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

Jarred B. Kightlinger

Jarred B. Kightlinger was born in a log house on the Kightlinger farm on top of the hill east of Diamond on Nov.15,1857, ninth child of Samuel and Nancy Proper Kightlinger. Jarred’s name has been spelled at least three different ways, such as Jarred, Jared and Jerred. However, from an examination of how family members wrote it and how it is spelled on his tombstone, it seems that the desired spelling was JARRED. His middle initial “B” did not stand for a name. According to what his daughter told this writer years ago, it was simply an initial he sometimes used in his name. This initial “B” is also on his tombstone.
Jarred’s parents had settled on this farm on top of the hill on the north side of the Meadville-Titusville road immediately after their marriage. This couple was married on May 13, 1841. They rode horseback to their place of marriage and, believe it or not, snow was up to the horse’s knees on that day in May!
Samuel was a son of Michael and Isabella Kightlinger, and he was born March 14, 1815, probably in the Sugar Lake region. The maiden name of his mother has been in doubt. It has been given as Whitney or Terwilliger. Michael, a veteran of the War of 1812, was married twice. He and his last wife, Isabella, separated in 1844. Michael died March 25, 1857, in Plum Township, and is buried in the Diamond Cemetery. He had lived for a few years in the area of Plum Township between the Fairview Church and the Fairview school. Isabella Kightlinger died May 2, 1871, and is buried in the Kightlinger family graveyard near East Troy.
Nancy Proper Kightlinger, mother of Jarred B.Kightlinger, was born Dec. 17, 1820, at present Diamond, undoubtedly the youngest of seven children of Joseph and Rebecca Beers Proper, very early residents of the present eastern area of Diamond. Nancy also had the name of “Benn” applied to her name. In other words her full name was Nancy Benn Proper Kightlinger. Nancy’s grandfather, Samuel Proper, and his family arrived permanently in the area in 1801. They had the first sawmill, an early “up-and-down” type, in Plum Township. This mill was situated on the creek a considerable distance south of the Meadville-Titusville public road.
Nancy’s father, Joseph Proper, was the most wealthy of the earlier residents of the township. He had owned hundreds of acres of land embracing a wide area of eastern Diamond and its environs. He made his will on June 25, 1837, in which he willed 50 acres to Nancy. He bought this piece from Jonathan Reynolds on Oct.1,1835. Joseph died suddenly about June,1842, a year after Nancy and Samuel Kightlinger were married. There appears to be no date as to when Nancy’s mother died.
The farm of Samuel and Nancy Kightlinger had been listed anywhere from 50 to 53 acres. However, it did not join a public road. Samuel bargained for an adjoining piece of six acres just south of theirs for $50.00 in 1845 from Nancy’s brother, William Proper. This piece did adjoin the Meadville-Titusville road. It was originally part of the present Homestead Farm of Diamond. Samuel gave to William a yoke of oxen worth $19.00 as the first payment. William Proper died of typhoid fever on June 15, 1845. Samuel still owed $31.00 to the rest of the family, so a system of finishing the payment was worked out. Therefore the entire farm of at least 56 acres, if not a bit more, finally joined a public road.
Samuel built a log house which stood just back (perhaps a bit northeast) of the present house. It was here that the 13 children of Samuel and Nancy Kightlinger were born. Samuel was primarily a pioneer farmer. He usually kept several sheep. He was also an auctioneer. “Crying a sale” was then an expression often used. He also made all the shoes for his family.
Nancy spun a lot of wool on her spinning wheel, and she also darned all the socks for her family. She knew quite a lot about local doctoring, and she was called upon many times by vicinity families when a birth was to occur.
Their 13 children were as follows: Mary Jane Kightlinger (Smith) 1842, Joseph Kightlinger 1843, Andrew Kightlinger 1845, Ruth Kightlinger (King) 1847, Robert Kightlinger 1849, Nancy Kightlinger (Corey) 1851, Adaline Kightlinger (Hancox) 1853, Benjamin Kightlinger 1855, Jarred B. Kightlinger 1857, Charlotte Kightlinger (Storms) 1858, John Riley Kightlinger 1861, Edna Kightlinger 1862 and Jerome Kightlinger 1863.
Jarred Kightlinger had the misfortune to lose a younger brother and a younger sister. John Riley Kightlinger died Sept.27,1861, aged six months and 19 days, no cause of death recorded. Also, the sister, Edna, met a tragic death on Dec.4,1875, at the age of 13. At noon on Friday, Dec.3, red hot ashes had been carried from the stove in the Diamond schoolhouse to the ash pile outside. Judd L.Welsh, a pupil nine years old, kicked those hot ashes in fun towards some of the girls. Edna was wearing a ruffled dress and it caught on fire immediately. She ran into the schoolhouse all ablaze. A coat which belonged either to the teacher, J.C.Looney, or to another pupil, Warner Proper, was thrown over her, but it was too late. She was burned so badly from her legs up to her neck. The suffering girl was carried to her house where she died sometime the next day, Dec.4th. Dr.James L.Proper, was called to dress the injuries, but nothing could be done.
At the time of the accident the teacher, Mr.Looney, had left the school property to call on a nearby school director. He was gone about 10 minutes. Ordinarily he never left the school property, but he made an exception at that particular time.
Less than two years later Jarred was to undergo another family tragedy. On Thursday evening, Sept.6,1877, his father, Samuel, had been over in Cherrytree Township with his horse and wagon. He left a young fellow off at the William Peebles place, then started for home. It was a dark evening. When he approached a bridge located little over a mile south of Stone Springhouse Corners, the left-hand wheels of his wagon went off the side of the bridge. Samuel, wagon and horse all went over and fell about 10 feet into the chasm. Sharp stubs of black alders which had been cut previously, were in evidence. Samuel fell on those stubs, plus the fact that the horse had also fallen on him. Samuel’s head was battered fearfully. It seems that this particular horse had normally been one of a team driven on the left side. Therefore this single horse had kept the left track, which caused the outfit to fall over. The tragedy wasn’t discovered until 7 o’clock the next morning by a Mr.Gorsuch.
The funeral on Sunday, Sept.9, was something to behold and was indeed historic. It was the largest funeral ever seen in the neighborhood. People came from all over. There were 45 carriages in the procession from the first service in the house to the Diamond United Brethren Church. Upwards of 1,000 people were in attendance at the funeral. Considerably more than one-half of the people were unable to get into the rural church. Rev.I.C.Armagost, a Baptist preacher who lived near Chapmanville, delivered the funeral oration. It is said that 130 carriages were in the final procession from the church to the Diamond Cemetery. The upper portion of that cemetery was then called the “Kightlinger” Cemetery. It adjoined the Kightlinger farm and was indeed a portion of the farm at that time.

Imprinted on the lower portion of Samuel’s old marble tombstone is the following verse:

    "Resting from all toil and pain
    The storm of life he knows no more.
    Our loss is his eternal gain,
    We will meet him on the other shore."

