BIO: John E. DUBOIS, Clearfield County, PA Contributed for use in the USGenWeb Archives by Judy Banja & Sally Copyright 2005. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/ NOTE: Use this web address to access other bios: http://www.usgwarchives.net/pa/clearfield/1picts/swoope/swoope.htm _____________________________________________________________ From Twentieth Century History of Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, and Representative Citizens, by Roland D. Swoope, Jr., Chicago: Richmond-Arnold Publishing Company, 1911, pages 630 - 634. _____________________________________________________________ JOHN E. DUBOIS, a leading business man and representative citizen of DuBois, Pa., was born on his father's farm in the state of New York, May 15, 1861. His ancestors on the paternal side were of French origin, coming to this country in 1634, and settling on the western part of Staten Island, N. Y. They were members of the Reformed church of France and probably came to America to avoid religious persecution, Staten Island being then numbered among the Dutch colonial possessions. Among the posterity of these early immigrants were some whose names are prominent in theology, law, arms and business. The paternal grandfather of the subject of this sketch was John DuBois, a farmer of Tioga county, N. Y., who was the owner of considerable tracts of timber land and also built and operated a saw-mill. He married Lucy Crocker, daughter of Ezekiel Crocker, one of the first settlers near Binghamton, N. Y., who moved there from Connecticut with three of his sons and his daughter Lucy, she being then eleven years of age. Lucy became the housekeeper of the family and though so young attended to her multifarious duties with an energy and decision that were later among her most conspicuous characteristics and marked her character throughout her life. In those days the Indians constituted almost the entire population of the region. John DuBois' family consisted of eight sons and two daughters, the three eldest sons being Ezekiel, John and David. Of these Ezekiel was the father of the subject of this sketch. John DuBois, above mentioned, uncle of our subject, was born near Owego, N. Y., March 3, 1809. He was educated in the district schools and for a short time attended an academy at Owego. He was early trained to habits of industry and received but little schooling after he was fifteen years old. Soon after he became engaged in rafting lumber down the north branch of the Susquehanna river to Columbia. At the age of twenty his father built a saw-mill about two miles from Tioga Center, and John (with David, a younger brother) stocked the mill with logs in the winter and rafted the lumber when the spring floods served. Ezekiel, the elder brother, carried on the business of shoemaking. About the time John was of age his father bought a farm for $6,000 at Tioga Center. He asked the three older sons, Ezekiel, John and David, to stay with him until it was paid for, promising to give it to them when the deed was made. The father, however, had the deed made to himself, settling with his sons on a different basis, whereby they had a lease of the farm, mill and timberland to work on shares, besides a stipulated salary. The three brothers, with one sister to keep house for them, left the old home and took up separate quarters. The eldest brother, Ezekiel, soon married Clarissia Badger, they being the parents of the subject of this sketch. David died at the age of 33 years, unmarried. Owing to various causes, the brothers (the firm was E. DuBois & Bros.) were not very successful in their combined enterprise. They subsequently engaged in a mercantile business with another brother, Matthias, which connection lasted five years. In the winter of 1835 John DuBois took advantage of an opportunity to purchase 1,000 acres of valuable timber land for $3,000, partly on credit. This netted the brothers a considerable profit. At the end of five years they closed up their business with property and money to the value of $25,000 cash, beside the 1,000 acres from which the pine only had been taken off, it was still well covered with hemlock, also teams, tools, sleds, chains, etc. In the division Ezekiel took most of the real estate and personal property for his share, and John and David, constituting a new firm, engaged in a new lumbering enterprise in Lycoming county, Pa., Matthias being subsequently taken into the firm. David died in 1848, John and Mathias paying back to the family $4,500. Matthias married and his brother John lived with him in a pleasant residence on the Lycoming. They were engaged together in various lumber and other enterprises during some ten years, buying large quantities of land in Lycoming and Clearfield counties, including some 32,000 acres in the latter and about 800 acres in the city of Williamsport, besides erecting saw-mills, etc., and a residence in the city of Williamsport. About this time Matthias' health began to fail, and he finally died, and John, after the year 1863, carried on the business alone. After his brother's death John DuBois built a large mill and quite a town situated on the Susquehanna above Williamsport, which was called DuBois town. He supplied this mill with logs from his lands in Clearfield county, floating them down the river. He met with great opposition from men running lumber down the stream in rafts, who sued him in the courts and, when he gained the suits, drove spikes and pieces of iron into his logs, which caused him a great amount of damage. In 1860 the boom built across the river to hold the logs gave way, letting about 50,000,000 feet of logs go adrift, of which about four and a half million feet belonged to Mr. DuBois and his partner. Many of these logs floated down to Chesapeake Bay. After considerable controversy between the various owners at Lock Haven and Williamsport as to the best way to recover their floating property, Mr. DuBois was empowered to go over the ground and see what he could get. He succeeded