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& Abram Eaton, Moxley, Harding & Blanding, are remember has having been engaged in the mercantile business a short time. Aaron Greenwood built what is now known as the Granger Hall, about 1840 and commenced business in 1849. They occupied that building two years, when Mr. Very purchased the property, where he lived the remainder of his life, and fitted up a room, which had been used as a kitchen of the hotel, for a store. Very & Johnston removed their goods there, and did business in partnership until 1855, when Johnston built the store now occupied by his son, C. H. Johnston. In 1865 Johnston sold his goods to Tiffany and his store to Jones, Babcock & Tanner. Jones, Babcock & Tanner did business together until 1870, when Babcock retired; and in 1872 Jones bought out and continued until he died, in 1879. V. H. Johnston has carried on the business since at this stand.
Mr. Very continued alone after Johnston left him in 1855, until 1865, when his sons-in-law, T. J. Carr and H. N. Avery, succeeded him. After two years Mr. Very purchased Avery's interest, which he sold in 1870 , to H. S. Sweet and V. S. Hallstead. Carr finally purchased their interests, and closed out the business in 1877. There was a store as early as 1840 where Dr. Blakeslee resides. The house was built by Russell Tuttle, who was succeeded in the mercantile business by Dexter Sibley and Peter Carpenter. The latter became sole owner, and sold the goods to Edwin T. Tiffany, in 1860. Mr. Tiffany bought Johnston's gods in 1865, and in 1867 built the store which has been occupied by his sons, H. J. and Lee, since 1883. Russell R. Thacher & Son, Daniel B., commenced harness business in 1867. In 1877 they established a grocery business. E. M. Osborne also established a grocery business about the same time.
ZERAH VERY His parents, Asa Very (1776-1829) and Chloe Rexford Very (1774-1842), came from Danville, Vt., in 1814, and settled on a farm two miles north of Harford Village, on the turnpike leading to New Milford, where they spent the remainder of their lives. They had children as follows: Betsey, wife of Aaron Mogg, of Waverly, PA; Russell resided near Fairdale, this county, and there died; Orrin died in Michigan; Olney H. resides at Montrose Depot, aged eighty-three years; Zerah, born August 10 1805 at Danville Vt., died at Harford, December 9 1886; Cyrena, widow of Judson Mulneaux, who was killed in the late rebellion, resides at Washington DC; Lorinda was the wife of Samuel Cornell, of New Milford; Emily died a young woman; and Dr. Loren Very, who practiced medicine in Centreville, Louisiana, where he died. Zerah Very, a merchant at Harford from 1849 until about 1870, was nine years old when his parents came to this county. He attended the home district school in boyhood, and for two winters was a pupil at the Harford district school, where he diligently applied himself and obtained a fair English education, to which he added his practical ideas obtained at home. With such a start, upon reaching his majority he set about making a competence for himself and a home for his family. In 1828 he married Levina Richardson (1807-1871), who was born at Rehoboth, Mass., and came here with her parents, Francis (1768-1850) and Mehetabel Puffer (1778-1854) Richardson. From this time until 1849 he engaged in farming on the homestead, and by industry and judicious management he was enabled to begin mercantile business in Harford free of debt. For two years he hired a store opposite the Congregational Church, and in the meantime remodeled and built additions to the property he had bought of Saxa Seymour, across from the present post office. His store was kept in the front part, and he resided in the rear part of the building. Here he carried on general mercantile business for upwards of twenty years, and was succeeded by his sons-in-law. During the latter years of his life he did very little, except to attend to his own private business and to the farm which he still owned.
Mr. Very was known in the community as a man of strict integrity in all his business relations, possessed of a high sense of honor, a man of honest motives and unostentatious ways. He never sought the emoluments of office nor positions of public trust, yet in every way worthy and qualified, he discharged whatever duty was placed upon him by his fellow citizens with fidelity. Both himself and wife impressed their children with the value of home, and made it attractive by their presence and familiarity with them.
