USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Our country and its people. A historical and memorial record of Crawford County, Pennsylvania. > Part 90
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Lucius F. McLaughlin was born in the township of Spring on May 8, 1836. His education was obtained at district and select schools. Early in life he followed the occupation of school teaching ; for sixteen years he conducted a mercantile establishment at Springboro as a grocer, and, a natural mechanic, he could "turn his hand to anything." He has perhaps devoted more time to the nursery business and to real-estate transactions than to other pursuits, and has in them acquired a comfortable competency. In politics he is a sterling Democrat. He has been burgess of Springboro, a school director, a notary public, justice of the peace, and held the office of captain in the national guard of the state.
On April 2, 1874, Mr. Mclaughlin married Mary A. Minneley, Lines- ville, Pennsylvania. They have five children,-Frank H., Ray I., Lucius E., Mary E. and Leon O. The three oldest are teachers. Mr. McLaughlin's father, Henry Mclaughlin, was born in Vermont on October 30, 1801, became a me- chanic and on October 30, 1824, married Sophronia Long, also of Vermont. In 1826 they made the perilous western journey to this county and located in Spring township. Their children were Amanda, Cordelia A. and Lucius F. Mr. Henry Mclaughlin died on September 16, 1854, and Mrs. McLaughlin on June 5, 1874. Lucius F. McLaughlin's paternal great-grandfather, a native of Scotland, came to the United States on the same vessel with the emigrant ancestors of Horace Greeley. He was a captain in the Revolution and served with distinction. His home was in New Hampshire, where all of his children were born. His grandfather was a lumberman of the Green mountains of Vermont. On one occasion, while in the woods on the mountain observing the disadvantages of the long sled, he conceived the idea of using short ones. He was the originator or inventor of "bob sleds," so generally in use now. His uncle, Ira Mclaughlin, of Arlington, Vermont, was a great inventor. Among his best inventions are the boring machine so much used by carpenters and the mortising machine so generally used in making doors, window sash, etc. Charles C. Minneley, father of Mrs. McLaughlin, was born about 1826 and educated in Canada. Coming to the United States and to this county in his
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early manhood, he married Deborah Gleason, of Conneautville, and made here his permanent home. They had three daughters. Mrs. Minneley has long survived her husband, who died in 1874. Ancestry of the family, Scotch-Irish.
Luman Sturtevant .- The late Luman Sturtevant, of Spring township. was born in Rutland, Vermont, in 1802. His parents moved to Cortland, New York, when he was four years old, and there he was educated in the schools of that early day. In 1818, when he was sixteen years old, the family came to this county. Mr. Sturtevant was always a farmer. On November 23, 1829. he married Hannah Allen, of Rome. Oneida county, New York. They had four 'daughters,-Eliza A., Sara A., Cordelia E. and Lestina I. Eliza A. married Thomas Fisher, of Spring township. Their three children were Har- riet E., Luman S., and J. North, who died at the age of ten years. Harriet E. married James E. Williams, of Periopolis. Pennsylvania. Their seven children are James N., Wilson W., Luman F., George H., Amy E., Albert J. and Linn. Luman S. married Sophia J. Hesner, of Iowa, and they have seven children,- Lemuel L., Lisle N., Frank L., Nellie B., Mabel C., Grace E. and Ruth E. Sara A. married Rev. Andrew Willson, of Shenango. Pennsylvania, and died in 1883. Cordelia E. died in December, 1860. Lestina I. married Fletcher \\'. Chess, of Pittsburg. Their two children are Luman F. and Sara D. Luman F. married Louisa Breninger, of Indiana. They have a daughter, Irene Marie. Sara D. is a student at Buchtel College, Akron. Ohio. Mr. Chess died March 20. 1888. Mr. Sturtevant died July 22, 1878, and his widow November 16. 1886. The father of Mrs. Luman Sturtevant, John P. Allen, was born at Prudence Island, Rhode Island, July 17, 1767, married Elizabeth Wall, of Long Island. New York, and had twelve children. He was a major in the state militia. His father. James, was born at the old Rhode Island home, and married Martha Allen, by whom he had thirteen children. Ancestry of family. English, French and Welsh.
