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WHO WAS WHO in PLUM TOWNSHIP
Titusville Herald – March 14, 1960
By H. W. Strawbridge

Susan Clark


Mrs. Susan Clark was born east of the mountains in central Pennsylvania on Dec. 27, 1818. She was one of seven children of Benjamin and Mary Bierly Ross. As a baby, Susan was baptized in a Lutheran Church. They were of Holland Dutch descent.
The family moved from Pennsylvania to Trumbull County, O., in or prior to 1822. After living there a few years they moved back to Pennsylvania. It is said they settled on what is now Kightlinger’s Corners, a mile east of Diamond. They lived here in a covered wagon until trees could be cut for a log house. They raised flax and Mrs. Ross carded and spun wool. Record states that the Benjamin Ross family also lived a few years on a tract of land northwest of Diamond. This was in the 1830’s. While Susan was growing up, a certain young fellow named William Proper would take apples to her. Her brothers teased her about William. She claimed at first that she didn’t like him. She must have soon changed her mind because they got married, probably in 1838 or 39.
William was one of several children of Joseph and Rebecca Beers Proper at Diamond. At that time Joseph was said to be the richest man in Plum Township. William may have been a small man in size, but it isn’t known for sure because he’s been dead for such a long time.
William and Susan lived on the present Homestead Farm. Their log house then sat near a spring in what is now the front pasture. When William’s father died in 1842, he willed this 100-acre place to William. However, when William died in 1845, he was assessed for 200 acres. He evidently acquired another 100 acres.
William died June 15, 1845, of typhoid fever. He and Susan had four daughters, the last one having been born a few months after her father’s death. They were: Nancy Proper, 1840; Mary Proper, 1842; Elizabeth Proper, 1844; and Rebecca Jane Proper, 1846. Nancy was married to William Luce of this area and they lived several years southeast of Diamond before moving to Lake Wilson, Minn., where she died about 1912. They had four children, all of whom are deceased. Mary was married to Benjamin Cleland, They lived at Fagundus for several years before moving to New York State. She died at Jamestown, N.Y., on Sept. 8, 1915. They had eight children, only one of whom is now living – Mrs. Mattie Johnson. Elizabeth never married. She died of diphtheria at the home of her sister, Mrs. Cleland, in Fagundus in February or March 1863. She was often called “Lizzie”. Incidentally, her share of her father’s estate wasn’t fully settled and county officials squandered some $400 of it. Rebecca married H.H. Jennings, of Chapmanville in 1865. He died in 1880 and she later married John Lindsey. After his death some years later she married again, to John Buckley. Rebecca died Sept. 9, 1919, in Meadville. By her first marriage there were seven children, the only one now living being Mrs. May Morse of Chapmanville.

