USA > Pennsylvania > Venango County > Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1) > Part 102
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On Jan. 25, 1871, the little church was duly consecrated by the Rt. Rev. J. B. Kerfoot,
D. D., Bishop of the Diocese of Pittsburgh, assisted by ten other clergymen. The Rev. John Scarborough preached the sermon. Ten days after the consecration Rev, Mr. Byllesby presented his resignation.
In May, 1871, Rev. John F. Protheroe, of Corry, Pa., accepted the rectorship.
On Sept. 8, 1875, Rev. Mr. Protheroe was transferred to another part of the Diocese. The Rev. C. G. Adams, of Northumberland, Pa., accepted the vacancy, and held his first service Nov. 7, 1875.
On May 31, 1879, the Rev. Mr. Adams left the parish, having received a call to a church in the East. On Dec. 22, 1879, Rev. Peter B. Lightner accepted the vacancy.
On March 12, 1881, the building of the rec- tory was discussed by the vestry and a lot on First street, below Lincoln, was purchased. On April 10, 1882, the rectory was reported finished and occupied.
On Sept. 3. 1882, the Rev. Peter B. Lightner resigned, and on Dec. 5, 1882, the Rev. J. H. B. Brooks, of Salisbury, Md., was called to the rectorship.
As the old church required repairs and was not of sufficient size to receive the congrega- tion, a property was purchased at the corner of First street and Central avenue, on which to erect a new structure., The total cost of the church building complete and furnished. including the lot occupied by it and also the organ, was about twenty-five thousand dol- lars and the indebtedness was the mortgage of seven thousand dollars. On Easter Monday, April 10, 1887. the Church was opened for the first time with the service of benediction by the Rt. Rev. Cortland Whitehead. Bishop of the Diocese.
Sunday. June 2. 1892, Oil City was devas- tated by a terrible disaster of fire and flood.
Our rector, Rev. Mr. Brooks, was so in- defatigable in his services to those in afflic- tion that he required a rest, and a leave of ab- sence was granted him for two months. Dur- ing his absence Mr. H. L. Foster, senior warden. usually conducted the church services.
In 1894 Oil City and Christ Church suf- fered a serious loss in the removal to Chicago of Mr. H. L. Foster, who had been senior war- den since April, 1883.
On May 12, 1894. the church was duly con- secrated. the debt upon the building having been fully paid.
During the summer and fall of 1901 the health of the Rev. Mr. Brooks failed greatly. but in November he became seriously ill. and Dec. 16. 1901, the Rev. C. H. Stocking. D. D.,
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was engaged to officiate for a short time. On Feb. 11, 1902, the beloved rector was called to rest after nineteen years of faithful and laborious services in this parish. Dr. Stock- ing continued in charge of the parish during the summer of 1902.
On March 9, 1903, the vestry gave a call to the Rev. John Dows Hills, of Buffalo, N. Y., which was accepted, and he entered upon the rectorship March 15, 1903. During the incumbency of Rev. Dr. Hills the parish house was constructed. Dr. Hills expatiated on the importance in having this structure erected, and it was mostly at his instance that it was undertaken and completed. Messrs. Charles H. Lay, Jr., W. S. McCuen and F. S. Bates, of the vestry, with the aid of the ladies, were elected to assist Dr. Hills in the con- struction of the parish building, which was formally opened Sept. 26, 1906, for the duties for which it was erected.
In October, 1906, the twenty-fifth anniver- sary of the service of William F. Cullis as organist and choirmaster was fittingly ob- served.
At a special meeting of the congregation held Feb. 20, 1907, resolutions were adopted defining more explicitly the requirements of voters and vestrymen.
On Dec. 9, 1908, the congregation suffered the loss by death of Mr. Kenton Chickering. who had been for many years closely interested in the affairs of Christ Church. He was senior warden, a steady attendant, and generous with his means.
On Aug. 14, 1909, Dr. John Dows Hills, rec- tor, tendered his resignation, which was ac- cepted with regret by the vestry. Dr. Hills had been rector for over six years and dur- ing his active incumbency the parish house had been erected mainly through his efforts.
On Nov. 2, 1909, the rector, J. E. Reilly, D. D., was tendered the rectorship, which he accepted, entering upon his duties Dec. Ist.
There being an apparent need to divide the Diocese of Pittsburgh, it was finally decided by the Diocese to do so, which resulted in Oil City being placed in the new Diocese of Erie. and the first convention of the Diocese of Erie was held in Franklin May 23, 1911.
