USA > Pennsylvania > McKean County > Bradford > Illustrated history of Bradford, McKean County, Pa. > Part 2
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).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15
ALBERT DeGOLIER.
18
tion with Mechanic street for many years. What now comprises the business portion of the city was then a thick forest. P. L. Webster's residence at the corner of Chestnut and Corydon streets, one of the very few remaining structures which were built among the fifties, was then in the backwoods. As the new comers arrived the flat lands towards the East Branch were settled and Main street was laid out. Until this time Kendall or Tarport, as the village had been nicknamed on account of a little tar and feather party which had taken place, was the chief trading point in Bradford township. Here were the four large saw mills of Melvin and Chamberlain and W. R. Fisher and also their general store, as well as the store of Hiram Hazzard, David Hunt, Sabinas Walker, and Johnson and Leech. The hotel was conducted by Harvey D. Hicks, who also acted as postmaster, the authorized deputy of Postmaster Melvin. Sabinas Walker even at that early date maintained that Littleton was destined to be a large and active city, although he did not live to see his predictions fulfilled."
In the early days of the village history it was believed that every hill of McKean county covered rich and inexhaustible veins of bituminous coal, and predictions were freely made that the development of these resources would result in benefit to the village. We now know that this idea was erroneous, but even the inost sanguine enthusiast never dreamed of the oily ocean buried deep in those rugged hills and waiting for the time to come when fortune seekers should uncover it.
Prior to the incorporation of Bradford as a village, the people probably paid little attention to public affairs, although we are told that "there was much excitement over the prospect of opening inexhaustible coal mines" and that "C. D. Webster was village engineer." The truth is the people were so busy with their various enterprises that they had little time to devote to other subjects, and it was not until the early seventies that the borough of Bradford was incorporated.
19
CHAPTER III.
HAT indispensible accompaniment of civilization, the newspaper, made its first appearance in Bradford in 1858, the initial number bearing date March 12th of that year. The paper was called the Bradford Miner and a big whole souled man named Col. Crane was the first editor. Col. Crane addressed himself vigorously to the task of mould- ing public opinion, and during his brief career of a little over a year as editor, he several times proudly felicitated himself that his newspaper con-
DANIEL KINGSBURY: Deceased.
SANDS NILES:
Who built the second house in Bradford about 1838.
tained more original matter than any other three country weeklies in Western Pennsylvania, to say nothing of the fact that it had a bona fide circu- lation in "eighteen different states and territories." Judged by modern stand- ards the little sheet, was not much of a newspaper, but it is nevertheless of considerable value today as an accurate reflection of the aims and purposes of the early settlers and a connecting link between the past and present. Its columns contain numerous accounts of adventures with wild animals, thus indicating that they were not extinct even in those days. In the paper dated
20
April 30, 1858, is found the following which is a fair sample of several sketches of like import.
FIGHT WITH A BEAR .- "Some two weeks ago since John Carney and his son one evening engaged in cutting up some beef in a yard attached to the residence on the line of the road some six miles south of this place. The old gentleman was in the house, the son outside cutting up the beef by candle light. The old gentleman was startled by a cry "the bear, the bear." Rushing out he found his son and a couple of small dogs engaged with the bear who designed making a supper of fresh beef at the expense of the Railroad Company, but John and the dogs were valiant and the bear fled, only to find himself attacked by the father who having a billet of firewood, gave him a settler pack of the ear that caused him
ROBERT ROY, Sr.
HON. LOYAL WORD.
to fly from the field of battle. Victory perches on the banner of the Carneys. A week ago today Saturday, John Hazzard killed a wild cat near the same place."
They had some joyful social functions in those good old days and to the Miner we are indebted for an account of a ball that occurred at the Kendall Creek house July 2, 1860. It reads as follows:
"A correspondent sends us the following which we gladly insert. Ed. Miner, your correspondent had the pleasure of attending a hop at the Kendall Creek house on the evening of the 2nd inst., and he doubts if any social gathering, more prolific of good old fashioned enjoyment has ever taken place than this Mine host, Fuller, is a model landlord, and whoever enters his door experiences an agreeable sensation of feel at homeativeness, and this was especially manifested by all participants and lookers on. There was an
21
entire absence of the class who are usually "spoiling for a fight"' and this added greatly to the general happiness and comfort. The supper was most excellent in arrangement and quality, and the bar was not found wanting for a variety of exhilarating liquidities, to which your correspondent endeavored in his poor way to do ample justice.
