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From: "Kelsey Jones" <>
Subject: [Tri-Counties] 1st deaths in Wells Township
Date: Wed, 4 Dec 2002 21:15:27 -0500

In the History and Geography of Bradford County by Heverly under Wells Township it states - "The first death of an adult among the pioneers was that of Peabody Keyes, who soon after moving to Wells slipped on the ice and dislocated his neck, December 25, 1813. A boy in the same neighborhood had died previously and Solomon Soper's daughter had been scalded to death on the occassion of a logging bee at Samuel Edsall's, July 4, 1810."

We are uninformed of who the boy was who died or what the date was. Peabody Keyes did not die in Wells Township, but it was his son William Keyes husband of Saloma Daggett who died and he has a marker in Mosherville Cemetery inscribed - "W Keys 1813" and is the oldest dated marker in the township.

No known Soper family bible or other record has surfaced to learn if Solomon Soper and Mary Corey of Columbia Township lost a daughter. We do know from family records that the eldest child of David Russell Haswell and Lucinda Beaman of Columbia Township and who would have resided near Samuel Edsall and Sarah Seeley, died 4 July 1810 age 15 months so it was perhaps she who was scalded to death at a logging bee.

Other records indicate that the Austin and Vincent Reeder families settled near Mosherville in the 1790's and left behind the grave of a child.

An early death of a child in Wells Township that the history books did not record is that of Noah Murray Gaylord born 30 Sept 1805 died 9 Oct 1805 son of Lemuel Gaylord and Sylvia Murray. His place of burial is unknown but perhaps the Gaylord farm near the state line where the family settled in the 1790's, the log home situated near the present Dandy Mini Mart and bank on Route 328.

J. Kelsey Jones

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• [Tri-Counties] 1st deaths in Wells Township by "Kelsey Jones" <>