History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 31

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 812

USA > Pennsylvania > Bradford County > History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches > Part 31

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The terminus of the railroad at the coal mines at Bernice, in Sullivan county, five miles south of the Bradford line, is 1875 feet high. Dushore, at the north foot of the Me- hoopany mountain, and in the channel of the north branch of the Loyal Soek, which flows along the foot, 1590 feet. At New Albany, five miles north of the line in Bradford County, the railroad grade has fallen to 1194 feet; at Wilcox, 1120 feet ; at Monroeton, after passing through the Towanda mountain, to 759 feet.

GEOLOGY AND HISTORY OF THE COAL TRADE .*

The surface rocks of Bradford County belong to only three of the geological formations, as they are now described in modern works treating on that seience, which are called the Chemung, the Catskill, and the Carboniferous. As the last two of these, however, are very extensive series of rocks, presenting considerable variety, our Pennsylvania geol- ogists subdivided them, called them by other names, and also by numbers. For the purpose of designating any partic- ular part of the formation, these numbers and subdivisions are very convenient, although, strictly and scientifically speaking, they should only be distinguished by their fossils, as all adjoining beds containing the same fossils belong to one and the same formation. The following table shows all the names and subdivisions of the rocks in Bradford County :

Pa. Nos. Pa. Names, by H. D. Rogers. New York Names.

XIII ..

Coal measure ..

Carboniferons.

XII. .Seral conglomerate.

XI. . Umbral red shale.

Catskill, Mauch Cbunk, red shale of Lesley.

x Vespertine.

Catskill, Pocono, red

shale of Lesley.

IX. Ponent red sandstone. Catskill.

VIII. . Vergent olive shales.

Chemung group.

The above are placed in the descending order, the coal measures being the highest, and the Chemung rocks the lowest visible in the county.

The western part of Bradford County, also the valley of the Towanda and Wysox creeks, and, in the lower part of the county, the valleys of Tuscarora creek and Sugar Run, are covered with the formation which Rogers calls VIII., or his Vergent or olive-colored shales, or what the New York geologists named the Chemung group. By the latter name

it is designated in the text-books on geology. It must be borne in mind that the general dip of the formation is to- wards the south, therefore the farther we go north the lower rocks in the geological order make their appearance ; also that the county is penetrated by two of the great flexures in the strata, which, from their containing coal, are called coal basins, running northeastwardly across the county, and in the lines of these basins the highest rocks visible in the county are brought into view. Separating these two lines of basins are two lines of upheaval called anticlinals,-the reverse of the former, where, from the washing or wearing away of the former strata after the upheaval, instead of the highest rocks in the series being shown, we now find the lowest of all.

All the best agricultural lands of Bradford County are of this Chemung formation. This is because it is of an earthy (argillaceous) character, and contains less sand than the Ponent or Catskill. It also contains a small share of the carbonate of lime and a little of the oxide of iron. By the disintegration of these rocks, a fertile soil has been formed. The thickness of this upper or shaley part of the formation is about 2500 feet. At the headwaters of the Genesee river, north of us, it is 1500 feet, and at Cata- wissa, south of us, it is 3150 feet. These rocks are a vast succession of thin layers of shale, of a deep olive or greenish or light gray color, with thin layers of brownish-gray and green, and olive sandstone. The layers of both soft shale and sandstone are all very thin, and stone of sufficient thickness for building purposes is hard to find. There is a very great uniformity in all parts of this vast formation, and if you travel on the railroad from Wyoming valley northward to the State line, and north or east or west all over the southern part of New York, you will see this same Chemung group. The Erie railroad and its branches run on it three hundred miles. All the hills and railroad cuts show these same beds of soft mud rock with thin bedded sandstones between.

In some parts of the formation some of the sandstones are very coarse, and there are layers of conglomerate. A few miles west of Athens these conglomerates are found capping the summits of the hills. Some people have con- founded them with the conglomerates under the coal, but this is entirely erroneous. A little attention to the foregoing deseription of the thickness and dip of the rocks, will show the reader that these beds of conglomerate are many hun- dreds and even thousands of feet below the coal measures. Professor Rogers, the State geologist, visited the largest bed of this conglomerate, three miles west of Athens, where some exeavations in search of coal were formerly made. He reports that the conglomerate is only "a few feet in thickness, and the pebbles, which are seldom larger than a pea, are chiefly of igneous quartz. They are more thor- oughly water-worn and rounded than those of the coal con- glomerate, and they are imbedded in a coarse, sandy material, derived apparently from the subjacent formations."

