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 35

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 35
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 35
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 35
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 35

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).

Women's Relief Corps was organized February 15, 1887, with the following named members: Madams Flora Hogarth, Nancy Van Loon, Julia Helmer, Elizabeth Richardson, Jane Hall. Susan Baker, Ada Horton, Mary Steele and Misses Ina Richardson, Nora Fogle, Belle Fogle. Clara Steele, Nellie Clare, Belle Bartle and Lou Bartle. Mrs. Hogarth and Mrs. Van Loon have presided over this society, of which Mrs. Sarah Hooker is now president. Mrs. Rich- ardson was first secretary, and Mrs. Lou Bartle is present recorder. There are nineteen members.

The Port Allegany I. O. G. T. was organized September 20, 1867, with J. K. Moore, W. C. T. Mrs. J. F. Shurtz, O. D. Vosburg, Misses Thompson, Wilkin, Dolley and Vosburg, Mrs. Lillibridge, W. D. Bellows, Mason Lilli- bridge, Izates Dolley and G. B. Fitch, were the officers.

The Port Allegany Library Association was organized in February, 1875, with A. J. Hughes. president; E. P. Dalrymple, secretary ; A. B. Humphrey, Mrs. F. H. Arnold and Mrs. Thomas MeDowell, executive committee.

The High School Literary Society, in March, 1890, elected the following nained officers: President, William H. Catterall: vice-president, Grace M. Sweeting; secretary, Alice Rowley; treasurer, Gretta Kinney; librarian, Edith Van Densen.

The International Fraternal Alliance was instituted at Port Allegany in November. 1889. by J. B. Hargrave. It sets forth to pay its members the sum of $700 every seven years. M. J. Headley is speaker, S. J. Carlson, elerk. and W. H. Keeney, treasurer.

The W. C. T. U. elected the following named officers in December, 1889: Mrs. C. A. Larrabee, president; Mrs. G. C. Farnsworth, secretary, and Mrs. R. C. Bard. treasurer.

The Young Women's Christian Temperance Union elected the following named officers June 10, 1889: Mrs. J. S. Shaner, president; Delia Dolley, vice-president: Aliee Rowley, secretary, and Dora Dolley, treasurer .... On July 18. 1889. the Loyal Temperance Union was organized by Miss Schoch,. with E. May Bellows. leader.

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HISTORY OF MCKEAN COUNTY.

The Port Allegany Musical Association was organized by S. W. Adams in August, 1876, with C. A. Larrabee, Mrs. Kate Cowdrey, S. W. Smith, Mrs. T. McDowell and H. J. Barrett. officials.

The Business Men's Club was organized in November. 1889, with F. E. Rowley, president: B. C. Gallup, vice-president; G. C. Farnsworth, secretary : R. J. Mott. treasurer: J. H. Williams, J. V. Otto and W. W. Rinn, trustees.

The MeKean County Agricultural Society. - For some years before the war an agricultural society existed in the county and held fairs annually. Smeth- port being the headquarters. After the war, and up to 1875, the old society showed signs of life, but the oil excitement of 1875 diverted men's attention from farms and farming, and the organization may be said to have ceased. A few years later. when oil prospectors did not succeed so well east of the divide. the prosperous farmers of Liberty, Keating and adjoining townships suggested their willingness to revive their association, and as a result the Mckean County Agricultural Society was organized in February, 1880, with A. J. Hughes, N. N. Metcalf and E. B. Dolley, directors. Among the stockholders were the officers named and F. H. Arnold. A. M. Benton, G. L. Blackman, S. R. June, Goltry and Camp and S. W. Smith. In 1881-82 V. R. Vanderhule. was president and A. J. Hughes, secretary. The Mckean County Agricultural Society petitioned for incorporation September 24, 1883. F. H. Arnold. W. J. Davis and N. N. Metcalf were elected directors, and the total membership was twenty-five. The following officers were elected for 1890: President, N. R. Bard: vice-president, E. B. Dolley: secretary, A. J. Hughes: treasurer, F. H. Arnold; directors: Henry Smith, B. C. Gallup, L. J. Gallup; auditors: Thomas McDowell, E. P. Dalrymple, W. J. Davis. The shares are $100 each.

