CHAPTER VIII Part 1

COUNTY DEVELOPMENT-Continued

Nature’s Part-Agricultural Progress-Pioneer Means and Methods of Farming-Modem Conditions-State Aids-Agricultural Societies­Farmers’ Associations-Agricultural Statistics-Mineral Resources-­Manufacturing-Pioneer Industries-Early Mills and Factories-Era of Speculation-Hindrances and Helps to Growth of Industrial Life -Boat-Building in Beaver County-Iron and Steel Industries-­Fire-clay Products-Oil Refining-Manufacturing Statistics.

Nature, a mother kind alike to all,
Still grants her bliss at Labor’s earnest call:
From Art more various are the blessings sent –
­Wealth, commerce, honor, liberty, content.

GOLDSMITH, The Traveller.

NATURE has indeed shown herself a kindly mother in Beaver County, Although not so rich, perhaps, as that of some of the other counties of the State, such as Lancaster, Cumberland, and Washington, her soil is nevertheless generally fertile, especially on the south side of the Ohio, and in parts of the eastern, north­eastern, and northwestern sections of the county. The general character of the soil throughout this region is that of a mixture of limestone, clay, and gravel. The county is also well tim­bered and well watered, and the means of transportation are abundant. With these essentials for his success existing in gen­erous measure, the farmer of Beaver County has played a large part in the industrial development which has marked our hun­dred years of history. In our chapter on the life of the pioneers we did not dwell upon the subject of agriculture, and it may be well to notice here, as showing the progress made, something of the early conditions and methods of farming. What is said

276

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may not always apply to the very earliest period, but will be true of some stage of our agricultural development.
Consider the state of this country as the pioneers found it. Every where, as another has said, there was “one vast, continu­ous forest shadowing the fertile soil, covering the land as the grass covers a garden lawn, sweeping over hill and hollow in endless undulation, burying mountains in verdure, and mant­ling brooks and rivers from the light of day.” Into this dense forest wilderness the sturdy path-finder penetrated and became the squatter, making his little clearing and planting his meagre crops. As settlements increased, and the country was rid of the savages, the work of reclamation went on, the area con­quered from the wilderness growing ever wider. Timber-cutting frolics then began to be made, when the neighboring farmers would gather with their axes and teams upon the spot to be cleared and vie with each other in the work. Sometimes several acres would be cleared at one such frolic.

How jocund did they drive their team afield!
How bow’d the woods beneath their sturdy stroke!

Then the felled trees would be hauled together and piled in heaps to be burnt, or sometimes they were cut so that they would fall in wind-rows and were left to be burnt the following year. If the farmer worked alone his progress would, of course, be slower, and it might be months or years before he would get his clearing made.
The implements of labor in pioneer times were of the simplest kind. Harness-reins, collar, hames, and back-and belly-bands -was often all made of ropes. Plows were generally made entirely of wood, though in some cases the coulter and the share were of iron, or partly iron and steel. Later, the half patent plow was used, with a metal mould board, and many other varieties preceded the present almost perfect pattern. Harrows were often nothing better than common thorn bushes, cut from the thickets. Then came the triangular frame, with wooden teeth, and other forms. until the modern make with iron teeth was devised. Forks were made from the forked limbs of trees, and shovels fashioned rudely from wood, and later styles were ponderous affairs of iron, requiring brawny arms to wield them.

278 History of Beaver County

Wagons were unknown for many years, sleds being the only means employed for transporting heavy loads. The first ap­pearance of a carriage in the rural districts excited a great deal of curiosity and even of disapprobation. 1
In the labors of the harvest, the muscles and power of en­durance of the workers counted more than did anything else, for their tools were of the most primitive sort. Grain was cut with the sickle. Men are living who can remember the time when few farmers had grain cradles. The hay harvest was cut with the scythe, of which the favorite style was called the “Blacksnake. ” The best mowers could cut as high as one and a half acres of heavy lying grass, or two acres of standing grass in a day. Grain was threshed with the flail or trodden out by horses. Then came the threshing machine. In 1831 John Mar­tin of South Beaver township, this county, announced through the newspapers that he had bought the right to sell Joel Duey’s patent threshing machine. The first reaping machine in the county is said to have been that used on the farm of John Wolf in 1850. It was a Hussey machine. Throughout the country there was at first great opposition to the introduction of ma­chines for farming work, on the ground that their use would lower the wages of farm hands, and in some instances the ma­chines were locked up at night to keep them from being destroyed.
In all those branches of farm labor which belonged to the men, and in those of the women, such as sewing, quilting, the scutching and pulling of flax and apple-butter making, the help­ing hand was lent by neighbor to neighbor, and frequent “frol­ics” promoted their social life. Modern methods of farming, and modern machinery have rendered the farmer less dependent upon the help of his neighbors; but there has been also a loss

1 The author of Old Redstone relates this incident in connection with his sketch of the pioneer minister. Doctor John McMillan:
“The Doctor was no patron or friend of the more ambitious improvements of modern times. When Gen. Morgan removed from Princeton. N. J., into the bounds of Chartier’s congregation (Washington County), at an early period, a part of his large and fashionable family were conveyed to church in a fine carriage. Such a thing was quite an exciting event among these plain people. The Doctor was annoyed, perhaps more by the diverted attention of the people than by the appearance of the Carriage itself, and did not omit in the course of his sermon to intimate that people might travel on the broad road in fine carriages, as well as on foot or on horseback. He was unfortunate in giv’ing offense to the party concerned, and lost his inIluence with tbis highly respectable family.
“When the first umbrella made its appearance at Chartiers, it was in the hands of a lady, who passed near where the Doctor was standing, conversing with others. He inquired, ‘What woman was that with a petticoat wrapped round a stick?’ It is believed that he was among the last who adopted the use of that modem convenience.”
The times change, bat we do not change with them-always. We have recently beard
the use of the bicycle severely criticised.

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involved in the lessening of the friendliness and social inter­course which these old-time “bees” and “frolics” furthered.
Many changes in th agriculture of the county in other re­spects are to be noted. For some time after 1830 Beaver County shared with Washington County distinction on account of the quantity and quality of her wool, but has now, with her neigh­bor on the south, lost all eminence in this branch of agricultural industry. The cause of this is to be found, according to some, in tbe placing of wool on the free-list, while others would attrib­ute it mainly to the growth of the great sheep ranches of the West and Southwest. Nor is there so large a cultivation of wheat and other cereals in the county as formerly, the vast wheat­lands of the West, where a single farm will sometimes contain ten thousand acres and produce more than the whole crop of Beaver County, making competition impossible. Our farmers, as a consequence, are now giving more attention to the raising of live stock and to general farming, producing fruit, poultry, but­ter, and eggs. Much stock -raising and general farming are carried on on tbe south side, dairying in the northern and western divi­sions of the county, and gardening along the Ohio River valley.
The State takes a generous interest in the welfare of her farming population. There is a Department of Agriculture, with a Secretary, Deputy Secretary, an Economic Zoologist, a Dairy and Food Commissioner, and a State Veterinarian, all of whom are appointed by the Governor and hold office for a term of four years. Tbe object of this Department is to promote the development of agriculture. The Deputy Secretary is in charge of the Farmers’ Institutes, for which a special appropriation is granted the Department, and of which 195 were held in 1900. Lecturers are selected for these Institutes, who present matters of interest to farmers. Beaver County is entitled to four days of Institute work each year.
There is also a State Board of Agriculture, consisting of the Governor and other State officials, members elected by the agricultural societies of the State, and one member appointed by the Pennsylvania State Poultry Association. The manage­ment of the local Institute is in the hands of the member of the State Board of Agriculture from the county in which the Institute is held. These Institutes are the instrument of much good in Beaver County, and are increasing in interest every

