USA > Pennsylvania > Warren County > Warren > Warren centennial : an account of the celebration at Warren, Pennsylvania July 2d, 3d, and 4th in commeration of the first century after the laying out of the town of Warren > Part 8
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In 1492, by careful estimates, it is believed there were about 500,000 Indians in North America. According to the last census there were 247,273, or about half the former number. There might have been more between the time of Columbus and 1795 ; but if not, the Indian has certainly held his own to a greater extent than is the popular belief. But it is a fact that there are more than a half less in this section than there were 100 years ago. It is related that at that time there was no American tribe north of Mexico that had domesticated any animal but the dog.
The population of this county in ISio was but
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827 ; in 1820 it was less than 2000. In 1832 War- ren was made a borough, and had a population of 385, since which time the growth has been slow but steady. It is situated just below the confluence of the Conewango creek and the Allegheny river. The limits when the borough was incorporated contained about 300 acres of land. Since its new acquisition it contains about 1000 acres. Its prosperity for a long number of years was due principally to the lumber business, and many of the fortunes held by the present generation were founded on the lumber business.
In 1813 the town had but five houses. The busi- ness of Warren varied with the seasons. In the midst of winter or summer the place was exceed- ingly dull, but with the breaking up of the ice in the spring and during the subsequent floods the town and the whole country above on the Conewango and Allegheny rivers was alive with bustle and preparation among lumbermen. Large rafts came down the river and smaller ones down the Cone- wango. Coming into the Warren eddy, these rafts were coupled together into fleets of immense area, 50 feet wide and 325 feet long, in which shape they pursued their way to Pittsburg, Cincinnati and New Orleans.
Warren borough in 1840 had a population of 737. History says the population at that time was not commensurate with its original plan. It was sup- posed the town would have a faster growth. The court-house and jail, situated something as now, were separated some distance from the compact
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business street along the river, and presented a lonely appearance. The population had not grown up to anticipations. At that time (1840) there were but three churches-Presbyterian, Methodist and German Methodist. There were, however, a Bap- tist and German Lutheran congregation without houses for worship.
So it will be noticed that our principal growth has been since 1840. Our public buildings are no longer lonely or isolated. They are elegant of themselves, of modern architecture and surrounded by elegance. In one thing we lack over the other time, and that is our academy, which stood on what was known as the public square or diamond. The place is now occupied by dwellings ; but we have an academic department to our public-school sys- tem which gives an education to the growing minds in excess of that given by the old academy, where our older citizens were educated.
Few have amassed fortunes in the mercantile trade, but our merchants through the years have been usually prosperous, careful business men. They have preserved the credit of the city, and have been just to their patrons as a general thing.
Guy C. Irvine was known as the Napoleon among lumbermen, although he was located a short dis- tance below what is known as Russell. His name was a household word from western New York all along the river to New Orleans. He owned more pine lands and ran more lumber than any other man on the Allegheny, and more than many combined. In 1836 and 1838 he frequently sent to market
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20,000,000 feet of boards in a season. The shore for a mile or two above Pittsburg was frequently lined with rafts waiting for a rise of the water. Orris Hall was another lumber manufacturer of note.
The first saw-mill on the upper waters of the Allegheny river to make lumber as an article of commerce was about 1799. A grist-mill was built at Ceres in 1801. Lumber was first transported down the river from above Olean in 1807. The first raft floated down the Allegheny from near Warren was in 1801. There were two saw-mills in the county, one on the Brokenstraw and one on Jackson run. In 1801 J. M. and T. C. Jackson ran a small raft of boards down the river. The Meads, on the Broken- straw, also ran a small raft that year (1801).
Jackson was the first white man who took up a residence in Warren county. He put up a small grist-mill about this time, in which he ground corn. No wheat was raised then. It took four days to get a sack of salt from Waterford, then Le Bœuf. The wilderness was traversed by the direction of a pocket-compass, no roads or blazed trees. To show the newness of the country, in ISo1 there was but one white family in Warren, but one in May- ville, and not even one in Jamestown.
The oil development has been one source of profit, and many of the brick blocks have been reared by men in the production of oil.
