History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 148

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 148
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 148
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 148

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CHAPTER VIII.

DELAWARE TOWNSHIP.

DELAWARE TOWNSHIP appears in the list of Northampton County townships continu- ously after 1766, but the record of its erection cannot be found. Old Delaware township, which extended west from the Delaware River to the Luzerne County line, was bounded on the south by Smithfield (now Middle Smith- field) and extended north from the mouth of

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the Bushkill, up the Delaware River to the lower end of the Minisink Island. The present town- ship of Delaware is bounded on the north by Ding- man township, on the east by the Delaware River and New Jersey, on the south by Lchman township and on the west by Porter. The first settlements on the Delaware River were made on the New Jersey side ; but in or about the year 1735, Andreas Dingerman, or Andrew Dingman, as it is now written, crossed the Del- aware and chose a place in the wilderness for his home, which he called "Dingman's Choice," a name which it still retains in local usage, al- though the post-office is called Dingman's Ferry. When Andrew Dingman first crossed the river to make his habitation on the Pennsylvania side, he had an opportunity to make a choice, as he was the pioneer settler of Delaware town- ship. If he was not the first, he was among the first, and is the first of whom we have au- thentic account. He certainly made an excel- lent choice of location for his future home, judging from present developments, for here the Delaware River flows close to the New Jer- sey hills and leaves a wide flat of rich bottom land on the Pennsylvania side. Here Dingman Creck bursts through the mountain bluffs after dashing over the rocks at the factory in a fall called the Factory Falls, and lower down is the " Bettie Brooks " or " Fulmer Falls." Still farther down are the " Deer Leap " and " High Falls." Near the foot of the " High or Ding- man Falls " a small rivulet comes seething down in rapids and waterfalls a distance of one hun- dred and fifty feet between perpendicular rocks standing from six to eight feet apart. The surging and foaming of this little rivulet, as it dashes along between the rocks, led the natives to call it " The Soap Trough," but recent vis- itors have named it " The Silver Thread." As Dingman Creek approaches the Delaware River, the deep mountain gorge through which it has been flowing grows wider, the hills separating like the letter V, making the flat nearly a mile wide, and inclosing it in a peculiar manner. Here, then, with a broad expanse of fertile river bottom land under his feet, with a creek that would supply water-power for grist and saw-mills flowing through it, surrounded by

mountain bluffs, " rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun," which environ it on two sides, he feasted his eyes upon the lavish bounty of Na- ture, in her primeval grandeur and magnificence, and inhaled the pure, health-giving air which floated around these mountains, " yet gorgeous in their primitive beauty, forest-crowned," and intersected with gushing streams of limpid waters, which burst through the rocks from the highlands above in bold and beautiful water- falls, where for ages they have been wearing deep and still deeper the stcep gorges and rocky glens in her riven sides.

Here, amid so much grandeur and beauty, Andrew Dingman made his choice and cut the first bush, built the first log cabin on the river- bank and put the first ferry-boat on the Dela- ware at what is now known as Dingman's Ferry. Andrew Dingman was born at Kin- derhook, New York, in the year 1711, and settled at Dingman's Choice in the year 1735, or about that time. His first log cabin was down by the river-bank. About 1750, or some time previous to the French and Indian War, he built a stone house not far from where the Dingman " Reformed Church " now stands, on the site occupied by the house Fannie Ding- man's farmer occupies. He had two sons, Isaac and Andrew Dingman, Jr., who was born September 19, 1753, in the old stone house which was destroyed during the French and Indian War, in 1755. Dingman immedi- ately rebuilt another house. Mr. Dingman was endowed with a dauntless spirit and had now a farm, with orchards and barns. He was assisted in his labors by his two sons and four slaves. He established a traffic with the In- dians, who often visited him, and from his friendly intercourse and dealing with the na- tives he derived considerable pecuniary advan- tage. In 1744 he obtained a warrant for the tract which now comprises a part of the M. W. Dingman estate, and in 1750 one for that lot on which the saw-mill at Dingman's now stands. He subsequently took up, as it is termed, three other lots of land, the last in 1775.

