History of Venango County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, including, Part 87

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868-
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Brown, Runk & Co.
Number of Pages: 1323

USA > Pennsylvania > Venango County > History of Venango County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, including > Part 87

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HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.

dent of the Oil City Tube Company, and a director of the Oil City Trust Company. He was the first president of the Oil City Enterprise Milling Company, and in 1885 was chosen president and a director of the Oil City Opera House Company, which position he still holds. In 1878 he purchased the Collins house, changed the name to the Arlington, and refurnished it at a cost of forty thousand dollars, making it one of the best in northwestern Pennsylvania. He is also largely interested in the production of oil in the state of New York. Under his management the Oil City Tube Company and the Oil City Boiler Works now give employment to more men than all other manufactories of Oil City combined. His past career has indeed been a prosperous one, and a young man still, his future gives promise of more than the average man attains.

CHARLES F. HARTWELL, president of the Venango Bridge Company, and manager of the Brady's Bend Mining Company, is a native of Sutton, Mas- sachusetts, and was born June 23, 1842. He was educated at Yale, leaving college, however, before graduating, for the purpose of entering the United States navy. He served about one and a half years on board the Juka as master's mate. In July, 1865, while on leave of absence, he came to Oil City and was so pleased with the place that he resigned his commission in the navy and remained here. He began business as paymaster of the Reno Oil and Land Company, and afterward became president of the Reno, Oil Creek and Pithole Railway Company. For the past several years his time has been principally devoted to coal operations. In 1886 he was the principal mover in purchasing the control of the capital stock of the Venango Bridge Company, the new owners at once reducing the price of tolls to its patrons to almost a nominal figure. Mr. Hartwell has been a member of the Oil City council and of the vestry of the Episcopal church. He has been twice married, first in Connecticut and second in Cleveland, Ohio. His son, Frederick, is in charge of the Brady's Bend mines.

William Hartwell, from whom Charles F. is descended, came from Kent, England, in 1636, and settled at Concord, Massachusetts. His de- scendants now number thousands, and are found in every state in the union. The family coat of arms is a shield surmounted by a hart and a well and the motto is Sua Sorte Contentus.

J. H. PAYNE, mayor and broker, was born August 9, 1851, in Oneida county, New York. His parents, David and Agnes (Lowry) Payne, were of Scotch-Irish extraction, and had six children: Jane, Eliza, John H., David, Martha, and William, all residing in Dakota with their mother except our subject, the father having died in 1864. J. H. Payne received a common school education and began for himself as a clerk in Wisconsin; he was in business in Chicago from 1870 to 1871, came to Clarion county in 1872, and began oil operations, which he has ever since continued. In 1881 he became a resident of Oil City. He was elected a member of the council of

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this place in 1887 and mayor in 1888. He was married October 20, 1875, to Laura W. Hinkley, daughter of A. R. and Mary Hinkley, an old and respected family of Wisconsin. The result of this union has been one daughter, Irene. Mayor Payne is a Democrat, and one of the enterprising and progressive young business men of Oil City. He is a thirty-second degree Mason.

