History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 83

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 83
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 83
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 83

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With this rapid growth of the village, there was also an influx of settlers to the country round about, and farms were purchased and cleared up, and people of all occupations kept busy by the thrift and industry that were rapid- ly crystallizing into substantial improvement. Soon after the return of the courts, in 1805, a letter from Jason Torrey states that " the place is thronged with people seeking situations for settlement, and I conceive the place has a pref- erence, when considered under all its advant- ages, to any of which I have knowledge."

THE FIRST MURDER IN THE COUNTY OC- curred at Bethany on the evening of October 18, 1808, and the following account of it is from a letter written four days afterward. As will be seen from a reference to this tragedy in the chapter on South Canaan, the actors were men between whom a fcud had long existed, and the death of Tice was the culmination of a series of petty quarrels extending over several years. The letter runs as follows :

" BETHANY, OCTOBER 22, 1808.

" On the evening of the 18th instant a horrid mur- der was committed in this town. A battalion of militia had been drilling on the square and in the

1 Mr. Thomas J. Ham, editor of the Ionesdale Herald.

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evening the officers and many of the men were to- gether in Miller's tavern. About eight o'clock a trifling dispute arose between two men, which they inclined to settle by blows, and went into the street for that purpose. About a dozen men followed them out, apparently to witness the combat. Solo- mon Tice, the murdered man, is represented to have interfered as a peacemaker, and Peter Allen, who had taken no part in the dispute, stepped from the group and, with his left hand seizing Tice by the shoulder, commenced stabbing him with a knife held in his right hand, and retaining his hold until he had stabbed him seven times, Tice endeavoring to escape and crying murder repeatedly. On receiving the last and fatal stab, which was in the lower part of the ab- domen and much lacerated the intestines, Tice, by a great effort, escaped from Allen's grasp, ex- claiming 'I am a murdered man-Allen has stabbed me." Allen immediately threw the knife from him and attempted to escape, but was seized and made secure in the county jail. The regimental surgeon, assisted by a young physician, accident- ally present, dressed his wounds, but with no hope of his living, and on the twentieth Tice died. An inquest was held, who charged Allen with having murdered him. Allen says he is a native of Connec- ticut, whence he removed to New Hampshire and from thence coming to this county, bringing one son with him and leaving a wife and four children in New Hampshire. Allen had some time previously es- caped from the jail in this county and was advertised by the sheriff and rearrested by Tice. Since that time Allen has declared he would have satisfaction or Tice's life. It is not known that any dispute had ex- isted between them that evening previous to the mur- der."

Allen was tried at the December court, 1808, and convicted ; and, on the 18th of March, 1809, was executed by a deputy sheriff, Abisha Woodward, on the public square, nearly in front of the Dr. Roosa property.

The second hanging in Wayne County was that of Cornelius Jones. On the 6th day of February, 1817, Elizabeth Roswell, who lived on the road leading from Seelyville to the old glass factory, on what is now the farm of Jolin Robertson, appeared before Squire Spangen- berg, and swore away the life of lier only son, who, she said, had poisoned his step-father. Cornelius Jones was arrested the day following, and that afternoon Coroner Matthias Keen held au inquest, and the jury brought in a verdict that Roswell was murdered by Cornelius Jones. On the 27th of the following August, Foreman

of the Grand Jury Oliver B. Bush signed a " true bill " against Cornelius for administering " white arsenick mixed with cider." The trial came the next day, and one of the witnesses testified that she heard the prisoner say that he killed his father because he hated him. A verdict of guilty was returned, and the execu- tion took place on November 15, 1817. The scaffold was erected about forty rods east of the old court-house, in Bethany, in a lot now used as a cornfield by Isaiah Scudder. Bungling work was made of the. execution, and the rope broke after only half strangling the doomed man. Before it could be readjusted, he recov- ered his powers of articulation, and begged them most pitiously not to haul him up again. The sentence of the law had to be complied with, and he was dragged a few inches off the ground, where he ended his life in horrible agony, while the crowd turned away appalled at the sickening scene.

Some days after the execution it was discov- ered that the murderer's grave had been robbed and his body was found in an old log hut, on the hill west of Bethany, where it was being eut up preparatory to boiling for theskeleton. An alarm was given, and the dismembered remains were taken over to the court-house and placed on the table, where they were identified as those of Jones. They were then reinterred just out- side of the Presbyterian graveyard. The grave robbery created much excitement, and Dr. Seely and several others were arrested, but the affair never came to anything.