Vinton's band from Ellicottville furnished most delightful music and whoever employs these gentlemen will be certain to satisfy the most fastidious ear both in quality and quantity. The novel arrangements of their instru- ments renders their music decidedly effective and entertaining.
On the whole this dance was a positive success and may the Kendall Creek house continue to flourish and its proprietor long may he wave.
F. J. F.
22
THE VILLAGE PERIOD.
CHAPTER I.
HE discovery of oil in adjacent fields led to explorations in and about Bradford. Fred Crocker was one of the first oil men to visit this section. He came in about 1860 and obtained several leases, but so far as known accomplished nothing. In April, 1861, oil was found on the Beckwith farm a mile west of Smethport, and the energetic oil men continued their explorations in the Tuna valley. It is said that it was some- where in this section that a company of irreverent drillers placed over their
"Sock Ball" on the Village Common near the site of the St. James Hotel, looking down Main Street .- Photograph taken in the sixties.
derrick the sign "Oil Hell or China," and it is also said that they found neither of the three.
The first well in the Bradford field was drilled in 1861 on the north side of Corydon street, near the creek and within the present city limits. The well was sunk to a depth of 700 or 800 feet and abandoned, the outbreak of the Civil War enlisting the attention of the prospectors.
The second well is known as the old Barnsdall well. This was drilled in 1862 by the Barnsdall Oil Company composed of William Barnsdall, P. L. Webster, Col. J. K. Haffey, C. C. Melvin, Enos Parsons and others. With the old fashioned rude spring pole rig the well was driven down to a depth
23
of 875 feet and abandoned. The company relinquished the leases and thus the second effort proved unsuccessful.
In 1865 and 1866 further explorations were made. In 1868 "Uncle" Job Moses, who had learned something by experience went down the proper depth and found a small quantity of oil at Limestone. His discoveries gave the prospectors an idea of what a proper development of the region would yield and explorations continued. Improved drilling machinery and methods, and increased knowledge of altitudes and geological structures, at last brought the Bradford oil to the surface in paying quantities. In 1875 Messrs. Jackson, Walker, Solmon and Urquhart put down a well on the north side of Jackson avenue near the residence of Judge Ward. It was a good producer. About the same time P. T. Kennedy got a ten barrel well on the P. L. Webster lot near the St. Benard's church. Fred Crocker struck a hundred barrel well on the Watkin farm. The Olmstead well on the Crooks farm at State Line, Lewis Emery's No. 1 on the Tibbetts' farm at Toad Hollow, and other heavy producers, brought to Bradford oil speculators from far and near, and in an incredibly short space of time completly changed the character of the town.
AUGUSTUS W. NEWALL.
24
A. W. NEWELL'S CAR.
CHAPTER II.
HE impression prevails that during the period of the oil excitement Bradford was one of the toughest towns on earth. Sensational news- paper writers, and even the more conservative historians have told such thrilling tales of the "grog shops," "brothels," "gambling dens" and the like that flourished unchecked during the palmy days of oil. that the public has come to believe that for picturesque wickedness the city was equalled by few, and excelled by none. A fair sample of this literature is found in Mr. McLaurins "Sketches" as follows:
"Scarcely had the Crocker well tanked its initial spurt ere the fun grew fast and furious. Rigs multiplied like rabbits in Australia. Train loads of lively delegates from every nook and cranny of oildom crowded the streets, overran the hotels and taxed the commissary of the village to the utmost. Town lots sold at New York prices and buildings spread into the fields. At Mitchell's Bradford house, headquarters of the oil fraternity, operators and landholders and drillers 'off tour' solaced their craving for the good things of life, playing bililards and practicing at the hotel bar. Hundreds of big contracts were closed in the second story room where Lewis Emery, Judge Johnson, Dr. Book and the advance guard of the invading host assembled. Main street blazed at night with the lights of dram shops and the gaieties inci- dental to a full fledged frontier town. Noisy bands appealed to lovers of varieties to patronize barn like theaters, strains of siren music floated from beer gardens, dance halls of dubious complexion were thronged and gambling dens run unmolested.
