BOROUGH OF MILFORD
PIONEER HISTORY AND TRADITIONAL MATTER.-- About the year 1733 a Hollander named Thomas Quick emigrated from the Fatherland to the colony of New York, and not long afterwards located on the Delaware, in what afterwards became known as Upper Smithfield, and still later as Milford, Pennsylvania. His circumstances were equal to those of the affluent Dutch immigrants of that period. He pitched his tent considerably in advance of his predecessors, and, according to the testimony of his descendants, was the pioneer settler of Milford. Quick erected a log cabin, cleared land and built a barn, which he stored with wheat and maize, the fruits of his industry. In 1734, Thomas Quick, the Indian killer, was born. He was the pet of the household, and the Indians who frequented Quick's house, where they found a friendly shelter whenever they desired, admired the fine, healthy boy, and often made him presents of plumes of feathers and other articles. As he grew up among the Indians he learned to speak their language, and was also taught how to take the otter, beaver, etc. He thus imbibed a liking for the savage life of a hunter, trapper and fisherman, and could not be induced to follow regularly any other occupation. He had two brothers, James and Cornelius, and two sisters who became the wives of Solomon Decker and Francis Magee. A Dutch school was established in the neighborhood, to which the children were sent, but Thomas had become so much of an Indian in his instincts and habits, that he could with difficulty be induced to attend school, and thus learned but little.
Meanwhile, Thomas Quick, Sr., continued to prosper and erected a saw-mill and grist-mill on a stream entering the Delaware near Milford, probably the Vandemark.
While Tom's brothers were poring over the Dutch alphabet, he was shooting, trapping, wrestling and jumping with the young Indian braves. During these years he roamed over all the region of country in the vicinity of his father's cabin, and made himself familiar with the hunting-grounds and rivers in Minisink, Mamecotink, the Shawangunk, the Wawasink, the Mahackamack or Neversink, the Mangawping or Mingwing, etc. This knowledge afterwards became of great service to him in waylaying and murdering Indians. The Lenni Lenape or Delaware Indians, who inhabited the Minisink, through which ran the Lenape Wihittuck or Delaware River, looked with alarm on the increasing number of white men who invaded their favorite hunting-grounds, and took possession of the ancient home of the Lenni Lenape or original people, by an overreaching policy. During the French and Indian War these jealousies were easily kindled into a flame by French emissaries, who induced the Six Nations and other powerful tribes to make common cause with them against the English. The Quicks had been kind to the Indians, but they were the first to encroach upon them at Milford, and the prospect of plundering an opulent man like Quick was sufficient to weaken any ties of gratitude that might linger in the savage breast. When hostilities commenced, the Quicks and their friends became uneasy. The natives were less sociable and finally withdrew from the Delaware Valley altogether. Each party distrusted the other; the Indians, feeling they had been wronged, determined to drive every Englishman off of their lands. Quiet reigned after the Indians departed until the Quicks and their neighbors became careless. One day the old man crossed the Delaware to procure hoop-poles, others say to grind a grist, Tom and his brother-in-law accompanying him, all unarmed. As they were proceeding leisurely round a point or ridge near the river, they were fired upon by ambushed Indians and the old man fell, mortally wounded. The young men, who were unhurt, endeavored to drag him after them as they fled.
The savages did not make immediate pursuit, probably waiting for the main body to come up. They soon arrived, however, and the young men, who were bearing their father to a place of safety, abandoned him when he could go no farther, even with their assistance, as he exclaimed, "I am dying; leave me and run for your lives!" After much urging they finally left him and on the way across the Delaware, which was then frozen, they were fired upon and young Tom was thrown down by a ball which took the heel off his boot, and the Indians shouted, "There lies Tom Quick," but he was soon up and out of danger, as the savages did not dare to pursue across the Delaware. Tom and his brother-in-law finding that they were not pursued, crept back near enough to hear the scalp-whoop of the Indians. Young Tom was frantic with grief and rage, and swore that he would never make peace with the Indians as long as one could be found upon the banks of the Delaware. From this time forth the demon of unrelenting savage hatred took possession of Tom Quick, and he became more like the savages he hunted than like a civilized man. He did not enter the army, but waged ceaseless warfare upon the Indians wherever he found them, both in times of profound peace and war. He regarded neither age nor sex in his relentless warfare. The time has long since ceased when any such cold-blooded murderer can be exalted to the rank of a hero; but as his reputation as an Indian slayer is far extended, we will condense from a life of "Tom Quick, the Indian Slayer," by James E. Quinlan, a brief account of some of his exploits. It does not appear that he signalized himself in any way during the French and Indian War; but after peace was declared and the hatchet buried, he commenced operations independently. Such of the former inhabitants of the Neversink and Delaware as were living returned to their clearings and possessions. The Indians, too, began to revisit their old haunts, supposing they would be well received by the whites, but the fire and the scalping-knife yet retained a vivid place in the recollection of the settlers, and in the hearts of many of the pioneers there rankled undying hatred. Notwithstanding this aversion, nearly all the settlers were careful to avoid all cause of offense. Among the Indians who came back was a drunken vagabond, named Muskwink or Modeline, who had assisted in murdering Tom's father. About two years after the war Tom went to Decker's tavern, on the Neversink. Muskwink was there, somewhat intoxicated, very bold and talkative, claiming Tom's acquaintance and desiring him to drink with him. Tom refused and bestowed a contemptuous epithet upon the Indian, which caused the snake-like eyes of the latter to glitter with rage. A conversation of an irritating character passed between them, during which Modeline gave a detailed account of the killing of Thomas Quick, Sr., asserting that he scalped him with his own hands, at the same time mimicking the grievances of the dying man, and, to corroborate his assertion, exhibited the silver sleeve buttons worn by his victim at the time. This brutal recital aroused the devil in Tom's heart. He was unarmed, but there was a French musket in the bar-room, hanging on pegs driven into a beam directly over the hearthstone. Tom quickly took this musket from its place, ascertained that it was loaded and primed, cocked the gun and placing the muzzle within a few feet of Modeline's breast, ordered him to leave the house. He arose slowly and sullenly from his seat and proceeded to the door, Tom following after him. He drove the savage into the main road between Wurtsborough and Carpenter's Point. After proceeding about a mile toward the latter place he exclaimed, "Indian dog, you'll kill no more white men!" and aiming the musket, which was loaded with a heavy charge of slugs, shot the savage in the back between the shoulders. Modeline jumped two or three feet from the ground and fell upon his face dead. Tom took from him the buttons which had belonged to his father, drew the body to a tree that the wind had torn up by the roots, and kicking some leaves and dirt over it, left it there. Some say that he severed the head from the body, stuck it on a stake by the road and left it there.
After the assassination of Modeline, Tom returned to Decker's tavern, put the musket in its proper place, drank a glass of rum and left the neighborhood. Several years afterward Philip Decker cleared the land and in plowing turned up the Indian's bones. A pair of bars in the fence at that place are known as Modeline's bars to this day. This transaction caused considerable excitement at the time, some holding that Tom should be arrested and sent to prison, others contending that he had performed a meritorious act. Tom was certainly laboring under great provocation, and we can find greater excuse for this transaction than for many which followed. His next exploit, which occurred shortly after, was the murdering of an Indian family, consisting of a man, his wife and three children, who were in a canoe on the Delaware, near Butler's Rift.
The Indian seemed to be unarmed, and, with the others, was evidently not apprehensive of danger. They were on the same side of the river with Tom, and proceeded leisurely along, the children enjoying the journey and seeming very happy. When Quick saw them he concealed himself in the long reed grass which grew on the shore, and as they approached near he recognized the Indian as one who had visited his father's house before the war, and been engaged in several outrages on the frontier. When within gunshot Tom rose up, and in the Indian tongue, ordered them to come ashore. The Indian turned pale, but dared not disobey. He then inquired where they were going, to which answer was made. He then remarked they had reached their journey's end. The Indian answered that it was "peace time," that "the hatchet was buried." But Tom replied that there could be no peace between the red-skins and him, and that he would wage eternal war with them. He then shot the man and tomahawked the squaw and her children. The two eldest "squeaked like young crows," so Tom said. He had proceeded thus far without compunctions of conscience, or feeling that he was committing a most horrible massacre. But as he raised the tomahawk to give the fatal blow to the youngest, the babe-for it was nothing more-looked up wonderingly into his face and smiled. The innocence and unconsciousness of danger beaming from its sunny childish eyes caused him to relent. His arm fell to his side. He could not strike it. But the fact suddenly thrust itself upon him that the child would in a few years become an Indian, and this so enraged him that he dashed out its brains. He sank the bodies in the river and destroyed the canoe. He did not tell of this deed until years afterwards. When asked why he killed the children, he would reply "Nits make lice." The foregoing murders are as well authenticated as any of his numerous exploits.
There are many wonderful stories told of him which have been preserved by tradition and which are firmly believed by the oldest members of the Quick family and other families who lived in the vicinity of his home in Westfall township, at Rosetown, where he now lies buried on part of the old James Rosenkrutz property.
Among the improbable stories is the one concerning rail-splitting. It is alleged that seven Indians caught him splitting rails and told him he must go along with them. He said he would if they would help him get the log split in two. They put their fingers in the crack on either side to assist him and he knocked the wedge out, and as their fingers were all fast in the log he knocked their brains out at his leisure. The buck with seven skins is more like Tom. On hunting with an Indian with the understanding that he was to have the meat, while the Indian had the skins, they killed seven deer. Tom fell behind the Indian, who had the skins on his back, shot him and took the skins, along with the meat, which was hung up in the woods, saying that he had shot a buck with seven skins.
Tradition says that on his death-bed he claimed to have killed ninety-nine Indians and begged them to bring an old Indian who lived in the settlement that he might kill him before he died and thus make an even hundred. After participating in the murder of Canope at Handsome Eddy, he had no more Indian adventures. His last episode was with the panthers. He and his dogs killing two old and two young ones in one day. His headquarters in the summer were generally at the house of Showers, near Mongaup Island, or at a hut near Hagen Pond, where he hunted and trapped. He never married. He was outlawed by the government, it being an understood thing that no Indian who killed him would be held accountable by the whites.
In his old age he was looked upon as a hero by the pioneer hunters and trappers. He died at James Rosencrance's, in the year 1795 or 1796, and was buried on his farm.
During his last illness he never expressed a regret that he had killed so many Indians, but was sorry he had not killed a greater number. Those who knew Tom in his latter days say he had carried his favorite rifle until the stock where it rested on his shoulder was worn through, so that the ramrod was visible at the place.
The Indian slayer, weather-beaten, with worn-out accoutrements and dogs in keeping, would have formed no bad subject for the pencil. It would be difficult to find a parallel to the life of Tom Quick. Waging a relentless warfare against a savage foe, outlawed by his own government, he still continued to murder his victims until his name became a terror to his foes, and at last died unrepentant and handed down to posterity by contemporary frontiersmen as a hero.
EARLY SETTLERS.-Among the pioneers at Milford before the town was laid out or named were the names of Wells, Newman, Seely, Harford, Vandemark and Brodhead. The place was known as Wells' Ferry during the Revolutionary struggle, three Wells brothers having come from Connecticut. Their names were Jesse, James and Israel. Jesse Wells built a grist-mill on the Sawkill, where Jacob Klaer's mill now is, the people from across the river fording the creek below the mill; hence it became known as Mill-ford. General Samuel C. Seely is sometimes mentioned as having been connected with this mill, which is denied by others. He may have had an interest in a grist-mill at this point for a short time. There was also a saw-mill near the grist-mill. The Sawkill and Vandemark Creeks furnish good water-power, and saw-mills and grist-mills were erected on these streams from the earliest settlement of the place. Even old Tom Quick is said to have had a grist-mill and a saw-mill here in 1733-54. We find traditionary history and documentary evidence have alike connected the pioneer history of Milford with grist-mills. The reader must not infer they were very extensive enterprises, but simply little "Tub Mills," as they were called, with a single run of native stone, capable of grinding about as much as a good-sized coffee-mill. Even this slow process was better than beating it with a pestle and mortar. The Wellses undoubtedly had a ferry here. Old people remember that Jacob Kittle was a ferryman at Milford in the year 1808. James Wells lived at Panther Brook or Shohola. Israel Wells was drowned in the Delaware, below Moses Dietrick's place, about 1803. He lived on the hill south of the Sawkill, on the farm now owned by Mrs. John Heller and John Wallace. His children were Benjamin, Abram, Jesse, Lydia, Nathan, David, Peter, Harriet and Sally. Abram and Jesse lived on the turnpike on farms, and raised large families, who have since departed. Nathan was a cabinet-maker and lived in Milford. He invented the Wells Fanning-Mill, and established a factory, which is now operated by Henry Wells. Nathan Wells married Ann Rockwell. Of their children, Edgar is ticket agent and Frank is baggage-master on the Erie Railroad at Port Jervis; Peter is a merchant in the same village; Mary lives on the homestead, opposite the Sawkill House, with her mother, who is now eighty-eight years of age.
David Wells married Caroline Austin, and was a cabinet-maker and undertaker in Milford. His children were Helen, wife of Charles Biddis and mother of Senator Biddis; Halstead, who remained at home until his death; Caroline, wife of William H. Armstrong, attorney-at-law, who had been in the Internal Revenue Department at Washington for eighteen years, and resigned when the Democrats came into power (John D. Biddis, his brother-in-law, now has the office). David A. Wells represented Wayne and Pike in the Legislature of Pennsylvania one term. He finally kept the Glen House, where he died.
Isaac Newman came from Connecticut about 1765, located on a meadow just below the spot where James Pinchot is now building, and engaged in farming. His children were Asa, Isaac, Thomas, Ira, Susanna, Rebecca and Hannah. Of these, Asa and Isaac went to Montgomery County; Thomas removed to New Jersey; Ira married Mary Bross, a sister of Abram Bross, one of the old settlers of Lackawaxen. She lay in the lap of her mother in a swamp about three miles from the Delaware, in New Jersey, when the Indians raided that vicinity. Mrs. Bross muzzled the dog when the savages passed, who were in sight of the anxious mother, but did not see her and her infant daughter. Mr. Newman built a house in Milford, where Archie Brink now lives, in 1807. He was eighty and his wife eighty-six, when they died. His children were Laura, who married William Brink, and lived in Dingman township, where she still resides with her son, aged eighty-eight. Nancy married John M. Heller; their son, Martin V. Heller, is a railroad superintendent. Solomon Newman lived in Milford; his son, John B. Newman, now has a store in the place.
Thomas Newman lives in Milford, and served as constable for forty-four years, in which capacity he has been called into all parts of Pike County to serve processes. Living at the county-seat, he was called before justices of the peace in various parts of the county. Among others he often appeared before Mason Dimmick, Esq., who then kept tavern at Mellener's Eddy, where William Place now has a stand, and there Thomas Newman secured for his life partner Dimmick's only daughter. Their son, Charles B. Newman, is now district attorney of Pike County. Mr. Newman is nearly eighty years of age, and has a distinct recollection of many of the old residents of Milford who now sleep in Milford Cemetery. Ira B. Newman lived in Milford, and taught school until he died, when a middle-aged man. Catharine married David Howell and lives in Lehman. Malenna was unmarried.
One of the early settlers of what is now Milford was Samuel C. Seely. He obtained warrants for and located two tracts of land, one in his own name and the other in that of his wife, Patience Seely. These tracts included both sides of the Sawkill Creek, from the "river flats" up-stream about a mile, covering the sites for water-power on that creek for that distance. Soon after the surveys were made he settled upon the land and erected a grist-mill, which is said to have been on the site of the Klaer mill, that Wells' mill is said to have occupied. It is probable that one of these parties had the mill for a short time and then sold it to the other. Seely's residence, was on the old "Wilderness Road," which was opened through to Wyoming by Connecticut colonists in 1762. Old people say that he had a store here, it being the first store in all this region of country. His wife was Miss Patience Morrell, of New York, a woman of refinement and possessing property.
When he brought his wife to the wilderness home, at Minisink, their dwelling was a log cabin, and their oven out of doors, being built upon a level-topped rock of suitable height to form the oven floor. The first time the young wife heated the oven for baking, she was greatly startled, while at her work, by the sight of six or eight large rattlesnakes, that crawled out from under the rock as it had warmed by fire. Samuel C. Seely was one of the four judges commissioned to hold office during good behavior, shortly after the act of 21st March, 1798, erecting Wayne County. Samuel Preston, John Ryerson, Samuel C. Seely and John Biddis, although not lawyers, were commissioned, to hold Courts of Common Pleas. Judge Ryerson was removed March 30, 1803, and Richard Brodhead the next day commissioned as judge in his place. Judge Seely resigned May 13, 1803, and was the same day admitted to the bar as an attorney-at-law. It does not appear that he ever practiced before the courts.
These early judges were of about the same mental calibre as an ordinary justice of the peace, and their decisions were based upon the principles of natural justice, as it appeared to men of good common sense. They held the first courts in Wayne County at Milford, Wilsonville and Bethany, during the long controversy, ending in the permanent location of the seat at the last-named place, and finally in the erection of Pike into a new county, in 1814.
Samuel Seely, son of Rev. Christopher Seely, was born in 1756, probably at Morristown, N.J. Though only a boy at the outbreak of the Revolution, he early bore an active part in the conflict. His name appears for the first time in the list of officers and men of the militia of Elizabeth Town, who entered on board a number of shallops, January 22, 1776, in order to take the British ship "Blue Mountain Valley."
He held commissions in the three successive organizations of Continental troops, known as First, Second and Third Establishments. His final rank was first lieutenant of the First Regiment of the New Jersey Line. In this he served to the end of the war, and was honorably discharged with the brevet rank of captain. He probably obtained the title of general from some militia organization. General Seely had his slaves, in common with the prominent early settlers in the Minisink, and drove with his coach-and-four in much style, but during the latter part of his life lost his property and lived with his son-in-law, Judge Dingman, who had married his daughter, the Widow Burrell, for a second wife. He died September 28, 1819, aged sixty-three, and is buried in Delaware Cemetery, at Dingman's Ferry. He had a large family of children. Of these children, Samuel and Christopher and Charlotte, wife of John Thompson, lived in New York; William went to sea; Cornelia and Maria were twins (Cornelia was the wife of Paschal Wells, of Brooklyn, and Maria married John Ennis, who lived just across the river from Dingman's Ferry); Harriet married Isaac Burrell, and resided in Sandyson, N.J.; Sarah H. Burrell, the oldest daughter, was the wife of Abram Decker, who lived in Delaware township; Daniel Burrell is there also; Rev. William H. Burrell is a Methodist preacher; and Charles S. Burrell resides in Chicago.
John Biddis, Sr., a resident of Philadelphia, of Welsh descent, bought the land where Milford now stands, in the year 1793, or thereabouts, had the town laid out into building lots, etc. He built a grist and saw-mill, and carried on an extensive business. His children were Catharine, wife of Hugh Ross, an eccentric preacher and lawyer. Edward, a graduate of West Point, and in the Seminole War. Sarah Biddis, married James Barton, who built the first Milford water-works, the upper or Barton's grist-mill, now owned by Jervis Gordon, and the Biddis mill, which was on the old Wells & Seely mill-site, and is owned by Jacob Klaer. Barton had three daughters. Ann, who was the wife of John Clark, who furnished the Pike County House and kept tavern there a number of years. Of Clark's children, Theodosia was the wife of Oscar Mott, and Augustus the wife of William E. Salmon, Esq. George Biddis and John Biddis were in partnership in the mill and a store, which they established in Milford, until John Biddis died. George Biddis was a bachelor. John Biddis' wife was Martha Britton, and his children were George Biddis and Britton A. Biddis, who are deceased, and Charles Ross Biddis, who has been sheriff of Pike County one term, and county treasurer three terms. Charles R. Biddis is one of those irrepressible men who, if put down at one point, will rise at another. His predecessors had used up in one way or another nearly all of the ancestral inheritance, so that Charles, left to his own resources, took the contract for carrying the mail from Milford to Hamlinton, by way of Blooming Grove and Hawley, making a round trip of one hundred miles once a week. He carried this mail for eight years and rarely missed a trip. "Uncle Ira Crissman" kindly took his note for one hundred and seventy dollars for a large, iron-gray horse, which Biddis drove for seven years without missing a single trip. Mr. Biddis now lives comfortably, the result of his untiring industry. His wife was Helen R., a daughter of Caroline Wells. His only son, John D. Biddis, is a clerk in the Internal Revenue Department at Washington. John Biddis, Sr., was one of the first four judges appointed by the Governor to hold a Court of Common Pleas in Wayne County.
