USA > Pennsylvania > A pioneer outline history of northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 59
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up from Pittsburg in keel-boats, thence up French Creek to Waterford, and thence by teams to Erie. It was a matter of surprise to the British how Perry's fleet was equipped under the circumstances, as they were ignorant of this inland communication with Pittsburg. All these boats were pushed up by hand, with the assistance of the captain, in places where the water was spe- cially rapid.
" From the organization of the county, in 1800, to 1805 it was associated for judicial purposes with the neighboring counties of Warren, Butler, Mercer, Erie, and Crawford, with the seat of justice at Meadville. The first court held was presided over by Judge Alexander Addison. By act of April I, 1805, Venango was fully organized for judicial purposes, with Franklin as the county seat. The first court was held in a log house on Liberty Street, facing West Park. Jesse Moore was the first judge. He was succeeded by N. B. Eldred, in 1839. The first court-house was erected in 1811. It was of stone, on West Park, and facing what is now Plumer's Block. A second court-house was built of brick in 1848, on South Park, and facing up Liberty Street.
" The old garrison was used as a jail from 1805 to 1819, when a small stone building was erected for the purpose, on the South Park. There was a yard attached to one end of it, surrounded by a stone wall about twelve feet in height, with a well in the inclosure. The cells were lined with oak plank about five inches in thickness.
" Franklin, the county seat, is the oldest town in the county. It was located on lands belonging to the State. On the 24th day of March, 1789. it was resolved by the General Assembly 'that not exceeding three thousand acres be surveyed for the use of the Commonwealth, at the Fort of Venango.' By act of April 18, 1795, commissioners were appointed to survey one thou- sand acres of the reservation at the mouth of French Creek, and lay off thereon the town of Franklin. The commissioners designated for this pur- pose were General William Irvine and Andrew Ellicott. Mr. Ellicott had charge of the surveying, and General Irvine of the military escort of fifty men. The name was probably suggested by the name of the fort. The plot selected lies along the south branch of French Creek and the west bank of the Allegheny River. The valley in which it is situated is about two miles in length and about half a mile in breadth, surrounded on every side by bold, precipitous hills, rising to the height of about one hundred feet. The town is beautifully laid out with wide streets, crossing each other at right angles, with the exception of Twelfth Street, where there is an acute angle to accommodate a flexure in the creek.
" The pioneer school-house of Venango County was built of logs and covered with clap-boards, which were held to their places by . weight-poles." The heating apparatus consisted of an old-fashioned 'fireplace.' A wide. sloping board, attached to the walls, and a plank or a slab, with peg-legs. and
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without a back, served respectively for desk and seat. The floor was laid with puncheons.
" For windows, a log on each side of the room was sawed out, and in the winter these openings were covered with greased paper.
"In such a house James Mason taught the first school in Franklin, in 1801-02. The first academy building was erected in 1815 or 1816, and Mr. Kelley taught in it until 1823."
The pioneer academy was erected in Franklin in 1815. The pioneer mail route in the county was in 1802, from Erie to Pittsburg, carried on horseback. and came once every three weeks. The carrier's name was Ash. He carried a tin horn to announce his coming. Mr. Ash carried the mail from Meadville to Franklin, and afterward from Franklin to Warren.
For some time after the pioneer court-house was erected, court was called by a long tin horn purchased at the county's expense. This horn was used by John Morrison, who opened the pioneer court in Mercer, Crawford, and Warren Counties.
The pioneer doctor in Franklin and Venango Counties was T. G. Symonds. Whence he came no one knows.
The pioneer effort to organize an agricultural society was in Franklin in 1838.
The pioneer navigation of the Allegheny by the white man was the expedition of Celoron in 1749. This river has had several names. The Shawnee Indians called it Palawa-Thoriki; the Delawares named it Alligawi Sipu. after a race of Indians which they believed had once dwelt upon the stream. This tribe was called Alleghans by Colden in the London edition of his work, and Lewis Evans, on his map published in 1755, called the river the Alleghan. The Senecas called it Ho-he-u. which name the French adopted, connecting it with the Ohio as the same stream.
The pioneer to make his home in Franklin was George Powers, in 1787.
Thomas Skelley McDowell was the first white child born in the town, April 26. 1803.
