ALONZO I. WILCOX
Colonel Alonzo I. Wilcox was the only son of William P. Wilcox and Betsey Paine Wilcox. He was born in Herkimer County, New York on March 11, 1819. His father, a merchant from Connecticut, was a land agent for Mr. Andrew M. Jones of the Richards and Jones Land Company. As a youngster, his family settled in Williamsville along the Milesburg-Smethport Turnpike, just a half mile north of what is now the Elk County line sometime around the 1830’s
Having attended school at the Academy in Lima, New York, the young Alonzo Wilcox later returned to Elk County and began his lumber business. He owned and operated a sawmill along the West Branch of the Clarion River sometime around 1850. He was very successful in his business until heavy rains resulted in a flood that wiped out his sawmill and lumber. Wilcox also was successful in the oil business as well. He and several other investors formed the Wilcox Land & Mining Company in 1867.
Alonzo Wilcox also opened the first post office in Wilcox in 1859 in a building that now is a part of the Wilcox Garage. Mr. A.T. Aldrich was named the postmaster.
In 1847 he was elected as a Representative in the General Assembly from Warren, Elk & McKean Counties. In 1871 he was elected to represent Elk, Jefferson, & the newly formed Cameron County. Wilcox also served on the staff of Pennsylvania Governors William Packer and John Geary, thus earning his title of Colonel.
He married Miss Louisa Horton, the daughter of Associate Judge Isaac Horton, Sr. of Elk County in June of 1845. Mrs. Wilcox was 64 years of age when she died, and she was buried at the Wilcox Cemetery in 1881.
Wilcox later moved his family to Bradford and became an active member of that community.

WILLIAM P. WILCOX
William Wilcox worked as a land agent for Mr. Andrew M. Jones of the Richards and Jones Land Company and settled his family in Williamsville just a half mile north of what is now the Elk County line sometime around the 1830’s along the Milesburg –Smethport Turnpike. Wilcox was instrumental in the sale of over 1100 warrants of land to the McKean & Elk Land Improvement Company.
William Wilcox was married to Betsey Paine and had two children, a son Alonzo and a daughter Charissa. Ms. Clarissa Wilcox died at the age of 24 in 1845 and is buried in the Williamsville Cemetery.
Wilcox erected a tavern as well as a hotel on the south side of the turnpike across from the spring that still exists there today. This spring was a regular stop for the stagecoach’s and wagons that ran the turnpike. In 1842 Mr. Wilcox moved in family to higher ground near the farms of Rasselas and began to clear the land. He constructed a sawmill and constructed a one & a half story home, a large barn and several other farm buildings. Wilcox began to become active in politics and first served as the Justice of the Peace. He was later elected to the Pa. House of Representatives in 1835. In 1842 he was elected in the Pa. Senate. He served as speaker of the Senate from 1857 to 1859. Wilcox was also elected to a term as an Elk County Commissioner.
William Wilcox later decided to leave the area and relocated to Port Allegany, Pennsylvania where he entered other business and political adventures.
During the summer of 1856 and 1857 Wilcox boarded his home to Thomas L. Kane who was hired by the McKean & Elk Land Improvement Company to manage and develop their recently purchased lands. Two years later Wilcox would sell the residence to Kane who used the home as a summer get-a-way.

RASSELAS WILCOX BROWN
Among the early settlers of Elk county, probably no man was better known or more highly esteemed than Rasselas Wilcox Brown.

Mr. Brown was born at German Flats, Herkimer Co., N.Y., September 30, 1809, and was one of three children born to Isaac and Polly (Wilcox) Brown. When Rasselas was sixteen years old, his father moved to Onondaga county, N.Y., and located upon a tract in the town of Cicero, which Rasselas helped to transform into a productive farm. Upon this farm is located the cemetery, where at his own request Mr. Brown was buried. It is a beautiful spot overlooking the village of Cicero and the surrounding level, prairie- like country, and contains the remains of several generations of the Brown family. Mr. Brown united with the Baptist Church, of Cicero, when eighteen years of age, and adhered to that faith throughout his life. He was married September 25, 1832, at Fort Brewerton, N.Y., to Mary P. Brownell, the only daughter of Jedediah and Eunice (Watkins) Brownell. She was born at Trenton, Oneida Co., N.Y., September 23, 1815. Like her husband she early united with the Baptist Church, and has adhered to that faith ever since. At the present time (1890) she is in good health, and her mind is as vigorous as that of most women at fifty. She has been, and still is a woman of wonderful energy and unconquerable ambition. No matter in what society she might live, she could be nothing less than the acknowledged peer of the truest and best. No sacrifice was ever demanded, or ever could be demanded, which she would not cheerfully make for her husband and children. She enjoys the esteem of all who know her, and she glories in the unquestioned affection of all her children and children’s children.

Immediately after their marriage this couple settled at Fort Brewerton, N.Y., where they lived two years, and then moved to Summer Hill, Cayuga county, where they lived for about three years. In 1837 Mr. Brown, in company with his brother- in- law, Judge Brownell, now of Smethport, McKean county, started on foot from Cayuga county to seek his fortune in the then western wilds of Michigan. On their journey thither they passed through the wilderness of Jones township, Elk county. Here Col. W. P. Wilcox, his uncle, had a few years before located, and he became exceedingly anxious that Rasselas should settle near him. After two or three months passed in the journey to Michigan, the two travelers returned and decided to cast their lot in the wilds of Pennsylvania. It was late in the fall when they returned, and after employing a man to hew the timber, and leaving with him the means to prepare for the erection of a house early in the spring, Mr. Brown returned for his family. So poor were the mail facilities at that time that the letters from his friends in Pennsylvania advising him of the absconding of his hired man did not reach their destination until he had started with his wife and two little boys, for their new home, which they reached on March 16, 1838.

