Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania., Part 2

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Boston : W. A. Fergusson
Number of Pages: 1044

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

mouth almost to its very margins, leaving scarcely room to make its way to the larger body. At some day in the distant past this vale may have been the bed of a great lake, but is now the seat of fat farms and smiling villages.

The forests, when in full leaf, spread an impenetrable shade, and pre- sent a crown of foliage to the eye of the beholder which, for grandeur and magnificence, is scarcely matched by any other object in nature. So com- mon is forest land, and so abundant is it in our midst, that we scarcely stop to consider its stately appearance or its miracle of growth. And yet that giant oak,

Which nods aloft and proudly spreads its shade, The sun's defiance and the flocks' defence,

was but a span of years ago only a tiny acorn; yet by minute accretions of impalpable particles of dust and moisture, and the subtle gases which the sunlight sets free, it has gradually clambered up toward heaven, has spread out its tiny sprays, has imperceptibly swollen to rugged branches and stands at length the broad, spreading tree, challenging the admiration of the passer-by.

The traveler never ceases to admire the varying line of the horizon, cut by the summits of remote ridges, sometimes jagged by a relentless peak, at others rounded out by a comely slope, never without its attractive features, and ever challenging our admiration. Such views are noted on any fine day, and are varied at every turn as the student of nature pursues his way over ridges and adown the valleys. To the attentive observer, no more beautiful scenes of nature's moulding are anywhere to be found, not even by the classic Tiber, or the fruitful Arno.

We have thus far considered only the general aspects of the county. Its location, extent, and topographical features can be briefly recounted. It is situated in the northwestern portion of the State, immediately south of Erie County, which is the corner county. It is bounded on the north by Erie County, on the west by the State of Ohio, on the south by Mercer and Venango Counties, and on the west by Venango and Warren Counties. Its eastern boundary is irregular. From the southwestern junction with Mercer, it proceeds in a northeasterly direction by a series of nine zigzags eleven and a half miles, thence eleven miles due east, thence due north to the Erie County line.

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

It contains within these boundaries 1,005 square miles, equal to 643,200 square acres. With the exception of some marsh land, which is susceptible of being reclaimed, the entire surface is under cultivation, or can readily be brought so. It is forty-six miles from east to west on the Erie County line, and is twenty-four miles along the Ohio line. The Venango River, improperly termed French Creek, drains the major portion of its surface. This stream is formed by the east and west branches, which have their rise in New York State, and form junction just south of the village of Watts- burg, Erie County. It enters Crawford County in Rockdale Township, curves gently to the west, passes through Cambridge, leaves Woodcock, Mead, and East Fairfield Townships on the east side, and Hayfield, Vernon, Union and Fairfield on the west, and passes out through the southwest corner of Wayne. From the junction of the two branches at Wattsburg to its junction with the' AAllegheny River at Franklin, is a distance of some TIO miles, though Washington, in his journey up this stream in December, 1753, judged its length to be 130 miles. In spring time and at flood seasons it carries a vast body of water: but during the dry season it subsides to an insignificant stream, easily forded in many places. Congress made an appropriation at one time for rendering it navigable as far up as Waterford, and crafts of twenty tons burden have navigated its bosom, and, in the early days, rafts of lumber and flat-bottom boats bearing grains, potatoes, fruit and potash were often wafted down its current to market at the great cities on the Ohio and the Mississippi. Many articles of heavy merchandise were brought back in the same manner. Washington rode his horse up the valley in his embassy to Fort le Boeuf, but sent his horses back to Franklin by his servant, and, securing a boat, navigated the stream on his return.

The largest of the tributaries of the Venango River is the Cussawago, which has its sources in Spring and Cussawago Townships, flows in a mean- dering course in a southerly direction through Hayfield and Vernon, and enters the Venango just opposite the city of Meadville. In regard to the name of this stream, a weird tradition is preserved. A strolling band of Indians, on approaching the river, discovered a huge black snake in the branches of a tree with a white ring around its neck, and its body enormously distended, as though it had swallowed some large animal, as a rabbit, which caused them to exclaim Kossawausge, which in their language meant "big

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

belly," and that name has been retained. This stream is very sluggish, and runs with a deep, full current. Dams have been built along its course, and numerous mill-wheels are turned by its forceful current. The valley through which it runs is a very beautiful one, some twenty or more miles in length, stretching out in some parts to two or three miles in width, and hemmed in on every side by heavy swells of land.

