Grove, but Mr. Colegrove states that there was only a grist-mill on Red Mill creek, near Clermont, in 1815. In 1809 some iron was purchased from Joseph Olds for use in the old saw-mill.

In 1812 the
The legends

Alexander Van Peter Mills was the surveyor for Busti & Cooper in 1809– 10, and in August, 1810, he received $154.25 for his services from Mr. Lawrence. In August, 1810, A. Van Peter Mills surveyed the town of Instanter, and Gooding Packard received $23.32 for carrying the chain; Isaac Vantayle and George Vantayle were also chain carriers. David Combs is introduced in August as the purchaser of three quarts of whisky. As he was the first man married in the county it is thought that the occasion suggested this extravagance. In October the following entry is made: "Busti & Cooper, by a man Mr. Cooper left almost dead;" and in November a road was opened from the mill to Instanter, and William Neilson was allowed a dollar a day for work in the saw-mill, and was allowed $16 for going down Tobey creek with Wallace. John Harrison was blacksmith as well as Seth Marvin. The names of John Hunter, Thomas Cole and William Gygar (the first blacksmith), appear on the books at this time. Arnold Hunter, the first settler of Smethport, was at Instanter in 1811, and at this time Joel Bishop's name appears. The land office building was completed in 1811. James D. Bemis was added to the settlement, and John Stevens' printing office was established. office was abandaned, and the settlement practically broken up. of the settlement tell of the old Catholic church of 1809, and the sudden disappearance of the priest in 1812. He was seen to enter the sugar bush at the end of the main street, but not a vestige of his garments or himself could be found by the searchers. Seth Marvin, John Mullander, Squire Renwick, Surveyor E. Ayers, William Armstrong, Thomas Lazenby, William Higgins, Sylvanus Russell, George Graham, Stephen Waterman, John Burrows are the names mentioned in the records of the period. In February, 1810, E. Van Wickle completed a six months' term of service for Busti & Cooper. In April, 1810, a cow-bell was purchased from Ellis Pierce for the use of Instanter, and in May, Dan. Cornell purchased eleven gallons of metheglin at four shillings per gallon. The only persons remaining at Instanter in 1813 were Joel Bishop, Sweeten, David Combs, Sr., Job Gifford, Sr. and Seth Marvin, while Arnold Hunter moved to Smethport, and perhaps John Hunter. Those pioneers, with others in the county from Ceres to Instanter, heard the boom of Perry's victorious cannon on Lake Erie, September 10, 1813, and the weakening reply of the British guns. Their patriotism told them the story of victory long before positive news arrived.

John Wallace was a surveyor in the Instanter neighborhood in 1810. He it was who surveyed the lots for I. Rookens, south of the town; for John Hunter, on Marvin creek; for Seth Marvin, on the Nunundah; also for William Neilson, Nathaniel B. Bowens, James Travis, George Vantayle, Lorin Phillips, Thomas Lazenby, Daniel Cornell, David Combs, Paul Busti, Henry Dukintash, Reuben Priest, Joseph Phillips, John Robson, Joshua Loree, Solomon Tracy, Robert Armstrong and Louis Bronkart. He surveyed Peter Hankinson's mill lot in October, 1810, on the east side of the creek.

In May, 1817, Benjamin B. Cooper acknowledged a plat of the lands claimed by him in the fourth east Allegheny district as surveyed that year by Brewster Freeman, over the surveys of 1792. The lands were conveyed in 1812 by Paul Busti, attorney for the Holland Land Company, to B. B. Cooper and O. W. Ogden. In 1814 other tracts were conveyed to Joseph McElvaine. On this tract, within Sergeant township, Cooper had the town of Instanter surveyed in 1817, and acknowledged this plat May 30, that year. There are

four public squares shown, together with church lots and cemetery, all donated to the people who would settle here. W. J. Colegrove is positive that this is a resurvey and new entry.

The assessment of Sergeant township for 1836-37, made by William McAllister, gives the following names of resident tax-payers: D. A. Easterbrooks, G. and William Easterbrooks, Joseph Rhodes, William Palmer, Ransom, Simeon and Samuel Beckwith, Jacob Slyoff, Joel Bishop, Joseph Lucas (now living), William P. Wilcox (saw-mill owner), Asa Messinger (the Baptist preacher), J. Barnett, E. G. Wilson, George W. Dix, D. J. M. Howard, William A. Clough, R. S. B. Johnston, Simon J. Robins, Perry Preston, C. P. Johnson, A. J., William M. and Ann Swift, J. B. Wagor, J. M. Clark, Thomas Stafford, Lewis H. Beadle, Eliphalet Covill, Joseph P. King, John Montgomery (Jacob Ridgway's Clermont farm of 376 acres was assessed $1,180.50), J. Garlick, Lot Coats, Richard Wildey, Thomas Hockey, J. W. How, Marsh, J. F. Gallup and William McAllister.

