Garret Brodhead’s Wheat Plains Farm in Pike Co., PA, needs your support

Circa 1900: “Wheat Plains,” the old Brodhead Homestead, Pike Co., Pennsylvania

2016: The sad state of the Wheat Plains house – victim of the Tocks Island Dam project

Hello, Brodhead descendants & anyone with an interest in Pennsylvania history! You may not be aware of an important project that could greatly use your support: the restoration of Wheat Plains Farm in Pike County, Pennsylvania, the old Garret Brodhead (1730-1804) family homestead that Brodhead family members were forced to abandon in the 1970s due to the Tocks Island Dam project. Below is a letter just received from James and Barbara Brodhead who are spearheading the DePuy-Brodhead Family Association’s efforts to restore the home (now managed by the National Park Service). So please take a few moments to read the below letter and see if you can lend your support. PS: Next summer’s DePuy-Brodhead Family Association annual reunion is likely to be held there; it would be extremely positive if as many Brodhead descendants as possible made the effort to be there to show the NPS that the home’s fate is of concern to many, not just a few. I hope to be there—a great opportunity to support a great cause and meet cousins of all kinds.

 

Dear Family,

As many of you know, some members of the DePuy/Brodhead Family Association have been working with the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area to preserve the Wheat Plains house. Wheat Plains is the farm started by Garret Brodhead on the land he received as partial payment for his service in the Revolutionary War. From 1790 the farm was owned by the Brodhead family until it was sold to Cornelius Swartout in 1871. Robert Packer Brodhead purchased back the farm in 1896 and his descendants remained there until the 1970’s when the land was acquired by eminent domain as part of the Tocks Island Dam Project. The Army Corp of Engineers headed the project. Later the Army Corp of Engineers determined that the river bed would not support the dam. The land then was transferred to the National Parks Service (NPS) who now manages the property. There are currently about 700 buildings remaining in the park on both sides of the Delaware River. Some have historical significance and most have sentimental value. Many buildings are in poor condition. Wheat Plains is structurally sound and it sits in a prominent place on highway 209.

The Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area (DWGNRA) is developing a long range plan to identify which buildings should be restored, maintained, or removed. The NPS has limited funds to do this work. Included in their consideration is the cost of maintenance and what the long term usage of the structure will be. Without a defined usage the preservation efforts will be limited.

Now to get to the purpose of this letter. We have been encouraged to send letters to the Superintendent of the DWGNRA and express our interest and support of preserving Wheat Plains or other structures. Please write a politely worded letter expressing your personal interest in preserving Wheat Plains farmhouse and property. Please include personal memories and historical facts that you have. If you have ideas for the usage for the house, (i.e. museum, vacation rental, etc.) please include that also. These letters need to be sent by the end of the year in order to be included in the evaluation process. The sooner the letters arrive the better. The Association created a good impression when we helped clean the house in 2015. It showed the NPS how much we care and your letter will add to that.

When writing your letter please remember that the NPS had nothing to do with taking the land; they were given the task of maintaining it. Please keep your letter kind and considerate.

Please address your letter to:
John J. Donahue, Superintendent
Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area &
Middle Delaware National Scenic and Recreational River
1978 River Road
Bushkill, PA 18324

Please also send copies of your letter to the following at the address above or email a copy to the addresses
given below:
Judson Kratzer – Judson_Kratzer@NPS.gov
Jennifer Kavanaugh – Jennifer_Kavanaugh@NPS.gov

We are in the initial stages of organizing a “Friends of Wheat Plains” non-profit org. to collect donations to help support the preservation of Wheat Plains. More information coming.

We sincerely thank you,
James and Barbara Brodhead
425-418-4742

March 1888: Luke Brodhead’s collection of Indian relics stolen

In my travels, I came across the below article about the theft of Luke Wills Brodhead’s collection of Indian artifacts, and it reminded me that I should consolidate some information I’ve gathered about him into a blog post. He was a very interesting man and must have been a powerful presence in his community in and around Delaware Water Gap. Autumn is here and soon the colors will be changing in that neck of the woods—a gorgeous spot on the Delaware River that he and his family held dear. Long gone are the massive summer hotels looking down from high above at the flowing waters and rolling hills. City folk have far more places to vacation now. But, this was once a hugely popular area for tourism, and Luke was in the thick of if. Seeing images from that time and his portrait (he and his brothers were extremely tall), I can almost envision him energetically walking about his hotel’s grounds, chatting with guests, and directing his staff on various matters. And then to think of all his historical interests and writings…he was truly a class act!

Philadelphia Enquirer, Wednesday, 12 September 1888*

Luke Wills Brodhead portrait from History of Wayne, Pike and Monroe Counties, Pennsylvania, by Alfred Mathews, published by RT Peck & Co., 1886

BRODHEAD’S COLLECTION. Stolen Indian Relics Traced to a European Museum.
TRENTON, Sept. 11.—The most remarkable and curious robbery on record has just been made known. It occurred at the Delaware Water Gap last March, when the celebrated collection of Indian relics and specimens of the stone age, which L. W. Brodhead spent a lifetime in gathering, were carried away. The most peculiar feature about this robbery was the fact that only the most valuable specimens were taken, and that the work was done by a student and expert.

Mr. Brodhead is well known all over the country for his excellent collection, and one that would command an immense sum of money even under a forced sale. Mr. Brodhead keeps a hotel. Adjoining his own private parlor he has a library, the chief decorations of which are his arrow heads, axes, spears, rollers, javelins, pipes and bits of ancient pottery. With much care they have been arranged in groups. The arrow heads are tacked on white boards in groups, according to chronology or topography. He takes much pride in showing them to friends. Last winter the side shutter was forced open and the cases rifled and about one-third of the collection was taken away. The most valuable and rarest pieces were taken.

After the blizzard snow had melted away in a ravine near the house, the boards on which they were fastened were found. A detective was employed on the case, and he enjoined secrecy on all members of the household. The relics have been traced to England and are now thought to be in the possession of the officers of a museum. It is also thought that the man, who sold them for a handsome sum, will soon be apprehended. He is said to be a man well known in scientific circles, who acts as a purchasing agent for several European museums.

Luke Wills Brodhead bio from Transactions of the Moravian Historical Society by Moravian Historical Society, published 1900, pp. 38-39

Luke Wills Brodhead was born Sept. 12, 1821, in Smithfield Township, Monroe County, Penna. His parents were Luke and Elizabeth Wills Brodhead; his grandfather was Luke, one of the sons of Daniel Brodhead and his wife Esther Wyngart, who lived in Dansbury, now East Stroudsburg, whither they had come from Marbletown, N. Y. […]

New York Express 1867

Luke Wills Brodhead, at an early age, engaged in mercantile business at White Haven for twelve years ; returning to the Delaware Water Gap, he was appointed Postmaster there and, at the end of his term of office, he shared with his brother the management of the Kittatinny House.

In 1872 he built the Water Gap House, which he conducted until the time of his death.

Kittatinny Hotel, Delaware Water Gap, published by Detroit Publishing Company, 1898 (NYPL collections) – Wikimedia Commons – Public domain in US

He was a man of more than ordinary ability and, by his genial personality, he made his house famous throughout the land.

He devoted much time and energy to the study of the records, historical and geological, of the Minnisink Valley, was a frequent contributor to the public press and in 1862 wrote a volume concerning the Delaware Water Gap.

Water Gap House, Detroit Publishing Company, 1905 (Illinois State Library Collections – non-commercial use permitted)

He was a member of the Moravian Historical Society, the Historical Societies of Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Georgia and Kansas, the Minnisink Historical Society and the Numismatic and the Geographical Societies of Philadelphia. He was also a member of the Pennsylvania Society of Sons of the Revolution.

Mr. Brodhead was twice married – in October, 1850, to Leonora Snyder, who departed in 1877, and in 1881 to Margaret D. Coolbaugh. His son, Dr. Cicero Brodhead, died in 1884, and two daughters, Mrs. John Ivison, of Coatesville, and Mrs. H. A. Croasdale, of Delaware Water Gap, together with his widow survive him.

He was an active and interested member of the Presbyterian Church and by his modest, generous, unselfish and courteous manner he made hosts of friends.