280 History of Beaver County

year. They are held at different points in the county, as Dar­lington, New Sheffield, Hookstown, Frankfort Springs, and New Galilee.
Sixteen agricultural journals and magazines are published weekly or monthly in Pennsylvania.
Prominent as a factor in the education of the people in the arts of husbandry have been the county argicultural societies. The first of such societies in the United States-The Philadel­phia AgricuJtural Society-was established July 4, 1785, in Philadelphia; the second was established in Massachusetts in 1792, and the third in South Carolina in 1795. By 1826 the number had increased to sixteen, of which the Washington County, Pa., Society, was one, and by 1876 there were over fif­teen hundred in the Union. At this rate of increase there are now probably over two thousand. Beaver County has two such societies, viz., the Beaver County Agricultural Society and the Mill Creek Valley Agricultural Association, Limited.
The first-named society was organized as the result of an agitation extending over a Period of ten years. Meetings were held in the court-house in Beaver as early as 1844 in favor of the creation of such an organization. A preliminary gathering of the farmers of the county and of others interested was held, at which the name as given above was agreed upon, and a con­stitution was submitted by a committee of which Col. Adam Bausman was chairman. This constitution was adopted at the same meeting. There is no record of further action until 1845, when the following announcement was made in the county papers :

AGRICULTURAL MEETING.

In accordance with a public notice given in the newspapers, a meeting of the Beaver County Agricultural Society was held at the court-house in Beaver, on Tuesday evening, March 18th, for the purpose of electing officers for the society, pro tem., until the annual meeting on the first Wednesday in November next.
The meeting was organized by appointing William Morton president
and Adam Bausman. secretary.
On motion of D. Minis, the society proceeded to the election of
officers, whereupon John Wolf was unanimously elected president; A.
Bausman, recording secretary; Robert McFerren, Esq., corresponding secretary; David. Minis, treasurer.
The following gentlemen were duly elected vice-presidents of the

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society, and together with the above named officers.will compose the executive committee:
Hugh Anderson, Borough township; James Sterling, James Harper, Hanover; Ovid Pinney, Joseph Irvin, Rochester; John Sutherland, Brighton; Hon. John Nesbit, John Clarke, North Beaver; James T. Robinson, Samuel Jackson, Little Beaver; William Morton, Joseph Mor­ton, Perry; Jon. L. Leet, Evan Townsend, Culbertson Clow, North Sewick1ey; Thomas Cairns, Shenango; Thomas Thorniley, Pallston; A. W. Townsend, New Brighton; R L. Baker, John Neely, Esq., Econ­omy; Philip Vicary, David Shaner, Henry Wolf and B. R. Bradford, New Sewick1ey; David Scott, Jr., Hopewell; D. Minesinger, Greene; Hon. John Carothers, Patterson; William Elliott, Esq., Moon; Samp. Kerr, Raccoon; George Dawson, James Scott, Thomas Moore, Samuel Duncan, Ohio; John McMillen, Matthew Elder, South Beaver; Azariah Inman, Joseph Niblock, Chippewa; Thomas Alford, Slipperyrock; Robert Wallace, John Imbrie, Big Beaver; Joseph Phillis, Marion; Benjamin Cunningham, Wayne.
On motion, Resolved, That the proceedings of this meeting be pub­lished in the newspapers of the county.
WILLIAM MORTON, President.

A. BAUSMAN, Secretary.

But notwithstanding this apparently effective action, the whole matter seems to have been delayed, and at last to have been dropped entirely. Occasional allusions to the project ap­peared in the public prints from time to time, however, and finally a meeting was held in the court-house on Wednesday, January 26, 1853, at which an organization in permanent form was effected. At this meeting Hon. Joseph Irvin was chosen President; Thomas McKee and Thomas McKinley, Vice-Presi­dents; and William Henry, Secretary. A constitution, previously prepared by a committee, was adopted, which set forth the ob­ject of the organization as being “to encourage and foster among the population of Beaver County the spirit of improvement in agriculture, horticulture, and the mechanic arts.” The name of the Beaver County Agricultural Society was retained. The first agricultural fair was held by the society, September 20 and 21, 1853, under the management of Hugh Anderson, President, and William K. Boden, Secretary. Annual fairs or exhibitions were held each year thereafter up to 1899, except in 1862, when the excitement of the war interfered with the meeting for that year. September 8, 1856, on motion of James G. Bliss, Esq., a charter was granted to this society by the court.
Among the men who have served in the various offices of this

282 History of Beaver County

society from year to year, have been many prominent in the history of the county. The success of the annual exhibition was always largely dependent upon the activity of the secretary. For many years after the war the fair was locally known as “Billy Barclay’s Fair,” after the energetic secretary of that period. Mr. Barclay was a brother-in-law of United States Senator M. S. Quay. Many of the prominent members of Beaver County’s bar have held the post of secretary of the society. The races, which were one of the attractions of the annual fair, have been generally good. The track record is 2.16 &1/4, made by “Jack the Ripper,” a Canadian horse, in 1897.
The grounds of the society have been often used as a place of public assembly, and for great picnics, such as that of the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers. In Sep­tember, 1900, these grounds were sold at auction to R. A. White­sides of Beaver Falls, real estate dealer, for $41,046.50. The proceeds of the sale were used to pay the debts of the society, leaving a balance in the treasury of about $8000.
For two years the society remained inactive, and then, in the year 1902, the board leased from George E. Smith of Beaver Falls twenty acres of ground in College Hill borough for a term of five years, with the privilege of five years more, for a new fair grounds. For these grounds they pay ‘$900 a year rent, and they have spent in making a race-track, erecting grand stand, stables, exhibition buildings, etc., about $10,000. The first annual fair on the new site was held in the fall of 1902.
The Mill Creek Valley Fair.- This agricultural association holds an annual fair at Hookstown, this county, which is always largely attended by the people of the towns and country. Its charter was granted by the court, March 15, 1886, Judge John J. Wickham presiding. The incorporators were the following: W. F. Reed, Allen McDonald, John McDonald, R. M. Swaney, J. B. Swaney, W. S. Swearingen, and R. T. Reed.
On the 7th of August, 1900, articles of association were filed in the proper office at Beaver for the Mill Creek Valley Agricul­tural Association, Limited, and under this latter name the society is now conducted.
Other farmers’ associations, such as the Farmers’ Alliance and the Patrons of Husbandry, or the Grange, have not gained much of a vogue in Beaver County. There are or have been,

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however, one or two of each of these organizations within its limits; an Alliance near Hookstown, is, we believe, still in exist­ence, and a Grange near Darlington; and there were Granges at Service and New Sheffield.

AGRICULTURAL STATISTICS
Within the bounds of Beaver County there are 2602 farms, valued, without the buildings, at $9,104,210; the value of its farm buildings being $3,311,440; value of implements used upon its farms, $576,930; value of all live stock, $1,23 1,239; gross income from its farms in 1900, $1,604,652; outlay for labor in the same year, $137,960.
The Report of the Department of Agriculture for 1899 gives the prices of farm products and live stock, with farm wages and board, for Beaver County, as follows:

PARM PRODUCTS AND LIVE STOCK

FARM WAGES AND BOARD

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The prices in the foregoing table are reported by home re­porters, and are the prices at the home market.
Below we give a tabulated statement of the acreage of tim­ber land in Beaver County in 1898. This was prepared under the direction of the Commissioner of Forestry of Pennsylvania, from estimates furnished by the assessors of the different town­ships. What is classed in the table as full grown timber lands is that which is covered with a growth of timber ranging in diam­eter from ten inches upward; half grown timber is that under nine inches in diameter, and the brush lands are those which have only underbrush, but which would, under proper fire pro­tection, in a few years be classed as half-grown timber lands:

Big Beaver township
South
Borough
Brighton
Chippewa
Darlington
Daugherty
Economy
Patterson
Franklin
Greene
Hanover
Harmony
Hopewell
Independence
Industry
Marion
Moon
Ohio
Patterson
Pulaski
Raccoon
New Sewickley
North Sewickley
White
Rochest
Baden borough
Frankfort Springs borough Total 120,8991

The proportion of timber land to the entire acreage of the county, with the estimate of the geological survey as the basis for comparison, is 16.4.