" The first successful steam navigation of the Allegheny River occurred in 1828. and marks the beginning of a new era in economic development and internal communication in Western Pennsylvania. The following account of the first steamboat appeared in the Venango Democrat of March 4, 1828:
"'A STEAMBOAT ON THE ALLEGHENY
". On Sunday evening. the 24th of February, the citizens of this place were somewhat alarmed by the discharge of a field-piece down the Allegheny River. Another report soon followed; then the cry. " A steamboat !" re- sounded in all directions, and the citizens, great and small, were seen flock- ing to the river to welcome her arrival. She proved to be the " William D. Duncan." of one hundred and ten tons, Captain Crooks. She left Pittsburg
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on Friday at three o'clock P.M., and arrived at Kittanning, a distance of forty- five miles, the same evening; left Kittanning at ten A.M., and arrived at this place on Sunday at five P.M., after stopping at Lawrenceburg (now Parker ) and other places. The actual time occupied in running the whole distance. one hundred and forty miles, was twenty-eight hours, averaging five miles an hour. We understand she could have made the trip in much less time, but. it being the first, her engineer was afraid of applying her full power to the current. She had on board several tons of freight, and about one hundred and fifty ladies and gentlemen from Pittsburg, Freeport, Kittanning. and Law- renceburg came as passengers. On Monday morning a party was got up in town, who took an excursion of eight miles up the river to Oil Creek furnace. for the double purpose of the pleasure of the trip and as a remuneration to the enterprising owners for the visit. She steamed the current at the rate of between five and six miles an hour, and came down in twenty-one minutes. The day was fine, the trip pleasant, all were highly gratified, and the accom- modation was excellent. On Tuesday morning she took her departure for Pittsburg, where, we understand, she arrived next morning, without meeting with a single accident to mar the pleasure of their experiment. We learn that two other boats are making preparations for ascending the Allegheny, and that one of them may be expected here on Friday or Saturday next. It is expected they will ascend the river as far as Warren, for which place we understand they have been chartered. This, it is expected, will put an end to the controversy between the citizens of Pittsburg and Wheeling as to which is located at the head of steamboat navigation.'
" The pioneer steamboat built for the river was the ' Allegheny,' in 1830. Her first trip to Franklin was April 16, 1830, and to Warren. April 23. 1830. It went up to Olean, New York, and returned to Pittsburg.
" Stern-wheel steamboats were introduced upon the western waters in 1830. This innovation in nautical construction was the invention of a Mr. Blanchard."
It was not an unusual thing to see a large Olean raft on the river, with a team of horses, a cow, a girl cooking, and the mother spinning flax : these were emigrants going to Ohio or Indiana State. Previous to steamboating. all commerce on the river was carried on by canoes or keel-boats pushed by men. From and after 1828 steamboats carried men and goods up and down the river. The Pennsylvania Canal was finished to Freeport about 1828. Two surveys were made of the river by the United States, with a view to digging a canal along the valley,-viz .. one in 1829 and one in 1837.
The pioneer road through Venango County was the Le Beenf. There is no record, but it was probably opened in 1754.
The Pittsburg, Kittanning and Warren Railroad was chartered .April 4. 1837.
The pioneer weekly mail route was opened in 1801 between Pittsburg and
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Erie, by way of Butler, Franklin, Meadville, and Waterford. Horseback was the mode of transportation.
The pioneer post-office in the county was in 1801, at Franklin. Alex- ander McDowell was postmaster.
The pioneer protestant minister to preach in the town was a Presbyterian, in 1801. The services were held in David Irvine's home.
The pioneer Sunday-school in Franklin was founded in 1824 by Rev. Timothy Alden; it was a union school.
The pioneer merchant in Franklin was George Power.
There were Indian paths that led in several directions from Franklin. The old Venango trail led down until it struck the Ohio at Logstown ; another led northeast to the lakes.
Ferries were the first means of crossing the streams. French Creek had two ferries.
On one occasion a preacher was crossing the Allegheny Ferry, which was kept by a stout Dutchman who was very just and honest. The preacher thought to let the Dutchman know the nature of his cloth, and inquired, " How much do you charge preachers?" The reply was, " Vell, we do not charge them any more as we do other fellows. We don't take no advantage of de breacher any more as we do of de farmer."
