USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. > Part 64
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OUR COUNTY AND ITS PEOPLE.
Tryonville is a village in the eastern part of the township, in the valley of Oil Creek. It was settled by David and James Tryon, who came there from Rome Township in 1828. They kept a few supplies for their mill hands, and established a sort of store. In 1848 E. B. Lee brought out a con- . siderable stock of merchandise. Lyman Jones kept the first tavern and James Tryon the first school. The village contains forty or fifty houses, a few stores, and the usual small industries found in a place of its size. It is stretched along both sides of Oil Creek. The Western New York and Penn- sylvania Railroad passes within a half mile of the town, and a station has been established there, where quite a little hamlet has sprung up. A Methodist Episcopal Church was organized in Tryonville in 1833, with a small mem- bership. Among its original members were James Tryon and wife. David Tryon and wife, and Mrs. Harriot Matthews. James Tryon was the moving spirit in effecting the organization, and was leader of the class during forty years, being succeeded by David Titus. The early meetings were held in the schoolhouse. until in 1870 a large fr. me structure was built at a cost of about $7.000.
BOROUGH OF TOWNVILLE.
The borough of Townville is situated in the southwestern corner of Steuben Township, on the southern side of Muddy Creek. The first to settle in the wilderness on the site which the village now occupies was Noah Town. who emigrated from Granville, New York, in 1824, and after residing some time in Randolph Township and in Meadville, came to the banks of Muddy Creek in 1831. He cleared and cultivated a farm, at the same time carrying on a lumbering business, erecting a sawmill on Muddy Creek about 1833. He hauled the lumber across country to Oil Creek and from there shipped it by river to Pittsburg. He established the first store in the village and operated it for some time, afterward removing to Erie.
Zepheniah Kingsley came from New York State in 1822 or 1823 and settled with his three sons in what is now the western part of the village. His son Ransom built a sawmill on Muddy Creek at about the same time that Town constructed his, and together they commenced the work of clearing the country of some of the heavy timber that then covered it with a dense growth. It was several years before a road was constructed through the forest to the little settlement. The elder Kingsley was appointed the first postmaster and the office received the name of "Kingsleys'." John Baker and Harvey Hull came soon afterward, the latter erecting a third sawmill on Muddy Creek. In 1849 the settlement contained a store, a blacksmith shop, a cabinet shop, and eight dwellings. Soon after this Dr. Adams came in and was the first resident physician, remaining several years. A. Hamlin erected a tannery and about 1850 Lewis Wood built a steam grist mill. Var-
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ious factories and mills for the manufacture of woodenware have been estab- lished at different times, utilizing the timber with which the surrounding country is covered.
Townville was incorporated as a borough in 1867, and W. R. King was elected the first Burgess. The dwelling houses are scattered for a mile along both sides of Main Street, the principal thoroughfare, which runs northwest and southeast. In the southern part of the village it is intersected by Fre- mont Street, and the "corners" thus formed constitute the business center of the community. The village, with a population of about four hundred, con- tains rather more than the uistial number of stores of various sorts, shops, mills, factories, and establishments of different kinds, and is the trading center for a large area of country.
The earliest school held in Steuben Township is supposed to have been taught in Townville. In 1860, before the incorporation of the borough, the Township Directors erected a schoolhouse here, and the citizens of the village added a second story to serve as a public hall. The necessity for more room for school purposes led to its conversion to a schoolroom. In 1896 the bor- ough contained three schools, in session seven months of the year, and at- tended by one hundred and twenty scholars. More than one thousand dollars was raised and expended during the year for their support.
The Troy Baptist Church was organized in Townville, in the Kingsley schoolhouse, in 1836, with a large membership. After an existence of seven years it disbanded and went out of existence. In 1851 the Steuben Baptist Church was organized, including in its membership the greater number of the members of the old Troy Church. In 1852 a frame edifice was erected in the western end of the borough at a cost of about $1,000. In 1881 the name was changed to the First Baptist Church of Townville.
A Methodist Church was organized at Townville in 1845, among the original members being J. A. Pond, Harvey Hull and Gamaliel Phillips. Soon afterward Dr. William Nason, Dr. Litther Pearse and Mr. Langworthy united with the society, and became prominent members. Until 1849 the meetings were held in the schoolhouse, when a frame church was erected on Main Street. In 1877 a larger and handsomer structure was erected on the oppo- site side of the street, which cost about $5,000.
