BIO: John E. DUBOIS, Clearfield County, PA
 
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From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania,
and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr.,
Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 630 - 634.
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  JOHN E. DUBOIS, a leading business man and representative citizen of DuBois, 
Pa., was born on his father's farm in the state of New York, May 15, 1861.  His 
ancestors on the paternal side were of French origin, coming to this country in 
1634, and settling on the western part of Staten Island, N. Y.  They were 
members of the Reformed church of France and probably came to America to avoid 
religious persecution, Staten Island being then numbered among the Dutch 
colonial possessions.  Among the posterity of these early immigrants were some 
whose names are prominent in theology, law, arms and business.
  The paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch was John DuBois, a 
farmer of Tioga county, N. Y., who was the owner of considerable tracts of 
timber land and also built and operated a saw-mill.  He married Lucy Crocker, 
daughter of Ezekiel Crocker, one of the first settlers near Binghamton, N. Y., 
who moved there from Connecticut with three of his sons and his daughter Lucy, 
she being then eleven years of age.  Lucy became the housekeeper of the family 
and though so young attended to her multifarious duties with an energy and 
decision that were later among her most conspicuous characteristics and marked 
her character throughout her life.  In those days the Indians constituted almost 
the entire population of the region.  John DuBois' family consisted of eight 
sons and two daughters, the three eldest sons being Ezekiel, John and David.  Of 
these Ezekiel was the father of the subject of this sketch.
  John DuBois, above mentioned, uncle of our subject, was born near Owego, N. 
Y., March 3, 1809.  He was educated in the district schools and for a short time 
attended an academy at Owego.  He was early trained to habits of industry and 
received but little schooling after he was fifteen years old.  Soon after he 
became engaged in rafting lumber down the north branch of the Susquehanna river 
to Columbia.  At the age of twenty his father built a saw-mill about two miles 
from Tioga Center, and John (with David, a younger brother) stocked the mill 
with logs in the winter and rafted the lumber when the spring floods served.  
Ezekiel, the elder brother, carried on the business of shoemaking.
  About the time John was of age his father bought a farm for $6,000 at Tioga 
Center.  He asked the three older sons, Ezekiel, John and David, to stay with 
him until it was paid for, promising to give it to them when the deed was made.  
The father, however, had the deed made to himself, settling with his sons on a 
different basis, whereby they had a lease of the farm, mill and timberland to 
work on shares, besides a stipulated salary.  The three brothers, with one 
sister to keep house for them, left the old home and took up separate quarters.  
The eldest brother, Ezekiel, soon married Clarissia Badger, they being the 
parents of the subject of this sketch.  David died at the age of 33 years, 
unmarried.
  Owing to various causes, the brothers (the firm was E. DuBois & Bros.) were 
not very successful in their combined enterprise.  They subsequently engaged in 
a mercantile business with another brother, Matthias, which connection lasted 
five years.  In the winter of 1835 John DuBois took advantage of an opportunity 
to purchase 1,000 acres of valuable timber land for $3,000, partly on credit.  
This netted the brothers a considerable profit.  At the end of five years they 
closed up their business with property and money to the value of $25,000 cash, 
beside the 1,000 acres from which the pine only had been taken off, it was still 
well covered with hemlock, also teams, tools, sleds, chains, etc.  In the 
division Ezekiel took most of the real estate and personal property for his 
share, and John and David, constituting a new firm, engaged in a new lumbering 
enterprise in Lycoming county, Pa., Matthias being subsequently taken into the 
firm.  David died in 1848, John and Mathias paying back to the family $4,500.  
Matthias married and his brother John lived with him in a pleasant residence on 
the Lycoming.  They were engaged together in various lumber and other 
enterprises during some ten years, buying large quantities of land in Lycoming 
and Clearfield counties, including some 32,000 acres in the latter and about 800 
acres in the city of Williamsport, besides erecting saw-mills, etc., and a 
residence in the city of Williamsport.  About this time Matthias' health began 
to fail, and he finally died, and John, after the year 1863, carried on the 
business alone.
  After his brother's death John DuBois built a large mill and quite a town 
situated on the Susquehanna above Williamsport, which was called DuBois town.  
He supplied this mill with logs from his lands in Clearfield county, floating 
them down the river.  He met with great opposition from men running lumber down 
the stream in rafts, who sued him in the courts and, when he gained the suits, 
drove spikes and pieces of iron into his logs, which caused him a great amount 
of damage.  In 1860 the boom built across the river to hold the logs gave way, 
letting about 50,000,000 feet of logs go adrift, of which about four and a half 
million feet belonged to Mr. DuBois and his partner.  Many of these logs floated 
down to Chesapeake Bay.  After considerable controversy between the various 
owners at Lock Haven and Williamsport as to the best way to recover their 
floating property, Mr. DuBois was empowered to go over the ground and see what 
he could get.  He succeeded in selling a large number at a much higher price 
than any other member of the committee considered them worth, and he and his 
partner themselves bought all the logs that were in the Chesapeake Bay, Mr. 
