Tri-Counties Genealogy & History by Joyce M. Tice History of Bradford County by Craft Bradford County PA Chemung County NY Tioga County PA

Tri-County Genealogy & History Sites Home Page How to Use This Site Warning & Disclaimer Craft History - Table of Contents Bradford County Townships No Unauthorized Commercial Use Say Hello to Joyce  Photo by Joyce M. Tice

John Shepard was born April 17, 1765, at Plainfield, Conn., of a family who had been long settled there. He was educated in the academy at that place, which was under the direction of Nathan Daboll, the celebrated arithmatician and astronomer. At the close of the war, early in 1783, Capt. Simon Spalding, who had married a sister of Mr. Shepard's father, removed to Sheshequin, and, having erected his buildings and comfortably settled his family, he went to his native place, Plainfield, to purchase stock for his new plantation. On his return his nephew, the subject of this sketch, accompanied him to Sheshequin. There he remained with his uncle until late in the year 1784, when he engaged with Weiss and Hollenback as clerk in their store at Newtown, now Elmira. In the, spring, of 1785, disliking the confinement of constant duty in thc store, Mr. Shepard started with a servant and a stock of goods on a trading expedition among the natives, exchanging his merchandise for furs. He continued these expeditions until some time in 1786, when he engaged with Mr. Hollenback as a clerk at his store on Tioga Point, and thenceforward Tioga and its immediate vicinity was his place of abode during life. Jan. 2, 1788, Mr. Shepard, in company with Nathaniel Shaw, purchased the mill property at Milltown, consisting of grist mill, saw mill, two dwellings, and other buildings. This was the first mill erected in this part of the country. It had been built by Prince Bryant, and the purchase of it at so early a day is but one instance of the remarkable foresight of Mr. Shepard. Early the following year he purchased the interest of his partner and thenceforward was sole owner of this valuable property. At the June sessions, 1789, of the Luzerne county court, Mr. Shepard was licensed to keep a tavern at Tioga, and in April, 1796, and August, 1799, this license was renewed but in what building he kept hotel we have no knowledge. His life was an active one, He was merchant, miller, a distiller, and constantly purchasing and selling real estate.

In 1797 he was first elected supervisor of Athens, a position to which he was subsequently frequently called. In 1809 he was first appointed justice of the peace for Lycoming County, and in 1812, on the erection of Bradford County, this commission was renewed.

June 3, 1790, Mr. Shepard married Anna, daughter of Judge Gore, of Sheshequin, and settled on a farm at Milltown, on the opposite side of the creek from the mills. He lived on this farm for more than twenty years. Six of his children were born there. His wife and eldest son died there.

In December, 1798, his gristmill was burned. It was rebuilt and in operation in six weeks. He added a fulling mill and oil mill. The year 1805 was one of peculiarly severe domestic afflictions. In February his oldest son, Prentice, a lad of fifteen years, received an injury from a fall on the ice, of which he died in about six weeks. In August his uncle, Dr. Amos Prentice, a near neighbor and valued, friend, died. September, Mrs. Shepard was so injured by a fall from her carriage that she survived the accident but thirty hours, and in the fall of the next year William, a son of Dr. Prentice, died of fever.

In 1811, Mr. Shepard married his second wife on Long island, a Miss Hawkins, of Stony Brook. She had five children, two sons and three daughters. She died January, 1844.

Mr. Shepard, after a life of great activity, enterprise, and usefulness, died May 15, 1837, it the age of seventy-three years. Mrs. Geo. Perkins, author of "Early Times on the Susquehanna," a work of great interest and value, is a daughter of his.

The New England family of Herrick traces its lineage to Henry Herrick, who was born in Leicestershire, England, in 1604, and came to America in 1629. The ancestral seat of the English family is at Bean Manor Park, in the parish of Loughborough. The family patronymic is said to be of Anglo-Danish origin, and belongs primarily to the period of the Danish invasion of England.

Henry Herrick joined the American colony organized under royal letters patent issued in 1629 to the company of Massachusetts Bay. His name appears, with that of his wife Edith, daughter of Hugh Larkin, of Salem, among the thirty members of the first church established it Naumkeag, then Salem, a settlement which divided with Charlestown the colonists who had landed at Cape Ann in June of the same year, in the expedition from England organized under the charter above mentioned.

The American progenitor of the family died in 1671, leaving six sons and one daughter. From Ephraim, the third son of Henry Herrick, in the seventh generation, came the subject of this sketch. A brief tabulation of this descent is given as follows:

(1) Henry, of Leicestershire and Salem, born Aug. 16, 1604, died 1671.

(4) Edward, of Preston, Conn., born Oct. 16, 1695, died Jan. 9, 1735.

(5) Rufus, of Dutchess Co., N. Y., born March 13, 1734, died Jan. 28, 1811.

(6) Samuel, of Amenia, N. Y., born Feb. 23, 1757, died May 24,1824.