Irwin Township is older than Venango County. The pioneer settlers in Irwin Township were Adam Dinsmore and Henry Crull, in 1796.
The pioneer hotel in Irwin Township was a log house erected about 1800 and kept by Henry Crull.
The pioneer grist-mill in Irwin Township was built in 1805 by John Crain.
" In June, 1817, owing, no doubt, to a scarcity of the necessaries of life, for at this period Irwin Township was but a wilderness, John J. Kilgore with two companions went to Franklin, hired a canoe, and paddled down the river to Pittsburg, where they bought a load of provisions and returned, pushing the canoe up the stream with poles, and making the trip in ten days. During that time they slept but one night under a roof. Game was abundant in those days. In 1819 there was a heavy fall of snow, and it is related by Mr. Kil- gore's son that his father, in company with his hired man, killed sixteen deer in one day.
" It is related that a Mormon preacher named Snow came to Irwin Township in 1837, and among his converts were Henry Stevenson and several daughters and a man by the name of David Mckee. These two and their families were taken to Salt Lake City by Snow."
Among the early settlers in Venango County were about twenty-five Revolutionary soldiers.
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CHAPTER XXXVIII
WARREN COUNTY-FORMATION OF COUNTY-SETTLERS-LOCATION OF COUNTY SEAT-COURTS-PATHS AND ROADS-RIVER TRAVEL-LUMBERING-INDIANS -SLAVERY-CORNPLANTER RESERVATION-CHURCHES AND SCHOOLS- STAGE TRAVEL, ETC.
" WARREN COUNTY was taken from Allegheny and a portion of Lycoming County by the act of March 12, 1800. By the act of 1805 the county was annexed to Venango for judicial purposes. On the 16th of March, 1819, the county was fully organized, and the seat of justice fixed at Warren. Length. thirty-two miles east and west, breadth, twenty-six miles; area, eight hun- dred and thirty-two square miles. Population in 1800, 230; in 1810, 827 ; in 1820, 1976; in 1830, 4706; in 1840, 9278. The county was named for General Joseph Warren.
" The Allegheny River runs, with its meanderings, not less than fifty miles within the county, entering at the northeast corner and leaving at the southwest. It consists of extensive sheets of dead water and short ripples. and furnishes power to drive several extensive saw-mills at different points. The Conewango Creek, which enters the county from the State of New York, and meets the Allegheny at Warren, is also a large and navigable stream. and turns many valuable mills. The other principal streams are the Broken- straw, Little Brokenstraw, Tionesta, Tidioute, Kinjua, Stillwater, Coffee, and Fairbank Creeks, and Jackson's, Alkley's, Valentine's, and Morrison's Runs, etc.,-on all of which the lumbering business is carried on extensively ( 1843).
" The surface of the county is undulating, and, near the large streams. deeply indented and sometimes rocky. The lands in the townships contiguous to the State line are generally of good quality, and will admit of dense settle- ments; and the same may be said of those between Brokenstraw and Cone- wango Creeks, except the river hills. . The land between the two Broken- straw Creeks,' says another writer, 'for several miles is stony and broken indeed. A land speculator from "the land of steady habits," once travelling over it, where " stones peep o'er stones, and rocks on rocks arise." remarked. that " it would never be settled till it was settled by an airthquake." . Beyond this, near the Crawford County line, is a large body of good land. On all the rivers of the county are broad alluvial margins, producing corn and wheat abundantly when properly cultivated. Previous to the year 1827 that part of the county southeast of the Allegheny River was but little known or explored.
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and the land abandoned by its owners was principally sold for taxes; but since the titles could be perfected, settlers have moved in, and found the region to be well timbered, supplied with abundant water-power, and contain- ing much good arable land.
