History of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 60

Author: Scott, Kate M
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co.
Number of Pages: 860

USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 60

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In 1870 the population was 189, and the census of 1880 gives 248. The number of taxables in 1870 was 47, in 1880, 85, and in 1886, 142.

The triennial assessment of 1886 gives the number of acres seated as 213 ; valuation, $7,436. Number of houses and lots, 120; valuation, $16,627, Number of horses, 16 ; value, $507; average value, $31.63. Number of cows. 28; valuation, $252; average value, $9.00. Number of occupations, 73; valuation, $2,088 ; average, $28.33. Total valuation subject to county tax, $26,910 ; money at interest, $32,999.

For the year ending June 7, 1886, Clayville had two schools. Average number of months taught, 5 ; one male teacher, salary $35 ; one female teacher, salary, $25 ; number of male scholars, 58; female, 52; average number at- tending school, 81 ; average per cent. of attendance, 73 ; cost per month, 60; number of mills levied for school purposes, 13-for building purposcs, 13 ; total amount of tax levied for school and building purposes, $592.68.

Elections .- The following is the entry on the election docket of the first election held in the borough of Clayville, June 6, 1864: Justices of the peace, William E. Gillespie, J. K. Coxson ; constable. J. C. Pierce ; judges of election, S. W. Depp, W. E. Gillespie ; town council, J. K. Coxson, L. R. Davis, W. E. Gillespie, J. U. Gillespie, S. W. Depp, J. G. Wilson ; auditors, W. Sperry, Peter Hettrick, William E. Gillespie ; assessor, Thomas Rodgers; school direc- tors, J. K. Coxson, J. C. Pierce, W. Sperry, Daniel Duncaster, Peter Hettrick, J. U. Gillespie ; overseers of the poor, J. K. Coxson, J. U. Gillespie.

The result of the election held February 7, 1887, was as follows : Justice of the peace, W. W. Crisman ; constable, W. C. Gillespie ; burgess, W. S. Hughes ; council, A. H. Murray and F. Crisman ; school directors, Levi Mc- Gregor and W. B. Sutter ; high constable, L. R. Davis; auditor, Clark Rod- gers ; assessor. W. S. Perry ; collector, J. B. Sutter ; judge of election, J. Hi Spencer ; inspectors, S. H. Parkhill and J. M. Sutter ; poor overseer, Lev. McGregor.

The justice of the peace is W. T. Rodgers, and the school directors pre- viously elected are, J. M. Sutler, Joseph Spencer, George W. Porter, and R. J. Crissman.

Business of Clayville .- J. W. Parsons, general store; started in 1878 by James U. Gillespie, then Gillespie & Parsons; since February, 1886, Mr. Par- sons has had the store in his own control.

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YOUNG TOWNSHIP AND PUNXSUTAWNEY.

J. F. Goheen, dealer in general merchandise ; established March 5, 1886. M. E. Wall, groceries ; established February, 1887.

Isaac Rodgers, groceries.

Lindsay House, Michael Haley, proprietor. The house was built in 1866 by J. U. Gillespie, who sold it to Nicholas Phillips, who yet owns the property.

Planing-mill and factory built in 1887 by Elijah Kinsell.

Clayville wagon and carriage manufactory ; first built and operated by Gillespie Brothers, but for the last sixteen years owned and operated by W. B. Sutter.

Planing mill, J. & R. R. Evans; built by Joseph Collins, and since 1871 owned and operated by Messrs. Evans.

Cabinet shop built by J. B. Morris in 1867, and operated by Shields & Crissman, then McCormick & Crissman, and since 1883 by R. J. Crissman.

There are two brick-yards in Clayville, in which the brick are burned and dried by natural gas; one owned by W. P. Rodgers, established in 1873, and the other by James O. S. Spencer, established in 1875. They manufacture about 600,000 brick each, per year, and employ about ten men each.

James U. Gillespie is erecting a large steam flouring mill on the site of the old mill burned down in 1886, in which he will introduce all the modern in- provements, roller process, etc. The building will be five stories high, and will do wholesale and custom work.

One of the main industries of Clayville is the foundry now owned and operated by George Porter. The principal work done in this establishment is the making and repairing of mining tools and machinery.

WALLSTON AND ADRIAN.

