USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 47
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The Clarion Mines are situated in Snyder township, two miles east of Brock- wayville, on the Toby Branch of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Coal and Railroad Company. The mines were opened in July, 1885, on what is known as the "Sibley Farm," and are operated by the Northwestern Mining and Exchange Company. The daily capacity of the mines, one year after ope- rations were commenced, was seven hundred tons of coal, employing about three hundred miners and outside hands. During the year 1886 one hundred and eleven thousand six hundred and fifty-seven tons were shipped to end of November month ; the daily capacity being one thousand tons or sixty cars. The seam of coal, which is known as the Lower Freeport, runs from three and a half to six feet thick, and the workings are somewhat irregular. The coal is a good quality of steam coal, and is mostly consumed on railroad locomotives. During the year the company has erected over fifty dwellings for employees, and a number of stores, etc., have been built by others in the vicinity, making quite a town at Crenshaw, where a year ago there was but one house.
The company owns about four thousand acres of coal land in the immedi- ate vicinity, and another opening called "Clear Run Mines," is being made about a mile from Clarion Mines, and close on the county line of Elk. These
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HISTORY OF BROOKVILLE.
mines at the close of the year 1887 will have about the same capacity as the Clarion Mines, and there will therefore be about one thousand to one thou- sand two hundred tons of coal going out daily from this territory. The mi- ners at both these mines are paid at the rate of forty and fifty cents per ton, according to the height of the coal mined.
They use a fan for ventilation in one drift, and a furnace in the other two. They have one locomotive, and one stationary engine, and make all sizes of coal, but have no coke ovens. The officers of the company are Samuel Himes, president ; D. Robertson, superintendent ; Russell Wentworth, engineer; and Ira Smith, clerk. The company's store is under the management of Stull & Co.
The company also operates the Toby Mines on the same railroad about ten miles east in Elk county. This coal to the amount of about twelve hundred tons daily, passes through Brockwayville, making the latter place quite a coal shipping point.
CHAPTER XXXII.
HISTORY OF BROOKVILLE.
T was seven years after Joseph Barnett set up his " household gods " at Port - Barnett, before the county of Jefferson was erected ; and it was not until a quarter of a century more had passed, that the new county arose to the dignity of having a county-seat of its own, and was taken from the fostering care of Indiana county, and allowed to attend to its own business.
By an act of assembly passed April 8, 1829, " John Mitchell of Centre, Rob- ert Orr of Armstrong, and Alexander McCalmont of Venango county, were appointed commissioners to locate and fix the site for the seat of justice for the county of Jefferson." These gentlemen met on the first Monday of Septem- ber, 1829, at the house of Joseph Barnett, and located the county seat at the confluence of the Sandy Lick and its North Fork (Little Brier), where they form the Redbank Creek, and to this place they gave the name of Brookville. The name was given from the number of springs and brooks flowing from its hills. To the word "Brook," the French term ville, a country-seat, or in English, a town, was added, making the name " Brookville." Attention was at once at- tracted to the new town as the following notices published at the time proves, and the present prosperity of the place will show whether the predictions made over a half century ago have been verified :
49
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
" 1830.
1 " Brookville :- The spot selected by the commissioners as the seat of jus- tice for Jefferson county, and confirmed by act of assembly, etc., has lately been laid out in town lots and out lots bearing this name. At the sale which took place last week, town lots were sold from $30 to $300 each ; the last day's sale averaged above $50, without including a mill-seat sold for $1,000. Procceds of sale will no doubt be sufficient to build a court-house. This may be con- sidered high rate for lots, most of which still remain in a state of nature-but the advantages and prospects of this new county town attracted a crowd of strangers. Persons were known to be present from twelve neighboring coun- ties. The location of Brookville is a good one, and it has been judiciously laid out by Mr. Sloan, the artist. It is situated on the Susquehanna and Waterford turnpike, forty-four miles east of Franklin, and immediately at the head of Redbank, which is formed by the confluence of the three branches of the Sandy Lick at this point. Redbank has in general a sufficiency of water for steam- boats on the Blanchard plan. The Allegheny steamboats could visit Brook- ville were it not for the obstructions created by a few mill-dams. Brookville must become the place of deposit for the iron manufactured in the counties of Centre and Clearfield, designed for the Pittsburgh market. The lands of Jef- ferson county are of much better quality than is generally supposed, by those who have formed an estimate by merely passing through them. Large bodies are exceedingly well adapted to the culture of small grains. Should this vil- lage spring up as rapidly as it bids fair to do, it may be considered an acqui- sition to the interests of the Northern turnpike road."
