United States Senator 1799-1814, laid out March 21, 1806, in a primeval
wilderness. Courthouse, center of group of county buildings facing the
public green, colonial with cupola, built in 1835, native sandstone and
conglomerate, which was hauled on ox sleds for several miles over poor
roads; high on the southwest wall is carved the outline of an eagle,
insignia of one of the stonecutters from the neighboring Welsh
settlement. Opposite, across the green, is the brick office of the
Bingham Estate, built in 1855, and still occupied by the agent, patent
of 1,000,000 acres, land mostly in northern tier, included site of
Binghamton, New York. William Bingham, lived 1751-1804, was a
Philadelphia merchant, member of Continental Congress, and of the United
States Senate. Facing the courthouse is a Soldiers’ Monument to Civil
War heroes, dedicated, 1886; also on the green is a monument to the late
John Magee, who developed the coal fields and railroads of the county, a
colossal portrait bust on polished granite pedestal; sculptor, Samuel
Conkey, New York.
Best modern buildings are, The Presbyterian Church, Gothic, Ohio
sandstone, erected in 1894, architects, Culver & Hudson, Williamsport,
contains, among memorial windows, one to George Dwight Smith, killed in
the battle of Smith Mountain; also Tiffany tablet to Mrs. A. C. Shaw,
white marble, framed in mosaic of favrile glass. St. Paul’s Protestant
Episcopal Church, fronting the green, is a choice example of Norman
Romanesque, the last ecclesiastical work of the late Halsey Wood, New
York, built in 1897,
[Illustration: ANTIQUE CAPITAL, CHESTER PLACE, WELLSBORO
Used as a sun dial
_From Stanford White collection_]
native sandstone, windows furnished by Tiffany, are quiet and pleasing
in tone, of unusual harmony with the masonry; pulpit and altar are also
from the Tiffany studios; the church contains many fine memorials. St.
Peter’s Roman Catholic Church was remodeled from the old academy,
locally an important and historic institution; standing on a hill the
church raises aloft a gilded cross, impressive and beautiful above the
surrounding foliage.
The broad main street is paved with brick, around a central strip of
green grass, and shaded with fine old elms and maples. The Wellsboro
Cemetery, purchased in 1855, was laid out by B. F. Hathaway, landscape
gardener, of Flushing, Long Island; stone arch gateway, Romanesque, of
local conglomerate, is memorial to Honorable Henry Warren Williams,
Justice of Supreme Court, buried here; architect, J. H. Considine,
Elmira; on summit of the knoll is the grave of George W. Sears, poet of
outdoor life and wood lore, monument has bas-relief bronze portrait, set
in granite; Honorable John J. Mitchell, Judge of Pennsylvania Supreme
Court and United States Senator, is also buried here. Woodland Park,
twenty-six acres, is owned by Leonard Harrison, Esq., who generously
maintains it for public use; has surface of hill and dell, stretches of
natural forest, and fine views from its higher outlooks.
Several citizens have grounds formally laid out, and planted under
professional advice; of these, designed by Bryant Fleming, of Townsend &
Fleming, Buffalo, is Chester Place, left to the borough by bequest, for
a public library; the garden has an Italian roofed pergola ending with
a marble bust and seats, on top of the terrace which divides the upper
and lower gardens; a sundial, fastened to an old Spanish Renaissance
capital, which came from the collection of garden marbles made by the
late Stanford White, is on a rectangular plot of green, and forms the
center of one garden room, surrounded by a brick walk, in turn framed by
a broad border of shrubbery; into the brick pavement are set little
marble panels, carved with designs of roses, birds, etc., other insets
contain quotations appropriate to gardens; set into the wall outside at
right and left of entrance, are tiles with trees in bas-relief, inside,
correspondingly placed, are reliefs showing old Italian garden
decorations, Socrates and Hercules.
Just outside of Wellsboro is an old covered wooden bridge, in Pine Creek
Gorge, through which the Tyadaghton (River of Pines) runs, mountains
rise perpendicularly on either side for 1000 feet; the gorge is sixteen
miles long, filled with trout stream tributaries, where also bear, deer,
and other game abound.
In MANSFIELD is a state normal school, on beautifully terraced hill,
five buildings, brick with marble or brownstone and terra-cotta
trimmings, built 1889-1909, later buildings, modified classic; contains
many fine carbon prints of famous paintings and buildings, also plaster
replicas of noted pieces of sculpture. Carnegie Free Library, classic
architecture, built, 1912, light-pressed brick; architects for school
and library, Pierce & Bickford, Elmira, New York.
