USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > History of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, with illustrations and biographical sketches of some of its prominent men and pioneers > Part 8
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The lumber trade, which for so many years after this commencement was the principal business of the county, will be treated more at length, and com- parative statistics given in a chapter devoted to lumber and coal interests.
68
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
In 1832 the first newspaper was established in the county by John J. Y. Thompson. It was called the Jefferson Democrat, and was Democratic in politics.
In 1832-3 the first jail and court-house were erected, the jail building be- ing completed first and used for holding court, etc., until the completion of the court-house.
In 1834 two runaway slaves were lodged by their captors in the Brook- ville jail for safe-keeping during the night. Hon. Elijah Heath, who was an outspoken abolitionist, determined that no such outrage should be perpetrated upon the free soil of Jefferson county, and conveyed to the prisoners through Mr. Arad Pearsall, who was the jailor at the time, implements for filing off the lock of their cell, and in the morning when the slave owners came to the jail to take charge of their property the captives were well on their way to Canada. They eventually learned of Mr. Heath's complicity in the matter, and brought suit against him, which, under the fugitive slave law, was decided in favor of the slave-holder, and Judge Heath's act of humanity cost him $2,000.
In 1835 Barnett township was formed from part of Rose, and Snyder from part of Pine Creek, and in the second quarter of a century the number of townships was increased to twenty-six.
In 1843 Ridgways township was separated from Jefferson county to form part of the new county of Elk, and the same year Jenks and Tionesta town- ships, and that part of Barnett lying north of the Clarion River was separated from Jefferson county to form part of the new county of Forest. In the next ten years the population of the county increased rapidly, the census of 1840 giving 7,196 white, and 57 colored. The next decade found much improve- ment in all parts of the county, although the attention of the greater part of the population was engaged with the lumber trade. Yet the statistics show considerable improvement in agriculture and manufactures, while, notwith- standing the departure of the townships above mentioned, the population was largely increased, being in 1850, 13,424 whites and 94 colored.
The improved lands increased in value, and there was a proportionate in- crease also in all kinds of crops and stock.
The following statistics show the growth in these respects in the years 1840 and 1850 :
1840.
1850.
56,850 acres improved land.
122,900 acres unimproved land.
Cash value of farms. . .. $1,307,096 Value of farming implements and machinery 83.785
No. of bushels of wheat.
43,598
Bushels of wheat 76,999
oats. .
77,077
oats. 145,828
rye . 24.467
rye
40.743
buckwheat.
14,504
buckwheat. 30,897
corn 23.369
corn 53,877
69
FROM 1830 TO 1860.
1840
1850.
No. pounds of wool 12,171
hops
583
hops
..
flax
241
flax
3.139
Bushels flax seed 181
Bushels of potatoes 64,110
Tons of hay.
3,605
Pounds maple sugar . 27,067
Horses and mules. 1,420
Cattle
5,773
Sheep.
7,342
Swine 8,898
Estimated value of poultry of all kinds. $ 3,110
Value of dairy products. 14,002
Value of dairy products $150,166
orchard products 1,047
homemade goods 5,126
Beeswax and honey, lbs
2,885
Value of live stock
$251,881
animals slaughtered
45,003
In 1850 the value of all taxable property in the county was $980,953. The general statistics for the year ending June, 1850, gives :-
Number of children born during year. .. 440
persons married 153
died 78
dwelling houses in county. . . .2.253
families . 2,307
public schools. So
„¢ teachers employed . 81
pupils attending school 2.738
Income from taxa'n for school purposes. $7,595
public funds. 1,021
Whole income for support of schools. . . 8,616
Whole number of white males attending
school during year . . . . . 1,422 Whole number of white females attend- ing school during year. .1,313
Whole number of colored females at- tending school during year. 2
Whole number colored males attending school during year. I
Of these 2,706 were natives, and thirty- two foreigners.
The number of persons in the county who could not read or write was 373 whites, colored fifteen ; natives 370, foreigners eighteen.
The census of 1840 gives two fulling and one woolen mill in the county, with a capital of $570. In 1850 the total amount invested in manufactures was $141,800, and the estimated value of products was $105, 145, showing a marked increase in manufactures.
