Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 50

Author: McKnight, W. J. (William James), 1836-1918
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers
Number of Pages: 972

USA > Pennsylvania > Jefferson County > Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II > Part 50

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age of eighty-eight years. Besides, he was for a number of years actively identified with lumbering operations. He passed away in August, 1913, one of the sterling and vener- able citizens of the county, and one who had ever commanded high place in the confidence and esteem of his fellow men. As a young man he wedded Margaret Davis, a daughter of Joseph Davis, of Limestone, Clarion county, and this devoted and cherished com- panion and helpmate died in 1886, highly regarded by all who had come within the sphere of her gentle influence. Of. their chil- dren the first was Mary, who died when young : Henry J. was the next in order of birth ; Clara died when about forty years of age; Emma is the wife of J. Calvin Snyder, and their son, Dr. Wayne Lawson Snyder, is one of the representative physicians and sur- geons of Jefferson county, engaged in prac- tice at Brookville: Melissa is the widow of Charles Coe, and resides in Erie, Pa .; Annie is the wife of William H. Plyler, of Summer- ville.

Henry J. Scott supplemented the training which he received in the public schools of Summerville by taking an effective course in a business college in the city of Pittsburgh. and that he made good use of the advantages thus afforded him was demonstrated by his successful work as a teacher, to which profes- sion he devoted several years, a portion of the time in his native county and for an inter- val in the State of Wisconsin, where he main- tained his residence about two years. After his retirement from service as a pedagogue Mr. Scott assumed the superintendency of a lumber company at Brookville, and after sev- eral years of service with this concern became bookkeeper for Miles Dent, a noted lumber manufacturer, at Dents Run, where he con- tinued to be thus engaged for some time. At that place he then engaged in the general mer- chandise business, and after conducting a store about three years sold the business and re- turned to Brookville, where in 1892 he became one of the organizers and incorporators of the Brookville Manufacturing Company, of which he was chosen secretary, an office of which he has since continued the incumbent. Besides he has served also as general manager of the company for about a decade. The com- pany manufactures wagons of various kinds, and the high grade of its farm and other wag- ons has brought substantial success, a large and prosperous business having been devel- oped. Mr. Scott has been a dominating force in achieving this result, as he has brought to

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bear marked discrimination and very progres- sive policies in directing the affairs of the company, which represents one of the most important industrial enterprises of Brookville, with a plant thoroughly modern in equipment and other facilities. Mr. Scott was likewise one of the organizers of the Brookville Title & Trust Company, and he is serving as a mem- ber of the directorate of this important finan- cial institution.

Though he is vital, loyal and progressive in his civic attitude and a stanch adherent of the Democratic party, Mr. Scott is essentially a business man and has manifested no desire for the honors or emoluments of political office. Ile is prominently identified with the time-honored Masonic fraternity and is deeply appreciative of its history and teachings. He is affiliated with Hobah Lodge, No. 276. F. & A. M., and Jefferson Chapter, No. 225, Royal Arch Masons, both of Brookville ; with Bethany Commandery, No. 83, K. T., at Du- Bois, Clearfield county ; and at Altoona. Blair county, he is enrolled as a member of Jaffa Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., which he repre- sents as a member of the committee for the district in the jurisdiction of the Temple men- tioned.

In 1882 Mr. Scott married Margaret R. Anderson, who was born and reared in Jef- ferson county, and whose father, the late Sam- uel P. Anderson, served one term as sheriff of the county, an office to which he was elected in 1881. His home was at Summerville. Mr. and Mrs. Scott have two children: Lyla L., who is the wife of Banks W. Fetzer, a pros- perous hardware merchant of Brookville ; and Kathryn, who remains at the parental home.

FRANK X. KREITLER, of Nebraska, Forest Co., Pa., was in business at Brookville for a quarter of a century, until a change of location became desirable for convenience in the management of his developing interests. For thirty years he has been classed with the foremost merchants and lumber operators in this section of the State. His career might be epitomized into the statement that he is a self- made man, having started humbly, and at- tained to eminence in his chosen work by his own efforts. But the commonplace observa- tion that he worked and prospered would not be justice to Mr. Kreitler, for he has done more than that. Any fair account of his life and activities would have to include specific reference to his earnestness, perseverance, courage, determination and clear vision, com- bined with other strong traits that have dom- 16

inated his course and carried him forward in whatever field he has entered. These are the motive forces which have made him suc- cessful beyond his early expectations, so that he is now associated with some of the most important concerns in Forest county, where he has been established since 1887.

