Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania., Part 25

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

USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. > Part 25

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In closing his dedicatory address, Mr. Snowden thus spoke: "This is no ordinary occasion. A great Commonwealth, by a solemn act of legisla- tion, and by her agents here this day, honors the memory of the distin- guished Indian chief whose mortal remains lie mouldering in this grave. We this day dedicate this monument to the memory of Cornplanter, an Indian chief of the Seneca tribe of the Six Nations-and may we, both white and red men, and our children's children, as long as this beautiful river bears its waters to the ocean, venerate his memory and emulate his virtues."

Part 11.

Meadville and Titusville.

CHAPTER I.

EARLY SETTLERS OF MEADVILLE.

T HE first settlement in northwestern Pennsylvania, as has been already observed, was at and in the vicinity of Meadville, long known as "Mead Settlement." The original plan of Meadville was conceived in 1793, by David Mead, though the town was not named until after the first sale of lots. In an old account book, in General Mead's own hand- writing, is the following entry: "Journal of the town-laid out by David Mead, at Cassawago, and commencement of the sale of lots on the 20th day of February, 1793." The purchasers of lots during this year were William Gill, Thomas Ray, John Ray, Robert Finney, Lewis Bond, Samuel Lord, Hugh Dupray, Ebenezer McGuffin, James Campbell, John Beals, Frederick Haymaker, William Jones, John Wentworth, William Black. Thomas Black, Andrew Robinson and Luke Hill. In 1794 the following persons bought lots in the newly laid out town: William Dick, John Wilkins, Jr., Jesse Barber, John Polhamus, John Smith, John Brooks, James Dickson, John Clows, Cornelius Van Horne, John Mead, Abner Evans, Barnabas McCormick, James Findley, Joseph Griffin, Robert Wil- son, Ebenezer McGuffin, Jennet Finney, Edward Cannon, William Clemens, Samuel Lord, Nicholas Lord, John Hawk, George Roberts, Joseph Arm- strong, John Barclay, Henry Richard and Frederick Baum. In 1795 lots were purchased by William Gill, Jacob Raysor, John Welford, John Davis, John Stewart, Solomon Jennings, Robert Finney, Jennet Finney, Alexan- der Power, Frederick Baum, Robert Johnson, John Johnson, John Morris,- Henry Marly, Robert Wilson, John Wilson, Charles Sweeney, John Mc- Addon, Archibald Bruce, John Brooks, William Johnson, Robert Burris, James Heatley, Alexander Linn, Roger Alden and Joseph Osborn.

The block of lots on Walnut Street, between Market and Park Avenue, now occupied by the residence of D. G. Shryock, Esq., was in the original

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

plan of General Mead intended for a public square. Henry Marley, one of the pioneers of Crawford County, acted as chain bearer for the General in the survey of the town. He used to relate that they commenced at Mead's Mill, a log building then standing near the site of the "Red Mill," standing, until within a few years past, at the head of Water Street, and ran south, cutting out the hazel brush in their progress. It was late in the afternoon before they reached the point where Mill Run crosses Water Street, when Mead, looking at his watch, exclaimed, "Well, Henry, we'll stop here. I guess the town will never go further south than this creek." He, however, lived to see the village pass the boundary he had established. But what would be the old General's surprise if he were to return and view the city he founded more than a century ago? Many of those who purchased lots of General Mead, in 1793-4-5, were non-residents, while others are well remembered pioneers of different sections of the county. The following purchasers, however, located permanently in Meadville, and the majority of them lived and died here: Samuel Lord, Frederick Haymaker, William Dick, John Brooks, Henry Reichard, Jacob Raysor, John Davis and Roger Alden. Between 1794 and 1800 several other pioneers settled in the vil- lage; among them were Dr. Thomas R. Kennedy, James Herriott, Samuel Torbett, Capt. Richard Patch, James Gibson, Col. Joseph Hackney, John Carver, William McArthur, David Compton, Patrick Davis, Lawrence Clancy and Alexander Buchanan.

