History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 156

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 156
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 156
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 156

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).

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PIKE COUNTY.

in 1851, and served four years as county treas- urer, five years as associate judge, five years as county auditor, and was a member of the Legis- lature when he died, besides being town clerk, justice of the peace and school director thirty- eight years. There is a small Methodist Church near this place. .

Rowland's, which is only about one mile below Westfall's, was first started by Hon. George H. Rowland, who came to Lackawaxen

better to be first in a hamlet on the mountains than second at Rome, and he is undisputedly the first in that township.

HON. GEORGE H. ROWLAND. - Samuel Rowland and his two brothers came to New York from Ireland in 1720, and settled in Dutchess County. His son, Samuel Row- land, Jr. (1722-1800), had a son, Robert Row- land (1746-1812), who was justice of the peace in colonial times, and reared a family of chil-

G. M. Nowland

with his parents in 1828, and beginning some years later, when a young man, carved out a home and a fortune on the side of the mountain. The Erie Railway passes through here, and the station is named in his honor. He has a store, farm, and had a mill which has been recently burned. Mr. Rowland, when he located in the wilderness among the rocks, proceeded on the Cæsarian theory that it is

dren, among whom was Garrandus (1776-1834), grandfather of our subject, born at Troy, N. Y., who lived and died near Saratoga Springs, in Saratoga County, N. Y., on a farm owned, in 1886, by his youngest son, Joseph, now seventy years old, and the only surviving son of twelve children.

Garrandus Rowland married a Miss Davis, and reared a family of children. He was a

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

farmer and carpenter and joiner, and resided in Saratoga County, N. Y. Samuel H. Rowland, a son of Garrandus, was born in Saratoga County, November 19, 1801, and there married Lucinda Rogers, a native of the same county. The building of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, between 1823 and 1830, offered large inducements to contractors in its construction, and, after its completion, great opportunities opened up to the early settlers of Wayne and Pike Counties for buying land very cheap that was covered with valuable timber, and within a three days' trip, at high water, from the great natural market, Philadelphia. To this new country Samuel H. Rowland and his young wife came, and took np their home in Pike County April 17, 1828. He was identified with the construction of the canal and was after- wards engaged in lumbering and merchandis- ing, following the latter until his death, which occurred November 18, 1853. He had a good English education for the men of his time, and, during his early manhood, was a teacher. He was an ardent supporter of education in the vicinity where he resided, and was the first school director elected in his township after the law was passed creating that office. His judg- ment in matters, and his practical ideas of things in general, made his opinion sought by other people, and, besides being often selected to adjust settlements between others, and being appointed by the courts to settle difficulties, lie was chosen and served for two terms as justice of the peace. At his death he had acquired a competency, and of his means, during his life, he was charitable and hospitable. They had five children, of whom George H. Rowland was eldest, and was born in Saratoga County, De- cember 26, 1827. His early education, from books, was obtained at schools outside of home, largely at Honesdale, as there were no schools in the neighborhood when the family removed from New York State.

For two winter terms he was a teacher, a good experience to any young man and a step- ping- stone to business. He early became a partner with his father in the mercantile busi- ness in Lackawaxen township, which has been the home of the family in Pennsylvania. In

1851 he began business for himself, and since that time has been largely engaged in the lum- ber and mercantile business, and also in farm- ing. While a young man he took an active in- terest in politics, and for twenty-five years has served as school director, and been often select- ed a delegate to State Conventions, being once placed on the State electoral ticket. In 1861 he was elected to the State Legislature on the Democratic ticket, and, by re-election, served two consecutive terms. In 1872 he was elected to the State Senate and served three years, and, in the fall of 1885, he was chosen to fill a va- cancy in the same office.

Mr. Rowland's life has been one of activity, in- dustry and care. He inherits the sterling quali- ties of his father in his integrity of purpose, his devotion to principle and in his ability to accomplish whatever he undertakes. His wife is Catherine, daughter of Joseph Ammerman, of Salem township, whom he married Novem- ber 3, 1849. They have four sons and four daughters.

The bridge was built at Rowland's by a stock company as a toll-bridge. It paid well but the inhabitants did not wish to pay toll when they believed the county ought to provide them with a bridge ; consequently, an act was passed by the Legislature authorizing the county commissioners to buy the bridge. The commissioners agreed to buy it, but before the bargain was consum- mated a new board of commissioners was elect- ed, who refused to ratify the action of the board. Then followed a tedious lawsuit, in which the matter was carried to the Supreme Court twice. Pending the decision, the bridge was carried away by a flood. Mr. Rowland immediately telegraphed to the commissioners at Milford "to get out with their pike-poles, as the bridge was coming." They were without a bridge again, and the commissioners did not care to incur any new obligations while the suit was pending ; but finally agreed with Mr. Rowland that if he would build another bridge they would pay for it, providing the suit went against them. The suit was decided against them and the county paid the whole debt.

