USA > Pennsylvania > Genealogical and personal history of the Allegheny Valley, Pennsylvania, Volume I > Part 48
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He married, December 11, 1889, Stella M., daughter of Forster W. and Laura M. (Wil- son ) Mitchell (see Mitchell III). They have one child, Geraldine, born at Franklin, Penn- sylvania.
(The Mitchell Line).
(I) Rev. David Mitchell was a native of the north of Ireland, of old Scotch stock. He settled in Center county, Pennsylvania, and for many years was a preacher in the Meth- odist Episcopal denomination in that state. He had sons: Thomas, mentioned below, and James.
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(II) Thomas, son of Rev. David Mitchell, was born near Bellefonte, Center county, Pennsylvania, about 1800, died in 1870, in Ashtabula, Ohio, whither he had removed. By trade he was a blacksmith. In April, 1836, he settled on a farm in Alleghany township near Pleasantville, Venango county, Pennsyl- vania, and in addition to the management of his farm he conducted a general store. He married (first) Eliza Lamb, who died in 1851. He married (second) Jane Weir. Children : David H., of Titusville ; John L., born April IO, 1826, married, February 21, 1867, Hattie R. Raymond; Forster W., mentioned below ; Sarah Jane, married Judge James L. Con- nely, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania ; Martha, married L. T. Lamberton, of Franklin, Penn- sylvania; Melvina; Minerva E., married Alexander W. Brown, of Pleasantville; Will- iam : Charles R .; Mary J.
(III) Forster W., son of Thomas Mitchell, was born near Millhall, Center county, Penn- sylvania, May 7, 1828. He came with his parents to Venango county when a boy of eight years and was raised on his father's farm at Pleasantville. Forster W. passed his youth and early manhood on the farm, at the same time familiarizing himself with lum- bering and mercantile methods. The stren- uous school of his earlier life developed the self command, perseverance and courage that were inherent in his disposition, and to these qualities he unfailingly united throughout life the traits that dominated his strong and high character-candor, fidelity to trust and duty- those old fashioned virtues for which, as time goes on, the world is likely to have as much need as ever. In March, 1865, Mr. Mitchell removed to Franklin, which was thenceforth the family home.
Mr. Mitchell was engaged in lumbering and merchandising at Enterprise, Pennsylvania, in 1859, when Colonel Drake struck his well, and was one of the earliest to view the fifteen bar- rel wonder. Without any delay he secured a lease on a portion of the Buchannan farm on the bank of Oil Creek, and began drilling by the primitive and laborious spring pole method, a well said to be the third to be completed after the Drake venture. It was a success and started at seventy-five barrels per day and flowed for more than six months. From the time of that initial venture until the recent past Mr. Mitchell was an extensive and suc- cessful operator for oil. He purchased and
developed the Shaw farm near Rouseville; was interested in the Bullion field when in company with John H. Lee and Hon. W. R. Crawford he owned the "Big Injun," a well that made the high record for the district, flowing over 3,000 barrels, June 18, 1877. Mr. Mitchell was also profitably interested in the Bradford oil field in company with Captain J. T. Jones, of Buffalo, New York, and the late George H. Van Vleck, of Toledo, Ohio.
At all times Mr. Mitchell took every means and occasion to conserve or advance the inter- ests of those engaged in the various activities of the oil industry. Being gifted with the in- itiative faculty, the discernment of what to do and how to do it, he was able to render prac- tical and effective services in times of stress and danger. In the period of haphazard methods and wild fluctuations he was a pillar of strength. He took an active part in all public movements of the producers. In the days of the oil exchange was a heavy operator in the market. The advance in the price of crude oil from 60 cents to $1.27, in 1880, was known as "Mitchell's boom."