The Calvary Protestant Episcopal Church was organized at Townville in 1867 by Rev. Henry Fitch, the nine original members being Peter and Eliza A. Rose, Mary A. Rose, W. S. Rose, S. D. and Mary L. Guion, Mary Myers, and Emily and Ann B. Rose. The church building was commenced in 1867. but was not completed until 1873. Its total cost was about $5,000. The organization grew out of Episcopal meetings held in the village in 1862 by Rev. S. T. Lord, of Meadville. The church has never had a regular minister, being supplied from Meadville, Titusville and Corry.
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Noah Town. the founder of the village. was a member of the Congrega- tional Church, and with his family and several others organized a society of that belief at an early date. Ebenezer Harris. Harvey Coburn. Hezekiah Wadsworth and L. L. Lamb were among the first members. A church edifice was erected in 1845. and for some time regular services were held, but the society becoming greatly reduced in membership. the meetings were discon- tinued.
CHAPTER XXV.
SUMMERHILL TOWNSHIP.
S UMMERHILL, an interior township, lying west of the center of the county. is regular in outline, extending four miles north and south and six miles east and west, and contains 14.603 acres of land. It is watered in the western part by Conneaut Creek and numerous small streams tributary to it, and in the eastern part by a small stream which empties into Little Cussawago Creek, in the eastern part of Cussawago Township, and by the headwaters of Pine Run, which flows south and empties into Conneaut Lake. The old Beaver and Erie Canal extends through the township, along the valley of Conneaut Creek. Abundant springs are found in every part of the township. The land in the eastern part is comparatively level. becoming more rolling in the west. Excepting along the flats of the Conneaut, where it is a rich loam. the soil is clayey, well adapted to grazing and grain raising. Oak, maple. ash and chestnut are the principal timbers.
The township was organized in 1829 and included the northern part of Summit. In 1841. when Summit was organized, it was reduced to its present boundaries. Spring lying on the north. Hayfield on the east. Summit on the south and Conneaut on the west. Of the thirty-six tracts included within the township boundaries, twenty had been patented by individuals before the land companies commenced locating claims, a fact which speaks for the good quality of the soil and the early date of the settlements. These individual tracts are for the most part situated along the valley of Conneaut Creek, where. in consequence. the early pioneers of the township fixed their habitations. Six tracts in the eastern part of the township belonged to the Holland Land Company. while the Pennsylvania Population Company held the title to land in the southern part.
James McDowell. of Scotch extraction. took up a tract of land on Con- neaut Creek. below Dicksonburgh. about 1796, and this is believed to have
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been the first settlement within the township. He came from the Sus ue- hanna Valley, and remained a resident of the township until his deatlı. He is still represented by numerous descendants. Daniel Myers came from cen- tral Pennsylvania about the same time, and settled on a tract next to Mc- Dowell, near the center of the township. which had been surveyed in the name of A. Power. John Stirling with his three sons. James. Washington and Andrew, came soon afterward and settled in the same vicinity. all becoming the proprietors of fine farms. James Fetterman, a young. unmarried man. came at the same time and occupied land about a mile and a half southeast of Conneautville. He married Betsy McDowell in 1798. and this is said to have been the first marriage in the township. He at one time owned eleven hundred acres of land, part of which still remains in the possession of his descendants.
Valentine Gwin. of French descent. came to the township in 1803. His father had been one of those who accompanied Lafayette to this country, and served under him in the Federal army until the close of the Revolution. Neal Mckay, an early justice of the peace, followed the occupation of a weaver. Robert McKay, his son, was a captain of militia during the War of 1812. and served at Erie while Perry's fleet was being built. John McTier was a stone mason by trade, and his services in building stone chimneys for the log houses were often called into requisition, and made him a valuable member of the community. Samuel Gowdy patented a tract of land in the southwestern corner of the township, and soon afterward married Betsy Gilliland. He manufactured the wooden plows, such as were used at that period. and was a valued accession to the settlement. He was a colonel of militia in 1812. and commanded a regiment at Erie during the construction of Perry's fleet.
