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 54
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66
544
PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
to a current of air, it would " gutter" all away. A pair of " snuffers," made of iron or brass, was a necessary article in every house, and had to be used frequently to cut away the charred or burned wick. Candles sold in the stores at twelve to fifteen cents per pound. One candle was the number usually employed to read or write by, and two were generally deemed sufficient to light a store,-one to carry around to do the selling by, and the other to stand on the desk to do the charging by.
Watches were rare, and clocks were not numerous in 1840. The watches I remember seeing in those days were " English levers" and " cylinder escapements," with some old "bull's-eyes." The clocks in use were of the eight-day sort, with works of wood, run by weights instead of springs. Along in the forties clocks with brass works, called the " brass clock," came into use. A large majority of people were without " time pieces." Evening church services were announced thus : " There will be preaching in this house on - evening, God willing, and no preventing providence, at early candle-lighting."
In 1840 the judge of our court was Alexander McCalmont, of Frank- lin, Venango County. Our associate judges from 1841 to 1843 were James Winslow and James L. Gillis. Our local or home lawyers were Hugh Brady, Cephas J. Dunham, Benjamin Bartholomew, Caleb A. Alexander, L. B. Dunham, Richard Arthurs, Elijah Heath, D. B. Jenks, Thomas Lucas, D. S. Deering, S. B. Bishop, and Jesse G. Clark. Many eminent lawyers from adjoining counties attended our courts regularly at this period. They usually came on horseback, and brought their papers, etc., in large leather saddle-bags. Most of these foreign lawyers were very polite gentlemen, and very particular not to refuse a " drink."
Moses Knapp, Sr., was our pioneer court crier. Elijah Graham was our second court crier, but I think Cyrus Butler served in this capacity in 1840.
In 1840 there was no barber-shop in the town. The tailors then cut hair, etc., for the people as an accommodation. My mother used to send me for that purpose to McCreight's tailor-shop. The first barber to locate in Brookville was a colored man named Nathan Smith. He bar- bered and ran a confectionery and oyster saloon. He lived here for a number of years, but finally turned preacher and moved away. Some high old times occurred in his back room which I had better not men- tion here. He operated on the Major Rodgers lot, now the Eddleblute property.
Then " Hollow Eve," as it was called, was celebrated regularly on the night of October 31 of every year. The amount of malicious mis- chief and destruction done on that evening in Brookville, and patiently suffered and overlooked, is really indescribable. The Presidential con- test in 1840, between Harrison, Whig, and Van Buren, Democrat, was perhaps the most intense and bitter ever known in this nation.
545
PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
The first exclusively drug-store in Brookville was opened and managed by D. S. Deering, Esq., in 1848. It was located in a building where McKnight & Brothers' building now stands, on the spot where McKnight & Son carry on their drug business. The first exclusively grocery store in Brookville was opened and owned by W. W. Corbett, and was located in the east room of the American Hotel. The first exclusively hardware- store in the town was opened and owned by John S. King, now of Clear- field, Pennsylvania. Brookville owes much to the sagacity of Mr. King for our beautiful cemetery.
In the forties the boring of pitch-pine into pump-logs was quite a business in Brookville. One of the first persons to work at this was Charles P. Merriman, who moved here from the East. By the way, Mer- riman was the greatest snare-drummer I ever heard. He also manufac- tured and repaired drums while here. He had a drum-beat peculiarly his own, and with it he could drown out a whole band. He introduced his beat by teaching drumming-schools. It is the beat of the Bowdishes, the Bartletts, and the Schnells. It consists of single and double drags. I never heard this beat in the army or in any other locality than here, and only from persons who had directly or indirectly learned it from Mer- riman. Any old citizen can verify the marvellous and wonderful power and skill of Merriman with a drum. No pupil of his here ever approached him in skill. The nearest to him was the late Captain John Dowling, of the One Hundred and Fifth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. It was the custom then for the different bands in the surrounding townships to attend the Fourth of July celebrations in Brookville. The Monger band, father and sons, from Warsaw township, used to come. They had a peculiar open beat that old Mr. Monger called the 1812 beat. The Belleview band came also. It was the Campbell band, father and sons. Andrew C. and James (1895), after going through the war, are still able on our public occasions to enliven us with martial strains. The Lucas band, from Dowlingville, also visited us in the forties. Brookville had a famous fifer in the person of Harvey Clover. He always carried an extra fife in his pocket, because he was apt to burst one. When he " blowed" the fife you would have thought the devil was in it sure.