There were twenty-seven log and stone houses in Delaware as it was then, including

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Lehman and other territory west, contempora- neously with that of Andrew Dingman, Sr ..

Among these pioneers were Captain Johannes Van Etten, who had a fort on the river road about four miles above Dingman's Choice. Benjamin Decker and Daniel Courtright each had cabins or houses about one mile north of Dingman's. There was a stone house below the ferry, built by Colonel John Rosenkrans, of New Jersey, which was unoccupied some two or three years during the war and was not burnt or destroyed (probably where M. V. C. Shoemaker now lives). There was also a fort about three miles below Dingman's Choice, at a place called Deckertown, where Jacob Horn- beck afterwards lived. Below Deckertown there was a log house with two rooms, owned and occupied by Hendrickus Decker, who had married Hannah Carmer, sister of Andrew Dingman's wife. Jacobus Van Gordon lived about two miles farther down, in what is now Lehman, and two miles farther still lived Eliphaz Van Auken.

William Allen, of Philadelphia, sold one hundred and ninety-three acres of land to Peter Van Aken for two hundred and forty-six pounds and seven shillings and one pepper-corn a ycar, if the same shall be demanded, the deed bearing date September 18, 1749, for land in Bucks County, afterwards Delaware, now Leh- man township. Peter Van Aken made his will in Dutch, commencing: "I, Peter Van Aken, of Bucks County, in the province of Pensilvania, being advanced to a great age, etc., etc." He first makes provision for his wife Russie as long as she remains his widow. Then his oldest son, Eliphaz, is to have all the prop- erty if he lives, which shows that old Peter Van Aken was possessed of the old feudal idea that the eldest son should inherit the estate. If Eliphaz should die, then the other five sons were to share eqnally in the estate, no mention being made of any daughters. It so happencd that Elipliaz lived and occupied the property for many years. This will was probated and translated from the original Dutch in Ulster County, N. Y., July 8, 1757, which was several years after Northampton County was erccted. The whole transaction shows that the sturdy

old Dutch pioneers did not care to acknowledge the authority of the province of "Pensilvania," unless compelled to do so. This probate com- mences as follows : " Sir Charles Hardy, Knight, Captain, General and Governor-in-Chief in and over the province of New York and the terri- tories depending thereon in America, and Vice- Admiral of the same, etc."

David Van Anken occupied the next house, about one mile below Peter Van Aken's, and John Emmons had a log cabin about one-half mile farther down. The next house below was a fort occupied by Johannes Brink, called Brink's Fort. The next below Brink's was a log house occupied by Thomas Swartwood, and the next a stone house occupied by Benardus Swartwood. Another was occupied by old William Custard. The next below was a log house on the bank of the river, occupied by James Mullen. About one-half mile farther on was a stone house owned and occupied by Captain Emanuel Hoover, who also owned a house aeross the river, on the Jersey side, at a place called by the Indians Walpack, around which house was a stockade. The next house below was at Bushkill, owned by Manuel Gunsalus or Gonzales.

Andrew Dingman built a flat-boat for ferry- ing purposes with a hand-axe, and it is prob- able that he built a grist-mill and saw-mill on Dingman's Creek. An old grist-mill, with one "run" of native stones, stood near the present grist-mill. Judge Dingman used to tell his children about turning the bolt by hand while the miller ground the grist.1

The early settlers appear to have secured the friendship of the Indians up to the time of the French and Indian War, when the savages com- mitted some depredations on the settlers in the Minisink, burning houses, taking prisoners and otherwise annoying them. During the Revolutionary struggle they conspired with the Tories to drive the hated pale-faces out of their hunting-grounds.

