Page:History of Delaware County (1856).djvu/382

358 HISTORY OP He was engaged in the sanguinary struggle of Independence, and was one of the first to encounter the hardsliips and priva- tions of the wilderness. Died — January 2nd, 1827, GtABRIel North, of Walton. A correspondent writes : " It is but due to the memory of the deceased, to say, inasmuch as it evinces the merit and estima- tion of his fellow citizens, that he occupied for some time, a seat on the Bench of the Common Pleas of this county, — twice elected to the assembly — was a member of the electoral college in 1816, and gave the vote of the State for President and Vice-President. But J udge North deserves a more last- ing and careful remembrance, for having been one of the pioneers in the settlement of Delaware county. He, with two or three of his associates, were the first settlers of Walton, to which place they emigrated from Connecticut, upwards of forty years ago. (1784.) That region of country, then, was almost an unexplored wilderness, remote, by a great distance, even from the frontiers of civilized habitations. There they liter- ally pitched their tents, for these were their first dwellings, and with the unshrinking courage, patience and confidence in Divine protection, so characteristic of the adventurous spirit transmitted by the New England pilgrims to their descend- ants, they, with their wives and children, sustained hardships, privations, and perils, alike interesting in their details, and propitious in their results.'^ G-iDEON Frisbee, died in 1828, aged 71. He came to this county forty years ago, (1788,) and settled upon the same farm where he resided until his death. It was the county of Montgomery, afterward the county of Otsego, and in 1797, the county of Delaware. Judge Frisbee, in the early settle- ment of the county, was distinguished among his fellow citizens as captain of the militia, justice of peace, and the highest offices in the gift of the town. Not many years after the forma-