With a will and energy that would not brook defeat, he went to work, and on April 21, a little more than a month after his arrival, he was able to move into his new house. The desperate effort and great anxiety required to get his family under roof, resulted in his prostration on a bed of sickness, to which he was confined more than six months. Slowly recovering from his illness, the terrible truth forced itself, day by day, upon him that his eyesight was seriously impaired, and that the injury to his eyes would be permanent. Now came the time for his young and hopeful wife to show her worth and her ability. Would she prove equal to the occasion? It was evident that her husband could not for’ a long time, at least, perform the manual labor necessary to clear and cultivate a farm, and they must, therefore, seek some temporary employment where her skill and energy would count for the support of the little ones. The Williamsville Hotel offered such a place, and thither without delay they moved.

They remained at the hotel until the spring of 1841. During a good share of the time the two did the entire work required to care for their guests and the traveling public- the provisions and supplies for whom had to be hauled from Smethport or Olean, and sometimes from Buffalo. This, of course, demanded the frequent absence of Mr. Brown, and threw upon his wife burdens that none but the most heroic of women could or would have endured. No wonder that both felt relieved when the spring of 1841 came, and they again assumed the sometimes more exhausting, but always more agreeable, toil upon the farm. Here they lived together until the death of Mr. Brown, which occurred on June 27, 1887. At the time they moved onto the farm the children had grown to four, in number, and there was, if the wolf were to be kept from the door, to be no rest from labor and anxiety.

The tract of land, out of which it was proposed to make a farm, was located mainly in the midst of a dense growth of pine and hemlock. To be sure the land was cheap, costing only $1.25 an acre, but the labor necessary to fit it for cultivation was enormous.
There was no mill near to cut logs into lumber, and no market for the lumber if it could have been cut. In those early days there was, therefore, no alternative- both pine and hemlock must be burned to ashes. The struggle was constant and sometimes desperate, but never a failure. If the farm failed by ordinary means to make both ends meet, they always found some effective plan to supply the need. Sometimes the scheme had little profit in it, but if it availed to tide over a present difficulty, it was resorted to with cheerfulness and satisfaction. At times the plan hit upon was to manufacture by hand the pine trees into shingles; at others, to dig coal from a mine opened on the farm, and then to market these wherever a purchaser could be found- often fifty, and sometimes one hundred miles away. That the purchaser would only pay in goods, and at exorbitant profits, was little reason for breaking off the trade. The waiting ones at home must be supplied, and therefore the product must go for what it would bring. Many times during the first years upon the farm at Rasselas (this name was given to the place in honor of its owner by Gen. Thomas L. Kane, president of the N.Y., L. E. & W.R.R. extension, when it was built through the farm and a station located thereon), butter as good as housewife ever made was taken on horseback to Ridgway, sixteen miles distant, and sold for 10 and. 12 cents a pound, store pay, the whole proceeds amounting to less than would be the expense of such a trip in our time.

Isolated as was the home reared by this couple, it was in many respects a model one. The children, six in number, three boys and three girls, were taught not only obedience and respect for their parents, but kindness and love for each other. Self- sacrifice was the paramount law of the household. Nothing within the range of a possibility was ever left undone in behalf of the children, whether it pertained to their present needs or education and proper development; and in return the parents received homage as abiding as life itself. All alone in the wilderness, the family altar was kept burning, conspicuous by contrast, and yet its influence all the more enduring, because it was unique. The entire number of children born to Rasselas W. and Mary F. Brown are still living. The daughters are Olive J. Moyer and Eunice A. Hewitt, of Elk county, and Mary A. Allen, of Cicero, N.Y. The sons are Jefferson L., William Wallace and Isaac B. Sketches of the three sons will be found in this volume as follows: those of Jefferson L. and Isaac B., immediately after this of their father, and that of William Wallace, among the biographical sketches of Bradford, McKean county.

Mr. Brown, notwithstanding the loss of his eyesight, was a leading mind in the county. In politics he was a Whig, and all alone in his neighborhood he cherished, as only a Whig could cherish, the names of Washington, the Adamses, Clay and Webster, until the new era added to the immortals the names of Grant and Lincoln. There was but a single supporter of his political views in Jones township, and yet during the larger, part of his active life at Rasselas, he held the office of magistrate, often by the almost unanimous voice of his neighbors. As a partisan he was never offensive, but he was as firm and unyielding in his political convictions as any man ever was with Scotch blood in his veins.

Of his affliction he seldom made mention, and he was never known to complain, save, when in the days of his country’s peril, the loss of his sight precluded the possibility of his enlisting in her defense. It was his inability to serve as a soldier that induced him to yield to the persuasions of his youngest son, and allow him to enter the army at the early age of sixteen years, although his two other sons and two of his sons- in- law had already entered the service. To him the Republic was “a thing of beauty and a joy forever,” and there was nothing in the earth so good or so sacred that he would not have freely sacrificed for her glory and her defense. With the close of the war and with his declining years came more rest and contentment. Though from choice he labored constantly until the last year of his life, the railroad, long looked for, had come, and with it a market for the forest still preserved, and this brought the means for such comfortable support as dispensed with the necessity of further toil or anxiety. Idleness had no place in his life. Every hour not given to labor was devoted to the acquisition of knowledge. Unable, from loss of his eyesight, to read, he, invoked the aid of others to read for him, and in this way was able to keep abreast of current events, and to live in the history of the past. He had a very retentive memory, and possessed a fund of information, especially concerning the geography, political history and-development of his country, truly wonderful.