THE EARLY SETTLERS .- John Bishop is accounted the first settler in Bethany, having located there as soon as the site of the county buildings was fixed by the trustees. He was a native of New Jersey, and after serving in the Continental army, being present at the famous crossing of the Delaware and enduring the hardships of the winter at Valley Forge, he settled at the Narrows, in Pike County. He was a carpenter by trade, and built the first frame house in Dyberry township for William Schoonover. He also worked upon the first court-house and jail at Bethany. In 1802, when a " Post " from Stroudsburg, the nearest post- office, was run to Bethany by private enterprise,

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the contract was let to Jesse Walker, and he hired John Bishop to carry the mails. The distance was twenty-six miles through the woods, and the path was a marked trail. It took him three days to make the trip, and he often carried his provisions and camped in the woods. His wife was Mary Snyder, also of New Jersey, and their children were John, William, Hiram, Henry, David, Jacob, Harvey, Hettie (who mar- ried John Kellcy and went to Michigan) and Rachel (the wife of Elijah Schoonover, who settled in Berlin). John Bishop, the eldest son, never came to Pennsylvania ; Hiram married Annie Consealus and located in Palmyra, where he died in 1880, aged ninety-two years, he was buried at Indian Orchard ; Henry married Amelia Kimble and settled in Berlin; David married Mariah Thurston and is a resident of Hawley ; Jacob married Betsy Kimble and set- tled on the Bishop homestead ; Harvey married Lucinda Brink and located at White Mills.

John Bunting was a New Jersey Quaker, who settled first in Canaan township, where he con- menccd the first clearing between Colonel Asa Stanton's and the Swingle settlement. He was commissioned a justice of the pcace in 1799, and continued to serve as long as he lived. In 1802 he removed with his family to Bethany, occupying the building since known as the Hen- derson house, as a tenant under Henry Drinker, who erected it. It was one of the first, if not the first, dwelling put up in the village. In 1807 he removed to the valley of the West Branch, below Aldenville, where he died in 1811, aged sixty-eight years. The children who sur- vived him were Daniel, Michael, Sally (the wife of Conrad Swingle) and Rebecca (who married John Parkinson). Michael went West, while Daniel remained on the homestead and left numerous descendants.

Jason Torrey, or, as he was commonly called, " Major " Torrey, was among the earliest set- tlers in Bethany. He was prominent in the history of the county, and is very frequently mentioned in this work, especially in Chapter VII. of the general history, in Chapter I. of Wayne County, and the chapter upon Hones- dale. He was born in Williamstown, Mass., June 30, 1772, and, when scarcely twenty years

of age, in the spring of 1793, came on foot into the township of Mt. Pleasant, where he found Elijalı Dix, whom he knew in his native place, and there he became acquainted with Samuel Baird, of Pottstown, near Philadelphia. Mr. Baird was a noted surveyor, and employed Mr. Torrey to assist him in making some surveys; after he had traveled through different parts of New York and Pennsylvania, he concluded to settle in Mt. Pleasant. Having selected his land, he began to make improvements upon it and built a log-house, and moved into it in February, 1798. He continued to improve his land in Mt. Pleasant until 1802, when he removed to Bethany. His actions in the pioneer develop- ments at Honesdale are fully set forth in pro- per place. By his first marriage to Lois Welch, on January 11, 1797, there were nine children, viz. : William, born in September, 1798 ; Eph- raim in October, 1799, and Nathaniel in No- vember, 1800; Minerva, born September 19, 1804; Maria, born January 1, 1806; John, born April 13, 1807 ; Stephen, born Noveniber 9, 1808 ; Asa, born October 13, 1810 ; Charles, born July 17, 1812.

By his second wife, Achsah Tyler Griswold, a widow, whom he married August 4, 1816, he had two more sons, James, born September 9, 1817, and David, born on the 13th of Novem- ber, 1818.

Major Torrey after the death of his second wife made his home with his son John in Honesdale and dicd there November 21, 1848, aged seventy-six ycars, after a life of remark- able activity and usefulness. His sons, John and Stephen, still reside in Honesdale, and David, a clergyman, is living in New York Statc. Ephraim, Nathaniel, Asa, Charles, James, Maria and Minerva, are all deceased. The former was the wife of Richard L. Seely and the latter of Elijah Weston.

