History of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 70

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 70

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The McCreights have a family burying-ground on the old homestead farm.

Prospect grave-yard was commenced soon after Tilton Reynolds settled there, and his little twin daughter, Margaret, was the first to rest therein. Many of the old settlers are sleeping their last sleep in that much neglected spot.

There is another burying-ground in Paradise, near an old Dutch church, where some of the oldest settlers in that settlement were buried, among whom Jacob Smith and wife, Adam Yohe and many others of those who endured the first hardships of pioneer life.

" Beulah Land " was started in 1876, being laid out by Thomas Reynolds, and Arthur Parke Reynolds, his son, was the first interred there. Since then his father, brother John, and his brother-in-law, Gould J. Scott, have laid down beside him.

July 5, 1876, R. Prott, of the firm of McGregor & Prott, who built the Summit Tunnel, and some of the railroad bridges of the Low Grade Railroad, was buried in Beulah, where, the February before, two children of his brother, Alexander Prott, had been laid, and about a year after a fine stone monument was erected to their memory by the father and brother, Mr. A. Prott, of Brook- ville.

In 1882 Mrs. Amelia Reynolds removed the bodies of her husband, Wood- ward Reynolds, and her children, John and Joana and Richard, with two who

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.

died in infancy, from Prospect to Beulah. It is beginning to be improved by those whose dead lie there, and will in time become a beautiful city of the dead. There are now two hundred and twenty-five graves in Beulah. The Baptist cemetery, near Beulah, was laid out by Rev. C. H. Prescott, on his land, about 1883.

Saw-mills .- The saw-mills in Winslow, operating in 1887, are those of Andrews, Keatley & Co., Bond, McGhee & Carrier, at Sandy Valley ; Collins & Shaffer, at Falls Creek ; Waite, Hutchins & Co., Sandy Valley ; David Wheeler, Reynoldsville; J. C. Swartz, near Reynoldsville; Levi Schuckers, near Emerickville ; Silas Brooks, near Sykesville, and Hopkins, Irwin & Co., on Sandy Lick, below Reynoldsville. The latter mill was built by Nathan Carrier, and for a time was the property of N. Carrier and Gould J. Scott, when it was one of the most extensive lumbering establishments in the county. There are also two portable saw-mills in Winslow, owned by Edward Rupert and M. B. Wynkoop & Brother.

There are four post-offices in Winslow township,-Sandy Valley, Pancoast, Sykesville and Rathmel.

Elections .- The first election was held in Winslow township in 1847, when the following persons were elected :1 Constable, Joseph McCreight, Oliver Welch, Tilton Reynolds ; supervisors, Clark Lyon, Joseph Syphert, M. Best ; school directors, Andrew McCreight, Thomas Reynolds, John Phillipi ; over- seers of the poor, Woodward Reynolds, Thomas Reynolds; assessors, Oliver Welch, Robert Douthett, John Foltz ; judge of election, Andrew McCreight; inspectors, John Barr, Jonathan Strouse.

The best varieties of apples, pears, plums, and all the small fruits, are raised in profusion.

Winslow township was divided into two election districts by a decree of court September 17, 1887. The citizens of East Winslow vote at Prescottville, and the election for West Winslow is held at the Moore House, in Ohiotown. The election held February 15, 1887, resulted as follows: Winslow, East, jus- tice of the peace, David Bollinger ; constable, Benjamin Haugh; collector, A. W. Mulholland ; assessor, Martin Strouse ; supervisors, William Grimes, Fulton Henry ; school directors, W. J. Hillis, William Grimes ; auditor, J. M. Norris ; poor overseer, J. L. Beebe ; judge of election, John Smith ; inspectors, Benja- min Haugh, John Marshall. Winslow, West, judge of election, Allen Cathers ; inspectors, R. B. Kline, John Dougherty. The justice of the peace for West Winslow is Luther A. Hays. The other school directors composing the board are Benjamin Kline, James A. Cathers, Henry Stevenson and W. T. Cathers.

Taxables and Population .- The number of taxables in Winslow township in 1849 were 100; in 1856, 171; in 1863, 240; in 1870, 364; 1880, 506; 1886, 849. The population by the census of 1850, 507 ; 1860, 1096; 1870, 1320; 1880, 1904.