The free and easy air of the community, too intent on chasing oil and cash to bother about morality, captivated the ordinary stranger and gained Bradford notoriety as a combination of Pit-Hole and petroleum with a dash of Sodom and pandemonium condensed into a single package. In February 1879, a city'charter was granted and James Broder was elected Mayor. Radical reforms were not instituted with undue haste
25
to jar the sensitive feelings of the incongruous masses gathered from far and near. Their accommodating nature at last adapted itself to a new state of affairs and accepted gracefully the restrictions imposed for the general welfare. Checked temporarily by the bullion spasm in 1876-77, the influx redoubled as the lower country waned. Fires merely consumed framed structures to hasten the advent of costly brick blocks. Ten churches, schools, five banks, stores, hotels, three newspapers, street cars, miles of residences and fifteen thousand of the liveliest people on earth attested the permancy of Bradford's boom. Narrow guage railroads circled the hills, traversed spider webbed trestles and brought tribute to the city from the outlying districts. The area of oil territory seemed interminable. It reached every direction until from sixteen thousand mouths, seventy-five thousand acres poured their liquid treasure. The daily product in oil waltzed to one hundred thousand barrels. Iron tanks were built by the thousand to store the surplus crude. Two, three or four thousand barrel gushers were lacking,
SOUTH SIDE OF THE SQUARE BEFORE THE FIRE.
but wells that yielded twenty-five to two hundred littered the slopes and valleys. The field was a marvel, a phenomenon, a revelation. Today it is a thriving railroad and manufacturing centre, the home of seventeen thousand intelligent, independent, go ahead citizens, proud of its past, pleased with its present and confident of its future. "
"As a matter of fact," said one of the old residents of Bradford to the writer, "these things were greatly exaggerated. It is true the city was full of life at night, but this was due in a large degree to the fact that the oil men worked night and day on the wells and the drillers changed their tours of duty at midnight. As a consequence the streets were alive with people at a time when other cities were asleep. I have often lain in bed at night and listened to the tramp of the men as they went to their work. It was an all night town, but it was not nearly as bad as pictured. The oil men as a rule were substantial, law abiding citizens who had located in Bradford with their families, intending to make the place their permanent home, and while they
26
The Old Bradford House, 1877.
FOREST WELD
PEOPLES STORE
Main Street below the Bradford House, taken at the same time as the companion cut.
may perhaps have countenanced a certain degree of laxness in morals, the town was no worse than many others of its class. Indeed in some respects it was better than the average. There was no criminal element worth mention- ing. Property was as secure as it is today. There was little litigation, and none of that wild extravagance that has frequently been described in the newspapers. In a word Bradford was just an average city, filled with busy nien hastening to get rich. And in their haste they doubtlessly overlooked many things which in older communities would not have been permitted."
CHAPTER III.
ON. LOYAL WARD was police justice during this transition period, and the severity of some of his sentences led to threats of personal violence on the part of the persons aggrieved. Undeterred by such threats he resolutely pursued the policy he had mapped out, and in this way aided materially in ridding the city of many of its evil influences. On one occasion a woman was arrested in a dance hall on Mechanic street and arraigned in his court on a charge of disorderly conduct. It transpiring that the trouble was caused by the effort of the proprietor to eject the woman from the place, Judge Ward refused to punish her. Another and more accom- modating justice subsequently imposed a fine. The woman retaliated by procuring a warrant for the arrest of the proprietor on charge of maintaining a disorderly house. This was the opportunity the worthy judge long had sought and he made no effort to conceal his satisfaction. Great pressure, politcal and personal was brought to bear upon him to let the offender off with a fine, but he refused and thus one of the evil resorts was broken up.
27
Judge Ward passed through many exciting experiences. On one occasion he was called to quell a disturbance on Pine street and arriving on the scene, found an angry mob intent upon lynching two Chinamen who kept a laundry in the alley. Realizing there was not a moment to lose, the worthy police justice produced a revolver and deputizing two robust citizens to assist him, cleared the alleyway in less than five minutes.
