Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania : including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Pt. 3, Part 80

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1332

USA > Pennsylvania > Clearfield County > Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania : including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Pt. 3 > Part 80
USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania : including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Pt. 3 > Part 80
USA > Pennsylvania > Centre County > Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania : including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Pt. 3 > Part 80
USA > Pennsylvania > Clarion County > Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania : including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Pt. 3 > Part 80

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Jesse M. Smith was reared and educated in his native city, and in 1863, during the Civil war, en- listed at that place in Company I. 150th P. V. I., for three years, being mustered in at Water- ford, Erie county. His regiment, which was known as the Bucktails, was assigned to the Army of the Potomac, and with the command

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he participated in many hard-fought battles, in- cluding the Wilderness, Spottsylvania and Laurel Hill. At the first named, he was wounded by a shell, breaking the right shoulder blade, and at Cold Harbor he was twice wounded, receiving a shell-wound on the head and a shot passing through one leg. For some time he was con- fined in Finley Hospital, at Washington, D. C.

On being honorably discharged at Harrisburg, Penn., June 29, 1865, hereturned to Erie county, where he worked on a farm for a short time, but the same year went to Pit Hole and remained in the oil regions for some time. In 1872 he lo- cated in Antwerp, where he was employed by a. hardware firm, and later engaged in contracting and building in Pardoe, Mercer Co., Penn., until coming to Knox in 1879. Here he also followed the carpenter's trade until he purchased his pres- ent planing-mill in 1883. The plant covers about three-quarters of an acre, and the main building is 30 x50 feet. Here employment is furnished to six or seven men, and a specialty is made of the manufacture of material for oil wells, rig supplies, etc. In connection with the opera- tion of his mill, Mr. Smith is also engaged in general contracting and carries on a lumber yard. selling about 100 car loads of lumber annually. In his undertaking he is meeting with a well- merited success, and is justly ranked among the representative and prominent business men of the place.

In Pleasantville, Penn., in 1869, Mr. Smith was married to Miss Susie E. Taylor, a native of Warren county, Penn., and a daughter of Gil- bert and Hannah (Rorabeck) Taylor. The father was born in Massachusetts, while the mother was either a native of New York or Penn- sylvania, and was reared in the latter State. He was a lumberman and one of the pioneers of Warren county, but spent his last days in the West. His wife's death occurred in Spartans- burg, Penn., in 1877. To Mr. and Mrs. Smith were born three children, but Bertram died in IS83, at the age of twelve years, and one died in infancy. The only one now living is Verne E., born July 6, 1880.

Mr. Smith takes a commendable interest in political affairs, and always casts his ballot with the Republican party. He is a prominent mem- ber of George H. Covode Post, No. 112, G. A. R., Knox Lodge No. 954. I. O. O. F., and the Royal Templars, a temperance society, all of Knox. In religious belief he is a Presbyterian. Both as a business man and citizen he is worthy the high regard in which he is uniformly held, and his circle of friends and acquaintances is exten- sive.

M ICHAEL EDIC HESS. After a most act- ive, busy, varied and eventful life of sev- enty-one years, nearly forty of which were passed in the oil fields of this section of Pennsylvania, Squire Hess is quietly dispensing justice from his court at Edenburg, Clarion county, rather enjoy- ing the composure and calm following the storms of so many years.

Born September 25, 1826, in South Colum- bia, Herkimer Co., N. Y., he is descended from ancestors who have helped to make the history of this country, covering a period of little less than 200 years. The family record reaches back to 1710, when John Hess, among the Palatines, landed at New York and settled Palatine on the Mohawk river. Augusdennis Hess, John's son, born in 1719, reared the following children: Chris- tianna, Honyost, Nicholas, Conrad, Henry, Dan- iel and Eva. Moving up the river with his fam- ily and others, they settled Mohawk, then a site among the hostile tribe of Mohawk Indians. These pioneers built a fort for their protection, and here Augusdennis was killed by the Indians in an attack on the fort in 1782. [See " Histor- ical Collections of the State of New York."] His son, Honyost Hess, born November 3, 1758, married Miss Edic, and their children were Nancy. George, Catharine, Elizabeth, Eva, Polly and Margaret. At the age of eighteen Honyost Hess enlisted in the war of the Revolution, and served until its close.

