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History of Tioga County, PennsylvaniaIf You Have Photos of People Mentioned on the Page, Send Them In For Inclusion Return to 1883 Table of Contents |
Typed for Tri-County Site byLatonya Holton
Source: History of Tioga County, Pennsylvania(W.W. Munsell & Co., NY : 1883), pp. 171-176.
GAINES TOWNSHIP.
By John L. Sexton, Jr.
The township of Gaines was formed in 1838, from the township of Shippen, and contains about fifty square miles, or 32,000 acres of land. It was named in honor of General Gaines, who was conspicuous in the removal of the Creek Indians from Georgia during the administrations of John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson. It is bounded on the north by the township of Clymer, on the east by Shippen, on the south by Elk, and on the west by Potter County. Pine Creek, a stream navigable for rafts, runs nearly through the center of the township from west to east. Painter Run, Lick Run and Elk Run flow into Pine Creek from the south within the limits of the township, and Phoenix Run, Long Run and Mill Run from the north. The township was originally covered with a dense forest of white pine, hemlock and hard wood timber. The surface is broken, hilly and mountainous, with narrow valleys along the runs we have mentioned, and quite an alluvial valley along Pine Creek which is capable of producing wheat, corn, oats, grass, tobacco and the orchard fruits. There are deposits of coal and iron in the mountains in an undeveloped state; on the early completion of the Jersey Shore, Pine Creek and Buffalo Railroad these will probably be examined, and developed if found profitable. There is also a mineral spring on Elk Run.
The population of the township according to the last census was 508. Since that time there has been a material increase in population, inspired by the tanning and lumber business.
The township officers for the year 1882 were: Supervisors, A.Brinegen, E.P. Fish; justices of the peace, George Langdon, Russell M. Smith; constable, Daniel Ruggles; school directors, Dr. F.D. Ritter, Jesse Locke; assessor, W.W. Tate; assistant assessors, W.H. Watrous, C.H. Rexford; town clerk, J.M. Barnhart; treasurer, F.A. Sears; judge of election, G.F. Ogden; inspectors of election, Isaac Miller, W.W. Watts; auditor, O.A. Smith.
THE SETTLERS AND THE INDIANS.
Settlements were made within a few miles of the eastern boundary of the township as early as 1804, by Josiah, Aaron and William Furman, and in 1818 Josiah Furman purchased 265 acres three miles below the present village of Gaines. Between 1804 and 1818 he brought in canoes from Northumberland 220 apple trees, and set out two orchards, one at the Big Meadows in Shippen township and the other in Gaines, on the farm now owned by his son-in-law, David Rexford.
Joseph Furman was the pioneer on the upper waters of Pine Creek. He was a native of Shamokin, Northumberland County, and his family consisted of his wife and seven children. The children were: Bloomer, Furman, Mary Ann (wife of James Carsaw), Phebe (wife of Henry Hilbolt), William B. Josiah Jr., Israel M. and Catharine (wife of David Rexford). Mr. Furman died about the year 1823. When he came upon Pine Creek the Indians were still to be found located here and there along the stream, having their hunting lodges. They were friendly and kind, but when the war broke out between the United States and Great Britain in 1812 they suddenly departed for the north, going toward Buffalo. This sudden departure led to considerable alarm, and Judge Ira Kilbourn, Aaron Bloss, Seth Daggett, David Lindsey and others wrote a letter to Governor Snyder, apprising him of the fact. They say that they no longer have any confidence in their red brethren, who have "lately left their homes to join the enemy, as we suppose." Whether they all joined the enemy never was known; only a few, however, returned, and they were silent upon the subject of where they had been, and were not trusted as readily as before by the citizens along Pine Creek. By degrees they left the country, a number of them going to the Cattaraugus reservation in New York, on the waters of the Allegheny. It is evident that Tiadaghton or Pine Creek had been a favorite haunt of theirs for generations, for arrow heads, skinning knives and skeletons were found along that stream. No wonder they left its waters reluctantly, for there was no place in the domain of the Six Nations, extending from the Potomac to the lakes of the north, more suited to their habits of hunting and fishing. The streams were full of fish and the forest of elk, deer and bears.
Soon after the close of the war of 1812 lumbermen were attracted to the Pine Creek region, and from 1823 to 1830 a number of saw-mills were built in the township of Shippen, then embracing the township of Shippen was formed, which then extended west to the Potter County line. In that year Silas Billings settled at Knoxville, on the Cowanesque, and soon afterward he extended his lumbering operations to points in the township of Gaines on the waters of Pine Creek. He gradually withdrew his operations from the Cowanesque, and concentrated his energies on Pine Creek and its tributaries.
