History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 176

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 176
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 176
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 176

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 road through the Gap was completed in the year 1800 by Abram B. Giles, under a con- tract with the citizens, and it appears by the following petition that the " citizens " default- ed :

"To the Honorable Jacob Rush and his Associates Esquires Judges of the court of Quarter Sessions and Common Pleas of the borough of Easton in and for the county of Northampton, August term, 1801.

"The Petitioner Humbly sendeth greeting ! Gentle- men :

"Whereas, Public Notice by advertisement duly on the 30th July, 1800, for all persons to meet at the house of Benjamin Bonham in the Water Gap, on Delaware river, on the 9th of August following, on business concerning opening a road through said Gap, where attendance was given on said day and John Coolbaugh, Esq., was chosen chairman and Sam'l Secly, Esq., Sec. By which the meeting of the In- habitants then present chose John Coolbaugh, Moscs Chambers, Hugh Forman and Jacob Utt, Esquires, a Committee to lay out said Road by which I made contract in confidence of subscriptions, that for the sum of one thousand dollars, I would make a wagon Road through said Gap by subscriptions if obtained.

"Then at my own expense I went to work and com- pleted said Road on said Terms and when done was inspected by said Committee to a full satisfaction and certified the same by a Certificate, but all subscrip- tions received or expected to be received amounts to only £200 78, 6d., which brings me to a loss of £174 12s, 6d., which without said balance I cannot hold my own. I humbly therefore, crave the Honorable Court to take my agrievances into consideration and grant me such relief as they may think proper, and as in duty bound your Petitioncr will humbly pray. " ABRAHAM B. GILES.

" Endorsed.

" Not allowed.

" WM. LATTIMER, " Foreman."

This road left the river a short distance be- low, where the old saw-mill stood, passed near

June 10, 1748. Lukens was elected surveyor-general April 9, 1781.

the Kittatinny House and over Sunset Hill by the Mountain House and intersecting the pres- ent road near the Church of the Mountain.

In the year 1781 there is the following entry in the town-book of Smithfield : " To cash paid John Vandermark for sundry work on the road for five years past, £37 6s. 6d."

The highways were as badly neglected then as at the present time, especially if we take into account the depreciated value of the currency at the period named, as will appear by the fol- lowing entry : " April 14, 1781, balance de from the township of Smithfield on settlement, £1737 58. 1d .; changed from Continental to Hard Money, April 24, 1784, making them £33 38. 3d.," a depreciation of about ninety- eight per cent.

Benjamin Bonham kept a small inn on the Water Gap road a short distance below Mr. Dutot's saw-mill. This was before the year 1800, as the preliminary meeting in reference to building the road through the Gap was held at his house. It was probably built the year before, in anticipation of the completion of the road. The house was afterwards kept by Asa Field. George Detrick subsequently built a larger house (about 1825) a short distance below, in the Gap, for the accommodation of raftsmen, who, until recent years, congregated there in great numbers.

It was customary to change the pilot or " steersman" at this place, as it seems to have been thought impossible, at that time, that one man could possess a knowledge of all the points on the entire course of the river requiring skill- ful pilotage. Those who ranked high in the profession were in great demand during the spring and fall freshets, and rafts were some- times detained at the " Gap Eddy " for days, waiting for their return.

Captain George Detrick, above referred to, had command of a company formed in Smith- field in 1814, consisting of the following persons : Cornelius Coolbaugh (lieutenant) George Hanser, John Long, Abram De Pui, Joseph W. Drake, Jolin Keller, James Brewer, William Sayre, George Felker, John Pugh, William Gordon, Abram Gordon, Frederick Brotzman, Jesse Lee, David Lee, Joshua Price,

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John Storm, John Huston, Adam Utt, Samuel Pugh, John V. Bush, George Walter, Peter Jayne, Henry Bush, John Rouse, John Bush, Jolin Pitcherd, Levi Cortright, James Beloof, Peter Strunk, John F. Williams, William Wil- liams, Jacob Transue.

Captain Detrick was a man above the ordi- nary size, six feet four inches in height, with a proportionably large frame, very erect and alto- gether a man of uncommonly fine presence. On their way to rendezvous, Marcus Hook, the party passed through Philadelphia, and were transported from there to their destination in Durham boats. During their stay in Philadel- phia they were complimented on their fine ap- pearance, nearly all the men being above the average size.

