USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 48
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About 1847 Mr. Mccullough exchanged a saw-mill on Little Mill Creek for the property on Pickering street, where he resided, and where he followed the trade of gunsmith (having quit blacksmithing) until he died in August, 1884, aged seventy-two years. Mrs. McCullough, nce Elizabeth Potter, died in January, 1874, aged seventy-two years. Mr. Mccullough was ten years younger than his wife, but lived ten years longer than she did, making their ages the same when death came.
Thomas Hastings was among the first to locate in Jefferson county. He was born in Huntingdon county in 1797, and in 1818 he married Elizabeth
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Wagner, who was born in the same county in 1799. They removed to Belle- fonte, Centre county, in 1818, where he was elected to the Legislature in 1824, and in 1827 was elected sheriff of that county. In May, 1831, he removed to Brookville, and built the Globe Hotel. In 1835 he removed across the street and started a general store, and also engaged in lumbering. In 1837-38 he was member of the constitutional convention, and established the Back- woodsman about that time. He served one term each as prothonotary and associate judge of Jefferson county. June 6, 1868, Mr. and Mrs. Hastings celebrated their golden wedding. Judge Hastings died in 1871, and Mrs. Hastings in 1880. Three of their children reside in the county : Mrs. Sarah G. Means and Barton T. Hastings in Brookville, and Captain John Hastings in Punxsutawney. The other daughter, Mrs. Ann E. Roundy, resides in Pepin, Wisconsin.
Levi G. Clover, of the firm of Evans & Clover, was a prominent citizen of Brookville for a number of years. He was elected two terms prothonotary of the county, and also associate judge, which office he resigned to accept the position of collector of tolls at Pittsburgh. He was also one of the contractors for State work on the Mountain Division of the Portage Railroad, and was one of the most prominent politicians and business men of his day. He removed to his native county of Clarion, where he died.
William Clark, sr., arrived at Brookville from Blairsville, Indiana county, in October, 1830, and found only two families residing here, and only two resi- dences within the limits of the town, one of which was the hotel of Mr. Eason, and the other the house of William Robinson, who had built a log house and barn on the lot corner of Water and Mill streets, on Water street. Mr. Rob- inson was a brother of Mrs. John Long, but how long he resided in Brookville is not known.
Mr. Clark set about the erection of a hotel at once, and the hotel history of the town given elsewhere will give his record in that respect. He seems to have been a busy, go-ahead man, and aided essentially in the first building up of the new town. After leaving the Franklin House, in 1836, he removed to a farm five miles west of Brookville, which he had purchased of a Mr. Quest, but being then sheriff of the county, to which office he was elected in 1833, he was obliged to return to town to live, as his son, Jesse G. Clark, who was acting as his deputy, not being able, or it being illegal for him to perform some of the duties of the office. He then lived for a short time in the old jail, and in 1835 moved into the Red Lion Hotel, where he ended his official life as sheriff of Jefferson county, which office he held six years. In 1839 he kept the Jefferson House, and in this house he died about 1843. Ilis eldest son, Jesse G. Clark, has already been referred to in the history of the bench and bar.
Another son, William F. Clark, was for many years one of the most prom-
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inent business men of Brookville. In alluding to his business career Mr. Clark says: "I owe much to the encouragement, kind and good counsel of my brother, Jesse G. Clark. He took me from school in 1839 and placed me in charge of his hotel, the Forest House, which he had erected in the new town of Clarion, so that he and his family might return to Brookville."
Within a year W. F. Clark returned to Brookville with his father and mother, and began merchandising in an old building which stood on the corner of Main and Pickering streets, now occupied by the Matson block. He and his brother having bought the stock of Elijah and John Heath, to which they added new goods, soon had quite a prominent store, under the firm name of J. G. & W. F. Clark. In 1842 they moved to a new room, built in connec- tion with the Jefferson Hotel. This hotel Jesse G. Clark sold to Simon Frank in 1845, and began the erection of a large brick storehouse on the site now occupied by the Edelblute block. Before its completion Jesse G. Clark died, in February, 1846, and in August, 1847, W. F. Clark commenced business in the new storeroom alone, and he here conducted an extensive business for twenty years, single handed and alone, as he says, "with a root hog or die purpose, and determination to succeed." Mr. Clark emyloyed no clerks, save occasionally the services of his wife. In August, 1867, his health failing, due in part to the death of his youngest son, Jesse Griffith Clark (whom he had named for his brother Jesse, and for his mother, Susan Griffith), a bright boy of seventeen years, who died in 1867. He then sold his stock of goods to Vasbinder & Trimble, of Warsaw township, and about the same time his store- house and lot to N. G. Edelblute.
