Transcribed by: Nancy Wilkinson. For an explanation and caution about this transcription, please read this page.
Surnames in this chapter are:
BREDIN, BUTLER, COLLINS, CRISWELL, KARNS, LOWRIE, MAY, McKEE, NEGLEY, ORR, OVERALL/OVERALLS, PHILLIPS, RIOTT, SMITH, WILSON
Before the appearance of the white man within its boundaries, Butler county was a savage-peopled wilderness, its history enshrouded in the mists of an impenetrable past. The red man fished along its streams, hunted through its woods, wooed and won his dusky bride, battled with his tribal enemies, and sank into his forest-shaded grave, leaving "behind no monuments for good," to furnish a reason for his living. Beneath his feet was a fertile and productive soil, yet he cultivated it not, save in scattered patches here and there; deeper down lay untold wealth, yet he sought not for it. He ate, slept, hunted, fought and died, and left the wilderness as he found it. His trophies of valor were the scalps of his enemies; his principal amusement, the war dance around the burning captive at the stake; his religion, a belief in a great spirit, seen and heard in all the manifestations of nature; his temples of worship, the forests, and his heaven, the "Happy Hunting Ground" of the hereafter.
And yet he had a beautiful home here among these hills and vales, with everything needful to make life comfortable and worth living within easy reach. He lived, but he lived a useless life, until the time when the white man, penetrating those sylvan solitudes, brought him face to face with the fact that his career as lord of the forest and stream was drawing to a close, and that before the march of resistless civilization that was advancing to possess his hunting grounds, he was destined not only to recede, but to disappear from the earth forever.
And when the white man came to claim this land for himself and his posterity, until the remotest time, what did he find in answer to the glowing tales that had lured him hither? He found
"The hills,
Rock-ribbed and ancient as the sun--the vales
Stretching in pensive quietness between;
The venerable woods--rivers that move
In majesty--and the complaining brooks
That make the meadows green."
[p. 18] It was a scene of picturesque beauty rarely to be met with. Unbroken forests crowned the hills and the valleys, and Nature, undisturbed for ages, had wrought upon and beneath the surface, in preparation for the time when the hand of industry should cause the one to bloom as a garden and the other to give up its stores of untold wealth.
The work of transforming this wilderness into cultivated fields, dotting its surface with prosperous towns and villages, and causing its hills to resound with the mingled music of many industries, was begun when the first pioneer felled the first forest tree, and cleared for himself a place on which to erect the first cabin. The Butler county of to-day, with its prosperous and progressive population; its comfortable, cultured, and happy homes; its crowded schools and colleges; its stately public buildings; its temples of trade and commerce; its hundreds of factories and workshops; its diversified and growing industries, and its pregnant promises of a greater and grander future, are the enduring monuments of the sturdy men who laid the foundations of its greatness in the forests of a hundred years ago.
Butler county was named after Gen. Richard BUTLER, a complete and carefully-compiled biographical sketch of whom appears in Chapter VI. It is bounded by Venango county on the north, Beaver, Lawrence and Mercer counties on the west, Allegheny county on the south, and Armstrong county on the east. Its geographical center is in latitude 40 degs., 45 mins. north, and longitude 2 degs., 47 mins., 30 secs. west of Washington, D.C. Its area is 814 square miles, or 529,960 acres, divided into thirty-three townships, and resubdivided into fifty-seven election precincts.
The surface of the county is broken by hills and valleys, the latter forming the courses of its numerous streams. The elevations are decided, being higher in the northern than in the southern districts. Butler Junction, a railroad station near the southwest corner of the county, is 768.7 feet, and Emlenton Station, near the northwest corner, 905.1 feet above ocean level. Within Butler county the following levels have been ascertained, the measurements at railroad depots being track levels: Southeast of Butler are, Buffalo, 766.4; Harbison, 801.66; Monroe, 840; Sarvers, 1,026.8; Saxonburg, 1,200.9; Delano, 1,224.2; Dilks, 1,307; Great Belt, 1,260; Herman, 1,300.6; Brinker, 1,301.6; Sunset, 1,317.1, and Butler, 1,008.
Northeast of Butler are Millerstown, 1,195 to 1,210 feet; St. Joe, 1,400; Carbon Centre, 1,170; Greece City, 1,286; Modoc, 1,277; Argyle, 1,161; Petrolia, 1,175; Central Point, 1,184; Karns City, 1,204; Stone House, 1,089; Hart's well on Say farm, in Parker township, 1,407; Martinsburg, 1,104; point near Lawrenceburg, 1,096; Fairview, 1,247; point near Middletown, 1,420; Columbia Hill, in Allegheny township, 1,471, and hill near the southwest corner of Donegal township, 1,430 feet.
