USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > History of Perry County, Pennsylvania, including descriptions of Indians and pioneer life from the time of earliest settlement, sketches of its noted men and women and many professional men > Part 17
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During 1769, on November 3, at the junction of Loyalsock Creek and the West Branch, a tract of land was surveyed to An- drew Montour. It contained 880 acres and was called Montour's Reserve.
CHAPTER VIII. COMING OF THE PIONEERS.
T HE frontier of the early Eighteenth Century was still east of the Susquehanna. Beyond lay the forests, the hills, the rivers and bands of Indians sometimes hostile when they emerged. By the middle of the century adventurers -- mostly Scotch-Irish-had carried settlement across that river and were clamoring for the right to cross the Kittatinny or Blue Mountain to settle. When that section was thrown open they not only quickly settled it, but passed on, and crossed the Alleghenies to the Ohio. While that was happening in Pennsylvania the New Englanders made their way to the Mohawk Valley of New York, then on to the Seneca territory and along the shores of the Great Lakes, and to the south through the Cumberland pass and over the hills of the Carolinas was trickling civilization from the southern seaboard to Kentucky and Tennessee.
*The date of the opening of the land office for the settlement of the lands which comprise Perry County was February 3. 1755. early in the very year of Braddock's defeat, and almost coincident with the time when that noted general was moving towards Brad- dock's Field-as it later came to be known-where the British, because of their pride and contempt for the advice of experienced officers, paid for the Indian dissatisfaction of the previous year at Albany, in connection with the purchase of these very lands. Has it ever occurred to the reader how closely the Perry County lands are related to the historic Braddock defeat ?
Settlers had come in in large numbers during 1755; but owing to the defeat of Braddock and the attending defection of the sav- ages, which created a reign of terror and bloodshed throughout the province, few claims were located and settled upon between that year and 1761. While there was still much land open to settle- ment south of the Blue or Kittatinny Mountain there was a scar- city of water as compared to the north side. These earliest set-
*Legendary and traditional information, unless backed up by supporting facts, is not to be relied upon. Various persons have furnished statements that their ancestors were settlers of the Sherman's Valley and other parts of Perry County as early as 1741, 1743, and various other dates. Careful investigation has been made in provincial records, and nowhere can there be found any permanent settlements prior to the late summer of 1753, save those who came in as squatters and intruders and were dispossessed, men- tion of which appears in the chapters relating to the Indians, elsewhere in this book.
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tlers were mostly Scotch-Irish, and it is a remarkable fact that they invariably sought lands near the headwaters of streams, a characteristic likely instilled deep in the race. If they could but get their habitations near springs or running water they regarded it of more advantage than having them on more fertile soil where the matter of water was a question. And it must be remembered that in Perry County these springs and streams come welling to the surface of the earth, pure, and clear, and cold, from vast sub- terranean caverns in the heart of the hills.
Prof. Wright, in his history, states that there is not a single farm in Perry County of one hundred acres or more which does not have running water upon it.
With these early Scotch-Irish came a few English, many Ger- mans coming in later. The provincial government at first made an effort to place the different nationalities in different sections, but soon found it difficult of accomplishment and a failure when done. The Scotch-Irish, as spoken of in America, are not Irish at all, but Scotch and English, who fled religious persecution at home at the hands of Charles I (1714-1720) and found refuge in Ireland, and their descendants. The term is of American origin and use and is identical with the English term, Ulstermen. It de- notes no mixture of blood of the two races, as they did not inter- marry. They entered Ireland and took up the estates of Irish rebels, confiscated under Queen Elizabeth and James I. James I, by the way, was king of Scotland, and as James VI encour- aged his Presbyterian subjects to do this. Many of them had mi- grated early in the Seventeenth Century, about seventy-five years before the founding of Pennsylvania. Towards the middle of the same century Cromwell confiscated Irish lands and emigration increased further, many English being among them. The Scotch were principally Saxon in blood and Presbyterian in religion, de- vout Christians, while the native Irish are Celtic in blood and Ro- man Catholic in religion. The races are distinct in Ireland to this day, which accounts largely for the eternal Irish question, which at this very time ( 1920) has the British Kingdom at wit's end.
