USA > Pennsylvania > A pioneer outline history of northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 48
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In 1900 I. H. Musser wrote the following data of Cameron County :
" FIRST SETTLEMENTS
" Before the advent of the white man the Indians had a town on the Sinnemahoning just east of the First Fork, and in historical times it was called 'The Lodge.' Many relics have been discovered on the site of it. This is probably the only place within the present limits of the county for which there is undisputed evidence of an Indian town.
" The first settlement by a white man was on the site of Driftwood, then called the Second Fork, as the site of the village of Sinnemahoning was called the First Fork. This was in 1804, and the settler was John Jordan, who, with his family of wife and five sons, made the wilderness his home, built his cabin, and began a clearing. But if the country was a wilderness in every sense of our modern acceptation of the term, it was a paradise in one respect, and that was in its home for game. The deer, the elk, the bear, the panther, the wolf, not to speak of smaller game, the delight of the present huntsman, such as pheasants, quails, squirrels, etc., made the mountains and the well-watered bottoms their home and roamed almost unmolested through the dense forests of pine, hemlock, oak, and other woods. The streams were alive with the gamiest of trout, salmon, pike, and the other members of the finny tribe that have always appealed the strongest to the sportsman. And last, but by no means the least dangerous, was the rattlesnake, which even to this day does not hesitate to continue the losing contest for the maintenance of its ancient rights with the aggressive human member of the animal kingdom. Jordan was a hunter, and this perhaps more than anything else influenced him in the selection of his new home. He was at the time about forty years of age, and in the prime of life. He is said to have killed ninety-six elks, besides any amount of other game.
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"In 1806 Levi Hicks, Andrew Overturf, and Samuel Smith settled on lands between the First and the Second Forks, Hicks occupying what in recent time is known as the Shaeffer farm. Smith was a single man. The same year was opened the public highway, leading from Dunnstown, nearly opposite the present Lock Haven, up the river to Cook's Run, thence across the mountains to Driftwood, and from thence northward to Ellicottville, New York, where the Holland Land Company had an extensive scope of territory. This company was instrumental in no small degree in having the road laid out. In 1811 the pioneer grist-mill in the county was built at the mouth of Clear Creek. In 1812 Hicks sold out to Jacob Burge, who had come to the vicinity a year or two previous, and moved up the Bennett's Branch. He (Hicks) made the first raft and floated it down the Sinnema- honing, and was thus the pioneer in an occupation that was the chief industry along that stream for many years.
' GAME
" As stated before, game was plenty, and formed a most important article for the table. The woods were full of game of all kinds, and the hunter had every opportunity to indulge in the sport, dangerous though it may have been sometimes.
" DESPERADOES
" It is not to be supposed that a section of country as wild as the West Branch was a hundred years ago would not furnish at least some desperate characters. Of such were Lewis and Connely who for a number of years infested what is now Centre, Clinton, and Cameron Counties. They com- mitted so many deeds of outlawry, and the local officers seemed so far unable to deal with them, that the state offered a reward of six hundred dollars for their apprehension, dead or alive. Having done considerable robbing in the vicinity of what is now Lock Haven, they escaped to the Sinnemahoning country and, continuing their lawlessness, were finally sur- rounded at a house on Bennett's Branch, where both were wounded, Connely mortally, dying in a short time, and Lewis, being captured and taken to the Bellefonte jail, died soon after.
" The pioneer store was opened in 1829 or 1830, at Sinnemahoning, by Buckman Clafflin. Here Mrs. Victoria Woodhull and Tennessee Clafflin were born.
" The Cameron Citizen was the first to enter the journalistic arena in the county. It had been founded at Smethport by F. A. Allen in 1853. Allen sold it to Lucius Rogers in 1858, who moved the plant to Emporium on the formation of the new county, and on December 28, 1860, the first number was issued. William R. Rogers was a member of the firm at Em- porium. The next year Lucius Rogers received an appointment to recruit
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a company for the war, and, leaving for the field, the Citizen was discon- tinued in the latter part of August, 1861.
