Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 85

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 85

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by means of compressed air, and he studied oil lands and conditions in the industry as closely as the mechanical appliances necessary to profitable operations, possessing an. all- around familiarity with everything connected with the oil business which was equalled by few. Moreover, he had an indomitable will, and the ambition and enterprise to carry his undertakings through to their culmination, a combination of qualities which gave him the courage to take control of the famous prop- erty when little more than a boy and enabled him to push activities there until the farm be- came one of the best paying investments in the region. He bought the place in 1878. He had the gift of turning every possible resource . to the best advantage and he inaugurated the admirable and truly economical system of keeping the property in pleasing and sightly order, a gratifying change from the appear- ance of barren waste following years of neglect. The old wells had been allowed to run down and were producing barely enough to cover the cost of operation, and one of Mr. Waitz's first efforts was directed toward get- ting them into first-class condition and under systematic producing conditions which shortly resulted in greatly increased yield and corres- ponding profits. Many new wells were drilled on the Steele farm, where he had eighty in operation eventually, and two hundred and fifty on all of his local holdings, which he had increased by the purchase of the west side of both the Archie and John Buchanan farms, where he drilled fifty wells. He was also in- terested in the Raymilton field and other terri- tories in Venango county, and to him belongs the distinction of discovering the northern ex- tension of the Raymilton field. He also ac- quired oil holdings in Arizona and Mexico, having been a great traveler and thoroughly alive to everything that went on around him wherever he was. He was interested in va- rious manufacturing concerns as well, support- ing promising enterprises, especially those of local importance. His death occurred Sept 5, 1913, at No. 142 West Third street, South Oil City. Mr. Waitz was a Republican but independent in voting. Fraternally he was a thirty-second-degree Mason, a member of Fraternal Lodge, F. & A. M., of Rouseville, and of Syria Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Pittsburgh. His religious connection was with the Presbyterian Church, toward which he contributed liberally, as he did also to many charitable organizations, having a keen sense of his responsibility to his fellow men.

In 1889 Mr. Waitz married Myrtle Neil,

who survives him and is now residing in Washington, D. C. They had one son, Wil- liam Neil, at present in the aviation service of the United States army.

GEORGE STUART CRISWELL, presi- dent judge of the Venango County courts, has had the high honor of election to that im- portant office for three successive terms. Judge Criswell began the practice of law at Franklin more than forty years ago, and his best achievements in life have been accom- plished through the medium of his profession, in a legislative as well as judicial capacity. Before taking his seat upon the bench he was chosen to various civil positions, and in the discharge of their duties gave such unmistak- able evidence of clear-cut, high-minded convic- tions on questions of public interest that his service in each paved the way logically for higher responsibilities. When he was placed at the head of the county judiciary, in 1895, by appointment, he gave such immediate manifes- tation of his fitness that he was chosen regu- larly by the vote of the people at the ensuing election, and by them has been retained with- out interruption since.

Judge Criswell is a native of Venango county and belongs to a substantial family of Scotch-Irish origin which settled here more than a century ago. Early records indicate that the name has been variously spelled, Creswell, Cresswell, Crisswell, as well as Criswell. Elisha Criswell, the first member of the family of whom there is definite information, was born about 1770 and died about 1820. His death occurred in the Kishacoquillas Valley, Mifflin county, Pa., where he had settled with two of his brothers, Benjamin and Elijah, and ac- quired land which he cleared and tilled. His wife, Elsie (Chesney), born about 1769, died in 1856. Among their children was Robert Chesney.

Robert Chesney Criswell, born May 6, 1813, in the Kishacoquillas Valley, died in March, 1897, in Richland township, Venango county, Pa. He was a substantial farmer, owning land in Richland township, and became one of the prominent men of his neighborhood. After clearing and improving one farm there he re- moved to a larger one, where he remained until his death. He was twice married, first to Mary Say and second to Hannah Nickle, the latter a native of Center county, Pa., daughter of William and Hannah (Auld) Nickle, of the North of Ireland, who came to Venango county from Bellefonte in the early part of the last century; both died in Richland town-

