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 126

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 126
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 126
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 126
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 126

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).

994

HISTORY OF POTTER COUNTY.

last morsel to her child, and the longing eyes strive to pierce the snow wraith to forestall the coming of the father, who she knows is struggling home from the mill. And what a glad shout breaks from her lips, and what brightness dances in her eyes as the frosty heads of the oxen come in sight beneath the hemlock branch bending with its weight of snow. The steam rises from the nostrils of the tired cattle as they wallow along the unbroken way. The tired driver wades wearily behind, his clothing heavy with snow and ice. The sled looks like a moving snow-drift, but it holds in its depths the gold of life to the family of the pioneer-the yellow meal of the Indian corn. The wolf of famine is again driven from the cabin door, and a new lease of life is taken.

[Letter from John Peet.]

It will be twenty-three years the 23d day of May, 1834, since I moved into Potter county. Old Mr. Ayers was in the county at that time, and had been in the county about five years alone. In the fall before I came three families (Benjamin Burt, Major Lyman and a Mr. Sherman) moved to the county. The east and west State road was cut out the year be- fore I moved in. It was very lonesome for several years. People would move in and stay a short time and move away again. It has been but a few years since settlers be- gan to stick. I made some little clearing and planted some garden seeds, etc., the first spring. We brought a small stock of provisions with us. On the 3d day of July I started with my yoke of oxen to go to Jersey Shore to mill to procure flour. I crossed Pine creek eighty times going to and eighty times coming from mill; was gone eighteen days; broke two axletrees to my wagon, upset twice, and one wheel came off in crossing the creek.

Jersey Shore was the nearest place to procure provisions, and the road was dreadful. The few seeds that I was able to plant the first year yielded but little produce. We, however, raised some half-grown potatoes, some turnips and soft corn, with which we made out to live, without suffering, till the next spring at planting time, when I planted all the seed that I had left, and when I finished planting we had nothing to eat but leeks, cow-cabbage and milk. We lived on leeks and cow-cabbage as long as they kept green, about six weeks. My family consisted of my wife and two children, and I was obliged to work, though faint for want of food. The first winter the snow fell very deep. The first winter month it snowed twenty-five days out of thirty, and during the three winter months it snowed seventy days. I sold one yoke of my oxen in the fall, the other yoke I wintered on browse, but in the spring one ox died, and the other I sold to procure food for my family, and was now destitute of a team, and had noth- ing but my hands to depend upon to clear my lands and raise provisions. We wore out all our shoes the first year. We had nothing to get more, no money, nothing to sell and but little to eat, and were in dreadful distress for the want of the necessaries of life. I was obliged to work and travel in the woods barefooted. After awhile our clothes were worn out. Our family increased and the children were nearly naked. I had a broken slate that I brought from Jersey Shore. I sold that to Harry Lyman, and bought two fawn skins, of which my wife made a petticoat for Mary; and Mary wore the petticoat until she outgrew it, then Rhoda took it till she outgrew it, then Susan had it until she outgrew it, then it fell to Abigail, and she wore it out.

[Letter from Benjamin Burt.]

In the year 1808 an east and west road was opened through Potter county. John Keating & Co., of Philadelphia, who owned large tracts of land in the northwest part of the county, agreed with Isaac Lyman to undertake the opening of the road. In the fall of 1809 Mr. Lyman came in with several hands and erected a rude cabin, into which he moved in March, 1810. He then had but one neighbor iu the county, who was four miles distant. I moved in on the 4th of May, 1811, and had to follow the fashion of the country for building and other domestic concerns, which was rather tough, there being not a bushel of grain or potatoes, nor a pound of meat, except wild, to be had in the country. But there were leeks and nettles in abundance, which, with venison and bear's meat, seasoned with hard work and a keen appetite, made a most delicious dish. The friendly Indians of different tribes frequently visited us on their hunting excursions. Among other vexations were the gnats, a very minute but poisonous insect, that an- noyed us far more than mosquitoes, or even hunger and cold, and in summer we could not work without raising a smoke around us.

