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The Reverend Mr. David Craft Overton Township |
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HISTORY OF THE TOWNSHIPS
OVERTON TOWNSHIP
The geographical situation of the township of Overton, so called in honor of
Hon. Edward Overton, of Towanda, is between Barclay township on the north
and northwest, from which it is separated by the Schraeder branch of the Towanda
creek ; Monroe and Albany on the east - Leroy on the west; and the township of
Elkland Forks, in Sullivan county, on the south.
The township is watered by the Shraeder branch, and several smaller streams
which flow southward out of the county.
In the northern portion the surface of the township is mountainous.
The people, who are mostly of German and Irish descent, are noted for their
industry and honesty and their firms, once covered with stumps and stones, are
now so free therefrom that all kinds of farm machinery can be used on the older
ones. The people are mostly engaged in agriculture, raising stock, and
butter making, except in the northeastern portion of the township, where
lumbering is carried on extensively. John Means and M. C. Mercur each have
large saw-mills, and do an extensive business. The bark business for
tanning purposes is also extensively maintained.
In point of territory, Overton is one of the largest towns of Bradford
County but it is among the least in population. In 1860 it had 407
inhabitants, and in 1870, 550. In 1876, 98 votes were polled in the
township.
It is at the present date one of the most thriving towns in the county.
It was formed in 1853 from Monroe, Albany, and Franklin.
SETTLEMENT
The first settler in what is now included in the township of Overton was
Daniel Heverly, a native of Lehigh (then ,Northampton) Co., Pa. He came to
Bradford County from his native county in 1806, and died in Overton. He
was born in 1764, and his wife, Cathirine Ott, was born in the same year.
They were Pennsylvania-Germans.
One Minch, a neighbor of Heverly's, had removed to Bradford County some
years previous, and was then living on the hills above Towanda, and he persuaded
Heverly to come to Bradford. He represented to Heverly that an unoccupied
valley more than ten miles wide, which none of the settlers had as yet seen the
end of, was very fertile, and could be had for the occupancy and improvement of
it. Heverly sold his farm in his native county for £900 (Pennsylvania
currency), and taking that and his household furniture, farming implements, two
cows, some young stock, and two horses and a wagon, be started in 1806 for
Towanda, coming by the way of Williamsport, on the old Genesee or State road,
which passes through the central part of the present township of Overton, and
was then the main route from Williamsport to Towanda. His team got fast in
the mud several miles above what is now known as Greenwood (Monroe), where a Mr.
Schraeder then lived. Schraeder helped Heverly out of the mud, and leaving
his family at Schraeder's, Heverly went to Towanda to find Minch, and see the
fertile valley he had come to find. He found his old neighbor living in a
little log hut perched up on the hills among the rocks, and the valley, so
graphically described as an Eden almost, lay before him covered with a dense
growth of timber, and in many places very swampy.
Sadly disappointed, Heverly concluded that was no place for him, and he
returned to Schraeder's and contracted with him to work his farm, and so
continued to do for several years.
About this time the Berwick and Elmira turnpike was located, and passed
through this section of country; and, thinking that the country along this road
would soon be settled, Heverly took up a tract of six hundred and forty acres,
in 1810. He had been told the same was vacant land, and it was only
necessary for him to survey and occupy it to hold it. He came in, and soon
cleared up enough land for raising grain for his own use. He cleared
altogether some sixty-five or seventy acres. This farm was given by him to
his son Daniel, who afterwards gave it to his son Eli, whose widow now occupies
the premises.
Heverly occupied these lands unmolested until 1827, when they were sold for
taxes, and bought by Dr. Weston, of Towanda; and Weston's tax-title was
subsequently bought by Daniel Heverly (the second), thus securing an undisputed
title to the whole.
Heverly contracted to build several sections of the turnpike which was laid
out through his locality. He had five sons and three daughters four of the sons
located on adjacent lands. The oldest was John, born in Lehigh county,
Marcb 14, 1788, married Alma Kellogg, April 4, 1806 the second one was Christian
; the third, Daniel; and the youngest, Henry.
