Crawford County, Pennsylvania
History
1876 ATLAS 1
"HISTORY OF THE VILLAGES AND TOWNSHIPS OF CRAWFORD COUNTY."
VERNON TOWNSHIP.
Vernon was formed from Fairfield in 1830. Its settlement bears date among the first in the County. In the middle of May, 1788, the first party of settlers, nine in number, erected themselves a temporary residence, and, putting four horses to the plow, they broke up about ten acres of an old Indian field and planted corn. A freshet ruined their crop, and it was replanted in June. Those of the party who settled in Vernon were John Mead, a mile north of the site of Meadville, David Mead, temporarily south of him, and Cornelius VanHorn, who found an Indian cabin built upon his tract and moved into it. Continuing to maintain claims in these early tracts located, some progress was made in improvement, but until the close of hostilities with the Indians, numbers remained few and work was restricted to the vicinity of the creek. In 1791, on May 5, while VanHorn, William Gregg and Thomas Hay were at work putting in a field of corn, an attack was made by Indians; Gregg was killed and scalped, and the others captured. VanHorn, captured first while the others were at dinner, was taken to the outlet of Conneaut Lake and tied to a tree and left; he cut himself loose with a toy-knife, and illustrates courage and the anxiety of the pioneer for his improvements, by going to a small nursery of apple-trees and weeding around the trees with his hands fettered, to save the trunks from a possible fire. He was hailed while at work by John Fredebaugh, and went with him to Mead's house. Some soldiers there soon left for Franklin; but VanHorn remained to secure some articles, and passed the night under some trees with two friendly Indians, and next day went down the stream in a canoe. Hay was taken to Canada, ransomed by an old friend, and returned to Franklin, thence to Pittsburgh to his family. In 1794 a military company was formed and VanHorn was chosen Captain. He lived to take part in the ceremonies of opening the canal, and saw the fields where he had been surrounded by all the dangers and solitude of frontier life reclaimed and made to reward the toil of the husbandman. About 1797 James Davis settled in Vernon, about five miles west of Meadville. James Burchfield lived adjoining him. Theodore Scowden was a third settler in the Davis neighborhood. At an early date a saw-mill was built on VanHorn's Run. Gabriel Davis erected a grist-mill about eight miles from Meadville, but there was no mill in the bounds of Vernon. A man named Affentranger kept the first and only tavern in the township. It was in a frame building which stood about three miles out from Meadville on the road to Conneaut Lake. About 1817, H. J. Huidekoper built a small saw- and grist-mill on a branch of the Cussewago. His son Edgar ran it for a time, when it was disposed of to Gill and Shryack, by whom it was altered and repaired and steam power introduced. Mr. Carr was a tavern-keeper and store-keeper across the creek from Meadville, and was proprietor of the suburb bearing his name.
A turnpike, called the Meadville and Mercer, was built through the township about 1818. The first stage on the route was driven by John Swift. Four-horse stages were run from Pittsburgh to Erie from 1820 to as late as 1862. The mail was carried on horseback in 1814 by William Black, and was called "the Express." Mechanics were hardly known,—work was done for the family and as a matter of accommodation for others in the neighborhood. Carrtown has become quite a suburb of Meadville. Its organization as a borough dates from 1869.