The great freshet of 1832 on Pine Creek made sad havoc with the lumbermen and their establishments. Many were ruined financially, while others recuperated, and renewed after a few years the manufacture of lumber and timber. Few sections of the country are favored with continued prosperity, and depressions in business will occur in the course of human events. Many times these depressions are only resting spells, and when reaction takes place it is with renewed energy and life.
The taxpayers of that portion of Shippen lying next to the Potter County line believed it was for their interest to establish a new township, and in March 1838 this was done. James Carsaw was the first assessor, and John L. Pheniz the collector. The taxables on seated lands were as follows:
Harry Allen, Roland Blackner, Horace Braughton, Oliver Babcock, Riley Burdick, Stephen Babcock, Stephen B. Barnes, Simeon Babcock, Conrad Benaur, William Babcock, Silas Billings, Isaac Beach, John Blue Jr., John B. Benn, John Benn, William J. Benn, David Crandall, W. Chaphey, James Carsaw, Sylvester Davie, Henry Erway, Jacob Erway, Benjamin Furman, Daniel H. Furman, Aaron K. Furman, William Furman, David Furman, Levi Furman, William B. Furman, Aaron Furman, Josiah Furman, William Griffin, George Harvey, Sachariah Herringer, Dudley Hewitt, Wheaton Hewitt, George Huyler, Joshua T. Jackson, William Larrison, William I. McNiel, Asa McIntire, Calvin Newton, Nathaniel Owen, John L. Phenix, N. Proughty, Moses Pierce, John Robins, Scoville & Babcock, William Steele, Henry Steele, Jonas Schoonover, William W. Tate, S. N. Shelly, Aaron Stiles, Henry Schleick.
The highest taxes were those of John L. Phenix, $13.06½; Scoville & Babcock, $11.92; and Silas billings, $11.80.
The tax was levied for the year 1839 and collected in 1840, John L. Phenix, collector, receiving his appointment from George Lovegood and Buell Baldwin, commissioners, March 11, 1840.
David Rexford, one of the pioneers of the eastern portion of the township, was born in Cortland County, N.Y., July 10th 1820. He came into Tioga County forty-three years ago, on the 14th of January, and went to work in the saw-mill of Scoville & Mather in Shippen Township, near the east line of the township of Gaines, taking a contract to run the mill on shares. The lumber was manufactured and rafted into Pine Creek and run to the southern market. In 1843 Mr. Rexford was married to Miss Catharine Furman. Their children are David Delos, Jesse J., Anna, William L., Delia and Charles. His father-in-law, Josiah Furman, was the pioneer settler on the upper waters of Pine Creek. Mr. Rexford for the past 40 years has been engaged in lumbering and running lumber to the southern market, and for 39 years has been a pilot. He is in his 63rd year, and probably no man now living on Pike Creek has run more lumber than he. Immediately after the battle of Gettysburg, in 1863, a company of 110 men was raised in the townships of Clymer, Gaines, Shippen and Elk, and he was chosen captain. John C. Maynard was first lieutenant, D.A. Paddock orderly sergeant, Miner Marsh first corporal, and Levi Furman second corporal. The company was drilled by Major John M. Kilburn, of Potter County, but was not called upon and saw no service. Mr. Rexford was supervisor for more than twenty years in the township of Gaines, and acted in other civil capacities. He has now 785 acres of land, 100 of which are improved, with a good orchard (one of the oldest in the township), dwelling and barn thereon. He is one of the hardy, honest and industrious representatives of the pioneers of Gaines.
John Persing settled on what is known as Wall Bottom in 1824. His house stood near the present mill dam on the estate of Silas X. Billings.
Stephen Babcock, from Connecticut, settled near the Furman log grist mill, opened a store and continued it for a number of years.
In 1832 a Mr. Hamilton, from the southern portion of the State, peeled a large quantity of hemlock bark, and intended to have it run down Pine Creek into the Susquehanna, but the great freshest of that year swept it away and he did not attempt it the second year, but removed.
