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History of Bradford County
One Hundred and Seventy-first P.V.I., in which he served
nineteen months, and was honorably discharged, the war having closed; he
now enjoys a pension. Mr. Ostrander is a general farmer and an enterprising
man of sterling qualities; he is a member of the G.A.R., and politically
is a Republican.
B. J. OVERFIELD, blacksmith, Camptown, was born
in Wyoming county, Pa., September 4, 1859, a son of Benjamin and Lois Ann
(Camp) Overfield. His father was a farmer by occupation, and had a family
of eight children, as follows: Harriet, married to Albert Bunnell, a farmer
of Wyoming county; Jennie, married to John H. Fellows, now mayor of Scranton;
Emma, married to Warren Dunlap, a farmer of Lackawanna county, Pa.; Ida,
married to Winfield S. Lacey, a mechanic working at Pasadena, Cal.; B.
J.; N. E., a blacksmith of Meshoppen, married to Miss Effa Bullard, of
Meshoppen; Nancy M., married to Wallace Baily, a farmer and butcher of
Mansfield, Pa., and Ferris, an engineer in a quarry at Meshoppen. B. J.
Overfield, the subject proper of this sketch, was born and reared on a
farm and educated in the common schools; at the age of twenty he entered
the shop of Charles Newman, of Meshoppen, to learn his trade, and after
eight months spent there he came to Merryall, where he opened a shop for
himself, and remained one year; then removed to Camptown, and for one year
rented his present shop; but in 1883 he purchased it, together with his
residence property. He has a large business, and besides horse shoeing
and general blacksmithing does all kinds of carriage repairing. Mr. Overfield
was united in wedlock, March 15, 1881, at Little Meadows, with Lucettie
S. Billings, a daughter of Samuel Billings, a farmer of Wyalusing, Bradford
Co., Pa., and this union has been blessed with four children; Bennie B.,
born December 19, 1881; Nirum A., born February 8, 1884; Lois A., born
July 19, 1888, and Grace E., born August 1, 1890. Mr. Overfield is a member
of the I.O.O.F., Wyalusing Lodge, No. 503; also of the P. of I., Camptown
Association; in politics he is a Republican. He has always depended on
his own resources, and has been very successful.
HON. EDWARD OVERTON, Jr., Towanda. While this gentleman
is the only living member of the family of that given name, yet, in this
instance, the careers of father and son, and their professional lives,
have been so nearly the same, that it makes it easier to ward off confusion
by continuing the designation of senior and junior, than otherwise. The
name Overton will remain familiar to the future generations of the county
as long as its civic organization lasts. Edward Overton, Sr., was a son
of Thomas Overton, who was buried in Ulster Cemetery in 1836; the family
had immigrated from Clitheroe, Lancashire, England, in 1816, where Edward
Overton, Sr., was born, December 30, 1795. He was educated for the bar,
in London, and had the advantages of the counsel and advice of his uncle,
Giles Blaisdell, an eminent barrister of his day, and commenced the study
of law at the early age of sixteen. As evidence of the difference between
then and now, it may be mentioned that the articles of enrollment of Edward
Overton, Sr., as a student of the law, are recorded in the Kings’ Bench,
with a stamp duty of one hundred pounds sterling
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thereon. The young English lawyer, with his father’s family,
came permanently to America, locating in Wilkes-Barre in 1815, and was
at once examined and soon admitted to practice in the courts.
He opened his office at Athens (or Tioga Point) and after
three years came to Towanda, where he spent the remainder of his life,
and where, for more than half a century, he stood at the head of his profession,
and at one time, in the much litigation growing out of the Connecticut
claims, he was widely known as the foremost lawyer of his day, in that
tremendous arena where many of the most noted jurists of the Commonwealth
had met as legal gladiators. He had identified himself with the Federal
and Whig parties, but eschewed official life entirely, giving his time
and best efforts to his profession, and to those large affairs for the
development and improvement of the country. He organized the Barclay Coal
& Railroad Company, which purchased of the Barclays, of London, 20,000
acres of the coal lands, to reach which the Barclay Railroad was built.
