JOSEPH BARNETT

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF THE PATRIARCH OF JEFFERSON COUNTY.
 

JOSEPH BARNETT, the patriarch of Jefferson County, was the son of John and Sarah Barnett, and was born in Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, in 1754. His father was born in Ireland, and located in Pennsylvania in the early part of the eighteenth century, and was a farmer up to the time of his death in 1757. His mother died a few years later, and Joseph was “brought up” by his relatives. He was raised on a farm, and was thus peacefully employed when the Revolution commenced. As a son of a patriotic sire he could not resist taking part in the struggle, and so joined the army and served for some years. The exact duration of his service cannot now be ascertained, but this we learn: “he was a brave and efficient soldier, and never faltered in the path of duty.” He also served in the State militia in the campaign against the Wyoming boys. After the war he settled in Northumberland County, where he owned a large tract of land, but was dispossessed of it by some informalities of the title. Here he was married to Elizabeth Scott, sister of Samuel Scott and daughter of John Scott, July 3, 1794.

I find Joseph Barnett assessed in Pine Creek township, Northumberland County, April 28, 1786. I find him in 1788 assessed in the same township and county with a saw-mill and as a single freeman. This was his saw-mill at the mouth of Pine Creek, and the mill on which he lost his eye. The property is now in Clinton County. After losing his mill and land Barnett returned in the nineties to Dauphin County, Pennsylvania, and engaged in contracting for and building bridges. In 1 799 I find him again assessed in Pine Creek township, then Lycoming County, Pennsylvania, with two hundred and twenty-five acres of land. This was his Port Barnett property, where he migrated to with his family in 1800, and here he engaged in the erection of mills and in the lumbering business that eventually made Port Barnett, then in Lycoming County, the centre of business for a large extent of territory. In a short time a tub grist-mill was added to his saw-mill, and, with his “Port Barnett flint-stone binns,” he made an eatable, if not a very desirable, quality of flour. The Indians (Cornplanters and Senecas) then in the country were good customers of our subject, and what few whites there were for thirty or forty miles around would make his cabin a stopping-place for several days at a time. His log cabin became a tavern, the only one in a seventy-five miles’ journey, and was frequented by all the early settlers.

“ His Indian guests did not eat in the house, but would in winter make a pot of mush over his fire and set it out in the snow to cool; then one fellow would take a dipper and eat his fill of the pudding, sometimes with milk, butter, or molasses ; then another would take it and go through the same process until all were satisfied. The dogs would then help themselves from the same pot, and when they put their heads in the pot in the Indian’s way he would give them a slap over the head with the dipper.”

He kept a store, rafted lumber on Sandy Lick and Red Bank, and at the same time attended to his saw- and grist-mills. I find him assessed in Pine Creek township in 1800 as a farmer. “The Senecas of Cornplanter’s tribe were friendly and peaceable neighbors, and often extended their excursions into these waters, where they encamped, two or three in a squad, and hunted deers and bears, taking the hams and skins in the spring to Pittsburg. Their rafts were constructed of dry poles, upon which they piled up their meat and skins in the form of a haystack, took them to Pittsburg, and exchanged them for trinkets, blankets, calicoes, weapons, etc. They were friendly, sociable, and rather fond of making money. During the war of 1812 the settlers were apprehensive that an unfortunate turn of the war upon the lakes might bring an irruption of the savages upon the frontier through the Seneca nation.

“ Old Captain Hunt, a Muncy Indian, had his camp for some years on Red Bank, near where is now the southwestern corner of Brookville.
He got his living by hunting, and enjoyed the results in drinking whiskey, of which he was inordinately fond. One year he killed seventy-eight bears, they were plenty then ; the skins might be worth about three dollars each, nearly all of which he expended for his favorite beverage.
“Samuel Scott resided here until 1810, when, having scraped together, by hunting and lumbering, about two thousand dollars, he went down to the Miami River and bought a section of fine land, which made him rich.

