History of the counties of McKean, Elk, Cameron and Potter, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections; including their early settlement and development; a description of the historic and interesting localities; sketches of their cities, towns and villages biographies of representative citizens; outline history of Pennsylvania; statistics, Part 104

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.) comp. cn; J.H. Beers & Co., pub
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1320

USA > Pennsylvania > McKean County > History of the counties of McKean, Elk, Cameron and Potter, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections; including their early settlement and development; a description of the historic and interesting localities; sketches of their cities, towns and villages biographies of representative citizens; outline history of Pennsylvania; statistics > Part 104
USA > Pennsylvania > Potter County > History of the counties of McKean, Elk, Cameron and Potter, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections; including their early settlement and development; a description of the historic and interesting localities; sketches of their cities, towns and villages biographies of representative citizens; outline history of Pennsylvania; statistics > Part 104
USA > Pennsylvania > Elk County > History of the counties of McKean, Elk, Cameron and Potter, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections; including their early settlement and development; a description of the historic and interesting localities; sketches of their cities, towns and villages biographies of representative citizens; outline history of Pennsylvania; statistics > Part 104
USA > Pennsylvania > Cameron County > History of the counties of McKean, Elk, Cameron and Potter, Pennsylvania, with biographical selections; including their early settlement and development; a description of the historic and interesting localities; sketches of their cities, towns and villages biographies of representative citizens; outline history of Pennsylvania; statistics > Part 104

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The winter of 1843 was remarkable for its unusual mildness during the month of January, as well as for its great severity later in the season. In January it was as warm as it ordinarily is in the month of May. The grass grew to the height of four or five inches. Some plowed their corn land, and many, foolishly supposing the winter was past, threw away their fodder. In February it changed to cold and snow, continuing to increase in severity all through that month as well as March. On the 13th of April the snow about Emporium was so deep that it would reach to a man's vest pockets in walking through it. On the 14th it melted a little, and by the 20th it was all gone. During the last forty-six years there have been very few complaints of climate. The beautiful valleys and picturesque hills are in themselves guardians of the weather, as well as of the health, insuring to the inhabitants an atmosphere under which the young may attain the highest physical state, and the old may prolong their days.

CHAPTER II.

ABORIGINES AND PIONEERS.

INDIAN RELICS-INTERESTING FIND-FIGHTS WITH INDIANS-ADVENTURES AND MURDERS-DR. LANNING'S ACCOUNT-LANDS IN 1811-EARLY SETTLERS AND SETTLEMENTS-EXPERIENCES AND PRIVATIONS OF THE PIONEERS-LIFE ON THIE SINNEMAHONING IN 1839-40-HUNTERS' STORIES-HIGHWAYMEN.

THE pages devoted to the Indians of Mckean county tell who the first occupants of this section were within the historic period. Evidences of Indian occupation are numerous; but little is known of tribal names in con- nection with such occupation. At Sinnemahoning there are evidences that extensive Indian towns stood on the flats between the mouth of First Fork and

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HISTORY OF CAMERON COUNTY.

a point two miles westward. Numerous wigwam chimneys, in rows, some fif- teen feet high, were exposed by the washing away of the surface soil dur- ing the floods of 1848 and 1861, and the cultivation of the soil by the early settlers. When the pioneers arrived here the place was known as " The Lodge," a name given to it by the Indians. Near Millers', on Bennett's branch, there is an Indian cemetery, and various relics have been exlmmed elsewhere within the county. Stone axes and arrow heads have been found in many places, made from brown quartz, which is not found native in this region. Some specimens of moss-agate, or mocha-stone, are said to have been found. There is a semi-pellucid uncrystallized variety of quartz, having internally a moss-like appearance, and must have been carried by the Indians from beyond the Rocky mountains. Some persons engaged in digging a ditch in the rear of Charles Barclay's residence in Sinnemahoning in April, 1877, unearthed the remains of an Indian. The body had evidently been buried over a century, and had returned to dust-but small portions of the skull and a few bones remaining to show that it had been a human body. On the same spot were also found blue beads, an iron tomahawk (a fine piece of workmanship), a steel needle, evidently used for sewing skins, an ornament of some kind, of metallic substance, and a clay pipe. The pipe is in a good state of preservation, and a rare curiosity, having an unique figure-head and arms. The Indians in this section of the country did not know the art of pottery work, and it is presumed that the pipe was made by the pre-historic people.