No business man in Brookville has done more to improve the town. In 1850 he built a 25 x 35 brick addition to his store building, and in 1851-52 built the brick residence on Jefferson street, which he afterwards sold to James Neal, and which is now the property of Calvin Rodgers. He purchased of C. M. Garrison, and greatly improved the property on the corner of Main and Bar- nett streets, which he sold to K. L. Blood, and which is now the residence of Mrs. A. L. Gordon; after which, in 1869-70, he bought from W. W. Corbet, the lot immediately west of the corner above mentioned, for $4,000 and erected upon it a bank and residence at a cost of $9,000 each (both war prices). This property passed by deed to his son Norman Farquahr Clark, who, dying with- out will, passed it to his sons Norman F. and Jerome. From this house, as Mr. Clark says, his "best of wives, and her dear son Norman were carried to their last resting place." Mrs. Clark's maiden name was Maria Schrader. William F. Clark now resides in Maquoketa, Jackson county, Iowa. His mother died at his home in Brookville in 1861. Of the other members of the family, Matilda, who married Daniel Smith, and Jane, the wife of J. P. George, both reside in Brookville. Calvin B., the other son, died in 1875 ; none of his family, except his widow née Mary Clayton, reside in Brookville.
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HISTORY OF BROOKVILLE.
Daniel Smith came from Penn's Valley, Centre county, about 1822, being then only eight years of age. He first went to Port Barnett where he re- mained for some time with Joseph Barnett, and from there to Judge Gillis's place, at Montmorenci, and then, after Brookville was laid out, he came back and lived in the family of Judge Heath, and attended school. He then went into the store of Evans & Clover, as a clerk, and afterwards bought them out. He first kept store in a building that stood on the site of the old Evans block. In 1846 he built the brick block, now the property of H. Matson, where he kept store for a number of years. Besides merchandising, Mr. Smith was actively engaged in lumbering for many years. He served one term as treasurer of the county, and was the first agent at Brookville of the Allegheny Valley Railroad. In 1839 he was married to Matilda, daughter of William Clark, who, with her two sons, Levi Clover and William Clark, reside in Brookville. Mr. Smith died in 1882. Few men were more closely identified with the . early business of Brookville, or led a more busy life.
Alexander McKnight, one of Brookville's earliest citizens, and one of the first justices of the peace, was treasurer of the county at the time of his death, in 1837. He is said to have been quite a prominent and dignified man. He located on the lot now owned by Thomas L. Templeton. He married a sister of John J. Y. Thompson, who afterward became the wife of John Templeton. But two of the family, Dr. William J. McKnight and Thomas L. Templeton, survive ; both residents and prominent business men of Brookville.
Robert P. Barr was one of the first on the ground after Brookville was laid out and became a town. He made the brick on the ground, and with Thomas M. Barr, built the old court-house, the academy, H. Matson's, W. F. Clark's dwelling and store, dwelling of J. G. Clark (now residence and store of Mrs. A. F. Henderson). He was one of the associate judges in 1851. He owned the mill and timber lands now the property of T. K. Litch & Sons, which he sold to the late T. K. Litch in 1850. Mr. Barr was a conscientious, just man. He moved to Clinton county, Iowa, where he died about 1870.
Joseph Sharp was the first shoemaker and the first constable, and lived in a little house on the site now occupied by the Marlin Opera House. He re- moved to Ohio in 1833 or 1834.
William Rodgers came with his parents in 1830 from Blairsville, and was the second merchant to open a store in Brookville, keeping quite a creditable stock of goods for the time and population. His store was located in the southeast corner of William Clark's hotel, on Jefferson street. Subsequently he and Joseph Chambers (uncle of Samuel Chambers, of the present firm of Kennedy & Co.) formed a co-partnership and opened a store in a room on the lot now owned by N. G. Edelblute. Mr. Rodgers was also postmaster. His father and mother died as early as 1832 or 1833, and were buried in the " old grave-yard." Mr. Rodgers married Sarah Clements, and has for many years resided just beyond the borough limits in Rose township.
