Emlenton, Pennsylvania

Emlenton, Pennsylvania lies on the Allegheny River, in the southwest corner of Venango County, bordering on Clarion and Butler counties. The town was settled in 1820, and incorporated in 1859, the year that oil was discovered just to the north in Titusville, near Oil City. A refinery was built in Emlenton on the Allegheny River's north bank, on the western outskirts of town. Quaker State's Pennzoil was a product of this refinery, which provided good income for many of the towns citizens. At one time a business college gave students a two year education from its site on College Avenue. A variety of railroad lines ran through the county, including the Emlenton, Shippenville & Clarion line, and the Allegheny Valley line which served the Emlenton Grist Mill. Residents would ride the train to Franklin, the county seat, to Oil City, and to Monarch Park.
See http://www.emlentonmill.com
The first bridge across the Allegheny was a privately built covered bridge, built in 1854. Before that time a ferry crossing had existed at the bridge site, since 1820. In 1862, a toll house was built and fees collected on passing horse-drawn vehicles, and per head of livestock.
The river periodically flooded Emlenton's River Street. In spring, flooding would be exacerbated when the ice on the river broke up, forming ice dams. In 1883, the covered bridge was damaged extensively by the spring ice floes. It was replaced in1854-56 by the Canton Wrought Iron Bridge Company, the new bridge being built on the old pier and abutments.
One of the early small industries of Emlenton was the machine shop operated by George Mansfield Sheffer and his sons, producing equipment for the oil industry. Sheffer received several patents for his designs.
Several public school buildings were erected over time, on the site where the last one, the Crawford High School, stands today, in use as the Pumping Jack Museum of the oil industry. Uncle Loy Beals was a member of the first class to graduate from the new high school. Loy had a new camera, and sold photos of the new school building to help raise money for its completion. Several of our ancestors are represented in the photo display of the Pumping Jack Museum, collected by Hazel Sheffer Crawford (b. 1909). Hazel did extensive work on the Sheffer family genealogy. Because she worked as the telephone operator in Emlenton, she knew almost everyone, and people would donate their old photographs of the town to her collection.
Emlenton today is a small farm market town, population slightly less than 800 people in the year 2000.

Among the publicly recognizable names of Emlenton natives is that of baseball second baseman Claude Ritchey, who after a time in the Minor League made his way to the National League in 1897 (Cincinnati Reds) and played for the Pittsburgh Pirates starting in 1900. See http://sabr.org/bioproj/person/fc072ade

The photos below are from those collected by Hazel Sheffer Crawford, lifelong resident of Emlenton They were contributed to us April 2011 by her nephew Rick Sheffer.