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285
MINERAL RESOURCES 1

But not only has Beaver County been blessed with the , “precious fruits brought forth by the sun”; she has also in rich abundance the “precious things of the lasting hills,”-her min­eral resources, as we have said, being very considerable. Iron ores and limestone outcrop in many places, and are mined and shipped in limited quantities. Iron ores yield twenty to forty per cent., but demand is curtailed by cheapened transportation for lake ores. Fine building stone has been quarried in various parts of the county, as at the Park quarries on Crow’s Run and New Galilee, and the Logan quarry at Freedom, the principal output being at the first two. This is known as the Mahoning sandstone. Large quantities of the Beaver River sandstone are also used in the building of railroad bridges and for curbing and other purposes, this stone belonging to the same geological formation as the Massillon stone, but being harder than that.
Fire-clays and shales are found throughout the county, prin­cipally underlying the Lower Kittanning coal vein, showing an analysis of forty-two to sixty per cent, of silica and twenty­eight to thirty-seven per cent of alumina. Bricks made from these clays and shales have all the beautiful shades of color for building purposes, and in many cases are capable of’sustain­ing a greater weight than granite. Nine different workable veins of clay are found in this vicinity, giving suitable variety for pottery and many grades of brick for house building, public street paving, bessemer open hearths, mill work, and every purpose for which fire-bricks are used.
Beaver County lies in the center of the largest coal basin in the United States, and within the county itself are extensive fields both of bituminous and of the celebrated cannel coals.2
The production of petroleum has been one of the most lucra­tive of Beaver County’s industries. For qualities of usefulness and convenience to our race, California’s mines of gold were hardly to be compared with this wonderful liquid treasure, which has been found in such abundance in the region to which this county belongs. Petroleum had been known long before the wells drilled in 1859 astonished the world with their gushing fountains. The Indians used to collect it on the shores of

1 See article on “Geology of Beaver County.” Appendix No. I.
2 See under “Darlington Township” account of cannel coal industry.

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286
Seneca lake in New York, and on Oil Creek, Pennsylvania. I In later times it was sold as a medicine under the name of “Seneca Oil.” It was found on the waters of several creeks about the head of the Allegheny River in New York and in Pennsylvania, and the people were accustomed to secure it by spreading woolen cloths upon the water to absorb it. When the cloths were
saturated with the oil, they were wrung out and the oil col­lected in vessels. Petroleum was observed as early as 1826 in the salt wells on the Little Muskingum River in Ohio, and the gas was so strong that it often interfered with the use of the wells for days together. In 1849, at Tarentum, Allegheny County, Pa., considerable oil was obtained by the drilling of a salt well.
The first attempt at sinking or boring a well for the distinct purpose of obtaining petroleum was made by Col. E. L. Drake of Connecticut, who, in December, 1857, visited Titusville, Venango County, Pa., examined the oil springs, and gave the subject of surface oil a thorough study. He was soon convinced that the oil could be abundantly obtained by boring for it into the rock strata, and, forming a company for this purpose, he im­mediately began operations. Boring through forty-seven feet of gravel and twenty-two feet of shale rocks, he struck, on the 29th of August, 1859, at the depth of seventy-five feet, an abundant quantity of petroleum. This was the beginning of the great oil excitement, and of an industry that has created fabulous fortunes, conferring at the same time untold benefits upon the world. Later, oil was discovered in McKean, Butler, Washington, and Beaver counties, Pennsylvania, on the borders of West Virginia along the Ohio River, and in the northwestern part of Ohio.

1 The oil was used by the Seneca Indians as an unguent and in their religious worship, In Day’s Historical Collections (page 637) is given an interesting quotation from a letter to General Montcalm from the commandant of Fort Duquesne, describing a weird scene created by this feature of their worship, as follows:
“I would desire to assure your Excellency that this is a most delightful land. Some of the most astonishing natural wonders have been discovered by our people. While descend­ing the Allegbeny, fifteen miles below the mouth of the Conewango, and three above Fort Venango, we were invited by the chief of the Senecas to attend a religious ceremony of his tribe. We landed and drew up our canoes on a point where a small stream entered the river. The tribe appeared unusually solemn. We marched up the stream about half a league, where the company, a large band it appeared, had arrived some days before us.
Gigantic hills begirt as on everyside. The scene was really sublime, The great chief then recited the conquests and heroisms of their ancestors. The surface of the stream was covered with a thick scum, which burst into a complete conflagration. The oil bad been gathered and lighted with a torch. At the sight of the flames the Indians gave forth a triumphant shout that made the hills and valley re-echo again. Here then is revived the ancieut fire-worship of the East’-here then are the ‘Childen of the Sun..'”

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As early as 1806 the existence of petroleum in Beaver County was known. In that year an Englishman named Thomas Ashe, J
visiting the county, tested some of the oil from a spring on the Ohio River, nearly opposite Georgetown, and predicted its profit­able production in this county. In the early ’60’s wells bored at Smith’s Ferry and Glasgow (see Chapter XXVII.) developed the existence of a rich field in that region. Development of the oil territory of the county has advanced since then with varying energy, and considerable production has taken place at several points, principally at Smith’s Ferry, Ohioville, Economy, and Shannopin.2
Natural gas, so extensively found in the oil regions, was for a long time regarded rather as an annoyance than as a valuable product, giving to the drillers almost as much trouble as salt water. But a wonderful change took place as its usefulness as a fuel both for domestic and manufacturing purposes and as an illuminant came to be appreciated.3 It was being largely de­veloped and used in Beaver County in the early ’80’s, being piped into the county from outside fields and produced in vari­ous parts of the county itself, as at Baden, New Sheffield, Wood­lawn, Shannopin, and elsewhere. Here, as in other fields, the supply has fallen off, and its use has been compulsorily aban­doned by many of the people and factories. The role that nat­ural gas played in the height of its use may be seen from the
1 Travels iin America, performed in 1806. By Thomas Ashe. ESQ., Newburyport: 1808. Another traveler was here in 1807 and thus describes the then strange phenomenon:
.. About a mile above Little Beaver, in the bed of the Ohio, and near the northwestern side, a substance bubbles up, and may be collected at particular times on the surface of the water. similar to Senaca oil. When the water is not too high. it can be strongly smelt while crossing the river at Georgetown: It is presumed to rise from or through a bed of mineral coal embowelled under the bed of the river. The virtues of the Seneca oil are similar to those of the British oil. and supposed to be equally valuable in the cures of rheumatick pains. &c.” See Sketches of a Tour to the Western Country. etc.. bv F. Cuming, Pittsburgh, Isle, page 83. .
2 We have exhausted every resource in the effort to obtain the yearly and total pro­duction by fields of Beaver County, but are finally informed by Mr. Parker, the Statistician of Washington City, the highest authority in the country on this subject, that it is im­possible to secure this information. He says:
” I am. sorry that it is not possible to furnish the information desired regarding the production of petroleum, by counties. I went over this carefully with some of the principal Producers, in regard to the collection of the crude petroleum statistics for the Census Office, upon which work we are now engaged, and they say it is absolutely impossible to make any such distribution. A large number of wells controlled by a single person go into one tank line, the wel1s being located in different counties, and there is absolutely no way of making any separation. It is, in fact, difficult to make even an approximate separation by States. This we are trying to do:”
:3 Natural gas is a mixture of the most volatile of the hydro-carrbons of tile series known in chemistry as paraffin. In that found in this region marsh-gas is the principal constituent. An interesting fact in the chemistry of the subject is this: that the composition of natural gas is found to vary not only in different wells, but in the same Well on different days.