2 " Brookville p. t. and st. of jus. of Jefferson county, situated on the Sus- quehanna and Waterford turnpike road, 44 ms. S. E. from Franklin, 238 N. W. from W. C., and 165 miles from Harrisburg, and immediately at the head of Redbank Creek, which is formed by the confluence of the three branches of the Sandy Lick at this point. Redbank has commonly sufficient water for steamboats on the Blanchard plan. At the sale of the town lots in June, 1830, the lots brought from 30 to 300 dollars each. The proceeds of the sale were destined to pay the expenses of building the court-house. It is supposed that this new town will become the place of deposit for the iron manufactured in the counties of Centre and Clearfield, designed for the Pittsburgh market. The first building was put up in August, 1830. There are now here about 40 dwellings, a brick court-house and offices, 4 stores and 4 taverns."
3 " Brookville, the county-seat, is situated on the Waterford and Susque- hanna turnpike, 44 miles east of Franklin, and immediately at the head of Red-
1 Hascard's Register, 1830.
2 Gordon's Gazetteer of the State of Pennsylvania, 1832.
3 Day's Historical Collections, 1843.
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HISTORY OF BROOKVILLE.
bank Cr., which is here formed by the confluence of three branches.1 The town was laid out by the county commissioners in 1830: the lots were sold in June of that year at from $30 to $300 per lot, and the erection of houses commenced soon after. The place now contains about 50 or 60 dwellings and stores, a large brick court-house and public offices, and a Presbyterian Church. The town is watered by hydrants, supplied by a copious spring in the hill on the north. The scenery around the town would be fine were it not that all the hills, except on the north side, are still clothed by the original forest of pines, being held by distant proprietors, who will neither sell nor improve. Popula- tion in 1840, 276. The great State road, called the Olean road, between Kit- tanning and Olean, passes through the county, about seven miles west of Brookville; north of the turnpike, however, this road has been suffered to be closed by windfalls, and is not now used."
The First Settlers .- The first person who located in what is now Brook- ville, as far as can be ascertained, was Moses Knapp, who has already been no- ticed as one of the first settlers in the county. He built a log house about the year 1801, at the mouth of the North Fork, and afterwards built a log grist- mill at the same place. At this place six of his children, John, Amy, Josiah, Moses, Clarissa and Joseph, were born, the first in 1807 and the latter in 1818. Mr. Knapp had eleven children, of whom the majority are living. In 1821 he purchased a quantity of land from the Holland Land Company in what is now Clover township, upon warrants numbered 3,082 and 3,200, which included the ground upon which the present village of Dowlingville is built.
One of the first to locate in Brookville, after it became the county seat, was John Eason, father of Mr. David Eason. Mr. Eason had removed from Lycoming county to the Cherry Tree, in Indiana county, but not liking that location, when the town of Brookville was laid out, he attended the first sale of lots and purchased the lot at the corner of Main street and Spring Alley, where he erected one of the first, if not the very first, house in the place, in 1830, and opened it as a hotel as soon as it was completed. Mr. Eason died in 1835, when his son David was about three years old, and his widow, nec Catharine Darr, afterwards married John Smith, who came from Carlisle in 1831, and kept a small store located on Jefferson street, on the tannery lot.
1 All these writers speak of the three branches of Sandy Lick. This is erroneous as Mill Creek does not extend to Brookville, but empties into Sandy Liek at Port Barnett, and the Five M.I . Run which must be the third branch referred to, empties into Sandy Lick in Rose township. S that it was only Sandy Lick and the North Fork, or Little Brier, that formed Redbank. In all the of 1 histories and maps of Jefferson county, Redbank is not found in Jefferson connty, until it flows into Armstrong, it is called Sandy Lick. Mr. Jordan says : " I have again looked over leckwelder's Indian notes, and I fail to find that he has recorded any 'Redbank,' in any part of the States of New Jersey, Dela- ware, Maryland or Virginia, as well as that of our own, and such being the case, I must incline to the opinion that he only knew of the ' Sandy Lick,' or crossed it in his travels. In the Delaware tongue, Sandy was or is Leganwi-a lick, mahoni-also Sandy. Leganwi-creek hanne-these for Sandy Lick and Sandy Creek."
