History of Warren County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 19

Author: Schenck, J. S., [from old catalog] ed; Rann, William S., [from old catalog] joint ed; Mason, D., & co., Syracuse, N.Y., pub. [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1887
Publisher: Syracuse, N.Y., D. Mason & co.
Number of Pages: 1020


USA > Pennsylvania > Warren County > History of Warren County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 19


Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).


Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78 | Part 79 | Part 80 | Part 81 | Part 82 | Part 83 | Part 84 | Part 85 | Part 86 | Part 87 | Part 88 | Part 89 | Part 90 | Part 91 | Part 92 | Part 93 | Part 94 | Part 95 | Part 96 | Part 97 | Part 98 | Part 99 | Part 100 | Part 101


The solicitude of the Hebrew mother, while weaving the ark of bulrushes which was to bear the body of the infant Moses on the turbid waters of the Nile, could not have surpassed that of this bold adventurer; and, like her, ' with invocations to the living God, he twisted every tender twig together, and with a prayer did every osier weave.' It was with him a matter of life or death. He was preparing the means to save him from perishing in the snow, far away from friends or home. Having finished his snow-shoes, he fastened them to his feet with the bark of the moose wood, and finding them to answer the desired purpose after a little practice, pursued his lonely journey through


154


HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.


the wilderness of Potter and Mckean counties, and arrived at Warren about the first of December. The following spring he selected a spot for his nursery- for that seemed to be his primary object-near White's, on the Big Brokenstraw, and sowed his seed. The waters have long since washed away a portion of the ground, and took some of his trees to a bar below, which is still known as Ap- ple-tree Bar. This nursery furnished the trees for most of the old orchards on the Brokenstraw. The demand for fruit trees being quite limited, and unable to obtain a livelihood by his favorite pursuit, he went to Franklin, where he established another nursery. Subsequently he removed to Indiana."


As before intimated, until the beginning of the fourth decade of this cent- ury, or a little more than fifty years ago, the inhabitants of the county were chiefly of English and Scotch-Irish origin. But a new element now began to assert itself in the body politic, in the persons of natives of Alsace, France. It seems quite appropriate that natives of France should at last become occu- pants and owners, in part at least, of a region which was first explored and occupied by Frenchmen ; but, indeed, in personal appearance and in the spelling of their names, the Alsatians who have established themselves so strongly in Warren county seem more like Germans than French. Nevertheless, whether Germans or Frenchmen, they are good and honored citizens, and when Amer- icanized compare favorably with those who came before them and since.


John Reheim, Jacob Escher, Martin Escher, and Francis Louis Rinck were the first Alsatians to make declaration of their intention to become citizens of this State and county, and such declarations were placed on file July 13, 1832. The next to appear were Jacob Leonhart, Jacob Lesser, Henry Sechrist, Lewis Arnett, George Strubler, Laurent Ott, and Jacob Wirt, who made similar dec- larations in November, 1834. These were followed during the next dozen years or more, and in the order named, by Charles Weaver, Andrew Fisher, Frederick Strubler, Philip Sechrist, Henry Reich, George Sechrist, George Trier, Henry Trier, Philip Baldensperger, Jacob Shuler, John Reicker, John Simmerly, Joseph Hauser, Adam Hannan, Samuel Grosenberg, Jacob Schmick, Philip Lesser, Lawrence Snavely, George Arnold, Mathias Leonhart, Christian Smith, Philip Trushel, William Messner, Theophilus Messner, Christian Gauder, Andrew Haas, Jacob Huntsinger, Christian Keller, Marcus Holtz, George Leonhart, Philip Leonhart, George Amann, George Zimmerlie, John Shuler, John Arnold, Christian Smith, jr., Philip Shuler, Mathias Shuler, Joseph Arird, John Reig, Martin Shaffer, John Hanhart, Martin Hartwig, Jacob Jahl, George Offerlee, Jacob Fahlman, Michael Gesselbrecht, and Jacob Offerlee, all of Al- sace, France. Meanwhile Christian Gross, Henry Knoph, Paul Bunn, Michael Frictzch, and John Matthies, of Brye, Germany, besides numerous other natives of Germany, England, Scotland, and Ireland, had declared their inten- tion of becoming citizens.


