Crawford County, Pennsylvania
History
1876 ATLAS 1
"HISTORY OF THE VILLAGES AND TOWNSHIPS OF CRAWFORD COUNTY."
ROME TOWNSHIP.
Rome Township was formed from the northern part of Oil Creek Township in 1830. It lies on the centre of the east border of the County, and contains twenty-two thousand five hundred and fifty-four acres. The soil is productive and well watered. Lumbering is an important manufacturing interest. Child's Gazetteer says: "The first settlement of which we have any account, was made in 1800 by the families of Patrick Magee, Patrick Brannon, James Lafferty, Roger Coyle, Daniel McBride, and Daniel Carlin, who emigrated from Donegal County, Ireland, in 1795, and after a residence of three years on the banks of the Susquehanna, in Northumberland County, and a year or two in Pittsburgh, took the northward course of the Allegheny River, and arrived in this township, at what is known as Mageetown, in April of 1800. This colony gave their settlement the name Rome, and Rome it remains. Religious services were held occasionally when a priest visited them from Philadelphia, and, in 1822, a Roman Catholic Church was organized in the centre of the township by Rev. Simon Peters, with twenty-five members. A church was built in 1848, on ground donated by Francis Magee. English settlement was begun in 1833, by Benj. Harrison, Sr., of England, and James J. Vrooman, of New York. A sled-road extended from Titusville to Spartansburg, and Harrison is said to have labored nine days to cut a trace to his place of settlement. The town of Centreville is located near the Athens line, at the junction of Big and Little Oil Creeks. The railroad from Union to Titusville passes near the place on the west, and from Corry to Titusville on the east. It contains three churches, and educational spirit is evinced by the erection of a fine school-building in 1872 at a cost of thirty-five hundred dollars. Its incorporation as a borough dates April 14, 1863. Of its early history, it is known that Charles Peck was the first settler, and erected the first dwelling. It was of logs, and stood on the east bank of the creek. Peck found it necessary to establish a kind of public house, and may be regarded as the initial tavern-keeper in the township. The oldest settlers were McBride, Albion Clark, Samuel Winton, and Henry Wooster. Joseph Patton was the first Justice of the Peace, the pioneer blacksmith, and put up the second house and first framed building in Centreville, upon the present site of Lorin Wood's store. The first store was opened by Merrick, in a building on the corner occupied by the store-building of Samuel Post & Sons. The first regular tavern, now denominated hotel, in Centreville was opened as the Centreville House, Henry Wooster, proprietor, and has been kept by one of the same name to the present. The first mill,—a water saw-mill,—was constructed by Lorin Wood, on the West Branch of Oil Creek. Tanning was conducted by Daniel Berment. A grist-mill was built below town on Oil Creek by David Winter. It was burned down about 1855, and another mill has been put up on the site. The early meetings were conducted by Rev. Chase, in a school-house which stood a mile south of town, on the Titusville road. Of the three churches, one was built about 1840, and one is just being completed. Early bridging was roughly and substantially done, so far as to make crossing possible, but later, two covered wooden bridges span the East Branch of Oil Creek, and a fine iron one, built in 1874, and costing thirty-five hundred dollars, affords passage over the West Branch. Patrick Coil, named in Sparta history, once had a saw-mill and a carding-mill on the East Branch, about a mile and a half east of town. C. D. Hill is remembered as the first doctor in Centreville, where he passed his life. A large and energetic lodge of Good Templars, chartered May 11, 1867, with sixteen members, continues to exercise a wholesome influence in behalf of temperance.