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
William Jack was one of the early and prominent business men of the time, who came to Brookville in 1831. He was a man of polished, gentlemanly manners, and of very dignified bearing, having traveled much and visited Lon- don and the continent. He had been a contractor and builder in Mississippi, where, with Richard Arnold, of Kittanning, he built a canal. He was the member of Congress from the district composed of Jefferson, Armstrong, and Butler, in 1844, and was a fellow-member with Henry Clay. Subsequently he was associated in the mercantile business with D. B. Jenks, as Jack, Jenks & Co. Mr. Jack married Harriet Eason, a cousin of David Eason. He was boarding at the Red Lion Hotel, and Mr. Eason, his host, who was going to Indiana county to visit his old home, asked Mr. Jack if he did not want him to bring him (Jack) a wife. He replied in the affirmative, and in a short time Mr. Eason returned home, accompanied by his niece, and a few days after his return he happened to think of his joking remark to Mr. Jack, and told him that he had kept his promise, at the same time introducing him to his niece. They were mutually pleased with one another, and in a few weeks after were married in the parlor of the Red Lion.
In 1846 Mr. Jack returned with his family to his native place, Greensburg, where he soon after died. His wife afterwards married Hon. William H. Koontz, at the time member of Congress from that district.
Jacob Wise came to Brookville at the same time, from Greensburg. He was unmarried, and is said to have been rather dissipated, but very sociable and companionable. He spent much of his time in an office attached to the old store-house, on the site of the Matson block, where he sawed away upon an old fiddle. Wise was quite small in stature, but a great military man, and having some connection with the militia, was called " Colonel." Hugh Brady, a prominent lawyer of the day, was also a prominent militia man belonging to the Jefferson Greens.
On one occasion Brady and Wise had some dispute, and decided to settle it by fighting a duel, and both hied away to their respective offices to don their regimentals. Wise conceived the idea of surprising his adversary, and, donning his sword, crept behind a large stump that stood on the corner now occupied by the Central Hotel. This stump, from which a large tree had been broken off in some storm, was as tall as an ordinary man, and Wise se- creted himself behind it, intending when Brady came opposite to suddenly prsent himself, and demand his foe's surrender. Soon he descried Brady, who, with his gun in hand, with head erect and soldiery tread, came marching down the opposite side of the street. When he gained the corner opposite to where Wise was concealed, he wheeled about in true military style and marched across the street, when suddenly, just as he came opposite the stump, and be- fore Wise had time to execute his brilliant coup de main, he came to present arms, and cocking his gun, presented it down over the stump, and in stento-
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rian tones called upon Wise to surrender. He had seen the ruse of his oppo- nent, but no one who witnessed his march down the street would have dreamed that he was cognizant of it. ' After a hearty laugh by the bystanders, in which the discomfited colonel joined, peace was declared between the combatants.
Mr. Wise returned, after a few years, to Greensburg, where he died.
The Arthurs family was one of the first to settle in Jefferson county. John Arthurs, who was born in Jack's Creek, in Mifflin county, March 1, 1783, came with Joseph and Andrew Barnett and Samuel Scott, in 1795, and helped erect the first mill. Mrs. Graham says, "a man named Arthurs came with them, when they erected the mill." His son, Richard Arthurs, says his father came to Jefferson county in 1806, so that it is probable that he returned with Joseph Barnett when he went back for his family, as there was no other white man with Andrew Barnett but Samuel Scott, when he died. In 1806 John Arthurs again appears in the county, and we next hear of him going down into what was then Armstrong county, to find a wife, where in that year he married Miss Joanna Roll, who was born in Penn's Valley, now Centre county, June 15, 1786 ; and lived with her parents on what is now the farm owned by the heirs of Samuel Frampton, two miles from Strattanville, Clarion county. They were married by Samuel C. Orr, esq. Mr. Arthurs bought what is now known as the Ferguson farm, near Clarion, where he lived until 1811 or 1812, when he moved to Port Barnett, where he lumbered, and assisted Moses Knapp to build his mill on what is now the Five Mile Run. In 1813 Mr. Arthurs moved to Tidiotte, in Warren county, where his father's family had removed from Jack's Creek, and here, in the winter of 1814, he was pressed into the ser- vice, and hurried to Lake Erie, where he spent the winter, but in the spring of 1815 the treaty of Ghent was concluded and he was allowed to return home, the war being over.
