USA > Pennsylvania > A pioneer outline history of northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 51
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In 1798, however, Joseph Barnett, Scott, Knapp, and a married man by the name of Joseph Hutchison, came out with them and renewed their work. Hutchison brought his wife, household goods, also two cows and a calf, and commenced housekeeping, and lived here one year before Joseph Barnett brought his family, who were then living in Dauphin County. Hutchison is clearly the pioneer settler in what is now Jefferson County. He was a sawyer. In that year the mill was finished by Knapp and Scott, and in 1799 there was some lumber sawed. In November, 1799, Joseph Barnett brought his wife and family to the home prepared for them in the wilderness. Bar- nett brought with him two cows and seven horses, five loaded with goods as pack-horses and two as riding or family horses. His route of travel into this wilderness was over Meade's trail.
The first boards were run in 1801 to what is now Pittsburg. About four thousand feet were put in a raft, or what would be a two-platform piece. Moses Knapp was the pioneer pilot.
Joseph Barnett, the patriarch of Jefferson County, was the son of John and Sarah Barnett, and was born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, in 1754. His father was born in Ireland, and located in Pennsylvania in the early part of the eighteenth century, and was a farmer up to the time of his death in 1757. His mother died a few years later, and Joseph was " brought up" by his relatives. He was raised on a farm, and was thus peacefully employed when the Revolution commenced. As a son of a patriotic sire he could not resist taking part in the struggle, and so joined the army and served for some years. The exact duration of his service cannot now be ascertained, but this we learn: " he was a brave and efficient soldier, and never faltered in the path of duty." He also served in the State militia in the campaign against the Wyoming boys. After the war he settled in Northumberland County, where he owned a large tract of land, but was dispossessed of it by some informalities of the title. Here he was married to Elizabeth Scott, sister of Samuel Scott and daughter of John Scott, July 3, 1794.
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
I find Joseph Barnett assessed in Pine Creek Township, Northumberland County, April 28, 1786. I find him, in 1788, assessed in the same town- ship and county with a saw-mill and as a single freeman. This was his saw- mill at the mouth of Pine Creek, and the mill on which he lost his eye. The property is now in Clinton County. After losing his mill and land Barnett returned in the nineties to Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, and engaged in contracting for and building bridges. In 1799 I find him again assessed in Pine Creek Township, then Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, with two hun- dred and twenty-five acres of land. This was his Port Barnett property, where he migrated to with his family in November, 1799; and here he engaged in the erection of mills and in the lumbering business that eventually made Port Barnett, then in Lycoming County, the centre of business for a large extent of territory. In a short time a tub grist-mill was added to his saw-mill, and, with his " Port Barnett flint-stone binns," he made an eatable, if not a very desirable, quality of flour. The Indians (Cornplanters and Senecas) then in the country were good customers, and what few whites there were for forty miles around would make his cabin a stopping-place for several days at a time. His log cabin became a tavern, the only one in a seventy-five miles' journey, and was frequented by all the early settlers.
" His Indian guests did not eat in the house, but would in winter make a pot of mush over his fire and set it out in the snow to cool; then one fellow would take a dipper and eat his fill of the pudding, sometimes with milk, butter, or molasses; then another would take it and go through the same process until all were satisfied. The dogs would then help themselves from the same pot, and when they put their heads in the pot in the Indian's way he would give them a slap over the head with the dipper."
He kept a store, rafted lumber on Sandy Lick and Red Bank, and at the same time attended to his saw- and grist-mills. I find him assessed in Pine Creek Township in 1800 as a farmer.
" The Senecas of Cornplanter's tribe were friendly and peaceable neigh- bors, and often extended their excursions into these waters, where they encamped, two or three in a squad, and hunted deers and bears, taking the hams and skins in the spring to Pittsburg. Their rafts were constructed of dry poles, upon which they piled up their meat and skins in the form of a haystack, took them to Pittsburg, and exchanged them for trinkets, blankets. calicoes, weapons, etc. They were friendly, sociable, and rather fond of making money. During the war of 1812 the settlers were apprehensive that an unfortunate turn of the war upon the lakes might bring an irruption of the savages upon the frontier through the Seneca nation.
" Old Captain Hunt, a Muncy Indian, had his camp for some years on Red Bank, near where is now the southwestern corner of Brookville. He got his living by hunting, and enjoyed the results in drinking whiskey, of which he was inordinately fond. One year he killed seventy-eight bears.
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they were plenty then ; the skins might be worth about three dollars each,- nearly all of which he expended for his favorite beverage.
