Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 75

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 75

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south of the Big Sandy and reduced the town- ship to its present area.

The only stream of any importance within the limits of the township is Morrison's run, a tributary of Big Sandy creek. A bend in the Allegheny river partly incloses the region known as Bully Hill, an agricultural district of considerable fertility, drained by Siefer's and Brown's runs and smaller streams.

Pioneers .- The first settlement in the town- ship was made along the Pittsburgh road, which was the narrow trail cut through the wilder- ness in 1787 by Capt. Jonathan Hart, when he was sent to build Fort Franklin. It was not much improved in 1796; but it was then the only public highway from the south. It is said that a man named Ramsey was the first settler, but this is not certain. James Mar- tin, a native of Maryland, made the first im- provements on what later became the Kephart farm as early as 1796, planting one of the first orchards in the county, with trees which he is said to have carried on his back from Pitts- burgh. He seems to have possessed more than the ordinary intelligence and influence. He was the first clerk of the board of county com- missioners upon its organization. Late in life he removed to the State of Indiana, where he died. One of his sons, Prof. Artemus Martin, of Erie, was a mathematician of more than local reputation.

Thomas Brandon, who came from Big Spring, Cumberland Co., Pa., made an im- provement along the Pittsburgh road in 1796, and afterward removed to Cranberry town- ship.

The same year witnessed the arrival of the Dewoody family, four brothers, William, John, Andrew and George, natives of Ireland, Wil- liam acquiring a tract of land extending from the Pittsburgh road beyond the "twin churches" and including what is now half a dozen farms. It was surveyed Dec. 15, 1799. His house was located at a spring on the farm which later passed to the heirs of William E. Smith. William Dewoody married Mary Lyon, of Victory township, and they had five sons and five daughters : George, William, Thomas, Andrew. John, Jane (Mrs. William Hill), Margaret (Mrs. James Griffin), Martha (Mrs. John Black). Nancy (Mrs. David Kin- near) and Eliza ( Mrs. Alexander McGarvey). Only two of this large family, George and Wil- liam, remained in Venango county all their lives, the former dying in Franklin, the latter in Sandy Creek township.

Patrick Manson, also a native of Ireland. came to Venango county in 1797 and settled

in what is now Sandy Creek township. On their way to the new home the family stopped overnight at the home of John Dewoody in Victory township, where Mrs. Manson gave birth to a child, the first white child born in that township and at least one of the first white children born in the county. As early as 1812 Manson was living on the banks of the Allegheny three miles below Franklin, on what was afterward the Hoover farm. He was a man of robust constitution and attained a ripe old age, and having been a veteran of the Revolution was laid to rest with military hon- ors, in the old Franklin cemetery.

In about 1798 John Stevens settled on Big Sandy, at the point where it is crossed by the Pittsburgh and Franklin road, and erected the first gristmill in the vicinity, operating it un- til his .death, which occurred several years later, caused by smallpox. He had married Elizabeth Lowrie, daughter of John Lowrie, and they had two children, Nancy (wife of John L. Porter, of Richland township) and John L. (who died unmarried). The widow remarried, becoming the wife of Robert S. Whann, a pioneer of Mineral township, and they reared six children.

Robert Graham located at the mouth of Sandy creek in the year 1802, making the jour- ney from his old home in Center county with all his household goods on a single sled. It was his son Robert, who was born in Center county Dec. 25. 1797, that first improved the farm upon which the Graham graveyard is lo- cated, making his home there until his death. He had a large family.

There were only a few families in the town- ship in 1812, at which time James Cannon lived in the valley of Sandy creek one mile from Waterloo (Polk). on a farm which in- cluded the old graveyard of that vicinity. He was an Irishman "of blunt manners but a good Methodist," and reared a family of six daugh- ters, two of whom married Alfred and Isaac Bunnell, respectively. That year John Fos- ter removed into this township from Sugar Creek, locating on a tract of uncleared land nearly opposite the mouth of East Sandy creek ; he became one of the useful citizens of the community, actively identified with its re- ligious and educational enterprises. Samuel Hays, of Franklin, owned several farms in the township at this period. one of which, on the Pittsburgh road, was partly cleared by John Gurney. . He was to receive half of it, 200 acres, for putting thirty acres of the other half under cultivation and building a house there. but did not carry out his contract, removing

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to Franklin, where he built "Gurney's row," a succession of irregular buildings on Thir- teenth and Buffalo streets.