Edward Herrick was born at Amenia, in Dutchess Co., N. Y., Oct. 26, 1787. His father. Samuel Herrick, was a merchant and farmer living on a tract of land in Amenia called the "Oblong." His grandfather held a captain's commission in the Provincial Army of New York State, and retired from the service with the rank of colonel. He was present at the assault on Ticonderoga, in April, 1775. His first commission was issued in 1775, and his name appears on the muster-roll of the Fourth of Dutchess county regiment as captain, under date of the 30th of June of that year.

Samuel Herrick, the father of Edward Herrick, served as clerk or orderly to Colonel Rufus Herrick, and at the close of his term of service retired to the "Oblong" property, on which had dwelt in turn his own immediate ancestor. The latter married Margaret Per Lee, a daughter of Edmund Per Lee, of Amenia, born in London, England, of' Huguenot parents, who had fled from France to escape persecution on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes. Of this union there were ten children, Edward Herrick being the fifth son.

Edward Herrick was placed early in life under the tuition of Rev. John Barnet, a clergyman of note, residing in Dutchess Co., N. Y. After remaining several years under the tuition of Mr. Barnet, he entered, Dec. 6, 1801, at the age of seventeen, as student-at-law, the office of his cousin, Gen. John Brush, at Poughkeepsie. Here he remained a year and a half, and in June, 1806, started for the State of Ohio. On his way thither he paid a visit to his brother Walter, second son of Samuel Herrick, who had engaged in mercantile pursuits at Tioga Point, Pennsylvania. At Zanesville, Ohio, the eldest brother, Samuel, was engaged in the profession of law. He remained as a student in the office of the latter about a year, and from thence proceeded to Chillicothe, where he continued his legal studies until admitted to the bar from the office of his cousin, Henry Brush, Esq., Aug. 8, 1808, being then some months under eye. He immediately entered upon the practice of the law in Newark, in the county of Licking and rode the circuit of the counties of Muskingum, Guernsey, Licking, Knox, and Tuscarawas. In 1810 he was appointed district attorney for the three last-named counties.

In 1812, on his return to Ohio. after a short sojourn in Athens (induced by the condition of his wife's health), the last war with England having broken out, Mr. Herrick was commissioned colonel of a militia regiment, and in the same year was elected to the Ohio legislature from the county of Licking, while still under the age required by law to qualify him for the office. In December, 1812, he took his seat in the Ohio legislature, and soon after signalized his advent to the place by introducing a resolution which proposed to

organize the legislative body into a battalion for home defense. This resolution failing, he remained in his seat until the adjournment of the legislature, and then became engaged in the occupations incident to his military office. At this time (1813) the northern border of Ohio was the field of active military operations. Mackinaw had been taken, Hull had surrendered at Detroit, and the whole peninsula of Michigan was under the enemy's control. The frontier settlements of Ohio were harassed by English and Indian allies, and the defeat of Gen. Winchester had spread consternation throughout the State. The excitement incident to these events determined the people to their own defense, and inspired the militia organizations in which Col. Herrick took part. The seriousness of the situation had prompted his action in the legislature. But the magnitude of the danger brought to the defense of the State the regular troops, and the battle of Lake Erie finally restored the arms and authority of the government.

In the summer of 1813 Col. Herrick returned to Pennsylvania, and took up his residence in Athens. Here he resumed the active practice of the law in Bradford and the adjoining counties. His first appearance professionally is of record in his admission to the bar of Susquehanna county in August term, 1813. His first residence in Athens was in a log house built by Judge Hollenback, in 1786, which stood on the lot now (1878) occupied by the residence of Cornelius Hunsicker. In July, 1814, Col. Herrick was appointed brigade inspector, by Governor Snyder, of the counties of Lycoming Potter, McKean, Bradford, and Tioga. In 1818, July 6, he was appointed by Governor Findley, president judge of the thirteenth judicial district, composed of the counties of Bradford, Susquehanna, and Tioga, to which were subsequently added Potter and McKean. He continued on the bench until the last of February, 1839, a period of twenty-one years. Upon the adoption of the new constitution, which limited the judicial tenure, in 1838, Judge Herrick retired from the bench, and was succeeded by Hon. John N. Conyngham. His place in the historv of the judicial district of which Bradford County has been a part, is third on the list of the eminent men who have from time to time presided over the business of her courts, his predecessors being John Banister Gibson and Thomas Burnside. In 1836, among the various public duties that had been imposed upon him, Judge Herrick was appointed by President Jackson a member of the board of visitors to the West Point military academy. Taking an active interest in public improvements, he was a delegate in 1825 to the canal convention at Harrisburg and strongly advocated the construction of the North Branch canal. The townships of Herrick in Bradford and Susquehanna counties were named in honor of Judge Herrick, during his occupancy of the bench.

In 1820, Judge Herrick had purchased the villa built by Michael R. Tharp on the bank of the Susquehanna, in Athens, since so well known in that vicinity as his own residence. His retirement from the bench closes Judge Herrick's active professional life; from that period down to his death, which took place on the 7th day of March, 1873, he remained in comparative retirement from public life.

