USA > Pennsylvania > Warren County > History of Warren County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 39
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 original lots of the town of Warren were five hundred and twenty-four in number, each being 584 feet in width, street frontage, and 2334 feet in depth. Water, Market, and High streets are presumed to be 100 feet in width, the others 60 feet. Six streets running nearly east and west, and ten nearly north and south, all crossing at right angles, comprised the highways of the original plot. After the county began to be settled John Andrews, one of the first settlers of the county, was appointed State commissioner, to dispose of the lots at public sale, and during the ten years succeeding 1797 sold all of them. They were purchased by the farmer settlers of this county, Venango, Crawford, and other counties, and some by Indians. The prices ranged from $2.50 to $6 pcr lot. One-third of the purchase money was required to be paid at once, the balance at the convenience of the purchaser-which with some, it seems, was never convenient. Indeed, but few of the original purchasers ever procured patents for their lots, but suffered them to be sold at county treasur- er's sale for taxes, and the purchasers at such sales, or their assignees, procured patents. Hon. David Brown, the father of the present president-judge, was the original purchaser of more than one hundred lots. Subsequently he trans- ferred them to other persons, and finally these went the way of a majority of the others-were sold at treasurer's salc -- and the titles passed to new owners.
Until about 1794-95, the site of the town was covered with a luxuriant growth of white, black and red oak of large size. At that time a party of the Holland Land Company's surveyors, under the orders and personal supervision of Andrew Ellicott, the noted surveyor, and his son-in-law, Dr. Kennedy
327
BOROUGH OF WARREN.
(subsequently the builder and owner of Kennedy's mills), were encamped upon the bank of the river near where the old Tanner storehouse now stands. One night a terrific storm of rain, accompanied with thunder, lightning and wind of irresistible force, came sweeping up the valley from the west and prostrated every thing in its path from the western part of the town's site to Glade Run. The inmates of the " camp," or shanty of poles and bark, fled for safety to the small bar or island where Rathbun's grocery was for many years a landmark. It was fortunate for them that they hesitated not upon the order of their going for their shanty was blown down and two of their pack horses were killed by the falling trees. A few years later a fire swept over this windfall, burning the small brush and much of the fallen timber. The remainder furnished dry firewood for the early inhabitants. Then sprung up the growth of scrub oaks remembered by some persons still living.
About the year 1796, the surveyors employed by the Holland Land Com- pany erected a building of hewn timbers for the storage of their supplies- tools, provisions, etc. This building, the first permanent structure reared on the site of Warren, stood down on Water street in the near vicinity of Page's blacksmith shop. For two years it had no floor other than the ground, no chimney other than a hole in the center of a leaky roof. It has been related that Daniel McQuay, then in the employment of the land company, occupied this building as a dwelling house during the first or second year after its erec- tion, thus earning the distinction of being the first inhabitant of the town. He then located on the Little Brokenstraw just above its mouth. He was the wit of the valley. A genuine son of Erin, full of recklessness and adventure, fond of fun, fight and whiskey, and the only man who ever made from two to ten trips from the Brokenstraw to New Orleans on boats of lumber and traveled back afoot. This was a perilous undertaking prior to 1810, which was subse- quent to the first trip or two made by him, for saying nothing of walking nearly two thousand five hundred miles, the few towns along the Ohio and Mississippi rivers were then but insignificant villages, and all else between them tangled thickets, swamps and dense forests infested by Indians, wild ani- mals, and frequently by worse foes-white desperadoes and highwaymen.
When James Morrison, jr., accompanied by his brother-in-law, Galen Murdock, arrived on the site of Warren in June, 1798, the only evidences of civilization and improvement to be seen here were the Holland Land Com- pany's unoccupied storehouse, and a small abandoned improvement near Reig's old tannery, made by George Slone, a blacksmith, afterwards a well- known resident of the Beech Woods settlement. Morrison and Murdock came from Lycoming county, and accomplished the journey by pushing a canoe up the Sinnemahoning and the Drift Wood Branch until the immense piles of driftwood prevented their further progress by water. Leaving their canoe, they packed their effects on their backs, and a little more than one day's walk
328
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
brought them to the waters of the Allegheny. There they felled a large pine tree, made a commodious canoe, and continued their way to Warren. From that time the place where they embarked on the Allegheny was known as "Canoe Place," and many other early adventurers pursued the same route and plan in journeying from the West Branch of the Susquehanna westward. In 1800 James Morrison, sr., a soldier of the Revolutionary War, his brother Jere- miah, and several others of the Morrison and Murdock families, eight or ten men in all, besides women and children, came on from Lycoming county over the route previously described, and settled on the outlots below Warren. At about that time, too, Martin Reese, sr., and family settled in the same locality. In 1804 James Morrison (whether father or son is not known) built a house of hewn timbers on the site of the pipe line office, below R. P. King's residence. During the same year, however, a majority of that family-perhaps all of them -removed to the Kinzua valley and located there permanently.