On the 18th of February, 1836, the celebrated Chief Cornplanter died at


I55


FROM 1830 TO 1861.


his residence at the age of about one hundred and four years. Thus after nearly half a century passed in strife and danger, bravely battling for the her- itage of his people, the declining years of his eventful life were peacefully spent on the banks of his own beloved Allegheny, where at last he was laid to rest in a grave which, in accordance with his wish, was left unmarked. Notwith- standing his friendship for all missionaries and ministers of the gospel who called upon him and his people, Cornplanter was very superstitious, and whether at the time of his death he expected to go to the happy hunting ground of the Indian, or to the heaven of the Christian, is not known. "Not long before his death," said Mr. Foote, of Chautauqua county, N. Y., "he said the Good Spirit had told him not to have anything more to do with the white people, or even to preserve any mementoes or relics that had been given to him from time to time by the pale-faces; whereupon, among other things, he burned up his belt and broke his elegant sword."


Others have asserted that the reason why Cornplanter destroyed certain articles presented to him by the whites, and during the last years of his life sought to keep apart from his white neighbors as much as possible, and to dis- countenance all attempts to educate his descendants, arose from the fact that he had given his eldest son a good education, which he used for the basest pur- poses of fraud, involving often the interests of his father, who appears to have attributed all to his son's education. The work of destroying relics, etc., was repeated more than once; and these incidents in the life of Cornplanter gave rise to a strong prejudice in his family against education, which for a time thwarted all efforts to establish and maintain schools among them.


Cornplanter's idea of a Deity may be inferred from the following :


"The Great Spirit first made the world, and next the flying animals, and found all things good and prosperous. He is immortal and everlasting. After finishing the flying animals he came down on the earth and there stood. Then he made different kinds of trees and woods of all sorts, and people of every kind. He made the spring and other seasons, and the weather suitable for planting. These he did make. But Stills to make whiskey to give to the In- dians, he did not make."


At about this time (1836 to 1840), " The Warren Mutual Insurance Com- pany," "The Warren and New York State Line Turnpike Road Company," and other associations were incorported by acts of the State Legislature, but all or most of them came to nought. Among those, however, who were named as incorporators and promoters of the different enterprises, were Henry Sargent, Archibald Tanner, Obed Edson, J. D. Summerton, Francis Hook, Archibald Skinner, Hiram Gilman, George Smith, E. N. Rogers, Cornelius Masten, jr., James O. Parmlee, Thomas Clemons, Abijah Morrison, Abraham Hazeltine, Darius Mead, John F. Davis, Thomas Struthers, Robert Miles, John King, Samuel P. Johnson, Timothy F. Parker, Robert Mckinney, An-


156


HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.


drew H. Ludlow, Gilman Merrill, Joseph W. Hackney, Aaron S. Parmlee, Robert Falconer, John Andrews, Lansing Wetmore, Milton Ford, Andrew Mc- Nett, Orrin Hook, William Culbertson, John Hackney, Jonathan Marsh, An- drew Irwin, Benjamin Marsh, Enoch Gilman, William Marsh, and Orris Hall.


The lumber business, also, was at its height during these years. In the spring time the principal streams of the county would be almost covered with rafts of manufactured lumber owned by the Meads, Mckinneys, Da- vises, Horns, Whites, Hook, Berry, Marsh, the Morrisons, Guy C. Irvine, Rufus Weatherby, Robert Russell, Robert Miles, and others. Steamboats, likewise, navigated the Allegheny between Pittsburgh and Warren, when the rocks and shoals were covered with a sufficient depth of water; but as this could be expected only in the spring and fall, long intervals of an entire sus- pension of navigation were of yearly occurrence, and then Dunkirk, on Lake Erie, was depended upon as the place for obtaining supplies. As a result, store goods, whether obtained at Pittsburgh or Dunkirk, were marked up to exorbitant prices when exposed for sale in the then dingy little stores of Warren. By one route charges had been paid for transporting them from Philadelphia, along the line of the State canal to Hollidaysburgh, thence over the Allegheny mountains via the Portage incline railway (boats being placed on trucks and pulled by stationary engines over to Johnstown without break- ing cargo) and by canal again to Pittsburgh, thence by steamboat, and fre- quently by pushing keel boats, were the goods finally landed at Warren. By the other route goods were shipped from New York via the Erie canal to Buffalo, then transferred to lake steamers and landed at Dunkirk, and finally hauled by wagons over roads seldom in good condition, from the latter place to Warren. It was an immaterial matter with the dealers, however, whether the goods came by the way of Dunkirk or Pittsburgh, since their esteemed customers had to pay first cost, charges in transit, and dearly for the privilege of being waited upon by such models of politeness and probity as characterize the average retailer everywhere. Subsequently, by the completion of the Erie Railroad, and the Genesee Canal from Rochester to Olean, many additional advantages were offered to Warren's residents, which were fully utilized.