Asa Torrey, the sixth son of Jason Torrey, was born in Bethany in 1810. In 1827 he re- moved to Honesdale, but afterwards returned to Bethany, where he followed farming for the rest of his life. He married Polly G. Bush and had two children, Charles W., of Bethany, and James B., who died in 1871. Mr. Asa Torrey met with an untimely end. He was

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visiting his granddaughter, Mrs. C. W. Babbitt, of Honesdale, and on the evening of December 12, 1884, he left the house for a short walk. This was the last time he was seen alive by any of the members of his family. Several acquaint- ances noticed him on Ladywood Lane that evening, and the next day his body was found floating in the Lackawaxen, near the dam at the junction of the Dyberry. It is surmised that after crossing the Goodman bridge he had directed his steps toward the gas lamp at the head of Third Street, on the opposite side of the river, and had walked into the stream be- fore he realized his whereabouts.

David Wilder was a native of New Hamp- shire, who located at Bethany in 1803 and mar- ried Sophia, a daughter of Paul Tyler, of Da- mascus. They had one daughter, Charity B., who married Hon. James Manning, and is one of the few surviving persons born in Bethany, and Hester and David. Mr. Wilder was one of the early hotel-keepers of the village, having taken out a license in 1811 ; he was also a suc- cessful farmer.

David Bunnell came from Stroudsburg and located on the place afterwards owned by Wil- liam Stephens, where he cleared up a farm and built a house in 1804. Although a blacksmith by trade, he devoted most of his time to farm- ing. He married Parthenia Kellam, of Palmyra, Pike County, and their children were Rockwell, who was the first child born in Bethany, and is now a resident of Prompton ; Eleanor, the wife of Isaac Olnistead ; Eunice B., who married Brooks Lavo; Henry Z. M. Pike ; Charles F .; John K. ; Sarah E., the wife of Rev. Gilbert Bailey ; David S. ; Harriet A., and A. Jane Bunnell.

Judge Isaac Dimmick, as he was always known, was from Orange County, N. Y., and came to Bethany in 1805, when he bought and commenced clearing up the farm now owned by Edwin Webb. He was an associate judge of the county in 1830-33, and was much employed in the county offices. His wife was a daugh- ter of Hon. Abisha Woodward. When he sold his farm and moved West, Mr. Dimmick took his family with him.

Abisha Woodward, a son of Enos Woodward,

one of the first settlers on Cherry Ridge, was elected sheriff of Wayne County in 1807, and about that time located in Bethany. He bought and cleared upthe farm now occupied by Henry Webb, about half a mile west of the village, and married Lucretia, adaughter of Jacob Kim- ble, of Palmyra, Pike County. Among their children were the following : John K., who married Mary, a daughter of Silas Kellogg, and was the father of the late Warren J. Woodward, judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania ; Jackson K. Woodward, late attorney-at-law, of Honesdale; and Densy Woodward, who mar- ried Johnson Olmstead, of Dundaff, Pa. The second son, Nathaniel Woodward, once repre- sented the county in the Legislature ; he went West. George W. Woodward, a Congressman and a judge of the Supreme Court of Pennsyl- vania, was the third son. The eldest daughter married Hon. Isaac Dimmick ; the youngest, George Little, Esq.

George W. Woodruff, ex-chief justice of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, was born at Beth- any March 26, 1809, and died in Rome, Italy, May 9, 1875. After completing his prelimi- nary education he went to Wilkes-Barre, where he studied law, and was admitted to the bar. In 1852 he was appointed to the Supreme Bench by Governor Bigler, and served the usual term. In 1867 he was elected to Congress froni the Twelfth District, to fill an unexpired term, and was re-elected in 1868. At the close of his term he removed to Philadelphia, where he practiced law until his death.

Eliphalet Kellogg was a brother of Silas Kellogg, one of the first settlers at Stantonville, and when the county-seat was first moved to Bethany, Eliphalet was appointed clerk of the county commissioners. He kept a tavern for many years, and, in 1809, was made register and recorder, which office he held for three suc- cessive terms, being reappointed by Governor Snyder at each re-election. Mr. Kellogg had five children,-Martin ; Mary, the wife of Dr. Isaac Roosa ; Sarah, who married Reuben R. Purdy ; Abigail, who married Dr. Halsey ; and Eunice, the wife of Washington E. Cook. Eliphalet Kellogg died in Bethany, September 9, 1844, aged seventy-nine years.

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William Williams, an old Continental soldier, was also one of the early settlers, and built a cabin of such humble pretensions, just below the church lot, that the assessors did not place any value upon it. He left no descendants in the village. Judd Raymond, another of the first citizens, was a carpenter, and the father of John Raymond, Esq., and William Raymond. One of his daughters married Philander K. Williams, and another, Joseph Miller, Jr.