North of Butler borough the levels are Unionville, 1,330; West Sunbury, 1,400; North Washington, 1,500; Farmington, 1,520; Anandale, 1,490; Venango summit, near Eau Claire, 1,554; point near Annisville, 1,530, and Murrinsville, 1,440.
Northwest and west of Butler borough are Prospect, 1,330; Portersville, [p. 19] 1,360; West Liberty, 1,190; Centreville, 1,300; northwest corner of Mercer township, 1,450; center of Slippery Rock township, 1,300; middle of west line of Brady township, 1,470; angle of west line of Worth township, 1,350; Muddy Creek Center, 1,375, and Harrisville, 1,340.
When it is considered that Lake Erie is 573 feet above ocean level; Allegheny, on Sycamore street, 741.40 feet; Kittanning, at curb outside Central House, 809.94, and the track at Tarentum depot, 778 feet, the relation of Butler county levels to Lake Erie and lower Allegheny valley levels may be known. Nature does nothing on a small scale. In casting this interesting division of Pennsylvania she made no mistake. If speculation may be indulged in with any show of reason, it may be said that the Allegheny and the Beaver rivers once flowed from 500 to 800 feet above their present levels, and the Connoquenessing, Slippery Rock and other local creeks, from 800 to 1,200 feet. In the lowering of the river and creek bottoms to depths far below the present beds, mighty agencies were at work. Instead of being mere conveyancers of clays, they were hewers of rock, cleaving great ravines in the high plateaus, and preparing a way for the bergs or ice mountains which rolled over this section, pulverizing the massive sandstone and grinding the hard lime-rock into bowlders [sic]. The terraces and canons tell very plainly how this system of valley-making was carried out, while the drill brings to light the methods of filling up, which raised the river and creek bottoms to their present levels.
The drainage of the county is one of its most remarkable physical features. The divide or watershed may be said to extend from its northeastern township almost to its southern tier of townships, making a decisive ridge between the Allegheny on the east and the Beaver on the west. Bear creek and its tributaries, Buffalo and Little Buffalo and their feeders, Bull creek and its branches, all flow from the summits of Butler county, with a decided inclination to join the parent Allegheny; while Slippery Rock and Muddy creeks, with their feeders, leave the county on the other side, with equal determination to enter the Beaver. The head-waters of the Connoquenessing, which is an Indian word meaning "For a long way straight"* are located in Concord township. It flows southwest through Oakland, Centre and Butler townships, receives en route the waters of Bonny Brook and several other small streams, and thence enters Penn township, where it is fed by Thorn creek. It then pursues its winding way westward, receiving the waters of Glade run and Breakneck creek from the south, and those of Powder Mill run and Little Connoquenessing from the north. It leaves the county about midway of the western boundary of Jackson township. The change in the channel of the Connoquenessing below Butler, and the formation of Vogeley's island are enterprises credited to Judge John BREDIN. Its valley is an object-lesson in geology, for here may be seen narrow and wide alluvial bottoms, narrow passes and varied outcrops of the sand and lime-rock of this division of the State.
*Heckewelder.
The Allegheny river touches the county at its northeastern and southeastern corners. The name given to this river by the Shawnee Indians, was "Paliwathorika"; by the Delawares, "Alligawi-sipu," or the river of the Allegans; by [p. 20] the Senecas, "Hoheu," written "Oheo" and "Ohio," by the French, who also called it the "La Belle Riviere." Though it touches two corners of the county, mention of the beautiful stream is seldom heard in Butler, so that the stranger, unacquainted with local topography, might think it as far away as the Susquehanna. It was into its valley that the early French explorers came in 1749. After the advent of the steamboat it became an important commercial highway. The pioneer steamboat was the "William D. Duncan," whose first appearance, wakening the echoes with its screeching whistle and its puffing engines, announced the advent of a new era to the people along the banks and drew curious crowds at every landing place.
The geological structure of the county is fairly well exhibited in the chapter devoted to a history of the Butler oil field. In some places the earth has been bored for over 4,000 feet, as in the test well on the SMITH farm, in Winfield township, and, in very many places, for over 1,500 feet. A salt well was driven in 1811-12, to a depth of seventy feet, by Thomas COLLINS, near the road leading from Butler to Millerstown, on what was known as "the Lick," on the James KARNS farm. An out-crop of coal near by made the location desirable for salt works, and there, for years, the salt manufacturing industry was carried on. What is now known as petroleum, then bore the Indian name of Seneca oil; because the Indians and pioneers sold it as a panacea for all ills. The flow of oil in this well was very limited, yet sufficient to give its flavor to the brine and even to the salt produced from the brine.