Mr. Kreitler is of German birth, and is a son of Barnhard and Mary Kreitler. He was born Dec. 4, 1842, and was in his seventeenth year when he came to America, in 1859. His first location in this country was at New Ro- chelle, N. Y., where he remained for three years, meanwhile learning the trade of barber. In May. 1863, he came to Pennsylvania, set- tling at Brookville, Jefferson county, where he opened a barber shop, which, like his other ven- tures, was a paying proposition, though on a more modest scale. He conducted it for twenty-five years, until 1887. Meanwhile he had found a more promising investment for his accumulating capital, in the lumbering business. In 1868, at the solicitation of his friend, E. H. Darrah, they made a trip to- gether to the State of Michigan, with the object of investing in timber lands. The result was their joint purchase of about four thou- sand acres of pine timber, which was disposed of in the year 1880. They reinvested in tim- ber lands in the counties of Jefferson and Forest, Pa., and in ISSo were also associated in the purchase of about five thousand acres of timber lands in Pocahontas and Greenbrier counties, W. Va., which was not disposed of until Mr. Kreitler's removal to Nebraska, For- est Co., Pa., in 1887. The operations under- taken with Mr. Darrah were the first lumber activities of note in which Mr. Kreitler en- gaged, and in fact formed the foundation upon which his subsequent success was established.

In 1884 Mr. Kreitler decided to engage in the manufacture of lumber from cherry and ash, near Marienville, Forest county, and ac- cordingly contracted with J. H. Morrison (late of Marienville ) to cut eight hundred thousand feet of timber. In 1886 he purchased an interest in the lumber firm of Collins, Darrah & Co., of Nebraska, Forest Co., Pa .. with which he has ever since maintained his con- nection, and which is now one of the leading firms in the trade in this part of Pennsylvania, doing a large annual business. Upon his re- moval to Nebraska, Mr. Kreitler engaged in the general mercantile business there, and has built up that line to such an extent that he has not only advanced himself to a prominent place among the extensive merchants in West- ern Pennsylvania, but also afforded unusual

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trading facilities to that section, where the buying public has made generous response to his efforts to give them first-class service close at hand. He was associated with Mr. T. D. Collins in this enterprise, and, notwithstand- ing the death of the latter, it continues to be conducted under the firm name of Collins & Kreitler. The lumber business is still oper- ated by Collins, Darrah & Co., under Mr. Kreitler's management. For years Mr. Kreit- ler has been one of the valued directors of the National Bank of Brookville, Brookville, Pa., one of the stanch financial institutions of that place.

Shortly after locating at Brookville, in 1864. Mr. Kreitler enlisted for service in the Union army, becoming a member of Company B, 211th Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, with which he served until the close of the war, and he subsequently joined Jefferson Post, No. 242, G. A. R., at Brookville. He is also a Mason in fraternal affiliation, belong- ing to Hobah Lodge, No. 276, F. & A. M. ( past master), and Jefferson Chapter, No. 225, R. A. M., both of Brookville. In 1869 he married Eliza Knierieman, of New Ro- chelle, N. Y., but death spared neither wife nor child to him.

Mr. Kreitler's religious connection is with the Methodist Episcopal Church, whose inter- ests have always had a warm place in his heart. He has been a liberal contributor to her several interests, and generous in his support of other local churches, at Nebraska and Brookville. In the latter place he helped to build two Methodist churches, one at the cor- ner of Pickering street and Cherry alley, and the present beautiful church at the corner of Pickering and Jefferson streets. He pur- chased and donated the land for the latter, as well as giving largely toward the erection of the building. The bell was a gift by his friend, E. H. Darrah, and himself to the preceding church, whence it was moved to the present edifice.

Mr. Kreitler has not allied himself promi- nently with public affairs, but his interest in the general welfare is sincere and unselfish. and he has given his influence to worthy move- ments whenever the occasion required. Politi- cally he is a Republican in sentiment. On Nov. 8, 1904, without seeking the office, he was elected associate judge of Forest county, and served on the bench in that county in that high and honorable office from Jan. 1, 1905, to Jan. 1, 1910, with credit to himself and honor to the people of Forest county. Wholly with- out ostentation in any way, and in spite of

his modest, unassuming disposition and char- acter, Mr. Kreitler holds an enviable position in the esteem of those who know him, and in the communities where he has lived, as a faith- ful and loved friend, a prized business asso- ciate, a high-grade citizen, an honored patriot, a sincere and irreproachable Christian gentle- man, a helper of the needy, and a promoter of things honest, just, pure, lovely and of good report.

