USA > Pennsylvania > Mifflin County > History of Mifflin County : its physical peculiarities, soil, climate, &c. ; including an early sketch of the state of Pennsylvania Volume I > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39
Beginning in 1754, when the French and Indian alliance was formed, the warfare of the savages against the frontier settlers con- tinued without intermission, except that at some periods it was more active than at others for 28 years. The trials, the perils, and the sufferings of those times will never be fully known. Record of what then occurred are meagre and faint, and the old pioneer has passed away.
We find among them reference to murders and depredations of the Indians, but many can be traced to unfounded rumors, which were likely to originate in widely scattered communities, where people
65
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
were in constant fear and danger. Authentic accounts of savage atrocities are so few as to scarcely afford us an idea of the times, or enable us to correctly write their history. My recent efforts to gather narratives of these events, and so present them in connected form, have not led to satisfactory results. The sources of reliable infor- mation is limited, that it is necessary to draw from data or alleged facts from sources that were unworthy of confidence.
Traditionary statements, after they have passed from one genera- tion to another, are not entitled to credence, because of the weak- ness of memory on the one hand, and a disposition on the part of others to paint in too bright colors. An author recelving a highly- colored account of an occurrence, may, if his own imagination be vivid, and he be disposed to romance, rather than fact, write a vol- ume that would be interesting, but which ought to be presented to the world under some other title than history.
In the present work we have endeavored and will endeavor to state only facts and nothing positive that is not backed and sup- ported by indubitable evidence.
The Division of Pennsylvania into Counties.
The division was made during William Penn's first visit to the Province.
He was here, at that time, nearly two years, arriving in 1682, and returning to England in 1684.
The counties formed by him, at that time, were Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester; the lines of separation between them were confirmed by the Provincial Council on the 2d of April, 1685. The ·only boundaries designated were where these counties joined each other. Their limits in other directions were undefined.
They were co-extensive with the province itself. Chester em- braced the greatest extent of territory and from it many other counties have since been erected. Lancaster was established by an act of Assembly, May 10, 1729. It was separated from Philadel- phia and Chester counties, by a line running from Octorara Creek, in a north-eastward direction to Schuylkill, and included all of the province lying west of that line.
By an act of the Assembly, passed January 27, 1750, the lands lying "to the westward of Susquehanna, and north and westward of the county of York," were created into a new county called Cumberland. It was about this date that the events of a historical character began to transpire within its limits that are detailed in the 5
66
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
various and appropriate departments of this work, and the organiza- tion of Mifflin, referred to in the beginning. As stated in another page the county of Mifflin was erected ont of Cumberland, on the 19th of September, 1789. When the attempt was made to run the boundary line between Mifflin and Huntingdon a dispute arose be- tween a strip of territory that was claimed by both. The sheriff of Huntingdon county in going to serve writs that had been placed in his hands to serve on the disputed territory was confronted by a party of men and taken into custody and placed in the Lewistown jail. He was released on a writ of habeas corpus, and returned to the place of his arrest. The people again assembled to make a resist- ance, but they and the sheriff's posse failed to meet, and further vio- lence was avoided. These difficulties were finally settled by the ac- tion of the Legislature. On the Ist of April, 1791, an act was passed reciting that some dissatisfaction had arisen respecting the boundary line between Mifflin and Huntingdon, on the south side of the Juniata River, which was run in 1789, designating where the line should be, and appointing commissioners to run it. By another act of March 29, 1792, a new designation to the line was given, as follows : "A straight line beginning in the middle of the water gap in the Tuscarora Mountains, and from thence to the River Juniata, in such direction as to include Joseph Galloway's farm within Hunt- ingdon county, at the mouth of Galloway's Run, shall be the line between Huntingdon and Mifflin counties." And this was the end of the controversy.
67
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
PIONEERS OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
Y THERE is a moral sublimity in the life and character of the pioneer. In some arduous work or great achievement, as in our American revolution, which were to cover with glory a greater portion of the world, he stands in the front rank or is the leader of the van. He encounters difficulties only to conquer. Neither his motives nor his aims may be properly understood, but he fixes his eye on his work and presses forward. His enemies may raise a storm of persecution to beat upon his head, the darkness that al- ways besets an incipient day, and the opening of his brilliant career, may brood thickly along his path, but his confidence is not shaken. No clonds can completely cover his horizon. While others are confounded with despair beyond the thick gloom of his present-his faith and hope contemplates a clear sky as his eye catches an occasional glimpse of the coming light.
