1770. History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania. With illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers

Front matter

LAKE P§IB HELL. TOUR MILES FROM TOWUNDA.fA. 1770. xaAsTO*l- OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. <_£-=> WITH ==^_J illnsiratians anil |||iagraphical »hefrhir^ MS^OF^^j SOME OF ITS PROMINENT MEN AND PIONEERS. ZPtrBLISIEIEIJ BY Xl- H. lEVIER-TS & CO., 714— 18 Filbert Street, Philadelphia. -1878. — PRESS OF J. 8, LlPPlNCOTT & CO.. PHILADELPHIA. CONTENTS. HISTORICAL. HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY. CHAPTF.R page I. — The Aborigines ........ 9 II. — Land Controversies ....... 29 III. — Settlements in Bradford County Previous to the Battle of Wyoming, July 3, 1778 49 IV. — Bradford County during the Revolutionary War . 67 V. — Renewal of Settlements ...... 85 VI. — Indian Treaty at Athens 91 VII. — French Settlement at Asylum 95 VIII.— Colonel John Franklin 101 IX. — Organization of the County, and the Erection of Townships ......... 107 X. — Geography, Topography, and Geology . . . 117 XL— Education 120 XII.— Churches 12« XIII.— Societies 169 XIV. — The Learned Professions— Law— the Bar — Medical . 181 XV.— The Press, Authors, and Books 186 XVI.— Political History of Bradford County . . .192 'XVII.— Military History of Bradford County . . .200 XVlII.— Miscellaneous Items 249 HISTORY OF THE TOWNSHIPS.

Albany 260 Armenia .......-••• 264 Asylum ......-•••• 267 Athens 270 Barclay 286 Burlington 287 Canton 294 Columbia 302 Franklin 305' Granville 3C9 Herrick 3n PA0E Le Roy 313 Litchfield 315 Monroe 320 North Towanda 324 Orwell 326 Overton 334 Pike 336 Ridgeberry .......... 345 Rome 349 Sheshequin .......... 356 Smithfield 368 South Creek 374 Springfield .......... 375 Standing Stone 379 Terry 382 Towanda 382 Towanda Borough 389 Troy 408 Tuscarora ... . . 418 Ulster 422 Warren ........... 42S Wells 432 West Burlington 433 Wilmot 435 Windham 438 Wyalusing 441 Wysox 453 Roster of Soldiers is the War of the Rebellion, from Bradford County 460 Appendix .......... 489 List of Patrons of the History of Bradford County . i. — ix ILLTJSTRATIOITS. PAGE Lake, Pond Hill (frontispiece) .... facing title Map of Bradford County facing 9 Indian Map of Bradford County "*■• Plan of Friedenshiitten in 1771 ..»..«- 23 Map of Certified Townships in Bradford County ... 38 " Susquehanna Company's Townships . . facing 41 " Bradford County in 1812 ....

"113 Portrait of Col. John Franklin (steel) ... " 101 Col. Franklin's Grave I0"7 Portrait of S. W. Alvord I89 " Judson Holcomb 189 " Wm. H. H. Gore 207 ALBANY. Portraits of Moses A. and Mrs. Jane Ladd .... 260 Cold Spring Trout Fishery, S. B. Eilenberger . between 432, 433 ASYLUM. Portraits of Jonathan and Mrs. Sallie Stevens . . facing 260 Residenco of Robert Bull (with portraits) . . " 262 " J. A. Hornet " ... " 267 PAGE Residence of F. X. Hornet (with portraits) . . facing 268 " Valley Farm," Res. of F. H. Hagermau (with portraits, double page) between 268, 269 Residence of P. W. Morey facing 269 ATHENS. Residence of David Paine, "Old Homestead" . . facing 260 " R. A. Packer, Sayre .... "270 " Z. F. Walker .... between 272, 273 Portraits of Zephon Flower and Z. F. Walker and wife, bet. 272, 273 Residence of Joseph McKinney (with portraits) " facing 274 Bridge Works of Kellogg and Maurice ...