The fossils in the strata above and below it show it to belong to the Chemung group. This same conglomerate is found in the southern part of the State. Its position is about one-third the thickness of the formation from the top. Specimens of this rock can be seen in the abutments and

* Contributed by James Maefarlane, Esq., State geologist.

119

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

piers of the railroad bridge over the Tioga river at Athens. In southwestern New York and in the Pennsylvania oil regions, this and other series of coarse sandstones are the depositories of the petroleum.

Vegetable fossils are found among the sandstones of this group, showing the existence of land-plants. In many of the building stones used about Towanda may be seen flat- tened limbs of land-plants, with the bark turned into coal, which are among the earliest vestiges of terrestrial vegeta- tion yet discovered. There are also found some other pre- monitory symptoms of coal in the form of specks of coal, a quarter or half an inch thick. But these are no indications of the existence of workable beds of coal, but only show that the world was approaching towards the coal-working age.

It is often remarked that Bradford County is the best county in the northern part of the State, having more good productive land, raising better grain, grass, and producing more cattle and butter than any other. While part of this is to be credited to the intelligence, industry, and thrift of its enlightened population, yet it is mainly owing to the large proportion of the surface being covered by the geo- logical formation in question, called the Chemung group, with its soft shales containing so much clay and lime, whereas the other counties east and west of us, and the southern part of this county, have more of the next higher formation, consisting of harder, coarser, more sandy, red rocks, forming a more barren and less valuable soil for ag- ricultural purposes. The productive land is not confined to the lower parts of the valleys, but extends over the high hills of the northern townships, for, if you examine the rocks where they are exposed, you will find a marked simi- larity throughout. As a general description, it might be said that the roeks of this county lie in a level position, for, compared with those in the eastern, central, and south- ern parts of the State, they are horizontal. But if we take a survey of a considerable tract of the country, we will find that the strata are far from lying level. Tracing any par- ticular layer of rock, from the State line southward along the Susquehanna, or southwestwardly, you will find that it dips or deseends slowly towards the river, and finally sinks below the surface, and other layers of rock, which are not found at all at the State line, appear on the surface, and also in their turn gradually dip towards the river. If you go farther northward, even to Canada, you will find all the great rock formations in the State of New York have this general southern dip.

Now take a general view from east to west. Entering the county from Tioga, you pass through a district similar to the northern balf of the county ; but between Troy and Burlington the high hills are covered with a different soil and a different kind of rock of a reddish color, the same that you see on the railroad on the high ground between Troy and Alba, also in crossing by the common roads any of the high hills between Towanda and Wyalusing. You see the same kind of red rocks belonging to the Catskill group, and very different from the hills between Towanda and Athens, which are composed of alternate layers of soft shale and thin layers of sandstone of a gray, green, or sometimes brownish color.

There are, in fact, in going from southeast to northwest across this county, two great basins with two upheavals of the rock formation between them, throwing them into a waving form. These waves, however, are wide, and their slopes are gentle. Moreover, they have little connection with the present surface, which is cut out into valleys by other causes, long after the rock strata assumed their present form. The first basin of our rock formation is a prolon- gation of the Blossburg coal basin in Tioga county. If you visit the mines at Morris Run you can walk through the gangways underground on one side of the valley, and satisfy yourself by ocular demonstration that the strata of coal and coal rocks descend towards the Run, and then rise on the other side in a regular basin or trough-like form. All the strata of rock above the coal and below it, as far down as they are exposed in any of our deepest valleys, have the same flexure as we here see in the coal beds.

