Memoir of Major Jason Torrey, of Bethany, Wayne County, Pa.

Prefatory Note

Jason Torrey, popularly known as Major Torrey, was one of the earliest settlers in Northeastern Pennsylvania, and was efficiently and conspicuously associated with the first half century of its material and social development.

He reared a large family, and the majority of his descendants has remained in the vicinity of the scenes of his laborious and fruitful activities.

But neither he, nor any of his progenitors, in so far as we know, nor any of his descendants, until within a few years, have devoted any attention to the collecting or preserving of any comprehensive genealogical information concerning either the earlier or later generations of the family. Whatever work had been done in this direction, consisted merely of limited family records, made for separate households, and many of these were found to be very incomplete and fragmentary.

In the autumn of i860, John Torrey, son of Jason Torrey, visited Williamstown, Mass., the place of the latter's birth and early life, and while at the house of

4 Prefatory Note.

a cousin, who resided on the Homestead, he learned that in the garret there were many old letters which Grandfather had received from his sons after their leaving the parental roof, and had carefully preserved. He arranged with his cousin to select such as were from Jason or his wife, or from his brother Ephraim, who also removed to Bethany, that he might bring them home with him. A large package of letters was thus obtained, written at various dates, from 1793 to the time of the decease of our grandparents.

These letters contained a great amount of interesting and valuable historic information, which it would have been impossible to obtain from any other reliable source.

A careful perusal and re-perusal of these letters, and of Father's early diary, led John Torrey to decide, a few years ago, to endeavor to trace out the ancestry of the family; and he undertook a series of comprehensive and systematic investigations and inquiries, which have been prosecuted with an amount of labor and a degree of expert skill, which no inexperienced person would imagine to be necessary, and which have resulted in bringing to the knowledge of the now living members of the family, a distinct and unbroken line of descent for very nearly two centuries and a half on this continent; extending back to within twenty years of the landing of the Mayflower, and for a hundred years still further

Prefatory Note. 5

back in England — viz: to the time of a William Torrcy, who died at Combe St. Nicholas, in Somerset County, England, in 1557.

These inquiries have also revealed, incidentally, many items of interesting and gratifying information concerning persons of excellent worth, and some of broad and honorable distinction, who were descended from the first William Torrey, of Weymouth, Mass., but outside the line which leads to Jason and his descendants.

While the statistical results of these inquiries have been embodied in a tabulated Genealogy, which will be printed for the family, the diary and letters of Major Torrey, above referred to, and the memories of him thus freshly awakened have led to the printing of the following brief Memoir, as a tribute of grateful affection and reverence from his surviving sons, as a means also, of bringing some knowledge of his life and character to, and preserving it for, his younger and his future descendants, and in the belief that many of the citizens of the county, especially those of more advanced years, will take a pleasant interest in reading these reminiscences of the county's early history.

The work of finding and selecting the documentary material for this memoir has been done by the oldest, the expense of putting it in the form of a book borne by the second, and the whole arranged

6 Prefatory Note.

and prepared for die press by the third and youngest of Major Torrey's surviving children.

This work has been one of Qreat delight to these remaing sons — with filial pride, as well as with filial affection, they present this brief memorial sketch of their honored Father for the use of his descendants and kindred, and of such other persons as may feel an interest in the character it represents, or in the events it records.

Honesdale, February, 1885.

MEMOIR OF MAJOR JASON TORREY.

i

The name, Torrey, is evidently an Anglicised form of the Spanish word Torre, which originally meant a Tower, but became the patronymic of many Spanish families, and the name often occurs in Spanish records and dispatches.

It is probable that our English ancestry came originally from Spain, though we are not aware of owning any "castles" in that country at the present date.

Nor are we able to learn much concerning our ancestors in England, but through the kindness of our kinsman, Mr. H. A. Newton, of Weymouth, Mass., we obtain the results of examinations made of the official records of Somerset County in that country.