Judge Herrick was married three times: first, Nov. 5, 1810, to Celestia Hopkins, daughter of Dr. Stephen Hopkins, of Athens, who was born March 26, 1792, and died Aug. 28, 1830; second, to Rebecca Ross, daughter of Andrew Ross, Esq., of the District of Columbia, who died April 10, 1854, and third, to Eliza H. Foote, daughter of Judge Foote, of Cooperstown, N. Y. His children were, Castle Hopkins, born Dec. 10, 1811, married March 2, 1812, Rachel Meade Herrick, daughter of Samuel Herrick, of Zanesville, Ohio, and died Sept. 22, 1865, leaving two sons and one daughter; Edward Curran, born June 22, 1814, married Eliza Tyler, and is yet living; Helen Eliza, born May 19, 1818, married Chauncey N. Shipman, and died August, 1830, leaving one daughter; Andrew Ross, born Aug. 4, 1833, died Oct. 21, 1852, unmarried; Edmond Per Lee, born Aug. 20, 1834, living and unmarried; and Robert Ross, born June 8, 1839, died Feb. 12, 1860, unmarried.

Judge Herrick accumulated a handsome independence by the prudent management of his affairs, and the investment of his official salary in the vicinity of the growing village in which he died, where he had passed the largest period of his active life, and in retirement, had watched for half a century the development of things around him, where he had lived to link the story of primeval days with the last struggle of American independence and the mighty energy of internal war that shook the continent, and called into action all the resources of the most powerful nation on the globe. In peaceful retirement he passed away, his life an example of probity and prudence, of well-appointed talents usefully exerted and fitly rewarded in every station he had been called to fill. His life, prolonged far beyond the common lot of man, covered some of the most remarkable epochs of the world's history, an age of wonder in the progress of invention and development, the spread of civilization, and the program of events unparalleled in the history of mankind. His faculties remained clear and unclouded unto the end, and all these things it was his lot to have seen.

In person he was above the ordinary stature, graceful in carriage, and in his latter days, as in his youth, a model of comeliness and dignity. His bearing bore always the traces of that peculiar discipline to mind and manners which comes of a temperate habit and the exertion of an intelligent will, animated by an earnest principle, and a benevolent and conscientious spirit. Of him, with all his worldly honors, his spotless life, and manly virtues, his talents of head and heart, it may he said, as justly as it was ever said of mortal man,-

(2) Joseph was the youngest son of (1) James and Anna Allen.

In the fall of 1862, while lying sick at Poolsville, Maryland, he received an invitation to deliver the annual course of lectures on anatomy in the Geneva medical college, which, on account of ill health and the requirements of the military service, he was compelled to decline. In the spring of 1864, he received the unanimous vote of the board of trustees of that institution to the professor's chair of midwifery and materia medica. The first knowledge the doctor had that his name had been mentioned for the position was when the invitation was placed in his hands. He filled the place with great acceptableness for eight years, delivering each season about one hundred lectures. Much to the regret of the friends of the college, failing health compelled him to retire from his professorship. The doctor is fond of surgery, and has performed most of the capital operations. Twice in civil practice he amputated at the hip joint with complete success, and quite a number of times at the trochanters; and treated the femoral and many other of the larger arteries.

He is a member of the Bradford County medical society, the Pennsylvania State medical society, the American medical association, and an honorary member of the Chemung County medical society, of New York. He is also a member of the Bradford County historical society, of which he was for four years secretary and one year president. He has been twice president of the Bradford County medical society, many vears its secretary, and vice president of the Pennsylvania medical society.

He has written quite a number of short essays on medical and literary subjects, among which may be mentioned one published in the Athens Gleaner of April, 1870, entitled "Do we Suffer when Dying, or is Death a Painful Process ?" and another, read before the historical society of Bradford County, December, 1872, on the "Mammoth and Mastodon, and the Age in which they Lived," which was also published by order of the society. Quite a number of reports of interesting cases have been published in the Transactions of the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania, and in the Philadelphia Medical Times.

He was married on the 18th of January, 1844, to Miss Honnor Howard Harris, daughter of Beriah Harris, of Coleraine, Massachusetts. Their family consists of seven children, two sons and five daughters.

who were among the earlier settlers of Athens, Pa., were natives of Eastham, Cape Cod, and the youngest of the seven sons of Thomas Paine and Phebe Freeman, his wife. At various periods, from 1767 to 1782, Thomas Paine was a representative to the Massachusetts legislature, and in the list of deputies to the Old Colony court the names of his father and grandfather often occur as far back as 1671, the family having resided at Eastham from almost the first settlement of the Cape. The name of Thomas Paine appears in the history of Eastham upon various committees appointed for carrying out the principles of freedom in resistance to British tyranny during the Revolution. His mother, Alice Mayo, was a descendant of Governor Thomas Prince, and Robert Treate Paine, a signer of the Declaration Of Independence, was his cousin and occasional correspondent, as was also William Payne, the father of John Howard Payne, author of "Home, Sweet Home."