Their children are: Eleanor, born in 1829; Leonora (1832-1865), the wife of Thomas J. Carr, died in Harford, leaving children, Susan L. (wife of Charles S. Edwards, of Scranton), Ida May, Anne E. and Clarence E., who died at six years of age; Eudora, born in 1835, the widow of Hezekiah Avery, of New Milford, who died at Union, NY, in 1869, leaving one daughter Elfrida, the wife of C. D. Brown, of New Milford; and Emmerancy Very (1839), who died at the age of four years.
Mr. Very married Mrs. Cyrena Green, in 1872, for his second wife, who died in 1881. She was a sister of Major Asa Hammond, of New Milford. His third wife, who survives him, was Mrs. Florinda Hartt, a daughter of Richard Richardson, who resides in Harford. The only surviving daughters of Mr. Very succeed to the farm property and the store property in the village.
HENRY M. JONES was born in the township of Harford May 24, 1830, and was the only son who grew to man's estate of Austin (1788-1861) and Polly T. Carpenter (1798-1870) Jones, who were married in 1824, and resided on East Hill. He was educated at Harford
Academy under the eminent teacher, Rev. Lyman Richardson, and for several terms was a successful teacher in the home district schools. In 1854 he married Marietta I. Blandin, who was born in Honesdale, August 24, 1831, a woman devoted to her family and to the church and charitable works, and who was for one year, 1850, a teacher of music in the Harford Academy. For ten years following his marriage Mr. Jones farmed the homestead and then sold it to David Van Buskirk, and in the fall of 1865 bought the present property in the village limits of Harford, formerly owned by Deacon Joab Tyler, a farm of one hundred and thirty acres. The following spring he purchased the store property, adjoining the village home, of E. T. Tiffany, and managed both his farm and general merchandise store until his death, September 9, 1879. Henry M. Jones was a public spirited man, and contributed much to the improvements of the village and township. He was a friend to the poor, upon whom they often relied for counsel, was often chosen executor and administrator, and was a citizen highly esteemed by all who knew him or had dealings with him. His quick perception, good judgment and judicious management of business gained him a competence; yet, while he himself was prospered, he also desired the success of others, and he liberally contributed to worthy objects and to the church (Congregational) of which he was an attendant and officer, and his wife a member. He was always deeply interested in educational matters, and a man adhering to the principles of temperance. For one year he served as president of the Harford Agricultural Society. He was sought by his fellow townsmen for positions of trust, and he served as justice of the peace for several years, and filled nearly all the offices of the township. He was elected on the Republican ticket, and creditably served the people in the State Legislature for the years 1873 and 1874, during which time his vote was always cast for measures tending to promote the welfare of the people and elevate the condition of the laboring class. His genial ways, social disposition, frank and open manner, and his honest purpose and pure motives in life's work were marked characteristics, and his death left a vacant place among the citizens of Harford not easily filled. His children are Mary C., William Henry and Sarah A., died young. The surviving children are Daniel Austin, 1864, and Edward E. Jones, born in 1867. A sketch of his only surviving sister, Sarah Jones, born in 1828, may be found in the chapter on authors.
Austin Jones, a native of Andover, Tolland County, Conn., came to Harford about 1812. About 1825 he settled on East Hill, built the present residence in 1832, and there spent the remainder of his life. He was a reliable and trustworthy citizen, no seeker after political place, unostentatious in his ways, a man of sterling worth in the community, and an influential and working member of the Congregational Church at Harford. He was the eldest of seven sons, one whom, Dr. Jones, was a prominent citizen of Alabama. Polly T. Carpenter was one of the early zealous Christian women of the church, full of missionary spirit, a woman of decided views, and possessed a superior intellect. She was born in Harford, and was the daughter of John Carpenter, Sr. (1766-1838), one of the Nine Partners in Harford from Attleborough, in the spring of 1790, who was the son of Daniel (1744-1803) and Elizabeth Tyler (1748-1821) Carpenter. Her mother, Polly Tyler (1772-1811), was the daughter of John Tyler, who was born in Attleborough in 1746, an settled in Harford in 1794. Mrs. Henry M. Jones was the daughter of Daniel (1806-1870) and Mary A. Davison (1807-1886) Blandin who were among the first settlers of Honesdale, Wayne County. The former was a native of Attleborough, and came with his parents, Spencer and Nancy (Carpenter) Blandin, to Bethany, PA, in 1816. This Nancy Carpenter was a sister of John Carpenter, Sr., and was born in 1786. Spencer Blandin was a soldier in the War of 1812; Daniel Blandin was an agent for the Delaware and Hudson Canal Company at Honesdale for twenty-two years, and himself and wife members of the Presbyterian Church there. His wife, Mary A. Davison, was also a native of Attleborough and her parents were natives of Nova Scotia. Their other children are Emmons T. (1833-1858), a surveyor; Albert C. (1835-1870), a teacher of the freedmen after the war, died in Charleston, SC; Henry W., 1838, resides on the homestead in Honesdale; George D., 1842, also on the homestead.
