Pennsylvania USGenWeb Archives

 

The City of DuBois

by

William C. Pentz

 

DuBois

Press of Gray Printing Co.

1932

 

 

Digitized and transcribed for the Clearfield County PA USGenWeb by

Ellis Michaels

 

Copyright

This page was last updated on 18 Jan 2014

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The City of DuBois

APPENDIX

Page 193

 

 

Page 193

APPENDIX
STAGE COACHES

Oil City, Penna. April 23, 1930

     The first recollection I have of the old Stage Coach which ran between Phillipsburg and Franklin was in about 1865 when I was a girl of 16 years of age. This was when I first met Mr. Evans. My first ride was between Curwensville and Clearfield. Mr. Evans and his father, Joseph Evans of Cochranton, were in Clearfield attending the Fair and they had stopped on their way to the Fair at my father's, Benjamin Bloom's hotel in Curwensville. My father always collected the fares from the passengers for the Stage Coach. If was customary wherever the stage stopped for the hotel proprietor to take charge of the fares, etc. I remember once my father was robbed of $800.00 money which belonged to the stage owners. This was considered a large amount of of money in those days. This money was collected at intervals from the different hotels. My father kept it in a chest in his bedroom and when it was stolen, it was not missed for several days, so the robber had a chance for a good get-away. The stage was then running between Phillipsburg and Franklin. Joseph Evans had then been operating it for several years, the time that he became known to me. The stage was a large coach driven by 4 horses, horses and drivers changing at Luthersburg, Brookville and Clarion. The best stage drivers received from $20.00 to $25.00 a month and board. Occasionally the stages upset when they were top heavy from express and baggage on top. In December, 1869, Mr. Evans and I were married. Of course after our marriage I rode more often and saw more of the stages. Shortly after our marriage the stage had been discontinued to Phillipsburg as the trains were then running between Tyrone and Phillipsburg. The stage line was then between Clearfield and Franklin. Very often I would get on the stage at Curwensville with my oldest child, a babe in arms, and ride to Brookville, arriving there at 2 A. M. Would think nothing of this and perhaps it would be 20 below zero. Once I remember going as far as Franklin and when we arrived at the bridge over the Allegheny, the spring flood had washed the bridge away and the passengers were taken across the river in row boats. The roads in the Spring and Fall were a succession of mud holes, with an occasional corduroy. Very often male passengers walked up the hills, all this in the blackness of darkness with only two lanterns hanging from either side of the coach. In 1872 we moved to Brookville as that was one of the central points,—Clearfield was the eastern and Franklin the western. Bids were always let for the mail and express, and the Evans sold out. The big stage coaches were never used again as the new firm used large hacks.


(Mrs.) Clara Evans
 

 

 

 

 

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