1 This is taken from the election docket and does not specify which candidates were elected.

Tho. Reynolds de

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Assessments and Valuation .- The number of acres of seated land in Wins- low in 1886, was 18,587 ; valuation, $91,361 ; average value per acre $4.92. Number of houses and lots 439; valuation, $47,739. Number of grist and saw-mills 14 ; valuation, $8, 150. Number acres unseated 8,613 ; valuation, $48,899 ; average value per acre $5.68. Number of acres surface 2,085 ; val- uation, $8,538. Acres mineral 1,367 ; valuation, $7,093 ; average value per acre $5.19. Number of horses 298 ; valuation, $7,795 ; average value $26.16. Number of cows 406 ; valuation, $4,912; average value $12. 10. Twelve oxen ; valuation, $240. Number of occupations 292; valuation, $5,995 ; average, $20.53. Total valuation, subject to county tax, $230,722. Money at inter- est $2,503.

School Statistics .- The number of schools in Winslow township, for the year ending June 7, 1886, was 16. Average term, five months. Number of male teachers 12; females 4. Average salary of male teachers $30.66; fe- males $25.00. Number of male scholars 398 ; number of females 334. Aver- age attendance 474 ; per cent. of attendance 64. Cost per scholar 68 cents. Mills levied for school purposes 10; for building, 5. Total amount of tax lev- ied for school purposes $3,975.10.

REYNOLDSVILLE.

In 1837 David Reynolds, of Kittanning, sent his son, Woodward, to settle upon some lands in what is now Reynoldsville and Winslow township, for which he had a title. Woodward Reynolds had that year married Miss Amelia Ross, also of Kittanning, and in the spring of 1838 the young couple came to the new home in the woods. Some years before Charles C. Gaskill, who then owned the land, had erected a log house of two rooms, to be used as a tavern, as they were called in those days. Woodward Reynolds found a man named Potter keeping this house, having squatted there, and it was with some difficulty that he was induced to give up his claim. Two men, by the names of Caldwell and Banks, had preceded Potter as keepers of this hostelry. Mr. Reynolds built additions to the "log hotel," and entertained the public there for a number of years. In this house, which occupied the site of the present residence of Albert Reynolds, David Reynolds, the first white child born in what is now the town of Reynoldsville, first saw the light. Mr. Rey- nolds, in 1850, built the brick hotel still known as the Reynolds House, which he kept until his death, in January, 1861. He at first owned three hundred acres of land in Reynoldsville and vicinity, to which he added, by purchase, eight hundred acres more. This was all valuable timber land, and, after he was gone, and the timber too, the land being good coal territory, was sold by his sons David and Albert, who laid out the home farm in Reynoldsville into town lots, streets and alleys, which is now the main business portion of the town. Mrs. Reynolds lives in a comfortable residence, one door east of the

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.

Reynolds House, with her daughter, Ida, the only one of her family who has not made a home for herself.

Though the Indians had left this region before Reynoldsville became the abode of the white man, one lady yet living has cause to remember the visit of one of the last of his race, and it yet makes her shudder when she recalls her narrow escape from the scalping-knife of the bloodthirsty red man.

One day in the year 1843, an Indian came to the house of Woodward Rey- nolds, and demanded food. Mrs. Reynolds, who happened to be alone at the time, placed bread and meat before him, but he refused to eat until he was provided with tea. Mrs. Reynolds assured him that she had no tea in the house ; but he would not believe her, and throwing the bread and meat on the floor to the dog, he glared savagely at her, and stalked away. In the evening he returned, but Mr. Reynolds and his two hired men were present, and after asking this time for whisky, he again left. In a short time news came that he had murdered the Wigton family in Butler county, and Mrs. Reynolds had no doubt then, that his last visit would have resulted in her death, had he not been deterred by the presence of the men. She can yet recall the murderous looks he cast upon her. Mrs. Reynolds calls the Indian Blackhawk, but the following narrative published in the Pittsburgh Commercial of July 11, 1887, of his bloody deed in Butler county, gives his name as Sam Mohawk : " The news of the death of James Wigton, who died at Salina, Venango county, a few days ago, aged seventy-six, recalls one of the most dreadful chapters in the criminal history of Pennsylvania, Wigton's entire family, consisting of his wife and five children, having been murdered in Slippery Rock township, But- ler county, in 1843.