WALTER R. JOHNS was born in Louisiana October 8, 1833. His father, Doctor Herbert D. Johns, located and practiced his profession in New Orleans, where he married. Our subject was orphaned by the death of his mother when he was seven years old. He graduated at Rockhill Academy, Rockville, Maryland, in 1845. Declining the opportunity to pursue a higher grade of school studies, he entered the printing office of John T. Towers at Washington city. In June, 1846, he went with Company G, First Baltimore and District of Columbia Battalion of Mexican Volunteers, and landed on Brazos island, gulf of Mexico, July 3, 1846. He partici- pated in the battle of Monterey in Captain Randolph Ridgely's field bat- tery (formerly Ringgold's), forming part of General William O. Butler's division, marched to Tampico with General Quitman's brigade, and formed one of a detachment to take charge of quartermaster's supplies for General Taylor in January, 1847, reporting to Captain Meigs, quartermaster, at Saltillo, February 15th. He took part in the battle of Buena Vista on the 22nd and 23rd, serving in Captain Washington's field battery, returned to Tampico, and remained until the term of enlistment (twelve months) expired in June, 1847. During this time he was connected with the Tam- pico Sentinel -- his first venture in journalism. At the expiration of term of enlistment he re-entered the service as a member of Company L, Captain L. F. Chevallie, First Regiment Texas Rangers, under Colonel Jack Hays, and marched with General Scott from Pueblo to the city of Mexico. He returned to Washington at the close of the war and worked at his trade. In 1854 he worked on the Columbia, South Carolina, Times, and afterward on the Louisville, Kentucky, Democrat. In the spring of 1856 he was editor and publisher of the Lawrence Democrat, Bedford, Lawrence county, Indi- ana. In 1859 he was offered and accepted editorial charge and publication of the Clay county, Illinois, Jacksonian. At the breaking out of the Rebellion he left that paper in charge of friends, and enlisted under the first call of Governor Yates in Company G, of Xenia, Clay county, Illinois, and joined the Seventh, afterward the Twenty-First, Illinois regiment, which was mustered in at Mattoon and subsequently commanded by U. S. Grant. Invalided and discharged at the end of four months' service, he came to Pennsylvania in September, 1861, and was married at Rimersburg, Clarion county, October 8, 1861, to Josephine, daughter of Henry and So- phia Fox, of Centre county, this state. He established the Oil City Regis- ter, the first paper published at Oil City, January 14, 1862, and has since

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HISTORY OF VENANGO COUNTY.

been identified with oil region journalism. In 1870 a book entitled "Petro- lia," a history of the petroleum development, was issued by D. Appleton & Company, of New York, with the names of Walter R. Johns and Andrew Cone as authors, which is acknowledged to be the standard work written on the subject. At the present he is in the employ of the National Transit Com- pany. Mr. Johns is so widely known from his identification with the jour- nalism and history of the petroleum developments that extended comment in his case is unnecessary.

FRANK H. TAYLOR, president of the common council, Oil City, and a prominent dealer in and producer of petroleum, was born at Jamestown, New York, October 29, 1852. He was educated at the Jamestown union schools, learned type-setting in the Jamestown Journal office, and in 1871 purchased an interest in the Tidioute Journal, of which he became editor. about this time he also wrote a serial story for Oliver Optic's Magazine, and contributed sketches and tales to other publications. He came to Oil City from Tidioute, this state, in October, 1873, and during the succeeding four years edited the Derrick, a highly popular paper, of which he was then a part owner. In April, 1877, he established the Sunday Call, edited and managed it until September, 1878, sold out, and returned to the Derrick, where he remained until January, 1886. In the fall of 1885, associated with Messrs. Torry and Murphy, he began the development of the now well-known Tarkiln oil field, in Cranberry township. The company in which he is interested at this time own and operate seventy-three productive wells, and are rapidly extending their acquisition of promising oil territory. Since severing his connection with the Derrick Mr. Taylor has given his at- tention principally to the production of petroleum, diversifying, however, the pursuit of private interest with a commendable public-spiritedness and activity in municipal affairs. In February, 1888, he was elected to the com- mon council from the First ward, and in April following was chosen presi- dent of that body. He was married February 2, 1879, to Miss Annie E. Pluth, and has two children: Frank and Harry.