Onr roads were so bad that we had to fetch our provisions fifty to seventy miles on pack horses. In this way we lived until we could raise our own grain and meat. By the time we had grain to grind Mr. Lyman had built a small grist-mill, but the roads still being bad, and the mill at some distance from me, I fixed an Indian samp mortar to pound my corn, and afterwards I contrived a small hand-mill, by which I have ground many a bushel, but it was hard work. When we went out after provisions with a team

Isaac Benow

997

HISTORY OF POTTER COUNTY.

we were compelled to camp out in the woods, and, if in the winter, to chop maple trees for our cattle to browse on all night, and on this kind of long fodder we had to keep our cattle a good part of the winter.

When I came here I had a horse that I called " Main Dependence," on account of his heing a good, steady old fellow. He used to carry my whole family on his back whenever we went to a wedding, a raising, a logging-bee, or to visit our neighbors, for several years, until the increasing load comprised myself, my wife and three children-five in all.

We had often to pack our provisions eighty miles, from Jersey Shore, sixty miles of the road being without a house. In the winter, when deep snows came on and caught us on the road without a fire, we should have perished if several of us had not been in com- pany to assist each other.

The want of leather, after our first shoes were worn out, was severely felt. Neither tanner nor shoemaker lived in the county. But "necessity is the mother of invention." I made me a trough out of a big pine tree, into which I put the hides of any cattle that died among us. I used ashes for tanning them, instead of lime, and bear's grease for oil. The thicker served for sole leather, and the thinner, dressed with a drawing knife, for upper leather. And thus I made shoes for myself and neighbors.

I had fourteen miles to go in winter to mill with an ox-team. The weather was cold and the snow deep, no roads were broken, and no bridges across the streams. I had to wade the streams, and carry the bags on my hack. The ice frozen to my coat was heavy as a bushel of corn. I worked hard all day, and only got seven miles hy the first night, when I chained my team to a tree, and walked three miles to house myself. The second night I reached the mill. My courage often failed, and I almost resolved to return, but when I thought of my children crying for bread I took new courage.

In 1825, according to the remembrance of Mrs. Mary A. Ross, whose memory I have found to be unusually clear, there were between the Tioga county line and Canoe Place (Port Allegany), upon the direct road, twenty-seven families living. Beginning at the Tioga county line, and giving them in order, they were: Samuel Lasey, John Ives, Keating House, William Earl, Samuel Taggart, Silas Nelson (Benson place, near Lymansville), Cephas Nelson, Dr. Harry Lyman, Maj. Isaac Lyman, Mr. - Clark (Gordnier place, near Lymansville), John Reed (at Coudersport), John Peet, John Earl, Henry Dingman, Leonard Taggart, Squire Taggart, Mr. Turner, Mr. Reed, John Lyman, Burrel Lyman, Isaac Lyman three families of Streeters, owners of saw-mill, John Burt, the Colemans, and Mr. Lillibridge. In this year Mrs. Ross' stepfather, J. L. Cartee, came to Coudersport, and opened the Cartee House, the first hotel bailt or kept at Coudersport. The building was begun in 1824, but not finished until the year following. It stood upon the ground now occupied by the county jail. Mrs. Ross was at that time fifteen years old, and in the summer she taught school at Lymansville. In this year the settlement of Ayers Hill consisted of the families of Jacob Vannatter, William Ayers, Mr. Hinckle, George Ayers, Joshua Jackson and one vacant honse.

North Hollow was inhabited by a family by the name of Bellows and the Woodcocks. About this time " Father Conant," as he was called, a Methodist missionary, use to come through the country, from the Pine creek way. hold ing religious services in the houses of the settlers. He lived, it is said, upon the Cowanesque, where Westfield is now, at that time known as Priestville. John Peet, who was a member, as he was wont to say, of the "Church of Eng- land," used to read sermons at first to the people at Lymansville, and after- ward to preach extemporaneously, giving opinions in an eccentric way that is still remembered by his old-time hearers. But, although somewhat eccentric, he is recalled by those who knew him as a good man. In this year Jacob Bump and Thomas Towser moved into Hector.

There are some things connected with Potter county which are closely allied to the lives of our hunter settlers which, although they might be passed over, are still interesting and, therefore, as being a portion of the early events. deserve a place here. That the lives of our old settlers had much romance

998

HISTORY OF POTTER COUNTY.

and adventure, mingled with the terrible hardships they underwent, cannot be gainsaid. The untimely meeting of an enraged bear, or a panther, meant at times a life-and-death struggle-a narrow escape at all events.