About the first manufacturing that was done here, as elsewhere, was that of good old rye whiskey. Almost invariably in these old Yankee settlements in Wayne, Susquehanna and Luzerne the distillery was set up by some good elder and deacon, contemporaneously with the first church and schoolhouse in the place, and Harford is no exception to the general rule; hence we find that Joab Tyler, John Seymour and Saxa Seymour had a distillery near the center of the village, about where Thacher's store now stands. Samuel Guile also had a distillery about two miles out of the village where Van Buskirk now lives; but when the temperance reformation awakened the moral sense of the people on this subject, the distilleries were abandoned. The first grist mill was built by Mr. Halstead, in 1796, in the southern part of the settlement, on the site of the Harding mill. Tyler, Seymour and Carpenter built a grist mill on the outlet of Tyler and Tingley Lakes, and sold it to Freeman Peck, who moved the old mill and built the present grist mill, which he sold after a few years to S. B. Guile and Chas. H. Miller. The latter soon purchased Guile's interest. The mill is now owned by John Smith. Rufus Kingsley built a fulling mill on Martin's creek in 1810, and the same year Elkanah Tingley built a carding machine where Daniel Oakley subsequently had a mill. Penuel Carpenter, Harvey Sibley and Dexter Sibley married sisters. They erected
a woolen factory in partnership, and carried on manufacturing a short time. Mesrs. Tiffany, Follett and Elias Carpenter erected a sawmill in 1800, about one hundred rods southeasterly from the graveyard. The harding mill and the mill down by Leslie's were the principal sawmills in early days. Amos Sweet erected a blacksmith ship in 1795; Freeman Peck worked at blacksmithing many years. Gaius Moss built an upper leather tannery about 1820. He had abut ten vats, and carried on tanning and currying. In 1839, Lysander and Silas B. Guile bought him out. Shortly afterwards Silas bought his brother's interest, and continued the business until 1863, when he turned it over to his son, W. B. Guile, who has since built larger, and has a tannery with forty-five vats, that consumes about eight hundred cords of bark per year. Messrs. Eaton & Co. manufactured scales here a number of years ago. Dr. Wm. R Blakeslee has recently erected a steam sawmill with a capacity of about eight or ten thousand feet of boards per day. He employs about five men. Taken with its steam whistle, it is the liveliest industry in the village. Joseph T. Whiting started a wagon making, and John Sophia learned his trade of him. Sophia succeeded Whitney, and carried on the business for a time and sold to Wm. E. Reynolds. Wesley Osterhout also carries on Carriage making.
