History of Warren County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers, Part 61

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 61


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&Barnes


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SHEFFIELD TOWNSHIP.


Timothy Barnes has been justly styled the pioneer of Sheffield township. He was born on the 4th of October, 1786, and died on the 10th of October, 1878. As early as 1828 he emigrated from Italy Hill, Yates county, N. Y., and built the first saw-mill on the south branch of the Tionesta Creek. His house was about half a mile south of where E. Barnes now lives. This mill he operated about two years, and then sold to Nathan E. Lacy. On the 4th of July, 1832, he raised another saw-mill on the site of the one now owned and operated by his son, Erastus Barnes, at Lower Sheffield. It was then closely surrounded by a forest of lofty pines, which stood like serried ranks of grim and silent sentinels, frowning upon the intrusion of civilization. One of these trees, to drop the simile, at the height of eight feet from the ground, measured twenty-three feet in circumference; another made seventeen saw-logs sixteen feet in length. When he first came to his wilderness home, he came from Warren, and was obliged to cut his own roads. The journey of fourteen miles was accomplished in four days. About thirty-five years ago Erastus Barnes built the grist-mill near the old saw-mill, which was the first and only grist- mill in town. Timothy Barnes was characterized by his charity and benevo- lence- a twofold quality which seems to have been inherited by his son, Erastus Barnes. "In the early settlements," Mr. Pratt has written, " food and provisions were often scarce, but Barnes permitted no one to want for either food or work-he was the 'mainstay' of the whole country. He spent the evening of his days with his son Erastus at the old homestead, surrounded by his children and in the enjoyment of all the comforts merited by a well-spent life."


It is related that the next winter after Timothy Barnes built his mill he went back for his family in the State of New York, while Erastus hired out to work in a mill at Warren. During the winter Erastus came back to see how the men who worked in his father's mill were improving their time, and how they prospered. He made his way through the woods on foot and alone, and was followed the entire distance by wolves. The men he found had gone hunting and left nothing to eat in the shanty but a few spoonfuls of buckwheat and a small piece of venison. Of this young Barnes made a partial meal and passed the night alone in this rude hut, with the hungry wolves howling about his ears in an ominous manner. On his return to Warren the next day, he found the wolves had returned before him.


Asahel Kidder cleared a farm two miles west of Sheffield Station. After a residence there of eight or ten years' duration he removed to Jackson Run, two miles north of Warren. His old farm is now used in the production of oil. He left no descendants in this town, though he has one son, Nathan, in North Warren.


Henry Snapp was a farmer who lived about half a mile north of Sheffield Station, where he remained until his death. He has several descendants in


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town now. His son Melchi (who died October 12, 1882, aged about seventy- nine years) had charge of the farm in later years. They settled there in 1832. William and John Snapp, now respected residents of this township, are sons of Melchi. George Jones, an eccentric character, who was accustomed to calling on his neighbors for " victuals," of which he devoured inordinate quan- tities, and who was known as " Brother Jones," because he styled all his woman friends as " Sisters," lived about two miles west of Sheffield Station for a few years, and then left for parts unknown.


David Mead, a shrewd seeker after wealth, lived on the southern line of the township, his house standing partly in one town and partly in another. It is related as a fact that when a sheriff from Warren county came for his ar- rest, he would invariably be found on the Forest county side, and vice versa. He had a saw-mill at this place. Some thirty years ago he removed to War- renton, O., where he was soon after drowned while attempting to cross the Ohio River in a skiff. Thaddeus Mead was a brother of David, who never had a fixed residence in town.


C. C. Mastin was a wealthy man, who came to Warren from Yates county, N. Y., but who never lived in Sheffield. He built a large mill three miles be- low the forks in the south part of the town, now owned by Frank Henry, and which, it is said, has manufactured more lumber than any other mill in Shef- field.


We have already learned something concerning John Inglesby. He oper- ated the Mastin mill for a number of years and then moved away. None of his descendants now live in town.


John Williamson, a bachelor, operated the David Mead mill for a time. He was here but six or eight years. A singular circumstance was that there were five brothers of them-Samuel, John, Nathan, and two others whose names are not remembered-who all lived bachelor lives and kept bachelor's hall.


