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Historic Tales of the Pennsylvania Wilds
With sixteen thousand miles of streams and rivers, twenty-nine state parks and nine state and national forests spread out over twelve counties, the Pennsylvania Wilds is an immensely special place in the Commonwealth. Beyond the stunning scenery lies important history of early America. A young George Washington traversed the expanse, cutting his teeth as a military leader. Violence between Native Americans and colonists in the territory left its bloody mark, from the Penn's Creek Massacre to the Great Cove Massacre. After the American Revolution, early settler families forged roots, built communities and developed the region into a patchwork of frontier towns. Through a series of richly compelling narratives, author Kathy Myers reveals the early history of the Pennsylvania Wilds.
- GenresHistory
208 pages, Paperback
Published May 10, 2021
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August 31, 2022
The motivation for this book is a love of a wonderland of pristine mountains and forest situated approximately 300 miles from Urban New York City. The Pennsylvania State and Federal government has over the years demonstrated remarkable wisdom by creating State and Federal parks and other sanctuaries that have preserved this unspoiled wilderness
Our author is a native of Elk County, Pa. and her ancestors have lived in this area for seven generations. What makes this book magical is the depth of her research and the skillful picture she paints about the early inhabitants of this land. The book opens with a quote, “Generations come, and generations go, but the earth lasts forever” This beautiful quote seems most appropriate for the area called Pennsylvania Wilds.
The Pennsylvania Wilds is a term used to describe thirteen northern Counties in Pennsylvania. This area covers one of the biggest blocks of green between New York City and Chicago with 2 million acres of breathtakingly beautiful public land. It has remained an area that our ancestors might recognize, except that some indian trails have been replaced by paved roads and some untouched areas have become developed.
Our author begins at the beginning, in 1681 when King Charles II granted a large piece of his North American land holdings along the North Atlantic Ocean coast to William Penn to pay the debts the king had owed to Penn's father. The grant included the present-day States of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Penn’s liberal views and his benevolent tolerance brought German, English, Scots, and Scot Irish to this land in the hope that they could be free of tyranny and religious persecution. But this land was already inhabited by a native people (Indians) who had lived in the area for millennia. Penn initially kept the peace by his artful handling of these native peoples. After his death and with the ever-increasing wave of Europeans flooding into the area, the push to displace the native population resulted in conflicts that became war.
Kathy Myers is not a historian, yet she described quite well the encroachment of the early settlers into the Pennsylvania Wilds and what life was like to live among the hostile native population.
She avoids getting bogged down in the minutiae of the French and Indian War but uses it to illustrate how the Wilds were fought over by the French, English and Indian population.
She tells stories about battles and names we recognize, like a young George Washington and American Generals like Braddock and Jeffrey Amherst. After a quick summary of the Revoluntary War, she focuses on how the conflict impacted the Wilds.
After the Colonist victory, land in the Wilds was made available to war veterans as a reward for their service. Many of these men and their families went deep into this wilderness to clear land, build homes and scratch out a living and the indian population fought savagely to stop this encroachment. The brutality of the fighting is graphically detailed by Meyers. The savagery existed on both side and involved woman and children were brutally murdered, mutilated and scalped.
As stated previously, Meyers is not a historian by trade, therefore this book does not have the normal trappings of historical text. But where she excels is in the telling of individual stories about the first people in the Wilds. Some of these stories are heart rendering and explicitly show how hard the life was in this remote wilderness in the late eighteenth century and at the start of the nineteenth century. Meyer extracted her stories from old newspapers and family records and verbal history, to an historian this qualifies as primary source material. Some family quotes are compelling, e.g. “One resident recalled living for weeks on dried apples and cornbread”. Another remembered “when the family was so short on food, they boiled pumpkin seeds”, while another family “lived on green corn for two weeks”. In some cases, they were forty or fifty miles from a settlement in which to buy supplies. Some journeys made for supplies were by water, but most often the trip was made by walking or horseback following an established indian trail through dangerous country, a return trip required the heavy hauling of the much needed supplies, some times on their back.
