PALMYRA TOWNSHIP
PALMYRA is one of the townships erected at the time of the organization of Wayne County, in 1798. Palmyra when first formed was bounded north by Damascus, east by the "Hilborn road," which was the west boundary of Lackawaxen, south by the township of Delaware and west by Canaan. The erection of Dyberry, in 1803, took five miles in breadth from the northern end of Palmyra, and by the formation of Pike County, in 1814, all that part of the township east of the Wallenpaupack was included in Pike and became Palmyra. That portion of Salem township lying east of the South Branch of the Wallenpaupack was assessed as Salem in Pike in 1815, but subsequently became a part of Palmyra, together with a slice from the western part of Delaware township. Thus when Greene township was erected, in 1829, it was taken from Palmyra. The present township of Palmyra is bounded on the north by Lackawaxen township, on the east by Blooming Grove township, on the south by Greene township, and on the southwest by the Wallenpaupack River and the townships of Paupack and Palmyra, in Wayne County. The Wallenpaupack has a slow current through the flats and formerly retained the waters a long time.
In case of a freshet or flood, the stream would attain high-water mark on the flats thirty-six hours earlier than at Wilsonville, only six miles distant on an air line. From Ledgedale to Wilsonville, a distance of twelve miles, the stream is very sluggish. The Indians aptly named it "Deadwaters."
In 1831-32 the people were stricken with fever, and but two well persons were to be found in the settlement. The inhabitants attributed the sickness to want of drainage, and asked aid from the State. An appropriation of three thousand dollars was accordingly made to be used in straightening the stream, Enos Woodward, Otto Kimble and Moses Killam being appointed commissioners to look after the expenditure of the money. The stream was shortened about four or five miles and several large rocks removed at Wilsonville, besides lowering the bed of the stream about two feet for one or two hundred feet near the bridge, giving the waters free vent.
The following is a list of the taxables in Palmyra township, returned by Abisha Woodward, assessor, in 1801:
John Ansley Silas Killam Simon Ansley John Killam John Ansley, Jr Moses Killam Joseph Ansley Abel Kimble Elisha Ames Ephraim Kimble David Abbott Jacob Kimble Henry Ball Moses Daniel Kimble Robert Bayham Jacob Kimble, Jr Hezekiah Bingham Walter Kimble Hezekiah Bingham, Jr Benjamin Kimble Moses Brink Eusebius Kincaid Stephen Bennett Barzilla King Richard Beebe James Logan John Brink Phineas Lester Jonathan Brink Andrew Lester Thomas Brown Arch Murray Benjamin B. Brink John Malonia Denman Coe Richard Nelson David Cady Stephen Parrish Jesse Cady George Parkinson Simeon Chapman George Parkinson, Jr William Chapman John Pillet, Jr Uriah Chapman Conrad Pulls Jacob Cronkright Silas Purdy Roswell Chapman William Purdy Phineas Coleman Amos Purdy William Dayton William Purdy, Jr Elias Depui Reuben Purdy Aaron Duffey Ephraim Purdy Charles Forseth Jacob Purdy Jacob Gooding Nathaniel Purdy Robert Hartford Solomon Purdy Elias Hartford Samuel Porter Samuel Hartford Thomas Schoonhoven William Hartford William Schoonhoven James Hartford Thomas Spangenburgh Henry Husted Daniel Stroud.+ Benjamin Hanes Samuel Smith William Holbert Christopher Snyder Jonathan Jennings Jedediah Wyllis Reuben Jones Solomon Wyllis Alpheus Jones Enos Woodward Alexander Jones Ebenezer Woodward John Jeans Abisha Woodward Ephraim Killam Nathan Williams. + It is stated opposite Daniel Stroud's name that the factory-house is taken down.
WALLENPAUPACK SETTLEMENT.- Some time between 1750 and 1760 a family named Carter settled upon the Wallenpaupack Creek. This is supposed to have been the first white family who visited the neighborhood. The old Indian path from Cochecton to Wyoming crossed the Wallenpaupack about thirty rods below Carter's house. When the emigrants from Connecticut reached the Wallenpaupack, the chimney of the house and stone oven were still standing.Carter and his family had been killed and his house burned during the French and Indian War. When the first Wyoming emigrants from Connecticut reached the Wallenpaupack they halted and sent forward scouts to procure intelligence of the country along the Susquehanna. They took the old Indian trail across the Wallenpaupack, near the Marshall Purdy place, thence through what is now Paupack and Salem townships, westward still through Cobb's Gap to the Lackawanna Valley, and thus on to the Susquehanna River. They encamped at Cobb Mountain, built a beacon-fire that could be readily seen by those whom they had left behind on the Wallenpaupack, but their return is doubtful.
