History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 96

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 96
USA > Pennsylvania > Pike County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 96
USA > Pennsylvania > Wayne County > History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania > Part 96

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).

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WAYNE COUNTY.

road leading from where Henry B. Curtis now resides, and over to where the " city " now is.

It was largely through the efforts of Mr. Meredith that the Oquaga road was built, run- ning from Belmont to Laneboro', the under- lying principle governiug these operations being to develop the coal lauds of Mr. Meredith and put a stop to the movements of the Dela- ware and Hudson Company, which began to assume, as he looked at it, the shape of monopolizing all the coal lands of that region. From causes not necessary to explain, it did not prove a success. This was in 1814. About two years previous a state road was laid out along the eastern base of the mountain, which was to connect Philadelphia with Owego, and is the one on which Chauncey Davenport, Uriah Colbath, William Ogden, Maurice Roche and others now reside. That part from where the road leaves, to intersect the old Belmont and Easton, was long ago abandoned.

The eastern or Lackawaxen Valley begins at the " divide" where the Moosic range separates the two valleys, in Mount Pleasant township, running thence southeasterly till it meets the West Brauch at Prompton.

Clinton has a population of one thousand by the census of 1880, and holds its own very well, no material changes having occurred to lessen or increase it.

The township was formed from parts of Canaan, Mount Pleasant and Dyberry in 1825, by " order of court," the name being suggested by Judge Scott, Rufus Grenell, David S. West and Virgil Grenell being appointed, the first as assessor and the last two as assistant assessors.

EARLY SETTLERS .- The settlers were mainly from Connecticut. Prominent among them was Michael Grcuell, a soldier of the Revolu- tion, who died in Clinton February 12, 1858. He was born at Saybrook, Conn., March 20, 1752. He served under Putnam, and was a pensioner of the government at eight dollars per month. He was singularly methodical in his habits, devotiug a portion of each day to its appropriate dutics-labor, recreation, devotion, rest-permitting no ouc duty to interfere withı another. When the statue of King George,

which stood in Bowling Green, at the foot of Broadway, New York, was torn down in, 1776, and when the news of the Declaration of Inde- pendence was received there, Mr. Grenell took a hand in its destruction and assisted in making the occasion a " lively " one. He voted for Washington at each presidential election till the year of his death. His son, Deacon Rufus Grenell, resembled him in many ways, being systematic,temperate, scrupulously honest, deeply religious, living and dying a member of the Baptist Church. His active participation in everything to advance its spiritual and temporal interests made his death a great loss to the church and the community, of which he had been for half a century a valucd member. In the direct line of descent was the deacon's son, Hon. Virgil Grenell, now a resident of Fel- ton, Kent County, Del., who was also promi- nent in the settlement of the affairs of the township at its organization. He was elected a member of the conventiou to ameud the consti- tution of the commonwealth in 1836. He was also commissioned by Governor Porter as asso- ciate judge for Wayne County to fill out an unexpired term, April 25, 1842 ; again July 5, 1842, for a regular term ; aud again by Governor Shunk, July 22, 1847. He was also a member of the Board of Revenue by appointineut of Governor Bigler in 1852 ; was elected treasurer of the county in 1856, and was county auditor wlien elected to the convention. These ap- pointments and elections came to Mr. Grenell unsolicited, evincing the regard in which he was held by the people among whom he had lived so long. The judge built the house where F. M. Gaylord now resides, and moved into it in 1824, residing there constantly till 1865 or 1866, when he removed, with his wife, son Miron and wife, daughter Ann and one or two grandchildren, to Felton, Kent County, Del., where he now resides at the age of eiglity-seven, surviving his wife, who died in 1885. She was Miss Harriet Gaylord, sister of Mr. Giles Gaylord, father of Milo, F. M., Henry C., Remus M., Lewis, William A., Ella and Helen Gaylord, all married and at present liv- ing. Mrs. Davenport, the widow of Austin Davenport, who was, for a number of years,

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

a justiee of the peace of the township, and mother of Chauney Davenport, is now liv- ing, in the eighity-fourth year of her age, is a sister of Judge Grenell and resides on the old homestead of her husband with her son. Mr. Gaylord's monument stands in the little chureh-yard of the Baptist Church, a short distance from the tannery built by Colonel Pratt. His widow, Mrs. Joanna Gaylord, survives him. She was a constituent member of the Baptist Church (which consisted of but sixteen mem- bers), and of the Mount Pleasant branch of the Peek family. To follow the genealogy of the Grenell family would require more space than ean be given.