In 1873 excavations were made for a cellar under the post-office building at Sterling Run, in this county. The building had been removed from its for- mer site about forty feet, and hence the demand for the excavation for a cellar under the building at its new site. Mr. Earl, the proprietor of the grounds, in making these excavations, found human bones, and proceeded the more care- fully to continue his work, which, when completed, disclosed seventeen skele- tons, evidently of Indian origin. All except two were of ordinary grown stature, while one measured seven and a half feet from the cranium to the heel bones. The bones had all remained undisturbed. They lay with their feet toward each other in a three-quarter circle, that is some with their heads to the east, and then northeasterly to the north, and then northwesterly to the west. There had been a fire at the center, between their feet, as ashes and coals were found there. The skeletons, excepting one smaller than the rest, were all as regularly arranged as they would be naturally in a sleeping camp of similar dimensions. The bones were many of them in a good state of pres- ervation, particularly the jaw bones and teeth, and some of the leg bones and skulls. The stalwart skeleton had a stoneware or clay pipe between his teeth, as if in the act of smoking. By his side was found a vase, or urn, of earthern- ware or stoneware, which would hold about a half gallon. This vessel was about one-third filled with a granulated substance resembling chopped tobacco stems, or some kind of seeds. The vase was gourd-shaped on the bottom and without a base to stand upon, the exterior had corrugated lines crossing each other diagonally from the rim; the rim was serrated, and the whole gave evidence that it had been constructed with some skill and care, yet there was a lack of symmetry and beauty of form, which the race at that period were evidently ignorant of. The skeletons were covered about thirty inches deep, twenty- four inches of which was red shale, or brick clay, the six inches on the surface being soil and clay. The soil had been formed from the decayed leaves of the forest, which had mingled with the clay for centuries. The ground had been heavily timbered with white pine and white oak. No large trees, however, grew immediately over this spot, and no roots disturbed the relics. This spot

Yours Respy 6. B. Hoved

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HISTORY OF CAMERON COUNTY.

had been cultivated since 1818, and for the last ten years preceding 1873 had been used as a garden. John Brooks visited the ground, and examined the location and position of the skeletons while being exhumed. One, the smallest, had been in an erect or crouched position, in the northwest corner of the domi- cile. The most reasonable theory (in the view of the writer) is that this was the habitation of the people, and that their hut had been constructed of adobe. The surrounding grounds are gravelly, and is also the floor upon which the skeletons lay. It would seem that the gravel had been scooped away to the depth of two feet, and that the hut had been built over the excavation, and that while reclining in their domicile some electric storm had in a moment extin- guished their lives, precipitating, at the same time, their hut upon them, thus securing them from the ravages of the beasts of the forest.

The celebrated battle of Peter Grove with the Indians took place at the mouth of a creek called Grove's run, which empties into the Sinnemahon- ing, about three-quarters of a mile above the mouth of the First Fork of the Sinnemahoning. This battle occurred long before this region was set- tled by the whites.