Shortly after William Proper’s death, Susan and her daughters moved less than half a mile straight south to what was called the Kuhns house, which was bigger and better. It, too, sat beside a spring which still flows water in the present back pasture of the farm.
Susan met John L. Cheney who came to Plum township about 1847 from Chautauqua County, N. Y. It may have been that year or the next that they were married. It is said that Susan was out in the field raking hay with a wooden hand rake when John arrived and asked her to marry him right then. She consented, went to the house, took a bath, dressed up and they went somewhere to be wed. After the ceremony she came back, put on her old clothes and finished raking her hay! John may have been of Irish descent. It is thought he was a tall man. While they lived at the Kuhns house, John cut down pine trees and made shingles by hand. John died about 1863. Six children were born to this union, as follows: Almira Cheney, Samuel Cheney, Clarissa Cheney, Benjamin Cheney, Anna Cheney and Levi Cheney. Almira was married to Joseph M. Proper, a Civil War veteran. They lived in Diamond where she died on June 2, 1882. They had three children, all of whom are deceased. Samuel married Miss Susie Briggs, and they lived the main portion of their married life at Luce’s Corners, a distance north of Chapmanville. Samuel died April 28, 1939. They had three children, the only living one being Mrs. Ethel Marsh who lives in Troy Center. Clarissa married David Burke, a native of Alabama, and they lived at Bradford. Clarissa died suddenly at the home of her brother, Benjamin, in Chapmanville on May 31, 1880. They had two children who are deceased. Benjamin married Miss Emma Blanchard of near Maple Hill. They lived for years at Chapmanville before moving away. Ben died Nov. 5, 1906, at Robinson, Ill. Where he was employed. They had two children, one of whom, Carl Cheney, is living at Meadville. Anna married Sidney Winslow. They lived in this area for a few years before departing to Ohio. She died at Siberling, O., on April 6, 1924. They had three children, all now deceased. Levi, the youngest, married Miss Cynthia Reynolds. They mainly lived at Meadville where he died in 1940, being the last survivor of Susan’s children. They had two children, one of whom, Mrs. Matie Schnauber, lives at Meadville.
After John Cheney died Susan worked by the day husking corn to earn a living for her family. She also carded and spun wool, spun flax, knitted and quilted. She made many items, such as woolen blankets, socks etc., and sold them. She worked a lot for the Ira Goodwin family. In fact she was the midwife when the Goodwin twins, Daniel B. and Andrew W., were born on July 22, 1869. Susan was often called upon to serve as a midwife. She also worked for an Alcorn family in that area. She called them “All corn”. She was as industrious a woman as one could find in those pioneer times. She had helped her husbands to roll logs on heaps for burning. She made her own soap by the old custom of putting wood ashes in barrels, the bottoms of which had sticks and straw laid in so the lye water could flow out the bottom better. She used to bring ashes over to Morse’s ashery in Chapmanville to have celeratus made. She would say that she was taking ashes over to “Moss town” (Meaning Morse town). She had a plain Dutch accent. She also made chewing gum from pine pitch for her girls to chew. Susan was rather short and of average size. She wasn’t heavy, nor was she thin. She was somewhat jolly and made special effort to cheer a gloomy person up. She more often did her visiting by walking back and forth rather than by horseback or carriage.
It has been said that the Cheney family lived awhile in a log house that once stood across the road from the Diamond Cemetery. It is known that Susan lived during the mid and latter 1880’s in a house which once sat at the northern end of the present township gravel bank.
On Aug. 24, 1864, Doe and Smith of Diamond made an oil lease with Susan on 10 acres. Her land adjoined the creek. Mentioned in the lease is a rafting channel in the creek. There is no record of what was the outcome of any drilling, if there was any drilling.
About 1870 Susan married Benjamin Clark of Titusville. He was commonly called “Ezra” Clark. He had operated a grocery store on the corner of Spring and Spruce streets. After their marriage they moved into Chapmanville in a one-story house that stood immediately back of the present Floyd Ray house.
Susan had been an early member of the Diamond United Brethren Church. After the last marriage she and Ezra joined the Chapmanville Methodist Church which hadn’t been organized very long. They remained members of this church until Ezra’s death in March, 1880. He died at the Samuel Cheney home at Luce’s Corners. Sometime after his death Susan transferred her membership back to the Diamond Church and remained a consistent Christian and Faithful member of that church until her death. After her daughter, Mrs. Almira Proper, died in 1882, Susan kept house for her son-in-law, Mr. Proper, for four years. She also worked at the homes of Henry Ross and John Lindsay.
Her granddaughter, Mrs. May Morse of Chapmanville, has a red and light colored quilt that her grandmother made. She also has a hammer and a small wooden box that belonged to her grandmother. In fact Susan’s father, Benjamin Ross, made these two things for her. Mrs. Morse keeps eggs in the box now. She says her mother kept salt in it, and her grandmother kept clothespins in it. Another granddaughter, Mrs. Ethel Marsh of Troy Center, possesses a black, bound Bible which belonged to her grandmother.
For a while in 1896, Susan worked for her granddaughter, Mrs. Susan Camp. After receiving her pay she bought black material and her daughter-in-law, Mrs. Levi Cheney, made a black dress. It was two years later that Susan was buried in this very dress. Mrs. Susan Clark maintained her home during her last years at the home of her son, Samuel Cheney, at Luce’s Corners. She always possessed good health, except for a lengthy stomach ailment from which she fully recovered years before.
During the fall of 1898, Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Cheney went to Westfield, N.Y., to work in the grape country. Their daughter, Ethel, and a lad named Burdell Huckleberry remained at home with Susan.
Susan, nearly 80, still kept busy. She had carried in potatoes, cut corn, milked the cows, etc. In fact, while milking, she was kicked over twice by a cow shortly before her last sickness. On Thursday evening, Oct. 13, Susan ate a cucumber which caused indigestion. The next day she became very sick and Ethel sent Burdell to Chapmanville for the doctor. Soon both Drs. W.H. Quay and W.J. Richey came. By that time the elderly lady was in extreme pain from the cramps of indigestion. A telegram was sent to Cheneys at Westfield and Sam came back by horse and buggy, while his wife came by train. She beat him home by one hour. Mrs. Clark died on Thursday, Oct. 20. The funeral occurred the following Saturday afternoon in the Diamond United Brethren Church with Rev. T.E. Evans officiating. Interment was beside her three husbands and daughter Elizabeth, in the Diamond Cemetery.

Transcribed by Penny Kulbacki Minnick
minnick862@verizon.net

Disclaimer:there may be errors due to transcription of information from both early and late (current contributors) work.