Since the opening of the coal mines in Young township in 1883 by the Rochester and Pittsburgh Coal & Iron Company, two new towns have sprung up, as if by magic, in that township. Wallston, which is situated on the Buf- falo, Rochester and Pittsburgh Railroad, about two miles east of Punxsutaw ney, was begun when the mines were first opened. It is now a town of two thousand inhabitants, containing two hundred houses (double blocks), one store, seven hundred coke ovens, two fan houses, two drifts and one slope. Mr. John McLeavy is the assistant manager at Wallston. Adrian, which is situated on Elk Run, is also about two miles from Punxsutawney, and was commenced in 1887, and now contains about five hundred of a population, fifty houses (double blocks), one store, four hundred and fifty coke ovens, one fan house, one drift and one slope.

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

HISTORY OF RIDGWAY TOWNSHIP.

R IDGWAY, the fourth township, was organized in 1826, being taken from Pine Creek. It was named for Jacob Ridgway, of Philadelphia, who was the owner of a large body of land in Mckean county, and also of another large tract in Jefferson county. It was then bounded on the north and east by Mc- Kean county, and on the south and west by Pine Creek township.

The taxables in 1826 were 20; in 1828 there were 26 taxables, I deaf and dumb person ; votes cast at election, 16; votes cast at general election, 19. In 1829 the taxables were still only 26; in 1835, 40; in 1842, 75. The pop- ulation, according to the census of 1830, was 50, and in 1840, 195.

In 1831 the greatest area of the township was, length twenty-three miles, breadth seventeen miles.

The first election, as recorded in the office of the prothonotary, at Indiana, was as follows : " Ridgway township. At an election held at the house of James Galagher, in said township, on the 16th of March, 1827, the following named persons were duly elected : Constables, Nehemiah Bryant had 8 votes, Man- son Vial had seven votes ; supervisors, James Gallagher and Alonzo Brock- way were unanimously elected ; poor overseers, Naphtala G. Barrus and William Maxwell were unanimously elected ; fence appraisers, Nehemiah Bryant and William Taylor were unanimously elected ; town clerk, James Gallagher. Signed, John Stratton, inspector; Nehemiah Bryant, James M. Brockway, Alonzo Brockway, judges; attest, James Gallagher, clerk."

" From 1825 to 1845 the plan of Fourier-that of communities with a union of labor and capital, and working under fixed rules-was actively put into operation in this section of Pennsylvania. On the main road from Ridg- way to Smethport are the remains of the town of Teutonia, once a large com- munity; but jealousies grew up, and the members dispersed among the people at large, and became industrious and useful citizens. The sudden advent and exit of this community had its prototype within half a mile of Teutonia. The mouldering wood and growth of trees of half a century mark the spot where was laid out the town of Instanter. Its plot is duly recorded in Mckean county. Mr. Cooper, a large landholder, was the instigator, if not the forerunner of the settlement. As the streets were marked out, the buildings went up like magic ; but Madam Rumor spread a report that the land title was unsound, and on in- vestigation such was found to be the fact. Work suddenly ceased, and the settlers left." 1

Part of the Cooper lands were situated in what was then Jefferson county,

1 Dr. Eggles's " History of Pennsylvania."

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RIDGWAY TOWNSHIP.

and the flaming handbill which was gotten up to advertise these lands, gave the following very explicit directions for getting to them :

"Title. Three hundred thousand acres of land, for sale and settlement ! In the counties of McKean and Jefferson, in the State of Pennsylvania, joining the New York line and the Genesee lands, extending forty miles and situate about two hundred and fifty miles northwest from Philadelphia, etc., etc.

Settlers and others wishing to go into the aforesaid lands from the northern part of Jersey, New York and New England States, take the Newburgh and Cohecton turnpike or such roads as will be most direct to the Painted Post, then cross the York and Pennsylvania line, taking the Tioga road to Dr. Wil- lar's or widow Barry's ; thence west to and on the east and west road, passing Wellsborough and Cowdersport to Smithport ; thence ten miles to Instanter (proposed county town of Mckean). For settlers and others south of Easton, fall into the Lehigh and Berwick or Sunbury pike; from thence to Williams- port, passing by Jersey shore to the aforesaid east and west road. For such as go out on foot or horseback they can take the Ellicott road from Jersey shore, passing through Dunnstown, and up the Susquehanna and Sinnemahon- ing to Coxe's Settlement and Instanter.

Benjamin B. Cooper. Cooper's Point, April 25, 1812." .

Day's Historical Collections of Pennsylvania, published in 1843, says : "A road leads from Brookville to Ridgway, a settlement of New England people, made some years ago on the Little Mill Creek branch of the Clarion River, in the northeastern corner of the county. It took its name from Jacob Ridgway, of Philadelphia, who owned large tracts of land in this vicinity."