D.A. Paddock, who was born in Sherbune, Chenango County, N.Y., in 1828, and came into Tioga County in 1843, has been prominently connected, as an employe of Silas X. Billings, with the affairs of the township. In 1844, before he was employed by Mr. Billings, he embarked on board of the ship "J.E. Donnell", of New Bedford, as a common sailor, and went to the Sandwich Islands. In February 1845 he rounded Cape Horn. He left the ship at Honolulu in 1845 and engaged on board a French whaler, which was wrecked on the west coast of California. From there he went into the interior, and remained with the Mexicans until the war between Mexico and the United States made it unsafe for him, and then went to Magdalena Bay and shipped for La Haina. He remained there one year and tanned goad skins. From there he returned to California and helped Captain Sutter in his great wheat harvest in 1848. Finally he returned to Tioga County in 1849 and went to work for "Lunger" or Silas Billings on Cedar Run, and subsequently for McNeil and Silas X. Billings, and was constantly in the employ of the latter gentleman up to the time of his death. Mr. Paddock was the confidential explorer and land operator for Mr. Billings, and was privy to all of his land operations. In the year 1850 he was married to Miss Nancy Brace. Their children are Antoinette, wife of Charles Park, of Catlin, N.Y., and one son, Charles. Probably no other man in western Tioga County is so familiar with the topography of that portion of the county and eastern Potter and northern Clinton as he. He is a most excellent woodsman, and a very accurate land surveyor.
THE LUMBER ERA--SILAS BILLINGS AND SON.
The reaction we have alluded to took place in 1840. The campaign for "Tippecanoe and Tyler too" infused its spirit into the business operations on Pine Creek, and large lumber operations were carried on during the year mentioned. The promise of "two dollars a day and roast beef" to the laboring classes had its effect, and swung the Democratic State of Pennsylvania over to Harrison and Tyler; and though there was a relapse in 1842-44, and the State went back to the candidate of Democratic party in the latter year, still the impetus of 1840 to business on Pine Creek, and particularly in Gaines Township, upon the whole resulted in attracting capital to that region for investment, which afterward remained permanently. By the year 1847 Pine Creek was alive from its mouth to its source with lumberman engaged in building mills, cutting saw logs and manufacturing them into lumber, and hewing timber. Men and money flowed into the Pine Creek region, like the current of a ceaseless stream. The farmer neglected his plow, and the tillage of the soil was a secondary affair. Wheat was worth $2.30 a bushel, oats ninety cents and a dollar, and corn $1.63 per bushel. In Ireland there was a famine, and the United States were shipping their surplus grain thither, at the same time carrying on a war with Mexico; and, with a lumber mania which extended from the Chesapeake Bay to all branches of the Susquehanna, the harvest of timber was great. It was during this period (in 1847) that the late Silas Billings, referred to in the history of Elk Township, commenced his lumbering operations on Cedar Run. Every man that could swing an axe or lift a cant hook was employed during the winter of 1846-7, and every man that could file a saw, carry a board, pull at an oar or pilot a raft was pressed into service at high wages. The farmer, the mechanic, the doctor, the lawyer, the merchant, the laborer and the pale young man who was fond of an adventure hied themselves away to Pine Creek to "raft in lumber" and take a trip down the river. The regulation suit consisted of a long-topped pair of boots, with the pantaloons tucked inside; two woolen shirts, the outside one red, with a flowing collar, and a yard-square black silk handkerchief tied loosely about the neck; a soft white hat, banged to a sugar loaf or conical shape; a one on each side of its extremity and one on the left breast, from which protruded a colored bandanna. Thus caparisoned the adventures entered the arena of the loose from all former ties of civilization, and were a boisterous, hard working, devil-may-care crowd, who enjoyed hard knocks and good stories and songs, and encountered dangers which at their homes they would have shrunk from. As they floated along the current of Pine Creek, with its rugged and wild banks, with rocks and mountains towering hundreds of feet above the level of the stream, now pulling the oar at some abrupt turn, now sailing along smoothly, with songs that echoed far up the mountain heights, they were the embodiment of deviltry, good humor and fun; and when they moved out on the waters of the west branch and sailed into the broad Susquehanna they seemed to the honest German settler of the lower counties a band more terrible than army with banners. Generous to a fault, they cast aside all conventional rules of etiquette, established a new code, and were "a law unto themselves." Men who have since held official positions - sheriffs, members of the Assembly, senators, judges, members of Congress and United States senators - have taken a trip down the river, and been among the host we have described.
