|
History of Tioga County, PennsylvaniaIf You Have Photos of People Mentioned on the Page, Send Them In For Inclusion Return to 1883 Table of Contents |
Biographical Appendix
Typed for Tri-County Site by Wilma JOHNS Sakowsky
History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, Biographical Appendix , Lawrence Township and Lawrenceville (W.W. Munsell & Co., New York : 1883), pp. 22-23.
B I O G R A P H I C A L A P P E N D I X
BRIEF SKETCHES OF PIONEERS AND LEADING CITIZENS.
Many other biographical sketches, embraced in the body of the work, may be found by reference to the Table of Contents.
LAWRENCE TOWNSHIP AND LAWRENCEVILLE.
CHARLES BARBER, carpenter and joiner (post-office Somers Lane), has lived
in Tioga county from his childhood, and was born in Steuben county, N.Y., in
1846. Mrs. Barber was Miss Hattie Brownell, of Tioga. Mr. Barber enlisted in
1862 in Company A 149th Pa., and served three months; re-enlisted in 1864, in
Company A 49th N.Y., and served to the close of the Rebellion.
HENRY B. COLEGROVE is a son of Thomas and Polly Colegrove, who removed from Steuben county to Cortland county, N.Y., and thence to Lawrence, Pa., in 1839. Soon afterward Thomas bought the farm on which his son now lives, and here he died in 1858, aged 66. H. B. Colegrove was born in Troupsburg, Steuben county, N.Y., in 1832, and in 1852 married Miss Susan Terryl, of Lawrence. He served in the 36th Pa. militia and the 189th N.Y. in 1863-65. He is now engaged in lumbering.
HIRAM DAVIS, son of Silas and Nancy Davis, was born in Sullivan county, N.Y., in 1830. His parents removed while he was a child to Delaware county, N.Y.., from which he came in 1851 to Lawrence, buying his present farm of 120 acres. He married Miss Marion A. Pepper, of Rome, Bradford county, Pa.
BRADLEY DEUEL was born in Lawrenceville, in 1828. He worked at his trade as a boiler maker in Utica and Rochester, N.Y., until 1875, when he returned to his native town. where he is now farming. In 1849 he married Matilda Davis, of Lawrence. Three of their five children are living. She died in 1872, and in 1874 he married Phoebe Lawson, of Rochester. His father, John C. Deuel, born in Dutchess county, N.Y., came to Lawrenceville in youth and engaged in chair-making. He married Matsey Cole, of Lawrenceville, and had ten children. He was a soldier of 1812. He died in 1859, aged 72.
ALLISON H. EVANS was born in 1821, in Springfield, Bradford county, Pa., and died in Lawrence in 1881. His first wife, Abigail Havens. to whom he was married in 1846, died in 184S, having borne him one child, a daughter. In 1849 he married Miss Laura M. Havens, by whom he had four children. The parents of A. H. Evans, William and Sally, removed in 1836 from Bradford county to Elkland, where Mr. E. was in mercantile partnership with Joel Parkhurst till 1840. He then bought and removed to the present farm of Mrs. Laura M. Evans, where he died in 1845.
DARIUS GEE was born at Beecher's Island, in 1832, and in 1855 married Miss Sophia McCollum, of Farmington. He came with his parents to Middlebury when quite young, and lived there until of age. In 1879 he located at Nelson, and in the spring of 1882 at Lawrenceville, where he is living retired from business.
WILLIAM GRAHAM is a native of Horseheads, N.Y., and is a farmer. He was born in 1831, and came to this county in childhood. In 1853 he married Miss Mary J. Williams, of Cayuta, N.Y. He was a member of the 207th Pa. regiment in 1864-5, and was wounded at Fort Stedman March 25th 1865. His father, George Graham, born in Philadelphia, in youth located in Chemung county, N.Y. He married Betsey Derrick, of Philadelphia, and had ten children; eight are now living. He came from Potter county to Lawrence in 1837, and died at Cayuta, N.Y., in 1872.
