USA > Pennsylvania > Venango County > History of Venango County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, including > Part 21
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J. R. Borland, Franklin; University of Medicine, Philadelphia, 1855; Eclectic Medical College, Atlanta, 1880.
J. K. Bowers, Pleasantville; Philadelphia America University, 1873.
A. H. Bowser, Salina; Western Reserve University, Cleveland, 1885.
B. L. Brigham, Clinton township; College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore, 1880.
D. L. Brown, Utica; Western Reserve University, Cleveland, 1884.
J. A. Burgeon, Reynoldsville, Clarion county, continuous practice in the state since 1866.
G. W. Cary, East Sandy; continuous practice in Venango county thirty-four years.
J. W. Cary, Pinegrove township; Cleveland Medical College, 1879.
W. F. Conners, Oil City; University of New York City, 1880.
A. F. Coope, Oil City; University of Michigan, 1870.
C. W. Coulter, Oil City; Western Pennsylvania Medical College, 1888.
J. K. Crawford, Cooperstown; University of Pennsylvania, 1868.
Robert Crawford, Cooperstown; University of Pennsylvania, 1860.
F. F. Davis, Oil City; University of Michigan, 1867.
G. W. Dille, Cooperstown; Cleveland Medical College, 1872.
J. M. Dille, Cooperstown; continuous practice at that place from 1848 to his death.
A. H. Diven, Salem City; continuous practice in the county since 1865.
T. W. Egbert, Oil City; Ohio Medical College, 1863.
E. S. Franks, Titusville; American University of Pennsylvania, 1868.
D. C. Galbraith, Franklin; Ohio Medical College, 1865.
J. B. Glenn, Franklin; Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, 1872.
S. P. Goudy, Rouseville; Columbus Medical College, 1881.
A. D. L. Griffith, Oil City; continuous practice at that place since 1871.
B. F. Hamilton, Emlenton; University of Wooster, Cleveland, 1872.
J. M. Harding, Oil City; Albany University of New York State.
S. B. Hartman, Lancaster, Pennsylvania; Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, 1857.
J. H. Hazen, Dempseytown; Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, 1881.
R. A. Hudson, Franklin; Homoeopathic Hospital College of Cleveland, 1886.
T. A. Irwin, Franklin; College of Homeopathy, Chicago, 1888.
W. H. H. Jackson, Oil City; Western Reserve College, Cleveland, 1878.
F. M. Johnson, Philadelphia; continuous practice in the state since 1864.
F. H. Johnston, Utica; Cleveland Medical College, 1867.
W. T. Jones, Franklin; Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, 1884.
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HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.
E. A. Kuhns, Emlenton; Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, 1884.
J. W. Leadenham, Franklin; Long Island Hospital, New York, 1876.
Joshua Lippincott, Chapmanville; Eclectic Medical College of Cincin- nati, 1881.
J. J. Looney, Utica; continuous practice in the state since 1869.
J. M. Lupher, Pleasantville, E. M. College of Philadeldhia, 1871.
James MacFarland, Oil City; University of Edinburgh, 1885.
G. W. Magee, Salem City; Western Pennsylvania Medical College, 1889.
J. H. Martin, Utica; Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, 1879.
Manuel Matthews, Barkeyville; continuous practice in Lawrence county, Pennsylvania, from 1851 to 1880.
Milton Miles, Westfield township, Crawford county; continuous practice since 1870.
L. C. Millspaugh, Oil City; University of the City of New York, 1884.
E. W. Moore, Franklin; University of Wooster, Cleveland, 1869.
S. P. McCalmont, Jr., Franklin; University of the City of New York, 1888.
F. M. McClelland, Utica; Western Reserve University.
E. M. McConnell, Polk; Western Reserve University, Cleveland, 1888.
T. C. Mccullough, Oil City; Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, 1853.
W. L. Mckinley, Victory township; College of Medicine and Surgery of Keokuk, Iowa, 1882.
J. B. McMillan, Clintonville; thirty years' continuous practice in the county.
W. A. Nason, Pleasantville; Eclectic Medical College of Cincinnati, 1887.
W. A. Nicholson, Franklin; Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, 1876.
G. W. Parr, Clintonville; Bellevue Hospital Medical College, New York, 1876.
S. M. Patton, Cochranton, Crawford county; University of Cleveland, 1882.
J. M. Peebles, Hammonton, New Jersey; University of Pennsylvania. John Petit, Victory township; more than thirty years' continuous practice (deceased).
