Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 89

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 89

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(III) Nathaniel Hitchcock (2), born in East Haven July 28, 1678, settled at South End Neck, and died Dec. 25, 1726. On Dec. 23. 1702. he married Rebecca Morris, daughter of Fleazer and Anna Morris, born at East Haven July 20, 1682, who died in 1729. Chil- dren : James, born Dec. 5, 1703, who was mar- ried in 1721 to Elizabeth Ray, and died in 1729: Nathaniel; Daniel, born April 17, 1708, who married March 12, 1728-29, Abigail Ched- sey, and died Jan. 1, 1761 ; Caleb, born Sept. 2. 1712. who married Feb. 16, 1738-39, Isabell Goodsell, (second) May 26, 1757, Sarah Shep- ard and (third) about 1775 Lydia, and died March 30. 1777: Benjamin, born Aug. 22. 1715, died Sept. 24, 1800, who married Feb. 7, 1750, Elizabeth Averett and (second) Jan. 31. 1754. Abigail Olds Ward: Rebecca, born March 28. 1718. who married Jan. 27, 1750-51, Daniel Leak : Elizabeth, born Aug. 10, 1721, who married Daniel Augur : Stephen, born July 6 or 26. 1724. who married Feb. 9, 1749, Sarah Leak, and (second) possibly Nov. 5, 1778, Mrs. Abigail Pardee.

(IV) Nathaniel Hitchcock (3), born at East Haven Dec. 16, 1705. removed to Southington in 1743. In 1747-48 he was living in Farming-

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ton, Conn., where there are many records of ton Aug. 23, 1787, daughter of Dr. Peres and the sale of lands in Southington parish by , Milette Porter ( White) Mann. Mrs. Hitch- cock died July 2, 1860. Children: Jeannette J., born March 7, 1809, died in October, 1854, married Dec. 29, 1829, Isaac Benham; Law- rence Peres is mentioned below; Oliver, born March 25, 1816, married Feb. 2, 1837, Betsey Clark, and (second) Cornelia Smith; Roland, born Oct. 9, 1817, married Lucelia Smith, (second) Margaret Ferris and (third) Mary Graves; E. Darwin, born Dec. 10, 1819, was a doctor, and died Dec. 26, 1849; Zachariah was next in the family; Milette, born April 10, 1822, died unmarried; Helen, born Sept. 30, 1824, married April 14, 1847, Philip Gaylord. Nathaniel Hitchcock, of Farmington, to his sons Nathaniel, Amos, Joel and Zachariah, dating from 1763 to 1769. Later he removed to Burlington, Conn., where he died. In 1728 he married Elizabeth Mansfield, who died Sept. II, 1807, aged one hundred years, eleven months. At the age of ninety-four she rode twelve or fourteen miles to visit one of her children, and until her last illness was able to walk about and to go up and down stairs with- out assistance. Children: (1) Nathaniel, born Dec. 7, 1728, died March 23, 1771. On Jan. 21, 1762, he married Rebecca; Cook. (2) Lydia, born Dec. 7, 1730, married May 28, 1752, James Beckwith. (3) Lois, born Aug. 28, 1732, married April 25, 1755, Samuel Dut- ton. (4) Hannah, born Dec. 6, 1733, married David Bradley. (5) David was born in 1736. (6) Amos, born 1738, died July or Feb. 17, 1801, married May 3. 1759. Mrs. Azubah (Cook) Benham. (7) Joel, born 1739, died February, 1813, married April 14, 1757, Lois Scott. (8) Zachariah is mentioned below. (9) Elizabeth, born 1742, married Amos Wright. (10) Emma, baptized May 20, 1744. married Timothy Gillette. ( 11) Mary. bap- tized March 11, 1746, married Jacob Carter. ( 12) Sarah, born Sept. 4. 1749, married Sept. 20, 1769. Benoni Atkins.