“It is related that Joseph Barnett at one time carried sixty pounds of flour on his back from Pittsburg. Their supplies of flour, salt, and other necessaries were frequently brought in canoes from that place. These were purchased with lumber, which he sawed and rafted to that city, and which in those days was sold for twenty-five dollars per thousand. The nearest settlement on Meade’s trail eastward of Port Barnett was Paul Clover’s, thirty-three miles distant, on the west branch of the Susquehanna, where Curwensville now stands ; and westward Fort Venango was forty-five miles distant, which points were the only resting-places for the travellers who ventured through this unbroken wilderness. The Seneca Indians, of Cornplanter’s tribe, heretofore mentioned, often extended their hunting excursions to these waters, and encamped to hunt deer and bears and make sugar. They are said to have made sugar by catching the sap in small troughs, and, after collecting in a large trough, hot stones were dipped into it to boil it down.” Day’s Collections. About the year 1802, Joseph Barnett consented to act as banker for the Indians around Port Barnett. The Indians were all “ bimetallists,” and had the “ silver craze,” for their money was all silver ; and bringing their monometallism to Mr. Barnett, he received it from them and deposited it in their presence in his private vault, viz., a small board trunk covered with hog-skin, tanned with the bristles on. On the lid were the letters “J. B.,” made with brass tacks. The trunk was now full ; the bank was a solid financial institution. In a short time, however, the red men concluded to withdraw their deposits, and they made a “run” in a body on the bank. Barnett handed over the trunk, and each Indian counted out his own pieces, and according to their combined count the bank was insolvent ; there was a shortage, a deficiency of one fifty-cent piece. Mr. Barnett induced the Indians to recount their silver, but the fifty-cent piece was still missing. The Indians then declared Mr. Barnett must die ; they surrounded the house and ordered him on the porch to be shot. He obeyed orders, but pleaded with them to count their pieces the third time, and if the fifty-cent piece was still missing, then they could shoot him. This the Indians considered fair, and they counted the silver pieces the third time, and one Indian found he had one more piece than his own ; he had the missing fifty-cent piece. Then there was joy and rejoicing among the Indians. Banker Barnett was no longer a criminal ; he was the hero and friend of the Indians.

The following sketch of the first white settlement within the county was principally derived from Andrew Barnett, Jr., Esq., in 1840 :
“ Old Mr. Joseph Barnett was the patriarch of Jefferson County. He had done service on the West Branch under General Potter during the Revolution, and also under the State against the Wyoming boys. After the war he settled in Northumberland County, at the mouth of Pine Creek, and very probably might have been one of the Fairplay boys ; at any rate, he lost his property by the operation of the common law, which superseded the jurisdiction of fair play. Again, in 1797, he penetrated the wilderness of the Upper Susquehanna by the Chinklacamoose path, and, passing the headlands between the Susquehanna and the Allegheny, arrived on the waters of Red Bank, then called Sandy Lick Creek. He had purchased lands here of Timothy Pickering & Co. He first erected a saw- mill at Port Barnett, where Andrew Barnett, Jr., now resides, at the mouth of Mill Creek, about two miles east of Brookville. His companions on this expedition were his brother, Andrew Barnett, and his brother-in-law, Samuel Scott. Nine Seneca Indians, of Cornplanter’s tribe, assisted him to raise his mill. Leaving his brothers to look after the new structure, he returned to his family in Dauphin County, intending to bring them out. But Scott soon followed him with the melancholy news of the death of his brother Andrew, who was buried by the friendly Indians and Scott in the flat opposite the present tavern. This news discouraged him for a while ; but in 1800 he removed his family out, accompanied again by Mr. Scott. They sawed lumber and rafted it down to Pittsburg, where it brought in those days twenty-five dollars per thousand. The usual adventures and privations of frontier life attended their residence. The nearest mill was on Black Lick Creek, in Indiana County. Mr. Barnett knew nothing of the wilderness south of him, and was obliged to give an Indian four dollars to pilot him to Westmoreland. The nearest house on the eastward was Paul Clover’s (grandfather of General Clover), thirty-three miles distant on the Susquehanna, where Curwensville now stands ; westward Fort Venango was distant forty-five miles. These points were the only resting-places for the travellers through that unbroken wilderness.”

Their children were as follows : Sarah and Thomas, twins, born in Pine Creek township, Northumberland County, in 1790, now Clinton County. John was born in Linesville, Dauphin County, June 16, 1795. Andrew, born in Dauphin County, November 22, 1797, where Joseph Barnett was engaged in contracting for and building bridges in the nineties. He emigrated with his family from Dauphin County to Mill Creek, Port Barnett, Lycoming County, in 1800, now Jefferson County; and Rebecca was born at Port Barnett, Lycoming County, August 6, 1802.
She was the first white female child born within the present limits of Jefferson County. J. Potter was born at Port Barnett, Lycoming County, May 23, 1800. Margaret Annie was born October 22, 1805, at Barnett, Pine Creek township, Jefferson County. Joseph Scott, the youngest child and the first white male child born in the county, was born April 12, 1812, at Port Barnett, Pine Creek township, Jefferson County; and Juliet was born April 12, 1808, at Port Barnett, Pine Creek township, Jefferson County.