If you trace the coal seams northeastward towards the point of Armenia mountain, you will find that it gradually rises in that direction until the coal runs out in the air and disappears. If you then pass on down the point of that mountain, in Bradford County, towards the village of Troy, you will see the red rock formations which lie below the coal making their appearance, and all bent; in the same manner as the coal bed, into a wide, trough-like form, and all gradually rising to the northeast. Hence we have in this county the empty Blossburg basin without the coal, and considerable tracts of the townships of Armenia, the south part of Troy and West Burlington, and the tops of the hills thence to Ulster, especially Mount Pisgah, covered with these formations next below the coal, consisting of the red rocks of the Catskill group.

The other basin referred to is that of the Towanda or Barclay mountain, which is the same in structure as that above described, exeept that it includes the formation con- taining the coal as well as the underlying rocks. Its great advantage is its geographical position, it being farther north and east than any other coal. North of it is the great, fer- tile, and populous State of New York, in which there is no coal whatever. The market for the coal, therefore, is elose at hand. The coal is semi-bituminous, containing about seventy-five per cent. of carbon and less than seventeen per cent. of volatile matter, and is a species of coal well adapted for steam purposes, blacksmithing, and the manufacture of wrought-iron in rolling-mills. It is only found on the sun- mits of the highest mountains in the southwestern part of the county, and the deposit is of limited extent compared with the great coal fields of the State situated farther south.

The discovery of coal in the county is said to have been accidentally made by Abner Carr while hunting on the Barclay or Towanda mountain in the year 1812, the bed being exposed in a stream where the first mine was after- wards opened. The lands on which the coal was situated belonged to Robert Barclay, of London, England, and after- wards to his son, Chas. Barclay, and the tract contained six- teen thousand acres. In 1853 these lands were bought by Edward Overton, Esq., of Towanda, John Ely and Edward M. Davis, of Philadelphia, who formed the Barclay railroad

120

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. .

and coal company and Schrader land company. The railroad from the North Branch canal to the mines, sixteen miles in length, with an inclined plane half a mile long and 475 feet high, was finished in the fall of 1856, and a little coal was shipped that year. James Macfarlane was ap- pointed general superintendent, and had sole charge of all the operations of the company for the first eight years, until 1865, and established the coal business under great diffi- culties from the want of transportation on the very poor canal which was the only outlet to market. In the latter year he organized another company, called the Towanda coal company, which, in 1868, leased the mines and rail- road of the Barclay coal company, and the stock soon after- wards came into the hands of the Erie railroad company, who have mined a large portion of the coal used on their road at these mines, amounting to about 200,000 tons per annum, and for three years more than 250,000 tons a year, as will be seen by the annexed tabular statement, which gives the annual production of each mine since it was opened till the present time, and which is in itself a succinct history of the coal trade of this county. The Pennsylvania and New York railroad was finished from Towanda to the Erie railway at Waverly in 1868, and from that time the coal trade assumed a magnitude which it never had before. The same railroad was completed south- ward to Pittston in 1869, making, with the Lehigh Valley and New Jersey Central railroad, direct connection with New York, and by the North Pennsylvania railroad with Philadelphia ; thus furnishing to the county a magnificent line of first-class railroad without any expense, efforts, or sacrifices by the people of the county, such as are often required to secure such improvements. They are indebted for this great thoroughfare to the enterprise of Hon. Asa Packer and his co-workers of the Lehigh Valley railroad company.

The Sullivan and State Line railroad, extending from the Barclay railroad at Monroeton to the semi-anthracite coal mines at Bernice, in Sullivan county, twenty-five miles, was projected by M. C. Mercur, Charles F. Welles, Jr., Michael Meylert, and George D. Jackson, and was finished in the fall of 1871, forming another important avenue of transportation for the county of Bradford.

ANNUAL PRODUCTION OF THE COAL MINES OF BRADFORD COUNTY.

Barclay Coal Co.

Fall Creek Coal Co.

Towanda Coal Co.

Coal Co.

Net tons.

1856

2,295

1857

6,265

1858

17,560

1859

30,143

1860

27,718

1861

40,835

1862

52,779

1863

54,535

1864

62,058

16,936

7,886

73,197

1866

37,968

29,604

31,881

99,453

1867

30,119

16,952

27,668

74,739

1868

6,595

67,080

73,675

1869

4,303

176,307

180,610

1870

77,025

196,310

273,335

1871

129,095

249,240

378,335

1872

118,882

263,960

382,842

1873

85,315

252,329

337,644

1874

21,281

215,572

100,219

337,072

1875

18,527

200.424

157,686

376,637

1876

183,992

200,795

384,787

410,650

524,515

1,872,649

458,700

3,266,514

CHAPTER XI.