Silas Lacy was born at Bound Brook, N. J., on the 30th day of March, 1789, and died at Warren on the 27th of December, 1870. Few men of any country have lived a more virtuous, consistent, and faultless life than he. At the early age of twenty years he became a member of the Presbyterian Church of his native place, and was soon after elevated, by virtue of his pious zeal, to the position of ruling elder. In 1816 he removed to Yates county, N. Y., where he was again promoted to the position of elder. He came to Warren county in 1828, and became one of the pioneers in the roadless and unbroken forest of Shef- field township. After enduring privations of cabin life and aiding his brother, Nathan E., in the operation of his mill in Sheffield for seven years, he went to Warren to pass the remainder of his life. There he resumed and for years en- gaged in the business to which he had been trained-that of a hatter. Previous to his coming to Warren it had been his custom to take part in religious services in Sheffield, and often also walked to Warren to church on the Sabbath. Three


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years before leaving Sheffield he was elected an elder in the Presbyterian Church of Warren. This office he held by successive re-elections until his death. In February, 1809, he married Nancy Parker, of New Jersey, who survived him two years. They had eleven children, only one of whom is de- ceased. One of the daughters is now the wife of Peter Mckinney, of Pitts- field township.


Jeremiah Lane settled on the farm next south of the present residence of Erastus Barnes, and built the house which stands there to this day. He mar- ried a daughter of Deacon Silas Lacy, and now lives in Jamestown, N. Y., a very old man. He went there at least thirty-five years ago. Not far from the year 1840 he built a saw-mill on the east branch of the Tionesta, which has long since disappeared, and the site of which is now a part of an oil field.


Stephen Taylor was born December 4, 1796, and at the time of his resi- dence in Sheffield, a single man, worked out for Timothy Barnes, and after- ward for Erastus Barnes. He it was who came first with Timothy Barnes and helped to cut the roads through the forest. He also built the mill. At a later day he was the mail carrier for this part of the country. He finally married, and on the 13th of August, 1878, died at the home of his son, Neri, in Forest county. He was a soldier of the War of 1812.


John Brown, the father of the famous ornamental penman, Delavan Brown, who was born in Sheffield, came to the town to reside on the west bank of the Tionesta in 1832, the year in which the tide of immigration in early days had reached the flood. He afterward moved to Chautauqua county, N. Y., where he died.


Orrin L. Stanton settled about the same time about on the present site of Barnes Station, in Lower Sheffield, where he kept the first store and the first post-office in town. The Warren and Ridgeway turnpike was built by the State, and commenced in the summer 1832. Orrin Stanton built the first section of it, from the summit north of Stoneham to the river, and it was probably this business which brought to his notice the desirability of living in this fertile region. It is said that for a time he kept the little hotel in Warren which stood on the site of the present Carver House. He afterward removed to Smethport and thence to Kinzua, where he now has relatives and descendants. While he was postmaster the mail was carried once a week between Warren and Ridgeway, and his brother, Daniel Stanton, was the carrier.


Joseph Carver operated the mill of Timothy Barnes, and rented it a year or two. Stephen Carver was his brother and partner in the mill. After a residence here of two or three years they removed to Warren. Stephen Car- ver built and named the Carver House in that place.


John Gilson was one of the most prominent men that have figured in the history of Sheffield. He was born on the 20th of May, 1797, and died June 17, 1884. During his residence in this township he lived on the site of Gilson


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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.


Station, which derived its name from his descendants. His widow still resides in town. Four sons also live here, Rufus, Curtis, James, and John. Carver Gilson, another son, named after the Carver family, now lives near Fredonia, N. Y. One who is in every way competent to state the facts, writes thus con- cerning the life in this county of the subject of this notice :