Preface

This work, which has for some time attracted considerable attention from the people of Bradford County, is now ready to be placed in their hands to receive their approval or disapprobation, according, as in the judgment of the reader, it is meritorious or otherwise. The author will not deny that it is with some degree of trepidation that he presents the fruits of his labor for the criticism of the public, but he indulges the hope that a community which has been so deeply interested in its production, will be equally generous to forgive any imperfections they may discover. The writing of a history is like building a house, it is never done, but done or undone, must be used some time. No one can be more certain of the extent in which the work is undone than the author. Some things, however, he feels that justice to himself and to others require to be said.

The plan of the work is somewhat different from that usually followed in similar histories. Instead of making as little of the general history as possible, and throwing the bulk of the material into township annals, he has pursued exactly an opposite course; just as little has been put into the account of the town ships as could be well done; those things only are found there which were strictly local. Great pains have been taken to insure accuracy. It has been the author's purpose if mistakes were made at all, that they should be in omitting what might be said, and not in saying what was not true; but with all the pains taken to secure accuracy, mistakes will doubtless be found. There will also be things in the book which will not be of interest to some, and others will be disappointed that other things were not mentioned.

In the make up of a book no two persons of equal intelligence will exactly agree. It must be a matter of taste and judgment with the author. One of the things in which special interest has been taken, was to obtain a complete military record of every man who went from Bradford County into the army of the Union. A couple of years since, circulars were published in the newspapers of the county asking for information, and in many cases letters were written, making personal solicitations of friends to furnish this information from their respective neighborhoods. While in a few cases responses have been prompt, and the lists complete, or nearly so, others were sadly defective and imperfect, while in a great majority of cases no answer whatever was made to the call. In two instances, — and one of these where it was supposed most pains would be taken, and the list would be most complete, — though retained to the last moment, they were sent with only the simple names, without rank, name of regiment or company, date of muster or discharge, or any remarks of any sort whatever.

To print such lists as a complete roster of the soldiers of Bradford would be an insult to the living and a reproach to the dead. The plan which the author had cherished, and which he still believes would have been far preferable to any other, was to have given the rosters at the end of each township. This, how ever, was simply impossible. The only thing which could be done was to take Bates' Reports as the basis, making such corrections and additions as the material in hand should suggest.

PREFACE.

. 8 Effort has been made to reach bottom facts, and the author has but little fear that any future worker will get below him. In the other things which give value to a local history, — the early settlers, the associations into which they entered, whether religious, social, or political, and statistics, — it is hoped nothing more will be wished. The author is under personal obligations to numerous citizens of the county, who have freely and cheerfully made contributions to our history. For such contributions Messrs. O. D. Fields, of Armenia, Edward Herrick, Esq., of Athens, A. T. Lilley, of Le Roy, Dr. G. F. Horton, of Terry, C. C. Payne, of Troy, Rev. C. E. Taylor, of Whitney's Point, O. N. Worden, of New Milford, Pa., James D. Ridgway, of Franklin, Rev. J. Jewell, of Troy, and numerous others, as well as the press generally, thanks are due.

He is under especial obligations to H. B. Peirce, Esq., on the staff of the publishers' historical corps, for most valuable assistance, who freely gave his time and the results of his large experience to various parts of the work, and whose suggestions and services are entitled to the thanks of its patrons. To the publishers great credit is due for the energy, liberality, and skill they have exhibited in bringing out the work. They have, without stint or complaint, cheerfully furnished the author all the assistance in their power, and, at a personal sacrifice, have complied with his suggestions in the matter of illustrations, furnishing a considerable number of valuable portraits of old or important citizens at his request. Whatever may be thought of the matter contained in the work, the dress, illustrations, typography, and presswork are in the best style.

The History of Bradford County has passed through the fire, not of adverse criticism, but of consuming flames. In the great fire of March 26 the bindery was destroyed, and with it much of the printed history. Immediately an extra force was obtained, and the presses have been run night and day, so what would, in many instances, have seriously delayed or indefinitely postponed so large a work as this, has not deferred its publication for a single day. To the author, the preparation of this work has been a labor of love, and with a feeling somewhat akin to that with which a father parts with a child going from the paternal roof-tree to seek fame and fortune in this busy world of competition and strife, so he parts with this, commending it to the sons and daughters of the heroic pioneers of " Old Bradford," whose names and virtues he has endeavored to embalm, and to whose memory this feeble production is most respectfully dedicated by THE AUTHOR. HISTOEY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA BY REV. DAVID CRAFT.