The Roll who is mentioned as locating on the farm now owned by John S. Barr, in Pine Creek, and who made such a perilous journey to get to Port Barnett, with Van Camp and Shultz, was Mrs. Arthurs's grandfather. Hle was also the father of the aged Mrs. Mason, who resided upon the farm some years afterwards. Three large apple trees that he planted there are still standing. He died many years ago, and is buried in the Anderson graveyard in Clover township. Mrs. Roll died in 1822, and is buried in the McFad len graveyard in Clarion county. His son, John Roll, exchanged his property in Boallsburg, with General Potter, for two hundred acres of land in what is now Clarion county, the Frampton farm referred to, and liere, in 1811, Richard Arthurs was born. He was a bouncing boy of thirteen pounds in weight and has al- ways kept up his weight. In 1830 we find him at the sale of the first lots in Brookville, and in 1832 he located here, and went to work in the cabinet- shop of McDonald, a sixteen by forty structure that stood on the old Evans property, now owned by Guythur and Henderson. In a short time he pur-
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
chased the tools, etc., and removed the shop to a building on the opposite side of the street in what was known as " Snyder's Row," where Samuel Craig set up the chair-making business, Mr. Arthurs occupying the south room with his cabinet and carpenter-shop, and Mr. Craig the north room with his chair- shop. Mr. Arthurs says one of the first articles of cabinet ware he made was a cradle, for the late John Jack. In 1834 he sold out to James Craig, a brother of Samuel, and commenced the study of law with Cephus Dunham. He had had the advantage of very little schooling,-three months being all that he ever devoted to grammar, but he made a very successful, and was for many years one of the leading attorneys at the Jefferson county bar. When he com- menced work in Brookville he had no means, but he was always ready for any odd job that turned up, and made from one dollar to one dollar and twenty- five cents per day. His boarding cost him twenty-five cents per day, and in two years he had saved six hundred dollars, and was ready to read law, the goal for which he had been striving.
He has been very successful in business enterprises, and now owns some of the best business houses in the town. In 1882 he purchased the Commercial Hotel, and in 1876 built the Central Hotel, and in 1886 built the large brick block on Main street. He also owns the large dwelling house on west Main street, formerly owned by Joseph E. Hall, John King and R. J. Nicholson, where he resides.
Mr. Arthurs kindly cared for his parents in their old age, bringing them to his home in Brookville from Clarion county, in 1843. This trip was made on good sleighing, on the 16th day of April. Mr. Arthurs died in 1847, and his wife in 1843. Another son, Samuel C. Arthurs, resides in Brookville, of whom mention has been made in the Rebellion Record.
Another of the pioneers who settled at the county seat was Cyrus Butler, who bought a lot in 1830 or 1831, and built one of the first houses, in which the first Methodist prayer meeting was held in Brookville, and which was, for years, the stopping place of the itinerant preacher, and where they always found a cordial welcome. This house Mr. Butler occupied for many years, until 1859 or 1860, when he removed to Litchtown, and sold the old home- stead to Christopher Fogle, who afterwards sold it to David Larry, and from his heirs it was purchased by C. C. Benscoter, who, in 1887, tore it down for the purpose of erecting a more modern dwelling. Mr. Butler was married to Mary, daughter of Elijah Sartwell, a most estimable Christian woman, who died November 1, 1868, aged seventy-four years. Mr. Butler died a short time after his wife. They had but two children, of whom one, Mrs. Elizabeth Wilson, is dead, and the other, Mrs. Esther Reynolds, resides in Kittanning.
Mr. Butler was of a very excitable disposition, and always " spoke his mind." He was an ardent lover of his country and took a deep interest in the progress of the war, and many of our citizens can recall his transports of joy and his
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shouts of " hallelujah" when a great union victory was announced. While act- ing in the capacity of court crier, which he filled for many years, on one occa- sion when a certain suit was on trial, the court ordered Mr. Butler to call one of the witnesses whose name was Ami Sibley, and who was not in the court room when his testimony was needed. Mr. Butler proceeded to the door and called, " Ami Sibley, Am-i Sibley." A wag of a fellow, Abial Frost, who was stand- ing near the door, said: "No, you are not Sibley." This disconcerted the old gentleman, who thought he had made a mistake in the name, so he called again, "I am Sibley." "No," said Frost, " you are not Sibley, by a damned sight." This was followed by a roar of laughter by the bystanders, but the victimized crier was in no laughing humor, and the wag had to make himself scarce.
On another occasion Mr. Butler was told to call another witness who re- joiced in the euphonious name of "Oramel Thing." He proceeded to the court-house door and called in stentorian tones, "Horrible Thing ! Horrible Thing !"
