The inscription says: Philip Councilman
Died Oct. 29, 1831
AE 74 years
"The Righteous have Hope in his Death 1831"
(AE Engravers method of determining age)
Glen Aubrey Cemetery, Broom county, NY

My records say:
Philip Adam Councilman
Birth 23 Dec 1757, Buck,Luzerne, PA
D. 29 Oct 1831 Nanticoke, Broome, NY
wife Catherine Foster b. 1757, PA d. 15 Nov 1822 Nanticoke, Broome, NY She is Buried right next to him, according to a book written by Eleanor Brown Swan in 1981 called the Story of the Valleys, Town of Nanticoke.


AN ADDRESS DELIVERED AT THE
COUNCILMAN REUNION, GLEN AUBREY,
SEPTEMBER 3RD 1894
BY
E. W. COUNCILMAN

A little over a century ago, Philip Councilman, the progenitor of our race, with his wife, whose name was Catherine Foster and six small children, Barbara, Catherine, John, Philip, Henry and Peter, left Tioga Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, and came up the Susquehanna River to Glen Aubrey, then a part of the town of Union, Tioga County, New York, to find a home. The country was then almost a wilderness, inhabited by the bear, wolf, panther, elk, deer and the wild Indian. Their progress up the river was slow and tedious. Their only means of travel was the primitive Indian canoe, to be pushed up the river with a setting pole. This frail craft was leaden with the family of eight persons and with what household goods they could take along to begin life anew. Their substance consisted principally of the wild game of the forest brought down by a trusty rifle in the hands of the father, and the fish caught from the river, while the mother prepared the frugal meal by the camp fire, while watching over the six little ones. They were usually lulled to sleep by the howling of the wolf, screeching of the panther, hooting of the owl, interlude to vary the monotony, perhaps, by the bark of the fox.

After a slow and tedious journey, paddling against the current, they arrived at the Chenango Point, now called Binghamton, where then there was but one house far down on the point of land between the confluence of the Susquehanna and Chenango Rivers. After a few days of rest and recuperation the father procured a yoke of oxen and a two wheeled cart into which was stowed all their earthly goods together with those members of the family who were not able to trudge on foot. You who have traveled by stage coach, rail, or perhaps by the Cunard Line to Europe, think of a two-wheeled cart being the only conveyance to carry a family of eight persons with their household goods from Binghamton to Glen Aubrey and over a road made only with an axe, through a dense forest over these hills!

Why, I can see the wheels of that cart , one going down into a hole and the other going over a knoll, one hub careening into a tree, and the cart shy across cod the other hub strike on a tree, and the other side, the tongue from the yoke against the rains and then back against the collared shoulders of those poor oxen with their tongues out. I can hear the mothers sing out "oh!" and see the children thrown from side to side and cry out with pain while being tumbled about in the cart. I can hear father crack his whip over those oxen's heads, saying, "whoa up, Buck and Broad!" to steady to cart over the rough road.

I don't wonder that dyspersia was an almost unknown desire in those days. If there is anything in the wide world that would stir up dyspersia it would be that mode of traveling. Arriving at Glen Aubry with only the canopy of leaves and the inter-locking branches for a covering, would to us, their descendants, they had poor outlook for a home, but that for a sturdy pair of oxen, five descendants of the tentative race, endured the hardships of the early days, they knew not what it was to quit. A rude log house was soon thrown up, into which the family was soon settled. The wild game of the forest and the fish from the bubbling brook still furnished the principal supply of food. The trees and underbrush were soon cleared away and a patch large enough to plant some corn and potatoes and the garden truck was soon prepared. Soon to them the desert (wilderness) began to blossom as the rose.

Thus our grand parents laid the foundation of their future home, where we now celebrate. There were added to the family four more children; Betsey, David, Jacob and Samuel, making ten in all, all of which lived to rear families of their own, dieing at a ripe old age.

The boys grew up doing most of the farm work and clearing the land. The girls helped spin the yarn, make the cloth and clothes and knit the stockings, for everything had to be done by hand in those days.