The salt well drilled in 1824, by Webster WILSON, reached a depth of 339 feet; although a heavy flow of brine was struck at the 240 feet level. The location of this well, 2,600 feet above the confluence of Yellow creek and the Connoquenessing, in Lancaster township, was, for years, a salt manufacturing center. The record of this old well is given, to show the conformation of that part of the county. Conductor hole, five feet; shale and slate, forty-two feet and four inches; lignite, one foot and four inches; coal, three feet and six inches; fireclay, two feet and four inches; hard sandstone, nine feet and six inches; black slate, six feet and six inches; slate, streaked with coal, eight feet; hard, bluish, white sandstone, eighty-seven feet and eight inches; coal (150 feet from opening), three feet; shale, ten feet and four inches; hard sandrock, with salt water at bottom, nineteen feet and six inches; black slate, three feet; white sandstone, nine feet; coal and slate, at 192 feet from opening, two feet and three inches; hard sandstone, nineteen feet; dark slate and coal, three feet; white flinty sandstone, of the upper Connoquenessing variety, forty-six feet and six inches; coal, two feet and six inches; shale, fifteen feet; coal, at 225 feet from opening, five feet; fire-clay, three feet; and hard and soft shale, forty feet. The measurements represent the thickness of the strata named. The absence of ferriferous limestone may be accounted for by its being cut out by the hard blueish, white sandstone, which occupies its place – the ninth in the series as recorded.
In drilling the old salt well at Harmony, a vein of good coal was found forty-five feet below what is known as the Darlington or Upper Kittanning coal location.
About the year 1832, John NEGLEY invested about $8,000 in a salt well at Butler. The site selected was a point on the south bank of the creek, nearly 200 [p. 21] feet west of the Main street bridge and east of the mill-dam. There he drilled to a depth of 800 feet, or until salt-water was found, and there established a salt factory on the pan system. Coal for fuel was taken from the bank on the hill above. The hole was not more than two and one-half inches in diameter. Foot power was used in working the drill, and eighty ten-foot hickory rods took the place of the rope or cable. Mr. NEGLEY brought from Pittsburg, at great expense, pumps, pans and other operating material. The pumps were worked by horse-power and the work of salt manufacture introduced. Some salt was produced; but the supply of brine being insufficient, the industry was abandoned. During the three years the work of drilling was in progress, the tools were stuck at intervals. On one occasion, while Israel OVERALLS, an expert, was fishing for them, the chain fell, and the hook catching OVERALL's hand, injured him severely. Had the well been bored 300 feet deeper, as subsequent borings have shown, an inexhaustible supply of salt water would have been found.
In 1857 the ORR salt well in Buffalo township was sunk, but the flow of brine was small. In 1858 it was bored 100 feet deeper, when a vein of water, equal to twenty gallons per minute, was struck.
The "Soap Mines" of this county have been referred to, time and time again, by dealers in tradition. Such a deposit never existed here; but the idea of one was suggested, when petroleum was found near Fairview, many years ago. It appears that in excavating for a salt well, the workmen found oil and declared it to be soft soap. Since that time they have learned something of petroleum, though they cannot yet tell by what process it is manufactured in Nature's laboratory.
The eccentricities of this oil field have proved that geologists know nothing, comparatively, of the origin of this oil or of the gas reservoirs with which it is associated. For twenty-five years the geologist and codger of this oil field have been predicting the exhaustion of oil and gas, notwithstanding the constant contradiction of their predictions by the discoveries of new deposits. Oil and natural gas are inseparable companions. Where one exists so does the other. Like coal deposits, they give out in time, and as new mines must be opened to supply the demand for coal, so new wells must be drilled to supply that for oil and gas. Since the beginning of production in the Butler field, wonderful exhibitions of the vagaries of the two fluids have been witnessed. The pioneer wells, in the Parker township field were drilled to the "third" or Venango county sand. Outside the Martinsburg region, several sands have been discovered such as the "Fourth," the "Bradford," the "Gordon," the "Snee" and the "Hundred-foot," and extraordinary depths have been reported.
Here is a case in point. Early in May, 1886, the Fisher Oil Company drilled a well on the RIOTT farm, near Herman, to a depth of 2,650 feet, with the object of tapping the Gordon sand, as found in Washington county. At a depth of 2,400 feet, or 140 feet below the fourth sand, the Bradford sand was struck. At 2,641 feet the shell of what would correspond to the Gordon sand was struck, but neither oil nor gas responded to the drill. The 3,500 feet well on the CRISWELL farm, and the 4,000 feet well in Winfield township, -- both referred to in the chapter devoted to the oil field, -- may be considered supplementary exhibitions. [p. 22] The Ganz sand of Washington county is the same as that exposed at Tidioute, the dip toward the southwest being about eighteen feet to the mile. In the Bald Ridge field the third and fourth sands come together, and in the other sections stranger phenomena are observed.