Michael Coleman was born in Ireland, August 4, 1818. His father was twice married. By his first wife he had one son and one daughter; by the last five sons, and the subject of this sketch was the youngest of the five. He came to America, in company with in elder brother, William (now a farmer in Athens), in 1832, and worked on a farm in Westchester and Orange counties, N. Y., until his marriage. He was married March 4, 1844, to Margaret Schultz, daughter of James and Deborah Schultz, of Orange Co., N. Y. The result of this marriage is three children, viz.: John C., born Jan. 9, 1849, died of consumption Jan. 12, 1877; Mary C., born March 8, 1852; Lizzie, born Aug. 24, 1853, both daughters living at home.

Mr. Coleman moved to Athens Feb. 19, 1858, having previously purchased a farm of one hundred and forty-four acres, which since that time he has managed and where he still lives. He built his present residence, a view of which, with surroundings, appears on another page, in 1862. In politics Mr. Coleman is and always has been a Democrat.

Mr. Coleman has served as township commissioner since 1868, and has been a director in the First National Bank of Athens since its organization. Having lost most of his property by the reverses of the war, and his wife dying, he removed from Cape Cod to Boston, and subsequently to Maine. He was a man of intelligence and piety. In a diary kept during his latter years the following verse frequently appears as its ruling sentiment:

He was subsequently engaged in various publishing offices in Boston and New York, and in 1791 formed the project, in connection with his brother Seth, of establishing a press and journal at "Kaatskill on the Hudson." But the type and other material ordered by them from London was lost at sea in the brig, "Betsey," and the enterprise was abandoned, although we find that the publication of the Catskill Packet was commenced a year or two later by Croswell & Co. with good success. In 1791 and 1792 Clement Paine was engaged in the office of Clapoole's Daily Advertiser, at Philadelphia, then the seat of the general government under Washington's administration. It was there he frequently saw the first president, and a strong sentiment of respect and admiration, then formed for the person and character of Washington remained with him through life.

DAVID PAINE, born March 19, 1768, was in his youth a clerk and school teacher. He was for some time engaged in the land-office of Captain Blodgett, at Bennington, and in 1791 was partner in a store at Canaan, Conn. In September, 1792, the brothers, David and Clement, erected a store and potash-factory at Rensselaerville, N. Y. The business, however, did not prove a success. In March, 1794, David writes from "Oswego, on the Susquehanna," to Clement, who remained to wind up the concern, and soon after from "Tioga Point," where the former had become connected with William Bingham in the purchase and sale of lands, under the Connecticut title. In August, 1794, he states that "Brockway, of Catskill, has established a post to ride weekly to this place," and refers in October to his own opening of a land-office with very flattering prospects. "I have never been acquainted," he adds, "with a better country for a young man to acquire property." Clement came to Tioga Point in December, 1794, and the brothers were there connected in trade and land operations for ten years. During the winter and spring of 1796, Clement had charge of the business of his brother Seth, at Charleston, S. C., who was publisher of the City Gazette, the first daily paper ever printed there. His partner was Peter Freneau, secretary of the State, and the brother of Philip Freneau (well known as a poet and journalist of that period), who was a personal friend and Correspondent of Seth Paine.

In 1796, David and Clement Paine erected the house which was in after-years, and for a long period, the family residence of the latter. It was in part built by the father of Judge William Elwell, of Bloomsburg, Pa., and at the time of its destruction by fire, about ten years since, was probably the oldest frame house in Athens. The Avery family (subsequently of Owego) were its earliest occupants. It was at about the same time that the old academy building (burned in 1843) was begun by them and other citizens.

The conflicting land titles of Connecticut and Pennsylvania began to interfere much with both public and private prosperity throughout the region, and in 1797 Clement Paine writes: "Many people are of opinion that violent measures will be resorted to before the dispute is finally settled; but I can hardly persuade myself that this State will attempt a thing so amazingly absurd, as it would be under the present circumstances, to send on troops to dispossess the settlers here, who, by estimation, now amount to from 12,000 to 15,000 people. We shall continue regularly to prosecute our business notwithstanding the hostile attitude of our enemies, and such is the general intention of the people."

Later in the same year he writes: "A great stagnation of mercantile and speculative business is the universal complaint throughout this northern country. The sale of new land in any situation seems entirely suspended, and it is difficult to obtain money for any kind of property." The brothers were associated with Colonel Franklin and others in vindicating the rights of the settlers, and, in behalf of the common cause, David made repeated journeys to Philadelphia and New England.

During the uncertainty and depression of the times, Clement began the study of law, and again spent a winter or two in Philadelphia. In March 1801, on a passage from that city to New England, his vessel was wrecked on the south coast of Long Island, and he, with other passengers, barely escaped with their lives. In October 1801, his esteemed brother, Seth Paine, whose publishing house had grown into an extensive business, died of yellow fever at Charleston, and at that city, for a part of several subsequent years, Clement Paine was engaged in the collection of claims and the settlement of the estate, in which he succeeded beyond expectation. The reminiscences of his winters spent in Charleston afforded him pleasure to his latest years.

