USA > Pennsylvania > Warren County > Warren > Warren centennial : an account of the celebration at Warren, Pennsylvania July 2d, 3d, and 4th in commeration of the first century after the laying out of the town of Warren > Part 1
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GEN
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 02953 3392
Gc 974.802 W25wc Warren centennial
WARREN, PENNSYLVANIA.
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WARREN PUBLIC LIBRARY Judge Don Binkowski Michigan Historical Collection WARREN CENTENNIAL
AN ACCOUNT
OF THE
CELEBRATION AT WARREN, PENNSYLVANIA
July 2d, 3d, and 4th, 1895
IN COMMEMORATION OF THE FIRST CENTURY AFTER THE LAYING OUT OF THE TOWN OF WARREN
PUBLISHED BY THE Warren Library Association 1897
Aler. Count. PIDE Library 900 WOL
F.
ON THE THRESHOLD
THE preservation of any record of the daily events at the Warren Centennial, including the speeches and addresses, is due to the enterprise and neighborly interest of the editor of the "Oil City Derrick." From the elaborate reports pub- lished in that journal the editor has freely drawn in the preparation of this volume.
Articles descriptive of the various features of the exhibition have been kindly furnished by Mrs. James Brann, Mrs. F. H. Rockwell, Mrs. Charles W. Stone, Mrs. W. M. Lindsey, Miss Belle S. Val- entine, Mr. C. D. Crandall, Mr. W. V. N. Yates, Mr. Joseph A. Scofield, and Superintendent W. L. MacGowan, which have been used in the prepara- tion or incorporated into the text of the volume.
The view of the old-time Warren Street is repro- duced from a drawing by Miss Elizabeth Lesser, after some old photographs, and she has also kindly furnished several other drawings. Mr. W. A. Greaves loaned his water-color, "Coming Down from Yankee Bush," which will be recognized as a faithful portrait of a familiar character. He also kindly furnished a number of most interesting pho- tographs, as did Messrs. Bairstow and Binder.
To all of these, as well as to the great number
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of other persons to whom the editor is indebted for the use of pictures and cuts, and for information and assistance in his work, he desires to express his grateful thanks.
The appearance of the book has been greatly delayed. Some causes for this might be mentioned for which the editor is not responsible, yet it cannot be denied that the principal cause is the mistake of the Centennial Association in its selection of the per- son to whom the task of its preparation was as- signed. But while the publication has been delayed, the scope of the work has expanded from a mere souvenir to a volume, which, however deficient in literary quality, will, it is believed, be found to pos- sess great interest to the citizens of Warren and to be of permanent value. In selecting the illustra- tions the editor has been embarrassed, and what to leave out has given him serious concern. Portraits of many persons have been inserted, while others no less prominent in the history of the town have been omitted-in some cases because they could not be obtained, and in others because the means at the disposal of the editor would not admit of more pict- ures. Portraits of living persons, however, have not been inserted, except in the case of ex-Judges and Congressmen, though the faces of many appear in the various groups.
The editor desires, in conclusion, to express his sense of obligation to Mr. Joseph Knight, of the firm of Henry T. Coates & Co., for many kind- nesses over and above the ordinary services of the publishers.
BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
HE Centennial Exhibition was an at- tempt to illustrate the history of the town of Warren from its be- ginning to its one hundredth birth- day. This history, as well as that of the county in general, will be found treated in detail in Mr. Mor- ris' historical address, but a brief chronicle of the principal events seems to be required as an introduction to the de- scription of the exhibition itself.
The History begins with the year 1749, when Captain Bienville de Celeron, with his company of French and Indians, passed down the Conewango to the Allegheny, landed on the south bank of the latter stream, and buried a leaden plate declaring the sovereignty of the King of France. At or near the mouth of the Conewango there was then an Indian village, called variously on the old maps and in old documents "Kanoagoa," "Canawagy," "Canawago," and "Conewagoo." It was certainly there when, in 1779, Colonel Brodhead came up the river to punish Cornplanter for his assistance to the British cause, and in 1785, when Brigadier-General William Ir- vine visited the country and cast his practical eye
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upon the beautiful flats at the mouths of the Cone- wango and Brokenstraw, which he afterwards took up from the State, and which in part still remain in the ownership of his descendants. The exhibition, therefore, naturally began with an Indian village, and the descendants of Cornplanter, still living on the banks of the Allegheny, gladly availed them- selves of the opportunity to return for a few days to the home and manners of their fathers.
