Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 15

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 15

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was an anxious wait of a few minutes, which must be carefully timed, so that the first raft did not outrun the flood, get fast aground, and wreck all following craft. The first raft must not leave till the flood wave below the dam had ceased to rise or it would outrun the stream and endanger all that followed. When the stream straightened out in an even flood below the dam the exit might begin. The length of these very few minutes of waiting added to the age of those who had spent many days of twelve working hours preparing for this one striking moment. After the first departure the others followed in order and time as arranged. Oil creek is not more than sixty yards in width, and it required a great amount of skill and quick decision to manage these unwieldy craft to avoid collision and great loss of property, as well as danger to life. The sound of the rushing waters, bear- ing upon their surface the many rafts, the flash of the long blades of the sweeps as they are pulled frantically to right or left to make the turns in the creek, the occasional wreck of some unlucky craft demolished in a moment by the battering rams behind, sometimes fol- lowed by a jam and the confusion of the whole run, all these were parts of an intense nerve- testing experience. It is the most rapid, dan- gerous run of any entering the river. The journey to the mouth of the creek being suc- cessful, the sections thus floated were fastened together and joined the fleet going to the mar- ket towns along the rivers. .

The lumber business reached and passed its apex about the year 1830, it is said. Still every year a number of the old-fashioned "big Allegheny" rafts are seen making their way down the passes of the river. Their number. according to the consensus of testimony avail- able upon the subject, is decreasing steadily year by year. The presence of the broad bright isle of pine, with its inhabitants ranging from the boy of ten to the veteran of sixty. has become rare in the river towns. There are yet some of the monarch pines in the forests of Pinegrove and President townships, with trunks five to six feet in diameter and tops two hundred feet high. To see a dozen of them, their massive boles standing apart and reaching upward like great columns lost in the blue above, forces the feeling that here is one of the first temples. A squared stick of solid pine was recently prepared for the European mar- ket from one of the trees in this vicinity: it was forty-two feet long and four feet square throughout its length. It cost a small fortune. The Indians would have made a shrine of

that tree, regarding it long in silence, and leaving at its foot some votive offering, per- haps hanging a string of beads upon its branches. Trinkets of various sorts were found sometimes near by, or attached to, these giants. Members of the race, even at the present time, have similar customs springing out of their feeling of the force back of impres- sive things.

The lumber industry is decreasing, and may disappear before many years. Its develop- ment was necessary to the colonists; and it is difficult to see how they could have suc- ceeded in their contest with the wilderness if they had not taken advantage of all the re- sources that it offered to them.

IRON BUSINESS-FURNACES

The iron business had its beginning in the county with the erection of a furnace at the mouth of Oil creek in 1824, and the Anderson furnace in 1825, in Scrubgrass township. It reached flourishing proportions in 1842 under the stimulating influence of a favorable tariff. The county was thought to be very rich in iron ore, and this business was expected to add greatly to its wealth and prestige. In 1847 there were seventeen furnaces in blast, which produced in the aggregate twelve thousand tons of pig iron per annum, having a value at that time of three hundred eighty thousand dollars. This was indeed a goodly sum added to the income of the county. It was also a large item added to the difficult problem of transportation at that time. Water power was utilized, and the fuel employed in reducing the ore was charcoal. This resulted in the destruction of timber in many parts of the county. The amount of capital necessary for one of these furnaces was estimated at twenty thousand dollars. The whole amount invested, when the business was at its height, was prob- ably three hundred and forty thousand dollars.

EARLY COMMERCIAL CONDITIONS

The credit system prevailed largely. Mer- .

chandise was bought on credit, to be paid for in iron. Labor was remunerated with goods from the furnace stores, which carried an astounding variety of stock, at prices which may again prevail if the present war in Europe continues. An axe cost a laborer in the iron industry five dollars at the store, equal to twelve now at least, if a comparison of wages is made. Calico at fifty rents would now be one dollar and twenty-five cents, and molasses,