Alexander McElhaney was another resident of the locality at this period. He had settled originally at Pithole in 1796, but as Indian troubles seemed probable returned to Center county after a stay of several months and did not come back to this county for several years. Within a short time after his return he lo- cated in the neighborhood of Waterloo ( Polk), and in 1819 purchased 400 acres of land from Jonathan Pratt, part of which was subsequent- ly held by his son, James McElhaney. He married Mary Ann Dawson, a member of one of the oldest families of Allegheny township. They had a large family.

Samuel Bunnell moved to Venango county from Crawford county, Pa., and first lived in Sugar Creek township, changing his location to this township later.

Samuel Gordon, a settler from Center coun- - ty, after living for a time in Rockland town- ship, moved into Sandy Creek in 1826. The same year Robert Stephenson settled on a farm near East Grove Church, which he improved; he came from Pittsburgh. Essington Kephart arrived in 1827.

Aaron McKissick, a well known resident of. the township, built a hotel on the Pittsburgh road early in the twenties and operated it for nearly twenty years, afterward removing to Waterloo, of which place he was the founder. He came here from Maine, where he had been engaged as a ship carpenter. It was he who gave the name of Bully Hill to his part of the township, though later the name was ap- plied to the section opposite the mouth of East Sandy, during the first oil excitement in that neighborhood.

At the triennial assessment of 1836, the first made after the separate organization of Sandy Creek township (which then included Victory township and a large part of Mineral town- ship), its taxable inhabitants were listed as follows : John Adams, James Adams, Francis Alexander, William Adams, Alfred Bunnell, Isaac Bunnell, William Bennett, Robert Bran- don, Charles Bailey, James Cannon, William Cross, John Cather, L. F. Boals, Robert Brady, William Dewoody. George Dewoody, Andrew Dewoody, John Dewoody, Robert Dewoody. Benjamin Dewoody. Hugh Durning, Harriet Elliott, John Elder, John Foster, James Foster. Aquila Grace, Samuel Graham, Robert Gra- ham, Samuel Gordon, John Gordon, William Gordon, Isaac Griffin. Edward Gardner. Sam- uel Gildersleeve. William Hill, Samuel Hall,

Charles Henderson, Archibald Henderson, An- drew Irwin, Samuel Irwin, Eliakim Jewel, Es- sington Kephart, Hiram Kimble, John Carmi- chael, Samuel Lindsay, Jacob Lyon, Matthew Lowrie, Elijah Morrison, Patrick Manson, James Major, Alexander McChimy, William McClaran, Aaron McKissick,'John Morrison, Daniel McMillin, John and James McElpha- trick, Hugh Marshall, John Mullhall, John Mc- Clelland, Robert Martin, Mary Pratt, John Perry, Samuel Ridgway, Henry Strickler, An- drew Shiner, William Shorts, Robert Stephen- son, Shadrach Simcox, John Stewart, Stephen Sutton, David Smith, Howell Thomas, Abel Thompson, Robert Temple, Warner Taylor, John Vincent, John Walker, Robert Witherup, Daniel Williams, Samuel Young.

Population .- In 1850 the township had a population of 957; 1870, 1,391 ; 1880, 804; 1890, 779; 1900, 847 ; 1910, 1,097.

Mays Mills .- The earliest gristmill in the township was erected by John Stevenson on Big Sandy creek, near the Pittsburgh road, where "Mays Mills" or "Corners" are now. This mill was a convenience for the people during a number of years.

Somewhat later another mill was built far- ther up the stream by a man named Temple- ton. Owing to the proximity of Franklin these mills did not attain much prominence except in the early days.

Other Industries .- Iron furnaces were built on Big Sandy, one in 1830 by George McClel- land, Franklin Furnace, which was operated for a few years. In 1836 Sandy Furnace was erected by William Cross and Thomas Heyl. These furnace blasts went with the general exodus of such activities in the county.

The surface of Sandy Creek township is greatly diversified. These are rugged hills and pleasant valleys, tablelands and rolling terri- tory. The soil is productive, well watered with good springs and pleasing brooks. The inhabitants are prosperous and ought to be happy, having the advantages of all outdoor life and the promptings toward culture aroused by ready access to one of the most intense and diversified small cities in the country. A good oil production for this period is a cheer- ful addition to the wealth of the community.