The congregation and vestry of Christ Church lost, March 27, 1914, one of their old- est members in length of service, Mr. Benja- min F. Brundred. He was always interested in the needs of the congregation and most faithful in attendance at the church services, and gave of his means generously to the sup- port of the church.
On Thursday, May 7, 1914, the congrega- tion lost by death another valued member, Isaac Ash, Esquire, a constant attendant at the church services and a member of the vestry since 1876.
On Feb. 22, 1917, the congregation of Christ Church lost another valued member by the death of Mr. Henry Irving Beers, a member of the vestry since 1875.
The present members of the vestry are: Rev. J. E. Reilly, D. D., Rector ; Col. E. V. D. Selden, Senior Warden; W. I. Rehr, Junior Warden; E. R. Shepard, Treasurer; Maj. James A. Fawcett, Secretary; C. J. Smith; D. J. Bolton; George Yardley; P. C. Beers ; J. W. Prince ; J. H. Chickering; F. C. McGill; J. K. Earp.
WILLIAM CROSS, a leading farmer of Clinton township, is a native of Clintonville and a worthy representative of one of its most respected families, whose members in every generation have been people of substantial character and admirable qualities. As leaders in local business enterprises, public-spirited citizens and desirable members of society per- sonally they have contributed their share to the general well-being, steadily and without ostentation, attending thriftily to their own affairs, with due regard for their responsi- bilities toward others.
The first of this family in Venango county was William Cross, well remembered in this section of Pennsylvania as a pioneer iron manufacturer of Butler, Venango and other counties. He was a son of Samuel Cross, a native of Ireland who lived in eastern Penn- sylvania and later at Centerville, Butler county, and who had a family of twelve children by two marriages, eight sons and four daughters. One son, Joseph, was elected to the Pennsyl- vania legislature from Butler county, where all of the family remained but William.
William Cross served during the war of 1812 in the commissary department. Remov- ing in 1831 to Franklin, Pa., he leased a forge and engaged in the manufacture of iron there for a short time, also living in Rockland town- ship, this county, before he settled at Clin- tonville, in July, 1835. There he made his home during the remainder of his life, one of the most active business men of his day. He erected a residence and store, being the first merchant at that place, and for years carried on a grocery and general mercantile business alone or in association with others, a great part of the time in partnership with his son Robert. But he was especially well known
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as a skillful builder of furnaces, having erected and operated the following: Slab furnace, in Cranberry township; Sandy, in Victory township; Van Buren, in Cranberry town- ship; Bullion and Jane, in Clinton township; Forest, near Tionesta ; and Pleasant Grove, in Lancaster county. He was also interested in various grist, carding and saw mills, erecting many in the western counties of Pennsylvania, and at one time having seven in active opera- tion. His energy never abated, though he lived to his seventy-sixth year. After the dis- covery of oil in his locality he spent a great deal of time and money in experiments with refining, a process not yet understood, skim- ming oil from the surfaces of rivers and creeks for this purpose. He put thirteen thousand dollars into these experiments. His death, on Nov. 24, 1861, occurred while he was driving home to Clintonville in his wagon, with a sup- ply of oil from the river. Mr. Cross married Jane Weakly, daughter of Robert Weakly, of Butler county, and she, too, died at Clinton- ville, aged seventy-five years. They were members of the United Presbyterian Church, and he was a Whig in politics. Mr. and Mrs. Cross became the parents of nine children, viz .: Samuel W., Robert, Wilson, William C. (who served as treasurer of Venango county ), Harriet (wife of Thomas Hoge, who was mayor of Franklin and a member of the State Senate), Sarah Jane (Mrs. Nathan Davis), Matilda ( Mrs. John Maxwell) and two daugh- ters named Caroline, one dying young. The family had the best educational facilities pos- sible here at the time, the parents, who were among the most advanced residents of the locality, taking great interest in the establish- ment of the academy and helping to start it.
