History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 157

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 157
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 157
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 157

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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George Law, Edward Courtright, of Albany, and Rev. J. D. Williamson were stockholders, but Horace Greeley had by far the largest amount invested. The stoek amounted to ten thousand dollars. After the society took pos- session of the place, they improved the mills and erected an immense frame structure, which contained the living apartments of the mem- bers, a common dining hall, a social hall and work-rooms. A wagon-maker's shop, black- smith shop, shoe shop and other manufacturing establishments were started. In 1843-44 the colony numbered three hundred and seemed to be progressing. No stated religious instruction was allowed, but any preacher could be invited to preach in the hall. Great attention was paid to social amusement, and dances and parties were of weekly occurrence. There were also weekly lectures on popular subjects. Mr. Gree- ley visited the colony frequently aud delivered addresses. Socially and intellectually, matters were successful, but the labor problem disturbed the little community. The colony was governed by a board of directors chosen by the inembers. The board assigned laborers for the differeut branches of work in what were knowu as groups. One group was set to plowing, another to felling trees, another to laying walls and so on, nutil all the duties were variously delegated.

The female members were divided in the same way to attend to the domestic duties of the society. The principle of equality of labor was followed by changing the labor groups from one branch of work to another, day by day. The mechanics, and all who were skilled in labor, had their especial duties.

One source of trouble was the fact that a number of rich and prominent families in New York took advantage of the colony as a sort of reformatory for their wayward sons. They cagerly bought stock in the colony, and shipped to the care of the society material which they could do nothing with themselves, merely to get it off their hauds. These young men had never done any work, and had a natural antipathy to it. Such an element in a community, where la- bor was the highest duty of all, could not help but be a disturbing one. Then there was trouble with the female members. The most of

them had never done manual labor, and when such found themselves assigned to a day's duty at the washtub their complaints aud opposition to such a system were loud and emphatic.

The dissatisfaction caused by these clashing views of the duty aud diguity of labor was something that it was hoped time would re- move ; but when the first season's crops, upon which reliance was placed for the support of the colony, independent of outside resourees, were grown and housed, and found to be utterly iu- adequate, the very foundation of the colony was endangered. A few withdrew from the society. The prevalence of rattlesnakes frightened more away. One member of the colony brought in seventeen large rattlers iu one day. One of these serpents was so large that .John Dutton, the foreman of the colony's shoe shops, had the skin tanned, and he then made from it a pair of slippers, which he presented to Mr. Greeley on his next visit.

After it became appareut that the tillable area of the society's land was not equal to pro- viding it with necessary supplies, the members went to work with a will to increase it, and the planting for the seasou of 1845 was nearly don- ble what it had been previously. Good mar- kets had been found for the shoes and wagons that were made by the colony, and, although individual capital had bceu sadly drawn upon, the prospects that the colony would be self-sup- porting during 1845 were so cheering that the members remaining looked hopefully into the future. The crops never looked better, in all respects, than they did in the summer of 1845; but when the colony awoke on the morning of the 4th of July of that year, nothing was seeu but a blackeued waste of field, garden and or- chard. Not a living thing remained on all the tract. The heaviest and most deadly frost that was ever known before or since in that region had destroyed all remaining hope for the col- ony's existence. Starvation stared the colonists in the face, and in two days, of all that busy community among the Pike County hills, not a single soul remained. Each one had taken his personal goods and chattels and gone his way. The Greeley colouy was deserted.

The interest which Horace Greeley took in

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this socialistic experiment may be known when it is stated that the New York and Erie Rail- road was then completed only as far as Middle- town, N. Y. From there, to reach the colony, a most tedious coach ride of forty miles over the hills of Northern New Jersey and Pike County, Pa., was necessary ; yet Mr. Greeley paid frequent visits to the wilderness cominun- ity. He took the failure of the scheme much to heart.

Among the members of the colony was a certain farmer from Monroc County, Pa., named Kenzie. He was such an enthusiast in the idea of co-operative industry that he sold his farm in Monroe County for eighteen hundred dollars, invested it all in stock of the Sylvanian Society, and placed at the colony's disposal his team of horses. After the collapse of the scheme he went to New York, as he afterward said, to give Horace Greeley a Monroe County Demo- crat's opinion of him. He found Mr. Greeley at work in the Tribune office, and commenced to berate him. Greeley stopped him, and asked him how much he had lost by the failure. Kenzie told him. Mr. Greeley handed tlie farmer a check for the full amount. Kenzie, in relating the incident afterward, said that, al- though he had always been a Democrat, that act of Greeley's made him a Greeley Whig, and he remained a Whig until the day of his death. Among the other colonists no hard feeling was manifested against Mr. Greeley. They were grieved at the colony's failure, not angry at its founder.

