USA > Pennsylvania > Crawford County > Pioneer sketches : scenes and incidents of former days > Part 20
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The key to the safe being found in Mr. B.'s pocket, it was unlocked and a-half million dollars in greenbacks were taken and put into a flour saek-a much safer place, they thought, -and ready for transportation.
They next proceeded to examine Joseph's safe, which contained $300,000, but they found no key to open it, as Joseph was at church and had the key in his pocket.
However, they seemed pretty well satisfied with their flour sack of greenbacks, and they cooly retired for a re- past to the pantry, where they filled up with bread, milk, and cream, fried cakes, honey and saurkraut, which took a longer time than it did to rob the safe.
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The hired man was then untied and marched to the barn and ordered to hitch up a team to a sleigh, then retied, the robbers driving off the team to the place where they had left theirs; they left this team tied to a tree and with their own drove into Meadville, which place they reached in good time the fore part of the same night-
An while they went into the tavern to warm, without and within,
The flour sack of greenbacks was left in the sleigh outside of the inn ..
The news of the robbery spread like wildfire the next morning, but Saeger and his pals had cooly departed, Miller and Weldy returning to their homes in Saegertown.
The affair for a long time was a mystery. No clue; no suspicion rested on any one. It was noticed that Mr. Weldy exhibited more money than usual, and finally he purchased a valuable farm, which created a suspicion and he was arrested as being implicated in the Bennehoff rob- bery. He made a clean-breasted confession and he and Miller were sent to the state prison for a term of years.
Nothing was heard of the two reputed Philadelphians. In the meantime Mr. Bennehoff had offered a reward of $100,000 for the capture and conviction of Saeger, and the recovery of the money. A few years later he was, by an acquaintance, identified at Denver, Colorado, as he called into a restaurant and ordered "a dozen fried."
The lady in attendance saluted him with a "How do you do, Jim Saeger ?"
With piercing look and quick response he replied, "You are mistaken madam, I am not Jim Saeger."
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To which his interlocutor replied, "You can't fool me. I know you, Jim Saeger."
"But hush, hush; keep mum," he said.
The landlord was informed, also the sheriff, and Saeger was arrested.
But said he, "I have a drove of cattle just outside the limits, with a good herd of cow boys, and you'll have a nice time in taking me cast."
Saeger was held and the Bennehoffs notified, and Chief Rouse of Titusville was sent to bring on his man. But young Bennehoff found that the prospects of recovering any great portion of his money was then doubtful because Sae- ger's capital consisted principally in herds of cattle roaming over Texas and New Mexico. But at all events, the situa- tion, for some cause, did not suit him sufficiently to put up the $100,000 reward, and Mr. Rouse, it was said, became disgusted over the affair, came home and at last accounts Jim Saeger was still in the far southwest.
The probabilities are that Saeger has given-
John Bennehoff's boodle larger circulation
Throughout the western nation,
From Denver to the Rio Grande, Than would the miserly old German.
But this isn't a good example to follow, To first gag one so he can't halloo; Then steal away his greenbacks,
Doughnuts, cheese, honey and saurkraut.
Saeger soon became a ranchman in the west, And scattered his half million right and left In herds of cattle o'er the southwestern plain; He claimed 'twas Bennehoff's loss, but other's gain.
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Months later, at a Denver Inn, he called for oysters fried, When by a Pennsylvania woman he was espied;
Then followed Jim Saeger's arrest,
Released, to roam again in the wild west.
Had he stolen Bennehoff's cow, mule or ass,
When they got him, they'd held him fast;
But as he simply stole half a million dollars,
He was treated as a gentlemen and a scholar.
One need not go to Wall Street, New York, to see how a lively exchange business is carried on, for you can see it at Oil City.
BULL AND BEAR.
A member springs to his feet in the Oil City Exchange, With blood in his eye and oil on his brain;
He shouts and he bellows, the bull is there And 'mid the excitement up comes the bear.
Then 'twas bull and bear
In the arena, everywhere,
Novice would do well to understand A single word from any man.
And when the bulls and bears retire They'll figure you up if you desire; They'll do you up in long or short, Most generally in the latter sort.
CHAPTER CII.
TITUSVILLE.
ITUSVILLE is situated, on Oil Creek, seventeen miles above Oil City, and is the second city in size in Crawford County, Pa. Like Oil City, it is a young town, it having developed from a country hamlet to a city, soon after the outbreak of the oil excitement in 1858.
