BIO: Jacob White, Tillard Pen Pictures, 1911, Blair County, PA

Contributed April 2003 for use in the USGenWeb Archives 
by Judy Banja <jbanja@comcast.net>

Copyright 2003.  All rights reserved.
http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm
http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/blair/
_________________________________________ 

                Pen Pictures of Friends and Reminiscent Sketches
                                by J. N. Tillard

             Altoona, PA: William F. Gable & Co., Mirror Press, 1911 

                           JACOB WHITE, Inland Sailor

          Aged Altoonan Floated Logs from Cherry Tree to New York Harbor

AT first glance, the statement that it is possible to navigate from Cherry 
Tree, Indiana County, in the heart of the Alleghany Mountains, to New York 
Harbor, making the whole journey by water, seems absurd. The average citizen 
of this section would regard the story as a fairy tale. Nevertheless, there 
is a man living in Altoona who for thirty years earned his living doing this 
very thing, and he was a regularly licensed pilot at that. His craft was not 
a modern ocean liner or even a canal boat, but it required just as much skill 
and daring and involved as much of hardship in the handling as did ever craft 
of any sort. Starting with a single log shoved into the swollen waters of the 
Clearfield Creek or its tributaries, by the time it reached the Delaware 
Breakwater it was a huge floating leviathan a thousand feet long, seventy 
feet wide, and ten to fifteen logs deep.
  Jacob White, now living at No. 217 Third Avenue, for nearly thirty years 
started every spring on a three months' cruise from above Cherry Tree. In 
later days his adventurous kind stopped their crafts in the booms at Lock 
Haven, Williamsport, or Marietta, but the raftsmann of his day was a seagoing 
sailor. He got far out on the blue waters beyond the capes of the Delaware, 
and found his ultimate haven on the shores of Staten Island or the docks of 
the East River. He came around Sandy Hook and up the Narrows behind a tug 
that had picked him up in Delaware Bay and towed him through all the dangers 
of stormy seas, adverse currents and parted cables, for his unwieldy mass of 
logs was not the easiest thing in the world to steer through deep water. The 
pilot who rode it and watched its destinies was, in the very nature of 
things, a man of courage and skill. No weakling would be entrusted with such 
a valuable cargo floating on its own bottom and built alone by the men who 
sailed it.
  Curiously enough, the old gentleman while talking to the reporter did not 
regard these performances as anything above the ordinary, but seemed to think 
that his proudest achievement was having voted for sixteen Democratic 
candidates for president.
  Jacob White was born in Bavaria, Germany, January 6, 1822, and was brought 
to America an infant by his parents. The old folks stopped in Pottsville for 
about five years, and then moved on to the wilderness, settling at what is 
now Carrolltown, Cambria County. Along about 1845, Jacob, having learned the 
trade of a millwright, turned his attention to logging in the winter. When 
the snows began to fall he ground up his ax and started for the woods.
  By the time the melting snows brought the first freshets, the banks of the 
stream were lined with logs ready to start to the far-off market. With peevy 
and pike pole they were herded into the stream and carried down the narrow, 
rushing torrent until the Susquehanna was reached. Here the real work of 
assembling them began, and by the time they reached Port Deposit, Md., the 
work of wild riding and breaking of jams was about over. The timber was 
lashed together in comparatively small rafts and towed through the canal to 
Delaware Bay. There raft after raft was joined together and built up until 
they were ready to take to the deep water, and the long trip through the open 
sea was begun. The entire voyage usually consumed three months and was really 
one of the great feats in the development of the country's transportation.
  In 1871, feeling the years beginning to grow up on him, Mr. White abandoned 
log driving and was elected justice of the peace in Barr Township, Cambria 
County. He served in this capacity for five years and was a busy man. The 
conditions in that section were still rather rough and there were many 
lawbreakers. The old man said: "I had to send an awful lot of rascals to 
jail." Shortly after the expiration of his term of office he came to Altoona 
and for many years was employed at his trade as a carpenter in the railroad 
shops. He was not retired from the service "until he was seventy-seven years 
old, the retirement plan of the railroad company not going into effect until 
ten years ago.
  He and his wife are in good health and with active minds, though the old 
gentleman is growing feeble. Ten sons and daughters were born to them, seven 
of whom still survive with a host of grandchildren. As previously stated, Mr. 
White is very proud of the fact that he has voted for every Democratic 
candidate for president since James K. Polk, and he is looking forward to 
casting another this fall.

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