Pennsylvania USGenWeb Archives

Clearfield County

Clearfield County Pennsylvania

Present and Past

by

Thomas Lincoln Wall

Ex-Supervising Principal

Boggs Township Schools

Library Edition

Published by Author

Copyright 1925

by

T. L. Wall

Transcribed for the Clearfield County PAGenWeb Project by

Ellis Michaels

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V

CLEARFIELD COUNTY - PRESENT AND PAST

CONTENTS

Chapter I.
Natural Features
Position and Extent; Climate; Landscape; The Woods; Wild Flowers; Native Animals; The West Branch and Other Streams; Floods; Soils; Geological Formations; Miscellaneous Stories; The Otsinachsin.

Chapter II.
People of the Present and Past
Population; Industrial Changes Brought New Classes of People; The Pioneers; Earliest Settlers; Other Early Settlers; The Strenuous Life of the Pioneer; How Betsy and Ben Kept the Cabin all Winter Long; The First Store in the County; The Story of Mary Corrigan; Granny Leathers and Her Son; Taxables in 1806; Panther Story; The Oldest Person Living in the County in 1925. The Woman who Lived in the the County the Longest.

Chapter III.
Stories of Early Times
A Typical Family; A Shanty in the Woods; Meeting a Bear; Seven Little Wild Cats; Recollections of Early Life; Going to School; Oxen and Sleds Used for Hauling; Things to Eat and Wear; Whisky Drinking; Miscellaneous Events.
     Uncle Billy Stories:—When the Roof Slipped off the Cabin; How Uncle Billy Pulled Nails with His Teeth; How Uncle Billy Tried to Fly; How He Shot the Schoolmaster; He gets a Bear and Two Cubs; How he ate the Deer that Ate His Wheat; Uncle Billy was a Good Chopper; Uncle Billy and the Wolves; How He left the Panther watch the Deer Lick; Uncle Billy's Closest Call.

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CLEARFIELD COUNTY - PRESENT AND PAST

Courting Under Difficulties; Gambling and Drinking in 1817; A Real Man's Story; How an Irish Boy Came to the County in 1852; "Tracking a Bear;" The Horse Fiddle; A Wagon Load of Whisky on the Barn.

Chapter IV.
First White Visitors
Anna Marie LeRoy's Story: Barbara Tries to Escape; They Reach Chinklacamoose; To Punxsutawney and Kittanning; The Indians set them to Work; The English Attack and Burn Kittanning; At Fort DuQuesne; On the Move Again; They See Frederick Post; The Indians Retreat to Muskingum; A Chance to Escape; A Wonderful Woman; The Escape; They Find a Raft and Cross the River; They Reach the Ohio; Trouble-a-plenty; Pittsburgh at Last; Help to get Home.
Other Visitors:—The Flight of the Moravians; The Three Companies; They Unite; They reach Cinklacamoose; They Go On to the Ohio; Difficulties of the Journey; Early Surveys.

Chapter V.
The Red Men Called Indians
The Town of Chinklacamoose; Indian Houses; Indian Relics; The Leni-Lenape; Origin of the Lenape, and of The Mengwe; The Three Original Clans of the Lenape and Their Sub-Divisions; The Mengwe's Five Tribes Form a Confederacy and Conquer the Lenape; The Relations of Indians and Whites; Evil White Men and Liquor Drinking The Ruin of the Indians; Indian Treaties; The Lenape and Their Legends; Moral and Mental Characteristics. Religious Beliefs of the Lenape; Manufactures; Arms, Decorations, etc.; Counting and Time; Story of How a Savage Hog Killed the Indian Babies; Origin of the Gnats, An Indian Legend.

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CLEARFIELD COUNTY - PRESENT AND PAST

Chapter VI.
Educational and Kindred Agencies
The Schools in 1925; Pupils and Teachers; Classes of Teachers; Classes of Schools; One Room Schools; Advantages of Larger Schools; Consolidation of Schools; School Equipment; Schools of the Past; The First Teachers; Law of 1834 for Schools; Teachers and Pupils in the County in 1854; Qualifications and Character of Early Teachers; Branches Taught; First County Superintendent; "What was Good Enough for Me is Good Enough for My Children;" School Exhibits; A School Seventy Years Ago; A School Girl of Seventy Years Ago, by One of Them; Martha Ann's Bear.
Health Conditions:—School Sanitation; The First Doctors; Clearfield County Tuberculosis Society.
Educational Organizations:—The W. C. T. Ti.; Daughters of the American Revolution; The Red Cross in Clearfield County; The Children's Aid Society; The Rotary Clubs.
The Churches :—Early Churches; Friends Meeting in Grampian Hills, Catholic Churches; Other Churches.
Sabbath Schools:—The First Sabbath Schools; Going to Sunday School Seventy Years Ago.

