USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 74
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Present Business .- There are four post-offices in the township-Heath- ville, Patton's Station, Pansy, and Ohl-and two stores, that of Shaffer & Reitz, at Pansy, E. M. Ohl, at Pleasantville, and C. L. Guthrie, at Heathville. The blacksmiths in Beaver are: Jonathan Horner and George Myers, at Heathville, and Jonathan Buzzard, at Pansy. The large woolen factory of John Lang, erected about 1851 or 1852, at Langville, is the only manufactory in the town- ship. The only grist-mill is that of Nicholas McQuiston, also located at Lang- ville, on Little Sandy. There are no hotels in the township. There are seven school-houses and six churches in the township, with a cemetery at each church.
Farms .- Beaver township is mainly settled by hardy, honest Germans,
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who have made farming their business, and who have made this locality one of the best farming regions in the county. It is especially adapted to stock- raising. Among the best farms, with the best improvements are those of Elias Jones, Solomon Shaffer, sr., Solomon Shaffer, jr., Mrs. Lydia Thomas, Solomon Glantz, David Benjamin, Michael and Jacob Brocius, Jonas Soweis, and the farm owned by the Isaac Mottern estate. All the fruits that can be grown in the county are raised in profusion, and of the best known varieties.
Elections .- The first election was held in Beaver township, in 1850, and resulted in the following persons being elected :
Justice of the peace, Charles Jacox, Absolam Smith ; constable, David L. Moore ; supervisors, John Imhoof, Michael Brocius; auditors, Lewis McAn- inch, David Fayrweather, George Gumbert ; school directors, Henry McAn- inch, Peter Motter, Michael Brocius, David Himes, Absolam Smith, Charles Jacox ; judge of election, David Edmonds ; inspectors, James B. Wayland, George Gumbert ; poor master, John Hastings, David Smith, David Fayr- weather.
At the election held February 15, 1887, the following persons were elected : Constable, J. B. Sowers ; collector, Joseph Spare ; supervisors, David Plyler, Baltzer Raybuck; school directors, Jonas Sowers, jr., Jonathan Horner ; audi- tor, David Brosius; poor overseer, Walker Smith ; assessor, Josiah Fensta- maker ; judge of election, David Sowers and Walter Bracken, tie vote; in- spectors, Israel Keck and Samuel Ressler.
The justices of the peace for Beaver township are Daniel Reitz, and Michael J. Brosius, and the previously elected members of the school board are John Updegraff, Wallace Morrison, F. P. Hetrick, and Josiah Fenstamaker.
Statistics of Population, Assessment, and Schools .- The number of tax- ables in Beaver township in 1856 were 158; in 1863, 166; in 1870, 201; in 1880, 274; in 1886, 294.
The population, according to the census of 1850, 662; 1860 was 874; 1870, 1,094; 1880, 1,113.
The triennial assessment of Beaver for 1886 is as follows : Number of acres of seated land, 11,581 ; valuation, $47,244 ; average per acre, $4.08. Houses and lots, 3; valuation, $100. Number of acres unseated, 1,091 ; valuation, $175. Number of horses, 144; valuation, $2,563; average value, $17.78. Number of cows, 247 ; valuation, $2,328 ; average value, $8.40. Number of occupations, 85 ; valuation, $1,552 ; average, $18.20. Total valuation sub- ject to county tax, $55,695. Money at interest, $19, 181.
The number of schools in . Beaver township for the year ending June 7, 1886, were 7 ; number of months taught, 5 ; male teachers, 2 ; female teach- ers, 5 ; average salary of teachers, $25.00 ; number of male scholars, 158; females, 134; average attendance, 226; per cent. of attendance, 87 ; cost per scholar, 62 cents ; 13 mills levied for school, and 3 for building purposes ; total amount of tax levied for school and building purposes, $1,079.57.
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
CHAPTER LII.
HISTORY OF POLK TOWNSIHP.
P OLK was organized in 1857, being taken from Warsaw and Snyder. It is the twenty-first township, and was named for James K. Polk, eleventh president of the United States. It is one of the northern tier of townships, and adjoins the Elk county line ; being bounded on the north by Elk county and Heath township, on the east by Snyder, on the south by Warsaw, and on the west by Warsaw and Heath.
Nearly the whole township is drained by the North Fork, which starts among the highlands at the Elk county line. One branch (Hetrick Run) runs to Shoffner's Corners, where it curves slightly around the base of the uplands.
Geology .-- The Brookville coal is the principal bed yielding the best coal, but like all the seams in Polk, is small, averaging only about two feet in thickness. Ferriferous limestone is found in all parts of the township. It is a compact rock of excellent quality, easily quarried, and quick to calcine, and not very fossiliferous. It is quarried at a number of places in the township. Buhrstone iron ore is also found.
