History of Potter County

Potter County is located midway between the eastern and western boundaries of Pennsylvania along the New York border. The county was erected from territory in Lycoming County by an Act of Assembly dated 26, 1804 when the only inhabitants were some scattered Native American Indians.

Potter County was named for General James Potter who served during the Revolutionary War. Potter never set foot in Potter County. John Keating, one of Potter County's original land owners, decreed that the County Seat should be named Coudersport in honor of Judge Jean Coudere, a member of the Amsterdam Banking Company which had lent the money for the purchase of the land. In 1807 Keating employed Francis King, of Ceres New York to survey the town site and lay out the streets. The first Potter County Courthouse was completed in 1835 on a square of land which Keating donated to Potter County for county building purposes. The first term of court was held during the week of September 28, 1835. The first Potter County commissioners were elected in 1815 in conjunction with McKean County. By act of legislature, commissioners were to be elected, two from McKean County and one from Potter County. Following that, one from each county yearly. This was continued until 1824 when the two counties seperated.

In 1807 Keating deeded to the trustees of Coudersport two-thirds of the lots in the town and one square for the establishment of a school. In addition he gave the school 100 acres adjoining and $500 for the erection of buildings. The first school was opened on Ayers Hill in the winter of 1816-1817 and was taught by Harley Knickerbocker. Later academies were located in Coudersport and Ulysses. In 1842 when F.A. Allen proposed to open a school on Crandall Hill, he was required to show his fitness by making a pen from a goose quill, making a copy with it and signing his name. The Coudersport Academy, incorporated in 1837, was in operation untill 1871. The building was sold in 1887 for $35 and removed. Following 1890 several high schools were established.

Religious services were first held in private homes and later in school houses. In 1850 the first two church buildings were completed. These were the Catholic Church at Irish Settlement in Genesee Township and the Presbyterian Church in Coudersport.

In 1807 a state commission was authorized to build an east west road across the northern part of Pennsylvania. In 1808 the road was opened. The first early settlers located themselves along this road. It is commonly believed that the first one was a deserter named Thomas Butler from the British Army. Soon after a Frenchman named Jaundrie settled at what is now known as Shinglehouse. There he made a clearing and built himself a house whose sides were covered split shingles, hence the name of the town Shinglehouse.

The first settlers remained few in number due to the hardship of finding the bare necessities of life. Provisions had to be brought in from Jerse Shore, a distance of seventy miles, over a difficult road through unbroken forests.

For this reason Potter County is known as the "Last Frontier" of Pennsylvania. Not until the completion of the Erie Canal in 1825, hastened the settlement of Southern New York was any considerable growth in neighboring Potter County.

In the beginning Potter County was covered with dense forests of magnificent white pine, hemlock and hardwood trees, with pine and hemlock being the dominant species. During the first 100 years, the principal occupation of the inhabitants of Potter County was lumbering and clearing land. The white pine was in demand for building purposes, so it was cut first. It was mostly the settlers themselves who, in the procwss of clearing the land harvested the majestic stands of white pine in the Oswayo Valley in the north and along the Pine Creek, and Sinnemahoning in southern Potter County.

When land was sold in the early days, the timber rights were reserved and the only profit the settlers got from this great wealth of forest was that he might get paid for cutting it. Loggers from Maine and Canada were brought in to get out the pine. Primitive saw mills were built along all the steams with sufficient enough water supply to turn the saws. In 1850 there were 83 saw mills in Potter County with an anual output of 20,750,000 board feet of lumber, valued at $7.00 per thousand. Only two saw mills were driven by steam at this time. The lumber was floated down the swollen streams in spring to markets in the lower reaches of the Allegany, Ohio and Susquehanna Rivers. The Civil War slowed the logging operations down when practically every able bodied man in Potter County was in the military. The pine was depleted by the late 1800s.

The hemlock was cut down and the bark was used for tanning, leaving peeled logs lying on the forest floor. These hemlock logs were taken out by large commercial interests. This was a rush job. Railroads were built through the forests to haul logs to the large saw mills located in Galeton, Cross Fork, Austin, Mina, andKeating Summit. Railroads carried the finished lumber to larger markets in the cities on the east coast. Some of these saw mills worked day and night. Labor was imported and in 1900 the population of Potter County reached it's all tie high.

Shortly after the turn of the century the hemlock was gone and lumbering was at a temporary end in Potter County. Most of the industrial plants established throughout Potter County were using wood or bark as raw materials. The woods, by one means or another offered ready employment to a farmer and his team of horses during off season of farming. These good times were coming to an end and the rural residents of Potter County had to turn to thoughts of agriculture. The hills of Potter County, denuded of trees by clear cutting and repeated fires, stood bleak and bare. It was not an encouraging prospect.

Serious interests in better methods of agriculture had its inception in the rural schools of Potter County around 1908. This was done by means of corn, potato and calf cubs for boys and girls, under the supervision of teachers and advice of the county superintendant. In 1915 a Department of Agriculture was opened in the Coudersport Schools. In 1916 the Potter County Agricultural Extension Bureau was organized and Bert Straw was employed as County Agricutural Agent. Since that time progress has been rapid and remarkable. Though less that one-sixth of the acerage in Potter County is or ever will be under cultivation. Potter has been first in many worthwhile agricultural accomplishments.

Today, agriculture, lumber, recreation, and some industry provide employment for the residents of Potter County. Over the area about five-sixths of the forests has returned with hardwoods dominating. Lumbering has again become one of Potter County's largest industries.