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ship. Of the two children by Mr. Criswell's first marriage who survived infancy, Elsie and David, the daughter married Henry Neeley and had children, William, David, Harvey, James and Ora. David, after service in the 105th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, dur- ing the Civil war, went West, residing in the States of Iowa and Kansas, recently dying at Granite Falls, Wash., leaving to survive him a widow, one daughter, and five sons grown to manhood. By his second marriage Robert C. Criswell had the following family: William, born in 1845, recently deceased, resided many years in Kansas, married Maria Sheffer and had children, George, Lloyd, Walter and Lulu ; Nancy, born in 1847, died in 1863; Montgom- ery, born Sept. 20, 1848, was married twice, first, Sept. 28, 1874, to Ellen Weaver, by whom he had children. Pearl E. (deceased), Blanch P. (married Charles F. Beals) and Royal G .; second to Naomi Weaver, who, with one son, Guy L., still survives ; George Stuart is men- tioned below ; Silas, born Feb. 6, 1852, married March 30, 1876, Lucinda Reath, and they had children, one that died in infancy, Myrtle, Fleming, Nellie, Mary and Elizabeth; Mary Elizabeth, born in 1854, married J. J. Weaver and had children, Maud, Herbert, William, Wallace, Mabel, Blanche, Mollie, Reuben, Ruth and Harry.

George Stuart Criswell was born April 7, 1850, in Richland township, and was reared on the old homestead there. His education was acquired in the public schools and at the Em- lenton Academy, known as Tableau Seminary, and he prepared himself to teach, following the profession for five winter terms. In 1873 he began reading law, and the next year entered the office of H. A. Miller, of Frank- lin, where he furthered his studies industrious- ly, being admitted to the bar in Venango county Sept. 30, 1875. During the next twenty years most of his time was given to general prac- tice, in which he was associated part of the time with the late Hon. J. W. Lee, afterward of Pittsburgh, and F. W. Hastings, of Brad- ford, Pa., as Lee, Criswell and Hastings. Meantime he had begun his public service, having been appointed March 4, 1872, deputy prothonotary, in which capacity he served two years. Later he represented Venango county for two terms in the State Legislature, and during his last term was chairman of the committee on General Judiciary. He was counsel for the county commissioners in 1879-81. Upon the resignation of Hon. Charles E. Taylor he was appointed, by Governor Hastings, as president judge of Venango county, taking the oath of office 28

March 7, 1895. Later the same year he received, without opposition, the Republican nomination for the judgeship, and was elected by a large majority for the full term, ten years. His reelection in 1905 and 1915 (sec- ond term beginning the first Monday in Janu- ary, 1906, and the third the first Monday of January, 1916) is the best evidence of the character of service which he has rendered and its acceptability to the people generally. Judge Criswell is frequently called to other counties to preside at the trial of important cases, hav- ing a gift for rendering impartial decisions so well cultivated that they are rarely appealed, and generally sustained. No matter how great the volume of work before him Judge Criswell gives each case the most painstaking attention, his sympathetic attitude enabling him to appre- ciate to the full its relative importance to the parties concerned, and it is probably this qual- ity more than any other which has made fair- ness stand out as a fixed element of his nature. It has won him the confidence of both lawyers and their clients to an unusual degree.

Though well occupied with broader duties Judge Criswell has always found time and en- ergy to take a hand in the administration of the municipal government. He has served as a member of the city council of his home city and of the school board in Franklin ; as a mem- ber of the water commission; and one of the. board of trustees of the State Institution for the Feeble Minded at Polk, Venango county.

On Nov. 26, 1879, Judge Criswell married Flora Smith, daughter of Joseph Harrison and Elizabeth Margaret (Davis) Smith. Five chil- dren have been born to them: Chesney Har- rison, born March 25, 1884, was graduated from Washington and Jefferson College and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and is now engaged as superintendent of a large beet sugar manufactory at Greeley, Colo .; Eli- sha Wayne, born Nov. 5, 1885, is mentioned below ; George Stuart, Jr .. born Feb. 6, 1888, a graduate of Allegheny College, taught for a time after graduation in the Franklin high school, afterward reading law and being ad- mitted to practice in the courts of his native county, and is now engaged in general practice (he was married April 17, 1915, to Gertrude, daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Madison P. Heasley, of Franklin, and they have one son, an infant, Robert Madison ) ; Richard Lee, born July 17, 1889, died in January, 1890; Clarence Craw- ford, born Nov. 21. 1891, after graduating from the Franklin high school, went to El Se- gundo, Cal., where he has since been connected with the large oil refinery at that place. The

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family are Presbyterians in religious associa- tion. Judge Criswell is affiliated with the Ma- sonic fraternity.

