USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Pioneer sketches : scenes and incidents of former days > Part 18
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Finally the canal was built and boating commenced, which brought in some "shad-scales" (silver) and currency sufficient for the benefit of a sore eye, which in time was healed.
Quaint chaps and incidents apparently hovered, as else- where, about Lockport. One morning John Eaton met Canal Superintendent Colt. Eaton had been turning a wicket in one of the locks, and Colt said: "Hello, sir! Stop that." " Who are you?" said Eaton. "Fam Super- intendent Colt, of Erie." " Well," said Eaton, "if you are the colt of Erie, I am the . hoss ' of Lockport."
Colt drove off laughing for the while, While Eaton let his wicket bile Awhile, then shut the wicket of the lock And went off crowing like a game-cock.
CRANESVILLE.
This burg is one of the has beens. It sprang into ex- istence at the opening of the Erie & Pittsburg Canal. Among its early settlers were Adenijah Crane, Fowler and Elihu Crane, the Bradishes, Randalls, farmers, and Elisha Cook. Adam Deet and John Connor, in trade.
ALBION.
Situated one mile south, one the line of the old E. & P. Canal, where now is located the Shenango Railroad. This has been quite an enterprising village for the past forty years. Several important concerns have been in operation during that time-foundry, grist-mill, saw-mills, oar factory, handle factory, woollen mill, rake factory, blacksmith shops, stores, hotels, schools and churches. Its carly set- tlers we have mentioned elsewhere.
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Albion recently lost its leading spirit in the person of Jeduthan Wells, who was engaged in various business ven- tures which, while benefiting himself, redounded to the benefit of the community. He did more for the people, during his business, official and clerical career, than perhaps any other man in Albion. He was a kind-hearted, reliable Christian man, who dared to show his colors and to speak his views on all occasions.
That the reader may know that Girard Township was something of a bear section in its day, we mention an inci- dent related and experienced by John K. Ward, who is now living, hale and hearty, at the age of about 92 years. He says he was the first white child born in Girard Town- ship, Pa., near the lake north of Miles Grove, at which place he lived more than four score years until 1886, when he removed to Michigan, where he is now living with a relative. In early days, when he was a youth, the present site of Miles Grove was a dense wilderness. He was per- ambulating in the wood and when near the spring and little run southeast of the Postoffice, he came upon a bear and her cub. A small-sized dog he had with him commenced barking and the cub ran a short distance, followed by its mother. The cub climbed up a tree, and the mother see- ing her cub safely elevated in the tree, turned upon the dog and young Ward for war. Young Ward didn't fancy the determined look of his shaggy belligerent, and he, too, climbed a tree and left the bear master of the situation. For his amusement he would set the dog onto the bear, when she would start off to the cub's tree, soon to return to take another grin at her Johnny up in the tree. Johnny saw the sun sinking fast in the western horizon, and the idea of his roosting all night on his lofty perch, with the
TREED BY A BEAR.
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appalling thought that should he go to sleep and fall from the tree, he would either break his neck or make a break- fast for the bears, was anything but encouraging. Necessity being the mother of invention, he hissed his dog, who went ferociously for the bear, and when she started away from the tree he slid down therefrom and ran for his life, reach- ing home safely just at dark.
About five miles west of Girard, in the township of Springfield, on the lake shore, an early settler whose name we have not, was chopping on the bank of the lake when a deer came at full speed, followed closely by a hound. The deer made directly for the water, bounding into lake and swam out into it, thus eluding his pursuer. The wood chopper quickly launched his log canoe, which he had near by, not waiting to put on his hat, but took his axe and a single paddle oar with him and started in pursuit of the deer. He paddled like a beaver, and all went well for a while, with some prospects of venison, when suddenly there came up a brisk land breeze, which steadily increased, and he soon found that he hadn't sufficient propelling power to reach shore, and his only alternative was to go before the wind straight for Canada, where he safely arrived the next day. He did not care to venture a return trip across the lake in his log canoe, so he set out on foot down the Cana- (lian shore to opposite Buffalo, from where he was ferried across the Niagara River, thence from Buffalo up the shore to the scene from whence he started. His friends finding his hat on the shore and himself and canoe gone, were much alarmed over his mysterious disappearance during a period of seven days, but rejoiced when he returned to relate his deer experience,
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Medad Pomeroy was one of the early settlers of Lexington; was born in Massachusetts and came to Lex- ington in 1815; married, had a family of twelve children, eight boys and four girls; was a soldier in the Revolu- tionary War and was wounded seven times at the battle of Germantown and others. After settling at Lexington he engaged in farming and lived to the age of 97 years, which closed the drama of a long, useful and eventful life.