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY
He was elected sheriff in 1842, and also served several terms as justice of the peace. 'Squire Smith, as he was called, built the house now occupied by his daughter, Mrs. Florence Christ. Mr. Smith died June 3, 1866, aged 63 years, and his wife August 5, 1878, aged 78 years.
The next to locate in Brookville was Benjamin McCreight, who was born in Indiana county, in 1801. He learned the trade of a tailor, and as soon as his apprenticeship was finished he set out on foot to look up a location. He journeyed through the unbroken wilderness and at length came to the site se- lected as the county seat of Jefferson county, and in the spring of 1830 he built a small log house on the eastern half of lot No. 57, on Main street, the site of the new post-office building. He worked away, clearing his lot and plying his trade, as new settlers came into his neighborhood, until the next spring when he returned to Indiana county, where March 1, 1831, he was mar- ried to Eliza Hunter, and the young couple at once came to the home already prepared, in Brookville, and went to housekeeping. Their house was in the midst of dense woods, and the poor bride must have put in some lonely hours, and it was no wonder that when a few months later, Mr. and Mrs. Dougherty arrived and located near them, that they received the newcomers with the deepest joy. Although only about half a square separated them, the interven- ing lots were heavily wooded, and only the glimmer of the light of a candle could be seen through the trees. Mis. McCreight told the writer that no one could imagine the good it did her when she first saw a light in Mrs. Dough- erty's window and realized that she had a neighbor. Mrs. Dougherty, too, often reverted to the same fact, and recalled the home-like feeling that the "light in the window " caused. The intimate friendship thus established be- tween those two families was unbroken, until death severed the strong tiesthat bound them to each other. In old age the friendship of their youth was re- newed, and they loved to recall the days of early pioneer struggle and priva- tion that they endured together.
Mr. McCreight held a prominent place in the early history of the county and in 1847 was elected treasurer, and held the office of county commissioner for two terms, besides filling the different borough offices. After living a short time in his first home he built a frame house on the western half of lot No. 56, and about 1842 built the brick house on the western half of lot number 57, where he resided until he died. Twice did this impregnable building pass through a fiery ordeal, coming out from the fires of 1856 and 1871 almost un- scathed, the fire fiend devouring the buildings on all sides of it. It was torn down in the summer of 1887 by D. C. Whitehill, who now owns the property, the McCreight heirs having sold it after Mr. McCreight's death, and where he is erecting a brick business block and residence. Mr. McCreight, besides working at his trade, opened at an early day a general store. He also loved farm work, and had quite a little place in good cultivation, comprising what is now " McCreight's " addition to Brookville.
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HISTORY OF BROOKVILLE.
Mrs. McCreight died January 26, 1879. She was born in Centre county in 1809, and was a most estimable woman. Mr. McCreight died August 3, 1883. Their daughter Elizabeth, now the wife of W. D. J. Marlin, was the first white child born in Brookville. She resides on the same lot where her parents built their second house. Two other daughters, Rachel, wife of Dr. Robert S. Hunt, and Matilda, wife of E. Heath Clark, and one son, Craig Mc- Creight, all reside in Brookville. A number of children died in infancy.
Mr. McCreight, like his neighbor, Mr. Dougherty, was a man of sterling honesty, and by his early patient toil and energy was able to spend his last days in plentiful ease.
Another who attended the first sale of lots in Brookville, June 30, 1830, was John Dougherty, a native of Donegal, Ireland, where he was born in 1800. He landed in 1823 in Baltimore, with only twenty-five cents in his pocket. Mr. Dougherty came over from Ireland in the same ship with Robert McIntosh, one of the first settlers in the Beechwoods, and Rev. Boyd McCul- lough says of them : " He, Mr. MeIntosh, always spoke of the prominent Ro- man Catholic with the greatest kindness, and Mr. Dougherty never mentioned the Presbyterian elder but with the highest respect."
