History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 57

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 57
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 57
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 57

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).

In a district so sparsely populated the sale of " store-goods " was exceedingly limited. This fact led Mr. Foster to the conclusion that some other business was necessary for his financial suc- cess. Having been engaged in the manufacture of leather in Montrose previous to his removal to. Wayne County, he naturally looked around for a favorable location for a tannery. A suitable site one mile farther up the West Branch was selected, and, in company with Ezra Hand, D. P. Kirtland and John F. Roe, he at once com- menced the erection of the necessary buildings. The required machinery was also procured, and in 1830 the tannery went into active operation. For many years this was the leading and most flourishing leather establishment in this portion of the country. By means of the Delaware and

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Hudson Canal, South American and other hides were brought to the tannery and finished leath- er taken to the New York markets. The entire region was covered with hemlock timber, the bark of which could be procured at a very little expense. This rendered tanning a very profitable enterprise. During the sleighing sea- son, when the price of leather was high and the canal frozen over, both leather and hides were transferred to and from New York on sleds. Mr. Foster, sceing that the enterprise was a suc- cess, purchased the interests of his several part- ners and conducted the business himself, in con- nection with his store, which he removed to a more convenient location. He subsequently as- sociated with him his sons, who, after his with- drawal, succeeded him.

In 1871 Wayne County ranked first of all the counties of the United States in the value of her leather manufacturing interest. For many years it had the largest tannery in the world within its boundaries.

In 1870 the aggregate business of the several tanneries in the county was estimated at three million dollars.

The following is a statement of their transac- tions for the year 1869, which was not consid- ered a peculiarly favorable one, as several tanncries were burned and others were undergo- ing repairs :

E. Beach & Son, Damascus $116,829

L. H. Alden, Clinton 181,478

E. P. Strong, Wayne (Starrucca). 210,310 Young & Cornell, Dyberry 198,012

A. E. Babcock, Preston 141,253

Burgmuller & Co., Scott. 99,022

J. T. & W. Cromwell, Palmyra 119,339

S. N. Darby, Damascus 49,683

H. Drake & Sons, Berlin. 9,544 Jones & Wales, Buckingham. 119,910 Foster Bros. & Co., Texas 50,794

B. G. Morss, Sterling 223,419 H. K. Nichols & Co., Mt. Pleasant . 49,241

L. A. Robertson & Co., Cherry Ridge 285,721

Weston, Rockwell & Co., Manchester 144,419 Brunig & Bro., Texas 39,148

F. H. Rockwell, Oregon 62,345

L. B. Richtmyer, Manchester. 115,761 Samuel Saunders, Texas 11,553

Total

$2,312,781

During the few succeeding years the tanning industry assumed even larger proportions, until the failure of bark in the neighborhood, and the extra expense incident to obtaining it from a distance, rendered the manufacture of leather more profitable in other locations, where bark was easily obtained. From that time to the present the tanning industry has steadily de- clined and in 1884 there were five tanneries in the county. These employed one hundred and forty-five persons, to whom they paid fifty-one thousand four hundred and ninety dollars. The value of the product has decreased from three million dollars in 1870 to four hundred and seventy thousand dollars in 1884. And at the present date all but two or three of the tanner- ies are abandoned. Large fortunes were accum- ulated by all engaged extensively in the busi- ness. When the removal of the tanneries was necessary, many tanning firms from this county opened tanneries in other counties, where they still conduct the leather business.

The lumber interest in Wayne County fol- lowed closely in the footsteps of the leather manufacture. Although a leading branch of industry in all well-timbered districts and the principal support of many persons, yet in places like Wayne County, where the bark is desired and used, the lumber interest is much more quickly and largely developed. For the suc- cessful operation of the tanneries, large quanti- ties of bark were required. This could only be obtained by felling numerous trees. The utili- zation of these trees cut down for their bark re- turned a good profit. The conversion of so many trees into boards and other timber rend- ered saw-mills a necessity and very soon many were erected.

For three-quarters of a century after the first settlements on the banks of the Delaware River were effected by white men, heavy forests cov- ered the entire territory comprising what is now Wayne County. At the beginning of the pres- ent century patches of clearing began to be in- terspersed here and there with the dense woods. The different shades of the foliage of the trees clearly demonstrated the fact that some were de- ciduous and others evergreen. The woods were composed of tall, straight trees of different

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varieties, not arranged promiscuously, but grouped in parcels of various sizes containing some par- ticular species. In some places underbrush was thickly grown, making it almost impene- trable, while elsewhere for many acres the woods were entirely destitute of undergrowth.