REV. SAMUEL GRINELL was born in Delaware county, N.Y., in 1798. He married R. Roe, of that county, by whom he had seven children; six now living. He came to Tioga county in 1826, locating in Middlebury. In the same year he was licensed by the Baptist church of Tioga to preach; was ordained in 1831, and was employed in the ministry through life. His first wife died in 1841, and in 1843 he married Miss Parstal. He died in 1872. He was widely known as a minister, and respected by a large circle of acquaintances and friends.
NATHAN GRINELL, like his father, Rev. Samuel Grinell, is a native of Delaware county, N.Y. He was born in 1824, and in 1856 married Miss Eliza G. Wyant, of Orange county, N.Y. In 1851 he came from Tioga to the Cowanesque Valley and engaged as foreman in the Tompkins saw-mill. In 1870 he bought his present farm of 150 acres.
DYER INSCHO has a farm of 100 acres in Lawrence. His father, Oadiah Inscho, came in youth from England to Delaware county, N.Y. and there married Miss Judith Jennings; three of their twelve children are living. About the year 1800 he came to Tioga county, stopping a short time in Lindley, Steuben county, N.Y.; bought 200 acres o wild land on the east bank of the Tioga River in Lawrence, and built a house opposite the site of the covered bridge above Lawrenceville. Here he died in 1823. D. Inscho was born in Lawrence, in 1810, and married Eunice Baldwin,
ALFRED M. KNAPP was born in Vermont, in 1805. His first wife, Sally Hart, of Danby, N.Y., died in 1840, having borne him seven children. His second wife died soon after their marriage, and he subsequently married Miss Elizabeth Middaugh, daughter of Joseph Middaugh. Two of their three children are Mrs. A. Sherwood, of Mansfield, and Robert E. Knapp, of Lawrenceville. Their son Joseph F. died of consumption contracted during his service of nearly three years in the 149th Pa. regiment. Mr. K. is a farmer.
GEORGE T. LOSEY, Lawrenceville, is a justice of the peace, having been elected in 1877 and re-elected in 1882. He was formerly a contractor and builder. He was born in Hackettstown, N.J., December 19th 1835, and married Mary J. Hoyt, of Manchester, Vt.
JOSEPH MIDDAUGH.--The earliest recollection of this pioneer finds him at Newtown (Elmira), to which place he went from Reading, Pa. He married Miss Sally Hart, of Reading, by whom he had ten children, of whom seven are now living. He came to Tioga county from Newtown about the year 1800, and located in the township of Lawrence, near Somers Lane, where he took up 130 acres of wild land, a portion of which is now owned by his son-in-law A. M. Knapp, above mentioned. On this place he remained until his death. He died in 1855, at the age of 75 years.
TRUMAN C. MIDDAUGH, farmer and lumberman, was born in 1840, in Lawrence, and in 1871 married Miss Addie Tilford, of Eaton Rapids, Mich. He served three years (1861-64) in Company F 57th Pa. volunteers.
ALLEN F. PORTER came to Mansfield in 1871 and in 1874 to Lawrence, where he has a farm of 125 acres. He is a native of Troy, Bradford county, and was born in 1837. In 1864-5 he served in the 112th Pa. regiment (heavy artillery). In 1868 he married Sarah J. Tremain, of Lawrence.
SIMEON POWER, M.D., born in Vermont, in 1784, married Miss Polly Inscho, of Northampton, Pa., by whom he had seven children. He came from Vermont, in 1805, to Lawrenceville, and established a medical practice which took him on horseback as far as Williamsport, Coudersport, Bath and Elmira. He was the second sheriff of Tioga county, serving three years; was appointed associate judge in 1851 and served five years. He died in 1863, aged 80.
SIMEON I. POWER, son of Dr. Simeon Power was born in Tioga, in 1820, and married Miss Celinda Lindley, of Bradford county, in 1844. He was sheriff of the county in 1858-61. He is now a farmer.
D. L. POWER is a son of Simeon I., last mentioned. He was born in Lawrenceville in 1845. In 1872-74 he was in Nebraska, where he bought 150 acres of land. In 1874 he returned to Lawrenceville and married Miss Etta H. Gorton, of Caton, Steuben county, N.Y. He has a farm of 60 acres.
