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Page 47
EARLY INDUSTRIES
CHAPTER IX
IN 1812, at the time George Shaffer settled, the
nearest grist mill was Bellefonte. If Mr. Shaffer wanted his grain
ground, he either had to resort to the process of the savage, viz:
finding a flat stone and using a wooden mallet to crush the grain,
or travel almost eighty miles, fording creeks and rivers, and over
almost impassable roads, to Bellefonte, the nearest grist mill.
Jacob Ogden, the first settler, was somewhat of a
mechanical genius, and from his necessities as well as his fertile
brain, he constructed a grist mill on Stump Creek, a little above
Stanley Station. All of the gear wheels and other machinery of this
mill were made of wood. It is said that there was one mill erected
in Clearfield County, prior to this mill, which had but one piece of
iron in the whole structure. The mill stones for Ogden's mill were
dressed out of the sand stone of the region. After doing service in
this mill until it rotted down, this pair of mill stones was sold to
various parties, and is in existence at this date, doing service for
grinding grain.
It is related that John Carlisle, an early settler,
carried his grist to this mill on his back, and not finding the
miller in, he poured his grain into the hopper and succeeded in
starting the mill; but when the grain was ground, he was unable to
stop the mill and had to wait until Mr. Ogden came in to help him
out. When he came to bolt his grist, he had to run the bolting
machine by hand.
It is stated that John Brubaker erected a distillery
near Rockton. What year this distillery was erected no one seems to
know, but it long since passed out of existence, and it is doubtful
if the location could now be found.
"Pete" Seyler discovered a necessity for plows and
other implements made of cast iron. Mr. Seyler built a foundry in
which was made what was known as the "Seyler Plow", the only plow
used in western Clearfield County for years. This foundry also made
wood heating stoves and cook stoves.
The fan for the blast in this foundry was run by a
horse power, used for running threshing machines. The foundry was
located on the William Brockbank farm about one mile west of
Luthersburg. Mr. Seyler sold his farm about 1864. The foundry was
sold to other parties and removed to West Liberty, where it was
subsequently abandoned.
Of course tradesmen and mechanics of various kinds were
necessary, and at an early date John Carlisle, a blacksmith, came
into the community, and settled south of Luthersburg, where he
opened a blacksmith shop.
His iron came from Bellefonte, and was toted over the
mountains
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