As this valley is more elevated than the summit over which the pro- posed ship canal would pass in connecting the waters of the Ohio River with those of Lake Erie, it has been proposed to build a heavy dam across near the mouth of this stream, where the high hills close in on either side very near to its banks, and lay up in this valley during the wet season a vast body to supply the canal with water for the dry.

A few miles to the south of the Cussawago valley is the charming valley of Watson's Run, which is principally confined to the western portion of Vernon Township. The view of this valley from the headland on the lake road is one of the most entrancing in any land, the flocks and herds scattered up and down the intervale or reposing under ample shade, and the peaceful dwellings planted along all the distant hillsides complete a picture on which one never tires to gaze.

The outlet of Conneaut Lake receives a stream which winds through a low stretch of country, familiarly known as Conneaut Marsh, which, by the gradual choking of the mouth, where it flows into the Venango, has forced the moisture to spread out over a vast tract, and has caused the cranberry, flag and rank meadow grass to take root, and finally alder brush to spread over its entire surface, thus giving up to sterility a wide belt of fertile soil.

By a joint resolution of the Legislature of 1868, provision was made for opening the channel and dredging the accumulations of years, so that the water is carried away, and the rank growth which has for many gen- erations cumbered the surface can be cleared away, and brought under the hand of cultivation, furnishing some of the most fertile soil in the county, --- a tract some twelve miles long and one mile wide, comprising over six thousand acres.

On the left bank of the Venango River the drainage is effected in the northern section through Muddy Creek, which rises in Richmond, Steuben, Athens and Bloomfield Townships, flows northwesterly through Rockdale

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

and Cambridge, and enters the Venango River some two miles above Cambridge Springs. The pine lumber along this stream was very valuable, but it has all been swept away, and its place has been assumed by well- fenced and tilled farms.

Woodcock Creek rises in the northeastern corner of Richmond Town- ship, flows south, passes near Blooming Valley, and from that point moves onward down a gently descending valley of rare beauty, dotted along its course by mills, passes in the rear of the County Infirmary, and drops into the Venango River just below Saegertown. In flood time this is a raging torrent, that carries away acres of rich soil and uproots forest trees in its course, but subsides in the dry time to a moderate brooklet that the bare- footed boy may safely ford.

Mill Run is, for the most part. confined to Mead Township, and is the stream which, from its being easily controlled for power purposes, doubt- less influenced the first settlers to choose Meadville for their abiding place.

Little Sugar Creek drains a portion of Mead, passes through Wayne, and empties into Venango River at Cochranton. This stream carries a large body of water, and its current is utilized for mill purposes. Through most of its course it moves through wild and rugged scenery.

The Big Sugar Creek has its sources in the eastern portions of Troy, Wayne and Randolph Townships, yet it is, for the most part, a Venango County stream.

Oil Creek Lake, which is fed by numerous brooklets that fall into it from Sparta and Bloomfield Townships, may be regarded as the source of Oil Creek. It flows southeasterly through the margins of Athens, Steuben, Troy and Oil Creek Townships, passes through Titusville and makes a junction with the Allegheny River at Oil City. More than a century ago this stream was noted for the oil that was discovered along its margin oozing up out of the ground, and was seen floating away on its surface. The French, in their passage through this county, from Fort le Boeuf to Franklin, were familiar with this substance, and the Indians gathered it for medicinal purposes. It was known in commerce as Seneca oil, a name given it from the Seneca tribe of Indians.

The Shenango River has its sources in Pymatuning Swamp, a vast tract of swamp land and water, once probably the bed of a lake. Tributaries from Conneaut Township flow into the swamp. The Shenango flows south-

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

westerly through North Shenango until it passes into Ohio, in which state it flows for a short distance, but returns and forms the dividing line between South and West Shenango, passing out of the county through the village of Jamestown. It is a sluggish stream in its course through Crawford County, and in some seasons of the year floods the highways and bridges to such an extent that they are rendered impassable. This often occurred at the time of holding elections, and became a source of so much disquietude that it resulted in a division of South Shenango Township and the erection of West Shenango.