These records show :

i That the will of William Torrey, of Combe St. Nicholas in said county, was proven on June 18, 1557, and Thomasyne, his wife is named as his Executrix. His "children" are mentioned but not named in the will.

2 That the will of Philip Torrey, son of the above, was dated August 31, 1604, and mentions his son William and daughter Dorothei, and names Margaret, his wife, as Executrix.

3 That William Torrey, son of the above Philip, was living at the date of the death of Jane, his wife, who was buried on the 27th April, 1639.

4 That the will of Philip Torrey, son of the last named William, was proven on 27th June, 1621. His wife Alice is mentioned as Executrix, and the will mentions three daughters, Annie, Mary and Sarah, and four sons, William, James, Philip and Joseph. The will of Alice, 4 the widow, is dated in 1634, mentions the same seven children, by name, and refers to the previous death of the daughter Mary.

From the provisions of these last two wills it is evident that at the date of the father's death in 1621, all the children were minors and some of them in early childhood.

We, also, have reliable information that William Torrey, eldest son of the last named Philip, born at Combe St. Nicholas, in 1608, was married to Agnes, daughter of Joseph Combe — the name being suggestive of the probability that she belonged to the family which gave the place its name.

This William Torrey had a son, born at Combe St. Nicholas in 1632, named Samuel, and another, born at the same place in 1638, named William, and then a daughter, Naomi, born at Weymouth, Mass., December 3, 1641, that place having, meanwhile, become his residence.

He is known to have been at his home in Encrland in the early part of 1640. So that he must have migrated to America during the Summer or Autumn of that year.

Early Colonial Branches. 9

It is also known that his brother Philip came in the same ship with him, and that he found his home in Roxbury, Mass., where he died in 1686, leaving no children in so far as we know.

Also that the brother James was settled at Scituate, Mass., in 1640, and there were born to him five sons and five daughters. He was a military officer and was killed by an explosion of powder, at Scituate, July 5, 1664. It is found that after his death his brother William, at Weymouth, became guardian of at least two of his children (Jonathan and Mary) who grew up in his family at Weymouth, with the very singular result that, after more than two hundred years, the numerous Torreys, now living at Weymouth, are all descended from James, though William was the permanent resident of that place, and reared a large family there; while the only descendants of William now there, bear other names.

From James was descended the Rev. Charles T. Torrey, widely known as the " Martyr Torrey," because some courageous attacks of his upon the system of Southern Slavery were decided to be violations of law, and he was thrown into a Baltimore prison and died there not far from 1850.

Still the other and youngest brother, Joseph Torrey, was a land owner at Weymouth in 1643, but settled afterwards at Newport, Rhode Island. The records of that town show that Joseph Torrey was, in 1 66 1, appointed on a committee to raise subscriptions for sending Roger Williams and John Clark to England, on business relative to the charter of the town of Newport, and that in 1670 Joseph Torrey was i o Memoir of Major Jason Torrey.

appointed on a commission "in regard to entrance made into our jurisdiction by some people of Connecticut, and of their carrying away some of the inhabitants prisoners." He died in 1675.

Thus we have positive information that our English ancestor, William, who came to this country in 1640, and was commonly designated as Captain William Torrey, had three brothers, residing in and near Weymouth from 1640 onwards.

II

The said William Torrey, it will be remembered brought two sons with him from England to Weymouth, both in their boyhood at the time of the immigration.

The older of these two sons, Samuel, became a man of marked distinction.

He received his education at Harvard College, almost as soon as it became a college, and must have been one of its earliest graduates.

He became a clergyman, and after preaching for a few years at Hull, was made pastor in 1664, of the church at Weymouth.

