USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Pioneer sketches : scenes and incidents of former days > Part 16
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The Hon. M. B. Lowry once said on a time, when a Pennsylvania regiment was on a railway in Virginia. They came to a point where the track was torn up, and the en- gine got wrecked. But he said: "You couldn't stop those fellows, because they had men in that regiment who rebuilt the road, and could make an engine, locomotive, or a Presi- dent of the U. S. A."
And now this man Locke, with his gray hairs, as he begins to trip along down the home stretch of life, he can congratulate himself that he has provided his family with a competency-that he early learned the value of a dollar and the difference between a dude or bummer and a reliable citizen and an honest worker.
CHAPTER LXXIV.
GEMS OF THOUGHT.
ROOM AT THE TOP.
Never you mind the crowd, lad; Nor fancy your life won't tell. The work is done for all that To him who doeth it well.
Fancy the world & hill, lad; Look where the millions stop.
You'll find the crowd at the base, lad- But there's always room at the top.
Courage and Faith and Patience, There's space in the old world yet; You stand a better chance, lad- The further along you get.
Keep your eye on the goal, lad; Never despair or drop. Be sure your path leads upward- There's always room at the top.
If we had no faults we should not take so much pleas- ure in noticing them in others.
The character of a man is found by weighing his acts, not by listening to his speech.
You can't judge of the value of a man by his talk any more than you can judge of the value of the tree by its bark.
Do not despise the opinion of the world. You might as well say that you care not for the light of the sun be- cause you can use a candle.
CHAPTER LXXV.
WILD BEES.
HE EARLY settler of Spring, Crawford county, Pa., while en- gaged in felling trees in the woods, would frequently discover a swarm of bees flying about the top of the fallen tree; and as he advanced toward the swarming million some angry honey-maker was always ready to salute him with a kiss on the lip, car, nose, or some other prominent part of his cranium for ruthlessly invading their "sweet home," at which, perhaps for a score of years, the busy bee had toiled.
From hour to hour, From flower to flower, To put in order the hollow in the tree For a storehouse for the busy honey-bee.
The next cruel procedure was to procure some mulch, straw or shavings with which to smoke and destroy the bees and proceed to take from the hollow in the tree the honey. Sometimes, however, a less barbarous method was used, namely: to get a bee hive and set it properly near by and get the bees into it, thereby saving them for future useful ness. Nature has provided storehouses in the forest of different dimensions to suit the queen of the swarm, hence the great difference in the amount of honey found in these
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forest bee houses. In former days a swarm would fre- quently start out from the apiary and fly on a bee line for the tree, apparently which they had previously selected.
Up in the branches of the tree a small hole, varying somewhat in size, leads into the centre of the tree; a hol- low, also varying in size from six to eighteen inches wide and five to ten feet long, according to the size of the tree, is the storehouse of the honey-bee.
Hunting bee trees was frequently resorted to by the bee hunter, who in August or September, with a box, say six by eight inches in size, with some honey placed therein. would attract to his box a bee which, when loaded with honey, would fly to the tree to make a deposit therein. The hunter would follow the course of the bee to the tree and put thereon his mark, to be cut and the honey gathered about the first of October.
In 1833 Chester Morley, a celebrated nimrod, found a bee house in a gigantic chestnut standing upon the land of Alfred Sargent, in Spring, Pa. In the fall of the same year Morley proceeded to the spot with his pharaphernalia- axe, saw, two buckets, and sap yoke, on which two wooden hooks were suspended by moose-wood bark strings attached to the buckets from each end of the sap yoke.
After several hours of incessant labor in felling the tree he found he had struck a bonanza and got more honey than he had bargained for. He had to make seven trips a mile and a-half through the woods, with his sap-buckets full, to carry away that storehouse of 400 pounds of honey. Alfred Sargent said he could have relieved Morley in mak- ing one tedious trip just as well as not had Mr. Morley not been so timid about asking for such a favor; but Chester
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sent out no cards: he had his social, his picnic, all to him- self, and had honey enough to salt down for family use for some time.
In 1848, fifteen years later, the writer helped his father, Alfred Sargent, to split from the said bee tree 300 rails.
You see Morley got the honey, Sargent got the rails, The old nimrod, not content, would shoot our quails; Yes, he'd shoot our squirrels, rabbits and crows,
Our coons, oppossums, and what else God only knows.
