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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania with Biographical SketchesBy H. C. Bradsby, 1891If You Have Photos of People Mentioned on the Page, Send Them In For Inclusion |
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figured with success on the baseball diamond, is now leader of the LeRaysville brass band and, and is master of the cornet.
Israel A. Pierce. The progress as well as development, of any section is largely determined by the number of enterprising, intelligent and progressive citizens who make their home within its boundaries, and such a one is the subject of this brief memoir. Mr. Pierce was born in Rehoboth, Massachusetts, Oct. 3rd, 1820, a son of Israel and Polly (Walker) Pierce. His paternal grandfather, Israel Pierce, who was born in Rehoboth and 1760, came with his wife, Hannah, to Columbia Township, this County, in 1830, and here they passed the remainder of their lives, he dying in 1838 and she in 1839. He served under Gen. Sullivan, in Rhode Island, during the Revolutionary war. Their son Israel father of subject, also a native of Rehoboth, was born in 1787, settled in Columbia Township, in 1831, and engaged in agricultural pursuits. He died in Troy, this County, in 1862; he was a soldier in the war of 1812. To Israel and Polly (Walker) Pierce were born four children, two of whom grew to maturity, Walker and Israel A., of whom the first named was born in 1809, and for many years was a carpenter and builder in Columbia and Troy townships this County, but later in life followed farming; he died in October, 1888, aged seventy-nine years.
Israel Alan Pierce, whose name opens his sketch, was educated in the public schools of Providence and Warren, Rhode Island, and in the common schools of Bradford, in which County he was reared from twelve years of age. He learned a carpenter's trade with his brother, Walker, and work at same until 1851, from which year until 1871 he was engaged in the furniture and undertaking business in Troy. Soon afterward he embarked in the hardware trade, later adding a stock of crockery, and carried on business until he was burned out, in 1884. Having a large clientage in the settlement of estates, Mr. Pierce has, since the date just mentioned, given his attention thereto, as well as to the management of his own affairs. On Aug. 17, 1848, he was married to Harriet G., daughter of Charles and Anne (Parmeter), Burgess, a descendant of an old New England family, of Pilgrim and Puritan stock; the issue of this union was two children: J. Franklin and Frederick Charles (later deceased). J. Franklin was born May 24, 1853, and April 26, 1883, was married to Margaret, daughter of James Shannon, of Troy, this County, and by this union there is one son, Frederick Allen. Mrs. Israel A. Pierce died Feb. 12, 1891, aged sixty-five years. Mr. Pierce is a Democrat in politics, in 1851 he was elected a justice of the peace of Troy, which office he held for fifteen years continuously. He is an attendant of the Episcopal Church, and is one of the best-known and most highly esteemed citizens of Troy.
Noble Willis Pierce, retired farmer, Pike Township, P. O. LeRaysville, was born in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, Sept. 3, 1818. His father, Catlin Pierce, was born in New York, May 11, 1797, the son of Joseph Pierce, also a native of New York, who died in 1804, leaving five children: Betsy (wife of Ira Brister), Benjamin, Catlin, Sally (wife of Alby Bostwick) and Jane whose first husband was B.B.Lewis, and her second, M. Blakesley). Catlin Pierce was educated in this state, his family having moved here in 1804, was a successful farmer, and died Jan. 5, 1861; he was married, Jan. 8, 1817, to Eunice Canfield, daughter of Andrew and Eunice (Fairchild) Canfield (she was sixth in a family of ten children); of this marriage there were ten children: Noble Willis, Commodore Perry, Sarah A. (wife of E T. Billings), Alvira (wife of Harris Beecher), Emalime (wife of O.R. Cogswell), Betsy (wife of William Jones), Joseph, Temperance E. (wife of R. Brister), William and Andrew C. Mrs. Catlin Pierce died Oct. 2, 1872. N. Willis Pierce, the subject of this sketch, was educated in the district school, and learned the trade of wheel-right, following that and farming until 1876, when he rented a house in LeRaysville borough, and kept boarders three years, then returned to the farm until 1886; then kept the LeRaysville hotel one year, and purchased his present home on which he has lived. He is a Republican, and was constable and collector in 1875. Mr. Pierce was married, December 22, 1841, to Harriet L. Hoadley, who died in 1843, and he afterward married, December 29, 1849, Jane A. Weed, daughter of John and Sally (Goodall); she died April 12, 1857, leaving one child, James E., born July 5, 1849, and died in 1878. Mr. Pierce's third wife was Ellen W. Ford, daughter of John and Sally Merritt (she was the third of nine children, seven of whom are living); they have one child, Frank G., born October 14, 1861, at Prattville, Pennsylvania.