Port Allegany is beautifully located in one of the most picturesque parts of the Allegheny Valley. Nestling upon the banks of the river, it forms the gate to the upper Allegheny country, and from it leads the first railroad built in that country. A range of hills bounds the horizon, from the summits of which is spread out, before the observer, a landscape rivaling in beauty and exquisite perfection many of the scenes chosen by master artists for their pencil or brush. The whistle of the locomotive is constantly heard, as hurrying trains come and go; the river gives life and animation to the scene, and all in all the city site was well chosen and her streets surveyed on proper lines. Round the business section and interspersed with the houses of trade are seen the modern homes and well-kept grounds of the people; school and church buildings, and even the park, the whole completing a picture at once harmonious and attract- ive. This pretty town is a monument to the intelligence of the people and to their enterprise, which will survive when superficial tokens of remembrance shall have crumbled into dust.

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HISTORY OF MCKEAN COUNTY.

CHLAPTER XVIII.

NORWICH TOWNSHIP.

TOPOGRAPHY, ETC .- GEOLOGY-COAL MINES-OIL WELLS-POPULATION-OFFI- CERS FOR 1890-ASSESSMENT, 1837 -- EARLY SETTLERS-THE OLD NORWICH CHURCH-THE NORWICH CEMETERY ASSOCIATION-STORES IN 1847-MINERAL WELLS-TIMBER LANDS AND SAW-MILLS-NEWERF.

N ORWICH TOWNSHIP forms the southeast corner of the county in con - junction with a strip of territory belonging to Liberty township. The divide occupies a central position, reaching an elevation of 2,348 feet above the ocean. From this height the east branch of Potatoe creek flows south and west, to join the main creek running north by the divide; North creek and Portage creek, southeast to the Sinnemahoning portage, and the head-waters of Allegany portage north into the Allegheny river above Port Allegany. The Salt Works branch of the Sinnemahoning also rises in the southeast corner. The Emporium and Norwich anticlinal valleys traverse this section, while the Norwich and Clermont synelinals or bituminous coal basins parallel the anticlinals. The highest elevation of the bottom of the Olean conglomerate is found three-fourths of a mile northwest of Keating depot, 2,275 feet above ocean, and the lowest at the Hamlin coal opening, 1,890 feet. The low est measured point in the township is just below Crosby post-office, where the creek bottom is 1,508 feet above ocean level. The average dip from the Keat- ing summit near the depot to the Lyman Camp mine in the Potatoe creek coal basin is 140 feet per mile, but in sections it ranges from 250 feet per mile to 100 feet. From the Lyman Camp to the Hamlin mine the dip is only eleven feet, and thence to Burnt Hill eighteen feet. From Norwich Hill to Splint mine on the eastern side the dip is 110 feet per mile; the southeastern dip, in the southwest corner, 132 feet per mile, and the dip between Wolcott-Comes creek summit and well No. 1, twenty-two feet per mile. There are many local dips in the coal beds of this township, while the rock ontcrop extends verti- cally downward to the upper Chemung shale and sandstone, a distance of 1.240 feet (as at Coal Pit mines, which open 2,183 feet above tide), from the shale overlying the Dagus coal bed. This stratum shows 290 feet of coal meas- ures, including Olean conglomerate, 450 feet of Manch Chunk and Pocono, 300 feet of red Catskill and from 150 to 250 feet of Chemung. The 290 feet of coal measures show fifteen feet of shale, three of gray slate, five of Dagus coal, one and one-half of fire-clay, forty of shale and sandstone, three and one-half of coal, one and one-half of fire-clay, thirty-three of shale and slate, one and one-half of Clermont coal, one and one-half of fire-clay, fifty of Johnson run sandstone, five of black slate, two and one-half of Alton upper coal, eight of tire-elay and shale, three-fourths of Alton middle coal, four and one fourth of shale and sandstone, four of Alton lower coal, two of fire-clay, forty-eight of Kinzua creek sandstone, two and one-third of Marshburg upper coal, two and two-thirds of fire-elay and fifty-five of Olean conglomerate and sandstone. The section was made from the survey by F. E. Gleason in 1876. The conforma- tion at the Rock coal mine, 2, 138 feet above tide, varies a little, showing a