View on roof of Water Gap House by Albert Graves – stereocard -no known copyright restrictions – Boston Public Library collections

For some years he had been suffering from chronic bronchitis, although his final illness was very brief. He died on May 7, 1902, and his remains were laid to rest in the Water Gap Cemetery.

[Find a Grave link to grave site]

Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, Vol. XXVII, Philadelphia: Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 1903, p. 447-228

[…] Luke W. Brodhead was a man of more than ordinary ability, and for many years was deeply interested in the history and genealogy of the Upper Delaware and Minisink Valley. His published contributions comprise the following:

The Kittatiny House and the Water Gap House – Detroit Publishing Co., ca 1900 – Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division

“The Delaware Water Gap: Its Scenery, its Legends, and its Early History;” “The Minisinks and its Early People, the Indians;” “An Ancient Petition;” ” Tatamy;” “Settlement of Smithfield;” “Portals of the Minisink: Tradition and History of the ‘Walking Purchase’ Region and the Gateway of the Delaware;” “Early Frontier Life in Pennsylvania: Efficient Military Service of Four Brothers;” “George Lebar;” “Historical Notes of the Minisinks: Capture of John Hilborn by the Indians on Brodhead’s Creek;” “Pioneer Roads, the Old Mine Road, Early People, etc.;” ” The Old Stone Seminary of Stroudsburg in 1815;” “Indian Trails;” “Soldiers in the War of 1812 from the Townships of Smithfield and Stroud;” “Almost a Cetenarian: The Last of the Soldiers of the War of 1812 in Northern Pennsylvania;” “History of the Old Bell on the School­-House at Delaware Water Gap;” “Indian Graves at Pahaquarra;” “Half-Century of Journalism;” “The Depuy Family;” “Early Settlement of the Delaware: Was the Upper Delaware occupied before Philadelphia? Early Occupation of the Upper Delaware;” “Sketches of the Stroud, Van Campen, McDowell, Hyndshaw, Drake, and Brodhead Families.” He was also associate editor of the “History of Wayne, Pike and Monroe Counties.”

In addition to his connection with the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Mr. Brodhead was a member of the Numismatic and Antiquary Society, the Geographical Society, and the Pennsylvania Society Sons of the Revolution, of Philadelphia; the Minisink Valley Historical Society, the Moravian Historical Society, the Georgia Historical Society, the Kansas Historical Society, and several college literary societies.

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Links
Antoine Dutot Museum and Gallery
Spanning the Gap – PDF newsletter – US Dept of the Interior National Park Service
NJ Skylands “Million dollar highway” by Robert Kopenhaven
Pocono history website

*Article from http://www.fultonhistory.com

Antique “Dingman’s, Pa.” souvenir

Those out there with Dingman roots may want to weigh in on whose image this is on an old souvenir trinket box. Could it be Judge Daniel Westbrook Dingman (1774-1862), or someone farther back in the family tree? His father Andrew Dingman Jr. (1753-1839)? Or grandfather Andrew Dingman Sr. (1711-1796)?

More on Lewis D. Brodhead (1884-1933)

Among the newspaper clippings saved by my grandmother was this brief article, likely from the Elizabeth Daily Journal, that reports the death of her brother-in-law Lewis Dingman Brodhead on December 8, 1933. It provides a bit more information than the one from the New York Times I’d mentioned previously in this post. And the new details tell us that my Great Uncle Lewis died fairly immediately of a heart attack at the corner of 4th and Trumball Streets, Elizabeth, NJ, in the plant belonging to the American Swiss File and Tool Company. He was pronounced dead by the arriving ambulance workers from Alexian Brothers Hospital. His body was taken to the morgue at 628 Newark Avenue, a building that now looks abandoned and in need of repair.

This property at 400-416 Trumball Street looks like it could definitely have been there in the 1930s, so perhaps this building was once the plant in which Uncle Lewis worked.

It’s sad to think of him leaving his house at 520 Jefferson Avenue that morning, never to return again. He was just 50. The house he lived in, built in 1902, is a multi-family home today and it may have been multi-family back then as well. He lived with his widowed mother Margaret Martin Brodhead, and I can only imagine the shock she and everyone felt at this sudden, unexpected loss.

Interesting, but not surprising, the article makes no mention of Lewis’s wife Mildred Hancock whose last known whereabouts were Pottsville, Pennsylvania, where she and Lewis resided in the 1920s. I assume they divorced, and then all mentions of Mildred were swept under the carpet. Some day I hope to find out what happened to her.

‘Brodhead Memorial Gateway,’ Evergreen Cemetery – Jim Thorpe, PA

Andrew Jackson Brodhead Family, composite framed in Flemington, NJ, 1904

This pretty entrance with its ornate, wrought-iron arch overhead greets visitors to Evergreen Cemetery in Jim Thorpe (formerly known as Mauch Chunk), Carbon Co., Pennsylvania. And what special gates they are. I am missing page 1 of the accompanying article, but if you read down you will come to discover that these distinctive pillars and gates were given to the cemetery in 1913 by the nine surviving Brodhead children to honor the memory of their parents, Andrew Jackson Brodhead & Ophelia Easton.

A plaque on the left pillar says ‘Brodhead Memorial Gateway, erected 1913.’ (For a close-up look at the plaque, you can view this Instagram image.) If page 1 of the article ever surfaces, I will include it here; unfortunately I don’t know what paper it appeared in—the two pieces I do have are very old and beginning to disintegrate.

Enjoy the article and learning more about how these gates came to be. And, have a good Monday!

Andrew Jackson Brodhead & Ophelia Easton golden wedding anniversary in 1895

Today, I’m sharing a recent, very happy discovery: the commemorative brochure for the December 31, 1895, Golden Wedding Anniversary celebration of Andrew Jackson Brodhead and Ophelia Easton. The contents were written by their youngest child Richard Henry Brodhead who was 31 at the time. It is wonderful to hear him write so warmly about his parents and siblings—a very close-knit family of 12, greatly expanded by 1895 to include spouses and 27 grandchildren.

(For my original post about their anniversary, click here. Another post about their 1845 New Year’s Eve wedding can be found by clicking here.) Enjoy, and have a good Monday.

Blooming Grove Park, Pike Co., PA (Post 3)

“Blooming Grove Park—The American Fontainebleau” (Image from my personal copy of Harper’s Weekly, December 17, 1870)

This past June I did a post on an 1891 Brodhead hunting expedition in Blooming Grove Park, Pike Co., Pennsylvania (and a subsequent follow-up). I just realized, while leafing through the December 17, 1870, Harper’s Weekly newspaper that contained the great scenes from Blooming Grove, that I failed to include in my post the accompanying article about this private 12,000-plus-acre hunting and fishing club. So, I will include it here now. It’s interesting (and good) to see how even back then, conservation was on people’s minds. You have to wonder what may have happened to all that land had it not fallen under the club’s protection.

As for the article, I had to chuckle when I read that the train took “only” 4.5 hrs to get to Blooming Grove from NYC, a distance of some 87 miles that is described as being one of the Park’s great advantages, which indeed it was at that time—and still is today. While Blooming Grove is still private/members-only, that part of Pennsylvania offers many other areas that are freely accessible to outdoors-lovers. We are still hoping to get up there next summer for some trout fishing and family-history-hunting expeditions.

A clipping of the article on Blooming Grove from my personal copy of Harper’s Weekly, December 17, 1870

1907 elopement: Momma Brodhead outfoxed by determined daughter

G. Welles Van Campen & Louise (Lulu) Brodhead, 1907; From personal family archives of John Ford. Used with permission.

The topic of eloping is not new to this blog. I’ve done several posts about late 19th- and early 20th-century ancestors in our family tree dashing off to marry their special someone in a “damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead” spirit. I eloped myself, so I can relate. However, while today, for many, it’s all about keeping things simple, back then, it was  an activity that could definitely land you on page one of your local paper, or even on front pages of papers around the country. I still find it astounding that when I search the absolutely vast newspaper archives of Genealogy Bank for images of any Brodheads, only three appear, and one of them is the one-and-only Mildred Hancock at the time of her 1911 elopement with my great-uncle Lewis D. Brodhead. Yes, if you eloped back in those days, you would definitely get yourself noticed!

