Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 60

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 60

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Venango county has also exceeded its quota of one hundred and fifty fatherless children of France by forty-one, and is still reaching out toward others. Each day new names are sent in of those who desire to care for these inno- cent victims of war. Oil City has the distinc- tion of having adopted almost double the num- ber asked from it.

AS FRIEND TO FRIEND

We may close this chapter appropriately with a letter from Col. George C. Rickards. commanding the 112th U. S. Infantry, writ- ten to his friend Mr. Robert Moore, of Oil City, in response to a letter of congratulation :

France, Dec. 1, 1918.

Dear Mr. Moore :

I acknowledge your letter of some time ago. I do not remember if I have answered it or not, and if I have it will do no harm to write again. I recall that your letter was received while I was on the front line with my command. I was in that position the last twenty-eight days of the war and we had quite an experience. The officers and men all performed remarkably good work there and added to their reputation of fighters and "prisoner getters." During those twenty-eight days we made a number of raids and assaults on the enemy's positions; we captured more than two hundred prisoners, killed a large number of them, don't know how many, ad- vanced our position about one kilometer, and de- stroyed much of the enemy's works that were of no use to us.

We had a few men killed and a number wounded during this time.

The last three hours of the war was a thing never to be forgotten by any who took part in it. I esti- mate that in that time over three thousand shells fell in my own area, many of them 155 mm. (six- inch) and a few 210 mm. (eight-inch), but strange to say I had no one seriously injured from them.

The last shot I heard fired from our side was at two seconds of 11 o'clock, and the last one from the Germans was a "dud," one that did not explode, at just II o'clock. I am most mighty glad that the last one was a dud, for had it not been your old friend G. C. R. would not be writing his good friend. Robert Moore, this day, or any other day. and so it has been with me all through the game. I have been

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hit four times, but never enough to put me out of the fight, or even to dampen my fires. I have had many close calls and now when I look back over the past wonder why any of us came through with our lives.

We are all going to get home before long, and then I will tell you a lot about it that takes more time to write than I have at my disposal, for I am

still about as busy with the business of the regiment as during the fighting days.

It was mighty good of you to write me, and I appreciate it much more than I can express.

Please remember me to Mrs. Moore, and believe me as ever,

Your friend, GEO. C. RICKARDS.

CHAPTER XXII OIL CITY-FRANKLIN-EMLENTON

I. OIL CITY-EARLY SETTLEMENT AND IMPROVEMENT-BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT-PROFESSIONS AND TRADES-LAYING OUT THE TOWN-ORGANIZATION-OFFICIALS-POPULATION-FERRIES AND BRIDGES-ELECTRIC ROADS-DISASTERS BY FIRE AND WATER-FIRE DEPARTMENT-POLICE DEPARTMENT-WATER WORKS CITY LIGHTING-CHAMBER OF COMMERCE-CITY BUILDING -OTHER BUILDINGS-HOTELS-HOSPITAL-TRANSPORTATION OF OIL IN 1864-CEMETERIES. II. FRANKLIN-PERIOD OF EARLY POSSESSION-GEORGE POWER-THE TOWN ESTABLISHED- EARLY RESIDENTS-PIONEER MERCHANTS-THE EARLY MECHANICS-EARLY PRICES OF COM- MODITIES-HOTELS-EARLY ACCOUNTS OF THE TOWN-FRANKLIN IN 1837-FRANKLIN IN 1850-RATE OF GROWTH IN POPULATION-BOROUGH ORGANIZATION-BOROUGH OFFICIALS- CITY ORGANIZATION AND OFFICIALS-CITY COMMISSION-CITY OFFICERS-LIBRARY-CEM- ETERIES-BOARD OF TRADE-FRANKLIN HOSPITAL-LOCAL IMPROVEMENTS. III. EMLENTON BOROUGH-FIRST RESIDENTS-EARLY MERCHANTS-THE IRON INDUSTRY-HOTELS-EMLEN- TON BRIDGE-THE EMLENTON AND SHIPPENVILLE RAILROAD-WATER SUPPLY-FIRE PROTEC- TION-CITY HALL-INCORPORATION-BOROUGH OFFICIALS-PRESENT CONDITIONS

I. OIL CITY

If history must be written with imagina- tion it must also be read by the light of that faculty of mind. To sketch Oil City it is necessary to picture the silent hills reaching above, their stony tops in living forms, green creeping vines, flowering shrubs, interlacing branches of trees. Below these wooded heights flowed the creek with its oil-bearing waters, soon to be mingled with the river. In lonely places there was no life save that of little scurrying creatures and of the beasts of prey haunting the thickets. This condition of the region now called. Oil City appears as only fleeting, almost unreal. But this was the real place, waiting unchanged for thousands of years before the Indians came, before any of earth's history was written.

