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Marschner, AJ Roulette hist 19630807 news_PottEnt

20210530HAv- https://www.newspapers.com/clip/78612068/roulette-pioneer-days-recounted-by-aj/#

Roulette Pioneer Days Recounted by A.J. Marschner, Late Historian
CLIPPED FROM
The Potter Enterprise
Coudersport, Pennsylvania
07 Aug 1963, Wed • Page 13
BYwetzupdoc · 30 May 2021

WEDNESDAY, AUG. 7. 1963
THE POTTER ENTERPRISE
Pioneer Days In Roulette Area Recounted By Late Historian
(The following was written by the , late A. J. Marschner of Roulette RD after much research and years of verification.)
Names And Settlements
A little more than a hundred and thirty yars ago (up to 1804) the section comprising Roulet (not Roulette) township was a part of Lycoming County and later (1810) was a part of the then organized single township, named Eulalia for Major Isaac Lyman's daughter, Eulalia, the first white child born in Potter County organized in 1804 and named in honor of General James Potter, a general in the Revolutionary War.
Roulet township up to the beginning of the nineteenth century was still a vast unbroken wilderness whose valleys and hills were covered with dense evergreen forests of virgin pine and hemlock, interspersed with deciduous hardwood, chiefly of beech and maple. Many wild flowers, berries, nuts, edible plants, herbs, shrubs, vines and grasses of different kinds were found in open spaces in season. Most of the birds of the present were found here, besides the carrier pigeon (now extinct) which in their seasonal flights flew in such dense bevies so as to p.aclically obscure the sun for many minutes at a time. The Allegheny river abounded with the f nest of fish and the creeks and brooks were full of speckled beauties. The fish otter still was plentiful, the last one being caught near the Burtville Mill dam by that noted nimrod and trapper, Leroy Lyman, in ths early eighties of the last century. Many black bear ambled about, panthers still lu'ked, and wolves prowled around, elk were still found, and the Virignia deer were very plentiful so plentiful were they that they were a nuisance as now at times. It is told that one George Wiederieh, a boy pioneer at the time, killed a deer that was poaching in the family garden which was a little distance to the rear of the present Chauncey B. Goodrich residence in Roulette Village, wilh a shoe. Few. If any white travelers ever had wandered here except possibly the visit of the missionary David Zeisburger with his two Indians in the autumn of 1767 on his trip from Bradford county to Tionesta, and the traditional visit of William Penn and his companions if they made the trip) along the Allegheny from its mouth at Pittsburgh to its source near Rose Lake in Potter county. Roulet township up to the time of the Urn of the last century was the hunting ground solely of the roving Indian. Such was this section of Potter county embracing Roulet township when the "East and West road," later the Coudersport and Port Al- DANCE Every TUESDAY and FRIDAY SENECA INN Port Allegany Listen to ... LOCAL NEWS CAPSULE Daily from .4:35-4: 10 P. M. Sponsored By Area's Nationwide Insurance Agents Tune In METERS Coudersport 600 On Your Dial CLEARANCE On All SUMMER SPORTSWEAR YARN legany highway and today known as Roosevelt Boulevard and U.S. Hichway No. 6 was sponsored by John Keating of the Keating Land company of Philadelphia and surveyed by Joseph Williams of Wil-hamsport and the Job of opening given to Major Isaac Lyman of Tioga county in the year 1808. The opening given to Major Isaac Lyman of Tioga county in the year 18JH. The opening of th s highway called road them brought in pros-per.tois, among them Benjamin Burt of Chemung county, that year. In 1810 he came again and settled on a tract of laud in the confines of the present hamlet of Burtville. Ke cleared some land 'probably belonging to Ray O. Weimer now) and raised some corn which he stored in a split-pine storehouse in the fall, then returned to his home near Elm ra. The spring of the fo'lowing year (1811) he returned with h's wife,. Mercy (Ricky) Burt, and their son Elisha and daughter Joana, arriving May 4 of that year only to find squirrels had gnawed into his pine storehouse and stolen all of his corn. To get more corn he 'as obliged to return to his old home which he did. The season was poor for crops that year and the family fared badly. His father-in-law, Isarel Ricky, hearing of the family's plight, sent a load of provisions to the Burts. Undaunted however, the Burt family remained steadfast and became the first settlers of the present township of. Roulet and the founder of the third settlement in Potter county. Incidentally, sometime later, in 1811, another son, named John Keating, was born to the family. He was the first male white child born in what now is Potter county and the hamlet which the family founded became Burtville. In the same year (1811), Solomon Walker settled . at the mouth of Fishing Creek (named for its good fishing then as now, no doubt) but did not stny. In 