Jesse Walker brought two homeless boys with him from Philadelphia when he came into

959

PIKE COUNTY.

Lackawaxen township. They worked for him at the Narrows until of age and for some years after, for which they claim they never received adequate remuneration. Be that as it may, when these two young men, Israel Kelly and George Kelly, started life for themselves, they went up on the hills back of Rowland's, by honest in- dustry cleared up a good farm and gained a competence. Israel married Ephraim Kimble's sister and one of his sons, Randall Kelly, is a leading merchant at the Narrows, or Kimble's Station, as it is now called, and his Uncle George, who was never married, lives with him, aged eighty-four.

Peter Killam first started on the Lackawaxen above Westfall's, where the Blooming Grove Creek enters the Lackawaxen, at what is now called Millville. He purchased six adjacant tracts of land, built a cabin and commenced lumbering on a large scale for that day. He built one saw-mill at Millville, and paid for his land. " Fortune smiled upon him. The tang- led laurel and stately pine were cutaway, a com- modious dwelling-house erected and a willing bride established as mistress of his mansion." Flushed with success, he built another mill about one mile farther up the river and thus began a series of misfortunes.

About 1835 reverses came: his mills were de- stroyed by fire, his lumber was swept away by the floods. He remained until 1840, then abandoned his property to his creditors and moved farther up the river. Broken-hearted and finally ruined, he never recovered his losses. After he left, Dan Drake held the property until he was drowned, when it lay vacant a while and finally fell into the hands of John Torrey again, who sold it to the Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany. It is a railroad station and John Dem- ing has a furniture factory and store on the site

KIMBLE'S, OR THE NARROWS. - Colonel Hooper, of Philadelphia, bought a tract of land at Lackawaxen Falls, or Mount Moriah, after- ward called the Narrows by the raftmen and now Kimble Station, at an early day,-some think as early as 1750 or 1760, others about the tinic Mordecai Roberts came, in 1791. He built saw-mills and got an act passed making

the Lackawaxen navigable up to the falls, that gave him a monopoly above and an outlet be- low. This continued for many years, until those living above the falls had the stream chartered and obtained from the Legislature an appropriation to blast out the rocks at the Nar- rows and make the river navigable for rafts. After spending considerable money in blasting rocks the Narrows were rendered passable, but it has always been considered the most danger- ous point on the river from the forks of the Dy- berry to Philadelphia, because in blasting the rocks which constitute the fall it necessarily left the river rapid. It takes a sudden bend, while the rocks close in on either side, leaving the pass quite narrow, so that in avoiding Scylla on the one hand they encounter Charybdis on the other ; hence raftmen who could navigate the Narrows safely always commanded greater wages for that service, and certain men spent their time during rafting season in steering through this dangerous pass.

One of the first rafts through the Narrows was run from Paupack by John Nelden, of New Jersey. William R. Walker, Ephraim Kimble, John Graham, Jonathan Brink, Joseph Atkin- son, Sr., Jacob Correll, Abram Shimer, Peter Kellam, Moses Brink, Mordecai Roberts, Sam- uel Roberts, William Roberts, Jacob Kittle and Peter Decker were some of the old "Lacka- wack" raftsmen. They were sturdy men and used to gang together while running rafts. If they disliked a saloon-keeper along the river, he was cleared out. When in the city they held their own against all opposition. In saying this it should not be understood that these men were quarrelsome. They were simply great, bony, muscular fellows engaged in rough work that tended to make men strong and fear- less. Abner Fish was a steersman and noted fighter. While rafting was carried on, the Delaware and Hudson Canal was built in 1827-28, beside the stream from Honesdale to its mouth at Lackawaxen village, and thence down the Delaware to Port Jervis and across to. the Hudson River at Rondout. This canal is here mentioned because in its construction and operation many foreigners were employed, principally Irish. These stalwart lumbermen

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

looked upon the canal as a kind of rival carrier and the Irishmen as intruders; hence many dif- ficulties arose between them. Eb. Sheerer, a burly, stout man, was particularly opposed to them. He was a powerful man and there are many well authenticated stories of his physical prowess by living witnesses.