PATRICK C. BOYLE, lessee and publisher of the Oil City Derrick, was born May 2, 1846, in County Donegal, Ireland. His father, Bernard Boyle, a native of the same county, a farmer by occupation, died in Butler county, this state, in September, 1847. Mary (Daugherty) Boyle, also a native of County Donegal, died in Wilkinsburg, Pennsylvania, in June , 1883, and was the mother of the following children: Mary Margaret, Edward D., Michael J., Manasses S., and Patrick C. The last named received a com- mon-school education and began for himself as a laborer. He has since followed mining, mechanical engineering, drilling, pipe line work, and newspaper publishing. He served in Company H, Fifty-Fourth Pennsyl- vania Volunteers, and is a Republican in politics. He was first married at Brady's Bend, June 28, 1868, to Miss Anna T. Bingham, born April 12,

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1846, who is dead, and who was the daughter of William and Sarah T. Bingham. August 21, 1876, at Pittsburgh, he was again married, to Mary Egan, born September 4, 1846, in Cambria county, this state, daughter of John and Bridget Egan. His children are named as follows: William Francis, Helen Josephine, and Edward R. Mr. and Mrs. Boyle are mem- bers of the Catholic church.

ROBERT WESLEY CRISWELL was born in Clarion county, Pennsylvania, in 1850. His father was Robert Criswell, a prominent man in Clarion county, who afterward made a fortune in the oil business on Cherry run, Venango county, being one of the owners of the Reed well, one of the early gushers. The subject of this sketch was educated in the public schools, Chickering Institute, Cincinnati, and Moor's Hill College, Indiana. His first news- paper work was occasional sketches for the Cincinnati Commercial. Later he was employed as local editor of the Independent, published at East Brady, Pennsylvania. . From East Brady he went to Cincinnati and worked a year for the Enquirer, writing political letters from Indiana and report- ing the Indiana legislature. While at Indianapolis he accepted an offer to come to Oil City and edit the Oil City Derrick. A feature of his work on the Derrick was a humorous department, which was quoted all over the world. He again returned to Cincinnati, to take a position on the staff of the Enquirer, afterward succeeding to the managing editorship of that paper, which position he held for five years. Mr. Criswell was editor of the Petroleum World, at Titusville, and his last newspaper connection in the oil country was as one of the proprietors of the Derrick under the firm name of Boyle & Criswell. He has published two books of humor, " The New Shakspeare," and "Grandfather Lickshingle and Other Sketches." He is at present on the staff of the New York World. Mr. Criswell was married in 1878, to Alice McCreary, a niece of ex-Governor McCreary of Kentucky.

FRANK WILLIAM BOWEN, editor of the Oil City Blizzard, was born in Portland, Chautauqua county, New York, May 27, 1852. His father, Will- iam Walter Bowen, formerly a farmer, now a merchant at Millerstown, But- ler county, Pennsylvania, was born August 9, 1831, at Saratoga, New York. His mother, Lydia Bowen, was a native of Chautauqua county, New York, and died in Jamestown in 1868. She had but two children: J. B. and Frank William. The latter was educated in the common schools and grad- uated from the Jamestown Collegiate Institute. He early developed a desire to learn the printing business, but for some time his parents strenuously opposed such an occupation. He finally prevailed, and went to work in the office of the Chautauqua Democrat. Here he learned to set type; but before he had completed his apprenticeship, Brooks Fletcher, the editor, assigned him to writing news items, which he did creditably to himself and the paper. From Jamestown he went to Corry, took employment with the Daily Blade, and subsequently worked for a time on the Parker Daily. After seven years

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connection with the Oil City Derrick, he became editor of the Blizzard at its inception and has done well his part in making it a paying and interesting journal. He is a Republican, and a member of the Knights of Honor. He was married at Wellsburgh, New York, February 22, 1879, to Annie Irene Scribner, born in New York state in February, 1860, daughter of Charles P. and Esther (Bennett) Scribner. He and wife are Methodists. Beside the occupations mentioned, he has taught school and kept books successfully.

