USA > Pennsylvania > A pioneer outline history of northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 57
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69
613
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
tained, that neither of these unfortunate ladies ever suspected the least im- propriety in his conduct, or alienation of his affections.
". Mr. Boyd had come out from the State of New York to Tioga and Bradford Counties some three or four years since. He was a man of about thirty-five years of age, with a gentlemanly, but plain and business-like exte- rior, exhibiting extraordinary tact and readiness in matters of business, and a good degree of common sense, apparently, in the management of his enterprises. Although comparatively a stranger, yet so plausible was his address that he soon gained the confidence of wealthy men, who intrusted him with means to enter largely into the lumber business, and afterwards into the iron business and coal land speculations in Tioga County. He had several large mills near Covington, a furnace at Blossburg, and was engaged in many of the most prominent schemes for improving these two places. His business led him into intimate connection with the Towanda Bank; and he was suc- cessively appointed clerk, agent for the transaction of the bank's business in Philadelphia, and cashier. The latter office, after the credit of the bank began to decline, he was compelled to give up. He still, however, secretly continued his fraudulent issues of Towanda relief notes in Philadelphia, until a short time previous to the tragic close of his career.
" Covington, however, though shocked and thrown back by this calamity, added to the ordinary embarrassment of the times, still has many advan- tages for becoming a prosperous town, particularly an extensive farming and lumbering country constantly opening to the west of it, which finds here the most convenient depot for its produce and lumber. Quite a brisk business is still done. No church has yet been erected in the place (1843). The Pres- byterians worship in a school-house. The Baptists and Methodists have it in contemplation to erect churches soon. The extensive lumber establish- ment of Boyd & Clever is about half a mile below the town.
" Blossburg took its name from the aged Mr. Aaron Bloss (now of Cov- ington), who originally settled here and owned the property. Before Mr. Bloss removed here, about the year 1802, one Gaylord, a worthless fellow, had kept a tavern. Mr. Bloss removed from near Covington, and bought him out. The place at that time went by the name of 'Peters's camp.' This Peters was a German, who did the baking in an immense oven for the large company of German redemptioners at work on the Block-House road .* Peters was not remarkable for cleanliness of person ; and his comrades, un- able any longer to tolerate his filth, caught him and commenced the necessary ablution by pouring sundry buckets of cold water upon his head, stroking and smoothing down his hair in a becoming manner, and were about to complete the process by putting him into the river, when the superintendent of the road interfered.
* See chapter on Redemptioners. page 330.
614
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
" Blossburg is situated on the Tioga River, at the head of the railroad connecting the bituminous coal- and iron-mines of Tioga County with the Chemung River and Canal, and promises to become a point of some impor- tance when all the natural resources in its vicinity shall be properly de- veloped.
" The railroad from Blossburg, through Covington, to Corning, in the State of New York, forty miles, was constructed by the Tioga Navigation Company, instead of a canal or slackwater navigation, and was opened for locomotives in July, 1840. This road opens a connection between the coal mines of Blossburg and the Chemung Canal of New York.
" A large iron-furnace stands at the upper end of the village, which had been leased by Mr. Boyd and another person. It was originally wrought with charcoal, but had been altered for coke; and the workmen were conduct- ing a successful blast with the latter, when Mr. Boyd's catastrophe occurred, and the hearth was allowed 'to chill.' The same blighting chill came over many of the enterprises in this region from the same cause. Blossburg has become quite a village since the opening of the mines and the railroad. Like most other coal towns in Pennsylvania, it resembles an army with its tents pitched in different detachments,-here one row of uniformly built houses. and there another. The houses are constructed with good taste. principally of wood. The country around is wild and rugged. The Tioga, here but a narrow stream, flows in a deep and narrow valley, surrounded on both sides by precipitous hills.
" Tioga, or Willardsburg, situated at the confluence of Crooked Creek and the Tioga River, was settled about the year 1800 by Mr. Willard. The opening of the country to a market has given it an impetus, and it has rap- idly increased, until it rivals the towns above it on the river. It contains Methodist and Baptist churches.
" Mansfield is on the right bank of the Tioga, at the mouth of Canoe Camp Creek, three miles below Covington. Mainsville is four miles east of Mansfield, on the road to Towanda. Not far from this place. in Union Township, in September, 1835, Major Ezra Long is said to have discovered a considerable quantity of lead ore, the specimens of which were equal to the best lead ores of the West.
