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WHO WAS WHO in PLUM TOWNSHIP
~ Titusville Herald ~
By H. W. Strawbridge

David M. Kightlinger

David Michael Kightlinger was born July 16, 1823, probably in the Sugar Lake area, Crawford County. He was one of several children of Michael and Isabella Whitney Kightlinger. They are said to have been of Scotch-Irish descent.
Young Dave undoubtedly hunted and fished because in the pioneer days there was considerable game around the Sugar Lake region and plenty of fish in the lake itself.
When Dave was a lad he cut his knee with a draw-shave one day. It wasn’t a bad cut. He gave it home treatment and it improved. Then a neighbor’s wife became ill and Dave was asked to ride horseback a long way to fetch a doctor. It was a cold winter day and the ride resulted in his getting a “bad cold in the knee”, and it put him to bed. Infection set in and the doctor wanted to take his leg off above the knee. “No!”, Dave exclaimed. “It came with me and it’s going with me!”.

Home Remedy

Shortly afterward an elderly neighbor woman, who was sort of a doctor, came and looked at his knee. She sent someone to get some slippery elm bark. She boiled it, making a solution, and treated Dave’s knee. She told him that he would be sitting up at the table for breakfast the next morning. Indeed he was and the knee got all right.
When Dave was about 23 he secured a job as hostler for a wealthy family named Ware in the Wallaceville-Oakland township area. A courtship began between him and a daughter of the family, Miss Hannah Belle Ware, which resulted in their wedding on Feb. 28, 1847 at Diamond. Although Hannah had silk dresses hanging in her wardrobe, she was married in a calico dress.
Hannah was born Dec. 12, 1826. She was descended from Holland-Dutch lineage. Her family generally used the spelling WARE, but some branches spelled it WEIR.
Dave and Hannah apparently first lived east of Diamond. They lived for a few years in a large log house on the property now owned by Mrs. Edith Strawbridge. Dave had bought this land from A.M. Ingersoll of Allegany County, N.Y.
In 1860 Dave sold this property to two brothers, John and Charles Strawbridge, and moved onto land across the road which he bought from the Hazen family for $470. Forty-five acres were in this farm. A log house was on this property, too. It stood west of the present home of Mr. and Mrs. Walter Metzgar. A couple of old pine trees stood in front of the log house.
The four corners located there has always been known as Kightlinger’s Corners, named from the Dave Kightlinger family.
It is thought that Dave’s farm had been mostly cleared when he got it. He may have cleared one field on the western side of the farm. For years there was a pile of rotted roots back there which had come off that field.
Dave was at least six feet tall and probably weighted 180 pounds. His hair and beard were dark colored when young, but were white in his last years. He became quite bald at last. He was an easy-going type of individual. He generally addressed Hannah as “Hanner”.
Hannah was probably five foot, ten inches tall and thinly built. She had dark auburn hair. She was a stern woman – one who was unforgiving if any wrong was done to her. She was a hard worker both indoors and outdoors. She was a fast knitter. She could knit a pair of socks after supper, if need be. When she baked a batch of cookies she put them into a wooden bucket. She could speak German quite fluently.
They had the following children: Elizabeth Mary Kightlinger, June 17, 1847; Peter W. Kightlinger, May 2, 1850; Freelove A. Kightlinger, Oct. 5, 1855; Ruhama Isabel Kightlinger, aug. 31, 1858; Embrosia Mae Kightlinger, June 8, 1861; and John McDill Kightlinger, Jan. 25, 1864.
Elizabeth or “Libbie” married in Plum to J.J. Salsgiver on Sept. 25, 1879. They began housekeeping near Fairview. She was a dressmaker. She later lived in Townville, and last lived in Hydetown where she died of tuberculosis of the bone on Oct. 22, 1895. They had two children who were Mrs. Harriet Kingsley and Elva Ophelia Salsgiver. Elva died of typhoid pneumonia at the age of five months. Mrs. Kingsley presently lives in Titusville. Mr. Salsgiver died in 1947, aged nearly 90.