" At that time an Indian named Sam Mohawk, who lived on the Seneca Reservation, in Cattaraugus county, N. Y., made periodical trips down the Al- legheny Valley, and he was the terror of the region. He came to Butler in the latter part of June, 1843. His first demand was for whisky. He was refused at every place, which enraged him so that the inhabitants, fearing the result of his temper, made up a purse to pay his stage fare to Meadville. This was paid to the driver, and Mohawk got aboard. At Stone House, twelve miles from Butler, he left the stage and disappeared, and the conveyance went on without him. At midnight of that day he appeared at the stage-house, which was kept by a man named John Sills, and demanded the money that had been raised for his fare in Butler and also whisky. Sills was compelled to drive the Indian from his house with a club. At daybreak, on the morning of July Ist, James Wigton, who lived on a farm a few miles from Stone House, left his home to go to his father's farm, two miles and a half distant, on an errand. He did not return until eight o'clock. He saw a crowd of people about his house. He was stopped at his gate, and the terrible news was broken to him that during his absence Sam Mohawk had entered his house, and bru-

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tally murdered his wife and five children. The news so stunned Wigton that he was unconscious for three days. The murder had been discovered by James Wigton's brother John, who lived a mile or so from the former. He had seen the Indian pass the house just after daylight. John Wigton went to his broth- er's house an hour later to borrow a wagon. On entering the house he dis- covered the dead bodies of his sister-in-law and her five children lying on the kitchen floor, the children being piled in a heap on the body of the mother. Their brains had been beaten out with a large stone, which lay covered with blood on the floor near by. Mrs. Wigton was thirty years old. Her children were aged respectively eight, five, four, three and one years. Mrs. Wigton was partially dressed, but it was evident that the children had been taken from their beds by their murderer and killed.

" The Indian was arrested and placed in the Butler jail, which was guarded by armed men day and night to prevent a rescue by wandering bands of In- dians, which were common in the Allegheny Valley forty years ago. Mo- hawk was tried in the following November, and was hanged on the 22d of March, 1844. One of the witnesses of the hanging was James Wigton, hus- band and father of the Indian's victims."

Thomas Reynolds in 1841 built a little log house on a site now situated on Jackson and Tenth streets, and the following year he was married to Julia Anna Smith. The wedding trip was a two-mile journey on a path through the forest to the little shanty. While on their way seven full grown deer were seen walking leisurely along, and exhibited no fear, as they stopped and gazed a few moments at the couple, and then proceeded leisurely on their way. The footprints of bear, deer, and other animals were often discovered near the house, and Mr. Reynolds once shot a deer while standing in his yard. The Indians had a hut near the spot upon which he built, by a fine spring where the old logs were yet to be seen.

Miss Rebecca Fuller relates the fact that the wolves seemed to have some way of surrounding the deer and killing them in great numbers, near the cold spring above Prescottville, as she said her parents would find the bones and blood there frequently in those early days, showing how the rapacious, blood- thirty brutes had surrounded and killed numbers of the timid creatures.

In 1842 Thomas Reynolds built a large log house on East Main street, near where the present Reynolds mansion now stands. He also put in opera- tion a tannery and saw-mill at the same locality. These were the only busi- ness enterprises between the years 1840 and 1860.

In 1845 Tilton Reynolds, who was postmaster at Prospect Hill, brought down the post-office in a cigar-box, and handing it to his brother said, " Here, Tom, is the post-office. I am going away, and you will have to attend to it." For some time no attention was taken of the change, by the post-office de- partment, until Mr. Thomas Reynolds requested that the name of the office be

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changed from Prospect Hill to Reynoldsville, which was done, and he was appointed postmaster. When Thomas Reynolds gave the name to the town by having the post-office called Reynoldsville, there were no houses west of the school-house hill, between Thomas Reynolds and Woodward Reynolds's homes, except a small house built by Woodward Reynolds, on the site of the present Belnap house, and a log house that stood somewhere near the present Presbyterian Church, until Archibald Campbell put up a row of small build- ings east of what is now Sixth street. Archie Campbell, as he was called, was one of the pioneers of the town, and up to his demise in 1876, was well known throughout the county. He was a zealous patriot, a true friend to those whom he liked, and a member of the Presbyterian Church.