It is interesting to notice, as a curiosity of this kind of literature, that this Rev. Samuel Torrey, in entering upon his pastorate at Weymouth in 1664, was the immediate successor of Rev. Thomas Thatcher, who, in 1670, entered upon his work as the first pastor of the "Old South" Church, of -Boston, and from whom descended one Rev. Pet'e'r Thatcher after another for three successive generations, and the grand-daughter of the third and last of these became the wife of Major Jason Torrey, of

Rev. Samuel Torrcy, &c. 1 1

Bethany, Pa., in 1816, and the mother in 18 18 of the writer of these lines.

Harvard College was not a University in the 17th century, and had no theological department, and it is probable that the said Samuel Torrey pursued his theological studies, privately, at his home, with his pastor, Rev. Thomas Thatcher, and showed himself worthy to be his own pastor's successor, and thus, being "not without honor in his own country," he remained in that position to the end of his useful life.

He was an eminent divine of his period, as is shown by the fact that he three times preached the annual election sermon, by appointment of the Governor and House of Deputies of the Colony of Massachusetts, and that he was twice elected President of Harvard College, but declined the position for reasons that do not transpire.

His younger brother, William, who was our ancestor, born in England in 1638, and brought by his father to Weymouth before he was two years old, was a conspicuous and influential citizen of that place during all the years of his manhood.

Mr. Herbert A. Newton, descendant of the above mentioned James Torrey, now a resident at Weymouth, says that the name of the said William appears, as selectman or member of important committees on almost every page of the records of that town while he lived.

He was also a member of the House of Deputies of Massachusetts Colony from 1642 to 1649, and again from 1679 to 1683, an ^ was d er k of that body from 1648 to 1658, and again from 1661 to 1666.

As commander of the Weymouth militia he bore the title of captain.

That he combined habits of abstract thought and metaphysical study with his eminent and successful devotion to practical affairs is revealed by the existence, in the "Boston Public Library," of a book, entitled, " Futurities or Things to Cornel'' of which he was the author, and which was published, in 1687, with Preface by Rev. Mr. Prince, pastor of "Old South Church."

Thus it appears that on the score of private respectability and of public influence and usefulness and honorable public appreciation, our family had a noble and altogether promising beginning on this continent.

We can but give credit in our thoughts, to the presumably excellent character of this man's immediate ancestry across the sea — inasmuch as figs do not grow from thistles.

And we actually find in the church records at Combe St. Nicholas, in England, and Weymouth and Boston and Middletown in this country, documentary evidence of the church membership and the baptisms of the children, so as to make it evident that our ancestors and the most of the members of their families were not only under the influence of Christian principles and institutions, but, as individuals, they were Christian men and women and actively connected with the Christian Church — with the established church of Old England and the Congregational Church of New England.

As we turn to follow the fortunes of the descendants of Captain William Torrey, we find those in

Rev. Joseph and Dr. John Torrey, &c. 1 3

various lines of descent from him, who have fully maintained the honor he gave to the family name.

Among- the later descendants of Captain William, who have won honorable distinction, are the late Rev. Joseph Torrey, D. D., deceased, who was a scholarly theologian, translator of Neander's Church History, and President of Vermont University ; and John Torrey, LL. D., the distinguished Botanist and Scientist, who has been for many years Superintendent of the Government Assay office in New York City.

These two, together with a family of Torrey's now residing in New Jersey, in which the name of William predominates, are descended like ourselves from Captain William's grandson John. But they are descended from this John through his oldest son, William, and we through his third son, Samuel, as will appear in the following pages.

Ill

In the line of our descent from Captain William Torrey, we find that his third grandson, John, remained, as his grandfather had done, at Weymouth, and had seven children, of whom the third son, Samuel, removed to Boston so early in his life that he united with the Brattle St. Congregational Church there when he was 18 years old.

In 1726 he was married to Abigail Snowden, at Boston, and to them were born, in that city, six children, the last in 1735.

In 1736 he removed to Middletown, Conn., where he united with the Congregational Church, in May,

1737, and where his wife died in July of die same year.

In February, 1738, he was married to Martha Strickland, of Middletown, and to them were born five children, the last of them in May, 1745.