The vast area which is covered by this impenetrable swamp extends from the neighborhood of Linesville in Pine Township into Ohio and to the neighborhood of Espyville in North Shenango, estimated to form a sweep of nine thousand acres. Though there are portions of the surface sufficiently elevated to support forest vegetation, yet it cannot be entered with teams for removing logs, except in winter time, when it is frozen over. In a part of the swamp is a growth of tamaracks, where in the fall of the year vast flocks of wild pigeons from Canada and neighboring breeding places made it their roosting ground. In the hot summer nights the constant flapping of their wings, produced by being crowded from their perches, gave forth a sound not unlike the distant roar of Niagara. Hunters would enter the swamp in the drouth of summer, and, aiming up at a limb bending down with the weight of the birds, would fire, and, having struck a light and picked up as many as could be discovered in the tall grass, would pass on for another shot.

In the neighborhood of this swamp are the remains of a fort, and pits in which are coals, showing that fires at some time were kept in them. It is well known that the Indians held their councils here. Probably game was plentiful, and they held their annual feasts on this ground.

By a joint resolution of the Legislature, passed February 18, 1868, a competent engineer was appointed to make a survey of the Pymatuning Swamp, and report. From that report it is shown that it has a fall of fully five feet per mile, and the wonder is that such a fall should not produce its complete drainage. The probability is that in many parts the channels have become choked so that the water is held by miniature dams. Capillary attraction, operating through the spongy growth of moss and rank swamp grass, would hold it, thus overcoming gravitation. If a careful survey were

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

made and a wide trench were opened, giving the bottom an exact, regular fall of five feet per mile, with cross ditches at intervals, the whole swamp would be drained, and that vast area could be transformed into fruitful fields and be made to blossom like the rose.

Conneaut Creek rises in Summit Township, flows northwesterly through Summerhill, through the borough of Conneautville, and leaves the county near the northwest corner of Spring Township. It pursues its course through Erie County and empties into Lake Erie, its mouth forming Conneaut Harbor. By the vast shipment of coal out, and the bringing in of iron ore, this is made a point of much importance.

The soil of Crawford County is of great fertility, and when stirred by generous culture produces abundant crops. Every part of the surface is well watered by numerous springs and streams. In the neighborhood of Conneaut Lake, above Harmonsburg, are vast beds of marl, suitable for enriching the soil. When the first settlers came they found one vast forest of oak, maple, chestnut, black walnut, hickory, cherry, locust, poplar, ash, butternut, ironwood, laurel and bay. In parts along the rich bottom lands were vast tracts of pine and hemlock and spruce.

The observation may be made in this connection, though not strictly in place here, that the subject of forestry has been overlooked by the denizens of Crawford County. To the first settlers the deep, dense forest was regarded as the worst enemy of the farmer, standing in the way of his improvements, shutting out the sunlight from his vegetables and growing crops. Hence, to get the heavy growths out of his way, and prevent future growths, was his greatest care. The hardy axmen went forth at the first breaking of the day, and attacked the monsters of the forest, and until the dewy eve the giants were laid low.

This is but the history of what was transpiring day after day, and year after year, through all the early generations. It was too laborious and troublesonie to chop the great trunks into sections fit for handling, so fire was brought into requisition, and at convenient intervals along the trunk, burnings were made, when the dissevered parts could be swung around into piles and the torch applied. All through the dry season vast volumes of smoke would ascend heavenward, and at night the sky would be illumined by the flames leaping upward, and appearing like beacon lights on every hill-top and down every valley. When the settler was in too much

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

haste to cut and burn the cumbersome forest, he would rob the innocent trees of their life by girdling the sap, thus cutting off the life-giving currents. By this process the foliage was forever broken, and the light and genial warmth of the sun was let in upon the virgin mould, which was quickened into life as the husbandman dropped his cherished seed. But there stood the giant forest still, torn and wrenched by storm and lightning, stretching ont its massive arms to heaven, bleached and whitened by sun and shower, like ghosts of departed greatness, and as if imploring mercy still. One can scarcely pass one of these lifeless forests without a sigh of pity for these decaying monarchs.