Married in Chapmanville

Peter was married to Miss Sarah E. Seely in Chapmanville in June, 1873. He engaged mainly in farming and teaming. The family was living near Edinboro and Peter was teaming for a feed mill when Sarah died in February, 1897. Peter was married a second time to a lady from Meadville. Six children were born to the first marriage and they were Mrs. Loretta Mott of near Titusville, Mrs. Carrie Malhorn of Cleveland, Miss Alice Kightlinger, unmarried, Mrs. Anna Alsdorf of Jamestown, N.Y., Laverne Kightlinger of Bradford and a little boy who died in infancy. All are deceased except Laverne. Peter later lived just west of the present airport on Route 27, and last lived in Titusville where he died on April 19, 1915. He was the very last person buried in the abandoned Green Cemetery in Troy Township.
Freelove was married in the Methodist parsonage of Titusville to Jackson E. Stewart of Cherrytree on March 4, 1879. They lived at Cherrytree where Mr. Stewart farmed. He also delved to some extent in the oil business. Freelove died of cancer in April, 1895. They had no children.
Ruhama married on Nov. 16, 1876 to Robert Howe of Cherrytree Township. Robert farmed. He died in 1887 at the Kightlinger home. They had four sons: Homer Howe of Titusville, Frank Howe of Jamison corners, Sproul Howe of the Townville road, and John E. Howe, formerly of the White city road, but presently living south of Stone Springhouse corners. He is the only living one of four brothers. Ruhama married again to James Lynch of Enterprise and three children were born, all of whom are living, and are Harry Lynch of Buffalo, Mrs. Maude Sonne of Titusville, and Walter Lynch of Pleasantville. After Mr. Lynch’s death Ruhama married J. Bradley Foster, a Bradleytown native. Mr. Foster died in 1940, and Ruhama died Sept. 17, 1941, aged 83.
Embrosia was married to W.C. Reynolds and they lived in Titusville. Embrosia was engaged in the millinery business in her younger years. They had one daughter, Mrs. Naomi Minglen, who lives in Titusville. Embrosia was married a second time to John Cochran, a blacksmith. They lived in Hydetown where Embrosia died on Sept. 2, 1920, of typhoid fever. Mr. Cochran died sometime during the 1930’s.
John was married to Miss Elva Jane Kightlinger of Tidioute on March 5, 1885. They lived at Tidioute where John worked as a teamster. They had eight children as follows: Mrs. Susie L. Boyd of Hamilton, O., Harry Kightlinger of Grand Valley, Arther C. Kightlinger of Titusville, Fred Kightlinger of Oil City, Mrs. Annabell Mitcham of Falconer, N.Y., Mrs. Mae Bush of Warren, and twin daughters who died in infancy. The six adult children are living. It is Mrs. Mitcham who has the record of dates of the David Kightlinger family. Mrs. John Kightlinger died many years ago, and John died at the Warren General Hospital on Oct. 19, 1957, aged 93. He was the last survivor of the Dave Kightlinger family.

Hauler at Pithole

Dave Kightlinger, the subject, used to work as a teamster hauling oil in booming Pithole. He also teamed later in the lumber woods at Colorado, above Enterprise.
There is no record of Dave holding an elective office in Plum, but he did serve as a pathmaster in his district in 1869. His older brother, Samuel Kightlinger, was pathmaster in 1868 and 1870. Samuel, who lived nearer to Diamond, occasionally helped Dave at times, such as butchering time. One of Samuel’s granddaughters is Mrs. Sylvian Stephenson who presently lives in Titusville and who can recall her great-uncle, Dave Kightlinger, very well.
In 1889 or 90 Dave lost his barn by fire. On the particular night it burned their dog kicked up a fuss. Often tramps stopped overnight in his barn and Dave decided he would go out to investigate. His daughter, Ruhama, gave a new kerosene lantern to him a short time previously, and he lit this lantern and went out to the barn. While Dave was looking in the barn, the lantern exploded setting fire all about, but particularly in the dry buckwheat straw in the loft overhead. Dave turned the cattle out, but the confused animals ran back into the burning structure and perished. The dog may have perished too. He never knew for sure what the dog was barking at in the first place.
Neighbors held a bee to assist Dave in building a new barn. It was an upright structure. A few years later his grandsons, the Howe brothers (who lived with their grandparents) built two adjoining sheds, one on each side of the upright part.
This second barn had a close call with fire. One spring day Dave and two of his grandsons, Frank and John Howe, went down to Jackson A. Proper’s farm just southeast of Diamond to plant oats. A thunderstorm was coming up. Dave sent John home to be with his grandmother during the storm. He just got home when the storm broke. A passerby named Wash Carey was driving towards Titusville with a load of lumber. He asked if he could come in and put the team in the barn until the storm was over. John replied that he could. They just got the horses into the upright part when a bolt of lightning struck the shed where the buggies were kept. It knocked one of Carey’s horses down and it or something else struck John on the head. Bewildered, he ran towards the back of the barn, then turned around and ran back out. Hannah opened the house door and told both him and Carey to get into the house immediately, which they did.
A couple years later another lightning bolt struck the barn and knocked two rafters from their places. Neither bolt caused a fire. The barn was filled to the rafters with new hay too when struck the last time.
A few years before the barn fire Dave moved a frame from north somewhere and set it several rods east of the log one. This frame house stood until the early 1940’s, when the late James Pitcher razed it and built the present brick structure there.
Dave always had poor eyes. In fact he couldn’t see out of one eye his last years. He always blamed his poor eyesight on the sun’s rays on Sugar Lake when he as a youngster was around the lakes so much. He treated his eyes with a slippery elm bark solution. He kept bark in the top drawer of the bureau, which he called his “slippery elm drawer”. The only slippery elm tree in the Diamond area from which Dave peeled the bark was at the rear of the woods owned by the late J.M. Shriver, or the place where this writer resides. The top of this tree was blown off perhaps 8 or 9 years ago, and just the stub stands today.
Dave kept most of his teeth until his last. Most of them were double, and were they strong – he could crack hickory nuts with them!