First Settlers .- The first settler who made any improvement in what is now Polk township, was Paul Vandevort, but he only remained a short time ; then Frederick Hetrick, in 1838 settled on the farm now owned by Jacob Mc- Fadden, and cleared the land and made the first improvements there. He lived there for several years, and then removed to the west, where he died.
Philip Hetrick came to Polk township in 1842, and improved the large farm now owned by his son, Darius Hetrick. He, after some years, removed to the west, and is also dead.
Next came Isaac Nicholls in 1844 from Genesee county, N. Y. Then John Masters made the first improvements on the farm now owned by Shan- non McFadden. John Lucas, in 1846, settled on the farm first cleared by Paul Vandevort, but he too sold out and removed to the west. John Dixon settled in what is now Polk township, in 1847. He was a son of John Dixon, one of the first settlers in the county, who is noticed elsewhere, and was born in Jefferson county in 1807, and has ever since resided within her borders. He has grown up with the county ; has witnessed all the pioneer struggles, as well as all its future prosperity. Every native born citizen, every town and hamlet has grown up under his eye, and now, at the age of eighty years, he is still a hale, hearty man, and has for several years held the office of constable for Polk township, to which office he was re-elected at the spring election in 1887. He is able to walk from his home to Brookville, a distance of about fourteen miles. Although raised amid the toils and privations of pioneer life,
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and deprived of the advantages of education, as he informs us that one term of school, at Indiana, where his father sent him when a boy in his teens, to attend school, and where he had to do chores for his board, was all the educa- tion he received, but he has read a great deal, and is well informed on all the topics of the day, while his penmanship is legible, and plain, remarkably so for a man of his age. Mr. Dixon is a prominent member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, with which he united fifty-eight years ago.
In 1848 Jacob McFadden settled on the farm now owned by his son, Shan- non McFadden. His family consisted of nine children, four of whom went into the army, and one died in the service.
Henry Shoffner came in February, 1849, from Redbank, Clarion county, and soon had one of the best farms in the township, and for many years his house was the haven to which all travelers through that region wended their way, and where they were sure to receive the best fare and treatment in his hospitable home. Mr. Shoffner was a straight forward, honest man, and for forty-six years a prominent member of the Albright, or Evangelical Church. He was the father of thirteen children. Mr. Shoffner has been dead about four years, but his aged and estimable widow is still living at the homestead, now owned by her son, Fulton Shoffner.
Others of the old settlers of Polk were Leonard Lockwood, who moved there in 1847, James K. Hoffman, John Plotner and John Nofsker in 1850, Amos T. Riegle, James Carnahan and Henry Wingert.
The first marriage in the township was Adam, a son of Frederick Hetrick, to Mariah, daughter of Philip Hettrick. The ceremony was performed by Darius Carrier, justice of the peace of Troy. The next was Mathew Wells, a little Irish man, and Delilah Nichols.
The first birth, of which there is any record, was Rebecca, daughter of John Dixon, born in 1848.
The first deaths were Rebecca, aged two years, and James, aged six, chil- dren of John Dixon, who died of dysentery, in August, 1850, then a daughter of Philip Hetrick, and one of Jacob McFadden, the next, and first adult to die in the township, was "Mother Black," who died suddenly at a prayer-meeting just as she had finished giving her testimony for Christ - the last words she spoke.
The first grave-yard, and the one now in use, is situated on a rising portion of ground, near the Zion Church, on the farm of Shannon McFadden. The ground was set apart for the purpose by his father, Jacob McFadden, who then owned the farm
The oldest inhabitants in the township now living are John Dixon, aged eighty years, his wife, aged seventy-five ; Jacob K. Huffman, eighty, and his wife, eighty-one ; Jacob McFadden and his wife are both about seventy-five ; Mrs. Plotner (widow of John Plotner), is seventy-six, and John Clover, sixty- five.
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
The pine timber has nearly all been cut off with the exception of a small amount on the west side of Elk Run, on the north side of the township. There is considerable hemlock, sugar maple, and oak yet standing. On the land owned by Wainwright & Bryant, there has been a large amount of timber cut within the last two years. These logs are put into the North Fork and then " driven " to the company's mills, at Nicholson, on the Low Grade road, where they are manufactured. There is a large amount of hemlock bark also taken out of Polk each season. Since the decline of the lumber trade, the citizens of the township have turned their attention to agriculture, and the farms are be- ginning to show the renewed activity, so that Polk will soon rank with any of the other townships in this respect. The fruit raised is also of a superior quality, and much attention is paid to its culture.