The settlement of Irish and Germans north of the Kittatinny was often the cause of neighborhood and family feuds, which ex- isted even after the organization of the county, as there is record of such a fight in the spring of 1823, when one of the participants, fearing that he "had killed the dutchman," fled to Indiana, where he became an honored citizen.
In his Making of Pennsylvania, Sydney George Fisher says : "The thought and enterprise of New England has been built up · entirely by Congregationalists ; well on to one-half of the social fabric of Pennsylvania has been built up by Presbyterians, and there is scarcely a state in the Union where the influence of Cal-
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vinism had not been powerfully felt." In the original settlement of Perry County territory this Scotch-Irish element was a large factor and their descendants are among the foremost in its affairs and among those sent out to wider fields, one of whom, when this is written, occupies the Vice-Presidential chair of the United States. See biography of Thomas R. Marshall further on in this volume.
The struggle for the possession of the new world was at first confined to six nationalities: the Spanish, French, English, Dutch, Swedes, and Portuguese. The Germans, distracted by their own political divisions, seemed to have no desire to colonize. They finally appeared in Pennsylvania half a century after most of the English colonies had been established, but they came as immigrants under the protection of the English nation, at first encouraged by the Quakers, and later by the British Government, says Fisher. They came principally from the Palatinate; from Alsace, Swabia, Saxony, and Switzerland. They had been held in more or less subjection at home, and many of the earlier immigrants were a very erude people. Pastorius tells of the Indians even considering them so. Hle relates: "An Indian promised to sell one a turkey hen. Instead he brought an eagle and insisted it was a turkey. It was refused, and the Indian to a Swede, a bystander, remarked that he thought a German, just arrived, would not know the dif- ference." Later they came in larger numbers and of a more in- telligent class. The German element, often referred to in our state, as the Pennsylvania Dutch, has been variously estimated as composing from one-third to one-half of the population of Penn- sylvania, and has had a great influence in the development of the state and of Perry County, where their descendants are a thrifty and enterprising element. In the blood of thousands of Perry Countians and their descendants who have gone abroad is a strain of German steadfastness and perseverance which has sent men to the gubernatorial chair of not only our own state, but of others, and to the highest legislative body in the world. See biographies of noted men. In some counties the German element has lived unto itself, using the German language, with little or no inter- marriage with other elements, thus causing practically no advance- ment. This was not so in Perry County. The children attended the public schools and soon learned to use English, the parents learning it in turn, and to-day of this original German stock not one family nses the German language in the home. However, about 1890 a German colony located in Watts Township, built a small church, and a few of the parents of these families may still use it, while the children speak English. The Germans were mostly of the Lutheran and Reformed faith. These older settlers
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COMING OF THE PIONEERS
and their descendants have had considerable contempt for a few of the newer who continually talked of "The Fatherland."
Thomas Kilby Smith, in his "Commonwealth of Pennsylvania," says of the type of Germans which settled Perry County :
"The members of the Lutheran and Reformed Churches, who represent the second phase of German emigration to Pennsylvania, were of a higher type than their predecessors, most of them belonging to the middle classes and not to the peasantry, as were the great majority of the sects who pre- ceded them. Like the Scotch-Irish and the Welsh, they have mingled with the community in general and have been absorbed into the population of the state, abandoning any peculiarities of language or custom that they may have had at the time of their arrival. They have engaged in various occupations, with a tendency, however, to remain in the towns rather than in the country districts. Being less numerous than the Pennsylvania Dutch and more rapidly assimilated, they have made less impression, as a sepa- rate people, on the civilization of the state than the Germans who pre- ceded them. Generally speaking, they have been prosperous, have adhered closely to their respective churches, relinquished their native tongue, and pursued industriously their various occupations. With a few exceptions, they have not taken a prominent part in politics or public affairs, except in lines of philanthropy, education and music."
In the matter of noted men from the county the two races, now much intermarried, vie with each other as to the number which the county has sent forth.
