Crawford County, Pennsylvania
History
1876 ATLAS 1
"HISTORY OF THE VILLAGES AND TOWNSHIPS OF CRAWFORD COUNTY."
RICHMOND TOWNSHIP.
Among the first to settle in Richmond were the Winstons, Lucas, Horatio, and Daniel, and Horace Hulbert from New York. Dean Swift emigrated in 1816. He brought with him from New Haven, Connecticut, an ox-team, and was fifty-six days in making the journey. Well calculated for logging and other pioneer work, cattle were early in general use, but later, the horse, for speed and utility, has taken their place, and a yoke of oxen seldom met on the road.
In 1817 Gould M. Lord and Ebenezer Hunt moved in; the one from Connecticut, and the other from Vermont. Some settlers who had located on Muddy Run, and were far from others, after some time grew tired of their isolation, and most of them left. The Hunts are regarded as the real pioneers of the township as now organized. They blazed a line, using a pocket-compass for direction, to what is now Guy's Mills, from their location near what is at present Lines' Hollow. Mr. Ebenezer Hunt, the first settler,* says that his first house was made by setting up forked poles in the ground, putting a pole across from one to the other for a ridge, and other poles from this to a big log on either side, and covering the whole abundantly with hemlock boughs; all completed in one afternoon, and occupied by the family at night, who were serenaded by the howlings of a dozen wolves, and who, in conscious independence, could say,"I am monarch of all I survey;
My right there is none to dispute.
From the cabin all round through the town,
I am lord of the fowl and the brute."
The young men had no neighbors nearer than Michael Ragle, three miles away. David Hunt, their father, joined them in 1818. Joseph Clark settled on the State road near New Richmond in 1820. Jasper Lyon moved into the valley of Woodcock Creek in 1821, and gave the name to the hamlet now there. A daughter-in-law, May J. Lyon, now occupies the homestead. Other settlers were Russell Flint, Thomas Delamater, Michael Breese, William Sanburn, George Miller, and Chester Jones. Robert Townley came to the township from Erie in 1821. Hollis Hull was a settler of 1822, from New York. Annanias Phillips, also of New York, moved in during 1824, as did Jesse Wheelock, from Erie. John Brown became a settler in Richmond in 1826.
The first cabin was built by the Hunts. It was twelve feet by fourteen. They split slabs for roofing, and were troubled by leakages during rainy weather, and in the following spring, when bark would peel, made a better cover with that material. With an eye to the future, Ebenezer Hunt had brought with him a quantity of apple-seed, and at once put out a nursery from which the orchards of several townships were supplied. The first framed barn was raised by the Hunts in 1825. There was no grist-mill in the township, and the nearest place for grinding was in Woodcock Township. A saw-mill was put up by an old sea-captain named Miles, on a branch of Muddy Creek, two miles north of New Richmond, at an early day. The first tannery was erected near the middle of the township by John Brown, of Connecticut, and well known to history. The building stood until recently, as a monument of the old man's industry; it has been converted into a cheese-factory, which is designated as the "John Brown Factory." The first attempt at merchandising was made by Ira Clark and David H. Stewart, near Brown's tannery, on the State Road. Thomas Delamater kept the pioneer house of entertainment. It was of logs, and on the farm where his son Fayette lives. The first meetings for religious exercises were held at the house of Daniel Hunt; Rev. Hatton was the minister in attendance. The first school was kept in the barn of Ebenezer Hunt, Sarah Hunt, sister to Ebenezer, being the teacher. It is said that G.M. Lord having built a log hog-pen and corn-crib, an upper part of this strange foundation was used for school purposes for three months. The first school-house was erected in 1836, and of the pioneer materials. James Foreman, a young man who lived with Brown, was the first justice, and Isaac Baldwin the next. The earliest marriage was probably that of Daniel Stewart to Lydia Hunt, on October 10, 1822. A child of Joseph Clark was the first death; it was buried on the farm. Warren Green is named as the first to bring in and use a threshing machine, thus superseding the flail, and affording needed relief. Dairying is the chief pursuit of the inhabitants. There are four factories in the township and two adjacent. The factories are named as the Delamater, Morses', Franklin, and John Brown. Milk cans are left at the road side, and into these the milk is poured. The price paid is one cent a pound, which is equivalent to two cents per quart. The industry is profitable and of growing importance.
* A portrait of this early pioneer may be seen on page 107 of this work.
