Among the earliest settlers of Spring and Western Crawford were a Mr. Flemming, who settled upon the place still known as the Flemming lot, and who made a clearing of 50 acres of land; a Mr. Jackson settled on the adjoining tract north; Mr. Kennedy, on the tract of land north of the Jackson lot.
These pioneers settled upon their respective tracts in 1795, whose improvements aided the subsequent settlers of that vicinity very much, especially the Flemming lot. These settlers left their places. Their lands reverted back to Huidekoper, of whom they were originally purchased.
Mr. McKee, a pioneer who settled upon the place subsequently owned and occupied by Watkin Powell, a portion of the now Shadeland estate, grandfather of the Powell Brothers, stockmen. This man McKee and his son cut the hay upon the Flemming lot. Wolves were plenty. The latter part of July, 1797, the McKees were haying on the Flemming lot, and while on their way to work one morning, with scythes in hand, young McKee though he would go to his trap, which he had set for bear and wolf near the line of the Flemming and Jackson lots. On arriving at the spot he found a wolf in his trap. Having no firearms he concluded to dispatch the wolf with his scythe, and accordingly struck for his neck. He struck too high, cutting off his ears and scalp, which so infuriated the animal that he made a desperate lunge at McKee, loosening the clog of the trap. The brute seized him by the arm and he could not extricate it from the jaws of the wolf. He shouted to his father, who came to his rescue and killed the wolf with a club. Young McKee's arm was badly chewed up, which took him six months to recover the use of.
Other early settlers were Messrs. Orr and Fords. The former settled on the site where Springboro now stands; the latter on what is known as the old Elisha Bowman place, near Shadeland. One Thomas Ford, however, settled and built his cabin so as to cover one corner of four different tracts of land, with the grasping idea of holding all four tracts. It was decided that he could not pre-empt but one tract of 400 acres of land instead of 1,600, and therefore that place, situate on the tract corners of the old Obed Wells, Charles Sargent and Barnes tracts of land, was, and is to this day, called "Ford's Folly;" also John Foster, who settled on the place now occupied by Richard Bolard. After the year 1800, and previous to the war of 1812, were James and Samuel Patterson, who settled in the eastern part of Spring. While they were at Erie defending their country from a threatened invasion by the British in 1812, when every man rushed to arms, the Pattersons' wheat crop ripened. Their heroic wives, with sickles, cut and harvested the wheat; and they found they must have flour to make bread, whereupon they spread down blankets upon the ground for their threshing floor and the canopy of heaven for a barn roof, and with flail in hand they threshed out a grist of wheat; then with a sheet and screen cleaned the chaff from the wheat, ready for grinding. They then sent the boys on horseback through the woods, by blazed trees, fifteen miles to a grist-mill at Venango, on French Creek. And when the boys, with their grist of flour, had arrived within one-half mile of home the flour bag caught a snag on a tree, tearing it open. The horse jumped and threw off the boys; the grist of flour was scattered through the woods, and only two quarts of flour was left of this grist when the horse reached home. The plucky Mrs. Pattersons had to sit down and take a good cry over their hard fortune preparatory to trying the same job over again to get material to make bread for their families while their husbands were off to war.
The first there frame houses in Powerstown, Spring township, were built and occupied by Alexander Power and William Crozier.
An incident, showing the fraternal spirit of the early settlers, in a
later day, about 1835. Robert Foster, son of the pioneer John Foster, started
out one morning in November with his rifle to hunt deer. He did not return
that night and a search was made the next day without any trace of the lost
man. The people throughout the township were notified, who all turned out.
The next morning 100 men formed a line and swept the forest in search of
the lost man. After marching through the forest about two miles they turned
about to the left flank, and when within a half mile of his father's house
they found the young man lying dead upon the ground with his gun at his
side, death being occasioned by a fit or heart trouble. And at the proper
time these people turned out generally to perform the last burial rites.
When one of their number was burned out by fire they joined together and
helped to rebuild his home or barn. When a pioneer was injured by accident
or prostrated by sickness they were his insurance company, and would turn
out and do up his harvesting or any other work that the unfortunate man
was unable to do. They were friends to be relied upon in times of peace,
and foes to be feared by an enemy in time of war.
From Pioneer Sketches: Scenes and Incidents of Former
Days by M.P. Sargent
Published by Herald Printing & Publishing Co., Ltd., Erie, PA 1891