One of Andrew Dingman's sons, Isaac, when

1 Most of the above facts are taken from Judge Ding- man's papers, which he prepared for the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

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about nineteen years of age, was riding a horse up the road to the barn and when a little north of the old Dingman Hotel (now Fulmer's), an In- dian, who was secreted in the orchard, shot him and ran away. His mother, who happened to be standing in the door holding the future judge, who was then four years of age, by the hand, ex- claimed, " Law me, Isaac is shot !" He was mortally wounded, but they started across the river with him in a flat-boat. While they were going over he asked for a drink of water and shortly after died before they reached the Jersey shore, where there was a fort with one cannon. He was buried on the Jersey side, near the abutment of the old bridge.

The next morning the Indians attacked the honse of Hendrikus Decker, who lived a little below Deckertown, as before mentioned. The family fled for their lives to Fort Decker, which was about one-fourth of a mile north, at Decker- town. Six of the family reached the fort in safety, but two of the sons, Henry and David, were killed and one of them was scalped.

Andrew Dingman, Jr., " Foddy Dingman," as he was called, was born in the old stone house September 19, 1753. He married Jane Westbrook, a daughter of Daniel Westbrook, who lived across the river in New Jersey, and had three daughters, each of whom he gave a farm on the flats in Walpack township. Andrew Dingman took the upper farm, and here Daniel Westbrook Dingman was born April 14, 1775, on the Daniel Smith place, in a house that stood opposite Barney Swartwood's. Subsequently Andrew Dingman, Jr., sold this property and bought on the Pennsylvania side again, near where John Whitaker lives.

Before the Revolutionary War the nearest justice of the peace was Benjamin Van Campen, who lived twenty-two miles from Dingman's Choice. The county-seat was at Newtown, near Bristol, and there Andrew Dingman at- tended court.

In 1793 Daniel W. Dingman was commis- sioned as lieutenant of a company of militia by Thomas Mifflin, Governor of Pennsylvania. On the 2d of August, 1800, he was commis- sioned lieutenant-colonel of the One Hundred and Third Regiment Pennsylvania Militia by

Governor Mckean. In 1801 he received a commission as high sheriff of Wayne County, by the same Governor. He was the second sheriff of Wayne County, his term extending from 1801 to 1804. The court was held at Wilsonville from 1799 to 1802, when it was removed to Milford for a short time ; conse- quently he commenced at Wilsonville and closed his term at Milford. At one of these places he lived in a log house, the jail being similar to his dwelling. He had two prisoners in this jail. One morning, on arising, he found both his prisoners and the jail were gone. During the night the jail was torn down and the build- ing reduced to saw-logs, while the prisoners were nowhere to be found. About that time he was visited by some gentlemen from New Jersey on business, and " Black Feen " over- heard some very uncomplimentary remarks about such a dwelling for a sheriff to live in, good enough, however, for a county-seat that was liable to be removed any day. He was a member of the Legislature of Pennsylvania from 1808 till 1813, and when Pike County was set off from Wayne and Northampton, he was commissioned associate judge by Governor Simon Snyder, October 10, 1814, and continucd in that office twenty-six years, when his term expired by limitation under the new Constitu- tion. John Coolbaugh sat with him for twenty- two years and until Monroe was erected. They were both large, stoutly-built men, and weighed over two hundred pounds each, while Judge Scott, the presiding judge who sat between them, was a tall, spare, intellectual man of great legal attainments. His associates sel- dom interfered, unless in relation to something of a political nature. Dingman was once Presidential elector and cast his vote for James Monroe. During Jackson's campaign he cut a tall hickory pole and floated it to Easton, on a raft, when it was raised on Mount Jefferson. When taken down it was made into canes, one of which was presented to General Jackson and another to Judge Dingman. Solomon Dingman, his grand- son, now has the cane. In 1846 he was corre- sponding secretary of the Pennsylvania Histor- ical Society. Daniel W. Dingman was an active business man and a successful politician of the