In the mean time Isaac Buckalew had squatted on the bottoms opposite Warren, and for a number of years enjoyed the distinction of being the only resident in Warren county on the east side of the river south of Kinzua. Zachariah Eddy also tarried at Warren for a brief period as early as 1801, but did not become a permanent resident until some twelve or fifteen years later.
John Gilson, who resided in Sheffield for many years and attained an age of nearly ninety, stated, years before his death, that his father, John Gilson, sr., was a native of New England, either Massachusetts or Connecticut, but before removing to Warren had resided for some years at a point on the Delaware river in New York. Gilson's family, accompanied by two other families, reached Warren in May, 1803, floating down from Olean on a raft. John Gilson, jr., was the youngest of a family of eleven children, all of whom lived to be seventy-five or more years of age. During the first year of their arrival here (1803) his father built a house on the site of Ephraim Cowan's former residence on Water street. This was the second building erected upon the inlots of Warren, counting the Holland Land Company's storehouse as the first. In 1804 James Morrison built his house, previously referred to, and Gideon Gilson, son of John, sr., built a house on C. P. Henry's corner. These three houses were built of pine timbers hewn square. Stephen Gilson, son of Gideon, was born soon after their arrival here, and without doubt he was the first white native of the town. John Gilson, sr., died in March, 1811, and was buried in a small plot set apart for such purposes on the farm of Daniel Jackson.
Daniel Jackson, the pioneer, whose name has been written more frequently, perhaps, in connection with the early history of Warren than that of any other person, was a native of Connecticut, but came here from the vicinity of Ithaca, N. Y., in the spring of 1797, and settled upon a tract of land (since known as the Wetmore farm) bordering the run which still bears his name, and distant about one mile north of the town of Warren. Here, about half a mile above
329
BOROUGH OF WARREN.
the mouth of the run, he built a saw-mill (and subsequently a small grist mill) said to have been the first one erected in the county; at least there was but one other to dispute for the priority, and that was the mill built by the Meads on the Brokenstraw. Jackson's mill was completed about the year 1800, and, it has been related, the sawing of the first board was thought to be an event of sufficient importance to call for some unusual demonstration on the part of those present. Accordingly it was placed on the ground, a bottle of whisky brought out, and two individuals, after partaking of its contents sufficiently to give elasticity to their limbs, went through the primitive performance of danc- ing a jig. From this mill, it has been claimed, the first raft of pine lumber ever known to descend the Allegheny from Warren county was safely landed at Pittsburgh. Some aver that this event took place in the year 1799, others in 1801. The raft contained thirty thousand feet and was guided by sitting- poles instead of oars.
In coming to this county Jackson traveled by the way of Buffalo and Erie to Waterford ; thence with canoes down French creek and up the Allegheny and Conewango to his place of settlement. His children were Daniel, jr., Ethan, David, Ebenezer and Sylvia, and another daughter who died when quite young. Being so far away from marts of trade and neighbors, he and his family for a few years suffered many and great privations. At one time he was obliged to make a winter's journey on snow shoes to Waterford, a dis- tance of fifty miles, in quest of salt. Steep hillsides, deep ravines and roaring torrents intervened, and over all were cast the shadows of a dense primeval forest unbroken by a single improvement.
