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COLUMBIA AND MONTOUR COUNTIES
Reform ed denomination. The Lutherans or ganized in 1848, and for a time held services in a barn. Before that the members lu d to cross Nescopeck mountain to attend the Mifflinville Church. The first regular place o f worship w as a log schoolhouse. T he hrst union church w as built in 1849, and the second one in 1892. Services arc held here by the Lutherans alter nate weeks. Pastors since the beginning have been Revs. J . Bcnninger. Isaiah Bahl, R . S. W agner, J . S . Rcnningcr, S . S . K line, H. W cickscl, J . P . German, W. H . Geiger. 0 . D. Bartholomew, C. F . Dry.
in a dwelling near the church, on the road from Beaver to M ainville, and Adam Hotochcr tauglit another in a building on the land of Charles Michael. A school w as later taught on the land o f Joseph Lehr. A ll of these schools were at first devoted to instruction in the German language, but later English was in troduced. T he number o f schools in the township in 19 14 is seven, and 183 scholars o f both sexes attend. The school directors a r c : O scar Bredbcnncr, E llis Klingaman, John Fritz, C . W. Stead. M iles Rittenhouse.
SCUOOLS PO PU 1.A T IO N
T he first school in B eaver township was T he population o f Beaver township in 1850 taught by Isaac D avis in (he Kostenluuder gristm ill, in (8 2 1. F o u r years later he opened was 6 7 2 : in i860, 9 0 1; in 1870. 969: in 1880. another in his home, on the site of the present 1 ,2 2 1; in 1890, 1,0 3 9; >9tO' D avis church. In 1825 H enry Schcll taught 842 -
chapter
X IX
B E N T O N T O W N S H IP — B E N T O N T his township, established in 1850, w as named in honor o f Thom as H . Benton, then at the height o f his political power. It has alw ays been a farm ing district, although at first the dense forests caused the building of many sawm ills to utilize the abundance o f timber. T he most interesting item r^ a r d in g the lands in this township concerns the establish ment here in 1769 o f one of the famous "M a n o r s " of the Penn family. These divisions of land were set apart for the exclusive use of the Penns themselves, and in many instances were the last of the lands in the Commonwealth to be disposed of. T he M anors here were two tracts o f 530 acres each, and were "sittiate on a large branch o f F ish in g C rce k, eight or ten miles above the end o f Fishing crcck moun tain," (hat is, about (wo miles north of the present town o f Benton. In the original sur vey the name o f “ Putney Common” w as ap plied to those lands. The first recorded settler in this township w as Benjam in Coleman, who bought land from Daniel M cH enry and founded what w as later the I..aubach farm . Jonathan Colley w'as an other settler who came to this section prior to 1797. T h e house in which he lived was built near the Swartwout mill, and the orchard he
BO RO UGH
planted is still to be seen at that point. Jam es Peterm an and Jesse Pennington also came about the same time. T he latter built the first sawmill in the township, on U pper Fishing creek. A M r. Robbins built the Swartwout mill before 1850. It was later operated by J . Swartwout and Bent Cole. Isaiah Cole built the mill on the crcck a short distance above Benton borough about 1806. A cloudburst in 1848 destroyed both this and the Sw artw out mill. The Thom as mill on W est crcck, built in 1865, is now operated by N . B . Cole. Others of the first settlers were Jo sh u a Brink, Robert and John Moore, W illiam E ag er, Samuel Rogers. John Keeler, Daniel W hite man. Peter Robinson. Jonathan Hartzell and Daniel Jackson. T h e house of the latter fo r some years after 18 33 w as all that existed of the village o f Benton. A fte r the settlement o f Sugarloaf and the growth of the second generation of the fam ilies, the M cH cnrys, Hesses, Laubachs and others o f that town ship moved into and helped to populate B en ton township. Many of their descendants arc still living on the old farms. GROWTH A N D S E TTLE M E N T
E arly in the history o f Benton township the tiny hamlet o f homes located within what is
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