Chapter VII.
Miscellaneous Activities
Effects of Prohibition; Banking in Clearfield County; The Underground Railroad; The Effects of Wars Upon Our County.

Chapter VIII.
Highways, Means of Travel and Transportation
Roads of the County; Paved and Improved Roads;

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CLEARFIELD COUNTY - PRESENT AND PAST

Automobiles and Trucks in the County; Bus Lines; Trolley Lines; Railroads; Railroad Building; The First Railroads; The Vision of Hardman Philips; Railroad Improvement; Building Railroad in the Night; Erie Turnpike; The Caledonia Pike; The Wilderness, or Kittanning Road; The Old State Road; Inspector's Report; The Indian Path; The River as a Highway; Building an Ark.

Chapter IX.
Means of Communication
The Radio; The Telephone:- Bell; Huntingdon and Clearfield; Town Lines; Rural Telephones; The First Telephones; First Commercial Lines. The Telegraph. The Mail:- Rural Free Delivery; Star Routes; First Post Offices. Travelers Brought the News in Early Times; Newspapers.

Chapter X.
Natural Resources
Soil Fertility; Water Power; Timber and Forest Growth ; Coal; Fire-Clay and other Clays; Building Stone and Limestone; Gas and Oil.

Chapter XI.
Manufactures
Light and Power; Gas, Gasoline and Kerosene; Hydraulic Rams; Kerosene Lamps; Tallow Candles; Labor Saving Devices; We Owe Much to the Past; Brick Making; Tanneries; Early Tanneries; Working In Nickel; Making Silk Plush; Woolen Mills; Grist Mills; Making Knitting Machines and Knitting; Making Pottery; Making Maple Sugar and Syrup; Making Shook; Making Things at Home.

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CLEARFIELD COUNTY - PRESENT AND PAST

Chapter XII.
Lumbering
The Great Lumber Industry; Amount of Timber that Has Been Cut; Rafting; Rafting In; Guiding the Raft; Wages and Value of Spars and Square Timber; Pay of Rafts- man; The Log Driver; Saw Mills; The Labor of Timber Making; Rafting and Logging; Rafting on the River; Timber Making; A Car Load of Mince Pies; Sleeping in the Shotes' Bed.

Chapter XIII.
Mining
Effects of World War; First Mining of Coal; Coal Brought the Railroads; Methods of Mining; Fire-Clay Mining; Coal and Iron Police and Strikes.

Chapter XIV.
Agriculture
Farm Census 1924; Decrease in Tilled Acres and in Most Products; Farming as a Business; Opportunities in Special Farming; The Problem of Waste Land; Advantages of Progressive Farm Life; Pioneer Farming; The Factory System; Why People Live in the Towns; Conveniences on The Farm; Labor Saving Appliances; The Grange; Cooperative Associations; County Fairs; The County Farm Bureau; Corn Testing in 1918; The Farm Labor Bureau During the War; Moving In, a Story of Early Settlement.

Chapter XV.
County Organization
At the Present Time; Court Officials; County Officials; The Care of the Poor by the County; The County Home; The Present Court House; Later Jails; First Court House;

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CLEARFIELD COUNTY - PRESENT AND PAST

First Jail; Representatives in General Assembly and Congress; First Organization; First Election District; Selecting a County Seat; Donations by Abraham Witmer; First Enumeration of Taxables; First Justices of the Peace; Division of District; First Election of County Commissioners; Complete County Organization; First Court Held.

Chapter XVI.
Local Divisions of the County
Beccaria Township; Bell Township, Mahaffey Borough and Greenwood Township; Bigler Township; Boggs Township and Wallaceton Borough; Bradford Township; Brady Township and Troutville Borough; Burnside Township, Burnside and New Washington Boroughs;Clearfield Borough; Coalport, Irvona and Glen Hope Boroughs; Cooper Township; Covington Township; Curwensville Borough; Decatur Township, Chester Hill and Osceola Mills Boroughs; DuBois City; Ferguson Township; Girard Township; Goshen Township; Graham Township; Gulich Township and Ramey Borough; Huston Township; Jordan and Knox Townships; Karthaus Township; Lawrence and Pine Townships; Lumber City Borough; Morris Township; Penn Township and Grampian Borough; Pike Township; Sandy Township; Union and Bloom Townships; Westover Borough, Chest Township and Newburg Borough; Woodward Township, Houtzdale and Brisbin Boroughs.