George Hess, the only son of Honyost, born December 18, 1788, married Mary Clapsaddle, and their children were: Joseph is residing in Fayetteville, N. Y., aged about eighty-two years. Elizabeth resides at Killbuck, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y., in the vicinity of Salamanca. She is a sweet old lady of eighty years, owns and cares for a colony of bees that make one hundred pounds of honey per day during the best of the season, which, a brother remarks, " may account for her sweetness." Nancy, at the age of sev- enty-eight. resides with her only child and daugh- ter in southern Missouri. Elias Haner, who is seventy-four, owns one of the finest farms in Great Valley township, Cattaraugus Co., N. Y. Michael E. is the subject of this sketch. Martin and William died in infancy. Dennis, Peter. George and Andrew reached manhood, and have passed away. George, Martin and Andrew, the youngest of the children. were triplets.

Soon after the birth of our subject his parents removed to the town of Truxton, Cortland Co., N. Y., with fair prospects of a prosperous future. The father had purchased 300 acres of land there, but the unfortunate indorsement of a note for one Brewster swept the farm away, and left

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YH. Estees

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him almost penniless and with a large family to support. Misfortunes are said not to come_ singly, so in his case; being out one bitter cold night on horseback, the father had both feet frozen so severely as to cripple him for life. In this sad plight Michael E., at the age of seven years, was sent to live with an uncle, Peter Clap- saddle, who lived on Steel's creek, in Herkimer county, N. Y. Here the boy put in four years of the hardest drudgery, and received very little schooling. The father was never able to recover his losses, but he plodded on leading a hard life of toil to the end, which came in 1857, when he was aged sixty-nine years, finding rest in the bosom of mother earth. His widow, Mary, sur- vived him only a few years.

In 1837 George Hess took his son Michael to his home, four miles east of Syracuse, on the banks of the Erie canal. At the age of twelve, the only opening for Michael seemed to be that of a driver on the canal. At the end of two years, however, an opportunity was offered for his working on a farm by the year at six dollars per month, for eight months, and four months in school. Drivers on the canal were receiving ten dollars per month. The lad embraced the former offer with lower wages, but with a much higher moral atmosphere. For two years he hauled limestone during the summers, for which he received ten dollars per month; and during the winters he attended the Fayetteville Acad- emy, making his home at this time with his old- est brother, Joseph, then lately married and re- siding at Fayetteville, N. Y. Under the preach- ing of Rev. Cleveland, father of ex-President Grover Cleveland, young Hess professed religion, which gave bent to all his after life.

A few years of farm work during the summer season, and school teaching through the winter followed. Then, at the age of twenty-one, he visited his parents, who resided in Cattaraugus county, N. Y. "Not having seen either of them for six years, he must have looked to them a stranger, and was at first so received." After a short visit home, he found employment in the lumber regions of that county, and, from a hand in the mill, he soon became a sawyer by con- tract. In the third year, in connection with his brother, Dennis, he purchased the North Hem- lock mill. Subsequently he bought his broth- er's interest, and followed a general lumbering business for several years, finding a market for his lumber at Pittsburg and along the Ohio river to Cincinnati.

Following ten years' experience in the lumber business, from 1847 to 1857, Mr. Hess for two years was engaged in the manufacture of horse

rakes at Jamestown, N. Y., which he marketed by running trading boats down the Allegheny and Ohio rivers, making one trip as far down as Louisville, Ky. The year 1857 was an eventful one with him; the great financial panic of that year caught him with a newly-purchased raft of lumber en route for the Cincinnati market. After the crash had come there was no market for the lumber, and it remained for him to peddle it out, which meant a summer's job. That year his foreman, C. J. Parker, died, and also Mr. Hess' father, which called him to Cattaraugus county, N. Y .; all of which happenings prolonged his river trip until late in the fall. On his return home, along in December, he was taken sick with typhoid fever, a relapse followed, but a good and unimpaired constitution carried him through.

In 1861 Mr. Hess assisted in the opening of the Mecca (Ohio) oil fields, drilling several wells. Later in that year he went to Jamestown, N. Y., and from there took two boat-loads of farming implements to the Pittsburg market. He landed in Pittsburg April 15, immediately following the fall of Fort Sumter, and found that firearms were in much better demand than farming tools, and he could do no business for weeks or until the hardware men cooled off a little after their rush to supply with arms the soldiers, who were leav- ing Pittsburg, to defend themselves while passing through Baltimore, where recently had occurred an attack on the unarmed Massachusetts men as they passed through the city.