The editor of the Punxsutawney Tribune, who is a native of Reynolds- ville, tells the following story of Archie Campbell's peculiarities : " Whoever has lived long in Jefferson county must have known Archibald Campbell. · Archie' was an Irishman by birth, and a financier by profession. He lived with his good wife, Mary Ann, in a little striped house on Main street, Rey- noldsville, for many years, and was at one time sole proprietor of the Sandy Lick Hotel. The . Sandy Lick ' was the theater of many a lively scene during the palmy rafting days of twenty years ago. Archie made a good deal of money in those days by selling 'swate molasses' to the raftsmen at a dollar a pint. 'Egad ! No,' Archie would say, ' I kape no whusky, but I've got plenty of swate molasses.' But with all his faults Archie was a pretty good kind of an Irishman when he was asleep. The peculiarity, however, which rendered Archie unique and original, was the eagerness with which he sought money, and the tenacity with which he clung to it. To illustrate : Once, when the writer was a little boy, Archie engaged him and his elder brother, Sid, to clean out his Augian cow stable. Archie kept a cow and a horse in a very small stable, which was never cleaned out as long as the animals were able to stand upright inside. 'Now clain it out good boys,' Archie said as we went to work with shovel and mattock, 'and I'll pay yees woll fer it.' We worked hard all that day and the next day, finishing the job in the evening. Archie pro- nouneed it first rate, and told us to go with him to the house and get our money. As times were pretty flush then, we didn't expect to receive less than two dollars, but Archie soon put all our sordid calculations at rest by produc- ing a three-cent . shinplaster,' and presenting it to Sidney with the remark : ' Guv Wully a cint av that ! Egad, he carned it !'

" For many years afterwards, when, in playing ball, we happened to catch a fly or make a run, there was always some bad boy to yell, ' Guv Wully'a cint of that ! Egad he earned it !'

"Archie was a warm friend of Dave Reynolds, and once he opened his heart so far as to give Dave's little boy a little pig. A few months afterwards Archie got it into his head Dave was indebted to him, and he accordingly demanded

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a settlement. The settlement was made at once, and, very much to his cha- grin and surprise, Archie came out two dollars in debt. He scratched his head a moment, then said !

" 'Sure that pig is chape enough at two dollars !'

"' But,' said Mr. Reynolds, 'I thought you gave that pig to the boy !'

"'Egad ! an I did,' said Archie, ' but sure I'm not the mon to allow a but of a pig sthand in the way of a settlement betwixt meself and Dave Rey- nolds !'"

" Jimmy Kile was also an odd character, who figured in the early history of Reynoldsville. Although he and Archie Campbell prided themselves on their open-handed generosity, as most Irishmen do, they were chiefly cele- brated for their penuriousness. Many and ingenious were the schemes that Archie would invent to avoid parting with a penny that would not bring him two in return. Once on a time the citizens of Winslow township took a notion to fix up the Prospect Cemetery, and in order to reach the Kiles and Camp- bells, who were wealthy, a subscription paper was put in the hands of Jimmy Kile. He called on Archie Campbell one morning with his paper, when the following colloquy took place :

". Gud morning, Muster Cummel.'

"'Gud morning, Muster Kile.'

"' Are ye's all wull, this morning, Muster Cummel ?'

"'Yes, Muster Kile, there's only meself and Mary Ann, and we're all wull.'

" ' Muster Cummel, I've got a superscruption paper here to fix the grave- yard beyand, an' wud yer be afther puttin' somethin' down ?'

"'Egad ! no, Muster Kile, not a cint for that oul cow-pasture. As long as I luv I won't be buried there. Egad, I won't !'

" ' Wull, Muster Cummel, we duffer in opunion on that, for if I luv and kape my health, I wull !'"

EARLY SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES.

The first school-house in this locality, a little log one, was built in 1836, on the hill above the present flouring-mill at Prescottville, It was known as the Fuller school-house, and in it Thomas Reynolds taught the first school under the common school system. A few years later another building was erected in Cold Spring Hollow, which was in constant use until 1874, when, it with a building of later date, was sold, and the large school building on Cen- tral Main street was erected in 1875. In the first few years of Reynoldsville's existence religious services were only occasionally held. An old house on East Main street, afterwards remodeled and occupied by Milton Coleman, was often used for the purpose of holding religious meetings, and on one occasion, about the year 1852, the floor gave way, precipitating the congregation to the basement, and it is said that five persons perished in the accident, which was

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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.

augmented by the fire from the over-turned stove. The school-house in Cold Spring Hollow was used for Sunday-school purposes and as a place of worship for many years ; then about 1861 C. H. Prescott built a Baptist Church in Pres- cottville, and in 1870 the Presbyterians built a church east of the residence of Thomas Reynolds, which was succeeded in 1881 by a large brick church on Main street. The Methodist and Lutheran Churches are also commodious and fine structures. In the latter the Episcopal services of the church, organized in Reynoldsville by that denomination in the spring of 1887, are held. The Baptist congregation have the foundation built for a large' and elegant church, which they will occupy before the close of 1887. The Catholics, in 1873, built a commodious frame church, which took the place of a little building, which they had heretofore occupied in the eastern suburbs of the town. Miss Harriet Fuller, who taught school at the Fuller school-house about the year 1834, started the first Sunday-school. She was a very zealous worker, and when any of her scholars whispered or misbehaved at Sunday-school she would punish them the next day. She was afterwards Mrs. Guthrie, of Troy. In this school-house James McCreight and Mr. Ross also taught. In those days a debating society was held in the school-house, and Thomas Reynolds, who had been a strong temperance man in his New York home, where he was a prominent lecturer, organized the first temperance society in the township. Mr. Reynolds, in after years, acquired a taste for spirituous liquors from having brandy administered to him (much against his will) by his physician during a severe illness.