For quite a long period after its first settlement, Athens was the centre of trade for a considerable part of the country. During the earlier years of his business there, Clement Paine purchased his stocks of goods principally from Orrin Day and Dr. Croswell at Catskill, from whence (as for more twenty years afterwards from New York and Philadelphia) he bad them transported in wagons to Athens. Sometimes, however, they came up the river on "Durham boats," which were propelled with poles. Among the various clerks employed by him were Constant Mathewson, of Athens, and 0. P. Ballard, subsequently a wealthy and well-known merchant of Troy, Pa.

In July, 1806, he was married to Anne Woodbridge, a native of Glastenbury, Conn., the daughter of Major Theodore Woodbridge, an officer of the Revolutionary army, whose ccommission from the Continental Congress, as also a portion of his journal kept during the war, are still preserved. Mr. Paine was one of the few original members of the Presbyterian church at Athens, and remained through life steadfast and active in the cause of religion and humanity. Both in her correspondence and published productions of prose and verse she cultivated a strong native literary taste, and the recollections of her benevolence and Christian virtues still shed a lustre upon her memory. She died in October, 1834, at the age of fifty years.

In 1812, Clement Paine was a presidential elector, casting the vote of his district for James Madison and Elbridgc Gerry. During the War of l8l2 he was active in procuring volunteers for the army, together with arms and supplies for their use. For many years he drew pensions for a large but rapidly-decreasing number of Revolutionary soldiers from all parts of the County, who with their wives met regularly each year at his house. In exchanging personal recollections of the times that tried men's souls,

"Twas there they fought their battles o'er,

And show'd how fields were won."

Major Zephon Flower, of Athens, was the last survivor upon his list of pensioners. The cultivation of the soil was always with him, a favorite occupation, the fields which, for a long series of years, he owned and tilled lay on the cross-street connecting the Elmira and Owego roads, and along the west side of the latter to the "mile hill", including the present site of the Lehigh Valley railroad station. Few of the original landmarks remain, however, except the large Lombardy poplar on the carriage-road near the depot. He was the owner at different periods of a considerable amount of real estate through the county. In 1818 he sold to Francis Tyler the Stephens farm, on which the latter lived until his death. He bought in 1827 the mill property on Shepard's creek, near the State line, afterwards occupied by M. W. Wheelock as a woolen-factory. He also owned some mills, with a considerable amount of land, near Troy, and a large tract of wild land in Franklin Township, on which, in 1844, his son James began a settlement. In 1835 he erected a number of dwellings on what was then known as Paine Street (now Lombard Street), in the borough of Towanda.

He was remarkable among the many who knew him personally for the sound and practical character of his views, the promptness and punctuality of his dealings, and the plainness of his speech and manners. Seldom sacrificing his own ideas of utility, comfort, or independence to mere conventionalism, he thereby gained some reputation for eccentricity. Although naturally of a strong will and impetuous disposition, he was ever thankful in the sunshine and resigned in the storm. By an unvarying system of diet and exercise, principally on horseback (as were his journeys), his business faculties and personal health were sustained to advanced years in a somewhat slender constitution.

In December, 1844, he left Athens (his home for a period of just fifty years) for the residence of his son at Troy, where he died, March, 1849, in the eighty-first year of his age.

His sons were Rev. Thomas E. Paine, who died at Woodville, Miss., in 1843; James A. Paine, who died at Marengo, Iowa, 1867 - Seth W. Paine, and Charles C. Paine, who still reside at Troy, Pa.

DAVID PAINE, in 1799, received the appointment of magistrate from Governor Mifflin. He was postmaster of Athens from 1808 to 1824. In 1803 he was married to Phebe Lindley, the sister of Mrs. Ebenezer Backus and Mrs. Dr. Hopkins. After her death he married, in 1823, Anne W. Harding, of Portland, Me., an amiable and accomplished lady, who still survives. He had no children by either marriage. About 1825 he was associated with his nephew, Seth Paine, in the publication of the Gazette of Maine, at Portland. Returning to Athens, his home for the remainder of his days was a tasteful cottage, with beautiful grounds attached, on a portion of which the Episcopal rectory now stands. Few homes presented in those days more of refined social enjoyment. He was the first burgess of Athens borough, and with him originated the planting of the beautiful shade trees which adorn its streets. At an early day he laid out the village of Burlington, and gave it the name of " Nonesuch."

"Died on the 7th Sept., 1851, at Athens, Pa., David Paine, Esq., aged eighty-three. He was a native of Eastham (Cape Cod), Mass., and settled at Athens early in the year 1794. Few, indeed, of his old associates in the settlement of the country now remaining; yet in the annals of the beautiful valley, which for more than half a century he made his home, his name will be remembered as one of those identified with its history and improvement. His warm heart and social disposition ever won the esteem and love of those who knew him, and although traits like these naturally strengthen man's attachment to life, yet, as the increasing infirmities of age warned him of approaching dissolution, be was accustomed to look forward to it as a happy release, evincing at the same time a spirit of meek resignation to the will of his heavenly Father."