While managing his extensive oil interests, Mr. Mitchell at the same time carried on a banking business, in which he was long and successfully engaged. In 1870 he opened a bank at Rouseville with F. H. Steel, now of Toledo, Ohio. In 1873 the business was re- moved to Oil City, where for over twenty years the firm of F. W. Mitchell & Company was prominent in finance, the company being composed of F. W. Mitchell, F. H. Steel and George V. Forman, the latter giving place in 1882 to W. H. Wise, of Oil City. The bank- ing business was discontinued in 1894 and he retired from active labor. In 1875 he was ap- pointed by Governor Hartranft one of the Centennial Commission of Pennsylvania, and served as treasurer of the board during the historic event of the Exposition.
From the time he took up his residence in Franklin, forty-seven years ago, Mr. Mitchell has devoted largely of his means and energies to the material progress of Franklin and vicin- ity, and was recognized as one of the leaders of public spirit in this part of the state. Among his benefactions to this community were the lots on which the City Building and the Opera House are erected.
May 17, 1850, Mr. Mitchell was married to Laura M. Wilson, daughter of Alonzo and Lucy (Rowe) Wilson (see Wilson VI), and
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took up his residence in the village of Enter- prise, Warren county, Pennsylvania. She died in 1907. Three children were born to them: Herbert W., who died in his youth ; Lottie M., of Paris, France, who married Dilworth Rich- ardson, of Cincinnati, Ohio, deceased; Stella M., wife of Bryan H. Osborne, of Franklin (see Osborne IX).
In his home Mr. Mitchell was a charming host, given to genuine hospitality, always with "holiday in his eye," his conversation at times spiced with anecdotal wit and humor. He was fond of diversions. As late as the 7th of May, 1912, when his daughter, Mrs. Osborne, en- tertained some of his intimate old friends at a dinner in honor of his eighty-fourth birth- day, he closed the festivities by engaging them in the customary bout at whist or euchre.
A striking characteristic of Mr. Mitchell was his faculty of friendship, which he pos- sessed in rare degree. He was happy in his friends, and his loyalty to them, whatever their position or circumstances, was steadfast and lasting. In his choice of them he exercised his keen and correct understanding of men, arising from his ability to look through mate- rial possessions, through differences of taste and station, and see the genuine man that abides within. Those friends must with pleasure recall him in the latter years of his long and busy life, the cordial, courteous, alert veteran, of handsome presence, who radiated health and good will and lent a charm to old age.
While retentive of the old time associations and memories, he did not live in the past, but kept in close touch with the present, moving along with the modern march, alive to the pressing questions of the day, interested in men, matters and events. Carrying these habits and qualities into a dignified and serene old age, he was spared the gloom that so often couples long life with decay and settles over it the sense of being helpless and alone. His later years. it is true, were not without sor- rows and disappointments, but he resolutely met them with drafts upon his fund of "cheer- ful yesterdays and confident tomorrows.'
The death of Forster W. Mitchell, for nearly half a century a prominent and hon- ored citizen of Franklin, occurred December 15, 1912, at his apartments in the Exchange Hotel. The event followed an invalidism of about four years, during which his fine consti- tution gradually yielded to ailments of a rheu-
matic nature. He was clear in mind and serene in spirit to the end.
It is more than a mere formality of phrase to say that in the passing of Mr. Mitchell from life our city suffers a loss that is felt and ac- knowledged; for a prosperous man, who ob- tains his wealth honestly and uses it rightly, is a blessing to the community. Such a man was the one whose departure is now mourned.
The remains of Mr. Mitchell will repose with those of his wife in the family mauso- leum in the Franklin Cemetery. But a more desirable monument to his memory already stands erected in the honor and respect of the many who knew him well, and the love of the few who knew him best.
(The Wilson Line).
