USA > Pennsylvania > Warren County > History of Warren County, Pennsylvania, with Illustrations and Biographical Sketches of some of its Prominent Men and Pioneers > Part 63
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Concerning the early schools of the township a writer has reported sub- stantially as follows: The first school was kept by Mrs. Rufus Fitch, at her house, in the summer of 1817. Her husband, Rufus Fitch, a Revolutionary soldier, kept school in the summer of 1818. In the following winter James Austin was the teacher. After the country became more thickly settled edu- cational matters were systematized. The first school-house was constructed of logs, and extended sixteen by twenty feet. The salary for these early teachers was about ten or twelve dollars a month for men, and one dollar to a dollar and fifty cents for women. The text books in use were principally Webster's Elementary Speller, the American Preceptor, Columbian Orator, Dilworth's Arithmetic, and the New Testament.
Bear Lake .- This thriving village is the product of railroad enterprise. It was formerly called Freehold, but about fifteen years ago this name was changed to Bear Lake, after the beautiful body of water of that name about a mile east of the village. This lake has a surface about ten acres in area, is deep and very clear, and without a visible outlet. As late as 1860 there was no road through Bear Lake worthy of the name. Previous to that date a large part of the land now covered by the village was owned by Daniel Walker to
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
the southwest, Asa Chapman to the north and east, and Ira Hamilton to the north and west. These three men, it is said, were here as early as sixty years ago.
The first store in Bear Lake was kept in a small shanty, 16 by 20, by Ab- ner Chapman, on the site of Bordwell's present store. He dealt in groceries, liquors, etc., about 1860, while the railroad was in process of construction. After an experience of a few months he sold out to George and Bryan Hill, who enlarged the building and increased the trade. They also kept a board- ing-house. They failed, however, in the course of eight or ten months, and in 1868 sold to C. T. Bordwell, who kept store there until some three years ago. Howard & Wadsworth then purchased the property and opened a store, which they kept until a year ago, when they failed. Mr. Bordwell took the property again in April, 1886, and now owns and conducts the store.
One of the early mills in this part of the township was that of Bushrod Woodin, on the Little Brokenstraw, about two miles southeast of the site of the village. This mill he built about 1855. It was a large mill for those days. After running it for some fifteen years Mr. Woodin sold it to James Dennison, of whom he repurchased it in a few years. The present owner, Clarence Triskett, bought it of Mr. Woodin about ten years ago, and has converted it from a water to a steam-power mill. Sylvester Williams built the first mill exactly on the site of the village about 1866 or 1867. It was a steam grist and saw-mill. It burned about 1871, after which he rebuilt it and soon sold it to James Goodwin, who operated it about five years. John Hill then owned it. Henry L. Wilcox next purchased the property, took down the old mill and built the present structure, which he now owns.
Present Business Interests .- It has already been stated that the oldest of the present merchants in Bear Lake, considering their term of service, is C. T. Bordwell, who began to trade here in February, 1868. He now deals in mer- chandise of almost every description, hardware, flour and feed, and other wares, his entire stock being valued at about $6,000. The store building now occupied by Howard & Laquay for the sale of dry goods and groceries, was built by Joel Carr about twelve years ago. The present firm came into the store in December, 1885. C. V. Mather began to trade in feed in 1876, and two years later changed his stock to drugs and groceries. He came into the building he now occupies in 1880. C. 1 .. Chadwick and William Sweetland formed the firm of Chadwick & Sweetland on the 16th of April, 1883, and at that time bought out the store of Henry L. Wilcox, who had been engaged in mercantile business about two or three years. The stock is confined princi- pally to groceries. The building which they now occupy was erected in March, 1886.
Willis H. Houghtling started a business in hardware about three years and a half ago, and in November, 1886, first occupied his present quarters. The
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stock which Mr. Houghtling originally owned was purchased in November, 1886, by Henry L. Wilcox, who now trades in this line of goods. The gro- cery and drug store of Phillips & Livermore was established by the present firm on the 18th of October, 1886, when the partnership was formed. The building which they occupy was erected by them in the summer of 1886. Their stock is valued at about $1,000. W. H. Davenny also deals in dry goods and groceries. The harness shop of G. W. Cole was opened in August, 1886. Mr. Cole then bought out George Livermore.
