|
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 |
TIOGA TOWNSHIP AND BOROUGH.
By Henry H. Goodrich.
Sketches of the Pioneers (continued)
MAJOR WILLIAM RATHBONE, brother-in-law of John Gordon, came from Saratoga County, N.Y., probably about the date of Mr. Gordon's settlement, and purchased his claim of Jesse Losey, and built before the year 1812 the old frame farm house known as Ambrose Millard's. He married Irena, the eldest daughter of Nathan Niles. It was at his house that Ambrose Millard first stopped on coming to Tioga; and subsequently, on his marrying Mary Gordon, niece of Mr. Rathbone, March 4th 1812, he purchased of him the farm, Mr. Rathbone returning to Saratoga County, and after years removing thence to Canada.
THE MILLARD FAMILY.--Colonel Ambrose Millard was a native of Saratoga County. His father was Jehoiada, and a brother of his named Abiathar was the maternal grandfather of President Millard Fillmore. Colonel Millard first came to Beecher's Island, it is said, in the spring of 1810; but Ira McAllister, born in 1799, claimed to have come from Chenango County with Mr. Millard when he was in his seventh year. Mr. Millard was engaged in the mercantile and lumbering business at that place about a year and a half, and then, selling out, he came to the house of Major Rathbone at Tioga. He paid a visit to Saratoga, and on his return married Mary Gordon, March 4th 1812, and subsequently bought the Rathbone farm as previously stated. The farm extended from the river to the line of the Robert Morris tract, now the east line of the B.C. Wickham farm, with the Benajah Ives farm on the south and the Dr. Willard place on the north. Mr. Millard was one of the county commissioners from 1813 to 1816, and in 1814 he and his associates, Timothy Ives and Hopestill Beecher, divided the county into six districts for justices of the peace. He himself was commissioned a justice of the peace by Governor Snyder, in 1816; was one of the original trustees of the Wellsboro Academy, and also for the construction of the county buildings. He was in trade at Tioga--in the "Vail & Ives" store, subsequently the old yellow post-office--from 1828 to 1832 inclusive. He was also for a time engaged in the tanning business, probably with his father-in-law, John Gordon. After resigning his farm to Elijah De Pui he moved into the present Edwin Goodrich house, and devoted himself to law practice up to the time of his death. He died June 27th 1852, at the age of 70 years, and was buried in the old village cemetery. In 1870 his remains were removed to Elmira and buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. At one time he owned a quarter interest in the William Willard saw-mill. He was a major and colonel in the 129th regiment Pennsylvania militia, the latter title being the one by which he was designated for many years before his death. He was a free mason of the old "Willard Lodge." His children were: Mary, wife of Thomas De Pui; Sarah, wife of Richmond Jones, and Brittannia, wife of T.B. Tompkins, both of Elmira; Jeannette, wife of Mr. Bishop of Detroit; and Carroll, of Elmira.
Mrs. Millard, though nearly 90 years of age, still preserves good health and a lively remembrance of early events at Tioga. She enumerates the old families here during the first decade of the present century; remembers will the school-teachers Dennis Hawes and Jemima Hotchkiss; Drs. Willard, Beard and Simeon Power, the first houses of Benjamin Bentley, the Mitchells, Dr. Simeon Power and others, of which society her mother, Mrs. John Gordon, was a member; and especially she recalls the Rev. Mr. Bigelow, also Rev. David Rathbone, of Lawrenceville, a collegiate and an eloquent preacher, who in consequence of a severe lameness was obliged to deliver his discourses sitting, and was killed on his way from Lawrenceville to Tioga by the upsetting of his carriage on the hillside road between the Berry burying ground and the old ford, or "Kiphart crossing," as it was then called. He designed preaching at Tioga the following day. He was second cousin to Major Rathbone and Mrs. Gordon. Major Ambrose Millard's mother, wife of Jehoiada Millard, died March 6th 1815, aged 75 years; and an infant child of his March 2nd 1821, both of whom are buried int he Bentley ground.
THE BENTLEY FAMILY.--Major Benjamin Bentley came from Chemung, N.Y., in April 1806, and settled on the Crozier tract north of Cobin Van Camp. His ancestors were of Scotch origin, and are traced back to the troublous times that dethroned James the Second of England. His grandfather came to America about the year 1750, bringing with him a family of twelve sons, who are supposed to have been the progenitors of all the Bentley family in the country. One of their sons, James, served in the old French war; and he and a younger brother, Green, served together in the war of the Revolution. The gun carried by Green is now a relic in the possession of his great-grandson, Melville Bentley Prutsman, of Tioga. Benjamin Bentley was the son of Green Bentley, and was born in Litchfield, Conn., September 24th 1772. In 1790 Mr. Bentley joined a company of surveyors employed by the Holland Land Company, and went with them as far as the Genesee Country. There he was engaged a part of one year on the farm of the elder General Wadsworth, and, returning to Chemung, on the Tioga River, he married Mary Keeney February 11th 1791. He purchased a farm at Wellsburg, near the mouth of Bentley Creek, so called from the settlement of himself and his father at that point. Here his father, Green, and his only brother, Green Jr., joined him, the latter removing subsequently to Millport, N.Y. Benjamin subsequently removed to Muncy, Lycoming County; and after a residence of three or four years at that place, failing to obtain a good title to his land, he removed to Chemung, and finally to Tioga, settling near his brother-in-law, Richard Mitchell, He bought an interest in three "claims"--one of Rufus Adams, one of Asa Stiles, and one of Cobin Van Camp or of one of his sons--comprising in all 460 acres, the title in fee to which was finally secured, 106 acres from mark Wilcox (included in the S.M. Fox warrant), and the rest from General Cadwallader, in the Crozier tract.
Major Bentley always took an active part in church affairs. He united with the Baptists at Chemung, Elder Goff pastor, and brought a letter, as did his wife Mary, from the church thereto to those of the same faith at Tioga, where a complete church organization was formed in 1816. Before this event, however, his wife Mary died, September 14th 1815, and was buried in the old Bentley graveyard. April 19th 1816 he married Jane Otterson, an aunt of Franklin J. Otterson, long connected with the New York Tribune as associate editor. A granddaughter of Major Bentley says of him:
"He was a man of sterling integrity, indefatigable perseverance, and a pure, conscientious Christian. In creed he was a Baptist, as were his ancestors as far back as there is any record. He was a lover of justice and honor, and fond of improvement and progress. In 1810 he was commissioned by Governor Snyder a major to serve in a regiment commanded by Colonel Ambrose Millard, and received notice during the war of 1812 to hold himself in readiness for marching orders; but the war closed without requiring his services. He was generous, social, kept open house and hospitable fare, and was a great favorite in his neighborhood, and among his acquaintances, who were extended from Chemung Point to the Genesee on the north and to Williamsport on the south.
"Seven years previous to his death he became entirely blind, and during this period, his mind being left a great deal for occupation to a review of his past life, he would recall incidents of his boyhood, when his mother and her children were obliged to leave home and secrete themselves in the woods at night, for fear of the Indians and Tories; of the time when he carried the surveyor's chain, and camped at night where is now the city of Elmira; of the hardships of a pioneer life, converting the forests into fields of waving grain, and pounding his grain in the hollow of a stump. And when his last hours came they were the fitting close of a well spent life--the beautiful sunset of an active day, when, through the spirit of faith, he assured his weeping friends that he saw again, and that the room was filled with a glorious light."
Benjamin Bentley died September 7th 1854; Jane Bentley, his second wife, died January 26th 1865; and these two, together with the first wife, are now buried in Evergreen Cemetery. He had fifteen children, viz.: William, Thomas, Daniel, Bathsheba, Bethuel, Jesse, Green, Marianne, Mercy, Benjamin Jr., Benoni, James, Ephraim, Elisha Tucker, and one son born previous to Green and dying early, as did also the first three. Of this family thee are but three living. Green, residing at Stevens Point, Wis., was born January 28th 1807, and moved west in 1849; Marianne, the wife of Andrew M. Prutsman, born March 6th 1809, on the 25th of November 1880 celebrated the 50th anniversary of her marriage. She had six children, among them Christopher, Martha (Mrs. Brown), Harland, Mary and Melville. Christopher and Harland were both Lieutenants in the war of the Rebellion. Christopher served in all four years; was in fourteen battles; was captured and held a prisoner sixteen months, seven in Libby Prison, four at Macon, Georgia, two at Charleston and on Morris Island exposed to Union guns, afterward at Columbia and Fayetteville, where he and six others made their escape by cutting through the bottom of a car with a serrated case knife, and finally joined Sherman's army. He is now a pensioner, living in the State of Nebraska. Harland, after a service of a little less than a year, was discharged for disease contracted, and died at home June 21st 1863, aged 25 years.