From 1855, when F. G. MAY, of New York city, and Hugh McKEE, of Butler, explored the cannel coal districts of the county, down to the present, much of all that has been learned relating to them finds a place in this volume. Enough to say here that coal, from the lustrous Lower Kittanning to the most slaty specimen of Upper Freeport, may be found in Butler county in abundance, and that no township is wanting in this valuable mineral.
Ochre was found along the Connoquenessing at an early day, the frame house erected by Walter LOWRIE, where the jail now stands, being painted with this yellow clay, ground in oil.
The iron ore deposits, which were once a source of wealth to this county, may be said to have been worked out. Like the coal banks, they are considered in the histories of the townships.
With the exception of the southeastern townships, a tract in Parker township and a few groves in other townships, the pine and hemlock are absent. Oak, elm, chesnut, walnut, ash, hickory, maple and other hard-wood trees are found in every township. In the matter of orchards, the peach tree holds first place and the apple tree second. Though there is no section of the United States better fitted for vine culture, but little attention is given thereto.
It has been said, with a large measure of truth, that of the 814 square miles of territory in this county, fully 700 will give a fair reward to the labor of the husbandman. The soil is largely decomposed rocks or detritus of what geologists call, -- the "Barren Measures," yielding a stiff or sandy clay; but, in the broad valleys, as in Harmony and Zelienople country, where the lower strata of rocks have been converted into clay, a stronger soil is found. For all agricultural purposes, the soils derived from the "Barren Measures" are almost as desirable as those from the lower coal measures, and, as the population increases, and the demand for homes grows, will be equally valuable, whether on hill-top or in valley. The want of lime in these soils is a drawback, of course; but Nature has placed within the reach of industry great beds of ferriferous and crinoidal lime-rock, which await the burner to be prepared as a fertilizing agency.
The list of mammals known here embraces fully 100 species, and of bird fauna, 330 species, of which 115 were natives. The panther was the lion of the Butler wilderness, whose scream was as familiar to the pioneers as the bark of the dog is to the people of the present. Though it is said that the last "painter" in Pennsylvania was killed in 1856, there are numerous contradictions. The bear grew to gigantic stature here; the wolf attained his greatest strength, and the fox his greatest cunning. It was the paradise of hunters, who found along the deer-licks enjoyment and profit. In 1872 the last of the otter tribe vanished from Bear creek. The bounty laws tended toward the extermination of the wild mammals, and the greed of hunters led to the annihilation of the deer and elk.
In the matter of birds, they are still with us. Only in November, 1881, a golden eagle, measuring seven feet, was captured in Penn township, by Elijah T. [p. 23] PHILLIPS. The owl, hawk and other predatory birds, including the English sparrow, are too numerous.
Snakes and vipers are no longer terrors here, for a whole lifetime may be passed in this country without seeing or hearing of a rattlesnake or moccasin.
From an archaeological point of view, the district is not without interest. On the sites of old Indian towns, along the old trails and even in places where no signs of Indian habitations were found, arrow-heads, skinning chisels and other reminders of the original occupants are occasionally brought to light. In 1893, a butternut tree and butternuts were found petrified within a rock, in the outcrop south of the Connoquenessing, opposite Butler borough. When that tree was covered with sand, or when the sand was converted into rock, are secrets of Nature, which invite the scientist to reveal and make them known.
This section of the State has been singularly free from scourges, such as epidemics, floods and storms. In pioneer days malarial diseases were reported, but few deaths resulted. Later days show disease in one form or another, attacking special localities, the cause being attributed generally to impure water. High waters in the creeks of the county have not been unusual, but the damage was generally confined to bridges and to buildings in the low lands. The flood, which carried away a large portion of Petrolia, was the most disastrous one known within the historic period. The drouths of 1854 and of the summer of 1894 were the most serious in the history of the county, entailing heavy losses upon the farmers, and rendering water exceedingly scarce by the drying up of many of the streams. A long series of beautiful and bountiful seasons followed the drouth of 1854. The tornado which carried away a part of Coaltown, the rainstorm of June 21, 1872, and a storm which damaged a few houses in Butler, are the only disastrous visitations of the elements worthy of mention. In 1832 the locusts ravaged the county and again in 1849 they threatened the crops, but disappeared during the last week in June of that year. With ordinary attention to sanitary rules, there is no reason why man should not attain his highest physical state here. With perfect drainage, pure water, air uncontaminated by smoke, favorable altitude and an equable, genial climate, nothing less than excesses or hereditary constitutional defects, can rob a man of the long life which the natural conditions of this county insure.
[End of Chapter 1 - Physical Features: History of Butler County Pennsylvania, R. C. Brown Co., Publishers, 1895]
Next Chapter 02--Aborigines and Explorers
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Updated 06 Mar 2000, 10:18