THE TOWN LAID OUT.-As already mentioned, it was John Biddis, Sr., who planted the town of Milford and placed its lands in the market. It appears that he entered upon this project in 1793, but that it was not consummated until 1796. His plan involved the operation of a lottery, which he advertised widely, together with a description of the town site. Following is the advertisement which he issued:
"TO THE PUBLIC.
"Proposals for establishing a town on the River Delaware at the distance of 120 miles from Philadelphia.
"The proprietor of that noted situation in Upper Smithfield township, in the county of Northampton, bounded on the River Delaware and Saw creek, generally known by the name of Wells Ferry, having laid out a town, consisting of five thousand and thirty lots, where the road from Wyoming, Shoholy and Lechawaxen to the northward and to the Eastern States intersect on an elevated situation and commanding eminence, so that it is effectually secured from inundation when there are freshes in the river, added to which, its fine, level surface or plain of a very considerable extent, over the whole of which, or town-flat, a never-failing supply of most excellent water can be introduced from a neighboring spring, the expense of which will be but trifling. Fronting the town, the River forms a natural cove or Eddy, possessing singular advantages for the sheltering of Boats and Lumber. Its prospects also of forming a capital seat for trade with the interior parts, as well of the State of New York and New Jersey as of Pennsylvania, to a very considerable extent, and the measures adopted by the Legislature of Pennsylvania for rendering the Delaware a safe navigation will, of course, turn those advantages of commerce which have heretofore proceeded to New York, to the city of Philadelphia. The streams which nearly form the boundaries of this Town on the northwest and southeast are well known for their regular supplies of water, and must have their influence to prove the eligibility of situation for almost every manufacturing purpose. Its central situation renders it almost evident that whenever a division of the county north of the Blue Mountain shall take place, which period cannot be far Distant, it will become the Seat of Justice. The peculiar advantages in erecting Buildings at this place must be obvious, when the saw-mills already erected on the above-mentioned stream are taken into consideration. By taking the whole of the above into a general view, it is conceived that there are few situations on the River possessed of so many natural advantages, and for the Better promoting the same, the Proprietor offers the following advantages: To erect one paper-mill, on an extensive plan, for the manufacture of Sheathing-Paper and Paste Boards, and all such kinds of paper as shall be deemed most advantageous, agreeable to a late important discovery of his own, and also to add five hundred dollars in Stock for carrying on the said manufactory for the term of seven years, for the benefit of the subscribers who shall appoint a Superintendent for the same, and also a factor to Reside in the city of Philadelphia to receive and dispose of the productions thereof.
"By referring to the annexed certificate, the Proprietor presumes that there needs nothing further to convince Subscribers of the advantage that may arise from the said Manufactory, but to assure them that the materials for the sheathing-paper is only Bark and hair, and that of Paste-board, Saw-Dust and Bark, with a small proportion of Junk.
"To each Town Lot there will be a proportion of two acres. This land lies situated without the Town, as will appear by referring to the plan to be seen at the City Tavern, and at the Dwelling of the Proprietor, adjacent to the premises. The number of Lots will be considered as so many Shares, for the disposing of which a subscription is opened at twenty Dollars per share, to be paid in four quarterly installments, and, previous to any money being advanced, vouchers shall be produced for the performance of every matter. And all that would wish to promote the progress of Settling the Unimproved Lands North of the Blue Mountains, and also become instrumental in preserving the advantages of Commerce of a Large Scope of Country, to the City of Philadelphia, 'tis hoped will become Subscribers.
"The Mode for Settling the Town in Deeds will be given to the Subscribers for the holders thereof to make choice of any vacant Lot, whenever they shall be ready to erect tenantable Buildings thereon, and the out Lots to be numbered 1, 2, 3, &c., and whoever erects the first Building on a Town Lot takes No. 1 of the former, and so on in rotation.
"JOHN BIDDIS.
"We, the subscribers, being well acquainted with the Situation of the Premises of the foregoing Publication, do hereby certify that the description therein given is founded on truth,
"Isaac Sidman. Garret Brodhead.
George Markley. Francis J. Smith.
Jacob Binder. James Chapman.
Samuel Wigton. B.W. Ball.
Daniel Buckley. Joseph Scull.
Edward Evans. Lawrence Erb.
Solomon Bush.
"We, the Subscribers, Shipwrights, having examined the specimen of Paper manufactured by Mr. John Biddis, of Northampton County, for the purpose of Sheathing vessel's bottoms, find the same strong, good and superior to any Paper imported for that use.
"Witness our hands at Philadelphia, June 13, 1793, Samuel Crawford. Manuel Eyre.
Peter Aston. George Baker.
George Eyre. Joseph Bower.
"Having examined a specimen of Paste Board manufactured by John Biddis, we are of opinion it will be suitable for Book binding and other purposes,
"Robert Patton,
"Wm. Woodhouse,
"Thomas Dobson, Printers
"William Wilson, and
"Philip Luneburner, Stationers
"James T. Peters,
"Frederick Newman,
"Subscriptions will be received by Peter L. Barbier Duplesis, No. 86 Chestnut Street; Edward Bonsall & Co., at their office, in Fourth, near Walnut Street; B. Johnson, No. 147 Market Street; John Jarvis, No. 126 North Third Street, and by the Proprietor."*
The following is a copy of one of the lottery tickets or certificates:
"This certificate shall obligate the Subscriber, his Heirs, Executors, or Administrators, to convey to the Holder such Lot, with its Improvements, in the Town of Milford, laid out in the county of Northampton and State of Pennsylvania, as shall be drawn against its number agreeably to his Proposals. Set forth to the Public the 12th day of January, 1796.
"JOHN BIDDIS.
"No. 402."
This particular certificate or ticket drew lot 51, near the mouth of the Vandermark Creek, on which was a saw-mill.
A large portion of the town plat passed into the possession of John Crosby, and, in 1797, was sold by the sheriff in accordance with the following announcement:
"By virtue of two certain writs of Venditioni Exponas to me directed, issued from the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, will be exposed for sale at the house of John Shock, Inn-keeper, in Easton, on Friday, the 26th day of May instant, at 12 o'clock of the day, 137 lots in the town of Milford, situate on the river Delaware, in Upper Smithfield township, with two acres of land attached or pertaining to each of said town lots; on lot No. 51, agreeably to the plan of the town, is erected a dwelling-house and saw-mill, and on No. 375 a water grist-mill, seized and taken in execution as the property of John Crosby.
"HENRY SPERING, Sheriff.
"May the 9th, 1797."
The first house on the site of Milford borough was built by Robert Harford, on the east corner of the lot now owned by Mrs. E.A. Lewis. It is the house in which Dr. Francis Al. Smith died, and in which Lewis Cornelius formerly kept tavern. The second was built by Johnson, a New Englander, is a part of the house in which George Bowhanan died, and in which a part of his family now live. The third was commenced by -- Lee, and was a hemlock frame, raised and abandoned, near where the barn of Jacob Klaer, Jr., now stands. A part of the house in which D.M. Van Auken now lives was an old dwelling many years ago. Frederick Vandemark occupied it. He, his wife and one son died there.**
The Vandemark house referred to in McCarty's recollections is now within the borough limits, the old house being used as a kitchen by Van Auken. The boards of the ceiling are fastened with wooden pins instead of nails. But little is known of Vandemark. The creek near this house is named in his honor. John H. Brodhead, father-in-law of D.M. Van Auken, thought the house existed before the Revolution, and it is claimed that bullet-marks have been found on the door. William McCarty, who made the statements preserved by Jenny Bross, said that "time began to count with him in 1791." He was a son of old Philip McCarty, one of the first settlers in Dingman township.
It has generally been claimed that a man by the name of Vandemark was the first settler on the present site of Milford. The Vandemarks are found early in the Smithfield settlement. At an Orphans' Court, held at Easton, July 19, 1766, Benjamin Vandemark, of Upper Smithfield, petitioned for an inquest on the estate of Garret Brink, who had died about eleven years before intestate, leaving sundry lands in Upper Smithfield and five children,-Sarah, wife of petitioner; Charity Van Gorden, widow of Peter Van Gorden; Mary, Lydia and Jannicha. Benjamin Vandemark sold land in Lower Smithfield to John Vandemark, August 1, 1771, adjoining John McMichael and John Drake, which was near Stroudsburg. Joseph Rider, of Upper Smithfield, sold one hundred and three acres and one hundred and fifteen perches of land to Frederick Vandemark, of the same place, bounded on one side by the Delaware River, May 10, 1784. Rider claims to have patented the land that year. This land was evidently the site of Milford. Frederick Vandemark and his wife and child died, according to McCarty's recollections, and probably whatever title he had was lost.
LATER SETTLERS.-John Brodhead, son of Garret Brodhead and brother of Sheriff Richard Brodhead, was born March 3, 1766, at East Stroudsburg. He married Catharine Heiner, and moved to Milford at an early day. He was the first clerk of the courts on the organization of Wayne County, September 10, 1798. This court was held at first in George Bowhanan's house, in Milford. At that time the offices of prothonotary, register, recorder and clerk of the courts were held by one person. He studied surveying under Colonel William Wills, March 27, 1792, and was a member of the Legislature in 1812. He died September 15, 1821. His children were Dan M. Brodhead,*** who is the father of Edgar Brodhead, of Port Jervis, and John Heiner Brodhead, who was born at Milford, January 5, 1802. On the 3d of April, 1833, he was appointed prothonotary, recorder, etc., of Pike County, and served three years. In 1839 Governor Porter made him one of his aides, with the rank of lieutenant-colonel. In 1841 he was elected a member of the Legislature. In 1843 Governor Porter appointed him associate judge for five years. In 1843 he was elected county treasurer; in 1856 elected associate judge, and appointed collector on the State improvements at Harrisburg in 1858-59. From 1860 to 1867 he was clerk in the Interior and War Departments at Washington. President Johnson appointed him one of the commissioners to locate the county-seats of Carbon and Wyoming Counties. In 1878 he was a clerk in the Treasury Department at Washington. His wife was Louisa Ross, their children being Louisa, wife of Dr. Carpenter, of Brooklyn; Rev. Dr. Augustus Brodhead, who has been a missionary to India twenty years, and is now preaching the gospel at Bridgeton, N.J.; Mary G. Brodhead, of Milford; John F. Brodhead, who married a daughter of Dr. Avery, of Honesdale; Ross Brodhead, who went to China, or it was so supposed, and was never heard of afterward; Maria, wife of Hon. D.M. Van Auken; Mark Brodhead, a merchant in Washington; and Catharine, wife of Senator Van Wyck, of Nebraska.
Constantine Pinchot was a merchant in Bretielle, an inland village about sixty miles from Paris, where Cyville Constantine Desiré Pinchot, the subject of this sketch, was born in the eighth year of the republic. When a mere lad, he espoused the cause of Napoleon Bonaparte, and wished to enlist in the army of the "Man of Destiny," but was too young. After Napoleon's defeat at Waterloo, his adherents were hunted down by the Bourbons, who had assumed control. Party spirit ran high and ties of kindred found no protection. Cyville's cousin, a Bourbon, reported the zealous young Bonapartist to the authorities, when Cyville and his father thought it politic to leave France, which they accordingly did in 1816, bringing their stock of goods with them to New York, from whence they came to Milford, and built a house and store where Oscar Mott's widow now resides. Mr. Pinchot cleared the ground where he built his house, his store being a long building, part of which is still standing. Constantine Pinchot had purchased four hundred acres of land in Dingman township, still known as the French lot, while he was in New York, which first led him to Milford, although he never occupied the farm, but lived in Milford. He had one daughter, Hortense, born in Milford, who married George Stoll, son of Judge James Stoll, of New Jersey, who died, when she became the wife of John I. Westbrook, of the firm of Westbrook & Stoll, of Port Jervis. Constantine Pinchot did not long survive his settlement in Milford, and, upon his death, young Cyville took charge of his business, which he conducted with energy and untiring industry until he had acquired a competence, when he gradually retired from active life and gave his four sons an interest in the store. Cyville D. Pinchot was active in all matters that interested the public. He believed that farming could be made to pay, and spent some thirty thousand dollars on the property known as the "Stone House Farm," in Dingman township. He was passionately fond of a good horse, and his stable contained some of the finest specimens of that noble animal to be found in the county. The only pastime he allowed himself was to occasionally hold the reins on one of his fine horses. He was a Huguenot, and, consequently, a Calvinist. He, accordingly, identified himself with the Presbyterian Church of Milford, while in its infancy, in August, 1832. From that time forward, for forty years, he was an earnest working member of the church and one of its most liberal supporters. He is remembered as an honest, enterprising man, whose success was the just reward of his untiring industry and fair dealing. His first wife, a daughter of Dan Dimmick, Esq., of Milford, died young, without issue. His second wife, a cousin of the first, was a daughter of John T. Cross, Esq., also a member of the Milford bar. Both were grandchildren of De Aerts, whose father was Lord of Opdorf and Immerseele, in Belgium. Their children were Edgar, James W., John F., Mary A. (wife of George W. Warner, a lawyer at Bridgeport, Conn.) and Cyville (now dead.)
Edgar Pinchot and, in fact, all the sons were engaged in business with their father for a time, and John F. Pinchot still continues the mercantile business at Milford, there being a continuous succession in the family since the business was first started, in 1816, till the present time. Edgar Pinchot was a merchant from the age of nineteen until 1875, being twenty-five years in New York City, in the wholesale drug firm of Pinchot & Bruen. He retired from active business in 1875, returned to his native place and built an elegant brick residence on the corner of Fifth and Ann Streets, which he now occupies. He was appointed associate judge of Pike County by Governor Hoyt, and resigned to act as Presidental elector for James A. Garfield. He has been a member of the State Central Committee, and chairman of the Republican County Committee a number of times since he came to Milford. His wife is a daughter of Darius Maples, of Delaware County, N.Y.
James W. Pinchot was a wholesale manufacturer and dealer in wall paper, in the firm of Pinchot, Warren & Co., until he became wealthy, and retired from the firm a few years ago. He married a daughter of Amos R. Eno, and is one of the wealthy men of New York City. He is erecting an elegant stone castle on a commanding eminence overlooking the beautiful town of Milford and the noble Delaware River, as it winds through the historic Minisink Valley, with its rocky encarpment of abrupt bluffs that support the highlands of Pike County on one side and the receding and cultivated hills of New Jersey on the other. Ascending the hill-side a short distance above the building by a forest path through pine and oak, the ear catches the sound of the falling waters of the beautiful Sawkill Falls as they tumble over rocks a distance of ninety feet into the deep gorge below.
The castle is built after a Norman-Breton model found in the Scottish highlands. The main building is eighty-one by fifty-two feet, and the wing twenty-seven by fifty-seven. There are three turrets or towers on three corners of the main building, each twenty feet in diameter and sixty-three feet high. The building is of native stone and is two stories
high, with an attic. It contains twenty-three fire-places, a large dining hall and easy stairway to numerous cosy rooms finished in imitation of the old baronial style. The Delaware and the distant mountains rising in the background form a magnificent landscape as seen from the castle.
James Wallace came to Maryland from Scotland and thence to Milford at an early day and built a house where De Behrle's hotel now is. He was evidently poor, commenced mercantile life as a pack peddler and soon opened a store in Milford. He was an enterprising man and by strict integrity and fair dealing gained a good trade and became a wealthy man for his day. He was modest and unassuming in his demeanor, and, although not a church member at the time, was elected the first superintendent of the Presbyterian Sunday-school, organized in Milford in 1823, and was one of the organizers and a ruling elder in the Presbyterian Church, organized in 1825. During his life he was one of its main pillars and supporters. He was very strict in his Sabbath observance and had rather entertain a traveler over Sunday, free of charge, than have him travel on that day. He frequently stopped strangers Saturday nights and either kept them at his own house or sent them to the Sawkill and paid their bills. The wayfaring man ever found a lodging-place with him when he needed shelter and food. Sometimes his family would remonstrate with him for keeping so many wandering travelers, or tramps, as they are now called, when he replied: "Entertain strangers, for thereby you may entertain angels unawares." "But," said his family, "you may sometimes entertain devils." Once he sheltered a boy for a number of days. Meantime a man came whom Mr. Wallace sent to the hotel for lodging, which he often did, and paid his bills. During the night the boy whom he had befriended stole the man's satchel and his benefactor's overcoat and fled. Next day the man tried to secure a warrant for the arrest of Mr. Wallace for stealing, but could not find an officer who would grant it. They replied that Mr. Wallace would pay him if he owed him anything, and he did give the man ten dollars for what there was in his valise, which was probably more than it was worth. Another boy set the mountain on fire and the whole village turned out to fight the fire and save their homes. Notwithstanding all this abuse of his generosity, Mr. Wallace never ceased to he kind to the poor and wayfaring man, and doubtless entertained many who were worthy of his kindness. His house was the home of the preachers. He was one of the most substantial Christian business men in Milford. He left his children a good business start in life and an honest name. His wife was Elizabeth, a daughter of Dr. De Aerts Smith, of Smithfield. His children were John H., Amanda, James S., Matilda, William, Francis B. and Helen M. John H. Wallace was a merchant in Milford and a very substantial man. His son, John C. Wallace, is a merchant and one of the leading men of the village, and his daughter, Helen M., was the wife of Judge Geo. P. Heller. James S. Wallace died in 1884, aged seventy-four. His life was one of strict integrity and unblemished honor. His charities were so manifold that, though unostentatious, they could not fail to be known. His moral character was a shining example. His first business venture after a long clerkship with the old firm of Pinchot & Manclere was mercantile partnership with James Bassett at Paupack Eddy (now Hawley). In 1836-37 he entered into partnership with John H. Wallace, his brother, in the store (now moved away) nearly opposite the Sawkill House in Milford. Both were successful. He afterward built and for a number of years kept store in the building on Harford street, lately occupied by N. Revoyre as a hotel, during a portion of which time he was postmaster of Milford. Afterward, for a long period, he continued the mercantile business in a quaint old store on the corner opposite the Crissman House, where now stands the handsome stone building of James W. Pinchot. After that he occupied a building on Centre Square, opposite the court-house. In 1881 he removed to his handsome brick residence nearly opposite the Sawkill House, and almost on the site of his first store in Milford, where his estimable wife, who was a daughter of Jeffrey Wells, now lives. Matilda Wallace was the wife of Benjamin Alden Bidlack, attorney-at-law in Wilkes-Barre. He came to Milford for a short time with his wife and finally died while United States minister, resident at Bogota. His widow subsequently married Charles S. Miner, the careful historian of Wyoming Valley, who died October 26, 1865, aged eighty-six. His widow still survives at an advanced age in Philadelphia. Francis B. Wallace was a broker in New York City. Helen M. Wallace was the wife of John T. Cross.
Jabez Rockwell, a Revolutionary soldier and shoemaker by trade, came to Milford about 1797. He was sheriff of Wayne County one term. His son, Lewis Rockwell, was sheriff of Pike County one term, lived to a great age and died in Palmyra township. Polly Rockwell, one of Jabez Rockwell's daughters, was wife of James Watson, one of Pike County's most popular sheriffs. William Watson, a carpenter, is the only descendant now living in Milford. Anna was the wife of Nathan Wells, and John B. Rockwell was a merchant in Milford.
Andrew Armstrong came to Milford shortly after 1816. He was followed by his brothers James, Thomas and John, lastly by William, who came in 1833. The Armstrong brothers were masons and contractors, and in that capacity, as first-class mechanics, have worked on or built most of the important buildings in Milford, Port Jervis and vicinity, besides doing work in New York City. The brothers all died in Milford, with the exception of William who survives. Among the descendants living in Milford are Andrew and John Armstrong, masons, and Hamilton Armstrong, a schoolteacher and member of the bar. Lancelot W. Armstrong and Thomas Armstrong are builders in New York and were contractors on the Produce Exchange, the art gallery in Central Park and Orlando B. Potter's eleven-story building in Park Row. The family originally came from the north of Ireland.
Thomas O. Hazen, who was an early settler of the vicinity of Milford, died in July, 1885, and was then the oldest resident of the place. He was born in Orange County, New York, December 4, 1793, and died July 6, 1885. He enlisted in the War of 1812, at the age of nineteen, for which service he drew a pension at the time of his death. Mr. Hazen moved to Pike County in 1824, on a farm near the Sawkill Pond, and followed the pursuit of farming all his life until declining health prevented him from performing work. He had five children, of whom two survive,-Mrs. Julia A. Crawford and Daniel Hazen, of Sparrowbush, New York.