In 1795 the town plat was resurveyed, remodeled and enlarged by General Mead, Dr. Thomas R. Kennedy and Maj. Roger Alden. The town was divided into seventy-five squares, by streets, alleys and lanes, and one square, known as the Diamond, was laid off for public buildings, in the form of a parallelogram, measuring 300 feet east and west and 600 feet north and south. By the close of the eighteenth century scattering cabins dotted the site of Meadville from French Creek or Venango River to the Diamond, and the little hamlet began to exhibit signs of a healthy growth. The erection of Crawford County, in 1800, and the location of the seat of justice at Meadville gave it an impetus that for some years made it the leading town in northwestern Pennsylvania.

For the five years after the county was organized the buildings on Water Street, previously mentioned, were rented, repaired and utilized for county purposes, but on the 5th of March, 1804, the Legislature passed an

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

act ordering the commissioners to erect a court house and public offices. In compliance with this law a two-storied hewed log building was erected that year on the site of Haskins and Mcclintock's law office, which stands immediately between the residences of the late Judge Derickson and the late Hiram L. Richmond. The lower story was used for a jail and a jailer's residence and a small lot in the rear of the building was enclosed with a high post and picket fence for a jail lot. In the second story was the court room, and was accessible by an outside stairway in front of the building. This room was utilized by the pioneers wherein to hold meetings of various sorts, and here, too, they met for religious worship. It therefore served the two-fold purpose of a training place for imparting both civil and religious teachings. The lot on which the court house and jail stood was purchased of David Mead for $100, he having previously donated the Diamond for that purpose. The clearing and grubbing and erecting the building was done by William Dick at a cost of $2,493. John Grier was paid $100 for sinking a well in the jail lot, so that the total cost of the first court house and jail was $2.593. Upon the erection of the next court house, in 1824, all the old building was converted into a jail and used as such until the present stone structure was built in 1849, when it was removed.

The erection of the present court house was commenced in the fall of 1867. The cornerstone was laid May 27, 1868, and the building was completed in October, 1869. It is located on the east side of the Diamond, and is constructed in the renaissance style, of pressed brick, with stone trimmings. It has tesselated floors, an iron roof, and is considered fire proof throughout. It is heated by steam, and its total cost, including fencing, flagging and furnishings, was $249,000. On the first floor are located the offices of county commissioners, register and recorder, sheriff, treasurer, clerk of courts, county superintendent of schools, district attorney, court stenographer and arbitration room. The court room, prothonotaries' office, jury rooms, law library, presiding justice's office, and consulting rooms occupy the second floor. The janitor's residence is in the third story.

For more than fifty years after the organization of the county each township cared for its own poor; but on the 15th of April, 1851, an act was passed by the Legislature, "To provide for the erection of a house for the employment and support of the poor of the county of Crawford." Isaac Saeger, James D. McIntire, James Cochran, Hugh Brawley, H. B.

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

Beatty, Anson Leonard, William McLean, and John Reynolds were ap- pointed by the act commissioners to purchase land for the purpose, and the county commissioners were instructed to erect suitable buildings thereon, and were designated as managers of the institution from that time forward, known as "The Directors of the Poor and of the House of Employment in the County of Crawford." The commissioners named purchased ninety-nine acres and eighty perches of land adjoining the borough of Saegertown, in the beautiful valley of Woodcock Creek. In 1852 the directors entered into a contract with James A. McFadden and Joseph Balliet to erect a two-story and a half brick structure 42x90 feet, with a kitchen 22x36 feet, for $7,250. In 1868 a three-storied brick build- ing 45x68 feet, adjoining the old structure, was built at a cost of some $20,000. In 1869 a further purchase of land was made of 138 acres, which, together with outbuildings, makes the entire cost to the county of some $50,000.

In May, 1888, occurred the one hundredth anniversary of the settle- mient of the county. As was proper, the event was celebrated by a vast gathering of citizens from all parts of the county. In the morning an historical and a patriotic address were delivered in the Academy of Music, a poem was recited; an original song, set to music by a citizen, was sung. An oak tree was planted on the public square in front of the court house with proper ceremonies of speech-making and music. In the afternoon throngs gathered in front of a stage erected at the northern end of Dia- mond Park, where a monument consisting of a pioneer, life size, gun in hand, cut in granite, standing upon a pedestal of the same material, in the rough, resting upon a proportionate base, had been erected to mark the event-to listen to a dedicatory address and songs by the school children of the whole city, who had been marched from their several schools to the grounds. Rarely, if ever, had such a throng, so happy and joyous, been seen in Crawford County before.