LEVI SCHUCKERS was during his active years one of the largest owners of cultivated farm land in his, section of Jefferson county, and a leading agriculturist. Now he has dis- posed of all onerous business cares and is enjoying a leisurely life, making his home on a neat little tract in Pinecreek township, sit- uated on the old Susquehanna and Waterford turnpike a mile and a half east of Emerick- ville. His career has been fruitful in many ways. Working in his youth against heavy odds, he attained remarkable prosperity, and though he devoted practically all of his time to business his interests were so broad that for years they had a direct bearing in influ- encing the development of this region, espe- cially its agricultural resources. His strong character and energetic personality could hardly have failed to make themselves felt, and they were determining factors in much of the progress which took place as long as his association with local affairs lasted.

Mr. Schuckers belongs to an okdl Pennsyl- vania family formerly located in Schuylkill county, where his grandparents, Henry and Nancy ( Stahlman ) Schuckers, were born. The grandmother died in that county and was bur- ied there, in the Klouser Church cemetery. The grandfather settled in Jefferson county in 1857, and here remained to the close of his life, dying at Emerickville when eighty-eight years old.

Daniel Schuckers, son of Henry, was also born in Schuylkill county, where he continued to live until after his marriage. In 1857 he came out to Jefferson county and purchased what is now the Jacob Horam farm, in Wins- low township, a mile and a quarter cast of the present home of his son Levi Schuckers. He agreed to pay two thousand dollars for the tract, which contained 107 acres, thirty-five acres being cleared. The rest of the improve- ments consisted of a little log house, an old log barn, and a few apple trees. Much of the original timber was standing on the land when it came into his possession, pine, hemlock, oak, cucumber and gum trees, and the soil was

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good. He brought his family here in 1857, the journey being made with covered wagons, but the climate did not agree with him, and consumption claimed him a few months later, on March 14, 1858, when he was forty-five years old. He was the first person buried in the cemetery at Emerickville. Mr. Schuckers had been a successful farmer in his old home, but he had not been here long enough to con- tinue the work of improvement on his new farm. He was a Lutheran in religion and a Democrat in politics, and while in eastern Pennsylvania had served as school director, supervisor and auditor of Frailey township, Schuylkill county. He had married Eliza- beth Heim, like himself native

of Schuylkill county, and she was left with a family of ten children, six sons and four daughters, Levi, the eldest son, then but eight- een years old. But she went ahead bravely, with the assistance of her children, until her death in 1864, at the age of fifty years. By that time there were seventy-five acres under cultivation, a substantial barn had been built, and the children had all remained at home. helping faithfully. We have the following rec- ord of this family: Sarah A. married Henry Kroh, and both are deceased; Levi is men- tioned below ; Emanuel lives at Emerickville ; Felix left this section when a young man. and died in Oregon; Franklin, deceased, was a lumberman and farmer in Washington town- ship, this county: Joseph resides at Emerick- ville ; Emma married Adam Mohney, and is still living in Pinecreek township; Amanda is the wife of James I. Brady, an old mer- chant of Brookville, and now chairman of the Republican party in Jefferson county : Eliza- beth, Mrs. John Baum, lives at Reynoldsville, this county ; Valentine died at Portland, Ore- gon, and was buried there.

Levi Schuckers was born Jan. 26, 1840, at Minersville, Schuylkill Co., Pa., where he spent his early years. With the usual limita- tions farm boys of that time and place had to contend with, he did not have many educa- tional privileges, attending school for only two terms of four months each. He came with the family to Jefferson county in 1857, ar- riving July 7th, having driven a one-horse Dearborn covered wagon all the way. When the father was dving he called Levi to his bed- side and said, "You will have to turn out to be a man now or a good-for-nothing." Though he had no great experience in farming the greater part of the responsibility was on his young shoulders, but fortunately the grand- father remained with them and gave them the

