USA > Pennsylvania > A pioneer outline history of northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 67
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" The Rochester and Pittsburg Coal and Iron Company operates mines that give employment to ten thousand operatives. New towns and villages have been built, and more in course of construction.
" The first operations of the company were begun in Jefferson County about 1882 immediately after organization, the initial steps being the opening of the mines at Beechtree, Walston, and Adrian, followed by those at Elea- nora, Helvetia, Elk Run Shaft, and Florence. In 1896 it absorbed by pur- chase the extensive interests of the Bell, Lewis & Yates Company, at that time the largest operators in what are known as the Reynoldsville and Du Bois districts. The operations of the mines in these districts were subse- quently transferred to a corporation, organized in 1896, known as the Jeffer- son and Clearfield Coal and Iron Company, for which the Rochester and Pittsburg Coal and Iron Company became selling agents. The mines owned and operated by the Jefferson and Clearfield Coal and Iron Company are by name as follows: Soldier Run Mine, said to have the largest producing capacity of any single mine in this country, if not in the world, situated near Reynoldsville; the Maplewood, Sherwood, Virginia, Rochester, London, and Sandy Lick Mines, all situated near Reynoldsville, Du Bois, and Punxsu- tawney. The average daily output is twenty-five thousand tons, requiring a large number of trains and crews moving night and day to handle the product.
" The production of coke by the Rochester and Pittsburg Coal and Iron Company is an important auxiliary to the mining industry. This is carried on extensively at Walston, Adrian, Eleanora, Reynoldsville, and Helvetia. The ovens are of the pattern known as beehive, of large capacity and modern construction. At Walston is said to be the longest continuous string of coke ovens in the world, its length being one and one-fourth miles, and containing in all four hundred and twenty-five ovens; there is also a shorter bank of two hundred and seventy-five ovens, a total of seven hundred ovens. At Adrian there are four hundred and seventy-six ovens, at Eleanora two hundred and one, at Helvetia forty, and at Reynoldsville two hundred and sixty-one in operation and one hundred and fifty in course of construction. The daily out- put of coke is about two hundred cars.
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" The output of the mines and the coke ovens finds a ready market in practically all parts of the world. Situated as they are on the line of the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg Railway Company, excellent shipping facili- ties are enjoyed. At Buffalo and Charlotte there are extensive docking facili- ties for the enormous lake tonnage while the rail shipment to the North, North- west, and New England points, via the valuable connections of the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg, are very heavy. A large percentage of the tonnage of these mines is also moved East via Clearfield and over the New York Cen- tral Railroad (formerly the Beech Creek), and the Philadelphia and Reading Railway to the docks at Philadelphia and New York, from which shipments are made by water both north and south. The recent extension of the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg to Butler and New Castle gives a valuable Western outlet for the product.
" The main offices of the Rochester and Pittsburg Coal and Iron Com- pany and the Jefferson and Clearfield Coal and Iron Company are at Rochester. while branch offices are maintained in charge of the sales agents of the former company at New York, Philadelphia, Buffalo, and all the larger cities."
The first instance of the use of wooden rails and a car for the removal of coal from a mine was at New Castle upon Tyne, England, in 1675. The first introduction of that method of removal of coal in Jefferson County was by Jacob Meinweiser, on the Haugh farm, Union Township, in 1852. All miners previous to that date in this county used wheelbarrows.
With some pride I state that the first trip across the ocean in six days and fifteen hours was made by steam from Beechtree coal, and that as a nation we have millions of square miles covered with forest trees and empires under- laid with coal.
Coke was first used in Pennsylvania in 1835 in Huntingdon County: it was then used in a furnace. The first coke-works of any importance in the State were erected in 1860.
The pioneer coal strike in Jefferson County was on September 1. 1883. The men were out about six weeks. To maintain order forty or fifty Pin kerton men were imported and kept on the ground.
The bituminous coal output of the country has quadrupled since 1885. and it will only require a few years more until the demand in the United States will be a million tons for each day of the year. One-half of the nation's output is now used up by the railroads and steamships. The annual output of the Rochester and Pittsburg Coal and Iron Company and their associate companies is now six million tons a year, and it is safe to say this output will be doubled within a very short time.
