USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. > Part 70
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guage, and so great was his advancement that when the voyage had ended he was able to express himself quite intelligibly.
He spent the following winter, and also a part of the summer of 1797, at Cazenovia, New York, Then he went to Oldenbarneveldt (Trenton), where he remained until he removed to Philadelphia, in 1802, to accept the position of bookkeeper to Mr. Busti, the general agent of the Holland Land Company. At about the same time, too, he was appointed secretary and bookkeeper of the Pennsylvania Population Company. From the very first, because of his abilities and industry, he had the confidence of the company, and in a little time was looked upon as the successor of Mr. Busti in the general agency.
During his first year's residence in Philadelphia, an opportunity pre- sented itself whereby he was further able to demonstrate his business talent, and at the same time gratify his love of travel. Major Roger Alden was then the general agent of the Holland Land Company for its lands west of the Allegheny river. Both Major Alden and his assistant were incompetent as bookkeepers, and as a result great confusion was produced in the agency's accounts. To adjust these, Mr. Huidekoper was asked to go to Meadville. The trip was made on horseback, in company with Mr. Jabez Colt, the agert of the Pennsylvania Population Company for their lands in Crawford county. He remained in Meadville about four weeks, and then returned, by way of Buffalo, Niagara Falls and New York. He describes Meadville, at this time, as "a small village, containing twenty-five or thirty houses, chiefly log ones, and a population of about one hundred and fifty." He also says, in describing his journey home, that "from the Pennsylvania line to Buffalo there were but three small cabins, two near Westfield and one on the Cattaraugus creek, and Buffalo had perhaps a dozen and a half cabins."
Major Alden resigned his position in 1804, and immediately Mr. Huide- koper was appointed his successor. In the following November he removed to Meadville and entered upon his duties at the beginning of the new year. The condition of the agency was most unsatisfactory. The lands north of the Ohio and west of the Allegheny river had been sold to the company by the state of Pennsylvania, under a law of June 3, 1792, which required that within two years after the issue of a warrant for any tract of four hundred acres, a family should reside thereon ; and further, that this residence should continue for five years "unless prevented by the enemies of the United States." From the beginning, the company had faithfully endeavored to comply with the law, but failed, however, because of an Indian war that had begun in 1791, and which continued until the decisive victory of General Anthony Wayne, late in the summer of 1794. The company then renewed its efforts for the settlement of the lands, but now it was claimed by some persons that it had legally forfeited its title by its failure to make the settlements within the re- quired time. When Mr. Huidekoper assumed the management of the agency,
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"a local rebellion had sprung up." Squatters had settled on the lands, and not a few persons who had gone into possession under written agreements re- pudiated their contracts. Shrewd speculators, too, endeavored to so deter- mine events as to make it possible for them to have a share in the spoils. Bitter antagonisms were created, which were intensified by immerous anonymous let- ters. Confronted by such difficulties, ordinary men would have shrunk from the responsibilities which Mr. Huidekoper now assumed.
It was his work, however, that brought order out of chaos. One of his first steps was to have the company's title judicially established. This was done by a decision of the United States supreme court in 1805, in the case of Huide- koper versus Douglas. The decision, which was delivered by Chief Justice John Marshall, held that a faithful attempt had been made to comply with the law within the required time; and that after the close of the "interrupting invasions," the warrantees were excused "from further and subsequent efforts at settlement." (Dallas' Reports, volume 4. page 392.) Perfect fairness characterized all of Mr. Huidekoper's dealings with the settlers. Where patience would do good, he was patient, even to indulgence. There are many instances where fifteen or twenty years elapsed before settlers found it con- venient to pay for their lands; and in some cases they were not paid for until after twenty-five and thirty years. On the other hand, if firmness was needed, he was not wanting in that quality.
The decision of the United States supreme court helped very materially to improve matters; but the angry feelings which the contest had engendered continued for a long time, and more than once the life of Mr. Huidekoper was in danger. On one occasion, when returning home alone over a wilderness road in Warren county, he was fired upon by a would-be assassin. Fortunately he escaped injury, but his horse was severely wounded. An attempt was made to bring the perpetrator of the outrage to justice. The evidence against him was strong, but it was purely circumstantial, and the jury failed to convict. Years afterward the accused, when he was on his death-bed, admitted the shooting, but denied that he had intended murder.
