Clarion County PA Miscellaneous News Paper Articles From the Past

Transcribed by Nancy Piper unless otherwise stated

Oil Production in Clarion County

The Indiana Democrat (Indiana, Pennsylvania) May 25 1871

Clarion County

J. Frank McNutt, Esq., of New Bethlehem, is a candidate for nomination for Assembly in this county, and presents his claims to the approaching Democratic Convention.

The Democrat says: Some 500 or 600 barrels of oil are produced daily in Clarion county and twice as much more is shipped on the railroad within our county limits. A wide scope of territory will be developed this summer. There are now fifty or sixty, and before next fall there will be more than one hundred oil wells in this county. In the Parker oil field, the Duchess farm is the scene of the greatest activity, and its production is being rapidly increased; four wells are down and producing about 170 barrels daily, with others very nearly completed. The Forker lease on the Robinson farm, adjoining the Duchess, has two wells, producing 125barrels daily, and others in progress. The Black and Thomas farms, in the same neighborhood, are being tested, and good news from there is confidently expected. On Armstrong Run, territory is being rapidly developed; several “strikes” have been made during the month, particularly since the 20th inst., so that a considerable increase of production may be looked for in that direction during the coming summer. The price of oil on the railroad is about $4.00 per barrel. A new well, reported at 400 barrels a day, was struck at Foster, on the Allegheny river, last Saturday, on the Angeil Prentice tract. It took fire and a large amount of oil was burned. After the fire was extinguished it flowed at the rate of 400 barrels a day.

Indiana Progress (Indiana, Pennsylvania)
November 9 1871

The new oil town of Tip Top, near Foxburg, has changed its name to that of East Foxburg

Indiana Progress (Indiana, Pennsylvania)
November 13 1873

Foxburg, an oil region town, is said to be fast "playing out." The only hotel has closed, and the young men of the place are keeping "bachelors' hall."

The Indiana Democrat (Indiana, Pennsylvania)
March 23 1876

Edenburg, Clarion county, is the boss town of the oil regions. The had five fights there, the other night, within forty minutes; and the fellow who hasn't had a ear, a finger or his nose bitten off in considered out of style.

Indiana Weekly Messenger (Indiana, Pennsylvania)
February 4 1885

Death After the Dance

Parker, January 31

News has just come here from Callensburg, Clarion county, of a remarkable affair there. During the absence of their mother the Misses Wilson invited several young people to their home and enjoyed a dance. Upon the mother's return, Rev. Mr. Lafferty called upon her regarding the dance. He censured her and she endeavored to explain. They grew angry, and the result was a church trial. Mrs. Wilson and several of her supporters were expelled from the church.

Revival meetings were in progress and Rev. Mr. Lafferty delivered pointed sermons. One night Mrs. Wilson arose and declared that his personal remarks referred to her. She was excited and desired the congregation to know that his remarks were meant for her. Because the people refused to go forward to be converted he exclaimed that he feared God would visit them with a calamity.

That night Mrs. Wilson retired in her usual health. Next morning she was dead; whether from disease or trouble is not known. However, at the Methodist meeting that night Rev. Mr. Lafferty said the calamity which had been a subject of prayer had been sent.

The people were indignant. Though the Presbyterian minister was absent, he was sent for to preach the funeral sermon. Mr. Wilson, husband of the deceased, said that if Mr. Lafferty went into the pulpit during the services he would shoot him. Though the affair occurred several days ago, there is still excitement in the village. One sad feature is the fact that though the unfortunate had for years been connected with the church, she died out of it.

Widow Sues Bull Owner for Husband's Death

Indiana Weekly Messenger (Indiana, Pennsylvania)
January 29 1890

A case which is exciting no little interest in on trial in Clarion. It involves a question that has never been before presented to the courts of the Commonwealth. On April 30, 1887, Clarence Showers bought a 4-year old bull from C. W. Young and had him in his possession until October 29 of the same year, when the bull attacked and killed him. His widow now brings suit to recover damages from the former owner. The jury was out three days and the verdict was awaited with much interest.

The jury came in Monday with a verdict for the plaintiff for $750. The testimony showed that both the purchaser and seller were aware the animal was cross, but the jury thought the widow should have damages, and therefore awarded her $750. This is the first case of the kind ever tried in a Pennsylvania court.

Along The Zigzag

Chester Times (Chester, Pennsylvania)
February 28 1882

Travel in the Land of Coal Gardens - An Inconvenient and Unpopular Graveyard

"It's a funny country where you have to travel three miles in going 200 feet, and where they pump oil in their front yards and dig coal in their gardens, and I've just got back from a trip in that country," said Commercial Traveller John Gilbert, in the Astor House rotunda.

