Well here we are after me dropping the ball for two days. This past week has been rough y’all…from losing my 16-year-old dog to a medical issue. This week has been emotionally, physically and mentally draining. BUT, here we are back at it!
For a complete list of The Blogvember Challenge prompts, click HERE!
November 15 – Give us a tour of your town/city.
I live in a very small rural town in central Pennsylvania. My family has lived in Ansonville for generations. In the picture above my parents live in the middle house and we live in the house to the left. Our house used to be my Grandparents. I thought I would do a little internet research, and talk to my Dad, to get y’all the history of my favorite country town. Not only the history of our town, but a little family history as well!
Ansonville is located on the dividing ridge between the headwaters of the South Fork of Little Clearfield Creek and Potts Run. It was hard to find census information for our town. With the town not having it’s own zip code, I think the census info is lumped into a neighboring town. I would guess our population is near 50 and that’s being generous. I did find an article that said the population of Ansonville, including Strawtown and Bretzinville, is over three hundred.
In 1820, John Swan Sr. (a forgman by trade) left his home in New York state with his wife, Phoebe (Tubbs). Their destination was Ohio, but stopped in Tyrone because some members of their party were sick. They decided to move to Clearfield County because of the cheap land. Accordingly, in company with Truman Vitz, he came into what is now Jordan Township, cutting his way through the forest all the way from Tyrone. He and Mr. Vitz purchased 433 acres of land, the same land constituting the beautiful farms later owned by his son John, and Major D. W. Wise.
Mr. Swan began producing lye which requires large amounts of wood ashes. Kettles holding twenty barrels were produced in Pittsburgh. Large quantities of wood were cut and burned, the ashes were leached, and the lye boiled down and shipped in barrels down the river on rafts. This made a market for wood ashes, and his neighbors for some distance around hauled their ashes to this immense lye factory. This was soon improved upon by building a large oven, and concentrating the liquid by intense heat into potash, which answered the same purpose, and brought better prices, with a reduced cost of transportation. He also erected machinery for grinding rock oak bark for tanning purposes. This he boxed and shipped to Philadelphia on an ark, receiving sixty dollars per ton for it. He also turned his attention to agriculture, which supplied the family with products of that kind, although in a commercial way it did not pay, for wheat brought only forty-five cents per bushel.
Mr Swan’s oldest son Anson settled in this area and this town was named for him, Ansonville. Anson was deaf and mute. He never married, living in Ansonville with friends. Anson died in 1883.
The first building in the place was built by a Mr. Singer, and was at first occupied as a store by John Miles and James Foutz.
The Johnstons in this township are descendants of Robert and James, two brothers, who came to this country from Scotland. Robert settled on the tract later owned by his son David. Robert M. married Priscilla Wise, a sister of ex-Treasurer D. W. Wise, of this township.
John C. was in the mercantile business in Ansonville for many years. His first wife was Christina Curry, who died about 1882. He later married Mrs. Martha Witherow, widow of Henry Witherow, and daughter of Frederick Shoff, of Beccaria township. He was in partnership with John McQuilkin in a meat market in Ansonville.
In 1853 Henry Swan built a large storeroom on the corner opposite the Ansonville Hotel, and occupied it as a general store until 1874. Soon after this it burned down, and the lot remained vacant until 1884 or 1885, when Dr. A. E. Creswell purchased it and built the large store-rooms and dwelling later purchased by C. D. McMurry, and occupied by him as a general store, and by H. Gilliland as a clothing store. Other stores and merchants followed and enjoyed a steady trade.
The Ansonville post office was established about 1857. Eliza Chase (later Mrs. W. T. Bloom) was postmistress. Henry Swan had the office from 1864 to 1868, and was succeeded by Joseph Thomson, and he by Arthur B. Straw. J. C Johnston succeeded Mr. Straw, and had charge of the office several years until 1886, when C. D. McMurry was appointed. The post office was closed in 1974.
The first schoolhouse built in the township, was erected in 1820, not far from where Fruit Hill Presbyterian church was afterwards built. The house was built of logs. A square pen-shaped arrangement was built inside to do service as a flue. The windows were made by cutting one or two logs off in the side of the building and pasting greased paper over the hole to keep the wind and cold out. The writing desks were made by driving pins in the walls of the building and fastening thereto a slab with the flat side up. The seats were also made of slabs, with the round side up. The first teacher of this school was David Cathcart.
This is a picture of our family homestead, where my Grandfather was born and raised. The foundation of the house still sits on our 90 acre farm. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve looked at this picture and dreamed of what the inside of their house looked like. I would have loved to walk through it to see all the nooks and crannies of it. The daffodils that my great great grandmother planted still come up on our farm every year.
I hope you enjoyed this little bit of town history, and I can’t wait to tour your town!
