History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 20

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 20
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 20
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 20

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Major Jason Torrey, of Wayne County, who was agent for many of these owners, seems to have exerted quietly a beneficent influence at a critical juncture. In his memoir, written by his son, Rev. David Torrey, D.D., occurs the following apropos to this subject :

" It was on March 1, 1803, just about three years after the commission of adjustment was appointed by the Governor, and when about two years of resistance on the part of the Con- necticut settlers to the awards of that commis- sion had wrought up the controversy between them and the authorities of the State almost to the point of a violent and bloody conflict, that Mr. Torrey writes to his parents from Phila- delphia as follows :

" When I left home last Monday I expected to be absent four weeks. I now expect to be at home a week from this day.

" The urgency of my return is occasioned by an interference between the landholders and the Executive of the State, relative to the Connecti- cut settlers in Luzerne. The Governor has proposed sending a military foree, and we (i. e., the landholders and Mr. Torrey) are for bring- ing them to an amicable settlement.

"In this I flatter myself with some success ; at least sufficient to avert a civil war with them.

" For the last twelvemonth I have taken the position of a mediator between the landholders and the intruders. Both parties have embraced my proposals and it now remains to put the plan in operation.

" The law knows no such thing as compro- mise between the injured and the offender. To punish the one and restore to the other are its only means. But when the offender acknowl- edges his crime, comes forward with an honor- able restitution and allies himself by strong ties of interest to the party he has injured, the Ex- ecutive may forgive thie injury, and even pro- mote and encourage the measure.

"The mission upon which I am now engaged will decide the fate of the Connecticut settlers, who are under a Connecticut claim. If they treat for a purchase, they may, from intruders --- violators of the laws of the State, and of the United States - become valuable citizens and good members of society.' If these terms are rejected, force will speedily compel them, and they may be exterminated from the country."

It was not until three years later than this period, in 1806, that a final settlement was made through agents of the two classes of land- owners. Then the "Pennamite War" was a thing of the past, but personal prejudices and animosities prevailed for at least a generation afterwards.

In old Northampton County, after the close of the Revolution, there was a rapid advance- ment in population and prosperity. Settlers began to throng into the great region north of the mountains, lands were cleared and every year witnessed an improvement in values.

Some facts as to the condition of the country in Northampton, north of the mountains, are afforded by the general return of taxable prop- erty for the year 1796. According to this re- port, the number of acres of improved land in the townships which then embraced practically the same territory as that now included in Wayne, Pike and Monroe Counties was as fol- lows :

Chestnut Hill 12,513

Delaware

7,887

Lower Smithfield 15,443

Middle Smithfield. 11,225

Upper Smithfield. 8,756

The value of the taxable property in these five townships, as rated by the commissioners, was as follows :

Chestnut Hill $13,709.00

Delaware.

15,305.33

Lower Smithfield.

22,436.35

Middle Smithfield. 16,241.00

Upper Smithfield. 15,610.93

Slavery existed in Northampton (in common with the rest of the State) until after 1800, though its gradual abolishment was commenced by the passage of an act by the Assembly on March 1, 1780.

Following is a record of the slaves held in

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1780 in that part of Northampton County lying north of the mountains, as copied from the register then made :

John Van Campen, farmer, Lower Smithfield, four, -Dick, aged 36; Peter, 32; Joseph, 8 years and 9 months ; Suekey (female), 4 years and 10 months.

Benjamin Van Campen, farmer, Lower Smithfield, five,-Dyon (female), 29 years and 8 months ; Pom- pey, 33; Roger, 9 years and 4 months; Judah, 2 years and 11 months; Leah, 10 months.

William Smith, farmer, Delaware, three,-Joseph, 13 years; Bythinia (female), 10 years.

Walter Berry, farmer, Hamilton,-Ellich (Alleck), 30 years.

Robert McDowell, farmer, Hamilton, one,-Dick, 10 years.

Jane Shoemaker, Hamilton, one,-James.

Nicholas Depui, farmer, Smithfield, two,-Abra- ham, 28 years, and Thomas, 30 years.

Jacob Stroud, tavern-keeper, Smithfield, four,- Jack, 35 years; Briss, 32 years ; Robin, 26 years ; Isaac, 6 years.

Morgan Duche, farmer, Delaware, four, -- Abby (female), 25 years ; Ben, 7 years; Dinah, 5 years ; Quannine, 2 years.

Garret Brodhead, farmer, Smithfield, one,-John, 75 years.