XL
McKEAN COUNTY
Formed March 26, 1804; named for Thomas McKean, second Governor of
Pennsylvania; mean altitude 1700 feet. Mount Jewett is one of the high
points in the state; half a mile from Mount Jewett is the great Kinzua
Viaduct on the Erie Railroad, said to be the highest bridge in the state
across a ravine. The electric line to Olean, New York, eighteen miles,
through Red Rock, reveals great scenic grandeur. Chief industry,
producing and refining petroleum.
SMETHPORT, county seat; was incorporated in 1807; population, 1568. In
the courthouse grounds is a granite monument to the Civil War soldiers
of this county; it was shown in the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia.
St. Luke’s Protestant Episcopal Church, a gift from Hon. Henry Hamlin;
consecrated 1892; is pure fourteenth century English Gothic; architect,
Halsey Wood. Altar and reredos of Caen stone, surmounted by a very
beautiful, delicately carved canopy; memorial font, Caen stone; all
memorials were designed by the architect; organ from Johnson & Sons,
Westfield, Massachusetts. In the public school grounds is a tablet
marking the route of General Brodhead’s expedition. On the highway, near
Lafayette, is a tablet marking place where General Brodhead passed
across the county from Allegheny River, when he came from Pittsburgh
against the Indians; placed by Smethport Daughters of the American
Revolution.
BRADFORD, chief city; population, 15,525; is said to contain the only
plant in America for the manufacture
[Illustration: MCKEAN COUNTY]
[Illustration: KINZUA BRIDGE
The highest bridge in the world]
of oxalic acid, it produces 10,000 pounds daily. The City Hall, Post
Office, and Carnegie Library are fine buildings. The McKean County
Historical Society has rooms in the Carnegie Library; among their
collections are valuable historical papers and autographs, photographs,
and samples of products relating to the oil industry, portraits of
distinguished Pennsylvanians, and busts of General Kane and of Abraham
Lincoln; the latter, by Theophilus Mills, is said to be one of the only
two living masks ever made of Lincoln; it was made six weeks before the
assassination, and after many years it was purchased from the son of the
sculptor by Mr. R. B. Stone, and placed in the Bradford Library. The
Museum and Art Gallery, owned by Lewis Emery, Jr., Esq., is at times
open to the public. On the public square is a boulder, in honor of
Governor McKean, from a tract of land in Annin Township, deeded to
Thomas McKean by John Bull, a patriot of the Revolution. A tablet
commemorating the Spanish War soldiers was erected by Spanish War
veterans.
KANE, a beautiful mountain resort, has Evergreen Park, a native forest,
given to the town by the Erie Railroad, through their agent, General
Thomas L. Kane; a path through the forest is named for General Grant,
who frequently enjoyed trout fishing here with General Kane. Facing this
park is the high school; classic style, architects, Davis & Davis,
Philadelphia; contains good collection of photographic reproductions of
famous paintings and architecture. The Presbyterian Church is memorial
to General Kane, commander of the Bucktail Regiment, erected by his
family. At LEWIS RUN the great Indian hunter, Jim Jacobs, lived.
[Illustration: POTTER COUNTY]
XLI
POTTER COUNTY
Formed March 26, 1804; named for General James Potter, an officer of the
Revolution, is an almost trackless wilderness covered with dense growth
of pine and hemlock, the haunt of bear, deer, wolf, panther, fox, and
other wild game. Mean elevation is about 1900 feet above sea. At head
waters of the West Branch, Genesee and Allegheny rivers, in the north,
the ground is rolling, with beautiful farms; the southern part is broken
by deep valleys and lofty mountains, with most picturesque scenery,
especially in the Kettle Creek and Sinnemahoning valleys. Probably the
first white man to cross the county was David Zeisberger, who passed
down the Allegheny River to mouth of the Tionesta, Forest County, in
1767; his journal, now on file in the Moravian Library at Bethlehem,
tells of the wild beauty of the county. Farming and stock raising are
gaining, but the main industry is still lumbering, with second growth of
hardwoods, maple, beech, and birch, which will in time be a great
nucleus of wealth.