Coal is found in twenty-seven of our States and Territories. The bitumi- nous coal-field in Pennsylvania has an area of fifteen thousand square miles The first shipment of coal from Pittsburg was made in 1803. The first ship- ment from Clearfield was in 1804, in barges to Columbia, Pennsylvania.
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
The earliest authentic mention of coal in history is by Theophrastus, about two thousand two hundred years ago. An estimate was made in 1897, by emi- nent men, of the world's coal-producing territory, the sum total of which was found to be 563,150,000 square miles, distributed as follows,-to wit, United States east of the Rocky Mountains, 192,000; Canada, 65,000; India, 35,000 ; New South Wales, 24,000; Russia, 20,000; United Kingdom, 11,500; Spain, 5500; Japan, 5000; France, 2080; Austria Hungary, 1790; Germany, 1770; Belgium, 510; China, 200,000.
With our history of only one hundred and twenty-seven years, as a government, the United States leads the world in wealth, mining, and trans- portation.
(From the Pittsburg Daily Post, Saturday, July 30, 1881.)
THE LATE JAMES L. GILLIS, THE PATRIARCH OF ELK COUNTY-A MOST RE- MARKABLE CAREER-SOLDIER, STATESMAN, JUDGE, AND LEADING CITIZEN -HIS ARREST AND TRIAL FOR THE MURDER OF MORGAN-HIS STATEMENT ABOUT MORGAN-HIS BLAMELESS LIFE
" The death of Judge Gillis, at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, a few weeks ago, calls to mind the man, who he was, and the part he filled in his eventful life, most of which was spent in Pennsylvania. He was born in Washington County, New York, October 7, 1792, and was one of a large number of sons, all sturdy and hardy men. His father lived to a ripe old age and visited his sons, James and Enos, late in life, when they resided at Ridgway, Pennsyl- vania. A few years prior to the war of 1812 the family moved to Ontario County in the State of New York. There, in 1812, James enlisted in a company of New York volunteers, and was immediately commissioned a lieutenant of cavalry and assigned to a regiment commanded by one Colonel Harris, regular dragoons. He was in the battles of Fort George, Chippewa, and Lundy's Lane. Shortly after the latter battle he was taken prisoner by the British and confined at various places in Canada, and in 1814, while under parole, he was arrested and put on board a transport about to sail for England. Gillis and several others were successful in making their escape by capturing a boat belonging to the transport and gaining the bank of the St. Lawrence River opposite Quebec, at which place the vessel was lying. All were finally retaken. They wandered about for several days, wishing to reach the United States frontier, and made but little headway in that direction. Finally they made terms with a Canadian Frenchman, who prom- ised to guide them toward the boundary, but betrayed them; the red-coats got them, returned them to confinement, and Lieutenant Gillis was not again permitted to escape. He remained in confinement till the close of the war, when he was exchanged at Salem, Mass. When Congress, about 1853, passed a law giving a bounty of one hundred and sixty acres of land to the soldiers
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of 1812, Judge Gillis had no trouble in proving his title to one. He con- sidered the certificate too sacred to part with, and for years kept it hanging in his house in a gilt frame, which was a luxury in the way of fine art that his neighbors generally could not indulge in.
"IN THE WILDS OF PENNSYLVANIA
" In 1822 he moved to Pennsylvania and located in what was then Jefferson (now Elk) County. His nearest neighbor was sixteen miles distant and nearest post-office about seventy miles. The approach to his location was from Olean Point, on the Allegheny River, and supplies were brought from that place over a rough wagon-road, about thirty miles of which he got over as best he could. He came there as the agent of Jacob Ridgway, of Phila- delphia, who owned a large tract of land in Jefferson County, expecting that the country would soon settle up. He built a grist-mill, upon a small scale. to supply his wants in that direction and those of the future settlers, but it was some years before it was used by any one except himself. In 1816, he married a Miss Mary Ridgway, of Philadelphia, a niece of his future em- ployer. By that marriage he had three children,-Ridgway B., Charles B .. and Caroline, now the widow of Judge Houk, late of Ridgway. In that wild country he reared these three children. His wife died in 1826, and in 1829 he married a Miss Celia A. Berry, who died in 1855, leaving seven children. In 1830 he moved from his farm, which he cleared six miles from the town of Ridgway to that place, naming the place Ridgway, where he and his family resided for a long time. In that country, where the benefits of education were very limited, he brought up his ten children, giving them such education as the country afforded, and all of them have acquitted themselves very creditably in life. One of his sons, Captain James H. Gillis, U.S.N., did gallant service in the late Rebellion. He was in com- mand of a war-vessel throughout the war, and at the bombardment of Mobile his vessel came in contact with a torpedo, was sunk to her gun-deck, but he fought her as long as there was enough of her above water to stand upon. While he was a midshipman, and the vessel to which he was attached was in a South American port, he called for volunteers from his crew, took one of the ship's boats, and saved the crew of a Chilian vessel which was going to pieces in a fierce storm two miles from the shore. He took the crew from the rigging and brought them safely to land. The act was recognized by the Chilian government in a fitting manner. Another son, B. W. Gillis, has made considerable reputation as a journalist in Virginia. Another son, C. V. Gillis, lives in this State.
