A Pioneer History of Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, and

Jefferson County, Pennsylvania, was erected on March 26, 1804 from land in Lycoming County. At one time, Jefferson County encompassed some 1,203 square miles and included the present-day counties of Forest and Elk. This rugged wilderness, that was home to the Six Nations Iroquois, was explored and settled by an adventurous group of missionaries, Scotch-Irish and German pioneers, lured west by the possibility inherent in so much virgin territory. W. J. McKnight tells the story of these pioneers and of the legacy which grew from their rough-hewn frontier communities. Subjects of interest include: social habits of the pioneers; settlements and customs of the Six Nations; pioneer surveys and surveyors; the erection of the county; pioneer missionary work; white and African slavery; the origin of the "Scotch-Irish;" militia organization; townships and boroughs of the county; pioneer newspapers; early physicians and lawyers; anecdotes and incidents of the region and much more. Biographical chapters are devoted to Joseph Barnett, the patriarch of Jefferson County, and Cornplanter, chief of the Seneca and representative of the Six Nations in many of their first dealings with Europeans in western Pennsylvania. Additionally, McKnight has included a section of memoirs, "My First Recollections of Brookville," in which he describes his childhood in Jefferson County during the 1830s. A new index has been compiled for this edition, double the length of the original and containing all of the entries from the 1898 edition.