That great hunter, Chester Morley, was one of the pio- neers. He became a sleek farmer and a peaceful citizen; was a soldier in the War of 1812, and died at the age of about 87 years.
CHAPTER LXXVI.
FINDING A BEE TREE-BILL, THE OX TEAMSTER WHEN TO CUT A PIG YOKE.
N A. D. 1851, Alfred Sargent, Alanson Whittaker and the writer were cutting ash logs on the Silverthorn Farm. These logs were cut in lengths of twelve to thirty feet long, to be manu- factured into oars and sweeps, by Ezekiel Page, of Lockport, Pa.
Bill Burnham, his celebrated ox teamster, carried a goad (a stick six feet long, with a brad in the end) which was the whip he used in driving six yoke of cattle, when necessary, to haul out of the woods these 30-foot logs.
Well, the day was hot -- about the middle of August. As we looked up into a good sized hemlock tree, the direc- tion an ash tree was about to fall, bees were seen flying out and into the tree. A consultation was held as to the pro- priety of cutting the bee tree that day or to take our chances for it later, in October. At this juncture Ox-teamster Bill was coming near by, talking to his oxen in a language sim- ilar to a Polish bear trainer when he and his bruin are un- dergoing a street bear dance. When Bill came up, we told him we would leave the matter for him to decide, whether to cut the bee tree that day or not, to which he replied that he had always observed that the best time to cut a pig yoke
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was when you found one, as they were scarce. We took Bill's advice, and proceeded to cut the tree. The writer was sent over to George Silverthorn's to get a permit to cut it. George, being a good fellow, said he could use the tree the coming winter for lumber, and said I could cut it.
I looked for a hive or something to make one, but George thought it was not best that hot day to attempt monkeying with the bees, as they would be sure to probe us. I asked him to come along and share the picnic with us, to which he assented, and with some straw for a smoker we started for the spot. The tree was felled with fair suc- cess, about a quart of the honey tilted out in falling. We got two 12-quart pails of honey and enough for all to smack beside.
Later, John Herron gave us notice that we had cut his bee tree; that he discovered it some weeks before, and claimed he put his mark on the roots of the tree under the earth; that we must come up to the captain's office and set- tle or he would prosecute us. We told him never to put his light under a bushel (of dirt) but show his mark where it could be seen. So the matter ended-
Mr. Herron not on hand for any of that honey,
Nor any of our party's money.
CHAPTER LXXVII.
G. AND S. J. THOMAS were born in Spring, Pa., in 1830 and 1832 respectively. . They were cousins and the sons of Eri and Elijah Thomas, early settlers of Spring. They both went to the old district (Sturtevant) school and shared with us in the good old times had at the old-fashioned district school, where 84 scholars assembled to learn the primary rudiments and to solve the geometrical problem.
W. G., or Gib, as we always called him, was a fair scholar, a prompt and clever fellow, and generally wore boots a few sizes larger than his feet, and served as good kickers and skates in sliding down the steep school hill, which was a good place to get a pug nose, a peeled shin, or a broken arm.
Among 45 vigorous country lads nearly of an age and size, you might expect when they were let loose from the school room that there would be some fun. Cracking the whip and wrestling were much indulged in. There were half a dozen stout young men who were experts at collar and elbow, and a dozen more of the smaller fry who were not slow at the business, so that-
We frequently advertised to spell down And throw down any school in town.
One day our teacher (Rush Cole) undertook to punish two young girls severely for a trifling cause, and as the ruler came cruelly down upon their tender hands, Gib
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Thomas arose from his seat and, his eyes snapping at the teacher like a gladiator, shouted out to him, "You have punished those girls enough, and if you strike them again I'll strike you !" The teacher's anger vanished and he con - cluded that discretion was the better part of valor, and he laid his ruler on the pulpit and proceeded with his more humane duties-
With that ruler he'd rap on the side of the house, And occasionally fling it at an invading rat or mouse; Such a missile to use on a girl's tender hand,
It's well such cudgels are banished from the land.
Some years later Mr. Thomas went a couple of terms to the Kingsville Institute, where he formed the acquaint- ance of an estimable lady whom he afterwards married and who has proved an excellent wife to him. They settled upon their farm, and afterwards removed to Yellow Springs, Ohio, where he lived a few years, until business matters required his presence at the old homestead in Spring, on which he finally settled.