" JUDGE AND CONGRESSMAN
" Judge Gillis was first appointed associate judge of Jefferson County by Governor Porter. When Elk County was organized he was appointed
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one of the associate judges of that county and served one term. In 1840 he was elected to the Legislature of Pennsylvania. He served in all three years in the House and one term in the Senate. He was elected to Congress in 1856, but he wrecked his future political advancement by voting for the Kansas-Nebraska bill. After his Congressional term closed he was appointed agent for the Pawnee tribe of Indians, and he located them upon their reservation, built buildings for them, among others a grist-mill, and was their faithful friend and protector while he remained with them. No act of peculation or crookedness was ever laid to his charge, either there or in any other public office which he held. As an evidence of his kindness and good- ness of heart he adopted from the tribe a little Pawnee girl, aged five or six years, under the following circumstances: Both parents of the child were dead; she had no relatives who, under the laws of the tribe, were bound to care for her or support her, and was, therefore, cast off by every one. The story goes that Judge Gillis found her picking the pieces of fat off the entrails of a decayed buffalo. He immediately took her to his own quarters, had her washed, clothed, and cared for as if she were the most precious child in the world. He brought her to Ridgway with him when he returned. She lived in his family while he stayed there, went with him when he moved to Iowa, and died there.
" His Congressional course was but one term; he knew his defeat for the second term would be sure if he favored or voted for the bill having for its end the repeal of the Missouri Compromise. His attachment to President Buchanan led him to vote for it against his better judgment. The President made it a party measure, and when he interviewed Judge Gillis the judge said to him, ' It is defeat for me in either event. If I do not vote for it the politicians will beat me; if I do the people will.' He knew the sentiments of his district. He was renominated by the Democratic Convention in 1858 in his district, but was defeated at the polls by Chapin Hall, of Warren, now deceased. In Congress and in the Legislature of the State he was faithful always to the local interest of his constituents. It was through his efforts at Harrisburg more than that of any other man that the counties of Elk and Forest were organized, and in the contest for the location of the county seat of Elk County he favored, of course, the location at Ridgway, and used his future efforts to keep it there. When in the Senate he passed a resolution which created the county of Forest. It also passed the House of Representa- tives and is the only instance in the history of the State where a new county has been created by a joint resolution. It was approved by the governor, of course, and thereby became a law. It was near the close of the session, and the joint rules would not allow of its passage in any other form. He did this to oblige a fellow-pioneer in the wilds of the new county, Cyrus Blood. Subsequently, Forest County was enlarged; its primitive limits were quite circumscribed.
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" THE ABDUCTION OF WILLIAM MORGAN
" The connection of Judge Gillis with the abduction of William Morgan, of Batavia, New York, the exposer of the secrets of Masonry, rendered him notorious through life. He was tried at Canandaigua, New York, in con- nection with the affair and charged with being one of the abductors of Morgan. He was accused of being one of the party who helped to convey him from Batavia to Fort Niagara, whither he was taken, no doubt, in a closed carriage, and relays of horses were furnished by the brethren along the route, thus insuring rapid and secret transit. At the trial he was defended by John C. Spencer, a lawyer then of great reputation, of Canandaigua, afterward Secretary of War and of the Treasury, who subsequently became noted in the politics and affairs of the country. The trial resulted in the acquittal of Mr. Gillis, and the affair led to the formation of the party known in politics as the Anti-Masonic party, which held an important part in politics from 1827 to 1832. It held such power in Pennsylvania that in 1834 Joseph Ritner was elected governor by it. The removal of the deposits from the United States Bank developed a new issue, and Morgan and his platform dropped out of politics. At the time Mr. Gillis was arrested he was residing upon a farm, which he was clearing up, in what was then Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, and which is upon the old road known as the Milesburg and Smethport turnpike, six miles northeast from Ridgway. At the time of his arrest he was busily at work clearing the farm, which was known then, and is now, as the Montmorenci farm.
