Crawford County, Pennsylvania

FAIRFIELD was formed in 1811. It is situated near the center of the south border of the county and contains 10756 square acres. The surface in the north is rolling and hilly, while in the south it is generally level. It is drained by French Creek and Conneaut Outlet, which form the northern boundary, and small streams flowing into these. The soil is a gravelly loam, well adapted to the uses of the pomologist.
The population of the township in 1870 was 871, all of whom were white, 822, native and 49, foreign.
During the year ending June 3, 1872, the township contained seven schools and employed twelve teachers. The number of scholars was 323; the average number attending school, 214; and the amount expended for school purposes, $967.30.

CUSTARDS, (p. o.) situated in the north-east corner, near the line of Greenwood, contains a store and two saw mills.

CALVINS CORNERS (p. o.) is situated about two miles east and a little south of Custards. Mail is received and forwarded three times a week.
Settlement was commenced as early as 1791, in which year Joseph Dickson, from Cumberland county, located on the farm <p. 55> now owned by E. P. Slocum. He came alone and on foot, and it is related that at night he was accustomed to seek protection from the hostile Indians within the friendly shelter of a hollow tree. He was working at one time on French Creek, in company with Wm. Finley and B. McCormick, and in response to the sound of the horn he started for dinner. His companions did not accompany him and soon after his attention was attracted by two shots. An examination revealed the dead bodies of his two friends, who had been shot and scalped. Archibald Hill came from Ireland, where he had followed the vocation of a weaver, in 1796. The country was a dense wilderness, infested by dear, bears, wild cats, raccoons and wild turkies [sic]. He was married May 30, 1800, and died May 3, 1817, in his fifty-third year. The following year (1797) Andrew McFaden, in company with his brother John, came from Susquehanna county and settled on Conneaut Outlet, where he remained a year and a half, when he removed to Sugar Creek, and thence to Sugar Lake, where he remained till his death, in 1823, at the age of seventy-two years. At that time two Indians for every white man could be seen here. Truman Mallory came from Connecticut in 1817. He was a carpenter by trade and brought with him his square. Four families named Weller, Sweney, Dewey and Ellis came the same time. Weller was killed the same year by the fall of a tree which he felled, and Mallory made the coffin in which he was buried. During the night the wolves unearthed the coffin and gnawed through it, but owing to the approach of daylight were deterred from molesting the body.

The Reformed Church, in the eastern part of the township, was organized with five members in 1854, by Rev. L. L. Liverman, and the church edifice, which will seat 300 persons, was erected in 1859, at a cost of $1250. The first pastor was Rev. John Kutzing. The Society numbered twenty-five and its property is valued at $1300.—[Information furnished by Mr. Andrew M. Hanes.

Mumford Chapel, (M. E.) in the northern part, was organized with twenty-five members, in 1859, by Rev. John Abbott, the first and present pastor, and the church edifice, which will seat 200 persons, erected in 1861, at a cost of $1200. The Society numbers forty and its property is valued at $1400.—[Information furnished by Mr. Wm. Hart.

¹ Hamilton Child, comp., Gazetteer and Business Directory of Crawford County, Pa., for 1874 (Syracuse, N.Y.: By the comp., 1874), pp. 54-55.