Photo from geocaching.com An image of Funkville, a small oil-boom settlement in Triumph Township in the early 1860s.

Well, I suppose I could.

Let’s go to Triumph Township.

In the southwest corner, you’ll find the former location of the village of Funkville.

This is the case of an interesting person resulting in an interesting place name that has for all intents and purposes been forgotten.

Photo from geocaching.com An image of Funkville, a small oil-boom settlement in Triumph Township in the early 1860s.

In his place names of Warren County article, local historian Ernest Miller describes Funkville’s location as follows: “(F)ormerly a small settlement in the southwest corner of Triumph Township, on the Enterprise-Tidioute Road five miles east of Enterprise; also, where the Warren-Franklin Turnpike crosses Funk Run, between Perry in Venango County and Tidioute in Warren County.”

There’s still a Funk Run identified on maps currently that runs into West Hickory Creek south of Tidioute, between Tidioute and West Hickory.

Miller notes that the location was once called Warner “and the post office there had the shortest life of any in Warren County; it opened August 13, 1850, and was changed to Steam Mills, September 10, 1850. As Steam Mills the post office continued until January 16, 1855, when it was discontinued.”

That’s when the Funk started to come to prominence.

Capt. A.B. Funk, that is.

Photo from The Early and Later History of Petroleum “Capt.” A.B. Funk

Schenck’s History of Warren County notes that Funk built the first sawmill in the township “about 1840” and “was an extensive lumberman and operator in oil….”

Where’s he’s buried isn’t clear. What the “A.B.” stands for also isn’t clear but the text “The Early and Later History of Petroleum” published in 1873 gives us a four-page biography – photograph included – of Mr. Funk.

Among the many noted and successful pioneer operators, in the Pennsylvania oil region, Capt. A.B. Funk, merits distinction and prominence. He was a man of superior intellectual acquirements and yet a fair type of the hardy settlers of the wilds of that portion of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. When the oil developments at Titusville became a reality, Capt. Funk was among the first to enter into the new enterprise, lending to it the whole force of his character and ample wealth. We regret we have not the data at hand for a completed history of his eventful life; for few men, active as he was, in the earlier years of the development of petroleum in the Pennsylvania oil fields, deserve so generous a remembrance. Such facts as we have, however, we make use of, more for the purposes of a tribute to his memory than a detailed sketch of his life.

Capt. A.B. Funk was a native of West Newton, Westmore land County, Pa., born in 1811, and grew to man’s estate in his native town. His earlier years were devoted to commercial pursuits, in which he earned for himself an enviable character for integrity and an unblemished repute for uprightness and honesty. Later in life, he engaged extensively in the lumber trade on the Youghiogheny River – building and running small steamers upon its waters – and here, we infer, he obtained his title of “Captain.”

In the spring of 1848, he had superintending charge of the construction of a lock and dam, known as “the Upper Lock and Dam,” on the Youghiogheny Slackwater Improvement. During the same summer, he began the construction of a large side-wheel steamer, intended for the Youghiogheny river trade.

This vessel, called ‘The Farmer,’ he completed in 1850, but when launched, she proved to be of the too heavy draft, and he was compelled to run her on the Ohio and Mississippi rivers. The management and care of this steamboat enterprise required his almost constant attention, and necessarily, he was, during the season of navigation at least, away from his home in West Newton.

But the enterprise was abundantly successful, and he continued his connection with it, until the fall of 1851, when he disposed of his vessel, having previously determined to purchase timberlands in Western Pennsylvania and engage in the manufacture of lumber.

In pursuance of this predetermined, and may we add, well-considered enterprise, he soon after the sale of his steamer, in 1851, purchased of Judge Warner, of Allegheny City, a large tract of timbered lands, located in Deerfield Township, Warren County, Pa.

In March 1852, with his family, he removed to his new home, then in the wilds of this portion of the commonwealth, and entered industriously upon the work before him. He continued his lumbering operations until the spring and summer of 1859 – meantime largely increasing his capital and his products as well. When oil was discovered at Titusville, in 1859, he was among the largest lumber manufacturers of that region, and his enterprise has been abundantly successful.