History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 23

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 23
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 23
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 23

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1 In addition to the $4700 paid Pike by Wayne, the citi- zeus of Milford, to secure the location of the county-seal, were required to pay at least $1500, and thus the new county secured a building fund of $6200. Voracious Pike ! 2 This old North and South road was nearly one hundred rods west of the present old turnpike road.

3 The total arca of Wayne County after division was originally computed at 359,846.22 acres, the proportion of first-rate land being to the entire area as 1 to 2320, A later report made by Jacob S. Davis estimated the area, including the allowance of six per cent. for roads, at 462,615 acres,

4 United States Census.

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA

The new county building project progressed favorably. On the 8th of February, 1815, the commissioners again met, and after careful de- liberation decided to erect a new court-house and jail in one building, including also a jailer's residence and rooms for the county offices. A plan was adopted and notice given of the time and place for the public letting of the contract for the building. (The date fixed does not ap- pear in the minutes.) When the proposals were received, Joseph Miller, of Bethany, was de- clared the "lowest and best bidder," and a contract was drawn and executed, by which he agreed to furnish the materials and erect and finish the building complete in all its parts. Miller commenced his work, but was so far be- hind with his contract in March, 1817, that an entry was made in the records, censuring him very severely for his delay. This action, how- ever, appears to have had but very little effect, for in 1818 he was again the subject of criti- cism, and in 1820 the commissioners despairing of bringing him to terms, made an agreement by which the work should be completed by another contractor, and the building was event- ually finished. There still remained an anxiety concerning the safety of the public records, and soon after the completion of the court-house a contract was entered into with Manning & Tor- rey for the erection of a fire-proof building on the public square, in Bethany, the upper story of which was to be fitted up as a residence at the discretion of the contractors, and occupied as they might sce fit, free of rent, so long as $1450 out of the $1650, which they were to receive for the building, remained unpaid. The location of the building was staked out on the 28th of March, 1823, and its erection carried on according to contract. It is still standing.

EARLY TOWNSHIPS .- The act of Assembly erecting Wayne County mentions the townships of Middle Smithfield, Delaware, Upper Smitlifield and Matlack as then existing within its bounds. No full record of the origin of the first three of these has been found.

W. H. H. Davis, of Doylestown, in his " His- tory of Bucks County," says,-" The earliest settlement in Bucks County, north of the Le- high, was in Smithfield township, now in Mon-

roe County ;" and that "the first attempt to organize Smithfield was in 1746."

"In June, 1746, the inhabitants petitioned for a township to begin at a gap in the mountain where the Delaware river runs through, & from thence five or six miles, on a North & by West course; from thence to the North corner of Christoffel Denmark's plantation ; & thence with a straight line to the river Delaware; & thence the several courses thereof to place of begimiing." On the back was endorsed, ' Plan next Court,' and no further record is found con- cerning it."

In June, 1748, another petition for a town- ship was made by the inhabitants of Dansbury and Smithfield, describing its bounds as "To extend from the river Delaware, along the Mountain, to a Gap in the same; thence North- erly to a large Creek commonly called Bushkill, and down the same to the Delaware, & to the place of beginning."

The township was ordered to be laid out, but no further record is found concerning it.

In December, 1750, Daniel Brodhead and others petitioned for a township, " to be bounded by the Bushkill on the South, to which Creek there is the grant of a township, by Delaware on the East, and by lands belonging to the Hon.1 the Proprietaries on the North and West." The petitioners set forth that they are the remotest livers from the honorable court. The application was held nuder advisement and no further record concerning it is found.

Thereafter the township of Upper Smithfield appears among the townships of Bucks County until the county of Northampton was ereeted, which included it.

After such ercetion of Upper Smithfield the township south of the Bushkill became known as Lower Smithfield. Delaware township ap- pears in the list of Northampton County town- ships continuously after 1766, but the record of its erection cannot be found.

In 1794 Middle Smithfield was erected from the north part of Lower Smithfield. The fol- lowing is extracted from the court records of Northampton County concerning its erection :

" On 12th Aug., 1794, Sam1. C. Seely, John Biddis, & Hugh Forsman, who were appointed by the Court

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at April Sessions last, upon the petition of the inhabi- tants of the upper district of Lower Smithfield Town- ship commissioners, to view the said Township, & report whether it would be expedient to divide the same, and if so, in what manner, made report : 'That a division is highly necessary,-that the division line being at the mouth of John Van Camp's Mill Creek, and that the Creek be the line, until it runs up to the tail race of said Van Camp's Grist mill, and up said Race until it strikes the West end of the Mill ; thence from the Westmost corner of the Mill, a direct line until it reaches the Saw-Mill late the property of Wm. Wills, Esq .; thence a due Northwest coarse until it intersects the Northern line.'