" Lawrenceville is a small village just within the State line."
Tioga County has always been celebrated for intelligence and patriot- ism; and no wonder! Forty of its pioneer settlers served in the Revolution- ary army, and over forty did service in the War of 1812.
" The first prominent settlers within what is Tioga County -Jesse Losey and his wife-were historic characters. They located in the county in 1786. at least two years earlier than a local historian has credited Samuel Baker and wife with doing so. Losey had been of the Continental army, in which he served throughout the Revolutionary War. He had heard the solid shot.
615
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
shell, and red-hot ball that rained at Yorktown for more than a week against Cornwallis's fortified lines, and he had listened to the music to which that British general's army marched out, on October 19, 1781, when he surrendered his forces to the Americans.
" In the spring of 1786 Jesse Losey and his wife anchored their birch- bark canoe where Tioga village is now situated and built a cabin on the site of the present Episcopal church in that borough."-Agitator.
A settler or two had located at the Block-House as early as 1795. In 1797 Gad Lamb located; Dr. Willard, the pioneer doctor, in 1799. A colony came from Virginia, Delaware, Maryland, and Philadelphia, in 1800, and settled about Wellsboro.
In 1812 the county was organized, and in 1813 the pioneer court was held in the log court-house that was erected in 1812.
The pioneer court was held by John Bannister Gibson, president judge, assisted by associate judges Samuel Wells Morris and Ira Kilburn. The pioneer sheriff was Alpheus Cheney. The present court-house was built in 1835-
Wellsboro was declared the county seat in 1806, and named for Mrs. Mary Wells Morris. It was incorporated as a borough in 1830, with about fifty families or two hundred and fifty people.
Benjamin B. Smith, the editor of the Phoenix, who was a member of the council, and had a hand in making the new laws, referred to them in his issue of July 3, 1830, and defended them in these words:
" At last our by-laws are published, and we hope soon to see our streets cleared of sheep, hogs, and cattle, which have hitherto been really a nuisance, especially in the night. Depredations have already been commenced on some of our gardens, and unless cattle are shut up at night we can expect nothing but that our vegetables will, as last year, be entirely destroyed. We borough folks expect now to be quite happy. The squalling of geese at day- light, the bellowing of cattle, the kicking of horses, the audacity of swine, and the 'innomi nutus' odor of sheep, accompanied with their disagreeable bleating, shall entirely cease from annoying us, and we shall go forth at morning and evening, at sunsetting and sunrising, and fear no evil except from dogs, which, by the by, our burgess and council have entirely forgotten -and mad dogs, too, are they not subjects of legislation as well as geese ?. We expect, however, to have a 'revised code,' and then all things will be perfect." This was the second borough ordinance.
On December 3, 1825, Ellis and Rankin Lewis started the first news- paper in the county, called the Pioneer. This was Willardsburg.
In 1802 William H. Wells migrated from Delaware to what is now Wellsboro.
" I know it has always been stated by our learned historians that Wells- boro was named in honor of Mary Hill Wells, the wife of Benjamin Wistar
616
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
Morris. It may be so. But at the time Wellsboro was named just a little way out on the old road toward Stony Fork lived William Hill Wells, a man so distinguished in civil life that he had sat in the United States Senate from 1799 to 1804, and resigned his seat in order to move to the 'Beechwoods' of Tioga County, with his negro slaves and other material wealth; a man so distinguished that after his return to Delaware he again represented that State in the United States Senate from 1813 to 1817. Gideon Wells, another brother of Mary Morris, a contractor and builder of the State roads running through this town on the line of Main Street during that formative period, also lived and owned lands in this immediate vicinity. Possibly Wellsboro was named in honor of the Wells family."-Hon. Charles Tubbs.
The principal streams are the Pine Creek, declared a public highway by the Legislature, March 16, 1798; the Cowanesque River, Crooked Creek, Lycoming Creek, and the Tioga River. Crooked Creek is the principal tributary of the Tioga River.
