USA > Pennsylvania > Tioga County > History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations, portraits and sketches of prominent families and individuals > Part 14
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The third annual fair of the society was held on the 8th and 9th of October 1856, at Wellsboro, like the previous ones, and premiums to the amount of $700 were offered. It was a highly creditable exhibition of the productions of the county. Addresses were made by Julius Sherwood and S. F. Wilson, whose remarks were instructive and interesting. In 1857 a fair was also held, which was well attended. The society was in- strumental in doing much good, by showing what the soil of the county would produce under proper cultiva- tion. Fairs were continued up to the breaking out of the Rebellion, when they were discontinued until 1866. In 1859 Horace Greeley delivered the annual address. After the address Charles G. Williams, in behalf of the ladies of Wellsboro, presented the speaker with a hand- some basket of flowers, prefacing the same with a neat and appropriate speech. In 1875 Hon. John I. Mitchell, now United States senator, was secretary of the society, and in a communication to the writer he says that the annual fairs were revived in 1866, in which year some four thousand dollars were raised to put up buildings and grade a race-course. The money was expended at Wellsboro on grounds so ill adapted to the purpose that everybody condemned the selection, and that property was practically abandoned. Since that year, however, fairs have been regularly held and made reasonably suc- cessful. The amount of premiums paid annually since the organization of the society has ranged from $300 to $1,500, latterly being greater than formerly. The annual expenses other than premiums have ranged from $300 to $500 for carrying on fairs. The society has no perma- nent office and the exact figures cannot be given. The lands occupied by the society are owned by private par- ties, and leased at a rental of $200. The property is worth about $10,000, and the buildings $3,000. The value of personal estate is less than the indebtedness .. Hon. Harry White delivered the annual address before the society in 1870, ex-Governor Pollock in 1874 and Prof. F. A. Allen in 1875.
AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES-STAPLE PRODUCTS.
Mr. Mitchell remarks: "Want of means is the prin- over ten thousand people were present Thesocialou ciple obstacle. With that want supplied a good show is constantly improving and beautifying the ground -. and great benefits may be secured any year. We have twice had a system of life membership, but the misfor- tunes of the society have compelled a change of organi- zation after each, by which the pledges given were re- pudiated, and on this account some disaffection exists in the county. This has mostly subsided, and now there is no reason why, with good management, a good fair may not be had every year."
The officers in 1875 were as follows: Hon. Stephen F. Wilson, president; Robert Campbell, vice-president; Walter Sherwood, treasurer; John I. Mitchell, secretary; executive committee-Jerome B. Potter, W. P. Shum- way, Nelson Claus, John Karr, John M. Butler, John E. Smith, William Campbell and C. J. Humphrey; marshal, Lucius Truman; assistant marshals, A. B. Horton and A. W. Potter. The fairs of the society have since been held with varied success. In the summer of 1880 quite a large sum of money was raised by subscription in Wellsboro and vicinity and the grounds were put in ex- cellent condition, and it is confidently anticipated that hereafter the fairs of the society will be well attended and the agricultural interests of the county developed, encouraged and strengthened.
The officers of the society for 1881 were: H. W. Williams, president; Henry Sherwood, vice-president; J. W. Mather, corresponding secretary; George C. Bowen, recording secretary; Walter Sherwood, treasurer; Directors-John W. Bailey, J. M. Butler, Charles Toles, Newell Campbell and George English.
The following officers were elected for 1882: President, H. W. Williams; vice-presidents, O. A. Smith, A. Close, W. D. Knox, John Davis, C. L. Pattison, M. F. Cass, M. S. Strait, G. T. Losey, A. J. Corwin, S. F. Richards, A. Pitts, C. M. More, H. J. Landrus; secretary, J. W. Mather; corresponding secretary, J. H. Matson; trustees, C. Toles, A. Kimball, J. S. Coles, N. Campbell, J. W. Bailey, Ira Johnson. The time fixed for holding the next annual exhibition of the society was September 20th to 23d, inclusive, 1882. L. A. Gardner, I. M. Bodine and J. H. Matson were elected auditors to audit the ac- counts of the society for 1881.
THE SMYTHE PARK ASSOCIATION.
The fair in 1881 was also a success. These tairs have been the means of awakening a lively interest in agricul- ture, the mechanical arts, and whatever conduces to the prosperity of the people in the eastern and southeastern portion of the county. Prominent among the citizens who were engaged in getting up and conducting them were Prof. F. A. Allen, Mart King, C. S. Ross, John Murdaugh, Daniel Pitts, A. M. Pitts, Frederick Elliott, Bert Schrader, Philip Williams, V. R. Pratt, B. R. Bailey, Thomas H. Bailey, Robert Crossley and Dr. C. V. El- liott. The Mansfield fairs marked an era in the history of agriculture in the county, for they incited the society holding its exhibitions at Wellsboro to make renewed efforts.