Who the male residents of the village were in 1806 is shown in the following fall list taken at the general election of that year, held at the house of Samuel Grandin on October 14th:
Thomas Newman.
Jacob Dewitt.
John Brodhead, Esq.
Henry Van Campen.
James McKean, Sr.
Mathew Clark.
John F. Randolph.
Jacob Von Sekle.
Haramones Brink.
Samuel Brink.
John Hill.
John Biddis, Jr.
Francis A. Smith.
Joshua Johnson.
Cornelius Meddaugh, Jr.
Absalom Von Auker.
Jabez Rockwell.
Lewis Rockwell.
Matthew Ridgeway.
John Von Leakle (3d).
Dan Dimmick, Esq.
William Watson.
George Bowhannan.
John Brink, Esq.
Jacob Robinson.
Mrs. Sol. Newman.
Moses Brink.
Samuel Grandin.
Jacob Quick.
Benjamin Ransom.
John Johnson.
Samuel Edsall.
Jesse McCane.
James Hornbeek, Jr.
Isaac Blackmore.
Thomas Vanseakle.
Levi Von Auker.
John B. Quick.
Abraham Mulford, Esq.
Johile Fuller,
George Westfall.
Garret Von Auker.
Caleb Hill.
Charles D. Wallace.
William Donelly.
Joshua Dewitt.
Josiah McCane.
Eli Fuller.
Abraham Wells.
Isaac Newman.
Wilhelames Courtright.
Josephus McCarty.
Tobias Hornbeck.
Ira Newman.
David Westfalll.
George Biddis.
Cornelius Meddaugh.
James Wallace.
Samuel Johnson.
James Rosengrant.
John F. Waggoner.
Robert L. Traues.
Edward Cohean.
James McCarty.
HOTELS.-Thomas Newman, Sen., kept tavern near where Le Clerc now is in 1800, and Samuel Thrall presided there in 1821. Thomas Clark had a tavern on the same site in 1825, and James Barton built the house now occupied by Le Clerc. Tobias Hornbeck had a tavern where Mrs. Page's house is located as early as 1790. The George Bowhanan house was used as a hotel for a number of years and is claimed by his descendants as the first tavern in Milford. The first courts in Milford for the county of Wayne, in 1798, by Judge Samuel Preston and associates were held in this house which is still standing and occupied by Louisa Bowhanan, one of (4*)George Bowhanan's daughters. Manual Brink built the house where Dr. Emerson now lives, which was once used as a hotel, and John Randolph had a hotel called "Flat Roof House," where Mrs. Eldred now resides.
The frame to the Crissman House was raised about 1820 by Timothy Candy and the building completed by John Clark. The Crissman House was originally called the Pike County House. It is well located for business, being on the corner where the road from Port Jervis and the main road leading into the country intersect each other. Clark ran the hotel for a while and sold it to Col. H.S. Mott, a noted politician in his day. In 1853 Col. Mott sold the property to Cyrus Crissman who enlarged and otherwise improved the house. After the latter died his widow continued the business through Ira Crissman, her brother-in law, who is still living at the hotel, aged seventy-eight. John Jones, Henry Bull, her son-in-law, and Parmer had the house until Frank Crissman, a son of Crissman's, took charge in 1876. The Crissman house, in common with other hotels in Milford, is largely patronized in summer by boarders from the cities of Philadelphia and New York. The house will accommodate sixty guests comfortably, and one hundred have been fed at their tables. The Crissman House is now the Democratic headquarters and is much frequented by local politicians. During the long winter evenings the Crissman House is the resort of the villagers. Ira Crissman sits there, as complacently as ever, although his dog Caesar no longer bears him company. Uncle Ira was elected justice of the peace until he refused the honor longer. He is now a retired veteran, living on the honors and emoluments of the past. Frank Crissman is a popular landlord. His table contains all that one desires and the comfort of the guests is well considered.
Mason Dimmick came to Milford first and taught school. Samuel Dimmick arrived next and built the Dimmick House. He first commenced hotel-keeping in the house now occupied by Mrs. Pinchot, and while there, in 1828-29, built the house on the corner opposite the Crissman House, now known as the Dimmick House. Mr. Dimmick was an enterprising man and bought an interest in the stage line on the Milford and Owego turnpike. These stage lines were important in their day, and took the place of the railroad. The old Milford and Owego line made connections with Newburgh by stage and from thence to New York by boat, persons traveling West taking this line; but the Erie Railroad superseded the stage lines and the turnpike. When Dimmick abandoned staging he had forty or fifty horses and a number of coaches which were sent farther West. During these staging days, about 1840, while Greeley was visiting Pike County in connection with the Sylvania Phalanx Society, which he and others had established in Lackawaxen township to test Fourierism, an occurrence happened which has often been alluded to in the newspapers and which we give in the language of Charles F. Rockwell who was an eye-witness to the whole transaction. He says: "The exact year I do not remember; it was somewhere in the forties. Horace Greeley had money invested in the Sylvania Society and was on his way to that point. The Erie Railroad then ended at some point east of Port Jervis-either Middletown or Otisville; from that point travel was continued by stage. I think the time was in the spring; at all events it was very wet and the roads were muddy. The stage broke down out of town between the William Brodhead and James Wallace farms and the passengers walked into town, Greeley among them, with his pants tucked in his boots and valise in his hand. The Dimmick Hotel, then called the 'Centre Hotel,' was kept by Samuel Dimmick, father of Milford's present postmaster, C.W. Dimmick, and was the stage-house.
"Mr. Dimmick was in the bar. The fire-place, I remember, was an open stove, called in those days a Franklin stove, and behind it was a long covered wood box, with lids. Greeley set his valise and himself on the wood box until those at the bar had got through, when he told Mr. Dimmick that he would like to have the mud washed off his boots. Dimmick answered that he could accommodate himself at the pump-trough, which then stood at the centre of the intersection between Broad and Harford Streets. Greeley had hardly begun when he was recognized by Cornelius W. De Witt from his store across the way. De Witt knew him, for he was then the head and front of the Whig party, which consisted of about one hundred and forty voters. De Witt went over, shook hands with Greeley and, when told by him of the situation, at once ordered a halt, and taking Greeley by the arm, led him back to the bar-room, and bringing him face to face with Dimmick, he said, 'Mr. Dimmick, I will make you acquainted with Horace Greeley.' Dimmick was dumfounded for a moment, but after recovering from his confusion said, 'Is it possible-and it was Horace Greeley I sent to wash his own boots.' It is needless to add that Greeley's boots were taken off, washed and a pair of slippers were furnished and a place in the sitting-room given to him."
The Dimmick house burned down about 1856, when it was rebuilt with brick. After the death of Samuel Dimmick, in 1866, the business was continued by the family until 1879. It still belongs to the estate, but has been rented for a number of years. Abram Bronson now has it. The house will accommodate about fifty guests comfortably. Chief Justice Sharswood, of Philadelphia, and Horace Greeley have made this a stopping-place in years gone by. Samuel Dimmick's son, C.W. Dimmick, is postmaster, and Fannie Dimmick, his sister, assistant postmaster at Milford.
The Sawkill House, which is named after the beautiful falls of that name near Milford, was built by Lewis Cornelius, about 1823. Mr. Cornelius first commenced hotel-keeping in the 0ld Harford House, and during that time built what is now the parlor and sitting-room and a portion of the dining-room. He was an energetic business man, soon added a store-room to the hotel, got in a stock of goods and engaged in merchandising along with hotel-keeping, but later abandoned store-keeping and used a portion of that room for a bar-room. Since then a three-story building, containing a Masonic Hall, public hall and sleeping-rooms, has been added. The Sawkill House has always enjoyed a well-deserved reputation for good accommodations and skillful cooks. It was formerly patronized by wealthy Philadelphians, such as Anthony and Frank Drexel (bankers) James Smith, Dr. Neidhard and many others. Allen Cuthbert came to the house for forty years. George H. Boker, the poet, also made it his headquarters. Judges Waller and Seely always stop here, and George
G. Waller, Esq., has made it a stopping-place for twenty-five years. The rooms were let in advance. Of late years, New Yorkers have been patrons of the Sawkill. After Lewis Cornelius' death, in 1841, his sons-James, William and John-and his daughters-Catharine, Maria, Emily and Martha-continued the business. James Cornelius had principal charge, while John Cornelius was more of a politician-and sheriff of Pike County for three terms. After James' death, John gave up politics and attended to the hotel, where he became a popular landlord.
The sons are all dead and the three living sisters-Maria, Martha and
Emily-have since 1882 continued the business. The Cornelius sisters are noted cooks and the Sawkill House is second to none in Milford, for genteel entertainment and home-like quietness. The Sawkill House will accommodate about sixty boarders.
The Bluff House was built about 1876, by H.B. Wells, on the banks of the Delaware. It is beautifully located and commands a fine view of the Delaware and surrounding hills. It will accommodate about one hundred and fifty persons.
Walter Mitchell is building a house that will accommodate one hundred persons.
The Fauchere House is on the site of the old Van Gordon and La Bar stand. It accommodates about forty guests.
The Vandemark House has a capacity for about twenty-five persons and is kept by Ernest Beck. Many jurymen stop there.
There were fifteen licensed hotels in the place a few years ago, but there are not as many at present.
Milford is a desirable summer resort, a fact which is appreciated by city people.
BUSINESS MEN OF MILF0RD.-Albert Sherman had a tannery on the site now occupied by A.D. Brown, which the latter has converted into a saw-mill. Jesse Belknap had a tannery on the Vandemark above Van Auken's, as early as 1800. He was succeeded in the tanning business by Josiah Foster and Franklin Brodhead. Among the early grist-mill owners may be mentioned John Biddis & Sons and James Barton. Among the early merchants were James Wallace & Sons, Pinchot & Mauclere, who were succeeded by C.C.D. Pinchot & Sons, John Lafarge, John B. Rockwell, Edmund Power, Lewis Cornelius, Thomas Newman, Sr., and others elsewhere noticed. The present business men of Milford are William & George Mitchell, John F. Pinchot, John B. Newman, Ryman & Wells, John McCarty, C.P. Mott, Geo. Danman, A.D. Brown, Lewis Rushitt, Clinton 0. Armstrong, druggist; T.R. Julius Kline, tinsmith; L.F. Hafner, harness-maker; James Hutchinson, tailor; Jervis Jordan and Jacob Klaer, grist-mills; A.D. Brown, saw-mill; Van Camp & Newman, carriage-painters; Herman Kholer and John Dagon, barbers.
SILVER WATCH-CASE FACTORY.-Desire Bournique established a silver watch case factory in Milford in June, 1864. He commenced in a kitchen, with two or three hands, and developed the business until it required fifty-five men and boys, and made four hundred cases per week. These cases ranged from two or three ounces in weight to sixteen-ounce cases. The cases were made and engraved ready for use. He made two thousand one hundred cases one year. In the fall of 1884 Mr. Bournique died and the factory closed shortly after.
Mr. Bournique was born at Abushville, Loraine, France, December 26, 1833, and came to America when young. October 10, 1855, he married Emily, daughter of Remy Loreaux, of Milford, and reared a large family. He was respected by all classes as a quiet, industrious, progressive, generous-hearted man, devotedly attached to his family, and a consistent member of the Roman Catholic Church. He would never consent to move his factory from Milford, though flattering offers were made by other towns.
GOLD WATCH-CASE FACTORY.-Ferdinand Berthoud and J.F. Courvoisier were in partnership for five years, from 1878 to 1883, and established the Milford Gold Watch-Case Factory. Since 1883 Ferdinand Berthoud has carried on the business alone. He employs about twenty-eight men and uses thirty-six thousand dollars' worth of gold per year. He makes only gold cases to order, from fourteen carats to eighteen carats fine, using silver and copper alloy. It requires complicated and delicate machinery and careful manipulation to do the work required. The turning and engraving is all neatly and handsomely done at this factory. They make no filled cases, all their work being solid gold from fourteen to eighteen carats fine.
THE PRESS.
The Eagle of the North was published in 1827, and its first issue must have been about the 1st June. In a copy of the paper, Vol. I., No. 27, issued December 21, 1827, it is stated that the paper is "printed for the proprietor by T.A. Wells, for two dollars per annum, payable in advance." Who the proprietor was is not stated; possibly B.A. Bidlack or Francis Al. Smith. It was a four-column folio, eleven by seventeen inches, with a motto from Shakspeare, "0, that estates and degrees and offices were not derived corruptly, and that clear honor were purchased by the merit of the wearer!" The first printing-office was in Francis Al. Smith's house, when he lived at the old Harford place, on a corner of the lot now owned by Colonel Lewis. This issue of December 21, 1827, is severe on John Quincy Adams, and publishes documents to show that he was educated a monarchist, etc. One dollar reward is offered by C.B. Seaman, sheriff, for the return of two debtors, who had escaped from the Milford jail, fifty cents for either of them, but will pay no charges. He also issues his court proclamation for the Eleventh Judicial District,-Judge David Scott, presiding judge, and John Coolbaugh, and Daniel W. Dingman, associates. Samuel De Puy appears as clerk of the court, and Joseph Miller, sheriff of Wayne County, advertises land in Sterling township. Jacob Hornbeck, treasurer, gives the list of retail merchants in Pike County, as follows:
Delaware township .-John Hall and John Lodee.
Lackawaxen.-James R. Keen, Frederick Billinger, Charles Cook, Philips & Tigue, Morris & Henderson, John Le Forge and John Armstrong.
Middle Smithfield.--John Malvin.
Upper Smithfield.-Lewis Cornelius, Joseph A. Bonnel and Horace E. Denton, J. Brink and John B. Rockwell, John Leforge and John B. Leforge, John Leforge, Jeffrey Wells, Pinchot & Manalure.
Palmyra.-James Philips, Leonard Lebar.
James Barton offers firewood for sale. John B. Rockwell offers a farm of two hundred and sixty-eight acres, two miles from Milford, with eighty acres cleared and a log house and frame barn. James Broas advertises tailoring and Moses Bross shoemaking.
Samuel J. Brodhead appears as commissioner's clerk, and B.A. Bidlack as agent for eight hundred acres of land in Middle Smithfield. The editorial comes out strongly in favor of General Jackson and a celebration on the 8th of January, the anniversary of the battle of New Orleans.
At a large and respectable meeting held at the house of Daniel W. Dingman, Esq., in Delaware township, John Nyce was called to the chair, and William Mapes and Jacob Westbrook appointed secretaries, when the following resolution was passed:
"Resolved, That the friends of General Jackson in the county of Pike, or elsewhere, are invited to meet at the house of Daniel W. Dingman on the 8th of Jan. next, to celebrate the glorious victory of Gen. Andrew Jackson over the British at New Orleans."
William Hooker, Nathan Emery, Jacob Westbrook, William C. Jagger, Benjamin Frazer, Garrett Brodhead, Jr., and James Nyce were appointed a committee to carry out the proposition. Administration meeting. The friends of John Q. Adams met at the house of John Clark, in Milford. John Leforge was appointed chairman and Edward Mott secretary. James M. Porter, delegate from Northampton, was chosen to represent Pike in the convention to be held at Harrisburg, January 4, and instructed to support Adams for the Presidency. Richard Brodhead, Esq., Moses Kulam, Jr., Esq., Samuel L. Roberts, John Leforge, Mason Dimmick, Lewis Rockwell, Samuel Darling, Esq., and Samuel S. Thrall were appointed a committee of correspondence, and it was resolved that the proceedings of the meeting be published in the Eagle of the North, Belvidere Apollo and Democratic Press.
The following editorial appears, headed, "Characteristic coincidence":
"On the 4th of January, 1815, the enemies of our country assembled below New Orleans, under the direction of Packenham. On the 8th of January
following they were overwhelmingly defeated and confounded. On the 4th of January, 1828, the enemies of Jackson in Pennsylvania met at Harrisburg under the direction of John Binns. On the 8th of January following they will be overwhelmed, defeated and confounded. Packenham had his Jackson and Adams may profit by his example. If this be treason, make the most of it."
After continuing for a year or more as the Eagle of the North, the name of the paper becomes The Northern Eagle and Milford Monitor, under the editorship of Benjamin A. Bidlack, in 1828.
The Northern Eagle and Milford Monitor of December 11, 1829, is a five-column folio published by Francis Al. Smith. It contains an account of a public meeting of citizens of Pike residing in the northwest part of Upper Smithfield, held at the house of Nicholas Wheeler, for the purpose of protesting against the methods by which appointments are procured, showing there were "rings" in Pike County at an early day. The meeting organized by choosing Roger Allen chairman, William Bowhannan secretary and David Kerby clerk. After an interchange of sentiment as to the manner in which appointments from the Governor are procured and candidates elected to office, a committee was appointed, consisting of Isaiah Hazen, Samuel Thomas, Nicholas Wheeler, Nathan N. Carey and Edmund Power, to draft resolutions expressive of the sense of the meeting. In these resolutions they say "that the few in this county have adopted means to control the many. That appointments are procured and the appointed in the actual execution of their offices before it is known to the people generally that an appointment was to be made." They complain of "a well-organized Intrigue."
The Northern Eagle and Milford Monitor of July 23, 1830, Vol. III., new series, No. 47, with Francis Al. Smith still editor, says: "A gentleman who recently passed through Honesdale, a small village at the termination of the Delaware and Hudson Canal, informs us that it is in a thriving condition, and bids fair to be a place of considerable business and importance. He likewise stated that he saw forty cars in one connected chain loaded with one hundred and thirty tons of coal and carrying quite a number of passengers. We do indeed wish our sister prosperity and hope she will reciprocate the feeling towards us with regard to our contemplated railroad."
The Eagle and Monitor appears in 1831 with J.H. Westfall printer and publisher. The eagle is taken down and the motto is "The union of the States and the sovereignty of the States." The issue before us is Vol. V., No. 2, Milford, Pa., October 14, 1831 (whole No. 210). The paper is a five-column folio, printed on good paper and much improved in appearance. It contains the October elections, which show that Upper Smithfield had 184 voters, Lackawaxen 44, Palmyra 39, Delaware 95, Lehman 80, Middle Smithfield 151, Price 36,-total, 629. The paper claims that two-thirds of this vote is Democratic and that the Democratic majority would have been larger had there not been sickness in Palmyra and Lackawaxen to prevent one hundred voters from going to the polls. (This was the year of the great epidemic or fever that prevailed in the Paupack settlement.)
The Eagle and Monitor was strongly in favor of General Jackson for a second term, and approved the course of Governor Wolf. It was opposed to the Anti-Masons, who had just nominated William Wirt, an unrenouncing Mason, for the Presidency, and Amos Ellmaker, an Anti-Mason of Pennsylvania, for the Vice-Presidency. This paper was continued for a time and possibly changed hands. At any rate its publication was discontinued. The next newspaper venture in Pike was made by C.W. De Witt, who was at that time the leader of the Whig party in Pike County. The Northern Eagle and Milford Monitor was no longer published, and there was no paper in Pike County to publish sheriff sales or to do any other advertising. At this juncture several Whigs of Pike and Monroe Counties organized a joint-stock company, and Richard Nugent came down to Stroudsburg, from Honesdale, to issue the first number of the Jeffersonian, January 15, 1840. A number of copies were dated Milford, with C.W. De Witt's name added as one of the editors, and circulated as a Pike County paper, which, by permission of Judge Jessup and the Pike County bar, became the medium of the legal advertising of Pike County. This condition of things continued for about four years. Richard Nugent removed to Nova Scotia, published a paper and got into difficulty for reflecting too severely upon some of Queen Victoria's subjects. Theodore Schoch commenced to publish the Jeffersonian February 24, 1841, and is still its veteran editor.
