USA > Pennsylvania > A pioneer outline history of northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 56
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" The first Potter County exemplification of the fact that all the world is ruled by love occurred in 1810, when Laura Lyman was married to Silas McCarty, of Muncy.
" GRADUAL ORGANIZATION OF THE COUNTY
" By act of 1824 Potter and Mckean were partially cut loose from Ly- coming and attached to each other; Mckean to elect two county commis- sioners and Potter one, the three to hold their office at the house of Benjamin Burt, in Potter, near the county line. In 1824 Potter was still attached to Mckean for certain purposes, and its elections had to be returned to 'Smeth- port.' But each county had its separate commissioners. Ephraim Fuller, John Lyman, and Leonard Taggart constituted this first board. Finally, in 1833, it was enacted that on and after September 1, 1833, Potter County should cut loose from her neighbors, stand upon her own feet, and walk alone, with the full organization and all the rights, powers, and privileges of a sepa- rate and independent county. Within how short a space her greatness has been accomplished is seen when we reflect that there are persons yet living who were in life when the county was erected, and that sixty-nine years only have elapsed since her complete organization.
" The first associate judges were Timothy Ives, Jr., and Seneca Free- man. The first prothonotary, clerk of the court, register of wills, and re- corder of deeds was Isaac Strait ; the first sheriff, Ansel Purple, and the first coroner, Daniel M. Hunt. The first commissioners under full organization were W. H. Warner, Samuel Cushing, and Elisha Mix, and they awarded the contract for the first court-house to Timothy Ives and Almon Wood- cock. The first law judge to hold court in it was Nathaniel B. Eldred. ap- pointed by the governor for the counties of Potter, McKean, Warren, and Jefferson. Prior to that, litigation was a luxury, as Potter County suitors had to go to Williamsport until 1823, and then to ' Smethport.' The judges who have presided here since Eldred have been MeCalmont, Williston, White, Williams, and Olmstead."
" There are some things connected with Potter County, closely allied to the lives of our hunter settlers, which, although they might be passed over, are still interesting, and, therefore, as being a portion of the early events, deserve a place here. That the lives of our old settlers had much romance and adventure, mingled with the terrible hardships they underwent, cannot be gainsaid. The untimely meeting of an enraged bear, or a panther, meant at times a life-and-death struggle-a narrow escape at all events.
" The Jamison Fork, a small stream running into the East Fork of the Sinnemahoning, takes its name from a tragical incident which took place at or near its mouth. An Indian, known as James Jamison, while hunting in the East Fork country, was attacked by a panther that sprang upon him from a
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tree, as local tradition has it. The Indian having but a knife with which to defend himself, the fight was a terrible affair, which had its termination in the killing of both the Indian and the panther. W. W. Thompson, who gave us this item, slew a bear upon the same ground. This is still ( 1890) a fine hunting territory."
I here quote from Rhoads's " Manuals of Pennsylvania and New Jersey," 1903 :
" The following notes by my valued correspondent, Mr. E. O. Austin, of Potter County, Pennsylvania, regarding the habits of the wapiti in that county are of much interest. Under date of March 4, 1901, he writes: 'I settled at my present residence, now in the borough of Austin, in 1856, then a perfect wilderness. When I came into this region, a young man, I could not be surfeited with the stories told by old settlers and hunters as to what they had seen. On the First Fork of the Sinnemahoning near Prouty Run [ Potter County ] was the " Great Elk Lick" of this region. About 1835 or 1836 the first settlers came into this region. The elks with other wild creatures then reigned here in their glory. Clifford Hoskins, Charles Wykoff, the Jordans, and John Glasspy, with others, were among the prominent men of the time. They were all settled within three or four miles of this lick. They all told me that they would go to the elk-lick to get a deer as often as they wanted one in the summer-time. Here sometimes fifty or more could be seen at a time, with the fawns playing around like young lambs. Cliff. Hoskins said he went there once to get a deer when he saw several elks in the lick and more in the clearing around it. It being the first time he had seen elk there he gazed in wonder, when more came in until forty or fifty had congregated. He watched their grim play for some time and then shot one. The rest started back, then stamped around their fallen comrade gazing in a bewildered way, and stampeded with the noise of thunder when Hoskins approached. Aunt Eleanor Wyckoff lived a mile and a half from Elk Lick. She told me she thought her brother, Mr. Jordan, was telling one of his big yarns when he told her of a similar view of elks, but one day after, when the men found they were around again, she went with her husband to see them. She said, " First some came, then more, until the clearing seemed full of them and the men said there were about fifty there." Regarding the clearing above men- tioned-where the elks frequented a big lick they rubbed their horns against the trees, sometimes in play or to rub off the velvet or skin from the new horns. This process soon kills all the trees except some big old ones, so that a clearing of two, three, or four acres is made around the lick. A few thorn trees come up on it which grow so low and stout as to defy them, when it is called a " Thorn Bottom." Elks are gregarious, living in small herds if un- molested. likely in families, but they congregate at the licks in summer in considerable herds.'