THE PRODUCTIONS OF THE COUNTY
are wheat, corn, buckwheat, oats, barley, rye, potatoes and root crops; there has recently sprung up a disposi- tion to cultivate tobacco, and in the valleys of the Tioga and Cowanesque Rivers and Crooked Creek and in other localities it has proved a remunerative crop. The dairy products are very large and the orchard products con- siderable, some of the very best apples raised in the State being produced here.
We append a statement of acreage and production, so far as we have been able to obtain them from the census authorities: Barley, 1,893 acres, 40,611 bushels; buck- wheat, 10,633 acres, 190,238 bushels; corn, 10,504 acres, 348, 600 bushels; oats, 24,243 acres, 744,394 bushels; rye, 395 acres, 3,797 bushels; wheat, 8,807 acres, 102, 143 bushels; tobacco, 224 acres, 292, 198 pounds. It will be recollected that the census was taken in 1880, and gives the production of 1879. The tobacco culture in 1879 was in its infancy in the county, and it has since largely developed.
As we have observed, the dairy product of Tioga county is very large, and butter made here commands a high figure in the New York and other markets. The soil of the county is peculiarly adapted to the growing of the most excellent quality of hay, and the pasture lands are not excelled by any in the State. Bradford county, lying in the same belt, first obtained an enviable reputation for its excellent dairy butter, and for many years the butter made by our farmers in the townships of Union, Ward, Sullivan, Covington and Richmond, and even Charleston and Delmar, was sold in market as Bradford county butter. But Tioga county butter has established a reputation for itself, and is the peer of any other brand in the market. The general absence of lime in the soil enables the Tioga county dairyman to make
Three years ago an organization was effected at Mans- field styled the Smythe Park Association, its object being to improve an island in the Tioga River at that place, by clearing it of the underbrush, erecting a hall, cottage and suitable stock pens on an eminence adjoining it, and finally preparing it for a fair ground, with trotting tracks, etc. The first fair held here, in September 1879, was a grand success, thousands attending it from the valley of butter that when properly prepared for market is as the Tioga and the townships adjoining it on the east and fresh, rich and palatable when it is a year old as when west sides of the river. This encouraged the association first made. Dairymen in the limestone belts of this and other States are obliged to sell their butter when it is newly made, for the reason that the lime, which enters into its composition from the pasturage on which the cows feed, will in time transform it into an unpalatable to still further improve the grounds, and make prepara- tions on a grander scale for the next year. In 1880 the multitude attending the fall exhibition was still greater than the year before, and the second day of the fair
62
HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
and rancid substance, unfit for table use and ultimately purchased by the soap chandler.
The raising of fine horses and cattle is carried on ex- tensively in the county, some of the finest horses and neat cattle reared in the State being raised in this locality. This is particularly true of fine horses. Nowhere in the State can better and purer stock be found than in Tioga county, as evidenced by the exhibi- tions at the county and other fairs and by examination of our stock and farm yards.
We have said that the culture of tobacco in the county is in its infancy, but enough has been raised already to demonstrate the adaptability of our soil to its culture. In the month of August 1880 the editor of the Blossburg Industrial Register visited the valleys of Crooked Creek and Tioga and Cowanesque Rivers, examined thoroughly the various growing crops in those regions, and gave the results in the issues of that paper dated August 5th and August 19th. These numbers he mailed to all the tobacco leaf buyers whose addresses he could obtain in New York city, Elmira, Syracuse, Lancaster, Baltimore, Philadelphia and other cities. The result was that a large number of buyers came into Tioga county, exam- ined the various crops and purchased them. This intro- duced the tobacco of the county into the markets of the country and gave it a good name. It was found that the leaf grown in this county was of a superior quality. The ready sale of the tobacco by the growers led them to go more extensively into the cultivation of it, and during the year 1881 a still larger acreage was cultivated, higher prices than in 1880 being already assured. In the valleys of Crooked Creek, Marsh Creek, Seeley Creek and the Elkhorn, Tioga and Cowanesque, and even on our up- lands and plateaus, it has been cultivated with success. Large packing and store houses have been erected in Corning and Elmira, designed to receive the crops of this county and Steuben and Chemung counties in New York. A sound and reliable firm has been organized at Tioga and Wellsboro to purchase the leaf and also man- ufacture cigars upon a large scale, about one hundred persons being employed at each of those places. Thus has the cultivation and trade in tobacco suddenly reached prominent proportions during the past few years. The amount of tobacco raised on an acre is from 1,500 10 2,500 pounds, and at ten cents per pound it proves the most remunerative crop which the farmer can raise. Even if it does require a considerable amount of fertil- izers, in the shape of barnyard and other manures, still the profit on the investment far exceeds that of any other crop raised in the county. Large preparations were made by the growers for the year 1882, with high pros- pects of continued success.