One Kissell came with Mr. Heverly from Schraeder's, in 1810, who was a
stone cutter by trade. He "squatted" on a piece of land now occupied by
the widow McCann. He cleared up about five acres, and then enlisted in the
War of 1812, and served during the entire period of the same, when he returned
and married a lady named Clarke. They had one child, and he died soon
after, which was the first death which occurred in the township. He was
buried on a little ridge, a short distance from his house, where he used to walk
during his sickness. This place was, used for many years subsequently for
burial purposes, but it is sadly neglected now. The fence is down, and
cattle tread over the mounds and tear up the sod unrestrainedly.
The next family that came to the township was Leonard Streevy, who married
one of Mr. Heverly's daughters. He also located land adjoining his
father-in-law's tract, and which is now occupied and owned by his son Isaac.
Mr. Streevy came in about 1820. He had a large family, but only three of
his sons came to live with him. Streevy went back to Lehigh county in
1828, where he died the year following. His son Isaac bought his
improvement of about fourteen acres.
Henry Sherman, a native of Mifflin, Pa., born in 1801, of
Pennsylvania-German parentage, came into the township from Columbia County, in
1824. He started from that county on foot, by the way of Kizer's and
Ellis's with his wife and one child, and a sister. He carried the gun, and
his wife the baby, and vice versa. In 1825 he took up the land be now
occupies, which was then a dense forest of huge pines, hemlocks, and other
timber. He built him a log house, like those of the pioneers generally,
with a puncheon floor and bark roof, furnished with domestic articles of his own
manufacture. He brought with him a cow and eight sheep, and the first
night after moving into his new home saved the latter from destruction by wolves
by a timely watch and protection. He took possession of two hundred acres,
which he began clearing, but being alone, could not make very rapid progress,
but managed to clear up about five acres per year. Mr. Sherman was married
in 1823 to a Miss Hunsinger, who died in 1834, leaving a family of seven
children. He married again the following year, and is now the father of
twenty-three children, seventeen of whom are living at the present time.
Jacob Hottenstein arrived in the town in 1829. He was born in 1799,
in Berks Co., Pa., and was led to come to the town by the Heverlys. He had
a family of five children, the oldest being nine years old when he came to
Overton. Four others were born here. Two of his sons died in
southern prisons during the Rebellion. Mr. Hottonstein's
great-grandparents came from Germany in 1720, his great-grandfather being sold
for his passage, and served seven years to discharge the debt. After he
served his term out, he sawed wood for money enough to buy seven pounds of
tobacco, which latter article he traded to the Indians for four hundred acres of
land. This tract is yet occupied by the Hottensteins, and is situated in
Maxadamy township, Berks Co., Pa.
Mrs. Hottenstein was born in Lehigh Co., March 27, 1797. When they
came to Overton they had but $5 in cash, but the husband took up one hundred
acres of land, and by dint of hard work and much privation they are now quite
comfortably situated.
John Heverly was the oldest son of Daniel Heverly, the first settler (1810)
in Overton. His wife, Alma Kellogg, came with her parents from Columbia
Co., N. Y., who located in Albany in 1813. She says they were ten days on
the road, finding no roads in some places, and not a single bridge over the
creeks from Towanda. She lived with her parents till 1816, when she was
married to John Heverly, and went to the wilds of Overton to share the hardships
of pioneer life with the man of her choice. She was born in Connecticut,
Aug. 21, 1799. When they were married, Mr. Heverly had about four acres
cleared, and be built his house the next year, moving into it before it had
either doors or glazed windows, and handling up sheets to keep out the rain and
snow.
Their first child, Amasa, born April 11, 1817, was the first white child
born in the township. Mr. Heverly had to go as far as Mr. Woodruff's,
below Monroe, to get sufficient help to raise his house. His dogs treed
four panthers one day in the woods, an old female and her three whelps. He
succeeded in killing them all, though he had to dispatch the fourth one with a
club, his ammunition giving out. He was drafted in the War of 1812, but
was never called out.