OAKLAND TOWNSHIP

Oakland is one of the interior townships of the county, bounded on the northwest by Plum township, on the northeast by Cherrytree, on the east by Cornplanter, on the south by Sugar Creek, and on the west by Jackson. Its first

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officers were appointed in 1841, and the ma- chinery of the local administration placed in operation.

Several branches of Two Mile run, Sugar creek and Cherrytree run have their sources here. The township is largely agricultural in its character and one of the most productive in the county in this respect.

Pioneers .- That part of Oakland formerly part of Plum township having been included in the sixth donation district, in which it was difficult to secure and complete a title, and the southern part of the township having been embraced in the Holland Company's surveys, the tract of vacant land of varying width lying between the two, open to settlement on the general terms prescribed by the State, was naturally selected by the first permanent set- tlers. It was moreover a region of comparative fertility, as indicated by the timber, and new- comers were attracted at an early period. Lawrence Dempsey was probably the first. A native of Ireland, of Scotch extraction, he be- came a resident of Center county, Pa., at the close of the Revolutionary war, and in 1797 came into the wilds of the upper Allegheny valley, making some improvements on what later became the Cauvel farm, not far from the old graveyard in the vicinity of Dempsey- town. Here he planted an orchard, one of the earliest in the county and certainly the first in Oakland township; several old and gnarled trees yet remain. He had two sons, Peter and David, the former hotelkeeper at Dempsey- town for many years, the latter prominent in county affairs, having been elected to the leg- islature after his service in the war of 1812. Lawrence Dempsey died in one of the eastern counties of the State, but his wife and sons rest in the family graveyard here. Dempsey is a common family name still, in this and nearby townships.

Robert McElhaney moved here in 1798 from Westmoreland county, but moved away before his death; he was of Scotch-Irish extraction. William McClain came the same year, settling where Zebulon Beatty lived, and is buried on that farm; of his two sons, William, Jr., moved to Virginia in 1810, and none of his posterity is here now. James Gordon, another arrival in 1798, was born and reared in Ireland, and after coming to America married in eastern Pennsylvania, bringing his wife and one son, Alexander, with him to Venango county. He sold his Oakland township property to James Haslet and removed to Sugar creek, above Cooperstown, later going to Ohio. The son mentioned inherited his interests.

In 1800 a number of new settlers came in, among them Jonah Reynolds, who moved from New York State and located on the Oil City road, at the crossing of the road from Frank- lin to Titusville, afterward selling his farm to William Hays, by whose name the property was generally known. Reynolds then removed to Greenville, where his descendants were well known. Charles Stevenson, a native of Scot- land, came to this county from Mifflin county in 1800. He settled in Pennsylvania before the Revolution, served as a soldier in the Con- tinental army, and at the close of the war lo- cated in Mifflin. In partnership with his broth- er-in-law, George. Kean, who came here in 1802, he bought a tract of 400 acres, selling his interest therein in 1805 to John Hays and removing to Cherrytree township, near the village of Cherrytree. Eleven years later he moved to Adams county, Ohio, where he passed the remainder of his life. William Moorehead, another settler of 1800, first set- tled a farm on Oil Creek road as originally laid out (part of which was later owned by George Turner), moving from here to Cin- cinnati, where it is said he made a fortune in the shoe business. Edward Patchel, Sr., an old man, came here with two sons, Edward .(Jr.) and James, the family taking up two 400-acre tracts, later in the possession of vari- ous members of the Prichard family. James Patchel moved to Ohio in 1828, and his brother joined him there after selling the property under power of attorney from him. James Mason, a native of Northumberland county, Pa., born in 1794, came to that part of Oak- land township then included in Sugar Creek with his parents, in 1800, and died in 1876; he was a soldier in the war of 1812, and saw active service.

In 1802 Alexander McCormick made a loca- tion here with his family, subsequently remov- ing to Mercer county. He was born in Scot- land. The same year Alexander Fowler, son of George Fowler of Franklin, located on the Oil City road at Lamy Church; after leaving these parts he joined the regular army. As al- ready noted George Kean also came here in 1802, arriving with his family June 16th of that year, and remaining in the township until his death, May 3, 1861. He was born in 1766 at Germantown, Pa., son of Cornelius Kean, who came to Pennsylvania from Ireland in 1757 and served in the American army during the Revolution, dying in Mifflin county when eighty-four years old. George Kean first came to this section in 1798, with his brother Wil- liam, returning three years later and building

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a house a mile south of Dempseytown, to which he brought his family the next vear. His son Joseph, who was a year old when the family came here, made his permanent home in the township, and was probably its oldest resi- dent at the time of his death.