In the last few years more than formerly sheep-raising has attracted the attention of our farmers who occupy rolling lands and hillside farms. There is no section of the United States better adapted to the raising of sheep than Tioga county. The atmosphere is dry, the pasturage excellent, and the demand for mutton, wool and pelts is good. The farmer who raises sheep can
always find a market at home for his early lambs, wool and mutton. The home butcher buys them gladly for cash, and disposes of them readily. There has been much interest manifested of late in relation to sheep- raising, and with climate, pasturage and market in favor of the producer there is no good reason why Tioga county shall not become a great sheep-raising district.
CHAPTER IX.
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS-EARLY ACADEMIES- TEACHERS' INSTITUTES-THE COMMON SCHOOLS.
HE intense interest which the people of the county early took in internal improvements did not divert their attention from the neces- sity of establishing schools. They had cheer- fully accepted the provisions of the common school law of the year 1834 and its supplements, and wherever there was a settlement in the county, did it not consist of more than half a dozen families, there was to be found the school-house, with its teacher imparting the rudiments of an English education. Some of the most prominent men in the county, who have ac- quired a national reputation, received in the rural schools of that day the solid and substantial instruction which was the foundation of their later usefulness and distinc- tion. The pioneers of the county were men of enterprise and ability, and recognized the power of intelligence, and hence provided every facility within their power for the education of their children. In addition to the academy at Wellsboro, in 1848 Union Academy in the township of Deerfield, on the Cowanesque, went into operation, and the same year the Willardsburg Academy, at Tioga; of which a more extended notice will appear in the local histories of those townships. It will thus be seen that while the citizens of Tioga county were engaged in min- ing coal and iron ore, organizing navigation and railroad companies, erecting lumber and flouring mills, building turnpikes, building glass manufactories, clearing up the land and establishing homes, they were not unmindful of the education of their sons and daughters.
In the year 1815 the subject of establishing an acade- my was agitated in the county. The inhabitants were divided in relation to the point where it should be located, and much spirit was manifested. March 25th 1817 an act was passed by the Legislature and approved by Governor Simon Snyder fixing it at Wellsboro, and ap- pointing the following named gentlemen trustees: Justus Dartt, James Gray, Nathan Rowley jr., William D. Bacon, Uriah Spencer, Robert Tubbs, Eddy Howland, Samuel W. Morris, Isaac Baker, Joseph McCormick, John Knox, Alpheus Cheney, Asa Mann, Nathan Niles jr., John Norris, William Bache, Daniel Lamb and Ambrose Millard.
The academy was erected, and for many years proved
63
SCHOOLS OF TIOGA COUNTY.
a great benefit to the young men and women of Wells- boro and other sections of the county. The building originally cost $4,000, 82,000 of which was appropriated by the State. Among the early teachers were Benjamin Shipman, James Lowrey, Charles Nash and Josiah Emery. It has within the past fifteen years changed owners, be- longing now to the Catholics of Wellsboro.
From the report of Miss Sarah I. Lewis, county super- intendent of schools for 1876 and 1880, we glean the following facts: The first teachers' institute was organ- ized in Wellsboro, in the year 1836. The second, held in 1857 in the same place, was a very enthusiastic gathering, 119 members being enrolled. Previous to 1857 two county associations were held. Two institutes were held each year from 1857 to 1865, but they were not at all times well attended. In 1868 only 28 members were enrolled. In 1869, under Professor Elias Horton jr., superintendent of schools of the county, the institute was revived. It was held at Tioga and 186 members
were enrolled. The instructors were Professor H. S Jones, of Erie, Pa., Rev. N. L. Reynolds, of Wellsboro, and Professor C. H. Verrill, of Mansfield. Twenty-two teachers went to this institute in a lumber wagon from Union Academy, a distance of twenty-three miles. We may add here that during the entire term of Professor Horton, covering a period of six years, great interest was manifested in the institutes, in which he employed the best talent obtainable. Miss Lewis concluded her report in 1876 by saying that the institute had increased in membership and interest since 1869, and for the seven years preceding 1876 had been held in Wellsboro, with the exception of 1871, when it was held in Mansfield. More teachers attended at the time of her writing than were needed to fill all the schools. In her last report she says: "Institutes are well attended. Three hundred were registered in 1878, and over three hundred in 1879. We had able instructors from abroad, as well as from our own county. The teachers were punctual in attend- ance and attentive to instruction. Many have said to me during the past year, 'I'll never miss another institute.'"