The names of the original Wallenpaupack colony were Uriah Chapman, Esq., Capt. Zebulon Parrish, Capt. Eliab Varnurn, Nathaniel Gates, Zadock Killam, Ephraim Killam, Jacob Kimble, Enos Woodward, Isaac Parrish, John Killam, Hezekiah Bingham, John Ansley, Elijah Witters, John Pellet, Sr., John Pellet, Jr., Abel Kimble, Walter Kimble, Joshua Varnum, Amos Parks, Silas Parks, David Gates, Jonathan Haskell, William Pellet, Charles Forsyth, Roger Clark, James Dye, Nathaniel Washburn, James Hallett, Jasper Edwards, Reuben Jones, a man named Strong (probably the same man that lived at Little Meadows and was killed there by the Indians) and Mr. Frey, who was the school-teacher for the settlement. Of these, the first seventeen returned after the close of the Revolutionary War. Of the last thirteen named, but two or three returned to the settlement, a few of them having returned to Connecticut. Joshua Varnum was killed during the war; Dr. Amos Parks moved to Goshen, Orange County, N.Y.; Jonathan Haskell was killed. at the battle of Minisink, in 1779; Jasper Edwards, Stephen Parrish and Reuben Jones were taken prisoners by the Indians. Reuben Jones was a powerful man and a good runner. He challenged the Indians to run a race one day, outstripped them, and thus made his escape and settled in Paupack, Wayne County, where he died in 1812.
Between the years 1774 and 1778 the following persons were added to the settlement: Ephraim Kimble, Jeptha Killam, Stephen Parrish (afterwards an Indian doctor), Uriah Chapman, Jr., Silas Killam, Joseph Washburn, Stephen Kimble and Jesper Parrish. The several persons named, with their families, constituted the Wallenpaupack settlement from 1774 to 1778. The settlers laid off two townships, the one in which they were all included being named Lackaway, and the one farther up the Paupack, Bozrah. A warrant was issued from the proprietary office November 25, 1748, under which a tract of land upon the Wallenpaupack Creek, containing twelve thousand one hundred and fifty acres was surveyed, 14th of October, 1751, "for the use of the proprietaries of Pennsylvania," called "The Wallenpaupack Manor." February 21, 1793, this manor was conveyed to Hon. James Wilson, who gave a mortgage to John Penn the elder and John Penn the younger, the vendors. In 1804 the mortgage was foreclosed, and Samuel Sitgreaves, of Easton, purchased the land in trust for the Penn heirs. All the Wallenpaupack settlement was on this manor, and the first valid titles obtained by these settlers were from Sitgreaves. When the settlers first came, in 1774, they surveyed, the land and fixed the boundaries of each settler's portion by mutual agreement.These surveys were carefully made and the boundaries well defined and the lots numbered. These boundaries became fixed and are those by which the lots are known and described to this day. The Wallenpaupack settlement seems to have been made very independently. They did not derive any title from Connecticut, although it is probable the Connecticut claim led them to this country. They took no pains to obtain any titles from Pennsylvania and purchased no title from the Indians, but simply proceeded on the old theory that title is acquired by the first occupant. They found the beautiful Paupack flats, with a small Indian clearing, and here they located. Miner
says: "The most perfect equality existed throughout the settlement as to rights, privileges and property. The lands were disposed of, it is believed, by lot. The title of each man to his land was the consent, and the proof of this title was the memory of his neighbors. Until 1804, when land was purchased at sheriff's sale by Mr. Sitgreaves, no deed had been held by an occupant for a single acre." The Dutch settlers in the Minisink were assessed in Northampton County, but the Wallenpaupack settlement at Cushutunk, on the Delaware, and the straggling settlements in what is now Wayne County, do not appear to have been assessed by any Pennsylvania authority until Wayne County was set off, in 1798. The Wallenpaupack settlers established their own civil, military and ecclesiastical form of government. Silas Parks was chosen first justice of the peace. It is supposed he had a commission from Connecticut; but it was discovered that he played cards, which intelligence was immediately forwarded to Connecticut and he was superseded by Uriah Chapman. John Killam was elected constable by the settlers and Captain Zebulon Parrish made tithingman or tax-gatherer. Captain Eliab Varnum had command of the troops of the colony; Jonathan Haskell was lieutenant and Elijah Witters ensign.
As soon as the settlers had determined to locate permanently, they built a fort. It was of hewed timber, thick enough to be proof against the bullets of the Indians. These timbers were placed upright in deep ditches, well filled in and firmly secured. The inclosure contained about one acre of land, on which was a never-failing spring of water, now led out to the road at the Calvin Pellet place, on the corner where the East and West or Salem road and the River or Sterling road cross. This noble spring will ever exist to identify the place. Within the fort was a block-house, on the top of which was a bullet-proof sentry box. A guard-house was also built just outside the inclosure. When trouble was anticipated with the Indians, the people with their families spent their nights in the fort. The men went in gangs to plant, hoe and cultivate each other's fields, with their guns slung over their backs. The settlers built cabins, made clearings and lived peaceably among themselves and with their neighbors, the Indians, for two years. "The population was generally composed Of Presbyterians.* On the Sabbath the whole settlement was collected together, when a sermon was read. The observance of the Lord's day was rigidly enforced, and the morality and decorum of the settlers carefully insisted upon."
