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WHO WAS - John Strawbridge
in Plum Township
Venango County, Pennsylvania
By Howard Strawbridge

John Strawbridge, a son of Benjamin and Elvira Sheffield Strawbridge, was born Dec. 17, 1831, over a mile east of Wallaceville. His birthplace was the humble log cabin, and he was the second of a family of eleven children.

John and his brothers and sisters attended the Fairview School and carried a well-filled basket that held half a bushel. He and his brother Charles often played with neighbor's boys to the north - Andrew, Jacob Jr. and Jackson Proper, sons of the original Jacob Proper. They played hide-and-seek, sometimes hiding under a part of the old Proper barn that was raised off the ground a short ways.
Certain neighbors to the south were Samuel and Hannah Tracy Richey. Their oldest daughter was Clarissa Ellen Richey, born on May 23, 1846. John, who was several years older than Ellen, as she was called, used to bounce the little girl on his knee, and later he carried her piggy-back to school through the deep snow.
Thus it was a few years later, on Thursday, Jan. 8, 1863, that these two wee united in the bonds of holy matrimony at the Richey home with Rev. W. C. Burchard, a Presbyterian minister, officiating.
They began housekeeping in a large log house a mile east of Diamond. This was on 38 acres that John bought from David Kightlinger for $500 in November 1860. John lived there in bachelor style a couple of years prior to his marriage. This is the place now owned by Mrs. Edith Strawbridge.
John also farmed more than 90 acres a short distance west of his place. His father had bought over 180 acres out of the huge Huidekoper Tract in 1853 and he turned over the operation of the west half to John, and the east half to Charles (John's brother. In 1874 the father gave a deed to each son for his respective acreage. Both John and Charles had oxen during those early years.
When John was a young man, he and his brother-in-law, John Prather, went to Minnesota one summer and were employed to cut hay with scythes. There were several other men working in the field too. One day all the men were walking in at noon for dinner. One of the men spotted a rattlesnake and he killed it by holding it down with his scythe while the snake cut itself to death by coiling around the blade. They walked on in, thinking nothing more of the little incident. While in there the men also sharpened their scythes. Being a hot day, they sweated considerably. The particular fellow who had killed the snake would sharpen his blade then wipe the sweat off his face with his hand. Later he took violently ill and died after terrible suffering. It was discovered that he had a sore on his lip. While wiping the sweat off his face, he had unknowingly rubbed the poisonous venom he got on his hands while sharpening the scythe, into this sore.
John and his neighbor, David Kightlinger, used to team and haul oil in the mid 1860's. They would get up in the very early hours of the morning, harness their teams, hitch them to wagons, and set out for Pithole.
John Strawbridge was at least of average height but was a very broad and heavy man, weighing from 260 to 270 pounds. He was a very strong man. He could easily lift the wheel of an old style threshing machine off the ground. One time during the oil boom days a man driving by with his team and load of barrels of oil stopped at John's for some reason. The stranger complained of what a heavy load he was hauling. John stepped up to a wheel, grabbed a spoke with each hand, lifted the wheel off the ground and said: "Oh, you haven't got such a heavy load." That ended the stranger's complaining.
John was a very useful citizen, a good neighbor and honest. However, he was a man who meant business, and what he said was law. Nobody wanted to cross him up. If he did, it was best to "make tracks." One time John attended a service at the East Troy Church. At that time an open front porch extended across the front. While John was standing on the porch talking to some people, a smart aleck stepped up and knocked John's brand new hat off, sailing it into the yard. John took one swing with his fist and sent the offender right out with the hat.
At another time, years later while settling up his late father's estate, he met a certain gentleman relative on the road below the old Fairview School. They were each in their buggies and they stopped to talk. The conversation must have become tense because the relative sauced John. John started to step out of his buggy and said: "I'll fix you." However, the relative laid the lines to his horse and got out.
John tried smoking a pipe when young. But each time he would lift something he would grit his teeth and bite off the stem of the pipe, so he gave up the pipe idea. Instead he chewed "Climax" tobacco.
John and Ellen attended the former Fairview Methodist Church. One cold Sunday they arrived at church and the janitor must have slipped up because the church was cold inside. John stepped up to the lukewarm stove where others were standing, put his hat on top of the stove and told them he was "putting his hat on the stove to keep the stove warm!"
John and Ellen had eight children, all of whom were born in the large log house. Their names and years of birth were as follows: Mrs. Ann Tracy Beatty (1863), Mrs. Sarah Jane Daniels (1855), William James Strawbridge (1867), Herman Laverne Strawbridge (1869), Mrs. Sylvia Mae Alcorn (1871), Mrs. Bertha Myrtle Crowley (1872), Samuel Benjamin Strawbridge (1878), and Mrs. Emma Blanche Sterns (1879).
Ann first married Lorenzo L. Tracy, commonly known as "Lole" Tracy, in 1884. He died of typhoid fever in 1896 and she later married Marvin Beatty. Ann died in 1933 and is buried at Franklin.
Jane married Lester Daniels in 1893, and they lived the remainder of their years near Wallaceville on a portion of the old Strawbridge farm there. He died in 1957, aged 89, having been the last survivor of the eight children.
Herman married Gay Mallory in 1893, and they first lived east of Diamond before moving to Hamilton's Corners. They last lived at Franklin where his death occurred in 1940.
Sylvia married A. R. Alcorn in 1888, and they lived first in Diamond where he conducted a store. They moved in 1908 to the state of Nebraska where they spent the rest of their lives. She died in 1949.
Myrtle married Patrick J. Crowley in 1905, and they remained lifelong residents of Titusville. He was a street commissioner for years. Their residence was on Fleming Road. Her death took place in 1950.
