USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Brookville > A pioneer history of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania and my first recollections of Brookville, Pennsylvania, 1840-1843, when my feet were bare and my cheeks were brown > Part 12
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" Here is the opportunity of the bee-hunter. In the backwoods coun- ties of Western Pennsylvania bee-hunting is as popular a sport with some as deer-hunting or trout fishing. It does not have nearly so many devo- tees, perhaps, as these latter sports, for the reason that a greater degree of woodcraft, skill, and patience is required to become a proficient bee- hunter. Any backwoodsman can search out and stand guard at a deer runway, watch a lick, or follow a trail ; and his skill with a rifle, in the use of which he is familiar from his early boyhood, insures him an equal chance in the pursuit of game. It does not require any nice display of woodcraft to tramp over the mountains to the head of the trout stream, with a tin spice-box full of worms, cut an ash sapling, equip it with the hook and line, and fish the stream down to its mouth. But to search out a small insect as it sips the nec- tar from the blossoms, trace it to its home, and successfully despoil it of its hoarded stores, requires a degree of skill and patience that compara- tively few care to attain. Yet in every community of this section are Straw bee scap. some old fellows who do not consider life complete without a crockful of strained honey in the cellar when winter sets in. Then, as they sit with their legs under the kitchen-table while their wives bake smoking-hot buckwheat cakes, the pungent flavor of decayed wood which the honey imparts to their palates brings back the glory of the chase. Whenever a man takes to bee hunting he is an enthusiastic devotee, and with him all other sport is relegated to the background.
" There are many methods employed in hunting the wild honey-bee. The first essential is a knowledge of bees and their habits. This can only be acquired by experience and intelligent observation. The man who can successfully ' line' bees can also successfully ' keep' them in a domestic state, but a successful apiarist is not necessarily a good bee- hunter.
" September and October are the best months for securing wild honey, as the bees have then in the main completed their stores. At that season they can also be most readily lined, for the scarcity of sweets makes them more susceptible to artificial bait. But the professional bee-hunter does
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
not, as a rule, wait until fall to do all his lining. He wants to know what is in prospect, and by the time the honey-bee suspends operations for the winter the hunter has perhaps a dozen bee-trees located which he has been watching all summer in order to judge as near as possible as to the amount of stored honey they contain. If the hunter wants to save the bees he cuts the tree in June and hives the inmates in the same man- ner as when they swarm in a domestic state. Many swarms are thus ob- tained, and the hunter scorns to expend any money for a swarm of bees which he can get for the taking. As a matter of course, when the honey is taken in the fall the bees, being despoiled of their subsistence, inevi- tably perish.
"' I'll gather the honey-comb bright as gold, And chase the elk to his secret fold.'
" The first warm days of April, when the snows have melted from the south side of the hills, and the spring runs are clear of ice, find the bee- hunter on the alert. There is nothing yet for the bees to feed upon, but a few of the advance-guard are emerging from their long winter's hiber- nations in search of pollen and water, and they instinctively seek the water's edge where the warm rays of the sun beat down. Where the stream has receded from the bank, leaving a miniature muddy beach, there the bees congregate, dabbling in the mud, sipping water and carry- ing it away. The first material sought for by the bees is pollen, and the earliest pasturage for securing this is the pussy willow and skunk-cabbage, which grow in the swamps. After these comes the soft maple, which also affords a large supply of pollen. Sugar-maple is among the first wild growth which furnishes any honey. Then comes the wild cherry, the locust, and the red raspberries and blackberries. Of course, the first blos- soms and the cultivated plants play an important part, but the profusion of wild flowers which are honey-bearing would probably supply as much honey to the acre as the cultivated sections.
" The wild honeysuckle, which covers thousands of acres of the mountain ranges with a scarlet flame in May, is a particular favorite with bees, as is also the tulip-tree, which is quite abundant in this section. Basswood honey has a national reputation, and before the paper-wood cutters despoiled the ridges and forests the basswood-tree furnished an almost unlimited feeding-ground. This tree blooms for a period of two or three weeks, and a single swarm has been known to collect ten pounds of honey in a day when this flower was in blossom. Devil's-club fur- nishes another strong feed for bees, as well as the despised sumach. Last, but not least, is the golden-rod, which in this latitude lasts from August until killed by the autumn frosts. While these are the chief wild-honey producing trees and plants, they are but a fractional part of the honey resources of the country.