" A deputy sheriff from Ontario County, New York, came there for him. He was a man whom Gillis hated most intensely, but he kept him over night. as the nearest neighbor was sixteen miles distant. The sheriff had come there from the town of Indiana, the seat of justice then, accompanied by a deputy-sheriff of that county. The requisition of the governor of the State had been duly recognized by Judge Young, who was then holding court at Indiana, and the proper warrant had been issued for the arrest. The party started on horseback the next morning for Indiana, a distance of about one hundred miles through the woods. The most part of the way was only a blazed line and a bridle-path for their route. A heavy rain had caused the Clarion, the Red Bank, and other streams to rise very high, and the party was delayed three days over the proper time making the trip. Great anxiety was felt at Indiana, caused by the delay, and the opinion was freely expressed that Gillis had made way with both officers. Late one afternoon, however, the community were relieved by the arrival of the overdue party. Gillis was handed over to the sheriff of the county, who was a Mason, and spent a pleasant night in the town with his brother Masons. The next morning he procured a writ of habeas corpus to be issued by Judge Young. Indiana was the seat of justice then for Jefferson County. Upon the hearing a dis- charge was refused. He was conveyed to Canandaigua by way of Franklin
46
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HISTORY OF NORTHWESTERN PENNSYLVANIA
and Erie, Pennsylvania, and Buffalo, New York. Upon the route he lacked neither food, drink, nor lodging. During the whole trip he refused to asso- ciate or have anything to do with the deputy-sheriff who nominally had him in custody-would not let him ride inside the stage with him. Gillis pledged his word to the sheriff before leaving Indiana, through a third party, that he would accompany the deputy to Canandaigua peaceably and quietly, but if any harsh means were used he would not be responsible for the conse- quences, and ironed he would not be. A rescue could have been invited at any point almost along the road. The sheriff knew this well; he also knew that his prisoner was a gentleman who would keep his word, and he relied upon it. When they arrived at Canandaigua he was released immediately upon bail, and he returned to Pennsylvania. At the proper time he went to Canandaigua, stood his trial, and was acquitted. He had the full report of the trial printed in a Masonic paper or magazine, called the Craftsman, published at the time, which he kept carefully through life. His special friends had access to it. The writer of this at one time requested Judge Gillis to write up the history and his knowledge of the Morgan affair and leave it sealed, and it should be kept sacred in the hands of the writer till after the death of the former, when it should be published, and thus throw some light upon the mystery. His reply was, 'I don't know, I never did know, what became of Morgan. You know from what you have read and from what I have told you what I was accused of. I have no knowledge as to what became of him. No information was ever imparted to me. He was evidently taken to Niagara Falls and passed into Canada from one set of men to another. At that time most every British man-of-war had a regular Masonic Lodge, acting under a charter from the Grand Lodge of Great Britain. Some of these were stationed at Montreal, Quebec, and Halifax. He could have been easily taken, or passed, from one to another, as being a man who had divulged the secrets of Masonry, till he reached one which was about sailing to a foreign shore, and carried there, kept in such position that he could communicate with no one, and ended his life in a natural way. I never believed that he was murdered, either by drowning, or other- wise, as alleged. At any rate, I can leave nothing behind me which will throw any light on the subject, and would not if I could. There are many persons living now, descendants of those who were implicated in the matter, and respect for them, if nothing more, is sufficient for me not to aid in stirring the subject, now almost forgotten.' He was a truthful, honorable man. What he told me I have no doubt was true.