Earliest important road is the Jersey Shore Turnpike, running from
Jersey Shore at the mouth of Pine Creek, Lycoming County, through most
wonderful scenery to Coudersport and on to Buffalo; an effort is being
made to have this historic highway improved, as it is the most direct
way from the West Branch Valley to Buffalo. On this road is the site of
Oleona. Ole Bull, the famous violinist, attempted the settlement of a
colony of Norwegians; in 1852, he purchased 11,144 acres on Kettle
Creek, in the then almost unbroken forests; and laid out four villages,
New Norway, New Bergen, Oleona, and Walhalla; this proved a sad failure,
and the land is now included in the State Forest Reserve. Ole Bull’s
Castle, with a great stone wall, still partly standing, was built about
a mile below Oleona, on the crest of a bluff. Travel is generally good
in summer, during the winter the heavy snowdrifts are often too deep for
passage, temperature often falling to 40° below zero.
COUDERSPORT, county seat, settled in 1807; population 2836; courthouse,
substantial, colonial building in the square, on the main street; in the
grounds is the Soldiers’ Monument, a granite shaft, pedestal has names
of Potter County men who fell in war for the Union. The famous Bucktail
Regiment was recruited largely from Potter County, noted marksmen, many
had been famous hunters, and because of their wonderful skill with the
rifle were made sharpshooters in the Civil War. Christ Protestant
Episcopal Church, incorporated, 1833, present stone building, Gothic,
built in 1885, on ground given by Miss Katharine Dent. The beautiful
little church, “All Saints,” at Brookland, near the old Dent Homestead,
memorial to Henry Hatch Dent, by his children, maintained by endowment,
is native stone, with stained glass windows, marble memorial altar, and
other artistic furnishings, open by appointments of the Bishop, it
stands, as old “St. Martins-in-the-Field,” a solitary witness for
Christianity and the Church.
First Presbyterian, oldest church organization in
[Illustration: ON THE SINNEMAHONING CREEK]
Coudersport, established 1832, first building made in 1849, on ground
given by John Keating, Esq., present building, Fourth and Main Streets,
dedicated in 1903, Italian Renaissance; other denominations have good
church buildings. The Pennsylvania Historical Commission has made an
appropriation for the placing of a monument to David Ziesberger at
Coudersport; they will also place tablets at site of Ole Bull’s Castle
and near the Austin disaster; the Austin flood, in 1911, when the town
was almost blotted out, and many lives were lost and property destroyed,
was perhaps the worst calamity which has ever visited the county. Three
miles east of Coudersport is “The Sweden Valley Ice Mine,” in a shaft
about six feet square and twelve feet deep; during the hot summer
weather ice is formed here in large quantities; the Smithsonian
Institution has published a number of articles concerning these ice
caves.
[Illustration: JEFFERSON COUNTY]
XLII
JEFFERSON COUNTY
Formed March 26, 1804; named for Thomas Jefferson; steep and rugged
hills line the watercourses of every stream, alternating with fine
valley land, traversed by good roads through most picturesque scenery;
the views are a continual delight. In early days large tracts of this
land were held by rich proprietors who would neither improve nor sell at
a fair price. The pioneer hewed his canoes out of pine trees, large
enough to receive a barrel of flour crosswise; a homemade rope of flax
was attached to the front to pull them over the ripples. The county is
wonderfully rich in coal and an abundance of natural gas, and has
developed more along commercial than it has along artistic lines. Chief
industries: stock raising, coal, iron, glass, and silk.
County seat, BROOKVILLE, laid out in 1830; population 3272. Hunts Point,
now Carrier’s addition of Brookville, was once an Indian village. Main
Street runs east and west. Pickering Street crosses at right angles.
Courthouse, at the corner of Main and Pickering Streets; Renaissance,
brick; contains portraits. The Brookville Park Association is making
great civic improvements; a park of ten acres is in the center of the
town and a fine new park building or auditorium is being erected; the
organization being truly altruistic, to the intent that no dividends
shall be paid to the subscribers, but all profits applied to municipal
improvements. There are several churches, among them may be mentioned
the Presbyterian and Methodist for architecture; both Romanesque; stone.
The Presbyterian has good stained glass windows. The Daughters of the
American Revolution have placed a small monument to Joseph Barnett in
the old cemetery. Fort Barnett was one mile east of Brookville, on the
old turnpike (Mead’s Trail); his cabin in 1799 is said to have been the
only one within seventy-five miles.
PUNXSUTAWNEY, population 10,311, was an Indian village; during the
eighteenth century, Moravian missionaries labored here among the
Delaware tribes of the Algonquin Indians; Brother Ettewein kept a
faithful record of his travels and work, describing his journey along
Mahoning Creek, then named by the Indians “Mohulbucteetam,” or place
where canoes are abandoned. Rev. David Barkley and his son-in-law, Dr.