" Samuel Scott resided here until 1810, when, having scraped together, by hunting and lumbering, about two thousand dollars, he went down to the Miami River and bought a section of fine land, which made him rich.
"It is related that Joseph Barnett at one time carried sixty pounds of flour on his back from Pittsburg. Their supplies of flour, salt, and other necessaries were frequently brought in canoes from that place. These were purchased with lumber, which he sawed and rafted to that city, and which in those days was sold for twenty-five dollars per thousand. The nearest settle- ment on Meade's trail eastward of Port Barnett was Paul Clover's, thirty- three miles distant, on the west branch of the Susquehanna, where Curwens- ville now stands; and westward Fort Venango was forty-five miles distant, which points were the only resting-places for the travellers who ventured through this unbroken wilderness. The Seneca Indians, of Cornplanter's tribe, heretofore mentioned, often extended their hunting excursions to these waters, and encamped to hunt deer and bears and make sugar. They are said to have made sugar by catching the sap in small troughs, and, after collecting in a large trough, hot stones were dipped into it to boil it down."- Day's Collections.
About the year 1802 Joseph Barnett consented to act as banker for the Indians around Port Barnett. The Indians were all " bimetallists," and had the " silver craze," for their money was all silver; and bringing their mono- metallism to Mr. Barnett, he received it from them and deposited it in their presence in his private vault,-viz., a small board trunk covered with hog- skin, tanned with the bristles on. On the lid were the letters "J. B.," made with brass tacks. The trunk was now full; the bank was a solid financial institution. In a short time, however, the red men concluded to withdraw their deposits, and they made a "run" in a body on the bank. Barnett handed over the trunk, and each Indian counted out his own pieces, and according to their combined count the bank was insolvent; there was a shortage, a deficiency of one fifty-cent piece. Mr. Barnett induced the Indians to recount their silver, but the fifty-cent piece was still missing. The Indians then declared Mr. Barnett must die; they surrounded the house and ordered him on the porch to be shot. He obeyed orders, but pleaded with them to count their pieces the third time, and if the fifty-cent piece was still missing, then they could shoot him. This the Indians considered fair, and they counted the silver pieces the third time, and one Indian found he had one more piece than his own; he had the missing fifty-cent piece. Then there was joy and rejoicing among the Indians. Banker Barnett was no longer a criminal; he was the hero and friend of the Indians.
The cheapest and most expeditious method of obtaining such supplies as could not be produced on the ground was to go to Pittsburg for them.
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
Rafts of sawed lumber were run to Pittsburg in the spring of the year. A canoe was taken along, and when the raft was sold most of the avails would be invested in whiskey, pork, sugar, dry goods, etc. These goods were then loaded into the canoe, and the same men that brought the raft through to market would "pole" or "push" the loaded canoe up the river and up the creek to Port Barnett. This was a " voyage" that all men of full strength were very desirous of making, and was the subject of conversation for the remaining part of the year.
These canoes were hewed out of a large pine-tree, large enough to re- ceive a barrel of flour crosswise. A home-made rope of flax was attached to the front end of the canoe to be used in pulling the canoe up and over ripples. The men with these canoes had to camp in the woods wherever night over- took them, and their greatest terror and fear was rattlesnakes, for the creek bottoms were alive with them.
INDIAN NAMES OF STREAMS
Da yon on dah teh go wah ( Big Toby, or Alder) gah yon hah da (creek), Big Toby Creek.
Da yon on dah teh we oh (Little Toby, or Alder) gah yon hah da (creek), Little Toby Creek.
Oh non da (Pine) gah yon hah da (creek), Pine Creek.
Oh twenge ah (red) yoh non da (bank), gah yon hah da (creek), Red Bank Creek.
Oh ne sah geh jah geh da geh gah yon hah da, Sandy Lick Creek.
Ga de ja hah da gah nos gah yon hah da, Mahoning Creek.
Oh to weh geh ne gah yon hah da, North Fork Creek.
Oh nah da gon, Among the Pines.
Among the pioneer industries was tar-burning. Kilns were formed and split fagots of pitch-pine knots were arranged in circles and burned. The tar was collected by a ditch and forced into a chute, and from there barrelled. John Matson, Sr., marketed on rafts as high as forty barrels in one season. Freedom Stiles was the king "tar-burner." Pioneer prices at Pittsburg for tar was ten dollars a barrel.