It is estimated that fifty million feet of lum- ber and logs were run down the Delaware River annually some years ago, and the Lackawaxen always furnished a considerable share of this lumber. The average raft of round timber was sixty-five thousand feet, although they often ran larger rafts, and of sawed lumber they sometimes had two hundred thousand feet in one raft. One of the largest rafts ever taken down the river was managed by Thomas Barnes. It consisted of three hundred sixteen- feet logs in one raft. Col. Hooper, as before stated, came to the Narrows probably after the Revolution and built a saw-mill on the east side of the river. Jesse Walker came from Phila- delphia some time before 1800, purchased this property of Hooper and operated the mills. His son, William R. Walker, built the first saw- mill at Tink's Wig. He had two sons, Webb Walker and Rankin Walker, who emigrated to the West.

Ephraim Kimble, a son of Jacob Kimble, the first, of Paupack settlement, located at the Narrows after the Revolutionary War. He built a saw-mill, cleared up a place and married Eunice, a daughter of Major Ainsley's. His children were,-Elizabeth, wife of John Killam, who lived in Purdytown; William, a farmer and lumberman, who married Irena Rice and had a family of six children, Warren Kimble, the old- est son, lives at Matamoras. He is seventy-three years old and furnished most of the facts in rela- tion to the Kimble family; Lucy was the wife of Moses Killam, Esq. ; Ann was the first wife of Jos. Atkinson, Sr., and the mother of John, George and Asher M. Atkinson, who was super- intendent of the Delaware and Hudson Canal ; Esther was the wife of Chas. B. Seaman, who was sheriff and prothonotary of Pike County ; Crissie was the wife of Dr. Mahony ; Maria married David Rice, who lived at the Narrows ; Sally was the wife of Israel Kelly, of Rowland's ;

Eunice married Calvin Pellet, of Paupack settle- ment ; John married Phebe Rockwell and lived in the vicinity ; Ephraim Kimble (2d) married Lucy Killam, built a store, and was succeeded by his son, Ephraim (3d), at Kimble s, as owner of the store and saw-mill. The station is well-named, Kimble's, in honor of the family who have lived in the same spot to the third generation, and done much to populate the surrounding country and develop its resources. Asa Kim- ble, one of the descendants, ought not to be for- gotten. He married Abbey Pellet and moved up on the Dyberry ; Ephraim, George, John P., William, Martin and Nancy, wife of Ezra Ge- nung, were his children. Abram Skinner, a son of Captain Skinner, of Montague, cleared up a farm about two miles below Kimble's, and was one of the best farmers in Pike County. Jacob Correll made a clearing about 1791 on the opposite side of the river, where James Hanners afterward had a store, and his son, Alva Hanners, now conducts it. Eusebius Kin- caid made a clearing about one and one-third miles from Kimble's, where Joseph Kimble now lives.

Israel, Abel and Eli Hammers, three brothers belonging to the Society of Friends of Phila- delphia, came into Lackawaxen township about 1820, and located in the wilderness, three miles from the Lackawaxen River, on the outlet of Tink Pond, where they purchased three tracts of land, then covered with a heavy growth of white and yellow pine. One brother was a car- penter, one a tailor and the other a man of all work. They constructed a dam and saw-mill, which they put in running order without outside assistance. They manufactured lumber, built a comfortable house, then turned their attention to manufacturing lumber for the Philadelphia market, never cutting standing timber, but picking up that whichi had been felled by the wind. They hired it rafted, and thus received sufficient mouey to supply their simple wants. They cleared up a good farm, kept cows, made butter and were independent. The tailor did the mixing and baking. He stuck a notched stick into the dough and when it had raised to the notch it was fit to bake. They made their own furniture, and the tailor made their clothes.

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PIKE COUNTY.

About 1838 they adopted a colored boy, and the four lived in perfect seclusion. No female had ever crossed the threshold to that uninviting dwelling. They were growing old and two of them had never seen the canal or voted at an elec- tion. When William Westfall was a candidate for county treasurer he brought them all out to vote for the first time. After casting their ballots, they looked in wonder at the canal and the boats floating upon its waters. Their car- penter's tools were a curiosity. The stock of the fore-plane was four feet in length, while the jointer was eighteen inches longer. After grow- ing feeble, they put their lumber out on shares. The parties ran away with the proceeds and left them in debt. One died, and the remaining two deeded their property to their sister in Philadelphia. She sold it to Benjamin Tanner, intimating that he should take care of the brothers, which would be satisfaction for the purchase money; but she enforced the payment in cash, to the last farthing, and, houseless and homeless, they became wards of the township, which fed and clothed them during their lives, and after death buried them decently on the bank of the Little Blooming Grove, opposite Millville.