The last legal controversy about warrant titles connected with the office at Meadville was decided by the Pennsylvania supreme court nearly forty years after the decision of the United States supreme court. ( Barr's Reports, volume 1, page 463. ) In 1836 the company decided to close out its interests in New York and Pennsylvania. Mr. Huidekoper now purchased all its lands in Erie. Crawford. Warren and Venango counties, paying for them the sum of one hundred and seventy-eight thousand dollars. Earlier than this he had made some purchases of considerable magnitude from the Pennsylvania Pop- ulation Company. The purchase of 1836, however, was his most important one, and was the last one that he made. It should be said also that he had other interests besides his land business. In 1817, in co-operation with Judge
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Griffith, of New Jersey, who was later clerk of the United States supreme court, he was engaged in the introduction of merino sheep into the country. In the following year he erected west of French creek a grist and saw mill, which was of the greatest benefit to the farmers of the surrounding country, though it was never very remunerative to its owner.
On September 1, 1806, nearly two years after his arrival in Meadville, Mr. Huidekoper was married to Miss Rebecca Colhoon, of Carlisle, Penn- sylvania. A year earlier he had purchased thirty acres of ground adjacent to the town, and had erected a house. Miss Colhoon was of Scotch-Irish descent. She was of pleasing personal appearance, amiable disposition and a thorough- going housekeeper. Their married life was a most happy one, and extended through a period of thirty-three years. Seven children were born to them, two of whom died in childhood; the other five survived both parents. Mrs. Huidekoper died October 22, 1839.
Throughout the whole period of his life, Mr. Huidekoper was a diligent student. The employment of the larger partof his leisure in reading gave him an extensive general information. He was especially fond of history and biog- raphy. It has been said, by one who knew him well, that "to converse with him on our colonial connection with European history" one would find him "as familiar with it as though he had made it the study of his life." Probably his knowledge of the Scriptures and ecclesiastical history was still more profound. Very early in life he had become a faithful student of the New Testament. It was his habit, in the study of mooted theological questions, to examine all of the evidences of the Scriptures before coming to a conclusion. In this way lie reached definite opinions, which he was always ready to explain and de- fend. Early in life he had united with the Dutch Reformed church; but even before his student days had ended at Crefeld he felt the need of a more liberal creed. Eventually his daily study of the Scriptures caused him to renounce Calvinism and accept the doctrine of the unity of God as opposed to that of the trinity. Mainly through his efforts. the Independent Congre- gational Church of Meadville was organized. At first the society worshiped in the courthouse, but after a few years a church building was erected, by money he generously furnished.
The attacks which were now made upon the Unitarians caused Mr. Huide- koper to engage in written controversies in the local papers. During the years 1831 and 1832 he himself edited a periodical called The Unitarian Essayist. He states the purpose of its publication as follows: "These infringements not of Christian charity merely, but of our Christian rights, forbid our silence. We are forced to come forward in defense of ourselves and of what we believe to be the truth. We desire discussion not for the sake of controversy, but that the public may have an opportunity of judging which of our opposing sys- tems accords best with the teachings of our Saviour. The time must come
Esther (Greenlee) Curtis. Jacob Greenlee. Edmund Greenlee. Lucinda (Greenlee) Stebbins.
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when this question must be decided by evidence ; and for the sake of Christian peace and charity we hope it may come quickly." Nearly all of the papers in the Essayist were written by Mr. Huidekoper. Between the years 1836 and 1842 he contributed twenty-eight articles, mostly on religious subjects, to the Western Messenger published by the Unitarian Association in Louisville, Kentucky. In all of the articles he contributed to these periodicals, is evi- dence of most thorough preparation. He wrote frankly and honestly, and in a directness and clearness of style that is seldom excelled.