Truly, the men who represented the nine thousand two hundred and sev- enty-eight inhabitants of the county in 1840 were active, hard-working cit- izens and equal to the tasks imposed upon them. Large numbers of them still lived in log houses, and none yet loomed prominently above their fellows in the possession of worldly wealth.


By an act of the Legislature, passed April 16, 1845, Andrew H. Ludlow, of Warren, and John Williams and Jonathan Marsh, of Mckean county, were named as a commission with authority to establish a new boundary line be- tween the two counties. It was proposed that the new line should commence " on the north and south line on the east side of tract No. 3,740 in Corydon


157


FROM 1830 TO 1861.


township, Mckean county, and run as near as may be, in order to make the line reasonably straight, along the back line of the river tier of tracts, so as to intersect the line dividing the said counties of Warren and McKean, within one mile of the western side of the Kinzua Creek; and the voters in that part of Corydon township which shall fall within Warren county shall hold their elections at the school house in Corydon village." Thus did part of Corydon township of Mckean county, become the township of Corydon in Warren county. The line between the counties was established during the following summer and in March, 1846, the new township was organized.


From the organization of the county until the formation of the Republican party, in the fifties, the political battles had been mainly fought out between the Whigs and the Democrats; the latter being uniformly successful in con- tests resulting in the election of State and national officers, and usually suc- ceeded in elevating to office their local candidates. In the election for State officers held in 1848, the Democratic candidate for governor received eleven hundred and forty-five votes, while his Whig opponent received but nine hun- dred and forty-seven votes ; yet John F. McPherson, the Whig candidate for county register and recorder, was elected, and was the first to hold that office after it passed from the control of the prothonotary.


During the first weck in March, 1849, the first telegraph line to enter the county was completed from Fredonia, N. Y., to Warren. W. P. Pew, of Ithaca, N. Y., was the leader in the enterprise, and a Mr. Risley, of Dunkirk, N. Y., the first operator. It was a poor investment for the stockholders, however, since every dollar invested was lost. The following year the line was com- pleted through to Pittsburgh; and this was only five or six years after the electric telegraph had been first brought into use in the United States-on an experimental wire stretched from Baltimore to Washington, D. C.


In 1850 the county contained thirteen thousand, six hundred and seventy inhabitants, and its dealers in merchandise, liquors, etc. at that time were as follows : Warren borough : Orr & Henry ; Summerton & Eddy, liquors; Wat- son & Davis; Carver & Arnett; Parmlee & Gillman; William Messner, liquors; J. D. Summerton ; H. & H. G. Mair, liquors; D. M. Williams ; Baker & Benson; John Honhart, liquors; Seneca Burgess, liquors; O. H. Hunter; C. W. Rathbun, liquors; Frederick Bartch; Rogers, Miles & Hodges; Gilman Merrill; Fisher & Owens, liquors. Youngsville borough : J. B. Phillips; Chauncey Smith; James S. Davis, liquors; W. F. Siggins ; John Siggins; Carter V. Kinnear. Brokenstraw : William A. Irvine. Co- lumbus : Leach & Willoughby, liquors ; Jones & Hewitt; Atherly & Dewey ; Milo P. Osborne; Dwight C. Eaton; D. A. Dewey. Corydon : J. S. McCall. Deerfield : William A. Irvine ; Grandin & Green ; Charles Brawley, liquors ; M. Mccullough, jr., liquors; Daniel S. Boughton, liquors; Thomas Mullen ; Warner & McGuffey ; J. S. Tuthill; George B. Scott. Elk: Calvin Webb. 11


158


HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.


Frechold : Lester Wright, liquors; C. D. Chandler; James L. Lott; J. C. Gifford ; H. H. Gifford ; E. Bordwell ; B. Woodin. Pine Grove : Nelson Par- ker, liquors; Lane & Fisher; George Sloan. Pittsfield : Dalrymple & Mead; Gray & Mallory; George W. Lopus, liquors; James L. Acocks. Sheffield : Erastus Barnes. South West : T. V. S. Morian, liquors; Grandin & Bestman ; E. G. Benedict; M. F. Benedict. Sugar Grove : Willson & Hiller ; William O. Blodgett; Patterson & White. Spring Creek : Abram Woodin. Kinsua : John H. Brasington. Andrew Ruhlman, of Glade town- ship, was then the brewer of the county.