HARRIS HOTCHKISS was a native of Connecticut, a Revolutionary sailor and soldier, and in his latter years a pensioner. He married Lucy Carey, of Connecticut, moved to Fort Edward, N.Y., and finally, with quite a family of children, came to Tioga in 1804. His son Harris, now living at Lamb's Creek, was born on their way hither, at Scipio, N.Y. Mr. Hotchkiss remained a year at Tioga, and removed to what was then called "Cumberland Settlement," subsequently "Welsh Settlement," six miles from Wellsboro, where he remained six years. He then returned to Tioga, and bought of William Willard Jr. a tract of 22 acres, on the west bank of Crooked Creek, half a mile from its mouth, where he and his wife resided up to the time of their death. Their son Dennis, about the year 1840, to save the homestead place from execution, went to Connecticut, procured there $500, returned and paid up in full the incumbrance resting on it; but subsequently he found the property had been mortgaged to Ellis Lewis and Mrs. Parmentier by William Willard, and it finally passed into the hands of Mrs. Parmentier through the active intervention of Colonel Johnston, who was then her agent.
Harris Hotchkiss, in the Revolutionary War, while in the marine service of the United States, was captured by the British and confined for some length of time, part of it in chains, on board of the notorious "Jersey" prison ship, suffering much by exposure to the cold and want of proper food.
He had a family of fifteen children, named Elizabeth, Orange, Jemima, Lucy, Sabra, Emily, Matilda, Charles, Peter, Clarissa, Harris, Aurelia, Norris, Cynthia and Dennis (born May 8th 1815). Orange, the eldest son, was a bridge builder, and was engaged in the construction of the first bridges over the Susquehanna at Towanda and McCall's Ferry, and of one over the Juniata near its mouth. He subsequently went to the Pacific coast, and finally died in an English seaport, the master and owner, as it was said, of a merchant vessel. The son Norris was a sort of modern Nimrod, famous in his day for being probably a surer shot and having killed a greater number of deer than any other man in the entire county. He enlisted in the company of which E.G. Schieffelin was captain (45th Pennsylvania volunteers), and was killed September 14th 1862, at the battle of South Mountain, and buried on the field.
Of the children living Charles is residing in Middlebury Township; Matilda, wife of Harford Butler, in Delmar; Harris at Lamb's Creek, and Aurelia, Cynthia and Dennis at Tioga. Dennis was one of the first conductors on the Corning and Blossburg Railroad. Aurelia, it is said, can probably tell more of the abduction of the county records, in the fall of 1828, then any other person living. She subsequently married William Patrick, a singular character, shrewd, active and stirring night and day, and about as well known in Tioga for forty odd years as any one in the township. He died six or seven years as any one in the township. He died six or seven years since. Dennis married Diantha Eames, and has children Seymour L. Eugene B., Millard F., and Pardon Damon. Seymour's wife was born at Stratford-on-Avon, Warwickshire, England, her father being Stephen B. Shakespeare, who claimed to be a lineal descendant of the poet. As the latter had one son and three brothers it is not improbable there is collateral, if not lineal blood relationship. Harris Hotchkiss Sr. died November 21st 1854, aged 96 years, and his wife August 27th 1853, aged 84 years, and they are both buried in the old cemetery.
THE BALDWIN FAMILY.--Captain Eleazer Baldwin, father of Buel Baldwin and Thomas L. Baldwin, settled near the village of Lawrenceville in March 1806. His grandfather, John Baldwin, was a well-to-do farmer and merchant, living in old Norwich, Conn., and had two sons, Jabez and Rufus. Jabez served through the entire Revolutionary War, as the family representative and hero in that struggle, serving for himself, his brother and a brother-in-law. The father, losing much by the too free acceptance of continental money, settled his affairs at Norwich, and removed to Hanover, N.H., purchasing land not far from the seat of Dartmouth College. His son Rufus helped to erect the first buildings connected with that college, which were of log construction, hastily put up, to comply with the terms of the bequest of Lord Dartmouth. Eleazer, the son of Rufus, leaving the Dartmouth school, went to Geneva at the time that General Williamson had just arrived there, with a squad of foreign workmen, and commenced clearing land and cutting a road through to Seneca Falls. Robert Patterson was also there, as a agent for the Pulteney estate, and was keeping a public house. Eleazer had about $200 in half dollars with him, and Patterson offered to sell him a township or two townships of land, on credit, at probably 12½ cents per acre. He remained in the employ of General Williamson one season, and then returned to New Hampshire. The following year, about 1798, he came to Bowman's Creek, near Tunkhannock, Pa., to look after a Connecticut title which he had bought. Abandoning this title he moved up Sugar Creek with a yoke of cattle--the first ever driven up that stream--and settled near Troy, Pa. His father and brother subsequently coming to that place, he gave to them the occupancy of his farm there, and moved to Lawrenceville, when Captain Buel Baldwin was a child only thirteen months old. The wife of Eleazer Baldwin was Betsey Storms, born in Tolland County, Conn. She was left an orphan with her grandparents, who moved to Unadilla, and thence to Sugar Creek, Bradford County, Pa., where she and Eleazer were married. Eleazer Baldwin was collector of taxes in 1813 for Tioga Township, at that time comprising two-fifths of the county. He was both a farmer and a lumberman, and occupied a prominent position in the affairs of his township up to the time of his death. Buel, the eldest son, was born February 11th 1805; Eunice, in July 1810; Moses S., September 15th 1815; Thomas L. in December 1817. Eleazer, the father, died about 1835, aged 60 years; and the mother November 19th 1862, aged 77 years, and they are both buried in the Lawrenceville Cemetery.
Buel Baldwin's wife was a Miss Chipman, born September 9th 1815. Her mother, whose maiden name was Sarah Andrus, was born April 9th 1789. Mr. Baldwin and Miss Chipman were married June 17th 1833, and have had born nine children: Jeanette (first wife of John I. Mitchell), September 18th 1837; Sarah C., March 1st 1840; Francis D., December 3rd 1844; Eleazer, February 10th 1846; Emily B., January 18th 1851; and B. Stevens January 9th 1857. Eleazer Baldwin enlisted in the civil war; was in Colonel Cox's regiment, and after ten months' service was transferred to the veteran volunteers, and received an honorable discharge. He died in March 1876, from disease contracted in the service. Mrs. Jeanette Mitchell left three children--Herbert B., George D., and Clara A. Thomas L. Baldwin married Jerusha De Pui; Moses Baldwin a Miss Wiley; and Eunice, Obadiah Inscho. Of Thomas Baldwin's children there are living Thomas Jr., Vine, Anna, Benjamin, Jabin B., Edward C. and Henry Lewis. Mrs. Thomas Baldwin died in April 1877, and is buried in Evergreen cemetery, beside three children who died young. Mr. Baldwin is at present residing in Williamsport, with his daughter Anna and two youngest sons.
Captain Buel Baldwin moved from Lawrence township to Tioga in 1846, settling on the old Rufus Adams farm, then the property of his brother Thomas. Here he resided until 1879, when he moved on to property of his own, lying on the Adams Run, not far from the dam or upper basin of the Wickham water works. He was county commissioner in 1839-41, was a captain in the Pennsylvania militia, and has always held a prominent place in the esteem and respect of his fellow citizens for his stirring, active and industrious habits, combined with his social disposition and knowledge of men and events, especially in Lawrence and Tioga townships. He is noted among his fellow citizens for his remarkable memory of events that have transpired within the range of his experience, as well as of traditions current when he was a boy. To him and to his daughter Sarah the writer of this sketch is under many obligations for the interest they have manifested in his work, and for important facts furnished.
Thomas L. Baldwin came from Lawrence to Tioga first as clerk in Wickham & Tuthill's store, about 1836; in 1845 he became partner with Mr. Wickham on the dissolution of the firm of Wickham & Tuthill; about 1848 was associated with David L. Aiken and John A. Matthews in the same business; subsequently with George McCloud and Alonzo Guernsey, and again with Frank H. Adams. By the destructive fire of 1871 he suffered heavy losses, but built a fine brick store at a cost of $6,000 and resumed business. He finally retired after the death of his wife. He was elected to the Legislature in 1854, and served two terms. It was in his second term that the Tioga County Bank was chartered, and he was elected its first president and John W. Guernsey cashier on its organization.