As the end of life approached, he gave most abundant assurance to those about him, that long ago complete preparations had been made for the voyage to the country beyond. There was a brief, but comprehensive direction for the care of his surviving widow, a “share and share alike” to his children, a request that he might be permitted to sleep with his fathers in the land of his boyhood, and then a calm, majestic waiting for the final summons. Just fifty years to a day from the time the subject of this sketch, weary and foot- sore, came into the wilderness of Pennsylvania, he was borne in solemn triumph back to the burial place of his fathers. It is the mighty power of steam that carries the train as on wings of the wind! During the fifty years of Mr. Brown’s sojourn in Elk County, that power had revolutionized the world! Henceforth the pioneer shall not go forth into the wilderness alone. Steam shall go before, and shall prepare the way for him. And yet, with all the aids to success which modern thought can bring, none who triumph in coming time will leave more honored heritage, or fall asleep amid the incense of love more sincere or more abiding than did Rasselas Wilcox Brown.
Source: Page(s) 745-759, History of Counties of McKean, Elk and Forest, Pennsylvania. Chicago, J.H. Beers & Co., 1890.
Transcribed February 2007 by Nathan Zipfel for the Elk County Genealogy Project
Published 2007 by the Elk County Pennsylvania Genealogy Project

Note: the name “Rasselas” was reportedly given to him by his parents (Isaac and Polly (Wilcox) Brown) because the senior Mr. Brown was fascinated by the main character of a book named “Rasselas; PRINCE OF ABYSSINIA“

THOMAS KANE: The son of a prominent Philadelphia judge, Thomas Leiper Kane (1822-1883), moved to McKean County, Pennsylvania, where he practiced law. When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Kane raised a regiment of riflemen nicknamed the Bucktails because of the deer tails worn in their caps. On the second day at Gettysburg, the Bucktails fought along the crest of Cemetery Ridge just north of Little Round Top. After the war, Kane would make his fortune in lumber and coal. As President of the New York, Lake Erie and Western Coal and Railroad Company he, in 1882, commissioned Pennsylvania’s famous Kinzua Viaduct.

Without a doubt, the Bucktails are Pennsylvania’s most famous Civil War unit. The regiment first formed in April 1861, when Thomas L. Kane sought permission to raise a company of riflemen from among the hardy woodsmen of McKean County. Each man who came to the regiment’s rendezvous point wore civilian clothes and a buck’s tail in his hat–a symbol of his marksmanship. Indeed, the marksman test for joining the unit was unique at this early stage of the war. Most volunteers who joined the Union army did not have much proficiency with a weapon, let alone the newfangled rifled-muskets first introduced in the 1850s.

After the muster, Kane moved his men south to the Sinnemahoning River, where they constructed rafts. On April 26, more than 300 men boarded three large rafts for the voyage downriver to the West Branch of the Susquehanna and from there to Harrisburg, where they hoped to join the troops assembling there. Educated in England and France, Kane was a lawyer who had founded the town named after him in McKean County, and who had the distinction of being arrested by his father, a U. S. district judge, for his anti-slavery stance. In 1858, largely because of his sympathy for the Mormons, he mediated the dispute between that sect and the federal government and prevented a full-scale war from erupting in the Utah Territory.
In May of 1861, Kane’s companies were joined with others who had arrived at Camp Curtin, in Harrisburg, to form a full regiment of infantry, nicknamed the Bucktails because of the deer tails in their caps. The men hailed from the counties of Tioga, Cameron, Warren, Elk, McKean, Clearfield, Perry, Carbon, and Chester. Officially designated the 42nd Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, the unit was also known as the 13th Pennsylvania Reserves, the 1st Pennsylvania Rifles, and the Kane Rifles. Although elected colonel by his men, Kane, recognizing his lack of military skill, deferred to a more competent leader and instead became lieutenant colonel.

The Bucktails were divided in half in the spring of 1862. Four companies served under Kane’s leadership in the Shenandoah Valley, while the other six fought on the Peninsula at Mechanicsville, Gaines’ Mill, and Glendale. The regiment also fought at Second Manassas, South Mountain, Antietam, and Fredericksburg. By that time, heavy casualties had so reduced the strength of the Pennsylvania Reserves that the division was detached from active duty and sent back to Washington to rest and refit.
When Lee’s army in June of 1863 crossed the Potomac River and Union troops moved north in pursuit, the Lincoln administration sent reinforcements from the Washington garrison to bolster the strength of the field army. Two brigades of the Pennsylvania Reserves, among them the Bucktails, marched to join the Army of the Potomac. Led by Brigadier General Samuel W. Crawford, the Reserves became the Third Division of the Fifth Corps.