The Whigs fought their last battle as a national party, with General Win- field Scott as their standard bearer, in 1852. They were signally defeated, and (though proud in the possession of such leaders as Webster, Clay, Seward, and others almost as prominent), under the baneful influences of pro-slavery demagogues, the party which had polled 1,386,578 votes for its last presidential candidate, in fact several thousands more than were sufficient to elect General Taylor four years earlier, soon after melted away as completely and noiselessly as the last snows of winter under a vernal sun. Hence here in Warren, as well as elsewhere throughout the land, matters political were in a state of chaos for two or three years.


About 1854 the secret political organization known as the " Know Noth- ing," or " American," party sprang into existence, and for a year or two made things exceedingly lively in many localities. Thousands of disbanded Whigs joined its ranks, besides many native-born Democrats, who were pleased with the legends, " Put none but Americans on guard," and "To Americans belong America." Warren county, which has ever kept abreast of the times in all movements both good and reprehensible, also had its lodges of political knights, and, if no great deeds were performed, the members at least were afforded an infinite amount of amusement in the endeavor to meet in secret council with- out being observed in going to and returning from their rooms. They were victorious in both county and State during that year. But such a party could not hope for success. In its short-lived struggle against slavery-upholding Democracy, the foreign born voters esponsed the cause of the latter to a man, for the reason that the American party made it part of their creed that here- after foreign-born residents should reside in this country for a period of twen- ty-one years before being entitled to the rights of suffrage. As a result the Democratic party managers, having gathered in all the foreign-born element (particularly the Irish Romanists), the pro-slavery Whigs of the South, and always feeling sure of the support of what was then termed " Northern Dough- faces," felt stronger than ever before.


The arrogant slaveholders and their obsequious Northern allies were now in absolute control of the general government. By threats or cajolery they had induced one Northern president to sign the " Fugitive Slave Bill," and


159


FROM 1830 TO 1861.


Pierce, another Northern man, was but a pliant tool in their hands. The Southerners held slaves as property, yet they demanded and were conceded congressional representation on such property, though at the same time deny- ing to Northern men the same privileges, i. e., property representation. They were peaceably permitted to visit all points in the Northern States, to swagger on the proceeds of slave labor (or worse, with money obtained by the sale of black men and women, as cattle are sold to the highest bidder), and to boast of their superiority over Northern freemen. Yet, if one of the latter in visit- ing the slave States dared to speak not approvingly of their blessed slave insti- tutions, he was either killed outright, lynched by hanging, or warned to leave within a very limited space of time. It was further demanded by them, the slave owners, that Kansas Territory, and all other territory to the west and southward of it, should be set apart and declared to be for the uses of slave- holders. Indeed the Mexican War was fomented and waged for the sole pur- pose of increasing the area of slave dominion. However, Jeff. Davis and other Southern leaders at last demanded too much. A spirit of revulsion rapidly as- sumed form and expression in the free States, and the organization of the Re- publican party, a combination that was soon to sweep them off their feet, was the result.


This mention of the arch traitor's name reminds us of an incident in his career, which, since it has so often been denied by men of the South and their ready apologists in the North, that the Southerners were the aggressors in bringing on the late war, will be referred to here, though in doing so we depart for a moment from the chronological system of noting events which has thus far been closely followed. We quote from an article which was published in the Louisville (Ky.) Journal in the spring of 1850.


" There are two Mexican War gentlemen in the United States Senate, namely: Davis, of Mississippi, and Clemens, of Alabama. They are both mad as March hares on the subject of slavery. Clemens vowed the other day in one of his extraordinary speeches that the Union is already dissolved. That being the case, why does not the chap stop his unmusical yelpings and go home. His military rival, Davis, does not think that the Union is quite dis- solved yet, but he is laboring hard to bring about that delightful catastrophe.


" If the Union is dissolved, there will be a terrible contest between these warriors for the presidency of the Southern Republic. Whether Jeff. will get the heels of Jerry, or Jerry of Jeff., there is no foreseeing. If these heroes are as light of heel as they are of head, their race will certainly be interesting."


These were prophetic words on the part of the gifted Prentice, though in- tended at the time only as a bit of sarcasm. Davis did become the chief of several Southern States in rebellion. His subsequent despicable career is well known of all men. He yet survives; an inscrutable Providence still permit- ting him to cumber the earth, and to breathe the pure air of a republic he did


160


HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.


