USA > Pennsylvania > Columbia County > History of Columbia County, Pennsylvania. Sponsored by the Columbia County Historical Society and Commissioners of Columbia County. Volume One > Part 6
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In the earlier days, great masses of shad swam up the Susquehanna, and other north-east coast rivers also. They sought the small headwaters to spawn. From the very first the pioneers learned from the Indians to net shad. Early in the spring it has been told that watchers reported the coming of the shad in great masses like a sparkling wave crest advancing up the river. Soon nets were placed. Special fisheries were located near Catawissa, nine or more places above the mouth of Fishing Creek up to Mifflin rapids. At least two were in the vicinity of Berwick. After the Berwick bridge had been built, in 1814, the fish seemed to shun the shadow of the bridge and jammed into what seemed a solid mass of fish that could be shoveled out. Nets were placed. Numerous reports like the following are recorded: Hauls at the Boone fishery above Bloomsburg were so immense that great quantities could not be disposed of and the surplus was scattered on the fields for fertilizer. At a Luzerne county fishery, farther up the river, and therefore not so good as those in Columbia, 10,000 shad were taken in a single haul. People came to the river from all points to buy fish, bringing in exchange produce of every description -- corn, meat, peach cider, whiskey, mead, and other produce. From the tenth of April to the tenth of June almost every man, woman, and child within twenty miles of the Susquehanna feasted and fattened on fresh shad, and every family salted down from one to three barrels for use during the remainder of the year. In 1800 a price of $18.00 per hundred weight was quoted. Of course prices fluctuated, but gradually became higher as the fish became scarcer. At Catawissa in the early 1800's shad were bartered for salt at the rate of six cents each. Seining was forbidden on Thursdays, in order to allow some fish to get through to spawn. There were other types of fish that were also of great value, sturgeon, and others, but not to compare with great quantities of shad. Dams in the river, and later various forms of river pollution have destroyed this valuable food fish for our river. If modern principles of conservation of resources had been applied, pigeons might still be important. The earlier shad would have remained as a resource as valuable, probably, as the salmon of the west coast rivers, adding every year to the wealth of Pennsylvania.
Although there might be plentiful food at times, in general, conditions were hard. This was true for the labor on the part of all but the very youngest. It was gruelling, at times, literally killing.
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Ch. IV
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Ingenuity Fostered
The pioneers had very little -- very little in the way of furnishings, tools and implements, and help. It was necessary to make the best with what they had. Mussel shells might serve as spoons. Hollowed out gourd shells served as cups and possibly other uses. Wooden implements, whittled and fashioned around the winter fireplace, served for various utensils, especially rakes, and hay forks. Dishes were wooden. A plain board, possibly hollowed out slightly, served perhaps as a common dish. It was called a "trencher". A hearty feeder at the table is still called a good trencherman. Of course, living in a cabin made of logs and getting what food they could from forest and stream, was also getting along with what they had.
This lack of tools and implements and the scarcity of labor led the pioneer to contrive and invent. The pioneer passed down a tendency of the American to be inventive and ingenious.
Basic Needs
Certain things the pioneer had to have, but could not provide for himself: metal implements and tools, not forgetting his gun; salt2, not only for its savor but as a preservative; gun powder and lead for bullets; suggest such needs. These and others could not be provided until two advances had been made: (1) more products which the pioneer farmer could sell or trade and (2) means by which the goods could be transported back and forth from or to distant markets. These improvements also came little by little. We will find out first about the increases in products for trade or sale. We can realize better how great this need must have been if we recall that in many cases the pioneer had used most of any money he had in the purchase of his land and in getting himself and family with their few belongings transported to the frontier. Securing Commodities for Trade: Pot Ash
The very first work provided an article for sale or exchange. The great amounts logs burned in clearing the land resulted in large amounts of wood ashes. A container such as a barrel or a hollowed tree trunk in about the size of a barrel was secured. An opening must be provided at the bottom, if not already there, which was covered over with a plentiful matting of straw. The whole outfit was placed over a sloping trough. The container was filled with wood ashes. Water was poured over it repeatedly. The result was that an alkaline solution was leached out. This solution dripping into the trough was led to another container. This solution produced lye, useful in making soap. If the solution was evaporated, a greyish powder resulted, called pot ash. If dissolved and filtered, and then evaporated again, a better grade, called pearl ash resulted. Both of these products were in demand in the cities and in foreign trade, as well as in the home communities. From every ten acres of forest land cleared, a ton of pot ash might be secured, worth about two hundred dollars. This alone was enough to pay for clearing the land. Pot ash was an important frontier product for many years.