The original Pine Creek township was erected in Northumberland County at the^August term of court in 1785. In 1795, when Lycoming was organized, Pine Creek township became a part of that county. In 1804, when Jefferson County was organized and taken from Lycoming, Pine Creek township was divided, and that part taken from Lycoming was thrown into Jefferson and made into Pine Creek township, and was the whole of Jefferson County until the year 1818. The census of 1800 shows that Lycoming had a population of 5414. The population of Pine Creek township, Lycoming County, in 1800, when Joseph Barnett migrated and located at Mill Creek, now Jefferson County, was: whites, 682; colored, 24; slaves, 5 ; total, 711. The following advertisement is a relic of the institution of slavery in Pennsylvania at the time Joseph Barnett migrated to what is now Jefferson County :
“ 2 s. (SHILLINGS) REWARD.
“Ran away on the 2d inst. negro man John, about 22 ; also negro girl named Flora, about 18, slender made, speaks bad English and a little French. Has a scar on her upper lip and letters branded on her breast. Whoever secures the runaways in any place where their master can get them shall have the above reward and reasonable charges paid by “JOHN PATTON. “ CENTRE FURNACE, MIFFLIN COUNTY, July 26, 1799.” [History of Centre County - Note, I think this is the reference - MAG]

When Joseph Barnett settled on Mill Creek, Pine Creek township, Lycoming County was divided into two election districts, the third and fourth, viz. : “3. That part of Lycoming township west of Pine Run, and that part of Pine Creek east of Chatham’s Run, and the township of Nippenose, to form the third district. Elections to be held at the house of Thomas Ramey, Pine Creek. “4. All that part of Pine Creek township west of Chatham’s Run to constitute the fourth district, and elections to be held at the house of Hugh Andrew, Dunnsburgh.” Dunnsburgh, or Dunnstown, as it is now called, is in Clinton County, Pennsylvania. It was founded in 1768 by William Dunn, and is about one-half mile down the river from Lock Haven, and on the opposite or east side of the river. This fourth district was the polling- or voting-place for the Port Barnett settlement. Hon. Jacob Rush was then president judge. He was the president judge of the third judicial district, formed, in part, of Northumberland County, from which Lycoming County was taken, the act of April 13, 1795, providing that it shall be within his jurisdiction. He was born in Philadelphia in 1 746, was a brother of the famous Benjamin Rush, of that city, and a graduate of Princeton College.
The first road we have any account of in Lycoming County was the “pack-horse” road into the valley of Loyalsock ; it was cut across the mountain from Muncy to Hillsgrove, for the use of explorers and surveyors, and was called the “ Wallis road,” because it was made by Samuel Wallis. In 1793 another “pack-horse” road was cut. It left the Wallis road at the foot of the Alleghenies, then ran northward to the left of Hunter’s Lake and on the forks of the Loyalsock, where Forksville is now situated. It was called the “ Courson road.” In 1792, Williamson cut his famous road through from Trout Run to the Block House and beyond to enable him to conduct a company of colonists to the Genesee country.

In stature, Mr. Barnett was five feet eight inches, and would weigh about one hundred and eight pounds. His presence was prepossessing, and with his smooth-shaved face, and a countenance open and frank, his appearance was such as to attract the attention of all. In 1800 the only road was Meade’s trail. Before the axe of the lumberman had visited these forests, the trees stood tall, lordly, and free from undergrowth, the great trunks standing straight in the air, with the ground cool and damp in the shade. You could ride a horse almost anywhere through the woods. In 1801, Barnett got out of salt. The nearest place to obtain it was in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania. Barnett could not make the trip through the woods himself, and he bargained for three days with an Indian to guide him. The Indian wanted just as much more as Barnett felt able to give. At the end of three days the bargain was closed for what the Indian believed to be half-price, viz., two dollars. The trip to Westmoreland was then made, and after Barnett secured his salt, the Indian coolly remarked, “Me no go back; me no go back.” All then that was left for Barnett to do was to give him his original price of four dollars. Joseph Barnett was rather a homely man in face and features. He was Scotch-Irish. He was a practical business man, a strict Presbyterian, a true Christian of that time. He had his left eye gouged out in a rough and-tumble fight on his saw-mill. He died as he had lived, a true-hearted man, on the 15th of April, 1838, and was buried in our old graveyard above Church Street. His wife passed away four months later, in her sixty-fifth year, and was buried there also.
 