R. W. Playford, Petroleum Center; University of New York, 1855.
W. J. Proper, Pleasantville; Starling Medical College of Ohio, 1883.
A. J. Pyle, New Galilee, Beaver county, Pennsylvania; forty years' con- tinuous practice in the state.
T. S. Pyle, Franklin; E. M. College of Philadelphia, 1868.
L. W. Ranney, Cooperstown; continuous practice in the county since 1855.
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THE MEDICAL PROFESSION.
Griffin Reno, Oil City; Albany Medical College, 1862.
J. A. Ritchey, Oil City; Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, 1871. Thomas B. Shugert, Pleasantville; deceased.
M. C. Smith, Pleasantville; College of Physicians and Surgeons, Bal- timore.
S. Gustine Snowden, Franklin; Philadelphia College of Medicine, 1859 (deceased).
Augustus Soper, Franklin; College of Physicians, Ontario, 1888.
I. St. Clair, Franklin; University of Medicine and Surgery, Philadel- phia, 1869.
G. B. Stillman, Franklin; College of Physicians and Surgeons, Balti- more, 1880.
R. M. Strauss, Chapmanville; University of Wooster, Cleveland, 1878.
E. W. Taylor, French Creek township; University of Wooster, Cleve- land, 1871.
C. D. Thompson, Oil City; continuous practice in Venango county since 1862 (except 1866-69).
W. C. Tyler, Rouseville; University of Philadelphia, 1870.
R. E. Van Naten, Cooperstown; Eclectic Medical College of Philadelphia,. 1863.
C. N. Van Sickle, Wallaceville; University of Buffalo, 1882.
J. H. West, Louisville, Kentucky; Kentucky College of Medicine, 1875. W. L. Whann, Franklin; Jefferson Medical College, 1868.
Jonathan Whitely, Oil City; Homoeopathic Hospital College of Cleveland, 1873.
E. P. Wilmot, Franklin; Homoeopathic Hospital College of Cleveland, 1882.
C. M. Wilson, Irwin township; Cincinnati College of Medicine and Sur- gery, 1876.
B. B. Williams, Meadville; Eclectic Medical Institute, 1860.
208
HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.
CHAPTER XV.
AGRICULTURE.
4
RELATIVE IMPORTANCE OF AGRICULTURE-PIONEER FARMING-DEVELOPMENT OF IMPROVED METHODS AND MACHINERY-INTRODUCTION OF DOMESTIC ANIMALS AND OF THE CEREALS INTO AMERICA-PIONEER STOCK -PROSPECT HILL STOCK FARM-OAKWOOD FARM AND GARDEN COMPANY, LIMITED - AGRICULT- URAL SOCIETIES-THE GRANGE-HAR- VEST HOME ASSOCIATIONS.
W HETHER the aggregate of capital invested, the amount of labor employed, or the value of its products be considered, agriculture is unquestionably a most important industry; and, from the period when its pursuit was practically universal to the present, it has sustained to every community the relation of a primary and ultimate source of wealth. The dignity of the calling has been recognized in all ages; its quiet amenities have been celebrated by the poet and artist since the dawn of literature and art; men of ability and eminence in the cabinet or on the field, at the bar or in the pulpit, and in every department of human activity have been drawn from its ranks. And yet the history of agriculture, although marked by a gradual and certain progress, is singularly deficient in brilliant passages.
Pioneer farming involved as a necessary preliminary the removal of the forest. This was principally the accomplishment of physical force. The trees were felled together in double windrows and after being exposed to the sun and wind several months became so dry that a fire applied at one end would be driven by a proper breeze with incredible rapidity, consuming the interlaced branches and leaving nothing but charred and blackened trunks. These were usually brought together in great heaps and submitted to the burning process until scarcely a vestige remained. Another method was to fell the trees and after lopping off the branches for firewood, drag the logs together and pile them in huge pyramids, in which condition they were con- signed to the flames. Where the growth of timber was not particularly dense much of the labor was obviated by removing the underbrush and "girdling" the larger trees. The bark was cut from the trunk of the tree in a section about a foot wide, thus depriving the limbs and leaves of sap entirely, and as a result the tree was dead within a brief period. The bark
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AGRICULTURE.
and smaller branches fell to the ground, affording a valuable fertilizer, but the trunk, white and ghastly by exposure to the weather, was allowed to re- main for years in many instances, until wood had acquired some commercial value or the farmer was moved by a desire to improve his land. Farming operations in a field where the trees had been girdled were sometimes at- tended with distressing fatalities; rotten branches were liable to fall at any time, and the close proximity of the plowman and his team could not arrest the action of the force of gravitation.
