philadelphia company 1 had a glass factory on the Delaware, above Matamoras, about 1800. This was before the days of anthracite coal, their object in settling in the wilderness being cheap fnel. It was less expensive to transport material for glass and the manufactured article back again than to buy fnel near Philadelphia. They blew window glass principally and oper- ated the factory for a number of years, but the nse of coal, and the improved means of travel consequent thereon, changed the conditions un- der which this factory was operated, and it was abandoned. They transported their glass to Philadelphia with horse teams. There was some communication with Philadelphia up the Delaware by means of Durham boats, these boats being propelled by paddles or shoved by poles. Merchandise has been brought to Car- penter's Point and vicinity in this way. Ben- jamin Carpenter had a son Benjamin, who suc- ceeded to his father's home, and another son, John, who lived on the Pennsylvania side. Not even a road leads to the old ferry now, and nothing but a lane is seen, which goes past some very old apple-trees and the old foundation of a honse. Just above the old ferry, on the old Pahaqnarry road, is the burying-ground where the early Dutch pioneers who dwelt in this vicinity sleep, with rude, unlettered stones, in most cases to mark the spot. Not far away was the old log church where Johannes Casparius Fryenmoet gave his people strong Calvinistic doctrine in pure, unadulterated Dutch, as he stood perched on a single post, with a sounding- board over his head. This rnde beginning has resulted in the present elegant brick Reformed Church in Port Jervis, with the proud inscrip-

1 Mathew Ridgway was the principal man in it.

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tion over the entrance, "Founded in 1737." The people on the Pennsylvania side attend church in Port Jervis ; consequently there are no church edifices in Matamoras. It is known that a blacksmith by the name of William Tiet- sort, or Titsworth, lived among the friendly Indians near Carpenter's Point as early as 1690. Here the early Dutch pioneers came down from Esopus on the Hudson, and settled on the flat- lands near the Delaware. Their implements were rude, their wagon wheels being entirely of wood. The fellocs were clumsy wooden pieces, pinned together, without any tire. Four trips to Esopus and back was considered good service for one of these wagons, and a pail of water often answered for a mirror to the traveler. These early settlers appear to have cultivated friendship with the Indians, and had no par- ticular trouble until the "French and Indian War" of 1755, when there were not a great many inhabitants in the valley.

The Lenapes ravaged the country lying along the line of the Blue Ridge from the Dela- ware to the Susquehanna. The war-path of the Minsis lay along the frontier of New Jersey and Orange and Ulster Counties, N. Y. In 1758 the hatchet was buried and the pipe of peace smoked by the Delawares and the pale faces of the Minisink country. Thus this war, which had been brought on by the rapacity of the English proprietarics, but whose terrors had been felt by the peaceful Dutch settlers as well, was brought to a close and the latter were again permitted to resume the pursuits of peace. During the Revolutionary War the Dutch set- tlers were inclined to live as peaceably as possi- ble with the Indians. Not in the sense of be- ing Tories, but because they looked upon the Revolutionary War as a Yankee and English struggle in which they had no interest. Their friends and ancestors in some instances, perhaps, had been compelled to submit to English au- thority in New Amsterdam, and these Yankees were but descendants of the English. This was a perfectly natural view for the Minisink settler, and that many of them kept as neutral as possible we have abundant evidence But the Indians looked upon this as an opportunity to expel the white man, and the Minisink Val-

ley became one continuous frontier line from Port Jervis to Delaware Water Gap. The Pennsylvania side, in particular, was exposed and raided by the Indians until there were but few settlers remaining within the present bounds of Pike County. This valley was raided in 1778, when Count Pulaski was sent with his cavalry for its protection and was engaged in that service during the winter following. In the spring of 1779 hostilities were renewed, and all the mills, stores and houses at Carpenter's Point and vicinity were burned. The school- teacher, Jeremiah Van Auken, was killed, but the little girls were saved by Brant, who had painted a sign on their aprons which the sav- ages respected. July 19, 1779, the fatal battle of Minisink was fought opposite the mouth of the Lackawaxen River. The following petition, which has been preserved in the correspondence of Captain James Bonnel, shows the condition of the Pennsylvania frontier in 1782 :

" MINISINK, 10th December, 1782.