In 1847 the town had water-works, the enterprise of Judge Jared B. Evans. The Spring that furnished the water was what is now known as the American Spring. The conduit-pipes were bored yellow-pine logs, and the plant was quite expensive, but owing to some trouble about the tannery, which stood on the spot where the American barn now stands, the water-plant was destroyed. Judge Evans was a useful citizen. He died some three years ago.
In 1840 the church collection was either taken up in a hat with a handkerchief in it or in a little bag attached to a pole.
H. Clay Campbell, Esq., has kindly furnished me the legal rights of
546
PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
married women in Pennsylvania from 1840 until the present date. The common law was adopted by Pennsylvania, and has governed all rights except those which may have been modified from time to time by statute. Blackstone's Commentaries, Book I., page 442, says, " By marriage, the husband and wife are one person in law ; that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage, or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of her husband, under whose wing, protection, and cover she performs everything."
You see the rights surrendered by a woman marrying under the com- mon law were two: First, the right to make a contract ; secondly, the right to property and her own earnings. To compensate for this she acquired one right,-the right to be chastised. For as the husband was to answer for her misbehavior, the law thought it reasonable to intrust him with the power of restraining her, by domestic chastisement, with the same moderation that a man is allowed to correct his apprentice or his children.
In 1840 married women had no right to the property bequeathed to them by their parents, unless it was put into the hands of a trustee, and by marriage the husband became the immediate and absolute owner of the personal property of the wife which she had in possession at the time of marriage, and this property could never again revert to the wife or her representatives. She could acquire no personal property during marriage by industry, and if she obtained any by gift or otherwise, it became immediately by and through the law the property of her hus- band. This condition prevailed until the passage of an act, dated IIth of April, 1848, which in some slight degree modified this injustice of the common law. By that act it was provided that all property which belonged to her before marriage, as well as all that might accrue to her afterwards, should remain her property. Then came another modifica- tion by the act of 1855, which provided, among other things, that " when- ever a husband, from drunkenness, profligacy, or other cause, shall neglect or refuse to provide for his wife, she shall have the rights and privileges secured to a femme-sole trader under the act of 1718." Modi- fications have been made from year to year, granting additional privi- leges to a wife to manage her own property, among which may be noted the act of 1871, enabling her to sell and transfer shares of the stock of a railroad company. By the act of May, 1874, she may draw checks upon a bank. During all these years of enlightenment the master has still held the wife in the toils of bondage, and it was with great grudging that he acknowledged that a married woman had the right to claim anything. The right to the earnings of the wife received its first modification when the act of April, 1872, was passed, which granted to the wife, if she went into court, and the court granted her petition, the right to claim her earnings. But legally the wife remained the most abject of slaves
547
PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
until the passage of the " married woman's personal property act" of 1887, giving and granting to her the right to contract and acquire prop- erty ; and it was not until 1893 that she was granted the same rights as an unmarried woman, excepting as to her right to convey her real estate, make a mortgage, or become bail.
The higher education of women in the seminary and college is of American origin, and in 1840 there was an occasional young ladies' semi- nary here and there throughout the country. These isolated institutions were organized and carried on by scattered individuals who had great persistency and courage. Being of American origin its greatest progress has been here, and at present there are more than two hundred institu- tions for the superior education of women in the United States, and fully one half of these bear the name of college. The women who graduate to-day from colleges and high schools outnumber the men, and as a result of this mental discipline and training women are now found throughout the world in every profession, in all trades, and in every vocation.
" Preferring sense from chin that's bare To nonsense 'throned in whiskered hair."