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HISTORY OF MCKEAN COUNTY.

fifteen-feet exposure of flaggy sandstone at the opening, while the Hamlin and Splint coal beds rest on Kinzua creek sandstone. The Blue coal opening is 2,028 feet above tide; the Spring, 2,035 feet, and Rochester cannel mines, 2,074 feet. In the test of these coals it was found that Coal Pit coal yielded about 56.2 of fixed carbon and 63.6 of coke; Spring, 59.3 and 67.3, respectively ; Hamlin, 61.6 and 69.2; Blue, 62.1 and 69; Rock, 58 and 70; Lyman Camp, 57.5 and 68.8; Charley, 49.2 and 64.2; Block coal, 38.8 and 61.5; Burnt Hill (cannel), 48.1 and 66.3, and Rochester (cannel), 37. 7 and 75.9 per cent of fixed carbon and coke. In the gas test, one pound from the Hamlin seam yielded 5. 10 cubical feet; from the Spring and Blue seams, over four; from the Block, over three and one-half, and from the Burnt Hill cannel almost three cubical feet. In 1875-76 explorations on the Backus and Chadwick lands (known as the Butterfield purchase), in the southeast and southwest corners of Sergeant and Norwich townships, were reported by Seth Backus, of Smethport. Well No. 1 opened 2,232 feet above ocean level in five and one-fourth feet of soil, resting on a bed of shale from fourteen to twenty feet in depth. This well reached a depth of about 1,400 feet, striking white, fine, micaceous sand rock at the bottom, passing through thin beds of coal (thirty feet below the mouth) and iron ore. In well No. 2 a heavier coal deposit was found sixty-four feet be- low the surface, and in well No. 4 about forty-seven feet below the top. In the vicinity of No. 4 the Buffalo Coal company opened a well 2,173 feet above ocean level, and at a depth of almost 127 feet bored through the Marshburg coal. Up Indian run several four-inch beds have been opened.

Near Hamlin, an oil well was drilled in 1875-76 to a depth of 2,002 feet, and in June, 1877, the great flagstone quarry was opened by Orlando Gallup, and worked by John Digel.

The population of Norwich township in 1880 was 431. In 1888 there were 96 Republican, 63 Democratic and 3 Prohibitionist votes cast, or a total of 162, representing a population of 810.

The officers for 1890 are as follows: Supervisors, B. D. Colegrove, E. E. Burdick; school directors, J. B. Oviatt, N. C. Gallup; justice of the peace, M. Blodgett; constable, Ellis Griffith; town clerk, J. B. Oviatt; auditors, W. E. Wilson, C. A. Anderson and C. D. Comes for one year; collector, O. D. Gal- lup; judge of election, R. N. Wilson; inspectors, W. O. Gallup, W. B. Richey.

The assessment of residents of Norwich township in 1837 shows the names of John Abbey, Tim Abbey, John Avery, Dave Allard, Joe Apple, I. Burlingame, William Brewer, Wheeler and Henry Brown, George and Daniel A. Easter- brooks, Rowland Burdick, Nathan Brewer, Asa Cotton, Dave Comes, Elias J. Cook, Benjamin and Jonathan Colegrove, Francis J. Chadwick, Edward Cor- win and son, Amos Coats, Henry Chapin, Edward Dickenson, Levi Davis, Jr., R. Eastwood, John Ellis, Job Gifford, John S. Gunning, O. W. Wheeler, Jabez, N. C. and A. E. Gallup, Luke B. Gibson, J. W. Howe, John Housler, Ben Haxton, L. and Hiram Havens, Horatio and William Hall,* Thomas Hookey, George and H. Jacox, Henry Lasher, Asenath Lawrence, Levi Lathrop, Samuel Messenger, Abner Miller, - Marsh, I. Murphy, Eben Pattison, Daniel Rifle, Nathan Robbins, Esseck Smith, William Smith, Henry Scott, Levi Thomas, Asa Townes, Rhoda White, Samuel Wiswall (trader), William White, Tim and L. F. Wolcott. Henry Scott was assessor, and he recommended Daniel Rifle and Esseck Smith for collectors.

