Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 11

Author: Babcock, Charles A.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages:

USA > Pennsylvania > Venango County > Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1) > Part 11

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VENANGO COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

creased; it is sometimes more than doubled. It increases noticeably toward the bottom of a "riffle"-Allegheny nomenclature, meaning a descent in the stream's bed where the water flows faster than above and still faster just as it enters, at a step or downgrade, the "eddy" or still water below. The Allegheny river is made up of long "eddies" and short "riffles." The average eddy is a mile or more in length, the riffle not more than one-eighth or one-tenth as long. At the end of the riffle is a turn in the river. So that the wall at the upper end of every eddy will be hit by the stones coming down the rapid riffle. The larger stones are continually taken from the lower part, making the riffle deeper, and steeper farther back ; the wall below is worn away, making the passage wider, and worn into, making it curved, throw- ing the water, stones and sand to the other shore, leaving a slanting bar from the water toward the top of the opposite bank. As the curve in the wall wears down stream the bar inside the curve moves with it and forms a plane, thin at the edge toward the water, thicker further back. Now imagine this going on at every bend in the river at the time the water was running on one side or the other at the top of the oldest bank. The first riffle formed would cut a curve in the wall and make a plane sloping to the opposite bank. Conceive this to go on till the walls are three hundred, three hundred fifty or four hundred feet high, and we will have the river about as it is today. The walls are nearly perpendicular, some curved, some straight, but the most puzzling thing is that opposite every wall the dirt seems to have crawled up to the top of the bank, three hundred feet or more high. How did this take place? The fact is, the wall has worn away, the stream followed it sideways, and the sloping plane of detritus also followed it by being built up near the stream. The wall has been worn into the bank, probably to a dis- tance half as far as its height. The same is true of the opposing curve, up stream, on the right. It made a longer, deeper arc than the lower one did on the left, so that the valley is considerably wider as a result of their action. A peculiar feature of this right curve is this: It attacked the wall so fiercely that more rocks fell into the stream than it could remove. These fell, as thick, long, high walls rotating from bottom to top like a spoke on a wheel, over into the stream bed. They kept toppling over, their tops reaching four hundred feet into the stream, till they made a pile thirty feet high ; so that the river was pushed away from the old bank. The stones farthest in the stream

are the old Vespertine sand rocks; toward the bank, are softer shales. The water, percolating through the broken sandstones, crumbles them somewhat, but they solidify and form practi- cally a solid wall. On the land so formed was built former Oil City, or the Third Ward now. Upon this table, resulting from the walls reel- ing into the stream bed, was the Main street of the town, with its buildings on either side. This thoroughfare was extended as the road to Franklin, accompanied later by two railways with oil wells on the side, round the curve, across the lower part of the Reno in- cline, child of the river; along the flat at the mouth of Two-Mile, thence along a table formed by the falling in of the river's rock walls ; thence to the banks of French creek at Franklin. The foundation of this road wind- ing round the bluffs was laid by the river itself. and by several small runs bringing their offer- ings from the hilltops through the rocks.

The river's work in one part of its course is typical of what it is doing throughout the county and all along its banks. Everywhere it is swerving from side to side, cutting curves miles long in the earth's old crust; pushing within the top of every bend the sands and gravels of a Devonian coast, brought within reach by the glaciers moving as centuries do; sorting and leaving along the slant the silt from the banks and beds; the wall itself retreating into the bank before the oncoming of genera- tions of plants down the slope; making acres of fine soil from minute particles sifted and placed, the same sizes together ; quite level now near the bottom and the whole made fertile by the remains of the successive growths that have come down the incline, drawn their sub- stance from the air, and added much of it to the soil. This is the present river. Trying to look a little into its history as it is traced in the earth, leaves only a feeling of unlimited power, extreme duration. beyond words, beyond thought ; yet suggesting a trend toward better things, sure as the flow of rivers.

The older geographies used to say that the streams "water" the lands: then they stated that they "drained" the land,-this, as a cor- rection. The streams do both, and more. They vivify the land. make it a developing. living thing. ever more productive of living forms.