Soon after his arrival in this "land of the free," he went to work on the Erie Canal at Buffalo, N. Y., and here had the misfortune to "fall among thieves ;" for the contractor for whom he worked absconded and he got no pay for his labor. From Buffalo he went to Freeport, where he worked for a while, attending school at night,-the only schooling he ever received. As soon as he had saved enough money, he bought a pack of goods and set forth to ped- dle ; then he got a horse and wagon, and was known all over this region of country as " Cheap John." In 1829 he started a store near Millville, in Arm- strong county, at the " Red House." He was the first Catholic to locate in that locality, and it is related of him that when he first came there he stopped with Mr. John Mohney. It was on a Friday, and on his refusal to partake of the meat and sausage offered him, Mr. Mohney asked him whether he was a Jew. " No," said he, " I am a great deal worse than a Jew; I am a Roman Catho- lic."
At the sale of lots in Brookville he bought quite a number, and in 1831 he removed to Brookville and built a small log house on the lot corner of Main and Barnett streets, where he lived until he built the frame hotel on the corner of the same lot. This house he kept for five years. It was a popular hostelry, and for a long time his sign of " Peace and Poverty, by John Dougherty," at- tracted the attention of travelers. In 1840 he was appointed postmaster at Brookville, very much against his wishes.
Mr. Dougherty had married Miss Grace A. Kerr, of Westmoreland county, her home being about three miles from Mount Pleasant, in October, 1830, and the fol- lowing year brought her to Brookville. In 1832 he moved his store from Milh ille
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
to Brookville, into a small building which stood upon the site now occupied by the American House. In 1836 he left the hotel and moved into a small frame house opposite the American, built by Joseph Sharp. He owned the ground now occupied by Marlin's opera house, and in 1840 built a large brick building there, in which he resided until 1871, when he moved to the property adjacent to the home of his daughter, Mrs. Kate D. Marlin, where he had built a home for his old age, and where he died September 18, 1875, in the seventy- fifth year of his age, and his estimable widow followed him November 15, 1879. They are both buried in the Catholic cemetery at Red Bank, Clarion county.
When Mr. Dougherty first came to Brookville he purchased a tract of land east of the borough limits, and sold half of it to Dr. James Dowling. The agreement was, that the doctor was to divide the land and then Mr. Dough- erty was to have his choice of the divisions. This was done, and Mr. Dough- erty selected the west half, and the doctor the portion adjacent the borough, where he made his home.
Mr. Dougherty was a man of strong opinions, and ardently wedded to his religious and political beliefs. The history of the Catholic Church relates how much he did for its establishment in Brookville. Mr. Dougherty was always a rigid temperance man, and while working at Buffalo, soon after his arrival in this country, he frequently suffered on account of his abstemious habits. The rest of the workmen would " get on a spree " on Saturday, after they quit work, and because of young Dougherty's refusal to join them he would fre- quently receive a thrashing at their hands.
The upper rooms of his house were also used for jury rooms, until the court-house was erected. An unswerving Democrat, he was exceedingly out- spoken in his views, as was also his friend, John J. Y. Thompson, who, a few years later, resided across the street in the American House, and many and bitter were the arguments in which these two indulged. Thompson was just as strong a Whig as Dougherty was a Democrat, and it was no unusual sight to see the latter pacing up and down the pavement on his side of the street, loudly proclaiming his views of the political situation, bringing his cane down, frequently, by way of emphasis ; while on the opposite side, Judge Thompson, with his thumbs in the armholes of his vest, and bare headed, was just as elo- quently arguing his side of the question. Each would be determined not to yield until he had the last word, but it generally ended by the judge indig- nantly exclaiming : "Dod dang it to dangnation, Dougherty, I'll not to talk to such a man as you," and then he would stride into his own door. But for all this " war to the hilt," on political subjects, and their frequent abuse of one another, they were warm friends, and when Mr. Dougherty heard of Judge Thompson's death he shed tears of sorrow and regret. A man of strong dis- likes, and just as strong in his friendships, his sterling honesty detested shams of all kinds.
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HISTORY OF BROOKVILLE.
Thomas MeElhany Barr came to Brookville in 1830, and was one of the first citizens. He was born in 1803 in Dauphin county, near Harrisburg. When he was quite young his father, Alexander Barr, who had emigrated from the north of Ireland, removed to Laurel Hill, Indiana county, and from that place to Preble county, O. About the time Thomas M. became of age, he returned to Pennsylvania and worked at his trade of bricklaying, and came to Brookville the year the town was laid out. One of his first contracts was for the brick work on the old court-house ; he also done the brick and stone work on the old stone jail, the academy, the First Methodist Church, the first American Hotel, Railroad House, the Truby residence, now owned by Mrs. Sarah Means, the Jesse G. Clark building, now owned by Mrs. Amelia F. Hen- derson, and in fact all the older brick buildings in the town ; and to-day some of them stand as monuments to his honesty as a mechanic and contractor.