In the southeastern part of the county the growth of vegetation was distinct and regularly arranged. Several species of shrubs predomi- nated. The trees grew in small groves, consist- ing principally of chestnut, oak, hemlock and pine. " Open Woods " was the name given to this district, and in contradistinction the other part of the county was called " Beech Woods."

The forest for many years was the greatest source of wealth to the county. White and yellow pine, oak, chestnut and hemlock were pro- cured from the open woods; the " Beech Woods" furnished cherry, whitewood, white pine, bass- wood, black and white ash, curled and spotted maple, hemlock and beech.

The first timber raft sent down the Delaware was unquestionably set afloat by Daniel Skinner, of Damascus, in the year 1764. He conceived the idea of lashing together a number of the splendid pine trees for which that region was famous, and floating them to Philadelphia, where he felt assured they would find a ready market for use as masts of vessels. He imme- diately set about putting his idea to a practical test, and at length, after much labor succeeded in starting his venture down the river, he, with an assistant following in a canoe, for the purpose of piloting the craft through in safety. The enterprise proved a failure. After floating some distance in safety, the raft ran upon an island, and all the efforts of Mr. Skinner and his assistant to dislodge it proved unavailing ; they were finally obliged to abandon it and return to their homes. Not easily discouraged, however, Mr. Skinner soon made another and more successful venture. Having constructed his raft upon better principles and rigged it with oars, he again cast off his lines and swung out into the stream, taking to himself the responsible position of steersman, and employ- ing a neighbor, named Josiah Parkes1 to man-

age the forward oar. After trifling mishaps the pioneer craft reached Philadelphia and was advantageously disposed of, its navigators re- turning to their homes in triumph. Mr. Skin- ner was immediately dubbed " Lord High Ad- miral of the Delaware," and his companion "Boatswain Parkcs," by which titles they were ever after recognized. Josiah Parkes was the grandfather of " Big Billy " Parkes, known to raftsmen of recent times as a man of uncommon strength, as he was of unusual size. Josiah Parkes' title of "Boatswain " or " Bo'son Parkes" was confirmed by the fact that he served in that capacity on board of Admiral Vernon's fleet at the taking of Havana. His brother was also on board the same fleet, and went to England with it on its return there and became a very distinguished man, being pro- moted to an Admiralty in the British navy.

Since the first raft was safely floated to Phil- adelphia by Mr. Skinner to 1870, it is esti- mated that at least two billion feet of lumber have been navigated to market. Most of this commanded what was considered a good price at the time when it was sold, but which is scarcely ten per cent. of the present value. So it can easily be seen that the county would be much wealthier with its standing growth of timber than it became by disposing of the lum- ber years ago.

Seventy-five years ago the principal export timber was pine. About one-fourth as much hemlock as pine was markcted at that date. Considerable change, however, has taken place since that time, and within the past fifteen years ninety per cent. of the lumber manufactured or shipped to market in the log is hemlock.

The introduction and use of circular saw- mills in the forests of the county gave a won- derful impetus to the lumber trade. Mr. Murray erected the first circular saw-mill about thirty-five years ago. It was situated at Ket- schall, and operated by John J. Merrill, of Beech Pond. The next one was erected in Lebanon township by Mr. Treat. Others fol- lowed rapidly, until in 1870 there were fifty in

1 Josiah Parkes took out a warrant in his own name for one hundred and fifty acres of Stockport flats, which he

sold to Colonel Hooper, of Trenton, for a barrel of rum. Stockport, formerly called Tockpollock, was years ago the , headquarters of the lumbermen on the Delaware.

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the county, sonic of which were run by steam- power.

In 1870 there were consumed in sawed tim- ber, square timber, piling and logs, at home and by export, 101,250,000 feet of logs of the several varieties. Ninety per cent. of this total was hemlock, which, at the average price of eleven dollars per thousand feet, brought to the county an aggregate sum of $1,115,000, out of which, however, a large amount must be de- ducted for expenses. From 1860 to 1876 there were aunually felled in the forests of Wayne County 100,000,000 feet of timber. From that time to the present the amount of timber cut has steadily declined. As the scar- city of the timber became greater the value of the lumber increased. There were in 1884 twenty-seven saw-mills in the county, operating on an average one hundred and seventy days annually. For the operation of these mills one hundred and forty-eight persons were employed, who received as wages $68,117. The number of feet of timber decreased from 101,250,000 feet cut in 1870 to 12,600,000 feet in 1884.

