Southwest Township

History of Warren County Pennsylvania                    Schenck 1887

               Southwest Township was settled almost as early as any part of the county. There are no means of ascertaining the exact date of the first settlement, but they were probably about the turn of the 19th century. One of the first settlers was Richard Henderson, who had made quite a clearing about two miles east of the site of the village of Enterprise. He was what the other early settlers called a “Pennamite,” a settler from the eastern part of Pennsylvania, as opposed to those who came from New York or England. There was considerable ill feeling between the Pennamites and the other settlers. Richard Henderson, though a quiet, peaceable man, was not exempt from this dislike, and would not mingle much with his Yankee neighbors. He was a man of sterling character, however. He was one of the kind-fitted by nature, to fell the forests of a new country and aid in establishing schools and comfortable homes in the wilderness. He was in no sense of the word a public man, but attended strictly to his home and family.

               Between the year 1806 and 1838, the date of the formation of the township, many settlements were planted in this forest territory. Cultivated fields took the place of tangled underbrush and thick woods. The period intervening between 1825 and 1836 was the period of most rapid immigration. In 1847, there was no village of Enterprise in existence. The territory had become more thickly populated than it was at the time of the formation of the township, but was still in great part uncultivated, with considerable tracts covered with virgin forest. There were about nine houses in the village of Enterprise. There were saw and shingle mills, a hotel, and two general stores. There was a post office, church, and school.

Courtesy of the Warren County Historical Society