Strangely, Samuel’s oldest son, Joseph Kightlinger, had been on the “outs” with his father, and it is said that he did not attend the funeral. He did, however, attend his mother’s funeral many years later.
This tragedy then left his widow, Nancy, and three children, Jarred, Lottie and Jerome, at home. It is said that Samuel had some lumber piled to build a new house, but it never materialized during his lifetime. When his estate was appraised, this lumber had by a mistake or a blunder to be paid for a second time by Nancy. This incident was mainly blamed on her son, Robert.
In those days stray animals occasionally wandered onto the farms of other people. Sometimes they were advertised via road commissioners of townships. One such recorded incident reads as follows: “Stray colt. Came to the residence of Jarrod Kightlinger in Plum Township, Venango Co., Pa. on Sept. 14, a dark bay colt with white spot in forehead and few white hairs on left hip, shod all round. The owner is requested to come and prove property, pay charges and take the animal away. Sept. 16,1881. Jerrod Kightlinger.”
After his father’s death Jarred more or less became the man of the place. He began to court Miss Etta Lefford of Troy Township. This courtship ended in their marriage which took place on July 4, 1883, at Diamond. They were married by Rev.John Wright, and the ceremony undoubtedly took place in the Wright home just down the hill from the Kightlinger farm.
Etta Lefford Kightlinger’s true given name was Esther Jane Lefford. For some reason she was always known as “Etta” or “Ett”. She was born Jan.31,1866, in a former House which stood across the road from the Amos Patterson home in Troy Township. She was the eighth of nine children of James M. and Louisa Jane Bromley Lefford.
The Lefford couple’s nine children included Amy Elizabeth Lefford Faunce 1849, Mary Minerva Lefford Archer 1852, Polly Ann Lefford McCurdy 1854, Sarah Marilla Lefford Hoover 1856, James Blair Lefford 1858, Oliver Perry (Doc) Lefford 1861, George Washington Lefford 1863, Esther Jane Lefford Kightlinger 1866, and Ernest C. (Lynn) Lefford 1868.
The father, James M. Lefford, was born Aug.21, 1827. Tradition states that he had come to America from France. There is also a tradition that smallpox was on the ship on which he came over. He once told a grandchild that he had made a visit to the place where Christ was crucified. It is also said that he had a half-sister in this area who married a Mr. Bromley.
James M. Lefford once served as a Troy Township assessor. He also served as a Troy Township tax collector. In that day he rode horseback to collect the taxes. He used to send his son, George W.Lefford, to Meadville with the tax money. But once he sent his youngest son, Lynn Lefford, to take the money to Meadville. Lynn got robbed. The father lost his place due to this incident, because he had to make up for that loss.
He was married on May 15, 1849. His wife, Louisa Jane Bromley, was born Feb.11, 1830. Unfortunately, there seems to be very little if no information preserved about this woman.
Jarred and Etta Kightlinger went to housekeeping on the Kightlinger farm. In fact their entire married life was spent on that farm. It seems uncertain as to when the new frame house was built. It was likely built within a couple of years after Samuel’s death. Etta’s father was said to have been the carpenter. When completed it was an impressive farmhouse. It was located between the former log house and the road. The western half was a full two-story part with the parlor in the front half downstairs and the kitchen in the rear half. The eastern wing was a low portion with the living room situated in the western portion against both the parlor and the kitchen. In the far eastern portion was a fair sized bedroom in the southeast corner. Right back of this bedroom was a small storeroom. There was a back porch along the back of the low portions. The front portion extended entirely along the front of both the high and low portions. At an earlier time there was a board fence along the road at the outer edge of the yard. Also there was a hedge around the outer edge of the yard, but this was also removed in the earlier years.
Though she was only 11 years old, Etta was in attendance with her father’s family at the huge funeral of Samuel Kightlinger in 1877. She had told this in later years. Probably little did she realize that she would be in the Kightlinger family a few years later.
Etta was an attractive woman in both her youthful days and elderly days. As a young woman she was a fine dancer. This writer’s late grandfather, Ben Strawbridge, used to tell that she was the person who taught him how to dance. In her earlier years she also worked for Miss Etta Rishel of Troy Township. The Rishel family was a prominent and substantial family which lived on a large farm a ways west of Hawthorne’s Corners. Etta Rishel finally sold the farm to Captain M.R.Rouse.

A Description of Jarred

Jarred Kightlinger refrained from attending a school which was probably one of his greatest mistakes. He was a very short man in stature, and while no heavy, neither was he thin. He always had a mustache in both his earlier and later years. Most people referred to him as “Jerry”. When young fellows both he and his older brother, Andy Kightlinger, used to race their horses down the road. Horses were one of the greatest loves of Jerry Kightlinger, the many instances of which will be given later in this life story. Jerry was quick-spoken, and his main by-line was “Be-Jesus”.
Either in 1882 or 1883 Jerry’s neighbor, Oren E. Shriver, built a new home in the rear of the Shriver farm which was located across the road from the Kightlinger farm. A long lane led from the main road back to this new house. However, this lane first had to be cleared of trees, stumps and brush before it could be used. Many neighbors held a work bee to clear out this new lane. When dinner time arrived, all sat down to a large table in the edge of the woods. Jerry was there and he set beside a neighbor, John Strawbridge (great grandfather of this writer). Probably because the dinner was outside, John did not take off his hat. Jerry looked up to him and said in his quick voice: “John, don’t you know enough to take your hat off at the table?” Several laughed.
Autograph albums were popular in that day. Many of the young people had them. Some inscriptions written by Etta are in evidence. In the album of the late Imelda Proper Bearce, Etta penned the following on Jan.11, 1885:

    "When on this page you chance
    To look, think of me and
    Close the book. Yours Truly
    Etta J.Kitelinger"

Farther on is another inscription at the same time written by Etta on behalf of Jerry. Probably Jerry dictated this one; at least it would sound like him”

    "Dear friend Melda,
    Remember well and bair in mind
    A hansom man is hard to fiend
    But when you fiend wane tall
    And slim, make up your mind
    And go for him.
    Jarred Kightlinger"
Etta also penned two inscriptions a few years later in the album of the late Florence Proper Steadman. Again, one is Etta’s, the other likely dictated by Jerry. Here they are:

    "Dearest friend
    Were you my love a blossom
    When summer skies depart
    I'd plant you in my bosom
    And wear you near my heart.
    June 6, 1892 Diamond
    Etta Kightlinger"


    Friend Florence
    Gather ye rosebuds while ye may
    Old time is still a flying
    And this same flower that
    Smiles today, tomorrow
    Will be dying.
    June 6, 1892 Jarred Kightlinger"

During the summer of 1888 a traveling photographer stopped and took a picture in front of the Kightlinger house. Between the board fence and house stood Laura A. Shriver (this writer’s great aunt), Ellen Ann Strawbridge (this writer’s great-great aunt), Etta Kightlinger and Nancy Kightlinger who was holding the oldest child of Jerry and Etta. At that time no front porch had been built on the house. There were some trees in front of the house, but it can’t be distinguished as to what kind of trees they were then.
The same photographer also took a picture of the Shriver house across the road that same day. Aunt Laura Shriver and Aunt Ellen Ann Strawbridge are also in this latter photograph. Two others in this photograph are Jane Shriver (this writer’s great grand-mother) and Dora Foster, a young woman who worked in the Striver home.
Incidentally, there is a record that Jerry was paining and puttying his house in August, 1891. There appears to be no record as to just when the front porch was built.
Etta Kightlinger worked in the home of Uncle Oren and Aunt Laura Shriver when their youngest child, Margie L. Shriver, was a baby. Margie was born Sept. 8,1890. The Shrivers had an older child, Robert H. Shriver, who was born April 7, 1889. Therefore he was a little tot at this particular period of time. He had the habit of occasionally catching his breath and holding it to the alarm of Etta and Aunt Laura. Uncle Oren simply told them to “take him out and douse him in the rain barrel”. They quickly did this and Robert continued to breathe again.
In July, 1896, one Miss Mary Tracy died in Diamond of a tumor. Prior to that the woman had an operation in her home for this tumor which was on a leg. She hadn’t told anybody about this tumor for a long time until it was too late. Etta Kightlinger and Emma Thomas assisted at the time of this operation. Etta became sick due to the anesthetic and she had to leave the room.
Etta also worked with Estella Fabian often in preparing the big suppers at the Hotel Fabien in Diamond. During those times Jerry stabled the horses for the guests.
When the Sam Archer piece of land near the rear portion of the Kightlinger farm was put up for sale during the 1890’s, Jerry was very interested in buying it. He would have done so had not his mother objected so loudly against buying it. She feared that Jerry would have to mortgage their farm to buy it, so no deal was made. The Guild family later bought this Archer piece.
On July 5, 1899, Nancy deeded the Kightlinger farm to Jarred for $50.00 with the following provisions: She reserved the whole use, management and control of the farm during her natural life, then at her death Jarred was to have entire and full possession, or his heirs and assigns forever. Witnesses to this deed were A.W.Richey and L.E. Grove. It was drawn up by W.K. Gilliland, apparently in Sunville.
Jerry and Etta had three children. They with their dates of births were Sylvian Minerva Kightlinger, March 11,1888, Frederick Leroy Kightlinger, March 4, 1892, and Walter Kightlinger, March 30, 1906. Only the oldest one reached adulthood. More than a month after Sylvian was born there was a Diamond news item in the Franklin newspaper. Comically enough, it contained the following sentence: “Jerry Kightlinger is very happy. He says it’s a girl”. More mention of these children will be made later.