One of those who took a conspicuous part in the lumbering business on Pine Creek in early days and in scenes such as just described was Silas Billings. He was born in Amgerst, Massachusetts, May 23rd 1790. In 1820 he settled in the township of Southport, Chemung County, N.Y., on Seeley Creek, and engaged in the manufacture of linseed oil and the carding of wool. In 1823 he sold out his manufactory, removed to Deerfield in this county, and purchased large tracts of timbered lands on the Cowanesque. He soon ascertained that Pine Creek, only a few miles distant, was a better field for the carrying on of the lumber business, and made large purchases on that stream. He bought land and erected saw-mills now in the township of Gaines - then in Shippen - and ran the lumber down Pine Creek in rafts to Harrisburg, Middletown, Columbia and the southern market, the route being a hundred miles shorter than the beginning with the Cowanesque. Only a few years since, in conversation with the writer, the late James W. Weir (for nearly fifty years cashier of the Harrisburg Bank) said that Mr. Billings was one of the most prompt and reliable lumbermen that came down the river from the upper waters of the Susquehanna. Mr. Billings was a very eccentric man in many respects, but frank, outspoken, scrupulously honest, with warm attachment to his friends. Many anecdotes are related of him by old raftsmen and lumbermen in connection with his rafting exploits on the Cowanesque, Pine Creek, Chemung and Susquehanna. In one of his adventures he acquired the local sobriquet of "Lunger Billings."
When Mr. Billings came into Tioga County there were not five thousand inhabitants in the county. The forest along Pine Creek and to the southwest for nearly one hundred miles was unbroken, and scarcely a human being disputed the occupancy of the lands with the wild beasts. No man that ever lived in the county, with such facilities at his command, ever made a better record in the development of the section in which he resided than Silas Billings. He converted the forest into a merchantable product, let the sunlight into the shades of the wilderness, and laid the foundation of wealth and prosperity for those who succeeded him. For seventeen years he labored as few men could in the saw-mill, in the woods and on the river, getting his lumber and timber to market, overcoming all obstacles in his path. A full history of his life would form an important chapter in the annals of Tioga County. He was no aspirant for office, yet he exerted a great influence in the political affairs of the county. In 1840 he removed from Knoxville, Pa., to Elmira, and purchased the first brick building erected in that now flourishing city, on what is now West Water Street, where he resided the remainder of his days. In that year, with thousands of others who had used liquor all their lives, he, under the moral suasion of the Washingtonians, joined that society, took the pledge, and faithfully kept it. He was one of the founders of the Park Church, Elmira, now occupied by the parishioners of Rev. Thomas K. Beecher. While residing in Elmire he did not lose his interest in the business affairs of Gaines Township or Tioga County. After he had recuperated from his seventeen years' siege of the Tioga County forest he again returned to the scenes of his labors, although residing at Elmira, and prosecuted his business in Tioga County with increased vigor. He died in Elmira, August 28th 1853, in the 64th year of his age.
His estate was divided, and his son Silas X. Billings came into Gaines in 1855 and continued and enlarged the business commenced by his father. He resided in Gaines Village until his death. He was the foremost citizen of western Tioga County. He was at the time of his death probably the largest individual landowner in the State of Pennsylvania, and his property embraced coal, timbered and agricultural lands. A sketch of his life is appended to the history of Wellsboro.
SAW-MILLS AND TANNERIES.
The first saw-mill on Pine Creek in Gaines Township was the Hewitt or Babcock mill, now owned by David Rexford. The next mill west was that of Locke, White, Davis & Rexford, which stood where the Gaines or McCullough tannery now is. The next west was the Billings mill, which stood about half a mile down Pine Creek from the present post-office in Gaines Village; this latter mill was built in 1835 by John L. Pheniz, son of Captain Phenix. The next mill west was built by John L. Phenix, near the Potter County line; it was afterward owned by Perry Smith, and was consumed by fire a few years ago. There was also one up Elk Run, built by John L. Phenix, on the site of the mill now owned by Charles B. Watrous.
The first saw-mill on Long Run was built by Wheaton Hewitt, and the second one by a Mr. Tuttle. The Hewitt mill was built about the year 1845, and the Tuttle mill about two years later. For twenty-five or thirty years about eight million feet of white pine lumber were annually cut and run down the creek from Gaines township, besides large quantities of square timber.