There was a saw-mill on Kimble Brook, about one and one-half miles from the fort. This mill was built very early (between 1774 and 1779), probably by Jacob Kimble, Sr., or his son Abel. The old mill was burned by the Indians in 1779, and one hundred years afterwards Joseph Atkinson had a saw-mill burned on the same site, not far from Marcus Killam's residence. After the settlers returned they built a saw-mill and a little tub grist-mill, which was the oldest mill in the settlement and the first grist-mill in the vicinity, with the exception of the mill at Wilsonville. It had one run of native stone, procured from a ledge up the Paupack, on the Wayne County side, in Dreher, according to Ephraim Killam; but old Thomas Bartleson claimed he helped Abel Kimble get the stone on Cobb Mountain. Both may be correct, having reference to different times. Abel Kimble died January 6, 1832, aged seventy-seven, and his wife Sybil, who was a daughter of Uriah Chapman, May 21, 1827, aged ninety. During the. years 1777 and 1778, the settlers upon the Wallenpaupack were harassed by Indians and Tories, who had their headquarters at Cochecton. Brant had Indians under his control not to molest the Wallenpaupack settlement. In 1777 Mary Gates, a daughter of Nathaniel Gates, discovered a body of men lurking in the swamp near the Wallenpaupack River, as she was looking for the cows. She notified Lieutenant Haskell, who collected the force of the settlement and succeeded in capturing the whole body of Tories, who had deserted from the American army. He conducted his eighteen prisoners to Hartford, Conn., where they were confined.
On the 3d of July, 1778, the battle of Wyoming occurred, and either Hammond or Stanton notified the settlers on the Wallenpaupack. All was consternation in the settlement and preparations were hastily made for immediate flight. Before sunset on the 4th of July, 1778, the Wallenpaupack settlers were on their way to the Delaware River.**
Captain Zebulon Parrish, his son Jasper and Stephen Kimble were captured by some Tories and Indians, who took them to the State of New York and kept them prisoners until the close of the Revolutionary War. Kimble died while imprisoned, and the elder Parrish returned to his family. Jasper Parrish married an Indian wife and was employed by the government as an interpreter among the Indians near Canandaigua, where he livid. Stephen Parrish, Jr., who was captured with Jones and Edwards, learned the mysteries of the Indian "Medicine Man," and on his return to the settlement practiced their healing art, and was known as "Doctor" Parrish. He left the settlement in 1818, and died near Canandaigua.
Many of the young men had enlisted in the American army. Ephraim Killam, son of Zadock Killam, and Abel Kimble, son of Jacob Kimble, Sr., were in the battle that led to the retreat of General Washington from Long Island.
"In August, 1778, four young men- John Rellet, Jr., Walter Kimble, Charles Forsythe and Uriah Chapman, Jr.- returned to the Wallenpaupack for the purpose of cutting hay. They commenced on the upper end of the settlement and had cut all the hay except that on the farm of Uriah Chapman, whose place was the lowest down the creek. One afternoon young Chapman went to a neighboring spring for water. Stopping for a moment on the way, he sat whistling on the fence, when an Indian rose and fired at him. He sprang toward a sled near him, where the young men had left their guns, and on attempting to raise a gun, discovered that he was wounded. The gun dropped from his hand, when he ran for the fort, which was still standing, reaching it toward night. The ball had passed through his right arm into his shoulder, and fifty-one years afterward, on his death, it was found lodged against his spine. The Indians immediately seized the guns, and the other young men, who had heard the firing, ran to the fort. They were not attacked that night, and the next day left the settlement."
