History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 158

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 158
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 158
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 158

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).

The company now owns some six thousand acres of land in fee-simple, lease as many more,

have twenty-three quarries and their land extends along the Erie Railroad from "Saw- Mill Rift," to Hancock on the main line and on the branch to Hawley.

Their public enterprise is shown by the erection of a school-house for the benefit of the children of their employes, in which they place a competent teacher at their own expense, and they have erected a hall for the use of their men, as a temperance hall, for the "order" called " The Frank A. Kilgour Total Absti- nence Society." Mr. Kilgour is the sole owner of some three thousand acres outside the company, at Shohola, of the famous "Shohola. Glen Hotel," and also of the " Shohola Glen " property. The superior facilities afforded here for the pleasure-seeker,-skating rink, danc- ing-place and numerous other attractions-will gain wide circulation and afford a resting-place for busy men during their summer vacations. Mr. Kilgour is now engaged in building. a "Switch-Back Railroad," by which people can be transported from the Erie Railroad through the Glen for the small sum of five cents. He anticipates being able to accommodate one hundred thousand people at the Glen dur- ing the season of 1886, intends erecting a silk- mill the present year on the site of the old saw- mill, and a Queen Anne residence, together with large additions to his hotel. He is the owner of the " old Thomas homestead " farm, which he carries on. In the Grant Presidential cam- paign of 1872 lie erected, at an expense of seven thousand dollars, a wigwam at Passaic, N. J., which, after it had served political ends, he turned, into what was known as " Kilgour Lyceum." Mr. Kilgour affiliates with the Republican party, and has been closely identi- fied with its work of reform for many years. He was an intimate friend of the late Senator Madden, of Middletown, N. Y., who, at the time of his failure, assisted him largely to re- engage in business and thereby attain his pres- ent success.

Mr. Kilgour is a liberal supporter of church and educational interests at his own home at Passaic, where his large contributions for benevolent objects lighten the burdens of those less able, and secure to himself the satisfaction

EMAIL IS

BAGGAGE. CAR

NY. & E. R.R.

WORKS OF THE KILGOUR BLUE STONE CO., LIMITED, PARKERS GLEN, PIKE CO., PA.

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of feeling that, commensurate with his pros- perity, the works of benevolent charity and every object and enterprise calculated to benefit his fellow-citizens should also be built up and sustained. He has always been known as a progressive citizen, large-hearted and generous, and has reached the royal road to wealth in the same way other men have found it-by dint of hard work, energy, patient perseverance and untiring industry. A correspondent of the Port Jervis Gazette says of him,-

" He is known all over the country as the 'Blue- Stone King.' Long may he enjoy the sobriquet, for he has well earned it. At Shohola, and at Parker's Glen, ¡where the blue-stone works are located, Mr. Kilgour shows himself the same generous, liberal- minded citizen he is in Passaic. At Shohola he lias just broken ground for the erection of five cottages and commenced building operations on the construc- tion of a switch-back gravity road that is to carry visitors to points of interest in the glen. He takes a prominent part in the temperance work at both these places, and under the auspices of himself and son, Mr. Frank Kilgour, a live, practical reform club is in practical operation, to which lie contributes liberally and judiciously. He is very much liked by his work- men, and in return for their faithful service, does all that is possible to render their work attractive."

He married, in the spring of 1864, Maggie, daughter of Silas Wood, of Kingston, N. Y., who died June 9, 1883, leaving the following children : Frank A., Albert Stearns, Maggie Belle, Lulu May, John Fletcher, Jr., Florence Edna and Maud Eva Kilgour.