Mrs. Celestia Kendall .- The late Stephen Kendall was born in Windsor, Vermont, on December 7. 1827, and came with his parents to Conneaut, Ohio, when he was fourteen years old. He was educated in the common schools and thoroughly learned the blacksmith's trade. He came to Spring township when a young man and conducted blacksmithing both before and after his marriage, which occurred on November 3, 1850, to Abigal Celestia King. of Springboro. Three children were born to them,-Rubie L., Lena MI. and Sarah N. Rubie L. married Lilly Ross, of Rundelltown; they have one son. Ross C. Lena MI. married Emory Muynch, of Conneautville; they have two children,-Jes- sie and Willis C. Sarah N. married Willis J. Farr. of Springboro. Mr. Ken- dall died August 24, 1872. His widow survives at this date, 1897.
Mrs. Kendall's father. Alonzo King, was born in Oneida county, New
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York, December 8. 1802, and moved with his parents to Chautauqua county when a boy, where he was educated in the common schools, and followed the honorable occupation of farming. March 14. 1825, he married Celestia Max- ham, of that county. They had five children,-Joseph W., Celestia and Jerusha Calistia (twins), Hurlbert H. and George H. They came to this county in 1836. Alonzo King died June 9, 1891, and his wife died in 1883. The ancestry of the family is English and French.
Professor J. Laverne Free, of Springboro, was born near Little Cooley, Athens township, this state, on March 7, 1873. In 1878 his parents moved to Kansas, but after over three years' residence in that state returned to this county, making their home in Townville. Until he was nine years old the lad's education was supervised by an able and devoted mother, who laid an excellent foundation for the subsequent intellectual advancement of hier son. He was then placed at school and made rapid progress. For nine successive winters he was an apt and a diligent student and then joined the ranks of pro- fessional teachers. He has shown ability, giving satisfaction, and now honor- ably fills the responsible office of supervising principal of the schools of Spring- boro.
Mr. Free's father. Joseph P. Free, was born in southern Ohio, the young- est of five children. In 1870 he was married to Helena, daughter of Daniel and Margaret Hopkins. They had three children,-J. Laverne, Victor J., a prominent teacher of this county, and Charles H., a student of the Spring- boro high school. On August 27, 1896, Professor Free married Enna, daugh- ter of James Lamb, Sr., also a teacher in the Springboro school. Her father, born in Venango county in 1832, married Maria Gates (born in Rockland, Venango county ) about the commencement of the Civil war. Of their ten chil- dren nine are now (1898) living,-Mrs. John Boyd, of Boone county, Iowa; Delma; Mrs. Augustus Wenzel, of Tionesta, Pennsylvania; Enna, Samuel, Harry, Bessie, George and James.
Professor and Mrs. Free have been enthusiastic workers in the cause of education, and are prominent in the Methodist Episcopal church and the ranks of the Prohibitionists. The ancestry of the family is German and Irish.
William Hunt, upholsterer and furniture dealer at Titusville, was born in Ireland in 1838 and was brought to this country with his parents at the age of seven years. He served in the Confederate army during the Rebellion, after which he located in Mobile, Alabama, where he learned his trade and remained until 1870, when he removed to Titusville, where he has since continued an upholstering and furniture business. In 1884 he became interested in a device known as the upholsterers' vise-support, which has since been perfected and brought into use as one of the most valuable devices known to the trade. This
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support is made of iron and steel and is indispensable as a labor-saving device of great utility. Mr. Hunt early made several experiments with this apparatus, but did not fully succeed until July 23, 1897, when, by the assistance of Cor- nelius C. Wright, of Erie, an inventor of repute, he perfected the plans which made it a success. It is so arranged that the adjustment can be made at any position and saves at least from one-third to one-half of the labor needed by the old method. As an invention it is a device of unusual merit and will be recorded as one of the permanent inventions of Crawford county, of which Mr. Hunt is the instigator.
Seth C. Lincoln, of Bloomfield township, came to Lincolnville, this town- ship, about 1838, took up a section of uncultivated land and built a saw and gristmill. He had lived here but a short time when he was killed while raft- ing lumber on Oil Creek, leaving a wife (nce Lucinia Wood) and eight chil- dren.
IV. S. Smith, register and recorder of Crawford county, is a native of Aberdeenshire, Scotland, his birth having occurred May 8, 1864. He was but six years of age when he came to America, and his education was obtained in the public schools of Oil City. Subsequently to his graduation in the high school there in 1880, he commenced teaching, and in 1887 accepted a position as principal of the Spartansburg school. He continued there and in a similar capacity in the Springboro public school until 1891, when he became the book- keeper for the Shadeland stock farm, in this county. In 1893 he was elected on the Republican ticket to his present office as recorder and register, and upon the expiration of his term was honored by re-election. He is a member of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows.
