USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 4
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
traveler had to travel on foot, or on horseback, over an Indian trail, with only the " blaze on the trees " to guide him, and the stars by night. Mr. Barnett at one time carried sixty pounds of flour on his back from Pittsburgh. The usual way of getting supplies was to run a raft of sawed lumber to Pittsburgh in the spring, and take a canoe along, which was loaded with what was needed, and then poled, or pushed up the river, and then up Red Bank to Port Barnett. To obviate this difficulty of getting breadstuff, Mr. Barnett, .about the year 1801, put up a small grist-mill, using the native stones for " buhrs." This mill was used for several years, and was patronized by all the settlers for miles distant ; the Indians, also, who cultivated small patches of corn on the creek bottoms, whenever they could find a clear spot to plant it, also patronized Mr. Barnett's mill. The old " toll chest " used in this mill, and which " tolled" the first grist ground in the county, is still in the posses- sion of Mr. Barnett's grandsons, Thomas and Milton Graham, of Eldred town- ship. Mill Creek, on which stream these mills were built, took its name from their being built upon it. Mr. Barnett's house was the first "tavern" in the county, and for years all travelers, white as well as Indian, stopped with him. His Indian guests did not eat in the house, but would in winter make a pot of mush over his fire and set it out in the snow to cool, " then one fellow would take a dipper and eat his fill of the pudding, sometimes with milk, butter, or molasses, then another would take it and go through the same process, until all were satisfied. The dogs would help themselves from the same pot, and when they put their heads in the pot in the Indian's way he would give them a slap over the head with the dipper." The early settlers had little or no trouble with these Indians, who came and went as they pleased for a number of years, until the too rapid spread of civilization drove them all away.
Joseph Barnett worked on untiringly at his mills, and by his hard labor had gained what in those days was considered a fair competency. He in time built a larger house, and besides being the first hotel-keeper, was the first merchant in the county. He is said to have been a fair-looking man, five feet eight inches in height, and would weigh over two hundred pounds. He was always of an affable, frank disposition, and was honest and strict in his dealings. He was an earnest Presbyterian, and carried his religion into his business and daily life. Having been brought up to observe strictly the ordinances of his church, it is related of him that he took his children to Indiana, a distance of forty miles, to have them baptized. Mr. Barnett lived to see new settlements spring up all over the county, churches and schools organized, roads laid out, and Brookville, the county seat, already taking on the airs of a new city. He also held several offices of trust and responsibility, being the first postmaster in the county ; a post-office being established at Port Barnett, and so called, January 4, 1826, and Mr. Barnett appointed postmaster, which office he held until September 10, 1830, when the office was removed to Brookville. Mr. Bar-
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EARLY SETTLERS.
nett died at his home at Port Barnett on the 15th of April, 1838, having re- sided there for forty-one years. His wife did not long survive him, dying about four months after he passed away. Mr. Barnett was in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and his wife sixty-five years when they died. They were both buried in the old graveyard at Brookville. They had ten children, all of whom, except Thomas and Sarah (twins), John and Andrew, were born in this county. Sarah married Elisha M. Graham; Rebecca, the first white female child born in the county, married Nathaniel Butler ; Margaret married John Lattimer ; Juliet, the youngest child, married Ebenezer Carr ; J. Potter was the first male child born in the county. Of these children John, J. Potter, Andrew, and Juliet removed to the Western States, and all died there. The rest lived and died in this county. Thomas died in 1827, and his twin sister, Mrs. Sarah A. Graham, lived until her ninety-fifth year. Mrs. Graham was a remarkable woman, as vigorous in intellect as she was in bodily strength, and was well fitted for the stirring life that she had been destined to live, and the part she was to take in the early settlement and building up of this county, with the history of which, for almost ninety years, she was closely identified. She was in all respects a very helpmeet, indeed, for an olden time pioneer. A woman of strong principles-inherited from her worthy sire-an earnest Chris- tian, and of a bright, sunny disposition, she enjoyed life until her sun went down in this world to usher her into the brighter radiance of the better land. She took a deep interest in all public matters, and read the newspapers of the day, so that she kept herself posted in all that occurred. Born amid the stir- ring scenes of the frontier dangers, the daughter of a soldier of the Revolu- tion, she lived to see her own son go out to fight for the same flag in the War of the Rebellion, to see that rebellion crushed, slavery abolished, the grand centennial celebrated, before she was called hence. The venerable lady loved to recall the early days of Jefferson county, and we reproduce here a paper contributed by her to the Jefferson County Graphic in August, 1877.