The first permanent settlement was made in 1815 by Jonathan Colegrove, the Abbeys and Wolcotts from Norwich, Chenango Co., N. Y., with others from various towns, giving the township the name of their old home. William Smith and the Whites and Corwins also settled in Norwich .... William Gifford, who

* William ITall was the owner of the grist-mill.

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HISTORY OF MCKEAN COUNTY.

was born in Norwich township in 1821, died June 26, 1889, at Smethport .. . . Edward Corwin, who served in the Revolution for six years and a quarter, came with his family to Norwich in 1822, and in 1828 settled at Smethport. Ghordis Corwin, the son, died in 1876, leaving $800 to the Baptist church, which he joined here in 1836.

The old Delmar Church, the first organized in the western part of Tioga county, lost seventeen members in 1820-21, when the old Norwich church of McKean county was founded. In 1876 James Steele, of Port Allegany, was said to be the last survivor of the first members.

The Norwich Cemetery Association was incorporated in November, 1874, with W. J. Colegrove, A. P. Brewer, O. D. Gallup, D. D. Comes and Orlando Gallup, trustees.

Colegrove is a thriving village, located on the Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad. The post-office there was presided over, up to 1880, by W. J. Colegrove, to whose efforts the establishment of an office at this point was due. Jonathan Colegrove is the present postmaster. In 1883 the general mercantile business of W. J. Colegrove & Son was purchased by C. A. Anderson. The Heinemann lumber industry and other lumber interests in the vicinity contribute principally to the trade of the village. A pumping station of the National Transit Company is located here.

In May, 1847, the stores of C. R. & B. O. Burdick and J. F. Gallup were opened in Norwich.

Gardeau is the new postal name given to the old Elk-lick.

The Parker Magnetic Mineral well, near the corner of Mckean, Potter and Cameron counties, nine miles from Emporium, was analyzed in July, 1888, and found to contain 627. 59 grains of mineral matter-Silica, 1.33; Mag. Chl., 109.84; Cal. Carb., 11.95; Cal. Chl., 221.92; Sod. Chl., 282.55; Pot. Chl. traces. In 1887 a mineral spring was discovered at Four Mile on N. P. Min- ard's lands. The present site of the flowing well has always been known, since the earliest history of the country, as the great Elk-lick. Although it is not certain that the water flowed from the ground in its present strength, it un- doubtedly possessed saline qualities which attracted deer and elk in great num- bers. In 1865 N. H. Parker drilled a well 640 feet deep in the bed of the old spring, and struck the present vein of mineral water that flows from the top of the well. Mr. Parker drilled the well in the hope of finding oil. The water was allowed to flow uncared for and unthought of, until about four years ago, when one George Broucham, who was working for Mr. Parker in the saw- mill, was laid up with an attack of calculus, which had been troubling him for several years. Having a fondness for this water, he commenced drinking it from the well, and began to recover immediately. The flow of the spring, which never varies perceptibly, is about sixty-five gallons per hour. The spring was purchased by the Parker Mineral Spring Company in 1888. They have built a good hotel and commodious bath-house, which are under efficient management.

In February, 1890, H. C. Crawford bought 1,400 acres of timber land, on the line of the Western New York & Pennsylvania Railroad, about fifteen miles south of Port Allegany, and engaged in cutting the timber on it. He has built two saw-mills, one at Gardeau, and the other at Sizerville.

Digel is the name of a post-office in this township.

Newerf, formerly known as Spearsburg and later as Crosby, is six miles south by east of Smethport. Here at the old Spearsburg mill, lately owned by G. C. Carpenter & Son, people in this vicinity and Smethport, no later than 1873, came to have lumber planed. This mill was burned about 1884. Here also were the oil extract works written of in the chapter on the oil fields.

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HISTORY OF MCKEAN COUNTY.