THE REEP FAMILY.--The first of this family in Tioga county seems to have been Jacob Reep, who came with his family from Kingston, Pa., to the township of Lawrence about the year 1796. Leaving Tioga Point in a canoe, he brought them to Newtown (now Elmira), where his wife left him, and with one child journeyed across the mountains to Lawrenceville, bringing with her a horse and cow, while her husband pursued his journey up the river with his craft until he reached his place of destination. The family located first on the farm now owned and occupied by George L. Ryon, afterward removing farther up the river to the old Reep homestead farm, now owned and occupied by the heirs of Peter Reep, where Jacob died in 1829. Peter Reep, a son of Jacob, was born at Kingston, in 1790, and came with the family to Lawrence when a child six years old. He married Miss Catherine Ridgely, of Clarion county, Pa., by whom he had fourteen children, seven of whom are now living. He was drafted and called to the lines in the war of 1812. He died at his residence in Lawrence, in 1861. His widow still survives, aged 83 years.
HENRY ROFF, a son of Christopher and Sarah Roff, was born in Delaware county, N.Y., in the year 1794. He married Sabrina Earley, of Bath, Steuben county, N.Y., by whom he had eleven children, of whom nine are now living. About the year 1829 he located in the town of Erwin, Steuben county, and in 1838 removed to Beecher's Island (Nelson), Tioga county, Pa., where he remained one year. Thence he came to Lawrenceville, and purchased 200 acres known as the French farm, in the Tioga Valley. Here he remained until his death. He died in 1878, at the age of 84; his wife died in 1873, aged 75.
HORACE ROFF, son of Henry above mentioned, is engaged in lumbering. and has a farm of 170 acres. He was born in 1830, during the residence of the family in Delaware county, N.Y. His wife was Miss Maria Ames, of Jackson, this county.
HON. JOHN RYON, the father of George L. Ryon, was a native of Connecticut, and in early life removed to Southport, N.Y. Thence he went to Elkland in 1807, and engaged in trade and farming. From 1814 to 1828 he was in one or the other house of the Legislature. From 1828 he was canal commissioner three years; then associate judge for many years. He married Susannah Tubbs, of Southport, and had eleven children, of whom eight are living. He died in 1859, at Lawrenceville, where he resided in 1848.
GEORGE L. RYON was born in 1813, in Elkland. Mrs. Ryon was Miss Hannah Hammond, of Southport, N.Y. Of their children George W. graduated at Lima, N.Y., studied law with his uncle John W. Ryon (see page 75), and is now practicing at Shamokin. With him there in the same profession is his brother William W., who pursued his studies at Shamokin, and is deputy sheriff of Northumberland county. A. F. Ryon, a brother of these, graduated at Alfred University, studied law with John W. Ryon, and is practicing at Lock Haven. G. L. Ryon has a farm of 103 acres.
WILLIAM S. SMITH, farmer, was born in 1844, in Lawrence township. In 1878 he married Miss Anna M. Wilson, of Winfield, Pa. In 1862-3 he served in Company A 136th Pa. volunteers. He has been town clerk since 1878. His brother L. F. Smith served three years (1861-64) in the 86th N. Y. and was wounded in the Wilderness. Joseph M., another brother, also served in a New York regiment.
ROBERT W. STEWART is a native of Ireland, and was born in 1820. He is a carpenter and joiner by trade, but has a farm of 225 acres. He came to America in 1837 and located in Greene county, N.Y. Since 1840 he has lived at Lawrenceville. He has been auditor nine years. He married Miss P. A. Cady, of Lawrence, in 1846.
REV. BENJAMIN FRANKLIN TAYLOR was born in Charleston, S.C., in 1818. He married Mrs. Margaret Stevens, of Northumberland, Pa. He studied theology under Bishop Gadsden, of South Carolina, by whom he was ordained to the deaconate in 1840, and was ordained to the priesthood by Bishop Chase, of New Hampshire, in the Church of the Ascension in the city of New York, in 1842. He has mostly during his ministry been engaged in literary work; has lectured much, and contributed from time to time to the secular and religious press. Had he been an ambitious man he might have attained to eminence as a preacher. He is at present connected with the diocese of central Pennsylvania under Bishop Howe. He has lived in Lawrenceville twelve years.