A forest thus denuded of its foliage allows the sunlight to enter with all the force necessary to produce luxuriant crops, and the wheat springs into life and makes an enormous growth, maturing an abundant crop. The constant droppings from their decaying limbs engender moisture, and give nourishment to the rich pasturage that springs like tufts of velvet beneath them; and when at length they yield to the lightning's crash, and the force of the storms, they are reduced to ashes and disappear from sight. Some- times the torch was applied while still standing, and scarcely can a more sublime sight be imagined than a great forest of lifeless trees in full blaze.

What will be the consequence of this relentless war upon the forests and waste of lumber and fire-wood? In a few generations the hills, being en- tirely stripped and denuded of shade, will be parched by the burning suns of summer, and the streams will become less and less copious in the heated term, until they become entirely dry. On the other hand, in spring time, with no forests to hold the moisture, and yield it up gradually through the burning months when needed, the rains and melting snows will descend in torrents and flood the valleys. The fertility of the soil will be soaked and drained out of it, the hill-sides will be gashed and seamed by the descending torrents, and thus all the hills, burned in summer and flooded in winter, will become barren. The tiller of the soil will wonder at the scantiness of his crops, and his flocks and herds will bleat and bawl in hopeless starvation.

Of late years an attempt has been made to excite an interest in forestry. The Legislature of this State has enacted some provisions providing for the planting, and we have our forestry day, to which the Governor regularly calls attention. But the manner in which it is acted upon, instead of resulting in a public good, is likely to prove an injury. The planting, for

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

the most part. has been confined to school grounds and dwellings. The result will be that in a few years, when the trees have become grown, there will be excessive shade and moisture. Moss will accumulate upon the roofs, the sunlight will be entirely shut out, and the children will be pale and sickly in consequence. The school-room will become unhealthy for lack of sunlight, and the dwelling will be damp and gloomy. One tree for a school ground of an acre is ample shade. Excessive foliage must always prove injurious to health, while sunlight is a better medicine for failing strength than human ingenuity ever compounded.

What is the proper remedy for the evil complained of? The forester should commence his work upon the far-off hill-tops, and with diligent hand should crown them with forests most useful and valuable to man,- the fine maple. comely in shape, challenging the painter's most gaudy pig- ments for color, close grained and unyielding in fiber for lumber; the walnut, cherry and ash, unrivaled for furniture and finishing; the chestnut, valuable for its nuts and for fencing; and pine and birch and hemlock,-useful all. For holding moisture and tempering the heats of summer, none are more useful than the evergreens. All the waste places, the ravines and rugged hill-sides, unsuitable for cultivation, should be planted. The sugar from a thousand good trees will bring to any farmer a bigger income than the whole produce of his farm in other ways, and the labor of sugar-making comes at a time when he is not otherwise employed. The price of a good black walnut log is almost fabulous. A white ash of twenty years' growth will yield a timber unsurpassed for the wheelwright or the piano maker, and pine of fifteen years' growth will produce timber which will be much sought for, and is year by year becoming more and more scarce. A good field of planted trees or sprout land, should be fenced and protected from the browsing of cattle, as energetically as a field of corn. It may seem an unpalatable doctrine to preach, that the forests, which our fathers worked themselves lean to subdue and eliminate, should be protected and matured and brought back to their old places. But it is a true gospel, and if we look carefully at it in all its bearings, we shall receive it and recognize it as possessing saving grace.

Along the hills of southern Italy may be seen to-day an aspect which in a few years will be presented in the now fertile fields of Crawford County. The Italian hills, for centuries have been swept bare of forests. As a con-

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

sequence, the soil is parched in summer time, and has become bare and barren. The streams which in other days were deep, and ran in full volume to the sea, and were the theme of extravagant praises by the Latin poets, are now for months together entirely dry, not a gush of water gladdening their baked and parched beds. Of the innumerable streams which fall into the Mediterranean on the western coast from Genoa to the Straits of Messina, there are only a very few like the Arno and the Tiber that do not in July and August cease to flow, the husbandman being obliged to resort to artesian wells to feed his vegetables and growing crops.