Among the best farms in the township are those of Scott Smith, John Shoffner, Fulton Shoffner, Jesse Huffman, Sylvester Davis, Jacob McFadden, Darius Hettrick, Jared Jones, J. K. Huffman, John Snyder, C. Longwell, and Shannon McFadden.
The first store was started about 1866, by Sylvester Davis, who was ap- pointed postmaster about the same time, and still holds the position. J. R. MeFadden also started a store in 1879, at Blowtown ; is still engaged there in general merchandising. The other store in the township is that of Newton Webster, at Mundorff.
There are two post-offices in the township-Schoffner's Corners and Mun- dorff.
The first saw-mill was built in 1844 by Phihp Hettrick, on Hetrick's Run, a branch of the North Fork. There is only one mill now in the township- that of Darius Hettrick, built in 1865 at " Blowtown." near the site where his father's mill was first erected. It is a good water-mill, and cuts a large amount of boards each season.
Elections .- The first election was held in Polk township, February 23, 1852, at which the following persons were elected :
Justices of the peace, Samuel Cochran, Frederick Hetrick ; constable, Steven Hetrick ; supervisors, Philip Hetrick, Amos Riegle ; auditors, Samuel Cochran, John Plottner, James K. Huffman ; assessor, Samuel Cochran ; assis- tant assessors, Thomas Allison, James K. Huffman ; school directors, Fred- erick Hetrick, Nathaniel Clark, John Smith, John Snyder, Jacob McFadden, Amos T. Reigle ; town clerk, Nathaniel Clark : judge of election, Samuel Cochran ; inspectors, Francis Allison, John Plottner.
The election held February 15, 1887, resulted in the following persons be- ing elected :
Constable, John Dixon ; supervisors, D. J. Plotner, Reese MeFadden ; poor overseer, C. C. Longwell ; tax collector, Jesse Hoffman ; school directors, John Webster, Alvin Hoffman ; assessor, John Chamberlain ; auditor, George
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Chamberlain ; judge of election, Jared Jones ; inspectors, H. M. McKillip, J. W. Plotner; town clerk, Ambrose Morrison.
The justices of the peace for Polk township are S. Davis and Newton Web- ster, and the previously elected members of the school board are F. Shoffner, John Leech, John Plotner, R. McFadden.
Taxables, Population, Assessments, and School Statistics .- The taxables in 1856 in Polk township numbered 35 ; 1863, 53 ; 1870, 84.
The population in 1860, according to the census, was 244; in 1870, 256 ; in 1880, 361.
The triennial statement of the commissioners of the county for 1886 gives the real and personal property in Polk township as follows :
Number of acres seated, 7,924; value, $21,563 ; average per acre, $3.00. Number of acres unseated, 13,176; value, $42,952 ; average per acre, $3.00. Number of horses, 98; value, $2,660; average value, $27.00. Number of cows, 143; value, $1,348 ; average value, $9.00. Occupations, 37 ; value, $688 ; average, $19.00. Total valuation subject to county tax, $69,211. Money at interest, $1,046.
There were 5 schools in Polk township in 1886 ; average number of months taught, 5 ; number of male teachers, 2; female teachers, 3 ; average salary, $33.24 ; number of male scholars, 72 ; females, 59; average number attending school, 89 ; per cent of attendance, 81 ; cost per month, $1.44 ; 13 mills levied for school purposes, and 4 mills for building ; total amount of tax levied, $1,121.24.
CHAPTER LINI.
HISTORY OF OLIVER TOWNSHIP.
0 LIVER, the twenty-second township, was organized in 1851, and, as it was taken from Perry, it took also the Christian name of the great naval hero for which that township was called. Oliver is bounded on the north by Knox and Rose, on the east by McCalmont and Young, on the south by Perry, and on the west by Beaver and Ringgold.
Drainage .- The region is one of deep valleys. Big Run, heading near Oliveburg, flows across the southern part of the township and receives numer- ous small tributaries coming from the north and south. The Little Sandy makes a long circuit through the northern part. It has also numerous impor- tant tributaries coming from the north and east, all of which occupy deep, ·wide ravines.
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
Geology .- The Freeport lower coal is the principal bed in Oliver, and is found in nearly all parts of the township, but notably in the Little Sandy re- gion. Its thickness is from five to six feet where it has been mined. Mr. W. G. Platt says of this coal: "Most probably the Freeport lower coal is here a large and valuable bed, but the determination of that fact must wait develop- ment. To all appearances there is an enormous expanse of it on the lands of Messrs. Jenks & Winslow, situated on both sides of Jordan's Run, east of Burkett's. These lands, embracing thousands of acres, are unimproved forest."
