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WHO WAS WHO in PLUM TOWNSHIP
~ Titusville Herald
By H. W. Strawbridge ~ 1950s - 60s

Oren E. Shriver

Eagle Rock, Venango County, was where Oren Edgar Shriver was born on June 24, 1856. He was the second of three children of James R. and Jane Ensign Shriver. His father was a shoemaker and a farmer.
In 1860 the family moved to Tionesta and stayed one year. They next made Jemison Flats their home for a short while. It was probably in 1862 that they moved into a farm northwest of Neilltown where they remained for several years.
It was at Neilltown where young Oren received his elementary education. The names of a couple of his teachers were Rose Martin and Frances Harris. He later attended the old Neilltown Academy. Resembled Uncle
Oren so closely resembled his uncle, Zachariah Shriver, of Tionesta that he was occasionally mistaken for him. His uncle, Zach, was only six years older than he (Oren).
Oren, his parents and sister, Emma, were members of the old Harmony Grange of Neilltown. Demit cards were issued to them after their removal from Neilltown.
In October, 1876, the Shrivers bought a farm of 120 acres at Diamond and moved there. It is presently the Homestead Farm, still possessed by Oren’s niece, Mrs. Isla Strawbridge. Oren helped his father set out maple trees in the yard and along the highway which still stand.
On Sept. 12, 1881, Oren bought approximately 65 acres of land from W.P.Strawbridge for $1,300. This land adjoined his father’s farm on the southeast. Part of it was cleared and Oren cleared the remainder.
Oren built a shanty back there and “batched” it for some time. In 1883 he started construction on a new two-story house, sized 18x24 feet. He hired Amos Hancox to help carpenter it. Oren himself, was noted as a fine carpenter. A cellar had been dug and stones for the cellar wall had been hauled to the site by Frank Neely with a yoke of oxen, one a red ox and the other white. Chestnut and oak lumber for the house is thought to have been sawed out at John Wright’s mill in Diamond. An unusual thing about the house is that the studding was of 2x6s instead of 2x4 –a very strong structure indeed. Oren also constructed a barn, 36x50 feet in size.
In 1879 W.P.Strawbridge and his partner, Reuben Hancox, had traded a strip of land 130 perches long and about 30 feet wide to John Strawbridge for another piece the same size so that they could have a lane to the public road (Route 27). However, they never got the brush and stumps cleared out for use. (Before Oren bought the place, Hancox had sold out to W.P.Strawbridge).
Around the time the house was built, many neighbors and friends gathered to root out the stumps, clear out trees and brush in Oren’s lane. A long table was set near the lane in the woods of Oren’s father and a big dinner served by the women. That evening a social time was enjoyed. Young Jacob Shriver, a younger brother of Oren, climbed a couple of trees to hang a long swing which the young people gayly used. Such was an example of the “good old days”.
Oren got a big scare on the evening of Feb.11,1884. He had been doing repair work on the old cellarhouse of his neighbor, John Strawbridge. Suddenly he looked up and saw black smoke in the sky. His first thought was that his new house or barn was afire and he got ready to hurry there. However, John assured him that the smoke wasn’t quite in the proper direction. It proved to be James Miles’ barn, located farther away. Miles was in his barn when his kerosene lantern exploded, setting the building on fire. Courtship to Marriage
A certain young man of Diamond, J.C. August, was courting Miss Ruhama Hays of Sunville. One evening he took Oren with him to meet Ruhama’s younger sister, Laura Anna Hays. A courtship began which ended in marriage. Laura was one of six daughters of Samuel and Harriet Bradley Hays, and was born at Sunville on Aug.4, 1860.
She was a small, thin girl with a pleasing disposition. She was quiet and rather reserved. She had united with the Sunville Presbyterian Church on Nov. 16,1878, and remained a lifelong member of it. She taught a Sunday School class there before her marriage. She was a schoolteacher and taught a total of 24 terms, some of them being short terms, like two or three a year.
Oren and she were married at the Presbyterian manse in Cooperstown on New Year’s Day, 1885, by Rev. J.L.Robertson, pastor of the Cooperstown and Sunville churches. They had planned a spring wedding, but decided otherwise when a new state law required that licenses for marriage be secured beginning Jan.2, 1885. Oren and Laura had the distinction of being wed on the last day that a license was not required.
Laura finished teaching her school that winter at Mount Pleasant, Canal Township. They didn’t move into Oren’s new house until spring.
They were the parents of three children, who with their birthdates were: Clarence James Shriver, May 19, 1886; Robert Hays Shriver, April 7, 1889; and Margie Lenore Shriver, Sept.8, 1895.