" Which report was read & confirmed by the Court Aug. 12, 1794,-November 11th, 1794, the Court named the Township so cut off Middle Smithfield."

By the act erecting Wayne County, Middle Smithfield township was divided, and the part thereof set off to Wayne was to retain the original name, Middle Smithfield.

The western boundaries of all the foregoing townships were left very indefinite when they were first crected, but before the erection of Wayne County, Middle Smithfield, Delaware and Upper Smithfield were all understood as ex- tending westward to the line of Luzerne County.

Of the erection of Matlack township no record can be found, nor any knowledge ob- tained as to its exact location. Its territory, however, was covered by the six new townships erected at the first court in Wayne in 1798.

Middle Smithfield, as it existed when Wayne County was erected, extended from the Delaware River to the Luzerne County line, with an aver- age width of about five and a half miles, being bounded southward by Northampton County and northward by Delaware township. Its boundaries remained unaltered while it was in Wayne County.

Delaware township also extended from the Delaware River to the Luzerne County line. It was bounded south by Middle Smithfield ; east by the Delaware River, from the mouth of the Bushkill Creek to the lower end of Minisink Is- land, some three miles below Milford ; north by a line from the Delaware River at the lower end of that island, on a course of about north eighty- five degrees west to the line of Luzerne County. In 1807 or 1808 the western half of Delaware township was set off and formed part of Salem,

then erected. No other alteration in its bound- aries was made while it continued to be part of Wayne.

Upper Smithfield, as originally erected, in- eluded all the settlements in and near the Dela- ware Valley north of Middle Smithfield, but its northern and western bounds were indefinite. As settlements were extended north and west, the bounds of the township were understood also to extend so as to include all such settlements east of Luzerne until it covered all of the present counties of Wayne and Pikc.

With the movements for the ereetion of Mat- lack its limits seem to have been so diminished as to leave only that part of its former territory which lay southeastward of Shohola Creek, though no court record of such change can be found. Its territory conformed to such reduced boundaries so long as it remained part of Wayne County.

ERECTION OF THE SIX NORTHERN TOWN- SHIPS .- At the first court in Wayne County, in September, 1798, a petition with twenty-five signers was presented, viz .:

" To the Hon1. Jacob Rush and the associate judges of Wayne County : We, the subscribers, inhabitants of the northern part of this county, desire your hon- ors to take into consideration the very great incon- venience that must arisc to the inhabitants in taking assessments for taxation, and transacting all town business, by reason of our part of the county not being made into townships of a moderate size. There- fore, we hope your honors will direct the part of the county north and west of Sholiola Creek be made into six townships, according to the enclosed plan of this part of the county."

The prayer of the petitioners was granted, and an order made "that Samuel Stanton, Eliphalet Kellogg, Nathan Skinner, Mordecai Roberts, Jr., and Hezekiah Bingham, Jr., or any of them, be authorized to run the lines of a tract, beginning at the Delaware River, where the New York State line intersects said river, thence along said line to the line of Luzerne County, and thence along the same according to a plan of the same filed, marking all the trees with four notches on each side. The same to be laid off in townships and named respectively Buckingham, Mount Pleasant, Damascus, Pal- myra, Canaan and Lackawaxen."

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

The plan, said to be filed, cannot now be found, but from other maps and documents of early date it is evident it was as follows :

First .- A line was drawn from the western bend of the Delaware, near the mouth of "Roek Run," west to the line of Luzerne. The territory north of this line was to form Buckingham township.

Second .- A second line parallel to the above was drawn from the Delaware near the lower end of Big Eddy to the line of Luzerne, being about eleven and a half miles south of the line of Buekingham. This was to form the southern boundary of Damaseus and Mount Pleasant.

Third .- A third line was drawn from a point in the south line of Buckingham eight miles east of the line of Luzerne (parallel to the county line), southward to Delaware township line. This third line was to be the eastern line of Mount Pleasant and Canaan, and the western line of Damaseus and Palmyra.