Some of the old settlers of course have a history, but, as it is not particularly identified with the township, beyond a simple residence, it hardly seems to require extended notice. " Unele Sylvester " E. North, however, must not be left without a slight tribute to his mem- ory. He was born in Connecticut, Deeember 6, 1792, and died in this township March 3, 1883, his wife, Amanda, preceding him by six years and five months, having died October 3, 1856, at the age of sixty years, four months and fifteen days. " Unele North " was an ar- dent Demoerat of the old school, and it was his pride to refer to the fact of never having taken, or given, any of the government "shin-plas- ters," and about the last aet of his life, before suceumbing to his fatal sickness, was to present to Mrs. Haight, as a token of his regard, a silver dollar, which he had kept sinee the year he became " of age." When he settled on the land now owned by Virgil G. Gaylord, Esq., it was a wilderness. Here he pitehed his tent, began to wrestle with the difficulties ineident to that kind of life and when the messenger came he was ready. He had cleared up a beautiful and fertile farm and left it for his adopted son and daughter to enjoy. The fruit- trees, which had yielded in the years which had passcd, so bountifully under his fostering eare, had been matured from the seed. His memory is very precious with those who knew him best. What is said of "Unele North " applies with equal foree to Mrs. North. They left no ehil- dren.

Ashbel Stearns sleeps in the little cemetery of the Baptist Church with his wife near, and at the left of the entrance. They were both among the early settlers and he was fond of relating incidents of life in the woods, when he had to " blaze " his way through the forest to Wilkes- barre some forty miles to have a grist ground, and how when an infant, eradled in a sap- trough, while his mother was boiling sap in the woods, a large bear began to make affectionate demonstrations on that sap-trough and contents, when a few gourdfuls of boiling sap gave a different aspeet to the proceedings.

In a book now in the possession of Edward Nortor, Esq., entitled " Annals and Family Record of Winchester, Conn., with Exercises of the Centennial Celebration on the 16th and 17th days of August, 1871," by John Boyd, the family record of all the settlers of Clinton, of the Grenell, Norton, Loomis and Griswold branches is given fully and completely, and any reference to them here is simply a resume of that record, except so far as they were identified directly with incidents of its development and subsequent history.

In the fall of 1812 a few small openings had been made and log houses built, scattered along the State road from Belmont to Colonel Stan- ton's, some twelve miles. In the summer of 1813 Levi Norton and a few others associated with him built a saw-mill on the stream between where now stands the Clinton Centre Baptist Church and the place where Aaron Wheeler's blacksmith shop now is, the sills of which are still visible in the bed of the stream, fairly well preserved. This was the first saw-mill built in the township. At this time, independent of the paths through the wilderness, there were few roads. What is now the " White Oak " road erosses the Laekawaxen river just above where the Baptist parsonage now is. This road was used till 1818, when Levi Norton built a saw- mill on the outlet of the White Oak Pond, just in front and a little to the right of the present residenee of Mr. Jolin Martwick, and over this road hauled his lumber to the Dy- berry, near the Asa Kimble place, and rafted it to Philadelphia.

Previously, however, a road had been built

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which is the one beginning near the " Randall place," and on which now reside Orson Case, Esq. (who had held the office of justice of the peace for a number of years and is one of our most enterprising and substantial citizens), Mr. Joshua Stanton, Jonathan Dolph, Mr. Belden Buckland (another old-time Democrat, like " Uncle North," and one of the best citizens of the township, one who had never solicited a vote for himself, but had many times held po- sitions of trust and responsibility through the partiality of his numerous friends), Patrick Cog- gins, " Squire " Jonathan Burns (who had met with more accidents and losses and come out of them safer and with better pluck than any man from Tipperary to Ballinasloe), and so on, by the way of the " old glass factory," (of which, by the way, in a few years at niost, there will be not one stone to indicate where once was a large establishment, employing a great many hands,) to Bethany, the then county seat.