A Pioneer History of Jefferson County Pennsylvania and my first recollections of Brookville, Pennsylvania, 1840-1843, McKnight, William James, Philadelphia: J B Lippincott. 1898 Transcribed by: Martha A Crosley Graham, November 2009 Pages 570-575

 BIOGRAPHY OF BILL LONG.
THE “KING HUNTER” THE HUNTER OF HUNTERS IN THIS WILDERNESS SOME OF THE ADVENTURES AND LIFE OF “BILL LONG” FROM HIS CHILDHOOD UNTIL HE WAS SEVENTY YEARS OLD.
 

William Long, a son of Louis (Ludwig) Long, was born near Reading, Berks County, Pennsylvania, in 1 794. His father and mother were Germans. In the summer of 1803, Louis Long, with his family, moved into this wilderness and settled near Port Barnett (now the McConnell farm). Ludwig Long's family consisted of himself, wife, and eleven children, nine sons and two daughters, William, the subject of this sketch, being the second child. The Barnetts were the only neighbors of the Longs. Louis Long brought with him a small “ still” and six flintlock guns, the only kind in use at that time. It was not until about the year 1830 that the percussion-cap rifles were first used, but they were not in general use here for some years after that. As soon as Mr. Long raised some grain he commenced to operate his “still” and manufacture whiskey, this being the first manufactured west of the mountains and east of the Allegheny River.

This part of Pennsylvania was then the hunting-grounds of the Seneca Indians, Cornplanter tribe. The still house of Long soon became the resort for these Indians. Pittsburg was the nearest market for pelts, furs, etc., and the only place to secure flour and other necessaries, etc. From the mouth of Red Bank Creek these goods had to be poled up to Barnett’s in canoes. By scooping the channel, wading, and polling, a round trip to the mouth could be made in from one to two weeks. Although the woods swarmed with Seneca Indians, as a rule, they never committed any depredations.

In the summer of 1804, when William was ten years old, he killed his first deer. One morning his father sent him into the woods for the cows. Nature was resplendent with verdure. William carried with him a flintlock gun, and when a short distance from the house he found the cows and a deer feeding with them. This was William’s opportunity. He shot and killed this deer, and, as a reward for merit, his father gave him a flint-lock gun as a present. This circumstance determined his course in life, for from that day until his death it was his delight to roam in the forest and pursue wild animals, and hunting was his only business. He was a “professional hunter,” a “still hunter,” or a man who hunted alone.

In this summer of 1804, William went with his mother to Ligonier, in Westmoreland County, to get some provisions. The only road was an Indian path, the distance sixty miles. They rode through the brush on a horse, and made this trip in about five days. The Indians soon became civilized, as far as drinking whiskey and getting drunk was an evidence. They visited this still-house for debauchery and drunken carnivals. As a safeguard to himself and family, Louis Long had a strong box made to keep the guns and knives of these Indians in while these drunks were occurring. The Indians desired him to do this. Mr. Long never charged the Indians for this whiskey, although they always offered pelts and furs when they sobered up. In consideration of this generosity, the Indians, in broken English, always called Louis Long, “Good man; give Indian whiskey. Indian fight pale-face ; Indians come one hundred miles to give ‘ good man’ warning.”

Ludwig Long kept his boys busy in the summer months clearing land, farming, etc. The boys had their own time in winter. Then William, with his gun and traps, traversed the forest, away from the ocean’s tide, with no inlet or outlet but winding paths used by the deer when he wished to slake his thirst in the clear, sparkling water of the North Fork.

The boy hunter, to keep from being lost while on the trail, followed up one side of this creek and always came down on the opposite. When he grew older he ventured farther and farther into the wilderness, but always keeping the waters of the North Fork, Mill Creek, and Sandy Lick within range until he became thoroughly educated with the country and woods.