In 1846-47 there was no paper in Pike County, and James J. McNally, a young printer working in Newton, N.J., believing the field a good one, purchased the material of the Goshen Sentinel office and moved it to Milford, where he started the Pike County Democrat July 14, 1849. It was a seven-column folio, of the same size as the present Milford Dispatch, and McNally claimed in his introductory editorial that it was the largest paper published in the State outside the city of Philadelphia. Ed. Mott says: "It was a very superior journal, few local papers equaling it in ability." He also announced in his salutatory that "this paper will support the principles of the Democratic Republican party." He changed the name of the paper, in 1852, to the Milford Herald. Shortly after the office was purchased by John M. Heller. He placed the paper in charge of John B. Adams and Harvey Heller, his son. This paper was remarkable under the management of Adams & Heller for the amount of labor bestowed upon it, both mental and material. Its editorial columns were characterized by a sprightliness, dash and clearness that gave the paper a wide reputation. Harvey Heller soon withdrew from the management, and Mr. Adams continued to edit and publish it alone. The late Lucien F. Barnes, of Milford, was then editing the Tri-States Union at Port Jervis, and the personal newspaper war that was waged between him and Adams for several weeks in 1853 is still remembered by the oldest residents of the county. Adams ran the Herald until 1855, when he removed to the coal regions, and the paper passed into the hands of John A. Daniels, a son-in-law of the late David Van Gordon, one of Milford's prominent old-time residents. Daniels, although a man of good education, was not fitted for journalism, and, in 1856, the printing-office having passed into the possession of the late Henry S. Mott, his brother, Oscar H. Mott, became the editor. The Herald, under his administration, was one of the neatest and ablest local papers in the State. He continued as editor until May, 1861. Oscar H. Mott held views as to the conduct of the paper on questions growing out of the late war different from his brother, Colonel Mott, the owner of the paper, who was then representing the Wayne, Pike, Carbon and Monroe District in the State Senate. These differences resulted in the resignation of the editorial chair by 0.H. Mott and the employment, by Colonel Mott, of Charles B. Colton, a veteran Pennsylvania journalist, to edit the Herald. Mr. Colton conducted the paper with ability until April, 1865, when E.H. Mott, a nephew of Colonel Mott, assumed charge and edited it until January 1, 1866, when the office was purchased by F.A. & J.H. Doney, of Wayne County, and J.H. Doney, soon afterward became sole proprietor. He ran the Herald with unvarying success until January 1, 1878, when M.D. Mott, the present proprietor, who is a son of 0.H. Mott, its former editor, took charge and changed the name to the Milford Dispatch. The following is his salutatory:
"As announced, this office has changed proprietors, and the undersigned will hereafter assume control. Although from boyhood we have been connected with the typographical art, this is our first venture as journalist, and it is with diffidence we undertake the editing of the Dispatch. We shall do our utmost, however, to give a readable paper, and, by attending strictly to business, look for a support that will enable us to enlarge and improve this journal.
"Instead of the familiar faces of the Herald coming to its subscribers in the future, its successor, the Dispatch, will take its place, and we trust will prove as welcome a visitor. For various reasons, which are immaterial to here mention, the name of the paper has been changed. While this change has taken place, it will not affect the patrons of the Herald in the least; the volume and number will remain the same, and all who have paid up subscriptions will receive the Dispatch in place of the Herald; all advertising contracts will be carried out the same; and likewise all accounts owing to the Herald will be by us collected.
"In politics, it is hardly necessary to say, the Dispatch will be Democratic. The use of its columns will be open to that party, and it will work, at all times, for the principles and nominees of the Democracy.
"Our chief aim will be to give a first-rate local family paper, so that it will be needless for any to take outside papers to get home news. With the help of good correspondents there is no reason why the local page of the Dispatch should not be made to suit the most critical, and it will be gotten up with that object.
"In conclusion, we return sincere thanks to many friends, in and out of the county, who have wished us success, assuring them that we shall always endeavor to merit their fullest approbation.
"M.D. MOTT."
M.D. Mott still continues proprietor, and Colonel Charles N. Pine, a veteran editor of Philadelphia, is editing the paper and acting as Milford correspondent of the Port Jervis Gazette.
The first number of the Northern Eagle, a paper in the interest of Lincoln's administration and the Republican party, was issued February 6, 1864, by Dr. Edward Haliday and Pettit, editors and proprietors. Dr. Haliday at that time was a wealthy man of Milford, and spared no pains or expense to make a success of the paper. His object was to convert this stronghold of Democracy to Republicanism. To that end he sent a paper to every voter in the county, and the veteran soldiers were all to have it free. He thus worked up a circulation of one thousand copies. It was printed on the first quality of sized and calendered paper, costing at that time nine dollars a ream. Some of the best metropolitan writers were employed to contribute to its columns, George Arnold, Charles Dickson (now editor of the Binghamton Republican) and others of note writing its stories and poems. Colonel Thomas Picton, at that time the best general editorial writer on the New York press, wrote its leading editorials. Dr. Haliday was that year Presidential elector for Mr. Lincoln for this Congressional district. He was a large, fine-looking man of considerable ability, and waged a lively warfare against the Pike County Democracy while his paper lasted. He inaugurated a Republican mass-meeting in Milford; had Horace Greeley present to make a speech; hired every livery equipment in Port Jervis, and brought men from a distance to swell the numbers, and paid the whole bill himself. He had fully adopted the views of the late Horace Greeley about Pike County, "That it was a land of Democrats and the home of the rattlesnake, and that it contained ten gallons of whiskey to every Webster's Spelling-Book," but in his warfare against Pike County Democracy he was overcome by Pike County whiskey. The paper, after an interval of rest, in May, 1865, was secured by Britton A. Barnes. The paper, having no county patronage, languished and was discontinued about January 1, 1866. It was printed in the building which had formerly been used as a law-office by William Smith, where William McCarty has his store.
In 1872 E.H. Mott, who was then interested in the Port Jervis Gazette, but lived in Matamoras, printed a paper called the Pike County Democrat. It was popular, but with the sale of the Gazette to other parties it was discontinued. The editors of the Milford papers were T.A. Wells, Benjamin Alden Bidlack, a son of Rev. Benjamin Bidlack, of Wyoming, a lawyer, twice a member of Congress and afterwards appointed minister resident at Bogota, to the republic of New Granada, now United States of Columbia, by President Polk, in 1845, and there he died. His son, Dr. Bidlack, lives in Milford.
One of the best known men ever connected with the Milford press is Edward Herold Mott. He was born in Milford, Pike County, Pa., in 1845, son of Charles F. and Eliza Smith Mott. Went to Piqua, Ohio, when nine years old, and in 1856, after the Presidential election, sold on the streets there the first New York papers ever sold by a newsboy west of Cincinnati-the Tribune and the Herald. He got his copies from a subscriber who had finished reading them. He attended the common schools of Piqua for two years. After his mother's death, in 1857, returned to Milford and learned the printer's trade in the Milford Herald office. In 1862 entered St. John & Malvin's foundry in Port Jervis to learn the moulder's trade. He worked five weeks, then ran away, went to Easton on a raft down the Delaware; in Mauch Chunk got a place in the Carbon Democrat office, worked six months, went to Philadelphia and learned the job printing business; after staying there three years he returned to Milford and edited the Milford Herald until January, 1866, then went to Scranton and became city editor of the Scranton Register; he next joined the staff of the Honesdale Herald, bought an interest in the Port Jervis Gazette and conducted the Pike County Democrat until after the Presidential election of 1872. Left the Gazette in that year. Meantime he had been sending articles to various New York papers. His first humorous sketch of special merit was "Taylor's Shot at a Ground Hog," published in the New York Sun in 1874; it made a hit.
In 1876 started the Honesdale Morning Chronicle. Discontinued it to devote his time to other literary work, chiefly for the Erie Railway Company. Remained in the company's employ for seven years, during which time he also occupied a confidential position in the office of John D. Rockafellow, president of the Standard Oil Company, and continued his general newspaper work. In 1881 he resigned his position with the Standard Oil Company to take the general management of the Erie Railway Company's advertising and literary bureau, which place he left in 1883 to give all his time to more congenial work as a writer. In 1879 he had hit on the idea of Cockwood's dialect stories and carried it out in the New York Sun by the "Tales of the Old Settler." The large circulation with which they met gave to Pike County and Milford a wide reputation. Some of these sketches were published in book-form in 1883. The book was republished in England, under the title of "Cream of American Humor." His drunken dialect stories, "His name was Johnson" and "He wanted a Webster Punch," convulsed the town. Dialect is natural to him. His education is desultory, being self-acquired. In his field he is a genius. He has done all kinds of writing for the Sun, besides much important special work by assignment for the World, Times and Herald.
Colonel Charles Newbold Pine, the present editor of the Dispatch, was born in Camden, N.J., November 5, 1822, but his family belonged to Evesham, Burlington County. He was connected with the Philadelphia Saturday Evening Post, when published by Deacon & Peterson, 1850-51. He served three years in the post-office at Philadelphia and in 1854 started the Jersey Blue, at Camden. In September, 1855, he removed to Illinois, and on the 28th of March, 1856, issued the first number of the Bureau County Democrat, at Princeton. He was appointed postmaster at that place by President Pierce in June, 1856. In August, 1858, he started the Chicago Daily Herald in the interest of Buchanan's administration, and in September, 1858, was appointed United States marshal of the Northern District of Illinois, his commission dating just three years from the day of his arrival in that State. He returned to Philadelphia in spring of 1862, edited the Democratic Leader, a campaign paper for that year, Honorable Francis W. Hughes being chairman of the Democratic State Committee. Edited also the Philadelphia Evening Journal, owned by Albert D. Boileau and wrote Boileau into Fort McHenry in February 1863. Boileau recanted, repented and capitulated to the enemy, came home and resumed publication of the Journal with another edition, eating dirt for some six weeks, at the end of which time "the subject of this sketch" bought the establishment and ran it as long as pecuniary circumstances would permit-about a year. He then wrote for the Sunday Dispatch, Sunday Mercury, and during the gubernatorial campaign of 1865 edited the Camden Democrat. In November, 1869, he was chosen editor-in-chief of The Day, a new morning paper published by a company of gentlemen, Alexander Cummings (who established the Philadelphia Evening Bulletin and the New York World) Benj. Harris Brewster, James L. Freeman, Thomas L. Scott, Lewis C. Cassidy and others, until it was bought by Mr. Cassidy and changed to an evening paper, and for several years after was editor-in-chief of the Philadelphia Record. In a year or two after, Mr. Swain sold it to Singerly, Cassidy and others, editing The Evening Day for some time also. He left Philadelphia in June, 1881, and had nothing to do with newspapers till October, 1883, when he was induced to go to East Stroudsburg on an unwise venture. Then Mr. Mott, of the Milford Dispatch, having been elected to the Legislature, wrote Colonel Rine, asking him to edit his paper during his absence. He has remained in Milford and continued to edit the Dispatch, believing Milford to be the most healthful and charming spot in America.
CHURCHES OF MILFORD.
Bartholomew Weed, a blacksmith, was the first praying man in Milford. He lived below the court-house, on the opposite side of the street, in a house with two rooms. He established a family altar and kept sacred the Sabbath day, much to the astonishment of his neighbors, occasionally holding services at his house, where he talked to the people as best he could, which provoked derision manifested by hurling missiles at his house and singing songs. He lived here about 1813, and three or four years later moved to Philadelphia, where he was licensed to preach by the Methodists, which calling he pursued for sixty-two years, until his death in 1879, at Newark, N.J., aged eighty-six. Milford, in Weed's time and for a number of years afterward, was a godless, prayerless, Sabbath-breaking village.
The Dutch Reformed Church of Minisink, established in 1773, was just across the Delaware, in what is now Montague, N.J., but there was an illiberal jealousy existing between the comparatively new settlement of Yankees, as they called them at Milford, and the old Dutch settlers, who were strongly entrenched in the Minisink, and who looked upon this new town, peopled by Philadelphians, Yankees, etc., as an invasion of their ancient rights. These invaders did not take pains to allay the feeling of disquiet produced by their presence; on the contrary, they lured the negro slaves across the river, gave them liquor and induced them to run away from their masters. With such a feeling engendered between the communities there could be no religious communion among them, and to this day there is but one living member of the Dutch Reformed Church on this side the river at Milford,-Mrs. Caroline Wells, now aged eighty-four, who was converted, however, under the preaching of Rev. Phineas Camp, a Congregationalist, who passed through about 1814, and preached among the Dutch Reformed Churches. Mrs. Wells united with the Dutch Reformed Church when Rev. C.C. Elting was pastor, and it is proper here to state that, as the result of the labors commenced by Rev. Phineas Camp,(5*) and carried on by Elting, there were one hundred and seventeen members gathered into the Reformed Churches along the Delaware. Twenty members were received into the Minisink Church, just across the river, the first communion after Mr. Elting came to the place, and among these converts was Moses Bross, who moved to Milford in 1823, and became one of the founders of the Presbyterian Church at Milford. In 1823 Moses Bross established a prayer-meeting in the court-house by permission of the authorities, and out of this movement a Sunday-school was started.
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH.- On September 1, 1825, so the church records runs, the citizens of the town of Milford, desirous of having the gospel statedly administered, assembled according to previous notice. Of this meeting James Wallace was chairman and Moses Bross secretary. It was resolved to apply to the Presbytery of Hudson for the organization of a Christian Church. Moses Bross was appointed to make the application. Sept. 16th the Presbytery of Hudson appointed one of their number, Rev. Thomas Grier, to organize a church in Milford, Pike County, Pa. In compliance with the request, on September 23, 1825, the congregation was assembled in the old stone court-house and proceeded to organize. The original members were eight in number, viz.:
Moses Bross and his wife Jean, Samuel Depuy and his wife Eliza, Mitty Watkins, Elizabeth Westfall and Jacob Quick; James Wallace united with them also on profession of faith.
The name by which the members wished the organization to be known was the "Church and Congregation of Milford." September 24th the first ruling orders were elected, and on the 25th ordained. The elders were James Hallace, Moses Bross and Jacob Quick. December 26, 1825, Daniel Judson, John Cox, Silas Aber, Roger Allen, Thomas Hagger, Mary Watson, William Cox, Huldah Cox, Dr. Francis, Al. Smith and Margaret Smith were received into the church. April 8, 1826, Samuel Depuy, Daniel Judson and Roger Allen were chosen additional elders. The first had been a ruling elder at Middle Smithfield. The others were ordained April 9th. November 3, 1826, there were admitted to the church on profession of faith, Olive Rockwell, Ann Cole, Jane Freele, Jacob Van Auken, Daniel M. Brodhead, Oliver S. Dimmick, Solomon Newman, John Aber, Lewis Cornelius, Jonas Cartwright, John Heller, Thomas Newman, Sarah Barton, Sarah Decker, Samuel Cox, Elizabeth Shower, John B. Rockwell, Maria Quick, Hannah Crawford, Nancy Newman, Maria McCarty, William McCarty, Elenor Brink, Emeline Cole, Sarah Barns, Katy I. Brink, Harriet Smith, Jas. Newman, Abraham Van Auken, Margaret Winfield, Samuel Duterow, Sarah Newman, Jas. P. Barrett, Hannah Bull, Julia Winfield, Sarah Beecher, John I. Smith, Elenor Wainwright, Joseph A. Bonnel.
After the close of Rev. Thomas Grier's pastorate a considerable interval elapsed before the church was supplied with a minister. In the month of April, 1832, arrangements were made by the congregation with the Rev. Edward Allen, recently pastor of the Presbyterian congregation of Wantage, New Jersey, to supply them for the space of one year. He commenced his labors, the 1st of May following.
July 7, 1832, Stephen Rose, Eliphalet Rose and Catharine A. Watson were received into the church. "In view of the low state of religion in this congregation and vicinity, it was resolved that a protracted meeting be held in this place. For this important meeting the necessary arrangements were made. A day of fasting and prayer was solemnly observed and God was pleased in a remarkable manner to own His word by a most copious effusion of the Holy Spirit. The meeting was continued for nearly two weeks, in which three services were attended daily in the church, besides frequent prayer-meetings and meetings for anxious sinners. Business in the village was nearly suspended, and every day appeared as a Sabbath of the Lord. The church became humbled. Backsliders were reclaimed, and many were hopefully brought to submit to Christ."(6*)
As a result of these meetings, most of the leading business men of the village were brought into the church. August 28, 1832, twenty members were added, among them Abram T. Seely, Lucius D. Baldwin, Richard Eldred, Ducian Roys, John H. Westfall, Cyrill C.D. Pinchot, Samuel Dimmick and wife, Wealthy Dimmick. August 29, 1832, twelve persons were admitted to membership, among them William Bross, Josiah H. Foster and John P. Darling. During the whole of the year 1832 additions were made to the church until the principal men of the village were members. Then followed a number of years in which the session had considerable work, in enforcing church discipline. Several members were cited to answer for unchristian conduct, such as hunting and fishing on the Sabbath, profane swearing, becoming intoxicated, etc. A committee was also appointed to look after members who had engaged in dancing at a public ball. It would appear, however, that a large part of the members walked uprightly; otherwise they would not have escaped the vigilance of this faithful session. January 3, 1847, Theophilus H. Smith was ordained an elder. On November 20, 1854, three additional elders were elected, and on the 23d ordained, viz.: Samuel Thrall, John H. Wallace and Stephen Rose. On March 4, 1872, Samuel Detrick, Ebenezer Warner, John C. Wallace and William Mitchell were elected and ordained elders. On January 27, 1884, George Mitchell and Dr. I.S. Vreeland were added to the eldership. John H. Wallace died January 1, 1872, Samuel Detrick died May 14, 1876, and Theophilus H. Smith died July 6, 1881.
Rev. Edward Allen supplied the pulpit from 1832 to 1834 and again from 1841 to 1843. He was at the same time principal of the Milford Academy. After Mr. Allen, Rev. Peter Kanouse was an occasional supply. Mr. Kanouse was a man six feet tall, and of commanding appearance. He afterward preached in the West. Rev. William Townley was stated supply from August, 1834, to August, 1835. From 1836 to 1840 Rev. Ralph Bull was stated supply. Mr. Bull went from this place to Weston, Orange County, where he died. He was very popular. Next to Mr. Bull was Rev. E. Allen. stated supply in 1841-42. Rev. William Beldin preached as supply in 1843-44. From 1844 to 1846 there is no record. Rev. Charles Miln preached as supply 1846-47. No record from 1847 to 1849. In 1849, Rev. T.S. Bradner was called as pastor and continued till 1852. From May, 1853, Rev. Isaac Todd occupied the pulpit until 1861.
Rev. Isaac Todd was born near Morristown December 2, 1797. He united with the Presbyterian Church of Morristown in 1818, was prepared for college by James Johnson and Rev. Asa Lyman, while Dr. Barnes was his pastor, and although he never indorsed Dr. Barnes' theological views, he always bore testimony to his Christian character and ability. He graduated from Hamilton College in the class of 1827, and at Princeton Seminary in 1830. He was ordained by the Presbytery of Susquehanna, at Athens, Pa., September 19, 1833. He labored at Gibson, Pa., Tunkhannock, Pa., Orwell and Troy, Pa., until 1853, when he came to Milford, where he acted as stated supply and filled the pulpit till 1861, when he took charge of a church in Hollmanville, Ocean County, N.J., where he labored until the very day of his death, which occurred April 12, 1885, when eighty-seven years of age. His last words were, "Tell my people-In Christ is our everlasting portion; without Christ, eternal death."