The September 1, 2001, article “Elopement Feared” by Terry Schulman noted: The generation of 1900, caught up in the rebellious spirit of the new age, seemed much more willing to disobey parents where matters of the heart were concerned. Mildred and Lewis are great examples! And, so are the subjects of this post.

One of this blog’s readers, John Ford, recently shared with me the details of his grandmother Louise (Lida, Lulu) R. Brodhead’s daring 1907 elopement with G. Welles Van Campen, and kindly offered to let me include the story in this blog. (John and I have Garret Brodhead (1733-1804) as our common ancestor, however, he is a descendant of Garret’s first wife/partner Cornelia Schoonhoven, and I am a descendant of Garret’s wife Jane Davis (see tree below).)

In this case, news of the elopement made it at least to one Philadelphia paper. This was likely thanks to the fact that Louise’s mom Mary Brodhead went after the pair in hot pursuit, in an attempt to thwart the impromptu nuptials. The drama played out along the Pennsylvania side of the Delaware River between Bushkill and Matamoras, and ended in Sparrowbush, NY, just outside Port Jervis. It’s not hard to picture in your mind the emotions that likely unfolded on that fateful November day as horses and buggies made a beeline for the PA/NY line… New York was a safe spot to elope back then, although that changed a year later when the Cobb marriage-license law went into effect. Its purpose in part appears to have been to quell the surge of cross-border elopements, and elopements in general. (See Harper’s Weekly article for more info.)

The story was recounted six decades later on the occasion of the couple’s 60th anniversary, and the second account is more detailed than the first and offers a bit of conflicting information on how things “went down.” Chalk that up to the sands of time sweeping a few changes across the memory trail, or the fact that the original article took some artistic license. Either way, it is quite a fun story, one that certainly livens up a family’s history and is interesting to recount from one generation to the next.

As you read the articles, bear in mind what John told me about Mom Mary, who with husband Daniel Van Etten Brodhead ran a successful farm and later a boarding house business in Bushkill: She was a feisty and very independent woman…  She loved to drive a fast horse and had an ex-trotter as her favorite buggy horse. 

Enjoy the story, and thanks again to John for contributing it! If anyone out there wants to contact John, he can be reached at “candjford1 at verizon dot net.”

Clipping from the Philadelphia North American newspaper, issue dated 29 November 1907 – From personal family archives of John Ford. Used with permission.

Mary (Schoonover) Brodhead (1865-1948), Bushkill, PA. Photo taken circa 1939. From personal family archives of John Ford. Used with permission.

Article transcribed here due to low resolution issues; From personal family archives of John Ford. Used with permission.

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The Pocono Record, The Stroudsburgs, PA, Friday, 24 November 1967

Impulsive Elopement Leads to Sixty Years of Marriage

The warmth and quiet of the Van Campen home, 150 Washington St., east Stroudsburg, as they prepared to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary on Thanksgiving Day was a far cry from their original wedding day on that chill November 23, 1907, when G. Welles Can Campen and Lulu Brodhead eloped.

They hadn’t planned to be married that day at all. Lulu Brodhead, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Daniel Brodhead of Bushkill, was teaching school and her mother thought that she ought to wait until Spring before marrying that daring young road tester for the Mathewson Motor Car, made in Wilkes Barre. At least in the Spring they would both be 21.

Tartan tam o’ shanters. Wikipedia.

Mrs. Brodhead was in Dingmans Ferry when Van Campen came calling in his hired livery rig. He suggested that, with her father’s approval, she ride with him to Dingmans to join her mother. Slipping on a man’s coat against the November chill and her blue tamoshanter [hat – see image inset], she set out with him.

When her mother met them on the road, she jumped to the conclusion that they were eloping and ordered them to follow her home under no uncertain terms. Rebelliously, they decided since she’s suggested the idea of an elopement, they’d carry it through.

The only place they could marry without a license was in New York State. Meanwhile, Mrs. Brodhead had discovered the innocence of their errand, and knowing how her scolding might have affected them, set out in pursuit.

With the carriage across the road, she tried to block their way to Matamoras but they managed to get by and side by side they raced down the streets of Matamoras. She beat them to block the bridge entrance.

Nothing daunted, they turned down a side road which ended at the river, rented a boat, bailed it out and rowed to the other side, landing in a bramble patch. They found a young English minister in Sparrowbush to marry the bedraggled pair and returned home.

Mrs. Brodhead, whose heart was as warm as her temper, was quick to give in, kissed them, and they lived happily ever after.

And, usefully. They have four children living: Mrs. Walter Ford of Maryland; Daniel, California; Allen of Philadelphia and Bernard of East Stroudsburg. They have eight grandchildren and 10 [?] great grandchildren.

They plan to spend their anniversary having Thanksgiving with a daughter, Jeanie Tonkey, in Easton.

Of course, Mr. Van Campen plans to drive. He probably has driven longer than any local resident. He was a road tester for the Mathewson Car Co. in Wilkes Barre starting in 1904 and continuing until they produced their last car in 1912.

He recalled that he used to drive over a dirt road to Blakeslee to test he cars on the only hard road in the county, and experimental road from Blakeslee to Pocono Summit.

He spent a total of 32 years in the automobile business and they also operated a resort hotel. As chief of Civil Defense, he was active in flood relief during the 1955 flood in the Bushkill area where they lived for most of their married life.

In 63 years of driving he has never scratched a car on the highway.

Mrs. Van Campen is a member of the Bushkill Garden Club, the Jacob Stroud Chapter of the DAR and the Seventh Day Adventist Church.

Both are descendants of pioneer families in this area. Mrs. Van Campen’s father was named for Daniel Brodhead, pioneer settler of East Stroudsburg.

Mr. Van Campen is the great-great-grandson of Col. Abram Van Campen whose homestead in Pahaquarry Twp. Is part of the historical treasures of the Delaware Water Gap National Recreation Area.

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FAMILY TREE

1-Lt. Garret Brodhead b. 21 Jan 1733, Marbletown Ulster Co NY, d. 5 Sep 1804, Stroudsburg Monroe Co PA, bur. Dansbury Cemetery, Stroudsburg, Monroe Co., PA
+Cornelia Schoonhoven b. Abt Jan 1733, Minisink, N.J, d. After 2 Feb 1771
|—–2-Garret Brodhead Jr. b. 20 Mar 1756, d. 21 Sep 1835, Dingmans Ferry
| Northampton Co PA, bur. Delaware Cemetery, Dingmans Ferry, Pike Co., PA
+Affe Decker b. 19 Oct 1759, Northampton Co PA, d. 15 May 1840, Dingmans Ferry Northampton Co PA, bur. Delaware Cemetery, Dingmans Ferry, Pike Co., PA
|—–3-Nicholas Brodhead b. Delaware Twp., Pike Co., PA
+Margaret Owens b. 22 Mar 1800, Newfoundland, NJ d. 9 Apr 1873
|—–4-David Owen Brodhead b. 24 Jul 1824, d. 31 Jan 1911, bur. Delaware Cemetery, Dingmans Ferry, Pike Co., PA
+Maria Van Etten b. 21 Mar 1832, d. 24 Jan 1916, bur.
Delaware Cemetery, Dingmans Ferry, Pike Co., PA
|—–5-Daniel Van Etten Brodhead b. 21 Sept 1858, Delaware Twp, Pike Co., PA, d. 25 Jun 1941 Bushkill, Pike Co., PA
| +Mary Schoonover b. 28 Nov 1865, Bushkill, Pike Co., PA, d. 5 Oct 1948, Bushkill, Pike Co., PA
| |—–6-Louise Rex Brodhead b. 20 Jan 1887, Bushkill, Lehman Twp, Pike Co., PA. d. 1 Jul 1974, St. Michaels, MD
| | +George Welles Van Campen b. Mar. 2, 1887, Dorancetown, PA, d. Feb. 5, 1972, East Stroudsburg, PA

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Obituary of Mary Brodhead (Provided by John Ford. No newspaper or date indicated, but probably in the East Stroudsburg or Stroudsburg paper):

Mary Brodhead, one of the best known residents of the Bushkill section of Pike county, passed away at the General Hospital, East Stroudsburg, on Oct. 6 at 4:30 p. m., after being hospitalized one month. She had been in ill health the past year. Deceased was the widow of the late Daniel V. Brodhead, who preceded her in death seven years ago. They conducted the Brodhead boarding house for over 36 years. Mrs. Brodhead was endeared to all who knew her by her gentle and friendly character and by her human interest in the joys and sorrows of her friends and family. She is survived by two daughters, Mrs G. Welles Van Campen of Bushkill and Mrs. Joseph F. Schultzback of Philadelphia; four grandchildren. and eight great grandchildren. Mrs. Brodhead was 82 years of age, and a member the Bushkill Reformed Church. Funeral services were strictly private. Interment was made in Bushkill Cemetery.