" As a number of people have been bothering me in regard to the early settlement of this county, I will try and answer them through your columns. I was born in Pine Creek, in Lycoming county, in the year 1790. All I remember of that place is that my father, Joseph Barnett, had a saw-mill there about the year 1794. My uncle, Andrew Barnett, took a trip to French Creek. His route led him through the wilderness of this county, which was then the home of the Indian ; the panther, bear, and deer and wolves, were as plenty as dogs now are in Brookville. He chose for his home the place where Port Bar- nett now stands. Andrew Barnett, Samuel Scott, John Scott, and a man named Arthurs, came out there and erected a saw-mill on Mill Creek, near where Humphrey's mill now stands. My father returned home in the fall, leaving Scott and my uncle to finish some work. My uncle took sick and died here, and was buried on the north bank of the creek at the junction of Sandy
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
Lick and Mill Creek. There was only one white man and two Indians at his funeral. In the year 1796 Samuel Scott, Moses Knapp, and James Boatman came out, finished the mill, and sawed some lumber. In the spring of 1797 my father moved into the wilderness. I was then seven years old. The first white child born in the county was J. P. Barnett. The next family that came here was Peter Jones. He settled on the farm now owned by John McCul- lough, and the next was Mr. Roll, who settled on the farm now owned by John S. Barr. Then came Fudge Vancamp (negro) and built his cabin on the farm now owned by John Clark, and then Adam Vasbinder, who settled on the farm at the present time owned by Thomas Harris; William Vasbinder pitched his tent on the Kirkmon homestead ; Ludwig Long put up his wigwam on the place now owned by Mr. McConnell ; John Dixon came next. He was our first school teacher. The school-house was first built on the McConnell farm ; built of round logs, with oiled paper for glass; as everything we used had to be carried from the settlements on horseback, glass was too easily broken to try to bring it so far. The second school-house was built on the south side of the pike, at the forks of the Ridgway road. Here the first graveyard was laid out, and the first person buried in it was a child of Samuel Scott. There were a number buried in this graveyard. I do not remember the name of the next family that came, as the county began to settle pretty fast, and mills were erected on the different streams. About the year 1807 my father built a saw- mill on Sandy Lick, between where Garrison's and Bellport now are. This, a number of people think, was the first mill built in the county, but, if I have not lost a leaf from memory's book, there were three or four other mills built be- fore that one.
" Now, reader, as I have stated, I was seven years old when I came to this county, you will find that I have lived eighty years in the county. I have seen the Indian give way to the white man, the pack-horse to the wagon, and the wagon to the railroad. I remember the screams of the panther, and the howl of the wolf as things of the past, and in a few years more, I will, as they, be gone forever."
Samuel Scott, so often mentioned as one of those who came with the Bar- netts, and whose skill constructed the first saw-mill in Jefferson county, resided in the county until 1810, when, having, it is said, " scraped together by hunting and lumbering about $2,000," he went to Ohio and settled in the Miami val- ley, where he bought a section of fine land, which eventually made him quite wealthy.
The present citizens of Jefferson county have reason to be proud of the record of the early settlers, those who laid the foundation of all that is good .- and great in our county. They were true to the cause of liberty in the dark days that tried men's souls. We have already told of Joseph Barnett's service in the War of the Revolution, and in this connection would mention another
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EARLY SETTLERS.
family whose destinies were entwined with his-the Grahams. John Graham, the patriotic ancestor of the Graham family, was born and raised in Scotland, where he fell in love with an heiress named Janet Caldwell. Her father ob- jecting to his suit, the young couple fled into Ireland, where they were mar- ried. The fruit of this union was a son, also called John, who, hearing such glowing accounts of the New World, emigrated to the " Land of Penn," and settled on a farm in what was then Dauphin county, where he married Miss Martha Miller. At the commencement of the Revolutionary War he enlisted in the Amercian army, and after being in a number of battles was captured by the British at the battle near Flushing, on Long Island, and held a prisoner for two years in New York city, where he was approached by British agents, who promised him pardon and reward if he would renounce his American senti- ments and take up arms for the king; but his patriotism could not be bought, " even for a crown." He was at last paroled and returned to his home. While Mr. Graham was in the service, in the autumn of 1777, the "big runa- way " 1 took place on the Susquehanna River. But his wife and children es- caped with the other settlers. In their fearful trip down the Susquehanna the canoe, in which Mrs. Graham had placed her children and such of her house- hold goods as she could bring with her in her flight, was upset, and all the contents submerged in the river. One of the relics preserved from that peril- ous time is an ancient Concordance of the Bible, which is still safely preserved by the descendants of the intrepid dame, and which yet shows the effects of the baptism it then received. It is a very ancient work, probably the first of the kind ever published.
