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 56
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
"' I have now to thank the governor for what he has done. I have informed him what the Great Spirit has ordered me to cease from, and I wish the governor to inform others what I have communicated. This is all I have at present to say.' "-Day's Recollections.
The old chief appears after this again to have fallen into entire seclu- sion, taking no part even in the politics of his people. He died at his residence on the 7th of March, 1836, at the age of one hundred and four years. " Whether at the time of his death he expected to go to the fair hunting-grounds of his own people or to the heaven of the Christian is not known."
" Notwithstanding his profession of Christianity, Cornplanter was very superstitious. 'Not long since,' says Mr. Foote, of Chautauqua County, ' he said the Good Spirit had told him not to have anything to do with the white people, or even to preserve any mementos or relics that had been given to him from time to time by the pale-faces, whereupon, among other things, he burnt up his belt and broke his elegant sword.'"
In reference to the personal appearance of Cornplanter at the close of his life, a writer in the Democratic Arch (Venango County) says,-
" I once saw the aged and venerable chief, and had an interesting in- terview with him about a year and a half before his death. I thought of many things when seated near him, beneath the wide-spreading shade of an old sycamore, on the banks of the Allegheny,-many things to ask him, the scenes of the Revolution, the generals that fought its battles and conquered, the Indians, his tribe, the Six Nations, and himself. He was constitutionally sedate, was never observed to smile, much less to indulge in the luxury of a laugh. When I saw him he estimated his age to be over one hundred ; I think one hundred and three was about his reckoning of it. This would make him near one hundred and five years old at the time of his decease. His person was stooped, and his stature was far short of what it once had been, not being over five feet six inches at the time I speak of. Mr. John Struthers, of Ohio, told me, some years since, that he had seen him near fifty years ago, and at that period he was at his height,-viz., six feet one inch. Time and hard- ship had made dreadful impressions upon that ancient form. The chest was sunken and his shoulders were drawn forward, making the upper part of his body resemble a trough. His limbs had lost size and become crooked. His feet (for he had taken off his moccasins) were deformed and haggard by injury. I would say that most of the fingers on one hand were useless ; the sinews had been severed by the blow of a toma- hawk or scalping-knife. How I longed to ask him what scene of blood and strife had thus stamped the enduring evidence of its existence upon his person ! But to have done so would, in all probability, have put an end to all further conversation on any subject. The information desired would certainly not have been received, and I had to forego my curiosity.
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
He had but one eye, and even the socket of the lost organ was hid by the overhanging brow resting upon the high cheek-bone. His remaining eye was of the brightest and blackest hue. Never have I seen one, in young or old, that equalled it in brilliancy. Perhaps it had borrowed lustre from the eternal darkness that rested on its neighboring orbit. His ears had been dressed in the Indian mode, all but the outside ring had been cut away. On the one ear this ring had been torn asunder near the top, and hung down his neck like a useless rag. He had a full head of hair, white as the driven snow, which covered a head of ample dimensions and admirable shape. His face was not swarthy, but this may be ac- counted for from the fact, also, that he was but half Indian. He told me he had been at Franklin more than eighty years before the period of our conversation, on his passage down the Ohio and Mississippi with the warriors of his tribe, in some expedition against the Creeks or Osages. He had long been a man of peace, and I believe his great characteristics were humanity and truth. It is said that Brandt and Cornplanter were never friends after the massacre of Cherry Valley. Some have alleged, because the Wyoming massacre was perpetrated by Senecas, that Corn- planter was there. Of the justice of this suspicion there are many reasons for doubt. It is certain that he was not the chief of the Senecas at that time. The name of the chief in that expedition was Ge-en-quah-toh, or He-goes-in-the-smoke. As he stood before me-the ancient chief in ruins-how forcibly was I struck with the truth of that beautiful figure of the old aboriginal chieftain, who, in describing himself, said he was ' like an aged hemlock, dead at the top, and whose branches alone were green' ! After more than one hundred years of most varied life,-of strife, of danger, of peace,-he at last slumbers in deep repose on the banks of his own beloved Allegheny.