Christian Heverly married, in 1819, Hannah Warren, and began life for
himself on a tract of land now occupied by John Mathews. His wife died in
a short time after her marriage, and he married soon after Martha Killmore, and
reared a family Of nine children, five of whom still survive.
Daniel Heverly married Hattie Talady, in 1818, and located on a tract of
land adjoining his father's. His domestic relations did not prove
harmonious, and he and his wife separated, and in 1821 he married Magdalene
Wilt. They had a large family, four of whom are now living, and the two
sons occupy the homestead. Mrs. Heverly died in 1871, and her husband in
1873.
Henry Heverly married in 1821, but his farm, about a mile from his
father's, was in Sullivan county, as was a portion of Christian's, which
adjoined Henry's. The settlement of Mr. Heverly and his sons was a noted
one, and was called for many years Heverly's settlement.
PIONEER ENTERPRISES.
The first attempt made for a grist-mill was that of Danl. Heverly,
Sr., on the premises now owned by Henry Sherman, but the depression of money
matters, caused by the war of 1812, caused him to abandon his work before its
completion.
The first saw-mill was built in 1820, on Black creek, by Daniel Heverly,
Jr. It was afterwards destroyed by fire, and never rebuilt. The site of
this mill is now owned by the widow McCann.
The first framed barn was built in the town, in 1832, by Christian Heverly,
who three years subsequently built also the first framed house. The barn
is not used at present, but the house is occupied.
The first newspaper taken in the town was one which Jacob Hottenstein went
nine miles to the post-office for, in 1829. The name of it was Der
Unabhangig Republikaner (The Independent Republican), published in Lehigh
County, at Allentown. This was the only paper received in the township in
that year now over 200 weeklies and a large number of periodicals are received
at Overton postoffice.
The first post-office was established in 1851, and called Heverlyville, but
in 1856 it was changed to Overton. The first postmaster was Edward
McGovern, and the office was kept at James Heverly's.
The first store was opened in 1856, by Wm. Waltman, which was burned
in 1858.
SCIIOOLS
The first schoolhouse was built in the town in 1827. It was a small
log hut, 15 by 16 feet, covered with clapboards. The seats were made of
slabs with outside uppermost. This house stood until about the time of the
introduction of the free-school system, when a new framed house was built, and
is yet standing on the opposite side of the road from the original site.
It has not been used for several years past.
The first teacher in the old log schoolhouse was Anna Kellogg, of Monroe.
She received fifty cents per week for teaching reading, writing, spelling, and
"some cyphering."
The first free school was taught by Mrs. Charles Diffenbach, in her own
house.
At the present time there are five organized districts in the township, and
one unorganized. Five schools were taught in the town during the year
ending June 1, 1877, averaging five months each. Two male and four female
teachers were employed, at an average salary of $20 per month, for both sexes;
83 male and 74 female pupils attended the schools, the average attendance being
97; $897 were raised by tax on the property in the town, and $87.15 were
received from the State, the total income for the year being $1600.44; $587 were
paid for teachers' wages, the total expenditures being $742.99.
CHURCHES
The first church edifice built in the town was the Roman Catholic, by Edward
McGovern, in 1844. Previously, the schoolhouse had been used for religious
worship.
There are at the present time in the township four churches, one Methodist;
one Reformed church of the United States and Lutheran, near the village; one
Catholic, about three miles west: and the one above mentioned, built by Edward
McGovern, on his farm, about one mile north. The Reformed and Lutheran
church was built in 1855, but not wholly completed until 1862-63. The
first Lutheran preacher was Carl Erie, who began preaching in the schoolhouse in
1843. He lived in Colley, Sullivan county, about sixteen miles distant,
and made the journey, back and forth, on foot for many years. The Methodist
Episcopal Church was built in 1873.
OVERTON
A town-plat was laid out on the present site of Overton, in 1856, by Henry Sherman, and the first lot was sold to Joseph Mosbacker, a blacksmith. It is situated in the southeastern corner of the township, and contains three general stores, three blacksmith-shops, one cooper- and two shoe-shops, one grocery and confectionery store, one church, and a schoolhouse.