Crawford County, Pennsylvania

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PINE was formed in 1847. It is an interior township, lying near the center of the west border, and contains 6369 square acres. The surface is level, and inclines slightly toward the south. It is well watered by Shenango Creek and several small streams tributary to it. Only the northern portion is tillable, well populated and cultivated, the whole southern part being occupied by Pymatuning Swamp. Agriculture forms the chief industry, though lumbering is carried on to a limited extent. The soil is well adapted to dairying, which and stock raising form the chief agricultural pursuits. The Erie & Pittsburgh R. R. extends through the central part, in a southerly direction.
The population of the township in 1870 was 777, of whom 749 were native, 28, foreign, 772, white and five, colored.
During the year ending June 3, 1872, it contained four schools and employed seven teachers. The number of scholars was 93; the average number attending school, 71; and the amount expended for school purposes, $747.69.

LINESVILLE (p. v.) situated on Mill Creek, near the line of Conneaut, and on the E. & P. R. R., was incorporated as a borough April 23, 1864, and derives its name from the Line family, who were the first settlers there. It contains two churches, two hotels, about a dozen stores of various kinds, two harness shops, four blacksmith shops, three shoe shops, a photograph gallery, a tannery, grist mill and two steam saw mills, one of which, (S. E. Bundy’s) including a sash, door and blind factory, gives employment to about ten men and annually cuts about half a million feet of lumber, besides a large quantity of lath, and manufactures several thousand dollars worth of sash, doors and blinds. The population in 1870 was 434.

Pine Lodge A. Y. Masons No. 498, at Linesville, was instituted Dec. 22, 1871. Its charter was granted Sept. 6, 1871, and its first meeting was held Jan. 2, 1872. The first officers were G. T. Rankin, W. M., C. C. Minneley, S. W., and J. A. Crockett, J. W.

On the morning of Wednesday, Nov. 12, 1873, a destructive fire occurred in the principal part of the village, involving a loss of nearly $20,000.
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Local authorities differ in regard to the date of first settlement. Joseph Line, of Linesville, says that Samuel Glenn, a native of Ireland, who located in the southern part of the township, on a farm upon which he spent the remainder of his days, was probably the first settler, and his house the first one erected; and that Robert Graham, Martin Cunningham, Wm. Burnside, a widow named Margaret Robison and another named Patterson, settled in the southern part about the same time, without assigning any date; while George Graham states that Wm. Burnside, a native of Ireland, settled in the northern part in 1797 or ’8, and after a few years residence removed to Meadville, and that Robert Graham, of the same nationality, and a miller by occupation, also located in the northern part, in 1802, and after about two years removed to the farm on which he resided till his death; and Thomas Glenn advises us that Samuel Glenn, settled in 1811. Amos Line, the first settler at Linesville, came from Plainfield, N. J., in 1818, and laid out the borough which perpetuates his name. He was a Quaker and did most of the surveying for the Population Co. and the people who came into this country. He built the first saw mill in 1820; the first framed house, in Linesville, in 1825, though the first framed house in the township was built the previous year, by Joseph Allen; he kept the first store in the northern part of the township, and taught the first school in Linesville, in a log building in 1835. His daughter, Rachel V. Line, was probably the first child born in the township, in 1819. The first grist mill in the township was built at Linesville, in 1800, by Jabez Colt, and this was probably the first framed building erected in the township. Smith Line kept the first store in Linesville. The first hotel in Pine was kept at Linesville by Horatio N. Mead. The first death is believed to have been that of Charles Waste, who was killed by the fall of a tree during a thunder storm, in 1820. The first school in Pine was taught in a log school house in the north-east part of the township, in 1824, by Joseph Line. The first tannery was built at Linesville in 1833 or ’4, by S. C. Stratton.

The early settlers were supplied with salt by the Indians, and the fact that it was warm when they received it led to the belief that it was obtained in the locality of Pymatuning swamp, though the precise locality remains a secret to this day.

The first church, a log structure, was built in the north-east part of the township, and the first sermon was probably preached by Rev. Mr. McMullen, a Baptist, in 1818.

The Linesville Baptist Church was organized with eighteen members, March 11, 1851, by Rev. E. M. Alden, the first and present pastor, and the church edifice, which will seat 300 persons, was erected in 1852, at a cost <page 84> of $2,500. The membership has increased to 112, and the Church property is valued at $6,000.—[Information furnished by the pastor.

St. Philip’s Church, (Roman Catholic) at Linesville, was organized with about forty-five members, in 1870, by Bishop Mullen. The Society has no house of worship. It consists of seventy members, who are under the pastoral care of Rev. J. Donnelly.—[Information furnished by Mr. Patrick Woods.

¹ Hamilton Child, comp., Gazetteer and Business Directory of Crawford County, Pa., for 1874 (Syracuse, N.Y.: By the comp., 1874), pp. 118-19.