(V) Zachariah Hitchcock, born 1742, prob- ably in East Haven, whence his parents re- moved to Southington in 1743, lived at one time in Plymouth, Conn., and removed thence to Burlington, which was a part of Bristol un- til it was incorporated in 1806. He was living in Bristol in 1809. He died Dec. 20, 1819, and was buried at Wolcott, Conn. In December, 1768, he married Mercy Byington, and they had children as follows: Betsy married Zachariah Rogers and (second ) D. P. Munger ; Polly married Leyton Scofield and ( second ) Louis Barnes : Oliver, born March 12, 1776, died Jan. 31, 1839, married in 1795 Anne Car- rington and (second) in 1820 Polly Church ; Huldah married Benson Smith : Isaac married Fanny Knowlton and (second) Eliza Mullet : Julia married May 16. 1805. John Smith ; Seth, born April 15, 1785. died Feb. 27, 1852, mar- ried May 6, 1804, Hepsey Blinn : Moses. born May 11. 1786. married Harriet Parsons : Aaron is mentioned below: George married Lavinia Fenn.

(VI) Dr. Aaron Hitchcock, born May II, 1786. settled in Burlington. Conn., and died there Aug. 28. 1838. On July 6, 1808, he mar- ried Milette Mann, who was born in Burling-

Dr. Peres Mann, father of Mrs. Aaron Hitchcock, was born Nov. 30, 1758, and died Feb. 1, 1843. He was descended from Wil- liam and Mary (Jared) Mann, ( who were mar- ried at Cambridge, Mass.) through Rev. Sam- uel (born 1647) and Esther ( Ware) Mann, Samuel and Ziporah (Brillings) Mann and Ebenezer Mann. Dr. Mann married Milette Porter, who was born Feb. 17, 1759, daughter of Dr. Joshua and Mercy Porter, who were married May 2. 1754, in Southington, Conn. Joshua Porter, born in New Haven Nov. 5, 1718, son of Dr. Richard (born March 24, 1658) and Ruth Porter, was a grandson of Dr. Daniel and Mary Porter. Dr. Daniel Porter was a native of Farmington, and was licensed to practice medicine by the General Court in 1654. being the first to receive such license in the Colony.

(VII) Lawrence Peres Hitchcock, born April 8, 1811, in Burlington, Conn., married Jan. 17, 1842, Elizabeth Johnston, of Wash- ington. Pa .. who died there in May. 1848. His second marriage was to Sarah Liggett. Children : Ella C. and Mary Kate, both of whom married James Denton Hancock. Mr. Hitchcock settled in Pittsburgh, Pa., where he was a successful business man.

ROBERT McCALMONT, the present post- master at Franklin, Venango county, bears a name distinguished in Pennsylvania from Colonial days, members of this family having taken a prominent part in the making of American history ever since their advent here. He is a son of the late Gen. Alfred B. Mc- Calmont, and was born in Washington, D. C .. Sept. 18. 1850, while his father was residing there. officially employed. His grandfather was Judge Alexander McCalmont, who served ten years as presiding judge of the Eighteenth Judicial district of Pennsylvania.

Going farther back. we find that the Mc-

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Calmonts, though long considered a Scotch family, were originally Irish, being descended from Fiack, son of Niall, the one hundred and twenty-sixth monarch of Ireland. There were nineteen generations from Fiack to Calma (in Irish "brave"), from whom came the ancestors of the Scotch clan of MacCalma or McCal- mont. The family arms in Scotland were: A lion rampant between three dexter hands coupled at wrist gules. Crest: A greyhound stantant azure. Motto: Semper patriae servire presto. At Dumfries, Scotland, the name is preserved on a pane of glass in the home of James McCalmont, upon which in July, 1793, Robert Burns inscribed the following lines:

Blest be McCalmont to his latest day; No envious clouds o'ercast his evening ray ; No wrinkle furrowed by the hand of care, Nor ever sorrow add one silver hair. O may no son the father's honor stain, Nor ever daughter give a mother pain.

