USA > Pennsylvania > A pioneer outline history of northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 39
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In the hotels of that day the " bar" was constructed for the safety of the bartender. It was a solid structure with a counter in front, from which a sliding door on iron rods could be shoved up and locked, or shut down and locked; hence the hotel man could " bar" himself in and the drunken men out. This was for safety in dispensing whiskey, and is the origin of the word " bar" in connection with hotels. In 1840 all our hotel bars were so made.
Lumbering in 1840 was one of our principal industries. We had no eastern outlet, and everything had to be rafted to Pittsburg. The saw-mills were nearly all " up and down" mills. The "thunder-gust" mills were those on small streams. All were driven by flutter-wheels and water. It required usually but one man to run one of these mills. He could do all the work and saw from one to two thousand feet of boards in twelve hours. Pine boards sold in the Pittsburg market then at three and four dollars per thousand ; clear pine at ten dollars per thousand. Of course, these sales were on credit. The boards were rafted in the creek in " seven-platform" pieces by means of grubs. The oars were hung on what were called thole-pins. The front of
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each raft had a bumper and splash-board as a protection in going over dams. The creeks then were full of short bends, rocks, and drift. Cables were un- known here, and a halyard made from hickory withes or water-beech was used as a cable to tie up with. "Grousers" were used to assist in tying up. A pilot then received four dollars to the mouth of the creek; forehands, two dollars and expenses. The logging in the woods was all done with oxen. The camp and mill boarding consisted of bread, flitch, beans, potatoes, Orleans molasses, sometimes a little butter, and coffee or tea without cream. Woods- men were paid sixteen dollars a month and boarded, and generally paid in store-orders or trade.
We usually had three floods on which to run this lumber,-spring, June, and fall. At these times rafts were plenty and people were scarce, and, as time and tide wait for no man, whenever a flood came everybody had to turn out and assist to run the rafts. The boy had to leave his school, the minister his pulpit, the doctor abandon his patients, the lawyer his briefs, the mer- chant his yard-stick, the farmer his crops or seeding. And there was one great compensation in this,-nearly everybody got to see Pittsburg.
"Running down the creek and gigging back" was the business language of everybody. "How many trips have you made?" etc. It took about twelve hours to run a raft from the neighborhood of Brookville to the mouth, or the Allegheny River, and ordinarily it required hard walking to reach home the next day. Some ambitious, industrious pilots would " run down in the day- time and walk back the same night." James T. Carroll has made four of these trips in succession, Joseph Shobert five, and William Green four or five. Of course, these pilots remained down the last night. This extraor- dinary labor was accomplished without ever going to bed. Although some may be incredulous, these are facts, as the parties interested are still alive (1895). Pilots sometimes ran all night. Joseph Shobert has started from Brookville at five o'clock p.M. and reached the mouth at five o'clock in the morning. Other pilots have done this also. There were no rubber goods then.
Pine square timber was taken out and marketed in Pittsburg. No other timber was marketable, and then only the best part of the pine could be hewed and rafted. Often but one stick would be used from a tree. In Pittsburg this timber brought from four to eight cents a foot, running measure.
The square timber business was then the business. Every lumberman followed it, and every farmer ran one timber raft at least. The " taking out of square timber" had to be done in the fall, before snow came. The trees were felled, " cut in sticks," " scored in," and hewn smooth and square. Each " lumber tract" had its log cabin and barn. The "sticks" were hauled to the creek on a " bob" sled in the snow by oxen or horses, and banked until time to " raft in" and get ready for the "spring flood." It was the timber trade that made the pioneer prosperous and intelligent.
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The lumbermen could contract with hewers for the cutting, scoring, and hewing of pine timber, complete, ready to be hauled, for from three-quarters to one and a quarter cents per foot. All timber was generally well faced on one side, and was rafted with lash-poles of iron-wood or white oak, and securely fastened in position by means of white-oak bows and ash pins. Bows and pins were an article of merchandise then. Bows sold at seventy-five cents a hundred, and ash pins brought fifty cents a hundred. Grubs for board rafts sold at two dollars and fifty cents a hundred. Oar stems were then made from small sapling dead pines, shaved down. Pine timber or wild lands could then be bought at from one dollar to two dollars per acre.
