The history of Ceres and its near vicinity, from its early settlement in 1798 to the present

Preface

The first chapter of this history was written by Mrs. Mann on request of the Historical Society of Portville. They requested her to continue the work and she began on the second chapter, but could not go on with it, but requested me to do so. I finished up the chapter in the brief way I supposed was designed, and it remained so for several \ r ears, when the matter was again brought up and it seemed desirable to bring it down to the present, with a brief mention of the families who had lived here many years, or were in any way prominent in the community. I am well aware that my work is imperfectly done, but let him who criticises take the material and do better. Much has been hunted up with considerable labor, and of course much has been omitted through forgetfullness, and perhaps something put in that should not be.

M. KING

Contents

CHAPTER I.— The earliest settlement. The causes that led to it. The first exploration in 1797. The coming of the first family. The nearest neighbors. The first saw-mill and other improvements. The first death. Death of Mrs. King, 1801. Some account of her family. The coming of the Smiths and Bells. The great flood in 1803.

CHAPTER II.— The organization of the county and town, 1804. The first justice of the peace. The cemetery laid out in 1804. Settlement at Olean. The "house on the hill." New roads. Road laid out to Nile, N. Y., 1809. Missions among the Indians. Letter of F. King to his brother John giving his views of the country. Death of Francis King. Letter of John King. The Youngs. The Crawfords. Mary Bell. Kittie Hanson. William Lister. Mary Bee. The sickness in 1820. John Bell, Senior. Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Smith. John C. Brevoost. Copy of an old letter from Robert and Elizabeth Clendeuon. Two remarkable snow storms. Thomas Smith's descendants. William Bell and family. John Bell, Jr., and family. Post offices. Franklin library. History of the church at Ceres. Schools. Physicians. Newspapers. The Civil War. Counterfeiting. The first general store. Emigration of settlers. Jacob Young. Fires. Annin Creek and Bells Run. Asahel Wright. The early Irish immigrants. Henry Chevalier.

CHAPTER III.— Wild Animals. History of temperance work. The oldest house in the country. Under-ground railway. Daniel Carr. Edward Steinrod. Isaac Phelps. D. and J. Edwards. John C. Danforth. Cyrus, Rnssel and Ira Cooper. S. and J. Eastey and' the Peabodys. Joseph Morse, Sen., and sons. W. J, Hornblower and family. Palermo Lackey. Walter Lackey. Main and Barber Settlements. James Ward. Some account of the Indians. Oil and Gas. Railroads. Some of those who have left Ceres and are honored citizens elsewhere. "Coon Hollow." Letter showing that Ceres was a part of Centre county, that the officers of McKean county had to report at Bellefonte. The 100th anniversary of the settlement of Ceres.

Chapter I

|i)EOPLE who visit Rock City in Allegany ^ county, New York, and look upon those singular water-worn rocks on a high hill surrounded and surmounted, too, in some cases by large trees, all repeat the question, ''How came they here?"

The same query arises in one's mind in regard to those who form a new settlement in the heart of a wilderness, without roads, and without there being means of subsistence there. Why and how did they come here?

To account for it in this case the following is copied from an old manuscript:

In the year 1797 Francis King, of London, who came to the United States in the autumn of 1795, was employed by John Keating, of Philadelphia, and others associated with him, to come through the northern section of what was then known as Lycoming county, Pa., to explore the country and examine a large body of land then owned by William Bingham, Esq., with the view of making an extensive purchase, if he should find the land well situated and susceptible to cultivation.

Francis King then lived at Asylum, or Frenchtown, on the northeast branch of the Susquehanna, about twenty miles below Tioga Point. From this place, accompanied only by a boy of fourteen, with a pack-horse to carry his provisions, he set off up the Chemung and Conewango rivers until they reached the extreme frontier settlement near the state line between Pennsylvania and New York, expecting to be able to reach the settlement on the West Branch of the Susqueb HISTORY OF CERES.

hanna, at the mouth of the Sinnamahoning, in about two weeks. After this there was some detention from high water, and taking a wide range in the exploration, they were out six weeks. In these six weeks they did not meet a human being, though they frequently saw signs of Indians having recently been there before them.