Steven Pierce (deceased) was born in Smithfield Township, this county, Aug. 29, 1813, a son of Abiram and Sarah (Satterlee) Pierce, the former a son of Phineas and Ruth (Gaines) Pierce. Phineas was a son of Amos and Mary (Spaulding) Pierce, Amos was a son of Thomas and Mary`(Wyman) Pierce, and Thomas was a son of Thomas, who was a son of Thomas and Elizabeth (Cole) Pierce-Thomas, the son of Thomas and Elizabeth Pierce, and 1633-34 came from England, and settled in Charleston, Massachusetts. Phineas Pierce, the grandfather of our subject, with his family, settled in Springfield Township, this County, in 1800, removing from Poultney, Vermont, and died in 1808. He was twice married; by his first wife, Ruth Gaines, he had eleven children, and by his second wife, Ruth Beebe, he had three children. Abiram, the father of our subject, who was the eighth child and third son by his first wife, was born May 20, 1786, and cleared and improved a farm in Smithfield Township, which he paid for twice, owing to the Connecticut title, and died there, Oct. 17, 1860. On Jan. 8, 1809, he married Sarah, daughter of James Satterlee who was a Colonel in the Revolutionary war, and who settled in Smithfield Township in 1799. The issue of this union was seven children: Christopher E., William S., Steven, Mary (Mrs. John Spaulding), Jane L., (Mrs. John J. Johnson), Amos and Emma (Mrs. Horace Pomeroy). Our subject was reared in Bradford County, educated in the common schools, Clinton Liberal Institute, and a law school. He was admitted to the bar in 1837, and had an office in Troy from that time until 1860, when he removed to Wellsboro, Pennsylvania, where he was in active practice of his profession until 1867; he died Feb. 12, 1868, at the residence of his daughter, Mrs. G. F. Redington, now Mrs. Robert Ayres, of Troy. Mr. Pierce married, Aug. 23, 1838, Mary daughter of John and Rhoda (Pierce) Ranson, of Poultney, Vermont, and by her had four children: Emma J., Rollin A., Clarence W. and John R.; the sons all died of consumption.
Mr. Pierce was possessed of rare natural talent, he was noted for his logical and legal ability, and his word was as good as his bond. He died honored and respected by all who knew him. He was a prominent Mason and Odd Fellow; in religious faith he was a Universalist, in Politics a Democrat, in 1840-41 was a member of the Lower House of the Pennsylvania Legislature. His only daughter and only surviving child, a resident of Troy, is the wife of Capt. Robert Ayres, a native of Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, who from 1855 to 1871 was in the United States Regular Army. He served through the Civil War, and rose from a non-commissioned officer of the United States Engineers to the rank of Capt. of infantry, and was honorably mustered out of service, Jan. 2, 1871.
