USA > Pennsylvania > Clarion County > History of Clarion County, Pennsylvania > Part 56
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Mountain Lodge, No. 114, A. O. U. W., was organized July 24, 1877, in Elk City, where meetings were held every Tuesday evening until October 2, 1883, when place of meeting was changed to A. O. U. W. Hall, on Main street, Shippenville. Officers are elected every six months. The first set elected were H. S. Lynch, P. M. W .; J. F. Duncan, M. W .; George W. Marshall, foreman ; John H. Eminger, overseer ; L. D. Thurston, recorder ; J. B. Mait- land, financier ; John U. Heiniger, receiver, and George B. Quigley, guide.
Equitable Aid Union was organized in Shippenville, April 14, 1882. It meets in E. A. U. Hall, over W. N. Wilson's hardware store, every Friday evening. Officers elected every six months. G. W. Marshall is president and Miss Ada Shaw, vice-president.
Amos Kiser Post, No. 475, G. A. R., was organized in Shippenville, March 19, 1885, and meets on the second and fourth Saturdays in each month in E. A. U. Hall, over Wilson's hardware store, in Shippenville. The first officers were as follows: Com., V. Phipps; sen. vice-com., James Richardson ; jr. vice-com., George F. Kapp ; Q. M., G. B. Kiser ; serg., A. M. Brenneman ; chaplain, Rev. J. M. Wonders ; officer of the day, A. M. Thomas ; adj., H. J. Fisher ; officer of the guard, Samuel McCoy; Q. M. S., Jno. M. Kepler; serj. maj .; H. S. Lockart. Officers elected annually. V. Phipps, Samuel Mc-
5II
ELK TOWNSHIP.
Coy, Rev. Wonders, and George B. Kiser have been retained in the offices to which they were first elected.
Amos Kiser, W. R. C., No. 55, was organized in Shippenville October 18, 1886, and meets in E. A. U. Hall the first and third Mondays of each month. Officers at present are Mrs. H. S. Lockart, pres .; Mrs. W. N. Wilson, sen. vice- pres .; Mrs. Jacob Shull, jr. vice-pres .; and Maggie Black, sec.
W. C. T. U. of Shippenville was organized May 6, 1886, by Mrs. J. S. El- der, of Clarion, and Mrs. Mayer, of Allegheny. It meets every two weeks around in the neighbors' houses.
Sons of Veterans, No. 188, was organized in Shippenville April 27, 1887, with ten charter members ; organization meets in E. A. U. Hall the first and third Wednesdays of each month. Frank F. Fisher was elected captain at the first meeting.
Pitch Pine is a little village built on an eminence formerly covered over with pitch pine trees, from which it took its name, in the northwestern part of the township. It contains one blacksmith shop, two stores, and eight or ten dwellings, all built within the last fifteen years. The post-office here, named Haynie, was established in April, 1887, and J. R. Sandrock appointed post- master. First house here was built by John Swab.
Furnaces .- There were four furnaces in the township, named as follows : Shippenville, Mary Ann, Deer Creek, and Elk.
Schools .- The first school-house in what is now Elk township, was built of logs in 1825. It was located in Shippenville, just below the present site of the Shaffer Hotel. In a few years this one was abandoned and another log build- ing erected on the hill near the grave-yard. There was also a log house built about two miles north of Shippenville, on Fryburg road, near Jacob Kahle's. These, like other early school-houses in the county, were used for holding pub- lic worship, debating clubs, etc.
At present there are ten public schools in the township. The buildings are all in good repair and seated with patent furniture. At Shippenville there are two buildings-one for the primary and one for the advanced grade. During the winter of 1866-7, the highest average wages paid for teaching in the town- ships of the county was paid in Elk township. James Richardson, W. N. Wil- son, Jno. R. Black and others, have for several years been actively interested in the schools.
Churches .- Lutheran Congregation .- On August 27, 1823, the site of the present cemetery was purchased from Henry Shippen. For thirteen years services were held in the grove by missionaries, or in the school-house built on the west side of the lot. In 1836 a rude church was erected here, but was never completed or dedicated. It was supplanted by the present commodious building, completed and dedicated in 1844. Though there were a few families of Lutherans who arrived at an early date, yet no organization was effected
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HISTORY OF CLARION COUNTY.
until 1836. The first regular located pastor here was Rev. G. F. Ehrenfelt, who remained four years. It was during this period that dissension took place in the congregation, and most of the German element withdrew and organized under Rev. Brasch. This dissension, in connection with the financial depres- sion in the iron interest at that time, left them with a church debt which remained until 1852, when the church was sold by the sheriff to J. Black, sr., for $500. It was re-purchased and deeded to the trustees of the congregation in 1854.