288 History of Beaver County

fact that at that period there were in Pittsburg alone 28,000 domestic services and 900 manufacturers’ services, consuming nearly 500,000,000 feet per day, and displacing 8,500,000 tons of coal per year. Its first use in iron-making was at the Leech­burg (Pa.) works of Messrs. Rogers & Burchfield about 1874. In glass-making, the Rochester Tumbler Works, at Rochester, Pa., were probably the pioneers, and in plate-glass, Mr. J. B. Ford, at the Pittsburg Plate Glass Works, at Creighton, Pa., in 1883. Salt was boiled with it at East Liverpool, Ohio, in 1860; and it was tried later in burning pottery in the same village. In 1874, or earlier, Mr. Peter Neff began the manufacture of lamp-black from gas at Gambier, Ohio. In 1875 gas was piped to Spang, Chalfant & Co.’s iron-works, at Sharpsburg, near Pitts­burg, and has been used ever since but it was not until 1883, with the piping of the Murraysville gas, and its introduction into the industrial establishments of Pittsburg, that its use as a fuel assumed any importance.1

MANUFACTURING

The beginnings of things have always an interest to the student. We may therefore glance for a moment at the way in which the frontiersmen secured the simple articles of manufac­ture which they required, and laid the foundations of our mod­ern industrial edifice. Necessity was in their case, as it has always and everywhere been, the mother of invention. There was a scarcity of skilled mechanics, and a “plentiful lack” of the wherewithal to pay such as were to be found. So it was necessary for every man to be, on occasion, his own shoemaker, tailor, blacksmith, carpenter, or miller. But the law of natural selection operated then as always, producing men with the skill and craftsmanship required to meet the conditions. Says Doddridge:

There was in almost every neighborhood some one whose natural ingenuity enabled him to do many things for himself and his neighbors, far above what could have been reasonably expected. With the few tools which they brought with them into the country, they certainly performed wonders. Their plows, harrows with wooden teeth, and sleds were, in many instances, well made. Their cooper ware, which com­prehends everything for holding milk and water was generally pretty

1 See preceding chapter for data concerning natural gas fuel and lighting companies.

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289

well executed. The cedar-ware, by having alternately a white and a red stave, was then thought beautiful. Many of their puncheon floors were very neat, their joints close, and the top even and smooth. Their looms though heavy, did very well. Those who could not exercise these me­chanic arts were under the necessity of hiring labor, or barter, to their neighbors, in exchange for the use of them, so far as their necessities required.

In milling grain there was a gradual evolution from the wooden mortar and pestle, through the hand-mill, the horse-power and water-power mills of the simpler patterns, to our modern steam roller mills. Some of the early mills were tread-mills, though run by water during a portion of the year. The place of the early mills in the life of the community is worth noticing. They were places of assembly for the scattered inhabitants of the country, where they came not only to get their wheat and corn ground, but also to hear the news, to barter, to gossip, to get that contact with their neighbors which man as a social animal requires for his happiness. Thus mills became the nuclei of villages which grew up around them and points at which post­offices were established.
The oldest mill in Beaver County is White’s mill, named in the Act of Assembly which erected the county. It has been in operation for considerably more than one hundred years. The French burrs still in use in this mill were quarried from the river Seine in France. The mill is now owned by Robert Witherow.
Other early mills in Beaver County were Johnson’s, Veasy’s, Davis’s, and McCormick’s on Treadmill Run; Wilson’s, Aten’s (Eaton’s) and Ferguson’s on Reardon’s Run, and White’s and Bryan’s on Raccoon Creek; Bryan also had a mill on Service Creek. There were many saw-mills, carding-and fulling-mills. Weaver, Patton, Thompson, McCormick, Walker, Peter Shields, and John Shaffer each had a saw-mill. Veasy and Johnson had carding-mills, and McCormick a fulling-mill We find mention of Eakin’s flour-mill near Greersburg; Martin’s saw-mill in the same neighborhood; Paxton’s, Caughey’s, Walter’s, Allin’s, Todd’s, and others.
There was a mill on a branch of Little Travis (sometimes Traverse) Creek, Moore’s mill. where the Rev. J. R. Miller, D.D., of Philadelphia was born and reared. Harper’s mill, on Big
VOL. 1.-19.

290 History of Beaver County

Travis, was owned by Samuel Harper, the grandfather of James Harper, former county surveyor. He bought it in 1798 from John H. Reddick. The burrs from this mill are still in use in the steam mill at Frankfort. On the west branch of Travis was also Aaron Moore’s mill.On King’s Creek was Jenkins’s mill, Wright’s mill was at Hookstown, on Mill Creek, and on the same stream, about a mile below, was Laughlin’s. There was a mill on Service Creek, owned by Robert Sterling, which did good work for more than half a century. At almost every one of the early mills there was “a distillery.
Here and there throughout the county were factories of various kinds, the names of which linger in the memories of the older people and which were famous for their products in the olden time, such as Elder’s cloth factory; Thomson’s I sickle shop, in Hopewell township: Cain & Shannon’s sickle shop, on Service Creek in Raccoon township; and Fox’s sickle factory on

FOX’S SICKLE FACTORY SITUATED 0N TRAVIS CREEK, HANOVER TOWNSHIP, BUlLT BEFORE 1800.

Travis Creek. There were Shane’s, McCune and Goshorn’s tan­neries on Raccoon Creek, John Ferguson’s on Reardon’s Run, and Scott’s at Scottsville.
1 This was tbe grandfather of Seward and Frank Thompson, the well-known attorneys of Pittsburg, and of Alexander Thompson Anderson, of Beaver.

History of Beaver County, Part 3
291

In 1803 Hoopes, Townsend & Co. erected a furnace at the Falls of the Beaver. In 1806 the second paper mill west of the mountains was erected on Little Beaver Creek, just within the Ohio line, by John Bever, Jacob Bowman, and John Coulter, called the Ohio Paper Mill. This was so close to Beaver County that it was identified with its local history. 1 In the succeeding years of the first three decades of the century, many other mills and factories had been built about the Falls; and in 1830 the great natural advantages of the county, particularly at the Falls of the Beaver and on the Ohio, began to attract the atten­tion of outsiders, and an era of speculation set in which had disastrous results. Sherman Day, who published a history of the region shortly after this period, speaks of the times as follows:

The usual symptoms of the speculative epidemic were soon exhibited in a high degree. Lots were sold and resold at high profits-several manu­factories were built-beautiful dwellings, banks and hotels were erected –morus multicaulis plantations were started, and all went merry as a marriage bell. The fever subsided, and the ague succeeded.-the bubble burst with the United States Bank and the universal want of confidence, and the speculators returned to more useful employments.2