PIONEER WAGONS IN JEFFERSON COUNTY, AND PIONEER DRAYING IN BROOKVILLE
The pioneer wheeled vehicle made in what is now Jefferson County was a wooden ox-cart, constructed by Joseph Barnett in 1801. The wheels were sawed from a large oak log, and a hole was chiselled in the centre for the hickory axle. Walter Templeton, a very ingenious man, and forced to be a " jack-of-all-trades" for the people who lived in what is now Eldred Town- ship, made two wooden wagons in 1829, one for himself and one for his neighbor, Isaac Matson. These wagons were all wood except the iron linch-
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
pin to keep the wheel in place. The wheels were solid, and were sawed from round oak logs. The hind-wheels were sawed from a larger log, and a hole was chiselled in the centre of each for the axle.
Matson hauled, in 1830, the stone spawls for our pioneer jail in his wagon, with two large black oxen, called " Buck" and " Berry." Matson's compensation was one dollar and fifty cents a day and " find" himself.
Draying in those days was usually by two oxen and a cart; but Daniel Elgin bought these black oxen from Matson, and used one of them for some time for a one-ox dray in Brookville.
The pioneer tar to grease these axles was made in this way: Pitch-pine knots were split fine and dropped into an iron kettle; a piece of board was then placed over the mouth of the kettle, and then the kettle was turned upside down over a little bed of earth prepared for it. This bed had a cir- cular drain around it, and this circular drain had a straight one, with a spout at the end. Everything being completed for the burning, the board was taken from under the kettle, and the kettle was then covered with fagots. The wood was fired and the heat from the fire boiled the tar from the split knots and forced it into and through these drains, and from the spout of which it was caught in a wooden trough.
The pioneer road was the Indiana and Port Barnett, for the creation of which the petition of a number of citizens of Jefferson County and parts of Indiana County was presented to the Indiana County Court at the Sep- tember term, 1808. The points of the road were from Brady's mill, on Little Mahoning Creek, Indiana County, to Sandy Lick Creek, in Jefferson County (Port Barnett), where the State (Milesburg and Waterford) road crosses the same. The Court appointed as viewers Samuel Lucas, John Jones, Moses Knapp, and Samuel Scott, of Jefferson County, and John Park and John Wier, of Indiana County, to view and make a report at the next term. This road was probably built in 1810.
The pioneer justice of the peace was Thomas Lucas, appointed January 16, 1809.
The early settlers to erect cabins on the Indiana road in Pine Creek Township were Joseph Carr in 1817, Manuel Reitz, George Gray, and Samuel McQuistor. in 1827, John Matthews in 1830, Elijah Clark in 1833, Andrew Hunter and William Wyley in 1834, and Isaac Swineford in 1835. The pio- neer school-house in this settlement was built in 1830; the pioneer grave- yard was on the McCann farm in 1830.
" FINES FOR MISDEMEANORS .- In the early days of the county's history the penalties prescribed by the laws of the Commonwealth for any offence against any of the statutes was rigorously enforced, seemingly without regard to the social standing of the offender. Sabbath-breaking, swearing, and intoxication seem to have been the sins most vigorously punished by the arm of the law.
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
" The earliest recognition of the observance of Sunday as a legal duty is a constitution of Constantine in 321 A.D. enacting that all courts of justice and all workshops were to be at rest on Sunday. Charlemagne, in the West, forbade labor of any kind on Sunday. At first the tendency was to observe the Sabbath (Saturday) rather than Sunday. Later the Sabbath and Sunday came to be observed at the same period, but after the time of Constantine the observation of the Sabbath practically ceased. Sunday observance was directed by injunctions of both Edward VI. and Elizabeth.
" The first election in the county was held at Port Barnett, and up to 1818 it was the only polling and election precinct in and for the county. At the last election (when the township was the whole county), in 1817, Friday, March 14, the names of the contestants for office and the votes were as fol- lows,-viz .: Constable, Elijah M. Graham, 22 votes; John Dixon, 13 votes. Supervisors, Joseph Barnett, 25 votes; Thomas Lucas, 28 votes. Overseer of the Poor, Henry Keys, 9 votes; John Matson, 6 votes. Fence Appraisers, Moses Knapp, 7 votes; William Vastbinder, 7 votes. Town Clerk, Elijah M. Graham, 22 votes.
" Signed and attested by the judges, Walter Templeton and Adam Vast- binder."
The pioneer store was opened by the Barnetts and Samuel Scott, who, in 1826, sold it out to Jared B. Evans, and he, in the fall of 1830, removed it to Jefferson Street, Brookville, Pennsylvania.