In 1820 a mail route was established from Easton to Mount Pleasant, and a post-office located where Francis F. Norton resides, then the residence of " Uncle Alva" W. Norton, who was made postmaster, and the office called Mount Republic. Mr. Norton held this posi- tion till 1851 or 1852, when the tannery was built, diverting the business from that part of the township, and through the influence of Col- onel Pratt, who had been a member of Con- gress from Greene County, N. Y., the office was removed to where it now is, with Julius T. Alden as postmaster. Mr. John Storm, grand- father of Hon. Jonathan B. Storm, member of Congress from Monroe, then in this Congres- sional district, had the contract for carrying the mail once a week on horseback, but some- times it was carried on foot. A young man by the name of Loosman was the next carrier. The Belmont and Easton turnpike was comple- ted in 1821, and a few years afterwards a line of coaches was put on, and it became quite a thoroughfare. A hotel was kept in the building now occupied as a residence by Mr. Henry B. Curtis, and was a great resort of drovers on their way from Great Bend and all that region to Easton and Philadelphia, then the great objective points.

Uncle Alva, as he was familiarly called, was a man of fine abilities, and as civil engineer had surveyed a good share of the lands of Clin- ton and adjoining townships. He was the son of Levi Norton, who came to Clinton in 1812 and "foreclosed " on five thousand acres of land in Wayne County. He gathered an un- mixed " Yankee " settlement around him and died January 21, 1823, aged sixty-four. The family of Levi (his wife was Olive Wheeler, born in Bethlehem, Conn., September 19, 1759, married to Mr. Norton January 21, 1783, and died May 25, 1838), were Warren W., who was the father of Hiram and Sidney M. ; Alva W. (Uncle Alva), who was born August 10, 1791 and died in 1875 ; Sheldon, born Novem- ber 26, 1793, died September 15, 1838; and the father of Edward K., familiarly known as "E. K."-K. for Kirby, after an old friend of the family. Sheldon was one of the first clerks of Wayne County, and married Harriet, daugh- ter of Grenell Spencer, of Winchester, Conn., September 14, 1818. He died September 15, 1838. He was agent of the American Sunday School Union (headquarters in Philadelphia,) and the history of his life would fill a good- sized volume. As there were no railroads in those days he travelled through the southern and western states thousands of miles on horse- back.

Uncle Alva was one of the old-time hard- shell Democrats till the Fremont campaign, when he made his home with the Republicans, and remained with them until his death. He died as he lived, a sincere Christian, respected by all who knew him and was a member of the Baptist Church for over fifty years. Uncle Alva always insisted that he organized the first Sunday-school in Clinton in 1813. Judge Grenell says, speaking of going to school, etc., " Three of us boys went three miles every day to school; this was in 1815. In 1816 Sheldon Norton taught school in our neighborhood ; in the fall of 1817 I taught school in Mt. Pleasant town- ship ; in 1814 my father-that's Deacon Rufus -organized a Sunday-school in his house. Most of the children and young people in the neigh- borhood attended through the summer. The one ' Uncle Alva' speaks of as organized by him

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

in 1813 I have no knowledge of." Of course there are no official records to harmonize dates, etc., but in either event it is highly creditable to Clinton that it had a Sunday-school in 1813 or 1814. Mrs. Davenport (the judge's sister) and himself are the only ones now living who attended the Sunday-school at their father's.

In the spring of 1822 Deacon Grenell bought two hundred acres of land, of which the site of the tannery, saw-mill and other build- ings, now the church, parsonage, etc., occupy a part, and in the summer and fall of that year built the saw-mill, a portion of which still re- mains, near the county bridge, which is between it and the tannery. The judge took fifty acres of the purchase, also built a small house into which he and his wife moved. In 1824 he built the house which F. M. Gaylord now oc- cupies, living there till they removed to Dela- ware in 1866. The next year after this mill was built, the road which crosses the Lacka- waxen, near where is now the Baptist parson- age, was changed to where it now crosses over the county bridge.

The first settlers were succeeded largely by people who had emigrated from England, prominent among whom were Rev. Henry Cur- tis, a minister of the Baptist church, and his wife, who, immediately preceding his purchase of the farm on which he lived until his death, in August, 1867, lived in Bethany, and owned the mansion built by Mr. Jacob S. Davis, who was county treasurer when Bethany was the county-seat. Mr. Curtis was born at Ellston, Leicestershire, England, October 8, 1800. Mrs. Curtis (Eliza Banning) was born October 9, 1801, at Reading, Berkshire, England, and died May 26, 1879. Married March 13, 1824, in New York, Rev. John, father of the late Rev. Wm. R. Williams, officiating. She was of a family of five sisters and one brother, Alpheus Ban- ning, all but her being residents of New York and Brooklyn, though but one at present sur- vives her. Her sister married one Van Tassel, of an ancient family of Tarrytown, N. Y., mentioned in Diederich Knickerbocker's " History of New York." Sarah married Mr. John W. Avcry, one of the old time merchants of New York, who still survives her and is

vice-president of the old East River Bank. Mary, the wife of Mr. Jas. Lock, of the Brooklyn savings-bank ; and Caroline, of New York-all deceased but Mrs. Lock.