Titusville is noted for its pleas- ant site in a broad valley and a pleasant country around. Its streets are well laid ont and skirted with beautiful shade trees, and it is not lacking for good churches and schools, public build- ings and fine residences. Altogether, Titusville is one of the best and pleasantest towns in Western Pennsylvania.
All through the palmy days of oildom, and at the pres- ent time, it was and is the home of many of the oil men. many of whom and families possessed great wealth and re- finement.
The evening seene at the Titusville postoffice at most times from 1865 to 1875 could not, I presume to say, be duplicated in any other city of the same size on the Ameri- can continent. As its inhabitants and many transients called for their evening mail, together with the hundreds of day laborers for their missives, they would form in line outside '
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the postoffice, each one to take his turn up to the captain's office to see what was in store for him, and as the office closed many a one had to go unserved to return on the fol- lowing day.
Through a great portion of these days the oil boom and the traffic were innnense and red hot between Titusville, Pleasantville and Shamburg.
A plank road, six miles to Pleasantville, was built, and the hum and rattle of the numerous lines of stages tokt the traveler that there was something going on about there. The everlasting, solicitous, chin music of the stage driver was sufficient for you to get in and ride, whether you really wanted to or not, to get a rest.
In and around the villages of Pleasantville and Sham- burg a city of oil derricks was erected-
And the oil business was pushed with a will,
Days, nights and Sundays you could hear the tap of the Grill Going on downward into the first, second and third sand, To probe and to extract the oil from the land.
Oil wells, hundreds of them, in this Pleasantville and Shamburg field, were struck in so close that ere long they exhausted the field.
Church Run, near Titusville, soon after became quite an oil-producing field.
CHAPTER CIII.
CONNEAUT - HARBOR-EARLY SETTLERS.
ONNEAUT, situated two miles from the shore of Lake Erie, about one mile from the Penn- sylvania State line, on the old North Ridge stage road, in Conneant Township, Ashta- bula County, Ohio, was settled in 1802. Among the carly settlers of 1802-6-7 were Aaron Wright, William Brooks, Zophner Lake, Lewis Thayre, John Brown, William Foster, David Ford, Isaac Ford, Johnson Gilbert, Greenleaf Fifield, Charles Benton, Alexander Le- roux, Elisha Grant, Riley Kilborn, S. Beckwith, Whitney Grant, George Tweedy, Nathan L. Carter, John Ellis and William Rich.
Soon after the War of 1812-3, emigration from the New England States to the Western Reserve set in at a lively rate, also creating quite a commerce at Lake Erie ports (1830-35-40.)
At this time Conneaut Harbor presented a pretty lively appearance. Its fine harbor was then superior to any on Lake Erie, with perhaps the exception of Fairport, and was considered by vessel men to have a much better port of entry than Ashtabula. And if Conneaut gets that much talked of railroad to her harbor Unele Sam will furnish the necessary lucre to scoop out the sand from the gill of Con- neaut Creek, and then she will have her just deserts-an even show with Ashtabula and Fairport.
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Conneaut is located upon good, dry land,
Where its residents can stand With their feet upon the sand. And a plenty of gravel at their command,
which suits the lady and gent pedestrian; also the spring gardener to make an early start in planting-
His lettuce, beets, string beans and potatoes;
Also his onions, peas, corn and tomatoes: A valuable consideration in a home
To have a plenty of garden sass of your own.
Messrs. Cleveland & Lyon were among the first great traders in the village. Their trade was large, extending to different parts in Pennsylvania, as they kept a stock of general merchandise, and "Bob" Lyon would buy almost anything that you could name. People came from Spring, Pa., at dawn of day ; others passing in wagons from Con- neantville, and others from more distant points twenty to thirty-five miles to Bob Lyon's to trade. This man Lyon was a live man from head to foot, with electric tongue, an active brain, a double-geared movement and active hands behind his counter, affording a rare treat to the countryman to behold his genial face.
Messrs. Hyde & Sargent kept tavern at Conneaut. No hotels in those days, all taverns and inns, and many of them, too, between Conneaut and Cleveland, where the stage driver and his load could wet their whistles for three cents each or at 25 cents per gallon from the Simon pure, unadulterated stuff made from corn and rye.
The traveler generally received hospitable entertain- ment at these taverns. A meal or a night's lodging cost 15 cents, and one enterprising fellow said he was going to build a "condition" on his tavern so he could treat strangers in a more "hostile" manner.
