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 9
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" When, in the pursuance of this policy which had been adopted by William Penn, by treaties with and by purchases of the Indians, they finally became divested of their original title to all the lands in Pennsyl- vania ; then, under what was called ' The Late Purchase,' which covered all of this section of country and included it in Northumberland County, in the year 1785 certain warrants, called 'Lottery Warrants,' were issued by governmental authority to persons who would pay twenty pounds per hundred acres, authorizing them to enter upon the lands and make selec- tions where they pleased. This was done to some extent, and on those warrants surveys were made ; but, as there was no road by which emi- grants could come into the country, no settlements could be made in any place except where the sturdy pioneer could push his canoe, ignoring, or overcoming all the privations and difficulties incident to a pioneer life in such a wilderness."
With a desire to give a complete history of the pioneer surveys of the county, I addressed a letter to Hon. I. B. Brown, Deputy Secretary of Internal Affairs, asking for all the information known by the State. I herewith submit his reply,-viz. :
" DEPARTMENT OF INTERNAL AFFAIRS, " HARRISBURG, PA., March 7, 1895.
" MR. W. J. MCKNIGHT, Brookville, Pa.
"DEAR SIR,-In answer to your letter of the 5th instant, we beg to say that prior to the opening of the land office in May, 1785, for the sale of lands within the purchase of 1784, that part of the purchase lying east of the Allegheny River and Conewango Creek was divided into eighteen districts, and a deputy surveyor appointed for each. These districts were numbered consecutively, beginning with No. 1, on the Allegheny River, and running eastward. The southern line of district No. I began on the old purchase line of 1768 at Kittanning, and following that line in suc- cessive order were districts Nos. 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6, the latter terminating at the marked cherry-tree on the bank of the west branch of the Susque- hanna River at Canoe Place. From that point the district line between the sixth and seventh districts, as then constituted, is supposed to be the line that divides the present counties of Indiana and Jefferson from the county of Clearfield as far north as Sandy Lick Creek.
" An old draft and report, found among the records of this depart-
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
ment, show that Robert Galbraith, one of the early surveyors of Bedford County, ran the purchase line of 1768 from the cherry-tree to Kittanning for the purpose of marking it and ascertaining also the extent of the sev- eral survey districts north of the line and between the two points. This draft and accompanying report are without date, but the survey was pre- sumably made during the summer of 1786. A reference to the appoint- ment of Mr. Galbraith by the surveyor-general to perform this work, and the confirmation of the appointment by the Supreme Executive Council on the Sth of April, 1786, appear in the ' Colonial Records,' vol. xv. pp. 3 and 4. In the same volume, p. 85, is found the record of an order in favor of Galbraith for forty-five pounds, twelve shillings, to be in full for his services in running and marking the line and 'laying off' the dis- tricts of the deputy-surveyors. He says in his report, ' I began at the marked cherry-tree and measured along the purchase line seven miles and forty perches for James Potter's district, thence fifty-four perches to the line run by James Johnston for the east line of his district ; from the post marked for James Potter's district seven miles and forty perches to a post marked for James Johnston's district, thence fifty-two perches to the line run by James Hamilton for the east line of his district ; from Johnston's post seven miles and forty perches to the post marked for James Hamil- ton's district, thence fifty-two perches to the line run by George Wood, Jr., for the east line of his district ; from the post marked for Hamilton's district six miles and one hundred and fifty-two perches to the line run by Thomas B. McClean for the east line of his district, thence two hun- dred and eight perches to the post marked for George Wood, Jr. 's, dis- trict, thence six miles and one hundred and fifty perches to the line run by John Buchanan for the east line of his district, thence two hundred and ten perches to the post marked for Thomas Brown McClean's dis- trict, thence two miles and one hundred and twenty perches to the Alle- gheny River for John Buchanan's district.'