In his boyhood he frequently met and hunted in company with Indians. The Indians were friendly to him on account of his father’s relations to them, and it was these Indians that gave young William his first lesson in the art of hunting. Young William learned the trick of calling wolves in this way. One day his father and he went out for a deer. William soon shot a large one, and while skinning this deer they heard a pack of wolves howl. William told his father to lie down and be ready to shoot, and he would try the Indian method of “howling” or calling wolves up to you. His father consented, and William howled and the wolves answered. William kept up the howls and the wolves answered, coming closer and closer, until his father became scared ; but William wouldn’t stop until the wolves got so close that he and his father had to fire on the pack, killing two, when the others took fright and ran away. The bounty for killing wolves then was eight dollars a piece. A short time after this William and his father went up Sandy to watch an elk lick, and at this point they killed an elk and started for home. On the way home they found where a pack of about twenty wolves had crossed their path, near where the town of Reynoldsville now is. Looking up the hill on the right side of Sandy they espied the whole pack, and, both father and son firing into the pack, they killed two of them.

William then commenced to “ howl,” and one old wolf through curiosity came to the top of the hill, looking down at the hunters. For this bravery William shot him through the head. On their return home that day Joseph Barnett treated them both to whiskey and “tansy,” for, said he, “ the wolves this day have killed one of my cows.” When Long was still a young man, one day he went up the North Fork to hunt. About sundown he shot a deer, and when he had it dressed there came up a heavy rain. Being forced to stay all night, he took the pelt and covered himself with it, and lay down under the bank to sleep. After midnight he awoke, and found himself covered with sticks and leaves.

In a minute he knew this was the work of a panther hunting food for her cubs, and that she would soon return. He therefore prepared a pitchpine fagot, lit it, and hid the burning fagot under the bank and awaited the coming of the panther. In a short time after this preparation was completed the animal returned with her cubs, and when she was within about thirty feet of him, Long thrust his torch up and out, and when it blazed up bright the panther gave out a yell and ran away. John Long and William started out one morning on Sandy Lick to have a bear-hunt, taking with them nine dogs. William had been sent out the day before with two dogs, and had a skirmish with one on Sandy Lick, near where Fuller’s Station now stands. The two brothers went to this point and found the track, and chased the bear across the creek at Rocky Bend, the bear making for a windfall ; but the dogs stopped him before he reached the windfall and commenced the fight. They soon heard some of the dogs giving death-yells. They both hurried to the scene of conflict, and the first sight they beheld was three favorite dogs stretched out dead and the balance fighting. William ran in and placed the muzzle of his gun against bruin’s breast and fired. The bear then backed up to the root of a large hemlock, sitting upright and grabbing for dogs. John and William then fired, and both balls entered bruin’s head, not more than an inch apart. In this melee three dogs were killed and the other six badly wounded. When William was still a boy he went up the North Fork and killed five deer in one day. On his way home about dark he noticed a pole sticking in the hollow of a tree, and carelessly gave this pole a jerk, when he heard a noise in the hole. The moon being up, he saw a bear emerge from this tree some distance up. Young Long shot and killed it before it reached the earth. In that same fall, Bill Long killed in one day, on Mill Creek, nine deer, the largest number he ever killed in that space of time. At that time he kept nothing but the pelts, and carried them home on his back. Panthers often came around Louis Long’s home at night, screaming and yelling. So one morning, after three had been prowling around the house all night, William induced his brother John to join him in a hunt for them. There was snow on the ground, and they took three dogs with them. The dogs soon found the “tracks.” Keeping the dogs back, they soon found three deer killed by the brutes, and then they let the dogs go. The dogs soon caught these three panthers feasting on the fourth deer. The dogs treed two of the panthers. John shot one and Billy the other, the third escaped. The hunters then camped for the night, dining on deer- and panther-meat roasted, and each concluded the panther-meat was the sweetest and the best.

In the morning they pursued the third panther, treed it, and killed it. These were the first panthers the Long boys ever killed. This stimulated young William, so he took one of the Vastbinder boys and started out again, taking along two dogs. They soon found one, the dogs attacking it. Young Vastbinder fired, but missed. The panther sprang for Long, but the dogs caught him by the hams and that saved young Long. The panther broke loose from the dogs and ran up on a high root. Long then fired and broke the brute’s back. The dogs then rushed in, but the panther whipped them off. Then Long, to save the dogs, ran in and tomahawked the creature. Long was about eighteen years of age now. At another time a panther sprang from a high tree for Long. Long fired and killed the panther before it reached him, but the weight of the animal striking Long on the shoulder, felled him to the earth.

In 1815 six brothers of Cornplanter’s tribe of Indians erected wigwams in the Beaver Meadows, where Du Bois now stands. These brothers called themselves respectively “Big” John, “Little” John, “Black” John, “Saucy” John, “John” John, and “John” Sites. In 1823, Long coaxed these Indians to go with him to Luther’s tavern to shoot at mark with Lebbeus Luther. Luther made on purpose several careless shots, when the Indians were greatly elated at their victory ; but then, to their amazement and fear, all at once he pierced the centre every time. The Indians were then afraid, and casting superstitious glances at Luther, said, “ We are not safe. Luver is a bad medicine-man. Let us go.” This was great fun for Long. Long told me this story in 1862 in Hickory Kingdom.