In the spring of 1779 five young men went back to the settlement to make maple sugar. Their names were Ephraim Killam, Jeptha Killam, Silas Killam, Ephraim Kimble and Walter Kimble. They stopped in one of the log houses about one-half mile southwest of the fort, which had been burned. The place is still marked by a mound made by the stones of the old chimney. They tapped the maple-trees and fitted up the house for temporary use. One evening Silas Killam and Walter Kimble were out of the house. As young Killam was proceeding leisurely along with two buckets of sap strung on a neck-yoke, a party of Indians, who lay in ambush, sprang across his path, with the evident intention of capturing him. He dropped his buckets of sap and started for the log house. The Indians gave chase, but young Killam, outdistanced them. As his brother Ephraim opened the door to receive him into the house an Indian fired at him. The ball struck the head of a nail in the door-post. Some of the pieces wounded Ephraim in the arm. Walter Kimble, another young man, who was shooting ducks, seeing the Indians had cut off all hope of reaching the house in safety, started for the Delaware River. He was a tall, athletic man, and outran his pursuers, who followed him for some distance. He wore a pair of loose shoes, which he cast off, took a pair of Indian leggins and bound them around his feet, and in this way traveled all night in the snow, which melted as it fell. The next morning, about breakfast-time, he arrived at the house of his brother Abel, at a place called Vantyne Kill, a mile above Milford, in a pitiable plight. He had not eaten a morsel for more than twenty-four hours, and exclaimed as he entered the house, with tears in his eyes, "The boys are all dead!" The boys were not dead, however. Immediately after the Indians had driven Killam into the house, they built a fire near the barn and settled down for a regular siege.One of the Indians exposed himself while gathering wood and was wounded in the hip by Ephraim Kimble. It is said that the Indian afterwards died of this wound. When all was still and the Indians were quiet these four young men slipped out of the house and started for the Delaware River, which they crossed the next morning at Carpenter's Point. Ephraim Kimble afterwards located at what is now Kimble Station, Lackawaxen township, and his brother Walter died in Ohio. Moses Kimble, Sr., was in the battle of Lackawaxen, or Minisink, July 22, 1779. He blamed the officers for forcing the men into the unequal contest, as Brant's forces consisted of four or five hundred Indians and Tories; but he expressed the opinion that had the stone breast-works been thrown up earlier, the fortunes of the day might have been different.
The Wallenpaupack settlers made no more attempts to return to the settlement until after the War of the Revolution had closed.
The following letter from Captain James Bonnel to Captain Westfall shows the condition of affairs in 1782, just before the settlers returned to the
settlement: -
"MINISINK, 31 August, 1782.
"Dear Sir:- "I am exceeding happy to inform you that my scouts, which returned last evening and this morning from Sheholah, Bluminggrove and Laqueway, have made no discoveries of any savages or other Enemies. They inform me, that there is fourteen Houses Standing at Laqueway,*** and that the grass and weeds have grown through the cracks of the Flour, and that they are confident from the appearance of things that there has not been any Enemy there this Summer. Pray let me know if you have heard anything from Colo.
Wisenfelts or if you have made any late discoveries of the Enemy.
"I am Sir
"your most obedient
"Humble Servant
"CAPT. WESTFALL.
"JAMES BONNEL."
Such, then, was the condition of things when seventeen of the original settlers returned to the Wallenpaupack in 1783. Fourteen log houses were standing with the grass and weeds growing through the cracks in the floors, and the meadows were growing with scrub oak and pine. What a forlorn and dismal look the old settlement must have presented to the hardy pioneers as they returned to their desolate hearthstones to begin anew life's battle for existence.
They were a stalwart race of men and women, however, and with stout hearts commenced the work of improvement again. With less of danger to encounter than attended their first residence, they suffered many more hardships. The year of their return the corn crop failed, generally, and the little raised was pounded into a shape fit for use in mortars constructed of pieces of wood. The flour used in the settlement was carried on the backs of the inhabitants from Milford. The winter of 1783-84, was a severe one; the snow was very deep during most of the winter, and the only mode of getting to and from Milford was upon snowshoes. From this time forward the Wallenpaupack settlement was prosperous.
The Wallenpaupack Manor extends from near Wilsonville to within one-quarter of a mile of Ledgedale, the larger portion of which lies in Pike County.During a number of years the occupation of the people was farming. The beautiful flat land along the Wallenpaupack produced grain and luxuriant grass for cattle, and in a few years there was a demand for pine lumber along the Delaware, from Easton to Philadelphia. There was good pine along the Wallenpaupack and Lackawaxen Rivers. The settlers manufactured this into lumber and floated it down the Lackawaxen and Delaware Rivers to market in some cases; in others they ran the logs to the mills below. In this way the Wallenpaupack settlers became comparatively wealthy. They were generous, hospitable and honest, but a change came over the settlement. On their arrival they were Congregationalists of the old Puritan school, and strict in their adherence to religious worship and Sabbath observance; but the demoralization of war for eight years during the Revolution must have been great, especially among the young men.
This was not the only difficulty in this settlement. The people became divided in religious matters. Gideon Draper and some other Methodist preachers passed through in 1807, and made it their principal object to proselyte Abner Chapman, Esq., from the Congregationalists in Wallenpaupack, as it had been their principal object to proselyte Major Woodbridge from the same church in Salem; and from the manner in which Gideon Draper gloated over these conquests years afterward, as preserved in Peck's "History of Early Methodism," one would suppose it more important to proselyte one member from a sister church than to turn ten sinners from the error of their ways to repentance. He succeeded in organizing a small Methodist class.Hezekiah Bingham, Sr., Hezekiah Bingham, Jr., and Nancy Pellet helped organize the Salem and Palmyra Congregational Church in 1808. Rev. Mr. Purdy, a Baptist, of Purdy settlement, occasionally preached in Paupack.