The saw-mill of Henry L. Wilcox, as it now stands, was built by the pres- ent proprietor in 1879. It has a capacity for 2,000,000 feet of lumber, but cuts ordinarily about 700,000 feet.
About 1874 Daniel Parkhurst built a steam shingle and planing-mill and cider-mill on Greeley street, west of the railroad station, which he sold the fol- lowing year to Lorenzo Hyde. It was destroyed by fire about 1880, and Mr. Hyde then built another shingle and planing and grist-mill on the opposite side of the road, of larger capacity, which also burned in the fall of 1885. He now has a mill on Main street, with a planer and matcher, and connected with a grist-mill.
Sylvenus St. John erected his steam grist-mill-roller process-in the sum- mer of 1886. The saw-mill of Borcher & Jamieson was built two years ago.
About the time that Mr. Chapman opened the first store in the village, one Jordan opened a small tavern on the site of the present hotel in Bear Lake ; this was probably in the year 1861. Mr. Jordan did not remain long. The present hotel was erected in 1883 by A. E. Hollenbeck, who owns the property at this time. The lessee, since November, 1886, is B. C. Roberts.
The Bear Lake Record, a live newspaper which promises to be a success, was started here in November, 1886. Mr. Gardiner is to be congratulated both on the appearance of his paper and on his choice of a location.
The first physician to practice in Bear Lake was Dr. A. P. Phillips, who came about fifteen or sixteen years ago. Other physicians, of later arrival, are Dr. L. W. Harvey and Dr. F. T. Noeson.
The first postmaster in the village was Caleb Carr, who was appointed about 1862. The name of the office was at first Freehold. C. T. Bordwell succeeded Mr. Carr in two or three years, and was followed by William Sweet- land about three years ago. Henry L. Wilcox then held the position a few months, and was succeeded by the present incumbent, W. H. Houghtling, in the summer of 1886.
The first house of worship erected in Bear Lake was built by the United Bretheren in 1874, at a cost of about $1,700. They formed a society in this vicinity about sixteen years ago, Rev. J. Hill being the first preacher. Among the first members were Joel Carr, S. Williams, H. C. Howard, William Hunt- ley, and others, many of whom were from the surrounding country. The
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
present pastor is Rev. Lucius Markham, who has resided here a little more than a year.
About 1876 the members of the Methodist Episcopal and Christian de- nominations organized churches here, and built a Union Church edifice at an expense of $2,000, in which they still worship. Among the first Methodists were Henry Widrig, Charles Goodwin, Harrison Robinson, and James Harter. Their present pastor is Rev. J. P. Burns. Among the early Christians were M. Kendall, Abner Chapman, and Frank Eddy. Their pastor is Rev. Mr. Wilbur.
About five years ago the town built a school-house here with two rooms. There are now in this building an attendance of not far from 100 pupils. H. Phillips is the present teacher.
CHAPTER XLV.
HISTORY OF PLEASANT TOWNSHIP.
T HE township of Pleasant, a sparsely settled, irregular tract of territory, is situated nearly in the center of Warren county, and is bounded north by the Allegheny River, separating it from Conewango and Glade townships and Warren borough, on the east by Mead township, on the south by Cherry Grove and Watson, and on the west by the Allegheny River, separating it from Deerfield and Brokenstraw. The township was formed in March, 1834, and undoubtedly derived its name from its beauty of situation and prospect. The petitioners who caused its formation wanted it to be named "Mount Pleasant," but the court subtracted the first word from the title. The land- scape is everywhere lovely, especially opposite Warren.
It is somewhat remarkable that the town was so late in being settled by permanent residents, when all along the other side of the river is a portion of the county which was dotted with homes almost at the beginning of the pres- ent century. But Pleasant was inhabited only by occasional and transient " squatters" until 1826. At that time no improvements to speak of had been made in the township. There were no roads whatever, nor any evidences, ex- cept the settlement of John Mead, opposite Brokenstraw, that man had ever intended to make the town his home. The first road, the main road from War- ren to Limestone, was opened about the year 1835.