In 1833 he married Sarah Corbet, the ceremony being performed by Rev. Cyrus Riggs, then pastor of the old Bethel Church, already referred to in this work. Nine children blessed this union, of whom six survive, two of whom- Mrs. Naney E. Wensell and John E. Barr-reside in Brookville, the latter on part of the old homestead property on Water street.
Mr. Barr first resided in the old " Lucas house " on Jefferson street, oppo- site the present United Presbyterian Church, and then built the house on Main street, now occupying the site of B. Verstine's building, which he sold to Richard Arthurs. In 1847 he built the house on Water street, where he re- sided until his death, July 4, 1884, in the eighty-first year of his age. Mrs. Barr preceded him to the grave, dying July 5, 1877, in the seventy-first year of her age. She was born in Lewistown, Mifflin county, came to what is now Clarion county when but a year old, and in 1832 her father, William Corbet, moved to a farm near the present village of Corsica. Mr. Barr was a consis- tent member of the Presbyterian Church, where his seat was seldom found vacant. A man of sterling integrity, he shunned strife, and it is said of him that in all his busy life he was never a party to a lawsuit.
Gabriel Vasbinder was born in Jefferson county, his father being Henry Vasbinder, who came from Tuscarora Valley about the year 1807 and settled on the Nathaniel Butler farm in Pine Creek township. The family consisted of Andrew, Gabriel, Harmon, Doty, and Jackson, Peggy, Caroline, Nancy, and Juliana.
Henry Vasbinder, of whom mention has already been made, died in 1868, at the age of sixty-eight years, and was buried in the grave-yard at the Jones school-house. Gabriel Vasbinder's grandfather, John Vasbinder, who came to this county in 1802 or 1803, was buried in the grave-yard on the Harris farm. Gabriel came to Brookville about the year 1835 and drove stage for Levi G. Clover and John Pierce, and afterwards for Smull, and Benjamin Bennett. The route was from Brookville to Bellefonte, three times a week. He also in 1835 drove the stage from Berlins (in Venango county) to Franklin.
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
The first house Mr. Vasbinder lived in in Brookville was the Thomas Lucas house, while he was building his present residence, on Jefferson street, which he erected in 1842, and where he has resided forty-five years. After his early stage driving, he teamed until 1868, when he was awarded the contract for carrying the mail between Brookville and Mahoning, and run a stage from that time until the railroad was completed, in 1873, since which time he has been the proprietor of one of the omnibuses carrying passengers between the depot and the town. In 1857, in connection with his son, Isaac, he was in the mercantile business until burned out in the fire of 1871.
Mr. Vasbinder has seen many of the changes in this county, and can well remember the early days of pioneer life. He can recall the Indians, who were once quite numerous. On one occasion, when a small boy, he had been sent on an errand to his uncle, William Vasbinder, who lived on what is now known as the Kerkman farm, and encountered two Indians going in the same direc- tion, each with a saddle of venison on his back. Noticing that the little boy was afraid, the friendly red men went on their way, and never looked back after they passed him. Mr. Vasbinder remembers often being sent to the old Knapp grist-mill, on the North Fork, there only being one house between his father's house and what is now Brookville.
William McCullough was the first blacksmith who located in Brookville, building a shop and dwelling on the lot now occupied by the Baptist Church, in 1830. One of the first improvements was the digging of a well on the premises ; and it was scarcely finished when his cow fell into the excavation and broke her neck, and being unable to get her out, Mr. Mccullough filled the well up. Mr. Mccullough, or " Uncle Billy," as he was called, was an original character. He was great on an argument, and would scarcely ever yield a point, generally clinching the argument with " By the Jew's eye, sir, I know what I am talking about !" He was very fond of the chase, and loved to relate his hunting exploits. He was an excellent shot, and was on that account selected as one of Berdan's celebrated sharp-shooters. Mr. McCul- lough was a strong Union man, and though past the military age, could not be deterred from enlisting. His aim was unerring, and it is said that at the battle of Bull Run " he was known to have killed seven rebels, one after the other."
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