At about 1820 and 1825 agricultural pursuits began. Necessity compelled this. Even the lum- bermen entered the agricultural ranks. It was soon found that land that produced such immense pine-
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trees was rich enough to bear crops, and so it proved. The lumber business began with the century, and is still the employment of a few. The 100 years passed has nearly consumed the pine- and hemlock-trees, and the lumber business at this day is of secondary consideration. There are many things which should find a place here. but time presses and we must hurry on.
About 1830, some Germans found their way into the county. They have made excellent citizens, intelligent, honest and industrious.
Within 100 years we have grown from a wilder- ness, inhabited by wild beasts and Indians, to a population of 9000 white people, not a wild beast nor an Indian, except for exhibition. We have pro- gressed by steady approaches to the present num- bers and present intelligence, and stand abreast with other places in progress, in morals and pro- gressive thought.
Corry, twenty-seven miles west of us, appeared on the scene by accident, and for a time forged ahead, and in a few years grew to our number, to the number it has taken us 100 years to reach. But Corry will be a small town when Warren will have swelled to tens of thousands. This is said in view of the different locations-surroundings. War- ren entertains no jealousies. She is simply herself, proud she had a beginning, proud of her location, of the men who have given her a financial standing throughout the country. It lies with the men of Warren to hold up this credit. It is worth millions to us, and a man will be a craven who abuses this
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credit. Our credit is good because our business men always pay. It is the men of the past and present who have made this reputation, and it speaks more for their honor and intelligence than any words of praise I can award them individually. It is the business honor of the place which gives it a reputation. It is not asked how many Sunday- schools have you, or how many churches, but what is the credit of your business men. Do they pay their debts? Do they tell the truth? It is worth quite as much as wealth-gives credit to a town. Let young men who contemplate getting a living easily think this over. The easiest way to live easy is to protect your credit, and thus benefit the city and your neighbors.
The first court-house was built in 1827 ; the jail two years thereafter, 1829. Previous to this the courts had been held in a house about where the Carver House now stands, and the jail near where John Sill, Esq., now lives, on Liberty street.
At the time of the erection of the present court- house in 1876, the question arose as to what device should be placed in the tower-whether a statue of General Joseph Warren or the statue of Justice. Justice was decided upon, and there she stands, with her eyes blindfolded and her scales evenly balanced.
Beneath that emblem justice has been the rule. Human judgment is not always exact, but the deci- sions reached in our courts are usually in conformity with that symbolized by the figure. Our judges are not purchasable commodities.
The bridge over the river at this place was put
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up in 1839, and was located below the present bridge, the south approach being about where these fair grounds are now located.
Some time after my death there may be a free bridge where the beautiful suspension toll bridge now hangs ; but I can't tell you just how long after ; but it is thought within the next hundred years a free bridge will span the river at this point. Pleas- ant township will in after time become a part of Warren, and there will be no cross-purposes as to what the price of a free bridge shall be.
In 1809-10, Olean began to be a place of em- barkation for emigrants, and for a long period, in portions of each year, great numbers assembled there to take passage down the Allegheny river in arks.
For a few years pending the completion of the Erie canal, every spring the opening of navigation on the river counted to the number of thousands ; said to have amounted to 3000 in 1818. This created great scarcity of food. Flour sold on such occasions as high as $25 a barrel, and pork at $50 a barrel. These emigrants all passed by Warren. On the completion of the Erie canal, travel was expedited. The Erie canal was the means of founding a new empire in the West.
STEAMBOATS.
The first steamboat to steam up the river from Warren was in 1830. It was built by Archibald Tanner of Warren, and David Dick and others of Meadville. It was built in Pittsburg. The steamer
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was called " Allegheny." It went to Olean and returned, and went out of commission.
Major D. W. C. James furnished this incident of the Allegheny voyage :
A story was told by James Follett regarding the trip of the Allegheny from Warren to Olean which illustrates the lack of speed of steamboats on the river at that early day. While the steamer was passing the Indian reservation, some twenty-odd miles above Warren, the famous chief Cornplanter paddled his canoe out to the vessel, and actually paddled his small craft up stream and around the Allegheny-the old chief giving a vigorous war- whoop as he accomplished the proud feat.
