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The Oswayo Valley had one of the best and most extensive white pine forests
in all Pennsylvania. The Indians had long known the region as the place
of pines. The name Oswayo is the English derivative of the Seneca word
“0-sa-ayeh,” meaning pine forest. This forest reached from the Allegheny
below Portville to the headwaters of Oswayo Creek, overflowing into the
upper valleys of the Allegheny and the Genesee.
The trees stood so close together that no underbrush could live, except
an occasional clump of laurel, as they towered up to almost unbelievable
heights of 100 to 150 feet. They were often four; five or even six feet
in diameter at the base and the lowest branches were from 50 to 75 feet
above the ground.
The first sawmill in this vast forest was that of Francis King
at Ceres in 1798. It was not long until other crude mills were busily
at work. Often the saw was the only metal in the mill and this merely
a long band of steel with teeth cut into one edge. It worked up and down
as a hand saw is used. If a log was especially large, 20 or 30 minutes
were required to saw off one board.
Some logs were rafted to Pittsburgh and others were banked and rolled
into the water during the spring floods to be floated down to Weston
Brothers’ mill at Portville. By the time of the War of the Rebellion
[Civil War] the best of the pine forests in the Oswayo Valley was gone.
In 1879, there were not over 1,000 acres of virgin white pine left in
the Oswayo Valley. 1889 saw the last run of pine logs down the stream
to the big mills.
Early in 1829, two settlers moved into the Oswayo Valley. William
Shattuck located outside the village, while Thomas Peabody
constructed a cabin on the south side of the stream in what was later
to become the village. John Wells came in the latter part
of 1829 or early in 1830 and started a potash factory or ashery about
a half mile above the village. He would haul his finished products to
Rochester and exchange it for groceries, which he would sell to his neighbors.
Also in 1830, Noah Crittenden came from Springwater Township,
NY, and settled within the future borough limits. He built the first sawmill
in the village to manufacture pine lumber in 1845. He did not use the
stream to transport his lumber; instead he hauled it 75 miles to Dansville,
NY., and sold it for $7.00 a thousand. The round trip took four days.
Emphasizing the conditions under which the pioneers lived and their dependence
upon others for dire necessities occurred early in the history of the
village. Soon after building his cabin, Peabody was forced
to go six miles to Allen’s house in Clara Township for fire
to light his hearthstone. On returning he gave the cinders to his children
to build the fire and went to look for his cows. Later securing the cows,
he found the fire had gone out and he made the second trip to Allen’s.
This time he set fire to pieces of dry wood along his trail.
By the year 1834, Sheldon Bradley was maintaining a hotel
for travelers. The township assessors’ list for the same year gave the
names of 13 resident taxpayers and the census of 1840 showed a population
of 101. In 1840, a log schoolhouse was built and seven years later the
school had been removed and William McDougall had built
a store there.
The nucleus of the town had been well established in the days before
the Civil War. Early settlers earned their living harvesting the white
pine. Since it was of high quality, Pittsburgh and cities along the Ohio
specified “Oswayo White Pine.” Several saw mills in the village cut the
trees into boards and timbers to be splashed out on the high waters.
The village was first called Brindleville. Thomas
Gale, one of the early settlers, is said to have had a span of
brindle oxen, which was sufficiently unique to warrant the naming of the
town in their honor. The name was probably fixed as Oswayo upon the establishment
of the first Post Office some time prior to 1850.
The village of pre-tannery days comprised C. A. Pinneo’s
steam saw mill, G. W. Tyler’s saw and shingle mills, W.
Deiter’s shingle mill, the Oswayo Hotel, general stores of S.
Beebe, W. Wells and W. McDougall and the grocery store
of J. Haskins. There were offices for three doctors and four attorneys:
W. B. Graves, W. Colegrove, H. Snath and W. M. Wilber.
Smith & Jones operated a wagon and blacksmith shop; there were
two boot and shoe shops, a cooper shop, an undertaker and two resident
ministers.
Construction of the tannery began early in 1877 upon ten acres of land
obtained from Thomas Crittenden. Sorenberger & Gray
completed the tannery and started its operation but sold it to the P.
H. Costello Company in 1879. The Costello Company built homes for
the employees, which were later owned by the workers. Lapham & Company
purchased the Costello holdings when Costello moved to North Wharton.
The last owner was the Penn Tanning Company, which purchased the property
in 1893. The tannery was destroyed by fire on June 20, 1903.