THE DE PUI FAMILY.--Elijah De Pui, it is said, came to Tioga subsequent to the birth of his two eldest children, Betsey and Vine, and previous to that of his son Thomas, who was born April 14th 1806. He settled next north of Nicholas Prutsman, purchasing an interest in the latter's claim. He was born in the same county and township as were the Prutsmans, and it was his acquaintance with this family that induced him to settle near them on the Tioga River. The family tradition of the De Puis (De Puy, as he spelled it) is that their ancestor, one Nicholas, a French Huguenot, came to America subsequent to the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, which exposed so many of the French citizens of Protestant faith to the renewal of those persecutions by the Catholics of their country that had existed previous to the establishment of the edict, by Henry IV., nearly ninety years before. This ancestor, fleeing, as did the great body of Protestant citizens who had the means and were able to get out of France--to the extent of at least 250,000 people--came to Pennsylvania, and settled in Northampton County, near the Delaware Water Gap, probably as early as 1686 or 1687. It is certain that several families of the De Puis were in existence in that section of the State, lying between the Lehigh and Delaware Rivers, as early as 1749, when a treaty was made with twenty-four Indian chiefs for the purchase of the lands lying between the Delaware and Susquehanna Rivers; and a map of the said purchase, made at the time, locates "Depui's" residence near the Delaware Gap, and within the present limits of South Smithfield, Monroe County. A Samuel and an Aaron "Depew" were among the ten Pennsylvanians who were included in the 684 persons constituting the Susquehanna Land Company, who purchased of the Indians at Albany and Mohawk Castle, July 11th 1754, what is generally known as writing to Governor Morris, dates his letter at "Depui's, Leha Gap, December 10th 1754;" and three commissioners appointed to visit and examine the various forts erected between the Schuylkill, Lehigh and Delaware rivers, to guard the settlers against the approach of French and Indians, during the old French and Indian war, speak of coming "at 7 p.m. to Samuel Depui's; around the house is a large but very slight and ill-constructed stockade, with a swivel gun mounted at each corner." The name of Aaron Depui appears in several communications addressed to the council, at Philadelphia, in 1760, 1761, and 1776; and an act of the Assembly, passed the 13th day of September 1785, establishes the voting place of the fourth election district of Northampton County (comprising the townships of Hamilton, Lower Smithfield, Delaware and Upper Smithfield) at the house of Nicholas De Pui, in Lower Smithfield. Nicholas De Pui, as one of the justices of Northampton County, was appointed by the supreme executive council of the State, November 18th 1780, to preside in the common pleas, quarter sessions, and orphans' courts. Nicholas Jr. and Moses De Pui were joined in a proclamation of 65 persons, under date of October 6th 1787, claiming themselves to be "proprietors, purchasers and settlers of a tract of land known by the name of Susquehanna purchase, and are in consequence of a royal chartered right, together with that of an absolute purchase from the aboriginal proprietors (with our associates, to with the Susquehanna Company), in possession of the whole of the aforesaid purchase," etc.
It will be seen by the foregoing references that the father and grandfather of Elijah De Pui, respectively Nicholas Sr. and Samuel, were connected with the Connecticut title, as was also Nicholas Jr., and possibly Elijah De Pui. The old homestead house f the De Pui family, in the original Northampton County, and below the Delaware Water Gap, on one of two islands, called De Pui Island, is a large, old-fashioned stone building, with four large, square rooms, a wide hall, a wide staircase, and high, old-fashioned fireplaces and mantel pieces, and overlooking the Jersey lands upon the opposite side; and is the same building that was stockaded and guarded by four swivel guns during the old French war, as previously described
Elijah De Pui was born in 1774, and came to Newtown not far from the year 1800, about the same time that his old acquaintance and fellow townsman Nicholas Prutsman came to Tioga. As the oldest grist-mill in Northampton County was said to have been built by a De Pui, and had been owned and conducted as a branch of business in the family from one generation to another, it was natural that Elijah De Pui should have had an intimate knowledge of the construction of such a mill, and with proper mechanical skill could readily build one. Hence it is found he was by occupation a millwright, and was engaged in the construction of the old McCoy gristmill, below Corning, assisted by Timothy and James Goodrich, about the year 1805. His daughter Eliza (Mrs. Jabin S. Bush) thinks her father and family moved to Tioga as early as the spring of 1806, the father and mother each on horseback, carrying a child, and preceded by a team and wagon with the household effects. He occupied first a small log house on the north side of the race, close to the foot of the hill, that was built and for a time occupied by Nicholas Prutsman. He subsequently built a plank and frame building, of moderate size, on the south side of the race, farther to the west; and in later years a still larger frame and clapboard house, generally known as the "De Pui homestead," in which Mr. De Pui resided until about the year 1839, when he removed into the house in the village built by "Chris Charles." About 1810 he built the "De Pui grist-mill," which continued to be one of the most important gristmills on the upper Tioga up to the time of its destruction. He build a saw-mill adjoining the grist-mill, and carried on an extensive lumbering business many years; also a fine and well cultivated farm. His farm consisted of flat and hill land, purchased from the Robert Crozier tract, and his own entry of a vacant tract of 147 acres and 123 perches, in May 1832--in all 384 acres; besides which he acquired the old Lyman Adams farm, 100 acres, on the river south of Berry's, and also the Ambrose Millard farm of about 70 acres. In 1819, 1820 and 1821 he was one of the county commissioners; and December 16th 1819 was appointed by Governor William Findley a justice of the peace for part of Tioga and Lawrence Townships.
On his removal to the village, in 1839, his son Vine succeeded him in the occupancy of the old farm, and in the flouring and lumbering business, and so continued up to the time of his death, in 1866. Vine also acquired possession of a part of the Ambrose Millard farm, of about 25 acres on the east side of the Williamson road, in Tioga Borough, and built first the house now owned and occupied by Miss Anna Maria Wickham, which he sold to the Tioga County Bank; and secondly a large, fine house on the site of the present O.B. Lowell residence, which was destroyed by fire in 1863 or 1864.
Elijah De Pui married Ency Baldwin, daughter of Morgan Baldwin, about the year 1801, and had children: Betsey, born June 9th 1802; Vine, in 1804; Thomas, in 1806; Benjamin, in 1809; Almira, December 13th 1813; Mary, in 1815; Ency A., in 1817; Eliza, about 1820; Anna, in 1824; Jerusha B., about 1825. Of this family Vine married a Miss McGrath, of York, Pa.; Thomas married Mary Millard, of Tioga; Almira, John W. Maynard, of Williamsport; Mary, William H. Wisner, of Elmira; Ency, E.B. Campbell, of Williamsport; Eliza, Jabin S. Bush, Tioga; Anna, W.W. Willard, Williamsport; Jerusha B., Tomas L. Baldwin, Tioga.
Elijah De Pui died March 17th 1853, in his 80th year; his wife, Ency, August 8th 1838, in her 56th year. Of the children Betsey and Benjamin both died young, and are buried near the apple grove close by the old place of residence of Nicholas Prutsman, "De Pui farm"; Thomas B. died June 10th 1840, aged 34; Mary died in August 1840; Ency B., June 2nd 1854, aged 37 years; Anna, May 18th 1851; Jerusha B., in April 1877.
Mrs. Eliza Bush, of Tioga, the only survivor of Elijah De Pui's family, had children: Mrs. Henrietta Caldwell, Omaha, and Mrs. Anna Miller, Shippensburg, Pa.; and Alva, who died aged about 19 years. Four sons and one daughter and the widow of Vine De Pui are living in the western States and Territories. Thomas De Pui, who was a very promising lawyer at Tioga at the time of his death, left two daughters and one son, now dead. The writer regrets his inability to procure more definite dates than above.
JAMES MATTTESON and JAMES DICKINSON were here in 1807 and 1808, but early moved into Middlebury Township, and have had no particular association with Tioga since a very early date. Matteson was a shoemaker, and was in the habit of going about with his kit of tools to work for families wherever his services were needed. The writer remembers him to have worked for his father, at the present Wickham place, in this manner as late as perhaps 1836 or 1837. He married Kate Dickinson, daughter of James, about the first of July 1808. James Dickinson settled on the old Wellsboro road, that ran over the point of the hill in the rear of the present residence of Clark Cole, close by some old apple trees that are still standing. His residence there gave to the hill near by the name of Dickinson Hill, which it still retains. On this hill Alexander Brown, in returning once from Wellsboro afoot, after dark, was followed by a panther. Drawing his knife and facing the animal, he walked backward, keeping his eye upon it, until he came out on the "Streeter cleaning."
THE ADAMS FAMILY.--Captain Lyman Adams was a native of Lenox, Mass., and a nephew of Dr. William Willard, his mother being a sister of the doctor; and through the solicitation of the latter he moved from Tinmouth, Rutland County, Vt., in the spring of 1808, arriving at Tioga on the 4th day of July, accompanied by his wife and five daughters--Anna, Susan, Sophia, Phebe and Lucy. He settled first in a house of Dr. Willard's near the Willard mill, on the race. In the years 1809 and 1810 he was collector of taxes for the township of Tioga, comprising at that time two-fifths of the entire county. He subsequently moved on to what was for many years termed the Adams farm, now that of Nelson Miller, occupying a house on the east bank of the river, and opposite the high ridge on the west ascending to the Bayer Hill; a very pleasant spot, and surrounded by several fine, large peach trees, which from the fact of their absence nearly everywhere else in the township were rendered the more noticeable and valuable. Captain Adams subsequently moved to Wellsboro, and kept there for some time a public house, it appears, as late certainly as 1825, and perhaps 1826. His daughter Jane was born in Wellsboro, March 7th 1825; and his daughter Maria was married by Justice Benajah H. Ives to G.R. Lillibridge, on Monday evening May 7th 1827, at her father's house in Tioga village; this places the removal of the family from Wellsboro to Tioga between the two periods above named. His old homestead place on the river bank, containing 176 acres, was sold by John Beecher, sheriff, as "late the property of Lyman Adams, Pliny Power and Jeremiah Brown," on December 18th 1826. Captain Adam's village home continued in his possession and that of his son Hiram up to the construction of a new building in place of it, and finally its sale to R.P.H. McAllister, about 1865 or 1866, and Hiram's removal to his farm on Bear Creek.
