CONTENTS. PAGE Increase in Population-Religious History-First SermonRev. Robert McGarraugh, the Pioneer of Presbyterianism -Educational Interests- Pioneer Schools-Later Advantages - Belknap Independent District - Glade Run Academy-Its Graduates -First Gristmill-Distilleries- Olney Furnace - Iron Foundry - The First Professional Men - Postoffices -Borough of Dayton-Churches -Dayton Academy - Soldiers' Orphans' School - Common Schools - Incorporation - Statistics - Appropriateness of the Name of D ayton.................................................... 214 CHAPTER X.-KISKIMINETAS.-Indian Origin of the Name - Or ganization-Early Visits of the Whites-Christopher Gist Persons to Whom the Lands were Originally Surveyed - Old Time Attempts to Divide the Township - Churches - Schools-Temperance Element-Improving Navigation in the Kiskiminetas-Mechanical Industries- Statistics of Employments and Population - Postoffices - An Ancient Landmark-Geological Description-" Dunmire's Rock" Borough of Apollo, Eormerly Warren-Assessments at Vari ous Dates-Ferries and Bridges-Religious Matters-Mili tary-Soldiers' Aid Society-Lodges-Trades and Occupa tions-Manufacturing and Mercantile History-Statistics Fires......................................................... 232 CHAPTER XI.-PINE (INCLUDING BoGGs).-Name-Erected from Territory in Kittanning Township - Decreased in Size by the Establishment of Boggs in 1878-(Note) - Mahoning Creek and its Indian Name-The Old Path to LeBouf The Indian Town of Mahoning-Orrsville-History of the Original Land Tracts - Ore Hill Furnace - William Trum bull - His Mill on Pine Creek, Built Prior to 1790 - Peart's Mills -Ineffective Search for Oil - Associate Reformed Church-The Wallis Lands-An Ancient Earthwork Near " Slabtown"-Stewardson Furnace-North American Land Company's Tracts-Goheenville and Other Hamlets-Pop ulation, Mercantile Appraisement and Assessment of the Township-Educational Statistics-Geology............... 247 CHAPTER XII.-MADIsoN.-Named after the Fourth President -Territory of the Township Carved from Tobey and Red Bank-One of Captain Brady's Notable Indian Fights-An Official Account by Col. Brodhead-The Services of a Young Delaware Chief - Col. Brodhead's Expedition Against the Seneca and Muncy Towns on the Upper Alle gheny-The Land Tracts and Settlers upon Them-Mahon ing Coal Company - A French Trader's Grave - History of the Holla nd Land Company-The American Furnace-Set tlement Law of 1792- Contested Titles - Titles from the Holland Land Company -Vain Searches for Indian Lead Mines- Petroleum - Red Bank Furnace - Kellersburg - Middle Creek Presbyterian Church -Duncansville -First School in the Township -Description of the Building Educational and other Statistics............................ 259 CHAPTER XIII.-CowANSOHAa K.-Its Organization in 1848 First Officers-Indian Purchase Line of 1768-The Original Land Warrants-Timothy Pickering & Co.'s Tracts-An An cient Earthwork-Relies -Land Disputes Settled by Arbi tration-Village of Atwood-U. P. Church- Green Oak Town of Bradford-St. John's Lutheran Church-Dunkard Church-An Early Day Indian Encounter-Example of the Low Price of Land - Eight Hundred Acres for $44- The Roberts Lands-First Store Opened in 1831 by the McElhin neys - The Findley Lands - Huskens' Run and the Man it was Named After - Rural Valley-The Bryan Lands - Fourth of July, 1837-Salem Reformed Church-Isaac Simp son-Roads-Schools-Miscellaneous Statistics-Rural Vil lage-Mercantile and Other Occupations-Educational Mat ters-Religious-Postoffice-I.O.O.F. Lodge................. 286 CHAPTER XIV.-MA oR.-Formed out of the Western Part of Kittanning in 1849-First Township Election-Named from one of the Proprietary Manors-Kittanning, afterward Ap pleby Manor - Ancient Works - Numerous Relics - Specu lation in Regard to the Origin of the So-called "Old French Fort "-Soldiers Here in 1777-8-Correspondence of Officers Relating Thereto-Fort Armstrong-Indian Murders-The Claypoole Blockhouse - Early Settlers - Transfers of Real PAGE Estate in the Manor-William Green's Mill Built in 1789 " Fort Green "-The Indians Become Aggressive-Measures Taken for the Protection of the Frontier- Cornplanter's Friendship for the Whites - The Militia - Game - Judge Ross-Other Pioneers-Schools-Posteffice-Cradle Factory -Number of Inhabitants-Village of Rosston-Borough of Manorville -Its Pioneer Settler-Its Industrial Interests Mercantile-Educational-Temperance-Population of the Borough-Geology of Manor Township.................... 310 CHAPTER XV.- MAHONIN(;.- Organized in 1851 from Territory in Madison, Pine, Wayne and Red Bank Townships-Bound aries- First Election-Mahoning Creek Navigation Com pany -The Early Settlers and First Owners of the Land Tracts-Transfers-Village of Texas, now Oakland-Joint Stock Company - Methodist Episcopal Church - Baptist Church-Brethren in Christ Congregation-Oakland Class ical and Normal Institute-Red Bank Cannel Coal and Iron Company-Dunkard Church-Mahoning Furnace-Casper Nulf and Wife, Centenarians - German Reformed and Lutheran Churches-Putneyville -Building Flatboats Methodist Episcopal Church-United Presbyterian Church -Firebrick Works - Population - Educational and Other Statistics of the Township -Geology..................... 346 CHAPTER XVI.- BURRELL.-Named after Judge Burrell-Or ganization - Indian Names of Crooked ('Creek - Original Owners of the Soil-Warrants Dated in 1776-Names of the Citizens of the Township in 1805 -Strange Conjugal Ar rangements-Powder-Mills- Captain Sam Brady's Auto graph- An Eccentric Manufacturer of Plows-" Williams burg "-Salt Works-Religious IIistory- Primitive Schools -Recent Educational Statistics-Mercantile and Other Oc cupations- Population..................................... 364 CHAPTER XVII.-VALLEY.-Set Apart from Pine-Mills-Mon ticello Furnace-The Patentees and Subsequent Owners Lands of Gen. Armstrong's Heirs-Doanville Seminary Donaldson Nurseries-Troy Hill-The Old State Road-The Collins Lands - Pine Creek Baptist Church - Methodist Episcopal Church at West Valley - Pine Creek Furnace - Holland Land Company Warrants -Geological Features.. 373 CHI APTER XVIII.-SOUTH BEND.-Organized in 1867 from Terri tory in Kiskiminetas and Plum Creek - The Thirty-five Original Land Warrants -The Pioneers and First Owners of the Several Tracts - Transfers of Property-" Captain Tom's Hunting Camp" -A Political Meeting of 1810 Woodward's -Mills - Postoffice - Blockhouses Built by the Early Settlers-Churches-Primitive Schoolhouses and Pio neer Pedagogues - Later Schools - Miscellaneous Items - Census and Other Statistics - Mechanical Industries....... 394 CHAPTER XIX.-FREEPORT.-Probable Presence of the French in this Locality 1750-60-Adventures with the Indians Craig's Blockhouse-Reed's Station -An Indian Attack Capture and Escape of Massy Harbison - Murder of Her Children-William and David Todd-"Toddstown"-Origin of the Name Freeport-The Early Settlers-Reminiscences of Old Times - Boat-Building- Salt Wells-Irish Settle ments in 1828-Transfers of Property-The town Incorpo rated-Freeport Ambitious to be a County Town-The Pro fessions - Dr. Alters' Discoveries - Industrial Interests - Churches-Schools-Societies-Military-Soldiers' Aid So ciety - Cemeteries - Roads - Statistics..................... 400 CHAPTER XX.-SouTH BUFFALO.-The "Depreciation Lands" Described-Early Owners of the Soil and Transfers of Title -The Famous Soldier and Pioneer, Samuel Murphy-First School House and Early Teachers-Benjamin Franklin as a Land Owner in South Buffalo-Archibald McCall-Relics of Antiquity-Clinton's First Masonic Lodge in the County -Blue Slate Church-Slate Lick Congregation, from which Originated the First Presbyterian Church in the County United Presbyterian Church of Slate Lick-Srader Grove Presbyterian Church-Academy and Other Schools -Tem perance - Census Statistics - Geology...................... 429 CHAPTER XXI.-NoRTH BUFFALO.- Erection of the Township in 1847-First Election-White's Claim-" The Green SettleREGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-THIRD REGIMENT. Company I-M. Thompson, I. G. Stewart (Sergt., afterward enlisted in Co. D, 6th Heavy Artillery, 2d Lt). ONE HUNDRED AND TWENTY-FIFTH REGIMENT. Company K-W. R. Ramaley, m. i. s. Aug. 2, 1862; dis. May. 19, 1863. ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH REGIMENT. Wm. H. Crouch, John Bell, William L. Hatham, Findley Hall, David Hall, Henry H. McCright, James G. Rankin, James N. McCracken, John L. Drake, Matthias Drake, William Colwell. ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT. Johnston Matthews, Sam'l L. Myers, H. A. Bricker, M. B. Matthews, Albert H. Rea. ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-SECOND REGIMENT. Jacob Yockey. ONE HUNDRED AND FORTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT. [Enlisted Aug. 16, 1862, and discharged June 20, 1865, except those otherwise specified]. Company E-James Devinney (enlisted Oct. 10, 1862; dis. May, 1863), Joseph HI. Moorhead (pro. to Sergt. June 1, 1864), John C. Moor head, John Kenly (pro. to 2d Lt. Feb., 1865), William Fisher (died Oct. 9, 1862), Wm. C. Devinney (pro. to 2d Sergt. June 10, 1863; to Q.M. Sergt. June 1, 1864. Other companies-George W. Roland, Lebbnes Woods, Daniel C. Whitacre, John G. Rowland, Robert P. Thompson, John B. Shawl. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-SECOND REGIMENT-THIRD ARTILLERY. Frank K. Patterson, m. i. s. Feb. 12, 1864; m. o. July 29, 1865. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIFTH REGIMENT. Company A-Bernard Moss, m. i. s. Aug. 23, 1862; m. o. June, 1865. Company H-William 0. Gray, m. i. s. Aug. 22, 1862; died at Wash ington, D. C., Feb. 17, 1863. ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTIETH REGIMENT-ANDERSON TROOP-FIFTEENTH CAVALRY. [Enlisted August, 1862; discharged at close of the war.] Thos. N. Hathaway (Co. B), Milton E. Shaw (Sergt. Co. I), Thos. J. McCall (Sergt. Co. H), James Martin (Co. F), James Lea (Co. F), George Heck (Co. M), Jacob Maxheimer (Co. M), John Crum, Darwin Phelps, James Over, Norwood Pinney. ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-FIRST REGIMENT-SIX TEENTH CAVALRY. James H. Ramsey, John S. Ramsey. ONE HUNDRED AND SIXTY-THIRD REGIMENT-EIGH TEENTH CAVALRY. Quartermaster James C. Golden, m. i. s. Dec. 1, 1862; dis. July 21, 1865. Company H-Peter A. Jacks, Isaiah Klingensmith. ONE HUNDRED AND EIGIITY-SECOND REGIMENT - TWENTY-FIRST CAVALRY. Company F-J. M. Barclay, enlisted Dec. 20, 1863; dis. July 20, 1865. ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-THIRD REGIMENT. Company B-John B. Patrick, enlisted July 15, 1864; dis. Sept. 21, 1864; re-enlisted in 2d Co. 97th Pa. Vet. Vol. Sept. 25, 1864; dis. June 17, 1865. [Prior to enlistment in the 193d, he had been in Co. B, 2d Bat., six months Pa. Vols.] ONE HUNDRED AND NINETY-NINTH REGIMENT. Company H-John M. Patton, enlisted Sept. 21, 1864; dis. June 28, 1865. TWO HUNDRED AND TWELFTH REGIMENT-SIXTH HEAVY ARTILLERY. [Enlisted Sept. 1, 1864, and discharged June 23, 1865.] Company B-John A. Woodward. Company H-Officers-First Lieutenant C. S. Miller, Second Lieu tenant J. F. Cline; Sergeants Charles S. Keniston, Jas. E. Bale; Corporal Geo. W. Burket; Musician Geo. H. Miller. Privates: Samuel J. Anthony, Fred Bair, John A. Brunel, Daniel Crietsor, Leman Donahu, John A. Ehrenfield, Chas. S. Garver, Win. S. Hollabaugh, Abram Klingensmith, Wn G. Long, Win. H. Mer riman, Wm. J. Mann, Robert McKallip, David Sherrey, Jackson Stilt, John F. Shall, Jonathan Stoops, Daniel Spihu, Charles Troxford, Aaron Hill, Jeremiah Grinder. THOMPSON S BATTERY-INDEPENDENT COMPANY. Simon Shoop, Abram Weaver, Witson Hazlett, Thomas Bowman (died in service), John S. Hughes, Jacob Shall, George Jack. SIXTH U. S. CAVALRY. [Enlisted in August, 1861, and discharged in August, 1864.] Company D-H. R. McLelland, A. Shuster, John Smith, B. F. Kaig, Samuel Duncan, J. Fatkin, John Blaine, Joseph Blaine, Alex ander Watson. Company K-Daniel Sweeney, Richard Dias. MISSISSIPPI MARINE BRIGADE-LIGHT BATTERY E. [Enlisted Feb. 25, 1864, and discharged Feb. 1,1865.] A. J. Gilison (1st Lt.), S.W. Gilison, E. E. Castertine, Robert Donaldson, Alex. Kuhns,Wm. Harper, Robert Pennington, Daniel Toomey, Shirwell Smith, Henry Chapman, Jas. Weaver, Andrew Stive saub, Jas. Griffin, Jas. Ryan, Win. Lane, Jas. Churchbill, Wash ton Drew, Jas. Carl, Roland Bolilnger, John Milligan, Win. Shoup, John Millberger, Levi Shaner, Richard Lenning, Wallace Ford, John Brown, Samuel Ritchie, Jas. C. Ritchie, Paul Stew art, Wm. S. Duncan, Samuel Fuller, H. G. Foster, E. M. Duff. FIFTY-FOURTH REGIMENT-MILITIA OF 1863. Company E-John Moor. FIFTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT-MILITIA OF 1863. Company D-2d Sergeant Joseph H. Patrick. SECOND BATTALION-MILITIA OF 1863. COMPANY D. Officers-2d Lieutenant Wm. T. Jackson. Privates--John M. Gamble, Jos. B. Jackson, Wm. S. Shannon, New ton D. Shannon, Alfred Schrecongost, Joseph A. Watt. UNCLASSIFIED. Benjamin Davis, David McGinley, David Todd, John Handtermack, Philip Duncan, Thomas Cain, Abram Critzor, Leonard Kunkle, James Huston, George Johnston, Win. Weaver, John Drum, James Egan, William Harris (colored), Joseph Kelly (colored), Thos. Kenley, Daniel Kennedy, Samuel Kebler, Joseph Kebler, Samuel Hawk, Wm. W. Smith, Jacob Shoop, Sam'l Shoop, Vincent Kriettey, John Hartman, Christ Hilwine, Henry Hundtermark, Sam'l Sheldon, John Barr, Thos. Dias, Geo. Dias, Louis Goehring, William Byer, David Crawford, John Webb, Lieutenant Roney (colored regiment), Geo. Stivenson, wagon master at headquarters, Washington, D. C. NEW YORK REGIMENTS. Bordan Rifles-John Quinn, John Mott, Charles McCaulley. OHIO REGIMENTS. Lieutenant Robert Curran, James Sample, Chambers Bowser. TWENTY-SECOND REGIMENT-MILITIA OF 1862. [Organized Sept. 16, and discharged Sept. 29, 1862.] FIELD AND STAFF. Major Darwin Phelps. Quartermaster Jas. B. Neale. COMPANY A. Captain John K. Calhoun. First Lieutenant Albert Robinson. Second Lieutenant Grier C. Orr. First Sergeant Henry F. Phelps. Sergeants Wm. Logan, James B. Neale (pro. to Q. M.), Peter Wharl, John R. Reynolds. Corporals Jas. M'Masters, Carl Shultz, Theo. McConnell, Geo. VW. Bartheld. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. PRIVATES. Clarence Brown, Wm. Blaney, Win. R. Baum, Charles G. Barclay, Jas. C. Bovard, John Brown, Jonathan Boyd, Lewis Biehl, Stephen Bossinger, Henry A. Colwell, Jas. P. K. Croll, Andrew Craig, Washington R. Christy, James Dugan, Jas. T. Dickey, Vincent Davidson, Jas. P. Dougherty, Wm. Ellmyer, John Estler, Charles Feight, Carl Frederick, Augustus Frederick, Joseph Gibson, Jas. I. George, Jas. A. Gordon, John A. Houser', Wm. B. Hasting, Chas. Hasterman, Wm. Herche, John H. Huston, Marcus Hulings, Louis Hess, Geo. P. Kron, Barnard Kordes, Amos B. Lerch, Dan'l Lemon, Conrad Leek, Jas. D. Logan, Lee Mechling, Win. B. Meredith, Frederick Moesta, Philander Meredith, Enos M'Bride, Jas. M'Cullough, Turney Neal, Barclay Nulton, Jas. B. Oswald, Darwin Phelps (pro. to Major), Joseph Painter, John Prunkard, Stephen Prunkard, John D. Reynolds, Ross Reynolds, Philip Reichart John N. Row, Jas. B. Robinson, John E. Reichart, Robt. Robinson, Chas. T. Shotte, Jas. H. Stivenson, Frederick G. Schotte, Joseph S. Smith, Conrad Straub, George Stone, Samuel S. Swan, James Simpson, Samuel Tate, Alex. Tarr, John Volk, James Weaver, Henry Wygant, Josiah K. Wilson, Augustus E. Weilman. COMPANY G. Captain Joseph T. Irwin. 1st Lieutenant Wm. M. Cochran. 2d Lieutenant John A. Calhoun. 1st Sergeant Jacob B. Guyer. Sergeants George V. Truitt, Wm. S. Beck, Samuel Cochran, Howard F. King. Corporals John Ellenberger, Abel A. Findley, Johnston M'Gaughey, Jas. C. King. Musician Harrison Marshall. PRIVATES. Wm. J. Bollman, Jos. S. Bollman, John W. Borland, David F. Cress well, John Cochran, Jacob M. Cabel, Cyrus Goss, Benjamin C. Irwin, John C. Kirkpatrick, Robert Kells, Geo. H. Lang, Win. S. Marshall, Findley P. Marshall, Win. C. Marshall, Archibald A. Marshall, David L. Marshall, John M. Marshall, Samuel Neal, Jos. H. Patrick, George H. Rudy, Jacob Segar, Philip Smith, Martin W. Travis, Win. R. Thompson, Donaldson D. Wilson. COMPANY H. Capt. Joshua Hall. 1st Lieutenant Alex. C. Foster. 2d Lieutenant Thomas M'Colgin. 1st Sergeant Robert M'Farland. Sergeants James M'Granahan, Andrew J. M'Intosh, Elias Crisman, Jeremiah Elgin. Corporals Samuel Cassady, Samuel Morrow, John C. Rhra, Frank M'Gaughy. Musician Win. Brown. PRIVATES. James Akins, Thomas P. Blair, Geo. W. Brown, Wm. Carson, Wm. Earhart, Samuel Elgin, M'Curdy J. Ewing, Jackson A. Foster, Andrew Gallahar, Wm. H. Gray, Francis C. Gardner, Robert Hall, James A. Lowrey, Henry a M'Afoos, Jas. M'Elvey, Alden C. Pruden, Thomas Patterson, Andrew D. Southworth, Jona than Schrecenghost, John A. Stewart, John Stewart, Adam Tur ney, Andrew Wilson, David White. 100 CHAPTER III. TOWNSHIP DIVISION AND) ORGANIZATION. Importance of the Township Politically-The Townships of Armstrong and Wheatfield in 1792-The Three Original Divisions of the County -Allegheny - Buffalo - Toby- Origin of Names - Subdivisions of the Original Townships. MUNICIPALITIES-TOWNSHIP DIVISION. IN passing from a general sketch of our county to the more narrowly local sketches of its subdivisions into city, townships, and boroughs, the passing remark may here be pertinent, that when the communal and municipal organizations, or what we call cities, towns, and boroughs, which had been crushed out by the Eastern Emperors, began to be re-invigorated, in the eleventh century, the first municipal, or as we would say, city, township, or borough elections were held in the Sclavic city of Ragusa, in that part of Dalmatia inhabited by people of Selavic origin. It is said that the commune, or township, is the fountain-head, the corner-stone of American society. The township was the primitive state from which the start was made. The township, therefore, still remains in its function, the generating power, the foundation, the nursery of self-government and of American social order. In the township, as well as everywhere else in this country, observes De Tocqueville, the people are the only source of power; but in no stage of government does the body of citizens exercise a more immediate influence. On the self-government of the townships, says another foreign observer of American institutions, reposes the freedom of the state, and from it is evolved in wider and wider all-embracing circles the whole existing political structure. In the early days of the Province and Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, those important subdivisions embraced large areas of territory within their limits. A map of Pennsylvania, by Reading Howells, published in 1792, for the use of which the writer is indebted to Grier C. Orr, shows only two townships-Armstrong and Wheatfield-as before stated, north of the Kiskiminetas and Conemaugh rivers, in the territory of which Armstrong and Indiana counties are now composed. ARMSTRONG TOWNSHIP. "At a Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, held at Robert Hanna's, Esquire, for the county of Westmoreland, the sixth day of April, in the thirteenth year of the reign of our Sovereign Lord, George the third, by the grace of God, of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, King, Defender of the Faith, etc. And in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-three, before William Crawford, Esquire, and his associate justices of the same court. " The court proceeded to divide the said county into the following townships by the limits and descriptions hereinafter following, viz. "Fairfield * * Donegal * * * Huntingdon * * * Mount Pleasant * * * Hempfield * * * Pitt * * * Tyrone * * * Spring Hill * * * Manallan * * * Rostraver * * * Armstrong. Beginning where the line of the county crosses the Connemach - nearly midway between Cone. maugh Furnace and Sang Hollow, on the Pennsylvania Railroad-" then running with that river to the line of Fairfield, along that line to the Loyal Haunon, then down the Loyal Haunon and the Kiskiminetas to the Allegheny, then up the Allegheny to the Kittanning, then with a straight line to the head waters of Two Lick or Black Lick Creek, and thence with a straight line to the beginning." (Vide minutes of said court.) So that Armstrong township must have embraced a large portion of the territory out of which Wheatfield township was afterward formed. In 1773 the constable of Armstrong township was Andrew Mitchell, and the supervisor John Pomeroy. April sessions, 1790, constable, James McLean; supervisors, Isaac Ardem and James Smith. The returns made by the county treasurer for this township in 1796, were: Costs, ~98 6s 6d; state tax, ~11 18s 9d; county tax, ~360 9s 3d. On that map are marks or characters indicating the locations of dwelling-houses, furnaces, houses of worship, mills, roads, and Indian paths, none of which are thus indicated within what are now the limits of this county, except an Indian town near the mouth of Mahoning, and an Indian path, by which the Indians of the West communicated with the Susquehanna country, extending southeast HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. from the site of Kittanning to, or at least in the direction of, Kittanning Point on the Allegheny Mountain, which was so called because the Indian path diverged therefrom to Kittanning. On Scull's map it is named the Ohio path. By the act of March 29, 1792, the freemen of the first district of Westmoreland county were directed to meet for holding elections at the house then occupied by William Neil, in Armstrong township. It was customary, prior to 1803, for the Courts of Quarter Sessions, without legislative authority, to erect townships in their respective counties, and send up their proceedings for approval to the council under the Proprietary Government, and to the legislature after the Province became a State. This county, when organized in 1800, contained within its limits only two organized townships, viz., Allegheny and Buffalo. Toby township was organized soon afterward. Those were the three original townships of this county, and the only ones mentioned in the settlement of accounts between this and Westmoreland county for the years 1802, 1804, and 1805, according to which, dated February 12, 1808, there was due this county the before-stated balance of $2,978.11. ALLEGHIENY TOWVNSHIP was organized by the Court of Quarter Sessions of Westmoreland county, December, 1795. Its boundaries were specified in the petition of the inhabitants of Armstrong township for a division of the latter: "A line beginning at the mouth of Altman's run "-now in Indiana county, about half a mile below Livermore -" thence up said run to Win. Neil's, and thence to James Smith, Esq., both farms to be included on the east side of said Hline, and running thence to Plum creek, and up the north branch of said creek to the purchase line, and make a suitable division of said township, which the petitioners pray the court will grant and establish." Order or decree of the court: " June sessions, 1795. The said petition read and continued, and now, to wit, December sessions, 1795, the court divide the said township agreeably to the prayer of the petitioners, and order the southwest division to be erected into a new township to be hereafter known by the name of Allegheny township," which was bounded on the west by the Allegheny river, and on the east by the aforesaid line from the mouth of Altman's run, and of course embraced portions of what are now Armstrong and Indiana counties. By the Act of March 29, 1802, it was erected into an election district, and the elections were directed to be held at the house of George Painter, miller, at the mouth of Cherry run in that township, near what are now Carnahan's mills. The taxes laid on the land in this ancient township, in 1802, were: seated, $187.37; unseated, $512.82. In 1804, $206.24 seated; $516.80 unseated. In 1805, $276.10 seated; $384.68 unseated. The assessment list for 1805-6 shows the seated lands to have been then valued at $29,028.55; number of horses, 337; number of cattle, 545. The only store-keeper was Hugh Brown, whose occupation was valued at $40. Mechanics-Bernard Davers, mason; George Beer, gunsmith; Peter Rupert, weaver; John Steele, wheelwright; John Schall and Joseph Thorn, blacksmiths; Smith McMillen and John King, tailors. Each one's trade was valued at $10, except Thorn's, which was valued at $20. Win. Sheerer's tanyard, $15. Mills-Samuel Beer, one grist and one saw-mill; James Findley and Thos. Dickey, ditto; Daniel Linsibigler, one sawmill; George Painter, one grist and one saw-mill; the occupation of Findley & Dickey was valued at $30. Schoolmasters-James Moore, Jacob Schell and Win. Smith. Distilleries-John Willis', valued at $15; Thos. Gallagher's at $25; James Hall's, $25; Church Smith's, $30; Robert Sloan's, $15. All the foregoing were out of the town of Kittanning, which was then partly in that township. FerriesJas. Cunningham, Peter LeFevre, Patrick O'Donnell and John Postlethwaite, were each assessed with one. BUFFALO TOWNSHIP is a descendant from Pitt township. At December sessions, 1788, of the Court of Quarter Sessions of Allegheny county, Moo1, St. Clair, Mifflin, Elizabeth, Versailles, Plumb and Pitt townships were organized. The boundaries of the last named were: "Beginning at the mouth of Pekety's run, thence up the Allegheny river and by the line of the county "-which then extended along the river to the northern boundary of Pennsylvania, Lake Erie and the western boundary line of this State"to the mouth of Flaherty's run; thence up the river to the mouth of the Monongahela river; thence up said river to the mouth of Turtle creek; thence by line of Plumb township to the place of beginning," which last mentioned line was changed somewhat at the next June sessions. At the same sessions Deer and Pine townships were formed out of Pitt. As to the former, it was "ordered that Gapen's and Moore's surveyor districts be erected into a new township called Deer township." It is necessary in order to form an adequate idea of the area of that township to know the areas of these two districts. The former began "at the southeast corner of District No. 3; from thence extend~ \V ~ 102 TOWNSHIP DIVISION AND ORGANIZATION. ing by the same due west to the corner of District No. 4 "-about five miles slightly east of south from the Borough of Mercer-" thence due south about nineteen miles "-along the western line of Butler county-" to the corner of Daniel and Jonathan Leet's districts; thence by Jonathan Leet's and Stephen Gapen's districts due east to the river Allegheny, near Mohulbaughtitem "-Mahoning"and from thence up the Allegheny river by the several courses thereof to the place of beginning," which must have been near what is now Rockland, in Venango county. The latter began "at northeast corner of District No. 9"- at or near the center of Butler county-" thence south to the Allegheny river; thence up the same by the courses and distances thereof to the mouth of Mohulbaughtitem creek; thence west by the northern boundary of the late Depreciation district to the beginning," being what were afterward the Cunningham and Elder districts. By the act of Assembly of April 4, 1798, such parts of Allegheny county as lay within Elder's district, being a part of the township of Deer, were made an election district, and the house of James McCormick, in the town of Freeport, was designated as the place for holding the elections. On the petition of the inhabitants of Pine and Deer townships the court of quarter sessions of Allegheny county, December, 1797, made the following order, it having been represented by the county commissioners, as well from the information and complaints of others as from their own knowledge, that those two last-mentioned townships were too large and inconvenient for the assessment and collection of taxes: "It is ordered that the said township of Pine be divided," etc., "and that the township of Deer be divided by the east line of Cunningham's surveyor district "which extended from a point near Springdale on the Allegheny river due north to the line between the Depreciation and Donation lands, but the new township line extended to the northern line of Moore's district above-mentioned-" and that the upper division thereof be a new township called Buffalo township," which embraced portions of Allegheny, Butler and Venango couhties, and all of that portion of Armstrong county on the west side of the Allegheny river. The places for holding elections in Buffalo township were: By act of March 12, 1800, at the house of John Smith, which was in the western part of what is now North Buffalo township; by act of February 7, 1803, at the house of John McDowel, which was about two miles northeast of where Worthington now is, and by act of April 11, 1811, at the house of Jacob Young, which was near Slate Lick. The last one was designated after the organization of Sugar creek township. In 1802, the taxes on seated land were $517.23, on unseated, $129.50; in 1804, on seated, $555.60, on unseated, $129.50; in 1805, on seated, $491.83, on unseated, $68.43. TOBY TOWNSHIP was organized by the court of quarter sessions of Westmoreland county, at September sessions, 1801, with the following boundaries, on the application of the commissioners of that county, the whole of Armstrong county being then within the jurisdiction of that court, as provided by the act of March 12, 1800: "Bounded on the north by the Allegheny river, on the east by Toby's creek, on the south by the line between Hamilton and Wood's (late) district, and on the west by the old purchase line, to be hereafter known by the name of Toby township." A glance at the map will show that either the clerk of the court erred in recording these boundaries, or the commissioners erred in setting them forth in their applicationthe original papers cannot be found-for the original boundaries were: Bounded on the north and northeast by Toby's creek, on the east by the line between the Hamilton and Wood's districts,which was a little east of what is now the western boundary of Jefferson county, on the south by the old purchase line, and on the west by the Allegheny river, including, of course, until September 18,1806, all that portion of what is now the borough of Kittanning north of that purchase line which crosses that borough diagonally in an easterly direction from a point a few yards above the mouth of Truby's run. The course of that line from Cherry Tree, on the west bank of the Susquehanna, to the Allegheny river, is north 790 west. Taxes laid in 1802 on seated land, $76.23, on unseated, $429.27; in 1804, on seated, $110.64, on unseated, $1,110.76; in 1805, on seated, $170.69, on unseated, $920.50.* The place for holding elections in this township was directed by act of April 3, 1804, to be at the house of Abraham Standford, who then lived near what is now Currlsville. The total valuation of unseated lands in this township for 1805 was $229,434.11. In 1806, the *As the assessment lists of Buffalo and Toby townships for 1805-6 cannot be found, and as they were both divided before the next ones were made out, the other statistics, like those of Allegheny township, cannot, of course, be given. The total tax on real estate in those three original townships for the years 1802-3-4-5 was $6,794.19; the total unavoidable deficiencies, $106.22; leaving $6,689.97; to which add $350.33, balance of tax due on unseated lands in Armstrong county in 1800, $7,040.30, with which Westmoreland county was charged and Armstrong county credited in the settlement of accounts between them, as certified by the commissioners of Westmoreland county, February 12, 1808. 1.03 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. following persons were assessed with other occu pations than agricultural: James Calhoun, Will iam Cochran, William Frazier, John Love and Robert Wilson, weavers; William Kelly, school master; William Sypes, potter; John Guthrie, carpenter; John Simpkins, wagon maker; John Wilson, tanner; James McElhenry, wheelwright; and Alexander Moore, one house and lot, $90. McElhenry and Moore were within the present limits of the borough of Kittanning, and Sypes somewhere between Crooked and Mahoning creeks, James Calhoun and William Cochran within the present limits of Pine. The township was named from Toby's creek, which skirted its northwestern border. The Indians must have named that stream from the / Toby-hanna, an eastern tributary of the Lehigh river in what is now Monroe county, Pennsylvania. ( Toby, according to Heckewelder, is 7bbeco-from Toby-hanne, corrupted from Topi-hanna, signifying ) alder stream, i. e., a stream whose banks are fringed with alders. This tributary of the Allegheny bore the name of Toby more than a century ago. Toby was its original name, prior to 1758. The tra ditions that it was named after certain individuals at later periods are mere figments of the imagina tion, as is manifest from the journal kept by Chris tian Frederick Post of his mission from the govern ment of Pennsylvania to the Delawares and other Indians at Kuskuskking, Sakonk, and other points west of the Allegheny, in the last-mentioned year. He was sent on that mission to prevail on them to withdraw from the French interest. His journal be gins July 15 and ends September 20. HIe says, under date of August 3: "We came to a part of a river called Tobeco"-probably Little Toby-" over the mountains." Under date of August 5: " We set out early this day, and made a good long stretch, Scrossing the big river Tobeco"-Toby's creek where hlie and the Indian chief, Pisquetomen, who traveled with him, "lodged between two moun tains," as he called the hills. On that day he lost his pocket-book, containing three pounds and five shillings and some other things, among which were some writings which he alone could read. The next day they "passed the big river Wesha waucks "-probably either Point or East Sandy creek-and " crossed a fine meadow two miles in length," where they slept that night, without anything to eat. On the 7th they " came in sight of Fort Venango," afterward called Fort Franklin. It is said that Toby's creek was, in the latter part of the last or fore part of this century, called Stump creek for a comparatively short distance -~..1- ~ a, above its mouth, by lumbermen and others who descended the Allegheny river. It was declared a public highway from its mouth to the second fork by the act of March 21, 1798. Two hundred dollars were appropriated by act of March 24, 1817, for improving it. Thomas R. Peters and his heirs were authorized by act of April 2, 1822, to erect and forever maintain a dam or dyke across it near Turkey run. In the last mentioned act it is called "Toby's creek, or Clarion river," and that is the first act in which it is designated by the latter name, which it must have received before the last-mentioned year, but not, as some suppose, by legislative enactment. After careful inquiry, the writer is persuaded that this change of name originated in the suggestion of the late David Lawson. SUBDIVISIONS OF THE ORIGINAL TOWVNSHIPS. The act of March 24, 1803, authorized the courts of quarter sessions of the several counties of this state to erect new townships, divide any township already erected, or to alter the lines of any two or more adjoining townships so as to suit the inhabitants thereof, upon application made to them by petition, upon which they were required to appoint three impartial men, if necessary, to inquire into the propriety of granting the prayer of the petitioners, whose duty was to make a plot or draft of the township proposed to be altered, or to change the lines of any two or more adjoining townships, as the case might be, if the same could not be fully designated by natural lines and boundaries, all of which they, or any two of them, were to report to the next court of quarter sessions, together with their opinion of the same, and at the next court after that to which the report was to be made, the court should confirm or set aside the same as to them should seem just and reasonable. The petition of sundry inhabitants of Armstrong county was p)resented to the proper court at December sessions, 1805, setting forth that the then townships were too extensive for the performance of the duties of the township officers; that the petitioners experienced great inconvenience from the township divisions, and praying the court to appoint proper persons to divide the county into several townships, so as to suit the convenience of the inhabitants. Whereupon the court appointed Robert Beatty, John Corbett and John McDowell for that purpose, whd were required to report to the then next, or March, Court of Quarter Sessions. The presentation of their report having been continued at the March and June sessions, was made at September sessions, I r; ..L ) ".....'. 7. r.. ---. 104 TOWNSHIP DIVISION AND ORGANIZATION. 1806, in which they expressed the opinion that the county ought to be divided into six townships, as designated in the accompanying plot or draft: " No. 1, Toby township, beginning at Bucanon's most eastern district line"-40 181030' west longitude from Philadelphia-" where the same crosses Toby's creek; thence south by said line to where the same crosses Mahoning creek, thence down said creek to the mouth on Allegheny river, thence up said river to the mouth of Toby's creek, thence up said creek to the place of beginning." Erected into a separate election district and general elections directed to be held at the house then occupied by Thos. McKibbins, by act of April 11, 1807, about four miles east of Parker's Landing. "No. 2, Red Bank township, beginning on the aforesaid district line on Toby's creek, thence by the said line of Toby township to the Mahoning creek, thence up said creek to the line of Indiana county, thence north by said county line and the line of Jefferson county to Toby's creek, thence down said creek to the place of beginning." Erected into a separate election district and elections directed to be held at the house then occupied by Samuel C. Orr. Act of April 11, 1807. A glance at a township map will show that all the present townships between Clarion river and Red Bank creek, in Clarion county, have descended, so to speak, primarily from Toby township and secondarily from Toby and Red Bank townships. " No. 3, Kittanning township, beginning at the mouth of Mahoning creek, on the Allegheny river, thence up said creek to the line of Indiana county, thence by the line of said county south to the old purchase line (of 1768), from thence along the line of said county to a small run, a branch of Crooked creek, thence down said run to the mouth putting into Crooked creek, the first run above the brest of Esquire Clark's mill-dam"-now owned by Townsend & Bro.-" thence down said creek to the mouth on the Allegheny river, thence up said river to the place of beginning." Erected into a separate election district and general elections directed to be held at the commissioner's office in the town of Kittanning. Act of April 11, 1807. "No. 4, Allegheny township, beginning at the mouth of Crooked creek, thence down the Allegheny river to the mouth of Kiskiminetas river, thence up said river to the county line, thence along said line to the above run, the line of Kittanning township, thence along said line to the place of beginning." Erected into a separate election district and general elections directed to be held at the house then occupied by Solomon Shoemaker. Act of April 11, 1807. Place of election changed to house of Eliab Eakman by act of March 29, 1813. "No.5, Bufalo township, beginning at the mouth of the Buffalo creek, thence up the Allegheny river to the mouth of Limestone run, thence west to the line of-Armstrong county, thence along said line to the line of Buffalo township, thence along said line to the place of beginning." By act of April 11, 1807, this township was erected into an election district, and the place of holding elections fixed at Jacob Young's. " No. 6, Sugar Creek township, beginning at the mouth of Limestone run, on the Allegheny river, thence up said river to the line of Armstrong county "-the northwest corner of the county"thence along said line to the line of Buffalo township, thence east along said line to the place of beginning." By act of April 11, 1807, this township was erected into an election district, the elections to be held at the house then occupied by Jost Weiles. The report of the viewers, or commissioners, recommending the foregoing divisions and organizations of townships, was confirmed by the court September 18, 1806. 105 CHAPTER IV. THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. Origin of the Name-White Prisoners Among the Indians-Savage Torture-Early Mention of the Town Site-Robert Brown, the Watsons, James Claypoole, Patrick Daugherty, Andrew Hunter, and Other Pio neer Settlers-The Town Platted -Sale of Lots - A Glimpse of the Village in 1804-The First Mer chants, Lawyers, Physicians and Inn-Keepers- Some Reminiscences of the War of 1812--A Groundless Alarm-The Postoffice-The Village in 1820-C(orporate History-Security Against Fires-The Streets Public Improvements- Wharfing the River Bank - Crossing the Allegheny - Ferries and Bridges -First Steamboat Arrivals - River Improvement Convention- Some Old - Time Fourth of July Celebrations Other and Later Notable Events -Tornadoes, Floods, Ice Gorges and Fires-The Churches of Kittaiin ning- Public Schools- Academy - University - College -Public Library - Literary and Dramatic Socie ties-Lecture Courses- Temperance Societies- Secret and Benevolent Organizations- Independent Mili tary Company -Bands-Boat Clubs-Manufacturing, Early and Late -Banking- Insurance -Gas and Water Works- Mercantile Matters-The Professions-Public Buildings - C(emeteries- The Town in 1876- Statistics- Geology of the Locality - Min'ral Springs. K ITTANNING is a word of Indian origin, and is significant. The writer's authority for the meaning of this and most of the other hereinafter mentioned Indian names in Armstrong county is Rev. John Heckewelder.