Pursuant to an act of the Legislature, passed June 19, 1795, the town of Warren was laid out by the Com- missioners of the State, Gen. William Irvine and Andrew Ellicott, into 524 lots and CORNPLANTER. certain "out-lots " - undi- vided tracts adjoining the "in-lots." The Commissioners began their sur- vey at a stone on the bank of the Conewango, which disappeared before the memory of any person now living ; but at a very early day some thoughtful person, probably Robert Falconer, set stones at the four corners of Market and High streets, from which the present landmarks have been derived. The dimensions of the lots and the absence of alleys in the middle of the blocks have been found serious mistakes in modern times, but the general plan of the town was convenient and beautiful.
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BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
A wide street was run along the bank of the river and up the Conewango to the limit of the plot, thus leaving an unobstructed view of the river and the hill scenery beyond for a distance of more than half a mile ; but as the streams were, at the time, the only thoroughfares, it is probable that this arrange- ment was prompted by commercial rather than by æsthetic considerations.
Back from the river, High street, one hundred feet in width, was laid in nearly a straight line from the initial point of the survey on the banks of the Conewango to the western limit ; and Market street, also one hundred feet wide, from the northern boundary to the river. At the intersection of these wide streets a large square was reserved for public use.
The site of the town was reserved by the Com- monwealth from the grant to the Holland Land Company. An- drew Ellicott and his son-in-law, Dr. Ken- nedy, with a party of assistants, were on the ground surveying for that company in FIRST HOUSE IN WARREN. 1794-5, and they erected a house of hewn logs as a depot of supplies. This block-house, without floor, window or chimney, was the first permanent build- ing. It remained until about 1840, and our illustra- tion is from a drawing made by A. D. Wood, Esq., from the description of those who remember
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its appearance. Daniel McQuay, a witty and in- domitable Irishman, who several times returned on foot from New Orleans to the Brokenstraw after making the descent of the rivers on rafts, lived for a time with his family in this house, and was thus the first permanent resident of Warren. Here, a little later, David Brown, the father of Judge William D. Brown, abided with his family for a time, and his daughter Mary, afterwards Mrs. Jagger, of Sugar Grove, was born there in 1807, the first female born in the town, the first male being Stephen Gilson.
The storehouse and an abandoned improvement on the Conewango flats opposite the town site were the only evidences of civilized life which were visible when, in 1798, James Morrison, Jr., and Gates Mur- dock landed from their dugout in the eddy. The fine growth of large oaks which originally covered the ground had been blown down by a terrific wind storm, in which Ellicott and his party nearly lost their lives, in 1795. In ISoo James Morrison, Sr., and Jeremiah Morrison arrived, and in 1803 John Gilson and others.
In 1797 Daniel Jackson settled on what is now the Wetmore farm on the Jackson run, and about I Soo was celebrated the starting of the first saw- mill in the county. At this mill the first raft of lumber ever floated down the Allegheny is said to have been sawed.
Although so far from civilized life, and living in log huts, the pioneers were not unmindful of the duty of education. As early as 1804 the Morrison,
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BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
Gilson and Jackson children were gathered into a very select school under a Mrs. Cheeks, whose equip- ment consisted of a Dilworth's Speller and a copy of the New Testament, and she was succeeded the following winter by Betsy Gilson. In 1805 Daniel Jackson, with lumber from his Jackson run saw- mill, built the Jackson Tavern on the site where the Citizens' Bank now stands, which became the first licensed "inn or tavern" in the county. In a small vacant room in this building George W. Fenton, little dream- ing that he was to be the father of a Gov- ernor and United States Senator of the Empire State, wield- ed the birch, in the winter of 1806, until the school-house, of MRS. DANIEL JACKSON. round logs, with openings covered by oiled paper for windows, which was built in that year, was ready.
It was in this same room in Jackson's Tavern that Lothrop T. Parmlee, in ISOS, opened the first stock of " store goods" ever brought to Warren, and here also his rival in business during so many years, Archibald Tanner, displayed his first stock, brought by keel-boat up the Allegheny from the Ohio Valley. Mr. Parmlee remained but a short
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time at his first visit, but returned in time to dis- pute with Mr. Tanner, who came in 1815, the title of first merchant. His house and store building stood a little west of the present Carver House, while Mr. Tanner, with an eye to the advantages of the river bank, took his chances of disturbance, and built in 1816 the little one-story frame building which still stands on the bank of the river and within the bounds of the street. In times of freshet steam- boats were moored to its foundation-walls, and the cargoes loaded and unloaded by the use of a bull- wheel at the rear, overhanging the water.
