Catawissa’s Main Street is seen here in 1910.
cupied the old site of their town. Their fishing operations were interfered with by Wilkinson, who was made to swim the river to escape their arrows. He tried to explain to his friends that he was only gauging the depth of the water, and thus earned the nick- name of “Tom Gauger.” In the same year a party of Indians made a raid on the settlement, scalping and killing John Furry, his wife and two daughters. Three sons, John, Jonas and Lawrence, were absent at the gristmill at Sunbury and thus escaped, while anoth- er son, Henry, was taken captive. Years later the three brothers met Henry in Montreal, Canada, where he had developed into a prosperous trader after his imprisonment there by the French had ended. This was the era of the “great retreat,” during which most of the settlers of the valley fled from their homes in fear of Indian raids. The Quakers, owing to their confidence in the Indians’ promises to the Penns, remained. This confidence was never betrayed. In 1787 William Hughes laid out the town of “Hughesburg, in the County of Northumberland, State of Pennsylvania, North America, on the banks of the northeast tract of the Susquehanna River, near the mouth of Catawessey Creek, about twenty miles above Sun- bury and about one hundred and six miles above Philadelphia.” William Gray and John Sene were the surveyors. According to the custom of the day the lots were disposed of by lottery. William Henry was the original owner of the tract in 1769, the patentees were later Edward and Joseph Shippen, and from them the title was transferred to William Hughes. In 1789 John Mears, a phy- sician and justice of the peace, secured title to sixty-five lots. In 1796 the Roberts addition was laid out by James Watson. Although the original town plot was large it was but thinly set- tled. The first industry established was the tannery of Isaiah Willits, in 1780, at the corner of Third and South Streets. The ferry was then run by Knappenberger & Willits. The first merchant was Isaiah
The first European to visit Catawissa was James LeTort, a French trader, who bore messages of amity to the Delaware chieftains and the celebrated Madame Montour in 1728, presenting each a “strowd match coat,” as a token of friendship. After the visit of this French trader no mention is made of the place until 1754, when Conrad Weiser, the noted Moravian missionary to the Indians, writes from Shamokin, mentioning in the letter the Indian village of “Oskohary,” which was identical with the Catawissa of the pres- ent. At that time the chief of the village was the famous Lapackpit- ton, a Delaware. Soon after this date the place seems to have been abandoned by the savages as a place of residence. The first settlers in the Catawissa Valley were a number of En- glish Quakers, from Maidencreek and Exeter in Berks County, who came by way of the valley of the “North Branch.” They arrived between 1774 and 1778. Before their arrival a number of persons had obtained patents from the Penns, among them being William Collins, William Hughes, James Watson, John Lore, John Mears, Isaiah Willits and John Lloyd. Other settlers arrived at different pe- riods, most of them following the trails over the Broad, Blue, Lo- cust and Little mountains on horseback. The first house in the vi-
cinity of Catawissa was built by Moses Roberts in 1774. Among those who reached Catawissa in 1782 were Michael Gei- ger, Joseph McIntyre, John Furry, Thom- as Wilkinson, George Huntzinger and Conrad Wamphole. Soon after their arrival a party of Indians came and oc-
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