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 132

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 132
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 132
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 132
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 132

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).

The mill-pond, full forty rods it was thrown; Large logs from their old beds were blown; They were rolled to and fro like cobs on a floor, Like the power of a god in the days of a Noah.

The population in 1880 was 554, while in November, 1888. there were' 92 Republican, 68 Democrat, 1 Prohibition and 11 Union Labor votes cast, representing 860 inhabitants. The number of taxables in 1889 was 224, and the assessed valuation $195,318. The assessor's statistics of 1889 give Couders- port 458 resident tax-payers, 150 horses, 4 oxen, 80 cows. Seated real estate was valued at $68,349, and moneys at interest 8286,311. The population in 1880 was 677, while in November, 1888, there were 296 qualified voters (179 Republicans, 86 Democrats, 3 Prohibitionists and 28 Union Labor), repre- senting a population of at least 1,480.

The officers elected in February, 1890, are as follows: Justice of the peace, Alva Taggart; supervisor, J. D. Earl; constable, Fred. Schadenberger; col- lector. L. R. Toombs; treasurer, Charles Reuning; town clerk, Julius Colcord; auditor, T. B. Abbott; school directors, Henry Reeves, J. P. Lehman, Wm. Frink; overseer of the poor, George Shelden; judge of election, Sherman Baker; inspectors of election, F. Gage, Justice Mehring.

In 1810 a petition to open a road from Coudersport to Ceres was granted by the court of quarter sessions of Lycoming county, when John King, Samp- son Crawford, Isaac Lyman, Wm. Ayers, Josiah Furman and John Lyman were appointed viewers. The return of this road, or report thereon, was made May 7. 1812. In September, 1811, a road from Lymansville, near Couders- port, southeast to Tioga county line, was authorized.

Eulalia township originally included within its boundaries the whole of the southern portion of the county, from which new townships were from time to time carved out, until the township was left in two disconnected parts (one of which the map-makers, without any authority, labeled Oleona), this part being as much a portion of Eulalia as the part which is marked Eulalia. At the time the legislation for the Coudersport graded school was obtained, leading citizens of Eulalia were consulted, and that part of the township marked Ole- ona was attached to Coudersport school district, with the understanding that the people of Eulalia should have the same privileges in the graded schools to

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HISTORY OF POTTER COUNTY.

be established as the people of Coudersport would have; and in accordance therewith many of the children of Eulalia have been educated in this school, and all of them attend whenever they wish to do so. In addition to this the direct- ors erected a house prior to 1882, on the East fork, and supported a school there the proper number of months in each year. On December 5, 1810, the Lycoming court, in answer to a petition of residents of Potter county complaining of the inconveniences arising from being attached to Dunstable, established Eulalia township within the boundaries of Potter. The name was given in honor of a daughter of John Keating. In 1828 the Cartee House was made a polling place. A pane of glass was taken from one of the windows, through which the tickets were passed. Mrs. M. A. Ross thinks that elections were held at the Cartee House prior to this date. There were but three families in Couders- port this year-the Hinckles. Timothy Ives' and the Cartees.

William Bingham paid to the county and State, for taxes of 1834, the sum of $1.466. 59 on unseated lands in Potter county. John H. Rose was his agent at that time. John Keating & Co. paid through their agent, O. A. Lewis, $467. IO State and county taxes on their lands in Eulalia township, $163.82'on lands in Roulette, 875.55 on lands in Sharon, $8.83 on lands in Sweden, and 8135.81 on lands in Wharton; Robert and Jesse Waln paid $271.81 State, county and road tax on their lands in Eulalia for 1834; the De Neuvilles, 83.92, Vaux & Stewartson, $151.44; David Lewis, $46.72; Henry Drinkes, 822.24; Thomas Stewartson, $151.36; William Waln, $53.24; Dan. Knight, $8.41; F. R. Wharton, $19.74; Moses Levy, $149; George Kress, $11.22; Jane Humphrey, $68.50; Fred Ravissee, $9.21; A. B. Deschapelles, $6.96; Theo. Gouzand, $13.36; Louis H. Doubigney, $13.36; Peter Provencher, 86.67; John Cole, 68 cents; Nichtin Griffith, $29.39; Samuel Webb, $112.45; Jacob S. Waln, $29.69; Barney Duffy, $14.85; Brewster Freeman, $33.10; George Cleadin, $6.90; James Hopkins, $88.28; Robert E. Griffith, $37.08; Thomas I. Wharton, $23; Hannah M. Wharton, $16.70; J. R. Smith, $30; Ketland, Yard & Co., $22.26.