Their provisions were damaged by the wet weather and they did not succeed in killing any of the deer, or elk which they saw, until almost reduced to starvation. One evening however, Mr. King shot and killed an elk, but when they tried to eat of it, it proved more than their weak stomachs could retain at first.

They were then on the head waters of the Sinnamahoning and with great labor and difficulty in their weak condition they managed to make a small raft of logs, and having put on some of their meat, Mr. King started with it down the stream, having directed the boy to ride the horse along the bank. He knew nothing of the distance to a settlement, nor of the nature of the stream. He soon found himself in a rough, rock\ r rapid, but he got safely through. The next day he entered the Susquehanna, and a mile below came to a house. The people were not able to take them in, so the boy rode on to a house a mile farther down the stream and there found they could be received. Mr. King was seriously sick. He allowed the boy and horse to rest two days, then sent the boy with the horse back to Asylum. The boy also carried a letter to Mr. King's wife, but on arriving he was so overcome by his feelings that he could not speak and did not deliver the letter for nearly an hour, so that the family were in an agony of suspense until he partially recovered. Let me stop here to say that I have not found later mention of this poor child of fourteen years, who so bravely went through this terrible ordeal of going home alone, through that long wilderness, after all he had previously suffered. Not his name, even, have I found, though if the manuscript before me had been continued, no doubt we should have known more of him. I can only hope that he had a comfortable home and love and care, and all things to help him on to a good and happy life, and that wherever this story shall come, that this that he did shall be told as a memorial of him.

During Mr. King's sojourn in the family that took him in, he suffered much for needful food and things that are necessary in sickness. The people were very poor and without provisions, except venison, which they obtained by having their dogs drive the deer into the water, where thev could shoot them. Thev rubbed out green rye, dried it and then pounded it, to get some thickening for their soup.

While he was still suffering and helpless, his kind(?) host went down to Big Island, forty miles below, and gave information that a Yankee surveyor, who had been in the woods sometime, taking up land for the Yankee claim, was at his house. He wanted a reward for giving information, but he met with no encouragement, and returned home disappointed.

It is to be remembered that at that time there were difficulties between the Pennsylvania claimants to lands in the northern part of Pennsylvania, Connecticut's charter having been pretty extensive westward. In about six weeks Mr. King recovered so as to be able to return to his family at Asylum.

Finding that he could not get a good title to the land which he had purchased at Asylum, owing to the failure of two large land owners — Robert Morris and John Nicholson — and being pleased with the country through which he had passed, and the persons who had employed him being satisfied with his report, so that they had made the contemplated purchase, and offered to employ him as their agent, he resolved to move his family into this part of the country.

In the spring of 1797 he engaged a few men, hired a boat in which he took his provisions, tools, etc., and went down the North Branch of the Susquehanna to Northumberland, thence up the West Branch to the mouth of the Sinn am ahoning, at which place was the last settlement of white people on his route.

They went up the Sinnamahoning as far as they could go, which was a place called Driftwood, which was at the mouth of a branch of the Sinnamahoning, called after this Portage from these immigrants having carried their effects along it and across to the Allegany. At this time the State had engaged a man by the name of William O'Grady to open a road from that point to the Allegany river, a distance of twenty-three miles, so as to better enable immigrants going to Presque Isle ( now Erie ), or other western places, to cross from one river to the other. Our immigrant party assisted in making this road, and passed over it with a wagon drawn by oxen, transporting their freight to the Allegany, where they made canoes, thus giving the name of Canoe Place (still to be found on old maps), and later Port Allegany. They descended the river from this place about thirty-four miles, to the mouth of the Oswayo, a tributary of the Allegany, from the southeast, which was about one and a half miles north of the state line ; thence up the Oswayo nearly six miles to a place previously selected, which they named Ceres.