In 1826, Ludwig Long moved to Ohio, and young Bill went with the family. He remained there about twenty months ; but finding little game, concluded to return to the mountain-hills of Jefferson County, then the paradise of hunters. In 1828, William Long married Mrs. Nancy Bartlett, formerly Miss Nancy Mason, and commenced married life in a log cabin on the North Fork, three miles from where Brookville now is, and on what is now the Albert Horn farm, formerly the Gaup place. About this time, game being plenty, and the scalps, skins, and saddles being hard to carry in, Bill Long induced a colored man named Charles Sutherland to build a cabin near him on what is now known as the Jacob Hoffman farm. Long was to provide for Charlie’s family.

The cabin was built, and Sutherland served Long for about five years. Charles never carried a gun. I remember both these characters well in my childhood, and doctored Long and his wife in my early practice and as late as 1862. In 1830, taking Charlie, Long started up the North Fork for bear ; it was on Sunday. After Long killed the first bear, he called Charlie to come and bring the dogs. When Charlie reached him he yelled out, “Good God, massa, hab you seed one?” They continued the hunt that day, and before dark had killed seven bears.

Charlie had never seen any bears killed before, but after this day was crazy to be on a hunt, for, he said, if “dem little niggers of mine hab plenty of bear-grease and venison, they will fatten well enough.” This fall Long killed sixty deer and twenty-five bears, all on the North Fork, and the bears were all killed near and around where Richardsville now is. This locality was a natural home for wild animals.

In 1832, the day after Long killed the seven bears, he took Charlie Sutherland, and travelled over the same ground that he had been over the day before. He heard nothing, however, during the day but the sigh of the breeze or the speech of the brook until near evening, when, within about a mile of home, he saw a large buck coming down the hill. He fired and wounded the buck, and then motioned Charlie to come up to him while he was loading. Charlie came with a large pine-log on his back. Long asked him what he was doing with that log. Sutherland replied, he wanted it for dry wood. Long told him to throw the wood away, and made him carry the buck home for food. Long then yoked his two dogs up and told Charlie to lead them, but soon discovering bear signs, told Charlie to let the dogs go. The dogs took the trail, and found two bears heading for the laurel on the head of the North Fork. Long knew the route they would take, and beat them to the laurel path. Soon Long heard them coming, the dogs fighting the bears every time the bears would cross a log, catching them from behind. The bears would then turn around and fight the dogs until they could get over the log. When the bears came within about thirty yards of Long, he shot one through the head and killed him. At this time Long only took the pelts, which he always carried home, the meat being of no account.

This same year Long took Charlie with him to get some venison by watching a lick, and he took Charlie up a tree with him. In a short time a very large bear came into the lick. Long shot it while he and Charlie were up the tree. Much to Long’s amusement, Charlie was so scared that he fell from the tree to the ground, landing on his back with his face up. He was, however, unhurt, and able to carry home to his cabin the pelt and bear oil. The next morning they saw a bear, and Long fired, hitting him in the lungs. This same fall, on the head of the North Fork, Long saw something black in the brush, which, on closer inspection, proved to be a large she bear. On looking up, he saw three good-sized cubs. Long climbed up, and brought the whole three of them down, one at a time. He then handed them to Charlie, who tied their legs. Long put them in his knapsack and carried them home. Bears have from one to four cubs annually, about the 1st of February.

Knapsacks were made out of bed-ticking or canvas, with shoulderstraps. One of these young bears Long sold to Adam George, a butcher in Brookville. Even at this late day Long only took the skins and what meat he wanted for his own use. This fall Long was not feeling well, and had to keep out of the wet. He therefore made Charlie carry him across the streams. He also made Charlie carry a wolf-skin for him to sit on at night, when he was watching a lick. At another time Charlie and Long went out on a hunt near the head of the North Fork. In lonely solitude the dog started a bear, and Long could not shoot it for fear of hitting the dog, so he ran up and made a stroke at the bear’s head with a tomahawk, wounding it but slightly. The bear jumped for Long, and the dogs came to the rescue of their master by catching “ the tip of the bear’s tail end,” and, with the valor and fidelity of a true knight, held it firmly, until Long, who had left his gun a short distance, ran for it. Charlie thought Long was running from the bear, and took to his heels as if the "Old Harry" was after him. Long tried to stop him, but Charlie only looked back, and at this moment his foot caught under a root, throwing him about thirty feet down a hill. Charlie landed on a rock hard enough to have burst a shingle-bolt. Long, seeing this, ran to the bear with his gun and shot him. He then hurried down the hill to see what had become of Charlie, calling to him.