On June 5, 1845, the Pittsburgh Synod held its first convention here. Rev. Jacob Steck was president, and preached on the following Sabbath.
Rev. Ehrenfelt's successor was Rev. S. D. Witt, who remained as pastor nearly six years, and was removed by death while on a visit to Ohio. The following were the remaining successors : Rev. J. G. Ellinger, one year; Rev. J. B. Lawson, four years; Rev. Bechtell, three years; Rev. J. B. Fox, four years; Rev. J. F. Deittrich, four years; Rev. P. Geen, one year; Rev. C. S. Coats, three years; Rev. A. C. Felker, one year. On March 16, 1878, the division of the Salem pastorate was effected, and the Shippenville charge formed by uniting St. Mark's of Ashland and Zion's of Shippenville, and Rev. J. M. Wonders became their pastor. He is still serving them faithfully, being the tenth year of his pastorate. The Zion congregation at present numbers one hundred and thirty members, with a prosperous Sunday-school of one hundred and seventy scholars.
M. E. Church .- There are four M. E. congregations in the township. The one at Shippenville was organized first in 1844. The next one organized built a church near Pitch Pine. When this building became dilapidated and a new one was to be built in 1882, the members could not agree on the location, and as a result two new congregations were organized, and each built a house of its own in 1882. Pitch Pine congregation was organized by W. J. Barton, and church was built in their village. Rev. Mr. Gearhart is their present pastor. Haven congregation was organized by Rev. J. Bell Neff, and their church was built in the same year, a mile or so south of Pitch Pine. The M. E. church at Elk City was built in 1876. Of the circuit including Shippenville, Elk City, and Haven, Rev. H. A. Teats is at present, and has been for the past two years, their pastor, and Rev. J. Bell Neff served the three years immediately preced- ing Rev. Teat's pastorate.
U. P. Church, in Elk City, was built in 1876, and afterwards sold at sheriff's sale. Rev. Mr. Robinson, of Brookville, has control of it at present, and is its pastor, preaching here only occasionally.
The writer wishes to acknowledge the courtesy of Mr. John Kiser, Rev. J. M. Wonders, Captain Phipps, John R. Black, Jesse Berlin, and others, for the history of this township.
A LITTLE. PHILA
A. L. Siegwar
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FARMINGTON TOWNSHIP.
CHAPTER LIII.
HISTORY OF FARMINGTON TOWNSHIP.1
F ARMINGTON is the largest township in the county, containing over forty square miles, about one-fourteenth of its whole area. It is pre-eminently the lumber region of Clarion county, but is fast being stripped of its wealth of pine and hemlock, thus compelling the inhabitants to bestow more attention to agriculture. Perhaps nature endowed it with this abundance of wood as a compensation for depriving it of mineral carbon. It enjoys the distinction of having the most timber and the least coal of any township in the county.
Farmington township is abundantly watered by Paint Creek, Toby Creek, and Tom's Run on the south ; and Coon Creek and Walley's Run on the north. In its northeastern and most elevated quarter the plateau or Big Level which characterizes it, is most noticeable. This in many parts presents the rare spec- tacle of a perfect level, without any familiar Clarion county hills climbing to the horizon.
Tom's Run was so called after a Cornplanter of that name who used to en- camp on its banks. This camp was situated on the old Samuel Boyd farm, and in 1837 it still remained in a state of good preservation. The course of this run was a favorite route for the Indians in traveling from the northern forests to Jefferson county.
The township (first called Deer) as erected in 1806, by the Venango county commissioners, Samuel Dale, John Andrews, Thomas Beard, was entirely differ- ent in scope from the present Farmington. Its northern boundary then was an extension of the present north line from warrant 3337 west to the continua- tion of the Paint-Elk boundary, which was its western limit as far south as the tract line bisecting Knox township. That line to its end, thence north to the northeast corner of tract No. 3681, thence by its northern boundary and its prolongation east to the northeast corner of 3682, formed its southern limit. Its eastern was the north and south line extending thence to warrant 3337, the place of commencement.
So it may be seen that the original township embraced the western half of the present, together with the northern half of Knox, and the eastern two- thirds of Washington. The remaining half of the present Farmington was occupied by Toby's Creek township. It will be perceived that the outlines of the old Farmington township have undergone extensive changes, the most im- portant, that of striking out Toby's Creek township and annexing it to Farm- ington, as well as other alterations, occurred while they formed a part of Ve-
1 It probably received its name from Farmington, a town in Maine.
514
HISTORY OF CLARION COUNTY.
nango county. Its subsequent curtailment by the erection of Washington and Highland townships, was in Clarion county.