Two or three months before the birth of this last child, the father, Samuel Torrey, at the age 38 years, set out with a force of New England Volunteers, on a military expedition against the French on our Northern" 1 borders, the occasion of which was as follows :

Nova Scotia was occupied by the British, but the adjacent Island of Cape Breton, with the fortified town of Louisburg, was held by the French.

In the Spring of 1744 a military force from the latter place, attacked the British settlement at Cunseau, at the Eastern extremity of Nova Scotia, broke up the fisheries there and took eighty men prisoners, and kept them at Louisburg during the following Summer, after which they were sent to Boston on parole.

Encouraged by the reports of these men concerning the weakness of the defences at Louisburg, and exasperated by the fact that Louisburg was made a harbor for privateersmen from which to make raids upon our fishing interests along the coast of Nova Scotia, the Colony of Mass., decided to undertake the capture of the Island and its fortifications. The colonies of New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania voted money to the aggregate amount of about 10,000 pounds, and the New England colonies furnished the men to the number of 4,000 — -together

Siege and Capture of Louisburg. 1 5

with armed vessels sufficient for their transportation which were joined at Nova Scotia by four British armed ships from the West Indies.

This colonial fleet consisting of 100 vessels, arrived near Louisburg, April 30th, landed a large part of their force and commenced a siege which continued until the 17th of June, during which time a French ship of war with 64 guns, laden with supplies for the garrison, was captured by the Yankee fleet.

On the 1 7th of June the fortress and the entire Island were surrendered to the colonial forces. The achievement of this capture was celebrated with great enthusiasm in England, and so important was the capture of Louisburg regarded, that the Lord of the English Admiralty said that "if Portsmouth, (the important naval station on the British Channel) was in the hands of the French, he would hang the man that should give Cape Breton for it."

Only 150 men of the Colonial force were killed during the siege, and 60 of these were killed in a brave but unsuccessful night attack upon a battery situated upon a small island in the harbor, and furnished with 30 large guns, but which was afterwards silenced a,nd reduced by a land battery constructed on a neighboring bluff.

A garrison of Colonial troops was left to hold and protect the newly acquired ■possession, and '"ten times as many men died of sickness'" as had fr lien in all the fighting.

Among these was our ancestor. Samuel Torrey. according to a record made at Louisburg by Rev.

Adonijah Bidwell, chaplain of the fleet, in his diary, as follows:

"Lieut. Torrey died on the lyth of Sept., IJ45!'

Louisburg figured quite conspicuously in subsequent history for a time, and some curious historical coincidences are associated with it. It was peacefully restored to the French in 1748, and by them strongly fortified, but was captured again in 1758 by an army of 14,000 men (largely from Massachusetts) co-opperating with a considerable fleet commanded by General Wolf, who afterwards took Quebec, and General David Gordon, grandfather of the famous "Chinese " Gordon, was killed in the latter siege.

At the battle of Bunker Hill the same old drums and many of the same troops were employed as at Louisburg, and Chinese Gordon's grandfather on his mother's side (Enderly) furnished, by rental, the ships which brought the tea that was thrown into Boston harbor, in the midst of the memorable riot that was one of the immediate causes of the breaking out of the war of the revolution.

IV

The death of Lieutenant Samuel Torrey, at Louisburg, left his wife Martha at Middletown, a widow, with nine children, the youngest of whom, a girl named Martha, was born after the father left for the war.

Two of these fatherless children, the one William, an infant of 15 months when his father went away, and the other John, not yet four years old at that time, were afterwards apprenticed, the former to a

Parentage and Birth. 1 7

shoemaker and the latter to a blacksmith. But soon after becoming of age ( 1 766) they took their trades with them and located on adjoining lots of land in Williamstown, Mass.

The elder of these, John, was married about 1768 to Ruth Tyrell, of Milford, Conn., and they were blessed with twelve children, all born in Williamstown, after which (1804) he sold his "place" and removed to Richfield, N. Y., though some of his descendants are still living near the old farm in Williamstown.