From the very nature of his work, being many years in advance of the age for which he lives, he advances with much toil. Pover- ty was almost uniformly his lot, while the rich and the gay are liv- ing in splendor in their homes in the country from which onr early pioneer emigrated. He came to this, a new and frontier land, pur- sues his arduous calling, labors night and day in the perils and dan- gers that surround him, not so much for himself as for those who are to succeed him. Why does he choose this lot? Why labor and toil, and endure the hardships of a frontier life, the benefits of which will only be enjoyed by those perhaps he may never see? The answer to these questions are very plain : He is in every sense a providential man ; he comes to endure and to suffer for his race ; he feels within his heart the spirit of his calling ; the fate of coming generations he sees in part committed to his hands ; his mission is to be offered for their weal. True, he has the feelings natural to his kind. He would be glad to enjoy the quiet and se- rene pleasures of his home ; the hearthstone of his little cabin (if he is not too poor to have one) he would love to see as blithe and cheerful as that of others of a less busy life.
68
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
No man loves his wife, children and neighbors more than he. A condition that would give him leisure for all the amenities of social life ; for high communion with nature and her works; for the study of these noble monuments of nature, the mountains, and the traces of the civilization of pre-historic races; these would cheer and gladden his soul and gratify his tastes.
The fields are as green for him as for other men. The forest is as gay in autumn, and as fresh in spring. He, as well as others, would take the partner of his bosom and his children to walk out each sweet summer evening to view the glories of the rural land- scape, and his heart would beat a response to every joyful note of the warbling waters and the echoing woods. But he is denied this. He has work to do and dangers to encounter. All these enjoyments he must forego ; must resign to his successors for whom he labors. Though his own and his companions' hearts often yearn after them, by reflection they subdne their feelings, and reluctantly give them up. I repeat there is a sublimity in the life and character of the pioneer. He once lived in the centre of a social life. His home was on his native hills, or in some rural valley among his friends. His cottage stood in the shade of some venerable trees, perhaps in Erin's Isle, planted by his ancestors a century ago. The vines that wound around his door posts; the shrubs that fringed his garden walks, and the grove waving in the wind in the rear of his peace- ful dwelling, were all the work of a by-gone age. There he had known and loved a mother that brought him into the world. There he had revered a father, who led him in youth and conducted him safely to manhood. There he first heard the voices of brothers and sisters, the memory of which here comes like visions to his soul. There, in later years, he laid those kindred, his venerated father and affectionate mother, in a silent grave. Long ago their monidering bodies have passed away, and the earth above them settled down to supply their places. The rank grass, the hollow- ing graves, the dilapidated tombstones erected by surviving love, all now proclaim the old family burying ground, a place for the heart to linger, but not to leave.
And these little mounds recently formed, where the violets and primroses have not yet had time to bloom, tell that death has been there lately. This pioneer before leaving his native home, may have laid one, two, or three of his own tender offspring beside his departed ancestors. Here he might linger, here spend the remainder of his days, and enjoy the wife of his youth, and the children of their love, and the competence saved him by the frugality of his fathers.
69
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
But it must not be so. He has a work to do. He has a growing family. More than that, the Western Continent needs his service. He is destined for a new world. He seeks room for the energy of his children to expand itself, and where his children's children can settle by his side. The intellectual and moral power of his descen- dants will here have a more commanding influence on the coming age. Perhaps in the new country, he, surrounded by the thou- sand incidents and chances of a frontier life, may see his offspring wielding for good the fate of a new republic, or the destinies of a State committed to their hands.
These thoughts and others like them fill his mind in his island home, till he submits to their influence, finds himself committed to their sway, and he becomes a convert to the new work.
From this moment he is a pioneer. He breaks away from the ties that bind him to his native land, disposes of a few articles of loose property, and these make a trial of his faith. He finds the same things, when sold, look differently in the hands of another than in his own. The further he proceeds with these sacrifices the more strength he acquires for what remains to be done. The cot- tage where his father lived, how can he give it up? The old well with its " moss-covered bucket," must he never drink from its cool sweet waters more. That neat front yard where his children played among the flowers. Must these children never gambol there again.