Mr. Ridgway selected high ground about six miles northeast of the present town of Ridgway, for his settlement, on the Jefferson county lands, which was about four hundred and fifty feet above the Clarion River, at Ridgway. In locating this settlement he experienced many difficulties. It was twenty-five miles from his settlement at Bunker Hill, in McKean county, and twenty-two miles from Judge Bishop's (in Mckean county), through a dense and heavily timbered wilderness.

Mr. Ridgway secured for his agent in this undertaking, James L. Gillis, a relative by marriage, who came on from his home in Ontario county, N. Y., in June, 1820, to look at the land, and moved on it in December, 1821. Mr. Gillis gave the name of Montmorency to his new home in the wilderness. As the roads were very bad in summer Mr. Gillis brought their furniture and household effects in sleighs from the old home. It took two days, and some- times longer, to make the trip, and the travelers had to camp out at night. Mr. Gillis had ample means at his control, and being a man of unusual energy he soon had some four hundred acres of land cleared and ready for cultivation. He also erected a mill and carding-machine at Kersey. Mrs. J. C. Hauk, of

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.

Ridgway, a daughter of Mr. Gillis, who came with him to Montmorency, and from whom we obtained most of these facts, says: " We had very little furni- ture except what was made on the place by a man who could use a saw and hammer."

The first settlers to penetrate into this wilderness came about the year 1812, and located on the Bennett's Branch. Leonard Morey, Dwight Cald- well, John Mix and Eben Stephens were probably the pioneers of the Ben- nett's Branch. Morey built the first saw-mill. About this time the lands of Fox, Norris & Co., and Shippen, McMurtrie & Co., large landholders of Phil- adelphia were thrown upon the market, and settlements made there by these companies. The former company constructed a road into their lands, and built a grist-mill on Elk Creek, about two miles from the present town of Centreville (in Elk county) about the time that the Kersey mill, as it was called, was built. The Clarkes, Brockways, Vialls, Greens, Johnsons and others who followed these first settlers, locating in this section about the year 1823, are all mentioned under the head of "Early Settlers," in a preceding chap- ter. They were principally from the New England States, and were a hardy, honest, intelligent type of manhood, and they have left their impress upon the people of Elk county, and the northern portion of Jefferson county, where their descendants are yet found among the best citizens of the localities in which they dwell.

The privations and disadvantages under which these early settlers in this part of the county suffered, can be told from the fact that they were obliged to travel from Montmorency to Indiana to transact all legal business. Mr. Gillis erected a grist-mill and a carding machine soon after he located at Montmorency. It will be wondered at that the latter was necessary in the wilderness, but by the utmost vigilance and watchfulness the people of the settlement contrived to guard their sheep from the wolves, and soon raised enough wool to clothe themselves and their families.

Among those who accompanied Mr. Gillis, and settled at Montmorency, were Reuben A. Aylesworth, a brother-in-law of Mr. Gillis, Enos Gillis, his brother, James Gallagher. These, too, were the first property holders in the present town of Ridgway, where Mr. Gillis made the first improvements by erecting two or three log houses and a saw-mill, the first house being built in 1824.

The Olean road crossed the Ridgway lands, but this road not proving of as much benefit in helping to open up and develop the region through which it passed as its projectors expected, Mr. Gillis, in the winter of 1824, con- ceived of the project of building a road from Bellefonte to the New York State line, an undertaking that demonstrated the spirit of the age, and of the man, for the route was through the densest wilderness, a distance of one hundred and twenty miles, but Mr. Gillis having gotten his neighbors in the county to

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RIDGWAY TOWNSHIP.

sign his petition for a charter, took his horse and sleigh, crossed the Bennett's Branch near Morey's, going from there to Karthaus, his being the first team ever driven through that wilderness. At Bellefonte he secured a few signers to his petition, and then proceeded to Harrisburg, and there, with the aid of Judge Burnside, State Senator, and John H. Mitchell, a member of the House, and both citizens of Centre county, the bill granting the charter asked for was passed, but the Legislature failed to make any appropriation for the work. However, Mr. Gillis persevered, and the next winter the Legislature subscribed twenty thousand dollars to the stock of the road, and it was finally completed.

In 1826 Mr. Gillis succeeded in having a mail route extended to Montmo- rency, and a post-office established there, Reuben A. Aylesworth being ap- pointed postmaster February 14, 1826. Prior to this time the nearest post- office was at Coudersport, sixty miles from Montmorency, and and it took a man from two to three days to make the trip on horseback. This was the second office established in Jefferson county.