Among the early settlers of Albion and vicinity were: the Rev. Sturtz, Enos King, Obediah and Michael Jackson, Francis Randall, Pearson Clark, Wm. Warner, Elisha and Michael Alderman, Sheffield and Stephen Randall, the Wickwins, Brooks, Amplers and Alsworth Cole, John Herron, Prosper Keep, Park and Samuel Paul, David and Johnathan Spaulding, Wm., James and Harley Sherman, Julius Wells and Maj. Fleming, of Lundy's Lane, Geo. Colton, Martin Hartson, Mr. Culver, Jabez and Samuel Clark, Chas. Scott, Hiram Griffith, David and Samuel Smith and the Joslyns. The above named were an earnest body of men who had to cut their way through many obstacles, and build many miles of corduroy road to ride over. Were good citizens, generally, and paid their honest debts. Was acquainted with most of them, some, however, I have not seen since I was eight years old ; Barney Cole, in particular, the country shoemaker who measured my foot to make my first pair of boots, with the enjoiner to be sure to make them large to fit a young kid's growing foot.
"Certainly," said the shoemaker, "and I will have them made for you in three weeks."
I was highly elated with the idea of having a new pair of boots in three weeks and my youthful imagination was
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worked up with the thoughts of coming winter, and how much better I would be fixed, in bouncing into snow banks or wading through mud puddles and streams, than some of the boys with shoes on. Finally the long-looked-for day came when my boots were to be done, and I mounted Old Fan and set out for the shoemaker's, through wood and field, down the Conneaut Creek valley, three mile; arriving, the shoemaker said:
"Well, my boy, I have not got your boots done; have been drove with work, and you come next week for them."
Patiently I waited and thought of the good time coming, and in one week appeared at the shoemaker's.
"Well, my young lad, your boots are not done yet. I stuek an awl in my thumb, and I had to take a deer hunt. But you come in one week and get your boots, and they will be dandies."
I had waited five weeks and traveled twelve miles and yet got no boots. But, as faith and patience remove mountains and soothes a broken heart, I waited as serenely as possible. When the six weeks were up I went for my boots, with mingled thoughts of doubt and happiness. The boots were made, but my feet had been growing all this time and I couldn't get my boots on. The shoemaker put some tallow on my socks and inside of my boots, and finally I slipped my feet into them. With accents of joy and sorrow I exclaimed, "You have been so long making then,; my foot has outgrown the boots."
"Never mind, my boy; if they are pretty tight now, when you wear them out in the wet they will stretch and be easy on your feet."
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The boots were made of heavy cowhide uppers and heavy soles; hemlock tanned, and made in the strong, good old style. But "give and be easy on my feet," as the shoemaker said-"give, no !"-when night came I was glad to get them off' and give vent to my feet.
Reader, if you ever want your patience tried, Get a pair of boots made small, from cowhide; Of hemlock tanned sole and upper leather, They'll give you corns, in dry or rainy weather.
Yes, just as sure as you are born, On top your toes they'll breed a corn; You'll wish the shoemaker ne'er was born, To put you in such pain-forlorn.
CHAPTER XC.
A. DENIO.
A DENIO is the proprietor of the Otsego Forks Mills, of Miles Grove, Erie County, Pa., which is one of the prominent manufac- turing industries of Erie County. For many years this establishment has been in full operation, the Godsend as it were, and a great factor in the creation and building up of the pleasant village of Miles Grove.
