USA > Pennsylvania > A pioneer outline history of northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 50
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" The undersigned Commissioners to locate the seat of justice for Forest County will meet at Branch's Tavern on Tuesday, the 17th of October, next, and at Cyrus Blood's on the 18th, for the purpose of selecting a proper site, etc.
" WM. P. WILCOX. HIRAM PAYNE. J. Y. JAMES.
" September 26, 1848."
Wild land sold in the county then for from fifty cents to two dollars an acre.
Cyrus Blood was the pioneer of Forest County. He brought his family
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WARREN Sq Miles 431. Acres. 275.840 -
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OUTLINE MAP 1850 - April-11-1848-
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J EFFERSON
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
into this wilderness in 1833. For years his farm was called the " Blood settlement." When he settled there the region was full of panthers, bears, wolves, wild-cats, and deer. Mr. Blood was a powerful man, of great energy and courage. He was well educated and a surveyor.
Cyrus Blood was born at New Lebanon, New Hampshire, - March 3. 1795. He was educated in Boston. When twenty-two he migrated to Cham- bersburg, Pennsylvania, where he was the principal of the academy. He was afterwards principal of the Hagerstown Academy, Maryland. He ac- cepted and served as a professor in the Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Penn- sylvania.
Ambitious to found a county, Cyrus Blood made several visits into this wilderness, and finding that the northern portion of Jefferson County was
Cyrus Blood
then an almost unbroken wilderness, he finally purchased a tract of land on which Marienville is now located, and decided to make his settlement there.
It was understood when Mr. Blood purchased in Jefferson County from the land company that a road would be opened into it for him. In 1833. when Mr. Blood arrived where Corsica now is, on the Olean road, he found, to his annoyance, that no road had been made. Leaving his family behind him, he started from what was then Armstrong's Mill, now Clarington, with an ox team, sled, and men to cut their way step by step through the wilderness twelve miles to his future home. Every night the men camped
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
on and around the ox sled. When the party reached Blood's purchase, a patch of ground was cleared and a log cabin reared. In October, 1833, Mr. Blood and his five children took possession of this forest home. For many years Mr. Blood carried his and the neighbors' mail from Brookville. Pan- thers were so plenty that they have been seen in the garden by the children, playing like dogs. For years they had to go with their grist to mill to Kit- tanning, Leatherwood, or Brookville.
The pioneer path or trail was opened by Cyrus Blood from Clarington to Blood's settlement. This was in the year 1833. The pioneer road was this " path" widened and improved by Blood several years later.
The pioneer tavern was the home of Cyrus Blood. Mr. Blood built the pioneer saw-mill in 1834 and the pioneer grist-mill in 1840. These mills were erected by him on Salmon Creek.
The pioneer school-master was John D. Hunt. He taught in the winter of 1833-34 in Mr. Blood's home.
The pioneer preacher was Dr. Otis Smith. The pioneer sermon to white people was preached in Mr. Blood's house.
Brookville was the post-office for this settlement from 1833 to 1843.
The pioneer court-house of Forest County was built in Marienville, of hewed logs, and afterwards weather-boarded and painted white. The work was done by Bennett Dobbs. (See illustration.)
What is now Marienville was called for many years "the Blood set- tlement."
" AN ACT ORGANIZING FOREST COUNTY FOR JUDICIAL PURPOSES :
"SECTION I. Be it enacted, etc. That the county of Forest, from and after the first day of September, Anno Domini, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, shall be entitled to, and at all times thereafter have all and singular the courts, jurisdictions, officers, rights, and privileges to which other counties of this State are entitled by the constitution and laws of this Com- monwealth.
" SECTION 2. That the several courts in and for the said county of For- est shall be opened and held in the town of Marien, at such house therein as may be designated by the commissioners of said county, until a court-house shall be erected in and for said county, as is hereinafter directed, and shall then be held at the said court-house.
" SECTION 3. All suits between Forest County citizens to be transferred to Forest County courts, etc.
" SECTION 4. Relates to the bonds of the public officers.
" SECTION 5. That the sheriff, coroner, and officers of Jefferson County, who have exercised authority over said Forest County, shall continue to do so until similar officers shall be appointed or elected agreeably to law in said county of Forest ; and the persons who shall be elected associate judges of
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Court-house
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
the county of Forest shall take and subscribe the requisite oaths and affirma- tions of office before the prothonotary of Jefferson County, who shall file a record of the same in the office of the prothonotary of the court of record in the county of Forest.
" SECTION 6 attached it to the Western District of the Supreme Court.