It is a strange coincidence that Woodward Reynolds and Thomas Reynolds, coming from different localities, one from Kittanning and the other from the State of New York, and with no kinship or previous knowledge of each other, should have chosen this place for their home, and locating about a mile apart, one at the eastern and the other at the western part of what is now the thriv- ing town of Reynoldsville. The town has been aptly named, called as it was for the pioneers who first settled there, and whose descendants make up so large and important portion of the citizens both of the town and township.

Of the older members of these families, nearly all have passed away, Mrs. Thomas Reynolds and Mrs. Woodward Reynolds alone remaining. There are three distinct families of Reynoldses now residing in Reynoldsville. Tilton, William, and Thomas were brothers, and their descendants now living number seventy-three. Of these Tilton Reynolds's descendants are three children, thirty-three grand-children, and ten great-grand children living.

William Reynolds's descendants are five children and ten grand children living.

Thomas Reynolds, sr., five children and seven grand-children living.

Woodward Reynolds, eight children living and eighteen grand-children.

Dr. Samuel Reynolds, who settled in Reynoldsville in the last decade, and represents the third family, has five children.

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WINSLOW TOWNSHIP.

There are thirty-six in the town of Reynoldsville who answer to the name of Reynolds, and one hundred and four in the township.

Dr. William Reynolds, son of Tilton Reynolds, has in his possession the marriage certificate of his grandfather Reynolds, of which a copy is given below :

The President of the Deleware State To any Minister or Preacher of the Gospel.

Seal that was here broken out

J CLAYTON

JAS BOOTH Sect

I the underwritten do hereby, certify that I joined the above Parties in Holy Matrimony the day & year above mentioned CHAS H WHARTON

Whereas Application hath been made unto me. by Thomas Reynolds and Ann Reynolds to be joined in 1Ioly Matrimony, and finding upon due examination, that there is not any lawful Let or Impediment, by Reafon of Pre- contract Confanguinity, Affinity, or any other just Caufe whatfoever, to hinder the faid Marriage : Thefe are therefore to licence and authorize you to join the faid Thomas Rey- nolds & Ann Reynolds in the Holy Bands of Matrimony, and them to pronounce Man and Wife.

Given under my hand, and attefted by the Secretary of the faid State, under the public Seal of his Office, this Sixth day of October in the year of our Lord one Thoufand Seven hundred and ninety one

The prevalence of the names of Reynolds and Smith was pretty aptly illus- trated by the following, which appeared in the Reynoldsville " Paper " a few years ago :

" Reynolds vs. Smith-Quite a mirthful explanation was given by Smith, the evangelist, of his non-arrival at Reynoldsville, as expected, some time since. Mr. W. H. Smith, the engineer, received the telegram which should have been sent to Mr. W. J. Smith, the evangelist, thus delaying the latter and puzzling the former.

" The evangelist remarked : 'Smith is a very honest name, but often very inconvenient, but, indeed, not more so than other names in some localities. For instance, as I came up the Low Grade the last word I heard on board the train was 'Reynoldsville,' and stepping off confronted Mr. Reynolds. Of course I thought he was the founder of the town. As I perambulated the streets I saw 'Reynolds House,' 'Reynolds Opera House,' and 'Reynolds

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Restaurant.' I picked up a newspaper of the town, and lo ! ' Reynolds Her- ald,' published by a 'Reynolds' company, and edited by W. S. Reynolds, met my eyes. Then there are 'Reynolds Colliery' and ' Reynolds Grove.' 'Miss Reynolds' is too numerous to mention, and 'Mr. Reynolds' is exceedingly plentiful. There are Dr. Reynolds and Albert Reynolds, both about six feet and three inches high; in fact every Reynolds I saw bordered on the Brog- dingnag in stature, and when we consider their avoirdupois and number, we wonder where the rest of the people get room to live. So now if I get any of your names mixed, just blame it on Reynolds.

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History of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers, Part 70

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