But the great natural advantages were none the less here an available for the more rational development of the indus­trial life of the communities. Other influences, however, oper­ated to delay for some years the advancement of the material prosperity of the county. The two great thoroughfares for travel and transportation between the large cities of the East and the country west of the Alleghenies lay, one far to the north by way of the New York canals to the Lakes, and the other to the south over the National Turnpike from Baltimore to Wheeling. Even to travelers down the Ohio River the ad­vantages of Beaver County remained undiscovered, and these causes wrought together to keep her territory in a backward state. Moreover, before the great system of State Internal Im­provements was carried out in the early thirties, making a canal and railroad route from Philadelphia to Pittsburg, and especially before the Pennsylvania Railroad was constructed, travel and the transportation of mail and freight consumed so much time that no rapid development was possible for this region. The

1 See note under “Ohio Townshipp.” vol. ii.. Chapter XXVII.
Historical Collections. p. 108.

292 History of Beaver County

fastest stage travel from Pittsburg to Philadelphia was about four days and nights, and the cost was high, ranging from eighteen to twenty-two dollars. Freight charges by Conestoga wagons were from three to five cents per pound. It required from eight to ten days to get an answer to a letter sent from the Beaver post-office to Philadelphia. Proximity to Pittsburg, then as now, while conferring advantages, contributed also to hinder Beaver County’s material advancement; since Pitts­burgers sought to deter prospective manufacturers from locating in the Beaver valley, where the main attraction was the water­power at the Falls, by urging that engines and fuel were so cheap in Pittsburg that they would save money by building their plants there. The superior banking facilities of the city were also made an argument to the same end. 1
Favorable influences on the other hand, giving an impetus to the business development of the county were the coming of the Harmony Society from Harmony, Indiana, to this county in the year 1825, the advent of the canal and the railroads, and the discovery of oil and natural gas within the limits of the county. In the year 1866 the Harmony Society made a new survey of the town of Brighton (now Beaver Falls), very much enlarging its boundaries, and appointed H. T. & J. Reeves, real estate agents, to offer for sale building lots, houses and lots and water-powers, at low prices to improvers. This caused a rapid increase of population and improvement in business in the town and in the whole valley, and led soon to the demand to have the town incorporated into a borough, which was done in 1870. The growth of manufacturing and mechanical industries through­out the county has since been steady and uninterrupted. A great variety in the lines of manufactures carried on is observ­able, there having been established at different times paper­mills, saw-mills, flouring-mills, woolen-mills, linseed-oil mills, tanneries, stove foundries, pottery and tile works, steel works,

1 As showing the hostility of the people at Pittsburg to settlement outside of that place we give an extract from a 1etter of Hon. Alexander Allison written March 2, 1796. from Washington. Pa., to Secretary Dallas, re1ating to the sale of lots at Beaver, as follows;
The last sale was in this town, that was not algether right, as the land is not in this county. Yet reasons, perhaps true, and if true sufficient, were nnot selling at Pittsbmgh. The people of Pittsburgh, it was said, disliked the estab1isbment, and would have thwarted the progress of the sale and settlement of the town. They have engrossed almost all the lots in the Reserved tract opposite to Pittsburgh and made use of that as an argument to remove the seat of justice from that place into Pittsburgh, and so prevented any town there. They might have been disuosed to do the same thing at Mcintosh (Bea­ver).” – (Penna. Arch., 2d series. vol ix., p. 648.)

History of Beaver County 293

agricultural works, distilleries, furniture establishments, cutlery works, car shops, and factories for the making of plows, carding machines, steam engines, window sashes, baskets, buckets, tubs, wire, scythes, cotton goods, carpets, lasts, silk, files, axes, hoes, glass, and almost everything that man needs for his comfort or convenience.
Details of individual establishments will be found in the chapters on the several boroughs and townships in other por­tions of this work, but we will give here some account of one of the most important enterprises in the earlier period of Beaver County’s industrial development.

BOAT BUILDING IN BEAVER COUNTY

The early explorers of this region had navigated the waters of the Ohio and the Beaver in bateaux, some of which were built at Fort Pitt as early as 1777. Later, keel-boats as well as flat-boats were used; but the complete success of Robert Fulton’s attempt at steam navigation on the Hudson in 1807 turned the attention of Fulton and Livingston to its application on the western waters, and as a result of their investigations it was decided to build a boat at Pittsburg. This was done under the direction of Mr. Roosevelt I of New York, and in I811 the first steamboat was launched on the Ohio River. It was called the New Orleans. This boat was four days in making her maiden trip from Pittsburg to Louisville, Ky. The difficulties peculiar to navigation in the varying waters of the western rivers were still deterrent to confidence in the success of the venture, how­ever, and it was not until 1816 that the public generally was persuaded that steam navigation was practicable in these waters. After this date a rapid growth in steamboat building took place. As showing the vast importance of this new mode of navigation, and its influence upon the life and manners of the people, we may profitably insert here a brief description of river travel in pioneer times.
The early navigation of the western rivers was attended with every kind of hardship and peril, and the return up the stream especially, required men of iron frame and courage. Sometimes

1 Grandfather of President Roosevelt, Captain Peter Shouse for whom. Shousetown, AlleghenyCounty, was named, and who came to that place in I827, helped to build the
Nen Orleans.

294 History of Beaver County

the boat was propelled by poles or sweeps, and in ascending had frequently to be towed against the current by the crew walking along the shore and pulling on a rope fastened to the bows. When from the nature of the shores this was not possible, the “warping” process was employed. In this case, the yawl would be sent out with a coil of rope, which was fastened to a tree or rock on shore, and the crew would then pull the boat up by this line, the yawl in the meantime carrying another line farther ahead to be fastened and used in like manner. On the Ohio” setting poles” were frequently employed. These were poles set in the bed of the river, against which the men put their shoulders, and by pushing carried the boat forward. But the labor of navigation was not the worst feature of the hardship which the crews and passengers of these early boating days had to endure. Up to 1794, when Wayne’s victory as we have frequently remarked, quelled the savages, they were constant in their efforts to destroy the voyagers on the rivers, either by shooting at them from the high banks on either side or by boarding, when they felt themselves powerful enough to do so.1 The advertisement which follows, and which appeared in the Cen­tinel of the Northwestern Territory, published at Cincinnati under date of January 11, 1794, will show the character of the protec­tion which was offered by boat companies to encourage travel in their craft:

Two boats for the present will start from Cincinnati for Pittsburgh and retum to Cincinnati in the following manner, viz.: First boat will leave Cincinnati this morning at eight o’clock, and return to Cincinnati so as to be ready to sail again in four weeks. The second boat will leave Cincinnati on Saturday, the 30th inst. and return to Cincinnati in four weeks as above. And so regularly, each boat performing the voyage to and from Cincinnati and Pittsburgh, once in every four weeks. . . .
No danger need be apprehended from the enemy, as every person on board will be under cover made proof against rifle or musket balls and convenient port holes for firing out of. Each of the boats is armed with six pieces, carrying a pound ball; also a number of good muskets and amply supplied with plenty of ammunition, strongly manned with choice hands and the masters of approved knowledge.
A separate cabin from that designed for the men is partitioned off

1 Sometimes an Indian dressed in the old clothes of a white man, would appear a1one and unarmed on the shore and lure the occupants of the boats within reach by pretending to be an escaped captive and calling for assistance, when the enemy concealed behind rocks and bushes fired upon them” –Old Pittsburgh Days, Chapman, p. 162.