Masthope village is located up the Delaware, where Masthope Creek enters it. It was for- merly called Sim's Point, because Simcon West- fall began life there. This singular name was given to the place by some men who followed up the Delaware in search of a mast tall enough for a man-of-war they were constructing at Philadelphia. As they wended their way along the river and found nothing suitable for their purpose, they arrived at Simeon Westfall's, where Matamoras now is. He told them of a tree tall enough. They were nearly discouraged, having come so far without success, and accom- panied Mr. Westfall up the Delaware as a lust hope. At the point above indicated, which has since been known as Masthope, they found a pine, which, by digging down to the roots and cutting close to the ground, was tall enough for their purpose.

The first lot of land in Lackawaxen township surveyed and marked upon the ground was near this place. Simeon Westfall and William Lit-

tle ran the first lumber to market. It was taken from a tract which still bears their name and since the property of S. M. Shutes. The Holberts were the first settlers at Masthope to make improvements, their farm being one of the oldest in the township. William Holbert's name appears on the assessment of Lackawaxen in 1800, with one mill, one house, four oxen, four cows and fifty acres of improved land. The next year he is assessed with two mills, showing that he was a stirring man of considerable means and a good farm for that early day. In 1813 Joseph Holbert is assessed, and Benjamin Holbert is assessed as an inn-keeper. The Hol- berts are an enterprising family, and by lum- bering, tanning, farming and hotel-keeping have secured competence.

WILLIAM HOLBERT .- His great-grandfather, William Holbert (1755-1834), came from Con- necticut about 1770, and settled in Montague township, Sussex Co., N. J., where he engaged in farming and lumbering. He owned a large tract of land in that vicinity, and also in what is now Pike County, Pa., across the Delaware River, since called Holbert's Bend. At his death he left a large property in real estate and two sons, of whom Benjamin (1781-1855) was grandfather of our subject. He began business for himself on the homestead property at Holbert's Bend, situate on the Pennsylvania side of the Dela- ware, where he continned successfully the bus- iness of a farmer and lumberman during his aot- ive life. His wife, Mary Rider, born 1783, bore him a family of thirteen children, one of whom was Joseph G. Holbert (1803-48). He acquired a good education at the home schools and at the Burlington (N. J.) Academy, was for many terms a teacher, was a farmer and Inm- berman, and gave considerable attention to sur- veying. He was a man highly esteemed by the publie for his honesty of purpose, for his gen- eral intelligence and for his ability in business. His wife, Sabra, was a danghter of George W. Brown, of Damascus,. Wayne County, who died about 1882, at the age of seventy-nine years.

William Holbert, eldest son of Joseph G. and Sabra (Brown) Holbert, was born on the home- stead, in Lackawaxen township, Pike Connty, Pa., August 12, 1829. He obtained his carly

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

book education in the neighborhood schools and at the Milford Academy.

At the age of twenty years he engaged in mer- cantile business at Lackawaxen, but three years thereafter relinquished that business and engaged in farming and lumbering at Masthope, in the same county. In 1857 he went to Berlin township, Wayne County, where he continued his farming and lumbering interests on a more

interest. He is a man of large business eapaeity, judicious management in all business affairs, and an active and through-going eitizen. He is the owner of a large hotel at the confluenee of the Delaware and Laekawaxen Rivers, and a member of the "Cooke Furniture Company," of Philadelphia. His life has been largely de- voted to business pursuits ; yet he has found time to serve the people of Wayne County for

y Holbert

extensive scale, and eleared off a very large | four years as commissioner, and has served in farm. In 1869 he removed to Equinunk, other official capacities where he has resided. He married, Jannary 10, 1850, Emina Poole, by whom he has five surviving children,-Joseph G. and William P., at Eqninunk ; Emma, wife of John N. Cole, of Damaseus ; Frederiek R., at Equinunk ; and Nora, wife of Ephraim Kimble. The mother of these children died, April 26, 1861, and for his second wife he married Eliza- beth Hornbeck, on Jan. 15, 1862, now surviving. Wayne County, where the firm of Holbert & Branning engaged extensively in the tanning, lumbering and mereliandise business. The large business of Holbert & Branning passed to the exclusive control of Mr. Holbert in 1878, which he continues in 1886. In connection with their lumber interest they carried on and owned and ran several saw-mills, and, in 1876, Mr. Ho !- bert built a large saw-mill in Camden, N. J., in which for some time afterward he held an

The assessment of Laekawaxen for 1800, with the valuation, was as follows :

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PIKE COUNTY.