To crown all a procession representing the trades and manufactures of the entire county, with flats on which the different workmen were at their trades, and as the procession moved the products of their handiwork were handed out to the wonder-gaping crowds. The principal streets were passed over and the mechanical skill displayed was indeed well worth a long journey to observe. General Mead's first mill was upon wheels,

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

turning out meal as they moved along, just as they did in the olden time. Remarkable enterprise by the proprietor of the Tribune-Republican was shown in issuing a memorial number of his paper, finely illustrated, con- taining a history of the county, the addresses delivered and a full account of the services. Altogether it formed a unique volume, well worthy of being bound for preservation.

Not long afterward enterprising citizens of the G. A. R. corps pro- cured a soldiers' monument that was erected on the opposite end of the park, which was dedicated with appropriate ceremonies. It represents an infantry soldier armed and equipped for service, bearing aloft the flag of his country and standing upon a beautifully wrought monument of the finest granite, decorated with appropriate military emblems. In front of this elegant monument there were subsequently placed two long-range thirty-pounder Parrott guns from the War Department, one of them manu- factured in 1862 at the West Point foundry, Cold Springs, N. Y., and the other by the same company in 1864. They are mounted on cut-stone foundations, pointing southward, and between the two is a pile of solid shot arranged in pyramidal form.

CHAPTER II.

EDUCATION IN MEADVILLE.

T HE preliminary steps towards the founding of Allegheny College were taken at a meeting convened at the old log courthouse in Meadville, on the 20th of June, 1815. At this period Meadville contained less than eighty families, and about 400 inhabitants, very nearly the present population of Kerrtown. The whole population of Crawford County was only about six thousand, and the number of taxables was less than twelve hundred. Curiosity is excited to know what the inhabitants of this insignifi- cant village, around which the stumps still stood like grim sentinels, and population for a long reach around had hardly enough of the forest cleared to eke out a scanty subsistence, wanted with a college, and how they ever expected to support it. Was it like the penchant of one of Mark Twain's heroes for Echoes? But men sometimes build better than they know, and such must have been the case with the pioneers of collegiate education. It was doubtless in answer to a noble aspiration. When we behold this exhibition of their pluck and courage we are led to wonder if they would have stumbled before the establishment of a public library.

The meeting was organized by appointing Major Roger Alden chair- man and Mr. John Reynolds secretary. A statement of the sentiment of the meeting, and the motives which actuated its members, was formally offered and unanimously adopted, which, though a little high sounding, is nevertheless a faithful expression, doubtless, of the feelings which moved them. "Be it known," is the language of this paper, "to all whom it may concern, that we, whose names are affixed to this instrument, have volun- tarily associated ourselves together for the purpose of establishing a colle- giate institution.

"The importance of advantages for a classical education, and the want of an institution where such an education may be obtained, in the extensive

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

region watered by the Allegheny River and its numerous contributory streams, and destined, in all human probability, to be overspread, at 10 great distance of time, with as many inhabitants as any interior section of the United States, of equal magnitude, are a sufficient reason for awakening our attention to this subject.

"The example of our venerable ancestors, who early made provision for the liberal and pious, education of their sons; the nature of our govern- ment, the welfare of which depends, in no small degree, under Almighty God, on the prevalence of knowledge, virtue and religion; the eventful pe- riod in which we live, plainly indicating that the time is nigh at hand when there will be an unprecedented call for the labors of the heralds of the gos- pel, afford additional argument on the expediency of our present under- taking."

From this pronunciamento we discover that, in prophetic vision, they behield the teeming populations eventually to fill this broad domain, and, acting upon the example of pious ancestors, they built, not to meet a present need, but for a probable future want, and especially were they mindful of the pressing demands of the church. From its being in the midst of the Allegheny basin, of territory drained by the Allegheny River, it was named Allegheny College, and located at Meadville.