In July 1861 Rev. R.R. Kellog was installed pastor and so continued till September, 1866. On the 25th of that month he died suddenly at his residence. His funeral sermon was preached on the 27th by Rev. S.W. Mills, of Port Jervis. In January, 1867, Rev. Robert N. Beattie commenced his labors as stated supply and continued until June, 1870, when he accepted a call from the Reformed Church of Bloomingburg. Rev. Cyrus Offer next became stated supply for one year, 1870-71. In March, 1872, Rev. Mr. Johnson preached. In April arrangements were made with Rev. John Reid, of Princeton Theological Seminary, to supply the pulpit during the summer months. He has since been pastor of the First Presbyterian Church, Yonkers, N.Y. In December, 1873, Rev. L.C. Lockwood was engaged as a supply for four months. In January, 1874, Rev. E.H. Mateer was ordained and installed pastor. Rev. E.H. Mateer was born near Altoona, Blair County, Pa., August 24, 1844. On his paternal side he is of Scotch-Irish and on his maternal of pure Scotch descent. He entered Washington and Jefferson College in 1867, remained there to the end of the sophomore year, when he entered Princeton at the beginning of the second term of the junior year and graduated in 1871. The same fall he entered Princeton Theological Seminary and graduated in April, 1874. Having received and accepted a call to Milford Presbyterian Church before graduating, he was ordained and installed pastor by the Hudson Presbytery June 25, 1874. Having received and accepted a call to McVeytown Presbyterian congregation, he resigned, in February, 1884, the charge at Milford, after a pastorate of nine years and nine months, the longest in the history of the Milford Presbyterian Church. In the summer of 1884 Rev. Abraham Sylvester Gardiner received the unanimous call of the Milford Presbyterian Church and is the present pastor. He was born at Sag Harbor, Suffolk County, N.Y., July 19, 1824. His father was Rev. John D. Gardiner, pastor of the Presbyterian Church at Sag Harbor from 1812 to 1832. His mother, Mary L'Hommedieu, was a daughter of Hon. Samuel L'Hommedieu, of Sag Harbor, who was a grandson on his mother's side of Nathaniel Sylvester, proprietor of the Manor of Shelter Island, N.Y., under whose hand the persecuted Quakers of Massachusetts found protection, and on his father's side of Benjamin L'Hommedieu, one of two brothers who were driven from France on the revocation of the Edict of Nantes, October 18, 1685. They first found refuge in Holland, then in America. The first ancestor of the subject of this sketch on his father's side was Lion Gardiner, who came from England to Boston, Mass., and afterward to Saybrook, Conn., in 1634-35. He was a soldier, civil engineer and a lieutenant in the British service in Holland. At the request of Lords Say and Seal and Brook and others, he built the fort at Saybrook, Conn., for the protection of their interests and took a prominent part in the Pequot War. Lion Gardiner's, son Ward was the first white child born in the colony of Connecticut, and his daughter Elizabeth, born on Gardiner's Island, the first white child of English parents born in the colony of New York. This island contains thirty-four hundred acres and was purchased by Gardiner of the Montauk Indians in 1639. Rev. A.S. Gardiner attended Clinton Academy in 1842-43, and the University of New York 1843-47, was admitted to the bar of the Supreme Court of New York in 1848, having read law in the office of George Wood, Esq. He practiced law at East Hampton, L.I., and Fond du Lac, Wis. During the spring and autumn of 1850-51 he was licensed to preach and ordained by the Presbytery of Milwaukee, since which time he has ministered at Greenpoint a short time and at Cold Springs twelve years. He removed to the West, settled in Rockford, Ill., in 1867, and preached at Prospect (now Dunlass), Peoria County, Ill. In 1871, returning to the East, he accepted a call to Jamaica Plains, Boston, where he was installed pastor of a church of which, under direction of Presbytery, he was founder. After preaching three years he ministered two years for the Congregational Church at Essex, Conn.; from thence, in 1877, he returned West and took charge of Lena and Winslow Churches, Stephenson County, Ill., for three years. Educational considerations led him East again, to the Litchfield (N.H.) Presbyterian Church, but the loss of his daughter Julia Evangeline so disarranged his plans that he remained but a short time. He is now preaching at Milford and also supplying the old Dutch Reformed Church across the river. His wife was Caroline P. Williams. Their children were Maria, Charles H. and Julia Evangeline.
The first Presbyterian house of worship was begun during the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Grier, and stood where the present Presbyterian parsonage now stands. The first parsonage, on Ann Street, was built in the time of Rev. Mr. Bradner, about 1850, and the present one during the pastorate of Rev. E.H. Mateer, the corner-stone of the building being laid September 18, 1874. The church is of brick, manufactured by John C. Wallace, and measures over all forty-four by eighty feet. Symmetrical towers rise from the four corners, and the main tower, when completed, will be one hundred and twenty-five feet high. For several years the congregation have worshipped in the basement, a room capable of seating two hundred and fifty persons, adjoining which are two smaller rooms, used for the infant class and Sunday-school library.
The first religious service held in the building was a prayer-meeting, held on the evening of December30, 1875, and the first Sunday service was held Sunday morning, January 2, 1876. Mr. Barton was architect, Edwin McWilliams carpenter and John Armstrong mason.
Rev. Benjamin Collins was senior preacher and Rev. John K. Shaw assistant on Hamburg Circuit, which then included the western part of Sussex County from Newton to the Delaware. They crossed the river and preached at Milford occasionally. On one of these occasions Rev. John K. Shaw organized the first Methodist class in 1827-28, at the court-house probably, and, according to the recollection of old people now living, it consisted of six members, viz.,- Mrs. Mary Olmsted, Mrs. John Brodhead, Mrs. Eliza Mott, Mr. and Mrs. Hand and Mrs. Sutor. David Hand was the first class-leader. Shortly after, John Brink and wife, Benjamin Drake and wife, Jonathan Doolittle and wife, Mrs. Guild and Hugh Ross (who preached occasionally and could he heard one-half mile) joined the church. The first authentic records commenced August 12, 1849. Henry Bean is mentioned as leader of the Sunday class, and among the members are Ellen Bean, Matilda Bowhannan, James Bostler, Louisa Brodhead, Emeline Brink, Marietta Burrell, Emily Blizzard, Andrew, Adrian, William and Prudence Christiana, Webb Courtright, Julia A. Crawford. Silas H. De Witt, Jonathan Weeks and James Honeywell were also class-leaders. The McCartys and Newmans, Mary and Nancy Olmsted are mentioned. Henry Wells, John Dietrick, William Angle and John Aldrich are among the prominent workers at present. They have had many Methodist preachers in Milford since the days of Bartholomew Weed, who upheld the standard of the cross alone in 1813-15. Doubtless other zealous and worthy men have ministered to this people, but their stay was so transient, and the records so imperfect that we are unable to notice many of them. Rev. Manning Force was presiding elder of this district for four terms of four years each. He traveled down the river on one side and up on the other. Mrs. Sophia Sutor is worthy of mention. She lived across the river on the Jersey shore, and was a mother in Israel in the Milford Methodist Church. She had been a school-teacher, was an intelligent woman, and took an active part in church work. Her house was the home of the preachers in the early days of the church.
Rev. George Winsor married Harriet Olmstead, of Milford, where he preached in 1841-43. During his time over one hundred persons professed conversion and many were added to the church. Rev. George Winsor was born in Devonshire, England, November 13, 1813, and died in Milford, Sunday, December 28, 1884, in the seventy-second year of his age. Descending from a pious ancestry, he was early trained in the principles of the Christian religion; and learned to prize in future years the holy shrine of a mother's knee. Two years subsequent to his birth his parents moved to Bound Brook, N.J., where he toiled on the homestead with his brother and attended the village school and academy. Supplementing this instruction with private tuition he obtained some knowledge of the Classis. In 1839 he was converted at Somerville, under the preaching of Rev. George Hitchens. The same year, with much fear and trembling, he gave his name to the New Jersey Conference, and commenced his life-long work. For forty unbroken and successive years he responded to the Conference roll. He was seldom depressed to an eclipse of faith or overjoyed by outbursts of transitory feeling. Dignified without austerity, sociable without levity, he mingled with his brethren, giving lustre to his calling, and was never known to lower the dignity of the pulpit by unseemly remarks, but on every occasion was the affable, courteous, Christian gentleman. As a result of his earnest ministrations, one thousand nine hundred souls were hopefully converted. In 1882 he asked for supernumerary relations, returned to Milford and built a residence, now occupied by his widow. There is one son living, an attorney-at-law in New York.
There are about one hundred and thirteen members in the Methodist Church. The first church edifice was erected near the Delaware River, about one mile from Milford, at a point sometimes called Bridgeport. John Brink and some others thought it the probable site of a village, and it was through his and Mrs. Sutor's influence that the building was thus placed. It was erected about 1827-28, and moved up to the present site about 1836. Since then the present church has been erected.
THE EPISCOPAL CHURCH.-The Church of the Good Shepherd was organized April 3, 1871. The corner-stone of the edifice was laid in June, 1871, and the church consecrated September 14, 1877. It was organized by the election of Edgar Pinchot, senior warden; Edgar Brodhead, junior warden; and John C. Mott, D.M. Van Auken, W.C. Broome, C.W. Dimmick, Sidney A. Hanes and M.M. Dimmick, vestrymen. The church has had the following rectors: Rev. W.B. Hooper, November 25, 1872, served three and one-half years; Rev. A.H. Gersner, about three years; Rev. Samuel Edwards, between two and three years, and Rev. D'Estang Jennings, two years. There is a Sunday-school in connection with the organization.
SAINT PATRICK'S ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH was built in 1877, principally for the use of the workmen in the silver watch-case factory, and since that industry has declined, services are seldom held.
SUNDAY-SCHOOLS AND EARLY SECULAR SCHOOLS.-According to the recollection of Mrs. Caroline Wells, the Presbyterian Sunday-school was organized in the old stone courthouse, June 3, 1823. There were present at the first organization James Wallace, Samuel Depui, William Freel (not a professor, but a good man), Louisa Ross (a daughter of Hugh Ross, a Methodist, afterward the wife of Colonel John Brodhead, and a member of the first Methodist class), Miss Jane De Puy, Miss Caroline Wells. James Wallace was the first superintendent. There were more than fifty children present the first Sunday. Miss Austin had the Bible-class, consisting of twenty-five pupils. The Methodist school was organized after the Presbyterian, perhaps as early as 1824. The sessions were in the afternoon, and many attended both schools. Miss Austin taught in both for a number of years. John Wallace had a Bible-class of boys. The books used were the Bible and Noah Webster's Spelling-Book. The Presbyterian Church has eighty members and one hundred and fifty Sunday-school scholars. The school, as at present organized, has George Mitchell as superintendent; Miss Hannah P. Nyce and John Warner, librarians; John C. Wallace, Bible-class teacher; Miss Hulda Bull and Miss Mamie Dietrick, infant-class teachers; and Miss Blanche Crissman, Miss Lizzie Bull, Miss Kate McCarty, Mrs. Hannah Williamson, Mrs. Josephine Bensell, Mrs. J.H. Van Etten, Miss Bettie Cornelius and Miss Lizzie Finley are the other teachers. The Methodist and Episcopalians have Sunday-schools in connection with their churches.
Mrs. Caroline Wells, now eighty-four years of age, was one of the first teachers in this region, and we shall give her account of these schools nearly in her own words, and in connection therewith reminiscences of her life. She is the only member of the Dutch Reformed Church of Minisink, on this side of the river, in Milford. Caroline Austin was born in Montague, N.J. Her father was a New Englander, and her mother of Dutch descent. "I lived with my grandmother Mullin, who was Dutch to the foot, and an excellent woman. She was eighty-seven years old when she died. He used Webster's Spelling-Book, the American Preceptor, Columbian Orator, the Bible, Daboll's Arithmetic and Murray's Grammar. Lemuel Thrall is the first teacher I went to, in 1805, at Hainesville, when I was four years old. He was a good man and meant well. He taught me 'Now I lay me down to sleep.' I told him I didn't want to go to sleep. I told him I could learn 'Our Father' as well as the older ones. My next teacher was Mr. Hyde. I went to school to Mr. Hamlin, in Walpack, in my tenth year. There I first heard the gospel preached by Rev. George Banghardt. He was a shouting Methodist, but I liked him because he was handsome, and he knew it. He could sing, and he knew that, too. He told stories. He would name persons that he said went to hell, and that the devil stood ready to take them. He used to scare me. We moved up to the 'Brick House,' and I went to school to Erastus Starkweather. He wrote my name and date in my geography June 10, 1810, and I said, "I thought the price was fifty cents, and here you have it 1810;" then he told me that was the date, which was the first time that I ever knew what a date was. I went to Mr. Drake to school in 1808-9, in Milford. He taught in a little house opposite the old courthouse. My husband went to school to a Mr. Jackson, upon a hill back of the cemetery, as early as 1805-6. The early teachers were all Yankees but one, that I went to, and he was a coarse, ugly man. Some of my teachers were terribly cross and brutish. It was ignorance that made them so. The people were very ignorant, but they were worse on the other side of the Delaware than this. Mason Dimmick was an early teacher. We had to pay two dollars per quarter for schooling. I went through Daboll's Arithmetic, commenced to teach when I was fifteen years old, and taught seven years. The last year I taught on this side, down by Dietrick's, and I had a school in Milford when I was married. Iva Burral Newman taught select school in the De Berhle house, where Mrs. Wm. Cornelius lives, for about ten years. Edward Allen and Philetus Philips taught in the academy. Mason Dimmick's nephew taught here when the free schools were first started, in 1835.
"In 1815 Bartholomew West tried to preach in Milford. He went to Philadelphia afterward, and became a full-fledged Methodist preacher. Rev. Phineas Camp preached here in 1815, and his sermon from 'The Prodigal Son' and 'Mary hath chosen that better part' convinced me, and at fifteen years of age I joined the Dutch Reformed Church at Montague, when Rev. Cornelius C. Elting was preacher, and he was one of the old-fashioned kind. He believed in predestination, was strict in Sabbath observances and about amusements." Mrs. Wells imbibed these doctrines and believed them fully.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS.-Milford since 1877 has been a special school district. It has three school-houses, all in good condition and seated with folding chairs and desks. There are in the two primary schools eighty-four pupils, in the intermediate sixty-six and in the grammar school forty-six, making a total of one hundred and ninety-six scholars in attendance. The principals since the formation of the district have been as follows: 1877-78, J.S. Freeman; 1878-79, William Van Sickle; 1879-83, Hamilton Armstrong; 1883-84, G.R. Smith; 1884-85, I.C. Taylor; 1885-86, Mrs. C.M. Blanchard.
PHYSICIANS.
DR. FRANCIS AL. SMITH, oldest son of Josephus Jacobus Aerts, or Dr. Francis J. Smith, as he called himself; was born in France or the Netherlands, and probably he came to America with his father in 1877, a full account of whom will be found in the history of Monroe County. Dr. Francis Al. Smith lived and died in the old Harford house, where he was interested in the publication of the Northern Eagle and Milford Monitor for five or six years. He was the first druggist in the place and one of the earliest resident physicians. He taught his wife, Margaret Quick, midwifery. Dr. Smith appears to have been something of a politician also, as he filled the office of high sheriff of Pike County in 1821. He believed, as do some of the descendants, that there is an estate in Brussels, or near it, which belongs to the descendants of De Aerts, who claimed that his father was Lord of Opdorp and Boom, and from letters of Dr. Francis Al. Smith it appears that he made an effort to obtain his rights in 1821, as cited in a letter written partly in French and partly in English, a copy of which is in the possession of Helen M. Cross and from which the following extract is taken: The letter is written from Brussels, dated April 26, 1821, and addressed to the United States Minister at Madrid, Spain. Dr. Smith complains that his uncles, James De Aerts and Canton De Aerts, had taken all his grandfather's and Uncle Jean Baptist Dc Aerts' property. He wants the minister to make some search in relation to his uncle Jean, who was a soldier in the Royal Gardes Walones. He says his father, Josephus Jacobus Aerts, made the acquaintance of Dr. Franklin, and being recommended by him to Congress, was made a major in the service of the United States, and that he died in the State of Pennsylvania in 1802. He gives as a reason why he cannot go to Spain to investigate the matter, that he must return to his family in the United States, "and as it is absolutely necessary that I must attend our August court in Pike County, Pa., being the high sheriff of said county." His children were Hannah,' wife of Jeffrey Wells, who was at one time tavern-keeper at Salem Corners, Wayne County, and afterwards moved West; and Jane, wife of Thomas Clark, hotel-keeper in Waymart, Wayne County, Pa.
DR. GEORGE F. SHOTWELL was one of the early physicians in Milford. He lived on Hartford Street and practiced medicine from about 1827 till 1841. His wife was Catharine Clarke, granddaughter of James Barton. Sheriff Williamson married one of his daughters.
DR. DU FRENE practiced medicine in Milford for a number of years and finally moved to Port Jervis, where he died. Dr. A.A. Lines was a practitioner in Milford for a number of years and then removed from the place. He was a skillful physician.
DR. JOHN SCHIMMEL was born near Frankfort-on-the-Main, in Germany, July 11, 1811. He graduated at Wurtzburg University and took the medical course connected with the university. He came to America in 1833 and continued his medical studies at the medical college at Fairfield, Herkimer County, N.Y., where he began the practice of medicine with the late Dr. Stewart. Dr. Schimmel settled in Milford in 1837, remaining there until 1847, when he accepted a position as professor of modern languages in the Randolph Macon College, Virginia. In 1848 the development of the disease which ultimately resulted in his death, forced him to give up this position, when he returned to Milford. In 1854 he filled a responsible place in the United States Custom-House at Philadelphia, where he remained four years. In 1856 he returned to Milford and again commenced the practice of his profession, where he lived until his death, in 1882, aged seventy-one years.
He was one of the founders of Milford Cemetery, of which he was secretary and treasurer for sixteen years. In 1843 he married Miranda H., a daughter of Richard Eldred, who is now residing in Milford, and one daughter, Jeanette M., wife of Charles P. Mott, a merchant in Milford, resides with her.
DR. VINCENT EMERSON was born near Dover, Delaware, June 1, 1822. He studied medicine in Pennsylvania College (Medical Department), graduated in 1848 and commenced practice April 1, 1848, at Willow Grove, Del., remaining there until May 1, 1859, when he removed to Milford. Here he has since been actively engaged in the practice of his profession. He was one of the examining surgeons during the draft in the War for the Union. The Emersons were originally Friends, and came to this country in 1720. John Emerson, from whom Dr. Vincent Emerson sprang, settled near Frederica, in Kent County, Del., in a rich agricultural region.
Dr. Emerson's first wife was Elizabeth Marvel, of Willow Grove. Their son, Dr. Gouverneur Emerson, was born in Delaware township, Pike County. "Following in the footsteps of his father, he began the study of medicine at an early age and passed a most excellent examination shortly after he reached his majority. He was a painstaking student, in love with his profession, and, as a result, he became a skillful physician and his services were in constant demand." He was kind-hearted and had a facility of making and keeping friends. He died in the flower of his manhood in the thirty-third year of his age.
DR. I.B. CRAFT came to Milford township from New York in 1865, and died in 1880. He was succeeded in his practice by his son, Dr. Walter B. Craft, who died in February, 1886. He had an extended practice and was very charitable to the poorer class of patients. Stephen D. Wells, of Shohola, married one of Dr. I.B. Craft's daughters. Another son is a Catholic priest, or doctor, in Dakota.
DR. JOHN SIMS was assessed as a physician in 1819. A number of young physicians have practiced medicine in Milford and vicinity for short periods, but the oldest physicians practicing here lived in Port Jervis and across the river in New Jersey. Among these may be mentioned Drs. Hornbeck and Van Deusen, and Drs. Rosecrans and Hunt, who lived opposite Dingman's Ferry.
DR. W.W. BIDLACK, son of Hon. B.A. Bidlack, was with his father at Bogota, United States of Columbia, S.A., when he died. He returned to the United States, graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1852 and commenced practice in Luzerne County. He then traveled in Europe and Africa, where he spent two years, most of the time in Africa. From there he returned to Philadelphia and practiced medicine from 1856 till the outbreaking of the Rebellion, when he entered the army as a surgeon. After the war he went to Mississippi, attached to a negro regiment during the reconstruction period. Returning to Philadelphia and Stroudsburg, he practiced medicine for a short time at each place, and next went as a surgeon under General Crook's command in 1872, when the latter was sent to Arizona to repulse the Apache Indians. In 1874 he removed to California and practiced medicine at San Francisco and Santa Barbara. In 1883 he returned to Milford, where he is now in practice.
MILFORD LODGE, No. 82, F. AND A.M., was the first lodge in this county or Wayne. The warrant for this lodge was granted April 25, 1800. Samuel C. Seely was W.M.; John Brink, S.W.; Eliphalet Kellog, Jr., J.W. The charter for the lodge was lost and the lodge became extinct. Years afterward the charter was found in New Jersey and when the present Masonic lodge was organized in Milford they petitioned to be restored to their former number, but the Grand Lodge would not permit it and the old charter was surrendered to them.
MILFORD LODGE, No. 344, F. AND A.M., was organized December 18, 1862, the following persons being present at the organization of the lodge: John C. Westbrook, John Canfield, Jeffrey Wells, Horace St. John, John Dekin, Henry S. Mott, George Wiggins, Erastus Slauson, John Mahon, Philip J. Fulmer, John Schunell, William Cornelius, Alexander Reviere, John C. Mott, Daniel M. Van Auken, Eli Fuller, Jacob Kleinhaus, Thomas J. Ridgway, Philip Lee, Thomas Sharpe, Henry Stewart, John Leforge, George P. Heller, Giles Greene and others.
The following were the first officers: D.M. Van Auken, W.M.; George P. Heller, S.W.; John C. Mott, J.W.; Eli Fuller, Treasurer; William Cornelius, Secretary; Desire Culot, S.D.; A. Reviere, J.D.
John B. Newman was also a charter member. The lodge meets every Wednesday night, on or before the full of the moon, in the hall at the Sawkill House. There are now fifty-six members.