Captain Adams was born at Lenox, Mass., April 12th 1775, and died of heart disease June 27th 1847. His wife, Sophia, who was a sister of Thomas Mantor, was born April 21st 1782, and died July 1st 1868; and both are buried in the Mill Creek Cemetery. They had children: Anna (Mrs. Augustus Niles), Susan (Mrs. Lorain Lamb), Sophia, spinster; Phebe (Mrs. Amos Utley), Lucy (Mrs. Sullivan Powers), Maria (Mrs. G. R. Lillibridge), Lyman N. (Husband of Caroline A. Mantor), Julia (Mrs. Samuel Naglie), Jane (Mrs. Edwin Crane), Hiram (husband of Maria Naglie), and Mary (Mrs. Dr. A.J. Cole).
Anna is still living, and resides with her son A.E. Niles, at his farm on the river, one and a half miles south of the village, and apparently is enjoying excellent health. Her memory of events in Tioga goes back to 1808, the time of her father's settlement here, at which date she was a little over then years of age. The family stopped first at the house of Dr. William Willard, and she remembers distinctly the style of it. She was born March 6th 178. Her sister Mrs. Lorain Lamb was born June 27th 1800, and both she and her husband are living at Mansfield, in good health. Sophia, born February 18th 1803, died May 9th 1852; Phebe died December 16th 1874, aged 68 years, her husband October 13th 1844, aged 42 years, and Wells Utley, their son, February 6th 1864, aged 38 years; Lucy (Mrs. Powers) died in 1881, at Alpena, Mich.; Maria died many years ago at Ann Arbor, Mich.; Lyman N. died November 13th 1880, in his 65th year; his widow and a son and daughter, Frank H. and Mary are living. Jane Crane died at Williamsport, in December 1881, aged nearly 57 years. William and Mrs. Mary Cole both reside at Mansfield; Mrs. Naglie near Towanda, Pa.; and Hiram at Tioga. Sophia and Lyman N. are buried in the Mill Creek Cemetery, as also Mrs. Utley and her husband and son.
IRA MCALLISTER, born in Greene, Chenango County, N.Y., November 24th 1799, claimed to have accompanied Ambrose Millard, in his seventh year, to Tioga; but it is probable he came at a later date than this would give, and must have been in his tenth or eleventh year, which would agree with the settlement of Colonel Millard at Beecher's Island in 1810. As he grew up he acquired considerable knowledge and skill in the various trades of carpenter, blacksmith and mason, and was generally a very handy and useful man in various employments. He married Mary F. Hall, daughter of Roland Hall, in January 1824, and settled in a house opposite Captain H. B. Grave's distillery, on Wellsboro Street, where the twins Thomas and Eliza were born September 19th 1825; subsequently he removed to a house near the site of the present Bayer boarding house, where R.P.H. McAllister was born August 17th 1828; then lived in a house near the old school-house on the bend of the road leading to the lower ford of the river; then at Somers lane, where he was engaged in blacksmithing; then two years on Esquire De Pui's farm; then in the "Sullivan Power house," near the Cove; the Bentley house, the James Dewey house, and finally in a house on the site of the present William T. Urell residence, where he died March 29th 1854. His death was the result of his being caught in the machinery of Fish & Somers's tannery, where he was at the time employed. Mrs. McAllister was born November 9th 1788, and died December 31st 1870, and both she and her husband are buried in Evergreen Cemetery. Thomas, the son, married Margaret Long; Eliza, the daughter, married Edgar Dunham, and subsequently Clark Tinkham. She has a son, Edgar Dunham, and a daughter named Tinkham; and Thomas has sons Vine and Ira. R.P.H. married Phebe Hall, and has a daughter Mary and son David. R.P.H. McAllister is the depot agent of the Corning, Cowanesque and Antrim Railroad at Tioga. Vine, his nephew, is the telegraph operator.
THE DAILY FAMILY.--John Daily, living on his farm two miles south of the village of Tioga, on the east bank of the Tioga River, and at the foot of the Daily Hill, is the oldest living inhabitant of the township. He enjoys very good health for one so advanced in years; his frame is quite erect, footstep firm, eyesight and hearing good, and he is still fond of the newspaper, and as much interested seemingly in political intelligence as ever. He was born in Washington County, N.Y., October 14th 1791, and came first to Beecher's Island, this county, in 1811; married Violetta Niles, daughter of Nathan Niles Sr., on Christmas Eve 1813, at the very place where he now lives; and moved from Beecher's Island the following spring, settling in the old homestead house of his father-in-law. He remained here two seasons, and then removed to Delmar Township, where he staid until 1838, moving back into the old homestead at the period and during the construction of the Corning and Blossburg Railroad. His farm consisted originally and Blossburg Railroad. His farm consisted originally of 212 acres of the Bartholomew and Patton warrant, and 81 subsequently purchased of A. C. Bush, on the west side of the river.
At the time of his settlement, in 1814, Mr. Lawrence, grandfather of William Lawrence, of Rutland, and Mr. White, father of Daniel White, of Middlebury, had been settled at the mouth of Mill Creek; but both were then dead and buried in what is now called the Mill Creek or Guernsey Cemetery. Mr. Lawrence had lived in a log house at the foot of the hill, on the left of the road going south; and in this house, at the time of his coming, lived John Nichols, whose wife was a sister of Timothy Brace. Here Timothy boarded, and was carrying on the lumbering business at the saw mill on the race at the foot of the hill, which had been built by Mr. White. Timothy subsequently married Temperance Niles, and settled in the Lawrence house.
Mr. Daily remembered also Aaron Gillett, father of the Aaron Gillett of Covington Township, who was living on the point of the hill where is now the Guernsey school-house, and who subsequently built a large hewn-log house at the same place, which after it was nearly completed took fire and was burned down, burning to death one of his children.
Lyman Adams was then living on the old Adams farm. Uriah Spencer was living near the race, to the left of the road leading to Crooked Creek ford, and with him was Elijah Welsh, who was driving the saw-mill, and who subsequently married Polly Spencer, and after her death the widow of Charles Spencer, who is now the wife of Heber Cole. Farther down were Jacob Kiphart's family, Jacob and Nicholas Prutsman, and Esquire De Pui. Dr. Simeon Power and Pliny, his brother, were living on part of the John Gordon farm, at Somers' Lane, and were both practicing medicine. In the village were Dr. William Willard and son William Jr., and Allen D. Caulking, who had just completed the tavern stand subsequently known as the "James Goodrich tavern." In one room of his house Caulking opened a store, the first store it is believed in Tioga. Others then at Tioga were Peter Roberts and sons, the Berry's, the Loseys, Gershom Wynkoop, Levi Vail and Samuel Westbrook.
Mr. Daily's wife, Violetta Niles, was born March 9th 1794, and died September 6th 1878; Nathan Daily, their son, born March 19th 1815, died June 28th 1850; Ruth A., wife of William Adams, born January 19th 1822, died July 21st 1868; Daniel Daily died July 4th 1860, aged 18 years; and they are all buried in the Guernsey Cemetery. His children living are Martin Van Buren; Salina, widow of Peter Mantor; and Julia, wife of Henry Miller.