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at a dollar fifty, should now be rated at four dollars at least. Twenty-five years ago, an old resident who possessed a good farm which his father had settled and cleared during the rear- ing of a good-sized family, made this remark in reference to the forties and the iron indus- try: "Those were hard times. We managed to get enough to eat and to wear, such as it was, but we hardly ever saw any money. About every six months, when the iron was sold, the credits at the stores were extended, and everybody had plenty. Then. came scrimpin' times again for a month or two." It was suggested that he had a good farm and might have raised corn, buckwheat and pork, as his father did, and have made a profit from the surplus. His reply was that he thought "farmin' was too slow." At that time his farm was producing oil in such quantities that his family are all rich .. It is still producing. His farm was a beautiful one, capable of any crop, but so long as this proprietor lived, noth- ing was raised there except the oil. The pro- prietor considered "farmin' too slow." He thought that raising crops would interfere with the pump rods running over the fields in all . directions. Is the lesson of this man's experi- ence good or bad, or both? Nature seems to have circumvented him.

Turning again to the iron business in Ven- ango county. Some farmers, in good cir- cumstances, entered this industry, and left it penniless. In 1843 there was a rolling mill, including a nail factory, at Franklin; before this establishment closed in 1850 it was pro- ducing five tons of bar iron and three tons of nails daily. Why did this business fail? Probably the line of producers was too long, the process wasteful. Collecting the ores in wagons must have been slow and expensive. The structure of the furnaces may not have conserved the heat. The tariff has been blamed-that it was unfavorable or about to become so; but the tariff, whether favorable or otherwise, would have the same effect upon the industry in all parts of the country. The truth would appear to be that this early manu- facture could not compete in the open market with the richer ores, more concentrated fuel, and quicker turns of the larger, more active, centers of the business, with their steady ad- vance in processes. It was a brave attempt. But the whole round of the work, from the assembling of materials to the production of the iron, its marketing, and the return of the goods in exchange, on to the time of reckoning the profits, must have seemed like a night- mare. Then there was the loss of interest

or of the use of the things made to be used, but which could not get into the hands of the users for six months, or a year perhaps. No business could carry that burden, intensified by the slow and uncertain means of transporta- tion then in vogue.

STEAM NAVIGATION

The first successful navigation of the Alle- gheny by steam was accomplished in 1828. This event ushered in a marked improvement in the means of communication and of trans- portation. The following account of the first steamboat is taken from the Venango Demo- crat of March 4, 1828:

"On Sunday the 24th of February, the citi- zens of this place were somewhat alarmed by the discharge of a field piece down the Alle- gheny river. Another report soon followed- then the cry 'steamboat!' resounding in all directions, and the citizens, great and small, were seen flocking to the river to welcome her arrival. She proved to be the William D. Duncan of 110 tons, Captain Crooks. She left Pittsburgh on Friday at three o'clock P. M., arrived at Kittanning, a distance of forty- five miles, the same evening, left Kittanning at ten A. M., and arrived at this place on Sunday at five P. M., after stopping at Lawrenceburg and other places. The actual time occupied in running the whole distance, one hundred and forty miles, was twenty-eight hours, aver- aging five miles an hour. We understand she could have made the trip in much less time, but it being the first, her engineer was afraid of applying her full power to the current. She had on board several tons of freight, and about one hundred and fifty ladies and gentlemen, from Pittsburgh, Freeport, Kittanning, and Lawrenceburg, as passengers. On Monday morning, a party was got up in town who took an excursion of eight miles up the river to Oil creek furnace for the double purpose of the pleasure of the trip and as a remuneration to the enterprising owners for the visit. She stemmed the current at the rate of between five and six miles an hour, and came down in twenty-one minutes. The day was fine, the trip pleasant, all were highly gratified, and the accommodation was excellent. On Tuesday morning she took her departure for Pittsburgh, where we understand she arrived next morn- ing without meeting a single accident to mar the pleasure of their experiment. We learn that two other boats are making preparations for ascending the Allegheny, and that one of them may be expected here on Friday or Sat-

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urday next. It is expected they will ascend the river as far as Warren, for which place, we understand, they have been chartered. This, it is expected, will put an end to the controversy between the citizens of Pittsburgh and Wheeling, who (sic) is located at the head of steamboat navigation."

Steamboats having one wheel at the stern were introduced in 1830, upon the western waters. Two gentlemen of Meadville, Robert L. Porter and David Dick, became interested in the matter and through their influence the "Allegheny" was built in Pittsburgh to test the new theory against the currents of the upper river. The first trip was ventured in April, 1830. Franklin was reached on the 18th of that month, and the voyage continued to Warren. Seven trips, in all, were made that year, in one of which the boat ascended to Olean, N. Y. The stern-wheel boat was found well adapted to the rapid shallow current and crooked channel of the Allegheny.