2The Lick Runs of Pine and Locust Townships suggest that there were some traces of salt at certain locations.
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Ch. IV
Grain and Whiskey
As more and more land was cleared and crops produced, there was a surplus of grain over and above what the family needed. The grain crops were usually wheat, corn, and rye. Large crops were secured from the virgin land. Rye and corn were fed to the live stock and when ground up, wore used for food for the family in the form of coarse bread, cakes, or porridge. The wheat was saved to be sold.
Grain was bulky for transport for any great distance. It might sell for fifty cents a bushel and only a bushel or two could be transported by a pack horse. Wiskey sold for $1.90 to $2.50 per gallon and a bushel of grain would make three gallons. Peach brandy, apple "jack", and mead might also be made for sale.
Salt Meat
As the amounts of livestock increased, especially hogs, there would be meat that could be smoked or salted down. This surplus made a trade item. Hides from slaughtered live stock and larger game, deer and bear, and the pelts from fur bearing animals also provided trade articles. Grist Mills and Flour
Improved means for production meant that there would be more goods for trade. Not for long did the pioneer put up with gritty flour ground or pounded from crude mortars and pestles in Indian fashion, nor with the tedious labor required in such production. Trips to Sunbury or Wilkes- Barre were long and time consuming by canoe or pack horse and the amounts that could be transported too small. Experienced and skillful millwrights soon arrived and "harnessed" the water power of our numerous streams to the heavy grinding stones, "buhr" stones, hewn from native rock found in our region. The machinery needed to be especially designed in each case to the amount of the stream's flow and the fall or "head" available at each mill site.
As early as 1774 a crude mill seems to have been constructed at Catawissa. It was often out of repair.' By 1800, one or more mills were constructed on each of our creeks and their more important tributaries. The lower reaches of our largest creek, Fishing Greek, were not "harnessed" until later. Being the largest, the difficulties of constructing a dam and the other mill works were greator.
In 1827 Samuel Boone,4 built the Aqueduct Mill and the locally famous Boone's dam to provide the necessary water power. At one time or another there were an estimated forty-three mills in operation in the county. Streams or main
Largest number Operating Tributaries
have been
operating at in
constructed 11
one time 8
1958
Roaring Creek
3
Briar Creek
12
4
2
Catawissa
8
5
2
Ten Mile Run
4
3 0
Fishing Creek & Branches 35
27
12
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3Levi Aikman about 1780 had to send his son past Catawissa to Sunbury to have a bag of grain ground, Ch. III, p. 7.
4Samuel Boone was a Quaker, and also a nephew of Daniel Boone, the famous frontier pioneer and scout of Kentucky.
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Ch. IV
Most of the mills now operating have been changed to use some other kind of power, steam or electricity. Some still use water power in part, although the stream flow is not as dependable now. In the summer, especially the reduced flow caused the closing of many mills.
But going back to the early days to learn how the grist mills helped to "lift" the early settlers out of pioneer life: More and larger farms meant more farm products to sell. It was not many years until large amounts of flour were being sent to the southern and eastern markets. Logs into Lumber
Water power was soon utilized to save another type of labor. The early carpenter squared logs with broad ax and adze, both heavy tools. The adze, with its hoe-like form and operated with strokes toward the worker was extremely dangerous and resulted too frequently in painful and maiming accidents. Boards were sawed out by two men using a two-man saw. One man worked above the log; the other in a pit underneath the log. It was hard work, and especially dirty for the man that had to work with the saw- dust falling on him. Many grist mills were also saw mills, some were prob- ably established in that form. James Masters may have built the first sawmill in the county on Spruce run in modern Madison Township. The date given is 1788. The following early mills were both grist mills and saw- mills: John Cleaver near the mouth of Roaring Creek, 1787; Thomas Linville in modern Slabtown,5 1789; William Rittenhouse built a mill a mile or so up the Briar Creek, 1800. These early saw mills consisted merely of an up-and-down saw operated by a simple mechanism attached to the water wheel. There was a device to advance the log after each stroke. Several saws might be arranged in a "gang" so that two, three, or more planks could be sawed at one time. With saw lumber becoming plentiful, there was now lumber that could be sold.
