IDETOWN- It has been said that Nehemiah Ide at one time made a purchase of land in

what is now Lake Township, including the Lee Pond. This land was suppose to have been

a purchase of the Connecticut-Susquehanna Company who held the land under the state of

Conncecticut. In 1782, when the rival claims between Connecticut and Pennsylvania were

finally settled in favor of Pennsylvania, he lost his land. The second attempt by Nehemiah

Ide to settle in Pennsylvania ws more successful. Nehemiah and his eldest son, Elijah, came

to Lehman Township in the spring of 1799. On September 16,1800, Nehemiah Ide bought,

for $187.00, from Lemuel Walker of Hanover, Luzerne County,PA 160 acres of lot 45

situated in (what was) then Bedford Township, known today as Idetown and part of Lehman

Township. Also purchasing land on the same parcel were Amos Brown and Daniel Church-

well. All three were from Stockbridge,MA and are considered Idetown's first settlers. The

1806 barn of Amos Brown is still standing adjacent to the Idetown Cemetery on Idetown

Road. William Fuller arrived in 1802 and built the first frame house. Children were taught

in barns and private homes by schoolmasters. A log schoolhouse was erected in 1810. Sev-

eral other schoolhouses were built soon after the passage of the 1834 law providing for the

establishment of free schools. According to the 1818 tax rolls records, there were farmers,

freemen, carpenters, a sawmill and tenants. How much one was worth was based on unim-

proved and improved classes of land holdings, number of houses, outhouses, horses, oxen,

and cows owned. The first person buried in the township was Nehemiah Ide, who died in

1832. He was the first person buried in the "Olde Ide Burying Ground" located on Idetown

Road. The first mill erected in 1837 by Lewis Hoyt was on Harvey's Creek. The best of the

first stores in 1848 would hardly be dignified by the name today. Only a few necessaries

were kept in them, and the necessaries then had much scantier meaning. A few of the

commonest and cheapest cotton cloth was kept in stock. The wollen goods used for winter

were for both men and women were all homespun. It took many years for the storekeepers

to convince the farmers that they could buy heavy cloth of part wool and part cotton that

could be just as durable and warm yet less expensive. A few other goods such as coffee, tea,

sugar, molasses, tobacco, powder, shot and flints, and rum were of course in great demand.

A hunter's "outfit" of the period consisted of a quarter of powder, a pound of shot, a pint of

rum and a flint. Church congregations began forming and meeting as early as 1834; the first

being the Baptist Society. In 1848 the first Presbyterian Church ws built in front of the cem-

etary on Idetown Road and followed by the Idetown Methodist Church. There was no great

wealth in the community and collections were measured in copper pennies. The "Ide Town

Society" ws organized in 1865. Meetings were held in the schoolhouse on Idetown Road,

Oak Hill section. In 1893, land was purchased and plans for the building were drawn. The

trustees were: S.P. Ide, Delbert Husted, B.V. Ide, E.R. Parrish, and Levi Baird. G. Green-

field was the first pastor. According tot he census of 1870, Lehman Township had a popula-

tion of 770 natives, 29 foreign, 798 whites, 1 colored for a total of registered population of

799. Apparently, native, and foreign wee not included in the registered total. In 1873 Leh-

man Township had tow post offices, Lehman and Huntsville. Mail was delivered by horse

rider once a week. The Idetown postmark is from 1893. The first indoor plumbing was rec-

orded in 1900 in the home of William Major. In 1904, the E.M. Allen Store and E.R. Par-

rish and Jonathan R. Davis homes had the first telephones in Idetown. Some Idetown prof-

essions: The settlement of Idetown began primarily as a crop farming community. The

crops that were most prolific were corn, hay and flax. Among the farmers were Nehemiah

Ide and son, Amos Brown, William H. Ide, Benton V. Ide, S.P. Ide, J.O. Ide, T. Park,

Charles Huff, I. Elston, W. Allen, and Henry Worthington. Russell A. Ide was a dairy

farmer in Meeker. It was called the "Cork Pine Dairy". Benjamin and Margaret Gregory

had a chicken farm on Idetown Road. They sold eggs. Fayette Allen was an early carpenter.

His assistants wee Daniel Whiteman, Nehemiah and Oliver Ide, and Nehemiah's sons. In

1873, A.N. Ide was named as a carpenter. There was also mention of Raub's Sawmill.Jona-

than Husted, David Gordon, and George Elston wee early blacksmiths. Ira Lain later joined

David Gordon as a cooper, a person who fits pipes. William Gordon was the first cobbler, or

shoemaker, in the Idetown area. Dr. J.J. Rogers from Huntsville was the first doctor in the

area. He was soon followed by Dr. Moody in 1857. Dr. William Colley was also local physic-

ian. Dorothy King Wadas, a daughter of Idetown's 102 year old E.Mae King, studied nurs-

ing in Kingston. Daniel Urquart, a Scotsman, opened a store in 1848. In 1873, Van Loon &

Turpin wee listed as dealer in dry goods and groceries. Lane Morris and later Charles Huff

also had stores. There is also mention of an A.W. Whiteman Store. In 1902, E.N. Finch was

proprietor of the Shawnanese Cash Grocery in Idetown. Alfred Bronson of Sweet Valley

had one of the first funeral homes. EArly funerals were conducted in the "parlor" of the

homestead or sometimes in a church. J.W. Matthews was a lumberman. Logging was a

major industry in the area. In 1837, J.A. Brown was registered as a surveyor. In 1890

Razemna Ide was a schoolteacher in both Lehman and Meeker. She married William

Rice Gordon. Glenn Thomas Johnson was a milkman. in 1837, J.O. Ide was Justice of the

Peace. In 1814 Nehemiah N. Ide was on of the signers of a petition setting off the township

of Dallas from Kingston Township. The petion was confirmed in 1817 and the new township

named in honor of Alexandar James Dallas, of Trenton, New Jersey.