DuBois going to Harve de Grace to make arrangements for securing them.  The logs 
were lying mostly along the beach and many had been cut up by the owners of the 
land on which they had gone ashore.  Some of these owners refused to allow him 
to take the logs, and in some cases he paid them damages to settle the matter.  
In other cases he brought suit in the U. S. courts and in each case recovered 
their value.
  In October, 1861, another large lot of logs went adrift, and Mr. DuBois being 
again commissioned by the lumbermen to recover them, went through many of the 
same experiences as before, his trouble being chiefly with the owners along the 
river, the situation being complicated by the war, some of the owners along the 
Maryland shores refusing to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the U. S. courts.  
Owing to these troubles and also to another considerable loss due to a flood in 
March, 1865, a stock company called the "Williamsport Transient Lumber Company" 
was formed to better manage such transactions in the future.  Mr. DuBois made 
some propositions to the company for the recovery of logs in the bay, but being 
strongly opposed by a man named Herdic, they were declined and he was left out 
in the cold.  The measures taken by the company proved impracticable and many of 
the logs were ultimately lost.
  In the spring of 1861 Mr. DuBois found that his partner was untrustworthy and 
that the accounts of the concern were in a confused condition, and he 
consequently found it necessary to give his personal attention to the business 
in Williamsport.  Upon a fuller investigation he discovered that his partner had 
given various notes for large sums, failing to make any record of them, and 
which now came in for payment.  He had also, as was later discovered, received 
large amounts and pocketed the same without making any record of them on the 
books, and had been guilty of other acts of dishonesty.  This resulted in a 
severance of the partnership, after a settlement which left Mr. DuBois much 
poorer than he had thought himself.
  John DuBois was a man of great inventive genius.  When the Philadelphia, 
Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad Company in 1861 decided to build a bridge across 
the Susquehanna river at Harve de Grace to take the place of the steam ferry 
boat, Mr. DuBois set to work to think of a plan for laying the piers, the water 
being very deep and a similar attempt having previously failed.  He finally 
matured such a plan and sought an interview with the president of the company to 
lay it before him, but having divulged his plan on  the way to a Mr. Crossman, 
who had charge of the bridges who told it to the company's engineer, Mr. Parker, 
the latter laid claim to the invention subsequently, and Mr. DuBois having 
obtained a patent several law suits resulted, whereby Mr. DuBois at first lost 
but subsequently had his prior rights affirmed by the Supreme Court, the 
railroad company being obliged to pay him damages.  He subsequently took out 
many other valuable patents, both in this and foreign countries.
  Mr. DuBois' business enterprises were on a large scale.  After getting rid of 
his dishonest partner he sold the mill built by them at Williamsport, together 
with some other real estate and boom stock for $91,000 and bought a mill near to 
the one sold for $21,000 and soon after bought a large steam saw-mill, with a 
number of tenant houses, costing altogether over $120,000.  His mills there had 
a sawing capacity of about 120,000 feet in eleven hours.  In the spring of 1873 
he began to improve his property in Clearfield county, which at that time was 
mostly a wilderness.  The site of the now thriving village of DuBois then 
contained only three houses.  Here he built several saw-mills of large capacity, 
with other machinery for cutting shingles, packing-boxes, dressing lumber, 
framing timber, etc., together with a large brick building for kiln drying 
lumber.  He also erected a large brick building for store and hotel, 50 x 100 
feet, three stories high besides the basement.  His lumber yard contained 
latterly over 15,000,000 feet of sawed lumber, besides an ample stock of logs.  
He also owned a foundry and machine shop, and had a large and well improved 
farm.  These various industries gave employment to more than 350 men during the 
busy season and to a large portion of that number for the whole year.  Near his 
land were three collieries working five and a half and two and a half veins of 
coal of excellent quality.
  In his younger days Mr. DuBois was fond of hunting and often bagged such big 
game as deer and bears, besides catamounts, wild-cats, etc.  At different times 
he lost considerable property by fire, having but partial insurance.  Had he 
been fully insured he would have had a considerable amount to pay yearly in 
premiums.
  Mention has already been made of his brother Ezekiel, who was for a time 
associated with him in business matters, and who married Clarissia Badger, they 
being the parents of John E. DuBois, whose name appears at the head of this 
article.  John E. DuBois spent his boyhood on the farm and received an academic 
education. In 1883 he came to DuBois, Pa., and entered the employ of his uncle 
John, to whose history we have devoted so much space.  On the death of his 
uncle, which took place on May 6, 1886, he was made the latter's executor and 
continues to carry on the extensive lumber business founded by him.  Mr. DuBois 
is also interested in many other local enterprises, among them the DuBois Iron 
Works and the DuBois Lumber yard, both important concerns.  He was one of the 
organizers of the DuBois National Bank and is now its president.  In politics he 
supports the Republican ticket.
  In 1897 Mr. DuBois was married to Miss Willie F. Gamble, a daughter of James 
M. Gamble, of Roanoke, Va.  Mr. and Mrs. DuBois are the parents of five children 
- John, Lewis, Caroline, David and Sarah.