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THIS township was named in honor of hon, David Wilmot. At the upper portion of the river boundary are alluvial flats, varying from twenty to forty rods in width, which extend to the mouth of the Sugar run, where the flats widen and extend a couple of miles up the creek. In the lower part of the township is what is familiarly called " The Bend ," or "Quick's Bend," from. the name of one of the earliest settlers in the township. Back from the river the land is hilly, but is fertile. On the Sugar run was a lot having the name of Lincoln,, which tract was granted by the Proprietaries, and patented to Reuben Hains, March 31, 1775, and by his heirs conveyed to Silas F. Andrews, who sold to Henry Brindle, April 6, 1804, and is the lot where Andrews built his mills.

The first white settler in this township was Thomas Keeney, of Litchfield county, Conn. He settled first at Wapwallepack, but came to the present township of Wilmot as early as 1786. he purchased of Zebulon Butler, of Wilkes-Barre, a Connecticut right and title to a tract of land which he supposed was on the east side of the river, in Braintrim ; but when be came to locate it he found his lot was No. I of Springfield, which was the farm now occupied by Joseph Gamble and the heirs of James Gamble, in Wilmot. This land he worked the first season, living in a bark and brush cabin in the ravine near the house of G. Stuart Gamble, and built a too, house on the east side of the river. The bank on which the latter was erected has long since been washed away.

in 1788, Mr. Keeney brought his family from Wapwallepack. He was apprehended as one of the abductors of Timothy Pickering, taken to Wilkes-Barre. and kept in confinement all summer. In the spring 1788, Richard and Joshua Keeney, brothers, and probably distant, relatives of Thomas, came to Wilmot from Connecticut. Richard married Mercy, a daughter of Thomas, in September, 1788. Richard and Thomas built the house occupied by Joseph Gamble. There the wife of Mark died, July 7, 1804, and he in the following October. Thomas sold the farm to Joseph Gamble's father in 1912. Jeremiah, son of Mark Keeney, lived on the Morrow place.

James Anderson emigrated from County Monaghan, Ireland, with Samuel and James Gordon ; he settled first in Dauphin county, where he married Mrs. Margaret (Cook) Bailey. In 1801 he moved on Sugar hill, in Wilmot. where Mr. Brindle, the owner, engaged him. to board the hands employed in erecting buildings on the property. The next year he moved on the farm now owned by the Wilsons, in the " Bend; " and he first occupied a log house erected previous to his coming, but afterwards built on the bank of the river. The floods have since washed away the ground on which it stood.

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY. 553

At this time the only persons living in the " Bend," beside James Anderson, were James Quick and Thomas Keeney. In 1818, Mr. Anderson sold to the Wilsons. The eldest daughter, Elizabeth, married Abial, son of Richard Keeney, and lived near the mouth of the Tuscarora. Mr. Anderson died suddenly in 1829, injured by the fall of a dead limb from a tree, while riding his horse on his way home from church. After his death his daughter Ellen returned and married William Lake.

James Quick, of Dutch extraction, came from near Milford, in the Minisink country, to Tunkhannock, where he remained a short time, and then located on what was known as the " Painter farm," so called from a man of that name (Philip Painter) who had settled there before the Revolutionary War. Mr. Quick came probably in 1791, for his daughter Hannah was born there in 1792. He lived for three or four years in a little lot, house on the north side of the small brook which runs through the farm lately owned by his son Paul, near the river, oil the point of the ridge. He then built a hewn log house on the south side of the creek, nearly opposite the old one.

Christopher Schoonover, more commonly known by his Dutch name, Stoffle," came as early as 1792 from the Delaware river, where he lived in the same neighborhood with James Quick. Schoonover had cleared a few acres on the flats, the upland being covered with timber. His house was on the bank of the river below the Wilsons. It was of logs, and covered with bark or spalts. He moved up the river into the township of Litchfield, and Cornelius Quick bought his possession, who sold to James Anderson, and he in turn to the Wilsons. Schoonover had two sons, Joseph and Solomon, and two daughters. " Stoffle Schoonover, when he came to Wilmot, brought a young man with him, named Webster Seymour. Nathan Beeman and his cousin, Timothy, came from Warren, Litchfield county, almost simultaneously. Nathan had a little house a short distance above the landing at Keeney's ferry. J udson Beeman, son of Timoth y y, was born December 29, 17 85. Dr. Ebenezer Beeman was living in Black-Walnut, and Rockwell (Timothy's half- brother) had been about this section for sonic time, and the representa- tions they gave of the country induced Timothy Beeman to settle there. He moved in March 1799, with two teams, a voke of oxen and sled, and span of horses and sleigh. They were twenty days en route. Timothy

Beeman was the first settler in that part of the town, locating where Hollon lived. Sugar Hill was then an unbroken wilderness, except that Vanderpool had built a log house on the farm where the late John Brown lived, cut a few trees, and moved away, When Mr. Beeman moved in there was no person living between his place and Ingham's, and his house was the only one in all that section.

Judson Beeman says: " My father's family consisted of three sons and three daughters. We went there in the woods, without house or shelter. We moved into the Pool house, and stayed there the first year; then we put up a board shanty, in which we lived the following summer, and the next year my father, who was a carpenter, built a framed house. The hardest part of the work was hauling the boards up the hill from Andrews' mill. My father lived here until he died

554 HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

August, 1830, at the age of seventy-six years. He, as well as my mother (whose maiden name was Grace), was buried on Lacy street. Seymour, my eldest brother, sold to Hollon, and moved away. Alfred, another brother, married Rachel, a daughter of Gerrit Smith, and lived on Lacey street. Gerrit Smith also went to New York, near Cayuga lake, and died there."