The town is pleasantly located on the line of the Western New York & Penn- sylvania Railroad, and contains several frame houses, a billard room, a tonsorial parlor. a building recently erected for a foundry, not yet in operation, a board- ing house which is under the management of Ed. Eldridge, two blacksmith shops, and two saw mills, one owned by the Crosby lumber company and the other by James White. There is also a school-house which was built in the fall of 1882. The school is managed by a Mrs. Cary of Bradford. Besides all these many improvements there are two stores. one owned by the Crosby Lumber Company, and the other by M. Erhart. The last store contains the post-office and M. Erhart is the postmaster.

At the rate of the present output of hemlock lumber, it will be but a few years when people around here will be compelled to resort to other in- dustries, in order to gain a livelihood. The forests are being stripped of the hemlock very rapidly and no doubt the present generation will live to see hem- lock as scarce as pine is. After the little hills are stripped of the hemlock the land will be of little use save for grazing, and then the sheep will have to be shod. for the hills are so steep and stony that they can not hold their footing.

CHAPTER XIX.

OTTO TOWNSHIP.

OTTO TOWNSHIP -- TOPOGRAPHY - POPULATION - OFFICERS ELECTED IN 1890- RESIDENT TAX-PAYERS, 1854-55-ARTIIUR PRENTISS' ACCOUNT-SOME EARLY SETTLERS-STORMS AND FIRES - CHURCH-SOCIETY AT RIXFORD - MISCEL- LANEOUS . DUKE CENTRE-SOME FIRST THINGS-THE PLACE IN 1879-POSTMASTERS POPULATION-CHARTER ELECTION, 1881-GAS COMPANY-BANK-CHURCHES -SOCIETIES.

O TTO TOWNSHIP is situated in the north part of the county. Indian creek rises in the northeast corner near the New York State line; Tram. North and Kansas branches of Knapp's creek. which flow together above Duke Centre, occupy the three canons of the north, while the heads of the north branch of Cole creek flow south by east from the southern divide, leaving the center of the township to be drained by Knapp's creek, in the valley of which the Kendall & Eldred Railroad runs. The greatest measured height is the summit of the Tide Water Pipe Line southeast of Rixford, 2,148 feet, but it is ascertained that the summit between Indian creek and North branch is 2,350 feet above tide. Up to 1879 there were no discoveries of coal or other min- eral made here, save that of petroleum, and the little territory was second to none of equal extent in the production of this oil.

Otto township in 1880 claimed 4,277 inhabitants. Of this number 249 resided in Kansas Branch village, 145 in Fullerton. 737 in Oil Valley, 1,127 in Rixford, 136 in Prentiss Vale, 231 in Tram Hollow and 16 in Windfall village. In 1888 there were 173 Republican votes cast, 99 Democratic, 50 Prohibition and 50 United Labor, or a total of 372, indicating the population at the time to be 1,860.

The officers elected for 1890 are as follows: Supervisors, F. W. Sprague, H. T. Breese; school directors, James Fraiser, J. M. Sloan; auditor, J. T.

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HISTORY OF MCKEAN COUNTY.

Irvine; collector. Z. Wilson; town clerk, E. B. Cronk; constable, C. C. Ama- long; justice of the peace, E. R. Nash; judge of election, First District, E. B. Cronk; inspectors, J. W. McCown, Frank Walsh; judge of election, Second District, J. J. Donley; inspectors, J. R. Martin, F. R. Burton.

The resident tax-payers of Otto township, in 1854-55, were J. M. Baldwin (who died in Maine), Nahum, Samuel, Sr., James Cyrus, Asa and Sam. Baldwin, Jason W. Blanchard (now in Wisconsin, former owner of Rixford), T. J. Bryant, Cook, Borden & Co. (saw-mill owners), John and Josiah Davis, Gideon Ellis (living near Eldred), L. Ellis, James Fogle, Jesse Garey (Keat- ing), Orisson Grey (moved to Wisconsin), Milton Koons, Col. James Labree, O. Lovell, William Lovejoy, James McCord, William McCullough (moved to Jamestown). Hiram Moore, Robert Moore, Arthur Prentiss (still a resident) and H. K. Prentiss G. M. Prentiss, Ed. S. Reed. Brad. G., Joe and William H. Spiller, George and William Plummer, John Swink (living in Kansas), Rev. M. W. Strickland, J. S. Thompson (now in Eldred), Henry Twambley (living in Minnesota). Coon Wagoner (moved away) and Miami York (moved west). The value of their property was placed at $6,305 by Nahum Baldwin. Deacon Sprague came in January, 1856, and settled that year on his present farm.