This opened up that heretofore wilderness, and eventually developed the
entire coal interests of Bradford county. Mr. Overton died in Towanda in
1878, widely honored and universally regretted. He had married, in the
year 1818, Eliza, daughter of Henry Clymer, of Philadelphia, and granddaughter
of Hon. George Clymer, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence,
as well as one of the framers of the Constitution of the United States.
They had the following children: Mary, Giles, Blaisdell, Henry Clymer,
Louisa, Francis Clymer, Edward, Jr., and Eliza.
The subject of this sketch, the youngest son, and next
to the youngest child, was born in Towanda, this county, February 4, 1836;
attended the public schools and was graduated in Princeton College, in
1856, when he commenced reading law in the office of Judge Mercur. He received
his attorney license in 1858, and at once opened an office. In 1861 Judge
Mercur, who was county attorney, was elected president Judge, and the county
commissioners thereupon appointed young Overton to fill the vacancy in
the office of attorney. In 1867 he was appointed to the office of register
in bankruptcy, for ten years filling this responsible and busy office with
distinguished eminence, and it is told truthfully by his friends, that
in all the business that came before him, he was in no case reversed by
the superior court. He resigned his office in the bankrupt court when elected
to Congress, in 1876, and at the end of his term was re-elected, serving
four years. His career in the national halls of legislation was one of
distinguished purity and eminence, and as some evidence of this, in Mr.
Blaine’s "Twenty Years in Congress", Col. Overton is one of the five Pennsylvania
Congressmen that he specially mentions. While there is no county in the
Commonwealth that made a more brilliant record than Bradford in the Civil
War, yet there is no name in the county more entitled to prominence and
pre-eminence in our war records than that of Col. Overton.
When the war cloud burst, the young lawyer, was deeply
engaged in the duties of his office of county attorney, but without hesitation
laid down his office and volunteered in the cause of his country, enlisting
for a term of three years, in the Fiftieth P.V.I., and at its organization
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History of Bradford County
was elected mayor. The organization of the regiment was
completed in September, 1861, B. C. Christ, colonel; Thomas Brenholtz,
lieut.-colonel, and Edward Overton, major. No regiment in the war experienced
harder or more field service than the Fiftieth, and it earned its cognomen
of the "Old Reliable." On one occasion, at the battle of South Mountain,
when Gen. Wilcox was sent to for two regiments to go to Gen. Cox who was
severely pressed, he turned to Maj. Overton, in command of the regiment,
and said: "Take the ‘Old Reliable" and go; that is as good as any two regiments,"
and without the saying, the command neither on that nor any other occasion
fell short of the extravagant expectations of them by the generals, under
whose eyes they had met the enemy in the "thirty-eight battles", the modest
history that was inscribed upon its banners at the close of the war, by
order of the Secretary of War. Gen. Wilcox, referring to this circumstance,
under date of October 11, 1883, says: "On this day, September 14 (1862),
Major Overton in command of the regiment, * * was performed the double
feat of changing front under a heavy fire, and checking an incipient panic.
This was done well and gallantly under the cool bravery and good management
of Col. Christ, of the brigade, and Maj. Overton, of the regiment." Col.
Christ was brevetted brigadier general, Lieut. Col. Brenholtz was killed
at Jackson, Miss., on the Big Black River, July 16, 1863, and from that
time Col. Overton was in command of the regiment. A curious error in our
war history should be here reported. In the battle of Nye river, near Spottsylvania,
May 9, 1864, Gen. Christ’s brigade and Col. Overton’s command were exposed,
and certain regiments had been driven in confusion, when Col. Overton,
with five companies, took the responsibility, and charged the advancing
rebels, nearly 3,000 strong, and repulsed and scattered them, making considerable
captures. Gen. Cutcheon, who, by accident, witnessed this remarkable feat,
happened to see Capt. Schwenk, of one of Lieut.-Col. Overton’s companies,
but did not notice the Lieut.-Colonel in command, and reported the charge
as having been made by the captain. Gen. Wilcox, who had incorporated this
error in his report, afterward wrote and corrected it, as far as he well
could. He pronounced it a fine bayonet charge, and said it was the "peculiar
glory of Maj. Overton and his little battalion of the Fiftieth."