Mr. and Mrs. Curtis were the parents of Mr. Henry B., Euphemia P., John J., Dr. George R., Julia A., and Eugene K. The last named lives on and owns the old homestead at Edenvale, Clinton township, a " vale" of rare beauty and great fertility. Dr. George P. was a physician of superior ability, and his death, which oc- curred June 9, 1884, in the fifty-first year of his age, was a great loss, not alone for his schol- arly attainments and skill, but his beautiful Christian life. John J. is a book-agent for the publishing house of A. S. Barnes & Co., of New York, and lives in Honesdale. Dr. Geo. B. died in Hawley.

Thomas and William Olver and their fami- lies, living at or near where they first located, in what was then Dyberry, but in the straight- ening of township lines Thomas was brought into Clinton ; James and Wm. Giles, William Bates, Henry Gummoe, father and son and sev- eral others came from Cornwall, England,- all citizens of whom any community could be justly proud.

In the year 1849-50 Colonel Pratt, who had accumulated quite a fortune in tanning at Prattsville, Greene County, N. Y., furnished the means, and a large tannery was erected which used eight thousand cords of hemlock bark per year. The business was carried on with varying success till about 1882, when it was abandoned altogether and the timbers are being sold to work up into smaller buildings, barns, etc., and fire wood. The site, with quite a large tract of land, was purchased of Messrs. Grenell & Foster, who, in company with A. O. Hanford, since dead, had carried on the business of manufacturing shovel handles. Mr. E. K. Norton, of the firm, retired to con- duct a large farm, since widely known as the " Ridge Farm." Judge Grenell also engaged subsequently in farming, and finally moved to Delaware and Mr. Hanford removed to Car- bondale, entered into the employ of the Dela- ware & Hudson Canal Company and died there.

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WAYNE COUNTY.

The sudden demand for bark induced the owners of bark land to slaughter the timber right and left, and millions of feet were left to rot where they fell ; it proved a sad blow to the prosperity of the township-a waste of so much valuable timber which, if it could have been disposed of as fast as peeled, would have resulted in a vast accretion to the wealth of the township. However, the inhabitants, with indomitable enterprise and patience, have outlived this drain upon their prosperity, and it is a pleasant thing to note that they have re- covered from it, and to-day it would be diffi- cult to find a community more intelligent and prosperous than to be found in Clinton.

There are no records of any Indian tribes having made " Headquarters " here, though evidences of their having been here on their expeditions from the Delaware across the coun- try to Great Bend, are quite numerous. Mrs. Louisa Curtis, daughter of the late Francis Griswold and wife of Mr. H. B. Curtis, has in her possession a member of Indian relics ; stone pestles with which they pounded their corn ; spears, arrow-heads, etc., all ploughed up on their farm.

Among the hardiest of the pioneers may be mentioned Francis and Horace Griswold. There were other members of the family ; among them Sedato and Orrin. Francis cleared up the land which now includes the farms of Mr. H. B. Curtis ; the old homestead, now occupied by Mr. Fred. Bucklisch, who married the widow of Mr. Griswold's son, Homer, who is the estimable daughter of Mr. Charles Van Metcr, now of Susquehanna County. Mr. Loomis married the second daughter of Mr. Griswold, and built a very elegant house there- on, a striking peculiarity of which is, that the interior is finished of the wood grown on the farm; giving a finish equal to any of the finest imported, and the balusters are made of about the last material one would expect-Sumac. Nathan resides upon another farm, and has also erccted an exceedingly tasteful house, finished in about the same manner and material, except the balusters. All these farms were cleared and made to inerease an "hundredfold," through the indomitable

will and faithful, steady and persistent labors of Mr. Griswold, whose memory is very grate- fully cherished by the community in which he lived and by the people of the Baptist Church, of which he was a deacon for many years. He died September 8, 1869.