Anthony Grove is registered as a private in Capt. Joseph Shippen's com- pany, May 8, 1756 [Penna. Archives, Vol. 2, page 600], of the regiment of Col. William Chapman, garrisoned at Fort Augusta, Shamokin. The " Bald Eagle's nest," was the residence of an Indian chief of that name, who built his wigwam between two white oaks, situated in an old Indian town, on the right bank of the creek, about a mile below where Spring Creek enters the Bald Eagle, near the town of Milesburg. Bald Eagle, the chief of the Muncy tribe, made an attack on a party of soldiers who were protecting some reapers on the Loyal Sock, on August 8, 1778, in which attack, James Brady, a rela- tive of the Grove family by marriage, was mortally wounded. Bald Eagle was killed the following year, in June, by Samuel Brady, at Brady's bend, on the Allegheny. This was the year known as the "great runaway." Shortly after this time the Indians attacked Freeland's fort, situate about four miles up Warrior's run, Freeland and Isaac Vincent being killed and Benjamin Vin- cent taken prisoner, Peter Vincent and Sam Brady escaping.

Francis J. Chadwick, writing in 1878, speaks of the days when the Indians and settlers of the North Atlantic coast were at war, and brings his remi- niscences down to the Revolution, when the Indians perpetrated the atrocities recorded in history. He begins with the massacre of Buffalo Valley, and in- troduces Peter and Michael Grove, from the former of whom William Floyd received the story of Indian warfare. John Brooks, in 1876, also noticed this point. Floyd went down the river in the fall of 1839. Big river was then low, so that he tied up at Shamokin, returned through Buffalo Valley and called on Peter Grove, just two years before the pioneer's death. In 1842 Floyd related the story to Chadwick, who published it in the columns of the Press in 1878. It appears that after the massacre the two Groves with a friend resolved upon revenge, and, taking the trail of the savages, followed them to the river, at the mouth of the Scootack, and thence up the valley to the mouth of the Sinnemahoning, and up that valley to a small run above the Fork. Below that run the Indians stuck their hatchets in a large oak and made a very small gnat smoke, when all but one lay down to sleep. That one sat under the hatchets with his back against the tree. There was a young moon, the light of which showed twelve warriors sleeping, and this one keep- ing watch. The sentry would nod, wake up, look round as if conscious of danger, while Peter Grove stood near waiting the moment for revenge. It. came! The moon went down, and the two Groves and friend descended on the

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HISTORY OF CAMERON COUNTY.

camp, killing the sentry and seven of the others, leaving one to flee with a hatchet in his back, and four to escape. Breaking the locks of the Indian guns and hiding them in a creek, the avengers waded the creek to the river, which they crossed, and ascended the mountain, from which eminence they could see at sunrise. a body of twenty-five warriors on their trail. About three in the afternoon, Michael Grove and the unnamed companion resolved on sleeping, but Peter objected. The men, however. slept, leaving Peter on guard. A greenish-yellow plumaged bird, found only in dense forests, now came to warn him, and seemed to say, " up and away." He roused his friends and fled toward the settlers' Fort (near the confluence of the Bald Eagle and Susquehanna), and when within seven miles of this refuge, they saw the twenty- five Indians still on their trail, but at the river the savages lost the track, and to the delight of the fugitives went up the stream. The white oak at Grove's run, into which the Indians stuck their tomahawks, was about thirty inches in diameter; a smooth, handsome body, but short, being about twenty feet to the lowest limb. It stood there, with the marks of the thirteen hatch- ets until after the great flood of October 8, 1847, the waters of which washed the clay from its roots. leaving it to decay and to the mercy of the great flood of 1861, which carried it away. About the year 1820, the pond at the mouth of Grove creek, where the battle occurred, was drained, and a gun-barrel and lock found, which had not been recovered by the Indians. The marks of a dozen tomahawks were visible in the limb of the old oak tree, until it fell into the river, by the constant washings of the bank where it stood. The tree fell about 1835.

Peter Vincent was murdered at the mouth of the Sinnemahoning in 1824, the deed being so adroitly done that it seemed he fell from a young horse and crushed his head; Benjamin Walker, of Northumberland, was also killed; but two years later, peace being established, seven Indians told Walker's son of the horrible punishment to which they subjected his father. He treated them to whisky liberally, and left them to return to their camp. Later that night Ben- jamin Walker, his brother and Samuel Doyle descended on the camp, killed all the savages, and cast the bodies into the river. Judge Mckean issued a warrant for the arrest of the Walkers, who fled, leaving Samuel Doyle to be tried by the old judge. The jury, in opposition to the judge's instruction. de- clared Doyle not guilty, and the people carried him in triumph to his home.