"His excellency, Governor Livingston, and the Honorable Legislative Council and General As- sembly of New Jersey.

"Gentlemen, we, the inhabitants of the frontier of the County of Sussesx, beg leave to present our petition to the Honorable Legislature of the State. The Inhabitants who formerly lived on the Pennsyl- vania Side of the river opposite to us have Principal- ly left their Farms and moved into Jersey and other places to escape savage cruelty. These Inhabitants was formerly a considerable guard to us, but there is nothing to stop the Enemy but the river, which is Fordible in a grate Number of Places a considerable part of the year, Particularly in Harvest and other times when the Enemy can do us the Gratest Damage. The Situation of this country and the manner the Savages Carry on the War like a Thief in the Night, renders it impracticable to depend on the Malitia for Security, for before they can be collected the Mis- chief is done and the Enemy secure in the Wilder- ness. Numbers of us have friends and near relatives who have been torn from their familys and connec- tions and are groaning under cruel Savage Captivity. These labour under the sad remembrance of having experienced the Truly Shocking Spectacle of Seeing there Dearest Connections Brutally Murdered and Scalped before there Eyes, and we have grate reason to fear that we shall share the same fate unless some move be adopted for our security. We therefore most earnestly pray that a Law may be passed by the Hon- ourable Legislature before they adjourn for raising a company of about Eighty men, Properly officered

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

and to be Stationed here for our Protection the En- suing Campaign." 1

The signatures of the petitioners do not ap- pear in the record that Captain Bonnel has made of this petition. Such, then, was the condition of the pioneers in Westfall (then Up- per Smithfield) and all the townships bordering on the Delaware in Pike County, or Upper Smithfield and Delaware townships. Among the later settlers of Westfall are Benjamin Van Inwegen, who located on the river road, not far from Matamoras, about 1830. He was a very conscientious man, and descended from an old family just across the Delaware. Eli Van Inwegen, a son of his, is the vice-president of the First National Bank of Port Jervis, and his son is cashier of the same bank. Benjamin Van Inwegen, a descendant of Benjamin Van Inwegen, the first, occupies the homestead, and Andrew and Solomon Van Inwegen live in Matamoras.

Baltus Nearpass, a descendant of Jacob Near- pass, who located in Montague, about two miles below Carpenter's Point, in 1750, settled at Saw-Mill Rift, which lies up the Delaware in Westfall township. (The Nearpasses are of German origin.) Jacob Nearpass went back to Germany, expecting to get a large amount of gold and silver ; but, instead, he returned only with two guns, one of which was used by his son Baltus in the battle of Minisink, where he was killed. Baltus' son John raised a large family of children, most of whom settled in Westfall township. They were Baltus, of Saw- Mill Rift ; Michael ; William ; Jacob ; Rachel, wife of Wm. K. Stone, who lived at the glass factory ; Polly, wife of Benjamin Westbrook, who lived near Quicktown ; and Catharine, wife of James Sawyer, of Saw-Mill Rift. Wm. H. Nearpass, one of Michael Nearpass' sons, is editor of the Port Jervis Gazette, is much inter- ested in the history of the Minisink, and has collected valuable information which is accessi- ble to the writer. His labors in translating and publishing old Dutch church records, have shed much light on the early history of the Minisink.

Among others, we find that the De Witts were in Upper Smithfield in 1754, as evidenced by marriage records. Saw-Mill Rift at present contains about a half-dozen houses. The Erie Railway crosses from New York to the Pennsylvania side near this place. The flat between the Delaware and the mountain is nar- row from Matamoras to Pond Eddy. The in- habitants arc chiefly engaged in quarrying along the Delaware, above Saw-Mill Rift.