Fourth .- A fourth line (following the " Hilborn Road") was drawn from the south line of Damaseus southward to the northern line of Delaware township. This was to form the eastern boundary of Palmyra and the western boundary of Lackawaxeu township.

The persons appointed by the court to run the lines were none of them experienced, accurate surveyors, and their lines were not so run as to conform precisely to the plan given. Mount Pleasant was run out by Samuel Stanton, and was probably first located. Damascus was after- wards run by another surveyor, and the northern and southern lines of the two townships, instead of meeting at the same point, were so run that the western corners of Damascus were near half a mile south of the eastern corners of Mount Pleasant. The south line of Mount Pleasant passed a very little north of the late residence of Asa Stanton, and the four townships of Mount Pleasant, Canaan, Palmyra and Da- mascus all cornered within one and a quarter miles of the Bethany public square.

Following is an explanation of the bounda- ries of each of the six northern townships, with the changes made in them before 1815 :

Lackawaxen was bounded north by Damas- cus, east by Delaware River and Upper Smith- field, south by Delaware township and west by Palmyra.

In the erection of Pike County in 1814, all of this township, except about six thousand acres in the northwest part, was set off to Pike County.

The part which remained in Wayne was at- tached to Dyberry.

Buckingham was bounded north by the north- ern line of the State, east by the Delaware River, south by Damascus and Mount Pleasant and west by the western line of the county.

Its territory was diminished, in 1807 or 1808, by the addition made to Mount Pleasant ; in 1821, by the erection of Scott ; and in 1826, by the erection of Manchester. Thus depleted, it is left with an area of only about thirty-eight square miles.

Damascus was bounded north by Bucking- ham, east by Delaware River, south by Lack - awaxen and Palmyra and west by Mount. Pleasant. Its territory was diminished nearly one-half (from its western portion) by part being included in Dyberry, erected in 1803, and by Lebanon, erected in 1819.

Mount Pleasant was bounded north by Buck- ingham, east by Damascus, south by Canaan and west by the western line of the county. In 1803 its southeastern part was detached to form part of Dyberry then erected; and in 1807, or 1808 its southern boundary was removed near five miles farther north, and at the same time its northern boundary was also removed a like distance north, thus giving to it the same amount of territory as when first erected.

Canaan as originally erected was boundcd north by Mount Pleasant, east by Palmyra, south by Delaware township and west by the western line of the county.

In 1803 part of its territory in its north- eastern corner was made part of Dyberry, then erected; and in 1807 or 1808 all that part south of an east and west line, crossing the North and South Road at Middle Creek (Shaffer's), was detached to form part of Salem, then erected. At the same time its northern boundary was removed about five miles north so as to be on a line with the northern line of Dyberry township.

Palmyra when first erected was boundcd north by Damascus, east by the Hilborn Road, which was the west boundary of Lacka- waxen, south by township of Delaware and west by Canaan. The ercction of Dyberry in 1803, took five miles in breadth from the northi-

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ern end of Palmyra; and by the erection of Pike County, in 1814, all that part of the town- ship east of the Wallenpaupack was included in Pike, and became Palmyra in Pike.

TOWNSHIPS SUBSEQUENTLY ERECTED .- Dyberry was erected at September court, 1803, from the townships of Damascus, Palmyra, Canaan and Mount Pleasant.

Its northern and southern boundaries were parallel east and west lines, one of which was five miles west of the south line of Damas- cus, and the other five miles south of the Da- mascus line. The south half of its eastern boundary was the "Hilborn Road," and the other half was a line bearing north, twelve and a half degrees west, from a point in the south line of Damascus, about half a mile west of the " Hilborn Road," extended to a point five miles north of the south line of Damascus, and its western boundary was the eastern line of the large tract of land called " Elk Forest Tract," and an extension of those lines northward and southward to the extent of the township. As thus formed, it was about ten miles square.

By the erection of Pike County in 1814 about nine square miles of the northwestern part of Lackawaxen township was left in Wayne County. This part was subsequently added to Dyberry township. Its territory has since been greatly diminished by the erection of the bor- ough of Bethany in 1821, the township of Berlin in . 1826, the township of Clinton in 1834, and subsequent additions thereto ; and the township of Texas in 1837.