But if the work of clearing the land was protracted and laborious, the virgin soil responded to the first effort at cultivation with a profusion and liberality that compensated largely. The methods of cultivation in vogue at that day were crude in the extreme. The principal implement used in preparing the ground was a "drag " or triangular harrow formed of two pieces of timber united in the form of the letter V; each piece had a number of wooden teeth intended to grub up the soil so as to afford a lodging place for the grain, but stones and stumps occurred with such frequency that this purpose was only accomplished to a very limited extent. The first crops consisted of corn, oats, wheat, and potatoes. Corn was planted in hills and potatoes in rows, while wheat and oats were sown broadcast and covered by dragging a tree-top over the field. Of the different cereals corn was most readily prepared for consumption or sale and received a corresponding de- gree of attention. Husking was sometimes done in the field but more fre- quently at the barn, and the combined energies of the community were often brought to bear upon this work. Grain was cut with a sickle. Harvest time was a season of severe and protracted labor, and it would have been con- sidered impossible to withstand its requirements without resorting to a. neighboring distillery for assistance. The threshing and cleaning of wheat involved an amount of labor utterly incommensurate with its marketable value. Sheaves of grain were placed in order on a floor of puncheon or hard clay where the grain was tramped out by horses or threshed with a flail. This was but one part of the work, however; it still remained to sep- arate the wheat from the chaff, and with no machinery save a riddle or sieve of home construction, this was an almost endless task. Threshing fre- quently required the farmer's time nearly the whole winter.
As already remarked, the transition to present methods was gradual. It would be impossible to indicate definitely the time when the sickle was re- placed by the grain, cradle, or when the latter was superseded by the reap- ing machine and binder. The plow, originally a ponderous instrument re- quiring great strength in its manipulation and constructed almost entirely of wood, received in succession an iron point, coulter, and mould-board, the first stage in the evolution of the latter being a sheet iron sheath for the wooden mould-board. The windmill was the first innovation for winnowing wheat; the next was a revolving cylinder to take the place of the flail and
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HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.
afforded an opportunity to utilize horse power. The combination of these two machines with such modifications as experience has suggested and in- genuity devised has resulted in the modern threshing machine. The grain drill, at first clumsily provided with an apparatus to regulate the amount of seed sown, was introduced almost as soon as the general condition of the land would permit its use. The mowing machine has taken the place of the scythe, while the hay-rake and tedder and hay-fork relegate much of the hardest labor in connection with this department of farm work to the past. The application of manure as a measure of restoring and sustaining the fertility of the soil has been continued, but commercial fertilizers have come into general use as a means of further accomplishing this purpose. Rotation of crops, scientific methods of drainage, and other departures of a similar nature have followed as the natural result of careful and intelligent experi- ment, placing the farming community of Venango county in a position to compare favorably with that of any other in this section of the state.
Brief mention of the various domestic animals may not be uninteresting in this connection. The first specimens were introduced by Columbus in 1493 on his second voyage, when he brought with him a horse, a bull, and sev- eral cows. The first introduction of horses into the United States occurred in 1527 when Cabeca de Vaca brought forty-two to Florida. In 1539 De Soto brought to that region a number of horses and swine. Several hundred swine, a horse, and six mares, domestic fowls to the number of five hundred, with a few sheep and goats were brought to Jamestown, Virginia, in 1609; a few animals had been introduced there two years previously.
Of the cereals corn alone is indigenous to America and was cultivated in a crude way by the Indians. It was first raised successfully by the English at Jamestown in 1608. In 1602 Gosnold sowed wheat and oats on the Eliz- abethan islands near the Massachusetts coast and barley at Martha's Vine- yard. It is to him that the honor of introducing these grains is due. Wheat was sown in Virginia in 1611 and introduced into the Mississippi valley in 1718. Oats was cultivated in Newfoundland in 1622 and in Vir- ginia prior to 1648. Buckwheat, which is thought to be indigenous to Cen- tral Asia, was among the productions of Pennsylvania as early as -1702. Rye was found in Nova Scotia in 1622 and in Virginia in 1648. Barley was cultivated in Virginia in 1611. The potato, like maize, is indigenous to America, but never acquired any importance as an article of food until after its introduction into Europe. The sweet potato is a native of the East Indies and was introduced into the southern colonies early in the seven- teenth century.
Horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs were brought into the county by the first settlers; they were usually of an ordinary breed and very little was done toward the improvement of stock for many years after the organization of the county. The swine of that early date, compared with the breed at
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AGRICULTURE.
present, present a very wide contrast; for whatever the breed may have been called, the special characteristics were soon lost in the mongrel swine of the country. They were long and slim, long-snouted and long-legged, with an arched back and bristles erect from the head to the tail, slab-sided, active, and healthy. The "sapling-splitter " or "razor-back," as he was called, was ever in search of food and quick to take alarm. He was capable of making a heavy hog but required two or three years to mature, and until a short time before butchering or marketing was suffered to run at large, subsisting as a forager and fattening mainly upon the mast of the forest. In no stock of the farm has there been greater improvement. The long- legged, long-snouted, slab-sided, roach-backed, tall, active, wild, fierce, and muscular specimen would scarcely be recognized as belonging to the same species as the improved breeds of to-day. Similar advances have been made with every variety of farm animals, largely through the instru- mentality of agricultural societies and also as the result of private enter- prise. Within recent years special features of this nature and also of a horticultural character have been developed, the importance of which is not bounded by local environment but may fairly be said to entitle them to national prominence in their respective fields.
Prospect Hill Stock Farm, * of which Messrs. Charles Miller and J. C. Sibley of Franklin, Pennsylvania, are the proprietors, is to-day undoubtedly the best equipped and one of the largest and most widely and favorably known of any breeding establishment in the world. There are, in reality, adjacent to Franklin, three separate farms owned by the firm. The first, generally known as the Fair Ground farm, adjoining the Third ward of the city, lies on the east side of the Meadville pike and extends from the foot to the top of the hill. It comprises about one hundred and ninety acres, and contains the principal buildings. This is the farm referred to in this article, unless otherwise stated. The Galena farm, lying principally on the west side of the Pittsburgh pike, between Franklin and Uniontown, con- tains about three hundred and twenty-five acres, and is at present used mostly for pasturage. The Prospect Hill farm, located in Sandy Creek township, six miles southeast of Franklin, consists of nearly two hundred acres, and is now used chiefly for growing crops. It has barn capacity for about ninety animals. On this farm is the first silo built west of the Alle- gheny mountains. Its capacity is two hundred and forty tons. The firm began their career as breeders after they had achieved such success in other lines that they had sufficient means to enable them to obtain for foundation stock the most desirable animals regardless of cost. The first purchase which called general attention to the rising firm was that of the Jersey bull Pedro 3187, whose dam at that time (1881), had the highest yearly butter record of any cow in the world. Breeders were present at the auction from
* By E. H. Sibley.
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HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.
all parts of the country and competition was lively, but the firm finally se- cured the prize for two thousand five hundred dollars, which was considered an unreasonable sum to pay by those who did not fully appreciate the im- portance of having the best qualities possible in a sire. However, as is gen- erally true, the best proved in this case to be the cheapest, and in addition to an immense amount of free advertising, and to getting back considerably more than first cost in the increased price at which they sold his calves, the firm at length disposed of this bull for the highest price up to that time re- alized for any animal of this breed, namely: ten thousand dollars in cash, and other considerations valued at three thousand dollars. Shortly after- ward the firm purchased from A. B. Darling, proprietor of the Fifth Avenue hotel, New York city, Michael Angelo 10116, a better bred son of Eurotas, paying for him, when a calf only six weeks old, twelve thousand, five hun- dred dollars cash, which price still remains the highest bona fide cash price ever paid for an individual of the Jersey breed.
At one time in Jersey history great attention was paid to mere beauty; the ideal being a gazelle-like creature, which was more ornamental in the lawn than profitable in the dairy. The firm realized from the first that the true standard of value of the breed, and hence the standard that must ultimately prevail, was excellence for milk and butter, and hence selected all animals on this practical basis. As the general public had not yet come around to their standard they were able to buy for one hundred and thirty dollars one of the best dairy bulls that ever lived, Stoke Pogis 5th, 5987, for which after- ward fifteen thousand dollars was offered and refused. Several bull calves by this bull were sold by the firm at from one thousand to one thousand five hundred dollars each.