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From 1825 to 1850 Conneaut had her share of the marine business of the lakes. Prior to the day of railroads its harbor was of considerable importance, not only to its inhabitants and others in that vicinity, but to inhabitants of Northwestern Pennsylvania, at Albion, Spring, Conneaut- ville, Mosiertown, Saegertown and Meadville, Pa.
As heretofore mentioned, the valuable timber so merci- lessly cut down to be cleared out of the way, throughout this region by the pioneer, only found a market in the condensed form of black salts, which, delivered at Conneaut Harbor, would fetch the money to pay the twenty-five cents postage stamp on a letter and twenty-five cents per yard for cotton cloth to make a shirt.
Conneaut, like most other lake ports, had a rather slow growth from this time on up to the day of railroads. The building of the Lake Shore Railroad gave it something of an impetus, but nothing compared with the one which came in 1883, when the Nickel Plate located at Conneaut its railroad shops. Then everything moved at a lively gait. A real estate and building boom was created, which has more than doubled its population in the past six years. It now has fine churches, school houses, hotels and residences, business blocks and elegant stores, a good town hall and a lively trade. Its people are alive to the interests and well- fare of their town, and full of pluck, pride and enterprise, and I prediet that they will not rest satisfied until they boom her onward to a city of no small dimensions.
CHAPTER CIV.
PITHOLE CITY.
P
ITHIOLE was the mushroom city of oil- dom, becoming a grown up city in one day and collapsing in another.
Several flowing oil wells were struck at this place, and the most wonderful ex- citement followed that was ever known in this country.
How such a movement was kicked up is hard to ex- plain, but everything and the people seemed to be in trim for such a demonstration.
The great oil wells of former days had considerably run down and the boomers were looking for a new field of excitement and they found it at Pithole. The United States well, (one of the largest) was struck, and others fol- lowed. The people wildly rushed to the scene of this new eldorado. Greenbacks were plenty and the people appar- ently slung them out free as water. Most everybody was bound for Pithole-
And many a one had to sleep on the soft side of the floor, And many another chap, on the ground, out of door.
In the course of two or three months a city was built, not in the most substantial manner, but it was built all the same; neither did they wait for the surveyor to give them a grade for their streets or sidewalks, or a majority of coun-
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cilmen to say whether they should build of brick or stone, but up went Pithole City. With most all kinds of business people and things to behold, the town, the streets and the woods were full of people, and everything went booming. But alas, Pithole, like the dog, had its day. Its owner went off, visiting other fields, and the biggest hotel in the city was afterward sold for $10.
CHAPTER CVI.
ROADS IN OILDOA.
SHE WAGON ROADS around Pithole, as most others throughout the oil region. are of a peculiar sort. They lead off at nearly every point of the compass through field and underbrush. through wood and stream, o'er hills and valleys, (and during six or eight months of the year) through mud everywhere. Thousands of acres thrown open to the commons gave the oil teamster a free pass from point to point. a privilege which was highly appreciated many times, when the road track he- came so mellow that his wagon wheel could not touch bot- tom, then the driver could switch off on to another track. Frequently you could see tiro wheels of his wagon upon a rock, the other two wheels feeling for a bottom and the off side of his wagon box in the mud. The whole cargo was inclined on an angle of about 45 degrees, and you would wonder how anyone but an Oil Creek teamster could come out of such a perdicament right side up. As you passed onward you could notice that some poor horse had quit the business, shaken off his harness and lain down on the side of the road to take a rest, his poor carcass to furnish food for the ravenous buzzard and the crow.
Myron Young, of Ashtabula, gives his experience on a trip over the roads in oildom with horses, wagon and three barrels of oil. When he came into one of those extra
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fertile spots, his horses stopped and couldn't budge. He got down from his wagon, unhitched his horses from it and succeeded in getting one of them out onto terra firma, and with this horse and a long rope hitched around the roadster's neck and pulled him out. The same taeties were resorted to on the wagon.
We might reasonably infer that on such roads the oil teamster must have the faith of a Christian and the heart of a lion to venture upon the road from Pithole to Petroleum Centre.
CHAPTER CVII.
ASHTABULA, OHIO-HARBOR-EARLY SETTLERS-GROWTH.