The Bucktail’s went into action at Gettysburg late in the afternoon of the second day. The First Brigade of the Pennsylvania Reserves formed along the crest of Cemetery Ridge just north of Little Round Top and, led by Crawford, charged the oncoming Confederates as disorganized fellow Yankee soldiers fell back to reform their lines. Colonel Charles F. Taylor of the Bucktails was in front of his regiment, too, encouraging his veterans. The impetuous Reserves charged across Plum Run Valley (now called the Valley of Death) and halted at the stone wall on the eastern border of the Wheatfield. Armed with Sharps Rifles instead of the standard rifled-muskets, the Bucktails’ hot fire forced the Rebels to withdraw across the trampled wheat. But Taylor, carelessly exposing himself, was killed as the regiment reformed and went into line of battle.
After the battle of Gettysburg, the Bucktails remained in service until they were mustered out in June 1864. Those who re-enlisted were absorbed into the new 190th Pennsylvania, also known as the 1st Veteran Reserves. During the Bucktails’ three years of fighting, the regiment had a total of 1,165 officers and men. Of these, 162 soldiers were killed in battle or died from their wounds; ninety died of disease, accidents, and in Rebel prisons; and another 442 men were wounded but recovered.

Promoted to brigadier general, Kane resigned in late 1863 due to ill health. He died in Philadelphia in 1883 and was buried in Laurel Hill Cemetery. A year later, though, in large part due to petitions signed by the residents of Kane, the general’s remains were moved to a memorial chapel erected in the town he founded. Today, this chapel, which is administered by the Mormons, is open to the public.

ANTONY A. CLAY,
Rasselas P.O., Penn., was born in Vienna, Austria, February 17, 1839, when his father, the late Hon. John Randolph Clay, was United States secretary of legation to that country. He was educated in the city of Philadelphia, and in 1861 entered the three-months service of his country as quartermaster, with the rank of captain, on the staff of Gen. Pleasanton, of Philadelphia. September 1, 1861, he entered in Company K, Fifty- eighth P.V.I., as first lieutenant under Col. J. Richter Jones, and was afterward promoted to adjutant and captain.
He served during the entire service with the regiment, and on staff duty, acting as assistant adjutant- general and provost- marshal for the subdistrict of Central Virginia until mustered out, in 1865. He has resided in Elk county since 1866, and has had charge of large tracts of land in this and adjoining counties, and has also been engaged in lumbering and farming. In 1886 he was the Democratic candidate for the State legislature, and was elected by 1,142 majority, the largest majority ever given to any candidate for assembly in the county. He was again elected in 1888, by 746 majority, and was one of a commission of three senators and four members of the house appointed to investigate the charitable and correctional institutions of the State.
He married, in 1864, Miss Sybella S., daughter of John Seckel; of Philadelphia, Penn., and they have four daughters, viz.: Estella A., Syhella G., Ethel B. and Margaret. Capt. Clay is a member of Wilcox Lodge, No. 571, F. & A.M., and of the Military Order of Loyal Legion of the United States, also of Lucore Post, G.A.R., of St. Mary’s. His father, Hon. John Randolph Clay, was born in Philadelphia, Penn., and was educated at the University of Virginia, after which he studied law with Hon. John Randolph, of Roanoke, Va., for whom he was named, and was admitted to the bar of Virginia. He accompanied John Randolph to Russia, when he was appointed United States minister, and was secretary of legation, and was afterward appointed secretary of “Legation and Charge d’Affairs” at Vienna, Austria, and later minister to Peru, where he served eighteen years. He served altogether in the diplomatic service of the United States for thirty consecutive years. He married an English lady, Miss Frances Gibbs, daughter of Dr. John Gibbs, of Exeter, England. Mrs. Clay died in Vienna in 1840, and Hon. John Randolph Clay died in London, England, in 1885.
The present home of Capt. A.A. Clay was first occupied by the father of Col. A.I. Wilcox, and later by Gen. Kane, until Capt. Clay purchased it, in 1866. His family are members of the Episcopal Church.

Captain Clay shown to the left at his “Upland” Estate in Rasselas
Picture Courtesy of Ray Allegretto
Source: Page(s) 745-759, History of Counties of McKean, Elk and Forest, Pennsylvania. Chicago, J.H. Beers & Co., 1890.
Transcribed February 2007 by Nathan Zipfel for the Elk County Genealogy

A. A. CLEARWATER,
superintendent for the Wilcox Tanning Company, was born in Ulster county, N.Y., March 21, 1846. His parents, Richard and Rachel (Osterhout) Clearwater, were also natives of that county. His mother was a sister of W.H. Osterhout of Ridgway; his father was a millwright by trade and moved to Susquehanna county, Penn., in 1864, and for some years was a car builder in the Susquehanna shops. He was a member of the Republican party, and filled various township offices. He was a deacon and superintendent of the Sunday- school in the Baptist Church for many years, and died in 1882. The mother is still living and resides in Ulster county, N.Y. Their family consisted of nine children, of whom six are living: D.J. (of Scranton, Penn.), A.A., W.W. (of Wilcox, Penn.), Mary C. (wife of Lafayette Hines, of Wayne county, Penn.), Ida E. (wife of B.E. Miles, of Susquehanna county, Penn.) and Leah F. (wife of Elder Campbell, of Ridgway, Penn.). A.A. Clearwater was reared in Ulster county, N.Y., and received an ordinary education. In 1861 he enlisted in Company D, One Hundred and Fifty- sixth New York Infantry, and was appointed sergeant of his company. He was wounded at Port Hudson, June 14, 1862, and was honorably discharged in 1863. He then attended the Harford University in Susquehanna county, Penn., for one year, and then began to learn the tanner’s trade with his uncle, W.H. Osterhout, at Glenwood. He served an apprenticeship of four years, and then took the superintendency of a tannery at Herrick Centre for four years, after which, in connection with two partners, he purchased the Glenwood Tannery. After conducting that two years he purchased the interest of one of his partners, and two years later became sole owner of the same, which he conducted for seven years. He then, in company with W.H. Osterhout, began operations at Penfield, Clearfield Co., Penn., which he continued for one year. In 1883 he came to Wilcox, and has since acted as superintendent of the Wilcox Tannery. In 1872 he married Miss Ella B., daughter of William D. Ketchum, of Herrick Centre. They have three children living, Bertha, Libbie and William. One son, Allen B., died in 1886. Mr. Clearwater is a member of Capt. Lyon Post, No. 85, G.A.R., of Susquehanna county, and the Nicholson Lodge, I.O.O.F. He is a Republican in politics, and for six years has served as school director of Jones township. He and his family attend the Presbyterian Church.
Source: Page(s) 745-759, History of Counties of McKean, Elk and Forest, Pennsylvania. Chicago, J.H. Beers & Co., 1890.
Transcribed February 2007 by Nathan Zipfel for the Elk County Genealogy Project
Published 2007 by the Elk County Pennsylvania Genealogy Project

