The recollections of Solomon Sartwell were recounted in an article in the McKean County Miner (22 April 1880).

"Mr. Sartwell’s next great purchase of land was the Holland lands in Jefferson county. He does not now remember the exact number of acres he purchased but guesses ‘about 100,000 acres.’ He next entered into a contract with Mr. Norris, President of the old Pennsylvania Bank, and Mr. Fox, his partner, for the purchase of the ‘Kersey tract’ in Jefferson and Clearfield counties [now Elk County, Pennsylvania], comprising 99,000 acres the greater part of which was dense woods. All these large tracts of land were prepared, mapped out and described by Col. Stone, a practical surveyor, and well known in Boston at the time. Mr. Sartwell completed his purchases and journeyed to Boston and submitted his maps and drafts to a company known as the ‘United States Land Company of Boston, Massachusetts.’ The company was composed of 800 of the prominent business men and capitalists of Boston, and was organized for the purpose of buying up timbered tracts on any of the navigable waters of the northern states, with a paid up cash capital of $1,000,000. In the year 1835 Mr. Sartwell sold the whole of his lands to this company and furnished deeds from the original owners, transferring the land direct from them to the United States Land Company. Mr. Sartwell originally paid one dollar an acre for these lands, and sold the greater part of them for $1.50 per acre."

Sartwell's account demonstrates the speculation that investors well beyond Pennsylvania were engaging in as the value of the forests of "Penn's Woods" was detailed by surveyors and the establishment of new settlements.