Last of all, an infidel moved into the place and circulated skeptical books among the settlers. The result of it all is that there is no church edifice in Palmyra township to this day, and but few church members. The Methodists have an appointment once in two weeks at a school-house in the old settlement. Rev. Benjamin Killam is said to have been an excellent man, and at one time the Methodists had a well-organized class in the place. Mr.
Kincaid was one of the old schoolteachers and Ralph Waldo another.
There are now five schools in the township. The old school-house in which P.G. Goodrich taught was near Guerdon Pellet's house. He also taught in Paupack a number of years and formed a very high opinion of the people. He says, in his "History of Wayne County," "In doing justice to the memory of those old settlers we could write scores of pages. They and their children have passed over the river, and we, standing on its brink, aged seventy-six years (he is now nearly eighty-two years), cannot but look back with admiration of that noble people."
Uriah Chapman settled at Blooming Grove and kept a tavern. He had a numerous family, all of whom are gone.
Ephraim Killam married a daughter of John Ansley. His family were men and women of intelligence. He had but one son, Ira, who married a daughter of Roswell Chapman. Ephraim Killam was a well-informed man and scouted the idea of civilizing the Indians. "Why," he used to say, "an Indian is just as much a wild man as a wolf is a wild dog; you cannot tame him."
Moses Kellam, or Killam, son of Zadock Killam, married and settled in Paupack settlement, Palmyra township, about three-fourths of a mile south of the fort. He was justice of the peace for many years; built a saw-mill on Kimble Brook at an early, date, a grist-mill about 1825 and put in the first burr-stone in this place. His children were Rev. Benjamin T. Killam and Moses Killam, Jr. Benjamin T. Killam, who preached in the settlement and adjacent, was an active Christian and an excellent man. He married Elizabeth, a daughter of Elijah Witter (often miscalled Winter), and settled on the Paupack, at the mouth of Gifford's Creek, at what is now Beemerville.
He was a farmer, lumberman and local preacher and lived to be about seventy-five years of age. His children were Anna (wife of Thomas Bortree, who died recently in Michigan at an advanced age), Lewis, Emeline, Alfred, Elijah, Moses, Lucy, Marcus N.B. and Polly (wife of James Van Camp, who lives in Salem). All of the family moved to Michigan with the exception of Anna, Marcus, Moses and Polly.
Marcus N.B. Killam stayed on the old place, purchased the Abel Kimble property in 1870 and built a saw-mill in 1871. He sold thirty-four hundred acres of wild or timbered land to Farnham, Collingwood & Co., and now has about five hundred acres, of which two, hundred and fifty are Paupack flats.Mr. Killam lives on his large farm in a very comfortable manner and entertains his friends with the old-time hospitality for which Paupack settlement has ever been celebrated. Marcus N.B. Killam, without doubt, is the most successful living hunter in Northeastern Pennsylvania. He killed his first deer when eleven, years old and did not miss a year without killing one or more from that time until recently. Some years he killed a dozen and one year secured forty, killing three in one day. He at three different times killed three bears in one day. He killed nine bears a year for three successive years. He has probably killed four or five hundred deer, more than one hundred bears and many wildcats as well as smaller game.
His success was owing to the fact that he lived near the edge of that thick spruce and pine swamp in and about "Promised Land," and was an almost unerring shot. The largest deer he killed weighed two hundred and fifty pounds, and the skin forty pounds. He has the antlers, which spread twenty inches apart.
Moses Killam, Jr., succeeded his father as justice of the peace, lived on the homestead and ran the grist-mill until other mills were built in the vicinity and the saw-mill was in operation. Joseph Atkinson afterward bought the place. He was a leading man in the place in his day and held the office of justice of the peace until so old that his son Ephraim did the writing and finally succeeded to the same office. He was seventy-eight at his death.
He married Lucy, daughter of Ephraim Kimble, Sr., his children being Dan, Benjamin, Rush, Ephraim and George, sons, who all, with the exception of Rush, settled in the vicinity. The daughters were Irene, wife of Amzi L.
Woodward; Esther, wife of William Conkling, of Hawley; Christine, wife of James Gibson, of Illinois; Milcenna, wife of Arthur Kimble, of Hawley; Eunice, wife of Mr. McComb; Augusta, unmarried. Silas Killam married Sarah, a daughter of Uriah Chapman, and settled northwest of the fort, on the road to Salem. He was a farmer, his sons being Ambrose, Isaac, Harvey, Silas and William. They all moved away but Isaac and William.