Returning to the Mecca oil fields, Mr. Hess continued operations until August, 1862, when he with others enlisted in Company B, 105th O. V. I., and he was mustered into the United States service at Cleveland, Ohio, on August 22, follow- ing. He withstood all kinds of hard service in battle, and in the distressing marches through Kentucky and Tennessee, not missing a day's roll call, up to January, 1863, when typhoid fever caused his retirement to the hospital at Gallatin, Tenn. Passing the crisis of the fever, he was about to rejoin his regiment when a pain- ful leg gave the first notice of an approaching fever sore, and such proved to be the severity of the case that the examining surgeon pronounced his case as a disability of one year, thus his dis- charge was deemed imperative in March, 1863. He with difficulty managed to get home, and it took about the year to recover soundness; but in the following July he was able to get about, and he rendered the State of Ohio efficient service in drilling State troops in camp at Cleveland. In connection with this service he entered camp at Cleveland as a lieutenant and came out a major,

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by the grace of Governor Tod, of Ohio, and the suffrage of his comrades.

After his military experience, Mr. Hess re- turned to the oil fields of Mecca, Ohio, and re- sumed operations. It may be said that he is one of the very few of the old-time oil men left, his operations commencing in 1861, and having been continuous from that time to the present, excepting during his less than a year's absence in the Civil war, and his experiences have been most varied. His early operations in the Mecca field were on the James Cowdry and Wagner farms. He also, in company with N. B. Cobb, drilled wells at East Mecca, and for a time, in 1863, himself and Cobb did the principal oper- ating of that field. For a year or more they supplied the Jamestown Railroad Company with Mecca oil as their principal lubricator. This oil during the war ranged from $4 to $52 per barrel.

In the summer of 1864 Mr. Hess found Mecca too slow a field to suit his taste, and he went over on Oil creek at the time Cherry run was leading in operations. Here he took his first venture in what proved a small producer down near the mouth of the creek. In connec- tion with operating for oil, knowing that soft coal sold in Rouseville at $20 per ton, he un- dertook the shipment of coal from the Mercer county mines by rail to Franklin, and on up the river and creek by return boats that had brought oil down the creek. There was about $4 profit per ton, yet this seemed too slow a source of making money for the time and attention re- quired. It was soon abandoned for something better, and that something better was found in procuring oil leases and selling at a profit of $2,000 or $3,000 each.

About this time Mr. Hess purchased the Nancy Stevenson farm, which was located on the hill between Oil creek and Cherry Tree run, paying for it about $150 per acre. while over on the flats of Cherry Tree run lands were selling at from $2,000 to $3,000 per acre, the hill lands not being counted good for oil purposes. The fact that the uplands at Mecca. Ohio, were found preferable to those lower, led Mr. Hess to believe the hills were equally as good as the valleys. In this Nancy Stevenson farm Judge Winslow, of Brooklyn, N. Y., and F. S. Tar- bell. then of Rouseville, took an interest, Mr. Hess holding the managing interest. This farm was subsequently found to be very productive. Mr. Hess' sales of oil in about 1870 and 1871 averaged a little less than $5 per barrel, while some of it reached $7 per barrel.

Just previous to developing the Stevenson farm. Mr. Hess had been operating for some three

years at Pit Hole, mainly on the Rooker farm, having one fair well with several smaller ones. Pit Hole made a hole in his pocket. Everything of financial value slipped out at this except the Nancy Stevenson farm, which he commenced operating with proceeds from the sale of a por- tion of it to Patterson & Dickey for several thou- sand dollars, which proved, however, not to be the best of it. In company with F. S. Tarbell, now of Titusville, Mr. Hess operated on the Mc- Clintoc farm just below McClintocville. This, too, was a venture upon a hillside, and was re- warded with a few very fine wells, the best yield- ing close to the 100-barrel mark. The oil was so light in gravity (about 50°) that for a time, strange as it would seem now, they were re- quired to steam it in the tanks to reduce the gravity to 46°, a point where it would sell. From the McClintoc farm Hess & Tarbell piped their oil to market by laying a pipe line from their wells on the hill, running it by gravity under Oil creek and up the opposite bank to the rail- road, where cars were loaded for shipment. It is not refreshing to look at the bulletin board to- day, at the figures sixty-five cents per barrel, re- membering that in those days oil brought $4 per barrel.