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
" Having discovered the feeding-ground and haunts of the wild honey-bee, the hunter proceeds to capture a bee and trace it to its habi- tation. This is done by ' lining,'-that is, following the bee's flight to its home. The bee always flies in a direct line to its place of abode, and this wonderful instinct gives rise to the expression, 'a bee-line.'
" To assist in the chase the hunter provides himself with a ' bee- box,' which is any small box possessing a lid, with some honey inside for bait. Arrived at any favorable feeding-ground, the hunter eagerly scans the blossoms until he finds a bee at work. This he scoops into his box and closes the lid. If he can capture two or more bees at once, so much the better. After buzzing angrily for a few moments in the darkened box the bee scents the honey inside and immediately quiets down and begins to work. Then the box is set down and the lid opened. When the bee gets all the honey she can carry she mounts upward with a rapid spiral motion until she gets her bearings, and then she is off like a shot in a direct line to her habitation. Presently she is back again, and this time when she departs her bearings are located and she goes direct. After several trips more bees appear, and when they get to working the bait and the line of their flight is noted, the box is closed when the bees are inside and moved forward along the direction in which they have been coming and going. The hunter carefully marks his trail and opens the box again. The bees are apparently unconscious that they have been moved, and work as before. This manœuvre is repeated until the spot where the swarm is located is near at hand, and then comes the most try- ing part of the quest to discover the exact location of the hive. Some- times it is in the hollow of a dead tree away to the top ; sometimes it is near the bottom. Again, it may be in a hollow branch of a living tree of gigantic proportions, closely hidden in the foliage, or it may be in an old stump or log. To search it out requires the exercise of much patience, as well as a quick eye and an acute ear.
" To determine the distance of the improvised hive after a line has been established from the bee-box the hunter resorts to ' cross-lining.' This is done by moving the box when the bees are at work in it some distance to one side. The bees as usual fly direct to their home, the second line of flight converging with the first, forming the apex of a triangle, the distance between the first and second locations of the box being the base and the two lines of flight the sides. Where the lines meet the habita- tion is to be found.
" Different kinds of bait are frequently used in order to induce the bees to work the box. In the flowering season a little anise or other pun- gent oil is rubbed on the box to attract the bees and keep them from being turned aside by the wealth of blossoms along their flight. It is a mistake to mix the oil with the bait, as it spoils the honey the bees make and poisons the whole swarm. Sometimes in the early spring corn-cobs
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
soaked in stagnant brine proves an attractive bait, while late in the fall beeswax burned on a heated stone will bring the belated straggler to the bee-box.
" Cutting a bee-tree is the adventuresome part of the sport. An angry swarm is a formidable enemy. Then, too, the treasure for which the hunter is in search is about to be revealed, and the possibilities bring a thrill of anticipation and excitement. So far as the danger goes the experienced hunter is prepared for that, and protects his head and face by a bag of mosquito-netting drawn over a broad-brimmed hat. With gloves on his hands he is tolerably protected, but sometimes a heavy swarm breaks through the netting, and instances are on record where bee-hunters have been so severely stung in despoiling wild swarms as to endanger their lives. In felling a tree great care must be exercised in order that the tree may not break up and destroy the honey. Sometimes trees are felled after night, as bees do not swarm about in the darkness, and the danger of getting stung is not so great.
" The amount of honey secured depends upon the age of the swarm. Frequently much time and labor have been expended in lining and cut- ting a tree which yielded nothing, while again the returns have been large. There are instances in this community where a single tree yielded over two hundred pounds of good honey. Not long since a hunter cut a tree in which a hollow space about eighteen inches in diam- eter was filled with fine honey for a length of fifteen feet. Often a tree is cut which has been worked so long that part of the honey is spoiled with age. Often the comb is broken and the honey mingled with the decayed wood of the tree. The bee-hunter, however, carefully gathers up the honey, wood and all, in a tin pail, and strains it, and the pungent flavor of the wood does not in the least detract from the quality in his estimation.
