Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume I, Part 72

Author: McKnight, W. J. (William James), 1836-1918
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers
Number of Pages: 650


USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume I > Part 72


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In 1843 the town was watered by hydrants. supplied by a copious spring.


In 1847 the town had waterworks, the en- terprise of Judge Jared B. Evans. The spring that furnished the water was what is now known as the American spring. The conduit pipes were bored yellow pine logs, and the plant was quite expensive; but owing to some trouble about the tannery, which stood on the spot where the American barn now stands, the water plant was destroyed. Judge Evans was a useful citizen. He died some three years ago.


In 1840 the church collection was either taken up in a hat with a handkerchief in it or in a little bag attached to a pole.


11. Clay Campbell, Esq., has kindly fur- nished me the legal rights of married women in Pennsylvania from 1840 until the present date. The common law was adopted by Penn- sylvania, and has governed all rights except those which may have been modified from time to time by statute. Blackstone's Commen- taries, Book 1 .. page 442, says, "By marriage. the linsband and wife are one person in law ; that is, the very being or legal existence of the woman is suspended during the marriage. or at least is incorporated and consolidated into that of her husband, under whose wing, protection, and cover she performs every- thing."


You see the rights surrendered by a woman marrying under the common law were two: First, the right to make a contract : secondly, the right to property and her own earnings. To compensate for this she acquired one right. the right to be chastised. For as the husband was to answer for her misbehavior, the law thought it reasonable to intrust him with the power of restraining her, by domestic chastise- ment, with the same moderation that a man is allowed to correct his apprentice or his chil- dren.


In 1840 married women had no right to the property bequeathed to them by their parents, unless it was put into the hands of a trustee, and by marriage the husband became the im-


mediate and absolute owner of the personal property of the wife which she had in posses- sion at the time of marriage, and this property conkl never again revert to the wife or her representatives. She could acquire no per- sonal property by industry during marriage ; and if she obtained any by gift or otherwise, it became immediately by and through the law the property of her husband. This condition prevailed until the passage of an act, dated April 11, 1848, which in some slight degree modified this injustice of the common law. By that act it was provided that all property which belonged to her before marriage, as well as all that might acrue to hier afterwards, should remain her property. Then came another modification by the act of 1855, which provided, among other things, that "whenever a husband, from drunkenness, profligacy, or other cause, shall neglect or refuse to provide for his wife, she shall have the rights and privileges secured to a femme-sole trader under the act of 1718." Modifications have been made from year to year, granting addi- tional privileges to a wife to manage her own property, among which may be noted the act of 1871, enabling her to sell and transfer shares of the stock of a railroad company. By the act of May, 1874, she may draw checks upon a bank. During all these years of en- lightenment the master has still held the wife in the toils of bondage, and it was with great grudging that he acknowledged that a mar- ried woman had the right to claim anything. The right to the earnings of the wife received its first modification when the act of April, 1872, was passed, which granted to the wife. if she went into court, and the court granted her petition, the right to claim her carnings. But legally the wife remained the most abject of slaves until the passage of the "married woman's personal property act" of 1887, giv- ing and granting to her the right to contract and acquire property ; and it was not until 1893 that she was granted the same rights as an unmarried woman, excepting as to her right to convey her real estate, make a mort- gage, or become bail.


The higher education of women in the seminary and college is of American origin, and in iS.jo there was an occasional young ladies' seminary here and there throughout the country. These isolated institutions were organized and carried on by scattered indi- viduals who had great persistency and courage. Being of American origin its greatest progress has been here, and at present there are more than two hundred institutions for the superior


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education of women in the United States, and fully one half of these bear the name of col- lege. The women who graduate to-day from colleges and high schools out-number the men, and as a result of this mental discipline and training women are now found throughout the world in every profession, in all trades, and in every vocation.


Preferring sense from chin that's bare To nonsense 'throned in whiskered hair.


Women are now admitted to the bar in many different States of the Union, and by an act of Congress they may now practice be- fore the United States Supreme court.


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In 1840 women had but seven vocations for livelihood, viz., marriage, housekeeping, teaching. sewing, weaving, typesetting and bookbinding. Then female suffrage was un- known. To-day (1895) women vote on an equality with men in two States ( Colorado and Wyoming), and they can vote in a limited form in twenty other States and Territories.