" John Gilson, sr., brought his family on a raft from Olean to Warren the day John, jr., was six years old. (This must have been on May 20, 1803.) They lived in an old storehouse that stood where the Carver House now stands, until they put up a log house-one of the first families to settle in Warren. John was about fourteen years old when his father died, leaving him and his sisters to support their mother, who died four or five years later, and was the first person buried in Warren. The father was buried about three miles up the Conewango Creek. John, jr., was the youngest of a family of ten children. While he was supporting his mother he worked for a man by the name of Reese (who lived three miles below Warren) twenty-one days for a barrel of flour, cutting cord wood at the rate of four cords a day. The place now called Sheffield was then called 'Forks of Tionesta,' and he helped to run the lands through the region for miles around. He was then about six- tecn years old. He was with Colonel Dale, surveying, who advised and helped him to buy the lot 358, which was covered with fine pine timber. He made his home in Warren most of the time. He followed the river, rafting, canoe- ing, and boating, until he was thirty years old. There is not a mile of the river bank between Warren and Pittsburgh that he has not slept on in his trips. He began work at the 'Forks' in January, 1820. He chopped about an acre, and put up a plank house twelve feet by sixteen in dimensions. On the 10th of February he married and came to live in this house the same week, making the journey with horses and sleighs on the ice, there being no roads. In April he went to Franklin to buy a yoke of oxen, and brought back seed potatoes and oats on a sled. From lack of roads his progress was slow, and he was overtaken by night in the forest. Wolves and owls were his company. He was gone just a week, while his young wife was left alone all that time. The only family living within ten miles of his home was that of Mr. Barnes, who had moved here just a week before. Asa Barnes, aged about sixteen years, stayed in the house with her nights, while she passed much of her time during the long days listening to the twittering of winter birds, and fishing. She caught many a trout weighing a pound and a pound and a half. The wolves kept up their howling about every night. When Mr. Gilson reached home he set about clearing his land, after doing which he was at a loss for a drag. He finally succeeded in constructing one, teeth and all of wood. When the oxen first began to draw the drag, it caught for a second on some roots, and then bounded against the oxen's heels, which ran as if for life. John came in the house laughing, and said he thought his oxen were pos-


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sessed of the evil spirit. The first year he raised turnips, potatoes, and oats enough to keep a yoke of cattle and a cow. Winters he passed in cutting square timber and running it down the Tionesta, while he passed his summers in clearing and cultivating land. There was about here a great amount of land sold for taxes, several lots of which he bid off for the sake of the timber. In 1844 he built a saw-mill and ran his lumber to Pittsburgh, Cincinnati, and Louisville, supporting his family in this manner until 1865, when he sold out all but the improved lands. These he divided between three sons who were married, and took the rest of the family to Fredonia, Chautauqua county, N. Y., where he bought a farm. He stayed there fourteen years, and was then compelled, on account of poor health, to return to his old home in Sheffield, where he bought half an acre of land and built himself a house. He buried five children in the Sheffield cemetery. Electa died at the age of six years, Sarah at the age of two, John H. at ten, Gilbert at two, while George S. enlisted in the War of the Rebellion and was killed at the battle of Gaines's Mills, when twenty years of age."


The above paragraphs were taken from an interesting letter from Mrs. Gil- son, the widow of the subject of this notice, who also writes: " When we first moved here to the 'Forks' of the Tionesta Creek, our house stood near the bank of the creek. There was a plenty of wild game at that time. We could very often see deer swimming in the creek. John could kill one almost any time. We frequently saw them feeding with the cattle. There were also wolves and bears in abundance. He killed several bears, and caught several wolves in steel traps, for the scalps of each one of which he received a bounty of twelve dollars.


" We had visitors every fall. The Indians, who came every fall to hunt, camped around us. I often went to see them in their camps, and buy baskets. The first fall after we came here I saw wild turkey tracks in the first snow that fell ; they were quite near the house; I told John I thought I could catch one with a trap, and accordingly set one baited with oats. The next morning I heard the chains rattling, and on going to the trap found a fine fat turkey struggling for liberty ; I broke his neck with a stick. After the Warren and Ridgeway turnpike was opened we built a new house, back on the road, large enough for a hotel. One day, while the men were at work on the house, a deer came swimming up the creek. I seized a gun, and resting it on a pile of boards, shot and killed it. The men dressed it. That night we heard a mourn- ful howling down the creek. John set a steel trap next morning, baited with the deer's head, and we soon caught a wolf. We supposed that the wolves had driven the deer down the river. At that time there was no store nor gro- cery nearer than Warren. As soon as the road was finished the farmers from the State of New York began teaming through here, and carried everything from a spool of thread to a barrel of flour. We could buy everything we


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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.


wanted of them. They carried provisions to the iron country and came back loaded with iron. After a time we commenced keeping hotel and post-office, remaining in the hotel twelve or fourteen years."1