But then those green graves of his ancestors, and those other fresh little hillocks where the violets have not yet bloomed, must all be left to the neglect of strangers and the vicissitudes of coming years. In such a mental conflict what memories came back to the soul. But he must go. He has undertaken the work of a pioneer, and all personal feelings must be made subservient to his mission.
There, on that beautiful undulation, on that gentle swell beside the grove, the brook, and the spring, we see a cabin. The smoke from its rude chimney is the only mark of civilization on all the vast scene presented to view from this eminence. Let us go up and see what this pioneer has done. At the time of our visit he has resided in his new home many years. Many a day had the deer in herds browsed the rich grass on the hill above the run, or laid down in the shade of the grove to rest. Many a dark night had the grim old wolf crouched in the thicket near the cabin watch- ing for his prey. Perhaps the still wilder savage, with the scalp
70
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
of the white man on his quiver, and the rifle of his victim on his arm, laid himself down to rest mid the covert of the grove.
But now all these things are gone, gone never to return, they are numbered with the past.
In their place are the bright fields of ripening wheat, and glisten- ing, waving, corn glowing in the gentle breeze. This tall corn is a memorial of the tall grass that once grew in these woods. The substantial post-and-rail fences that are the dividing lines of farms, and of corn and pasture, wheat and orchard, mark as rich a soil as ever drank in the rays of a rising sun. When this land was first secured from the government it cost but a trifle. Now it is a princely fortune. Everything on the premises indicate industry and thrift. The private wagon road leading up to the house is skirted on both sides by cultivated trees. The house itself, with its snug rooms, substantial walls, immense yard and large back garden, its spacious barns and numerous out-houses stationed here and there in the rear, might be a suitable home for a king, provided that king had the heart and intellect of a pioneer. He has reared the log school-house upon his farm, and invited teachers from the land of his birth. When there were few to help, he paid them from his own purse, and fed them bountifully at his own board.
Here, too, within this primitive cabin, that other pioneer was wel- comed, who, single-handed and alone, came through many perils to proclaim messages of divine love and many of his successors have found a home within these walls. Many sermons that burned with fervor, have been preached in the grove beyond the house. How many souls saved, or how much good done within the pre- cinets of this lowly cottage, the angels themselves may never know. But we may look down the vista of times river, and see other pioneers who received their first impulses and baptism in this grove and within this humble domicile.
A few to-day are the host of to-morrow. From the first to the last of his weary years there has been in his life and labors, a lofty and living example of true sublimity. Speechless be the tongue, and withered the ungrateful heart that does not, when occasion offers, respect the character and honor the memory of The Old Pioneer.
71
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
HISTORICAL FAMILIES AND THE PROMINENT MEN OF PRESENT TIME.
Win. P. Elliott, Esq.
It is appropriate and with pleasure that we are enabled to intro- ·duce, as our first subject in this department of our work, the gen- tleman named above, he being the oldest inhabitant of Lewistown, at this date, who was born in this town. He was born here in 1793, his father and two uncles having located here in 1775 to 1780, the date not being precisely known at this time. What is now Lewis- town was originally Oldtown, then Pokety, and then assumed its present cognomen. Mr. Elliott engaged in the printing business when quite young, and in 1811, in company with a Mr. Dixon, en- gaged the publication of the Gazette, which was the fifth paper en- terprise that had been undertaken at this town, most of which had been exceedingly short-lived. They sold out their newspaper en- terprise in 1815, and Mr. Elliott engaged in the manufacture of iron in Cumberland county, which not proving a success, he returned again to Lewistown. In 1814 he was commissioned MAJOR in the army by Simon Snyder, then Governor of this Commonwealth, and ·served seven months in the frontier war service to the high credit of himself and friends and country. On his return he served as dep- uty sheriff for some years ; held several minor offices, then engaged in farming for eighteen years. In 1841 he was made postmaster, which place he filled for four years. He also held a notary public's commission for twenty-five years. In the year 1814, March 17, were joined in matrimony Wm. P. and Emily Elliott, who for long years made the journey of life together. The result of their union was a family of fourteen children, eleven boys and three girls, of whom only four still survive. Mr. Elliott is well-to-do in this world's goods, enjoys a good degree of health for so advanced an age, retains all his faculties to a remarkable degree, and he bids fair for many more years of stay and enjoyment of the pleasant society of his friends ; and all are his friends.