In 1803 Francis Carter, a native of Ireland, settled in the vicinity of Dempseytown, and remained here until his death at an advanced age. He was a young man when he came to Pennsylvania, served in the Revolutionary war, and was in the military service at Pittsburgh and Franklin, moving to Erie and returning to Franklin in 1796. The following year he settled on Sugar creek, a mile below Coopers- town, but eventually removed to Oakland township.

In 1803 also came William Hays and Wil- liam Reed, the former coming from Ireland when forty years old and removing to Venan- go county with his brother John, dying at the residence of Grier Hays, on the tract he first settled. William Reed was born in Ire- land and arrived in Pennsylvania in 1798, set- tling in Oakland some five years later. He enlisted for service in the war of 1812, being a member of the company of Captain McCombs, and Reed's run was named for him.

Philip Walls, who came in 1804, bought land from Lawrence Dempsey on the Titus- ville road, which passed into the ownership of his descendants.

Philip Kees, who settled here in 1805, was born and reared in Germany and was a veteran of the Revolutionary war. He bought 200 acres from George Kean in the year men- tioned and made improvements, but after some residence here removed to a point on the Mo- nongahela river, twenty miles above Pitts- burgh. His improvements were taken over by Henry Booth, one of the first medical prac- titioners in this part of the county.

John Fetterman, a native of eastern Penn- sylvania, of German parentage, came here in 1805, and served many years here as justice of the peace.

Samuel Turner, another early resident of Oakland township, came to Franklin in 1800 and assisted in quarrying stone for some of the first houses in the town. Subsequently he moved up the river, making a location at what is now the site of South Oil City and passing four years there. He was occupied at survey- ing with Samuel Dale for three summers, after which he went to sea, returning by way of New Orleans, and living in Cherrytree township fifteen years. It was from that place that he came to the farm in Oakland where he passed

the remainder of his life, dying Nov. 18, 1869, aged eighty years.

Population .- In 1850 the population of the township was 837; 1870, 1,082; 1880, 1,214; 1890, 1,062 ; 1900, 1,029; 1910, 820.

The Oil Creek road, surveyed by Samuel M. Irwin, was the first public highway opened through the township. Another early traveled route was the road from Sugar lake, intersect- ing the Titusville road two miles from Demp- seytown.

Industries .- In 1803 James Patchel built the first distillery in the township, at a small stream on his farm, using the upper story of the building for a dwelling, while the lower was equipped with the imperfect and crude ap- pliances then employed in distilling. James Gordon also had a distillery, built at an early date, and there were at least three others, the Speer, McElhaney and Smith establishments. In fact, whiskey distilling was one of the gen- eral early industries. The outdoor life and vigorous exercise of the pioneer residents could oxidize the hydrocarbons without much incon- venience. Whiskey also found a ready sale among the Indians. Benjamin Franklin once remarked, in his quaint way, that perhaps rum was the divinely appointed means of removing the Redmen. It did remove many of them. They were truly "children," although of the forest, and could not ignore the elation and visions following the fire water. A number of the white settlers were also "removed" by the same cause. But they had had thousands of years' experience with this fiery corruption of food. The weak ones had been slain, the tougher ones had survived, so that the Euro- peans were pretty well grown in this respect, beyond compare with the children of forest and plain. Of all the races of men the Indians are the only ones yet discovered which had no pastoral animals or intoxicating beverages. Very probably the experience of this township is moderate indeed compared with some por- tions of the country. Pioneer counties and commonwealths, the country over, in their early days, from Puritan New England to Cal- ifornia and other Western regions, bristling with Bowie knives and revolvers, have pro- duced floods of the stuff. New England rum was as respectable as the sacred codfish on Boston's golden dome, or the blue grass prod- duct of Kentucky, "Mountain moonshine," or the applejack of the South, or the red whiskey of Scrubgrass. All these and many others have been the captains of hysteria. Now different sentiments prevail.

Samuel Beatty's tannery seems to have been

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the only industry of the kind here in pioneer days, and was in operation only a few years. Wooden troughs were used for vats, and as there was no bark mill the bark was trampled by horses to prepare it for use.