MAURICE M. SCHULTZ
Born in Delaware County, N.Y., February 11, 1827, and died at Wilcox, Elk, Co., Penn., May 18, 1884. At the age of sixteen he embarked on a whaling ship for the Arctic seas, and returned to his native land after a voyage of four years. His voyage, and the hardships and experiences attendant upon it, gave him his stern and unswerving peculiarities of character and his robust and hardy physique, thereby well fitting him for the hard and active service of his after life. After his return from the sea, he became a tanner, and engaged extensively in that business up to the time of his death. He operated a tannery at Sparrow Bush, N.Y., from 1860 to 1866, and during these years accumulated a goodly fortune. At the time he disposed of his tannery at that place, he proposed to retire from active life, but after a pleasure trip to Europe of a year’s duration, he was again persuaded to embark in the tanning enterprise, this time at Wilcox, Elk county. From the summer of 1877, up to the time of his death, he was at the head of the firm doing business under the name of the Wilcox Tanning Company. Mr. Schultz had exclusive charge of the landed and manufacturing interests of this company, and by his energy, fidelity and perseverance, he commanded not only the implicit confidence of the other members of this firm, but also the admiration and respect of the community in which he lived. He was kind- hearted and generous, and never turned a deaf ear to the appeals of the less fortunate in life. His wife, Mary A. (Atherton) Schultz, still survives him, also two sons and one daughter: Norman (residing in New York City), Irving (residing in Wilcox, Penn.) and Mrs. Edward Barnes (of Orange, N.J.). The Wilcox Tannery is now conducted by his two sons, Mr. Irving Schultz being the resident member, and having the general supervision of the same.
Source: Page(s) 745-759, History of Counties of McKean, Elk and Forest, Pennsylvania. Chicago, J.H. Beers & Co., 1890.
Transcribed February 2007 by Nathan Zipfel for the Elk County Genealogy Project
Published 2007 by the Elk County Pennsylvania Genealogy Project

JEFFERSON L. BROWN
Jefferson was the eldest son of Rasselas W. and Mary P. (Brownell) Brown, was born at Fort Brewerton, Onondaga Co., N.Y., June 25, 1834, and ~came with his parents into McKean (now Elk) county in March, 1838. His early life was spent on his father’s farm, in Jones Township, upon which Rasselas, a station on the New York, Lake Erie & Western, and the Buffalo, Rochester & Pittsburg Railroads, is located. Mr. Brown was educated at the public schools near his home, and at the Smethport academy. At eighteen years of age he commenced the work of his profession- surveying- which he has followed more or less up to the present time, and has been engaged in several engineering enterprises. In the summer of 1855 Mr. Brown purchased the Elk County Advocate establishment, and published the paper about one year. Not finding the business either suited to his nature or profitable, he disposed of the plant in July, 1856, and returned to the work of his profession. In the autumn of 1860 he moved to Onondaga county, N.Y., and engaged in the pursuit of farming. He taught school at Cicero in the winter of 1860- 61, and at Centreville in the winter of 1861- 62. After selling his interest in the farm, Mr. Brown enlisted in Company C, One Hundred and Eighty- fifth Regiment, New York Infantry, and served until the close of the Civil war. He took part in the movements of the Army of the Potomac, which began March 31, 1865, and closed with the surrender at Appomattox Courthouse, April 9, the same year; and had the pleasure of seeing Gens. Grant and Lee riding in a carriage (of old Virginia style) together, on their way to Burkeville, Va., after the surrender. At the close of the war Mr. Brown returned to Elk county, where he has resided ever since, having his home at Wilcox. In the autumn of 1868 he went into the employ of the Wilcox Tanning Company, and after April, 1870, had charge of, and an interest in, the large mercantile business of the tanning and lumber company, for ten years. In the political campaign of 1880 Mr. Brown was nominated a candidate for member of the assembly by the Democratic convention of Elk county, and, after a hotly- contested struggle, in which the disaffected Democrats united with the Republican and Greenback parties in a combination against him, he was elected by a good majority. He was re- elected in 1882, and served through the extra session of 1883. Since retiring from the political field, Mr. Brown has been engaged in the lumbering, and later in the banking business. He is a member of the Rasselas Lumber Company (whose plant is located on the old homestead), and at the head of the banking house in Wilcox, bearing his name. Mr. Brown was united in marriage with Miss Amanda H. Merriam, the accomplished daughter of Noah and Mary Ann Merriam, of Cicero, Onondaga Co., N.Y. Mr. and Mrs. Brown are the parents of three children- two daughters and one son. The eldest is the wife of Emmet G. Latta, of Friendship, N.Y., and has two sons, Jefferson B. and Raymond F. The second daughter, Miss Emma G., has been for some time cashier in her father’s bank. The son, Frank Rasselas, graduated with honors at the Pennsylvania Military Academy, at Chester, in 1889, and is now instructor in mathematics, engineering and military science at his alma mater. Mr. Brown is master of Wilcox Lodge, No. 571, F. & A.M., of which he is a charter member. He is one of the elders of the Presbyterian Church at Wilcox, a member of the Hiram Warner Post, G.A.R., and of the Wilcox Division of the Sons of Temperance.
Source: Page(s) 745-759, History of Counties of McKean, Elk and Forest, Pennsylvania. Chicago, J.H. Beers & Co., 1890.
Transcribed February 2007 by Nathan Zipfel for the Elk County Genealogy Project
Published 2007 by the Elk County Pennsylvania Genealogy Project