FRENCH CREEK

The stream next in importance to the Alle- gheny is French creek. In its journey of twenty-five miles from Meadville to Franklin it falls only ninety-three feet. It is therefore

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a leisurely stream and gathers its waters from a considerable area. In ancient times, it spread out at flood times and formed many broad meadows before entering Venango. It paused at slight obstructions after coming into this county and made some fine farming lands in the curves of its bends. As it approaches the river, its descent is faster, but this is accom- plished by taking more frequent downward steps in the shallows, leaving shorter stretches of still water between. This is noticeable, from the long piece of deep water at Cochranton. Below this place, the length of each slack- water decreases, as it approaches its conflu- ence, showing that here the work of digging to the river's level became more strenuous. If not required to hesitate at the dam near its mouth, it would enter the river as a rapid stream. It leaves a broad meadow upon its right bank upon which are located the inlots and outlots of fair Franklin.

SUGAR CREEK

About two and one half miles above Franklin, Sugar creek enters French creek, through a wide valley pleasing to the eye, con- sisting of farms to-day, well tilled, and bring- ing prosperity to their owners. This creek has many affluents in Sugar Creek, Canal, Jackson, Oakland, Cherrytree and Plum townships, whose valleys they "water," "drain" and vivify. thus making them productive. Along the slopes of its branches in Plum there are numerous wild plum trees, from which the township doubtless was named-a hint to hor- ticulturists, for the flavor of this fruit is trans- cendant when made into jelly or preserves. By cultivation or budding, it might be enlarged and become a gustatory revelation. The ramifications of this stream cover nearly the northwest quarter of the county. Most of the tributaries start from large, cool springs, assur- ing good water to the residents. The soil of the upland of this whole section is well adapted to all the crops of surrounding counties, corn, wheat, rye, oats, hay and clover. A portion is noted for its butter, which requires a fine soil. It is stated that an early hunter, in the heart of this region, used to shoot an average of forty bears in the late summer and early fall of the year, for their meat and skins, which was his harvest and enabled him to hibernate in comfort. Now the soil that can raise timber and other vegetation to feed the wild animals, bear, deer, turkeys, wolves, panthers, rabbits, squirrels which the early settlers found here. must be a good soil. capable of profitable culti-

vation. This applies to the whole county. It was covered with a heavy growth of timber ; and therefore the soil is very generally capable of responding generously to cultivation. The early settlers could not supply that cultivation. The tools for it were not yet on earth, or on the way. The theories of it were not yet formulated. Removed from eastern markets, the pioneers had to live upon game, and hand culture, Indian style, for the first generation ; and they did, and were as hardy and whole- some as the deer and bear they hunted and as free and as careless as the eagle.

AGRICULTURAL . POSSIBILITIES

The northeast quarter of the county is a replica of that part just mentioned. The roll- ing hills along the banks of the river and of Oil creek, which determined the old courses of those, were considerably higher. The land, as usual, was covered with trees. There are two townships, Allegheny and President, only partly cleared of timber now, though there are tracts of good lands in both. In President there are good-sized productive farms, along the river, a less number in Allegheny, along the upper branches of Pithole creek. Later, when the land is cleared, and the timber sold, there will be possibilities that agriculture will thrive. The other townships, south of the Alle- gheny river and French creek, are a good aver- age among the same number of similar organ- izations in the State. They may not be so prolific in certain crops, but in productiveness of the usual farm crops, they rank high. They have much level land along the valleys, easily tilled and responding quickly and generously to fertilizers and stirring. The southern and eastern parts have limestone, which burns to practically pure lime ; so that their soils contain it naturally. Scrubgrass is underlaid with coal veins thirty inches to four feet thick. There is coal in other townships-Cranberry, in veins three or more feet thick, and in Plum, and doubtless it would be found if sought in other parts. Some of these veins used to be worked, and might be again if fuel becomes much more valuable. They were worked be- fore fuel gas was found here in abundance.