" I have no account of their 'yarding' in this county. Their food in
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summer was nettles, elk or cow-cabbage, elk grass [a wide-bladed bunch- grass common to the woods ], and the tender growing twigs of most deciduous trees; and in the winter this elk grass, which keeps green all winter, the edible brake or cow-brake or fern, and browse of deciduous trees, elk wood. bass wood, etc. They migrate in families from section to section of the country, much like deer, but farther away.
" John Glasspy told me of taking a contract to catch elks alive for some fancier. They find and single out their elk, when two men with a small dog. and each a coil of rope and well-filled knapsack of grub, start on the chase. and a long chase it is. But after three or four days the creature halts to see what is following him. They then let loose the little dog. The elk seems to wonder if he has been frightened by that little whiffet. The men have chosen
Edwin Haskell
their time and place not far from some rocky ridge or large rock, accessible to the elk. The dog attacks him with a great noise, and not much else. The beast runs for a rock as the best fort of defence from the attack. While his attention is absorbed by the antics of the little dog. it is easy to put a rope over his horn with a long pole, or by throwing it noosed, and with two ropes on his horns and two strong men, wide apart, to hold him, he soon becomes tired and docile enough to be led out and home. This was not an unfrequent occurrence in those times."
The pioneer term of school in the county was in 1816-17, on Ayers Hill. taught by Master Harley Knickerbocker; the term was three months, and there were but twelve pupils. In 1840 the Coudersport Library Association was organized by a number of women. The pioneer murder in the county
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was on August 11, 1838. Joshua Jones, of Genessee Township, killed his wife. He was hung May 31, 1839. Pine Creek was declared a highway in 1805: Sinnemahoning, in 1804; Oswayo, in 1807, and the Allegheny, in 1816. About 1816 the pioneer mail route was established from Olean, New York, or what was then Hamilton, New York, to Jersey Shore, Pennsyl- vania. The pioneer postmaster in the county was Isaac Lyman, and the office was at Lymanville. The service was by horseback. In 1816 the pioneer religious services were held in the county at Lymanville by the Baptists. From February to June 1, 1816, Jacob Van Natter caught seventeen wolves,
Mahlon J. Colcord
besides seven wolf puppies. Up to and long after 1850 Potter County was a veritable menagerie of wild beasts. A large volume could be written about the adventures, perils, and escapes of the pioneer settlers and hunters with wild animals.
The most famous hunters of pioneer times were Jacob Van Natter. Samuel Losey, Nathan Turner, George Taggart, George Ayers, Charles Carlin. Wat. Trowbridge, Cephas Nelson, and Joshua Jackson. Early hunt- ers were John Jordan, Joseph Nelson, and others.
The pioneer newspaper was the Democratic-Republican, published at
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Coudersport in 1839. Edwin Haskell, a member of the firm of Haskell & Colcord, publishers of the Potter County Journal, is one of the early jour- nalists of Northern Pennsylvania. He learned the printer's trade on the Journal when it was first published, and has been connected with it much of the time since.
Mahlon J. Colcord is a grandson of John Peet, the fourth settler in Potter County, whose early hardships and indomitable spirit are related in part in this history. The success of the celebration held at Coudersport August 9, 10, II, and 12, 1904, commemorating the one hundredth anniver- sary of the erection of Potter County, was largely due to the efforts of Mr.
A.WINP
Head-waters of the Allegheny River
Colcord, who was president of the Centennial Commission, and had general supervision of the work.