The following from the pen of Mr. Arthur Prentiss, giving some of his reminiscences of Otto township, will be read with much interest: "The valley of Knapp's creek," says Mr. Prentiss, " now forming the greater part of Otto township, was formerly included in the township of Eldred. It was an un- broken wilderness until 1842, in which year Hermon Strong, who had come from Springfield, Penobscot Co., Me., located a farm at what is now called Prentiss Vale, although for three years before settling here he had been a res- ident of Farmers Valley, same county. Soon after getting fairly to work on his farm he put in operation a Yankee shingle machine, the first in the county. Through the influence of Mr. Strong, who was an old acquaintance of mine. I first came to what is now Otto township in December. 1845, having in view the purchase of the pine timber land (at the head-waters of the creek branches). and also the location of a colony of eastern farmers and lumbermen. I spent several days with Mr. Strong in exploring the pine lands, and then returned home. In the spring of 1846 I again visited the spot and made further ex- amination of the valley, as well as several other locations, but being unable to make any definite agreement for the timber land. owing to the existence of some old speculation contracts, I again returned home. The fall of the same year. however, once more found me out in this land of promise, and I succeeded in arranging with W. B. Clymer (general agent for the Bingham estate) and John King (agent for the Keating estate) for all the land we wanted. In April, 1847, I moved my family to Farmers Valley, and occupied the old Sartwell (now Goodwin) farm two years, while locating land preparatory to building a mill, etc. In the spring of 1849 I moved into a log house in the valley and began the erection of a saw-mill, which was put in operation in the fall. The heavy frame of this mill was raised without the use of whisky, probably the first so raised in the county. (No intoxicating drink was ever sold in the val- ley before oil was found. ) In 1851 the timber land and mill were sold to W. P. Pope and Cyrus Strong, of Binghamton, N. Y., who cleared the streams, built dams to reserve the water, and drove the pine logs, Yankee fashion, to Olean, where they built mills and manufactured for the eastern market. In 1854 they sold out the remaining timber and the mills to Borden & Co., of Fall River, Mass., since known as the Olean Lumber Company. Almost all this timber land has proven to be the best oil territory in the county.

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HISTORY OF MCKEAN COUNTY.

"A goodly number of settlers from the vicinity of my former residence in Penobscot county, Me., came and located on farms in my vicinity. We soon built a small school-house, in which, for years, were held school, Sabbath- school, religious services, etc. We had only a winter sled road from the river, a distance of about three miles, but it was not long before we made a wagon road, spending about $1.000, 8500 of which were appropriated by the county. Soon after starting business we procured the establishment of a special post-office, which continued as such for about fifteen years, when a regular mail route from Eldred to Bradford was put in operation. I. W. Prentiss was appointed postmaster in 1850, and held the office about two years, since which time I have held the office. Since the discovery of oil, two other offices have been established. In 1852 (I think, as all records were destroyed by fire) a Congregational church was organized, with Rev. M. W. Strickland, from Maine, as first pastor. This church at one time had more than thirty members, but through deaths, removals and other causes is now almost extinct. Most of the early settlers were Old Line Democrats, but they were soon converted to anti-slavery Whigs or Republicans, and at one election. near the commencement of the war of the Rebellion, the eighty or so voters gave a unanimous Republican vote. At the outbreak of that war almost all of our men, liable to military duty, volunteered, and I think only two were drafted. We sent nearly fifty soldiers in all, of whom about twenty lost their lives. Probably no other township with the same number of voters furnished and lost an equal number of men during that struggle."

Benjamin Bunker came in 1852, and was engaged in lumbering and milling until 1884, when he moved to Minnesota, where he died in 1889. John Duke came here about the time of the Civil war, and built the present mills after that struggle.

This township, like the adjoining one of Foster, has suffered considerably from fire, and on one occasion was storm-stricken. The storm of November, 1879, destroyed the new church building at Rixford, and a number of derricks there. at Dallas, and at other points.

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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