Settlements had been made in all parts of the township soon after the beginning of the present century. John and Michael Winger built a saw- mill on Conneaut Creek in 1820. the first in the township. George Dicksin operated a sawmill on Conneaut Creek at an early date. and also owned a grist mill at Dicksonburgh. Lumbering was for a long time one of the most important occupations. and during the days of the canal several sawmills were in operation in various parts of the township. In 1828 James Beatty built a carding mill about a mile south of Dicksonburgh, which was success- fully conducted for some time.
The first distillery in what is now Summerhill was erected by James Fetterman. and the second by John McDowell. The latter perated his still for several years. and then abandoned the business fr m a religious con ic- tion that it was wrong to manufacture intoxicating lijuurs. Scruples of this kind seldom occurred, as the custom of using whisky was in those days very general. The pioneers of this region. descended as many of them were fr 11 the people of Scotland and Ireland, came very honestly by their love of
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whisky. There was nothing disreputable in either making or drinking whisky at that day. No temperance societies then existed; to drink whisky was as common and as honorable as to eat bread, and the quality of "Pennsylvania whisky" was proverbial both in the East and the West. Distilling was then esteemed as honorable and as respectable as any other business, and it was early commenced and extensively carried on in northwestern Pennsylvania. There was no market for the grain, a horse could carry only four bushels over the mountains, but he could transport the product of twenty-four bushels in the shape of whisky, which therefore became the most important item of remittance in pay for salt, sugar and iron. When a tax was imposed on whisky the people of western Pennsylvania regarded it as the farmers of to- day would regard a tax on lard, pork or flour.
A little log schoolhouse was erected in 1812 about a half mile north of Dicksonburgh, and this was the first in the township. It was used for school purposes about six years, and Triphosa Rugg, Samuel Steele and Whately Barrett were its early teachers. In 1836 there were six common schools in Summerhill Township, presided over by nine teachers. The male teachers received thirteen dollars per month, the female one dollar and twenty-five cents. The schools were in session three and one-half months of the year, and were attended by two hundred and sixty-three pupils. The character of the teachers was reported as good, and their qualifications such as to do justice to the several branches taught. Reading, writing, arithmetic, grammar and geo- graphy were the studies in which instruction was given, and the progress of the scholars was favorably commented upon.
In 1896 the number of schools had been increased to twelve, with a school year of seven months. The salary of the teachers did not vary so much as sixty years before, the pay of both male and female instructors being twenty-four dollars per month. Two hundred and thirty pupils were in at- tendance, at an average monthly cost to the township of two dollars and twenty-four cents for each scholar. During the year $2,800 was raised and expended for the support of the schools.
Dicksonburgh, a small settlement in the southern portion of the township, is the only village in Summerhill. It contains a score of dwellings, a school, store, church and blacksmith shop. It was on the Beaver and Erie Canal, and in the early days was known as McDowell's Postoffice. George Dickson, for whom the place was named, built a grist mill here, and John Thompson and Thomas Proctor were early merchants. It is on the line of the Pittsburg, Bessemer and Lake Erie Railroad.
Rev. James Quinn was in 1801 sent by the Baltimore Methodist Epis- copal Conference as circuit preacher to the Pittsburg district, to form a circuit extending from Lake Erie to the Allegheny and Ohio rivers. After laboring for some time he was succeeded by Rev. Joseph Shackelford, who filled out
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the remainder of the year. In 1802 he organized a class in Summerhill Township at the house of James McDowell. James McDowell and wife, George Nelson and wife, and Mrs. Johnson were the earliest members. The Erie circuit soon contained twenty appointments, and the preacher was obliged to travel four hundred miles each month in order to fill them. The McDowell class was at first attached to the Summerhill circuit, afterward to the Har- monsburgh. For many years meetings were held in the cabins of the mem bers, afterward in schoolhouses, until the church was built.
A class of the Methodist Church was organized in the northeastern part of the township as early as 1825. the more prominent members being Nelson Smith, Edmund Greenlce, Andreas Bagley, Daniel Bagley and Elisha Curtis. The meetings were for many years held in an old log schoolhouse, until a frame edifice was erected in the extreme northeastern corner of the township. The membership has decreased considerably, as it was formerly a large society.