The chairman of the meeting, Major Alden, was fully alive to the im- portance of the enterprise, mainly, doubtless, from a purely philanthropic motive, though possibly incidentally with an eye to business, as he was the first agent of the Holland Land Company, and was, from the first, very energetic in bringing out the hidden resources of this region. He had fought as a private in the battles of Lexington and Bunker Hill, and when the army was organized he entered it as adjutant. He was in the battles of Flat Bush, Long Island, White Plains, the capture of Burgoyne, and at the battle of Monmouth. He was aid-de-camp to Benedict Arnold at the time of his treason at West Point. He afterward made the campaign of the South, under General Green, and was at the surrender of Cornwallis. having been, as described by one of his intimate friends, "in the first platoon that fired a shot at Lexington, and among the last in the action at York- town." Full of enterprise and public spirit, he expended a competent for- tune in endeavoring to improve the county by erecting grist mills, saw- mills and in laying out roads. He built the first mills at Saegertown, and

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

was the mover in several similar enterprises in various localities. He, in conjunction with Dr. Kennedy, gave to Meadville the impress of regularity in its laying out.

There is little doubt, however, that the aspirations of the early citizens of Meadville for an institution of a high order-a full-fledged college-were given form and reduced to method by him who became its first president, and was its guiding genius, Timothy Alden, a cousin of the Major, who had been a student of Phillips Academy, at Andover, Mass., a graduate of Harvard University, an enthusiast in lingual studies, and had had large experience as a teacher in Portsmouth, N. H., Boston, Newark. N. J., and in New York City.

In this first meeting the plan of operations was very completely sketched. It was resolved that the college have a president, a vice-presi- dent, professors and tutors; that the Rev. Timothy Alden, late of the city of New York, be president of the college and professor of Oriental languages and ecclesiastical history, and the Rev. Robert Johnston vice-president and professor of logick, metaphysicks and ethicks, all with a k; but while their heads were swimming in the regions of Oriental languages, ecclesiastical his- tory, logick, metaphysicks and ethicks, they bethought themselves that as yet there were neither students nor local habitation, and they prudently added that the president and vice-president be the sole instructors for the present in all departments of literature and science. It was further resolved to appoint a committee to prepare an address to the Legislature, requesting a charter, another to draft a code of laws and regulations for the govern- ment of the college; that John Reynolds, who was chosen treasurer, should open subscription books for donations in any kind of property which may be useful to the institution; and that the president-elect be commissioned to go forth as agent of the college to solicit means from abroad. His territory was not circumscribed, as are agents nowadays, but he was given the whole boundless continent. The wording of his commission is unique: "We rec- ommend," it proceeds, after the statement of the fact of his appointment as president, "that you personally become the organ of communication to the citizens of the United States, and, with your own argument and eloquence, declare the motives and objects of establishing a collegiate institution in this new and delightful country, acknowledging, with the utmost frankness and sincerity, that if the associators did not judge you in every respect com-

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

pletely qualified for presiding they would not have presumed to commence an undertaking so necessary and important. Having the utmost confidence in your integrity, and knowing your zeal in the cause of science, morality and religion, the board have committed to you a most sacred charge, and you are authorized to solicit benefactions in any part of the United States."

But there was one provision made in this first meeting more far-reach- ing in its purpose, and which evinced a deeper insight into the wants of the college, than any of these. It was that "the publick academies now in exist- ence, or hereafter to be established in the counties of Crawford, Erie, War- ren, Venango, Mercer and Butler, composing the northwestern judicial dis- trict of Pennsylvania, may be so far connected with Allegheny College as to receive probationers for matriculation in this seminary, and in this case that the principal instructor, being a man of competent classical education, and of good character, be considered as one of the faculty, and be added to the list of tutors of the college." The end contemplated by this provision was to raise up and cement together a large number of preparatory schools, cov- ering all this whole northwestern section of the State, which should serve as feeders to the college, and by giving the principals a semi-official connec- tion with the faculty, induce them to labor for its upbuilding, and to enable the faculty to exert a reflex influence in securing a uniform standard of preparation, conditions most useful as affecting its life blood-a relation which has for a long time subsisted in the English schools and universities, but never, to my knowledge, attempted in this country but in this instance. The crying evil in American colleges at the present time is the lack of suit- able schools for preparing youths for college, organized for this special func- tion, and not transcending it. We have good primary schools, and we have good colleges and universities, but our secondary or intermediate schools, with few exceptions, like Phillips Academy, have no standing and scarcely no existence.

