USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 6
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In 1834 or 1835 a man named Long, and John and Jacob Kahle, sons of Frederick Kahle, caught eight young wolves from a den near the present town of Sigel. Long made a hook and fastened it to a stick four or five feet long, and John Kahle, the oldest boy, who was about fourteen, went in and fasten- ing the hook into the hide of a young wolf, would pull it out. He took a pine torch with him, and had a rope tied to his foot, and when he would get hold of a young wolf he would pull on the rope and the others would pull him out This was repeated eight times, but on the ninth trial he caught the old wolf ; she growled and snapped her teeth at him. He jerked on the rope but was not strong enough to pull her out. When he got out and told Long, the latter offered him ten dollars if he would go in and bring her out; and on his refusal, tried to get Jacob to go in. Long then made several attempts to go in after her himself, but did not succeed in getting very far. He then tried to get the old animal by blasting the rock with powder ; but this also failed, and they then closed up the entrance to the den ; but she worked herself out through some other opening, and escaped with her remaining young one. When they commenced to capture the young wolves they thought the old wolf was not in the den.
About the year 1816 Lewis Long and his son William shot five wolves without moving out of their tracks. They first killed the leader of the pack, and then called the rest back by imitating their howling.
William and Jackson Long were noted hunters, hunting and trapping being their occupation for many years, and they had many daring and hair-breadth escapes. Their sure and trusty rifles did much to rid all this wilderness of the dangerous wild beasts that infested it. As their game grew scarce in this region, they removed to the wilder sections, " Boone's Mountain " being a fa- vorite hunting-ground. Both lived to be old men. The impression prevails that a she bear will fight for her young until she dies, but this is not always the case. In 1836 William and Mathew Smith, of the Beechwoods, gave chase to a bear with three cubs; two of the latter ran up a tree and were captured, while the old bear ran off with the remaining cub, and never came back to look for the missing ones. In 1831 Mrs. Nancy McGhee, of the same locality, heard
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EARLY INCIDENTS.
the pigs squealing, and exclaimed : "The bears are at the hogs," and Mr. McGhee being absent, she and the hired man, Philip McAfferty, each picked up an ax and hastened to the rescue of the imperiled swine. The bear had one down and was preparing to make a meal of it, but fled on their approach ; but the hog was so badly hurt that it had to be killed. The panther was the most cautious and crafty animal that the hunters had to contend with. In 1833 Jacob Vasbinder found a panther's den on Boone's Mountain. He went with his boys, dogs, and guns to kill the old and capture the young animals. One of the dogs got loose, and unnoticed ran ahead and frightened off the old pan- ther, and scattered the young ones so that they only caught one alive. The dogs killed the rest. The one that was captured was about the size of a cat. It was kept for about a year and then sold to a traveling showman.
In 1834 the Long brothers and Andrew Vasbinder captured a full-grown elk. They surrounded it with their dogs and forced it to take refuge on a high rock. Here the dogs did not dare approach it, for it would have soon trampled them to death with its sharp hoofs. The hunters after some trouble succeeded in throwing a rope over its head, and thus captured it; but they forced it home too roughly, and it only survived the capture three weeks.
The boldest feat on record is that of Jackson Long, a son of William, who as late as the year 1850, entered a panther's den and shot the savage animal by the light of his glowing eyes.
We have no record of any deaths occurring from wild animals, but the above incidents will show how wary the early settlers had to be at all times, and the perils they had to undergo in ridding the county of these beasts of prey. In those times " vigilance was the price of safety."
In 1828 the Little Toby lumbermen came to the conclusion that money could be made by running their lumber to Pittsburgh, but the accumulation of driftwood, rocks, and short bends in the stream, caused it to be unnavi- gable, and much work had to be done removing the drift, blasting rocks, and making new channels, so that no rafts could be started for the market until in May, 1830, when the lumber from the three mills on Little Toby, operated by the Brockways, Philetus Clarke, J. Horton, H. and L. Warner, Alanson Viall, and perhaps some others, was with much labor and difficulty got ready to run. The late Dr. A. M. Clarke gives the following account of this first at- tempt at lumbering on Little Toby :
" I went with the first lumber that was sent from Little Toby to Pittsburgh. It was a great company craft, awkwardly put in and poorly managed from beginning to end. After a great deal of trouble by the way, and much stav- ing, the rafts were all collected and coupled together in one unwieldy raft at Miller's Eddy, on the Allegheny River. On account of the exceeding rough appearance of this raft it was called the ' Porcupine.' Want of experience and lack of skill nearly wrecked the whole business, for in their anxiety to get to
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
market, and encouraged by their pilot, the unwieldy craft-I think it was three abreast, and thirty-two platforms long-was started in very high water. They soon discovered their mistake, but were unable to land, and went rushing for- ward, and miles of foaming water were traversed before the frightened crew effected a landing. I was sent to take care of my father's share in the adven- ture. We went down in May, 1830, and came back in July. Our best sales were made for five and ten dollars per thousand feet for common and clear stuff.