Here they put up a small camp in which to live until they could build. a log house.

The distance they had come since leaving the last house was one hundred miles.

Mr. King cleared a small piece of land, planted it, and then made some further explorations. He found a settlement of three families about thirty miles to the northeast, in New York, near where is now the village of Andover. This was twelve miles from any other settlement. These families had been there but a short time and consequent^ had raised but little, but they were generous and hospitable with that little. Their names were Dyke, and the place was long known as Dyke's settlement. Mr. Dyke, a married son and a married daughter with their families had made the settlement there.

In another direction from Ceres, about fiftysix miles, he discovered two families at a place in Tioga count\- called Big Meadows. This place was at one of the forks of Pine Creek. There was no road in that direction until he cut a path.

The little clearing at Ceres, I think, was sowed with wheat. Apple seeds and peach stones were planted as the first step towards the orchards that were to stock the country with fruit.

In the fall the men who had been hired to accompany him returned to their homes, as he also did.

In the spring of 1798, Mr. King, with his family and some workmen, started for the Oswayo by the same route followed the year before. A little above the mouth of Pine Creek, somewhere near where Lock Haven now stands, the mother and four older children were left to wait while the father went back to Asylum for the three other children and their nurse. They were brought on in the canoe and sometime in Ma\- the whole family started again. By the payment of considerable sums in advance and the promise of good wages, two families were induced to go with them ; but they, like many others after them, chose to continue their journey down the Allegany, without refunding the money paid them, thus leaving their employers alone.

The voyage up the river w^as slow and laborious. The water was swift and often so shallow that they would be obliged to unload and carry their freight past the shallow rapids into deep water. Between Driftwood and Canoe Place they met the first Indians. Mr. King had gone on before the family and was out of sight. The children were frightened, but the mother had no fear of these wronged children of the forest, whose fate lay heavy on her heart. She quieted the alarm of her little children and then went forward to meet them, and was soon in friendly converse. The Indians knew them by their dress as the children of Penn, and probably had heard of their coming. Kind feeling, as this manuscript says, needs no interpreter, and this pilgrim mother had afforded her children better protection than an armed force could have given.

On arriving at Ceres, which was near the last of June, they set about clearing more land, so as to get in a patch of corn in addition to the wheat sown the fall before. It was a glad time of the year to begin life in the wilderness, for the whole air was sweet with the fragrance of trees and flowers. Birds were few, but what there were made music for them. Their cattle ranged the hills and their bells re-echoed among the

trees. They had no trouble from wild animals, personally, though for many years their flocks suffered. One of these early settlers used to sa\ r in his later days, "I never met any animals in the woods but that thought I was the uglier, and would run from me." There was no woman in the settlement but Mrs. King, when, in September, a little girl was born to her. She lived onl\ r a few months, but already a burying ground had been laid out, for that is a human need that can not be set aside, and the Kings were devout members of the Society of Friends.

The land company, called at that time "The Ceres Company," was composed of several persons in France, and I think of some in Holland, with an executive branch in Philadelphia, three members of which always signed deeds, contracts, etc. The chief person in the American branch was John Keating. He had been a Colonel in the French army, and I think was stationed in the West Indies at the time of the French Revolution, and on the death of Louis XVI came to the United States. He was of Irish birth and French education, and had the grace and polish befitting a courtly gentleman. He gave himself to business to retrieve his shattered fortunes, and spent the remainder of his long life in Philadelphia. He made many journeys to look after the Company's lands, and to confer with the agents; and he endured fatigue and privations as became a soldier. But he was no longer a soldier, nor an officer, but a most benevolent Christian gentleman, whom it was an honor and privilege to know, and whom it was impossible not to trust.

The Company, with much wisdom and foresight, made many plans for improving the country, and had the means for carrying them out — and we can but wonder at their far-reaching policy.