CARR'S ROCK, OR PARKER'S GLEN .- Carr's Roek was so named by the Delaware raftsmen because one of their number was compelled to stay all night on a large roek at this point, by an accident to his raft, which east him on the rock that ever after bore his name. When the Erie Railroad passed through, the station was so named, but recently it has been called Par- ker's Glen, in honor of the partner of J. F. Kilgour in the blue-stone quarry business. Judge John Ryerson, a Quaker from Phila- delphia, had a saw-mill on Walker Creek years ago. He was an educated man, and lived on the river-bank near Carr's Rock. Peter Van Auken afterward resided there. In April, 1868, several passenger cars from the Erie Railway ran off at this point and caught fire. Six or

more passengers were killed or burned to death, and a number wounded. Parker's Glen has now become the headquarters of J. F. Kil- gour & Co.'s stone-works. They have stone- mills erected and machinery for sawing, planing and rubbing stone. The stone is cut to order for building purposes. A large quantity of stone is cut into water-table for stone and brick buildings. The material is not, strictly speak- ing, blue stone. It does not contain as much lime as blue-stone, and is consequently more durable than blue-stone or marble, and is a rival of granite for durability. This new in- dustry, which is being developed on an exten- sive scale by J. F. Kilgour & Co., is likely to prove a great source of wealth to Pike County in the future. Her rock-ribbed hills are full of a fine-grained stone that can be worked, and is susceptible of a very good polish. Being of a durable quality and accessible to the New York market, Pike County quarries will be worked more in the near future than at present. Flag- stones are shipped from all the railroad stations in Shohola and Lackawaxen townships. Be- sides Mr. Kilgour, John Smith, Woodward & Maxwell and others, with headquarters at Pond Eddy, are engaged in the business. There are four or five hundred men employed in the quarries, and otherwise in connection with the business. A beautiful waterfall and rapids is seen up the Walker Creek, not far from Par- ker's Glen. Mr. Kilgour contemplates building a silk-mill at Parker's Glen, which will make it a place of considerable importance. Calvin Crane settled on the river about one mile north of Parker's Glen in 1839, and cleared up a good place ; his son, Manning F. Crane, lived there many years. Valentine Eckhart has the place at present.

POND EDDY .- A man by the name of Corey is said to have been the pioneer of this point. Levi Middagh, a son of Courtright Middagh, eleared a farm on the Delaware, between Par- ker's Glen and Pond Eddy. His sons, Levi and James, now live there. Pond Eddy, doubt- less, received its name from the fact that the Delaware sweeps towards the Pennsylvania side, making a pond-like eddy. The old raftsmen, who gave names to the different points along

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

the river, would soon discover the resemblance and thus christen it. The mountain comes down close to the river at this point and leaves but little room for buildings. George Conners has a store, however, and there is a suspension bridge crossing to the York State side, where most of the dwellings are located. It is a stop- ping-place on the Eric Railway, and is a ship- ping point for stone that is taken from the hills in the vicinity. The first attempt of im- portance made to develop the wealth combined in thesc blue-stone deposits was by two men named Johnson and Rowe, who formed a co- partnership in 1865, and purchased a tract of land at Pond Eddy, upon which was a quarry. They quarried some splendid stone, but, owing to the hold the Hudson River stone had in the market, found little sale for it. In the spring of 1865 Rowe died and the quarry was disposed of to other parties, doubtless, the New York and Pennsylvania Blue-Stone Company. For miles along the Eric Railway, in Pike County, the mountains are filled with incx- haustible deposits of blue-stonc, and their de- velopment on a large scale is only a matter of time.

WOODTOWN AND THE UPLAND SETTLE- MENTS .- Hermannis Brink settled at what is now known as Woodtown, about the time of the Revolution or shortly after. He was a lumberman and paid little attention to farming, having at that time a saw-mill on Brink Pond Brook. They cut the good pine all off of this section more than seventy years ago. Jonathan and Daniel were probably his sons. They left their improvement, being later owned by Horn- beck and David Case, who sold it to Charles Wood in 1830. Reeves Wood, his son, came with him and built a saw-mill on Brink Creek. He remained but a short time, however, though Charles Wood stayed and cleared a farm in what is now called Woodtown. Decatur Wells, his son-in-law, lives on the homestead and Bradner Wood, his son, adjoining on part of the home- stcad.