" The Allegheny * River rises in Potter County, within a few miles of the head-waters of the Sinnemahoning Creek, and in its course winds through the State of New York about twenty-five miles, and re-enters Pennsylvania. and after meandering through Warren, Venango, Armstrong, and Allegheny Counties, a distance of one hundred and eighty miles, unites with the Monon- gahela at Pittsburg. 'It is remarkable for the clearness of its waters and the general beauty of the stream, being studded with many islands, and flow-
* The Delaware Indians who inhabited this region called this river Mlhgewisipo: the Iroquois called it Ohio,-that is, The Beautiful River .- Loskiel.
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ing through a highly picturesque country. During high and middling stages of water, it is navigable for steamboats of light draught as high as Olean Point, in the State of New York. A number of steamboats are now on this river from Pittsburg to Freeport. Kittanning, Franklin, and Warren; and in the summer season, when the river is low, small keel- and flat-boats are employed to do the carrying trade.' The benefit of the trade on this river to our western counties, and indeed to many of the Western States, is in- calculable. Out of it has been floated nearly all the pine timber, boards, and shingles that have been used in the valley of the Mississippi, from Pittsburg to New Orleans. Rising of four hundred large arks, or flat-boats, from sixty-five to one hundred and twenty feet long, come down the Allegheny annually, loaded with lumber and produce. These boats are generally sold at Pittsburg to the coal merchants, who reload them with coal for Cincin- nati. Louisville, Natchez, and the intermediate ports. The ascending trade of the Allegheny consists chiefly of Pittsburg manufactures, groceries, and foreign and domestic goods for the supply of the upper country; but the descending trade is much greater, embracing a vast amount of all kinds of lumber, logs, and shingles, pot and pearl ashes, whiskey, cheese, cabinet-ware, patent tubs and buckets, hay, oats, potatoes, hoop-poles, bark, etc., a large quantity of salt from the Kiskiminetas, and of pig metal from the great iron establishments in Venango and Armstrong Counties."-History of Western Pennsylvania in 1846.
CHAPTER XXXVI
TIOGA COUNTY-FORMATION OF COUNTY-LOCATION OF COUNTY SEAT-SET- TLERS - ROADS - COURTS - REDEMPTIONERS - CHURCHES - SCHOOLS - STREAMS-INDIAN TRAILS- HUNTERS-INDIAN CAPTIVES-AANIMALS, HAB- ITS, CUSTOMS, ETC.
" TIOGA COUNTY was separated from Lycoming by the act of March 25. 1804; in 1806 the seat of justice was established at Wellsborough; in 1808 county commissioners were first elected, and in 1812 the county was fully organized for judicial purposes. Length, thirty-six miles; breadth, thirty- one miles ; area, eleven hundred and eight square miles. Population in 1810. 1687; in 1820, 4021 ; in 1830, 9071; in 1840, 15,498. Area, eleven hundred and twenty-four square miles, and 719,360 acres; mean elevation, 1300: maximum, 2280.
" The county is traversed by the high undulating ridges skirting the northwestern base of the Allegheny Mountains, or rather of Laurel Hill. which sweeps past the southeastern corner of the county. These ridges per- tain generally to the hard sandstone strata of formations X. and XII. of our state geologists, and the lower strata of formation XIII., which compre- hends the coal measures. The uplands in the vicinity of the larger streams are well covered with white pines of a superior quality; the sugar-maple abounds in many places, and large quantities of sugar are produced from it. The county is well supplied with navigable streams, having the Tioga River. a south branch of the Chemung, on the east, which is navigable for rafts and arks about thirty miles above the New York line; the Cowanesque Creek on the north, navigable about the same distance; and Pine Creek on the west. also navigable; so that no part of the county is distant more than ten miles from descending navigation. A very extensive lumber business has been done on these streams, especially on Pine Creek, whence a vast amount has annually been sent down the Susquehanna. The recent crisis in monetary affairs has tended in some measure to check this trade. Several men from the cities, with more capital than industry, and more enterprise than prudence. had embarked in the business, and driven it beyond its profitable limit.