But the one great promise of our county. as a whole. is in the production of fruit, and especially of apples. A considerable part of the county might be made to produce the finest apples, as good as any in the world. Our slopes, chosen to slant in the right direction, would furnish the all important air drainage. The top soil everywhere, with very few exceptions,

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is deep and well fitted for tree growth. There are already here many orchards producing as fine fruit as ever appealed to the eye or taste and their careful culture here has just begun. Trees must be cared for, not stuck into the ground and abandoned to strug- gle for themselves, with the bugs, or turn into shade trees. `A few public-spirited gentlemen have already accomplished much by offering prizes for the display of bushels-not platefuls -of fruit. Some of the leading experts of the State have pronounced the exhibits remark- able. They have also been through the county and have stated that this section is peculiarly fitted by nature for fruit trees, especially apples, pears, cherries, plums, quinces. Crop failures are not more frequent in this than in other productions ; or dry holes in drilling for oil, gas, or gold or silver. It is the judgment of a number of the experts mentioned, that this county if proportionate efforts were devoted to fruit raising, would in a few years produce a larger annual income from this source than

that received from oil during the last twenty- five years.

Three generations ago, many apple orchards were planted twenty miles east of the Hudson on hilly, stony ground, more unpromising than this and a little farther above sea level. The apples came. The first and part of the second generation derived a small income by convert- ing the apple juice into vinegar, and hauling it to market twenty miles away. Now, well along in the third generation, buyers come after the apples, and pay a little fortune for them yearly. This is one instance of many. Of this fruit a good share was sent to Europe. At the close of the present war the demand "over there" will be greatly increased. Why not organize still further to consider this project? There seems to be no doubt among the men who have given the subject much thought that Venango county's agricultural possibilities are only just beginning ; that from her hills and valleys, so often the center of world-wide interest, there shall issue, in greater abundance, food for the hungry nations.

CHAPTER III EARLY DEVELOPMENT

PIONEER CONDITIONS-PIONEER CONVENIENCES-PIONEER ANIMALS AND HUNTING SHELTER AND FIRE-EARLY EDUCATIONAL FACILITIES-POSTAL

SERVICE-FINANCIAL EXCHANGE- PIONEER PRODUCTIONS

The United States is the only nation in the world which can be seen in all stages of its development from its beginning to the present. The history of all other civilized countries fades backward into a period of mystery ; their traces becoming fainter through receding stages of savagery finally disappear into the caves. Here the mingled bones of men and of animals have been preserved by the drip from the roof, burying them under layers of carbonate of lime left by the water. Among these remains are conclusive evidences of re- ligious rites and rude cuttings or drawings upon horns and ivory, made by pointed flints, representing animals now known only by fos- sil remains. These most ancient savages be- lieved in some sort of immortality, and made their feeble appeal of art to their own kind; even then they were forward looking.

It was a far journey through ages of time

in seas of trouble, from those caves to the ships which sailed from Europe at the end of the fifteenth century westward into the un- known, and found a new world. Up to the time of this voyage, many notable improve -. ments upon the far era of the cave men had been made. The three little ships and the mas- ter mind which guided them, summarized many of the changes. But some of the results of the past appeared at this time as abuses. They may have been useful in some of the struggles through stages of barbarism; they were now worse than useless. Chief of these were, first, caste; second, autocracy; third, state-imposed theology. The first limited, even crushed human effort; the second, claimed by divine sanction, the control of those efforts and absolute ownership of their results; the third circumscribed the outlook toward the future, including education, art and immortal hope.

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Human progress is the sum of individual growth, by the free activity of each, regulated only by the equal freedom of all. Men do not grow, when bound by steel into masses and forced, by authority not of themselves or for themselves, to accomplish some secret pur- pose beyond their sight or intention. For cen- turies before and after this voyage of Colum- bus men felt the repression of these old crusts which had closed over them. They protested, but the bonds were drawn all the closer. Then came doubt, discontent and bloodshed. Wars ebbed and flowed round these three great ques- tions. This period was known as the Reforma- tion. It arose in widely separated places in the Old World, in the thirteenth century, and con- tinued onward in time, becoming wider in ex- tent, fiercer, more intense. Its devotees were hunted like wolves in distant glens of the mountains, in lonely places of forests ; persecu- tion, imprisonment, torture, death, awaiting them if they were found worshipping unlaw- fully, or practicing treason by upholding the right of the inner guidance of the spirit in matters of faith and of life. They were not convinced by arguments of rack and thumb- screw, gibbets and gridirons, or by beheadings and quarterings. Their numbers increased.

