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Recalls Indian Days

Venango Citizen Press Wednesday March 1, 1922

Woman Recalls Indian Days in This Community

Mrs. Rachel Mitchell, 90 Years Old, Remembers Their Seeking Potatoes and Other Food

To have seen 90 summers and winters pass and still to be in excellent health and enjoyment of faculties is the good fortune of Mrs. Rachel Mitchell, whose birthday anniversary was celebrated Monday by a small gathering of relatives at the home of her daughter, Mrs. C. D. Nicklin, on Otter Street, opposite the High School building. She was one of an old-fashioned family of 15 children. All four who are now living were present yesterday. The others are H.B. Stalker of Eau Claire; Mrs. Emma Bovard of Pittsburgh; and F. J. Stalker of Pittsburgh, who with his wife made up the immediate family circle. There were many callers during the day. There was a regular birthday dinner, which included three birthday cakes.

Mrs. Mitchell was born on February 27, 1832 near Franklin and has lived all her life in or near the city except eight years in Butler County. Of her six children, three survive, with 11 grandchildren and six great-grandchildren. Mrs. Mitchell, but for two falls, which partially disabled her, is surprisingly well for a woman of her years and keenly enjoyed the gathering of relatives and friends in celebration of her birthday and the inevitable calling up of memories that went with it.

Few of Old Houses Remain Franklin, when she first knew it, was but a small village, and there were only three houses in Rocky Grove. Only a very few of the houses then standing remain. At that time there were only two churches, the Methodist Episcopal, then on Buffalo Street, and the Presbyterian, a white church that stood where the manse is now located. All around lay the wilderness, though it was then broken into many directions by settlements. The Indians were quite numerous, but they were friendly and gave no trouble. Mrs. Mitchell remembers them as coming to the houses for potatoes and other food supplies. Every winter they used to camp where the Eclipse Oil Works now stands.

Mrs. Mitchell is able to recall some incidents as far back as the time when she was three years old. She remembers scenes and incidents of the country’s four wars since the Revolution. Celebrations of victories in the Mexican War are well remembered and of course, the times of the Civil War, the Spanish-American War and the World War are all familiar to her.

Mrs. Mitchell's grandfather, Abraham Selder, came to Franklin at a time when there were only five families here. He married the daughter of an early settler. She died and later Mr. Selder married Mrs. Mitchell's grandmother. He was thus only a step-grandfather, but always was like the real article to Mrs. Mitchell.

Sister and Aunt Drown - Mrs. Mitchell remembers well when the Erie canal was in operation and about the bridge on which the Erie railroad crossed it to get into town. On March 13, 1853, her sister and aunt were drowned in the creek when returning from a meeting at Nicklin Church. The local minister who had preached the sermon at the meeting was also drowned. Too many had got into the little boat and it sank.

It was Nov. 2_, 1857, that the subject of this sketch was married to A. J. Mitchell of Waterloo. That was what the place was called then. The name has been changed to Polk since, but to the older generation it will also be remembered as Waterloo. In a few years the first oil excitement came along. The sale of their farm, which was part of the tract now occupied by the State Institution, had been negotiated when the assassination of President Lincoln occurred and in the unsettled sate of affairs that followed the sale was cancelled.

Three Children Living - Of Mrs. Mitchell's three surviving children only one, Mrs. C. D. Nicklin with whom she is making her home was present at the birthday celebration. The other two, Mrs. F.E. Myers of Charleston, W.Va. and William Mitchell of Eau Cliare were unable to get here.

Mrs. Mitchell's grandparents, a brother, a sister and other near relatives were buried in the old Franklin Cemetery. But even at her advanced age she is by no means the "last leaf upon the tree" and at the gathering of relatives Monday and in the group of friends who called through the day, she had more of companionship than falls to the lot of the few that reach so advanced an age. Mrs. Mitchell, though able to recall so much of the events and associations that throng the past of Franklin and vicinity is keenly interested in present day occurrences and developments.

coordinated, transcribed, pictures by Penny Haylett-Minnick

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