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old Jacksonian Democratic school. He built a hotel which has since been enlarged .. by Philip Fulmer, until it will accommodate one hundred guests. He also built the Dingman grist-mill, and being given his choice whether he would have an academy or a county-seat located at Dingman's Ferry, chose an academy. In all public matters relating to Pike County, he was a leading man. While in the Legisla- ture he secured an act making Blooming Grove the county-seat, but thecommissioners of Wayne County refused to levy a tax for public build- ings and the county-seat was finally fixed at Bethany. Heand his friends then had the county of Pike erected. He was also influential in getting State appropriations for roads over the barrens of Pike County. Towards the close of his life he built a house in the wilderness, by Lake Teedyuscung or Nichecronk, where he lived a retired life for a number of years. He finally came back to his old home, and died April 12, 1862, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years, and was buried in the Delaware Ceme- tery at Dingman's Ferry. Towards the close of his life he seemed to desire posthumous fame and took pride in the fact that he belonged to the Pennsylvania Historical Society. He was thoroughly identified with the early history of Pike County. Dingman's Ferry, Dingman Creek and Falls were named in honor of the family, and Dingman township was named in honor of the judge. He was kind to Revolu- tionary heroes and Indian fighters, and General Seeley, Sam Helm, Mapes and Wagdon found a generous stopping-place with him. His only sister, Cornelia, married John Van Etten, and lived where William Courtright now lives at Dingman's Ferry. She was eighty-six years of age when she died. Daniel W. Dingman mar- ried Mary Westbrook. His children were Cor- nelia, wife of Garret Brodhead ; Jane, wife of Franklin Brodhead; Margaret, wife of Abram Coolbaugh. Daniel Dingman lived on the river road.

Martin Westbrook Dingman, who was born in 1798 or 1799, and married Belinda, a daugh- ter of Major Hornbeek, lived for some years on the farm afterwards owned by Jacob Horubeck. From thence he moved to Dingman's Choice,

bought the farm and hotel of his father, and carried on both for nearly thirty years. In connection with this he also did considerable lumbering and business in the grist-mill. A man of scrupulous honesty, vigorous health and untiring energy, he soon became comparatively wealthy. About 1858 he rented the hotel to Danicl Decker, bought the residence built by W. F. Brodhead, moved into it and carried on farming and milling until his death. His chil- dren are Solomon H. Dingman, who married Elizabeth Beemer, and lives on the old Adams farm ; Margaret Jane, unmarried ; Leah E., wife of Albert S. Still ; Mary D., wife of Rev. Gilbert S. Garretson, for many years pastor of the Dutch Reformed Churches at Dingman's Ferry and Peters' Valley, and now settled at Franklin Furnace (they have two children, Henry and Fanny B. Garretson) ; Frances C. Dingman, lives on the homestead at Dingman's Ferry ; Andrew Dingman (3d), who is still living, aged eighty-one, married Caroline Sayre, who recently died, being nearly eighty years of age-he lived by the river, kept Dingman's Ferry for many years and had the reputation of being a good ferryman, being succeeded in the same business by his son-in-law, John Kilsby. Dr. Daniel W. Dingman, of Hawley, is one of his sons, and Alfred Dingman, of Milford, is another.

John Van Etten and Margaret, his wife, sold three parcels of land, containing about sixty- eight acres of land, lying below Namenock Island, in the Delaware River, to Johannes Van Etten, August 22, 1767. This John Van Etten, Daniel Brodhead and John Atkins were judges of the Orphans' Court in Northampton County in the year 1754. Captain Johannes Van Etten, who lived in Delaware township, above Ding- man's Ferry, was a prominent character during the Indian wars.

