USA > Pennsylvania > Clinton County > Historical and biographical work, or past and present of Clinton County, comprising a sketch of every town and township of the county from date of settlement up to the present time > Part 29
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CLINTON COUNTY.
different times, and on several occasions has been a delegate to the state convention at Harrisburg. Charles R. Noyes was married, July 4th, 1865, to Mary A. Herman, a daughter of Michael and Christiana Herman. Their children are Hattie, Martha, Edward, Nellie, Bessie, Hannah and Daisy. The two first named graduated at the Central State Normal school in 1886. Harry, the youngest son of the family, died in December, 1880, and Edward, the other son, is at present assistant station agent at Westport.
JOHN S. BAILEY.
John S. Bailey was born March 3d, 1830, at Brown's Mills, now Reeds- ville, Mifflin county, Pa. He came to Clinton county in 1855. After his arrival he taught school for a time, and then entered Millersville Normal school, where he remained one term. After teaching for several terms he entered Dickinson seininary, where he spent nearly one year. He then returned to Westport, where he clerked in the hotel and store of Stephen Werts until 1864, when he was employed by A. C. Noyes & Brother, as clerk and acting agent of the Philadelphia & Erie railroad. Mr. Bailey has been a resident of Westport ever since. He entered the mercantile business in 1865, and has followed the business continuously since 1877. He had charge of the postoffice for a period of over eleven years, from December, 1877, to January 1st, 1889, when he resigned in favor of the late Colonel H. M. Bossert. He still holds the office of jus- tice of the peace, to which he was elected in 1875. He served as school director from 1877 until 1886. He has served as treasurer of the school board for nearly fifteen years. In 1884 he was elected a member of the Democratic state committee, in which capacity he represented the De- mocracy of Clinton county one year. Mr. Bailey is a great traveler. During the winter of 1891 and 1892 he spent several months in the West India Islands, and wrote many interesting letters to the newspapers of Clinton county.
J. L. EMERY.
J. L. Emery was born in Fairfield, Maine, March 2d, 1848. His father, George Emery, moved with his family to Pennsylvania in 1851. Mr. Emery received his education in the "Old White School House," at Lock Haven. After leaving school he worked with his father until 1872, when he started in the lumber business for himself at Benezette, Elk county, Pa. He left there and moved to Cook's Run, Clinton county, in 1878. In 1880 he located at Westport, where he still resides. Mr. Emery was married, March 15th, 1872, to Jennie C. Freeman, of Cameron county. They have eight children living and one dead. In 1886 Mr. Emery built himself a handsome residence at the upper end of the village of Westport, which he now occupies. He has for several years been engaged in lumbering on Kettle creek and Cook's run.
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JOHN S. BAILEY, WESTPORT, PA.
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J. N. EDWARDS.
J. N. Edwards, station agent for the Philadelphia & Erie railroad com- pany, at Westport, was born in Reading, Pa., August 5th, 1849. He was educated in the public schools of Philadelphia. In 1865 he entered the telegraph office at Bethlehem, Pa., where he remained two years. He was then appointed ticket agent on the North Penn railroad, a position he held for nine years. He next went to Warren, Pa., where he spent several years as reporter for the Bradford Era and Titusville Herald. In 1881 he was appointed operator at Howards, Cameron county, and in 1883 he came to Westport, where he filled a similar position until April, 1892, when he was appointed station agent and given charge of the Westport office. Mr. Edwards was married in December, 1871, to Clara Swartz, of Allentown, Pa. Mr. Edwards is a member of the Independent Order of Good Templars, and one of the Colonel Noyes castle, Knights of the Golden Eagle.
O. GOODMAN.
O. Goodman was born in York county, Pa., in 1847. He came to Clinton county in 1865, and started a store at Hammersley's Forks, where he remained in business until 1883, when he moved to Westport. Mr. Goodman was educated in the public schools, and at Dickinson seminary, Williamsport, Pa. He was married in 1867 to Alzina Cald- well, of Cumberland Valley. They have two sons.
