History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 151

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 151
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 151
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 151

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).

Dr. Fulmer's mother, Barbara Ann (1799- 1882), was a daughter of Mathias Brakely, of Warren County, who was of German descent. The children of Judge Fulmer are Brakely, who was a merchant in the home store until his decease ; Andrew J., a merchant at Stewarts-

ville in the same store ; John, deceased, assisted in conducting the business at Fulmerville ; Dr. Philip F. Fulmer, subject of this sketch ; William, a merchant at Bloomsburg, N. J .; Mary, widow of Jacob Strader, of Washington, N. J. ; Emma, wife of David Clark, cashier of the Danville Bank, at Danville, Pa. Dr. Ful- mer's parental grandfather, John Fulmer, came from Germany, and was a tanner and farmer in Richmond, where he settled and resided during his life.

Mrs. Dr. Fulmer's father, Wilson W. Bennitt (1801-1861), resided in Elmira, N. Y., and was the son of Platt Bennitt, a native of Connecticut, who settled at Elmira and was the founder of the first Episcopal Church at that place. Platt Bennitt's wife was a Wheeler, of Horseheads, N. Y. Wilson W. Bennitt's children are Frances, of Wilkes-Barre, Pa., widow of the late Edward Hubbell, of Bath, N. Y .; Zibah, died in 1881, resided at St. Louis and was superintendent of the Ohio and Mississippi Railroad ; Henry is a banker at Newbern, N. Y .; and Mrs. Dr. Fulmer.

Mrs. Dr. Fulmer's mother, Mary Tuttle (1806-1858), was a native of Elmira, N. Y., whose mother was a Cantine, a native of France, and whose father was an Englishman, who came from Long Island ; was one of the first settlers at Elmira, was one of the first Masons there, and one of the founders of the first Presbyterian Church in that city. Dr. Fulmer's children are Frank, died at the age of five years at Richmond, Va .; Nana B. and Philip F. Fulmer, Jr.

CHAPTER IX.

LEHMAN TOWNSHIP.

LEHMAN TOWNSHIP was erected August 19, 1829, from Delaware. The most southern township in Pike County, it is bounded on the north by Delaware, on the east by New Jersey and the Delaware River, on the south by Mid- dle Smithfield township, in Monroe County, and on the west by Porter township.

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The physical features of Lehman are simi- lar to those of Delaware, though the bluffs are not as precipitous and more broken and irregu- lar. The falls are beautiful, particularly the Bushkill Falls, which are on the Little Bush- kill, about two and one-half miles from the village of Bushkill. The first fall, which is in Rocky Glen, is about eight feet high. After flowing through the glen a distance of about two hundred and fifty feet it falls about six feet on a rock shelf or step about ten feet long, when it takes a perpendicular plunge of eighty feet into a circular basin, whose rocky sides are two hundred feet high, and flows onward through a deep gorge into the Big Bushkill. Josephine Compton, of Philadelphia, fell one hundred and eight feet from the rocks above these falls and recovered from her injuries. The Pell Falls are just above the Bushikill Falls. There are also three falls on Pond Run, which enters the Bushkill just below the falls. One of these falls has a perpendicular descent of one hundred fect over the rocks. There are also five falls on the Saw Creek, that runs through a beautiful gorge and enters the Big Bushkill about three miles above the village. Lehman is undoubt- edly one of the oldest settlements in Pike County. The beautiful flat lands along the Delaware are very fertile and the Indians con- tended for them with vigor. There is hardly an old family from Dingman's Ferry to Bush- kill that does not relate traditions of contests with the Indians in which some of the family have lost their lives or been taken prisoners. This region was settled about 1700, as near as can be ascertained. The village of Bushkill lies on both sides of the Bushkill River, and is almost inseparable in its history, although one part is in Pike County and the other in Mon- roe. The Monroe part is distinguished as Maple Grove. We shall review them together. William Courtright, John Teal, and an old man about eighty years of age, named Maginnis, were taken prisoners at Maple Grove by the Indians. Maginnis being feeble and unable to travel very fast, was killed and scalped a few miles west from Maple Grove, at a place still known as Maginnis' Barrens. Captain Hoover, with a small party of men, started in pursuit.