Meyers related a somewhat humorous story of a man out hunting and to his surprise he met another hunter. The two men sat and talked for a while, when one asked the other where he lived. The man said about 12 miles over the hill. When the hunter returned home, he told his wife to pack up because they were moving on, “because civilization was closing in on them”. This is funny, but it also demonstrated the independent spirit of these first settlers in the Wild.
Many of her stories are about men, woman and children who were captured by the Indians and lived among them for years. There were some who succumbed to the so-called Stockholm syndrome, where victims form emotional bonds with their captors primarily out of fear and therefore, they refuse to leave their life as captives. There are other stories about men and woman who do eventually escape captivity and they have very compelling stories to tell.
In the final part of her text, Meyers covers the history of seven of the Northern Counties of Pennsylvania. This is so well done and the reader wishes she could have covered all the rich history of the Counties in the Wild. The original Counties were quite large but over the years they were broken up into smaller Counties. The unanswered question is why were they broken up?
A few good examples of this practice are provided in Meyer’s histories of some of these Counties.
Jefferson County came into existence by an act of Assembly on March 26, 1804. Before the war of 1812; there were no roads just a few indian trails going East to West. Meyers includes a biographical sketch of Joseph Barnett who was the first settler in the County.
Cameron County was created in March 1860, it comprised 381 square miles and with only 5,085 inhabitants, it was the least-populated County in the Commonwealth. So, an answer to a question like why Cameron was created would have been of interest.
This book provides many interesting tales of Pennsylvania folk lore. The story of Elk in Elk County is quite fascinating. The original Elk herd in Pennsylvania had been exterminated by 1860 by hunters in search of food and farmers protecting their crops. In 1913, the reintroduction of Elk was accomplished by far sighted politicians who brought Elk to Pa. from the overpopulated elk herd in Colorado. Meyers expands on the story, and it is a feel-good experience.
Carrier pigeons once blanketed the skies of Pennsylvania in the millions. Pa. folklore tells us that the volume of birds could make the daytime sky turn black. Meyers remembers an elderly woman in her hometown of Ridgway who was the granddaughter of early pioneers in the Region. The elderly lady enjoyed talking about the days when the skies over this area of Pennsylvania were filled with passenger pigeons. Another eyewitness to these events was a Civil War veteran. He explained why the pigeons made such an impression on him, he said, “you’d think it was thunder rolling when the pigeons came flying in to eat the fallen mast”.
The term Witness Trees appeared in this book. This reviewer thought the term meant a tree that was alive and growing when a historical event took place. For instance, a tree that is still alive, yet was growing on the battlefield at Gettysburg. Meyers takes her definition much further and tells an interesting yet little-known story of trees used by Indians for messaging and direction. These trees mark the many Indian trails that pass through the Wilds, she includes a fascinating story about Witness Trees that still exist in the Wild and the continuing search for them.
Interesting characters abound in this book, two of whose exotic names quickly grab the readers interest they were Old Uncle Billy Long and the Seneca Chief, Cornplanter.
Old Uncle Billy Long was born in 1794 and was considered the legendary King Hunter of Northwestern Pa. The numbers of animals he killed is astounding. Old Uncle Billy was 95 when he died in 1889, He documented with his game book the staggering number of Bear, Deer, Elk, Panthers and Wolves he killed during his long life. His story is told by Meyers based on articles that appeared in the Clearfield County newspaper called "Progress". Meyers story makes the reader wonder why Old Uncle Billy’s name is not up there with the legendary names like Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett!
The warrior and Seneca Chief, Cornplanter fought for the French during the French and Indian was, he was present at the defeat of General Braddock at Fort Duquesne. Cornplanter was a wise man and he concluded that the Indian had no business taking sides in these white man wars. His focus became the protection of his people and the fight against broken treaties and the theft of Indian lands. He was born in 1732 and died in 1836 making him 104-year-old at his death. He travelled to Philadelphia and met with George Washington and Governor Mifflin in the hope of saving his people. He saw a lot of history during his long life and Meyer’s fills in the details with her interesting biographical sketch.
