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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

 

Chapter

Pages

Preface and Introduction I - IV
Contents V - X
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.

1 - 19
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.
20 - 41

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.

     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.

42 - 67
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.
68 - 79
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.
80 - 96
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.
97 - 124
Chapter VII.
Miscellaneous Activities
Effects of Prohibition; Banking in Clearfield County; The Underground Railroad; The Effects of Wars Upon Our County.
125 - 135
Chapter VIII.
Highways, Means of Travel and Transportation
Roads of the County; Paved and Improved Roads; 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.
136 - 150
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.
151 - 162
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.
163 - 167
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.
168 - 188

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.

189 - 199
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.
200 - 203
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.
204 - 222
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; 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.
223 - 232
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.
 

IMAGES

Page

The West Branch (Indian Otsinachsin) at Riverview

i

A million little pine trees - in Clearfield Forest Nursery

4

Norway spruce trees - in Clearfield Forest Nursery

4
Ogden-Bloom Marriage Certificate-1802 24
Hannah Ogden McMullen, age 101 Yrs. 25
Gigantic Maple Tree 30
Moose Creek Water Dam 31
Hyde Consolidated School 99
Bradford Consolidated School 101
25 year old stand of white pine trees 165
30 year old windbreak of farm of D.H. Watts in Ferguson Township 165
Rafts tied up at Clearfield 188
Getting ready to haul a spar 192
3 Mile Log Jam 194
Building Lick Run splash dam 196
Clearfield High School 250
Clearfield Academy  



 

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