Teutonia dates back to March, 1843, when the Society of Industry (Henry Ginal, agent) established the town four miles west of Ginalsburg. The principles of this society varied a little from the older Fourier system. The capital was $40,000, the acreage 40,000, including the coal hills. In the year named there were 450 inhabitants, a school-building and seventy or eighty log dwellings. This community divided their purchase into several districts, in each of which a town was projected. Clothing and food were distributed from the commercial store, married women were not compelled to work for the community, and all religious forms were tolerated. At Ginalsburg there were then 100 inhabitants. A stone school-house, a steam saw mill, a pottery and a furnace were projected. The dwellings were frame buildings. In 1875, when Mr. John Forest went to Clermont as paymaster for the Buffalo Coal Company, there were remains of the houses. It was a communial affair, which, like most of that class, fell to pieces. Ginalsburg is also a town of the past. The old Wernwag farm house was at Clermont.

trees.

This township may be considered as still in a primitive condition. A few prosperous settlements exist; but its greater area is still clothed in its native The construction of the Clermont and Johnsonburg branch of the Pennsylvania Railroad system now passes through the township and already the effects of its presence are visible.

CLERMONT.

P. E. Scull, who died at Smethport, in 1867, came here early in the "twenties, as an agent of Jacob Ridgway, and in 1821 cleared the old Bunker Hill farm....In 1827 the Red Mill was built near Clermont by I. Burlingame, who did the mason work. On the mill dam J. Green, J. Garlick and J. King worked. Ben Colegrove split rails for fencing the nursery and Orlo J. Hamlin and Kenny were attorneys in the Crooker litigation. The mill was built immediately after Paul E. Scull took the agency. Scul' told Ridgway that it had a capacity of eight bushels, and the proprietor was amazed at such an extensive concern being erected in the wilderness.

In the year 1827 the Clermont farm and store of Scull & Lee were in existence. Jonathan Colegrove was succeeded in July, 1852, as agent by W. J. Colegrove, the present agent, the former being general agent from 1817 to 1852....In May, 1847, the taverns of I. D. Dunbar and M. Goodwin were opened in Sergeant.... G. R. Moore & Son's mill at Clermont was burned July 17, 1887, with 100,000 feet of hemlock lumber, one car of bark and four

empty cars. Their new mill, three miles below, was being built at this time the Clermont saw-mill of C. H. Moore was burned in September, 1889. Supt. W. C. Henry, of the fuel department of the National Transit Company, furnished some data, in 1885, concerning the gas wells about six miles east of Kane, from which the gas supply is drawn for the city of Bradford, and most of the National Transit Company's pump-stations in the northern field. They have secured through purchase and by drilling ten wells north of the McKean and Elk county line on warrants 2,675, 2,729, 2,676, 2,723, 2,684, 2,695 and 2,685. Seven of the ten wells produce gas, and the other three are either salt water wells or failures for gas or oil. At some of these wells a showing of oil is found in a brown sand having a thickness of from twenty to twenty-four feet, which Mr. Henry has termed the oil sand to distinguish it from the gas sand which is found about ninety feet below. Where this gas sand has been drilled through it has been demonstrated to have a thickness of from five to seven feet. The No. 5 well, on the southeastern corner of Warrant 2,684, reached 1,943 feet where the gas sand was a depth of five feet. Well No. 6 is in the eastern part of 2,676, where a six-feet vein of sand begins at 1,776 feet. At the suggestion of Mr. Schultz, of Wilcox, this well was torpedoed, showing 250 feet of oil and 250 feet of water after standing thirty days.

The National Transit Company No. 7, known as the Frank Andrews well, is located in the northeastern corner of Warrant 2,675, and is a large gas well. The oil sand was struck at a depth of 1,762 feet and the gas sand at 1,862.

Clermont Cemetery Association was incorporated July 19, 1879, on petition of L. Steinham, L. Boyer, Jacob Hafner, Caspar Hafner and John Martin.

Clermont Lodge, 949, I. O. O. F., was organized June 7, 1877, with the following named members: W. E. Butts, Robert Dick, Walter Dick, Robert Jaap, L. J. Lewis, John Lee, James Morgan, George Morgan, J. H. Tate, Andrew Reynolds. The names of past grands are John C. Martin, Robert Dick, J. H. Tate, W. E. Butts, John Lee, James Morgan, Andrew Reynolds, A. M. Schmelz, George G. Windman, Edward Tracy, John Wilson, Alexander Muir, George T. Brown, W. A. Russell, James Davidson, A. W. Taylor, John O. Sonbergh, James Hamilton, James Robertson, John T. Cunningham, John W. Steinhauer, I. J. McCandless, Samuel Bedford, Addison Fluent, Jacob Amend, Adam Hafner, George W. Weaver. The names of secretaries are James Morgan (one year), W. E. Butts (one year), and J. H. Tate (nine years). The present number of members is eighty-seven and value of property $2,500. Dr. A. K. Corben, N. G.; Frank Hafner, V. G.; Jacob Amend, Asst. Sec.; Addison Fluent, trustee, and J. O. Sonbergh, representative, were elected in October, 1889.

The Clermont Union Church Society elected the following named officers in October, 1889: John O. Sonbergh, president; J. H. Tait, secretary, and Samuel Bedford, treasurer.

A Sunday school was organized at Clermont in December, 1889, with S. Bedford, superintendent; Mrs. Harrington, assistant; Sophia Hafner, organist; Maggie Bedford, assistant; Albert Anderson, treasurer, and Jennie McKendrick, secretary.

CHAPTER XXI.

WETMORE TOWNSHIP-BOROUGH OF KANE.

WETMORE TOWNSHIP

-GENERAL TOPOGRAPHY-OIL WELLS AND LANDS-LUMBER COMPANY-OIL FIELDS AND ENTERPRISES-POPULATION-OFFICERS ELECTED IN 1890-GEN. KANE-THE SENECA HUNTERS-FOREST FIRESTOWN OF JO-JO-LARGE SALE OF OIL INTERESTS.

BOROUGH OF KANE-ORIGIN OF NAME-COL. KANE AND DAVID CORNELIUSPOPULATION-THE PLACE IN 1869-74-ELECTION-SCHOOLS-THE BOARD OF TRADE--NATURAL GAS COMPANIES-WATER COMPANY-BANK AND INDUS

TRIES-HOTELS-CHURCHES-SOCIETIES-MISCELLANEOUS.

WETMORE TOWNSHIP lies wholly within the sixth bituminous coal

basin. It is the birthplace of the East branch of the Tionesta, the headwaters of which-West run and Wind run-rise in the Kane neighborhood, enter the East branch southwest of Kane, whence the river flows northwest into Hamilton township. A feeder of the south branch of the Kinzua (Hubert run) rises within Kane borough, flows by the Sulphur spring, joins the south branch two miles north, whence this branch flows into Hamilton township. Crane creek rises in the extreme southwest. Wilson run, just south of Kane, receives Dalson's run three miles southeast and flows by Sergeant village into Elk county. A few tributaries of West Clarion flow southeast across the east township line, while Fife run flows northwest across the northeast corner of the township. The highest point measured is near the Sergeant township line or divide, between Beckwith and Glad runs, being 2,150 feet above tide level, and the lowest point on the north line, where the south branch enters Hamilton township, 1,400 feet. The depot at Kane is 2,020 feet, at Sergeant 1,716 and at Wetmore 1,808 feet above ocean level. The average thickness of exposures in the township above water level is 575 feet, of which coal measures and conglomerate show 175, Mauch Chunk and Pocono 325, and red Catskill 75 feet, while the highest stratum is the shale cap near Kane, and the lowest on the south branch, where seventy-five feet of the upper Catskill appears. The shale cap of the Clermont coal forms the summits, and from the drift covering of this cap the rock used in the cellar of the late Gen. Kane's house was excavated. Fifteen years after the building of this house a shaft was put down seventy-five feet near by to explore the Clermont deposit; owing to the escape of gas the cautious laborers retired, but in two or three days they were able to resume work, as the flow was exhausted.

On the old Kittanning trail, north of this house, the Indians of long ago. used to camp, and to-day there is the fire-clay which formed the rest for beds of Clermont in ages past. Around Kane, however, what remains of this coal deposit was explored and found wanting, in a commercial sense. The Alton coal was opened on the Howard Hill road and in the Swede settlement southwest of the borough at an elevation of 1,980 feet above the ocean, or forty feet below the level of Kane depot.

The Johnson run sandstone at this point is highly fossiliferous. The cuttings on Clarion summit at Kane show its pink-yellow hue and regular blocks of forty feet depth. The color is derived from the equal distribution of iron

through its parts, as shown in the prismoidal blocks used in the Leiper memorial church at Kane. The kindred Kinzua creek sandstone also abounds here. The Olean conglomerate here averages about sixty feet in thickness, but one mile from Wetmore, on the road to Blesses, it is found in detached blocks 1,890 feet above ocean level.

The Ernhout & Taylor well No. 2, in the southeast corner of Warrant 3,215, was drilled to a depth of 1,990 feet between March 12 and May 9, 1878, and subsequently lowered ten feet through a fine, dark, oil-impregnated sand. The record kept by M. M. Schultz shows the opening 1,730 feet above tide, through forty feet of loam and sand, followed by gray slate, red shale, sand, shells and soft, gray slate, down 1,980 feet, when ten feet of dark, oil-impreg nated sand was brought up, and from 1,990 to 2,000 feet, the oil containing coffee grounds. The well was cased down 364 feet, but when it was evident that oil would not yield in commercial quantities this casing was withdrawn, and the phenomena witnessed in the old Wilcox well repeated here by an elevenminute water-spout, winning for this the title, "Kane Geyser well." This spout reached various heights, from 75 feet to 138, and in winter, when the ice king would grasp the stream, ice would form so as to show a high, transparent stand-pipe. The Coburn Dry Hole, one and one-half miles north of Sergeant depot, reached a depth of 2,263 feet in August, 1879, and casing inserted for 357 feet. At a depth of 148 feet, and again at 212 feet, oil appeared; at 610 feet gas; at 1,953 feet oil; at 2,238 feet Bradford sand; at 2,093 gas, and at 2,263 slate and sand. The Kane Geyser well was stopped by Dr. Crossmire and others, who day after day made trial to control its wild flow.

The Kane Blade of February, 1880, notices the purchase of 250 acres of oil land on Warrants 3,760 and 3,786 by H. O. Ellithorpe; the drilling of the Clemenger & Hunt well, on the James Brothers' land, and the Winsor purchase of 150 acres on 3,760.

Wilcox well No. 1, on Warrant 2,723, six miles east of Kane, and one mile north of the line of Elk county, was drilled to a depth of 1,943 feet in June, 1881, and filled to a depth of fifty feet with oil in one night. The Adams well, on Warrant 2,676, was put down in this neighborhood in 1865. The Wilcox Company comprised A. I. Wilcox, D. A. Wray, H. W. Williams and others.

In November, 1883, the Ridgway Lumber Company purchased 2,500 acres of land near Kane for $58,000. The tract was estimated to contain from six to eight millions feet of cherry, with other varieties of hardwood and hemlock. In January, 1886, the Kane Oil field, or New Black Sand field, appeared so worn out that the oil map, hanging in the Thompson House, was turned by the scouts wallwards, and many operators deserted the field. On January 28, however, the foresight of the scouts was rendered unreliable, for on that day the Kane Company's well touched sand at a depth of 2,207 feet, and, penetrat ing it for six feet, found a 125-barrel well. This well was drilled on Lot 426, a little less than three months after the Craig & Cappeau well was drilled (November 11, 1885), 400 rods south by east. The wells reported finished on February 11, 1886, numbered fifteen. Mr. Murphy's, the Associated Producers', and Chapman & Fickin's wells were dry. Kane Oil Company's well No. 1, on Lot 11, of Griffith's, produced gas, and their well No. 2 seventy-five barrels of oil; P. T. Kennedy's well, on Lot 12, yielded forty-five barrels per day; Simpson & McMullen's, on Lot 19, did not produce; Bayne, Fuller & Co.'s well, on Lot 20, gave 15 barrels; the Associated Producers' wells No. 1 and 2, 77 barrels; Craig & Cappeau's Nos. 1 and 2, 114 barrels; Roy, Archer & Clemenger's wells yielded gas, also Tennent & Co.'s, while the new well referred to above gave 125 barrels per day, and gave new life to the district, leading to