" Cornplanter was born at Conewongus, on the Genesee River, in 1732, being a half-breed, the son of a white man named John O'Bail, a trader from the Mohawk Valley. In a letter written in later years to the governor of Pennsylvania he thus speaks of his early youth: 'When I was a child I played with the butterfly, the grasshopper, and the frogs ; and as I grew up I began to pay some attention and play with the Indian boys in the neighborhood, and they took notice of my skin being of a different color from theirs, and spoke about it. I inquired from my mother the cause, and she told me my father was a resident of Albany. I still ate my victuals out of a bark dish. I grew up to be a young man and married a wife, and I had no kettle or gun. I then knew where my father lived, and went to see him, and found he was a white man and spoke the English language. He gave me victuals while I was at his house, but when I started to return home he gave me no provisions to eat on the way. He gave me neither kettle nor gun.'
" Little further is known of his early life beyond the fact that he was
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
allied with the French in the engagement against General Braddock in July, 1755. He was probably at that time at least twenty years old. During the Revolution he was a war chief of ltigh rank, in the full vigor of manhood, active, sagacious, brave, and he most probably participated in the principal Indian engagements against the United States during the war. He is supposed to have been present at the cruelties of Wyoming and Cherry Valley, in which the Senecas took a prominent part. He was on the war-path with Brandt during General Sullivan's campaign in 1779, and in the following year, under Brandt and Sir John Johnson, he led the Senecas in sweeping through the Schoharie and the Mohawk Val- leys. On this occasion he took his father a prisoner, but with such cau- tion as to avoid an immediate recognition. After marching the old man some ten or twelve miles, he stepped before him, faced about, and addressed him in the following terms :
""' My name is John O'Bail, commonly called Cornplanter. I am your son. You are my father. You are now my prisoner, and subject to the custom of Indian warfare ; but you shall not be harmed. You need not fear. I am a warrior. Many are the scalps which I have taken. Many prisoners have I tortured to death. I am your son. I was anxious to see you and greet you in friendship. I went to your cabin and took you by force ; but your life shall be spared. Indians love their friends and their kindred, and treat them with kindness. If you now chose to follow the fortunes of your yellow son and to live with our people, I will cherish your old age with plenty of venison, and you shall live easy. But if it is your choice to return to your fields and live with your white chil- dren, I will send a party of trusty young men to conduct you back in safety. I respect you, my father. You have been friendly to Indians, and they are your friends.' The elder O' Bail preferred his white children and green fields to his yellow offspring and the wild woods, and chose to return.
" Cornplanter was the greatest warrior the Senecas, the untamable people of the hills, ever had, and it was his wish that when he died his grave would remain unmarked, but the Legislature of Pennsylvania willed otherwise, and erected a monument to him with this beautiful inscription :
"' CYANTWAHIA, THE CORNPLANTER, JOHN O'BAIL, ALIAS CORNPLANTER, DIED AT CORNPLANTER TOWN, FEB. IS, A. D. IS36, AGED ABOUT 100 YEARS.'
" Upon the west side is the following inscription :
"' Chief of the Seneca tribe, and a principal chief of the Six Nations from the period of the Revolutionary War to the time of his death. Distinguished for talent, courage, eloquence, sobriety, and love for tribe and race, to whose welfare he devoted his time, his energy, and his means during a long and eventful life.'"
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
In the above I have copied largely from Rupp's history, and from the " History of Warren County, Pennsylvania."
MOSES KNAPP.
In the spring of 1797, Joseph Barnett, of Linesville, Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Samuel Scott and Moses Knapp, of Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, left the mouth of Pine Creek, on the west branch of the Susquehanna, in Lycoming County, and wended their way over Meade's Trail to the confluence of Mill Creek with Sandy Lick, now Port Bar- nett, for the purpose of starting a settlement. Port Barnett was then in Pine Creek township, Lycoming County. Upon their arrival they com- menced the erection of a saw-mill. "Samuel Scott was a millwright by trade, and was assisted in his work by Moses Knapp, who was an adopted son, then about nineteen years of age. They first built a saw-mill on Mill Creek, about where the present mill of Mr. Humphrey now stands. This mill was the property of Mr. Scott. Young Knapp exhibited a good deal of mechanical ingenuity in this work, and the next year built a mill for himself on the North Fork, on a site about the head of Heidrick, Matson & Co.'s mill-pond. Leaving his mill in the fall to stand still during the winter, young Knapp went to Indiana to attend a term of school. While there he became acquainted with Miss Susan Matson, a daughter of Uriah Matson, of that place. The acquaintance thus made soon ripened into an engagement, and Moses Knapp and Susan Matson were united in matrimony, and thus in one short absence from the scene of his labors Moses had accomplished much, and when all this was ac- complished she returned with him to Port Barnett. He then built a camp or residence at his saw-mill on the North Fork, and there they commenced keeping house, a beginning which resulted in the production of a family of eleven children. Here, in 1801, was born Polly, and afterwards Isabel and Samuel.