Nathaniel Sill, sr., the second permanent settler in town (John Mead being the first), was born in Lyme, Conn., in 1776, and in 1807 removed to Black Rock, near Buffalo, N. Y., where he engaged in the business of a forwarding
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merchant, and was the senior member of the prominent firm of Sill, Thompson & Co. At one time they owned every vessel on Lake Erie except two small schooners. His partner, Sheldon Thompson, was the first mayor of Buffalo. They owned the famous Michigan, which went over the Niagara Falls. Mr. Sill's house, which was built of stone and was one of the best houses in the State west of Albany in its day, was battered down by the British in the War of 1812. Nathaniel Sill removed to this township, or the territory now known as Pleasant, in 1826. He came to the farm now owned and occupied by his son and namesake, in December of that year, having made the journey from Buffalo by team by way of Dunkirk and Jamestown. He had a family of three sons and five daughters. Nathaniel Sill, jr., was born in Ontario county, N. Y., on the 13th of February, 1814, and since his father's arrival on this farm in 1826, has made it his home. He married Susan, daughter of Josiah Farns- worth, then of Sheffield township, in 1853. His father died on this place on the 18th of February, 1858, and he has managed the farm alone since that time.
When Nathaniel Sill came here in 1826 there were but three small open- ings-they can hardly be called clearings-within the present limits of the town- ship. One of these had been made by squatters on a tract embracing the present farm of Mr. Sill, the other was opposite Warren, and was probably made by owners who had not lived on it, and the third was on the Irvine farm, near the present village of Irvinton. Not a stick of timber had been cut at any distance back from the river. About 1832 and 1833 a German immigra- tion began. Christian Hertzel came in 1835, Philip Wendling as early as 1832, and many others who will be named in the course of the chapter. There was a great boom in land speculation in 1837, and many of those who had settled here sold out and removed to the vicinity of Chicago and Northern Illinois. These Germans were many of them from Alsace. There they had been ac- customed to live in villages and travel several miles each day to a little patch of land which they owned, and out of which, by the severest labor, they wrung a scanty subsistence. The reports which reached them of the large and productive farms of Pennsylvania, and other parts of America, stirred them with a desire to visit and settle upon these lands. This country seemed an El Dorado to them. As a rule they were steady, hard-working, economical, tem- perate, law-abiding, and intelligent men. Most of them were poor, and after they reached this country they found hard times. They had to work harder for their living than their children and'grandchildren are obliged to do. Able- bodied men labored for fifty cents a day in haying, and took wheat at two dollars a bushel in payment. Cloth that now costs six cents a yard then brought twenty-five cents, and most other articles which the laboring people must have were priced accordingly. Still they labored on hopefully, and many of their descendants now live in comfort and some of them in luxury, the reward, in part, of their industry and thrift.
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
Following are the names and places of residence of the more prominent and permanent settlers of the township, who settled here previous to its forma- tion, and are mentioned in the first list of taxables, in 1835 :
Martin Esher, assessed with forty-seven acres, lived a short distance west of where the cemetery now is. He came here with other Germans about 1832 or 1833, and moved away after a few years. He was an Alsatian.
George Arnold, also an Alsatian, came about 1834, and settled in the western part of the township opposite Brokenstraw. He lived there very many years, and died in October, 1886, in Warren, at a very advanced age.
Lewis Arnet, a German, but not an Alsatian, came about 1832, and took up one hundred acres of land on the upland, some distance south of Martin Esher's settlement. He went west in a few years.
Emmanuel Crull rented the Irvine farm, opposite Brokenstraw, and lived on it for about ten years, when he removed to the vicinity of Franklin. His daughter married Perry Shaw, of Tidioute, where he and his wife died. An- other daughter married James Newgen, a shoemaker by trade, and a pilot on the river, who went down the river on annual raft pilgrimages until within a few years.
Jesse Foster, and David, his brother, lived opposite Brokenstraw for a number of years, when the former sold out and removed to the northern part of the county.
Jabez B. Hyde owned forty acres just west of the farm of Nathaniel Sill, and built the house now owned by the heirs of Mrs. J. H. King. He was a Presbyterian clergyman, and, for some years previous to his settlement here, was stationed among the Seneca Indians of Cattaraugus county, N. Y. He was well known in Buffalo. He lived here a few years and returned to the Indian Reservation. By an unfortunate turn of affairs he lost his mind, it seems, and was found in an impoverished and distressed condition in Buffalo, where friends cared for him until he died.
Christian Hertzel, father of Andrew and Philip Hertzel, settled, in 1835, on the first farm south of that of Nathaniel Sill, on the hill now occupied by his son Philip. (See sketch of Andrew Hertzel in later pages).