" With the exception of the first, these districts each extended seven miles and forty perches along the purchase line, with the division lines between them running north to the line of New York. Undoubtedly the fourth, fifth, and sixth districts, of which James Hamilton, James John- ston, and General James Potter were respectively the deputy- surveyors, must have embraced, if not all, at least much the larger part of the terri- tory that subsequently became the county of Jefferson, while the earliest surveys were made within that territory during the summer of 1785 by the surveyors named. It is possible, however, that part of the third dis- trict, of which George Wood, Jr., was the deputy surveyor, may have been within these limits, and if so, surveys were no doubt also made by him. These first surveys were principally made and returned on the first warrants granted within the purchase, commonly known as the lottery warrants, and many of them in the name of Timothy Pickering
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and Company were located on lands that are now within Jefferson County.
" General James Potter died in the year 1789, and was succeeded by his son, James Potter, who was appointed in 1790. One of the reasons given for the appointment of James Potter, second, was that he had filled the position of an assistant to his father, and had done so much of the actual work in the field, and was therefore so thoroughly conversant with the lines of surveys already run, that he would avoid the interferences another person might fall into, thus preventing future trouble arising from conflicting locations. It does not appear, however, that the second James Potter ever did any work in the district, as the deputies' lists of surveys on file in the land-office show no returns from him.
"Soon after the year 1790 a change was made by the surveyor-gen- eral in the arrangement of the districts within the purchase of 1784, by which the number was reduced to six, counting west from the mouth of Lycoming Creek to the Allegheny River. In this arrangement the two western districts, Nos. 5 and 6, were assigned respectively to William P. Brady and Enion Williams. Williams was succeeded in 1794 by John Broadhead. Brady's district is described as ' beginning at a cherry-tree of late General Potter's district, and from thence extending by district No. 4 due north to the northern boundary of Pennsylvania, thence by the same west fourteen miles, thence south to the line of purchase of 1768, late the southern boundary of James Johnston's and General Potter's dis- tricts, and by the same to the place of beginning.'
" The sixth district comprised all the territory west of Brady's dis- trict to the Allegheny River and Conewango Creek All of the present county of Jefferson must have been within these districts. The surveys made and returned by Brady, Williams, and Broadhead, for the Holland Company, John Nicholson, Robert Morris, and other large purchasers of lands, are so numerous as to practically cover all the lands left unsurveyed by their predecessors within that particular section of the State. A small part of the county, in the vicinity of Brockwayville, was in Richard Shearer's district, No. 7, east of General Potter's line, and a number of lottery warrants was surveyed by Shearer in that locality in 1785. That part of the county subsequently fell within district No. 4, of which James Hunter was the surveyor, who also returned a few surveys.
" In what manner these pioneer surveyors in the wilderness were equipped, and what the outfit for their arduous and difficult labors may have been, we do not know and have no means of ascertaining. Doubt- less they had many severe trials and endured many hardships in preparing the way for future settlements and advancing civilization, for which they receive little credit or remembrance at this day. Possibly their only equipment was the ordinary surveyor's compass and the old link chain of those days, but they nevertheless accomplished much work that remains
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
valuable down to the present time. For their labor they were paid by fees fixed by law. The law of that day also provided a per diem wage of three shillings for chain-carriers, to be paid by the purchaser of the land.
" Very truly yours, " ISAAC B. BROWN, " Secretary."
You will see from the above that in 1785, Richard Shearer, with his chain-carriers and his axe-men, traversed what is now Brockwayville and the forest east of it; that James Potter, with his chain-carriers and axe- men, traversed the forests near Temples, now Warsaw ; that James John- ston, with his chain-carriers and axe men, traversed the forest where Brookville now is, and that James Hamilton, with his chain-carriers and axe men, traversed the forest near or where Corsica now is. Each of these lines ran directly north to the New York line. Where these lines ran was then all in Northumberland County. In 1794, James Hunter, with his chain-carriers and axe.men, was in what is now Brockwayville region, William P. Brady, with his chain-carriers and axe men, was in what is now the Temple region, and Enion Williams and John Broadhead, with chain-carriers and axe-men, were between where Brookville now is and the Clarion region. This wilderness was then in Pine Creek township, Northumberland County.
Elijah M. Graham was born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, Oc- tober 19, 1772. His father's name was John Graham, who served five years in the Continental army.