Lumber Floated Itself to Market, and Cargoes too
The lumber of the forest surrounding the pioneer was of great value, if it could only be gotten to the markets where it could be sold. Soon the North Branch settler adopted the plan that had been used before on the Delaware and other eastern rivers, and was to be used for many years to come on the rivers to the west. This plan was to float the lumber down the rivers and have the floating lumber carry frontier products as cargo. Canoes
In 1771 the Provincial Assembly of Pennsylvania passed a law requiring that the Susquehanna should be considered a navigable stream. This meant that no dams or obstructions could be placed in it. The first navigation was by canoes. In 1772 Ellis Hughes at Catawissa contracted to make a dugout canoe forty feet long, three and one-half feet wide and eighteen inches deep. For this he was to receive five pounds and ten shillings, a job that was to take about forty days of work. Such a canoe could carry seventy-five, a hundred, even a hundred and fifty bushels of grain. Birch bark canoes were lighter and not much used in the southern and central parts of the state. Soon rafts and larger boats replaced the canoes, rafting being the earlier.
5The slabs resulting from the operations of this mill have given one of the names used by the pretty village that developed here.
"Circular saws were not invented until 1805, were not in general use until much later.
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Ch. IV
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Rafts
We do not know when the first rafts were floated down the North Branch, but in 1796 thirty rafts passed Wilkes-Barre. The first rafts were probably entirely of logs fastened together. The timbers were pine logs, sixty or eighty feet long, in great demand for spars and masts for sailing ships. Timbers squared by hand or by early mills were fastened together in a squared raft. On such rafts a shanty might be constructed as a shelter for the raftsmen and a considerable cargo of frontier produce carried. Often they might be hitched end to end and two side by side. Plank rafts, twelve or sixteen feet square with each course or layer of planks laid side by side and the whole raft consisted of eight or ten of such courses criss-crossed on top of each other. These also might be combined to make & longer raft in "single" file, or two-by-two. Large two-man oars were placed, one each, at front and back, for steering.
Arks
The next improvement was to construct flat boats of heavy planks. Sometimes called arks, they might be fifty or more feet long, about fifteen feet wide and would probably draw from eighteen inches to two feet when loaded. It was guided as it floated down current by two great oars, one each at front and back, each oar worked by two men. Arks seventy feet long seem to have been built in the 1820's or earlier, "at the deep hole" in Fishing Creek at the western end of Bloomsburg, from which the completed boats could be floated to the river. Costing $60.00 or more when completed, such a boat contained 6,000 board feet or more of two-inch planks. An ark might carry 1600 to 2000 bushels of wheat, $1600; 400 to 450 barrels of flour, $2000; or 100 to 120 barrels of whiskey, $3000. Durham Boats
It was not long until the traders of the Susquehanna adopted the Durham boat, designed first for the Delaware river traffic and first constructed at Durham on that river. Sixty feet long, eight feet wide, and two feet deep, when loaded with fifteen tons of cargo, it drew only twenty inches of water. A boat for the Susquehanna was necessarily of shallow draft. Guided by oars, it floated down river. Occasionally sails were fitted, especially for up-current, for this boat was designed to come back upstream. Its main form of propulsion was polers, who set iron pointed poles in the river bottom and pushed as they walked from bow to stern. Walking ledges were built along the gunwales. Besides using sails or poles, they might be "bushwhacked", which meant that the men on the boat grabbed branches along the bank and pulled on them as they walked toward the stern. Or long towing ropes were used by men on shore hauling the boat. Again, a long rope was fastened to a tree several hundred feet up stream. Then those on board would haul in the rope either by hand or by windlass. Are we surprised to learn that rivermen needed to be strong and hardy!