" Bee-hunting as a sport could be pursued in nearly every section of Western Pennsylvania, particularly in the lumbering and tannery districts. In these sections thousands of acres are annually stripped of timber, ex- tending many miles back from the settled districts. Fire runs through these old slashings every year or so, and a dense growth of blackberry and raspberry briers spring up. These, with the innumerable varieties of wild flowers, afford a rich and vast pasturage for the honey-bee which has thrown off the restraints of civilization. Swarm upon swarm is propa- gated, the surplus product of which is never utilized. With a little en- couragement bee- hunting might become as popular a form of sport with the dweller of the town as with the skilled woodsman."
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
CHAPTER VII.
RUNWAYS, PATHS, TRAILS, DEER RUNS AND CROSSINGS, INDIAN TRAILS- THE WHITE MAN'S PATH-DAVID AND JOHN MEADE-MEADE'S PACK- HORSE TRAIL-PIONEER SETTLEMENT IN THE NORTHWEST-WHITE BOYS CAPTURED AND REARED BY INDIANS-PIONEER EXPLORERS AND SETTLERS.
PREVIOUS to the white man's advent here this wilderness had public highways, but they were for the wild deer and savage Indians. These thoroughfares were called " deer paths" and "Indian trails." These paths were usually well beaten and crossed each other as civilized roads now do. The first trail discovered and traversed by the white man was the Indian Chinklacamoose path, which extended from what is now Clear- field town to what is now Kittanning. This Indian trail passed through what is now Punxsutawney, and over this path and through this Indian town Allegheny Indians carried their white prisoners from the eastern part of the State to what was then called Kittany, on the Allegheny River. From a most careful and thorough search to ascertain when the first path or trail of the white man was made through or in what is now our county, I find it to be in the year 1787. In this year of grace two hardy and courageous men, David and John Meade, were living in what is now Sunbury, Pennsyl- vania, where John was keeping an inn or tavern. These two brothers having read General George Washington's report to Governor Dinwiddie, of Virginia, of the rich lands and valleys that were unoccupied in what is now called Venango and Crawford Counties, Pennsylvania, determined to explore that region for themselves. To reach this uninhabited section they were compelled to open a path from east to west, through what is now called Jefferson County, then Northumberland County, and which path is now called in history " Meade's Trail." This trail passed through what are now West Reynoldsville, Port Barnett, and Brookville.
Fired with the zeal and energy of youth, David and John Meade blazed their way through this wilderness, over or through streams and across hills until they reached a broad valley upon whose bosom now reposes the city of Meadville. Being pleased with the valleys and hills, these two brothers returned to Sunbury over their trail in the spring of 1788, only to invite and bring with them in the same year, over the same trail, to the rich valleys they had found, the following-named friends and neighbors :
Thomas Martin, John Watson, James F. Randolph, Thomas Grant, Cornelius Van Horn, and Christopher Snyder.
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These men, with their goods packed on four horses, passed through where Brookville now is in 1788, and settled in and around what is now Meadville, then Allegheny County. Meade's trail commenced at the mouth of Anderson's Creek, near Curwinsville, Clearfield County, Penn- sylvania, and over this trail until 1802 all transportation had to be car- ried into or through this wilderness on pack-saddles by pack-horses. A pack-horse load was from two to three hundred pounds. In 1802-3 the first wagon-road, or the old Milesburg and Waterford State Road, was opened for travel. The Meade settlers in Crawford County in 1788 com- prised the pioneer permanent settlement in Northwestern Pennsylvania.
Soon after David Meade and his neighbors reached their new home the great chief of the Six Nations, accompanied by a number of his tribe, made these pioneers a social visit. This chief was Cornplanter, and he was then chief over our Indians who belonged to this confederation. In one of these friendly visits Meade discovered that five white men who had been captured when boys were reared by the Indians and were then living under Cornplanter ; that these boys had all attained manhood and three of them had married Indian women. The five white men were Lashley Malone, of Bald Eagle Valley, Pennsylvania, Peter Krause, of Monongahela, Elijah Matthews, of Ohio, Nicholas Rosencrants and Nicholas Tanewood, of Mohawk Valley, New York State.