Elijah M. Graham was one of the original explorers of what is now Jef- ferson County, Pennsylvania. He explored this region in 1794 under Deputy-Surveyor John Broadhead. In that year Broadhead surveyed the district line which now forms the western boundary of Brookville borough. Broadhead and his party of nine men were in this wilderness surveying from May until the middle of October, 1794. The party consisted of Department Surveyor Broadhead, two chain-carriers ( Elijah M. Graham and Elisha Graham, brothers), two axe-men (unknown), one cook (un- known), one driver with two horses (unknown), and two other men (un- known), one of whom was a hunter. These parties crossed streams on log floats, encamped in log huts, and carried their outfit and their provisions on pack horses from what is now Franklin, Pennsylvania, and from some point then in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Graham was six months on this survey without seeing a paleface other than those that comprised the party.
In 1797, Elijah M. Graham located on French Creek, now Crawford County, Pennsylvania, where he resided with his father until 1804, when he returned to this wilderness and worked on Joseph Barnett's mill for three
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
years, when and where he married Miss Sarah Ann Barnett and located on the State Road near and afterwards in what is now Eldred township. He was the first court crier, and served in various township offices.
In 1804 there were but seven or eight families here,-viz., the Bar- netts, Longs, Joneses, Vasbinders, and Dixons, and one colored family.
Mr. Graham reared a family of ten children, only three or four of whom, including J. B., are now living. Elijah M. Graham died in 1854, aged eighty-two years.
John Graham, Elijah M. Graham's father, moved to Jefferson County from Crawford County about 1812, locating about three miles northeast of Brookville, where he died in 1813, and this Revolutionary soldier was buried in the first graveyard, now in East Brookville, the land owned and occupied by W. C. Evans.
" By an act of the Legislature, passed April 1, 1794, the sale of these lands was authorized. The second section of this law provides that all lands west of the Allegheny Mountains shall not be more than three pounds ten shillings for every one hundred acres.
" Section four provides that the quantity of land granted to one per- son shall not exceed four hundred acres. Section six provides for the survey and laying out of these lands by the surveyor-general or his depu- ties into tracts of not more than five hundred acres and not less than two hundred acres, to be sold at public auction at such times as the ‘Supreme Executive Council may direct. '
" When all claims had been paid, 'in specie or money of the State,' for patenting, surveying, etc., a title was granted to the purchaser. In case he was not ready or able to make full payment at the time of pur- chase, by paying all the fees appertaining thereto, he was allowed two years to complete the payment by paying lawful interest, and when the last payment was made a completed title was given.
"By the act of April 8, 1785, the lands were sold by lottery, in por- tions not to exceed one thousand acres to each applicant. Tickets, com- mencing with number one, were put in a wheel, and the warrants, which were called 'Lottery Warrants,' issued on the said applications, were sev- erally numbered according to the decision of the said lottery, and bore date from the day on which the drawing was finished.
"Section seven of this act allowed persons holding these warrants to locate them upon any piece or portion of unappropriated lands. The land upon each warrant to be embraced in one tract, if possible.
" On the 3d of April, 1792, the Legislature passed an act for the sale of these lands, which, in some respects, differed from the laws of 1784 and 1785. It offers land only to such persons as shall settle on them, and designates the kind and duration of settlement.
" By section two of this act all lands lying north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers and Conewango Creek, except such portions
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
as had been or should be appropriated to public or charitable uses, were offered to such as would 'cultivate, improve, and settle upon them, or cause it to be done, for the price of seven pounds ten shillings for every hundred acres, with an allowance of six per centum for roads and high- ways, to be located, surveyed, and secured to such purchasers, in the manner hereinafter mentioned.'
' Section three provided for the surveying and granting of warrants by the surveyor-general for any quantity of land within the said limits, to not exceed four hundred acres, to any person who settled upon and improved said land.
" The act provided for the surveying and division of these lands. The warrants were, if possible, to contain all in one entire tract, and the form of the tract was to be as near, as circumstances would admit, to an oblong, whose length should not be greater than twice the breadth thereof. No warrants were to be issued in pursuance of this act until the purchase-money should have been paid to the receiver general of the land office.