They came to the spot where the Indians were encamped, at "Indians' Swamp," near the headwaters of the Bushkill. They were mak- ing preparations for supper when the pursuing party fired on them, killing two of their num- ber and wounding a third. The two live In- dians and wounded one escaped and Courtright and Teal were rescued. Courtright, however, was wounded by his friends when they fired on the Indians, so that he used crutches the re- mainder of his life. The settlers on the Penn- sylvania side were more exposed than on the Jersey side, as the Indians who raided the Delaware Valley had their seat of power to the west, on the Susquehanna ; as all between the Susquehanna and the Delaware was a wilder- less, an Indian could skulk among the rocks or stand on the top of the bluffs and survey the valley below. He could see the farmers coming over from the Jersey side to harvest their grain or care for their stock, and easily attacking them una wares, would carry off men, women and children into barbarous captivity or kill them on the spot. The evening, when the farmers crossed the Delaware to milk their cows, was a favorite time for the savages to acomplish their work, after which they skulked away under cover of darkness over the pine and scrub-oak- covered hills of Pike County westward into the wilderness, where it would be unsafe for any white man to follow them. During the Indian troubles in 1854 stone houses or forts were erected, most of these forts being built on the Jersey side, although it appears that Fort Hyndshaw was on Pennsylvania ground. At the point of a little rise of ground not far from the Bushkill, about three-fourths of a mile from the Delaware, near a spring and near the present road, is an old cellar where was formerly a log fort recently. torn down. The oldest in- habitants identify it as the site of Fort Hynd- shaw. Some persons place this fort in Paha- quwarry, just across the river in New Jersey, but the reference in Pennsylvania Archives to Fort Hyndshaw favors the conclusion that it was in Smithfield township, on the Bushkill, as above indicated.

BUSHKILL VILLAGE .- Bushkill was first settled by the Gonzales or Gunsaulis, the

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Smiths, Schoonovers, and later the Hellers, Peterses and others. Manuel Gonzales, a Span- iard, lived in Bushkill as carly as 1750, and perhaps earlier. He had two sons,-Manuel and Samuel. A Gonzales is buried at Wurts- boro', and is said to be the first white man buried in Orange County. His name was Manuel, that and Samuel being favorite names in the family.

Old Manuel Gonzales had seven daughters. Among them were Catharine (wife of John Turner) and Elizabeth, who was taken to Canada by the Indians when seven years old. She and her father were hunting for the horses just back of the Bushkill Church, on the Dela- ware flats. The Indians saw them and started in pursuit. Mr. Gonzales jumped into a wash- out near the river and was concealed, but little Lizzie ran in a different direction and was cap- tured. They heard her scream when she was taken. The first night of their encampment they wished to kill her, but an old Indian said, " No, she was a smart little girl, and he would take care of her." They took her to Canada, where she lived for thirty-two years, and mar- ried an Indian chief, by whom she had two children, who died. An old man afterward came to Bushkill and remarked that if Gonzales would give him a mug of cider he would tell him where his daughter was. The man's description was so accurate that Mr. Gonzales and a neighbor went in search of her. They found her as described, but she did not wish to return. Although her husband and children were dead, she was with difficulty prevailed upon to abandon the life she had so long fol- lowed. She remembered that she had lived beside a large river, that a horse jumped over the fence and killed itself, and certain apples that she used to eat. She also remembered that her name was Lizzie, but she had forgot- ten her other name. She married Peter Quick, of Belvidere, after her return.

Manuel Gonzales married Betsy Overfield, and lived and died in Lehman. He had one son, Manuel, who married Sarah Courtright, and lived in Smithfield, a little below Bushkill. His children were Betsey (wife of Barney Decker, a farmer in Smithfield), Ann (wife of

George Kintner), Margaret, Susan (wife of Martin Overfield), Sarah (wife of Jacob Cort- right), Heister Gunsaulis (married Elizabetlı Trach and lived near the homestead), William (married Mary Kirwan, and lived near the former), James and Samuel moved to New York, and Mary married Andrew Fritchee.

Samuel Gonzales married Elsie De Witt, moved from Bushkill to Smithfield and lived on a farm ; Catharine was the wife of Jacob Miller, a farmer, who lived in Smithfield ; Mary married John Shoemaker ; Sarah was the wife of Henry Peters, a merchant in Bushkill. He was ap- pointed postmaster in 1812. It is not certain that he was the first postmaster, but he was the earliest official remembered. Israel Bensley lived in the log house where Mrs. E. E. Peters' hotel now stands. That is also the old Mannel Gonzales place. Henry Peters was a son of Peter Peters, of Philadelphia. He was a merchant, hotel-keeper and postmaster until 1857. His widow resides with her chil- dren, and is in her ninetieth year. She pos- sesses a retentive memory and has furnished the writer with most of the facts in relation to the Gonzales family.

