A Pioneer Outline History of Northwestern Pennsylvania

Embracing the counties of Tioga, Potter, McKean, Warren, Crawford, Venango, Forest, Clarion, Elk, Jefferson, Cameron, Butler, Lawrence, and Mercer

Also

 A pioneer sketch of the cities of Allegheny, Beaver, Du Bois, and Towanda

My first recollections of Brookville, Pennsylvania, 1840-1843, when my feet were bare and my cheeks were brown

By W. J. McKnight, M.D.

Brookville, PA.

1905

FOREST COUNTY (OLD) -- FORMATION OF COUNTY -- COUNTY SEAT -- PIONEERS -- PIONEER ROADS AND PATHS --PIONEER ELECTIONS, MAILS, OFFICERS -- BOAT-BUILDING

Forest is the only county in the State created by a joint resolution of the Legislature.

"The joint resolution, approved April, 1848, establishing Forest County, detached the territory within the following described boundaries, from Jefferson County: From termination of a straight line running west on the south side of Elk County; thence due west to intersection of north and south line on the west side of Jefferson County; then along Jefferson County line to its termination; thence east along the line of that county to the line of Elk County; along the line of Elk County to the place of beginning.  The Commissioners to locate such lines, as well as the county seat, were Joseph Y. James, of Warren County, W. P. Wilcox, of Elk County, and Hiram Payne, of McKean County, who were ordered to report to the Commissioners of Jefferson County, to which Forest was to remain attached for judicial and county purposes until organized, and township elections were to be held without reference to county lines until that period.  The act approved April 15, 1851, placed the new county in the eighteenth judicial district, when organized.  In April, 1850, an act of the Legislature fixed the southern boundary of Forest County at the north bank of the Clarion River, from a point where the east line of Clarion County crosses that river to the west line of Elk County."

"The undersigned Commissioners to locate the seat of justice for Forest County will meet at Branch's Tavern on Tuesday, the 17th of October, next, and at Cyrus Blood's on the 18th, for the purpose of selecting a proper site, etc.

"Wm. P. Wilcox.

Hiram Payne.

J. Y. James.

"September 26, 1848."

Wild land sold in the county then for from fifty cents to two dollars an acre.

Cyrus Blood was the pioneer of Forest County. He brought his family

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into this wilderness in 1833.  For years his farm was called the "Blood settlement."  When he settled there the region was full of panthers, bears, wolves, wild-cats, and deer.  Mr. Blood was a powerful man of great energy and courage.  He was well educated and a surveyor.

Cyrus Blood was born at New Lebanon, New Hampshire, March 3, 1795.  He was educated in Boston.  When twenty-two he migrated to Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, where he was the principal of the academy.  He was afterwards principal of the Hagerstown Academy, Maryland.  He accepted and served as a professor in the Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Pennsylvania.

Ambitious to found a county, Cyrus Blood made several visits into this wilderness, and finding that the northern portion of Jefferson County was then an almost unbroken wilderness, he finally purchased a tract of land on which Marienville is now located, and decided to make his settlement there.

It was understood when Mr. Blood purchased in Jefferson County from the land company that a road would be opened into it for him.  In 1833, when Mr. Blood arrived where Corsica now is, on the Olean road, he found, to his annoyance, that no road had been made.  Leaving his family behind him, he started from what was then Armstrong's Mill, now Clarington, with an ox team, sled, and men to cut their way step by step through the wilderness twelve miles to his future home.  Every night the men camped

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on and around the ox sled.  When the party reached Blood's purchase, a patch of ground was cleared and a log cabin reared.  In October, 1833, Mr. Blood and his five children took possession of this forest home.  For many years Mr. Blood carried his and the neighbors' mail from Brookville.  Panthers were so plenty that they have been seen in the garden by the children, playing like dogs.  For years they had to go with their grist to mill to Kittanning, Leatherwood, or Brookville.

The pioneer path or trail was opened by Cyrus Blood from Clarington to Blood's settlement.  This was in the year 1833.  The pioneer road was this "path" widened and improved by Blood several years later.

The pioneer tavern was the home of Cyrus Blood.  Mr. Blood built the pioneer saw-mill in 1834 and the pioneer grist-mill in 1840.  These mills were erected by him on Salmon Creek.

The pioneer school-master was John D. Hunt.  He taught in the winter of 1833-34 in Mr. Blood's home.

The pioneer preacher was Dr. Otis Smith.  The pioneer sermon to white people was preached in Mr. Blood's house.

Brookville was the post-office for this settlement from 1833 to 1843.

The pioneer court-house of Forest County was built in Marienville, of hewed logs, and afterwards weather-boarded and painted white.  The work was done by Bennett Dobbs.

What is now Marienville was called for many years "the Blood settlement."

"AN ACT ORGANIZING FOREST COUNTY FOR JUDICIAL PURPOSES:

"Section I.  Be it enacted, etc.   That the county of Forest, from and after the first day of September, Anno Domini, one thousand eight hundred and fifty-seven, shall be entitled to, and at all times thereafter have all and singular the courts, jurisdictions, officers, rights, and privileges to which other counties of this State are entitled by the constitution and laws of this Commonwealth.