Thus it will be seen that in Northampton County, north of the Blue Mountains, the region now included in Monroe and Pike Counties, there were in the year 1780 twenty six slaves.

The lands in the wilderness region of North- ampton, as we have heretofore intimated, were eagerly sought for by capitalists and small purchasers who intended to cultivate the estates they procured.

Long before this the proprietaries had mani- fested a peculiar fondness for the lands in the northeast corner of the State, in what is now Wayne County, and there were more " Manors" located there than in any other region so remote from Philadelphia. There are no less than six- teen within the present limits of the three counties which form our subject, and of these all but two or three are in Wayne.

The query arises : Did not the proprietaries locate these many manors (in a comparativly poor region, so far as natural resources go) with a view to securing, as it were, a kind of double title to the soil, and, in some sense, of fortify- ing this corner of the province against Con-

necticut intruders ? However this may have been, the fact remains that no less than fifteen manors were surveyed for the Penns in what is now Wayne and Pike Counties. There were in the former county the " Amsterdam and Rotter- dam " Manor, of two thousand seven hundred and seventy acres, in Lebanon township; “Safe Harbor " (Equinunk), two thousand two hun- dred and twenty-two acres ; " Damascus," four thousand three hundred and ninety acres, at the confluence of Cashé's Creek and the Delaware ; " William Penn, Jr.," five thousand two hun- dred and fourteen, between the waters of the Lackawaxen and Equinunk Creeks ; "The Meadows," three thousand and thirty-two acres, on the east side of the Moosic, on the waters of the Lackawaxen ; the "Mill Seat," nine hun- dred and ninety-nine acres, on the south branch of the Equinunk ; " Duck Harbor," five hundred and ten acres, on the Little Equinunk ; " Fox Harbor," on the east branch of the Lackawaxen; " Pleasant Garden," twenty thousand nine hundred and forty-eight acres, on Big Middle Creek ; "Sandy Run," one thousand two hun- dred and eighty acres, on the east branch of the Lackawaxen ; "Brewer's Den," three hundred and twelve acres, on a branch of Equinunk Creek ; "Shohocking," in Buckingham town- ship; "Elk Forest," eleven thousand five hun- dred and twenty-six acres, on the waters of the Lackawaxen and Big Middle Creek; and another unnamed. The " Wallenpaupack " Manor was partly in Wayne, but principally in Pike, and consisted of twelve thousand one hundred and fifty acres. It was laid off in 1748. A small manor (the only one in Monroe County) included Lake Poponoming and bore that name.

These manors were surveyed from 1748 to 1769, the greater number of them in 1763.

Of far more benefit to the country was the purchase of lands by individuals. Some quite distinguished persons became proprietors and some very extensive tracts were bought.

In 1774 Samuel Meredith and George Clymer began purchasing wild lands in Dela- ware County, N. Y., in what is now West Vir- ginia and in the territory now included in Schuylkill, Pike, Monroe, Lackawanna, Luzerne,

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Wyoming, Bradford, Sullivan and Susquehanna Counties, and between 1790 and 1796, in what is now Wayne, they bought about fifty thousand acres.

What was known as Belmont Manor be- ! gan on the Moosic Mountains, near the site of Waymart, and extended north along the range to what is now Hine's Corners, in Preston township. It was twenty odd miles in length and about two in width and contained about twenty-six thousand aeres. The other portion of the great estate was purchased as follows : From Robert Morris, Philadelphia (financier of the Revolution), seven thousand one hundred and twenty-seven acres, one hun- dred and nineteen perches, for nine thousand five hundred and sixteen dollars ; from William Lane, Philadelphia, eight hundred and seventy- nine aeres and seventy-three perches, for two thousand five hundred dollars ; from John Mes- ser, of Lancaster, two thousand seven hundred and seventy acres and thirty perches, for eleven thousand one hundred and eighty dollars (Penn- sylvania money); from Samuel Stanton, three hundred acres, for one thousand five hundred dollars; from Tench Coxe, Philadelphia, nine hundred and fifty-eight acres, twenty-eight perches, for four thousand seven hundred and fifty dollars, and other tracts in various parts of the county, completing the aggregate of fifty thousand acres from various persons.

Meredith owned the Amsterdam and Rotter- dam Manor, in Lebanon, and many tracts in Mount Pleasant and Preston. Upon his death these descended to his heirs or devisees, and Thomas Meredith, his son, took charge of the lands. Calvely Freeman, Esq., was his sur- veyor. In 1830, Mr. Meredith moved to Lu- zerne County, and Mr. Meylert, a Frenchman, took charge of the Meredith lands, and was suc- ceeded by Michael Meylert.