Chapter I

of his daring journey into a wild and unbroken wilderness- It was, however, familiar ground to the red man. Here had been the dwellings of his people for untold generations. Here were the paths his feet had trod, whose marks a century has not been able wholly to obliterate ; here his bones still lie in the soil ; here the earth was stained with his blood shed in the fierce encounter ; and here, in after-times, many of them bowed in humble, reverent faith upon the Son of God, endured hardness as good soldiers of Jesus Christ, and bear record that they were found faithful unto death. To briefly sketch a portion of the history of these aboriginal inhabitants of our county, a few pages must be devoted. THE ABORIGINES. When this continent first became known to the Eu ropean nations, it was well-nigh a solitary and unbroken wilderness.

No axe had felled a tree, no plowshare had broken its soil, no commerce had traversed its great natural highways of inland seas and far-reaching rivers. Here and there, in some favored locality, might be found clustered, with the utmost irregularity, a few wigwams of the red men, the original tenants of the soil, with patches of maize, beans, and squashes, cultivated by the women ; now and then might be met a party of begrimed and frightfully painted warriors, either going to or returning from some maraud ; and in the autumn time might be seen companies of men, women, and children encamped at the favorite re sorts of game, seeking stores of food for winter use; but the general appearance of the country was that of a vast, uninhabited, uncultivated domain of unbounded luxuriance and fertility.

Bancroft remarks,* that a man might travel for weeks without meeting a single' human being ; that the diminution of the native population is far less than has usually been supposed ; they have been exiled, not exter minated. The tribes may have been lost, but the people who composed them have been received into others. This author estimates the whole number of the aborigines within the bounds of the United States east of the Mississippi, two hundred years ago, at not far from one hundred and eighty thousand souls, which is about three times the present population of Bradford County. Although possessing many common characteristics from which a unity of origin may be inferred, yet owing to dif ferences of language, law, and locality, the Indians were divided into families, nations, clans, and villages.

As the design of this work will confine our account to the people who from time to time were actual occupants of our soil, no detailed statements of general Indian history can here be given.f It is utterly impossible to follow up the stream of abo riginal history farther than the period when the country first became known to the Europeans. The reason for this is twofold. First, the Indian had no written language. All he knew of the past was what he had received in the uncertain and fanciful traditions of his ancestors, whose vague and contradictory accounts at the best only suggest the merest conjectures. And then, for a long time previous to its discovery, the whole continent had been " the scene of widespread revolution. North and south, tribe was giving place to tribe, language to language ; for the Indian, hopelessly unchanging in respect to individual and social development, was, as regarded tribal relations and local haunts, mutable as the wind."

To note these local haunts, mutations, and the social character of the tribes who once The traveler who now passes up and down this beautiful Susquehanna valley, observes its well-cultivated farms, its thriving villages, its numerous schools and churches, its beautiful residences and delightful landscapes, the every where present tokens of thrift, refinement, and culture, can hardly imagine that less than a century and a half ago this whole valley had never been visited by a white man, unless it were some adventurous trader, who has left us no record t For further information the reader is referred to De Schweinitz's "Life and Times of Zeisberger;" Parkman's "Jesuits in North America;" " Pontiao Conspiracy ;" Bancroft's " History of the United States," vol. iii.; Morgan's "Iroquois League;" Sohoolcraft, Ilecke wclder, and others. • History of the United States, iii., p. 253. 2 Dr. Egle's History of Pennsylvania, give a full account of these conflicts: made their home in these valleys, is all that can be attempted.

" The vast tract of wilderness from the Mississippi to the Atlantic, and from the Carolinas to Hudson's bay, was di vided between two great families of tribes, distinguished by a radical difference of language." These were called, respectively, Algonquin* (original people), and Aqiutnoschioni (united people). The latter were more commonly known among the white people by the names Iroquois, Mengwe, and Five Nations. At the period when the whites first became acquainted with this territory, the Iroquois proper extended through central New York from the Hudson river to the Genesee, and comprised five distinct nations confederated together, which, beginning on the east, were known as Mohawks, Oneidas, Onondagas, Cayugas, and Senecas. West of them were the Ilttrons, the Neutral Nation, and the Fries ; on the south were tbe Andastes, on the Susquehanna, and the Delawares on the river which bears their name ; on the east the various Algonquin tribes which inhabited New England.