Mr. Gillis represented the districts to which Brookville was then attached in both Congress and the State Senate, and was appointed associate judge by Governor Porter, but as Elk county was then organized taking Ridgway town- ship from Jefferson county, he resigned.

Judge Gillis was a remarkable man, and his long connection with the busi- ness and politics of the county, deserves more than a passing notice, and we cull a few facts of his career from a very able sketch of the " Late James L. Gillis, the Pioneer of Elk and Forest," contributed to the Philadelphia Times in 1881 by Hon. Henry Souther, of Erie.

" He was born in Washington county, N. Y., October 2, 1792, and was one of a large family of sons-all hardy, sturdy men. His father lived to a ripe old age, and visited his sons, James and Enos, late in life, when they resided at Ridgway. A few years prior to the War of 1812 the family re- moved to Ontario county, N. Y., and there James enlisted in a company of New York Volunteers, and was immediately commissioned a lieutenant of cav- alry, and assigned to a regiment commanded by one Colonel Harris, regular dragoons. He was in the battles of Fort George, Chippewa and Lundy's Lane. Shortly after this battle he was taken prisoner by the British and confined at various places in Canada, and in 1814, while under parole he was arrested and put on board a transport about to sail for England. Gillis and several others were successful in making their escape by capturing a boat belonging to the transport, and gaining the bank of the St. Lawrence River, opposite Quebec, at which place the vessel was lying. All were finally retaken. They wan- dered about for several days wishing to reach the United States frontier, but made little headway in that direction. Finally they made terms with a Cana- dian Frenchman, who promised to guide them to the boundary, but betrayed them. The red coats got them, returned them to confinement, and Lieutenant

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.

Gillis was not again permitted to escape. He remained in confinement till the close of the war, when he was exchanged at Salem, Mass. When Con- gress, about 1853, passed a law giving a bounty of one hundred and sixty acres of land to the soldiers of the War of 1812, Judge Gillis had no trouble in proving his title to one. He considered it too sacred to part with, and for years kept it hanging in his home in a gilt frame, which was a luxury in the way of fine arts that his neighbors generally could not indulge in.

In 1816, he married Miss Mary Ridgway, of Philadelphia, a niece of his future employer. By that marriage he had three children : Ridgway B., Charles B. and Caroline, now the widow of Judge Houk, late of Ridgway. In that wild region he reared these three children. His wife died in 1826, and in 1828 he married Miss Celia A. Berry, who died in 1855, leaving seven chil- dren. In 1830 he moved from his farm, which he had cleared, six miles from Ridgway, to that place to which he gave its name, of Ridgway. Here his family resided for many years. In that country, where the benefits of educa- tion were very limited, he brought up his ten children, giving them such edu- cation as the county afforded, and all of them have acquitted themselves very creditably in life. One of his sons, Captain James H. Gillis, United States Navy, did gallant service during the late Rebellion. He was in command of a war vessel, throughout the war, and at the bombardment of Mobile, his vessel came in contact with a torpedo, was sunk to the gun deck, but he fought her as long as there was enough of her above water to stand upon. While he was a mid- shipman, and the vessel to which he was attached was in a South American port, he called for volunteers from his crew, took one of the ship's boats, and saved the crew of a Chilian vessel, which was going to pieces in a fierce storm, two miles from shore. He took the crew from the rigging, and brought them safely to land. The act was recognized by the Chilian government in a fitting manner. Captain Gillis, who was born at Montmorency, in Jefferson county, is now a commodore in the United States Navy.

After Judge Gillis retired from Congress, he was appointed agent for the Pawnee Indians, and located them upon their reservation, built buildings for them, among others a grist-mill, and was their faithful friend and protector, as long as he remained with them. No act of peculation was ever laid to his charge, either there or in any of the other public offices that he held. As an evidence of his kindness of heart, he adopted from the tribe a little Pawnee girl aged five or six years, under the following circumstances : Both the par- ents of the child were dead ; she had no relatives, who under the laws of the the tribe, were bound to care for her, or support her, and was, therefore cast off by every one. The story goes that Judge Gillis found her picking the pieces of fat off the entrails of a decayed buffalo. He immediately took her to his own quarters, had her washed up, clothed and cared for, as if she was the

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ROSE TOWNSHIP.

most precious child in the world. He brought her to Ridgway with him when he returned ; she lived in his family while he remained there, went West with him when he moved to Iowa, and died there."