When Sylvian was a little tot her mother disciplined her one day. She ran off with her mother’s button box to the Shriver place across the road. Great Grandmother Shriver thought the child was sent over on an errand, so she opened the box, thinking there was a message. She found only buttons. Later Jerry and Etta went over and took her back home.
One time Jerry and Etta went to Pleasantville for a visit of two or three days. When they got back home they had learned that one of the elder Proper men had died and was buried. It was either Henry Proper in 1893 or Squire Jake Proper in 1896. In those days news didn’t travel like it does now. At another time Jerry and Etta went to Bradford where he worked a short while for his brother-in-law, Mr. Storms. Bradford, Meadville and Erie are as far away as Jarred B.Kightlinger ever got in his lifetime. However, Etta had gotten a little farther away than that in her lifetime.
Around 1897 Jerry had a Gray horse named “Jessie”. He let Sylvian drive her one day. Sylvian was then around nine years old. This frisky horse took her and the buggy out the driveway and hit the first maple tree across the road, stripping the bark about six feet up the tree.
Etta’s mother, Louisa Lefford, 68, died Tuesday, April 20, 1897, at North Hope, Warren County. The funeral took place there on the 22nd, and the burial took place in the Diamond Cemetery.
Up the state road towards Titusville from the Kightlinger farm, perhaps ¾ mile on the right, there used to be a large log building which was owned by Grandfather Strawbridge. In its earlier day this was a log house tavern. It was an early tavern on the Meadville-Titusville turnpike. This old building, at least 24 x 30 feet, was used for farming purposes during its last many decades. Hay was stored in the east half, and the west half housed stock. Tramps often stayed there at nights. Shortly after 1900 Grandfather gave the old building to Jerry Kightlinger. He tore it down, hauled it to his farm and built a pig pen from it. It had stood several years.
Etta’s father, J.M.Lefford, was a kindly old gentleman. He did not swear. He used to teach hymns to his granddaughter, Ruby Lefford. After his wife died he stayed at the homes of his children. At his last he and his sons, George and Lynn, worked on an oil well at Cherry Grove. The old gent was staying with Lynn. He was moving to the home of another son, “Doc”Lefford, during a storm. He got wet and gradually developed pneumonia. He died at Doc’s home in North Clarendon on May 18, 1904. His casket was taken to the Kightlinger house at Diamond prior to the funeral. The funeral was held in the U.B.Church on May 22nd, and burial was beside his wife in the Diamond Cemetery.
An interesting story has been told about Jerry and his wit. Somebody around the Diamond used to do his visiting by lantern at nights. That person died and his coffin was being buried in the Diamond Cemetery below Jerry’s House. Jerry went to a fencerow, fetched over a couple of rusted lanterns, then set one at the head of the roughbox and the other on the foot. Jerry said that he didn’t want him to be without a light! The writer does not know who the deceased person may have been, but it’s his guess that it may have been Jared B.Welsh, who died in March, 1905. Mrs. Welsh used to visit often at nights.
Jerry once belonged to the Diamond I.O.O.F. Lodge No. 1083. He was not a charter member when it organized in February, 1895, but he must have joined within a couple of years after its organizing. It seems apparent that he did not belong to the lodge many years. Family members had his lodge badge years after his death.
It was in 1905 that the first telephone line was put into the Diamond area. It was known as the Crawford and Venango line. Jerry and Etta Kightlinger had a telephone on this line. Whether they had it installed the first year or later isn’t known.
Mention was made earlier of the children of Jerry and Etta Kightlinger. When baby Walter was born on March 30, 1906, Etta had been sick prior to the birth. When the infant was born he gave a little cry and then was dead. This writer’s grandmother, Anna B. Shriver, had spoken about helping over there upon the occasion. She had helped to line or decorate the interior of the little coffin. It was buried in the cemetery on Saturday, March 31.
In early June, 1906, Jay Grove drilled a well for Hugh Miles & Company in the woods of Grandfather Shriver across the road. Four men who boarded at the Jerry Kightlinger home helped on the drilling of this well. They were Ambrose Sloan, Jan Ennis, a Mr. McCleary (who married a Popney girl from Black Ash) and a Mr.Williams. The well was shot later in June with a large number of people on hand. The Kightlinger family is in a group photograph which was taken of the occasion. In the picture is also an ailing niece of Etta named Mae Lefford. She had arrived at the Kightlinger home shortly beforehand in hopes that her consumption would improve. Her mother had died the previous March. However, Mae did not improve at all, and the unfortunate girl died in the Kightlinger home on Wednesday, July 11. She had been there for three weeks. She was buried at a distance away.
Mention was made that a man named Jay Ennis had worked on this well. It so happened that it was in his home in Warren County where Etta’s mother had died in April, 1897.
The Jarred Kightlinger place often had visitors. Certain ones who stayed there for long periods included Sproul Howe, Bill Seely (a large man who ended up in Warren County), a Mr. McGinnis and a red-haired old fellow named Sente. A good sized lad who stayed there for quite some time and went to the Diamond school was Albert Clark of Titusville. Danny Kightlinger, a younger cousin of Jerry, often stayed at their place too. Probably the one who stayed there the longest was Etta’s niece, Ruby Lefford. Ruby moved there probably in the winter of 1907. Ruby’s mother had died when Ruby was around a year old. Her father was George Lefford. Ruby was there around five years.
Jerry had an older first cousin, Samuel M. Proper of Kane. He was a large man and he drove a black stallion at this particular period of time. He was outspoken and a rather loud man. He once stopped at Jerry’s house and visited. He pounded his fist on the kitchen table while talking about some lively subject on that visit.
Old Nancy Kightlinger, Jerry’s mother, led quite an interesting life. She was an active old woman. In an earlier day she used to carry water up the hill to their home from where the old mill had set by the creek. This was before they dug a well. That was quite a task. She was sort of a local doctor, having been called upon by area people several times when in need. She helped to deliver many babies.
When black diphtheria was raging once in the olden days, she said that if her children contracted it, she would swab out their throats with blue vitriol water. Indeed they did get the terrible disease. She made them lay on the floor, took a pine stick with a daub of cotton on the end of it, soaked it in a quart of the vitriol, and swabbed their throats out with it. None died and all recovered.
She always wore a handkerchief around her neck when working about the house. She used to hitch the driving horse “Bean” to the rig, take her granddaughter, Sylvian, and make visits. She was a generous person. If a child came to their place, she often gave to him a thick slice of homemade bread with a heavy spread of jam or apple butter on it. She always thought a lot of her grandson, Freddie Kightlinger. She was often calling for him.
She was the one who found this writer’s great grandfather, James R.Shriver, slumped on the floor of the barn after he had suffered a severe stroke on the afternoon of April 7, 1893. She had gone across the road to visit him, was informed that he was weaving in the barn, and thus found him. He was carried to the house where he died towards evening.
One morning Nancy and Ruby Lefford, the girl who stayed there, were about to eat mush and milk for breakfast. Young Freddie was getting some slop ready to feed the pigs. He put a spoonful in each of their dishes of mush. Needless to say, they did not eat their mush.