* He says: "KitS:,, - tanning is corrupted from Kit-han-ne, in Munsi Delaware Gicht-han-ne, signifying the main stream, i.e. in its region of country. Kit-han-ne is perpetu ated in Kittanning, corrupted from Kit-han-nink, signifying at or on the main stream, i.e. the town at or on the main stream. He also says: We indeed have the word "Kittanning" on our maps for a particular spot on the Allegheny river, whereas the true meaning of the word, which should be written Kit-han-nink, denotes the river itself. Ile gives its etymology thus: Ritschi, superior, greatest, and han-ne, which denotes flowing water, or a stream qf flowing water. The late Rev. W. C. Reichel, who was very familiar with the Indian languages, in one of his papers says: " Among themselves the Indians always called the river Kit-han-ne. * * * Only when conversing with traders or white travelers to whom the word was familiar, in naming the river in question, would the Indians call it the Ohio." * lleckwelder was a Moravian missionary among the Lenni Lenape or Delaware and other Indians, chiefly those in Pennsylvania, from 1762 until 1814, during which period he traveled about twenty-six thousandmiles. tie is undoubtedly reliable authority, judging from the mention made of him in one of works in the Philosophical Department of the Historical Society of this state. Henry R. School craft, who was well versed in Indian customs and languages, says: " The inquiries into the Indian languages underthe directionsofMr. Ileckewelder evince more severity of research than had before his time been bestowed upon the subject." Schooleraft's kinsman, Francis WV. Sherman, who was one of the writer's class and room mates at Hamilton College, informed the writer that his distinguished relative was partly, on his mother's side, of Indian extraction. Sherman could, as he did on one occasion in the presence of his class, make an impressive speech in the Oneida language, with which he had become familiar in his boyhood. Hence, the writer thinks that ieckewelder may safely be taken as reliable authority for the etymology and meaning of words in the Lenni Lenape lan guage. Thus the common idea that Kittanning means cornfield is exploded. The etymology of the word does not indicate that such is its meaning. According to the glossary of words used by the Delaware and Shawanee Indians, made by Major Denny at Fort McIntosh, January, 1785, musquern means corn; and according to the one made by him at Fort Finney, January, 1786, the meanings of the words in which were chiefly obtained by him from the "Grenadier Squaw," the Indian word tommey also means corn. It is manifest that the word Kittanning has not originated from either of these words. "The Kittanning" was, as already intimated, an important point, having been the base of operations by the French and Indians against the frontier settlements. In Washington's letter to Gov. Hamilton, written in the latter part of April, 1754, he said: "It is with the greatest concern I acquaint you that Mr. Ward, Ensign in Capt. Trent's company, was compelled to surrender his small fort in the forks of Mohongialo to the French on the 17th inst., who fell down from Weningo "-as Venango was formerly called-" with a fleet of three hundred and sixty battoes and canoes, with upward of one thousand men and eighteen pieces of artillery, which they planted against the fort," etc. It may not be a violent presumption that, if the diary or journal of the commander or someone else of that French force could be had, it would show the landing of that fleet, in its descent down the Allegheny, at Kittanning, or at least the salutations with which it was greeted by the then dusky inhabitants of this ancient town, which was the Delawares' chief town from 1727 and 1729 until THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. 1756, and which had been frequented by white traders from the East until 1749, when the French expedition, under the command of Louis Celeron, descended that stream. WHITE PRISONERS AMONG THE INDIANS. This, too, was one of the prominent places where English prisoners were confined. One of the first, if not the very first, of them brought here was James Smith, mentioned by James Burd, commissioner of the roads, in his letter to Gov. Morris, dated "From the Allegheny mountains, 5th July, 1755," where the force then employed in opening the road from Fort Loudon to the three forks of the Youghiogheny, where it intersected Braddock's road, had then arrived. Smith was captured and a companion killed in this vicinity by the Indians. The former was taken to Fort Du Quesne, where he figures in Charles McKnight's historical novel, "Old Fort Du Quesne, or Captain Jack the Scout," as the companion of Lord Talbot, who is also represented as confined there, having been captured in Braddock's defeat. Smith, on his arrival at the fort, was compelled to run the gauntlet. Shortly afterward, as he relates in his narrative, he was taken by some Delaware Indians, who had determined to spare his life, in a canoe up the Allegheny to an Indian town about forty miles distant, on the north side of the river, which must have been the Indian town, or villages as they were called, of Kittanning, where he remained several weeks. At a council, held at Philadelphia, Tuesday, September 6, 1756, the statement of John Coxe, a son of the widow Coxe, was made, the substance of which is: He, his brother Richard and John Craig were taken in the beginning of February of that year by nine Delaware Indians from a plantation two miles from McDowell's mill, which was between the east and west branches of the Conococheague creek, about twenty miles west of the present site of Shippensburgh, in what is now Franklin county, and brought to Kittanning "on the Ohio." On his way hither he met Shingas with a party of thirty men, and afterward with Capt. Jacobs and fifteen men, whose design was to destroy the settlements in Conogchege. When he arrived at Kittanning he saw here about one hundred fighting men of the Delaware tribe, with their families, and about fifty English prisoners, consisting of men, women and children. During his stay here Shingas' and Jacobs' parties returned, the one with nine scalps and ten prisoners, the other with several scalps and five prisoners. Another company of eightoen came from Diahogo with seventeen scalps on a pole, which they took to Fort Du Quesne to obtain their reward. The warriors held a council, which, with their war dances, continued a week, when Capt. Jacobs left with forty-eight men, intending, as Coxe was told, to fall upon the inhabitants of Paxton. He heard the Indians freqently say that they intended to kill all the white folks, except a few, with whom they would afterward make peace. They made an example of Paul Broadley, whom, with their usual cruelty, they beat for half an hour with clubs and tomahawks, and then, having fastened him to a post, cropped his ears close to his head and chopped off his fingers, calling all the prisoners to witness the horrible scene. Among other English prisoners brought to Kittanning were George Woods, father-in-law of the eminent lawyer, James Ross (deceased), and the wife and daughter of John Grey, who were captured at Bigham's Fort, in the Tuscarora Valley, in 1756. Mr. Grey came out here with Armstrong's expedition, hoping to hear from his family. These three prisoners were sent from Kittanning to Fort Du Quesne, and subsequently to Canada. Fort Granville, which was situated on the Juniata, one mile above Lewistown, was besieged by the Indians July 30, 1756. The force then in it consisted of twenty-four men under the command of Lieut. Armstrong, who was killed during the siege. The Indians having offered quarter to to those in the fort, a man by the name of John Turner immediately opened the gate to them. He and the others, including three women and several children, were taken prisoners. By order of the French commander the fort was burned by Capt. Jacobs. When the Indians and prisoners reached Kittanning, Turner was tied to a black post, the Indians danced around him, made a great fire, and his body was run through with red-hot gun-barrels. Having tormented him for three hours, the Indians scalped him alive, and finally held up a boy, who gave him the finishing stroke with a hatchet.* Such were a few of the terrible enactments of which Kittanning was the scene in the eighteenth century. The writer has not learned the exact locality of that "black post," or whether it was in the upper, central or lower one of the three villages, as the separate clusters of the forty houses were called, and which were located on the bench now between McKean street and Grant avenue - two of the villages having been above and one below Market street. Between these villages and the river was *Gordon's History of Pennsylvania. 107 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. an extensive cornfield. William M. Darlington, in a communication to the writer, says: "Respecting the Indian villages of Kittanning, I have somewhere seen the narrative of a white prisoner, who mentions the villages as the upper, middle and lower. They were not far apart, and all on the river bottom where Kittanning now stands." Tradition says that "black post" was at the mouth of Truby's run, which was formerly several rods lower down than it is now. Thomas Girty, mentioned in the list of prisoners rescued by Col. Armstrong, was a brother of Simon, George and James Girty. He is said to have been the only one of them who returned to civilized life after they were captured by the Indians. He became one of Capt. Sam Brady's spies in the Indian wars after the Revolution. Kittanning was a notable point in the boundary line, established between the Northern Colonies and the Indians, at the treaty held by Sir William Johnson at Fort Stanwix (near what is now Rome, New York), November 5, 1768, known as the purchase line of that year.* The line between those two purchases divides this borough into nearly equal portions. Its bearing from, at or near the mouth of Truby's run to the nearest fork of the west branch of the Susquehanna river is south 790 east. Major Ebenezer Denny, in that part of his miltary journal relating to the return of Gen. Harmar, himself and others from Fort Frankli,n -Venango county-whither they had gone tq inspect the fortification there, for erecting which Capt. Heart had been ordered, April 10, 1787, to proceed from Fort Harmar, at the mouth of the Muskingum, says of the lower Allegheny: " Some very beautiful situations and tracts, indeed; old Kittanning a delightful one." They made their down trip from Fort Franklin to the fort on the Monongahelafrom Franklin to Pittsburgh-in fifteen hours, the "Allegheny river flowing brimful "-May 4, 1788. Robert Brown first came with some hunters to Kittanning in 1798, and settled here soon after. About that time William--father of ex-Sheriff Watson-John, James and Robert Watson made a tour of observation along Cowanshannock and Crooked creeks, and the Allegheny river. They then saw vestiges of the Indian cornhills on the site of the present borough of Kittanning. They desired to buy either a part or the whole of the tract embraced in the Armstrong purchase. They wrote to the then owners in relation thereto, but, the organization of this county having then begun * See note at close of chapter, which contains a full account of the treaty by which this line was established. to be agitated, they could not purchase any portion of it. EARLIEST SETTLERS. In the spring or summer of 1791, James Claypoole, as related to the writer by one of his grandsons, with his wife and six children, settled near the mouth of Truby's Run. He built a log cabin at what is now the northwest corner of Arch and Water streets, on lot No. 75, now owned by Miss Kittie S. Craig,* and resided there until he noticed, one day the next spring, that his horses ran past as horses do when they are very much frightened. He inquired of a peaceable, friendly Indian whose cabin was in the rear of his own, what that frightening of the horses meant? The Indian mounted a high stump, and looked around in every direction, and then asked: "Can you go home?" Claypoole, fearing that danger from the approach of Indians was imminent, hurriedly prepared a raft from the dead timber standing in the bottom, on which hlie and all of his family, except two of the boys, descended the river to Pittsburgh, where they resided a short time, and removed thence to his former residence on the Monongahela, nearly opposite Turtle Creek. His sons, John and Jehu, drove his two horses and two or three cows by land down the east side of the river to Pittsburgh. The next earliest settlers appear to have been Patrick Dougherty, who lived a short distance below, and Andrew Hunter, who lived a short distance above, the present borough limits. The site of the latter's house was washed away years ago by the freshets and occasional floods. TIlE TOWN PLATTEI)D-SALE OF LOTS. The town of Kittanning having been laid out in 1803, its lots were surveyed and a draft of them made by the late Judge Ross, who was then deputy surveyor general for this county, and were soon after offered for sale at public outcry, at the house of James Sloan, on the west side of the Allegheny river, nearly a mile below the present bridge across that river, which was then the only tavern in this region. The first stake in the first lot laid out was driven, the writer is informed, by the above-mentioned Robert Brown. The highest and best prices bidden. for these lots varied considerably, according to their locations in different parts of the town. For instance, in-lot No. 14, being the fourth lot below High, on the west side of Jefferson street, brought $10.50; No. 1, corner of High and Water streets, the present site of St. Mary's church, $28; No. 45, the third above Arch, * Since married to Melehin B. Chaplin, 108 CONTENTS. PAGE ment "-First Mill-Other Tracts of Land and Their Trans fers - Baptist Church - Population Statistics - School Sta tistics, 1860 and 1876 - Industrial - Topography - Rock Structure................................................... 456 CHAPTER XXII. -WEST FRANKLIN. -Organization of the Old Township of Franklin from Territory in Buffalo and Sugar Creek-Limestone Township-First Election in West Frank lin-First Owners of Land Tracts-Transfers of Property in Early and Late Years - John Shield's Bequest to the Free Presbyterian Church of Worthington-His Wife's Gift The Craig Woolenmill-Flouringmill-Craigsville-Buffalo Furnace -Buffalo Woolenmill - Regular Baptist Church - James Barr and the Town of Worthington -Early Assess ment of the Village - Incorporation - Evangelical and Lutheran Church- U. P. Church- M. E. Church- Free Presbyterian Church - Academy- Schools - Statistics - Sketch of James Barr-Local Geology...................... 472 CHAPTER XXIII.- EAST FRANKLIN.- First Township Election -The Early Settlers as Shown by Land Titles-Tribulations of Thomas Barr as Teacher-An Oil Company Organized in 1870 -West Glade Run Presbyterian Church -A Notable Law Suit-Allegheny Furnace Lands-Roads-Coal Mining and Oil Manufacturing Company Organized in 1859-Mont gomeryville- Cowansville - Middlesex -Union Presbyter ian Church Organized in 1801- Schools- Rich Hill U. P. Church-Population and Other Statistics-Geological Feat ures-The Township named after Benjamin Eranklin...... 496 CHAPTER XXIV.-SUGAR CREEK.-A Small Remnant of the Parent Township- Original Owners - Conveyances - Eze kiel Lewis and other Pioneers-The Middlesex Presby terian Church-St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church-The Donation Lands - Lutheran Church - Robert Orr, Sr. - Orrsville - Damages of the Tornado of 1860- Sugar Creek and Philipsburg Ferry Company -Templeton Oilwell Census and School Statistics-Geology..................... 522 CHAPTER XXV.-WAsHINGTON.-The Township Struck off from Sugar Creek in 1858-First Election of Officers-Major Part of the Township South of the Donation Land Line - The Pioneers and First Owners of the Principal Tracts - Church of the Brethren of Christ-Lands North of the Donation Line-Van Buren Laid Out-Wattersonville Methodist Episcopal Church - Statistics- Geology........ 547 CHAPTER XXVI.-BRDY'S BEND.-Erection and Organization in 1854 - First Officers Elected - Successive Owners of and Resident3 on the several Land Tracts-The Great Western Iron Works and Brady's Bend Iron Company - Mention of Founders and Managers.................................... 563 CHAPTER XXVII. -PERRY. - Organization of the Township - The Pioneers-Their Work and their Hardships -Early Roads and Primitive Manufactures-The Pioneer Schools - Truby's Mill-The Borough of Queenstown............. 571 CHAPTER XXVIII.- HOVEY.- Organization - Dr. Simon Hovey -The Early Settlers-Discovery of Oil-Wonderful Produc tion of the Robinson Farm -Thom's Run-The Bridge Across the Allegheny- Miscellaneous Information........ 575 CHAPTER XXIX.-PARKER CITY.-An Oil Town of Phenomenal Growth - Settlement of the Parker Family - An Indian Village on the River Bottom - Bear Creek Furnace - Law renceburg-Its Origin and Decline-Parker's Landing-The Discovery of Oil and the Rapid Upbuilding of a City- Im portant Events-Leading Industries-The Past and the Present Contrasted-Educational and Religious Institutions 577 BIOGRAPHICAL. Brodhead, Gen. Daniel.......................................... 585 Buffington, Hon. Joseph......................................... 589 Beale, M aj. Joseph G............................................. 605 Brow n, Jam es E................................................. 595 Butler, Thom as................................................... 607 Barnhart, O...................................................... 612 Calhoun, H on. John............................................. 599 Chambers, Capt. John B......................................... 236 Christy, John........................................... 324 PAGE Cochran, Robert.................................................. 616 Campbell, Joseph and Joseph I.................................. 611 Duff, Rev. D. K................................................. 286 Devers, W illiam.................................................. 388 D outt, Jam es..................................................... 616 Elder, R ev. T. M................................................. 600 Elgin, Sam uel.................................................... 302 Fow ler, Jam es.................................................... 611 Fulm er, Jam es................................................... 398 Glenn, H on. A. D................................................. 602 Graham, John................................................... 404 Guthrie, James................................................. 282 Guthrie Family, Margaret Todd, William C.................. 280, 281 Heiner, Daniel Brodhead........................................ 128 H ill, John....................................................... 613 H unter, Dr. Robert P.............................................. 605 Jackson, Col. Sam uel M........................................... 238 Jackson, Jam es Y................................................ 611 Jackson Family, W. J. Jackson.................................. 614 Jackson, John T................................................... 610 Jackson, John..................................................... 242 Johnston, Gov. William F.......................................... 354 K eeley, John..................................................... 617 K eppel, David.................................................... 156 L ias, Jacob....................................................... 616 M cBryar, Dr. W illiam............................................. 604 M cCandless, Prof. H ugh.......................................... 224 Mosgrove, Hon. James...................................... 593 M arshall, John W................................................292 Morris, Robert.................................................... 608 M arshall, Thom as H............................................. 603 Marshall, Robert.................................................. 204 McKinstry, William............................................... 276 Murphy, Caps. Samuel and James P.............................. 402 Mardort, Christian............................................. 615 McKallip, Henry K......................................: 617 M iller Fam ily.................................................... 618 Neal, Smith...................................................... 308 Neale, Dr. Sam uel S.............................................. 597 Orr, Gen. Robert.............................................. 587 Pontius, W esley.................................................. 230 Putney, George S................................................ 356 Robinson, Elisha.................................................. 580 Ralston, John.............................................. 591 Read, Charles............................................. 524 Rohrer, Frederich................................................ 599 Shoemaker, George and Solomon............................... 615 Shoem aker, Joseph........................................... 248. Sloan, George B................................................. 609 Schw alm, John................................................ 606 Sm ith, Robert W altar............................................ 594 Sirwell, Col. William.............................................. 598 Townsend, Robert................................................ 392 Truitt-Craig fam ilies............................................ 618 W ilson, Jam es D................................................ 396 W ray, H. H....................................................... 614 Wray, Robert and John M........................................ 284 Wilson, William Armstrong.......................................608 W arner, Isaac..................................................... 252 Wannamaker, John.............................................. 618 ILLUSTRATIONS. Brodhead, Gen. Daniel........................................... 585 Buffington, Hon. Joseph................................. 116 Buffington, Hon. Joseph, Late residence of.................... 117 Brow n, Jam es E.................................................. 132 Butler, Thom as.................................................. 564 Beale, M aj. Joseph G............................................. 158 Barnhart, Residence of.......................................... 500 Buffalo M illing Co.............................................. 420 Calhoun, Hon. John............................................. 228 Chambers, Capt. John B......................................... 236 Christy, Mr. and Mrs. John...................................... 324 Cochran, W. A................................................... 174 Cam pbell, J........................................................ 380 Court-house...................................................... 36 D uff, Rev. D. K.................................................... 286 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. east side of Jefferson street, $18; No. 125, corner of Market and Water streets, Eagle House, $280; No. 121, corner of Market and Jefferson streets, Reynolds House, $294; No. 123, northeast corner of Market and McKean streets, on which and the adjacent lots was the body of the old Indian town destroyed by Gen. Armstrong and his force, $100; No. 152, third above Jacob, on the west side of Jefferson street, $72; No. 163, northwest corner of Jacob and Water streets, $106; No. 207, second above Mulberry, east side of Jefferson street, $15; No. 211, northwest corner of Water and Mulberry streets, $80; No. 248, northeast corner of Walnut and McKean streets, $71.121; No. 119, second above Market, west side of McKean street, $9.25 No. 84, corner Arch and McKean, $34. Out-lots, No. 5, $37; Nos. 13 and 15, each, $34; No. 19, $27; No. 25, $31. The out-lots varied in extent, the largest being 2 acres, 171 perches, and the smallest, 1 acre, 13 perches. A GLIMPSE OF THE VILLAGE THROUGH THE ASSESSMENT LIST OF 1804. From a part-the other part has been detached and lost-of the assessment list of persons and occupations, the first after the town was laid out, of such as were then taxable and residing in the town, which was then in Allegheny and Toby townships, dated December 21, 1804, Joseph Clark, assessor, and James Gaff and Isaac Townsend, assistant assessors, for Allegheny townshipfrom the preserved part of that list, it appears thus: James Guthrie, joiner, trade valued at $10, horse 1, cattle 1-total valuation, $25. William Hannegan, tailor, $10, lot No. 125, present site of St. Paul's Church, $16, cattle 2-total, $36. James Hann:gan,* hatter, $10. James Henry, lot No. 232, $5, horses 4, cattle 1-total, $50. Daniel Lemmon, single man, whose son Thomas is the oldest man now living who was born here. Joseph Miller, storekeeper, $40, horse 1, cattle 1-total, $55; Bernard Mahan, shoemaker, $5. Alexr. Moor, lot No. 25, $10, horse 1, cattle 1--total, $25. James McElhenny, wheelwright, $10, lot No. 90, $18total, $28. Samuel Miller, shoemaker, $5. James McClurg, storekeeper, $40, lot No. 45, $10-total, $50. Samuel Massey, attorney at law, $25. Michael Mechling, lot No. 120, $22, horse 1, cattle 3-total, between $40 and $50-the last figure in the total torn off. James Pinks, joiner, $10. Abraham Parkinson, mason, $10. David Reynolds, storekeeper, $40, lot No. 221, $22, horse 1, cattle 2total, $77. William Reynolds, single man, tanner, $10. Col. James Sloan, single man. John Shaeffer, * He was the first court crier in this county. 7 joiner, $10, lot No. 173, $22-total, $32. Dewalt Shaeffer, rough carpenter, $5. Erastus Sands, joiner, $10, lot No. 220, $6-total, $16. John Thomas (mulatto), shoemaker, $5. That list contained the names of taxables living on both sides of the Purchase line. It appears from other sources, that David Crawford was the first blacksmith, having settled in Kittanning in 1805. His son David is the first white male born and raised here, who is still living. James Monteith, Samuel Houston, and Robert Robinson were the next earliest merchants, who commenced business about 1806-8, and were, in common with nearly all the Kittanning merchants until the present time, safe, solvent, and successful business men. As indicated by the foregoing partial list, there were in Kittanning, in 1804, at least one lawyer, three merchants, four joiners, one rough carpenter; one tailor, one hatter, one tanner, three shoemakers, one wheelwright, and one mason. There were also four single men, but whether the single ladies, if there were any, allowed these gentlemen to remain single, all that leap year, the records show not. Other early settlers than those above-mentioned, to each of whom one or more lots were assessed, were John Brandon, George Brown, Alex. Blair, Robert Beatty, John Coon, Robert Cooper, James Gibson, Daniel Long, Jinney Mosgrove, Paul Morrow, Joseph McClurg, James Monteith, John Orr and Henry Worts. The first hotel-keepers were Michael Mechling and David Reynolds. The former kept on the north side of Market street, adjoining the present store and residence of his son Philip, and the latter on the same side of Market, near the corner of Jefferson street. The early resident lawyers, after Mr. Massey, were Samuel S. Harrison, Guy Hiccox, Ebenezer Smith Kelly, Joseph B. Beckett, Thomas Blair, John Henderson; later, prior to 1840, Robert Findly, William F. Johnston, Joseph Bulffington, James Thompson, J. H. Hepburn, John Francis, William M. Watson, H. N. Weigley, Robert E. Brown, most, if not all, of whom are dead; Thomas Struthers, Darwin Phelps, George W. Smith and Horatio N. Lee, still living. The present number is twenty.* *David Barclay, James E. Brown, J. A. Gettys, John Gilpin, Ed ward T. Golden, Henry J. Hays, Jos. R. Henderson, J. M. Hunter, J. H. McCain, W. Mechling, Jackson oggs, Jas. B. Neale, Barclay Nul ton, Grier C. Orr, Willis Patton, Darwin Phelps, H. F. Phelps, Jeffer son Reynolds, John V. Painter, John W. Rohrer, Robert W. Smith, W. Martin and James Stewart. [Since Mr. Smith wrote the foregoing James E. Brown, John V. Painter, Darwin Phelps, Jackson Boggs and W. Martin have died, as has also the writer, whose name is included in the list. In addition to the names given the bar includes (in 1883) G. S. Crosby, Joseph and Orr Buffington, Ross Reynolds, Jr., Alex. Reynolds, Clark Austin, D. B. Heiner, Jr., M. F. Leason, R. S. Martin, D. L. Nulton. W. L. Peart, Calvin Reyburn, Finley P. Wolf, J. F. Whitworth and R. B. Ivory.-EDITOR.] 109 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. The first resident physician was George Hays, who settled here in 1810 or 1811. His successors, prior to 1825, were Samuel S. Neale, Josiah E. Stevenson, Samuel McMasters, Abner Bainbridge, Malthus A. Ward and Samuel Byers. The pres ent (1876) number is eight,* one of whom is a homceopathist. The first call to the physicians of this county to meet at Kittanning, for the purpose of organizing a medical society to regulate the practice of medicine and for other purposes, was issued November 16, 1825, by Drs. Neale and Stevenson. SOME REMINISCENCES OF THE WAR OF 1812. John Reed, of East Franklin, one of the oldest citizens in this county, and who has a very retentive memory, informed the writer that there were but very few buildings here in 1807, and they were all log ones, and that he saw the military company, recruited by Capt. James Alexander, parade here on the Fourth of July, 1812. Its headquarters were in a log building, on lot No. 122, north side of Market street, below the alley. One of the modes of enlisting men for the regular army, a year or so later, as the writer is informed, was by placing and rattling silver coins on a drumbead, which were free to all who were capable of being mustered into the service, and whoever took one of them off was held to be enlisted. A considerable number were recruited. Capt., or Lieut., Brooks was the recruiting officer. The recruiting station and barracks were on lot No. 75, corner of Arch and Water streets. That volunteer company, after being fully recruited, was moved, with other companies, from east of the Allegheny mountains, which encamped here temporarily on the river bank, between Arch and Market streets, on the then vacant lots on the southwest corner of Market and Jefferson streets, and on the vacant portion of the old court-house square, to Meadville, Pennsylvania, in September, 1812, where it was assigned to the 1st Inf. regt. of that Pennsylvania detachment, commanded by Col. Jeremiah Snyder. It and the 2d regt. Inf., commanded by Co. John Purviance, of Butler, Pennsylvania, the 1st regt. of Riflemen, Col. Jared Irwin, and the 2d regt. of Riflemen, Col. William Piper, were brigaded at Meadville, and Adamson Tannehill, of Pittsburgh, was elected brigadiergeneral. Those volunteer troops were detained at Meadville until the latter part of October-Col. Purviance's regiment until about the 1st of Novem *T. H. & T. M. Allison, H. K. Beatty, J. G. Cunningham, C. J. Jessop, T. C. McCuiloch, W. W. Smith (homeopathist), and W. H. Stewart. ber-on account of their arms being defective. When properly inspected one half of them were found to be totally unfit for service. So that instead of marching immediately to the place of destination, as Gen. Tannehill expected, he was under the mortifying necessity of sending teams to Pittsburgh for a supply to make up the deficiency. Between two and three weeks were thus lost. It is said that the deficiency of proper arms was caused by the shameful impositions of brigade inspectors on the adjutant-general. Furthermore, the amount of funds was sufficient to pay off only three regiments, so that seven or eight days were lost in a trip to Pittsburgh to procure enough to pay off the fourth one. A considerable number of that detachment of Pennsylvania volunteers, while at Meadville, expressed their determination not to cross the line, that is, not to go over into Canada. Some of those volunteers must have either lost their courage or become weary of military service before their brigade was moved from that rendezvous, for the Sunbury Times of October 9 said that it was related of a volunteer of a neighboring county that he had deserted and returned home, and that "his wife refused speaking to him or having anything to do with him unless he would return." So he shouldered his knapsack and retraced his steps to Meadville. The same paper lamented the arrival at Sunbury of five deserters from Capt. Jared Irwin's rifle company, which had been recruited in that part of Northumberland county. They were promptly arrested and confined in jail, and in case they did not give approved security for their return to their corps, were sent thither under guard by order of the adjutant-general. The writer has not met with a statement or intimation that any of Captain Alexander's company deserted while the detachment to which it belonged remained at Meadville. It has come to the knowledge of the writer that Walter Sloan was the first lieutenant, Jacob Hughes ensign and Joseph Shields first sergeant of that company. Thirteen members of it, James White remembers, volunteered to cross over from Buffalo or Black Rock to Canada and afterward won a solid and brilliant fame in the sortie of Fort Erie and were said (in the report of the General commanding) to have " stood undismayed amidst the hottest fire and repulsed the veterans opposed to them." AN ALARM OF 1812. In July or August, 1812, a lively sensation was caused by a report brought here by a Mr. Snyder, who was then employed to distribute the pamphlet 110 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. laws throughout this and the northwestern part of the state (which he then conveyed to the various counties in a wagon), that a large force of British troops and Indians were moving toward this place, whereupon a public meeting was called. Thomas Hamilton was appointed its chairman, who addressed the excited assemblage from a stump in Market, a short distance below Jefferson street. Grave fears were entertained that this town was in danger of being taken by the enemy. That meeting resolved, after an interchange of opinions, to employ Daniel Lemmon to proceed to Meadville and elsewhere in that direction for the purpose of ascertaining the whereabouts and proximity of the supposed invaders. He soon started on his mission, from which he returned in a few days with the welcome intelligence that a false alarm had been raised by the rumor which Snyder had heard in his travels, and which probably sprung from the general alarm that Gov. Snyder alluded to in his message of December 3, 1812, to the legislature, as having prevailed in the town and vicinity of Erie, caused by the appearance of a British Indian force on the opposite side of the lake, in consequence of which he had ordered, July 15, a portion of the sixteenth division of the Pennsylvania militia to be organized under Gen. Kelso for the protection of the frontier, which, he said, lie was happy to add, "prevented the British or their savage allies from polluting our soil with hostile feet." POSTAL. As several of the earliest record books were destroyed by the fire which consumed the postoffice department building in Washington, D. C., on the night of December 15, 1836, the exact date of the establishment of the postoffice here is not known. But it is ascertained from the ledger books of the auditor's office, which were mostly saved, that it was in the winter of 1807, as Joseph Miller, the first postmaster, was appointed in that year and began to render his quarterly accounts on April 1, then instant. He was a merchant, to whom lot No. 75, corner of Arch and Water streets, was assessed for several years. His store is said to have been there, and there, too, the writer concludes, hlie kept the postoffice. Philip Mechling, who was then a lad, thinks it was kept by Miller on lot No. 120. The next postmaster must have been David Lawson, as he published the list of letters remaining in the Kittanning postoffice in September, 1810. Among the later but early postal facilities was a weekly mail, carried on horseback, from Greensburgh, Pennsylvania, via Freeport. Still later, in 1818, a weekly mail was carried in the same way, from Indiana, Pennsylvania, via Woodward's mill, to Kittanning, thence to Butler, Pennsylvania, and thence back via Freeport, by a youth bearing the familiar name of Josiah Copley. As he was the only person who gladdened the people of this region with the mail during that and the next two years, it may readily be supposed that he was a very important personage, whose weekly arrival, heralded by the blowing of his horn as he came over the hill below town, at the postoffice, then kept by Robert Robinson, down on Water street, where P. K. Bowman now lives, was hailed with delight by the-expectant multitude gathered there to receive their letters and papers. The old "Kittanning Inn," kept by David Reynolds, was then the principal hotel. There that youthful mail carrier tarried over night on his return trips from Butler and witnessed in its large front room, which was then the chief social hall of the town, many a lively scene in which the jovial seniors of the place participated, when each played off his peculiar humor on the rest. Their fun, if sometimes not what the fastidious would enjoy, was always good-natured. THE TOWN IN 1820. An old citizen* who settled here in 1820, and who distinctly remembers the condition of every part of the town as he then first saw it, has kindly furnished the writer with the following facts: There were then on Water street nineteen dwelling and business houses, two of which were brick. Jacob Truby's gunsmith shop was on lot No. 17, where William Brown now lives; Henry Rouse's cooper shop on lot No. 25; William Reynolds' leather store on lot No. 93, now occupied by the widow of George Reynolds, deceased; Samuel McKee's saddler's shop on lot No. 151, now occupied by Mrs. Matilda Robinson; Joseph Erwin's inn, in the stone house built by David Lawson, in 1808-9, on the southwest corner of Jacob and Water streets, now owned by Miss Amanda Colwell and occupied by F. E. Willis; Robert Robinson's store and the postoffice were on lot No. 193, southwest corner of Water street and a public alley, now owned and occupied by P. K. Bowman, and an inn, kept by Walter Sloan, on lot No. 221, now owned and occupied by Darwin Phelps. There were not any buildings on Jefferson street above the public alley between lots Nos. 53 and 59-between David Patterson's and St. John's (Lutheran) Church. Thence down to the lower end of the town there were twenty-three dwellings *James McCullough, Sr. 111 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. and business houses, two of which, including the court-house, were brick. John Gillespy's shoe shop was on lot No. 83, southeast corner of Arch and Jefferson streets, now owned and occupied by James Mosgrove; the Columbian printing-office, on the old court-house square, on the lower part of lot No. 6 of the plot of that square made just before the sale thereof by the county commissioners; Winm. Small's tailor shop and Hugh Rodgers' hat shop, on lot No. 165, northwest corner of Jacob and Jefferson streets, now owned and occupied by John Croll; James Richart's chair and wheelwright shop, on lot No. 183, next below the present site of the First Presbyterian church; and David Crawford's blacksmith shop on lot No. 194, southwest corner of Jefferson street and a public alley, now owned by G. F. Fischcorn and W. Hirscher. There were seven dwelling and business houses, including the jail, on McKean street. Robert Speer's nail factory was on lot No. 143, southwest corner of McKean street and a public alley, and Isaac Scott's pottery on lot No. 190, southwest corner of McKean street and a public alley. There was not then any dwelling or business house on Back street, now Grant avenue. The first house thereon was erected by James McCullough, Sr., the one in which he now resides, in 1851. None others were built for several years afterward. At that time there was not a dwelling or business house on either High, Vine, Arch, or Mulberry streets. There were eight dwelling and business houses on Market street, including the Eagle House block, southwest corner of Market and Water streets, erected by James Monteith, deceased, and which was then nearly completed. Michael Mechling's inn was on lot No. 120, just above the northwest corner of Market and Water streets; Samuel Houston's store on the same lot, near the public alley; David Reynolds' inn, on lot 121; Hamilton & McConnell's store on same lot, northwest corner Market and Jefferson streets; Joseph Shields' hatter shop on lot No. 122, northeast corner of Market and Jefferson streets; James Montieth's store in Eagle House block, southwest corner of Market and Water streets; William Hannegan's tailor shop on lot No. 126, where the insurance office now is; and Henry Jack's store, on same lot, southwest corner of Market and Jefferson streets, and his saddlery establishment a little farther down on Market street. There were on Jacob and Walnut streets respectively one tannery and one dwelling house. In 1830 the number of dwellings was 90; stores, 10. THE TOWN INCORPORATED. By act of assembly, April 2, 1821, the town, then a part of Kittanning township, was incorporated as a borough, comprised within the limits heretofore given.* The original boundaries were subsequently extended. By acts of May 4, 1844, and April 2, 1850, one and three-fourths acres and thirty perches of land in the lower part of the borough, owned by Philip Hutchinson and John Turner; by act of March 20, 1849, the rolling mill plot, which had until 1846 been a meadow, and some winters a skating pond; and, by act of March 31, 1860, two acres and thirty perches owned by John Scott and John Baker, were annexed to the borough. Some property a short distance above the northern limit, belonging to the late Robert Brown and others, was also annexed thereto by act of April 16, 1845, but was afterward detached and put back into the township. The act of April 2, 1821, contained the usual provisions in charters granted at that period to small towns. The population of Kittanning was then about 325. The burgess and town council had rather limited powers, yet adequate, perhaps, for so small and well-disposed a population. About the year 1854, the borough subscribed for a considerable amount of Allegheny Valley railroad and Kittanning bridge stocks. In 1857, the court of quarter sessions of Armstrong county, on the petition of the requisite number of the inhabitants of this borough, made several amendments to its charter: changing its corporate name from "The Burgess and Town Council of the Borough of Kittanning" to "The Borough of Kittanning;" increasing the number of councilmen from five to six, three of them to be elected annually and the term of each to be two years; prohibiting the members of the town council from receiving compensation for their services in that capacity, and from having any pecuniary interest in contracts made by the borough; and providing that the debts of the borough, exclusive of those created by the subscriptions to the stock of the above mentioned companies, should be reduced, as soon as practical, to $1,000, and that the amount thereof should not be increased unless to promote some object of general utility and authorized and required by two-thirds of the taxable inhabitants of the borough. A supplement to the original act or charter was made by the act of April 4, 1866, providing a board of overseers of the poor, changing the name of the chief executive officer from that of burgess * Vide pages 99 and 100. 