Captain Detrick was especially noticed and his martial bearing commented upon. He as- tonished the young natives, however, and suf- fered considerable annoyance by the crowd of boys on every side shouting " Goliath lias broken out of the wax-works !" Lieutenant Cool- bangh, who was afterwards promoted to a cap- taincy, is said to have been a good officer. He was a brother of the Hon. John Coolbaugh, spoken of elsewhere.

Levi Cortwright, above named, was a son of Cobus Cortwright and Jane Shoemaker. Jane was called by the low Dutch " Yonachy." She was captured by the Indians in 1780, near the house of Jacob Place, when seven years of age. Her father and brother were killed at the same time. Yonachy was taken to Ohio and lived with the Indians till 1792, when she was brought to Philadelphia in the general ex- change of prisoners which took place that year. She was then nineteen years of age, and had, of course, acquired many of the habits of her captors. She was wonderfully active and dexterous and could run with almost the speed of a deer, and astonished her neighbors by going round a field on top of a rail fencc.

When her brother went to bring her from Philadelphia she failed to recognize him until he related the incident of her father's horse having been killed by jumping on a picket fence, which occurred just before her capture. The Indians with whom she lived treated her kindly

and she assisted in the cultivation of corn on the Ohio, and it is vouched for by members of the family that some of the products of her labor were brought to her in the autumn, carried in sacks by the faithful natives.

Peter Kachlein was elected sheriff of North- ampton County, commissioned October 4, 1764, and held the office for eight years. In the pro- ceedings of Council in Philadelphia, April 11, 1780, Colonel Peter Kachlein, lieutenant of the county of Northampton, was written to, and for- warded a copy of the resolves of the Council for calling out the militia, and authorizing him to offer fifteen hundred dollars for every Indian or Tory prisoner, and one thousand dollars for any Indian scalp, and it was resolved that Col- onel Peter Kachlein be directed to order out not exceeding one hundred men, including officers, to march immediately to the townships of Lower Smithfield, Delaware and Upper Smithfield, to repress the incursion of the savages, and Abram Cortwright is ordered to deliver to Colonel Pe- ter Kachlein two hundredweight of powder, eight hundredweight of lead and four hundred flints for the use of the county of Northamp- ton.

John Seely was appointed ensign in the Twelfth Regiment, commanded by Colonel Wil- liam Cook, February 3, 1777. Sends to Coun- cil deposition respecting Colonel Jacob Stroud, which was read February 9, 1784. Appointed with Alexander Patterson, justice for Wyoming September 10, 1783. Kachlein, Seely and Patterson all resided in Smithfield at this time.

Michael Roup resided near Philip Bossard's (now Bossardsville), in Cherry Valley. On the 24th of April, 1757, he appeared before Wil- liam Parsons, justice of the peace at Easton, and made deposition in relation to an Indian raid upon the inhabitants residing between Fort Hamilton and Fort Norris. Nine families hastily assembled at Philip Bossard's and brought with theni such of their household goods as time permitted. Other families retired to the houses of Conrad Bittenbender and John Mc- Dowell (at the " Shaw Farm," now owned by Jacob H. Featherman). There were two Indian raids made to this neighborhood in the spring of 1757, in which Conrad Bittenbender, John

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Nolf, Jacob Roth, Peter Sloan, Christian Klein and two sons of Philip Bossard were killed ; Peter Shaeffer, Abram Miller and his mother, Adam Snell's daughter, George Ebert and a Miss Klein were taken prisoners.

Philip Bossard was born in the Franco-Ger- man province of Alsace in 1706. He eame to this country about 1730, and settled in Cherry Valley, at the present town of Bossardsville, in 1745, and died there in 1797.

Conrad Bittenbender settled in Cherry Valley about the same time as Philip Bossard. He eame to this country from Hanover. As before stated, he was killed in one of the Indian raids into that valley in 1757. He was surrounded in sight of Bossard's house, to which he was hastening, none daring to go to his reseue, as they were few in number compared to their as- sailants.

John Chambers was a eolonel in the army of the Revolution. When a sub-lieutenant he and Lieutenant John Wetzel, from Northampton County, under date July 8, 1778, wrote to Vice-President George Bryan, of Couneil, Philadelphia : " That a letter from Colonel Stroud, of the Sixth Battalion of North- ampton County, informs them that a body of Indians and white men are upon their mareh to the settlements upon Delaware, they being discovered at the mouth of the Laekawaxen and moving towards Shaholy. By the best infor- mation we receive we learn that Wyoming is finally destroyed, upon which we have ordered out half of the battalion of the county ; but by all accounts it is not a sufficient number to withstand their foree, as we suppose this to be a different number from those at Wyoming, which by them that made their escape, their number is supposed to be between seven and eight hundred."