It is with pleasure we next introduce a personal notice of a son of the above gentleman, who is at this time on a visit to this, the city of his nativity.
Richard Smith Elliott.
The following sketch of Mr. R. S. Elliott we copy from the ." Exporter and Importer," a monthly periodical published at St.
·
72
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
Louis, Missouri. "This gentleman was born at Lewistown, Penn- sylvania, July 10, 1817, is a son of William P. and Emily Elliott .. His parents, being in comfortable circumstances, gave him the best education that was to be had at that time until he was thirteen years old. Having a philosophical turn of mind he devoted him- self to the study of the natural sciences, and laid the foundation for the researches and investigations that have benefited the public- and brought him into prominence in connection with one of the most beneficial enterprises of the age, that masterpiece of engi- neering skill and perseverance-The Eads Jetties. At the age of sixteen, he commenced a novitiate in that entry port of most of the remarkable men of this country, viz : a printing office. At sev- enteen set articles out of his own head for his father's paper, and at eighteen his father gave him the paper which he conducted for a year-purchased another one, when he left to wander west. He worked as a typo in Louisville, Kentucky-returned home and went to Harrisburg to take charge of a paper-was admitted to the bar and remained there until 1843, when he was appointed agent. of the Pottawatomie Indians, at Council Bluffs, Iowa. In 1844, when temporarily residing at St. Louis, was licensed to practice law by Judge Mullanphy. During that time he wrote some prose and verse articles for the " St. Louis Reveille," and, together with other writers, gave that paper its reputation for facts and humor .. In 1845 he resigned the Indian agency and took a party of chiefs. to Washington as their friend and attorney, and through his means a treaty was concluded in 1846 by which the Indians ceded 5,000,- 000 acres of land in south-west Iowa to the Government, and agreed to join their brethren in Kansas, and " have a home forever free from the intrusion of the white man." In September 1845, he set- tled with his family in St. Louis; in 1858 moved to Kirkwood, of which he was one of the founders, and suggested the name, being that of the chief engineer of the Missouri Pacific Railroad. In January, 1846, he opened a law office in St. Louis, and in the sum- mer of that year joined Captain Thomas B. Hudson in raising a company of Laclede Rangers, of which he was first lieutenant. With them he marched across the plains and remained in Santa Fe until the summer of 1847, when he returned to St. Louis and re- sumed the practice of law. In 1848 and 1849, he, with H. W. Lef- fingwell, present United States Marshal, engaged in the real estate business and made a large map of the city, also started and pub- lished the first real estate paper that was ever published containing
73:
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
present and prospective values of property. In 1851 this firm sur- veyed and laid out Stoddard's Addition. The summer of 1856 Le spent with Captain J. B. Eads at Washington, to get an act of Congress passed to remove obstructions to the Mississippi.
"In 1870 he was the industrial agent of the Kansas Pacific to in- vestigate the capabilities of the great plains for agricultural pur- poses, and conducted experiments in cultivation. He was first to interpret correctly the climate of the plains in 1869 and 1870. By experiments along the line of the road, from 1870 to 1874, the cor- rectness of his conclusions was established, and his services prov- ing of great valne to the railroads of Kansas and Colorado.
"Having always his favorite object in view, he, in 1868, began in- serting the small end of the wedge, which has eventually opened the mouth of the Mississippi to the fleets of the world, insisting that a better outlet could be secured, and the river compelled to do. its own dredging. He never for a moment lost sight of this matter, and while in the service of the railway company ou the plains, frequently wrote to agricultural and other papers, insisting on the plan of opening the mouth of the river by dykes or jetties. Per- sistent in his favorite object, in 1875 he joined Captain Eads at Washington, and assisted him in urging the passage of the first Jetty Bill, which finally became a law, March 3, 1875. He has been connected with this stupendous enterprise from its inception to its. completion. Never wavering, never doubting, never losing faith in Captain Eads, or the ultimate success of the undertaking. During his career of usefulness he has been ever aided by facile pen and fluent speech, for important and beneficial effects. Never engaging in personal controversies, he has led a useful life, though unobtru- sive and retiring in manner, he has made his mark in the world. He was largely instrumental in starting the manufacture of pig iron from Illinois coal at Carondolet, Missouri." It is with pleasure we quote the above, and make the acquaintance with its subject, who is another marked illustration of what talents, personal energy and perseverance can do, in guiding a steady will and a firm purpose.