In this first summer, 1798, a sawmill was built set in a scallop made in the hillside, and fed with water brought three-quarters of a mile in a race which was cut through green tree roots, from a brook emptying into the Oswayo not far from where the first house stood. The next year a grist-mill was set up by its side, and these, with the clearing and cultivation of land, making of roads and constant surveying, gave employment to a great many people; while the ease with which they could leave by water made the population more than usually fleeting.

Mr. King had hired a young man and his wife at Big Meadows, to come and live with them. Pack-horse paths were cut through to Big Meadows and to Dyke's settlement, Andover, during the summer. There was no riding in those days. People were fortunate if they could find a sufficient path to get a horse through to carry their baggage, and as all provisions for the way had to be carried with them, bread, etc., prepared and baked at Ceres, for all these excursions, that place was a busy hive.

The wheat and corn raised that first summer had to be pounded in a mortar for meal, but much of it was cooked whole, being boiled a long time. The corn was hulled by being boiled in weak lie first.

The winter evenings were employed in preparing for the day's work. What could be raised was as yet in very insufficient quantities for their needs, and excursions had to be made to Pittsburgh, for the purchase of supplies.

The pioneer first started with canoes to make the journey. It was easier than carrying burdens on the land. The Indians who were around the settlement were very kind and often of much service in finding the best ground for paths and roads, also in the construction of canoes and rafts, and in the many other ways friendly people find of being of service. They called Mr. King, Shinna- wanna, 4 -The head man."

Their reservations lay along the Allegany for a distance of forty miles. Here they made him welcome. At a plaee they called Jennessie — Guhta, Air. King met three young men sent thither by the Society of Friends as missionaries. These were Joel Swayne, Halliday Jackson and Henry Simmons. They had come there in 1798. As this was the Society to which Mr. King and his family belonged, it was pleasant to find them as neighbors — onlv sixty miles away.

The first journey down to the Indian reservation had been made to ascertain if there were obstructions in the Allegany that would prevent its navigation. There was nothing found more troublesome than sand and gravel beds and tops of trees, for the mills and clams that choked the stream in later years had not been built. Even those first mills at Ceres were run by water from a brook, and did not impede the public highway of the Allegany; nor even of the Oswayo. Finding the way open they continued on to Pittsburgh, where they procured supplies, and loading two or more canoes hired help to push them up the river. It was a long route with all its bends, the largest of which took them some distance into the State of New York. This journey was repeated more than once, for even when the grist-mill was completed, which was in the spring of 1801, it was long before enough grain was raised to supply the needs of the people, but it ground what grain was raised by the scattered settlers that had come into the country at this time.

Once when the head of the family was away on a surveying trip longer than he expected, the larder became so nearly empty that there was cause for alarm. Airs. King, who was a small, delicate woman, went herself to Pittsburgh, accompanied only by two Indians whom she hired, bought provisions and took them home by canoe. I cannot give the date of this journey, but it must have been in the earliest years, for in the eleventh month of 1801 she laid down her heroic life, leaving a little babe three hours old to the care of his brothers and sisters, the father having gone to Philadelphia to obtain supplies and to settle with the Land Company, where he was detained by high water and the difficulty of traveling in the winter, until March. There were then several families of work people in the neighborhood, so that there was a women who could care for the poor baby; but in return for nursing the baby, (as she also had one of her own to nurse,) she claimed that she must be abundantly supplied with food ; so the children gave of their supply until they would have starved themselves if it had not been for the meat brought them by the Indians.

Of the King children, the oldest, John, was but a little over seventeen, and the oldest daughter, Ann, was fifteen. There were two other daughters, Alary and Martha, younger than Ann; then a boy, James, and two girls, Jane and Annabella, and the baby brother. A helpless family in many ways to be left motherless in the wilderness, as they had never known anything about work before they came to America.