The Van Etten family were among the early settlers of the township, coming here about 1750. They were far earlier in New York and New Jersey. Some time prior to 1660 the pro- genitor of the Van Ettens, Van Nettens, Van Attas, Van Nattens (the name appearing in early records variously spelled) came to this country from Etten, in the province of North

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

Brabant, Holland, and settled at Kingston, Ul- ster County, N. Y. In the earliest records of the Reformed Dutch Church at Kingston is re- corded the marriage of Jacob Jansen Young- man von Etten, in Brabant, to Anna Adriance, from Amsterdam, in the year 1665. He resided in the town of Hurley until his death, about 1690, and left surviving him his widow, five sous-John, born 1665; Peter; Arien, born 1670; Manuel, born 1681 ; Jacobus or James, born 1685-and four daughters.

In 1718 the property of Jacob Jansen Van Etten was divided among his children by con- veyance from his wife to each of their children, and from about that time the sons, with their families, began to scek new homes in the then sparsely-settled country along the Hudson, and a little later the Delaware Valley.

Peter and James, with their families, crossed the Hudson and settled in Dutchess County about 1720. John, the oldest son, married Jane Roosa, daughter of Arien Roosa, about 1692. He resided until his death in the towns of Hurley and Rochester, Ulster County, N. Y., and had a large family of children, mostly girls. One of his sons, Jacob, born 1696, is the immediate ancestor of the numerous family that settled in the Delaware Valley. April 22, 1719, Jacob married Anna Westbrook, who was born in Kingston, and they lived at Knights- field (the name being written "Nytsfield " in the Mahackkemack church record), in the town of Rochester, Ulster County, until 1730, when Jacob, with his family and some of the sisters who had married, following in the footsteps of many who migrated over the old Mine road to the fertile valleys of the Neversink and Dela- ware, came to the Delaware Valley and settled at Namanoch, along the river on the New Jer- sey side.

He was prominent in the early history of the Minisink Church, which was organized in 1737, and his name, together with those of his sons, appear among the officers and those aiding in the work. His oldest daughter, Helena or Magdalena, born 1721, was the wife of the Rev. John Casp. Fryenmoet, the first regular pastor of the Minisink, Walpack and Mahakkemack Churches, their marriage being among the ear-

liest recorded in the records of these churches in 1742.

Jolın, the oldest son of Jacob, was born in 1720, others of the family being Cornelis, born in 1723; Anthony, born iu 1726 ; Jane, born in 1728; Johannes, born in 1730 ; Sarah, born in 1736 ; Richard, born in 1739.

In the year 1745 William Allen, merchant of Philadelphia, couveyed a tract of land in Delaware township, opposite Namanoch Island, in the Delaware River, to Jacob Van Etten, of the county of Morris, in the eastern province of New Jersey. Through four generations the title and possession has remained in menibers of the family ; three great-granddaughters of Ja- cob now hold it, and reside within a stone's throw of the house of the first one of the name who settled in the county. This was Johannes Van Etten, a son of Jacob, who was born at Namanoch, in New Jersey, about 1730. Upon his marriage, which is recorded in the Reformed Dutch Church at Nopenoch, Ulster County, N. Y., in 1750, he probably located in Penn- sylvania. He was the progenitor of a large family. He was twice married, his first wife having been Maria Gonsoles, of Ulster County, N. Y., by whom he had eleven children. After her death he married Rachel Williams, widow of Daniel Decker, by whom he had four chil- dren,-three sons and one daughter. That these sons, following in the footsteps of their father, obeyed the Scriptural command, " to multiply and replenish," is evidenced by the fact that each had eight children ; many of them still reside in the county and along the Delaware Valley.

John settled very soon after Johannes, near Easton, probably about 1760. In 1767, in a deed to Johannes, he is located in Fork town- ship, Northampton County. He married Mar- garet Westfall in 1738. Their children were Helena, born in 1738 ; Jacob, born in 1740; Daniel, born in 1742; Catharine, born in 1744; Maria, born in 1746 ; Simeon, born in 1748 (?); Margaret, born in 1748 ; Samuel, born in 1750; Margreeta, born in 1752.