Eulalia township, in 1836-37, claimed the following named resident tax. payers: Seth, George and John Taggart, Joshua Vincent, Betsy Van Etter, A. Woodcock, William, James and George Ayers, the colored freeman (Peter Asylum), Moses Strong's saw- and grist-mills, Leonard Taggart, Alanson An- drews, David Brooks, Thomas and Isaac Bellows, Hezekiah Bentley, Thomas Booth, John L. Cartee, Strait & Benson's saw-mill, L. Strong, Joseph Surong (blacksmith), L. D. Spafford, William Crosby, Reuben Clark. Nelson Clark (saw-mill), L. B. Cole, C. Chantabarger, Versal Dickinson (tavern, store, tan- yard), William and Josiah Earl, John Earl (merchant), Jason and John Wadsworth, Jonathan Edgecomb, Dr. D. N. Hunt, Denis Hall, B. F. Hoxsie, Hilyer & Boswick, F. B. Hamlin (freeman), T. J. Ives (merchant), B. H. Ives, B. Lull, C. Lyman, P. Lyman, Ed. Lyman, Eben. McDougall, James and John Nelson, Jr., Cephas Lilas, Horace Nelson, H. A. Nelson (grist-mill), E. Prouty, C. Prouty, John Peal, H. I. Payne, Ezra Reynolds, George C. Reynolds, David Ross.

The first store built in Potter county was erected in 1826 at Lymansville by Dr. Harry Lyman. Noble Howland, father-in-law of A. Rounseville, of Coudersport, came from Lisle, Broome Co., N. Y., that year. His wife lived until the summer of 1887, dying at the home of her son, Perry Howland, near Lymansville. John Dingman* built his second grist- mill on the Turner place, about five miles below Coudersport, in 1828. He built his third grist-mill the

*In 1825, Mrs. Ross states, Dingman's grist-mill stood near where is now the tannery. This was the first grist-mill in the county . . . . The saw-mill at Lymansville was an old institution at that time.

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HISTORY OF POTTER COUNTY.

following year on what is now the Benson place, above Lymansville. Henry Nelson died July 2, 1888. Sixty-eight years before, when he came to this section with his parents, there were only twenty-one families within the bound- aries of Potter county. Some twelve or fifteen years prior to his death, farm work being too hard for his advancing years, he removed to Condersport.

Ladona post-office ( Lymansville) was established in December, 1889, with L. R. Toombs, postmaster.

H. J. Olmstead, writing in 1889 on the question of constitutional prohibi- tion, gives a few points relating to the township and borough of a historical character. He says: "My acquaintance with Coudersport and vicinity com - menced in 1848, forty-one years ago this last March. At that time there were three licensed hotels; all the stores in town sold liquor except one. In one place was a rectifying establishment, and that one establishment prepared more whisky at that time for consumption in this county than all that is used in the county at this time. I do not hesitate to emphasize this. Then the population of Coudersport and vicinity was not more than one-fourth what it is now. possibly not that. And within the limits of the township of Eulalia (perhaps a little beyond the limits in some direction) there were twelve to fif. teen confirmed inebriates at the time."

In July, 1876, the Enterprise published a story connected with a well- known family, which, like the foregoing reminiscence of forty years ago, is too interesting to omit: "Seth Taggart, the well-to-do farmer whose death we recorded last week, a short time ago requested Mr. Colcord, his son-in-law. to take a pick and shovel and dig in a certain part of the cellar, and without telling him the purpose. Mr. Colcord did as requested, but, after excavating a considerable space, found nothing. He was then directed to another place. After digging in the second place as directed he came upon a black and par- tially decayed package, and to his utter astonishment found it to contain coin. It was then removed, washed and cleaned and found to be just $1,000 in gold and silver. It seems this was deposited by Mrs. Taggart, who has been dead nearly nine years, long years ago for her daughters, and Mr. Taggart, with religious reverence, left it undisturbed for years. Her wish was carried out, and the coin was there divided. Little did these daughters dream that mother earth was the ' safe deposit bank' of their long ago deceased parent. A por- tion of the coin we have seen, and none bears date later than 1854, and one piece is dated 1782, the year the war of the Revolution closed, and without doubt is among the few coins to be found of that date, now near one hundred years old. Some of this money, it is understood, was placed in a like strange deposit under the old house forty or fifty years ago, and removed to its recent resting place when the family removed from the old to the new house. The pieces we saw, although of great age, now that the mold of years is washed away, seem as bright as the coin of 1876."

BOROUGH OF COUDERSPORT.