Parker Manning, a robust, powerful man, took up four hundred acres of land not far from the Walker Pond, hc and his boys clear- ing two good farms and planting orchards. Be-

sides, he cleared a considerable part of Taylor- town land. He has improved altogether two or three hundred acres of Pike County land. Charles F. Higby lives on one of these places and George May on the other. Old David Canfield resided in the vicinity of Woodtown during the Indian troubles and his sons Jessc Canfield and John Canfield, who were rugged men, cleared productive farms. Charles Kirk- patrick and Jacob Keller now occupy these places. John Lee lives in the vicinity of Parker's Glen, on the old Knapp place. George Haas, Adam Haas and William Saddler have farms in the vicinity of the Manning clearing. Allen Coursen and his three sons-Allen N., John and Shaffer-improved land in the vicinity of Brink Ponds. John Curry also cleared a farm bordering on the pond. Lewis cultivated a farm two miles down the creek from Shohola Falls, his son Gabriel owning it now. Jesse McKane cleared a farm in that vicinity and rcared a family of twenty-two children. There is a large saw-mill at Shohola Falls, employing about thirty-five men.

There are five public schools in Shohola town- ship-The Walker School near Woodtown; Pond Eddy ; Parker's Glen ; Middagh's and Shohola Glen.

'Shohola had seven hundred and fifteen inhab- itants in 1880.

Tobias Hornbeck built a hotel and saw-mill at Shohola Falls, on the Milford and Owego turnpike, about 1815. He came about 1820.

Isaac Blackmore lived one mile cast of Sho- hola at an early datc, probably before 1800. He was from the Eastern States and an educated man. His children were Hiram, Ganges, Solomon, Paul and Darien.

Samuel Helm lived about one mile farther east. Hiram Helm married one of Black- more's daughters. The Blackmores were large, tall men, and lived chiefly by hunting and fish- ing. Samuel Helm was a squatter at Lord's Valley, and when Levi Lord, who had pur- chased the property, came to his cabin-door, Helm said : " I know what you want; come in and welcome; you have paid for the land and it is yours." He was a descendant on his mother's side of Manuel Gonsalcs, the first white scttler

SHONDLACLAN

SHOHOLA GLEN SILK MILLS, SHOHOLA, PA.

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PIKE COUNTY.

of Sullivan, and on his father's side of Simon Helm. His father was Peter Helm, a son of Michael Helm, killed near Summitville by the Indians. His mother's maiden-name was Eliza- beth Gonsales. He was nearly six feet in height, broad-shouldered, muscles well devel- oped, nerves as true as steel and bones as strong as a lion's. His fists would strike sledge-ham- mer blows. He could run like a deer and his eye was as piercing as an eagle's. His dress was homespun, hunting-shirt buckskin, pants of rough linen, with deer-skin leggins, his shoes moccasins. When prepared for a deer- hunt his appearance was truly regal.

Helm was a mighty hunter and killed wild turkeys, grouse, dueks and geese without nuni- ber. He shot scores of deer on the runways, and many more when they came to the ponds at night to water and feed on the white pond- lilies. He was a splendid shot at a target, and at night could easily snuff a candle at fifty paccs.

Sam always claimed that he knew of mines of. valuable ore along the mountain, and among them coal and silver. He was not a scientist and knew nothing of the transit of Venus, but he possessed knowledge of immense value to a frontiersman. He had not studied grammar, yet used words that fully expressed his mean- ing. He knew nothing of maps and geography, but the moss on the trees was his compass by day and the "pointers" showed him north in the night-time. He had no watch, but the sun and stars told him the time unerringly. Ad- dition, subtraction, multiplication and division were all the aritlinietie he had ever learned, yet he could calculate great sums with wonderful exactness.