The branch of the family here under con- sideration are the posterity of Thomas Mc- Calmont, the Covenanter minister who was persecuted for his faith in the reign of Charles II, and who made his escape by crossing in a fishing boat to Ireland, where he settled at Cairn Castle, in County Antrim. His children were: Thomas, next in line to Robert Mc- Calmont ; James, born 1707, who married Han- nah Blair; John, born May 1, 1709, who mar- ried a Latimer of County Tyrone, Ireland, came to Pennsylvania, and settled on the Sus- quehanna, dying in 1770; Robert-no trace of his descendants ; and Hugh.

Thomas McCalmont (2) was a resident of County Armagh, Ireland. for a short time previous to 1766. Subsequently he joined his brother John in America, and he was drowned in crossing a river near Philadelphia on his way to meet his son Robert, who had come in his ship to conduct him back to Ireland. He married Susan Wallace.

John McCalmont, son of Thomas (2), was born in County Armagh, Ireland, near the town of the same name, Jan. 1, 1750 (old style), and came to America when sixteen years old. He had been apprenticed to a clock- maker, but not liking either his master or the trade entered into an agreement with the cap- tain of the ship "Rose," to serve three years for his passage to this country, with the privi- lege of selecting the person with whom he should live, and of having his indenture can- celled on payment of a certain sum of money. He remained near Philadelphia until 1773. in which year he married Elizabeth Conard or

Kunders, who was born in 1750, daughter of Henry and Jane (Stroud) Conard of Kunders, of Philadelphia county, and great-granddaugh- ter of Thomas and Ellen (Strepers) Conrad or Kunders. Thomas Kunders and the famous Pastorius were the first in America to protest against human slavery. John McCalmont was out with the militia in the Revolution one tour of service under General Lacey, in Capt. Alex- ander Brown's company, and wintered with Washington at Valley Forge. In 1783, after a few years' residence in the Kishacoquillas valley at Greenwood (now Mifflin county), near Lewistown, he moved to the Nittany val- ley in Center county, where he purchased a tract of land near where Jacksonville is lo- cated, his home being a few rods from the Lick Run meetinghouse. He remained there until 1803 when he removed to Venango county and settled in Sugarcreek township, about four miles north of Franklin. John McCalmont died Aug. 3, 1832, at the home of his son Henry in Cornplanter township, and was buried in the U. P. (Seceder) churchyard there, at Plumer. His wife died Aug. 10, 1829, aged seventy-seven years, and was buried in the old graveyard at Franklin. They were the parents of the following children: Thomas, born Oct. 14, 1774, came to Venango county in 1802; Henry, born March 15, 1776, came to Venango county in 1819, removed to Corn- planter township in 1851, and founded the town of Plumer ; John, born Jan. 15, 1779, was drowned when about eighteen months old; James, born May 17, 1781, served as a volun- teer in the war of 1812, was wounded in the battle of Bridgewater (Lundy's Lane) and died about three weeks later at Black Rock, near Buffalo; Robert, born Ang. 27, 1783, came to Venango county in 1802 with his brother Thomas, and settled a tract on the Dempseytown road some five miles from Franklin, with the assistance of Jacob Whit- man and John Lupher building the cabin into which their parents and family moved; Alex- ander is mentioned below; John, born Sept. 9, 1788, came to Venango county in 1803 and was one of the most prominent citizens of his day here, a successful manufacturer and at one time county treasurer ; Elizabeth, born Feb. 3, 1791, married William Shaw; Sarah, born Nov. 3, 1792, married George Crain; Jane, born Oct. 8, 1794, married James Ricketts ; Joseph, born Nov. 23, 1798, completed the fam- ily. Of these,

Judge Alexander McCalmont, the grand- father of Robert McCalmont, was born Oct. 23, 1785, in Mifflin county, Pa., moving with

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his parents to Venango county. There he .passed the remainder of his life. He gave early manifestations of a vigorous intellect, and though he had only ordinary advantages acquired a good practical education for the times, and taught school during his early man- hood, having one of the first schools in Frank- lin. Later he embarked in mercantile pursuits and subsequently in the iron business, operat- ing the first iron works in the county. But his ambitions were in another direction, and taking up the study of law with David Irvine he gained admission to the bar in 1820 and thereafter gave most of his time to legal prac- tice, meeting with considerable professional success and acquiring a reputation as an able attorney. In 1839 he was appointed president judge of the Eighteenth Judicial district and served with distinction ten years. The district did not include Venango county until shortly before the close of his term, when it was taken from the Sixth district.