In October, 1890, Mr. Smith was united in marriage with Mary E. Fisher. daughter of John and Rachel Fisher, of Bloomfield township, Crawford county, and to the young couple two children have been born, namely: Rachel and Agnes.
Rev. James J. Dunn, pastor of St. Bridget's church at Meadville, is a native of Malahide, Dublin county, Ireland, and was born June 9, 1841. At the age of eight years he arrived in the city of Baltimore and entered Mount St. Mary's College, Emmittsburg, Maryland, August 24. 1857, and graduated there in June, 1863. receiving the degrees of A. B. and A. M. He entered the seminary attached to the college in the fall of the same year and was or- dlained by Bishop Quinlan, of Mobile, for the diocese of Erie, in the church attached to the college, on October 28. 1866. He remained for one year attached to the college as adjunct professor of Latin and Greek; entered upon missionary work at Oil City, Pennsylvania, in October, 1867; and was placed
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in charge of the congregation of Petroleum Center in June, 1868. March 4. 1874, he was transferred to the charge of St. Bridget's church, Meadville.
During the twenty-five years of his pastorate in Meadville Father Dunn has shown great executive ability in improving and reconstructing the church property, during which time the membership has greatly increased in num- bers and the church work been greatly facilitated.
James D. Miller, son of Abner. was born in East Hamilton, Madison county, New York, and married Eunice Wentworth, daughter of Benjamin. About 1828 he came to Sparta, where he selected a section of uncultivated land. He and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal church. He died in 1894 and his wife died in 1884. They had six children: James B .; Albert C., Corry, Preston A., George W., and Nancy I.,-all deceased; and Sarah (Mrs. Daniel W. Akin).
Henry Donor, an enterprising farmer of Athens township, Crawford county, deserves mention in this work. His father. Matthias Donor, who was a soldier in the war of the Rebellion, was killed in 1882. The birth of our sub- ject occurred March 23, 1841, in Erie county, Pennsylvania. He enlisted in 1862 in Company I. One Hundred and Forty-fifth Regiment of Pennsylvania Volunteers, and at the battle of Fredericksburg was wounded in the head by a fragment of a shell. He was granted an honorable discharge from the army in the following year, and later became a member of John Fisher Post. No. 337, Grand Army of the Republic, at Riceville.
In 1864 Mr. Donor came to Athens township, where he has since contin- ued to live. He married Samantha, daughter of John G. and Elvira S. ( Wheeler ) Stratton, and their three children are Jennie E., wife of Ernest Saunders: Fred C. and William H.
George C. Campbell, of Espyville, was born October 27. 1835, at Espyville. Crawford county, Pennsylvania. He was married February 17, 1859, to Miss Mandana Hollister, daughter of S. C. Hollister, late of North Shenango. Mr. Campbell settled on a farm one and a half miles south of Espyville and en- gaged in general farming and stock-raising. He raised thoroughbred cattle and made a specialty of short-horns. His farm was known as the Spring Run farm: it is now rented and the former proprietor is living at Espyville. There are six children in this family : Jessie Justine married Edgar Collins, of North Shenango: Elton Fremont lives in Espyville ; Nellie is the wife of H. N. Line. a merchant of Kent, Ohio; Fred H. lives on his father's farm; Chloe D. mar- ried George L. Marvin and lives at Andover. Ohio; Albert B. lives in Kent, Ohio.
Mr. Campbell has held several offices, but entertains no political aspira-
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tions. His family and himself are members of the North Bank Methodist Episcopal church, which was founded by his father, and he has contributed largely toward its maintenance. He is a member of the I. O. O. F. and attends the grand lodge. Mr. Campbell is a director of the Linesville Savings Bank and a member of the Andover Banking Company.
Mr. Campbell's father, Charles Campbell, was one of the most unique and interesting characters in the county. He was born May 4, 1797, in Hunter- don county, New Jersey, and was of Scotch descent. He came to North She- nango in 1820 and his two sisters came several years afterward, namely : Eliza- beth, who married a Mr. Meisner, and Sarah, who became the wife of Jonathan Cook,-both of North Shenango. Charles Campbell was a blacksmith and followed his calling on the site in Espyville now owned by William Bennett. He had one child. When he arrived in Espyville his worldly possessions con- sisted of a horse and wagon, a set of tools, and money amounting to fifty cents. His companion in immigration and business was William Zonner, upon whose farm they settled, building a shop and operating both shop and farm for some time. Mr. Campbell later secured the farm now owned by William and Homer Campbell, sons of Isaac. Charles' eldest son. With the aid of William Zonner lie started, in 1842, the North Bank Methodist church, toward the support of which both men were liberal contributors as long as they lived. While a strict Methodist, and vastly enjoying discussion along that line, Mr. Campbell was vet tolerant of other denominations and materially aided them. He lived on his farm until he sold out to his son Isaac and went to live at West Spring- field, Erie county, Pennsylvania, lived there ten years and later was with his son-in-law, N. W. Wolverton, at whose residence he died February 25, 1878. aged eighty-three years.