ELISHA WAYNE CRISWELL has entered his father's profession, having been admitted to the bar in January, 1911. He was born at Franklin and obtained his preparatory educa- tion in the local public schools, graduating from the high school in 1902, after which he took a course in Washington and Jefferson College, from which institution he was graduated in 1906. For two years thereafter he was in the employ of the State Highway Department of Pennsylvania, but having decided upon the law as his life work he began reading with John L. Nesbit, of Franklin, under whose able instruc- tion he was well grounded in the fundamentals of legal learning and practice. Having become a member of the Venango county bar, he also applied successfully for permission to practice in the Superior and Supreme courts, and he gives practically all his time to law work, hav- ing built up a clientele which would indicate that his services carried no disappointment to those who have sought them. He will have to labor to approach his father's record, but he has made a promising start. His office is in the Exchange Bank building.

Mr. Criswell is a member of the Franklin and Venango County Clubs, and of the Ma- sonic fraternity, affiliating with all the local bodies and with Coudersport ( Pa.) Consistory and Zem Zem Temple at Erie. He married Clara Louise Drake, daughter of J. C. M. Drake, of Erie, Pennsylvania.

ARNOLD A. PLUMER, a leading citizen of Franklin in his generation, especially dis- tinguished as a financier, was born March 25, 1839, second son of Hon. Arnold and Mar- garet ( McClelland ) Plumer. He was edu- cated in the Franklin Academy and in Jeffer- son College, Canonsburg, Pa., now merged in- to Washington and Jefferson College, of Wash- ington, Pa. When the Civil war broke out he yielded to the patriotic fervor that was his instinctively by inheritance from a sterling Revolutionary ancestry, on Oct. 14, 1861, en- listing in Company H, 4th Pennsylvania Cav- alry, under Capt. James H. Pennell. Soon after entering the service he received a com- mission as first lieutenant and battalion ad- jutant. In July, 1862, when the cavalry was reorganized. the battalion adjutants were mus- tered out, but Lieutenant Plumer remained with the regiment for three months longer, and on Oct. 17. 1862, commanded Company H at the battle of Antietam, although he had been

mustered out three months prior to that battle. Shortly after this engagement he returned to Franklin, where from 1865 to 1885 he was engaged in the hardware business with his cousin, G. W. Plumer.

At all times until the beginning of his in- validism Mr. Plumer was active in business and an influential factor in promoting the material and social welfare of the community. For years he was prominently connected with the direction of the First National Bank of Franklin and of the First National Bank of Oil City and identified with other financial and industrial enterprises. Clear-headed, open- handed and broad-minded, he commanded the respect and confidence of all who were asso- ciated with him in business affairs. Through well directed employment of his substantial qualities and business capacity he greatly ex- panded his large patrimony, attaining a place among the wealthiest men of his locality. He died Sept. 20, 1904.

From early manhood Mr. Plumer took an active interest in politics, in the better sense of the term. He had no inclination to the modern game of politics. He was a sincere advocate of the principles of the Democratic party, and did much to promote its welfare and success, his wise and safe counsels being widely sought by the leaders of the party. He could never be persuaded to take office, though such was his popularity that he could easily have se- cured preferment and official honors. In his participation in politics, as in all the affairs of his life, he evinced firmness of principle and a courage that never turned its back on friend or foe. His true place was in the arena of the better order of politics, in which his distinguished father had shone so con- spicuously and honorably.

Mr. Plumer was a member of Maj. Willian! B. Mays Post, No. 220, Department of Penn- sylvania, G. A. R .. and of the Military Order. Loyal Legion of the United States. He was also a Mason, belonging to Myrtle Lodge, No. 316, F. & A. M., and Franklin Commandery, No. 44, K. T., and was for many years a mem- ber of the Duquesne Club, one of the leading social organizations of the country. He was an adherent and generous supporter of the Episcopal Church. On Dec. 28, 1865, he mar- ried Rachel L. Smith, daughter of Daniel and Hannah Smith, of Uniontown, Pa. She died Sept. 6, 1901.