Enoch Paine, a brother of David and Clement Paine, came to Athens in 1803. At about the age of eighteen, he was twice taken prisoner on board a privateer by the British during the Revolution. He subsequently made voyages to South America, Europe, and the East Indies, and resided for a time at Cape Francois, in the West Indies, then under the government of Toussaint L'Ouverture. His friends were often for years without tidings from him. He died at Athens, unmarried, in 1815, aged fifty-one. His monumental inscription reads,-

was born in Manmakatinm, Sullivan Co., N. Y., Nov. 14, 1826, the seventh child of Obed and Esther Van Duzer. He had six brothers and three sisters. The father was a farmer and hotel-keeper. The subject of this sketch lived at home till he was twenty three years of age, at which time, in company with his brother Benjamin, he went to work at the carpenter trade, following it for two years in Sullivan County, at the end of which time, in 1852, they came to Litchfield, Bradford Co., continuing at his trade for two years in this place. March 1. 1854, Mr. Van Dozer bought a farm of one hundred acres in the township of Sheshequin.

Sept. 7, of the same year, he married Clara White, daughter of Josiah and Lutheda White, who was born in Litchfield, Oct. 8, 1836. Her father, Josiah White, was among the early settlers of that township, and died, at the advanced age of eighty-three, at Athens, Feb. 2, 1878.

They have had but one child, Josiah B., born Jan. 22, 1856, who was married May 25, 1876, to Ella M. Parks, daughter of Enos P. arid Eliza Parks, of Sheshequin.

At the time Mr. Van Duzer purchased his farm in Litchfield, there were but fifteen acres cleared. He stumped and cleared the balance of the hundred acres, also the greater part of a forty and fifty-two acre lot which he afterwards purchased.

A fine farmhouse, surrounded with productive fields subdued from the wilderness, will always bear witness to years of persevering hard work.

Oct. 15, 1862, Mr. Van Dozer volunteered as private in Co. D, 17th Regiment Penna. Mounted Volunteers, and served to the end of the war, being mustered out June 21, 1865. If for no other reason, this fact alone would entitle Mr. Van Dozer to grateful mention in a history of the county of his adoption.

Having, perhaps, the example of his father in view, in 1876 he parted with his farm and purchased the property now known as the Gothic hotel in the village of Athens, and for the last two years has been proprietor of the same. In politics, first a Whig, later a Republican, but never a seeker of office.

was born in Athens, Bradford Co., June 29, 1.799, the youngest of twelve children born to Daniel and Dorotha McDuffee. He was married April 26, 1840, to Emily French, daughter of Asa and Elizabeth French. They have had seven children, four of whom, two sons and two daughters are living.

Mr. McDuffee has been a life-long farmer, and has always lived on the same farm where he was born. In politics he is a Democrat.

fifth son of Henry McKinney, was born in Sheshequin, Sept. 17, 1802. His father emigrated from Ireland to Cecil Co., Md. ; was married there to Rebecca Hynman. He was a weaver by trade, and followed that vocation until his death. In the spring of 1792 he moved up the Susquehanna, his wife riding on horseback, carrying her young babe, stopping first to make a location at the Daniel Moore ferry, now the S. W. Park farm, in Athens township (then Tioga). Lived in Sheshequin for a time, then settled in Athens on the river bank, now the John Thompson farm, where he lived until 1806, when he was drowned in the Susquehanna. Seven children were born to them,- Samuel, born in Maryland, January, 1792 ; died in Litchfield, Pennsylvania, 1853. John, born 1794; returned to Maryland in 1813; died there in May, 1870. Margaret, born in 1796, died in Litchfield, 1820. Henry, born Oct. 10, 1797 settled in Litchfield, and still lives there. David, born Aug. 1, 1800 ; settled in Litchfield township, and lives there now. Joseph, born Sept. 17, 1802 ; still living, has always lived in Athens township. Cynthia, born Oct. 11, 1804; was married to Amos Franklin, moved to Michigan, and died there the 6th of March, 1871. The last six children were born in Bradford County. Joseph lived with his mother for several years after his father's death, or until 1816, when he went to live with Colonel John Franklin ; remained there working at firm work until after his marriage; was married to Mary Bidlack on the 1st day of December, 1828; moved to his present home the 7th of January, 1830, which he has converted from a wilderness into the present green pastures and waving fields of grain, well stocked with cattle, sheep, etc. His first residence was a log house, which he occupied until 1844, when he built and moved into his present one. He followed the river as pilot with rafts and arks from the age of twenty one until the year 1859, and many incidents and hairbreadth escapes he has passed through. He is a good farmer, and what he has is owing to his strict adherence to habits of industry and economy. Commencing with his hands only, he has accumulated what he has, which, of this world's goods, is more than enough for the enjoyment of every comfort in his old age. Socially he is respected by all his friends (who are many), and by all with whom he has had business transactions, and his zeal for honesty is unsurpassed. He is a stockholder, and was for several years a director, of the First National bank of Athens. Politically he is a Republican unswervingly; was formerly an old-line Whig but he has little to do with politics. He has always been a great reader acquiring, most of his education since arriving at manhood; belongs to no church, but contributes mostly to the Methodist. The result of his marriage was six children: Eliza, born March 21, 1830 married C. S. Wheaton, and lives in Athens. Horace, born Feb. 5, 1832 ; lived on the farm with his father until his death, Jan. 19, 1877. Clarissa, born Sept. 14, 1S34 married T. W. Brink, and lives in Litchfield. Joseph, Jr., born Feb. 11, 1838; was married to Emily Vangorder, and lives on part of his father's farm. Alfred, born June 14, 1842; died Dec. 3, 1843. Anna, born June 9, 1845 ; lived with her parents until her death, June 15, 1875. The deceased children are buried in the family cemetery on the farm, including Rebecca, his mother, who lived with him, from 1834 (when she broke up housekeeping until her death, March 23, 1855. Good monuments mark their last resting-place.

