Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice 1885 Seven Counties History - Bradford County PA

1907 Postcard of East Smithfield  contributed by Creig Crippen

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Smithfield township was one of the original townships in the county.  It is situated west of the Susquehanna river, and west of the township of Ulster, upon rolling lands, which have been brought to a high state of cultivation.  Beautiful farms and farm buildings are seen in every portion of the town, with herds of cattle grazing in sweet and luxuriant pastures.  It is bounded on the north by Athens and Ridgeberry; on the east by Ulster; on the south by Burlington and West Burlington; on the west by Springfield.  The streams of the township are Tom Jack, Brown and Buck creeks.

The early settlers were Isaac Grover, Reuben Mitchell, Abiel Foster, William Baldwin, Ezra Waterman, Zacariah Wheeler, James Satterlee, William Satterlee, Samuel Satterlee, Oliver Hayes, Michael Bird, Timothy Stratton, Samuel Dartt, Jabez Gerould, Phineas Pierce, Joshua Ames, John Pierce, Constant Williams, Solomon Kellogg, Solomon Morse, Nehemiah Tracy, John Bassett, Noah Ford, Elias Needham, Alvin Stocking, S. Stocking, Alpheus Holcomb, Samuel Wood, Ashel Scott, John Scott, Major Jared Phelps, Isaac Ames, Sloan Kingsley, John Phelps, David Titus, Abner O. Ormsbee, Zephania Ames, Isaiah Kingsley, Austin Kellogg, Chancey Kellogg, Luman Kellogg, David Forest, Stephen Wilcox, Rufus Halsey, Abner Thomas, Asa Hackett, Asa Farnsworth, William Farnsworth, Stephen Califf, Seth Gates, Daniel Forest, Tarsus Rose, Benjamin Hale, Joseph Ames, David Durfee, Cyril Fairman, Abraham Jones, Asa Allen, Joel Allen, Cromwell Child, Edward A. Child, Ezra Allen, Daniel Allen, George Tompkinson, Conrad Hartman, Nehemiah Beach.

--Isaiah Grover was the first settler in Smithfield, in 1792.
--The first school was taught by Ephriam Gerould, in 1806.
--Phineas Pierce erected the first saw mill in Smithfield, in 1803.
--The first white child born in the township, was in 1795, Reuben Mitchell’s.
--The first store in the township was opened in 1833, by Lyman Durfee.
--Reuben Mitchell erected the first framed building in 1803, in Smithfield.
--Reuben Mitchell’s child, who died in 1796, was the first death in the township.
--Smithfield was named in honor of David Smith, who owned the township under the Connecticut title.
--The Gerould family held a re-union in Smithfield, September 15, 1874, and over two hundred  relatives were present.
--Solomon Kellogg, an old settler, invented a machine for shearing cloth, which had great influence upon woolen manufactories.
--A Literary Society was organized in 1821, in Smithfield, by Ansel Scott, Buckley Tracey, David Farnsworth, Harry Bird, Darius Bullock.
--A soldier’s monument, commemorative of those who lost their lives in the late rebellion, from Smithfield, has been erected at Smithfield Center.
--Smithfield Lodge, No. 928, I. O. O. F., was instituted January 15, 1876.  First officers, E. G. Durfee, N. G.; J. L. Vincent, V. G.; O. Gerould, Sec.
--Jared Phelps, Nehemiah Tracey, Samuel Kellogg, Samuel Wood, David Forest, were early settlers of Smithfield, and soldiers in the revolutionary war.
--George Tompkinson, an early settler of Smithfield, was a marine in the U. S. Service, in the war of 1812, on the frigate President, under Commodore Rogers.
--Conrad Hartman, an early settler, was a Hessian soldier, under the British, and taken prisoner at Trenton, December 25, 1776.  He became a citizen of the United States.
--Samuel Wood, an early settler of Smithfield, was one of the guards who conveyed Major Andre from North Castle to West Point, when he was under arrest, during the revolutionary war.
--Smithfield Lodge, No. 428, F. A. M., was chartered September 10, 1868.  First officers were . W. Seward, W. M.; J. O. Gerould, S. W.; H. M. Moody, J. W.; W. E. Voorhis, Treasurer.
--The first church edifice in the township, was erected in 1811, by the Congregational society; Rev. John Bascom was the first minister.  Samuel Kellogg, Solomon Morse, Nathan Fellows, Were organized in Rutland Vermont, and came as a church to Smithfield in 1801.

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