Clarence died after a very brief illness of membranous croup on July 17, 1887. The symptom was that his throat filled up with mucus and death by choking resulted. The little fellow had light, curly hair. Since the Shrivers then had no burial lot at Diamond, his remains were taken to Sunville and, following a service in the Presbyterian Church, were buried in his Grandfather Hays’ lot behind the church.
Robert attended elementary school at Diamond, following which he attended the academy at North Washington, Butler county. He then taught school for a while. He engaged in dairying and was one of the first in this area to have registered Jersey cattle. After his removal to a farm near Petrolia he continued his dairying and also worked as a DHIA tester. He was a granger and once served as Venango County Pomona master. He also carried mail at both Diamond and Petrolia. On Christmas Day, 1931, he was married to Miss Virginia Davis of Aliquippa and they spent their married life on his place near Petrolia. Robert had served as an elder in the North Washington Church. He died from the effects of a stroke on April 21, 1958, and is buried at Diamond. Mrs. Shriver still lives near Petrolia. Educated at Diamond
Margie also received her elementary education at Diamond and attended the academies at Sunville and North Washington. She finished her education with the study of music. She was a fine singer, organist and pianist, and traveled to various homes giving music lessons. She was an active member of the Diamond UB Church. She served as a nurse in the Katie Davis Home in Rocky Grove before going to Napa, Calif., in 1920, where she was employed in a state hospital. On Dec.2, 1922, she was married in Oakland, Calif., to Thomas J. McFarland of Philadelphia. In October, 1925, they went to Pueblo, Colo., where she died of tuberculosis on Feb. 12, 1926. She was buried in the Roselawn Cemetery there.
Oren E. Shriver was a member of the National Guards for a few years. He belonged to the Titusville unit under Capt.Lyons. One of his encampments was at Gettysburg. He was an excellent shot with a rifle and once won a sharp-shooter’s medal at Camp Winfield Scott Hancock, Mount Gretna, Pa., in August, 1887.
Another example of his marksmanship was when he took his muzzle-loading rifle with its octagon barrel into his woods and came out with 11 squirrel, all shot in the head! Both the above medal and rifle are now possessed by this writer, a grand nephew of O.E.Shriver.
Speaking about his woods, it was and still is somewhat swampy. “Hoot” owls used to stay there. Oldtime neighbors would speak about “hearing the hoot owls ‘hoot’ back in Oren Shriver’s swamp”. They’re not there anymore and haven’t been heard now for at least 15 years.
Oren had a lot of timber cut out of this woods in 1889, and it was sawed out in Jim Shreve’s sawmill located on the neighboring Charles Strawbridge farm.
Oren was probably 5 feet, 10 inches tall with a weight of 200 pounds. He was quite blocky, square-shouldered and straight. He was a fluent talker, a man devoted to his home and family, and a lover of children. He had a heavy shock of black hair and always wore a bushy mustache. For a short while in his later years he had a goatee. He smoked a pipe, generally “four times a day; before breakfast and after every meal”.
He had sinus trouble and was remembered as sitting on his porch with a bottle of frluid suspended upside down from the ceiling to treat into his nose.
He liked horses and taught Robert to be a good horseman. For a long time they had a faithful mare called “Fanny”, and a dog called “Trilby”.
Oren’s workmanship was fine and unexcelled. When 20 years old he contracted typhoid fever. While recovering he made a wreath of zephyr-wool flowers which shows great beauty. This framed item is still possessed by his daughter-in-law, Mrs. Robert Shriver. He was a craftsman in woodworking. He once took a scroll saw and cut out in wood the motto – “God Bless Our Home”. Mrs. Shriver also has this framed and hanging on the wall. Another item of his making is “The Lord’s Prayer”, all of which again cut out of thin wood and placed on a blue velvet background. This large framed piece is possessed by this writer. Oren also made quantities of furniture.
In May, 1893, Oren bought the Morgan Proper farm of 71 acres in Diamond for $2,600, and moved there. He, however, maintained his former farm, renting the house at different times to at least the three families of John Bearce, Elmer Sterns and Frank Obert. This former farm was situated in a lonely area and he and Laura didn’t have close neighbors.
Their Diamond farm was just across from the school, thus making it so convenient for Robert and Margie to attend school. This farm today is owned by Howard C. Proper, but the house is rented by the Jacob Pringle family.
Oren generally kept young stock back on his former farm. One day after driving some back there and turning them into the pasture, he heard some kind of a roar back in the woods. His first thought was a larger critter had a smaller one afoul and was goring it. So he hurried back, and when halfway there, he stopped and listened again. Suddenly he gave a downward swing of his fist and exclaimed: “Oh heck, it’s only Dan Goodwin making a campaign speech!”, and he started back home. Daniel Goodwin, later Venango County district attorney, had trained his speechmaking standing on stumps in the Goodwin and Shriver woods as a young man.