Along the lower end of our creeks and on the Allegheny River there lived a class of people who caught and appropriated all the loose logs, shingles,
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Rafting on North Fork
boards, and timber they could find floating down the streams. These men were called by the early lumbermen Algerines, or pirates. The name Algerine originated thus: In the war of 1812 " the dey of Algiers took the oppor- tunity of capturing an American vessel and condemning her crew to slavery. Then a squadron of nine vessels commanded by Commodore Decatur, in May. 1815, appeared in the Mediterranean, captured the largest frigate in the Algerine navy, and with other naval successes so terrified the dey that on the 30th of June he made certain pecuniary indemnities, and renounced all future claim to any American tribute or payments, and surrendered all his prisoners."
As there has been considerable agitation over my paragraph on poll- evil in horses, I reprint here a slip that has been sent me :
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"AN OLD TIME CURE FOR POLL-EVIL
"ED. SPIRIT,-I am moved by your quotation from Dr. McKnight's article in the Brookville Democrat on the old-time nonsense in relation to poll-evil in horses to say that the doctor's explanation of the cause of that severe affliction on the poor brute's head is in part correct ; but it was mainly owing to the low door-ways and the low mow-timbers just above the horse's head as he stood in the stall of the old-time log stables. The horse often struck his head on the lintel of the low door-way as he passed in and out; and as he stood in the stall, when roughly treated by his master, in throwing up his head it came in violent contact with the timbers, and continued bruising resulted ultimately in the fearful, painful abscesses referred to. There were those in that day who had reputations for skill in the cure of poll-evil, and their method was this: The afflicted animal must be brought to the doctor before the break of day. An axe was newly ground. The doctor must not speak a word to any person on any subject after the horse was given into his hand until the feat was performed. Before sunrise the doctor took the axe and the horse and proceeded out of sight of any human habitation, going toward the east. When such a spot was reached he turned toward the animal, bent down its head firmly and gently, drew the sharpened blade of the axe first lengthwise, then crosswise of the abscess sufficiently to cause the blood to flow, muttering meanwhile some mystic words; then, just below where the head of the horse was, he stuck the bloody axe in the ground, left it there, turned immediately around, walked rapidly away, leading the animal, and not at all looking back until he had delivered it into the hand of the owner, who was waiting at a distance to receive it, and who took it home at once. The next morning at sunrise the axe was removed, and in due time the cure was effected.
" AN OLD-TIMER.
" SMICKSBURG, PA., September 7, 1894."
The first known person to live within the confines of the present borough was Jim Hunt, an Indian of the Muncy tribe. He was here as early as 1797, and was in banishment for killing a warrior of his own tribe. By an Indian law he was not allowed to live in his tribe until the place of the warrior he had slain was filled by the capture of another male from white people or from other Indians. In 1808 Jim's friends stole a white boy in Westmore- land County, Pennsylvania, and had him accepted into the tribe in place of the warrior Jim had killed. Jim Hunt's residence or cave was near the deep hole, or near the sand spring, on Sandy Lick, and was discovered in 1843 by Mr. Thomas Graham. About 1812 Jim Hunt left and never re- turned. He was a great bear-hunter, having killed seventy-eight in one winter. He loved " fire-water," and all his earnings went for this beverage ; yet he never dared to get so drunk he could not run to his cave when he
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heard a peculiar Indian whoop on Mill Creek hills. His Indian enemies pur- sued him, and his Indian friends looked after him and warned him to flee to his hiding-place by a peculiar whoop. Little Snow, a Seneca chief, lived at the sand spring in 1800, and it was then called "Wolf Spring."
The first white person to settle in what is now Brookville was Moses Knapp. He built a log house about 1801 at the mouth of North Fork Creek, on ground now owned by Thomas L. Templeton, near Christ's brewery. The first white child born within the limits of what is now Brookville was Joshua Knapp, on Mr. Templeton's lot, at the mouth of the North Fork, in the month of March, 1810. He is still living (1895) in Pine Creek Township, about two miles from the town. About 1806 or 1807, Knapp built a log grist-mill where the waters of the North Fork then entered the Red Bank. It was a rude mill, and had but one run of rock-stones. In 1818 he sold this mill to Thomas Barnett. James Parks, Barnett's brother-in-law, came to run this mill about 1824 (Barnett having died), and lived here until about 1830. Parks came from Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, and brought with him and held in legal slavery here a negro man named " Sam," who was the first colored person to live in what is now called Brookville. He was a large mulatto.