A class of the Evangelical Association Church was organized by Rev. James Crossman in 1863, with twenty-five members. Minor Walton, Baltzer Gehr, Mrs. Lawrence, E. Stevens and Nathan Stevens were among the first members, and Rev. Crossman became the first pastor. Meetings were held in a schoolhouse in the eastern part of Conneaut Township until 1871, when a church edifice was erected near the western line of the township at a cost of $1,800.
CHAPTER XXVI.
SUMMIT TOWNSHIP.
S UMMIT is an interior township, lying west of the center of the county, and contains 14,717 acres of land. It is six miles in length and four in width, being bounded on the north by Summerhill, on the east by Hay- field and Vernon, on the south by Sadsbury, and on the west by Pine and Conneaut. Conneaut Inlet, or Pine Run, and its tributaries drain the eastern part, entering Conneaut Lake in the southeastern part of the township. Con- neaut Creek rises in the southwestern part and flows north, draining the western part of the township. An elevated ridge extends between the two creeks, separating the tributaries of French Creek from those of Lake Erie, and making the division between the two systems, and it is from this summit, as it is called, that the township takes its name. Its surface was covered with several varieties of timber, pine and hemlock in the south, with oak,
40
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beech, sycamore, sugar maple and cherry in the north. The surface of the township is fairly level, and no better land for the cultivation of grain exists in the county. In the early days the soil of the southern part was rather wet, but with the removal of timber it has been dry and tillable.
The township was formed in 1841, while M. B. Lowry was a member of the State Legislature. He was then a resident of Harmonsburgh, at that time in the extreme northern part of Sadsbury, and the citizens of that place were obliged to traverse the whole of the township to attend the elections held at Evansburgh. For the convenience of himself and neighbors Mr. Lowry secured the passage of an act of Assembly, in 1841, establishing a new town- ship, the southern half being taken from Sadsbury and the northern from Summerhill. The western portion had, until 1829. formed a part of Con- neaut, while all of the remainder was included within the original limits of Sadsbury.
Alexander Power, in 1795, located a tract at the mouth of Conneaut Inlet, and this is considered the first settlement in the township. He was at that time engaged with a surveying party in the western part of the county, but he soon afterward settled upon his land and erected a sawmill upon the Inlet in 1798. This is said to have been the first mill built in Crawford County west of French Creek. Mr. Power did not remain long in Sum- mit, but emigrated to the north and settled upon the site of Conneautville.
Five tracts along the eastern line of the township became the property of the Holland Land Company, and seven in the southwest corner of the Penn- sylvania Population Company, but all of the remainder of the township was located by individuals. During the years 1797-8-9 the Holland Company made contracts for the settlement of its lands, but none of those who received the tracts are remembered as residents of the township except William and Robert Burns, who were hardy pioneers and soon left the county.
Much more permanent was the early settlement of the Population tracts. Between the years 1797 and 1804 most of their tracts had been disposed of. chiefly to hardy settlers of German extraction, who remained as permanent residents and whose descendants still live in the county. Adam Slump and Christopher Kauffman settled tracts in the southwestern corner. Jacob, Joseph. Samuel, Adam, John and Baltzer Gehr were brothers, of German extraction, who came from the eastern part of the State, and all settled on farms in one locality. They were among the first settlers, their contracts bearing date of 1797. and their descendants still possess the land. One of them, Baltzer Gehr, was for a long time, at the advanced age of more than one hundred years. the oldest man in Crawford County. With their families they soon formed a large settlement. Jolin Gehr was a captain in the War of 1812. Jacob Flickinger was a German Dunkard, and with his large family subsequently removed from the township. One of his sons, John, was a
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noted runner, and once distinguished himself by his fleetness of foot by pur- suing a wild turkey and catching it just as the fowl was about to give up the contest and take flight with its wings. Samuel and David Yorty settled in 1803 in the southwestern part.
