CHAPTER XX 



THE BINGHAM ESTATE 



Story of the Original Owners of Large Tracts of 



Land in Potter and Adjoining Counties. 



Written by M. J. Colcord, Editor, 1916 

 (From the Potter County Journal) 



WHOEVER has had to deal with land titles in 

 Potter county has surely become familiar with 

 the name of Bingham, as the title to most of the land 

 is traced back to the ''Bingham Estate" in northern 

 and western Potter. No doubt many who own such 

 land today have little knowledge of the original owners 

 of what was mostly a dense forest but little over a hun- 

 dred years ago. 



Mr. A. B. Mann, whose knowledge of early titles is 

 probably as good as, any man in the County, has an 

 exemplification of some deeds made in 1796 for 249,000 

 acres in what was then Lycoming county, from William 

 Bingham to parties who finally conveyed to John Keat- 

 ing and others, trustees, of which grantees, one was 

 John S. Roulet (notice the spelling) after whom Rou- 

 let township was named. So it seems that most of 

 Potter county landtitles trace back to \\^illiam Bing- 

 ham. He derived title from state patents and deeds 

 from William Willino-. 



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