Joseph B. Graham, Esq., of Eldred Township, informs me that he carried a grist on horseback to this mill of one half-bushel of shelled corn for this Sam to grind. Mr. Graham says his father put the corn in one end of the bag and a big stone in the other end to balance the corn. That was the custom, but the 'squire says they did not know any better. Joshua Knapp, Uriah Matson, and John Dixon all took grists of corn and buckwheat to this mill for " Sam," the miller, to grind.
" Happy the miller who lives by the mill,
For by the turning of his hand he can do what he will."
But this was not so with "Sam." At his master's nod he could grind his own " peck of meal," for his body, his work, his life, and his will belonged to Parks. Many settlers in early days carried corn to the grist-mill on their own shoulders, or on the neck-yoke of a pair of oxen. I have seen both of these methods used by persons living ten and fifteen miles from a mill.
The census of 1830 gives Jefferson County a population of 2003 whites, 21 free colored persons, and I colored slave. This slave was " Sam."
Brookville was laid out as the county seat in 1830, but it was not in- corporated as a borough until April 9, 1834. (See pamphlet laws of 1834, page 209.) The first house was erected in August, 1830. The first election held in the new borough for officials was in the spring of 1835. Joseph Sharpe was elected constable. Darius Carrier and Alexander McKnight were elected school directors. The first complete set of borough officers were elected in 1835, and were as follows :
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Burgess, Thomas Lucas; Council, John Dougherty, James Corbet, John Pierce. Samuel Craig, Wm. A. Sloan; Constable, John Mclaughlin (this man MeLaughlin was a great hunter, and could neither read nor write; he moved to Brockwayville, and from there went West) ; School Directors, Levi G. Clover, Samuel Craig, David Henry, C. A. Alexander, Wm. A. Sloan, James Corbet.
In 1840 the borough officers were :
Burgess, William Jack; Council, Elijah Heath, John Gallagher, Cyrus Butler, Levi G. Clover, John Dougherty, William Rodgers; Constable, John Dougherty.
Of these early fathers the only one now living ( 1895) is Major William Rodgers. He resides about a mile from town, on the Corsica road.
In 1840 the " itch" was in Brookville, and popular all the year round. As bath-tubs were unknown and family bathing rare, this itch was the seven- vear kind. Head-lice among the people and in the schools were also common. Had I been familiar with Burns in my boyhood, many a time, while seeing a louse crawl on and over a boy or girl in our schools, I could have ex- claimed .-
"O, Jenny, dinna toss your head An' set your beauties a' abraed ; Ye little ken what cussed speed The beast's a makin'."
The only cure for lice was to "rid" out the hair every few days with a big, coarse comb, crack the nits between the thumb-nails, and then saturate the hair with " red precipity," using a fine-tooth comb. The itch was cured by the use of an ointment made of brimstone and lard. During school-terms many children wore little sacks of powdered brimstone about their necks. This was supposed to be a preventive.
In 1840 the only music-books we had were " The Beauties of Harmony" and " The Missouri Harmony." Each of these contained the old " buck- wheat" notes of me, fa, sol, la. Every one could not afford one of these books. Music-teachers travelled through the county and taught classes. A class was twenty-six scholars, a term thirteen nights, and the tuition-fee fifty cents for each scholar. Teachers used " tuning-forks," and some played a violin in connection with the class-singing. The teacher opened the singing by exhorting the class to " sound your pitches,-sol, fa, la."
In 1840 Billy Boo, an eccentric, intelligent hermit, lived in a hut on the farm in Rose Township now occupied by William Hughey. Although he lived in this hut, he spent most of his wakeful hours in Brookville. He was a man of good habits, and all that he would tell, or any one could learn of him or his nativity, was that he came from England. He was about five feet five or six inches high, heavy set, and stoop-shouldered. He usually dressed in white flannel clothes. Sometimes his clothing, from being darned so much,
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looked as if it had been quilted. He lived upon the charity of the people and by picking up a few pennies for some light gardening jobs. He died as a charge on Brookville borough in 1863.
Indian relics were found frequently on our hills and in our valleys in 1840. They consisted of stone tomahawks, darts, arrows, and flints.