" The Cameron County Press was founded in 1866 through the efforts of a number of Emporium gentlemen who wanted a Republican paper, and who purchased the material of the defunct Citisen. They then sent for Mr. C. B. Gould, who at that time was a resident of Binghamton, New York. Mr. Gould came, and after meeting with much discouragement, not the least of which was the condition of the printing material, issued the first number of the Press, March 8, 1866, and thus began a career in the county that was distinguished for honor and integrity not less than for success in the editorial field. The paper was a small affair at first, but, with increasing prosperity, it was enlarged until at present it is an eight-page, forty-eight column paper. In 1877 the office was burned with all its contents, and with- out any insurance, but Mr. Gould began anew, and success again crowned his efforts. On May 25, 1897. Mr. Gould died, and he was succeeded by Mr. H. H. Mullin, his son-in-law, as editor and publisher. Mr. Mullin has been connected with the office for thirty-two years, and prior to Mr. Gould's death had for some years been the de facto editor.
DRAINAGE
" No county in the State has a better drainage system than Cameron. Except the extreme northwest, the entire county is drained by the Sinnema- honing and its tributaries, and this stream flows into the West Branch of the Susquehanna at Keating Station, in Clinton County, not more than seven or eight miles from the Cameron County line. The divide between the Sus- quehanna and the Allegheny River systems crosses the northwest corner of the county, barely a mile from the boundary, but within that area rises a small stream that mingles its waters with the streams of the Mississippi system. The main stream of the Sinnemahoning rises in Potter County, within perhaps a mile of the Allegheny River, and, flowing almost due south, is joined by the Driftwood Branch at the village of Sinnemahoning, and thence flows southeastward, leaving the county near Grove Station. It receives within the county, after its juncture with the Driftwood, Wyckoff and Upper Jerry Runs.
" AREA
" The area of the county is three hundred and eighty-one miles, or two hundred and forty-three thousand eight hundred and forty acres. It is therefore one of the smaller counties of the State, there being but nine less in size.
" POLITICAL DIVISIONS
"Cameron County contains five townships-Shippen, Portage, Lumber, Gibson, and Grove-and two boroughs,-Emporium and Driftwood. The
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villages of more or less importance are Sinnemahoning, Sterling Run. Cameron, and Sizerville.
" There is but one recorded conflict that took place on the Sinnema- honing during the period of the Revolutionary War. Farther down the West Branch numerous actions took place that in almost every case could be designated by no other name than massacres, for whether it was the Indian or the white man, each fought only from ambush and tried to exter- minate the ambushed party. Perhaps the most important event of the war was what was called 'The Great Runaway.' This was in 1778, immediately after the Wyoming massacre, when, the news reaching the people along the West Branch, they hastened down the river to Fort Augusta, leaving their fields and crops to the savage. A few ventured to return shortly after to gather their crops, and a number were killed by the Indians, among the rest James Brady, whose son Captain Sam Brady amply avenged his death and became the hero of perhaps more exploits than any other border-man of his time.
" In 1780 occurred the affair on the Sinnemahoning. The Indians had made an incursion into Buffalo Valley, Union County, and had committed depredations as far as Penn's Creek, fully twelve miles back from the river. The Groves, noted Indian fighters, lived a few miles east of the present Mifflinburg, where their descendants are still to be found. The elder Grove was killed, but by whom or in what way was not known until a pretended friendly Indian, while drunk, revealed the manner to Peter Grove, a son of the murdered man, by imitating the elder Grove undergoing tortures inflicted by the 'friendly' and his companions. Peter wisely said nothing, nor did he by his countenance reveal any idea of revenge, nor of horror at the recital of the revolting crime, but he immediately after headed a scouting party in pursuit, and at Grove's Run in the present village of Sinnemahoning they attacked the party of twenty-five or thirty Indians while they were asleep and killed a number of them, but as there were only five or six in Grove's party, the Indians rallied and drove them off, without, however. any injury being sustained by Grove and his friends. Five or six Indians were killed in this engagement. On their return the whites waded the creek for a considerable distance to avoid pursuit."
