Zents

Zents, Sylvanus

A FOREST COUNTY PIONEER.

We copy the following interesting article from last week’s Tionesta
Vindicator:

Sylvanus Zents, an old resident of Barnett township, writes as follows:

“I was born in Washington county, Pa., Aug. 1, 1830. My father’s
name was Jacob Zents, and mother, Anna Munn. They were married in 1824;
my father was in the war of the rebellion as a volunteer and served
three years. He and my mother are both buried in Tionesta. My father
with his family moved to the mouth of Coleman run, on the Clarion river
in the year 1840, then Jefferson county, now Forest. That section of the
county was at that time a wilderness. The roads were bridle paths, there
were no wagons in that section and very few horses. The work was done
principally with oxen. My father bought 200 acres of land and commenced
to farm. I and the other boys assisted in clearing up the land and
farming. We accumulated quite a large amount of stock, such as hogs,
sheep and cattle. We used two yoke of oxen. We raised all kind of crops
that grew well in this section; also flax and manufactured it into
clothing. We also manufactured our wool into clothing and even prepared
our corn for baking by having the end of a large oak block hollowed out
in the shape of a wooden bowl and then having a heavy piece of wood
hanging on a spring pole to mash the corn in the block. There was no
grist mill at that time nearer than 20 miles, and no decent road to
travel over. On our way moving to Coleman run, we stopped over night at
Daniel McNattens, who had a pet elk that he had caught, which he
afterwards broke and used for hauling wood. He afterwards told me that
when its horns got too large to get through the door into the house, the
elk got very angry. There was quite a number of wild elks in the woods
at that time. I remember of seeing two wild ones myself. There were
panthers here at that time, I knew of five or six being killed. I saw
one man who was badly injured by a panther dropping off of a leaning
tree on to him and scratching his face and shoulder. Wolves were
numerous and we could hear them howl almost every night. Bear, deer,
wild cats, etc., were numerous. One of our troubles was to preserve our
sheep, hogs, etc, from the wild beasts. We also had trouble in keeping
the deer off our grain in the spring of the year. One method was to take
poles, peel to near one end, stick the other end into the ground and let
the loose bark flutter in the breeze. We could kill a deer at any time
then, when we needed venison. We also could get nice large trout out of
almost every stream near us, even the Clarion river. The first lumbermen
in that section at that time were John Cook, David Bunn and Wm.
Armstrong. Armstrong had a saw mill at the mouth of Maple creek, Munn at
the mouth of Coleman run. The mills were frame. There was a great deal
of lumber floated down the Clarion river. It is a rapid stream and rises
to a great height for a stream of that size. I remember of seeing at one
time, saw mills, houses, barns, lumber piles etc., going down. It is
said that at one of these rises John Cobb was lumbering on the river and
had his dwelling on pretty low ground and it was surrounded with water
almost to the second floor. Mr. Cobb got his family into a canoe ready
to go ashore if the house should move, and offered up the following
petition: “Oh! God, I am not one of your every day beggars, and if you
will just grant me this one request, that is, if you will allow this
house to remain here until morning I will never bother you asking for
another request.� The house remained. My wife’s name was Daugherty,
and we have raised a family of fourteen children. I also have 40 grand
children. The wild cats have been our greatest pest. Killed more or less
sheep each winter. One winter we lost eighteen sheep by wild cats. I was
a county commissioner of Forest county, and at the time the county seat
was moved to Tionesta from Marienville resigned.

Source: The Jefferson Democrat; Brookville, Pennsylvania; 1899 June 29
issue.

Return to Forest County Home Page

(c) Forest County Pennsylvania Genealogy Project

About Author

Nathan Zipfel

See author's posts