Indian trails were numerous, also Indian villages and Indian graveyards. Of the pioneer hunters, Wilson Freeman, in 1808, received sixteen dollars bounty for two panther heads. I might say here that panthers were killed in this wilderness measuring, from tip of nose to end of tail, ten, eleven, and even twelve feet. In May, 1808, Timothy Coats, Isaac Gaylord, and James Whitney received thirty-two dollars for wolf and panther heads. Other hunters who received bounty that year were Aaron Freeman, Nathan Brown, Joshua Reynolds, Timothy Culver, Rufus Adams, and Titus Ives. President Theodore Roosevelt entirely underrates the courage and savagery of the panther of 1800. The panther has intelligence, and he thoroughly understands the improved fire-arms of to-day. Previous to 1784 the Indians carried captives from Pennsylvania over their trails to below Fort Niagara. French explorers, Moravian missionaries, hunters, and scouts passed over these trails previous to 1784.
Eleazer Seelye, whose father was a very early settler, says,-
" My father erected a cabin of bark set against a large pine log, and lived in it for a year and a half. He then built a log house. In this he lived the first winter without a floor, there being no saw-mill nearer than Painted Post. For a grist-mill we used a stump hollowed out by fire for a mortar. and a spring pestle. In this we pounded our samp for bread and pudding timber for two years. After a while several of the settlers clubbed together and purchased a pair of millstones about two feet in diameter, which we turned by hand. At first we could only raise corn. Wheat blasted, rusted. and would not mature. This state of things lasted seven or eight years. when wheat, rye, and oats began to be raised. The family dressed chiefly in deer-skins, and I was ten years old before I had a pair of shoes."
General John Burrows, in a little pamphlet, gives his experience of a trip into Tioga County in 1802. He says,-
617
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
"In 1802 I was elected a (Lycoming) county commissioner. About this time I received a letter from Dr. Tate introducing William Hill Wells to me, who had settled in the woods (near) where Wellsboro now stands, the county seat of Tioga.
" Mr. Wells applied to me to furnish him with provisions in his new settlement. He had brought a number of negroes with him from the State of Delaware, where he moved from. I put eighty-eight hundred-weight of pork on two sleds and started to go to him with it. It was fine sledding, but dreadful cold weather. In crossing the Allegheny Mountains the man I had driving one of the teams froze his feet up to his ankles. I was obliged to leave him, and the next morning put the four horses to one sled, and the pork on it, and started for Wells's. I had to cross Pine Creek six times. A man coming into the settlement from that part of the county had frozen to death the day before. I passed him lying in the road.
" The second crossing of the creek was about fifty yards wide; when the foremost horses got to the middle of the creek the ice broke with them ; the ice was about mid-side deep; and in their attempting to get on the ice again, drew the other horses and sled into the creek and pulled the roller out of the sled. I got the horses ashore and tied them, and then went back to the sled, and found the water running over the pork. I had to go partly under the water to get an axe that was tied to the sled, to cut a road through the ice to get the sled ashore. Sometimes I was in the water up to my middle, and sometimes I was standing on the ice. The water following the stroke of the axe would fly up, and as soon as it touched me was ice.
" When I got the road cut to the shore I went to the sled, and, getting a log chain, reached under water and hooked it first to one runner and then to the other ; then backed the horses in through the road, hitched to the sled, and pulled it out. .
" It was now dark. I had six miles to go and four times to cross the creek, without a roller in my sled to guide it. On descending ground it would run out of the road, when I had difficulty to get it in the road again. There was not a dry thread on me, and the outside of my clothes was frozen stiff. It was twelve o'clock (midnight) before I got to the mill, the first house before me; and there was neither hay nor stable when I got there. I thought my poor horses would freeze to death.
." Next morning, as soon as the daylight appeared, I cut a stick and put a roller to my sled-the very wood seemed filled with ice. I started from there at ten o'clock, and had fifteen miles to go to Wells's. The snow was two feet deep and there was scarcely a track in the road. I met Mr. Wells's negro five miles this side of his house, coming to meet me, on horseback, about sunset. He said there was a by-road that was a mile nearer than the one I was on, and he undertook to pilot me, but soon lost the path and we wandered about among the trees till at length my sled pitched into a hole
618
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
and upset. I then unhooked my horses from the sled and asked the negro if he thought he could pilot me to the house, but he acknowledged himself lost.
" I looked about and took a view of the stars, and started with my four horses, leaving the pork in the wood, and fortunately reached Wells's. When I got there he had neither hay nor stable, or any kind of feed, nor any place to confine my horses, and I had to tie them to the trees. He had a place dug in a log that I could feed two of my horses at a time.