In the spring of 1843 the first murder was committed in Jefferson county. Daniel Long, one of the Long brothers who were so noted in the pioneer an- nals of the county as woodsmen and "mighty hunters," was a son of Ludwig (or Lewis) Long, one of the first settlers of Pine Creek township. Daniel, though like his brothers, fond of the chase, did not follow hunting to such an extent as they did. He was married in February, 1832, to Miss Rebecca Mccullough, by Judge Elijah Heath, and settled on the farm now owned by Lawson Geer, in Pine Creek township, where he resided at the time of his death. Like 6
Bushels potatoes 28,746
Tons of hay. 9,116
Pounds of maple sugar . 33,570
Gallons of maple molasses 2,265
Horses and mules. 2,278
Cattle.
9,685
Sheep
13,999
Swine.
7,208
orchard products 560
homemade goods. 8,382
Furs and skins. 1,029
Pounds of wool. 33,327
70
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
nearly all the settlers of the county at that time, he was engaged in the lumber business, and in the spring of 1843 he was lumbering on the Clarion River, having taken up a tract of land (as was the custom in those days) near where Raught's Mills, in Elk county, now are located-all that territory then be- ing embraced in Jefferson county. There was a dispute between him and a man named James Green for the possession of this land, though it is claimed that Long had the first squatter's claim to the land. On April 29, 1844, Green and his son, Edwin, took possession of Long's shanty during his temporary absence. On his return, in company with a man named Samuel Knopsnyder, Long was shot by the younger Green as he attempted to enter the shanty, and killed, the weapon used being Long's own gun. Knopsnyder was also assaulted with an ax by the Greens, and so badly wounded that he died May 3, 1844.
The Greens were arrested and confined in the Brookville jail and tried for murder. The records of the court in the case are as follows :
"May sessions, 1844. Commonwealth vs. James Green and Edwin Green, September term, No. 16.
"Indicted for the murder of Daniel Long. Case of Edwin Green, jury paneled as follows : Hiram Fuller, George Depp, Elijah Campbell, Samuel Gibson, William Williams, Henry Smith, Lemuel Carey, Levi M. Wharton, Robert Law, John McClelland, Andrew Gibson, David Gillespie. Verdict rendered of murder in second degree. Sentence of court one dollar fine and costs of prosecution, and four years solitary confinement at hard labor in the Western Penitentiary. D. B. Jenks, esq., counsel for prisoner. Common- wealth represented by the district attorney, George R. Barrett.
" Edwin Green was tried at the same term, and by the same jury, for the murder of Samuel Knopsnyder, the result and sentence being the same as in the former trial.
" No. 16, December 9, 1844, James Green brought upon the stand. Case reached and jury paneled: George Slaysmen, John McCloskey, George Henderson, Jacob Hoover, Jesse Hannah, Robert Stout, John Sprankle, Thomas Kindel, Benjamin Gilhousen, James Stewart, James Garey, Samuel Fleming. Verdict, murder in second degree. Sentenced to four years solitary imprisonment at hard labor in Western Penitentiary, one dollar fine and costs of prosecution. D. B. Jenks, counsel for prisoner, G. R. Barrett, district attor- ney, for Commonwealth."
The trial of James Green for the murder of Samuel Knopsnyder, was held at the same court, and by the same jury, with the same result and sentence.
Long's friends claim that the influence brought to the aid of the Greens cleared them of murder in the first degree. They never reappeared in Jeffer- son county after their trial, and it is said that the younger man, Edwin Green, was killed, after his release from the penitentiary, by Indians while crossing the plains on his way West.
71
FROM 1860 TO THE PRESENT TIME.
Daniel Long left a wife and three little children. His son, Daniel, is a worthy citizen of Brookville.
The Mexican War, which occurred in 1847 and 1848, only caused a small ripple of excitement in our backwoods county ; the only volunteer of whom we find any mention being Robert Mccullough, a blacksmith from the Beech- woods, who was killed in one of the battles of that war.
In the summer of 1850 the dysentery prevailed in an epidemic form in the county. In Brookville and vicinity the mortality was very great, and one of the newspapers of that year says that "in a space of not more than six square miles, between Red Bank and Little Sandy, there were thirty-four deaths in July and August."