Mr. Huidekoper was the founder of the Meadville Theological School, which went into operation October 1, 1844. It was not incorporated, however, until February 24, 1847. From the date of its organization until his death, Mr. Huidekoper stood toward it in a paternal relation. He was the first presi- dent of its board of trustees. Faithful to all its interests, he labored assidu- ously to place it on a permanent foundation. He husbanded its resources, wisely invested its funds and contributed largely to its endowment.
As a business man, Mr. Huidekoper was prudent and practical. He was prompt in all business engagements and scrupulously honest. As a citizen he was most exemplary. His influence was always for the right, and the impress he made upon the community where he lived so many years is still felt. In politics, he sympathized with the doctrines of Alexander Hamilton, and favored the protective, or as it was called by Henry Clay, the American, system. He loved children, which, together with his religious affections, made him "for years, a constant and faithful teacher in the Sunday-schools, both in the town and country, connected with the Unitarian Society. Always interested and interesting, he continued till the end of life in this work, and was with his class on the Sunday before his death." He was benevolent to the poor. A contemporary journal has said that "he expended the fortune which he amassed largely in administering to the comfort of the indigent, and especially during the latter part of his life he seemed to take peculiar interest not only in replying with liberal hand to the frequent calls made upon his benevolence, but also in searching out objects worthy of his notice."
The biography of few men will exhibit greater rewards of ability, in- dustry and integrity than does that of Harm Jan Huidekoper. In business circles, in his home relations, in the church and the town, his life was exem- plary. In all that he did, he was actuated by the great principles that should govern humanity. He died at his residence in Meadville, May 22, 1854.
A portrait of the subject of this memoir appears as the frontispiece of this volume. .
Michael Greenlce .- One of the oldest settlers of Crawford county was Michael Greenlee, who with his wife and son Robert came from Fayette county to Pittsburg in 1795. His father was a Covenanter who fled front
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Scotland to the north of Ireland to escape persecution, and from there came to this country, settling in Delaware. He married twice. By his first wife he had two sons, David and William. The former moved to Georgia and the latter is thought to have gone up the James or the Red river. He was mar- ried the second time at the age of sixty, his wife being but nineteen. He had three children by his second wife, as follows: Michael, Allen and Elizabeth. Michael was born in 1759, in Delaware, near the Maryland line, and was married in 1792 to Bethiah Maxson, in Fayette county, Pennsylvania, where he lived for a period of two years, and where his son Robert was born. He then moved to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, where he remained one year, and then, in company with his family and a small colony of settlers, came up the Allegheny river and French creek on a flat-bottom boat or raft, which was pushed up the streams with setting poles, to Meadville, where there was a small settlement. He brought with him eighteen barrels of flour, two barrels of side pork, a lot of flax, one and one-half bushels of salt. one yoke of oxen, one cow, two two-year-old heifers, one mare, one large black-walnut cliest and other household goods. There was nothing but an Indian trail through the woods from Pittsburg to Meadville at that time, and the only stopping place in the whole distance was where James and Philip Dunn had settled. Here they stopped for a rest. During their trip up the river it rained so that their beds were getting wet, and he put boards on barrels for covering for his wife and little Robert. On this journey the live stock was driven to the new home along this primitive trail through the forest, and on this trip Mr. Greenlee injured his back pushing the boat, from the effect of which he never recov- ered. He remained one year on French Creek Flats, near Meadville, where he raised a patch of corn. When the crop was ready to harvest, being unable to walk, he took a chain and rode one of the oxen into the field, where he hitched the chain around shocks of corn and drew them to a shed, thus saving his corn. while his neighbors left theirs in the field and it was swept down the creek in a freshet and was lost. The spring following. in March, 1797. he went on horseback to Venango township. now Cussawago township, and secured four hundred acres of land and built a small log cabin. When he thus went to look for land, a man had agreed to come out from Meadville and bring him a gun and fire tools, but disappointed him, and the consequence was that he was obliged to stay in the woods all night with his horse and dog, without fire or gun, there being four inches of snow on the ground. He made his bed beside a fallen tree, against which he stood pieces of bark for covering. His dog barked continually, thus keeping the wild animals away; otherwise it seemed to him as though he must have been killed by them, as all through the long, weary night these denizens of the forest gave distinct evidence of their presence.