The survey of Coudersport was begun in 1807. In King's survey notes, he states: "Left home to commence surveying and lodged at 143 mile tree 22d of the 7th mo. 1807. On 23rd went to where our provisions were left and built a camp, it being rainy we proceeded no further. 24th, went down the Allegheny to the Forks, and began to build a camp at Coudersport. 25th, finished the camp. 26th, went for remainder of our provisions and marked the road to the camp. 27th, split a number of stakes for the corners of lots in the town and altered some of the lines of the town. 28th, began to measure and stake out the lots of the town." On the 18th of the eighth month of 1807 the survey was

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HISTORY OF POTTER COUNTY.

completed, the Indians went home and the surveying tools were taken to Ceres by Sampson Crawford. It appears that Thomas Lightfoot had made a survey here prior to this, in 1805, and that there was a small island in the river in 1807.

The deed by John Keating & Co. to the trustees of Coudersport (recorded p. 94, Vol. A Deeds, dated June 3. 1SOS), conveys two-thirds of the lots in Coudersport, then surveyed, two public squares, one for court-honse and one for academy, together with 150 acres adjoining the town site to the county. He also donated $500 for the erection of a school building. and asked that the name he had given the location, in honor of a friend, Judge Couder, should be retained. In 1822 John Dingman and John Lyman contracted to clear the public square. In April, 1823, Isaac Lyman was granted $27 for clearing Iand at Coudersport, and in June $10 for clearing town plat. Peter Knicker- bocker continued the clearing in 1824. In 1835 the first court-house was erected. In 1849 work on the present court house was begun by Contractor Bell (who completed the Mckean county court-house in 1847-48), and the building was completed in 1851. Eli Rees had the contract for carpenter work, which he completed in 1852. June 26, 1888, remodeling was com- menced. and the work finished in May, 1889, Architect Hall and Com- missioner Wilber being the superintendents. The moneys then appropriated amounted to $17,000, to which liberal additions were made to complete the work. The following reminiscences of the early days of Coudersport are con- tributed by Mrs. Mary A. Ross, for sixty-five years a resident of the borough:

"John L. Cartee (Cartier), my stepfather, came to Potter county from Mas- sachusetts in June, 1824, for the purpose of selecting a home, locating same year in Coudersport, where he bought for $16, a village square, whereon the jail now stands. Here, in the fall of the same year, he commenced to build a house, but scarcity of lumber, and the early setting in of cold weather, com- pelled him to discontinue operations. The county commissioners had cleared three or four squares, which they leased to Mr. Cartee, who sowed them to wheat. In the spring of 1825 he moved his family, consisting of wife, step- daughter and little son, together with two hired men, and on May 10 they reached Coudersport, a desolate looking place, no house or building of any kind, except a small commissioners' office, which had been erected the year before.

" On what is now called the south side. the Keatings had a few acres cleared with a barn erected thereon, and apart from this clearing the place was a dense wilderness, our nearest neighbor being nearly a mile west of us. The Eulalia Keating Farm, as it was called until recently. is a body of land on the south bank of the Allegheny river; a portion of the village known as the Sonth Side, and containing nearly one-half of the population of the whole town, is built on this farm, and on lands belonging to the Ross estate on the eastern part of this division of the village.

"Ere we reached Coudersport we stopped for a short time at Lymansville, a thriving village founded by Isaac Lyman, who located at the place in 1809. His danghter, Eulalia was the first white girl born in Potter county. Isaac Lyman had the then best house in the county, and John Keating and his gen- eral agent, John King, used to make it their stopping place on their annual visits, and the county elections were held there for a long time. Mr. Lyman died in 1827. In September, 1825, the elections were held at the residence of John L. Cartee, and in 1826 (and many years thereafter) John Keating and his agent made Mr. Cartee's house their headquarters in this section.

"But to return to my original narrative of the Cartee family. We had a

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late dinner with Cephas Nelson (son-in-law of Isaac Lyman), who had been in the county about eight years, and we reached Coudersport late in the after- noon, and set about arranging for our first night in our wilderness home, which at that time consisted of a cluster of board tents erected in the course of a few hours, and a shanty built the previous fall. There were plenty of boards and shingles on hand, but scantling, joists and rafters had to be hewed out of logs and small timber. In ten days we moved into the addition erected by the side of the large frame. We had to cook out of doors; but Mrs. Cartee being a Yankee woman could not get along without an oven, so soon after a stone oven was built, and then a fireplace, although there was neither brick nor lime nearer than a distance of from forty to sixty miles.