In May, 1886, the last merchantable tree in the hemlock forests, that for more than a quar- ter of a century supplied the mills on Dyberry Creek, was felled. The name of William Kimble is necessarily connected with the de- struction of this forest. His father was one of the early settlers in this region, and he at an early age became acquainted with a woodman's life. In 1860 he drove the first log cut in this region. Since that time he has not missed a day's log-driving on this creek, and doubtless with feelings of regret piloted to its destina- tion the last log that will ever be run on this stream to Dyberry mills.

The destruction of the hemlock woods in this county has materially affected the water supply, many large streams having become almost dry within the past decade.

There is now one planing-mill in the county. This mill gives employment to seven men, who for their labor receive annually three thousand six hundred dollars. The mill consumes nine hundred and sixty-nine thousand feet of timber. The product is valued at five thousand one hun- dred dollars,

The manufacture of textile fabrics has be- come an industry of considerable importance in Wayne County. The favorable conditions for manufacturing afforded by an excellent water- power promise to replace the saw-mills with manufactories of this nature. There are now in the county five establishments manufactur- ing textile fabrics ; two manufacture silk goods, two woolen goods and one yarn. The two silk- goods establishments employ three hundred and fifty persons, to whom they pay an annual sum of $60,000. The value of the product of these mills is $250,000. The woolen goods manu- factories employ fifty persons, to whom the annual sum of $11,800 is paid. The value of their products is $52,000. The yarn-mill em- ploys but seven persons. The product of this mill is valued at $2100.

There are eighteen grist-mills in the county. These mills employ twenty-eight men and pay them the annual sum of $9231. The daily con- sumption of these mills is 5051 bushels. They annually mill 6976 bushels of wheat and 399,- 098 bushels of other grain ; 3140 barrels of flour are annually manufactured by these mills.

The three iron foundries of the county em- ploy twenty-tliree men, to whom the annual sum of $9100 is paid. The daily capacity of these foundries is three tons.

According to the industrial statistics of 1884 for Pennsylvania, there are sixty-five manufac- tories in Wayne County. These factories en- ploy 1244 persons, to whom they annually pay $394,703. In addition to these there are many minor industries not mentioned.

Bee-keeping has within a few years grown to be an extensive and profitable industry, as is evidenced by the single fact that one man has in a certain season shipped as much as thirty- five tons of honey from the county. This man was Sidney Coons. It would perhaps be fairer to say that his large shipment represented the production of the bee colonies owned by his. sons as well as his own.

We have no record as to when the honey bee was first introduced into Wayne County or by whom. According to all accounts, there were no honey bees in North America in advance of the-

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white men ; they were first imported from Europe and became the forerunner of the white men, and the red men called them the " white man's fly." They probably have been kept in a domesticated state from the time the first settlements were made in the county. They were kept in conical straw and log hives and later in the box hive and the honey obtained was known as box or cap honey. To obtain the honey from the in- terior of the hive the keepers resorted to the sulphur pit.

In the year 1854 W. L. Hazen, of Bethany, took quite an interest in the bee business. He made some improvements in bee-hives and pro- duced a large quantity of box honey. In the year 1878 he built a boat and shipped his honey to Philadelphia. For four years, he shipped from one to three thousand pounds in that way.

George W. Leonard commenced keeping bees in the movable comb-hive in 1867, and intro- duced all the modern improvements. He ob- tained the Italian bees in 1873 and in a few years increased his stock to one hundred colo- nies. He had from that time up to 1885 kept from one to two hundred and fifty colonies or hives. From 1875 to the present time he has averaged five thousand pounds of honey a year. He says there are five hundred colonies kept in movable comb hives south of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad and about the same number kept in the box hive.

Number of colonies south of the Delaware and Hudson Railroad :

Geo. W. Leonard, Lake 200

Chas. Mills, Lake. 14

George Tisdell, Lake 13

George Ramble, Lake 7

Leroy Pelton, Salem 100

Mr. Mitchel, Salem. 74

George Myers, Salem 30

Robert Bonear, Cherry Ridge 40

There are others that have two or three swarms each.