The Kittanning lower and middle coal beds are found averaging about two feet thick, and the Brookville about the same.
The ferriferous limestone is found in good condition, and is from five to seven feet thick in the Little Sandy and ;Big Run valleys, and is easily quar- ried, making excellent lime. Buhrstone iron ore and fire-clay is also found in the Little Sandy valley.
Early Settlers .- The first settler in what is now Oliver township was Reu- ben Hickox, who came from Connecticut in 1822. Mr. Hickox has been mentioned in the history of Perry township.
William Hadden, who came with his parents from Indiana county in 1812, when his father, Archibald Hadden, settled in Perry township, is the oldest living citizen of the township, being now in the eighty- second year of his age, having resided in Jefferson county over seventy-five years. In 1831 Mr. Had- den moved on to the farm in what is now Oliver township, where he still re- sides. Mr. Hadden's life of three-quarters of a century in Jefferson county comprises the greater part of its history. He was always very fond of the chase, and when only about eleven years of age killed his first deer near the town of Indiana, and the last one some six years ago. He computes the whole number of deer that have fallen before his unerring rifle as at over six hundred. In one year alone he killed forty deer, one bear and sixteen wild turkeys, be- sides smaller game. Another year he killed twenty-five deer. Game was so abundant in those days that the hunter could choose that which suited him best. At one time Mr. Hadden, Jolin Henderson and Hugh McKee, who were hunting together, killed an elk, the horns of which measured from five to six feet.
Mr. Hadden did not confine himself to hunting, but cleared and improved a large farm, besides engaging in lumbering. About the year 1842 he built a saw-mill in Oliver township, and was one of the first pilots on the Mahoning, when rafts had to be run out to Kittanning before they could be tied up. The rafts at that time were steered with two oars at the front end instead of one as in the present day.
For many years Mr. Hadden every spring would open up a sugar camp on his farm, where he made all his own sugar and molasses. While at his early home in Perry township he had often to go to the mill on Black Lick, in
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Indiana county, to get a grist ground, or to the town of Indiana to purchase the necessary store goods. Indiana was then a small village, and only a trail through the woods led to it. Mr. Hadden is still a sprightly, well preserved man, and bids fair to live longer than is often allotted to man. He has never been sick but once in his life and that was more than thirty years ago.
George and William Newcom settled on adjoining farms and cleared land in 1825. The latter had one of the best improved farms in the township, with good buildings. It is now the property of his son, Samuel T. Newcom.
John Jones settled in Oliver in 1826, Peter Depp in 1828, and Samuel Cathcart in 1831. The Mckinstry brothers, Alexander and William, came from McVeytown, Miffin county, about 1833, and settled first near where Worthville now is, but afterwards moved to the present Cool Spring. Alex- ander Mckinstry had purchased a large tract of land, on Little Sandy, of the Holland Land Company, and many of those who settled there about the same time purchased their farms of him. Among these were James and David Harl, Benjamin and Samuel Recd.
Alexander Mckinstry was one of the most prominent settlers of what is now Oliver. He was for a number of years justice of the peace, and his house was for many years a popular stopping-place for travelers.
In the year 1855 dysentery prevailed to an alarming extent in Jefferson county, especially in the Little Sandy valley, where, in less than two months, there were some thirty deaths. It was during the prevalence of this epidemic that a sad affliction befell the family of Alexander Mckinstry. The wife, child and sister-in-law (Miss Kelly) of his son, William B. Mckinstry, who resided with his father, died of the prevailing disease within a few days of each other, the last of the trio, the little child, dying on the 25th of September. Soon after seeing his little one close its eyes in death the bereaved husband and father, crazed by grief, went out into the woods near his childhood's home and there shot himself. He was an unusually gifted and intelligent young man, beloved by all who knew him, and his sad death cast a deeper gloom over the community in which the dread pestilence had made such terrible havoc.
In 1860 diptheria visited the same community and with the same dire effect. In the month of January eight children of William Mckinstry (brother of Alexander) dying within a space of two weeks. All the heads of these two families have been gathered in by the same Great Reaper.
William M. Reed now lives upon the farm first settled by his father, Samuel Reed. James Harl resides on the Benjamin Reed farm and cares for Mr. Reed and his wife, both being about eighty years of age.
Joseph Manners came into the township in 1835, Adam Dobson and Sam- uel Gaston in 1833, Jacob Fishel in 1837, George Stewart in 1838, John and William Coulter in 1841, Samuel Burket in 1842, Robert Hice and Elias Gil-
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HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
housen in 1848, Henry Brown, Daniel Fair, Jonathan Rowan, William Smith, Robert Parks, John Kellar, Jacob Wyant, were among the early settlers in Oliver.