Charles Ritz, Esq.
One of the pleasant duties in the preparation of the work before us, is to prepare the department devoted to the historical families of Mifflin county, and the pleasant part of that work is the con- genial and pleasing duty of setting forth for the example and imi- tation of others, sketches of such a gentleman and his family, as.
.74
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
he whose name heads this notice. Mr. Ritz located in Lewistown in 1827, and has since resided here. His business has been a drug- gist, during that entire period of over half a century, without re- mission, recess, or change. His long and successful experience proves his qualifications for the work. Personally we are not versed in M. D-isms, and are compelled to quote the following to give a conception of his stock of drugs, surgical " weapons," &c .:
"Both your disease, and what will mend it At once he tells, And then of doctors' saws and whittles,
Of all dimensions shapes and mettles, All kinds of boxes, mugs and bottles There is sure to be, Their Latin names as fast he rattles As A. B. C. Calces of fossils, earth and trees,
· True sal marinum of the seas, The farina of beans and peas
He has a plenty. And aqua fortis. What ye please He can content ye."
But, jesting aside, it is worth a visit to his store to take a view of the neatest and most complete, as well as the most comprehen- sive stock in central Pennsylvania. His store is the place where prescriptions are filled safely and scientifically, and receives the large patronage of our physicians, as they are here compounded with "certainty, celerity and security," and good gooods, low prices and down weights is his law. Born September 25, 1804, he is now past 75 years of age, and nature has bestowed on him many badges of honor for fidelity to her laws, and an obedience to them. These are exhibited in his good health, the retention of his vital powers, and of his physical organism, and the remarkable vigor retained to his present age.
Mr. Ritz was one of the associate judges of our court for five years, county treasurer for three years, postmaster for four years, and held that most important of all others, viz: school director for ten years, first after the passage of the free school law of the this State, and is the only surviving member of that board which had the embarrassing and tedious work of introducing the new system to supersede the old and established customs of the people. It is superlative to add that in all these responsible official posi- tions, every duty was discharged with fidelity and credit to
75
HISTORY OF MIFFLIN COUNTY.
himself, and satisfaction to his constituents. Mr. and Mrs. Ritz were married in 1830, hence nearly a half a century have they traveled the journey of life together. The best commentary on the refinement and taste of the family, are their home surroundings, and their conservatory of flowers. Flowers are God's incarnated smiles, and home is richly endowed and brightened by them. May Through a long life his hopes and wishes crowned, And bright in cloudless skies his sun go down, As bliss domestic soothes his private path, Gives energy to life, and soothe his latest breath.
George W. Wiley.
The subject of this sketch was born in Sherman's Valley, Cum- berland county, in 1789, and removed to Lewistown in 1808, was then an active vigorous young man, his avocation was a cooper, one of the essential mechanical industries of every age and country. After following his vocation here for some years, the march of progress instituted the building of the canal from here to Philadel- phia, and Mr. Wiley, after the completion of that important work, engaged in boating. The canal was finished this far in 1829, and in 1830 to Huntingdon. His practice ever was to do with his might what his hands found to do, hence his uniform activity in all his undertakings, which developed a model physical frame that has come down to the present in health and vigor, and instead of three- score and ten being his limit, and but few attain that degree of longevity, he has now passed his four-score and ten, and bids fair for the succeeding ten that will complete his century. It is an in- variable, unrepealable law of nature to bestow long life on those who obey physical laws, and life eternal on those who obey moral law, while " the wicked shall not live half their days." He married in 1823, which event was followed by a family of descendants, four in number, two sons and two daughters, only one of whom now survives. One son was killed in the war of the rebellion, at the battle of Murfreesborough, Tennessee, and his brother died in the State of Georgia, in 1878, of a lingering illness. One daughter and her husband were killed in a railroad accident at Lancaster, Penn- sylvania. His only surviving descendant is Mrs. Jane Broome, of this city, with whom Mr. Wiley finds a pleasant home in his declin- ing years, and to whose superior intelligence and kindness he owes the peace and enjoyment that crowns a useful and well-spent life. "Mark the perfect and behold the upright, for the end of that man is peace."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.