"Section  2.  That the several courts in and for the said county of Forest shall be opened and held in the town of Marien, at such house therein as may be designated by the commissioners of said county, until a court-house shall be erected in and for said county, as is hereinafter directed, and shall then be held at the said court-house.

"Section 3.   All suits between Forest County citizens to be transferred to Forest County courts, etc.

"Section 4.  Relates to the bonds of the public officers.

"Section 5.  That the sheriff, coroner, and officers of Jefferson County, who have exercised authority over said Forest County, shall continue to do so until similar officers shall be appointed or elected agreeably to law in said county of Forest; and the persons who shall be elected associate judges of

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the county of Forest shall take and subscribe the requisite oaths and affirmations of office before the prothonotary of Jefferson County, who shall file a record of the same in the office of the prothonotary of the court in record in the county of Forest. 

"Section 6 attached it to the Western District of the Supreme Court.

"Section 7.  The county shall be annexed to and compose part of the eighteenth judicial district.

"Section 8.  Prisoners shall be kept in the Jefferson County jail.

"Section 11.  Election of county officers, etc.

"Approved May 20, 1857."

Notification of this act and its purposes was published June 11, 1857, in the Jefferson County papers for three months, by David C. Gillespie,  the prothonotary of Jefferson County.

The pioneer election authorized by this act was held October 13, 1857, and the following officials were chose:

Associate Judges, Cyrus Blood and Milton Gibbs; Prothonotary, G. W. Rose; Sheriff, John F. Gaul; Coroner, Archibald Black; Commissioner, Samuel Kincaid; and Auditor, Timothy Caldwell.

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The pioneer court under this act was held December 21, 1857, in what was then called Marien (now Marienville).  President Judge, John S. McCalmont; Associate Judges, Cyrus Blood and Milton Gibbs.  W. W. Corbet, as prothonotary of Jefferson County, was present and swore in the Associate Judges.

Thomas B. Mayes was appointed by the court to proclaim the opening.  At the suggestion of the judge, W. P. Jenks and L. D. Rogers, of Brookville, were admitted to the "bar" of Forest County.  These were the pioneer admissions to the bar of foreign lawyers.  It was ordered by the court that Thomas B. Mayes be appointed court crier, and William Walton, of Jenks Township, to act as tipstaff.  The rules governing the Jefferson County bar were adopted to govern the Forest County court.  On motion of W. P. Jenks, B. F. Lucas, of Brookville, was admitted to the bar.  James D. Flick was appointed constable for Barnett Township.  Cyrus Blood was appointed county surveyor.  Wolves were still killed in this year, 1857, in Forest County.

John Conrad, the local lawyer, was admitted at this term.  John Conrad was born in Siebenhausen, Hesse Cassel, Germany, February 18, 1832.  His father emigrated to Indiana County, Pennsylvania, in 1833, and settled in Rayne Township, on a farm.  John read law with A. W. Taylor, of Indiana, Pennsylvania; was admitted to the bar in Cambria County, Pennsylvania, in 1855; moved to Forest County in the summer of 1857, and was the pioneer lawyer to locate in that county.  He was the pioneer district attorney of Forest County from 1858 to 1860; came to Brookville in the spring of 1859, where he lived until he died.

After the adjournment of the court an evening meeting was called of the citizens and visitors.  G. W. Rose was chosen president, General Seth Clover and Charles J. Fox were chose vice-presidents, and W. W. Corbet was chosen secretary.  This meeting was addressed by Messrs. Jenks, Rodgers, McCalmont, Clover, Fox, and John Conrad.

The appropriate for schools in 1850 was, Jenks, $10.56; Barnett, $63.96; Tionesta, $4.10. Heath had a population of 187, and Barnett, 479.

About March 8, 1851, the sun was darkened for one week with pigeons.  On April 1, 1854, the same conditions existed.

The pioneer election in Forest County was in October, 1852.  The State vote counted with Jefferson.

PIONEER OFFICERS FOR FOREST COUNTY (OLD)

County Commissioners, Cyrus Blood, three years; John Wynkoop, two years;  Charles J. Fox, one year;  B. Sweet, commissioners' clerk;  treasurer, John D. Hunt;  auditors, Cyrus W. Hant, William M. Clyde.

The pioneer hunter was John Aylesworth.  He came to Barnett Township, Jefferson County, or what in 1838 became Jenks Township, Jefferson County, and is now Jenks Township, Forest County, in 1834.  He was a

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Connecticut Yankee, but came to this wilderness from Ashtabula, Ohio.  He was the most noted and famous hunter in that section of Jefferson County.

Beavers made their homes here in the early thirties, in the great flag swamp or beaver meadows on Salmon Creek.  These meadows covered about six hundred acres.  Furs were occasionally then brought to Brookville from these meadows by trappers.