This book is chocked full of golden nuggets of Pennsylvania history. The narrative is provided in a compelling and skillful manner and unlike a history text full of raw data, this story is told with passion about the Pennsylvania Wilds where Kathy Meyers' family has lived for generations.
Our author is a native of Elk County, Pa. and her ancestors have lived in this area for seven generations. What makes this book magical is the depth of her research and the skillful picture she paints about the early inhabitants of this land. The book opens with a quote, “Generations come, and generations go, but the earth lasts forever” This beautiful quote seems most appropriate for the area called Pennsylvania Wilds.
The Pennsylvania Wilds is a term used to describe thirteen northern Counties in Pennsylvania. This area covers one of the biggest blocks of green between New York City and Chicago with 2 million acres of breathtakingly beautiful public land. It has remained an area that our ancestors might recognize, except that some indian trails have been replaced by paved roads and some untouched areas have become developed.
Our author begins at the beginning, in 1681 when King Charles II granted a large piece of his North American land holdings along the North Atlantic Ocean coast to William Penn to pay the debts the king had owed to Penn's father. The grant included the present-day States of Pennsylvania and Delaware. Penn’s liberal views and his benevolent tolerance brought German, English, Scots, and Scot Irish to this land in the hope that they could be free of tyranny and religious persecution. But this land was already inhabited by a native people (Indians) who had lived in the area for millennia. Penn initially kept the peace by his artful handling of these native peoples. After his death and with the ever-increasing wave of Europeans flooding into the area, the push to displace the native population resulted in conflicts that became war.
Kathy Myers is not a historian, yet she described quite well the encroachment of the early settlers into the Pennsylvania Wilds and what life was like to live among the hostile native population.
She avoids getting bogged down in the minutiae of the French and Indian War but uses it to illustrate how the Wilds were fought over by the French, English and Indian population.
She tells stories about battles and names we recognize, like a young George Washington and American Generals like Braddock and Jeffrey Amherst. After a quick summary of the Revoluntary War, she focuses on how the conflict impacted the Wilds.
After the Colonist victory, land in the Wilds was made available to war veterans as a reward for their service. Many of these men and their families went deep into this wilderness to clear land, build homes and scratch out a living and the indian population fought savagely to stop this encroachment. The brutality of the fighting is graphically detailed by Meyers. The savagery existed on both side and involved woman and children were brutally murdered, mutilated and scalped.
As stated previously, Meyers is not a historian by trade, therefore this book does not have the normal trappings of historical text. But where she excels is in the telling of individual stories about the first people in the Wilds. Some of these stories are heart rendering and explicitly show how hard the life was in this remote wilderness in the late eighteenth century and at the start of the nineteenth century. Meyer extracted her stories from old newspapers and family records and verbal history, to an historian this qualifies as primary source material. Some family quotes are compelling, e.g. “One resident recalled living for weeks on dried apples and cornbread”. Another remembered “when the family was so short on food, they boiled pumpkin seeds”, while another family “lived on green corn for two weeks”. In some cases, they were forty or fifty miles from a settlement in which to buy supplies. Some journeys made for supplies were by water, but most often the trip was made by walking or horseback following an established indian trail through dangerous country, a return trip required the heavy hauling of the much needed supplies, some times on their back.
Meyers related a somewhat humorous story of a man out hunting and to his surprise he met another hunter. The two men sat and talked for a while, when one asked the other where he lived. The man said about 12 miles over the hill. When the hunter returned home, he told his wife to pack up because they were moving on, “because civilization was closing in on them”. This is funny, but it also demonstrated the independent spirit of these first settlers in the Wild.