HENRY G. MCKNIGHT, one of the publishers of the Oil City Blizzard, was born May 14, 1849, in Hayesville, Ashland county, Ohio. His father, James McKnight, was born in Greensburg, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, was proprietor of a marble factory, and died in February, 1876, at Mans- field, Ohio. Mary Elizabeth (Gribben) McKnight, the mother of our sub- ject, was born on a farm near Hayesville, Ohio, in 1822, and died at Mans- field, that state, in 1870. By her marriage with James McKnight she became the mother of four children: Anna; William V. ; Mary E., and Henry G. The last named was educated at the public schools at Mansfield, and at Vermilion Institute, Hayesville, Ohio. He began business for himself with the publication of a newspaper. He is a member of the Knights of Honor, United Friends, Typographical Union, and several other secret orders. He was married December 3, 1875, at Tionesta, this state, to Julia A. Campbell, who was born on a farm in Butler county, March 8, 1858, daughter of Samuel J. Campbell, born in 1836 in Butler county, and a resi- dent of Tionesta, and Anna W. Campbell, who was born in 1843 and died in 1865. To this union have been born four children: George, deceased; William V .; Samuel C., and Kittie F.

ROBERT SIMPSON, editor of the Oil City Derrick, was born at Toronto, On- tario, March 6, 1860, son of William Henry and Mrs. B. (Cassidy) Simp- son, of Scotch and Irish descent, respectively, the former a native of Hal- lowell Hall, Lancashire, the latter of Kilmore, County Wexford, Ireland. After the death of her husband she removed to Oil City in 1867, where the subject of this sketch was brought up and attended the public schools. He entered the Derrick office at the age of thirteen as " devil," and three years later began to learn the trade of printer, completing his apprenticeship in 1880. After a brief connection with the Emlenton Register he returned to the composing room of the Derrick, but was transferred within a year to the business department, and assigned as well to local reportorial work. In June, 1882, he became city reporter for the Blizzard. He withdrew in July, 1886, to accept the position of exchange editor on the staff of the Pittsburgh Dispatch, performing successively the duties of news editor, night editor, and assistant managing editor. In January, 1889, he became traveling correspondent; for several months he was stationed at Harrisburg, and the interesting articles on the political situation published in the Dispatch over his signature were among its most valuable features during that period. He

I. H. Taylor

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BIOGRAPHIES OF OIL CITY.

was one of the two newspaper correspondents who first penetrated the city of Johnstown after the great flood of 1889, and thousands of people gained their first information regarding that catastrophe from his graphic and com- prehensive reports. In August, 1889, he assumed his present position as editor of the Derrick. He is a member of the Baptist church and one of the trustees of the local organization at Oil City.

HOMER MCCLINTOCK, staff reporter of the Oil City Derrick, was born in Dempseytown, this county, September 13, 1849.

His father, Colonel James R. McClintock, died December 14, 1867, and his mother, Jerusha (Tennent) McClintock, was born in Colchester, Connecti- cut, August 21, 1807. Our subject was educated at the common schools and Edinboro Normal. He was married May 18, 1873, to Susan Martin, born May 11, 1855, in Franklin, daughter of Robert and Mary Martin. To this union have been born three children: Glenroy, Grace M., and Nellie H. He and wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church, and he is a

Democrat. Before taking his present position he alternated farming with the production of oil. In 1887 he was elected county auditor, and his earn- est work in that capacity is well known by the citizens of Venango county.

J. N. PERRINE, business manager of the Oil City Derrick, was born June 8, 1853, at Perrine's Corners, Mercer county, Pennsylvania, and is a son of J. M. Perrine, a native of the same place, and the present postmaster at Utica, this county. His mother's maiden name was M. A. Armstrong, a native of Little Valley, New York. She is still living at the age of seventy-five years. Our subject was educated at an academy at Utica, this county, and from the age of sixteen to twenty he was assistant postmaster at Utica. From twenty to twenty-seven he was assistant postmaster at St. Petersburg, Pennsyl- vania, the fourth largest office in the state during that time; he was at the same time manager of book and stationery stores at St. Petersburg, Eden- burg, Emlenton, and Bradford. He became special correspondent for the Butler and Clarion oil fields in 1880, three years later came to Oil City and took the position of city editor of the Derrick, and three years subsequently was promoted to the position of business manager, which he still holds. In religion he is not connected with any church but is an Episcopalian in senti- ment. In politics he is and always has been a Republican. He belongs to the Masonic order, the I. O. O. F., Canton Militant, the I. O. O. F. en- campment, the Knights of Pythias, and the Knights of Maccabees. He was married August 2, 1874, to Miss R. L. Crawford, a native of Lawrence county, Pennsylvania.