The younger brother, William, the shoemaker, is our progenitor and was the father of Jason. He married Hannah Wheeler, of Williamstown, April 13, 1 77 1, and they remained on the homestead farm as long as they lived.

The aged mother, Martha, who had been left a widow with nine children by the death of Lieutenant Samuel Torrey, at Louisburg, spent the last years of her life at Williamstown, and had her home, alternately, with these two sons who had been her care in their helpless and fatherless childhood at Middletown, and were now glad to provide for her comfort in her old age.

We now come to the time of Jason, with whom a new departure originated, inasmuch as he led the way for a portion of the family to find their homes in what was then the almost impenetrated wilderness of Northeastern Pennsylvania.

Jason was born at Williamstown, June 30, 1772, being the first born child of William and Hannah. He had four brothers and one sister, whose names,

1 8 Memoir of Major yason Tor re y.

in the order of their ages, were, David, Josiah, Samuel, Mary and Ephraim.

The home in which they grew up together was pleasantly situated in the South part of the town, being sheltered under the " West Mountain ;" from the lower and sunny slopes of which the farm fronted the East with the towering and massive hights of Greylock always in view in that direction.

It was a sweetly quiet and picturesque spot, with broad outlooks upon surroundings of rare beauty and quite uncommon grandeur.

The boys assisted their father on this farm and became familiar with all that range of work, and had access, in Winter, to the common school of their district.

About all this part of the history of the family we know absolutely nothing in particular, except as we are traditionally informed that a young girl, named Lois Welch, came into the household to assist the mother in her work, but was more a daughter than a servant, and became to the mother what Ruth was to Naomi, and to Jason what Ruth was to Boaz, as will appear when we proceed to use the material furnished us for a more particular history of Jason and those closely associated with him.

V

About three miles from the home thus described, at the centre of the town, a brick building fo Histories high, was completed in i 79 1 , designed for a grammar school, and English free school, and was

Academic Studies and First Diary. 1 9

called the Williamstown Academy. Its first term was opened in October, 1 79 1. Two months after the opening- of this Academy, when he was 19 years old, Jason entered the School for twelve weeks instruction.

In 1 793 the institution was incorporated as a college, and has since been known as Williams College, the old Academy building being what is called West College.

Jason made good use of his twelve weeks in that Academy, for in his diary for December 25, 179 1, he writes : —

/ studied arithmetic four weeks, then learned the art of surveying; I gave the rest of the time to the study of grammar.

We print the words in italics in order to emphasise the suggestion of energy and efficiency that is in them. The meaning probably is that he studied grammar during the whole quarter — for four weeks simultaneously with advanced arithmetic, and for the remaining eight weeks with trigonometry and surveying.

The above statement constitutes his first entry in what was evidently his first diary. The book consists of two sheets of unruled foolscap paper, folded into square form and stitched, but not covered. On the first outside page are the two parts of his name across the top, with a not very successful attempt at ornamentation between, and the word Journal in handsome coarse-hand letters at the middle of the page, and the figures 1791 carefully printed underneath.

The opening of this diary seems to have marked a turning point in his life. He began to take practical views of the future, and feel the responsibility of it and lay plans for it. Life began to assume tangible shape before him, and he was taking hold of it as a thing upon which he must act and to which he must give direction and character as the way should be opened for him, or he should be able to open it for himself.

Life began to assume importance in his eyes, and therefore he began to gird himself for it and to make record of its events in this diary.

His daily activities ceased to be regarded by themselves, but were viewed as connected with the long future, and therefore record was made of them, not for other eyes, at all, but for his own future reference and use.

His diary was meagre at first, but growingly full, in proportion as his hold upon practical affairs and projects grew broader and stronger.