Frederick A. Rose was born in Hartford, Conn., in 1789, and was a descendant of one of the early settlers of the New England States. At the age of four years he came with his par- ents to Montague, N. J., and eleven years after the family settled at Pond Eddy, shortly after removing to Masthope, where they engaged extensively in the lumber business. In 1813 they repaired to the mouth of the Mongaup River, and remained until 1828, when Freder- ick A. Rose, who was then married, purchased the old Rosencrans' farm, in Westfall township, and removed to the same. Here he remained until 1839, when he again went to Pond Eddy, and engaged extensively in the lumbering and rafting business. In this he was very success- ful. He was well known in all the lumber regions along the Delaware River, and noted as a bold lumber speculator. After a few years he returned to his farm, one of the finest in the valley, where he remained until his death, in his eighty-eighth year. His children were Benjamin H. Rose (of Rosetown), Elijah Rose, Mrs. Isaac Cuddeback and Mrs. E. P. Gumaer. The Rosetown property, which consists of the greater part of the old Rosencrance farm and a portion of the Van Aken farm, is held by the descendants of Frederick A. Rose.

William Brodhead, a son of Richard Brod- head, lived in Westfall township, just out from Milford, a number of years, when he sold the property to Simeon Cuddeback, who died re- cently, aged nearly eighty.

Soferyne Vannoy lives by the river, on a farm formerly occupied by Mr. Van Gordon.

The public schools of Westfall township are those of "Saw-Mill Rift," Stairway," Mata- moras Graded School and Quicktown School.

1 The above is a literal copy of the petition.

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CHAPTER VIL.

DINGMAN TOWNSHIP.

DINGMAN TOWNSHIP was taken from Upper Smithfield April 17, 1832. It is bounded on the north by Shohola and Milford ; on the east by the Delaware River and New Jersey ; on the south by Delaware and Porter, and on the west by Blooming Grove. The Sawkill Creck, which flows into the Delaware near Milford, fornis part of the boundary between Dingman and Milford. The Raymondskill is the outlet of the Log Tavern Ponds and breaks over its mountain heights in the beautiful Raymondskill Falls, which consists of three parts, a fall of about twenty-five feet, a steep rapids of about one hundred feet, and another fall, flowing onward through a deep gorge to the Delaware. The seenery along the Raymondskill, as also along the Delaware, is grand. There is a river road running along the Delaware from Milford to Bushkill. The Minisink Valley consists of the river flats on both sides of the Delaware, from Port Jervis to the Delaware Water Gap. These flats are from a quarter of a mile to a mile wide. There are several islands in the river at this point. On the Jersey side the hills recede in gentle slopes, but on the Penn- sylvania side the cliff rises abruptly from the flat land, forming a rock-capped bluff about one hundred and fifty to two hundred feet high, from Milford to Bushkill. These rocks have crumbled, leaving a steep side-hill of thin stone clippings banked against their base to within twenty feet of the top, which makes excellent material for roads, the river road being one of the best in the State. In some places the river hugs the base of the bluffs so closely that the roadway is dug out from the hillside, and in others there is fine fertile flatland varying from a few rods to a half-mile in width.

These flatlands were eagerly seized and first occupied by the Holland immigrants.

A ride from Port Jervis to Bushkill is ex- ceedingly pleasant, with the abrupt bluffs of Pike County, whose steep slopes are covered with serub oak and pine, on the right, and the Delaware River, flat land and receding slopes of Jersey on the left.

The purest of mountain spring waters gush from the hillsides, and the Sawkill, Raymonds- kill, Conashaugh, Adams, Dingmans, Hornbeck, Mill, Tom's and Bushkill Creeks, break through the bluffs that support the highlands of Pike County, in many easeades and rapids through deep gorges, forming grand mountain scenery, into the Delaware River.