No less than twelve pioneers of the Wilson family came to Massachusetts before 1650 and their descendants have been very numerous. Nathaniel Wilson came early to Roxbury and was a planter in that town and at Brookline. In 1647 he gave a power of attorney to John Wilson, of Halifax, Yorkshire, England, cloth- worker, to collect a legacy left him by Nathan- iel Holgate, of Halifax, deceased. He sold his house in Roxbury, February 16, 1652. He married, April 2, 1645, Hannah, daughter of Griffin Crafts. Children: Hannah, baptized May 2, 1647; Nathaniel, baptized April 30 or May 2, 1653: Joseph and Benjamin, baptized January 31 or February 12, 1655; Isaac, born August 24. 1658; Mary, born May 2, 1661, re- corded in Boston : Abigail, baptized April 10, 1664: Samuel, June 10, 1666.
(I) John Wilson, a relative of Nathaniel Wilson, and perhaps the John mentioned in the power of attorney, presumably a brother, settled after 1650 in Woburn, Massachusetts. The names Nathaniel, Benjamin, Hannah, are common to the descendants of both to an un- usual extent. Children: John; Dorcas; Francis, born in England, married, March 6, 1683. Ruth Duntlen at Woburn, and she died at Rehoboth in 1700, he died August, 1724, at Rehoboth. Born at Woburn : Samuel, De- cember 29. 1658: Abigail. August 8, 1666; Elizabeth, August 6, 1668; Benjamin, men- tioned below ; Hannah, May 31, 1672: John, January 3, 1674; Hannah, December 28, 1675; Hannah, March 11, 1677 ; Susanna, March II, 1679.
(II) Benjamin, son of John Wilson, was born at Woburn, Massachusetts, October 15,
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1670. With others of the family he removed to Rehoboth, Massachusetts. He married Elizabeth Children, born at Reho- both : Benjamin, mentioned below; Jonathan, December 8, 1698; Rebecca, January 20, 1701 ; Hannah, October 7, 1702; Francis, September 7, 1704; Elizabeth, July 8, 1706; Samuel, Jan- uary 5, 1707-08; Ruth, April 7, 1710; Bethia, December 4, 1711; Abigail, August 30, 1713; Mary, October 17, 1714.
(III) Benjamin (2), son of Benjamin (I) Wilson, also lived at Rehoboth, Massachusetts. Elizabeth, wife of Benjamin Jr. died July 10, 1731. He married at Rehoboth, December 15, 1730, Elizabeth Sprague. He must have had a first and third wife also named Elizabeth, unless there were two of the same name at the same time in Rehoboth. But after 1730 there is no positive indication of more than one Benjamin (1730-46), except that the record of birth of Nathaniel states that his father Benjamin was of England. That may mean that the father was then absent in Eng- land. The children credited to Benjamin and Elizabeth at Rehoboth are: Sarah, born Feb- ruary 23, 1729-30; John ; Nathaniel, mentioned below; Lucas, August 10, 1735; Ammi, April 26, 1737 ; Benjamin, April 11, 1739; Jonathan, April 7, 1741 ; Ezekiel, May 11, 1744; Chloe, June 23, 1746.
(IV) Nathaniel, son of Benjamin (2) and Elizabeth Wilson, was born at Rehoboth, Mas- sachusetts, June 10, 1733. The history of West Stockbridge says he was a native of Eng- land, but the records of Rehoboth, given above, seem to prove that he was born in Re- hoboth. This history says he came from Re- hoboth, lived in Canada and in Richmond near the Stockbridge line. He served in the French and Indian war in Canada, at which time his life is romantically said to have been saved by a spider's web. "Pursued by Indians he took refuge in a hollow log which being ob- served the following morning by his pursuers with a spider's web across the end, was sup- posed to be vacant, they remarking 'no white man there, cause spider's web'" and he was unmolested. He married twice and had twenty- one children. He married, at Rehoboth, June IO, 1756, Jemima Turner (married by Elder Richard Rounds). Children, recorded at Re- hoboth : Huldah, born June 30, 1757; Sarah, October 17, 1759; Philanda, June 30, 1761 ; Shubael, April 8, 1763; Nathaniel, June 24, 1773. Rufus, the youngest, came at the age
of six to Stockbridge and succeeded to the farm lately owned by John G. Wilson. The history of Stockbridge says that about the close of the revolution Elisha, Peter, Mary, Phebe and Mehitable Wilson with their mother went with others to the Chenango Purchase, New York. Rufus Wilson built a saw mill and grist mill about the close of the revolution on the site occupied later by a mill built by John G. Wilson at West Stockbridge. In 1790 there were living at Stockbridge, according to the first federal census, Elnathan at West Stockbridge, Mary at Stockbridge, and Farron, mentioned below. None of the family was at Springfield, Massachusetts.