Dempseytowm .- The site of this town was the first work done by Samuel Dale in his of- ficial capacity after being commissioned dep- uty surveyor. On Sept. 2, 1800, he surveyed 401 acres of land for Peter Dempsey, and an adjoining tract for Lawrence Dempsey the next day. The town was laid out by Peter Dempsey, who built a house on almost the same site as the old hotel which he kept for many years, and which was eventually de- stroyed by fire. Thomas Carter built one of the first houses in the place, on the ground long occupied by the David E. Thomas black- smith shop, one of the first frame buildings erected in the county and the very first in the township. The weather boarding was fastened with wooden pins. He was one of the char- acters of the place. At an advanced age he married a widow almost as old as himself, and he lived to be ninety-eight, his wife sur- viving to the age of one hundred and three.

The first permanent store in the town was established by James R. McClintock, in com- pany with Brewer, Watson & Merrick, and Mcclintock also kept hotel there many years. Christian Cauvel, blacksmith, was the first me- chanic in the vicinity. Two general stores and a feed store, and two blacksmith shops, constitute the present business interests at the place, which has always been one of some im- portance in this respect, being the center of a fine agricultural territory.

This town has never had an oil boom, and is more of a typical rural village than most of the inland towns of Venango county. It is nine miles from Franklin, ten miles from Ti- tusville and eight miles from Oil City. At present it has about 125 inhabitants, and has rural free delivery service from Franklin.

A short distance from the town is the Demp- seytown graveyard, one of the oldest burial places in this part of the county, and some pioneer names are found among those in- terred there : Rachel, wife of Jonah Reynolds, died April 2, 1813, in her thirty-ninth year ; Mary, wife of Lawrence Dempsey, died in September, 1825, in her eighty-fourth year; Jane, wife of John Caruthers, died Sept. 16, 1827, in her thirty-ninth year; Mary, wife of John Kelly, died Dec. 19, 1829, in her forty- fifth year; Lewis Herring died Sept. 23, 1836, aged seventy-six years ; John Kelly died June 13, 1849, in his seventy-fourth year.

JACKSON TOWNSHIP

Jackson township was formed in 1845, out of the contiguous portions of Plum, Oakland, Canal and Sugar Creek, being bounded on the north by Plum, on the east by Oakland, on the south by Sugar Creek, on the west by Canal. and on the northwest by Crawford county. Its entire territory is drained by Sugar creek and its branches. At that point in the course of Sugar creek where it is crossed by the south- ern line of Jackson township the valley of the stream is fully half a mile wide. The channel of the creek is near the bluffs on the east, leav- ing a level expanse of meadows with a grad- ual slope from the west. At an early date this was called "the prairie." It was not cov- ered with a dense forest like the surrounding country, but merely with a thick growth of underbrush, and was readily brought under cultivation.

Pioneers .- Robert Beatty is known to have been the first settler within the limits of the township and that part of the valley of Sugar creek from its mouth to Townville, Crawford county, coming from one of the eastern coun- ties of the State, and was here probably as early as 1796, his name being found on the ledgers of George Power and Edward Hale before 1800. He made a settlement on "the prairie," and remained here the rest of his life, dying May 26, 1823, in his sixty-third year, suddenly, the day after attending the funeral of Mrs. John Wilson, when he expressed the opinion that his own death would occur soon. He was buried under a clump of trees on the Shaw farm. He was a Democrat in politics, and like his Scotch ancestors a Presbyterian in religion, giving the ground upon which the Sugar Creek church of that denomination was built. His large family consisted of four sons and seven daughters, viz .: John (who was the father of Rev. Robert Beatty, a well known minister ), Francis, Samuel, Robert, Mary, Nancy, Sarah, Elizabeth, Isabel, Ann and Lila.

Two Revolutionary veterans settled here in 1797, William Cooper, probably the second set- tler in the township, at Cooperstown (see be- low), and Francis Carter, on Sugar creek be- low Cooperstown. The latter removed to Oak- land the following decade, and died at Demp- seytown, this county, at a very advanced age.

James McCurdy, another Revolutionary vet- eran among the early settlers, and well ad- vanced in years at the time of his arrival, set- tled in the valley of the creek above Beatty. His son John McCurdy, who inherited the homestead, reared a large family. Other early

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Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 75

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

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