Levi Schuckers:

Levi Schuckers was during his active years one of the largest owners of cultivated farm land in his section of Jefferson County, and a leading agriculturist. Now he has disposed of all onerous business cares and is enjoying a leisurely life, making his home on a neat little tract on Pinecreek Township, situated on the old Susquehanna and Waterford turnpike a mile and a half east of Emerickville. His career has been fruitful in many ways. Working in his youth against heavy odds, he attained remarkable prosperity, and though he devoted practically all of his time to business his interests were so broad that for years they had a direct bearing in influencing the development of this region, especially its agricultural resources. His strong character and energetic personality could hardly have failed to make themselves felt, and they were determining factors in much of the progress which took place as long as his association with local affairs lasted. 

Mr. Schuckers belongs to an old Pennsylvania family formerly located in Schuylkill County, where his grandparents, Henry and Nancy (Stahlman) Schuckers, were born. The grandmother died in that county and was buried there, in the Klouser Church cemetery. The grandfather settled in Jefferson County in 1857, and here remained to the close of his life, dying at Emerickville when eighty-eight years old. Daniel Schuckers, son of Henry, was also born in Schuylkill County, where he continued to live until after his marriage. In 1857 he came out to Jefferson County and purchased what is now the Jacob Horam farm, in Winslow Township, a mile and a quarter east of the present home of his son Levi Schuckers. He agreed to pay two thousand dollars for the tract, which contained 107 acres, thirty-five acres being cleared. The rest of the improvements consisted of a little log house, an old log barn, and a few apple trees. Much of the original timber was standing on the land when it came into his possession, pine, hemlock, oak, cucumber and gum trees, and the soil was good. He brought his family here in 1857, the journey being made with covered wagons, but the climate did not agree with him, and consumption claimed him a few months later, on March 14, 1858, when he was forty-five years old. He was the first person buried in the cemetery at Emerickville.

Mr. Schuckers had been a successful farmer in his old home, but he had not been here long enough to continue the work of improvement on his new farm. He was a Lutheran in religion and a Democrat in politics, and while in eastern Pennsylvania had served as school director, supervisor and auditor of Frailey Township, Schuylkill County. He had married Elizabeth Heim, like himself a native of Schuylkill County, and she was left with a family of ten children, six sons and four daughters, Levi, the eldest son, then but eighteen years old. But she went ahead bravely, with the assistance of her children, until her death in 1864, at the age of fifty years. By that time there were seventy-five acres under cultivation, a substantial barn had been built, and the children had all remained at home, helping faithfully.

We have the following record of this family: Sarah A. married Henry Kroh, and both are deceased; Levi is mentioned below; Emanuel lives at Emerickville; Felix left this section when a young man, and died in Oregon; Franklin, deceased, was a lumberman and farmer in Washington Township, this county; Joseph resides at Emerickville; Emma married Adam Mohney, and is still living in Pinecreek Township; Amanda is the wife of James I. Brady, an old merchant of Brookville, and now chairman of the Republican party in Jefferson County; Elizabeth, Mrs. John Baum, lives at Reynoldsville, this county; Valentine died at Portland, Oregon, and was buried there.

Levi Schuckers was born Jan. 26, 1840, at Minersville, Schuylkill Co., Pa., where he spent his early years. With the usual limitations farm boys of that time and place had to contend with, he did not have many educational privileges, attending school for only two terms of four months each. He came with the family to Jefferson County in 1857, arriving July 7th, having driven a one-horse Dearborn covered wagon all the way. When the father was dying he called Levi to his bedside and said, “You will have to turn out to be a man now or a good-for-nothing.” Though he had no great experience in farming the greater part of the responsibility was on his young shoulders, but fortunately the grandfather remained with them and gave them the benefit of his advice.

There was a debt of eight hundred dollars on the home place, and he entered courageously upon the work of clearing it, lumbering during the winter months and farming in the summer season. He learned to hew square timbers, chopping, sawing and hauling in the winter months and rafting in the spring, his lumber being generally marketed at Brookville, and sometimes at the mouth of the Red Bank creek, where it emptied into the Allegheny river. He took many rafts down the Sandy Lick and Red Bank creeks and the Allegheny. He remained with his mother up to the time of his marriage, and then settled upon a farm of his own in Winslow Township, where his principal operations were conducted. Having bought this farm of his father-in-law, Jacob Kroh, he continued to develop and improve it, and it is now one of the most modern farms in the county. When he purchased this tract of 167 acres he had but twelve hundred dollars to pay down on the price, five thousand dollars, yet he was out of debt in four years, although he was paying ten per cent interest. The original barn was rebuilt and enlarged by him, until it was 72 by 66 feet in dimension and one of the finest barns in the locality when it burned down, entailing great loss besides the structure itself, eighteen hundred bushels of grain, eighty tons of hay, six horses, six cows, wagons, machinery and tools being destroyed with it. Mr. Schuckers rebuilt, erecting the present barn on the place, which is 42 by 72 feet. 

