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floors the same. Roofs were split clapboards held in place by weight poles. I think a year after we came here settling began on Bennett's branch of the Sinnemahoning, but I leave it for some one else who will, no doubt, give an account of that place, who is better acquainted there than I am. Elk, deer and bear were very plenty here at that time, and from the number of dead trees, as well as the remains of bark shanties and the tomahawk marks still visible on the trees from which the bark was taken, I infer that this was a hunting ground much used by the Indians at one time, but they did not hunt here a great deal after the first settlers came. Those that did were reputed to be of the Cornplanter tribe. Those I knew best were Big John, Logan and Capt. Crow. Big John was a noble-looking Indian, past the middle age, tall, straight and well proportioned. Logan looked very old. The last time I saw them, Big John took an opportunity to tell us Logan too old to hunt, he could not see to shoot straight.' In 1816 the land owners commenced building us a new mill, and finished it the year following, on the site of what is now Connor's mill. Permanent settlers in 1816 were the before-named Davis, Wilson, Kyler and Meredith. Others had made improvements, intending to settle, but never brought their families, or left soon after, if they did, and Davis sold in the fall of that year to a man who did not move to it, and lost it by not keeping taxes paid. William McCauley moved in the spring of 1817. The next year James Reesman, James Green, Smith Mead, Esq., and others made improvements, but only the three named were permanent. Perhaps some two years after, Leonard Morey, from Sinnemahoning, came around with a petition to have this section struck off into a new township. It was granted, and the court named it Sinnemahoning. This displeased the settlers west of the barrens, and they petitioned for change of the name, and the court named it Fox, in honor of Samuel M. Fox. The township included all of Horton within the Clearfield line, Houston, in that county now, and Jay. These three townships being taken from Fox has reduced its territory to its present size. Between the years 1818 and 1823, Conrad Moyer, Tibni Taylor, John Kellar, Joel and Philetus Clark, Isaac Coleman, Uriah and Jonah Rogers, Rev. Jonathan Nichols, Alanson Vial and Hon. Isaac Horton were added to the settlement and remained permanently. The three latter named located on Brandy Camp branch of Little Toby, now Horton township, and the following named: Dr. William Hoyt, John Bundy, James R. Hancock, Chauncey Brockway, Esq., James Iddings and Robert Thompson remained a number of years and then left; but all have some of their descendants living here. From the above time to the present, population has steadily increased. It required an indomitable spirit for the first settlers, who sought a home so far in the wilderness in a dense forest of timber, to clear the ground and render it fit for cultivation, and few had courage to attempt it, or constancy to persevere if they did."

In the history of Cameron county the advertisement of the Burlington tract is given. Observing it, Joseph Potter, Leonard Morey and William Ward set out from their homes in Susquehanna county, Penn., April 2, 1812, on the 5th reached Butler's cabin on the north fork of Pine creek, and next day pushed on to the head of the Allegheny, where they stayed with a Mr. Heirs [Ayers], thence to Lymans and Canoe Place, and on the 10th arrived at John Earls. On April 11 they went down the branch to Spanglers, thence up Bennett's branch to Dr. Dan Rogers' house, where they arrived on the 13th. house stood a little above the large dam below Benezette. The three poineers purchased lands on the 15th, Morey buying a mile below Caledonia, but later changing to a point near the mouth of Medix Run; Ward, where Caledonia stands, and Potter opposite the mouth of Medix Run. On the 16th the

This

pioneers set out on their return trip, two of them revisited the place in September, and on their return spoke so highly of the country that in February, 1813, L. Morey and Dwight Caldwell, with their families, Ichabod and Sylvester Powers and William F. Luce set out to settle there. At Grass Flats Capt. Potter joined them, and traveled to Andrew Overturf's (Dutchman) house between Bennett's branch and the Driftwood, where they arrived on the 12th. Next day they proceeded up the branch, passed Nanny's house, one and a half miles from the mouth of the branch; a mile farther landed at Thomas Dent's house; where Grant depot now is was the home of Ralph Johnson, and next was Dr. Rogers' cabin, a 16x20 house, where they found Amos Mix and family, and where all found shelter that night of April 15, 1813. Mix and his wife arrived there in 1812. In that year Dr. Rogers began clearing the lands a little above Summerson's eddy, but within a few years moved to Jersey Shore to practice medicine. In August, 1813, McMurtrie visited his lands to cut out a road from the mouth of Trout run to Rich Valley, and did cut four miles to where H. K. Wilson resided in modern times. In 1815 Morey purchased from Gen. James Potter 379 acres near the mouth of Trout run, and in April, 1816, began improvements, building a small grist-mill. In 1827 he sold this place to Reuben and Ebenezer Winslow. Carpenter Winslow arrived about this time. In 1818 Morey built

a small grist mill. Benjamin, son of Ralph Johnson, who died March 9, 1856, was born near Grant railroad depot, July 4, 1813.