Mr. Thomas embarked in the nursery stock business for a few years and made a success of it. He now resides at the home of his birthplace near Shadeland, situate on the beautiful eastern slope of Spring Valley, one of the favored spots of earth, with a competency for the needs of life.
From his boyhood W. G. Thomas has been industrious and enterprising, a good farmer, prompt and honorable in his dealings, and enjoys the confidence of his fellow men.
S. J. Thomas was born in 1830. He early took to learning, debating and declamation, characteristic of his unele (Senator J. S. Broadhead). Young Thomas while attending the district school was one of the first scholars,
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and in his glory when debating some subject at debating school, or speech making, or in declamation at our evening exhibitions, in which he had no peer in the vicinity in which he lived. He commenced the study of law at an early age, and, being a good speaker, he soon learned to handle well and skilfully his cases. His natural ability created a good business for him seemingly without much effort on his part. His two younger brothers, Jacob and Augustus, died of consumption, and that hereditary, fell destroyer also took off' S. J., when in the prime of life. The remaining brother, Frank B. Thomas, is a resident lawyer of Albion, Pa., and practices in the Courts of Erie, Crawford and Ashtabula Counties.
We have not space herein to give even a life sketch of all the old schoolmates. But to those who are living, will say that Obed, Samuel and Justin Wells are in Iowa, farm- ing successfully; Jeff. Wells, a chip of the okl block, a milk dealer in Chicago and farmer in Illinois; Servetus and Cam- illus Church are in Iowa; Robert McCoy, farmer in Ohio; Asa and James McCoy reside at Springboro, Pa .; Dr. S. Skeels is at Albion, also John Skeels; John F. Woodard, farmer at Girard, Pa .; Edmund Sargent, hotel keeper in Indiana; Asaph and Morrison Sargent, farmers in Iowa; C. M. Sargent, flour, feed and groceries, Springboro, Pa .; Alfred J. and William Sargent, forwarding and commis- sion business, New York City; J. C. Tucker, nursery stock dealer and farmer, Springboro, Pa .; Zach. and James Tucker, farmers and stock dealers, Spring, Pa.
Time brings changes to us all, and when we visit the old place and scenes of early days, we notiec a few of the old buildings there, the hills, valleys and rivulets are there,
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but our old schoolmates are scattered well over this conti- nent, and many across the river, and all we can say is, suc- cess and happiness to the living and peace to the dead.
There is no place like the old place, Where you and I were born; Where first we lifted our eyelids On the splendors of the morn.
There is no friend like the old friend, Who has shared our morning days. No greeting like his welcome, No homage like his praise.
Fame is the haughty sunflower With gaudy crown of gold; But friendship is the breathing rose, With sweets in every fold.
CHAPTER LXXVIII.
GEMS OF THOUGHT.
What shall I give ? To the hungry, give food; to the naked, give clothes; to the sick, some comfort; to the sad, a word of consolation; to all you meet a smile and a cheery greeting. Give forgiveness to your enemies; give patience to the fretful; give love to your households; and, above all, give your heart to God.
Women should be wise as well as true. Men should be virtuous as well as wise. The same standard of morality should be held for men as well as women. The relations of the sexes must be better adjusted, marriage must be held as sacred and parentage as the most serious responsi- bility. Educate one generation to be pure, just, upright and wise, and the next generation will have a fair start.
It is pleasant to meet people from whom we are sure to receive a smile, a kind word, a cordial hand-shake, or some other token of good-will. When one is depressed in spirits, or, as the common saying is, "blue," the meeting with a genial, merry-hearted friend has a magical effect. Indeed, the encounter with such a person has been known to turn the whole current of one's life. Agreeability must come from the heart. One feels so comfortable after hav ing said or done something to brighten the pathway of an- other that it pays one's self to be agreeable.
CHAPTER LXXIX.
SHADELAND.
POWELL BROTHERS, CELEBRATED STOCKMEN.
HADELAND is situated in Spring town- ship, Crawford county, Pa., one mile north of Springboro, and is the home and birthplace of the Powell Brothers, the celebrated stockmen. Howell Powell, father of the stockmen, origi- nally owned and occupied from 300 to 400 acres of this Shadeland property, which now comprises about 3,000 acres of excellent land, and beautifully situ- ated in and along both sides of the Conneaut Creek Valley, and there is no finer estate in Western Pennsylvania.
