William Nelson Lane (1887-1965) | WikiTree FREE Family Tree

William Nelson Lane

Born 19 Oct 1887 in Tunkhannock Township, Wyoming County, PA

Ancestors

Son of Hugh Bourn Lane and Lucina Jerusha (Nelson) Lane

Brother of Jessie May (Lane) Graves [half], Bertha Louise (Lane) Rubright [half], Sarah Etta (Lane) Dings [half], Harry Myron Lane [half], Jay Watson Lane, Edith Marion (Lane) Myers and Rodney Hugh Lane

Husband of Bethel (Broadbent) Lane — married 1919 in Tunkhannock, PA

Descendants

Father of Donald Hugh Lane and Herbert William Lane

Died 6 Nov 1965 at age 78 in Tunkhannock Township, Wyoming, Pennsylvania, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Laura Gingher

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Profile last modified 29 Dec 2023 | Created 26 Nov 2017

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Biography

Will Lane was raised in Tunkhannock Township a little over 3 miles north of Tunkhannock, PA along what is now route 29. He attended high shool in the red brick buidling at the corner of Harrison St. and Bridge St. in town. This school was built in 1854 with an addition in 1893. The building now houses the Wyoming County Historical Society.

After high school, Will worked on mail trains sorting letters as the train traveled to the mail's destination. He also was in the contruction trade building houses in Texas. He used the money he earned to buy a farm in Wyoming County in 1917.

He married Bethel Broadbent and they had six sons. Will started Willabeth Farms a dairy operation. He grew potatoes as a cash crop. Some of the potatoes would be hauled to the potato chip factory in Scranton and there would be a box of chips on the seat of the truck when it came home. Many of the potatoes were sold locally to the residents of the area. Will's grandson noted that there was another large bin to the right of the one pictured on this page. Another cash crop was honey production the proceeds of which put his first son thru college. He also raised chickens.

Will was instrumental in forming a 'bull ring' to improve the genetics of the herd. This went on to become NEBA (North East Pennsylvania Artificial Breeders Association). Such dairy cow breeding cooperatives were forming thru out the nation. This company morphed into Sire Power and is now Select Sires an international company that still has a presence in Tunkhannock.

https://www.wcexaminer.com/stud-farm-business-has-local-roots-1.1624467

WIlliam Lane, of Tunkhannock Township, comes into the 400 class by raising 400 bushels of potatoes per acre.^[1]

At a very successful 14th annual meeting of the Tunkhannock Artificial Breeding Cooperative on Saturday, Al Hallock, Donald Arthur and William Lane were elected as directors; and Donald Williams as president. ^[2]

Scroll down for a postscript in the 'memory section' of this profile.

Sources

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/184335999/william-nelson-lane

↑ 100 Years Ago (1923) column published on 1 Nov 2023 Wyoming County Press Examiner
↑ 60 Years Ago (1959) column published on 13 Feb 2019 Wyoming County Press Examiner

Memories: 1

Enter a personal reminiscence or story.

Laura (Lane) Gingher

This is not a 'memory' but something of interest to the profile manager: The original settlement of 'Putnam Township' (now known as Tunkhannock) was just before and then after the Revolutionary War. The Yankee/ Pennamite War started before the Rev. War and continued for a time after as the Connecticut settlers were moving in from the east and the Pennsylvania settlers were moving in from the south. Both states laid claim to the same land in northeastern Pennsylvania.

A settler by the name of Increase Billings (his father had same name) wound up with warrant no. 23 (at least that was the number on the one extant map) which was the farm property.

After the Civil War the farmhouse that I grew up in was built by Daniel Billings. The property was out of the Billings family for a short time until my grandfather, William Nelson Lane, bought it and married my grandmother (who happened to be a descendent of the Billings!). Life goes around in big circles sometimes. Increase Billings was my 6X great grandfather.

If you do a google search on ‘Increase Billings’ it should take you to the wikitree profile pages for father and son. The son died in Tunkhannock, PA. If you add ‘Putnam Township’ to the search it should take you to this on-line book, “Proceedings and Collections, Volumes 7-8” by Wyoming Historical and Geological Society. If you read down maybe 8 pages (and it is fun, interesting reading), you see that Increase Billings was assigned lot no. 21 in 1777 and lot no. 20 in 1786. I think the settlers were allowed two years to build on their lot in order to claim it so perhaps that is why the parcel for Increase got reassigned. Someone who volunteers at the Wyoming County Historical Society thought the reason for the different numbers was that Connecticut and Pennsylvania had separate surveys done. I wonder if some horse trading was done by the settlers. An old map of the warrants lists the farm property as No. 23.

Zebulon Marcy, thought to be the first Connecticut settler in Tunkhannock, is on record as being friendly with the Pennsylvania settlers too. Maybe his was a peacemaking personality or maybe he felt the land was eventually going to be part of PA and he was being pragmatic…we’ll never know. The small Marcy Cemetery is right across the road from Sunnyside Cemetery and has stonewalls on all sides. It is next to the Minor Burgess property (now the county 911 Center).

posted 16 Oct 2022 by Laura (Lane) Gingher [thank Laura]

Is William your relative? Please don't go away!