112 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. to mayor, investing him, the town council and the justices of the peace, with needed additional police power, and enlarging the powers of the town council to pass ordinances fixing licenses on wagons, carriages and other vehicles traversing the streets of the borough, and in regard to the municipal regulation, sanitary condition, revenue and financial affairs, which new powers have been from time to time beneficially exercised. An act repealing the supplement of April 4, 1866, was passed May 5, 1876, which has been judicially declared to be unconstitutional by the president judge of the courts of this county. The first election of borough officers was held on the first Monday of May, 1821, of which the writer cannot find any record, either in the minutes of the town council or in the prothonotary's office. The oldest inhabitants do not remember who were then elected. Ile is, therefore, unable to state who the first burgess, town councilmen and other borough officers were. The most ancient minutes of the town council which he has been able to find are those dated June 2, 1823, from which and from those of subsequent dates it appears that David Reynolds was then burgess, David Crawford, Frederick Rohrer, Joseph Shields, Isaac Scott and Michael Truby, Sr., town councilmen, and James E. Brown, clerk. Joseph Shields was one of Capt. Alexander's company, who was not deterred by constitutional scruples from crossing the line into Canada, when it was necessary for the American forces to go there. SECURITY AGAINST FIRES. On Wednesday, May 26, 1824, the town council received a certificate, signed by fifty-five of the taxable inhabitants of the borough, stating that, in their opinion, a fire engine would be of general utility to them, and, therefore, requesting that a tax of one cent on the dollar be laid on the valuation of the taxable property in the borough, to be applied to the purchase of a fire engine. The tax prayed for was then laid, and on Thursday, November 10, 1825, it was ordered: That the burgess purchase a fire engine in the city of Philadelphia at the price of - dollars. The burgess was authorized, Tuesday, May 9, 1826, in case a sufficient sum to pay the balance of the price of the fire engine should not be collected, to borrow the sum required and pledge the faith of the borough for its repayment. It does not appear from the minutes of the council what that engine cost. The burgess must have resorted to a loan to pay for it in part, for it was ordered by the council, July 30, 1832, that an order be issued to A. Colwell and J. E. Brown for $78.65, paid by them for the engine in 1826. The first fire company was organized by a meeting in the court-house, Saturday evening, August 27th, in the last-mentioned year. The last notice of that company which the writer has observed in files of old papers is that of a meeting held Saturday evening, April 11, 1835, for the annual election of its officers. A frame engine-house, costing about sixty dollars, was erected, during the summer of 1827, on the east side of Jefferson, below Market street, a short distance below the present alley between J. A. Gault & Co's store and Dr. McCulloch's building. By orders of council, May 31, 1827, the borough and the county were each to furnish twelve fire-buckets, and each owner or renter of a house one. Two hooks and two ladders were to be procured. Such were the means provided by the public authorities for extinguishing fires until 1854, when, after a serious fire-the burning of L. C. Pinney's carriage factory-which had occurred shortly before, the requisite number of taxable inhabitants petitioned the town council to procure a larger and more effective fire-engine. Whereupon a special tax was levied, and a new handengine, costing $2,500, was procured. It was better than the old one, but inadequate for the extinguishment of large fires. In 1871 the borough entered into a contract with the Kittanning Water Works Company to furnish and put down in their main water-pipes, twentythree of Lowry's patent fire-plugs, one at each diamond or intersection of streets, for the sum of $2,783.09. They are well distributed over the borough. Such is the hight of the reservoir above the streets that the pressure forces the water from the fire-plugs through hose two inches in diameter over the highest buildings, and, when under proper management, is effective for the extinguishment of extensive and dangerous fires. This arrangement, even when there was not a properly organized fire department, has been the means, on several occasions, of saving a large portion of the buildings in this borough from destruction. By that contract the Water Works Company agreed to furnish the borough with water for extinguishing fires, practicing with the hose and sprinkling the streets at an annual rent of $500 for ten years. STREETS AND ALLEYS. The original streets were Water, Jefferson, McKean and Back, extending northeastwardly and sonthwestwardly parallel to the Allegheny river, 113 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. which are intersected at right angles by High, Vine, Arch, Market, Jacob, Mulberry and Walnut streets. The original names of all the streets are still retained, except that of Back, which, by act of March 24, 1868, was changed to Grant avenue. The public alleys, laid out when the streets were, are twelve feet wide, three of which are parallel with the river, and are intersected at right angles by six others. As late as July, 1824, the streets were far from being in a perfect condition either for health or convenience. McKean street was a gully for years afterward, and so deep that persons sitting on benches or chairs on the sidewalks on Market, below Jefferson street, could not see persons traveling along McKean, owing in part to a ridge of moderate hight which crossed Market street, between McKean and Jefferson streets, near where the town hall now is. That part of Jefferson between Market and Arch streets was covered with water in July, 1824. That part of Market between Back and McKean streets was then in a bad condition from having been washed by heavy rains. There was a pond on McKean between Jacob and Mulberry streets, and another pond on the same between Arch and Market streets. The town council ordered those parts of those streets to be repaired, which was done, the cost of which was as follows: repairing Jefferson street, 858.50; Market street, $4.94; filling the upper pond on McKean street, $59.73, and draining the lower pond on the last-mentioned street by digging a drain four feet wide at the top and two feet at the bottom, regularly slanted, with a well made bridge of slabs, sixteen feet wide, across it, opposite Mulberry street, $7.75. Total, $130.92. The aggregate of annual outlays on the streets since then is immense. Still the mud is very deep in wet weather except on that portion of Grant avenue recently covered with a hard cinder, and that portion of Market street between the railroad and Jefferson street recently covered with broken limestone. Other substantial improvements made within the last two years are excellent street crossings and a solid stone culvert over Truby's Run on Water, above Arch street, in the place of wooden bridges which used to be greatly injured or swept away by floods in the river. In making and repairing public thoroughfares, as in other matters, the best is in the end the cheapest. By virtue of various acts of assembly and borough ordinances, nearly all the sidewalks have been paved with brick. The curbs are stone about five inches thick. The borough pays one-third and the propperty owners the other two-thirds of the expense of the brick work. The wharfing of the river bank, which was an important local improvement, must have been commenced as early as 1818-19. An order was issued by the county commissioners September 25, 1819, to Henry Jack for $250, one-half of the subscription made by the county for wharfing the Allegheny river at Kittanning. Considerable sums have since been expended by the borough for that purpose, the largest being for wharfing the bank with stone from a point about five rods below Jacob street to a small run between Walnut street and the rolling mill, a distance of about ninety rods, in 1869-70. CROSSING TIlE ALLEGHENY IN EARLY TIMES AND LATE. In the earlier years after the first settlement of Kittanning by the whites, the facilities for crossing the river were by skiffs and flatboats, when the water was too high for fording, which were either rowed or poled from one side to the other. The first ferry was some distance below the rolling mill, known as Sloan's ferry. Brown's ferry was established at a later period, higher up the river, at the iouth of Jacob street. Cunningham's ferry was established by the late William Cunningham, at the mouth of Market street, which was, in and after 1834, a chain ferry, said to have been invented by Mr. Cunningham, though it was much like the pont volant, or flying bridge, long before known to French military engineers. The ferryboat was borne across the river in about five minutes by the force of the current, by means of a strong wire, fastened to a tree about four hundred yards above the landing on the west side, the other end of the wire being fastened to the boat by stayropes, by which it could be brought to any desired angle with the current, the wire being kept out of the water by several buoys resembling small boats which crossed the river simultaneously with the large boat. The foremost end of the latter, being slightly turned up stream, was impelled across the river by the oblique action of the water against its side. Those buoys, says Sheman Day, looked like so many goslings swimming with their mother. That ferry was subsequently owned by Philip Mechling, who kept it up until the bridge was erected. The above-mentioned mode was changed to that of the more modern chain-ferry, which is by fastening the wire to trees or posts on both sides of the stream, dispensing with the buoys, connecting the boat to a pulley running along the wire by means of ropes or smaller wires, turning 114 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. the foremost end of the boat up-stream, and thus causing it to be impelled by the oblique action of the current of water on its side. By the act of April 2, 1838, and several supplements thereto, the present Kittanning bridge company was incorporated. The charter thus granted lay dormant until about 1855, when, the requisite number of shares of stock having been taken, the work of building the bridge was begun, and was completed in March, 1856. The foundation consists of two stone abutments and four stone piers, substantially built. The first superstructure was chiefly wooden-Hall's patent. In a few weeks after its completion, about dusk, April 12, 1856, it was struck by a violent tornado and blown into the river. Wilson Todd, the toll-gatherer, and John Lininger were then on or near the east end of the bridge. The former, a one-armed man, sprang from the superstructure, after its detachment, and caught with his one arm on the abutment, and was thus rescued from perchance a watery grave. The latter was carried with the superstructure into the swollen river. There was intense anxiety for several hours among the excited people of Kittanning concerning his fate. He clung to that part of the bridge on which he went down. Fortunately, and to the great relief of all who were cognizant of his peril, he was rescued below Mannville. That tornado came from the west, and did considerable other damage in its fierce easterly sweep, through a limited portion of this borough and out through the country. The bridge company having been authorized by the act of April 19, 1856, to issue preferred stock, replaced the lost superstructure by a wooden one on a different plan, that was firmly bound to the abutments and piers. It was covered. It lasted until 1874, when it was removed and the present graceful, durable, iron structure, with five channel arches, was substituted. The length of this bridge is nine hundred and sixteen feet. The total cost of the abutments, piers, superstructure and repairs is $60,000. FIRST STEAMBOAT ARRIVALS. On Saturday, April 11, 1827, the steamboat Albion, Capt. Pursall, arrived here from Pittsburgh, bringing a number of gentlemen as passengers, for the purpose of making the first experiment of navigating the Allegheny by steam. The river was then about five feet above low water mark, and the current very rapid. Yet she stemmed it majestically at the rate of about four miles an hour, without the full force of steam. About 11 o'clock A. M. the report of a swivel on board announced her approach, and the shout "The steamboat!" was heard throughout the borough, and the wharf was soon thronged with the people of this place and vicinity, eager to see her. She was soon noticed coming round the bend below town, plowing through the rapid current in splendid style, and was shortly moored at the wharf. She was a beautiful boat of fifty tons, designed for low water in the Ohio, and drew, with full load, a little more than five feet of water. A party of 120 persons of this place, among whom were forty ladies, arranged with the Captain to take them a few miles further up the river on a pleasure excursion. The boat returned an hour or two sooner than she would have done on account of the disturbance and unpleasantness occasioned by a few men on board, who were exceedingly Bacchic and turbulent, which elicited from one of the gentlemen aboard an uncomplimentary remark concerning Kittanning, in relation to which the chronicler of the event said: "Hard, indeed, that this place should bear such a stigma, when a large majority of its people abhor such misconduct." On Wednesday night, February 20, 1828, the Pittsburgh and Wheeling packet arrived, respecting which some one, probably Josiah Copley, on the 23d, wrote to Hazard's Register: "A sound was heard down the river,'an unco sugh,' as Burns says, which was soon recognized to be the puffing of a steamboat. The town was immediately in a buzz. All looked out to catch a glimpse of the water walker as she came around the bend below town. Presently the bright glow of the furnaces burst upon the sight; the report of their swivel resounded among the hills, and the boat rushed through the yielding current amid the cheers of the people, and was safely moored alongside the wharf. She proved to be the Pittsburgh and Wheeling packet, of 100 tons, owned by the Society of Harmonists, at Economy-a beautiful vessel, very handsomely finished, with two decks. A number of ladies and gentlemen from Pittsburgh and Freeport came as passengers. A large party was got up next morning, who took an excursion of six or seven miles up the river, for the double purpose of the pleasure of the trip and a small remuneration to the worthy Captain for the visit. It stemmed the current at the rate of five or six miles an hour, and came down at about fifteen. The trip was delightful, the accommodations were excellent and the company equally so. All were highly pleased. No accident occurred to mar the pleasure of the party. We returned at 11 o'clock, and the boat left in a few minutes for Pittsburgh amid the united cheers 115 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. of the people on shore and on the boat. We expect her return on Friday for the purpose of ascending the river as far as Franklin or Warren. Two hundred passengers are to go from this place alone. The people are anxious that this important experiment be made." The writer is informed that the trip on February 21 was to have been extended to the mouth of Red Bank, but it was found impracticable to extend it further than a few miles above Kittanning, on account of the high and rapid stage of water. Many of the passengers, however, clamored for the extension to Red Bank. At the suggestion of one of the other class of passengers, who took a more rational view of the circumstances, the Captain turned his boat down stream, while the up-streamers or extensionists were in the cabin, and landed at Kittann.ing. When the passengers came on deck and got a glimpse of their own town, some of them didn't know it, and thought the mouth of Red Bank was a much larger place than they had supposed it to be. The Wm. D. Duncan, a side-wheel steamer, Benj. Brooks, captain, and James P. Murphy, pilot, arrived here about 10 o'clock Friday night, February 22, 1822, when Washington's birthday was being observed by a ball at the Kittanning Inn. She had on board a number of ladies and gentlemen from Pittsburgh and Freeport. She left here on her upward trip for Franklin and Warren at 9 o'clock the next morning, drawing four and a half feet of water, and moved up stream at the average rate of about four and a half miles an hour, and in nine hours reached Lawrenceburgh, now Parker City, where there was ani accession of several gentlemen as passengers. Thence she proceeded above the mouth of Clarion river, where she remained the rest of that night, and left the next morning, arriving at Franklin about 5 o'clock P. M., where those on the boat were cordially welcomed, in the midst of a violent rain-storm, by the hospitable people of that place, a considerable number of whom took an excursion to Oil Creek Furnace, while the visitors from the lower Allegheny enjoyed the civilities shown them by the good people of Franklin. The next (Tuesday) morning they commenced their downward trip, the steamer moving at the rate of eleven or twelve miles an hour, and reached Kittanning about sunset without accident or aught to mar the pleasure of their excursion except the crowded cabin, which was necessarily occupied by all much of the time, on account of the rain. In 1830 the steamboat Allegheny, the first one for the Allegheny river, was built. Two citizens of Kittanning owned interests in it, which did not prove to be profitable. Her first trip to Franklin was on Friday, April 16, 1830, with three tons of of freight and thirty or forty passengers. Her speed up stream was three miles an hour. She reached Warren on thle 22d, and Kittanning, on her return, on the 26th of April. On one of her other trips she ascended the Allegheny to Olean, New York. The New Castle was the next steamboat that was built for the Allegheny river, on which steamboating soon after became quite brisk. Among the steamboat captains on the Allegheny none was, perhaps so noted for his brusqueness as John Hanna, whose new steamer, the Allegheny Belle, made her first arrival here Thursday night, December 8, 1842. IMPROVEMENT CONVENTION. Another notable event of a public nature was the convention of about fifty delegates from the counties of Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler, Crawford, Jefferson, Venango and Warren, which met, pursuant to previous notice, in the Presbyterian church, Kittanning, June 18, 1835, which was organized by appointing Henry Shippen, of Crawford county, president, William Ayen, of Butler, and Adam Hays, of Allegheny, vice presidents, and Josiah Copley, of Armstrong, and Ephraim Galbraith, of Venango, secretaries. The following preamble and resolutions were then discussed and unanimously adopted: "Whereas, the Allegheny river, from its magnitude, local position and adaption to steamboat navigation, is evidently destined to become the principal medium of communication between the northeastern and southwestern portions of our country, and may, at comparatively trifling expense, be rendered navigable for steamboats at all seasons of the year when uninterrupted by ice, "Resolved, That the improvement of the Allegheny river would go far toward a union of the Genesee, Susquehanna and Lake Erie with the Ohio, and that it would be a great central channel from which lateral avenues of commerce would diverge in all directions. " Resolved, That the object of this convention be earnestly recommended to their fellow citizens of Western Pennsylvania. " Resolved, That Thomas Blair, Joseph Buffington and Win. F. Johnston, Esqs., be a committee for the purpose of drafting a memorial to the Legislature of this state, praying for the passage of an act to incorporate a company to improve the Allegheny river from Pittsburgh to the New York line. " Resolved, That a committee of correspondence be appointed to inquire of and consult with such public bodies or private individuals as they shall deem proper to further the objects of this convention in the improving of the Allegheny river, and that said committee consist 116 CONTENTS. PAGE Duff, Rev. D. K., Residence of................................. 287 Devers, W illiam................................................... 388 Elder, Rev. T. M.................................................. 212 Elgin, Sam uel.................................................... 302 Freeport Methodist Episcopal church........................... 414 Fowler, Jam es................................................... 576 Fulm er, Jam es................................................... 398 Glenn, H on. A. D................................................. 348 Guthrie, Jam es................................................... 282 Graham, John.................................................... 404 G uthrie, W. C.................................................... 281 Guthrie, Mrs. Margaret Todd.................................... 280 Hunter, Dr. Robert P............................................. 164 H ill, John........................................................ 162 H einer, Daniel B................................................ 128 Jackson, Col. S. M................................................ 238 Jackson, W. J.................................................... 270 Jackson, M rs. Elizabeth.......................................... 242 Jackson, J. Y..................................................... 256 Jackson, John T.................................................. 268 Johnston, Gov. W. F.............................................. 354 K eeley, John..................................................... 264 K eppel, David................................................... 156 Lias, Jacob....................................................... 306 M cBryar, Dr. W illiam............................................ 241 M cBryar, M rs. Dr. W illiam....................................... 245 Mosgrove, Hon. Jam es........................................... 124 M arshall, Thom as H............................................. 210 M arshall, Robert................................................. 204 Marshall, William, Residence of................................. 205 M arshall, J. W.................................................... 292 Marshall, J. W., Residence of.................................... 293 PAG!' Morrison, Will A., Residence of.................................. 14 Murphy, Samuel and James..................................... 40: McCandless, Prof. Hugh......................................... 22 M cK instry, W illiam.............................................. 271 McKinstry, William, residence of................................ 271 M ardorf, Residence of............................................ 428 N eal, Sm ith..................................................... 308 Neal, Smith, Residence of........................................ 309 Orr, Gen. Robert......................................... Facing 108 Orphans' Home, View of......................................... 220 Putney, George S................................................. 356 Pontius, W esley.................................................. 230 R ead, Charles.................................................... 524 Robinson, Mr. and Mrs. Elisha.................................. 580 Robinson, Elisha, Residence of.................................. 581 R alston, John.................................................... 200 Reynolds H ouse.................................................. 140 Ross, Mrs. Margaret, residence of............................... 332 Sloan, D. H....................................................... 468 Shoem aker, George.............................................. 260 Schw alm,John................................................... 172 Schwalm, John, Residence of.................................... 173 Shoemaker, Josiah J., Residence of.............................. 249 Shoemaker, Mrs. Salom e......................................... 248 St. Patrick's church.............................................. 525 Townsend, Mr. and Mrs. Rob,rt................................. 392 Townsend, Homestead......................................... 393 W ilson, W illiam A............................................... 532 W arner, Isaac.................................................... 252 W ilson, Jam es D.................................................. 396 W ray, H. II....................................................... 168 W ray, John M.................................................... 284 RESIDENCE OF THE LATE HON.JOSEPH BULFFINGTON, KITTANNING, PA. 1830 1872 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. of A. W. Foster and N. B. Craig, of Pittsburgh, Hon. R. Orr, of Kittanning, J. Bredin, of Butler, Hon. J. Galbraith, of Franklin, and Robert Falconer, of Warren."Hazard's Register. SOME OLD-TIME FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATIONS. The Fourth of July, 1828, was celebrated in a manner worthy of description. As preliminary and preparatory to it the following communications appeared in the Columbian of June 21, 1828, viz.: " Communication. The friends of Gen. Andrew Jackson are requested to meet at the house of Mr. John Mechling"-on lot No. 120-" in Kittanning, on Friday evening next"-June 27, 1828-"at early candle-light, to consult upon measures preparatory to celebrating the approaching anniversary of American independence in a suitable and becoming manner." " Communication. The friends of the Administration "-John Quincy Adams'-" wishing to participate in the festivities of the day of the Fourth of July next are requested to leave their names at the house of Mr. David Reynolds." The Armstrong Guards met at the hotel then kept by R. B. Alford -Eagle IHouse - Saturday evening, June 21. The meeting was organized by appointing the captain of the company, Thos. Blair, president, and John Croll, secretary. A preamble and resolutions were adopted deprecating the observance of that day as a party instead of a national jubilee, and that, though differing politically, they would celebrate the day by having a dinner provided for the company and such other citizens as would join in the celebration, at such place and by such person as the committee might think proper. In pursuance of that arrangement the fifty-second anniversary of American independence, which occurred on Friday, was celebrated by the Guards and a large number of citizens, friends of both presidential candidates, in this borough. Samuel Matthews was chosen president, Michael Mechling and David Johnston, vice-presidents, and James Douglass, secretary. Capt. Blair read the Declaration of Independence and Charles G. Snowden delivered the oration. The orator, having presented at considerable length the advantages resulting from that independence, concluded his oration in these words: "In the ardor of enthusiasm into which my mind has been carried I have ascribed the possession of freedom and happiness to the people of this country without distinction. But, painful t'ask! I must retract, or at least qualify, the expression. For is there not, O Columbia! thou first-born of freedom-thou who hast taught the world to know and prize as they might this heaven-born blessing-is there not within thy bosom a numerous class of men who have no cause to unite their voices with ours in celebrating this memorable day? Alas! there is; and while truth and candor make this confession the fair genius of liberty forgets for a moment the rapturous joy of the day to weep over their fate. Unhappy sons of Africa! when I think of your condition I am ready to ask myself if this be the United States-that land so famed for the natural rights of man? I am ready to ask, where are those solemn declarations, those solemn appeals, which our ancestors made to the Great Father of the great family of mankind in the hour of their distress during the Revolutionary conflict? Did our patriots reason and heroes bleed to establish the position that a part only of the human race were born with an inherent right to freedom? This indeed was not their declaration, nor is it ours: but what must the rest of the world think of our conduct? Will they not brand our name, in other respects so fair, so glorious, with the foul epithets of interested, inconsistent nation? Of all the extremes capable of being united in a political system surely liberty and slavery are the most heterogeneous, discordant and shocking! Extirpate, then, fellow-citizens, this baneful weed out of the fair garden of liberty, and let each return of this glorious anniversary find the evil rapidly diminishing until its name shall be forever lost from the annals of America, and the chorus of liberty shall be filled with joyful notes of all nations and colonies of men that breathe the pure air - of Columbia. In order that this happy purpose may be effected, O may the luminous and divine spirit of liberty which is diffusing itself throughout the world still continue to diffuse itself and once more shed its influential rays upon the minds of Americans! And O ye enlightened republicans, whose ancestors so gloriously opposed acts of despotism for the establishment of your liberty, may you now pursue the dictates of humanity, and let proper motives actuate you in the establishment of universal liberty, until that happy period shall arise when all mankind shall enjoy equal felicity!" Although the anti-slavery sentiment expressed in the foregoing extract then harmonized with the general sentiment of the people in this borough and county, yet, in the course of eight or nine years, a change had come o'er the spirit of their dream, for on the 18th and 19th of April, 1837, a large meeting of men of all parties, from different parts of the county, was held, showing that Armstrong was then determined "to discountenance the fanatical course of the abolitionists in their 117 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. endeavors to embroil Pennsylvania with her sister states of the South." The sentiment was promulgated in one of the resolutions, that Pennsylvania, having abolished slavery within her own limits, had done all that she was in duty bound to do in regard to it. Time, knowledge and the logic of events wrought another change in the opinions of many who participated in the proceedings and voted for the resolutions of that convention-a change favorable to emancipation. The assemblage then enjoyed an excellent dinner prepared by John Mechling, and then repaired to the shade of a large sugar-tree on the bank of the river below where the rolling mill now is. TOASTS. 1. The day we celebrate. Sacred to liberty and the rights of man. Four cheers. 2. The surviving officers and soldiers of the army of the revolution. They now receive the appropriate reward of valor-the gratitude and bounty of their country. Three cheers. 3. The congress of 1776. A memorable proof that wise heads are as necessary as strong arms. Four cheers. 4. The memory of Washington. Drunk standing, and in silence. 5. The president of the United States. (Three cheers.) 6. The governor of Pennsylvania. (Three cheers.) 7. General Andrew Jackson. (Three cheers.) 8. The memory of DeWitt Clinton. The New York canal is the monument of his fame and the glory of his country. Standing, and in silence. 9. Our free institutions. May this rich inheritance from our fathers escape unhurt from the fury of party warfare. (Three cheers.) 10. Bolivar. IHe has filled the measure of military fame-his fitness to be a ruler of a free country remains to be seen. (Three cheers.) 11. The cause of liberty and representative government throughout the world. We wish it a steady and sure march. (Three cheers.) 12. The laws and constitution of our country. To these alone we owe allegiance. (Three cheers.) 13. Our fair countrywomen. (Four cheers.) \'OLUNTEER TOASTS. By the president-The memory of Gen. Jacob Brown. By Vice-President Johnston-The right of suffrage. With freemen, its transcendent importance should outweigh every other earthly consideration. By the secretary-The citizens of Kittanning. May the preparations which they have made for celebrating the fifty-second anniversary of the American Independence prove to a demonstration that they emulate the spirit of'76. By Capt. Blair-The memory of Kosciusko. The unwavering needle of the patriot's heart will point steadily to the Pole. By J. M. Jordan-Officers and soldiers of the revolution. And where the battle's thunder roar'd From morn till day's decline, For us their blood they freely pour'd, In days o' lang syne. By John Francis-When the fair sex stand in danger, may the Armstrong Guards be found standing at their arms prepared to protect them. By Josiah Copley-The Pennsylvania canal. A silver chain to bind the State together-pity it must have an iron link in it. By Thomas McKelvey-The Armstrong Guards. May we celebrate the present anniversary with the same feelings as did the heroes of the revolution on the 4th of July, 1776. By Lieut. Johnston-The memory of Patrick Dougherty, a soldier of the late war. By John Clugsten-The United States. May they flourish and be crowned with success, and ever be the bright luminary of this western hemisphere. By Wmin. W. Hastings-The fifty-second anniversary of our glorious independence we celebrate, and not men. By A. Colwell-The late preamble and resolutions of the Armstrong Guards; their enemies find fault without knowing the reason why. By James R. Snowden-The navy of the United States: It has wrested the trident of Neptune from the ancient lords of the ocean and forced the British lion to crouch at the feet of the American eagle. By Lieut. McCullough-May the oppressed of all nations break their chains on the heads of their oppressors. By George Rohrer-The Jacksonites on the other side of the water: May they celebrate this day with the same harmony and good feeling that we have done. By a guest-Our senator and representatives in the late legislature: Their exertions to secure our interests have secured our confidence. By Thomas Struthers-David Lawson, the active and zealous friend and supporter of the interests of the west. By Jesse Williams-Our worthy host. By the company-The president of the day, the vicepresidents of the day, the orator of the day. Our venerable and respected guest, Judge Orr. That fifty-second anniversary was also celebrated on the opposite side of the river by the friends of General Jackson. Robert Orr, Jr., acted as president, Samuel S. Harrison and Jacob Meehling as vice-presidents, and Frederick Rohrer and Thos. McConnell as secretaries. The locality of this celebration was among some trees just below where the old Freeport road turns up the hill, nearly opposite the foot of Mulberry street. After those present had partaken of a sumptuous dinner, prepared by the late Joseph Brown, the Declaration of Independence was read by the late Dr. Neale, and an oration was delivered by George W. Smith, then a resident of Kittanning, but now of Cecil county, Maryland, a copy of which the writer has not seen. The following toasts were then drunk with, it is stated, " a unanimity of sentiment seldom equaled:" 1. The day we celebrate: May the God of nations protect our happy country, so that in the latest ages our posterity may join in celebrating the birthday of freedom. 118 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. 2. Our country: May her councils be always peace and ever free from the suspicion of corruption. 3. The memory of Gen. George Washington. 4. The heroes and statesmen of the revolution: De voted to the inherent rights of man, they have left us a monument of greatness for an admiring world to contem plate with wonder and gratitude. 5. The army and navy of the United States: Matchless in skill and bravery-in the hour of need the sure defend ers of our rights and liberties. 6. The President of the United States: Elected by in trigue and corruption-may those concerned in betray ing the rights of their constituents meet with a just reward-an expulsion from all offices of honor and profit. 7. The Governor of Pennsylvania: His mild adminis tration meets the applause of a free people. 8. The State of Pennsylvania: Her sons, cele brated for virtue and patriotism, and always true to the principles of 1776, form a solid phalanx in support of the hero of two wars. 9. Gen. Andrew Jackson: The choice of the people of the United States for President. 10. DeWitt Clinton and Gen. Jacob Brown: In the civil and military, the one unsurpassed in talents and the other not exceeded in bravery. Their desire to promote the public good deserves that their memory should be cherished by a grateful people. 11. Internal improvement: The sure foundation of the wealth and prosperity of our State-may the citizens of Pennsylvania soon feel the effect of her liberal policy. 12. The Allegheny river: Its waters unequaled by any other stream in the world-a link formed by nature to connect the lakes with the ocean. 13. Our wives and sweethearts: Though not with us, our hearts are with them. Volunteers.-By the President: Success to the plow and the scythe, the spindle and the loom. By Jacob Mechling-The intrigues at Washington city-the evil is contagious and evidently spreading. God send us a safe deliverance from it in our cities and little villages. By Thos. McConnell-The hero who protected and preserved " Beauty and Booty." By F. Rohrer-Our members of Congress: Having represented their constituents with fidelity and unwearied industry, they merit a continuance of public favor. By J. E. Brown-The 14th day of October, 1828: A day auspicious to the real friends but fearfully ominous to the enemies of the vested and constitutional rights of the Allegheny country. A day on which Armstrong county will, with unanimity unparalleled, and in language not to be mistaken, show her determination to maintain these rights. By George W. Smith-Gen. I. D. Barnard: His patriotic devotion to his country in the field and cabinet, as well as in the senate of the United States at the late session, in the able and distinguished part he took in favor of the tariff bill, entitle him to the confidence of his fellow-citizens. By James Thompson (late chiefjustice)-John Quincy Adams and Henry Clay-a mysterious union of discordant materials: May our country arouse from her slumbers and banish from her council hateful suspicion by removing the objects that justly gave rise to it. By James Richart-General Andrew Jackson: Un daunted in war, matchless in his deportment as a gentle man, the brave and noble defender of beauty, the unde filed lover of his country. By S. S. Neale-The military chieftain: Strange that an American statesman should have advanced the sentiment. By Walter Sloan-May the rotting, tottering, clayey pillars of the present administration be removed from their sandy foundations by the voice of the Union and rebuilt with better materials, founded upon a rock against which the storms of corruption and autocracy may beat but not prevail. By John Mosgrove-General Jackson: May his talents as a statesman, his courage as a warrior, and his virtues as a citizen make an impression on the minds of all in dependent Americans. By J. 11. Hepburn-Our country: The asylum of the oppressed, the birthplace of heroes, and the land of patriots; may she flourish unrivaled among the nations of the earth. By G. W. Brodhead-Let us, like freemen, fill our goblets and drink a health to Gen. Andrew Jackson, whose name stands sanctioned by the people's will first on the roll of fame. By Samuel Davidson-Let the friends of Gen. Jack son be watchful and not suffer the enemy to decoy them from the ranks. By J. G. Fry-John Quincy Adams: May he be re moved from office, and Gen. Andrew Jackson take his place. By Peter Frantz-Gen. La Fayette: Until liberty shall have been consigned to the tomb of ages, may his name never cease to be remembered by freemen. By Frederick Robinson-A porcupine saddle and a rough-trotting horse for the enemies of Jackson to ride upon. By Samuel Truby-Gen. Andrew Jackson: A patriot, a statesman, a soldier; may he be a president. By Joseph Cogley-May Gen. Andrew Jackson receive more votes than he did on a former occasion, and may John Quincy Adams be removed fromnt office and Gen. Jackson take his place. By Win. Wiley-Gen. Jackson: His course throughout has been marked by a steady devotion to his country; a grateful people praise his fidelity and will reward his merits. By a mnember-Public men worthy of public confid ence: If conscious of fidelity, why do they appeal to the people for the course of their public conduct? After the close of the exercises, the assemblage recrossed the river at Brown's ferry without an accident or occurrence to mar the pleasure or wound the feelings of any one present. The services and the spirit of the respective toasts of these two assemblages show the different phases of a partisan and a non-partisan observance of our Sabbath day of freedom. For many years prior to 1828, the Fourth of July had been harmoniously celebrated in this 119 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. place by those belonging to different political parties, especially so in 1826, the semi-centennial anniversary of our National Independence. This is one of the toasts on that occasion: "Adams and Jefferson-venerable for their years, glorious for their achievements, let them receive the plaudits of a great nation, as they retire from the theater of life." It so happened in the course of Divine Providence, that both of the illustrious subjects of that toast died, within about five hours of each other, on that day, unbeknown, of course, to the one who gave, and those who listened to, that toast until the news reached them by mail a week or two afterward. Jefferson expired at ten minutes before one, and Adams at six o'clock P.m. The other toasts breathed a grateful spirit to Washington and the fathers of our Republic and its subsequent defenders. The declaration of independence was read by Rev. Moses P. Bennett, and the oration was delivered by Rev. Nathaniel G. Snowden, a copy of which the writer has not seen. The dinner was served on the opposite side of the river by Joseph Brown, which was partaken of by the Armstrong Guards and a large number of citizens. Thomas Blair was president, Samuel Matthews vice-president, and Eben S. Kelly secretary. They and nearly all who participated in that proper observance of that semi-centennial of American independence, are numbered with the dead. Other features of that and the other oldtime celebrations of the Fourth of July were the raising of Liberty poles and the firing of guns, pistols, and artillery. The old-time non-partisan celebrations were in vogue after 1828. In 1840, however, the day was observed by the Whig and Democratic parties separately. The former had a large convention of members of that party from all parts of the county. Their log cabin was situated in the grove on the hill east of the court-house, where Mrs. Colwell now lives. Party spirit ran high. The chief marshal* on that occasion informed the writer that fears were entertained that the cabin would be destroyed by some of the other party, at least it was so intimated. The Whigs, therefore, placed a strong military guard, with loaded arms, around it, the night before the Fourth. On Friday night, the 4th, it and the grounds were occupied by the Whigs, and brilliantly lighted. Thither marched a large procession, in which were several veterans of the revolutionary and Indian wars, and the war of 1812. By prearrangement the Democrats had a celebration and dinner of their own. The dinner was at the Mansion House on Jefferson street, then *Thomnas McConnell. kept by Thomas H. Caldwell. The Independent Blues, Capt. Rowlands, and some citizens observed the day in a non-partisan way by a parade and a dinner at Isaac Scott's, and an oration by the late Thomas McIlhenny. The gradual decadence of the old-time celebrations followed. The public dinner, the oration, the raising of liberty poles, and the firing of guns ceased. That day was observed for several years thereafter at the Federal Spring and other shady nooks, when the Declaration of Independence was read and toasts were given, some of which were national and patriotic, some humorously personal, and others indicated that Bacchic merriment was a prominent element. That of 1848 was sigAalized by the holding of a Democratic county convention. The last one that most nearly approached the old-time celebrations was, probably, in 1854, among the active movers of which were members of the corps of civil engineers, then engaged in surveying and laying out the Allegheny.Valley Railroad. Edward S. Golden presided, the Declaration of Independence was read by John V. Painter, and various toasts, usual on such occasions, were given. At one of the earlier celebrations, a certain German* was called on for a toast, after a great variety of others had been given. He was naturally at a loss for a sentiment different from any that had already been heard. In the depth of his perplexity, he justly evoked, applause by giving this: "Freuheit und flour genuge!" which, in pure German, is: "Freuheit und viel mehl!" and in English: "Liberty and plenty of flour! " In pursuance of a resolution of the American Sunday School Union, requesting a meeting of superintendents, teachers, scholars, and friends of Sunday Schools in their respective localities, on July 7, 1833, the meeting thus requested was held in this place at the Academy, on the fourth of that month, the exercises of which were prayer, singing, an exhortation by Rev. J. Sommerville, an address by Rev. G. A. Reichert, and a succinct narrative of the rise and progress of the Kittanning Sabbath School, by James E. Brown, its superintendent. That school was organized in 1830 and continued to be a union school for several years. The observance of Fourth of July by Sabbath School picnics began here in 1835. On that occasion the superintendent, teachers, two hundred scholars, and a goodly number of parents met at the Methodist Episcopal church. The exercises were: 1. Singing. 