OIL TRANSPORTATION

The only drawback to steamboat navigation was in the fact that such transit was possible for only about one quarter of the year. Never- theless it aided the development of the county's commerce at the very pinch of greatest need, when the transportation of oil to market was an overflowing and everwhelm- ing necessity. Wharves were built at the mouth of Oil creek, and at convenient points along the Allegheny. Oil City was the natural center for the shipment of oil. The com- modity came down the creek in all conceivable ways. At times thousands of barrels have been spilled and floated down on the water, a small part being saved by dipping from the surface, but most of it going down the river to the disgust of the citizens below, whose water supply was drawn from the river, and as an inflammatory menace to shipping and bridges. A small part was drawn down in wagons through the ever-present mud, to con- tinue to Franklin over the "turnpike" at a resounding toll to the shippers but without cost to the railroad, whose terminus was de- sirable. Much the greater part came down in flatboats in bulk, as it was pumped in at the wells; a portion was in barrels or tanks, or separate compartments. The boats or "scows" came from everywhere, and were as various in size, shape and stability to get through as were the men who managed them. "Pond freshets" were used to float out the boats, managed as they were in the foredays of lum-

bering. At this time Oil creek reached its heyday as a navigable stream. It is doubtful whether at any time in the world's history such a short, shallow, crooked and difficult stretch of running water has carried so great a tonnage as this creek did in its three busiest years. In spite of wanton waste and danger this jostling fleet of strangest craft brought to the mouth of the creek a flood of oil by prob- ably the most picturesque, exciting, slippery, valuable voyages ever accomplished. Such scenes will never be repeated. From the creek the oil was floated in large quantities to Pitts- burgh. The steamboats took deckloads of barrels and tanks, and what was of far greater account, took many smaller boats in tow, loaded with oil for the down trip, which they brought back loaded with coal for use at the mills, or with other merchandise. The empty flats were in the meantime towed up the creek for the next "pond freshet."

RAILROADS

Much of the oil was carried by rail up the creek from Petroleum Center, or from sta- tions above which had successively been the termini of the Oil creek road. In the early days of railroad transportation, oil was car- ried in large wooden tanks fastened to flat- cars. Iron tanks were a later development. At this time, the greater part of the oil reached the Eastern market by this route, up the creek.

Some time before the discovery of oil authority was conferred upon the Franklin Land Company by the legislature to construct a railway from Franklin to Lake Erie. On the 5th of November, 1849, William Millar began the work of locating the road between Franklin and Meadville, acting as the engineer of the board of directors. In this work he was assisted by C. H. Heydrick of this county. The proposed line began at a point on the turnpike between Elk street and Allegheny bridge, and crossing French creek, crossed Sugar creek four and one-third miles from Franklin, two hundred and forty feet north of the towpath bridge, past the villages of Utica and Cochranton, with a total length of twenty-one miles, eleven hundred and twenty feet, from the Allegheny bridge to the first lock at the outlet of the French creek feeder. The project did not pass beyond this stage.

The charter of the Sunbury & Erie Railroad Company authorized the building of a railway from Warren to Beaver by way of Franklin, Mercer and New Castle; this or an extension

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of the line to connect with the New York & Erie was regarded as the most practicable route for a road through Venango county. A public meeting was held at the courthouse Feb. 20, 1851. An adjourned meeting was also held at Franklin March 5th, at which Arnold Plumer presided, and after speeches by Alfred B. McCalmont and James Ross Snowden, a number of delegates were appointed to attend a railroad convention at Warren the following summer. It was held on June 5th. A per- manent organization was formed, in which this county was represented by E. C. Wilson, vice president, and Myron Park, secretary. Action was taken favorable to building a line from Pittsburgh, to connect with the New York & Erie railroad, two hundred and fifteen miles long.

