BIG-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, November 18,1989
some autumn sunshine on
the front porch of her
century-old Indiana County
homestead.
BY RANDY WELLS
IndLna Co. Correspondent
ROCHESTER MILLS (Indiana
Co.) — One of the country lanes in
northern Indiana County that leads
to the Margaret Oberlin farm pas
ses through a stand of dark, dense
virgin timber.
Many of the trees are ISO feet
tall and measure 15 to 20 feet in
circumference. Even on a hot July
afternoon, the woods are cool and
shady, probably just the way they
were nearly 200 years ago when
her late husband’s buckskin-clad
great-great-grandfather came to
claim the land - as his payment
for helping eliminate timber
wolves from the region.
The property, just on the out
skirts of the village of Rochester
Mills, is one of 26 farms honored
by the Pennsylvania Department
of Agriculture in the third quarter
of 1989 as official Pennsylvania
Century Farms.
The picturesque farm has been
in Oberlin’s family nearly double
the number of years needed to
qualify for the honor. She moved
to the farm three years after she
married, and has now lived there
65 years. Her husband, D. William
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A Farm in Wolves' Clothing
Oberlin, died in 1985.
According to a family history
compiled by Dr. Allen Ryen of
Dußois, Oberlin’s grandson, the
land is the homestead and original
land grant of John “The Trapper”
Leasure who was bom in what is
now Westmoreland County in
1762.
The property was deeded from
the heirs of William Penn to Lohn
Leasure in 1796, in exchange for
his help in exterminating timber
wolves from the newly opened
frontier land. Ryen notes in his
history that the region was
crisscrossed with wolf trails, and
travelers feared for their lives after
dark. The original deed was for
396 acres of prime forest and farm
land •• one acre for each wolf
scalp John Leasure collected that
year.
The original deed even was
written on a wolf pelt, according
to Ryen’s research, and Oberlin
said her husband told her once he
saw it when he was a small boy.
But the pelt-deed was destroyed in
a fire at the Indiana County court
house in the early 19905. Through
five generations, the farm has
been passed down to Oberlin
through her mother-in-law’s side
of the family.
The property is believed to also
have been the site of an early
Indian hunting village.
“Years ago we used to rum
mage around and we found arrow
heads,” Oberlin, now 86, said
recently.
Ryen, who has been collecting
his family’s history as a bobby for
the past 20 years, also recalls evi
dence of early settlers on his
grandmother’s land.
“As a kid I remember there
were a couple of graves marked
with stones around them,” Ryen
said, adding the exact site has
been lost from his memory over
the years. But he, too, recalls find
ing arrowheads and pieces of flint
in the plowed fields after heavy
spring rains.
In 1977 the Carnegie Museum
in Pittsburgh registered the farm
as a primitive archeological site,
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A picturesque illy pond, lined with white birch trees, Is fed by seven springs from
the hillside behind the barn.
noting that possible Indian grave
sites remain undisturbed on the
property.
Now about 147 acres in size,
the Oberlin property is no longer a
“working farm,” although a neigh
bor leases part of the land to raise
hay and com, which grows up to
the edge of Oberlin’s lawn. The
homestead, located on a gently
sloping hillside, is easily one of
the most scenic in the area.
According to Ryen, the white,
four-bedroom Victorian house
was built in 1874 at a cost of
$3,000. It is a double-plank frame
dwelling, built of some of the fine
timber settlers found there.
The house features hemlock
and white pine planks up to two
feet wide. Its 'A -inch-thick copper
roof was replaced in 1978 as a pre
cautionary measure, Ryen said.
Oberlin’s daughter Marjorie
was married in the living room of
the big house only two genera
tions after Marjorie’s grand
mother had been married on the
front porch with guests watching
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from the shady front yard in 1895.
In 1903 the Buffalo, Rochester
& Pittsburgh Railroad had laid
tracks nearby between the house
and Rochester Mills, and Oberlin
was able to take excursions on the
“Hoodlebug,” the gas-driven
coach that shuttled between India
na and Punxsutawney.
When the house was partially
remodeled several years ago, a
small triangular piece of wood
was discovered under the stairs.
Penciled in intricate longhand on
the piece of wood were notes from
the builders, providing a little
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'more valuable written history to
the lore of the two-century-old
homestead. Much more the farm’s
past has been handed down by
word of mouth from generation to
generation.
“I’m the last of my family,”
Oberlin said, “and I wonder, why
didn’t I ask questions of those
people when they were living?”
The only other original build
ing, a large bam three years older
then the house and now covered in
red aluminum siding, stands near
by. Beyond the bam is a large
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