Abram Brass. $63

Stephen Everson .. $60

Charles Boyles. 15

Martin Felin 70

James Boyd 15 Joseph Gooding. 49

John Brink. 10 Henry Haincs 126

John Barnes, Jr 86

William Holbert 873

John Barnes, Sr. .526

Ephraim Kimble. .534

Cornelius Barnes 231

John Mason 45

Jerry Barnes. 202

Mordecai Roberts 463

Jacob Coryell. .470

John Snyder 626

William Cox 425

Ephraim Utter 24

Jonathan Conklin .. 547

Elias Van Aken 455

Absalom Conklin . 5

TAXABLES IN LACKAWAXEN TOWNSHIP IN THE YEAR 1814.

Brittain Armstrong.

Joseph Holbert.

William Adams.

Samuel Hozling.

Jonathan Brink.

Joseph Henck.

Jeremiah Barnes.

Benjamin Holbert.

Cornelius Barnes.

Tobias Hornbeck.

William Barnes.

John Johnson.

Nathan Barnes.

Eusebius Kincaid.

John Barnes.

Ephraim Kimble.

Stephen Ballot.

Wm. Kimble.

Joseph Ballot.

Nathan Lord.

Moses Brink.

Samuel Morris.

Daniel Brink

John McClannon.

Joseph Brown.

Aaron McIntyrc.

Benjamin Braley.

Simeon Quick.

Aaron Barlow.

Mordecai Roberts.

Lewis Conkling.

Samuel L. Roberts.

Benjamin Conkling.

Frederick A. Rose.

Jacob Coryell.

Charles B. Simons.

Peter Coleman.

David B. Smitlı.

Absalom Conkling.

James Swartwood.

John Cressman.

Wm. Smith.

Daniel Commin.

David Smith.

Aaron Dickertson.

Johawaw Vansant.

Stephen Emberson.

Jesse Walker, Esq.

Charles Chapman.

Erastus Woodruff.

Lewis Crone.

Wm. Woodruff.

David Gilbert.

Peter Young.

Wm. Esary.

George Young.

Ralph Hawkins.

Peter Killam.

Nathan Barlow.

The single freemen were Lewis Conklin, Benjamin Conklin, Nathaniel Barncs, Samnel Morris, Israel Brink, Benjamin Brink, Henry Barnes, William Barnes, Nathan Lord, John Morris and Patrick Boyles. In 1813 there are fifty-three persons arrested. Peter Gaines, an old eolored man, said to have been one of Col. Sam Seely's slaves, eleared up a good farm near the Westcalong Lake. This lake covers about seventy-five acres, and Tink and Corilla Lakes about two hundred acres morc. The Thomas

Ridgeway farm is one mile above Lackawaxen. Some Germans have made good farms opposite this place. The early settlers used to go down the Lackawaxen and Delaware Rivers for goods in a canoc a distance of thirty-three miles. The current is rapid and required four or five hours to go down light, but about two days to shove back loaded. Adam Haines probably lived on what is now called Haines' Creek. This name occurs in the early assessments, April 18, 1851. After the Erie Railroad passed up the Delaware, there was a sale of town lots. Messrs. J. W. Blackington and Allis Whitney, of Honesdale, bought an entire block and the Holberts nearly all the remainder. A terrible railroad disaster occurred at Masthope a few years ago. The cars plunged off the track, a number of passen- gers lost their lives, and others were badly bruised.

THE SYLVANIAN SOCIETY, ONE OF HORACE GREELEY'S FOND HOPES .- The history of Lackawaxen is associated with Horace Greeley's experiment at co-operative farming at Taylor- town. This place is situated about sixty miles from Lackawaxen depot and four from Row- land's. In 1842 Mahlon Godley owned seven thousand acres of land, forty acres of which were cleared. The remainder was woodland. A branch of the Shohola Creck ran through the property. On this creek Godley had a saw and a grist-mill. Near the mills were a frame honse and a log house. These improvements comprised the village of Godleyville. The stream was alive with trout, and the surround- ing hills were equally well provided with the largest and liveliest of rattlesnakes. The soil was rough and rocky, and no wilder spot was found in Pike County. Horace Greeley, by lectures and Tribune editorials, had urged the common ownership of property and the cqual division of labor. In 1842, Greeley, with others, organized the Sylvanian Society and purchased Godley's property to test thie ex- periment. To join the society it was necessary to purchase at least one share of the stock, which cost twenty-five dollars. Many eminent persons interested themselves in the project ; among them Edwin Forrest, Edward H. Dixon, (since famous as the editor of the Scalpel), Mrs.

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 156

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