" He sold out his mill and ' betterments' at the head of Heidrick, Matson & Co.'s pond to Samuel and William Lucas, and then began house-keeping in a new place, at the mouth of the North Fork, now Brookville. After he had got his family in living shape here, he built an- other saw-mill on what was known as Knapp's Run. The name of this stream has since been changed to Five-Mile Run. This mill Knapp sold to Thomas Lucas, Esq. He then built a log grist-mill on the North Fork, near his residence, only 'a few rods from the Red Bank Creek. This mill had one run of rock-stones. The water was gathered by a wing- dam of brush and stones, that extended nearly up to where the road now crosses below Heidrick, Matson & Co.'s dam, and was thus brought into a chute, that passed it under a large under-shot water-wheel. A ' face- gear' wheel upon the water-wheel shaft ' meshed' into a 'trundle-head' upon the ' spindle' which carried the revolving-stone, comprised the pro-
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
pelling machinery. This mill was often taxed to its utmost capacity. People would come here to get their grain ground from distances of twenty and thirty miles, through the woods on horseback and on bare- foot carrying the grain on their backs. A big day's grind was from six to ten bushels of grain."
While residing at this place, in what is now Brookville, John Knapp was born in 1807, and afterwards Amy, Joshua, Moses, Clarissa, and Joseph, the last in 1818.
During the time of Knapp's residence at the head of what is now Heidrick, Matson & Co.'s pond, and many years thereafter, " the cheap- est and most expeditious method of obtaining such supplies as could not be produced on the ground was to go to Pittsburg for them. Rafts of sawed lumber were run to Pittsburg in the spring of the year. A canoe was taken along, and when the raft was sold most of the avails would be invested in whiskey, pork, sugar, dry goods, etc. These goods were then loaded into the canoe, and the same men that brought the raft through to market would " pole" or " push" the loaded canoe up the river and up the creek to Port Barnett. This was a " voyage" that all men of full strength were very desirous of making, and was the subject of conversa- tion for the remaining part of the year.
These canoes were hewed out of a large pine-tree, large enough to re- ceive a barrel of flour crosswise. A home-made rope of flax was attached to the front end of the canoe to be used in pulling the canoe up and over ripples. The men with these canoes had to camp in the woods wherever night overtook them, and their greatest terror and fear was rattlesnakes, for the creek bottoms were alive with them.
The pioneer keel-boat built on these western waters was at Pittsburg in 1811,-viz., the " New Orleans." The first river steamboat was built in 1817.
In 1821, Moses Knapp " articled" with the Holland Land Company for a quantity of land in what is now Clover township. The land was taken from warrants numbered 3082 and 3200, which included the land upon which Dowlingville is situated, and also that upon which the Baxter property and mills now are.
After building a cabin and moving his family into it, he commenced the building of a dam pretty much on the site of the present dam, and a saw-mill on the site of the present mill. He took a partner in the busi- ness and vigorously prosecuted the work. In cutting timber for the mill he in some way got his foot crushed so badly that it became necessary to have the leg amputated above the knee. The mill was completed, and the business of manufacturing lumber, etc., was carried on for a few years by Knapp & Ball.
He had two children born here,-Isaac M. and Eliza. He was elected constable while here in 1821, the year he was hurt.
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
Moses Knapp was the pioneer pilot on Red Bank Creek. The pioneer board-raft contained about eight thousand feet of boards. Pilots received but two dollars per trip and found ; common hands but one dollar per trip and found. The pioneer pilots steered the rafts then with the front oar. The pioneer oars and stems were then hewn out of a single dry pine-tree. Elijah M. Graham was the first to saw oar-blades separate from the stem.
SAW-MILLS.