In order to get supplies for their families, the men had to go through
The Edmund Greenlee Homestead, Summerhill Township, Crawford County.
Rachel A.
Family of Edmund Greenlee. Ralph S.
Robert L.
Mary L.
Emeline B. Mary W. (Stebbins)
Edmund
Michael D.
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the woods on horseback along an Indian trail to Pittsburg. During his ab- sence on one of these trips, which took several days, Mr. Greenlee's wife was very much annoyed by wolves, bears and panthers, which came alarmingly near. She took lighted pine torches and threw thein at the animals, which were afraid of fire, thus keeping them away. A blanket was used to cover the entrance to the little cabin and served in lieu of a door.
That fall Mr. Greenlee hired the underbrush dug out and the large trees girdled on one acre of ground, for which service he paid five dollars, and the ground was prepared for seed in as effective a way as possible. He bought one bushel of seed wheat, costing four dollars, and sowed it on this acre of ground, which produced thirty bushels. There was a brush fence around this acre, somewhat protecting it from wild animals, but nevertheless it was necessary to guard it both day and night until the crop was harvested. That one bushel was all the wheat he ever bought for the use of his family. Being an invalid, as stated above, he was unable personally to do much farm work, so he took up the manufacture of reeds for weaving, and other similar work. He always kept a yoke of oxen, and changed work with his neighbors by letting them use his ox team, and thus managed to get his heavy farm work done,-work which his boys were unable to do by reason of their youth. It is said of him that he never gave a note in his life and never had a lawsuit. A notable character- istic of the Greenlee family has been equability of temperament. Each suc- cessive generation has shown the same mildness of disposition, the same gentle and kindly nature, and the deepest sympathy and regard for all men. Sterling integrity of character, strong mentality and excellent business ability have also been typified in the various representatives of the name. The family has ever stood for the highest order of citizenship. and has rendered strong allegiance to religious, educational and all other good work.
Mr. Greenlee was a First-day Baptist and his wife a Seventhi-day Bap- tist. and accordingly they kept both days holy. Their home was always open to the itinerant clergymen of both denominations, and was to these noble pioneer workers in the Master's vineyard a home indeed. Mrs. Greenlee, in the meantime, lost her health and did most of her work in bed, such as sewing, knitting, mending, and sometimes spinning, the last work being accomplished by having one of the children turn the wheel for her. She was also quite a poet. She died in 1819, and Michael died in 1827. near Mosiertown, in Cus- sawago township, where they were buried.
Michael and Bethiah Greenlee had a large family, of eleven children, namely: Robert, Elizabeth, John, Esther, Jacob, Lucinda, Maxson, James, Mary, Experience, and Edmund. All are deceased, and all, with the excep- tion of Robert, were born, and all, with the exception of Jacob and Maxson. spent their lives in Crawford county. Jacob went to Conneaut, Ohio, Maxson to Minnesota. Edmund, the youngest child, was married in 1833 to Mary
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Wright Stebbins, born September 13, 1805, in Springfield, Massachusetts, whence the family moved to Crawford county, where she met Edmund Greenlee. Their children were Emeline, Robert, Ralph, Michacl, Rachel, and Mary.
Mr. Greenlee was a man of considerable inventive genius, and he devised and manufactured machinery for making all of his own cheese boxes and butter kegs at the time he was conducting an extensive dairy business. He was also a strong man, physically and mentally. His first child, Emeline Blodgett, was married to Samuel Julius Wells, in Rundell, Crawford county, Pennsylvania: Michael lived in Summerhill township, near Rundellstown, on the old farm which his father purchased and cleared, and where the family still reside. The old homestead is now owned by the two brothers, Robert L. and Ralph S. Greenlee, of Chicago. Rachel and Mary went to Denver, Colorado, where they still reside. From earliest infancy there was great difficulty in distinguishing the twins, Ralph and Robert, from each other, so much were they alike in looks, form and manner. They were sent to school and given the best educational advantages afforded in the common schools of the district, pursuing their studies until nineteen years of age, also assisting their father in the dairy business. It is unmistakably true that none of the "Crawford county boys" have attained a greater measure of success in life than have Ralph S. and Robert L. Greenlee, the representa- tive business men of Chicago, and it will certainly be of interest to the read- ers of this work to note the more salient points in their career since they have left their native county.