Another amusing episode in the early history of the courts of Jefferson county, was the trial of Butler B. Amos, who was accused of stealing a hog from Moses Knapp. Judge Burnside, who presided at the trial, after listening patiently to the testimony, which is said to have been extremely ludicrous, or- dered the prisoner to be released, saying that Amos was from the same county that he was, and that he could not possibly be guilty of the alleged theft, as no one coming from Centre county would be guilty of such a deed. This man, Butler Amos, who figures in the early history of Washington township, seems to have been a very contumacious fellow, as his name appears quite frequently on the pages of the early dockets as plaintiff or defendant in different actions.
James Corbet, who was appointed, in 1830, by Governor Wolf, the first prothonotary, register and recorder, and clerk of courts for Jefferson county, moved from his mill in Rose township to Brookville, in the spring of 1831, and built the log house on Main street, on the site now occupied by the property of the heirs of Norman F. Clark, deceased. Soon after he moved to Brookville he engaged in store-keeping, and the firm of Corbet & Barr sold goods in a little tenement that stood on the lot now embraced in the American House block. Mr. Corbet was prominently connected with the official affairs of Jefferson county, and for many years a respected citizen of Brookville. In 1853 he was appointed postmaster, and also held the office of justice of the peace. He was the son of William and Sarah Corbet, and was born in Mifflin county March 19, 1794. His father moved into Armstrong county (now Clarion), in the spring of 1814. Mr. Corbet came to Jefferson county in 1824. He was a resident of Brookville for the first thirty-five years of its existence. His death occurred October 24, 1866. Three of his children, Colonel Wake- field W. Corbet, Mrs. W. P. Jenks and Mrs. K. L. Blood, yet survive and re- side in Brookville, or its suburbs.
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
In the fall of 1830 Jared B. Evans, who was residing at Port Barnett, where he was engaged in keeping store and attending to the post-office for Mr. Barnett, moved his store to Brookville, and was appointed postmaster, the office also being changed to Brookville. His was the first store in the town. Mr. Evans was for many years a prominent citizen of Brookville. In 1850 he was appointed associate judge to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Jenks, and was elected at the election ensuing. He built the large brick block on lot No. 65, Main street. This property was for many years in litigation in the courts of the county. It was first conveyed to John Pickering and Timo- thy Pickering by the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, by patent dated May 24, 1830. Warrant No. 394.
This building was destroyed in the disastrous fire of November 20, 1874. Judge Evans also built the house owned by James H. Maize, on Jefferson street. He is said to have been the first to embark in matrimony in the new town, having married Miss Jane McCreight, a niece of Benjamin McCreight. Since 1859 he has resided at Rockdale Mills and although in the eightieth year of his age, is still a hale, hearty man. His son William C. Evans resides in Brookville.
In 1832 Hugh Brady, esq., removed to Brookville. Mrs. Elizabeth Craig, his daughter, and the only remaining member of his family, says that she well remembers their journey from Indiana to Brookville, and being lifted out of the big covered Conestoga wagon in which they traveled, and carried half asleep into the hotel kept by Thomas Hastings. They arrived about the beginning of the May court, and Mrs. Craig was sent out " into the country " to stay at the house of Joseph MeCullough, on account of the scarcity of bed-rooms at the hotel.
Samuel Craig came to Brookville in 1832 and started the first chair-making shop in Brookville. About 1840 he engaged in the mercantile business with Samuel H. Lucas, as Craig & Lucas, and in 1841 was elected treasurer, being the first person elected to that office in the county. From 1851 to 1854 he was engaged in the mercantile business with Enoch Hall. In 1854-56 he served as deputy sheriff, under Sheriff Mitchell. In 1860 he formed a partner- ship with Parker P. Blood, in the general mercantile business, from which he retired in 1865. In 1871 he embarked in the grocery business, in which he associated his son, W. F. Craig, which continued as "Craig & Son," until his death, October 10, 1865. He was seventy-seven years of age at the time of his death. Mrs. Craig, née Margaret Park, died August 9, 1881, aged seventy-three years.
Mr. Craig was a man of sterling honesty and worth, and one of the most useful members of the Presbyterian Church, of which he had been for many years a ruling elder. Of his family, two sons, W. F., already referred to, and Captain S. A., and three daughters, Mrs. Agnes Stuart, and Misses Mary and
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