Ford Family Recollections of Mary Brodhead (Provided by John Ford, in addition to what was shared above):
[…] She loved eels, caught from the river and whenever we (Walter, and sons John and David Ford) went fishing for bass in the Delaware, and caught an eel, we would bring it to her to fry up and eat. […] She was always trying something different on the farm such as trying to raise mushrooms in the basement on the farm (unsuccessfully). Mildred remembers her using a machine with an iron hopper and crank to grind up broken china to give to the chickens. When she and her husband were elderly, Pe-pa (husband Daniel) continued to reside in the farm-house/boarding house with daughter Louise, husband George Welles, and family. Me-ma resided in the house built by their daughter Helen and husband as a summer place on land given to them by Daniel and Mary across the creek between the old road and Route 209 and a little up the hill from the farm house.

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Ford Family Recollections of Louise Brodhead Van Campen (Provided by John Ford)

Louise […] finished high school and taught school in the Brodhead School near Bushkill for several years. […] Louise worked very hard when they had boarders at their boarding house and was an excellent cook – her raised biscuits and ginger snaps were favorites of the grandchildren. She used to like to fish and once, when a water snake went after a fish, she went after it with a shovel. They used to use the fireplace in the basement of the bungalow on the farm for heating water for washing and they would have large iron kettles on the bridge over the brook for the washing. They would host huge gatherings of their children and grandchildren at the farm for Thanksgiving and other Holidays when the numerous great grandchildren would roam the woods, play in the brook, fish in the river, etc. She was a very devout lady, belonging to the Methodist Church in East Stroudsburg and eventually became a Seventh Day Adventist. She was very kind, had a sweet smile and never an unkind word about anyone.

Dingman/Brodhead link to a Dutch “pocket-book” that was 216 years old in 1876

Still-Life with Books, Unknown Master, Dutch (active in the 1620s in Leiden); (Credit: Wikimedia Commons; uploaded by ‘Jarekuploadbot’)

From Webster’s Complete Dictionary of the English Language (1886)

The Evening Gazette, Port Jervis, NY, April 29, 1876 (Credit: Fulton History dot com)

If it still exists, the little ‘pocket-book’ mentioned in the accompanying newspaper clipping from the Port Jervis (NY) Evening Gazette, dated April 29, 1876, would be 355 years old, which would be pretty remarkable.

The ‘pocket-book’ had long been in the Dingman family until gifted by Andrew Dingman Jr. (1753-1839) to his grandson-son-in-law (my third great-grandfather) Garret Brodhead (1793-1872), who two years before his death gifted the item back to the Dingman family—specifically to ‘A.S. Dingman’. I believe this A. S. Dingman was probably Alfred Stoll Dingman (1839-1907), the elder Dingman’s great-grandson (and Garret’s nephew) who would have been about 31 at the time.

Garret was married to Cornelia Dingman, Judge Daniel Westbrook Dingman‘s daughter. Perhaps the pocket-book was a wedding gift.

Below you will find some background on each of the above as well as Andrew Dingman Sr., father of the aforementioned Andrew Jr.), who was the original Dingman who settled in the Pennsylvania wilderness in 1735 in what is now known as Dingman’s Ferry; and another Andrew Dingman (the Judge’s son and Alfred Stoll Dingman’s father).  (See the tree below.)

If you have access to Ancestry.com, you can view a wonderful photograph of Andrew Dingman Jr. in a group photo with his youngest son Isaac (Alfred’s brother), Isaac’s wife Charlotte, and the couple’s three daughters—Caroline, Melissa, and Helen. Also on Ancestry, you can view a portrait of Judge Daniel Westbrook Dingman who is mentioned in the article, the judge being the son of Andrew Sr. and the father of Andrew Jr. Interestingly one of the below bios mentions the Judge’s ‘corpulent’ size; the portrait on Ancestry of a young Daniel W. Dingman shows a man whose waistline has not yet expanded.

Accompanying images include two photos of waterfalls at the famous Dingmans Falls taken by my grandmother Zillah Trewin (no relation to the Brodheads/Dingmans) during her summer 1907 vacation, and present-day images of the old Dingman stone house (built in 1803-1804) and Dingman’s Ferry bridge (chartered in 1834) that were generously provided by James and Barbara Brodhead following a visit to that area in 2013. I have also included some newspaper clippings found on the Fulton History website; there is one anecdote about Judge Daniel W. Dingman’s handling of one case during which he uses language that would be considered completely inappropriate by today’s standards, and rightly so, of course, but I am including the anecdote here since it is part of history. If you can get beyond the language used, the punishment itself seems fair, if not generous for the crime committed.

So if you are interested in any of these family members, please get a ‘cuppa’ and read on! 🙂 (As always, comments, corrections, and additions are welcome.)

1-Andrew Dingman Sr. b. 11 Feb 1711, Kinderhook Albany Co NY, d. 1796,
Dingmans Ferry Northampton Co PA
+Cornelia Kermer b. 22 May 1720, New York, d. Pennsylvania, United States
|—–2-Andrew Dingman Jr. b. 19 Sep 1753, Northampton Co PA, d. 3 Feb 1839,
| Pike Co PA, bur. Delaware Cemetery, Dingmans Ferry, Pike Co., PA
+Jane Westbrook b. 9 Apr 1755, NJ, d. 21 Jan 1838, Dingmans Ferry Pike
Co PA, bur. Delaware Cemetery, Dingmans Ferry, Pike Co., PA
|—–3-Daniel Westbrook Dingman b. 28 Jul 1774, Walpack, Sussex, New
| Jersey, d. 14 Apr 1862, Pike Co PA, bur. Delaware Cemetery,
| Dingmans Ferry, Pike Co., PA
| +Mary Westbrook b. 8 Oct 1774, d. 26 Feb 1851, Dingmans Ferry Pike
| Co PA, bur. Delaware Cemetery, Dingmans Ferry, Pike Co., PA
| |—–4-Andrew Dingman b. 25 Dec 1804, Dingman family homestead, d.
| | 22 Mar 1889, bur. Delaware Cemetery, Dingmans Ferry, Pike
| | Co., PA
| | +Caroline Eliza Sayre b. 21 Oct 1804, d. 6 May 1885, bur.
| | Delaware Cemetery, Dingmans Ferry, Pike Co., PA
| | |—–5-Alfred Stoll Dingman (Aug 12, 1837-Jan 28, 1907; married Kate Van Auken; one child Walter)

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ANDREW DINGMAN SR. (1711-1796; married Cornelia Kermer):

History of Wayne, Pike and Monroe Counties, Pennsylvania; Delaware Township, Chapter VIII, (Philadelphia: RT Peck & Co., 1886), pp. 908-909: The present township of Delaware is bounded on the north by Dingman township, on the east by the Delaware River and New Jersey, on the south by Lehman township and on the west by Porter. The first settlements on the Delaware River were made on the New Jersey side; but in or about the year 1735, Andreas Dingerman, or Andrew Dingman, as it is now written, crossed the Delaware and chose a place in the wilderness for his home, which he called “Dingman’s Choice,” a name which it still retains in local usage, although the post-office is called Dingman’s Ferry.

What the original ferry looked like; eventually the ferry was replaced by a bridge (Credit: James and Barbara Brodhead)

Original pulley from 1735 (Credit: James and Barbara Brodhead)

When Andrew Dingman first crossed the river to make his habitation on the Pennsylvania side, he had an opportunity to make a choice, as he was the pioneer settler of Delaware township. If he was not the first, he was among the first, and is the first of whom we have authentic account. He certainly made an excellent choice of location for his future home, judging from present developments, for here the Delaware River flows close to the New Jersey hills and leaves a wide flat of rich bottom land on the Pennsylvania side. Here Dingman Creek bursts through the mountain bluffs after dashing over the rocks at the factory in a fall called the Factory Falls, and lower down is the “Bettie Brooks” or “Fulmer Falls.”