Henry Peters' family all lived in Bushkill and vicinity and are among the most enterprising people of the place. The children were Elizabeth, Elsie G., Delinda, Charles R., Maria L., Catha- rine M., Samuel G. and Wm. N. Peters. Samuel G. Peters was appointed postmaster in 1857, and still holds the office. The store was first started by Henry Peters, Solomon Westbrook and William H. Nyce, under the firm-name of Peters, Westbrook & Nyce. After Westbrook and Nyce retired Henry M. La Bar succeeded as member of the firm. Mr. La Bar married Elsie G. Peters and was associate judge of Pike County one term. Charles R. Peters (now deceased) married Elizabeth E. Cool- baugh, the gifted daughter of Judge Moses Cool- baugh, and kept the hotel on the old Gonzales homestead site. Mrs. Peters and her sons now conduct one of the most attractive summer resorts in the Delaware Valley. Delinda was the wife of Colonel Henry S. Mott, of Milford.

Catharine M. Peters was the wife of Frank Eilenberger, a merchant in Bushkill. William

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N. Peters married a daughter of Judge Mackey and lives at Bushkill.

Eliza Gonzales was the wife of Melchior De Puy, a farmer in Smithfield. Manuel Gonzales (3d) married Susan De Puy, and lived in Smithfield. He had one son, Samuel, who died in the army. Susan Gonzales, the last of Sam- uel Gonzales' family, married Martin Mosier, a farmer in Smithfield.

George Peters, a brother of Henry Peters, married a daughter of Philip Miller. His sons are John, Daniel and Philip, who have fine residences in Maple Grove or Bushkill. Henry, Jane, Margaret, Delinda and Susan are the re- maining children.

Rodolphus Schoonover married Hannalı Hyndshaw, and lived just across the Bushkill, in Smithfield, where Charles Wallace now re- sides. Hc was one of the old pioneers and, like Gonzales, no one recalls the date of his arrival, though it was probably years before the Revolutionary War. His sons were Daniel, Benjamin, James and William. His daughters were Hannah, Dorothy, Sally, Susan and Mary. Daniel married Cornelia Swartwood, and lived on the old place. Their children were Barney, Franklin and Rima. Benjamin married Elizabeth Swartwood and lived in Smithfield. His children were Samuel, Simeon, William, John and George, Jane, Sarah and Hannah. James Schoonover married and sct- tled in the vicinity. His children were Rachel, Mary, Cornelius, Daniel, Hyndshaw, Elijah, James, William and Rodolphus. Cornelius lived to be ninety years of age. William, of the original family, moved to Ohio. Sarah Schoonover was the wife of William Clark, a farmer in Smithfield. Their children were Hannah, Mary, Jane and Elizabeth, John Daniel and Robert, who settled near home. William Clark came from Kentucky, his sister riding all the way on horseback to visit lim. She brought with her silverware and a little slave. He accepted the silverware, but refused the slave. Susan Schoonover was the wife of Simeon Swartwood, who lived and died in Lehman.

Old Rodolphus Schoonover had a grist-mill on the Bushkill, the oldest grist-mill in this

vicinity. It was built before the Revolutionary War and received bullet-marks during that con- flict which were to be seeu years afterward. It had one run of stone. Henry Peters built a fulling-mill which was burned, when he erected the present Peters grist-mill.

Benjamin Schoonover built the first foundry on the Buslikill, in 1824. It was the earliest foundry between Lehigh and Newburgh. He cast plows, and obtained his own price for them, receiving eiglit and ten dollars for coarse, rough plows. He was also the first blacksmith. Simeon Schoonover, his son, succeeded him in the business and rebuilt the foundry twice after it burned. John M. Heller conducted the first wagon-shop. Afterward Simeon Schoonover built a wagon-shop in connection with the foundry. The earliest wagons made in the Minisink Valley had cumbersome felloes pinned together without any tire. Simon Heller and William Clark built the grist-mill now owned by Jacob H. Place, and William Place the hotel now owned by his son, H. J. Place.

Jolin L. Swartwood erected the blacksmith and wheelwright-shop now occupied by his son- in-law, William B. Turn. Webb Wallace and Thomas Newman built the house now occupied by William Turn. Oren Sanford and Chauncy Dimmick built the fulling and carding-mill now occupied by Proctor. Adam Overpack had a tannery in Bushkill in 1812, and Frederick Vadican, from Connecticut, conducted a store at the same time. John Heller built a tannery on the little Bushkill, where upper leather is oak tanned. In 1880 Frank Denegri purchased the property, which is in full operation with twenty vats. Charles L. Heller says that liis grandfather, Simon Heller, bought the property of his great-grandfather, whose name he thinks was John.