Asher Killam lives on the Calvin Pellet place and has the post-office. Ephraim Killam is a surveyor and justice of the peace in Hawley. He has given considerable attention to the history of the early settlers in the old Wallenpaupack settlement and contributed materially to this history of Palmyra township. Elizabeth Witter, wife of Benjamin T. Killam, was born September 3, 1773, lived, to be ninety-eight years and ten months old and claimed to have been the first white child born in old Paupack settlement. The Indians had a field of about seven acres which they cultivated, by the old Ephraim Killam place. They also had another field of about four acres on the Gabriel Davis place.
Stephen Bennett married Mary, the daughter of Nathaniel Gates and settled about one mile east of the fort. He was a soldier of the Revolution. (Nathaniel Gates was secreted and escaped from the massacre at Wyoming by way of Paupack. He saw the Indians thrust burning pine-knots into the prisoners.) Stephen Bennett's sons were Francis, Frederick, Rufus, Jared, Stephen and Lebbeus. The daughters were Elizabeth, wife of John Miller, who settled in "the Beech," and Samantha, who was, unmarried. Francis Bennett married Esther Daniels and lived in South Canaan township. Frederick Bennett married Jane Killam and moved to New York. Rufus settled in Purdytown, west of the homestead. Jared married Esther Killam and remained on a portion of the homestead. Stephen Bennett married Desire, a daughter of Joseph Ainsley, and was a lumberman. Lebbeus married Laura Ainsley and lived on a part of the old place. Of Jared Bennett's children, Isaac, who retains a portion of the homestead, and Nancy Jane, wife of M.N.B. Killam, alone remain in the place. The Bennetts were esteemed as honest and industrious citizens.
Uriah Chapman settled adjoining the Bennetts, and Hezekiah Bingham, Sr., next to Chapman. The latter was a good man and one of the first members of the Congregational Church organized in Salem in 1808. His sons were Hezekiah Bingham, Jr., Rodolphus and Solomon. His daughters were Nancy, wife of John Pellet, Jr.; Leura, wife of Simeon Chapman; Hannah, wife of Roswell Chapman; and Fanny, wife of Uriah Kimble. Hezekiah Bingham, Jr., married Eunice Killam, daughter of John Killam, and lived about one mile east of his father. His son Moses resided on the old place and was a justice of the peace. He died without children. John Bingham removed to the West. Rodolphus Bingham kept hotel on his father's property, which was the place of holding elections when Greene and Blooming Grove were part of Palmyra. His wife was Sally, a daughter of Abel Kimble's. Florence McCarty Bingham, one of the sons, went to Philadelphia and bought lumber as it was run down the river, becoming one of the largest lumber dealers in the city. He died without children about 1875, leaving a large property to his widow, who is devoting her fortune and her life to charity and nursing the sick.
Jacob Kimble, Sr., was a tall, bony man who lived to the advanced age of ninety-one. He was a miller, farmer and lumberman. His sons were Abel, Walter, Benjamin, Daniel, Ephraim and Jacob. One of his daughters, Lucretia, was the wife of Judge Abisha Woodward, of Bethany, Wayne County, Pa., and the mother of Hon. George W. Woodward, who became chief justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania. Abel Kimble built a grist-mill on Kimble Creek at an early day. He was succeeded by his son, Burnham Kimble, whose sons were Philip and Arthur, now living in Hawley, and Jackson, who is on the Peter Warner place. The daughters were Caroline, wife of Henry Edwards; Sybil, wife of Guerdon Pellet; Ada, who removed to the West; and Sarah Ann, wife of Jackson Nyce, who lives in the settlement. Jacob Kimble, 2d, resided on the farm afterward owned by his son, Heman Newton Kimble. He was the father of eighteen children. In the days when shoemakers went from house to house, boarded with the family and did their shoemaking for the year (which was called whipping the cat), it took one of these traveling cobblers three months each year to make boots and shoes enough for this family. His wife was Ann Ainsley, and Moses, Henry, Timothy M., Della (wife of Joseph Slocum), Walter, James, Newton, Harrison, Milton, George, Hannah (wife of Aaron Brown), Lucy Ann (wife of Judge Ridgway), and Jacob (who was at one time sheriff of Pike County) are all the children that Warren Kimble could remember. Walter Kimble, of the original family, moved to Indian Orchard. He raised a large family, who all went to Michigan with the exception of Stephen, who has a son Stephen living in Cherry Ridge. Benjamin and Daniel also settled in Cherry Ridge. Fannie Atkinson, the second wife of Joseph Atkinson, Sr., and mother of Joseph and Lot Atkinson, of Hawley, was a daughter of Benjamin Kimble's. She lived to an advanced age and was highly respected by all who knew her. Daniel's children located in the vicinity.Ephraim Kimble, Sr., settled at Mount Moriah (now. Kimble's Station,) in Lackawaxen township, in the history of which an account of his family will be found.