Jabez Hyde, jr., son of Jabez above mentioned, died here while his father lived in this township. He was a printer by trade, and worked for a time in Buffalo.
Christian Groos, a German, lived for a year or two near Christian Hertzel, and then went west.
Jacob Knopf, a German not from Alsace, took up 184 acres of land south of Christian Hertzel, about 1832, and lived there until his death, about 1860. He was one of the most prominent of the Germans, and was very active and industrious. Peter Knopf, his nephew, cleared a farm of 133 acres about a mile west from the settlement of Nathaniel Sill. He was a man of considerable
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ability, though he has been characterized as of too sanguine a temperament. He had a large family, and late in life went to Glade, where he died, with some of his children.
Michael Kraienbuehl came from Alsace with the other emigrants previous to 1835, and took up forty-seven acres of land directly opposite Warren. He resided there until his death, about thirty years ago. Among his descendants still in this county is Mrs. Andrew Ruhlman, of Warren, who is his grand- daughter.
Adam Knopf, a brother of Jacob, settled near him at the same time, but in 1837 sold out and removed to the West. His log house is still standing. The property was bought from him by Christian Hertzel, and is now owned by Philip Hertzel.
Jacob Lenhart settled on five hundred acres of land opposite Brokenstraw, where he died about 1860. His son Matthew now owns and occupies the farm.
Jacob Luther was an early German settler, near the present site of Oakland Cemetery. Jacob Myers settled as early, probably, as 1833, on the uplands opposite Warren and back some distance from the river. His tract contained, according to the assessment roll, one hundred acres. He died on this farm not long after 1850. One son is now on the old homestead, and another son occupies another farm in this township.
John Mead had 331 acres of land and a saw-mill about two miles west of the farm of Nathaniel Sill, and was there a number of years previous to 1830. He was a member of the Mead family, which receives more particular mention in the history of Brokenstraw, and was a brother of Mrs. David Beatty. He moved on to the Brokenstraw and there died, about twenty-five years ago.
William McDonald was an early settler (about 1826) on the south side of the river in the western part of this township. He was assessed in 1835 with 300 acres.
John Raham, probably an Alsatian German, came to this township about 1832 or 1833, and took up fifty-four acres of land, now a part of Oakland Cemetery. He was taken with the land fever of 1837, however, and at that time sold out and went west.
John Reig, an Alsatian German, settled early during the period of German immigration in the vicinity of Oakland Cemetery, where he remained until about 1850. He then removed to a farm near Irvinton, though in Cone- wango township, where he died in 1855. He was the father of Mrs. Andrew Hertzel, and his widow made her home with her daughter until her death, in 1884.
Frederick Stroopler was an Alsatian German, who lived four or five years about one and a half miles from Warren in Pleasant, and went west in 1837. George Swigart, at Alsatian, resided from about 1832 to 1837 up Sill Run.
Alexander Van Horn, a Hollander, settled in Warren previous to 1826,
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
and about 1832 settled on 120 acres of land, directly west of Nathaniel Sill's farm and only a few rods distant. He was a shoemaker by trade, and after a residence on this place a few years, sold and returned to Warren. About thirty years ago he was drowned in Conewango Creek.
Philip Wendling, already mentioned as a German from Alsace, who came one of the first of immigrants, occupied a forty-seven-acre tract within the present limits of Oakland Cemetery until 1837, when he removed to Glade. In 1843 he went west, and at his death left children in Cook county, Ill., who are there now.
George Wiler was an early Alsatian settler on the farm adjoining that of Jacob Esher. In 1837 he sold his land and removed to Conewango township, where two of his sons, George and John, now reside.
Jacob Wise, a German, whose wife was a sister of the wife of George Swigart, came at the same time as Swigart and settled near him, on Sill Run. He went away with Swigart.