Maj. Overton was made lieutenant-colonel, to date from
the death of Col. Brenholtz. The command went West, and was in the Vicksburg
campaign, March 23, 1863. The department reports of the "Old Reliable,"
at the close of their service, being 125 killed, 450 wounded, of whom 150
died; 134 in Southern prisons, of whom 56 died. In all this service Maj.
Overton was but once wounded, and that was at the battle of Antietam, September
17, 1862, where he received a gunshot wound in the leg. Returning to his
home, he resumed at once the active practice of his profession, and as
lawyer and politician has well demonstrated that peace hath her victories
as renowned as war. In 1869 Edward Overton, Jr., and Miss Colette T. Rosseel
were joined in the bands of wedlock; she is a daughter of Rev. Joseph A.
Rosseel, of the Presbyterian Church. This children of this marriage,
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History of Bradford County
in the order of birth, are as follows: F. C. Overton,
Sarah R., John R., and Eliza C. The family are adherents of the Presbyterian
Church.
NELSON OVERTON, farmer and stock-grower, P.O. Wyalusing,
was born in Pike county, Pa., August 18, 1819, a son of Justice and Mary
(Robinson) Overton, the former of whom was born on Long Island , of English
descent. The maternal grandfather, who was a sea captain, was lost at sea.
While the father was a small child, his parents removed from Long Island
to Pike county, Pa. The father, who was a teacher and farmer, removed to
Bradford county in the fall of 1855, and died the same winter, but the
mother survived him several years; they had a family of seven children,
only two of whom are now living, Nelson and Mrs. Mary Stevens, of Standing
Stone. The subject of this memoir had the advantages of a common-school
education, and came to this county when he was nineteen years of age. After
his arrival he contracted for 100 acres of land, which are now owned by
S. S. Butts, began to clear the same and convert the timber into lumber,
for years following lumbering and rafting; then sold and purchased fifty
acres where James Vaughn, Jr., now lives: finally, he located on the place
where he now resides, and proceeded to clear and improve the same; also
purchased land, until he now owns a fine farm of 177 acres. Mr. Overton
was married, August 18, 1846, to Emeline Baker, daughter of Joseph Baker,
a prominent farmer of Bradford county, and to them were born seven children,
viz.: Amanda J. (married to Theodore Coburn); Edward, now a druggist in
Chester (married to Minnie Abbott); Orenzo S. (married to Seba Blakeslee);
Elias, a hardware merchant, of Nebraska (married to Belle Lewis); Lyman
C.; Mary and N. Bernard, living with their father. Mrs. Overton died in
October, 1879. Mr. Overton is a member of the Old-School Baptist Church
of Vaughn Hill; politically he is a Republican, and has filled the various
town offices. He has always depended on his own resources, and been very
successful.
ORENZO STEVENS OVERTON, proprietor of the "Bartlet
House," Wysox, was born March 19, 1850, at Vaughn Hill, this county, a
son of Nelson and Emeline (Baker) Overton, natives of Rhode Island and
Pennsylvania, respectively, and of English origin. The subject of this
memoir, who is the third in a family of seven children, was reared on a
farm, educated in the common school, and began life for himself when twenty-six
years of age, dealing in hay and grain at Wyalusing, and later at Rummerfield,
as agent for Paul Billings & Co., of Tunkhannock, whom he still represents;
he located in his present place of business December 23, 1890, and is a
very popular landlord. Mr. Overton was married, July 3, 1873, to Seba,
daughter of Lyman and Alvina (Magar) Blakeslee, the former a native of
Connecticut, of English origin, the latter a native of New York, of Irish
lineage. Mr. and Mrs. Overton have one child, Maud M., born July 1, 1874.
Mr. Overton is a member of the I.O.O.F. Lodge, at Wyalusing, and of the
Masonic Lodge, at Towanda. Politically he is a Republican.