Theodore Pierce, postmaster, Canton, is a native of Broome County, New York, born October 9, 1839. His parents were Hamilton and Eleanor (Collington) Pierce, natives of Vermont, the former of whom was a farmer and died in Broome County, New York, in 1858, in his fifty-third year; the latter died in 1852, in his forty-fourth year. Theodore Pierce is the fourth in order of birth in a family of five sons and three daughters, of whom six are now living. He was reared in Broome County, and received an academic education; taught one term of school in Lehigh County, Pennsylvania, and then clerk in a store sometime in Whitehaven, same state. In 1864 he joined the Government Construction Corps, and was discharged in June, 1865. Returning to Broome County he farmed a short time, and was postmaster at Centre Village, Broome County, two years; he was also elected a justice of the peace, but in 1869 he resigned his office, and came to Canton, where he engaed in the hardware business, which he has since followed. He was married in Broome County, New York, in 1867, to Melinda Light, who died in 1870. Mr. Pierce was appointed postmaster, and took charge of the office March 10, 1890; he served one term as Burgess of Canton borough; is a member of the of F.& A.M., Canton Lodge, No. 415, and served as master in 1880; Troy Chapter, No. 261, and Canton Commandery, No. 64. He has been treasure of Canton Lodge several years, and is also treasurer Canton Commandery. Politically he is a Republican.
Frank Pike, of Wilcox, Pike & Co., proprietors of meat-market, Sayre, is a native of Owego, New York, and is a son of Horace and Lavania (Norton) Pike, natives of Massachusetts. The father was a farmer and died in 1868, in his sixty-fourth year, while his wife died in Owego, in 1870, in her sixty-fourth year. Our subject is the tenth, in order of birth, in a family of twelve children, and was reared in Owego until he was seven years old, when he was taken to Long Island, where he remained until he was sixteen years of age. He then returned to Owego, and served an apprenticeship at the brick-mason's trade, which he followed about six years, and then clerk for the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company about five years, when he found employment in his present occupation in Waverly, New York, in September, 1887. On Jan. 15, 1891, a new shop was started in Sayre, of which he has charge. He is a member of the I.O.O.F., Manoka Lodge, No. 219, and the Order of Red Man; in politics he casts his vote with the Republicans.
Hon. Victor E. Piollet was born in Wysox, this County, June 24, 1812, and died Aug. 27, 1890, seventy-eight years, three months, and three days intervening between the birth and death of one of the most remarkable man ever given to Bradford County. A son of Joseph M. Poillet, of France, a soldier under Napoleon, who was severely wounded at Austerlitz, by which he was so disabled that he was made postmaster of the Army of the Alps, and retiring from the Army he entered the banking house of the celebrated financier, Talleyrand, of Paris. On the banker's recommendation he was appointed, by Count LeRay du Chaumont, his agent for the sale of his lands in northern Pennsylvania, and accordingly he came to Philadelphia in 1806, stopping their one year to learn the English language. He came direct to Wysox, where he married Elizabeth Whitney, a native of Massachusetts, a lady of rare accomplishments and intelligence. Their children were: Victor E., Francis Teresa, Emily Victorine, Joseph E, and Elizabeth Josephine. The great Carlyle has described the French as a "volcanic people;" and while we all know them as fiery and impulsive, philosophers who laugh, yet the meaning of Carlyle's words are not so readily comprehended in their full by one who has been careless of French history. Victor E. Poillet combined the remarkable qualities of the volcanic French and stern and rigid Puritan, blended and so mixed up in him were these forces that all might stand up and say: "here was a man." And over his grave the fitting words spoken by Rev. Thomas K. Beecher when he said: "Col. Poillet was a character; whatever may have been his faults, follies, virtues and deservings, they were patent. They were his. No one ever called him lukewarm. His words were not whispers. He was a downright man, and all who knew him knew where to find him. We may recall with admiration his strength, his industry, his persistence, his constancy, his earnest prosperity, his pronounced character, his hospitality and his large acquaintance. Yes, we may note the great gap (as a tree falls, and he did not know before it's spreading bigness) left by the fall."