The Jamison fork, a small stream running into the East Fork of the Sinne. mahoning takes its name from a tragical incident which took place at or near its mouth. An Indian, known as James Jamison, while hunting in the East Fork country, was attacked by a panther that sprang upon him from a tree, as local tradition has it. The Indian having but a knife to defend him- self with, the fight was a terrible affair, which bad its termination in the killing of both the Indian and the panther. W. W. Thompson, who gave us this item, slew a bear upon the same ground. This is still a fine hunting territory.

A little, clear, dancing brook that runs for perhaps a mile before joining the Allegheny river, flowing from north to south, and situated about three miles above Condersport, bears the name of Steer Brook, from the fact that a panther killed a steer by the side of or in the shallow water of the stream, a few rods above the house lately occupied by the late Dr. R. V. Post. The pine log from which the panther sprang upon the steer was afterward cut up and drawn to the mill, and the boards sawn from it were used to floor the kitchen of Dr. Post's house. This house is now occupied by Willis Clark. In the early days of the county when there were wild beasts, that caused havoc among the flocks of the pioneers, which roamed at their own sweet will through the dark pine and hemlock forests, it became an imperative duty to wage a war of extermination against the blood-thirsty depredators. The other por- tions of the State having been settled to the exclusion of the northern, together with the settlements upon the New York side, the combination acted as a mighty "round bunt " that had concentrated the beasts of the wilderness in the region of forest now brought under the gentler rule of civilization. When the panther, which was looked upon as royal game, made known his presence in the neighborhood of a settlement, by his blood-curdling cry, which resembles the shrill shriek of a woman in deadly peril, or the carcasses, partially devoured, of sheep or young cattle, at times numbers being killed, apparently for the love of killing or for the blood of the prey, as no portion was eaten, or by the footprints in the swampy places, the rifles came from far and near, and were shouldered by determined men; the dogs were called away from their woodchuck hunting, and every one was on the qui rire to close in upon the tawny cat and rush it into some tree top, from which a leaden messenger would dislodge it and bring it down. Many were the dogs that bit the dust beneath the cruel claws of the wounded beast when in its death agony, and we remember hearing the old men of Hector township tell of a hunt after a great panther that made a track "as large as a saucer," and how by organizing a "round-hunt," and with the help of the dogs, they finally treed it; how one of the hunters shot it in the "sticking place," and tumbled it from its lofty covert. One of the claws of this panther was used by John Havens, Sr., of Sunderlinville, years afterward as a charger for his rifle. As we remember the dimensions, the carcass measured ten feet from the tip of the nose to the end of the tail.

Charles Carlin, of Hector, went to a "lick" upon the Pine creek waters to watch for deer; he was two or three miles from a clearing; the "blind" was in the top of a fallen hemlock; the forest about was thick and dark, and the mountain side rose abruptly a short distance away. Sunset passed and the twilight deepened into night-a starless darkness. Carlin had no lantern and had forgotten his matches. No deer had come to the lick, so there was noth- ing for him to do but to remain in the blind until daylight, and accept the sit-

999

HISTORY OF POTTER COUNTY.

nation as philosophically as possible. Charley was an old woodsman, and the idea of staying alone in the forest during the night gave him no uneasy thoughts. The great owl hooted from the pines on the mountain side; mice and small nocturnal animals sprang about and rustled the dead leaves, and now and then the soft leaping of the rabbit could be heard. But there was no danger in these sounds, and finally our hunter settled himself as best he could, with his head resting against the stem of the tree in whose top he was sitting. He had just got into a drowse when he became aware that there was something alive upon the trunk against which he leaned. His ear was upon the log and he felt rather than heard the pat, pat, of something that must be at the farther end of the tree. The sound was muffled and indistinct. He raised his head, but could hear nothing; yet laying his ear against the tree again, he heard the sounds once more. He tried to penetrate the darkness, but his vision failed. He might as well have striven to pierce the blackness of a thunder cloud. At last he became nervous about it, and determined at all hazards to discover the true inwardness of the mysterious sounds. He turned himself stealthily about and cocked his trusty rifle. Of course, taking aim was out of the question, as neither the sights upon the barrel of the gun nor the object could be seen, but getting the lay of the tree as best he could, he held his gun in as direct a line as possible above and along it, and drew the trigger. The next instant his heart was in his throat; there was a snarl and a spring in his direction; a second and third in rapid succession, and a swiftly-followed fourth, that car- ried a body just over the head of the now frightened hunter and into the tree. top; a scramble and a spring to the mountain side, and then rang out upon the blackness of the night the hair-raising scream of a panther. The animal did not pause, however, in its flight, but again and again its weird scream came back and echoed from the opposite mountain side, until it passed over the ridge far above. Carlin did not even doze again that night, and his im- agination peopled the forest with crouching panthers in all directions. When daylight gladdened his vision he crept along the log, and near the farther end where it had broken from its roots, he found a line of reddish grey hair that his bullet had evidently cut from the side of the animal.