The Elk Forest tract, in Old Canaan, became the property of Joseph Fellows, of Geneva, N. Y., who made Hon. N. B. Eldred his agent, who was succeeded by Hon. Win. H. Dimmick, Sr. Moses Killam, Esq., divided the tract into one hundred or two hundred acre lots.

Upon this subject of lands in Wayne and Pike Counties and the Pennsylvania land

system we quote and condense from Phineas G. Goodrich, an excellent authority, because for half a century a surveyor. 1 Mr. Goodrich says,-

"The General Assembly of Pennsylvania, on the 27th day of November, 1779, passed 'an act for vesting the Estate of the late Proprietaries of Pennsylvania, in this Commonwealth ;' in the preamble whereto it is set forth, 'that the claims heretofore made by the late Proprietaries to the whole of the soil contained within the charter from Charles II. to William Penn can- not longer consist with the safety, liberty and happiness of the good people of this Common- wealth, who, at the expense of much blood and treasure, have bravely rescued themselves and their possessions from the tyranny of Great Britain and are now defending themselves from the inroads of the savages.' The act did not confiscate the lands of the Proprietaries within the lines of manors, nor embrace the purchase- money due for lands sold lying within surveyed manors. The manors, in legal acceptation, were lands surveyed and set apart as the private property of the Proprietaries.

"The titles to all lands sold and conveyed by William Penn or hisdescendants were confirmed and made valid. But the title to all lands in the Commonwealth, which had not been sur- veyed and returned into the land-office, on or before the 4th of July, 1776, was by said act vested in the State. This act provided that the sum of one hundred and thirty thousand pounds, sterling money, should be paid out of the treasury of this State to the devisees and legatees of Thomas Penn and Richard Penn, late Proprietaries, and to the widow and relict of Thomas Penn, in such proportions as should thereafter, by the Legislature, be deemed equitable and just, upon a full investigation of their respective claims. No part of the sum was to be paid within less than one year after the termination of the war with Great Britain ; and no more than twenty thousand pounds, nor less than fifteen thousand pounds should be payable in any one year. The land-office was begun by William Penn, and many features of the office,

1 " Ilistory of Wayne County," by Phineas G. Goodrich.

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as it was in his day, remain to the present time.

" A land-office by and under the act of 9th of April, 1781, was created under the Common- wealth, its officers consisting of a secretary of the land-office, receiver-general and surveyor- general. By an act of the 29th of Marclı, 1809, the office of receiver-general was abolished, and his duties were discharged by the secretary of the land-office ; and by the act of the 17th of April, 1843, this latter-named office was discontinued, and the duties pertain- ing thereto were performed by the surveyor- general. By the Constitution of 1874 this office is now under the charge of the Secretary of Internal Affairs.

"An act for opening the land-office and for granting and disposing of the unappropriated lands within this State passed April 1, 1784, provided 'that the land-offiee shall be opened for the lands already purchased of the Indians on the 1st day of July next, at the rate of ten pounds for every hundred aeres, with the usual fees of granting, surveying and patenting, ex- cepting such tracts as shall be surveyed west- ward of the Allegheny mountains, etc. Every applicant for lands shall produce to the secretary of the land-office a particular description of the lands applied for, with a certificate from two justices of the peace of a proper county, specify- ing whether the said lands be improved or not, and if improved, how long since the improve- ment was made, that interest may be charged accordingly. The quantity of land granted to any one person shall not exceed four hundred acres, ete. The prices of unimproved land were different at various periods under the several purchases made of the Indians. From the 1st of July, 1784, to April 3, 1792, the price of unimproved wild lands was $26.663 per hun- dred acres in Wayne, Pike, Susquehanna and other counties. By act of April 3, 1792, the price of unimproved lands was fixed at $6.663 per hundred acres. The latter-named act was repealed by act of 29th of March, 1809, since which time the price of lands in the above- named counties has been $26.663 per hundred acres. The laws passed relative to State lands were numerous. Under said laws the surveyor-