"Considering the fact, " said Judge Ward, "that many strangers were in the city, it is remarkable there were so few serious crimes. Intoxication and minor assault cases made up the bulk of my docket. I endeavored to drive the criminal classes out of town by imposing severe sentences every time I
ANDREW BROWN.
G. D. H. CROOKER.
had an opportunity, and I think I convinced them they need expect no mercy in my court."
" It was during these times that a bull and, bear fight was arranged at Custer City for the benefit of the frolicsome oil men. Opinion varied as to the comparative "hooking" and "hugging" qualifications of the two animals, and the discussion of this disputed point was conducted so publicly that news of the prospective contest reached the ears of the Society for the Pre- vention of Cruelty to Animals. An agent of the society was therefore sent post-haste from Philadelphia to prevent the battle if possible.
The event was a ludicrous and disagreeable disappointment. Neither animal at first displayed any signs of belligerency. The bear merely blinked at the row upon row of faces surrounding the ring and uttering an indifferent. and gutteral grunt, would have gone quietly to sleep had not the bull,
28
goaded by the attendants, made a charge which caught Bruin squarely amidships. A fierce bellow and a mighty toss and three hundred pounds of angry bear meat was projected plump in the midst of the audience. Thor- oughly frightened the people scattered in every direction, leaving the bull in undisputed possession of the arena.
The Philadelphia agent with the assistance of a constable named Critten- den procured warrants for arrests on a wholesale scale, and the service of these warrants aroused excitement to a fever pitchi. The accused men determined to fight. They engaged attorneys Eugene Mullin, Nelson B. Smiley and George A. Berry to defend them, and thanks to their efforts the preliminary examination failed to disclose any damaging facts. The constable who was relied upon to furnish convincing proof of the presence of the Bradford citizens at the fight, was himself arrested on some trivial charge and in default of bail, confined in the Tarport lockup. When released he exhibited an astonishing and unaccountable lapse of memory, and the prosecution was finally discontinued.
The innocent bear, kept for a time at the expense of the authorities, was finally turned loose and the incident was closed.
A story is told of another occasion when the police raided a dance hall and arraigned the entire party before Mayor Broder at one o'clock in the morning. As is usual in such cases, the trial disclosed the existence of a pronounced and embarrassing difference of opinion. The prosecution denounced the dance as rivaling the revelry of the imps of the infernal regions, and insisted the entire party be punished. The defense declared the proceeding was an arbitrary and outrageous violation of the doctrine of personal rights guarnteed by the constitution of the United States, and demanded the immediate release of all the prisoners.
Mayor Broder hesitated for a moment. He gazed meditatively at the crowd, the women in their bedraggled ball room finery, the men with their threats of vengeance, and suddenly there recurred to his mind a snatch of an old poem he used to recite in school, and rising to his feet he declaimed with due judicial dignity, "On with the dance. Let joy be unconfined."
The revelers bowed their thanks and the dance went on. This story may be true and it may not. It is given for what it is worth.
RAILROAD ENTERPRISES.
CHAPTER I.
HE old inhabitant of Bradford has seen nearly every variety of railroad that the mind of man has devised. Narrow gauge roads, broad gauge roads, and roads with no gauge at all. Level grades, medium grades and steep grades. Hand cars, upright engines horizontal engines and ordinary locomotives are among the things that are familiar to the old resident and more or less curiosities to the stranger.
Five railroads now tap Bradford. The Erie, which is the oldest, the Pennsylvania or Western New York and Pennsylvania as it was formerly
29
-
known, the Buffalo, Rochester and Pittsburg which was opened November 19, 1883, and the Bradford, Bordell and Kinzua locally known as the narrow gauge. The Bradford and Olean trolley line completes the list.
The Erie was originally projected in 1856 as the Buffalo and Bradford and Pittsburg Railroad company. It was opened for traffic January 5, 1866. The other railroads followed in due time and have contributed their share towards developing the resources of this section.
CHAPTER II.