Colonel Rea writes to President Reed, June 1, 1780: "I have used my best endeavors to have relief sent to the townships of Smithfield and Delaware, and I have by express ordered one-half of Colonel Kerr's men to march to those parts and to be under the direction of Lieutenant Chambers until further orders, which I hope your Exeelleney and Council may approve."

Moses Chambers, a son of Colonel John Chambers, was a justiee of the peace in Smith- field from 1796 to 1807. The family owned the property on the Delaware formerly owned by the late John V. Bush, two miles above Shawnee. John V. Bush married a daughter of Moses Chambers. Moses Chambers was married to Rhoda Riggs, November 15, 1785, by Rev. Elias Van Benseoten, in Smithfield.

In the list of marriages performed by Squire Chambers we find that of George Nyee to Eliza- beth Shoemaker, daughter of Daniel Shoemaker ; John Shoemaker to Sarah Smith, daughter of Franeis Joseph Smith, M.D., February 1, 1801; Henry Shoemaker to Margaret Chambers, daughter of John Chambers, July 13, 1800; George Labar to Sarah Jayne, daughter of Isaae Jayne (no date) ; William Heft to Agnes Gonsalis, daughter of James Gonsalis, January 14, 1798 ; Michael Brown to Rebeeca Johnson, daughter of Joseph Johnson, December 24, 1799 ; Susan Rosenkrans to Sarah Shoemaker, daughter of Henry Shoemaker, February 26, 1800; John Van Etten to Ann Labar, daughter of Daniel Labar, June 24, 1798.

Daniel Labar above mentioned, and an elder brother named Abraham, were sons of Daniel, and grandsons of Abraham Labar, who, with his brothers, Peter and Charles, came to this country about 1730. Abraham, the brother of Daniel, first above-named, entered the army of the Revolution at the commencement of the struggle for independenee ; he was a major be- fore the date of July 25, 1776, and was ap- pointed colonel in the spring of 1777.

Daniel Labar, the father of Colonel Abraham and Daniel, owned the property where the Wa- ter Gap Station of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad is located, and, it is said, eultivated, besides this plot, the islands in front. There were several large apple-trees growing near where the station buildings stand, from which the writer distinetly remembers obtain- ing fruit in his boyhood.

The late A. B. Burrell, in his " Memoirs of George Labar, the Centenarian," says that Abram Labar walled up the spring near the present residence of Richard Wilson, and that he lived here in 1741. Mr. Burrell probably

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meant Daniel, the father of Colonel Abraham and Daniel.

Daniel Labar, the last-named, the younger brother of Colonel Abraham, was born in 1763. He married Elizabeth Chambers in 1786. Rev. Elias Van Benscoten performed the marriage ceremony. His brothers and sisters are as follows :

Catharine married Wm. Steward, a British soldier ; George married Sarah Jayne, 1800 ; Abram married Miss Casebeer ; Jacob married Rachel Smith ; John married Rachel Brown; Elizabeth married Aaron Depui ; Sophia mar- ried George Spragle; Ann married John Van Etten, in 1798

From this time we discern the name occa- sionally written La Bar and sometimes Le Bar.

The following facts in relation to Daniel Labar, obtained from an Easton paper, are of interest.

" Daniel Labar, a resident of Smithfield township, Northampton County, says that he was born in the borough of Easton, in Northampton County, on the 25th day of August, A.D. 1763, and entered the ser- vice of the United States under the following-named officers, and served as herein stated : In the month of August, A.D. 1779, he was drafted and called out in the militia of Pennsylvania, under Captain Timothy Jayne, Lieutenant John Fiske, in the regiment com- inanded by Colonel Jacob Stroud, and marched from Smithfield township, his place of residence, now in Middle Smithfield township, and was there stationed at a fort near where Judge Coolbaughi now resides; that he remained in and about the fort to protect the inhabitants from the Indians until the two months for which he was drafted had expired, and was then discharged and went home, and was immediately put upon the minute list, as a minute man, to be ready at a minute's warning, with gun, etc., to repel the incur- sions of the savages, which were there and at that neighborhood frequent and daring. That he continued in the service as a minute man, Indian spy or scout, under the command of Colonel Jacob Stroud, for the full term of one ycar and ten months (till the taking of the army under Lord Cornwallis, in October, 1781). That during the time of his service as a minute man or Indian spy he was frequently and repeatedly called out to repel the invasions of the savages. Once he was ordered out with others by Colonel Stroud, under Lieutenant Fish, to John Larner's, at the foot of Pocono Mountain, in said county, where they found the said John Larner, his father, his son and son's wife and children killed by the savages. Re- mained there some time, and in the neighborhood