Mary Bidlack, his wife, was born in Sheshequin, Jan. 20, 1806 ; was a daughter of James Bidlick and Esther Moore, who were married in 1803. James Bidlack was son of Captain James Bidlack, who was killed at the Wyoming massacre. His widow, a few years afterwards, married Colonel John Franklin. Her girlhood was passed at home until the year 1819, when she came to live with her grandmother, Mrs. Franklin, and remained there until her marriage, and thereafter until Jan. 7, 1830, when she began housekeeping on the old homestead, where she still lives. She has led an extremely busy life, and has been a true helpmate to her husband. The buzz of the spinning wheel, and the grate of the cards, in manufacturing their own homespun, have shown economy and industry of which but few can boast. A bountiful supply of woolen and linen, homemade, for table, bed, and clothing, was always on hand, and cotton carefully laid away for an emergency. She is a good Christian woman, although belonging to no particular church. None in want ever left her door without some gift or token of remembrance. Sociable and friendly with all her guests, her table was ever spread for charity.

Chester Stephens, one of the earliest settlers of Tioga Point, was born March 12, 1785, at Kingston, Luzerne Co., and came to Athens (Tioga Point), with his father, Ira Stephens, in 1788. Ira Stephens was born at Stonington, Conn., July 24, 1760. Jedediah Stephens, father of Ira Stephens, was born in 1703, and died in 1790, and was among the first persons buried in the old graveyard in Athens. To Ira Stephens, July 12, 1812, was patented the property since known as the "Tyler farm," at Milltown. Chester Stephens lived, upon his arrival in Milltown, in the old homestead of William Matthewson, at the foot of Spanish hill. The deed of the other heirs of the Tyler property-formerly the Stephens patent to Ira Stephens bears date of June 27, 1817 ; the property contained 176 acres and 3 perches. In 1817, Chester Stephens bought of John Arnot the present residence of the survivors of this family, in Athens Borough. The lot is 99 feet front on Main street, and the consideration paid was $1200. He married, Oct. 10, 1811, Lucinda Grant, of Stonington, Conn.; the ceremony took place in the old Simon Spalding house, in Milltown, formerly occupied by John Shepbard. Lucinda Grant was born March 13, 1794. She was the niece of John Shephard.

At the time of the removal of Chester Stephens to Athens and the purchase of the Arnot property, the lot contained "a low, rambling building," to which a store was attached. It was considered at the time the most valuable property in the settlement; in earlier times it had been occupied by an Indian cabin. At this place Mr. Stephens subsequently engaged in mercantile business. The house still remains in the family, and at the present writing (1878) is the residence of his surviving daughter, Miss Caroline B. Stephens, and her maternal grandfather. Mr. Stephens had three children, Clara H., Caroline B., and a son, W. G. Stephens. The eldest, Clam H., was a woman of literary tastes, and contributed to the periodicals of the day. Her list contribution bears date of' Aug. 10, 1860, in the Masonic Review, published in Cincinnati, Ohio. A few days after this appeared she died. Site is described as an exceptionally amiable, refined, and intelligent woman. The closing years of Mr. Stephens life were attended by severe physical affliction. During this time, a period of about ten years, he was constantly attended and ministered to by his devoted younger daughter, who survives him. Mr. Stephens was an ardent Mason, and of this order was made an honorary member, Dec. 26, 1854. He was among the very last survivors of the "early times" and primeval periods of the Susquehanna valley, and from his remembrance of that day many interesting memoranda have been published in the publication of his kinswoman, Mrs. G. E. Perkins, "Early Times on the Susquehanna."