We have thus far considered the general features of the territory em- braced in the limits of Crawford County. Before entering upon a descrip- tion of its settlement and growth of its institutions, it will be proper to consider some very interesting questions vitally touching its early occupa- tion. Who occupied the country when first visited by Europeans? How were they dispossessed of their inheritance, and driven towards the setting sun? By what means was the territory of Pennsylvania possessed, and its boundaries finally established? Why the dwellers in this valley are English rather than a French-speaking people? These were living questions which plagued our fathers, and were not settled without desperate struggles, which tested their patriotism and valor.

CHAPTER II.

THE CHARACTER OF THE ABORIGINES.

B ELIEVING in the rotundity of the earth, Columbus sailed westward with the expectation of reaching India. When he finally came to the shores of the New World, he believed that he had reached the farthest east. Consequently, when he beheld the native inhabitants, sup- posing them to be the people of India, he called them Indians, a designation which has clung to them ever since, though entirely inappropriate.

The natives who occupied that portion of the continent which became Pennsylvania were known as the Leni Lenape, the original people, or grandfathers. They were by nature fierce and warlike, and there was a tradition among them that the Lenapes, in ages quite remote, had emigrated from beyond the Mississippi, exterminating, or driving out as they came eastward, a race far more civilized than themselves, more numerous and skilled in the arts of peace. That this country was once the abode of a more or less civilized people, accustomed to many of the comforts of enlightened communities, that they knew the use of tools and were numerous is attested by remains, thickly studding western Pennsylvania and the entire Ohio Valley; but whether their extermination was the work of fiercer tribes than themselves, or whether they were swept off by epidemic diseases, or gradually wasted as the fate of a decaying nation, remains an unsolved problem. The three principal tribes of which the Lenapes were composed, -the Turtles, or Unamis; the Turkeys, or Unalachtgos: the Wolfs, or Monseys,-occupied the eastern part of Pennsylvania, and claimed the territory from the Hudson to the Potomac. The English gave them the name of the Delawares, after Lord De la War, for whom the river and the three lower counties were named. The Shawnees, a restless tribe which had come up from the south, had been received and assigned places of habitation on the Susquehanna, by the Delawares, and finally became a constituent part of their nation.

OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

But the Indian nationality which more nearly concerns the section of which we are treating is the Six Nations, or, as they were designated by the French, the Iroquois. They called themselves Aqiranuschioni, or United Tribes, or, in our own parlance, the United States, and the Lenapes called them Mingoes. They originally consisted of five tribes, and hence were known as the Five Nations,-the Senecas, who were the most vigorous, stalwart and numerous; the Mohawks, who were the first in rank, and to whom it was reserved to lead in war; the Onondagas, who guarded the council fire, and from whom the Sachem, or the civil head of the confederacy. was taken; the Oneidas, and the Cayugas. Near the beginning of the eighteenth century the Tuscaroras, a large tribe from central North Caro- lina and Virginia, having been expelled from their former dwelling place, were adopted by the Five Nations, and this people, thus augmented, were thenceforward known as the Six Nations. They occupied the country stretching from Lake Champlain to Lake Erie, and from Lake Ontario and the river St. Lawrence on the north, to the headwaters of the Delaware, the Susquehanna and Allegheny Rivers on the south, substantially what is now the State of New York. It was a country well suited for defence in savage warfare, being guarded on three sides by great bodies of water. They were quick to learn the methods of civilized warfare, and securing fire- arms from the Dutch on the Hudson, they easily overcame neighboring hostile tribes, whom they held in a condition of vassalage, exacting an annual tribute, but protected them in return in the possession of their rightful hunting grounds.

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Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania., Part 2

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902 Publication date: 1899 Publisher: Boston : W. A. Fergusson Number of Pages: 1044

Author: Bates, Samuel P. (Samuel Penniman), 1827-1902
Publication date: 1899
Publisher: Boston : W. A. Fergusson
Number of Pages: 1044