There was a mortgage of three thousand dol- lars on the property at the time of the failure. It was foreclosed, and the Rev. Dr. Thomas House Taylor, of New York, purchased the property. He took up his residence at the place, and spent a great deal of money in im- proving it. He finally sold it to a gentleman in Virginia, but it has been sold time and time again since then for arrears of taxes. Not a vestige of mill, shop or hall remains. The lead pipe that conducted the water from moun- tain springs to the settlement was taken up years ago and run into bullets by Pike County hunters, and used in shooting deer and bears that have returned to the neighborhood of the

overgrown fields, where lie buried some of the fondest hopes that Horace Greeley ever cher- ished.

Lackawaxen township has the following schools -- two at Lackawaxen village, one at Rowland's, Masthope, Westfall's, Millville, Rosecrance, German school, Hanner's, Kimble's and Bais- den's, which is at Baisdensville, nearly opposite Hawley. The Baisdens carry on boat-build- ing for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Com- pany at this point.

At the first auditor's meeting, in the year 1822, Benjamin Holbert acted as town clerk, retaining the position until the spring of 1831, a period of nine years, keeping the accounts of the township on sixteen pages of a common day-book (similar to those used by merchants at the present time). His successor was C. B. Ridgway, who officiated for two years. At an election held at the house of Abraham Shimer, on the 15th of March, 1833, it was decided to hold all future elections at the house of John Westfall, in said township. April 22, 1836, the auditors allowed James Lord $22.40 for himselt and hired help for breaking roads on the 7th day of January, 1836. At the same meeting, Jolın Barnes received eight and Benjamin Holbert seventy-two dollars for breaking roads in the win- ter of 1836, during the deep snow. At this time there was not one school-house in the township. James Wheiling and a Mr. Marsh had taught several months each, in out-houses and canal shanties, the scholars traveling from three to five miles to attend their schools. On the 27th day of June, 1837, the common-school law was put in force by dividing the township into ninc districts and making an apportionment of two hundred and seventy-three dollars, according to the number of taxables in each district, as fol- lows : Lackawaxen, fifteen taxables ; Holbert's, twelve; Sim's Pond, twelve; Westfall's, nine ; Shimer's, eleven ; Narrows, twenty-five; Dar- lingsville, ten ; Lord's Valley, ten; Blooming Grove, six,-total number, one hundred and ten. It must be remembered that at this time parts of Blooming Grove and Shohola were embraced in the division-in fact, two of the schools were lo- cated in what is now Blooming Grove township. Arrangements were immediately made for build-

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ing school-houses at Laekawaxen and the Nar- rows. The one at Lackawaxen was built of stonc. It stood a few years, and was abandoned as not fit for use. The one at the Narrows, built of wood, was destroyed by fire.

Abram Bross was an old settler at the Nar- rows. His sons were Henry, Abram and John. He died in his eightieth year.

(1790-1857) a native of New Jersey, who removed to Pike County with his parents, and, although a shoemaker by trade, he took an aetive part in publie matters, was an influential eitizen, and highly esteemed by his fellow-townsmen. He was suceessful in business, was justiee of the peace for many years, was a promoter of the educational interests of the county in its early

Thomas I Rajway

JUDGE THOMAS J. RIDGEWAY .- His grand- father, Thomas J. Ridgeway, who was of Seotch extraetion, and a tailor by trade, and wife, who was a Miss Mathews, settled at Milford, Pike County, Pennsylvania, from Huntingdon County, New Jersey, in the early part of the present eentury, where they spent the remain- der of their lives and were buried. Among their children was a son, Charles B. Ridgeway

history, and during his life sought to do his part well in the interest of all measures caleu- lated to improve the social, moral and religious standing of the community in which he resided.

His wife, Elizabeth Barnes (1790-1832), a native of Laekawaxen, was a zealous member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, and a de- voted wife and mother. She died of cholera in middle life.

SHOHOLA GLEN HOTE

SHOHOLA GLEN HOTEL, SHOHOLA, PA.