" The surveyor general was obliged to make clear and fair entries of all warrants in a book to be provided for the purpose, and any applicant should be furnished with a certified copy of any warrant upon the pay- ment of one-quarter of a dollar.
" In this law the rights of the citizen were so well fenced about and so equitably defined that risk and hazard came only at his own. But controversies having arisen concerning this law between the judges of the State courts and those of the United States, which the Legislature, for a long time, tried in vain to settle, impeded for a time the settlement of the district. These controversies were not settled until 1805, by a deci- sion of Chief Justice Marshall, of the Supreme Court of the United States.
" At the close of the Revolutionary War several wealthy Hollanders,- Wilhelm Willink, Jan Linklaen, and others,-to whom the United States was indebted for money loaned in carrying on the war, preferring to in- vest the money in this country, purchased of Robert Morris, the great financier of the country at that time, an immense tract of land in the State of New York, and at the same time took up by warrant (under the law above cited) large tracts in the State of Pennsylvania, east of the Allegheny River. Judge Yeates, on one occasion, said, 'The Holland Land Company has paid to the State the consideration money of eleven hundred and sixty-two warrants and the surveying fees on one thousand and forty eight tracts of land (generally four hundred acres each), besides making very considerable expenditures by their exertions, honorable to themselves and useful to the community, in order to effect settlements. Computing the sums advanced, the lost tracts, by prior improvements and interferences, and the quantity of one hundred acres granted to each individual for making an actual settlement on their lands, it is said that,
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averaging the whole, between two hundred and thirty and two hundred and forty dollars have been expended by the company on each tract.'
" An act was passed by the Legislature, March 31, 1823, authorizing Wilhelm Willink, and others of Holland to 'sell and convey any lands belonging to them in the Commonwealth.'
" Large tracts of lands in Jefferson County were owned by the Hol- land Company, and Charles C. Gaskill, of Punxsutawney, was the agent of the company for their sale. He was appointed by John J. Vander- camp, the general agent. He finally sold out to Alexander Caldwell, and Lee, and Gilpin. Mr. Gaskill conveyed much of these lands to actual settlers in this county. Mr. Gaskill was very lenient to settlers. A day was generally set for those parties who had payments to make to meet the owners or their agents, from whom they had purchased lands, at a certain place ; but money was scarce, and it was hard for the early settlers to meet their obligations, small as was the price paid in those days. In order to stir his delinquent debtors up to a sense of their indebtedness Mr. Gaskill inserted the following notice in a paper published at Kit- tanning :
"' NOTICE .- Having been very indulgent towards those persons in- debted for "HOLLAND LAND" in Indiana, Jefferson, and Armstrong Counties for some time past, I am now under the necessity of informing them that it will be necessary for them to exert themselves and make as considerable payments, and as soon as possible, on their respective bonds, etc.
"'CHARLES C. GASKILL.
"' PUNXSUTAWNEY, November 20, IS19.'"
--- Kate Scott's History of Jefferson County.
" Legally, there never was any such thing as the Holland Land Com- pany, or the Holland Company, as they were usually called.
" The company, consisting of Wilhelm Willink and eleven associates, merchants and capitalists of the city of Amsterdam, placed funds in the hands of friends who were citizens of America to purchase several tracts of land in the United States, which, being aliens, the Hollanders could not hold in their names at that time ; and in pursuance of the trust created, there were purchased, both in New York and Pennsylvania, immense tracts of land, all managed by the same general agent at Philadelphia.
" The names of the several persons interested in these purchases, and who composed the Holland Land Company, so called, were as follows : Wilhelm Willink, Nicholas Van Staphorst, Pieter Van Eeghen, Hendrick Vollenhoven, and Ruter Jan Schimmelpenninck. Two years later the five proprietors transferred a tract of about one million acres, so that the
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
title vested in the original five, and also in Wilhelm Willink, Jr., Jan Willink, Jr., Jan Gabriel Van Staphorst, Roelif Van Staphorst, Jr., Cornelius Vollenhoven, and Hendrick Seye."