" Prior to 1 600, says the ' Relation de la Nouvelle France,' the Susquehannas and the Mohawks came into collision, and the former nearly exterminated their enemy in a war which lasted ten years. In 1608, Captain Smith, in ex ploring the Chesapeake and its tributaries, met a party of these Sasquesaha nocks, as he calls them, and he states that they were still at war with the Mohawks. " They were friendly to the Dutch, who were exploring the mouth of the Delaware. When the Swedes came, in 1638, they renewed the friendly intercourse begun by the Dutch. Southward, also, they carried the terror of their arms, and from 1634 to 1644 they waged war on the Yao macoes, the Piscataways, and Patnxents, and were so troublesome that, in 1642, Governor Calvert, by proclama tion, declared them public enemies.

"When the Hurons, in 1647, began to sink under the fearful blows dealt by the Five Nations, the Susquehannas sent an embassy to offer them aid against the common enemy. Nor was the offer one of little value, for the Sus quehannas could put into the field one thousand three hun dred warriors, trained to the use of fire-arms and European modes of war by three Swedish soldiers, whom they had obtained to instruct them." This is doubtless the era of the fortifications on Spanish Hill and at the mouth of Sugar creek. These fortifications bear unmistakable evidence of having been constructed under tho supervision of white people, and differ materially from the palisaded inclosures of Indian construction. The origin and objects of these defenses must always bo in some measure matter of conjec ture'; but all the traditions relating to Spanish Hill attribute the defenses to white men long before the settlement of the whites, and their object to afford resistance to the Iroquois ; and about this time the Andastes were waging war in good earnest with the Five Nations, in which the Cayugas were so hard pressed that some of them retreated across Lake Ontario into Canada, and the Senecas were kept in such alarm that they no longer ventured to carry their peltries to New York except in caravans guarded by an escort.

Of the Andastes, who as early as 1620 were the inhabitants of the Susquehanna valley, but comparatively little is known. They are spoken of by various writers as Andas tes, Andastracronnons, Andastaguez, Antastoui, Minquas, Susquehaimocks, Concstogas, and Conessetagoes. " Galla tin erroneously places the Andastes on the Allegheny, Ban croft and others adopting the error. The research of Mr. Shea has shown their identity with the Susquehaimocks of the English and the Minquas of the Dutch."* In 1750, a Cayuga chieftain informed David Zeisberger that a strange tribe of Indians whom the Cayugas called Tehotaclise (so spelled in German), but which were neither Iroquois nor Delawares, formerly inhabited this valley, and were driven out by tbe Cayugas. In a letter written by Captain Joseph Brant, the noted Indian warrior, to Colonel Timothy Pickering, relative to the Iroquois claim to the northern part of Pennsylvania, and dated at Niagara, De cember 30, 1794, he says, " The whole Five Nations have an equal right one with another, the country having been obtained by their joint exertions in war with a powerful nation formerly living southward of Buffalo creek, called Fries, and another nation then living at Tioga Point, so that by our successes all the country between that and the Mississippi became the joint property of the Five Nations.

All other nations inhabiting this great tract of country were allowed to settle by the Five Nations." That the Andastes are referred to by both these there can hardly be a doubt. Later, the power of the Susquehannas seems to have been on the wane, and they to have abandoned their towns above Wyoming about 1650. They were so hard pressed by their enemies that the legislature of Maryland in 1661 authorized the governor to aid them with the provincial forces. In the spring of 1662 about eight hundred Iroquois set out to capture a fort of the Andustes situated about fifty miles from the mouth of the Susquehanna. On reaching the fort it was found to be so well defended as to render an assault impracticable, when the Iroquois had recourse to stratagem. They sent a party of twenty-five men to settle a peace and obtain provisions for their return.

The Sus quehannas admitted them, built high scaffolds, visible from without, on which they tortured the Iroquois messengers to death in sight of their countrymen, who thereupon de camped in miserable discomfiture, pursued by the victorious Andastes. The war between the Andastes and Iroquois at length degenerated into one of mutual inroads, in which the former, greatly reduced by pestilence, gradually melted away This was one of the most populous and powerful of all the Algonquin tribes. Their villages were thickly planted from Tioga to Virginia. At Sheshequin and Wysox, at Wyalusing (Gohontato) and at Mehoopany (Onochsae), the names of their towns have been preserved. They appear to have been the most warlike of all the eastern nations, having carried their conquests over the tribes of New Jer sey, Maryland, and Virginia.