"Our neighbors west of us, John Peet and family came to Potter county from New Jersey in 1811, and settled about a mile below Coudersport, then a dense wilderness. Two miles north of Coudersport there were two or three families. Daniel Clark, an Eastern man, settled with his family on a farm owned and still occupied by his son Nelson, and died in 1829. Two miles west there was another prominent family-the Taggarts . Squire ' Tag- gart located in Potter county in about 1817, four sons and three daughters coming with him. In 1825 he had a large farm well cleared, and some of his sons and daughters settled around him.

"Mr. Cartee soon began making arrangements for erecting a grist-mill, suc- ceeding in constructing a dam across the Allegheny river, and in 1826 he erected a frame building for the mill. In the fall of the same year a flood carried away the dam, and the mill was never completed. One of the mill- stones brought from Jersey Shore for the proposed industry is now in Mrs. Ross' grounds. Mr. Cartee was public spirited, but, trying to do more than he could accomplish, he became discouraged and dissatisfied with the country; so in 1838 or 1840 he went west, only occasionally revisiting the scenes of his pioneer labors; he died in the far west about 1863. Mrs. Cartee died at Coudersport in 1858, at my house.

" When we came to Coudersport in 1825, people could, if they were indus- trious, live comfortably. Bread was the hardest article of food to get. After the first two or three years, Mr. Cartee gave up raising wheat, but grew vegetables abundantly. Game was plentiful, and the river and creeks swarmed with trout. For many years much of the necessaries of life was brought from Jersey Shore, Lycoming county.

"In 1825, and for several years thereafter, Moses Haney, a lad of eighteen or nineteen years of age, brought the mail once in two weeks on horseback from Jersey Shore, Lycoming county, through Coudersport, to Olean, N. Y., and back again through Coudersport, and from Ayers' Hill, Potter county, through to Jersey Shore, then a dense wilderness, there being only one house in the entire distance. Letter postage was twenty-five cents.

"In 1825 Timothy Ives, the second inhabitant, was elected treasurer of Pot- ter county vice Dr. Harry Lyman. Mr. Ives built a store for general merchan- dise, and a dwelling house in Coudersport the following year. In 1827 Michael Hinkle came to the place, built a house where he carried on blacksmithing. Mrs. Hinkle died early in the ensuing winter-the first death at Coudersport. In the fall of 1827 or 1828 Versal Dickinson put up a building and partly finished it for tavern purposes, where the Coudersport House now stands. Capt Strong came about 1828, and in three or four years succeeded in clearing a few acres, erecting a grist-mill, a saw-mill and a comfortable dwelling house. Dennis Hall came with his family in the winter of 1829, and built his residence in following summer; he had some rooms plastered, the first in the village; the

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HISTORY OF POTTER COUNTY.

building is still standing, occupied as a tenement house, and is the property of the Ives estate. Maj. McDougall came to Coudersport early in the 'thirties;' he had a general store, and built several houses. Same year came also a family by the name of Bishop. Dr. Pratt, the first physician in the village, stayed a few months, and then left. Dr. Gifford, the next physician, died in 1834, and Dr. Hunt succeeded him, but remained only a short time.

"C. S. Jones, a prominent merchant and resident of Coudersport for over forty years, had been associate judge, a member of the legislature, and from its first organization a deacon of the Presbyterian Church; he died in March, 1879 .*

" In 1834-35 the first court-house was built, and the first court was held in September, 1835, Judge Eldred or Judge Herrick being the first president judge to officiate in the county, with Timothy Ives as one of the associate judges. Previous to this, from 1826 or 1827 Potter county was attached to Mc- Kean, and before that period to Lycoming, court being held at Williamsport, about seventy five miles distant. About the time of holding courts at Coudersport, lawyers began to settle here, among them being Crosby W. Ellis, L. F. Maynard, Arch. MeDougall, F. B. Hamlin and others, all long since gone. About the year 1839 John S. Mann, a lawyer, came to the place, and here lived until his death in 1879. A brother, Hon. Joseph Mann, lived in Potter county forty years or more, and in Coudersport twenty or twenty-five years; he was associate judge at one time, and died in 1885 or 1886, leaving a large estate to his only daughter, Mrs. P. A. Stebbins. The Olmsteds, three brothers, came late in the 'forties,' and became very successful, prominent men in their several vocations.

" The county commissioners moved their office in 1835, and the old office was used for several years as a school-house, and a new building was erected for the district school in 1842-43. At present there is a fine brick building for the graded school. After 1835, when the first court house was built, it was not only used for courts of justice, but for many religious purposes, for lect- ures, political meetings, conventions, etc., and so continued to be used occa- sionally until the new court-house and earlier churches were built.