The Allegheny was the only steamboat which ever went up the river as far as Olean. The par- ties building it had an idea. They sought to obtain an appropriation from the Government to improve the Allegheny. By showing by actual demonstra- tion that the river was navigable as far as Olean they thought the appropriation would be forthcom- ing ; but they had such a tedious voyage, by the breaking of the steering apparatus, and the appro- priation not materializing, this project was given up. There have been other steamers on the river ; one succeeded in going down. but it never came back. The late Captain A. Dingley, of Brooklyn, at one time a resident of Tidioute and Warren, built a very fine steamer in about 1863 or 1865. Its cost was $20,000 ; it was built to transport oil and pas- sengers between Tidioute, Irvineton and Warren. It made a few trips, and was finally sold and did
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service on the Ohio river. There was another steamer here in the year IS-, owned by the late Thomas Bell. It was a small affair, and had a second-hand boiler in which to generate steam. It made a few trips up and down the river a mile or two each way; but the boiler burst, blowing Shir- ley, the man at the wheel, a hundred feet into the air, killing him instantly, and badly scalding Mr. Bell and injuring several others to some extent. It made no more trips.
FIRST WHEAT.
The first wheat raised in this county was in Pitts- field, by McQuay. He winnowed the chaff from two bushels, put it in a bag, put the bag over his shoulder, and carried it through the forest to Mead- ville, where it was made into flour, and he brought the flour back. Do you comprehend the strength aud endurance required to perform this act? Two bushels of wheat weigh 120 pounds-a good lift for most persons-and when carried a mile will cer- tainly weigh twice as much. The distance to Mead- ville is 60 miles. How much did the bag weigh before he took it from his shoulder in the mill at Meadville ?
Let the young men of this city figure it out. How many at this day have the strength and fortitude for such an accomplishment? And yet we talk about hardships !
There is a sap-kettle in Pittsfield, cast-iron, weigh- ing 75 pounds, which was purchased in Pittsburg- the year is not known -- which the purchaser carried
11
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from Pittsburg to Pittsfield on his back. The dis- tance is about 200 miles. The kettle is in Pittsfield now, and I would have it here, only I could not bring it. John Ford says he is well acquainted with it.
There were giants in those days.
There is a will on record in the Recorder's office, made by Dr. Elias Boudinot, of New Jersey, giving several thousand acres of land in Pittsfield town- ship, which he owned, for the amelioration of the Jews : but there was never a Jew so poor as to need these lands-never one settling upon them. They were sold for taxes.
WHAT CAN'T BE TALKED ABOUT.
Here is all this mass of history, and less than an hour in which to present it. Nature, coupled with the aid of man, has been one hundred years in bring- ing to a focus the scene as presented. How, then, can all these be related in the space of time indi- cated ? Infinite time and patience would be re- quired. It would require much space to tell about the churches and the good they have done. An hour to give a history of the newspapers. Our manufacturing industries all require the space at my disposal. It would take long to give a history of the schools, with their 1500 pupils and 39 teach- ers, of the W. C. T. U., and the history of the many secret societies. Struthers Library building and the liberality of its donor would occupy much time to fully portray. Our fuel-gas, our brick pavements, our Rouse hospital, our State asylum for the insane. the Young Men's Christian Association, the private
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libraries, and much else which go to make up the sum total of one hundred years of evolution from forest to a flourishing city. It would require a large book to contain the varied qualities of the men and women who have made Warren famous. She has produced statesmen, jurists, and men standing high at the bar for learning and eloquence, and who have thrilled audiences at home and abroad. Much would I like to individualize.