The tannery of R. McCullough & Co. Was established in May 1881, with J.E. McDermott superintendent and Miles I. Sallada outside foreman. It is situated on Pine Creek, about two miles east of the village of Gaines, and has a capacity of about 65,000 sides of sole leather annually. The company employs 25 men at inside work and the same number outside, exclusive of the bark peelers and haulers. The motive power is furnished by two large and two small engines. The company owns 23 dwellings, rents five others for the use of its employes, and intends to erect more dwellings in the near future. It also has a store, in charge of Miles Il. Sallada, assisted by H.W. Lush and M.E. Kulp. Lewis Kopp is book-keeper for the concern. Everything connected with the management of this tannery denotes order and system, and it adds much to the business interest of the township. There are used about 6,000 cords of bark per annum.
THE VILLAGE OF GAINES.
The village of Gaines is situated on the bank of Pine Creek, on a plain overlooking in the valley of that stream, and in the center of the township. It is distant from Wellsboro sixteen miles and from Westfield fourteen miles.
About the year 1835 John Benn erected a saw-mill about half a mile east of where is now the village of Gaines; subsequently he sold it to Silas Billings. John L. Phenix built a mill about that time where the mill belonging to the estate of Silas X. Billings now is. Benjamin Barse erected a hotel in the village in 1848, which he kept until 1855, when he rented in to H.C. Vermilyea. The latter remained in it until 1860, when the Izaak Walton House was erected and taken possession of by Mr. Vermilyea. In 1854 the late A.P. Cone, of Wellsboro, erected the first store in the village. Soon afterward a store was erected by Silas X. Billings; also a boarding house and office. A school-house was built on the opposite side of the street from the present Izaak Walton House. Among the early teachers were Cynthia Post, Mert Johnson, Miss Albina Vermilyea, and Miss Mather. A Methodist Episcopal Church was erected in 1868, and services are now held by Rev. F.D. Goodrich. The village now contains a drug store, three other stores, a hotel, a church, a school-house, a blacksmith shop, a cabinet shop and turning establishment, and about twenty dwellings, and is one of the brightest and most sprightly hamlets in the county.
For years the minds of the dwellers on Pine Creek and its tributaries in this township were absorbed in the lumbering business, but for the last 15 years it has been a great resort for those who take delight in hunting and fishing, and the quiet little village of Gaines has become the center of attraction. There are a number of cosy cottages in the village, and a large and commodious hotel, well ordered and kept, and a more delightful retreat for those who desire rest and recreation can not be found. The scenery along the creek is delightful, and the huge mountain, shaped like an elephant, and covered with the evergreen forest, which rises in full view across Pine Creek from the village, forms a landscape worthy of a painter.
F.D. Ritter, M.D., a graduate of the University of Buffalo, has erected an elegant cottage in the western portion of the village, and made it his permanent home. He was married to Miss Albina Vermilyea, daughter of H.C. Vermilyea, April 30th 1862. They had one child, Fred H.S. Ritter, who is now attending school at Alfred, N.Y. The doctor during the war was medical director of the department of Harrisburg and Chambersburg, and was assistant surgeon of the 4th Pennsylvania regiment for a year, and also assistant surgeon at the prison barracks, Elmira, N.Y. He is fond of fishing and hunting, and has a cosy and elegant home on the banks of Pine Creek, where he can practice his profession and enjoy the pleasures of the chase and the stream.
Horace C. Vermilyea, one of the prominent citizens of Gaines, was born in Otego, Otsego County, N.Y. April 15th 1815, and was educated in the common schools of his native county. He was married February 8th 1839 to Miss Ursula A. Green. Their children were: Alwilda M. (Wife of Charles H. Rexford), Albina (wife of Dr. F.D. Ritter), Delbert R. and W.H. Mr. Vermilyea came into Tioga County in 1847, and into Gaines village in 1855, and leased the Benjamin Barse Hotel, where he remained five years. In 1860 he built the Izaak Walton House, which he conducted with credit and success for eight years, when he established himself in the mercantile business in the village of Gaines. He was a man of commanding presence (weighing three hundred pounds and well portioned), courteous in manners, and did much to inspire habits of refinement, taste and culture among the people with whom he mingled. He was fond of hunting and fishing, and was deemed one of the most expert fly fishermen in the United States. The propriety and respectability of the Izaak Walton House under the management of Mr. Vermilyea gave the locality great fame, and many of the most prominent men of the county, and the States of Pennsylvania and New York, were at times his guests. He died in June 1878, aged 63 years. He was postmaster at Gaines twenty-two successive years. His widow, Mrs. U.A. Vermilyea, is now postmistress, and continues the mercantile business.