2. Prayer by Rev. Joseph Painter. 3. Singing. 4. Address by Rev. B. B. *Christopher Oury. 120 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. Killikelly. 5. Singing. 6. Prayer by Rev. G. A. Reichert. 7. Singing a hymn, in which the teachers and scholars alternated. The hymns used were printed on small sheets for the occasion. After the conclusion of these exercises, the assemblage partook of a repast, for the excellence, abundance, and variety of which the ladies who prepared and dispensed it were deservedly entitled to a full share of praise. The chronicle of that event further states that good order prevailed and all seemed to enjoy themselves, conscious that they had spent that morning of our glorious anniversary in an innocent, rational and pleasant manner. The procession left the the church about noon and were handsomely received by Capt. R. E. Brown's company of Independent Blues in open order and with presented arms, beautifully and impressively emblematic of the true use of the military, the protection of the helpless and innocent. Some years afterward that school was separated into denominational ones, which, however, continued to unite for several years in celebrating the Fourth of July, in holding their annual picnics in groves, when the weather would permit. The last of the union of more than two schools was in 1850. On that occasion an address was delivered by the late L. S. Cantwell, whose theme was, American independence is the triumph of religious as well as civil liberty. His peroration was in these words: "Our fathers never paused to ask, will our generosity be requited well or ill? They did their duty; they acted their part faithfully and nobly in the history of the world; they set a rising nation an emulous example of universal benevolence. In God they trusted for their recompense, and they have received it. The world is now resounding their praise. Looking down from a higher sphere of charity, they beheld the principles which they professed and acted oni triumphant through our vast republic and destined yet to triumph throughout the entire world. "Americans, emulate the glory of your fathers! Men of every creed and country, learn that civil and religions liberty belongs to all mankind! Practice this doctrine, act upon this principle and the sun in his course will visit no land more free, more happy or more united than this-our own country." The next year the Presbyterian and Episcopal schools unitedly, and the Methodist and other schools separately, celebrated that anniversary. Since then the various schools have had distinct celebrations, except that on two or three occasions the Presbyterian and Episcopal schools united. Within a year or two past the Presbyterian school has changed the time of its annual picnic until later in the season. There is still another phase of the observance of the Fourth of July. In pursuance of a call, signed by twelve members of the Washington Total Abstinence Society, viz., Robert Orr, Darwin Phelps, Josiah Copley, Andrew Arnold, John Mechling, James Douglass, Edward McBride, W. Reynolds, W. J. Reynolds and George Rodgers, an immense mass temperance convention assembled here July 4, 1842, with which the united Sabbath schools, after their picnic in the morning, joined. A procession was formed at the Presbyterian church and, preceded by the military, marched through the several streets to Reynolds' Grove, where prayer was offered by Rev. Win. Hilton, a temperance ode was sung, the Declaration of Independence was read by the late Thomas T. Torney, and the vast assemblage was addressed by temperrance speakers from abroad. There was a partisan celebration the same day on the opposite side of the river. Another celebration by the temperance element was July 4, 1848, by a picnic in one of the groves near town, when the ladies presented a bible to the Kittanning division of the Sons of Temperance. OTHER NOTABLE EVENTS. Washington's centennial birthday, February 22, 1832, was celebrated by the ringing of the courthouse bell at early dawn. At 12 i. the Armstrong Guards paraded, and were joined by the citizens at 2 P. 31., making a large procession. After partaking of an excellent dinner prepared by David Reynolds, Robert Orr, Jr., was appointed chairman and Samuel L. Harrison, secretary. Washington's Farewell Address was read in a distinct and impressive manner by Thomas Blair. The borough was magnificently illuminated from six until nine o'clock in the evening, and the night closed with a ball. Every countenance, it is related, evinced joy and gratitude beyond those of other public celebrations. Neither accident nor improper conduct occurred to mar the observance of that one hundredth natal day of the "Father of our Country." The Allegheny Valley railroad was opened to Ki tanning for business January 29, 1856, on which occasion there was a free excursion, which was enjoyed by a considerable number of the friends of the road, to whom the freedom of the borough had been tendered. Among the sports of the day those guests and others participated in a brisk game of snow-balling. For about nine years the station was at the head of Walnut street, whence it was removed to the corner of Vine street and 121 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Grant and Reynolds avenues, where a commodious building was soon after erected for a passenger and freight depot on a tract of two acres and thirty square feet, purchased by the late president of the railroad company from Absalom Reynolds. There is on the same tract, a few rods north of the depot, a neat two-story frame building, erected by the company for the use of the passenger and freight agent. Wednesday, April 19, 1865, the day on which occurred the funeral services of the lamented President Lincoln, was duly observed here. Business was suspended; the sable emblems of mourning were visible in every part of the borough; the bells were tolled; and unfeigned regret and sadness and indignation pervaded this community. Suitable religious exercises were held in several of the churches-in the Methodist Episcopal church in the morning, when a discourse was delivered by Rev. T. D. Ewing; in the Presbyterian church in the evening, when an address was delivered by the late Rev. A. H. Thomas. Revs. B. B. Killikelly, J. N. Dick, M. Sweigert and J. A. Earnest also officiated. The addresses and other exercises were solemn, touching and appropriate. During the forenoon of Friday, September 15, 1871, a telegraphic dispatch was received stating that a special train from Oil City, bearing President Grant and family, would arrive here at 12:40. A hasty effort was made by the mayor to have the people form in procession in front of the town hall and move thence to the depot for the purpose of receiving and welcoming his excellency in an orderly manner. But, fearful that they might miss seeing him, they heeded not the request to move inprocession. The court, then in session, adjourned before the usual time. A large multitude of people from town and country, amniong whom were some who had fought under Gen. Grant at Vicksburg and in the Wilderness, were assembled to greet him. The train arrived at 12:42, two minutes late, so that the very short time alloted for stopping here was somewhat abridged. The president appeared upon the rear platform of the car when all who could, in the brief space of three or four minutes, rushed thither and grasped his hand and evinced their esteem for and gratitude to one of our country's most illustrious benefactors. A public meeting was held at the court-house Monday evening, October 10, 1871, in reference to taking measures for contributing aid to the sufferers by the great Chicago fire. A committee of twenty was appointed to canvass the borough and vicinity, which in a few days thereafter reported that the sum of $1,300 had been raised and forwarded, which was increased by an additional sum of probably $150 or $200. Another public meeting was held at the court house Thursday evening, November 9, 1871, for the purpose of consulting in reference'to taking precautionary measures to prevent the spread of smallpox, which was then fearfully prevalent in Pittsburgh and various other places, and which it was feared would sooner or later be brought here. After an interchange of views a committee of fifteen, consisting of five physicians of this borough and ten citizens, was appointed, to which was intrusted the adoption of such sanitary measures as it might deem best. This "Board of Health" held its first meeting Friday evening, November 10, and appointed two sub-committees-one of physicians to see that vaccination be made as general and preventive as possible; the other of five citizens, as a finance committee, to raise funds to defray the necessary expenses of vaccinating all who were unable to pay and to provide, if necessary, for erecting and furnishing a small-pox hospital. This was a voluntary movement on the part of the people for self-defense against the ravages of that contagious disease-necessarily voluntary in the absence of any borough ordinance providing for such an apprehended emergency. The town council had and it still has ample power under section 13 of the act of April 4, 1866, to pass such ordinances as may be needed in relation to the sanitary condition of the borough, which it has not yet exercised. That committee of physicians and citizens did their work thoroughly. Nearly every one who required vaccination was vaccinated, whether he or she was able to pay for it or not. It was probably owing to those precautionary measures that this borough was thereafter so singularly exempt from small-pox and that a hospital or pesthouse was not necessary. TORNAI)DOES, FLOOI)DS, ICE-GORGES. Besides the tornado already mentioned, several others have at different times done more or less damage. Many years ago, probably in the summer o(f 1811, a furious one crossed the river from the west, about seventy-five yards in width, which prostrated numerous trees in its course, unroofed the log building on lot No. 245, in which had been James McClurg's store, and carried before it the unfinished frame building (it had been weatherboarded) which was being erected by Philip Essex on lot No. 241, on Water street, where the poorhouse now is, in an easterly direction across the run to the hill near the present residence of Ephraim Buflington, a distance of nearly sixty rods. 122 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. That the portion of this borough between the river and McKean street or a little beyond it was subject to inundations when this region was inhabited by the Indians, is, perhaps, inferable from the fact that they located their town, at least the heart of it, on what was then the third, but what is now the second bench, between McKean street and Grant avenue. The first well-known inundation-the writer is informed there was a high flood in 1803-after the settlement here by the whites, was February 10, 1832, which caused such of the people living on the then second bench as could to remove to higher ground until the subsidence of the waters. The hight of the water at the northwest corner of Arch and Water streets was four feet one and a half inches above the present pavement; at the northwest corner of Water and Mulberry streets, two and a half feet. On Wednesday, October 21, 1835, the river rose twenty-five feet above low-water mark, which was within a few feet of being as high as it was in 1832. In the latter part of the second week in March, 1837, the heavy bodies of ice that had accumulated through the winter on the upper Allegheny, French creek and their tributaries broke up, which, or at least large portions thereof, gorged between Kittanning and the mouth of Red Bank. On Sunday and Monday, 12th and 13th, that gorge moved about forty feet and then stopped. Between 1 and 2 o'clock A. M., Tuesday, 14th, the alarm was given that the ice had begun to move. It soon stopped again. The people of Kittanning, thus awakened, were much alarmed, and the approach of daylight was indeed welcome to them. Immense gorges of ice accumulated from one side of the river to the other, so high as to intercept the view of buildings on the other side to those on this side of the river. There were vast piles of ice along the river above Kittanning from thirty to forty feet high. About 4 o'clock P. M. the river overflowed, both above and below town. Huge cakes of ice, four, five and six feet thick, were furiously borne into McKean. street from both above and below. The whole town was covered with ice. There was a continuous bed of ice in Water street from fifteen to twenty feet thick, and nearly the same on Jefferson street. The turnpike at the lower part of the town was blocked up, as were the landings on both sides of the river. The bridge across Truby's run, on Water street, was forced back to Jefferson street. The swollen river raged and foamed as if it would free itself from its unwonted burden. All the people that could fled to the hills. Many that had not time to reach them betook themselves to the upper stories of their dwellings until after the fall of the water, which overflowed the river banks about 4 o'clock P.M., bearing ice, trees, fences, hogs and cattle from north and south into McKean street, and destroying the bridge in the lower part of the town. There were, of course, hours of intense anxiety during the continuance of the fearful prospect of an ice-floe as well as a flood. But, fortunately, just after that overflow, when the alarm of the people was most intense, the lower part of the gorge broke, and the rest of it soon moved down stream. No person's life was lost and not much other damage was done except what was caused by the high water, which was four feet higher than in the flood of 1832. Large cakes of ice were left on some of the streets, which were not entirely melted until May or June. In the confusion of fleeing to the hill, some mistakes were made. A singular, if not ludicrous, one was that of an old lady taking her cat and leaving her babe behind. When asked why she had saved her cat instead of her child, she is said to have replied: "Oh, she is such a rouser for the mice." The hight of the water above the pavement at the corner of Arch and Water streets was five and one-quarter feet; at the corner of Water and Mulberry, six and one-half feet. The highest water flood was March 17, 1865, when the water reached five and one-quarter feet above the pavement at the corner of Arch and Water streets; two feet nine and one-half inches, corner of Water and Jacob streets; and six and one-half feet, corner of Water and Mulberry streets. The water reached to within three inches of the door-sill on Market, a few feet above McKean street, and filled every cellar between the latter street and the river, except Gen. Orr's, on lot No. 76. The flood December 13, 1873, raised the water at the corner of Arch and Water streets three feet above the pavement; corner of Water and Jacob streets, one foot nine and one-half inches; and at the corner of Water and Mulberry streets, four feet. Another terrific ice-gorge occurred in the second week of March, 1875. For several days the ice accumulated above and below Kittanning-several miles each way. It was called the "ten-mile gorge." The severely cold weather which had prevailed through the winter made the ice very thick and hard. Though it was not piled up as high as it was in 1837, the gorge was considerably longer, and, for a few days, there was a great, a very uncomfortable apprehension that immense damage would be done by sweeping away the bridge and parts of the town, which would probably have been the case if the water had risen suddenly and rapidly. Such of the inhabitants on Water street 1.23 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. and other low ground as could found quarters on higher ground. After several days' waiting and watching and fearing a direful calamity, relief came on Monday afternoon, March 15. For thenit was a clear, warm, beautiful afternoon-the lower end of the gorge broke, and the vast body of ice, which had given the river an arctic look for miles, moved slowly and majestically down the Allegheny, an earnestly wished for sight, which all who could thronged the river bank to witness. EARTHQUAKE. Between 11 and 12 o'clock Sunday night, March 9, 1828, a lively shock of an earthquake was felt here. Those who noticed it described the motion as having at first been undulating and easy, and afterward quick and vibratory. It continued from one to two minutes, and was more sensibly felt in Pittsburgh at the same time. FIRES. Besides the serious conflagrations already mentioned one occurred about 3 o'clock A.M. Thursday, June 26, 1828, which destroyed the hatter shop of the late Hugh Rodgers, which adjoined his brick dwelling-house on lot No. 76, corner of Arch and Jefferson streets, now belonging to the estate of the late Gen. Orr. The fire had made such progress before it was discovered that it was impossible to save either the shop or its contents, and it required a very vigorous and well directed effort to save the house. Very high commendation was deservedly bestowed upon the ladies, who freely volnnteered on that occasion to assist in conveying water to the engine. They entered the lines with alacrity and steadily remained at their posts until the danger was over. Without their assistance it would have been very difficult to have saved the dwelling-house. On Friday, April 10, 1835, two houses belonging to Mrs. Cust and the cabinet and chair-making shop of Nathaniel Henry and George W. Ross, on lot No. 122, north side of Market street, were burned; and on Monday night, April 25, then instant, McCartney & Shields' tannery, northeast corner of Jacob and Jefferson streets, was nearly consumed by fire. On both of these occasions also the ladies were prompt and active in aiding to check the conflagrations. Another occurred August 7, 1862, which originated from a young boy's playing with matches in the large stable of Lighteap & Piper, on lot No. 70, on the west side of Jefferson street, which destroyed that stable and the houses of A. L. Robinson and Judge Boggs, and other buildings on the square or block between the public alley bounding that lot on the south and Arch street, and endangered other buildings in the vicinity. There were several other fires, at earlier and later periods, which would have been extensive ones if they had not been checked in due time. The most extensive robbery ever committed here, or at least acknowledged to have been, was on Wednesday night, November 28, 1832, when the store of Philip Mechling was entered by cutting a hole through one of the window-shutters, on the Water street side of the building, removing a pane of glass, taking the key out of the bolt-pin by which the iron bar was fastened across the outside of the shutter, hoisting the sash, and thus effecting an entry. Mr. Mechling was thus robbed of about $2,000 worth of property, consisting chiefly of bank notes. Although a reward of $300 was offered for the apprehension of the robber, he has thus far eluded detection. If he is still living the pangs of a remorseful conscience ought to impel him to make restitution ere he shall receive the final and irrevocable sentence of eternal condemnation. CHURCHIES. As early as April, 1806, the Presbyterian congregation of Kittanning applied to the Presbytery of Redstone for supplies, although there was not then a church organization here. The congregation probably consisted either of members of the Presbyterian church elsewhere or of those who preferred that denomination. Those supplies having beein ordered, the first of them was by Rev. Joseph W. Henderson, on the second Sabbath of June, 1806..Supplies were afforded by him and other members of the Redstone and Erie Presbyteries at the rate of one to five times a year, until a church organization was effected, August 31, 1822, when the number of members was twenty-one, and Thomas Hamilton, David Johnston and John Patrick were elected elders. From that time until January 1, 1825, there were occasional supplies. A stated supply was then commenced by Rev. Nathaniel P. Snowden, which continued until the latter part of 1827 or the beginning of 1828. Then followed occasional supplies until August 11, 1830, when the first pastor, Rev. James Campbell, was installed. He preached here three-fourths of his time. He resigned his pastoral charge October 4, 1831. The church was then dependent on supplies until the second Sabbath of April, 1834, when the late Rev. Joseph Painter, D. D., commenced his ministerial labors. lie was installed November 14, 1834, and continued to be the active pastor until December, 1863, preaching here two-thirds of his time, and to other congregations the other 124 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. CHAPTER I. HISTORICAL SKETCH OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.* William Penn -His Influence as Proprietor of the Province - Outline of the Early History of Pennsylvania -The Original Counties-Formniation of Armstrong-Contest between the English and French for Dominion in the West-The Aboriginal Inhabitants-The Indian Town of Kittanning-Col. Armstrong's Expedition against It-The Battle at Blanket Hill-Return March-Testimonials to Armstrong's Valor and Services-Events Subsequent to the Destruction of Kittanning-Gen. Brodhead (note)-Captain Sharp and other Pioneers Indian Atrocities- Obstacles to Settlement- More Favorable Circumstances -Population- Nationality of the Pioneers - Cabin-Building - Neighborly Kindness - Game - Early Settlers' Amusements-The Arm strong Purchase-County Seat Established-The County Attached to Westmoreland - Judicial Organiza tion-The First Court-House and Jail -Succeeding and Present Structures -Armstrong County Civil Roster- Political - Judicial and Legal - Religious- Educational -Journalistic-Postal and Traveling Facil ities- Scenery of the Allegheny Valley - Mercantile and Commercial - Distilleries, Iron Furnaces and Salt Wells, etc.-Prices of Land, Labor and Provisions -Agricultural -Surveys of the Allegheny River Patriotism -The War of 1812. VILLIAM PENN. T HE writer briefly refers to the person, motives and principles of the first charter proprietor of the Province of Pennsylvania, once the owner of the soil of this county. Two hundred and thirty years ago was born in the city of London the subsequent founder of that province. Hie was the son of William Penn, of the county of Wilts, Vice *The subject-matter of this chapter was originally prepared for and partly delivered as an address on the occasion of the observance of the centennial anniver:ary of American independence, July 4, 1876, at Cherry Run, in Plum Creek township. The author says: " On the thirteenth day of March, 1876, a joint resolution of the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States was adopted and duly approved, recommending the people to assemble in their respective towns or counties on this centennial anniversary of our national independence, and cause to be then delivered an historical sketch of their town or county front its formation, and that either a written or printed copy thereof be filed in the clerk's (ice of the county, and an additional one in the office of the Librarian of Congress, so that a complete record may thus be obtained of the progress of our institutions during the first century of their existence. The purport of that joint resolution has very properly been brought to the knowledge of the people by the proclamations of the president of the United States and the Governors of this and other Statei. To render that recommendation of Congress effective, so far as this county is concerned, these historical sketches were in part origi nally prepared at the instance of the people of Armstrong county. The writer remarks, in passing, that there is a wide difference between a sketch and a history of either a county, state or country. The former is simplyan outline, a general delineation, orincomplete draft of one or the other, as the case may be. A history, or a complete narrative of the events which have happened within the territorial limits of this county, since its history began, would require a much longer period of time for its preparation than has been allotted to the writer, and it would be much more voluminous than is the sketch which he has prepared. He may also remark that he has studiously refrained from infusing original and speculative ideas into these sketches, but has rather endeavored to fill them with such fliacts of history as he has gathered in the course of his earlier and more recent researches. Some of them are much older than is the organ ization oif our county, but they are, nevertheless, remotely con nected with its history. 2 Admiral in the time of Cromwell, and whom King Charles II knighted for his successful naval services against the Dutch. His son-our William Penn-was a serious youth. He received religious impressions in his twelfth year, which were confirmed by the preaching of Thomas Lowe, a Quaker preacher. In his fifteenth year, while a commoner in Christ Church, Oxford, he met with other students who were devoutly inclined, and with whom he joined in holding private meetings, in which they prayed and preached, which, it seems, was offensive to the college authorities, by whom those young religionists were confined for non-conformity, but continuing in their religious exercises, they were finally expelled. Young Penn's father vainly endeavored to turn him from his religious bent and exercises, which the more worldly minded senior feared would interfere with his promotion in the world, but finding him still determined to adhere to his religious convictions, gave him a severe beating and turned him adrift upon the world. The young martyr was restored to his home by the intercession of his mother. He afterward visited Paris, and after his return was admitted to the study of the law in Lincoln's Inn. He soon after became a member of the staff of the Duke of Ormond, who was then the Viceroy of Ireland. He was thus engaged for awhile in military service, of STHE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. third, until the spring of 1853. During the last ten years of his active pastorate all his time was given to this congregation. Hle was assisted for several months in 1863 by Rev. George P. Hays, D. D., now president of Washington and Jefferson college. The present pastor, Rev. T. 1). Ewing, was installed May 10, 1864. The membership of this church was 32 in 1834, 146 in 1864, and it is 318 in 1876. Its Sabbath school was organized in 1830. Its present number of scholars is 270. For several years after 1830 there was in this place a union Sabbath school of all the Protestant denominations. Prior to the erection of the first court-house, religious services were held in private houses, afterward in the court-house, until a church edifice was erected in 1830-31. To aid in building it Thomas Hamilton, by his last will and testament, probated and registered October 30, 1829, bequeathed the sum of $400, and specified that it be "a neat brick building, to be called the First Presbyterian Church." Some of his other bequests were $100 to aid the funds of the first Sabbath school organized within this borough; $100 to aid the first Bible society organized here; $100 to purchase Bibles-one Bible to be given gratis to any poor family in this county, if so many were then unprovided, and the residue to single individuals. He also directed $200 to be paid to the American Bible Society, $200 to the Foreign Missionary Society, and $400 to Princeton College, New Jersey, and $400 to Jefferson College, Pennsylvania, to be applied in aiding indigent "pious young men of competent talents min defraying the expenses of their education for the Gospel ministry." These last four bequests were to be paid out of the proceeds of the sale of a certain 150-acre tract of land. After deducting from the amount of these proceeds the expenses of the sale, the balance was applied to the payment of the legacies of those two societies in full, and $305.32 to each of those colleges. That church edifice was erected on lot No. 177, east side of Jefferson, and second lot below Jacob street, where, in its remodeled state, it still stands. Its conveniences and style of architecture do not compare favorably with those of some of the more modern temples of religion elsewhere. A vigorous effort is being made to erect a new one in another part of the borough, on a scale comporting with the wants of the congregation and the esthetic taste of this age of progress and improvement. This church was incorporated by the court of Common pleas of this county June 26, 1841. The 8 trustees named in the charter were Alexander Colwell, Adam McConnell, A. L. Robinson, Joseph McCartney, Darwin Phelps, John R. Johnston and James E. Brown, who were to continue as such until the election to be held on the third Wednesday of November then next. A supplement was granted by the same court, amending articles 4, 5 and 6 of the charter, March 8, 1865. The Lutheran church was organized in 1820. The records for several years after its organization were imperfectly kept, so that a considerable portion of the knowledge of it which the writer has been able to acquire is traditional. Until 1840, the preaching was chiefly, if not altogether, in the German language, by Revs. Adam Mohler, Ezardfels, G. A. Reichert,* - Burnheimer and - - Stackfeld; from 1840 to 1858, by Revs. George F. Ehrenfeldt, W. A. Passavant, D. D., Asa Waters, Michael Sweigart, and - Reck-partly in German and partly in English. St. John's-the English branch-was organized May 13, 1858, of which Rev. J. A. Ernest was the pastor from October, 1859, until October, 1867, when he resigned and was succeeded by the present pastor, Rev. J. A. Kribbs. Trinity, the German branch, recalled their former pastor, Rev. G. A. Reichert, in 1858. The present membership of both branches, 218, with 190 scholars in their two Sabbath schools. In 1830-31, the Lutheran and Episcopal congregations united in erecting a church edifice, a brick structure, with a tower, in which was the vestry room, on lot No. 33, on the east side of Water, above Arch street, where Simon Truby now lives, which was alternately occupied by these two congregations until July 21, 1845, when it was blown down by a violent storm of wind, accompanied by thunder and lightning and copious rain, which did other damage in this borough. For some time previous to this casualty, the Episcopalian rector insisted that his congregation must have the exclusive use of that edifice, because it was contrary to the rule or canon of the Episcopal church for any other denomination to have services in fhe same building, the force of which was not perceptible to the pastor of the Lutheran congregation. The contest thus begun was ended, so far as actual occupancy was concerned, by that act of God. The Lutheran congregation then worshiped in the court-house, until they became possessed of the first edifice erected by the Union, now United * Rev. (4. A. Reichert preached his farewell sermon to his congregation in the Methodist Episcopal church, Sabbath, December 17, 1837-in English in the forenoon, and in German in the afternoon. Hle had accepted a (call to become pastor of a German Lutheran church in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, after visiting once more the severa'. ()ngregations then under his charge, 125 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Presbyterian, congregation, on the parts of lots 174 and 180, fronting on Jacob street and on one of the public alleys, a frame building, now occupied by the German branch. The erection of the brick edifice, now occupied by the English branch, was commenced in 1867 and finished in 1872. Services were held in it before its completion, the first having been in January, 1869. The Methodist Episcopal church is the outgrowth of class-meetings held and preaching enjoyed here more than sixty years ago when occasional services were held in private houses, one of which is still standing on the corner of Market street and a public alley, on lot No. 127, and in the court-house. Among the first circuit preachers, about 1816, were Revs. Bair and Baker, and about 1821, Rev. Thomas Hudson, heretofore mentioned. This point became a station in 1861. The station preachers, Revs. E. Hingeley, 2 years, A. H. Thomas, 3 years, M. W. Dallas, 1 year, W. P. Turner, 3 years, N. G. Miller, 3 years, J. B. Uber, 1 year, and the present pastor, M. J. Sleppy, now in his second pastoral year. The present membership is 240; Sabbath school scholars, 150. The first church edifice was erected near the head of the extension of Market street, on the south side, on that part of out-lot No. 24, now owned by James Mosgrove. The deed to the trustees of the church is dated December 29, 1838, and the house was probably erected in 1839. It was one-story brick, and of adequate size for the then congregation. The present edifice is brick, two stories, and situate on the old jail lot, corner of McKean street and the public alley between and parallel to Arch and Market streets. It was commenced in the fall of 1860, and completed in the winter of 1862. It was incorporated by the court of common pleas of this county, June 5, 1871, and James Piper, Daniel B. Heiner, Samuel C. Davis, W. D. Mullin and W. R. Milliun were named as charter trustees. The Episcopal-St. Paul's-was organized in 1824. Prior thereto an effort was made to secure aid for this point from the Society for the Advancement of Christianity in this State, as appears from an autograph letter, in the possession of James B. Neale, from the venerable Bishop White, who was appointed chaplain* to Congress during the time of its flight to York, Pennsylvania, and was thereafter annually chosen until the capitol of the United States was located at Washington, * In a postscript to a letter from his sister, Mrs. Robert Morris, to their mother, dated March 15, 1777, she said: "Billy has been told that the Congress appointed him their ('haplain when in Baltimore, but has not yet heard it from them, and begs it may not be mentioned," dated at Philadelphia, March 26, 1822, in reply to one which he had received from Dr. Neale, in which he wrote: "I have received your letter of 6th instant, and shall hand it to the committee of missions in order that if it should be in their power, during the ensuing summer, to employ a missionary to go beyond the mountain, there may be due attention to your request. "The Society for the Advancement of Christianity in Pennsylvania feel most keenly the pressure of the times. We shall, however, continue to aid our distant brethren as much as the funds afforded to us will permit." The efforts of the late Robert Brown and Dr. Samuel S. Neale were effective in establishing this church. There was occasional Episcopal preaching here before 1824, by Rev. Mr. Thompson. Services were held in the court-house from 1824 until the erection of the edifice by the Episcopalians and Lutherans in 1830-31. Rectors-Rev. Moses P. Bennett, from 1824 until 1827; Rev. William Hilton, from 1829 until 1832, and again from 1839 until 1871, since which time he has been, and he still is, emeritus rector; Rev. B. B. Killikelly, D.D., from August, 1834, until October, 1839; Rev. O. S. Taylor, from 1871 until his death, April 6, 1874; Rev. R. W. Micou, the present rector, commenced his clerical labors in July, 1874. Membership-(In 1876) 151. Sunday-school scholars, 140. The present church edifice, brick, one story, with vestry-room in the rear, is on lot No. 105, on Water street. The corner-stone was laid September 21, 1846, when the late Bishop Potter, who died at San Francisco, California, July 4, 1865, was present and delivered an eloquent and appropriate address.* This church was incorporated by the proper court September 26, 1846. The wardens named in the charter were David Patterson and Joseph Boney, and the vestrymen Robert Brown, Joseph Buffington, John Portsmouth, Ephraim Buffington and George W. Smith, who were to continue as such until the next regular election. It was consecrated by Bishop Potter, August 27, 1847. The choir is aided by a large, good-toned organ. A neat, comfortable brick manse, one and a half stories, has been erected near the church within the last few years, valued at $6,000. The Associate Reformed, now United Presbyterian, Church was organized September 18, 1845. * Bishop Potter, in his annual address or report to the sixty-third annual convention, held in St. Andrew's church, Philadelphia, 1847, said: "I delivered an address and laid in a beautiful position the corner-stone of a new edifice for St. Paul's church, Kittanning." 