USA > Pennsylvania > Venango County > History of Venango County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, including > Part 10
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The early settlers were eminently social in their habits. Necessity and self-protection helped to make them so. They not only assembled to build each others' houses, but they had "frolics," as they termed them, to chop down trees; they had loggings, and flax-pullings, and scutchings, and husk- ings. The women had their frolics; their quiltings, their spinnings, their hatchelings, and other devices of handicraft.
In those days they did not aspire to carpets. Rag sewing, in which ladies have delighted in modern times, was unknown. But in other species of feminine industry they excelled. Flax was made into linen for men's wear and for women's wear. It was the choice and only covering for the table; it was the material for sheets, for toweling, and was bleached white as the snow of winter.
These frolics brought the people together. They cultivated sociability. They promoted good feeling, and in the absence of machinery were often the only means of carrying on the operations of life. They were the prac- tical exemplification of the maxim: "In union there is strength." These social occasions brought the people together from great distances, for the settlements were at first scattering. But many of the guests tarried over night, and were made welcome while they remained. Yet these primitive houses as a rule had but one or at most two rooms, and great ingenuity was displayed in arranging all things according to the rites of hospitality. The general rule was to cover a space of the floor clear across the cabin, with deer and bear skins and other kinds of mats, and place the quilts and cover-
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lets over these. This made a generous and comfortable bed. Then the man and his wife lay down in the center of the bed, and on the wife's side all the women of the party were arranged in a row toward the wall, whilst- the men occupied the place on the other side, so that all things were con- ducted with propriety and modesty.
Sometimes their frolics related at the same time to external and inter- nal affairs. The men would assemble to log, as they termed it, that is to gather the logs in a clearing and roll them into heaps for burning, the women would meet at the same time and place to quilt or to make up the family clothing. At such times a table would be spread under the shade of a neighboring tree and both parties, without regard to toilet preparations, would meet at supper and have a genuinely good time in social conversa- tion, in jest and in song, often prolonged into the long hours of the night.
But their social meetings did good. They broke up what had else de- generated into monotony and selfishness. The people were brought to- gether. They were held together. They were made sensible of common wants and common obligations.
There was a generous supply of game in the woods of the county, Red deer, bear, with an occasional wolf and other smaller game, were to be found in almost any direction. The deer and bear were sought for food; the wolves. were hunted without mercy on account of their proclivity to the sheep fold. Andrew Bowman tells of his Sugar creek life, what joy it brought to the household when he succeeded in shooting a bear from a chestnut tree. Its flesh was choice meat for the table, its fat afforded the desirable quality for short-cake and doughnuts, to say nothing of its desira- bleness for the female toilet, and the skin for floor mats. One man tells us that in the course of a single season he killed forty bears. They had a great weakness for juvenile pigs, and where these were found, bears were under strong temptation to make these forays. Deer were sought as food, and the skins served various valuable purposes in the family economy. Some- times they were tanned as buckskins for breeches, and for moccasins, and in each instance served a very good purpose. To the experienced hunter they were not difficult to take. Hunted in the winter, their haunts were easily learned, and no sport was so exhilarating as pursuing and bringing down the noble buck.
Another settler relates that hunting in a thin crust of snow, where the deer easily broke through, he succeeded in capturing twenty in a single day. But this was hardly orthodox hunting, but taking advantage of cir- cumstances that rendered the deer helpless.
Venison was prepared in various ways for the comfort of the home. When fresh it was always in order, but it could be prepared so as to be use- ful all the year round. The hams of the deer were salted, then smoked and dried, so as to become a great luxury. Then there was the article
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called "jerked venison." In this preparation nearly the entire flesh could be utilized. It was cut off in a sheet or web, about half an inch thick, and spread on the tops of pegs driven into the ground, whilst underneath a fire was kindled, fed with sweet chips of sassafras and other odorous and sweet woods, that gradually dried it. Occasionally the web of flesh was. taken off the pegs, rolled up in a roll for a little time and then replaced on the pegs until dried and ready to be laid away for future use. Jerked ven- ison was meat, drink, and lodging to hunters and travelers.