But the settlement advanced most rapidly on the individual lands in the central portion of the township. James McClure was a young unmarried man who came from Mifflin County in 1798, and purchased from John Field a tract of four hundred acres on the western banks of Conneaut Lake. Re- turning to Mifflin County he induced his cousin, John McChire, to come with him to his new possessions. John was a carpenter by trade, and the excel- lence of the pine timber in that vicinity led him to remain, and they erected adjoining cabins upon the tract, which James divided with his consin. He was married in 1803 and resided upon his farm, with the exception of an interval of thirteen years passed in Mifflin County, until his death, in 1852. His cousin John remained a lifelong resident of Summit, his death, which oc- curred in 1845, resulting from malaria engendered by the overflow of the lake when raised for canal purposes. Adam Foust was a German of some means who came from Berks County and settled on the eastern side of the lake in 1797. He obtained by purchase and settlement thirteen hundred acres of land in Summit and Sadsbury townships. He had eight sons and three daughters, and to each of his children he gave one hundred acres of land and an ax. He remained a resident of the township until his death. William Butler, a native of Ireland. settled as early as 1797 in the eastern part of Summit.
Silas Chidester, a native of New Jersey, came to the township from Pittsburg about 1800. He settled a tract of land about a mile south of Harmonsburgh, where he made his permanent home. Jacob Looper, a German, remained a resident of the township throughout life, following his trade of blacksmithing. His descendants still live in the township. William McFadden took up land one and a half miles west of Harmonsburgh and was a lifelong resident. John Inglehoop, a soldier of the Revolution, settled in the northern part of Summit, where he passed the remainder of his life. As early as 1797 John Smith settled in the northern part of the township. where his descendants still reside. Samuel Shotwell also made an early settlement. Archibald Sloan came from Carlisle and located about a mile north of Harmonsburgh. He was a member of the Seceder Church, and died on his farm about 1810, leaving a widow and ten children, who remained on the place a number of years afterward.
Matthew, John and Thomas McClure, three brothers, came from Ireland, and at an early date settled in the northern part of Summit. Hugh Gilliland and his sons Hugh and Robert were early settlers in the northwestern part. Joseph Garwood removed to the same locality from Fayette County as early
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as 1797. He purchased four hundred acres of land from a Mr. McDowell, for which it is said the consideration was a barrel of flour and a watch. The elder Garwood subsequently removed to Illinois, but his son, Joseph Gar- wood, remained a permanent resident.
All the above mentioned pioneers had secured homes in Summit before 1810, and others came in and gradually took up the land in every part. When the War of 1812 broke out the settlers of this as well as other regions were friglitened by reports of contemplated Indian attacks. On one occasion the scattering inhabitants of the northwestern portion of the township gathered at the cabin of Joseph Garwood upon hearing the report of an imminent at- tack, and remained there until two of their number, who had been dispatched to Erie, returned and dispelled their fears.
The northern end of Conneaut Lake lies in Summit Township, which includes most of the grounds of Exposition Park. This was formerly known as Lynce's Landing, and is now the most popular of all the resorts on the shores of Conneaut Lake. In 1892 an association was formed which pur- chased about 145 acres of land near the head of the lake for use as an ex- position grounds, and it was incorporated under the act of Assembly of 1874 as the Conneaut Lake Exposition Company. Major A. C. Huidekoper, Col- onel S. B. Dick, Joseph Sibley, Cyrus Kitchen, Stewart Wilson, S. J. Logan, John J. Shryock. Colonel Frank Mantor, John S. Kean and W. G. Powell were the incorporators. A track was laid, connecting the grounds with the Pittsburg, Bessemer and Lake Erie Railway system, and numerous buildings were constructed. A spacious auditorium, a pavilion, an exposition building, stores, offices, hotels and boat landings have been erected, broad avenues laid out, and numerous improvements made. A system of water works was constructed, and the grounds and buildings are lighted by electricity. It is a favorite resort for picnickers, campers and pleasure seekers, and excursion trains are run during the season from Pittsburg, Erie, Franklin, Meadville, Greenville and numerous other points, the number of visitors in one day fre- quently reaching five or six thousand. In the summer of 1897 a brigade encampment of the National Guard of Pennsylvania was held here. The Exposition Grounds were selected as the meeting place of the Conneaut Lake Christian Culture Assembly, an organization of the Baptist churches of northwestern Pennsylvania, and in June of 1897 the first assembly was held, which proved of great success. The present officers of the exposition company are Major A. C. Huidekoper, President; John E. Reynolds, Secre- tary and Treasurer, and Colonel S. B. Dick, R. C. McMasters. S. J. Logan, John S. Kean, W. G. Powell, H. C. Crawford, Sarah M. Mantor and John J. Shryock, Directors.
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