Captain Charles Hoel settled in Bethany about the same time that his twin-brother, Jacob, located in Dyberry township. He was one of the earliest borough officers and also was the proprietor of the brick-yard, where most of the brick used in the village were made. He built the house where George Hauser now lives. Captain Hoel had two sons,-John, deceased, and Washington, a resident of Lake township.

His daughters were Louisa, the first wife of Dr. Otis Avery; Martha, wife of Rezzia Woodward ; Joanna, wife of Ezekiel Birdsall ; and Mary, wife of John J. Schenck.

Jonathan S. Bidwell came from Connecticut, and moved on to the Major Torrey place, where Asa Torrey afterward lived. He was married to Elizabeth Hodges, in Litchfield County, Conn., and his children were Rachel, the wife of William Bryant; Eliza, who married Gil- man Page ; Lucretia, the wife of Francis Steph- ens ; Nancy, the wife of Beniah Savage ; Axcy, who married Oren Park; Olive, the wife of William Stevens, of Berlin ; and one son, A. Jackson, who lives in Delaware County, N. Y. Mr. Bidwell, Sr., moved to Berlin township in 1831, and located on the place now occupied by Jacob Dewitt.

Solomon Moore, who was from New York State, was the first postmaster at Bethany, and was also elected sheriff in 1820, and was after- wards appointed clerk of the several courts. In connection with Jason Torrey he kept the first store in the village, and afterwards, when that partnership was dissolved, in 1814, he built a house and store on the corner afterwards occu- pied by Hon. E. O. Hamlin. He had a number of daughters, the youngest of whom married E. W. Weston, of Providence Place, Scranton.

Amzi and Thomas Fuller, who were prominent

as attorneys-at-law in the early history of the county, are mentioned at length in the chapter devoted to the legal profession. The former came to Bethany, in 1814, as a school-teacher, and afterward studied law with Hon. Dan Dimmick, of Milford. He practiced in the Wayne County courts until the removal of the county-seat to Honesdale, when he removed to Wilkes-Barre. He had but one son, Hon. Henry M. Fuller, who went to Congress from Luzerne County. Thomas Fuller studied with his brother, Amzi, but was not admitted to the bar until many years after the latter had been a full- fledged counselor. On the removal of the county-seat, he took up his residence in Hones- dale, where he died. One son, William, still lives in the homestead, and Mary, the only daughter, married Dr. Ralph L. Briggs, who died in Wisconsin in 1863.

James Manning was a native of South Coven- try, Tolland County, Conn., who located in Bethany in 1815, and began as a merchant, carrying on a general business for twenty years. He was shrewd, enterprising and suc- cessful, and was from the first popular and a leading citizen. He served as register and re- corder, and was afterwards elected associate judge, which position he retained many years. It was through his enterprise that the first news- paper of Wayne County, The Wayne County Mirror, was started, in 1818. He married Charity B. Wilder, and his children were Lucy, James, Sophia, David, Henry, George, Augusta, Charity and Mary. Mrs. Manning still occu- pies the residence he built in 1819.

Randall Wilmot, the father of David Wil- mot, author of the famous " Wilmot Proviso," was a resident of Bethany, and built the resi- dence and store now occupied by the Hon. A. B. Gammell. Randall Wilmot married a daughter of James Carr, of Canaan. David, the jurist and statesman, was born in Bethany January 20, 1814. He received his early edu- cation in the village, and afterwards went to school at Aurora, N. Y., studied law, and in 1834 was admitted to the bar at Wilkes-Barre, and commenced to practice at Towanda, Brad- ford County, in which place he has since re- sided.

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Hon. Warren J. Woodward was born in Bethany September 24, 1819. He received his carly education in the schools of the region, and afterward attended the academy at Wilkes- Barre. On completing his term there he entered the office of the Honesdale Democrat, which he edited for some time. He then returned to Wilkes-Barre, and commenced the study of law under the tuition of his uncle, Hon. George W. Woodward, late chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. This was in May, 1840. In August, 1842, he was admitted to the bar of Luzerne County, and soon gained a large prac- tice. In 1856 he was appointed chief justice of the Twenty-sixth Judicial District, then embra- cing the counties of Columbia and Sullivan, and before the term was over he was selected to preside over the courts of Berks County. He was re- elected, and continued to fulfill the duties of that high position until the fall of 1874, when he was elected to a seat on the Supreme Bench of the State. After occupying the judicial bench for more than twenty-three years, he died at his country-seat, in Hamden, N. Y., September 23, 1879, and was buried at Wilkes-Barre.