The earliest form of a saw-mill was a " saw-pit." In it lumber was sawed in this way : by two men at the saw, one man standing above the
MI
A pioneer saw-mill erected on Rattlesnake Creek, in Snyder township, in 1841, by James Pendleton.
pit, the other man in the pit, the two men sawing the log on trestles above. Saws are prehistoric. The ancients used " bronzed saws." Saw-mills were first run by "individual power," and water-power was first used in Germany about 1322. The primitive water saw-mill con- sisted of a wooden pitman attached to the shaft of the wheel. The log to be sawed was placed on rollers, sustained by a framework over the wheel, and was fed forward on the rollers by means of levers worked by hand. The pioneer saw-mill erected in the United States was near or on the di- viding line of Maine and New Hampshire, in 1634.
The early up-and-down saw-mills were built of frame timbers mor-
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
tised and tenoned and pinned together with oak pins. In size these mills were from twenty to thirty feet wide and from fifty to sixty feet in length, and were roofed with clapboards, slabs, or boards. The run- ning-gear was an undershot flutter-wheel, a gig-wheel to run the log-car- riage back, and a bull-wheel with a rope or chain attached to haul the ยท logs into the mill on and over the slide. The capacity of such a mill was about four thousand feet of boards in twenty-four hours. The total cost of one of these up-and-down saw-mills when completed was about three hundred dollars, one hundred dollars for iron used and two hun- dred dollars for the work and material. Luther Geer, an old pioneer, built about twenty-eight of such mills. Moses Knapp died near Dow- lingville, in 1853, and is buried in the graveyard of the Jefferson United Presbyterian Church. Mr. Knapp was a Seceder in belief, and was a leading member of that church,-to wit, the Jefferson.
JOHN JONES.
" The subject of this sketch was born in Northumberland County, Pennsylvania, the 10th of February, 1781, and in the year 1797 he came to what is now Port Barnett, about one and a half miles east of Brookville, Jefferson County, as an apprentice to the millwright trade with his uncle, Samuel Scott. After the erection of this mill (being as- sisted by the Indians) he engaged in the lumber business with his uncle, and became quite a woodsman, killing as many as one hundred deer in a season. The Indians being quite numerous at that time in the forest, he even camped and hunted in partnership with them. He was often heard to remark that he could beat them killing deer, but they could beat him on the bear. In the year 1811 he settled on his farm, east of Strattonville. He erected a cabin and commenced clearing, and in a short time he was drafted into the military service. After clearing off a portion of ground and sowing his wheat and fencing the same, he was, with several of his neighbors, ready for the call, and on the 25th of Sep- tember they started for Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, and they remained there for a short time and elected their officers. A man by the name of Wallace was elected captain, and Robert Orr, major. They then marched through the State of Ohio to the Maumee River, and there they built Fort Meigs ; remained there until spring, then returned to their home.
" Jones then commenced opening up more land, but still lumbering occasionally on Red Bank, and canoeing provisions and groceries from Pittsburg, there being no store of any account nearer. After they got to raising some grain, it had to be taken to Samuel Scott's at Port Barnett, fifteen miles distant. When the mill failed, some of the neighbors had to go to Mudlic, Indiana County. Some went to a horse mill on Bear Creek, below Parker City. There were also quite a number of hand mills in use in the country for grinding corn. The first store in what is
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
now Clarion County was located where Reimersburg now stands, in 1812, and owned by James Pinks, and if you happened to run out of salt for your venison, you could get a bushel from him for five dollars, and all other things in proportion.
" In the year 1818 the mildew struck the wheat and it was totally de- stroyed, and starvation stared them in the face ; but he knew where to go. So off he starts to the pine-woods, selects a place for himself and brothers, and at it they went, and gathered and split, and burned each of them a kiln of tar ; and when they got the tar barrelled, they then had to haul it four miles to the Clarion River, made a canoe and run the tar to Pitts- burg, and traded it for the necessaries of life. He also piloted the viewers and surveyors of the Brookville and Meadville turnpike, or, more prop- erly, the Bellefonte and Erie turnpike, and many other roads, he being considered the best posted in regard to location."
CHAPTER XXVIII.
JOSEPH BARNETT-BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE PATRIARCH OF JEFFER - SON COUNTY.