WILL H. HARRIS, editor and publisher of the Critic, mentioned in the chapter on the press, was born September 18, 1863, in Tidioute, Warren county, Pennsylvania. His father, Warren A. Harris, was born September 10, 1835, in Ontario, Canada. He served as postmaster at Corry, Erie coun- ty, this state, and at one time was a prosperous merchant and oil producer at

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Tidioute. He died in 1870 and was buried in Canada. His wife, Anna Celia Combs, was born November 13, 1841, in New York, and died a short time prior to the demise of her husband. To this union were born three children: Will H .; Frank L., deceased, and Warren A., deceased. The first named was educated in the common schools of Tidioute, Fagundus, Warren county, and Salem, this county. He began his business life at Salem by es- tablishing a job printing office, which he removed to South Oil City in 1885, one year later. A year subsequent to this he established the Critic, and continued his job office, being equipped with material for doing all kinds of first-class work. He is a member of the First Baptist church of Oil City, the A. O. U. W., and I. O. O. F.

J. A. RITCHEY, physician and surgeon, was born November 28, 1840, in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, one of eight children born to Thomas and Mary (Calhoun) Ritchey, of Scotch-Irish extraction. Doctor Ritchey was educated in Glade Run Academy and Jefferson College, by which the degree of A. M. was conferred upon him in 1874. In 1861 he enlisted in Com- pany K, One Hundred and Fifty-Fifth Pennsylvania Volunteers, for three years or during the war. On his return from the war he began the study of medicine under the tuition of Doctor J. P. Alcorn, then of Allegheny City, thence entering Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia, where he re- mained three years, and from which institution he was graduated in 1871. He at once began the practice of his profession at Oil City, where he has built up a lucrative business. He is a member of the Oil City Medical Club, Venango County Medical Society, Pennsylvania State Medical Society, American Medical Association, and International Medical Congress, secretary of the Oil City board of examining surgeons for pensions, and has taken a deep interest in education, having served twelve years or more as school director. He is a member of the Masonic fraternity and in politics is a Democrat.

F. F. DAVIS, physician and surgeon, was born June 2, 1838, near the village of Independence in what was then Hopewell township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania. He was the oldest of a family of twelve children born to John and Margaret Davis, both father and mother having been born and reared in Allegheny county, this state. Our subject was educated in the common schools and Beaver Academy. He read medicine in the office of Doctor J. S. Elliott, now of Beaver Falls, Pennsylvania, and entered the medical department of the University of Michigan in the fall of 1861, graduating from that institution in 1867. He entered the army as assistant surgeon of the One Hundred and Sixty-Eighth Pennsylvania Volunteers, October 24, 1862, and was mustered out with the regiment on the expira- tion of the term of service, July 25, 1863; he was mustered into the service of the state of Pennsylvania as a medical officer, August 1, 1863, and was mustered out on or about August 27, 1863, to be mustered into the One

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Hundred and Twenty-First Pennsylvania Volunteers, with which regiment he served to the close of hostilities, being discharged from the service June 2, 1865. At the close of the war he located in Oil City, where he has con- tinued to practice medicine and surgery ever since. During the period from December, 1867, to November, 1871 or '72, he edited the Venango Repub- lican, the only newspaper published in Oil City during that time. He is a member of the Oil City Medical Club, the Venango County Medical Society, the Medical Society of the State of Pennsylvania, and the American Medical Association. He is also a member of and examining surgeon for Lodge No. 14, A. O. U. W., and Evans Post, G. A. R. He was appointed surgeon for the Allegheny Valley railroad in 1871 and still holds that position; he has also served in a similar capacity for a number of years for the Western New York and Pennsylvania railroad, and for the Oil City and Ridgway road.