" Until the year 1796-97 Tioga and the neighboring counties were a howling wilderness, entirely cut off from the West Branch settlements by the lofty barrier of the Allegheny Mountains, and trodden only by the beasts of the forest, and the savage on his hostile expedition to the lower settle-
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ments. In 1792 a Mr. Williamson, of New York, an agent for Sir William Pulteney, first opened a rough wagon-road through this wilderness, across the mountains from the mouth of Lycoming Creek to the sources of the Tioga, and thence down that river to Painted Post, in New York. This road was made at the expense of Sir William Pulteney for the purpose of render- ing his lands in the State of New York accessible to German or other emi- grants coming up from Philadelphia and Baltimore. Old Mr. Covenhoven (Crownover). of Lycoming County, and Mr. Patterson superintended the workmen on the road, who were principally German redemptioners .* This
John Du Bois, born March 3, 1809, at Owego, Tioga County, New York ; died at Du Bois City, Pennsylvania, May 5, 1886
road became a great thoroughfare, and was extensively known as the 'Block- house road,' from a log house (called blockhauss by the Germans) erected by Williamson near the mountains for the accommodation of travellers.
" It is still (1843) a tavern stand and the site of a post-office, about twelve miles south of Blossburg. This house was kept in the primitive times by one Anthonyson, a sort of half French and half Dutchman. Anthony, according to his own story, had spent most of his life as a soldier, during
* See chapter on Redemptioners, page 329.
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the stormy times of the French Revolution; and he had thereby neither improved his morals nor his fortune. He made no scruple, by way of amusing his guests, of boasting of his bold-faced villany; there was no one of the ten commandments which he had not specifically broken, time and again. With the habits of the old soldier, he had little disposition to get his living by tilling the ground, and found the military code of pillage much more to his taste. He raised no oats, but always charged travellers for the use of his troughs, and for sleeping before his fire. Whiskey was the staple commodity at his house, serving both as meat and drink. Many of the early emigrants to the Genesee country drove their young cattle along. There was a wide track of some fearful tornado, not far from Anthony's house, in which he had contrived to cut an open space, with a narrow passage into it, making a kind of unseen pen. To this spot the cattle of his guests were very apt to stray in the night. In the morning the poor emigrants were hunting, far and near, for their cattle, with Anthony for their guide; but on such occasions he never happened to think of the windfall.
" The unsuspecting guests, after two or three days of fruitless search. would leave, paying roundly for their detention; and instructing the old scoundrel to hunt the cattle, and when found, to write to a certain address. with a promise of reward for his trouble. Anthony never had occasion to write, but it was always remarked that he kept his smoke-house well supplied with what he called elk-meat. When or where he caught the elks was never known. Some lone travellers, who stopped at his house, it is strongly sus- pected, never reached their intended destination.
" After the opening of this road, many of the pioneers from the Wyo- ming country, and from New England, came into the eastern part of the county, and took up lands under the Connecticut title. For quite a number of years the uncertainty of this title gave rise to much wrangling and litiga- tion. A Mr. Gobin, an assistant surveyor under the Pennsylvania title, was shot in his camp, but not killed. At length the litigation was ended by the compromise at Trenton ; the settlers quietly acknowledged the validity of the Pennsylvania title, and compromised their claims with the agents of the land- holders from Philadelphia. A large portion of the lands in the eastern section of the county belongs to the Bingham estate.
" Soon after the cutting of the Block-house road, Mr. John Norris, from Philadelphia, first came, about the beginning of the year 1799, to the south- western part of the county, as an agent for Mr. Benjamin Morris, who owned lands in that region. He was accompanied by his brother-in-law. Mr. Mor- decai Jackson, then a young lad. On Mr. Norris's arrival he erected a grist- and saw-mill, on the waters of Little Pine Creek, just within the boundary of Lycoming County. This establishment was generally known as Morris's Mills. The country was then a complete wilderness, and in traversing its wilds these first adventurers endured the many hardships incident to a pio-
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neer's life; such as sleeping on the ground in the open air, often without fire, searching for the blazes on the trees at night, to find the way through the forest, and travelling long journeys for their provisions, to the older settlements, for one or two years after their first arrival. These hardships were doubly severe to young men reared among the comforts and luxuries of Philadelphia. After remaining at Morris's Mills for five or six years, and inducing some half-dozen settlers to immigrate, Mr. Norris removed to the vicinity of the Big Marsh ; and subsequently, in 1807, to within a mile of Wells- borough. The mill at that place had been built the year previous (1806), by Samuel W. Fisher, of Philadelphia; and the same year the county seat was fixed at Wellsborough. Among the first settlers at or near Wellsborough, besides Mr. Norris, were Benjamin W. Morris, David Linsey, Alpheus Cheney, and Daniel Kelsey, Esq.