In 1863, at the age of twenty-five, they left the farm and moved to Chicago to start in business on their own account. Making use of their me- chanical skill acquired while working for their father, they opened a cooper shop, employing machinery in their work. This aroused the ire and con- certed opposition of the western coopers. for they objected to any departure from the methods of their forefathers. The opposition was met boldly and firmly, and finally overcome, and the firm of Greenlee Brothers was duly prosperous. From this beginning they drifted into the manufacture of wood- working machinery, making a specialty of the highest grades known, and constantly adding new inventions and methods until the Greenlee machines have become famous with manufacturers in wood throughout the world. Im- mediately after the great fire of 1871 they removed to their present quarters in West Twelfth street, where, in addition to the manufacture of wood- working machinery, they established. in 1883, the Northwestern Stove Re- pair Company, the largest concern of the kind in the world. Here, also, in 1886 they established two large foundries, under the corporation name of the Greenlee Foundry Company.
Mr. Ralph S. Greenlee married Miss Elizabeth Brooks of Chicago, who
Residence of Ralph S. Greenlee, Graceland Avenue and Lake Shore, Chicago.
Residence of Robert L. Greenlee, Buena and Evanston Avenues, Chicago.
EE
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was born in eastern Canada. Her father, William Brooks, was for many years a resident of Sherbrook, Canada, and one of the leading spirits of the conservative government of the dominion. They have one child, Gertrude, who is now Mrs. James A. Lounsbury. Mr. Robert L. Greenlee married Miss Emily Brooks, a sister of his brother's wife. They have three children : William Brooks Greenlee, a graduate of Cornell University; Grace F. and Isabel V., who are both graduates of Ogontz Seminary, at Philadelphia.
The politics of the brothers is Republican, and they are stanch believers in the principles of their party. They contribute generously to all worthy charities, and are liberal in their contributions to educational institutions, believing that the education of the people will remove many of their ills. Nor is their view of education limited to the narrow routine of the school or lecture room. They have been careful students of men and events, and by extensive travel at home and in foreign lands they have acquired a most valuable fund of knowledge. Few Americans are more conversant with the wonders and beauties of the world than they. Their first extensive travels abroad began in 1883, when Mr. Ralph S. Greenlee, with his family, who always accompany him in his travels, made a thorough tour of old Mexico and Europe, lasting thirteen months, and he has but recently returned, with his wife and daughter, from a tour of the world, lasting eighteen montlis. During this last trip they spent three months each in Japan and China, visit- ing the interior of, both countries, and went all through India and the island of Ceylon, Egypt and Turkey, and made a tour of Palestine. Mr. Robert L. Greenlee and his family have traversed the same countries, with addition of Siam, Java and Burmah.
In stature they are five feet ten inches in height, weighing one hundred and eighty-six pounds each. They have a commanding presence, well-formed heads, which set squarely upon their shoulders, and are men who would attract immediate and respectful audience in any assembly. Their eyes are dark and kindly and have that expression which places a stranger imme- diately at ease in their presence. They are courteous but not effusive, show- ing in this the true Scotch and English conservatism. Their leading charac- teristics are inbred politeness, kindness and consideration for others, coupled with indomitable will power, untiring energy, broad liberality and uncom- promising honesty. Their fortunes have been fairly gained, and stand proud monuments of their sturdy manhood and genius.
Francis For. a successful contractor and builder of Meadville, was born August 13, 1834, in Bennhousen, Palatinate of Bavaria. He is a son of Fran- cis and Katherine ( Hauri) Fox, and with them came to this country in 1846. The father was engaged in the retail meat business in Meadville for some years. He died in September, 1864, and three years later the mother passed away.
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