June 4, 1859, will long be remembered as the date of the "big frost." It was a regular freeze, and destroyed all kinds of vegetables ; grain, fruit, pota- toes were all killed, and the grass crops much injured, while the forests looked as though a fire had scorched their foliage. Almost a panic ensued, and the farmers seemed to see starvation staring them in the face. Flour and grain advanced at once in price ; the former as high as sixteen dollars per barrel. In one locality, in one of the churches, on the Sunday following the frost, a subscription was taken up to purchase breadstuffs. But the " scare was worse than the hurt," grain was shipped into the markets from the Western States, and soon declined almost to its nominal price. The new crops of corn and potatoes which were planted at once, to replace those destroyed, gave a good yield, and the effects of the frost were not near so disastrous as was anticipated. A similar frost occurred in 1843.
The Jefferson Star of October 16, 1850, notes that " twenty-five fugitive slaves passed through Brookville last Monday morning on their way to Can- ada ; " so the first railroad in Jefferson county was the underground railroad, and from the above notice it would appear that travelers from the "Sunny South" to Canada were quite numerous.
In 1860 the population of the county is given at 18, 189 whites, and eighty- one colored.
CHAPTER IX.
FROM 1860 TO THE PRESENT TIME.
Tornadoes -- Floods-Railroads-The Rebellion-Murder of Betty McDonald-General Im- provements-Statistics of Agriculture-Manufactures-Commerce, Etc.
T THE last twenty-seven years of the county's history has been an era of prosperity and improvement.
In 1870 we find the population of the county was 21,588 white, and sixty- eight colored, an increase in ten years of 3,386. One of the well-remembered
72
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
events of 1860 was the great tornado, or cyclone, as we would call it in these days, which swept over a portion of the county. It first destroyed the town of Maysville, in Clarion county, causing the death or wounding of quite a number of the citizens of that little village. From there it crossed the Red Bank into Jefferson county, where it first destroyed the house and barn of Paul Gearhart, all the buildings of Isaac Mottern, the house and barn of Henry Spare, the large barn of McLain Ferguson, the upper story of whose house was carried away, and one of his children slightly injured. After leaving Beaver township it passed into Knox and Pine Creek townships, crossing the Indiana road be- tween Little Sandy and the residence of John Montgomery. Samuel Mont- gomery, who was caught by the storm on the road leading from Knox town- ship to Brookville, had both his limbs broken by falling trees. The horse he was riding was killed, but the one he was leading escaped uninjured, but was , penned in so securely by the fallen trees that food had to be carried to it for several days, until a road could be cut into the fallen timber to extricate it. The house of Jacob Rinestein, in Pine Creek, was demolished, and all its con- tents destroyed. In Knox and Pine Creek the course of the storm was about a mile in width. It crossed the turnpike near Reynoldsville, where it de- stroyed two or three houses, and where a son of Mr. Dietrich had a leg broken, Mr. Dietrich's buildings being torn to pieces.
In the entire pathway of the tornado not a tree or anything else escaped its fury. The loss in timber was immense, and the course of the storm may yet be traced by the "windfalls," as they are termed, on which not a large tree is seen, only the growth of underbrush since that time. These " windfalls" are covered with blackberry bushes, and annually yield a large supply of that fruit.
After the tornado passed over the county pieces of oak shingles were found in the vicinity of Brookville, and in other parts of the county, which must have been carried by the force of the wind from Clarion county, as only pine shingles were used in Jefferson county. It seems miraculous that no lives were lost, and so few casualties occurred in this county. The same day Brookville and other localities in the county were visited by a severe rain and hail storm, accompanied by thunder and lightning, but strange to say with very little wind. The hail was very large, and the measurements taken at that time give the largest that fell at from five to ten inches in circumference.
July 4th of the same year the little town of Roseville and portions of Union townships were visited by a similar storm. The houses and barns of Isaac Siars, Daniel Lamb, and William Kelly were destroyed, John Fitzsimmons's barn unroofed and fences destroyed. The large brick house of Richard Hughes was badly shattered, the kitchen torn away, and the roof lifted up and then let down to its place again. The orchards, laden with fruit, of Messrs Hughes and Kelly were destroyed, and fences carried away, making the loss in the small area covered by the storm very heavy.
73
FROM 1860 TO THE PRESENT TIME.
The streams which for so many years were the commercial highways of Jefferson county-which in summer are generally small creeks-become, when at " high flood," mad, rushing torrents. The most destructive floods occurred in January, 1828, February, 1832, spring of 1847, September 27, 1861, March 16, 1865, and June, 1884.