In 1915 women are in full enjoyment of the elective franchise in the following States and countries : Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, Idaho, Washington, California, Arizona, Kansas, Oregon, New South Wales, New Zealand, Queensland, South Australia, Tasmania, Vic- toria, West Australia, Norway, Iceland and Finland.


In 1840 woman had no religious rights. She did not dare to speak, teach or pray in public, and if she desired any knowledge in this direc- tion, she was admonished to ask her husband at home. The only exception I know to this rule was in the Methodist Church, which from its organization has recognized the right of women to teach, speak in class-meetings, and to pray in the public prayer meeting.


In 1840 women had no industrial rights. I give below a little abstract from the census of 1880, which will show what some of our women were working at then and are working at now :


Artists. 2,016; authors, 320; assayists, chemists and architects, 2,136; barbers, 2,902 ; dressmakers, 281,928; doctors, 2,433 ; journal- ists, 238; lawyers, 75: musicians, 13.181; preachers, 165; printers, 3,456: tailors, 52,- 098: teachers, 194.375; nurses, 12,294; stock raisers, 216; farmers, 56,809; in government employ as clerks, 2,171 ; managing commercial and industrial interests, 14.465. And now in 1894 we have six thousand postmistresses, ten thousand, five hundred women have secured patents for inventions, and three hundred


thousand women are in gainful occupations. I confess that this statement looks to the in- telligent mind as though "the hand that rocks the cradle" will soon not only move but own the world.


In 1915 women are found in all the three hundred and five occupations reported for man. According to the statistics compiled for 1914, under direction of Labor Commissioner John Price Jackson, there are 67,166 women in this State engaged in the manufacture of clothing. More women are employed in that industry than in any other. Textile establish- ments employ 56,253 women; tobacco fac- tories, 24.395; food and kindred products establishments, 11, 198; metal plants, 10,611 ; laundries, 8,121 ; printing plants, 7,506 ; leather and rubber goods mills, 6.647 ; paper and paper products factories, 6,309: chemical works, 3,227 ; clay, glass and stone industries, 2,877 ; woodworking plants, 1,957; industries allied with building trades, 660 ; agriculture, forestry, and fisheries, 383; liquors and beverage pro- duction, 363; mines and quarries, 66; en- gineering and laboratory service, 22. In ad- dition to that classification there are 8,538 women engaged in miscellaneous industrial employments.


Under the classification for clothing manu- facturers, 27,930 women make hosiery ; 7,621 make men's furnishing goods, 3,567 men's other forms of apparel, and 5.870 work on women's clothing. Corset manufacture keeps 929 women employed. In the various indus- trial pursuits, 1,209 women aid in the making of patent medicines ; 145 help make brick and tile : 356 manufacture glass bottles ; 4,291 make candy ; 1.462 pickle preserves, and canned fruit and vegetables ; 389 do engraving : 4,530 make boots and shoes : 821 build cigar boxes ; 270 work on coffin manufacture; 1,050 make um- brellas and parasols; 2,138 are engaged in machinery manufacture: 399 make needles, pins, hooks and eyes ; 453 make watches and clocks; 22,883 women make cigars, while 1,090 rolled cheroots and stogies. This record does not include every industrial plant within the State and completely excludes mercantile establishments and professional offices, where many thousands of woman are employed. The Federal Census reports for 1910 set forth that there were at that time approximately two million. five hundred thousand females in Pennsylvania over fourteen years of age.


The earliest schools established by the set- tlers of Pennsylvania were the home school. the church school, and the public subscription school, the most simple and primitive in style.


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The subscription or public school system re- mained in force until the law of 1809 was en- acted, which was intended for a State system, and which provided a means of education for the poor, but retained the subscription char- acter of pay for the rich. This 1809 system remained in force until 1834. The method of hiring "masters" for a subscription school was as follows: A meeting was called by public notice in a district. At this gathering the people chose, in their own way, three of their number to act as a school committee. This committee hired the master and exercised a superintendence over the school. The master was paid by the patrons of the school in pro- portion to the number of days each had sent a child to school. A rate-bill was made out by the master and given to the committee, who collected the tuition money and paid it to the master. The terms of these schools were irregular, but usually were for three months.