Remainder of document is from beneath the illustrations on page 272 of the book. (Transcriber Note BP)

Zephon P. Walker, the fourth child from the union of George Walker (in German, Walger) with Zuliema W. Flower, was born on 1st July, 1824, at Factoryville, N. Y. His father was a farmer. He remained upon the farm until the age of ten years, when he Was adopted, and went to live with his uncle, Nathaniel Flower in Athens township, the same year that Mr. Flower purchased the homestead farm of Col. John Franklin's estate. Here his time was passed in helping on the farm in the summer season and in attending school in the winter, some of the time at the old Franklin schoolhouse, and other times at the Athens academy. While at the academy he learned the theory of surveying, and after retiring from the school took up, without any tutor, mapping and the study of civil engineering. At the age of sixteen he was instructed by his grandfather, Major Flower, in practical surveying and was with him on his surveys as long as he continued in the business, which was in 1842. After this he continued the surveying, mapping, civil engineering business until August, 1915. Among his first work as a surveyor was the allotment of the Edw. Overton tract of several thousand acres in Herrick township, and the Overton steam-mill tract in Burlington. The year 1849 he was with Col. Joseph Kingsbury writing conveyances, making maps, and surveying, at a salary of sixteen dollars per month. While there he made a large connected map of the warrants and subdivision of the De Cater purchase in this county, which was sent to Mr. De Cater, in Antwerp, Belgium. The name year he made a connected map of the De Chastellux land in Orwell, Pike, Rome, and Herrick townships. He was with Col. Kingsbury at the time of his decease.

In 1852 he was with C. L. Ward, Esq., in Towanda at a salary of thirty dollars per month, in the field surveying in the towns of Towanda, Burlington, Smithfield, Ulster, Columbia, Troy, Granville, Canton, Leroy, Franklin, Monroe, Albany, and in Sullivan and Tioga counties. When in the office, he made maps of the lands Mr. Ward owned and was agent for. This year Nathaniel Flower died, and the homestead of the Franklin farm came into his Possession. In 1853 he was still with Mr. Ward, on an increased salary of four hundred dollars per year, acting as surveyor, collection agent, and writing conveyances, etc.; in 1864 was with Col. C. F. Wells, of Athens, at fifty dollars per month, acting as secretary, surveyor, and supervisor of his home business, which included collecting material for his new house and farm, fencing, saw-mill running, etc.

In the fall of 1854 he left Mr. Wells and went home to take care of the late Major Flower in his last illness. He was married on 9th August, 1865, to Rebecca M. Franklin (by the Rev. F. S. Warren), at Seneca, Lenawee Co., Mich., she being the great-granddaughter of Col. John Franklin, and, probably, the only blood relative living in Pennsylvania. After his marriage he lived upon the farm, but continued the surveying business. In 1861 he compiled and had published a farm map of Athens Township and borough. In 1866 made a geological and topographical survey of the Schraeder Company Coal and Iron lands in this county and an elaborate map of the same: he camped in the woods for over four months in making this survey. In the spring of 1869 he took a position as civil engineer on the Geneva, Ithaca and Sayre railroad; remained thereon till the trains were running on the Ithaca and Sayre division of it, October 1871. From this date he did a large amount of surveying, etc., among which was laying out the towns of Sayre, South Waverly, Waverly Extension, etc.

Politically his views are liberal. Originally an old-line Whig, he was with the Republicans two or three years, and declined a nomination as county surveyor at their hands, but was run by the Democrats and beaten. He has filled the office of town clerk for twelve yews, that of assessor two years, and was secretary of the school board several years. Since 1876 his time has been occupied by farming, dealing in lumber, railroad ties, etc. He helped to raise and went as First Lieutenant of a company of militia from Athens upon Gov. Curtis's call, when Pennsylvania was invaded the first time; was at Hagerstown as the rebs re-crossed the Potomac; was in hearing of the cannonading at the close of the South Mounain fight; he was drafted on Lincoln's third call, but furnished a substitute.

Rebecca M. Walker, second child of Amon and Cynthia Franklin, was born at Seneca, Lenawee County, Mich., August 9, 1887. Her father was son of Billy Franklin, and grandson of the late Col. John Franklin. At the age of seventeen he came to live with his grandfather in Athens, and remained there until after the death of the colonel in 1831. In May 1836, he married Cynthia McKinney, and moved to Michigan, then a territory and wilderness; purchased a farm and remained there until his death, June 2, 1846. During the year 1858, in company with her mother, sister, and two brothers, she made a visit to her mother's relatives in Bradford Co., Pa., and remained there teaching school two terms in Athens Township. She received her education mostly in the district schools of her native state. In April 1855, she returned to her mother's home in Seneca, Mich., and was married there, on the 9th day of the ensuing August, to Zephon F. Walker. After her marriage she came back to Athens, Pa., and began house-keeping on the farm known as the Col. John Franklin homestead, where he lived, died, and is buried. The result of this union was five children: Franklin Z., born June 4, 1866; Nathaniel F., born May 28, 1858; Alfred Irving, born Jan. 28, 1860; Clara born Feb. 28, 1865; Ada May, born April 15, l867. All are still living at home.

She has had an active life. Her husband's business calling him go much from home made her duties much greater; the farm sustained a dairy, the care of which, together with that of the family and household, all devolved upon her, and a part of the time the supervision of the farm. She is a Christian woman and inculcates religious principles in her household, but belongs to no church.