In 1805 he built the first frame house, and the fourth for dwelling purposes in the town of Warren on the northeast corner of Water and Hickory streets, the lot now occupied by the dilapidated brick block erected by Archibald Tanner in 1849-50. He was licensed to keep an inn in this house by the courts of Venango county in 1806, and continued to be so engaged for a num- ber of years. Lansing Wetmore, Esq., has said that when he first visited Warren in 1815, "Esq. Jackson" kept a tavern at the place described, " and, what was rare in those times, was a temperate landlord." He died on Sunday, June 20, 1830, in the seventy-ninth year of his age, under circumstances pecul- iarly distressing in their nature. In an obituary notice of his death, published soon after in the Voice of the People, certain incidents connected with his life and last illness are noted as follows :
"The deceased was a native of the State of Connecticut and at an early day removed to this county and settled on the banks of the Conewango creek, in the immediate neighborhood of this place. With its earliest history and the settlement of the country he was thoroughly conversant, and with the narrative precision of vigorous old age, could tell of 'times and things gone by.' In his hunting excursions he had explored the forests that environ us, and learned
330
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
the windings of the several streams. Beneath his guidance the first raft of lumber ever sawed in this county was molded into form and conveyed on the bosom of the Allegheny to Pittsburgh.
" He was commissioned a justice of the peace under the administration of Governor Snyder, and continued to discharge the duties of the station. It was in the honorable discharge of his official duty as a magistrate that he was assailed by Nehemiah Waters and inhumanly bitten in the thumb of his right hand. So envenomed was the wound that his strength of body and constitu- tion (although superior to that of most men of his age) could not resist its influ- ence, and its baneful effects soon set at naught the sedulous attention and skill of his medical assistance and took entire possession of his system. To the last he retained the entire possession of his faculties, and bore the most agonizing pain with a patience and resignation becoming the dignity of christianized old age.
" As a magistrate, an honest zeal for justice characterized the performance of his official duties. As a man and a neighbor he was hospitable, friendly, and benevolent ; honest and punctual in his dealings, and social in his inter- course with his fellow-men. As a parent he was tender and affectionate. His eulogy is that name which poetic language has inscribed upon the noblest work of creation-' an honest man ':
" By nature honest, by experience wise, Healthy by temperance and by exercise, His life though long, to sickness pass'd unknown, His death was peaceful and without a groan."
In the winter of 1805-6 George W. Fenton, father of the late Hon. Reuben E. Fenton, of New York, taught the first school in a vacant room of Daniel Jackson's new house. While here he became acquainted with Miss Elsey Owen, of Carroll, to whom he was married in November following. She was a niece of John King's wife.
The name of John King, a " single man," first appeared upon the rolls of the county as a tax-payer in 1808. From that time until his death, which occurred October 22, 1842, he continued to reside in the town of Warren, and held several positions of honor and trust. He married Betsey, a daughter of John Gilson, sr., August 15, 1811, who survived until October 23, 1873. The children born to them were J. H. (now the oldest native of the borough, he having been born May 20, 1812), Rufus P., George W., Mrs. Harmon, of War- ren, J. E. King, M. D., of Buffalo, Mrs. Eveline Mead, of Youngsville, and Mrs. Betsey Hunter and Mrs. Malvina Cowan, of Warren.
Although the town had been made the county scat of Warren county in 1800, it improved but slowly, and few, if any, families were added to its popu- lation, other than those already mentioned, until after the close of the War of 1812-15. During the next four years, however, many changes took place in the appearance of the little town; and when the county was organized, in
331
BOROUGH OF WARREN.
1819, such men as Archibald Tanner, Colonel Joseph Hackney, Lothrop S. Parmlee, Henry Dunn, Zachariah Eddy, Robert Arthur, James Arthur, James Stewart, Ebenezer Jackson, son of Daniel, sr., Dr. Ayres, the son-in-law of the latter, John Andrews, James Follett, Robert Falconer, William Pier, besides a number of blacksmiths, cordwainers, and tailors, were counted as additional residents.
Henry Dunn, who at an early day was connected with Hackney & Harri- ott in their lumbering operations on the Conewango, came here from Meadville and became a permanent resident about the year 1815. For a number of years he kept tavern in a house said to have been erected by Martin Reese about 1812. This building, of hewn timbers, stood upon the grounds now occupied by the First National Bank. Dunn's Tavern was a popular resort, and at one time he entertained as a guest the notorious Aaron Burr, who, being storm-bound, was compelled to tarry here several days while en route down the river to the home of Blennerhasset. Subsequently Dunn built quite a pretentious hostelry on the northwest corner of Second and Liberty streets, afterwards known as the Hackney House and the Russell House corner.