In 18OS came John King, who married Betsy Gilson, the school-ma'am. Their son, Rufus P. King, Esq., and many grand and great-grandchildren, are still among us. In 1812 Martin Reese, Sr., built of hewn logs a house which stood until the First National Bank building was erected on its site, For many years it was the famous Dunn's Tavern, head- quarters for lumbermen, and boasted of having sheltered Aaron Burr for several days while he sojourned here, storm bound, on his way to visit Blennerhassett.
From the close of the year 1812 to the climax of the lumbering business, Warren was a fairly prosperous and active town. Postal service was established in the spring of 1815. Andrew Coburn was the first postmaster, and made his first quarterly report July 1, 1815, but the precise date of his commission cannot be ascertained. After Coburn, Archibald Tanner held the office several years.
The county of Warren was established in 18oo,
ARCHIBALD TANNEK.
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BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
but it was attached to Venango for judicial pur- poses until 1819, when Warren really became a county-seat. By that time many men prominent in its later annals had arrived, among them Col. Joseph Hackney, Henry Dunn, Zachariah Eddy, John An- drews, James Follett, Robert Falconer, Lansing Wetmore, Abram Ditmars, and the first lawyer, Abner Hazeltine. James Stewart in this year built
CHARLES AND WILLIAM O' BALL ..
the first saw-mill, availing himself of the water- power still in use. He built, also, the first grist- mill, in IS2S.
When Warren County was organized for busi- ness in 1819 Archibald Tanner became County Treasurer, Lansing Wetmore Prothonotary and Clerk of the Courts, etc., and Joseph Hackney and Isaac Connelly Associate Judges. The County
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Commissioners, James Benson, Asa Winter and Henry Dunn, got first to work, and their first busi- ness appears to have been to settle the claim of Charles O'Bail, son of Cornplanter, for the bounty on two full-grown wolf-scalps.
Monday, November 29, 1819, is a date to be written large in the annals of Warren. On that day, in an unfinished room in the house of Ebenezer Jackson, standing where the Carver House is now located, the Courts of Common Pleas, Orphans' Court, Court of Quarter Sessions, Oyer and Termi- ner and General Jail Delivery, were solemnly opened for Warren County. It was a day of jubilee and jollification among the citizens of the county, and nobody was absent. Richard B. Miller, the foreman of the Grand Jury, and Guy C. Irvine, the famous river lumberman, came on foot, with packs on their backs, through the woods from the Brokenstraw by way of Chandler's Valley. Sheriff Bowman, Pro- thonotary Alexander McCalmont and Court Crier Morrison came from Venango to show the officers of the new county how to conduct a court.
The appointed hour having arrived, Crier Morri- son stood in the front door of the rude building and blew his horn, the town affording no bell. At the signal the officers assembled, and, led by the sheriff, escorted the Court to the room. President Judge Jesse Moore, of Meadville, but originally of Phila- delphia, a large and venerable-looking gentleman of the old school, with a broad-brimmed beaver upon his head, took his seat on the bench, with the Lay Judges, Hackney and Connelly, flanking him to right
ABNER HAZELTINE.
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BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
and left, while the audience filled the rude benches, and, for want of other room, even perched upon the bare beams overhead. Crier Morrison, with great dignity, recited the quaint formula still in use in opening court, concluding with what Daniel McQuay called "a bit of a prayer"-"God save the Common- wealth and this Honorable Court."
The oath of office as attorneys in the new courts was then administered to the lawyers present. The only resident lawyer was Abner Hazeltine, after- wards judge in Chautauqua County, N. Y., but Col. Ralph Marlin and Patrick Farrelly, of Meadville, Thomas H. Sill, of Erie, and John Galbraith, of Franklin, afterwards president judge, were present. Some civil causes had been transferred from Ve- nango, but none were tried, and the court would have adjourned without a jury trial had not an altercation taken place in the evening between John Dixon, a member of the grand jury, and Col. Marlin, both being a little more than "gentlemanly gay," to use L. S. Parmlee's phrase. This resulted in the prosecution of both for assault and battery, in the trial of which Messrs. Sill and Galbraith, the latter a very young man, distinguished themselves.
In 1820 the first frame school-house was erected by the inhabitants on the northwest part of the plot reserved for public uses. In 1825 it was removed to the adjoining lot, and subsequently converted into a dwelling-house.