LYMAN C. OVERTON, farmer and stock-grower, Wyalusing,
was born August 17, 1866, on the old homestead, where his father now lives,
a son of Nelson Overton. He was reared on the farm, educated
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History of Bradford County
in the common schools of Vaughn Hill, and his boyhood
and early manhood were passed in clearing the land, and in farming, with
the exception of one winter spent in Michigan and one in Lycoming county,
Pa. He remained on the old homestead until the spring of 1886; then purchased
and removed to the Vaughn homestead, a beautiful farm of 189 acres, besides
which he owns a small farm of fifty acres, and he has his farm well stocked.
Mr. Overton was married, March 10, 1886, to Carrie L. Archer, daughter
of Thomas Archer, of Pond Hill, and they have two children: Florence E.
and Raymond A. Mr. Overton is a member of White Lilly Lodge, No. 808, I.O.O.F.,
Wyalusing, and has taken all the degrees of the Subordinate Lodge. He is
a Republican in politics, and has filled several of the town offices.
AUGUSTUS OWEN, Canton, is a native of Canton, this
county, born September 26, 1843, a son of Samuel and Adelia (Morse) Owen.
His paternal grandparents were Thomas and Philah (Adams) Owen, native of
Orange county, N.Y., and Sussex county, N.J. His father was born in Orange
county, N.Y., October 5, 1815, the eldest in a family of six children,
of whom five are now living. When he was eighteen years of age he left
Orange county and moved to Rutland township, Tioga Co., Pa., where he resided
until 1838, when he removed to Troy, this county, farmed and lumbered until
1848; then went to Canton, and has resided here since. He was in partnership
with Col. Pomeroy in the stage business, about twelve years, and drove
stage from Elmira to Williamsport, a number of years. The subject of this
sketch, who is the eldest in a family of five children, was reared in Canton,
and received his education in the borough schools; began teaching school,
but soon resigned his position and enlisted February 23, 1864, in Company
B, Fiftieth New York Engineers, and served until the close of the war;
was mustered out at Fort Berry, Virginia, June 27, 1865, returned home
and farmed until he was appointed postmaster at Canton borough, in June,
1885, which office he held until March, 1890. In November, 1890, he accepted
his present position with H. Crawford. He was married, in Canton, September
3, 1868, to Sophia, daughter of J. W. and Jane Van Dyke, natives of Canton
and Lansing, N.Y., respectively; she was the eldest in order of birth in
a family of four children, and was born in Canton township May 1, 1842,
and died June 25, 1888. The family are members of the Presbyterian Church.
To Mr. and Mrs. Owen were born three children as follows: Adelia H., L.
D., and John W. Mr. Owen is a member of the G.A.R., Ingham Post, No. 91;
politically he is a Democrat.
EDWARD OWEN, farmer and stock-grower, Pike township,
P.O. LeRaysville, was born June 14, 1824, in north Wales, a son of Edward
and Ann (Morris) Owen, the former of whom was a miller by trade. They had
a family of seven children, of whom Edward is the eldest. He came to America
in 1835, and settled on the farm now owned by S. M. Williams, in Pike township,
this county. Edward assisted his father in clearing the farm, until the
age of thirty, when he began life for himself. In 1870 he purchased the
"Dick Ashton" farm of 114 acres, where he now resides. He was married,
August 15,
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1854, to Elizabeth, daughter of David and Mary (Pepper)
Hillis, and they have the following children: Mary, born August 15, 1857,
married to Raymond Cobb, a farmer in Tuscarora township; Martha, born August
18, 1859, married to Benton L. Wells, a merchant and policeman, in New
York City. Mr. Owen is a member of the Wesleyan Methodist Church at Jackson
Valley, has been class-leader thirty years, and trustee eighteen years.
Politically he is a Prohibitionist.
KILEON PACKARD, farmer, P.O. Alba, was born in
Canton township, this county, October 7, 1826, a son of Silas and Sally
(Ayers) Packard, native of Pelham, Mass., and Lackawanna county, N.Y.,
respectively. Silas Packard was a cooper and saltmaker by trade, the latter
of which he followed several years in Syracuse, prior to his coming to
Canton township, about the year 1821. Here he worked at the cooper’s trade,
and farmed; he was born in 1796, and died March 19, 1863; his wife died
in 1867, in her sixty-fourth year. The Packards came from England to this
country about two hundred and fifty-two years ago. The grandfather was
a native of Brockton, Mass., and was a soldier in the Revolutionary War;
he died of the cold plague. The subject of this memoir is the second, in
order of birth, in a family of thirteen children, of whom two died in infancy.
