Living in the Cornplanter Grant

The Cornplanter Grant is well known as the Warren County home of Cornplanter (Gy-ant-wa-chia, 1740?–1836), chief warrior and leader from the Seneca Nation in northwestern Pennsylvania and western New York. For nearly 200 years, this 700-acre tract of land along the Allegheny River was home to a thriving community of Cornplanter’s heirs and several hundred Seneca, Cayuga and Onondaga families....
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Civil War Frying Pan at Drake Well Museum

The Reverend Darius S. Steadman (1831–1907), born in Columbus, Warren County, along U.S. Route 6 in Pennsylvania’s Northern Tier, was licensed to preach in 1857. He served congregations in Clarion County before being commissioned, on October 7, 1861, a captain and chaplain of the 105th Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry (PVI) known as the Wild Cat Regiment. The unit was raised in Jefferson, Clarion...
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Warren County: Gem of the Alleghenies

“To the south … an expanse of arable land upon the gentle slope from the volley to the distant heights, dotted with green fields, waving grain, fruitful orchards and farm buildings with ever and anon an oasis of growing timber, remnants of the dense growth of stately pine and hemlock that formerly forested the region, present an alluring scene of beauty and grandeur, excelling...
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Driving Team In The Big Woods

During the early days of lumbering in Pennsylvania, small water-powered, up-and­-down sawmills were located wherever the best trees stood in the stream valleys. Only the best, most accessible trees were cut and hauled to the mill by oxen or horses or occasionally floated on the stream which powered the mill. The saw­ed boards were then carried out of the woods on wagons or sleds to villages...
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Bookshelf

Barns of Chester County Pennsylvania: A Bicentennial Overview: “So Your Children Can Tell Their Children” by Berenice M. Ball published by the Women’s Auxiliary to Chester County Hospital, 1974, contains 256 pages with 378 illustrations including original art and photographs The book’s profit will also benefit Chester County Historical Society. The author, Mrs. Bell,...
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Warren County Spans History

Editor’s Note: The following article is reprinted in parts with permission of the author. It originally appeared in Stepping Stones, September, 1974, published by the Warren County Historical Society. The Warren Democratic Advocate reported on November 4, 1839: “Bridge over the Allegheny progressing fast. The pier and a­butments completed.” Then … trouble! On November 18,...
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The ‘State’ of Allegheny

One of the first centers of the organization of the Re­publican party and scene of its first national conven­tion in February, 1856, Allegheny County was strongly for Lincoln in the presidential election of 1860. As the vote count proceeded, one of the leaders kept sending telegrams to Lincoln’s home in Illinois, keeping him up on the news that “Allegheny gives a majority of …...
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The Revolution Affects Pennsylvania Communities

Every county and community in the Commonwealth was in some way involved or connected with the American Revolution and Pennsylvania’s attainment of statehood. Certain places associated with famous events in the struggle for independence come to mind immedi­ately: Philadelphia, Lancaster, and York for civil affairs, and Brandywine, Germantown, Whitemarsh, Valley Forge, and Washington’s...
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Erie County: Where Geography Has Shaped History

Erie County forms the northwest corner of the state, bounded by Lake Erie on the northwest, the states of Ohio and New York on the west and east respectively and parts of Warren and Crawford counties on the east and south. Historically the county was divided into two sections. The sou them region of 259 ,000 acres fell within the original land grant to William Penn. The northern portion of...
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Jefferson County: Of Wilderness Tamed

Jefferson County. Its hallmarks are as disparate as Thomas Jef­ferson and Punxsutawney Phil. Village names as dissimilar as Panic and Desire. Inhabitants as distinctive as Indian chief Cornplanter and Moravian missionary John Heckewelder. And a tranquil­ity which masks the turbu­lence of the nineteenth century’s lumber boom that spawned settlement and nu­merous ancillary industries....
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