About the year 1812 Mr. Graham removed from Crawford county to Jef- ferson, locating on the farm in Eldred township now owned by Colonel S. J. Marlin, where he died in 1813, and was buried on the hill east of Brookville, as it then was, on a lot now owned by W. C. Evans. Mr. Graham was a mem- ber of the Covenanter Church, and a strict disciplinarian. His son, Elisha M. Graham, was born in Dauphin county in the year 1772. When he came to manhood he engaged in taking out, and running to market, masts for ship building-running them down the Susquehanna River to Havre de Grace.
1 " In the autumn of 1777 Job Gilloway, a friendly Indian, had given an intimation that a powerful descent of maurading Indians might be expected on the headwaters of the Susquehanna. Near the close of the season the Indians killed a settler on the Sinnemahoning. In the spring of 1778 Colonel Ilunter, of Fort Augusta, sent word to Colonel Hepburn, commander of Fort Muncy, at the mouth of Wolf's Run, that all the settlers in that vicinity should take refuge in Sunbury. Col- onel Hepburn was ordered to pass the notice on to Antis and Horn forts. Such a sight was never seen before as this convoy from all the forts above. Boats, canoes, hog troughs, rafts made of dry sticks, every sort of floating article had been put in requisition, and were crowded with women, children, and ' plunder'-there were several hundred people in all. Whenever any obstacle, at a shoal or riffle, the women would leap out, put their shoulders to the boat or raft, and launch it again into deep water. The men of the settlement came down on each side of the river to guard the women and children. The whole convoy arrived safely at Sunbury, leaving the entire line of farms along the West Branch to the ravages of the Indians."-Historical Collections, Pennsylvania.
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
When, about the year 1797, a colony was formed in Dauphin and Lycoming counties, called the " Big Emigration," for the purpose of locating on French Creek, Crawford county, young Graham joined the expedition. They loaded their effects in canoes and transported them to a point on the Sinnemahon- ing, where they were taken overland by pack-horses to the Allegheny River, and again loaded on canoes and carried down the river to French Creek, and up that creek to a point near Meadville. He remained here until 1804, when he came to Port Barnett, and went to work for Joseph Barnett, working on the mill, running lumber, etc., until 1807, when he was married to Sarah Ann, eldest daughter of Mr. Barnett. In 1821 he moved on to a farm in Union township now owned by Sheridan Mccullough, where he remained until 1830, when he removed to Eldred township, where he resided until his death in 1854. Mr. Graham came very near having to be a soldier, as his father had been before him, as he was "pressed into service " by Colonel Bird in 1812, but after being detained at Waterford some two weeks, was allowed to return home. He was clerk for the first board of county commissioners, and served for court crier for several years. His venerable widow survived him until Oc- tober, 1885, having lived to the great age of ninety-five years.
One of the pioneer lumbermen of Jefferson county was Moses Knapp, who came with the Barnetts from Lycoming county, in 1796 or 1797. He was a young man of about nineteen, and an adopted son or protégé of Samuel Scott, who was a millwright, and from whom young Knapp, having a good deal of mechanical skill, soon mastered the rudiments of that trade. A year or two after, he left his friends at Port Barnett, and built a mill for him- self on the North Fork at the head of the present mill-dam of T. K. Litch & Sons. In the fall of that year he went to Indiana, where he attended one term of school, and there became acquainted with Miss Susan Matson, a daughter of Uriah Matson, of that place, and before he returned they were married, and he brought her with him to his mill, where he put up a cabin and went to house- keeping. Here in 1801 Polly, the eldest of eleven children, was born, followed by Isabel and Samuel. He, after a few years, sold his mill and "betterments" to Samuel and William Lucas, and built another cabin for himself at the mouth of the North Fork, and then built another saw-mill on what was then known as Knapp's Run, now called the Five Mile Run, near where the " Blaine mill " now stands. This mill he also sold to Thomas Lucas, and then built a log grist- mill near his residence, where the North Fork empties into Red Bank. This mill had one run of rock stones. The water was gathered by a wing dam of brush and stones ; this dam extended up to where the road now crosses Litch's mill-dam, and the water was brought into a chute that passed it under a large " undershot " water-wheel, with a " face-geer" wheel upon the water-wheel shaft, " mashed " into a " trundle-head " upon the spindle which carried the re- volving stones, and comprised the primitive propelling machinery. Mr. Knapp's
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EARLY SETTLERS.