VANDERMARK LODGE, No. 828, I.0.0.F., was organized in the Masonic Hall, at three P.M., April 24, 1873. For the above purpose the following grand officers were present:
William Stedman, M.W.G.M.; John W. Stokes, R.W.D.G.M. pro tem., James B. Nicholson, R.W.G.S.; John Sharp, R.W.G.W. pro tem.; Ira Olmsted, R.W.G.T. pro tem.; Daniel Romaine, R.W.G.C. pro tem.; S.A.J. Conkling, W.G.C. pro tem.; Tunis Rowland, W.G.M. pro tem.; Oliver E. Wheat, W.G.G. pro tem.; George Norris, W.G.H. pro tem.
The applicants, nineteen in number, having presented themselves, were duly constituted a Lodge of I.O.O.F., after which the following officers were elected and installed:
N.G., James H. Dony; V.G., Thomas Armstrong; Secretary, Henry M. Beardsley; A.S., Frank Cooley; Treasurer, Vincent Emerson.
The following officers were appointed and installed:
C., Thomas L. Armstrong; W., Henry Beam; I.G., John McCarty; 0.G., John Reasor ; R.S.S., William Wood; L.S.S., Jacob De Witt; R.S.N.G., M.W. Van Auken; L.S.N.G., W.H. Courtright; R.S.V.G., Frederick C. Almer; L.S.V.G., Russling De Witt; Chaplain, Rev. Theo. D. Frazee.
Highly interesting and appropriate remarks were then made by the Grand Master, William Stedman, John W. Stokes, P.G.M., James B. Nicholson, G. Sec'y and P.G. Sire, and Brother Romaine, of Ustayantha Lodge, No. 143, after which a recess was declared for the purpose of refreshing the inner man.
The Cornelius Brothers proved themselves equal to the occasion, and about seventy of the order sat down to one of those suppers for which the Sawkill House is so justly famous.
The lodge meets every Thursday night in the hall over Wallace's store, has about seventy members, and is financially in good condition.
DELAWARE POST, G.A.R., was brought into existence in February, 1884, chiefly through the efforts of R.B. Thrall. The following soldiers enrolled their names and were the charter or original members:
E.G. Loreaux, Co. B, 179th Regt. Pa. Vols.
James Bosler, Co. B, 142d Regt. N.Y. Vols.
R.B. Thrall, Co. B, 2d Regt. N.Y. Vols.
Jacob 0. Brown, Co. D, 39th Regt. N.J. Vols.
Daniel D. Rosencrance, Co. M, 18th Regt. Pa. Cav.
Michael B. Pitney, Co. B, 151st Regt. Pa. Vols.
Ira B. Case, Co. B, 151st Regt. Pa. Vols.
Daniel V. Drake, Co. D, 45th Regt. Pa. Vols.
Linford West, Co. A, 41st Regt. Pa. (Col.) Vols.
William E. Sigler, Co. B. 179th Regt. Pa. Vols.
John T. Armstrong, Co. B, 179th Regt. Pa. Vols.
John C. Thomas, Co. C, 67th Regt. Pa. Vols.
William M. Watson, Co. D, 45th Regt. Pa. Vols.
John West, Co. H, 4th Regt. N.Y. Art.
C.M. Leidel, Co. B, 152d Regt. Pa. Vols.
M.H. Layton, Co. G, 142d Regt. Pa. Vols.
G.M. Quick, Co. K, 1st Regt. N.Y. Engineers.
A.S. Dingman, 1st lieut., Co. B, 179th Regt. Pa. Vols.
C. Hermann, Co. B, 142d Regt. N.Y. Vols.
Wesley Watson, Co. B, 151st Regt. Pa. Vols.
COLORED PEOPLE IN MILFORD AND VICINITY.-The old Dutch pioneers of the Minisink brought their slaves with them, and the leading families on both sides of the Delaware were slaveholders. There are about fifty negroes in Milford, and in Port Jervis many more. They are the descendants of these former slaves and have generally left the country districts and congregated in the towns, where they serve in hotels and are ready to do odd jobs of work, but they are seldom thrifty or frugal. Some of them are more than half white. Of this character are Richard Piggery and his wife, Rosanna, an aged couple who have a very vivid recollection of the old settlers and a very quaint way of expressing their opinion of them, views which our researches verify most strikingly. Michael Scott is their preacher here and Lewis Milligan in Port Jervis. Sister Minor, a negress from Port Jervis, sometimes talks to them.
"Old Black Jerry" lives in Delaware township with the Widow Angle. He was born a free man, near Richmond, and when eight years of age was brought to Delaware by Colonel Brodhead. When Brodhead left, "Black Jerry" went to live with Cornelius Angle, where he stayed for forty years, and has lived twenty years with one of his sons. "Black Jerry" has never been married and is quite a character in his way. He says "he don't want no woman to be bossing him around." He can be seen in his shirt-sleeves, with his breast exposed in cold winter weather. He is a very respectable old darkey and is now about eighty years of age.
BROSS'S RECOLLECTIONS OF PIKE COUNTY AND MILFORD.(7*)
"My father, Moses Bross, moved to Milford in 1821 or 1822, the precise date I cannot determine. At that time Milford was a small but prosperous town. The turnpike came in from the west, and the road from Carpenter's Point from the north, and the two met, as now, where Pinchot's store and Dimmick's Hotel are situated. In the town they were dignified with the name of streets, which names they still retain. Besides these there was a street diagonal most of the way from the top of the hill, above Bidde's Mill, to the old Court-House. The fish on the top of it did duty then, as now, as a weathercock, from which for more than three-score years it has never been relieved. My father lived on the point, at the Upper Eddy, immediately above the mouth of the Vandermark Creek, and S.S. Thrall on or near the high point on the banks of the Delaware at the Lower Eddy. Both these houses were hotels devoted almost exclusively to the entertainment of raftsmen, and in the rafting season were filled to overflowing. Nearly all the residences and stores were on the two streets above named. In the triangle between them, where the academy used to stand, there was quite a depression, rocky as possible, and covered with scrub oaks wherever they could find room to take root. The people were mainly from New England and the surrounding districts, and, like most men who settle new countries, were intellectual, enterprising and very energetic,-just the men to achieve success wherever they might settle.
"WHENCE WAS THE PROSPERITY.-It has been said the town was prosperous; for this there were reasons not difficult to find. The ridges west of it for scores of miles were covered with a dense forest, much of the timber being white pine of an excellent quality. The inhabitants scattered all over these ridges, and in the valleys manufactured the pine forests into boards, planks, scantling and shingles, lath, etc., which were in due time carted to Milford and traded with the merchants. At that time the farmers in Sussex, Morris and perhaps other counties in New Jersey had become, if not rich, at least possessed of a surplus of farm products, and these they handled at Milford, and exchanged with our merchants for lumber to build barns and more elegant homes for their families. Any surplus that might remain was rafted down the Delaware for a market. The Milford merchants thus selling goods to the lumbermen, and also lumber to the Jersey farmers, realizing in this way a double profit, became rich, and the town was of course prosperous. The building of the Delaware and Hudson Canal and the Erie Railway up the Delaware also made large demands upon Milford for supplies. As in the distant past the rich trade of Asia meeting at Palmyra, Venice and Genoa with the demands and wants of Europe, made them great and prosperous, but when the discovery of the Cape of Good Hope changed the traffic of the world and diverted it from its ancient channels, these great cities sank into insignificance, so, when the canal and the Erie Railway had been built and diverted from Milford the sources of its wealth, it suffered severely. It had not then been discovered that it was one of the most beautiful and healthy summer resorts in the whole Union, and since then it has grown and prospered wonderfully, as its fine hotels, splendid streets and elegant dwellings abundantly testify. Having compared its situation with most of those in every other State of the Union, I am sure it cannot be deprived of the proud position it has attained among summer residents from New York, Philadelphia and other cities. The high, beautiful plateau on which it stands, the noble Delaware laying its eastern bluff; the scores of miles of unequaled drives, the bluffs to the north of the mountains, and the hills that surround it, and withal the large spring that supplies the town with water, sweet and pure as crystal, all secure Milford in the enjoyment of every enduring prosperity.
MORALS.-"While the town was very prosperous in all its early history, the morals of the people were at a very low ebb. When my father moved there from New Jersey, in 1821 or 1822, there certainly were not as many righteous men in the town as there were in Sodom. The stores were all open on the Sabbath, and the streets were full of teams loaded with lumber from the back districts, or with those from New Jersey exchanging their produce for lumber. In fact, Sunday was the great market and gala day of the week. Horse-racing, gambling and drinking were rife, and at general trainings, elections and other public occasions, personal encounters and black eyes were only too common. Fortunately for myself, at least, I was too young, and had too good an example and instruction at home to be anything more than a valiant spectator on all such occasions.
"Our politics are now thought to be bad enough, but they are decency and honor compared with what was everywhere seen in the early days of Milford. Candidates were plenty, and as King Caucus had not yet moved upon the polls-at least he had never been heard of in Pike County-each one boldly nominated himself. Standing on the counter, notably, of the old French store was a bottle of apple-jack, old rye brandy, in fact, that could not fail to suit the tastes of the multitude, with the name of the candidate who furnished the liquor. These bottles were kept full, and the candidates, ever watchful, would meet each arriving voter, and with the choicest blandishments, lead him by the arm to the counter and his bottle. The quality of the fluid being high-brandy, for instance in proportion to the dignity and the profit of the office-hunter's seeking-so it was that the man that had the longest purse and shortest conscience was sure to be elected.
"A CHANGE FOR THE BETTER.-From this sad and truthful-perchance, disgusting-picture, as presented to me when a boy, more than sixty years ago, let us turn to the great changes for the better that, a few years later, came over the town, and the causes that produced them. Before my father moved to Milford there was not a male church-member in the town, certainly not one that made himself known and his influence felt as a Christian. There was not a church of any kind whatever. My father was a man who had the courage of his convictions, and coming from the Dutch church across the river, presided over by Dominie C.C. Elting of blessed memory, his first move on the forces of the enemy was to establish a prayer-meeting, by permission, in the court-house. As a new thing it attracted attention, and my father often told of his embarrassment, and how his knees smote together, when a few of what he called the 'tall sons of Anak,' for the want of amusement, came to the meetings. In these efforts he was cordially and ably seconded by James Wallace, a leading merchant, but not then a member of any church-a most excellent Scotch-Irishman. Out of the prayer-meetings soon grew a Sunday-school, the first in all that country. This writer was one of its first pupils, and during his membership Matthew, Luke and John were all learned by heart, a valuable acquisition during all his subsequent history. These Christian efforts, and the success following them, induced other friends to canvass the prospect of engaging a minister. What controlled the selection I do not know, but it certainly proved to be a most excellent one. How the parson was obtained is worthy of note. My father, then and never after, being blessed with much of this world's goods, borrowed a horse from Mr. Wallace, as I remember, a harness of some one else, and a buggy of another, and he and my mother went over to Westtown and presented the matter to Rev. Thos. Grier. The subject was laid before the Hudson Presbytery, and it was agreed that Mr. Grier might be spared from that town one Sabbath in three, giving one-third of his services to the town of Milford. Mr. Grier was a man of splendid presence, an excellent preacher, whose earnest discussion and application of gospel truth had a marked effect upon the community. The services were held, as were all other public meetings, in the court-house. As an illustration of the habits of the time, it is here mentioned that every Friday morning, when he was expected to arrive, my father would say to me, 'William, take the decanter and go to La Forge's store and get a quart of his best brandy,' and before every meal the brandy and a bowl of eggs would be on the table, and the Dominie would take an egg and some brandy for the good of his health.
"My father and mother both being companionable people, they for years kept the ministerial hotel. It should be here mentioned that when the 'Temperance Reform' was first agitated, Mr. Thrall, my father and many others banished liquor from their homes forever.
"The ministrations of Mr. Grier were greatly blessed and the Sunday-school of which this writer was one of the first members was large and successful, and on the 25th of September, 1825, the Presbyterian Church was organized. James Wallace, Jacob Quick and my father were the first elders, with my mother and three or four other ladies as members. The court-house soon became too small for the congregation, and I well remember the earnest conferences in regard to the building of a new church. Finally, Mr. Grier preached a sermon from the text 'Go up to the mountains and bring wood and build an house and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified saith the Lord.'-Haggai i. 8. As a result, to the mountains did the people go, and a church very respectable in size and appointments was built on the spot where the Presbyterian parsonage now stands, and as a lad of a dozen years I, with others, held the studs at 'the raising' while the frame was going up. To me it was always one of the most interesting buildings in Milford, for there I heard the gospel preached in its power and there was an almost constant revival, when, on the 29th of August, 1832, this writer became a member of the church. This was probably the controlling act in his personal history, for though short-comings have marked my life-work, to it I owe the small measure, morally and otherwise, of success the Lord has granted me. This remark is specially commended to all young people who may chance to read these lines.
"During the time above referred to nearly all the leading people of the town had become members of the church. A more complete reformation was, perhaps, never effected, and most happily the influence of those early movements has continued down to the present. About 1830 or 1831 Mr. Grier removed to some other charge, and Rev. Edward Allen came from New Jersey, and besides supplying the church, took charge of the Academy, the building of which had followed that of the church. Under his preaching and that of his most faithful associates, George and Peter Kanouse and others, nearly all the remaining citizens were gathered into the Presbyterian and Methodist Churches, the latter having been built a few years before. Many of his pupils also joined the church, and under Mr. Allen and his excellent brother-in-law, Dr. Alexander Linn, commenced a classical education. As to one of them, it is here remarked, it is charged that he went through Williams College a charity student. To some extent this is true, and for this purpose Milford furnished exactly one dollar and credit for a suit of clothes. For that dollar he handed a leading lady of the Milford Church a ten-dollar bill for benevolent purposes, and the clothes were paid for in a month or two after he graduated, in 1838. But the society to which Rev. Mr. Allen, one of the ablest teachers and preachers, and in all respects one of the best of men, introduced me and some of his other students, loaned me just $305. In addition to this, I taught school in Massachusetts every winter, and yet I found myself $600 in debt when I graduated. One-half of this was secured by a policy on my life, and the other was loaned me by Eastern friends. This was all paid with interest in two or three years, and the $305 were paid with compound interest, amounting to some $2800, by consent of the society that loaned it, to two of our colleges. I hope to be able to give two or three times that sum to our Christian benevolent and educational institutions every year during my life. For these reasons I am thankful that I was educated at all, and have no regrets or false modesty to own that I was educated as a charity student.
"In 1834 Mr. Allen had removed with his school to Libertyville, New Jersey, and in the opening of that year, with my small wardrobe tied in an old bandanna handkerchief swung on a stick across my shoulder, I crossed the mountain on foot and spent the summer completing as best I could my preparation for college. Of course I reluctantly bade good-by to Milford as a home forever.
"THE BAR.-The bar of Milford at this early day was composed of very able and eloquent men. Judge Scott, of Wilkesbarre, presided over the court with great dignity, with Associate Judges Dingman on his right, and Coolbaugh on his left. Judge Dingman was an active, wiry man, and generally held a political meeting during court-week, at which resolutions were passed thoroughly commending the national and State administrations.
"Judge Coolbaugh was a large, portly man and, so far as is now remembered, was very dignified and unobtrusive. Among our Milford lawyers D.M. Brodhead stood first, a man of splendid presence, able, eloquent and commanding the respect and confidence of the bar and the public. He afterward figured largely among the leading men of the State. Richard Eldred,
O.S. Dimmick, Edward Mott and some others deserve more extended mention. Bethany sent us N.B. Eldred, one of the most valuable, eloquent and successful lawyers of the time. Wilkes-Barre sent us several of her most distinguished lawyers. First in learning and, it is believed, in substantial character and clear judgment, was Garret Mallory, afterward a leading judge in Pennsylvania. Then there were Fuller & Cunningham (probably Conyngham), and perhaps others should be mentioned. Notably among them was Benjamin F. Bidlack, a splendid man in presence, learning and ability. He was captured by the second daughter of Deacon James Wallace, and settled among us. Being ambitious to become widely known, he established the first newspaper ever published in the county. It was called The Northern Eagle and Milford Monitor. Between the first two words there was a villainous picture of an eagle, which the boys, by a very easy mental process, called a 'crow.' My father was a great friend of Bidlack's and secured the position of carrier for his eldest son. As he wended his way from the house of one Milford nabob to another, with a bundle of papers under his arm, he would hear the cheerful salutation, 'There comes the Northern crow.' This would often produce a belligerent state of society between the sturdy carrier and his fellow-urchins, and not seldom there were blows to take as well as slang to hurl at him. From this humble position he found himself half-owner of a paper in Chicago in 1849, and for more than a third of a century he has been connected with the daily press in the city of Chicago. Mr. Bidlack was very successful. He became member of Congress, and died as United States minister resident in Columbia, in South America.
"PERSONAL SKETCHES.-Perhaps some personal sketches of the leading men of Milford sixty years ago may be of interest.
"I will begin at the lower end of the town, where, upon the bluff, lived Samuel S. Thrall. He was a large, portly man, very kind and benevolent, and in all respects a good citizen. He stopped the objectionable part of the hotel business, as did my father, viz., selling liquor, when temperance principles were agitated. He became an elder in the church, and was ever considered one of our best citizens. James Wallace kept store nearly across the way from Mr. Thrall, where the streets fork at the top of the hill, as one then went west from Biddis' mill. He was an example of all that was dignified and good in human character. A man of medium height, sturdy frame and benevolent expression, he was a man to command the respect and the confidence of the entire community. He spent the latter years of his life on a fine farm now occupied by Mr. Bull, some two miles north of Milford, on the Port Jervis road. He had considerable wealth, which he used as such a man is most likely to do, for the wisest benefit of his family and his fellow-men. His two sons, John and James, were always leading men in Milford, and Frank, the youngest, became a very successful and wealthy broker in New York. Colonel John N. Brodhead was a leading merchant, dealing largely in lumber, whose house was on the first corner west of that of Mr. Wallace. He was a kind and most excellent gentleman, to whom this writer was indebted when a boy for some favors that were never forgotten. He filled for many years of his later life an important position in the Treasury Department at Washington. His youngest daughter is the wife of Senator General Van Wick, of Nebraska. Next west, on the south side of the street, ever to be found on his work-bench, was Henry Barnes, an industrious, pleasant, honest man, with a never-failing fund of kindly feeling which made a chat with him always agreeable and instructive. Westward, on the right-hand of the street, the nearest house to the Cornelius Hotel, lived James Barton, a marked figure among the denizens of Milford. Tall and commanding in figure, with a fine, open, benevolent countenance, and head as white as snow, easily approached by the humblest of the people, he was always popular. He was wealthy and very enterprising, building Barton's grist-mill, at the west end of the town, and taking an active interest, if, indeed, he was not the projector and father, of the Milford water-works. These facts made the people forget, if it was ever true, that he received a pension from the English Government for services rendered during the Revolutionary War. Be that as it may, he always used his money for the good of the community among whom he lived. His family of daughters were very intellectual and accomplished women, and whose husbands were among our leading citizens. Probably the most widely-known man Milford had was Lewis Cornelius. He kept both store and hotel in the house his family still occupy. Honest and socially an agreeable man, he was always popular. His hotel attracted custom from far and near. The first and most important requisite was that his wife and her daughters were among the very best cooks and housekeepers that could be found in the whole country, and Mr. Cornelius himself attracted the travelling public by his great size.
"At his death he weighed, as I remember, six hundred and seventy-five pounds-probably considerably less than he would tip the beam at when in good health. But if people wanted to see him, they must give no sign that they came for that purpose, or he would at once become invisible. In spite of his immense size, he always kept at the head of his business, and no one could ever complain of negligence when stopping at his hotel. His son John, now dead, became sheriff of the county, and his sisters have continued the business down to the present day. Across the road lived Hon. D.M. Brodhead, above referred to, and opposite, on the main street, was the residence and drug-store of Dr. Francis A.L. Smith. With his father, then living in Belgium, near Brussels, he escaped during the early wars with France, and, after many startling incidents and hair-breadth escapes, they arrived in America. Being of a leading wealthy family, they did not wish their friends at home to know where they were, and so changed their names De Aerts to Smith, the nearest possible to being anonymous. He was an accomplished scholar, speaking German and French fluently, and, being a man that everybody liked, he was always a leading man in the community. On the same side of the street, and opposite from Port Jervis, was the hotel of Samuel Dimmick. His active habits and close attention to business, and withal his great courtesy and kindness, made him a popular landlord and a good citizen. Opposite, on the northeast corner, was the residence of C.C.D. Pinchot, his house being in the rear and his store in front. He was a man of great energy and enterprise, and accumulated a large fortune. As a member of the Presbyterian Church, he was as earnest and his influence was as widely felt in religious as in the business interests of the town. Of his sons, one has been judge and another is a leading New York manufacturer and capitalist of that city. West of the corner, on the opposite side of the street, lived Theophilus H. Smith. He was an elder in the Presbyterian Church, a good business man and an excellent citizen. On the west side of the street (Harford, I think it is) was the hotel of George Bowhannon, still occupied by his daughters. Opposite was the store of John B. Le Forge. He was a large, fine-looking gentleman, and had the reputation of keeping the best and choicest goods in town. Taciturn, yet polite and dignified, he always held a leading place among his fellow-merchants. Of course he was prosperous. Sheriff James Hatson occupied the court-house. He was popular and an excellent officer. As to the old court-house, there it has stood, to my certain knowledge, for more than sixty years. Not a change outwardly, and I presume internally, has come over it, while those eloquent men who once waked the echoes within its walls have all passed away. Such is life.