The Kimbles are a race of strong, good-sized men, possessing vigorous constitutions and ruddy countenances. They have been active working people and contributed their share toward developing Pike and Wayne Counties, besides sending a large number of their sons and daughters to the West, particularly to the State of Michigan, where, as lumbermen, millers and farmers, they are an undoubted success. The Kimbles are long-lived and have families of from eight to ten children on an average. Like the La Bars in Monroe County, the descendants of Jacob Kimble, Sr., can now be counted by the thousands.
Jesper Edwards lived where Moses Bingham afterwards settled. His sons, Peleg and James, stayed in the settlement, and Sabra became the wife of Jonathan Brink. Peleg remained on the homestead. Of his children, Charles married Susan Roberts and lived in Lackawaxen till a short time before his death, when he removed to Beemersville; Henry Edwards lived in the settlement as a shoemaker; and Sabra became the wife of Jonas Ainsley.
John Ainsley, Sr., who was born in England, was a blacksmith, as was his son, John Ainsley, Jr. Simeon and Joseph were the other sons. John and Joseph married sisters, daughters of Levi Kimble, and Simeon married a daughter of Jacob Kimble, Sr. Joseph Ainsley was the inn-keeper for the settlement. His sons were Hudson, Brenson, Jonas and Joseph. Hudson and Joseph moved to Buffalo. Brenson's children were Leonard, who lives in St.
Louis, and Joseph Ainsley, who has a large sash factory in Scranton. His factory and lumber pile were destroyed by fire a short time ago, without insurance; but like a hero, in his old age he is building up again. William, of Purdytown, is a brother. Jonas Ainsley remained on the homestead, kept tavern and farmed. His widow and son George live there still.
John Pellet, Jr., was in most of the conflicts with the Indians on the Paupack. He married Nancy Bingham, daughter of Hezekiah Bingham, Sr. Their children were Richard, John, George, William Calvin, Guerdon, Ira, Abigail (wife of Asa Kimble) and Nancy (wife of Meacham Kimble). A.D. Pellet, carpenter, of Salem, is a son of Richard Pellet. The Pellets are nearly all gone from the settlement. They were a prominent family.
David and Orrin Lester, who were Revolutionary soldiers, lived for some years in Paupack.
Nathan Sutton had a small tannery with four vats up at the Beemer place, where he tanned good upper and sole leather. He ground his bark with a horse and stone. His son Jonas lived on the homestead, which is now owned by John Burns, who has found clay adapted to the purpose, and makes a coarse earthenware at the place. Jonas Sutton married Ann, a daughter of Solomon Purdy. Their children were Colbern and William.
Peter Warner came to Paupack from Monroe County, and bought on the corner, across from the fort, in 1827. He was the village blacksmith and a good man.
Stephen Dimon came to Wilsonville from New Jersey in 1830, and in 1833 bought John Connet's improvements. His son, Cornelius C. Dimon, built an addition to the house, and started a hotel in 1856, which is still managed by him. Jane Dimon was the wife of Henry Gager, of Mt. Pleasant, and Lydia Dimon, the wife of Newton Kimble. The settlement of Palmyra township has latterly included many Germans.
Frazier Smith, Jacob Seaman, Conrad Gumble, Herman Gumble, Francis Singer and Casper Wesling settled on the road from Henry D. Clark's to Blooming Grove. Nelson B. Kirkendall lives one-half mile southwest of Dimon's, Thomas Robinson is one mile south of Dimon, on the Simpson place. Henry Valentine lives on the N. Kimble property. John Decker formerly kept a hotel at what was known as the Decker stand, on the Milford and Owego turnpike, and had a farm, it being a stopping-place of some importance in the day of stage-coaches. The Erie Railroad has, however, wrought many changes, and the place is growing.
Charles W. Down came from Easton to Sterling in 1830, and lived where Whittaker now is, on the Heman Newton place. He moved to Palmyra in 1858, and has held the office of justice of the peace. He has charge of the Ledgedale Tannery shipments at Hawley.
James Cromwell built the Cromwell Tannery about 1849, and his brothers, William and Joshua, bought his interest and run it until 1883. William Cromwell now has a planing-mill opposite Hawley, near the old tannery. He was associate judge of Pike County one term.