Victor E. Poillet had precious little book education; he needed it not. He was his own school-master, and therefore he had a great teacher, and his rise was as the resistless up-lift of the mountain, either guiding or creating circumstances. A farmer, born and dying on the same acre, he was the greatest champion of the farmers -- the whole people -- that the State has produced. Philosophic in expression, fearless and thought and deed, he despised all cant, and the arts of the demagogue and trimmer he spat upon. His business life, extending over a period of more than half a century, was characterized by that energy and rare ability that are given to but few man. Nature had richly endowed him with her choicest gifts; when but twenty-five years of age, in 1837, he and his brother were the contractors for the work on this section of the North Branch Canal, then under construction by the State. His promise in the execution of the work secured him the favor of the State officials, and being active and influential in the councils of the Democratic Party, in the northern part of the State, upon the election of Gov. David R. Porter, in 1839, he was appointed superintendent of the North Branch Canal, then owned by and operated under the control of the State Government; subsequently he was elected a Col. and the State Militia. The duties of these positions he discharged with unwavering fidelity and signal ability. During his incumbency of the office of superintendent of the Canal, the late David Wilmot, author of the celebrated "Wilmot Proviso," was then a young attorney, just commencing practice in the court to Bradford County. Col. Poillet was allowed, as superintendent, $1000 per annum for clerk hire, and he generously gave the position to Wilmot, and performed the greater portion of the duties himself.
In 1846 he was elected to the House at Harrisburg as a Democrat, and reelected in 1847. The war between United States and Mexico was then in progress, and while a member of the Legislature he was appointed a paymaster in the Army, with a rank of major by President Polk, and assigned to duty with the Army of invasion under General's Taylor and Scott. He immediately arranged his business affairs at home, and departed to enter upon his duties in Mexico. While there he became acquainted with many of the officers in the regular Army, who later, achieve distinction in the Union and Confederate Army's of the late Rebellion, which acquaintance was maintained whenever opportunity presented, during his life. Just prior to his departure for Mexico he was married to Miss Jane Miller, daughter of Hon. Jesse Miller, the then Secretary of the Commonwealth, under Gov. Porter; had been previously a member of the twenty-fourth Congress, and a recognized leader of the Democracy in Central Pennsylvania. This union was a fortunate one, Miss Miller inheriting many of the admirable characteristics of her gifted and distinguished father. She possessed a refined and cultivated taste, combined with those qualities of mind and heart which rendered her beloved and respected by a large circle of friends and acquaintances. The genuine and generous hospitality of Col. Poillet and his wife was unlimited, and was as extensive as his acquaintance. Mrs. Poillet died in March, 1879. The surviving children of Col. Poillet are Emily V., an estimable and accomplished lady, now the wife of R.H. Eagleson, of New York City, and Louis, who for some years has been the active business manager of his father's farm.
In 1855-56, in company with Marcus Blair, of New Jersey, he constructed twenty miles of railroad in that state. In the same year his brother, Joseph E. E., built the Barclay railroad from Towanda to the Barclay mines, a distance of sixteen miles. While at this time he was actively engaged in various enterprises, the political world received a share of attention. A lifelong personal friend of Mr. Buchanan, in his election Col. Poillet performed the most excellent and loyal service on the stump in Pennsylvania. Mr. Buchanan, recognizing the ability of his friend, Col. Poillet, prooffered him the position of private secretary. Being then engaged in business that required his personal attention, he declined to place, but consented to remain a few weeks at the National Capital, and act in the capacity that the President desired him to occupy during his administration. He once informed the author of this sketch that his duties, while he remained at the White House, consisted largely in returning the presents which had been sent the President. While the guest of Mr. Buchanan, one day, at dinner, he was seated opposite the British Minister, with whom he conversed quite freely in regard to the relation of the two countries. The dinner over, the representative of Great Britain inquired of Mr. Buchanan in regard to the profession of Col. Poillet, and was quite astonished when informed that he was a Pennsylvania farmer.
In April, 1861, immediately after President Lincoln's proclamation, calling for 75,000 volunteers to put down the Rebellion, a meeting was called at the courthouse in Towanda, to enlist volunteers to fill the quota of Pennsylvania. Col. Poillet addressed the meeting from the courthouse balcony in a speech, which for eloquence and patriotism, has never been excelled in this County; his words were the strongest appeal to our citizens to stand by the emblem of our nationality, and our free institution; the integrity of the Union, and its indissolubility had no firmer or more loyal advocate and friend than Victor E. Poillet from 1861 to 1865.