In 1789, Darius Meade, father of David and John, Robert F. Ran- dolph, and Frederick Baum passed over this " trail" on their way to what is now Meadville. Many of the pioneers who travelled over this trail to the northwest were captured and murdered by the Indians in the raids of 1791-92 and 1793. In 1791, Darius Meade was captured by two Indians while ploughing in a field. His captors were Captain Bull, a Delaware chief, and Conewyando, a Seneca chief. Meade in an effort to escape got possession of Bull's knife and killed Bull with it, and after a fierce struggle with Conewyando was killed, but Conewyando died in a few days from the wounds Meade gave him. Two of our soldiers buried Meade and Bull side by side where they fell.
" Indian trails were ' bee lines,' over hill and dale, from point to point. Here and there were open spots on the summits, where runners signalled their coming by fires when on urgent business, and were promptly met at stated places by fresh men."
Of the pioneer settlers who came over this trail and settled in what is now Jefferson and Clarion Counties, Judge Peter Clover, of Clarion County, in 1877, wrote as follows :
" As stated in the outset, I will give a brief account of the pioneer settlement of Jefferson County. In 1800, Joseph Barnett and Samuel Scott settled forty miles west of Curwinsville, Clearfield County. They were men of great energy and industry, and soon made valuable improve- ments. They built a saw-mill, which was a great help to the people,
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
providing them with boards, etc. They settled among the Indians of the Seneca tribe, who were, however, civil. Joseph Barnett was a very eccentric, high-minded man, and took a leading part in all the business transactions of the day ; a man long to be remembered by those who knew him. Shortly after their mill was made, perhaps as early as 1802, Henry Fir, a German, and a number of other families settled on the west of Mill Creek,-Jacob Mason, L. Long, John Dickson, Freedom Stiles, and a very large negro by the name of Fudge Vancamp, whose wool was as white as the wool of a sheep and whose face was as black as charcoal, and yet he was married to a white woman (?).
" In about 1802, John Scott came to the county and settled on the farm where Corsica now stands, and about 1805, Peter Jones, John Roll, Sr., the Vasbinder families, and Elijah Graham, and, in 1806, John Matson and some others, settled near where Brookville now stands. In the southern part of the county, near Mahoning, John Bell settled at an early day. He was a man of iron will and great perseverance, afraid of neither man nor beast, and was a mighty hunter. Moses Knapp was also an early settler. 'Port Barnett,' as the settlement of Barnett and Scott was called, was the only stopping-place from Curwinsville for all those who came in 1801-2 through or for the wilderness over the ' trail.' We imagine that these buildings would have a very welcome look to those footsore and weary travellers,-an oasis in the desert, as it were.
" In the year 1801, with a courage nothing could daunt, ten men left their old homes and all the comforts of the more thickly settled and older portions of the eastern part of the State for the unsettled wilderness of the more western part, leaving behind them the many associations which render the old home so dear, and going forth, strong in might and firm in the faith of the God of their fathers, to plant homes and erect new altars, around which to rear their young families. Brave hearts beat in the bosoms of those men and women who made so many and great sacri- fices in order to develop the resources of a portion of country almost un- known at that time. When we look abroad to-day and see what rapid strides have been made in the march 'of civilization, we say all honor to our forefathers who did so great a part of the work. It would be difficult for those of the present day to imagine how families could move upon horseback through an almost unbroken wilderness, with no road save an ' Indian trail,' the women and children mounted upon horses, the cook- ing utensils, farming implements, such as hoes, axes, ploughs, and shovels, together with bedding and provision, placed on what were called pack- saddles, while following upon foot were the men with guns upon their shoulders, ready to take down any small game that might cross their path, which would go towards making up their next meal. After a long and toilsome journey these pioneers halted on their course in what was then
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called Armstrong County (now Clarion County), and they immediately began the clearing of their lands, which they had purchased from General James Potter, of the far-famed ' Potter Fort,' in Penn's Valley, in Centre County, familiar to every one who has ever read of the terrible depreda- tions committed by the Indians in that part of the country at an early period of its history.
