Section 28:  Clarion Society

At this time we had a pretty good population in Clarion, largely young married people, and there was a great deal of sociability. In the fall and winter, dinner and tea parties were very common. They were generally made up of our intimate friends, or as it was frequently called "our Set." H. A. Thompson and his wife were our nearest neighbors; T. Sutton, H. M. R. Clark, Col. Coulter and their wives, with the Lathy family and some others. The younger set of unmarried people did not mix much in our set and I think there was more enjoyment and sociability at those parties than any I ever attended. We were too well acquainted to be formal and too much on an equality for rivalry and plenty of the spirit of fun to make an hour or two pass off pleasantly. Dr. James Ross and wife came down from Strattonville and settled in our town about 1842. He was a good and successful physician. They were a pleasant family and for many years their house was a favorite place for social gatherings. He was our family physician till his death some three or four years ago and until his son, J. Frank Ross, took his place.

But our society was large enough for variety. After Judge Myers moved to town, his family became a part of "our Set." He was a jolly, genial old man and a favorite in the social circle. I enjoyed the parties and this was a pleasant portion of my life.

There was never much sociability between the people of Strattonville and our town; but a few who had relations or intimate friends there visited back and forth some. I believe I never ate a meal at a private house in Strattonville though I have been there for days on business and ate a good many meals at the hotels. It was different at Shippensville. We have visited at both Shippins and Blacks and I have been days there trying arbitrations but generally boarded at the hotels. I never had a more steadfast friend and client than Jacob Black and I believe he relies more on my advice today than on that of any man in the county. With the exception of the ten years I was on the bench, I think he never had a suit or business in court in which I was not his lawyer. Being so long and intimately connected in business and his counselor in buying and selling his land and writing deeds and articles, it is not surprising that we became fast friends. Since the decease of his wife he has lived a good deal in Clarion, and we have associated a good deal together, and whichever of us dies first will be missed by the other. He is four years and a half older than me to a day, he being born on the 25th day of January, 1809, and I on the 25th day of July, 1813. He was an active business man before I came to the county. Richard Shippen was his brother-in-law and as the firm of Shippen and Black, ran and operated Shippensville furnace for many years and kept on their feet through all the disasters and panics of 1847-8 and 1857, and finally retired, both wealthy, and divided their land, of which they owned a large body in Elk and Beaver township.