The first settlers here were the Indians. When they came is not known. They can not tell. They can not tell who dug the oil pits or who lived in the villages whose remains are scattered in this vicinity. This is not strange among a people who possessed no written records and whose traditions dealt

more with imaginary race beginnings than with their actual life. If the truth is ever known regarding these pits and other remains it will be discovered by the archeologists who solved the mystery of the mounds. The most rea- sonable conclusion is that these remains were left by the progenitors of the Indians them- selves, either of the Seneca or the Cat tribe, which dwelt north of Lake Erie and were ab- sorbed by the Senecas. Like all nations with- out records they were ignorant of their his- tory of a century or two back. This conclu- sion is strengthened by the fact that the In- dians came here from a time beyond which their memory did not extend. The Senecas lived here for several generations and gathered the oil from the pits and from the springs, which they used for medicine, and mixed with pigments for the adornment of their bodies in their festal and their diabolical rites.

EARLY SETTLEMENT AND IMPROVEMENT

The first white settler of the township. com- ing up the creek in 1796, found an Indian vil- lage at its mouth. He did not stop here, but

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went to the headwaters of Cherry run, where he remained permanently and where he told his experiences to the later comers. These are given in other parts of this volume.

The honor of being the first settler on the west side of Oil Creek belongs to an unknown squatter who located about four hundred acres and made some improvements. Francis and Sarah Halyday purchased his claim in 1803. A few years later Halyday built a home on the west bank and slightly above the mouth of Oil creek. It was here, Jan. 13, 1809, that his son James was born-the first white child born on the site of Oil City. James was two years old when his father died and he grew up among the coppery youngsters who dwelt across the creek. By the time the Crarys were well into their decade (see below) he was a young married man. His mother died in 1844, and he sold portions of this tract to Dr. John Nevins, Arnold Plumer, a Mr. Drum, and some others. The Michigan Oil Company se- cured the principal part of it, now known as the Third ward, in February, 1860.

On the east side Cornplanter owned a large tract of land which was a part of the gift made to him by the State of Pennsylvania, by act of Assembly March, 1796, for services rendered just after the Revolutionary war. He retained this until May 29, 1818, when he sold it to William Connely, of Venango county, and William Kinnear, of Center county, for the sum of twenty-one hundred and twenty- one dollars. Connely resold his half to Corn- planter in October of the same year, and by a suit for debt thus created it was sold at sheriff's sale Nov. 22, 1819, to Alexander McCalmont, of Franklin. In 1824 this half was resold to Matthias Stockberger. On June 25th, same year, Stockberger, Kinnear and Richard Noyes erected an iron furnace, foundry and mill, with houses, steamboat landings and ware- houses, on the east side of the mouth of Oil creek. This was the first settlement at that point. The furnace was closed in 1844. In 1825 Frederick and Wm. Crary became partners, and in September of this year they absorbed the whole business, which they carried on successfully for ten years. In 1856 the Bell heirs sold the furnace tract to Graff, Hasson & Co. Capt. William Hasson and his father James and family located on the flats, a part of the thousand acres that had been purchased for seven thousand dollars. In 1864 three hun- dred acres of this were sold to the Petroleum Farms Association for seven hundred and fifty thousand dollars.

During the fourteen years' operations of the

Bells at the iron furnace, the south side re- mained for the most part unimproved. The larger portion of it was secured by Benjamin Thompson, who made the first conveyance of eighteen acres to Columbus Carl June 4, 1849. In 1841 James Hollis entered two hundred acres beginning near Short street, above Thompson's tract. In 1850 Hollis sold eighty acres adjoining Thompson's to Thomas G. Downing, and in 1853 bought out Thompson's and sold on April 25th to Henry Bastian, who farmed it for ten years. In 1863 Bastian sold out to William L. Lay, of Cincinnati, Ohio, and on the following year James Bleakley of Franklin bought out Downing, Hollis and one hundred and twenty acres of Lay, paying forty- eight one thousand dollar bills. Before this Phillips and VanAusdall had struck here a thirty-five-barrel well in April, 1861, and Mr. Lay had laid out his farm in town lots under the name of Laytonia. When these parties sold in 1865 purchasers laid out a town plant and named it Imperial.