(V) Farron, son of Nathaniel Wilson, was born before 1770, probably at Rehoboth. An effort has been made to find the family name from which Farron was taken. In 1790 Far- ron Wilson was living at Stockbridge, and had in his family his wife and one son under six- teen. He had daughter Laura, who married Umstead Allen, and they resided in Spring- field, Massachusetts; two sons, Uriah and William, the latter a Presbyterian minister, and Elizabeth, who married a Mr. Tremaine, and they also resided in Springfield.
(VI) Alonzo, son of Farron Wilson, was born as early as 1800, died about 1850. He re- moved from Springfield, Massachusetts, about 1834, to Silvercreek, New York, and after- ward to the town of Enterprise, Warren county, Pennsylvania. He married Lucy Rowe. Children : Laura M., married, May 17, 1850, Forster W. Mitchell (see Mitchell III) ; Delia, married David H. Mitchell and had children : Alonzo, died in infancy; Claude, Frank, Frederick, Jessie, Antoinette, Oscar.
There is a tradition in the McCALMONT McCalmont family that before their Scottish an- cestors of whom we have knowledge, their forbears were Irish, descended from Fiack, son of Niall, who was the 126th monarch of Ireland, and that from Fiack they come through nineteen generations to Calma (in Irish, "brave"), from whom came the ances- tors of the Scottish clan of MacCalma, or Mc- Calmont. Of the descendants of Fiack, one line comprises the McGeoghagans, lords of Maycassel and Terlulagh, in county West- meath, Ireland. Of the same stock are the Higgins family, of counties Westmeath and Galway. From Main, son of Niall, of the
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Nine Hostages, and brother of Fiack, came Loftus of Meath and Fox, lords of Tiffin. Thus the McCalmonts seem to be descended from kings and princes of Ireland. The fam- ily arms in Scotland are: A lion rampant be- tween three dexter hands couped at the wrist gules. Crest : A grey hound standart azure. Motto: Semper patriae servire presto. At Dumfries, Scotland, the family name is pre- served on a pane of glass in the home of James McCalmont, upon which in July, 1793, Robert Burns inscribed the following verse :
Blest be McCalmont to his latest day ; No envious clouds o'ercast his evening ray ; No wrinkle furrowed by the hand of care. Nor ever sorrow add one silver hair. O, may no son the father's honor stain, Nor ever daughter give the mother pain.
(I) Thomas McCalmont,a Covenanter min- ister who was persecuted for his faith in the reign of Charles II., made his escape by cross- ing in a fishing boat to Ireland, where he set- tled at Cairn Castle, county Antrim. His chil- dren were: I. Thomas, of whom further. 2. James, born 1707, married Hannah Blair. 3. John, born May 1, 1709; emigrated to Penn- sylvania, and settled on the Susquehanna ; married a Latimer, of county Tyrone, Ireland ; died 1779. 4. Robert, of whose descendants there is no trace. 5. Hugh.
(II) Thomas (2), son of Thomas (1) Mc- Calmont, was a resident of county Armagh, Ireland, for a short time previous to 1766. He subsequently joined his brother John in Amer- ica, and was drowned in crossing a river near Philadelphia, on his way to meet his son Rob- ert, who had come in his ship to conduct him back to Ireland. He married Susan Wallace.