The Powell Brothers embarked in the nursery stock business in 1860 to 1865, and, according to their native characteristics and ability, they pushed the business to a successful termination. Forty men and horses were brought into requisition, and great sales with good profits was the result.
During the war they had an extensive business that they could not well drop. Though loyal to the core, they were among the first to put up the necessary to fill the call.
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Finally, in 1864, they went into the live stock business, with their motto "Excelsior;" and time after time they have crossed the stormy seas and throughout Europe they have sought to obtain the best stock. Their unflinching tenacity of purpose, their untiring perseverance, justly entitle them to the fame and the national reputation that they now possess-the peer of any stockmen on this conti- nent. Too great a tribute can scarcely be paid the Powell Brothers for their vast undertakings, great outlays and extensive improvements, approximating the perfection of stock raising.
"Tis said that blood will always tell In man, likewise in stock as well.
Their fine stock comprises Clydesdale horses, Percheron Norman or French draft horses, Englishshire horses, Suffolk punch horses, Standard bred trotters. French coachers, Cleve- land bays, saddle horses, Welsh ponies, Iceland ponies, Shetland ponies, Holstein Fressian cattle and Devon cattle.
To all those who want to buy fine stock you can obtain it of the Powell Brothers, the celebrated stockmen, who will at all times extend to you fair dealing and courteous entertainment, which is a characteristic of these gentlemen, and one of the attributes to their wonderful success in the stock business.
CHAPTER LXXX.
HE AGENT of to-day has grown to be a man of importance in his community. His customers include the whole range of working and business life. The laborer at the bench, the toiler in the field, the merchant, the professional man, the banker and every other member of the body politic, knows and respects him. He is in touch with more varieties of wholesome life than any other class of business men living. Behind him may be an organization with millions of dollars of assets baek- ing his every promise. He is the embodiment of the qualities which go to make up an honorable success- energy, probity, tact, perseverance, good nature and zeal -and is the incarnation of something always dear to the American fancy "a smart man."-Ex.
Timidity creates cowards and never wins success. It is a strong and abiding faith in one's own ability to perform which overcomes difficulties that others think cannot be surmounted.
CHAPTER LXXXI.
A. C. QUINBY.
MAKING HOOPS AND SHINGLES - CANAL BOATING - DEALING IN NURSERY STOCK-LIVERY AND SALE STABLE.
THE SUBJECT of this article is a rare specimen of humanity, easy going and of a cheerful tem- perament generally, pugnacious, not quarrelsome, but wanted to have his turn in the merry-go-round. He wanted to see the ins and outs of a job, didn't propose to experiment long at a hard job of work to find whether it would pay.
In his days of early manhood riving and shaving shingles and making hoops was his forte, and he became quite an expert in the business, and it was as lucrative a business as one could engage in and little capital was required for an outfit; besides, one could work on the shady side of a log, stump or tree, on a hot day. This was appropriate, as Clark said he didn't believe in rubbing the hair up or sweating his linen fabric too much. I never stopped to argue that matter with him because I thought his head was level on the sweating labor question.
Boating on the Erie & Pittsburg Canal frequently afforded employment for whole families. Clark bought the canal boat Kellog, and with his father and brothers, Lew, Marsh and George, made a full crew, with one to spare for a reserve corps, and engaged to boat lumber for the writer from Conneautville, Spring, Jerusalem, Tight- hole, Albion, and other places, to Erie. Many loads were
20
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shipped and many happy hours I spent with Capt. Quinby. Clark had a pet horse he called Comet-
He was as big as a moose, But he found it was of no use To try to make him steady draw A basswood horse, if ever you saw.
However.his weight on the tow line meant something, and very good time was made.
Where once was the canal, makes me sad,
Thinking of the good old times we had
Along its line from Pittsburg to Erie;
Musing o'er those scenes never will grow weary.
The canal captain will pull his boat up to the shore,
Always ready to take aboard something more;
Whether it be lumber, potatoes or your corn,
When off she goes, driver eraeks his whip and toots his horn.
He will promptly deliver anywhere on the line, Albion, Tighthole or at Lock Twenty-nine; At a much cheaper rate of expense Than it has been transported ever since
The railroad gobbled the old canal; She is entirely a different gal.
Before the closing of the canal he traded off his boat, went to work for Powell Brothers, Shadeland, in the nursery business, and later he went into the same business for himself, and in 1872-3 he removed to Titusville, where he with his son are in their element, operating successfuly a large livery and sale stable.