Some of the eminent jurists are dead, and some of the able attorneys, but the pace is kept up, and we still have a pardonable pride in our statesmen, our judges, attorneys and business men. In the past there were no artists of which any account has been given. Now there are several ; artistic talent is plentiful. There have been eminent physicians in Warren, and they are here now, some of them. All departments have been supplied with good brains. Whether it is the air, the soil, or the good but rather disagreeable Puritan stock that has pro- duced these brains is not known, but it may be said that there is no place where so many people are so well provided with skill and knowledge as at this point on the Allegheny river called Warren. Wher- ever our men and women go as representatives they represent, and make names for themselves and their place of habitation. Once Franklin, our sister one-hundred-year-old town, was called the nursery of great men. So it was and is. But of late Warren has certainly taken the honors. Were we as good as great. the air would be filled with hallelujah songs the livelong day. However, we
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are growing into better conditions, and are now as good as our environments will permit. There are few criminals in Warren.
I would like to mention our railroads. They are the Philadelphia & Erie, Dunkirk, Allegheny Valley & Pittsburg, Western New York and Pennsylvania. and the trolley cars, which have been running two years, having been opened up for the transportation of passengers July 4, 1893.
I would like to talk of our soldiers. Some of them are dead, and some enjoy their pensions ; but it is hoped the time will come when war will be no more, when it will not be commendable to fight for a living. A hundred years from now it is hoped the pensioners will have all been paid off, and that there will not be another war to bring forth another crop.
Bravery is not upon the field of battle alone. There are heroic soldiers in civil life and on a higher plane. The occupation of killing each other will not be so highly commended in that other time, a hundred years from now.
CELEBRATED MEN.
It is not recorded that any great number of cele- brated men made their passage down the Allegheny in those early times, but one of these may be men- tioned in Aaron Burr, who had served as Vice-Presi- dent of the United States, and sought to establish an empire in Mexico, as he declared ; but his real purpose was to get possession of Louisiana and other States, and form an independent government.
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In the year 1805 he passed down the Allegheny river, and remained part of two days with James Morrison, on the island at Kinzua. Burr failed to enlist any young men of this section to join him, and he floated down the river in his boat to Blen- nerhassett Island, where he enlisted Blennerhassett and ruined him. There is a tradition that Burr stopped off at Warren, but I do not state this as absolute history. So it may be said that Warren has had the honor of having one of the "wisest and meanest of mankind." And it is fitting that he be given mention in these exercises. He un- doubtedly stood upon the ground where we stand, and was a maker of history.
ACADEMY LANDS.
Warren borough and its out-lots were reserved from the Holland purchase. April 10, 1799, the Governor was authorized to direct the Surveyor- General to make a survey of the reserved tract, adjoining the town of Warren, which had not been laid out into town-lots, and that 500 acres of the same be laid off for the use of such schools and academies as might thereafter be established by law in said town. In 1829 an act was passed authoriz- ing the trustees to lease these lands for a period of not to exceed 99 years, which was done at a rental of not much over $too for the whole. At that time the lands were not considered valuable, and it has transpired the county was badly sold when the lands were rented. By an act of Legislature, February 13, 1832, the sum of $2000 was appropriated by the
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State to erect an academy. (It is here shown that the State has always been a liberal patron of edu- cation.) This was followed by an act, April 8, 1833. which authorized the trustees to erect a building for academic purposes on the grounds reserved at the laying out of the town of Warren for public build- ings, and directed that the sum of $2000 already appropriated be used in the construction. The balance of the cost was made up by individual subscription.
The 500 acres are still intact, and when the leases expire there will be an additional fund for educa- tional purposes. But the leases have 25 or 30 years still to run. There is now an accumulation of these funds, according to the last report of the trustees, of $2500.
THE HOLLAND PURCHASE.
The lands of the Holland Land Company- that portion belonging to Pennsylvania (for they ran into New York and embraced all the western portion of that State)-lie wholly within that part of Pennsylvania known as the first purchase, made from the Indians, by the treaty at Fort Stanwix in the year 1784.
The deed for the purchase, signed by the Chiefs of the Six Nations, is dated October 25, 1784. There was a subsequent treaty made with the Wyandots and Delaware Indians at Fort McIntosh in January, 1785, by which all claims they might have within the same boundaries were also ex-
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tinguished by deed similar to that signed at Fort Stanwix.