Mrs. Emily E. Gillis, of Gilroy, in Santa Clara Co., Cal. (daughter of the pioneer Gelott, and wife of Charles, eldest son of Enos Gillis), writing to the editor of the Democrat in 1885, states that her father came in 1814, and on June 19 of that year he and Eliza Morey went down the Sinnemahoning, thirty-five miles, in a canoe, to be married by Squire Lusk, accompanied by Erasmus and Cephas Morey, W. F. Luce and Mrs. Caldwell. It took two days to return. Mrs. Gillis, Sr., died August 18, 1850, and her husband, September 29, 1854.

Capt. Potter Goff settled on Bennett's branch in Jay township, in 1817, with his wife and six children; Joel Woodworth, his son-in-law, accompanied him. He died on the home farm (in recent years the W. F. Luce farm), November 12, 1846, aged seventy years. His first wife died in September, 1834, and in 1836 he married the widow, Ann M. Luce.

Chauncey Brockway and his wife and child came in December, 1817, from Galway, Montgomery Co., N. Y., 400 miles by wagon, and 90 miles up the Susquehanna. He was married in 1816, and the first child was born in April, 1817, so that his wife had to take the infant pioneer with her on this great journey, and settled on Bennett's branch, seven miles from any neighbor. In 1821 the family moved to Brandy Camp, near Ridgway, thence up the Toby that spring, and to Illinois in 1854, where his wife died in 1885, and himself on December 4, 1886. In April, 1818, Joseph Crandell and Lyman Robinson, sons-in-law of Brockway, arrived and purchased on the hill north of Caledonia on the Gen. Boyd estate.

Jonathan Nichols came in March, 1818, accompanied by Hezekiah Warner. his son-in-law. Both brought their families and settled on the Gen. Boyd lands, north of Kersey's. Nichols was a Baptist preacher and a physician, the first of either profession in the county except Dr. Rogers. He moved to Brandy Camp in Horton township about 1821, where he died in May, 1846. Under him Dr. Clark, a son-in-law, studied medicine. Hezekiah Warner, who also moved to Brandy Camp, returned to Caledonia and purchased lands from Thomas Leggett and Jabez Mead in 1825. There he was joined

by Zebulon Warner in store and tavern keeping and lumber milling. Starr Dennison settled on Spring run in March, 1818, and resided there until his death in 1844. Ebenezer Hewett came from Saratoga, N. Y., the same year, and located a large tract, four miles above Kersey run. In December he was followed by Col. Isaac Webb, of the same county, who cleared a farm two miles above Kersey run. He was a surveyor, and a man whose memory was proverbial. Consider Brockway followed his son, Chauncey, in 1819, and located north of Kersey run about four miles on the Kersey road.

Isaac Horton, Sr., who settled at Brandy Camp in 1818, died in 1873.... David Johnson, who settled at Johnsonburg prior to 1821, learning that James L. Gillis had located at Montmorenci, four miles away, determined to move west if Gillis would not. He did move, and by 1824 the Montmorenci farm of 400 acres was cleared, and a saw- and grist mill, carding-mill and several improvements were made by the new pioneer on Mill creek a little west of the farm. In 1871 O. B. Fitch, afterward proprietor of the Thayer House, carried on this farm. It was subsequently purchased by Maurice M. Schultz who set men to work to restore the farm, and under him it has reached its present productiveness.

Judge James L. Gillis, who died in Iowa in July, 1881, was born in Washington county, N. Y., in 1792. In 1812 he was commissioned lieutenant of an Ontario county cavalry company in Col. Harris' dragoons. After the affair at Lundy's Lane he was made prisoner by the British, treated in the barbarous manner of that time, and put on board a transport to be taken to England. He and several others captured a boat belonging to the transport, and reached the bank of the St. Lawrence river, but all were retaken and were said to have been subjected to cruelties, of which even Indians were ignorant, until exchanged at Salem, Mass., after the war. In 1822 he settled in what is now Elk county (within sixteen miles of a neighbor and seventy miles of a postoffice), as the agent of Jacob Ridgway, to whose niece he was married in 1816. In 1830 he moved six miles from his farm to the present town of Ridgway. Gov. Porter commissioned him associate judge of Jefferson county; in 1840 he was elected representative, again sent to the senate, became one of the first associate judges of Elk county, and in 1856 was elected congressman; later he was agent for the Pawnees. In 1858 Capt. Hall defeated him for congress. Through his efforts Elk and Forest counties were organized, the latter by joint resolution and to oblige Cyrus Blood, one of the pioneers. He was charged with complicity in the abduction of Morgan for giving away Masonic secrets, but was acquitted. Mrs. Houk, of Ridgway, C. V. Gillis, of Kane, Mary B. Porter, Augusta A. Noxon and Cecilia A. Whitney, of Chautauqua county, N. Y., Bosanquet, Henry and Robert, children of the useful pioneer are living. Enos Gillis, a brother pioneer, is referred to in this work.