126 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. Before that time Rev. John Dickey, deceased, and other clergymen of what was formerly called the Seceder, and then the Union, Church, preached occasionally to congregations in the old court-house. The following is a copy of a subscription paper, in the handwriting of the late David Reynolds: Under a strong and impressive presumption that it will enforce on the minds of the rising generation an important view of eternity, we, either as parents or guardians of familie s, feel it an incumbent duty in which we are bound, for our offspring as well as ourselves, to have the Scriptures publicly preached amongst us. Therefore, we, the subscribers, do hereby promise to pay the sums annexed to our respective names for the yearly support of the Rev. John Dickey, as a minister of the Gospel, for the part of Associate Presbytery denominated Kittanning. February 17, 1815. The writer is not informed whether that was one of the several other like papers. The amount of subscriptions on it appears to have been *76. Some time previous to the date of the organization application had been made to the Presbytery of the Lakes, by persons living at and in the vicinity of Kittanning, for preaching and for the organization of a congregation. By order of that Presbytery Rev. Isaiah Niblock and S. G. Purvis and A. P. Ormond, Sr., met at Kittanning, and having constituted a session, received forty persons into the fellowship of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church, administered the sacrament of the Lord's Supper, presided at the election and ordination of John Cunningham, Moses Patterson, Hugh Rodger and Alexander Henry as ruling elders, and thus completed the organization. At that time Rev. Joseph Kerr Riddle was preaching as a stated supply to this people, and he continued thus for a year or more afterward. He was followed by Rev. Joseph Buchanan as stated supply for another year, and then by several other miinisters, who were sent hither by order of the abovementioned Presbytery. In the winter of 1849 a call was moderated by order of Presbytery, which was made out for Rev. John N. Dick, D. D., which was presented at a meeting of Presbytery, held in April of that year, and was accepted. HIe commenced his pastoral work that month, the church roll showing the number of members to be thirty-two. He was ordained and settled as pastor October 16, 1849, and continued thus until February 2, 1876, when the charge was dimitted and the Butler Presbytery released him from the pastorate. The present number of church members is 95; number of Sabbath-school scholars, 35. A large portion of the congregation reside in the siurrounding country. The Associate Presbyterian and the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Churches united in 1858, thus forming the United Presbyterian Church of North America. The denomination to which this congregation belonged having entered into that union, it has ever since been known as the First United Presbyterian congregation of Kittanning, under the care of the Butler Presbytery. It has been dependent on supplies ordered by Presbytery since Dr. Dick's resignation. It is not improbable that another pastor will be called before the next 4th of July. The present church edifice is a large brick building, containing an audience room, lecture room and pastor's study, situate on the northwest corner of Jacob and Jefferson streets, on lot No. 166. The Associate Reformed Church was incorporated by the proper court March 23, 1850, and the trustees named in the charter were James Colwell, Robert Speer and Samuel C. King, to serve until the election held on the first Monday of January, 1851. The United Presbyterian Church was incorporated by the same court June 15, 1859, and the council of deacons named in the charter were George Bovard, John M. Daily, William McClelland, Samuel M. Sloan and John Barnett, to serve for one year. SThe First Christian Church, Campbellite, was organized about 1853. The deed for lot No. 172, on Jacob street, to the trustees thereof is dated October 20, 1853. A two-story brick edifice was erected on that lot. The audience room is iri the second story, and lecture and Sabbath-school room, two other rooms and vestibule are in the first story. The membership was small and the organization was short-lived. That lot and building subsequently became the property of J. E. Meredith. The Reformed (St. Luke's) Church was organized August 30, 1869, by adopting a constitution and electing Fred'k Smith elder and David Knobie and Diederich Stoelzing deacons, with a membership of twenty-five. Rev. C. A. Limberg, of Butler, Pennsylvania, preached to the congregation in German, as a supply, prior to the organization of the church, from some time in the fall of 1858 until some time in the following spring, when, by order of the Clarion Classis, the service was changed from German to English, and Rev. J. F. Wiant was designated to preach as a supply, which he did semi-monthly until he was relieved by that classis in 1872. Rev. L. B. Leasene, of Irwin's Station, Pennsylvania, was then elected and continued to b)e the pastor during the next eight months, preach. 127 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. ing semi-monthly. The present pastor, Rev. D. S. Dieffenbacher, received a call, which he accepted, and entered upon his pastoral duties June 1, 1873. The present membership is 156; Sabbath-school scholars, eighty-five. The congregation, feeling the urgent necessity of a church edifice, appointed a committee, September 26, 1870, to secure one, and succeeded in effecting a purchase of the above-mentioned edifice of the First Christian Church for $2,500. The deed is dated June 15, 1871. During the summer of that year the congregation caused the building to be finished, beautified and made a comely and inviting place of worship. It was dedicated October 8, 1871, under the name of St. Luke's Reformed Church. St. Mary's (Catholic) church was organized in or about 1851. The first services were held at the house of William Sirwell, near the head of Jefferson street, and subsequently at other private houses, in the academy and court-house, until the present church edifice was erected in 1853, which is a neat, comfortable brick structure, at the corner of High and Water streets, on lot No. 1, and is furnished in the usual style of that denomination. The first priest who had charge of this church was Rev. Mitchell, who was followed by Revs. Gray, Scanlan, Phelan, O'Rourke, Lambing and Dignam, that is until July 4, 1876, and the number of families belonging thereto is fifty. SCHOOLs. The first school in Kittanning was taught by Adam Elliott, in a log house situate on lot No. 69, near the public alley, between Water and Jefferson streets, which lot is now owned by Mrs. Mary A. Craig. Its only pupils known to be still living are Mrs. Catherine Truby and her brothers Jacob and John Mechling. That school was opened in 1805, and continued to be kept in that house until the completion of the first jail, to one of the upper rooms of which it was transferred and from which it was subsequently removed to a private house on lot No. 165, corner of Jacob and Jefferson streets, now owned and occupied by John Croll. Adam Elliott continued to teach for many years, and sometimes used the rod quite vigorously. One of his pupils, now a grave and respected senior, related to the writer that, on a certain occasion, Teacher Elliott gave him a severe flogging which he thought he did not deserve. Feeling aggrieved, he told his father all about it when he went home. After listening to the grave story of his boy's fancied wrong the father consoled him by saying that he must go and see the teacher about it. Father and son proceeded to the schoolroom, the latter in high glee, fondly expecting the teacher would suffer a penalty, of a reprimand at least, for the injustice which the pupil considered had been inflicted upon him. After entering the schoolroom the father inquired of the teacher whether he had flogged his son. Being answered in the affirmative, he wanted to know whether he really deserved a good flogging. The teacher said that, in his opinion, he did. " Well, then," said the father, "give him another one." That affair took a turn so different from what that young hopeful wished and expected that he never again complained at home for being punished in school. There is in the Gazette, of Wednesday, March 22, 1826, an editorial notice of an examination of the students then under the tuition of Rev. Nathaniel G. Snowden on the next previous Saturday evening, written by Josiah Copley, in which he said: They "were examined in the presence of a numerous audience who were well pleased with the proficiency they had made, and which was highly creditable to them and their teacher. After the examination the scholars gave a few specimens of their elocution, in which their teacher appears to have spared no pains to instruct them in gesture, emphasis and pronunciation. We were particularly pleased with the easy, clear and unembarrassed manner in which the younig ladies recited a number of pleasing pieces, in the selection of which they manifested fine taste." The writer has learned from one of the participants * in that first school exhibition in Kittanning that the late Thomas McConnell was so well pleased with the exercises that he presented to the teacher twenty-five dollars as an indication of his appreciation of his ability and of his fidelity to his pupils. That school was taught in one of the jury-rooms in the court-house, and the examination and exhibition were held in the court-room. Of the pupils who participated in these exercises the following are the only ones known to be still living, namely, Mrs. Geo. A. Barnard, Mrs. Mary M. Johnston, Mrs. Mary M. Killikelly, Mrs. Margaret Nulton, Mrs. Mary Watson, Alexander Reynolds, Sr., and James Ross Snowden. The two last named appeared in the amusing dialogue entitled "The Gentleman and the Farmer." There were, besides Mr. Elliott's and the lastmentioned school, various other subscription schools, which were well patronized, prior to and after the establishment of the common school SMrs. Watson. 128 DANIEL BRODIHEAD HEINER. Daniel Brodhead IHeiner, whose portrait appears above, was born in Milford, Pike county, Pennsylvania, on the 24th day of September, 1807. When but a few years old his father, John IHeiner, removed to western Pennsylvania, locating temporarily in Indiana, Pennsylvania. His object was to take possession of and look after a large tract of land bequeathed to him by his grandfather, Gen. D)aniel Brodhead. At the breaking out of the war of 1812 John Hleiner returned east with his family, to Charlestown, Virginia, the home of his wife's family, with whom he left his wife and children, and entered the army as a captain of volunteers and served with distinction through that war. At its conclusion he removed with his family again to western Pennsylvania, locating at Kittanning, in which vicinity were many of the Brodhead lands. Daniel B. Heiner, the subject of this biography, lived till the date of his death in Kittanning. HIe grew up with the town. lie engaged in early life in the mercantile business with Thomas McConnell, under the firm name of Heiner & McConnell. Later in life he entered the mercantile business with John Mechling, under the firm name of Ileiner & Mechling. Ile served in Kittanning as justice of the peace for a period of twenty years consecutively. Mr. Heiner was a man of unswerving principles. lIe was one of the founders of the Methodist Episcopal church at Kittanning, and for nearly fifty consecutive years a member of the official board of the church. He inherited his Methodism from his mother, she having been a member of that church for sixty years at her death, and her father before her, Peter Haines, of Virginia, was a Methodist, making a continuous succession from the very advent of John Wesley to the present day. Peter Haines, of Virginia, the grandparent of ). B. lHeiner, was a soldier of the revolutionary war. One of the marked features of his life was a deep-seated hatred for Hessians because they fought against our liberties for pay alone. After the war of the revolution if ever one spoke in his presence hlie never failed to strike him with his cane, regardless of consequences. Mr. IHeiner was a cousin of the Hon. Richard Brodhead, United States senator, from Pennsylvania, from 1849 to 1855, who was married to the daughter of Jefferson Davis, afterward president of the Southern confederacy. Mr. Heiner had numerous relatives in Virginia, on his mother's side, who held commissions in the southern army, yet so true was his loyalty that he was never known to express even the slightest sympathy for them in their rebellious cause. Daniel B. Heiner was the only male lineal descendant of Gen. Daniel Brodhead, from whom he inherited a membership to the society of the Cincinnati, a distinguished hereditary title of honor. This membership now descends to his oldest son, Capt. Robert G. Heiner, United States army, by right of primogeniture, with the certificate of membership signed by Gens. Washington and Knox. Ile leaves behind him four sons and five daughters. Capt. R11. G. Heiner, 1st U. S. Inf.; John H. Heiner, who served in the Union army throughout the late war of the rebellion in the 8th regt. Pa. Reserves; Hion. W. G. Heiner and I). B. IHeiner, Esq., of Kittanning, Pennsylvania; Mary L. Heiner; Sarah HIeiner Core, wife of the Rev. J. F. Core; Margret I. Heiner; Annie Heiner Burleigh, wife of( apt. T. B. Burleigh, of Dakota, and Lydia IHeiner Trippe, wife of Lieut. Percy-Edwards Trippe, of the 10th U. S. Cay. Mr. Ileiner died December 29,1882, in his seventy-sixth year. Ile was a man of irreproachable morals, a christian of the most exemplary type, and in every relation of his public and private life a man of unblemished reputation. Seldom do we find a life so blameless and so fiull of the gracefiul amenities of christian tenderness and social benignity. In the example of an upright and patriotic citizen, a kind and tender parent, and a consistent christian deportment, he left a legacy of priceless inheritance. THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. system. One of them was kept in a brick schoolhouse on the upper part of lot No. 149, now owned by H. N. Lee, on the public alley parallel to and between Market and Jacob streets. One of the walls fell in one day soon after school was dismissed at noon, when fortunately neither teacher nor scholars were there to be injured. The mason who built it on being told by certain quizzers that he had put too much lime in his mortar innocently replied, " No, no, it was more than half sand." The teacher of that school was a Mr. Jones, who was addicted to flagellating his larger pupils with great severity. One of them says Jones used to box his ears, and tell him he "would yet be governor of Pennsylvania," in consequence of which the other boys, for the purpose of aggravating him, called him "Governor," at which he became indignant and threatened vengeance 6n his tormentors. Teacher Jones refused to treat his scholars one Christmas day, for which they barred him out for three days, receiving food and encouragement from his wife. After a long and vigorous attempt of Teacher Jones to gain an entrance into his schoolroom, he became hors de combat by an accidental fall which injured his back. Thus the boys became victors. At a later period, two other subscription schools were in operation at the same time. One of them was taught by David Simpson in a frame building, recently torn down, near the stone house on Jacob street. The other was taught by Dr. Meeker in the building on lot No. 193, on Water street, now occupied by Mr. Bowman. A rivalry in muscular scholarship existed between the male pupils of these two schools. The boys of the Meeker school, by boasting of their courage and strength, and frequently taunting the boys of the Simpson school, provoked the latter to take up stones and other weapons to which juveniles resort to when incited to combat. Thus armed, and with their banner waving o'er them-they had been presented with a flag-the boys of the Simpson school marched in serried line upon their boastful rivals, who were also arrayed and armed for the shock of battle. The contest was short and decisive. It resulted, says an eye-witness, in the boys of the Meeker school being driven to the wall, or rather within the walls of their own schoolroom. Then followed a conference between the teachers, which suddenly ended when the casus belli was disclosed to the teacher of the vanquished. About 1830-31 a one-story brick schoolhouse was erected by the late Samuel Houston on lot No. 176, on the west side of Jefferson, below Jacob street, on acceunt of dis;atisfaction with the management of school matters in the Academy, in which a well-patronized school was taught for several years by the late Thomas Cunningham, who was afterward a member of the bar of Beaver county, Pennsylvania, and an incumbent of a judicial position in Kansas. His successor in that school was Jonathan E. Meredith, who taught it several months. January 20, 1836, George Fidler issued his notice in the Kittanning Gazette, then edited and published by Josiah Copley for the estate of Simoi Torney, deceased, southwest corner of Market and McKean streets, informing the people of Kittanning that he was about to open "a school for instruction in the usual branches, in Mr. Houston's schoolhouse on Jefferson street." Other private pay-schools were, at various times, liberally supported. The free-school system was inaugurated by the act of April 1, 1834. In pursuance thereof, the then sheriff of this county, Chambers Orr, deceased, issued his proclamation, dated August 6, 1834, for the election, to be held on the third Friday of September of that year, of six school directors in each township and borough in the county-if a borough connected with a township for the assessment of county rates and levies, it and such township formed one school district. The candidates for the first board of school directors, under that law, for the borough and township of Kittanning, announced in the Gazette and Columbian, Wednesday, September 3, 1834, were Frederick Rohrer, Samuel McKee, Findley Patterson, John R. Johnston, Joseph M. Jordan and Richard Graham. The first free schoolhouse in the borough of Kittanning was built on the upper part of lot No. 173, on the south side of Jacob street. It was a one-story frame building, fifty-five by twenty-four feet; hight of ceiling, eight feet; and contained two rooms, heated by stoves. In the course of time-several years-the increased number of pupils required additional room. That building was enlarged by adding a story built of brick, nine and one-half feet high, lower down toward McKean street, and removing the frame house, which was on higher ground, on to it, thus making a twostory school-house with four rooms, which answered the public wants for a few years. During the last several years of its occupancy for school purposes, its capacity was not adequate to the health and comfort of the largely increased number of scholars. In 1842-3, Judge Boggs taught in that building for fifteen months. Educational interests and public sentiment demanded a more cal)acious, comely and comfortable temple of 129 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. knowledge, to be located on higher and better ground. The board of school directors were willing and anxious to meet that demand. The chief obstacle in the way for several years was their inability to obtain a lot of sufficient size and suitable location at a reasonable price, for such an edifice as the educational wants of this borough required, until the purchase of an acre of ground, with gravelly soil, a gradual northwesterly slope, consisting of lots Nos. 37, 43, 49 and 55, bounded by McKean and Vine streets and two of the public alleys, was made by the school directors from Gen. Orr, for the reasonable sum of $3,500, in 1867-8, the deed for which is dated February 28, 1871. The contract for building the new or present school edifice was made between the school board and James McCullough, Jr., in April, 1868. The building was finished in December following, and accepted by the school board January 1, 1869. It is a substantial brick building, eighty-two feet and two inches by sixty-two feet and two inches, three stories. Hight of ceiling in the first and second stories, thirteen feet, and seventeen feet in the third story. The roof is hipped, in the center of which is the belfry, in which is suspended a bell of adequate size and clear, pleasant tone. The cost of that edifice, substantial outbuildings, 264 feet of stone wall in the rear, cherry desks and seats and other furniture, maps, apparatus, bell, lightningrods, grading, paving walks, iron picket fence, shade trees and their boxes, is about $26,200, adding to which the cost of the grounds, $29,700. The basement of the school edifice is divided into four rooms, each 34 by 28 feet, ceiling eight feet, and arranged for the introduction of furnaces for heating the entire building. Two of the four schoolrooms in the first story are each 34 by 28 feet, and the other two 34 by 24 feet. There is the same number of rooms of the same dimensions in the second story, and one, 34 by 28 feet, partitioned off in the northwest corner of the third story. The present number of schoolrooms, then, is nine. The third story was originally designed for a hall for exhibitions and other public exercises. It will probably be necessary to still further divide it into three more schoolrooms. The present means of heating the several rooms is by stoves, and the fuel is bituminous coal. There are five windows in each room, and sixty-five in the entire building. The width of the main halls in the first and second stories is twelve feet, which are intersected on their southwestern sides by side halls eight feet wide. The width of the stairs in the main halls is six feet, and in the side halls eight feet. The number of steps to the third floor is forty-seven. The average surface of blackboard in each room is 166 square feet, and the total surface in the building is 1500 square feet. The school is graded. The number of grades is eight. The corps of teachers consists of a principal or superintendent, who is a gentleman of learning, skill and experience, and eight competent and faithful female assistants. Each grade is under the special charge of one of those assistants. Those grades are divided into three departments. The last monthly report for the school year, ending in June last, showed the attendance to be: in primary department, 259, and the average, 219; in the secondary department, 73, and average, 65; in the grammar department, 73, and average, 64. In all departments: total attendance, 405, average attendance, 348. All the common and several of the higher English branches and the Latin language are taught. The uninviting and uncomfortable condition of the old schoolhouse begat an unwillingness on the part of many of the pupils to attend school. Truancy became quite a common offense. Corporal punishment did not prove effective in checking it. The board of school directors found it necessary to adopt a rule requiring every scholar who was absent a certain number of times without written excuses to be suspended-to be sent home with his books. Parents, at first, before they understood the reason and necessity of the rule, were sorely displeased that their children should be suspended, but when informed why it was adopted, and that those who had been suspended could be readmitted by obtaining a permit from the president or secretary of the school board, approved of it and promised that they would co-operate with the directors and teachers in securing punctual and regular attendance. The vice of truancy was nearly eradicated by thus bringing it to the knowledge of parents. The comforts, conveniences, equipments and attractions of the new schoolhouse and the improved methods of teaching which have been adopted have wrought a favorable change in the inclinations of pupils in this respect. ACADEMY. An act of assembly, approved April 2, 1821, provided for and authorized the establishment of an academy or public school for the education of youth in the English and other languages, in the useful arts, sciences and literature, by the name, style and title of " the Kittanning Academy," under the direction and government of six trustees, viz.: Thomas Hamilton, James Monteith, Robert Robinson, Samuel Matthews, David Reynolds and 130 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. Samuel S. Harrison. They and their successors were thereby declared to be one body politic and corporate in deed and in law, by the name, style, and title of "the Trustees of the Kittanning Academy," and they were to be so changed that none of them should remain trustees longer than three years without being re-elected by the citizens of this county. Their first meeting was to be on the first Tuesday of September, 1821, at which they, or a quorum of them-not less than four-were required to cast lots for ascertaining the numbers to be changed, each year, until the whole number should be changed. Any vacancies thus occurring were to be filled by the citizens of the county electing two trustees at the general election on the second Tuesday of October, 1822, and annually thereafter, and in case a vacancy or vacancies should occur by resignation, death, or otherwise, the remaining trustees should fill the same by appointment, until the next general election. That corporation was to have perpetual succession, and was authorized to sue and be sued, plead and be impleaded, to erect such buildings as might be necessary, accept and dispose of personal and real property, and do all and singular the matters and things which should be lawful for them to do for the well-being of the academy, provided, that the yearly value or income of thie estates or money should not exceed four thousand dollars. That act or charter, authorized the appropriation of two thousand dollars out of any unappropriated money in the treasury of the commonwealth, to be applied under the direction of the trustees, viz.: One thousand dollars to the erection of a building or buildings, suitable for the accommodation of the institution, on such lot as might be chosen or purchased for that purpose, and to the purchasing of books, mathematical instruments, and the necessary philosophical apparatus; the remaining thousand dollars was to be placed in some safe and productive fund or funds, and the income to be forever applied, in aid of other revenues, to compensate a teacher or teachers in said academy. The trustees were required to give bond to the Governor in the sum of three thousand dollars, for the use of the commonwealth, conditioned for the faithful application of the money thus appropriated to the purposes mentioned, and leave was given them to cause to be erected academy building or buildings on any of the lots reserved for the use of the public buildings in the town-as it was then called-of Kittanning, if they should approve of the situation and judge the same to be expedient. That act or charter also requires the trustees to exhibit annually all their books, accounts, and vouchers to the county auditors, to be settled and adjusted in the same manner as the accounts of the county commissioners, under the penalty of forty dollars each for neglecting so to do. ORGANIZATION OF THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES. The first meeting of the trustees was held on Tuesday, September 4, 1821, at the house of David Reynolds. Present: Samuel S. Harrison, Samuel Matthews, David Reynolds and Thomas Hamilton. Being a quorum for the transaction of business as provided in the charter, they cast lots for determining the length of the term of service of each member of the board, which was determined by ballot thus: Samuel Matthews and David Reynolds were to serve until October, 1822; Samuel S. Harrison and Robert Robinson until October, 1823; Thomas Hamilton and James Monteith until October, 1824. Rev. John Dickey and Eben S. Kelly were elected in October, 1822, and Thomas Blair and Frederick Rohrer in October, 1823. The minutes do not show that any meeting of the board was held after the first one, September 4, 1821, until Friday, April 2, 1824. Then present: Thomas Hamilton, James Monteith, Rev. John Dickey, Eben S. Kelly, Thos. Blair and Frederick Rohrer. It does not appear from the minutes that any business was then transacted. Another meeting was, however, held the same day, at which all the members, except Mr. Dickey, were present, when Mr. Kelly's resignation was tendered and accepted and David Reynolds appointed; also Mr. Hamilton's and Samuel S. Harrison appointed; and Mr. Monteith's and Alexander Colwell appointed. At another meeting, held on the evening of that day, Samuel S. Harrison was elected president and James Pinks treasurer of the board, and it was resolved that the trustees execute the bond required by the charter, which was done on the next day. The bond was soon after forwarded to the treasurer of the commonwealth, but was returned, May 4, with the governor's objections. On or about the 10th of that month another bond avoiding those objections was executed and forwarded to the state treasurer. On September 25, 1824, an agreement was entered into between the board and Samuel Matthews for erecting the academy building for the sum of $1,130, and an order for $500 was then directed to be issued in favor of the contractor or builder. On January 15, 1825, the trustees examined the ground on which to erect the academy and selected the one-half acre-as the minutes of the board show"on the northeast end of the public lot," on which 131 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. the first court-house was situated. Those minutes do not show that the trustees subsequently changed the location for the academy from the "northeast" to the southwest end of that public lot where, fronting on Jefferson street, and nearly opposite what is now the Walker House and William Gates' store, that academy edifice was erected. The question of employing a teacher seems to have been first considered by the board March 27, 1826, when it was unanimously resolved that it was inexpedient to employ a teacher until the academy building should be taken off the hands of the contractor, which was not done until February 17, 1827, when, or about that time, a contract was made with Charles G. Snowden to commence teaching on the first day of April then next, or sooner, whose compensation was to be $15, quarterly, out of the public money in addition to private subscriptions. The board was not to be liable for the latter. The number of students was limited to thirty-five and the rates of tuition were fixed at $2 per quarter for reading, writing and arithmetic, $3 for English grammar and geography, and $4 for languages, mathemniatics, etc. The second story of the academy building was not finished until the summer of 1834. On September 2 of that year the board resolved that the upper story should be occupied exclusively for the schoolroom and for no other purpose, and the lower story for general purposes. Provision was made by the board, March 17, 1842, for erecting a paling fence in front of the academy and a cupola over the bell. In that condition, with occasional repairs, that building continued to be used, the upper story for school purposes and religious and some secular meetings, and the lower story as family residences, until the spring of 1864, when the First Christian Church, on Jacob street, was rented for academy purposes from Samuel Owens and J. E. Meredith at $60 per annum. To understand why that change as to the build ing was made, it is necessary to go back several years in the chronological order of events. The trustees, it will be remembered, had in the charter a legislative permission to erect the academy on one of the lots reserved when the town was laid out for public uses, of which they availed thenm selves without acquiring a grant or title from the county. In 1855-6 the trustees of the academy and the school directors of the common school district wished to unite the academy and free school into one institution, in which, besides the common school grades, there should be an academic department and a normal school department-the latter to afford facilities for the proper training of common school teachers in this county. In order to consummate such a plan, the trustees of the academy realized the necessity of obtaining a deed of conveyance of the ground on which the academy building was erected and the adjoining ground which had been used as belonging to the academy. The minutes of the board of Monday evening, March 10, 1856, show that a resolution, offered by Jeremiah Heighhold, was passed, directing the writer of this sketch "to confer with the county commissioners in reference to calling a county meeting to take into consideration the expediency of the commissioners executing to the trustees of the academy a deed or quit-claim of the ground on which the academy building stands." The commissioners, it should have been stated, were willing to convey to the trustees, provided their conveyance should be approved by a meeting of the citizens of the county. That meeting was not called, because the trustees apprehended that not to be an opportune time to secure an attendance from all parts of the county, and that a large attendance from and about those points in this county where vigorous efforts were then being made, and considerable sums of money had been subscribed to establish normal schools, would be large enough to defeat an expression favorable to the approval of such a conveyance. Two other conferences - the first by two and the last by all the members of the board- were subsequently directed to be had with the county commissioners in reference to the samne matter. Whether the Kittanning academy had not acquired by legislative grant and occupancy a valid title to that portion of the half acre selected by the trustees as before stated, which the county commissioners had sold in several lots, agitated the minds of some of the trustees, and there was more or less talk by them, at several meetings of the board, of instituting proceedings to try that title, which was not favored by those members who were of opinion that the purchasers of those lots had acquired good titles thereto. At a meeting of the board, held August 24, 1858, at which a bare quorum was present, a resolution was passed, directing that "a writ of ejectment be brought immediately for the academy property against all persons in possession," i.e. in possession of the several lots which the commissioners had sold to Judge Buffington, J. E. Brown and others. Suit was accordingly brought, tried in the court of common pleas of this county, and a verdict and judgment rendered in favor of the defendants. The case was removed by the plaintiff, or the academy, to the supreme court, where the judgment of the court below was affirmed at October term, 1861. It is reported in 5 Wright, pp. 270-71. ............. Off OAK HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. which he became fond. His father, however, would not permit him to enter the army, which he then eagerly wished to do. " It was at this interesting period of his life," says Wayne McVeagh, in his eulogy, " that the authentic portrait of him now in the possession of the Ilistorical Society was painted-a portrait which dispels many of the mistaken opinions of his person and his character generally entertained. It presents him to us clad in arnmor, of frank countenance, and features delicate and beautiful, but resolute, with his hair'long and parted in the center of his forehead, falling over his shoulders in massive, natural ringlets.' This portrait bears the date of his twenty-second birthday, and the martial motto'Pax qwritur bello.' " Having been sent, in his twenty-second year, by his father, to Ireland to manage an estate, hlie again met Rev. Thomas Lowe, inii Cork, by whose preaching, and through his deep sympathy for a persecuted sect, he became a confirmed Quaker, and, with others, was imprisoned for attending Quaker meetings. Ile was, however, soon released, through the intervention of the Earl of Orrery. His father ordered him home, and finding him still inflexible in his conviction of religious duty, would have compromised with him if he would have agreed to remain uncovered before the king, the duke, and himself, which, refusing to do, he became hateful to his father, by whom lie was again driven from his home, but was again restored. Though his father never afterward openly countenanced him, still he would intercede for his release when imprisoned, as he occasionally was, for conscience's sake. When Sir William died, in 1670, lihe was fully reconciled to his son. lie left him a large estate. In bidding him farewell, hlie said, "Son William, let nothing in this world tempt you to wrong your conscience. So will you keep peace at home, which will be a feast to you in a day of trouble." The writer passes by young Penn's ministry, his marriage, and the persecutions of his sect. Finding that these persecutions would not cease, he resolved to settle in America, remarking: " There may be room there, though not here, for such a holy experiment." In 1681 he obtained from Charles II a patent for a province in North America, which the king readily granted, in consideration of his father's services and a debt of sixteen thousand pounds due his estate from the Crown, which the government was either unable or unwilling to settle with him in money. After a long and searching course of proceedings, lasting from June 14, 1680, till March 4, 1681, the charter was granted, in which the boundaries of the Province are thus prescribed: " Bounded on the east by Delaware River, from twelve miles distance northward of New Castle town (Del.) unto the three and fortieth degree of northern latitude, if the said river doth extend so far northward, but if the said river shall not extend so far northward, then by the said river so far as it doth extend; and from the head of said river the eastern bounds are to be determined by a meridian line, to be drawn from the head of said river unto the said forty-third degree. The said land to extend westward five degrees in longitude, to be computed from the said eastern bounds, and the said lands to be bounded on the north by the beginning of the three and fortieth degree of northern latitude, and on the south by a circle drawn at twelve miles distance from New Castle, northward and westward, unto the beginning of the fortieth degree of northern latitude, and then by a straight line westward to the limits of longitude above mentioned." By a calculation of the contents of those charter boundaries the Province contained thirty-five millions three hundred and sixty-one thousand six hundred acres. The present area of the State of Pennsylvania, according to the census of 1870, is forty-six thousand square miles, or twenty-nine million four hundred and forty thousand acres. The area was diminished by the subsequent adjustment of the boundaries between this and the States of Maryland, Virginia and New York. The impossible southern line, mentioned in the charter, caused much dispute between Penn and Lord Baltimore, which was at length permanently fixed by Mason and Dixon, who were eminent mathematicians and astronomers. In 1774 Lord Dunmore groundlessly claimed that the western boundary of Pennsylvania did not include Pittsburgh and the Monongahela river. After Gen. Gage ordered the evacuation of the English troops from Fort Pitt, one Dr. John Connolly, as Dunmore's agent, took possession of Fort Pitt with a military force which he had collected in Virginia, changed the name of the fort to that of Dunmore, issued his proclamation asserting the claim of Virginia to the fort and the territory in the southwestern part of Pennsylvania, and commanding the people west of Laurel IHill to submit to the authority of Lord Dunmore as the Governor of the King of England. Settlers who had derived their titles from Virginia located in various parts of that region. Governor Penn, however, caused Connolly to be arrested and imprisoned, and the intruders under the Virginia titles to be expelled. In Decemb)er, 1774, the boundary line between Pennsylvania and New York was ascertained and THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. The court there held the public buildings of the county to be " a court-house, the necessary public offices for the conduct of the business of the county officers, and a jail. An academy is not a public building within the meaning of the act of assembly. The legislature had in mind those buildings which are ordinarily used in conducting county affairs. Nothing more. Churches, academies, schoolhouses, poor-houses and the like are in some sense public buildings, but they are not what is meant by legislative language, when, in the erection of new counties,'public buildings' are provided for, because they are not indispensable to the conduct of the ordinary business of the county. This title, therefore, was never held upon any trust for an academy. * * * Holding the lots, as the county did, for the purpose of supplying the people with the necessary public buildings, the academy accepted its license necessarily subject to that paramount trust. The trustees of the academy were bound to know that their house was not one of the'public buildings' of the county, and they knew also that if they placed it on ground devoted specifically to public buildings, the necessary implication of the license or contract would be that they must quit the premises whenever they should be wanted for the purposes of the county's public buildings. The most that can be made out of the license is that it was a contract for quiet enjoyment during the pleasure of the county. * * * The substance of the transaction may be expressed in language like this:'You may place your academy building on our ground if you choose-for the present there is room enough for you and us; but when the time comes for us to occupy all the ground, or sell it for the purpose of enabling us to build public buildings elsewhere, you must take yourselves out of possession, for we have neither the power nor the disposition to devote the ground permanently to any other than county use.' * * * Still less reason has the academy to claim title under the statute of limitations, for in the first place it is settled law that public rights are not destroyed by long-continued encroachments or permissive trespasses. And in the next place the possession here was not adverse to, but under and according to the title of the county." Soon after that decision, the county commissioners assumed possession of the academy building and the ground on which it was situated, and leased the same for several years. The upl)per room of the building was occupied by the Union Free Press company as a printing office, from April 1, 1864, until January, 1873, when the latter was removed to its present location in Orr's building, on the north side of Market, below McKean street. By the act of April 8, 1851, the commissioners of this county were authorized to divide the acre lot fronting on Market and Jefferson streets, on which the first court-house, public offices, and the academy had been erected, into lots, and sell them to aid in the erection of new public buildings. That acre was divided into eighteen lots, fifteen of which were sold July 2, 1852. By the act of March 12, 1872, the county commissioners were authorized to sell the three unsold lots, in the occupancy of the academy, on what was called "the old court-house square, with the buildings thereon," at public sale, with fifteen days' notice of the time and place of sale, in the newspapers printed in this borough, to execute deeds therefor to the purchasers, conferring good and indefeasible title, and the proceeds of the sale were directed to be paid into the county treasury, and applied toward defraying the expenses of erecting the new jail and jailer's house. They were accordingly sold May 1, 1872, for the sum of $7,250. For years after that Academy went into active operation, it afforded the only facilities, except those of the Doaneville Seminary, for acquiring by both sexes a knowledge of such branches as are usually taught in institutions of that grade, throughout this county. The minutes of the board indicate that the trustees were careful and painstaking in securing competent teachers, among whom were Alexander Shirran,* Rev. J. N. Stark, Rev. Joseph Painter, D. D., and Rev. E. D. Barrett. Some of the pupils have honorably distinguished themselves in the learned professions and in other useful avocations. Besides the above-mentioned state appropriation and private subscriptions of citizens, the academy was the recipient of a bequest of four hundred dollars, made in the last will -and testament of the late Thomas Hamilton, which was paid in 1836 and 1837, amounting with interest, after deducting ten dollars collateral inheritance tax, to $501.35. All that remains of that academy, designed to be a permanent instrumentality for advancing the great interests of education in this region, now consists of its charter franchises, its board of trustees, and a fund amounting to $4,971.09, of which the sulim of $1,813.13 is loaned to Armstrong *A part of Mr. Shirran's system of school government was by a sheriff whom he appointed fromn among his scholars, one of whose duties was to look up absentees, and, in case they had not permission from parents or some valid excuse for their absence, to arrest and bring them into school. It is said that truants had great dread of Shirran's sheriffs, one of whom was the late Thomas S. Torney, who took great delight in apprehending such w%rong-doers. 