Robert Cross, son of William and Jane (Weakly) Cross, was a prominent citizen of Clinton township for many years. Born May 3. 1811, in Pittsburgh, Pa., he attended public school there up to the age of eleven years, when he moved with his parents to Butler county, the family locating at Centerville, and he was a young man when he accompanied them to Venango county. He became a contractor and builder, and he was also largely associated with his father in business, both in merchandising and in his experiments at refining oil. After his father's death he continued the mercantile trade on his own account at Clintonville, and meantime also served as postmaster, being the first there to hold the office, in which he was retained for the long period of forty years. He was also interested in farming, carrying on both his agricultural and mercantile pur-
suits until shortly before his death, which oc- curred at his home in Clintonville June 22, 1874. Mr. Cross was the foremost business man of Clintonville during most of his active career, and equally zealous in all else that per- tained to the well-being of that place and its inhabitants. He was an elder of the Pres- byterian Church, and one of its generous sup- porters, an enthusiastic advocate of progress in education and other uplifting influences. charitable and helpful to those less able or less fortunate than himself in material affairs, and a loyal public servant. He was an ardent Democrat and active in politics, and served his township as roadmaster and supervisor, also filling the office of associate judge of Venango county for one term. About 1860 he built the brick house now occupied by the widow of his son Oliver Byron Cross at Clintonville, burn- ing the brick for it himself.
On Dec. 25, 1835, Robert Cross married Hannah McKissick, who was born April 15. 1816, at Portland, Maine, daughter of Aaron and Mary ( Means) McKissick and of Scotch ancestry. Aaron McKissick was engaged in general contracting. About 1818 he settled with his family at Franklin, Pa., later remov- ing to Sandy Lake township, Mercer county. where his wife died when about eighty years old. His death occurred at Waterloo, Venango county, not far from Mercer county, about 1850. Their children, all now deceased, were as follows: Putnam, John, Henry, Oliver, Han- nah (Mrs. Robert Cross), Jane (Mrs. Henry Near), Mary (wife of Dr. A. J. McMillen). Sophronia ( Mrs. Henry Smail) and Thomas S.
Mrs. Cross died May 8. 1893, at Sandy Lake, Pa. She was the mother of nine children. namely: Caroline died when thirteen years old; Mary Jane married E. P. Newton, and both are deceased (they left two daughters, Kate, who is married and living in New Castle, and Lovisa Florence, deceased) ; Hattie Agnes married Maj. Robert J. Phipps and lived in Franklin, and of their two children Marshall Lee married Bell Campbell and Lizzie is de- ceased (this family is mentioned elsewhere in this work ) ; Louisa married Rev. James M. Foster, who survives her, now living at Clark's Mills, Pa. : William is mentioned below ; Oliver Byron, deceased. is mentioned elsewhere in this work: Emma F. was married to the late C. M. Riddle, a carpenter, of Clintonville : Alice married Dr. H. Jackson and (second) Joseph Bowman, an oil well driller, of Sandy Lake, Pa. : Henrietta married David V. Eakin, an oil well contractor and well driller. now in Idaho. William Cross, eldest son of Robert Cross,
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was born at. Clintonville, Nov. 19. 1845, and grew up at that place. He received his educa- tion in the local schools, and has followed the vocation with which he became familiar in youth, being one of the most successful farmers in his portion of Venango county. In 1875 he purchased his present property in Clinton township, the old farm of his wife's father, Samuel Phipps, who made his home with Mr. and Mrs. Cross until his death. The place is near Kennerdell, three and a half miles north- east of Clintonville, and Mr. Cross has been profitably engaged in its cultivation ever since, being one of the substantial agriculturists who have kept up high standards in the township and aided the general progress as well as his own. He deserves mention as one of the most valuable citizens of his neighborhood. In 1888 he was appointed mercantile appraiser, serving one year, and served one term, 1890-93. as county commissioner, his public obligations receiving the same capable and prompt atten- tion that he gives to his private affairs. He is a Democrat in politics, and socially he and his wife rank among the influential people of their locality.
In 1867 Mr. Cross married Nancy Phipps, youngest daughter of Samuel Phipps, and they are the parents of eight children, namely : Effie Mary, now the wife of James I. Black, of Brookville, Pa., an oil driller : Frank, sec- retary and treasurer of the Sun Oil Company, who married Margaret McKee; Fred A., an engineer, living at Hampton Station, Pa .. who married Laura Irwin; Hannah, wife of John J. Porter, of Clarion City. Pa., an oil pumper ; William Raymond; Florilla ; Harriet, wife of Edson Byer, a farmer of Scrubgrass township, this county : and Robert P., of Marcus Hook, Pennsylvania.