" I was but a stripling in size, weighed perhaps one hundred pounds. Of course I was of no account among the 'Olean Hoosiers.' One day at 'Dal- rymple's hotel,' which was the lumbermen's headquarters at that time, while sitting in the waiting-room, quietly waiting for dinner, suspecting no mischief, I felt a severe pinch above my knee, making the muscles tingle with pain. The hand that gave the pinch belonged to a tall, robust, heavy lumberman from Smithport, named Gideon Irons. I sprang up on the instant and gave him a blow with all the force I was able. I suppose he felt my puny fist, for looking down on me, he cooly said, ' Pretty well for Little Toby.'"
Another lumberman gives the experience of lumbering on the same stream more than ten years later :
" In April, 1842, Nelson Allen, Patrick Cairns, and others started from what is now Brockwayville, on a raft for Pittsburgh. They soon 'stuck,' but the water was rising and they got off again. It was quite late when they reached a place where they could land for the night. There was no house near and they could get no fire started, and they had to lay all night in their wet clothing on some hemlock boughs, benumbed with cold. But little sleep visited them. The next afternoon they reached a good landing place, but still no house, and fearing to run the risk of not being able to effect a landing if they ventured on, they tied up. They had very short rations for dinner, and a long fast was before them. Soon another raft came down the stream, the crew of which called to them for bread, but they had none to give. A piece of raw, salt pork gave them a small 'scrap' apiece. The men suffered severely from the wet and cold and for want of food, as it was two o'clock in the after- noon of the next day before they reached a house of entertainment, and where the good women of the house found it hard to find food enough to satisfy the almost famished raftmen. From this place they 'ran out' to Pittsburgh without further trouble. But for all this suffering and hardship they only re- ceived seven dollars and fifty cents per thousand for their timber."
These are only a few of the many perils and privations attendant upon early lumbering in Jefferson county waters.
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EARLY SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES.
CHAPTER VI.
EARLY SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES.
The First Old Log School-House - Primitive Education - The First Schools in Pine Creek and Perry Townships - Schools of Ye Olden Time - The Presbyterians the First to Sow the Good Seed in Jefferson County - Reverend McGarragh the Pioneer Minister - The First Church in the County - The First Marriages- The Early Baptist Church - The First Coming of the Seceders - The Planting of Methodist in the County - Early Ministry of Reverend George Reeser.
A S soon as the people got their cabins ready for habitation they began to plan for the building of school-houses and the organization of churches. Mrs. Graham informs us that the first school in the county was taught in the winter of 1803 by John Dixon. He was the father of the venerable John Dixon, of Polk township. The house in which this school was taught was built of rough logs, with no windows except " chinks " left between the logs over which greased paper was tacked, the floor was of puncheons, and the seats of broad pieces of logs hewn smooth on the upper side, and with pins in the under side for legs. Boards fastened to the walls served as writing desks, and a log fire placed at one end of the house supplied that want. A year or two later a man named John Johnson taught in a house between Port Barnett and Brookville. This house was somewhat of an improvement on the first one in that it had real glass in the windows. The first school in the south end of the county was near where Perrysville now is, at John Bell's. The school- house was almost a fac simile of the one described above. These schools were maintained and the houses built by those who felt interested in having school in the neighborhood and who had children old enough to attend. The wages paid were very low, but were all that the times afforded. We notice that a schoo Itaught on Little Toby, somewhere in 1828, the teacher received twelve dollars per month, paid in maple sugar. In those days the requirements for teachers were not very exacting, and no rigid examinations had to be un- dergone.