133 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. county, and the sum of $3,157.96 to the school board of this borough. UNIVERSITY. By the act of assembly, approved March 18, 1858, a very liberal charter was granted for the incorporation of the University of Kittanning, "for the encouragement, promotion, cultivation and diffusion of the liberal arts and sciences, literature, law and medicine "-" to embrace the departments of a university, grammar school, a faculty of science and letters, a faculty of law, a faculty of medicine, and an agricultural school, or any one or more of said departments," and such other department as might be deemed necessary for such institution. The original charter consists of five articles, in which are ample provisions concerning the board of trustees, chancellor, professors, students, and for the regulation of the various departments, and, through a senatus academicus, for conferring academical, legal, philosophical, or medical and honorary degrees, diplomas to graduates, and certificates to such as might have pursued a partial course. The trustees of the Kittanning academy were authorized and empowered to transfer the funds and convey all the estate, real, personal and mixed, of that academy to the trustees of the University of Kittanning, when at least ten thousand dollars should be subscribed to the funds of the latter, which has not yet been done. The supplement of May 1, 1861, provided, among other things, for the organization of a department for the education of females, to be called the Young Ladies' Collegiate Institute. The supplement of March 13, 1868, changed the name to Columbia University, changed considerably the board of trustees, limiting the number to nine, six of whom to be chosen by and from the shareholders-at-large, the remaining three from and by the First Presbyterian church of Kittanning, as follows: the first to be the active pastor, the second is chosen from and by the session, and the third by and from the board of trustees of that church. A majority of the trustees are to be members or communicants of the Presbyterian church in the United States, ivhose general assembly met May, 1867, at Cincinnati, Ohio, or of its legitimate successors. That supplement also provides that all persons, irrespective of birth, sex, creed, or denomination, shall be admissible to any class or department, examination, degree, or honor in or of this institution, without any sectarian test whatever; that all students shall be freely permitted to attend such church, religious meeting, or worship as their parents or guardians or their own unbiased consciences may prefer; and that the pastors of the several churches of Kittanning shall be permitted to instruct the students of their respective denominations in such moral and religious culture as they may respectively deem prudent, so as not to infringe upon the regular hours of instruction in the institution. The name of the chief officer is changed from chancellor to that. of president of the university. The subscriptions which had been made to the pastor or treasurer of the First Presbyterian church of Kittanning, for founding and establishing an institution of learning, were declared to be valid, and required to be paid to the treasurer of the board of trustees of this university. Various other modifications of the original charter were made by that supplement-vide acts of March 18, 1858, March 31, 1859, May 1, 1861, and March 13, 1868. Departments were organized under the original charter; also under the last supplement. But as the institution, notwithstanding the ample provisions of its charter, never had an adequate pecuniary basis or suitable buildings for a university in these modern times to make a vigorous and substantial start, its organization, however fair on paper, was necessarily ephemeral. Although the pupils-male and female, adult and juvenile-numbered one hundred and fourteen for the session commencing in May and closing in September, 1868, all that now remains of that university is the corporate name, and the liberal franchises conferred by its charter. COLLEGE. Soon after the passage of the above-mentioned act of March 13, 1868, the Episcopalians of this diocese determined to establish a college at Kittanning and accordingly took the necessary legal steps to secure a charter, which was granted by the court of common pleas of Armstrong county, September 7, 1868. The body corporate thereby constituted consisted of prominent Episcopalians of Kittanning, Brady's Bend, Allegheny City, Pittsburgh, Erie, Clearfield, Rochester and Sewickley. The charter confers upon that corporation the name of Lambeth College, and, among other usual and necessary powers, the powers to hold property, real, personal, and mixed, by purchase, gift or devise, whose annual income shall not exceed $30,000; to confer degrees of bachelors of arts, science and philosophy, master of arts and philosophy, and the several academic degrees honoris causa; to award honors in the girls' school in the form either of certificates dr diplomas. The bishop of this diocese is constituted ex offcio the chancellor of the corporation. 184 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. It is provided that the college be managed by a board of nine trustees, who must be members of and in faith attached to that branch of the church catholic known as the Protestant Episcopal Church in the United States. Authority is given to establish primary, preparatory and academic departments, also departments of law and medicine, and a girls' school. The object of the corporation, as declared by the charter, is the promotion of liberal learning on a distinctive church basis-the religious instruction to be in accordance with the Christian faith as held by the last above-mentioned church-the worship to be in conformity to the formularies thereof, and daily morning and evening prayer to be an essential part of the exercises of the college. (Vide Deed book, Vol. 35, p. 385 et seq., in the office for the recording of deeds in this county.) Since its incorporation until now this institution has afforded educational facilities in the primary and higher English branches and the classics to a respectable number of students of both sexes. The examinations of its pupils and the exhibitions in which they participated, like those of its cotemporary, the Columbia University, were creditable to both the teachers and the taught, but, like the latter in another respect, it has not yet an adequate pecuniary basis and suitable buildings and equipments for consummating the purpose for which it was established. Whether either or both of the charters of those institutions will, during the coming century, be effective in accomplishing the designs of their originators is a question for some future historian of this county to answer, and for those who may have the means of placing the one or the other, or both of those corporations, on a broad and enduring basis to determine. Ought not both those charters to be fully utilized so as to meet the educational wants of the dense population with which this valley and this region will be filled before 1976? PUBLIC,IBRARY. As early as, or perhaps prior to 1820, the founding of a public library was commenced, to which Thomas Hamilton and Thomas R. Peters were liberal contributors. Several hundred volumes of standard historical and other works were contributed by them and others. That library was kept for several years in the northeast room in the second story of the first court-house, and was removed thence to the southwest room in the first story of the academy. After being sadly neglected in the latter years of its existence and then having received ephemeral attention, the books were finally scattered, and they have thus continued for more than thirty years in the custody of numerous individuals. DRAMATIC AND LITERARY SOCIETIES. Between 1840 and 1845 a Thespian society was organized, consisting of about fifteen young men of the town, whose performances are said to have been quite entertaining. They were a mixture of tragedy, comedy and recitations. The society's rehearsals were had and its exhibitions given in the old oil mill, which had been erected by the late James Pinks about 1824, on lot No. 66, where the late Charles Cermpstey afterward erected a steam grist mill, now known as the Briney mill. Their first public theatrical performance was on Friday evening, November 17, 1843, when the following plays were, or at least advertised to be, acted: The Review; Perronation, or Fairly Taken In; Swiss Cottage, or Why Don't You Marry? Those Thespians are represented not only to have acted tragedy and comedy well, but some of them to have had a large share of wit. Some of them, too, were great wags. Among the anecdotes related is this: One of the members, on a certain occasion, was to render the piece beginning with, "My name is Norvel. On the Grampian hills," etc. After repeating the first line several times, and vainly endeavoring to recall what followed, another member, a noted wag and fun-provoker, assayed to help the declaimer's faltering memory by shouting at the top of his voice, "What the - is your name in America?" which caused peals of hearty laughter. That incident is akin to one which once happened in classroom at a noted theological seminary in this country. It was a certain student's turn to deliver a discourse before one of the professors and the (class. He had chosen for his theme or text the words: "None of these things move me." Ie rose, uttered the words of his text, but could not recall the beginning of his discourse. Several times hlie repeated, "None of these things move me,-none of these move me," when the venerable professor, having become impatient to hear more of the discourse, with much earnestness exclaimed: "What in the world does move you?" That Thespian society's existence was not permanent-it was ephemeral-it was not a lasting success. Therefore, I leave the names even of its stars behind the curtain. In the winter of 1854 the Literary and Scientific Institute was organized, with a fair prospect of permanent success. The number of members was respectably large, among whom were those engaged in the literary professions and other business pursuits. The meetings for awhile were well 135 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. attended. The subjects selected for oral debate, written discussion and essays were investigated with a commendable degree of thoroughness and research, and the various exercises were creditable to the industry and ability of those who participated in them. So long as the generality of its members felt and evinced a lively interest in promoting the object for which it was established, it was an effective instrumentality for acquiring knowledge and enhancing mental culture. A library was founded, the maximum number of volumes in which was about 250, among which were substantial literary, scientific and historical works. Nevertheless, the organization, in the course of a year or two, became extinct, either from the lapse of the charm of novelty or want of unanimity among its members, or both. The library was sold at public outcry, and the proceeds of the sale were distributed pro rata among those who had contributed the means for purchasing the books. The meetings of that institute were held in the third story of the brick building on the southwest corner of Market and Jefferson streets, in the hall of the Sons of Temperance, fronting chiefly on Jefferson street. The close of its brief career was signalized by the delivery by the late Alonzo Potter, D. D., the then bishop of the Episcopal diocese of Pennsylvania, of his masterly and eloquent lecture on the life and services of Washington, before a large audience in the court-room, on a pleasant April evening in 1856. On the evening of November 18, 1867, about sixteen young and middle-aged men met for the purpose of organizing a Young Men's Christian Association. On Thursday evening, December 5, 1867, an organization was effected by the adoption of a constitution and by-laws, which were subsequently amended. The object of the association was declared to be the mutual improvement and encouragement of its members in Christian work; the cultivation of brotherly love and kindness, and Christian charity; to use their means for the relief of the poor and suffering and their personal influence for advancement of home evangelization. Its officers were a president, vice-president, treasurer, corresponding and recording secretaries, and four standing committees, viz.: executive, finance, lecture, and on members. Special committees were also appointed as emergencies required. The various evangelical denominations were, as far as practicable, to be represented in the appointment of those committees. The officers were elected by ballot semi-annually. The several committees were appointed by the president. The members consisted of four classes-active, sustaining, life, and honorary. Each active member was required to pay two dollars annually; each sustaining member, five dollars annually; and each life member ten dollars at any one time. Active and life members only had the right to vote. The number of active members who signed the constitution was 91, about 25 others applied and were elected active members; sustaining members, 2; life members, 3; honorary members, 4. The regular meetings were held weekly on Thursday evening, except from the first week in June until the first week in October, when they were held once in two weeks. The places of meeting, until May 21, 1868, were in the lecture rooms of the First Presbyterian, Episcopal, Methodist Episcopal, and United Presbyterian churches. Afterward, until regular meetings ceased to be held, they were held in McConnell's hall, which is in the third story of the store building on lot No. 5 of the old court-house square, fronting on Market street, and in McCulloch's hall, second story of the building on lot No. 7 of the old court-house square, fronting on Jefferson street and an alley between that lot and lot No. 6 of that square. Tihe opening and closing exercises of the regular meetings were devotional. For several weeks considerable time was spent in revising and amending tihe constitution and by-laws. A series of excellent sermons on practical subjects, were occasionally preached by six clergymen of the different denominations, in the several churelfces, on which occasions the usual Sabbath evening exercises in the churches were suspended, so as to enable the congregations to hear these sermons. The audiences on these special occasions were large, interested, and appreciative. A large number of the constitution and by-laws and a suitable selection of hymns and psalms used in the devotional exercises was printed for the use of the members. A branch relief committee was appointed at an early period of tihe existence of the association, upon which devolved the duty of seeking out the destitute of this borough in order that they might, if found worthy, receive such aid as could be afforded them by the means at the disposal of the association. A then unprecedented degree of destitution existed on account of so many having been thrown out of employment by the burning of the rolling mill at the lower part of the borough in December, 1867. The aid thus rendered was timely and greatly needed by some who would have gladly declined it if they could. About the same time, a special committee was appointed to devise ways and means for establish136 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. ing a library and reading room, which resulted in securihg a respectable number of valuable standard works for the former, which were chiefly contributed by several ladies, and a variety of magazines and religious and secular papers containing excellent reading matter for the latter. Both were in due time opened to the members and the public, but much less extensively used than such reading matter deserved. Soon after the complete organization of the association, it was determined to have a series of popular lectures. The first one was delivered February 20, 1868, by Rev. Alexander Clark, Pittsburgh-subject, " Creed and Copy;" the second, by Rev. Charles A. Dickey, Allegheny City, March 10-"At Home and Abroad;" the third, by Rev. Jonathan Edwards, D. I)., then president of Washington and Jefferson collegesubject, " The Philosophy of the Fine Arts;" the fourth, by Rev. J. M. Guiley, Butler, Pennsylvania, at the opening of the new hall, McConnell's, June 1-" The Young Man's Glory;" the fifth, by Rev. Alexander Clark, November 18, 1869-subject, " Common Wohders;" the sixth, by Rev. George P. Hayes, D. D., President of Washington and Jefferson college, December 31-subject, "Hunting an Appetite." Prof. Robert Kidd gave several of his varied and masterly elocutionary entertainments, February 3, March 2 and 3, 1869, and in the latter part of January or fore part of February, 1870. A free lecture on the Darwinian theory was delivered by Rev. G. P. Hays, May 1, 1871. The plan for securing audiences was by publishing in the usual way the time and place of each lecture and entertainment and trusting to the inclination of the people to attend. At first, the price of a single admission was twenty-five cents, which was afterward increased to fifty cents. The total receipts from all these lectures, except the fifth, of which no account appears to have been kept by either the treasurer or the secretary, were $208.75, and from the elocutionary entertainments, $300.20 -from both lectures and entertainments, $508.95. Through some misunderstanding, the attendance at the fifth lecture, though a very able one, was.so meager that the receipts did not exceed, if they equaled, the expenses. Net proceeds from lectures, $108.75; from elocutionary entertainments, $163.30. In the summers of 1868 and 1869, festivals were held for the benefit of the association. Each continued for several evenings. The friends of the association, especially the ladies, in town and the surrounding country, made liberal contributions of material and of their time, labor and attention to render those festivals successful. The total receipts from the first one were $212.70, and from the second one, $65.33; from both, $278.03. I do not find in the records any statement of the expenses of the first one. Those of the second were $32.58. The net proceeds of both were, I judge, about $157.75. When the association was organized it had an open field, which for a while it had a fair prospect of fully occupying for an indefinite period. In the absence of other organizations outside of the churches for advancing the moral and religious interests of this community, a large number of young men of different religious denominations, desirous of uniting on common ground for promoting these interests and their own improvement, were naturally attracted to it and were actuated by a desire to make it a permanent benefit to themselves and to society. But as the charm of novelty wore away, as the interest of some of its members was divided between it and various other organizations which, about the beginning of its second year, entered the field to help gather the fruits of good works, and after some of its most active members had removed to other places, the lively interest which it had awakened gradually flagged, and its regular meetings almost ceased to be attended by a quorum. It was sometimes difficult to get a quorum together for the transaction of urgent business. In June, 1870, the balance in the treasury was only $1.04, and a considerable amount due for rent of hall. Notwithstanding such an adverse state of affairs, the few who still adhered to its interests, determined to institute on a different plan another course of lectures, to be given by some of the most noted lecturers in the country, during the winter of 1871-2. The lecturers were selected, and then a successful attempt was made to sell season tickets, so that the lecture committee knew, before they absolutely engaged the lecturers, on what pecuniary basis they could stand. With the encouragement afforded by the extensive sale of that kind of tickets, the committee ventured upon the experimnient of inaugurating for that season the following course: December 12, 1871, Daniel 1)ougherty-" Oratory." January 12,1872, Mark Twain-" Roughing it." February 9, 1872, Rev. G. P. Hays,.D.-" Talk, wise and otherwise." March 7, 1872, Frederick Douglass-"Self-made Men." M larch -, Felix R. Brundt-" Indians and Indian Policy." April 3, Miss Anna E. Dickinson-" Joan of" Arc. The amount realized from the sale of season tickets was $755, and from single admission tickets, *224.50. Total, $979.50. Expenses, $636.10. Sur137 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. plus, $343.40, out of which the back hall-rent was paid, still leaving a balance of $143.40 to be added to the trifle that was left in the treasury as above stated. The committee continued to provide for three more courses, viz.: FoR 1872-3. December 18, 1872, Daniel Dougherty-" The Stage." January 3, 1873, S. K. Murdock-" Select Readings." January 25, 1873, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore-" What shall we do with our Daughters?" February 4, 1873, Rev. A. A. Willetts, D. D.-" Sunshine, or the Secret of a Happy Life." February 21, 1873, Hon. Wmin. Parsons-" Richard Brins ley Sheridan." March 4, 1873, Miss Anna E. Dickinson-" What's to Hinder? " Receipts from season tickets, $586; from admission tickets, $175.25. Total, $761.25. Surplus $26.95, making the balance then in the treasury $170.35. FoR 1873-4. November 27, 1873, Rev. A. Willetts, D1). 1.-" The Model Wife." December 4, 1873, -- Andrews-" Dialect Humor." December 26, 1873, Rev. Geo. P. Hays, D. D.-" Every Day Reasoning." January 28,1874, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore-"The Battle of Money." February 9, 1874, Josh Billings-" Specimen Bricks." February 27, 1874, John B. Gough-" Peculiar People." March 2, 1874, Frederick Douglass-" John Brown." March 26,1874, Rev. F. A. Noble, D1). D.-" Christian Com munism." Receipts from season tickets, $536; from reserved seats, $195; from admission tickets, $263.50. Total, $994. Expenses, $1,112.53, including $118.35 paid for chairs. Deficit, $118.53, which, deducted from the balance in the treasury at the close of the last season, still left in the treasury a balance of $51.82. FoR 1874-5. December 3,1874, Rev. W. H. Gill-" William the Silent." D)ecember 14, 1874, Daniel Dougherty-" American Poli tics." January 20, 1875, Grace Greenwood and Mrs. Sarah Fisher Ames-Impersonations of Various Characters. January 27, 1875, Rev. A. A. Willetts, 1). D.-" A Plea for Home." February 8,1875, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore-" Concerning Husbands." March 5,1873, John B. Gough-" Man and his Masters." Receipts from season tickets and reserved seats, $479.25; from admission tickets, $229.25; from other sources, $62.93. Total, $771.43. Expenses, $762.40. Surplus, $9.03, which, added to the balance in the treasury at the close of the preceding season, equaled $60.85 as the surplus at the close of the fourth and last course of lectures. These lectures-those embraced in all the series and courses from 1868 to 1875-evinced ability and research. None of them were devoid of merit or of ideas, sentiments, and information which are well calculated to improve, elevate and purify the public taste and morals. Some of them had a practical bearing upon the affairs and every-day life of all who heard them. Genuine bursts of eloquence, flashes of wit and humor, laughterprovoking fun, and rational amusement were, during the several series and courses, happily blended with the grave matter and useful knowledge with which they abounded. As the public interest had evidently begun to wane even in that branch of the association's work, the committee deemed it best not to provide courses of lectures for the last two seasons. Alas! all that remains of that association consists of a few members who would gladly resuscitate it, if circumstances were auspicious, of some of its furniture, of a nucleus for a library, and of a small balance in its treasury. How many more organizations, designed to enhance moral and intellectual improvement, are destined to rise and fall in this community? Is some evil genius hovering over Kittanning to blast all such benign enterprises? TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES. The first temperance organization here - the Kittanning Temperance Society-was established at a meeting held in the academy on Wednesday, August 18, 1830, and was auxiliary to the State Temperance Society, at Philadelphia, by which the temperance pledge of those times was adopted, which was not to use ardent spirits unless in cases of bodily hurt or sickness, or provide them for entertainment of friends or employds, and to discountenance their use throughout the community. How long and effectively it existed I have not learned, yet, as I have heard, for years after the public mind in Massachusetts and other states began to be agitated concerning the enormous evils resulting from the use of intoxicating liquors as beverages, by Kitteridge, and other apostles of temperance, it was hazardous for speakers to publicly advocate the cause of temperance and denounce the use of and traffic in those intoxicants, in Kittanning. On one occasion, in or about 1836, as the writer is credibly informed, a temperance speaker was in imminent danger of being mobbed, and would have been if he had not been protected by several sturdy and resolute citizens who volunteered to escort him from the place of meeting to his lodgings, at the Temperance House, then kept 138 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. by Hamlet Totten, in the brick building on lot No. 128, southeast corner of Market and McKean streets. Several years afterward, however, the Washingtonian excitement, which had originated among some confirmed inebriates in a bar-room in Baltimore, who called themselves Washington ians, extended to Kittanning - the constitution of the Washington Total Abstinence Society was adopted January 12, 1842 - and such a change in public sentiment was effected respecting the use of such beverages, that one of the physicians remarked that he found it to be unsafe, or at least unpopular, for him to be seen carrying a bottle of whisky even for medical purposes, and one of the hotel-keepers deemed it prudent for him to temporarily close his bar. On Thursday evening, January 7,1842, delegates from the Washington Total Abstinence Society lectured here to a large and attentive audience. Their labors were crowned with success. Between one hundred and two hundred took the pledge, among whom were a goodly number of both tem perate and intemperate drinkers. That movement was instrumental in permanently rescuing at least a few from the horrors of drunken ness. The refoamation which it effected in some others was but temporary. The excitement which it caused, though spasmodic, was wholesome. After it subsided, it was followed by another organiza tion-a close or secret order, the Kittanning Di vision of the Sons of Temperance, its charter is dated December 23, 1848-which flourished for several years, and was effective in both saving and rescuing a goodly number from drunkenness-some at least permanently-and in helping to make up a correct and wholesome public sentiment. After prospering, with over a hundred members, for several years, it was dissolved in 1853 or 1854. By the act of April 28, 1854, the qualified voters of this state were authorized to vote at the general election, on the second Tuesday of October, 1854, for and against a law which should entirely prohibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, except for medicinal, sacramental, mechanical and artistical purposes. The vote in this borough was: For the law, 193; against the law, 113; majority for a prohibitory law, 80. An open temperance society was afterward organized, but was ephemeral. A juvenile temperance organization, called the Band of Hope, was effected and flourished for a brief period and expired. The light of science clearly discloses that the great harm which liquordrinking causes to individuals, communities, the state and nation is done by the wrcotico acrid poison contained in even those which are pure. That is what the great chemists tell us alcohol is. The question arises, will the evils of intemperance be completely eradicated until all parents and teachers become persistent and faithful in so bringing the light of science to bear upon the minds of their children and pupils as to show them that it is poison alone that causes drunken ness, and thus enlighten their understanding and educate them against its use in any form of a beverage? In this as in other respects, 'Tis education forms the common mind; Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclin'd." A lodge of another close or secret order, the Good Templars, was organized here December 28, 1868, bearing the name of "Bay Leaf Lodge, No. 654, I. O. of G. T.," holding a legal charter granted by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. Its consti tution required that "every member shall take a solemn pledge never to make, buy, sell or use as a BEVERAGE any spirituous or malt liquors, wine or cider; and shall also promise to discountenance the manufacture, sale and use thereof in all proper ways." The total number of enrolled members, male and female, was 206, many of whom were firm in their fealty to the spirit of the constitution of the order. Some, however, soon wavered, and yielded to the temptations of the mocking demon that is concealed even in the purest wine which is " red," which "giveth its color in the cup, which moveth itself aright, and at last biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder." The "Bay Leaf" bloomed with varying vigor until it, too, wilted in the summer heat of 1873. A lodge of the Temple of Honor, or True Templars, was organized July 9, 1869. Its enrolled members numbered about 90. The discipline of this temperance order is more rigid than that of the Good Templars. It is claimed that its mem bers, by their vigilance and concerted action, thwarted a well-laid plan of the liquor men to prevent this borough from giving a majority against license to sell intoxicating liquors at the election of 1873. That lodge was suspended in December, 1875. That both of those lodges were effective in doing good while they lasted cannot, I think, be denied. Their decline is but the fate common to kindred organizations which had preceded them. An informant who has been cognizant of the state of affairs in this county for more than half a century says: "Profanity and drunkenness and horse-racing and fisticuffing were more prevalent, in proportion to the population, in the forepart of that period than they are now." 1 39 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. By the act of March 27, 1872, commonly called the local option law, the question of granting or not granting license to sell intoxicating liquors as beverages was to be triennially submitted to a vote of the people of the respective counties of this state. The vote on that question in this county was taken on Friday, February 28, 1873. The number of votes in the borough against license was 184, and for it 139; a majority of 45 against it. Since the decadence of the above-mentioned temperance organizations and the repeal of the local option law, the only restraints upon the liquor traffic have been the penalties of the present license law and such checks as public sentiment affords. SECRET AND BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES. The Masonic Lodge, No. 244, was constituted March 12, 1850. Its place of meeting was in the third story, fronting on Market street, in the brick building on the southwest corner of Market and Jefferson streets, on lot No. 126, until it was transferred to the third story of the brick building on the southeast corner of Market and Jefferson streets, on the old court-house square, which is still occupied by the lodge. The present number ofmembers is 120. The Orion Chapter of Royal Arch Masons was constituted in June, 1874, and has al)out 75 members. Lodge No. 340, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was instituted March 31, 1849. Its charter was surrendered December 5, 1853. This lodge was resuscitated and reorganized August 10, 1857. Members, 100. Its hall is in the third story of the above-mentioned brick building, on lot No. 126, fronting on Jefferson street. Echo Encampment, a branch of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was instituted November 19, 1873. Its hall is in the third story of Orr's building, on Market, third door below McKean street. Ariel Lodge, No. 688, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was instituted in November, 1869. Its hall is in the third story of McCulloch's building, on the old court-house square, corner of Jefferson street and an alley, the first alley below Market street, being one of the alleys laid out when the lots in that square were laid out by the county commissioners for the purpose of sale. Members, 80. Knights of Pythias, Lodge No. 296, was organized May 10, 1871. Members, about 40. Its hall is in the third story of Orr's building, near the northwest corner of Market and McKean streets. INDEPENDENT MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS. Besides the companies organized and drilled under the militia laws of the state, the first inde pendent or volunteer company organized after the war of 1812 was the Armstrong Guards, whose organization was maintained until, perhaps, after 1830. There is in an old Columbian, also in an old Gazette, an order, dated June 21, 1828, issued by the late Isaac Scott, orderly sergeant, by order of the captain, for that company to parade precisely at nine o'clock A.M., Friday, July 4, then next, at the court-house, with arms and accouterments in complete order for training, each member to fur nish himself with thirteen rounds of blank car tridges. The captains of that ancient company were Thomas McConnell, Thomas Blair, John R. Johnston, James McCullough and John Reynolds. The two last named are the only ones still living. It was reorganized in 1844, and was ordered to meet for parade at the court-house at 4 p. M., Satur day, May 23, of that year. The captains of the latter were James Rowlands, A. L. Robinson and Andrew Mosgrove. The next company appears to have been the Independent Blues. The writer has not been able to learn when it was disbanded. The latest which hlie has respecting it is an order issued by Hamlet Totten, orderly sergeant, by order of the captain, dated January 20, 1836, for the company to parade at the court-house on Monday, February 22, then next, in complete winter uniform (blue pantaloons, etc.), with ammunition for twenty rounds of firing. Notice was also given that an appeal would be held on that day at the Temperance House, then kept by H. Totten, southeast corner of Market and McKean streets, where absentees might attend, and that new rifles would be given to such mem bers as then appeared in full uniform. The third company was the Washington Blues, which was organized about 1845. Its captain, Wm. Sirwell, and its first lieutenant, Wilson Col well, and its second lieutenant, Daniel Crum, were in the Union military service in the late civil war. Both of these lieutenants fell in battle, the former at South Mountain and the latter in the Wilder ness. The young ladies of Kittanning, July 4, 1846, presiented to that company a beautiful silk flag, at the house of the late George Reynolds, on Water, between Arch and Market streets. The presentaion speech was made by Philip Templeton, colonel of the 126th regt. of Pennsylvania Militia, which was responded to by George Rodgers. The Armstrong- Rifles, Capt. F. Mechling, and later the German Yeagers and the Brady Alpines 140 UNION EXPRESS CO. WILL. A. MORRISON. tEYNoI DSG.S.IRONE. N.SHUT It. HOUS E. THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. were organized by Col. Sirwell. The Yeagers, Capts. Ingles and Cantwell, and the Alpines, Capt. Sirwell, were consolidated at or shortly before the beginning of the rebellion, and most, if not all, of their members were in the military service during the war. BANDS. The first brass band was organized in 1858, and consisted of twelve pieces. Its leader was G. A. Schotte. The organization continued until 1861, when, and in the following year, several of its members went into the army. A reorganization was subsequently effected by the accession of other members. That band accompanied the company of three months men, and afterward Company A, 8th Reserves, to Pittsburgh, and was the first one present on the occasion of Ex-Gov. William F. Johnston making his first great war speech from the steps of his residence in that city. It was also in attendance at the various war meetings held in this county during the rebellion, for recruiting men for the army. In 1860, there was a schism in the band, which was caused by some of its members wishing to play for the Presbyterian, and others for the Episcopal Sabbath school on the 4th of July, and from which resulted a law suit-an action of replevin, Henry vs. Robinson, No. 15, September Term, 1860, for the bass drum, sticks and cymbals, which were in the possession of and retained by the defendant, who adhered to the Presbyterian side of the controversy. The case was tried and a verdict rendered for the defendant. By consent, a motion for a new trial was granted, and discontinuance entered by the plaintiff. Several, if not all, of the instruments were destroyed by the fire which occurred August 7, 1862. The present cornet band was organized in November, 1874, and consists of fifteen pieces. The instruments were partly, if not wholly, ordered from Germany. For several months after the organization, experienced teachers taught and drilled the members in the theory and practice of music, and fair progress has thus far been made. BOAT CLUBS. There have been organized, at different times, several boat clubs. The last one was the Armstrong Boat Club, organized in the summer of 1873, and consisted of a goodly number of young men, who entered into the enterprise with much zest and vigor. They procured a neat, wellequipped, narrow, sharp-pointed boat, sixty feet long, which they named the "Alhambra." A regatta occurred between that and a Pittsburgh club, on the Allegheny river, over the space of about a mile from and above the Kittanning bridge, in which the latter was victorious by reason, it is said, of the breaking of one of the former's oars. These boat clubs, like various other voluntary organizations that have from time to time sprung up here, were ephemeral. MANUFACTURES. Besides the usual and various mechanical trades carried on in a town or borough, several branches of other manufactures have been established and prosecuted from time to time and for varying periods. Hand-wrought nails were manufactured by John Miller, deceased, from 1811 to 1813; by Alexander Colwell, deceased, in 1814-15, and by Robert Speer from 1816 till 1825, on lot No. 122, on the northeast corner of Market and Jefferson streets, excepting that Mr. Speer occupied lot No. 143, on the northwest corner of McKean street and the public alley intersecting it, during at least a portion, probably the lattc, portion, of the time that he was engaged in the 1usiness. Alexander Reynolds, then a schoolboy, now an iron-master, employed his leisure hours in assisting Mr. Colwell in making nails, thus earning six and a fourth cents a day, which he doubtless regarded as a liberal compensation for his time and labor thus usefully and, because so, honorably spent, for all useful labor is honorable, in acquiring a knowledge of a useful art and enjoying the amusement which that employment afforded him. The iron from which those nails were wrought was transported hither from east of the Allegheny mountains on pack-horses. The first foundry was started as an experiment in 1843, by Adams & Thompson, on the upper side of Grant avenue, on out-lot No. 25 or 26, nearly opposite to the public alley between and parallel to Market and Jacob streets. It was operated at first by horse power, and afterward by steam. About three-fourths of a ton of pig metal was used per week in making plow-points, the other ironwork of plows, and other agricultural utensils. Those proprietors, after running it about six months, sold it to parties by the name of Wann, who ran it about a year, but did not find it a profitable experiment. The next foundry was connected with the rolling-mill. Anderson & Buffington's foundry went into operation about June, 1853, and was destroyed by fire in March following. Its site was on lot No. 206, on the west side of Jefferson street. It was rebuilt and operated by Mr. Anderson for awhile, then by Anderson & Buffington. For the last few 141 WILLIAM PENN. fixed by David Rittenhouse on the part of the former, and Samuel Holland on the part of the latter, to be north latitude 420, with a variation of 40 20'. The forty-third parallel of north latitude, mentioned in the charter, extends through central New York. Messrs. Rittenhouse and Holland placed a stone on a small island in the western branch of the Delaware river as a monument on the northeast corner of Pennsylvaiia, with the words and figures NEW YORK, 1774, and the above-mentioned latitude and variation cut upon the top. They also placed another stone, four perches due west from the former, cutting on the top thereof the word PENNSYLVANIA and the same latitude and variation as on the other. The extension of that line farther west was postponed until 1786-7, when it was completed by Andrew Ellicott, on the part of Pennsylvania, and James Clinton and Simeon Dewitt on the part of New York. By act of March 27, 1790, ~300 were granted to Reading Howell for delineating on his map all the lines of this state, as established by law, or otherwise ascertained. Penn sailed in the ship Welcome, August 30, 1682, for his newly acquired province. Ile arrived after a long passage at New Castle, Del., where the colonists, English, Dutch and Swedes, assembled to welcome him as their beloved proprietor. lHe wished the province to be called New Wales, but the king persisted in naming it "Pensilvania." In reference thereto Penn wrote to his friend, Robert Turner, on the 5th of January: "I proposed, when the secretary, a Welshman, refused to have it called New Wales, S/ylvania, and they added Penn to it, and though I much opposed it, and went to the king to have it struck out and altered, hlie said it was past and would take it upon him; nor could twenty guineas move the undersecretaries to vary the name; for I feared lest it should be looked on as a vanity in me, and not as a respect in the king, as it truly was, to my father, whom he often mentions with praise." Notwithstanding his rights under that charter, he purchased the territory from the Indians at a fair price. Before leaving England he drafted and published the Fundamental Law and Frame of Government of Pennsylvania, from which I cite the thirty-fifth section: " All persons living in this province who confess and acknowledge the one Almighty and Eternal God, to be the Creator, Upholder and Ruler of the world, and that hold themselves obliged in conscience to live peaceably and justly in civil society, shall in noways be molested or prejudiced for their religious persuasion or practise in matters of faith and worship; nor shall they be compelled at any time to frequent or maintain any religious worship, place or ministry whatever "wherein was granted a greater degree of religious liberty than had been elsewhere allowed. A sketch of the early history of the Colonial government established by Penn, of the just treaties made between him and the Indians, and of the disturbed state of affairs in the colony after his return to England, properly belongs to state history. The writer will not, therefore, dwell on them, but proceed to present some of the events which help make up the history of our own county. THE THREE ORIGINAL COUNTIES, laid out by the immortal founder of Pennsylvania in 1682, were Philadelphia, Bucks and Chester.