James T. Osgood was born in Rockingham county, N. H., on the 10th of October, 1808. He is a descendant of William Osgood, one of three brothers who came from England in 1636 and settled in Southern New Hampshire. ยท Chase Osgood, father of James, settled still farther in the interior. James Os- good came to Sheffield township in 1848, and has been one of the justices of the peace in town for the last thirty-three consecutive years. His business for the first few years in Sheffield was shoemaking. In February, 1832, he mar- ried Jane, a daughter of Jacob Cole, of Sussex county, N. J., who is living yet. They have had ten children, six of whom, four daughters and two sons, are still living. Both sons, Chase and Henry, were in the army during the last war. When he came here in 1848 the surface of the township was covered almost entirely with a dense growth of pine, mingled with considerable hem- lock timber. The lumber business was then at about its most active period. It lasted with almost equal activity until about 1860, and since then has some- what declined, though it is even now by no means extinct. The pine was about all gone, however, by the close of the last war.


In the winter of 1864, after J. F. Schoellkopf, of Buffalo, had purchased some land of Daniel D. Bowers and of John Gilson, an oil excitement was created, and all the rest of the property about where the village of Sheffield now stands was sold for the purpose of producing oil. Lands of Elias Kings- ley, Elihu Kingsley, John Russell, Stephen Andrews, Captain Wallace, and James T. Osgood were sold to non-residents, who intended to drill for oil. Drilling was done, but by reason of the ignorance then prevailing concerning the proper method of testing, no oil was discovered, and the lands which had so recently enriched the vendors and impoverished the vendees, were sold for nominal prices or for taxes. This was in the winter of 1865. No paying well was drilled until 1881, when the firm of Crary, Sigel & Co., consisting of Walter Horton, Jerry Crary, and Charles Sigel as members, associated with James Magee, of Warren, started a well with a production of about fifty bar- rels a day, which is still producing about five barrels a day. There are now eleven wells on what is known as the Donaldson farm, and twenty-three wells on adjoining lands. Other oil firms here now are Melvin, Walker & Howe, Clark & Armor, the Union Oil Company, and many others. The first gas was struck by W. W. Hague, of Tidioute, in 1875 on lands of Horton, Crary & Co. The same well now furnishes the town with gas and has shown no diminution since the end of the first six months. Among many private gas wells may be mentioned those of Erastus Barnes and Mrs. L. M. Barnes.


1 Although this letter was not written to be published verbatim, it contained so vivid a description of the mode of living in those pioneer times, that we could not refrain from publishing it in almost the form in which it was written.


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SHEFFIELD TOWNSHIP.


It will be seen that these various industries, coupled with the extensive tanning business which will soon be mentioned more at length, have conspired to keep the agricultural resources of the township from emerging from their rudimentary state. The soil of the town is well adapted for some kinds of farming, especially the raising of grain and fruit, but not particularly fitted for dairying. The lowlands are composed of a sandy loam, and the uplands of a gravelly clay. The decline of the lumber interest has conduced to develop an interest in the agricultural possibilities of the town, and farming has become one of the infant industries of the region.


Municipal History. - Contrary to the natural supposition of a strange vis- itor to the township, the fact is that the little settlement called Lower Sheffield, at Barnes Station, is by far the oldest village in the township, and was indeed looked upon as the only village in the town for many years before it con- ceived the probability of having the present Sheffield village for a rival. It was here that Stanton first sold goods, and that Gilson first kept tavern. In 1839 John Gilson built this tavern, which, after twelve or fourteen years, went into the hands of George Messenger. His successors have been Nathan Branch, to 1850; Asa H. Barnes until 1868 ; various lessees under Asa Barnes until 1876; Erastus Barnes has since owned and rented it. The present lessee is James Marley.


It was here, too, as we have seen, that the first mills in town -those of Timothy Barnes-were built. In 1850 Erastus Barnes started a store oppo- site his present residence. He drew his goods by team from Dunkirk. This store was kept open for ten years. The only store now kept here is that of J. E. Berkheimer, who has been here since 1881, and who carries stock worth about $3,000. (At the present writing it is learned that Mr. Berkheimer is now closing his store.) About five years ago Selkirk Newell, of Syracuse, N. Y., took a contract from Erastus Barnes for ten acres of land, on which he proposed to drill for oil. Instead of finding oil he found large quantities of gas. Nolan & Boardman, from New York State, then purchased four acres of Mr. Barnes for the manufacture of lamp-black. They erected a long iron building for this purpose, and have now demonstrated the success of their scheme of converting the gas into lamp-black of a superior quality. These, with the mills of Erastus Barnes, constitute the present business interests of Lower Sheffield.