On its first site a court-house was erected between 1825 and 1827, the first brick building in the county. The bricks were made at the corner of Market and
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Fifth streets, where Charles W. Stone found the remains of the brick-yard when he applied his exhaustless energies to gardening there, after his marriage in the late '6os. Across Market street the first jail, a leaky structure, which some early humorist likened to a "turkey-pen," was built, and
OLD COURT- HOUSE.
the old stone jail which succeeded it is still remem- bered by the youngsters.
The Warren of the '6os was a rude little ham- let, " beautiful for situation," but for nothing else. The business of the country was lumbering, and the river was crowded in high water with rafts. When the water was high enough, steamboats from Pittsburg ascended the river laden with passengers,
LANSING WETMORE.
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BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
"store goods" and whiskey, and when it was low, transportation for persons and goods was by keel- boats and canoes. In very early days an occasional Methodist preacher held services on Sunday, and before 1820 Abner Hazeltine read sermons in his house to the assembled people, which resulted in a regular meeting in the new school-house, when it became available in that year, out of which grew the First Presbyterian Church.
July 24, 1825, the first number of the Conewango Emigrant was issued. The name was soon changed to the Warren Courier, but it suspended in the spring of 1826. The starting of the Emigrant stirred up Tanner and Lansing Wetmore, both ardent Whigs. With the help of some Whig Quakers in Philadelphia, who furnished them the Ramage press which was one of the curiosities of the Centennial, they started the Warren Gazette, with Wetmore as editor and Morgan Bates as printer, and put forth their first number February 18, 1826. The old press was used for Whig news- papers until Ephraim Cowan established the Warren Mail and supplanted it with a Washington. The Gazette, however, suspended in 1829, when Thomas Clemons and William A. Olney issued the Voice of the People, which in time became the Warren Bul- letin, then the Democratic Advocate, then the Warren Standard, and finally, on the first day of May, 1849, the Warren Ledger-a long line of Democratic journals. No Whig paper succeeded the Gazette until August, 1838, when M. Milligan issued the People's Monitor, which ran a languishing course
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until 1845, when it died on the hands of P. S. Cole. In 1848 a few earnest Whigs started the Allegheny Mail, with J. Warren Fletcher as editor. In a few months the paper fell into the hands of Ephraim Cowan, who changed the name to Warren Mail, under which title it is still conducted by his sons.
On Wednesday, May 24, 1826, the first four-horse stage arrived. The editor of the Gazette, proudly announcing the event, declared that anyone who had fa- vored such an enter- prise five years pre- viously would have been regarded as "visionary and chi- merical." Stages now plied between Warren and Dunkirk once a week, the same gradually im- proving until, about 1 848, by the new line established by Rich- ard T. Orr and others, a traveller could go FIRST M. E. CHURCH OF 1833. from Pittsburgh to Buffalo in less than three days, stages leaving Warren for Pittsburg every morning, and for Buffalo every evening.
Although the Presbyterians had the first con- gregation, the Methodist Episcopal was the first
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BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
church building dedicated in the town. It was a substantial brick building, dedicated in 1833, and was occupied continuously until it was demolished in 1885, when the present more elegant structure was built. The first Presbyterian church was dedi- cated in 1834. It was a quaint wooden building with a high pulpit, gallery, and fur-
nished with "pews" and "slips." To raise the necessary
funds the pews were sold out- right, which gave rise to a notable controversy, later on, when the necessities of the congregation made it expedi- ent to exact a rent for their use.
ROBERT MILES.
Robert Miles and Walter W. Hodges, smarting under what they regarded as a great injustice, con- sulted Judge Scofield as to their remedy against the congregation, which had appropriated their pews. At the critical moment Hodges relented and said, " I think we had better give it up ; we cannot fight the church."
"Walter," said Mr. Miles, with a stamp of his cane, "don't you remember the old hymn,
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'Sure I must fight, if I would reign ; Increase my courage, Lord ' ?
Sue 'em, Scofield."
The old church was replaced in 1866 by a hand-
PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF IS66.
some frame building which still stands, though the congregation has outgrown it.
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BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
So far, with a very few exceptions, the inhabitants of Warren were born under " Old Glory "-Scotch- Irish from the southwest, New Englanders, or New Yorkers of Dutch ancestry. In the summer of 1828 the tide of immigration from Europe touched this secluded valley. The first wave was a company of Alsatians and Germans, eighty in number, who, hav- ing penetrated so far into the wilderness, pitched their tents at the mouth of the Conewango, where they were visited by all the inhabitants, who gazed with interest and wonder at the quaint costumes, wooden shoes, and strange, shy faces of the im- migrants, and re-in- vented the sign-lan- guage in order to communicate with them.
