Abram Siverly Letter 1819

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Siverly letter
State Road 13 miles east of Franklin,
Venango County, Penna.

A letter dated July of 1819 from Abram Siverly. He lived 13 miles east of Franklin on the State road. It describes the area and other items. His daughter married John Witherspoon whose grandfather signed the Declaration of Indepndence.

15 July 1819
My Dearest Sister,
A Multiplicity of business, imperiously connected with the events of plunging in a new country, has procastinated from time to time those hours, which would have otherwise been sooner employed in writing to you; and another cause of the Delay has been that I wanted a real Evidence of the productions of this soil, before I wrote to my friends in the East - The Rye Harvest is closed - and the wheat falling prostate to the sickle and cradle (tear in paper) and I have it in my power to give a correct account of this country - The Temperature of the Climate is the same as that of Staten Island - The Latitude is parrallelle - the Longitude is West - (my next neighbor, H. G. Stafford L.L.D. keeps a regular Diary of the atmosphere with a Farenheits Thermometer.) For Gardening I never saw but two places equal to this, in the world - those two are N York and Long Island- Here is a Section of the Country that is truly interesting and Novel - It is a straturn of several millions of acres which lye in a curve - Surrounded on all sides by navigable waters. Shielded from storms on the N and East by the Allegheny mountains, on the West by the Dividing Ridge of Erie, and on the South by the high North bounds of Virginia and Ohio - There are no hills here but what are Susceptible of ploughing, and no bottoms soleve but what water will run off briskley - The Land is thinly coverd with 4 kinds of oaks, Chestnut, Walnut, ash, Poplar and Sassafras - interspersed with Maple, Thorn apple, Black Cherry, Plumb, Harvest grape and Locust - No swamps nor marshes but watered beautifully with pur springs in every Direction- The whole face of the uncultivated Lands are a rich pasture, We have only tow cows, and we have plenty of milk and butter for our Large family - and so Luxuriant is the feed- that at all times the boys can stand at the door and call the cows home - Settlers may come on with as much stock as they please - for the Prairies here are sufficient to supply hundreds of tons of hay for only the expence of cutting it - I am confident I speak the truth when I say, that within 3 miles of my lands 500 tons of excellent hay will perish this day - dry summer, for the want of inhabitants to cut it - yet these Prairies, are suffiently dry and haard for the cultivation of wheat and corn - The production of flax is luck, what I dare not state it Strangers will think I am romantic - here in all the Dignity of Native Granduer, grows Spontaneous in the Wilderness - the Rose, the Grapes, The Apples and the Cherry-berries and Nuts unnumerably the lily, daffadil, hollyhock, primrose, violet, Tulip, andan innumerable host of all sorts, color, and odours - which I know not the names thereof -

(page 2)
Below the Surface, every where, at the depth of from 3 to five feet is found in abundance Iron Ore, Coal and Ochre - Coal of the best quality is found even at the bottom of springs, and on the beds of spring runs - trouts and other fish plenty in the Large Streams- Venison in plenty at $2.50 per hundred - butter and flax 12 and a half cts. - pork 10cents per lb. - wheat 1 dollar - rye 75cents oats 37 per bushel - whiskey 50cents a gallon. Blacksmiths, Saddlers, and shoemakers works extravagartly high - axes are from $3 to 5 - Shoes from $2 to 3.50. Saddlery any price. My place to ask. Laborers wages on a farm from 50 to 75 cts. Per day. Lands are cleared fit for the plow or harrow for $5 and if ____ with rails $8 - In the season of the year when the leaves are off this country has really a scurvy look by means of the fires running so much and any person going down the Allegany by water would form the idea by the appearance of the Lands on each side that the country was uninhabitable (I am 13 M from the River) - This on the table beforeme lies a Raddish more than 9 inches long and as large round as a pint measure - this is common - I have seen of this years growth Beats as large as that, onions as large as a Tea Cup, and Raddishs as large as a quart measure - Beans, pease, and potaatoes were here fit for use, in some families the 24. June - The country where I am is entirely wild, but settling fast with brave Yankees - the best people in the work - on this road are 4 German families - 3 from N. Hampshire - 2 from N.Y and 2 more I expect daily from the Genesee River, 2 from Vermont- and several this winter from Cerestown and New Hampshire and Masonville - 4 miles south of me is Nickland containing a population of 1600, Souls - and so on south to Pittsburg (60M) is settled - 13 miles W is Franklin. The seat of the county a handsome village - from there W is settled all the way to Erie (61M) - East of this road is settled but thinly till you cross the Alegany mountains (80M) Northerly - thinly settled - mostly Indians to Oleans Point (130M). In losses - Labor, and money I have sunk about $1400 since I left Masonville - but I have made a good bargain by coming here - and my family could not be hired at any price to go away - I have expended almost every cent and property I started with from Masonville - I am really poor - But I would not go back to live at Cerestown and give my wild lot of 165 acres for the best five farms there or there, or the best there are in Masonville - in this I am absolutely - Solemn and Sincere

(page 3)
I am now fully and legaly settled in my Agency here - my Principal is H. Shippen Esquire - one of the Richest and best men in the State - my Power is very unlimited, I can sell lands, (and give an indisputable Title) at wholesale or Retail - Tell to whom I please - or refuse whom I please - to such persons as you, or any of my dear friends; or such as you or they will recommend to me, for moral and industrious character I will sell farms too of 165 - each at two dollars per acre payable in Seven equal annual payments, Without Interest. A Village is to be founded on my lands. To each Mechanic it's a profession of Religion, as Village lots of one acre Gratis - To a regular ______ of the Gospel 5 acres gratis -

[Page has been torn off on right hand side from here to the bottom, so sentences are incomplete]
Two sons) - to other people, Lands will be $3 an acre
Above - you can form no Idea My Dear Sister I how is
Society - I will do all in my power to have religious prosp
Not bound up in any particular Sect or Domination -
Followers of the Lowly and Holy Jesus - I have long
That Sects and Denominations were the works of man -
Have had strong presintements that Devils have had a
This hasty Letter, you must receive as a Letter of Business
Intreat your prayers for us, and entreat it from all those
Hold of faith - our Love to all - you know this will is
Elder Bruce - I wish he would give me cause to write to

Your ever affectionate Brother,
A. G. Siverly
[The lower portion of the letter is divided into parts]
Route's Ist
From Albany by the way of Cherry Valley ________ Uttica - Bath - Angelica- Olean Point - from thence by Land or Water to Holemans Ferry - or Franklin. Then Enquire for me - I am already known all over the Country as "Shippen's Agent" at the Yankee Settlement on the State raod to Bellefonte from Erie.

II Route
From Bath proceed to the town of Painted Post or Chemung _________ and by the way of Pine Creek - to Bellefonte in Penna - Hence West, on the State Road 115 miles -

[This section is written horizontally on the lower portion, right side of letter]

I find by Letters and Newspaper, that to the N and Eastward, the accounty of long storms, and snows in May - We have had no snow since the forepart of March - in april we had all our Garden made - and a little corn planted - some which we have had the Spring and Summer. We ______ of N. York about the 15th March The Robbins came. In April my family came down by the water - John is still at Cerestown - he has not sold his place yet and I left mine in his hands.
Contributor
Joe Matson
JMatson Transcriber
Penny Kulbacki