"Northward still, and on the same side of the street, was the 'Old French Store.' The firm was first Pinchot & Muclare, but, both these dying, it fell under the direction of Madame Pinchot and her son Cyrille. The firm from the beginning was managed with all the tact, energy and shrewdness always manifest in the French character. It had a marked success from the beginning, and it was believed did a larger and more successful business than any other store in Milford. Madame Pinchot was a courteous, excellent woman, whose memory is cherished by all who knew her. An only daughter, Hortense, the wife of J.C. Westbrook, of Port Jervis, a most accomplished and excellent woman, still survives her. Westward, on the same street, lived Richard Eldred. He was a successful lawyer and a good citizen. No man ever had a better wife 'whose price is far above rubies.' I say this entirely without regard to the fact that she was the woman that handed my father the dollar to assist me in getting my education. Westward still, the house standing directly next to the bridge below and across the Vandemark Creek, stood the house of my uncle, Daniel Beecher. His wife was my mother's oldest sister. He was a well-known character, for he utilized, to the best possible advantage for himself, the tax deeds of the back ridges of Pike County by trading them off for goods, cattle, horses, almost anything, with the New England people anxious to become proprietors of Western lands. Scarcely any one of them ever occupied those lands, and hence the population of the county was not specially increased by his efforts. Directly below was the expensive wagon manufactory of Roys & Benton, two enterprising Yankees from Connecticut. They did a large and successful business. It was continued by John M. Heller, who afterward moved his establishment to Port Jervis. He was one of the best of men, the father of Judge George P. Heller, for many years a leading politician and judge in the county. I should have said in the proper place he married Helen, one of the best of her sex, the daughter of John H. Wallace, and lived nearly opposite and near the Cornelius Hotel, a righteous judge and an honest man. Directly across the bridge, to the left hand, lived Hugh Ross, a lawyer and always a man of mark. The house is now occupied by Hon. D.M. Van Auken, whose wife was his granddaughter.
"My father lived, as above stated, on the point just above the mouth of the Vandemark Creek. He was a tall, spare man of great energy and wide intelligence in all matters derived from books and newspapers. His knowledge of the Scriptures was accurate, and embraced nearly every fact brought out and principle stated in Bible history. A thoroughly honest and sincerely religious man was Moses Bross. He lived a life of toil and devotion to his large family and the best interests of the church which he loved so well. Regarding the church he helped to organize, it has often been a matter of discussion in my own mind whether all his sons put together can ever have a tithe of the influence for good to which he is justly entitled. He left Milford somewhere in the sixties, and moved to Panther Brook, a mile above Shohola, where he lived till 1865, when his oldest son moved him and his blessed mother to Morris, Ill. The mother died February 22, 1868, and he lived on in peace and comfort till August 19, 1882, when he peacefully passed away, lacking but two months and twelve days of being ninety years old. Many others might and perhaps ought to be mentioned, and it may be asked, 'Had you no bad men in those early days?' True, we had; but 'speak only good of the departed' is a good rule, old as history and morals. Most of those that were worth saving, as above stated, reformed and were gathered into the churches between 1826 and the few subsequent years. 'Their works do follow them,' and the doctrines of heredity are fully illustrated in their children, while I make no invidious comparisons among them; yet as their fathers were, so are they-the leaders of the people among whom they live; granting that their morals are good, so will they continue to be. May I be permitted the remark, in closing, that I always visit Milford with the greatest pleasure. Alas! the old house on the hill, where my father lived, and where all his younger children, but one, were born, was burned a few weeks ago, and the church which in my boyish days, I helped to build, and in which I joined myself with the Lord's people, have passed away, but in one heart, at least, their memory is precious.
"Though Milford now contains, perhaps, ten times as many people as when I first knew it, and the residences are many, and not a few of them large and elegant, there will not be a man sixty years hence who will have a more interested and pleasant memory of it than the writer of this sketch.
HON. WILLIAM BROSS is one of the founders, editors and proprietors of The Chicago Tribune. He is among the earlier graduates of Williams and one of the distinguished alumni who have reflected lustre upon their alma mater. He was born in New Jersey, November 4, 1813, and was reared to manhood at Milford, Pa. His paternal and maternal ancestors were excellent people. He graduated with high honors from Williams with the class of 1838. In 1866 he delivered the alumni address, and has received numerous evidences of the high estimate in which he is held by the friends of that institution, which has conferred upon him its higher degrees. After graduating he taught an academy in Orange County, New York, for nearly ten years, with decided success. He was a thorough classical scholar, and a student of the arts, sciences and of history. He came to Chicago in 1848, engaged in the book trade for a time, and bought out the then Prairie Herald, and continued it two years, when he united with John L. Scripps in establishing the Democratic Press, a daily and weekly newspaper, Democratic in politics up to the time of the organization of the Republican party, when he championed that cause, and was one of its ablest and most eloquent advocates, and has been since. He was the first man in the West to indorse the nomination of John C. Fremont for President. In 1859 he consolidated his paper with The Tribune. In 1860 he was a prime mover in securing the nomination of Lincoln for President, and was among the foremost in planning and executing the remarkable campaign which resulted in his election, and was one of his trusted and confidential advisers during his Presidency. In 1864 he was elected Lieutenant-Governor of Illinois, and served four years with great credit to himself and satisfaction to the people, and as presiding officer of the Senate was the first official in the United States to sign the resolution passed by the Illinois Legislature ratifying the amendment to the Constitution prohibiting slavery, Illinois being the first State to take action. In 1868 he visited the Rocky Mountains, and the miners on a then nameless peak, near Mount Lincoln, named it Mount Bross, in honor of him and his visit, and it bears that name to-day, made permanent by the map-maker, by official action, and by the artist.
Mr. Bross has led an active, useful, and beneficent life, as teacher, journalist, statesman and citizen, and there are few men whose personal history is so inseparably connected with the history of Illinois during his time, the annals of which he has so conspicuously illustrated. He will transmit a fortune and an example of how a guided mentality can assert a mastery over difficulties and even adverse circumstances in shaping the character and destiny of a man, if balanced by a true manhood and a high moral purpose. His life work is written in the history of his time. All attempts to assail his integrity have been fruitless. He has led the life of a Christian gentleman in private and in public. He has traveled extensively in this and in foreign countries, and the chronicles of his intelligent observations have graced the columns of his own paper and other publications.
In 1839 he married the only daughter of the late Dr. John T. Jansen, of Goshen, N.Y., a most estimable lady. They have had much affliction, having buried four sons and three daughters, the last resting-place of the mortal remains of whom is marked by a beautiful monument in Rosehill Cemetery. Only one child survives, Mrs. Henry D. Lloyd, a lady of rare mental endowments, whose presence adorns polished society. Before the recent death of his father, four generations, on both sides, were represented in a group at one time,-an isolated instance of the kind, so far as is known.(8*)
CEMETERY.-The beautiful Milford Cemetery, purchased and laid out by an association, was dedicated on May 26, 1868, with appropriate exercises in the presence of a great concourse of people. The address was delivered by Lucien F. Barnes, who died not long afterwards and was the first person buried in the grounds he had done so much to provide. A poem was read by John D. Biddis, Esq., addresses were delivered by Rev. R.H. Beattie and Rev. C.S. Rymall and a choir sang several selections and a hymn composed especially for the occasion. Following is Mr. Biddis' poem:
For half a century back our fathers' bones have slept
In the old orchard, where the little knot
Of cluster'd pine trees have their vigils kept,
Lonely, but watchful o'er the sacred spot.
Nought marks the grave but the rude mound of earth,
Or tott'ring slab of marble or rough stone;
No epitaph to tell us of their worth-
That to their deeds and time is left alone.
Deserted now, this first old burying-ground;
Uncared for now, decaying with its dead;
But many a chiseled shaft and tell-tale mound
Cluster about our churches in its stead.
Children and friends have fallen, one by one;
Father and mother rest beneath the sod;
Their joys and sorrows felt, their journey done,
And their immortal spirits with their God.
But now within the small allotted space,
Scarce room is left for mourning friends to tread,
Who fain with loving hands would gladly grace
With flowers the turf that closes o'er their dead.
The cheerless wind sweeps, howling, bleak and drear;
The spectral army, only, points the sky;
And no protecting tree or hill-side's near
To make the wind's loud roar a gentle lullaby.
Is there nought left, when in the narrow cell
We've laid our hallowed dead and o'er them weep,
But for a mourning season in our hearts to tell
To our own selves their past, and let them sleep?
How doubly dark, how fearful would seem death,
If we, who living, look beyond 1ife's end,
Were doomed to chain unto our parting breath
All that in love, to life its beauties lend.
Such love as that which in a mother dwells,
When weeping o'er the pillow of her child;
Or from the wife's devoted bosom swells,
When her dear ones are toss'd by tempests wild.
The memory of a gentle sister's thought,
The fond regard that lights the lover's eye;
If with the loss of these the tomb were fraught,
Our graves were all left of us when we die.
We've met to-day to consecrate the spot
Where some of us must find our future home;
Where each of us may choose the little lot,
Wherein to rest when death shall come.
Here, where yon mountain lends its grateful shade;
Here, by the side of yonder gentle river;
Where Nature's self a resting-place hath made;
Here let our loved ones rest in peace forever.
Here, through the pines the summer showers will weep,
And through their branches birds will chirp and sing;
These hills as sentinels their vigils keep;
And from the ground will sweetest violets spring.
With all that's cheerful here a solemn grandeur blends;
The stillness of the scene, yon rocks of sombre grey;
And through the winding paths the funeral cortege lends
A sadness fitting to the burial day.
When once loved forms are mouldering to dust,
Let ties of love that made their lives so sweet
All centre here, and, faithful to our trust,
Let us keep tenderly their last retreat.
'Tis meet that wand'ring spirits here should dwell,
And through these trees the wind in sadness wail;
The gentle dove her mournful story tell,
And with soft music fill the echoing vale.
How better far, to feel that we and ours
May sometime slumber in this lovely place,
Than in the crowded churchyard where no flowers
Or trees or birds our final couch can grace.
There are buried in the cemetery the following soldiers, viz.:
Col. John Nyce, 174th Regt. Pa. Vols.
Seth Williamson, War of 1812.
John Westfall, 4th Regt. N.J. Artillery.
Gen. Dan Brodhead, Revolutionary War.
Capt. 0.H. Mott, Co. B, 151st Regt. Pa. Vols.
George Royce, private, Co. C, 67th Regt. Pa. Vols.
Major Richard Eldred, War of 1812.
Capt. J. Everett Eldred, Co. C, 67th Pa. Vols.
Jacob Scott, private in a colored regiment.
MILFORD BOROUGH - CIVIL ORGANIZATION.-The first election, under the borough charter was held February 16, 1875, when the following officers were chosen:
Chief Burgess.-John C. Wallace.
Town Council-John Gaillard, Henry B. Wells, Jacob Klaer, Peter A.L. Quick, Desiré Bournique.
School Directors.-Charles D. Loreaux, Vincent Emerson, John Nyce, F.H. Palmer, David A. Wells, Frederick C. Almer.
Overseers for the Poor.-Emanuel B. Quick, John B. Newman.
High Constable.-Thomas J. Newman.
Assessor.-Chauncy W. Dimmick.
Auditors.-Abram D. Brown, Benjamin F. Bennett, Edward Quick.
Judge of Elections.-James H. Doney.
Inspectors of Elections.-Oscar M. Brink, George Slawson.
February 23, 1875, the first meeting of the Town Council was held in the house of John C. Wallace, burgess, who presided. Harry T. Baker was elected secretary of the Council and Samuel Dietrick was appointed treasurer. The following persons have held the office of chief burgess since that time:
1876. Desiré Bournique.
1881. J.R. Julius Kline.
1877. W.K. Ridgway.
1882. C.W. Bull.
1878. H.B. Wells.
1883. M.D. Mott.
1879. John Nyce.
1884. Geo. E. Horton.
1880. John Nyce.(14*)
1885-86. J. Hutchison.
SCENERY AND SURROUNDINGS.-The rich and varied scenery in the region round about Milford has made the town famous and brought it into favor among artists, lovers of nature, tourists and summer sojourners in general. Pike County is a district in which nature is still fresh, wild, untrammeled, unbroken by the works of man, which, often endeavoring to increase beauty, only mar it. Large portions of the county are in as rude and rough a wilderness state as they were a hundred years ago, and this wildness forms one of the chief charms of the county. Yet some portions of Pike are highly cultivated and afford a marked contrast with the wild-wood, mountainous, rocky and ravine-cleft regions.
There are refreshing elements of beauty almost everywhere in the county, from the level well-titled Delaware bottom lands to the wilderness-clad mountains in the interior. Perhaps the boldest and most picturesque scenery in the vicinity of Milford is formed by the cliffs which sharply mark the valley of the river, and form, in fact, a wall for many miles along the bottom lands. The cliff is most rugged and reaches its greatest height at a point about three miles below Milford, known as "Utter's Point."(15*) The road leads along its base, and the sight-seer cannot, without leaving it and going toward the river, obtain a satisfactory view of this towering rock wall. A very fine view is to be had from the farm-house of Mr. Warner.
Of all the varied scenes of loveliness in mountain, stream and lake, there is perhaps no single feature so remarkable and popularly pleasing as the waterfalls. Of these there are many in the county (elsewhere spoken of), but those of chief importance in the vicinity of Milford are the Sawkill and Raymondskill, the former only a mile and a half distant and the latter about three miles. It is not too much to say of these that they are among the most picturesque in the United States. Of the Sawkill Falls further mention is made, under the head of "Geology." Of the "incomparable Raymondskill," Edmund C. Stedman has written a highly poetical account, which we here abridge,
"The cockney tourist, whose first inquiry on landing at New York is, 'Have you any cataracts near by?' is guided to Trenton Falls, or Watkins Glen, when he might so easily reach Milford, just off the line of travel, and satisfy to the full his
'hunger for the living wood,
The laureled crags, the hemlocks hanging wide,
The rushing stream that will not be withstood,
Bound forward to wed him with the river's tide.'
"Close against the mountain wall is built the valley turnpike, a natural 'Macadam,' for the shale thrown upon it from the roadside packs down as hard and even as a mosaic floor. Far above rise the oak, maple and chestnut, birch and pine, and at intervals of every league, I say, dark gaps open like doorways in the hillside, through which the trout streams are plunging, as yet unstained and free. A land of streams, 'Some, like a downward smoke; Slow, drooping veils of thinnest lawn did go; And some through wavering lights and shadows broke, Rolling a slumbrous sheet of foam below.'
"But here is no swooning of the languid air, and no seeming always afternoon. It is a Morning Land, with every cliff facing the rising sun. The mist and languor are in grain-fields far below; the hills themselves are of the richest, darkest green; the skies are blue and fiery; the air crisp, transparent, oxygenated, American; it is no place for lotus-eating, but for drinking water of the fountain of youth, till one feels the zest and thrill of a new life that is not unrestful, yet as far as may be from the lethargy of mere repose.
"The speckled trout of this region, though not so large as their Long Island kindred, are more in number; growing in weight as the fisher wanders down the current, and leaping at his fly with a lusty mountain vigor-a spring like the quiver of a sword-blade.
"The Vandermark and Sawkill flow through the village of Milford; lower down, and at intervals of a league, are the Raymondskill, Adams', Dingman's and the Bushkill, each with attractions peculiar to itself. The Sawkill Falls are somewhat widely known; their grace is the despair of the painter and delight of young and old. Sawkill Glen is another beauty-spot, in the heart of Milford.
"But the Raymondskill is the acknowledged monarch of our Milford fluviarchy. It rises miles above them all, in a vast wilderness, where the springs outlast the summer drouth and winter cold, and yield a constant torrent for its craggy bed. I have never fished upward to its source, choosing rather to think of the wild wood as perpetual, stretching into trackless westering regions, the cover of mysteries and snares. I am told that venison and bear's meat repay the hunters who strike boldly out from Blooming Grove Park at fall-tide of the year. But let my reader make his first acquaintance with the Raymondskill, where it is a swift, full stream, coursing through farmers' meadows on the upper plateau. Drive thither at sunrise of a bright, June morning, and spend a golden day, angling, if you like, along its banks. In an hour you reach the cataract and ruined dam at 'Goosey's,' below which a series of the loveliest swift-waters and miniature cascades will tempt you, by another hour's journey, within sight of the spray and sound of the roar of the greater Raymondskill Falls.
"Here is a cleft in the mountain, wide and deep, where the brook takes its grandest leaps from the higher to the lower world. The upper fall is a double cataract, higher than the broad, magnificent fall. The two are so near each other as to form one picture to the eye. I do not know the exact height of the upper or lower fall, but it is not the dimensions of a cataract that make it poetical and inspiring. All these matters are relative, and, for one, I have had more pleasure in gazing at the Raymondskill Falls than at Niagara itself.
"From the cliff, on the left of the dark pool below, is shaken down the filmy transparent 'Bridal Veil.' Every waterfall has a Bridal Veil, but this is the Laureate's veritable "slow-dropping veil of the thinnest lawn.' Here I will leave my angler to meditate awhile, and drink his fill of that beauty in which Weir and Beard Whittrege have loved to dip their pencils. He has still before him a mile of devious windings-filled with witching nooks-ere he can gain the river-side, and set his feet toward Milford."
GEOLOGY OF THE LOCALITY-MILFORD AND DINGMAN TOWNSHIPS.(16*)
Milford township lies directly west from Westfall, and, like it, is bordered by the Delaware River on the south. It drains into the Delaware through Sawkill and Vandemark Creeks.
Between the mouths of these streams at Milford there is a wide and beautiful terrace, whose top comes one hundred to one hundred and twenty feet above the level of the Delaware River, and makes the site of Milford the county-seat. It is a great bed of rehandled morainic débris, and is seen along the river in an almost vertical mass one hundred feet high, in which occur boulders of Oneida conglomerate, Corniferous limestone, Hamilton sandstone, Chemung and Catskill rocks, together with much fine sand and gravel.
The Drift has exerted a not inconsiderable influence on the topography of this area, since a great dam of moraine thrown across the ancient channel of the Sawkill near Mr. G. Hamilton's, two and a half-miles above its mouth, caused it to seek a new outlet to the Delaware over the cliffs of the Hamilton sandstone, and thus resulted in producing the "Sawkill Falls," where the stream passes over the high escarpment of the Delaware hills.
In pre-glacial times the Sawkill waters, instead of going over the present falls, passed by a channel now buried with Drift, which runs from where the Milford and Owego pike crosses that stream, southeastward to the old valley in which the Milford water-works are situated, and then continuing along this old valley it received the Raymondskill near Milford, the combined streams finally emptying into the Delaware directly under the present site of that town.
This is known to be true, because the "divide" of Drift which now separates the Sawkill from the old valley is only twenty-five feet high, and because the only water carried in the old valley comes from two or three springs, and yet this valley is cut down more than one hundred feet below the level of the top of Sawkill Falls, through the same series of rocks, while the bed-rock is still concealed by an unknown thickness of Drift. It is simply impossible that a feeble stream, such as now flows in it, could ever have cut out such a deep, wide, valley; and, on the other hand, it is equally improbable that the large volume of water carried by the Sawkill could rush over its steep descent for untold ages without cutting its channel down to the depth at least as great as that of small streams like Vandemark and Quick Creeks, just above.
In passing up the present channel of the Sawkill, from the Delaware River, three hundred and eighty feet, A.T., there occurs a succession of cascades. The first one is one-quarter mile above the mouth of the stream, and begins at four hundred and ten feet, A.T. The rock is a dark, sandy slate (Marcellus), and a dam thrown across its centre gives a fall of 20 feet for the mills situated just below.