For more than three-fourths of a century they waged almost an unceasing war with the Iroquois, by which the whole valley of the Susquehanna " was stained with blood." The following paragraphs, from * Parkman's " Jesuits," p. 16, note. before the superior numbers of their enemies, so that in 1672 they could muster only three hundred warriors. the west to the Mississippi. Tioga, present Athens, was made the southern entrance to the confederacy, at which a sachem was stationed, without whose consent no one, neither Indian nor white man, was allowed to enter the territory of the Iroquois. At Sliamokin, present Sunbury, the Great Council had a viceroy, a Cayuga sachem, who ruled their dependencies in the south. "In 1675, according to the 'Relations Inedites' and Colden, the tribe was completely overthrown, but unfor tunately we have no details whatever as to the forces which effected it,* or the time and manner of their defeat.

Too proud to submit as vassals of the Iroquois, and too weak to contend against them, they forsook the Susquehanna, and took up a position on the western borders of Maryland, where for many years they kept up a terrible berder war with the whites. A remnant of this valiant people con tinued to subsist in the central part of the State, under the name of Conestogas, for nearly a century after, when they were utterly destroyed by the Paxton Boys in 1763. Along the Delaware river, and extending across New Jersey, were the Lenni Leuape, or Delawares, divided into three tribes, — the Turtles or Uuamis on the south, the Turkeys or Unalachtgos in the centre, and the Wolves or Miitsis on the north. Tbe latter had their villages in the Minisink country, on the head-waters of the Delaware, and were generally called by the English Monseys.

By con quest, as was claimed by the Iroquois, by treachery, as was alleged by tbe Delawares, the former had reduced the lat ter to the condition of vassals, deprived them of the right of warriors, and compelled them to bear the taunt aud as sume, the garb of women. They were allowed neither to sell land, engage in war, nor make treaties, unless witn the consent of their domineering masters. It was owing quite as much to this condition of complete subjugation of his Indiau neighbors, as to the peaceable character of his Quaker policy, that the province of Penn was so long ex empted from the bloody wars and massacres which form so dark a page of our colonial history. The Iroquois, who held the rule over this Susquehanna valley for more than a century, were the only Indian nations who possessed anything approaching the forms of civil gov ernment.

Originally a single nation, they were composed of a number of clans or families, each of which was distinguished by its family badge or totem, and bearing the name of some animal. The line of descent was in the mother, and intermarriages between those wearing the same totemic badge was interdicted. In time the nation became divided into several parts, five of which occupied central New York, but the national tie bad become very weak, if it had not become entirely dissolved. In order to defend themselves against their common enemies, as well as to carry on their vast conquests, they united in a league or confederation, whose common interests were committed to a great council composed of fifty sachems or hereditary chieftains, of whom the Mohawks were represented by nine, the Oueidas nine, tho Onondagas fourteen, the Cayugas ten, and the Senecas eight.

Each member of this council enjoyed equal rights and suffrage, and the decisions of the body were the supreme law of the confederacy. The Indian instinctively withdraws from the presence of civilization. This peculiarity of Indian character com pletely frustrated the benevolent plan of William Penn, in which he designed that his white and red brethren should dwell together iu the same community, and be governed by the same laws. It was found to be equally necessary in the province as it had been in other colonies, that the Indian must retire beyond the white settlements, to whose laws and customs he could not conform, and whose restraints he would not endure. As the Iroquois from time to time sold the land of their dependencies to the whites, they opened the valley of the Susquehanna as an asylum to which the people, whom they had deprived of their ancestral homes, and over whom they exercised the rights of protection as well as command, might resort.