THE CAULKING FAMILY.--Allen Daniel Caulking, son of Asa and Lovina Caulking was born in Montgomery County (the part now Broome), N.Y., October 8th 1789. He came to Tioga about the close of 1812 or beginning of 1813, and built in the latter year the public house long subsequently known as the "Goodrich House," in the north room of which he opened a store of general merchandise--the first introduction of that branch of business of Tioga, goods having been previously purchased by the inhabitants of the valley at Painted Post and Newtown. While here located in business he married Mary Ann Willard, January 15th 1815; and here Emily, his eldest daughter, was born December 9th 1815. Mr. Caulking was subsequently succeeded in the public house by Peter Campbell, he himself removing to a house east of the road and south of Crooked Creek ford, where his son Hiram W. Caulking was born, August 15th 1817. He subsequently removed to Lawrenceville, where his daughter Mary Ann was born, July 24th 1819; and also, it is believed his son Henry S., July 15th 1822. By deed dated June 20th 1817 he purchased of William Willard Jr. half an acre of land on Main Street, Tioga, where now stands the Episcopal Church and P.S. Tuttle's store. This lot he sold to Timothy Goodrich, June 1st 1819. In 1823 or 1824 he went west to select a location with the design of removing his family to it and he held for a while a pre-emption claim where the city of Indianapolis now stands; but, returning home, he moved his family to Wellsboro, where he kept a public house in the years 1825 and 1826. He died in August or September 1826, and his widow kept the house until the following spring, when she and her family removed to Tioga. She resided several years in the old William Willard Jr. mansion, and it was here that her daughter Emily was married to William Garretson, in 1836. In 1840-44 she resided in the old Ambrose Millard farm house, and it was here that her second daughter Mary Ann, was married to Francis Carey, a tailor by trade, and now a resident of Elmira, N.Y. Hiram W. and Henry S., the sons, went about 1843 to their uncle Henry's in west Tennessee, and subsequently to Rodney, Mississippi, where Henry died about 1849, leaving descendants. Hiram W. in 1852 or 1853 returned to Tioga, married Mary Ann Daggett, and purchased of her father, Seth Daggett, his homestead farm of 227 acres, lying on Crooked Creek, two and a half miles west of Tioga. He resided here until 1879, when he removed to Elmira, and is there at present. He has a family of several children. The mother, Mrs. Mary Ann Willard Caulking, died at Elmira, July 19th 1874, in her 81st year, and is there buried.
LEVI VAIL, who married Fannie Spencer, daughter of Uriah Spencer, was here in 1813, but it is not known whence he came. He was one of the earliest school teachers; was a collector of taxes for the township in 1814; at a later period a merchant and successor to Allen D. Caulking in that business, and built in 1821 or 1822 the store building on the site of the present P.S. Tuttle store, occupied by Vail, Ives & Co. In 1826 and 1827, by Ambrose Millard in 1828-32, and finally from 1857 to 1868 by William T. Urell and Mrs. Sarah M. Etz for the post-office, and which suffered destruction in the general fire of 1871. Mr. Vall was county treasurer for the years 1827 and 1828, receiving his appointment from the county commissioners (Elijah Welsh, Elijah Stiles and Captain James Goodrich) on Thursday, January 4th 1827. He moved his family to the State of Wisconsin about 1836, and settled at or near Milwaukee, and had sons William, George and Augustus, and a daughter Eleanor.
ELIJAH WELSH, who married Nancy Spencer, carried on Mr. Spencer's saw-mill as early as 1812 and 1813. He was one of the county commissioners from October 16th 1824 to about the same date in 1827. He early removed to Sullivan township, and there died about 1865. His second wife was the widow of Charles Spencer, formerly Charlotte Bliss, and now the wife of Heber Cole, Middlebury.
SAMUEL WESTBROOK was born in the town of Chemung, (then) Montgomery County, N.Y. His father was Samuel, brother of Elias and Benjamin Westbrook. He came quite early to Tioga; married Mary Berry, March 5th 1809, and subsequently settled on a part of the old Rufus Adams farm. He was a collector of taxes for the year 1816. His wife Mary died April 22nd 1847, aged 57, and left five children: Thomas, who married Catharine Prutsman; Samuel, who married Maria Bush (both removing to the State of Illinois): Lucinda, who married Hiram Cook, and Rachel, who married Pardon Damon (both of Lawrence Township); and Judith B., who married Charles T. Robinson, of Tioga. The daughter Rachel died December 8th 1831, aged 16 years, 9 months and 10 days; and Judith B. died March 8th 1842, aged 21 years, 8 months and 22 days. Mr. Westbrook married for his second wife Catharine Middaugh.
ROLAND HALL was a native of the city of Philadelphia, and married there a Miss Bostwick, who was a near relative of Dr. Benjamin Rush. His brother Thomas married a Miss Fullerton. Both of the brothers subsequently moved to Lycoming County, Roland settling at McKenney's Forge, on Lycoming Creek, eight miles above Williamsport, and Thomas at the latter place. Roland and his family removed to Tioga not far from the year 1815, and settled first at the William Willard mill; subsequently he bought the central part of the Groves Gordon farm, now the Knapp farm, and sold the same in three or four years to Clarendon Rathbone. While occupying this place he planted the orchard long known as the John Middaugh orchard. In 1820 Mr. Hall lived in a house standing on the ground of the present residence of B.C. Wickham, and there Stewart Geer was born, July 11th 1820. At a later period he lived in house near the "Garretson house," subsequently occupied by William Lowell. About the year 1827 he moved to Northumberland County, and finally died at Liverpool, Pa. He had sons Alexander, Matthew, and Benjamin, and daughters Mary (who married Henry Willard). His son Benjamin Rush was married to Deborah Corson, of Williamsport, June 21st 1828; and he subsequently purchased the James Goodrich Hotel, Tioga, where he remained a short time, subsequently selling it to Jacob Schieffelin and removing to Blossburg, where he kept the United States Hotel many years, and where he died.
He had daughters Phebe and Jane, and a son Joseph Hall. Phebe married R.P.H. McAllister, of Tioga, and has one daughter and one son. Mr. Hall is buried in Evergreen Cemetery.
THE ALLEN FAMILY.--John Smith Allen married Margaret Westbrook at Auburn, N.Y., December 17th 1817, at which time he was engaged as a carpenter in the construction of the State prison at that place. They soon after removed to Tioga, where Mr. Allen followed his trade for some time, but subsequently kept the James Goodrich house from 1822 to 1826, and again that of Dr. William Willard, which had been previously enlarged and improved. There he remained until about 1832 or 1833, removing thence on to the John S. Allen farm, now David L. Aiken's. He was a popular hotel keeper, social and genial, and a very excellent violin player--qualities which endeared him to his neighbors and acquaintances. Samuel Besley, who was a popular hotel-keeper at Painted Post and Cooper's Plains many years, married a sister of Mr. Allen. The father of Mr. Allen, William Allen, died at the son's house in Tioga Village, April 28th 1827, aged 73 years; and the mother, Ruby, January 14th 1837, aged 79 years. John S. Allen died November 10th 1836, aged 45 years, 6 months and 23 days; and his wife Margaret--who lived with the only surviving member of her family, Mrs. Louisa (Thomas) Hance, at her residence in the village for some thirty years or more--died January 21st 1881, aged 85 years, 11 months and 9 days. They had children: Ann Maria, who married Richard Searles, and died October 20th 1839, aged 21; Caroline, who married William Rose, and died March 29th 1843, aged 22 years, 10 months and 25 days; Louisa, widow of Thomas Hance, and still living; William S., who died September 16th 1848, aged 23; John S. Jr., who died April 28th 1850, aged 23; and Loyal N., who died July 1st 1830, aged 11 months and 12 days.
William Allen, the grandfather, was first buried on the point of the Prutsman Hill, as was also, it is believed, the son Loyal N.; but they were removed to the old Van Camp burying ground on the Allen farm. Here also all the other members of the family were buried, except the mother; but they have been removed to Evergreen Cemetery.
GERSHOM WYNKOOP was here in 1812 and resided here until about 1835. He was employed considerably about the various saw-mills--those of Dr. William Willard, Uriah Spencer, Elijah De Pui and Jacob Prutsman--and resided at different periods near by each of them. He was a very honest, industrious and useful citizen. He had children Peter, Betsey, and two younger daughters. Betsey was for several years a domestic in the house of the writer's family and was regarded as one of the most patient, kind-hearted and even-tempered of girls. The wirier, than a mere lad, who had reason to appreciate her many kind acts, is gratified to make the acknowledgment here. The family moved to Rochester, N.Y., about 1835.
THE GOODRICH FAMILY.--Captain James Goodrich, with his wife, and two sons, William and Edwin, moved from"Shoemaker's," on the Tioga River, three miles below Corning, where he had been keeping a public house, to Tioga on the 3rd of June 1819, and occupied the tavern built by Allen D. Caulking, but which had just previously been purchased of William Willard Jr. by Timothy Goodrich, whose brother James succeeded Peter Campbell in management.
The Goodrich family dates back by tradition to a settlement in this country, at Boston, in 1630, of two brothers who came from Totness, Devonshire, England, and whose ancestor, Nicholas, had sufficient station to bear by letters patent a coat-of-arms with a field argent and three cross-crosslets above a fess gules. One of the brothers had a family of thirteen children, and the other remained unmarried.
