Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 7

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 7

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JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

Bowers maintains an office in the Weber build- ing on Mahoning street, Punxsutawney, with a branch office in the Finance building, Phila- delphia. His operations have been an appre- ciable part of the coal and lumber industries in his section of the State and elsewhere, and the influence of his methods has been wholesome in its effect on general business conditions as well as in his particular field.

On July 1, 1886, Mr. Bowers married Lilly May Cessna, daughter of John Cessna, of Smithport. Indiana Co., Pa. They have had three children: Joris Ray, who is now asso- ciated with his father in the coal and lumber business ; Frank W., who died in 1894, when two years old; and Paul C., who is attending school. Mr. Bowers is a Methodist in relig- ious connection.

NORMAN B. LANE continued in his busy career the traditions of a name of the most honorable associations in Jefferson county. He came to this section of Pennsylvania in the early fifties, and few of the early settlers had a more important part in the shaping of its history. He was not a man of selfish personal ambitions. Though he profited by his parti- cipation in the development of the region he never exploited his fellow citizens in any way, in all his relations with them exhibiting a degree of interest in their true welfare, and a sincere desire to be more than fair in all his dealings, which won their complete confidence and a measure of esteem most gratifying to Alr. Lane, who was keenly appreciative of the goodwill of his associates. For many years the settlement of Lane's Mills was the center of an industrious and prosperous community. many of whose inhabitants found remunera- tive employment in the lumbering and milling operations of the founder, and some of the enterprises he managed so capably for years are still in thriving existence. As an employer he was one of the most popular men in the county, his upright business methods and pro- verbial justness, as well as kindly provision for the general well-being of the men in his employ, setting lofty standards which attracted a high class of workmen to his service. His practical goodness and disinterested attempts to be of use to his fellow men indicated a superior character whose worth won recogni- tion everywhere.

Mr. Lane belonged to old New England stock, of English origin, his earliest paternal ancestor of record having emigrated from Derbyshire. England, with three sons. He died on the passage to America. His son

John settled at Killingworth, Conn., Jonathan at Rehoboth, Mass., and Robert at Rye, N. Y. John Lane was the ancestor of Norman B. Lane. He married a Picket, and from them the line is traced through John, who married a Kelsey: John, who married an Egleston ; Hezekiah, who married a Rutley; Hezekiah, who married a Carter ; and Azel, who married a Mrs. Smith, her maiden name being Thomp- SO11.

Azel Lane was born Sept. 2. 1793, at Kill- ingworth, Conn., and was a soldier in the war of 1812. His wife was born at New Haven. Conn .. Nov. 1. 1790. Their son, Norman B. Lane, was born .Aug. 30, 1820, at Jacksonville, Tompkins Co., N. Y., and was three years old when his parents moved to the wilderness in Ulysses township, Tioga Co., N. Y., now the city of Elmira, locating about six or eight miles north of the village of New Town, on the headwaters of Baldwin creek. Wild game was then plentiful in the neighborhood, and the way from the farm to the village was indicated only by the blazes on the trees. Azel Lane followed his trade of millwright in the summer time and taught school during the winter seasons. When his son Norman was eleven years old he moved his family to the village of Mud Creek ( now Savona ), Steuben Co., N. Y., and from that time until he was twenty-five years old Norman B. Lane worked at millwrighting with his father, and lumbering as well, during this period gaining the busi- ness experience which guidea him so well in his own ventures later. About the time of his marriage he went to lumbering on the Honeoye creek in Potter county, Pa., when that country was almost an unbroken wilderness, and built two sawmills there. The first lot of lumber he ran down the river was floated down the Ohio to Cairo, Ill., taken out of the water there and dried, and then shipped up the Mississippi, Missouri and Platte rivers into Kansas to find an acceptable market. In 1851 Mr. Lane became a partner of Daniel Kings- bury, of Bradford, Pa., who had valuable land, timber and coal holdings in MeKean, Elk and Jefferson counties, Pa., and they built a double steam sawmill in Elk county, on Mead run. near the present site of the railroad sta- tion at Brockport, Pa. It was the first steam sawmill erected in the district, which was then almost an unbroken forest from Smethport, Mckean county, to Brookville, Jefferson county, eighty miles through by pike and the old Ceres road. Some idea of the difficulties to be overcome in starting such an enterprise in such a region may be gained from the ac-

JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

count of the roundabout way in which the equipment was acquired. Mr. Lane went to Cincinnati and had his engine, boiler and machinery made there, shipping them by canal to Toledo, thence on Lake Erie to Dunkirk. After waiting six or eight weeks for the New York & Erie railroad (later the New York, Lake Erie & Western) to be completed to Dunkirk he sent them on by freight to Olean, N. Y., from which point it took four good horses a week to haul a single boiler to its destination. But the mill was put in operation. that winter, and the production ran from two million to five million feet a year for over forty years thereafter. Most of the product was rafted from the Elk county mill to Cin- cinnati, where it was dried and manufactured into building stuff which went to the central and central Southern States. Now the ship- ments are just reversed, Pennsylvania looking to the Southern States for her supply of tim- ber, and having barely enough of the coarser grades to take care of the local demand.

In 1857 Mr. Lane and others bought four thousand acres from Mr. Kingsbury and others, the area known as the Rattlesnake tract, built a mill, and commenced operations. The firm of Lane & Humphreys was formed, and had in connection with the general mer- cantile store one of the best plants for making bill lumber to be found anywhere from Buffalo to Pittsburgh. Besides taking advantage of facilities afforded by the local railroads they built a railroad three miles in length into their own timber, which enabled them to for- ward shipments promptly and economically. In other ways also they showed a degree of enterprise which looked well for the develop- ment of the region. In 1863 Mr. Lane intro- duced into his own and other mills in this section the first circular saws for sawing lumber out of round logs used hereabouts. and continued this business in a general way until the time of his death. He also be- came interested in the coal deposits in the vicinity in the middle fifties. In the summer of 1856 Dr. David Owen Platt and Professor Meedham, while making the first geological survey of the Little Toby valley, in search of coal and other minerals, boarded with their large corps of assistants at Mr. Lane's house, and the information gleaned from them brought to him the realization of the enormous value of the coal fields so near at hand. Acting on their advice, he invested in coal properties a few years later, and the firm of which he was the senior member acquired large holdings.

Mr. Lane's extensive operations would have made him a power in the community in any case, but his methods of doing business and the absence of unworthy motives in all his activities made his career most notable. Dur- ing the six years that he lumbered in Elk county he managed to keep intoxicating liquors at a distance from the site of his opera- tions, none being sold within six or seven miles of his mills. When he came to Snyder township, Jefferson county, he found liquor selling one of the leading businesses in the locality, and he found it difficult to keep men working more than four days a week, the men spending Saturdays and Sundays at the hotel, and laying off Mondays to recover. So he gave the hotel three hundred dollars a year to sell no liquor, and the plan worked well for thirce years, until other hotels which had to be bought off in the same way became too numerous. As a last resort he went before the Legislature, and worked zealously until a law was passed prohibiting the sale of liquor in Snyder township, which also embraces the territory of Brockwayville borough, both hav- ing been "dry" since 1872. The remedy was effective, and of course was of greater benefit to his employes than to himself, a fact prop- erly appreciated in the township, where his action was warmly commended by the best element in all classes.

On Jan. 20, 1846, Mr. Lane was married at Whitesville, Allegany Co., N. Y., to Mary Angeline Rice, of that place, and when they moved to Snyder township Mr. Lane erected a spacious residence on the Lane's Mills road, southeast of the town, which they continued to occupy to the end of their days. Mr. and Mrs. Lane had five children: Ida Eugenia, born Jan. 25, 1847, married William G. McMinn, and died June 28, 1911 ; Nancy Lavonia, born May 31. 1852, died Sept. 1, 1853: Charles Sumner, born June 27, 1856, died July 10, 1857; Fred Avery, born April 14, 1862, married Linnie B. Cooley; Carrie Elenor, born Nov. 2, 1864, married James 1 .. Bond. and died Jan. 10, 1904. Mr. and Mrs. Lane celebrated appropriately, at the home just mentioned, the golden anniversary of their wedding, surrounded by relatives and friends to the number of over two hundred. Among the guests was Mr. Lane's brother, William T. Lane, then a resident of Honeoye, Potter Co., Pa., who had been a guest at the wedding fifty years before. Mr. Lane passed away Feb. 18, 1907, Mrs. Lane on March 25, 1907.

JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

BENSON E. TAYLOR, of Brockwayville, is one of a group of foresighted Jefferson county men who have taken advantage of the possibilities right at their own door. His operations, particularly in the development of the natural resources of the vicinity, have had the direct effect of enlivening industrial conditions in the region in all lines, holding the investments of local capitalists for home use, and attracting others on the lookout for profit- able opportunities. His thorough grasp of the fundamental principles of business has won deserved recognition from his immediate as- sociates, whose confidence he has never abused in the many tests to which his judgment has been subjected. Mr. Taylor came into this section of l'ennsylvania because of the open- ing its heavy forests offered for lumbering, to which he had been trained in the woods of his native State of Maine. The Taylor fam- ily is an old one in that State, the homestead being at Hodgdon, Aroostook county, where James W. Taylor, grandfather of Benson E. Taylor, lived and died. Farming and lumber- ing were his principal occupations. He lived to the age of eighty-seven years-a character- istic member of a family remarkable for longevity.

George W. Taylor, one of the several chil- dren born to James W. Taylor, was the father of Benson E. Taylor. He was born July 12, 1817, on the old Taylor homestead at Hodg- don, and lived to the age of ninety-five years, dying at his birthplace, where most of his life was spent. He had an energetic career, engaged principally in agriculture and lum- bering and particularly prosperous in the latter industry, which he followed in his native State and the adjacent territory of New Brunswick. In religion he was a Baptist, in politics a Demo- crat until Bryan's first presidential campaign in 1896, when he changed his allegiance to the Republican party. Though he had strong con- victions he took no part in politics except to cast his vote, and he had no ambition for pub- lie honors of any kind. Mr. Taylor married Eleanor Taylor (no relation), who was born in 1823 near the village of Shediac, on the north shore of New Brunswick, daughter of Thomas Taylor, of that place, where the mar- riage was celebrated. She was a cousin of Albert J. Smith, member of Parliament. Mrs. Taylor was a school teacher before her mar- riage. Of the twelve children born to this union all are yet living ( 1916) except the eld- est, a daughter, who died at the age of twenty- three years.

Benson E. Taylor was born Jan. 31, 1862,

at Hodgdon, Aroostook Co., Maine, and there remained up to the age of nineteen years. In the local public schools he received a good practical training, and he spent his boyhood and youth in agreeable surroundings at the ideal old Colonial home which the family had occupied for generations, and to which his father had returned just before his birth in order to give his children the advantages for education and culture which an old-established community offered. For a number of years they had lived in locations convenient to his lumbering operations, some of which were carried on along the Canaan river, which flows into the St. John river in New Brunswick and thence into the Bay of Fundy. The father was a man of progressive ideas and wise fore- thought, and provided well for his children's future as well as for their early years. Benson E. Taylor had his own ambitions, and in his nineteenth year started out with his brother, Charles H. Taylor (now a prominent lumber- man in West Virginia), to realize some of them. They decided to try the lumber regions of western Pennsylvania as a promising place to make their experience valuable, and came from the old farm to Ridgway, Elk county. Johnsonburg was just being settled, a flag station, telegraph office and one old house being the nucleus around which this thriving place grew. This was in 1880. Wheeler Brothers were the principal lumbermen there, and the Taylors entered their employ, Charles H. Taylor driving team for a short time but soon starting on his own account at Dagusca- honda, Elk county. Benson E. Taylor con- tinned with the Wheeler Brothers, with whom he soon had a responsible position, taking charge of their lumber mills and manufactur- ing lumber for them for about four years, at Indian Run and Whistletown. About the end of this period he was married at Ridgway. and settled with his young wife at Dagusca- honda, where he purchased the mercantile store and stock of A. B. Stickle, for several years conducting a large general supply busi- ness and also acting as postmaster. In Sep- tember, 1893. he removed thence to Brock- wayville. Jefferson county, purchased a store . in the East End of the town, near the Penn- sylvania Railroad station, and built up a large trade in general merchandise which he car- ried on for several years. Upon selling out. to R. W. Beadle & Co., he took a three months' vacation, and on his return to the borough formed a partnership with C. D. Ettinger for the purpose of establishing a men's clothing and furnishings store, which they operated