"I struck it two weeks ago in Western Pennsylvania. I thought I had been on crooked railroads, but I never rode on one before where, if you happened to be in the rear car, you could shake hands with the engineer of your train every five minutes. That road I took from Oil City down the Allegheny Valley, and it landed me at Foxburg, Clarion county".

"A range of hills 200 feet high climbs up from the valley there, and there is just room enough between it and the river from one street and a row of buildings. Then the rest of the town hangs on the face of the mountain. Some of the people can look out of their back windows plumb down the chimneys of their neighbors. Once a resident of Foxburg thought his winter stock of vegetables was going rather faster that it should. He investigated and found that a neighbor living a lift or so below him had run a chute from his cellar up through the bottom of the cellar of the gentleman above him, and had laid in his supplies by stealth and the laws of gravity."

"A railroad starts from Foxburg and goes up into the interior of Clarion county. The depot is on the street at the foot of the hill. The train starts away from the station like mad. It runs up a steep grade from three-quarters of a mile and stops. Then it backs up another grade at the rate of twenty miles an hour, and stops again so suddenly that you think it must have telescoped with one of the houses. It has gone half a mile. In a few seconds, whiz! It goes forward again, up-hill for three-quarters of a mile, and stops once more. Then it starts backward as if it had forgotten something, all the time going up grade. When it stops with a bang it has gone three-quarters of a mile or more, and then you are at the top of the range, looking down on the spot you started from, and on which you can toss a stone from the car window. You've had nearly three miles' ride, and are only 200 feet on your journey. "

"That railroad runs for thirty miles or so through the wildest country I ever tried to drum up trade in. There are lots of towns, but they are all in the woods. There is an oil well about every rod, and it's a common thing to see them pumping away in the door yards. The whole country is a bituminous coal field. Every farmer has what he calls his "bank" of coal, and town folks dig it in their gardens alongside of the potatoes. When a man tells his wife to go fetch some coal for the fire, out in that country, she takes a basket and a shovel, goes out in the lot and harvests enough in five minutes to last all night."

"There are lots of funny towns along that zigzag railroad, but the funniest one I attacked was Tylersville (Tylersburg?). When they started that town they expected to make a hummer. There is plenty of coal there, they intended to find oil, and they've got a fifty years supply of oak and pine timber. But after starting the place they struck a snag. The most available building lots were on a 200-acre tract, right in the centre of the town plot. But nobody owned it. A dozen different parties claimed it, but none of 'em could give a title. Then they went to law, and they've been lawing over that land ever since. No one can touch it. When the 200 acres failed them, they tried to buy some lots of a rich old farmer named Bowman, who owns pretty much all the available property around the place. But Bowman wouldn't sell an inch. So they've had to drop their buildings around in all sorts of locations, and even to hoist them on the hills. For instance, the Methodist church is built a mile from town, on the summit of a hill 200 feet high. You can get there only on foot, and there isn't any sidewalk. When I was there the mud was not less than a foot deep, and they were holding a revival in the church."

"The Methodists struck tough luck in staking out their graveyard, too. They've got that on a hill near by. It takes two men a day to dig a grave, for there is only one foot of ground, the rest of the way being solid rock. They have to drill and blast after the first foot. But the country is healthy, and there have been only three burials in the graveyard in two years. In February, 1880, a man named John Olia died in Tylersville. He was 102 years, 2 months and 2 days old, and left a widow. On the day I got in the place the widow had died, and that was two years to the day from the time her husband died, as the tavern keeper told me, and she was 104 years, 4 months and 4 days old. The same day an old pauper woman, aged 86 died, and the remains of both were placed in the Methodist graveyard.

That same day, according to the landlord, was the most mementious the town had ever known. Besides the funeral of a woman over 100 and another nearly 90, there was a trial of a young woman school teacher before the School Board of the township on a charge of cruelty to one of her scholars. During the trial the school teacher's lawyer knocked the father of the scholar down and threw him out of the schoolhouse. The President of the Board immediately resigned and two of the directors followed his example, and left no quorum and the building at the same time. In discussing the merits of the case, a Justice of the Peace and a leading private official came to blows. Their friends got (..?..) and thee was a general fight. The school teacher resigned her position, and the school was closed. Five arrests were made on charges of assault and battery, which will have to be settled in the courts. On the same day Mart Stately, who works in a saw mill in the village, climbed fifteen feet to a shafting to fix a belt. While he was perched on the shafting the engineer started the machinery. Stately was flung to the ground. In his flight he broke with his head an inch pine board, and he was brought to a stop by plunging his head in a pile of slabs. He got up and went to work without a scratch or a bruise, and never thought enough of the incident to refer to it in any way."

"The Catholics had to build their church three miles out of town, in the woods. They have a brick church in the wilderness that cost $40,000. In all Tylersville churches the brethren and sisters are compelled to sit apart and enter the churches by separate doors. The principal products of the soil out there, besides oil and coal, are staves, shooks and iron ore."

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