Sam was very clear-headed, a close calculator, never given to idleness, and yet he died com- paratively poor at Shohola, Pa. Sam was noble-hearted and everywhere met a welcome ; his only faults were a dogged perseverance in conquering an enemy, and the Helm-Gonsales trait of forgiving an insult when properly asked to, but never forgetting the aggressor.

At the time of Brandt's second invasion of the valley, Helm was down the river, near the old Van Auken fort. When the houses were burning at Peenpack, he was with the scouts

watching their movements. When Colonel Tusten's force came across the mountain hc joined them. He was present when Meeker's bad advice was given and complied with. He heard Brandt shout to our officers to surrender ; that his force was three times the strongest, and that if they would lay down their arms he would give them protection. The answer he received was a bullet through his belt. Brandt now gave the order of battle, and by a master- piece of strategy divided the forces of his oppo- nents. Then came a long and bloody fight, commencing in the morning of that hot July day of 1779, and ending near sundown with the death and capture of Hathorn's forces. Not a single wounded soldier was left untoma- hawked and nnscalped. The warriors buried their dead, cared for their wounded and left the field of battle triumphant, leaving the bodies of the white men food for ravenous beasts and carrion birds, and their bones to bleach amid the storms and snows and frosts of many win- ters.

Sam Helm was wounded through both thighs at the battle of Conashaugh, elsewhere de- seribed.

About the time that Sam Helm lived at Shohola there was an Englishman of good education trying to make a living about a mile from where Ira B. Rosenerance now lives. His success was very indifferent, and the father of Colonel Mott and the late C. C. D. Pineliot went up, moved him down to Milford, and succeeded in getting a school for him. He taught until he had sufficient funds to take him to New York, where he had friends in Maiden Lane-then the heart of the city. He was compelled to leave his wife in Milford, and she occasionally wrote rather complaining letters to him. In answering her letters, he wrote the following lines :

"When Carpenter's Point shall be erossed without ferry,

And the falls of Shohola shall boast of a store ;

When Unele Sam Helm shall eease to be merry,

Then, dearest Ellen, I'll love you no more."

When Helm would get a little more " tangle- foot " in his system than was good for him, hic would repeat the above lines, and it was sup-

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

posed by many that they were original with him, but they were written by the Englishman, as above stated.

Sam Helm married a Westfall. His sons were Solomon, Hiram and William. The last of the race remembered about Milford was young Sam Helm, the rattlesnake tamer. He was a descendant of the Helms heretofore men- tioned. He would often appear on the streets of Milford with a box of rattlesnakes that he would wind around his neck and arms.

CHAPTER XIII.

BLOOMING GROVE.

BLOOMING GROVE TOWNSHIP was erected from Lackawaxen and Palmyra townships, December 17, 1850. It is the central town- ship of Pike County, and the only one that does not border on some township outside of Pike. It is bounded on the north by Lacka- waxen, northeast by Shohola, east by Dingman, south by Porter and Greene, and west by Pal- myra. The High Knob is the highest point of land in Pike County, being seventeen hundred feet above the Water Gap. On this mountain, on what is called the West Knob, the Brod- head, Bushkill, Shohola and Blooming Grove Creeks rise, within one- fourth of a mile of cach other. The Big Knob and Grasser Ponds lie on top of the knob, about one-fourth mile apart. Another pond is at the foot of the knob. Edmond Lord says that the " Big In- dian Swamp" was a pond when he first came there, in 1810, but that it has since grown and become a cranberry marsh. Blooming Grove is mostly unfit for cultivation. It consists of pine and scrub-oak barrens, off of which most of the valuable timber has been taken.