Speaking of the German element, Prof. Wright, in his history (1873), says: "Pfoutz's Valley is still characteristically a Ger- man settlement, though there are many persons unable to con- verse in any but the English language. For our fertile soil the German is slowly exchanging his language; his children receive an English education in the free schools, without dissent. In fact, many of our best scholars were the children of German parents." He adds, "Although the soil of Perry County was first settled by English-speaking people, the farming population is now largely composed of German origin."
Prof. W. C. Shuman, formerly of Perry County, in his "Gene- alogy of the Shuman Family," says of the Germans: "The Ger- mans have profoundly influenced the history of Pennsylvania for about 200 years. They have been slow, self-centered and non- progressive ; but they have also been honest, industrious and thrifty ; and in the main, they have been on the right side of all great issues."
The Indian troubles of 1763 again retarded settlement, but the victory of the noted Colonel Henry Bouquet in Ohio, in 1764. caused the Indians to pretty generally desert the central Pennsyl- vania territory, and a tide of immigration from the eastern section `of the province began, and, owing to imperfect titles to their lands in Chester County, later brought to the territory such men as John Hench, Jacob Hipple, Jacob Hartman, Frederick Shull and
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
Zachariah Rice, whose descendants are legion, and hundreds of others. By 1767 many of the best plots were taken, and by 1778 the greater part of the lands.
The selling of emigrants into servitude for the payment of their passage across the ocean was practiced. George Leonard, an early settler of the lands which comprise Perry County, was sold in that manner when but six years old, his father having died while aboard and his body cast into the sea, according to the custom.
The western part of Perry County, generally speaking, im- presses one with the fact that it was settled before the eastern sec- tion, or the part lying between the rivers, and records verify it. All through western Sherman's Valley are to be found stone houses more than a century old, built by artisans whose work has stood the test, whose wage was likely a very meagre one and whose hours possibly were numbered only by the number of hours of daylight. Their work will ever stand a monument to early craftsmanship. At only one other part of the county are there many of these old landmarks, and that is Millerstown. (See chapter on Millerstown.) The one on the Solomon Bower farm, in Jackson Township, now owned by Assemblyman Clark Bower, was built in 1794, when George Washington was President. An end was built to it in 1834 and a second story added in 1870. The large stone house on the C. A. Anderson farm, at Andersonburg, is another fine example. It was built in 1820. The adjoining barn was erected in 1821.
It is difficult for the present generation, with its modern homes, many lighted by electricity and gas; with water piped through- out and a multitude of accessories to make life easy and comfort- able; with its modern method of travel in parlor cars at fifty miles an hour ; with automobiles equipped and finished finer than the grandest carriage, and traveling thirty miles an hour (accord- ing to law) ; with stores and shops existing at which anything may be purchased ; with telephones in one's home whereby he may talk to another state in a few minutes, and hundreds of other con- veniences unnamed and unenumerated, to realize the extreme needs and crude methods and equipment of these pioneers of civilization, who braved the rigors of the early winters and the dangers of the redskins to build in the wilderness a home and to wrest from the savage a state.
When the pioncer wended his way over the Kittatinny or Blue Mountain the country was a vast forest, whose creeks and rivers were destitute of bridges and could only be crossed with safety at given points, and not at all when the waters were high. There were no roads, but only the trails and paths used by the red men and the traders. There were no houses, no cleared lands, no schools, nothing but the eternal stillness which one yet experiences when traveling afoot in the fastnesses of the mountain. Upon
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COMING OF THE PIONEERS
entering the forest their very first act was to cut the timber and hew boards with an axe for the erection of their homes, for at first there were even no sawmills. Instead of their floors being sawed and planed, as are ours, they were split and hewed. Indeed, there were some that had no floors save the earth upon which they were built, even the old church at Dick's Gap being floorless.
While the little log house was yet in course of erection the trees were being felled on "the clearing," which was to be the first field of the new home, and by the time of its finishing a "patch" was ready for planting or sowing. Then, while it was growing, there were other lands to clear, a barn and other buildings to be built ; and eternal vigilance was necessary to prevent the coming of the savage with his tomahawk, in search of scalps. There was no machinery and the crudest methods of slow and tedious operation were necessary to the raising and threshing of crops. In fact, the threshing of a crop, which is now done in a day or two on the great majority of farms, then required months, as the tramping out of grain on the barn floors, with horses, and the use of the "flail" were the only available methods of extracting the grain.