(III) John, son of Thomas (2) and Susan (Wallace) McCalmont, was born in Ireland, in county Armagh, near the town of the same name, January 1, 1750 (old style), and came to America when sixteen years old. He was apprenticed to a clockmaker, and, not liking his master or the trade, entered into an agree- ment with the captain of the ship "Rose" to serve three years for his passage to this coun- try, with the privilege of selecting the person with whom he should live. and have his in- denture cancelled on payment of a certain sum of money. He remained near Philadel- phia until 1773, when he married Elizabeth, born 1750, daughter of Henry and Jane (Stroud) Conard (or Kunders), and great- AV-17
granddaughter of Theresa and Ellen (Streip- ers) Conard (or Kunders). Thomas Kunders and the eminent Pastorius were the first in America to protest against human slavery.
John McCalmont was out with the militia in the revolution one tour of service under General Lacey, in Captain Alexander Brown's company, and wintered with Washington at Valley Forge. In 1783 he moved to Nittany Valley, having previously for a few years lived in Kishacoquillas Valley, at Greenwood, now Mifflin county, near Lewistown. In Nittany Valley he purchased a tract of land near where Jacksonville is located, his home being a few rods from Lick Run meeting house. He remained there until 1805, when he removed to Venango county and located in Sugar Creek township, about four miles north of Franklin. Children of John and Elizabeth ( Conard ) Mc- Calmont : 1. Thomas, born October 14, 1774; came to Venango county in 1802. 2. Henry, born March 15, 1776; came to Venango county in 1819. 3. John, born January 15, 1779; drowned when about eighteen months old. 4. James, born May 17, 1781 ; served in war of 1812, wounded in battle of Bridgewater. and died from wounds about three weeks later. 5. Robert, born August 26, 1783; came to Ven- ango county in 1802. 6. Alexander, of whom further. 7. John, of whom further. 8. Eliza- beth, born February 3, 1791 ; married William Shaw. 9. Sarah, born November 3, 1792; married George Crain. 10. Jane, born Octo- ber 8, 1794; married James Ricketts. II. Joseph, born November 23, 1798.
John McCalmont died August 3, 1832, at the home of his son Henry, in Cornplanter town- ship, Venango county, and was buried in the churchyard there. His wife died August 12, 1829, and was buried in the old graveyard at Franklin.
The following are extracts from the note- book of Alexander McCalmont, son of John and Elizabeth McCalmont :
I was born at a place called Greenwood, in Cisha- coquillas Valley, October 23, 1785. (Note that date of his birth given in list of John McCalmont's chil- dren, is October 13, a discrepancy of ten days; the first date is copied from the family Bible). When about two years old my father moved to Nittany Valley and settled on a place at the head of a spring called Lick Run. The tract of land on which we lived and improved until the spring of 1803, adjoin- ing the tract on which my uncle Thomas settled, and on which Jacksonville is. My father's tract which he purchased was east of the one on which the village of Jacksonville is, and was bounded on the
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east by a tract owned by Captain Thomas Wilson, on which he was settled before the revolution.
My brothers Thomas, Henry, John, James and Robert were all born in Cishacoquillas Valley. John was drowned when about eighteen months old. My next brother, John, born in August, 1788, was named the same. I recollect the day of his birth, and also recollect seeing the raising of the house in which he was born, and the small shanty without any floor or loft, in which we lived before the house in which he was born was built. It was of hewed logs. Joseph Mckibben was one of the corner men and raised the northwest corner. It is strange that he is the only one assisting that I can recollect. I had come near the corner of the house on which he was, and he throwed chips at me and told me to go away. This I never forgot, and his image at the time, and that of the building on the corner of which he was, are still as fresh in my mind as the occurrences ot yesterday.
The first school I went to was taught by Willianı Wilson. The schoolhouse was between Thomas Wil- son's and William Wilson's. The land on which it stood was afterwards owned by Samuel Beck. This was in 1792. The only persons living in Nittany Valley between where Bellefonte now is and Fishing Creek Narrows, in my earliest recollection, were as follows : William Lamb lived on Spring Creek (now Bellefonte) ; a German family by the name of Elson lived three miles further down the valley; Thomas Wilson next east of us; Thomas McCalmont around the point or little hill south of us; William Wilson lived down the valley on the next place east of Thomas Wilson's; William Swanzey next below; Joseph Mckibben next; William Davis lived down near Fishing Creek Gap. There was no mill in Nittany Valley. Robert McClelland built the first mill in the narrows at Lick Run. I remember when he came to my father's. The second time he brought hands with him-Joseph Lucas and Baptist Lucas. They lodged at my father's and sawed the stuff for the mill with a whip-saw. Philip Houses was the millwright whom Joseph McClelland settled on a tract next to my uncle Thomas, up the valley. A number of settlers came in soon after, and a road was opened for wagons down along the sunnier north side of the valley. At the time my father came to Nittany I think there were no improvements on the Nittany below Harbison's Gap. John Harbi- son lived there at the time my father settled.
In 1794 a school house was erected on my uncle Thomas' land, twenty or thirty perches southwest of my father's. William McGarvey was the first teacher, and taught in it two years. I attended his school most part of the time, and sometimes in winter went barefoot through the snow. McClel- land's mill had been burned, and when rebuilding, I recollect Mr. Petit was the master millwright. Wil- liam Tipton and David Tipton were working at the mill and attended the school in the winter. Thomas Wilson, John Shoup and other young men went from William Wilson's to the school past my father's, and frequently carried me on their shoulders to school. About that time there were frequent meet- ings to make arrangements for building a meeting house and forming a congregation. The only ser- mon I had ever heard up till 1794 was preached by Rev. Mr. Grier, in Mr. Wilson's barn. His text was,
"Come unto Me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden" (Matt. xi, 28, 29, 30). I think it was in 1795 or 1796 that arrangements were made to build a meeting house. It was built by Bennet Lucas and his boys, of hewed logs. Pine trees were very plenty at that time, and were not as valuable as at present. The meeting house was covered with lap-shingles. I recollect I carried shingles to the top of the house for amusement. The first year there was nothing done to it but to cover it. It progressed very slowly. The next summer a door and floor were in it. The first sermon I recollect was preached by a Mr. John- ston, a son-in-law of Judge Brown's. It is possible that others were preached there before. Henry R. Wilson took charge of the congregation and con- tinued until I left in the spring of 1803.
(IV) Judge Alexander McCalmont, son of John (1) and Elizabeth (Conard) Mc- Calmont, was born in Mifflin county, Penn- sylvania, October 23, 1785. He went with his parents when they removed to Venango county, and there passed the remainder of his life. Having for those times acquired a good practical education, he became a teacher. He later embarked in mercantile pursuits, and subsequently was engaged in the iron business. He was a Democrat, and at one time took active part in local politics. He was sheriff in 1811, commissioner in 1814, and prothonotary in 1818. He also served as deputy surveyor. He became a member of the Methodist Episcopal church in 1820. Having taken up the study of law, he was admitted to practice about 1820, met with considerable professional success, and acquired a reputation as an able attorney. He was ap- pointed president judge of the Eighteenth ju- dicial district in 1839, and served with distinc- tion for ten years. He died August 10, 1857. Judge McCalmont married (first) Margaret, daughter of John Broadfoot, of Franklin, Pennsylvania. She died in 1817 without issue. In 1818 he married (second) Elizabeth Con- nely, born in Bellefonte, in 1801, but became a resident of Franklin in 1806, with her father, who removed there. Children : 1. William. 2. John Swazey, born April 28, 1822, died 1906; married Elizabeth Stehley. 3. Alfred B., of whom further. 4. Elizabeth, married General Edward Clinton Wilson.
(V) General Alfred B. McCalmont, young- est son of Judge Alexander and Elizabeth (Connely) McCalmont, was born in Venango county, Pennsylvania, April 28, 1825, and died May 7, 1874. He received his education in the local schools, Allegheny College and Dickin- son College, and was graduated from the last
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