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Tri-Counties Genealogy &
History by Joyce M. Tice
Troy Township, Bradford County
PA
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Bradford County PA
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Chemung County NY
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Tioga County PA
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1- Longs Pond at 5 pm the day after the flood. (no dates) (F. Marshall
Case Collection) |
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A Landmark That Will Soon Become A Memory
By Ralph VanKeuren
The Troy Gazette-Register, Feb. 26, 1931
Submitted to Tri-Counties 2006 by Don Stanton
A relic of the glory that was Troy in the early eighteen hundreds will
soon be but a memory. Workmen started to demolish Long’s Roller Mills
on Wednesday of last week. February 18th, 1931 and thus will pass
a structure erected in 1868 and for years a landmark at the lower end of
Long’s pond.
The mill has been, in a way, a link with the constantly dimming past
when Major Ezra Long, man of many interests, first Master of the local
Masonic Lodge, kept a tavern on a site beyond the mill and to the left
of the present state highway. For years, the ruins of the stonework,
his wide and hospitable fireplace and a row of aged Lombardy poplars, said
to have been planted in 1810, marked the spot where the tavern stood.
Within its walls, the first Masonic Lodge in Troy was held and in the present
Mount Moriah Club, still swings the tavern sign with its faded Masonic
emblem. Major Long, whose name appears many times in early real estate
dealing in Troy boro, came from Vermont in 1810 and, among Trojans of this
period, is outstanding in his constructure vision of the future of this
section.
West of the Burlington road, about half-way between Major Long’s and
Esquire Allen’s, stood the old shad school school house, probably the earliest
institution of learning in Troy or Troy township. It took its name
from a weather-vane, in the form of a fish, which surmounted the building.
Near the structure now being demoslished, stands a building, once a school
house, constructed of planks, laid up, criss-cross like the logs in the
early structures. It is possible that this building is that of piscatorial
fame.
This way and across the road from present “Elms,” Samuel Conant erected
in 1808 a carding and cloth dressing works. The main building, which,
with the older one in its rear, was destroyed by fire in November, 1875,
was built by Luther Rockwell for Clement Paine in 1840. The mill
was known for years as the Loveland Mill.
Linked with this phase of Troy’s development, really the pioneer period,
are such names as Elder Rich, a Baptist preacher, first adult to be interred
in Glenwood cemetery in 1812 – Samuel Rockwell, John Porter, Uel Porter,
Reuben Wilber, Nathaniel allen, Elihu Smead, Reuben Case, Elihu Case, Elihu
Newberry, Zoroaster Porter, Benjamin –viatt, Isaac N. Pomeroy, Vine Baldwin,
_____ Williams, Timothy N_____
(Lost section)
erected by Thomas Barber at a point near the bend in the road along
the side of what was Long;s Pond. Until a few years ago, the spars
of the old dam could be seen projecting out of the mud when the water was
low and many are very probably still buried in the silt there. In
1814, Sugar Creek was declared a public highway as far up as “Rich’s Mills”
so it may be that one of the early Rich family took a hand in the milling
business there.
It is interesting to note that this statute was the means of saving
the county several thousand dollars. The expense of building the
present steel bridge across Sugar Creek was placed on the state because
the Creek was a “public highway.”
It appears that Major Ezra Long bought the flour milling business from
Ward, and erected the present mill, which was rebuilt by his son, Horace
F. Long in 1868. The f irst dam was but six feet in height and it
would be interesting to see the machinery used in milling four in those
days. Long’s Pond was a beautiful little sheet of water ;and there
was enough of it to keep the mill wheels a’ turnin. From Horace F.
Long, the mill passed to the ownership of A. C. Hopkins of Lock Haven,
who employed “Cap” McCleary to operate it for him. Hopkins sold out
to Leon Drake, of Elmira, and it was while enroute to his home for a party
of young people that one of our present business men had a very exasperating
experience with a skunk. Mr. Drake sold to H. W. Swope, father of
Theron Strope, who now conducts a filling station near the site.
From a mechanical standpoint, the mill is unique and certain parts
should be preserved for posterity as examples of milling machinery of the
1850 period. Emery Andrews tells us that that part of the milling
machinery comprising the millstone and driving gears, immediately beneath
the mill stones on the first floor, is still intact and in working order.
It is comprised of a vertical shaft of iron, 6 ½ inches in
diameter, carrying a large gear wheel, eight feet in diameter, 8 inch face,
with about 300 wooden cogs – a real cog gear. This drives three mill
stones having sliding cast iron gears on spindles, which mesh into the
large wooden cog gears. The vertical shaft is driven by bevel gears
at its foot. One of these gears is on a horizontal shaft having a
belt pulley, eight-foot diameter, 20 inch face, on its outer end.
The vertical shaft is supported by
(Lost section)
believed to have been built (by) Long in 1855 before the present __
was erected. It seems almost criminal to allow this part of the mill
to be wrecked as it is a separate unit and could easily be enclosed and
preserved.
Some 40 years ago, the old covered bridge was still in use. On
May 17th 1891 the Charles Lee Circus showed in Troy in a downpour of rain.
During the night, the heavy circus wagons started down the road toward
Burlington, the first driven by Walter Rockwell, boss hostler, contained
the heavy water-soaked tent. To the wagon were hitched two teams
of horse. When right in the middle of the bridge, the center pier,
weakened by the flood water, gave way and Mr. Rockwell, the wagon and the
wagon team were dropped into the swirling current and carried over the
dam. By almost a miracle horses and man came out alive. Mr.
Rockwell, under water, unbuttoned his slicker, slid out of it and swam
to safety. Painted by a Mainesburg fantic on the stonework of the
dam, were the words: “Prepare to Meet thy God” and it is said that Mr.
Rockwell glimpsed them just as he went over. Mrs. Rockwell, in recalling
the incident, doubts this part of the story as she says that he was under
the wagon and that when he and his wagon arrived in the pool below, his
first thought was that if had not been killed by that time, he wasn’t going
to be killed.
In the rocks and back of the mill, there is a cave, a relic of the
days when iron ore was mined extensively in this vicinity. Some hardy
pioneer searched without avail in that rocky wall. There is the old
spring, to which Volney Long was wont to bring his Troy Hotel guests for
the morning sip.
In retrospect, we can picture the hardy pioneers of the early eighteen
hundreds coming by horseback, ox-cart and wagon to the mills and stills
(history tells us that there were several in the Long’s Pond section) to
barter grain for flour, liquor and other commodities…….the first school
house erected by contributions fo days of work, bushels of wheat and feet
of lumber, on man subscribing one days work, two bushels of wheat
and ten pounds of iron, towards andirons, another giving twenty pounds
of four-penny and eight-penny nails and twenty pounds of iron….the Baptist
parsonage in what is now Glenwood Cemetery---the whirr of the looms in
the woolen mill, long since departed…
2. Longs Roller Mill in background of Longs Pond Bridge
Ed Ballard Collection |
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Bradford County PA
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Chemung County NY
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Tioga County PA
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Published On Tri-Counties Site On 15 JUN 2006
By Joyce M. Tice
Email: Joyce M.
Tice
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