benefit of his advice. There was a debt of eight hundred dollars on the home place, and he entered courageously upon the work of clearing it, lumbering during the winter months and farining in the summer season. He learned to hew square timbers, chopping, saw- ing and hauling in the winter months and raft- ing in the spring, his lumber being generally marketed at Brookville, and sometimes at the mouth of the Red Bank creek, where it emp- tied into the Allegheny river. He took many rafts down the Sandy Lick and Red Bank creeks and the Allegheny. He remained with his mother up to the time of his marriage, and then settled upon a farm of his own in Wins- low township, where his principal operations were conducted. Having bought this farm of his father-in-law, Jacob Kroh, he continued to develop and improve it, and it is now one of the most modern farms in the county. When he purchased this tract of 167 acres he had but twelve hundred dollars to pay down on the price, five thousand dollars, yet he was out of debt in four years, although he was paying ten per cent interest. The original barn was rebuilt and enlarged by him, until it was 72 by 66 feet in dimensions and one of the finest barns in the locality when it burned down, entailing great loss besides the structure itself, eighteen hundred bushels of grain, eighty tons of hay, six horses, six cows, wag- ons. machinery and tools being destroyed with it. Mr. Schuckers rebuilt, erecting the pres- ent barn on the place, which is 42 by 72 feet. The farmhouse was built by Jacob Kroh. Mr. Schuckers lived and worked there until seven years ago, when he sold to his son Glen 1 .. , who now lives there. But meantime he ac- quired and operated other farm property of great value. He bought the old Bliss farm in Pinecreek township now owned and occupied by his son Homer, the tract comprising 142 acres, of which the father retains a strip of six or seven acres for his own home. He built the barn on this property, which is sixty feet square, and his son Glen put up the other buildings. This son owns another tract which his father purchased and cleared of fine pine timber. Mr. Schuckers also bought the John Baum farm of 136 acres in Pinecreek town- ship, cleared it of pine stumps, and for years operated these properties, doing general farm- ing and keeping various kinds of stock. At times he fed stock for the market, and his various occupations combined to their common profit. When the First National Bank at Reyn- oldsville was started he was one of the stock- holders ; he was a stockholder in the

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Pennsylvania & Buffalo Land Company, of Buffalo, N. Y .; one of a company of coal land owners selling coal under royalty ; and a mem- ber of a company which sank a gas well on the Bliss farm, going down thirty-five hundred feet but without getting an extensive flow.

Some years ago, while living in Winslow township, Mr. Schuckers served as school director, township auditor and assistant asses- sor. Though a Democrat, he is independent in his support of candidates and measures, working for men of any party who appeal. to him as eligible for public trusts. But he has withdrawn from active participation in such matters as well as business, and is now leading a retired life at his home in Pinecreek township.

Mr. Schuckers was married Sept. 1. 1863, to Elizabeth Kroh, who was born July 2, 1844. in Pinecreek township, this county, Rev. Mr. Welker, a Lutheran minister, performing the ceremony. Eight children have been born to this marriage, namely : Elmer E., an engineer. now established at Reynoldsville, married Lovilla Hetrick ; llomer G., who lives on the old Bliss farm, married Mary Snyder, and they have had eight children. Lawrence, Charles, Ralph, Haven, Herbert and Cora. living, and two deceased ; James A., who mar- ried Lillie Sherwood, was a great traveler, having visited Alaska and other distant places, and he was killed by a fall of rock at Van Lear, Ky. ( he left no children ) : Kennedy C .. who is cashier of the First National Bank of Reynoldsville, married Bersa Dunken and has one son, Joseph; Glen L., who is on one of his father's farms, the old home place in Winslow township, married Ada Mowery, and they have six children, Howard, Bernard. Hammond. Sarah, Alda and Blair; Lee S .. cashier at the "Whitcomb Hotel," Rochester, N. Y., married Carrie Myers and has a daugh- ter. Helen: Cora E. is the wife of Lyle Gourley, of Oil City, Pa .. a conductor on the Pennsylvania railroad, and her children are Arden and Elizabeth; Clara Emma is de- ceased.

Jacob and Catherine ( Haupt ) Kroh, parents of Mrs. Levi Schuckers, were born in North- umberland county, Pa .. and at an early day settled in Jefferson county, where they spent the remainder of their lives. Ile had a farm in Winslow township, and besides looking after its cultivation followed lumbering and operated a gristmill. He died in 1876. when seventy-five years old, and his wife passed away in May, 1872, aged seventy-two years. They are buried in the Brookville cemetery.