Sinon Heller married Sarah Carpenter, their children being Sarah, wife of Simeon Schioon- over, who lives in Maple Grove, and is nearly eighty years of age; Mary, wife of Samuel G. Schoonover; Amos Heller, who lived in Phila- delphia ; and Susan, who married Conrad Kin- ter and moved West. John Heller lived on the homestead ; was justice of the peace for twenty- five years, eounty treasurer and associate judge

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of Pike County, and an honest business man. He built the tannery and carried on the busi- ness for many years. His wife was Julia A. Smith. His son, Mahlon G. Heller, resides in Fort Wayne, Indiana, and was twice a member of the Legislature ; Amos Heller was killed by the cars ; Charles L. Heller lives on the home- stcad, and is by trade a printer and harness- maker ; Mary E. married Oliver Smith, and lives in Smithfield ; Ella J. married G. O. Car- michael ; Sarah E. married Webb Quick, who was a partner in the tannery when he died ; John M. Heller, who had the first wheelwright- shop, afterward conducted a carriage-works in Milford, and later still in Port Jervis.

Of John M. Heller's children, George R. Heller, who lived in Milford, became associate judge, and Martin V. Heller is an Erie Rail- road agent at Port Jervis; Ira B. N. Heller was a printer, a trade which he learned in the Milford Herald office.

David Smith lived in Lehman, was a lieu- tenant in the War of 1812, and a lieutenant- colonel of militia. He married Mary Stack- house. His son, Jacob J. Smith, lives on the homestead, and is remarkably well-versed in the early history of Lehman. James S. Smith was sheriff of Pike County ; Oliver Smith, a millwright, lives in Smithfield ; Elenor was the wife of James Schuman.

Peter La Bar was an old settler in Bushkill. He was a weaver, kept two looms in his house, and wove cloths for the settlers. He had a large family, all of whom are dead.

Jeremiah Fleming lived near where the pres- ent bark-house now stands, and perished in a snow-storm about one mile from Bushkill.

John Heller kept the first log tavern where Mrs. E. E. Peters is now located, and was suc- cecded by Henry Peters. The first tavern-sign was a little brown jug hung up in the attic. Israel Bensley had this tavern for a short time. Joseph H. Place also has a hotel in Maple Grove. Samuel G. Peters succceded his father in the mercantile business. Bushkill is an independent school district, including Maple Grove, in Middle Smithfield township. The building is located across the Bushkill, in Maple Grove.

Old Simeon Schoonover says "the first school that he can remember was on top of the Hog Back Hill, which is on Smithfield side. The school-house was made of logs, and one side of it tumbled down so that the sheep used to occu- py it with us. They would take possession, and we had to drive them out. I think Jack Rob- ison was teacher." There is a Dutch Reformed Church1 in Bushkill, organized in connection with the church across the river, in 1737 .. The first church edifice erected for the congregation worshipping at Bushkill was in 1832 (the year of the great revival), the lot for which was given by Henry Peters. It was commenced in the spring of 1832, while the Rev. David Cushing was preaching, and completed in 1833. It is said to have been due to his efforts in no small degrce that the house was completed. He assisted in cutting timber for the frame, on the church farm in Sandyston, and helped raft and run it down the river. Out of ninety dollars received at this point for his services, he sub- scribed fifty dollars towards the crection of the church. Its cost was a little over two thousand dollars. The building committee were Simeon Schoonover, John M. Heller and James Nyce. The new church is sixty feet long, with tower projection and pulpit recess seventy feet, and thirty-eight feet wide. Henry M. Labar, John M. Swartwood and P. J. Guillot were building committee until the building was inclosed, and Jacob Nyce, William Schoonover and John Heller at the time of its completion. Cost of edifice, $5359.95. Dedicated January 13, 1874, by Rev. S. W. Mills, of Port Jervis, who preached the historical discourse in the morning, and Rev. E. P. Rogers, D.D., of New York, preached the dedicatory sermon in the after- noon.

WALPACK BEND, BUSHKILL. - Walpack Bend, at Bushkill, on the dividing line between Monroe and Pike Counties, has never received that notice from the press which its merits de- serve. Its curious conformation and natural beanties will, when fully known, make it a de- sirable point for summer tourists.

The Delaware River, rising in the State of

1 See church history of Delaware.

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New York, runs nearly south until it strikes the Blue Range, at Carpenter's Point, near Port Jervis. Having no other course to take, the Delaware turns nearly at a right angle and runs along the base of the mountain in a westerly direction. The Blue Mountains, at this point, is nearly a solid mountain, but a small stream here starts out westerly, parallel to the Delaware River, and but a short distance from it. This stream, known as Flat Brook, increases in size as it flows on, until it appears to have worn a deep valley, dividing, as it were, the mountain into two different ranges. When the waters of the Delaware reach the village of Bushkill, in Pike . County, it receives the waters of the Bushkill Creek, a large stream made up of various streams which run from the highlands of Pike and Monroe Counties.