W. RAYMOND CROSS, son of William and Nancy (Phipps) Cross, was born Oct. 31. 1876, on his father's farm near Kennerdell, and there spent his early life. After acquiring such education as the local schools afforded he attended Grove City College, for four terms, and during his young manhood taught three terms of school in Clinton township. Later he took a course in the famous Eastman busi- ness college at Poughkeepsie, N. Y., and upon his return to Pennsylvania obtained a position as bookkeeper with the People's Natural Gas Company of Pittsburgh, entering their employ in 1900 and remaining in that city until 1908. In the latter year he was transferred to Oil City, becoming assistant to Mr. J. B. Craw- ford, general manager of the United Natural Gas Company there. His duties were im-
portant from the first, and with the growth of the business and consequent increase in the de- mands upon the company for service he as- sumed additional responsibilities, which he handled so capably that in May, 1916, he was made vice president and general manager of the company. A few months later, in January, 1917, he succeeded Mr. Crawford in the presi- dency. which he is now filling. Since his re- moval to Oil City Mr. Cross has also become interested in other gas companies in this part of Pennsylvania, being president of both the Pennsylvania Gas Company of Warren and the Clarion Gas Company, whose business headquarters are at Oil City. In his early con- nection with this business as accountant, Mr. Cross acquired a thorough knowledge of its financial details which has guided him to prac- tical efforts in the exercise of his executive duties. his familiarity with both ends of the work enabling him to comprehend the possi- bilities of each and combine them to the best advantage.
Like the members of his family generally, Mr. Cross has been counted upon for help in promoting the social betterment of his com- munity. and he has not been lacking in either the spirit or performance of his duties. He is one of the directors of the Oil City Y. M. C. A., and has responded readily to all calls upon his support for similar enterprises. Fra- ternally he is a Mason, holding membership in Petrolia Lodge No. 363. F. & A. M., Oil City Chapter No. 236, R. A. M., Talbot Command- ery No. 43. K. T .. Venango Lodge of Perfec- tion. Pittsburgh Consistory, and Syria Tem- ple, A. A. O. N. M. S .. of Pittsburgh. Mr. Cross married Mary Belle Eakin, of Eau Claire. Butler Co., Pa. They have no chil- dren.
Mrs. Nancy ( Phipps) Cross is a grand- daughter of John Phipps. the first of this fam- ily to make a permanent settlement in Ve- nango county. Joseph Phipps, the first of this line in America, was of an old English family and settled in Pennsylvania in 1682, coming over with William Penn, who appointed him a member of the first general assembly. He re- ceived from Penn deeds of valuable lands that are on record, and copies of which were read at the Phipps Centennial Reunion, held in August. 1897. From him Mrs. Cross traces her descent through Joseph (2), Nathan, Samuel. John and Samuel Phipps, and a de- tailed account of these generations appears in the record of her brother, Cyrus D. Phipps, elsewhere in this work.
It is supposed that Samuel Phipps, great-
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grandfather of Mrs. Cross, moved from Ches- ter, Pa., and took up his residence in West- moreland county, where he must have lived when his two sons, John and Nathan, came to Venango county. It is not known whether or not he was ever in Venango county.
In the year 1797 John Phipps and his fam- ily, accompanied by his brother Nathan, emi- grated from Westmoreland county to Clinton township and settled on a 361-acre tract of land, surveyed by Colonel Dale, also taking up a 401-acre tract of land surveyed by Colonel Dale, and a 376-acre tract surveyed March 5, 1807, in pursuance of warrant granted Dec. 2, 1805. When John Phipps arrived in Venango county it was nothing but a wilderness. All the cattle had to be housed at night to keep the wild animals from devouring them, and though he built a large barn to keep his sheep in the wolves broke in one night and destroyed nearly all the flock. The bears would steal the pigs, and smaller animals would get the poultry.
It is singular that not one acre of the original 1138 acres of land owned by John Phipps is now held by any male member of the family. Shortly after the death of John Phipps the large tract of land which he had acquired was portioned out among his sons, David, Samuel, Robert and Joseph. After the death of David in 1857 his farm passed to strangers, and changed hands several times; part of it, on which Mr. Phipps lived at the time of his death, is now in the possession of Lyman J. Cassida. The Samuel Phipps farm was sold in 1875 to William Cross, the husband of his youngest daughter, Mr. Phipps making his home with the young people until his death. The Robert Phipps farm is now the property of Frank Eakin, whose wife was a daughter of John Wareham, of Victory township, and a grand- daughter of Maj. John Phipps, son of John and Catherine (Haney) Phipps, the original set- tlers. In 1868 Joseph Phipps sold his old homestead to Capt. Abraham Witherup, who in 1870 divided it among his two sons, Robert and Samuel Witherup. The part which Rob- ert obtained is now the property of Finley W. Witherup, a great-grandson of John and Catherine Phipps. The portion which Samuel received is now the property of Harry T. Melat.