Farmington township, being the most remote from the bases of the civiliza- tion of this county, and lying off the State road, was the last to be settled. Its settlements may be described as three, viz., Scotch Hill, Tylersburgh, and the Wilderness : we will take them up in their order.
About 1815 James McNaughton moved out from the Highland homestead and commenced an improvement on a spot immediately southwest of the vil- lage of Scotch Hill, and now the property of D. Steiner.
James Anderson, a native of Scotland, who had married a daughter of Al- exander McNaughton, about 1820 cleared a little farm, and settled alongside of his brother-in-law. Anderson was a man of broad Caledonian accent, marked personality, and with a great deal of native force, which only lacked culture to have given him a more than local distinction. Joseph Porter and William Townley came to that vicinity soon after Anderson.
In 1836 George Alsbach, a native of Union county, purchased the Ander- son tract for $1,500, and removed to it with his family from Shippenville. The surrounding country north, east, and south was a howling wilderness. Mr. Alsbach soon replaced the two log cabins, and the half barn of the same ma- terial, "which required props to keep it from falling," by more comfortable and modern frame dwellings. In the spring of 1851 Mr. Alsbach laid out a portion of his farm in lots and called the prospective village Scotch Hill, to commemorate its former occupant, Anderson, and his neighbor, McNaughton. At the same time he erected a storehouse and opened a store in it, making the first sale July 1, 1851. In the following October a mail line was estab- lished between Clarion and the new village. John Cook, on the east at the mouth of Tom's Run, and David Gilmore, on the west at Little Toby, were pioneer lumber and mill men.
Nicholas Waley, John Moore, and David Reyner were the pioneers of the western and Tylersburgh section. The two former, brothers-in-law, came from Madison township in 1824, and David Reyner in 1828, from the present Washington township. He was originally from Lancaster county, and as a member of the Lancaster land syndicate had acquired large possessions in Washington and Farmington townships. He resided on the farm now owned by Mrs. C. Downing, a mile and a half south of Tylersburgh. Waley and Moore settled in the same vicinity, a little further south, and formed the advance posts of the Vogelbacher settlement. Their farms now belong to their descendants.
Further north the earliest were Robert Killen, Henry Cornish, John Wal- ters, A. J. Anderson, Jesse G. Butler, and William Chambers, all coming in the thirties and forties. William Chambers (formerly of Shippenville) owned
David Bowman
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FARMINGTON TOWNSHIP.
a large tract of land in northwestern Farmington, and in 1844 he plotted a town on it, calling it Tylersburgh, after President Tyler, then at the head of the government, and whom Chambers greatly admired.
In 1831 the solitude of the wilderness in the northeastern portion of the township was broken by James Black, who came from Sugar Creek, Armstrong county, and settled on the homestead near North Pine Grove. The country abounded in game of all sorts, deer, bears, wolves panthers, wild cats, wild turkeys, and pigeons, besides the smaller species. The streams were alive with trout. Within a year or two came his brothers, John and Patrick Black ; Thomas Meagher, Charles and Dennis Boyle, David McDonald, Thomas Wal- ley, Robert and Archibald Haggerty, David Griffin, Henry McNairney ; soon after these, William Wilkinson and Arthur McCloskey; the latter, with his family, came from Philadelphia in 1835. These settlers were all Catholics, the majority of them from Butler and lower Armstrong counties.
They erected a hewed log church on land bought from the Binghams and adjoining the McCloskey farm, in 1836; but before it was completed a severe storm blew it down. No church was then built till 1848, when a frame church was erected near the site of the present one. In the mean time Father O'Neill, of Sugar Creek, and a few other priests attended the spiritual wants of the settlers at their cabins. In 1868 the present commodious brick edifice was commenced, under the instigation of Father Koch. It was completed in 1871. There was no regular resident priest till the present one, Rev. P. Cosgrove, was appointed; the church being visited by the various missionaries who attended the Catholic congregations in the county. Under Father Cosgrove's pastorate a neat parsonage was built, and the old church converted into a school, taught by the Benedictines. "Lepanto" is the name of the church and settlement, as designated by the bishop of the diocese. The now populous, although wide-spread, settlement presents now well cleared and tilled farms. The country is well opened by rail and wagon roads. The conveniences of life are easily within reach, and the name " Wilderness," as applied to it, has lost its significance.