The furnishings of the pioneers were as crude as the cabins themselves, the tables and benches being of wood, split and hewed, until the advent of the "up-and-down" sawmill. Dishes, plates and spoons were of pewter, bowls were fashioned from wood, and squashes and gourds supplied receptacles for water. The clothing was of homespun and homemade, the women and girls being busy with spinning wheel and needle during the long winters. The men dressed in hunting shirts and moccasins, later in knee pants with buckles. When the first schools were established the clearing of lands and threshing during the long winters, and the spinning and sewing to make the family clothing, kept many from school, even the few months when schools were in session. Tallow candles were used as lights, and there are many men and women yet living who can well remember when their people used tallow candles as their only lights, save perchance a rare oil lamp "when company came."
Gradually roads were built and travel was either afoot, on horse- back or by wagon, all of which was slow and required much time. Settlements were widely separated and the nearest town was in the Cumberland Valley, then known as the "Kittochtinny Valley." Large families were the rule and it was no uncommon thing for a family to have over a dozen children, five or six children being considered a small family. Many of the most prominent families of the district were large. To-day the reverse is the case and hun- · dreds of families in the same territory number from one to three children, the family of a half-dozen being considered large. Mr. William Morrison, of New Germantown, a man of mature years,
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
to whom we are indebted for much information, was the father of fifteen, twelve sons in succession, then a daughter, a son and a daughter. There were many families of this size and larger.
The method of heating the first rude homes was the open fire- place fashioned from huge stones. There were no matches, fire being produced by the use of flint. On many occasions neighbors borrowed fire from each other, if located in close proximity. Peo- ple yet live who remember this. Over these rude fireplaces swung a kettle in which the family meal was boiled. Later air-tight stoves
A PIONEER BRIDE AND GROOM.
(Copied from Miniature of 1802, when on their "honeymoon.") Joseph Martin (1777-1831), born on the "Big Island" while his father, Capt. Joseph Martin was in the Army, his mother being Ann (Nancy) Baskins. The bride, Rachael Gillespie (1785-1851), who in later years married secondly Rev. Jacob Gruber, circuit rider.
were introduced, which were also very imperfect at first. Maple sugar was extracted from trees during the early spring, and in very rare cases its manufacture continues in the county. Hand weaving was practiced by the housewife, and there exist to-day throughout the county many of the finest counterpanes, of exquisite design, heirlooms from a former generation.
Hospitality, not only to one's kin, but to strangers, was practiced everywhere, and exists to a great extent to-day, save that a stranger must have credentials, as many of "the gentry" took advantage of
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COMING OF THE PIONEERS
those who took them in. In fact, hospitality in the early days was not confined to any one section, and it is said of our first Presi- dent, General Washington, that his family "did not sit alone to dinner for twenty years." In the provincial days the public stop- ping place was an "ordinary," later it became a "tavern," and still later a "hotel," which name it retains, with variations, such as "hostelry," "road house," "tea room," etc.
Some folks attached considerable importance to certain days and certain signs, "planting in signs" being largely practiced. The modern way of planting in fertile ground, well prepared and duly cultivated, seems to be an improvement. These signs were re- garded as foretelling the state of the weather, of health, and whether seed should be planted. One certain day broke ice if it found it, and formed it if there was none (rather a contrary sort of day and emblematic of a certain type of people) ; other days were "bad days" or "good days" for planting or sowing seeds, others for building fences and roofing buildings, and still others for slaughtering stock and weaning stock and even babies. It is not strange that many of these old notions prevailed, for they were bequeathed from sire to son and from mother to daughter for centuries ; they came with the Pilgrim and the Cavalier from across the sea and formed a sort of tradition among all classes. The belief in witchcraft and sorcery is practically gone, yet once in too was a part of the belief of many in widely scattered sections of the Union. Even in our own day certain customs known to our earlier years have since been replaced and proven fallacious, and things now generally acceptable will, in the coming years, seem as strange to the populace as does witchcraft to us now.