HON. MANLEY COLTON BEEBE (de- ceased) was one of the most influential men of his generation in Venango county, and his serv- ices to his fellow citizens were so diversified that it would be difficult to determine which were most valuable in shaping its progress.
Of high personal character and vigorous in- tellect, with a gift for practical use of his powers which made all his talents count, he gave impetus to many of the most important movements of his day, choosing his activities with such foresight that his work had perma- nent value. The fullness of his life might be easily measured by its abundant achievement.
Born Sept. 6, 1827, in Onondaga county, N. Y., Mr. Beebe was a member of an old New England family of English extraction in the paternal line, and his mother was a Webster, cousin of Noah Webster, the lexicographer, one of a long and prominent line of distin- guished educators and statesmen. Undoubt- edly he inherited the tendencies which led him into his life work, and he lived up to the tra-
ditions of an honorable ancestry. During his youth some of the most renowned preparatory schools in the country flourished in central New York, those at Pompey, Scipio, Manlius and Fabius being especially noted, conducted by men whose names became household words in educational circles. He had the advantages of the academy at Fabius, where he completed the course when fifteen years old, even at that early age giving evidence of the studious dis- position and keen intellect which characterized him throughout life, and which developed into a capacity for comprehensive and tenacious grasp of abstruse legal, ethical and philosophi- cal problems. As soon as he finished his course at the academy he took up teaching, having schools in that vicinity during the next three years. By that time he had decided to seek his fortune in the then promising young State of Wisconsin, and he started for the West, coming by way of Pleasantville, Venan- go Co., Pa., where his uncle, Aaron Benedict, had settled. Mr. Benedict was one of the most prominent of its pioneer residents. He had arrived here from his Eastern home about 1827-28, changing his residence partly because of the suspicion that he was in some way as- sociated with the disappearance of the famous William Morgan and the antagonism to mem- bers of the Masonic fraternity excited by that . event. A man of executive ability and busi- ness experience, he founded or encouraged several of the earliest industrial establishments at Pleasantville, including the pottery in which his nephew later became interested. While in a store at Titusville on his way hither, young Beebe overheard a conversation relative to a teacher whom the students had put out of his school, and proffered his services as teacher, promising to retire without pay at the end of a month if he proved unsatisfactory. After a
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visit with his uncle at Pleasantville (five miles from Titusville) he took up teaching at the school referred to, and with this modest be- ginning entered upon a career as an educator which extended over many years, during which the marks of his genius were indelibly im- pressed upon Venango county history through the medium of the citizens who came under his charge. Changing after a time from his original location to Pleasantville, he taught a select school in the upper story of his uncle's pottery, and still later conducted a special school whose instruction embodied the princi- ples at present taught in the normal schools. It is safe to assert that Mr. Beebe was instru- mental in enlisting more young men and women for school work than any other edu- cator in Venango county, and he succeeded in inculcating a love for the profession that demanded high standards, grounding in them the idea that a teacher's ambition was not to be bounded by wages or any other considera- tion than the striving for more elevated ideals and use of the opportunity to sow the seeds of higher citizenship.
Meantime, though his educational work went on through many years, other interests fairly clamored for his attention. A number of progressive residents of Pleasantville thought it desirable to have the village incor- porated as a borough, but the sentiment was not unanimous in favor of this movement. However, through persistent effort a charter was secured, and at the first election Mr. Beebe, though not yet twenty-one years old, was chosen a justice of the peace, being in- ducted into office upon reaching his majority. In those days the duties of a justice were varied and often onerous, as nearly all local disputes were thrashed out in his court. The young man had long possessed the germs of a desire to know the law thoroughly, and the conscientious performance of his responsibili- ties as magistrate seemed to him to demand legal learning, so he set about to acquire it, becoming so interested that he decided to make the law his regular profession. However, in addition to his work as an instructor and his official obligations he also had business affairs to attend to, his uncle having persuaded him to take an interest in the pottery, which was becoming the leading industry of the place, workmen being brought from Scotland to op- erate the queensware department. Though for several years he was associated with the ex- ecutive duties of this enterprise he always kept it secondary to his school work, but it took up much of his time that he would have
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