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PREFACE
Since the opening of the Public Library in the City I
have urged persons
who were early residents of the City, to write their recollections
at length,
to file in the Public Library as an archive from which to gather
data for
future historians. I was not successful in this and as a number of
these
parties have passed on and their knowledge with them, I concluded
that
something ought to be done.
Mr. John E. DuBois kindly offered to publish a book I
might write
containing such matters as I could obtain.
Fortunately, several persons connected with the past
history of Brady
Township, as well as DuBois, are living and were of great assistance
in
securing data. I refer to John R. Shaffer, of Reynoldsville, Pa.,
the only
living grandchild of George Shaffer I, the first pioneer settler in
1812;
George C. Kirk, of Luthersburg, now at the age of 94 years, and
author of
"Pioneer History of Brady Township"; Lucy Ashenfelter, daughter of
Jacob and
Sarah Pentz, pioneers, who has a remarkable memory, and is now at
the age of 88
years. I was also able to get considerable data from Aldriche's
"History of
Clearfield County," published in 1887.
I have been materially assisted by Hon. J. Mitchell
Chase, Member of
Congress from this district, who has secured valuable data from the
Government
records for me. Mr. L. Steinberg, Photographer, has made several
pictures of
old buildings; Fred A. Lane kindly loaned me his father's store
books for
ascertaining prices of merchandise; Mr. John E. DuBois who likewise
loaned me
the store books of his uncle's store kept at Tioga Center, N. Y.,
and secured
for me a Post Office record kept by John DuBois when Postmaster at
Beaver
Creek, Tioga County, New York, back in 1832, before the days of
postage stamps,
in which each person was charged with the postage and credited with
it when he
paid it. Mr. G. L. Reed and Mr. John Reed were among the persons
living in the
vicinity when John DuBois started his improvements in this locality,
who gave
me considerable information. Mr. B. B. McCreight kindly loaned me a
number of
cuts belonging to the Deposit National Bank showing various
buildings in the
pioneer days of the City.
I have not written any biographical sketches or
mentioned names of
persons engaged in business enterprises except that of John DuBois,
who was the
founder of the City, and have given only such other biographies as I
thought
would be of interest in connection with the early development of the
City.
There were a great many persons who came to DuBois to
take advantage of
the opportunity to make money, but who did not contribute any more
to the
growth of the City than the man who worked in the woods, in the
mines, or on
the mills.
No doubt there are many imperfections in this book, and
I shall
appreciate it very much if the local critics will place in the hands
of the
Public Library, for future historians, such matter as they have, or
what would
be still better, if these critics were to prepare a history of
DuBois and
publish it.
It was my good fortune to be born of pioneer parents,
viz: Jacob and
Sarah Rishell Pentz, who settled in the virgin forests in Brady
Township, about
1839, to wrest a home and farm from the dense growth of timber on
their land. I
have also been fortunate enough to have lived in two centuries and
in two
historical epochs. Having been born in 1858, just past the turn of
the middle
of the Nineteenth Century, I found the pioneer still developing the
country by
the old manual processes. Each farm was a small manufacturing
institution in
itself. Iron was scarce and whatever
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