High Falls, Dingman’s Falls, PA, 1907  (CREDIT: Zillah Trewin)

Still farther down are the “Deer Leap” and “High Falls.” […]  Here, then, with a broad expanse of fertile river bottom land under his feet, with a creek that would supply water-power for grist and saw-mills flowing through it, surrounded by mountain bluffs, “rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun,” which environ it on two sides, he feasted his eyes upon the lavish bounty of Nature, in her primeval grandeur and magnificence, and inhaled the pure, health-giving air which floated around these mountains, “yet gorgeous in their primitive beauty, forest-crowned,” and intersected with gushing streams of limpid waters, which burst through the rocks from the highlands above in bold and beautiful waterfalls, where for ages they have been wearing deep and still deeper the steep gorges and rocky glens in her riven sides.

Deer Leap, Child’s Park (Credit: Zillah Trewin, 1907)

Here, amid so much grandeur and beauty, Andrew Dingman made his choice and cut the first bush, built the first log cabin on the riverbank and put the first ferry-boat on the Delaware at what is now known as Dingman’s Ferry. Andrew Dingman was born at Kinderhook, New York, in the year 1711, and settled at Dingman’s Choice in the year 1735, or about that time. His first log cabin was down by the river-bank. About 1750, or some time previous to the French and Indian War, he built a stone house not far from where the Dingman “Reformed Church “now stands, on the site occupied by the house Fannie Dingman’s farmer occupies.

He had two sons, Isaac and Andrew Dingman, Jr., who was born September 19, 1753, in the old stone house which was destroyed during the French and Indian War, in 1755. Dingman immediately rebuilt another house. Mr. Dingman was endowed with a dauntless spirit and had now a farm, with orchards and barns. He was assisted in his labors by his two sons and four slaves. He established a traffic with the Indians, who often visited him, and from his friendly intercourse and dealing with the natives he derived considerable pecuniary advantage. In 1744 he obtained a warrant for the tract which now comprises a part of the M.W. Dingman estate, and in 1750 one for that lot on which the saw-mill at Dingman’s now stands. He subsequently took up, as it is termed, three other lots of land, the last in 1775. There were twenty-seven log and stone houses in Delaware as it was then, including Lehman and other territory west, contemporaneously with that of Andrew Dingman, Sr.

WEST (FRONT) AND SOUTH ELEVATIONS – Dutch Reformed Church, Dingmans Ferry, Pike County, PA (Credit: Library of Congress)

[…] Andrew Dingman built a flat-boat for ferrying purposes with a hand-axe, and it is probable that he built a grist-mill and saw-mill on Dingman’s Creek. An old grist-mill, with one “run” of native stones, stood near the present grist-mill. Judge Dingman used to tell his children about turning the bolt by hand while the miller ground the grist.*

[…] One of Andrew Dingman’s sons, Isaac, when about nineteen years of age, was riding a horse up the road to the barn and when a little north of the old Dingman Hotel (now Fulmer’s), an Indian, who was secreted in the orchard, shot him and ran away. His mother, who happened to be standing in the door holding the future judge, who was then four years of age, by the hand, exclaimed, “Law me, Isaac is shot!” He was mortally wounded, but they started across the river with him in a flat-boat. While they were going over he asked for a drink of water and shortly after died before they reached the Jersey shore, where there was a fort with one cannon. He was buried on the Jersey side, near the abutment of the old bridge.

ANDREW DINGMAN JR. (1753-1839; married Jane Westbrook )

History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe Counties, Pennsylvania by Alfred Mathews (Philadelphia: RT Peck, 1886) – page 213-214: [...] …Andrew resided on the Jersey side of the Delaware, but subsequently removed to Dingman’s Ferry, where his father had made a beginning. He was captain of a company and served in the struggle for the independence of the colonies, and after living to see the country again engaged in a war with England in 1812, he survived many years thereafter, and died in 1839, at the age of eighty-three years.

His wife was Jane Westbrook, who bore him two children, — Daniel W. Dingman and Cornelia, who became the wife of Daniel Van Etten, who resided at Connashaw, where the Van Etten family homestead was.

History of Wayne, Pike and Monroe Counties, Pennsylvania; Delaware Township, Chapter VIII, pp. 908-909:  Andrew Dingman, Jr., “Foddy Dingman,” as he was called, was born in the old stone house September 19, 1753. He married Jane Westbrook, a daughter of Daniel Westbrook, who lived across the river in New Jersey, and had three daughters, each of whom he gave a farm on the flats in Walpack township. Andrew Dingman took the upper farm, and here Daniel Westbrook Dingman was born April 14, 1775, on the Daniel Smith place, in a house that stood opposite Barney Swartwood’s. Subsequently Andrew Dingman, Jr., sold this property and bought on the Pennsylvania side again, near where John Whitaker lives.

Before the Revolutionary War the nearest justice of the peace was Benjamin Van Campen, who lived twenty-two miles from Dingman’s Choice. The county-seat was at Newtown, near Bristol, and there Andrew Dingman attended court.

Genealogical and Family History of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume 1 by Horace Edwin Hayden, Alfred Hand, John Woolf Jordan (Lewis publishing Company, 1906), page 202: The younger Andrew Dingman served as private, Sussex county, (New Jersey) militia, 1779-83, and was pensioned as such March 4, 1831. He was born at Dingman’s Ferry, Pennsylvania, but lived in New Jersey during the Indian depredations ; enlisted 1779 as private in Captain Peter Westbrook’s company, Third battalion Sussex county (New Jersey) militia, and took part in engagement with the Indians, April 19, 1780.

JUDGE DANIEL WESTBROOK DINGMAN (1774-1862; married Mary Westbrook)

History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe Counties by Alfred Mathews (Philadelphia: RT Peck, 1886) – page 213-214: Daniel W. Dingman (1775-1862), only son of Andrew, inherited his father’s estate at the “Ferry,” and carried on the lumber business and merchandising there during a large part of his active life. He was a leading and influential man socially and politically, and a Democrat of the Andrew Jackson type.

Judge Daniel W. Dingman’s stone house (Credit: James and Barbara Brodhead)

Sign on the Dingman home (Credit: James and Barbara Brodhead)

He was the first elected sheriff of Wayne County, in 1801, and the second holding the office, and served in the State Legislature from 1808 to 1814, during which time Pike County was taken from Wayne, and he gave the new county its name, from General Pike, a hero of the War of 1812, and he also gave Dingman township its name. He was associate judge of Pike County for twenty-six years in succession, and was chosen one of the electors in the election of President Monroe.

His wife, Mary Westbrook (1777-1852), a daughter of Benjamin Westbrook, of Sussex County, N. J., bore him children as follows: Martin W.; Andrew ; Daniel W., Jr., the first Whig prothonotary of Pike County, appointed by Governor Joseph Ritner ; Cornelia, wife of Garret Brodhead, of Dingman’s Ferry ; Margaret, wife of Abram Coolbaugh, of Shawnee, Monroe County ; and Jane, wife of Franklin Brodhead. Of these children, only Andrew and Margaret survive in 1886, the latter being eighty-five years of age.

History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe Counties, Pennsylvania by Alfred Mathews (Philadelphia: RT Peck & Co. 1886), pp. 910-911: In 1793 Daniel W. Dingman was commissioned as lieutenant of a company of militia by Thomas Mifflin, Governor of Pennsylvania. On the 2d of August, 1800, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel of the One Hundred and Third Regiment Pennsylvania Militia by Governor McKean. In 1801 he received a commission as high sheriff of Wayne County, by the same Governor. He was the second sheriff of Wayne County, his term extending from 1801 to 1804. The court was held at Wilsonville from 1799 to 1802, when it was removed to Milford for a short time; consequently he commenced at Wilsonville and closed his term at Milford. [For a list of the elections he ran in over the course of his lifetime, click here.]