EDUCATION .*

THE first schools taught in the county were those estab- lished by the missionaries of the Moravian church, among the Indians, at Wyalusing and Sheshequin. These were in- tended chiefly for religious instruction, so that while there was time given to primary instruction, and the dusky children of the forest were taught to read in both Delaware and German, yet the Bible, the Hymn-book, and the Catechism were the text-books mostly used, and contained all the science it was thought needful to teach the children connected with the mission towns. With the abandonment of the mission, of course the schools were disbanded, and both teachers and pupils took up their wearisome journey towards the setting sun.

Previous to the battle of Wyoming, 1778, there were about forty settlers in old Springfield, many of whom were near or upon the site of the Indian town, and there is a tradition of a school taught there in 1777 ; but at this late day I have been unable to find evidence sufficient to establish the fact, although the tradition is probably correct.

Soon after the re-settlements began, in 1783 and '84, the question of schools began to be discussed. The people had been impoverished by the war, were in a new country, far re- moved from the appliances of civilization, and the demands of absolute want taxed every energy of the pioneer ; nevertheless, true to their New England principles, their first thought, after providing shelter, food, and clothing for their families, was to establish schools for the training of their children.

" A certain Master Root taught a school in the year 1788 or 1789, at Athens, the school-house standing on a lot al- most directly west of the present school-building." Among the other teachers in Athens, Mr. Keeney mentions Bene- dict Satterlee, who taught in a house near where the old school-house now stands, in 1808, and that a new school- house was built about 1811, which was probably occupied until the academy was opened. This house was on the east side of Main street, and nearly opposite the bridge across the Tioga river.

In 1789 or '90, Uriah Terry taught a school in the house of Major Gaylord ; but before this there had been a school at Wyalusing, but by whom taught I am unable to learn, but most likely by Thomas Wigton, who was an old school- teacher. As early as 1793, a school-house was built on the site now occupied by the Presbyterian church in Wyalusing, as in that year a church was organized in it. The old school-house burned down, and another was built just at the present entrance into the burying-ground, where for a number of years was the chosen site of the school-house.

In some memoranda relating to the first settlement of Merryall, found among the papers of the late Justus Lewis, he says, " Previous to this time (1790), the few that had settled here had erected a small log school-house on land now occupied by Jabez Elliott, and started a school, taught by David Lake, in the winter of 1791-92. The next summer

# The author is indebted to the report of the late A. A. Keeney, superintendent of common schools for Bradford County for 1877, for much of the material of this article.

Schrader Total production.

54,535

62.058

1865

48,375

121

HISTORY OF BRADFORD COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Theodosia, sister of Reuben Wells, taught the school, and from that time a regular school,-and sometimes a first-rate one,-without any very long intermission, has been kept up, attended by scholars from the forks of the creek, from Asylum, Browntown, the mouth of the creek, and other places."

Schools were established at Wysox as early as at either Athens or Wyalusing. The first one of which I can obtain certain knowledge was opened in the house of one of the settlers, previous to 1790. In the fall of 1802, Eliphalet Mason, Esq., taught a school in Wysox, which continued for about a year. The school-house was near the one now standing, towards Strickland's, on the flats. As early as 1795 there was a school in Ulster, and one in Sheshequin, while mention has already been made of the school of Mr. Brevost, at Asylum.

" The first school taught in Canton township was in the winter of 1801-2, Loren Kingsbury, teacher. A Miss Segur taught in Canton about the year 1805, in a school- house built by Capt. Samuel Griffin.

" In 1807, Miss Delight Spalding taught the first school in Granville township. The school consisted of about fif- teen scholars, representing ten families.

" In 1807, a log school-house was built in Smithfield township, which answered for school purposes for the whole settlement, the teacher receiving his salary in work, by those who patronized him.

" About the year 1820, Gen. Samuel Mckean built a school-house in Burlington, probably the first in the town- ship."