In the famous Red Hot field, Mr. Hess held territory in the best of it, dividing his holdings with Frank Andrews, Patterson & Dickey, and Milton Stewart. These four held the fort in a battle for possession with a Chicago company. of which Maher was president. Each party had a deed to the twenty-four acres of land. Hess and his parties had the original and equitable title, but it was faulty in some of the transfers. The title of the other parties was better in form. Hess and his party having possession, the Chicago parties tried to force possession, and Sheriff Marks, of Franklin, bossed the job of taking down one of their rigs, which had been built by Frank Fertig, of Titusville, and his men, who will recollect the incident. The rig was not taken down in the usual way, from top to bot- tom, but the order was reversed, taking the bot- tom first. Sheriff Marks was not much at build- ing oil-well rigs. he was better at taking them down. The matter was finally compromised by dividing the land. Mr: Hess and party organ- ized on their behalf the Compromise Oil Com- pany, making J. M. Dickey the manager. On this spot occurred the famous boiler explosion, in which the boiler sailed over the walking beam. cutting through a set of hoisting ropes, such as were then being used for lifting a string of cum- bersome fishing tools made of large bars of iron for unscrewing drilling tools fast in the bottom

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of a drilling well. The boiler crashed through the ropes, flying over the heads of several men" who were standing on the derrick floor, and landed just back of the bull wheels. It was a new Erie-make of boiler, such as seemed to know just how to do that kind of a thing.

In the summer of 1872 Mr. Hess visited, for the first time, the Clarion and Butler county oil fields. To come and to see was to operate. Here he took his first venture on the David Shoup farm, a mile east of St. Petersburg. This well proved one of the best in the Clarion field at that time. Farther east he operated on Little Turkey run with the result of three fair producing wells. From this he went ahead, putting a well on the Daniel Knight farm in the lead of operations. Gas was found in this well, but only a little oil, thus at that time condemning about 500 acres of his territory which he had bought in fee with others on Turkey run in the vicinity of Daniel Hale's and Peter Wingard's farms. Over at Dogtown, farther east, he got some fair produc- ers. Still pushing farther ahead, near Eden- burg, he found oil again on the Moon farm, and again another stride took him on to the David Whitehill and J. Dahle farms, finding oil there, but on the same course easterly farther ahead on the H. Alleman farm his wells came in dry. Now with plenty of oil territory on hands, he op- erated for years on the Whitehill, Dahle and Black farms, and on scattering leases adjoining these and the Moon farm, and also on the J. I. Best farm in Edenburg borough, where in com- pany with E. C. Bradley, Esq., and John Coast. Esq., he had some very fine producing wells. In company with E. C. Bradley, Mr. Hess bought and operated the Egypt farm in Beaver town- ship, and, on the failure of Mr. Bradley, Mr. Hess became the liquidating partner, settling up all the affairs of Hess & Bradley.

In 1885, in company with C. Eichner and F. G. Sacket, Mr. Hess operated extensively in the Cogley oil fields. They drilled the first well on Little Sandy creek two miles in advance of other wells, and they had good wells on the A. H. Black farm and also near Fern City. Later on. with Eichner, Sacket and others. Mr. Hess struck the " Great Cry and Little Wool " well near Reidsburg, which produced for a time about twenty barrels per day of remarkably light col- ored oil with a fire test of about 1 10 degrees, and burning fairly well in its natural state in lamps. This oil was found about the region of the " first sand." Messrs. Hess, Sacket and others oper- ated in the Tarkiln field at Hill City in 1886. Here they had a tilt with the Oil City operator and others, who tried to jump a small lease on

which Hess & Co. had paid $1,000 bonus. Mr. Hess and party held the lease, and had some good wells thereon. Some laughable incidents occurred in this contest.

Mr. Hess is now operating alone on the old Egypt farm, getting all the oil and calling these the "entirety wells." In company with Sacket, Hamm and Thomas, he is also operating on the Linneman, Ray & Swartzfager farms in the vicin- ity of the famous Cogley Run oil fields. As an oil operator the life of Mr. Hess has been a con- spicuous one. His name will ever stand out prominently in the history of the oil fields of Ohio and Pennsylvania. In his case can be said as was observed by the English author, De Foe "No one tasted different fortunes more. Thir- teen times he had been rich and poor." How- ever, he was never too poor to operate, and on the other hand never rich enough to quit. He says that perhaps no single act of his life yields him more satisfaction to-day than the $500 he per- sonally contributed to the oil producers' fund to defeat the infamous Roberts oil-well casing pat- ent, which for a time was a lying piratical black- mail on every oil well drilled in the oil country. This case dragged along for years in the courts, F. W. Mitchell, of Franklin, Penn., being chair- man of the producers' committee for defense, met the Roberts gang at every point in the case. About $30,000 was expended by the producers in this contest. the Economite Company paying one-fourth of the expense of the suit. A com- plete triumph of justice and right was the result, and their infamous casing patent pretentions went to the dogs.