Sidney Coons & Sons are the largest bee- keepers in Wayne County. They made thirty- five tons of honey in 1885. Alvin Purdy and John Bunnel, of Texas, had their bees all de- stroyed by a contagious disease called "foul brood." It extended westward through Dy- berry and Damascus, producing great havoc.

The principal honey and pollen producers or flowers, in rotation, as they bloom, are the alder and willow the first of the season, which pro- duce pollen only. Next is soft maple, which usually blooms the 25th of April and produces botlı pollen and honey. Then comes the hard maple, which produces both pollen and honey, but not so abundantly as the soft maple. The. wild cherry and fruit blossoms yield pollen and honey. Next comes the dandelion, which yields pollen and honey. The wild gooseberry yields abundantly, but is not very plenty. Then comes the sorrel, which yields both pollen and honey. On the 25th of May the raspberry begins to bloom and the flow of honey is so great in the vicinity of large bark peelings and briar patches that tons of it go to waste for the want of bees to gather it. For several weeks the bees are allowed to partake of this flower. It is secreted at all hours and in all kinds of weather and is the most reliable honey producer in the county. Next comes sumach, which yields honey and large quantities of pollen. Then comes silk or milk weed, which yields honey abundantly.

Next is basswood, which yields abundantly in favorable weather, and lasts until about the 20th of July, which ends the season for white honey in Wayne County. Then comes a scar- city of honey material for about three weeks.

Next in order bloom the dark honey produc- ing plants. Buckwheat is the first and yields a dark, pungent honey. Then comes the golden rod, which begins to bloom the 15th of August, and yields honey until the close of the season, along with fire weeds and the aster. In dry seasons in October the aphis make their ap- pearance on the leaves of the beech and alder, and exude a saccharine substance which is col- lected by the bees. As winter food for the bees it proves unwholesome. The atmospheric changes have much to do with the flow of honey. The plants secrete the most honey in warm, showery weather and a humid atmosphere.

SIDNEY COONS, residing near Honesdale, in Texas township, has done as much, if not more, than any other man in Pennsylvania to bring bee-culture to a great state of perfection. He has given this subject such attention by reading

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authentic works, and by studying the nature and habits of the different varieties of the honey bec, as to multiply five-fold the results of the busy bee's labor, over its most successful work of a quarter-century ago, and now real- izes on an average from each swarm, one hun- dred pounds of section honey annually, above the amount required to keep them, as compared with twenty pounds when he first began bee- culture.

Both himself and sons are large dealers in bees and honey, the latter of which they ship by car-loads to New York and Philadelphia. Altogether the father and four sons own now one thousand swarms, comprised of the " pure Italian," " pure black," a native of this coun- try, and the "hybrid," a cross between the others. He bought his first swarm of Ital- ian bees in North Carolina many years ago, but the majority of his stock are the "native blacks." His taste for the apiary was early cultivated at home, when he was accustomed to see his father work among his bees, but it was not until 1857, when he settled in Wayne County, at Rileyville, that he began to follow bee-culture as a business.

He was born in the town of Broome, Scho- harie County, N. Y., Feb. 21, 1821, reared on the home farm at that place, and attended the district school. By the death of his father when Sidney was twenty years of age, the re- lief of an encumbered property and the care of the family devolved upon him. After four years he sold out the farm and settled at Cones- ville, in the same county, where he remained until his removal to Lebanon township, Wayne County. For twenty years Mr. Coons was en- gaged in lumbering and farming in Lebanon, but in 1883 he retired largely from both, and re- moved to his present place, where his time is mostly taken up with the care of no less than a hundred swarms of bees.

He is the inventor of different kinds of hives now in use, which are a great improvement over the old-fashioned ones, being so arranged that the honey can be removed without disturbing the bees. He married, in 1847, Mary Jane, daughter of Martin B. and Wealthy (Tupper) Thomas, who was born June 23, 1822. Her

parents were natives of Salisbury, Conn., and settled in Schoharie County, N. Y., where they died. She had two brothers,-Jeremiah and Erasmus D., now deceased,-and has two sisters, -Sarah, wife of Ira Desilva, of Gilboa, and Per- sis Thomas, of the same place.

Their children are Theodore E. Coons, a bee - keeper at Tanner's Falls; Rolland L. Coons, a bee-keeper and farmer in Damascus township; Clarence D. Coons, a large farmer and bee-keeper near Equinunk ; and Fletcher S. Coons, a bee-keeper and farmer of Mount Pleasant township.