ISAAC B. BROWN
ISAAC B. BROWN was born in Jones Township, Elk Co., Penn., at the place now known as Rasselas, on the 20th of February, 1848. He lived at home with his parents, Rasselas W. and Mary (Brownell) Brown, working upon the farm until fifteen years of age, when he went to Syracuse, N.Y., to attend school. He remained at school, working for his board and maintenance, until the summer of 1864, when he returned home and enlisted in Company C, Two Hundred and Eleventh Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteers. He served in the Army of the James during the fall of 1864, and subsequently in Hartranft’s Division of the Ninth Army Corps, Army of the Potomac. He was present with his command in the engagements at Bermuda Hundred, Hatcher’s Run, in the Weldon raid, the assault at Fort Steadman, and at the battle of Petersburg. Returning home at the close of the war, Mr. Brown attended school for four years, spending one year at the Smethport Academy and three years at Alfred University, from which he was graduated in 1869. During his school vacations he assisted his father on the farm. In the fall of 1869 he taught at the Ridgway (Penn.) Academy, and in December of that year commenced the study of law at Corry, Penn., with Messrs. Crosby & Brown. During the years of 1870 and 1871 he was engaged in surveying the wild lands in Elk county for the Wilcox Tanning Company. In the winter of 1870- 71 he taught school again, and in the fall of 1871 removed permanently to Corry, where he found it necessary to engage in some business in order to support himself while prosecuting his studies. He therefore formed a partnership with Mr. C.S. Tinker, and embarked in the insurance business. He soon became active in the politics of Erie county, and was elected clerk of the city of Corry in 1873. He then renewed the study of law, which he had discontinued for some time, and in 1876 was admitted to the bar. In 1878 he was a candidate for the assembly, and received the Republican nomination, but was defeated at the polls by Hon. Alfred Short, through a combination of Democrats and Greenbackers. In 1880 he was again nominated, and was then elected by about 3,000 majority. In 1882 he was re- elected, and again in 1884, the last time by the largest majority ever given to a candidate for assembly in that district. Mr. Brown enjoys the distinction of being the only person from Erie county who has ever received the nomination and election for a third term. During his six years of service as a legislator, he secured the passage of a large number of measures of a public nature, among which may be mentioned that for the establishment of State White Fish Hatchery at Erie. He prepared, introduced and secured the passage of the bill to establish the Pennsylvania Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Home at Erie, and now is a member of the Board of Trustees of that institution. In 1886 he was a candidate for the Republican nomination for Congress in the Twenty- seventh District, but was defeated by Hon. C.W. Mackey, of Venango county. He continued the practice of law in Erie county until 1887, when he was tendered and accepted the position of deputy secretary of internal affairs of Pennsylvania, which office he now holds at the State Capital. He has been an active member of the Grand Army of the Republic ever since its organization, and has held many prominent positions in that order. He served in the National Guard of Pennsylvania from 1874 to 1887; eleven years as captain of Company A, Sixteenth Regiment, and two years as judge advocate with the rank of major, on the staff of Gen. James A. Beaver, commanding the Second Brigade. He commanded a company during its service in the riots of 1877. Mr. Brown was married, on the 25th of June, 1870, to Miss Hannah Partington, of Providence, R.I., and he has now a family of three children- two daughters and one son.
Source: Page(s) 745-759, History of Counties of McKean, Elk and Forest, Pennsylvania. Chicago, J.H. Beers & Co., 1890.
Transcribed February 2007 by Nathan Zipfel for the Elk County Genealogy Project
Published 2007 by the Elk County Pennsylvania Genealogy Project