In 1864, in June, he represented the Thirteenth Congressional District in the Democratic National Convention, which nominated General McClellan for the Presidency. In the same year he was the Democratic candidate for Congress, in the district composed of Bradford, Sullivan, Montour, Columbia, and Wyoming counties; his opponent was the late Chief Justice Ulysses Mercur. The district was Republican by a majority of one thousand. Of the vote actually cast in the district, Col. Poillet had a majority, but was defeated by the vote declared cast against him by the soldiers in the field. Many of his friends seriously questioned the declared result. He was instrumental and the active agent in the purchase of the North Branch Canal for the Lehigh Valley Railroad Company, and when accomplished was made superintendent of the construction, in 1866, of the railroad extension from Lackawanna Junction to Waverly, New York, the work occupying three years; the first train bearing the President of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, Hon. Asa Packer, its chief officials and hundreds of citizens along the line, passed over the road Sept. 9, 1869. Col. Poillet was the active spirit and formulating this great enterprise and bringing it to the attention of the officials of the "Lehigh Valley."
In 1868 he was made the Democratic candidate for Congress, and was again confronted by his old opponent, Judge Mercur. Party lines were sharply drawn on the issues of the war, viz: the reconstruction of the Southern States, and the impeachment of Andrew Johnson. After an active canvass he was defeated by the insignificant majority of 311 in the largest vote ever cast for Congress, in the Thirteenth District. In 1874 he was elected lecturer of the State Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, and visited every County of the State. Through his efforts the number of organizations and members was greatly increased. He was subsequently honored by being elected to and master and chairman of the executive committee. His interest in the success of the producing classes never wavered, and was untiring. His desire was to educate and elevate all engaged in agricultural pursuits. How Ernest and energetic were his effort can be attested by thousands in his native state. In 1875 he was nominated by the Democratic State Convention for State Treasurer, and canvass Pennsylvania, from Lake Erie to the Delaware, but was defeated by 4000 and the state. In 1886 he was again the leader of the forlorn hope for Congress in a district containing 4000 Republican majority. In the presidential canvass of 1888 he, with Hon. Samuel J. Randall and thousands of other Democrats, refused to support President Cleveland's tariff reform platform, and opposed his election on the ground that the protection was for the best interests of the American people. Victory E. Poillet possess the courage of his convictions, in a canvass, severed his connections with the Democratic Party.
He is passed from "the land of shadows," and peacefully rests in the beautiful Valley of the Susquehanna, made glorious by his efforts more perhaps them by any other man, living or dead.
Joseph E. Poillet, farmer, Wysox, is a son of Hon. Joseph and and Elizabeth (Whitney) Poillet. He was born Aug. 30, 1819, almost on the spot where he now resides, and of him it may be said (and what more need be said of any man) that he is a worthy son of an illustrious father. His father came to this County and 1807, and the first year was at Rummerfield, and then in 1808 remove to Wysox, and was for years merchandising with William Keeler. Joseph M. Poillet died in Wysox, and, 1850, aged seventy-seven. Victory E. and Joseph M. Poillet were more than brothers; they were inseparable companions and partners and all the business affairs of their lives, a close communion without variableness and change, that only parted when the Grim Reaper gathered his harvest, in August, 1890, in the death of the elder brother, and when the two were thus forever separated, the next nearest thing to that continued companionship and communion was to place Victor’s son, Lewis, in the place of his father, and the business went on. Joseph E. Poillet and Esther A. Cox (a daughter of John Cox, of Scotch Irish descent) were united in the holy bonds of wedlock, in Dauphin County, in 1849, and of this union were born four sons and one daughter, of whom, John C. is at home, and is manager of his father's large farm; Heister is a locomotive engineer on the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and resides at Sayre.