Dr. Philip P. Monington, a land speculator, sold a tract of land in Blooming Grove town- ship to Levi Lord and his twelve English as- sociates,-Joseph Brooks, Robert Hatton, Samuel Hunt, Wilson Croft, William Whitta- ker, John Whittaker, Thomas Harselden, Robert Ogden, Abram Johnson, James Powers and William Manly, who all came from Eng-

land in the same ship, in 1809. On investiga- tion they found Monington's title not good, and all but Levi Lord settled elsewhere in Pike County. Mr. Lord had a survey made and re- purchased the land where Lord's Valley now is. He and his son Simeon settled there about 1810. They found the noted hunter, Sam Helm, and his son Solomon, as squatters, hav- ing built two log cabins. Sam gave possession peaceably. He remarked, "Come in ; the land is yours, for you have bought it and paid for it." Sam Helm was a tall hunter and trapper, with an eagle eye. He lived by hunting and fishing, and had, probably, been there a num- ber of years. They had made a small clearing, and Mr. Lord, having satisfied them for their improvement, moved into one of the Helm cabins. This cabin was located on the old In- dian trail from Milford to Dolph Bingham's, and has, for many years, been known as Lord's Valley. The main, traveled road, at that time, was from Bushkill through by Shohola Farms. In 1850, after the stage route was opened, Levi Lord and his sons built a brick hotel, from brick which they burned on the premises.

James Ivison was a Methodist preacher at this place. Theodore Bowhannan built a saw- mill near by, at Lord's Valley, which after- wards became the property of Levi Lord.

His children were Simeon, who succeeded his fatlier in the hotel business. Simeon Lord's sons were Baron Lord, who lives in Hawley ; Levi, who resides at the High Knob; and Simeon Lord, Jr., who succeeds his father at the old tavern-stand. Of Levi Lord's other children, William removed to Philadelphia ; James lived in Blooming Grove until he was forty-six, and then went West; Edmond Lord remained until he was forty, and then moved to Lehman township. He is now eighty-four years of age, and a hale, hearty old man. He recently walked from Newton to Lord's Val- ley, a distance of thirty miles, carrying a load on his back, between the rising and setting sun. He has never used tobacco in any form, nor drank liquor, although brought up in a hotel and living in Pike County. His father's family consisted of sixteen children. One sis- ter, Betsey, married William Manly, who

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PIKE COUNTY.

built a stone tavern at the forks of the Bethany and Hawley roads, in Lackawaxen township. His sister Ellen still lives, in Philadelphia, aged ninety-six. Edmond Lord has been a great hunter, and killed many deer, wild-eats and bears.

William Spearing had a house thirty by forty feet, and two stories high, on the old Wilderness road, in Blooming Grove, before Solomon Westbrook bought it, in 1827. It was built of large square sticks of hewn pine timber. The old mill was up the Blooming Grove Creek about one and one-fourth miles from where the Pau- pack and Tafton roads fork, and was built by Charles B. Seaman, ex-sheriff of Pike County. In 1827 Solomon Westbrook rebuilt this mill, and John C. Westbrook, his son, the present saw-mill in 1847, and the grist-mill in 1855. Solomon Westbrook was a merchant and lum- berman, and onee sheriff of Pike County. He married Hannah Coolbaugh, a daughter of John Coolbaugh, once associate judge. His children were Margaret, who married John B. Stoll, of Newark, N. J .; John C. Westbrook, who was first elected prothonotary in 1845, and has been seven times re-elected. The prothonotary in Pike County is elerk of the several eourts, reg- ister of wills and reeorder of deeds. Mr. West- brook is a competent offieer, and merits the eon- fidenee which the voters of Pike County repose in him. Lafayette Westbrook has been a mem- ber of the Assembly from Pike several times, and now lives in Stroudsburg. Hiram is in Ridgewood, N. J. Moses C. Westbrook is on the homestead, and Susan lives in Newark, N. J. John Young resides in the vieinity, and Mr. Buskirk has a grist-mill at Westbrook's. Joseph Brown first settled where William H. Nyee afterward lived. Daniel Brodhead bought this property and sold it to Solomon and John Westbrook and William H. Nyce, about 1835, when John Nyce superintended the saw-mills, and in 1846 William H. Nyee eame with his family. His wife was Margaret Westbrook, his children being John Nyce, who measured logs for the Wilsonville mills a number of years, and is now life insurance agent at Haw- ley ; Safforyne W. Nyce, who lives in Milford ; Andrew J., who lives in Paupack ; and James, who lives in Deckertown.