They were Lutherans in religious connection, and Mr. Kroh was a Republican in politics. Of their seven children, Beneval was a farmer in Pinecreek township: Sarah married Peter Baum, a farmer of that township; Jacob, deceased, was a farmer in Armstrong county. Pa .; Angeline married John B. Snyder, and both are deceased; Henry, deceased, was a farmer ; Catherine J. married George Jordan, a hotel man of Perrysville, Pa .: Elizabeth is the wife of Levi Schuckers.

ENGLISH FAMILY. Seventy years ago, in June, 1845, Edmund English, a young man not yet twenty years of age, walked from Center county, Pa., to Brookville, and was the first member of the family to settle in Jef- ferson county, where the name for many years was prominently connected with business and publie activities. The descendants of the orig- inal English settlers there are now scattered, but the family is well remembered by the older residents of the borough, with whose early history they were intimately associated. There were six brothers here, Edmund, Daniel, Law- rence, William, John A. and Morgan Eng- lish, all now deceased, but they left their mark upon the business development of the town in their day, having been possessed of mechanical skill and a spirit of enterprise which made them invaluable among the pio- neer settlers of the place. They were iron- masters, architects and engineers of exceptional ability, and owned the first steam engine brought into Jefferson, Elk or Clarion coun- ties, conveying it from Pittsburgh, Pa., by canal and wagons.

Morgan and Sarah English, parents of the six brothers mentioned, came from Ireland to this country with four children in the winter of 1830-31. landing at New York about Christmas. In the spring of 1831 they settled at Howard Furnace, in Howard township. Center Co., Pa., where the fa- ther had steady employment as an iron fur- nace "filler." While living there he was appointed one of the first school directors in the township under the free school law of 1832, known as the Thad. Stevens law. In 1848 the parents and younger children followed the older sons into western Pennsylvania, locating at the Helen Furnace in Clarion county, and thence in 1849 removing to Brookville. Jef- ferson county. There the mother died in 1852. The next year the father went to St. Louis. Mo., where he had a brother, remaining there until his death, in 1858. Their family con- sisted of eight children, as follows:

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EDMUND ENGLISHI was born in County Limerick, Ireland. Oct. 15, 1826, and was brought to America in the winter of 1830-31. In 1843 he went to Huntingdon, Pa., to learn the trade of carpenter, but when he had served two years of his apprenticeship his employers gave up the business, and in June, 1845, he put all his possessions into a satchel and started for Clarion county. Pa .. then develop- ing as one of the leading iron producing counties of the State. He proceeded on foot via Bellefonte, Philipsburg, Curwensville, Luthersburg and what is now Reynoldsville, crossing the mountains. At Brookville he stopped for the night at the "Glove Hotel," then kept by John Smith. While sitting on the hotel porch during the evening he heard Sam- uel B. Bishop, Esq., say that he needed a joiner for the inside work of the large dwell- ing he was erecting on Main street (on the ground now occupied by Q. S. Snyder's tailor shop). As soon as possible the young man spoke to Mr. Bishop and was hired, and the incident was the turning point in his life, for he lived at Brookville ever afterwards. More- over, he married Mr. Bishop's sister, and they lived in the house upon which he began work.' But he was not destined to make his chief success in the line of his trade.

The first foundry at Brookville was built in 1841, on the northwest corner of Main and Valley streets (on the site of McCracken Hall building), near the White street bridge, by a man named Coleman, who in a short time sold to Evan Evans, who in turn sold to Wil- kins and Corbet, who moved it to the location on Water street (subsequently occupied by the foundry of Edmund English). They ope- rated it for a while and then sold to John Gallagher and George Mclaughlin, who sold it to Hon. I. G. and Lewis A. Gordon, and they in 1850 sold it to Edmund and Daniel English. Five years later Daniel sold his interest to his brother, Edmund English be- coming sole owner of the property, which he operated for over fifty years from 1850. How- ever, he did not do much business during the last few years. This foundry was first run by water power, supplied by a dam built for the purpose, but the water supply proving inadequate steami power was substituted in 1855.

Mr. English was well known to nearly every person in Brookville, and at the time of his (leath there were few left of those he found here upon his arrival. It was then only a small village, and he lived to witness its devel- opment for over fifty-four years, taking a

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Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 50

Author: McKnight, W. J. (William James), 1836-1918 Publication date: 1917 Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers Number of Pages: 972

Author: McKnight, W. J. (William James), 1836-1918
Publication date: 1917
Publisher: Chicago : J.H. Beers
Number of Pages: 972