The families did thefr own manufacturing. They raised sheep that pro- duced wool, and flax that was wrought into thread and linen by the women of the household. Each formerly had a pair of cards that prepared the wool and flax for spinning. Then the "big wheel " was used for spinning the wool, and the "little wheel " for spinning the flax and tow. Gradually in every neighborhood there was a loom in which the yarn was woven, and for flannel, butternut bark was brought from the woods, that dyed the finest. brown, and when fulled by kicking was ready for clothing, that was also made up at home. The linen and tow cloth were bleached on the green and made shirts and trousers for the men, and such clothing as women required. All this was in anticipation of the days of luxury that were sure- to come.
The building of houses was not a matter of much time or expense. A building was usually put up and completed in a day. There was no expense- but that of labor connected with it. A house was to be builded. The neigh- bors were invited; some brought their oxen; trees were cut down, and made. into sections of proper length and drawn to the place of building. Strong arms rolled them into place; the corners were notched as they were laid up. In the meantime other men were cutting straight red oak into sections and sawing them into clapboards for the roof, and puncheons for the floor, others. still were cutting spaces for doors and windows, and casing them with pieces of split timber. Perhaps others were preparing sticks for the chimney and mud for the chinking, and by sundown the house was completed in all its. appointments, without a nail or bit of iron in all its construction, yet in the- eye of the early settler all was complete. Many a house like this was en- tered by a young couple, and in that simple habitation, with but a single room as kitchen, dining room, parlor, and dormitory, the rites of home, of neighborly kindness and hospitality were carried forward successfully, until the family had grown into a half-dozen, and some of them had gone out to. erect home altars and establish families for themselves.
And although that manner of social life is not the most wholesome or the best, yet the circumstances and necessities of the time rendered it imperative, and in their early days many a strong man and many an earnest. woman went forth from such scenes to take up the burdens of life and to. act well their part in its affairs, better prepared for the work than though. they had been nurtured in the scenes of modern ease and luxury.
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They drank some whiskey in those days. The valley of the Mononga- hela was famous for this fluid. It found its way into the keel boats at Pittsburgh and was never thrown overboard on its way up. It was a great item in the traffic with the Indians as appears from the books of George Power and Edward Hale. The people themselves drank whiskey occa- sionally. In process of time a distillery was erected by James Anderson in Scrubgrass. The savor of that Scrubgrass whiskey lingers in some old palates even to this day. An old settler called it "beautiful whiskey," and said it was considered too good for any one but a white man to drink. There is some reason to think that the early fathers were at times even gay and festive as a consequence of partaking too freely of either Monongahela or Scrubgrass on the Sabbath. It is related that on one occasion a borough law was enacted in Franklin, that any person found intoxicated on the Sab- bath should be compelled to dig out a stump from the diamond. On another occasion it was enacted that any one found in a similar dilemma should be placed in jail. As a consequence of this stringent law on the next Sabbath evening there were not found men enough to make any respectable show on the men's side at prayer meeting.
The progressive citizen always carries with him the idea of the home, the school, and the church. There was no exception in the case of the peo- ple of Venango. There was first the home, then religious worship, then the school. The early schools were no doubt primitive, probably crude and managed at times by very incompetent persons. The old fashioned school- master had not at that time been wholly abolished. He generally ruled with a rod of iron.
Said an old gentleman, once well known in this region, "I met a few years ago in a distant county, an old school teacher under whom I had suf- fered in my boyhood days. I enjoyed hospitality at his house. In the course of the evening, sitting with the old pedagogue and his wife, I said to him, 'Twenty years ago I suffered long under the infliction of your rod, and I then made a vow that if I should ever meet you after I had grown to manhood I would then and there inflict the just punishment of your cruelty.' Said his wife, who was sitting by, 'I just hope you will take him out and give him a most thorough thrashing, for he used to whip you boys until it almost broke my heart.' But the years had mollified my feelings and all thought of revenge had passed away. And I speak of it here as illustrating the spirit of the olden time."