The studies pursued were spelling, reading, writing, and arithmetic. The daily programme was two or four reading lessons, two spelling lessons, one at noon and one at evening, the rest of the time being devoted to writing and doing "sums" in arithmetic. It was consid- ered at that time (and even as late as my early schooling) that it was useless and foolish for a girl to learn more at school than to spell, read, and write. Of course there was no uniformity in textbooks. The child took to the school whatever book he had, hence there was, and could be, no classification. Black- boards were unknown. When any informa- tion was wanted about a "sum," the scholar either called the master or took his book and went to him.


The first schoolmaster in Jefferson county was John Dixon. Ilis first term was for three months, and was in 1803 or 1804. The first schoolhouse was built on the Ridgway road, two miles from Brookville, on the farm now owned by D. B. McConnell (now-1915-the County Home farm). I give Professor Blose's description of this schoolhouse :


"The house was built of rough logs, and had neither window sash nor pane. The light was admitted through chinks in the wall, over which greased paper was pasted. The floor was made with puncheons, and the seats from broad pieces split from logs, with pins in the under side, for legs. Boards laid on pins fastened in the wall furnished the pupils with writing desks. A log . fireplace, the entire length of one end, supplied warmth when the weather was cold."


The era of these log schoolhouses in Jeffer-


son county is gone, gone forever. We have now ( 1895) school property to the value of two hundred, sixty-nine thousand and three hundred dollars. We have one hundred and ninety-six modern schoolhouses, with two hundred and sixty-two schoolrooms, two hun- (red and ninety-five schools, and the Bible is read in two hundred and fifty-one of these. There is no more master's call in the school- room, but we have one hundred and thirty-one female and one hundred and forty-nine male teachers-a total of two hundred and eighty teachers in the county. The average yearly term is six and a half months. The average salary for male teachers is thirty-nine dollars and fifty cents, and for female teachers, thirty- three dollars. Total wages received by teach- ers each year, sixty-four thousand, nine hun- dred and thirteen dollars and twenty cents. Number of female scholars, five thousand, eight hundred and thirty-nine; number of male scholars, six thousand and seventy-three. The amount of tax levied for school purposes is fifty-six thousand, six hundred and eighty- eight dollars and twenty-three cents; received by the county from State appropriation, forty- two thousand, seven hundred and fifty-nine dollars and seventy-two cents.


The act of 1809 made it the duty of as- sessors to receive the names of all children between the ages of five and twelve years whose parents were unable to pay for their schooling, and these poor children were to be educated by the county. This law was very unpopular, and the schools did not prosper. The rich were opposed to this law because they paid all the taxbills, and the poor were opposed to it because it created a "caste" and designated them as paupers. However, it re- mained in force for about twenty-five years, and during this period the fight over it at elections caused many strifes. feuds, and bloody noses. This was the first step taken by the State to evolve our present free-school system. The money to pay for the education of these "pauper" children was drawn from the county in this way: "The assessor of each borough or township returned the names of such indigent children to the county commis- sioners, and then an order was drawn by the commissioners on the county treasurer for the tuition money."


One of the most desirable qualifications in the early schoolmaster was courage, and will- ingness and ability to control and flog boys. Physical force was the governing power, and the master must possess it. Nevertheless, many of the early masters were men of in-


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telligence, refinement and scholarship. As a rule, the Scotch-Irish master was of this class. Goldsmith describes the old master well:


Yet he was kind, or if severe in aught, The love he bore to learning was in fault.


The village all declared how much he knew, 'Twas certain he could write and cipher, too. In arguing the parson owned his skill, For e'en though vanquished he would argue still.


The government of the early masters was of the most rigorous kind. Perfect quiet had to be maintained in the schoolroom, no buzzing, and the punishment for supposed or real dis- obedience, inflicted on scholars before, up to, and even in my time, was cruel and brutal. One punishment was to tie scholars up by the thumbs, suspending them in this way over the door. "Spare the rod and spoil the child" was the master's slogan. Whippings were frequent, severe and sometimes brutal. Thorn, birch and other rods were kept in large num- ber by the master. Other and milder modes of punishment were in vogue, such as the dunce-block, sitting with the girls, pulling the cars, and using the ferrule on the hands and sometimes on the part of the body on which the scholar sat.