CHAPTER LXXXII.
THE TRIO.
Hlu L'I'n
T HE LEGAL TRIO to whom we refer is Messrs. A. B. Richmond, of Meadville, Pa .; J. B. Burrows, Painesville, Ohio, and S. A. North- way, of Jefferson, Ohio, who are well known throughout Pennsylva- nia and Ohio for their logie, elo- quence, ingenuity and skill in trying cases.
The individual who finds himself so unfortunate as to become entangled in the meshes of criminal law is consid- ered lucky in retaining either of the above named gentle- men to defend him.
In the prime of life in legal and literary attainments, matured and ripe for the fray, in 1844, A. B. Richmond, then a youth, was trying one of his first eases, the suit of Mr. Cowan vs. Col. Hiram Butler, at Spring, Pa., wherein a large difference existed in the measurement of. 400 white- wood saw logs, sold by Cowan to Butler. The eminent lawyer, Darwin A. Finney, of Meadville, was arrayed against young Richmond, to defend the Colonel. The young lawyer created a good deal of amusement in the court room by teasing and spurring at his antagonist at every opportunity. It was a cool day in April, and Mr. Finney wore low shoes, with silk stockings, he having an
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unusual warmth in his feet, produced by a febrile disease, the gout, of which young Richmond took special notice.
The writer, then quite a young lad, was much ammused during the trial, to see these Meadville lawyers exchange shots, and on returning home told his father that young flaxen-haired Richmond made lots of fun for them, and he was going to make a big lawyer, because he had lots of lip and wit and as much confidence in himself as a mule. As time rolled on, that statement was verified by the grow- ing legal business of Mr. Richmond, and he soon be- came the leading criminal lawyer of Crawford County, Pa. Of him, the country well knows his ability. As well do they of the legal lion of the Western Reserve, J. B. Bur- rows, who was engaged for the prosecution in the famous Jones-Amidon murder case, and A. B. Richmond for the defense.
The great trial of eight week's duration was brought to a close Friday afternoon, when Stanley M. Jones was convicted of murder in the first degree for killing lawyer A. A. Amidon, on the evening of August 30, 1889. Jones' friends were sanguine that the jury would fail to agree. When the verdict was announced Jones did not move a musele nor indicate in any manner that he was the person most affected by the awful words, but retained the same unconcerned, characteristic action throughout the entire trial. His attorneys filed a motion for a new trial, which came up for hearing Wednesday, June 11th. The shoot- ing occurred on Friday, and as the jury brought in a verdict on Friday it caused the superstitious to hint that Jones was doomed.
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Jones was sentenced to be hung, but in April and May a petition was circulated and signed by many hundreds of citizens for a commutation of the death sentence to that of imprisonment for life. This the Pardon Board granted, in June, 1891.
S. A. Northway is also famous for the masterly man- ner in which he throws his whole soul into the work in try- ing important cases. For instance, the great Webster trial for the murder of Perry Harrington.
We shall not attempt herein to write a life sketch of these eminent legal gentlemen. Suffice it to say-
That few jurists yet were ever made
To wield a stronger, sharper blade,
In Pennsylvania or in the State of Ohio, Than either of this famous legal trio.
*
CHAPTER LXXXIII.
CONNEAUT LAKE.
HIS BEAUTIFUL inland lake in Sadsburg Township, Crawford County, Pa., now about five miles long and three miles wide, from the topography of the country around it seems to have been much larger on some former day. On its shores where now stand fine residences, hotels and summer resorts, a century ago was the bivouac and resort of the Indian. Con- neaut Lake and the Pymatuning, from relies, carly malaria and ague, abundant fish, game and millions of pigeons, conspired to create a paradise for the Indian. To the outlet of this lake was the spot where they took their captive Van Horn, whom they captured on the Meadville Flats in the spring of 1795.
The perpetration of many of the cruel atrocities of the red men upon the white man, probably to a great extent was due to the feeling that he looked upon the white man as his enemy, invading his original domain. When we consider that the same malignant spirit exists to an alarm- ing extent among the white races let us, like Pope, have some forbearance, for-
Lo, the poor Indian, whose untutored mind Sees God in clouds or hears him in the wind,
His soul's proud science never taught to stray Far as the solar walks or treads the milky way.
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Then let the heritage and untutorship of the Indian to some degree offset the lunatic frenzy of the white man of to-day.
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