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WHO WAS - John H. Alcorn
in Plum Township
Venango County, Pennsylvania
By H. W. Strawbridge

John H. Alcorn, a well known Plum resident, was born in Cherrytree Township, May 22, 1828, a son of John and Elizabeth Mitchell Alcorn. He was the ninth of 10 children.

James Alcorn, grandfather of John H., had come from Tyrone County, Ireland, to the United States shortly after 1800, and finally settled in northwestern Cherrytree Township in 1811.
The Alcorns were originally of Scotch lineage. Family history states that King James V of Scotland and his courtiers came upon a rich man's plantation while hunting, and received a most cordial welcome. The man opened his granary to the horses of the king's party. The king, having been so well entertained, bestowed the name of "All Chorine" (corn) upon the host. The name eventually was shortened to "Alcorn." Also, some of the clan moved into Ireland, from which place the ancestor of the Alcorn family members of this area came to America.
For a few years prior to 1820, John and Elizabeth Alcorn, parents of John H., had been in Pittsburgh where he was in the house building business. He constructed the first four buildings in Allegheny City. He died July 6, 1865 of cancer.
John H. Alcorn, our subject, was reared on the Cherrytree Township farm and received a common school education. When born, he was given the name, John Alcorn - same as his father's. As a young man he adopted the "H" as his middle initial which custom he kept until his death.
In 1852 John bought 107 acres in eastern Plum Township for $709.37. It is said he rode horseback to Pittsburgh, having been there about a week, to complete the deal in buying this place. It is the present farm of Mr. and Mrs. Claude McCurdy.
The next year, 1853, John bought a 57-acre piece nearby and kept it for nearly 16 years, selling it in 1874 to John D. Grove.

On April 3, 1855, John was married to Miss Adelia VanDresser with Rev. Ahab Keller, pastor of the Cooperstown Methodist Circuit, officiating. Adelia was born Sept. 25, 1837, in Allegheny County, N. Y., and a daughter of Abram and Jerusha Perham VanDresser. She was the first born of five children. The VanDresser moved from New York State to the northwest corner of Stone Springhouse Corners, Cherrytree Township, when Adelia was a little girl. The VanDressers were of Holland descent, while the Perhams (Adelia's mother's side of the family) had French in them. Adelia taught a term or two of school before her marriage to John H. Alcorn.
There was a big chestnut orchard below the house, and John left several chestnuts in the meadows for bearing. The farm contained mostly chestnut, maple and oak. There were no evergreens, such as pine and hemlock.
John planted two grand apple orchards. He bought the seedlings from an agent. When the trees began bearing there were 18 Northern Spy trees, many Baldwin, Rhode Island Greening, Russet trees, besides a number of others. John gave a lot of apples away, and also sold many. A recorded incident was in the fall of 1881 when he brought some fine Red Astrachan and Early Harvest apples to the marked of Shank, Miller & Co., of Titusville. John said at the time that a number of his trees would net him from 2 to 3 dollars that month. He said he had set the trees two rods apart, making 40 trees to the acre.
John and Adelia had three children: Mrs. Harriet DeEtta Thomas, born Feb. 25, 1856; Mrs. Mary Roena Hirst, born Christmas Day, 1859; and Miss Sylvia Imelda Alcorn, born March 4, 1867.