The farmhouse was built by Jacob Kroh. Mr. Schuckers lived and worked there until seven years ago, when he sold to his son Glen L., who now lives there. But meantime he acquired and operated other farm property of great value. He bought the old Bliss farm in Pinecreek Township now owned and occupied by his son Homer, the tract comprising 142 acres, of which the father retains a strip of six or seven acres for his own home. He built the barn on this property, which is sixty feet square, and his son Glen put up the other buildings. This son owns another tract which his father purchased and cleared of fine pine timber.

Mr. Schuckers also bought the John Baum farm of 136 acres in Pinecreek Township, cleared it of pine stumps, and for years operated these properties, doing general farming and keeping various kinds of stock. At times he fed stock for the market, and his various occupations combined to their common profit. When the First National Bank at Reynoldsville was started, he was one of the stockholders; he was a stockholder in the Pennsylvania & Buffalo Land Company, of Buffalo, N.Y.; one of a company of coal land owners selling coal under royalty; and a member of a company which sank a gas well on the Bliss farm, going down thirty-five hundred feet but without getting an extensive flow.

Some years ago, while living in Winslow Township, Mr. Schuckers served as school director, township auditor and assistant assessor. Though a Democrat, he is independent in his support of candidates and measures, working for men of any party who appeal to him as eligible for public trusts. But he has withdrawn from active participation in such matters as well as business, and is now leading a retired life at his home in Pinecreek Township.

Mr. Schuckers was married Sept. 1, 1863, to Elizabeth Kroh, who was born July 2, 1844, in Pinecreek Township, this county, Rev. Mr. Welker, a Lutheran Minister, performing the ceremony. Eight children have been born to this marriage, namely: Elmer E., an engineer, now established at Reynoldsville, married Lovilla Hetrick; Homer G., who lives on the old Bliss farm, married Mary Snyder, and they have had eight children, Lawrence, Charles, Ralph, Haven, Herbert and Cora living, and two deceased; James A., who married Lillie Sherwood, was a great traveler, having visited Alaska and other distant places, and he was killed by a fall of rock at Van Lear, Ky. (he left no children); Kennedy C., who is cashier of the First National Bank of Reynoldsville, married Bersa Dunken and has one son, Joseph; Glen L., who is on one of his fathers's farms, the old home place in Winslow Township, married Ada Mowery, and they have six children, Howard, Bernard, Hammond, Sarah, Alda and Blair; Lee S., cashier at the “Whitcomb Hotel,” Rochester, N.Y., married Carrie Myers and has a daughter, Helen; Cora E. is the wife of Lyle Gourley, of Oil City, Pa., a conductor on the Pennsylvania railroad, and her children are Arden and Elizabeth; Clara Emma is deceased.

Jacob and Catherine (Haupt) Kroh, parents of Mrs. Levi Schuckers, were born in Northumberland County, Pa., and at an early day settled in Jefferson County, where they spent the remainder of their lives. He had a farm in Winslow Township, and besides looking after its cultivation followed lumbering and operated a gristmill. He died in 1876, when seventy-five years old, and his wife passed away in May, 1872, aged seventy-two years. They are buried in the Brookville cemetery. They were Lutherans in religious connection, and Mr. Kroh was a Republican in politics. Of their seven children, Beneval was a farmer in Pinecreek Township; Sarah married Peter Baum, a farmer of that township; Jacob, deceased, was a farmer in Armstrong County. Pa.; Angeline married John B. Snyder, and both are deceased; Henry, deceased, was a farmer; Catherine J. married George Jordan, a hotel man of Perrysville, Pa.; Elizabeth is the wife of Levi Schuckers.

Transcribed by Steven A. Stahlman from “Jefferson County, Pennsylvania – Her Pioneers and People”, Volume II, by Dr. William James McKnight, published in 1917 by the J. H. Beers & Company, Chicago, Ill. Page 242.