Margaret (Ruffner) Aaron

Margaret (Ruffner) Aaron, was born December 4, 1799 near Greensburg, Westmoreland County, a daughter of John Christian and Margaret (Kuhn) Ruffner.  Her father was a farmer and she grew up on the farm learning the value of family loyalty and sharing in the labors of operating the farm.

On July 12, 1822, at the age of seventeen, she married George Aaron, also of near Greensburg.  George was born September 9, 1801, a son of Thomas Soloman and Elizabeth (Reinsel) Aaron.

Four years after they were married, Margaret, George and four of their children moved from Westmoreland County to what is now known as Limestone Township in Clarion County, not far from Crates.  Upon arrival, they had no shelter.  They camped out several days while George constructed a small log cabin.  That cabin was their only domicile for over twenty years in which they raised their family of twelve children, namely; Margaret (1824-1900), John Patrick (1828-1899), Gorge Washington (1830-1879) and Mary Jane (1831-1870), all of whom moved from Westmoreland to Clarion County with the parents.  Sylvester (1834-1899), Lucinda Jane (1836-1870, twins Daniel (1837-1841) and David (1837-1886), Francis Frank (1840-1869), John Charles (1842-1903), Sarah Ann (1845-1915) and Sybilla Tybitha (1847-1919) all of whom were born in the small log cabin in Limestone Township.

Mrs. Margaret Aaron was an unusually strong young woman who rendered valuable assistance to her husband erecting the crude log cabin while also taking care of her children and seeing the meals were prepared.  She could be found each day felling the trees and dragging the logs to the site of the cabin.

On a cold winter night, shortly after the cabin was constructed, George went to the woods to get some firewood for the fireplace.  During his absence, a black bear somehow found its way into the cabin which had two small rooms.  Margaret was seated in the rear room caring for the children.  Upon hearing a peculiar sound coming from the door in other room, she peered over the small partition which was about five feet high and saw the bear coming in the door.  Her first motherly instinct was the safety of her children.  She placed them on the bed and reached for the gun propped in the corner of the room.  The gun was always loaded.  He creeped over to the partition, leveled the gun and pulled the trigger.  The charge went off and her aim was accurate and the bear reeled and fell dead to the floor.

Another interesting incident was an encounter with two men who were burglars.  George and Margaret saved up several hundred dollars through the years through economical living.  One night while sleeping, they were awakened by a noise in the front room.  They arose from their bed and discovered two masked men entering their room.  In an instant, George was up and caught one of the men by the throat and threw him on the floor.  In so doing, George also fell on the floor and quickly the other man grabbed him by the arms and was about to strike him on the head, Margaret threw her weight against the burglar sending him sprawling to the floor.  The first burglar was about to get up and Margaret knocked him down again.  The two, seeing they bit off more than they could chew quickly got up and ran out the door never to return to the Aaron house again.

George died in 1882 and Margaret continued living as best she could in the cabin until she could no longer take care of herself before moving in with her youngest daughter, Sybilla Tybitha Burgoon, who lived in Allegheny County.   For 88 years, Margaret enjoyed smoking her pipe.  Two years before her death she became blind and deaf.  She was able to sit in a chair and continued to have a regular appetite.  At the age of 100, Margaret died on April 19, 1899 and is buried in the Crates Cemetery beside George.  They were members of the Crates Catholic Church.