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/308

 C H A P T E R X X X V II S U G A R L O A F T O W N S H IP T his township was formed in i8 i2 from (he township o f Fishingcreek. The court gave it the name of 'T iarriso n /' the change to Su garlo af being made some time later. The date o f this change is not known, but the rea­ son is A]>|)areiU from the former importance of (he maple sugar industry here. T he settlement o f this section o f Columbia county w as made by a fam ily party, represented by Jo h n J . GodKard, an Englishman from Delaware. H e had one son-in-law, William Hess, and four granddaughters, the wives o f Philip Fritz, Christian Laubach, Ezekiel Cole ami John K ile. Most of these were fanners and resided on the Delaware near M r. Godhard. lie and his son-in-law and grandsons, together with William Coleman, Matthias Rhone and Benjamin Coleman, all neighbors, came to this section, explored the land thor­ oughly and decided to buy it. The price they paiil made the average $2 an acre. In the following year— 1 792— the actual immigration occurri^. T he large party came by w ay of (he Susquehanna and Lehigh road to Berwick, thcncc along the river to Blooms­ burg. and up Fishing creek to their destina­ tion. T he tract purchased by William Hess extended from Cole's mills to North moun­ tain. He built his cabin, which has since been destroyed, near a spring on (he Laubach farm. T he spring is still flowing. H is sons. George. John. Andrew, Tobias, Conrad, Frederick, Henry ,nnd Jacob, took up their residences along the creek, where many of their descend­ ants still reside! John K ile, fuckiel Cole and W illiam H ess settled near each other, while Christian lau bach went flrst (0 Montour county, in 1797 returning to remain in the sec­ tion now covered hy Sugarloaf. Philip Fritz follow'cd his relatives here in $795 * settling on the site now called “ Fritz H ill.” near Central, on land owned at present by Thom as Fritz, one o f his descendants. Jonathan Robbins arrived in the same year and located in the southern part of the township. H e had brought with him some apple seeds.

which he planted, the result being that his chil­ dren in later years gathered til teen hundred bushels o f apples from one thousand trees. Portions of the orchard are still to be seen in 1914. Others who became residents o f this part of the county in those years were Godfrey Diits, William Bird, David Harrington, Jacob Harrington, Jam es Sew ard, Jcssc Hartman, Jam es A. Pennington, Ezekiel and William Shultz. The population o f Sugarloaf in 1800 consisted almost entirely of the Hess, K ile, Laubach, Robbins and Cole families, and these are still (be larger part of the population in 19 14 . INDUSTiUeS The first mill in the township w as built by Ezekiel Cole in 1802, on the little creek o f his name, near its junction with Fisliing creek. The generations o f Coles who have ow*ned and operated (his mill are Ezekiel, Ezekiel, Jr ., Alinas and Albert, the latter being the owner in 1914. A t the ixginning this mill had four runs of stone, but now has only two. The wooden crown and lantern gears are still in use, and one of the old buhrstones, made in Danville at the time the mill w as erected, is still in use. T he old method o f milling is in use, the product being buckwheat flour, comnical and chops, from forty to fifty bushcb per day being the capacity. A 13 -foot overshot wheel o f wood furnishes the power, and the mill has never run out o f water since Its con­ struction. Many small sawmills were Iniilt in the pioneer times o f this township, in order to utilize the great supply o f timber. Among them were the following mills, w*hich attained more than local fam e: Jacob W. Harrington built a sawmill on Cole's creek, in the eastern part of the township, in 18 4 1, which he sold to J. B. D avis in 1866. William Y o rk s built an­ other mill about that time on a branch o f Fish­ ing creek. In the extreme southern part of the

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