Women are now admitted to the bar in nine different States of the Union, and by an act of Congress she may now practise before the United States Supreme Court.
In 1840 women had but one vocation for a livelihood,-viz., marriage and housekeeping. Then female suffrage was unknown. To-day (1895) women vote on an equality with men in two States, Colorado and Wyoming, and they can vote in a limited form in twenty other States and Territories.
In 1840 women had no religious rights. She did not dare to speak, teach, or pray in public, and if she desired any knowledge in this direc- tion, she was admonished to ask her husband at home. The only excep- tion I know to this rule was in the Methodist Church, which from its organization has recognized the right of women to teach, speak in class- meetings, and to pray in the public prayer-meeting.
In 1840 women had no industrial rights. I give below a little ab- stract from the census of 1880, fourteen years ago, which will show what some of our women were working at then and are working at now.
FEMALE WORKERS.
Artists, 2016 ; authors, 320 ; assayists, chemists, and architects, 2136 ; barbers, 2902 ; dress-makers, 281,928; doctors, 2433 ; journalists, 238 ; lawyers, 75 ; musicians, 13, 181 ; preachers, 165 ; printers, 3456 ; tailors, 52,098 ; teachers, 194,375 ; nurses, 12,294; stock raisers, 216; farmers, 56,809 ; in government employ as clerks, 2171 ; managing commercial and industrial interests, 14,465. And now in 1894 we have 6000 post-
54S
PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
mistresses, 10,500 women have secured patents for inventions, and 300,000 women are in gainful occupations. I confess that this statement looks to the intelligent mind as though " the hand that rocks the cradle" will soon not only move but own the world.
The earliest schools established by the settlers of Pennsylvania were the home school, the church school, and the public subscription school, the most simple and primitive in style. The subscription or public school remained in force until the law of 1809 was enacted, which was intended for a State system, and which provided a means of education for the poor, but retained the subscription character of pay for the rich. This 1809 system remained in force until 1834. The method of hiring " masters" for a subscription school was as follows: A meeting was called by public notice in a district. At this gathering the people chose, in their own way, three of their number to act as a school committee. This committee hired the master and exercised a superintendence over the school. The master was paid by the patrons of the school in pro- portion to the number of days each had sent a child to school. A rate- bill was made out by the master and given to the committee, who col- lected the tuition-money and paid it to the master. The terms of these schools were irregular, but usually were for three months.
The studies pursued were spelling, reading, writing, and arithmetic. The daily programme was two or four reading lessons, two spelling les- sons,-one at noon and one at evening,-the rest of the time being de- voted to writing and doing "sums" in arithmetic. It was considered at that time (and even as late as my early schooling) that it was useless and foolish for a girl to learn more at school than to spell, read, and write. Of course there was no uniformity in text-books. The child took to the school whatever book he had, hence there was, and could be, no classifi- cation. Black-boards were unknown. When any information was wanted about a " sum," the scholar either called the master or took his book and went to him.
The first school-master in Jefferson County was John Dixon. His first term was for three months, and was in the year 1803 or 1804. The first school-house was built on the Ridgway road, two miles from Brookville, on the farm now owned by D. B. McConnell. I give Professor Blose's description of this school-house :
" The house was built of rough logs, and had neither window-sash nor pane. The light was admitted through chinks in the wall, over which greased paper was pasted. The floor was made with puncheons, and the seats from broad pieces split from logs, with pins in the under side, for legs. Boards laid on pins fastened in the wall furnished the pupils with writing-desks. A log fireplace, the entire length of one end, supplied warmth when the weather was cold."
The era of these log school-houses in Jefferson County is gone,-gone
549
.
PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
forever. We have now (1895) school property to the value of $269,300. We have 196 modern school-houses, with 262 school-rooms, 295 schools, and the Bible is read in 251 of these. There is no more master's call in the school-room, but we have 131 female and 149 male teachers,-a total of 280 teachers in the county. The average yearly term is six and a half months. The average salary for male teachers is $39 50, and for female teachers, $33. Total wages received by teachers each year, $64,913.20. Number of female scholars, 5839 ; number of male scholars, 6073. The amount of tax levied for school purposes is $56,688.23. Received by county from State appropriation, $42,759.72.