On above this the stream meanders through a dense grove bounded on either side by steep banks of Drift. This part of the Sawkill channel is known as the "Glen," and it forms a delightful retreat for the summer borders who throng Milford every year. At the head of the Glen, and directly opposite the main street of Milford, the Sawkill makes a second plunge of eighteen feet over a dam, and the dark-bluish, sandy slates of the Marcellus, dipping N. 25° W. 13°. The channel below the dam is a gorge only 30 feet wide, with vertical walls of slate, but on above this the channel widens out into a considerable valley, the ancient course of the Sawkill.
About one mile above the mouth of the Sawkill, and just below where the road crosses it, a gray, coarse and somewhat massive-looking sandy rock comes down, dipping 12°-14°N. 20° W. Its bedding planes exhibit numerous irregular layers with curly or twisted structure, and it belongs to the Hamilton proper, since, just above, many bold, massive beds dip under water at an angle of 15° N. 25° W.
One mile and a quarter above the mouth of the Sawkill the base of the third fall is reached at an elevation of five hundred and ten feet, A.T., or one hundred and thirty feet above the Delaware. This is a constant succession of cascades one to twenty feet high, through a vertical distance of fifty feet; and, seen from below, is one of the most fascinating views on the stream. At the top of this "Bridal Veil" fall, as it is called, the stream has cut a narrow channel through the rock 10 feet deep, but only 5 feet wide at top, so that one can easily step across the channel, even when it is much swollen.
About one and three-quarter miles from the Delaware one comes to the Sawkill Falls proper, the level of the water in the pool at the base being six hundred feet, A.T.
The structure of this fall is sufficient evidence to any one that the Sawkill has not always flowed over its walls.
Beginning one-quarter mile up the stream from the main falls, we find the Sawkill flowing between banks of Drift, which it here cuts through, and rapidly excavates a long, narrow canon out of the Genesee shale. This trench is 110 feet deep where the falls begin, only about fifty feet wide at top and ten to fifteen feet at the bottom.
The first descent is a fall of twenty feet in two cascades over the fossil coral bed at the base of the Genesee; then the stream spreads out on a broad, gently-sloping platform of gray Hamilton rock, to fall into the great abyss below in a vertical plunge of sixty feet. Leaving the pool at the base of the huge amphitheatre here excavated, the water passes through a channel only two and one-half feet wide, with a fall of fifteen feet down into a chasm only two feet ten inches wide, but overhung with rocky walls seventy-five feet high.
The fossil coral bed at the top of the large fall is a dark-blue slaty rock filled with corals, and also many fossil shells.
In Dingman township the effects of the Glacial moraine in changing the course of streams, is also plainly marked in for the evidence proving that the Raymondskill once emptied into the Sawkill above Milford is complete.
The Raymondskill Creek now empties into the Delaware three miles below Milford, but in pre-glacial times it left its present channel 2½ miles west from the Delaware, and going northeastward, descended the present valley of Mott's Run, uniting with the ancient Sawkill somewhere under the present site of Milford. That the Raymondskill once took this course is certain, because an old drift-buried valley leads across from the Raymondskill near J. Brink's to the Sawkill at Milford, and at no point does it rise higher than 20 feet above the bed of the Raymondskill at Brink's. The character of the present Raymondskill channel below Brink's, is also proof of its recent origin, for it descends about 450 feet in two miles, being a constant succession of rapids and falls, with one grand leap (at Raymondskill Falls) of 125 feet.
In ascending the Raymondskill from its mouth to the foot of the Raymondskill Falls, one mile above, the ascent of the stream is only one hundred feet above the Delaware. The stream, however, has cut a deep, narrow canon out of the soft Marcellus slate all the way from the foot of the falls until its channel debouches into the Delaware valley.
The Raymondskill Falls is a spot of surpassing scenic beauty. The stream has there cut a deep, narrow gorge through the Hamilton ridge, and at the bottom of this it descends through a vertical distance of one hundred and twenty-five feet in two successive leaps, excavating a beautiful glen, overhung with vertical walls of pine-clad rock two hundred feet high, into whose depths the sun never shines. The upper is known as "High Falls" and the lower as "Bridal Veil." The water first makes a plunge of eighty feet over the "High Falls" into a deep pool, and passing out of this in a narrow channel worn into the rock, descends forty-five feet vertically over the "Bridal Veil."
The bed rock is hard, bluish-gray Hamilton sandstone, and dips N. 25° W. 15°-17°. Owing to its delicious coolness in the hottest weather, this locality is a favorite resort of pleasure parties, and many thousands visit it during the heated term.
>From the top of the Raymondskill Falls up to where the road crosses it the descent of the stream is quite rapid, and cascades are frequent, the elevation at the bridge being six hundred and seventy-five feet (A.T.) a fall of three hundred and ten feet in the one mile and a quarter from this point to the Delaware.
BIOGRAPHICAL.
HENRY SPERING MOTT.
Henry Spering Mott was born at Easton, Pa., September 23, 1811, and died in Milford June 1, 1877. His father was Edward Mott, and his mother a daughter of General Spering, who was a general of militia in the War of 1812, and was prothonotary of Northampton County for twenty-five years.
The Motts removed to Pike County when Henry was a young man, and he became justice of the peace in Lehman township in 1834. In 1838 he was elected sheriff of the county, but the Governor (Ritner) issued the commission to John W. Heller. In 1839 he was appointed prothonotary by Governor Porter, and was elected to this office in 1842, hut declined a re-election in favor of John C. Westbrook. In 1852 he was elected to the Lower House of the General Assembly, and again in 1853. In 1854 he was nominated by the Democrats as land commissioner, against George Darsie, one of the most respected and popular Whigs in the State, and was elected by an unprecedented majority-190,743-the whole poll being less than 375,000 votes. James Pollock, the Whig candidate for Governor at the same time, was elected by a majority of 37,007. Mott received more than three times as many votes as were given to his opponent, the whole vote being,-for Mott, 274,074; for Darsie, 83,331. Darsie being a foreigner, the Know-Nothings preferred Mott, a fact which subjected the latter to the unjust suspicion that he was secretly affiliated with the Know-Nothing organization. This suspicion, however, was not entertained by the Democrats of his own county, who elected him to the State Senate in 1860, and to the Constitutional Convention of 1873. In both branches of the Legislature Mr. Mott was conspicuous and effective, by reason of his strong common sense and native force of character. During the sessions of the Constitutional Convention he was in feeble health, physically, and unable to exert himself to the extent of his natural inclination and intellectual ability.
Mr. Mott was twice married, his first wife being Hannah Bull, whom he married January 31, 1832; and his second, Delinda Peters, daughter of the late Henry Peters, of Bushkill, and sister of Samuel G., Charles and William N. Peters, and of Mrs. Henry M. La Bar, who still survive. By his first marriage he had four children, only one of whom survives,- Mrs. Jacob Kleinhans, of Milford. By his second wife he also had four children, two of whom survive,-Charles Peters and Samuel Dimmick Mott. Among the nephews of Mr. (usually called Colonel) Mott are Milton Dimmick Mott, publisher of the Milford Dispatch, and Edward H. Mott, at present connected, editorially, with the New York Sun,-the author of "Pike County Folks," and of a great number of amusing hunting, fishing and "old settler" stories connected with the Pike County region.
Colonel Mott was, in many respects, a remarkable man. Without early advantages of education, such as are now enjoyed by young men of his class, he was able, by reason of his natural ability, force of character, pleasing presence and winning address, to outstrip many of his compeers, whose circumstances of fortune in early life were far more favorable than his. He was a man of imposing appearance, personally,-both tall and broad, of pleasing countenance, suave manner and graceful action. He was jolly and generous, grave and gay, as occasion required; kind to the distressed; socially agreeable to all classes, and, of course, unenviably popular. He was Pike County's favorite citizen, and his merits eventually became known throughout the State, in which but few men were more widely or more favorably known than was Colonel Mott during most of the second half of his life. At Harrisburg, when he was a member of the Legislature, and ever after, he was held in the highest respect, and had a host of warm friends and admirers in Philadelphia. His great vote in 1854 made him a marked man; but it was soon learned that he was not a mere creature of accident, but a man of naturally broad gauge and genuine merit, who well deserved his "big majority." His official conduct as canal commissioner fully justified that majority; and in every office he held he performed his duties with the utmost integrity, as well as intelligence and efficiency. In his private business and affairs he was both generous and just, though perhaps not always just to himself, his generosity often prevailing over prudence or proper regard for his own interest. He was noted for kindness of heart, and his politeness was more than "skin deep," being naturally prompted by good feeling for all.
Colonel Mott was a natural gentleman, and all who knew him instinctively recognized this fact. He was utterly free from hypocrisy, in every respect, and heartily despised it in others. He did not profess Christianity, but practiced it in all his dealings with his fellow-men. He was a manly man and a true man, and, consequently, a Christian man. He fulfilled his duty in both private life and public life, and never betrayed a trust, great or small.
Colonel Mott was an honor to Pike County, and it is but proper that he should be pronounced and set down as such in this history.
JOHN C. WESTBROOK.
John Coolbaugh Westbrook, Prothonotary of Pike county, Penna., was born in Delaware township in the same county, where the homestead of the family has been for nearly a century on May 24, 1820. He is fifth in regular line from Anthony Westbrook, who came from Ulster County, N.Y., about 1737, and settled in Montague township, N.J., and was a large real estate owner along the Delaware and on Minisink Island. He was a justice of the peace and left a record of the earliest marriages in the Minisink valley. He had one son Jacob, who married Lydia Westfall, March 24, 1746, by whom he had a son Solomon, (1762-1824) who married Margaret DeWitt, and crossed to the Pennsylvania side of the river, settling in Delaware township, where he owned some seven hundred acres of land. On this property he built a stone house, which was his residence and that of the family for nearly a century. He is assessed with one hundred and fifty acres of improved land in 1801, and was also a justice of the peace. The family was well-to-do, and owned slaves in the early days. Solomon and Margaret Westbrook's children were:-Jacob, (1786-1847), who resided on a part of the homestead and was the father of John I. Westbrook of Port Jarvis; Colonel John born in 1789, resided on a part of the homestead and was a member of Congress in 1841-43; Solomon (1794-1852; Soferyne, and Margaret who was the wife of William H. Nyce; of these children, Solomon was the father of John C. our subject. He married Hannah Coolbaugh (1790-1874) a daughter of Judge John Coolbaugh of Middle Smithfield township, then Pike County. He was a man of large business capacity and well known in the Delaware Valley. He served as sheriff of Pike County in 1822-25 for one term.
In 1819 he sold his farm to his brother Jacob, and purchased a farm in Middle Smithfield where he removed, and remained until about the year 1829, when he sold his farm to John V. Coolbaugh and removed to Philadelphia. He returned the following year, and for five years thereafter conducted the hotel owned by Judge Dingman at Dingman's Ferry. He also opened a store there in 1832, and besides carried on mercantile business at Bushkill in 1830-31, at Tafton in 1835-36, besides the lumber business at Blooming Grove. In 1835 he removed to the old stone-house in Delaware township. In 1837 he had a paralytic stroke, while yet in vigorous manhood, which largely incapacitated him for business, being deprived of his speech. In 1842 the family removed to Blooming Grove where his sons carried on the lumber business for many years, and where both himself and wife spent the remainder of their lives. Their children are:- Margaret, widow of the late John B. Stoll of Branchville, resides in Newark, N.J.; John Coolbaugh Westbrook, subject of this sketch; Hiram, a dealer in real estate of Ridgewood, N.J.; Lafayette, for many years a member of the Pennsylvania Legislature, carried on the lumber business at Blooming Grove until 1882, and removed to Stroudsburg; Moses C. a farmer on the homestead in Blooming Grove; Susan widow of the late Theodore Grandon of New Jersey, resides also in Newark.
John C. Westbrook obtained his early education in the district school of his native place, and completed it at Milford, under Rev. Mr. Allen. At the age of fifteen he became a clerk in his father's store and upon the sudden illness of his father, he took charge of the store at Dingmans, assisted by Colonel H.S. Mott, and of the lumber business at Blooming Grove, which he continued to conduct until 1845, when he was elected on the Democratic ticket Prothonotary of Pike county. After serving in this capacity for six years-two terms-he returned to Blooming Grove and engaged in the lumber business and in clearing up a farm. He remained there for twelve years and during this time built a saw-mill and a grist-mill. He was again elected prothonotary in the fall of 1863, and leaving his business in the hands of his brother Lafayette, he removed to Milford, and served six years more. In 1870 he removed to Branchville, N.J., and during the first year of his residence there, procured the land of various individuals for the Blooming Grove Park Company in Pike county.
In 1872 he went to Berks county, and for three years acted as foreman in the construction of the Boston & South Mountain Railroad, which was laid out to run from Harrisburg to Poughkeepsie. In the fall of 1875 Mr. Westbrook returned to Milford, was elected prothonotary, and by re-election continues to hold the same office in 1886, and is now filling the twenty-third year in the same office, his present term expiring January 1, 1888. He has been county auditor for several years and has served in several other minor offices.
On December 29, 1850, he married Jane Wells of Milford, by whom he has the following children:-Alice, widow of the late Dr. Gouverneur Emerson, who died February 4, 1886; Hannah, widow of the late John Williamson of Branchville, N.J.; Frank Brodhead (1856-1877) and Lafayette Westbrook.
THOMAS ARMSTRONG.
A careful research made by Leonard A. Morrison, and published in The Massachusetts Magazine, shows that the Armstrongs of Pike County are descended from the Armstrong clan, once one of the most numerous and powerful in the Lowlands of Scotland. As early as 1376, says M. Morrison, their names are identified as belonging to Liddesdale, in the "Debatable Country." In 1377 Robert Armstrong and Margaret Temple, his wife, were in possession of part of a manor, being the town and land of Whithaugh, in Thorpe, England.
The original deed to the family having been lost or destroyed, the town and lands were re-granted to Lancelot Armstrong on the 9th of October, 1586, and remained in possession of his descendants till about 1730. Among the Armstrongs of that early period was Johnnie Armstrong, sometimes called "Gilnockie," a celebrated border chieftain, who, with thirty-five of his men, were treacherously captured by King James V., of Scotland, and hanged at Carlenrig. His name is still a familiar one on the border and in border poetry. Of the immediate ancestors of the Pike County Armstrongs of whom anything definite is known, we find the name of Lancelot Armstrong, who was born in Gortin, County Tyrone, Ireland. His children were Andrew, Thomas, William, Mary and Sarah. Andrew, the eldest, emigrated to America about the year 1787, and soon after settled in Milford, Pike County, Pa., where he erected some of the first buildings. William married Miss Elizabeth Graham in 1834, and the day he was married started for America. He also settled in Milford, and worked at his trade (a mason) until 1876. He had the reputation of being one of the best workmen in the county and, in fact, in that part of the State. He was a Democrat in political belief, but was never a politician. He was not a member of any church, though a believer in the doctrine of the Presbyterian Church. He died at Milford, May 21, 1886. His wife still survives him and resides in Milford. Their children were Catherine, Lancelot, Thomas, Eliza, Catherine, Sarah, May, Annie, William and Wilhelmina.
Thomas, the subject of our sketch, was born in Milford, above-named, April 11, 1844. His education was obtained at the schools of his native borough, which he attended until he was sixteen years old, when he became a "printer's devil" with the intention of becoming a printer. He changed his mind, however, and in 1861 went to work with his father, with whom he remained until he had mastered every branch of the mason's trade. March 1, 1865, he enlisted as a private in Company I, One Hundred and Forty-third New York Regiment of Infantry, and was sent to his regiment, which was stationed at Raleigh, N.C., and with his command marched with Sherman through the Carolinas and to Washington, D.C., where he participated in the grand review of the armies in May, 1865. The next month he was mustered out, when he returned to Milford and at once commenced business as a mason and builder. For a number of years he did most of the building in Milford, meeting with unvarying success. In 1876 he joined the firm of Moran & Armstrong, of New York (Armstrong being his brother, Lancelot W.) and as workman and foreman became thoroughly conversant with the business of building as carried on in the metropolis of the country. As foreman and superintendent of Mr. 0.B. Potter's fine building at Broadway and Astor Place, he won the esteem and confidence of that gentleman, who, in 1883, gave him the entire supervision of the erection of the Potter building on Park Row, corner of Beekman Street, one of the finest business blocks in the city. It is eleven stories in height and has a frontage of one hundred and forty-four feet eight inches on Beekman Street, ninety feet on Nassau Street and ninety-six feet ten inches on Park Row, and is built in the most substantial and complete manner known in modern building. Its successful completion speaks volumes for Mr. Armstrong's skill and ability as a builder, and proves that a man of talent and ability, when possessed with energy and perseverance, will come to the front whether his birth-place be among the mountains of Pennsylvania or in a great city. He is a Democrat, but not an active politician, and in the fullest sense of the term he is a temperance man, as he has yet to taste beer or liquor. Mr. Armstrong is a member of Milford Lodge, No. 344, Ancient York Masons, and was one of the charter members of Vandemark Lodge, No. 828, I.O.O.F., and is a Past Grand Master. On the 22d day of November, 1870, he was joined in marriage to Miss Olivia, daughter of Henry and Ellen (Cartright) Bean. She was born in Milford, November 27, 1850. There have been born to them children as follows: Lanty, Harry, Kittie and Harry, all deceased but the youngest, who was born December 1, 1883.
* Recorded in Letter of Attorney, Book No. 4, pages 310 et seq. in Surveyor-General's Office of Pennsylvania.
** Recollections of William McCarty, father of John McCarty, constable, July 11, 1878, in presence of Jenny A. Bross, of Morris, Grundy County, Ill.
*** See chapter upon the Bench and Bar.
(4*) For full account of Bowhanan's family, see Dingman township.
(5*) Rev. Phineas Camp was born at Durham, Conn., February 18, 1788. He graduated from Union College in 1811, and studied theology at Princeton. After completing his studies he taught a classical school in Orange County. July 15, 1817, he was ordained as an evangelist by the Presbytery of North River, and was sent into Wayne County about 1818, where he labored for a time at Bethany and Salem. He labored within the bounds of the Presbytery of Erie part of the time as an evangelist and part of the time as settled pastor; then he moved to Dixon, Ill., where he died January 30, 1868, aged eighty.
(6*) Copied from the session book.
(7*) By Lieutenant-Governor William Bross, of Illinois.
(8*) The following is inserted, as it contains a condensed history of Gov. Bross' family.
TO MY WIFE.
MRS. MARY JANE BROSS,
DAUGHTER OF THE LATE DR. JOHN T. JANSEN, OF GOSHEN, N.Y.
On Her Sixtieth Birthday.
Bright and blessed be the coming
Of thy sixtieth birthday morn,
Thankful that through joys and sorrows
By my side thou'st stood so long.(9*)
'Mid old Orange hills I found thee,(10*)
There our wedded love began;
'Mid Chicago's surging progress,
Pass we most of life's short span,
Scourgings oft have been our portion,
Toils and sorrows bitter, deep;
Seven sweet babes in mercy sent us,
Safe in Abraham's bosom sleep.(11*)
>From our happy home in fire(12*)
Drove us, life to start anew;
Worse than all the loss we've suffered,
Faithless friends have stung us, too.
But from sorrows look we, cheerful
Down the rapid stream of time,
And whate'er the Father sends us,
Bowing to His will divine;
Thankful that our darling Jessie(13*)
Lives to bless our waning years,
An angel to th' poor and erring,
To soothe their cares and dry their tears.
Joy we then to hope and labor
On, while life and strength may last,
Striving ever to make better.
Those with whom our lot is cast.
And when toils and cares are ended,
With our dear ones may we sleep
Side by side, until th' Archangel
Wakes us never more to weep.
Chicago, January 2, 1873. W.B.
(9*) Married October 7, 1839.
(10*) Orange County, N.Y.
(11*) Interred at Rosehill.
(12*) October 9, 1871.
(13*) Now Mrs. Henry D. Lloyd. Has two sons, William Bross Lloyd, in his eighth, and Henry Demarest Lloyd, Jr., in his fifth year.
(14*) John Nyce was elected and died, and Walter Newman filled the vacancy.
(15*) It was in this vicinity that Squire Brink, who, as a boy, was brought up by Judge John Brink, fell a distance or one hundred and sixty-nine and one-half feet and rolled sixty-three feet farther, almost incredibly sustaining only slight injuries. He was fourteen years of age at the time, and lived to be an old man. His portrait hangs in the Sawkill House.
(16*) From the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania.
Page(s) 854-898; History of Wayne, Pike and Monroe counties, Pennsylvania, Mathews, Alfred, Philadelphia, R. T. Peck & Co., 1886