CHAPTER XXIX
ELK COUNTY-FORMATION OF COUNTY-LOCATION OF COUNTY SEAT-PIONEER ROADS, SETTLERS, COURTS, OFFICERS, LAWYERS, CHURCHES, AND SCHOOLS- JUDGE GILLIS-REV. JONATHAN NICHOLS-MILLS-TANNERY-BOATS AND RAFTING-ANIMALS AND HUNTERS-STAGING-PIONEER COAL-MINING
THE TOWNSHIP OF RIDGWAY
RIDGWAY TOWNSHIP was originally formed as a part of Jefferson County in 1826, and remained there until 1843, when it was taken from that county, by the following act of Assembly, to create the county of Elk :
" AN ACT ERECTING PARTS OF JEFFERSON, CLEARFIELD, AND M'KEAN COUNTIES INTO A SEPARATE COUNTY, TO BE CALLED ELK.
" SECTION I. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same :
" That all those parts of the counties of Jefferson, Clearfield, and Mc- Kean, lying between the following boundaries,-viz., beginning at the north- east corner of Jefferson County, thence due east about nine miles to the northeast corner of lot number two thousand three hundred and twenty- eight, thence due south to Clearfield County, thence east along said line to the east line of Gibson Township, and thence south so far that a westwardly line to the mouth of Mead's Run shall pass within not less than fifteen miles of the town of Clearfield, and thence westwardly to Little Toby's Creek, along said line to the mouth of Mead's Run, thence in a northwesterly direction to where the west line of Ridgway Township crosses the Clarion River, thence so far in the same direction to a point from whence a due north line will strike the southwest corner of Mckean County, thence along said line to the southwest corner of Mckean County, and thence east along the south line of Mckean County to the place of beginning, be and the same is hereby erected into a separate county to be henceforth called Elk.
" SECTION II. That Timothy Ives, Junior, of Potter County, James W. Guthrie, of Clarion County, and Zachariah H. Eddy, of Warren County, are hereby appointed commissioners, who, or any two of whom, shall ascertain and plainly mark the boundary lines of said county of Elk; and it shall be the duty of the said commissioners to receive proposals, make purchase, or accept donation land in the eligible situations for a seat of justice in the
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
said county of Elk, by grant, bargain, or otherwise, all such assurances for payment of money and grants of land that may be offered to them, or their survivors, in trust for the use and benefit of the said county of Elk; and to lay out, sell, and convey such part thereof, either in town lots or otherwise, as to them, or a majority of them, shall appear advantageous and proper, and to apply the proceeds thereof in aid of the county.
" Provided, that before the commissioners aforesaid shall proceed to perform the duties enjoined on them by this act, they shall take an oath or affirmation before some judge or justice of the peace, well and truly and with fidelity to perform said duties according to the true intent and meaning of this act ;
" Provided also, that as soon as the county commissioners are elected and qualified, the duties enjoined on the said commissioners shall cease and determine, and shall be performed by the county commissioners so chosen and elected.
" SECTION X. That it shall be lawful for the commissioners of the county of Elk, who shall be elected at the annual election in one thousand eight hundred and forty-three, to take assurances to them and their suc- cessors in office of such lot or lots, or piece of ground as shall have been approved of by the trustees appointed as aforesaid, or a majority of them, for the purpose of erecting thereon a court-house, jail, and offices for the safe-keeping of the records.
" SECTION XI. That the judges of the Supreme Court shall have like powers, jurisdictions, and authorities within the said county of Elk, as by law they are vested with, and entitled to have and exercise in other counties of this State; and said county is hereby annexed to the western district of the Supreme Court.
" SECTION XII. The county of Elk shall be annexed to, and compose part of, the eighteenth judicial district of this Commonwealth; and the courts in the said county of Elk shall be held on the third Monday of Feb- ruary, May, September, and December in each and every year, and continue one week at each term, if necessary.
" Approved the 18th day of April, one thousand eight hundred and forty-three."
The pioneer court held in the county was at Caledonia, twenty miles east of Ridgway, on the Milesburg and Smethport turnpike, in Jay Township. The judges present were: Associates, James L. Gillis and Isaac Horton ; Prothonotary, etc., W. J. B. Andrews; Commissioners, Reuben Winslow. Chauncey Brockway, and John Brooks. But little business was transacted. Attorneys present : George R. Barrett, Ben. R. Petriken, and Lewis B. Smith. The first court held in Ridgway was in the school-house, February 19. 1844. Alexander McCalmont, president judge ; Isaac Horton, associate judge: and Eusebius Kincaid, sheriff.