BUSINESS IMPROVEMENT

One of the first stores was kept by James Young in connection with the furnace busi- ness. Mr. Young continued in business after the Bells had closed their furnace and had left the old Bell house. The Bannons and the Halydays had small houses on the west side, the first near the old "Moran House," and the latter near the mouth of Oil creek. The rafts- men, when they had occasion to tie up, stopped at these houses. Thomas Moran built an inn near the Bannons'. This was a land mark for many years.

Samuel Hopewell opened an inn and in the autumn of 1852 John P. Hopewell of Pitts- burgh brought up a boatload of stock and opened a store and inn on the corner of Main and Ferry streets. Near him was located Barrett Alger, and about the same time Hiram Gordon opened a public house called the "Red Lion." During the next ten years the popula- tion increased slowly. Hugh McClintock and Squire J. S. Hooton came. David D. Dickey built and opened a tavern, the "Petroleum House," which afterward became widely known. From its balcony many aspiring ora- tors held forth. The most distinguished speaker was undoubtedly Ulysses S. Grant, presi- dent of the United States. This hotel was destroyed by fire in 1892; so complete was its destruction that not one trace of timber was left in evidence. If its old registers could have been preserved they would be invaluable

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Oil City, Pennsylvania, July, 1918 Center Street, Looking West From Spring and Plumer Streets. Also Showing "Hogback" in the Distance

PUBLIC VARY

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DERRICK

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Oil City, Pennsylvania, July, 1918 Center Street, Looking East From Oil Creek Bridge

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now to the autograph hunter. Many distin- a line of worthy successors, to the present guished men and women had written their hour. names upon those pages, actors and actresses LAYING OUT THE TOWN well known to fame were there. One auto- graph almost priceless to-day would have been found, that of Artemus Ward (Charles F. Browne), among others of note.

PROFESSIONS AND TRADES

About 1850 a stranger called upon the Ban- nons, stating that he was a physician, with health seriously impaired, seeking a cure in the wilderness. He was made welcome. The next day he was called to treat Mrs. Haly- day. His success and the importunities of his first patient and her friends induced him to settle, and thus the little hamlet acquired its first resident doctor. Soon afterward Samuel Thomas, blacksmith and toolmaker, was the first of his craft to settle here.

The oil men coming to Oil City in 1860 found here less than a dozen families. This condition, however, soon changed. Numbers came in to take part in the life of the town. Among them were J. B. Reynolds, of Callens- burg, Pa., and Mr. McCombs, of Pittsburgh, who opened the first store. Other merchants were Calvin and William J., brothers of Mr. Reynolds, who were afterwards associated with him, and, later still, T. H. and W. M. Williams. McFarland Brothers, of Mead- ville, opened a store on the west side of which Fid Bishop was manager. Hasson & Co. also opened a store, on the east side. W. M. Williams built the first brick block in the town.

Other active residents were D. F. Clark, C. C. Waldo, Dr. M. L. Boggs, Mr. Kelsey and Mr. Andrews, of the Michigan Rock Oil Com- pany, who sold and rapidly built up the west side; Peter Graff, the Hassons, Robert Sproul, owners of the east side; and W. L. Lay, Charles Lee, Mr. Downing and others, owners of the south side, which did not build up till later.

Drs. L. Porterfield, M. M. Hulings and S. S. Christy were among the early physicians ; of them, Dr. Christy was the first druggist. Among the first carpenters and builders were : Messrs. Hill and Drewatt. L. D. Kellogg was the first printer, and in 1866 made the first city directory. The first resident lawyer was Charles F. Hasson, son of James Hasson : he was admitted to the bar of Venango county Aug. 31, 1861, and probably located at Oil City soon thereafter. He has been followed by

The excitement of 1859-60 led the Michi- gan Oil Company to lay out lots on the west side, along a street they called Main. So re- markable was the growth that in the spring of 1863 Charles Haines and Joseph Marston purchased of Graff, Hasson & Company what is now known as Grove avenue, laid it out in lots and erected cottages, and gave it the name of Cottage Hill, which it still retains. During this year occasional lots were bought on the east side, and business lots were in so great de- mand that in the spring of 1864 the Petroleum Farms Association laid out its three hundred acres in lots, and before the year closed the population on both sides of the river was six thousand. In 1866 the three towns on the south side of the river, Imperial, Laytonia and Leetown, upon petition of their citizens, were united into one town by Judge Trunkey and named Venango City.

The platting of the city was begun .in 1869 by W. R. Stevenson, and lasted three years, the chief additions being the upper and lower ends of the south side, Palace Hill and parts of upper Cottage Hill.