Prior to and during 1840 a form of legalized slavery was practised in this State and county in regard to minor children. Poor or destitute children were " bound out" or indentured by the poor overseers to masters or mis- tresses,-boys until they were twenty-one years of age and girls until they were eighteen. Parents exercised this privilege also. All apprentices were then bound to mechanics to learn trades. The period of this indenture was three years. The law was severe on the children, and in favor of the master or mistress. Under these conditions cruelties were practised, and children and apprentices tried to escape them. Of course, there were bad children who ran away from kind masters and mistresses. The master or mistress usually advertised these runaways. I have seen many of these in our papers. I reprint one of these advertisements, taken from the Gazette and Columbian, published by J. Croll & Co., at Kittanning, Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, on August 8, 1832 :
"$5 REWARD
" Run away from the subscriber, living in the borough of Kittanning. on the 22d inst., an indentured apprentice to the Tailoring business, named Henry P. Huffman, between 18 or 19 years of age, stout made and black hair, had on when he went away a light cotton roundabout, and pantaloons of the same, and a new fur hat. Whoever apprehends the said runaway and delivers him to the subscriber in Kittanning shall receive the above reward.
" JOHN WILLIAMS.
" KITTANNING, July 25, 1832."
In the forties the election for State officers was held on the second Tues- day of October of each year, and in the absence of telegraphis, railroads, etc., it took about four weeks to hear any definite result from an election, and then the result was published with a tail to it,-"Pike, Potter, Mckean, and Jefferson to hear from." It is amusing to recall the reason usually given for a defeat at these elections by the unsuccessful party. It was this: "The day was fine and clear, a good day for threshing buckwheat ; therefore our voters failed to turn out." The editor of the defeated party always published this poetic stanza for the consolation of his friends :
"Truth crushed to earth will rise again, The eternal years of God are hers, While error, wounded, writhes in pain, And dies amidst her worshippers."
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In a Presidential contest we never knew the result with any certainty until the 4th of March, or inauguration-day.
In 1840, according to the census, the United States contained a population of 17.062,666 people, of which 2,487,113 were slaves. The employments of the people were thus divided: Agriculture, 3.717.756; commerce, 117.575; manufactures and trades, 791.545; navigating the ocean, 56,025; navigating rivers, canals, etc., 33,067 ; mining, 15,203 ; learned professions, 65,236.
The Union then consisted of 26 States, and we had 223 Congressmen. The ratio of population for a Congressman was 70,680. In this computation five slaves would count as three white men, although the slaves were not allowed to vote. Our territories were populated thus: District of Columbia, 43,712; Florida, 54,477: Wisconsin, 30,945; Iowa, 43,112. The chief cities and towns were thus populated :
New York
312,710
Philadelphia
228,691
Baltimore
102,313
New Orleans 102,193
Boston
93,393
Cincinnati
46,338
Brooklyn
35,234
Albany
33,721
Charleston
29,261
Washington
23,364
Providence
23,17I
Louisville
21,210
Pittsburg
21,115
Lowell
20,796
Rochester
20,19I
Richmond
20,133
Buffalo
18,210
Newark
17,293
St. Louis
16,469
Portland
15,218
Salem
16,083
Brookville
276
Household or family goods were produced in 1840 to the amount of $29,230,380.
Total amount of capital employed in manufactures, $267,726,579.
The whole expenses of the Revolutionary War were estimated, in specie, at $135,193,703.
In 1840 it was the custom for newspapers to publish in one of their issues, after the adjournment of the Legislature, a complete list by title of all the enactments of that session.
In the forties fruit was naturally scarce and inferior in these woods, and, as " boys were boys then," all kinds of means, both fair and foul, were resorted
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to by the boys to get a fill of apples. Johnny Lucas, Johnny Jones, Yankee Smith, and Mrs. Fuller used to bring apples and peaches into the village and retail them out on the street. I have seen this trick played frequently on these venders by two boys,-viz., a boy would go up to the wagon, holding his cap with both hands, and ask for a sixpence worth of apples or peaches. The vender would then count the apples and drop them into the cap. The boy would then let go of the cap with one hand as if to pay, when boy No. 2 would snatch the cap and apples out of his hand and run for dear life down the street and into the first alley. The owner of the cap, in apparent anger, would immediately take after this thief, forget to pay, and in the alley help eat the apples.