When the village was organized into a borough in March 1901, there were
probably about 1,000 people living in the new municipality. The tannery
was running to capacity and employed about 100 men. In 1899, the Pennsylvania
Stave Company had built a plant below the tannery for the manufacture
of barrel staves. A heading mill, employing between 70-75 men, began in
1901. More men were working in the woods getting out logs and bark for
the industries.
The streets were, of course, unpaved and during periods of wet weather
were nothing but knee-deep mud. However there were good board walks on
each side and also two or three cross walks made of planks across Main
Street allowing citizens to get from one side to the other without getting
completely mired.
To the village of Oswayo belongs the credit for having the first graded
school in the county. This was opened in 1866 and continued until 1876
when the building burned. Afterward the good citizens decided they preferred
to have two one-teacher schools of all grades rather than require the
children to walk the extra distance to a graded school. However a school
was built in 1893 on the north end of School Street with four classrooms
and a spacious hall. Local people were justly proud of this school and
its teachers.
This interest in schools was a factor in the organization of the borough.
As long as the village was part of the township, no more than two or three
board members lived within the village with the remainder scattered all
over the township. Under the borough all six members of the Board were
residents of Oswayo where they had a common interest in the school.
They maintained a three-year high school until the mid 1920’s. After
a fire the building was renovated and became a two-room school, which
operated until 1947. A one-teacher school was kept until 1955 when all
grades were bused to Shinglehouse as part of the Oswayo Valley School
System.
The Seventh Day Baptists were the first to hold regular services in the
area. Before 1834, a Mr. Avery preached the Baptist doctrine
to the first settlers. The Baptists organized a building committee and
had the frame of a church completed in 1877 when, for lack of funds, the
building was abandoned. In 1859, the Methodist Church was built on Main
Street and for over 40 years was the only church building in Oswayo. The
United Brethren finally became strong enough to build a church on School
Street in 1903 but the Catholic Church never materialized.
Tragedy struck the village on November 18, 1900, when fire destroyed
the McGonigal House along with the hotel barns and Opera House.
Four persons perished in the flames, which were credited to an over-pressure
of gas.
The early 1900’s were twenty years away from such entertainment as radio
and forty years from television. After supper there was little to do but
sit at home and read or listen to talking machines. The Oswayo Cornet
Band met every Tuesday night for rehearsals and on Friday evenings gave
a concert in the Payne & Estes Hall over the store for
which they charged an admission of ten cents (or whatever you were able
to pay) until they earned enough for uniforms.
On other evenings the young folks paired off and strolled the sidewalks
or sat in porch swings until the girl’s mother called her in. Since workdays
were ten hours for six days in the week, sparking time was short as workers
began their daily strife at seven the next morning.
Among the old time residents of Oswayo were: Mr. [A. B.] Payne
(postmaster) and A. B. Estes, who ran the largest general store;
W. W. Crittenden, local businessman who represented Potter County
in the General Assembly; Walter Wells Sr., leading merchant and
postmaster; John Lee, landlord of the Lee Hotel; Harry Lord,
lawyer, merchant and justice of the peace; Samuel Beebe, pension
attorney; Ansel Smith, lay preacher; Ernest Rice musician;
Ernest Mills, druggist; and Arthur Wells, one of the later
merchants, became the community’s unofficial banker and storekeeper.
Fred Blackman began printing a weekly newspaper in 1900,
which he named “The Oswayo Valley Record.” The paper folded in March 1902
and the equipment was removed to Port Allegany to be used by the Argus.
The New York & Pennsylvania Railroad extended its lines to Oswayo
in 1894 where it served the tannery, stave mill, the local businesses
and farmers. It gave the residents a connection with the outside world
as they ran four passenger trains each day. As business declined and the
automobile began to usurp passenger traffic, business for the railroad
fell off and the line was abandoned in June of 1936.
Oswayo probably reached its peak in population of 1000 or more during
the later years of the 1890’s. Since it was then part of the township,
the number of residents can only be estimated. It was not counted as a
borough until 1910 and the census then showed only 382 residents. By this
time the population had begun to decline rapidly as the total population
for the borough and township was 700 less than the township population
in 1900. The tannery had been destroyed by fire in 1903 and the stave
plant, last industry, closed in 1916. By 1920 the census showed only 209
residents.
The town, which had once boasted of 20 business places on Main Street,
was reduced to a village smaller than the one that existed previous to
the Civil War. Some residents commute by automobile to work in other towns
while others are still engaged in agriculture or logging. A State Fish
Cultural Station, located above the village, now gives employment to a
number of area residents.
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