A panther was known to be ranging the forest of the eastern part of the county, as lately as 1873, the writer hereof having visual evidence of the fact. He was treating a case at a lumber camp upon the mountain, near the head of Johnson brook, between the Phenix and Pine creek waters, and started one morning at 3 o'clock, in company with Perry Fillmore, of Hector, to make the ascent of the mountain. We reached the camp on foot, just before sun- rise, it being in the month of June. After making the professional visit, we started upon our return trip, alone, Mr. Fillmore being engaged at the camp. About fifty rods from the camp the road passed through a laurel swamp, through which a corduroy road was laid. Passing over this corduroy bridge, just at its end where the wheel of a wagon would drop off of the logs upon the ground, was a deep hole made by the wheels of the supply wagon that brought provision to camp. In a piece of mud drawn from this rut by a wheel, and fallen upon the dry road, just beyond, was the track of an animal of the cat species, fully five inches in diameter. The mud was of just the proper consistence to preserve every line and marking of the bottom of the foot. The track was a fresh one, and must have been made during the past night, as the supply wagon that drew out that piece of mud passed into camp just be- fore me, when I made my daily visit the day before, late in the afternoon. This was undoubtedly the track of the beast that was seen from time to time in that section; and about the same time ravages among the sheep upon the Genesee

1000

HISTORY OF POTTER COUNTY.

fork of Pine creek were frequent, as many as fifteen sheep being killed in one night. Upon the side hill where some of these sheep were killed many tracks were found where the animal had jumped, and apparently missing his victim, his claws had torn along in the down hill slide for several inches. The distance between the tracks, from where the spring began to where it terminated, were from sixteen to twenty feet. About this time an animal which was called the "lone wolf" was ravaging the flocks of the county. This animal was at that time and still remains a mystery, old and experienced hunters differing in opinion regarding this ravenous beast's identity, judging from its method of capturing its prey and its habits of wandering. One night sheep would be killed perhaps in Pike township, and the next night the victims would belong to Allegheny or Oswayo. The ravages of the succeeding night would frequently be twenty-five miles apart. Still the tracks when found, and the mode of at- tack, indicated the same animals. Some claimed that it was a panther, others that it was a stray wolf; thus the name of the "lone wolf" was given it. In 1875 there hung in the post-office at Coudersport a subscription list, offering in all $100 for the capture of the "lone wolf," and we understand the late Leroy Lyman, the most noted nimrod of the county, offered a considerable sum in addition to any one who would bring him into the reach of this much desired animal. Soon after this (1875), the mystery disappeared and has not been heard of since. As late as 1874 a large wolf was shot between the waters of the Phenix and the Pine creek. It was what is known as a black wolf, the ends of the hair being of that color. The bounty on this wolf was 821. It has been held by many that a deer could not be held by a man, and we really think it a very dangerous undertaking to attempt it, but that it has been tried the following anecdotes will reveal.