The little burying ground had received another occupant — the third, I think — for a grave used to be pointed out as that of Mrs. Smea. The death ol this beloved mother was so sad an event that it was never spoken of, even in their later years, by her children, without evident pain, and I never heard one allusion to the funeral nor their arrangements after, by any one of the family.

At one time, while the King girls were still all at home, they were making up the clothing for the family for winter, when they decided to pack it in a barrel until the barrel was filled. They had nearly accomplished their task when it took fire and was all burned, and a new stock of winter clothing had to be made.

Mr. King had to be gone for weeks at a time while surveying the distant portions of the Company's lands, and these children had to care for one another and themselves as best they could.

In these years some families came that remained. In 1802, John Bell, his wife and his son William, and two sons and a daughter of his wife's by a former marriage, Thomas, John and Alary Bee, all came. They came from Haltwhistle, Xorthumberlandshire, England, a place mentioned in one of Sir Walter Scott's novels, "Heart of Mid Lothian." They had come to Philadelphia not many years before, and Mr. Bell, who was a superior mechanic, had "built a hospital" in that city, but the yellow fever, of which there was more or less for several years, frightened them, and hearing of this break into the wilderness, they followed, leaving one son, John, with a family near the city to whom he was apprenticed to learn the saddlers' trade. After he attained his majority he, too, came to Ceres where he spent his long and useful life, as did also his brother William and his stepbrothers and sister, and where many of their descendants still live.

In 1802 also came Thomas Smith, his wife, Elizabeth, and four sons, Thomas, John, William and Henry. This was another family that came and remained. Mr. Smith was from Woolwich on the Thames, twenty miles then from London, and was a miller by trade. And after the first mill was past use, he built and run one but a few rods from the old saw-mill formerly owned by George N. Smith. This mill was on the Oswayo, a mile above Francis King's. This little hamlet was long known as Smith's Settlement. Here Thomas Smith, his wife and three sons lived to a good old age, excepting John who died in his prime, and passed away leaving many descendants, some of whom still re main. Thomas Jr. died in 1815, aged 21 years.

The Smith family was an important factor in the earh r settlement, as well as in all the later history of the place. The letters of introduction brought by Thomas Smith and John Bell from a member of the Keating Land Co., have been found within a few years, and a copy of them is inserted to show the estimation in which they were held by the Company.

Phila. 3 August, 1802.

This will be handed you by our Friend John Bell who has at last determined to move with all his familly ( one boy excepted ) to Ceres Town. I am well convinced they will prove a very great acquisition to the settlement in every respect, for if this good man and his worthy and clever companion are pleased with their situation I conceive they will invite and encourage their friends and relations of England to come over and join them and as such people are of great importance to a new country, I wish you to give them every assistance in your Power — to enable them to make their way. They are of a station in life not prepared to Endure hard-ships and I presume they will meet with some which are inseparable from the new country they are going to visit therefore endeavor as much as possible to alleviate them. I am extremely pleased with Mrs. Bell and have a very great opinion of her. Would lament very much her meeting with difficulty and hardships, from which I pray providence may guard her and hers.

John Keating is not as yet arrived but I hope he will make his appearance in the course of the present month. I long much for his return. I have paid to John Bell 100 Dollars which sum I will charge the Company. Wishing him and his family safe to you, and that they may meet you and yours hearty and prosperous, I am sir sincerely,

Your Affectionate Humble servant,

Rich'd Gernon.

Francis King, Ceres Town,

Lycoming Co., Pennsvlvania.

Mr. F'cis King,

Ceres Town, Lycoming County, Pennsvlvania.

Dear Sir: I wrote 3 r ou a few days ago by our friend Wm. Bell whose arrival with you I shall hear with particular pleasure and that his good Wyfe & familly have experienced no hardships on their journey. Offer them m}- best compliments for the}' have my good wishes for their prosperity & happyness.