Salem township was erected at November court, 1807, or January court, 1808. (The court-record not found). Its original bounda- ries included that part of Canaan south of an east and west line crossing the old North and South Road at Middle Creek, and also that part of Delaware township westward of a line drawn from the north line of Delaware, at the Hilborn Road, to the south line of Delaware at the old road leading from Salem to Coolbaugh's, on the Delaware River. By the crection of Pike County all that part of Salem lying east of the Wallenpaupack Creek was included in Pike. But the small part of Delaware township which was then left in Wayne was added to Salem in

Wayne. It has since been largely reduced in area by the erection of Sterling in 1815, and other townships subsequently.

EARLY FINANCES OF THE COUNTY .- A brief glance at the financial condition of Wayne County during the early years of its existence, and the difficulties that its officials had to con- tend with to keep the machinery of its organ- ization in motion, is in order before a view of the circumstances leading to the change in the location of the county seat and the erection of new public buildings.

It must be borne in mind that Wayne County, as originally organized, including, in addition to its present territory, all of Pike and a portion of Monroe, had a population only equal to that of an average township of to-day, and the region now Wayne County contained but about eight hundred people, of whom Buckingham had 110; Canaan, 183; Damas- cus, 145; Mount Pleasant, 188, and Palmyra, 179. Such a mere handful of people, scattered over a large area of rough country, in which there were few roads for reaching the markets with the little produce they had to spare from their limited tillable acres, found the burden of taxation entailed upon them by the expenses of the new county a heavy one to bear. The first auditor's report was presented December 26, 1799, by Jason Torrey and John H. Schenck. It was generally complimentary to the commis- sioners, and the few errors which had been committed were excused in view of the crude state of public business in the county and the lack of experience on the part of the officers. The commissioners were mildly censured for having allowed the attorney-general to over- draw his account ; but, in other respects, the board was praised for the correctness of their accounts and the cconomy of their disburse- ments. The report was accompanied with the apologetic statement that the auditors " having had to proceed without precedents, and the business of the commissioners being equally new to them, the examining, comparing and reducing the accounts to a settlement was ren- dered irksome, and could not be effected with that facility which, under other circumstances, might have been expected."

it-

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

The difficulty of collecting taxes is well illus- trated by the following report showing the first quota levied upon each township and the amounts paid into the county treasury :

Tax on Inhabitants.

Total.

Paid.

Buckingham

.$50.67

$447.11

$41.38

Canaar

48.39

244.69

44.77

Palmyra ..

91.21

325.52

84.78

Lackawaxen

24.02

106.10

31.86

Damascus.

22.26

302.35

94.60

Mount Pleasant.

59.81

165.46

76.48

Upper Smithfield ... 73.83

152.59

32.71

Middle Smithfield ... 100.62

171.03

19.48

Delaware.

84.92

103.55

32.52

Total. $555.73 $2018.30 $459.58

To this amount paid in, $459.58, was added $210.62, advanced from the treasury, making the sum of $670.20 available cash, with which the pioneers managed to carry on the affairs of the county for a period of eighteen months. The board, however, felt warranted by the large amount upon the tax collector's duplicate still unpaid, in incurring some liabilities, and drew orders on the treasury to the amount of nearly $750. The total expenditures of the county for a year and a half were $1415.09, of which one item was $75.65 paid as premiums for wolf scalps.

The first commissioners were Eliphalet Kel- logg, Johannes Van Etten and John Carson ; but the first two were in 1800 superseded by Asa Stanton and Solomon Westbrook, who, with Carson, constituted a new board, and made Eliphalet Kellogg their clerk. They received more severe criticism from the audit- ors than had their predecessors. Jason Torrey had been re-appointed auditor, and, in conjunc- tion with James Eldred and Martin Overfield, served during the year 1800. Their report was made at the February term of court, 1801, and was accompanied by a long letter from Mr. Torrey, who was prevented from being present by an accident which had overtaken one of his children. He very pointedly denounced some of the commissioners' proceedings, which, he charged, were irregular and unwarrantable. The improprieties with which they were charged were letting bridge contracts without preseribing the manner in which the work should be done