In his earlier life Judge McCalmont had been quite active in local politics as a Demo- crat, was sheriff in 1811, county commissioner in 1814, prothonotary in 1818, and also served as deputy surveyor, 1812-17. He died Aug. 10, 1857, in the faith of the M. E. Church, which he joined in 1820.

Judge McCalmont's first wife, Margaret, daughter of John Broadfoot, of Franklin, Pa., died in 1817 without issue. In 1818 he mar- ried (second) Elizabeth Hart Connely, who was born at Bellefonte in 1801, and came to Franklin in 1806 with her father, who settled here. Their children, all now deceased, were: William ; John Swazey, born April 28, 1822, died 1906, who married Elizabeth P. Stehley ; Alfred B .; and Elizabeth, who married Gen. Edward Clinton Wilson.

The following extracts from the notebook of Alexander McCalmont are very interesting. both as supplementary to the family record and for their historical value: I was born at a place called Greenwood in the Cishacoquillas Valley Oct. 23 (this is ten days later than the Bible record, Oct. 13), 1785. When about two years old my father moved to Nittany Valley and settled on a place at the head of a spring called Lick Run, the tract of land on which we lived and improved until the spring of 1803, adjoining the tract on which my uncle Thomas settled and on which Jacksonville is. My father's tract which he purchased was the one on which the village of Jacksonville is, and was bounded on the east by a tract owned by Capt. Thomas Wilson, on which he was settled be- fore the Revolution. I recollect the day of

my brother John's birth, and also recollect seeing the raising of the house in which he was born, and the small shanty, without any floor or loft, in which we lived before the house in which he was born was built. It was of hewed logs. Joseph Mckibben was one of the cor- ner men; he raised the northwest corner. It is strange that he is the only one assisting that I can recollect. I had come near the corner of the house on which he was, and he "throwed" chips at me and told me to go away. This I never forgot, and his image at the time and that of the building on the corner of which he was are still as fresh in my mind as the occurrences of yesterday. The first school I went to was taught by William Wilson. The schoolhouse was between Thomas Wilson's and William Wilson's. The land on which it stood was afterward owned by Samuel Beck. This was in 1792. The only persons living in Nittany Valley between where Bellefonte now is and Fishing Creek Narrows in my earliest recollection were as follows: William Lamb lived on Spring creek (now Bellefonte); a German family by the name of Elson lived three miles further down the valley ; Thomas Wilson next east of us; Thomas McCalmont around the point or little hill south of us; Wil- liam Wilson lived down the valley or the next place east of Thomas Wilson's; William Swanzey next below ; Joseph Mckibben next ; William Davis lived down near Fishing creek gap. There was no mill in Nittany Valley. Robert McClelland built the first mill in the narrows at Lick Run. I remember when he came to my father's. The second time he brought hands with him, Robert Lucas and Baptist Lucas. They lodged at my father's and sawed the stuff for the mill with a whip- saw. Philip Houses was the millwright whom Joseph McClelland settled on a tract next to my uncle Thomas, up the valley. A number of settlers came in soon after, and a road was opened for wagons down along the sunnier north side of the valley. At the time my father came to Nittany I think there were no improve- ments in the Nittany below Harbison's gap. John Harbison lived there at the time my father settled.