ORGANIZATION

Oil City (north side) became a borough in 1862. The first Burgess was William Hasson. Of Venango City, the first Burgess was James Shoemaker. The union of these two boroughs was accomplished by act of legislature ap- proved March 3, 1871 ; the incorporation was completed April 1Ith. Like many other Penn- sylvania cities, Oil City replaced her old char- ter, 1881, by organization under the Wallace act.

The city at first was divided into six wards, three on each side of the river, later into nine wards, five on the north side and four on the south side of the river; later, in 1911, Siverly was joined to the city as the Tenth ward, making six north of the river. In 1916 .West End borough was joined to the Fourth ward.

OFFICIALS

The city government from the time of its . incorporation to the year 1911 was adminis- tered by a mayor, elected triennially, by popu- lar vote; and by a common and select coun- cil, whose members, two for the first body and

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one for the second, were elected by each ward. In 1911 the commission form of government was adopted. Once in four years five commis- sioners are elected, who appoint one of their number mayor. The other city officials are also chosen by this commission.

The mayors of the city have served as fol- lows, according to the Derrick directory, 1918, of Venango county :

1871-W. M. Williams.

1872-73-Isaac M. Sowers.

1874-75-William B. Foster.

1876-77-Joseph M. McElroy.

1878-80-Hiram D. Hancock.

1880-82-John H. Oberly.

1882-84-Col. A. J. Greenfield.

1884-86-Daniel Fisher.

1886-88-Thomas R. Cowell.

1888-90-John H. Payne.

1890-93-William G. Hunt.

1893-96-Amos Steffee.

1896-99-James A. Fawcett.

1899-1902-John M. Reed.

1902-05-James Hasson. 1905-08-Abel L. Confer. 1908-11-B. H. Carnahan. 1911-15-J. B. Siggins. 1915-Hon. William Agnew.

The present mayor was chosen for the four- years term.

POPULATION

The population of Oil City in 1860 was about twelve families, some fifty people; the es- timated population in 1865, on both sides of the river, was 6,000; the United States Census for 1890 shows 10,932; 1900, 13,264; 1910, 15,657; according to the Derrick Directory, the actual count of residents occupying houses within the city, after the addition of West End and Siverly boroughs, 1918, gave 22,127.

The growth from fifty or sixty in 1860 to 22,127 fifty-eight years later is certainly re- markable. The town and its industries, and the number and character of its buildings, are improving at a more rapid rate at the begin- ning of 1919 than ever before.

FERRIES AND BRIDGES-ELECTRIC ROADS

During the operation of the Bell or Oil Creek iron furnace, the only method of cross- ing the Allegheny was by means of a rough flatboat. Soon after the Drake well began pro- ducing, a rope ferry charter was secured by ex-Sheriff Thomas, of Franklin, which he sold shortly afterward to Henry Bastian, who

built a boat large enough to carry a loaded wagon and team. He stretched one thousand feet of three-quarter-inch wire across the Allegheny, sixty feet above the water. This was well patronized, the receipts frequently running as high as forty dollars a day. Mr. William L. Lay purchased Bastian's farm in 1863, including the ferry, which he enlarged, also improving its approaches. About the same time, Phillips and others conducted a ferry at the upper end of South Oil City. The Haly- day boys had a ferry across Oil creek in the early days, and ran it till in the forties.

The first county bridge, a single-track wooden structure, at the foot of Center street, was built in the early fifties. It was carried away by the great flood of March 17, 1865, and was replaced by a single-span combination wrought iron arch and truss, 180 feet by 40, with double track and footway. This was opened to the public July 27, 1866. Its total cost was sixty-five thousand dollars. Toll was charged till 1870, when it was purchased by the county and made free. A few years later, this bridge was taken down and replaced by a lighter but stronger steel structure, because it was not thought safe under the strain of the large street cars, heavily loaded, which passed over it frequently on their way to and from the park and Franklin. The first rail- way bridge was built by the Atlantic & Great Western Railway Company at the mouth of Oil creek in 1866. The first locomotive to cross the creek was run upon a track supported by the ice, from the west to the east side, where it was used upon the Oil creek road. The Allegheny Valley railway bridge, built of wood, 1869, has since been replaced by an iron structure. The first W., N. Y. & P. bridge was built in 1870. It has been burned several times, the last time in 1892, when it was replaced by the iron structure still in use. The county bridge at the head of Seneca street was built of wood in 1877, and in 1883, was rebuilt of iron.

The Oil City Petroleum Bridge Company was incorporated May 16, 1864, when the following officers were elected: William I .. Lay, president ; S. Stevenson, secretary ; A. S. Pool, treasurer. The capital stock was $100,- 000. The bridge was opened as a toll bridge in 1866. It was purchased by the county and re- placed by the present fine three-span iron structure, in 1909-1I.