Etta had taught at the old Fairview School prior to her marriage. She married John R. Thomas in the Sunville Presbyterian Church on Feb. 21, 1878. People who attended stated they were one of the nicest looking couples ever wed there. She had golden hair and weighed 130 pounds. They lived at Sunville awhile, and also built a house on John's farm next to the woods by the road south of Goodwin's Corners. She died Sept. 9, 1897 of a malignant ailment. They had two children - Mrs. Elsa Kough of 720 W. Elm St., Titusville, and Clifford Thomas who died in 1951 in the West. Mrs. Kough well remembers her grandparents Alcorn and recalls much history about them.
Mary married Harry Hirst at Niagara Falls on June 28, 1887. He was a Civil War veteran. Mary had also been a schoolteacher. After teaching, she worked at sewing and dressmaking in Titusville. She and Harry lived in the first house on the right hand side across the Franklin Street Bridge. They moved out to the Alcorn home just a very few months before the disastrous Fire and Flood of June 1892. Mr. Hirst died in 1922, and Mary died in Titusville on November 7, 1944, having been afflicted with rheumatism and a heart condition her last years.
Sylvia never married. She learned shorthand from W. H. Carpenter of Wallaceville. On May 25, 1892 she left for Los Angeles where she became employed as a stenographer and typist in a law firm. She also worked in a bank once and at another time for a doctor during her remaining life out there. She made two or three visits back here, the last one in 1899. She had also studied Spanish. She died February 18, 1947, and was buried in the Forest Lawn Memorial Park, Glendale, California, reputed to be America's most beautiful Memorial Park. In that park are three dedicated churches, all interdenominational. Sylvia's service was held in one, "The Little Church of the Flowers."
John H. Alcorn was a tall, somewhat thin man. He had quite a beard. He was very generous, a good visitor and had many acquaintances. He always kept a diary and was a great reader. Politics were most interesting to him, and he always took a deep interest in the affairs of the township.
He served several terms as a school director - during the latter 1860's and 1870's, and again the early years of this century. Once he and Stephen Morse of Chapmanville, another director, had quite a time with the other directors in keeping the Sunville School District debt free from the township. This was after the Borough of Sunville was incorporated. The two were successful for some years anyway, in keeping the township free from the dept of the building of the academy.
John leased the land on which the Fairview School stood, as it was on the southeast corner of his farm. This lease was still in effect a few years after John's death. It terminated when the school burned down in 1924.
John also served as Plum Assessor from 1893 until 1901. He drove over the entire township each year in this duty.
He also served as the Wallaceville Postmaster from December 1892 until December 1904, when Laverne L. Chase succeeded him. John never spent actual time in the post office, which was in the Wallaceville Store. He always engaged somebody else to look after the post office, such as Colonel Long, the storekeeper. Another time he had Hile Russell tend to it.
John Alcorn was the instrumental worker in getting a rural free delivery route established from Titusville out through the Breedtown, Fairview and Hamilton Corners areas towards Wallaceville, around the turn of the century. This was Route 3 Titusville. Paul Olson was the first carrier. Other carriers in the earlier years were Charles Olson and Walter Tryon.
He was also a longtime member of the Cherrytree Grange.

John often would be out by the road and call somebody in for dinner. Lots of company called at the Alcorn home. During hunting seasons, Judge Taylor of Franklin would come up with his bird dog, stay a few days and hunt. Also some Osmer boys from Franklin came to hunt. Other people who would come for lengthy visits were some of the Hirst family members from Buffalo.
Something else that John took a great interest in was the Fairview Cemetery. He was a pusher in good upkeep of this burial ground. He was the one who ordered several hydrangeas and oversaw the planting of them in the cemetery. These bushes still grow and bloom there.
Mrs. Adelia Alcorn was a small woman, weighing less than 100 pounds. She was indeed a busy woman. She made soft soap and candles. She was noted as a fine cook, and when dinner was ready she rang the dinner bell for all to come. There was always a hired man to cook for. She had a sweet voice and liked to sing.
She was a longtime member of the Wallaceville M. E. Church. Rev. L. B. Southworth, pastor, who preached her funeral sermon, read these words as a small part of his tribute towards her: "Mrs. Alcorn was a consistent member of the Wallaceville M. E. Church for 55 years. She was true and faithful, and has now gone to receive the Crown of Life that Jesus promised to them that endure unto the end."
Inscribed in the large Bible which reposes on the pulpit of the Wallaceville Church today is the following: "Bequeathed to the Wallaceville Methodist Episcopal Church by Adelia VanDresser Alcorn who was a member of this church 55 years. Mrs. Alcorn was born in Hume, Allegheny Co., N.Y., in 1837, died near Wallaceville, Venango Co., in 1917."
She died on the evening of March 2, 1917. She had taken sick with the grippe a few weeks previous and declined until her death. At the time of her death, John was critically ill with the grippe too, besides complications of old age, and he died in the early morning of March 28 - only 26 days after her death. He was buried in the Fairview on the afternoon of the 30th. It was a fact the John got the grippe maybe two or three times a year. He was very susceptible to it.

Transcribed by Dewaine Alcorn
dialcorn@alltel.net

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