Strange and for- eign as was the ap- pearance of these immigrants, the Alsa- tians and Germans who came to Warren LEWIS ARNETT. from 1828 to 1850 rapidly became thoroughly Americanized, and their names begin to appear on the court records as prospective citizens as early as 1832. The same names are still familiar, and we do not now remem- ber that they are foreign. Mr. Lewis Arnett, whose
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portrait we insert, was one of the earliest arrivals. He worked on the mill-dam as a day laborer, and afterwards became the owner of the mills, and re- built them on a large scale. He was for many years one of the most prominent business men in Warren. He served as Burgess of the town, and afterwards as associate judge.
The pioneers, Daniel Jackson, John Gilson, and all who died at Warren before 1823, were buried in an acre lot in the midst of Jackson's farm. In IS23 a regular town burial-ground was established on two lots on East Water street, at the corner of Fifth. Here, and on the two lots adjoining on the west, the dead were laid, the woods gradually giving place to pastures, and the pastures to open streets, with dwellings crowding all about their resting-place, until the present cemetery was opened in 1863, since which time the last remains have been trans- ferred thither.
The first settled physicians in the town were Dr. Abraham Hazeltine and Dr. Thomas Huston, both of whom came in 1828. The former remained ten years or more, and his two sons, Dr. William V. Hazeltine and A. J. Hazeltine, President of the Warren Savings Bank, returned many years ago to their father's early home.
About 1826, Mr. Tanner, whose merchandising had prospered, built a row of frame buildings extend- ing from the old Jackson Tavern to Second street. One of these became in that year the famous " Man- sion House." It was a low, rambling structure, with a quaint "cupola," or bell-tower, surmounting its
THOMAS STRUTHERS.
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BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
broad roof, in which hung the bell, which became one of the best known objects in the town. It was for many years a sort of regulator of the town, and was removed in 1859 to the Tanner House. Mr. Tanner's daring and enterprise prompted him in 1830 to join with David Dick, of Meadville, in trying steam navigation on the upper Allegheny. A boat was built and sent to Olean and back, but it served only to astonish the Indians on their reservation and give old chief Cornplanter and his sons an unique excursion, after which the enterprise was abandoned.
In the decade from 1830 to 1840 a number of important events occurred.
In 1832 the town was incorporated as a borough, having at the time 358 inhabitants. The assessment of 1833 shows the names of Josiah Hall, Gilman Merrill, Thomas Struthers and Lansing Wetmore, attorneys-at-law ; Abraham Hazeltine, Timothy F. Parker and Henry Sargent, physicians; Daniel Chase, Robert Falconer, Samuel D. Hall, Orris Hall, William P. McDowell, Lothrop S. Parmlee and Archibald Tanner, merchants. In obtaining the charter, Archibald Tanner, always leading in every enterprise, and his attorney, Thomas Struthers, were active. Mr. Tanner had been indicted by the grand jury for maintaining his store building on the river- bank within the bounds of the street. Struthers, seeing no escape from conviction, cleverly procured the insertion in the incorporating act of a clause providing that fences and buildings encroaching upon public streets should not be disturbed, but
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should not be rebuilt. It is by virtue of this shrewd device that the queer little building still stands, perpetually renewed but never rebuilt.
From 1830 to 1836 the school question agitated the minds of the people of Warren. A tract of 500 acres had been set apart by the State in 1799 for an academy, and the academy was incorporated, but had no building. At last, in 1834, aided by a grant of $2000 from the State, a building was begun on the southeast corner of the public square, opposite the jail. In 1836 the academy was organ- ized under Rasselas Brown, fresh from college, as principal, meeting in the court- house for a short time until the build- ing was ready. From this time the academy becarne the school of Warren until the erection of the first union school build- ing in 1856.
The first bank in the borough was the "Lumberman's," chartered in 1834, of ROBERT FALCONER. which Robert Fal- coner was president and Fitch Shepard cashier. Falconer built in this year the stone house, still standing, opposite the court-house, and in this the
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BY WAY OF INTRODUCTION
banking office was located. Fitch Shepard's two sons, who passed part of their boyhood in Warren, afterwards became prominent figures in New York, one of them being Col. Elliott F. Shepard, the son- in-law of William H. Vanderbilt and editor of the Mail and Express.
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