Mrs. Ann Smith, one of the early settlers of the northern part of the county, left Ireland at the age of ten years, and never went to school in America. She married at the early age of sixteen, and could have had but little opportunity for study at home, yet in her old age she taught school. When her husband became discouraged and wanted to leave the backwoods, she was so anxious to remain and build up a home for her children that she offered him one year's work on the farm if he would stay on, and for twelve months she went to the field as early and toiled as late as he did. We have before us two old school books, one "The American Accountant, or School Mafter's New Affiftant," by Benjamin Workman, published in Philadelphia in 1793. The other is a
.
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
"Short, but Comprehensive System of the Geography of the World," pub- lished in 1795 by Dr. Nathaniel Dwight, of Hartford. The books, which are both in good preservation, show that in those early days the boy or girl who was so lucky as to own a book knew how to take care of it. In the geography is written, " Sandy Lick saw-mill, Pensylvany, Erastus Turner," and in the arithmetic, in very legible, though old-fashioned characters,
" Do not Steal this book for Fear of Shame,
for underneath lies the owner's name ;
ELISHA GRAHAM, JOSEPH MASON, His hand and pen, Sept. the 30th, 1794."
And these are the books handed down from the first days of our county, and from which in that old rude school-house in Pine Creek township the first rudiments of arithmetic and geography were taught. The history of the schools of Jefferson county, from the rude beginnings which we have men- tioned, up to the present time, which will be given in a subsequent chapter, will show what progress has been made in the method of teaching, books used and school buildings.
The Presbyterian Church seems to have been the first that gained a foot- hold in this county, and the ministers of that denomination the first who " sowed the good seed " in this wilderness.
The first account we have of religious services being held in the settlement was in June, 1809, when Rev. Robert McGarragh preached at the house of Peter Jones, near where John McCullough now lives in Pine Creek township- " held the communion and baptized certain persons." Mr. McGarragh was undoubtedly the pioncer minister of the county. He had come to the Clarion region as a licentiate of the Presbytery of Redstone in 1803, and removed, with his family, to take charge of the churches of Licking and New Rehoboth, now in Clarion county, in 1804. He seems to have taken charge of the little congregation of Port Barnett, but how long he ministered unto them is not known. Mr. McGarragh did not " serve his Master for hire," for the people he preached to were too poor to pay for his services, and the good man was used to poverty. It is told of him that when a student at Cannonsburg in 1803, he and his wife kept boarders, students of the same institution. "One night Mrs. McGarragh found the stock of provisions so low that she declined to sit down to the table lest there might not be enough for breakfast. They urged her to partake of the food, and agreed to keep the morrow as a fast day. Next morning, as they held a prayer-meeting, a knock came to the door, and upon opening it a countryman was found who inquired for Mr. McGarragh, stating that he wished to sell him some provisions. 'But,' said he, ' though I need provisions, I have no money.' ' If you can pay me in six months it will do,' said the farmer, ' I am not afraid to trust a Presbyterian student.' He bought a side of beef and two hundred pounds of flour. That very day his
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EARLY SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES.
father came to see him and brought fifty dollars, which he had saved to help him. The next day he hired a man to go out fourteen miles into the country and pay the stranger." The good man remained poor, and on one occasion Mr. Wilson, of Strattanville, when he went to engage him to preach, found him busy "logging," and of course expected him to change his clothes, but found that the only suit he owned was the one he had on. This man, " poor in purse but rich in goodness," was he who first preached the gospel to the people of Jefferson county.
The first meeting-house built was about three miles from Brookville, on the Clarion road. It was built of logs, without a floor, and slabs or boards on logs constituted the seats. The pulpit was a board supported by two posts. Rev. William Kennedy was the pastor, and is the first settled minister in the county of the Presbyterian Church of whom there is any record. This church was organized about the year 1824, and was called the " Bethel of Jefferson County."