" SECTION 7. The county shall be annexed to and compose part of the eighteenth judicial district.
" SECTION 8. Prisoners shall be kept in the Jefferson County jail.
"SECTION II. Election of county officers, etc.
" Approved May 20, 1857."
John Conrad, Esq., pioneer lawyer
Notification of this act and its purposes was published June 11, 1857. in the Jefferson County papers for three months, by David C. Gillespie, the prothonotary of Jefferson County.
The pioneer election authorized by this act was held October 13. 1857. and the following officials were chosen :
Associate Judges, Cyrus Blood and Milton Gibbs; Prothonotary. G. W. Rose; Sheriff, John F. Gaul; Coroner, Archibald Black ; Commissioner. Samuel Kincaid ; and Auditor, Timothy Caldwell.
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
The pioneer court under this act was held December 21, 1857, in what was then called Marien (now Marienville). President Judge, John S. McCal- mont ; Associate Judges, Cyrus Blood and Milton Gibbs. W. W. Corbet, as prothonotary of Jefferson County, was present and swore in the Associate Judges.
Thomas B. Mayes was appointed by the court to proclaim the opening. At the suggestion of the judge, W. P. Jenks and L. D. Rogers, of Brook- ville, were admitted to the " bar" of Forest County. These were the pioneer admissions to the bar of foreign lawyers. It was ordered by the court that Thomas B. Mayes be appointed court crier, and William Walton, of Jenks Township, to act as tipstaff. The rules governing the Jefferson County bar were adopted to govern the Forest County court. On motion of W. P. Jenks, B. F. Lucas, of Brookville, was admitted to the bar. James D. Flick was appointed constable for Barnett Township. Cyrus Blood was appointed county surveyor. Wolves were still killed in this year, 1857, in Forest County.
John Conrad, the local lawyer, was admitted at this term. John Conrad was born in Siebenhausen, Hesse Cassel, Germany, February 18, 1832. His father emigrated to Indiana County, Pennsylvania, in 1833, and settled in Rayne Township, on a farm. John read law with A. W. Taylor, of Indiana, Pennsylvania: was admitted to the bar in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, in 1855; moved to Forest County in the summer of 1857, and was the pio- neer lawyer to locate in that county. He was the pioneer district attorney of Forest County from 1858 to 1860; came to Brookville in the spring of 1859, where he lived until he died.
After the adjournment of the court an evening meeting was called of the citizens and visitors. G. W. Rose was chosen president, General Seth Clover and Charles J. Fox were chosen vice-presidents, and W. W. Corbet was chosen secretary. This meeting was, addressed by Messrs. Jenks, Rodgers, McCalmont, Clover, Fox, and John Conrad.
The appropriation for schools in 1850 was, Jenks, $10.56; Barnett, $63.96; Tionesta, $4.10. Heath had a population of 187, and Barnett, 479.
About March 8, 1851, the sun was darkened for one week with pigeons. On April 1. 1854, the same conditions existed.
The pioneer election in Forest County was in October, 1852. The State vote counted with Jefferson.
PIONEER OFFICERS FOR FOREST COUNTY (OLD)
County Commissioners, Cyrus Blood, three years ; John Wynkoop, two ycars ; Charles J. Fox, one year; B. Sweet, commissioners' clerk; treas- urer, John D. Hunt; auditors, Cyrus W. Hant, William M. Clyde.
The pioneer hunter was John Aylesworth. He came to Barnett Town- ship, Jefferson County, or what in 1838 became Jenks Township, Jefferson County, and is now Jenks Township, Forest County, in 1834. He was a
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
Connecticut Yankee, but came to this wilderness from Ashtabula, Ohio. He was the most noted and famous hunter in that section of Jefferson County.
Beavers made their homes here in the early thirties, in the great flag swamp or beaver meadows on Salmon Creek. These meadows covered about six hundred acres. Furs were occasionally then brought to Brookville from these meadows by trappers.
The pioneer justice of the peace, John L. Williamson, was elected in 1840.
There appears to have been no election from 1845 to 1849, when a full set of township officers, including the pioneer constable, Thomas Patterson, was elected.
The pioneer coal for Forest County was mined at Balltown.
The best deer-licks in the township were on the Blue Jay.
E.C. HALL.
PHOTO.
Rafting timber, Clarion River
Ebenezer Kingsley was the pioneer hunter of Tionesta. He settled in that section in about 1825. Kingsley was a very eccentric man, and a great hunter and trapper. He named nearly all the streams in that section, such as Bear Creek, because he shot a bear there; Jug Handle Creek, because he broke the handle off his jug at its mouth; Salmon Creek, because he shot a salmon at its mouth, etc.