The Venango Railroad was the first projected through this county that had definite promise of realization. It had its inception in the year 1852. It was a local enterprise almost exclusively. The corporators were Arnold Plumer, A. P. Whitaker, E. C. Wilson, Robert Crawford, John Hoge, Thompson Graham, John Forker, Hugh Brawley, George Merriam, Alexander Powers, William McDiel, William F. Clark, and C. V. Kinnear, and a charter was granted by act of the legislature March 30, 1853. On the 25th of June the company was organized by the election of Arnold Plumer, president; J. Porter Brawley, John Hoge, Joel White and Samuel J. Dale, directors. The route proposed was: "Be- ginning at or near the borough of Franklin in the county of Venango or at the mouth of Big Sugar creek, thence by the most practical route so as to intersect Sunbury and Erie road at any point they may think most advisable, and from any point on said road or route ; thence by the best and most practicable route to the coal field near Sandy Lake, Mercer county." The directors were authorized to extend their road to any point on the Allegheny Valley road that might be deemed most ad- visable. The terms of this charter were ex- ceedingly vague. Only one point was definitely mentioned, Franklin or the mouth of Sugar creek, from which it might extend in any direction, leaving termini and route entirely to the directory of the company. At first it seems to have been regarded as a local road, to connect the Sunbury & Erie with the Alle- gheny Valley road; but as the discretionary powers of the management were seen to be so extraordinary, and it became understood that the projectors might contemplate building a connecting link in an interstate line, between

the East and the West, in which both Pitts- burgh and Philadelphia were ignored, a storm of protest arose in those cities. The legis- lature at the next session was requested to ascertain by what chicanery and fraud such a combination of ingeniously constructed sentences had acquired the authority of law. No irregularity could be discovered, and the legality of the charter fully secured its privileges.

The line was located by two corps of en- gineers under the direction of Mr. Appleton, of Boston. The route selected was from Ridg- way, Elk county, to Warren, Ohio, by way of Franklin, connecting at the termini with other roads from New York to Council Bluffs, Iowa. A meeting of presidents of various affiliated lines was held at Fort Wayne in December, 1855, Arnold Plumer presiding. A definite consolidation of all interests was effected and named the American Central Railway Com- pany. Public meetings were held throughout the county, and almost every community was represented by subscriptions to the stock. An attempt to have the legislature empower the county to subscribe did not succeed. Work was begun upon the line, but it was discovered that the constructors had been engaged in ques- tionable transactions in Vermont. This put a quietus upon the enterprise. It was a splendid failure. It ought to have succeeded. Its suc- cess would have brought honor and wealth to its promoters, and would have hastened the material advancement of this county and the Central West by at least fifty years. They had a fine foundation upon paper and upon the bedrock of the law, upon which a super- structure of any magnitude might have been erected. If only a few miles of track had been completed, to serve as a basis of further credit, in all probability the public would have thronged the line of the road so closely that the business pressing upon it and seeking an outlet through it would have run ahead of the laying of the rails. Such at least has been the history of most of the trunk lines between the East and the West. This would have been perhaps the first great Western line. The first attempts are an important part of the railway history of this country. Great ideas do not die. They pass from hand to hand, like the light from lamps, and in some region, dark before, the light is.

The Atlantic & Great Western Railroad was the first railway to enter this county. Prominent citizens of Meadville had been mak- ing efforts to obtain a charter for a line con- necting the States of New York and Ohio,

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which should pass through that city. They did Petroleum Center were the successive termini, not succeed in these efforts. The Pittsburgh the last named in 1866. & Lake Erie Railroad Company possessed 2d: The Pithole & Oil City road, built by the Clarion Land & Improvement Company, from Pithole City to Oil City, via mouth of Pithole creek; begun in 1865, the first train was run from Pithole City to Oil City March 10, 1866. branching rights in its charter that would en- title it to build the proposed line. In the sum- mer of 1852, the different interests were united and a survey of the line was made in the autumn. Ground was first broken south of Meadville, Aug. 19, 1853. Work was sus- 3d: The Warren & Franklin Railway Com- pany, which completed a line from Irvington to Oil City in 1866; known at first as the Warren & Tidioute Railroad. pended in 1854 and not resumed till 1857. Then the franchise was vested in a new cor- poration, known as the Meadville Railway Company. European capitalists were interested 4th : The Farmers' Railway Company of Venango county, incorporated April 10, 1862. Joshua Rhoads, William Bagaley, Sam. Q. Brown, Jonathan Watson, Thomas Hoge, James S. Myers, S. P. McCalmont, John L. Mitchell, and P. H. Siverly were among the incorporators. A road was constructed to Petroleum Center in the summer of 1866, opened for travel on the 27th of August. and sent a civil engineer, Mr. T. W. Kennard, in 1858, to report from personal observation. His report, March 10, 1859, led to a change in name from the Meadville railroad, to the At- lantic & Great Western of Pennsylvania, which was opened to Meadville Oct. 22, 1862. The line extended to Franklin May 30, 1863, and on the following Monday, June Ist, the line was formally opened by the arrival of the first train in Franklin, carrying the officials of the road and numerous citizens of Meadville. It was extended to Oil City in March, 1866.

