History

Eldred was the eighth township organized, and was taken in 1836 from Rose and Barnett, and was named for Hon. Nathaniel B. Eldred, then president judge of the judicial district of which Jefferson county formed a part. This township is bounded on the north by Barnett and Heath townships; on the east by Warsaw; on the south by Union, Rose and Pine Creek, and on the west by Clarion county.

Early Settlers -- The first settlers who came into Eldred were Isaac Matson, in 1828, James Linn, Walter Templeton and Robert McCreight, in 1829, and were followed the next year by E.M. Graham and John McLaughlin; Jacob Craft, David English, in 1831; Paul Stewart, James Templeton and James Trimble, in 1832; Stewart Ross and John Wilson, in 1833, and Thomas Hall in 1834, William and George Catz, and James Summerville.

The first settler of whom we find any mention, in the northern part of Eldred township, was Frederick Kahle, who settled there in 1836. Mr Kahle first came to Clarion County, where he hired a hunter named Tommy Guthrie to go with him into the wilds of northern Jefferson, where he designed locating. After reaching their destination and looking about for a suitable place for Mr.Kahle to make his future home, night overtook them and they were obliged to camp out in the woods. During the night they were attacked by wolves, numbering hundreds, as it appeared to Mr. Kahle; but the old woodsman was not at all disconcerted, pouring some powder on a piece of bark, he set fire to it, and then fired his gun, and the wolves scampered off to he heard no more. Mr. Kahle moved his family, consisting of a number of small children, into these woods that same year, and their first years were scenes of danger and hardship. During the first summer he killed seventeen large rattlesnakes near his own door.

Kate Scott History

  Serious Shooting Affray

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