In England in the fifteenth century the state theology was changed, and then back and forth again, by royal influence. This eased up perse- cution from that source; those inside were chary of starting doctrinal troubles for fear that the next change would find them on the wrong side subject to reprisal. Still matters improved backwards again, and were running that way for a while. But in the middle of the 17th century a king of England was jarred from his throne, defeated in war, tried and executed for treason and his successor ap- pointed-all by the Commons. Again in this fatal century still another King was removed and not only his successor, but the order of succession throughout time, were fixed upon by the Commons. The state theology lost its long punitive arm. Caste in the old sense had been dead four centuries. Middle Class and Nobility had become interchangeable. The Commons governed. The Atlantic coast from northern Maine to Florida was covered by col- onies, all English, either by common descent, or by yet stronger bond of spiritual brother- hood. Before another century closed, these colonies, from the attrition of common troubles, dangers and sufferings, had won a common triumph and forever laid aside those three old crusts. If those shackles reappear here, it

will be because other ideals prevail, upheld by an entirely different race of people.

PIONEER CONDITIONS

With such history as a prelude, the early settlers came to Venango county. They built their homes in the wilderness, not from the materials found there. Their cabins were in- deed assembled from the forests around them. But their homes were built only out of the abiding and strong desire of their hearts housed within crude walls at first. The log hut from the outside might appear small and insignificant as a building and yet the home, inside, may have promised a beauty and a splendor and adornment of real life, not found in palaces. The people who came were alike in one important respect. They came at the call of a common need. They had been cramped. The open spaces in the west ap- pealed to them. Land in the vicinity of the older settlements was expensive, often held as an inheritance by the children of the older and wealthier families. In the south the best land was held in large plantations, worked by slaves; while throughout the North, not one of the many industries which have since con- verted that section into a prosperous human hive had even been thought of. A chance to work with the hands, to earn a livelihood, build up at the same time a home, and look forward to future ease and independence, was a wide-felt need over the whole country. One is astonished in reading history, in noting how universal was this movement to the West, launched at this time, when the ill results of all the wars and of the early Confederacy were most disturbing. When the Indian menace to settlement was quieted, the movement rolled into full flood. The western parts of all our colonies and lands adjacent, were settled at this time, in the last years of the eighteenth, and the first few of the nineteenth century. It was a great wave of equality, and of true democracy sweeping over the country. Not simply more land, but freer life, larger thought; these are the real Golden Fleece. This idea animated those coming to Venango. It unified the settlers. The country had been "bled white." Thousands had cheerfully given up fortune and life. The survivors and the children of the dead did not asseverate; did not express their purpose. They felt the force of the spirit, immortal above sacrifice, and lived it.

Most of the early arrivals came from the

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eastern parts of this State and from neighbor- ing States. Some, later, from Germany, Eng- land, Ireland, Holland, Scotland and other dis- tant countries, where life had brought sight, came. They easily were combined into a har- monious working force. They gathered about the idea of a group of intelligent, self-respect- ing equals, formed into a political unit of reg- ulated freedom, as readily as bees swarm round the queen. The only royalty they recognized was an ideal found in their history and visual- ized by their own experience, soft as a snow- flake or sharp as the lightning.

Some of the beginnings of this life seem small, but they were very intense. One young man, a hunter, came from Huntingdon county, walking all the way, subsisting upon the prod- ucts of his rifle. All his possessions were upon his person, in the bosom of his fringed hunt- ing shirt, or wrapped in a blanket fastened to his shoulders by straps of deer's hide. Besides his rifle, horn and bullet pouch, he carried the long hunting knife, and a hatchet. He had been a pioneer since early boyhood. He could find his way in the night through the forest by feeling the trees. When darkness came, he supped and slept till daybreak. If clouds threatened rain or snow, an Indian camp was constructed in short order where he could stay for days if necessary, comfortable and dry. He stopped at Pittsburgh. then (summer of 1795) a cluster of log cabins around the fort, long enough to secure some supplies. Con- tinuing up the river bank, he passed Franklin, which he noticed as only a small cluster of log huts and some ruins, near the mouth of the creek. The fort and the few cabins near it were nearly three fourths of a mile up stream. At the mouth of Oil creek, the village of the tribe of Cornplanter Indians was located. Pass- ing this, he continued up the creek and striking off eastward from the creek a few miles passed the night where he afterward located his farm. At first he thought to stay a few days looking round for game. He built an Indian camp, afterwards a log hut, in which he passed the winter. He could outshoot and outtrap any of the Indians, but could not compete with them in catching trout with his fingers, though they often illustrated their skill to him very good-naturedly. Here he lived for four years, alone probably except for the dog and horse he had acquired. His skill as a hunter and trapper was almost like witchery. He was on good terms with nature. He had a neighbor or two at the end of the century, within trav- eling distance. In the meantime he had made the improvements necessary to secure his