The pioneer murder in Jefferson County was committed on May 1, 1844. Daniel Long, one of the mighty hunters of Pine Creek Township, and Samuel Knopsnyder were murdered in Barnett Township, now Heath, near Raught's Mills. There was a dispute between Long and James Green about a piece of land. The land was a vacant strip. James Green and his son Edwin took possession of Long's shanty on this land while Long was absent. On Long's return to the shanty in company with Knopsnyder, Long was shot by young Green as he attempted to enter the shanty, with Long's own gun. Knop- snyder was so terribly cut with an axe in the hands of the Greens that he died in a few days. The Greens, father and son, were arrested, tried, and convicted of murder in the second degree, and each sentenced to four years in the penitentiary.
James Green, the father, served a year and was pardoned. Edwin served his time and returned to Jefferson County a few days only, as he was in terror of the Longs. He therefore returned to Pittsburg, and settled down somewhere and lived and died highly respected.
The second murder was in Washington Township in 1845. It occurred at a frolic at the house of James Ross. A dispute arose between Thomas Brown and James Smith. Brown struck Smith with a hand-spike, which caused his death in twenty-four hours. Too much whiskey was the cause of the dispute and blow. Brown was tried in Brookville, convicted, and
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
sentenced to the penitentiary for six years, but was afterwards pardoned out.
The pioneer graveyard in the county was located on the property now of
William C. Evans, deceased, near the junction of the Ridgway road with
the pike. I found this graveyard in my boyhood, and thought they were Indian graves. My mother told me its history. The graves are now lost and the grounds desecrated. The second graveyard in the township was laid out in 1842, on Nathaniel Butler's farm, and is still called Butler's graveyard.
first building in June, 1830. After the lots were sold, it being then in the This borough, the seat of justice of Jefferson County, commenced its
ROSE ALLY
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OF THE TOWN OF BROOKVILLE
IN JEFFERSON COUNTY
- SURVEYED JUNE A.D. 1830.
BY JOHN SLOAN SC.
BROOKVILLE
ST.
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ST.
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BUTLER ALLY
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boundary of Rose Township, its citizens voted with the township till 1848, when it was set apart as a distinct polling-place. It was named after, or on account of, the springs on its hills,-Brook, attached with the French ville or Latin villa, a country seat, in common English a town,-these put together form the name. The taxables in 1849 were 177; in 1856, 273. The popula- tion in 1840 by census was 276.
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3.36. W.24%
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
PIONEERS AND PIONEER EVENTS IN BROOKVILLE
" The deeds of our fathers in times that are gone, Their virtues, their prowess, the toils they endured."
Day says, in 1843, " Brookville is situated on the Waterford and Sus- quehanna Turnpike, forty-four miles east of Franklin, and at the head of Red Bank Creek. The town was laid out by the County Commissioners in 1830; the lots were sold in June of that year at from thirty to three hundred dollars per lot. The town is watered by hydrants, supplied by a copious spring."
A road leads from Brookville to Ridgway, a settlement of New England and New York people, made some years since on the Little Mill Creek branch of the Clarion River, in the northeastern corner of the county. It took its name from Jacob Ridgway, of Philadelphia, who owned large tracts of land in this vicinity.
Punxstawney is a small village with fifteen or twenty dwellings, on a branch of Mahoning Creek, about eighteen miles southeast from Brookville.
Brockway is a small settlement on Little Toby's Creek, at the crossing of the road between Brookville and Ridgway.
Somerville, or Troy, is a small cluster of houses on the right bank of Red Bank, seven miles below Brookville. Not far from this place is a Seceders' church, one of the first built in the county.
BROOKVILLE'S PIONEER SCHOOL
The pioneer school-house in the town was built in the summer of 1832. It was a small, one-story brick building about twenty feet square, and stood where the American House barn now (1905) stands. I remember it well. This house was erected under the provisions of the law of 1809, was paid for by voluntary subscriptions, and was heated by a ten-plate stove that burned wood. My father, Alexander McKnight, taught the first term of school in Brookville in this building, in the winter of 1832-33. I can name but a few of his scholars, -to wit, James Wilson, W. W. Corbet, Rebecca Jane Corbet, mother of Cyrus H. Blood, Esq .; John Heath, Sarah Clements, Daniel Smith, Oliver George, Susan Early, John Hastings, Barton T. Hastings, and John Butler. There was no classification of books and no system in teaching. Each scholar recited from his own book.
School-masters who taught in Brookville subscription schools under the law of 1809: 1832-33, Alexander McKnight, pioneer : 1834, Miss Charlotte Clark, Charles E. Tucker ; 1835. John Wilson : 1836, Hannibal Craighead.
Masters who taught under the common school law of 1834: 1837. Cyrus Crouch, had sixty scholars : Rev. Jesse Smith, a Presbyterian minister : 1838, Rev. Dexter Morris, a Baptist preacher; 1839. John Smith, father of Mrs. S. C. Christ ; 1840, S. M. Bell, Mrs. M. T. H. Roundy : 1841. D. S. Deering.