MICHAEL WEIDERT,
farmer, P.O. Rasselas, was born in Luxemburg, Germany, January 8, 1828. His parents, Bernard and Mary (Bodevin) Weidert, immigrated to America in 1847, arriving in Elk county, Penn., August 16. They remained at St. Mary’s until the following September, when they located on the present farm of our subject, in Jones township. Here the father died, in 1855, and the mother, in 1884. They were prominent members of the Roman Catholic Church. They brought eleven children to this country, nine of whom are still living: Mary, widow of John Myers; Catherine, wife of Joseph Hetznecker; Michael; John; Elizabeth, wife of Charles Nearing; Magdaline, widow of Joseph Pistner; Mary, wife of Michael Miller; William, and Lena, wife of T.L. McKean. Mr. Weidert was educated in his native country, and for eight years after coming to Elk county worked for Col. A.I. Wilcox. He has since been engaged in lumbering and farming. In 1852 he married Miss Barbara, daughter of Francis Bonnert, of Jones township. Nine children were born to this union, five of whom are living: Maggie, William M., John, Charles, Edward, all at home. Mr. Weidert has always been identified with the Democratic party and takes an active part in politics. He was elected county commissioner in 1874 and served one year, was re- elected in 1875 for three years, and re- elected in 1878 for three years. During this time the commissioners built the court- house at Ridgway. He was elected justice of the peace, but did not serve. He has, however, filled nearly all the township offices. In 1885 he took a pleasure trip to his native country, remaining from May till September. He is a member of the St. John’s Society of St. Mary’s, and he and family are members of the Roman Catholic Church.
Source: Page(s) 745-759, History of Counties of McKean, Elk and Forest, Pennsylvania. Chicago, J.H. Beers & Co., 1890.
Transcribed February 2007 by Nathan Zipfel for the Elk County Genealogy Project
Published 2007 by the Elk County Pennsylvania Genealogy Project

JOHN ERNHOUT, & P.S. ERNHOUT,
JOHN ERNHOUT, lumber manufacturer, Wilcox, was born in the city of Albany, N.Y., March 18, 1822, a son of Christopher Ernhout, who was a native of Albany, N.Y. His grandfather, John Ernhout, was a native of Germany, emigrated to America with Corn. Van Rensselaer, and was the first. settler in Albany, N.Y., taking up 400 acres of land on the present site of the city. He served as a private through the, war of the Revolution, and was among the prominent men of his day. His wife was a native of Holland. They reared a family of thirteen sons and three daughters, of whom Christopher was next to the youngest. Christopher married Miss Lydia Powell, a native of Scotland, and they settled in Ulster county, N.Y. He was a soldier in the war of 1812; was a Jacksonian Democrat, and filled various township offices. He was twice married; his first wife died in 1842, and he afterward married Miss Polly Brannon. Eleven children were born to his first marriage: Hannah (widow of. James McIntosh), Betsy, Harriet, John, Lydia (deceased), James, William (deceased), Henry, George (deceased), Stephen and David. Mr. Ernhout was a prominent member of, the Presbyterian Church; he died in 1877. John Ernhout received a common school education in Ulster county, N.Y. He was married, May 28, 1843, to Miss Milla Stoddard, daughter of Simeon Stoddard, of Massachusetts, the ceremony being performed at the residence of Phineas Stoddard, in Greenfield, Ulster Co., N.Y. In March, 1844, he moved to Callicoon, Sullivan Co., N.Y., where he remained one year, and in 1845 moved to Greenfield, Ulster Co., N.Y., where he engaged largely in the lumbering business for a term of years. In the meantime he built a large hotel in Greenfield, on the Newburgh and Woodbourne plank road, and also bought the large farm formerly owned by Andrew Lefever. He next moved to Ellenville, Ulster county, and built another extensive hotel, with which he connected one of the largest halls outside the city of New York, and also built, as an appurtenance to the hotel, a mammoth barn. In the fall of 1857 he traded the Ellenville property for a tannery and saw- mill business, in Sandburg, Sullivan county, which business he carried on successfully for nine years. This business comprised three saw- mills, one tannery, two stores, two blacksmith-shops with ‘turning lathes, and a large quantity of land. In 1861 he recruited in Sullivan, Ulster and Orange counties, N.Y., 445 men, and joined the Fifty- sixth New, York Regiment, in which he served fourteen months, as captain of his company of 112 men, the balance of the recruits being distributed among other companies of the Fifty- sixth. The captain was honorably discharged on account of sickness. For his meritorious act in recruiting so many men, he was offered the lieutenant- colonelcy of his regiment, but declined, as he had promised to remain with the first company he had raised. In 1867 he came to Wilcox, Elk Co., Penn., where he built its present tannery, afterward associating with him the Messrs. Maurice and Jackson Schultz. About twelve years afterward’ Mr. Ernhout was obliged to retire from the company on account of ill health; he spent two years in California, eventually returning to Wilcox, where he has since been engaged in the manufacture of lumber. His mill has a capacity of about one million feet of lumber per month, and he employs about seventy men to carry on his business; he has a private railroad, with which to transport his logs from the lumber districts. Capt. Ernhout owns 225 acres of valuable lands near Cubit, with fifteen oil wells and two excellent gas wells; also 800 acres of land near Kane, McKean Co., Penn., upon which there are three producing wells, which he intends developing. Mr. Ernhout is an active business man, with marked ability, and is one of the representative citizens of Wilcox. He has always been identified with the Republican party; he is a member of the Episcopal Church. Mrs. Milla Ernhout departed this life in 1877, having borne her husband four children: Perry S., the eldest son, entered the United States service with his father, and was promoted to the naval academy, at Annapolis, Md., and from which he was graduated with high honors, but died in the prime of manhood; Marilda S., married Dr. William Scrosburg, of Ulster county, N.Y., and is now deceased; Phineas S. is a lumber manufacturer of Wilcox, and E.L. is a practicing physician of Omaha, Neb.