Tylersburgh is a pleasant village of about two hundred inhabitants. It contains a Presbyterian Church, which was organized in 1850. Leeper, or Tylersburgh Station, two miles distant from the village, is the most important commercial and shipping point in the township. It derives its name from Mr. Charles Leeper, of Leeper, Arnold & Co., whose lumber siding intersects with the P. and W. R.R. here.
Scotch Hill has two large general stores, and its population is one hundred and fifty. Vowinckel, the site of Vowinckel's mills, is a promising little rail- road station in the extreme northeast corner of the township; it took its rise simultaneously with the mill in 1883. Black's Corners (North Pine Grove P.
516
HISTORY OF CLARION COUNTY.
O.) is a hamlet near its eastern Forest county line. Cooksburg lies partly in Clarion county, at the mouth of Tom's Run. In 1850 the census of Farming- ton township was 1, 124; in 1870, 1,642, and in 1880, 2,185.
CHAPTER LIV.
HISTORY OF HIGHLAND TOWNSHIP.
T HE settlement of this township was clouded by a calamity which, however obscure the victims and remote the scene, appeals to human sympathy as one of the most pathetic of backwoods incidents. - Purcell was the first inhabitant within the present limits of Highland township, building a cabin on what was afterward the McNaughton farm. He came from the east, but little is known of him, and the date of his arrival cannot be ascertained. The family consisted of a wife and sister-in-law. He was killed by the falling of a tree, near where the corn crib on the Helen Furnace farm now stands. The soli- tary women were of course unable to extricate his body, and the poor widow traveled on foot, over the State road, to the nearest white settlement, Hol- man's1 on the Allegheny, nineteen miles distant, to get assistance for liberat- ing and burying her husband's corpse.
It is likely that this ill-fated pioneer had been a resident of Centre county, for Alexander McNaughton, of that district, bought the widow's right-it was Bingham land-helped her to remove from the place, and in April, 1806, set- tled with his family on Purcell's improvement, now the property of S. Wilson's heirs, at Helen Furnace. He was a Scotchman by birth ; had emigrated, mar- ried an Irish woman in Philadelphia, and removed to Bald Eagle Valley, Centre county, where he was engaged in transporting and marketing iron from the eastern furnaces and forges, and whence he came to the wilds of Venango county. His family, at that time, was composed of his wife, five sons, Samuel, James, John, David, Daniel Alexander, and two daughters, Margaret and Anne, and a domestic, Betsy Harris-a splendid auxiliary force for pioneering. These are now all dead. Daniel, the last survivor, died a few years ago. The father, mother, three of the children, and Betsey Harris (Mrs. P. Drysler) sleep in the little cemetery at Helen.
McNaughton and his five sons cleared a large tract and prospered fairly. The father distributed portions of the homestead plantation among his sons.
1 Now Tionesta.
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HIGHLAND TOWNSHIP.
The Clarion township pioneers were not far distant and were reached by a for- est trail; but along the State road for many years the nearest settlements were Holmans on the west and Port Barnett on the east. The arrival of the Kapps and Siegworths, Washington township colonists, brought civilization one step nearer. Later came John Vogelbacher. All these immigrants halted awhile at McNaughton's pioneer cabin, and it must have seemed a very haven of rest after their long and solitary journey over the wilderness-girt State road. And here we may remark the important bearing which the existence of this road had on the opening-up of the north.
There were two Indian camps within the bounds of Highland township on the arrival of Alexander McNaughton. The largest was at the State Road Ripple; the other stood on the present George Bittenbender farm. The rela- tions of the early settlers with these dusky sons of the forest were amicable, and they were not unpleasant neighbors. Betsey Harris once witnessed an Indian wedding at the Ripple. Not long after the coming of the McNaugh- tons, the Cornplanters all decamped. Occasionally after that Indians would pass along the road on hunting expeditions, and in 1820 a party of sixty men and four squaws passed en route to Jefferson county to hunt, returning in the winter.
McNaughton's cabin was a stopping-place and inn for travelers and immi- grants on the State road. During the War of 1812 great numbers of militia men from the eastern part of the State, passed over this highway to and fro, and many encamped on McNaughton's farm. Among these was the company to which belonged James Bird, who was executed for desertion at Erie, Octo- ber, 1814, just before the arrival of the messenger bearing a pardon, and whose lamentable fate is the theme of a ballad well known in olden times. “High- land Alex," as was his familiar title, was also an auctioneer, and used to travel miles to act in that capacity.