W. P. Wilcox, who in 1831 came to what is now Williamsville, as agent for the Richards & Jones Land Company, later the McK. & E. L. & I. Co. In 1835 he was representative, and was re-elected three times successively, then served in the senate, was elected a representative again in 1857 and in 1859, and died at Port Allegany in April, 1868. In the winter of 1832-33, L. Wilmarth, Arthur Hughes and George Dickinson bought land of J. L. Gillis and Mr. Aylworth, and also water-power for lumbering business. There was but a handful of people in Ridgway at this time. Hughes and Dickinson began to build mills. Col. Wilcox settled here. Mail accommodations were established.

Rasselas W. Brown died June 27, 1887. He was born in 1809 in Herkimer county, N. Y., and in 1837, with his brother-in-law, W. S. Brownell, of

pioneers set out on their return trip, two of them revisited the place in September, and on their return spoke so highly of the country that in February, 1813, L. Morey and Dwight Caldwell, with their families, Ichabod and Sylvester Powers and William F. Luce set out to settle there. At Grass Flats Capt. Potter joined them, and traveled to Andrew Overturf's (Dutchman) house between Bennett's branch and the Driftwood, where they arrived on the 12th. Next day they proceeded up the branch, passed Nanny's house, one and a half miles from the mouth of the branch; a mile farther landed at Thomas Dent's house; where Grant depot now is was the home of Ralph Johnson, and next was Dr. Rogers' cabin, a 16x20 house, where they found Amos Mix and family, and where all found shelter that night of April 15, 1813. Mix and his wife arrived there in 1812. In that year Dr. Rogers began clearing the lands a little above Summerson's eddy, but within a few years moved to Jersey Shore to practice medicine. In August, 1813, McMurtrie visited his lands to cut out a road from the mouth of Trout run to Rich Valley, and did cut four miles to where H. K. Wilson resided in modern times. In 1815 Morey purchased from Gen. James Potter 379 acres near the mouth of Trout run, and in April, 1816, began improvements, building a small grist-mill. In 1827 he sold this place to Reuben and Ebenezer Winslow. Carpenter Winslow arrived about this time. In 1818 Morey built

a small grist mill. Benjamin, son of Ralph Johnson, who died March 9, 1886, was born near Grant railroad depot, July 4, 1813.

Mrs. Emily E. Gillis, of Gilroy, in Santa Clara Co., Cal. (daughter of the pioneer Gelott, and wife of Charles, eldest son of Enos Gillis), writing to the editor of the Democrat in 1885, states that her father came in 1814, and on June 19 of that year he and Eliza Morey went down the Sinnemahoning, thirty-five miles, in a canoe, to be married by Squire Lusk, accompanied by Erasmus and Cephas Morey, W. F. Luce and Mrs. Caldwell. It took two days to return. Mrs. Gillis, Sr., died August 18, 1850, and her husband, September 29, 1854.

Capt. Potter Goff settled on Bennett's branch in Jay township, in 1817, with his wife and six children; Joel Woodworth, his son-in-law, accompanied him. He died on the home farm (in recent years the W. F. Luce farm), November 12, 1846, aged seventy years. His first wife died in September, 1834, and in 1836 he married the widow, Ann M. Luce.

Chauncey Brockway and his wife and child came in December, 1817, from Galway, Montgomery Co., N. Y., 400 miles by wagon, and 90 miles up the Susquehanna. He was married in 1816, and the first child was born in April, 1817, so that his wife had to take the infant pioneer with her on this great journey, and settled on Bennett's branch, seven miles from any neighbor. In 1821 the family moved to Brandy Camp, near Ridgway, thence up the Toby that spring, and to Illinois in 1854, where his wife died in 1885, and himself on December 4, 1886. In April, 1818, Joseph Crandell and Lyman Robinson, sons-in-law of Brockway, arrived and purchased on the hill north of Caledonia on the Gen. Boyd estate.

Jonathan Nichols came in March, 1818, accompanied by Hezekiah Warner. his son-in-law. Both brought their families and settled on the Gen. Boyd lands, north of Kersey's. Nichols was a Baptist preacher and a physician, the first of either profession in the county except Dr. Rogers. He moved to Brandy Camp in Horton township about 1821, where he died in May, 1846. Under him Dr. Clark, a son-in-law, studied medicine. Hezekiah Warner, who also moved to Brandy Camp, returned to Caledonia and purchased lands from Thomas Leggett and Jabez Mead in 1825. There he was joined