As soon as the families were settled, they began to establish schools. They had not the perquisites of the present schools. The books were few and imperfect, and the teachers not well qualified at all times for their work. But they made a beginning, and the first school that was established was the germ of the present well equipped and ably taught high school of to-day. And the progress made, though gradual, was constant and permanent.
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Mrs. Irvine says that James Mason was the first teacher who opened a school in Franklin. This was in 1801. The school house was erected on the public square, opposite the United States hotel, of unhewn logs, and floored with puncheons, or huge planks made by splitting straight-grained logs, and then roughly removing the inequalities. For windows, there was not the large square opening of a later day, but instead, a log cut out the length of the room, and the space filled with oiled paper. For writing desks, a large board was placed edgeways against the wall, but somewhat inclined to give the right slant, and the writers sat facing the wall. The pens were good, honest goose quills, and James Mason no doubt often heard the cry, "Please mend my pen," and "Please set me a copy." The ink was of do- mestic manufacture, made by boiling the bark of maple and alder, and add- ing a little copperas. Still it was, for the times, a good school and gave the boys and girls a start in the matter of education. Mr. Mason's salary was probably somewhat small, but he practiced the old orthodox plan of board- ing around with the parents of the scholars, and it was a pleasure to have "the master," as he was called, occasionally in the house and at the same time reduce the expense of tuition.
Alexander McCalmont, afterwards Judge McCalmont, is the next teacher of whom we hear. He was employed in 1809. A strict article of agree- ment was drawn up, binding to faithful service both parties. The teacher was to teach reading, writing, and arithmetic, the old-fashioned three R's. Grammar and Geography were not dreamed of then. The probabilities are that spelling was considered a part of reading. On the other side the em- ployers bound themselves to furnish a suitable house for the school and wood to keep it warm. They were also to pay two dollars a scholar for every three months. There were also to be thirty scholars guaranteed. This would secure the teacher twenty dollars per month. The supposition was that he did not board with his employers. The school had for its patrons such familiar names as McDowell, Power, Connely, Broadfoot, Plumer, Ridgway, Selders, and Dewoody. This school was no doubt in advance of James Mason's, and found greater encouragement both to teacher and scholars.
At the laying out of the town, lands were reserved for school purposes, and in time were sold, to procure funds for building an academy. In this matter the entire county was interested. The first academy building was erected in 1815. It stood on Buffalo street, on the lot now occupied by the Evangelical church. John Kelly taught in this building some eight years. Robert Ayres, John Sutton, and John Gamble were also teachers. It was simply a common school with a classical name. Some time after- ward a small frame was erected on the site of the Presbyterian parsonage, afterward sold to the common schools. A new academy building, of brick, was erected in 1854 and occupied as a high school. This was afterward sold to the Evangelical church, and is now occupied by them as a place of
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worship, and the matter of education was relegated to the common school' authorities.
This was no doubt the case all over the county. At first the simplest log cabin, without glazed windows, then as society improved, better houses were erected, still log, but hewn and with clap-board roofs, then the frame house with brick chimneys, until both taste and utility were combined to. render the school house attractive.
The books were of the old school: Webster's Spelling-book, then the New Testament for reading followed by Murray's English Reader, and for arithmetics, possibly Pike. but more likely Daboll, with the use of the slate. Grammar was little thought of, and as for Geography, it had not yet been invented. But the Multiplication Table was taught faithfully and well. Arithmetic was not taught in classes as now, but each one worked on his- own account, wrestling with the problems, or "sums," as they were called, as for his very life, and if unsuccessful, calling in the aid of the master. Still those early schools did a good work, and if the "big boys" did on Christmas sometimes bar out the master, it was taken in good part, and the school resumed work.