For many decades Bear's Almanac, a Lancaster publication, was a part of the literature of every farm home, and largely con- tinues so.
In the early days the currency was "eleven penny bits," "fi' penny bits," "levies" and shillings, eight shillings making one dol- lar. The big cents of copper appeared in 1792 and bore on their face the head of Washington, and on the reverse side a chain of thirteen links, emblematic of the thirteen original states.
Wild animals roamed at will and some were beasts of prey, among them being bears, panthers, wolves, wild cats, etc. Bears were seen in Horse Valley as late as 1885. Wolves were bad and even the graves had to be covered with stones in early times to insure their safety from these animals. "The Narrows," below Mt. Patrick, was once a dangerous place owing to its being the habitation of wolves. Near Crawley Ilill, in Spring Township, there is a small area of rocks, probably fifteen feet high, known to this day as "the wolf rocks," and which tradition says was so named by reason of it having been a rendezvous for wolves when
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
they still inhabited the forests. It is yet a den for foxes. The Fishing Creek Valley ( Rye Township) was a place noted for wolves even to the present generation, and there are men of fifty years who can remember them. On January 21, 1829, George Hollenbaugh, of Toboyne Township, was hunting, and entered a cavern in the mountains, but quickly retraced his steps, a bear fol- lowing him out. He shot it, and another appeared. It too was despatched. He then went for help to carry away the animals, when a third appeared and was shot, according to the Perry For- ester, Perry County' first paper.
There is record of a Mr. Magee, who was grandfather of Alex- ander Magee, sheriff of Perry County in 1841-43, going to the door of his home, in Toboyne Township, one night when he heard a scream. He stepped out, axe in hand, and killed a panther, which was just ready to pounce upon him. Deer, rabbits and squirrel were common, and venison graced the table of the pioneer on many occasions. The meats of these animals were salted down for use during the long winters. Wild turkeys, pheasants and partridges roamed the forests, and during certain seasons wild pigeons collected in vast numbers. The streams, unpolluted and at first free of dams, were alive with fish, principally bass, pike and trout. After the severe winters shad, rockfish, salmon and perch ascended the streams, thus probably augmenting a supply of pro- visions which had become largely depleted.
During the summer of 1919 the late George Bryner (born in 1832) recalled how his Grandmother Hench, who resided near the McMillen farms, in the vicinity of Kistler, Madison Township, used to describe the howling of the wolves and tell of using powder, which they would ignite at night, to scare the animals from their cattle. It appears that wolves scent trouble with the smell of powder, as do many other wild animals.
The Susquehanna and Juniata country was once the home of that great and picturesque bird, the American eagle, and to this day Bald eagles inhabit the shores, including Perry County terri- tory, but in very small numbers. Their passing is attributed to the propensity for killing by a certain class of hunters, who never should have been permitted to shoulder a gun. The Bald eagle was here when the pioneer came, and unmolested, continued until the last century was well passed, when they began to be viewed as thieves, with the result that only a few stragglers remain. In an interesting booklet, by that wonderful lover of outdoor life, Col. Henry W. Shoemaker, appears this paragraph relating to the method of their passing, which is of interest to this section :
"Charles Lukens, of Duncan's Island, near the mouth of the Juniata River, states that a hunter, now residing at Halifax, killed a Bald eagle on Peters' Mountains in 1910. He made ready to take the carcass to Har-
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COMING OF THE PIONEERS
risburg to claim a bounty, but on learning that it was a protected bird abandoned the trip, and it is not known what became of the eagle. Charles Smith, an intelligent farmer residing on Haldeman's Island, states that it was formerly not an extraordinary occurrence to see Bald eagles soaring over the island and the river, but for several years he has not seen any. The Rev. B. H. Hart, of Williamsport, who owns an island not far from Liverpool, says Bald eagles were formerly seen in fair numbers along the river and at his island, though he cannot recollect having seen any for several years."
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