In speaking of the Tioga County Teachers'Association, which has existed from time to time for the past ten years with varied success, now sinking away and then reviving, Miss Lewis uses these encouraging words: "The Tioga County Teachers' Association is now a fixed fact. Six meetings were held within the two years, and each meeting was more interesting than the preceding one. We met with an irreparable loss in the death of president and faithful friend Professor F. A. Allen, but we are trying to go on with the good work he helped us to begin."
Professor M. F. Case, the present superintendent of schools for the county, has much experience in teachers' institutes and associations in this county, and will no doubt exert himself to the utmost to continue them and assist in their good work. . We append a list of the schools in the county, showing the number of male and female pupils in each township and borough.
SCHOLARS.
TOWNSHIP OR BOROUGH.
SCHOOLS
Male.
Female.
Bluss
2259
211
Blossburg ..
Brookfield.
109
Charleston
306
Chatham
14
239
Clymer.
10
164
135
Covington Borough.
Covington Township
160
131
Deerfield
52
Delmar.
335
204
Duncan
315
327
Elk.
40
3
Elkland.
Elkland and Nelson, Ind ...
301%
Gaines ..
Hamilton
4
Jackson
14
Knoxville
Lawrence.
12
Lawrenceville.
Liberty
Mainsburg Borough.
23
Mansfield Borough
115
Middlebury
Morris
Nelson .
$1
Osceola ..
15
214
Roseville.
1
26
21
Rutland
10
1:26
Shippen.
13
196
107
Tioga Borough
147
135
I'nion.
Ward ..
48
271
Westfield Borough
49
Westfield Township.
124
Total.
5,90]
5,436
The amount levied for school purposes and building purposes was $53.942.23; the cost of school-houses was for the year $8,823.05; paid for fuel and contingencies, fees of collectors, and other expenses, $17,615.13; amount received from State appropriation, $9.372.85; total re- ceipts, $79.007.89; total expenditures, $67,253.17: num- ber of teachers employed-female 341, male 144; average number of months the schools were in operation, 6.62. The whole number of teachers employed it will be seen was 485. This number is more than there are schools, and is thus explained: A portion of the male teachers taught three months in the winter, while in the same schools females were employed in the summer. Eleven thousand three hundred and thirty seven scholars re- ceived instruction in the common schools of the county during the year 1880.
In 1806 the first building, as far as we can learn, erected exclusively for school purposes was located in the pres- ent township of Deerfield. The foregoing statistics show a commendable progress in the lapse of three- fourths of a century in the common school facilities of the county, to say nothing of our academies and the State normal school.
The normal school is at Mansfield, and an account of it will appear in the history of that borough. There is also a State soldiers' orphans' school at Mansfield, one of the best conducted institutions of the kind in the State, which for a number of years was under the supervision of the late Professor F. A. Allen and is now managed by Professor V. R. Pratt. It will be treated of in the his- tory of Mansfield.
4%
Fall Brook
Farmington ..
137
Richmond.
56
Sullivan.
Tioga Township.
2:39
Wellsboro
64
HISTORY OF TIOGA COUNTY.
CHAPTER X.
SKETCHES OF THE BENCH AND BAR OF TIOGA COUNTY.
T HERE are but few persons living within the limits of Tioga county whose personal recol- lections reach back to the time when Hon. John Bannister Gibson and his associates, Hon. Samuel W. Morris and Hon. Ira Kil- bourn, held the first term of court, January 11th 1813, in the log house of Samuel Smith jr. at Wellsboro. The prothonotary was John Norris; sheriff, Alpheus Cheeney; commissioners-Eddy Howland, Timothy Ives and Nathan Niles.