For a time the county was without post-routes. The first United States mail that came into the county was in 1802. It was carried on horseback in saddle-bags, and came once in three weeks, and even then brought but a few letters. The route was from Erie to Pittsburgh. The mail carrier was Mr. Ash, who was always punctual, unless detained by high waters or deep snows. It is likely that the music of his tin horn, as he announed his coming, was sweeter music to the early settlers along the route than the shriek of the locomotive that now boasts a cart load of mail bags, and as he passed many a log cabin on the road the people came out to ask him to carry letters to the nearest postoffice to be put in the mail. Mr. Ash car- ried the mail from Meadville to Franklin. Afterward Mr. Houser carried the mail on horseback to Warren and back.
There were no banks in those days. The ordinary citizen had no great occasion to use them, but the merchant labored at a great disadvantage for want of them. There was no way of transmitting funds. Occasionally money was intrusted to the mails, but the work was done very cautiously. If one hundred dollars was to be sent a hundred dollar bill was procured, if possible, cut in halves, and the first half inclosed and the remainder detained until the first half was acknowledged. Then the second half was forwarded, and the person receiving the sections pasted them together in as good style as possible. There were no banks in the county prior to 1860. The early merchants, when going for goods, packed up their Spanish dol- lars in saddle-bags, mounted their horses and rode to Philadelphia. Long after this they still packed their money in their trunks, and in the stage crossed the mountains, with all their funds with them. Yet withal, rob- beries were rare, and this personal care of baggage comparatively safe.
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CHAPTER XI.
EARLY RELIGIOUS LIFE.
SUNDAY IN A PIONEER COMMUNITY-EARLY RELIGIOUS LITERATURE-AC- TIVITY OF THE CLERGY-INTEREST OF THE PEOPLE IN ATTENDING WORSHIP-MANNER OF TRAVELLING-ARCHITECTURE OF THE FIRST CHURCHES-THE METHODIST " CIRCUIT RIDER "- GENERAL RELIGIOUS TENDENCIES-REVIVALS- THE "FALLING EXERCISE "- EARLY DENOMINATIONAL ORGANIZATION.
L IKE Abraham of old these early settlers builded their altars wherever they pitched their tent. They brought their religious customs with them and immediately began to put them in practice. There is an account of a settlement just outside the limits of this county. It was a colony from Washington county, Pennsylvania, neighbors there and neighbors on the new location. They came in their wagons, and reached the proposed point on Saturday evening. On Sabbath morning they breakfasted, called the children together, catechised them after the manner of the modern Sabbath school; then they had a sermon read, had prayer meeting and so made the day a religious day after the manner of their fathers. And that prayer meeting commenced under the spreading maples has been kept up regularly to this day. It has become a permanent institution.
These people had not many books, yet they had a few. The Bible, the catechism, the prayer book, or the psalm book, all had, and an odd volume of Bunyan or Flavel or Edwards, or other religous books, according to the faith of the owner, would be passed around the neighborhood until very well thumbed and well remembered.
The old volumes of minutes of presbyteries and synods and conferences that are still extant tell us of the diligence of the churches in the older set- tlements in sending the gospel to the new. As far as the Presbyterians were concerned we have an item from a Methodist minister, written from Meadville in 1801, in which he states that the Presbyterian Synod of Penn- sylvania had sent out ministers who had laid out all, or most all of the set- tlements into congregational districts, and wherever they could gather a sufficient number of members, organized churches, and ordained elders, so that they seemed to have taken possession of the entire county. 6
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HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.
The records of the Presbytery of Erie in 1802 speak of supplications, as they called them, for supplies of preaching from different points of the county, from Franklin, from Pithole, from McGurl's, from Oil Creek, and from Scrubgrass. To all these points and to others not mentioned the mis- sionary took his way, generally on horseback, often following a blind path through the woods, sometimes sleeping under the green trees, and finding his way out in the morning. On one occasion the minister after losing his way on Saturday night found his path in the morning, with the house where he was to preach on the other side of a stream of water full to the banks; swam his horse across, preached in his dripping garments, and returned in the evening to another appointment. Sometimes these missionaries trav- eled two and two and held a series of meetings, at first in the woods, after- ward in such rude habitations as could be procured.