Blackberry Picking

The family used to go blackberrying either at Fauncetown or the tract above Schreiner’s Corners. Dave didn’t care to pick berries so he generally stayed at the wagon and watched what berries were picked. It wasn’t unusual for someone to steal berries in other people’s wagons if they weren’t watched. Dave strayed just far enough away occasionally to pick a few berries to eat on the spot.
Hannah gathered herbs and plants like cattails to make medicine or tea. She of course churned butter. When visiting her daughter and granddaughter, Mrs. Embrosia Cochran and Naomi, at Hydetown, she generally fetched a couple pounds of butter for them.
She was often called upon to serve as midwife when a birth occurred in the neighborhood. For example, she was present when each of the eight children of Mr. and Mrs. John Strawbridge, neighbors, were born between 1863 and 1879. Then, Hannah was also on hand when a member of the next generation was born in 1900, namely, the late Frank Strawbridge, son of Mrs. Edith Strawbridge and the late Ben Strawbridge. Mrs. Strawbridge recalls several incidents concerning David and Hannah Kightlinger. Hannah once gave a large pail of homemade soap to them.
Hannah always kept the large family Bible on a stand in the corner with a fancy doily covering it. When a neighbor lady, Mrs. Clara Tipton, died in 1891, Hannah’s daughter and granddaughter, Mrs. Libbie Salsgiver and Harriet, went over to do what they could for the Tiptons, leaving Hannah alone at home that particular evening. When they arrived back, Hannah had the doors locked and was frightened. She claimed somebody tried twice to get into the house. Upon investigation Libbie and Harriet found two large apples lying on the porch floor. A Faleweather apple tree stood practically against the porch and they figured the wind blew two of the apples on the floor causing the noise. However, Hannah could not be persuaded to believe it.
One cold day Hannah was leaning over the smoked ham barrel when she slipped and cut her upper right arm on the frozen edges of the barrel. It would not heal and it gradually worsened and became more painful. She was ill with it for two to three years. She took to bed with it her last few months. One of the treatments used on her arm was a menthol pencil.
One day Dave accidentally fell into the cellar and received some minor bruises. Hannah got up from bed to inquire about him. This was the last time she got up. Several of the daughters and granddaughters assisted in caring for Hannah. She died around the first of October, 1904.
After her death their grandson, Homer Howe, bought the farm. Dave stayed there a short time then stayed briefly with his daughter, Ruhama at Enterprise. He is remembered as having a gray mare named “Belle” at last.
He made a visit with his granddaughter, Mrs. Harriet Kingsley, then in Oil city. While there she bought a new lark blue tweed suit for her grandfather. He proudly put it on and said: “I wish Ellen Ann Strawbridge could see me now”. She was an oldtime neighbor in Plum. Dave was to be buried in that new suit. He moved to Tidioute and lived his last year there with his son John, on the south side of the river.
He was ill about two weeks with apparent heart trouble. John’s family found him dead in bed the morning of either Feb. 14 or 15, 1906. His feet were over the side of the bed and he had likely been sitting up when he slumped over backward.
His coffin was brought to Diamond for burial beside Hannah. The roads were in terrible shape at the time. It is said that Sage’s funeral coach had a pane of glass broken in it on the way back to Tidioute.

Transcribed by Paula Harry
dharry@pa.rr.com

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