The immediate ancestors of James were of Connecticut birth. His grandfather was David, and his father Zebulon, born in the town of Farmington, Hartford County, that State. The father married Honor Waples, of the same place, and subsequently removed to the town of Hancock, Berkshire County, Mass., where James, the subject of our sketch, was born October 7th 1790, the youngest of a family of seven children; the elder ones being named, in the order of birth, Seth, Timothy, Joseph, Sarah, James 1st, Honor and James 2nd. The father was a volunteer soldier of the Revolution, and served under General Stark at the battle of Bennington. He died in August 1792, when James was not yet two years of age, and was buried on a farm two miles west of the Shaker village of Hancock. The mother subsequently married Issachar Rowley, about 1802, and after her husband's death came to Steuben County, N.Y., and lived with the son Timothy until her death, in 1825, when she was buried in the Corning Cemetery. James came from Hancock to Corning in 1804 and lived with his brother Timothy until married. He occupied himself in the same employments as those of the brother--carpenter work, distilling and farming. His brother was the contractor for building the first bridge over the Conhocton at Painted Post, and over the Canisteo at Erwin; aided Elijah De Pui in the construction of the McCoy grist-mill about 1805, and also of arks for the transportation of grain down the Tioga and Susquehanna Rivers, which at that period were the only outlet for surplus products. James was commissioned an ensign in Lieutenant-Colonel Samuel S. Haight's regiment of militia by Governor David D. Tompkins, April 15th 1811. The following year he was drafted for the war of that period, serving in Jonathan Rowley's company, Colonel Philetus Swift's regiment, and General George McClure's brigade; and, reaching the Niagara River, at Lewistown, he volunteered to cross over. He was stationed three months at Fort George, under command of General William Henry Harrison. While there Lieutenant Roosevelt and himself had command of a troop of 25 horse, which at one time penetrated as far as Stony Creek, capturing many unparoled citizens, among whom was an English captain in disguise, formerly a resident of Newtown, now Elmira. At the close of the war he was commissioned the lieutenant of a company in the 96th regiment of infantry (April 6th 1815) by Governor Tompkins, and a captain in the same regiment March 4th 1817, by Lieutenant-Governor John Taylor. He married Deborah Armstrong McLean at Benton Centre, then Ontario County, N.Y., January 24th 1815. Her father was a Scotch-Irishman, born at Antrim, county Antrim, Ireland, about 1748; who, leaving his widowed mother, Elizabeth Fleming McLean, and a sister, came to America, landing at the city of Philadelphia, after a three months' voyage, in the year 1775. His intention was to see the country, and, if satisfied with it, return the following year and bring his mother and sister; but the embargo on commercial intercourse between the two countries, ensuing on the opening of hostilities that intervened, prevented; and, with that instinct that usually arrays Irishmen against the British government--which influenced many prominent men of that nation, residents in this country at that period, for which a lasting gratitude should be due--he joined the patriot forces as a private. He served three years, enduring much hardship and passing through the battles of Long Island, White Plains and Brandywine, the encampments of Valley Forge and White Marsh, the battles of Germantown, Trenton and Monmouth, and was present at the execution of Major Andre, at Tappan. At the close of his service he married Sarah Armstrong, daughter of James Armstrong, likewise of Scotch-Irish descent, but early settled in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania. His first place of residence after marriage was at Mifflin, on the Juniata River, where five children were born--James, William, John, Alexander, and Elizabeth. In 1796 the family removed to Geneva, N.Y., the house hold effects and a part of the family ascending the Susquehanna in a bateau while the farm stock was driven by the way of Williamsport and the Williamson road. Settlement was first made at the Castle farm, three miles from Geneva, where was born Red Jacket, the celebrated Indian chief of the Seneca tribe. Here George McLean and his sister Deborah were born. Subsequently the family moved to Benton Centre, three miles from West Dresden and one and a half miles west of Seneca Lake, and settled on a farm purchased of the Pulteney estate. Here John McLean died August 9th 1841, aged 93 years; and Sarah, his wife, September 8th 1841, aged 88 years; and their remains now lie in the Dresden Cemetery, which overlooks the lake.
December 7th 1820 Captain Goodrich bought of Uriah Spencer, as agent for Judge Charles Huston, Centre County, Pa., 49 acres and 14 perches of land out of the Robert Morris tract, now included in the farm of B.C. Wickham; also, August 21st 1826, of his nephew, Issachar Goodrich, son of Timothy, a tract comprising about 40 acres, extending from the river to the aforesaid B.C. Wickham tract, south of Wellsboro Street, and north of Ambrose Millard's farm, including the tavern stand and the site of a good portion of Tioga village, also, March 2nd 1832, of William Willard Jr., lots 6, 9, 11 and 13, and the east half of lot 7, as numbered on the town plot of Tioga; also, September 27th 1831, one-fourth of an acre from Theodore Worthington, which is now occupied by the Episcopal Church; also, July 1st 1833, of William Willard Jr., a triangular lot lying north of Wellsboro Street and east of the Cove, containing an acre; also, February 18th 1839, of James Squires, lot No. 69 of the town plot, east of the above lot No. 68, both of which are now occupied by the tannery of O.B. Lowell & Co.; also, in 1845, the "Streeter tract" of timbered land, 421 acres, including a mill and mill privileges, now the site of Hammond Station and the Hammond farm; and also, in 1859, the "Colony house and lot," now the property of Dr. Thomas.
Captain Goodrich was appointed postmaster at Tioga May 31st 12821, and continued in the office until succeeded by Uriah Spencer, July 1st 1835; he was also deputy postmaster under A.C. Bush three or four years. He was elected county commissioner for three years, commencing November 1st 1825 and ending at the same time in 1828. It was during his term that the first bridges were built over the river, north of the village, and over the creek by the "dead waters," or near the mouth of the Elkhorn, contracts being made at his house for the same, respectively June 10th and August 19th 1826. He built the rear portion of the "Wickham house" in 1821, and the front or main part, as it is now, in 1841. He kept the old public house, or "Goodrich stand," with intervals of residence on his farm and the Streeter place, from the spring of 1819 up to 1859, it being occupied by others in the meantime about ten years. On his repurchase of it in 1848 he much enlarged and improved it. The house was included in the general conflagration of the 9th of February 1871, and the site of it is now the vacant lot lying between the Wickham block and the residence of John W. Guernsey.
James Goodrich died March 22nd 1879, and his wife Deborah A., born August 15th 1797, died January 26th 1868. Their son James Jr., born November 9th 1822, died May 14 1869. All are buried in lot 10, section A, Evergreen Cemetery. A son John Joseph was born October 10th 1828, died November 18th 1829, and was buried in the northwest corner of a lot two rods square reserved by Captain James Goodrich in his gift of the old cemetery ground to the supervisors of the township. This grave was the first one made in said cemetery.
The children of James and Deborah Goodrich are, in order of birth: William Augustus, born July 31st 1816, and Edwin Constant May 6th 1818, both in the town of Painted Post, Steuben County, N.Y.; Sarah Eliza, born April 27th 1820; James Jr., November 9th 1822; Henry Harrison, February 28th 1825; John Joseph, October 10th 1828; Harriet Patterson, February 1st 1831; John McLean, December 26th 1833; and Ellen Augusta, June 24th 1840.
Of these, Edwin married Margaret Prutsman, May 28th 1850; Eliza married Colonel James P. Magill, of Philadelphia, December 4th 1845; Harriet married Daniel Watts, November 5th 1855; and John McLean married Harriet Barber, May 8th 1855.
So far in this historical sketch it has been the purpose of the writer to give as faithful a record of the genealogy of the early settlers of Tioga Township, and their immediate descendants as it has been practicable for him to obtain. He has been careful and quite extended in this respect, covering a period of thirty years--from 1790 to 1820--bringing to the attention of the present generation names that were fast passing out of recollection, and which properly belong to the filed of historical inquiry and research, while the genealogy of the present generation is within their own possession or immediate reach, at least from the latter date down to the present time. He has already included in his pioneer and primitive sketch the names of no less than four hundred persons; and he has done this that there might be a more enduring record of the dead, and of the living who have come properly within the range of this historical sketch, than it is possible for monuments of either brass or stone to give.
CHIEF SETTLERS BETWEEN 1820 AND 1830.