Old Nancy is Taken by Death

Ruby said years later that old Nancy made a visit to one of her other sons. They had her sleep in a cold room. She developed a cold, came back home, and with her infirmities she eventually died from that incident. She died in the front bedroom in the east end of their home on Thursday morning, April 4, 1907.
While her casket and flowers sat in the parlor, a photographer took a picture of the bier. The casket was closed in the picture. The funeral was conducted on Sunday at 11 a.m. in the United Brethren Church. Rev.W.A. Bennett, a U.B. preacher from Pleasantville, delivered the sermon. Burial was beside Samuel Kightlinger who had tragically died nearly 30 years beforehand. The roads were bad that day. The mud was up to the hubs of the carriages in places. Emma Spoor, a neighbor, helped to cook the family dinner.
Just three months later more bad luck was to strike the Kightlinger farm. This time it was a storm. A hard windstorm struck their place just before suppertime on Thursday, July 11, 1907. It had gotten quite dark just before that. The storm took the roof off their back porch and deposited it on a batch of Etta’s butter jars which stood where a pole was situated years later behind the milkhouse. The storm also took the roof off his carriage shed which sat next to the Shriver field (by the later granary), and deposited it a distance away. A buggy and wagon were damaged.
Etta and her nieces, Ruby and Susie Lefford, had been back to the garden which was located just north of the Shriver field. They didn’t get back to the house in time. They hung onto fenceposts along the lane in fear they would be blown away.
Dean Shriver, the neighbor boy across the road, had been down to the Shriver woods. He heard a roaring sound and started for the house. He looked up and saw a small tree whirling around in the air, as well as pails and other debris. He got as far as a big maple tree which used to stand at the lower end of the cow lane and watched the storm. The storm took one of the doors of Jerry’s carriage shed and deposited it near the maple tree under which Dean was standing. Dean said that the storm also cleaned out some small buildings of Jerry – a pig pen, chicken coop and a toilet. It also destroyed 12 or 15 apple trees in his orchard between the buildings and the cemetery, as well as a maple tree.
This awful storm also cut a swath 150 to 200 feet wide through Claude Mallory’s pine timber at the foot of the hill before it struck the Kightlinger farm. A dozen or more fine trees were tipped over or broken off in Claude’s woods. The storm missed the Shriver farmstead. After it struck the Kightlinger place it went up the hill and lifted the back part of Jack Welsh’s house off its foundation and set it down on a slightly different angle. A can of kerosene inside was spilled all over the floor. The storm continued eastward and struck the Brown orchard just this side of the later airport and did much destruction in it.
Jerry’s place used to be a great gathering place for the young people. They used to have picnics and parties under the apple trees in the orchard. Myrta Kightlinger used to go to Jerry’s place. She had told that he had what was called a “go-devil”. It had runners on the bottom of it. Sylvian hitched a horse to it and drove it through the meadows in the wintertime. Other children such as Freddie, Dean Shriver, Myrta or Edna Kightlinger used to ride along in it.
On Sept.30,1907, Jerry and Etta attended the large funeral of G.W.Steadman in the Diamond U.B.Church. Steadman, late husband of Florence Proper Steadman, had met a fatal accident while an employee on the railroad near Conneaut, Ohio, the night of Sept.27th. In those days there was generally singing at funerals. One of the singers at the Steadman funeral was this writer’s grandfather, Ben Strawbridge. After the funeral Etta approached Grandfather and engaged him to sing at her funeral. As the years rolled by she occasionally reminded Grandfather: “Now you remember you’re to sing at my funeral”. This wish was to be fulfilled.
Frederick, or “Freddie” Kightlinger, the second child of Jerry and Etta, was destined to a short life, unfortunately. Probably his main playmate was the neighbor boy across the road, Dean Shriver, who was over two years Freddie’s junior. The two used to go swimming either in the Diamond Creek by the band along George Proper’s field, or else back in Jerry’s farm where they dammed up the run. One afternoon they would swim, then come out, then swim, then come out, etc. They ended up with blistered skins from that day’s activities.
Dean and Freddie once got scared out from under a big tree on the corner of the line between the properties of Jerry and Dorsey Kightlinger. Lightning struck it while they were there. They had Jerry’s old octagon barreled .22 gun.
One time Freddie, Dean and another boy named Paul Ricketts got involved in a gunpowder explosion. This accident happened in the lower portion of the Shriver orchard, about directly across the road from the upper driveway of the cemetery. They were by the bank of the road. Freddie had an old-fashioned bottle of gunpowder. They put some powder into Jerry’s cider spigots, lit them and watched them go off. Freddie finally decided to light the entire bottle, so he stuck a paper into it and lit it. The flame went out. So he lit a match and dropped in into the bottle. It blew up right then. Freddie turned out to be a bloody mess. He got the worst of it. His white shirt was all bloody from his face which was pocked badly with small glass fragments. Dean and Paul got hit too, but not so badly. Dean mainly got powder burns on his abdomen and chest which Grandmother Shriver dressed and treated. Etta always blamed that as the cause of Freddie’s death a year or two later. Also, Paul Ricketts died young. Whether their deaths were caused from the explosion or not, will never be known.
Freddie was about average height and somewhat thin. He was a rather bold boy, and he was somewhat mischievous. A year or more before his death he posed in a group photograph of the Young People’s Class of the U.B.Church which was then taught by Ada Proper Crocker. He once made a cupboard for his cousin, Ruby Lefford.

One time his friend, Ray Proper, was to Kightlingers when Jerry and Etta were away. Freddie did the milking. Freddie squirted milk on his grandmother, old Nancy who sputtered.
Freddie was probably 15 when he decided to work in a shop in Franklin. He boarded at the Port Walters place. He apparently earned good money because he bought a tailor-made suit and a nice raincoat. (After Freddie’s death his father wore the raincoat for years, but he had to cut off the bottom of it because it was too long). While Freddie was working in Franklin he once came up to Titusville to see his sister, Sylvian, who was then staying with a family named Brewers. He took her to the ice cream parlor and felt proud that he could lay one dollar bills on the table to pay for the treats.
About Oct.1, 1907, Freddie went to Ashtabula, Ohio, at the coaxing of his friend, Ray Proper, who was already out there working. There was some speculation that Freddie may not have gotten along with his father at that time. Freddie worked in a greenhouse out there.
However, Freddie became sick out there and was taken to the hospital on the day before Christmas. He had a girl friend out there. It was said that both, fortunately, had turned to religion as his sickness continued its dreadful course. The disease was listed as cerebral-spinal meningitis. Sylvian said years later that he had an abscess on the brain. His parents were notified of the serious character of his disease, so they went at once to Ashtabula. Jerry returned home on Wednesday, Jan.1, 1908, but Etta remained at Freddie’s bedside until death took him that very evening at 7 o’clock.
His body was taken to Titusville on the 5:18 train the afternoon of Jan.2nd. From Titusville it was taken to the family home at Diamond. The funeral was held in the U.B.Church on Sunday, the 5th, at 11 a.m., with an overflow crowd. Rev.Fred Swanson gave the sermon. Conspicuous among the many floral offerings was a wreath, the gift of the Sunday School upon which the name of his class had been worked among the flowers. His Sunday School class members marched into the church in a body after the congregation had been seated. A quartet composed of Uncle Frank Thomas; Grandfather Strawbridge, Laura Thomas and Margie Shriver sang four songs, including “Home at Last” and “We’ll Never Say Goodbye”. The pallbearers were Charlie and Norman Strawbridge, Guy and Ray Proper, Herbert Thomas and Floyd August. He was buried beside his infant brother, Walter, in the Diamond Cemetery.
This sad incident was a hard deal for Etta to overcome. She was a long time recovering from the shock. She became more religious. She had joined the U.B.Church on confession of faith in 1896, years before this sad death. She and her sister, Marilla Hoover, were baptized in the creek in June, 1897.
After Freddie’s death Etta also leaned on Spiritualism for a while. She claimed through Spiritual mediums that she had contact with Freddie, and furthermore that he told her where a misplaced watch was situated in the house. She found it in that very place where he told her it would be. However, after a passage of time she became more active in the community’s U.B.Church.
The silver wedding anniversary of Jerry and Etta was held at their home on Friday, July 3, 1908. One hundred friends gathered and spent a happy day. There were games and amusements, the feature of which was a potato race indulged by the following ladies: Margie Shriver, Bessie Guild, Inez Willey, Dorthea Reynolds, Lottie Mallory, Maggie Guild and Sylvian Kightlinger. The best time was made by Sylvian with Lottie Mallory and Inez Willey close behind her. The honored couple received many handsome and useful presents. The Diamond pastor, Rev.Fred Swanson, made the presentation speech. Adelthia Mallory, 11, also attended this party. The next day she took down with the measles.
In early December, 1908, Zola Proper and Floyd Campbell were married. Etta Kightlinger cooked the wedding supper that evening for the gathering of the people. Jerry took care of the horses.
On Feb.21 or 22, 1909, Etta got a telegram that her niece’s husband was dead in Jamestown, N.Y. He was Ray Densmore, husband of Edna Lefford. They had been married about two years previously. Etta went to the funeral at Jamestown.
Jerry used to hunt rabbits and had shot quite a few of them in his time. He had a muzzle loading gun and also a shotgun. He had a powder horn for the muzzle loader. The family once had an empty steer horn which they used to blow into, probably to call the men from the fields at dinnertimes, etc.
Jerry, Etta and her niece, Nettie Archer, used to boil several gallons of maple syrup at the back of the farm. They had a stone arch near a huge maple tree that stood in the open in the pasture back there. They hung six pails on that particular tree. They of course tapped other trees too.
Sometime after Freddie died Jerry was in Titusville one day. He met Andrew Proper and his son, Arch, of Fauncetown. Andrew remarked that he was about to take Arch to the store to buy a hat for him. Jerry quickly said that he would take Arch and buy the hat for him. They went into the store and Jerry said: “I want a hat that will fit my boy”. The clerk said, “I thought your boy was dead”. “He’s not dead, here’s my boy”, said Jerry, and he bought the new hat for Arch. Always after that he called Arch “My boy”. Arch was born in 1892, the same year that Freddie had been born.
One time Arch’s older brother, Bill Proper, bought two calves from Jerry. He took Arch with him to butcher the calves. From the time they started until they finished, it was 45 minutes. Jerry said: “Be Jesus, there’s not another man in the country that can do that in that time”.
One night a young Strawbridge man from the Fairview area and a young man from the Sunville area got into a fight at a dance held in the Grange building at Diamond. They fought and fought until each one was really too tired to continue. The young man from the Sunville area said in the course of the fight: “I can lick any Strawbridge in the name!” Jerry was heard to remark afterwards, “Be Jesus, he’s taking in a lot of territory”.
Jerry and Etta used to have a butter, egg and produce route in Titusville. They kept chickens and churned butter from four or five cows. They had a wagon with a canopy top. Jerry also had an open-seated buggy to which he hitched his team. They generally peddled from the canopy-topped wagon.
Jerry’s main product was potatoes. He was one of the finest potato raisers in the area. He always planted his potatoes in the right sign. He generally took six or eight bushels of potatoes with the eggs and butter when he went to town. In those days the Diamond preachers, besides their limited salaries, depended upon edibles from their parishioners. Jerry and Etta indeed gave many potatoes to the preachers throughout the years. He often gave to the Shrivers a couple helpings each year as soon as the new potatoes were dug. He mainly raised two varieties of potatoes. They were the Blue Whale and White Bell makes. The Blue Whale was bluish on the outside, but had a white meat. It was rather wide; spread out, where the white Bell was not as spreading, but thicker. Often buyers came to his farm for potatoes. One time he couldn’t find a sale for the Blue Whale potatoes, so the family kept them for themselves. Jerry did not specialize in other field crops. His hay was simply whitetop for his cattle and horses. One year Ray Proper helped Jerry to hay. At that time Jerry and his neighbor to the north, Joe McKenzie, helped each other to hay. Jerry and this writer’s grandfather, J.M.Shiriver, used to trade help at threshing times. Speaking of Ray Proper, who worked for some time for Grandfather Shriver – Grandfather, Dean and Ray took some plank to the cemetery and leveled the large Shriver tombstone which was leaning slightly eastward. Etta Kightlinger had reminded Grandfather of its leaning.
One fall in the period of 1908 to 1910 it was very dry. Jerry’s well was not sufficient to supply enough water, so Jerry had to haul water from the Oren Shriver spring in Diamond, even after the snow came. It wintered before the swamps filled with water.
One time when Etta went to the grape country for awhile, Jerry asked Aunt Laura Shriver in Diamond if she would make some tomato preserves for him if he would fetch the tomatoes. She readily consented, and she did make the preserves for him.
On Feb.15, 1911, Sylvian M. Kightlinger was married to Clarence R.Stephenson. The young couple hitched Jerry’s long-haired horse called “Curly” to the rig and drove to Deckards Run where they were married by Rev.Fred Awanson who had moved there from Diamond only the fall beforehand.
On the next night, Feb. 16th, a number of young men of the Diamond area went to Jerry’s home and gave a rousing serenade to Sylvian and Clarence. Candy and cigars were given. It was around that same time that Jerry and Etta had gone to Raymilton to attend the wedding of Etta’s nephew, Henry Hoover, a former Diamond resident. It was Henry’s second wedding. His first wife, Millie Schultz Hoover, had died in Diamond of fever in 1902.
Sylvian and Clarence lived in Erie for a few years. Jerry and Etta went up there on occasions. There is record in August, 1914, that Jerry and Delbert Proper of Diamond made a visit to the Stephensons in Erie.
For awhile there was a baseball field on Jerry’s farm where the kids or young fellows played games on Sundays. They were the Diamond area youths. The field was a ways back of the barn, home plate was near the lane, the batter facing the northwest.

