History of the Counties of McKean, Elk, and Forest, Pennsylvania, with ...

and made those branches of forest industry his occupation. The history of those who have made large fortunes invariably tells us that they made them in some other way than by hunting, trapping or fishing. Mrs. McBride was a very industrious women, always doing something that would advance the comfort and welfare of the family. Some twenty years ago she was rendered entirely helpless by rheumatism, and it has been at least that length of time since she has stood on her feet.... Paul Berlin came to Kingsley township about the same time as Mr. Beck. They both came from Clarion county to Forest. Berlin, like Beck, was of German descent. He bought land on Hazelton run, about one mile and a half from Tionesta creek. The farm was once covered with heavy pine timber, and the stumps now tell where the trees stood. Mr. Berlin died four years ago.... Chauncey Stanley was at Tionesta when I first came there, in 1828. His birthplace was in one of the Eastern States. Stanley passed his life in single-blessedness. It was said of him that he was afraid to look a woman in the face. He lived in a shanty, all alone. It was the report that he was not only his own cook and housekeeper, but his own tailor as well. Certainly his garments looked as if they might have been of home production. When he had occasion to build himself a pair of trowsers he would spread the cloth upon the floor, sit down on it, and with a piece of chalk mark around that part of his anatomy which the projected garment was to enclose. There was one advantage in his system of cutting-he was always sure to have the pattern with him, and would never go off in a hurry and leave it lying around home. Does a man in that condition of life fill the position which the Creator intended him to fill? Yet Stanley was a virtuous man, if he was odd, and he passed to the other shore with clean hands and a pure heart.

"George Hamblin came from Warren county. When I enumerate the amount of work he performed in Venango and Forest counties, I think you will agree with me that his name deserves a place in these sketches. Mr. Hamblin built the saw-mill at Balltown; he built the mill for H. Stowe & Co., at Newtown. In 1852 he built the mill for Green & Gordon on Bear creek, and shortly after another mill on the same stream for the Lacys. He put up a saw-mill and grist-mill for Hull & Lacy on Big Coon creek, at what is now called Nebraska. No better mechanical head than his ever adorned any man's shoulders. How many mills on Conewango and Brokenstraw owned his handiwork, I cannot say. I only know what he did in Venango and Forest....One of the earliest settlers of Forest (then Venango), George W. Dean, deserves a place in this record. He was a man of great industry. In opening farms and cutting logs he performed enough work in his day to clear a township. He had his share of life's disasters by having his dwelling burned with all his earthly possessions. Mr. Dean died last fall, but little better off after all,his labors."

In 1886 the reminiscences of Abner Phelps were published. At that time he was a resident of Nebraska, in this county, and on June 14, of that year was eighty years of age, being born in Delaware county, N. Y., in 1806. He moved with his father to West Hickory (then Venango county) about the year 1818. After living there a few years they moved to Tionesta creek, on what was afterward known as the Harrington place. His father, himself and brother camped and hunted at the mouth of what is called Phelps run, on the south side of Tionesta creek, a little below Balltown. The Kingsley's camped about a mile below them on what is now called Kingsley run. Game was very plentiful in those days; trout abundant in all the streams. No person need want for venison or trout. The Phelpses and Kinsleys were real woodsmen. When they struck the trail of a bear, elk or panther, there

was no let-up until they captured the animal. They followed a large panther, about the year 1822, up to the head waters of Big Coon creek, before getting it, a journey of two days without food of any kind. Their hunger was satis

fied by roasting on the end of a stick, and eating part of one of the hams of the panther, which to them tasted good. When a boy he was blamed for putting fire into the woods opposite Tionesta, and was prosecuted by Poland Hunter, but to compromise the matter he cleared four acres of ground for Hunter, on the hill side opposite the village where Tionesta now stands. He walks from Nebraska to Tionesta, a distance of six miles, and back in a day, and does it easily. He always used liquor moderately, was intoxicated but once in his life; says he never to his knowledge cheated, stole, meddled with other men's families, or belonged to a church. He married Susan Kennedy in the year 1831, and reared a family of eight children, five of whom are now living. There was no saw-mill on the creek when they moved to it. The Balltown mill was built by Ball, Barnes, Manross & Gilson, in the year 1823. The Bear Creek mill was built by Kinnear, Witherup & Co., soon after. Beautiful pine timber, which could have been purchased for a song, stood in abundance along the creek at that time.