The pioneer saw-mill was built about 1823. by Isaac Ball, Luther Barnes. and William Manross, at the place now called Balltown. The usual food at this mill was said to be one barrel of flour and two barrels of whiskey.
Retailers of foreign merchandise in 1854 were Howe & Co., C. C. Johnson, Shippen & Morrisen, and P. Woodward.
Licensed hotels : Clarington, 1855. Peter G. Reed and Oramel Thing.
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PIONEER MAIL SERVICE
Colonel John D. Hunt was appointed postmaster for Marienville, Sep- tember 25, 1851.
Early mail service March, 1856, from Brookville by Clarington to Marienville (horseback), twenty-six miles and return, once a week.
Dr. D. Bachman located at Clarington May 29, 1857. His stay was short.
The pioneer store was opened at Cooksburg by Hon. Andrew Cook, in 1852.
The pioneer post-office was established in 1871, in Cooksburg, and An- drew Cook was appointed postmaster.
Voters in 1847: Jenks, 10; Barnett, 57; Tionesta, 7.
PIONEER SALE OF LOTS IN MARION (OLD COUNTY SEAT)
" NOTICE .- The public is informed that the sale of lots in Marion, For- est County, has been adjourned on account of the inclement weather, until May or June next, when timely notice will be given.
" CYRUS BLOOD. "January 16, 1849."
The pioneer school in what is now Forest County was in what is now Tionesta Borough, in 1820. The pioneer school in old Forest County was at Marienville, in 1840. Cyrus Blood, master.
The pioneer missionary to locate and preach in what is now Forest County was the Rev. David Zeisberger, in October, 1767.
PIONEER FLAT-BOATS-PIONEER TIPPLES, ETC.
The pioneer boats in what is now Jefferson County were built at Port Barnett for the transportation of Centre County pig-metal. In 1830 they were built on the North Fork for the same purpose. In after-years, when tipples were used, boats were built and tipples erected at the following points, -viz .: at Findley's, on Sandy Lick, by Nieman and D. S. Chitister; at Brookville, by John Smith; at Troy, by Peter Lobaugh; at Heathville, by A. B. Paine and Arthur O'Donnell; at the mouth of Little Sandy, by William Bennett ; at Robinson's Bend, by Hance Robinson. This industry along Red Bank was maintained by the charcoal furnaces of Clarion and Armstrong Counties. The boats were sold at the Olean bridge at Broken Rock, and sold again at Pittsburg for coal-barges. Some of the boats were sold for the transportation of salt to the South from Freeport. The industry on Red Bank ceased in the fifties.
Anthony and Jacob Esbaugh built scaffolds and boats for the dealers on Red Bank. The pioneer boat was sixteen feet wide and forty feet long. These boats were always built from the best lumber that could be made from the choicest timber that grew in our forests. Each gunwale was hewed out
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
of the straightest pine-tree that was to be found,-viz .: twenty-eight inches high at the "rake," fourteen inches at the stern, ten inches thick, and forty feet long, two gunwales to a boat. The ties were hewed six inches thick, with a six-inch face, mortised, dove-tailed, and keyed into the gunwale six feet apart. The six " streamers" for a boat were sawed three by twelve inches, sixteen feet long, and " pinned" to the ties with one pin in the middle of each streamer. These pins were made of white-oak one and a half inches square and ten inches long. The plank for the "bottoms" were first-class white-pine one and a half inches thick, and pinned to the streamers and gun- wales with white-oak pins, calked with flax tor tow. All pioneer boats were built on the ground and turned, by about ten men,-and a gallon of whiskey.
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Building boat on Clarion River
-over and on a bed made of brush to keep the planks in the bottom from springing. All boats were "sided up" with white-oak studding two and a half by five inches and six feet (high) long. Each studding was mortised into a gunwale two feet apart. Inside the boat a siding eighteen inches high was pinned on. These boats were sold in Pittsburg, to be used as coal-barges for the transportation of coal to the Lower Mississippi. The boats were manned and run by two or three men, the pilot always at the stern. The oar, stem and blade, was made the same as for ordinary rafts. The pioneer boats were tied and landed with halyards made of twisted hickory saplings. The size of these boats in 1843 was eighteen feet wide and eighty feet long.
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built on tipples similar to the present method. The boats are now made from one hundred and twenty to one hundred and fifty feet long and from twenty to twenty-four feet wide, and from spliced gunwales.