SHTABULA and its harbor is situated on Lake Erie, in the northeastern portion of the State of Ohio, and about 14 miles west of the Pennsylvania state line, and was settled in 1800. It is the largest town in Ashtabula County. containing 10,000 inhabitants, and has at present the largest commercial trade in iron ore of any other lake port on the great chain of lakes. Its coal exports are also immense.
The growth of Ashtabula was phenomenally small until the completion of the Franklin & Oil City branch of the Lake Shore and the Ashtabula. Youngstown & Pittsburg Railroads in 1875, which opened commerce to the bitum- inous coal fickls of Mahoning, Lawrence, Beaver and Allegheny Counties, Pa., and also afforded an outlet for the shipment of iron ore from its harbor to the furnaces and iron mills of the Mahoning, Shenango, Allegheny and Youghiogheny valleys. It was then that Ashtabula began to boom.
However, back to the days of the old stage coach- 1830 to 1845-Ashtabula was a small village with a tavern, a store, a scool house, a blacksmith shop and a few dwell- ing houses and groggeries; there was, however, quite a trade at the harbor. Steam and sail craft on the lakes transported the country's merchandise and. a portion of the human freight, the stage coach elaiming the balance of the passen- ger traffic. Quite a lively appearance was presented at our
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lake ports then in the absence of any railroads on the chain of lakes.
The pioneer settlers of Ashtabula were Mathew Hub - bard, who came in 1803 from Buffalo, in company with another man. They came in an open boat, put into Ashta- bula Creek and stayed the first night under a big log in the valley on Capt. Scoville's farm; and during that summer and fall an old Indian furnished them with wild game for their meat. Mr. Hubbard cleared off land and sowed some wheat that fall (1803), and returned to Holland Patten, where his wife was living. He remained there for a time and then returned to Ashtabula. His wife Mrs Mary Hub- bard, accompanied by Mrs. Amos Fisk, came to Ashtabula on horse back in 1807.
Mr. Strong, father of Elisha C. Strong, Asher and John Blakesley, Ziba Seymour and others by the name of Sey- mour, were among the first settlers of Ashtabula and vicin- ity.
Hall Smith built the first mill and opened the first tav- ern on the spot where the Children's Home now stands.
The Sweet family, Isaac Sweet and the Metealfs were among the first settlers on the east side.
William Humphrey, grand-father of Alfred and Rus- sell C. Humphrey, built the second mill in Ashtabula, and afterwards, had a lot of hogs on board a vessel westward bound. When near Fairport the vessel foundered and Mr. Humphrey and crew were drowned, but some of the hogs swam ashore.
Amos Fisk came on to Ashtabula about 1803, and was engaged with Mathew Hubbard in shipping salt from Buf- falo to Ashtabula, in open boats, which business to-day
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would be considered a pretty hazardous one, even for the expert sailor.
A Mr. Mendall, who lived in a log cabin on Bunker Hill on Mathew Hubbard's farm, had several hogs in his pen, said to weigh from 300 to 400 pounds each. About midnight one night he and Mr. Hubbard were awakened by the squealing of a hog. They hurried out to the pig pen and found bruin pulling one of the hogs out of the pen : the bear proceeded at once to walk off with his porker. Mr. Hubbard and Mr. Mendall followed him over four dif- ferent fences. Finally the hog stopped squealing; they re- turned to the house for a light and a trap, and, returning. found the hog dead. They then set the trap, with a chain made fast to a sapling, so that when Mr. Bear returned for his breakfast they would catch him. Afterwards, on going to their trap, they found both trap and sapling gone. People turned out, and traced bear, trap and sapling to the north woods in Saybrook and came upon the whole outfit. Bruin showed fight, and lunged at Amos Fisk, who sprang aside and threw down his hat, which the bear tore in pieces, instead of Mr. Fisk. The bear was killed, leaving one less in the bruin family .- Ert. from Notes of N. Hubbard.
In November, 1806, Seth Thayre, one of the pioneers of Ashtabula, was clearing land on Bunker Hill, and tree after tree necessarily had to be felled. When cutting down a gigantic hickory it carried with it two other trees, a beach and a chestnut, together in mass over the road with a crash that echoed in the forest far around.
Great was his astonishment at hearing the furious bark- ing of a dog. On running to the spot and peering beneath the fallen mass his dismay may be imagined at seeing a whole family, with oxen, sled and dog (all unharmed) sur-
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rounded and covered by the fallen trees. It proved to be the family of Wm. Perrin, wife and two small children, who were on their way to visit the said Seth Thayre, riding on an ox sled, the usual convey ance in those days.