Down river thirty or forty miles might be made with the current. Up river, six or eight miles might be made in a favorable day. It might be only two. However, like rafts and flat boats, Durham boats might be broken up at their down river destination for the lumber that they contained.
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Ch. IV
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The River Traffic
Rapidly melting snows hastened by rain, meant rising waters in the spring . Now the rafts, or boats that had been labored over by farmers and boat builders up the little tributaries, were readied on high banks and in back eddies. Barrels of flour, grain, whiskey, pot ash, salt meat, lumber, especially in the forms of barrel staves and headings, and also shingles were loaded. Hay was sometimes shipped. The experienced "skippers" waited until the freshet has passed its crest. This meant that water was flowing back into the channel from the flooded lowlands and tended to keep the floating cargo carrier in the channel. For a week or ten days, at freshet time only, therefore, for fifty or sixty years, the watchers on the banks would see continuously large numbers of these craft floating down the river, coming in from the many creeks. Rafts predominated at first. Soon large numbers of flat boats were to be seen. Towards the middle of the century, only a broader type of Durham boat was used for cargo, although rafting on the Susquehanna as a means of transporting logs and large timbers continued for a number of years after 1850. There might be a summer freshet. A fall freshet was usually counted on. Accidents from the hazardous rapids on the river resulted in a loss of boat or raft and its cargo in about one out of every twenty ventures. Lives were lost, too. Arks seem to have been more of a hazard than other types for one out of three of these craft might be lost.
A record from 1826 indicates the extent and value of this trade: $1,037,000
1037 arks, value, 164 keel boats, (somewhat lighter than Durham boats, provided with a keel. Also speedier than Durham boats) 164,000
1090 rafts of lumber 327,000
$1,528,000
Columbia County Participates
There are records to show that our region joined heavily in this traffic. William McKelvey and John Barton were the largest dealers in grain at Bloomsburg and usually shipped the ark and its cargo. Both were sold at the down river destination. Wharves of dealers and wholesalers were located at Berwick. From a Danville newspaper of 1824, when Danville was in Columbia County, we learn that 100,000 bushels of wheat, 3,000 bushels of clover seed, 3,000 barrels of whiskey, 250 tons of pork, and a small amount of lumber were sent down the river by means of arks and rafts. Land Traffic: First Roads
The rough Indian trails, improved here and there by the occasional efforts of immigrating settlers, were soon to be made over by organized work. Berwick and Catawissa took the lead. In 1787 Evan Owen secured the contract for the construction of a road from the Lehigh region to Nescopeck. This was completed in two years. Sixteen years later heavy expenditure was incurred in grading and leveling it. The Tioga Turnpike was undertaken in 1806 and was completed north across Lee and Huntington mountains through Jonestown to Towanda by 1818. The first bridge across the river in our vicinity, and one of the first on any part of the Susquehanna, was completed at Berwick in 1814.
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During the same years roads were being constructed south from Catawissa: The Old Reading Road was built along the southern side of Catawissa Mountain in 1789. In 1804 and 1805 other roads connected Catawissa with Slabtown and from there across the southern mountain ridges. Another branch led to Bear Gap and thence southeast. Other improved roads, and especially those north of the river were slower in coming, for the most part. However, roads developed here too. In 1778 there was a road of some sort from Northumberland to Wilkes-Barre. Traffic was sufficient on this road to warrant the establishment of a hotel midway between Berwick and Bloomsburg. By 1801 there was a road from Buckhorn through Frosty Valley. At an early date there were roads from Berwick to Milton and from Bloomsburg to Muncy, possibly as early as 1820. The iron ore of Hemlock, discovered in 1822, was hauled to the Roaring Creek furnace for over twenty years. There must have been a road for such use. A road across the Mount Pleasant hills from Bloomsburg to the Greenwood valley had been surveyed as early as 1798. This was the
only road to those ' portions of the county until 1856. That year the Legislature made appropriations for a road from Bloomsburg north through the valley of Little Fishing Creek. Previously the Klines at Orangeville had opened a road from Light Street. This was gradually extended by the settlers up the valley of the bigger creek, although exact dates are not known. Bloomsburg and Berwick both became junction points for stage lines. Jerseytown and Buckhorn were points of importance on the Muncy line, while Jonestown was important on the Towanda line. Such roads were passable in the summer; in the winter and spring they became almost impassible. "The wheels of the vehicle sank in the mire to the hubs. When further progress became impossible, the impatient passengers alighted unceremoniously .... and assisted the team in surmounting the obstacle .... Sometimes a fence rail was hastily improvised .... to pry the wheels from the mud." With what effect on the clothing of the passengers, we can only guess. We can also imagine the jolting of coaches lacking any but the most primitive of springs.