in 1803, widow of Amasa Chase, of Great Bend; Rockwell (1805-1855), died at Downer's Grove, Ill.; Lois (1807-1856) was the wife of Simeon Tucker, of Harford; Silas Brewster, born in Columbia township, Conn., June 1 1809, died in Harford March 16 1887; Elvira (1811-1879) was the wife of Abel Read, Jr., of New Milford; Lysander (1813-1864), died in Salem, Wayne County; Harlan (1815-1836), died at home; Temperance, 1817, the widow of Col. John Blanding, resides in Binghamton; Hannah, 1821, wife of Obed G. Coughlin, Harford; Susanna, 1823, widow of the late Stephen W. Breed, of Brooklyn, resides at Asbury Park with her son, an Episcopalian clergyman; Catherine (18126-1881) was the wife of Dr. George M. Gamble, who practiced for a time in Harford. Of these children, Silas B. for many years a farmer and tanner, resided in Harford village. He narrated just before his death that in boyhood he went to New Milford on foot to buy the leather for a pair of shoes, which after being cut out, were made at home, and of walking the entire distance to Montrose, the nearest place that he could buy a wool hat, and that he had to walk to Harford village, a distance of two and one-half miles, when a boy, to school. In 1831, just after attaining his majority, he married Catherine Chase (1810-1848), a daughter of Elder Daniel and Catherine (Filbrook) Chase, of Windsor, NY. Elder Chase was a Freewill Baptist preacher throughout this part of the State, and after his second marriage settled in Wayne County, where he died. Two sons, Amasa and David, were tanners at Great Bend, the former herein mentioned. Catherine Chase was a member of the Freewill Baptist Church from girlhood, and a devoted wife and mother. The children by this union are Melissa J., born 1831, widow of Dr. J. N. Wilson, of Hollisterville, Wayne Co.; Sarah Catherine (1834-1879) was the wife of Charles H. Miller, of Harford; and Winslow Boynton Guile, a tanner at Harford. Mr. Guile, like most of the young men of a half century ago, had to depend upon his own resources for his start in life, and upon becoming of age he had only a pair of steers. After his marriage for four years, he rented his father's farm, and for three years following, another farm. In 1838 he bought a sixty-five acre farm near the village, but soon sold it, and in 1839 purchased, with his brother Lysander, the Gaius Moss tannery in Harford, and began business. After two years he bought his brother's interest, and successfully carried it on alone until 1863, when he bought the Waldron farm, resided on it eight years and returned to his small farm of a few acres in the village. He was succeeded in the tannery by his son, who, after running it for a few years in partnership with Abram Eaton, built one on a larger scale in Harford. Mr. Guile was one of the charter members of the Harford Agricultural Society, and has been officially and as a member identified with it since. He served his township as supervisor, poor master and school director for several years, and in all his public trusts, his fidelity to principle and honesty of purpose were exemplified and characteristic of his whole life work. He was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for many years, and a contributor to the worthy objects in the vicinity demanding support. For his second wife he married in 1850, Polly W. Tyler, who was born in New Milford November 20, 1820, and is the daughter of Col. Job Tyler (1779-1857) and Sally Thacher Tyler (1781-1860). The former, a native of Attleborough, Mass., came here with his parents, John and Mercy (Thatcher) Tyler, in 1794, and joined the Nine Partners settlement. This Sally Thacher was a daughter of John and Sally Thacher, who settled in Harford in 1795. Col. Job Tyler was a large farmer in New Milford township, and attended the Congregational Church at Harford, where also Mrs. Guile retains her membership. Mercy Thacher's father was the fourteenth in an uninterrupted line of Thachers, who were ministers of the gospel.
Elder Daniel Chase's father, William, was born in 1742, and his father, William, lived in Stratham, NH, whose wife's name was Phebe Rollins. Catherine Filbrook's mother was a native if Ireland, was stolen from the seashore by a sea captain when only nine years old and brought to America.
Poly W. Tyler's only brother, Jared (1806-1877), a farmer, resided in Harford; her only sister, Nancy, born in 1804, was the wife of Francis Moxley, of New Milford.
turnpikes. Harford lay between these two great thoroughfares on the Philadelphia and Great Bend Turnpikes; consequently, it was not on the great mail lines to the West. Gibson and Cameron's were the two points on these routes from which the first mails were obtained after the routes were established.
The first mail carrier that is remembered was Oney Thacher, about 1826. The route then was from Rynearson's Corners (Lenox) to Harford, thence to New Milford, following the Philadelphia and Great Bend turnpike. Mr. Thacher carried the mail on his back and traveled afoot. He was a very precise man, and counted the number of steps that he had to travel so that he know when he took a step exactly what part of his journey was being accomplished. He carried the mail once a week until the railroad passed through Montrose depot; then a daily route was soon after started. Ovid Coughlan was one of the first drivers on this route. A. J. Seaman and others were carriers. The route was changed to New Milford until recently. The mail runs twice a day from Kingsley's Station to Gibson by way of Harford. Daniel M. Farrar is the present mail carrier.