Pleasant township has been so situated as to need no post-office, the prox- imity of offices at Warren and Brokenstraw being deemed sufficiently conven- ient by the inhabitants. The same cause has operated to deter any one from attempting to establish a store of any kind in the township. The only kinds of occupation in the town, therefore, have been those of farming, in which the Germans were most numerous, and lumbering, which was almost entirely con- fined to settlers other than the Germans. Among the Germans who have en- gaged in lumbering with success may be named the several members of the Hertzel family. John and Nathaniel Sill have at times engaged in lumbering with success. The first steam saw-mill in town (we have already mentioned the mill of John Mead, which was operated by water) was that of one Morton, who built it about four miles south of the farm of Nathaniel Sill to saw the timber of Colonel L. F. Watson, about 1862. It kept in operation some fif- teen years, and sawed millions of feet of excellent lumber. The next mill was built by William A. Wheeler, of Jamestown, N. Y., soon after the mill of Mor- ton was finished. It was afterward abandoned for a short time and went into the hands of Elijah and Alonzo Johnson, who sawed great quantities of lum- ber. It was about a mile south of the mill of Morton. It went down about 1870. Another steam mill, built and owned by Marsh & Kinncar, of Youngs- ville, situated south and west of the Johnson mill, went down about 1875 or 1876. A Mr. Satterly also built a steam mill in the west part of the township as early as 1862 or 1863, which he kept in operation ten or twelve years.
There has never been a church nor a religious organization of any kind in town. This does not argue anything against the piety or religious habits of the inhabitants, as they usually belong to church organizations near their re- spective residences, but in other townships. There are at this writing seven schools in the township of Pleasant, and they are well conducted and effect the purpose of their establishment.
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SOUTHWEST TOWNSHIP.
CHAPTER XLVI.
HISTORY OF SOUTHWEST TOWNSHIP.
T HIS township, which was formed from Deerfield in March, 1838, is situ- ated in the extreme southwestern corner of the county, whence its name, and is bounded north by the township of Eldred, east by Triumph, south by Venango county, and west by Crawford county. It is nearly square in outline. Its population at present does not exceed, perhaps, a thousand souls, of whom not more than two hundred constitute the village of Enterprise. The town is intersected by Pine Creek, which flows in a southwesterly direction and, with its tributaries, forms the principal natural drainage of the town. This stream was from the beginning known as the east branch of Oil Creek, and is still called occasionally by that name.
Early Settlers .- That portion of Warren county west and north of Alle- gheny River was settled a number of years earlier than the part lying to the south and east - a fact which seems to affirm that even a stream no larger than the Allegheny River may form a boundary line or barrier which will mark the limit of human settlement for many years. Southwest township, or that portion of the county now confined within the limits of Southwest, was settled almost as early as any part of the county. We have no means of as- certaining the exact date of the first settlements, but they were probably about contemporary with the birth of the present century. One of the first settlers in the town, if he was not the first, was Richard Henderson, who had made quite a clearing here at the time the first list of taxables of the county was. made out in 1806, lived about two miles east of the site of the village of En- terprise. His grandson, Clark Henderson, now owns and occupies the old homestead. He was what the other early settlers denominated a " Pennam- ite," i. c., a settler from the eastern part of Pennsylvania, as opposed to those who came from New York and England. There was considerable ill feeling between the Pennamites and the other settlers; and Richard Henderson, though a quiet, peaceable man, was not exempt from this dislike, and would not min- gle much with his Yankee neighbors. He was a man of sterling character, however, one of the kind fitted by nature to fell the forests of a new country and aid in establishing schools and comfortable homes in the wilderness. He was in no sense of the word a public man, but attended strictly to his home affairs and family. We have not the date of Henderson's death, but it must have been as late as 1850, for settlers who did not come here until 1847 or 1848 remember him. He and Selden Spencer were for a number of years the only Whig voters in this township.
Robert Hunter was another " Pennamite " settler, who came to this part of
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HISTORY OF WARREN COUNTY.
the county probably as early as 1800, and settled near to Richard Henderson. His son, Gates Hunter, now lives on the old homestead. Another son, Jared, lives not far from Grand Valley. Robert Hunter was one of the best citizens in the township, quiet and peace loving, industrious, temperate, and econom- ical. He reared a large family. He died previous to 1847, and probably as early as 1840.
Thomas Gilson was another " Pennamite," whose settlement in town is probably dated as early as Henderson's and Hunter's. He was the first settler on the place some three miles and a half north of Enterprise, now owned and occupied by John Wales. He was a very active and prominent man among the early settlers, and was universally respected. He was passionately fond of hunting and trapping. He died not far from 1850. Mrs. Stowell Cheney is his daughter.
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