With these changes, the settlers could get their products to market in ever increasing amounts. They had, therefore, the means to secure many more needed supplies by buying or exchange. The things they could buy in turn, improved household implements and farm tools, made them more productive.
Continued Flow of Settlers to Columbia County
These improved roads meant also that it was easier for new settlers to come. The region continued to build up with new settlers in the years immediately following the Revolution, 1783 to 1800, and for the thirty or forty years following in the nineteenth century.
Routes from the south converged at Bear Gap. From this point many additional settlers of German origin settled in the Roaring Creek Valley. These came largely from the vicinity of Reading and Lancaster. Other Germans from the lower valley of the Lehigh River came to the Nescopeck- Berwick terminus and spread from there into the Beaver valley. These two valleys were settled predominately by Germans. German descendants are widely distributed in the county, more so south of the river than north.
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Ch. IV
However, Dutch valley is appropriately named, undoubtedly being a corruption of "Deutsch" (Doich), meaning German, and applied because so many German (Deutsch) were settled there. Frosty Valley also received many of this industrious people. Many settlers from New Jersey came to Madison township, a fact perpetuated by the name of its principal community, Jerseytown. The Scotch Irish with their first representatives in the McClures of Bloomsburg also contributed importantly, especially in the northern section as repre- sented by the MicHenry family. English settlers also contributed, although in smaller numbers. Revolutionary soldiers came, some veterans of the patriot forces, some former members of the English forces. Some former prisoners of war captured by the patriots, both Hessian and English, settled here. For instance, Benjamin Fowler, a British soldier, captured when Cornwallis surrendered at Yorktown, was a settler who gave his name to Fowlersville. Settlers from New York, Ohio, and Virginia also built up our county. On account of the conflict with Connecticut a considerable number of settlers were brought to the Berwick and the eastern border regions of the County in Briar Creek, Fishing Creek, Benton and Sugarloaf townships. The up-the-river route and the Chillisquaque-Spruce Run route also continued to give access to the settled regions and as means of travel for incoming settlers.
More settlers meant that the region would provide buyers for merchants and patrons who would employ all manner of craftsmen. In fact, in our region, as elsewhere certain persons bought land because they believed that they could sell it to such merchants and tradesmen. Should we call them speculators or community builders?
The Town Planners - Evan Owen
Evan Owen is an especially good example of such far-sighted men who risked considerable money and were especially energetic and industrious. After being discouraged with the swampy appearance of the land in the vicinity of the mouth of Fishing Creek, Owen chose high land near the "falls", really rapids, above the mouth of the Nescopeck Creek, at the terminus of a route from the south. In 1786 by his own efforts he laid out the main streets. He marked out the lots within the blocks thus formed. He presented building lots to the first churches. Being a trained surveyor, he did not need to hire someone else to do this work. In the following years he went to the region of the lower Lehigh and Delaware rivers and tried to sell his lots. We can be fairly sure what his sales talks were like, although we actually have no record of them. They must have gone something like this: "The North Branch country is rapidly being taken up. All kinds of artisans are needed. Any skilled industrious workman will soon have all the work he can do. Owensburg is splendidly located on high ground just at the end of the well traveled road from the Lehigh river across Broad Mountain to the valley of the Nescopeck. We have a ferry now and will have a bridge before long. Traffic up and down the river will also stop to transfer for trade at our splendid place." Can we not almost hear him saying, "There is not a better place on the whole North Branch, than right there at Nescopeck Falls." Whatever he may have said as a salesman, he was successful in inducing numbers of people to settle and lay the foundations for modern Berwick.
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