" In a letter written by General William Irvine, of the Revolutionary. army, to General Washington, after the close of the war, concerning the best means of opening a water communication between Lake Erie and the Ohio, he makes allusion to the traces and traditions then existing of an old road cut by the French over the portage between Chautauqua Lake and Lake Erie, and intimates his belief that it was once or twice used by them and afterwards abandoned for the Presque Isle portage. This must have been between the years 1728 and 1750. Previous to this, and subsequently, this whole region was owned and occupied by the Seneca Indians. In the year 1784 the treaty to which Cornplanter was a party was made at Fort Stanwix, ceding the whole of Northwestern Pennsylvania to the Commonwealth, with the exception of a small individual reserve to Cornplanter. The frontier, however, was not at peace for some years after that, nor, indeed, until Wayne's treaty, in 1795. About the time of Wayne's treaty (and some say even previous to that event, and as early as 1790, but it is not at all probable) several adventurous Irish- men started from Philadelphia, and, passing up the Susquehanna and Sinne- mahoning, penetrated the wilderness of Mckean County, built canoes, and launched them upon the waters of the Allegheny at Canoe Place, two miles above Port Allegheny. Floating down past Olean to the mouth of Cone- wango, they left the river, and made the first settlement in Warren County, among the beechwoods of Pine Grove and Sugar Grove Townships. Their names were Robert Miles, John Russel, John Frew, John and Hugh Marsh. and Isaiah Jones. When they arrived upon their lands, their whole stock of ' specie and specie funds' was only three dollars !
" About the year 1795 the venerable James Morrison (who died in 1840, at the age of one hundred and four years) came out, and took up the large island at the mouth of Kinjua Creek. He was also the owner of Morrison's Island, at the mouth of Morrison's Creek, a few miles above Warren. At Irwinville James Harriot built the first mills, about the year 1812 or 1813. Messrs. Faulkner, Wilson, Smith, and Hall were the first settlers near Pine Grove, about the years 1816 to 1820. The Mckinney family were also early settlers : John settled on Brokenstraw, and Barney and Michael on the Cone- wango. Major Robert Andrews, and Messrs. Hicks, Wilson, Youngs, and Kinnear, were also early settlers on Brokenstraw. Most of them were lum- bermen. Tomes. an Irishman, and Daniel McQuay, also settled on Broken- straw.
"' Among the earlier settlers and most enterprising lumbermen of the county was Jacob Hook, better known, perhaps, as " Jake Hook." He emi- grated either from Boston or Maine somewhere about the year 1798. bringing
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
with him, as his stock in trade, a package of the bills of some bank that had failed so recently " down east," that Jake had time to circulate his bills here before the failure became known. This served to start him; and eventually, by dint of sharp bargains and hard work, rolling saw-logs, digging mill-races. and other speculations appurtenant to a lumber country, Jake arrived to the dignity of owning more mills and running more lumber than any other man in the county. In connection with some of his speculations, the charge of perjury had been fastened upon him, and he had made himself extremely ob- noxious to many of the citizens. A party attempted to arrest him for trial, and he killed one of them in the affray, was tried for his life, but escaped by an informality in the legal proceedings. The following is from the New York Censor, copied into the Conewango Emigrant of July 21, 1824: "It was proved on this trial that seven men, headed by one Asa Scott, went to the house of Hook, about four miles above Warren, on the left bank of the Allegheny, between sunset and dark on the 25th of March, for the avowed purpose of taking Hook to Warren that night. They all admitted that they intended to use force is necessary. One said that they meant to take him at all events. These persons were inimical to Hook with one or two exceptions, and had with them one or two loaded rifles. On arriving at Hook's they found his doors fastened. One of the company endeavored to prevail on him to surrender ; but he refused, alleging that he feared to trust himself with such men. About nine o'clock Scott and his followers went to the house and de- manded admittance; but he persisted in stating that he considered himself in danger, and that he looked upon them as a mob. Scott also stated that, on his demanding admittance, Hook informed him, by a token peculiar to a particular society, that he was in danger, and that he (Scott) assured him that he would be safe. Scott immediately burst open the outer door with considerable vio- lence; and almost at the same instant a gun was fired off within the house. by which one of the assailants (Caleb Wallace) was killed, and another wounded. On the trial, the counsel for the prosecution attempted to show that Scott was a deputy-sheriff, and had a legal warrant for Hook for perjury. The court, however, on examining the deputation under which he pretended to act, decided that it was void, and gave him no authority." Hook was acquitted on that ground. He had always been at sword's points with the Warren people, and this affair had no tendency to heal the breach. He died about 1829 or 1830.