Jerry a Great Lover of Horses

Now broad mention will be made about one of Jerry’s greatest loves – horses. He knew the horse through and through. Gypsies used to stop at his place to dicker with him on horses. However, they could not best him in a deal. Jerry knew how to calm the heaves in a horse temporarily, but he did not tell his secret.
One time Jerry sold or traded a horse with a man from Sugar Lake. He told the man that “it would do you good”. The man later came back, dissatisfied. The horse would lay down and refuse to get up. “You said the horse would do good”, wailed the man. Jerry said: ‘I told you that it would do your heart good in the mornings”.
This story is a classic. At another time somebody traded horses with Jerry. Jerry told the fellow that the horse “was sound as the buttons on your coat”. Later the dissatisfied fellow came back and said to Jerry: “I thought you said it was sound as the buttons on my coat”. Jerry replied, “I did, but isn’t there holes in the buttons on your coat?”.
A man from the Tidioute area traded a large 1600 pound dapple gray mare to Jerry for another horse. Then another person from the Tidioute area traded a 1200 pound sorrel mare to Jerry for this dapple gray. It so happened that the dapple gray was wind-broken. This last person hadn’t known that the dapple gray was from his own area. Jerry suspected that this last man would be back, so he had Artie and Owen Dempsey keep the sorrel shut in the barn on the nearby Sullivan place. Artie’s father, Lawrence Dempsey, had farmed this Sullivan place for years. Indeed the man did come back, and he hunted the pasture high and low for the horse, but of course couldn’t find it. He came back several evenings too, but he finally gave up.
One time the Jesse Peebles family of Cherrytree Township was driving their rig to the Lonctot place. On the way they met Jerry who was driving a long-haired rather shaggy horse. As was the custom then, they stopped and talked. Jesse asked Jerry where he got his horse. Jerry quickly replied, “Sears, Roebuck, be-Jesus!”.
Jerry one time had a lazy horse that would go fast only in case a streetcar was nearby. One day while in town he got ahead of a streetcar, and the horse took him sailing to the livery stable where Jones Brothers Buick garage was situated in later years. In fact the frightened horse nearly ran over someone. Two young fellows were quite impressed by this horse, and they wanted to trade. Jerry told them that he thought their father couldn’t handle the horse. But they insisted otherwise, so the trade was made. When he got back to Diamond Jerry told somebody that those fellows didn’t have half as far to get home as he did, and he knew they weren’t home yet!
Jim Kees, this writer’s great uncle, once sold a Chickesaw horse (speckled gray mixed with white) to Jerry. This horse had been wounded when a neckyoke broke and penetrated its breast. Jim sold it cheaply just to get rid of it. Jerry apparently fixed it up because he kept this horse for a long time.
One time Ward Holder, mail carrier at the Diamond postoffice, bought a driving horse for mail carrying from John Bradley at East Troy for $15.00. Ward drove it for one winter and spring, then he had Jerry Kightlinger sell it for him. He later told Ward that he got $10.00 and a pocketwatch for it, so he turned these over to Ward.
Grandfather Shriver once had a driving horse named “Kit”, a light bay. She would kick at everybody except Grandmother Shriver who could step in beside her and harness her without the slightest objection. It is possible that Grandfather had Jerry trade her for another horse for the folks. At another time Jerry went with Grandfather to trade horses. Jerry knew horses so well that Grandfather depended upon him as to whether he would be getting a good horse or not.
Jerry used to keep several bottles of horse medicines on a sill near the ceiling of his barn. If anyone came to inquire about a horse ailment, Jerry would take down a bottle and give the fellow some of its contents for his ailing horse. Jerry didn’t have any labels on the bottles either.
He once got a white mule in a horse trade. He advertised it on a sign in front of his home. The sign said “White Mule for sale”. This was at a time when liquor business was illegal. It appeared to some passersby that the sign meant liquor.