TAFTON.- Amasa Daniels was a squatter and made an improvement where Tafton now is at an early day. Elizabeth Valentine bought the property for her son-in-law, Royal Taft, about 1821. The tract consisted of four hundred and forty acres of land. Mr. Taft built an addition to the old house, a barn and a hotel, known as the Tafton House. As he was on the Milford and Owego stage line, he soon after had a post-office established at Tafton, of which he was postmaster. He continued business in the hotel until 1841 and was succeeded by his son, Thomas V. Taft, who did not take out a license, but kept travelers simply as an accommodation for a number of years. He built a store, and as administrator conducted the business until the heirs were of age. Then the three brothers, Thomas, Charles and Theodore, were in partnership until Thomas and Theodore purchased Charles' interest and continued the business until 1868. Since that time the property has been in the hands of various Germans. Christopher Newberger has resided there a number of years and Joseph Atkinson manages a steam saw-mill. Thomas V. Taft now lives in Hawley. Charles V. Taft was for many years a merchant in that place and has been succeeded in business by his son, Royal Taft. The Tafts are an honest, enterprising family.
WILSONVILLE.- About 1768 Rev. Richard Peters, Henry Drinker and Abel James, of Philadelphia, cut a road, sometimes called the Wilderness road, from Stroudsburg to Wilsonville, or in that vicinity, to a point on the Wallenpaupack, which they then called Factoryville, and sent a colony, who commenced to build a woolen-factory on the Wallenpaupack rapids, between Wilsonville and Hawley. These Philadelphia gentlemen had a Utopian scheme whereby they expected to become rich. Before the days of steam, water was more highly esteemed than now, and the water-power furnished by the Wallenpaupack near its mouth was considered to be of great value even at that early day. They intended raising sheep on the hills about Wilsonville and having everything at hand for a woolen-factory. But this was a howling wilderness, the home of the wolf, the bear and the panther rather than a place for sheep-raising. The result of this project is soon told. In 1769 Rev. Richard Peters came to Stroudsburg and asked Colonel Jacob Stroud to take a load of provisions to his colony, as they were starving, which he immediately did, and the enterprise was soon after abandoned. The Wallenpaupack Falls, where Wilsonville is located, is an excellent water-power, and as it is impossible to run rafts over it in safety, the owners of this privilege have had a monopoly of the lumbering that comes from the forests of the region drained by the Wallenpaupack and its branches. The first mill where Wilsonville now is was a gristmill built by Joseph Washburn and burned the 3d of July, 1778, according to Minor's "History of Wyoming." Subsequently there were other mills erected, and from
1799 until April 5, 1802, it was the county-seat of Wayne County. Leonard La Bar was in Wilsonville about 1818. He had two saw-mills on Pike County side and a grist-mill in Wayne County. After La Bar, Roberts & Fuller got the property; Roberts died and it was sold at sheriff's sale to Dan Brodhead for seven thousand dollars by the sheriffs of Wayne and Pike Counties, at the same time, one selling on Pike side of the river and the other on Wayne side. James M. Porter appears to have been interested. In 1843 William Shouse came to Wilsonville with his sons Jacob, John and Henry, and took charge of the mills. Jacob died and John and Henry assumed full charge of the business. They divided the property between them and Henry built a large sawmill on the Wayne County side. They did an immense lumber business and ran a store and grist-mill. In 1869 John Shouse sold his interest to Farnham, Collingwood & Co. for fifty-five thousand dollars and returned to Easton. The next year Henry Shouse sold his interest to the same parties for fifty thousand dollars and also returned to Easton. Shortly afterwards the new company purchased the Marcus Killam tract for sixty thousand dollars. The mills have a capacity of about ten million feet of lumber per year. Collingwood & Millard are now the principal owners. The large tracts of timber which have supplied these mills in years past are nearly all gone, and this, like other large lumbering establishments, will soon only be known historically.
William Shouse died at Easton in 1877, in the ninetieth year of his age. He began life as a cabinet and chair-maker. From 1819 to 1836 was proprietor of the Franklin House, at Easton. From 1836 to 1843 was engaged in carriage-making for the Southern market, and in 1843, as above mentioned, engaged in milling, lumbering and merchandising at Wilsonville. He left the latter place in 1870 and returned to Easton. He was the originator of the famous opposition line of stages to Philadelphia, and when Pardee Hall was opened, he was the oldest living trustee of Lafayette College. He was a life-long member of the Lutheran Church and a highly respected business man. His son, John Shouse, was a member of the Milford bar and associate judge of Pike County one term.(4*)
* In this account we have followed Miner, but the early Connecticut settlers were Congregationalists, although they were the founders of the Presbyterian Churches in Northeastern Pennsylvania.
** See Chapter VII. of the General History.
*** Laqueway or Lackaway was the Wallenpaupack settlement.
(4*) In writing the history of Wallenpaupack settlement, acknowledgment should be made for the assistance rendered by Ephraim Killam, Esq., of Hawley, M.N.B. Killam and wife, Thomas V. Taft and to P.G. Goodrich's "History of Wayne County" and Charles Miner's "History of Wyoming."
Page(s) 944-954; History of Wayne, Pike and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Mathews, Alfred, Philadelphia, R. T. Peck & Co., 1886