after the Indians, and then ordered up Brodhead's Creek, in said county, to scour the woods, which they did, from and up the said creek to the Big Ridge, as it was called, and then came home ; and at another time during the said service he was ordered out by the said Colonel Jacob Stroud, under the command of Captain Abraham Miller, up the Delaware River to Vannetten's Fort, in now Delaware township, Pike County, and was at the fort when the attack was made upon it. At another time he was ordered to the fort at a place now called Stroudsburg, and stationed to guard the fort and at other times frequently called out, under the same officer, for a week or two at a time, to protect the inhabitants; that he was always ready and always did turn out during said service, when warned. During the summer he did nothing but watch and keep himself in readiness. He thinks that during the said term he was in actual service more than half of the time, but to be certain, he only swears to one-half; that he never received any pay or remuneration for such service.

" DANIEL LABAR."

Daniel La Bar was the father of John Cham- bers La Bar, and grandfather of Judge J. Depui La Bar and Daniel La Bar, now living at Shawnee.

Jacob La Bar, who married Rachel Smith, daughter of Francis Joseph Smith, M.D., is the father of the highly-esteemed Mrs. Jean- nette Hollinshead (widow of Stroud J. Hollins- head), now living at Stroudsburg. .

George La Bar, brother of Daniel and Jacob above named, was the father of the late Judge Henry M. La Bar, George La Bar and Mrs. Dr. P. M. Bush.

J. DEPUE LE BAR .-- The family represented by the subject of this sketch was one of the earliest to settle in Monroe County. The name is of French origin and has been variously spelled La Barre, Le Barre and La Bar. The first representatives of the family in this country were Peter, Charles and Abram La Bar, who emigrated about 1730, and landed at Philadelphia. After a few days of rest they determined to follow up the Delaware River, and make a settlement on the very out- skirts of civilization. In three days they arrived at the forks of the Delaware and Lehigh Rivers, which was then the principal white settlement, the present site of Easton being occupied by an Indian village. Continu- ing their journey, they at length came in view of the Blue Ridge barrier. There were some

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small settlements back from the river, but none on the river above Williamsburg, except that of Nicholas Depui, who was comfortably planted at what is now Shawnee. After viewing the country between the river and the mountain for a day or two, they pitched upon a site for their cabin about three-quarters of a mile from the river, on a somewhat elevated spot, in what is now Mount Bethel township, Northampton County, and soon had their primitive home-

Charles remained in the old cabin homestead in Mount Bethel. Peter pushed a little farther on and bought a tract of land above the mountains of the Indians, southwest of where Stroudsburg now stands, and adjoining a tract Colonel Stroud purchased some time after. Here he cleared up a good home, after many years of hard labor, and raised a large family of children. Abram planted himself above the Delaware Water Gap Notch, not far from the Delaware

Depie LeBar

stead erected. The Indians were their only [ Water Gap depot, where he lived many years near neighbors, and these they managed to and raised a large family. He cleared the island just above the Gap, which, with the garden flat around his house, made quite a snug farm. He lived there in 1741, when the Governor sent Nicholas Scull up to look after the state of things in the Smithfields. make their true friends by many little acts of kindness. Here they dwelt together a number of years, engaged in the various occupations of pioneer life, until finally, as the tide of emi- gration from the north and south began to reach them, they each married a German or Dutch wife, and found it advisable to separate.

It was from one of these brothers, probably Abraham, that Daniel La Bar, grandfather of

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

the subject of this sketch, descended. He was early identificd with Colonel Strond in his land operations and business enterprises, served as a scout and guard against the Indians, and carried the mail for many years between Shawnee and Stroudsburg. Circumstances all seem to indi- cate that he was a son of Abraham La Bar, as the tradition in his branch of the family is that his father first settled in Easton, then moved above Wind Gap, and finally located where E. T. Croasdale's farm residence now stands, all of which facts are confirmed by the historical account of the family. Daniel La Bar married a Miss Chambers for his first wife, and for his second Cornelia Van Etten. He had two sons, John C. and Daniel E. La Bar, the latter of whom removed to Wisconsin, where hisdescend- ants still live. John C. was the father of our subject, and married Sarah, daughter of John Depue. He was a farmer by occupation, and had six children, of whom two, Hiram and Benjamin, died in infancy. The others were J. Depue Le Bar, Daniel, Moses (deceased) and Samuel (deceased). John C. La Bar died March 19, 1865, and his wife October 5, 1876.