" The names of the men were as follows : William Young, Sr., Philip Clover, Sr., John Love, James Potter, John Roll, Sr., James McFadden,
Bear.
John C. Corbett, Samuel Wilson, Sr., William Smith, and Philip Clover, Jr. Samuel Wilson returned to Centre County to spend the winter, but death removed him. In the following spring of 1802 his widow and her five sons returned,-namely, Robert, John, William, Samuel, and David. Those who did not take their families along in 1801, built their cabins, cleared some land, put in some wheat, raised potatoes and turnips, put them in their cabins and covered them with earth for safe-keeping for the next summer's use, and when they got all their work done, in the fall they
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
returned to their families in Centre and Mifflin Counties, in the spring of 1802. Those, with some others, who also came at an early date, James Laughlin and Frederick Miles, built a saw-mill in 1804, at or near the mouth of Pine Creek, and they were the first to run timber to Pittsburg from what is now Clarion County.
" The food and raiment of the first settlers made a near approach to that of John the Baptist in the wilderness. Instead of locusts they had wild turkey, deer, and bear meat, and their raiment consisted of home- spun woollen, linen, or tow cloth, the wool and flax being all prepared for weaving by hand, there being no carding-machines in the county for many years after its first settlement; then women carded by hand. When woollen cloth was wanted for men's wear, the process of fulling was as follows : The required quantity of flannel was laid upon the bare floor, and a quantity of soap and water thrown over it ; then a number of men seated upon stools would take hold of a rope tied in a circle and begin to kick the flannel with their bare feet. When it was supposed to be fulled sufficiently, the men were released from their task, which was a tiresome one, yet a mirth provoking one, too, for, if it were possible, one or so must come from his seat, to be landed in the midst of the heap of flannel and soapsuds, much to the merriment of the more fortunate ones. Flax was prepared by drying over a fire, then breaking, scutching, and hackling before being ready to spin. The linen and tow cloth supplied the place of muslin and calico of the present day. That which was for dress goods was made striped, either by color or blue through the white, which was considered a nice summer suit, when made into what was called a short gown and petticoat, which matched very well with the calfskin slippers of that day. The nearest store was at Kittanning, thirty- five miles distant, and calico was fifty cents per yard, and the road but a pathway through the woods.
"In those days men appeared at church in linen shirts with collars four inches wide turned down over the shoulders, linen vest ; no coat in summer. Some wore cowhide shoes, others moccasins of buckskin, others again with their feet bare. In winter, men wore deerskin pantaloons and a long loose robe called a hunting shirt, bound round the body with a leathern girdle, and some a flannel warmus, which was a short kind of a coat, the women wearing flannel almost exclusively in the winter.
"During the first two years after the first settlement the people had to pack their flour upon horseback from Centre, Westmoreland, and In- diana Counties ; also their iron and salt, which was at ten dollars per barrel ; iron fifteen cents per pound. Coffee and tea were but little used, tea being four dollars per pound, coffee seventy-five cents. Those arti- cles were considered great luxuries, both from the high price at which they came, and the difficulties attending their transportation through the woods, following the Indian trail. As to vegetables and animal food,
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
there was no scarcity, as every one had gardens and the forest abounded with wild game, and then there were some expert huntsmen that kept the settlement supplied with meat. Those who were not a sure shot them- selves would go and work for the hunter while he would go out and sup- ply his less fortunate neighbor. Many, however, got along badly, some having nothing but potatoes and salt for substantials. I knew one hunter who killed one hundred and fifty deer and twenty bears in the first two years of the settlement, besides any amount of small game. When people began to need barns and larger houses, one would start out and invite the whole country for miles around, often going ten or twelve miles, and then it often took two or three days to raise a log barn, using horses to help to get up the logs."
THE PIONEER EXPLORERS, ANDREW BARNETT AND SAMUEL SCOTT -THE PIONEER SETTLERS, JOSEPH HUTCHISON AND WIFE-THE PATRIARCH OF THE COUNTY, JOSEPH BARNETT-OTHER EARLY SETTLERS.
In regard to the first settlement and early history of the county I have made diligent research, and find, what is not unusual, some con- flicting accounts and statements. These I have endeavored to compile, arrange, and harmonize to the best of my ability.
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