During the life of Mr. Hess he has met with a dozen or more hairbreadth escapes froin death, two of which seem most prominent in his mind. At the age of twelve, while sitting with a boy companion down over the bank of the canal out of sight of the passing boats, except the top of their caps, there was on a canal boat passing at the time a passenger with a gun in his hand look- ing out for game, seeing just the top of .Mich- ael's" muskrat skin cap worn in those days, he drew fire on the supposed muskrat, the discharge of the gun just grazing Michael's head, who jumped up screaming. badly frightened and somewhat stunned by the seeming blow of a club on the head. The passenger with his gun in hand looked as much frightened as Michael. Soon following this muskrat episode, while on his brother's boat near Saline. N. Y., with the stern of the boat near the canal lock, which was full of water, the lock tender opened the lower gate to empty the lock for the boat's admittance. This rush of water striking the rudder suddenly swept round the

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tiller by which the boat was steered, sweeping Michael from the deck over the stern down head- long into the rushing water below, and carrying him immediately under the boat, he being badly stunned by the blow of the tiller. Passing through under the boat, he in some way righted up, then getting a foothold on the bottom of the canal, he succeeded in raising his head above water and, Jonah like, out of the belly of the deep reached dry land.

In December, 1849, Mr. Hess was married to Miss Caroline Shaver, of Jamestown, N. Y., and a better helpmeet and a more agreeable compan- ion would be hard to find. Six children blessed the union, namely: Eugene married a Miss Cam- eron, and is a resident of Saginaw City, Mich. (late city plumber); Ida is married to F. G. Sacket; Belle is married to G. S. Hamm, of Knox, Penn .; Ernest is married to Ethel Smith; Mary died in Franklin, Penn., at the age of nine years; and Frank died at the age of twenty-four, at Cleveland, Ohio, while under treatment for malignant tumor.

In 1872 M. E. Hess moved to Franklin, that his children might have the benefit of good schools, but in 1874, finding his oil operations so increased in Clarion county as to demand his whole time and attention there, he moved to Shippenville, sending his young people to the Carrier Seminary in Clarion. In 1877, believing Edenburg to be the metropolis of the Clarion county oil developments, he built a residence there, and for twenty years has made that place his home, ever taking an active interest in, and helping largely, during this period, to bring the public schools to the highest point of excellence. On February 12, 1878, after over two years of patient suffering, his wife, Caroline, died of a cancer. In the latter part of that year Mr. Hess married Mrs. Margaret E. Klotz. This agreeable companionship lasted nineteen years, when death again invaded his domicile, his wife Margaret passing away February 24, 1897.

At Edenburg during the past twenty years Mr. Hess has filled at times all of the more re- sponsible positions of the borough, and has twice been elected burgess. Much to his credit he settled up the difficult and intricate indebtedness of the borough, which settlement placed the borough on a sound financial basis, and prosper- ity and progress have followed. He took an active part, and was largely instrumental, in se- curing for the borough superior water-supply works; but few boroughs in Pennsylvania can boast of as good for fire protection. He was treasurer of the relief board organized immedi- ately after the great sweeping fire of October 13,

1878, consuming nearly the entire borough; the board consisting of Maj. Maitland, L. D. Cran- dall, L. F. Barger, H. F. Whiting, Capt. Brown and Mr. Hess. Our subject at the age of seventy- one is hale and hearty, and attends to business as regularly as in former years, and now dis- charges the duties of the second term of office as justice of the peace. He is also treasurer of the school board and the cemetery association. Dur- ing the past twenty-eight years he has superin- tended the various Methodist Sabbath-schools of Petroleum Centre, Franklin, Shippenville and Edenburg, and at one or the other of these points almost continuously; and is yet at the superin- tendent's desk.

The Hess family are noted for their patriotic record. The great-grandfather, Angus Dennis, was killed in the Indian wars; his son, Honyost, served through the Revolutionary war; his son, George Hess, served in the war of 1812, and Michael E. and two brothers in the Civil war.

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Commemorative biographical record of central Pennsylvania : including the counties of Centre, Clearfield, Jefferson and Clarion, Pt. 3, Part 80

Author: J.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1898 Publisher: Chicago : J. H. Beers Number of Pages: 1332

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1898
Publisher: Chicago : J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 1332