John W. Jenks, from Newtown, Bucks County, a graduate of the University
of Pennsylvania in 1816, later made an associate judge, owned the land
and laid out the town in 1820 in squares, including one for the public,
which in this century has been made into a beautiful park by Frederick
Olmstead, landscape gardener, of Brookline, Massachusetts; on each
corner are old cannon from the Civil War. A fine brick post office with
Ionic portico is here, built by the United States Government, and many
beautiful churches. Christ Episcopal Church is built with stone taken
from the creek bed and laid without any cutting; the soft brown color
was caused by the mineral in the water, and is permanent.
XLIII
SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY
Formed February 21, 1810; named for situation, at head waters of the
Susquehanna River, which completely drains the county, every stream
flowing into it as it flows around a spur of the Alleghenies with the
highest outline of two mountains; original Indian names, Onaquaga and
Miantinomah. The scenery is beautifully diversified; there are numerous
lakes, the largest, Crystal Lake, is over a mile long; from Elk
Mountain, with its three peaks, sixteen lakes are visible, and the Water
Gap is plainly seen on a clear day; from Ararat, 2040 feet above the sea
level, is also an extended view. A panorama of great beauty is seen from
the heights of Gibson Township; the slopes furnish unsurpassed grazing
and abound in orchards and gardens; named for Chief Justice Gibson, the
town was first settled in 1792 by Joseph Potter.
The most beautiful auto ride through the county is from Montrose to
SUSQUEHANNA, incorporated in 1853, called the City of Stairs; Erie
Railroad shops are here, the buildings, covering eight acres, include a
Library and Lecture Hall. Martin’s Creek Viaduct, 1600 feet long with
eleven spans, on the Lackawanna Railroad, is said to be, next to the
Tunkhannock Viaduct on same road, the largest concrete bridge in the
world; this road is known as the shortest route between New York and
Buffalo; owing to its high elevation through this county, the views are
of extraordinary
[Illustration: SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY]
beauty. Earliest white settlement was at Great Bend; General James
Clinton, with 1600 men, encamped here in 1799, _en route_ to join
General Sullivan at Chemung against the Indians. Chief industry,
agriculture and butter making.
MONTROSE, population 1661; made county seat in 1811, first settled by
Stephen Wilson of Vermont in 1799, is a notable health resort because of
its altitude; it was developed through the liberality of Dr. R. H. Rose
and Isaac Post, the latter was first postmaster in 1808. Dr. Rose
purchased 100,000 acres in 1807, partly in Silver Lake Township, and
developed the resources of the county. Public buildings face the square,
in which is the monument to Civil War soldiers. Courthouse, a fine
structure, colonial architecture, built in 1842, contains a portrait of
Honorable Galusha A. Grow, who was sent to Congress from this county.
The conference building seats 3000; here The Bible Institute is held
each summer. At SPRINGVILLE was farm of Zophar Blakeslee, whose
daughter, Sarah, was married to Honorable Asa Packer. BROOKLYN was early
residence of George Catlin, who became noted as a painter of Indians.
JACKSON started as a beaver meadow. When THOMSON was first settled, in
1820, an unbroken forest of beech wood stretched eastward for fifty
miles.
[Illustration: BRADFORD COUNTY]
XLIV
BRADFORD COUNTY
Formed February 21, 1810, as Ontario; on March 24, 1812, named in honor
of William Bradford, an attorney general in the cabinet of Washington;
surface hilly or rolling. Chief industries are dairying and breeding of
fine cattle and thoroughbred horses. Said to be first place on record
visited by a white man in Pennsylvania; in 1615 Stephen Bruhle, explorer
and interpreter for Samuel Champlain, with twelve Huron Indians, came to
Carouantian, a palisaded village of the Carouantiannais, on Spanish
Hill, just above present towns of Sayre and Athens; he found here 800
warriors, 500 of whom went with him to aid Champlain against the
Onondaga stronghold in New York. Bruhle returned to Carouantian,
remained during the winter of 1615-16, and explored the Susquehanna
River to the sea, making report to Champlain.