1812. we find John Lyman, oldest son of Major Isaac Lyman (before mentioned) settled unon what is now the W. G. Van-Kuren farm located near the John Lyman cemetery which Mr. Lyman established and which was named for him. About this time, William Wattles acquired land within the present limits of Roulette Village which he sold to Burrel Lyman, the second Large Bath Towels 59 Value 3 1.00 Stamped son of Major Isaac Lyman, who settled on the land in 1813 and who now is regarded the rightful founder of the present village. Soon thereafter, one Obediah Sartwell, a blacksmith, who first settled within the original town site of Coudersport, moved from that place and settled at the mouth of the stream west of the Benjamin Burt place, in McKean County which stream took his name, becoming Sartwell Creek as well as the valley in Roulet Township through which this stream flows. A new township (a sub-division of Eulalta) was organized in 1813 to be called Roulet, named for John Sigismund Roulet of Philadelphia, an associate of John Keating Land Company of that city. So .too, about this time, the three Streeter families, Jacob, Truman and another Streeter brother came to the township and located within the confines of the present village of Roulette near the confluence of Fishing Creek and the Allegheny. Here the Slreeters erected a sawmill and remained (until the German immigrants, Jacob Wiederieh and George Weimer and families bought the Streeter lands) and their settlement was named "Street-ertown" and continued to be so called until the influx of a great number of German families about the year 1850 when the name "Streetertown" was dropped and the settlement was called "Dutch-town" for many years thereafter. Russel Reed Sr., the founder of the Reed settlement in the eastern part of the township along the "East and West Road," came and settled there in 1823. Reed Run was named for Mr. Reed. Subsequently, Chadlos Ellsworth settled at the mouth of the stream known as Trout Brook, and named, no doubt, from the great numbers of brook trout in the stream and the little valley extending northward from the river through which the small stream flows, took its name. Theobold Lanininger was the first settler on the stream which bears his name and from which the cor-tjpted name, Laningar, the valley is called. His small one-story, gable log house, long since gone, was located near a spring, some distance east from th present highway on what now is the land of Mrs. Kearon Fitzsimmons. They say the house was just north of the Fitzsimmons south line. It has been stated that the road to the Ltanininger place was from the present Pomeroy place south over a low hill between the two places. Mr. Lanininger was a one-arm man and the father of these sons: David, Henry, George, Michael, Martin, Fred, Louis ' and a daughter, Margaret. He probably settled (as nearly as can be ascertained) in the 1830's and remained for a time, leaving on the influx of the German families, some time around 1850, and his granddaughter, Mrs. L. M. Reed of Clifford, Wis., tells us' the family finally setled in her state around the 'year 1870. ' ' ' It is claimed ' that Reubin Card Sr. and Polly Ann (Coburn) Card and family came via Hebron settlement to Roulet Township, took up land near the mouth of the stream which empties into the south side of the Allegheny about a mile east of Burtville, and were the first settlers of Card Creek in the 1830's. By others, including the late John C. French Sr., pioneer, it is claimed that Reubin Card Sr.'s son Benjamin Card and his wife Louisa (Grimes) Card, first settled at the mouth of the stream which bears his name in the 1840's. There are facts confirming this contention. The Benjamin Card place consists of 90 acres whereas Reubin Card had but 10 acres which seems to have been carved from the foregoing Benjamin Card place tract and the latter place separates Reubin Card Sr.'s place of 10 acres on its east side from his 50 acre (Root) lot on the west of the Benjamin Card place from which 50 acre lot the Card Creek cemetery vjpsi carved. Had Reubin Card Sr. been the first settler, it would seem he would have settled on the Benjamin Card place because of its position, acreage in a body, its shorter distance to Burtville and the "East and West Highway" known at that time as the "Coudersport and Port Allegany Road." Undiscovered data may settle this contention someday. Suffice to say now, however, a Card first settled on the stream which is called Card Creek. Ole Hanson and his wife Oliva (Everson) Hanson, settled on what is now the Alice (Purdy) Kibbie place in 1861. This branch of Sartwell Creek thenceforth has 1 been known as Hanson Hollow, tak ing its name from its first permanent settler, Ole Hanson. Pep-I I ' 1

Clipping location on The Potter Enterprise page 13
wetzupdoc Member Photo
CLIPPED BY
wetzupdoc · 30 May 2021

CLIPPED FROM
The Potter Enterprise
Coudersport, Pennsylvania
07 Aug 1963, Wed • Page 13
BYwetzupdoc · 30 May 2021

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