Dr. Pliny Power came and settled for a time with his brother Dr. Simeon Power, both of whom were early settlers in Lawrence Township; Simeon, who had been Sheriff of the county from his election in the fall of 1815 up to January 1st 1819, settling some three years subsequently on the Benajah Ives or John Prutsman place, Tioga, then removing again to Lawrence. Simeon I. Power, Sheriff in 1859-61, was born at Tioga in 1820, during this residence of his father's family here. Dr. Pliny Power married Brittania Gordon, and was resident physician at Tioga up to about 1835, when he removed to Detroit, Mich.; he was at one time a member of the Legislature of that State. Following him in the order of settlement at Tioga, as near as can now be stated, were Henry Van Wey, lumberman and farmer; Elder Amos Mansfield, an occasional preacher, and a farmer, who subsequently moved to Rutland Township; Jesse Keeney Sr., a wagon-maker, and several sons and daughters; widow Daniels and her three sons and daughters; widow Daniels and her three sons James, Harry and Solomon; Joseph Brown, William Patrick, Phineas Stevens, Clement Slate, Clement Couch, Silas Campbell, lumbermen and farmers; Levi and Joseph W. Guernsey, lumbermen and farmers; Levi and Joseph W. Guernsey, tanners and curriers, the latter subsequently in partnership with Jonah Brewster, his father-in-law, in the store built by them on the site of the Park Hotel; William Garretson; Hobart B. Graves, merchant and distiller; George W. and Rankin Lewis, the latter editor and publisher of the Tioga Pioneer; Eugene Cushman, Elijah Stiles and Christopher Charles, merchants; Dr. Thomas T. Huston, resident physician until about 1835, and brother of Judge Charles Huston, of the supreme bench; M.T. Leavenworth, attorney and counsellor at law, admitted to practice in our courts May 17th 1826; Rev. Elisha Booth, an occasional preacher of the Baptist persuasion, and successor to Lewis brothers in the publication of the Pioneer; George Mix, George A. Gardner and Mr. Pickard, school teacher, the latter marrying a Miss Lamb, sister to William Willard Jr.'s wife; George Daniels and Charles Fish, shoemakers; Dean Dutton and Joseph Aiken, farmers; Dr. H. Roberts, at the hotel of James Goodrich, in 1826; Jacob Schieffelin Sr., who removed from New York City to Charleston Township in 1828, and subsequently to Tioga; and George March, residing on Wellsboro Street.
THE KEENEY FAMILY .--Jesse Keeney, one of the foregoing settlers, who has left numerous descendants, living both in Tioga and Middlebury townships, was born September 28th 1778, in Litchfield County, Conn.; removed with his father's family to the east or north branch of the Susquehanna; thence to Chemung Township, Montgomery (now Chemung) County, N.Y.; thence to Truxton, Cortland County, and finally, in 1823 or 1824, to Tioga, accompanied first b his eldest son, Elias, and three years subsequently joined by his family. His father, Thomas, born May 21st 1751, was a Connecticut settler; removed his family to the east branch of the Susquehanna River prior to the year 1787, and settled near the mouth of Mehoopany Creek. He was one of the fifteen or eighteen persons concerned in the abduction of Colonel Timothy Pickering, prothonotary of Luzerne County, on the night of the 26th of June 1788, from his residence in Wilkes-Barre, by a forcible entrance of his dwelling, dressed and painted in the costume of Indians. The Keeney family subsequently removed to Chemung; thence to Fabius, Onondaga County, N.Y. Thomas, the grandfather of the present Keeneys of our county, died at the house of his son-in-law, Richard Mitchell Sr., Tioga, about 1828 or 1830, and was buried in the Mitchell graveyard, but was removed a few years since to Chemung, and there re-buried beside his wife, who had died subsequent to him at the house of their daughter, Mrs. Palmer.
Jesse Keeney the son came to Tioga in 1823 or 1824, and built the wagon shop afterward remodeled into the dwelling house of William Garretson as it at present appears. He here carried on his trade of wagon making several years; then removed to Mill Creek, and built the saw-mill near the site of George Ellis's farm house; thence at a later period to the old Lyman Adams farm, and finally to a house near the mouth of Mill Creek and west of the Williamson road.
Jesse Keeney Sr. was born at Litchfield, Conn., September 28th 1778, and died at Tioga, June 28th 1834; his wife--Caroline Middaugh, sister of John Middaugh--was born September 13th 1781, and died at the residence of her daughter Mrs. Brady, August 13th 1848, and both she and her husband are buried in the Mill Creek or Guernsey Cemetery. They had children: Elias; Sally Ann, wife of George Daniels; Thomas; Parmelia, wife of Erastus Hill, Waverly; Abram S., born July 11th 1811, married, first, Anna Matilda Mudge, and afterward Sarah Matilda Crandall (sister to Charles Crandall, inventor of the "Crandall blocks"); Jesse M., born September 9th 1813, died January 6th 1882; Catharine, wife of Delinas Walker, both deceased; Mercy, widow of Clinton Brady; Richard, Marsh Creek; George D., Keeneyville; and Ruby, wife of Charles Wilcox. Abram S., who now resides in the village of Tioga, joined the Baptist Church in 1831, under the ministry of Elder Sheardown, at the same time that Mary and Almira De Pui joined, and has been deacon of the church about 40 years. Jesse M. Keeney married Mary Ann Fellows, of Sullivan Township, and he there joined the Methodist Church, of which he was class leader many years, and up to the time of his death. Thomas Keeney Jr., who lived at Mitchelltown in 1816, and joined in the organization of the Baptist church there, subsequently moving to Middlebury, was a brother of Jesse Sr.
WILLIAM GARRETSON.--No person who has ever lived in Tioga, peculiar and singular as the man was in many respects, ever left so strong a remembrance of his individually and character as William Garretson. No stranger who ever came to the village temporarily, either on business or for observation, and staid sufficiently long to make the acquaintance of its citizens, including William Garretson, went away from it with a stronger and more vivid impression of any individual in it than of the "old 'squire," or "quaint philosopher," as he was termed by friend and stranger in his more advanced years. It is probable, had Mr. Garretson lived in Concord, he would have been in intimate fellowship with Emerson, Alcott and Thoreau, and been a member of their school of philosophy; but as it was, in the place where he lived so many years, his school was specially his own, in which he could only be regarded as a tutor, with never any associates; except, perhaps, for a short period Hiram K. Hill, the village school teacher, during the time when Fourierism flourished--chiefly through the influence of the New York Tribune. This Hiram K. Hill subsequently established the short lived Fourier society at Gaines, this county.
William Garretson was born at Mount Pleasant, Jefferson County, Ohio, October 13th 1801, of Quaker parentage, his mother being a descendant of the Bright family of England, and his grandfather a native of Holland. His elementary education was obtained in his native place, and in his 19th year, filled with a spirit of adventure common to one of that age and to the then frontier country in which he was born, he engaged himself as a hand on an ark loaded with produce for the New Orleans market, and floated down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers to that city. Remaining there but a short time he proceeded to Mobile, where he made the acquaintance of Moses Austin, subsequently commodore of the Texan navy and president of that republic. Coming north through Georgia and the Carolinas he at length arrived at Alexandria, Va., where he taught school for a season in the year 1820. Thence he went to Lewisburg, York County, PA., where he studied medicine with Dr. Webster Lewis, and also law, probably with Ellis Lewis, brother of Dr. Lewis, remaining there from the fall of 1821 to the summer of 1825. In September of the latter year he settled at Wellsboro, as also did Ellis Lewis, either at the same time or nearly contemporaneously, each establishing himself as a practicing attorney and counsellor at the bar, Mr. Garretson's office being in the prothonotary's office, and Ellis Lewis's one door west of the commissioner's office, on Main Street. Here Mr. Garretson remained in practice until February 1827, when he removed to Tioga, or "Williamsburg," as it was then more generally termed. His old friend Ellis Lewis, receiving about the same time the appointment of deputy district attorney of Lycoming County, removed to Williamsport, where in time he received the appointment of attorney general of the State, January 29th 1833; was elected associate judge of the supreme court in the fall of 1851, and became chief justice of that court January 5th 1855.
Mr. Garretson was admitted to practice at the several courts of Tioga County September 13th 1825; in the district court of the United States for the western district of Pennsylvania October 3rd 1831; in the supreme court of Pennsylvania for the middle district, at Sunbury, June 20th 1832. In the spring of 1826 he was elected second lieutenant of the Wellsboro artillery, and commissioned by Governor Schultz for said office the 8th of May of the same year, his term of office to expire August 31st 1828. He was appointed by the brigadier-general of the second brigade ninth division of Pennsylvania militia his aide-de-camp, and commissioned as such by Governor Schultz August 3rd 1828, to serve until August 3rd 1835. The 8th day of March 1831 he was appointed and commissioned by Governor George Wolf justice of the peace for district number four, composed of the township of Tioga and part of Lawrence, to hold continuously during good behavior. Under the constitution of 1837-8 he was elected a justice of the peace for Tioga Township, February 27th 1853; again March 3rd 1860; and for the borough of Tioga February 4th 1863. On the second Tuesday of October 1836 he was elected by Tioga County alone a representative in the Legislature for two years, during which team he made a speech on the free school system. He was elected county auditor on the 8th of October 1839, for three years. On the 14th of October 1862 he was elected county surveyor, an office which he declined, and E.P. Deane was appointed in his place. He was a member of the Masonic and Odd Fellows' orders and of the Sons of Temperance association, being appointed G.W.P. of the latter association for the subordinate divisions of Lawrence, Tioga and Covington February 1st 1856.