" All the buildings that he had erected were two small cabins, adjoining each other,-one for himself and family, about sixteen feet square, that I could not stand straight in,-built of logs, with bark for an upper floor, and split logs for the lower floor. The negro cabin was a little larger, but built of the same material. I sat by the fire until morning. It took me all that day to get my pork to the house and settle. I started the next morning for home without any feed to give my horses, after they had stood there two nights, and the snow was up to their bellies. I have been particular in de- tailing the circumstances of this trip, leaving you to judge of the hardships that I had to endure. But it is only a specimen of much of the kind that I have had to encounter through life." This experience was on the State road built in 1799.
The pioneer horse-races occurred in September, 1796, and continued for several weeks. (See Potter County history.)
The pioneer distillery was erected, in 1815, by Joshua Colvin. Rye and corn were used exclusively. The barter was six quarts of whiskey for one bushel of rye or corn ..
The pioneer grist-mill was built about 1810 by Thomas and Beecher.
Lumbering boards and timber was carried on at an early date, but with- out much profit.
Tanneries were erected before 1812. Coal was discovered as early as 1792. To David Clemons is due the credit of being the pioneer operator and shipper of coal in and for the county. This was probably in 1815.
The pioneer meeting of the commissioners was held in Wellsboro. Octo- ber 20, 1808, in the Friends' log church, the first church edifice in the county.
Wellsboro post-office was opened January 1, 1808, and Samuel Wells Morris was the pioneer postmaster.
" The mail at that time was carried weekly, on horseback, over the State road from Williamsport. A pair of saddle-bags were sufficient to contain all the matter, with room to spare. Newspapers were few in those days, the Lycoming Gazette being the only paper printed within a radius of a hundred miles ; and as postage was high, few letters were written. No envelopes were in use then; letters were written on foolscap and made as long as possible, covering all the available space, leaving only room enough for the address, when the sheet was folded and sealed with red wax or a wafer. 1 stamp or signet of some kind was used to press the paper into the way or
619
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
wafer, which left an impression and gave the enclosure an official appearance. The amount of postage was written, usually, on the upper right hand corner of the letter, and the price was governed by the distance carried. It was collected at the end of the route from the party to whom it was addressed. The name of the first mail-carrier has not come down to us, but in those days the duty was generally performed by a bright, active, venturesome boy. The route from Williamsport lay through a gloomy wilderness nearly all the way. The log cabins of settlers were few. Panthers and wolves roamed the forest, and their howls frequently caused the mail-boy to spur up his horse and dash swiftly through the gloom.
" One of the early mail-carriers was John Sheffer, Jr., born in Williams- port, February 8, 1803. When thirteen years of age he carried the mail from Williamsport to Painted Post on horseback, a distance of seventy-nine miles, by the way of the State and Williamson roads. The former started at Newberry and passed through Wellsboro. It required nerve in those days to make this journey, and when the youth of the rider is considered, it is still more remarkable.
"It is probable that he either went by this route on going out, or on returning, as he could make a complete circuit by doing so. The Williamson road passed through Block-House, Blossburg, Covington, and Tioga. The first post-office in the county was established at the last-mentioned place January 1, 1805. At Wellsboro he could leave the State road and proceed to Covington by the East and West pike, as it was called, or vice versa. It is highly probable therefore, that he made the round trip in this way."
The pioneer tavern-keeper in Wellsboro was X. Miller.
" The old-time tavern was a place of good cheer and social enjoyment. Whiskey in those days cost three cents a drink, or five for a shilling; twelve for twenty-five cents, and a long credit for three cents net, when marked down. The method of charging was a straight mark for a drink, and a tally mark for five, with the creditor's name at the top of a page. This method was adopted as a necessity, as it would sometimes have required two or three clerks to make the charges in the regular way."
The pioneer teachers in the old meeting-house were Lydia Cole, Chaun- cey Alford, and Benjamin B. Smith. These were subscription schools under the law of 1809. The first public-school building in Wellsboro, was built of logs in 1835. The pioneer church building was erected about 1802.
The Presbyterian church of Wellsboro was organized February 1I, 1843. Rev. Thomas Foster was the supply for a year.
