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The City of DuBois
APPENDIX
Page 193
Page 193
APPENDIX
STAGE COACHES
Oil City, Penna. April 23, 1930
The first recollection I have of the old Stage Coach
which ran between Phillipsburg and Franklin was in about 1865 when I
was a girl of 16 years of age. This was when I first met Mr. Evans.
My first ride was between Curwensville and Clearfield. Mr. Evans and
his father, Joseph Evans of Cochranton, were in Clearfield attending
the Fair and they had stopped on their way to the Fair at my
father's, Benjamin Bloom's hotel in Curwensville. My father always
collected the fares from the passengers for the Stage Coach. If was
customary wherever the stage stopped for the hotel proprietor to
take charge of the fares, etc. I remember once my father was robbed
of $800.00 money which belonged to the stage owners. This was
considered a large amount of of money in those days. This money was
collected at intervals from the different hotels. My father kept it
in a chest in his bedroom and when it was stolen, it was not missed
for several days, so the robber had a chance for a good get-away.
The stage was then running between Phillipsburg and Franklin. Joseph
Evans had then been operating it for several years, the time that he
became known to me. The stage was a large coach driven by 4 horses,
horses and drivers changing at Luthersburg, Brookville and Clarion.
The best stage drivers received from $20.00 to $25.00 a month and
board. Occasionally the stages upset when they were top heavy from
express and baggage on top. In December, 1869, Mr. Evans and I were
married. Of course after our marriage I rode more often and saw more
of the stages. Shortly after our marriage the stage had been
discontinued to Phillipsburg as the trains were then running between
Tyrone and Phillipsburg. The stage line was then between Clearfield
and Franklin. Very often I would get on the stage at Curwensville
with my oldest child, a babe in arms, and ride to Brookville,
arriving there at 2 A. M. Would think nothing of this and perhaps it
would be 20 below zero. Once I remember going as far as Franklin and
when we arrived at the bridge over the Allegheny, the spring flood
had washed the bridge away and the passengers were taken across the
river in row boats. The roads in the Spring and Fall were a
succession of mud holes, with an occasional corduroy. Very often
male passengers walked up the hills, all this in the blackness of
darkness with only two lanterns hanging from either side of the
coach. In 1872 we moved to Brookville as that was one of the central
points,—Clearfield was the eastern and Franklin the western. Bids
were always let for the mail and express, and the Evans sold out.
The big stage coaches were never used again as the new firm used
large hacks.
(Mrs.) Clara Evans
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