When Elder Elisha Booth succeeded Rankin Lewis & Co. In the publication of the Tioga Pioneer, and changed its name to the Northern Banner, Mr. Garretson as editor aided Mr. Booth in its publication, about 1829 and 1830. In 1844-46 Mr. Garretson and family resided in Wellsboro, and he had for a time in 1845 and 1846 editorial charge of the Tioga Herald, a Whig organ, and wrote for it the then customary "Carrier's Address" for January 1st 1846, in which he refers to the famine in Ireland, and criticizes with considerable severity the Federal administration, and the attitude of the south on the slavery question. Up to that time he had always been strongly Democratic, yet he early drifted into the anti-slavery party, and supported it up to the time of his death. As a memento of his early attachment to the Democratic party we give the following toast, proposed by him at the Fourth of July dinner in 1826, at the house of James Kimball, Wellsboro: "The next president--May he be made of Hickory, or anything rather than Clay."
As an evidence of his equally early sympathy for "the bondman of the south," he gives in the January and February numbers of the Agitator for 1868 a detailed account, first, of his participation in procuring, through a letter handed him from his old medical preceptor, Dr. Webster Lewis, employment for four fugitive slaves in the fall of 1828: secondly, of being counsellor for two of them who had been captured by their masters on writs issued by associate Judge Ira Kilbourn, of Lawrenceville, in March 1829; and thirdly, of being one of the nine defendants (including Almon Allen and Samuel Hunt, of Mansfield; William Garretson, H.B. Graves and Groves Gordon, of Tioga; Dr. O.F. Bundy, of Wellsboro, and John Barnes Jr., Joseph McCormick and Anson Phinney, of Lawrence) placed on trial for the rescue of the said slaves, at the summer term of the U.S. district court at Williamsport, in 1832, resulting in the final release of himself and all the defendants, at a cost to the prosecutors of not less than $3,000. The article is exceedingly interesting, as portraying the dangers of slave hunting and slave rescue in times which happily no longer exist in our Union.
In 1860 and 1861 Mr. Garretson held a clerkship in the treasury department at Harrisburg; and in 1869 was appointed law clerk in the department of internal revenue at Washington, D.C., a position which he occupied at the time of his death, which occurred December 21st 1872. Here his services and ability were so much appreciated that he was twice promoted, and was about to receive a third promotion with much increased salary at the time of his death. Resolutions commemorative of the deceased were adopted by the officers and clerks of the internal revenue bureau, including the following:
Resolved, That in this event we recognize a loss, not only to those immediately associated with the deceased in daily labor, to whom the amiability of his character and the intimacy of long association have endeared him, but to the bureau with which he was connected, and to the community of which he was a valued and esteemed member; a loss of one who literary attainments, mature judgment, quick sympathies and large benevolence inspired high respect and distinguished him in the society in which he moved.
His old and esteemed friend Mr. Cobb, the original proprietor and editor of the Wellsboro Agitator, but then as now cashier of the United States mine at Philadelphia, on the same day of Mr. Garretson's death wrote to his old home a letter characteristic of his able pen, in which he draws an admirable portraiture of the superior character, intellect and virtues of the deceased, and in which he says: "To me he was what the stars were to the shepherds of Chaldea--a light discoursing eloquently of the Great Light of the universe. He saw clearly in advance of very many men whose patient search into hidden things has given them to fame. He was an educator, and in his sphere wielded more influence than he knew. Unready of speech as he was, he never spoke that men did not acknowledge that he was master of his theme."
On the 27th day of the same month, the court of common pleas of Tioga County being then in session, the announcement of Mr. Garretson's decease was formally made to the court by F.E. Smith, whereupon Hon. Henry Sherwood and John W. Guernsey were appointed a committee to prepare and report resolutions suitable to the sad event; which were accordingly so made, and a committee appointed to present them to his family.
Mr. Garretson was extremely social in his character, and as companionable to the young as to the old. He was an inveterate reader, both of books and newspapers, so much so that his profession suffered for the want of closer attention, and this was an obstacle to his business success. Had his aspirations and ambition been equal to his abilities the respect and esteem in which he was held by the citizens of his own county would have gained him eminence either in Congress or on the bench. For the latter position his logical and reflective mind, his thorough knowledge of elementary law, and withal his strong and instinctive perception of right and wrong, would have made his elevation to it eminently proper. But while others sought and aspired for it he seemed content to walk in an humbler and less responsible sphere; and who will say that his choice was not wiser and nobler, allying him nearer to the antique mould of philosophers, who, disdaining wealth, ostentatious pride and display, were content if the simple wants of nature were supplied, and they had leisure afforded them to gain knowledge and wisdom from a more intimate study of nature and themselves?
Mr. Garretson was the chief educator of his own children, and, excepting two of them who died early, they have grown up and are engaged in useful and honorable occupation. He was married in 1836 to Miss Emily Caulking, of Tioga, who is still living, and is residing with her son William in Brooklyn, N.Y. They had children (who are still living): Henrietta Bright Garretson, wife of Episcopal clergyman, and resident at Walla Walla, W.T.; Emily M. Garretson, wife of Mr. Ransdell, recorder of the District of Columbia, and long the Tribune agent at Washington; William C., merchant, a resident of Brooklyn, N.Y.; Hiram F., lawyer, a resident of Victor, Iowa; Addie Knox, married a resident of Grant City Mo.; Stella B, single, a resident of Walla Walla, W.T. There were two children, Ellis Lewis and Emily, who both died young and are buried in the old cemetery.
Mr. Garretson's funeral services and burial took place at Tioga, during a severe snow storm, on the 26th of December 1872, many citizens from Wellsboro attending. His remains lie in lot 2, section B, Evergreen Cemetery.
BETWEEN THE YEARS 1830 AND 1840
the following persons settled at Tioga:
The Bush brothers came in June and John W. Guernsey in October 1831; John W. Maynard and N.H. Higgins about the same time, and B.C. Wickham the following year. Joseph Fish, shoemaker, came in March 1831; settled first near the old Fish saw-mill, below the mouth of the Elkhorn, but moved to the corner of Walnut and Cowanesque Streets two years after, and there established his shop and a small tannery, which he conducted until he built a fine shoe store on Main Street, and moved into the J.B. Steele house about 1860. He was born March 11th 1809; has been justice of the peace of the borough two full terms, and entered on his third term April 9th 1881. Martin Lowell and William Lowell--the latter the father of O.B. Lowell, who was born in the village of Tioga--and Daniel A. Lowell and his wife Mary A. (father and mother of the former two), together with aunt Abigail Preston, came about 1832, as did Thomas and Herbert Hollis, all of whom were hatters, and erected for their business the main building now occupied by Paul Kraiss' cabinet shop. Josiah and Alvah Wright, Henry Messereau and Jacob and Colonel Horace S. Johnston, lumbermen from Chenango County, N.Y.--from whence also came the Lowells and Hollises--came in 1832 and 1833. Henry H. Potter, public house keeper, removed from the public house at Lawrenceville to the old Dr. Willard stand at Tioga about 1830. A.D. Cole, wagon maker; J.B. Shurtleff, printer and editor of the Tioga Gazette; Barney Roberts and William Mirch, blacksmiths, and Daniel Platt settled here at the same period; also Nelson and Robert Andrus, who established a foundry on ground in the rear of Kraiss' cabinet shop, James A. and William Hathaway, shoemakers, who built a shop on ground a little west of James Field's store, arrived in 1834. Hiram Babcock, carpenter; Mr. Vaillant, from Philadelphia, silversmith (who built the present Rachel Prutsman house); Hiram Pickering, carpenter and joiner, born in New Hope, Pike County, Pa., and brother to Daniel F. Pickering, long postmaster of Elmira and member of the Legislature for Chemung County, Dr. Cyrus Pratt, editor and proprietor of the Tioga Banner, all came about 1835. E.W. Derow, from Lancaster, Pa., a harness maker and subsequently partner of William Willard Jr. in mercantile business; Butler Smith, father of Lyman H. Smith, firs: a merchant in partnership with John C. Knox in the old H.B. graves store (on the site of the Episcopal Church), and subsequently proprietor and landlord of the old Willard stand; John C. Knox; Mr. Andrus, husband of Mrs. Andrus the school teacher; Ichabod Davis, from Rhode Island, who owned the Mrs. Hance place and followed gardening, and his son Joseph, a cabinet maker, all settled here about 1836. Thomas Hance, a farmer; Dr. F.H. White, now of Rutland Township and aged about 85 years, and Daniel S. Craig, tailor, came here in 1837. Dr. Abel Humphrey, still a resident physician of Tioga, and a special mail agent from the spring of 1861 to the spring of 1869, came in 1838; Henry Ford, tailor, and Lorenzo Ford, harness-maker, some time previous to 1838; Dr. Joseph McConnell, Mr. Rodgers, silversmith, and Frank and Benjamin Carey, tailors, about 1840; Carpenter H. and Andrew Place, shoemakers, as early as 1835; Hiram K. Hill and E.W. Hazard, school teachers, in 1839; and William, George, Arvine, Israel and Gurdin Mann at the same time.
Tioga Township & Borough Part One
-- Part Two -- Part Three
-- Part Four