Dr. McCosh, president of Princeton College, said last summer before the National Teachers' Association: "The grand educational want of Amer- ica at this present time is a judiciously scattered body of secondary schools to carry on our brighter youths from what has been so well commenced in the primary schools, and may be so well completed in our colleges. How are young men to mount from the lower to the higher platform? Every one has heard of the man who built a fine house of two stories, each large

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

and commodious, but who neglected to put a stair between them. It ap- pears to me that there has been a like mistake committed in most of the States of the Union. We need a set of intermediate schools, to enable the abler youths of America to take advantage of the education provided in the colleges."

To show how fully European countries are provided with this class of schools, I give the statistics gathered by Superintendent Wickersham:

Secondary schools

Population.

for boys.

Teachers.

Students.

Germany

41,000,000

1,043

12,000

177,379

Austria

27,000,000

383

18,852

Netherlands

3.674,402

219

1,390

14,500

Sweden

4,250,452

IO3

11,874

Switzerland

2,669, 147

375

1,000

12.750

The public high school must do what it can towards feeding the college, though it is not its special function to fit boys for college; but rather to do the best possible for that great class which cannot take a collegiate educa- tion. Schools to do this special work must be created, and this was the far- reaching aim of the provision incorporated in these resolves. In the early history of this county there were learned clergymen, who were accustomed to take a few young men into their families and fit them for college. Such a man was the Rev. Mr. Gamble, father of Dr. Gamble of Mosiertown, who had his home in South Shenango, near Jamestown; but even this practice has died out. The action of the college last season in establishing a pre- paratory department is in the right direction.

The resolves of this little assembly on that June evening of 1815 were conceived in a spirit of noble philanthropy, and when adjourned as they blew out the lights and walked through the quiet streets, where, as Irving would say, the buzz of a blue-bottle fly of a summer afternoon could be heard from one end of the main street to the other, I have no doubt that they viewed their evening's work with complacency, and felt assured that a college was to be-just how was not yet so apparent. But there was one in that company to whom toil and privation and patient waiting were a real joy, a quid which in his young manhood he rolled as a sweet morsel under his tongue, and that was President Alden.

He soon started out on his mission to the United States, and, judging

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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.

by the long list of donations, varying from 20 cents up to $5, $10 and even $100, little money, mostly books, and ranging through the princi- pal towns of the North and East, he religiously carried out his instructions to present his case to the people of the United States. The first name on his paper is that of John Adams, ex-President of the United States, who sub- scribed $20 in books. Then follow the solid men of Boston, sixty-six in number, the Frothinghams, the Channings, the Davises, the Lorings, the Lowells, the Ticknors, the Greenleafs, the Parkmans and the Thayers. One, D. D. Rogers, gave 500 acres of wild land on the Little Kanawha, estimated at $2,000. Then follow the men of Cambridge, Charlestown, Dorchester, Mar- blehead, Medford, Plymouth, Salem, where the learned Dr. Worcester resided, Sandwich, Worcester, where Dr. Aaron Bancroft lived, Yarmouth, Bristol, R. I .; Pawtucket, where Dr. Benedict, the historian of the Baptists, gave $5; Providence, where Brown and Ives, the patrons of Brown Univer- sity, gave him $50 in money; Albany, N. Y., Brooklyn, Hudson, Newburg, New York City, with its twenty-nine subscribers, among whom was Dr. Harris, president of Columbia College; Schenectady, where we find Dr. Nott, president of Union College; Troy, Burlington, Newark, New Bruns- wick, Harrisburg, Pa., Lancaster, Philadelphia and Pittsburg. The net results of the . mission were:

Land

$2,000.00.

Books

1,642.26

Cash

461.00

Total

$4,103.30

A rather small amount of money with which to found a college, and bearing the proportion to unproductive funds that Falstaff's bread did to his sack. But the result of this tour is not represented by these figures above; for he paved the way for bequests that were princely. Besides, he procured sundry interesting relics for a cabinet and museum, and seeds from the pro- fessor of natural history at Cambridge for the commencement of a botanic garden. Those seeds have probably not yet been put to sprouting. Among the articles for the cabinet were specimens of mosaic, and of plaster from Pompeii, of marble broken from a pillar of the amphitheatre at Hercula- neum, discovered one hundred feet below the surface of the lava; sulphate of iron from Stromboli; pomice stone from Ætna; plaster broken from the

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Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania., Part 25

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