Messrs. North and Denio formerly run the business at Fly Creek, Otsego County, N. Y., with the wooden de- partment at Albion, Pa., in 1865. At Baldwins, in 1872, to which place the fork mills had been removed, Mr. E. Denio died, leaving the business to which he had devoted the best years of a well-spent life, in the hands of his only son, Mr. A. Denio, the present proprietor. The son re- moved the wooden or handle department from Albion to Miles Grove, and later, in 1876, the Otsego Fork Mills, at Baldwinsville were removed and consolidated thereto, where new brick buildings were erected, with special reference to the wants of the business. The buildings are substantial brick structures, and present a fine outward appearance, in which are employed on the average seventy-five men, who are engaged in the manufacture and handling of various agricultural implements, forks, rakes, hoes, shovels, etc., which for quality and beauty are unsurpassed.
The Otsego Fork Mills are not run on the thunder shower principle, but constantly, except when necessary to
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shut down for repairs. The popular demand for the A. Denio implements has opened a market, not only through- out America, but in the old world, England, France and Germany.
Mr. Denio possesses the happy faculty of retaining veteran skilled workmen and assistants in his business. Messrs. Casper Matteson, Mathias Hess, William Murray and Charles N. Brownell are among the veterans in the dif- ferent branches in his employ. R. D. Cheeseman has been a foreman in Mr. Denio's employ 24 years of the 28 years of consecutive service, and many other expert workmen have been in employ for many years, which largely aids in the manufacture of the excellent implements for which the Otsego mills are famous. Luckily, too, for Mr. Denio, he is located contiguously to the best quality of white ash timber in the world, for handles. The apparent easy man- ner in which this timber is now obtained augurs well that he can obtain a supply for years to conie.
To A. Denio the people of Miles Grove owe much gratitude for his great enterprise located in their midst. He has been the one man power for years in this great con- cern until recently, when he wisely associated with him Messrs. Andrews, Hall and Sullivan, to prepare for the in- evitable, a natural emergency, to come on a time when no man can tell-the closing drama of a busy life.
CHAPTER XCI.
AMERICA.
HAT OTHER NATION of so recent birth That can compare, upon this earth, With America, the bounteous land, From the St. Lawrence to the Rio Grande.
From the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean
Her commerce under perpetual motion, That she may never retrogade
In this or any coming decade.
America has the resources, and were invincible, Who carved her out upon first principles; Who came here a determined band; Americans, forever united stand!
Columbus snuffed in the western breezes land to the westward. His superstitious people sought to strangle his ideas, but to no avail. San Salvador, Cuba, and other islands were discovered, and finally the American Conti- nent. But not much headway was made in the way of settling and populating the country until the beginning of the sixteenth century, when in Virginia and Massachusetts a band of determined men set to work. The mettle of those Puritans has been tested, and is well known to have been made to count from the time of their landing on the American shores and along down the ages.
Lo was there, however, in all the glory nature had provided him-
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With all sorts of wild game that he could wish, Also with the otter, the muskrat and the fish; Sometimes without any other means of help With bow and arrow he'd take a white man's scalp.
But the Indian race is becoming quite extinet; and of that other family of which there has been so much specula- tion, the lost tribes of Israel, we have but a meager tradi- tion, but we have evidence that some nation more powerful than the Indian preoccupied this country, but their record seems to have been too precious to preserve. However, with or without that record, we have in America nationali- ties to-day, quite enough for the propagation of a first-class hybrid at least.
America has room and material to grow, and already she has assumed such gigantic proportions that she may now rest easy. The four great nations of Europe, Russia, England, Germany and France:
The Russian Bear and her sporting whale, Old England and her British Lion's tail; Germany, her lager beer and her iron rule France with money and her Fashion School. Four great nations, singly or altogether, Must not pull the American Eagle's feather.
The greatness of a country is measured by its intelligent rule and code of laws, its system of free schools, its resources and industry of its people which, when united, pull strongly together. Its political and religious policy must work in harmony. Riots and wars are exhaustive to a nation, blightening, poisonous and destructive. Desolation, crime and pauperism follow in its wake.
Union in sentiment, union in action, brings peace, plenty, happiness and prosperity to the individual and to
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the nation, which is characteristic of America-to be free from entangling alliances, and at peace in her commercial intercourse with all nations. No distant islands of the sea to protect, nor large standing or regular army, menacing or sapping the revenues of our government. This conspires to make America what she is-the sweet land of liberty- full of new blood, vigor and genius. Her generals, or her jobbers, would have gone out onto Solomon's hills of valuable woods with a few men and a yoke of cattle and moved off more timber than did his 2,000 Jews, but it seems that Jew lumbermen were plenty and cheap in his day around about Jerusalem, and they had their way of doing things, too.