This will I hope be delivered to you by Mr. Thomas Smith a Native of England & resident of Woolwich on Thames near London, who is very desirous of settling with his family (consisting of his Lady & 4 boys) on our Lands. Mr. Smith intends to take his Family up to Sunbury from whence he will ride up to see you & take a View of the Settlement, and make some arrangements respecting the land he wishes to take up. You will then please to assist Mr. Smith with your advice and aid, also afford this valuable settler all the advantages granted by the Company. Mr. Smith is lately come over from England, with several acquaintances Married & having famillys — who seem desirous of settling where he will, therefore I hope he will meet with ever}- incouragement possible.

I had by the arrival of the British Packett a Letter from Mr. John Keating dated London 31st of May he was about ingaging a Passage for this Port therefore I daily- look for his arrival.

Mr. Smiths friends who mean to follow him are Mr. Simonds a Married Young man and a Mr. Thomas Willis a young man also having a Large familly of Six Children.

Wishing this may meet you & familly I remain very Sincerely

Your friend,

Rich'd Gernox.

Philad'a 11th Aug. 1802.

William Avers, his wife Mary, and three children were of the early comers, and were also English, and though some of their descendants live at Ayer's Hill in Potter Co., I have been unable so far to find any data concerning them.

The colon}- throve; the land was productive and the climate much more favorable than in later years. The orchards grew rapidly, and in a few years there were an abundance of peaches. Melons flourished and the corn called "gourd seed," and later, "Ohio corn" reared its stately height and ripened its grain with ease. Apple orchards were longer in coming into bearing than the peach orchards. As they were all raised from the seeds they were not of any celebrated kinds, but some of them proved to be so good that they were propagated by grafts, and very lately I heard a lady say that they had a Francis apple tree on their farm which was a graft from one this original stock.

There was one severe winter. Early in October, 1803, snow fell and lay on the ground for sometime. There had been no previous frost and the vines and low veget ables were protected by the snow until it was gone, after which there was no frost until December. There were fresh cucumbers and pumpkins at Christmas, a thing that has not occurred since.

The manuscript before me says, "The next year," but it must have been the same winter for the "great flood" occurred in 1804. The snow fell to the depth of five feet, and supplies of food for the cattle failing, trees were cut down and paths dug or tramped to them, so that the cattle could browse from them. The snow gradually melted and warm, pleasant weather set in, which seemed to indicate that spring was near. There came a warm rain which melted the remaining snow so rapidly that there was the highest flood ever known in the Oswayo valley.

Thomas Smith and family were now living a mile above the first settlement, and on lower ground, so that the Kings felt some anxiety about them, and taking an Indian canoe that had been left near went to look after them. Arriving at the door, still in the canoe, they found Mr. Smith busily engaged in bailing water from his cellar. He evidently thought, as Noah's neighbors did, that there was not going to be much of a flood. At the earnest representations of danger, Mrs. Smith and the \ r oungest child were induced to enter the canoe, leaving Air. Smith and his older sons to secure things as well as the}- could and then escape to land on horseback. On returning over the swift waters the small, light canoe was overturned by being caught in a tree-top. It floated away leaving its passengers clinging to the tree. John King swam to where the canoe lodged and recovered it, and all finally got in and reached home safely after some hours delay. John King was nearly insensible with cold and exhaustion. They rolled him in blankets and were successful in arousing him, and towards evening he started again, this time on horse-back, for Air. Smith and his two boys. He found him still at his home, but he started back with him on horseback, each with a bo\ T behind him. But a log bridge had broken up near where Mr. Leonard's house now stands, and the logs were floating, and John King's horse got a foot fast. He dismounted and tried to extricate the poor beast, but could not. It was night by this time, and he stood in the water holding up the horse's head to keep it from drowning, and they all shouted until help came from Mr. King's, more than half a mile away. There does not seem to have been any other family who was in danger. The water that spring was four feet higher than it has ever been in the Oswavo since. Such a Hood now would be terribly disastrous.