The country was then new, in every sense of the ex- pression, with few publie roads and no regular mode of public conveyance. But Judge Gibson was peculiarly fitted for the task assigned him. He possessed a knowt- edge of frontier life, coupled with learning and judicial ability exceeded by none within the broad limits of the commonwealth, and his presence was calculated to in- spire confidence and give dignity to the proceedings, whether they were held in a rudely constructed log house on the frontier or within the more stately hall in the center of refinement and culture. He was a native of Spring township, Perry county, Pa., and a son of Colonel George Gibson of the Revolutionary war, who fell at the time of St. Clair's defeat in 1791. In the "old Gibson mansion " is the room in which he was born as also his brother George Gibson, commissary of the United States army, Hon. John Bigler, governor of California from 1852 to 1855 (who died at Sacramento, Cal., Angust 27th 1872), and Hon. William Bigler, gov- ernor of Pennsylvania from 1852 to 1855 (who recently died in Clearfield county, Pa.).
John B. Gibson graduated at Dickinson College in the year 1800, and immediately thereafter commenced the study of the law under Thomas Duncan. He was sent to the Legislature from his native county, Cumberland (now Perry), for the years 1810 and 1811, and acquitted himself with honor, giving his support to Governor Sny- der and President Madison. In 1812 he was appointed by Governor Snyder circuit judge, and a year later visited Tioga county and held the first court as above stated. In 1818 he went upon the supreme bench. He died May 3d 1853, in the 73d year of his age, and was buried at Carlisle. We cannot better give the reader an idea of the high ability and distinguished services of Judge Gib- son. than by quoting extracts from a eulogium pronounced by the Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, one eminently qualified to speak of the many accomplishments and the purity and uprightness of this most eminent jurist. Chief Jus- tice Black said:
" It is unnecessary to say that every surviving member of the court is deeply grieved by the death of Chief Justice Gibson. In the course of nature it was not to be expected that he could live much longer, for he had at-
tained a ripe old age. But the blow, though not sudden, was nevertheless a severe one. The intimate relations, personal and official, which we all bore to him would have been sufficient to account for some emotion, even if he had been an ordinary man. But he was the Nestor of the bench, whose wisdom inspired the public mind with confidence in our decisions. By this bereavement the court has lost what no time can repair, for we shall never look upon his like again. We regarded him more as a father than a brother. None of us ever saw a su- preme court until he was in it; and to some of us his character as a great judge was familiar even in childhood. The earliest knowledge of the law we had was derived in part from his luminous expositions of it. He was a judge of the common pleas before the youngest of us was born, and was a member of this court long before the the oldest was admitted to the bar. He sat here with twenty-six different associates, of whom eighteen pre- ceded him to the grave. For nearly a quarter of a cen- tury he was chief justice, and when he was nominally superseded by another as the head of the court his great learning, venerable character and overshadowing 'reputa- tion still made him the only chief whom the hearts of the people would know. During the long period of his judicial labors he discussed and decided innumerable questions. His opinions are found in no less than seventy volumes of the regular reports, from 2 Sar- gent and Rawle to 7 Harris. At the time of his death he had been longer in office than any contemporary judge in the world, and in some points of character he had not his equal on the earth. Such vigor, clearness and precision of thought were never before united with the same felicity of diction. Brougham has sketched Lord Stowell justly enough as the greatest judicial writer that England could boast of, for force and beauty of style. He selects a sentence, and calls on the reader to admire the remarkable elegance of its structure. I be-
lieve Judge Gibson never wrote an opinion in his life from which a passage might not be taken stronger as well as more graceful in its turn of expression that this which is selected with so much care by a most zealous friend from all of Lord Stowell's. His written language was a transcript of his mind. It gave the world the very form and pressure of his thoughts. It was accurate, be- cause he knew the exact boundaries of the principles he discussed. His mental vision took in the whole outline and all the details of the case, and with a bold and steady hand he painted what he saw. His style was rich, but he never turned out of his way for figures of speech. He never sacrificed sense to sound or preferred ornament to substance. He said neither more nor less than just the thing he ought. He had one power of a great poet, that of expressing a thought in language which could never be paraphrased. When a legal principle passed through his hands he sent it forth clothed in a dress which fitted it so exactly that nobody ever presumed to give it any other. The dignity, richness and purity of his written opinions was by no means his highest title to admiration. The movements of his mind were as strong as they were graceful. His periods not only pleased the ear, but sunk into the mind. He never wearied the reader, but he always exhausted the subject. An opinion of his was an unbroken chain of logic from beginning to end. He was inflexibly honest. The judicial ermine was as un- spotted when he laid it aside for the habiliments of the grave as it was when he first assumed it. Next after his wonderful intellectual endowments the benevolence of his heart was the most marked feature of his character. His was a most genial spirit, affectionate and kind to his friends and magnanimous to his enemies. Benefits re- ceived by him were engraved on his memory as on a
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