Johannes' children, by his first wife, were Magdalena, born in 1751; Manuel, boro in 1754; Rymerick, born iu 1756; Johannes,

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Jr., born in 1759 ; James, born in 1763 (some say Anthony); Elizabeth, born in 1762; Cath- arine, born in 1771; Simeon, born in 1776.

Two of these sons were wounded in a fight with the Indians, near Philip MeCarty's, and his son-in-law, Ennis, killed.

On June 14, 1780, John Chambers asked, in a letter to President Reed, for arms and ammu- nition for a volunteer company, to be placed in the care and charge of Captain Johannes Van Etten. And on July 4, 1780, Lieutenant Samuel Rea wrote to President Reed that he had filled up a commission of Captain Johannes Van Etten,1 and that the Indians had taken a Mr. Dewitt, near Captain Van Etten's, on the Delaware.

In Penna. Arehives, vol. ii. p. 720, in a letter from Captain John Van Etten to Governor Morris, dated at Fort Hyndshaw, July 24, 1756, mention is made of Johannes Van Etten having a conversation with some Indians, during which a disagreement arose, and the Indians carried away, as they thought, a load of swan-shot, while one of his companions received nine charges and lost his scalp.2

The fight between Captain Johannes Van Etten's company and the Indians, in which the eaptain, with three of his sons and son-in-law, Benjamin Ennis, were engaged, was near Me- Carter's, just below the Raymondskill, on the banks of the Delaware. The actual engage- ment is reported by the old inhabitants to have been fought near or on lands now owned by Ira Case, in Dingman township, and John H. Van Etten, Esq., has heard his father say that, when a boy, in company with his father (Cornelius, son of Johannes), he visited the battle-field, and they found, in the creviees of the roeks, human bones, a skull, ete.

The children of Johannes by his second wife were Daniel, born 1780 ; Cornelius, born De- cember 8, 1782 ; Solomon, born February 12, 1789 ; and Dorothy, who married John Latti- more.

The sons of Daniel were Samuel, John, Oli-

ver and Cornelius ; and daughters, Rachel, Jane, Phebe and Cornelia.

The sons of Cornelius were Amos, Solomon (father of Attorney John H. Van Etten, of Milford, and of Mathias M. and Cornelius S.) and Robert K. ; and daughters, Catharine, Ra- ehel, Margaret, Mary and Amanda.

The sons of Solomon were Emanuel, Solo- mon, Daniel, John I. ; and the daughters, Julia Ann, Dorothy, Huldah, Hannah and Eliza Jane.

The first saw-mill was built at Dingman's about 1800, and the grist-mill, where Molli- neux lives, was ereeted about 1827; the grist- mill at Dingman's was built a few years later. Andrew Dingman states that his father built the tavern where Fulmer now is, about 1810; that a man by the name of Winans car- ried the mail on horseback from Easton to Milford, about that time, and that one Jaek- son was the first postmaster he remembers. Jacob Hull was the first merehant, as early as 1810, and Franklin Brodhead followed. Jo- seph Ennis was a ferryman in 1805.

The first school-house was a log seliool-liouse, near Shoemaker's, and Mason Dimmiek taught the first school remembered. Three bridges have been, at various times, erected at Ding- man's Ferry, but the wind, ice and floods have destroyed them and made it necessary to resume the ferry-boat. Judge Dingman chose an academy, rather than the county-seat, thoughi this was not the origin of Dingman's Choice, as has been shown. When the matter of loea- tion and site had been coneluded upon, Judge . Dingman gave one and one-half aeres, by deed bearing date July 15, 1813, to John Nyce, John Westbrook, John Lattimore, Matthew Ridgway and Daniel Jayne, trustees of the Delaware Academy. The deed states "that for good causes and considerations, and the sum of five shillings to him in hand paid, liath given all that messuage, ete., beginning at a eedar standing near the main road." This eedar, which has remained an enduring monu- ment for more than seventy years, still stands ereet, the winds wailing a requiem over the pioneers of the Minisink, who sleep the si- leut sleep of death in the Delaware Cemetery,

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 148

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