Oakley post office, first called West Harford, was established Aug 5, 1852, with Daniel Oakley as postmaster. March 7 1854, the name was changed to Oakley. In 1875, Denison K. Oakley was appointed postmaster. This place was named in honor of the Oakleys, who had mills here. At one time was a station of the Delaware, Lackawanna and Western Railroad, but the cars do not stop there now.
MILLBOURN OAKLEY The grandparents of Millbourn came from New England to Dutchess County, NY during the latter part of the last century, and in 1783 removed to Thornbottom (now Nicholson). They had a large family of children, of whom Jotham was eldest, born in 1770, and was thirteen years old when the family settled in Pennsylvania. When a boy he frequently visited the low-lands and streams of this county as a trapper. In 1793 he married Sarah Millbourn (1768-1839), whose father was an Englishman, and whose mother subsequently married a Mr. Jones, also an Englishman, and settled in Brooklyn, this county. In 1795, Jotham Oakley took up one hundred and thirty acres, a woodland tract adjoining the Nine Partners settlement in Harford, and built a blockhouse theron. He began clearing off the forest, and with genuine pioneer fortitude, both himself and faithful wife, a woman of noted force of character and possessed of great courage, met the incidents, fatigues and hardships consequent upon a settlement in the wilderness unflinchingly, and made a home for themselves and children. This homestead has been in the family since, nearly a century, and is the home of Millbourn Oakley's widow. It was necessary to have salt and meal and flour. To obtain the salt, a trip had to be made to Syracuse, by the old salt roads leading through long stretches of woods. To get meal or flour at this time, Jotham Oakley used to take a bushel of corn or wheat of his own raising, and carry it on his back to Wilkes-Barre, where the nearest mill was located. He built the present farmhouse in 1806, which took the place of the blockhouse made of hewn logs notched together, and this house, without much repairs, has sheltered the family for a period of eighty-one years. He died here in 1841. He came to this place from Thornbottom with only two shillings in money, reared a family of five sons and three daughters, and before his death gave each of his sons a farm. He is said to have bought and used the first spring wagon (wooden springs, brought into the township. He was drafted in the war of 1812, but his second son, Thomas, volunteered and went in his father's place, going as far as Danville, when peace was made and he returned home. The children of these worthy pioneers were James (1794-1851), resided and died in Brooklyn; Thomas (1796-1857), also resided in the same township; Daniel (1798-1874), resided and died in Harford; Betsey (1800-1879), was the wife of Sylvenus Wade, and died in Greenbush, Wis., where they were the first settlers; Millbourn (1803-1883), succeeded to the homestead; Polly (1805-1859), the wife of Daniel Chubbuck, died in Iowa; Cyrus (1807-1869), resided and died in Brooklyn; and Sarah W. (born in 1812), is the wife of Virgil Tiffany, of Minnesota, being the only surviving child, in 1887, of this family. Millbourn Oakley, the fourth son, spent his entire live of eighty-one years on this place. He was a careful and industrious farmer, added one hundred acres, by purchase, to the original farm, and made a comfortable competence for his children. . He was much interested in educational matters and gave his children the opportunity of completing their home education at the Harford Academy. Of his seven children, all were teachers for one or more terms.
Millbourn Oakley was a moral young man, and had marked exemplary habits. He was an attendant at church in boyhood, and was a member of the church at Harford, from 1843 until his death, of which Rev. Adam Miller was pastor for fifty-three years. The old family pew was always well filled until his children scattered and found homes of their own, and the parents became so enfeebled by age that they could not leave their homes. He was one of the founders of the Harford Agricultural Society. He was a lover of fine horses and cattle, and his name is still familiar throughout the county as the raiser and exhibitor of the finest shown at the county fairs. He married, in March 1825, Nancy Carpenter, who was born in Harford, May 13 1804, and is living on the homestead in 1887. . She was an early pupil of Rev. Lyman Richardson at Harford. Began teaching school at the age of thirteen, and continued her school work until she was twenty-three. She has been a member of the church for seventy-two years, since she was twelve
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