Dean Shriver once said that Jerry was certainly a straight-sitter when riding and driving his canopy-covered wagon back home. He leaned right back while driving. Occasionally Etta would be scolding him.
One time floods washed out the fences of Jerry, Dorsey Kightlinger and Tommy Thompson. A group of area men held a work bee one day to rebuild them. Among them were Grandfather Shriver and Dean, Jerry, Dorsey, Tommy, Herb Kightlinger and Joe McKenzie. There may have been others too. Once Jerry pushed Dean into the creek for the fun of it. Jerry watched him closely for quite awhile in fear he would be pushed into the creek too. Later Jerry relaxed his caution and Dean found the opportunity to push Jerry into the creek.
Jerry’s oldest grandson, Fred Stephenson, stayed occasionally at the Kightlinger farm, and he would go to town with his grandfather. Jerry stopped at the store on the corner of West Spring Street and Second Street, where Zdarko’s Drug Store was situated in later years, buy a ring of baloney and a box of soda crackers, and they would eat them on the way home on the wagon. Jerry would peel off slices of the baloney with his old pocketknife.
Jerry used to get Jim and Bill Fenton to help him to hoe his potatoes. The Fenton family lived on the Goodwin Road where the present township gravel pit is situated. He generally rewarded the Fenton men with nips of cider. Each would hoe two rows down and two rows back. Jerry’s grandson, Fred, also helped to hoe the potatoes.
Jerry smoked the small Virginia Cheroot cigars. He occasionally let out yips heard quite a ways while riding on the wagon. Jerry also smoked a pipe. Often in the evenings he would be sitting in the living room, puffing on his pipe, while Etta would read aloud the news from the daily newspaper.
There used to be an organ in the Kightlinger home. Etta chorded on it, but never played by note. Jerry liked music, but certainly was no musician. His favorite hymn was “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder”. He never went to church. Grandmother Shriver once told this writer that the only time he was in church was in attendance at funerals.
Jerry and Sylvian went by train one time to the Oil city area. Children were allowed to ride free. Sylvian, a very short person, was well past the age of children. She was about to tell her age to the conductor when Jerry told her not to do so. Sylvian got a free ride, much to Jerry’s pleasure.
One time Jerry, Etta, Sylvian and Clarence visited Jerry’s nephew, Clyde Kightlinger, at Maple Hill. Clyde had just finished cutting Emory Armstrong’s hair. Jerry limped up to the porch, holding his hip, and sat down. Clyde asked him: “What’s the matter, Uncle Jerry?” “Oh, I guess I’m getting some rheumatism”, he replied. “How about some cider?”, Clyde asked. Jerry hopped up and his rheumatism seemed to leave pretty fast.
Jerry once strutted down the middle of the street near the present Serrins store. He was skipping right along and seemed to be feeling pretty good.
Jerry and his nephew, Clarence Hancox, used to help each other to butcher hogs when Hancox lived on the Goodwin farm. They once argued over which one had the heavier hogs. When Clarence butchered they shot the hogs and dragged them to the fire. Each had hold of the hook. Clarence let up in pulling, and Jerry finally acknowledged that he guessed Clarence did have heavier hogs!
When Jerry’s brother, Ben Kightlinger, was buried in the Diamond Cemetery on an August day in 1917, he had a casket that required cranking to be closed. Jerry made the remark: “Be Jesus, I would like to have that for my grindstone!”.
Several men were working on the road in front of Grandfather Strawbridge’s house one day. One of the workers was Jerry Kightlinger. Dinner time came, and Grandmother was having strawberry shortcake for dinner. Grandfather took a piece of strawberry shortcake in his hand, stepped outside the front door and shouted: “Hey Jerry, look here!” Jerry immediately saw the shortcake and said, “Be Jesus, I’m comin’ in!” And he did come in for dinner.
There lived in Diamond those days a man named bill Shadle. Like Jerry Kightlinger, Shadle too was what one called “a character”, though their escapades were of a different caliber. Shadle was one of the earliest risers in the area. He enjoyed getting up at 4 a.m. and maybe go outside in his bare feet with only his underclothing on him. Nevertheless, on this particular occasion in this story, Shadle got up early and walked up the Diamond hill to work at somebody’s place. He walked over to the corner of Jerry’s house and with his stick or shovel slammed it several times on the side of the house, waking up the household. Finally after a few mornings of this, Jerry told Shadle that he would get his shotgun out and shoot him. That information ended the Shadle escapades on Jerry’s house, and that was one of the very few times that Jerry lost his temper or patience.
One time Jerry was to a public sale somewhere. He bid $5.00 on every cow that came up for bid. The auctioneer was a man named Harry E.Kiskadden. Finally Kiskadden quietly asked someone who that man was, and he was told. When the next cow was brought forward Jerry again said $5.00. Kiskadden immediately pointed his finger at him and said: “Jerry Kightlinger, I’ll see you in Sunday School tomorrow morning” (it was Saturday). Jerry immediately replied, “the hell you will”. Everybody laughed.
It was probably on a Sunday in 1916 when Andy and Catherine Stolz of Erie, friends of the Stephensons, came down to the Kightlinger home for a visit. Clarence and Sylvian and their two oldest sons, Fred and Ed, were of course there too. Grandmother Shriver was over that afternoon too. Somebody, probably Sylvian, took a snapshot of the group by the grapevine that used to be along the west side of the yard. The Stolz couple, Clarence, Fred and Ed, Jerry and Etta and Grandmother Shriver are in the picture.
At the beginning of World War I Jerry purchased seven sacks of flour at the Kerr Hill Mill on the west end of Titusville. He stored them upstairs in his house. He wasn’t going to be short of flour for some time anyway.
Jerry had a nephew named Bill King who went here and there because of his dislike for work. He had been to Clarence Hancox’s home on the old Peebles place for a visit. When Clarence mentioned cutting wood, Bill had an excuse to go to the Diamond postoffice to cash a check. He didn’t come back. King then stopped at his Uncle Jerry’s place and stayed awhile. As soon as Jerry spoke the word “work”, King left. King drowned many years later in New York State.
Jerry once attended a dance in the John F. Strawbridge house at East Troy. He danced a couple of times in a square dance with Emma Strawbridge, then a girl. He asked someone later if that wasn’t a Strawbridge girl, and when informed that she was, he replied that he just knew that she was a Strawbridge.
In that day the cemetery at Diamond was not cared for like it is during the later times. In the old section of it there was brush growing then. Jerry and Charlie August cut brush in it as large as the upper part of his arm, according to what Charlie told this writer in later years.
Occasionally Etta worked out. She worked for Murdochs in Titusville, and she worked for William Lewis who lived on the present Robert Lewis place at the foot of the Gresham hill. William was an uncle of Robert. Etta worked in the Lewis home either just before or just after William’s wife died. Ida Thomas of Diamond also worked there at a different period of time.
Etta once had her pocketbook stolen at the Titusville Fair, but she somehow recovered it. Sylvian Stephenson still had it many years later.
Etta took an interest in the activities of the women in the Diamond community. She joined the Diamond Grange No.1320 on Jan.26,1916, and remained a member the rest of her life. Jerry joined the Grange on Aug.8, 1917, but dropped his membership in 1925. However he soon reinstated on Aug.26, 1925, and remained a member his last years.
During the time of World War I, Etta was a member of the Diamond Red Cross Auxiliary. Three is record of that group meeting in Etta’s home in October, 1917. Etta was also active in the Ladies Aid Society of the U.B. Church.
Jerry’s cousin, Danny Kightlinger, died at the County Home at Saegertown on March 14, 1919. He of course died penniless. Somebody went around to collect money to help bury him. The funeral was in the East Troy Church three days later, and he was buried beside his parents in the East Troy Cemetery. Jerry and two of his nephews, Jim and Lester Hancox, gave their time to dig his grave.
A party was given for Jerry’s 62nd birthday in his home on Nov.16, 1919, which was one day after his actual birthday. Etta served a fine dinner. Among those present were Mr. and Mrs. George A. Marthaler, Mr. and Mrs. Bert Smith and children, Mr. and Mrs. Claude Mallory and Mildred, Mr. and Mrs. T.D. Thompson and Genevieve, and Clarence and Sylvian and three children, Fred, Ed and Phyllis.
Jerry’s youngest brother, Jerome Kightlinger, was a distant sort of person. He had married Alida Thomas, but the marriage didn’t last. Jerome, or “Rome”, as most knew him, lived here and there, such as Erie and Bradford. He became distant from the family. Etta claimed that she saw him in Erie one time, but the man, if it was he, denied being Rome. No one seems to know when he died. It is said that he died somewhere in Canada well after Jerry’s time of death.
It was probably in 1921 or 1922 when the road through Diamond was first paved with oil and chips. When the crew reached Jerry’s place, as they were working in the western direction, they wondered if they could leave the steam roller sit in his driveway overnight. He consented if they would chip his driveway and roll it. The men did, and that driveway held up for several decades.
Nellie King Markley, Jerry’s niece, was back from Washington State for a visit in July, 1923. She and her parents, Joe and Ruth King, who lived in the Hydetown area, visited the Jerry Kightlingers at that time. Joe King died the following April 7th, and he was buried at Diamond. Mrs. King later went to Washington State where she died several years later and was buried out there.
Jerry was a pallbearer at the funeral of Hannah Sharp which was held in the Diamond Church on May 18, 1924. Hannah had reared Mrs. Dorsey Kightlinger after her mother died when she (Mrs. Kightlinger) was a baby. Hannah’s death occurred in the Dorsey Kightlinger home.
The second annual Kightlinger reunion was held at the Jarred Kightlinger residence on Sunday, July 19, 1925, with 150 relatives and friends attending. The oldest person present was Mrs. Sarah Young, 85, and the youngest person was Walter Clyde Kightlinger, four weeks old.
Jerry used to help a neighbor up the highway, Chuck Stevenson, to fill silo. One time Jean Stevenson had two different kinds of pies for dinner. After Jerry had one piece of pie he said that he guessed he would have a piece of the other pie, and he did. Jean was worried because if others did the same thing, there wouldn’t be enough of both kinds to go around. After that she baked only one kind of pie for those big dinners. When their daughter, Virginia, was three years old, she watched Jerry eating off the end of his knife. She told him that her family ate off their forks. Jean could have fallen through the floor.
On Feb.3, 1927, Grandfather Shriver died across the road. Jerry had come over the night before to do what he could under the circumstances. After Grandfather’s casket reposed in the front room Jerry came over to view the body. Aunt Grace Williams told this writer that the tears streamed down Jerry’s cheeks at that time.
Jerry and Etta celebrated their 43rd wedding anniversary on Monday, July 5, 1927, with a group of friends and relatives present.
On the night of Sept.5,1927, prowlers came around the Shriver home across the road. The postoffice was established in that home, and they were likely interested in tapping some funds or stamps that night. Grandmother Shriver had hurried through the house to inform Dean and Elizabeth Shriver, but by the time Dean got up to investigate, the prowlers had left. They had parked below the driveway. Jarred Kightlinger had also heard them and had gotten his shotgun out. They always remained unidentified.
It was around 1928 when a Kightlinger relative, Hattie Kingsley, and her two sons, Clyde and Raymond Kightlinger, called on Jerry and Etta. Hattie told them what her two sons were doing and how well they were doing, much to Clyde’s embarrassment, according to what he said many years later.
On May 3,1929, a public sale was held at the Shriver farm across the road. A public dinner was served by the Diamond Ladies Aid Society. The society cleared $30.00. Among those helping was Etta Kightlinger.