With the past and present influx of immigration to America one would think that our continent would soon be overstocked. It is true we have had quite enough, especially of a certain class of emigrants-the pauper element, the tramp, the rioter and the dynamiter. For such we have no demand. But the honest toiler, the man of industrious, frugal and temperate habits, a law-abiding citizen, can still find room in America, and a remunerative price for his labor. There is something for every man to do in America if he is not too shiftless and lazy to go to work at some- thing. There is no need of this tramp nuisance in America.
Yet a sad picture occasionally presents itself. The skilled artisan strikes a town and looks about for a job, but there is no opening just then for a machinist or for his par- ticular line of trade. He says, "My trade is machinist, and I can't do anything else." Days and weeks roll by, his money is getting low and his spirits, too; he gets the blues, and finally throws his last dollar for drink and smoke and becomes a reckless tramp and bunner.
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Suppose that Grant and Sherman had clung to and resorted to the same tactics on the battlefield that they had been accustomed to on other fields. When surveying the field they used the line best adapted for the emergency and pitched into the enemy and finally ousted them from their strongholds.
Young man, when upon life's battleground you become shipwrecked, if you can't get into a good-fashioned boat to sail in, take a raft or a float and live it out for the time of emergency. And when on board your crude ship, if you can't make but a dollar per day, it is better to be sure of that than to wait for three dollars per day and be lost in the whirlpool of idleness and destruction.
Employment in any branch of industry (respectable) is honorable. I have known men to get rich on a small capital, raising turnips and potatoes. I have known men, without capital, to get rich hulling and popping corn and selling it. Others who have made a good living selling paper and matches. Others, in selling saurkraut and buttermilk.
A man once got into a good job by simply being willing to do what he was told to do. On applying for work he was asked if he could make a pin; he said he could try; he was told to take a double bitted axe and make a wooden pin on a rock; he made the pin-then he said he always stuck the axe in the block-
Then he raised the axe above the rock, And let 'er drive into the block; Said the man: "You've done a good job at that, Willing to work at what I set you at; You have knocked off my axe both edges, But I'll hire you and give you good wages.
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Opportunities there are for all whom we have, From the hair pin to the grindstone;
The lawyer and the prophetic seer,
The school boy to the statesman without a peer.
Therefore young man, there is no need for you to go hungry nor idle. If you can't get just what you desire at the onset, start in at the best thing you can get and watch your opportunity and you will certainly win something that will suit you in the race for life. Resolutely take hold and turn up something and not wait for the opportunity golden to turn up to you.
Look out upon the grandeur, the vastness of Young America, with her teeming millions keeping pace in the busy hum of agricultural, mechanical and commercial life. Look out upon her beautiful Garden City, Chicago, with her million souls, and only a half century old. Young man, the same sun rises and sets in your horizon; the same refreshing waters roll to quench your thirst and bathe your weary feet-
Golden avenues stretch out before you on every hand,
Throughout America's broad and beneficent land.
Then be loyal to your country, loyal and true to yourself; then it may be said your country is none the worse, but the better for your existence therein.
CHAPTER XCHI.
THE FATHER OF WATERS.
ROMANCE AND TRAGEDY OF THE MIGHTY MISSISSIPPI ITS WATERS COVER THE REMAINS OF THE FIRST EUROPEAN WHO TRAVERSED THEM-FERDINAND DE SOTO, LASALLE AND OTHERS.
HE HISTORY of the Mississippi River for the past 350 years is a story of ro- mance and tragedy. Far back in the early days of the sixteenth century the adven- turous Spaniard, spurred on by a thirst for gold, began the exploration of the river and survey of the surrounding country.
But the bold European who first ventured upon the waters of the mighty stream found not in them the gold he sought, but a rgave.
In 1539 Ferdinand De Soto left the Island of Cuba, over which for some years he had been Governor. in his wife's charge, and set sail for Florida, lured on by the reports of the boundless wealth in the sunny peninsula's soil. He arrived safely and disembarked his men, and in order that none should be tempted to return or abandon the enterprise they had entered upon, he sent the ships back to ('uba.