general, or the officer acting in that eapacity, was authorized to appoint a deputy-surveyor in each and every county. George Palmer, of Easton, was the deputy-surveyor appointed for Wayne and Pike Counties, and most of the State lands were surveyed and located by him in those counties, and were made before there were any permanent settlements. As the greater part of the names of the eleven or twelve hundred persons named as warrantees on the county maps are strange and unknown, it has been supposed that many of those names were fictitious, which supposition is erroneous. The persons named were those that made the original applications. Some of the lands were taken up by the early settlers. Witness the names of Evans, Skinner, Thomas, Little, Smith, Allen, Hays, Land, and others in Damascus, and of Seely, Torrey, Woodward, Brown, Bingham, Day, Brink, Ball, Scudder, Moore, Taylor and many other well-known names in other parts of the county. The law allowed the applicant to take up four hundred acres, with an allowance of six per eent. for roads, but in consequence of inaccuracies in sur- veys, the law or practice of the land depart- ment allowed ten per cent. surplusage. After the establishment of the land-office under the auspices of the Commonwealth, many persons were deluded by the belief that it would be profitable for them to take up a traet of land for their own use, or for their children, or for the purpose of speculation. But lands taken up from 1780 to 1800 were not in demand, and could not be sold at a profit ; and many, who, at the time when they took up tracts, designed to settle upon them, on a view of the hardships to be endured in a region destitute of roads, schools and churches, were deterred from car- rying their original designs into execution, and at last sold out their wild possessions to the large land-holders, or suffered their lands to be sold for taxes. The land department allowed applicants to take up lands without paying the purchase-moncy, or fees, or granted warrants on which only a part was paid. Such lands, being located, surveyed and returned by the deputy- surveyor, were subject to taxation, and liable to be sold every other year for taxes. Hundreds

----

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of tracts were thus sold biennially. In the bc- ginning and during the progressive settlement of the county the greater part of the wild lands were held and sold by large land-owners. Jason Torrey was the agent of the following-named persons and their executors, viz : Henry Drinker, Thomas Shields, Edward Tilghman, Mark Wilcox, Samuel Baird, L. Hollingsworth, Wm. Bell, heirs of James Hamilton, Thomas Stewardson, George Vaux, Thomas Cadwalader, Thomas Astley and several other persons not large owners. From well-authenticated evidence it appears that Jason Torrey, who was a native of Williamstown, Mass., came into Mount Pleasant in 1793, when scareely twenty years of age ; while working there for Jirah Mumford, Samuel Baird, of Pottstown, Pa., came to Kel- logg's, and at once apprehending the natural ability of the young man, engaged him in as- sisting to survey some land on the Lackawaxen and some other parts of Northern Pennsylvania. Samuel Baird was the deputy-surveyor of Lu- zerne County.

"From the experience thus afforded he be- came an expert and ready surveyor. The land- holders named committed the care and sale of their lands in Wayne and Pike Counties to Mr. Torrey, they, however, in all cases, fixing the prices and the conditions under which their re- spective lands should be sold. Jason Torrey knew more about the titles and the location of lands in Wayne and Pike Counties than any man then living, and he made more sales than all other agents combined. He compiled and published a map showing by numbers the loca- tion and quantity of every warrantce in Wayne and Pikc Countics. In 1827, Torrey gave up the agency of the greater part of the lands which had been committed to his care, and it was given to Henry R. Stilley, who was a relative of some of the large owners, and came from Phil- adelphia to obtain a knowledge of matters relative to the surveys and sales, and spent six years in the office of Jason Torrey before he became familiar with the manner in which the business had formerly been donc. He was dismissed from all his ageneies after a few years, and in 1831, John D. Taylor, who had been a elerk in the office of General Thomas

Cadwalader, of Philadelphia, was sent to Wayne County to take the agency for Cad wala- der and several others. Mr. Taylor remained in the county some five or six years, attending to the duties connected with his agencies ; but, not finding the business satisfactory, he gave it np and removed from the county. As early as 1835 some of the owners placed their lands under the agency of John Torrey, of Hones- dale, and after the removal of Mr. Taylor, nearly all the unsold lands, which had been under Jason Torrey's care, were added to John Torrey's agency.

" The Shields lands, in Lebanon, Oregon, Berlin and Damascus, and the Manor of Amsterdam and Rotterdam were run north 10 degrees west or north 123 degrees west, while tic lands in Salem, North Sterling, in most of South Canaan, and in part of Cherry Ridge were run north 50 degrees west, and in other parts of the county, in divers other directions. Samuel Baird may have laid a few warrants, but George Palmer, as before said, originally surveyed and located most of the lands in Wayne County, and his work was well done. Anthony Crothers was his successor. It is contended that he never came into the county, and that all his pretended surveys were made by sub-deputies, or made by his own fireside, and were called 'chamber surveys.' At any rate there were many of them found to be very inaccurate. The north assumed by the original surveyors was not the true polar north, but had a western declination therefrom of about two and a half degrces.