Charles C. Gaskill came to Punxsutawney about 1820 from Philadel- phia, Pennsylvania. He resided there until 1849, during which time he visited regularly the courts of this and adjoining counties, making sales and receiving payments for land. In this year he disposed of all the Holland land to Reynolds, Smith, Gilpin & Co., when he returned to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Mr. Gaskill was a kind, courteous Quaker gentleman. He died at Cooper's Point, New Jersey, in 1872.
CHAPTER VI.
PIONEER ANIMALS-BEAVER, BUFFALO, ELK, PANTHERS, WOLVES, WILD- CATS, BEARS, AND OTHER ANIMALS-PENS AND TRAPS-BIRDS-WILD BEES.
THE mountainous character of this county and the dense forests that covered almost its whole area made the region a favorite haunt of wild beasts. "Many of them have disappeared, and it is difficult to believe that animals now extinct on the continent at large were once numerous within the boundaries of this county."
The beaver, the buffalo, the elk, and the deer were probably the most numerous of the animals. " Beaver will not live near man, and at an
Beaver.
early period after the settlement of this State these animals withdrew into the secluded regions and ultimately entirely disappeared." The last of them known in this State made their homes in the great " Flag Swamp," or Beaver Meadow, of what was then Jefferson County. This swamp was
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
in Jenks township, and is now situated in Jenks township, Forest County. The beavers were still in this swamp in the thirties. Late in the thirties a trapper named George W. Pelton would occasionally bring a " beaver pelt" from this swamp on Salmon Creek to Brookville and " barter" it for merchandise. Centuries ago herds of wild buffaloes fed in our valleys and on our hills. Yes, more, the " buffalo, or American bison, roamed in great droves over the meadows and uplands from the Susquehanna to Lake Erie."
HOW THE BEAVER BUILT HIS DAM.
If the place chosen was stagnant water or a swamp, he at once com- menced building on the bank with low entrances from the water, but if the stream was a running one, a large company of beavers would co-op- erate in order to keep the water at its level. Then they would go up the stream, gnaw down trees from two feet in diameter down, trim them, float them down to the "site," lay them crosswise, and fill in with mud and stone, which they carried between their forepaws and chin. When the water was high enough in a dam to prevent freezing to the bottom of it in winter, they separated into families and built their houses against the bank or dam. The entrance to the house was beneath the water, and the roof of the house was well covered with mud to protect against wolves. Beavers laid up food for winter by sinking bark and logs in the dam near their house, and in summer fed on grass, roots, etc. Every stream in the county, big or little, had beaver meadows, but they were mostly located on the smaller streams.
The American elk was widely distributed in this great forest in 1794. The habitat of this noble game was the forest extending across the north- ern part of the State. These animals were quite numerous in Jefferson County in the thirties.
In 1834, Mike, William, and John Long and Andrew Vasbinder cap- tured a full-grown, live elk. Their dogs chased the animal onto a high rock, and while there the hunters lassoed it. The elk only lived three weeks in captivity. The last elk in the State was killed in our forests. A noted hunter thus describes a battle between wolves and a drove of elk : "I heard a rush of feet from the opposite direction, and the next moment a band of elks swept into sight. Magnificent fellows they were, eight males and three does, with a couple of calves. They had evidently been stampeded by something, and swept past me without seeing me, but stopped short on catching sight of the wolves. The does turned back and started to gallop away in the direction from which they came, but one of the bucks gave a cry, and they stopped short and hud- dled together with the fawns between them, while the bucks surrounded them. Each buck lowered his horns and awaited the attack. The wolves, seeing the cordon of bristling bone, paused, disconcerted for a moment ; then the foremost, a gaunt old wolf, gave a howl and threw
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PIONEER HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNA.
himself upon the lowered antlers. He was flung fully ten feet with a broken back, but his fate did not deter the others. They threw them- selves upon the elks only to be pierced by the prongs. It was not until fully twenty had in this way been maimed and killed that they seemed to realize the hopelessness of the thing."
The largest carnivorous beast was the panther. After the advent of white men into this wilderness panthers were not common. In the early days, however, there were enough of them in the forests to keep the set- tler or the hunter ever on his guard. They haunted the wildest glens and made their presence known by occasional raids on the flocks and herds. It is probable that here in our northwestern counties there are still a few of these savage beasts.
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