The flood of 1861 was a very disastrous one, the waters being higher than ever before except in 1847. Great damage was done, and millions of feet of timber and boards were carried off. The next flood in 1865 was almost a rep- etition of that of 1861. The winter previous an unusually large amount of timber had been put in ready for rafting, and the loss was very great to the lumbermen on all the streams. The latest destructive flood was that of June, 1884, which caused great devastation in and about Brookville. The North Fork bridge was destroyed, and Messrs. Thomas K. Litch & Sons lost heavily in damage to mills and lumber lost. The dam of Carrier, Verstine & Co.'s mill, on the North Fork, was torn out, and they lost heavily in lumber.
In 1861 the war, premonitions of which had been felt for some time, was precipitated upon the country ; but it found the loyal citizens prepared for the issue, and the alacrity with which they responded to the call for men to aid in putting down the rebellion was a surprise, even to those who knew the deep- seated loyalty of our people. The history of the part taken by the soldiers of Jefferson county is given elsewhere, and fully shows their gallant service dur- ing the great struggle.
During the four years of the war, the history of Jefferson county is that of every county in the loyal North. With the greater portion of her able-bodied citizens in the army, all departments of business suffered, for the farmer had gone forth leaving the plow in the furrow, the lumbermen had left his ax stick- ing in the pine tree, the lawyer closed up his office, the merchant left his coun- ter, and the mechanic his bench and forge, the printers nearly all forsook the case. Then the noble women of the county " came to the front "; the mothers, wives, and sisters took up the work where their sons, husbands, and brothers had laid it down, and they bore the burden nobly until the end came, and peace was once more restored. We could not give the history of those days as far as the women of the county are concerned, for no parade was made of what they did for the county in those long and bloody days of the war ; but we know that when, with pale cheeks and faltering lips they bade their loved ones hasten to the defense of the flag, they stepped into the gap their absence crea- ted, and worked untiringly and uncomplainingly to keep the machinery of the homes running. They took the men's places in the stores, offices, and work- rooms, and in the field, even in some instances plowing, sowing, and reaping, and in all those years of long suspense and hope deferred, they cared for the wants of the soldiers in the field, in preparing and forwarding supplies for the sick and wounded.
74
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
During the years of the war business of all kinds suffered; but with the dawn of peace new life was infused into the county, and prosperity again reigned.
From an early period in the history of the county the railroad question was agitated more or less, and numerous surveys were made through Jefferson county, which would for the time being cause the people to think that they were to secure an outlet to the outer world ; but for a long time these expecta- tions were not realized, and the county seat of Jefferson county was "forty miles from anywhere," it being about that distance by stage. to Indiana, Kit- tanning, Franklin, Ridgway, or Clearfield, points to be reached before the cars could be taken by the traveler.
In the spring of 1853 ground was broken at Pittsburgh on the Allegheny Valley Railroad, or, as it was then called, the "Pittsburgh, Kittanning and Warren Railroad," and as the survey of the road ran through Jefferson county, the commissioners of the county subscribed ninety thousand dollars to the stock of said road, issuing bonds for the same; but the Allegheny Valley road, instead of coming through Jefferson county, followed the Alle- gheny River to Oil City, and our people were again "left out in the cold." In August, 1871, however, work was commenced on the Low Grade division of the Allegheny Valley road running from the mouth of Red Bank, on A. V. R. R., through the counties of Armstrong, Clarion, Jefferson, Elk, and Clear- field, to intersect with the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad at Driftwood, in Cameron county. This road was finished in May, 1874, the first through train of cars going over the road May 4th. The building of this road, bringing into the county so much ready money, and giving employment to so many men, helped our people to tide over the panic of 1873-4 without their feeling its effects to any great degree. The extent of railroads in the county will be given elsewhere.
On the 19th of February, 1876, a murder was committed in Jefferson county that caused a widespread feeling of horror. Mrs. Elizabeth, or as she was better known, Betty McDonald, an old lady of eighty years of age lived alone on a small farm in Washington township. She had a few hundred dol- lars in money, and to secure this was the object of the murder. When she was found horribly murdered on the day succeeding her death by her neigh- bors, suspicion at once rested upon two strangers who had come into the neighborhood a few months before. Warrants were issued for their arrest, and Charles Chase, one of the suspected men was arrested at Ridgway the next day, and conveyed to the Brookville jail, and at the May term of court follow- ing, he was tried and convicted of the crime, and sentenced to be hung. Hon. James Campbell presided at the trial, and Messrs. I. G. and A. L. Gor- don, and John McMurray, esq., with the district attorney, L. A. Grunder, esq., represented the Commonwealth, while the prisoner was ably defended by Messrs. P. W., W. P., and G. A. Jenks.