KENTON CHICKERING (deceased) was closely identified with business and community interests in Oil City for a period of thirty-nine

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years. He was a man of remarkable sagacity in his life work, an organizer of known ability, and an executive of the highest type. To him is due not only the present prosperity of one of Oil City's largest industries, but many of the institutions of social and charitable aims recognized him as their founder and chief sup- porter during the struggles of their early life. He was always to be counted on as one ready to give his time and his long-sighted advice, and he invariably stood for the betterment of his fellow men. He was a believer in good gov- ernment, better living conditions and the ad- vancement of the younger men around him. Many an Oil City business man owes his pres- ent success to the advice and timely assistance of Kenton Chickering.

No less zealous and sincere in his efforts to place Oil City among the attractive resi- dence towns of the State, Mr. Chickering fostered its best interests with characteristic wisdom and foresight. He had no ambition for public office except as a means of attaining this end, and his seven years as member of the select council were well spent, showing that he was thoroughly imbued with high ideals regarding the general welfare and untiring in his efforts to realize them. He helped to organize the Oil City Hospital and was presi- dent of the association for nine years, and was chairman of the building committee having charge of the erection of the hospital and of the Nurses' Home, being one of the trustees who administered the Henry H. Rogers fund for the latter purpose. He was a director of the Car- negie Library Commission and served a term as its president ; was vice president of the Y. M. C. A .; and a leading member of the Epis- copal Church, which he served as vestryman and warden up to within a year of his death. For several years he was a member of the city school board. He was of a mechanical turn of mind and many times was called into consultations where difficult engineering prob- lems presented themselves.

Mr. Chickering settled at Oil City in 1873. He was born May 16, 1847, at Worcester, Mass., and had the excellent educational ad- vantages afforded in New England, attending public school, the Allen School for Boys at West Newton, Mass., and the Boston Latin School. In 1863 he went to New York City and became dispatch bearer to General Clark, of the United States Commissary Department, holding that position until the end of the war and remaining in the government service for another year. Then for two or three years he was engaged as a clerk and traveling salesman

for the Peet Valve Company of New York, in 1869 entering the employ of Eaton & Cole of that city, dealers in brass and iron supplies. He was sent at once to Titusville, Pa., as their representative, and that year the firm became The Eaton, Cole & Burnham Co., with whom he remained until 1874, coming to Oil City in their interest. Mr. Chickering became associ- ated with the Oil Well Supply Company, Limited, one of the most famous concerns built up, side by side, with the expansion of the oil business. It was organized in 1874 as the result of the union of several rival houses, and Mr. Chickering was one of the stock- holders. At the reorganization in 1879 he was elected secretary, and from that time forward this company was his chief interest. When the present corporation succeeded the limited company in 1891 he became vice president, continuing to fill that position during the re- mainder of his life.

He was foremost in other activities pertain- ing to the oil industry, having been one of the organizers of the Oil Exchange, as he was of the Oil City Board of Trade, and every other practical project in the oil trade had the benefit of his hearty encouragement and support.

Mr. Chickering was also among the founders of the leading social organizations of the city, having been one of the first members of the Ivy and Venango Clubs, and assisted in form- ing the Riverside Drive Association, of which he was president for one year. He was a thirty-second-degree Mason, affiliated with Petrolia Lodge, F. & A. M., the Chapter, and Talbot Commandery, K. T., all of Oil City; Pittsburgh Consistory ; and Zem Zem Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Erie. He died Dec. 9, 1908, at the family home, No. 127 West Third street, and was buried in Grove Hill cemetery. While abroad in February, 1907, he was stricken with paralysis in Naples, and never regained his physical strength, although he kept in touch with his numerous interests prac- tically up to the time of his demise, which followed shortly after a second attack. The death of Mr. Chickering was regarded as a personal loss by everyone who knew him.

On June 13, 1872, Mr. Chickering was mar- ried to Elizabeth Hamilton, the ceremony tak- ing place in New York City. She survives him with their four children, James Hamilton (of the Oil Well Supply Company, Oil City), Myra Scott, Cornelia K. (wife of J. V. Blake, of the Goodyear Rubber Company, Akron, Ohio), and Mary. Mrs. Chickering continues to occupy the home where she and her husband

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settled forty-five years ago, soon after their making a good farm. He was known by his marriage.