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Thomas J. Ridgeway, their son, was born in Lackawaxen township, where his father resided, October 25, 1811. He had limited opportu- nities for book knowledge in his boyhood, but early in life got practical ideas of life's work, and the necessity of a proper development of the faculties to be successful in business or pro- fession. About the time of reaching his major- ity he began for himself as a lumberman, as at that time the largest and one of the most im- portant and profitable in Wayne County was the lumber interest, and a large number of its people were engaged in the manufacture of lumber, and its shipments down its varions streams to their confluence with the Delaware, and thence down the Delaware to Philadelphia, the great natural lumber market of Eastern Penn- sylvania. Hecontinued the lumber business until 1844, when he engaged in farming and mer- chandising, which he carried on successfully in Lackawaxen township until 1870, and then entered the official employ of the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company, with which he has since been identified.

Following the political affiliation of his father as a member of the Democratic party, he, while a young man, began to take an inter- est in local and State politics. He has served his township altogether some fifteen years as justice of the peace, the county two years as its treasurer, and he was appointed by the Governor of the State an associate judge on the bench with Judge Barrett, to fill the unexpired term of another. Judge Ridgeway's good judgment and counsel gave him prestige in the courts of the county, and upon the completion of his term to fill vacancy, he was elected for a full term of five years.

He married, in 1834, Luey Ann, daughter of Jacob Kimble, of Palmyra township, Pike County. She died December 15, 1883, and, with her husband, have been members of the Universalist Church.

Their children surviving are Warren K .; Elizabeth R., wife of John C. Mott, of Milford ; Anna K., wife of C. P. Milliken, of New York ; George K .; Maria S., wife of George A. Brown, of Binghamton, N. Y.

CHAPTER XII.

SHOHOLA TOWNSHIP.

SHOHOLA was erected from Lackawaxen, Westfall and Milford, September 25, 1852. It is bonnded on the north by the Delaware River, on the south by Dingman, on the southwest by Blooming Grove and on the west by Lacka- waxen township. It is a rugged, rocky town- ship, like most of Pike County, and largely covered with scrub pine and oak. The Big Brink Pond covers about five hundred acres, and the Little Brink Pond being near, although it has no visible outlet or inlet. Brink Creek, the outlet of Big Brink Pond, flows north- wardly and enters Parker's Glen at the Dela- ware. The Great Walker and Little Walker Ponds are northwest of the Brink Ponds, and Walker Creek, their outlet, flows into Brink Creek above Parker's Glen. Shohola Creek rises on the High Knob, in Blooming Grove township, and breaks over the rocks in rapids and falls of about forty fcet descent at Shohola Falls, thence onward in its tortuous course through the western part of Shohola township, till it bursts through the rocks at the beautiful Shohola Glen and enters the Delaware at Shohola village.

SHOHOLA VILLAGE .- The first settler at Shohola was Jesse Wells or James Wells, who had a little tub grist-mill and a saw-mill at this point about the time of the Revolutionary War. Mrs. Cowan, whose maiden-name was Bishop, lives across the Delaware, at Handsome Eddy, where Canope was killed. She is nearly ninety years of age, and remembers hearing Mrs. Wells say she heard the gun when they shot Canope, in 1784.1 Mrs. Cowan used to

1 Mrs. Cowan's maiden-name was Wood. She has al- ways lived along the Delaware and has a vivid recollection of early incidents. She used to ride to Milford to store, and make the horse swim the Delaware behind the little batteau in which she crossed. There she bought tea at three dol- lars per pound and molasses at two dollars per gallon. One day during the War of 1812 they were calling troops together at Milford. She was riding a horse that had been in the service. He became excited when he heard martial music and was determined to go to the place of rendezvous, and it required the assistance of a man to get the old war-horse out of town.

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ride on horseback with her brother to mill at Shohola, seventy-five years ago. Van Zant & Robison had the mill then. One winter the streams were low and frozen. The Delaware could be crossed anywhere, and the little mill at Shohola was patronized by the pioneers along the Delaware and through Orange County.

David Hickock had the first store at Shohola. He lived near the burying-ground where Henry Wurtzel's barn now stands. He kept the goods in his house, stored under the bed. His stock, which consisted of tea, tobacco, sugar, etc., was thus securely tucked away, and if any one called for an article he would reach under the bed and haul out the box that contained the goods. This led the ungrateful natives to call it " The Bed Store." He brought his goods from New- burgh, and thence across the ferry at Shohola. Jolin Johnston lived at Shohola and worked about the mills at an early day. There is an old burying-ground here, where the pioneers are buried.