Jacob Kreinhans bought the Blooming Grove property of William H. Nyce in 1851, and built a tannery on Blooming Grove Creek, con- taining fifty vats. He purchased in all about four thousand aeres, and tanned sole leather until the bark was exhausted, in 1882, when he purchased the Dr. Edward Halliday prop- erty in Milford, where he now resides. John Ploss, Charles Durling and several other Ger- mans have good farms in the western part of the township, on Egypt Creek. Squire L. Hazen, William Downey, Jolın Pletcher and some others own farms in the vieinity of the High Knob. There are two post-offices in the township-one at Lord's Valley and another at Blooming Grove. There are also sehools at each of these places and one near the High Knob. There are no ehurehes, but occasionally preaching is heard in one of the school-houses. The population of the township in 1880 was four hundred and seventy-two.

The serub oaks of Pike County make good railroad ties, of which a number of thousands are furnished every year to the Erie Railroad. There are also thousands of hoop-poles shipped to New York, and thence to the West Indies ; but sinee the lumber and bark have beeome ex- hausted, the central part of Pike County, like Blooming Grove, is better adapted to hunting and fishing.

The Blooming Grove Park Association was projected by Wm. H. Bell, of Branehville, Sus- sex County, N. J., and Fayette S. Giles in 1870. John C. Westbrook and Lafayette Westbrook deeded thirteen thousand aeres of land to the association, and they have sinee purchased one thousand acres in addition. F. S. Giles was the first president of the associa- tion. The stockholders have changed, and most of the stock is now held by New York parties. The lands lie in Blooming Grove, Greene and Porter townships, and include Lakes Beaver, Giles, Scott, Bruce, Westbrook, Laura, Ernest and Belle, according to the names which the associatiou have given them. One square mile of the land is inelosed by a wire fence, as a breeding park, in which they have about two hundred deer. The elub-house is creeted on ground overlooking Giles Lake, or

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

Blooming Grove Pond, as it was formerly called, at a cost of about ten thousand dol- lars.

The Shohola Farms are on the old Wilder- ness road, about three miles from Shohola Falls. This is a very old place, and was oecu- pied by an Englishman before the Revolution (as early as 1754), who kept an inn, and had barn room for sixty horses. The shingles were nailed with four-inch wrought nails. This man, who was fourteen miles in the wilder- ness, lived in great style for those days, if we credit the story of an old lady who passed through about the time of the Revolution. A. farm was elcared, and good-sized apple-trees were growing ; but at the time of the Revolu- tionary War this owner, who appears to have been a Tory, abandoned his property. It was managed by agents for years, transferred from one stock company to another, and is now owned by a company who are running saw- mills and lumbering on it.

During the struggle for the location of the county-seat Daniel. Dingman, who was a mem- ber of the Legislature, secured an act remov- ing the county-seat of Wayne County from Bethany to Blooming Grove, but the county commissioners bid defianee to the law, and refused to levy a tax to erect county buildings there. They justly claimed that the county was poor and unable to go to any extra expense. General Spearing, who owned land in Bloom- ing Grove, had a village laid out in town plots and built several substantial log houses, but the erection of Pike into a new county changed the status of affairs, and Milford raised fifteen hundred dollars by the 1st of June, 1814, which was the condition under which the county-seat was established at Mil- ford. The High Knob is on the most elevated land in Pike County, and forms the divide or water-shed between several creeks. The town- ship of Blooming Grove contains a few good farms, but it is better adapted to hunting and fishing.

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 158

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