Charlie came out from under a bunch of laurel, saying,
“ God Almighty, Massa Long, I am failed from heben to hell ! Are you still living ? I tot that ar bar had done gon for you when I seed him come for you with his mouth open. Bless de good Lord you still live, or this nigger would never git out of dese woods !” That night Charlie and Long laid out in the woods. The wolves came up quite close and commenced to howl. Long saw there was a chance for a little fun, so he commenced to howl like a wolf. Charlie became nervous. “ When lo ! he hears on all sides, from innumerable tongues, a universal howl, and in his fright” said there must be five thousand wolves. Long said he thought there was, and told Charlie that, if the wolves came after them, he must climb a tree. In a few minutes Long made a jump into the woods, yelling “ The wolves are coming,” and Charlie bounded like a deer into the woods, too. The night was dark and dreary ; but deep in the forest Charlie made out to find and climb a majestic oak. Long, therefore, had to look Charlie up, and when he got near to our colored brother, he heard him soliloquizing thus :
“Charles, you have to stick tight, for if this holt breaks you are a gone nigger.” Long then stepped up to the tree and told Charlie the danger was over ; but coming down the tree was harder than going up, for Charlie fell to the earth like a thunder-bolt and doubled up like a jack-knife.
Charlie’s domestic life was not all peace, as the following newspaper advertisement will explain :
“CAUTION."
“ Whereas my wife Susey did on the 26th day of March last leave my bed and board, and took with her two of my sons and some property, having no other provocation than ‘ that I would not consent to my son marrying a white girl, and bring her home to live with us. ‘ Therefore I hereby caution all persons against harboring or trusting her on my account, as I will pay no debts of her contracting. “ If she will come home I promise to do all in my power to make her comfortable, and give an equal share of all my property.
“ CHARLES SOUTHERLAND.
“April 7, 1847.”

When this wilderness commenced to settle up, Long visited Broken Straw Creek, in Warren County, on the head of the Allegheny River, to
see a noted hunter by the name of Cotton, and to learn from him his method of hunting young wolves. He learned much from this man Cotton, and afterwards secured many young wolves by the instruction given him by Cotton. In the winter of 1835, Mike and Bill Long went to Boone’s Mountain to hunt. This mountain was a barren region in those days. During the season Bill killed one hundred and five deer and Mike one hundred and four, and together they killed four bears. At this time there was some local demand in Brookville and other towns for venison, and in this year the Long’s sent loads of venison to Harrisburg, making a trip to the capital in seven or eight days. In 1839, Long moved into Clearfield County, and his history in this county ceased. Number of animals killed by Long in his life-time : bears, 400 ; deer (in 1835 one white one), 3500; panthers, 50; wolves, 2000; elks, 125; foxes, 400; wild-cats, 200; catamounts, 500; otters, 75. Long used to catch fawns, mark their ears, turn them loose, and kill them when full-grown deer. Elks were easily domesticated, and sold as follows, viz. : for a living male elk one year old, $50 ; two years old, $75 ; three years old, $100; and for a calf three months old, $25. In 1835, Long had five wolf-dens that he visited annually for pups, about the ist of May each year.

In 1834, Bill Long, his brother Mike, and Ami Sibley started on a hunt for elk near where Portland now is. At the mouth of Bear Creek these three hunters came across a drove of about forty elks. Bill Long fired into the herd and broke the leg of one. This wounded elk began to squeal, and then the herd commenced to run in a circle around the injured one. Sibley’s gun had the wiping-stick fastened in it, and he could not use it. Bill and Mike then loaded and fired into the drove as rapidly as they could, the elks continuing to make the circle, until each had fired about twenty-five shots, when the drove became frightened and ran away. On examination, the hunters found eight large elks killed. They then made a raft, ran the load down to where Raught’s mill is now, and hauled the meat, pelts, and horns to Brookville. In 1836, Bill Long took Henry Dull and started on a hunt for a young elk. On the third day Long saw a doe elk and calf. He shot the mother, and his dog caught the calf and held it without hurting it.