While on a visit to Canada Mr. Sibley saw a cow, then dry, which other breeders had also looked at, but had paid no particular attention to, which he concluded was one of the best he had ever seen, He advised the fellow breeder, who had an option on her for two thousand dollars, to take her by all means, and he himself went immediately and bought for the firm her bull calf, Ida's Rioter of St. L., 13656, for one thousand five hundred dollars. Within a year from that time the full brother of this bull was sold for five thousand dollars, and his dam Ida of St. Lambert was purchased jointly by V. E. Fuller of Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, and Miller & Sibley for six thousand dollars cash. Mr. Fuller eventually disposed of his interest in this cow to Messrs. Miller & Sibley. She made, before a committee ap- pointed by the American Jersey Cattle Club, a seven days' test of thirty pounds twenty-one and a half ounces of butter, which was nearly three pounds higher than any previous yield. She gave sixty-seven pounds of milk per day, four hundred and fifty-five and one-half pounds in seven days, and eighteen hundred and eighty-eight pounds in thirty-one days, these amounts constituting and still remaining the best milk records for those periods of any cow in the Jersey breed.
John Milton
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AGRICULTURE.
A cow that had been bought for four hundred and thirty dollars, and that was retained in spite of the advice to sell her by a chief expounder of the escutcheon theory, who declared that she would be an unprofitable cow in the dairy, gave, when two or three years older, in twelve consecutive months sixteen thousand one hundred and fifty-three and three-fourth pounds of milk, which, from tests in several different months, was conserv- atively estimated to have yielded fully nine hundred and fifty pounds of butter. This animal, Matilda 4th, 12816, her owners claim to be the best cow of any breed for a yearly production of milk and butter combined. It might be interesting to speak in detail of La Petite Mere 2nd 12810, Fawn of St. Lambert 27942, and many others well known throughout Jerseydom, but the limits of this sketch forbid. The firm have literally sold their Jerseys from the Atlantic to the Pacific ocean, and from Canada to the gulf of Mexico. Two bulls were sent to the Pacific slope this summer (1889), one going to Oregon and the other to California.
The cattle barn on the Fair Ground farm is a three-story, sixteen-sided polygon, lighted by electricity, heated in winter by steam, and having capacity for one hundred and fifteen animals. The thermometer is not allowed to go over 45° and not under 40º Fahrenheit, the aim being to main- tain a temperature a little above freezing point. The basement is devoted mainly to milking cows. The gutters behind the stalls are covered with iron grating extending to a sewer, which leads one hundred rods from the stable. The number of pounds of milk that each cow gives is immediately set down on the record sheet. By this means and by tests at intervals of each cow's milk for richness, the value of every cow in the dairy for milk and butter can be closely determined. On the floor above are box stalls for service bulls and cows soon to calve, and in one room with the engine is a De Laval cream separator, for separating the cream from the milk as soon as milked. This was the first one of these machines to be set up in Pennsylvania and the second one in America. The top floor is used mainly for storage for feed. A railway suspended from the roof and power supplied by a team of horses outside the barn makes it an easy mat- ter to raise from the inside or outside of the barn, and place wherever desired, straw, hay, fodder and other kinds of feed. The power cutter on this floor cuts one ton of corn fodder into one-third inch length in twenty- five minutes.
At the present time the entire Jersey herd numbers about one hundred head. The firm also own (purchased for the firm principally by Mr. Mil- ler) a Holstein bull; four head of Black Polled Angus cattle; about seventy- five head of Shetland, Welsh, and Burmese ponies; two hundred head of pure and grade Angora goats, and twenty head of coach horses, the last mentioned headed by Incroyable, a prize-winning stallion by one of the French government stallions. W. K. Vanderbilt imported Incroyable, and
12
216
HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.
is said to have paid more money for him than was paid for any other horse of this breed that ever left France. For several years the firm owned, and had in the stud, Prince Buccleugh, an imported, registered Clydesdale stal- lion of famous prize-winning ancestry.
In 1886 J. C. Sibley purchased, as an individual venture, from ex-Gov- enor Stanford of California, for ten thousand dollars, the four-year-old trotting stallion St. Bel 5336, record 2:24}. This horse has been repeatedly timed quarter miles in thirty-two seconds. Electioneer, his sire, has more of his get in the 2:20 list than any other stallion that ever lived, and promises soon to lead all others in the number of his 2:30 trotters, Beau- tiful Bells, the dam of St. Bel, already first among the famous brood mares in the average speed of her foals, also promises within a few years to sur- pass all others in the number of her foals to trot in 2:30 or better.
The mares purchased were carefully selected regardless of cost, for their blood lines and individual excellence. They were chiefly daughters of such noted sires as Dictator, Almont, Nutwood, Volunteer, Harold, Elec- tioneer, Happy Medium, Princeps, Nephew, Belmont, and Mambrino King, and the aim was, as far as possible, that the dams of these mares should be equally as well bred as their sires.
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