Dingmans Bridge sign (Credit: James and Barbara Brodhead)

At one of these places he lived in a log house, the jail being similar to his dwelling. He had two prisoners in this jail. One morning, on arising, he found both his prisoners and the jail were gone. During the night the jail was torn down and the building reduced to saw-logs, while the prisoners were nowhere to be found. About that time he was visited by some gentlemen from New Jersey on business, and…overheard some very uncomplimentary remarks about such a dwelling for a sheriff to live in, good enough, however, for a county-seat that was liable to be removed any day. He was a member of the Legislature of Pennsylvania from 1808 till 1813, and when Pike County was set off from Wayne and Northampton, he was commissioned associate judge by Governor Simon Snyder, October 10, 1814, and continued in that office twenty-six years, when his term expired by limitation under the new Constitution.

Cornelia Dingman Brodhead (1797-1885), daughter of Daniel Westbrook Dingman (1774-1862) and Mary Westbrook (1774-1851); wife of Garret Brodhead (Image credit: James and Barbara Brodhead)

John Coolbaugh sat with him for twenty-two years and until Monroe was erected. They were both large, stoutly-built men, and weighed over two hundred pounds each, while Judge Scott, the presiding judge who sat between them, was a tall, spare, intellectual man of great legal attainments. His associates seldom interfered, unless in relation to something of a political nature. Dingman was once Presidential elector and cast his vote for James Monroe. During Jackson’s campaign he cut a tall hickory pole and floated it to Easton, on a raft, when it was raised on Mount Jefferson. When taken down it was made into canes, one of which was presented to General Jackson and another to Judge Dingman. Solomon Dingman, his grandson, now has the cane. In 1846 he was corresponding secretary of the Pennsylvania Historical Society.

Daniel W. Dingman was an active business man and a successful politician of the old Jacksonian Democratic school. He built a hotel which has since been enlarged by Philip Fulmer, until it will accommodate one hundred guests. He also built the Dingman grist-mill, and being given his choice whether he would have an academy or a county-seat located at Dingman’s Ferry, chose an academy.

The three trusses of the Dingman’s Ferry Bridge (Credit: Wikimedia Commons, uploaded by Ando228 on 14 Jun 2008)

In all public matters relating to Pike County, he was a leading man. While in the Legislature he secured an act making Blooming Grove the county-seat, but the commissioners of Wayne County refused to levy a tax for public buildings and the county-seat was finally fixed at Bethany. He and his friends then had the county of Pike erected.

The Pennsylvania side of the bridge where the tolls are collected (Credit: James and Barbara Brodhead)

He was also influential in getting State appropriations for roads over the barrens of Pike County. Towards the close of his life he built a house in the wilderness, by Lake Teedyuscung or Nichecronk, where he lived a retired life for a number of years. He finally came back to his old home, and died April 12, 1862, at the advanced age of eighty-seven years, and was buried in the Delaware Cemetery at Dingman’s Ferry. Towards the close of his life he seemed to desire posthumous fame and took pride in the fact that he belonged to the Pennsylvania Historical Society. He was thoroughly identified with the early history of Pike County. Dingman’s Ferry, Dingman Creek and Falls were named in honor of the family, and Dingman township was named in honor of the judge. He was kind to Revolutionary heroes and Indian fighters, and General Seeley, Sam Helm, Mapes and Wagdon found a generous stopping-place with him. His only sister, Cornelia, married John Van Etten, and lived where William Courtright now lives at Dingman’s Ferry. She was eighty-six years of age when she died. Daniel W. Dingman married Mary Westbrook. His children were Cornelia, wife of Garret Brodhead; Jane, wife of Franklin Brodhead; Margaret, wife of Abram Coolbaugh. Daniel Dingman lived on the river road.

Garret Brodhead (1793-1872), son of Richard Brodhead (1771-1843) & Hannah Drake (1769-1832); husband of Cornelia Dingman, granddaughter of Mr. Andrew Dingman, father of Judge (Daniel Westbrook) Dingman (Image credit: James & Barbara Brodhead)

GARRET BRODHEAD (1793-1872; married Cornelia Dingman in 1813)

Genealogical and Family History of the Wyoming and Lackawanna Valleys, Pennsylvania, Volume 1 by Horace Edwin Hayden, Alfred Hand, John Woolf Jordan (Lewis publishing Company, 1906), page 202:
Garret Brodhead, Jr., eldest son of Richard and Hannah (Drake) Brodhead, born December 2, 1793, died East Mauch Chunk, Pennsylvania, January 8, 1872 ; married, November 25, 1813, Cornelia Dingman, born October 3, 1797, died June 18, 1883, daughter of Daniel W. and Mary (Westbrook) Dingman. […] Garret Brodhead, Jr., served as private in Captain Adam Hawks’ Second brigade Pennsylvania militia in the war of 1812-15. He was a farmer in Pike county ; from 1850 until 1858 he held an important position in the civil administration of the United States navy yard at Philadelphia. Garret Brodhead and his wife Cornelia Dingman had children : 1. Albert Gallatin, born August 3, 1815, died January 18, 1891 ; married, July 3, 1838, Sally Ann Tolan. 2. Daniel Dingman, see forward. 3. Andrew Jackson, born May 6, 1822, of whom later. 4. Abram Coolbaugh, born August 6, 1824, died October, 1892; married, January 6, 1863, Cornelia M. Ely.

ANDREW DINGMAN (1804-1889; married Caroline Eliza Sayre)

History of Wayne, Pike, and Monroe Counties by Alfred Mathews (Philadelphia: RT Peck, 1886) – page 214: Andrew, son of Daniel W. Dingman, was born on the homestead, on Christmas day, 1804, where he has followed farming and lumbering most of his active life. He now, at the age of eighty- one years, is hale and hearty, and his correct habits through life, his even temperament and quiet ways, together with his integrity in all the relations of life’s work, have gained the esteem of all who know him.

 His wife, Caroline (1804-85), was a daughter of Jedediah Sayre, a large real estate owner of Deckertown, N. J., and her mother was Elizabeth Reifsnyder, of the same place. Their children are : Mary, wife of John W. Kilsby, a farmer at Dingman’s Ferry ; Susan, wife of John W. Mclnnis, of Columbus, Ohio; E . Sayre, of Scranton ; Jane resides with her brother at Hawley ; Margaret, wife of John Lattimore, of Dingman’s Ferry ; Daniel W., of Flatbrookville, Sussex County, N. J.; Alfred S., of Milford ; William H., of Columbus, Ohio ; Dr. A. C, subject of this sketch ; and Isaac, of Dingman’s Ferry.

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Alfred Stoll Dingman
p 368 of Commemorative Biographical Record of Northeastern Pennsylvania: Including the Counties of Susquehanna, Wayne, Pike and Monroe (Monroe Co., PA: J. H. Beers & Company, 1900)

ALFRED STOLL DINGMAN (b. 12 August 1837; d. 28 Jan 1907; married Kate Van Auken)
Commemorative Biographical Record of Northeastern Pennsylvania: Including the Counties of Susquehanna, Wayne, Pike and Monroe (Monroe Co., PA: J. H. Beers & Company, 1900), page 369:
Alfred Stoll Dingman was born August 12, 1837, at the homestead at Dingman’s Ferry, where he remained until he reached the age of nineteen, assisting his father with the work of the farm and ferry. He then took a position as clerk in a general store at Dingman’s Ferry, owned by Thomas Cortright, and in 1859 he accepted a similar position with C. McCarty, of the same place. On October 16, 1862, he became a member, at Philadelphia, of Company B, 179th P. V. P, becoming first lieutenant under Capt. John B. Frazier. He went first to Newport News, and later to Yorktown, where he remained until June, 1863, doing guard duty at the Fort, and he then marched up the Peninsula to Whitehouse Landing, Va., participating in an engagement near that place in June, 1863. On July 2, 1863, he was discharged at Harrisburg, on account of expiration of term of service, and after his return home he assisted his father for some time. In the spring of 1864 he entered into mercantile business at Dingman’s Ferry with Evert Hornbeck, and one year later bought his partner’s interest, continuing alone until 1869, when he formed a partnership with Henry P. Beardsley. After two years Mr. Beardsley died, and for one year Jacob B. Westbrook was in partnership with our subject, who then sold out to Mr. Westbrook and retired. In 1880 Mr. Dingman removed to Milford, being employed as a clerk for John F. Pinchot, a merchant, until 1889, when he became a traveling salesman for Thomas E. Grecian, a shoe dealer in New York City.