JOSEPH BARNETT, the patriarch of Jefferson County, was the son of John and Sarah Barnett, and was born in Dauphin County, Penn- sylvania, in 1754. His father was born in Ireland, and located in Pennsylvania in the early part of the eighteenth century, and was a farmer up to the time of his death in 1757. His mother died a few years later, and Joseph was " brought up" by his relatives. He was raised on a farm, and was thus peacefully employed when the Revolu- tion commenced. As a son of a patriotic sire he could not resist taking part in the struggle, and so joined the army and served for some years. The exact duration of his service cannot now be ascertained, but this we learn : " he was a brave and efficient soldier, and never faltered in the path of duty." He also served in the State militia in the cam- paign against the Wyoming boys. After the war he settled in North- umberland County, where he owned a large tract of land, but was dis- possessed of it by some informalities of the title. Here he was married to Elizabeth Scott, sister of Samuel Scott and daughter of John Scott, July 3, 1794.
I find Joseph Barnett assessed in Pine Creek township, Northumber- land County, April 28, 1786. I find him in 1788 assessed in the same township and county with a saw-mill and as a single freeman. This was his saw-mill at the mouth of Pine Creek, and the mill on which he lost
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
his eye. The property is now in Clinton County. After losing his mill and land Barnett returned in the nineties to Dauphin County, Pennsyl- vania, and engaged in contracting for and building bridges. In 1799 I find him again assessed in Pine Creek township, then Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, with two hundred and twenty-five acres of land. This was his Port Barnett property, where he migrated to with his family in 1800, and here he engaged in the erection of mills and in the lumbering business that eventually made Port Barnett, then in Lycoming County, the centre of business for a large extent of territory. In a short time a tub grist-mill was added to his saw-mill, and, with his " Port Barnett flint-stone binns," he made an eatable, if not a very desirable, quality of flour. The Indians (Cornplanters and Senecas) then in the country were good customers of our subject, and what few whites there were for thirty or forty miles around would make his cabin a stopping-place for several days at a time. His log cabin became a tavern, the only one in a seventy-five miles' journey, and was frequented by all the early settlers.
" His Indian guests did not eat in the house, but would in winter make a pot of mush over his fire and set it out in the snow to cool ; then one fellow would take a dipper and eat his fill of the pudding, sometimes with milk, butter, or molasses ; then another would take it and go through the same process until all were satisfied. The dogs would then help them- selves from the same pot, and when they put their heads in the pot in the Indian's way he would give them a slap over the head with the dipper."
He kept a store, rafted lumber on Sandy Lick and Red Bank, and at the same time attended to his saw- and grist-mills. I find him assessed in Pine Creek township in 1800 as a farmer.
" The Senecas of Cornplanter's tribe were friendly and peaceable neighbors, and often extended their excursions into these waters, where they encamped, two or three in a squad, and hunted deers and bears, taking the hams and skins in the spring to Pittsburg. Their rafts were constructed of dry poles, upon which they piled up their meat and skins in the form of a haystack, took them to Pittsburg, and exchanged them for trinkets, blankets, calicoes, weapons, etc. They were friendly, sociable, and rather fond of making money. During the war of 1812 the settlers were apprehensive that an unfortunate turn of the war upon the lakes might bring an irruption of the savages upon the frontier through the Seneca nation.
" Old Captain Hunt, a Muncy Indian, had his camp for some years on Red Bank, near where is now the southwestern corner of Brookville. He got his living by hunting, and enjoyed the results in drinking whiskey, of which he was inordinately fond. One year he killed seventy-eight bears, -- they were plenty then; the skins might be worth about three
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
dollars each,-nearly all of which he expended for his favorite bev- erage.
" Samuel Scott resided here until 1810, when, having scraped to- gether, by hunting and lumbering, about two thousand dollars, he went down to the Miami River and bought a section of fine land, which made him rich.
" It is related that Joseph Barnett at one time carried sixty pounds of flour on his back from Pittsburg. Their supplies of flour, salt, and other necessaries were frequently brought in canoes from that place. These were purchased with lumber, which he sawed and rafted to that city, and which in those days was sold for twenty-five dollars per thousand. The nearest settlement on Meade's trail eastward of Port Barnett was Paul Clover's, thirty-three miles distant, on the west branch of the Susque- hanna, where Curwensville now stands ; and westward Fort Venango was forty-five miles distant, which points were the only resting-places for the travellers who ventured through this unbroken wilderness. The Seneca Indians, of Cornplanter's tribe, heretofore mentioned, often extended their hunting excursions to these waters, and encamped to hunt deer and bears and make sugar. They are said to have made sugar by catching the sap in small troughs, and, after collecting in a large trough, hot stones were dipped into it to boil it down."-Day's Collections.
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