* To the last named the territory now included within the limits of Armstrong county once, theoretically at least, belonged, under the charter of Penn, but before he had purchased the Indian title. Though the Province was divided in 1682 into the three above-mentioned counties, their boundaries were not distinctly ascertained until several years thereafter, i.e. the division lines between those three counties. The Provincial Council unanimously agreed and ordered what they should be February 1, 1865. Nevertheless a petition of the justices of Chester county for themselves and the inhabitants thereof was presented to the council January 25, 1689, setting forth that Chester county was but a small tract of land not exceeding nine miles square, and but thinly settled, so that it was "not able to support the charge thereof;" that upon their humble request the proprietor and governor (Penn) had been pleased, before his departure, to grant an enlargement of the same, viz., to run up from the Delaware river along the Darby Mill creek, the several courses and distances until they took in Radnor and Herford townships; then down to the Schuylkill; then upward along the several courses thereof, without limit. The prayer in the petition was that the council would confirm these bounds so that the people of Chester county might in some measure be able to defray their necessary charge. The allegation that the proprietor before his return * We know that King Charles christened this state, and why he gave to it the name which it still bears. But how came the original county from which this county has descended to be christened Chester? Clarkson, in his "Life of Penn" (vol. 1, p. 259), alluding to the assembly being called at Upland, says: "This was a memorable event, and to be distinguished by some marked circumstance; he determined, therefore, to change the name of the place. Turning round to his friend Pearson, one of his own society, who had accompanied him in the ship Welcome, he said,' Providence has brought us here safe; thou hast been the comparn-ion of my perils: what wilt thou that I should call this place?' Pearson said,'Chester, in remembrance of the city from whence I came.' William Penn reP lied that it should be called Chester, and that when he divided the and into counties he would also call one of them by the same name." HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. years it has been operated by Anderson & Marshall. Its average consumption of pig metal has been about two and a half tons at each of the three heats per week. Its products are stoves and a general assortment of iron castings. Hulings & Robinson's, afterward Robinson & Crawford's foundry, went into operation about 1857-8, and continued until May, 1876, when it was closed by reason of the dissolution of partnership, caused by the death of Mr. Robinson, which occurred in the winter previous. It was situated on lot No. 84, corner of Arch street and the public alley between, and parallel to, McKean and Jefferson streets. From three to four tons of pig metal were consumed each week, in the production of stoves, machinery, and various other iron castings. An explosion occurred at this foundry September 23, 1870, by which James Kerr, an employe, was seriously and permanently injured, the building was considerably damaged, and the boiler propelled with so great force that it penetrated the brick wall of the then dwelling of Judge Boggs, and was deposited in the middle of the dining-room, in which no one except his aged aunt happened to be at that time. She was slightly injured. Had that casualty occurred half an hour later, the family would have been at dinner, and most if not all of them would probably have been killed or severely injured. McCullough's National foundry, on lot No. 240, west side of the lower end of McKean street, was built and put in operation in 1873. From sixteen and a half to eighteen tons of pig metal are used weekly in producing stoves and a general assortment of iron castings. The rolling-mill was built in 1847, and was put in operation in January, 1848. The cost was chiefly furnished by the solid men of Kittanning. The original firm name was the Kittanning Iron Works. Then in the mutations of ownership the firm names were Brown, Phillips & Co., Brown, Floyd & Co., R. L. Brown & Co., Martin, Brickel & Co., and Meredith, Neale & Titzell. Connected with it were a foundry and nail factory. The products were common bar, rod, sheet and hoop iron, nails, and castings. It gave employment, while in full operation, to about 150 men, and thus afforded support to about 750 persons. Other beneficial effects were a considerable impetus to the general business of the borough, and an increased demand and consumption of, and a cash market for, agricultural products. Its benefits in these respects were sensibly felt while it was in operation, and the loss of them was sadly realized in the several intervals during which it was tempora'ily idle, and since it became, at least thus far, permanently so. The buildings and machinery were so much injured by fire Wednesday night, December 18, 1867, that the then proprietors, Martin, Brickel & Co., did not repair them, but subsequently sold their interest therein to Meredith, Neale & Titzeli, who repaired them, and operated the works until March, 1873, since which time they have been idle. They are now owned by Brown, Colwell & Mosgrove. There were connected with that rolling mill sixteen puddling and five heating furnaces, three trains of rolls, twentytwo nail machines, and one squeezer. Its annual capacity is said to have been seven thousand tons. The Kittanning Iron Company (limited), consisting of James E. Brown,* James Mosgrove, J. A. Colwell, Henry A. Colwell and C. T. Neale, of Kittanning, and several Pittsburgh men, associated under the name and style of Groff, Bennett & Company, organized in October, 1879, with a capital of $150,000, purchased the property of the last named firm, and, enlarging their facilities, began iron manufacture on an extensive scale. This company built a large blast furnace, the capacity of which is at least 15,000 tons per annum, the product of which is in part sold and in part manufactured by the company into muck bar. New puddling furnaces were constructed and old ones repaired, until at present (1883) the works include thirty-three. The company has, besides, all of the machinery necessary for the manufacture of iron in all its forms. The product of the furnace and the mill reaches a value of about $600,000 per annum. Fully $100,000 has been expended by the company in the erection of buildings, repairs, purchase of machinery and in building railroad side-tracks, etc. The company owns several thousand acres of iron land and leases several thousand more in the Allegheny valley, in Armstrong and Clarion counties, the ore from which is used without admixture in their blast furnace. When the pig-iron goes to the puddling furnaces it is mingled with about one-fourth its own bulk or weight of lake ore. The coke used is also manufactured at works from coal mined in the immediate vicinity. About a year after this company began business they purchased a gas well, about three miles west of the works, which had been struck by parties boring for oil three years before. The gas from this well was conveyed to the works in 3-inch pipes, and has since been the only fuel used in the puddling process. As the flow, which is very strong, making a pressure of eighty-five pounds to * The company has remained unchanged, with the exception of the removal by death of James E. Brown. His interest was taken by the other members of the company. 142 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. the square inch, has never sensibly abated, it is fair to infer that it may remain undiminished for a very long period. The company gives employment in its furnace, mill and coal bank to about 400 men, and to about 300 more elsewhere, chiefly in its iron mines. It is thus carrying on an industry very valuable to Kittanning and also to other localities in this county and its northern neighbor. The facilities for grinding grain were for many years very meager. At an early day, probably in 1805-6, Abraham Parkinson fitted up a hand-mill on lot No. 30, fronting Vine and Jefferson streets. James Gibson also had such a mill somewhat later on one of his lots fronting on High and Water streets, and still later Michael Truby had one of the same kind on lot No. 75. For other milling facilities the people were dependent on the mills on Cowanshannock, Crooked Creek, Rinker's Run and other streams several miles distant, until the late Andrew Arnold erected a steam grist-mill on Jacob between Water and Jefferson streets in 1834-5, which continued in operation but a short time. Charles Cumpsley who had previously manufactured mowing machines, a large number of government wagons for use in the West and wheelbarrows for the contractors on the Allegheny Valley railroad, erected the steam grist-mill, in 1857, on the site of James Pink's old oil-mill on lot No. 66, which is a two-story brick building, containing two runs of stones, and which has been for several years past known as the Briney mill. The Klingensmith or Federal Spring steam grist-mill, brick, three stories, three runs of stones, was erected on lot No. 3, corner of High and Jefferson streets, in 1859, and went into operation January 1, 1860. Those two mills accommodate not only the people of this borough, but of the surrounding country, especially when the water in the streams is too low, by reason of drouth, for running water mills. The first tannery was established by Henry Worts, probably in 1804-5, on lot No. 30, fronting southwardly on Vine, between Water and Jefferson streets. The vats and other parts of his tannery having been seriously damaged by high water in the river, he abandoned the business, disposed of those and his other lots, Nos. 126 and 218, and returned to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, whence he came. It appears from the assessment list that John Davison and Henry Jack had tanneries in 1808. That of the former was on lot No. 6, on the west side and near the upper end of Jefferson street, and the latter on lot No. 164, on the north side of Jacob, and between Jefferson street and the public alley, parallel to the latter. Lot No. 248, corner of Walnut and McKean streets, was assessed that year to William Reynolds, tanner, who about that time started thereon his tannery. Mr. Davison carried on his tannery until 1816-17, when he removed to Stoystown; Mr. Jack until about 1830, when he sold to Andrew Arnold, by whom it was operated until 1850, and then by H. J. Arnold and others, until 1855-6; Mr. Reynolds until about 1840. There was another tanyard on lot No. 170, south side of Jacob, between Water and Jefferson streets, which was operated by A. Boyd & Co. for a year or so prior to October, 1830, and for a term of years thereafter, i.e. from October 16 in the last-mentioned year, by Joseph Galbraith and John Shields. In October, 1843, that property was conveyed to Joseph McCartney, who used it as a tannery until 1862. Stephen B. Young carried on the same business on ground adjoining Arnold's steam mill for a limited period in 1835-6. John S. Alexander's tannery was started on lot No. 34, corner of Vine and Jefferson streets, and continued until 1873-4, when occurred, thus far at least, the finale of the manufacture of leather in this borough. The products of these tanneries were sole, upper and harness leather in considerable quantities. Before the spinning of yarn and thread was cheapened by machinery, or, as some good old ladies would say, before pianos were substituted for spinning wheels, the business of the wheelwright was a necessary and important branch of manufactures. In 1804 lot No. 90, on west side of McKean, next but one below Arch street, was assessed to James McElhenny as wheelwright, but not afterward. It was carried on by George Clark in 1809 and perhaps later, by Daniel Morrow in 1812-13, by Robert Robinson, Sr., for awhile, by Thomas Clyde from 1813 until 1817-18, by James Richart in 1819, as appears from the assessment lists. James McCullough, Sr., settled here in 1820, and soon entered into that branch of manufactures, on or near that part of lot No.127 where the First National Bank is located. In the course of a few years hlie had three shops in different parts of the borough, in which that kind of wheels was made, to the making of which he added that of chairs. After his retirement from the business, in 1862, it was conducted for several years by his son Alexander, on lot No. 167, northeast corner of Jacob and McKean streets. D. B. Heiner, who learned his trade with the elder McCullough, also carried on the manufacture of spinning-wheels, on both sides of Jefferson, near Arch street, from 1829 until 1854, exclusive of several years, during which he was engaged in mercantile business. In the Columbian of June 21, 1828, is an adver143 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. tisement of John Clugsten, in which he stated, among other things, that he had "commenced the manufacture of eight-day and thirty-hour brass clocks, in the frame building next door to Thomas Blair's office," which was on lot No. 122, on the north side of Market, a little above Jefferson street, and opposite the old Register's office. Ile, however, made none of the thirty-hour and but five of the eight-day kind. Those which he did make were the long-case corner clocks, one of which was purchased by John Mechling, which is now owned by J. E. Brown; one by James McCullough, Sr., who still keeps it in good running order, the cost of both clock and case being $40; one by the late David Reynolds, which is still in the dining-room of the Reynolds House, but it has not been kept in running gear for several years; one by the late James Monteith, which became the property of his daughter, the late Mrs. Dr. John Gilpin,'and was removed by Dr. Gilpin, several years before his death, to his homestead in Cecil county, Maryland, and the remaining one by the late James Matthews, which was sold with his other effects after his death. Mr. Clugsten's part of the work consisted in making, polishing and fitting the d(ifferent parts of the machinery, and adjusting them to the dial-plate, which he did in such a way as to be creditable to Kittanning artisanship. There are attachments to those clocks showing the day of the month and the phases of the moon. The first carding machine was operated by Richard Graham, and then, in 1822, by Robert Richards, on lot No. 59, now owned by David Patterson, on the east side of Jefferson street and on the south side of a public alley between, and parallel to, Arch and Vine streets, probably not longer than a year or two, for, in 1823-5, he was assessed as a schoolmaster, and shortly afterward, for a year or two, as a surveyor. The next carding machine, with fulling-mill and spinning machinery, was operated by Hugh Fullerton, on lot No. 51, on east side of Water street near the mouth of Truby's run, in 1855, and continued to operate the same until the fall of 1860, when he sold to J. Kennerdell & Co., who extended the business by manufacturing jeans, blankets, flannels and cassimeres, producing daily about 100 yards of those articles. The machinery, etc., cost $4,000. In the fall of 1863 the machinery was transferred to the three-story brick building known as the Iron Store, on lot No. 145, on Water street and the public alley between and parallel to Market and Jacob streets. It soon after changed hands. J. E. Brown and J. B. Finlay became largely interested in the factory. Large accessions were made to the machinery, costing $70,000 or $80,000. The products were flannels, blankets and cassimeres, amounting to about 500 yards a day. The number of employes was about fifty. With occasional stoppages, it continued to be operated the last few years of its existence by Goodell & Co., until Wednesday morning, March 25, 1874, when it was destroyed by a fire, which originated, it is supposed, in the engine-room. It was insured for a considerable amount, the claim for which, or a part of it, is in litigation. How long before, or whether ever, it will be rebuilt is questionable. It is said that lightning strikes the same spot but once. Be that as it may, fire sometimes ravages the same locality more than once. On the site of that factory a three-story brick building was erected prior to 1820, in which resided, for several years, John Brodhead, deceased, who was a son of Gen. Daniel Brodhead, who was the commandant of Fort Pitt in 1778-9. This house was, twenty or more years after the death of that descendant of Gen. Brodhead, occupied by Rev. Joseph Painter, and Thursday night, November 14, 1844, was destroyed by fire, which subjected him and his family to such loss and inconvenience as such disasters usually occasion. Hence, the trustees of the academy gave him the use of the lower story of their building until April 1, 1845, and elected him principal. In the spring of 1887 the late John S. Watson began the manufacture of farm, road and Dearborn wagons, chaises, buggies, sulkies, barouches, gigs, sleighs, etc., at the corner of McKean and Jacob streets, near Isaac Scott's pottery, and continued it a few years. About 1842, L. C. Pinney commenced the manufacture of buggies, carriages and sleighs, on lot No. 142, on the corner of two public alleys, which was afterward continued by Pinney & Combs, and by Pinney & Son until 1870, on the opposite corner on the old court-house square. It was subsequently carried on by Croll & Myers, in the old schoolhouse building on Jacob, between McKean street and the public alley parallel thereto, and it is now conducted there by J. F. Keener. The manufacture of threshing machines was commenced by Henry Rush in 1849, and it is still continued, averaging about twelve per year. In 1866, the first and as yet the only planing mill in this borough, was put in operation by the Heiner Brothers, on lot No. 86, corner of Arch street and Grant avenue, which was removed to their new brick building on lot No. 10, on the west side of that avenue, in 1874. The average quantity of lumber used annually is about one million 144 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. feet. The products are worked and rough lumber, doors, sash, moldings, brackets, window and door frames, shutters, mantels, palings, and the various kinds of scroll work. The machinery consists of planers, molders, scroll and circular saws, morticers, and tenon-machine, which are worked by steam. In 1873 the manufacture of machinery, of brass work, and the repairing of engines, boilers, and threshing machines, etc., was commenced by George M. Read, on lot No. 103 on the east side of McKean street and the public alley between and parallel to Arch and Market streets. The machinery was worked by steam, and continued in operation until the building was destroyed by fire, on the morning of Saturday, November 27, 1875, since when this distinctive branch of manufactures has ceased, except so as it is carried on in connection with the foundries. The manufacture of hats was carried on by different individuals, from at least as early as 1804 until 1858, when it ceased. The manufacture of cabinet-ware was commenced in 1807-8, and is still continued, though much of the furniture sold by the cabinet-makers, for some years past, has been purchased from large manufacturing establishments elsewhere. The number of tailors has increased with the increase of population from 1803-4 until now. Of late years they have generally been merchant tailors, keeping on hand assortments of cloths, trimmings, and ready-made clothing, but still making many suits to order from their own stock or from material furnished by their customers. The number of shoemakers has been, since the laying out of this town, commensurate with the wants of its population. Several of this class of tradesmen have, for several years past, combined with their manufacture of boots and shoes the purchase and sale of the ready-made. So that boot and shoe makers' shops have, in some instances, been expanded into large boot and shoe stores. The manufacture of tinware, which was from 1823 until recently a branch by itself, is now connected mostly with the foundries. The business of the silversmith, i. e., repairing watches and other chronometers, was introduced here in 1820-1. For most of the time since then, there have been at least two establishments therefor, which of late years have kept more or less extensive, varied and suitable assortments of clocks, watches and jewelry-made elsewhere. The milliners, in addition to what they make themselves, have, for a number of years past, kept supplies of articles in their line, purchased in the great marts of trade. It appears from the assessment lists, that the following trades and occupations began to be exercised here thus: Cooper, in 1808; weavers, 1811-12; saddle and harness-maker, 1815; gunsmith, 1821; tinner, etc., 1823; barber, confectioner, 1833; millwright, grocer, butcher and dentist, 1843; plowmaker, 1834; windmill-maker, stone-cutter, 1844; baker, 1848; brewer of lager beer, marble-cutter, 1849; pump-borer, druggist or apothecary, 1831, bookseller, lumber-merchant, 1853; livery stablekeeper, 1856; banker, broker, restaurant-keeper, 1856-7; daguerrotyper -; photographer, 1863; bookbinder, 1871; undertaker, 1873. Several of these branches of business may have been commenced somewhat earlier than the assessment lists indicate. What used to be called strong beer was brewed, on a small scale, between 1820 and 1830, on lot No. 75, on Water street. There was an interval of several years between the cessation of brewing this kind of beer and the beginning of the brewing of lager beer. Daguerreotyping has been substituted by photographing. The rest of these branches of business, with a few exceptions, are still carried on-most of them have been extended to meet the increasing wants of the community. The number of stone and brick masons, plasterers and carpenters has, from the first, kept pace with the increasing demand for their labor. Much of the carpenter work formerly done by hand is now done by machinery; especially that of planing, molding and carving. House painting became an established branch of business here at a somewhat later period, and the number of those now engaged in it has increased. Since 1858, there has been a marked change for the better in the style of buildings; an improved architectural taste has been evinced in most of the edifices since then erected. The first pottery was started by John Black, according to the assessment list, in 1814. Lot No. 215 was then assessed to him, which is on the southeast corner of McKean and Mulberry streets. The next year lot No. 202, oni the opposite side of McKean, being the third lot above Mulberry street, was also assessed to him. Afterward, from 1816 to 1818 inclusive, he was assessed with lot No. 184 only. He seems to have commenced the pottery business on the first named, and to have closed it on the last named lot. He occasionally taught singing-school in his own house. Portions of McKean street were then quite swampy, and the frogs were so numerous that it was called " Frog street." A common expression, when they were 145 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. croaking near his residence, was, " There's Black's singing-school." The pottery manufacture was resumed by the late Isaac Scott, on lot No. 184, on the west side of McKean street, being the third lot below Jacob street, in 1822, in which he was succeeded in 1846-7 by George Buyers, who carried it on until his death, which was caused by the accidental discharge of his gun that was lying on the bags of grain in his wagon, behind which he was walking on his way to the mill near the mouth of the Cowanshannock, in the summer or fall of 1849. His successors were George Gabel, John M. Dosch and John Yolk. The last-named retired from the business in 1863. After Mr. Scott ceased to operate the pottery, it was probably transferred to lot No. 190, which was assessed to George Buyers until his death; while lot No. 184 was assessed from 1847 to 1851-2 to Benjamin Blanchard, as a windmill-maker. The products of the pottery were chiefly earthenware. Plows were manufactured, on a limited scale, by Francis Dobbs, on lot No. 136, west side of Jefferson, between Market street and the public alley parallel thereto, in 1843-5. Adam Cook was assessed as a plow-maker in 1844. Brickmaking must have started, not exactly within the borough limits, but just " over the border," or northern limit, opposite out-lot No. 3, as early at least as 1805, for articles of agreement were made February 22, 1806, whereby Andrew Goudy leased to Paul Morrow his "brick-yard and land appurtenant, situate just above the town of Kittanning "-which some of the oldest inhabitants distinctly remember was in the locality above indicated-for one year from that date, "together with all the clay already dug, the molding tools, two spades, one ax and a wheelbarrow." Goudy also agreed to repair the roof of the shed and permit Morrow to carry away the casing of the kiln and any cordwood that might remain after the bricks were burned. For all which Morrow agreed to pay Goudy, his heirs or assigns, the sum of $30 on the 1st day of November then next, and the further slim of three shillings and sixpence for every cord of wood then cut. It does not appear from any endorsement on that lease, or any other accessible source, whether that lease was continued for a term or terms running through the three or four subsequent years. But it does appear from the county commissioners' records that Paul Morrow furnished 189,000 brick for the first court-house, in 1809-10. The piece of land on which that brick-yard was located contained two acres and sixteen perches, and was one of the "two fragments or pieces of land" which James Armstrong, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, conveyed to Robert Brown for $130 by deed dated October 18, 1809, and which the latter, for $500, by deed dated January 1, 1813, conveyed to Robert Stewart, who supplied this town with brick therefrom until 1827. He was one of the very few marked "colored " on the Kittanning assessment lists. His complexion, it is said, indicated that he was of African descent, but his hair did not, so that he was regarded by some as a Portuguese. His successor in that brickyard until 1830 was John Hunt, who was followed by James Daugherty, deceased, and William Sirwell, Sr. The latter there erected the first dryhouse and made the first pressed brick in this county, in 1851. Since then, that ground has been used for other purposes. One-fourth of an acre of it was conveyed to John W. Rohrer and wife, by deed dated April 1, 1852, for $250. Another quarter of an acre in the rear part of it has been covered with water, winter and summer, since it was excavated, making a pond which does not dry up at any season of the year and affords a considerable supply of good ice in the winter, and has no visible inlet or outlet. The manufacture of brick was carried on, at different points within the borough limits, at dif ferent periods, from 1838-9 until 1866, by the above mentioned James Daugherty, and then by John F. Nulton, H. D. & G. B. Daugherty, and, perhaps, some others, until 1866. The Avenue Brick Works, on out-lots Nos. 20 and 21, are owned and operated by G. B. Daugherty, with which are connected a dry-house capable of holding 6,000 bricks, and two kiln walls, etc. Their present capacity is equal to the manufacture of 4,500,000 bricks per annum. The annual product of the various kilns has varied from 100,000 to 1,000,000 bricks. BANKING. In the Gazette of February 17, 1836, is a call for a meeting of the citizens of Kittanning and vicinity to be held in the grand jury room on Saturday evening, the 27th of that month, for the purpose of forming a Mechanics' Savings Fund Company. The call also stated that drafts of a constitution and by-laws would be submitted. That meeting was held and the company organized. At a meeting of the directors March 16, 1836, a resolution was adopted requiring the members of the company to pay into its treasury respectively five dollars on Saturday, the 26th then instant. As that institution is one of the things of the distant past, readers may be interested to know who the officers and directors of that first banking company 146 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. in this borough were. From the papers of those times they appear to have been: William F. Johnston, president; William Matthews, secretary; Joseph M. Jordan, treasurer; Frederick Rohrer, Nathaniel Henry, Francis Dobbs, Hugh Campbell and Archibald Dickey, directors. The stockholders were almost exclusively mechanics. There is but a faint recollection of this financial institution left in the minds of even those who were its stockholders. I have not been able to obtain a copy of its constitution and by-laws or access to its records,. so that I cannot state the amount of stock subscribed, or that of each share, or how long it continued in operation. I am, however, informed by one of the stockholders that stock was paid up and some loans made, but to his surprise it was determined at one of the meetings of the officers or managers to close-wind up the affairs of the company-which was accordingly done, and the amount of stock which each had paid, together with its earnings, was refunded. It was not, of course, clothed with banking powers and privileges, but was intended to afford without them some of the facilities incident to banking institutions. My informant suggests that opposition to it originated among the merchants, because it afforded its members facilities for loaning money with which they purchased such goods as they needed in Pittsburgh or elsewhere. Another cause of its discontinuance, suggested by another informant, was, according to his best recollection, dissatisfaction among such of its members as could not be accommodated with loans when they wanted them. For several years after 1.836 there was a great, a distressing scarcity of money here as well as everywhere else in this country. So general was the dearth of currency that merchants and other business men in Kittanning and other places reluctantly resorted to the issuing of scrip or " shinplasters," as they were called, as a medium of small change or currency. The following is a copy of one of those " shinplasters ": No. 275. SO CENTI..50' Received by the KITTANNING SAVINGS COMPANY from R. Cunningham, on deposit, Fifty Cents, which is payable H ~ to him or bearer, on demand, in current , Balth tlotn of t4t ity of vitfisbui, With interest, at one per cent per annum, by A. Colwell, SR. Robinson, P. Mechling, J. E. Brown, G. Monroe, and T. McConnell, or either of them, when presented in sums amounting to five dollars. - (Signed) "P. MECHLING, PRESIDENT." R. oiN,soN, Treaoserer. "Kittanning, 1 June, 1837." Though the paper-promises, of one of which the foregoing is a copy, were not as widely and universally current as is the present United States scrip or fractional currency, they nevertheless were very convenient in those truly hard times as a means of exchange, or as small currency here, and where the solvency and reputation of the promisers were known. A number of citizens of this borough inaugurated a movement for the establishment of a bank here in 1844, as appears from their notice, dated June 27, that they would apply to the legislature at its next session for the incorporation of the Armstrong County Bank. That application did not prove to be successful. By the act of May 5, 1857, the Kittanning Bank was incorporated, with a capital stock of $100,000 and the right to increase it to $300,000, to be divided into shares of fifty dollars each; to be organized, managed and governed as provided by the general act regulating banks, approved April 16, 1850; and to pay a bonus of one per cent of the amount of its capital stock into the state treasury. Its charter is dated June 24, 1857. It was duly organized and commenced business in August, 1857, in a small brick office adjacent to the present building, on lot No. 127. Its capital stock was $200,000. During the general bank suspension of specie payments in 1857-8 it continued to pay specie. It was one of the very few that did not suspend. In those times bills of banks were not readily received out of their own states or vicinities. During that general suspension the writer had occasion to purchase a railroad ticket in Cleveland, Ohio, but had with him only bills of the Kittanning Bank, which the ticket agent at first refused to accept, requiring bills of such banks as were in his own state, but on my assuring him that that was a specie paying bank, and that it had never suspended, hlie receded from the stand which hlie had taken and sold me a ticket. Soon after the passage of the National Bank act the First National Bank of Kittanning was organ ized, but did not then, viz., August 21, 1863, or until 1867, commence business. An attempt having been made to establish a Second National Bank here, the Kittanning Bank, being then a state bank, was changed to a national bank, July 2, 1866, so that until the next year, when the latter was closed or wound up, there were two national banks, under one management, in operation. Since then the First National has been the only one of that kind in operation here. Its capital is $200,000. The Allegheny Valley Bank was established in 147 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. April, 1872. It is not incorporated, but is rather a copartnership, with individual liability. It is not a bank of issue, but of deposits and loans. Its capital stock is $100,000. It is located in the Reynolds block, on lot No. 121. All of the banks in Kittanning have thus far done a safe business, their customers or depositors not having lost a dollar through failure or insolvency of either of them. INSURANCE COMPANY. By act of April 2, 1853, the Kittanning Insurance Company was incorporated. The number of corporators specified in the charter is twenty, any five of whom were authorized to be constituted commissioners, who, at any time within one year from the passage of that act, after giving two weeks' notice in one or more newspapers printed in Kittanning, to meet and receive subscriptions to the capital stock, which is to consist of 1,000 shares at $50 each, and to be paid in as the directors might determine, and which could be increased at any time to 10,000 shares of $50 each. This corporation is authorized to take risks on the mutual plan or otherwise against fire; to effect marine and inland insurances on vessels, cargoes, freights, etc.; also to make insurance on the lives of persons and animals; to invest the capital stock and other moneys of the company, or intrusted to it, in bonds, notes, mortgages, ground rents, judgments, stocks and loans of the United States and Pennsylvania, and in other good securities, and to sell, transfer and change the same, and to reinvest the proceeds thereof in such other bonds, notes, etc., whenever the directors may deem it expedient, but it is not authorized to engage in the business of banking. The directors must annually declare a dividend of so much of the profits as they may deem advisable, which is to be paid to the respective stockholders, according to their rules and regulations, and annually publish a full and accurate statement of the condition and affairs of the corporation. The company was duly organized, and it has ever since been doing more or less business in investing its stock and other moneys, and but little, if any, in insuring either property or lives. Whether it will, after this year (1876) engage in the latter branch of business remains to be seen. There have been established here for some years past several efficient agencies, representing a considerable number of fire insurance companies of this and other states. GAS WORKS. The Kittanning Gas Company was incorporated by the act of March 13, 1858, which gave to that corporation the exclusive authority to supply this borough and its vicinity with gaslight. The capital stock is limited to $20,000, and each share to $50. The penalty for using the gas without proper authority is not less than $20 or more than $80, and for injuring the works a fine not less than $100 and not more than $500, or imprisonment not less than ten days and not more than one year, or both, at the discretion of the court. The managers are authorized to issue certificates of credit or evidences of indebtedness not exceeding $15,000 at any one time, for the purpose of aiding in constructing the works and managing the business of the company, no certificate to be for a less sum than $50, the payment of such certificates to be secured by a general mortgage upon the real estate and all the effects of the company; and makes the stockholders jointly and severally liable individually for all debts due mechanics, workmen and laborers employed by, and for material furnished to the company to the amount remaining unpaid on each share of stock held by the respective stockholders. By Act of April 15, 1859, the Armstrong Gas Company was incorporated with the exclusive right and authority to furnish this borough and its vicinity with gaslight; the capital stock to be $50,000, and each share $25; the company to be organized and governed as provided in the general act of incorporation of gas and water companies of March 11, 1857. All acts and parts of acts conflicting therewith were repealed. A company was organized and commenced building their works on the lot on the southwest corner of Water and Walnut streets; a house was erected and the ground prepared for constructing the gasometer, in 1860-1, but the embarrassment of the chief stockholder, who resided elsewhere, prevented the completion of those works, and the company's property was subsequently sold under the sheriff's hammer. The act of February 25, 1860, repealed the above-mentioned act incorporating the Armstrong Gas Company, and the act of March 25, 1859, which was a supplement to the act incorporating the Kittanning Gas Company, and provided that the last-mentioned company should commence practical operations within six months from the passage thereof. By the act of February 25, 1868, the above-mentioned supplement was revised, and the provision requiring the last-mentioned company to commence operations within six months was repealed. Thereupon the present Kittanning gas company was organized May 14, 1868, and erected their works, gasometer, etc., in the spring and summer of 1872, on lot No. 197, northwest corner of McKean street and the public alley between and parallel to Jacob and Mul148 FE S ID E:C E 0 F WIL. C) 1AOFI1S C) KITTA f1\1G, P'A.INJTERIOR OF VIILL.A.,MOF,T ISONWS DRY( GOODS STO\E, (I TTA kN rNNG, PA - THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. berry streets, and commenced the manufacture of gas in July, 1872. On a certain night in that month, after the gas had been distributed, every building, private and public, into which it had been introduced was illuminated with its light free of charge, which was, of course, a cheerful and brilliant entree of this changed mode of illumination. Besides the borough, which has, by contract with the gas company, forty-four posts and street lamps distributed along the streets, there are one hundred and thirty-seven paying consumers. The aggregate length of the main pipes for distributing gas is a fraction over two and a third miles, which from three to six inches in diameter, and are laid from three to seven feet below the surface of the ground in the various streets. Those works cost $31,000. On Thursday, November 25, 1875, a fire occurred there, caused by the bursting of the gaspipe, which, it was feared, would cause a general explosion and conflagration. So serious a disaster was prevented by shutting off the gas from the large tank, and by the prompt, resolute and well-directed efforts of the manager, Wm. B. Kerr. The loss thus occasioned was about $1,500, which was nearly, if not entirely, covered by insurance. WATER WORKS. By act of March 12, 1866, a charter was granted to the Kittanning Water Company for the purpose of introducing pure water from any stream in this county into this borough. The capital stock is $50,000, divided into shares of $50 each. The company was to be organized, managed and governed as provided by the general act of March 11, 1857, providing for the incorporation of gas and water companies. The charter gives this company the right to enter upon and take possession of any lands or inclosures, streams of water within this (.ounty for effecting its purposes, on filing