Mr. Dingman has always taken keen interest in politics, being an ardent Republican, and in 1890 he was elected commissioner of Pike county for the term of three years. In 1893 he was again chosen to the office, and on retiring he engaged, in February, 1896, in his present business. He is an able official, and previous to his election as commissioner he had served three years (1884-1887) as county auditor, and three years as school director in Delaware township. Socially he and his family are prominent, and he is identified with the G. A. R., the I. O. O. F., the Rebekahs, and the F. & A. M. (Blue Lodge No. 344), at Milford.

On May 18, 1889, Mr. Dingman was married, at Port Jervis, N. Y., to Miss Kate Van Auken, and one son, Walter V., born March 14, 1890, brightens their home. Mrs. Dingman was born April 13, 1857, at Dingman’s Ferry, a daughter of the late John B. Van Auken, and is a member of an old and highly-esteemed family of Wallpack, NJ… […]

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OBITUARY

Alfred S. Dingman obit – part 1, Port Jervis Evening Gazette, January 29, 1907 (Credit: fultonhistory.com)

Alfred S. Dingman obit – part 2, Port Jervis Evening Gazette, January 29, 1907 (Credit: fultonhistory.com)

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OTHER PRESS CLIPPINGS

Adams NY, Jefferson County Journal, 20 Nov 1888 – part 1 (Credit: fultonhistory.com)

Adams NY, Jefferson County Journal, 20 Nov 1888 – part 2 (Credit: fultonhistory.com)

Adams NY, Jefferson County Journal, 20 Nov 1888 – part 3 (Credit: fultonhistory.com)

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Excerpt from article in Wayne County Herald, Honesdale, PA

St Regis Adirondack News (dated 1901-1903), Credit: fultonhistory.com

Andrew died less than a month later. Port Jervis, Evening Gazette, 26 Feb 1889 (Credit: fultonhistory.com)

Brodhead 1891 hunting expedition follow-up: ‘Lafe’, John, & ‘Mose’ Westbrook (Post 2)

This post is a follow-up to the one I did recently about an 1891 Brodhead hunting expedition in Blooming Grove. The participants included some members of the Westbrook family, and I have since discovered traces of them in the book Commemorative Biographical Record of Northeastern Pennsylvania: Including the Counties of Susquehanna, Wayne, Pike and Monroe (Monroe Co., PA: J. H. Beers & Company, 1900), on pages 32-34; and 40-41.

It turns out that John Coolbaugh Westbrook, Moses (‘Mose’) Westbrook, and Lafayette (‘Lafe’) Westbrook were brothers—children of Hannah Coolbaugh (1790-1874) and Solomon Westbrook (1794-1852). The book includes images of John and Lafayette, and while containing scant information on Moses, it goes into detail on the two other brothers. For those who are interested in reading about them, I am including the relevant excerpts from the book here. Some of the information in the below two bios overlaps, but I decided not to edit the overlapping bits out. There is much to wade through, but perhaps you will find clues relevant to your own research. I always especially enjoy reading what these biographers had to say about the character and appearance of their subjects. If you wade through these bios, you will be able to pick some interesting things out about both John and Lafayette.

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Lafayette (‘Lafe’) Westbrook

HON. LAFAYETTE WESTBROOK, of Stroudsburg, is one of Monroe county’s favorite citizens, having been chosen many times to offices of trust and responsibility. As a business man, a soldier and a citizen, he has shown those qualities of character which command respect and admiration, and the story of his successful career will be of lasting interest.

Capt. Westbrook comes of good Colonial stock, members of the family having served with distinction in the Indian wars and in the Revolutionary war, but, unfortunately, the records of the early generations have not been preserved as fully as might be wished. The family is of Anglo-Saxon origin, but religious persecution in England caused their emigration to Holland at an early period. In 1630 the name appeared on the records at Albany, N. Y., among the settlers on the manor of Patroon Van Rensselaer. On October 9, 1665, John Westbrook was at Portsmouth, N. H., and in 1689-90 the names of Job and John appeared on the records. In 1721, Col. Thomas Westbrook, said to have come from Stroudwater, Gloucestershire, England, was a shipbuilder and large landowner in the State of Maine, and the town of Westbrook, Maine, was named in his honor. In that year he commanded the expedition against Norridgewock, which broke up the settlement of the famous Jesuit priest, Father Ralle, and captured his papers. In 1723 he was appointed by Gov. Dunmore as the chief in command of the Eastern frontier.

I. Anthony Westbrook, the first ancestor concerning whom we have any definite information, removed from Guilford, Ulster Co., N. Y., about 1737, and located in Montague township, Sussex Co., N. J., where he became the owner of a large tract of land along the Delaware river and on Minisink Island. He was prominent among the settlers there, holding the office of justice of the peace, and left a record of the earliest marriages contracted in the Minisink Valley. He married Antic Van Etten, and among their children were two sons, Jacob and Johannes.

II. Jacob Westbrook, a son of Anthony, was married. March 24, 1746 to Lydia Westfall, and had six children. Blandina, Johannes, Sofferine, Solomon, Maria and Jane.

III. Solomon Westbrook, the next in the line of descent in which we are now interested, was born in 1762 and died in 1824. He located in Delaware township. Pike Co., Penn., and there owned 700 acres of land upon which he built a stone house that was occupied by the family and for nearly a century, and in times of danger was used as a fort. In 1801 he was assessed with 150 acres of improved land, and at that time he was justice of the peace: Like many of the large agriculturists of his day, he owned slaves, and he was regarded as a wealthy and substantial citizen. He married Margaret DeWitt, and they had the following children: Jacob (1786-1847), who settled upon a portion of the old homestead, and was the father of John I. Westbrook, of Port Jenvis, NY; Col. John, born in 1789, who settled at the homestead, and was a member of Congress from 1841 to 1843; Solomon, our subject’s father; Sofferine; and Margaret, wife of William H. Nyce.

IV . Solomon Westbrook was born in 1794, and died in. 1852. He was a man of hue business ability, and was well known throughout the Delaware valley! In 1819 he sold his farm to his brother Jacob, and purchased another in Middle Smithfield township, Pike county, where he resided until 1829. He then sold his place to John V. Coolbaugh, removed to Philadelphia for a year, and for five years following he conducted a hotel at Dingman’s Ferry owned by Judge Dingman. While there (in 1832) he opened a store, and he also carried on mercantile business at Bushkill in 1830-31, and at Tafton in 1835-36. For some time he was interested in lumbering at Blooming Grove. In 1835 he removed to the old stone house on the homestead, and in 1837 a paralytic stroke nearly incapacitated him for business, depriving him of the power of -speech. In 1842 he’ returned to Blooming Grove, where he and his wife spent their remaining years, his sons taking care of his lumber business. He took much interest in local politics during his active years, and from 1822 to 1825 he served as sheriff of Pike county. He married Hannah Coolbaugh (1790-1874), a daughter of Judge John Coolbaugh, of Middle Smithfield township, Pike county, and they had six children : Margaret (deceased, who married the late John B. Stoll, of Branchville, later a resident of Newark, NJ.; John C, of Pike county; who is mentioned elsewhere; Hiram, late a real-estate dealer of Ridgewood, NJ.; Lafayette, our subject; Moses C, a farmer at the old home in Blooming Grove; and Susan, who married the late Theodore Grandon of Newark, New Jersey.

V. Capt. Lafayette Westbrook was born December 15, 1824, near Dingman’s Ferry, in Pike county, and received an excellent education for that day at Delaware Academy. He became proficient as a surveyor, and in 1850 and 1853 was elected surveyor of Pike county, serving two terms with marked success. I Ie is considered an authority on the location of land in that region, and at one time he assisted in making a map of Dike count)-; throughout his life he has been more or less occupied with surveying.