Laura Brink, aged eighty-six, says that Cor- nelius Cole, or Case Cole, as they then called him, built a house under the mountains in Ding- man township, where Foster Howell now lives, as early as 1750. He owned the Delaware flats from the Raymondskill to the Sawkill, his wife being a daughter of Peter Decker, who first set- tled in Deekerstown, N. J. An old squaw camped on the land every summer and fished in the streams. She elaimed the land and told Mr. Cole he must pay lier for it. He replied that he had already paid for his land. Mrs. Cole ad- vised her husband to settle with her and he finally concluded to do so. She demanded two Duteh rose blankets, five gallons of whiskey and one sheep. These rose blankets were woven ot a long nape-like wool, withi roses interwoven. One day, after he had procured the things, she appeared with about thirty Indians and secured all that she had demanded, being very particular not to have the sheep killed until she had re- ceived the blankets and whiskey. The sheep was killed, the whiskey distributed and a noisy pow-wow was held all night. Mr. Cole, expect- ing the Indians to become drunk and attack him, said to his wife, " Now, Maria, you see what trouble we have got into." The old squaw, however, left with her friends and returned to her home in Wyoming Valley and never troub- led him more. They made a rude picture of a horse in Mr. Cole's cellar, which other Indians seemed to understand, and during all the Indian wars that followed, his property remained un- touched, although the battle of Conashaugli was fought within half a mile of his place. Notli- ing was disturbed that belonged to Case Cole, because the Indians said he had paid for his land. There is an old stone fort still to be seen on the Jersey shore about one-half mile below Cole's old house. Cornelius Cole's son Abram had the lower part of his father's place, or what

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is now the Howell and Warner farms. His children were Hugh, Budd and James. Aunchy had the upper part of the farm, now owned by Moses and John Dietrick. She was the first wife of Judge John Brink, who lived on part of the Cole property, and William, his only son by her, was the husband of Laura, a daughter of Ira Newman. She is still living in Dingman township with her son, James Brink, aged eigh- ty-six years. Judge Brink afterward married Nancy Drake, and Dow, Howard, Lydia, Sarah and Ann Eliza were their children. William McCarty, Sr., settled in Dingman township in 1750 or earlier. He had two sons,- William McCarty, Jr., who married Margaret Buchanan, sister of George and Arthur Buchanan, and James McCarty, both farmers. Philip MeCarty was a brother of William MeCarty, Sr., and lived just across the Raymondskill, adjoining Case Cole's on the south. Cornelius, one of his sons, was a merchant at Dingman's Choice, and one of his sons, Bernardi McCarty, lives on the old Philip MeCarty place.

Joshua Drake had a log tavern near the cen- tre of Dingman township, about one mile from what afterwards became known as the Log Tav- crn Ponds. He was one of the first settlers in that part of the township. His four sons- Stephen, Benjamin, Ephraim and John, -- located in the neighborhood of their father. Redmond Drake, a son of Stephen Drake, now an old man, is still living in the vicinity. Robert Travis was an early settler near the centre of the town- ship. His son, Jesse Travis, aged eighty years, is still living in Dingman's. The Aldriges are another old family. Richard Huffman is a farm- er near the Sawkill Pond, and was justice of the peace for a number of years. Tony Healer, David Case and the Retallicks lived in the vicinity of Union School-house.

George Buchanan, corrupted to Bowhanan, was born in 1763, and came to Milford from Orange County when he was about twenty-five years old. His first wife was a sister of Na- thaniel B. Eldred, and his second wife a sister of Frederick Rose, of Rosetown. He kept the first hotel in Milford and had the brush cut out of Broad Street and opened that road. He was also a lumberman and tanner. Hc owned a |

tannery in Milford, on the Valentine Kill, in 1838, which was destroyed by fire after being in operation seven or eight years. He owned about fifteen hundred aeres of land in Dingman township, where a number of his children lived. He died when eighty-two years of age.

Jesse Olmstead, a lawyer, from Connecticut, came to Milford in 1815 and married Mary, the eldest daughter of George Bowhanan. The Olmstead family moved into Dingman town- ship, on part of the Bowhanan property. George Olmstead, a farmer, was for many years a jus- tice of the peace. Frank Olmstead, a man of considerable ability, has been sheriff and assoei- ate judge of Pike County. Harriet is the wife of Rev. George Windsor. Naney resides with her brother, the judge.

Sally Bowhanan, another daughter of George Bowhanan, was the wife of William Quinn, a farmer in Dingman. Theodore Bowhanan had a tannery in Dingman township. Harry Bow- hanan is in the paper business in New York. John, George, James and Louisa Bowhanan live in Milford. Jane married William Freel, who was one of the first merchants in Milford. Em- ily is the wife of Ebenezer Warner, a farmer in Dingman.