The act of 1809 made it the duty of assessors to receive the names of all children between the ages of five and twelve years whose parents were unable to pay for their schooling, and these poor children were to be educated by the county. This law was very unpopular, and the schools did not prosper. The rich were opposed to this law because they paid all the tax-bills, and the poor were opposed to it because it created a " caste" and designated them as paupers. However, it remained in force for about twenty-five years, and during this period the fight over it at elections caused many strifes, feuds, and bloody noses. This was the first step taken by the State to evolve our present free-school system. The money to pay for the education of these "pauper" children was drawn from the county in this way : " The assessor of each borough or township returned the names of such indigent children to the county commissioners, and then an order was drawn by the commissioners on the county treasurer for the tuition-money."
One of the most desirable qualifications in the early school-master was courage, and willingness and ability to control and flog boys. Physi- cal force was the governing power, and the master must possess it. Never- theless, many of the early masters were men of intelligence, refinement, and scholarship. As a rule, the Scotch-Irish master was of this class. Goldsmith describes the old master well :
" Ile was kindly, and if severe in aught, The love he bore to learning was in fault. The village all declared how much he knew, 'Twas certain he could write and cipher, too. In arguing the parson owned his skill, For e'en though vanquished he would argue still."
The government of the early masters was of the most rigorous kind. Perfect quiet had to be maintained in the school-room, no buzzing, and the punishment for supposed or real disobedience, inflicted on scholars before, up to, and even in my time, was cruel and brutal. One punish- ment was to tie scholars up by the thumbs, suspending them in this way over the door. "Spare the rod and spoil the child" was the master's
550
PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
slogan. Whippings were frequent, severe, and sometimes brutal. Thorn, birch, and other rods were kept in large number by the master. Other and milder modes of punishment were in vogue, such as the dunce-block, sitting with the girls, pulling the ears, and using the ferule on the hands and sometimes on the part of the body on which the scholar sat.
" What is man, If his chief good and market for his time Be but to sleep and feed ? A beast, no more."
In 1840 the country master boarded round with the scholars, and he was always given the best bed in the house, and was usually fed on dough- nuts and pumpkin-pie at every meal. He called the school to order by rapping on his desk with his ferule.
During the twenty-five years of the existence of the pauper schools the agitation for a better system was continually kept up by isolated in- dividuals. This was done in various ways,-at elections, in toasts to a " free-school system" at Fourth of July celebrations, and in conventions of directors. The first governor who took a decided stand in favor of the common schools was John A. Schultze. He advocated it in his message in 1828. Governor Wolf, in 1833, found that out of four hundred thou- sand school children of the legal age, twenty thousand attended school, and that three hundred and eighty thousand were yearly uninstructed. Therefore, in his message to the Legislature, he strongly recommended the passage of a law to remedy this state of affairs. William Audenreid, a senator from Schuylkill County, introduced a bill during the session of the Legislature of 1833, which became what is known as the school law of 1834,-the establishment of the common-school system. Our second State superintendent of public instruction was appointed under this law. His name was Thomas H. Burrowes. The first State aid for schools in Jefferson County was in 1835, and through Mr. Burrowes. The amount received was one hundred and four dollars and ninety-four cents.
" Barring the master out" of the school-room on Christmas and New Year's was a custom in vogue in 1840. The barring was always done by four or five determined boys. The contest between the master and these scholars was sometimes severe and protracted, the master being deter- mined to get into the school-room and these boys determined to keep him out. The object on the part of the scholars in this barring out was to compel the master to treat the school. If the master obtained posses- sion of the school-room, by force or strategy, he generally gave the boys a sound flogging, but if the boys " held the fort," it resulted in negotia- tions for peace, and in the master eventually signing an agreement in writing to treat the school to apples, nuts, or candy. It took great nerve on the part of the boys to take this stand against a master. I know this, as I have been active in some of these contests.
55I
PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
In 1840 a woman could teach an A, B, C, or " a-b ab," school in summer, but the man that desired to teach a summer school was a lazy, worthless, good-for-nothing fellow. Cyrus Crouch taught the first term in Brookville under the common school law of 1834.
In the forties the school-books in use were the New England Primer, Webster's Spelling-Book, Cobb's Spelling-Book, the English Reader, the New England Reader, the Testament and Bible, the Malte Braun Geography, Olney's Geography, Pike's Arithmetic, the Federal Calcula- tor, the Western Calculator, Murray's Grammar, Kirkham's Grammar, and Walker's Dictionary. A scholar who had gone through the single rule of three in the Western Calculator was considered educated. Our present copy-books were unknown. A copy-book was then made of six sheets of foolscap-paper stitched together. The copies were set by the master after school hours, at which time he usually made and mended the school pens for the next day. Our pens were made of goose-quills, and it was the duty of the master to teach each scholar how to make or mend a goose quill pen. One of the chief delights of a mischievous boy in those days was to keep a master busy mending his pens.
The first school-house in Brookville that I recollect of was a little brick on the alley on the northeast side of the American Hotel lot. Mrs. Pearl Roundy was the first teacher that I went to. She taught in this house. She was much beloved by the whole town. I afterwards went to Hamlin and others in this same house.
When the first appropriation of seventy-five thousand dollars was made by our State for the common schools, a debt of twenty-three mil- lion dollars rested on the Commonwealth. A great many good, conser- vative men opposed this appropriation, and " predicted bankruptcy from this new form of extravagance." But the great debt has been all paid, the expenses of the war for the Union have been met, and now (1895) the annual appropriation for our schools has been raised to five and a half million dollars. This amount due the schools for the year ending June 5, 1893, was all paid on November 1, 1893, and our State treasurer had deposits still left, lying idle, in forty-six of our banks, amounting to six and a half million dollars, which should have been appropriated for school purposes and not kept lying idle. This additional appropriation would have greatly relieved the people from oppressive taxation during these hard times.
The act of May 18, 1893, completed the evolution in our school sys- tem from the early home, the church, the subscription, the 1809 pauper, the 1834 common, into the now people's or free school system.
This free school is our nation's hope. Our great manufacturing inter- ests attract immigrants to our land in large numbers, and to thoroughly educate their children and form in them the true American mind, and to prevent these children from drifting into the criminal classes, will task to
552
PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
the utmost all the energies, privileges, and blessed conditions of our present free schools. In our free schools of Pennsylvania the conditions are now equal. The child of the millionaire, the mechanic, the widow, and the day laborer all stand on the same plane. We have now, for the first time in the history of our State, in addition to the free school- houses, free desks, free fuel, free black-boards, free maps, free teachers, free books, free paper, free pens, free ink, free slates, free pencils, free sponges, and, in short, free schools.
In 1840 our houses and hotels were never locked at night. This was from carelessness, or perhaps thought to be unnecessary. But every store-window was provided with heavy outside shutters, which were care- fully closed, barred, or locked every night in shutting up.
Then every merchant in Brookville was forced, as a matter of protec- tion, to subscribe for and receive a weekly bank-note detecter. These periodicals were issued to subscribers for two dollars and fifty cents a year. This journal gave a weekly report of all broken banks, the dis- count on all good bank notes, as well as points for the detection of coun- terfeit notes and coin. The coin department in the journal had wood- cut pictures of all the foreign and native silver and gold coins, and also gave the value of each.
Money was scarce then, and merchants were compelled to sell their goods on credit, and principally for barter. The commodities that were exchanged for in Brookville stores were boards, shingles, square timber, wheat, rye, buckwheat, flaxseed, clover-seed, timothy-seed, wool, rags, beeswax, feathers, hickory-nuts, chestnuts, hides, deer-pelts, elderberries, furs, road orders, school and county orders, eggs, butter, tow cloth, linen cloth, axe-handles, rafting bows and pins, rafting grubs, maple-sugar in the spring, and oats after harvest.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.