And this process was not slow after he had fairly entered upon it. His horizon widened rapidly, and his faculties were quickened and energised by the indefinite breadth of his ea^er outlook.

His twelve weeks work in the Academy had in it the vigor of far-reaching projects, and the sagacity of earnest purposes. His arithmetic and surveying were equipments for practical work, and his grammar was such finishing accomplishment as was possible for him, to enable him to do his work handsomely as well as accurately.

Teaching and Traveling. 2 1

Then he must earn some money to start out with. And so there follow six months of work on a neighbors farm, and three months of teaching.

And now at the age of 20 the project of going to the "new country," west of the Hudson River, assumes the form and substance of a fixed determination, and in April, 1793, he makes a trial trip — walks to Albany (40 miles), to prove himself as to his ability to "travel," and is back at his home on the third day, with five dollars of his hard earned money gone. He must learn to "travel" at a cheaper rate than that, and he does so, as we shall see.

On the fifth day of the next month, having collected what he could of the money that was due him, and with eleven dollars in his pocket, he sets out to "travel the country," as he expresses it; i. e. he started for that indefinite "West," which seemed more remote and unknown when it extended to Lake Ontario and the Gennesee River, than it does now that it extends to the Sierra Nevadas and Puget Sound.

He crossed the Hudson River at Kinderhook, passed through Harpersfield, Delaware County, N. Y., came to the Susquehanna River at the mouth of Ouleout Creek, near Unadilla, and kept down that river to Great Bend, where he arrived, "very weary/' on the 13th — eight days from home — and rested at the house of a Mr. Strong, about whom he had evidently known something before.

Concerning the pecuniary cost of this journey he says in his first letter home, written from Mr. Strong's, May 15, 1793:

" My expense, which amounted to 10 shillings and 5 pence, L. M. for the eight days and 191 miles, was less on account of my provisions, having bought but two meals of victuals on my journey. But my feet felt the smart more than my pocket, being blistered near half over, but am again pretty well recruited."

It was a strange homeopathic process by which his feet could be recruited as he kept on walking 25 miles a day.

The L. M. above, means " Lawful money" — i. e. Massachusetts currency, which was 3^ dollars to the pound, so that his "expense" for the eight days was just one dollar and seventy-three and a half cents.

He rested at Mr. Strong's three days, and then proceeded over the hills to a point in the woods then known as Stanton Settlement or Stantonville, where he "concluded to stop."

This place was in what is now the Town of Mt. Pleasant, and about a half mile South from the village of Belmont. Mr. Samuel Stanton was the first settler there. Two years before, in the Spring of 1 79 1 he had come from Preston, Conn., and was clearing up a farm there, and by this time, a few neighbors around him were doing likewise.

Making Stantonville his headquarters, and after spending a month in "viewing the country" (which was a heavily timbered wilderness, with settlements, here and there, 20 to 40 miles apart), and working just enough to pay for his board. Jason selected a lot of land for himself, and having hired a man for a week, and collected some provisions, which proba-

Short Fanning — Wanted by Mr. Baird.

bly consisted of flour and pork, he commenced clearing his land.

Inasmuch as this spot is to be his home and that of his wife and children, for a few years, by and by, it is worth while to notice that it was situate about three and one-half miles East from Mt. Pleasant Village, and thus over four miles from Stanton's.

It was apparently his intention, at this time, to clear for himself a farm at that place and build him a log house and fix his dwelling there.

But how all this was delayed, and with what unexpected experiences and disciplinary trials and educating advantages to himself, it will be interesting now to notice.

VI

The slow and heavy work upon which Jason had entered with his hired man, in "lifting up his axe upon the thick trees" of the forest was interrupted, within a few days, by the appearance of a Mr. Samuel Baird from near Philadelphia, who itseems, was grandfather to Dr. Baird, now of the Smithsonian Institute at Washington. He was surveyor and agent for capitalists in Philadelphia, who had become owners of most of the lands in this Northeastern part of Pennsylvania.