Receiving then the waters of the Bushkill, the Delaware turns back on itself, as it were, and runs nearly east for some distance and there meets the waters of the Flat Brook, which has been paralleling it from Carpenter's Point, a distance of nearly thirty miles. In thus going north the Delaware runs along the south side of the northerly range of the mountains formed by the Flat Brook and known as Godfrey's Ridge. Then receiving the waters of the Flat Brook, the Delaware makes another short turn, and flows along the base of the main range of the Blue Mountains to the Delaware Water Gap, where it again turns to the south, flows through the well-known gap and passes on to the sea. The bend thus formed at Bushkill is known as Walpack Bend. From a point just above the village of Bushkill, a long-range rifle will throw its charge three times aeross the Delaware. The scenery about the Bend is beautiful, and the fishing for black bass is reported to be the best on the Delaware River. The summer tourists who patronize the summer resorts at Bushkill enjoy the beantics of the Bend; but what is wanted are large and commodious hotels or boarding-houses on the high points of God- frey's Ridgein New Jersey, or on the correspond- ing highland on Hog Back, which is the eu- phonious name given to that same range in Monroe County. When this is done, Walpack Bend and its beauties will be known to, and en-

joyed by, thousands who have never heard of it beforc.

Among the prominent men of New Jersey was John Cleves Symmes, who lived just across the Delaware from Bushkill in Revolutionary times. Under the new Constitution of New Jersey he was the first conncilor. He was one of the County Committee of Safety that held a session at a court-house in New Jersey the 10th and 11th of August, 1775, abont eleven months. before thic Declaration of Independence, and in the fall of 1776, Colonel John C. Symmes re- paired with the battalion under his command and formed a part of the brigade of Colonel Jacob Ford. On the 14th of December in that year, while quartered at Chatham, charged with the duty of covering the retreat of Washington through New Jersey, Colonel Ford received in- telligence that eight hundred British troops, commanded by General Leslie, had advanced to Springfield, four miles from Chatham, and or- dered Colonel Symmes to proceed to Springfield and check the enemy, if possible. Accordingly, Colonel Symmes, with a detachment of the bri- gade, marched to that village and attacked the British in the evening. This was one of the first checks Leslie met with after leaving Eliza- bethtown, but others soon followed, and his fur- ther progress in that direction was effectually stopped. Colonel Symmes being soon after made one of the judges of the Supreme Court of New Jersey, his judicial duties compelled him to retire from the field. A few years after the in- dependence of the United States was established Colonel Symmes removed to Ohio and became the pioneer settler on the Ohio between the Miami Rivers. Here, at North Bend, Judge Symmes laid out a town to be called the City of Symmes, but Cineinnati having been selected for the station of the government troops and location of Fort Washington, emigrants flocked thither on account of the protection afforded by the fort. Judge Symmes repurchased most of the land he had soll and abandoned the project of a city.

Soon after the organization of the Northwes- tern Territory, Judge Symmes was appointed (February 19, 1788) one of the judges of the Supreme Court of the Territory and attended the

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

sittings of the court at Detroit and Marietta. In the year 1808 he built a large and costly house at Great Bend, which was destroyed by fire, the work of an ineendiary, whose aspirations for the great office of justice of the peace the judge did not encourage. Colonel Symmes was educated to the law, but never practiced that profession. About 1760 he removed from Long Island to Walpaek, Sussex County, N. J., where he be- came the owner of several hundred acres of choice land in Flatbrook Valley, including the present site of the village of Walpack Centre. In this neighborhood he erected a dwelling and planted an orchard. On the opposite side of Flat Brook he built a grist-mill on a mountain stream. In this secluded valley home, nestled between the mountains, Symures brought his accomplished wife, Anna Livingston, whose father, William Livingston, became, in 1776, the patriot Gover- nor of New Jersey. Sarah Van Brugh, another of Governor Livingston's daughters, beeame the wife of John Jay, president of the first Con- gress, Governor of New York and chief justice of the United States Supreme Court. Mrs. Symmes died July 25, 1776, and was buried in the old Shapanaek burying-ground, but a few hundred yards from the banks of the Delaware, near the ruins of the old Shapanaek Duteli Church, which was ereeted before the Revolu- tion, being built of logs of an octagonal shape .. On a plain marble slab which marks the spot is the following inseription :

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 151

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