In 1826 Rev. William Kennedy went from his home in the Beechwoods to marry Henry Keys and Catharine Wilson, and at the same time baptized Nin- ian Cooper. Rev. Gara Bishop, in 1830, came from his home in Clearfield to the same locality to marry James Waite and Martha McIntosh, and at the same time baptized Susan McIntosh ; so that in those days they were in the habit of " killing two birds with one stone," either in a religious or secular way. In 1831 Rev. Cyrus Riggs, another Presbyterian, made a missionary tour into the county, and besides preaching several times made a pastoral call upon each family. The people of the Beechwoods did not want to send him away with- out some remuneration for his services, but money was a scarce article in those days. It was found, however, that Matthew Keys had a five dollar bill, and the rest all agreeing to pay him twenty-five cents apiece as soon as they got the money, if he would give the money to the preacher, Mr. Keys agreed to the proposition, and Rev. Riggs carried away with him all the money in the settlement. When Mr. Riggs first came there he told Mrs. Keys that he was looking after the " stray sheep." "Oh, indeed," said the old lady, " you'll find none of them here." "Oh, mother," said her daughter Betty, "it is the lost sheep of the house of Israel he is after."
Rev. Jonathan Nichols, a Free Will Baptist, settled in Brandy Camp in 1822. He was the first minister in the northern part of the county for many years, and was, in fact, the first who settled in the county, and who labored in his Master's vineyard until death called him to his reward. He was also the first physician, and spent his life in ministering both to the souls and bodies of the people with whom he had cast his lot. His ministrations were well received by the people without regard to sect or denomination, as in those days " every body went to meeting," in summer on foot, and in winter with ox-sleds. There was no money to pay the preacher, and so the gospel was dispensed " without money and without price."
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
Dr. Nichols, who was the father of Mrs. Dr. A. M. Clark, of Brockwayville, died in May, 1846. Dr. Clark says of him : " He was a generous, kind-hearted gentleman, somewhat of the olden school, genial and urbane in his manner, with a helping hand ready to assist the needy, and kind words to comfort the sorrowing. He was the friend of my childhood, and rendered me much assist- ance in my medical studies. I remember him with gratitude, and wish that the world contained many more such as he."
The first United Presbyterian, or as it was called in those days, Seceder Congregation in the county, was organized at Dowlingville in 1828. Revs. Joseph Scroggs and Thomas Ferrier were instrumental in the organization and dispensed the sacrament of the Lord's Supper there, and begun what has ever since been one of the leading churches in the county.
Although there may have been occasional sermons preached by some of the pioneer preachers of the Methodist Episcopal Church, in the territory now embraced within Jefferson county, earlier, we find no record of any such, until the year 1821, when Rev. Elijah Coleman, a local preacher, formed a society, or class, of ten members at Punxsutawney, at the house of Jacob Hoover. This society was attached to the Mahoning Circuit of the Baltimore Confer- ence, which circuit was formed in 1812, and was large enough for an annual conference. Rev. Mr. Dorsey was the preacher in charge. In 1822 Mr. Hoo- ver's house was a "regular preaching place." As late as 1827 and 1828 the Erie Conference had only one preacher in all the territory east of the Alle- gheny River, the old Shippenville district. Rev. James Babcock, then Rev. Nathaniel Callender, were the first preachers on this circuit. Their work was mostly done in the Clarion District, but they preached occasionally in Jeffer- son. In 1828 a class of six members was formed in Pine Creek township, the meeting being held in an old mill north of Brookville. David Butler was the leader, and Cyrus Butler superintendent of a Sunday-school organized at the same time. In 1829 this society met for service in a school-house that stood where the jail now stands. In 1829 the Shippenville Circuit had two preach- ers, Revs. John Johnson and J. C. Ayers, and a " gracious revival of religion on the circuit attended their labors." A class or society was organized at Troy, of some ten or twelve members.
Rev. George Reeser, who spent the first thirteen years of his ministry in this region of country, sends us a sketch of his labors in this field, and as it is general in character, embracing all the territory now covered by Jefferson county, we give it here in full. Mr. Reeser, who is one of the oldest mem- bers of the Erie Conference, now sustains a superannuated relation to that body :-
" In the month of July, 1840, I was admitted on trial in the Erie Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which held its annual session that year in Meadville, Pa., and sent as preacher in charge, with Israel Mershon for my
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EARLY SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES.
colleague, to what was then Red Bank circuit, which embraced a large por- tion of the south side of Jefferson, but included Bethlehem in Clarion, Putney- ville, and two other appointments in Armstrong, and three in Indiana county. The principle preaching places in Jefferson county were Punxsutawney, Hope- well Church, Gahagans, Troy, Heathville, and Sprankle's Mill. Among the early and leading members of the Methodist Church in Punxsutawney, Jacob Hoover, Daniel Burkett, John Hunt, John Drum, Jacob Bear, Joseph Weldon, and Thomas Robinson and their wives deserve honorable mention. Joseph Weldon was subsequently licensed to preach, and admitted into the Erie Con- ference, and did good service for a number of years.