His brother, Horace, came from Massachu- setts in 1810, to Butternuts, Otsego County, N. Y., and subsequently to Harmony, Susquehan- na County, this State, and finally to Clinton, where he resided till the time of his death, which occurred March 3, 1880, aged seventy- nine years. He married a Miss Eliza McKnight, a Vermont girl. They had six children, Ashur, Robie, Malden, Mrs. V. G. Gaylord, John and one other. John enlisted under Captain James Ham, Seventeenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, and was in the engagements at Winchester and Cedar Run. The entire Griswold family were remark- ably hardy and active. Horace died a member of the Baptist Church. In the raising of the "bents" of the tannery frame, the strength manifested by him was simply marvelous, and was the means of preventing the death of about a dozen persons. When one of the "bents " had got to that point where it was impossible to raise it another ineh, and it was almost cer- tain death to let go, Horace appeared on the scene, took in the situation at a glance, jumped to the assistance of the men, and with his giant strength earried it over the centre of gravity, then, with a yell, "Set her up, boys," up it · went to its place.

The old " Election House" was the sehool- house of what now is the Independent district, and was such from the organization of the township in 1825, till the spring of 1853, when F. M. Crane, Esq., read a bill to change the location to its present. The original place was more central, but the present more populous.

Hotels in the township, as a rule, were not financially or morally a success, except the one on the old Belmont and Easton, which lias only existed for more than fifty years ; there have been but two. One was the tavern kept by Mr. John Belknap, and subsequently by a Mr. Hicks, and stood at the corner of the road opposite the "Ned Buntline" house. Afterwards the property passed into the hands of Mr. Jus-

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WAYNE, PIKE AND MONROE COUNTIES, PENNSYLVANIA.

tus Sears, who occupied it as a residence, and finally exchanged properties with Mr. Alexan- der Conyne, of Prompton. Mr. Conyne then opened it again as a public house, under the name of the Clinton Hotel. He was accident- ally killed by a tree falling on him in the win- ter of 1879. Shortly afterwards it was closed as a hotel. Mrs. Conyne and her sons carried on the farm till 1884, when about noon one day the building was discovered to be on fire, and burned to the ground. The property passed iuto other hands, and Mrs. Conyne, with her children, went west. The other hotel was kept by a Mr. Rhodes, in the building now occupied by Mr. George Moore as a private res- idence. He also carries on a blacksmith shop, and has been fairly successful in his business.

There has been but one grist-mill in the township. This was built in about 1853, now run by Mr. J. W. Bunnell, the immediate su- pervision being in the hands of Mr. Adua Clark, whose reputation as a superior miller has been established a great many years.

A small tanuery was built on the " Perrine" property at the bend of the Lackawaxen, near the residence of Mrs. Grace Giles, which is di- rectly opposite the Baruch B. Bunting property. This tannery was carried on as an "upper leather " tannery for several years, from about 1826 when it burned down. Part of the foun- dation is in existence yet, beneath the surface. Mr. William Giles purchased this property, on which his widow now lives, of Mr. John Torrey, and lived there from that time till his death, except a short period immediately preceding, when he lived in the house on an ad- joining property, which he owned, and which was burned to the ground one day about noon. The little house immediately south of the creek and raceway of the grist-mill, and about seven acres of land, now owned by Mrs. George Wil- marth, was offered for sale for two hundred aud fifty dollars, and stood there several years waiting for a purchaser. No one seemed willing to in- vest at that price, when it was withdrawn from sale for about a year and again offered at seven hundred dollars, and found a purchaser in a short time. This seemed to stimulate prices of real estate in this vicinity for a while.

The old tannery property of Colonel Pratt, that is, the farm property and buildings, have beeu sold to different parties. The grist-mill to Mr. I. W. Bunnell, who has added to it a cider-mill; some to Mr. George Moore aud An- drew Daark.

The farm and mansion formerly occupied by Mr. Henry J. Alden were purchased in 1884, by the Messrs. Fleming, for about four thou- sand five hundred dollars ; this includes, besides the farm buildings, the building erected and used for many years as the "tannery store," in which the post-office is kept, and has been, ever since its establishment, except a very short time when Mr. Ralph Case was post-master. He had it removed to the old "Dr. Strong store," then occupied as a general store, but now used as a barn and stable by Mr. George Moore. Mr. J. T. Alden was the first post-master. When he left and removed to Little Falls, N. Y., he was succeeded by his brother, who re- tained the office till Mr. H. J. Alden took an interest in the business (except about a year, when Mr. Ralph Case was post-master). He died about 1862, when H. P. Haight was ap- pointed, and has held it till the present, with the exception of a couple of years, when Mr. H. J. Alden was appointed, but he having pur- chased an interest in a tannery at Herrick Cen- ter, Susquehanua County, it was again handed over to Mr. Haight, who is the present post- master.

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History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Part 96

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