mill was often taxed to its utmost, and though the flour produced did not equal that produced to-day by the "roller-process," the early settlers were glad to get it, and brought their grists on horse-back to be ground, for twenty and thirty miles around. Some of our oldest citizens still remember this old log grist-mill. He resided here from 1807 until 1818. His future operations will be noted under the head of Clover township.
Soon after these pioneer settlers had struck the first blow with the ax in our forests, other settlers commenced to come into this region. Peter Jones first followed the Barnetts. John, William, and Jacob Vasbinder came from New Jersey and settled on Mill Creek, about three miles from Joseph Barnett, in the year. 1802 or 1803. John Matson came in 1805 and settled on the farm where his son, R. L. Matson, now resides.
The first improvement made where Corsica now stands was by John Scott, who moved from Lycoming county in 1802. He afterward married a daugli- ter of Paul Clover, one of the pioneers of Clearfield county. John and Archi- bald Bell settled in the southern part of the county in 1809; soon afterward came Archibald Hadden and Hugh McKee; Jacob Hoover in 1815 settled on the present site of Clayville ; Carpenter Winslow settled on what is now known as the "Winslow homestead " in Gaskill township in 1818. About the same time Abram Weaver, Rev. Charles Barclay, Dr. John W. Jenks and Nathaniel Tindell, with their families, and Elijah Heath, came to Punxsutawney ; Jesse Armstrong and Adam Long were also among the first settlers in this locality. About 1818 or 1819 David, John, and Henry Milliron settled on Little Sandy, near where Langvillle now is, and about the same time Henry Nolf built a saw-mill there. In 1820 or 1821 Lawrence Nolf settled on Pine Run near the present village of Ringgold. About 1818 John and David Postlethwait settled in what is now Perry township; James McHendry, James Bell and several others moved into the Round Bottom in 1822.
The first settlement in what is now called Clover township was made at Troy in 1814, by Summers Baldwin, who purchased the land upon which that village is located from the Holland Land Company. Soon after Solomon Ful- ler and John Welch purchased land of Baldwin, and until 1816 were the only settlers in that section. Between this and 1820, Frederick Hettrick, Henry Lott, Alonzo Baldwin, and the Carriers settled in Troy. In 1818 Thomas and John Lucas located at what was called " Puckerty," about three miles from Troy. Then in 1820 James Shields, William Morrison, Hugh Williamson, Samuel Magill, John Kennedy, John Magiffin and John Kelso came from Huntingdon county, and located near Troy.
About the year 1812 some hardy pioneers pushed their way up the Sus- quehanna River, and Sinnemahoning to the mouth of Trout Run, on Bennett's Branch, where one of the number, Leonard Morey, located and built a mill. His companions were Dwight Caldwell, John Mix, and Eben Stevens. About
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
the same time a large tract of land containing some one hundred and forty thousand acres, which had been surveyed on warrants in the name of James Wilson, was sold by State authority to Fox, Norris & Co., Quakers of Phila- delphia, who sent an agent to construct a road into their lands, and build a grist-mill. The road started from a point on the Susquehanna River, passed over Boone's Mountain, crossed Little Toby Creek, without a bridge, where the Hellen Mills now stand, followed the creek about seven miles to the point of " Hogback Hill," up that steep and difficult ascent, and on over the high- lands to a spot which had been selected for a mill site, on what is now called Elk Creek, about two miles from the present town of Centerville. Jacob Wil- son was the first miller, and for many years attended to the wants of the people in this direction. Ofttimes he would have to go from his house, a dis- tance of over a mile, to grind a grist of two bushels of corn, brought on horse- back; but the good old man always did this uncomplainingly, though the poor toll he could take but little compensated him for his trouble.