"Punxsutawney was favored this year with a wonderful revival of religion. Rev. John Bain-of precious memory-our presiding elder, at his second quarterly visit remained with us some ten days, and preached the grand old gospel of Christ with matchless simplicity and power-often holding crowded congregations spell-bound from one hour and a half to two hours. A general awakening and serious thoughtfulness upon this subject of their soul's best in - terests prevaded the community for miles away. Of the fruits of this meet- ing, which lasted but two weeks, the Methodist Church recorded eighty-three new names to the roll of her membership. The Baptist and Cumberland Presbyterian Churches also shared largely in the benefits of this revival.
" As neither myself nor colleague were at this time ordained ministers, we could not perform the marriage ceremony, and were mainly dependant for this service on Rev. Elijah Coleman, a venerable patriarch, and for many years a popular and useful local preacher. In early life Father Coleman resided at Morrison's Cove, but had now lived many years on the south side of Mahoning Creek, in Indiana county. On one of his visits to our charge he consented to remain over Sabbath and preach. His text on this occasion was the parable of the sick man, Dives, as he called him, and Lazarus. An old German, and an acquaintance of Mr. Coleman while they lived together at Morrison's Cove, heard the sermon, and on his way home, it was said, he remarked to a friend who had also heard the sermon : 'Dem tings what we heard to-day about Divis and Lashurus ish all a pack of lies. I knew Mr. Divis and Lashurus well doun dare at Morrison's Cove. It is true, Divis was a rich man, but den he was not a proud man, nor a stingy man, and it ish true too, dat Lash- urus was a poor man, but he was never so poor as to have to beg hish bread. He had a yoke of oxen, and he drove around de town many tings, and some- times he just had slugs of money.'
" Daniel and Jacob Swisher, two brothers, formerly of Lewistown, Pa., were at this time the most prominent members of the Hopewell Church, four miles west of Punxsutawney. It was largely through their influence that the ap- pointment was established, sustained, and a house of worship erected there. The house of Daniel Swisher was always a welcome home for the weary itin-
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
erant. £ Never can I forget the kindnesses shown to me by the entire family during the two years of my pastorate.
"Next to Punxsutawney, Troy, in Jefferson county, was the most important point on our field of labor ; but where, or by whom, Methodist preaching was first introduced, I have no means of ascertaining. Prior to the general con- ference of 1836, Erie Conference had no existence, and the Pittsburgh Confer- ence, to which all that territory belonged, supplied the Methodist Churches with its pastors. I found in Troy a church of some fifty members, but we had no better place in which to hold our public services than an old and somewhat dilapidated school-house. Nathan, Darius, Euphrastus, and Hiram Carrier, all brothers, Elijah Heath, Philip Clover, a Mr. Fairweather, and a Mr. Fuller, and some others whose names I cannot recall, were among the prominent and in- fluential members of the church at this time. The revival spirit pervaded our societies generally, and many were added to the church.
" In the summer of 1841 our conference held its annual session in Cleveland, Ohio. I was reappointed to Red Bank charge. Israel Mershon was removed, and John Graham was sent to take his place as junior preacher. The form of our circuit remained unchanged. Two camp-meetings, one at Putneyville, the other at Punxsutawney, were held this year, which resulted in great spir- itual good ; conversions at both were numerous, and in some instances very powerful and clear. As a whole, we had a laborious, but pleasant and pros- perous year ; many were added to the church, and its spirituality greatly in- creased. The salary which I received from the entire charge the first year was a trifle less than one hundred and thirty dollars. The second year, with a greatly increased membership, I was paid less than two hundred dollars, and yet, strange to tell, I was never obliged to go to bed hungry. During this con- ference year Brother Graham made the acquaintance of Miss Cornelia Gaskell, at Punxsutawney, to whom he was subsequently married. Brother Graham has served many important charges, and filled the office of presiding elder for eight years, and is still in the active work of the ministry, a true and good man.
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