Mathew Barr came to the township in 1849, and settled on a farm pur- chased from Alexander Mckinstry, where he lived until his death. His son, James Barr, now owns the place.
Of the first settlers in this end of the township only John Coulter, Benjamin Reed and David Harl survive, all residing on the farms their own hands have cleared and improved. Nearly all the land in Oliver township belonged to the Holland Land Company, and was sold by their agent, C. C. Gaskill, and and it was owing to his leniency that many of these early settlers were able to pay for their farms. In some instances where they had been unable to make the first payment, or pay the interest, they would go to Mr. Gaskill, who, by their paying a dollar or two on the new article, would cancel the old, and allow them to commence in the new. On one occasion, a certain man in Oliver or Perry township, wishing to get hold of some land claimed by another party, went to Mr. Gaskill, and tried to purchase it, and when reminded that it had been sold to another, replied that he would never pay for it. "Well," said Mr. Gaskill, " he tells me that he hopes to pay for it, and I will not deprive him of that hope. There is plenty more land that thee can have."
Early Improvements. - The first store was opened at Cool Spring by James Gray, who came from Indiana county, about 1836. Mr. Gray also built a small saw-mill on Kellar's Run, which he operated for a few years. He died there in 1844. He was the fifth postmaster appointed in the county, and his office was the only one except Punxsutawney south of Redbank. He named the office from a remarkably cold spring on the premises. Only one of Mr. Gray's family is a resident of this county, Miss Margery Gray, of Brookville, who is in the eighty-third year of her age.
The next store was opened about 1846, at Sprankle's Mills, by David Frank.
Thomas Houston also kept store at an early day at Sprankle's Mill. He was followed by Peter Seiler, who kept a store for several years, until he per- ished in the fire which consumed his premises .. Finding the building on fire one night, he entered with the intention of saving his books, when the draught caused by the fire closed the door upon him, and he was unable to escape. His son, Daniel, succeeded to his business.
The first grist-mill was built by Frederick Sprankle, of Indiana county, about the year 1833, at the junction of the Big Run and Kellar's Run, who called the place Fredericksburg. The next grist-mill was built by Philip En- terline.
The first saw-mill was built by John Sprankle, son of Frederick, at the same place, and the next by William Mckinstry, on Little Sandy. William Hadden built the next, and about 1848, Levi Gilhousen built a mill on the
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south branch of Little Sandy. Daniel Enterline built one below Sprankle's Mill, in 1852. Samuel and Benjamin Gilhousen also built one of the early saw-mills.
John McKee started the first carding- machine on Little Sandy, near Mc- Kinstry's, in 1846. Mr. McKee came from Westmoreland county, near Leech- burg, and started his carding-mill, with one set of rolls, which he ran for a while, and then put in another set. He did the wool-carding in that section of the county until 1859, when he removed to Frostburg, where he has since resided. He has followed wool-carding almost ever since he located in the county, do- ing the first work of the kind in Brookville, where he still superintends that part of the business in the woolen manufactory of Newsome & Fawcett. Mr. McKee was one of the early school teachers in Oliver. The first school-house was built at the Cross Roads, near William Newcome's. It was an old log structure, and was succeeded by one at Kellar's. The first church was built in 1854, at Oliveburg. The first grave-yard was on the farm of John Kellar, where several of his children, and some others were buried, and the next was started at Oliveburg, in 1853, two children of Isaac C. Jordon, being the first buried there.
Present Business. - The saw-mills in Oliver are those of William Hadden, T. A. Mckinstry, Eli Enterline, S. T. Newcom, Robert Geist, C. C. Geist, George Geist, J. M. Hadden, Raybuck & Brocius, and Eli Coulter. The lat- ter is on the site of the mill built by John Sprankle, whose daughter, Sarah, Mr. Coulter married. Mr. Coulter also owns the grist-mill at Sprankle's Mill.
About twenty years ago the old saw-mill at Mckinstry's, was torn down, and a new steam mill erected. This, with the large grist-mill, one of the best in the county, is owned and operated by Thompson A. Mckinstry, son of Al- exander Mckinstry, who owns and resides on the old homestead. Joseph M. Elder owns and operates a tannery in Oliver. The stores in Oliver are those of Daniel Seiler and William Eisenhart at Sprankle's Mill, M. J. Kunselman, T. A. Mckinstry, John Shafler and Harry Ickes at Cool Spring, and John Fink at Oliveburg.
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