" HIS SON'S ASSASSINATION
" In 1862 he left Elk County and went to reside with his son Charles at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, the one who was shot dead in his own door last fall by some unknown and undiscovered assassin. The son was a good man,
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beloved by every one, honest, faithful, true, and what the motive was which impelled any one to assassinate him is unexplained and a mystery. His father was the first one at his side after he fell, and there is no doubt but the shock experienced then very much shortened the father's days. Judge Gillis, after he moved to Iowa, made annual visits to Elk County, and took great comfort and delight in visiting his relatives and early friends. Every house was open to receive him, and he was beloved and welcomed by all. Throughout life he was a Democrat. The 7th day of October last, his eighty- eighth birthday, he was at Ridgway, and at a Democratic meeting he made a speech for Hancock and English and the whole ticket, the last and only one made during the campaign. Those who heard him say that it had the old style ring to it. Judge Gillis's early education was very limited. He was reared in the country, and at a time when school-houses were scarce and an education hard to obtain. He was a great reader. Engaged in a book. past midnight would often, and very often, find him absorbed in it. and if approaching the end of an interesting one the time of day or night was nothing to him till it was concluded. His library contained many of the standard works. Shakespeare, Scott's novels, and poems he was extrava- gantly fond of. The writings of the politicians and statesmen of this country he took great delight and interest in, and upon the political topics of the day he was always one of the best posted men. As an evidence of his reading power and ability it is a fact that he read through entire that set of public literature published by the Legislature of this State a few years ago. known as the 'Colonial Records and Pennsylvania Archives,' some twenty- five or thirty volumes-probably the only person who ever did it. Much. very much, of interest might be added to this, which would be of interest to the readers of the Post, about this man. His life and the part he took in the settlement of that part of Pennsylvania where he lived would make a very readable and valuable book. Probably it will not be written. He was a man of sterling and inflexible integrity, a kind, affectionate, companionable husband, friend, and parent. His conversational powers, fund of information. and anecdote were comprehensive and great: every one loved his com- panionship and society, and last and best of all he died in the faith of a Christian, a firm believer in God the Father Almighty, and in His Son. and in the resurrection of the dead and life in the world to come.
" HENRY SOUTHER.
" ERIE, PENNSYLVANIA, July 26, 1881."
INDEX
A
Abduction of William Morgan, 721 Abolition laws enacted, 31I meetings broken up by mobs, 318 Abuse of the negro in 1840, 418
Academies incorporated and chartered, 360
Act for erecting and establishing post- office, 204
for the gradual abolition of slavery, 315 George Bryan, author of, 315 for killing of wolves, 172
for relief of redemptioners, 334 for regulation of servants, 33I of Legislature regulating banks, 344 of 1792, for sale of vacant lands, 69 survey of tract under, 69 warrants taken out under, 70 regulating importation of passengers, 334
to incorporate Sunbury and Erie Railroad, 690
to prohibit importation of slaves, 320 to provide for the education of the poor gratis, 350
to provide for opening road to Le Bœuf, 194 Acts declaring rivers and creeks pub- lic highways, 193
governing indentured apprentiices, 334-336
Address of welcome to teachers of Jeffer- son County, 674-683 Admiral Sir William Penn, death of, 76
Adroit way to transmit money, 209
Advertisement in slavery days, 365 issued for mail-routes, 208 Advertisements of German redemptioners,
337 of runaway slaves, 322
African slavery in the United States, 310 Aggregate number of men in Union army, 1861-65, 244
Alden, Rev. Timothy, founder of Alle- gheny College, 653
Algerine, origin of name, 397 Algerines, 397
" Allegheny," account of first trip of the, 625
Cornplanter invited on board of, 625 Allegheny and Ohio Rivers public high- ways, act declaring, 193
City, 659
business capital invested, 660
first mayor of, 659 incorporated, 659
location, 659 origin of, 73 population of, 1830-1840, 660
College, founder of, 653
reservation of Senecas, 649
River, account of first steamboat on,
634 course of, 605 first successful steam navigation of. 634 general beauty of. 605
Indian names of. 634
list of steamboats 1840-1862, 626
plying on,
navigation of, 606, 622
pilots of early days on the (20) pioneer boats on, 622 pioneer navigation of, by white men, 634 steamboat built for. 635 steamboating on, 622 prominent landings on. 627 rafting on, 628 source of. 005 speed of steamboats on. 628 trade of in 1846. 000
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