The two brothers, Victor and Joseph, engaged largely in railroad building at different times, and constructed many miles of the Lehigh Valley, almost the entire roadbed of the Berkeley railroad. Joseph was president of the Bradford County Agricultural Society, eleven years; he was nominated on the Democratic ticket for the Legislature, but suffered defeat with his ticket, though running largely ahead of it. The brothers were contractors on the old Canal. It is proper to stay here, that while the brothers were Democrats, the younger one eschewed politics and last that almost wholly to his brother, and is one ambition was to be one of the best of the many famous farmers of old Bradford County, and he fully realized his finest expectations in this respect. Of his brothers and sisters, other than Victor E., is proper here to say that his sister Francis T. married Alexander Dewing (she is now a widow and a resident of Wysox); her children are two sons and three daughters (her eldest daughter married the eminent Dr. Mitchell); Elizabeth, youngest daughter of Joseph M. Poillet, married and D. C. Salsbury, and died at the aged twenty-two, leaving one child.
To the outside public these two companion and partner brothers lives ran in very different grooves, but it was not so. The one simply was indifferent to all except the vast business affairs and his quiet Home; this was merely responsive to his nature, the conservatism of his born characteristics, and they were best known and best, or perhaps only fully, appreciated by that brother and partner. His long and useful life is gently closing, and brings to him the cheering consolation that it has been a true life, and is rounded out with those features that will make it a study and subject of fond respect by a remote posterity.
John Poillet, farmer, of Wysox Township, is a descendant of one of the most illustrious families of Bradford, a people and eminent for their progressive enterprise, as well as for their convictions, they command universal attention and respect. He was born May 22, 1859, and is the only son of Col. Victor E. Poillet. His sister, Emily V., first married Robert A. Packer, known throughout the Country in connection with the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and whose splendid residence is now than noted Robert A. Packer Hospital, Sayre; he died when he young man, and she afterward married Richard H. Eggleston, cashier of Lincoln National Bank, New York, and of which they are residents. She is the only surviving child of Col. Victor E. Poillet.
The childhood life of young Poillet was surrounded with the unusual advantages that came with great wealth, and one of the most intelligent and interesting families of the Commonwealth. And his mother's knee he imbibed his first lessons of life, impress, as they were, every hour and minute of his childhood, by the stronger will and nearly equal deep affection of a father of rare intelligence and gentle blood. When he was old enough, his parents provided a private tutor, both a teacher and companion, who guided his footsteps along the intricate paths of that higher and better education, including the sciences and the classics. Thus he came, in tender years, in touch with only the best influences, and the lad was responsive to all his parental care and solitude that their fond hearts could bestow. His home education completed, the textbooks had been successfully passed, when his parents send him to polish the whole with travel, both in this country and in Europe. His companionship in his travels was, most fortunately, part of the time with Robert A. Packer, with whom he visited most of the noted spots in Europe, many parts of this country, especially Florida, and Mr. Packer's cottage by the sea, and at the National Democratic Convention, St. Louis, in 1876, that nominated Governor Samuel J. Tilden for President. Thus, by travel and by circumstances, he was thrown in contact with many of the most noted man of the day, both in this country and in the Old World. When he returned to his old home, he began at once to relieve his father of some of the vast business cares that were well and bravely met, and in a short time, when he demonstrated his ability he was more and more interested, until soon the declining years of his father were suits with a glowing satisfaction that both his confidence and hope were well placed. Thus and then only may the young, in part, repay the solicitous love and care of fond parents. The young man soon mastered affairs, and carried along successfully the enterprises that had been so well placed on their foundations by his sire. The great farm, and its interests in many sided concerns, were being moved ever forward by the young man. At the same time he was not allowing his literary tastes to rust or spoil, and he gave careful attention to the great economic questions on government, and, young as he was, in 1890 he canvassed the entire State in behalf of the grand and the old Republican Party, many laurels were often old veterans of the stump had failed to catch the public favor.