DR. JOHN R. BORLAND (deceased), practicing physician in Franklin from 1865, was born March 15, 1828, near New Vernon, Mercer Co., Pa., and came of a family of Scotch-Irish ancestry planted in Pennsylvania by six brothers who arrived in this country about 1770, John, James, Matthew, Andrew, Samuel and Archibald. Two of them served with credit in the Patriot army during the Revolution, Samuel and John, the former an officer ; he witnessed the surrender of Corn- wallis at Yorktown.

John Borland, the other brother who served in the Revolution, was the progenitor of the line to which the Borlands of Franklin be- long. He settled in Montgomery county, Pa., and was an associator in the Mount Bethel Company, which was attached to Col. Jacob Stroud's Battalion of militia, being in camp at Amboy in the summer of 1776. He married Catherine Montgomery, and they had children as follows: Andrew, grandfather of Dr. John R. Borland; Archibald, who married Peggy McKim; James, who married Peggy McBride; Isabella, wife of Robert Porter ; William, who married Peggy Kintner; Martha, wife of Robert Glenn : Jane, wife of William Thomp- son ; John, who married Martha Hutchinson; Polly, wife of James Glenn; and Samuel, who married Rebecca Gray. James, Isabella and Martha settled in Butler county, Pa. ; William, in Indiana county, Pa .; and the rest in Center county, this State.

Andrew Borland was born in Center county, Pa., and was married twice, his second wife being Gilina Dilling Wilson, by whom he had three children: Elias; Samuel T., who mar- ried Elinora Gleason, and Mary Jane, born in February, 1843, wife of Joseph W. Cowles. There was a large family by the first union, namely : Isabella. Mrs. George Young Strite; Huston, father of Dr. John R. Borland ; James ; William, who married Sarah Turner; Sarah, Mrs. Jesse Shields : Ann, Mrs. Thomas Mc- Ginnis ; John, who died young; Martha, Mrs. Archibald Montgomery; and Andrew, who married Elizabeth McCormick.

Huston Borland was born Aug. 18, 1803, in Center county, Pa., and until about 1826 lived with his father, whom he assisted in the culti- vation of the home farm. Then he bought about one hundred and fifty acres of wild, heavily timbered land near New Vernon, Pa., upon which he built a large log house and made his home, clearing his land with great labor and

neighbors as a conscientious, upright man in all his dealings. None was more willing or ready to help his neighbors at log rollings and house raisings. Being an expert axeman, he was invariably one of the corner men, the most critical position on the building. In those times it was the custom to bring out the whiskey jug on all occasions when neighbors gathered together, whether for work or play, and serve the liquor liberally. Mr. Borland, noting how frequent were the evil results, had the courage to take a stand against this habit. Accordingly, when he was about to raise his new bank barn, about 1854, he said to the carpenters : "I intend to raise this barn with- out whiskey." They told him he could not get the men to come. but he replied that he could depend upon his wife's good cooking, and would try. In those days a barn raising was quite an event in the neighborhood, espe- cially a large bank barn like this, the second or third of its kind to be put up in that section. By sunrise on the appointed day more than a hundred men had arrived and the huge founda- tion timbers and frames went up into place without a hitch. At noon a good dinner was served, and by half past four o'clock the tim- bers were all up, the rafters on and the raising finished. A good supper followed. No acci- dent had occurred, nobody had quarreled, the timbers of the building fitted, and the actions of the men befitted the occasion. The use of liquor disappeared in that section. Mr. Bor- land was an earnest member of the United Presbyterian Church. In politics he was an Antimason, Whig and Republican in turn, but he had no ambition for public office, the only one he ever held being that of school director. The first schoolhouse on the south side of the creek was built on his farm, and was a log structure with paper filled windows except for the one at the teacher's desk, which had six 8-by-10-inch glass lights.

On March 1, 1827, Huston Borland married Eleanor Holloway. who was born July 12, 1804, daughter of Isaac and Catherine ( Parcel) Holloway, her parents coming from Washing- ton county, Pa., about 1803. They forded the Allegheny river at Pittsburgh, and at the time there was but one house, a log one, on the west side of the river, where that part of the city formerly known as Allegheny now stands. It was long known as the Robinson house, but was torn down some years ago. Mrs. Borland was a competent helpmate, with a sunny dis- position and much physical energy. a noted buttermaker and neat housekeeper. Nearly

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Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 85

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

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