What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more.


In 1840 the country master boarded around with the scholars, and he was always given the best bed in the house, and was usually fed on doughnuts and pumpkin pie at every meal. Ile called the school to order by rapping on his desk with his ferrule.


During the twenty-five years of the ex- istence of the pauper schools the agitation for a better system was continually kept up by isolated individuals. This was done in various ways, at elections, in toasts to a "free school system" at Fourth of July celebrations, and in conventions of directors. The first gov- ernor who took a decided stand in favor of the common schools was John A. Schulze. He advocated it in his message in 1828. Governor Wolf, in 1833, found that out of four hun- dred thousand school children of the legal age, twenty thousand attended school, and that three hundred and eighty thousand were yearly uninstructed. Therefore, in his message to the Legislature, he strongly recommended the passage of a law to remedy this state of affairs. William Audenreid, a senator from Schuyl- kill county, introduced a bill during the ses- sion of the Legislature of 1833 which became


what is known as the school law of 1834, the establishment of the common school system. Our second State superintendent of public in- struction was appointed under this law. His name was Thomas H. Burrowes. The first State aid for schools in Jefferson county was given in 1835. The amount received was one hundred and four dollars and ninety-four cents.


"Barring the master out" of the schoolroom on Christmas and New Year's was a custom in vogue in 1840. The barring was always done by four or five determined boys. The contest between the master and these scholars was sometimes severe and protracted, the master being determined to get into the school- room and these boys determined to keep him out. The object on the part of the scholars in this barring out was to compel the master to treat the school. If the master obtained possession of the schoolroom, by force or strategy, he generally gave the boys a sound flogging; but if the boys "held the fort," it resulted in negotiations for peace, and in the master eventually signing an agreement in writing to treat the school to apples, nuts or candy. It took great nerve on the part of the boys to take this stand against a master. I know this, as I have been active in some of these contests.


In the forties the schoolbooks in use were the New England .Primer, Webster's Spelling Book, Cobb's Spelling Book, the English Reader, the New England Reader, the Testa- ment and Bible, the Malte Braun Geography, Olney's Geography, Pike's Arithmetic, the Federal Calculator, the Western Calculator, Murray's Grammar, Kirkham's Grammar and Walker's Dictionary. \ scholar who had gone through the single rule of three in the Western Calculator was considered educated. Our present copybooks were unknown. A copy- book was then made of six sheets of foolscap paper stitched together. The copies were set by the master after school hours, when he also usually made and mended the school pens for the next day. Our pens were made of goose- quills, and it was the duty of the master to teach each scholar how to make or mend a goosequill pen. One of the chief delights of a mischievous boy in those days was to keep a master busy mending his pens.


The pioneer schoolhouse in the town was built in the summer of 1832. My father, Alexander McKnight, taught the first term of school in Brookville in this building, in the winter of 1832-33. I can name but a few of his scholars, to wit, James Wilson, W. W.


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Corbet, Rebecca Jane Corbet (mother of Cyrus 11. Blood, Esq.), John Heath, Sarah Clements, Daniel Smith, Oliver George, Susan Early, John Barton, II. Hastings, and John Butler. Mrs. Pearl Roundy was the first teacher that I went to. She taught in this house. She was much beloved by the whole town. 1 afterwards went to Ilamlin and others in this same house.


When the first appropriation of seventy- five thousand dollars was made by our State for the common schools, a debt of twenty-three million dollars rested on the Commonwealth. .\ great many good, conservative men op- posed this appropriation, and "predicted bank- ruptcy from this new form of extravagance." But the great debt has been all paid, the ex- penses of the war for the Union have been met, and now ( 1895) the annual appropriation for our schools has been raised to five and a half million dollars. This amount due the schools for the year ending June 5, 1893, was all paid on November 1. 1893, and our State treasurer had deposits still left, lying idle, in forty-six of our banks, amounting to six and a half mil- lion dollars, which should have been ap- propriated for school purposes and not kept lying idle. This additional appropriation would have greatly relieved the people from oppressive taxation during these hard times.


