(From a Newspaper story )

BRADFORD REPORTER - TOWANDA, PA, March 13, 1884. 
COLUMBIA TOWNSHIP  

Part II   Typed and submitted by Barbara COMSTOCK Coy This is the Second Page 

BRADFORD REPORTER  
H. F. Marsh, Editor Towanda, Pa., March 13, 1884 
....
COLUMBIA X ROADS In the beautiful valley of the north branch of the Sugar Creek, 
along the line of the Northern Central Railroad, four miles north of Troy, is 
situated the village of Columbia Cross Roads, (so called from the intersection 
of the public roads at that point). The village comprises a population of one 
hundred souls, and is now improving rapidly. It is an important shipping-point 
in grain, bark and cattle. Last year ninety-six car loads of cattle were shipped, 
and two hundred of bark and grain. 

The settlement of this locality dates from 1799, when Eli Parsons and son Eli 
came in from Enfield, Connecticut, and took up four hundred acres under the 
Connecticut title which proved worthless. They built a log cabin near the Cross 
Roads. Mr. Parsons returned to Connecticut in the same year, but Eli, Jr., staid 
and chopped a fallow during the winter. He boarded with Reuben Barber, or as he 
was known "Dr. Barber," who was of Indian extraction. We think Barber lived in 
what became Troy township at that time. In the spring of 1800 young Parsons put 
in some crops. During the year his father moved in the family from Connecticut. 
Mr. Parsons was a tanner and currier, and carried on that business as soon as he 
could make the necessary preparations. In the meantime, however, he went to 
clearing up his land which he paid the Pennsylvania claimants for at the rate 
of one dollar per acre, or a bushel of wheat. Mr. Parsons had been a soldier 
in the Revolutionary war and drew a pension. He died at the Cross Roads in 
November, 1834. In 1810, Eli Parsons, Jr., located on the farm now occupied 
by his son A. S. Parsons, where the latter was born and has lived ever since. 
Eli Parsons, Jr., died in 1829. Mr. Parsons married Hannah Rockwell, daughter 
of Samuel Rockwell. The Rockwell family consisted of nine sons and a daughter. 
One of these sons, Luther Rockwell, also raised a family of nine sons and a 
daughter, which we have already adverted to. 

In the days of the senior Parsons the courts were held at Williamsport, and 
the most of the trading was done there. We have it that Mrs. Eli Parsons, Jr., 
when a girl with her mother, took on horseback $50 worth of maple sugar to 
Williamsport which they exchanged for articles of comfort. There were no bridges 
then, and they were compelled to ford the creek forty times. Mrs. A. [A. ?S.?] Parsons 
is a daughter of Jessie Taylor, late of Towanda. Her grandfather, Jas. Thayer, 
was one of the first settlers in Susquehanna County, and was a soldier in the 
Revolutionary war. M. S. Parsons, an electro-pathic physician of the firm of 
E. H. Parsons & Co., of Baltimore, is a son. Mr. Parsons is a extensive farmer, 
and carries young stock and sheep very largely.