And the old fathers tell us what diligence was used to attend these preach- ings in the forest. When word came that there would be preaching on a certain Sabbath, men would make it their business to go far and near to no- tify their neighbors. When a minister, Reverend James Satterfield, announ- ced his coming to a neighboring township it 1801, a few men made it their business to notify every family in the township.
And they came from great distances. They traveled on horseback and on foot. On special occasions of sacraments or camp-meetings, they came five, ten, and even twenty miles. They were not particular about their dress. Clean linen, even though it was of coarse texture, was thought to be becoming and proper. Men came without their coats in summer, or carried them on their arms. The young women would walk and carry their shoes and stockings until within sight of the meeting place, when they would sit down on a log and put them on, and so present a decorous appear- ance at the preaching.
On communion occasions the people came from neighboring congrega- tions, when convenient, on horseback, perhaps a family of five or six on two horses; if not convenient they came on foot, often remaining for two or three days.
On one occasion, it is recorded, the people came a distance of thirty miles. It was in the woods, with a tent for the minister and round logs as seats for the people. The Sabbath solemnities had passed, and the meet- ing appointed at ten o'clock on Monday. During the night snow fell to the depth of several inches, covering the seats completely. But the snow was swept from the logs, the people sat down and gladly and patiently heard the Word to the close of the discourse.
Later on houses of worship were erected of rough logs, with little attempt at either taste or comfort, but simply shelter from the storm. Some of these early sanctuaries were builded without a nail or bit of iron or even sawed lumber, yet were comfortable and enjoyable.
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No arrangement was made for fire in the winter. The people assembled in the midst of the snow and frost, listened to two sermons and then re- paired to their homes, as though all this was a matter of privilege and relig- ious enjoyment alone.
The Methodist " circuit rider," as he was termed, was an early visitant in this county. We hear of him first in the upper end of the county, then at Franklin, and then wherever people could be found to wait upon his message. The first authentic account of Methodist preaching at Franklin fixes this date 1804. The Baltimore Conference, in April, 1804, appointed Thornton Fleming presiding elder of the Monongahela district, and An- drew Hemphill preacher, in charge of the Erie circuit, which included Franklin. That year Mr. Hemphill organized a class at Gregg's, on Oil creek, of which John Gregg, Hannah Gregg, and Sally Stephenson were members; and also one at "Pithole settlement," composed of the Dawsons, Siggins, Kinnears, Hendersons, Alcorns, etc. Sometime in the fall of 1804, Mr. Hemphill, with William Connely as a guide, travelled from where Titusville on Oil creek now stands to Franklin, along a blind path. On arriving there, where he had an appointment to preach, he was refused the privilege of occupying the school house, and consequently took his stand under a tree on the common, where he sang, prayed, and then preached to a small congregation, some sitting and others standing on the green grass. "This was supposed," says Gregg, "to be the first Methodist sermon preached in that village, since so famous for Methodism." Whether there were at that time (1804) any Methodists in Franklin we are not informed. It is probable there were none. The early residents, connected with the fort in one capacity or another, were followers of the English or Episcopal church, and at that time a few of Presbyterian inclination had come to set- tle among them.
Still the " Pithole region " is mentioned in connection with the preach- ing of the gospel of both denominations, until both settled down to life work throughout the county. Amid all the years of rushing excitement in business and in politics, religion has been kept abreast with the times. If we inquire into the philosophy of this, there are some interesting points for our consideration, connected with the close of the eighteenth and the dawn of the nineteenth centuries. The religious influence at this time was most blessed and happy. The terrible scourge of skepticism and infidelity that seemed as though it would sweep over the entire country, after the war of the Revolution, was rapidly abating. The stamp of infidelity that at one time seemed fixing itself upon the institutions of the country was vanishing, and Christianity was fast assuming its place. Added to this, the spirit of revival was making itself felt with wondrous power and efficacy, among the older churches of the West, and the infant churches recently planted in the new territory had also been largely blessed. These revivals had commenced
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