In those early days, the sheep and cattle were allowed to get their living in the woods. The millennium not having arrived, it was not thought best to allow the wolf and the sheep to lie together, so some of the boys were dispatched early enough in the afternoon to bring them into the fold at night. The boys soon contracted the habit (boy-like) of loitering, sometimes not getting in till after dark. After the usual anxiety on the part of the mother, she conceived the idea of giving the boys a scare to teach them to be in before dark, as savage wild animals abounded in those days. So she went in the direction from which they were to come, and on hearing the bell she hid behind a tree. After they had passed, she commenced imitating the wolf.

After listening (Philip and Henry) and on being convinced that the wolves were really after them, such a shooing and shouting is seldom seen or heard. Sometimes the boys were ahead of the sheep and sometimes they were on top of the sheep, and sometimes the sheep were on top of the boys. Thus it was boys and sheep and sheep and sheep and boys all mixed up together.

It had the desired effect. The boys could ever after get in on time and our grandmother was noted as a great knitter. She would be seen on the road knitting, making neighborhood calls. On one of these occasions a cross sheep buck took it into his head that it was not quite the proper thing for and old lady to be knitting along the road, so he put his theory in to practice and went for the old lady. But, she was too sharp for him: Stepping to one side as he made his plunge, she took him were old Grimes took the spotted steer, by the horns. She led him even into the brook, where she got a stone with which she pummeled his nose 'till it looked like the drunken woodpecker that smashed his face against a tree 'till 'twas all agore of blood. Mr Bucky, in his sheep talk (sheep talk sometimes, you know) said "Just knit or sew along the road as much as you please, but stop that."

Frequently the old hunter, on his hunting excursions, would sleep under the root of an upturned tree or log. On one of these occasions, a huge bear undertook to dispense of the old man at an unreasonable hour in the morning. Mr. Bear mounted the log, growling and thumping and advancing on the enemy's woods in the bear-ship style, but when thought too near for comfort or safety, the old hunter brought his flint lock at the crook of which Mr. Bruin tumbled off the log and summarily died without discussion.

Tradition says our ancestors were from Germany, and of the Lutheran persuasion. They were as a race, a deeply pious people, believing strictly in the doctrine as taught by Martin Luther. It might be mentioned in this connection that the doctrine taught by Luther were those of the mother church, from which he seceded. His protest was against the temporal rule and methods of the Pope, but not against the dogmas and doctrines of the Roman Church. To go back to the introduction of the Councilmans into their country, tradition states that the first progenitor was Christopher, a cultured German Gentleman, who landed at Baltimore some 150 years ago, at least. From him has sprung a numerous race which now inhabit Maryland, Pennsylvania, Delaware, New York, West Virginia, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Indiana, Illinois, and California.

Although it might be said, without disparagement, our bunch has never arrived, as yet, to any great degree of eminence in literacy attainment, political preferment, or in the accumulation of wealth. But this can be truthfully said: They are a kind-hearted, sympathetic, temperate, law abiding people. Kindness in preference to genius - one drop of human sympathy is better than an ounce of wealth, one grain of true patriotism to all the political trickery of the nineteenth century. So let our lives be one of usefulness, integrity and honesty. Let our aim be to discharge every duty that presents itself. To all our fellow men as far as circumstances will allow, and to do injury to none. Let our lives be one of good motives and good deeds. Ever let our conduct be squared by the highest principles of right, of justice and of truth. These are the greatest good.

Article in Tioga County, New York Herald
No Date, Reunion Occurred 1899

COUNCILMAN REUNION

The Councilman reunion and family picnic assembled at the casino grounds in Union, New York, in numbers around eighty, Saturday, September, 2nd. A very jolly, enjoyable affair it was. Their distinguished lady friend and distant relative, Mrs A M Cockey, from near Baltimore, Maryland, was with us, a true type of the Southern lady, and elegant conversationalist, but with all the Southern prejudices brought about by the late rebellion. It was really enjoyable to hear with what zest she would characterize Mrs. Harriet Beecher Stowe and "her batch of lies", from her stand point, in "Uncle Tom's Cabin", and the part William Lloyd Garrison took in bringing on the war between the North and the South.

The death of our President having occurred last May, it was necessary to elect some one to fill his place. Jicah F Councilman was elected to take the place of his father, Timothy S; Sylvester Councilman was elected Vice-President; Lorenzo Bush, treasurer. The next meeting was voted to take place the first Saturday in September, 1900, on Frank Davis' lawn, Newark Valley.