The Holland Company consisted of a number of merchants, eleven in number, of the city of Am- sterdam, who through their agents became large purchasers of lands in the years 1792, 1793 and 1794, and their surveys are found in nearly all the counties into which this extensive domain has since been divided, both east and west of the Allegheny river.
Although these Dutch merchants had but little knowledge of America, whose institutions they knew but slightly, they were far in advance of the prevailing sentiment in Europe as to the meaning, success and permanency of the experiment of Free Government.
Their creed should be carried along the ages and their memories be respected for their confidence in the stability of American institutions, and because they were less grasping than later-day corporations. Warren was not a part of the Holland purchase.
The men who settled these lands were a sturdy race. They were hardy and brave. We talk about bravery in war. Wellington and Napoleon were fighting for empire. These early settlers were settling an empire, and fought wild beasts and suf- fered privations and fatigues the average soldier seldom experiences. I have no time to tell of their bravery, endurance and fortitude. They knew that few would live to reap a great reward for their labors. They were poor-none but the poor would go into the wilderness to hew out a home. I cannot
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talk of these men and women as I feel. They deserve our lasting gratitude and sympathetic remembrance.
A WORD TO THE LADIES.
The women up to date have had no history in particular, although they shared uncomplainingly the hardships of a pioneer life. Men have been selfish. It was the religion of the past that prevented them making history. A few have shone brilliantly. notwithstanding. and by their noble deeds their names had to be remembered. Generally, they have been known as wives of men, but of them- selves, independent and alone, for what they were as individuals they have not been known. The tide that has borne us along to this date has borne us to a new thought, and created a New Woman. She is assuming equality with men in politics, religion, business and in the professions. They are known as mothers still, some of them ; they can speak in meeting now. In all these things they are coming -are here-and, like the bicycles which they ride. have come to stay-until something better comes to take their places.
But there is one thing the women with all their progressive qualities cannot do-make hair grow upon their faces. This shows that she will never become masculine to any extent. On the other hand men have, these hundreds of years, been shav- ing the hair from their faces to make them like women, but without avail. Nature understands her business. Of the smooth-shaved-faced man it is said :
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" He is the fellow who would Be a young lady if he could, But as he can't, does all he can To show that he is not a man."
:
The razor must go.
THE CEMETERY.
While time is pressing, I have not spoken of our Oakland Cemetery, a beautiful place on the hill in this direction. It is a conception by the Odd Fel- lows; had the order never done other good, this alone would embalm it in the memories of the pres- ent and future generations. To save time I will give a portion of a poem by Rose Terry Cooke on the " Two Villages." She must have visited War- ren and written her poem on this spot :
" Over the river on the hill Lieth a village white and still ; All around it the forest trees Shiver and whisper in the breeze. Over it, sailing shadows go Of soaring hawk and screaming crow ; And mountain grasses, low and sweet, Grow in the middle of the street.
" In this village under the hill, When the night is starry and still, Many a weary soul in prayer Looking to the village, there, And weeping and sighing, longs to go Up to that home from this below ; Longs to sleep in that forest wild, Whither our vanished wife and child, And heareth praying, this answer fall :
' Patience ! That village shall hold you all.'"
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A GLANCE AHEAD.
The wild animals have disappeared within this hundred years. The Indians have faded away to a remnant, and we see them here as curiosities; a new civilization has come upon the scene. We are here as we are. Some of us probably imagine us the perfected fruit of the tree of knowledge, that we are the climax of common thought and endeavor. A hundred years from now a race of beings will in- habit here as superior to us as we conceive our- selves superior to the Indians. We have to go, or to be relegated back in the race. The light from the twentieth century is already casting its benignant light to us, and we get a glimpse of that in store for that other race of men and women. We can see into the illumined future, and feel the quicken- ing pulse of that nearby time. Thought is quicker. consequently all things will move faster. Five years of the next century will be equal to fifty years of the middle of the century we are about passing out of. In times past, fifty years produced but little change in method of thought. Our ancestors had no time to think. They exhausted themselves in material action, clearing their lands and raising their families. There has been more progress in the world during the last fifty years than in the previous hundred years.
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