In an address delivered by Dr. E. P. Coburn, before the Bradford County Teachers' Association, he says, " I find that a Miss Clarissa Woodruff taught school in Orwell, in 1804, and Laura Frisbie a year or two afterward, and as early as 1807-8, Roswell Lee taught a school in Warren." As the people began to improve their dwellings, the aban- doned dwelling-house served for the first school-house. When a building was erected for the purpose of school, it was not much better. The people of the neighborhood as- sembled, put up a house of huge logs, laid up "cob-house fashion," so high that it would be about six feet between the floors. The floor was laid down loose, so that the scholars might take up a board to obtain whatever might have fallen through the erevices. . The interstiees between the logs were chinked with pieces of wood fitted for that purpose, and then an abundance of mud was spread over to make them tight. The fire-place was from four to six feet long, and about the same height, the jambs of which were formed by large flat stones set up on one edge. The desks were made by boring in the logs and putting in pins for the shelf to lie on. The seats were slabs, with pegs put in for legs. The only furniture besides consisted of a cross- legged table, and, perhaps, a borrowed chair. The wood was hauled in drags, and cut by the teacher and older boys. The desks extended along two sides of the room, with benches in front, and the pupils sat with their faces to the wall. One end of the room contained the door, and the opposite one was occupied with the fire-place. Two or three smaller benches were arranged about the fire-place, which were occupied by the smaller pupils ; here frequently they

were compelled to sit from morning till night, on benches without backs, and often so high their feet could not touch the floor.

All the appliances of the school were in harmony with the rude character of the building. Professional teaching was un- known. The best educated of the sons and daughters of the farmers and mechanics were selected for this work, who en- listed in teaching only as a temporary employment, always leaving the school when a more lucrative business offered. The intellectual qualifications were not of a very high order. Reading, spelling, writing, and arithmetic as far as Reduc- tion, or at the most through the " Double Rule of Three," were ample; geography and English grammar were unknown. Books were few and of the most indifferent character,- often three or four pupils using the same book. The only apparatus was obtained in the beech and hickory groves near by, and ability to use the rod with frequency and effect was an essential qualification for the school-master. Schools were kept open from six to eight months in the year ; the compensation for male teachers was about twelve dollars per month, for females from seventy-five cents to a dollar per week, in each case including board among the families of the neighborhood. In the earliest schools, the teacher was paid by a voluntary subscription from the people, which consisted sometimes of grain, or flax, or wood, or work, or whatever could be given in remuneration for the services rendered. Subsequently a rate-bill, based upon the number of days each pupil had been in the school, was made out by the teacher, handed to the committee elected at the meeting of the inhabitants of the district, who collected the money and paid the teacher.

It will be remembered that the Susquehanna company provided that one fifty-third part of each township should be especially devoted to the support of a school ; there were also two other fifty-third parts which were designated as public land. Owing to the imperfect manner in which the townships of Claverack and old Ulster were organized, the inhabitants in these townships received no benefit from this provision ; but in Springfield, at a meeting of the pro- prietors, Justus Gaylord, Jr., Guy Wells, and Benjamin Stalford were appointed a committee to apply for the public land and secure the title in trust for the proprietors. The committee were subsequently authorized to sell the lots, which they did, receiving therefor $1316.19; and, at a meeting held May 13, 1811, at which John Horton was chosen moderator and Jeremiah Lewis clerk, it was voted that the town of Springfield be divided into five school dis- tricts in the manner following, viz. : "One at the old town, including Benjamin Ackley, John Taylor, and Humphrey Brown; one from Ackley's northward to the town line, in- cluding Merryall ; two on the west side of the river, and one at the Wigton settlement."

" Voted, That all children included in each of the said districts be entitled to privileges equal with proprietors' children."

A committee, consisting of Benjamin Ackley, Reuben Wells, and Jonathan Terry, was appointed to settle with the old committee and distribute the funds in proportion to the number of children in each of the five distriets.

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History of Bradford County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and biographical sketches, Part 31

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co Publication date: 1878 Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts Number of Pages: 812

Author: Craft, David, 1832-1908; L.H. Everts & Co
Publication date: 1878
Publisher: Philadelphia : L. H. Everts
Number of Pages: 812