The act of May 18, 1893, completed the evolution in our school system from the early home, the church, the subscription, the 1800 pauper, the 1834 common, into the now peo- ple's or free school system. This free school is our nation's hope. Our great manufactur- ing interests attract immigrants to our land in large numbers, and to educate their children thoroughly, and form in them the true Ameri- can mind, and to prevent these children from drifting into the criminal classes, will task to the utmost all the energies, privileges and blessed conditions of our present free schools. In our free schools of Pennsylvania the con- ditions are now equal. The child of the mil- lionaire, the mechanic, the widow and the day laborer all stand on the same plane. We have now, for the first time in the history of our State, in addition to the free schoolhouses, free desks, free fuel, free blackboards, free maps, free teachers, free hooks, free paper, free pens, free ink, free slates, free pencils, free sponges, and, in short, free schools.


The pioneer academy in Jefferson county was authorized by an act of the Legislature approved April 13, 1838. The site selected was the lot on the corner of Jefferson and Bar- nett streets, Brookville, and the lot was kindly


donated for this purpose by John Pickering. The lot was in a state of nature then, being covered with pine trees. The contractors were Robert P. Barr, Thomas M. Barr and Robert Larrimer. The building was of brick, and was completed in 1843. Prof. J. M. Coleman was the first to teach classics and high mathe- matics in this institution.


The first persons to teach in the academy building were: in 1843, R. J. Nicholson, Miss Elizabeth Brady : 1846-50, R. J. Nicholson and Miss Nancy Lucas.


In IS40 our houses and hotels were never locked at night. This was from carelessness, or perhaps thought to be unnecessary. But every store window was provided with heavy outside shutters, which were carefully closed. barred or locked every night in shutting up.


In those days everybody came to court, either on business or to see and be seen. Tues- day was the big day. The people came on horseback or on foot. We had no book store in town, and a man named Ingram, from Meadville, came regularly every court and opened up his stock in the barroom of a hotel. An Irishman by the name of Hugh Miller came in the same way, and opened his jewelry and spectacles in the hotel barroom. This was the time for insurance agents to visit our town. Robert Thorn was the first insurance agent who came here, at least to my knowledge.


In 1840 every store in town kept pure Monongahela whiskey in.a bucket, cither on or behind the counter, with a tin cup in or over the bucket for customers to drink free of charge, early and often. Every store sold whiskey by the gallon. Our merchants kept chip logwood by the barrel, and kegs of mad- der, alum, cobalt, copperas, indigo, etc., for women to use in coloring their homespun goods. Butternuts were used by the women to dye brown, peach leaves or smartweed for vellow, and cobalt for purple. Men's and women's clothing consisted principally of homespun, and homespun underwear. Men and boys wore warmusses, roundabouts and pants made of flannels, huckskin, Kentucky jean, blue drilling, tow, cloth, linen, satinet. bed-ticking and corduroy, with coonskin, seal- skin and cloth caps, and in summer oat-straw or chip hats, The dress suit was a blue broad- cloth swallowtail coat with brass buttons, and a stovepipe hat. "Galluises" were made of listing, bedticking, or knit of woolen yarn. Women wore barred flannel, linsey-woolsey, . tow and linen dresses. Six or eight yards of "Dolly Varden" calico made a superb Sunday dress. Calico sold then for fifty cents a yard.


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Every home had a spinning-wheel, some fam- ilies had two-a big one and a little one. Spin- ning parties were in vogue, the women taking their wheels to a neighbor's house, remaining for supper, and after supper going home with their wheels on their arms. Wool carding was then done by hand and at home. Every neighborhood had several weavers, and they wove for customers at so much per yard.


About 1840 Brookville had a hatter, John Wynkoop. He made what were called wool hats. Those that were high-crowned or stove- pipe were wreath-bound with some kind of fur, perhaps rabbit-fur. These hatters were common in those days. The sign was a stove- pipe hat and a smoothing-iron. A Swiss in 1404 invented the hat. There was a standing contest between the tailors, hatters and printers in drinking whiskey (doctors barred).




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