The pioneer Methodist church service in Wellsboro was about the year 1802. Rev. Caleb Boyer preached.
Up to 1850 Tioga County had no conviction or execution for murder.
Nearly all the facts as given in this history of Tioga County are taken or quoted from the history of Tioga County in 1897.
620
CHAPTER XXXVII
VENANGO COUNTY-FORMATION OF COUNTY-LOCATION OF COUNTY SEAT- TRAILS, PATHS, ROADS, AND TURNPIKES-SETTLERS-STORES-SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES-CANALS-STEAMBOATS-MAILS-MERCHANTS-RAILROADS -SENECA OIL-WAR OF 1812
" VENANGO * COUNTY was taken from Allegheny and Lycoming by act of March 12, 1800, and was organized for judicial purposes by act of April I, 1805. In 1839 its limits were curtailed by the establishment of Clarion County, the Clarion River having been previously the southeastern boundary. The county now forms a very irregular figure, with an area of about eight hundred and fifty square miles. Population in 1800, 1130; in 1810. 3060: in 1820, 4915 ; in 1830, 9470; in 1840, 17,900.
" The Allegheny River flows through the centre of the County in a direc- tion so very circuitous that there is not a point of the compass to which it does not direct its course. The country along its banks is exceedingly wild and rugged, the river-hills being high and precipitous. The valley is nar- row, but bounded alternately on either side by elevated alluvial lands, which furnish excellent sites for farms. French Creek, which comes in at Franklin. and Oil Creek a short distance above, are the other two principal streams. Raccoon, Tionesta, Pit-Hole, Sandy, and Scrubgrass Creeks, are streams of minor importance. All these streams flow in deeply indented valleys, ren- dering the general surface quite hilly ; and many of the component rocks of these hills pertaining to the lower conglomerates of the coal formation, make on the whole a rugged country. Still there are large bodies of what may be called good farming land. All the hills abound with iron ore of excellent quality. Bituminous coal is plenty in the southern part of the county, and some has been found within two or three miles of Franklin. Limestone abounds in the southwestern end of the county. A great advantage possessed by this county, is its pure water, which promotes good health. Fine water- powers exist on all the tributaries of the Allegheny, especially on French Creek.
* Venango River was the name given by the French to French Creek. The word Venango is a corruption of the Indian word In-uun-gah, which had some reference to a rude and indecent figure carved upon a tree, which the Senecas found here when they first came to this region.
621
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
PIONEER STEAMBOATING ON THE ALLEGHENY RIVER, 1824-62-EXTRACTS TAKEN FROM NEWSPAPER WRITINGS OF WITHIE REYNOLDS, OF KITTANNING. PENNSYLVANIA, THE VETERAN STEAMBOAT AND RAILROAD MAN-HIS SKETCHES WERE PUBLISHED IN 1879
" Now that there are some improvements being made at different points on the Allegheny River, perhaps a few lines from an old timer may be of some interest. From the occasional accounts given of the Allegheny, one would infer that the steamers that formerly plied on the stream were of but little importance as to size, speed, and comfort. True, the boats of early days were of small dimensions, their carrying capacity being about twenty-five tons, and their accommodations for passengers being correspondingly limited, but as time rolled on the demand for larger boats became a necessity.
' PIONEER BOATS
" The first steamboat that ever passed up the Allegheny was named the 'Duncan.' She was very small and a side-wheeler. Her first trip was made to Franklin in 1824 or 1825. Captain James Murphy was her pilot. The Captain is still living (1879) and resides four miles above Freeport.
" The next boat was the 'Allegheny,' a stern-wheeler, and was quite an improvement on the 'Duncan.' Then came the 'Beaver,' 'Pulaski,' and 'Forrest.' Then the ' Allegheny Belle No. 1,' commanded by Captain John Hanna. She was the first boat on the river that had a bell and a whistle, and Captain John took pains to let the people along the banks know it. About this time two boats, one named the 'Clarion' and the other the 'Justice.' were placed in the trade.
" After these came the 'Cornplanter,' Captain T. H. Reynolds; 'Clara Fisher.' Captain E. Gordon ; 'Allegheny Belle No. 2,' Captain W. Hanna, and ' Allegheny Belle No. 3,' the machinery of the No. I being placed on the latter. These four boats had the river to themselves for quite a time.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.