History of Potter County Pennsylvania United States of America

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Local History Notes:

POTTER, a county in the N. part of Pennsylvania, bordering on New York, has an area of 1100 square miles. This county is one of the most elevated in the state, forming part of the dividing ridge between the waters which flow into the Ohio on the S., and the St. Lawrence on the N, The Genesee river rises in it and flows northward the Alleghany rises near the middle and flows westward; it is also drained by Pine, Oswayo, and Kettle creeks. The surface is uneven, and mostly covered by thick forests.

The soil is well adapted to grazing. Oats, hay, butter, maple sugar, and pine lumber are the chief articles of export. In 1850 it produced 80,314 bushels of oats; 8717 tons of hay; 168,677 pounds of butter, and 134,887 of maple sugar. There were 50 saw mills, 3 flour and grist mills, and 2 pot and pearl asheries. It contained 1 church, 2 newspaper offices 1020 pupils attending public schools, and 20 attending another school. Stone coal and iron ore are found. Formed in 1804, and named in honor of General James Potter, an officer in the war of the Revolution. Capital, Coudersport. Population, 6048.

Biographies:

Ole Bornemann Bull, violinist, was born in Bergen, Norway, Feb. 5, 1810. Both of his parents were musical, and he had among his many relatives a number of musicians and poets. From his earliest infancy he had an ear for nature's music?the songs of the flowers and trees, the winds, rivers, lakes and mountains?and he always thought of this music as something that might be reproduced. At home concerts given at his father's house he became familiar with the best music, and absorbed all unconsciously the rules of the musician's art. Without any instruction whatever he could play the violin at five years of age, at seven took his place in a quartette of trained musicians, and at nine played first violin in a theatre orchestra. He was sent to school, as it was his father's intention to fit him for the ministry. In 1828 he went to Christiania to take his entrance examinations at the university. The afternoon and evening preceding examination day were spent in playing at a concert and at a private musical, and as a result he failed to pass his examinations. His playing, however, secured for him the position of director of the "Philharmonic and Dramatic Societies" of the town, and he at once entered upon the very congenial duties of his new office, spending his leisure in musical studies. In 1830 he returned to Bergen, where, by three concerts, he earned five hundred dollars, with which he went to Paris to gratify his long-cherished desire of hearing DeBeriot, Balliot and Berlioz. At Paris he was robbed of his money, and through the assistance of Vidocq, the famous detective, he won eight hundred francs in a gambling establishment. This money was soon spent, and he was in need and despair, when he met Madame Villeminot, an elderly lady, whose granddaughter he afterwards married, who took him into her home and nursed him through an attack of brain fever. Before he had fully recovered from this illness his admirers in Christiania, hearing of his misfortunes, sent him three thousand francs. His wonderful playing at a soir?e, given by the Duke of Riario, led to many concert engagements, which brought him both fame and money. He heard Paganini, though it was several years afterward that his great friendship with that maestro began, and he became acquainted with Chopin, with whom he gave a number of concerts. He travelled through France, Switzerland and Italy on a concert tour, studying as he went the native music of each country, in order to give true expression to the varied melodies of the south. While in Bologna his playing was heard, accidentally, by Rossini's wife, the celebrated Colbran, and through her he secured the opportunity of playing before a large audience which had assembled to hear Malibran and DeBeriot. Ole Bull on this occasion so threw his soul into his violin that it responded as it had never before done, and from that moment his fortune was made, his fame assured. He was accompanied to his home by a torchlight procession, his carriage being drawn by the populace; he was engaged for concert after concert, benefits were given in his behalf, theatres and orchestras were put at his disposal, and kings, dukes and princes delighted to do him honor. Soon afterward, upon his return to Paris, the doors of the Grand Opera were open to receive him, and he gave several concerts there with great success. Some of his most beautiful compositions were evolved at this time; among others, his famous Concerto in A Major, his Quartetto a violino Solo, his Polacca Guerriera, and his Adagio Religioso. In 1836 he made his first tour through England, playing in concerts with Rubini, Tamburini, Lablache, and Mlle. Assandri, and winning enthusiastic plaudits on every hand. The English tour was followed by one through Germany, and the music-loving Germans made this tour one prolonged ovation. He continued his travels, giving concerts in Russia, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Holland, Denmark, Austria and Hungary, and taking the people's hearts by storm wherever he played. His visit to his native Norway, after an absence of seven years, was an occasion of great delight to him and to his admiring countrymen, and he played the grand and simple Norwegian melodies in such an electrifying way that the people awoke to a realization of the incomparable beauty of their own folk-songs and dances. Preceded by his fame he came to America in 1843, and, making an extended tour through the United States, Canada and the West Indies, he was everywhere received with the same wild enthusiasm which had greeted him in Europe. This was followed by another European tour, which was a triumph from beginning to end, and he amassed a fortune. He was a zealous patriot and his efforts in behalf of his countrymen were untiring. In 1852 he came to America and purchased one hundred and twenty-five thousand acres of land on the Susquehanna, in Potter county, Pa., for the purpose of establishing a "New Norway consecrated to liberty and protected by the Union's mighty flag." On this land he erected three hundred cottages, a church, an inn, a store, and, incidentally, a palace for himself on an eminence overlooking the cottages. After sinking a fortune in the experiment, he found that he had been swindled by his agent and that his title to the land was defective. Then followed a period of hardship, struggle, persecution and illness; and but for the sympathy and assistance of a host of influential friends, he would have succumbed under the fearful strain. After a time he returned to Bergen; some of his former friends and neighbors believed him to be at fault for the failure of his colonization scheme, and to this grief was added that caused by the death of his wife. A four years' tour through Europe mended his shattered fortunes, and in 1867-69 he again visited the United States, giving a series of concerts in the west and northwest where his countrymen were settled. While in Wisconsin, in 1868, he met Sara C. Thorpe, to whom he was married in the following year. In his later years his winters were spent in America and his summers in Norway. When his death occurred in Bergen the world's flags were hung at half mast, and the simple Norwegian peasants came by the hundreds, each bearing a green bough, a fern, or a flower to cast into the grave of their ever true and loyal friend. Of his compositions, which were legion, he would permit only three to be published: Variazioni di Bravura, La Preghiera d'una Madre (Adagio Religioso), and Il Notturno. See Ole Bull: A Memoir by his wife, Sara C. Bull (1883). He died at Bergen, Norway, Aug. 18, 1880.

From: Twentieth Century Biographical Dictionary of Notable Americans, Johnson, Rossiter, editor

History of Potter County Pennsylvania

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