Judge Nathaniel B. Eldred, of whom a more extended sketch is given in the chapter devoted to the Wayne County bar, located in Bethany in 1816, and continued to practice law there for more than twenty years. As a man of fine ability and great impartiality, he was called to fill various judicial positions, which required his residence elsewhere ; but when these trusts had been faithfully executed, he returned to his old home, and was identified with the place until his death, which occurred in 1867. He had seven children, four of whom died in youth. The others were Mary, now deceased, the first wife of Hon. E. O. Hamlin; Lucinda, also de- ceased, the wife of Ara Bartlett ; Charles, who removed to Wisconsin ; and Carrie, the wife of Mr. Watson, of Warren Connty.

Moses Ward, who was a joiner by trade, came from Chatham, N. J., in 1822, and first settled upon the Dyberry, but afterward moved into the village. His children were Rev. E. O. Ward, pastor of the Presbyterian Church ; Mary ; and Stephen D., cashier of the Honesdale Bank at one time. Rev. E. O. Ward graduated at 18

Hamilton College in 1838, and in 1841 com- pleted his theological studies at Auburn Semi- nary. He became pastor of the Bethany Church in 1853, a position which he still holds.

E. W. Hamlin, a son of Harris Hamlin, one of the early settlers of Salem township, located in Bethany in 1822, and there learned the trade of hat-making, a business which he subsequently carried on for himself. As a broad-gange man and a good thinker, he took an active part in public affairs, and was elected county treasurer. Subsequently he was a deputy in the same office. He was elected representative to the State Leg- islature in 1838, and was re-elected the year following. He was chosen State Senator to represent the counties of Wayne, Pike and Monroe, in 1851, and served for three years. After the expiration of this term of office lie gave his attention to business, and was a prom- inent figure in the enterprises of his day. He died in Bethany April 3, 1884.

Charles Grandison Reed, who lived near Bethany, was born at Salisbury, Litchfield County, Conn., December 13, 1796. He was descended from an old English family, dating from John Reed, of Cornwall, who settled at Norwalk in 1730. Mr. Reed married Saman- tha E. Bird. He came to Wayne County in 1832 and resided near Bethany until his death, which occurred October 6, 1883. His children were Dr. Dwight, Dr. William H. and Egbert Reed, of Honesdale, Charles B. Reed, of Sharon, Conn., and Mrs. Ellen S., wife of Rev. Mell- ville Smith, of Boon County, Ill.

A number of other early settlers, more or less connected with the annals of Bethany, are spoken of in the chapter on Dyberry township.

HOTELS AND POST-OFFICE .- The establish- ment of a private "Post " between Bethany and Stroudsburg, the nearest post-office, in De- cember, 1802, has already been referred to. This mail service, commenced in the middle of winter, when the deep snows concealed all traces of the rnde roads, and the dangers of travel were increased by the hungry wild beasts that everywhere abounded, was a marked and expensive enterprise for those days, but one that conferred great benefit on the projectors and their neighbors. When John Bishop ar-

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rived with his first little bag of letters and papers, he was met by half the sparse inhabit- ants of the little village aud was the hero of the occasion. Under the contractors, Jesse Walker and others, he carried the mails for several years, until the " Post " was succeeded by a regularly established office. About the 1st of June, 1811, a regular office was located at Bethany, and once a week the mails were distributed at the store of Solomon Moore, who was the first postmaster. This mail came from Wilkes-Barre, by the way of Mount Pleasant, and returned through Milford, Paupack and Cobb's Gap. Subsequently the mail service was inercased and a succession of "expedi- tions " have given the village the daily mail it now has. Among those who have been post- masters are Eliphalet Kellogg, John A. Gustin, E. W. Hamlin, Robert Lancaster, William Ketehem and Walter W. Weston.

The first licensed house of public entertain- ment in Bethany was that of John Bunting, who obtained the necessary papers in Deeem- ber, 1805. In May following Jason Torrey took out a license and during the session of the conrts that then ensued, he entertained between sixty and seventy guests. In 1807 John Bunt- ing sold out his goods at publie sale and moved to Aldenville, where he remained the rest of his life. For a while the hotel stood vacant, and then Joseph Miller opened what was known as the " Yellow Tavern House," for years a noted hostelry. Mr. Miller sold to Colonel Asa Stanton, and he, in turn, was succeeded by Eliphalet Kellogg, who refitted the place and painted it yellow about 1814 or 1815. This old hotel was standing in 1845, and before it swing the same old red sign bearing Masonic emblems that had invited the traveler for many years.

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 83

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