His father Abraham Coons (1795-1841), married Almina (1805-57), daughter of Picket Wood, of Schoharie County, N. Y. She died in Saratoga, N. Y. His grandfather, Jacob Coons, of German origin, resided in Middle- burg, N. Y. ; afterward removed to Ohio, thence to Illinois, where he died at his son's residence at the great age of one hundred years. His family mostly went with him.

Sidney Coon's brothers and sisters are Al- bert, died in Illinois ; Ambrose, died in Ohio ; Addison, resides at Bloomington, Ill .; Eme- line, died at the age of twenty ; Harriet, the wife of Daniel Black, of Cohocs, N. Y. ; and Adeline, wife of Rodney Wilcox, who resides at the same place.

CHAPTER IX.

Description - Topography - Geological Notes - Soils - Streams, Lakes and Fish.

WAYNE COUNTY forms the extreme northeast corner of Pennsylvania. From the New York State line its eastern boundary is the Delaware River down to Narrowsburg, or Big Eddy, a distance of forty-five miles. Thence the boun- dary line between Wayne and Pike runs south thirty-one and three-quarters, west ten miles twenty-three poles, to the mouth of the Wal- lenpaupack, and thence up that stream and its south branch to where it is crossed by the old North and South turnpike, a distance of about forty miles; thence seven miles, ninety-two poles west to Lehigh Creek ; thence up that stream six miles ; and thence due north along

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Lackawanna and Susquehanna Conntics to the New York State line, a distance of forty-eight miles and two hundred and seventy-four poles ; and thence along the State linc due east a dis- tance of six and three-eighths miles to the Del- aware.

Its area, according to figures based npon the best surveys, is 462,615 acres, or 722.8 square miles.

The surface of the county throughout the greater portion of its area is exceedingly ir- regular. Viewed from the highest land,-the Moosic Mountain range, which extends along the western line,-the succession of hills, as far as the eye can reach, appears not unlike the billows of the ocean ; but if one were to leave this mountain stand-point and travel across the county in almost any direction, he would find the surface resembling a " chop sea." The level stretches are few and far between. This quality or condition of the country makes the prospect a very pleasing one in almost any por- tion of Wayne. As the scene is almost every- where diversified with the sharp contrast of highly cultivated fields and lands almost as wild as they were before the white man came, varied by long, sweeping slopes and abrupt de- clivities, and the whole well watered by beauti- ful streams and dotted with lakes, innumerable beautiful landscapes are afforded. There is scarcely any portion of Pennsylvania in which the pastoral and the picturesque are so inti- mately commingled as in Wayne County.

The greatest elevation in the county is the Moosic range, heretofore alluded to. This va- ries in height (above tide-water) from two thon- sand to two thousand two hundred feet. At a point near the junction of the Wayne County line with the east and west line dividing Sus- quehanna and Lackawanna Counties it is not over nineteen hundred and fifty feet high, but farther north, to beyond Mount Pleasant, the altitude varies from two thousand and fifty to two thousand one hundred feet. Still farther north the height increases until it culminates in Ararat peak, which is two thousand six hun- dred and fifty feet above tide-water, and the second highest elevation in the northeastern part of the State.

The least elevation above tide-water in the county is in Damascus township, at the level of the Delaware, where the height is but 765 feet. The clevation of Hawley is 860 feet ; of Hones- dale, 983 feet; of Prompton, 1089 feet; of Waymart, 1413.14 feet; of the Moosic sum- mit (where crossed by the gravity railroad), 1947.17 ·feet.

OUTLINE OF GEOLOGY-SOILS .- From a brief account of the geology of the county, written by Professor I. C. White (the author of that volume of the State Report treating of Susquehanna and Wayne Counties) we condense the following :

"The rocks of the county belong principally to one system, viz .: what the geologists have termed the Catskill, since these same strata make up the great bulk of the Catskill Mountains in New York State. The main characteristic of the system is the abundance of red material, in the shape of red shale and red sandstone, the red color being always due to per-oxide of iron disseminated through the rocks, or shale as the case may be. Inter-stratified with the red shales are found frequent layers of gray or greenish current bedded sandstones, often finely laminated and forming excellent flagging material. The base of this system is seen only in Susquehanna County, and in that only along the Susquehanna River and the lower portions of the streams which flow into it, where one hundred to two hundred feet of Chemung rocks may be seen.

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 57

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