Sixty years ago boats were built on the Big Toby at Maple Creek, Clar- ington, Millstone, Wynkoop, Spring Creek, Irvine, and Ridgway. The pioneer boat was probably built at Maple Creek by William Reynolds. The pioneer boats were gems of the art as compared with those made to-day. Now the gunwales are spliced up of pieces to make the required length, and the boats are made of hemlock. The industry, however, is carried on more extensively on the Clarion now than ever, and for the same market.
From this time forth, as has been the case for several years of the past, the boat bottom will be of hemlock, patched of many pieces, spiked together instead of built with long oak pins, and they will have to be handled with care to serve their purpose. Of such a kind of boat bottoms there is small danger of scarcity.
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CHAPTER XXXI
JEFFERSON COUNTY-FORMATION AND ORGANIZATION-PIONEER SETTLERS- TREES-JOSEPH BARNETT-INDIAN NAMES OF STREAMS-WAGONS-ROADS -STORES-MURDERS-COURT-HOUSE AND JAIL-PHYSICIANS-MILITIA- BRIDGES-ASSESSMENT AND SETTLERS-OLD FOLKS' PICNIC
WHEN William Penn came to what is now the State of Pennsylvania and organized what has become our present Commonwealth, he erected three counties, which were Bucks, Philadelphia, and Chester. Chester County extended over the western portion of the State at that time. In reality, it had jurisdiction over only the inhabitable portion, but its boundary lines extended west of what is now Jefferson County.
On May 10, 1729, Lancaster County was erected from Chester. On January 27, 1750, Cumberland County was erected from Lancaster. On March 9, 1771, Bedford County was erected from Cumberland. March 27, 1772, Northumberland County was erected, and for twenty-four years our wilderness was in this county. On April 13, 1796, Lycoming County was erected from Northumberland, and on March 26, 1804, Jefferson County was erected from Lycoming County. Thus you will see that this wilderness was embraced in six other counties before it was erected into a separate county. The name of the county was given in honor of Thomas Jefferson, who was then President of the United States. The original area of Jefferson County con- tained twelve hundred and three square miles, but it now has only about 413 .- 440 acres; highest altitude, from twelve hundred to eighteen hundred and eighty feet above sea-level; length of county, forty-six miles ; breadth, twenty- six miles.
" Jefferson County is now in the fourth tier of counties east of the Ohio line, and in the third tier south of the New York line, and is bounded by Forest and Elk on the North, Clearfield on the east, Indiana on the south, and Armstrong and Clarion on the west. Its south line now runs due west twenty-three and one-third miles from the Clearfield-Indiana corner; its west line, thence due north twenty-eight and one-quarter miles to the Clarion River ; its north line, first up the Clarion River to Elk County, thence due south one-half mile, thence southeast thirteen and three-quarter miles, to Clearfield County ; its east line runs first southwest ten miles, thence due south fifteen and one-third miles, to the starting-place at the Clearfield- Indiana corner.
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
" The original boundary lines enclosed an area of more than one thou- sand square miles, embracing much of what is now Forest and Elk, beyond the Clarion River. At what time the present boundaries were erected is not certain ; but much shifting took place, especially along the northern border, until comparatively recent years.
" The pioneer people were mainly of Scotch-Irish descent, with a con- siderable intermixture of the German element, industrious, prudent, and thrifty."
It was first attached to Westmoreland County for judicial purposes, and afterwards to Indiana.
Population in 1810, 161 ; in 1820, 561 ; in 1830, 2025; in 1840, 7253.
There are no mountains in the county, but the surface is hilly. The rocks pertain to the series of coal measures lying on the outskirts of the Pittsburg coal basin. Coal is found all through the county.
In 1840 wild lands sold at from one dollar to two dollars per acre. For many years after its establishment the county was but a hunting-ground for whites and Indians.
FOREST-TREES
" The southern portion of Jefferson County was mostly covered with white oak, black oak, rock oak, chestnut, sugar, beech, and hickory.
" The rock areas of northern Jefferson were covered with pine and hem- lock, with scarcely a trace of white oak. There is still a considerable quan- tity of marketable hemlock left.
" White oak, chestnut, sugar, beech, and hickory were the principal kinds of wood on the cleared lands.
" White oak was found mostly on the high uplands.