Jerry’s Health Begins to Fail

On Feb.4,1929, Squire Robert A.Kerr of Titusville drew up two deeds to put the Kightlinger farm from Jerry’s name into a joint deed with both the names of Jerry and Etta. Jerry and Etta conveyed the farm to Clarence and Sylvian for one dollar, then Clarence and Sylvian conveyed the farm back to Jerry and Etta for one dollar. This made legal the joint deed as husband and wife. Jerry was failing in health at that date. By early summer he was definitely worsening.
Etta’s brother, George Lefford, died June 19,1929. Jerry was able to attend that funeral. Another brother of Etta named Lynn Lefford died that October. The writer does not know if Jerry was able to attend that service.
Jerry was failing to the point that Etta had more than she could do to care for him and the place. During the summer of 1929 Clarence and Sylvian and their four children, Fred, Ed, Phyllis, and Bob, moved into the Kightlinger home where Sylvian helped to care for him.
The doctor, Dr.V.B.Eiler, said that Jerry had colitis, a disease of the large intestines. He bled occasionally. However, when Eiler filled out the death certificate he put down carcinoma, which is actually cancer. The doctor also put down one year and six months as the duration. Therefore Jerry apparently began to feel troubled around the late summer of 1928. In the course of his illness Jerry thinned down very much.
It was during the winter of 1930 that the electric line came out to Diamond from Titusville. The Jerry Kightlinger house was one of the houses that was wired. This writer’s late father, Frank Strawbridge, was one of the workers helping to wire the houses. It must have been only days before Jerry’s death that the electricity was turned on in his house. This writer’s father said that Jerry looked up from his bed and smiled when he saw the electric lights turned on for the first time.
Also, one of Jerry’s last requests only a few days before his death was that Clarence lead his horses past his bedroom window that he might see them one more time. This was done. His last team was a gray and a bay. This old bay was named “Fred”, and it had a large blaze on its head. Jerry had used this faithful horse for single-horse work too, such as cultivating. In fact Clarence kept this horse for quite some time afterwards.
Well, the very end for Jarred B. Kightlinger took place at 6:30 a.m., Monday, Feb.10,1930, in the downstairs bedroom – the same one in which his mother had died back in 1907. The F.H. Flanders Funeral Home of Titusville was notified, and an assistant, Paul B. Kerr, came out to do the embalming. This was a year before Kerr established his own funeral home. Jerry was so thin that Kerr and difficulty in closing Jerry’s mouth. A niece, Millie Smith, told this writer many years later that Jerry was so thin in his casket that the outline of his ribs could be seen under his coat. Sylvian also said years later that he had a metallic casket that was guaranteed for 50 years. The funeral bill amounted to $270.00.
The funeral was held in the family home on Wednesday, Feb.12, at 2:30 p.m., with Rev. C.A. Wescott, Diamond pastor, officiating. It was a large funeral, both the downstairs and upstairs having been filled with people. Three hymns, “Rock of Ages”, “Sweet Peace, the Gift of God’s Love” and “When the Roll is Called Up Yonder” (the last one Jerry’s favorite) were sung by Floyd and Zola Campbell and Bed Strawbridge with Jean Stevenson as pianist. The Stevensons had a piano when they moved there the previous summer. Pallbearers were Bill Shadle, Lester Daniels, Charlie August, victor Guild, Delbert Proper and Albert Smith. Burial was in the cemetery below the home.
Clarence Stephenson remarked many years later to this writer and his father that a certain man came too late for the funeral didn’t see Jerry at the house. The casket was opened at the cemetery for the benefit of this man. Apparently moving the casket into the cold weather had turned Jerry’s face to a dark color.
The metallic casket was buried in a roughbox. To this writer’s knowledge that grave has not collapsed, but at present (March 1981) it shows slight sign of lowering, particularly at the foot end. That is a period of 51 years. Apparently that guarantee of 50 years was indeed a good one.
The following summer there were more deeds drawn up. On June 30, 1930, Clarence and Sylvian gave a quit-claim deed of the farm to Etta, then on the next day Etta deeded the farm over to Clarence and Sylvian with the provisions that her home be made there, her board and lodging be free, and in case of sickness all her doctor bills be paid by Clarence and Sylvian, as long as she remained a member of the family and during her natural lifetime. At her death Clarence and Sylvian were to pay her funeral expenses, the same to be in accord with the burial of her late husband. In addition Clarence and Sylvian were to pay her $5.00 per month during her lifetime.
During her years of retirement Etta often made visits here and there. During a period of five or six weeks in the winter of 1932 she worked in the home of Mrs.Susan Camp in Meadville. Mrs. Camp was formerly Susan Jennings of Chapmanville. Mrs. Camp’s sister, May Morse of Chapmanville, had suggested Etta to her. Etta got $7.00 a week there. She refused $10.00 a week which had been offered to her.
One time during the 1930s Jarred’s sister, Mrs. Lottie Storms of Bradford, came down to the Stephenson home for a visit. Following her visit there she was taken to the home of Clarence and Bertha Hancox for a visit.
It was either the fall of 1934 or sometime in 1935 that the family home was entirely remodeled by Clarence. He tore the east wing off and built a new addition to the large west portion with the new roof continuing down at the same angle. The new kitchen and sitting room were included in the addition. It was covered with new shingles on the outside. The house still maintains this same look today.
Etta’s 70th birthday was celebrated on Friday, Jan.31,1936, a cold day of snowing. Members of the Goodwin bible Class of the Diamond Church called at her home. Rev.Walter D.Black, pastor, spoke of the worth of her in the work of the church and community where she had lived for over 50 years. Etta often talked about the church in the course of her conversations particularly during her later years.
When this writer’s great grandmother, Mary Ann Carey, 89, died in Titusville on April 26, 1936, Etta was one of the people she called at the house down there. Grandmother Shriver had stayed and cared for Great Grandmother Carey.
Etta occasionally went with the pastor’s family to visit other churches on the charge. For example, on Nov.28, 1936, she, Grandmother Shriver and Cecile Hummer went with the Blacks to the Kaneville U.B. Church.
Etta had a sick spell in bed in August, 1937. Grandmother Shriver went up to see her when Grandmother lived in Dean’s house.
Etta was well versed as to who was buried in many of the old graves in the cemetery. Once a Mrs.Robert C. Wallace of North Bend, Pa., stopped at various cemeteries in this area to copy Welsh family records. She met Etta who likely guided her to the various lots in the Diamond Cemetery.
She used to keep baking recipes of different relatives or friends. She had recipes that were from her mother, Sylvian, Golda and Ruby Lefford, Florence Steadman, Grandmother Shriver, Aunt Laura Shriver, Laura August, Isla Strawbridge and Mrs. Ernie Mallory.
This writer’s recollection of Etta L.Kightlinger is that she was quite a heavy woman with pure white hair, one who wore glasses, and was quite a prim old lady. Her voice sounded as though she had a “frog” in her throat; in other words this writer felt as though he wanted to clear his throat for her benefit. She often wore white shoes when dressed up.
There was a mother-daughter and father-son banquet sponsored by the Ladies Aid Society and Goodwin Bible Class, and held in the Grange hall on May 24, 1940. Most of the oldtimers of Diamond were present, there having been around 65 there. Etta was one of those there. A group photograph was taken there that evening.
On the early evening of April 14, 1942, Bob Stephenson was over to this writer’s place.
He was talking to this writer’s brother, Harold, who soon left in his car, heading towards Titusville. Bob took out the driveway on his bicycle after him rather fast, and as he turned to go east at the edge of the pavement, he leaned too far to his right and wrecked. Bob smashed his ankle, thought to be the left one, and was in great pain. The rest of the Stephenson family hurried over, and this writer remembers that Bob’s grandmother got excited and began to hurry down the road, heedless of any traffic. This writer’s father and Clarence both shouted to her to watch the traffic. Clarence took Bob to the hospital in his old 1934 Ford car. Bob had to wear a cast, and he was a long time recovering from that severe injury.
Clarence Stephenson had a raising for his new barn on June 30, 1942. Many men were there to help. This writer remembers of being there and seeing Etta, or “Et”, as many called her, visiting with Tommy Thompson in the front yard at dinnertime. Clarence tore down the old shed-barn which Jerry had used, and with the help of Bob, Ward Holder and Finley Harry, began the new barn on approximately the same location.
When Fred Stephenson was about to leave for the service during world War II, a family dinner was given in his honor at the Stephenson home on Aug.18, 1943. There was a nice white cake with a U.S. flag on it. The dinner table set immediately east of the house, and somebody took a picture of the group around the table. Appearing in it clockwise were Clarence, Fred (holding the cake), Bea, Katie, Ed, Sylvian, Etta, Bob and Esther Taylor.
On May 18, 1944, Grandmother Shriver had a spell with high blood pressure which put her in bed for a few days. Etta came over to visit her. This writer recalls that Etta told Grandmother if she had it to do over again, she would have married again. It is not remembered as to who the gentleman would have been.
This writer also recalls of Etta attending an I.O.O.F. Memorial service at the Wallaceville Methodist Church at Memorial Day time in either 1944 or 1945, more likely the latter year. After the service her grandson, bob, helped her down the churchyard to their car, as it was fairly dark by then.
Etta had made an occasional visit to the home of her granddaughter, Phyllis Dragosavac, in Jamestown, N.Y. She thoroughly enjoyed the times that she was up there, and had gone shopping, etc.
Occasionally during her last years when she saw Grandfather Strawbridge, she reminded him that he was to sing at her funeral. At the last time she reminded him, he told her in a joking way of course that she had better hurry up or else he wouldn’t be here to do it. He was getting old too. She laughed at this remark.
In October 1944, she spent some time in Titusville on a visit. While there she fell and fractured a bone in her left thumb.
On Feb.2, 1945, over 20 young people dropped into the Stephenson home for a surprise birthday party for her grandson, bob, who turned 18. It is remembered that she sat along the north wall of the west front room and enjoyed watching this evening’s activities very much.
On March 15, 1945, Etta and Grandmother Shriver went up to Hattie Guild’s house where Hattie gave a little birthday observance for her sister-in-law, Miss Lina guild, who was to turn 95 the next day. Lina had broken a hip a few months previously and was bedfast in the living room there.
In the early part of November, 1945, Etta made a visit with the Densmore family in Brocton, N.Y. She returned around Nov. 7-10, seemingly in as good health as ever.