The Venango Bridge Company, J. J. Van- dergrift, president ; Fid Bishop, secretary ; and John Mawhinney, treasurer, was organized in 1873. A suspension bridge was built in the

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Third ward crossing the river, and began tak- ing tolls in 1876. The county purchased it in 1903-04. It is still in good condition.

The toll bridges built by the capital and enterprise of residents of the town so soon after Drake's drill had put Oil City on the map, at a time when the county or the city was not ready for such an undertaking, cer- tainly speak strongly for the business foresight of the gentlemen concerned in their erection, and of their faith in the city's future.

The third highway bridge across the river was built in 1893 by Mr. J. B. Smithman, a resident of the city, principally for the use of the Oil City Street Railway Company, which he had chartered in 1889. It was named the Relief Bridge, and was a steel through truss structure, with two railway tracks on it and a covered sidewalk, and con- nected Main street and Central avenue. The tolls for crossing it were one third of previous rates, and Mr. Smithman announced that as soon as one half its cost were realized in any way it would be made a free bridge. On Aug. 29, 1900, he sold the bridge to the county at one half its cost to be made a free bridge. In 1902 the Suspension bridge was sold to the county, and in 1903 the Petroleum bridge was sold to the county-to be made free bridges.

In 1890 Mr. Smithman secured from the city councils an ordinance to operate a Street Railway in Oil City by electric power, which then was a new motive power and destined to revolutionize street railway construction. The railway and bridge were constructed during the depressed times of 1892 and 1893, caused by the disastrous fire in Oil City in June, 1892, and the great panic one year later. The first street cars were run from the east end of Main street, over the new bridge, up Central avenue and to the end of West First street, on Thanksgiving Day, Nov. 30, 1893. The elec- tric motors were a pronounced success, and this, with the prospect of an end to bridge tolls in the near future, marked a new epoch in the history of Oil City. A feeling of permanency became evident. Property along West First street doubled in value in a year. Street rail- ways were soon introduced in Warren, Frank- lin, Meadville, Titusville, and elsewhere, to be run by the new power. Under Mr. Smith- man's ownership and management the railway was extended up Cottage Hill on Spring, Graff, Harriot, Bissell, Hoffman and Smith- man streets to Carroll avenue, near the Oil City hospital; up Seneca street; over East Second street to Sage Run, in the Sixth ward; and westward on West First street, and up

Deep Hollow through charming forests, to Smithman Park, a resort founded by him on land purchased by him, midway between Oil City and Franklin. Nature seems to have formed this spot for rest and recreation. A hundred years ago hunters called this stream or run to the river "Seven Lick Run"-re- ferring to the deer licks or places where deer sought the mineral waters and were shot by hunters from hidden huts in the bushes or trees. Springs are abundant, some of pure cool water, others mineral springs, differing in contents of magnesia, iron, carbonate of soda, chloride of sodium and potassium; shade and turf are abundant, and from the start the place was crowded and was a popular resort for picnics and assemblies that formerly had gone to distant places at large expense. In 1899 and 1900 he extended the road from the Park down Van Buren Run toward Franklin, to go over a bridge the erection of which he had commenced over the Allegheny river into Franklin at Third street to connect with the tracks of the Franklin street railway char- tered in 1894, or to run on tracks to be laid on streets under an ordinance granted him by the Franklin city council in 1900.

In 1900 a second electric street railway com- pany was organized in Oil City, called the Citizens Traction Company, of which D. J. Geary was president, William Hasson vice president and William Filson secretary. It laid tracks from the U. P. Church up Pearl avenue to the newly built Fair Grounds east of the city; and on South Seneca street over the Petroleum bridge, State street and West Third street to Mitchell avenue; and in the same year purchased the Franklin street rail- way ; erected a bridge from West End borough over the river to Reno, and laid tracks thence to Rocky Grove and Franklin; and being blocked in its efforts in the courts to compel the Oil City Street Railway Company to grant it the use of twenty-five hundred feet of the Smithman road to connect its own tracks on Pearl avenue to its tracks on South Seneca street, the new company on Jan. 14, 1901, pur- chased from Mr. Smithman all his street rail- way holdings, which included all the stock of the Oil City Street Railway Company ; the Oil City Station Railway Company, which was chartered to construct the road from Oil City to Franklin via Smithman Park, and his street railway franchises in Franklin; and also bought the Big Rock bridge, and consolidated the two systems, making a trolley route from Franklin via Smithman Park to Oil City, which has been and is an important factor in the

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Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 60

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

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