In 1794 the schoolhouse was erected on my uncle Thomas's land twenty or thirty perches southwest of my father's. William McGarvey was the first teacher and taught for two years. I attended this school most part of the time and sometimes in winter went barefoot through the snow. McClelland's mill had been burned, and when rebuilding I recollect Mr. Petit was master millwright. William Tipton and David

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Tipton were working at the mill and attended school in the winter. Thomas Wilson, John Shoup and other young men went from Wil- liam Wilson's to the school past my father's and frequently carried me on their shoulders to school. About that time there were frequent meetings to make arrangements for building a meeting house and forming a congregation. The only sermon I had ever heard up to 1794 was preached by a Rev. Mr. Grier in Mr. Wil- son's barn. His text was, Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden. I think it was in 1795 or 1796 that arrangements were made to build a meeting house. It was built by Bennet Lucas and his boys of hewed logs. Pine trees were very plenty at that time and were not as valuable as at present. The meet- ing house was covered with lap shingles. I recollect I carried shingles to the top of the house for amusement. The first year there was nothing done to it but to cover it. It progressed very slowly. The next summer the door and floor were in. The first sermon I recollect was preached by a Mr. Johnston, a son-in-law of Judge Brown's. It is possible that others were preached there before. Henry R. Wilson took charge of the congregation and continued until I left in the spring of 1803.

Gen. Alfred B. McCalmont, youngest son of Judge Alexander McCalmont, was born in V'enango county April 28, 1825, and died May 7. 1874. Having obtained what education the local schools afforded, he pursued his higher studies at Allegheny College and Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Pa., graduating from the latter in 1844. Then he read law in his father's office, being admitted to the Venango county bar May 25, 1847. He removed to Pittsburgh and entered upon the practice of his profession, in which his ability and reliable work for his clients soon won him a satis- factory share of the legal business there. He also went into the newspaper field, in which he was associated with T. J. Keenan in 1853. In 1855 he was appointed prothonotary of the Supreme court district of western Pennsyl- vania, an office always filled by a lawyer, and resigned it in May, 1858, to accept an appoint- ment as chief clerk to Hon. Jeremiah S. Black, then attorney general of the United States in the cabinet of President Buchanan, with func- tions since exercised by the deputy attorney general. General McCalmont was appointed the first assistant attorney general, and when later the office of assistant attorney general was created by Congress he was appointed to the position, so serving to the end of the admin- istration. Then he returned to Franklin and

resumed law practice, in partnership with James K. Kerr. But he was soon drawn into the military service of the Union, in 1862 re- cruiting a company of volunteers for the 142d Pennsylvania Regiment, attached to the Army of the Potomac. By regular promotions he rose from captain to lieutenant colonel of that regiment, and in the fall of 1864 became colonel of the 208th Pennsylvania troops, and his record throughout was brilliant. He com- manded the brigade in the assault upon Peters- burg, and in recognition of his gallantry in that and other engagements received from President Lincoln the rank of brevet brigadier general.

When the war closed General McCalmont came back to Franklin and resumed his pro- fession, in which he was actively engaged until his death. He was regarded as one of the ablest members of the Venango county bar, not alone because of his legal erudition, but also on account of his .very remarkable gifts as an orator, his logic and arguments being conveyed with especially telling power by the vigor of his language and precision of expres- sion. His words never missed their mark be- cause of any haziness or indefiniteness, either in his ideas or his manner of clothing them. A Democrat like his father, he was his party's candidate for Congress in 1868 and the choice of western Pennsylvania for the gubernatorial nomination in 1872, when Charles R. Bucka- lew was nominated.

On April 25. 1853. General McCalmont mar- ried Sarah F. Evans, who was born in 1829, daughter of Evan Reece Evans, of Pittsburgh. and survived him many years, passing away in 1898. They had the following children : Lydia Collins, born Feb. 12, 1854, married Thomas McGough, and is deceased; Sarah Lowry, born June 7, 1856, married W. U. Lewison and is deceased ; Robert is mentioned below. Mr. and Mrs. Lewison had two chil- dren, Sarah McC. and Almina Parker, the lat- ter marrying George Hayes, of Boston.