The Shohola of to-day owes its growth to the formation of a stock company of Wayne County men-George Nelden, Hon. N. . B. Eldred, Elias Calkins, Joseph F. Keyes, Moses Calkins and Chauncy Thomas. The last three of these moved to Shohola and made improve- ments there, but to Chauncy Thomas, who finally owned seven-eighths of the stock (all but Nelden's share), belongs the credit of building up the present village of Shohola. He first erected the hotel in 1849, Timothy Horton being the first hotel-keeper, then his handsome residence with its tastefully laid-out grounds, and following this, he built the store which he conducted successfully until 1882, the date of his death, leaving a large farm and property, which he had carved out of the wilderness by his untiring industry and perse- verance. Stephen S. Gardner, administrator of Chauncy Thomas, sold the whole estate, con- sisting of about twenty-five hundred acres, to J. F. Kilgour, who is contemplating extensive improvements in Shohola Glen, which has al- ready been rendered accessible and famous through expenditures made by him in making roads and building fenders along the edges of the high rocks and steep bluffs, and bridges

across the Shohola. As it is on the Erie Rail- road, it is easily reached from New York, and thousands have visited the romantic glen during the last year, and Barryville, which is just across the river from Shohola, is connected with it by a suspension bridge.

SUSPENSION BRIDGE .- A bridge connecting the village of Shohola and Barryville had long been needed, but it was not until the year 1855 that steps tending toward the realization of that need were taken. In that year John E. Roebling was building the great suspension bridge at Niagara, and Chauncey Thomas con- ceived the idea of putting onc across the Dela- ware at this point. By great effort he enlisted some of the leading men of the region, a stock company was formed and work commenced. It was a difficult undertaking, for none of the workmen were practical bridge-builders, and none of them had ever seen a suspension bridge. When it came to anchoring and stretching the cables, Mr. Thomas thought it best to have the aid of a practical man, and went to Niagara to secure the assistance of one of the force there engaged. Mr. Roebling, however, could not spare any of his employees, but made a few off- hand plans which made the work perfectly clear to Mr. Thomas, and he returned and completed it. The company was also furnished by Mr. Roebling with much of the material for the bridge. The structure was completed in the fall of 1855. On the 2d of July, 1859, it was blown down, but was rebuilt the same fall. In Jannary, 1865, it again broke down, but was again erected in the fall of 1866.

The first mecting of the Germans to organize a Lutheran Church was held over Chauncy Thomas' store in 1857. After that their meet- ings were held in the school-house until a Lutheran Church was erected, in 1871. Rev. J. Goetz, of Honcsdale, first preached here and organized the congregation. He was followed by Rev. J. Bockstaler, and Rev. J. U. Wagner, of Hawley, now supplies the pulpit once a month. When the township was organized, in 1852, there were only about fifteen voters in it. Deacon Bross, who had moved from Milford, and Stephen D. Wells, who lived at Woodtown, were the first justices of the peace, and Jennie

Harich?

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Bross taught the first school in a log house. By far the greatest improvement made in farming in Shohola township is by a colony of Germans, nearly all from Hesse-Darmstadt, who came here shortly after the Erie Railway was built, and went into the dense pine forests up the Shohola Creek, about Channcy Thomas' farm, where they have eleared good farms, built resi- dences and comfortable barns, and saved money.

George Hess was the first of these Germans to come to Shohola. He had worked on the railroad in 1848, and in 1849 moved his family from the Hudson to Shohola. Through delays, he was eleven days in making the journey. With his axe he went into the forest above Shohola to elear up a farm. He was joined by Nieholas Shields shortly after, and Francis Kreiter, Peter Eckhart, Conrad Eckhart, Leo- nard Roman, Jacob Peaisbacher, Henry Bridge, Jacob and George Haas, Henry Worcer, Henry C. Knealing, Esq., George F. Hipsman, John Keller, Lewis Schadler, Nicholas Hess, Jacob Hess and John Vogt soon followed. These thrifty Germans all settled in the vicinity of Shohola and cleared productive farms. Henry and Daniel Kuhn have also farms farther baek.