Mr. Campbell was originally a Whig, but later became a Republican, and hield several town offices. He was extensively interested in stock and stock- driving, and for years handled nearly all of the stock in that part of the county, driving it over the mountains. His rise in the stock trade had a unique origin. He used to take stock on his blacksmith accounts, and after accumulating a large number would drive them to Pottsville, Philadelphia, Trenton and other centers of trade. This became more profitable than the blacksmith industry and in consequence he sold out his shop and devoted him- self exclusively to the occupation of stock-driving. He was obliged to hire several men on his farm to help him. He did a large business in the line of buying and selling farms, and at times would have several on his hands. His permanent farm consisted of three hundred acres.
Mr. Campbell's family consisted of Isaac, who died at North Bank October 5. 1882; Jemima, who married William French in 1848, lived in South Shenango and died in 1875, aged fifty-two years (Mr. French died in 1852) : Melissa, wife of N. W. Wolverton, of North Shenango, neither of
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whom is now living; Elizabeth; who married Lewis Freeman and died in 1867. aged thirty-five years ; Charles lives in Conneaut township; Hiram King- sley, who died at Camp Annapolis, Maryland, in 1864. He enlisted in the One Hundred and Forty-fifth Volunteers of Pennsylvania, and was captured at Gettysburg, July 2, 1863. He was confined at Belle Isle prison, and also at the hospital at Richmond, being a prisoner for one hundred and thirty-seven days. He was finally exchanged and died three days after reaching Annapolis, being literally starved to death.
Mr. Campbell was never quarrelsome, but the nature of his transactions engendered many disputable points which he settled out of court, believing that the best lawyers were the people who knew enough to keep away from law and settle their own disputes.
Louis J. Beuchat, of Randolph township, was born December 10, 1865, in Louisville. Stark county, Ohio, his parents being John and Clementine Beuchat. His father had emigrated from Switzerland, and his mother was born in New Jersey. The other children are Louise, wife of Ernest Medo: Edward, deceased: Jennie, Frank, Albert, Charles, Mary and Leon. The family moved into Randolph about thirty years ago, where most of its younger members were born. On July 24, 1888, Louis married Josephine, daughter of Marcel Popeny, of the same township, and they have had two children, who are deceased.
Mr. Beuchat's farm consists of fifty acres, and is situated a short distance south of Guy's Mills.
J. S. Hotchkiss, a leading wholesale merchant of Meadville, was born June 9, 1853, in Randolph township, Crawford county, and is the eldest son of Henry C. and Phoebe ( McCall) Hotchkiss, who were also natives of the Key- stone state. His paternal grandfather, William Hotchkiss, died March 9, 1884, and his wife passed away in 1882. The maternal grandfather, Samuel McCall, came to this country in 1800. In 1874 the subject of this review became actively identified with the business interests of Meadville by joining Mr. Rittmayer in the drug trade. In the spring of 1876 he entered the retail general merchandise and drug business in Valonia, in partnership with his brother, and conducted that enterprise until 1890, when they established a wholesale grocery business in Meadville. They are still conducting this and are accounted among the progressive and enterprising men in their line in the city.
Curtis C. Cummings, proprietor of the Crawford Hotel at Meadville, was born February 27, 1851, in Venango township, Crawford county, and he has been proprietor of this hotel since 1895. Mr. Cummings is a son of the
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late Isaac W. Cummings, who died in 1896, at the age of eighty-five years. Louisa, his mother, who is living, was the daughter of Dean and Bede Swift, who inoved from Connecticut to this county in 1815. Mr. Cummings is a grandson of the late Dr. Nathan Cummings, the first physician in Cambridge- boro, who moved from Massachusetts to this county in 1814
With the exception of two years he spent in Michigan,-1873-74,-while engaged in the grocery business, and a short time in Oklahoma in 1893. Mr. Cummings has always been a resident of Crawford county. April 13, 1879. he married Mary, daughter of Wesley and Orrilla St. John, of Bloomfield township, this county, and they have two children,-Louisa Orrilla and Wesley Isaac.