Robert McCalmont, only son of Gen. Al- fred B. McCalmont, received his preliminary education in the public schools of Franklin, and took his collegiate course at Princeton, where he was graduated in 1878 with the de- gree of C. E. He then read law in the offices of Dodd & Lee. attorneys at Franklin, and was admitted to the bar of Venango county in 1881. After a year's practice as a member of the firm of Lee & McCalmont, of Oil City. he opened an office in Franklin, where he has practiced ever since. For many years he has also been in business as an oil producer, and

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is still so engaged. He is a Democrat, and was appointed postmaster of Franklin Jan. 28, 1915, and he has handled the affairs of the of- fice ably, having a very fortunate gift for man- agement which enables him to keep his numer- ous interests in order. He has many social connections, belonging to the Washington Club, the Franklin Club, the Elks, the Royal Ar- canum and the Masonic fraternity, in the latter affiliating with Myrtle Lodge No. 316, F. & A. M., Venango Chapter No. 211, Keystone Council No. 42, and Franklin Commandery No. 44, K. T., all of Franklin, as well as Pitts- burgh Consistory and Syria Temple, A. A. O. N. M. S., of Pittsburgh. In religion he is an Episcopalian, and he has been vestryman of the Protestant Episcopal Church at Franklin for thirty-eight years.

Mr. McCalmont married Jessie B. Crawford, daughter of William R. and Jane (Kerr) Crawford, of Franklin. They have no chil- dren.

LAMBERTON. For the space of three generations there is hardly another family in Venango county which has maintained more important business and social connections than the Lambertons, who are still well represented among the leading citizens of this section. The financial institutions which they have con- ducted, in both Franklin and Oil City, have been noted for solidity and honorable activity in the material interests concerned with the de- velopment of western Pennsylvania, holding first rank among banking houses there. A mere enumeration of their interests and an outline of the principal events in their busy lives would be sufficient to indicate the vigor of personality which has characterized the various members of the family and its value to the general wel- fare. The name has become honored all over this portion of the State. When Robert Lam- berton, the founder of this family at Franklin, came hither in the year 1830, it was with the modest ambition to find opportunity for em- ployment and means of establishing himself in life. But in his most optimistic moments he could scarcely have had any vision of the large place which he and his sons and grandsons were destined to fill in the activities and ad- vancement of that now important city.

Robert Lamberton was a native of the North of Ireland, born March 20, 1809, at Gorton Raid, about six miles from the old walled town of Londonderry. in County Derry, on an old farm located on the left bank of the Foyle. The family is of Scotch origin, the name being a very ancient one in Scotland, where it is

found as far back as the eleventh century, Lambertons being among the landholders of Ayrshire and Berwick-on-Tweed in the reign of King Edgar, 1097-1107. John de Lamber- ton was sheriff of Stirling from 1263 to 1265. One of the most renowned members of the family was William de Lamberton, Bishop of St. Andrew's, elected in 1297, and preferred to the episcopate of St. Andrew's by Pope Boni- face \'III., 1298. As Bishop of St. Andrew's he was primate of all Scotland, and first peer of the kingdom, ranking next to the royal fam- ily and taking precedence accordingly. He crowned the sovereigns and was chancellor and legate of the Apostolic See. He was a friend of Sir William Wallace and Robert Bruce. After the defeat of the former at the battle of Falkirk, in 1298, Bishop Lamberton, the elder Bruce and Sir John Comyn were appointed regents of Scotland. He was one of three bishops to anoint and crown Robert Bruce king of Scotland, March 27, 1306, and adhered to King Robert through all his vicissitudes. He held ecclesiastical office for thirty years, dying in 1328.

In 1321 there was an Alexander de Lamber- ton among the Scottish barons who signed the famous letter to the Pope asserting the inde- pendence of Scotland, in which it was declared that "never, so long as one hundred Scots are alive. will we be subject to the yoke of Eng- land." During the religious persecution under the Stuarts, the Covenanters were maltreated and harassed until they were obliged to leave their own country, seeking refuge in Ireland. This exodus commenced after the battles of Pentland Hills, in 1666, and continued after the battle of Bothwell Bridge, in 1679. It is said that among those who sought refuge in Ireland were three brothers by the name of Lamberton, one settling at the Giants' Cause- way, another near Londonderry, and the third in the same county.

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Venango County, Pennsylvania: Her Pioneers and People (Volume 1), Part 89

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

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