McNaughton, after some years, was followed by a man named Waterhouse, who settled near by, on the Henry farm. He did not remain. George Han- hold, from New Jersey, came soon after to the farm of Samuel Gilmore. After having raised a family there, he sold the farm and returned. David White- hill, the next settler, originally of Centre county, came from Armstrong county in the spring of 1817, and cleared the farm on which his descendants now live. Alexander Criswell emigrated from Centre county to McNaughton's Mill in 1819, but lived there a short time before departing for the State of Indi- ana. His eldest daughter, Hannah, married Daniel McNaughton, and is still living at the age of eighty-eight. In 1820 William Reed came from Holman's Island, in the Allegheny, to the present farm of Joseph Porter. Alexander Porter removed the same year to the land now occupied by Louis Franz; and about the same time two Irish families, those of David and James Boyd, located, the former on the Duncan McNaughton farm, the latter on that of Paul Mahle .. 56
518
HISTORY OF CLARION COUNTY.
John Reed, in 1821, moved to a tract now occupied by the farms of Isaac Im- hoof and others. The descendants of William and James Reed are very numerous. Thomas Cathers settled in the township next, and after him came John Callahan (a Dunkard) in 1827, from Bedford county. Then the region began to fill up more rapidly.
Churches and Schools .- The Methodists were the first to organize a church here. In 1828 or '29 one Johnson formed a class, but private dwellings and the open air were used for service and preaching till 1843, when a meeting- house was erected near Criswell's, now Girts's mill, on Little Toby. Since a Methodist Church was built at Helen Furnace. Rev. - Frampton is the present pastor. The Presbyterians, having organized in 1841, built a place of worship in 1842 and '43 on the J. Hulings farm, styled the Greenwood Church, of which William McMichael was the first minister. This was destroyed by fire and another erected ; a few Dunkards in the neighborhood assisted in its construction, and sometimes held meetings in it. Later a church was built on the William Reed farm (Shiloh Church), and the old building was sold. The Shiloh Church has no regular pastor. These two, the Presbyterian and Metho- dist, are the only churches in the township.
The township's earliest school was built about 1823 on the present property of Duncan McNaughton ; David Boyd, on whose farm it stood, was the first pedagogue. Boyd was succeeded by Joseph Reid, from near Reidsburgh. The next school-house was erected in 1833 on the farm of William Boyd, and was first presided over by Miss Mary Ann Arthurs. There are now four schools in Highland township.
The first flouring mill was erected by Alexander McNaughton about 1815, on the Girts property on Little Toby. Alexander Criswell, from Centre county, built a saw-mill for McNaughton in 1818. It stood near the grist-mill.
After the State road, the Clugh road, in 1822, was the first highway opened. It led from Clugh's Ripple to Helen Furnace, and afforded communication with the lower settlements. About the same time a road was made from Rupert's grist-mill in Elk township to Alexander McNaughton's farm.
Alexander McNaughton kept the first place of public entertainment. About 1836 William Beers started a tavern on what is known as the Paul Neely farm. The next was at Millcreek Eddy, about 1845, by Harrison Hall. Highland township is at present destitute of hotels.
Helen Furnace was erected at the State and Clarion road crossing, on the old McNaughton farm, by Robert Barker, and Wilson S. Packer, in 1845. The property passed into the hands of Samuel Wilson, who ran it till 1857. The Wilson family have been prominently identified with the material interests of this section. The builders named it "Highland " Furnace in honor of Al- exander McNaughton, who prided himself in being a Highlander, but the word being pronounced after the Scottish dialect "Hieland," the name was
519
KNOX TOWNSHIP.
corrupted to "Helen" -Furnace, leading to the erroneous supposition that it was christened with a feminine name. The name of the township has the same origin ; it is commonly, but incorrectly, pronounced " Helen " township.
Highland township was politically erected in 1848, out of portions of Paint and Farmington. The original Paint township included all but its northeast- ern angle, but afterward, in the reconstruction of the eastern Venango county townships, Paint was retrenched, and Farmington made to form a much larger portion of the present township of Highland.
The line as established in 1848 by Surveyor J. K. Maxwell, started from a post at the Clarion River and was continuous for its full length with the pres- ent Paint-Highland line, which also divides the Holland and Harrison territory, and with its extension into Knox township, till it reaches the northwest corner of Warrant 3681, marked by a rock, thence ran due east by the Gray lands to a post, thence south by the same to a post, thence east by lands of Barber and Packer and David Whitehill to a post, thence southeast to the Clarion River at a post. A considerable section of Highland township was cut off in 1853, to assist in forming Knox.1
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