Etta’s Last Active Day

On the fateful day of Wednesday, Nov.14, only a few days after her visit to Brocton, this writer’s father was either piling wood or slashing wood just west of the house, along the edge of the orchard fence. He had noticed that Etta walked down to the cemetery and started back up, carrying a large pot of dirt which had contained flowers on her cemetery lot during that summer. The pot was evidently heavy. She would walk a ways, then set the pot down to rest a bit, then pick it up and walk a ways, then rest again. She did this until she reached the house. She should have emptied the dirt at the cemetery, then she would have had only the empty pot to carry.
That evening she was preparing to attend a meeting of the Grange at Dempseytown, this writer believes, and Merrill Green and Anna Foust were to stop to take her. While getting ready, she suddenly became ill and family members got her into her bed which was in the southwest room upstairs. Sylvian called this writer’s mother over, and while Sylvian went downstairs to get something, this writer’s mother heard Etta’s last words. She was laying flat on the bed, rubbing her chest with her left hand, looked up towards the ceiling, and with a faint smile said: “I’m not afraid to go. I’m not afraid to go”. After that she closed her eyes and lapsed into unconsciousness from which she never rallied.
Dr.J.Bruce Hague of Titusville was summoned out by the family. Dr. Hague said that she had suffered a cerebral hemorrhage, and that chances of recovery were about nil. He also said that she might last only a short time, or she might last longer than expected. Ed Stephenson’s wife, Katie, came down from Erie to help care for her. The end came five days later, Monday evening, 5:30 o’clock, Nov.19,1945. Katie came over to tell this writer’s mother while outside the milkhouse at evening milking time. C.H.McKinley and Rev.J.L.Murray came to take her to the funeral home for preparation.
Her casket was brought to the house on Wednesday for viewing prior to the funeral. It reposed across the southwest corner of the west front room. It was there over Thanksgiving Day. The funeral was held in the church on Friday, Nov.23, at 2 p.m. This writer had gone to Titusville to fetch out Grandmother Shriver and aunt Grace Williams for the funeral. The writer also hauled the flowers in his father’s 1941 Plymouth sedan. He did indeed have a carful of them. McKinley told him to ask anybody at the church to help him to carry the flowers into the church. The casket, pallbearers and family arrived shortly afterwards.

The writer also remembers that McKinley had placed the casket and banked the flowers around it in front of the altar, only to be informed shortly afterwards by Ed Stephenson that the casket was backwards. McKinley had to move flowers, pull the casket out and turn it properly. Ira Thomas was his assistant. As one person said years later, that was an undertaker’s horror at a church funeral. It is also remembered of an elderly woman and a roughly dressed elderly man walking into the church. The man had old clothing and rubber boots and plodded up the aisle to a seat on the west side. It was learned later that they were Emma Spoor and her gentleman friend, Elmer Kersetter. The seats were filled.
Rev.L.T.Lincoln, the Diamond pastor, gave the sermon from the 14th Psalm. The same singers and accompanist rendered the same three hymns that were sung at Jerry’s funeral over 15 years previously. Therefore Grandfather Strawbridge had fulfilled Etta’s wish made 38 years previously, to sing at her funeral. The pallbearers were Frank Strawbridge, Dean Shriver, Finley Harry, Ben Lonctot, Ward Holder and Earl Proper. Burial was beside Jarred. Merrill Green was one of the men who dug her grave.
Etta’s funeral cost $385.00, a figure considerably over the cost of Jerry’s funeral years beforehand. She had a gray-colored casket which was deposited into a roughbox. Etta was firmly against being put into a vault. She claimed that she wouldn’t be able to get out of a vault at the Resurrection. The writer does not know why she entertained such a thought of not being able to get out. The writer recalls that her grave was found to have been collapsed in the spring of 1952.
Thus closes this narrative on the life of an interesting and likable couple who lived during the closing decades of the 19th century and the opening decades of the progressive 20th century.
Writing completed Feb.23, 1981

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.