He was reared in Canton township, and received a common-school education;
is one of the successful farmer of this county, owning a farm of 200 acres;
he followed the lumber business in Clinton county, Pa., nearly seven years.
In 1884 he purchased the "Packard House," in Canton, which he still owns.
He was married in Burlington, in 1855, to Matilda, daughter of Dr. Henry
and Rebecca (Loper) Riley, natives of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, respectively;
they were early settlers of Lycoming county, Pa., and later in life removed
to this county. Dr. Henry Riley died in 1874, in his seventy-eighth year;
Mrs. Riley died in January, 1890, in her eighty-third year. Mrs. Packard
was the third, in order of birth, in a family of three daughters and one
son, and was born in Burlington township in 1833, and died October 11,
1887. To Mr. and Mrs. Packard were born two daughters: Arvilla (wife of
C. L. Chesley), and Laura L. (who died February 22, 1887, in her twenty-sixth
year). Mr. Packard is a director of the First National Bank of Canton;
politically he is a Republican.
F. T. PAGE, merchant, Athens, is a native of Athens,
and was born January 1, 1842, a son of Thomas and Anna (West) Page, natives
of England, who came to America in a sailing vessel, in 1831, and were
eleven weeks on the water. Thomas was a farmer and died in Athens in 1876,
in his eightieth year; his wife died in 1842, in her fortieth year. F.
T. Page is the youngest of their ten children, and received a public-school
education and clerked in a story for several years. In the spring of 1862
he opened a general store in Athens, and has been actively engaged in business
since. The past fifteen years he has been devoting his time largely to
the wholesale butter trade in connection with his retail grocery trade.
He was married, in Athens, in 1866, to Miss Julia C., daughter of Andrew
W. and Julia A. (Bristol) French, native of New York State; she is the
youngest in a family of four children (daughters) and was born in Milford,
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Conn., in January, 1846. To them were born five children
as follows: Robert F., Walter T., Bertha A., Louis F. and Kenneth A. Mr.
and Mrs. Page are communicants of the Episcopal Church; he enlisted in
the State Militia during the was, but was out only a short time; is a member
of the G. A. R., Perkins Post, No. 202; also a member of the F & A.M.,
Rural Amity Lodge, No. 70; has served two terms as burgess, four as school
director, and several years as member of the borough council, and in politics
he is a Republican.
CHARLES PALMER, locomotive engineer, G.I.&
S.R.R., residence, Sayre, is a native of Easton, Pa., and was born January
3, 1853, a son of John and Jennie Palmer. His father was a liveryman, and
died in Easton, in 1859, his mother died in 1861. Charles was the second
child in a family of four, and was reared in Easton, and received his education
in the city schools. At the age of sixteen he was employed as brakeman
on the Jersey Central Railroad, as which occupation he continued five years,
and was a fireman on the same line about two years, and then came to Sayre,
August 8, 1878, and went on the G.I.&S.R.R. as a fireman, and was promoted
to engineer, May 3, 1881, and has been running that line since. He married,
in Easton, Pa., August 24, 1875, Miss Sarah, daughter of Patrick and Sarah
(Burns) McCloskey, natives of County Carlow, Ireland. Patrick McCloskey
died in Wilkes-Barre, in 1888, in his sixty-seventh year. Mrs. Palmer is
the sixth in a family of eight children, and was born in Port Carbon, Pa.,
July 23, 1857. To them have been born six children, as follows: Anna, Belle
(deceased), Mary, Ella, Sadie, and Harry (deceased). Mrs. Palmer is a member
of the Roman Catholic Church. Mr. Palmer is a member of the Brotherhood
of Locomotive Engineers, Division No. 380, and in politics affiliates with
the Republicans.