The pioneer justice of the peace, John L. Williamson, was elected in 1840.

There appears to have been no election from 1845 to 1849, when a full set of township officers, including the pioneer constable, Thomas Patterson, was elected.

The pioneer coal for Forest County was mined at Balltown.

The best deer-licks in the township were on the Blue Jay.

 Ebenezer Kingsley was the pioneer hunter of Tionesta.  He settled in that section in about 1825.  Kingsley was a very eccentric man, and a great hunter and trapper.  He named nearly all the streams in that section, such as Bear Creek, because he shot a bear there;  Jug Handle Creek, because he broke the handle off his jug at its mouth;  Salmon Creek, because he shot a salmon at its mouth, etc.

The pioneer saw-mill was built about 1823, by Isaac Ball, Luther Barnes, and William Manross, at the place now called Balltown.  The usual food at this mill was said to be one barrel of flour and two barrels of whiskey.

Retailers of foreign merchandise in 1854 were Howe & Co., C. C. Johnson, Shippen & Morrisen, and P. Woodward.

Licensed hotels:  Clarington, 1855, Peter G. Reed and Oramel Thing.

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PIONEER MAIL SERVICE

Colonel John D. Hunt was appointed postmaster for Marienville, September 25, 1851.

Early mail service March, 1856, from Brookville by Clarington to Marienville (horseback), twenty-six miles and return, once a week.

Dr. D. Bachman located at Clarington May 29, 1857.  His stay was short.

The pioneer store was opened at Cooksburg by Hon. Andrew Cook, in 1852.

The pioneer post-office was established in 1871, in Cooksburg, and Andrew Cook was appointed postmaster.

Voters in 1847:  Jenks, 10; Barnett, 57;  Tionesta, 7.

PIONEER SALE OF LOTS IN MARION (OLD COUNTY SEAT)

"Notice. -- The public is informed that the sale of lots in Marion, Forest County, has been adjourned on account of the inclement weather, until May or June next, when timely notice will be given.

"Cyrus Blood.

"January 16, 1849."

The pioneer school in what is now Forest County was in what is now Tionesta Borough, in 1820.  The pioneer school in old Forest County was at Marienville, in 1840.  Cyrus Blood, master.

The pioneer missionary to locate and preach in what is now Forest Count was the Rev. David Zeisberger, in October, 1767.

PIONEER FLAT-BOATS -- PIONEER TIPPLES, ETC.

The pioneer boats in what is now Jefferson County were built at Port Barnett for the transportation of Centre County pig-metal.  In 1830 they were built on the North Fork for the same purpose.  In after-years, when tipples were used, boats were built and tipples erected at the following points, ---viz.:  at Findley's, on Sandy Lick, by Nieman and D. S. Chitister; at Brookville, by John Smith; at Troy, by Peter Lobaugh;  at Heathville, by A. B. Paine and Arthur O'Donnell; at the mouth of Little Sandy, by William Bennett:  at Robinson's Bend, by Hance Robinson.  This industry along Red Bank was maintained by the charcoal furnaces of Clarion and Armstrong Counties.  The boats were sold at the Olean bridge at Broken Rock, and sold again at Pittsburg for coal-barges.  Some of the boats were sold for the transportation of salt to the South from Freeport.  The industry on Red Bank ceased in the fifties.

Anthony and Jacob Esbaugh built scaffolds and boats for the dealers on Red Bank.  The pioneer boat was sixteen feet wide and forty feet long.  These boats were always built from the best lumber that could be made from the choicest timber that grew in our forests.  Each gunwale was hewed out

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of the straightest pine-tree that was to be found, ---viz.:  twenty-eight inches high at the "rake," fourteen inches at the stern, ten inches thick, and forty feet long, two gunwales to a boat.  The ties were hewed six inches thick, with a six-inch face, mortised, dove-tailed, and keyed into the gunwale six feet apart.  The six "streamers" for a boat were sawed three by twelve inches, sixteen feet long, and  "pinned" to the ties with one pin in the middle of each streamer.  These pins were made of white-oak one and a half inches square and ten inches long.  The plank for hte "bottoms" were first-class white-pine one and a half inches thick, and pinned to the streamers and gunwales with white-oak pins, calked with flax or two.  All pioneer boats were built on the ground and turned, by about ten men, --and a gallon of whiskey, ---over and on a bed made of brush to keep the planks in the bottom from springing.  All boats were "sided up" with white-oak studding two and a half by five inches and six feet (high) long.  Each studding was mortised into a gunwale two feet apart.  Inside the boat a siding eighteen inches high was pinned on.  These boats were sold in Pittsburg, to be used as coal-barges for the transportation of coal to the Lower Mississippi.   The boats were manned and run by two or three men, the pilot always at the stern.  The oar, stem and blade, was made the same as for ordinary rafts.  The pioneer boats were tied and landed with halyards made of twisted hickory saplings.  The size of these boats in 1843 was eighteen feet wide and eighty feet long.

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Linda Blum-Barton