Dr. Lanning, in his Centennial History, founded on recollections of John Brooks and others, states that the first survey made in this county was performed by John Rohrer in 1786. He ran out the ground upon which the Emporium Tannery stands, and for some distance above that. John Hanna ran out som e lots up the Portage, and also the diamond lots, upon which Rich Valley was afterward located, in 1792 or 1794. The first improvement made within the limits of the county was the building of the Ellicott road in 1806. This ex- tended through the county, and also through what is now called Mckean county, and into Cattaraugus county, N. Y., terminating at Ellicottsville The object of the road was to render accessible the lands belonging to the Holland Land Company, which lay along the latter portion of its route, and at its ter- mination. F. J. Chadwick, speaking on this subject, says: "In 1806 Joseph Ellicott, with Joseph Mason for his foreman and book-keeper, constructed a wagon road from Dunnstown up the Susquehanna river to Cook's run. There they left the river and went over Baird's mountain to the valley of the Sinne- mahoning, near Round island; thence up the Sinnemahoning to the Big Elk lick, on the Driftwood branch, thence northwestwardly over the high lands. They crossed Marvin creek about seven miles west of Smethport. and took the

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HISTORY OF CAMERON COUNTY.

high lands again, and went down the Tunuangwant creek on the branch upon which the Mount Alton Railroad is now constructed. It was continued down said creek to its mouth; then it crossed the Allegheny river and ended at Elli- cottsville, in Cattaraugus county, N. Y. It was the only wagon road on the Sinnemahoning for many years.'

The first settlement made in the county was at the site now called Drift- wood. It was then, and for a long time afterward, known as Second Fork, Sinnemahoning being known as First Fork. The first man who settled there was John Jordan. This occurred in the year 1804. Jordan was a man about forty years of age. He was a great hunter, and probably was led to seek a home in this remote and solitary wilderness as much on account of his fondness for the chase, and the abundant opportunities the country at that time afforded for its gratification, as for any other reason. He is said to have killed ninety six elk. He had five sons: Hugh, John, William, James and Andrew, whose descendants are in the county at the present time. The next year, 1806, Jordan was followed by Levi Hicks, Andrew Overturf and Samuel Smith, the two former having families, and the latter being a single man. Levi Hicks set- tled between the First Fork and Second Fork, on ground afterward known as the Shaffer farm, now occupied by Malden Wykoff. He here cleared about thirty acres of land, which, in 1812, he sold to Jacob Burge, who had settled near him a year or two previous. Hicks then removed np the Bennett's branch to the month of Hicks' run, and took up land which is now occupied by his descendants. His son, John, is still living, a man seventy-eight years of age, whose memory is still clear touching the history of those early days. John was eight years old when the family first moved here, and has been a resi- dent of this county over seventy years. Levi, the father, was thirty-five years of age when he moved to the country, and had the honor of making and run- ning the first raft ever taken down the Sinnemahoning. Andrew Overturf set- tled on the point of land at the confluence of the two streams, the Driftwood and the Bennett's branches. It was at his house the incident occurred which has been the occasion of so much merriment abroad at the expense of the early settlers of this country. The settlement which we have already noticed. be- tween the First Fork and Second Fork, extended itself shortly in four different directions up the Bennett's and Driftwood branches, down the main creek, and up the First Fork. In 1808 William Nanny settled a short distance up the Ben- nett's branch, at the mouth of a small run which bears his name at the pres- ent day. He was called Billy Nanny, the first instance on record where a sin- gle person represented both sexes of the goat. About the year 1810, or some time shortly afterward, Stephen Berfield settled on this side of the stream, near the site of the hotel. He shortly after sold his improvement to Edward Richey, and moved to Dent's run, in Elk county, making the first improvement there. About the same time Andrew and James Jordan, brothers of John, the first settlers in the county, settled up the Driftwood branch, the former near William Nelson's place. and the latter near Harrison Logue's place. In 1810 John Spangler advanced still farther up the stream, and settled between what is now known as Cameron and Sterling, on ground now occupied and owned by James and Thomas Strawbridge.