"In 1852-53 the present court-house was erected, the builder being Mr. Bell; in 1888-89 it was rebuilt at more than the original cost.

"In 1831 a Mr. Babcock, from the Smethport Methodist circuit, came to Coudersport on missionary work, continuing through the summer, and, when Conference met, itinerant ministers were sent here.

"The first church built in Coudersport was a Presbyterian house of worship, in about 1850, erected mainly through the persevering energy of the pastor, Rev. David Brown, who had been with the people several years. The first Presbyterian clergyman in the place was Rev. Mr. Bliss, who came here in 1832, remaining, however, only a few months.

"The Protestant Episcopalians commenced as early as 1842-43, when they formed a small communion of members under the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Pratt, but he soon became discouraged and left. One or two other attempts were made to support a clergyman, but failed after a short trial. Rev. William Marshall, the present rector, has been here some seven or eight years, during which time the congregation have succeeded in building a stone church. Other church organizations in Coudersport were formed later, and the Epis- copal, Lutheran and Catholic Church buildings have been put up within the past ten years."

*Mrs. Ross also makes mention of several other pioneers, whose histories appear in their several biographical sketches .- [Editor.]

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HISTORY OF POTTER COUNTY.

The first post-office in this district was at Lymansville, Isaac Lyman being first postmaster. Later Cephas Nelson filled the office for several terms. The postoffice at Coudersport is said to have been established May 14, 1818, with Isaac Lyman, postmaster, who held the office until April 21, 1827. His suc- cessors were appointed and served as follows: Timothy Ives, Jr., from April 1, 1827, to July 1, 1832. William McCall, from July 1, 1832, to September 1, 1832. Dennis Hall, from September 1, 1832, to October 1, 1834. Isaac Strait, from Octo- ber 1, 1834, to January 1, 1836. Benajah H. Ives, from January 1, 1836, to Jan- uary 1, 1838. Samuel Haven, from January 1, 1838, to April 1, 1839. Wales C. Butterworth, from April 1, 1839, to April 1, 1840. A. H. Butterworth, from April 1, 1840, to June 30, 1841. William McDougall, from June 30, 1841, to March 20, 1845. Charles B. Cotter, from March 20, 1845, to January 5, 1849. William T. Jones, from January 5, 1849, to July 5, 1849. Frank L. Jones, from July 5, 1849, to November 1, 1850. Abiather Rounseville, from November 1, 1850, to April 18, 1853. John M. Judd, from April 18, 1853, to September 9, 1859. Samuel Haven, from September 9, 1859, to March 13, 1861. Lewis Mann, from March 13, 1861, to September 9, 1861. John S. Mann, from September 9, 1861, to January 4, 1866. Don C. Larra- bee, from January 4, 1866, to August 29, 1866. Eli O. Rees, from August 29, 1866, to March 29, 1869. M. S. Thompson, from March 29, 1869, to March 15, 1887. Edward N. Stebbins was appointed March 15, 1887, and is the present incumbent. In March, 1883, Coudersport was created a presiden- tial office.

In 1838 the county was startled by the suicide of John Rose, who was a clerk in the Bingham estate office. Daniel Cobb was at that time the agent of the Binghams. The suicide was committed by shooting, in a barn belonging to Timothy Ives. This barn is still standing in Coudersport, on the north side of Third street, near the river, directly opposite the barn of H. J. OIm- sted.

In 1828 Versal Dickinson taught one of the first schools in Coudersport. The legislature appropriated $2,000 toward the building of an academy at Coudersport in 1838. John Snow was the contractor who erected the building upon the side hill west of West street, between Fifth and Sixth streets. The first term of school was held in this academy in September, 1840, Prof. Max- well being principal. A school was taught in Coudersport in 1838, by Charles Taylor, of Smethport, but could not have been taught in the academy build- ing. Land had been given for school purposes (one square) as early as 1807, by John Keating, together with $500 in money. The grant was accepted by an act of the assembly. The district school building was at the corner of West and Fourth streets. At this time a great deal of the ground upon which Coudersport now stands, west of Main street, was a swamp, composed of pools of water, willows and bogs. Many people, not much past the middle age, can remember poling their rafts, constructed of loose boards, where the residences of Z. J. Thompson, R. L. Nichols and D. C. Larrabee now stand. The old district school-house is now the property of Hon. A. G. Olmsted, and used as a tenant house. As late as 1841 there were but five or six dwelling-houses in the borough. There could have been, certainly, no more in 1838, at the time the academy was built, as there had been no fires to destroy the place.

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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