In 1850, our subject was chosen to represent Pike and Monroe counties in the State Legislature, and so well did he perform his duties that he was re-elected the following year. In 1862 he assisted in raising Company B, 151st P. V. I., and entered the service with the rank of first lieutenant. In March 17, 1863, he was made captain, and this rank he held until honorably discharged, on July 27, 1863, at the expiration of his term. While in the service he was never absent from his command for one moment, and he took part in several important engagements, including the battles of Chancellorsville and Gettysburg. On his return home he resumed work as a surveyor, and he also engaged extensively in lumbering in Blooming Grove, where he resided until 1882; in 1874 he was elected county surveyor against his own wishes. In 1866, he was again chosen representative in the State Legislature, his district being changed to Pike and Wayne counties. His ability and experience made his services of so great value to his fellow citizens that, in 1867, he was re-elected without opposition. In 1877 and 1878, under the new constitution, he again represented Pike county in the Legislature – each county being entitled to a member – thus completing six years of service in this capacity. The Captain has been regarded for many years as one of the leading Democrats of this section, and at various conventions, State and National, he has taken an honorable part in the work of the party. At times he has held local offices, including that of justice of the peace, and his interest in educational advancement has been shown by his services as school director. During all these years he has conducted his lumber business in connection with surveying, but in 1882 he removed to Stroudsburg, relinquishing a portion of ‘ his business cares; his investments, however, receive his personal attention, and for some time he has acted as a director and as vice-president of the East Stroudsburg National Bank. The Captain looks much younger than he is, and his active and cultured mind makes him a most agreeable companion. Socially he is much esteemed, and he is identified with the Masonic Fraternity being a Master Mason in the Lodge at Milford, Pike county. During the war he received a certificate from the Grand Lodge: which he still holds In October 1876, Captain Westbrook married Miss Emma Hill, of Newton, NJ; their only child died at an early age.

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John C. Westbrook

JOHN COOLBAUGH WESTBROOK. Few citizens of this section enjoy to as high a degree the confidence of the public as does this well-known resident of Milford, whose popularity is attested by his frequent election to offices of responsibility and trust. For many years he has served ably and acceptably as prothonotary and county auditor, and as recorder of deeds, register of wills, clerk of the Orphans’ Court, Clerk of Court of Assertions, he has also shown characteristic ability, zeal and fidelity.

Mr. Westbrook comes of good old pioneer stock, and traces his descent to an English family, some of whose members went to Holland at an early period to escape religious persecution. The records at Albany, N. Y., show that in 1630 some of that name were settlers on the manor lands of Patroon Van Rensselaer, having come with a Dutch colony. On October 9, 1665, John Westbrook was at Portsmouth, N. H., and in 1689-90 Job and John Westbrook were there. In 1721 Col. Thomas Westbrook, a wealthy land owner and ship builder of Maine, said to have come from Stroudwater, Gloucestershire, England, commanded the expedition against Norridgewock, which broke up the settlement of the famous Jesuit priest Father Ralle, and captured his papers. Two years later he was appointed by Gov. Dunmore as chief in command of the eastern frontier of the Colony of Maine, and he seems to have wielded an important influence in that commonwealth, the town of Westbrook having been named after him. In every generation the love of liberty has been a leading characteristic of the family, and its members have not hesitated to make open resistance to tyranny, several having served in the Revolutionary army. The definite records of our subject’s ancestry began with Anthony Westbrook, who came to Pennsylvania from Guilford, Ulster Co., N. Y., and settled in the Minisink Valley, where he acquired a large tract of land. In 1737 he was a justice of the peace and an elder in the Reformed Dutch Church, while his brother Johannes, who preceded him, was also prominent in the settlement. Anthony Westbrook married Antie Van Etten, and had at least two children, Jacob and Johannes.

Jacob Westbrook became the owner of a large tract of land on the east bank of the Delaware river, about eight miles below Port Jervis, in what is now Montague township, Sussex Co., N. J. His substantial stone house was often used as’ a fort during the troubles with the Indians, as was that of his son Johannes, three miles farther down the Delaware river. Like other pioneer families the Westbrooks kept slaves in the early days. Jacob Westbrook was married March 24, 1746, to Lydia Westfall, and had six children: Blandina, Johannes, Sofferine, Solomon, Maria and Jane.

Solomon Westbrook, our subject’s grandfather, was born October 6, 1762, and died March 30, 1824. In 1792 he located upon a tract of 700 acres of land on the west bank of the Delaware river in Delaware township, Pike county, and his residence, a large stone house, stood on the stage road, two miles below Dingman’s Ferry. In 1801 he was assessed with 150 acres of improved land, and was serving as justice of the peace. On September 24, 1782, he married Margaret De Witt, by whom he had five children: Jacob (1786-1847), who resided on a part of the homestead, and was the father of John I. Westbrook, of Port Jervis; Col. John (1789- 1852), a leading spirit in the State militia, a member of Congress (1841-1843), and one of the ablest men this section ever produced; Solomon, our subject’s father; Sofferine; and Margaret (Mrs. William H. Nyce).

Solomon Westbrook (2), the father of our subject, was born in 1794, and died in 1852. he was a successful business man, and was also active in politics, serving one term as sheriff of Pike county ( 1822-1825). In 1819 he sold his farm to his brother Jacob, and purchased another in Middle Smithfield township, where he remained about ten years; but in 1829 he disposed of the place to John V. Coolbaugh, and removed to Philadelphia. In 1830 be returned and opened a store at Bushkill, which he carried on for a year, while for five years he conducted a hotel at Dingman’s Ferry. In 1832 he opened a store there, and he also carried on mercantile business at Tafton in [835-36. In the meantime he became extensively engaged in lumbering at Blooming Grove, but a paralytic stroke in 1837 deprived him of the power of speech while he was yet in the prime of manhood, lie had removed with his family in 1835 to the old stone house in Delaware township; then in 1842 the family located at Blooming Grove, where his sons carried on the lumber business for many years. His wife was Hannah Coolbaugh, of Middle Smithfield township. Pike comity. Of their children, Margaret, the eldest (deceased) was the wife of John B. Stoll, of Branchville; John C, our subject, is mentioned more fully below; Hiram (deceased) was a real-estate dealer at Ridgewood, NJ, and was twice married, (first) to Eunice A. Horton, and (second) to Jennie M. Maston ; Lafayette, a resident of Stroudsburg, is mentioned elsewhere; Moses C., a farmer on the homestead at Blooming Grove, married Emily Jones; Susan a resident of Milford, married (first) Theodore Grandon, and ( second) William H. Bell, both of whom are now deceased.

Our subject was born May 24. 1820, in Middle Smithfield township, Pike county, then a portion of Delaware township. He began his education in the country schools, afterward studying for some time with Rev. Mr. Allen at Milford. At the age of fifteen he became a clerk in his father’s store at Dingman’s Ferry, and after the latter’s health failed he took charge of the business, assisted by Col. H. S. Mott. Together with his brothers he also managed the lumber business at Blooming Grove, and later he cleared a farm there upon which he built a sawmill and a gristmill. In 1845 he was elected prothonotary of Pike county, on the Democratic ticket, and removed to Milford. After serving two terms he returned to Blooming Grove, and in the fall of 1863 he was again chosen to that office, which he held for six years. In 1870 he removed to Branchville, NJ., and during the following year he secured from various individuals the land for Blooming Grove Park. In 1872 he went to Berks county, Penn., and for three years acted as foreman in the construction of the Boston & South Mountain R. R., running from Harrisburg to Poughkeepsie. In the fall of L875 he returned to Milford, and was elected prothonotary, to which office he has since been continuously re-elected, having held the office in all thirty-five years. Socially Mr. Westbrook and his family are prominent, and he is connected with various orders; he is a Master Mason, having joined the fraternity at Hawley.

On December 31, 1850, Mr. Westbrook was married at Milford to Miss Jane Wells, and four children have blessed the union: Alice B., who resides in Milford, married (first) Dr. Governor Emerson, and after his decease wedded the late Milton B. Mott, formerly editor of the Milford Dispatch, and a representative in the State Legislature. Hannah married John Williamson, of Branchville, N. J., now deceased. Frank Brodhead and Lafayette died unmarried. Mrs. Westbrook was born at Milford, January 24, 1824, only child of Peter and Jane Wells, and, both parent’s dying when she was an infant, she was reared by her grandmother, Jane Wells.