or when completed ; with permitting an inse- cure and unsafe structure to be put up across Middle Creek ; with paying their clerk over two hundred dollars per year, when there were competent persons in the county who would gladly perform the services for less than half that sum ; with withholding a transcript of the county tax levy from the treasurer; with al- lowing one of their number (Mr. Carson) to go to Philadelphia, and at great expense advertise in three daily papers for three months the fact of his being in that city to receive taxes on unseated lands, and receiving a considerable amount without aecounting for the same to the auditors; with subscribing for the papers al- luded to and charging the subscription and ad- vertising account and his time and traveling expenses to the delinquent tax-payers; with withholding needed information from the treas- urer, so that he had repeatedly been obliged to refuse money offered him in discharge of taxes, and with various other misdemeanors of lesser importance. Before the report was filed, how- ever, Mr. Torrey appended to it a note par- tially exonerating Mr. Carson and the clerk, Eliphalet Kellogg, from the charges he had made in his letter.

During the year 1800 the receipts from actual residents were shown by the anditor's report to have been $605.87, including $91.92 of arrears from the preceding year, and the payments on the taxes of unseated lands added $613.68 to that amount, making a total of $1219.55, while the expenditures were $1650.06. The auditor's report for 1802 showed a balance due the county, in the form of outstanding taxes, of $3441.91, and this amount, the official said, would be much larger if they had any means of ascertaining the amount paid on non-residents' lands for the years 1799, 1800, and 1801. They expressed the belief that if all arrearages were collected there would be a sufficiency of funds realized to free the county from taxation for many years to come. Year by year the aggregate of taxes increased with the population, but expenses also grew, and the expenditures were in excess of the re- ceipts. In 1803 the collectors of the county paid into the treasury $676.30, and $4082.71 was received from taxes on unseated lands, but

...

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WAYNE COUNTY.

these amounts aggregated $2861.51 less than the levy. The orders drawn on the treasury footed up $7069.35, and it was impossible to redeem them all. It was during this year that the county settled with the trustces of the Beth- any tract, and drew an order in their favor of $1638.50. A considerable amount was also paid for running the lines of Dyberry township, erected that year.

It was not until 1805 that the actual receipts were in excess of the disbursements, tlie settle- ment by the anditors in that year showing a balance in the hands of Treasurer Dimmick. Notwithstanding this improvement, the finances of the county were in a bad way and the ac- counts had got into a confusion which seemed almost beyond unraveling. An earnest effort was made during 1807 and 1808 to adjust the affairs of the county. Early in 1807 a careful examination of the accounts revealed the fact that there was no money in the treasury, while its liabilities, in the shape of unpaid orders, taxes to be refunded, etc., amounted to over $5000. The gratifying discovery was made, however, that more than $16,000 was due the treasury from owners of unseated lands, delin- quent collectors, dilatory sheriffs, overpaid com- missioners and other officers, which, if collected, it was urged, would put the county out of debt and leave a considerable balance in the treasury.

As a result of this investigation Sheriff Ab- isha Woodward was instructed to sell such unseated lands as were in arrears for taxes, which he did from tinie to time, until in 1809 the receipts from such sales had exceeded $9000.

By 1811 the inconvenience and loss which had been experienced by Wayne County and by individuals, through the neglect of treasurers to furnish information to the commissioners in regard to their finanees, led to the passage of a resolution requiring that official to report the condition of the treasury on the first day of every term of court. Failure to do so and the buying up of county orders at a discount, with public funds, were declared misdemeanors in office.

From this time onward the financial affairs of the county steadily improved up to the panic of 1837, except that something of a hardship

was experienced in 1814 and 1815 by reason of the severe and, as generally regarded, unjust provisions of the act setting off Pike county. The financial depression of 1837 was very severely felt in Wayne County. Specie payments being suspended by the State banks, the collectors found it almost impossible to receive taxes, ow- ing to the want of small change, and early in the year the county commissioners, to obviate in a measure that difficulty, procured three thousand dollars' worth of cliccks of the denom- inations of twenty-five, fifty and seventy-five cents and one dollar, and put them into circula- tion. This led eventually to great loss and inconvenience, for many individuals engaged in mercantile and other departments of trade followed their example, and the county was flooded with this cheap currency, much of which being entirely worthless, caused all to be looked upon with suspicion, and thus to increase the very evil which it was designed to mitigate. That issued by the county, however, was chiefly paid to the officers of the several townships to the amount of the appropriations due them for school purposes, and most of the checks came back into the treasury through the hands of the tax collectors.1

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 23

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