The German settlement of this county was begun in April, 1842, when, Herman Blume, of Hesse Cassel, came to Tionesta. He learned the American language here, and in 1848 was independent enough to take his family out. In 1846 he was joined by Jacob Wenk and John Shellhouse, and they, with Adam and Henry Zuendel and Bernard Busch, who came in 1840 to Tionesta, formed the pioneers of the German colony with H. Eichenburg, an immigrant of 1844; Nicholas Mater, Henry Glassner and George Babendorf, of 1846, and Deitrich Weyant, Sebastain Blume, Adam Frank and Chris Sewer.

Joseph Allender, who came to Forest county with his parents in 1805, died June 25, 1878; in 1822 he joined the Methodist Church here. T. W. Allender, of West Hickory, and his brother, now of Cleveland and a soldier in 1861-65, are the only sons known to be living.... Joshua Davis, born in Maine in 1795, served in the war of 1812, came to Tionesta shortly after the war, and died at Frankford, Del., in 1886 ... Mrs. Mary Hunter, who died June 5, 1872, married Joseph Dale in 1807. He dying in 1815 or 1816, she moved with her father, that year, to Oldtown Flats, two miles up Tionesta creek, and in 1831 married David Hunter, and moved to the farm on which Hunter's station is.... John A. Dale died June 25, 1877. He came to Oldtown Flats with his mother in February, 1816, where Henry Gates, her father, had hitherto resided. In 1825 Judge Dale taught a school in Clearfield county, and in 1827 studied medicine under Dr. Marvin Webster, who settled at Tionesta soon after. In 1847 he was sheriff of Venango county, and later prothonotary. Subsequently he took the several parts credited to him in the political chapter.

Mrs. Jane Eliza (Dale) Clark, who died May 14, 1877, was born in this county in 1821, and married Samuel Clark in 1841. She was a daughter of Jesse Dale.... Caroline (Dale) Hood, born in Tionesta township, in 1826, died in October, 1882.... Mrs. Agnes (Lamb) Reed, was born near Neilltown, in 1804, and in 1826 married William Reed and settled in Highland township,. Clarion county.... Amaza Purdy, a settler of 1825, died in 1883.... Vanleer Watson, born near Newtown Mills in 1822, died November 11, 1877.

Ira Copeland, who, with his father, traveled on foot from Vermont to Pennsylvania, and settled on Stewart's run in 1819, died in Venango county, August 28, 1879. In 1832 he married Lydia Thompson (she died in March, 1888), by whom eleven children were born. The only neighbors in 1819 were John Jones, Joseph Allender, Joseph H. Dawson and Robert Green, the latter be ing the only survivor in 1880.

Andrew Ditz, who died in June, 1888, came to the Fryburg neighborhood from Baden, Germany, in 1825, with his father and five brothers and sisters. His wife, to whom he was married in 1840, was the daughter of Bertchner, another pioneer; she died in 1884.... The pioneer Allio and his wife (both now deceased), natives of France, located nine miles southeast of Tionesta in 1835, and were residents there in 1870, when a note of their ages was made -one one hundred and six, and the other one hundred and four, years of age. John Cobb, born in Vermont in 1815, came to Lower Sheffield in 1841, moved to Ridgway in 1842, entered the lumber business there, and died in August, 1888. He and his sons were the pioneers of modern lumbering methods in Forest county, the location being at Lacy's mills.... Samuel Dempsey died in November, 1887. From 1835 to 1847 he worked in the furnace at Rockland, and afterward in the furnace on Little Hickory for William Cross. After taking ore from the neighboring hills for some years, he opened a farm in Hickory, which he occupied until his removal to Iowa in 1865. He returned a few years before his death.... Thomas Selders, the river pilot, born in the French Creek settlement in 1808, moved to Tionesta in 1850, and died in July, 1880.