R. R. PALMER, farmer, P.O. LeRoy, was born in Troy,
Bradford county, Pa., January 8, 1822, a son of Russell and Sylvia (Case)
Palmer, native of Vermont and New Hampshire, respectively. Russell Palmer
was a son of Jareb and Esther (Rice) Palmer, who removed to this county
about 1775, locating at what is now Alba, then a dense wilderness. Jareb
was the father of eleven children – seven sons and four daughters – ten
of whom came to maturity. R. R. Palmer, who is the fourth in the family,
was educated in his native township. At the age of twenty-eight, October
11, 1849, he married Diantha, daughter of Perly and Lucy (Morse), of LeRoy,
a descendant of Jess Morse, one of the old settlers of the township. By
this marriage there were four children, three of whom are living: Alice,
married to John Jenkins; E. R., married to Christine, daughter of G. L.
Ross. Mr. Palmer is a well-to-do farmer, living on the high lands north
of LeRoy; his farm is well stocked with a fine breed of Jerseys. In politics
he is a Republican.
BENJAMIN PARK, farmer, of Litchfield township,
P.O. Waverly, N.Y., was born January 12, 1820, son of Daniel and Pattie
Park, the former of whom was a native of this country, a son of Thomas
Park, an Englishman by birth, who came to this country in its early settlement,
making his home in Wyoming Valley, from which place he
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History of Bradford County
removed to Litchfield township, about two years after
the massacre; this old pioneer took up 400 acres of land, located on and
near the banks of the Susquehanna river, building his house on the dividing
line between the States of New York and Pennsylvania. He was a soldier
in the Revolutionary War, and served under Washington; was also conspicuous
under Sullivan, in driving the Indians from his own settlement back to
the Niagara, after which he settled in peace, and became a prosperous farmer.
Daniel Park was married twice, and had fifteen children (eleven by the
first marriage, and four by the latter), thirteen of whom reached maturity,
Benjamin, the subject of these lines, being the eighth member. He was educated
at the common school, and in early life was extensively engaged in lumbering,
often piloting his own rafts down the river. He married, February 26, 1845,
in his native town, from which he never moved, Mary, daughter of John O.
and Mary Shackelton, of English and German descent. Their family consists
of: Dell, born February 15, 1847; Dunham, born August 18, 1859; Sumner,
born August 9, 1864; Mercur, born September 10, 1868. Dell married E. L.
Walker, a wealthy farmer; Dunham married Catherine McKinney, daughter of
Hanson McKinney; Sumner married Olie Marie Heath, daughter of M. R. Heath.
Mr. Park made ample provision for these children, presenting each with
a large and productive farm. In politics he is Independent, and in faith
he is a Universalist.
CHARLES F. PARK, commercial traveler, Standing
Stone township, P.O. Rummerfield, was born in Herrick township, this county,
October 15, 1859. He was educated in the district school of the place,
and attended Towanda Collegiate Institute two years, after which he bought
and sold hay, grain, and all kinds of produce, four years. In 1884 he entered
into partnership with his brother, Elmore, at Rummerfield, under the firm
name of Park Brothers, and continued until 1888, when he withdrew on account
of ill-health. He then took a position on the road, representing Barton
& Whedon, wholesale grocers, of Elmira, remaining with them thirteen
months, and then took a similar position with S. T. Willets & Co.,
of New York, his present employment. He married, in 1884, Ida, the fourth
child in a family of six children of Peter W. and (Loehr) Morey, and of
this union are two children: Morey A., born April 10, 1886, and Annie,
born August 15, 1890. Mr. Park was postmaster at Rummerfield, under President
Cleveland, two years; is a member of Rome Lodge, No. 480, I.O.O.F., and
in politics is a Democrat. Mr. and Mrs. Park attend the Methodist Episcopal
Church, and have a wide circle of pleasant friends and acquaintances. He
built his residence in 1888.
D. F. PARK, dealer in dry goods and groceries,
Athens, is a native of Sheshequin township, this county, born January 6,
1830, a son of Rev. Chester and Lemira (Fish) Park, the former of whom
was a native of Sheshequin, and the latter of Wilkes-Barre. The father
engaged in mercantile trade in Athens about the year 1835, and continued
in business until 1862; he was born in 1802, and died in 1881; grandfather
Rev. Moses Park was one of the first settlers in Athens township, and the
maternal grandfather, Capt. Fish, was a soldier in
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History of Bradford County