75
FROM 1860 TO THE PRESENT TIME.
The jury was composed of the following persons: Charles Jacox, Fulton Shoffner, Silas Brooks, Abel Fuller, Andrew Hawk, William Williams, W. A. Hadden, William Altman, Thomas North, Darius Blose, William Norris, and James Buzzard. August 23, 1867, Chase paid the penalty of his crime, the sentence being executed by Sheriff Nathan Carrier, in the jail-yard at Brook- ville. Dean Graves, Chase's accomplice in the crime, having succeeded in eluding the officers of justice, the commissioners offered a reward of five hun- dred dollars for his apprehension, and on the 29th of October he was arrested, after a desperate resistance, by the sheriffs of Kent and Verick counties, Mich. Sheriff Carrier, accompanied by Colonel W. W. Corbet, armed with a requi- sition from the governor of Pennsylvania, went to Michigan and brought Graves to Brookville, where he was tried at the December term of court and convicted of murder in the second degree, and sentenced to solitary confine- ment in the Western Penitentiary for eleven years and eight months. In this trial the Commonwealth was represented by District Attorney A. C. White and the Messrs. Gordon, and the defense by the Messrs. W. P. and G. A. Jenks.
The jurors in the trial of Graves were Ephraim E. Johnson, James F. Hawthorne, James L. Whitman, William Best, jr., John Frampton, Israel Graf- fius, Peter Galusha, John Coon, Miller Harding, George S. Campbell, James M. Morris, and Charles B. McCain.
The last half of a century has done wonders in the way of improvement, and developing the resources of the county. Though there is yet considerable valuable timber in the county, the wholesale, indiscriminate, and in some cases wanton destruction of our forests, has greatly diminished the supply. Lum- bering was for so long the only business by which money could be made, that nearly all the grand old pines have fallen victims; no voice was raised for the woodman to "spare that tree," and year by year vast quantities of lumber was carried off by our streams to find a market, often, too, at paltry prices ; but all this has come to an end now ; what timber is left is held at its just value by the owners, and the cessation in the lumber trade has caused that attention to be given to farming, which had been neglected while the lumber business was in the ascendency. Farms that in former years scarce yielded a pittance, have now been brought to a high state of cultivation. The unsightly stumps are all disappearing, good fences have been built, while the best and most approved farming implements and machinery are in general use. On the farms the log cabin, and the rude stable have given place to the large, well-appointed dwell- ings, and commodious barns. The homes of the farmers are comfortably, and in a great many instances, luxuriously furnished. The organ or piano, and well selected libraries are found in nearly every farm house, showing that the farmers of Jefferson county believe in surrounding their children with that which is ennobling and refining. In every home also is found the weekly news- paper, and papers and magazines treating on agricultural and literary subjects.
76
HISTORY OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
Within the last few years a great interest is being taken in the improve- ment of stock, and now some of the very best grades are to be found in this county, until it has become noted abroad for the fine horses and cattle raised and owned by our stockmen.
Jefferson county is also becoming noted as a fruit-producing region, her soil and climate being especially adapted to the raising of almost all kinds of fruit except the peach, which usually succumbs to our severe frosts. Apples, pears, cherries, grapes, etc., are grown in the greatest profusion and perfection. Great attention has been paid to the planting of the very best varieties of ap- ples, and it is rare indeed that Jefferson county has not more than enough for home consumption.
The development of the immense deposits of excellent coal that underlies so much of the surface of the county, has also given a new impetus to busi- ness. Two new railroads built into the coal fields within the past two years, the Buffalo, Rochester, and Pittsburgh, and the Ridgway and Clearfield Rail- road, a branch of the Philadelphia and Erie Railroad, have done much toward developing the eastern and southern portions of the county.
The population of Jefferson county at the last census was 27,898 white, and thirty-seven colored, showing an increase over the census of 1870 of 6,347. It will be seen by the figures of the different censuses that the colored people do not take very kindly to Jefferson county, the entire number given by the different censuses being 369.
The statistics of agriculture and manufactures for 1870 and 1880 show the great strides the county has taken in that direction :
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