The young man had hardly passed his "teens" when he stood at the head of the noted farmers of the grand old Commonwealth; and hardly had he passed his majority before his eloquence and with them were sought, and not in vain, in the more important counsels of his party-a party in Bradford County they can boast of its Wilmot, its Graw, and its Mercur. Thus, as intimidated above, as child, youth, and young man, he was most fortunate in all his surroundings, happily found fallow ground in his young soul, and ready responses have come to every touch. He was married Nov. 29, 1885, to Georgianna Mowery, daughter of Hon. Ezekiel Mowery, a Wyoming County, of English descent. To this marriage were born three children, as follows: Emaline V., Victor E, and Thomas Wierman. The family are members of the Presbyterian church; he is a Master Mason, and a member of Pomona Grange, Patrons of Husbandry, No. 23, of Sullivan and Bradford County's.
Wilton L. Pitcher, blacksmith, P. O. Warren Centre, was born in Jackson Valley, Pennsylvania, March 26, 1861, a son of Joel and Elizabeth (Beeman) Pitcher, natives of this state, and of English stock. The father was a wagon maker by trade, and was born in this County, where he now resides. His family consisted of four children, and our subject, who is the third in order of birth, was reared an educated in Warren Township, and was placed, well quite young, in a blacksmith shop here, where he learned the trade, which he followed with marked success, and his shop in Warren Centre is well known and largely patronized; his residence is one of the elegant buildings in the place, which has many fine residences. He married in his native Township, Feb. 15, 1882, Ella A., daughter of James and Francis (Corson) Tibbetts, natives of Rhode Island and New York, respectively, and of English extraction. His father was a schoolteacher, and died Dec. 12, 1888, age sixty-seven; he was a son of Capt. James Tibbetts, who died July 191879, age ninety-seven years. The widow of James Tibbetts, Jr., survives, and is a resident of Owego, New York. To them were born two children, Seth E. (of Maine) and Ella (wife of the subject). To Mr. and Mrs. Wilton L. pitcher have been born three children, as follows: Lee E., born June 2, 1884; Lora A, born Jan. 17, 1886, and Walter W., born April 26, 1887. Mr. Pitcher is a member of the Sexennial League, and is a Republican. Mrs. Pitcher is a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The family count among the their intimates and friends many of the best people of the County, and are highly respected.
George Plants, farmer, Litchfield Township, P. O. Litchfield, was born April 20, 1836, Chemung County, New York, a son of Leonard and Hulda Plants, the former a native of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, the latter of Orange County, New York; they settled in Litchfield Township on a farm of eighty-six acres. There family consisted of ten children, eight of whom are living, George being the youngest. The subject of this memoir was reared in Litchfield, an educated at the common school. He served one year and the War of the Rebellion under General Butler, as a member of Co. E., Seventy-sixth P. V. I., and was honorably discharge. He is now a prosperous farmer, enjoying the confidence of his fellow citizens. He is a Republican politics, and was elected to the offices of auditor, judge of elections, and justice of the peace, which latter office he is at present filling. In his religious views he is a Baptist.
C. Burton, Pomeroy, a prominent farmer of Bradford County, P. O. Troy, was born in Troy Township, this County, April 11, 1839, a son of Ebenezer and Laura (Brewster) Pomeroy. Both the natives out of Tolland County, Connecticut, and is of Puritan and Pilgrim stock. His paternal grandparents were Eleazer & Priscilla (Kingsbury) Pomeroy; Eleazer was a son on Daniel and Naomi (Kibbs) Pomeroy; Daniel, a son of Noah and Elizabeth (Sterling) Pomeroy; Noah, a son of Joseph, who is a son of Eltweed Pomeroy, who came from England to America in 1630, settling in Northampton, Massachusetts, and later, at Windsor, Connecticut. Ebenezer Pomeroy settling in Troy Township about 1818, and for some years carried on the carding and clothed dressing works near Long’s Mills. He afterward purchased the land now owned by his sons Chauncey N. and our subject, which he cleared and improved, and where he resided until his death, which occurred in 1878, when he was age to seventy-three years. He was the father of ten children: Edwin S., Emily (Mrs. Volney M. Long), Kingsberry, Fayette, Augustus, Chauncey N., Sybil M., (Mrs. E. B. Parsons), Mary, Francis (Mrs. W. B. Hoff) and C. Burton. The subject of this sketch was reared on the old homestead, a part of which he now owns and
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