Robert Falconer was a native of Scotland. For some years prior to the beginning of the War of 1812 he, in partnership with his bachelor brother Patrick, had been engaged in the mercantile business in the city of New York, having also a branch house at Charleston, S. C. When the war began, Pat- rick, whose sympathies for Great Britain were very strong, determined to remain in this "blarsted country " no longer, and, returning to Scotland, con- tinued there until his death. He never married. After the restoration of peace, Robert, having disposed of his business affairs at New York and Charles- ton, began to look about for a country home for the benefit of his wife, who was in a declining state of health. He had been advised by physicians to find some place where hills or mountains, pine forests, and clear running streams abounded. In some way, probably through his Long Island friend, Abraham D. Ditmars, he heard of this then forlorn, out-of-the-way place, and concluded to make a personal inspection of a region so highly extolled by land agents. Accordingly, he first came here with Ditmars and his family in 1815. The journey was a memorable one. Ditmars started with two good wagons, well loaded, good teams, etc., and reached Chandler's Valley with one horse and the fore wheels of one wagon only. The route followed led through New Jer- sey to the crossing of the Delaware at Easton, thence to Bellefonte, and on over the mountains to Holman's Ferry on the Allegheny, thence via Titusville and Brokenstraw to Chandler's Valley. It required five weeks to accomplish the journey, and when it was concluded Ditmar's effects, as well as some mem- bers of his family, were scattered along the way from Bellefonte westward. They were finally gathered up, after much trouble and expense. Falconer came through with the advance-guard of the party, including Ditmars. Not-
22
332
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
withstanding the difficulties encountered in getting here, he seems to have been favorably impressed with the appearance of things, and purchased quite largely of lands in town and country. Man is a strange, perverse animal, to say the least, and his freaks when migrating are quite aptly illustrated in Falconer's case. It does not appear that he came here with any intention of becoming a farmer, but merely to found a home in a retired, wholesome locality. Hence, unless it was his wish to place a great distance between himself and his former haunts, he could have gone up the Hudson River but a few miles, compara- tively speaking, and there found hills and mountains, umbrageous forests of pine and hemlock, swiftly-flowing streams of pure, sparkling water; and a region, too, where the health-destroying clouds do not bank upon the ground in the valleys at nightfall, and remain until eight or nine o'clock each morning for seven months in the year. The lands along the Hudson were then equally as cheap as those in Warren county. To-day they are worth so much more, with no oil or gas considered in the prospective, that a comparison would be, in most cases, as one to one hundred.
Falconer returned to New York and completed his arrangements for a removal to Warren; but his wife died ere the second trip was commenced, hence he reappeared at Warren alone. He soon became one of its prominent and highly-respected citizens ; was elected a county commissioner in 1823, and was numbered as one of the merchants of the town prior to 1830. In 1834 he completed the stone building on High street, known during late years as the " Tanner House," and, when the Lumbermen's Bank (of which he was presi- dent) was organized during the same year, its office was established in that structure. As shown elsewhere, the bank failed in 1838. Being severely and probably unjustly censured by reason of this failure, Mr. Falconer never regained his former exuberance of spirits and business activity, and finally sank into a state of utter helplessness, physically speaking, which only ended with his death. He married a second wife in this county, but left no children. The present Falconers are descendants of Patrick, a son of Patrick the brother of Robert, who, when the last war with England began, would not live longer in a country where dukes and lords and kings and queens were spoken of irrev- erently, and returned to Scotland. Robert Falconer purchased for this nephew a fine farm, now occupied, in whole or in part, by the State Asylum at North Warren.
Colonel Joseph Hackney, a leading and highly-respected citizen among the pioneers in both Crawford and Warren counties, was born at the "Little Falls," on the Mohawk River, N. Y., of Holland Dutch parentage, in 1763. The opportunities afforded him of acquiring the most common rudiments of an edu- cation were very meager indeed, and at the early age of seventeen years he entered the American army and served during the remainder of the Revolu- tionary War. Subsequently he served against the Western Indians, during
333
BOROUGH OF WARREN.