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JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

under the firm name of Taylor & Ettinger. At the end of three years Mr. Taylor pur- chased his partner's interest in the house, which he continued alone for the next eight years, until the block in which the store was located was destroyed by fire, in 1910. Being unable to secure the site for rebuilding he closed out his interest in the establishment to Hemphill, Miller & Co., present proprietors, and withdrew from that line. However, he was not idle long, having been offered a po- sition in Chicago, Ill., with the Chicago Sur- face Lines, with headquarters at the "Con- gress Hotel" on Michigan avenue. The work was lucrative, but being in the employ of oth- ers did not appeal to his enterprise that indi- vidual responsibility engendered, and he de- termined to resume business for himself. He tendered his resignation several times before it was accepted. Coming back to Brockway- ville he purchased all the property of D. D. Groves on Main street, together with that gentleman's coal interests, and turned his ener- gies to the operating of coal properties, join- ing E. B. Henderson, of Brookville, Jefferson county, and Senator T. M. Kurtz, of Punxsu- tawney. Jefferson county, in the formation of the McKnight Coal Company, which is now enjoying a prosperous existence, thanks to their excellent system and well directed labors. Their activities have extended beyond the im- mediate locality, the company having pur- chased a large coal tract at Coalport, Pa., now being profitably worked by them as the Cam- bria Smokeless Coal Company. As soon as it came into their ownership it was equipped with the most modern machinery known to the coal industry, and the production has amply justified the investment. In 1914 Mr. Taylor and other members of the Mcknight Coal Company took into partnership his son, Ver- non F. Taylor, and Fred B. Henderson, the former assuming the active management of all their coal workings. Mr. Taylor and his son also purchased the Savan Colliery Com- pany in Indiana county, which they are con- ducting in the up-to-date manner character- istic of everything they take hold of : this is independent of the other holdings mentioned. So much for Mr. Taylor's coal interests. In- dividually he purchased the old store property of D. D. Groves, on Main street, Brockway- ville, remodeled the building-tearing part of it down and building a new addition-and laid in a comprehensive stock of high-class general merchandise, opening for business in 1911. As might have been expected, the store has been maintained along high standards of

dealing and service ever since, being one of the most reliable and best patronized in the borough, where the people have responded promptly to his efforts to give them selection and trading accommodations above the ordi- nary. The five rooms above the store have been fitted up for office purposes, and are used by the Mcknight Coal Company.

The enumeration of Mr. Taylor's "irons in the fire" is sufficient to show that he is a busy man, and he has never had any aspira- tion for public position to draw him fromr the close attention they have required. Never- theless he is keenly interested in the general welfare and important public questions, and has exerted his influence to place competent men in office. To this end he has taken a very active part in the councils of the Republican party, having served as delegate to many State conventions, and in June, 1916, he was an al -. ternate to the National convention. With his wife and family he belongs to the First Pres- byterian Church at Brockwayville, and he is a member of its board of trustees.

On Dec. 24, 1884. Mr. Taylor was married, at Ridgway, Pa., to Emma R. Olmsted, who was born April 10, 1865, at Brockwayville, Pa., but grew to womanhood at Ridgway, where she received her education and subsequently taught for several years in the public schools. They have had three children: Vernon F., born May 14, 1888 ; Bonnie Frances, born Dec. 20, 1894, and Alice Eleanor, born Dec. 27. 1910. The eldest daughter is a graduate of the Brockwayville high school, and of Penn Hall, Chambersburg, Pa., and after spending one year at Pennsylvania College for Women ( Pittsburgh ) entered Smith College, North- ampton, Mass., where she is now (1916) a sophomore. In 1907 Mr. Taylor purchased from Dr. B. B. Brumbaugh a lot on Main street, Brockwayville, where he erected a beau- tiful dwelling of red brick, provided with all the conveniences which modern architecture has devised, and there the family has since resided.

VERNON F. TAYLOR, only son of Benson E. Taylor, was born May 14, 1888, at Dagusca- honda, Pa., and obtained his early education at Brockwayville, graduating from the public high school in 1906. Then he entered Alle- gheny College, at Meadville, Pa., taking the preparatory course, and subsequently became a student in the University of Pennsylvania, attending the Wharton School, from which he was graduated in 1911. The following year he became interested in coal mining opera- tions, to which he now devotes all his time

JEFFERSON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

and attention. He has a highly creditable rec- ord of business success gained in a compara- tively brief period of activity, and holding promise of worthy achievement. On June 16, 1915, Mr. Taylor married, in Clarion, Pa., Ruth Campbell, of that place, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. R. D. Campbell. They have one child, Vernon F., Jr., who was born at Indiana, Pennsylvania.