Another little anecdote will be related. When living back on the former farm, Laura’s niece, Hattie Rossman, once made a visit there. She and Uncle Oren were having a grand time joking and kidding each other, when he said he’d have to go out to work. He hadn’t been gone long when a knock came at the door. Hattie, thinking it was Uncle Oren playing a trick on her, shouted: “Come in, if your nose is clean!” The door slowly opened, a voice seriously said, “Why, I – I guess it’s clean”, and in stepped a neighbor, R.D.Guild! Hattie was so thunderstruck that she could have fallen through the floor.

Barn Caught Fire
During the evening of March 13, 1895, S.B. Proper’s barn in Diamond caught fire and the wind carried the sparks from it and set Oren’s barn on fire too. Both burned down. Oren lost his hay and straw, but saved the rest. His loss amounted to $1,000.
That summer he hauled timbers out of his woods with his large team of oxen in preparation for a new barn. He bought lumber at Clark’s mill at Fauncetown. He hired Charles Breed, Amos Hancox and Israel Mark to carpenter this large new barn, 50 feet square. It was a higher structure than the average barn. Oren had several men working on the building that fall.
As fate would have it, this big barn was deemed to go by fire too. On the afternoon of April 10, 1899 (On Robert’s 10th birthday), Oren was to Titusville on business. Getting back rather late, he went to the barn after supper to do chores. He had his kerosene lantern with him and it exploded, spreading fire all over. It couldn’t be saved.
The stone wall on the west side remained standing and Oren built a shed along the full length of it and used it as a barn until his death. The present barn was erected in 1910 by Robert Shriver. He had tore down the barn on his father’s former place and rebuilt it as it now stands.
In 1894 Oren gave 81 perches of land to the adjoining United Brethren Church on which to build a new parsonage. In 1899 he sold one acre to J.H. Rickenbrode who built the present home of Mr. and Mrs. Carl Gelo the next year.
Oren had worked in the oil fields between Pleasantville and Tionesta before his marriage. Then, in 1902 he was employed by the South Penn Oil Company for 14 months near St.Mary’s, W.Va. He boarded at Eagle Mills where his cousin, Sam Riddle, was a field boss.
In 1903 Oren worked for the oil company at Greece City, Butler County, when the excitement was on there. He mainly built homes, derrick houses, sheds, etc., there.
In July, 1906, the Diamond Oil Company drilled a well in a field in Oren’s former place. It turned out to be a dry hole. The rig was then moved to Cherrytree.
Oren belonged to two organizations- the Queen City IOOF of Titusville, which he joined on April 5, 1894, and the Diamond Grange, which he joined by card on May 9, 1906. Politically he was a Republican, as was his grandfather, father and son.
About 1907 he carpentered the large Rock Springs cheese factory in Troy Township. He ate his meals with the Kelly U.Proper family. This large building is now gone.
Also in 1907, Oren’s brother J.M.Shriver, was elected as a Plum Township school director. Due to other business, he decided not to serve. Oren was appointed director in his place and served one year. He had in 1906 built three coal houses for the board at the Fairview, Plum Center, and Mt. Vernon schools for a bid of $64.50.
The late summer and fall of 1908 were hot, droughty seasons. On an August day Oren was working in the harvest field when he suffered a sunstroke. Dr. W.J>Richey treated him until his death little over two months later, on Oct.28, at the age of 52. He was bedfast several weeks and it had been feared from the onset that he would not survive.
The funeral took place in his Diamond home on Saturday, the 31, with Rev. Fred Swanson officiating. The Queen City Odd Fellows attended and conducted the graveside service in the Diamond Cemetery.
In 1909 Mrs. Shriver sold the house on the former farm to Ben Strawbridge for $150, and sold the farm itself in 1910 to her brother-in-law and sister, Mr. and Mrs. J.M. Haslet, near Petrolia.
On Sept. 6, 1925, Mrs. Shriver succumbed in the Butler Hospital following an operation for hernia.
Her body was brought to the Diamond Church on Sept.9 for last services and interred beside her husband in the community cemetery. The minister who delivered the sermon, Rev.J.L. Strong of Pleasantville, had driven his Model T Ford up beside the church prior to the funeral. The church had just been reroofed and roofing nails lay all about the ground. Rev.Strong’s Model T tires suffered exactly five punctures. He was quite a while getting back to Pleasantville after the service.

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.