James Curtis Mckinney, the son of James and Lydia Drury (Turner ) Mckinney, was born at Pittsfield, Warren county, Pennsylvania, November 25, 1844. His ancestral history is given in a preceding sketch of his brother, John L. Mckinney, so that it will not be necessary to present the account here. Some other matters, common to the two brothers, are also related in that sketch, and they need not be fully repeated in the record of the younger brother.
J. C. Mckinney was educated at the local public schools and at Water- ford Academy, in Erie county. In the spring of 1861 he left the academy and joined an engineer corps of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, and helped locate several railroad lines in this part of the country. One line ran from Garland, Pennsylvania, a station on the P. & E. R. R., through Enter- prise to Titusville. Another ran from Enterprise through Pleasantville, Plumer, Rouseville and Oil City to Franklin, Pennsylvania. In the spring of 1863 he resigned from the. engineer corps, and opened a lumber yard at Oil City, and in the spring of 1864 he established another yard at Franklin, where he made his home. On April 16, 1868, he was married to Miss Agnes Eliza- beth Moore, the only daughter of Thomas Moore, of Franklin.
The general history of the Mckinney brothers in oil operations appears elsewhere in these pages, but certain early work by the younger brother may here be added. In the spring of 1864 he drilled his first oil well, in which he operated alone, at Foster. below Franklin, on the Allegheny river. Then in company with C. D. Angell he drilled a well on what was known as Scrub- grass Island, afterward Belle Island, named by Mr. Angell after his daughter. In 1868, in company with his brother John L. Mckinney, he drilled several wells at Pleasantville. In 1869-70 they drilled several heavy oil wells at Frank- lin, which they afterward sold to Egbert, Mackey and Taft. In the fall of 1870 John L. went to Parker, and sunk the first oil well which used 5 5-inch cas- ing. This well was on the east side of the river, near the station of the A. V. R. R. In the same fall J. C. Mckinney went also to Parker, and afterward the Mckinney brothers carried on extensive operations in producing oil for
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many years in that part of the oil country. Subsequently H. L. Taylor & Co. joined the brothers in a new firm, with the name of John L. Mckinney & Co. This association continued until the fall of 1889, when the Standard Oil Company purchased all the oil properties belonging to John L. and J. C. Mc- Kinney. Since then the brothers have been associated with the Standard Oil Company, with merged interests in the production of oil.
In 1877 Mr. Mckinney moved to Titusville, where he has since resided. He is the general manager of the Midland Division of the South Pennsyl- vania Oil Company, one of the largest, as stated, oil producing associations in the United States. He is closely associated with his brother in local enterprises. He is a large stockholder and a director in the Commercial Bank and in the Titusville Iron Company, and of the latter company he is also vice-president. He is also one of the directors of the Titusville Board of Trade. He is one of the ten citizens who subscribed each $10,000 to the Industrial Fund Associa- tion. His contributions in money to the support especially of St. James Memorial Church have been of the most liberal character. The mausoleum which he built at Woodlawn, at an expense of $20,000, is not only a permanent ornament to the cemetery, but an honor to the city and community, which will remain as a memorial of the public spirit of its author and owner long after it has received his mortal remains into its final custody. It is true that the mausoleum is the private property of its builder, but it is also the property of the public as a structure of beautiful art. Besides, its owner does not ex- clusively close its portals to all outside of his family. The body of the late beloved rector of St. James church was recently deposited temporarily in the Mckinney mausoleum; and, speaking reverently, it may be said that the re- mains of the great and good Dr. Purdon have consecrated that sepulchre.
In politics, Mr. Mckinney is a pronounced Jeffersonian Democrat. He has done more than any other citizen in Crawford county to displace Republi- can ascendancy and give control of the county to his party. At the municipal election in February, 1898, he was elected councilman-at-large of Titusville over the Republican candidate by a plurality of nearly six hundred votes. The result did not, of course, represent the relative strength of the two parties in the city. As a matter of fact, Mr. McKinney has come to be a power in politics. He is intense in his convictions and he supports his opinions and preferences with formidable energy, and to a degree that discourages opposition. This may be truly said: J. C. Mckinney never appears before the public wearing a mask. He never apologizes for the stand he takes upon a public question. The same quality has made him a very successful business man. As a rule, he is rapid, rather than impulsive, in his conclusions. In 1897 the leading Demo- crats of Pennsylvania insisted that he should consent to be the candidate of their party for state treasurer, and nothing but his peremptory refusal to accept, prevented his nomination. Again, in 1898, he was pressed by his party to
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