J. Depue Le Bar was born at Pahaquarry, Warren County, New Jersey, July 31, 1814. His early years were passed upon his father's farm at that place, where he also received an ordinary common-school education. He began at the age of sixteen to run on a raft, carrying lumber down the Delaware River to Philadel- phia, and still makes regular journeys at the proper season of the year, being considered one of the most expert steersmen on the river. When about twenty years of age he rented the farm of his grandfather, Daniel, in Smithfield township, and engaged in cultivating that for several years. He then bought a farm in Mid- dle Smithfield township, containing between seventy and eighty acres, and now occupied by George Schuman. On August 13, 1836, he married Sarah A., daughter of George V. and Maria (Stetler) Bush, and granddaughter of George Bush, an early settler from Germany, and Mary Van Campen, his wife. Her mother is still living in the ninetieth year of her age. After his marriage Judge Le Bar resided upon his farm for several years, and then disposed of

it, and removed to Pahaquarry, on the New Jersey side of the river, where he remained for eight years engaged in farming and lumbering. He then purchased the old Bush property, at Shawnee, where he followed farming for twelve years, when he rebuilt and occupied his present residence at Shawnee.

In the fall of 1854 he commenced to keep a country store at Shawnee in connection with his son-in-law, George F. Heller, the firm being known as Le Bar & Heller. Mr. Heller sub- sequently removed to Stroudsburg, and the store has since been run by Judge Le Bar alone. The latter, during his long residence in Smith- field, has been one of the most useful and influen- tial citizens of the township. A Democrat in politics, he has never been a seeker after place, yet has been honored by his fellow-citizens with several positions of honor and trust. He was for eighteen years postmaster at Shawnee, has held various township offices, and in 1882 was elected one of the lay judges of Monroe County for five years, and is at present serving on the bench. He has served as a member of the board of directors of the Stroudsburg Bank since its organization, with the exception of omitting the necessary one year in four required by its charter ; and during the war was active in furnishing all the quotas of volunteers requir- ed from Smithfield township .. He is an earnest and zealous member of the Shawnee Presbyter- ian Churchi, of which he has been an elder for about thirty years, assisted in building the present house of worship, and is held in general respect and esteem for his integrity and up- rightness of character. His children are eight in number, namely,-Sarah M., wife of George F. Heller, of Stroudsburg; Elizabeth, wife of Colonel John Schoonover, of Oxford Furnace, N. J .; Susan, wife of Samuel D .. Over- field, of Delaware Water Gap; Dr. Amzi Le Bar, of Stroudsburg; Margaret, widow of Charles S. Hill, formerly of Oxford Furnace, N. J .; Mary, wife of Rev. F. P. Dalrymple, pastor of Shawnee Presbyterian Church ; Hiram, farming on the homestead at Shawnee; and Franklin, general agent of the Providence Life Insurance Co., of Philadelphia, for New Jersey, residing at Pennington, in that State.

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After the country south of the mountain was better known to the isolated dwellers in the Minisink, the river Delaware became the pop- ular medium of communication, as it afforded an casier and more speedy means of transport- ing to market commodities which had hitherto found an outlet over the " old Mine road " to Esopus.

The first craft used for the purpose was the " dug-out," an exaggerated form of canoe, made from the body of a large log excavated and flattened on the bottom to prevent its roll- ing in the water. The dug-out would carry three or four tons, and with two men using both oars and pike-poles, as occasion served, would make the voyage to Easton and back from the Lower Minisink in three to four days. This kind of craft, as a means of transport, pre- ceded the raft and " Durham boats," the latter becoming subsequently the principal method of freighting to and from the Upper Delaware. The Durham boat had its name and origin at Durham Furnace, on the Delaware, below Easton.

It is said that the first boat was built by Robert Durham, the manager and engineer of the furnace, and after whom the furnace was probably named. This was in the year 1750. The Durham boats were used in the transpor- tation of flour from Van Campen's mill, at Shawnee, to Philadelphia as early as 1758, and later, in conveying supplies and building material as far up the Delaware as Cannonsville, in the State of New York. In the memory of persons living in the vicinity, these boats were used by the old and respectable firm of Bell & Thomas, at Experiment Mills, in transporting flour to Philadelphia and bringing up supplies for the neighborhood. The place of landing was at the mouth of Brodhead's Creek, and was known as the " Flower Garden." David Bo- gert, Jacob Lamb and Cornelius Coolbaugh are remembered as captains of Durham boats.

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 176

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