Long removed the udder from the mother, carrying it with the “teats” uppermost, and giving the calf milk from it until they reached Ridgway, where a jug of milk was secured, and by means of an artificial “ teat’, the calf was nourished until Long reached his North Fork home. Dull led the little creature by a rope around its neck. Mrs. Long raised this elk with her cows, feeding it every milking-time, and when the calf grew to be some size he would drive the cows home every evening for his supper of milk. When this elk was full grown, Long and Dull led him to Buffalo, New York, via the pike westward to the Allegheny River, and up through Warren, and sold the animal for two hundred dollars, one hundred dollars in cash and a note for the other hundred, that was never paid.

In the fall of 1836, Long took Henry Dull with him to hunt wolves. The second evening, Long found an old wolf with six half-grown pups. He shot two and the rest ran away. Long and Dull then climbed a hemlock, and Long began his wolf howl. On hearing the howl, two pups and the old wolf came back. Long then shot the mother, and afterwards got all the pups. Dull became so frightened that he fell head first, gun and all, through the brush, striking the ground with his head, producing unconsciousness and breaking his shoulder. “ Thanks to the human heart, by which we live,” for Long nursed Dull at his home on the North Fork for three months. Scalps then brought twelve dollars a piece. In that same year Fred. Heterick and Bill killed an elk at the mouth of Little Toby which weighed six hundred pounds. In 1824, Bill Long had a thrilling adventure with a huge panther in what is now Warsaw township. He, in a hand-to-hand encounter, killed the animal near where Bootjack now stands.

In the winter of 1834, William Dixon, Mike and Bill Long, with dogs, went out to “rope” or catch a live elk. They soon started a drove on the North Fork, and the dogs chased the drove over to the Little Toby, a short distance up from the mouth. The dogs separated one buck from the drove, and this elk, to protect himself from the dogs, took refuge on a ledge of rocks. Bill Long, while Mike and Dixon and the dogs attracted the attention of the elk from below, scrambled in some way to the top of the rocks and threw a rope over the elk’s horns, and then cabled the elk to a small tree. This infuriated the elk, so that he jumped out over the rocks and fell on his side. Mike and Dixon now had the first rope. Bill Long then rushed on the fallen elk and threw another rope in a slip-noose knot around the elk’s neck, and fastened this rope as a guy to a tree. Each rope was then fastened in an opposite direction to a tree, and after the buck was choked into submission, his feet were tied, and the elk was dragged by these three men on the creek ice to where Brockwayville now is. Here they secured a yoke of oxen and sled from Ami Sibley, a mighty hunter. A small tree was then cut, the main stem being left about five feet long and the two forks about three feet in length. Each prong of the tree was fastened to a horn of the buck, and the main stem permitted to hang down in front over the buck’s nose, to which it was fastened with a rope. A rope was then tied around the neck and antlers, and the loose end tied around the hind bench of the sled ; this drove the elk close up to the hind part of the sled. The ropes around the feet of the elk were then cut, and the buck lit on his feet. After the animal had made many desperate efforts and plunges, he quieted down, and no trouble was experienced until within a few miles of Brookville, when, meeting an acquaintance, Dixon became so much excited over the success in capturing a live elk, that he ran up and hit the elk on the back, exclaiming, "See, we have done it !" and this so scared the elk that he made a desperate jump, upsetting the sled into a ditch over a log. The oxen then took fright, and in the general melee the elk had a shoulder knocked out of place and the capture was a failure. As I remember Long, he was about five feet and four inches high, chubby, strongly built, active, athletic, and a great dancer, danced what he called the " chippers" and the "crack," was cheerful, lively, and good-natured. He carried a heavy single-barrel, muzzle-loading rifle. His belief was that he could shoot better with a heavy rifle than with a light one. Although there were dozens of professional hunters in this wilderness, this man was the king. He had an enduring frame, a catlike step, a steady nerve, keen eyesight, and a ripe knowledge of all the laws governing "still hunts for deer and bear." To reach the great skill he attained in mature life required natural talents, perseverance, sagacity, and habits of thought, as well as complete self-possession, self-control, and quickness of execution.

A Pioneer History of Jefferson County Pennsylvania and my first recollections of Brookville, Pennsylvania, 1840-1843, McKnight, William James, Philadelphia: J B Lippincott. 1898 Transcribed by: Martha A Crosley Graham, November 2009 Pages 575 - 588

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Martha A Crosley Graham