Silas F. Andrews, son and executor of Ebenezer Andrews, or Andrus, as the name is sometimes spelled, was the first to settle on the Sugar run, above the river. He came about 1792. His wife was a daughter of Isaac Hancock. His father was one of the original proprietors of certified Springfield, was a settler in it before the Revolutionary War, and died soon after the war closed. Under date of December 29, 1792, the orphans' court of Luzerne county issued to him letters of administration on his father's estate. He bought the lot on Sugar run first above the Ingram. property, where he built a grist and saw mill at an early day ; the gristmill was but a small house of logs, with one run of stone ; the sawmill was of the same sort, very serviceable, but small. Mr. Andrews was an active business man; he not only built the mills, opened a road from t hem to the river, but was engaged in various enterprises for the improvement of his neighborhood M r. Andrews moved was , up the river, about the year 1800, having sold to William Brindle, a Dutchman, who came from near Harrisburg kept up the Andrews' mills for three or four years, and then moved to the West branch. although his son kept the property for. some years later, when Joseph Preston succeeded to the ownership. Among other early settlers we may name Joseph Ingham, who lived where Washington Ingham now lives.

By deed bearing (late September 4, 1789, Jonas Ingham purchased of Isaac Benjamin the Connecticut title to lots Nos. 7 and 8 on the Spring field list, which are at the mouth of Sugar run, and the hind now owned by J. W. Ingham. Joseph, the son of Jonas Ingham, took the property and began to make improvements, and built the mills, which although they have been twice or three times rebuilt, were on nearly the same site as the ones now in use by Mr. Ingham.

Thomas Ingham, a son of Joseph, succeeded to the property, and then his son, J. Washington Ingham. The family and mill have been landmarks in this part of the country for more than fourscore years. A brother is J. W. Ingham, is the Hon. T. J. Ingham, president judge of the district composed of the counties of Wyoming and Sullivan.

Ephraim Marsh, came about the year 1799, and built a house about, half-way between the river and Andrews' mill; also Eliphalet Marsh, a. brother of Ephraim, and son of Simeon Marsh, who was a hunter, and lived on the place owned by Hiram Horton. The Marshes sold to Ebenezer Horton, and moved first to Lime, or Vaughan hill, and then to the Allegheny. Ephraim was father of Svdney Marsh. Old " Bussy" Rosecrantz came up to tend mill for Joseph Ingham; Gideon Baldwin, Jr., married his daughter Betsey. The Gilsons lived on the Horton place for a time; Joseph Ellsworth married one of the daughters and moved into Pike township.

Previous to the Revolutionary War, Samuel Gordon, Thomas

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY. 555

Wigton, and probably James Anderson had emigrated from Ballybay, in Monaghan, Ireland, and found homes in the Susquehanna valley. In 1799, Anderson returned to Ireland for his parents, arid on coming back to America, in 1801, persuaded John Gamble, Jr., to come over with him, and in 1811 other members of the Gamble family, -which included John and his wire, Elizabeth Kennedy, and their sons James, William, Joseph and George, and John Morrow, who was a lad, the son of Nancy, it daughter of John Gamble, who married Mr. Morrowsailed from Belfast, March 14, 1811. They first came on the farm owned by William Mittem and Charles Boyd, in Wyalusing township. Soon after John Gamble, the father, and 'his son James, bought Iand in Wilmot, on which the Gambles now live. 'Joseph Gamble, born September 81 1791, still lives on it part of the property.

John Morrow, Sr., whose wife was Nancy Gamble, came soon after. He died October 24, 1837, at the age of sixty-seven years, and was buried on Lacey street. Nancy Morrow diedApril, 1860, aged eighty four, and was laid beside her husband. John, J r., bought the farm in the Bend, on which his son Franc s G. lives. He married Sally Horton. Hon. Paul de Morrow, president-judge, was her son.

James Gamble had married, in Ireland, Isabella Nesbit (born Ala.\

1791 ; died July, 1868). William Nesbit, her brother, came over in 1826 or 1827. After being here for a year or two lie sent for his father Nathaniel, and his brother Nathaniel. The father died in 1830, having been here a year and a half, at the age of seventy-six years.

The Nesbits lived in a house on the place where Stephen Dodd lives. Nathaniel, Jr., was a man of venerable age and of unblemished character. From these beginnings the settlement or Ballibay, in Herrick, Was commenced all of the families there and in Wilmot being related either by blood or marriage. They came poor, but, by dint of great industry and economy, have cleared up farms, built good houses, educated their children, and are among, the leading families in the county.

Stephen Preston, went to the Andrews' place about 1810, purchasing of Will. Brindle, when the latter moved to Munc y v. He died upon. this place in 1827, aged sixty-five years. His wife survived him many years, but is now deceased, and both are buried at Wyalusing.

John Gamble and his son James bought a tract in Wilmot, of 400 acres, of Thomas Keeney, where Joseph Gamble no\\, lives Ignatius and Allen Wilson, father and son, came in after 1819. The Winslows came about the same, time. Edward Winslow married a, daughter of 1. Wilson. They were from Mehoopany v. William Nesbit came in 1826, and the father, Nathan I el. a little later; they lived in a house near the present residence or M H. Dodd.

There was an early burial-ptace near the locr school-house, and a bov named Stranger, a brother of Robert, killed by a falling tree, was One of the first interments there.

Allen Keeney states that Nathan Beeman taught the first school in Wilmot, but Judson Beeman says that Simeon Rockwell (a halfbrother of Timothy Beeman) taught school in Wilmot before Nathan or his father came to the country.

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