" The settlement of Warren County, more than of any of the neighboring counties, was greatly retarded by the misconstructions and litigation result- ing from the land law of 1792, and the peculiar management of the Holland Land Company. This company, under the act of 1792, had taken up the greater portion of the best lands in the county, northwest of the Allegheny and Conewango; and, by way of aiding and encouraging settlers upon their lands, they established a large store at Warren-one of the first buildings
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erected in the place. Daniel MeQuay had charge of it. Pine lumber, how- ever, was the great object of pursuit in this county, and not agriculture, and so long as a lumberman had but the color of a title, he would remain long enough on the land to cut the timber, and then set up a claim to a new tract. Many thus made entries under the act of 1792 upon land claimed by the Holland Land Company, and were in consequence in continual conflict with the company's agents. The latter refused to sell to such persons anything from their store, or in any way to countenance them, without a compromise with the company. During this uncertainty the better class of settlers were deterred from purchasing, and the population in 1810 was only eight hundred and twenty-seven, and in 1820 was less than two thousand. On the south- east of the Allegheny the Lancaster Land Company had taken up a large tract, which had been disposed of by lottery, or in some such other way as to scatter the titles among various unknown and distant owners, who came at length to abandon their lands as of no value, and they were sold for taxes. This part of the county is still comparatively unsettled. By the great speculations of 1828 to 1840, the demand for lumber throughout the great West was increased, the value of pine lands enhanced, and great activity was infused into the lum- ber business along the Conewango and Allegheny.
" Warren, the county seat, is situated on a plain of about three hundred acres, on the right bank of the Allegheny, just below the mouth of Conewango Creek. The town is principally built along the river bank, which is about thirty-five feet above the water, and commands a picturesque view above and below. A noble bridge here crosses the Allegheny.
" It is allowed to be one of the most eligible sites on the river. The town was laid out and the lots sold by General William Irvine and Andrew Elliott, commissioners appointed by the State. The borough was incorporated in 1832. Near the centre of the plot is the public square or diamond, around which are situated the court-house and public offices, of brick; and the jail, of stone; a bank, of stone,-a solid structure without, but broken within,- and an academy, of brick. The population of the place (seven hundred and thirty-seven in 1840) is not yet commensurate with its original plan, and the consequence is that the public buildings make rather a lonely appearance, separated as they are at some distance from the compact business street along the river. There are three churches,-Presbyterian, Methodist, and German Methodist. There are also Baptist and German Lutheran congregations, who have not yet erected houses of worship. The dwellings and stores are gen- erally of frame, neatly built, and painted white. The place is one hundred and twenty miles from Pittsburg by land, and twenty-two from Jamestown, on the outlet of Chautauqua Lake.
" Warren, in common with the county, was retarded in its improvement by the causes mentioned above, and in 1813 it boasted but five houses. The Holland Land Company at an early day erected their store-house on the river
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HARDW
--
Old Warren
HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
bank, just above the blacksmith's shop; and Daniel Jackson built another house on the corner. Abraham Tanner, Esq., who is still living, came to Warren from Trumbull County, Ohio, embarked in the lumber business, and pursued it for some years with success. Robert Falconer, Esq., a Scotch gentleman of considerable fortune, came to the place a few years after Mr. Tanner. In 1816 Samuel Dale surveyed the Lancaster lands opposite the town, across the river. The lands on the hills north of the river, and west of the Conewango, and one mile from each, are called the State's lands ; they extend from one to two miles in width, nearly through the county, being lands which the Holland Company did not include in their survey.
" The business of Warren varies with the season of the year. In the midst of winter or summer the place is exceedingly dull ; but at the breaking up of the ice in the spring, and during the subsequent floods, the town. and the whole country above, on the Conewango and Allegheny, is alive with the bustle of preparation among the lumbermen. Large rafts are continually coming down the Allegheny, and smaller ones down the Conewango, and rounding in at Warren to be coupled into rafts of immense area, sixty or seventy feet wide, and from two hundred and fifty to three hundred feet long. in which shape they pursue their course to Pittsburg and Cincinnati. Large boats, too, or 'broad-horns,' as they are called, from the width of their oars, form part of the fleet.
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