Ben married Edith Markley in 1900 and they lived their entire married life on his parents' farm. Ben died in 1955. Mrs. Edith Strawbridge still lives on the old place and is the only living one of the eight sons-in-law and daughters-in-law of John Strawbridge.
Blanch married Frank Sterns in 1910, and they first lived in Titusville. Then they moved out on a farm on Route 8 near Cherrytree. They last lived near East Troy. She died in the Titusville hospital in 1927.
One day in 1881 or 82 the oldest daughter, Ann, took her little brother Ben, who was then 3 or 4 years old, for a walk into the woods a distance southwest of the buildings. While walking through the woods she suddenly gave a cry, grabbed Ben and ran out fast as she could, fairly dragging Ben. She claimed she saw a snake as large as a fence rail. She hurried home and told her father. He got his shotgun and they went back to the spot in the woods but they couldn't find it. Strangely, 45 or 46 years later a four-year old great grandson of John (not this writer) walked into the same woods and saw a snake as large as a fence rail. He, too, took out on high.
John was remembered as once having bought a red shorthorn cow from Grandison W. Grove in the 1880's. She was a good producer. John also kept pigs for their pork. He would go to the woods once in a while, bring back a rotten piece of an old stump and throw it into the pig yard, claiming there was some nutrient in it that was good for hogs.
He and his brother Charles used to haul loads of hay to Titusville and sell them. John never put up timothy hay while the blossom was on it. He claimed it was not good for cattle. He and a neighbor, Grove Guild, once managed quite a feat in haying. One day they filled John's south mow full of hay to the beam. This took some pitching. John pitched it off and Grove moved it back.
The Strawbridge home always had a cordial reception for visitors. Many people stopped in at mealtimes. One day Mrs. Strawbridge and Ann prepared dinner for 22 people! Mrs. Strawbridge was a kindly, generous woman and was a favorite to all. She worked hard. Among her many household duties she used to knit socks from carpet warp for her sons. She also made a lot of rag rugs. A few years ago, when a lad asked Ben (her youngest son) what kind of a woman was his mother, his reply was simple but of full meaning - "There were none better."
In 1881 John had a new one-story frame house built, hiring Amos Hancox to carpenter it. This was built right against the East Side of the log house; hence the family had more room. Incidentally, the family also had a cellar house immediately northeast of the combination log-frame house.
It was in either 1881 or 82 that John broke his leg one day when a log rolled against it. This work took place back in his section of the woods that would now be the rear portion of the large field owned by Charles Stevenson. A doctor came out and he bungled the job of setting the leg. Instead of setting it so the broken bones met squarely, he set it so that one edge just barely touched the opposite edge of the broken bone. That's the way it healed and it bothered him the rest of his life. During his last days he had to walk with a light hickory cane which is still possessed by a great grandson, this writer.
In 1883, John's neighbor, O. E. Shriver, built a new house on his (Shriver's) farm just back of John's land, which was quite a distance from the road. Many neighbors held a "bee" and cleaned out stumps and brush for a new lane to extend back to Oren's place. Came dinner, and all sat down to a large table on the edge of the woods. John Strawbridge sat beside another neighbor, Jared Kightlinger. John hadn't taken off his hat and Jared, who was considerably smaller in size than John, looked up and said in his quick voice: "John, don't you know enough to take your hat off at the table?" Several laughed.
In March 1886, John took the oath as a Plum Township road commissioner for a three-year term. In 1887 they built a new road extending west from Valley Corners. John worked all that summer on the job. Coincidentally, 45 or 46 years later didn't his son Ben, who was a supervisor at that time and the other tow supervisors, James A. Sharp and Peter Cramer, annul that road. Ben jokingly said he undid all the work his father did.
John commenced his second term in March 1887, but died during that term. His brother, Charles, was appointed to fill out his term. The other two then were W. H. Grove and R. G. McClelland.
John had a couple of photographs taken of himself when young, but during his last years he wouldn't have his picture taken. One day during the latter 1880's he was to attend a road meeting in Franklin. His daughter Ann gave 50 cents to him and insisted that he have a formal photograph taken. Fortunately he consented, and the result was the picture shown in this sketch.
During the entire summer of 1890 John was seriously ill with dropsy. Doctors would tap his leg occasionally and let out much fluid. John also had much discomfort with boils and carbuncles during that sick spell, especially on that broken leg. After considerable suffering he died that fall, on Oct. 8. He was 58 years old.
He was buried on Oct. 10. There was a very large concourse of friends and relatives present. The mourners left the house to go to the Fairview Methodist Church for the funeral. As the head of the procession reached the Oliver Strawbridge residence, a distance of one-half mile, they looked back and saw carriages still leaving the house, indicating many dozens of carriages in the procession. The church wasn't able to hold the crowd. Rev. O. C. Sherman, a Baptist minister from Chapmanville, preached the sermon.
In the spring of 1896 Mrs. Strawbridge married Robert Grove of Wallaceville and they lived at his farm there. They became active members of the Diamond Free Methodist Church.
She was troubled with sugar diabetes. There being no insulin then, she used to drink elderberry juice and tea made from trailing arbutus. She was critically ill for a week with a complication of diabetes, heart disease and rheumatism, when death took her on the night of Dec. 1, 1902, with members of her family in attendance. She was 56. She was buried with her first husband in the Fairview Cemetery.

Transcribed by Dewaine Alcorn
dialcorn@alltel.net

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