LEX N. MITCHELL, of Punxsutawney, is a member of the legal profession whose name undoubtedly will go into the record of those who have done honor to the Jefferson county bar. lle entered his present profession after a successful period as an educator, and bids fair to exceed the good promises of an auspi- cious start, for he had the confidence and good wishes of a large circle of associates and acquaintances when he abandoned his early work for the law. Conscientious application to his studies, together with a broad classical training, made him unusually well prepared for his chosen calling, and with characteristic thor- oughness he has never relaxed his studious habits. That he is an orator of acknowledged power and attainments adds one more to the list of qualifications by which he has advanced to an honorable position among a group of worthy competitors.

During a century of residence in Jefferson county the Mitchell family has held high place among the useful, active and estimable citizens who have helped to advance the development of western Pennsylvania. Thomas Sharp Mitchell, the grandfather of Lex N. Mitchell. was born at Elderton, Armstrong Co., Pa., and came over into Jefferson county when a boy. For some time he was employed with Thomas Pain in Perry township, and later established a store at Hamilton, in that township, where he located in pioneer days, continuing to oper- ate it for several years. In 1854 he was elected sheriff of Jefferson county and served one term of three years. Mr. Mitchell married Sarah Blose. daughter of George Blose, Sr., and both are buried at the Perry Church in Perry township. Mr. Mitchell died at Hamilton Aug. 27, 1883. They were the parents of a large family: A. R., who was killed while serving in the Civil war; Nancy E .; Ann ; Thomas S. : Alex II., who served in the Civil war as captain of Company .1. 105th Pennsylvania Volun- teers, and received a medal of honor voted him by Congress : Rebecca A .; Martha J .; James George: Laura M .; Malinda C., and Alice M. Of this family, Hon. James George Mitchell, who owns the old Mitchell homestead at Ham-

ilton, where he resides, has been a leader in the workings of the Republican party in Jefferson county for years, and has served in both branches of the State legislature, as well as in local offices.

Thomas S. Mitchell, son of Thomas Sharp Mitchell, was a harnessmaker by occupation, and one of the highly respected residents of Perrysville ( Hamilton ). He married Ellen Gourley, daughter of Alexander and Margaret (Gillespie ) Gourley, and they were the parents of a large family: A. R. and Margaret, of North Mahoning township, Indiana county ; Lex N., the subject of this sketch ; Bessie Irene. of Milford, Utah; T. B., of Punxsutawney ; Grace 11 .. of Minersville, Utah ; and Albert S .. of DuBois, Pa. Thomas S. Mitchell died at Hamilton May 30. 1898. Ellen Mitchell, the mother, is still living and active at the age of seventy-three years.

Lex N. Mitchell was born Oct. 27, 1870, at Perrysville, where he was reared, beginning his education in the public schools there. Later he was sent to the Perrysville Normal Academy. and followed with a course at Waynesburg ( Pa. ) College. graduating from that institution in 1894 with the degree of bachelor of didac- tics. It was during his student days there that his oratorical ability first won him reputation. He was unanimously elected by the Union Society of the college to compete for the hon- ors in the Inter-Collegiate Oratorical Contest, but declined because he did not feel that he could spare the time from the private studies and work as a teacher which he was carrying in addition to those in the regular curriculum. In youth he was taught harnessmaking by his father, but he has never followed the trade. He also worked on the farm of his brother-in- law. C. S. Neal. for his board and clothes from the age of ten until he was thirteen years of age, and thereafter until he was sixteen years old as a farm hand. Being ambitious for higher education, he felt that the teacher's pro- fession was the best avenue to its attainment, and he commenced teaching when a young man in Perry township. Ilis capability was so ap- parent that he was advanced to more responsi- ble charges, becoming principal of the graded schools at Horatio, in the adjoining township of Young, where he remained for three years. His next position was as principal of the schools of West Reynoldsville borough. this county, whence he was called to become princi- pal of the schools of Indiana. Pa., including the high school. After one year's work at Indiana he returned to West Reynoldsville, was after- wards similarly engaged for two years at

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Jefferson County, Pennsylvania : her pioneers and people, 1800-1915, Volume II, Part 7

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