First road was the great Indian warpath along the Susquehanna, used by
General Sullivan and his Continental Army in expedition against the
Indians in 1779; the state road, from Wilkes-Barre, up the river,
through Wyoming and Bradford counties, is substantially on this old
trail; historic places along the road are well marked, a monument
thirteen feet high, native stone, from Campbell’s Ledge above Pittston;
erected by the Moravian Historical Society in 1871 near Wyalusing, marks
location of the Moravian mission, inscription, “To mark site of
Friedenshutten (Machwilusing), a settlement of Moravian Indians between
1765-1772”; this mission was removed to Beaver County in 1772. Farther
west, near the Presbyterian church, is a large boulder with bronze
tablet, inscription, “Near this site from August 5-8, 1779, camped the
army of Maj. Gen’l Sullivan, on their expedition against the Six
Nations, erected by Machwilusing Chapter, D. A. R. 1914”; this road
after leaving Wyalusing, leads over the hill a distance from the river,
to which it returns again at Rummerfield, near where Mrs. Roswell
Franklin was killed by Indians; her family was rescued.
Farther up the river is the county’s oldest historic landmark on west
bank of the Susquehanna, “Standing Stone,” 25 feet high, 21 feet at
base, tapers from 4 to 3 feet in thickness, rising out of the water; a
landmark even in early Indian history; plainly visible from the road;
General Sullivan’s army of 3500 men camped on the plain opposite; three
miles east of Towanda is Wysox village and creek, in front of an old
brick church is where Major Henry van Campen, with two other captives,
succeeded in releasing themselves, under guard by twice their number of
Indians, killing all except one. Near is a large boulder of Barclay
sandstone, with bronze tablet; inscription: “This stone commemorates the
passing through Wesauking, Aug. 9 and Oct. 4, 1779, of Maj. Gen’l John
Sullivan and his troops against the Six Nations. Erected, 1908, by the
George Clymer Chapter, D. A. R., Towanda, Pennsylvania”; on the level
plain between this creek and the river General Sullivan’s army camped.
From Wysox the road diverges west from the old trail, continues over a
modern steel bridge, built in 1915, replacing an old covered wooden one
made in 1834, to Towanda. Eight miles northwest is Ulster; passing on
the way: near mouth of Sugar Creek is site of an important palisaded
Indian village called “Ogehage,” later “Oscalui,” still later, in 1779,
“Newtychanning,” marked; at junction of this great warpath along the
Susquehanna, with one leading from this point to head waters of Towanda
Creek near Canton; thence to head waters of Lycoming Creek, down that
stream to West Branch of the Susquehanna near Williamsport. At Ulster
(old Sheshequin) was a Moravian mission, removed at time of migration to
Beaver in 1772; a steel bridge crosses the river here. Next is Milan
village, near which was Indian Queen Esther’s Town, destroyed by Colonel
Hartley in 1778.
Proceeding on General Sullivan’s road, one crosses the Chemung (Tioga)
River on a modern steel bridge and enters Athens, formerly Tioga Point;
here was Fort Sullivan, base of supplies for the army; destroyed by
themselves in October, 1779, on their departure for Wyoming; marked by
boulder with bronze tablet, inscription: “In Sullivan’s expedition, the
march that destroyed savagery and opened the Keystone and Empire States
to civilization, four brigades, furnished by the States of Pennsylvania,
New York, New Jersey, and New Hampshire, with Proctor’s Artillery, and
Farr’s Riflemen took part; at Tioga Point, long the southern door of the
Indian Confederacy, 5000 troops encamped; here stood Fort Sullivan, with
four blockhouses, from August 11 to October 3, 1779; tablet erected by
Tioga Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution.” Below the plate is
embedded a ball from one of General Sullivan’s guns; the road separates
here, one following the Susquehanna to Owego, the other following the
Chemung to Elmira (Newtown), New York; near the latter road is the
“Battlefield of Newtown,” where General Sullivan fought the Tories and
Indians in 1779.
A soldiers’ monument is on the campus in front of the old ATHENS
Academy, designed by McKim, Mead & White, New York; ground foundation
twenty-five feet square, inclosed in granite curbing with polished
globes at each corner; pedestal, eleven feet high, rising from the
center, polished granite, on unpolished granite coping, surmounted by a
bronze group, “The Protection of the Flag,” a barefoot drummer boy with
a flag over his shoulder and a tall, fearless soldier, holding a musket
which points to the ground, sculptor, George T. Brewster; inscription,
in bronze letters, fitted to the face of the granite: “_Pro patria et
gloria_. Erected to the memory of our soldiers who fought in defense of
the flag”; presented by Joseph Whipple and Charlotte Snell Stickler.
Spaulding Library and Museum, classic Renaissance with Ionic porch, open
to the public, contains paintings, portraits, and relics. In 1688 a
Spanish fort was near the present borough of Athens; population 4384.