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From: "Cathy Raber" <>
Subject: Re: [PABEAVER-L] Tidbit: Historical Edition-February 1, 1924
Date: Wed, 2 Aug 2000 13:30:57 -0400
References: <F226M3SOlbpH71yEXUI00001722@hotmail.com>


Only grateful that someone is sharing these tidbits, Sis! Cathy Raber
----- Original Message -----
From: "Sis B" <>
To: <>
Sent: Wednesday, August 02, 2000 10:48 AM
Subject: [PABEAVER-L] Tidbit: Historical Edition-February 1, 1924


> From: "THE BEAVER ARGUS--Special Historical Edition--Febuary 1, 1924"
>
>
>
> Pg:28
> (From the Beaver Western Argus of November 3, 1818: A “Natural
Curiosity.”)
> “In the remainder of this letter, I shall give you an account of a
> natural couriosity, and rest assured I shall give you nothing exaggerated.
> Three weeks since A.B. JONES Esq., GEORGE JONES, his brother and myself
> mounted horses, taking with us a companion, and directing our course
> south-west from this place, through a pathless wilderness for thirty
miles,
> until we arrived on the bank of Duck Creek. On the north-east bank of said
> creek, in latitude 38 deg. 39 min. we found an Oil Spring. This is one of
> the greatest curiosities of nature. It is in the form of a well. I sat
> myself down on the brink of it to make observations, which shall be given
> with my pen. This well is about seven feet from the edge of the creek. It
> has been accurately ascertained to be forty feet deep from the surface of
> the ground to the bottom, and is three feet in diameter at the tip. A
piece
> of large buttonwood tree has been hallowed out and placed placed for a
curb
> on the top to prevent people from falling into it. The oil boils up
> continually, like the boiling up of a large soap kettle, and runs into the
> creek in a small stream. It is as fine as any sperm whale. The quantity
> which rises is about five barrels a week. I found an old ladle lying near,
> which I dipped into the oil and forced it down into the water, and found
the
> oil three foot deep—I drew out with the ladle as fine salt water as I ever
> tasted in the ocean. I then tried the goodness of the oil and found it to
> burn clear and bright. A boy, a few weeks since, in order to ascertain
> whether oil would burn on water, touched a firebrand to that on the creek;
> instantly it was a tremendous flame, which ascended two hundred feet in
the
> air, nearly a mile up and down the stream. I saw limbs of trees which were
> nearly one hundred feet high, burn off as smooth as if the blaze of a
> furnace had struck them. The smell of the oil very much resembles that of
> the British oil.”
>
> _________________________________________
>
> Pg 30:
>
> “Held Record Here for Longevity”
> (from Argus of March 9, 1881)
> “Mrs. MARGARET BLACK, aged about 1*0 years, probably the oldest
person
> in the State, if not the United States, died in the old mansion of CAPT.
> WILLIAM VICARY, deceased, near Freedom on Friday morning March 4. REV. Mr.
> SHAFER, of Beaver, conducted the funeral service on Saturday at 2 o’clock
> P.M., and the remains were laid in Oak Grove cemetery. At the time of her
> death the deceased lived with her daughter MRS. JOSEPH KELLY, who herself
is
> 73 years of age.
> Five years ago, the following interview with the old lady was
> published:
> Yesterday through the kindness of MRS. KELLY, we was favored with an
> interview, and found the old lady seated upon a cushioned chair, beside
the
> fire, smoking a pipe in a very contented manner. She is in possession of
all
> her faculties, her mind being very clear and her health good, and if it
were
> not for rheumatism in her back, she thinks she could work as well as
“Polly”
> her daughter, yet.
> Her father said Washington was a true man to his soldiers; as true a
> man, she added, as a preacher is to his church now. According to her
father
> they all had to pray every day for God’s help to gain the battles for
> liberty. Lafayette was a true man too, and her father and all the old
> “revolutioners” loved him.
> “How old were you when Washington was first president?”
> She could not remember, but said, “I could do almost anything; chop
wood
> and work like a man.”
> In answer to what kind of work she could do when Washington was
> president the second time, she replied: “I tell you if you had made as
many
> rails after night as I did then you wouldn’t be here to tell the story.”
> She speaks of the war of 1812 thus:
> “When the little war was going on we lived in Millerstown, and a man
> wanted my husband to go fight in his place, and I said my father had
fought
> for liberty and I was treading on liberty ground, and if I had ten men
they
> shouldn’t fight in no second revolution on free liberty ground. The man
went
> off and told the storekeeper in the town what I said, and the next time I
> went there he pitched into me and called me a tory (here the old lady
> laugher heartily), but I explained to him, and he said I did right. We
used
> ot lay in the fields and watch hundreds of Indians coming from
Philadelphia
> after a victory, with soldiers’ clothes on them, and big brass plates and
> cocked hats. We went to see the ferry one evening to see sea robbers that
> were captured; they were all ******, with long black hair, and were to be
> put away in prison at Harrisburg.”
>
__________________________________
>
> Pg 30: Tidbits with no titles:
>
> The greatest fall of snow in this vicinity was recorded February 4,
> 1817, when at attained a depth of from three and one half to four feet.
> _________________________________
>
> The land on which the county jail stands was once owned by PRESIDENT
> MILLARD FILLMORE
> _________________________________
>
> The beaver, from which the county got its name, has been extinct here
> for more than a century.
> _______________________________
>
> The first commercial institution in Beaver was The Bank of Beaver,
> organized in 1814. It failed in 1818.
> _______________________________
>
>
>
>
>
>
> ________________________________________________________________________
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>
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