Under date of December 16, 181 1, William Coxe, William McMurtrie, Edward Shippen and W. S. Coxe issued circulars from Burlington, N. J., showing the value of their lands in Mckean and Clearfield counties. They refer to the Portage road, commencing two miles below Rich Valley, where a dozen of fam- ilies then resided, to a road then opening from Instanter to Kersey's mills, four miles from their tract, to the Ellicott road, laid out some years before by the

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HISTORY OF CAMERON COUNTY.

Holland Land Company, through the town of Rich Valley, within ten miles of the salt works then erected, and close to the grist-mill in operation there and the saw-mill then being constructed by Col. Chadwick, who with Dr. Daniel Rogers were the agents of the company, the latter residing on Bennett's branch. The route from the North Atlantic States was via Chenango Point to Dr. Wil- lard's, at Tioga; thence to Ellis on State road via Crooked creek; thence through Condersport to Canoe place, whence a road by the Portage branch of the Sin- nemahoning, twenty-three miles, leads to the tract. In 1811 or 1812 Joseph Mason settled about a mile below Sterling on ground now occupied by his son, Henry Mason. His male descendants were Joseph, James, Henry, John, Will- iam and Alexander, three of whom are living still near the spot first occupied and improved by their father. About the year 1812 or 1814 John Shaffer, William Sterling, John Strawbridge and Joseph Richey, father of Robert and Joseph, living near Cameron came to Sterling run and settled in the imme- diate vicinity. About the same time also Isaac McKisson settled at Hunt's run, so called from the family to whom the lands belonged. This is the present village of Cameron. Meanwhile the settlement had pushed in other directions. Jacob Burge had settled in 1809 or 1810 near to the Hick's improvement, and in 1812 bought it from Levi Hicks, who removed to the mouth of Hick's run, where his descendants remain to this day. Shortly after this Jacob Miller and Amos Mix settled up Bennett's branch, near the month of Mix run, also Thomas Dent nearer to the village of Driftwood. Other settlers kept filling up the colony. Jerry Gaines, a colored man and a fugitive from slavery in the State of Vir- ginia, settled and improved land near the present Grove station. He was after- ward bought out by William Floyd. John Ramage settled near the Fork in 1813, and shortly afterward Joseph Brooks and Benjamin Brooks, his father, who was also the father of John Brooks, Esq., settled in the same vicinity. The former remained in the county, the latter removing to the Irwin farm, near the present city of Lock Haven, where his son, John, was born in 1814. Again he returned to the county, and in 1819 settled near the Fork, and the next year moved to the Huntley farm and made improvements. His son, John Brooks, is a distinguished citizen of the county, and can at the present time count 458 descendants of his father within a radius of twenty-five miles from his residence near Sinnemahoning. In 1812 William A. Wykoff, from Monmouth, N. J., came

to the country, and after prospecting a while concluded to settle up Rich Val- ley, near the present residence of William Lewis. He chiseled his name and the date upon a stone and returned for his family. In coming with his family, the water became so low that it was impossible to push up the stream the canoe containing his family and goods, which at that time was the only mode of trav- eling in the country; he was therefore compelled to settle at what is now known as Wykoff run. His sons were Cyrenus, John, William, Alexander and Charles, some of whom with their descendants are well-known citizens of the county at the present time.