History of Beaver County 295

in each boat for accommodating ladies. . . Conveniencies are con­structed on board each boat so as to render landing unnecessary, as it might at times be attended with danger. Passengers are supplied with provisions and liquors of all kinds, of the first quality, at the most reason­able rates possible. I

The private boatman or company of emigrants would not enjoy these superior advantages, however, and many a traveler yielded up his life on these rivers. After the danger from the Indians was past, the voyage was still for a long time dangerous from the fact that bands of lawless men infested the shores of these rivers, and piracy was not uncommon, especially, of course, on the lower waters. Not infrequently, too, the barge­men were rascally fellows, in league with the robbers on shore. A beautiful and romantic spot, called” Cave-in-Rock,” on the Ohio River, was the general rendezvous for freebooters and evil-minded boatmen. Here they made their plots and divided their plunder. 2 One of the most notorious of these banditti bargemen was Mike Fink, who had been an Indian scout at Pittsburg, and another was James Girty, a nephew of Simon Girty the renegade.3 It is a tradition concerning James Girty

1 A singular method of protection is related in the following Dote:
“November [1790] I proceeded [from Pittsburg] down the Ohio in Mr. Beall’s Boat, which was a moveable Fortification; having about one Hundred and Fifty Salt Pans so arranged as to render a few Men within capable of repulsing ten Times their Number with­outt.”-A Tour through the Southern and Western Territories of the United States, by John Pope; printed by John Dixon, Richmond. 1792; reprinted hy C. L. Woodward. New Vork. 1888, page I8.
2 Lloyd’s Steamboat Directory and Disasters, Cincinnati, 1856, page 39. From Zadoc Cramer’s Navigator for 1818 we learn that this cave was also called the “House of Na­ture.” It was on the Ohio. some distance below the mouth of the Wabash. See the Navigator, pp. 120, 224.
3 Lloyd., pages 37-38. Our’ readers may pardon if we quote from this rare old book the substance of one or two anecdotes concerning Fink. On one occasion he was stealthily creeping through the woods, when he saw a beautiful buck browsing at sorne distance ahead of him, and despite the proximity of Indian enemies, he determined to try a shot at it. Just as he raised his rifie to fire, he saw a large Indian, intent upon the same object, ad­vancing beyond him. The Indian had not observed Fink, who immediately drew back behind a tree, and turned his rifle upon the newcomer. The moment the Indian fired, Fink sent a ball through his breast, and with a yell the savage fell dead at the same instant with the deer. Assuring himself that the Indian was dead and that no others were near, Fink then turned his attention to the buck, taking from the carcass such pieces as he could conveniently carry off.
Fink was a dead shot. It; is related that while descending the Ohio on his barge he once made a wager with a passenger, that he could from mid-strea.m, shoot off the tai1s of five pigs which were feeding on the bank, and that he won the bet. His reputation as an accurate marksman was such that his companions frequently allowed him to fire at a tin cup placed on the head of one of their number and this confidence tempted him to the commission of his last crime, for which be paid instant penalty. One of his barge com­panions, named Joe Stevens, had been his successful rival in love, and Mike waited an op­portunity of taking revenge upon him. This came one day when the crew of the barge were

296 History of Beaver County

that, instead of ribs, nature had provided him with a solid, bony casing on both sides, without any interstices through which a knife, dirk, or bullet could penetrate. An early writer has said, speaking of these and other similar characters:

Traveling on the western rivers, at that period (about 1800 to 1820)
was not less dangerous than expensive and dilatory. Robberies and murders were the common incidents of westward travel, either by land or water. The barges were manned chiefly by men of desperate for­tunes and characters, fugitives from justice, and other outcasts from society, who were prepared to commit any crime on the slightest provo­cation or inducement.

The advent of the steamboat changed all this, for, by making travel speedy it made it safe, and a better class of boatmen began to be demanded, while the increase of emigration which came with improved means of transportation, cleared the country of the lawless elements which had infested it. So great was the change wrought by this agency that it has been well called “the Steamboat Revolution.”
Beaver County, at a very early period, was noted for its activity in this new enterprise. In several places in the imme­diate neighborhood of the mouth of the Beaver were extensive boat-yards, where all kinds of river craft,-flat-boats, cotton boats, keel and steamboats-were built. One of the first to engage in this industry was John Boles, who came to this place sometime in the early twenties and settled at the point between Rochester and New Brighton, now known from him as Boles­ville. He established there a large boat-yard, constructing flat-boats, keel-boats, and steamboats. In 1826, John Hartman Whisler, 1 one of his employees, became his partner, and to him the following year he sold out the business. Under Mr. Whis­ler’s management the business grew rapidly, the principal con­
on shore, shooting at a mark. A stranger being present, Fink proposed to show his skill by shooting a tin cup from the head of Stevens, and the latter, not suspecting the feelings of Fink toward him, promptly assented to the trial, took his position and told him to “blaze away.” But instead of aiming at the cup, Fink put a ball through the forehead of Stevens, and killed him instantly. A brother of Stevens who was present, suspected that the shot bad been fired with murderous intent, and as quickly shot Fink dead.
1 John Hartman WhisIer was born near Carlisle, Pa.. September 2, 1802. In 1829 he married Agnes, daughter of James and Jane Jackson, of North Sewickley township. The children of this union are well known citizens of the Beaver valley. Among them are Alfred M, Doctor of Dentistry, of New Brighton; Addison W., the genial reporter of the Beaver Valley News, and John H., a mechanical engineer. Charles, at one time editor of theBeaver Star, and a well known reporter, died in 1893. Mary, widow of Robert Kerr-, and Jemima reside in Rochester.

HISTORY of BEAVER COUNTY
297
struction being keel-boats, cotton boats, and canal boats. The keel-boat was a regular model boat with a prow at both ends, built in this way in order that the boat might run in either direction without turning around. These boats were usually from one hundred and ten feet to one hundred and twenty-five feet in length, and were furnished with what was called a “cargo box.” This was a compartment rising considerably higher than the deck, roofed on top and closed on the sides and ends, extend­ing almost the entire length of the boat, and narrower in width than the boat, so as to leave a way outside of about sixteen inches to walk on when propelling the boat, with openings through the sides to permit the goods to be placed inside of the “cargo box.” The purpose of this box was to protect the cargo from the weather.
The cotton boats were similar in construction to the keel­boats, but seldom exceeded one hundred and ten feet. They were used to carry cotton out of the bayous and small streams in Mississippi.
The principal activity in this enterprise was at first at Phil­lipsburg, where boat building, under the ownership of Phillips & Graham, was the main industry during a period of several years prior to 1832, when that firm transferred their boat-yards to Freedom. At Freedom the yards were still further enlarged. There were several other boat-building concerns at Phillipsburg, Freedom, Sharon, and Industry; also at Chrisler’s Landing, Cook’s Ferry, and Shippingport some boats were constructed. The extent of the boat-building industry in Beaver County will be seen from the following article copied from the Beaver Argus of August 26, 1846:

STEAM BOAT BUILDING IN BEAVER COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

A short time ago we noticed in the Pittsburgh Journal a long list o
Pittsburgh steamers, embracing a large number that we knew had been
built in this county, thus in some degree robbing our enterprising and skilful mechanics of the credit that justly belongs to them. To do them justice, we have sought a statement of all the steamers built in this county, which has been prepared and furnished by our friend Mr. William P. Phillips, of Freedom, and will be found annexed. It presents a for­midable and we may well say a creditable list, embracing no less than one hundred and thirty-eight boats, including two sea vessels, making an aggregate of over thirty thousand tons. The value and importance of

298 History of Beaver County

this branch of industry may be seen at a glance. At the moderate average of $50 per ton these boats have paid no less than a million and a half of dollars, the bulk of which has been paid out for labor and sup­plies. Long may it continue and prosper.
List of Steamboats
LIST OF STEAMBOATS BUILT BY PHILLIPS & GRAHAM (SOUTHSJDE)
Pennsylvania Bolivar Boston Essex
Rambler Gen. Wayne Mohawk La Grange
Eclipse Liberator Pocahontas Pgh. & Whg. Packet
President Paul Jones America Red Rover
La Fayette Eleanor . Florida Missouri and Barge
General Brown Peruvian Columbus Cora
Wm. Penn Louisville Echo New Jersey
Antelope Frankfort Carrolton Hermit

BY GRAHAM &ROGERS (SOUTHSIDE)
POTOMAC TALMA PHOENIX HURON

BY JOHN GRAHAM, AT BRIDGEWATER
Fallston Itasky Rodney

The above comprise an average tonnage of 8,635 tons, the ship car­penter work $22. per ton, and when finished $60. per ton.