A resident of Hector township started one day for some tools that he had left at a shanty upon the mountain side, where he had been making shingles. There had been a light snow crusted over by a light rain which had frozen, so that the woods were what the hunter terms " noisy," the snow crunching beneath the footstep. This man was followed by his dog, which was a famous deer hun- ter, and had killed several while hunting on his own account; also being fol- lowed by the dog of a neighbor, noted as a good deer dog. The man (we may as well call him Charlie, for the reason that it will make the relation of the tale easier and because, also, that that was his real given name) had proceeded perhaps a half mile up his mountain way when he came upon the fresh track of a deer. The dogs took the scent, and in a moment had disappeared along the track in the direction the deer had taken through an extensive laurel thicket. . With the instinct of a deer hunter, Charlie calculated that if the deer was still in the thicket it would try to escape by a well-known "runway " which passed by a large elm tree a little farther down the hill. Although our hunter had no gun, the thought came to him that if he could reach the tree in time it might be possible to hide behind it, and spring upon the deer as it passed, throw it and cut its throat before it had time to struggle. Running back he reached the tree just as he heard the crunching of the snow that announced to him that his conjecture so far had been correct. Hastily getting out his knife he saw the brush moving as the deer approached, and an instant later the deer was beside him. With a quick spring, Charlie threw himself upon the back of the deer, and at the same time caught the fore leg of the animal upon the opposite side and dragged it upon its back, throwing himself upon it, but as the deer struck upon its back, its hind legs were drawn up, and in another instant our friend was flying into the laurels, with nearly all of his clothes torn from his body, and the agile creature was away. By this time, however, the dogs were near at

1001

HISTORY OF POTTER COUNTY.

hand, and followed upon the trail. Patching himself up as well as he could, Charlie looked for his knife, but could not find it, and heard the deer bawling a few rods up the mountain. He knew that the dogs had it, and burning for revenge he went as fast as possible to the help of his four-legged companions. He found that his dog had caught the deer by one of his hind legs just as it was in the act of clearing a high log, and so held it at such disadvantage that it could only hang over the log. Charlie helped to drag the deer back, but he had no weapon to finish the hunt. He thought with the help of the dog he could hold the deer until he had strangled it; he got the deer's head among some roots and began to choke it. At that moment the neighbor's dog pitched into Charlie's dog for a fight, the dog broke his hold upon the deer to resent the in- sult, and the deer, nearly stripping Charlie of his remaining rags, was away like the wind. A convenient club soon terminated the dog fight, and a mo- ment later the dogs were in full chase again, but our friend had had enough of it. He went on to the shanty and secured his tools, and in returning home he stopped in a saw-mill and related his adventure. While talking, he looked a little way and saw his dog rolling in the snow, he knew by this that the hunt had ended and the dog had been victorious. Accompanied by the saw-mill owner he went to where his dog was, and taking the back track he soon came upou the carcass of the dead deer with the neighbor's dog busily at work making a meal from the entrails. This dog was killed a short time after by a spike buck which, while at bay, ran one of his horns through his heart. Another time this same hunter shot a buck that ran a little distance and lay down upon the opposite side of a log, in every appearance being very sick. Not thinking it necessary to give the game another shot, Charlie set down his gun, and reaching over the log took the deer by his antlers, and with the other hand reached over with his knife to cut the animal's throat. At the same in- stant the deer sprang up and charged him, and he deemed it the most prudent thing to spring behind a small tree, against which the deer struck his head and sank upon its knees. Another foolhardy thought went flashing through the brain of our friend, and he laid hold of the antlers upon either side of the -tree, and, bracing himself, supposed that he could hold the animal until so weakened by the loss of blood that it would be in his power. But again and again the deer would arise to its feet and strain every muscle in our friend's body to hold it, and, what was most astonishing, appeared to grow stronger, until Charlie became alarmed for his safety, and began calling for help, the road being but a few rods away. Two men heard the alarm, and went to his assistance. These men claimed that if they had not happened along as they did the deer would have killed our friend.

A number of years ago Ephraim Bishop, of Hebron, was hunting upon the mountain back of the old Mills place at Colesburg. About 9 A. M. he shot at and wounded a buck, as in the case of the above narrated incident. The deer lay down behind a log and was, apparently. "sick unto death." So Eph set up his gun by a tree, took out his knife and prepared to give his victim the coup de grace, laying hold of the antlers with one hand. As the point of the knife pricked the deer's neck, it suddenly arose to its feet, with bristling hair and a dangerous light in its eyes. The knife was knocked from Eph's hand in the struggle, and our hunter saw that he could not easily escape being pinned by the buck's horns if he broke his hold to run, so he instantly deter- mined to fight it out. He now canght the deer's antler's with his other hand, and a struggle began that lasted more or less determinedly until 5 o'clock in the afternoon. Eph had no help whatever, as his dog had followed another deer away. Part of the time Eph was on top, and part the time the buck.

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.

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