About this time, also, came James Green with his sons-James, Isaac, John, and William ; William, David, and Elijah Meredith, Josiah Taylor J. R. Han- cock, David Reesman, James Reesman, John Keller, and John Shaffer came with their families and constituted the " Kersey Settlement."
In 1818 Captain Potter Goff, Rev. I. Nicholls, Abija B. Weed, Josiah Mead, John Macomber, Steven Dennison, Benjamin Leggett, Ebenezer Hew- ett, Peter Pearsall, and Elder John Bliss came with their families and settled on Bennett's Branch and vicinity. Elder Bliss, who was a Seventh-Day Bap- tist, was the grandfather of P. P. Bliss, the noted evangelist and musician, whose untimely death in the railroad disaster at Ashtabula, O., a few years ago, was so universally lamented
Shortly after these Consider, Chauncey, and Alonzo Brockway, and some others, came from the State of New York and settled in the same neighbor- hood. In 1817 Joel Clarke, with his wife and sons Elisha and Joel, jr., came from Russell, St. Lawrence county, N. Y., and settled on Little Toby. Milton Johnson and wife came at the same time and settled on a small stream which now bears his name, at the mouth of Brandy Camp. Later in the year Phi- letus Clarke, another son of Joel's, came, also, from Russell, N. Y., and settled on Little Toby. The late Dr. A. M. Clarke, of Brockwayville, a son of Philetus Clarke, and from whose "Recollections" of the early settlement of the northern part of the county we have gleaned the greater part of the early history of that region, gives the following description of their coming to the Little Toby wilderness :
" I was about eleven years old when my father, Philetus Clarke, came from St. Lawrence county, N. Y., into the Little Toby wilderness. The journey was long and tedious ; we moved with oxen in wagons, which were covered with canvas, and gave us shelter from sunshine and storm. I was the oldest
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EARLY SETTLERS.
child, and there were three of us. Sometimes I had to drive the team while my father would support the wagon to keep it from upsetting. The Susque- hannah and Waterford turnpike was being made, and we came along an old road near it to 'Neeper tavern,' about four miles from where Luthersburg now is. I remember the motto that was over the sign-board at ' Neeper':
" ' It is God's will, This wood must yield, And the wildwood turn To a fruitful field.'
" From that place the road was very rough-over the hills and mountains. We could not get through in one day, and had to stop one night at a place where the road-makers had built a shanty, but it had burnt down, and the place was called 'Burnt Shanty.' Our wagon gave us shelter, and a good spring was pleasant indeed. The next day we passed over Boone's Mountain, came to the crossing of Little Toby, near where the Oyster House was built many years after. We pursued our journey onward to Kersey Settlement. My father thought best to examine the lands for which he had exchanged his New York property before going any farther, and was utterly disappointed and disgusted with them. He made explorations in various directions in search of a mill site, and finally concluded to settle at what is now Brockport, where he built a saw-mill, the first ever built on Little Toby. He put a small grist-mill, with "bolts," in the saw-mill, which answered the requirements of the few set- tlers for a while, and afterward built a good grist-mill, which did good service for the people, until the great flood of 1847 carried it off." In 1821 Isaac Horton, Alanson Viall, Hezekiah Warner, and Chauncy Brockway settled on Brandy Camp. In 1821 John S. Brockway purchased at treasurer's sale, at Indiana, the " Henry Peffer tract" on Little Toby, and the next year Alonzo and James M. Brockway moved over from Bennett's Branch and commenced improvements on the land. They had to cut their way five miles down the creek from Philetus Clarke's. They planted fruit trees of various kinds as soon as the land was cleared, and peach and plum trees were soon in bearing. They also made large quantities of maple sugar, raised all their own supplies, and with game in abundance, lived luxuriously for those days. This was the first settlement in what is now Snyder township.
In 1823 Jacob Shaffer located about a mile above Brockway's, on the Henry Sinet tract. This land had been given to Mr. Shaffer by his father-in- law, who had received the grant for services in the United States army. He came all the way from Centre county with his little family in a two-horse wagon. He is represented as a "fine old German gentleman of the olden time," and a "good Democrat-voting for Jackson for many years." He died in 1851. His brother-in-law, Henry Walborn, who came with him, located near by on what was afterwards called Walborn's Run. He soon sold out to Joel Clarke, jr., and went away. In 1824 or 1825 Richard Gelatt and W. F.
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