BUILT BY PHILLIPS 8< BETZ, AT FREEDOM, PA.
FAME SELMA WM. ROBINSON MISSOURIAN
RETURN ALTON RHINE WM. PENN
BOONSLICK PALMYRA SHAWNEE GALENIAN
MAJESTIC BOONESVILLE METEOR NEW CASTLE
POTOSI ST. LOUIS CHESTER MOGUL
IVANHOE ARIEL ORINOCO ST. CHARLES
SIAM H. L. KINNEY ROSELA DUBUQUE
DETROIT PLATTE FRANCES MADISON
UNITED STATES TROY RIENZI LOUISVILLE
OCEANA BURLINGTON PIRATE

BY JONATHAN BETZ, FREEDOM
GENERAL PRATT EUPHRASE

BY CHARLES GRAHAM
CLEVELAND AMELIA
The above are mostly boats of the largest class, tonnage near 12,000 tons, cost near $70. per ton.
BUILT BY A. & G. W. COFFIN, AT FREEDOM

Little Stewart (ferry-boat) Birmingham
Guide St. Louis
Iron City Medium
Atlas
Together with Government Boats, &C.-950 tons.

History of Beaver County @((

BUILT BY JOHN GRAHAM AND G. W. ROGERS

Belfast
Hibernian
Falcon
White Wing
Little Rock
Wabash Valley
H. Kinney
Oregon
Monongahela Valley
May
Duke
Whiteville

2,I50 tons.

BUILT BY GEORGE BAKER (SOUTHSIDE)

Chareton
Platte
Dart
Narragansett
Desmoines
Neptune
Sligo (Built at John McDonald’s.)
Omega
Iatan
Adelaide
Brilliant
Pawnee
Osceola

Lake Erie
Laura
Pacific
New Boat for Fisher Co. (Gladiator).
Steam Ferry Boat for Steubenville
One commenced for Lyon Moore Co. (Gondolier).
Schooner, Regina Hill of New York
Schooner, Cyrus Chamberlain of New Haven
These sea vessels have proved themselves worthy of the briny element 1 (2,05 tons by society.) Boat building is now carried on with success by the company, and those wishing to contract for boats of any descrip­tion will do well to call (if nothing more).

BUILT BY FREEDOM BOAT BUILDING SOCIETY
Miner
Belle of Illinois
Nashville

BUILT BY BAKER, HALL It co., AT FREEDOM
North Carolina America Arcadia
Pink Pilot Despatch
(Near I,OOO tons.)

BUILT NEAR SHRON, PA.
The Rose of Sharon, by G. W. Rogers
Ruhama
Twins, By J. Hall

1 Sea-going vessels were also built at Pittsburg at the beginning of last century as we learn from an old book of travels. M. Michaux’s journal says:
“What many. perhaps, are ignorant of in Europe is, that they build large vessels on the Ohio, and at the town of Pittsburgh. One of the principal shipyards is upon the Monongahela, about two hundred fathoms beyond the last houses in the town. The timber they make use of is the white oak, or quercus alba; the red oak, or Quercus rubra; the b1ack oak. or quercus tintoria: a kind of nut tree, or quercus minima; the Virginia. cherry-tree, or cerasus Virginia: and a kind of pine, which they use for roasting, as well as for the sides of the vessels which require a slighter’ wood. The whole of this timber being near at hand, the expense of building is not so great as in the ports of the Atlantic states. The cordage is manufactured at Redstone and Lexinton, where there are two extensive rooe-walks, which also supply ships with rigging that are built at Marietta and Louisville: On my journey to Pittsburgh in the month of JuJy, 1802, there was a three-mast vessel of two hun­dred and fifty tons, and a smaller one of ninety which was on the point of being finished. These ships were to go. in the spring following, to New Orleans, loaded with the Produce of the country, after having made a passage of two thousand two hundred miles before they got into the ocean.”
.. I bave been informed since mv return, that this ship, named The Pittsburgh, was
arrived at Philadelphia.”-Travels to the West of the Allegheny Mountains, etc.. by F. A Michaux. Member of the Soc. of Nat. Hist. at Paris, etc., London. I805. pp. 63-64.

300 HISTORY of BEAVER COUNTY

INDUSTRY

Pekin Hart & Co.
Picka.way Eakin & Co.
Palo Alto ..
New Boat for McLean
Mingo Chief, by R. Moffett, G. W. Rogers, foreman.
Rhode Island, by McFall, Thos. Rogers,
America, by McFall, Thos. Rogers,
New Boat for Poe, by McFall, Thos. Rogers .. Financier for Todd, by McFall, Thos. Rogers New Castle for Pollock, by Joseph Hall.
It will be borne in mind that a goodly number of the boats built at Freedom were furnished complete, with engines, cabins and painting, before leaving the place, and engines were furnished for others built else­where.
We had like to have forgotten the little “Fishes,” the yawl building. But let it pass. The modesty of our friend shall not prevent us doing justice to the little fishes. Messrs. Phillips & Skillinger have turned out of their shops in the two or three years some fifty yawls which are the admiration of all watermen, for which they find ready sale, as well for boats built here as elsewhere. They are strong, yet buoyant, sitting gracefully upon the water, easily managed and of great capacity; a combination of excellence which makes them deservedly popular. I

Following the date of this communication many other boats were built at the points named therein and elsewhere: as at Shippingport and Glasgow. At the place last named Alfred McFall had a large yard, of which George Baker was foreman. There in 1854 the keel of the Silver Wave was laid and she was launched in the year following. She was built for Captain John McKi11en, and
the first steamboat to run the blockade at the siege of Vicksburg, in 1863.
About the same time the steamboat Yorktown was built here for Captain Jacob Poe
of Georgetown.
From Lloyd’s Steamboat Factory and Disasters, 1856,which contains a list of boats afloat
on the western river we get following additional names of steamboats built in Beaver County.

History of Beaver County

301

The claim made in the foregoing editorial article, viz., that many of the boats, both keel-boats and steamboats, which were listed as being built at Pittsburg, were in reality of Beaver County manufacture, finds confirmation in the following extract from a letter written by Marcus T. C. Gould in December, 1835, to the editor of Atkinson’s Casket, published in Philadelphia:

I shall now be better able to make you comprehend the reason of my speaking of Pittsburgh in connection with this neighborhood (the Falls of Beaver); for in fact the $70,000 worth of keel boats mentioned in my last, though constructed and launched in Beaver County, are most of them purchased by Pittsburgers, and not unfrequently built by their express orders, and sent to their city to receive their finish. And as it respects the new Steam Boats which hail from that city, a very con­siderable number of them are in fact built and launched here, but sent there to receive their enginery, cabin work, painting, rigging, &c. For instance-Mr. Phillis [Phillips?], of Freedom, two miles from the mouth of Beaver, will have constructed within the present year, no less than seven or eight Steam Boats, worth in his hands from forty to fifty thousand dollars and when completed not less than one hundred thousand dollars -and these are all sent to Pittsburgh to be finished-for sale, freight, or charter.