homestead. He stayed upon the land where he had thought to rest for a day or two be- cause the spring water and the forest there appealed to him; here he passed a long life and left numerous descendants.

There were others like him in various parts of the county. In one of the earliest settled portions of northern Venango several young men in the last year or two of the eighteenth century had arranged to take land in allot- ments near enough so that they could assist one another in some of their most strenuous duties. They had trouble with the Indians. On more than one occasion, when one of their number had undertaken the long overland trip to se- cure the salt necessary to preserve their venison or bear beef for winter, he had been attacked while returning and his precious burden taken from him. Salt cost eight dollars a bushel, and the surest way to get it even at that price was to walk to Erie and return, with it upon the shoulders. The journey over and back consumed a week or ten days, so the loss was serious. The trip to the Land Company's grist- mill, near the Crawford county line, was at- tended with like danger. It was therefore ar- ranged to make these journeys in companies of three or four, to take turns in carrying and in watching for savages or wild beasts. Their rifles were loaded and they were marksmen. Their freight then came through with cer- tainty and dispatch. Later, a gristmill was erected on Tionesta creek. This made "going to mill" easier for all the residents of that section. The mill also served to draw the at- tention of its visitors to the natural meadows, containing many flowers, along the Allegheny and Tionesta creek. The flowering plants served to brighten some of the homes, and to make more summer in the front yards and in the hearts of the women and the children in the solitudes. Some of the close observers saw more in the flowers than bright colors. They saw bees; and afterward "lined" them to their hollow trees, crowning the ordinary buckwheats of winter with pleasing "calories." Hunting bee trees was much enjoyed by the early set- tlers generally.

After the fall crops had been harvested there came a season of hunting and trapping. Bears and red deer supplied the meat and most of the fats for winter's tables. Salt preserved the meat aided by smoke from the sweetest woods. Jerked venison, which was deer's flesh cut into sheets or webs and dried on pegs above glow- ing embers, was thought by travelers to be both board and lodging in trying times. The fur- bearing animals were also plentiful, otters,

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beavers, foxes, wolves, muskrats, even squir- rels-all these yielded a ready substitute for current cash. Fish were taken from the river and the larger streams at their mouths by draw- ing brush nets. Sometimes, after a successful drawing, bushels of this fine food were dis- tributed among the settlers to provide for winter. During winter "felling" trees was in order. Land was to be cleared; fuel was thus provided and timber for future home needs. At the same time, choice logs were reserved for sale in the growing markets downstream. Rafting timber was one of the early industries of the county, at first to Pittsburgh, then fur- ther down, and finally down the Mississippi. Many of our early lumbermen have floated timber to New Orleans as it was the best mar- ket and, after disposing of it, have walked back. Walking was the quickest way of traveling in those days. "Walking all day, is not so hard as most other jobs," said an old settler. The people of those times had considerable of it. Une pedestrian made the trip to New Orleans and back. not because he had to, but simply to decide a mooted question. He was gone three months and more. He gained his point, saw the country, and returned a wiser and healthier man doubtless. Much traveling for political purposes has been done since then, but not many such long trips, on foot. Now, the same conclusion would be reached with very little effort by mail or telegraph ; but our pedes- trian was right; he chose the quickest and only certain way then available.

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Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 11

Author: Babcock, Charles A. Publication date: 1879 Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: Babcock, Charles A.
Publication date: 1879
Publisher:
Number of Pages: