*.. ^■ ,.*>*- ■m '*r.i- K<*.' r QJornell Httiueraitg SIthrarg 3tl(aca, Kew Ifark Ward.. C... Elliott. To renew tliis book copy the call No. and give to the librarian. HOME USE RULES All Books subject to recall All borrowers must regis- ter in the library to bor- row books for home use. All books must be re- turned at end of college year for inspection and repairs. Limited books must be returned within the four week limit and not renewed. Students must return all books before leaving town. Officers should arrange for the return of books wanted during their absence from town. Volumes of ]fieriodioals and of pamphlets are held in the library as much aa possible. For special pur- poses they are given out for a limited time. Borrowers should not use their hbrary privileges for the benefit of other persons. Books of special value and gift books, when the giver wishes it, are not al- lowed to circulate. Readers are asked to re- port all cases of books marked or mutilated. Do not deface books by marks and writing. Cornell University Library F 159R4 E46 History of Reynoldsville and vicinity in olin 3 1924 028 863 987 Cornell University Library The original of tliis book is in tine Cornell University Library. There are no known copyright restrictions in the United States on the use of the text. http://www.archive.org/details/cu31924028863987 mi ^^l l ^i^ i m i hm^ i n' ^l im mm —ift HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY BY WARD C ELLIOTT HISTORY OF RETNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY INCLUDING WIN5LOW TOWNSHIP BY WARD C. ELLIOTT WitK mucK Interesting Historp of Western Pennsylvania never Heretofore PuWisKeJ srinrrruB. co.-frinters-book mnfbs.-punxsutawnev, pa. 1922 CopyrigKted IQ22 B5> Ward C. Elliott TO GENERAL JAMES POTTER A Surve^por ■who, in 1785, 'ft'ith his corps of men, were the first white persons to -Oisit this vicinity, This Historp is Dedicated b>l THE AUTHOR PREJPAOE The facts given in this history were obtained from early settlers, nearly all of whom are now dead; the State Library, at Harrisburg. the public records there and at Brookville, Pennsylvania; Miss Kate Scott's History of Jefferson County; Doctor William J. McKnight's Pioneer History of Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, his Pioneer Outline History of Northwestern Pennsylvania and other sources. WARD C. ELLIOTT Reynoldsville, Pennsylvania. CONTENTS CHAPTER I. Physical Features Page Early Geological Times 9 Topography U The Wilderness XI Fauna and Flora 13 Meteorology and Climatology 20 Phenomena , 23 CHAPTER II. Miscellaneous Indians 26 The Colonial Period 27 Early Land Sales. Town of Olney. Other Land Schemes 28 First Adventurers and Early Settlers 31 Burying the Dead. Cemeteries 36 Organization of Jefferson County and Winslow Township 37 Mails, Postoffice, Reynoldsville Names 39 Military 41 Making Maple Molasses and Sugar 44 CHAPTER in. Miscellaneous (Continued) Early Customs. The Introduction of Inventions 45 Tent Shows. Indoor Entertainments. Theatrical Troups 52 Social Life 54 Outdoor Meetings. Picnics. Crowds 55 Schools 56 Churches 57 Industries 59 Lumbering. Rafting 60 Coal Mining 62 Polling Places 64 Prescottville 65 Illumination 65 C?HAPTER IV. Highways Indian Trails. Bridle Paths 66 The Old State Road 66 Susquehanna and Waterford Turnpike 67 Milestones i 68 ToUgates 68 Travel on the Turnpike 69 Ceres Road 76 A. Proposed Canal 76 Railroads and Trolley Lines 76 Streets and Roads 78 Airplanes 78 CHAPTER V. Recent Secret Societies 79 Newspapers 79 Reynoldsville and West Reynoldsville Boroughs 80 Telegraph and Telephone Lines 82 Finance 83 Fire and Water 83 CHAPTER VI. Unclassified Poetry ' 86 A Sketch of Archibald Campbell 92 APPENDIX The First Officers Elected in Washington Township 95 The First Officers Elected in Winslow Township 95 The First Officers Elected in Reynoldsville Borough 95 The First Officers Elected in West Reynoldsville Borough 95 Burgesses of Reynoldsville Borough 95 Burgesses of West Reynoldsville Borough 96 Taxables of Winslow Township in I860 96 Postmasters of Reynoldsville, Pennsylvania 97 Certificate of Incorporation of Reynoldsville Borough 97 CHAPTER I. PHYSICAL FEATURES Early Geolo^cal Times. Reynoldsville and vicinity is located above an old ocean bed which existed millions of years ago in the early geological age, the imperishable records of; which have come down to the present through the tremendous, unfathomable abyss of time. The stratified rock proves to the geologist that during a long period in the misty past, billows rolled over this very spot. At times placid waters and again tempestuous sea covered this en- tire region during much of the early life of the planet. Eventually the ocean receded and later, during the Carboni- ferous age, the region where Winslow township is located, became a vast swamp. The vegetation then was not like that of modern times. The plants and trees were endogenous or center growing. No annual rings were formed on the outside as now. There are but few plants of the present day at all like those growing then. The only ones in this vicinity are ferns and the ground pine (lycopo- dium). Impressions of the latter plant, now found on rocks, which grew during the Carboniferous age are eight inches in diameter and 75 and 80 feet long. None of the varieties of the present fern grew then. Some of the ferns of that time grew in the form of trees. The vegetation was essentially tropical. The atmosphere must have been warm and moist and heavily charged with carbonic acid gas. Through this ancient swamp ran meandering streams and their beds have been traced in the coal mines as they lie deep under the ground. In time this swamp was flooded and covered with large quantities of sand. Then a second marsh was formed and that, too, was covered with sand. Many swamps, in time, were created one upon the other during the Carboniferous period. As the ages advanced these numer- ous buried swamps became beds of coal. How long a time must have passed for sufficient vegetable matter to accumulate to form one of the workable seams can only be conjectured. However, it has been demonstrated that flJve feet of vegetation) makes one foot of coal. Whether the plants which composed the coal beds about this region all grew here, or whether part of them grew elsewhere and were washed here, is not known. Several of these veins are so far below the surface that eventually it will be necessary to go down to them through shafts and it will require many years to mine the coal in this vicinity. For a period during and after the Carboniferous age the sur- face of this region was undoubtedly level,; but the constant erosive 9 10 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY action of the water gradually wore away the earth and rocks until hills, valleys and streams were eventually formed and now, after unknown time, too vast for the human mind to comprehend, through the acts of mutable nature the present surface has been formed. Until long after the Carboniferous age had passed all lifel was in the water. The land was yet nothing "but rock, bare and desolate. There was no sound of singing birds and chirping insects. Only the crash of the lightning, the roar of thunder, and the moaning of the wind broke the stillness as the storm beat against the rocky hills. When the Carboniferous era had passed away there came the Triassic, then the Jurassic and the reptile age, and the Cretaceous period. Later was the Post-Tertiary era. With these divisions of time came new animal and vegetable life. In the glacial period, of the later era, the cold was intense, the climate being like it now is in Greenland, where in the valleys ice is often several thousand feet thick and is deep on high eleva- tions. While there is abundant evidence of such a period having existed in sections of what is now Pennsylvania there is but little proof of it in some of the central counties including Jefferson. But it must have existed here at least at intervals, the glaciers coming from the north. At that time an immense quantity of earth was dug out in this vicinity!' by the action of ice making a depression which later created a lake, as is shown by the present formation of the surface of the ground. The foot of this body of wateij was just below Reynolds- vllle, and extended from near the present railroad cut to the oppo- site side,' of the valley. A ridge yet remains which, made a barrier to the lake. It wore through this ridge after a great many centuries, emptying itself, and what is now the Sandy Lick Creek was then gradually formed. Previously the water ran out through a more shallow channel a little south of the present course of the creek and flowed into what is now Trout Run a short distance above its mouth. One branch of the lake extended to the present location of Rathmel, and another to that of Soldier, a distance of two or three miles from the foot. The head was near what is now Sabula, mak- ing it not far from 13 miles long. A part of the present sites of Palls Creek and DuBois were covered by it. The same region even now is so level that were the Sandy Lick Creek just below Reynolds- ville darned to 83 feet above its present level the lake would reform and its waters would flow eastward through the Sabula tunnel. In the ages following its formation the bottom was covered with sand and gravel which washed into it and now when digging water wells on the low ground in Reynoldsville no rock is found, only sand and gravel being encountered. PHYSICAL FEATURES 11 On the flats at DuBois when drilling for water, and after hav- ing gone( through sand and gravel for nearly 90 feet, a small piece of a tree trunk with fresh appearing hark on it came up. The wood was perfectly sound. It had evidently sunk to the bottom of the lake and later had been covered over by the deposit of sand and gravel. Last came man. Who the first was, and when he came will never be known. He must have been uncivilized. Topography. The area included in this history comprises the territory lying within the boundary of Winslow township, Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, which Includes Reynoldsvllle. It lies a little south of the central part of the east boundary line of the county. The county lies a little west of the center of the State. The altiude above the sea on the Pennsylvania Railroad, at Reynoldsvllle, is 1,372 feet. On the hills in the towoship it ranges from 1,450 to 1,650 feet and over above sea level. The distance from Reynoldsvllle to Pittsburgh, by the Pennsylvania Railroad, is 120 miles to the southwest, and from Reynoldsvllle eastward to Williamsport 137 miles. Winslow township is nearly square. It is situated west of the crest of the Alle- gheny Mountains. The main stream is the Sandy Lick Creek which runs through the township. The Indians gave it its name which when translated from both the Seneca and Delaware languages into English means sandy lick. The Senecas called it the Oh ne sah geh jah geh da geh) gah yon ha da* and the Delawares the Legamwi Mahonne. In 1798 the stream was designated by statute the Sandy Lick. Norris, McCreight, and Prospect Knobs are the highest points. Much of Winslow township is valuable for farming though a small part is tooj hilly. The principal farming settlements in the township are Paradise, Horm and Fye. The Wilderness. The forests in this region being mostly of pine must have existed from remote geological times. This section, about the beginning of the 19th century, was variously known as The Backlands, The Wilderness, The Indian Country, The Pine Country, The Pennsylvania Backwoods, The Pennsylvania Northwest, and The Fort Stanwix Indian Purchase. If an early pioneer had climbed to one of tne highest elevations in this locality he could have looked for 20 or 30 miles in any direc- tion and have seen hills and valleys completely covered with pri- meval forests of pine and hemlock. There would not have been a spot free of trees to break the sea of dark bluish green which gradually faded into a purplish haze as it neared the horizon. •Doctor William J. McKnlghfs Pioneer Outline History of North- western Pennsylvania, p. 639. 12 HISTORY OF REYNOLDS VILLE AND VICINITY In the autumn the gorgeous hues of those boundless forests vhich greeted the eye of the first settlers were a sight of transcend- ent beauty. Many small areas of bright variegated maples were made vastly more brilliant by contrast with the immense background of dark greeii pine and hemlock which was far more beautiful than a single unbroken color. Huge tree trunks lay decaying every rod or so on the forest floor where they had fallen during a storm after they had lived their natural life. The wilderness in these unexplored wilds before the advent of civilization was very dense, hemlock and pine trees with immense trunks towered to a great height. iThe dark deep woods were moist and ferns grew in abundance. Nature was exhibited at that time in her wildest grandeur. Such sublimity can never be seen again. How beautiful must have been the verdant old forest in its solitude( to the Indian hunter as he stood amid the moaning pines and the sparkling, dew covered foliage atl the gray dawn! The thrush, the oriole, the wren, and the chickadee sang from twig and branch and squirrels barked as they sprang from tree to tree. Looking across the valley over the morn- ing fog the hunter could see the brow of the eastern hill and be- hold the golden sun breaking through the boughs of the massive pine trees and view the rose tinted sky just over the horizon. When this was a wilderness, and for many years after, the pres- ent business section of Reynoldsville was a swamp. It extended from about 100 feet east of what is now the corner of Fourth and Main Streets to about where Coal Alley now crosses Main be- tween Fifth and Sixth Streets. The marsh also covered the land from a short distance below what is now Jackson to Hill Street. Swamp Alley crosses what is now Main between Fourth and Fifth Streets and today has no evidence of ever having been a swampy section. Willow Alley which runs east and west between Main and Grant Streets, crosses what at one time was the deepest part of the bog and received its name from the willows which grew there when it was laid out. While the turnpike was being constructed though it in 1820 and afterwards, the workmen had much difficulty in build- ing the road. The gnats were so extremely annoying tiiat fires had to be kept burning all night at the camps to enable the men to sleep. It was necessary to corduroy the pike in the marsh by placing logs side by side across the road through the mire. In time these logs became buried] in the mud and then a second and third layer were put down. In later years when ditches were dug through Main Street many of these logs were found. No large trees grew in the swamp. It was covered over by a dense growth of alders, willows, and swamp grass, and was the home of owls, water snakes, frogs, PHYSICAL FEATURE3S 13 lizards, musferats and turtles. Fauna and Flora. Forbears of the birds and animals that were here when white men came undoubtedly roamed over this locality during remote antiquity. That time was so long ago In the geologi- cal period that the era of th^ old cities of Babylon and Ninevah was modern by comparison. The native fur-bearing animals of Winslow township were the buffalo (properly called the bison), panther, catamount, moose, elk, timber or gray wolf, wolverene, pine-martin, black bear, beaver, red or Virginia deer, otter, wild cat, muskrat, oppossum, porcupine, skunk, mink, groundhog (or woodchuck), raccoon, red fox, gray fox, northern hare, cotton-tailed rabbit, long-tailed weasel, com- mon weasel, least weasel, black squirrel, gray squirrel, red squirrel (or pine squirrel), flying squirrel, fox squirrel, chipmunk (or ground squirrel), black bat, gray bat, brown bat, jumping rat, woods rat, field mouse, house mouse, white-footed mouse, pine mouse, jumping mouse, common garden mouse (or silver mouse), short- tailed meadow mouse (or vole), short-tailed shrew, long-legged shrew, mole shrew, star-nosed mole, and common garden mole (or silver mole). Domestic animals which have been found by experience to do best in Winslow township on account of the , climate are horses, hogs, sheep and cows, the sheep for wool and the cows for milk and butter. Sheep are frequently annoyed by dogs. Cattle for meat cannot be raised here at a profit on account of the long win- ters. Mule breeding is unprofitable for the same reason. Goats, rabbits and hare could be raised profitably in the township. The buffalo, panther, catamount, moose, elk, wolverene, pine- martin, otter, and beaver are now extinct and some of the others are quite rare in this region. The last buffalo is said to have been killed in the northwestern part of Pennsylvania near the end of the 18th century. There were buffalo-wallows in Elk county and along the Clarion River in Clarion county. Buffalo and moose runways (they used the same) were found in Elk county. Skeletons of buffaloes are said to have been discovered by early settlers near Driftwood and Altoona, and many were shot in the eastern part of the State. They generally frequented the vicinity of rivers and large creeks. The wolverene (or glutton), seen here by the first settlers soon became extinct in this region. It inhabited the United States far to the west and Jefferson county was about on the eastern boundary line of its habitat. In 1825 there yet remained beaver dams at the upper end of where Rathmel is now located. These dams covered) a large area. The last elk was killed in our northern forests about 1850. The 14 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY last panther) was killed in Jefferson county in 185i6, and the last in a neighhoring county in 1870. Wolves, which were so plentiful at one time, suddenly became scarce. By 1860 only a few remained and the last were shot in Winslow township soon after 1865. Their sudden disappearance was attributed to hydrophobia which is said to have become epidemic among them. Wild cats are shot in the township every few years. Rabbits are probably the most common of all game and are more plentiful, now than formerly. Norway rats were first brought here in box cars about 1898. Agents once came to Jefferson county on the turnpike from Philadelphia stop- ping at Woodward Reynolds' tavern, where Reynoldsvllle now is, and bought furs of all kinds. They were supplied by men who made their living by hunting and trapping and when the agents left, their wagons were heavily laden with pelts which brought high prices in the city. The Longs were the principal hunters and trap- pers in this region. Jacob Smith and William Johnston were the principal trappers in what is now Winslow township. The English sparrow is the most common bird in this vicinity. Some of the birds which were very plentiful in 1820 are now rare. Wild turkeys at that time so numerous, became extinct. The last killed in Jefferson county was in the early '70's near Falls Creek. In the spring they went about in pairs, later in the season in flocks of 10 or 15, consisting of the mother bird and her young, and in the winter they congregated in large numbers. Until the early '40s there was a roost where turkeys spent the winter on the hillside just west of where Reynoldsvllle is now located and south of West Main Street. There, ' with their gobble, gobble, gobble, they called back and forth to the domestic turkeys at Woodward Reynolds' log cabin across the creek. The raven, quite plentiful until after 1850, is now very rare. Eagles, vultures, and a few other birds common long ago, are now seldom seen. Once both eagles and vultures nested in large numbers in Winslow township near its western boundary where McCalmont and Knox townships corner. Many stragglers come here. Among them are the Virginia or Kentucky redbird, white swan, mocking bird, seagull, tern, western gray goose, evening grosbeak, Florida gallinule, southern heron and several varieties of ducks. The "duck storm" was on the night of April 5-6, 1889, when web-footed birds on their way north were driv- en to the ground in this vicinity by the high winds and heavy, cot- ton-like snow. They numbered thousands and filled the creeks of this locality and the mill pond at Prescottville until there appeared to be no room for any more. Among them were dozens of varieties of ducks never seen here before, besides dippers, wild geese, herons, swans, loons, seagulls and the like Of many varieties. PHYSICAL FEATURES 15 The regular migrants which pass over Winslow township in the spring when going north and in the fall when going south, are the horned grehe, yellow-hellied sap-sucker, red-headed merganser, hooded merganser, loon, wood duck, huffle-headed duck, red-headed duck, horned grebe, Canadian wild goose, brant, and gray goose. The winter residents, which spend the summer in Canada where they nest, are the pine grosbeak, pine siskin, cherry or cedar bird, rose-breasted grosbeak, snowy owl, horned lark, white-winged cross- bill, butcher bird (or great northern shrike) and junco (or snow- bird). The permanent residents of Winslow township are the northern raven, American crow, white-breasted nuthatch, blue jay, quail (or Bob-white) , pileated woodpecker, downy woodpecker, hairy wood- pecker, song sparrow, American goldfijach (or yellowbird), white- breasted nuthatch, black-capped chickadee, brown creeper, screech owl, great horned owl, bald eagle. Cooper's hawk (or chicken haw^), red-tailed hawk, sparrow hawk, red-shouldered hawk, American rough-legged hawk, and ruffed grouse (or pheasant). The summer residents which nest in Winslow township and go South to spend their winters are the orchard oriole, Baltimore oriole (or hanging bird), chipping sparrow, purple martin, cliff swallow, barn swallow, chimney swift (or chimney swallow), rough-winged swallow, bank swallow, black and white warbler, yellow warbler, chestnut-sided warbler, American long-eared owl, short-eared owl, yellow-billed cuckoo, black-billed cuckoo, red-headed woodpecker, flicker, catbird, yellow-bellied fly catcher, kingbird, crested fly catch- er, phoebe bird, wood pewee, least fly catcher, marsh hawk, sharp- shinned hawk, pigeon hawk, fish hawk, night hawk, American gos- hawk, least bittern, great blue heron, green heron, black-crowned night heron, Virginia rail, Carolina rail, American coot, American woodcock, Wilson's snipe, least sandpiper, killdeer plover, belted kingfisher, turtle dove, Turkey buzzard, whip-poor-will, American bit- tern, ruby-throated humming bird, purple grackle. Bobolink (or red or ricebird), cowbird, red-winged blackbird, meadow lark, American grosbeak, redpoll, towhee bunting, cardinal (or redbird), indigo bunting, scarlet tanager, red-eyed vireo, warbling vireo, white-eyed vireo, American red-start, brown thrush, wood thrush, bluebird, house wren, woods wren, American robin, golden-crowned Kinglet and ruby-crowned Kinglet. The domestic fowls best adapted to Winslow township are chick- ens, pea fowls, guinea fowls, pigeons, ducks, geese and turkeys. Turtles native to this locality are the mud turtle, musk turtle, snapping turtle, land turtle (or box turtle), soft-shelled turtle 16 HISTORY OP RBYJSrOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY green-headed turtle, and speckled turtle. The salamander, nearly exterminated by impure water which began entering the creeks from the mines and industries about 1880, was about 10 inches long. It was called the fresh water alligator and, also, mud puppy. There are the blue-tailed skink, common lizard and ground lizard which are all much the same. The small smooth, newt, or eft, frequently called lizard, is a native. At a cer- tain age it is known as the green and at another as the red newt. The common toad is a native. Our frogs are the bullfrog, leopard frog, woods frog, pickerel frog, green frog, and large and small tree frogs. The last are also called tree toads. They are really in a distinctive class. The native snakes are the grass snake, red-bellied snake, ring snake, striped garter snake, spotted garter snake (or striped water snake), black snake, blue racer, blowing viper, hissing adder (or hog-nosed snake), copperhead and rattlesnake. I have never met anyone who has ever seen a copperhead in Winslow township, but this is its habitat and it is said that it was found here by the early settlers who exterminated it. The rattlesnake is rare. The crawfish, sometimes improperly called crab, is seen in the streams and marshy spots. There are two varieties, the large and the small, but they have no common distinctive names. The leech is a native. There may be two or more varieties but with no distinctive names. Mussels, or fresh water clams, abounded in the local streams until 1881 when they were nearly exterminated by the impure water from the tannery and mines. There may have been several species of them also, but without distinctive names. In Winslow township there are at least 10,000 and possibly •50,000 varieties of insects, including about 12 varieties of ants, 25 varieties of scale insects, 2 5 varieties of butterflies, 30 varieties of spiders, 50 varieties of grasshoppers, 200 varieties of moths; hun- dreds of varieties of flies and hundreds of varieties of beetles. Wild bees at one time were numerous and stored honey in hol- low trees. Until 1860 bee hunting was extensively carried on in Winslow township, and people had more honey in those days than they could eat. The wild honey bee is not a native. Its ancestors escaped from farmers, and the ancestors of those bees, in turn, were brought from Germany. The native fish were the black bass, black catfish (or bullhead), yellow catfish (or stoneflsh), channel catfilsh, speckled trout, yellow sucker, black sucker, pike, sunfish, silverside, stargazer, miller's thumb and about 20 varieties of minnows, including dace, chub. PHYSICAL FEATURES 17 fallfish and redhorse. Lamprey eels were here until driven out in about 1881. Rainbow trout and carp have been planted in the local streams. The Impure water has destroyed much of the animal life in the creeks of this vicinity excepting in a few small ones.* Attempts which have been made to stock the streams with fish and the woods with game have met with fair success. The disappearance of the forests and the clearing of the land has driven much game away. Underbrush briars and second growth timber, however, are proving a great protection. More stringent State game laws which are being enforced by the game wardens are doing much to protect game. The State has attempted to extermi- nate the more undesirable animals by giving bounties for their de- struction. In 1850 Winslow township was nearly all densely wooded and, until that time, wild beasts were very plentiful. When traveling but a few miles along the road one couldl see many animals. The creeks were alive with ducks, geese and other acquatic birds, and a small herd of deer was not an uncommon sight. If there was nothing in the house to eat the man of the family frequently put his rifle on his shoulder, went out and within half an hour returned with a deer. Wild pigeons were probably the most plentiful of all game. In the spring when flying north, and in the fall when flying south, there were millions to be seen. From half to probably all day at a time the sky was filled from horizon to horizon with these birds flying in such great multitudes as to often shut out the bright light of the sun. Pigeons could not exist now in such numbers for there are not the vast forests with beech and other nuts in abundance for these birds to eat. Winslow township was a great feeding place for them on the way to and from their roosts. Acres of ground in this locality have been covered by pigeons making an entire field appear blue when they rested and fed. Few have existed here since 1879 and they became extinct everywhere In a very few years thereafter. Large flocks of wild geese and ducks passed over here annually in the spring| and fall migrations. Fish were exceedingly plentiful in the Sandy Lick Creek and in Soldier Run in 1850 with no game laws to restrain the fishermen. After nightfall in the wilderness a profound, oppressive silence was broken at long intervals by the cry of wild animals. Now and then the shrill shriek of the panther suddenly aroused a sleeper in a log cabin with a feeling of terror as he lay on his bed of deer skin. But nothing was more wierd than on a bright silvery moonlight •Professor H. A. Surface, ex-State Zoologist of Pennsylvania, re- vised the foregoing list of animal life in Winslow township very careful- ly and it is given as revised and declared by him to be about correct. 18 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY night in winter to look out of one's log cabin window ana see and hear the wolves among the black, leafless trees as they called one another from one bleak, snow-sparkled hillside to the other in mournful, long drawn out tones. It was necessary to fasten the cab- in doors and windows to prevent the beasts from entering. Their dismal howls were heard on the hills from darkness until dawn and frequently they became so annoying that it was necessary to fire a gun from the window to frighten them away so that the family could sleep. The wolf was the most troublesome of all animals. He made the keeping of sheep almost an impossibility. Wolves when alone were cowardly, but when in packs and hungry were very dangerous, though there Is no account of anyone having lost his life by them in Winslow township. Few packs were seen here. The home of the snarling, vicious timber wolf was in the open forest. At night the cold, damp snow in winter, or the dead leaves and green moss and ferns in summer, was his only bed. The wide spreading branches and the starry firmament, or the angry storm clouds, was the only roof above him. However at breeding time the wolves found homes in the rocky fastness of the wild, inaccessible places, hidden by briars and clinging vines and there, amid the soli- tude of the dark, deep forest reared their young. Wolf dens exist in this region today. They are deep crevices in the face of the rock which tower from 10 to 30 or more feet in height. In the spring, pioneers found rocks filled with wolves as they had doubtless been for centuries, but with the advent of man the animal began to disap- pear and have not inhabited these places since 1860. Afterwards the rocks became the homes of porcupines, foxes and other small animals, but civilization has finally driven them all out. These dens have lost much of their romance since they were stripped of their covering and the surrounding lands laid bare by the woodsman. A fox den exists near the top of the hill between Sol- dier and Sykesville facing Sugar Camp Creek! to the east. A wolf den can be found about three miles north of Sandy Valley. Some interesting stories of animals occurring in this vicinity have been handed down. Much in this history I owe to John S. Smithy born in Clinton county. New York, who came here in 1835, and his wife Susann, whose maiden name was also Smith, born in Trade City, Pennsyl- vania. Below I repeat a story told to Mr. Smith by John Potter, a participant. Soon after the Potter family had moved into the log house on the turnpike in 1822, John Potter and his sister, who were members of that family, started on the trail to Punxsutawney, which was but PHYSICAL FEATURES 19 a settlement at the time. After having gone about a mile and a half they arrived at Trout Run, just below the mouth of Windfall Run, where they treed a panther. Potter returned home for a rifle and during his absence his sister and their dog stood guard. Before he got back the panther attempted to come down and the dog drove it up again, but with difficulty. Finally Potter arrived with the gun and shot the animal. I am indebted for many facts in this history to George Washing- ton Fuller. He gave me the following: In the summer of 1825 when his parents, Mr. and Mrs. John Fuller, had gotten nicely set- tled in their log' cabin on the pike just above where Rathmel Junc- tion now is their dog caught his foot in a bear trap, belonging to a neighbor, which had been set on the hill south of what is now Prescottville. Mr. and Mrs. Fuller heard the poor animal howl and went to release him. They had no sooner done it than the howling of wolves was heard about them. The cries became more frequent and grew nearer until Mr. and Mrs. Filler realized that they were surrounded by the wild, redoubtable beasts and were in a perilous predicament. Mr. Fuller had no gun with him, a tomahawk being his only weapon. He decided that in the event of an attack he would have his wife stand with her back against a tree while he would stand in front of her and fight the animals with his tomahawk. The outcome would likely have meant death to both, but fortunately they got home without trouble. The howling of the dog, presumably, had drawn all of the wolves, within hearing distance, toward him. As they were very plentiful the dog would soon have been torn to pieces by the hungry pack. Had Mr. and Mrs. Fuller gone out a lit- tle later they would have arrived just in time to come in contact with the beas^ts and he killed. One hot day in the summer of 1847 David Reynolds, then a small boy, was hunting on the flat land just above where Mabel Street in Reynoldsville now is, when he saw a herd of 20 or more deer lying in the deep shaded woods near Pitch Pine Run. He shot his flintlock rifle loaded with slugs. Nothing was hurt, but in an in- stant the deer were on their feet and soon disappeared in the dense timber, scampering over the hill to the east. Following is a list of the native trees which grow in Winslow township: Sweet gum, cucumber, white basswood, Hercules-club wafer, striped, white, sugar and red maple, staghorn sumach, dwarf sumach, poison elder, locust, black, white, red and rock oak, wild plum, hog plum, red, black and chokecherry, American crabapple, cockspur thorn, scarlet haw, service tree, dogwood, sour gum, white ash, sassafras, red elm, white elm, sycamore, butternut, walnut, bit- ternut, pignut, shagbark, white hickory, chestnut, ironwood, beech- 20 HISTORY OF REYNOLDS VILLE AND VICINITY nut, yellow birch, black birch, black willow, a species of aspen, juniper tree, liriodendron (incorrectly called poplar), pitch pine (or yellow pine), tulip, white pine and hemlock.* Among the most common native shrubs of this locality are the blackberry, thimbleberry, huckleberry, honeysuckle, elderberry, wil- low and black alder. The most common native vines In the township include the grapevine, ground pine, partridgeberry, strawberry and Virginia creeper. Among the commonest native plants are the liverleaf (two va- rieties), anemone, buttercup (many varieties), bishop's cap, wake- robin (two varieties), fringed gentian, closed gentian, aster (many varieties), dandelion, ragweed (several varieties), five-finger, daisy, whortleberry, golden-rod, wild rose, and many varieties of grasses, moss and ferns. Paradise settlement was given that name on account of the wild flowers growing there. The agricultural products which do best in Winslow township are hay, oats, rye, wheat, potatoes, buckwheat, corn, barley, hops, flax, apples, cherries, plums, pears, peaches, and practically all of the berries and garden vegetables which grow in northeastern Unit- ed States. Grapes do well but not exceptionally so. Tobacco was never very successfully raised in the township. The season is too short for watermelons and muskmelons to thrive. Meteorollogy and Olimatology. Weather conditions are differ- ent here now than in 1860 and before. The disappearance of the forests is the cause. When the wilderness existed there were no long cold winters as now. The trees acted as a protection against the wind, and with no wind there was less cold. Now the winds have less to break their force and, as a result, the cold in winter is much more severe and the snow drifts much higher than when there was a dense, forest. The trees at that time protected the earth from the heat of the sun. Now in the hot days of summer the sun's rays beat down with but little shade. There were not the sudden, violent changes then which occur now. Yet, while there was but little of the intense cold then that exists at the present time, the forests were never warm foi' a day during the winter months on account of the sun being unable to penetrate through the~^ trees. iConseauently after the snow had fallen in late autumn it remained on the ground until the next season and good sleighing, or hauling, as. it was generally called, existed nearly every day from early in November until the following spring. Now when spring comes the snow is nearly all •This list of trees was revised by Honorable Sim'on B. Elliott, of Reynoldsville, member of the Pennsylvania State Forestry Commission. PHYSICAL FEATURES 21 melted in a few days and the streams become very high but soon subside. When this was a wilderness the snow did not thaw as rap- idly as now and the creeks did not rise as soon. But as there was always more snow on the ground then during the winter and early spring and as it thawed more slowly, the creelfs remained high for weeks at a time. The atmosphere was very humid on account of the woodland retaining the dampness. The streams never became low even in summer. After clearings had been made and farming begun, the rays from the sun struck down upon the unprotected fields causing intense heat. The immense trees which grew thick all around the clearing made the circulation of air impossible. As a result of the closeness of the atmosphere together with the heat men were able to work for but a short time, and then were forced to go into the shade. This same condition existed in the slashings where workmen were engag- ed in felling and rolling the finest pine timber into great heaps to be burned for the purpose of clearing the land. The first flood on record which went down the Sandy Lick Creek was the big one in 1806 which rose in the Red Bank Creek 21 feet. The next was November 10, 1810. No one lived then in what after- wards became Winslow township, but the observation was made further down the stream. iThere were big floods in' the Sandy Lick Creek and in the runs in what is now Winslow township in January, 1828, February 10, 1832, February, 1840, and September 30, 1844. Also a flood in 1852 and one in September, 1861. Another, March 1, 1865, and an August flood about 1868. One June 11, 1884, and one May 3'1-June 1, 1889, known as the "Johnstown flood" on account of its being at the time of the big Johnstown disaster. Also floods June 30, 1902, February 16, 1908, and October 18-19, 1919. Much high water on the Reynoldsville flats for many years was due to the Hopkins mill dam below the borough which was built just prior to the Civil War. Since it was taken out in 1904 the water has not risen' nearly so high as formerly. The highest floods on record in the Sandy Lick Creek were those of February 10, 1832, the summer of 1861 and the "Johnstown flood" May 31-June 1, 1889. There was not much difference in any of these, but the last was the greatest of them all. The one in 1889 was augmented by the breaking of the dam at Sabula, six miles above DuBois. It was at its height, and the highest water ever known in the creek, between midnight and one o'clock, a. m., June 1st, when the bridge where Main Street crosses the creek was washed out by logs floating against it. The water at that hour was six inches deep on the Reynoldsville and Falls Creek Railroad track where it cross- es Main Street. 22 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY One morning in March, 1841, four feet of snow lay on the ground. There was little the evening before. On the morning of September 29, 1844, nearly 14 inches of snow fell. It broke down the buckwheat and the houghs of trees then covered with leaves. A rain followed and the next day came the flood already mentioned. One morning in January, 1855, four feet of snow was on the ground, but it had not fallen in a single night as in 1841. The early pioneers had no thermometers to record the tempera- ture. It was 31 degrees below zero in this locality in January, 1856, 30 degrees below January 21st, 1861, 32 degrees below January 1, 1864, 31 degrees below February 2, 1881, 32 degrees below in Feb- ruary 1893, 35 degrees below in February 1899, and 32 degrees be- low January 13, 1912. It was 104 degrees in the shade August 29, 1881, 100 degrees on the 30th and 31st following, over 100 degrees in July, 1892, and 104 degrees August 6, 1918. The coldest winter ever experienced in this region undoubtedly was that of 185 5 and 1856. There was sleighing in May, 1856, and snow was on the ground late in June following. It was a very warm winter in 1856 and 1857 and people did their plowing in February and early March. Suddenly snow came and all during April lumber- men who, up to that time, had hauled no logs did so then for the season. The winter of 1875 and 1876 was very open. On January 1st there was beautiful weather, the thermometer standing at 70 degrees all day long. The only sleighing was for a few days in April. IThe first "big frost" as it is known, came June 5, 1859, when the vegetation was seriously damaged. June 11th there was another "big frost" and what the first had not killed the second did. The crops were ruined. A close observer found that in 28 years between 1883 and 1911 there were 19 years in which the killing frost of the season in Reynoldsville occurred on or between September 19th and 23rd. During the remaining nine years it took place later. In the fall of 1921 the first killing frost occurred October 13th. Much damage was done by a killing frost May 30, 1884. May 30, 1860, a whirlwind started near the Allegheny River and swept up the Red Bank and Sandy Lick Creeks and finally spent its force when it struck Boon's Mountains in Clearfileld county. A swath varying from one half a mile to a mile and a half wide was covered. It passed through Winslow township at about noon, and over where much of the western part of Reynoldsville now is, though some of the storm went on the east side of the creek. The roar caused by the high winds and falling trees was terrific. Fortunately, this sec- tion being little inhabited, no person lost his life. Many cows were PHYSICAL FEATURES 23 killed in the forest. Every tree and building in the path of the tor- nado was blown down. Trees were torn out by the roots. Shingles and boards which were carried by the winds high In the air for 2 5 or 30 miles from down the creek fell to the ground when they came to Reynoldsville. For a short time it was almost as dark as night. The pike and near the western part of Reynoldsville for about a mile, where it crossed the path of the gale, was filled with trees which had been blown over it. People who saw the storm approach ran for shel- ter. When they came from their hiding they beheld a strange sight for it seemed as if they were in another country. Hills, farm houses, barns, cleared lands, a creek and many other things came suddenly to view. The forest which had been standing a few moments before had been wrecked for miles and the scene beyond was then suddenly exposed. A storm in which hailstones weighing 10 ounces each, fell immediately. Up until that time forest fires had been unknown in this wilderness on account of the dampness of the woods, but be- ginning with the following season the dried timber and brush ignited and forest fires became an annual occurrence. Rabbits and even deer dashed panic-stricken before the blaze. Wildcats and other animals are said to have been seen running for safety. Probably the worst season for forest fires in this region was in 1908. The air was filled with smoke from such fires for weeks that fall. At times in Reynoldsville and in Winslow township one could not see clearly for 100 feet. Smoke was stifiing. One of the severest windstorms to visit this locality, of which there is any authentic record, was April 7,; 1908, which, according to the nearest wind-measuring instrument, blew 68 miles an hour. Phenomena. Between three and seven o'clock in the morning, December 16, 1811, two earthquake shocks shook the log cabins in Jefferson county. A shock was observed in Winslow township March 9, 1832. A slight tremor was felt in Reynoldsville in the sum- mer of 1868 and another in the summer of 1896. The "Darkest Day" in Jefferson county was October 23, 1819. November 3, 1833, possibly the greatest meteoric shower looked upon by man was visible in this wilderness from about three o'clock in the morning until sunrise. It was one of the most weird and spec- tacular sights ever seen in the skies, and was witnessed at about five o'clock, a short time before daylight, by John Puller and family in what is now Winslow township. A magnificent display of northern lights was seen all through this region one night in August, 185 6, which has not been equalled since this section was first inhabited by white men. Those who wit- nessed it never forgot the sight. Many superstitious people believed that the world was coming to an end. Blue and white lights shot 2 4 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY up from the northern horizon to the zenith. The display was awe in- spiring. Winslow township was in almost total darkness for a few mo- ments on account of an eclipse of the sun August 7, 1868. The roar of cannon at Gettysburg July 3, 1863, was heard in Winslow township all day long. The distance in a straight line from Gettysburg to Winslow township is about 125 miles northwest. The hills in this locality are higher than at Gettysburg and the wind was blowing from that direction, which made the booming far more easy to hear. The noise was heard at frequent intervals and sounded like BOOM-BOOMBOOMBOOM-BOOM-BOM! Then quiet; again BOOM-BOOMBOOMBOOMBOOM-BOOM-BOOM! In the summer of 1907 the blasting of rock for the construction of the Shawmut Railroad about nine miles north of Reynoldsville was distinctly heard in the borough and windows were shaken by the trembling earth. March 2, 1913, 1,100 pounds of dynamite exploded in a brick- yard in Reynoldsville. The trembling of the earth was distinctly felt at least 10 or 15 miles away and in DuBois, eight miles distant in a straight line, glass was broken in windows. The fire whistle at DuBois has frequently 'been heard in Rey- noldsville. When driving a heading in the Soldier Run mine a pine log, not petrified but sound, was found fifty feet under the surface. There was a creek above and probably the tree had fallen when a ravine was there and in the long years which followed the fifty feet of earth had washed over it. October 9, 1871, smoke was seen in Reynoldsville coming from the west in large clouds. The sky was filled with it and the sun shown red. It was believed to have come from Chicago, it being the dayi the fire was at its height. The distance in a straight line is 485 miles and it is slightly north of due west, about the directioD from which the wind blows most heavily and persistently. Some of the smoke in the air in Reynoldsville in the fall of 1908 Is said to have been blown here from forest fires in Michigan and Wisconsin. Smoke believed to have come from Pittsburgh, 73 miles south- west, has occasionally blown over Reynoldsville when the wind was coming from that direction. About 1908 a fire broke out in the abandoned Washington mine a quarter of a mile northwest of Pancoast. In the same fall fire began in the abandoned Pleasant Valley mine within a quarter of a mile east of the Reynoldsville cemetery. About that time fire PHYSICAL FEATURES 25 started in the abandoned Virginia mine a mile north of Rathmel. All caught at the outcrop from forest fires. They were burning when this history was published and may continue to burn many years after. When the burning coal is not too far from the surface the ground is so warm above that snow will melt as soon as it falls. The atmosphere of this region is moderately humid which makes both heat and cold more perceptible even though the thermometer may register the same, than in places where it is dry. The reason for this moisture is the close proximity of Wlnslow township to Lake Erie 90 miles to the northwest. The prevailing winds which cross Winslow township are from the West and they are the heaviest. The main cause for this condi- tion is that this territory lies within the zone of the prevailing west- erly winds, while the Allegheny Mountains act as a barrier to the easterly winds. CHAPTER n. MISCELLANEOUS Indians. For many hundreds, perhaps thousands of years, the red man pitched his wigwam on the banks of the streams in this vi- cinity. As he sat beneath the stars the gray smoke and blazing red flames from his camp fires twined upward among the tree tops. In this lonely wilderness, so broad and deep and wild, as the pines moaned dismally the sayage in his forest home smoked his pipe and with his squaw and papoose listened to the howl of the wolf and the hoot of the owl in the darkness. Only the Creator knew that after untold centuries the roar and shriek of the locomotive would be heard, the wheels of industry would turn and that a superior race would dwell there. Little is known of the aborigines of the United States previous to the discovery by Columbus. And there never have been evidences of prehistoric or any ether early races whatsoever, but that of the ancestors of the natives found in this region by the Europeans. Here was the home of the Iroquois confederation, first known in history as the Five Nations, comprising the Cayuga, Mohawk, Oneida, Onondaga, and Seneca tribes. The confederation had been formed in 1570. The Tuscaroras joined them in 1722. Thereafter they were known among the English as the Six Nations. The Iroquoians, so named by the French, called themselves the Ongwanonsionni, "we of the extended lodge." The Delawares gave them the name Mingwe. The northern and western Algonquins called them Nadowa, "adders." The Powhatans called them Massawomekes. The confederation of Iroquois immediately began to make their united power felt. After the coming of the Dutch from whom they procured firearms they were able to extend their conquests over al] the neighboring tribes, until their domain was acknowledged from the Ottawa River to the Tennessee, and from the Kennebec to the Illinois River and Lake Michigan. About the middle of the 17th century the Five Nations were supposed to have gained their greatest numerical strength, and between 1677-1685 it was estimated at about 16,000. But they lost by continued warfare. The most accurate estimate for the 18th cen- tury gave the Six Nations between 10,000 and 12,000 which was about the number in 1774. The Senecas, or Mountain Indians as they were called locally, was the nation of the Iroquois confederation which lived in this region. It was the largest of the six tribes. In 1660, the earliest es- timate, it comprised 5,000 members. Later estimates were 3,500 26 MISCELLANEOUS 27 in 1772, and 3,000 in 1850. In 1909 there were 2,749 on three reservations in New Yorlc State. The Delaware Indians, as the English called them, lived along the river in eastern Pennsylvania bearing that name. They called themselves Leni Lenape, or "the original people." About the mid- dle of the 18th century the whites on the Atlantic coast began crowd- ing them westward across the Allegheny Mountains and many by permission o£ the Iroquois settled in this part of the Colony. Winslow township lies in what was once a favorite hunting ground of the aborigine. His nearest town was on the present site of Punxsutawney. Indian arrowheads and a few stone implements which they left behind are the only evidences of the red men's for- mer existence in this locality. About a half mile north of Sandy Val- ley was once what the pioneers called white oak flats, and when white men first came a deer crossing or trail ran through it. The forest at that spot being open it was an excellent place for the heathens to conceal themselves and shoot deer as they passed through. Since the advent of the whites, the forest cleared, and the ground tilled, a countless number of arrowheads have been found there which were turned up by the plow. On McCreiglit's knob, in the Paradise settlement, Winslow township, many arrowheads and other Indian implements have also been discovered but why they were so numerous at that place no one appears to know. Arrow- heads have frequently been picked up in the spring on every farm in Winslow township. When the first settlers came to this part of the State they found where the wild men had made maple sugar. The last native tawney skinned family and the only one now known that lived in this section, left in about 1816 and was taken north with others to a reservation. The English name of the fam- ily was John, and at one time their wigwam sat on the southern bank of Soldier Run a few rods above 10th Street in Reynoldsville. After their removal three of them came here to their old hunting grounds to hunt and fish every year, until 1824, when they returned to their reservations never to revisit this region . iThey killed many deer and tear on the site where Reynoldsville is now located. The hunters were Big John, Little John, and Saucy John. They had a brother, John Sight, but he never accompanied them. iSam Modock was the last Indian to return here who was a na- tive of this region. His final visit was in 1843. Afterwards he killed a woman and two children and was hanged for the murder in But- ler, Pennsylvania. The Colonial Period. In 1606 Virginia was designated as ex- tending from the 34th to the 45th degree north latitude. What is now Winslow township was then in the section which soon became 28 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY known as North Virginia. In 1620 Nortli Virginia ceased to exist when King James I., of England, granted a charter to The Plymouth Company giving them the territory between 41 and 46 degrees north latitude and from the Atlantic to the Pacific Ocean excepting only such lands as were in the possession of other nations. New Nether- land, which occupied territory along the coast and was settled by the Dutch, lay within the section. In 162 8 The Plymouth Company granted all of its possessions north of the present Massachusetts-Connecticut line to the Massachu- setts Colony, and in 1631 all south of that line to the Connecticut Colony. The territory now forming Winslow township was then transformed from The Plymouth Company to the Connecticut Col- ony, though in reality it was in the full possession of the Indians. In 1683 King Charles II., of England, after having fixed the south- ern boundary of Connecticut at 41 degrees north latitude, which runs south of the present south boundary line of Winslow township, confirmed the remainder of the grant made by King James I. Yet, in 1681, the same king had granted to William Penn land compris- ing (the Pennsylvania Colony as far north as above 42 degrees causing a large territory to be in dispute. Strife at once began and blood was shed as a result, in the eastern part of what is now Penn- sylvania. The crown was appealed to during the controversy but it failed to settle the difficulty. It continued until the Revolution when it died out only to break forth again when the war was over. The easy going Penns were no longer in power, having ibeen supersed- ed by sterner men who defended the rights of Pennsylvania, and soon Connecticut was obliged to relinquish her claim west of her present boundary. The locality about which this history was written was, for fourteen years, held by the Virginia Colony then, for a de- cade, owned by The Plymouth Company and then, for over 150 years, claimed by the Connecticut Colony and, finally, became an undisput- ed part of the State of Pennsylvania, and all before it had been entered upon by white men. Early Land Sales. ToAvn olf Olney. Other Land Schemes. Wil- liam Penn had absolute right to all of this region under the great charter given to him by Charles II., of England, but it was a custom of the Penns to buy the land from the Indians. This custom was continued after Pennsylvania became a state. October 22, 1784, at Fort Stanwix (now Rome, New York), a treaty was made with the red men and the last part of Pennsylvania was purchased for $10,000. The tract then bought is what now includes the counties of Jefferson, Potter, Mercer, Warren, Venango, Crawford, Butler, Lawrence, Forest, Clarion, Elk, Cameron, Mc- Kean, and parts of Erie, Bradford, Lycoming, Clinton, Clearfield, MISCELLANEOUS 29 Indiana, Armstrong, Beaver, Tioga and Allegheny. Immediately after the purchase lands which lay east of the Al- legheny River and Conewango Creek were divided into 18 districts. The districts were each about seven miles wide and ran from the south boundary o^ the purchase to the New York State line. The district at the Allegheny River was Number One. iThe numbers ran east, and the one covering what is now Winslow township was Num- ber Six. It was six miles and 310 perches wide. The southeastern corner was where Cambria and Clearfield counties now corner on the Indiana county line. A deputy surveyor was placed in each dis- trict who, with a corps of men, surveyed this wilderness. The Deputy Surveyor for district Number Six was General James Potter, wha began his work in the summer of 1785. .Soon after 1790 the Surveyor General made a change within the Fort Stanwix purchase and, divided it into six districts. Num- ber One was at Lycoming Creek and the numbers ran westward. What is now "Winslow township was then in District Number Five with James P. Brady as deputy surveyor. He and his corps complet- ed the work of! laying out the land warrants in what at present is the township of Winslow. There are now 40 warrants in the town- ship. The legislature passed an act April 8, 1785, directing that these lands be sold by lottery. Tickets, properly numbered, were put in a wheel and the warrants on the applications were numbered in ac- cordance with the l6ttery decision. Applicants were permitted to take any unappropriated land. No person was allowed to purchase more than 1,000 acres, but owing to loose methods this law was eas- ily evaded and purchasers succeeded in buying all they wanted. Speculation was then in vogue as well as now and a few men became large land owners. This section was in Northumberland county and the warrants laid out here at that time became known as the "North- umberland County Lottery Warrants." The legislature passed an act April 3, 1792, in which it re- stricted the sale of unoccupied landa, to only those who settled on them. These lands had first been sold at $1.50 per acre, but it was too high to induce people to make many purchases. The price was cut several times until finally, by act of April 3, 1792, it was re- duced to 13 1-3 cents per acre. The law was then evaded more than ever and all endeavored to speculate. During later years the price was again raised. In May, 1785, an office was opened for the sale of the lands within the territory covered by the Fort Stanwix treaty. Timothy Pickering & Company were the first to purchase in what has since become Winslow township, which they did May 17, 30 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY 1785. Colonel Timothy Pickering, after whom the company was named, came to Pennsylvania from Massachusetts. He was a com- rade and near friend of General Potter, already referred to; a trust- ed official under Washington during many of his important battles, and Secretary of State under President John Adams. Original grants were obtained in all parts of what is now Winslow township by Timothy Pickering & Company, and Doctor Cathcart, of Phila- delphia. Timothy Pickering & Company owned what is now Rey- noldsville east of the line running north and south and crossing at the corner of Main and Seventh Streets. F. B. Smith owned in the southeast, and Welhelm Willlnk in the south and west. Welhelm Willink's lands were located in what is now the central and western part of Reynoldsville. He was a merchant of Amsterdam, Holland, and was associated with other Dutch who owned lana extensively in Jefferson county known as the property of The Holland Land Company. Jared Ingersol, at one time Attorney General of Penn- sylvania, owned in the western part of the township. John Nichol- son, Comptroller of Pennsylvania from 1782 to 1794, who at one time owned 3,700,000 acres of land in the State, also owned In the western, and Henry Geddis owned in the northwestern part of Wins- low. Henry Geddis likewise owned land in the vicinity of what is now Main, Fourth and Fifth Streets. Alexander Hamilton, first Secretary of the Treasury under Wash- ington, who was killed in a duel with Aaron Burr, at one time own- ed land in what afterwards became the upper part of Rathmel. As late as 1843 Sherman Day, in the Historical Collections of Pennsylvania, p. 3 80, said that "Much of Jefferson county was then owned by land companies who would not improve their properties and held them at such a high price that they deterred from buying, many who would have made improvements." Joseph Lattimer eventually came into possession of land now partly occupied by Reynoldsville, and in 1830 he had the town of Olney laid out. The map of the town measured 12x15 inches. In one corner it read "Plan of the town of Olney, Jefferson county, 11th month, 18th, 1830." In another place it read "Note — the lots in front are 66 feet, in depth 165 feet." Exceptions were given of a few lots of other sizes. The statement further said, "The main street is 66 feet wide, the others, 33 feet." Sandy Lick Creek ap- peared on the map. The stream now known as Pitch Pine Run was then called Cool Stream. There were 33 lots marked out extend- ing from about three rods east of the Sandy Lick Creek along both sides of the turnpike to about where Swamp Alley is now located between Fourth and Fifth Streets. Lot number one, located near what is now the northeastern corner of First and Main Street, was MISCELLANEOUS 31 sold in 1832 for $10. It was the only one disposed of. In 1837 David Reynolds, of Kittanning, bought the land with much adjoin- ing, stopping all possibilities of Olney 'becoming a town. Woodward Reynolds afterwards bought lot number one just referred to. About 1855 Tilton Reynolds advertised lots for sale at Prospect Hill, Paradise settlement, and attempted to build a town out of the hamlet. iThe turnpike in the advertisement was called Main Street. But two or three lots were sold. Mr. Reynolds had come there in 1830 and started the first store in 1842 in what afterwards became Winslow township. In 1855 the hamlet had grown to a population of 50 or 60 with seven or eight dwellings, a store, a blacksmith shop, a hotel and a doctor. People went there to attend entertainments and it was of more importance then than Reynoldsville. The town has entirely disappeared and the place is now only a farming com- munity. The Central Land & Mining Company is the largest dealer of real estate doing business in Winslow township. The company was incorporated about 1870 and consisted of wealthy Philadelphians. Pancoast, in this township, was named in honor of their first presi- dent. The company bought nearly 6,000 acres of land in Winslow and nearly 1,000 acres in Washington township for a little less than $45 per acre, or about $300,000 in all. It contained valuable coal deposits and was heavily timbered when purchased. Most of the land laid on a strip above and below Reynoldsville, on both sides of the Pennsylvania Railroad. Much of the land now has been sold. First Adventurers. Early Settlers. Probably the first white persons who came to what is now Reynoldsville were General James Potter and his corps of surveyors in 1785. They laid out, among others, warrant 201 which included part of Reynoldsville. General Potter was a Deputy State Surveyor in the employ of the State, mentioned under the head of Early Land Sales. He was a celebrated Revolutionary soldier and died in 1789. Joseph Potter who settled in what is now Reynoldsville in about 18 22 was a nephew. General Potter was described as being short and thick set and though not possessing a superior education had great intellectual force. He was one of Washington's most trusted Brigadier Generals and was with him at Valley Forge and in many important battles. Potter was also an Indian fighter both near the close of the Revolution and long be- fore. In the French and Indian war he was wounded at Kittanning during Colonel Armstrong's encounter with the Indians. He was also prominent in the politics of Philadelphia. The surveying corps generally consisted of the surveyor, two chain carriers, an axmau, cook and hunters. Prom six to 10 men were in a corps. It was impossible to carry all of their provision andi hunters were reauired to furnish enough game to make up the 32 HISTORY OF REYNOLDS VILLE AND VICINITY deficiency. Indians were sometimes troublesome in this region and it was also quite necessary for the corps to be large enough to pro- tect itself from everything. In 1787 the Mead brothers blazed a trail through here. Their names were David and John. The trail crossed the Sandy Lick Creek and went through what is now the Western part of Reynoldsville. The brothers lived in Sunbury, Pennsylvania, and George Washington's account of the valuable but unoccupied lands in what is now' Craw- ford and Venango counties had caused them to venture into the region. After having crossed rivers and climbed hills they reached the present site of Meadville. The brothers returned over the same route to their former homes in 1788 but were so well pleased with the country that they went back that year with Thomas Martin, John Watson, James F. Randolph, Thomas Grant, Cornelius Van Horn and Christopher Snyder. They passed over the present site of the western part of Reynoldsville with four pack horses and settled' at and near what at present is Meadville. Mead's trail began at the mouth of Anderson Creek, near Curwensville, Clearfield county, and all of the transporting through this wilderness was done on it until 1804 by pack horses. The Meads, in 1788, were the pioneer settlers of Northwestern Pennsylvania. Many who went through what is now Winslow township on that trail were afterwards murdered by the Indians in their raids of 1791, 1792 and 1793. In 1800 Joseph Barnett came over the route and started the first settlement in Jefferson county at Port Barnett. Surveyors were here many years laying out land warrants, and after 1796 they were also here surveying for the old State road, the artery of travel through this section until the turnpike was com- pleted in 1824. Doctor William McKnight, author of A Pioneer History of Jefferson County, informed me that the first white settler in what is now the township of Winslow was Henry Feye, Senior, who built a log cabin on the old State road where he kept a tavern and sold liquor. That was in 1812. The tavern was located in what is known as the Fye settlementy just west of the DuBois road and east of Rathmel. Travelers on the road carried their own provision and only secured lodging at the wayside inns. The old cabin stood for many years. About 1821, or just before, a log cabin was ibuilt on the up- per side of the turnpike a few rods west of the Sandy Lick Creek and was the first dwelling erected in what is now Reynoldsville. This, like many similar cabins along the pike, was made for the accommo- dation of the workmen who were building the road. It is said to have first been conducted by one Brockbank who boarded the men. MISCELLANEOUS 33 In later years the structure was used as a barn. Finally it was torn down and by 1845 the big old fashioned chimney was all there was standing and that soon disappeared. A two roomed log cabin was constructed in 1822 on what is now the south side of Main Street in Reynoldsville and about 225 feet east of the Sandy Lick Creek. The cabin soon became a tavern, and grew into great prominence and was added to until it was very large. A Mr. Caldwell is said to have been the fi'rst to live in it, but he could have been there for only a short time. It was soon occupied by Joseph Potter who came in about 1822. He was born in 1760 and died in 1842. His wife's name was Rachel and they had the following children th€| names of whom are given in the order of their birth: Rachel, Jane, Mary, Elizabeth, John, Hannah, Ramsey, Harriet and Jackson. Later it was occupied by Woodward Reynolds of whom mention Is given further in this history. In 1851, after it ceased to be a tavern, Daniel Dunham opened a store in the building and did business there until near the outbreak of the Civil War. During that time he made a fortune in merchandise and lumbering. After he moved out the building was gradually torn down and within the next two or three years it was gone. Daniel Yeomans came to this vicinity about the time of the ar- rival of Potters. Jacob Smith also settled in what is now Winslow township, bor- dering the present line of Henderson township, at about the same time. John Fuller, and his wife Rebeckah (Cathers) Puller, the latter from near Clarion, Pennsylvania, moved to what is now Winslow township in 1822. Mr. Fuller was the earliest settler who lived here for any great length of time. He died in 1872 on his farm above Prescottville where he and his wife had first settled 50 years before. In 182 5 a negro called Douglas settled in what is now Rathmel and cleared about six acres of land in the upper part. He lived in a log cabin on the township road opposite where the Presbyterian church now stands near the center of town and partly built another cabin| at a spring. The latter was never completed but stood half built until during the '50s when it was torn down. It was seen by Isaac London, born in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, who gave con- siderable information for this history. It became known as the "Nigger Spring." It is situated on the east bank of Fehley's Run, opposite from where Dutchtown is now located, about 300 yards above the township road, and is the largest spring that empties into the creek. 34 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY About 1830 Doctor Clark, of Pittsburgh, began coming to this vicinity every summer to hunt and fish, and he continued this prac- tice for a number of years. He built a cabin near a spring on the old State road a little east of Sandy Valley and it became known as the Doctor's Cabin. It remained standing many years after he left it. iThomas Reynolds came to what is now Reynoldsville in 1835, and married Juliann Smith, bom in Clinton county. New York. He became a prominent citizen, was postmaster, owned a saw mill and tannery and kept the first store in Reynoldsville which he opened about 1845. It was torn down in 1873. In 1837 David Reynolds, of Kittanning, bought a large tract of land from the Lattimers on which most of Reynoldsville west of Seventh Street now is and on which the cabin then occupied by the Potters stood. He gave it to his son Woodward who, with his newly married wife, he sent here from Kattanning to take possession. Her maiden name was Amelia Ross, bom in Worthington, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania. They found the Potters there. After con- siderable trouble and the payment of $50 Mr. Reynolds succeeded in inducing them to| vacate. He then proceeded to conduct the place himself. He swung a big sign in front of the log cabin at the top of a post similar to the style of tavern signs at that time. It was nearly a yard square and was painted black with big handsome gold letters on both sides, which read "The Sandy Lick Inn, by W. Reynolds."! The place was named after the Sandy Lick settlement as the region was then called. The sign was made in Kittanning. It swung to and fro in the wind for many years. On stormy nights travelers stopping at the tavern could hear it creaking on its hinges at intervals from bed time until dawn. In 1850 Mr. Reynolds built a tavern on what is now the northwest corner of Main and Third Streets. It was made of brick dried on the banks of the Sandy Lick Creek the year before. The building is now the oldest in town. Woodward and Thomas Reynolds were not related. There are now 125 to 150 persons in Reynoldsville and Winslow township who are decendents of these two Reynoldses and their families. About 184'5 the first settler came to what afterwards was Sandy Valley] and built a log cabin there. He was called "Penob- scott" Stevens and was from Maine. The first white person born in what is now Winslow township was Mary Jane, daughter of John and Rebeckah Puller, born on her father's farm in 1825. She married Julius Doling and died in the township. The first white person born in what is now Reynolds- ville was David Reynolds. He was born in his father's log tavern December 28, 1837, and died in Reynoldsville May 20, 1916. He was MISCELLANEOUS 35 the son of Woodward and Amelia Reynolds. In the old tavern oc- curred the first wedding that took place in this region when Martin Staley was married to Elizaheth Sharp, born in Columbia, Pennsyl- vania. They were joined together by Robert Douthit, Senior, Justice of the Peace, January 19, 1843. The heads of families living in Winslow township in 1845 were Joseph, John and Ramsey Potter, born near Philadelphia; Woodward Reynolds, born in Kittanning; Tilton, William and Thomas Reynolds, born near Chester; Jacob Smith, born near Trade City; Martin Staley, born near Tarentum; George Fye and George and John Boyer, born in Center county; Adam Yohe, from Schuylkill county: Robert and Oliver Cathers, born in Clarion town; Samuel, David and Joshua Rea, born in Clarion county; Robert iDouthit, Senior, born in Westmore- land county; and William Johnston, born in Butler; all of Pennsyl- vania; William Fehley and Andrew McCreight, born in Ireland; Ben- jamin Clayton and Daniel Yoemans, born in England; Samuel and sons Hiram and George iSprague, from Dansville, Vermont; Gilbert Burrows, Lanson Rexford and Mr. Griggs, born in Connecticut; John Fuller born near Elmira and Francis DeLorm, born in Franklin county. New York. Julius Doling and Oliver Welsh also of New York State; and Frank Goodaur, of French descent. In 1845 the entire population of what is now Winslow township was about 200. The population for 1920 was Reynoldsville borough, 4,116 and Winslow township, 3,559. The present estimated population of the hamlets in Winslow township are Prescottville 200, Soldier 300, Rathmel 200, Wishaw 375, Sandy Valley 175, and Pardus 100. Hopkins, or Carrier as it was called at one time, was a thriving lumber hamlet for years but now is out of existence. Pancoast, a prosperous mining hamlet once, is no more. The immigrants who first came to what is now Winslow town- ship were mostly Dutch and Scotch-Irish. The Scotch-Irish dialect entered somewhat into the early language of the first settlers in this region. The Dutch customs and manners are noticeable among Winslow township residents to the present time. Many of the American born farmers of Dutch descent In this vicinity even now prefer talking In Dutch, that is Pennsylvania Dutch. The immigrants in this vicinity for many years after the opening of the coal mines in 1874 were mostly English, Irish, Scotch and Welsh. Now Italians, Poles and Slavs predominate. There has al- ways been a large foreign element in Winslow township since 1873 on account of the mines. The immigrants of today from all parts of P3urope are far superior to those of long ago. Then they were half starved, half clothed, uneducated and downtrodden. Now they are 36 HISTORY OF REYNOLDS VILLE AND VICINITY not. Few negroes have made this their home. At present but one, a man, is permanently located in Reynoldsville. There are no ne- groes in Winslow township. Burying the Dead. Cemeteries. Formerly the dead were carried to the cemetery in wagons and sleighs. The first hearse came to Reynoldsville in about 1870. It was brought from Brookville. Coffins were constructed by local carpenters and were generally made of cherry. There were no sextons and the friends dug the graves No rough boxes were used. Boards were laid over the coffins to protect them from the earth that was thrown in. Caskets first made their appearance in Reynoldsville and vicinity during the early '80s. No doubt the first grave of a white person in what is now Winslow township is a half mile south of the Reynoldsville Cemetery. There is every reason for believing that it contained the body of one of the state engineering corps who surveyed land warrants here in 1785-1795. Now only a head stone remains. Once a footstone was also there. Now only undecipherable markings are found on the stone, but at one time these markings were sufficiently plain to show the date 179 — . Single graves are here and there on many farms in Winslow township. Some of them have been forgotten and others will be in the course of time as new owners come into possession. In a few instances two and three graves can be found together. No Indian graves have ever been disovered here. The oldest cemetery in Winslow township was in Cold Spring Hollow just out of the borough and about 300 yards above the turnpike. The place has long since been plowed over and all traces of the exact location lost. About five bodies were interred in it. The first was about 183 7. In Winslow township there are now 15 cemeteries of which three are private. In these about 4,000 bodies now lie. Fuller's is the oldest graveyard in use. It is private and the first body was buried there in 1840. At present it| contains about 50 graves. It is located on the pike above Prescottville. Prospect on the pike near Rathmel is the oldest public burying ground now in use. It has 150 graves. The first was dug in 1842. The more important cemeteries of Winslow township are Beulah, 1876, about 1,200 bodies, just east of Reynoldsville; Catholic, 1877, about 1,300 bodies, east of the Third ward; Reynoldsville, 1891, about 600 bodies, Punxsutawney road, south of town. The first accidental death in what afterwards became Winslow township occured in the summer of 1821 on the turnpike and on the east bank of the Sandy Lick Creek. There was a crew of men chop- ping down trees that were on the line of the proposed road. In the crew was a young man who was very much afraid of being hit by a MISCELLANEOUS 37 tree. His fellow workmen soon discovered this and in a spirit of fun shouted at him to look out for falling trees when none were fall- ing. His fright caused much merriment. He soon tired of it. One day he was actually In the way of a tree but when warned paid no attention. It struck and killed him. His body was buried near the spot where he died which was on the east bank of the Sandy Lick Creek about 20 feet above what at present is Main Street. Two logs marked his grave for many years. The place is now covered by the road bed of the Reynoldsville & Falls Creek Railroad. George Gulp was the first raftsman drowned in the Sandy Lick Creek. The accident occured in the summer of 1848. Others were drowned afterwards. At one time a cabinet shop stood about 14 5 feet east of what is the southeast corner of Main and 10th Streets. The front rested on the ground but as it was on a hill the rear was held up by posts. One night in November, 1850, the room was packed with people who had gathered to attend a religious meeting. As the building was not erected for that purpose the joists were not strong enough to hold the weight and the floor caved in forming a funnel into which the people rolled and a red hot stove fell on them. Many were badly burned. Some recovered but five died from the effects. Railroads have been the cause of a number losing their lives though up to this time no passengers have been killed in the town- ship. Many fatal accidents have occured in the mines. Charles Chase was hanged in Brookville in 1867 for the murder of old Betty McDonald in the Beechwoods. He was the first person executed in Jefferson county. His remains were brought to the Burns house, in Reynoldsville, by wagon and his mother came here from her home to meet them. Old citizens can remember when she had the coffin opened and she and others viewed the body. The marks of the rope with which he was hanged showed very plainly on his neck. In the region which this history covers eight homicides have been committed up to this time. Two of them occurred in Reynolds- ville. Influenza became epidemic throughout the United States in October, 1918. During that month 3 9 persons died in Reynoldsville, 35 in Soldier and 78 in Wishaw. In the latter town all, but 10 of the population of less than 400 had the disease. The central school building in Reynoldsville and the school building in Wishaw were used as hospitals during the epidemic. Organization of Jefferson County and of Wlnslow Township. In 1682 after William Penn came to what is now Pennsylvania he established the present Commonwealth and erected the three 38 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY counties of Bucks, Philadelphia, and Chester. Chester county ex- tended over the entire western part of the Colony and included what is now Winslow township, making this section once a part of Chester county. May 10, 1729, Lancaster county was erected, having been formed from a part of Chester county. Winslow township as it was afterwards known, then became a part of Lancaster county. January 27, 1750, Cumberland county was erected, having been formed from a part of Lancaster county, and the region now Winslow township then became a part' of Cumberland county. March 9, 1771, Bed- ford county was erected, having been formed from a part of Cumberland county. Winslow township as it is now then became a part of Bedford county. March 27, 1772, Northumberland county was erected, having been formed from Bedford and other counties. Winslow township, to be, next was a part of Northumberland county. April 13, 1796, Lycoming county was erected, having been formed from Northumberland county, and the spot afterwards Winslow township was then a part of Lycoming county. March 26, 1804, Jefferson county was erected, having been formed from Lycoming county, making the place now Winslow township a part of Jefferson county, and there it has remained. The land now Winslow township, since the organization of Pennsylvania in 1682 to the present time, has been in all, in the seven counties of Chester, Lancaster, Cumberland, Bedford, Northumberland, Lycoming and Jef- ferson. Jefferson county was named after Thomas Jefferson, Presi- dent of the United States at the time of its erection. It now contains an area of 708 miles. When Jefferson county* was formed it had no county town and Indiana, Indiana county, then served as such for this county. In 1830 Brookville became the county seat of Jefferson county. Winslow township was erected February 11, 1846, and was named' in honor of Honorable James Winslow, Associate Judge of Jefferson county that year. The first election was held April 6, following. The northern part was formed from Washington which, in 1839, was formed from Pine Creek township. The section where Reynoldsville is now located at different times has been in Winslow, Washington and Pine Creek townships. The southwestern section of Winslow was formed from Young, which was formed from Perry in 1826, and Perry was formed from Pine Creek township in 1818. Another part of the southwestern section of Winslow was formed from Gaskill which in turn was formed from Young township in 1842. The different sections of Winslow have been parts of Wash- ington, Gaskill, Young, Perry and Pine Creek township. Pine Creek MISCELLANEOUS 39 township was erected by an act of the legislature passed In 1806 and comprised the entire county. It was formed from Pine Creek township which first covered this entire region in 1772 when this became Northumberland county. Doctor William .1. McKnight, in A Pioneer History of Jef- ferson County, Pennsylvania, p. 493, says: "It appears on the records of the county that prior to or about the year 1839 a township was or- ganized and known from 1839 until 1842 as Paradise. From the names embraced in the officers elected in the township the territory must have included all of what is now Gaskill, Bell, Henderson, Mc- Calmont and a part of Winslow. It disappeared! from the records of the county as mysteriously as it appeared. Pioneer election in Paradise township in 1839; second' election in 1840; third election 1842." Sykesville borough was formed from Winslow township March 7, 1907. Mails. Post Offices. Reynoldsvllle Named. The first mai4 that passed through where Winslow township is now located was on a route established in 1805 and James Randolph of Meadville was the first contractor. It was carried on horse back between Bellefonte and Meadville over the old State road. The nearest post offices were Curwensville and Meadville. The mail was carried on that route until the completion of the turnpike in 1824. According to an advertisement of June 10, 1823, once a week service route 158, Bellefonte to Meadville, began January 1, 1824, but the records are not very complete at the Post Office Department in Washington on account of a fire occurring there in 1836. From 1816 to 1845 the postage on a single letter under 40 miles was eight cents; over 40 and under 90 miles, 10 cents; under 300 miles 17 cents. Until during the '30s produce was often taken and credit extended for postage. In January, 183 6, mail began passing over the pike, according to an advertisement, from "Philadelphia by way of Harrisburg, Lewistown and Bellefonte every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in a four horse coach. From Erie, by way of Meadville and Franklin, every Monday, Wednesday and Friday and returning the same day in a four horse stage." The mails ^ continued going through Reynoldsvllle between Clarion and Curwensville over the pike until October 20, 1880, and was fctar route Number 8686. It was 56 miles long and ran daily. But mail has been delivered by rail from since the advent of the Allegheny Valley Railroad which first brought passengers here from the west November 5, 1873, and from the east May 4, 1874. 40 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY The pioneers in tliis vicinity were obliged to go to Brookville and Luthersburg for their mail. The first post office in Winslow township was established at Prospect Hill, May 18, 1842, and Tilton Reynolds was appointed postmaster. In 1849 he brought it down in a cigar box to what afterwards was the upper part of Reynoldsville, and gave it to his brother Thomas. Near where the old post office was located another was established during the Civil War called Dollingville, but it was abolished a few years after. The Post Office Department paid no attention to the change of Prospect Hill post office for sometime. One day the following letter was received: POST OFFICE DEPARTMENT (Appointment Office) Washington, D. C, February 23, 1850. Sir: I have the honor to inform you that the Postmaster General has this day changed the name of the Post Office at Prospect Hill to Reynoldsville in the county of Jefferson, State of Pennsylvania, and continuing Thomas Reynolds postmaster thereof. FUTZ HENRY WARREN, 2nd Asst. P. M. General. HON. JAMES THOMPSON, H. R. That letter did double duty of formally announcing the of- ficial naming of the place and the appointment of the postmaster. Thomas Reynolds had called the locality Reynoldsville as early as 1845 when the only habitations in this vicinity were his own log cabin where he had just begun to keep a little store about 75 feet below what is now the south side of Main Street and about 200 yards east of 10th, and Woodward Reynolds' log tavern near the Sandy Lick Creek on the turnpike three-quarters of a mile west. Reynoldsville appeared on a map of Jefferson county made in 1846. Mail is now received and sent out from the Reynoldsville post office over the Pennsylvania Railroad east and west, over the trolley lines to Sykesville and Punxsutawney, and by four rural delivery routes. The first route was commenced in October, 1904. Three mail carriers first began the delivery of mails in Reynoldsville borough August 2, 1920. The post office at Sandy Valley was established August 20, 1872, Sykesvile October 8, 1883 and Rathmel November 27, 1883. The more recently established offices in the township are Soldier, Wishaw and Pardus. Post offices abandoned in Winslow township in recent years were Hopkins, Pancoast, Vantassel at Deemer's Crossroads and Prescottville. MISCELLANEOUS 41 Military. In the early spring of 1814 a detachment of soldiers under the command of Major William McClelland marched through what was afterwards Winslow township. His troops were from Franklin county and were on their way to Fort Erie to defend it against the British. The soldiers started March 4th and were 28 days on their journey. The command consisted of one major, three captains, five lieutenants, two ensigns, and 221 privates. They traveled on the old State road and encamped over night in what afterwards became Winslow township about half a mile west of the Jefferson-Clearfield county line near the head waters of what later was known as the North Branch of Soldier Run, it having been named after the soldiers. On the following day they marched to Port Barnett. Training day was conducted annually by the State at the county seats. It was held in Brookville during court week in September. The first was soon after the place became a county seat in 1830 and it continued until the iCivil War. All men of military age went from what is now Reynoldsville and elswhere in the county and drilled. They were accompanied by most of the popu- lation including the women and children. It was a great event. There were much drunkenness and fighting. During the last decade atten- dance could be evaded by paying a nominal tax and many took advantage of it. Immediately after the war with Mexico some tTnited States soldiers who had been in it passed along the turnpike and stopped over night at Woodward Reynolds' log cabin. When the Civil War broke out a large number of men from Winslow township entered various military organizations but mostly in the 105th Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers and Company H of that organization. The Congressional district of which Winslow township for many years was a part covered a very large wild and wooded territory and was called the "Wild Cat District." When the 105th Regiment was organized, its recruits were nearly all taken from the district and it was called the "Wild Cat Regiment." Reynoldsville during the war was almost deserted and old men and the women and children who were its residents were kept in a constant state of excitement by news from the South. The post office at Thomas Reynolds' log store was constantly besieged at mail time by anxious people waiting to receive letters giving tidings from those dear to them who were at the front. After every battle the excitement was intense. The news was almost always slow in coming which added to the anxiety. Too, often the letters told of one or more who had been killed, severely wounded or taken prisoner and homes became places of mourning and the entire community 42 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY was made sad. Those days of anxious waiting were only surpassed In excitement by the sorrowful departure of the boys for the army, or by their glad welcome home when the conflict was over. But many never came back and others returned crippled. The soldiers from Winslow township, which at that time in- cluded Reynoldsville, who lost their lives while in the service during the Civil War, were the following who belonged to the 105th Regi- ment Pennsylvania Volunteers: John Kuhn, Company H, died; James A. Johnston, Company F, killed; George Winkleman, Company H, died; Hiram P. Sprague, Company H, killed; Lieutenant George W. Crosby, Company H, killed; John W. Rea, Company H, died; Joseph Rutter, Company H, killed; Captain John C. Conser, Company H, killed; Sergeant Joseph F. Green, Company H, died in prison; Hugh Conn, Company H, died; Peter Sharp, Company H, killed; Daniel G. Carl, Company H, killed; George Howlett, Company H, killed; Sergeant Irwin R. Long, Company H, died; and the following from other organizations: Samuel Reynolds, Company I, 62nd Pennsyl- vania Volunteers, died; Noah Wensell, Company I, 62nd Pennsyl- vania Volunteers, died; John B. Clough, Company K, 11th Pennsyl- vania Reserves, died; and John Sheasley, Company K, 11th Pennsylvania Reserves, died in prison. During the Rebellion party feeling was bitter, and though a large number of people were loyal to the North a few were not. From the beginning until the end of the Civil War men passed through Reynoldsville to the front or were returning home from the army. No organized company went by but once and that was in 1864. They were after deserters a few of whom had passed this way. In April, 1865, five cavalrymen rod© through here going west. They were In search of Booth, the assassin of President Lincoln. The soldiers found the man they were after but he proved not to be Booth though there was a resemblance. The Civil War greatly modernized the whole county and more especially backwoods districts like Winslow township. Young men left for the army who had been In the wilderness all of their lives and knew nothing of the vast nation in which they lived. When they returned home after three of four years of military life a new world had been opened to them. Their conception of affairs became much more comprehensive and their experiences effected those who remained at home. Their primitive ways! were set aside and more modern ones adopted. Everything was changed for the better. About 78 Reynoldsville men formed a cavalry company in 1876 and drilled for three months. They went to BrookvIUe on July 4th and won a prize. MISCELLANEOUS 43 A number of Reynoldsville young men enlisted in the army dur- ing the Spanish-American War. Atmore Shaffer, of Reynoldsville, entered the service and was in several battles in the Phillipines during the insurrection. He and his regiment were also with the allied forces who marched to Pekin, China, during the Boxer up- rising in 1900. Many Reynoldsville young men have seen service in both the United States regular army and navy. During the Boer War, in 1901, over 250 mules were sent from Winslow township to South Africa for the use of the British Govern- ment. Italians left here and joined their country's army in the Turko- Italian War in Tripoli In 1912. Greeks from Reynoldsville joined the Greek army and fought in the Turko-Greek and in the Balkan War which followed. Quite a number of citizens of foreign countries living in Reynoldsvile and vicinity left for their native homes and joined the colors in 1914-1915 during the World War. In 1917, after the United States had entered the World War, about 130 men enlisted from Reynoldsville and about 120 from Winslow township. Of this number about half were sent to France. The following from Reynoldsville died in the service: John Anderson died at Camp Lee, Virginia; Charles De Hart died of typhoid fever in a hospital in Ancy-la-France ; Christopher Latz died at home from the effects of being gassed in action in the Ar- gonne Forest; Fred Mohney killed in action at Chateau-Thierry; Ancell McMullen killed In action at Chateau-Thierry; Fred Wheeler died at Camp Sherman, Ohio; Guy Wells killed at the aviation camp, Kelly Field, San Antonio, Texas; and James Woodring died in the training sciiool in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. The following from Winslow township died in the service; Millaered T. Alderton, township, killed in action in the Argonne Forest; John Coxson, township, wounded at Chateau-Thierry, taken prisoner and died in a German hospital in Breman; John Laird, Wishaw, wounded at Chateau-Thierry and died in a base hospital; Thomas Maxwell, Rathmel, killed in action in the Argonne Forrest; Richard Nesbet, Soldier Mine, died at camp Lee, Virginia. A Navy League and a Red Cross were organized in Reynolds- ville during the war which supplied soldiers with comforts and the army hospitals with numerous articles. Frequent "drives" were made in which Reynoldsville and vicinity raised its quota of money for war contributions. Every time a squad of young men left for the training camps to join the army they were honored with demonstrations consisting of bands playing, marching and farewell speeches. All during and 44 HISTORY OF REYNOLDS VILLE AND VICINITY for some time after the war young men in uniform were common sights. Making Maple Molasses and Sugar. One of the earlier occu- pations in Winslow township was the making of maple molasses and sugar. It was the only marketable product of the early settlers, for at that time this was a dense forest. Everybody made all they need- ed for their own use with much to spare, and it was all they had to sell to the outside world. It enabled them to get their groceries from the merchants. Some of the settlers paid for their farms from the profits made in the manufacture of molasses and sugar. As the country to the north was a maple sugar district a market was found to the south in Armstrong and other countries, while some went as far along the pike as Philadelphia. Every farmer in what is now Winslow township had sugar maple trees and made molasses and sugar. A few had large sugar camps. The first sugar made in what is now Winslow township was in 1825, and the first camp was owned by John Fuller in 1840 and was located on his farm just above Prescottville. Sugar making as a business was at its best from about 1845 to 1850. It was important afterwards though less was made from year to year until soon after the Civil War when it had nearly disappeared. The trees were, eventually, all cut down to make farming possible. CHAPTER in. MISCELLANEOUS (Continued) Early Customs. The Introduction of Inventions. The early settlers of Winslow: township as a class, on account of the lack of opportunity, were very poor and had little education, yet they possessed the same natural ability of the people of today. Their environments made them strong and healthy and, not mingling with ihe outside world, they knew but little of its wickedness. The dialect of the people of the township prior to 1865 and especially before 1840, while not marked would be noticeable now were it used. The' broad speech of the first Philadelphia travelers attracted much attention when spoken here. William J. McKnight's Pioneer History o£ Jefferson County, pp. 153-160, says: "Pioneer Dress of Men: Moccasin shoes, buckskin breeches, blue broadcloth coats and brass buttons, fawn skin vests, round- abouts, and woolen warmuses, leather or woolen gallowses, coon or seal skin caps in winter with chip or oat straw hats for summer. Every neighborhood had then usually one itinerant shoemaker and tailor, who periodically visited cabins and made up shoes or clothes as required. All material had to be furnished and the itinerant mechanics worked for 50 cents a day and board. Corduroy pants and overalls were common. "The warmuses, breeches and hunting shirts of the men, the linsey petticoats, dresses, and bedgowns of the women, were all hung in some corner of the cabin on wooden pegs. "Pioneer Dress of Women: Home made woolen cloth, tow linen, linsey-woolsey, etc. Barefooted girls walked three or four miles to church, when, on nearing it, they would step into the bushes to put on a pair of shoes they carried with them. Every married woman! of any refinement then wore day caps and night- caps. The bonnets were beaver, gimp, leghorn, and sun-bonnets. Women usually went barefooted in the summer and in winter covered their feet with moccasins, calf skin shoes, buffalo overshoes and shoe packs. "The home of the pioneer in Jefferson county was a log cabin, one story high, chinked and daubed, having a fireplace in one end. with a chimney built of sticks and mud, and in a corner always stood a big wooden poker to turn backlogs or punch the fire. These cabins were usually small, but some were perhaps 20 by 30 feet, with a hole cut in two logs for a window, — oiled paper being used for glass. They had puncheon floors, and a clapboard roof held down by weight poles to protect them from the storm. Wooden pegs were driven in the logs for the wardrobe, the rifle, and the 45 46 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY powderliorii. Wooden benches and stools were a luxury upon which to rest or sit while feasting on mush and milk, buckwheat cakes, hog and hominy. "The furniture for the table of the pioneer log cabin consisted of pewter dishes, plates and spoons, or wooden bowls, plates and noggins. If noggins were scarce, gourds and hard-shelled squashes answered for drinking cups. "Of pests in and around the old cabin the house fly, the bed bug, and the louse were the most common on the inside, the gnat, the woodtick, and the horse fly on the outside. It was a con- stant fight for life with man, cattle, and horses against the gnat, the tick and the horsefly, and if it had not been for the protection of what were called 'gnat fires,' life could not have been sustained, or at least it would have been unendurable. The only thing to dispel the outside pests was to clear the land and leti in the sunshine. As an all around pest in the cabin and out day and night, the flea was the worst. "Pioneer Food. Buckwheat cakes, mush and scone, corn mush and milk, wheat and rye-mush, wheat and rye bread, corn pones, corn cakes, hominy, potatoes, turnips, wild onions or wramps, wild meats, wild birds, fish, wild fruit, sweet and buttermilk, boiled and thickened, doughnuts, and baked pot pies. Everything was either boiled or baked. Soda was made by burning corncobs. "Pioneer Meats. Hogs, bears, elks, deer, rabbits, squirrels and woodchucks. The saddles or ham of deer were salted by the pioneer, then smoked and dried. This was a great luxury and could be kept all the year around. "Fruits. Apples, crabapples, wild, red and yellow plums, blackberries, huckleberries, elderberries, wild strawberries, choke cherries and wild gooseberries. "Sweets. Domestic and wild honey, maple sugar, maple molas- ses, and corn-cob molasses. "Drink. Metheglin, a drink made from honey, whisky, small beer, rye, coffee, buttermilk and fern, aassafras, sage and mint teas. "Foot racing, wrestling, and jumping matches were common. The jumping matches consisted of a single jump, backward jump, high jump, three jumps, and running hop, step and jump." At weddings in Winslow township previous to 1850, the friends left the cabin of the bride on horseback just before the ceremony and met the groom about half way and returned with him. A Justice of the Peace always officiated because clergymen lived in towns far away. A dance followed. The next day an infare took place at the home of the groom and the frolic was similar to that at the home of the bride. The first regular cook stove was brought here in 1843 though the old 10 plate stove invented many years before was used here previously for heating. Cooking had been done in front of big fire places. Pots and kettles were swung over the fire from a crane. Often a log three feet thick and three or four feet long was rolled through the big door of Woodward Reynolds' old log tavern and into the fire where it burned for several days. MISCELLANEOUS (Continued) 47 Lucifer matches were first brought to Winslow township about 1846, but it was not until 10 years thereafter that they were general- ly used. Previously fires were kindled by the aid of flint and punk. People kept them banked in their homes both summer and winter. Sometimes when the fire had gone out and flint and punk were not at hand, a member of the family went to a neighbor's house, occas- ionally half a mile away, and returned with coals of fire on a shovel. When Winslow township was new every one drank intoxicating liquor, even clergymen. Women inbibed quite freely. No one thought it wrong. Anyone could sell it and nearly everyone in a mercantile business did. No social gathering, where men were present was thought complete without liquor. After 1850 stringent laws commenced to be made which regulated the sales. Whisky was the drink of the harvest field until about the time of the Civil War when the custom ceased, but it was drunk for some time after at log rollings and barn raisings. For two years and a half during 1873-1874 and 1875 no liquor licenses existed in Reynoldsville. But there was no strong temper- ance sentiment and liquor was sold illegally. F'^bruary 3, 1916, Judge Charles Corbet refused to grant any liquor license in Jefferson county for 1916, and intoxicating' liquor was last sold legally in Reynoldsville and vicinity as a beverage February 16, 1916. Previous to 1850 people in Winslow township did the spinning for their own garments and they were made into cloth by a local weaver. Blankets, footwear and the like, as well as clothes for men women and children, were all manufactured at home. After 1850 machines in the factories drove out the homespun garments. The first doctor in Winslow towaship lived on Prospect Hill. His name was Doctor Harris and he resided there in 1849-1851. Then they were always called doctors, never physicians. He gathered all of his own herbs and made his medicine from receipts. The next was Doctor Crawford, a regular physician, who was located here for a short time in 1860. Often the sick in this locality were treated by Brookville physicians. About 1867 Jacob Crowell, who lived on the pike just east of where the Rathmel Junction now is, had his left leg amputated as the result of a sore. That was the first major surgical operation performed in Winslow township. John McHugh, a brakeman on the Allegheny Valley Railroad, whose arm was terribly mangled in the first wreck which occurred just east of Brookville November 16, 1873, was taken to The Reynolds Hotel on Main and Third Streets. His arm was amputated which was the first major surgical operation performed in Reynoldsvile. Flintlock guns and no other firearms were used in Winslow 48 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY to-wnship until about 1853. Caps were then employed. Cartridges were not in use in guns until during the Civil War. Bullets were made in molds until 1850. Daguerrotypes, the first photographs, made their appearance in about 1855 when people went to Brookville and got their photo- graphs. Tintypes followed, and then pictures on cards. The first photographs taken here were in about 1865 by photographers who traveled in cars and remained a week or more at each place. iThe first permanent photograph gallery was established in Reynoldsville in 1875. Until the Civil War and for a short time after loans of both large and small amounts were made without issuing notes and agreements were entered into involving quite large sums of money without written contracts. The loans and contracts were made verbally and in the presence of witnesses. Deeds of land were made in writing. Many Spanish and a few French coins were in general circula- tion when this locality was first settled. "Shinplasters" of the old State banks, which though good one day might be worthless the next on account of the banks which issued them having failed, made their appearance during the '50s. After the Civil War began, they disappeared and national paper money came. Fractional currency of five, 10, 15, 20, 25 andi 50 cents appeared with notes of larger de- nominations. But in a few years the government ceased issuing paper money of small amounts and finally it was gone. Counterfeit bills were circulated and in about 1862 there is said to have been more bad money here than good. At about that time and for a few years after merchant's script given by store- keepers and payable in merchandise was issued but it would pass only within a short distance from where it was paid out. Until during the. Civil War much was received in exchange and long credits were given for merchandise. Settlements were often made only once a year, generally upon the return of the customer from Pittsburgh after the rafting season when he had money he re- ceived for his timber. The first wall paper in Winslow township was used in Pres- cottville in 1859. Previously walls and ceilings were whitewashed. About 1S60 the fiirst window shades came in use. They were made ot paper and were decorated with highly colored flowers, peacocks, scenes or some other design. The latchstring went out of general use in dwellings in Winslow township in about 1860. One end was fastened to the latch on the inside to be pulled by any one who wished to enter. Drawing the MISCELLANEOUS (Continued) 49 latchstring was equivalent to loclting ttie door. No young man in Winslow township was enough of a dandy to wear a collar until during the Civil War when the more dressy wore paper collars with red striped flannel shirts and no cravats. Men wore homespun warmuses tied with strings, linsy-woolsey panta- loons, with numerous patches, tucked in heavy cowhide boots, and anything that would do for a hat until 1861. Their clothes were generally gray or butternut brown. Until during the Civil War most men wore full, untrimmed beards and mustaches, and their hair was. allowed to grow in the winter. By the time it was cut in the spring it often reached to their shoulders. The shaving and hair-cutting of many men was done when in Pittsburgh where they went with logs. Women and girls dressed very plainly until after the Civfl War. The first ice was stored in Reynoldsville in 1863 and the peo- ple were surprised to see ice in August. Ice was first manufactured in Reynoldsville in 1915. The first sewing machine was brought to Winslow township in 1864 and was called the Dolly Varden. It was small, had a chain stitch, ran by hand and was fastened on an ordinary table. The first foot power machine on its own table came a few years later. The first melodeon was brought here after the outbreak of the Rebellion. Organs soon followed. The first piano came in 1873. A pipe organ was put in the Baptist church of Reynoldsville in 1904, the Methodist Episcopal church in 1906, the Presbyterian church in 1908 and the Catholic church in 1911. Though in this locality in the past men never fought with knives or revolvers they often used their fists. Fighting was al- ways considered honorable and was common. One who would not defend his rights by physical force was looked upon as a coward. Men building the Allegheny Valley Railroad in 1872-1873, and the woodsmen, or "woodshicks" when they came to town fought often. Fights also occurred at logging bees, and most any place else where men congregated, and no one was arrested. Since 1880 fighting has been practically unknown through public sentiment dis- approving it and the enforcement of the law. Gambling became common in Reynoldsville about the end of the Civil War when money first began to be plentiful, but it was carried on more in 1872-1873 when the Allegheny Valley Railroad was being constructed. It continued extensively for 10 or 15 years thereafter. Many had acquired the habit in the army during the Rebellion. Some were professionals who did nothing but play here and in nearby towns. Often men went from Reynoldsville to neigh- 50 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY boring communities to take part in or to witness important games ■with big stakes. Visitors came here for the same purpose. Poker wasi played mostly though seven up was common. No arrests were made here for gambling then. At different times gambling places were conducted in various back rooms on lower Main Street, and the managers received a percentage of the money bet. Parlors became numerous in Reynoldsville soon after 1870 when this place suddenly grew into a town. Although the walls had been papered for some years the ceilings were whitewashed. An ingrain carpet was on the floor and underneath it was a layer of straw an inch or more deep. The furniture generally consisted of a half dozen pieces upholstered in haircloth or rep. Tidies covered the arms and backs. A mahogany, blackwalnut, or marble- topped center table was in the room. On it were a large family bible, two or three books of poems, a large plush photograph album with two large shining brass clasps containing photographs which were always shown to visitors, and an autograph album which contained the handwriting of the friends of the family. Underneath were a Btereopticon and views. An organ or square piano stood next to the wall. Lying on the instrument was a pile of music which generally contained the following popular songs of the day: "Captain Jenks," "Paddle Your Own Canoe," "Gathering Shells Prom the Sea Shore," "Good-by Liza Jane," "Digging Dusky Diamonds," "Up in a Balloon Boys," and "I Love to Take a Ramble." Silvered glass vases and plaster of paris busts sat on the wall brackets and mantle. Dried grasses and flowers were often in the vases. A handsome parlor oil lamp furnished the light. A low, square, open cast iron highly polished mentor stove gave the heat though open fireplaces were common. A whatnot sat in the corner on which were geologi- cal specimens, curios, shells, corals and so on. In the early '70s a long string of buttons collected by the girl of the home from her friends may have lain on it. Hanging on the wall were gilt and blackwalnut framed chromos, besides pressed leaves and ferns, photographs, a marriage certificate and wreathes of artificial flowers in frames. Steel and wood engravings of Washington, Lincoln or Grant in oval frames were often seen. The motto, "God Bless Our Home," was above the door. A large, tall mirror in a large gilt frame frequently leaned against the wall. A plaster of paris dog sat on the floor. The door was closed and the room darkened by drawing the green window shades when the parlor was not occupied, which was most of the time, although it was generally the best located room in the house. It was always in perfect order and had a general air of stiffness. Everything appeared new and MIS'CBLLANEOtJS (Continued) 51 unused and in the winter it was always cold, showing that it was seldom entered. When opened it had a musty odor because of not having been aired for a long while. It was used when the pastor called, who always prayed with the family, visitors from a distance came, a big dinner or evening party was given, or at a funeral or wedding. In some homes the young lady of the household was per- mitted to entertain her gentleman friends within its sacred walls. This style of parlor remained popular for about 15 years and was to be found for a long time after. The first musical organization in Reynoldsville was The Silver Cornet Band and it came into existance in 1873. It ultimately dis- organized, In 1880 a new band, composed mostly of the members of the old, was formed and was known as The Keystone Band. That organization was dormant several times and ceased to exist in 1909. Various bands have been organized here since then and have gone out of existence. Two men who were members of The Silver Cornet Band since became members of Congress. Their names are Honor- able William O. Smith and Honorable James A. Tawney. Honorable James A. Tawney, of Minnesota, for many years members of Congress and at one time chairman of the very im- portant Ways and Means committee lived in Reynoldsville in 1875- 1876. He worked in a machine shop, since burned, located on the lower side of West Main Street a short distance west of the Sandy Lick Creek. The Prescottville Cornet Band was organized at Prescottvllle in 1883. It prospered for a decade and then went out of existence. The first mowing machines were used in Winslow township about 1875 and other farming machinery followed. Farms were so covered with stumps at that time that farmers were slow to use them. The first typewriter was) brought to Reynoldsville in 1889. It was Calagraph and was used in the office of The Bell, Lewis & Yates Coal Mining Company. The fl,rst talking machine heard in Reynoldsville was pub- licly exhibited in 1890. The first moving pictures seen in this place were shown In 1896. The first wireless telegraph station was erected here for receiv- ing messages only in December, 1914. It was privately owned. The first spoken words heard here by a wireless telephone was on Novem- ber 6, 1921. The use of electrical power in shops and other business places and in private residences began here, practically, in about 1919, when a new system of electrical power was inaugurated. 52 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY Tent Shows. Indoor Entertainments. Tlieatrical Troups. Tent shows formerly started at Philadelphia and passed through what is now Winslow township to the northwestern part of the State. At that time America's greatest showmen went by and as large shows traveled this region then, when it was a wilderness, as came through many years later. These shows pitched their tents at Luthersburg and Brookville usually passing through here, which was midway, be- tween eight and nine o'clock in the morning. Most tent shows which drove this way then are said to have come from New England. The firstl show to go through where Winslow township now is was Harrison's Menagerie which went over the old State road to Meadville in 1819. It had an elephant, a lion and smaller) wild beasts. The first to go over the turnpike was in 1829 and it showed at Port Barnett. Neither Reynoldsville nor Brooksville existed then. It was a small menagerie and with it were an elephant, a lion, and a few smaller wild animals. An elephant and other beasts passed by here in a menagerie in 1832. Van Amburg's Menagerie in 1845 went through and was about the most! important show of that time. It had a long procession of highly colored wagons. There was a big elephant called Columbus, besides numerous camels and other ani- mals. Rivers & Daries' Circus was the next of importance. It trav- eled byl in 1851. In 1857 came Dan Rice, the greatest clown this country has ever produced, with his circus. Adam Forepaugh's im- mense circus and menagerie went through in 1869. Montgomery Queen's Circus came next in about 1871. Spring was late and there was much rain. The roads were very muddy all along the route. Farmers' horses were hired to assist in moving the great heavy wag- ons which sunk in the April mud to the hub. Elephants aided in pushing the heavier ones. It arrived in Brookville a couple of days behind time. The first tent show to exhibit in Reynoldsville was Whitby & Company's Circus which came in about 1867 and pitched its tent near the northwest corner of what is now 10th and Worth Streets. The second, a small Indian show, had, for its chief attraction. Sir Henry, the most famous horse in America. Baird, Howard & Com- pany's circus showed on the flats along the Sandy Lick Creek June 22, 1874. The first balloon ascension ever made here was on that day at the circus ground. In about 1876 Dan Rice, then a very old man, came with a show which exhibited on the same flats. Ringling Brothers' show visited here one time. It was small then, though now it is one of the largest in the world. There was a big circus and menagerie on the flats just referred to in about 1877. The partners had trouble concerning the collection of money for concert tickets when, in the tent and in the presence of a vast audience, one of them drew a revolver and aimed it at the head MISCELLANEOUS (Continued) 53 cf the other whose wife, a beautiful woman, threw herself between the two, and prevented the shooting. Had she not done so her hus- band would surely have been killed if hit. Had the ball missed him it would have killed a child, now a woman, who was In direct range. The two men dissolved partnership a short time after leaving here. The earliest entertainments which came to this section were puppet, vantrilociuist, magic lantern and sleight of hand shows. The first indoor exhibition to visit here came In about 1845, and for many years shows were held in private houses, blacksmith shops, hotels and schoolhouses. One winter in about 1859, a puppet show was given in the schoolhouse on the north side of East Main Street near what is now the borough line. A play entitled "Babes in the Woods" was rendered by puppets in which birds came and covered the children with leaves. A lecturer explained the play as It proceeded. The first drama played in Reynoldsville was produced by the Clara Wildman troup, a traveling company, July IS, 1874, in Gor- don's Hall. The hall was situated on the south side of Main, east of Fourth Street, about half way to Swamp Alley, and was burned during the big fire August 25,1875. Numerous theatrical produc- tions were rendered there. The Reynolds Opera House was opened by The J. K. Stoddard Company August 14 and 15, 1875. One eve- ning in the winter of 1878 while the Methodists were holding ser- vices there and the room was crowded a panic was started by a false alarm, caused by some one who feared the floor would give way and had warned his friends. A mad rush was made for the door and down the stairs to the exit on the first floor. Fortunately two men were cool enough to stand in the entrance and remonstrate with the crowd as they came to the head of the stairs. In that manner the people were held back until every one was given time to get out in safety. Otherwise scores would have been wounded and killed in a human mass that would surely have been piled up at the foot of] the stairway. That playhouse did good service until it ceased to be used as such in 1906. The building was burned June 29, 1915. It was on the southwest corner of Main and Third Streets. The Centennial Hall was erected in 1876 on the northwest corner of Main and Fourth Streets and has been used for lectures, political meetings, conventions, educational entertainments, religious services and so on. The skating rink on the northeast corner of Main and Fifth Streets, the leading attraction at the time, was built in 1884 and torn down later. Assembly Hall, in the public school building, has been used for much the same purpose as The Cen- tennial Hall. Moving picture theatres first made their appearance in 1906 The Adelphia, a modern theater, on the north side of Main between Fourth Street and Swamp Alley to the east, was opened 54 HISTORY OF REYNOLDS VILLE AJSTD VICINITY April 7, 1910, by the drama "A Gentleman from Mississippi." Social Life. Social life in this vicinity began at the opening of the turnpike in 1824 when tollgate keepers were the only people living along the road. They visited back and forth and entire families drove 12 miles to the next neighbor's, ate supper, spent the evening and returned home. Brookville and Luthersburg, a few years later, were the nearest towns to visit. In the early '50s, when the country along the road became a little more settled, there were backwoods dances and parties of various kinds. There being no gradation/ of social standing any one who behaved himself was just as good as another. The customs of the people were most simple and primitive. There was far more dancing then than now. The cotillion, French four, and schottish were the most popular dances, though the Virginia reel, lancers and others were danced. When there was no dancing the young people had kisses or play parties as they were called. The older ones watched the young for both old and young attended. Other social events took place at corn huskings, logrollings, maple sugar boilings, choppings, barn raisings, apple butter boilings, apple parings, scutchings, sewings and quiltings. The young men worked outdoors and the young women in, at a neighbor's home all day long. Supper followed and then for a "dance all night till broad day light and go home with the girls in the morning." The last dance frequently took place in the bright morning sun. Spelling bees and singing schools were very popular but taking the girls home after it was over was even more so. Church festivals, socials, fairs, or anything else of a social nature in connection with a church was unknown in Winslow township until about 1860. Probably the most remarkable social event in Reynoldsville was the grand house warming of Archie Campbell at the opening of The Sandy Lick Hotel on the southeast corner of Main and Seventh Streets Christmas eve, 1865. People came from miles around. iThe young men were just from the army and in for the roughest fun. The dancing, which took place on the first floor continued until day- break and a neighboring musician played the "fiddle." The whisky was taken. The liquor was stolen from the thieves. Someone else carried off the turkey. Another hit Archie in the ear with a handful of cold potato. The supper was served on the second floor, to the guests, in relays. They emptied butter, potato, coffee and other food together. A ham bone lay at each end of the table. The male guests began throwing them back and forth between the two rows of peo- ple rupsetting the gravy and other things, and then into thei hall. Finally one was thrown down the stairway and back again several MISCELLANEOUS (Continued) B5 times,! causing everyone to dodge who was in its patti. At least a bone was thrown at the host with great violence, just missing his head. There was a rough house all that night but everyone had lots of fun of the wildest kind. It has since been called "Lanigan's Ball" after the old song. Outdoor Meeting. . Picnics. Crowds. The first gathering worthy of note which occured in the open air in Winslow township was a picnic in abouU 1850, above the turnpike on the hill east of Beech Street. Others were held from year to year, but the next of impor- tance was inter-denominational and took place July 4, 1861, on the south bank of Soldier Run east of 10th Street. iSpeeches were made and the war, which had just begun, was discussed. July 4, 1863, a Baptist picnic which was largely attended, was given in the woods along the south bank of the Sandy Lick Creek north of Bradford and Thompson Streets. The war was the main topic of the speakers and all who attended. It was the day after the Gettysburg battle about which the people had all heard and eagerly discussed. Then July 4th was the one day for large gatherings. In 1867 the first ball club in Winslow township. The Boomer- angs, was organized in Reynoldsville. The members were mostly young men out of the army. They had games in Punxsutawney, Luthersburg, Brookville and other neighboring towns. At home the club played on a diamond situated between Main and Grant Streets and near what is now the site of the Baptist church between Fifth and Sixth Streets. Immense crowds for those days, witnessed them play. In the summer of 1874 one of the greatest political demonstra- tions ever held in Reynoldsville took place in a^ fiela near what Is now the southwest corner of 10th and Jackson Streets. The event was a Republican ox roast. Governor Hartranft was present and made a speech. September 1, 1881, there was a reunion of the 105th Pennsyl- vania Volunteers which was attended by a large crowd of people. It was held on the hill on Grant between Seventh and Eighth Street. About 300 Civil War veterans attended, the largest number of old soldiers ever here at one time. July 4, 1890, the Patriotic Order Sons of America and the Or- der United American Mechanics, two patriotic societies, held a cele- bration- The crowd was very large. The historic parade was unique. Characters in costume rode on floats an'd represented Amer- ican history from the landing of Columbus. The display of fire- works in the evening was never equalled in Reynoldsville. The greatest concourse of people ever in Reynoldsville was dur- ing Old Home Week, August 19-24, 1907. Immense crowds congre- 56 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY gated here every day, and on Thursday afternoon, the 22nd, 15,000 people are estimated to have been on lower Main Street at one time. It is said that as large a crowd had seldom gathered together before in this section of the State. Schools. Books and newspapers were few in these backwoods when the first settlers were here. Naturally most of the people were ignorant and superstitious. For many years the schools were of little importance. The first schoolhouse built in what is now Winslow township was in 1836. It was located in Prescottville about 80 yards above the turnpike, a few rods west of Soldier Run, and was used until about 184 2. Thomas Reynolds was the first schoolmaster. A house on the upper side of the turnpike east of the present east borough line was used as a school from 1842 to 1848. The next was erected on the lower side of what is now Main at about 100 feet east of iSeventh Street. It was used from 1848 to 1855. The one following was on the upper side of east Main about 125 feet west of Beech Street and was used from; 1855 to 1870. A school- house near it was used from 1870 to 1876. An eight roomed house on the upper side of Main, east several hundred feet from Eighth Street, was occupied from 1876 to 189 6. The brick building now on Grant, Eighth and Main Street, facing Main, was built in 1895- 1896 and dedicated September 4, 1896. It took fire and was partly burned February 16, 1902, but was rebuilt in time for use the next fall. A schoolhouse located on the northwest corner of Powers and Lewis Streets, Third ward, was built in 1883 and was burned No- vember 16, 1908. A handsome brick structure was erected on the same spot and school was opened in it for the first time October 11, 1909. The Catholic parochial school, located on the northeast corner of Sixth and Jackson iStreets, was first opened September 2, 1902. There are now numerous school buildings in Winslow town- ship containing about 28 schools. Weekly singing and spelling schools began before 1840. Danc- ing schools were common long before the Rebellion. Until the Civil War teachers in Winslow township received from $12 to $20 per month. They boarded around, a week at a place, with the parents ol the pupils who made no charge. Teachers were not examined and no certificates were given — school boards employed whomever they wished. School lasted three months in the winter and two in the summer. Five and" one-half days a week were taught, there being a holiday on Saturday afternoon. A 15-minute recess in the morning and again in the afternoon was done away with in the Reynoldsville public school in 1896. Teachers were generally called pedagogues or schoolmasters until the Civil War. MISCELLANEOUS (Continued) 57 Slates to write on were first sold in Reynoldsville in about 1850 and went out of use in the public schools of this vicinity in about 1888. Paper tablets took their place. Lead pencils were first brought to this region in about 1860. Siate pencils were first sold here in about 1862. Previously soft shale, dug from the ground, was used. Steel pens were first used in this vicinity in. about 1862. Before then goose quill pens were em- ployed. Manufactured ink was first sold here in about 1870. Up to that time the ink was home made, soft maple bark and alum being boiled which formed a black liquid. Blue vitriol was sometimes used in the place of alum. The Reynoldsville High School was organized in September, 1896. The, first class graduated in May, 1897. The 55th County Teachers' Institute, of Jefferson county, was held in The Adelphia Theatre, Reynoldsville, December 19-23, 1910, being the first time it was ever held in this place. Churches. Clergymen prior to 1861 generally preached about the lake of fire and brimstone and the eternal torment of the lost souls. They frequently talked in that manner until their congrega- tions became so badly frightened that they quaked and trembled and the children were afraid to go home alone. People were taught to live in fear rather than in the love ag well as fear of the Lord. The bigotry and prejudice existing among the various religious sects, at least in these woods, during the fore part of the 19th century can scarcely be realized today. Often families were not permitted to attend a church service or hear a clergyman preach who was of another denomination than their own. The early pioneers of Winslow township were not very religious. Those who were were nearly all Methodists and Baptists- Presby- terians came later. Catholics moved here in numbers after the be- ginning of the building of the railroad in 1870-1873. Lutherans be- gan to show some strength in 1876. No other church was ever very strong in this locality. The first preaching done in what is now Winslow township was in 1836 in the log schoolhouse just completed in Prescottville. For many years schoolhouses and private dwellings were used for preaching and prayer meetings. The first bush meeting was held m Winslow township during the summer of 1853 in a grove on the hill 300 yards directly north of Sandy Valley, and similar meetings were carried on in the, township from that time until soon after the Civil War. The building of churches resulted in this custom be- ing discontinued. These gatherings were annual occurrences and 58 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY consisted of religious meetings being held in the woods by two or three congregations each afternoon and evening for a week or 10 days, the people going home every night. They differed from camp meetings which were generally composed of 2 5 or 30 congregations, many of the people living on the ground both day and night. There was never a camp meeting held within 10 or 15 miles of Winslow township. Both bush and camp, meetings were nearly always con- ducted by Methodists. The male members of a congregation, until during the Rebellion, sat on one side of the church and the female members sat on the other. Protestant ministers until the beginning of the Civil War had full beards though generally the upper lip was shaven. iThey wore high hats, stocks, and double breasted coats with V-shaped split-tails tor convenience when riding horseback. After the war the stocks and split-tails disappeared, full beards were less worn and during the '80s the high hats went out o^ style. Catholic priests did not visit here until about 1872 and their dress was the same then as now. Their smooth faces were a distinctive feature until after 1905 when clean shaven faces became universal. The Soldier Run Baptist church was organized in 1858. That year Reverend James Johnston became its pastor and also the first resident clergyman of Winslow township. The organization built a church at Prescottville in 1860. In June, 1887, they laid a cor- ner stone and that year erected a brick church on the northwest cor- ner of Main Street and Coal Alley, east of Fifth Street, in Reynolds- ville. The Reynoldsville Presbyterian church was organized October 18, 1860, in the Cold Spring Hollow schoolhouse near the northwest corner of Main and Beech Streets. They soon after moved to the Baptist church just built in Prescottville. In 1872 they moved into their own new church on 12 th Street, now that part of Reynolds- ville called iSnydertown. The same organization later constructed a brick church on the northwest corner of Main and Seventh Streets. The corner stone was laid September 11, 1879, at 10 o'clock a. m., and the foundation wasi built that fall, but the building was not erected for three years. Reynoldsville was formerly in the Emerickville charge of the Methodist Episcopal church and the members for many years held service in schoolhouses. In 1874 Reynoldsville wa* ''nrmed into a separate chargei when a church was organized here with 190 mem- bers. The Methodists held regular services in Gordon's Hall from July, 1874, until the fire August 25, 1875. Thereafter, most of the time they held services in The Reynolds Opera House until 1879- MISCELLANEOUS (Continued) 59 That year they built a church on the east side of Fifth Street cor- nering on Gordon Alley and Jackson Street. The corner stone was laid In May. iThe church was torn down In 1905. A stone church was built at once on the same lot and the corner stone was laid June 30th, at three o'clock, p. m., that summer. It was dedicated April 29, 1906. The only Catholics In Reynoldsville in 1870 were Judge E. C. Schultz and family, William Jackson and family and Patrick Plynn and family. The Saint Mary's Catholic church was organized in March, 1871, and the first mass was celebrated in the Cold Spring Hollow schoolhouse, northwest corner of Main and Beech Streets, June 2, 1872. A church edifice was erected on 11th Street which was dedicated October 4, 1875. Later a brick church was erected on the south side of Main between Sixth and Seventh Streets and it was dedicated In October, 1884. The old church was torn down In 1887. Father Terence Brady, first regular pastor, has been here since 1881. Few clergymen in the State, of any denomination, have remained as long in a single charge. The Lutheran church was organized in 1880. A church edifice was erected on the south side of Jackson west of Fourth Street. The corner stone was laid in July, 1884. Industries. The first Industry in what is now Winslow town- ship was the grist mill owned by Kobert Douthit, Senior, located on the east bank of Trout Run and on what Is now the Punxsutawney road. It was begun about 1838 and was closed in 1867. The next was a tannery erected by Thomas Reynolds near what is now Jack- son and 10th' street, in Reynoldsville, in 1845 and ran, off and on, until after the close of the Civil War. In 1866 a well was drilled on the west bank of the Sandy Lick Creek about two miles below Reynoldsville for oil, to about 1,000 feet, which was then considered very deep, but it was abandoned on account of no oil being found. Salt water, however, was discov- ered and salt works were then started which ran a few years when they were discontinued on account of the owners being unable to meet competition. The first steam whistle in this section of the country was first used in 1870 when one was placed In a planing mill at which Is now the northeast corner of Main and First Streets, Reynoldsville. The hours of labor here, until soon after 1870, in the lumbering camps and sawmills, were from six o'clock a. m., until six o'clock p. m., with half an hour at noon for dinner. On the farms at all sea- sons of the year they were from before daylight until dark with suffi- cient intermission for meals. In 1874 the Belnap sawmill was located in the woods on Pitch 60 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY Pine Run and what is now Mill Alley between Hill and Mable Streets, Reynoldsville. One day at noon the boiler in the mill ex- ploded and a large part of it was thrown high in the air. One piece fell on the roof of thei Seven Kitchens, a tenement house located on the northeast corner of Main Street and Swamp Alley, between Fourth and Fifth Streets. Four horses were required to haul it away. The longest and most severe miners' strike in this section was the one between the coal miners and operators which lasted from March 21, to July 21, IS&e.* Another notable strike was that of the silk mill in Reynoldsville. It lasted about five months, having begun in September 1902, and ended in February, 1903. The silk mill was erected in 1898. That fall there was a very heavy wind one day at about one o'clock p. m., which blew off the southern half of the second floor- Though the mill was crowded with operatives no one was seriously injured. The building was soon repaired. Reynoldsville now contains two silk mills, macaroni factory, flour mill, tanneiy, machine shop, casket factory, brick works, plan- ing mill and others. Iiumbering, Rafting. In 1846 the first timber raft went from what is now Reynoldsville to Brookville via thei Sandy Lick Creek, though it was in 182 6 that the creek was declared a highway by the State, from the east Jefferson county line to its mouth for rafts, boats and logs. William B. Johnston was the pilot of the first raft and he and his crew found it hard work to cut the trees which had fallen across the stream and to clear out the obstructions. After the creek had become passable it required four or five days to make the trip to Pittsburgh, via. Red Bank Creek already cleared, and the Allegheny River. The timber which formed the rafts was sold and the raftsmen returned home. For many years they rode up the Allegheny River for a long distance on boats, and walked the re- mainder of the way. Between 1850 and 1860 the greatest amount of rafting was done on the Sandy Lick Creek. An immense quantity of heavy pine and hemlock timber was easy of access to the stream with but few mills to saw it. The rafts generally went down during Ihe spring freshets, but occasionally in July, August and Septem- ber. On the way from where iDuBois now is to the Allegheny River rafts were so numerous during the spring floods between 1850 and 1860 that there was scarcely a place along the creek that one was not in sight. In time heavy timber became less plenty and raft- ing on the Sandy Lick Creek dwindled. Finally the Allegheny Valley *A more severe coal strike ended while this history was being printed. It lasted iirora April 1st, till August 25, 1922. MISCELLANEOUS (Continued) 61 Railroad was built and by 1875 little rafting was done in tbis vi- cinity. Tbe last raft went under the Main Street bridge over the Sandy Lick Creek in Reynoldsville in about 1882. William T. Cox, to whom I am indebted for considerable that is in this' history, was the pilot. He was born in Washington township, three miles north of Winslow, October 2, 1847, and was the son of Peter and Nancy (Harrison) Cox. Rafting was done further down for 25 years after, but it was too narrow in Winslow township to get timber by the logs ini the milldams without trouble and they were sold at home. ]2xtensive lumbering in this locality was about completed in 1903. The legislature passed an act April 17, 18 56, organizing The Red Bank Navigation Company. This corporation was reorganized by an act passed May 2 8, 1860. Its capital stock was $10,000. The stockholders were mostly Brookville and Winslow township men. The jurisdiction of the company extended over the Red Bank, Sandy Lick and North Fork Creeks where its duty was to clean and clear the creeks of rocks, bars and other obstruction, erect dams, locks and brackets, and It was given power over private dams and chutes and! the right to regulate the water of the creeks. The company was also granted the right "to levy tolls not exceeding one and one- quarter cents/ for each and every five miles of! improved creek per 1,000 feet of boards or other sawed material; one and one-fourth cents for each 50 feet, lineal measure, of square or other timber; one-fourth of one cent per foot for every boat that they may pass down said creek to be collected at tho mouth of Red Bank Creek and at such other points along the creok as may be necessary." The company ceased to do business about 1875. The first sawmills were known as up-and-down mills and were run by water wheels. One man and an up-and-down saw cut about 1,000) feet of lumber a day. After the Civil War the more rapid circular saw was used exclusively. The first sawmill in what is now Winslow township was con- structed by William Reynolds on Soldier Run in the upper part of what is now Rathmel. It was begun in 1845 and was closed in 1861. About 21 sawmills, not including portable ones, have been operated in the township. The first circular saw to replace an up-and-down saw in the township was erected in the Be.be & Clark mill on the Sandy Lick Creek at Sandy Valley in 1859. The first planing mill in the township was built in 1857 by William and Henry Aiman in Prescottville near the forks of the turnpike and the Big Run road. Until 1881 lumbering had been done in Winslow township only along the shores of the creek for the timber and on the higher places to clear the land for farming. Vast tracts of immense trees away from the streams and especially on the hills were yet standing. 62 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY In that year Hopkins' mill, just below Reynoldsville, was changed from a capacity for cutting 20,000 to a capacity for cutting 100,000 feet per day. It made a new era in lumbering; in this region and it was carried on thereafter on a very extensive scale until it was closed In 1904. The peeling of bark became important in Winslow township in 1881 on account of a large tannery being started in R.eynolds- ville that year which created a demand for hemlock bark. Oak bark was peeled in very small quantities. Previous to 1881 but little was peeled in this vicinity. From 1881 until about 1904 about 15,000 to 20,000 cords of bark, and occasionally more, were peeled a year in the township and most of it was used in the Reynoldsville tannery. Th^ price of hemlock bark ran from $4 to $6 a cord. Bark can be peeled only between May 15th and July 15th. Coal Mining. About 1847 Woodward Reynolds opened the first coal mine not only in Jefferson county but in this section of the State and it was closed about 1878. The mine was located in a little hol- low southwest of where the Reynoldsville 'Cemetery now is and a short distance south of the Punxsutawney road. Aii that time min- ing was done by the light of a candle and the coal was taken out in wheelbarrows. William Ferris, born in Clinton county. New York, in 1818, came here in 1850. Soon after his arrival, when hunting a deer, he came to where a tree had fallen and the upturned root exposed a coal outcrop. Being experienced in mining elsewhere he began an open- ing' on the spot and was soon digging coal. That was the second drift in this region and it was located within 200 feet east of what is now the corner of Eighth and Grant Streets in Reynoldsville. The mine was abandoned about 1868. Coal was shipped from these two mines to Brookville, Punxsutawney, Luthersburg, and elsewhere. One load, it is said, was haulod in a wagon from the Ferris coal bank to New York State. The first coke made in Jefferson county was in about 1850 at the mouth of the mine belonging to Woodward Reynolds just referred to. Coal was known to exist in all of this northwestern part of the State before 1790. John Fuller was the first to dig it in this region. As early as 1825 he shoveled some out of the bottom of the Sandy Lick Creek from 800 to 1,500 feet above where Main Street crosses the stream. He carried it in a bag on his shoulder for over two miles to his home above Prescottville where he used it for black- smithing. A thick vein of very fine coal existed on his farm but hp knew nothing of it. Woodward Reynolds first began digging coal from the top of the ground where it had been exposed and where he opened a mine about a decade after. For many years anyone was MISCELLANEOUS (Continued) 63 at liberty to take all of the coal he wanted for nothing from this place, it being necessary to only dig and haul it away. In 1845, or near that time. State Geologist Rogers discovered valuable coal deposits in this immediate vicinity. In 1864 State Geologist J. P. Leslie made a geological survey of the Reynoldsville region. A chemical analysis of the mineral was then taken by Doc- tor Guenth, a famous chemist of Philadelphia. An exhaustive report was made setting forth the advantages of this district to attract the attention of capitalists seeking investments for their money. The compilation of the facts for the report cost about $3,000 which was borne by a company made up of Jefferson county men organized for the purpose. Assistant State Geologist Franklin Piatt, assisted by his brother George, went over this field thoroughly later and made some very valuable State reports concerning it. In 1873 IThe Diamond Gas Coal Company began opening the Diamond Mine located on the south side of the Sandy Lick Creek north of Reynoldsville. In April, 1874, the first shipment of coal by rail went out of Jeffersoil county which was from this mine. It was the beginning of coal shipments from this region to distant markets. Since then millions of tons have been shipped from Wins- low township mostly to the Great Lakes and the Atlantic coast. This first consignment was taken from the Diamond Mine to the Iteynoldsville railroad station in wagons and was sent from here by rail to Buffalo. A siding was soon completed from the Diamond Mine across the Sandy Lick Creek to the Allegheny Valley Railroad. The Diamond Gas Coal Company was the f|rst coal company that operated; in this county, but it was confined to but one mine. The Powers-Brown Coal Company and The Hamilton Coal Company both organized in about 1878, operated more extensively. In 1885 the firm of IBell, Lewis & Yates, of Buffalo, New York, bought the holdings of The Hamilton Coal Company and The Powers-Brown Coal Company in Winslow township. In 1887 this firm became a char- tered corporation and was known as The Bell, Lewis & Yates Coal Mining Company. The Big Soldier Run Mine which belonged to this company and opened about October 1, 1889, was at one time considered the larg- est bituminous coal mine in the world. Its output for a number of years averaged from 500,000 to 2,000,000 tons of coal per an- num. The first coal mining machine installed in this region was a Harrison, and it was first operated in the Soldier Run Mine in February, 1891. The first haulage of coal in the mines by power in the township wag in 1892 when it began to be taken out of the west- ern opening of the mine just mentioned by a system of wire rope. Mules had been used exclusively previous to that time. The first 64 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY electric haulage in the mines in the township was in 1902 when coal was drawn from the Sykesville or eastern opening. On May 1, 1896, The Bell, Lewis ■& Yates Coal Mining Com- pany sold its property to The Jefferson & Clearfield Coal and Iron Company. Honorable Simon B. Elliott, of Reynoldsville, was the General Manager of The Bell, Lewis & Yates Coal Mining Company. He was a scientist and an author. In 1912 The Houghton-Mifflin Com- pany of Boston, Massachusetts, published a book written by him entitled "The Important Timber iTrees of the United States," with 400 pages. He was born in Rome, Bradford county, Pennsylvania, October 1, 1830, and died in Reynoldsville June 18, 1917. The Elliott Memorial Grove, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, named in his honor, was dedicated June 15, 1918. About 26 coal mines have been operated in the township from v/hich coal has been shipped by rail to distant points, including the first in 1874, up to this time, besides small country coal banks from which the local demand is supplied. Polling Places. April 6, 1846, the first election in Winslow township was held in Woodward Reynolds' log tavern. Previously voters living in what is now Reynoldsville and North Winslow town- ship went seven miles to the Beechwoods to vote. Those in the s-outhern part went to Punxsutawney. Those in the western part went to Port Barnett. In 1851 the polling place was moved to the Reynolds tavern, now the northwest corner of Main and Third Streets. In 1865 it was changed to what is now the northwest cor- ner of Main and 10th Streets. After Reynoldsville became a borough in 1873 it was formed into a precinct by itself. The Reynoldsville people continued voting at the old place and those in Winslow town- ship began at the next election in 1874 to vote by themselves near- by. In 1887 the voting precinct of Winslow township was divided into East and West Winslow. Now there are four precincts. Rey- noldsville borough is now divided into four precincts also. Rey- noldsville and Winslow township are normally Republican and al- ways have been. Politics began to be discussed extensively in Winslow township during the Harrison campaign in 1840. In 1844, during the Polk- Clay campaign, even more interest was manifested. Prom that time, as the population increased, the interest in politics became greater. It was not until Lincoln's first campaign in 1860 that poli- tical meetings were held in schoolhouses in Winslow township. In 1864, Lincoln's second campaign, speech-making and political pa- rades became quite common in this section. County politics was more or less discussed in ante-bellum days, but not to any extent un- MISCELLANEOUS (Continued) 65 til after the Civil War. Local elections have been of varied interest since the organization of Winslow township in 1846. Prescottvilie. In 1857 Charles H. Prescott, born in Sidney, Maine, settled about a mile east of Reynoldsville and entered largely into the lumbering business and also ran a store. The hamlet of Prescottvilie, which he founded, was named after him. His son George Allen Prescott, who was born there, afterwards became State Senator and also Secretary of State of Michigan. The hamlet from 1860 to 1870 was the center of the business of Winslow township. Its chief industry is its flour mill. Illnmination. Kerosene oil and gas lamps were first used for illumination in this locality in 1860. Kerosene then sold for $1 per gallon. Whale oil in iron lamps had been used for a decade, and generally tallow dips followed by candles made in tin molds had been previously used. They were made from sheep, beef and ever. venison tallow. Cotton wicking placed in a saucer of grease had often been set afire and put on the table to give light. It was not uncommon to ignite a pine knot and fasten it in the ^replace so that the smoke went up the chimney while the light from it was bright enough to read, spin, knit and sew by. Early evening was often spoken of as "Early candle lighting." The first natural gas discovered in Winslow township was in 1866 in a well unsuccessfully drilled for oil at what soon after be- came the Salt Works. Gas was struck near there in 1884 in a well drill 2,200 feet. It was since found in numerous deep wells drilled in the township but never yet in paying quantities. In the winter of 1889 and 1890 The Oil City Fuel Supply Com- pany, now The United Natural Gas Company, headquarters in Oil City, Pennsylvania, laid pipes to Reynoldsville from their wells in Millstone on the Clarion River. The nearest wells are 17 and the farthest 21 miles from here. On the evening of April 8, 1890, gas was turned into the pipe at Millstone. A workman stood at the Reynoldsville end with a torch waiting for it. At exactly 10:44 o'clock, p. m., gas began to burn in Reynoldsville for the first time. Natural gas is now used here for heating and lighting., iThe Reynoldsville Light & Power Company, organized in 1901, furnished electricity that year, for .the first time, for lighting from its plant in this place. In November, 1917, The Jefferson Electrical Company bought the old company's property and in September, 1919, began supplying Reynoldsville with electricity from its power plant at DuBois. CHAPTER IV. HIGHWAYS Indian Trails and Bridle Paths. The first passages through this wildernes?s were deer paths, crossings or runways, and Indian trails, and there were many of them going in all directions. Later white men came and drove the savages out, their trails and paths faded away and bridle paths made by white men appeared. White men's trails were called bridle paths because they were frequently used by travelers on horseback. Horseback riding was much more prevalent before 1850 than it has been since. Women rode as well as men and frequently a woman sat behind a man on the same horse. Many a young fellow thus took his lady love from a dance or frolic late at night along a trail through the woods. The first path was Mead's trail made by the Mead brothers in 1787, of which mention is made under the head of "First Adventur- ers and Early Settlers." About 1830 and previous the Irishtown path connected Pres- cottville with Irishtown, or Beechwoods, as it has been called since 1840, in what is now Washington township. It crossed the Sandy Lick Creek over a log at Pancoast about four miles above Reynolds- ville. Another path connected what is now Reynoldsville and Punx- sutawney. The Old, State Road. The legislature passed an act April 10, 1790, "to provide for the opening of a road from near Bald Eagle's Nest (Milesburg, Centre County) to Le Boeuf," (Waterford). April 4, 1796, it passed another act authorizing and empowering the gov- ernor to appoint "three skilled persons to view the ground and esti- mate the expense of opening and making a good wagon road from Bald Eagle's Nest (Milesburg) to the town of Erie." William Irvin, Andrew EUicott, and George Watson were appointed as commis- sioners. Joseph Ellicott took the place of Andrew Ellicott, who re- signed, William Irving returned home and the other two proceeded on their journey. The road was then built and it was officially taken from the contractor and a quietus entered as to the contract, April 2, 1804.* The road went through Winslow township. The route lay just east of Rathmel and crossed the Sandy Lick Creek a short distance east of Reynoldsville. Until the completion of the turnpike in 1822 the road was the only public thoroughfare for emi- •DoctOT WilMara J. McKnight, A Pioneer History of Jefferson Coun- ty, Pennsylvania, pp. 137-148. 66 HIGHWAYS 67 grants from the East to the Northwest. It was abandoned in Wins- low township before 1830 and now exists only in a few places else- where. Ruts where wagon wheels once ran can yet be found in the township though they are grown over with trees. A few places where cuts were made are discernable and the logs of an old bridge across a stream near Rathmel now can be seen. The Susquehanna and Waterford Turnpike. February 22, 1812, an act was passed by the legislature enabling the Governor to incorporate a company to build a turnpike from the west branch of the Susquehanna River near the mouth of Anderson Creek, Clear- field county, through what is now Reynoldsville to Waterford, in Erie county. Jamesi Bamett and Peter Jones, of Jefferson county, two from each of the other counties through which it passed, and two from Philadelphia, were appointed commissioners to receive stock. Each of these counties was alotted a specific number of shares at $25 each. Jefferson county was required to take 50. The building of the road was delayed six years oni account of The War of 1812. It was called the Susquehanna and Waterford turnpike and the company which owned and operated it was called The Susquehanna & Waterford fTurnpike Road Company, incorpor- ated in 1817. The survey was begun in 1818 and completed in October of that year under the supervision of John Sloan. Work started in 1821 and in November, 1822, the road was practically completed, though the bridges and a few short sections were not built until 1824. James Harriett, of Meadville, Pennsylvania, took the contract for building the turnpike and he gave it to subcon- tractors. Some were given five miles, some 10 and some more. Apportionments were made in each county through which the road passed, to people whose duty it was to receive the money so appro- priated and to pay it out. Charles E. Gaskill and Carpenter Wilson represented Jefferson county. Our part of the turnpike was 126 miles long. The entire road cost $190,000. The State appropriated $140,000 and the individual subscriptions amounted to $50,000 up to March, 1822. The link through this region was not entirely completed until November, 1824. There was then one continuous pike from Philadelphia to Erie. The "clay turnpike" was the name given this section and the early settlers claimed that it was the most convenient and easily traveled road in the United States. It was certainly a magnificent thoroughfare. Along each side were strung logs and the road was elevated in the center to turn off the water. Main Street in Reynoldsville at one time was a part of this historic old route. About a mile and a half west of Reynoldsville in the second ravine 68 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY (Wild Cat Hollow) there still remains ruins of an old stone oven erected and used by the laborers who built the road. In the first years of the pike when hotels and farm houses were few the work- men, whose duty it was to keep it in good condition, were obliged to camp out at night and one of their camping places was at this oven. The first bridge across the Sandy Lick Creek at Reynoldsville was constructed in 1822. The present bridge made of concrete, was built in 1913, and is the eighth. The two preceding were iron and were on the site of the present one. After the completion of the Allegheny Valley Railroad in 1873 the turnpike lost much of its importance and, in 1874, the company abandoned the road from west of Brookville through Reynoldsville to the Jefferson-Clearfiff Id county line. Later the road by a decision of the court became the property of the county and finally by an act of the legislature, passed in 1908,. this and all similar pikes in the State came into the possession of the townships in which they were situated. In its time the old pike has been an important fac- tor in the improvement of this region. Milestones. Immediately after the completion of the turnpike milestones were erected on the south side of the road. The stones were white, square ajid well finished. On each was inscribed "To S. — miles. To F. — miles." "S." was for Sesquehanna at the east, and "F" was for Franklin at the west. 'Eight of these stones were in Winslow township. Going west the first was 19 miles from Sus- quehanna and was a short distance west of the Clearfield county line. The next w^as 20 just east of Prospect Hill. Then came 21 part way up the hill east of what is now Rathmel Junction. At Pres- cottville, just east of Reynoldsville, was 22. Following was 23 on Main Street, Reynoldsville, about 100 feet east of where that street is now crossed by Seventh Street. Next was 2 4 immediately west of town. Between the two branches of Prior Run came 25. The last was 2 6 just east of Deemer's Crossroads. Going east the stone just east of Deemer's Crossroads was marked 54 miles from Franklin. The others in the township were marked respectively 55 to 59 miles inclusive. ToUgates. ToUgates followed immediately after the comple- tion of the turnpike. The gate in Winslow township first stood 225 feet east of the Sandy Lick Creek, directly in front of the old log tavern owned for many years by Woodward Reynolds. In 1849 It was moved a few rods east to directly in front of The Reynolds Tavern, and in I860 to about 200 feet east of what is now the cor- near of Main and 10th Streets. There the gate r^.mained until in 1874 when, after the post had been maliciously blown out one night. HIGHWAYS 69 the gate was abandoned. Several times previously it had been taken down at night but it was always replaced. The nearest tollgate to the east was two miles west of Luthersburg and the nearest to the west was at Brookville. The gangs of men employed upon the road were paid from the receipts of the gates, and it was kept in fine condition. The gates were attended to by the keepers from early in the morning until 10 o'clock at night. From then until the next morning they were rai&ed and travelers went through free. People look advantage of this and many drove over the pike after dark. The toll charged was as follows: Man on horseback, 12 1-2 cents; one horse and spring wagon, 64 cents; one horse and one common wagon, 12 1-2 cents; two horses and common wagon, 24 cents; six horses and common wagon, 64 cents; cattle 28 cents, and sheep 20 cents per score. These rates were for 12 miles, the dis- tance to the next toUgates. Persons entering or leaving the pike be- tween the gates were charged in proportion to the miles they trav- eled over he road. Many who lived along the pike paid by the year and not for each trip. No charge was made for clergymen. There is now in Reynoldsville an old toll book in which the totals of each day's receipts were kept for four years, beginning with 1839. Ac- cording to the book the receipts varied from $5 to $17 per week. Those were large amounts when the laborers were paid 50 cents per day and board for working on the road. In collecting toll the gate- keepers had more trouble counting sheep than doing anything else. When passing through the gates the drovers kept them moving back and forth, making it impossible for the gate keeper to count accurately. He was often obliged to guess at the number. Sometimes men who were not ministers attempted to pass as such. Woodward Reynolds was a gate keeper so long that he de- clared he could tell a minister when he saw him. One day a man at- tempted to go through without paying, and when asked for toll he stated that he was a preacher. Mr. Reynolds doubted it, but to test him asked the fellow to come in and pray with the family. "I'd rather pay the toll," said he, with an oath, which he did and went (m. Later another stranger endeavored to get by free. Mr. Rey- nolds asked him for toll and he, too, claimed to be a clergyman. "Well," said the tollgate keeper, "if that is the case we will be pleased to have you come in the house and pray with the family." "Certainly," was the prompt reply, "that is one of my duties and I will be only too glad to perform it." "Ahem," answered Mr. Rey- nolds, somewhat embarrassed, "my wife is busy now and I can't leave the gate just at present, so you must excuse, us." The man went through without paying. Travel on tlie Turnpike. Travel on the turnpike began as the road neared completion in 18^2. It increased gradually until about 70 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY 1846 or 1847 when it reached enormous proportions. More busi- ness was done then than has been done in several of the less prosper- out years together. But thereafter it began to decrease mostly on account of the building of the railroads, until 1874, half a century after its completion, when the business of the road had dwindled to a mere shadow of its former greatness. The first stagecoach passed over the pike about November 6, 1824. John O'Neil was the driver and Mr. Clark, of Perry county, the contractor. Coaches continued to carry passengers over the road for 50 years and the express matter of iThe Adams Express Company from about 1860 to 1874. The coaches were drawn by four large horses in good weather and six in bad, until the last few yearsi of their existence when the number was reduced to two. The owner of the stage line which served this part of the road, extending from Clearfield to Brookville, was a leaseholder of The iSusquehanna & Waterford Turnpike Road Company, and was employed by the Fed- eral government to carry the mail. The vehicles were rockaway or Concord stages. The upper part rested on wide straps extending from front to rear and were easy to ride on. The coaches were beau- tifully finished. The bodies were painted green, red, brown or yel- low, and generally striped golden. The wheels were black with yel- low stripes. There were three seats, one facing the rear. From eight to 12 passengers rode in a coach. A lantern was on each side of the carriage which at night illuminated the road ahead. Six to 10 trunks were strapped on the boot behind, protected by a leather cover. Sometimes trunks were strapped on top. The mail was thrown in the boot underneath the driver's seat . Stages ran all night when made late by muddy roads and the occupants slept the best they could while being thrown about on the seats. In imagination one can see a stagecoach at a backwoods settle- ment on the Susquehanna and Waterford turnpike. The United States mail is thrown on the coach by the postmaster. The driv- er ascends to his seat, picks up his lines and cracks a long whip lash over the backs of the four horses. Then follows prancing and clat- tering of hoofs, away dash the animals and the heavily laden coach goes rolling after. They reach a corduroy road of logs laid across the thoroughfare, generally built in swamps and frequently across streams, and the stage bounds over it. The forest is so dense and the overhanging boughs so completely shut out the light of the sun that the road is dark even at noon and in the blackness of the night it is like the Stygian gloom.* *Later the legislature passed an act requiring thei trees to be cut down for 50 feet along each side of the turnpike to permit the sun to en- ter and keep them dry. HIGHWAYS 71 At certain places the driver stops. Out rush men and unhitch the horses. In another instant four prancing animals already har- nessed, are hitched to the stage and before the passengers are scarce- ly aware of having stopped they have started again with fresh ani- mals. The coming of the stagecoach is anxiously looked forward to in every town and hamlet along the line. The stage passes mile- stone after milestone. On either hand is the primeval forest cool and fragrant with the odor of moss, ferns and wild flowers. Drovers with sheep and cattle, bound eastward, are encountered. Deer, fox- es, rabbits and other wild animals dart across the road. Birds are to be seen everywhere. At a turn a small clearing comes to view and the humble log cabin of a pioneer. Across a mossy ravine the stagecoach rolls, and down this ravine there flows a sparkling, splashing woodland brook. Up and along the road the travelers go until now they have arrived at the top of the hill west of where Reynoldsville has since been located. The passengers look through the tall pines and in the valley below there can be seen a great wil- derness. Running through it is the Sandy Lick Creek. Just east of the creek is the log tavern of Woodward Reynolds away out among the pines and hemlocks. As the stagecoach comes down the hill, and the driver applies his brakes which grind, groan and squeak, he reaches to the rear end of his seat for the long horn. It is brought out and he places it to his lips. To-to-to-o-o-o, it blows forth from the hillside and echoes and re-echoes up and down the valley and over the tree tops. The horn is heard at the tavern. Dinner, which is prepared, is soon on the table, and by the time the stage dashes up the landlord is ready to welcome the tired, dusty and hungry passengers with a good warm meal. The horn at other points warns the postmasters of the approaching of the stage, and they always stand with the mail pouch by the roadside as the four-in-hand comes along. The men at the relay station where the horses are changed are always ready, having been warned by the horn. Under favorable conditions the stagecoach traveled about five miles an hour. No tickets were used. The fare, which was six cents a mile, was paid in advance. The charge for freight from Philadelphia to Jefferson county was about $6 a hundredweight, and it took about a week for it to go through. Drovers went by on their homeward journey from Philadel- phia to as far west as Ohio, walking all the way. It was very com- mon for footmen to travel from. 35 to 40 miles every day. Men go- ing both long and short distances frequently went on horseback. About 183 5 Joseph Morrow, an Irishman, first made his ap- pearance on the turnpike. He was a familiar character in this region until 1850. In 1855 he was killed by one of his horses kicking him. 72 HISTORY OP REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY His turn-out consisted of two Conestoga wagons. They were each drawn by six horses in good weather and by eight in bad. Three or four brass bells about two inches in diameter adorned the har- ness of all the horses at the neck. Bells at that time were the style on the harness of most draft animals both summer and winter. They were very popular about 182 5 but went out of style near the time of the Civil War. Morrow's wagons were painted blue. The tires were from five to six inches wide and the hubs and axles were very large. The immense boxes turned up at each end, at the back to prevent freight sliding to the rear when going up hill and at the front to prevent its sliding forward when going down. Above these boxes were canvas covers. The vehicles were loaded from the rear. The distance from the ground to the top of the canvas was over 12 feet, and from the front to the rear, not including the tongue, it was 18 feet. The wagons, when loaded, weighed many tons. They each contained enough for a store. He drove from Philadelphia along the pike to Shippenville, Clarion county, and back peddling on the way. His trips were made periodically and his coming was looked forward to with much interest. His stock consisted of fish, cheese, coffee, sugar, and many other things used in the house. There were other peddlers who now and then drove through. Pack peddlers on foot were quite common, sometimes carrying 100 pounds on their backs consisting of wax, needles, thread, shoe- strings, pins, buttons, laces and other articles . The peddlers were Irish at first, but Jews began coming in about 1855 and eventually monopolized the trade. They sometimes remained at Woodward Reynolds' tavern for several days selling to people who called. Beggars, or tramps as they are now known, were never seen until long after the Civil War. Sleigh riding parties from Brookville soon began driving up through the wilderness on the long winter nights to the log tavern of Woodward Reynolds where they danced until the early hours of morning. IThen they started homeward for a 12-mile ride, often in the silvery light of the moon, the gleaming white road stretch- ing away amid the glistening snow-covered boughs and through the deep shadows which were thrown across the way by the tall pines and hemlocks. The tinkle, tinkle, tinkle of the bells and the merry laughter of the young people tucked beneath the robes made the forest ring as the musical sound echoed among the trees. During the winter of 1850, soon after the brick tavern was built by Woodward Reynolds, a large number of people drove up from Brookville and held the fipst party ever given in the house. They danced and sang, many being accomplished in both arts. One of their songs was "Napoleon." HIGHWAYS 73 In 1830 droves of cattle began passing over the pike to the eastern markets, but this did not assume the proportion of a busi- ness until after 183 5, and it was not until 1840 that it became very large. In 1846 it was at its highest, but soon materially dropped off. In about 1872 the last herd from a long distance went through. Stampedes occasionally happened. One day in the summer of about 1846 about 150 heavy stall-fed cattle were being driven east down the hill, just west of where Reynoldsville now is, when a drover hit a big lazy steer with a chestnut bur. The animal was in the rear of the herd and near the top of the hill. He became fright- ened and charged down the road, bellowing loudly, and causing a panic among the other cattle. The man riding ahead on horseback barely got out of the way in time to escape from being run over and killed. The heavy, terror-stricken beasts plunged down the pike at a frightful speed. The trees were so close together that none could turn to the right or left. Upon reaching the log bridge across the Sandy Lick Creek many cattle were crowded off and killed. The loss; to the drover ia said to have been, from $500 to $1,000. He had so much meat for sale and so few to buy it that splendid cattle were sold for less than the value of their hides. The settlers with- in a distance of five miles had all of the best kind of beef to eat for as long as they could keep it. Droves generally consisted of from 100 to 250 cattle. The sea- son for that business began in June and ended on or about Novem- ber first. In September and October more driving was done than at any other time of the year. It was the desire of the drovers to keep the animals fat and in good condition until they arrived at the eastern market audi so cattle were never made to travel over 10 miles a day. The farmers along the road fared well as most of their hay was sold to the drovers for their stock. Frequently ani- mals became lame and the settlers had opportunities to buy the finest in the herd for almost nothing. There were few days during the summers of 1846 and 1847 when one could go to Brookville with- out meeting several droves of cattle. During September and Octo- ber of those years a drove would have hardly disappeared around the road at the east and the dust have scarcely settled when one would hear the cry of "Come boss, come boss," as another drove would appear from the west. Most of the cattle were from central Ohio and were being taken to Philadelphia, and the pike was the only way the drovers had of going from one of those points to the other. Many herds of sheep of from 500 to occasionally 1,000 in num- ber were driven east through Winslow township. Several times droves of horses, tied together in groups of six or eight, with a man 74 HISTORY OF REYNOLDS VILLE AND VICINITY for each group, and numbering about 25 horses in| all, were taken oast over the pike. Hog droves were quite common. Flocks of 300 or 400 turkeys were frequently driven through and one large flock of geese is said to have passed over the road. The drovers found great difiiculty in getting feed for their animals and a place to put them over night on account of the demand made upon the farmers along the route for feed and pasture. Cattle were branded on the hip, each drover having a special brand to enable him to distinguish his own animals from others. At times, during the busy season, two and three droves remained over night in Woodward Reynolds' pasture in the locality of what is now Jackson Street, near Pitch Pine Run, and also west of that run on Grant Street. Four cents peri head was generally paid for pasture up to 10 cents for a field of clover. During the night fences were sometimes broken down and two droves got together, but they were easily separated by the brands. Sheep were marked also, but by tar instead of by hot Irons as was done with cattle. Pigs were branded by a slit In the ear. Farmers marked their ani- mals, too, so that they could be recognized when running at large in the woods. In the afternoon a man always drove ahead and arranged for a field in which to pasture over night. Some of the drovers went through so frequently that Mr. (Reynolds knew them well. Woodward Reynolds' log tavern became an Important stopping place for drovers, and often they and other travelers were so nu- merous at night that the floors of the rooms and hallways were so crowded with lodgers that one could scarcely move around without stepping on a sleeper. The brick hotel was as well patronized as the old log tavern. From the west came immense wagon loads of dried apples, cheese, butter, fur, wild meat, maple sugar and the like. From the east came groceries, dry goods, Iron, manufactured articles, and other products. Between 1840 and 1850 emigrants traveled over the pike to the west. A few went through as earlly as 1835 but more after 1840. They were principally farmers many of whom were from Eastern Pennsylvania seeking homes In Illinois and Missouri. Their wagons were known as prairie schooners and were covered with canvas. In each was a family and the provisions, bedding and cooking utensils that were necessary. They generally went in trains of from 15 to 25 wagons each. Sometimes one family went alone and again from two to four wagons went together. At night they camped by the road on the bank of some small stream which crossed it, sleeping In the wagon and cooking over their camp fires. HIGHWAYS 76 When one heard a creaking axle he knew that emigrants were com- ing. This pike was their shortest route. Not a day during the summer of 1845 passed without emigrants going by. There were nearly as many in the two or three years preceding and in the two or three years which followed. Runaway slaves escaping from their masters In the South and seeking freedom in Canada often came through Winslow town- ship. This wilderness gave them a better opportunity to avoid capture than the more thickly settled sections. Many traveled north over the Ceres road, while others went by the turnpike. In 1842 a couple of negroes, Bill and Tom, stopped at the home of John Fuller above Prescottville and worked for him for some time. One day Mr. Fuller was in the town of Indiana attending court when he saw a poster offering a reward of $500 for two escaped slaves, Bill and Tom, and their description answered to that of the men working for him. He told the negroes about it upon his arrival home. They talked the matter over together, got the money due them from Mr. Fuller, inquired the way to Buffalo and Canada and left, never to be heard from again. In about 1858 an escaped slave, a young fellow not 16 years old, was on the turnpike in front of the Reynolds tavern, now the corner of Main and Third Street. He evidently did not know the direction he was going for it was toward the east. He was being pursued by white men on horseback who were crossing the Sandy Lick Creek bridge when they caught sight of him. By the time he reached the bridge where the pike crosses Pitch Pine Run, now Main between Third and Fourth Street, his pursuers were in front t)f the tavern. The fugitive went beneath the bridge but those after him saw the fellow and were soon at the bridge and one of them; crawled under, pulled him out and, ultimately, he was taken South. Benton Stebbens, a schoolmaster and a very strong Abol- itionist, lived on the hill south of the pike and just west of what is now Reynoldsville. His home was a station for an "underground railroad," a route over which one Abolitionist took runaway slaves to another until they were safely in Canada. Few persons were robbed by highwaymen along the turnpike though there were many opportunities. Purchasers going West to buy cattle, and drovers returning home from the East after having sold them carried large sums of money when they stopped at Wood- ward Reynolds' tavern. There were many lonely spots along the turnpike in this wilderness where men might have been robbed of everything and even murdered, with comparative ease and the cul- prits could easily have escaped. Previous to 1850 oxen furnished all of the local transportation 76 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY in Winslow township, along the pike, in the woods and on the farms. After that time the horse gradually superseded the ox as the land became cleared. There were few mules until during the '70s when mining became an important industry where they were employed in large numbers until gradually supplanted nearly a quarter of a century later by mechanical haulage under ground. Horses were always driven on the pike for long trips. Wagons without springs were used almost exclusively in Winslow township until after the Civil War. On the pike, for through travel, the finest turnouts were driven from its very beginning. The first automobile owned in this vicinity was bought in 1902 by a Reynoldsville citizen. Ceres Road. In 1825 the Ceres road, a State highway, was laid out from Ceres, McKean county, Pennsylvania, near the New York State line, through Smethport, and what afterwards became Winslow township, to the town of Indiana, Indiana county, Penn- sylvania. It was so often altered that abandoned parts passed through both Winslow township and Reynoldsville in several places. The name of the highway was changed slightly several times until it is now the Serious road. Travel on it was never very great. A Proposed Canal. The legislature in 1836 passed an act which was approved February 18th, of that year, for the extension and improvement of the State railroads and canals. The ninth sec- tion of the act provided for the "survey of a route for a canal and backwater navigation from the headwaters of the West Branch Division of the Allegheny River." In compliance with this act a survey was made for a canal from the Allegheny River along the Red Bank and Sandy Lick Creeks, through Reynoldsville to the headwaters of the Sinnemahoning. The grade was good but it was too thinly settled in this region and the canal was never built. A third of, a century later the route of the Allegheny Valley Rail- road was located in Winslow township over practically the same route selected for the canal. Railroads and Trolley Lineis. In 1853 a line was surveyed from Pittsburgh to Buffalo, via Reynoldsville, but it was abandoned, another course surveyed and, fijnally, built along the Allegheny River which eventually became known as the iRiver Division of the Allegheny Valley Railroad. In 1853 Jefferson county offered assistance in building a rail- road but it was not until 20 years later that the Low Grade Divi- sion was constructed through what afterwards became the western part of Reynoldsville. The road was built under the charter of The Pittsburgh, Kittanning & Warren Railroad Company later changed to The Allegheny Valley Railroad Company. The division extends 110 miles from Red Bank, on the Allegheny River, east to Drift- HIGHWAYS 77 wood. The agitation for the building of the road was begun by J. Edgar Thompson, president of The Pennsylvania Railroad Com- pany during the '60s. Grading was begun in 1872. The road was opened to Brookville for passenger service June 23, 1873. August 5, 1873, at 3:15 o'clock, p. m., David Reynolds stood on the porch of the Reynolds hotel, corner of Main and Third Streets in Reynolds- villa, and saw the first locomotive which had come far enough east through the deep cut below town to show its stack. The first car load of freight came here over the railroad, according to Mr. Rey- nolds' diary, August 16, 1873, and the goods were consigned to Doc- tor R. M. Boyles, druggist, Henry Iseman, druggist, and Mr. Bar- ton, hardware dealer. The first passenger train arrived November 5, 1873, at 5 o'clock, p. m., it is stated in the diary, and brought a brass band and citizens from Brookville. There was a general good time in Reynoldsville that night and the visitors did not re- turn home until a late hour. Passenger trains began running to Reynoldsville at once. May 4, 1874, the entire line was opened for all business from Bed Bank to Driftwood. The division headquar- ters were moved from Brookville to Reynoldsville in 1882. August 1, 1900, The Pennsylvania Railroad Company leased the Allegheny Valley Railroad for 20 years and April 6, 1910, it came into full possession of the line by purchasing the last of the outstanding shares. The Powers-Brown Coal Company opened the Soldier Run Mine in Prescottville, and The Hamilton Coal Company opened the Ham- ilton Mine in Reynoldsville, in about 1878. The two companies jointly built a railroad from their mines to the Allegheny Valley Railroad that year. Later it was extended until it formed the Rey- noldsville & Falls Creek Railroad from Rathmel to Palls Creek where it joined the BufiEalo, Rochester & Pittsburgh Railway. A branch was built in 1890 to Soldier and another in 1901 to Wishaw. Pew railroads in the State have had as much coal hauled over them per mile as this. It is now practically owned by The Buffalo, Roches- ter & Pittsburgh Railway Company. In 1896 a corporation known as The Reynoldsville, Warren & Buffalo Railroad Company was organized and chartered which sur- veyed to a line from Reynoldsville to Warren, Pennsylvania, but the load was never begun. The Jamestown, Franklin & Clearfield Railroad was planned tT go through Winslow township and Reynoldsville but the line has not yet been built. The road, if constructed, will form an import- ant link in through traffic east and west. In 1903 The Jefferson Traction Company built a trolley line from Punxsutawney to Reynoldsville, a distance of about !5 miles. 78 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY That year a six mile line was built from ReynoldsvUle to Sykesville but It was torn out in October, 1922. Streets and Roads. The first paving done in ReynoldsvUle was in the early summer of 1893 when Main Street was planked from the Sandy Lick Creek bridge to Seventh Street. The first street paved with brick was lower Fourth Street in 1904. In 1905 the wooden pavement was torn out on Main Street and that section was also paved with brick. More brick paving has since been done in various parts of ReynoldsvUle, some of it being by State aid. The Commonwealth assisted in paving the road from the east borough line to the Jefferson-Clearfield county border in 1908. It was the first State help given to the highways in Winslow township. The Pennsylvania State Highway Department, in 1918, planned the Lakes-to-the-Sea iState Highway from Erie to Philadelphia. It passes through Winslow township and Reynoldsville. By 1910 picket, iron and board fences along both town streets and country roads had nearly disappeared. Fence advertising signs on country roads went with them. By that time the traveler in the country seldom saw stone fences, rail fences had nearly all gone and stump fences of the early settlers had about passed away. Wooden bridges were disappearing and no new iron ones were being erected. Concrete bridges were taking their places. Concrete and tile cul- verts were replacing wooden ones across roads and streets. Until a short time before 1900 cattle, sheep and hogs ran at large on pub- lic thoroughfares. Horse blocks for getting in and out of carriages were gone in a few years. In 1910 automobiles were not uncommon and horse drawn vehicles became less by comparison each year thereafter. Every week-day during the summer horse drawn vehicles once stood lined on both sides of Main Street from just west of where it crosses Pitch Pine Run west of Fourth to a short distance east of Fifth Street. But gradually automobiles took their place and by the summer of 1918 they were parked there instead, horse-drawn vehicles having become rare. In 1920 the last livery stable in Rey- noldsville, where horses were hired out, ceased to do business. Ali"plan©s. The first airplane known to have passed over Wins- low township carried mail on an experimental trip from New York to Chicago, September 5, 1918. It went by just before noon, and could be seen to the north of Reynoldsville. Afterwards airplanes passed over quite irregular for a time one, generally, going each way every day. The first to fly above town was about 12:50 o'clock, p. m., September 20th, and was westward bound. Soon thereafter they were discontinued for a while. About June 1, 1919, the service was reinstated permanently and somewhat larger machines were used. CHAPTER V. RECENiT Secret Societies. About 18-65 the first secret society was or- ganized in Winslow townsliip. It was a lodge of Good Templars. The order met in Prescottville near the flour mill and was formed by people from Brookville. The fraternity existed for about two years and a half and then died for lack of support. There are now about 30 secret societies in Reynoldsville and "Winslow township. The Utopia Club, of Reynoldsville, composed of women, was or- ganized March 1, 1891, and is the oldest woman's club in this part of the State. Newspapers. City daily papers were first received here by mail about the Civil War time, but they were not sold on Reynolds- ville streets until 1873 after the opening of railroad communication to Pittsburgh. The first newspaper published in this place, The Advocate, was first issued May 15, 1872. It existed six months and was suspended. In 1874 The Reynolds Herald was started. The office was burned during the big fire August 25, 1875. It passed into other hands. A new outfit was bought and In 1877 its name was changed, to The Herald and Star. Honorable William O. Smith, now editor of The Punxsutawney Spirit, and ex-Con.?ressman from this district, worked on it. That year The Reynoldsville Daily Herald was issued and existed about four months. It had four pages and three columns to the page. The columns were about 12 inches long. May 16, 1878, the name of The Herald was again changed and it was thereafter known as The Eye for a time. Then it was called The Reynolds Herald. In 1880 it was changed to Our Reynoldsville Paper. In 1881 it was The Reynoldsville Paper. April 16, 1889, the name was changed to The Volunteer. James AV. Stevenson, of Winslow township, worked on it that year. He was afterwards Bridge Commissioner of New York city (1906-1910) and as such was in the Mayor's cabinet. The paper was last issued October 27, 1917, when it was suspended. May 11, 1892, The Star was first issued. In June, 1908, The Falls Creek Herald was moved here and June 26th it appeared as The Reynoldsville Herald. The first type- setting machine in town, a Mergenthaler, came with the office. Feb- ruary 12, 1909, the paper was suspended and the plant was soon moved back to Falls Creek. 79 80 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY Beynoldsvllle and West Keynoldsville Boroughs. Formerly the business center of the town was in the vicinity of what is now Main and 10th Streets. In 1865 there were about 20 buildings in the place. T'le Reynolds Hotel, located on what is now the northwest corner of Main and Third Streets, and a barn nearby, were all there was on what is now Main between Eighth Street and the present bor- ough line at the west. In about 1872 when it was certain that the railroad would bo built through here, and for several years after, the main part of town moved westward, bringing with it the busi- ness centre, the schools, the churches and the post office. Reynoldsville borough was erected September 11, 1873, having been formed from Winslow township . It had a population of about 600 at that time. The first officers were elected at a special elec- tion held October 21, 1873. The first meeting of the first council was held November 11, 1873, in the dining room of the St. Charles Hotel (afterwards burned) located on the southwest corner of Main and Sixth Streets. iThe plot or draft of the borough made by James Caldwell, of Brookville, was April 16, 1874, declared by the council the officially defined public streets and alleys of the borough. All opened since have been done by special ordinance. Additions East of the Sandy Lick Creek. The David Rey- nolds addition lies between Main Street and the northeast borough line and between the Sandy Lick Creek at the northwest, and at the east by the old north and south line crossing Main Street at Seventh, following it to where it crosses Fifth Street above Grant, then up Fifth to the northeast borough line. The section south of Main Street and between the Sandy Lick Creek and Seventh Street is the Albert Reynolds addition. The Van Vliet addition lies between Main Street and the north- east borough line, and between the old north and south line where it runs across Main Street at Seventh to Fifth Street above Grant, then up Fifth Street to the northeast borough line, and at the east by Eighth Street. The section between Seventh and Eighth Streets and between Main and a short distance south of Jackson Street is the Russ and Reichards addition. The Rhodes addition lies east of Eighth Street for nearly a block, and from the northeast borough line southwest to near Main Street. The iSchultz addition lies south and east of the Soldier Run and the Sandy Lick Creek to the south borough line, and west of 10 th Street. . Tne Thomas Reynolds addition includes all of the eastern part RECENT gl of the borough not included in the aforementioned plots. Additions west of the Sandy Lick Creek. All lands between the west borough line and the Sandy Lick Creek and east of the railroad cut is Industrial Hill. South of West Main Street is The Central Land & Mining Com- pany addition. The David Reynolds addition is bounded on the north by a line just north of Baxter Street, east of the Sandy Lick Creek, south by West Main Street and west by the railroad. A triangular piece consisting of a few acres northeast of West Main Street and west of Broadway is the Prescott addition. The remaining part of the borough west of the creek is The Powers-Brown Company addition. Most of the ordinances were passed by the council soon after the organization of the borough. In 1885 all former ordinances being considered unsatisfactory by action of the council were repealed and ordinances from Number One to Number 19, inclusive, were passed. In 1892 an ordinance was created establishing fire limits pro- hibiting the erection of wooden buildings on Main, between Third Street east to Coal Alley which is between iPifth and Sixth Streets. About 1896 property owners began tearing down their fences in the borough compelling persons owning cows and pigs to prevent iheir running at large. It caused much discussion for a time. In 1898 an ordinance was passed preventing further erection of wooden awnings and swinging signs over the sidewalks and re- quiring those already standing to be torn down when not in a safe condition. That ordinance resulted in making a radical change in the appearance of the business part of West Main Street, for previously the sidewalks in front of the stores on both sides, through all of the business part were practically roofed over. In 1904 an ordinance was enacted prohibiting further building of wooden sidewalks. Once these walks were prevalent on account of their cheapness, but brick and concrete having become quite as inexpensive and much more lasting, are now used. The ordinance was enforced without difficulty. The first policeman was employed by the borough in 1875 and was paid for each arrest. In 1887 the borough hired one on a salary whose beat was lower Main Street. The business men paid half of the expense and the borough the remainder. Part of the time since then Reynoldsville has had no salaried police. March 8, 1904, the municipality began hiring two, one by day and one by night. 82 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY September 23, 1893, the borough of West Reynoldsville was erected, having been formed from Winslow township. The area was 120 acres. The first officers were elected at a special election held October 12, 1893. The first meeting of the first council was held in the West Rey- noldsville schoolhouse (since burned) Tuesday evening, October 18, 1893. The town was laid out about 1872 by The Ohio Coal Company who owned most of the land. Soon lots were sold and the locality became known as Ohiotown. In about 1878 the company sold all of its property here and elsewhere to The Powers-Brown Coal Com- pany. The name of the place was changed to West Reynoldsville when it became a borough. An' election was held April 2 8, 1914, when the voters of the two municipalities consented to West Reynoldsville becoming a part of Reynoldsville borough. May 25th following the governor signed the letters patent consolidating them. It then became the Third ward. Teltegraph and Telephone Lines. The first telegraph message was received in Reynoldsville in 1S73 at about the time of the com- pletion of the Allegheny "Valley Railroad. The Pennsylvania Railroad which took possession later, now has four telegraph lines running through here. Formerly The Western fUnion Telegraph Company owned nine lines passing by Reynoldsville including a trunk line from New York to Chicago, strung in 1893. In 1903 there arose a dispute between the railroad and telegraph companies concerning the contract by which the latter's poles occupied the railroad com- pany's right-of-way. After some litigation the railroad company cut down all of the telegraph poles and wires of thd telegraph company on the railroad right-of-way, including those in Winslow township, destroying, in all, nearly $1,000,000 worth of the telegraph com- pany's property here and elsewhere. The first telephone line established in this region was in Wins- low township in 1882. It belonged to The Powers-Brown Coal Com- pany and connected their office at Soldier Run Mine in Prescottville with the Sprague Mine in Rathmel, both operations being owned by them. The next year, 1883, they moved their office to> the south side of Main about 75 feet west of Fifth Street, extended their lines there and installed the first telephone in Reynoldsville. It was further enlarged as the property was sold to new companies, until now it is the private system of The Jefferson i& Clearfield Coal & Iron Company and extends from Reynoldsville to all their mines. RECENT 83 In August, 1891, The Central District Printing & Telegraph Company, of Pittsburgh, better known as The 'Bell Telephone Sys- tem, established the DuBois district which includes Jefferson and a part of Clearfteld counties with exchanges at Reynoldsvllle and other points. Trunk lines connect Reynoldsville, DuBois, Brook- ville and Punxsutawney. In May, 1906, Reynoldsville was cabled, that is, the private wires were put into a single cable. The Summerville Telephone Company, known as the Independ- ent Company, was chartered May 6, 1896. It strung wires to Rey- noldsville in 1897. The company ran lines from Summerville through Brookville and Reynoldsville to Punxsutawney and Du- Bois. It established exchanges in the larger towns, and is connected with the lines of the neighboring independent companies. Rey- noldsville was cabled in 1913. In 1914 the company was sold to The Huntingdon & Clearfield Telephone Company. iThe Red Bank Telephone Company was organized in 1903 and strung wires in Jefferson and Clarion counties, and in 1907 opened an exchange in Reynoldsville. It is known as the Farmers' Telephone Company. Finance. The first deposit bank in Reynoldsville was Oyster & Company, and was established in 1874 and closed in 1876. The F. K. Arnold & Company Deposit Bank, established in 1874, was sold in 1883 to I. €. Fuller & Brother. The Arnold & Seeley Deposit Bank, established in 1883, was changed in 1884 to The Seeley, Alexander & Company Deposit Bank. I. C. Fuller & Brother sold to Seeley, Alexander & Company in 1885. The F. K. Arnold & Company Deposit Bank was. established in 1890 and was sold to The Seeley, Alexander & Company Deposit Bank in 1892. In 1905 The People's National Bank was formed from The Seeley, Alexander & Company Deposit Bank. In 1893 The First National Bank was incorporated. In 1905 The Reynoldsville Trust Company was started. The Citizens' National Bank was formed from The Reynolds- ville Trust Company in 1906, and was merged with The Peoples' National Bank in 1918. The Reynoldsville Building and Loan Association was organized February 11, 1890. The first series was opened in the following April. Fire and Water. Reynoldsville has suffered from several large fires in addition to many small ones though large ones are less fre- quent now than previous to the institution of proper fire protection 84 HISTORY OF KBYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY in 1888. The conflagration in wtiicli the most people in Reynolds- ville suffered occured Sunday, August 25, 1875. It began very soon after midnight and continued until about four o'clock that morning and 21 business places were burned. The loss was almost $100,000 and the insurance was $42,000. The fire began on the south side of Main midway between Fourth Street and Swamp Alley. It swept eastward to a building just across Swamp Alley, and westward to near the corner of Main and Fourth Streets, going no further on account of a vacant lot. Crossing over it burned r>n the north side of the street from the vacant lot at the corner of Main and Fourth to the corner of Main and Fifth Street. The heat became so intense that men could not get near enough to use buckets of water and were obliged to keep away and let it burn. The next morning the hill just east of Cold Spring Hollow outside of the borough limits, and a mile east from the fire, was found covered with burning shin- gles carried there by the wind. At two o'clock, a. m., October 12, 1876, a fire started which destroyed all of the buildings en the north side of Main from Third to Fourth Streets, with the exception of a building on each corner. On the morning of July 20, 1893, the Reynoldsvllle woolen mill, located near the west bank of the Sandy Lick Creek several hundred feet above Main Street bridge was burned. Loss $55,000. Insurance $9,000. The building was wood and was erected in 1878. On the evening of December 13, 1893, the tannery in the west- ern part of town was burned. It had been built in IS 81, Loss in- cluding the stock of leather destroyed, was about $160,000, cov- ered by insurance. It was the most expensive fire that ever occured in Reynoldsvllle. The buildings were reconstructed and July 14, 1895, the rocker room and part of the dry loft of the same plant were burned. Loss about $25,000. Well insured. About 11 o'clock, p. m., October 12, 1901, fire broke out on the south side of Main midway between Fourth Street and Pine Alley. It burned east to within one building of Fourth Street and west to half way between Pine Alley and Third Street. March 28, 1919, at about 3 o'clock, p. m., fire started in the asbestos manufacturing plant on the northeast corner of Mable Street and Swamp Alley between Fourth and Fifth Streets, and the rubber department was destroyed. Loss nearly $30,000. Well in- sured. An imperfectly organized fijre company with buckets and lad- ders came into existence in 1875. In 1877 two chemical fire ex- tinguishers were purchased by the borough and two fire companies were organized. In 1888, after the water plant had been construct- ed, the companies were reorganized and a large amount of hose and RECENT 85 other suitable equipment were bought. The companies are now known as The East End Fire Company and The Hope Fire Com- pany. In 1893 The West Reynoldsville Hose Company was organ- ized. The name was since changed to The Citizens' Hose Company. In September, 1888, The Reynoldsville Water Company was chartered. The stock in the company was $12,000. Three miles of main pipe was laid at first which had been increased to 10. The property was purchased by the Reynoldsville borough, which took possession in February, 1919, for $89,000. Most of the water is from Pitch Pine Run a short distance north of the borough line at Fifth Street. The water is pumped into a tank on top of the hill, at the south, giving a pressure in the pipes on lower Main Street of 115 pounds to the square inch. The force is sufficient to throw a single stream from a one-half inch nozzle over any building on the highest point in the borough without the assistance of a steamer. At a number of fires several large streams have been thrown at once for a long time without appearing to diminish either the force or supply. CHAPTER VI. UNCLASSIFIED Poetry. The four poems which immediately follow were writ- ten by ex-Congressman William Orlando Smith and were published at different times in The Punxsutawney Spirit which he has edited for many years. Mr. Smith, son of John S. and Susann Smith, was born in Reynoldsville and lived here until he arrived at early man- hood. Axvhie Campbell and Jimmy Kyle Archibald Campbell and his friend Jimmy Kyle ' Were sturdy old gents from the Emerald Isle. Jimmy lived on a farm below Prospect Hill, And Archie kept tavern in old Reynoldsville, Now this was long since, perhaps during the war. And possibly even ai few years before. Both were thrifty and close, and knew to the cent Precisely th.e quantum of money they spent. It happened one day, in the course of affairs. That the old Prospect graveyard needed repairs. It had grown up with briars, bushes and trees; The fence was quite rotten and weak in the knees; And tombstones that ought to be standing erect Were prone from a true, upright course to deflect Now this was a shame, the good citizens said, For they ought to show more respect for the dead. And so they agreed, to accomplish their ends. To raise a subscription amongst their good friends. Tom Dolan, Ed. Seeley, Ben Haugh and Pete Brown, George Sprague and Wash Puller all put their names down. But still they were short, and to Increase the pile They handed the paper to old Jimmy Kyle. For a ten-dollar bill he wrote down his name, And said he'd make Campbell contribute the same. Then forth with his paper friend Kyle did essay. Talking thus to himself as he wended his way: "Sure Archie is ruch; he suUs whusky and ale. An' a paltry tin dollars he never would fale." And thus with himself he debated the case Till firmly convinced, when he reached Archie's place. He knocked at the door of the old Sandy Lick When Archie hopped up and opened it quick. "Gud mornin'," said Jimmy, all wreathed in a smile, "An' hotv's Muster Cummel?" "Quite wull. Muster Kyle, Except fer mo legs, for yez know how It Is — I'm bothered a gud bit with ould rheumatlz. 86 UNCLASSIFIED 87 In a gineral way me health's gud enough. An' I'd be all right if I wasn't so stuff." "An' how's Mary Ann?" "She is gud — very gud; She's out in the back yard spluttln' some wud." "Muster Cummel," said Jimmy, "I'll sthate what I want; We're fixln' the cimet'ry over beyant — I've a subscrupt'lon papur I'd like yez to sign: Just put down yer name for a tin below mine." "Egad!" exclaimed Archie, "not a cint will I guvl I won't be buried there, sir, as long as I luv!" "We dufter on that pint," said Kyle, "be me s'ul. If I luv an' kape me health, Archie, I wull!" Fishing In Sandy UetL I remember in the spring time Some thirty years ago. The little kids in Reynoldsville Would oft a fishing go. Down to the mouth of Soldier Run — Right there below the chute — With cotton lines and bobbins red, Bare-footed they would scoot. Tommy Green and Johnny Censor, Sam Sprague and Harry Doyle, Julius Caesar Ferris, Bob Clark and Mauris Coyle, Tom Reynolds and Clint Reichard, too, Sid Smith and Jim McCreight, As anglers were regarded then As simply "out of sight." If the fishes would not bite well That day below the chute. To "Strouse'a Landing" they would hie. Or down to the "Elm Root." If still the fish evaded them Their pockets they would cram With lines and hooks and bait boxes. And strike for Gould Scott's dam. And there upon the old platform. Just where the boom was tied. They'd sit and fish in sun or storm. All eager, side by side. "Don't make a noise," Tom Greene would say, "Ain't you got any sense? You'll scare the sunflsh all away And drive the suckers hence!" Now Caesar Ferris gets a bite! "Whoop-ee! Just see 'im rush!" "Gosh blame the luck!" cries Mauris Coyle "My line's fast on some brush!" 88 HISTORY OP REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY Then Caesar puUs — a mighty jlrk — His fish-line goes "Iserswish!" "Don't swear! Don't swear!" says Harry Doyle, You'll never catch a, flsh." And there the boys would sit and fish Until the day was done, Drowning the angle worms by scores And having barrels of fun. Man's cup of joy will never be As full and as complete As in those happy days when he Went fishing with bare feet. "Daddy" Aber In Eeynoldsville, long years ago. When Caesar Ferris wore knee breeches. When L. P. Soeley's name was "Lo," And Hannah Fry believed in witches, There lived in that sequestered town A fat, smooth-faced, bald-headed cobbler. Who seemed half bogy and half clown — A short, round-bellied, blust'ring wabbler. The boys were all afraid of him Because he was so very fussy. They seemed to think him strong of limb As he was ponderous and pussy And yet they loved to make him mad, And badger him till he would chase them. Using his knee-strap for a gad With which he often sought to lace them. This funny cobbler hated noise And loved Platonic contemplation. But people thought he hated boys With fierce and bitter execration. And yet he was a gentleman, A kind, accommodating neighbor. Built on a comprehensive plan. And known to all as "Daddy" Aber. The boys for half a mile around. Who loved to pester and harrass him. By Aber's shop were often found To ipelt his windows and to "sass" him. Then the old man would sally out And chase them like a lot of rabbits. And froth and fume and rave about Their manners and their nasty habits. One m.orning down the dusty road He chased a crowd of little ruffians; Bare-headed, swelling like a toad. Pursued the dirty ragamuffins — UNCLASSIFIED gj "When suddenly Sid Smith fell down And bumped his head upon the bottom! Then Tommy Greene and Billy Brown Yelled lustily: "Old Aber's got him!" And Caesar Ferris looked askance Prom his retreat behind some lilacs, While Cal Fye mourned the luckless chance That brought about this awful climax! Tom Reynolds thought Sid's time had come, And turned to watch old Aber smash him; And Johnny Censor scooted home For fear he'd also catch and thrash him. On came Old Aber, puffing red — A real Boabastes Furioso — While Sidney's nose it freely bled, Which made him yell and sniff and blow so. When Aber reached the prostrate youth He raised the strap as if to smite him! But when he saw the blood — good sooth — It seemed to soften and affright him. Then with the gentlest kind of grace He stooped to life the young offender, And wiped the warm blood off his face, And spoke moat soothingly and tender. He brushed the dust from Sidney's clothes, Then waddled back into his shoe shop; And something trickled down his nose- Sam Saxton said looked like a dew droo. From that day forth no boy ^was known To vex or trouble the old shoe man. Because the cobbler thus had shown That he was tender as a woman. The boys became his firmest friends, And he the kindest, gentlest neighbor. And after that to make amends. They always called him "Uncle" Aber. The Old Sngnr Camp In childhood's awe-inspired days. When forests teem with elfs and fays. When darkness has a, mystic dread And bogles lurk beneath the bed. There's always some enchanted spot — Some woodland nook or sylvan grot O'er which the fancy casts a spell And spooks and sprites and fairies dwell. The Sugar Camp behind the hill North of the town of Reynoldsvllle, Where ev'ry Spring the village boys Spent the glad hours in rampant joys. 90 HISTORY OF RETNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY Was suoh a fairyland to me. We knew each shrub and sugar tree, Bach towering oak or poison vine, Kach "sad hemlock and solemn pine." And when the maples were on tap We carried wood and gathered sap. The old-time "spile" and sugar- trough. The eager joy of "stirring off," The fire round the kettle glowing. The "speck" to make it quit o'er-flowlng. The "skimmer" and the old sap-yoke The ghosts of perished youth invoke. With sugar water half boiled down. Like imps and satyrs we sat round On logs and stumps, with old tin cups. Sipping the sweets in soulful sups. Or with a self-complacent grin We'd drop the "spotsy" in a tin, Then twist it up in funny shapes And munch it like a lot of apes. A score of boys was always there The labor and the fun to share. A more uncouth or savage band Could not be found in Zululand. Of leatherwood we made us whips. Tobacco plugs of birch-bark chips; And oft with shouts of impish glee We'd skin the slip-ry elm tree. Along the side-hill plenteous grew The "ramp" and "injun turnip" too. Of all vile roots and plants accurst The "injun-turnip" is the w^orst. And how it thrilled us with delight When some poor kid would take a bite Then yell and spit and snort and blow In agonies of grief and woe! But we were heartless Vandals then — All boys are savages at ten — And worse, for anything that we know. Than any naked Filipino. They crave excitement — anything To make time speed on swifter wing. But old age cries, "Alas, alack! Our childhood days, they come not back'" Yet all of us may live again The Jocund days of youth, for when We want a. taste of childhood's joys. The happy time when we were boys. UNCLASSIFIED 91 We conjure up within our brains The bliss of youth without its pains. Old times and scenes we may revamp And reconstruct our Sugar Camp. The following was written by Mrs. Margaret Gorsllne, daughter of rrhomas Reynolds. The schoolhouse referred to stood from 18 55 to 1870 on the west bank of Cold Spring Hollow near the Reynolda- ville borough line and north of the turnpike. The Cold Sprlne Hollow School I often sit a-musin' and dreamin' dreams agin, A-bringln' back the happy days with childhood's pleasure in; Bringin' back) the winter time — how dreams contrive to fool And sturdy young-uns trudgin' off to the Cold Spring Hollow school. Back they come a-trampin' through fancy's magic stride I seem to see them gatherin' and crowdln' side by side. To get the nearest to the stove and then,, upon my soul, Through all the years thats vanished I hear Abner Briggs calling the roll. David, Reynolds, Harrison Rea, Tilton Reynolds, Albert Reynolds, Thom- as Tapper, Clarinda Reynolds, Jane Hewlett, Lucinda Rea. I hear it just as plain as in the long past day — Washington Fuller, Joseph Green, Esther Green, Christiana Tapper, Melissa Ferris, Mary Jane Reynolds. And ringing loud and clear I hear an answer to each name: 'tis the simple word, "Here." And later on a teacher speaks of Joan Reynolds; Oh, I remember well The sad faces, the teacher's tears, and then We knew too well w^e'd never see our dear school mate again. Now preacher Johnson calls the roll: Mary Johnston, Julia Hewlett, John Hewlett, William Reynolds, John Andrew Huntington, Martha Johnston, Harriet Reynolds, Sarah Johnston, Alex Yehe, Julia Rea, John Rea, Maraba Ferris, May Hewlett — They answer one and all, but Flora Yehe and Nerve Reynolds come in a little late They're net excused for distance come, and so it la their fate To be kept in at recess and miss our games of ball. Each filled a place and no one could be spared at all. For 'Nerve was champion striker Our best runner was Jane Ann, Who could make as flna a heme run as any modem fan. Then 'tis Harry McClelland calls the roll: John D. Reynolds, Hannah Miles, Inez Scott, John Conser, Thomas Green, Susan Reynolds, and her sisters Ide and Lide, with Rose Preacott and Nettie Test sitting side by side, then Flora Doyle and Settle Smith, William Orlando Smith, Allan Prescott, too. Though many years have come and gone from the first roll to the last. My memory juggles them all in and they crowd it thick anij fast. The roll's still going on, and now 'tis Brewer's voice. 92 HISTORY OF REYNOLnSVILLE AND VICINIITY Julius C. Ferris, Kate Rhodes, Ro'bert Gathers, many more; each answers to their name. Does each one answei-? Well not exactly all. Since most of them have answered to the Heaven Teacher's call. 'Twill not be long till all are gone that met here year by year; John Howlett, Thomas Reynolds, John H. Reynolds — I awaken with a, start. And something keeps a-swelling and tugging at my heart; My eyes are opened, can it be that here are our school boys and girls With hair quite gray in place of raven locks and golden curls. What did you say — that they are parents and grandparents, too, Some one, I'm sure, has Just been foolin' you. I'm wide awake: Alas, 'tis true, I know it now too well; I've just been dreamin' a sweet dream of the past. We have our dreams, but waken — for dreams cannot last. A Sketch of Archibald Compbell. The most peculiar character that ever lived in Reynoldsville and perhaps in this part of the State was Archibald Campbell. Few as eccentric persons ever lived any- where. He made Reynoldsville his home for over a quarter of a century. His remains lie buried in Bulah Cemetery directly across from the entrance and east of the driveway. A slender shaft marks his grave and that of his wife who lies buried byl his side. On it are inscribed "Archibald Campbell, died July 5, 1876, age 78 years, 9 mo. and 19 days," and "Mary Ann Campbell, Died May 7, 1881, age 78 years, 6 mo. and 27 days." Mr. Campbell for years was landlord of The Sandy Lick Hotel, southeast corner of Main and Seventh Streets. For a long time after they lived in a house on the upper side of Main about 160 feet west of Seventh Street. Archie was so peculiar that the older residents never tire talking about him. In appearance he was comical In the extreme and homely is too mild a word to describe his physiognomy. He was heavy, rather short, had a smooth face, white hair, round shoulders, pe- culiarly shaped feet, short legs which were crippled by rheumatism, a long body, large abdomen, and every part sadly out of shape. He walked with his left hand under his coat tail and with a cane in his right. Campbell was a Republican and sometimes attended the Pres- byterian church. He was vain, egotistical, loud-spoken, grossly il- literate, not noted for his honesty, close fisted in business trans- actions, yet liberal occasionally, rather temperate, fun loving, some- what sociable, enjoyed telling stories, and was not at all cleanly in his personal habits. His wife's maiden name was Mary Ann Kyle and he first met her in the Beechwoods. They had no children. His marked Irisli brogue and queer sayings continually provoked laughter., Yet, with all of his odd ways, he was generally shrewd UNCLASSIFIED 93 In business and is said tc have become wortb $5,000 or $10,000. Numerous anecdotes have been told of him. One Hallowe'en the boys completely whitewashed his buggy. But this could not have greatly disturbed him for he continued using It without removing the whitewash. One time while in church the contribution box was passed to his wife Mary Ann but she had no money. Archie saw this and, after the box was taken forward, he walked across the church and gave her a one cent piece. Next he went to an usher who, at his request, went to the pulpit, got the contribution box and walked over to Mrs. Campbell who put the money in it. Mr. Campbell then knew that the entire congregation was aware that Mrs. Camp- bell had contributed that Sunday. When he wished to appear generous with a customer while he was keeping store he would turn to his wife and say: "Hey, Mary Ann, guv the gintleman three or tew cigairs." He never said two or three. Then in a whisper which could be heard by his customer he would add, "Make it wan." "Guv the bie a cracker," says Archie to his wife, he wishing to appear open-hearted. Then the boy, peeping over his shoulder, sees Archie nodding to Mary Ann not to do it. "This lumber which you sold me as nearly all clear stuff is very knotty," angrily declared a customer. "Egad, and it is nearly all clear stuff," answered Campbell, picking up a board. "It's clear from here to here," he continued, "and from here to here and from here to here." It was clear between the knots! His business dealings were not always shrewd. One time Archie had a friend bid for him when a horse was being auctioned by the sheriff. "I bid $25," began his friend. "I bud $40," shouted Archie. "You must not bid," remonstrated his friend. "Bud, bud," Archie commanded. "I'll make it $50," his friends announced. "I'll bud $65, the old Irishman said and, turning to hia representative, again told him to "bud." Thus the bidding continued until Camp- bell got the beast at his final bid ofi $175 which he might have had for $25 as there were no other bidders. "Good morning, Mr. Dromedary," said a wag. "Me name is not Dromedary, its Cummell," he answered indignantly. "What's a peg betwixt friends," said Archie in a soothing man- ner to a neighbor whom he had cheated out of a porker. He wanted to make up with the fellow but said nothing about the $2.75 due him for the animal. While talking with anyone he would pound the floor with his can? and, at frequent intervals, when endeavoring to make a point, would hit the person to whom he was conversing on the legs or body often so hard that it hurt. He always had suspicions concerning the *ionesty of others. 94 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILLE AND VICINITY Once when he was about to sell a piece of land to the congregation of the Presbyterian church, to be added to their holdings on the corner of Main and Seventh Streets, he secured the services of a trusted friend who was not as lacking in education as he, to con- summate the deal. He was very much afraid that the congregation would cheat him out of his property. "What per cent profit do you make on your goods?" inquired a Pittsburgh wholesaler of Campbell when he was making pur- chases for his little store. The dealer wished to know whether to extend credit. "Wan per cint," he replied. "We would not care to extend credit on such a small margin of profit," he was told. "Egad," said Archie, "I know nothin' about yer per cint, but ef I buy an article fur wan dullar and sull it fer tew I don't thunk I will loose very much money." He got the goods. Campbell's money loving spirit was manifested to the last. When, on his death bed, he called an old friend to his side and said: "Yez now hov hod a watch in yer possession whuch I guv yez fur safe kapin' a long long time ago. I wull soon die. Yez hov been a good frind 'en, egad, to show me appreciation, if yez wull pay me $50 I wull make yez a prisent of the watch, so I wull." But as $40 would have been an exorbitant price for the old time piece the good friend refused the offer with thanks One of his greatest delights was to buy almost any kind of sec- ond hand or other old article for as near nothing as possible and then sell it for as good a profit as he could, or trade it for some- thing of considerable value. Many of the things be bought in this way appeared to most people as worthless, and yet he invariably suc- ceeded in making money. Probably the oddest and, apparently, the most useless purchase he ever made was a well built hardwood coflin which he got for a fraction ofi its real worth because no one wanted it. But even that proved to be a good bargain — at least for his widow. He was buried in it. When death was very near two neighbors were at Archie's bed- side. One was wrapped in fervent prayer when Mary Ann, who could not have been deeply impressed with the spiritual ofifering at that solemn hour, stepped into the room and, with a wave of the hand, said: "Wait a moment Mr. Prescott — "Say, Archie, did yez return Miles Huntington's cross-cut saw?" A few stories told of Archie Campbell were of such a nature that even the most credulous might doubt them. However, one will be given for what it is worth and the reader will be left to accept or reject it. The old man was dying. His affairs had just been set- tled when it was found that a $50 bill was missing. He halted in his death struggles, so the story goes, until the money was found. Then he passed quietly away. UNCLASSIFIED 95 APPENDIX FIRST OFFICERS OF WASHINaTON TOWNSHIP Hill^ Rpvnol'fl'ivnil'"^'!^''*?, th& territory Includingr what Is now Prospect rtiii, iyeynoiasville and all which Is now the northern nart of WiTislnvr el^?ld:^- " ^''^ organized in 1839 when th"folfowiS|' officers "wer^ tj<.„5'^iT„':*^''a^^'j.'1°^" McGhee; Supervisors, John Mcintosh and *Tilton Reynolds; Auditors Andrew Smith, Oliver McClelland, •William Revn- cMs and *Joshua Rea; School DiVectors, Oliver McCleUand Andrew Sinith, James McConnell, 'William Reynolds, 'John Fule" and John Horm; Fence Appraisers, John Smith and 'Oliver Welsh; Poor OverseeFs Henry Keys and 'Tilton Reynolds; Town Clerk, John Wilson '^^^"*'''^^' •Residents of what afterwards became Winslow township. ELECTION RETURNS OP WINSLOW TOWNSHIP The first election was held in Winslow township April 6, 1846. B^- low are the official returns which gives the names of all who ran but do not designate which were elected. Supervisors, Joseph Syphrit, Samuel Rea; Overseers of the Poor Jonathan Dickey and John Sheesley; Assessors, John Sheesley and John Dickey; Town Clerk, Andrew McCrelght; Auditors, Jonathan Dickey and Andrew McCreight; Fence Viewer. John Clayton; Constable, Samuel Pershing and Oliver Welsh; School Directors, Thomas Reynolds; Fred Alexander, Woodward Reynolds, John Fuller, John Barr and John Foltz: Justice of the Peace, Robert Douthit, Joseph Syphrit and Woodward Reynolds; Judge of Election, Woodward Reynolds; Inspectors of Elec- tion, Tilton Reynolds and Joshua Rea. OFFICERS ELECTED AT THE FIRST (SPECIAL) ELECTION HELD IN RBTNOLDSVILLE BOROUGH, OCTOBER 21, 1873 Burgess, M. M. Miner; Councllmen, J. Benner McCracken, Joseph R. Pentz, Hiram S. Belnap, William K. Reynolds and H. S. Sankey; Justice of the Peace, George E. Wisner; Auditors. D. Bergoon, one year, Jesse L. Test, two years, and Albert Reynolds, three years; Constable, Sam- uel Saxton; High Constable, William Heokman; Assessor, B. F. Barr; Assistant Assessor, E. DeHaven; Judge of Election, William Ferris, and Inspector of Election, H. M. Clark and R. M. Boyles. OFFICIALS ELECTED AT THE FIRST (SPECIAL) ELECTION HELD IN WEST REYNOLDSVILLB BOROUGH, OCTOBER 12, 1893 Justice of the Peace, David Bolinger and William L. Johnston; Bur- gess, Samuel Sutter; Constable, James Moore; High Constable. William Berry; Tax Collector, David Stauffer; School Directors, Philip Koehler, William L. Johnston. David Bolinger, Manley E. Weed and James Orr; Town Council, William M. Burge, James Moore, S. E. Brewer, James Orr and Henry Herpel; Poor Overseers, Frank Shaney and John Benson; As- sessor, Robert Williams; Auditors, W. Z. Burris, G. M. Davis and Thom- as McEnteer, Judge of Election, Samuel E. Brillhart, and Inspector of Election, J. N. Small. BURGESSES OF REYNOLDSVILLE BOROUGH 1883* H. C. Deible 1884 O. F. Smith 1885 H. B. Leach 1SS6 A. G. Milliron 1887 A. G. Milliron 1888 Thomas Tapper 1889 Samuel Dougherty 1890 S. B. J. Saxton 1891 S. B. J. Saxton 1892 John M. Hays 1893 John M. Hays 1873 M. M. Miner 1874 J. W. Poust 1875 F. M. Cole 1876 R. C. Faust 1877 iR. C. Faust 1878 David Hartman 1879 Albert Reynolds 1880 R. M. Boles 1881 W. H. Van Lew 1882 R. M. Boyles 1883 R. M, Boyles 96 HISTORY OF REYNOLDSVILIiE AND VICINITT 1894 Samuel Lattimer 1909 Smith McCreig-ht 1S95 Samuel Lattimer 1910 Jarvis D. Williams 1896* Peter Robertson 1911 Jarvis D. Williams 1897 H. Alex Stoke 1912 Jarvis D. Williams 1898 H. Alex Stoke 1913 Jarvis D. Williams 1899 H. Alex Stoke 1914 Fred J. Butler 1900 Camden Mitchell 1915 Fred J. Butler 1901 Camden Mitchell 1916 Fred J. Butler 1902 Camden Mitchell 1917 Fred J. Butler 1903 L. M. Simmons 1918 John Reed 1904 L. M. Simmons 1919 John Reed 1905 L. M. Simmons 1920 John Reed 1906 Li. L. Gourley 1921 John Reed 1907 L. L. Gourley 1922 Fred J. Butler 1907* Smith McCreight 1923 Fred J. Butler 1908 Smith McCreig-ht •Appointed to All a vacancy. BURGESSES OF WEST RBTNOLDSVILLB BOROUGH 1893 Samuel Sutter 1904 William M. Burge 1894 Charles Herpel 1905 William M. Surge 1895 Charles Herpel 1906 J. D. Woodring 1896 Charles Herpel 1907 J. D. Woodring 1897 J. C. McEntire 1908 J. D. Woodring 1898 J. C. McEntire 1909 C. C. Herpel 1899 J. C. McEntire 1910 C. C. Herpel 1900 Roman Koehler 1911 C. C. Herpel 1901 Roman Koehler 1912 C. C. Herpel 1902 Roman Koehler 1913 Daniel Bollinger 1903 William M. Burge 1914 Daniel Bollinger Last meeting of the council held June 1, 1914. NOTE — Until 1894 ^burgesses were elected for one year. From then until 1906 they were elected for three years. Since then they are elected for four years. TAXABLES OF WINSLOW TOWNSHIP IN 1860 Henry Aimon, William Aimon, Richard Anderson, Anthony Boat, .Tohn Barr, Henry Bowman, James Broadhead, Alexander Bollinger, Michael Best, "William Best, Gilbert Burrows, Stevenson Burrows, Sam- uel Brown, Adam Beck, Israel Booth, Henry Beal, John Boyer, George Boyer, John Burkett, Thomas Brown, George Broadhead, Robert Barr, John C. Censor, John Clayton, Benjamin Clayton, Margaret Gathers, .Tames Gathers, William T. Gathers, Charles B. Clark. John B. Clark, Robert Gathers, Senior. John I. Clark, Thomaa Crawford, John Carl, Is>aac Cochran, Robert Gathers, Junior, William R. Cox, James A, Cath- cart Andrew Coonley, David Carr, Oliver Gathers, Robert Cathcart, Dan- iel Clark, George Dobson. James Dickey, James Dixon. Robert B. Doutlilt. Senior, Isaac Dickey, Robert Douthit, Junior, John Deemer, Peter Deemer, Henry Dowling, Francis De Dorm. Thomas Dowling, Jo- siah Deemer, Zachariah Deemer. Ebenezer Dailey, Thomas Dilworth, .Tolin I. Deemer, Peter Doverspike, Jonathan Deemer, Samuel Dickey, George Dickev, Nathan Douthit. Joseph Douthit, Joseph Eastman, G. P. Eastman, Michael Elliott, David Ebenezer, Samuel Fye, John Fuller, William Ferris. George Fye. John Foltz, James Foltz, William Feeley, Ira Fuller, Christopher Frank, Frederick Farmer, William Fultz, Orlando Gray, John Green, Isaac Gordon, John Glazier, Harrison Green, Samuel Green, Franklin George, David Gillespie, Solomon George, Susan Hay- maker, Isaac Harlley, William Henry, John Horm, Jacob Hupp. George Horm, John Heberling, Simon Huntington. Gordon Harris. James F. Henry, James L. Henry. John Hull, "William J. Hillis, Thomas Hutchinson, Daniel Hnck, Robert Hillis, .Tohn Haymaker. George Howlet, Andrew Hoke. William B. Johnston. Reuben Johnston. Andrew Johnston, Jacob K. Johnston. James Johnston, Jacob Kroah. Henry Kroah. John Kline, Benjamin Kline, .lacob Kline, Willett Keys. Barney Kline, James Kinker, James Kyle. Georsre W. Ludwig. Henry Lyons. Hugh Lowrey, Edward Lewi.=. George Lintermat, Truman B. London, Junior, Simon Mix, Bph- ram Murray. Jonathan Milliron, Daniel Maize, John McCreight, James McCreisrht. Thomas MrCreight, Smith McCreight, Sharp McCreight, Jami- son McCreight. D. L. McHenry. George McConnell, Richard Maize, Rich- ard McClure, Henry Norris, Robert Norris, William Norfis, Harrison New- UNCLASSIFIED 97 come, Thomas Owens, Alfred Prescott, wmiam H. Pratt, James Phatt, Solomon Phllllppl, Ralph Pierce, John D. PhllUppd, BUzabeth Phillippl uharles H. Prescott. John Painter, Junior, Charles Price, Elisha Pres- cott, Robert Patton, Thomas Reynolds, Junior, Warren G. Repsher, Jere- miah Rea, Samuel Rea, George Rea, Woodward Reynolds, Elizabeth Reynolds, /Washington Rhodes, William H. Reynolds, Thomas Reynolds George Rhodes, A. Reed, Patterson F. Rea, Gilbert Rea, Joseph Ruther Robert P. Rafs, Christian Rhoads, Isaac Strouse, Lewis Small, Henry fehuckers .John Smith, John Soliday, Jacob Shunk, Samuel Shuiik, Rox- ?;"* Stebbms, Valentine Smith, Jacob Smith, Senior, John S. Smith, Wil- liam Sloppy, Jonathan Strouse, Martin Strouse, Joseph Syphrit. Georee Strouse, William A. Stewart, Daniel Sharp, David Sloppy Georle Sprague, Daniel Strouse, John Shire, A. Snyder, Robert ^arp, Oliver Smith, Edward Simpson, Henry Smith, John Snyder, Martin Staley, Benewell Snyder, John Smith, Senior, Joseph Sheesley, Jacob Sheesley, Peter Sharp, Henry Sohuckers, David Sheesley, Hiram Sprague, Wil- liam M. Smith, John Sloan, Philip Tapper, Cameron Johnston, Gibson Wilber, Oliver Welsh, Aaron Welsh, Christian Walker, Frederick Wal- ker, George B. Winkleleek, Noah Wetzell, Jesse Wayland, Samuel Wetzell, Adam Tohe, Senior, Henry Tohe, Peter Tohe, Wilson Young, Adam Yohe, Junior. Peter Yeager. POSTMASTERS OP REYNOLDSVILLE, PENNSYLVANIA Thomas Reynolds ,1850-1851; John S. Smith, 1851-1854; Orlando Gray, 1854-1856; John S. Smith, 1856-1858; Frederick C. Farmer, 1858- 1859; Thomas Reynolds, 1859-1862; Thomas Montgomery, 1862-1866; Thomas Reynolds, 1865-lSSl; Tilton C. Reynolds, 1881-1885; William C. Schultz, 1885-1889; John W. Foust, 1889-1893; Evan T. MoGaw, 1893- 1897; Albert Woodward, 1S97-1902; Edward C. Burns, 190-2-1910; Smith M. McCreight. 1910-1915; Henry C. Deible, 1915-1921; Smith M. Mc- Creight. 1921. CERTIFICATE OF INCORPORATION OP THE BOROUGH OF ■ RBYNOLDSVILLE And now, September 11, 1873, the Court confirms the judgment of the Grand Jury and decree that the said town of Reynoldsville be incor- porated into a borough in conformity with the prayer of the petition- ers. That the corporate style and title thereof be The Borough of Rey- noldsville; That the boundary shall be as follows, viz: Beginning at a post, corner of John M .Hays lot, and running by said lot south 228% degrees west, eight perches to post on land of Mrs. Haymaker, thence north 53 degrees west 60 4-10 perches to the corner of Joseph Sheesley's land, thence by land of said Sheesley north 54 degrees west 36 perches. thence north 44 degrees west 15% perches, thence north 54 degrees west 38 rods to the corner of C. H. Prescott's land, thence west 58 perches to a hazel, comer of Prescott & Company's lands, thence in same direc- tion 14 perches to a post, thence south 13 rods to a hemlock, thence west 123 perches to a beech, thence north 51% degrees west, 5 6-10 perches to ^ndy Dick Creek, thence following the course of said stream on east bank 93 perches, thence across said stream north 32 degrees west 4 2-10 perches to a post, thence along said stream on the west bank north 51 degrees ease 20 perches, then-ce north 58% degrees, east x perches, thenca north 72 3-4 degrees east 34 2-10 perches to a hickory tree on the east bank of same, thence up same on the east bank 330 percti- es to a hemlock tree, thence east 11 perches to a pine tree thejice south 33 degrees east 109 perches, thence south 63 degrees east 185 perches, thence south 23% degrees west 103 perches to the place of beginning. And that the arinual borough election shall be held at the home of Charles Burns in said borough on the first Monday of February, In ac- cordance with and subject to all the provisions of the law regulating township elections, and declares said borough a separate election and school district. The Court further decrees and fixes the first election m said borough for the election of the officers provided by, law at the house of Charles Burns in said borough on the 21st day of October, A. D., 1873, between the hours' of 8 o'clock a. m., and 7 o clock, p. m. M said day and designate B. Neff to give due notice of said election and manner thereof. And the Court further appoints that David Reynolds be Judge of said election and that G. W. Thompson and A. Bergoon be Inspector of said election. ^^ ^^^^^ ^^ ^^^^^ WILLIAM ALLIMAN, R. R. MEANS, , , Associate Judge INDEX TO PROPER NAMES (Names in the Appendix not Included) Adams, President John, 30 Aimen, Henry, 61 Aimen, William, 61 Alderton, Millaered, 43 Anderson, John, 43 Armstrong, Colonel, 31 Baird, Howard & Company, 52 Barnett, James, 67 Barnett, Joseph, 32 Barton, Mr., 77 Beebe & Clark, 61 Boyer, George, 35 Boyer, John, 35 Boyles, Dr. R. M., 77 Brady, James P., 29 Brady, Father Terence, 59 Brockbank, 32 Burr, Aaron, 30 Burrows, Gilbert, 35 Caldwell, 35 Caldwell, James, 80 Campbell, Archibald, 54, 86, 92 Campbell, Mary Ann, 92 Carl, Daniel G., 42 Cathcart, Dr., 30 Gathers, Oliver, 35 Gathers, Robert, 35 Charles II., King, 28 Chase, Charles, 37 Clark, 70 Clark, Dr., 34 Clayton, Benjamin, 35 Clough, John B., 42 Conn, Hugh, 42 Concer, John C., 42 Corbet, Judge Charles, 47 Cox, Nancy (Harrison), 61 Cox, Peter, 61 Cox, William T., 61 Coxson, John, 43 Crawford, Dr., 47 Crosby, George W., 42 Crowell, Jacob, 47 Gulp, George, 37 Day, Sherman, 30 DeHart, Charles, 43 DeLorm, Francis, 35 Doling. Julius, 34, 3 5 Douglas, 33 Douthit, Robert, 35, 59 Dunham, Daniel, 33 Ellicott, Andrew, 66 Ellicott, Joseph, 66 Elliott, Hon. Simon B., 20, 64 Fehley, William, 35 Ferris, William, 62 Feye, Henry, 32 Flynn, Patrick, 59 Forpaugh, Adam, 52 Fuller, George Washington, 19 Fuller, John, 19, 23, 33, 31, 35, 62, 75 Fuller, Mrs. John, 19, 33, 34 Puller, Mary Jane, 34 Gaskill, Charles E., 67 Geddis, Henry, 30 Goodaur, Frank, 35 Gorsline, Mrs. Margaret, 91 Grant, Thomas, 32 Green, Joseph F., 42 Griggs, 35 Guenth, Doctor, 63 Hamilton, Alexander, 30 Harris, Doctor, 4 7 Harriett, James, 67 Hartranft, Governor, 55 Howlett, George, 42 Ingalls, Jared, 30 Irvin, William, 66 Iseman, Henry, 77 Jackson, William, 59 James I., King, 28 Jefferson, Thomas, 38 Johnston, James A., 42 Johnston, Rev. James, 58 Johnston, William, 14, 35, 60 Jones, Peter, 67 Kuhn, John, 42 Kyle, James, 86 Laird, John, 43 Lattimer, Joseph, 30 Latz, Christopher, 43 Leslie, L. P., 63 Lincoln, President, 42 London, Isaac, 33 Long, Irvin R., 42 Martin, Thomas, 3 2 Maxwell, Thomas, 43 McClelland, Major William, 41 McCreight, Andrew, 3 5 McDonald, Betty, 37 McHugh, John, 42 McKnight, Dr. William J., c 32, 39, 45, 66 McMuUen, Ancell, 43 Mead David, 32, 66 Mead, John, 32, 66 Modock, Sam, 27 Mohney, Fred. 43 Morrow, Joseph, 72, 73 Nesbit, Richard, 4 3 Nicholson, John, 30 O'Neal, John, 70 Penn, William, 2 8, 38 Pickering, Timothy, 29, 30 Piatt, Franklin, 63 Piatt, George, 63 Prescott, Charles H., 65 Prescott, George Allen, 65 Potter, Elizabeth, 3 3 Potter, Gen. James, 29, 30, 31 Potter, Hannah, 33 Potter, Harriet, 3 3 Potter, Jackson, 33 Potter, Jane, 33 Potter, John, 33 Potter, Joseph, 31, 33, 35 Potter, Mary, 33 Potter Junior, Rachael, 33 Potter, Rachel, 33 Potter, Ramaev, 33, 35 Queen, Montgomery, 52 Randolph, James, 39 Randolph, James F., 32 Rea, David, 35 Rea, John W., 42 Rea, Josua, 3 5 Rea, iSamuel, 35 Reynolds, Albert, 80 Reynolds, Amelia, 35 Reynolds, David, 19, 31, 34, 77, 80, 81 Reynolds iThomas, 3 4, 35, 40, 41, 56, 59, 80, 81 Reynolds, Til ton, 31, 35, 40 Reynolds, William, 3 5, 61 Reynolds, Woodward, 31, 3 3, 34, 35, 46, 62, 64, 68, 69, 71 Rice, Dan, 52 Ringling Brothers, 52 Rivers & Dares, 52 Rogers, State Geologist, 63 Ross, Amelia, 34 Rutter, Joseph, 42 Schultz, E. C, 59 Scott, Miss Kate, 3 Shaffer, Atmore, 43 Sharp, Elizabeth, 3 5 Sharp, Peter, 42 Sheesley, John, 42 Sloan, John, 67 Smith, Christopher, 32 Smith, Jacob, 14, 33, 35 Smith, John S., 18, 86 Smith, Juliann, 34 Smith, P. B., 30 Smith, Hon. William O., 51, 79, 86 Sprague, George, 35 Sprague, Hiram, 35, 42 Spiague, Samuel, 35 Staley, Martin, 35 Stebbens, Benton, 75 Stevens, "Penobscot," 34 Stevenson, James W., 79 Stoddard, J. K., 53 Tawney, Hon. James A., 51 Thompson, James, 40 Thompson, J. Edgar, 77 Van Amburg, 52 Van Horn, Cornelius, 32 Watson, George, 66 Watson, John, 32 Warren, Fitz Henry, 40 Washington, General George, 30, 31, 32 Wells, Guy, 43 Welsh, Oliver, 35 Wensell, Noah, 42 Whitby .& Company, 52 Wheeler, Fred, 43 Winslow, James, 38 Wildman, Clara, 53 Willink, Wehelm, 30 Wilson, Carpenter, 67 Winkleman, George, 42 Woodring, James, 43 Yeomans, Daniel, 33, 35 Yohe, Adam, 35 D. W. ATWATER PLUMBING 322 MAIN ST. REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. I. M. ALLEMAN GARAGE Agent for the Hudson and Essex 26 N. 4th St., REYNOLDSVILLE PA, W. H. BELL Value-First Clothing and Furnishings REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. MISS FLO BEST MILLINERY REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. FRED J. BUTLER REAL ESTATE & INSURANCE 510 Main St. RsynoldsTiUe, Pa. H. E. CONRAD SANITARY MEAT MARKET EVERYTHING IN FRESH AND SMOKED MEATS 40e MAIN ST., REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. BING-STOKE CO. The Store of Quality and Service 22 Yeara on the Same Corner There'a a Reason Cor. Main & Fifth Sta. REYNOLDSVILLE, - PA. DR. IRA DAVID BOWSER PHYSICIAN AND SURGEON REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. Raymond E. Brown Geo. W. Meana BROWN & MEANS ATTORNEYS-AT-LAW BROOKVILLE, PA. DR. H. T. CRAVEN VETERINARY 24 First A-renue, REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. J. C. DILLMAN MEN'S FURNISHINGS CLEANING, DYEING AND REPAIRING 350MAINST., REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. ELK TANNING CO. Manufacturers o£ High Grade Sole Leather RIDGWAY. PA. Equitable Life Assurance Co. REPRESENTED BY FRANK P. ALEXANDER REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. ^ W. M. FERGUSON Dealer in DODGE BROTHERS' MOTOR VEHICLES io8 N. 4tk St. ReynoldsvilU, Pa. HERPEL BROS. MACHINISTS ReynoldsTilla, Pa. A. H. FLEMING FUNERAL DIRECTOR 521 MAIN ST. REYNOLDSVILLE. PA. HENNINGER & LONDON Plumbing & Heating REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. TRCDCRICK and BUTSON Meats and Groceries SummervUle Phone 143 418 Main St Reynoldsville, Pa. Dr. William A. Hill PHYSICIAN Reynoldsville, Pa. C. R. HALL AUTOMOBILE 8e GENERAL INSURANCE REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. Imperial Barber Shop LAWRENCE P. CORBETT, Prop. Reynoldsville, Pa. ARTHUR HASKINS Pianos and Organs 517 Main St. REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. IMPERIAL HOTEL REYNOLDSVILLE. PA. W. C. HENRY Clothing, Shoes and Men's Furnishings REYNOLDSVILLE. PA. Jefferson Supply Co. Dealer in GENERAL MERCHANDISE 160 Bradford St.. REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. Jefferson Macaroni Company High Grade Macaroni REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. SMITH M. McCREIGHT Attorney-at-Law REYNOLDSVILLE. PA. GEORGE M. McDonald Attorney-at-Law REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. Keystone Hardware Co. Reynoldsville, Pa. DR. L. L. MEANS DENTIST REYNOLDSVILLE. PA. Murray's Boot Shop Walter I. Murray, Prop, Reynoldsville, Pa. DR. R. D. KING DENTIST REYNOLDSVILLE. PA. W. C. MURRAY Coal and Farm Produce Reynoldsville, Pa. A. T. McClure Glass Company Glass for Building and Manufacturing Purposes REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. New Cash Store Bohren BIdg., Main St. REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. Palace Restaurant JOHN KANASH, Prop. Reynoldsville, Pa. PATTON & MORRISON Dealers In Flour, Feed and Grain REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. Reynoldsville Car Works Manufacturers of Mine Cars Reynoldsville, Pa. Pennsylvania Burial Case Co. Undertakers' Supplies Reynoldsville, Pa. DR. J. C. SAYERS Physician and Surgeon 607 Main St. Reynoldsville, Pa. JOHN REED Dealer in Coal Lands and Real Estate Reynoldsville, Pa. NICK SCHETTINO For Good Things to Eat 203 Main St. Reynoldsville, Pa. J. MORRIS SMITH Dtiller of Water Wells, Pumping Holes for Mines, Test Holes for Mines, Etc., Core and Mineral Core Drilling. 946 Jackson St. Reynoldsville, Pa. J. N. RECH News Stand Dealer in Cigars and Tobacco of All Kinds REYNOLDSVILLE. PA. A. Z. SNYDER For Good Clothes Men's Outfitters REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. REYNOLDSVILLE BAHERY SERVICE STATION CLIFFORD J. MONRO. PROP. ■EXIDE" Vulcanizing, Repairing and Batteriea Charged and Repaired 330 Main St. RoynoldBTiUe, Pa. W. C. STARTZELL Register and Recorder of Jefferson County BROOKVILLE, PA. Reynoldsville Candy Wvrks JOHN P. ATHENtAN. PROP. REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. STOKE PHARMACY H. A. STOKE and J. HERMAN GUTHRIE, Proprietors REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. E. A. STROIT f ARM AGENCY FRANK SPRAGUE, Representative Reynoldsville, Pa. The Peoples National Bank REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. H. E. SWAB Save With Ice 4 1 8 E. 4th St. ReTnaldsTllle, Pa. SYKES ECONOMY STORE ROLAND SYKES Men's and Young Men's Clothing and Furnishings REYNOLDSVILLE. PA. A. M. WADDING Fire, Life and Casualty Insurance Brookville, Pa. JOHN TRUDGHON, Solicitor Reynoldsville, Pa. The Adelphia Theatre DAMORE & MILLER, Props. REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. M. E. WEED House Furnishing Goods 474 Main St. Reynoldsyille, Pa. THE BAZAAR MORRIS GORDON. Prop. Family Outfitter REYNOLDSVILLE. PA. ANDREW WHEELER Dealer in Coal Reynoldsville, P«. The nrst National Bank REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. WOODWORK SUPPLY CO. See them for Builders' Supplies 130 W. 4th St. Reynoldsville, Pa. This Book was Printed -by- The Spirit Publishing Co. Punxsutawney, Pa. G. W- YOUNT Confectionery REYNOLDSVILLE, PA. ■ ;^::><^ !* ^r^l ^«*wi