JOHN FLETCHER KILGOUR .- The history of Pike County, with all its incidents of early set- tlement and subsequent development, would be very ineomplete did it not give somewhat in detail an aceount of the blue-stone quarries located therein, and of the men who, by un- precedented example in the history of the State, have been foremost in making this one of the largest and most successful industries in this part of the country.

To Mr. Kilgour may be safely imputed the honor of opening up and developing the in- mense hidden beds of blue-stone in the northern part of the county. He is the son of Thomas and Julia Ann (Shutt) Kilgour -- the former of Seoteli extraction, the latter of Holland Dutch origin-and was born at Kingston, Ulster County, N. Y., Marehi 14, 1841. His early education from books was obtained in the city schools and academy, where he learned theo- retieally what he has since been successful in

putting into practice. At the age of sixteen, his labor being valuable to his father, he began driving a team, hauling stone from the quarry to the dock, and eontinued in his father's employ until he reached his majority. For two years following le quarried stone on his own aecount near Kingston, and for one year thereafter he conducted successfully a retail stone-yard at Newburgh, on the Hudson. Returning, he continued operating stone quarries until 1868, when, believing that large stone interests might be developed in Pike County, Pa., he pur- chascd some four thousand acres of lumber property, known as " Pond Eddy." He began operations on the land the following year with fifty men, and inside of two months he inereased his foree to one hundred and fifty men. So suecessful was he in this venture that during the year 1869 the firm of Kilgour, Vignes & Co. was formed, comprising the following gen- tlemen : John F. Kilgour, James H. Rutter (afterwards president of the Hudson River Railroad), George S. Readington, of Port Jervis, and David Vignes, of Kingston.

In 1870 Mr. Kilgour, after long hesitation, entertained a proposition from James Fiske, on account of railroad facilities on the Erie, and the advantage to be had by having gentlemen in New York interested in the business for the purpose of making a ready sale of the produets of the quarries, to organize a new company, which was finally agreed upon by making Mr. Fiske president and Mr. Kilgour general superintendent. Jay Gould, the great capital- ist of New York, then beginning to attract attention in finaneial circles of thic eity, and William M. Tweed, then at the head of its busi ness affairs, were stockholders in the company, the latter taking one hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars of the stoek. After one year's successful operation of the company, through the influence of Mr. Fiske, it issued a two him- dred and fifty thousand dollar gold-bearing bond upon its franchise, and paid the interest until general disaster met the business mien of New York in the panie of 1873. In the mean time the deposing of Mr. Tweed lost his valuable influence to the company in furnish- ing and colleeting for large contracts of stone

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for the city. Mr. Fiske was shot and killed, and Mr. Gould left the Erie Railroad, thereby thwarting the entire plans, which had induced Mr. Kilgour to consent to the organization of this company. Still worse than this, his indi- vidual responsibility on the paper of the company caused his failure with that of the company, and what he supposed to be large wealthlı, mostly in real estate in Passaic City, N. J., and even his own residence, had to be largely mortgaged to secure the commercial paper indorsed by him. In 1877, soon after this collapse, which he had tried for four years to bridge over, being broken in health and without means, he spent the winter at the Hot Springs in Ar- kansas. With that resolution and indefatigable perseverance characteristic of him, although crowded to the wall through the unfortunate circumstances of others, and left only with experience and judgment for new capital to begin business with again, in 1878 he leased a yard and began working a score of men quarry- ing stone. After one year le increased the nun- ber to one hundred, and in 1883, so great had his success been, that he had a force of two hundred and fifty men. This large increase of force, superintendence, and consequent increase in business, led Mr. Kilgour to associate with him- self, in Jannary, 1883, E. S. Parker, formerly of the firm of Herskie, Parker & Co., of New York, and the firm thus organized is styled " The Kilgour Blue-Stone Company."

The business of the company has rapidly increased until now, in 1886, they employ by the day four hundred and fifty men, one hundred and fifty men by the picce, and to meet the demands of their trade, contemplate increasing the number of their men to eight hundred during the year. Within the last few years they have erected large mills for sawing, plan- ing and polishing stone, and are prepared to do the finest kind of carving, moulding, etc. Their mills are erected at Parker's Glen, for- merly known as Carr's Rock. The name is in honor of Mr. Parker, a member of the com- pany. The mills are run day and night, and electric lights are used by night.

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 157

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