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The pioneer court crier was Nathaniel Hyatt, from Kersey. Colonel Corbet, who clerked for Gillis in 1845, informs me that the court-house was built in the summer of that year. The contractors were General Levi G. Clover and Edward H. Derby. The supplies for the men were furnished through the store of James L. Gillis. S. M. Burson was the first lawyer to locate in Ridgway. In 1854 the court crier was M. L. Ross. On public occasions he wore a blue broadcloth swallow-tailed coat, with brass buttons in front. " This coat had pocket-holes behind for thirty years or more." The commissioners were E. C. Schultze, C. F. Luce, L. Luther.
The following lawyers, afterwards distinguished, then attended the courts : Brown, Curtis, and Johnson, of Warren; Barrett, Wallace, McCul- lough, and Larimer, of Clearfield; I. G. Gordon, W. P. Jenks, McCahon, and Lucas, of Jefferson; and Goodrich and Eldred, of Mckean.
The pioneer settler was "a pioneer hunter named General Wade and family, with a friend named Slade, who came to the head-waters of the Little Toby in 1798, and settled temporarily. In 1803 the party returned east, but the same year came hither and built a log house at the mouth of the Little Toby on the east bank. In 1806, while Wade and Slade were hunting near what is now Blue Rock, they saw an Indian girl watching them. Approach- ing her, Wade enticed her to follow him to his home, and there introduced her to Mrs. Wade. In 1809 this Indian girl married Slade, Chief Tamisqua performing the ceremony. Slade removed with his wife to where Portland now is and established a trading house there."
But Amos Davis was the real pioneer settler in 1810.
Of the early settlers, Dr. A. M. Clarke wrote as follows :
" About the time of the 'late war' with England, in 1812, some venture- some men pushed their way up the Susquehanna River and up the Sinne- mahoning Creek to the mouth of Trout Run on Bennett's Branch, at which place Leonard Morey located and built a saw-mill. Dwight Caldwell, John Mix, and Eben Stephens came at the same time. These were the first settlers on Bennett's Branch. About the same time a large tract of country, contain- ing some one hundred and forty thousand acres, which had been surveyed on warrants issued in the name of James Wilson, had come into the possession of Fox, Norris & Co., Quakers, of Philadelphia, who sent William Kersey as agent to construct a road into their lands and build a mill. The road started from a point on an old State road leading to Waterford, Pennsylvania, about eight miles west of the Susquehanna River, passed through the woods over Boon's Mountain, crossed Little Toby's Creek, without a bridge, where Hellen Mills now stand, followed up the creek seven miles to the point of Hogback Hill, up which it went, though steep and difficult, continued over the high and undulating grounds to the spot which had been selected for a mill site on a stream which was afterwards called Elk Creek, where the mill was built, about two miles from the present Centreville. Jacob Wilson
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Pioneer court-house, 1845
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
was the miller who for many years attended this mill. Often the old man had to go a mile and a half from his own house to the mill to grind a small grist of a bushel, brought on horseback; but his patience was quite equal to the emergency, and he did it without complaining.
" A few settlers came into the county about the time the Kersey Mill was built; of these I may mention Elijah Meredith, James Green, Josiah Taylor, J. R. Hancock, David Reesman, John Kyler, and John Shafer, with their families; these constituted the Kersey settlement."
One of the pioneers of Ridgway Township was James L. Gillis. In June, 1820, he left his home in Ontario County, New York, to look over the land, and in December, 1820, he moved his family into the wilderness. They came in sleds, and it required two days; they had to camp out over night. Gillis was an agent for Ridgway, and was furnished ample means for all expenses. He cleared five hundred acres of land, erected a large frame house, and built a grist-mill and a carding-machine. Reuben A. Aylesworth and Enos Gillis came with his family.
James L. Gillis was a man of State celebrity. He was absent nearly all the time, lobbying at Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, or at Washington.
In 1826 William Morgan, of Batavia, New York, was abducted from his home at night and never heard of afterwards. Morgan had been a Mason. and published the alleged secrets of the Masonic Fraternity. The Masons were charged with abducting and murdering him. Mystery surrounds his disappearance to this day. Intense excitement prevailed all over the nation.
Mr. Gillis was a Mason, and was arrested at Montmorenci and carried to' New York State, and there tried for the abduction and murder of Morgan. In the trial he was cleared.