N THE history of the early railroad enterprises of Bradford, Augustus W. Newell is entitled to a chapter all to himself. Mr. Newell was employed in 1856 to survey a line of road through this region, the legislature having granted a charter to a corporation known as the Bradford and Buffalo Railroad Company to construct a line of road from the New York state line and up the valley of the Tunungawant Creek to the coal mines in Mckean county. This road was, in due time completed and the company commenced a service between Bradford and Carrolton. The operating expen- ses ate into the profits to such an extent that after a few months experience the road was abandoned. The company in the meantime had neglected the trifling detail of paying Mr. Newell the salary due him for his services, and that gentleman who had devoted his time and imperilled his health in wading swamps, swimming creeks and climbing over logs. found himself without a cent hundreds of miles from home. Here was a predicament. Obviously a man without money or friends in this hustling settlement was not in a position to pose as a gentleman of leisure, if indeed he had felt any desire to do so, and he addressed himself vigorously to the task of devising ways and means to relieve his financial embarrassment. Soon his fertile and resourceful brain conceived a scheme that was charmingly short and simple. He would procure a flat car and haul passengers between Bradford and Carrolton. "I reasoned," said he, "that as soon as the roads became impass- ible in the fall I would get all the business between the two towns and that a reasonable rate for the traffic would amply repay me for my efforts."
Like many another scheme, however, the plan which was alluringly easy in theory, proved vastly different in fact. With no money and little credit, Mr. Newell soon discovered that his pathway to the position of pro- prietor of a railroad line was not strewed with roses, and a less resourceful man would probably have thrown up the whole business. Not so with this gentle. man. He persevered, and having influential friends connected with the company, obtained permission to use the right of way. The next step was to procure rolling stock. An obliging friend connected with the railroad at Carrolton lent him an old set of trucks and in some manner he managed to pick up a fairly serviceable hand car. Thus equipped he began a series of personally conducted tours between Bradford and Carrolton, which from the very beginning put money in his purse and hope in his heart.
30
In these days of mogul locomotives and huge steel cars the sight of that primitive railroad train would doubtless be irresistibly funny, but at that time it was a godsend to the people having business in Bradford. Mr. Newell had gauged the situation correctly. With the approach of winter the muddy trails through the dense forest became practically impassible and the entire freight and passenger traffic, including the United States mails was turned over to Mr. Newell with his little hand car, "and," said that gentleman to the writer, "the business never fell below $10 per day." Ten dollars per day was a magnificent income to the young civil engineer, but he earned it. He
FIRST OIL EXCHANGE IN BRADFORD.
was engineer, conductor, brakeman, fireman, section boss, superintendent, passenger agent, freight agent, and general manager rolled in one. In the morning bright and early he pumped his train up to Carrolton, where he always found freight and passengers awaiting him. Stacking the freight on the rear of his little flat car and packing the passengers on the plain pine seats in front, he would shout all aboard in the most approved style and grasping the crank of the handcar, would commence his laborious journey back to Bradford. Fortunately the grade was fairly good the entire distance, although occasionally he would be compelled to request the passengers to alight and bear a hand pushing the car up the grade at Ervin's Mills, a request that was always cheerfully complied with. Occasionally some fellow without money
31
HON. C. S. FOSTER.
Came to this Valley in 1827.
time the engine was delivered at Carrolton. Mr. Newell's finances by that time had been reduced to such a low figure that he was unable to pay the freight and the engine re- mained for several days on a siding while he was hustling his old hand car back and forth to earn the sum necessary to make up the deficiency
Great interest was shown by Mr. Newell's friends in this last schemc. He explained to them that he intended to place the engine on a car and by means of pulleys and belts con- struct an engine that would haul the train over the route. As he knew little about sta- tionary engineering, his friends were skeptical as to the result
was permitted to pay his way on the hand car, and thus Mr. Newell managed his little en- terprise for some time. But pumping a car load of freight and passengers daily between Bradford and Carrolton was not one wild round of pleasure even for a vigorous muscular young man like Mr. Newell. He yearned for a steam engine and as his finances would not permit the purchase of even the most promising candidates for a locomotive junk heap, he determined to find a substi- tute. Taking a few days off he inade a trip to Tidioute where he negotiated the lease of a five inch single cylinder steam engine formerly used for drilling an oil well. In due
DELPHA HARRIS.
32
and jeered him unmercifully. Nevertheless he persevered and at last had his novel locomotive ready for the trial trip. To his great delight it worked fairly well and he knew the transportation problem was solved.
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.