By this policy families of different nationalities were brought into the same village, and not unfrequently were occupants of the same wigwam, so that it was no uncommon thing to find Nanticolces, Mo hicans, Monseys, and Wampanoags living together without any tribal distinction whatever. Tioga, or as it is more frequently written in Pennsylvania records, Diahoga, from its important situation in the Iroquois territory, was prob ably occupied as a town immediately after its conquest ; but from there to Shamokin the country was almost entirely un occupied for a hundred years, when it was colonized by the refugees whose possessions had been sold to the whites. The Tuscaroras, who were of the same generic stock as the New York Iroquois, and whose ancient seats were on the Neuse and Tar rivers, from which they were driven on account of their implacable enmity to the white settlers, were received in 1712 as the sixth nation of the confederacy, after which the league took the title of the Six Nations.

The Tuscaroras, however, were not represented by sachems of their own in the Great Council, nor had they assigned them any specific bounds in the territory. In case of a general war two supreme military chieftains, one of whom was a Mohawk, directed the campaign. Usually, however, the chiefs assumed command with mueh less formality. At a feast or war-dance some brave, who had shown daring and won success in previous encounters, recounted the grievances of his nation, his own deeds of valor, and invited as many as wished to avenge the wrongs of their people to follow him on the war-path. If the ex pedition was successful the leader took his place by common consent among the war-chiefs of his nation. The Iroquois and Delawares each have a tradition of an early eastward emigration from regions west of the Missis sippi to the places where they were found by the Europeans.

The period of our later Indian history finds that wave returning towards the setting sun. It is, therefore, a period of commotion among tribes easily excited, of removal and change among a people who, in the most quiet times, abandoned the places of their habitation for the most trivial By virtue of their superior civil and military organiza tion, the Iroquois soon became the dominant power among the aborigines, and, after the conquest of the Andastes, carried their arms in triumph on the south to the Gulf and on * By the Five Nations, without doubt. reasons. Mohicans and Wampanoags from southeastern New York and from New England, Delawares from New Jer sey and eastern Pennsylvania, Nanticokes, Tuscaroras, and Shaicanees from the south, pushed from their ancient homes by the rapacity of the white man, were seeking new homes and fresh hunting-grounds, where they would henceforth be free from encroachment.

To tbe Iroquois the native fugitives looked for defense from the grasping policy of the whites, and for counsel and permission as to where they should fix their future seats. It happened, therefore, that during this period this tide of western emigration was push ing up both branches of the Susquehanna, in order to pour itself upon the great plains between the Alleghanies and the Mississippi, only to be forced still farther west by the advancing tide of civilization. Minisink country, with a number of families, came to Wya lusing, and built a new town a little below the site of the old Gohontoto. During the French war the town was probably abandoned. In the journals of Moses Tatemy and Isaac Hill, who were sent, June, 1758, by the Pennsylvania government to the Six Nations and their dependencies, inviting them to a council it was proposed to hold at Easton the following autumn, they speak of breakfasting with " Pa poonhank" on their return, before reaching Diahoga, from which it would appear that during the war he had removed higher up the Susquehanna, probably to the vicinity of Oswego.

In 1760 this village is described as consisting of "about twenty houses full of people, very good land, and good Indian buildings, all new." Three years afterwards, this town, which was called McChiwihilusing (or Wyaloo sing), had increased to a village " of about forty houses, mostly compact together, some about thirty feet long and eighteen feet wide, some bigger, some less, mostly built of split planks, one end set in the ground and the other pinned to a plate, on which lay rafters covered with bark."§ On the breaking out of the Pontiac war, in 1763, Papunhank, with twenty-one of his followers, not wishing to take part in the war, joined the Moravian Indians assembled about Bethlehem, and afterwards went with them to Philadel phia, where they were sheltered in government barracks until the close of the war.

The remainder of the Indians at Wyalusing, as most of she others of the Algonquin tribes in this part of the country, sympathized with the hostile party, and many of them took up arms in its in terest. |] The result was, that all of their settlements in the county, below Tioga, were abandoned. Of the three great topics of Indian history, — the location of their villages, their wars, and their migrations, — the last is by far the most important, so far as it relates to our im mediate locality during the period of its later history, the materials for which are very meagre, being contained in the journals of travelers and messengers in the interests of the Moravian church or of the government of Pennsylva nia, in their passage through the country, beginning with that of Conrad Weiser, in 1737, a period comparatively early in our Pennsylvania history, it being only forty-five years after the landing of William Penn, and five years be fore the founding of Bethlehem, and continuing for about thirty-five years.