He was appointed United States examining surgeon December 13, 1873, and filled that position from that time till the organization of the Oil City pension board, which took place about June 26, 1884; of this board he was made president and served as such until removed by the Cleveland adminis- tration, December 8, 1885. He was reappointed examining surgeon for pensions, June 1, 1889, made a member of the Oil City pension board Oc- tober 15, 1889, and is secretary of the same. He is serving his nineteenth year as school director. He has two children; the eldest, Fannie, is first assistant teacher of the Oil City high school, and John F. is a student in the Western Pennsylvania Medical College at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

A. F. COOPE, physician and surgeon, was born in Scott, Cortland county, New York, January 19, 1844. He received his literary education at Cazeno- via, Madison county, New York. He taught one term of school. In 1862 he enlisted in the One Hundred and Fourteenth New York Volunteer In- fantry, and served three years; he was promoted to adjutant, and received a wound in the left hand at the battle of Winchester, Virginia. He completed his medical studies at Ann Arbor, Michigan, graduating from that institu- tion in 1870. He began practice at Flushing, Michigan, and at the expira- tion of six years' successful business, he left there. He was married to Miss Annie Hayes, a native of New York state, who died a short time sub- sequently. He then spent the winter of 1876-77 in medical schools and hospitals of New York city. In the spring of 1877 he located in Oil City, where he has continued in active practice ever since. He is a member of the Oil City Medical Club, the Venango County Medical Society, the Medi- cal Society of Pennsylvania, the American Medical Association, the Inter- national Medical Congress, and the Masonic order, and is somewhat inde- pendent in politics.

T. C. McCULLOCH, physician and surgeon, was born April 8, 1823, in Westmoreland county, this state. His parents, James and Margaret (Patti- son) McCulloch, were also natives of that county, and their eight children

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were named as follows: William; John; Samuel; Sarah; James; Joseph; Annie, and T. C. Of these, T. C., Annie, and Samuel are living. The father was a justice of the peace for many years, and served as major in the war of 1812. His son, T. C. McCulloch, attended the common schools until the age of eighteen, when he began teaching in his native county at the small compensation of twenty dollars per month. He subsequently attended college at Oberlin, Ohio, and in 1845 began studying medicine under the instruction of his brother, Doctor W. P. McCulloch, at Apollo, Armstrong county. He attended lectures at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, during the session of 1847-48, and then practiced with his brother until 1853, when he re-entered that institution, from which he was graduated in 1853. During this year he located at Leechburg, Armstrong county, and four years later removed to Kittanning, where he built up a lucrative prac- tice. In 1877 he was induced to settle in Oil City. He was married to Elizabeth James of Freeport, Armstrong county, and by her has the follow- ing children, who have grown to maturity: William, traveling auditor for the New York Central railroad; Ella J., married to W. S. Cowell, and residing in West Virginia; Aggie, at home; Robert, who married Mollie Wise of Franklin, and is traveling from Oil City in the interest of patent medicines; James, traveling auditor of the Western New York and Penn- sylvania railroad, with headquarters at Buffalo, New York, and Edgar W., of West Virginia. Our subject was surgeon for the first draft made in Armstrong county, and served in the council of Kittanning. He is a mem- ber of the Oil City Medical Club, Venango Medical Society, the American and Pennsylvania State Medical Associations, the E. A. U., Royal Arcanum, K. and L. of H., the Presbyterian church, and the Democratic party.

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History of Venango County, Pennsylvania : its past and present, including, Part 87

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868- Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Chicago : Brown, Runk & Co. Number of Pages: 1323

Author: Bell, Herbert C. (Herbert Charles), 1868-
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago : Brown, Runk & Co.
Number of Pages: 1323