James Bailey, who died May 28, 1876, came to Sinnemahoning in 1815. He was one of four of the first who came to Sinnemahoning that were born from August 20 to October 25, 1800, and died within two months, or from March 29 to May 28, 1876; John M. Lloyd died March 29; Mrs. Elizabeth Miller, on April 7; John Wykoff, April 9, and James Bailey, May 28, 1876; Frederick Sizer died also in the Centennial year. In the years 1816-17 George, Archie and Thomas Logue settled at the mouth of the First Fork on the lower side of the creek. In 1820 William Barr, who was born near the present city of Lock Haven, and raised about four miles below Keating, removed to his present location on Bennett's branch at the mouth of Barr run. He was twenty-two

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HISTORY OF CAMERON COUNTY.

years of age. Some time, about 1820 or 1822, James Wylie and John Murrey settled about twelve miles up the First Fork. Isaac Brownson and the Logues had previously settled a short distance up. They were followed shortly by others, mostly descendants of those who had settled near the mouth of the Fork. In 1826 Jacob Smith, father of Samuel Smith, and others of that name, came to Sterling run accompanied by Samuel Chapman, father of those of that name living there now. and the Widow Summerson, with her son John and a daughter; John was then a lad of five years of age.

Having followed the history of the first settlement for twenty-one years, we go back to 1810 and trace that of the second settlement, which was located on the site of the present borough of Emporium. In the spring of 1810 John Earl, Sr., father of the present John Earl of that borough, a native of North Carolina, thirty-five years of age, accompanied by his sons, John and William, came to the vicinity of Lock Haven, or rather Big Island, as it then was termed. They here fell in with the agent for Griffith & Company's lands, situated in the upper part of this county. They were induced by him to come up the stream to this place. All above Hunt's run was then an unbroken wilderness. They settled first about two miles up the main stream, at what is known as Georgia Mill or Gearysburg, they cleared a piece of land here, but were shortly fol- lowed by two of their former neighbors, Philemon Preny and Earl Mastin, who purchased their improvements, when they again located near the Portage on the site now occupied by Hon. Seneca Freeman. After remaining there three or four years, having some dispute about the price of the land, which belonged to a non- resident by the name of Wilson, they again removed. The land was then pur- chased of Wilson by Col. E. Chadwick, * in 1813, who sold it to D. Crow,f who, with Lemuel Lucore, Sr., and others, had come into the country in 1816. The Earls then located on land that had not been taken up, at the confluence of West creek and the main branch near Isha Craven's. Here they built a saw-mill and a grist-mill.

In 1814 Seneca Freeman, then a young man of twenty-one years, visited through this country, stopping a short time at the Earl's. In 1817 Brewster, father of Seneca, accompanied by his family, comprising four sons, Seneca, Brewster, Samuel and Benjamin, moved to the country and settled on the ground now occupied by the Wylie and Sage farms. In the fall of 1810, the first year of the settlement, Mr. John Earl, Sr., started on a visit to see his nearest neighbor, John Spangler, who, as we have seen, had settled between Cameron and Sterling. His son, John, proposed he should carry his gun along, as he might possibly meet with game on the way. The father was not inclined to do so, but finally yielded to the persuasion of his son. As he came near the spot where the Canoe run bridge is now located, he heard a singular noise, which attracted his attention. He stopped a moment to reconnoiter, and ob- served a motion in the bushes. On closer inspection he perceived, at a very short distance in advance of him, a very large panther. The beast had seen him first, and was standing near a rock congratulating himself on the prospect

* Elihu Chadwick was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Third Regiment vice James Green, promoted from Mommonth county, N. J. Richard Chadwick states that this commission was signed by Washington. His memorandum of Revolutionary affairs, in 1979, refers to the landing of the British and refugees near Sandy Hook, June 10, and the manner in which Capt. Jeremiah Chadwick and Lieut. Elilm Chadwick struck their trail while reconnoitering on the 11th. sent for help to the camp of the Continentals, drove the British to their boats, then poured in such a fire as to force them to take refuge noder the banks, and after a terrible battle conquered.

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Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.) comp. cn; J.H. Beers & Co., pub Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & Co. Number of Pages: 1320

Author: Leeson, M. A. (Michael A.) comp. cn; J.H. Beers & Co., pub
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & Co.
Number of Pages: 1320