P.S. ERNHOUT,
Lumber manufacturer, Wilcox, is a son of John Ernhout, was born in Ulster county, N.Y., February 4, 1851, and came to Elk county with his parents. He received a common- school education, and learned the tanner’s trade at the Wilcox Tannery. For five years he held the position of foreman of Osterhout’s tannery at Ridgway. He was in business with Mr. J.L. Brown in manufacturing lumber, and in 1882 became one of the members of the Rasselas Lumber Company, and has since had the management of that company. Mr. Ernhout is also interested in the oil business at Kane, Penn. In 1872 he married Miss Annie, daughter of Noah Merriam, of Onondaga county, N.Y. They have one child, Merriam. Mr. Ernhout is a member of Wilcox Lodge, No. 571, F. & A.M., and of the Sons of Temperance, No. 285, of Wilcox. He takes an active part in the temperance cause, and is chairman of the County Prohibition Committee. He has served as school director of Jones township. He is also an elder and trustee in the Wilcox Presbyterian Church.
Source: Page(s) 745-759, History of Counties of McKean, Elk and Forest, Pennsylvania. Chicago, J.H. Beers & Co., 1890.
Transcribed February 2007 by Nathan Zipfel for the Elk County Genealogy Project
Published 2007 by the Elk County Pennsylvania Genealogy Project

RICHARD BRENNEN,
Merchant in Wilcox, was born in Genesee county, N.Y., January 28, 1847. His parents, John and Mary Brennen, were natives of New York and Vermont, respectively. They were farmers by occupation and moved to Cattaraugus county, N.Y. The father was killed in an accident on the Erie Railroad about 1860. The mother died in Allegany, N.Y., in 1888. Mr. Brennen left Cattaraugus county, N.Y., at the age of eleven years and went to Wisconsin and followed lumbering for several years. He then returned to New York State and engaged in farming for a short time. In 1868 he first came to Elk county, but soon after moved to Jefferson county, Penn., and thence to Butler county, where he built a portion of the Low Grade Road, and where he. took the contract and built several miles of the Parker & Karns City road. He also resided in Corry, and owned forty village lots there. In 1875 he came to Wilcox, and purchased a farm and built fine trout ponds on the same, which are open to the public. He afterward built the Grant House in Wilcox and conducted the same for five years. February 1, 1889, he established his present general mercantile business. In 1874 he married Miss Lena Hedsnecker, of Jones township. They have four children: Fred, John, Charles and Sidney. Mr. Brennen is a supporter of the Republican party, and is a member of the Knights of the Maccabees, of Wilcox.
Source: Page(s) 745-759, History of Counties of McKean, Elk and Forest, Pennsylvania. Chicago, J.H. Beers & Co., 1890.
Transcribed February 2007 by Nathan Zipfel for the Elk County Genealogy Project
Published 2007 by the Elk County Pennsylvania Genealogy Project

STEPHEN E. WATSON,
liveryman, Glen Hazel, was born in Schoharie county, N.Y., February 13, 1854, and is a son of James K. and Catherine (Halleck) Watson. He was reared and educated in Delaware county, N.Y., and began life as a teamster, an occupation he followed in Delaware county six years. In 1874 Mr. Watson located at Moose River, Lewis Co., N.Y., where he learned the tanner’s trade, and worked at the same for three years. He then accepted a position as clerk in the tannery store, acting in that capacity during a period of four years. He then removed to Limestone, N.Y., where he was foreman in the tan- yard of Hoyt Brothers for one and a half years, and was then made superintendent of the Sterling Run Tannery, at. Sterling Run, Cameron county, a position he held for two years. He then had charge of the office and tannery of George L. Williams at Salamanca, N.Y., for one year, and in 1889 he moved to Glen Hazel, where he has a livery stable, and is doing a successful business. Mr. Watson married, October 11, 1874, Emma, daughter of Arthur Bull, of Delaware county, N.Y., and has one daughter, Mertie E. Mr. Watson is a member of the F. & A.M. and K.O.T.M.; in politics he is a Republican.

BENJAMIN WATSON,
a member of the firm of Watson Brothers, dealers in general merchandise, Glen Hazel, was born in Schoharie county, N.Y., July 9, 1858, and is a son of James K. and Catherine (Halleck) Watson. He was reared and educated in Delaware county, N.Y., and began life as a clerk in a general store at Moose river, Lewis county, N.Y., where he remained three years. Mr. Watson served in the same capacity at Albany, N.Y. for two years, and in 1883 he located in Salamanca, N.Y., where he held the position of book- keeper in the Salamanca Tannery for three and a half years. In March, 1888, he settled at Glen Hazel, and erected the first store in the place, there embarking in the mercantile business in company with his brother, R.J. Watson, of Limestone, N.Y. The brothers have built up a successful trade that is daily increasing. Our subject is postmaster at Glen Hazel, the post office having been established June 7, 1889. He married, in 1884, Mary, daughter of W.C. Palmer, of Salamanca, N.Y., and has one daughter, Evelyn M. He is an enterprising, public- spirited citizen, and in politics is a Republican.

Source: Page(s) 745-759, History of Counties of McKean, Elk and Forest, Pennsylvania. Chicago, J.H. Beers & Co., 1890.
Transcribed February 2007 by Nathan Zipfel for the Elk County Genealogy Project
Published 2007 by the Elk County Pennsylvania Genealogy Project