Frederick Hyren, the prophet, said to have been an exiled Russian baron, resided at Tionesta for some time, preaching a new dispensation throughout this section, fasting twenty-one days in a cabin, which stood where the Haslet scales now are. He moved to Venango county, where he died in the county poorhouse..... Edward Lyman, who came in 1833, died in June, 1888.

The petition of February, 1817, for the establishment of a branch of the United States Bank of Pittsburgh, was signed by the Gateses, Sigginses, Dawsons and Allenders, then residing within what is now Forest county. A copy of this petition is in possession of Mr. Dale.

Among the pioneers of the southern townships of old Forest were the Agnews, Armstrongs, Cooks, Reynoldses, John Wynkoop, James Irwin, the Coons, Noltons, Munns and others referred to in this work, and Ferdinand Smearbaugh, of 1847; John Weyant, M. Holebine, Henry Sipple, N. Mater, Jr., and Henry Klinestiver, the blacksmith, of 1848. In 1849 Henry Kiser arrived, in 1852 Ernest Behrns and Rudolph Kaman, Hanoverians, and Edward Walker, settled north of the Zuendel location, and the Kopps lived at the old Tubbs run settlement. In November, 1868, Fred W. Blume arrived from Hesse Cassel. In the "fifties" Bartholomew Church was erected on the hill, but up to 1869 the members of the Reformed Church contested its ownership with the Lutherans. At this time other troubles came among the two peoplesa spook or ghost being said to inhabit the building.

"Mr. Bloom was He owned a

Daniel Harrington, referring to Herman Blume, says: one of the most courteous German gentlemen that I ever met. house and lot in the village, and worked at his trade as a tailor. The clothing he made for his customers was always honestly put together; the wind never blew the buttons off that he sewed on. I was at Franklin when he made application for his naturalization papers. He would sometimes take a little hop bitters, or a substitute therefor, and get in a jolly good humor. I remember one time he said to me, 'Mr. Harrington, oh put I do feel goot.' He resigned his earthly commission in December, 1879, at nearly ninety years of A number of his grandsons are citizens of Dutch Hill." Recently a citizen of this county learning of a treasury certificate issued to one of his ancestors in 1793, brought the matter before the old historian of Forest, who addressed the following letter to the department:

age.

DEAR SIR: My attention was called by J. H. Nourse, of this county, to a paragraph

in a newspaper, stating that an unpaid warrant on the treasury has been presented to you, dated February 14, 1793, for $17.45, bearing 6 per cent interest, in favor of Jos. Nourse, and that there was something for claimants. Mr. Nourse has brought the family records, showing that he is a direct descendant from Rebecca Nourse or Nurse, who was condemned and executed as a witch at Salem, Mass., July 19, 1690, and among her descendants are Jos. Nourse, from whom J. H. Nourse and his brother, Orsenius Nourse, are descended, according to family history. Will it be too much trouble to send me a copy of said warrant for investigation?

Very respectfully,

SAMUEL D. IRWIN.