Arthur Buchanan,1 a brother of George Bu- chanan, lived at Shohola Farms in 1797. His only son, William, died in Dingman township. Olive, one of Arthur's daughters, was the wife of John P. Roekwell, a merchant in Milford, and the father of Charles F. Rockwell, of Honesdale. Mary was the wife of Edwin Power, a merchant in Milford and Honesdale. C. E. Power, merehant in Honesdale, is a son.

A number of Frenchmen formerly lived in Dingman, but most of them have removed from the township. Among them was Ramie Loreaux, who built a large brewery, stone houses, sheds, etc., on part of the old MeCarty property. He carried on an extensive business and was a prom- inent man in the township from 1832 until about 1872, when he left. His daughter was the wife of Desire Bornique, who had a watch- factory in Milford and was an active business

1 All the brothers of George Bowhanan wrote their names Buchanan, which is the correct spelling according to the family records.

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man until he died, in 1884, when the enterprise declined. Joseph Rigney, another Frenchman, has a large summer hotel in the vicinity of Ray- mondskill Falls that is annually patronized by his countrymen.

Judge Olmstead says that some of the best lands in Dingman township for agricultural purposes are in the western part, about Rattle- snake Creek, and remain as yet unoccupied. There are seven schools in the township,-the Franklin, River, Union, Sawkill, Rattlesnake, Dark Swamp and German. There are no churches ; the Methodists occasionally hold services at the Franklin and Union School houses. There is a Sunday-school at the Franklin. The first school-house in the town- ship was at Brink's, on the river road. The population in 1880 was five hundred and eighty- six. The highest point on the Dingman bluffs is called Utter's Point, and is often visited by summer boarders in Milford, a good view of the valley being obtained on a clear day from Port Jervis nearly to the Delaware Water Gap. The battle of Conashaugh, or Ray- mondskill, which occurred in Dingman town- ship, in which thirteen of the settlers were killed, will be mentioned in the general his- tory. John Greening was the first settler on Rattlesnake Creek, in the western part of Ding- man township. His sons were John, Jerry and Hubbard Greening. Jerry Greening remained there and has a farm and a family of children. He figures conspicuously in Ed. Mott's "Pike County Folks," and in his artieles for the New York Sun. During the War of the Rebellion Jerry Greening and one or two of his boys were drafted ; he stayed in his house and resisted twenty United States cavalrymen for some time, until at last he was compelled to surrender. A neighbor gives the following account of the affair : "One night one of Jerry's boys came to my house and said, What shall I do? the United States troops are after me.' I had lost a boy down in Virginia myself, and had other sons drafted, one of them in three different townships, and they had gone West ; so I got Jerry's boy a blanket and told him to go out in the barn and crawl into the hay-mow. Dur- ing the night I heard guns go off in the direction

of Jerry's. Next morning I went down. The snow about the house was trampled and covered with blood and the window-lights were shot out of Jerry's house. Mrs. Greening sat by the fire with her head down. She would ery and then she would swear. Her husband and Charles Bates, both of whom were drafted, had a shanty where they slept, but had come home to butcher hogs, and there the cavalrymen found them. Jerry was well armed, and when the cavalrymen came up he fired on them, and a younger son of his helped him in the shooting, but Bates did not take any hand in the firing. They hit one of the cavalrymen in the neck. A ball that had about spent its force hit Jerry on the bone of the hip, flattened out and fell down into his boot. The soldiers foreed their way into the house and captured Jerry. Mrs. Greening threw a straw bed over Charles Bates in the hall, but they found him and took them both down to Philadelphia." Jerry had not been in the barraeks in Philadelphia more than two hours before he got into a fight with another man about who should use the fire first to cook his dinner ; but fortunately for Jerry he had made a friend in the backwoods who did not forget him in his extremity. Mr. Cuthbert, a gentleman of influence in Philadelphia, stopped at the Sawkill House a number of summers. In his hunting and fishing excursions he often went out as far as Rattlesnake Creek, where he became acquainted with Jerry, who was a guide to him in that region. He bailed Jerry out and saved him from receiving any further pun- ishment for his belligerent attitude towards the cavalrymen.

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 147

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