The men who were largely instrumental in securing this first entrance of a railway into the county, were naturally among those who had personally been active in former efforts to build such lines here. The committee appointed to represent Franklin in the matter consisted of Arnold Plumer, Samuel F. Dale, C. Heydrick and George H. Bissell. Mr. Ken- nard agreed to open the line provided the com- mittee or their constituents acquired the right of way, securing the company by a bond against all claims that might arise on that account, and also that a turnpike road should be constructed from Franklin to the mouth of Oil creek.

The Atlantic & Great Western was sold Jan. 6. 1880, and was reorganized as the New York, Pennsylvania & Ohio. It was leased to the New York, Lake Erie & Western Railroad in March, 1883, for ninety-nine years. Under this management this road is doing important business in the county.

Western New York & Pennsylvania Lines. This company was the resultant of a combina- tion of several short lines, whose independent management and operation could scarcely have been profitable for the lines or convenient to the public. These were as follows:

Ist : The Oil Creek Railway, chartered April 2, 1860, to build a line from Garland Station, on the Philadelphia & Erie road, to Titusville, Crawford county. It was completed in 1862. Miller Farm, Shaffer Farm, Boyd Farm and

5th : These four roads were consolidated in 1867-68 under the name of the Oil Creek & Allegheny Valley Railway Company. In 1876 it was sold at judicial sale and reorganized under the name of the Pittsburgh, Titusville & Buf- falo road, connecting with Crosscut road in New York. In 1881 the Buffalo, Pittsburgh & Western Railroad was constructed from Buffalo to Brocton, N. Y., also the Salamanca & Allegheny River Railroad, from Salamanca to Irvineton, and the Genesee Valley Canal Company's railroad, from Rochester to Olean. The Olean & Salamanca was built in 1882, when all these various lines were consolidated and were merged into the Buffalo, New York & Philadelphia Company. The entire system was again sold under foreclosure in 1887, and reorganized under the name of the Western New York & Pennsylvania Company. A line from Stoneboro, Mercer county, to New Cas- tle, Lawrence county, is also operated. The tracks of the Lake Shore are used between Stoneboro and Oil City.

6th : The Allegheny Valley Railroad was chartered under its present name April 14, 1852. It was completed to Franklin and South Oil City in 1867, but the terminal facilities were not completed at Oil City till Feb. 2, 1870.

The Pennsylvania Railroad. On Jan. I, 1900, the lines enumerated in the six foregoing numbered paragraphs passed under the man- agement and undoubtedly into the ownership of the Pennsylvania Railway Company. These are all those lines consolidated and known as, Ist. The Western New York & Pennsylvania Company, and, 2d, The Allegheny Valley Rail- road Company.

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The Jamestown & Franklin Railroad, oper- ated by the Lake Shore & Michigan Southern, was chartered April 5, 1862, to William Gib- son, John P. Vincent, George A. Bittenbender, W. I. Scott, Henry C. Hickok, A. W. Ray- mond and David Hadley, by whom the James- town & Franklin Railroad Company was or- ganized at Sheakleyville with William Gibson, of Jamestown, president; A. W. Raymond, Franklin, secretary ; T. H. Fulton and David Hadley, directors. Jamestown is a station on the Erie & Pittsburgh, and it was with the design of providing a western outlet from the oil regions, as well as developing the inter- vening country, that the road was projected. The extension to Franklin was opened in the summer of 1867; the bridge over French creek was completed in January, 1870, and the first train entered Oil City, May 24, 1870. In August, 1872, a road was constructed from Jamestown to Ashtabula connecting with the main line of the Lake Shore. The road is now a part of the New York Central lines.

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Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 15

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

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