W. C. WERTS.
W. C. Werts, present postmaster of Westport, was born in Chapman township, in 1846. His grandfather, Simeon Pfoutz, was the first white settler on Kettle creek. His father, Samuel Werts, came from Milton, and settled below where Westport is now, in 1838. In early life W. C. Werts worked at lumbering. In 1871 he started a store in Westport. In 1873 his store was burned. In 1886 he started the first meat market in Westport. He afterwards built a store room, and carried on the grocery business in connection with the meat market. In May, 1891, through the efforts of Hon. A. C. Hopkins, he received the appointment as post- master for Westport, and shortly after took charge of the office as suc- cessor to C. R. Noyes. Mr. Werts was the first Republican postmaster of the place. In connection with his duties as postmaster he at present conducts a general merchandise store and meat market. Mr. Werts was married in 1871 to Emma Smith, of Cook's Run. They have six children living, four daughters and two sons. One of the daughters is an assistant in the post office. In business matters Mr. Werts has been rather un- fortunate. At the time his store burned he lost all he possessed, and was also a heavy loser by the June flood of 1889.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CLINTON COUNTY. ORGANIZATIONS AND HOTELS.
COLONEL A. C. NOYES CASTLE, KNIGHTS OF THE GOLDEN EAGLE.
T
HE Colonel A. C. Noyes castle, Knights of the Golden Eagle, was instituted at Westport, October 18th, 1890, with forty-nine mem- bers.
The present officers of the castle are: E. M. Smith, H. E. Nichols, George Courter, A. M. Myers, James Keister, Curtis Caldwell, E. F. Wickman, D. H. Thomas. This castle was named in honor of Colonel A. C. Noyes. It has a present membership of seventy.
WESTPORT LODGE, NO. 34, I. O. G. T.
Westport lodge, No. 34, Independent Order Good Templars, was organ- ized November 4th, 1887. Its first officers were Ida Myers, chief temp- lar; J. N. Edwards, lodge deputy; Emma J. Stuart, secretary; Mrs. J. N. Edwards, treasurer; Fannie E. Edwards, vice templar; Mrs. A. P. Goodman, chaplain; Emily Edwards, financial secretary.
The present officers are: J. N. Edwards, lodge deputy; Lizzie Smith, chief templar; Maud Stuart, vice templar; Emily J. Edwards, secretary ; Rev. J. C. Wilhelm, treasurer; Annie Riddles, financial secretary; C. R. Daley, chaplain. This lodge has a present membership of eighty-two. It meets every Tuesday evening, in the I. O. G. T. hall, which is owned by the lodge. The organizatian is in a very flourishing condition.
THE WESTPORT HOUSE.
This large and commodious hotel was erected by John Robbins, in the winter of 1873 and 1874. It is a frame structure, forty by eighty feet, with a wing of thirty-five feet, giving it a front of seventy-five feet on one side and eighty feet on the other. The first proprietor of the house was Mr. Robbins himself. He opened the hotel in the spring of 1874. He was succeeded by Mr. Maloney, the present landlord, in April, 1888. The house has thirty-five bedrooms, with ample accommodations for seventy guests. Before assuming control of the Westport house, Mr. Maloney had charge of the Trout Run house, at Hammersley's Forks, and pre- vious to that time the celebrated Isaac Walton house, at Gaines, Tioga county. He is a pleasant, popular gentleman, and runs his hotel in first-class style.
NORTH BEND.
T HIS is a flourishing little village of some five hundred souls, in Chapman township, three miles east of the borough of Renovo, on the line of the Philadelphia & Erie railroad, and has the largest local freight traffic of any station between Renovo and the city of Lock Haven. Its gentlemanly and efficient agent and operator, Mr. H. G. Haynes, has been in charge of the depot here for over twenty-four years.
The principal business of the place is lumbering and tan- ning. We have at present two small saw and two shingle mills, and are now erecting a large gang saw-mill, which, when completed, will have a capacity of fifteen million feet of boards annually. A large planing-mill is contem- plated; also a furniture factory.
The large tannery of L. R. Gleason & Sons, built in the year 1881, and enlarged in 1889, is in constant operation, turning out some thirty tons of leather monthly.
We have three general stores, two hotels, two blacksmith shops, one wagonmaker's and general repair shop, two shoemaker's shops, one church (Union) and two school houses.
We have also a branch railroad running twelve miles up Youngwoman's creek, which will, in the near future, be extended into Potter county, with a connection to Buffalo.
The name of North Bend is of recent origin; when the Philadelphia & Erie railroad was first opened here, in the year 1863, the company adopted the name of North Point, which was continued until the year 1879, when the present name was adopted, and the name of the post office also changed from (to many of us) the old and pleasurable name of Youngwomanstown, to North Bend.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CLINTON COUNTY.
" Youngwomanstown" is one of the oldest names in the history of the West Branch valley. Tradition says the name originated from the tragic death of a beautiful young Indian girl who, in attempting to cross the stream on a float, was swept away to the "Spirit Land," and ever after the stream was called Youngwoman's creek, and the surround- ing country Chinis-quay-ka-non or "Youngwomanstown," and on the west bank of this placid stream, about twenty rods inland and equidistant from the junction of the creek and river, the noble red men erected a huge mound of broken sandstone, upon which they commemorated the mournful event in burnt offerings to the Great Spirit. Traces of this mound still remain, and the writer has hauled away tons and tons of these burned and broken stones, and there are still tons left, mixed with the soil, on a square of about an eighth of an acre.
The first known white settler was William Reed, who, prior to the year 1780, built a log cabin at the junction of the two streams, no trace of which now remains, the many high freshets having washed away the banks where it stood. One Timothy Peaceable also squatted here about the same time, and afterwards sold his right to one William Cook, who contested Reed's title, but lost in failing to sustain a caveat filed by him before the board of property. Reed sold his title to one William Campbell, and on the 2d of June, 1779, Campbell conveyed to Thomas Robinson.
The place was then deserted on account of the troubles with the Indians all along the West Branch, but soon after the treaty with the Six Nations at Fort Stanwix, October, 1784, (called the "last purchase,") for the residue of all the Indian lands within the limits of Pennsylvania, the said Robinson applied for a warrant, which was granted to him on October 14th, 1785, and described as follows: "All that certain tract of land called Youngwomanstown, situated on the northwest side of the West Branch of the Susquehanna, including the mouth of Youngwoman's creek, in Northum- berland county, containing 30778 acres, and allowance of
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six per cent. for roads, etc." Robinson conveyed to Andrew Epple January 10th, 1787. Patent for said land bearing date April 12th, 1787, from the Supreme Executive Council of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, was issued to the said Andrew Epple, the same bearing the original signature of the immortal Benjamin Franklin, president of the Supreme Executive Council. Andrew Epple leased the place to William Bennett, for an annual rental of £3 6d.
Bennett occupied the place for some ten years-up to about the year 1800. This lease required him to clear some land yearly, to pay the taxes, to improve the property, and to pay the small rental above stated.
He built the large log house, with its immense stone chimney, which stood near the mouth of the creek, some six or eight rods back of the cabin of William Reed, above mentioned.
Rev. Daniel M. Barber, one of the most prominent and eloquent ministers of the Presbyterian church for over half a century in the West Branch valley, lived in this log house away back in the twenties. He, in company with Robert Bridgens, traveled on horseback, before the days of rail- roads, out into Canada, thence to Detroit, returning by way of Cincinnati and Pittsburg. Their object was to see the country.
Andrew Epple conveyed to Andrew Epple, Jr., on August 20th, 1799. Epple conveyed to Joseph Reed March 9th, 1 802.
Reed conveyed to John Philip De Haas, of Bald Eagle township, in the county of Centre, on June Ist, 1805, and on May 10th, 1810, De Haas conveyed to John Quigley, father of the late Michael Quigley, Esq., and the grandfather of the writer's wife.
North Bend station is located on the southwestern part of this tract, called Youngwomanstown. The major por- tion of the tract is now owned by Robert Bridgens' heirs and the writer.
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Among the early settlers in this vicinity were the Bairds, Burneys, Bridgens, Caldwells, Grugans, Hammersleys, Halls, Keplers, McCloskeys, Pfoutzes, Quigleys, Summer- sons, Stouts, Welshes and others, many of whose descend- ants still live in the up-river districts.
Two of the most noted of the last generation were Michael Quigley, Esq., and Captain Robert Bridgens, the first of whom was born here in 1807. He was appointed by Governor Wolf, in 1831, a justice of the peace, and served by re-election, without intermission, until the day of his death, on February 16th, 1888. During his long life, and until a few years of his death, he was a most active and useful man, and was as well known and as highly respected as any man in the up-river country.
Captain Robert Bridgens, whose birth dates back to the year 1796, and whose death occurred in 1882, located here when quite a young man. He ran the first steamboat that ever plied upon the waters of the West Branch. He was one of the board of commissioners chosen at the first elec- tion after the organization of Clinton county, and was a most respected and honored official and citizen.
Youngwomanstown had an inn or tavern as early as 1805. Locomotion was slow in those days, either by foot or in the clumsy dug-out. Grandfather John Quigley poled a canoe all the way up the river from Northumberland in the year 1812, in which he brought 100 young apple trees, and planted them on his land here, some of which trees are still living.
Here many a fistic encounter was practiced, and it was considered a great honor to be known as the best man. It was here that Uncle Jimmy Caldwell (he was the aggressor) lost his nose in an encounter with Grandfather John Quigley. After a fight all were friends; it was the custom of the times.
The old pioneers were, as a rule, the best of people ; hos- pitable in their humble homes, and the very soul of honor.
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PAST AND PRESENT OF CLINTON COUNTY.
A man's word was as good as his bond, (it is not so now,) and woe betide the man who attempted to practice dis- honesty.
Here was the only polling place west of Dunnstown for nearly half a century, and it was here, in the year 1838, (then Lycoming county,) that the greatest election ever known in the history of the West Branch was held. It was at the time that work was being done on the Sinnemahoning ex- tension of the West Branch canal, under Governor Uncle Joe Rittner's administration. Upwards of 800 votes were polled, when there were not over 100 legal voters in the whole district, the election board being forced to receive all votes offered, and many were the bloody heads made on that day with the effective shillalah in the hands of wild and infuriated Irishmen. The writer's father-in-law was an eye witness to the bloody scene; his father, in attempting to dis- suade the mob from violence (the election room was in his house) was set upon, and if he had not been as lithe as an Indian, and fleet as a roe buck, running, leaping and clear- ing the picket fence at a bound, (which obstruction brought his pursuers to a standstill for a moment,) he doubtless would have been pommelled into a jelly.
John Quigley was born in York, Pa., in the year 1772, and removed with his parents to Wayne township, soon after the close of the Revolutionary war. He had three brothers, two of whom, William and George, located in Wayne, and one, Michael, at Beech Creek. He also had four sisters; one was the wife of Robert Crawford, grand- father of the writer, one married Joseph McCormick, one married George Crane, and the other Robert Stewart, grand- father of Captain R. S. Barker, the present postmaster of Lock Haven. The grandfather of the Hon. James C. Quiggle was a cousin of the family.
For many years after John Quigley located in Young- womanstown ; the nearest grist mill was at Mill Hall. The up-river farmers would load their grain in canoes, and run them down to the mouth of Bald Eagle creek, and pole
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them up the creek to Fishing creek to Bressler's mill, get their grists ground, and pole their canoes back home.
In those days the spinning wheel and loom were as com- mon as the sewing machine of the present day, and every family clothed themselves chiefly with homespun goods of their own production. Their tables were abundantly sup- plied with game and fish, which were very plenty and easily procured.
John Quigley was a remarkably active and supple man until the day in which he was accidentally killed at Monsey- town, in 1847, at the age of seventy-five years. Although a hard worker, he could at that great age, by holding the toe of one foot in his hand, jump through with the other foot, back and forward, a feat but few young men can perform. Recalling the facts in reference to the result of the vote cast at the great election spoken of, we wish to add that, of course, the returns, carried to Williamsport by Uncle Jimmy Caldwell, were not counted, and Uncle Joe was defeated for the second term, and his grand enterprise abandoned.
A new race now inhabit the land; those good, honest, jovial old pioneers are all gathered to their fathers, and all has changed; but with all the wonderful improvements, dis- coveries and conveniences, we dare say men are neither better nor happier than those old pioneers were.
Michael Quigley built a small water-power saw mill here about the year 1831. It was carried away by the big freshet of 1847. In the year 1854 R. K. Hawley & Co. erected a large water-power gang mill, which they operated under the superintendence of John H. Haynes, (father of H. G. Haynes,) down to the year 1865. Their yearly cut was about 3,000,000 feet, and was stocked by D. C. Wilcox, res- ident partner and a brother-in-law of the writer. The mill was then operated for a few years by the Hon. A. J. Quigley. The next mill was a portable steam-power of R. K. Landis & Co., and the next the large steam gang mill of Mensch & Lowenstine, built in the year 1872, and destroyed by fire in 1879 or 1880.
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Youngwoman's creek, which drains a territory of about sixty square miles, or 40,000 acres, has yielded up to this time not less than 500,000,000 feet of saw logs-the majority of which were floated to Williamsport. About two- thirds were pine, and the balance hemlock and hard wood. There is probably 175,000,000 feet, chiefly hemlock, remain- ing, and ten years more will clean it all out.
Agriculture to some extent is taking the place of lumber- ing, yet we have thousands of acres of fine table lands on our mountains, well adapted to agriculture, unimproved, and our hills contain fire clay of the best quality, also coal and iron ore; these, we hope, time and the demands of com- merce will speedily develop.
When the writer located here, in the year 185 1, (over forty years ago,) there was a hotel, a store, blacksmith shop, a couple of farm houses, a small church, (used also for a school house,) and a couple of old log houses. The United States mail was received once a week, (carried on horseback from Lock Haven, letter postage ten cents, prepayment op- tional). Merchandise was transported from the eastern cities in canal boats to Lock Haven, and from there in small flat- bottom boats, and in canoes on the river. No doctors nearer than Lock Haven.
Log driving was in its infancy. There was no boom at Lock Haven, nor anything to call a boom at Williamsport. No railroad up the Susquehanna north of Clark's Ferry. Yet there were many conveniences which the pioneers did not have.
Our little place has advanced slowly, and bids fair to make more rapid strides. Our prospects are by no means discouraging, and if our timber is nearly exhausted, with our growing agricultural resources, our minerals accessible, and being located only three miles from the thriving borough of Renovo, it requires no prophetic eye to see that in the close future we shall be united in one flourishing town, (or may we say city?) for the reason that the rapidly growing
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business of the Philadelphia & Erie railroad will create an increasing demand for labor; her machine and car shops must be enlarged, and her employes must have homes; her vacant places will soon be filled, and she must have more room, and here we have it. Steam and electric cars will an- nihilate the short space between us.
Before concluding this imperfect sketch, (space would not permit us to go into minute details,) we deem it appropriate to say that our little place has not lagged behind in a re- ligious, moral, social and educational aspect; and if we are no better, we are just as good as our neighbors.
HYNER.
H I YNER is a small village situated on the West Branch of the Susquehanna river, at the mouth of what is called Hyner's run, twenty-one miles northwest of Lock Haven, and seven miles southeast of Renovo. From what or whom Hyner's run received its name, there is no one now living can tell. Rumor has it that a huntsman who lived on Pine creek, by the name of Hiner, in an early day came over and camped on its banks to kill deer, principally for the hides, and that the stream derived its name from him. While this may be true, yet there is no certainty of it. Hyner village contains some thirty or forty houses-one only being of brick (the Grugan residence,)-yet there are some very nice, comfortable homes; that of Theodore John- son, James Summerson, James A, McClosky, Behring Mc- Closky, K. J. Farwell, J. W. Christian, Samuel Mummah, W. C. Weaver and many others, and a new one built last summer by Michael Pluff, is an improvement to the place. There is a commodious school house, a Methodist church, not yet finished, a post office, railroad station and telegraph office, a blacksmith shop, one store, one boarding house, and a Methodist parsonage, but no hotel or saloon, a picnic ground at a distance of about ten minutes' walk from the station, with a dancing platform, and fixed up with all the necessary improvements. The business at Hyner is prin- cipally lumbering and farming. There is quite a number of good farms in the valley, also on top of the surrounding mountains there is good land, and some nice farms already cleared.
Hyner is seven miles from the Jersey Shore and Couders- port turnpike, the nearest point from the turnpike to the river. It is claimed that the mountains near the turnpike
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abound in coal, iron ore, silver ore, lime stone and fire clay. If all this is true, Hyner may yet lift her head among the towns of Clinton county. At Hyner the first oil well in this region was drilled; a "dry hole it is true," but they struck salt and gas in abundance, and it is claimed that oil will be found here yet, as the surface indications are good.
BIOGRAPHIES.
HON. COLEMAN GRUGAN.
[At the request and earnest solicitation of the author, Hon. Coleman Grugan furnished the following history of himself and family.]
I WAS born in what was then Dunnstable, Lycoming county, but now Grugan township, Clinton county, Pa., September 29th, 1820. It seems but yesterday to me; tempus fugit. The point at which I first drew the breath of life was on the north side of the river. At that day and age game and fish were plentiful. But school rooms and school teachers were unknown-no pastoral bleat nor holy Dill. I was baptized by Rev. Grier, in an old saw mill surrounded wholly by forest trees. Sad to contemplate, all, young or old, who witnessed the event have mouldered into dust, except brother John and myself. My father's name was Alexander Grugan: my mother's maiden name was Rachael Cole- man. In the year 1837 my father purchased the farm where Glen Union now is. We moved on it in the fall of 1837, and in the spring of 1838, on account of the erection of the Lock Haven and Queen's Run dams, the ice gorged back and swept the house and all we possessed away, the family barely escaping with their lives.
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