1895:  Reilly Block
300 W. Main

photo credit:  An Illustrated Souvenir of Smethport, Pennsylvania©1895

Contractor:  Builder of the Grand Central Hotel!

"Deer, which were numerous, would come to browse upon the fallen brush, where they were killed for their skins, and a hunter who visited us killed seven in one day, taking their skins and leaving their carcasses in the woods.  I was the first to buy and ship venison to New York and Philadelphia, and one winter, in company with Judge Arnold, I shipped fifteen tons, the saddles selling at 4 cents and the rest at 2 cents per pound.  In 1842, the year we came here a drove of seven elk was driven past our home by Joseph Coleman, and at another time a full-grown elk was captured by two Indians and led through the town.  A half-grown panther was trapped by Mr. Hugh Starkweather, bound with withes and taken to Smethport.  Wolves and bears were so ravenous that the sheep had to be housed at night, at one time sixteen in my flock being killed by animals in one night.  In the spring pigeons would come in immense flocks, at one time the nesting being ten miles long and five miles wide, every tree and limb in the forest being covered.  Their last appearance was in 1870.  Many made a business of catching them, and on Potato creek there were placed nets about one hundred yards apart for a distance of fifteen miles, each net capturing from ten to one hundred dozen per day.  I was one of the first to buy them for shipping, and have snipped twenty to thirty barrels per day, each barrel holding twenty-five dozen, and selling at from 25 to 50 cents per dozen, but discontinued shipping when advised to do so by the commission men, who would no longer pay freight charges, as the market was glutted.  In 1843 I walked all the way to Philadelphia, a distance of about 300 miles, sixty miles of the distance being through Potter county, a wilderness, with but one house in the sixty miles, and returned in 1844, also on foot."

Mr. Reilly was married in Philadelphia to Miss Ann Bryen, and became the father of six sons and four daughters:  Joseph W., Emmet R., James M., Andrew R. M., Grattan and John M., being the sons; the daughters were Mary, Ann Celia, Maggie and Emma B.  The family belong to the Catholic Church, and in politics Mr. Reilly is a Democrat. He was elected county commissioner in 1878, and re-elected in 1881.

As a contractor and builder now largely copied by other counties.  He also built the Grand Central Hotel at Smethport, at a cost of $30,000, a large brick store and other edifices in Smethport, at a cost of $8,000 each.  He cleared a farm of 150 acres from the wilderness, planting 300 fruit trees, and had proved himself worthy, industrious and useful citizen.

Andrew Reilly, the veteran contractor of Smethport, was in town last Saturday and signed the contract for building abuttments for the new iron bridge which will span Knapp's creek near this place.  Mr. Reilly did the stonework for the river bridge here, and his work wa done so well that the township Supervisors were anxious to get him to do their work.  He is one of the most thorough bridge men in the State.