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
In this little brick house the Methodists for years held their weekly prayer- meetings. The principal members were Judge Heath, Aarad Marshall, John Dixon, John Heath, David and Cyrus Butler, David Henry and wife, and Mary, Jane and Sarah Gaston.
The first persons to teach in the academy building that succeeded it were, in 1843, R. J. Nicholson, Miss Elizabeth Brady, afterwards Mrs. A. Craig, who died in April, 1905; 1846-50, R. J. Nicholson and Miss Nancy Lucas.
In 1835 Brookville contained about one hundred and thirty-five people. The village had six merchants,-viz., Evans & Clover, William Rodgers, James Corbett, Jared B. Evans, Jack & Wise, and Steadman & Watson. Each storekeeper had a large dry pine block, called " upping block," in front of his store-room, to assist men and women to mount or alight from their horses. The stores were lighted with candles and warmed with wood-fires. Wood-fires in stoves and chimneys were very dangerous, on account of the accumulation of wood-soot in the chimney; for when this soot gathered in quantity it always ignited, burned out, and endangered the shingle roof. Towns and cities then had men and boys called professional " chimney- sweeps." These "sweeps" entered the chimney from the fireplace, climbing up and out at the top by the aid of hooks, announcing their exit in a song and looking as black as an African negro. In 1835 some of the legal privi- leges of the town were: "That no citizen of the town shall be permitted to keep on Main Street, at one time, more than ten cords of wood, not more than enough brick to build a chimney, or before his door more lumber than will build a spring-house ; not more than two wagons and a half-sled; a few barrels of salt, five thousand shingles, or twenty head of horned cattle." Of course, there was no legal restriction as to the number of " chickens in the garden" or geese and hogs on the street. On dark nights the people then carried lanterns made of tin, holes being punched in them, and the light produced by a candle. The lantern had a side door to open, to light, blow out, and replace the candle.
" MAIL ARRIVALS AND DEPARTURES IN 1835
" The Mail arrives from Philadelphia by way of Harrisburg, Lewis- town, and Bellefonte every Monday evening, Wednesday evening, and Friday evening in a four Horse Coach.
" From Erie, by way of Meadville, Franklin, &c., every Monday, Wednes- day, and Friday evening, and returns the same day, in a four Horse Stage. " From Washington City, by way of Chambersburgh, Indiana, &c., every Friday and returns same day-carried on a Horse.
" From Pittsburg by way of Kittanning every Friday, and returns on Tuesday-carried on a Horse.
" Arrive at this place every Tuesday, from Smethport, Mckean County, by way of Gillis Post-office, and returns on Friday-carried on a Horse."
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
The pioneer court-house was contracted for in 1830, and finished in 1833.
Our first jail was a stone structure, built of common stone, in 1831. It was two stories high, was situated on the northeast corner of the public square lot, near Joseph Darr's residence, and fronting on Pickering Street. Daniel Elgin was the contractor. The building was divided into eight rooms, two down-stairs and two up-stairs for the jail proper, and two down-stairs and two up-stairs for the sheriff's residence and office. The sheriff occupied the north part. It cost eighteen hundred and twenty-four dollars and twenty- three cents.
Previous to and as late as 1850 it was the rule for mill-men, woodsmen, and laboring men generally to stop work every Saturday at noon. The idea was to better prepare for the observance of the Sabbath. As far as my observation reminds me, I can assure you that spiritualizing was practised freely on these Saturday afternoons.
In 1799, when Joseph Barnett settled at the mouth of Mill Creek, there were but two Indian families at that place,-viz., Twenty Canoes and Toma- hawk. The two Hunts were there, but only as individuals, and they were cousins. Jim Hunt was on banishment for killing his cousin. Captain Hunt was an under chief of the Muncey tribe. These Munceys were slaves to our Senecas, and captain was the highest military title known to the Indians. Other Indians came here to hunt every fall, even to my early days. Of two who came about 1800, I might mention John Jamison (Sassy John), who had seven sons, all named John; the other was Crow; he was an Indian in name and in nature. He was feared by both the whites and Indians. He was a Mohawk, and a perfect savage. Caturah and Twenty Canoes stayed here for several years after the Barnetts came. The Hunts were here most of the time until the commencement of the war of 1812. Jim dare not go back to his tribe until the year 1808 or 1809, when his friends stole a white boy in Westmoreland County and had him adopted into the tribe in place of the warrior Jim had slain.
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