his utmost to destroy. Clemens, though dead for many years, lived long enough to witness the ravages of civil war at his own door. To see the vic- torious soldiery of the great Northwest drive the much vaunted Southern chiv- alry through and out of his own town. He was a resident of the pretty little town of Huntsville, Ala., and there, in front of his residence, just at twilight of a day early in September, 1863, the writer met and conversed with him. White-haired, and apparently debilitated, nervous and irritable, the once fiery Clemens bitterly inveighed against all men, both North and South, who as lead- ers had brought on the war, and he declared that the child was not then born who would live to see peace again existing between the two sections. As will be seen, Clemens was a poor prophet as well as one of a class of men who are always active in fomenting strife; but when it comes to blows, seek safe quarters. We were blessed, or cursed rather, with too many of the same kind in the North during the late war; men who were very conspicuous in newspaper offices, and on the platform ; who were always ready to serve their dear country in safe, well-paying public offices; who could repeat and re-echo Greeley's senseless cry of "On to Richmond "; who could plan military cam- paigns, and were ever ready to traduce the fame of hitherto successful military leaders, because they had failed somewhat in their last battle, but who took the best of care, not to expose their own precious persons to the bullets of an enemy.


As before mentioned, the Republican party was organized to oppose the further extension of slave territory, and to meet half way the arrogant and ever-increasing demands of the slave owners. It had, as a nucleus, those who had voted for Birney in 1840 and 1844; for Van Buren in 1848, and for Hale, in 1852. To these were added great numbers of Northern Old Line Whigs who could not endorse the restrictive dogmas of the American party, and would not affiliate with their ancient enemy, the Democratic party. Many who had here- tofore regularly voted for Democratic candidates also joined in the movement. The result was surprising, even to its most sanguine supporters, for the new party proved to be a giant at birth. The Republicans of Warren county nom- inated their first candidates in 1855, and succeeded in electing a member of Assembly. In 1856 they obtained the ascendency by a decided majority (Cherry Grove's twenty votes all being counted for Fremont and Dayton), and since have steadily maintained the advantage down to the present time.


The school-houses in the county in 1857 numbered one hundred and thirty- seven, of which one hundred and fourteen were frame buildings, twenty-two were built of logs, and one (in the town of Warren) of brick.


In 1858 considerable activity was displayed by people, chiefly residents of Titusville, to the end that a new county be erected, to be known as " Marion," from parts of Warren, Crawford, and Erie counties. But the ambitious aspi- rants for the honor of being credited as dwellers of a shire town met with but little substantial encouragement, and the scheme was for a time abandoned.


161


DURING AND SINCE THE LATE WAR.


The following year the name of Colonel E. L. Drake was heralded through- out the land as the discoverer of extensive deposits of petroleum, deep below the earth's surface near Titusville. Intense interest concerning this develop- ment at once became manifest in the town of Warren, and a number of its lead- ing citizens, including Archibald Tanner, L. F. Watson, Boon Mead, and D. M. Williams, as well as Henry R. Rouse & Co., and Dennis & Grandin, of the southern part of the county, soon after engaged in further explorations near Titusville, which proved to be, as then considered, eminently successful.


During December of the same year (1859) the Sunbury and Erie Railroad was completed from Erie to Warren, and the grand event was gloriously cele- brated with great noise, a little pomp and parade, and much feasting and drink- ing. The county commissioners in 1852, duly authorized by the people, had subscribed to the capital stock of this corporation one hundred and fifty thou- sand dollars (only forty thousand dollars of which, however, was ever paid in), and the borough of Warren thirty thousand dollars, provided that the road be built through the county.


Early in 1860 the Tidioute oil field was opened, and so numerous, eager, and energetic were the operators, that in July of that year more than sixty wells were being drilled at the same time. A perfect furor raged for a while. Squatter claimants took possession of sand-bars in the river, while others of the same class essayed to drill for the greasy product from floats and rafts anchored in mid-stream.


At the election held in the fall of that year the electors representing the can- didacy of Lincoln and Hamlin received twelve hundred majority in the county. Indeed the Republicans obtained a decided majority in every township and bor- ough except Pleasant, which gave the Democratic ticket a majority of fifteen.


CHAPTER XVI.


DURING AND SINCE THE LATE WAR.


Mutterings of the Coming Storm - The Outbreak - C'all for Troops - Citizens of Warren in Council - Their Proceedings - The First Two Companies of Volunteers - Others in Readi- ness - Leaving Home for the Front -- Brief Allusion to Other Organizations -- Number of Warren County Men in the Field to November 1, 1862 - Events of 1863 -Tribulations of the Stay-at-Homes in 1864 - Relieved by Rebel Recruits -- The Draft of 1865 -- Probable Total Number of Troops Furnished - Victorious Rejoicings- Ladies' Aid Society - Dedication of Cornplanter's Monument -- An Influx of Scandinavians - Another New County Project De- feated - Gradual Development of Oil Interests -- Conclusion of Continuous History.




Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.