The village of Sheffield owes its origin and growth to the enterprise of the several firms now engaged in the extensive tanneries of the place. From about 1836 to 1864 the land, or the larger part of it, now embraced within the limits of Sheffield village, was owned by Daniel D. Bowers, a native of Ver- mont, who, soon after the latter date, removed to Missouri and there died. In 1864 W. & W. Horton purchased his land, and three years later the firm of Horton, Crary & Co. was formed and built one tannery. In 1871 J. McNair


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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.


& Co. bought the land and saw-mills of I. V. Stone, and in 1878 built a tan- nery on the site, in which Horton, Crary & Co. have a controlling interest. About the time of the building of the tannery first above mentioned, J. F. Schoellkopf, of Buffalo, built a tannery here, in which Horton, Crary & Co. have also obtained a controlling interest. Horton, Crary & Co. have also three saw-mills in the village, and produce large quantities of lumber. Their income from the production of sole leather amounts to some $2,500,000 per annum. They are further largely interested in the production of oil, having wells in this township-at Henry's Mills, at Donaldson's, and near Farnsworth's Siding -which altogether produce about 18,000 barrels a month. This village is also the center of the great gas-producing district, in which Horton, Crary & Co. have extensive interests. This firm own land in this and adjoining counties, for their varied interests, amounting to about 50,000 acres. They built the Tionesta Valley Railroad in 1881, and afterward bought out the Cherry Grove and Garfield Railroad, which was built by an eastern company. The mem- bers of this company are Webb Horton, H. H. Crary, Walter Horton, Jerry Crary, George Horton, Isaac Horton, and George Dickinson. They employ nearly or quite 3,000 hands, most of whom are Swedes and Germans, and re- side in this village. The members of the firm of Schoellkopf, Horton & Co. are J. F. Schoellkopf, sr., Charles Sigel, and Horton, Crary & Co. The mem- bers of the firm of John McNair & Co. are John McNair, C. W. R. Radeker, and Horton, Crary & Co. The principal part of the business done by this en- terprising firm of Horton Crary & Co. is export trade. They manufacture nothing but hemlock sole leather. The hides are almost entirely from South America. Of course the chief motive which induced them to locate here was the dense growth of hemlock in the forests. To their industrious energy, and that of their neighboring companies, is due the thrift and growth of the village of Sheffield. I


The Horton family came here from Sullivan county, N. Y. They are de- scended from Barnabas Horton, who came to this country from England in 1632, in the good ship Swallow, and settled on Long Island. H. H. Crary, and indeed all the members of the firm of Horton, Crary & Co., except George Dickinson, are natives of Sullivan county, N. Y. Mr. Dickinson is from Del- aware county, N. Y.


Daniel D. Bowers, mentioned above, was born in Vermont, it is said, about 1803, and came to Sheffield not far from 1836. He settled about on the site of the present house of Webb Horton, and, besides operating a saw-mill, kept a tavern there under the name of the Forest House until about 1867. The house was then converted into a boarding-house for the employees of the tan- ning company, and thus used it burned about 1879.


1 The Donaldson tract, before mentioned, embraces the land once owned by Andrew Donaldson in the southern part of the township. He was a farmer and lumberman, and came here about 1845. Ilis widow now occupies a part of the old farm. He died .August 17, 1867, aged sixty- six years.


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SHEFFIELD TOWNSHIP.


About the time that Horton, Crary & Co. came to Sheffield, Amos Lee, a quondam butcher and cattle dealer, also arrived, and about 1869 built the Lee House, which he kept until his death, in 1875. In 1873 he enlarged it. During his life it was a temperance house. The next proprietor was Charles Lamkin, who did not own the property, however, and who gave place in 1884 to the present proprietor and owner, Joseph Clinton. It is now one of the best of hotels. It has about thirty rooms, and is unusually spacious and convenient, as it was erected apparently for the benefit of families rather than transient individuals.




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