In 1840 " shingle weavers" brought their shingles to Brookville to barter. A shingle weaver was a man who did not steal timber. He only went into the pine-woods and there cut the clearest and best tree he could find, and hauled it home to his shanty in blocks, and there split and shaved the blocks into shingles. He bartered his shingles in this way: he would first have his gallon or two-gallon jug filled with whiskey, then take several pounds of Baltimore plug-tobacco, and then have the balance coming to him apportioned in New Orleans molasses, flitch, and flour. Many a barter of this kind have I billed when acting as clerk.
Timothy Pickering & Co., Leroy & Linklain, Wilhelm Willink, Jeremiah Parker, Holland Land Company, Robert Morris, Robert Gilmore, William Bingham, John Nicholson, Dr. William Cathcart, Dr. James Hutchinson, and a few others owned about all the land in Jefferson County. This goes a great length to disprove the demagogy you hear so much nowadays about the few owning and gobbling up all the land. How many people own a piece of Jefferson County to-day?
In 1840 the only newspaper published in Jefferson County was the Back- woodsman, published in Brookville by Thomas Hastings & Son. Captain John Hastings, who is still living in Punxsutawney, was the son. The terms of this paper were one dollar and seventy-five cents in advance, two dollars if paid within the year, and two dollars and fifty cents if not paid within the year. Hastings & Son sold the paper to William Jack. Jack rented the paper to a practical printer by the name of George F. Humes, who continued the publication until after the October election in 1843, when he announced in an editorial that his patrons might go to h-11 and he would go to Texas. Bar- ton T. Hastings and Clark Wilson then bought and assumed control of the paper, and published it until 1846 as the Brookville Jeffersonian. Mr. Has- tings is still living ( 1898) in Brookville.
I reprint here a large portion of the proceedings of an old-time cele- bration of the Fourth of July, in 1843, in Brookville. We copy from the Backwoodsman, dated August 1, 1843, then edited by George F. Humes. The editorial article in the Backwoodsman is copied entire. The oration of D. S.
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Deering, all the regular toasts, and part of the volunteer toasts are omitted because of their length. Editor Humes's article was headed
" FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION
" The citizens of Brookville and vicinity celebrated the sixty-seventh anniversary of American independence in a spirited and becoming manner. " The glorious day was ushered in by the firing of cannon and ringing of bells. At an early hour the 'Independent Greens,' commanded by Captain Hugh Brady, formed into parade order, making a fine appearance, and marched through the principal streets, cheering and enlivening the large body of spectators, whose attention appeared to be solely drawn to their skilful rehearsals of military tactics; and, after spending some time in a course of drilling, joined the large assembly, without distinction of party or feeling, under the organization and direction of John McCrea, Esq., president of the day, and Samuel B. Bishop and Colonel Thomas Wilkins, marshals; when they proceeded to the court-house, where the Declaration of Independence was read in a clear and impressive tone by L. B. Dunham, Esq., after which David S. Deering, Esq., delivered an address very appropriate to the occasion, touching with point and pathos upon the inducements which impelled our fathers to raise the flag of war against the mother-country. The company then formed into line, and proceeded to the hotel of Mr. George Mclaughlin, at the head of Main Street, where they sat down to a well-served, delicious, and plentiful repast, the ladies forming a smiling and interesting 'platoon' on one side of the table, which added much to the hilarity of the celebration. After the cloth was removed, and the president and committees had taken their seats, a number of toasts applicable to the times, and as varied in senti- ment as the ages of the multitude, were offered and read, accompanied by repeated cheering and a variety of airs from the brass band, thus passing the day in that union and harmony so characteristic of Americans. It was indeed a ยท Union celebration.'
VOLUNTEER TOASTS
" By John McCrea. Our Brookville celebration: a union of parties, a union of feeling, the union established by our Revolutionary fathers of '76. May union continue to mark our course until time shall be no more.
"By W. W. Corbet. Liberty, regulated by law, and law by the virtues of American legislators.
" By William B. Wilkins. Henry Clay : a man of tried principles, of admitted competency, and unsullied integrity, may he be the choice of the people for the next Presidency in 1844.
"By Evans R. Brady. The Democrats of the Erie district: a form, locked up in the chase of disorganization; well squabbled at one side by the awkward formation of the district. If not locked tight by the side-sticks of regular nominations, well driven by the quoins of unity, and knocked in by
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