in selling a large number at a much higher price than any other member of the committee considered them worth, and he and his partner themselves bought all the logs that were in the Chesapeake Bay, Mr. DuBois going to Harve de Grace to make arrangements for securing them. The logs were lying mostly along the beach and many had been cut up by the owners of the land on which they had gone ashore. Some of these owners refused to allow him to take the logs, and in some cases he paid them damages to settle the matter. In other cases he brought suit in the U. S. courts and in each case recovered their value. In October, 1861, another large lot of logs went adrift, and Mr. DuBois being again commissioned by the lumbermen to recover them, went through many of the same experiences as before, his trouble being chiefly with the owners along the river, the situation being complicated by the war, some of the owners along the Maryland shores refusing to acknowledge the jurisdiction of the U. S. courts. Owing to these troubles and also to another considerable loss due to a flood in March, 1865, a stock company called the "Williamsport Transient Lumber Company" was formed to better manage such transactions in the future. Mr. DuBois made some propositions to the company for the recovery of logs in the bay, but being strongly opposed by a man named Herdic, they were declined and he was left out in the cold. The measures taken by the company proved impracticable and many of the logs were ultimately lost. In the spring of 1861 Mr. DuBois found that his partner was untrustworthy and that the accounts of the concern were in a confused condition, and he consequently found it necessary to give his personal attention to the business in Williamsport. Upon a fuller investigation he discovered that his partner had given various notes for large sums, failing to make any record of them, and which now came in for payment. He had also, as was later discovered, received large amounts and pocketed the same without making any record of them on the books, and had been guilty of other acts of dishonesty. This resulted in a severance of the partnership, after a settlement which left Mr. DuBois much poorer than he had thought himself. John DuBois was a man of great inventive genius. When the Philadelphia, Wilmington & Baltimore Railroad Company in 1861 decided to build a bridge across the Susquehanna river at Harve de Grace to take the place of the steam ferry boat, Mr. DuBois set to work to think of a plan for laying the piers, the water being very deep and a similar attempt having previously failed. He finally matured such a plan and sought an interview with the president of the company to lay it before him, but having divulged his plan on the way to a Mr. Crossman, who had charge of the bridges who told it to the company's engineer, Mr. Parker, the latter laid claim to the invention subsequently, and Mr. DuBois having obtained a patent several law suits resulted, whereby Mr. DuBois at first lost but subsequently had his prior rights affirmed by the Supreme Court, the railroad company being obliged to pay him damages. He subsequently took out many other valuable patents, both in this and foreign countries. Mr. DuBois' business enterprises were on a large scale. After getting rid of his dishonest partner he sold the mill built by them at Williamsport, together with some other real estate and boom stock for $91,000 and bought a mill near to the one sold for $21,000 and soon after bought a large steam saw-mill, with a number of tenant houses, costing altogether over $120,000. His mills there had a sawing capacity of about 120,000 feet in eleven hours. In the spring of 1873 he began to improve his property in Clearfield county, which at that time was mostly a wilderness. The site of the now thriving village of DuBois then contained only three houses. Here he built several saw-mills of large capacity, with other machinery for cutting shingles, packing-boxes, dressing lumber, framing timber, etc., together with a large brick building for kiln drying lumber. He also erected a large brick building for store and hotel, 50 x 100 feet, three stories high besides the basement. His lumber yard contained latterly over 15,000,000 feet of sawed lumber, besides an ample stock of logs. He also owned a foundry and machine shop, and had a large and well improved farm. These various industries gave employment to more than 350 men during the busy season and to a large portion of that number for the whole year. Near his land were three collieries working five and a half and two and a half veins of coal of excellent quality. In his younger days Mr. DuBois was fond of hunting and often bagged such big game as deer and bears, besides catamounts, wild-cats, etc. At different times he lost considerable property by fire, having but partial insurance. Had he been fully insured he would have had a considerable amount to pay yearly in premiums. Mention has already been made of his brother Ezekiel, who was for a time associated with him in business matters, and who married Clarissia Badger, they being the parents of John E. DuBois, whose name appears at the head of this article. John E. DuBois spent his boyhood on the farm and received an academic education. In 1883 he came to DuBois, Pa., and entered the employ of his uncle John, to whose history we have devoted so much space. On the death of his uncle, which took place on May 6, 1886, he was made the latter's executor and continues to carry on the extensive lumber business founded by him. Mr. DuBois is also interested in many other local enterprises, among them the DuBois Iron Works and the DuBois Lumber yard, both important concerns. He was one of the organizers of the DuBois National Bank and is now its president. In politics he supports the Republican ticket. In 1897 Mr. DuBois was married to Miss Willie F. Gamble, a daughter of James M. Gamble, of Roanoke, Va. Mr. and Mrs. DuBois are the parents of five children - John, Lewis, Caroline, David and Sarah.