Many of her stories are about men, woman and children who were captured by the Indians and lived among them for years. There were some who succumbed to the so-called Stockholm syndrome, where victims form emotional bonds with their captors primarily out of fear and therefore, they refuse to leave their life as captives. There are other stories about men and woman who do eventually escape captivity and they have very compelling stories to tell.
In the final part of her text, Meyers covers the history of seven of the Northern Counties of Pennsylvania. This is so well done and the reader wishes she could have covered all the rich history of the Counties in the Wild. The original Counties were quite large but over the years they were broken up into smaller Counties. The unanswered question is why were they broken up?
A few good examples of this practice are provided in Meyer’s histories of some of these Counties.
Jefferson County came into existence by an act of Assembly on March 26, 1804. Before the war of 1812; there were no roads just a few indian trails going East to West. Meyers includes a biographical sketch of Joseph Barnett who was the first settler in the County.
Cameron County was created in March 1860, it comprised 381 square miles and with only 5,085 inhabitants, it was the least-populated County in the Commonwealth. So, an answer to a question like why Cameron was created would have been of interest.
This book provides many interesting tales of Pennsylvania folk lore. The story of Elk in Elk County is quite fascinating. The original Elk herd in Pennsylvania had been exterminated by 1860 by hunters in search of food and farmers protecting their crops. In 1913, the reintroduction of Elk was accomplished by far sighted politicians who brought Elk to Pa. from the overpopulated elk herd in Colorado. Meyers expands on the story, and it is a feel-good experience.
Carrier pigeons once blanketed the skies of Pennsylvania in the millions. Pa. folklore tells us that the volume of birds could make the daytime sky turn black. Meyers remembers an elderly woman in her hometown of Ridgway who was the granddaughter of early pioneers in the Region. The elderly lady enjoyed talking about the days when the skies over this area of Pennsylvania were filled with passenger pigeons. Another eyewitness to these events was a Civil War veteran. He explained why the pigeons made such an impression on him, he said, “you’d think it was thunder rolling when the pigeons came flying in to eat the fallen mast”.
The term Witness Trees appeared in this book. This reviewer thought the term meant a tree that was alive and growing when a historical event took place. For instance, a tree that is still alive, yet was growing on the battlefield at Gettysburg. Meyers takes her definition much further and tells an interesting yet little-known story of trees used by Indians for messaging and direction. These trees mark the many Indian trails that pass through the Wilds, she includes a fascinating story about Witness Trees that still exist in the Wild and the continuing search for them.
Interesting characters abound in this book, two of whose exotic names quickly grab the readers interest they were Old Uncle Billy Long and the Seneca Chief, Cornplanter.
Old Uncle Billy Long was born in 1794 and was considered the legendary King Hunter of Northwestern Pa. The numbers of animals he killed is astounding. Old Uncle Billy was 95 when he died in 1889, He documented with his game book the staggering number of Bear, Deer, Elk, Panthers and Wolves he killed during his long life. His story is told by Meyers based on articles that appeared in the Clearfield County newspaper called "Progress". Meyers story makes the reader wonder why Old Uncle Billy’s name is not up there with the legendary names like Daniel Boone and Davy Crockett!
The warrior and Seneca Chief, Cornplanter fought for the French during the French and Indian was, he was present at the defeat of General Braddock at Fort Duquesne. Cornplanter was a wise man and he concluded that the Indian had no business taking sides in these white man wars. His focus became the protection of his people and the fight against broken treaties and the theft of Indian lands. He was born in 1732 and died in 1836 making him 104-year-old at his death. He travelled to Philadelphia and met with George Washington and Governor Mifflin in the hope of saving his people. He saw a lot of history during his long life and Meyer’s fills in the details with her interesting biographical sketch.
This book is chocked full of golden nuggets of Pennsylvania history. The narrative is provided in a compelling and skillful manner and unlike a history text full of raw data, this story is told with passion about the Pennsylvania Wilds where Kathy Meyers' family has lived for generations.
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