"W. C. Elliott says of trees, 'There were four kinds of maple, four of ash, five of hickory, eight of oak, three of birch, four of willow, four of poplar, four of pine, and from one to three of each of the other varieties. The following are the names of all of them; some of the trees are not cor- rectly named, but the names given are the only English names by which they go. Their Latin names are all correct and would be given, but would not be understood. Sweet-bay, cucumber, elkwood, long-leaved cucumber, white basswood, toothache-tree, wafer-ash, spindle-tree, Indian-cherry, feted buck- eye, sweet buckeye, striped maple, sugar-maple, white maple, red maple, ash-leaved maple, staghorn sumach, dwarf sumach, poison elder, locust, coffee-nut, honey-locust, judas-tree, wild plum, hog-plum, red cherry, black cherry, crab-apple, cockspur, thorn, scarlet haw, blackthorn, Washington thorn, service-tree, witch-hazel, sweet-gum, dogwood, boxwood, sour-gum, sheep-berry, stag-bush, sorrel-tree, spoonwood, rosebay, southern buckthorn, white ash, red ash, green ash, black ash, fringe-tree, catalpa, sassafras, red elm, white elm, rock elm, hackberry, red mulberry, sycamore, butternut, walnut, bitternut, pignut, kingnut, shagbark, white hickory, swamp white
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
oak, chestnut oak, yellow oak, red oak, shingle oak, chinquapin, chestnut, iron- wood, leverwood, beech, gray birch, red birch, black birch, black alder, speckled alder, black willow, sand-bar willow, almond-willow, glaucous willow, aspen, two varieties of soft poplar, two varieties of cottonwood, two varieties of necklace-poplar, liriodendron (incorrectly called poplar), white cedar, red cedar, white pine, hemlock, balsam, fir, hickory, pine, pitch-pine or yellow pine, red pine, Virginia date, and forest olive. In addition to the above were numerous wild berries, vines, etc.'"
Many of these trees were lofty, magnificent, and valuable, and were not surpassed in any State in the Union. There were over one hundred varieties. The State school-book of 1840 taught that two of our varieties were dis- tinctive and peculiar to Pennsylvania,-viz., the cucumber and umbrella-tree, or elkwood. I will stop to say here, that the woods then were full of sweet singing birds and beautiful flowers; hence some old pioneer called the settle- ment "Paradise."
For the last fifty years a great army of woodmen have been and are yet. to-day, "hacking down these monarchs of the forest," and floating or con- veying them or their product to market. I need not mention our tanneries or saw-mills of to-day. But now
"Look abroad : another race has filled these mountain forests, wide the wood recedes, And towns shoot up, and fertile lands are tilled by hardy mountaineers."
In regard to the first settlement and early history of the county I have made diligent research, and find, what is not unusual, some conflicting ac- counts and statements. These I have endeavored to compile, arrange, and harmonize to the best of my ability.
From the best information I am enabled to gather and obtain, Andrew Barnett and Samuel Scott were sent in 1795 by Joseph Barnett, who was then living in either Northumberland, Lycoming, or Dauphin County, Pent- sylvania, to explore the famous region then about French Creek, now Craw- ford County, Pennsylvania. But when these two " explorers" reached Mill Creek, now Port Barnett, they were forcibly impressed with the great natural advantages of the place for a saw-mill. They stopped over two or three days to examine the creek. They explored as far down as to where Summer- ville now is, and, after this careful inspection, concluded that this spot, where " the lofty pine leaned gloomily over every hill-side," was just the ideal home for a lumberman.
They went no farther west, but returned east, and informed Joseph Barnett of the "Eureka" they had found. In the spring of 1797, Joseph and Andrew Barnett, Samuel Scott, and Moses Knapp came from their home at the mouth of Pine Creek, then in Lycoming County, to the ideal mill-site of Andrew, and so well pleased were they all that they commenced the erection of the pioneer cabin and mill in the wilderness, in what was then Pine Creek
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Township, Lycoming County. The cabin and mill were on the present site of Humphrey's mill and grounds at Port Barnett. The Indians assisted, about nine in number, to raise these buildings, and not a stroke of work would these savages do until they had eaten up all the provisions Mr. Barnett had. This took three days. Then they said, " Me eat, me sleep ; now me strong, now me work." In the fall of the same year Joseph Barnett returned to his family, leaving his brother Andrew and Scott to finish some work. In a short time thereafter Andrew Barnett became ill and died, and was buried on the north bank of the creek, at the junction of Sandy Lick and Mill Creek, Scott and two Indians being the only attendants at the funeral. Joseph Barnett was, therefore, soon followed by Scott, who was his brother-in-law, bringing the melancholy tidings of this event, which for a time cast a gloom over the future prospects of these sturdy pioneers.
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