While Judge Gillis lived at Montmorency, he was obliged, as was all the other settlers in Jefferson county, to go to Indiana to attend to all legal busi- ness, and also to report there for military duty. On one occasion he had failed to report for the latter, and also paid no attention to the fine imposed upon him, and an officer was sent to arrest him. The officer on his arrival, near nightfall, was cordially received by Judge Gillis, and entertained with the lavish hospi- tality for which Montmorency was noted. The judge suspected his errand, but did not in the least remit any of the attentions that he would have bestowed upon the most honored guest. In the morning the officer, overwhelmed by the kindness of his reception, began in a shamefaced way to explain his errand, when Judge Gillis, similating the greatest wrath, ordered him to be gone, tell- ing him if his errand was known, his life would not be worth much in those woods, etc. The poor fellow, frightened by this storm of wrath, mounted his horse and rode off with all speed, and this was the last his prospective prisoner ever heard of him or the militia fine.

Judge Gillis was throughout his life a staunch Democrat, and on his last visit to Ridgway, at a Democratic meeting in October, 1880, he made a speech for Hancock and English. He died at Mount Pleasant, Iowa, in June, 1881, in the eighty-ninth year of his age, having lived through the three wars that this country has seen.

CHAPTER XXXVII.

HISTORY OF ROSE TOWNSHIP.

R OSE township was the fifth to fall into line in the county history, being formed from Pine Creek, in 1827. It was named for a gentleman named Rose, then a prominent owner of lands in the county. The present bounds of the township enclose a long, narrow area, about eight and a half miles in length, and not over three and a half miles in width at the widest part. Its boundaries are now Eldred township on the north, Pine Creek and Knox on the east, Oliver on the south, and Beaver, Clover and Union on the west. It is a broken, billy region, and is traversed by numerous deep rugged valleys. Redbank Creek traverses it from east to west, the North Fork and Five Mile Run skirt its eastern border, Beaver Run rises in the vicinity of Belleview and Coder Run diversifies the topography with great variety of hill and valley, west of

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.

Brookville. The highest summits in the township are about four hundred feet above the bed of Redbank Creek, and sixteen hundred feet above the ocean level.

The Geology .- The Kittanning, Clarion and Brookville coal seams are found in Rose township, and furnish the principal coal beds. The Freeport Lower coal comprises but a small area, the principal bed being that upon which the Enoch McGeary bank is opened. Here the coal is of comparative purity, without partings, and with scarcely any pyrites.

Limestone is found in all parts of the township and generally of a good quality, and is from three to five feet thick. Much of the coal in the vicinity of Brookville is from the Brookville seam, especially that brought from the banks in the vicinity of the pottery. The Brookville coal is claimed to be the best for generating steam, of any bituminous coal that has yet been discov- ered. Fire-clay and iron ore are also found. The former being extensively used in the pottery, near the Catholic grave-yard.

Early Settlers .- Uriah Matson with his family, emigrated to the United States from near Fannet, County Donegal, Ireland, landing at Philadelphia sometime in September, A. D. 1786. He settled first in Chester county, Pa., near Philadelphia, but how long he remained there, is not now known. Some time before A. D. 1800, he removed to Indiana county, where he died. Of his character nothing is known outside the evidence of his certificate of mem- bership of the Presbyterian Church at Fannet, which he brought to this coun- try with him, and which is now in possession of one of his great-grandchildren. It reads as follows :

" That the bearer hereof, Uriah Matson and Belle, his wife, have been mem- bers of this congregation from their infancy, and always maintained an honest, sober and industrious character, free from public scandal of any kind, and now intending to settle in some of the United States of North America, are there- fore recommended as regular members of any Christian society, where God in his Providence may appoint their lot.

" By JAMES DELAY, V. D. M.

" Dated at Fannet, IIth of June, 1786, County of Donegal, and Kingdom of Ireland."

The Matsons were originally from Denmark, settling in England about the time of or soon after the Danish conquest of that country. About the begin- ning of the last century, some of them emigrated to Ireland, to engage in the manufacture of linen, locating on Loch Swilly, County Donegal. John Matson, son of Uriah, was born in Ireland, in 1774, came to the United States with his fath- er's family in 1786 ; married Mary Thompson, in 1803 or '4, in Indiana, and re- moved to Jefferson county, locating on land of which the farm now owned by Robert L. Matson, situated on the Clarington road, one mile northeast of Brookville is a part, in 1805. He was the father of eleven children : Isabella,

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History of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 60

Author: Scott, Kate M Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co. Number of Pages: 860

Author: Scott, Kate M
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co.
Number of Pages: 860