De Soto pushed through the strange land with his fol- lowers, and after a roundabout journey reached the Miss- issippi at the bluffs now known as the Lower Chickasaw, where the city of Memphis stands. The party crossed the
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river at this point and explored the country beyond until they came upon the White River, some 200 miles from its junction with the great stream. De Soto then dispatched a portion of his men to explore the region of the Missouri, but they encountered such difficulties that they were forced to return. At the end of two years the expedition win- tered near the hot springs and salt streams of the Washita, but the canoes of the party got entangled in the bayous and marshes of the Red River and were lost.
At length the Spaniards succeeded in striking the great river lower down, and the country was carefully surveyed, without, however, showing any signs of the gold for which they were seeking. All this time the Spaniards had to con- tend with the hostility of the Indians, who were ever on the alert to attack them. At length, dispirited by the dangers and disappointments he had endured, the leader succumbed to a malignant fever which attacked him, and on the 21st of May, 1542, after three years of exploration, De Soto died.
The story of his burial has been graphically told by the historian. "Amid the sorrows of the moment and fears of the future, his body was wrapped in a mantle and sunk in the middle of the river. A requiem broke the midnight gloom and the morning rose upon the consternation of the survivors. De Soto sought for gold, but found nothing so great as his burial place."
Such was the end of the first attempt to explore the Mississippi and the adjacent country. Thousands journey on the mighty river yearly now, but few of those who pass and repass on its waters have any idea that in the bed of the stream rest the remains of the gallant Spaniard who was the first European to traverse the Mississippi.
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After the death of De Soto, the expedition was under the command of Louis De Moscoso, and, after enduring every calamity that could befall man, the party set to work and built seventeen brigantines. Having accomplished this they passed out of one of the months of the river, and fol- lowing the coast eastward, reached Cuba in the autumn of 1543. The men lost half of their number in the four years they had been away -- only 300 out of 600 who started, re- turning to the Island.
MARQUETTE AND JOLIET.
For more than a century after De Soto's expedition the talk of further exploring the Mississippi remained in abevance. But in 1673 a Catholic priest named Marquette and a French trader named Joliet made an attempt to sur- vey some parts of the river, and there is no doubt but that the example set by these two resolute men moved the Chev- alier De Lasalle to the important work of discovery he took in hand shortly afterwards, the most important in the his- tory of Mississippi exploration.
LASALLE'S WORK.
In the first place Lasalle dispatched Father Louis Henepin to survey the upper waters as far as the Falls of St. Anthony, which were discovered by the priest and named after his patron saint.
In 1682 Lasalle started with 23 Frenehmen and 18 Indians to explore the lower reaches of the river. He entered the Mississippi from Illinois and journeyed down the stream until he reached the "Passes," as they are called, by which the waters make their way to the sea. He sent parties to survey each of the three channels of the Mississippi Delta and sailed into the open Gulf of Mexico.
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The party then retraced their steps to Quebec, and Lasalle returned to France.
In 1684, aided by the French Government, the Cheva- lier sailed with four vessels for the Gulf of Mexico in order to enter the Mississippi from the sea, but he failed to accomplish this task. Lasalle lost his ships; and after making a vain attempt to reach the river overland he was assassinated by one of his followers in March, 1687, the second and greater explorer of the stream meeting a fate even more tragic than that which overtook his predecessor, Ferdinand De Soto.
Twelve years later the mouths of the Mississippi were discovered by Iberville. The source of the river has been sought for, at different times, by travelers of nearly every nationality.
1805 the United States Government sent Lieutenant Pike to survey the region in which the Mississippi was sup- posed to have its origin; and in 1820 Governor Cass, of Michigan, undertook a similar task, but they were unsuc- cessful in their attempts to trace it, and the source of the river remained still unknown.
In 1832 Henry Rowe Schoolcraft explored Lake Itasca, which he regarded as the source of the stream. It had long been suspected, however, that the Mississippi had its fountain-head higher up than Lake Itasca; and in July, 1881, an expedition, led by Captain Willard Glazier, discovered a lake south of Itasea a mile and a-half in diameter, and falling into Itasca by a permanent stream. Beyond this there is no water connected with the river, and hence Lake Glazier is now generally recognized as its source.
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