" It was once, if it is not now, a common be- lief that the large land-owners realized great fortunes from the sale of their wild lands, which was not the ease. If to the price paid for the lands were added the yearly taxes for forty or fifty years, and the compensation made to agents for watching them, and finally surveying and selling them, the lands cost their owners more than they realized from them, and sometimes double. Hon. James Wilson, judge of the Supreme Court of the United States, owned more lands in Wayne County than any other man. He died in 1798, and his lands were sold under a mortgage, and his heirs found his

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

estate diminished, rather than enlarged, by his land investments.

" Judge Wilson's lands upon the Paupack were purehased by Samuel Sitgreaves, of Eas- ton, who sold them to the settlers at a very low priee. Other lands taken up by Wilson, in Sterling, Salem, Canaan and other parts of the county, fell into the hands of Thomas Cadwal- ader and Edward Tilghman, of Philadelphia. Henry Drinker, of the same eity, owned the most of the lands in Dyberry and many traets in Manehester and Buekingham.

" The person who obtained a warrant was ealled the warrantee. Upon paying the State treasurer the legal priee of the land, and the offiee fees, $4.50, the warrant was sent to the eounty surveyor, whose business it was to sur- vey the land within six months, make a draft and deseription, and, upon being paid for his serviees, make a return to the land department. Then the warrantee, upon paying $10 to the land department, would receive a patent for his land. Then, if he had the first warrant, the first survey and the first patent, the title was seeure. The land department, for many years past, has required the applicant for a warrant to make oath before a justiee of the peaee, of the proper eounty, touching the condition of the lands as to its improved or unimproved state, and proving the same by a disinterested witness, on his oath made before two justiees of the peaee. The aet of April, 1850, provided for the election in that year, and every third year thereafter, of one eompetent person, being a practical surveyor, to act as eounty surveyor."

By 1794 the population of Northampton above the Blue Mountains had so inereased that the people began ambitiously to seek the ereetion of a new eounty. The first effort in this direetion of which any knowledge is at- tainable was made chiefly through the ef- forts of the people living immediately north of the mountains, in 1794. A petition then eireulated (the date only being preserved by Franeis J. Smith's peculiar eustom of weav- ing day, month and year into the flourishes of his signature) is here given.

"To the Honorable, the Senate and House of Repre- sentatives of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania.

"The petition of the Inhabitants of Towamensing, Chestnut Hill, Hamilton, Lower Smithfield, Mid- dle Smithfield, Delaware, Matlack and Upper Smith- field townships, in Northampton County, Most Re- spectfully Shewcth

"That your Petitioners experience a grievious & almost unsupportable inconvenience from crossing the mountain called the 'Kittatiny or Blue Mountain' & traveling at every Season of the year to attend on courts of Justice as Jurors, Witnesses, &c.,-some of your petitioners residing nearly one hundred miles distant from Easton, the present Seat of Justice of Northampton County.

"That, on account of the multiplicity of business in the courts of Justice, causes are greatly retarded & Witnesses & Suitors obliged to attend every Court for two, three and sometimes four or more years before a trial can be had, which is extremely ruinous to those citizens who are thus unfortunately necessitated to attend at the very great Distance which most of your Petitioners live from the county town, or place of transacting county business.

"That there are living in the remote parts of said county upward of three hundred persons who ought to be Taxable, but who have never yet paid any taxes nor performed any military service, all of whom may be made good & obedient citizens & many more may be induced to become improvers of the unimproved lands, amongst us, your Petitioners, if the disadvan- tages of our remote situation from the seat of Justice and place of transacting public business were done away with.

"Your petitioners therefore earnestly pray and humbly expect that the advantages of an influx of settlers on the unimproved land in the aforesaid re- mote part of said county, the civilization of upward of three hundred families already within the remote part of said county & added to this the serious and pecu- liar hardships which your petitioners are continually exposed to on account of the great length of bad roads they have to travel to the present metropolis of said county & on account of the unreasonable delays and enormous expenses they are frequently exposed to, oc- casioned by the multiplicity of Business and their re- mote situation from the Seat of Justice will be irre- fragable reasons to induce the Legislature to erect the said townships into a separate county & your Pe- titioners pray the Honorable Legislature to erect the said Townships into a new & separate county and to appoint commissioners to ascertain the proper place for public Buildings, &c. And your petitioners, as in duty bound, will ever pray, &c.

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 20

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