".Wellsborough, the county seat, is located near the centre of the county, three miles from the navigable waters of Pine Creek, on the great State road, passing through the northern range of counties. The north and south road, from the mouth of Lycoming Creek to the one hundred and ninth mile-stone, on the State line, also passes through the place. The village is built upon level ground, on a long and wide street, sheltered on the north and east by high hills. There existed for many years a great strife for the removal of the county seat. The towns on the Tioga and Cowanesque, appearing to be most favored with the increase of population and improvement, contended for the removal; and settlers were consequently diverted from selecting a loca- tion at or near Wellsborough. This had a blighting effect upon the place : and in 1831 the village paper describes the place as containing only 'forty or fifty indifferent dwelling-houses, a court-house and jail, of no very repu- table appearance,' etc. At length, in 1835, a majority of the citizens of the county authorized the erection of the new stone court-house and county offices, which confirmed to the place its title as the seat of justice.
" Since that time it has greatly improved, and many new frame buildings have been erected, among them an Episcopal and a Methodist church, in a very neat style of architecture. There is also an academy. The private dwellings are built with much taste, and even some of the stores and taverns exhibit the tasteful proportions of Grecian architecture. Pleasant front yards, gardens, and green blinds indicate the origin of the population from New York and New England. The court-house is a fine edifice of white sand- stone, surmounted with a cupola. A tri-weekly stage runs to Covington, twelve miles east. Population in 1840, 369. Coal has been discovered about seven miles south of the borough.
" Covington is a large and flourishing village, at the intersection of the great State road with the Tioga River. The railroad of the Tioga Navigation Company also passes through the village. Mr. Washburn, Mr. Elijah Put- nam, and Mr. Mallory settled at Covington 'corners' previous to 1806. Mr.
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
Bloss and Mr. Hovey had settled about the year 1801, two miles below ; and Mr. Sacket also lived near the same place. The land titles were for a long time in dispute between the Connecticut and Pennsylvania claimants. When at last they were settled in favor of the Pennsylvanians, or 'Pennamites,' as the 'Connecticut boys' called them, Mr. William Patten came in as their agent and laid out the town, about the year 1822, and started a store and tavern. For some years the place increased very slowly, and was only known as 'The Corners.' In 1831 it assumed the dignity of a borough; soon after- wards the great fever of internal improvement and speculation began to rise, and Covington, being an important point, rose with it.
" Lands both for farming and timber, and town lots, were eagerly taken up, and passed from hand to hand, sometimes doubled and trebled in value at each transfer ; coal-mines and iron-mines were opened, and water-powers were sought out and improved; saw-mills, furnaces, houses, stores, and taverns went up as if by magic; bank-notes poured in from New York and Towanda, and everybody seemed to be getting rich. But at length, in 1841-42, the bubble burst-bank-notes melted in the hand, property became unsalable, and the whole community embarrassed. The fever had subsided, and left in its place a hard-shaking ague.
" The following tragic tale is copied from the newspapers of February, 1842, and will serve to explain much of the embarrassment that has over- taken Covington and the vicinity.
"' PHILADELPHIA, 17th February, 1842 .- This morning, at about six o'clock, Mr. J. G. Boyd, late cashier and agent of the Towanda Bank, killed himself at his residence in Schuylkill Seventh Street, by firing a loaded pistol into his mouth. Previously to his late dismissal as the cashier of the bank. it was ascertained that he had, as the signing officer of the relief issues of that bank, put out some thousands of dollars on his own account. The Penn Township Bank, one of the losers by this fraudulent issue, and by some of his other transactions, had commenced a suit against him, and it was while in the custody of the sheriff, and when he saw that the whole fraud must be exposed, that he committed the melancholy act. About two years since he had married an interesting young lady at Trenton, New Jersey, and was keeping house with her at the time of his suicide in Philadelphia. He had furnished this house splendidly, had settled upon his wife a farm near Ger- mantown, worth about eight thousand dollars, and had made many munificent presents to her relatives. But it appears that all this time he had another wife, a most estimable lady, at Covington, Tioga County, by whom he had several children, and with whom he was living on most affectionate terms whenever his business called him to that vicinity. With his Philadelphia wife he passed as Mr. Henry Seymour, represented himself as a drover having large transactions with the interior counties, and often spoke of his intimate friend, Mr. John G. Boyd. So adroitly was the deception main-
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