Tyadaghton Lodge, No. 981, I.O.O.F. was instituted at Gaines November 18th 1881, by D.D. George T. Losey, with the following officers: N.G., W.E.Jackson; V.G., C.W. Williams; secretary, Dr. F.D. Ritter; treasurer, John Peck; past grand, G.W. Barker. The order has a neat and well furnished lodge room over the store room of Mr. Lock, and a membership of 26.
A lodge of the Patrons of Temperance is about being instituted at Gaines by Charles D. Rumsey, of Mainsburg.
MARSHFIELD.
Marshfield, situated in the southwestern portion of the township and named in honor of D.K. Marsh, one of the prominent citizens of that locality, is a hamlet, containing a Baptist church and a Methodist church, which cost each about $2,000; a neat and tidy school-house, a store and post-office, of which D.K. Marsh is post-master, and several dwellings. The village is located at the junction of the Maynard and Wetmore branches of Elk Run, on the line of the township roads leading from Gaines to Germania and Cedar Run.
The first permanent settler in that loyality was David Smith, although a short time previous John L Phenix had built a saw-mill on Elk Run, about a mile below. Mr. Smith located in 1846 and his family consisted of his wife, five sons and three daughters. Their children are Elvira (wife of George Wood), Lewis, Lomanda (wife of Nathaniel Dickinson), Alonzo, Russel, John, Irene (wife of Joshua Bernauer) and Octavius. David Smith and his sons Russell and John were each given fifty acres of land by the Lewis heirs, of Philadelphia, through William Bache, agent, and each purchased fifty acres. David Smith erected a log house immediately, and the next year a framed house, the first one on Elk Run. It is the house where Lewis Smith now resides in the village of Marshfield. At the time he made the settlement there were no roads or bridges across Elk Run. Mr. Smith cleared up a farm, setting out orchards, and adding other comforts to his new home. He died in 1870, aged 88 years. He and his wife (Lomanda Wright) were natives of New Haven, Connecticut.
Octavius Smith was born in Chenango County. N.Y., in 1833. While he was an infant his parents, David and Lomand Smith, removed to Pennsylvania and located on the Manchester farm, now in the township of Shippen. He came with his parents to Elk Run, now Marshfield, in 1846, and was educated in the common school and Wellsboro Academy. His occupation has been that of a farmer. In 1863 he was married to Miss Hannah Kleinhauf. Their children are Marshall M. and Minnie W. Mr. Smith is one of the representative pioneers of that locality. He has been town clerk two years, town auditor nine years, three years county auditor and three years county commissioner. He is a member of the Baptist church. He now owns a fine farm of 100 acres, 65 of which is under a good state of cultivation. He has a good framed house and barn, a good orchard and all the necessary farming implements. He resides within about eighty rods of the Marshfield post-office and two miles south of Pine Creek.
SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES.
It was a number of years before there was a school-house in Marshfield. The first one was framed, and stood where the present one is located. Miss Lettie Dudley is the present teacher.
About twelve years ago the Baptist church at Marshfield was erected. Rev. F.G. Stevens was the first minister after the church was dedicated. The present minister is Rev. J.C. Warren. The membership is 35. The deacons are M.P. Marsh and John Barnhart. The cost of the edifice was about $2,000.
The Methodist Episcopal Church of Marshfield was built and dedicated in 1875. The first minister who preached after the church was dedicated was the Rev Mr. Brayne. The present minister is Rev. F. D. Goodrich. The membership is 30; cost of church edifice about $2,000.
The Sunday-school is a union one maintained by the Methodists and Baptists, and is held alternatively at each church. The superintendent is J.D. Strait.
The first school-house in the township was near the present residence of Aaron K. Furman. This was about 1813. Among the early teachers were one Dodge, Edwin McMasters, William Drew and Maria Merrick. The present teacher is Hattie Embree. There are now seven school-houses in the township, where about 160 scholars receive tuition. The township of Gaines, although limited in population, has shown a commendable pride in erecting neat though small school buildings, and furnishing them with necessary charts, maps and black boards.
The following note accompanies the postcard of Watrous shown above.
I am sending you the photographic post card of Ernie Robinson's store in Watrous, PA. All it says under the picture in my album is that my father spent a lot of time there when he was young. I also have a picture of the logging cabin my father was born in and the Ripley farmhouse that is located shortly before and on the same road as the Knowlton Cemetery. It was on the right hand side. Ernie Robinson had a trailer in the left hand side on the same road. The store in the picture is the big building on the bottom left corner. Ernie Robinson was married to one of my grandmother's sister's Edna.