Page:Historical and Biographical Annals of Columbia and Montour Counties, Pennsylvania, Containing a Concise History of the Two Counties and a Genealogical and Biographical Record of Representative Families.pdf/228

 COLUMBIA A N D M ONTOUR COUNTIES dianV prom ises to the Penns, remained. T his confidence w as never betrayed. In 178 7 W illiam H ughes laid out the town o f "H uglicsburg, in the County o f Northum ber­ land, State o f Pennsylvania, N orth A m erica, on the banks of the northeast tract of the river Susquehannam near the mouth o f Cataw essey creek, about tw enty m iles above Su n b u ry and about one hundred and six m iles above P h ila­ delphia.” W illiam G ray and Jo h n Sene were the su rveyors. A ccord in g to the custom of the day the lots w ere d is p o s ^ o f by lottery. W il­ liam H en ry w as the original owner of the tract in 1769, the patentees w ere later E d w ard and Joseph Sh ipp cn, and from them the title w as transferrer! to W illiam H ughes, in 178 9 Jo h n Mears. a physician and ju stice of the peace, secured title to .sixty-five lots. In 1 7 ^ the Roberts addition w as laid out by Jam es Watson. .Although the original town plot w as large It was but thinly settled. T h e first industry established w as the tanneiy o f Isaiah W illits, in 1780, at the corner o f T h ird and South Streets. T h e fcrr)' w as then run by Knappenberger & W illits. T he first merchant w as Isaiah H u g h es, who opened a store at an earlv date on the riv e r bank near the foot o f South street. Jo se p h H cistcr followed with a store on W ater street, near M ain. H e sold out to jcdin Q a r k . w ho kept it fo r some years. The h isto ry of the township is so wrapped up in (liat of the town (hat it is necessary to incUidc both in this sketch. T h e few farm ers remained n ear the town, fo r better protection from the Indians, the most prominent ones in those d a y s being the W atsons. Jack.sons, I-ounts, L lo y d s and H ayhursts. T h e first ju s­ tices of the peace w ere G eorge H ughes and William M ears. T h e first mill in the county was built on C ataw issa creek in 1774 by a mem­ ber of the Society o f Friend s whose name cannot be a.sccrtaincd. It w as so crude in con­ struction a s to be frequently out o f repair, in which event the farm ers had to go to Sunbury to get their g rist ground. In I7«X) Christian Brobst rebuilt this mill. It w as later operated Hollingshead & Scott, and last by T . M . n eld s, who received it from his father. It was burned in 10 12, and is now but a ruin. The fall o f w ater w as slight, so the wheel w as one of the widest and smallest in diam eter o f any in the county. In 179 7 a mill w as erected on the north .side of the creek (but a fe w steps above the present paper m ill), hy Jonathan Shoemaker, and at once received the cream of the patronage o f (hat section of the town. In 1700 Christian Brobst huilt a mill about a

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quarter o f a m ile above the form er mill, on the sam e side of the creek. T he Shoem aker mill w as purchased by Jo h n C lark and B en ­ jam in Sharpless in 1809 and the machinery removed to the stone mill (M c K e lv c y m i l, now the oldest standing in this section) across the creek, which they had ju st built. In i 8 i ( M r. Sharpless established a paper mill in the old Shoem aker mill, which w as later enlarged, and then torn down when the own­ ers rebuilt on the present site— a group o f four large brick buildings on the north side o f (he creek. A t the time of the rebuilding of the Brobst mill there w as a regular line o f boats on the Susquehanna and the proprietor became the ch ief man of the town o f C ata­ w issa, oi>crating the mill, a store and other enterprises. O ther merchants of the d ays of the town’s early grow th were Thom as E liis, Stephen and Christopher Baldy, Daniel Cleaver, Ja c o b D yer and Sam uel Brobst. T h ere w as little money then in circulation, trading being conducted by the interchange o f products and goods. T he shad fisheries ranked am ong the principal sources o f income, fish being exchanged for salt, at the rale o f six cents each. From an old magazine in the (lossession of the Columbia County H istorical Society the fact is gleaned that in A ugust. i8 o i, there were hut forty-five houses in "C ^ taw issy,” one o f which w as stone and the rest m ostly log. A t that time an old Indian burying ground near the river had washed out and some of the skele­ tons w ere cxposcil to view . T h e w riter had made the trip from R eading in that month, .^topping on the w ay at “ Lavcnherg’s,” on the roatl near Little mountain. O ne of the first buildings in the town w as a market house, built soon a fte r the village w as laid out in lots. T h ere appears to have been hut little need fo r this public building a n d ’ it soon became a home fo r the stray cow s and hogs of the place. A n old resident said that it w as a noieil resort fo r the elusive flea and w as declared a public nuisance. It w as decided in 18 20 to demolish it. and a short time there­ a fte r a loud explosion in the night sounded the knell of the building. Slight effort w as made to discover the perpetrators of the deed, and the building w as not replaced. In 18 3 1 a t>r0position w as made to build a town hall and m.'irkct house on the site, but the proposal brought on an acrim onious discussion which defeated the nroject and caused the dissolution of the only fire company in the town. Fro m an old history, published at P h ila­ delphia in 1847. the inform ation is had that in