Hunting Adventures and Casualties.*-As early as 1820 two hunters were encamped on the Tionesta, near the spot now occupied by Newtown Mills. The men had come less for the purpose of hunting than to see the country, to examine the streams, to search for pine timber and ascertain what facilities there were for getting it to market. The only settler in that region then, above Oldtown, was Kingsley. Hezekiah May lived at Oldtown, three miles above the mouth of the Tionesta. It was at or near Kingsley's shanty where these men had their camp. One bright moonlight night, one of the hunters, a young man of twenty-three years, concluded to have a little pastime on skates, of which exercise he was very fond. A severe cold snap had made three or four inches of smooth, solid ice, and Smith, the young explorer in question, had not forgotten his skates among his other traps. On this bright December night he calculated to have a little sport all by himself. After a few preliminary flourishes in front of his camp to see that his skates were securely fastened, he started for a run of a few miles up the creek. In telling his own story, as I heard it shortly after the occurrence, he said: "I had gone perhaps two miles up the large stream. The night was almost as light as day and very calm. I could hear the echo of the ring of my steel skates on the shore as I passed swiftly along. Coming to the mouth of a smaller stream on my right, I concluded to explore it a short distance. It was very crooked. In going up it some threequarters of a mile, I think, I must have traveled fully two miles. Its average width was about sixty feet. Both banks of the stream were heavily timbered, principally with hemlock, and the branches interlocked, forming a complete canopy over my head, making it quite dark in comparison with the broad creek I had just left. How long I might have enjoyed the delight of the exercise and the beautiful scenery of this little stream I can not tell. I was unpleasantly interrupted by a strange sound which I supposed at first was the hooting of an owl. As I listened the conclusion came to me that the noises came from wolves, and boded me no good. Keeping my presence of mind, I started on the back track for the mouth of the creek. I had not gone far before I heard the howls unpleasantly near. In my race for safety I had to follow the course of the windings of the stream, while my pursuers traveled not more than half the distance that I was forced to get over. It was a race on my part for life, and for supper on the part of the wolves. To make a meal for a gang of those savage animals is not a pleasant prospect. At about forty yards from the mouth of the little creek they tried to head me off from the big stream. The bank was quite a bluff, and I could see them on shore ready to spring upon me as I passed. I bent my head and brought every nerve in play in the effort to pass this point of danger. As I passed under full headway they jumped at me, but miscalculating my speed they struck the ice quite a distance behind. I glided out on the broad Tionesta, and felt relieved, but the race was not over. They followed me on down the stream. I was perfectly at home on skates, but all my fleetness and skill were necessary to enable me to escape their fangs. When they came so near that I could hear their pattering on the ice I would * D. Harrington.

Andrew Ditz, who died in June, 1888, came to the Fryburg neighborhood from Baden, Germany, in 1825, with his father and five brothers and sisters. His wife, to whom he was married in 1840, was the daughter of Bertchner, another pioneer; she died in 1884.... The pioneer Allio and his wife (both now deceased), natives of France, located nine miles southeast of Tionesta in 1835, and were residents there in 1870, when a note of their ages was made —one one hundred and six, and the other one hundred and four, years of age. John Cobb, born in Vermont in 1815, came to Lower Sheffield in 1841, moved to Ridgway in 1842, entered the lumber business there, and died in August, 1888. He and his sons were the pioneers of modern lumbering methods in Forest county, the location being at Lacy's mills.... Samuel Dempsey died in November, 1887. From 1835 to 1847 he worked in the furnace at Rockland, and afterward in the furnace on Little Hickory for William Cross. After taking ore from the neighboring hills for some years, he opened a farm in Hickory, which he occupied until his removal to Iowa in 1865. He returned a few years before his death.... Thomas Selders, the river pilot, born in the French Creek settlement in 1808, moved to Tionesta in 1850, and died in July, 1880.

"Mr. Bloom was

He owned a The clothing

Daniel Harrington, referring to Herman Blume, says: one of the most courteous German gentlemen that I ever met. house and lot in the village, and worked at his trade as a tailor. he made for his customers was always honestly put together; the wind never blew the buttons off that he sewed on. I was at Franklin when he made application for his naturalization papers. He would sometimes take a little hop bitters, or a substitute therefor, and get in a jolly good humor. I remember one time he said to me, 'Mr. Harrington, oh put I do feel goot.' He resigned his earthly commission in December, 1879, at nearly ninety years of A number of his grandsons are citizens of Dutch Hill."

age.

Recently a citizen of this county learning of a treasury certificate issued to one of his ancestors in 1793, brought the matter before the old historian of Forest, who addressed the following letter to the department:

DEAR SIR: My attention was called by J. H. Nourse, of this county, to a paragraph

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