IRON AND STEEL INDUSTRIES

The manufacture of iron and steel has had a much more im­portant place in the industrial history of Beaver County than is generally known. A special article on this subject has been prepared for us by Col. James M. Swank, General Manager of the American Iron and Steel Association. This will be found in Appendix No. VIII.

FIRE CLAY PRODUCTS

During the past ten or fifteen years the manufacture of wares from clays has increased each year, and the product confirms claims heretofore made that Beaver County clays are specially adapted to the wares they meet in competition in the market. The Lower Kittanning clay is the best, and the one chiefly used in the manufacture of fire-clay products in the county. A higher grade of clay is also brought here from Jefferson, Clarion, and Clearfield, counties, and mixed with the local clays for the making of finer qualities of brick, some of which sell as high as twenty-five dollars a thousand.

302 HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY

The special development of the fire-clay industry has been on Crow’s Run by the Park Fire Clay Co.; on Brady’s Run by the same company and the Fallston Fire Clay Co.; on Blockhouse Run by the W. H. Elverson Pottery Co. and the Sherwood Bros. Co.; at Vanport by the Douglas Fire Brick Co. the Douglas­Whisler Co. at Eastvale, the Mound Brick Co. at Beaver Falls, the Beaver Clay and Brick Co. at New Galilee, the W elch Fir Brick Works at Monaca, and many others.

OIL REFINING

At Cannelton, on the property of Hon. I. F. Mansfield, the cannel shales were formerly distilled for oil on a large scale. The shale was preferred to the coal, as it made quite as much oil and did not leave so much tarry products behind in the retort. One ton of shale made a barrel of oil. The discovery of petroleum put an end to this m nufacture, yet the company still found it profitable to make a heavy lubricating oil up to the year 1872, when the establishment burned down and was abandoned. In 1859 Hunter & Code built at Freedom a refinery for making oil from cannel coal. They were later joined in the enterprise by William Phillips. They were not able to overcome the difficul­ties in the way of production of this oil, on account of the in­flammable character of the products, the plant being several times burned down, and the business was finally given up. In January, 1860, liens were filed against the property by the Dar­ragh Bros. of Bridgewater, Knapp & Rudd of Pittsburg, Robert McLane of Rochester, and others; and, September 12, 1860, it was sold at sheriff’s sale to the lienholders. September 21st fol­lowing they sold to S. M. Kier of Pittsburg, who soon afterwards began to refine here petroleum. Kier was, perhaps, the first to engage in the refining of crude petroleum in Beaver County, and among the first in the country, and for several years there was carried on here a large business in this line. In 1857 there was built in Rochester by Charles Thum. where the Keystone Glass Works now stands, a plant for making cannel coal oil. Joseph Bentel,I from Phillipsburg (now Monaca), and other parties named Arbuckle were afterwards its owners, and turned it into a petroleum refinery. At this plant, about 1861, P. M.
This plant was burned down and Joseph Bentel was himself badly burned. He was a distant relation of John Bentel who was later fatally burned in the refinery at Preedfoot.

SALARIBI> OP. AVBRAGB NUMBBR
PICIALS, CLBRKS. OJ> WAOB-BARNBRS
BTO. AND TOTAL WAGRS
Propri-
bor of etoTS Total
estab. and
\ish. Machinery, firm
monts: mem-
Totat Land Buildings tools Cash and bers Num. Salaries
and imple- bet
ments sundries Aver.
ago Wages
num.
ber
2,185 $1,551,54111 $148,768,571 $127.035.8°4 $392.150.856 8783.593,481 S8.836 47.430 $48.605.173 733.834 $332,072.670
–
350 15.262,391 1.000.3°2 2.085,303 4.650.0°3 6.607.883 385 416 480.123 ‘1,005 3,143,341
III! 6.367.19(‘ 339.305 1,3°0.458 1.77/1.327 2,940.106 no 134 161,828 2.231 1,022,O 5
68 2. 90ij’ 440 145.241 422.020 1,218.59″ 1.116.687 77 00 n9’37 1,482 500,5 9
47 2.22 .337 171.010 474.676 436.422 1.146.:0120 50 40 56, S 1,433 580.516

US BXPBNSBS COST OP MA TBRIALS UsaD

Value of
Principal roducts
Taxes, materials, Fuel ncluding
Rent of custom
not in. offices. Contract Including and rent work and
eluding Total mill of sower repairing
internal interest work supplics an heat.
revenue etc. and
freight

–
$4.444.u6 $86,207.684 $32.877.748 $1,042,434.599 $01>5.673.525 $46.761.°74 $1.834,700,860
.
26.731 662,727 23.667 6.672.762 6,268.’1S1 4°4.011 1.1,450.848
10,275 ,.83.450 …….,.. 3.7/10.051 3,6n.75I 122.300 6.”45,501
5.046 94.047 2.547 1,003.463 956.320 17,131 2,195,552
3.464 08.386 ………. 470.450 384.832 5,61 1,44°.567

HISTORY OF BEAVER COUNTY

3°3

Wallover of Smith’s Ferry carried on some refining, selling the oil for use in oiling wool. He bought a part of the machinery and removed it to Smith’s Ferry, and, in 1861, there was started at that place the Wallover Oil Company, composed of P. M. Wallover, William Stewart, Milton Brown, and William Dawson, organized for the manufacture of lubricating oil from the pro­duction of the Smith’s Ferry oil field. This plant has continued in successful operation ever since.
The history of the Freedom Oil Works Company, which fol­lowed the Kier & Painter concern, spoken of above, will be found in the chapter on Freedom borough.
We will close this brief survey of our county’s industrial and economic development with a table taken from the last census, giving an exhibit of our manufacturing and mechanical indus­tries as they stood in the closing year of the nineteenth century, as follows: (See appended table.)

Satisfactory as the above showing is, we believe it is only a promise and a prophecy of greater things to be seen in the not distant future. With the completion of the Ohio River dams certain, and the building of the ship canal, giving ready and cheap access to the Great Lakes and the lower Mississippi valley possible, Beaver County, lying in the center of the largest coal and mineral basin in the United States, possessing inexhaustible internal resources, and gridironed with fully equipped railways, is well assured of continuous growth and prosperity. 1

1 Marcus T. C. Gould was considered somewhat visionary in his day but his was a pro­phetic soul. His predictions were not realized quite on time, but are now more tha1 ful­filled. It will be interesting to our readers to see what he said as long ago as I835, of the coming greatness of the Beaver valley. The following is from a letter written by him in December of that year to the editor of Atkinson’s Casket (Philadelphia):
” I now predict. through this epistle. that within ten years from this time, there will be a population of at least 20.000 about the Falls and mouth of the Beaver. . . . Nor would we in the slightest degree insinuate that any future benefits which the Falls of the Beaver may derive, will detract from the growth or prosperity of Pittsbugh. but on the contrary, I am proud to consider the Falls of Beaver, as a suburb of that immense city. which is soon to be the wonder of the western world-a place to which this, and almost every other place within hundreds of miles, must in some respect pay tribute. . . . We shall not be long behind any other town west of the Allegheny mountains, for the variety,
quality and extent of our manufactures, (Pittsburgh excepted..) We shall not long hear the inquiry, where is Brighton? Where is Fallston? Where are the Falls of Beaver? Where is Beaver County, Pennsylvania?”

(Source: History of Beaver County, Pennsylvania, It’s Centennial Celebration, by Rev. Joseph H. Bausman, Vol. 1, The Knickerbocker Express, New York, 1904)

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