the years 1785-90. In 1790 he joined a detachment of troops at Pittsburgh which proposed moving down the Ohio River to Fort Washington (now Cin- cinnati) and there join General Harmer, who was then preparing for a cam- paign against the northwestern tribes. At Pittsburgh supplies for the troops were placed on board of " Durham " boats and started down the river, while the main body of the armed force marched by land. Hackney went in one of the boats commanded by Captain Doughty. At or near the mouth of the Muskingum they were fired upon by a party of Indians lying in ambush on shore. The steersman was mortally wounded and fell. Hackney sprang for- ward to take his place, and ordered the men to pull for the opposite shore. He had scarcely taken the oar in his hand when a rifle ball shattered his arm above the elbow, rendering that member useless. He seized the oar with his other hand and, amid the whistling of bullets, exhorted the men to pull for life. Encouraged by his heroism they did pull, and as fast as one was shot down another took his place, until they were out of reach of the enemy's balls .. Of the seven men in the boat five were killed or mortally wounded, and Hack- ney and Captain Doughty were the only survivors of the party. Wounded and disabled, Hackney was unable to join the main body of the army and par- ticipate in the battle which followed and resulted in the disastrous defeat of General Harmer's army of about fifteen hundred officers and men.
Returning to Pittsburgh, he soon after engaged in the mercantile business. with Oliver Ormsby, and remained there until 1794, when he removed to. Meadville. There he erected a small frame building (which is still standing), in 1797, and kept store in it until his removal to Warren county. When Crawford county was organized in 1800, with four other counties attached to it, including Warren, he was one of the first county commissioners to be elected, and served as such from 1800 to 1802, also from 1811 to 1814. In 1815 he, in partnership with Major James Herriott, of Meadville, purchased the saw- mill on the Conewango near Irvineburg, which was in operation and owned by. Colt & Marlin (the Col. Ralph Marlin particularly mentioned during the ses- sions of the first term of court held in Warren county) as early as 1808. In 1817 Colonel Hackney became a permanent resident in the town of Warren, and in 1818-19 he, together with Jacob Harrington and James Cochran, rep- resented the district composed of Crawford, Erie, Mercer, Venango and War- ren counties in the State Legislature; thus being in a position to introduce and advocate a bill providing for the organization of Warren county. When this event took place he was one of the two associate judges first commissioned, and served as such until his death, which occurred May 20, 1832. His title of colonel seems to have been honorary, at least it does not appear that he held that rank during his active service as a soldier.
Archibald Tanner, Warren's first merchant, and, we believe, its first post- master, was born in Litchfield county, Connecticut, February 3, 1786, and re-
334
HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
moved with his father's family to New Connecticut, Trumbull county, Ohio, in 1802. He came to Warren in 1816 and at once began a successful business career here by occupying part of Daniel Jackson's bar-room and offering for sale at retail a small stock of merchandise. Jackson's tavern, as before stated, stood on the corner of Water and Hickory streets, now occupied by the Tanner block. During that or the following year, Mr. Tanner built a small store on the river bank nearly opposite the tavern mentioned, and occupied it for the sale of his goods as soon as it was completed.
There is quite an interesting story connected with the history of this build- ing which has been related to us in substance about as follows: The ground utilized by Mr. Tanner had not been laid out as a town lot or as a fractional part of one, but was and is yet considered part of the public domain of 3,000 acres reserved in 1789, besides being the natural bank of a navigable stream. Some years subsequent to the building of Tanner's store, a man named Hunter, considering that he had as good a right to occupy the bank in question as Tanner, proposed to erect a building just above Tanner's, or near the north end of the present suspension bridge, and there collected a considerable quan- tity of building material-timbers and lumber. Tanner objected to Hunter's occupancy of the site selected, and a bitter personal quarrel followed. Finally Hunter desisted from his purpose of building, but had Tanner indicted as a trespasser upon the lands of the Commonwealth. But Tanner seemed to be a man who could casily surmount difficulties, both great and small, and employ- ing counsel (Thomas Struthers, we believe); the latter proceeded to Harrisburg and secured the passage of a legislative act by the provisions of which Tanner was permitted to remain in peaceful possession of the building he had erected, and to repair it from time to time when necessary, but was denied the privilege of rebuilding. With the decay or destruction of the structure the occupancy of its site for private purposes should cease. Need we add the building still stands in a good state of preservation and is now known as the La Pierre res- taurant? Conflagrations have repeatedly swept away rows of buildings in front and to the right of it, yet by reason of its somewhat isolated location it has escaped them all. It has been carefully and systematically repaired at divers times, from foundation walls to roof top, and to-day, probably, is much in the same condition as the famous old United States frigate Constitution was rep- resented to be in when she went out of commission and was broken up-con- taining not a single panel, plank, or timber of the original vessel.
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.