Mr. Gillis was a cavalry soldier in the war of 1812, and took part in several severe engagements. He was taken prisoner by the British and suffered severely. He was a model man physically, and by nature endowed with much intelligence. This, added to his extensive travels and political experience, gave him a prominence in the State and nation that few men possessed. Gillis was the Patriarch in Ridgway Township. He migrated in 1821 to what he named Montmorenci, Pine Creek Township, then in Jefferson County. He brought his children and brother-in-law with him.
For five years he was monarch of all he surveyed. and without any post-office nearer than fifty miles of him. He came to Port Barnett. near Brookville, to vote, was liable to and for militia service, and for all legal business had to go to Indiana, Pennsylvania, a distance of ninety miles.
While at Montmorenci in 1826 Mr. Gillis was instrumental in securing a mail-route from Kittanning to Olean, New York. This gave him mail service once in two weeks. He was a great horseman and a horseback rider.
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Gillis was related to Jacob Ridgway, one of the richest men in the State, and he was agent for all his land in Jefferson County. Gillis was slow and methodical in his habits, was fond of games,-viz., chess, backgammon, checkers, and euchre. He carried a snuff-box that held about a pint of the choicest snuff, in which was buried a Tonka bean, that imparted to the snuff a delightful aroma. He walked with a gold-headed cane and in winter he wore a panther-skin overcoat. Physically he was a large man and was social and agreeable. In 1830 he moved to where Ridgway now is. He was elected to several offices, including Congress. He moved to Mount Pleasant, Iowa, where he died in 1881, aged eighty-nine years .*
" Sleep soldier, though many regret thee, Who pass by thy cold bier to-day; Soon, soon shall the kindest forget thee, And thy name from the earth pass away. The man thou didst love as a brother A friend in thy place will have gained, And thy dog shall keep watch for another And thy steed by a stranger be reined."
Ridgway, the county seat, was laid out in 1833. It was called for Jacob Ridgway.
Jacob Ridgway, who died in 1843, has been regarded as the wealthiest man in Pennsylvania since Stephen Girard. His property is valued at about six million dollars, and is of various kinds; all of which is the result of a long life of untiring industry and perseverance. In early life he was a ship- carpenter. He subsequently was appointed United States Consul at Antwerp, where he resided during a portion of the great war of the European powers, and when the rights of American citizens stood in need of protection from the blind encroachments of angry belligerents. After residing a short time in Paris, he returned to the United States, where he continued engaged in laud- able and useful enterprises to the day of his death. His real property is very extensive, lying in various parts of the Union, but principally in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware. His heirs are a son and two daughters, Mrs. Dr. Rush and Mrs. Roatch. The latter is a widow. Mr. Ridgway is repre- sented as an amiable, kind-hearted man, kind to his workmen, indulgent to his tenants, and liberal toward his friends and the distressed.
In 1840 the principal part of Elk County was covered with white pine and hemlock. Pine-lands could be bought for from three to five dollars an acre. Hemlock had no value only for farm lands. The bark even was not used for tanning. Pine was about the only timber manufactured.
The streams were alive with pike, sunfish, bass, chubs, magnificent trout, and other fish. Every fall and spring hunters with dogs and fishermen from
* A more extended account of James L. Gillis, taken from the Pittsburg Daily Post of July 30, 1881, will be found in the Appendix, page 718.
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the adjoining counties and from across the line in New York State would flock to these hills, valleys, and streams for recreation or profit. The principal owners of all this wild land lived in Philadelphia,-viz., Ridgway estate, Jones estate, Parker estate, and Fox and Norris estate.
Big trout eat little trout and the eggs or fry of other trout. A trout will not spawn until it is six inches long. Some trout never grow longer than seven inches, maturing and attaining their full size in about eighteen months, while others continue to grow for three years, and will attain from twelve to eighteen inches in length.
One of the pioneer roads was the State road from Kittanning to Olean. There was great excitement and enthusiasm by the land-owners and settlers over this State road. But it all came to naught, for the road has never been used to any extent. It is still known as the Olean road where it is not grown up and abandoned.
The Ceres road was laid out in 1825 and finished in 1828. The Miles- burg and Smethport Turnpike Company was incorporated in 1825, and the road was finished about 1830.
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