When they arrived at this point they neither saw nor suspected danger until too late to attempt to escape. The first intimation of what was coming was the whistling of the branches through the air. Instant retreat was cut off, and the advance was wholly obstructed. A mass of timber filled the road. The chestnut was broken up, the beech lay across the road on a level with the oxen's necks. One ponderous branch of the stately hickory was across the middle of the sled, and immediately behind it was another branch of equal size; and between these branches was Mrs. Perrin and her two children, all unharmed.
Their escape from instant death was miraculous. A moment before the fall he occupied the place where a mas- sive branch fell which threatened to crush them to atoms, which was averted only by its falling across a large pile of brush. The furious barking of the dog, the bellowing of the cattle occasioned by the infliction of many stripes of the small limbs, the startling screams of the woman and the shrill cries of the children, and the amazement of the men created a scene which may be better imagined than described. Axes were procured and in the course of half an hour they were liberated, and the rescued party were again on their way .- Notes from Wm. Perrin, Jr.
In the year 1807, as Joseph Kerr and Esq. Perrin were in a log cabin, a sort of farm work shop, a sudden crashing sound startled them. As they sprang out of the door Esq. Perrin turned to the right and Kerr to the left, the latter held a little boy in his arms. At this moment a large but-
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ternut tree fell upon the cabin and crumbled it down with the three persons under it, and confined them there. Mrs. Kerr, hearing the noise, rushed out to them. Groans mingled with the sound of the falling tree. By scooping away some earth she drew Esq. Perrin from under the tree. In a few moments he had so recovered himself that, with the use of the axe and Mrs. Kerr's assistance, they extri- cated the other two. None, except Mr. Kerr, were mate- rially injured. He had several ribs broken and discharged much blood, but in a few months he fully recovered and lived many years. These worthy people were among the first settlers of Ashtabula, Ohio .- Extract from Notes of Matthew Hubbard.
In 1820-21 Nehemiah Hubbard, who is now 77 years of age and the venerable elerk of Ashtabula Township, was attending school in a log cabin on the spot where Richard Radford's buildings now stand. While on his way from school, at a point near the South Park, then a primeval forest, he met a couple of Indians. He wore a knit cap with a red tassel on it. One of the Indians grabbed the tassel and pulled the cap from Nehemiah's head and would not give it back to him, and he had to go home bareheaded. His father, Matthew Hubbard, and Mr. Mendall went down to Ashtabula Corners that night and had a high time with the Indians, but could not get the cap. The Indians thought they would keep the boy's eap to get a big treat in fire water, beads and trinkets.
Later as Mr. Hubbard and his brother, several years his senior, were going home, at a point in the woods near the Ashtabula Tool Company's present site, they saw a long trail of Indians, about 200 in number, dressed in their war costume, with paint and feathers, and as they brandished
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their tomahawks it was a sight to behold, and it made the eyes of young Nehemiah stick ont, while the older brother said they dared not hurt them, The Indians were on their way to the Indian Reserve, Cattaraugus Creek, near Buffalo, from a trip to Toledo, where they had been.
In 1850 the Lake Shore Railroad was built, which gave to the shipper, the merchant, the tourist and the peo- ple generally a more rapid transit, which as a matter of ex- pedience to a great degree supplanted the vessel business on the lakes, and many of the hitherto grand white winged messengers (sailing vessels of the lake) were laid up, to be, as occasion would require, supplanted by a larger steam craft.
Extensive iron mines were discovered and developed in the northwest, and gigantic strides in improvements throughout our Western States, creating a great demand for iron; then it came to pass that hundreds of steamboats and a good number of sail vessels were brought into requisition to transport this iron ore from the mines of the northwest, and many cargoes of grain from Duluth and Chicago, for which the Lake Shore Railroad could not competc, even had it the capacity. And now, on most any day during the shipping season one can here see a fleet of twenty to forty vessels of a tonnage of from 1,250 to 2,500 tons.
The people of Ashtabula during the last fifteen years have had a pretty big elephant on their hands. For its number of inhabitants, it has a large area of territory to improve. It contains several small farms in its corporate limits, it has many miles of streets and sidewalks to keep up, and many miles of water mains, electric and gasoline lights, a fine city hall, ten churches, school buildings, the High School building, one of the finest in the State, some
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