bond as required by that general act to cover all damages assessed therefor. This company is also authorized to borrow any sum of money not exceeding $20,000 and issue bonds at such rates of interest as may be agreed upon between the parties, each one not to be for a less sum than $100. Letters patent were issued May 17, 1871, and the company was organized June 7, next folloNing. Within the ensuing seven months the water works were completed and the water was turned into the pipes January 10, 1872. The number of paying consumers is 354. The reservoir, with a capacity of 35,717 barrels, is located in the upper part of the field east of the street and road extending past the courthouse and jail into Valley township, 190 feet in hight above Water, Jefferson and McKean streets, giving a pressure of eighty pounds to the square inch, to which water from near the bottom and middle of the. Allegheny river, through a pipe extending from along the bed of the river beneath the public alley between and parallel to Arch and Vine streets, by steam pumps located on lot No. 58, on the south side of that alley and adjacent to the southern bend in Truby's Run. The reservoir, if empty, can be filled in forty-five hours. The main pipes are iron, four, six, and ten inches in diameter, and laid from three and one-half to four feet below the surface along all the streets, their aggregated length being four and one-half miles, besides 3,500 feet of six-inch rising main extending from the pumps to the reservoir and 600 feet of ten-inch suction main extending from near the middle of the river to the pumps, which, with the engine, are in a brick structure erected therefor. MERCANTILE AND PROFESSIONAL. Although most of the merchants still keep a variety of such goods as belong to the different branches of mercantile business, there has been for some time a growing change in this respect, so that there are now four large drug-stores, whose trade is confined to drugs and such other articles as are usually kept by druggists. The trade in hardware, groceries, provisions, books and stationery has become more distinct from other mercantile business than it formerly was. The professions of medicine and dentistry are more distinctly and numerously represented than was heretofore the case. The legal profession remains in statu quo in regard to the choice of specific branches of legal business by the respective members of the bar, such as is so often made in large cities. Each practitioner still continues to take charge of cases in courts of law, in courts of equity and in criminal courts, without making any particular branch a specialty. A few are overburdened with their mixed business, while others, some at least, for lack of opportunity to develop, are comparatively briefless. Notwithstanding the increased facilities for traveling, the presence here of distinguished members of the bars of some of the adjoining counties, during our court weeks, is far less frequent than was the case when the usual mode of locomotion was on horseback. In those times, when the general business in the courts in this and in those counties was lighter than it now is, but when there were more of important land titles to be tried than there have been for several years past, there was many an able, brilliant and vigorous contest before court and jury, in which those foreign and our 149 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. own resident lawyers zealously participated; and there was, too, many a pleasant social gathering out of court, which was not barren of genial flashes of wit and humor and good feeling. PUBLIC BUILDINGS. In 1859, a town hall, brick, two stories, 50 by 32 feet, was erected for $1,000, under a contract between the borough and Charles B. Schotte. The rear part of the lower story is used for keeping the fire-hose, hose-carriages, etc. The front part of that story is used as the chamber of the town council, and the post-office. The upper story was for a while used for public meetings and a schoolroom, but of late years it has been occupied as the printing-office of the Armstrongq Republican. This hall is situated on the northeast corner of Market street and an alley, on the old jail square. In 1872, a grain elevator, frame, 100 by 60 feet, 25 feet high, was erected by J. A. Gault & Co., on the east side of Grant avenue, on out-lot No. 22. Though owned by a private company, it is, on the score of general convenience to the agricultural class, at least, a quasi-public building. It has a capacity for holding or containing about 70,000 bushels of grain. The largest number as yet stored in it at any one time is 36,000 bushels. In 1874, an opera house was erected by a jointstock company, on leased ground, on the upper part of lots Nos. 128 and 133, on the southeast corner of Market street and a public alley between it and the Avenue House. It is a frame building, the main or front part, containing the parquet, dress circle and gallery, is 60 by 49 feet, with a hight of ceiling varying from about 16 to 25 feet. Its roof is what its builders call a drop-Gothic. The rear part, containing the stage, dressing-rooms and scenery, is about 24 by 20 feet, with a less hight of ceiling than the main part. The acoustic properties are very good, bating the ringing noise made by movements on the floors and stairs, on which are but single layers of boards. If they were so modified as to deaden the sound caused by foot-falls upon them, and the building were otherwise finished, the comfort and satisfaction of the audiences that assemble in it would be greatly enhanced. Its cost, including that of some wellpainted scenic representations, is $6,000. CEMETERIES. The first ground used for interring the dead within the borough limits consisted of lots Nos. 61, 67, 73 and 79, on the east side of McKean, between Arch street and the public alley next north of the last-mentioned street, forming the square now owned by James Mosgrove an(l John Gilpin. Dr. James Armstrong, the former owner, appropriated those lots to be used as a burial-ground. Few interments, however, were made therein. Some, it is said, were made by mistake on the public alley bounding them on the east. Upon the representation made by the inhabitants of this town that if those lots should be occupied as a burial-ground, the water with which the people were supplied, owing to the sandiness of the soil and the elevation of these lots, would be materially adulterated, the legislature passed an act March 19, 1810, authorizing and empowering the commissioners of Armstrong county, after giving four weeks' notice in Thte Farmer's Register, printed at Greensburg, Westmoreland county, in one of the newspapers in Pittsburgh and by written or printed advertisements put up in six of the most public places in Armstrong county, one of which was to be on the court-house door in the town of Kittanning, of the time and place of sale, to sell the above last-mentioned four lots for the highest and best price that could be had therefor, to execute deeds to the purchaser or purchasers on payment of the purchase money, and to immediately apply the money arising therefrom to the purchase of other more eligible ground to be occupied as a public burial-ground for the inhabitants of this town and its vicinity, which was to be taken and considered in lieu of those four lots. A few residents of this town were buried in the grave-yard on Pine Run, on the west side of the Allegheny river, now in East Franklin township. A part of the field east of the public road extending from the head of Market street past the court-house and jail, now owned by Mrs. J. F. Nulton, was used for a while as a burying-ground. Among the interments made in it was that of the remains of Robert Duncan, a former proprietor of a part of the Manor, and a brother of Thomas Duncan, deceased, one of the former justices of the supreme court of this state. The location of the next cemetery is on out-lot No. 2, which, and out-lot No. 4, were purchased by Joseph McClurg at the first sale of the town lots for *93. Mr. McClurg and Anne, his wife, by their deed dated July 13, 1808, conveyed the former to Paul Morrow for $100. As the money arising from the sale of the above-mentioned four lots was not sufficient to purchase out-lot No. 2, some of the inhabitants of this town and of other places subscribed and paid the requisite amount. Whereupon, the commissioners having agreed to appropriate the proceeds of the sale of those in-lots to the purchase of that out-lot, Paul Morrow and Lydia, his wife, by their deed, dated September 21, 150 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. to England had indicated his wishes respecting the increase of the area of that county was corroborated by the written attestations of John Blunston, Randall Vernon and Thomas Usher, and by the assertions of some of the members of the council, that these courses and distances accorded with the map of the Province. John Blackwell, being then governor, directed that the minutes of the council, held February 1, 1682, be examined. It was found that the copy which was then before the council agreed in substance with the entry of the minutes. On February 26, 1689, the council reaffirmed their vote of February 1, 1682, fixing the dividing lines between the counties of Chester and Philadelphia, so that the area of Chester county was enlarged. To what extent? Not expressly, yet impliedly or inferentially, so as to include all the territory of the Province not included in Bucks and Philadelphia counties. At all events, the jurisdiction of the courts of Chester county, after its enlargement, over the settlements as they extended westward, until the formation of Lancaster county fortytwo years later. Its western and northwestern boundaries were not expressly designated - they were left open. It is, then, a reasonable inference that Armstrong county is a descendant from Chester. LANCASTER COUNTY. The petition for its organization was presented to the Provincial Council, February 6,1828-9. (It appears from the 41st chapter of the Acts of the First General Assembly, passed December 7, 1682, that the first settlers of this state began the year on the first of March; that sixth of February was, according to their calendar, in 1828, but according to ours, in 1829.) That was "a petition of the inhabitants of the upper [western] parts of Chester" which "was laid before the board and read, setting forth that by reason of their great distance from the county town, where courts are held, offices are kept, and annual elections are made, they lie under very great inconveniences, being obliged, in the recovery of their just debts, to travel one hundred miles to obtain a writ; that for want of sufficient number of justices, constables, and other officers, in these parts, no care is taken of the highways; townships are not laid out, nor bridges built, when there is an apparent necessity for them; and further, that for want of a gaol there, several vagabonds and other dissolute people harbor among them, thinking themselves safe from justice in so remote a place; and therefore praying that a division line be made between the upper and lower part of said county, and the upper part thereof erected into a county, with all the immunities, rights and privileges which any other county of this province does now enjoy." This petition led to the formation of another county. York, including also what is now Adams county, was separated from Lancaster by act of August 9, 1749. CUMBERLAND COUNTY was formed out of Lancaster county by act of January 27, 1750: "All and singular the lands lying within the Province of Pennsylvania, to the westward of the Susquehanna, and northward and westward of the county of York, and is hereby erected into a county, named and hereafter to be called Cumberland, bounded northward and westward with the lines of the Province, eastward partly with the river Susquehanna, and partly with the county of York, and partly with the line dividing the said province from Maryland." BEDFORD COUNTY was formed out of Cumberland county by act of March 9, 1771: "All and singular the lands lying and being within the following boundaries: Beginning where the Province line crosses the Tuscarora mountain, and running along the summit of that mountain to the gap near the head of Path valley; thence with a north line to the Juniata; thence with the Juniata to the mouth of Shaver's creek; thence northwest to the line of Berks county"-which had been formed from Philadelphia, Chester and Lancaster counties, March 11, 1752; "thence along the Berks county line northwestward to the western bounds of the Province; thence southward according to the several courses of the western boundary of the Province to the southwest corner of the Province; thence eastward with the southern line of the Province to the place of beginning"-from which, and from Berks, Northumberland county was separated by act of March 21, 1772, and then extended to the north and west boundaries of the Province; and from it Lycoming county was formed by act of April 13, 1795, and comprised all the northwestern part of the State beyond Huntingdon, Mifflin and Westmoreland counties. WESTMORELAND COUNTY was formed out of Bedford county by act of February 26, 1773: "Beginning in the Province line where the most westerly branch, commonly called the South or Great branch, of Youghiogheny river crosses the same; thence down the easterly side of the said branch and river to the Laurel hill; thence THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. 1818, conveyed it to the commissioners of this county, viz.: Isaac Wagle, David Reynolds and Joseph Rankin and their successors in trust for the use of the inhabitants of the town of Kittanning and its vicinity, and of the grantors for their purchase money for a public burying-ground for the sum of $130. Thomas Hamilton made this, among other bequests, in his will: " One hundred dollars to aid in putting a neat substantial board or post and rail fence around the grave-yard lot in or near the said borough." That lot was unfenced for several years after it began to be used for burial purposes. There probably never was such a fence around it as specified in Mr. Hamilton's will, as no credit for the payment of that bequest was claimed by James Hamilton, the surviving executor of that will, in his final and only executorship account, which was approved by the proper court September 16, 1839. It was, however, applied toward defraying the expense of building the present brick wall around that lot, which was done by John F. Nulton in 1842. That bequest and a portion of the amount subscribed was all that he received. The quantity of land contained in that lot is, according to the assessment list of 1804, one acre, one rood and ten perches. It was never laid out in walks and roads, and it has been beautified by shrubbery to only a limited extent. The company having control of this cemetery was incorporated by the proper court March 18, 1844. The first catholic cemetery is located in the rear of St. Mary's church, on High street. One of the new ones, laid out a few years since, is on the high ground in Valley township, a mile and three-quarters in an air line northeast from St. Mary's church, and about one hundred and seventy-five rods east from the river. The other-that of the German portion of the congregation-is about 200 rods northeast of that church, on land purchased from James Patrick, in Valley township. By act of February 18, 1853, a charter was granted to a corporation styled "The Kittanning Cemetery," which contains ample provisions for its perpetuity and for effecting the purposes for which it was constituted. The corporators are, at least once every year, to meet to fill vacancies that may occur in the corporation. The minimum number of members is restricted to seven, and the maximum to twenty-one, who must be lot-holders. The officers are five managers, a president, secretary, and treasurer, who must report their proceedings and the state of the finances at the annual election, on the first Monday of June, and whenever a majority of the corporators may require. The corporators or managers are authorized to purchase any quantity of land, not exceeding twenty-five acres, within five miles of the borough of Kittanning, for the purpose of the cemetery; to lay out, ornament, divide, and arrange it into suitable plats and burial lots; to allow the remains of persons buried elsewhere to be reinterred therein; to preserve and replace head and foot stones, tombs, obelisks or monuments, to do all other things necessary and proper to be done to adapt the ground to the purposes of a cemetery; and to sell the lots and burial plats in fee simple or otherwise, for the purpose of sepulture, to individuals, societies, or congregations without distinction of sect or creed, under such rules and regulations as the corporators may establish for the government of lotholders, visitors, and burial of the dead. The lots cannot be used for any but burial purposes and are free from taxation, levy or sale, under any process against the grantees and holders thereof or the corporation. It is also provided that the corporation may hold as much personal property as may be necessary for its purposes, and that a fund be created out of the proceeds of the sales of burial lots to be invested in judgments or mortgages, the income therefrom to be applied to the improvement and perpetual maintenance of the cemetery in proper order and security; that at least ten per cent of the purchase money of all burial lots be set aside for these improvements and the creation of that perpetual fund; and if the managers or corporators fail to perform the duties devolved upon them, they shall be subject to the control of competent judicial authority for correction. The penalty for opening any tomb or grave in this cemetery, without the consent of the corporation, and clandestinely or unlawfully removing, or attempting to remove, any body or remains therefrom, is imprisonment in the county jail or the western penitentiary not less than one nor more than three years, and pay a fine of not less than one hundred dollars, and for wilfully destroying, mutilating, defacing, injuring, or removing any tomb, monument, obelisk, gravestone, or other structure in the cemetery, or any fence or railing or other work for the protection or ornament of the cemetery or any lots therein, or for cutting, griddling, breaking, injuring or destroying, or removing any tree, shrub, or plant therein, or for shooting or discharging any gun or firearms within the limits of the cemetery, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and on conviction be subject to a fine of not less than five nor more than fifty dollars, and be imprisoned at the discretion of the court from one to six months. No street, lane, or road can be 151 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. laid out or made through the lands in the cemetery without the authority of the corporation, and such lands are exempt from taxation. The corporators or managers can borrow any sum of money not exceeding five thousand dollars, and issue therefor the bonds of the corporation, each not to be less than one hundred dollars. The first meeting of the incorporators was held July "23, 1857. The Board was duly organized and officers elected. Subscriptions were soon after solicited for the purpose of securing suitable ground for the cemetery. On or before August 17 of that year the subscriptions thus obtained amounted to $3,285. On January 23, 1858, an agreement was made between Franklin Reynolds and the cemetery company for the sale and purchase of fifteen acres and four perches of land in Valley township, but adjacent to this borough, surveyed by James Stewart and J. E. Meredith, September 23, 1857, for the sum of $3,000. On the payment of the purchase money in full Mr. Reynolds and Mary Jane, his wife, executed their deed therefor, dated May 20, 1864, to the cemetery company or corporation. The site is eligible for such a purpose, being on elevated ground sloping northwestwardly, southeastwardly and southwestwardly, and but a few rods from the northeast corner of the borough limits. Grand, Centre, North, South and Crescent avenues are each thirty-three feet, the Holy Cross avenue is sixteen feet, another unnamed one is ten feet wide. The width of the walks in three of the sections is three, and of all other internal walks four feet. All the regular lots in seven of the sections are each 10ox 15 feet, all in four of the sections are each 16 X 16 feet, and those in one of the sections are each 16 X 17 feet. The entire number of lots, regular and irregular in shape and size, is 1011, besides eight others which appear on the draft or plot to be laid out, but not numbered. The number of lots in the various sections that have been sold is 248, at prices varying from $20 to $150 per lot, amounting to nearly $15,000. In 1875-6 the company expended fully $2,000, as I am informed by the secretary, in building stone wall on each side of the westerly entrance, stone steps, paved stone gutters or water-ways, etc. Evergreen and other kinds of trees and shrubbery have been extensively and successfully planted. Considerable money has been expended and much fine taste displayed on various lots by their respective owners; so that this cemetery is, year after year, becoming a more and more beautiful city of the dead. In proportion to the length of time since those several cemeteries were laid out, the number buried in them is not large, which, in connection with the fact that there are now within the borough limits seventy-five persons over the age of sixty, a goodly number of whom are over seventy and eighty years of age, is good evidence of the salubrity of this region. Although this, as well as other places along the river, is subject to dense fogs, they are not such as generate chills, or fever and ague. So dense are they sometimes that it is impossible to see objects quite near, and for experienced pilots to keep their boats in the channel. Their great density may be conceived from this incident: Many years ago Philip Mechling, William Reynolds and Daniel Reichert, when they were young men, being on the west side of the river, attempted to cross over to this side at night through one of those fogs. Their attempts were several times thwarted by their boat striking the shore on that instead of this side of the river. They finally succeeded in crossing by following the direction of some noise on this side. Each thought, after landing, that he could reach his home without difficulty. But Mr. Reynolds, who lived in the lower part of the town, became so bewildered that he wandered about, unable to find his house, until the fog began to clear away early in the morning. Since the close of the war of the rebellion the comely and grateful custom of strewing the soldiers' graves in those cemeteries with flowers has been annually observed, on some occasions by large multitudes of people of this borough and vicinity, and by appropriate and patriotic addresses on decoration day, which by act of assembly has been made a legal holiday. THE TOWN IN 1876. The number of public buildings, dwelling and business houses this centennial year is estimated at 530, a large portion of which are substantial brick edifices, a respectable number of which, as well as some frame ones, are elegant and costly. The mercantile appraiser's list shows the number of wholesale and retail dealers for this year to be fifty-seven, viz.: In the 14th class, 41; 13th class, 8; 12th class, 3; 11th (class, 3; 4th class, 1. One of those in the 8th class was exonerated from paying license because lihe had not been engaged in the mercantile business since the 1st of May. Population-In 1810, 309; in 1820, 318; in 1830, 526; in 1840, 702; in 1850, 1561; in 1860, 1696; in 1870, 188s9. The number of taxables in 1876 is 580, which, at the rate 4, persons to a taxable, makes the present population 2,628. The number of the different kinds of mnechianics is adequate to 152 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. the wants of the community. There are 9 licensed hotels. One of the stores does a large wholesale as well as retail business. The mode of transacting business, as in many other Pennsylvania towns, is quiet. The amount thus done here would make far more show and bustle in places of equal or even of less size in some other states. GEOLOGY OF THE LOCALITY-MINERAL SPRINGS. Ferriferous limestone of a gray or blue color, 14 to 16 feet thick, not containing many fossils, underlies this borough. Its fragments cover the river banks; it sinks under water level below the southerly limit of the borough. It is seen on Mr. Reynolds' farm, one mile north, where the Kittanning coal is twenty feet above it. On the Nulton land, north of the court-house, it is four feet thick, and is divided by a thin slate about one foot from the top; a short distance south, it is from two to two and a half feet thick, and below the rolling-mill two feet and ten inches thick, whence it gradually sinks beneath the river-level. The strata, compiled from around Kittanning, indicate as follows, descending, i. e., from the surface of the high ground to the river-level: Slaty sandstone, 35; red and variegated shales, 15 feet; brown shales and argillaceous sandstone, with nodules of iron ore and bands of aranaceous limestone, 45 feet; limestone, blue, black, sandy, 12 inches; coal, not always present, 6 to 9 inches; olive shales and slaty sandstones, 25 feet; brown shales, 25 feet; upper Freeport coal, 3 feet; blue, compact shale, 10 to 15 feet; Freeport limestone, 5 to 6 feet; shale and sandstone, 30 feet; lower Freeport coal, 4 feet, sometimes thinned away; brown and black shales, 25 to 30 feet; coal, 6 to 15 inches; fine clay and shales, 25 feet; iron ore; ferriferous limestone, 12 to 14 feet.* The forgoing features are to be taken in connection with such as are presented in the sketches of Manor, Valley, and East Franklin townships. The passing remark may here be made, that as that part of the report of the second geological survey of Pennsylvania relating to this county, under the charge of Prof. Lesley, has not yet become accessible, the writer is limited, in presenting the geological features of this and other portions of this county, to the able and extensive report of the first geological survey of our state, under the charge of the late Prof. Rogers, and to such developments as have casually and more recently occurred. While Anderson and Marshall were excavating a * Rogers' Geology of Pennsylvania. piece of ground for a foundry, in June, 1876, next below outlot No. 27, on the upper side of Grant avenue, below and opposite the head of Jacob street, they developed a ten-inch vein of excellent iron ore, a stratum, several feet thick, of blue limestone of a superior quality, and a mineral spring.* The water of this spring is agreeably cool and very clear, except when some vis a tergo forces it up more rapidly and copiously than usual through divers apertures in the bed of the spring, when the sediment is disturbed and the water is temporarily roiled. Analyses of that water by able and experienced chemists and the opinions of learned physicians clearly indicate that it contains valuable medicinal properties. The following are the analyses: 1. By Drs. David and Myron H. Alter, of Freeport, this county: "Reaction slightly acid; gravity, 1.002. "Sulphate of lime in one pint................ 15 grains. " Sulphate of magnesia in one pint........... 1 " " Carbonate of iron in one pint................ 4 " " Substances not determined in one pint...... 1 " " The proportion of iron in this water being greater than in that of the Bedford Springs, it is therefore a better chalybeate-the Bedford containing only 11 grains in a pint. The gas being held in solution by carbonic acid renders it a most valuable tonic-a grain of it being equal to at least ten grains as found in the shops." 2. By Dr. F. A. Genth, chemist of the (Geological Survey of this state, and professor of chemistry in the University of Pennsylvania, in accordance with the request of Prof. Lesley, chief geologist: "Calculated in grains for one gallon of 231 cubic inches: "Sulphate of alumina....................... 1.52753 6. " ferrous oxide..................... 24.49271 " " magnesia....................... 26.84937 "lime....................... 65.12190 " soda........................ 8.72585 " potash......................... 90762 Phosphate of lime.........................11036 Bicarbonate of lime........................ 16.05445 Bicarbonate of manganese................... 24629 Chloride of sodium............................64741 Silicic acid................................... 1.17201 145.85460 Prof. Genth's is manifestly a very elaborate and minute analysis, such as can only be made by so extensive and complete an apparatus as there is in that university. Both analyses show that the water of this spring contains an unusually large percentage of iron and magnesia, which, combined with other ingredients, make it a valuable " alterative and tonic,"t effective in removing "gastric troubles caused by indigestion," and in curing those * This spring is really in Manor township. f Dr. J. G. Cunningham. 153 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. complaints " arising from an impoverished condition of the blood,"* as intimated by some of our resident physicians. It is noticeable that a pint of this water contains, by Dr. Alter's analysis, four grains of iron, and a gallon of it, by Prof. Genth's, 24.49271 grains, denominated by the former " carbonate of iron," and by the latter "sulphate of ferrous oxide." Whether the iron ingredient is a carbonate or a sulphate, it is manifestly very large-much larger than in any other known spring in the world. A gallon of the Ballston Spa, New York, contains of iron 5.95 grains; Lebanon Springs, New York, 3.25 grains; Congress Springs, Saratoga, 5.075 grains; Pavilion Spring, Saratoga, 3.51 grains; Capon Spring No. 1, West Virginia,.041 grains; Capon Spring No. 2, West Virginia,.052 grains; Buffalo Lithia Spring No. 1, Virginia,.500 grains; Buffalo Lithia Spring No. 2, Virginia,.300 grains; Buffalo Lithia Spring No. 3, Virginia, 3.774 grains. One of the merits justly claimed for the waters of those springs is that they are tonic. Such is the deliberate conviction and candid opinion of learned and experienced physicians who have carefully studied their medicinal properties and observed their effects. Granted that they are tonic, it must be granted that the water of the Kittanning spring is, a fbrtiori, tonic. An Eastern physician t of close observation and several years' successful practice, in a letter to the present writer, says after examining the analyses of the last-mentioned spring: "I have by me analyses of all the springs of any note in the world. It [the Kittanning spring] is by far the richest in iron, magnesia, lime sulphates, lime bicarbonates and phosphate of lime of any otiher mineral spring of which we have any analysis. * * * This one in your place exceeds them all for the tonic properties which the water contains. * * * The effect of the water prepared in nature's laboratory is much more efficacious than that prepared by art. * * * In all cases where a tonic, alterative and exhilarating effect is needed I think you have just the water to produce this." An eminent physician,J in an article respecting the medicinal properties of the water of the Buffalo Lithia Springs, of Mecklenburg county, Virginia, in the Tirginia Iedical Xonthly, says: "It may be said, however, of all mineral spring waters, that analysis can never reveal the combinations upon which their efficacy depends; in fact, the very process of analysis may break up combina * Dr. w. H. Stewart. t Dr. D. E. Smith, New York. I Dr. M. H. Houston, Virginia. tions formed in the laboratory of nature, which the best skill of the chemist can never detect, and which may impart to them their most valuable properties." About thirty-five yards from that spring is another, which was covered four or five feet deep while excavating as above mentioned, the water of which is quite acid, which, mixed with sugar, made a drink tasting like lemonade. It probably contains sulphuric acid in solution. The elevation or level above the Atlantic ocean, at the top of the curbstone, northwest corner of Market street and Grant avenue, is 809.94 feet.(Pennsylvania Second Geological Survey, N.) THE PURCHASE OF 1768. No. XLI of London Documents, published soon after the making of the treaty of 1768, contains the entire deed then executed, establishing the boundary or purchase line. Various good and prudential reasons and considerations are given in the preamble or recitals why such a line should be established. The grantors in that deed were the Sachems and chiefs of the Six Confederate Nations, and of the Shawaneese, Delawares, Mingoes of Ohio, and other dependent tribes. The grant, consideration and boundaries are in these words: "Now, therefore, know ye, that we, the Sachems and chiefs aforementioned, native Indians or proprietors of the lands hereinafter described, for and in behalf of ourselves and the whole of our confederacy, for the considerations hereinbefore mentioned, and also for and in consideration of a valuable present of the several articles in use amongst Indians which, together with a large sum of money, amount in the whole to the sum of ten thousand four hundred and sixty pounds seven shillings and threepence sterling, to us now delivered and paid by Sir William Johnson, Baronet, His Majesty's sole agent and superintendent of Indian affairs for the northern department of America, in the name and on behalf of our sovereign Lord George the Third, by the grace of God," etc., "the receipt whereof we do hereby acknowledge: We, the said Indians, have, for us and our heirs and successors, granted, bargained, sold, released and confirmed, and by these presents do grant, bargain, sell, release, and confirm unto our said sovereign Lord King George the Third all that tract of land situate in North America, at the back of the British settlements, bounded by a line which we have now agreed upon and do hereby establish as the boundary between us and the British colonies in America, beginning at the mouth of Cherokee or Hogohege (Tennessee) river, where it eml)154 THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING. ties into the river Ohio, and running from thence upward along the south side of said river to -ittanning, which is above Fort Pitt, from thence by a direct line to the nearest fork of the west branch of the Susquehanna, thence through the Allegany mountains along the south side of the said west branch until it comes opposite to the mouth of a creek called Tiadaghton,* thence across the west branch along the south side of that creek and along the north side of Burnett's Hills to a creek called Awandae, thence down the same to the east branch of Susquehanna and across the same and up the east side of that river to Oswegy (Owego), from thence to Delaware river and up that river to opposite where Tianaderha falls into Susquehanna, thence to Tianaderha and up the west side of the west branch to the head thereof, and thence by a direct line to Canada creek, where it empties into the Wood creek at the west of the carrying-place beyond Fort Stanwix, and extending eastward from every part of the said line as far as the lands formerly purchased, so as to comprehend the whole of the lands between the said line and the purchased lands or settlements, except what is in the Province of Pennsylvania, together with all the hereditaments and appurtenances to the same belonging," etc. It was sealed and delivered, and the consideration paid in the presence of William Franklin, governor of New Jersey, Frederick Smith, chief justice of New Jersey, Thomas Walker, commissioner of Virginia, Richard Peters and James Tilghman, of the council of Pennsylva SIt was questionable bfor several years after that treaty, whether Tiadaghton was Pine creek, now in Tioga county, or Lycoming creek, the next considerable branch of the Susquehanna to the eastward. While there was doubt as to which of those two streams was meant, it was not prudent for settlers to occupy west of the latter creek. That vexed question ought to have been settled in the negotiations between the Pennsylvania commissioners for treating with the Indians and the six confederated tribes of Indians, effected at Sunbury, Pennsylvania, October 23, 1784, when Capt. Aaron Hill, on behalf of the Six Nations, declared to the commissioners: "With regard to the creek called Teadaghton, mentioned in your deed of 17,68, we have already answered you and again repeat it, it is the same you ('all Pine creek, being the largest emptying into the west branch of the Susquehanna," which declaration Samuel Kirkland, missionary, and James Dean, interpreter, certified as having been made by Hill on that day. (Pennsylvania Archives.) It is stated in 2d Smith's Laws, page 195, that the Indians declared at Fort Stanwix, in October, 1784, that Pine ('reek was meant by Tiadaghton, which is recognized as the boundary in the Indian deeds of October, 1784, and January, 1785. Nevertheless the act of December 21, 1784, rescinded the powers given to those commissioners, and maintained the view taken by the proprietaries that Lycoming creek was the boundary line in the purchase of 1768, so that settlements on land between those two streams were unlawful. That act, however, declared that those who had made actual settlement there prior to 1780, and had made an application and tender of purchase money prior to November 1, 1785, on account of " their resolute stand and sufferings during the late war," should be allowed the right of preempting tracts, respectively, of not more than three hundred acres, that is, not a greater quantity than that in any one tract. Those provisions of course ended the exercise of the funmctions of the fair play men, who were a self-constituted tribunal, established in that doubtfill district to decide all controversies and disputed boundaries, from whose "decision no appeal was allowed, and it was enforced by the whole body, who rose up en masse on the mandate of the court to carry their decree into execution." nia. It was executed at Fort Stanwix November 5, 1768, in the presence of Sir William Johnston by Tyorhansere als Abraham for the Mohawks, Canaghaguieson for the Oneidas, Seguareesera for the Tuscaroras, Otsinoghiyata als Bunt for the Onondagas, Tegarria for the Cayugas, Guastrax for the Senecas. Among other descriptions of the Purchase Line of 1768 is the following, by Chief Justice Agnew, in Poor vs. McClure, 77 Pa. St. Reports, p. 218: "Part of the western and southwestern boundary lines are thus described in the treaty of 1768:'To the said west branch of the Susquehanna, then crossing the said river and running up the same on the south side thereof to a fork [canoe-place on the old and Cherry Tree on the recent maps] which lies nearest to a place on the Ohio [Allegheny] called the Kittanning, and from said fork in a straight line to Kittanning aforesaid, and then down the said river Onio by the several courses thereof to where the western boundary of said Province crosses the same river, and then with the said western bounds to the south boundary thereof, and with the south boundary thereof to the east side of the Allegheny hills,'" etc. He further says: "The treaty of October 22, 1784, is for the land within the state lying west and north of the purchase of 1768, and is bounded eastward by the line of the treaty of 1768, reciting it by quotation in the language just given." The commissioners on the part of the United States on that occasion were Oliver Wolcott, Richard Butler and Arthur Lee, and Cornplanter and Red Jacket were the most prominent of the Indian chiefs. The former was in favor of, and the latter opposed to, peace. La Fayette, who was present and advised them to keep the peace, to rely upon the clemency of the American people, to sell their lands only to those who were the duly authorized agents of Congress, and to abandon the use of intoxicating liquors, says that Red Jacket's speech in favor of war was "a masterpiece, and every warrior who heard him was carried away with his eloquence." The treaty was not signed until after a long conference, one of the conditions of which was, that six hostages should be immediately delivered to the commissioners, to remain in possession of the United States until all the prisoners, white and black, which had been taken by the Senecas, Mohawks, Onondagas and Cayugas, or by any of them, in the revolutionary war, from among the citizens of the United States there, shall be delivered utip. 155 CHAPTER V. ALLEGHENY (NOW BETHEL, PARKS AND GILPIN). Division of the Township in 1878-Origin of the Name Allegheny-English and French Traders-Conrad Weiser and Christian Frederick Post-The Earliest Land Tracts Surveyed and Seated -Valuation at Different Periods - Names of Pioneers - Churches - Schools - Mills - A Notabl'e Fox Hunt - Old-Time Fourth of July Celebration - Railroad Stations - Towns- Leechburg - Lively Enterprises - (Canal Packet Lines - Taxable Inhabitants in 1832-Steamnboat Arrival in 1838-The Town Incorporated in 1850-Religious History of Leechburg - Litigation in the Lutheran Church - Education - Physicians - Cemetery - Primitive and Improved Means of Crossing the River-Manufactures-Mercantile and Other Occupations-Soldiers' Aid Society -Secret Societies - Temperance - Population - Borough of Aladdin -Its Schools- Oil Works Statistics - Geology of Allegheny Township. [The township of Allegheny was in existence when the author wrote this volume, and its history is here presented intact, as it, of course, covers the three new townships of Bethel, Parks and Gilpin, erected from the territory of the old one. A number of the inhabitants of Allegheny township petitioned the Court of Quarter Sessions, June 3, 1878 as-king for a division of the territory comprising Allegheny into two or more townships. by the old sub-school district lines as near as was practicable, so as not materially to change the said school districts. Remonstrances were also presented, and the project was vigorously opposed. September 18, 1878, however, the court ordered a vote by the qualified electors of Allegheny to be taken upon the uestion of division, and fixed Tuesday, November 5, following, as the time. The return of this election, made December 26, 1878, showing that a majority of the voters were in favor of a division of Allegheny into three townships, the court ordered that it be divided as the commissioners had recommended and that three new townships be erected. It was further ordered and decreed that the names of the divisions should be, "No. 1, Bethel; No 2, Parks: No. 3, Gilpin." The day fixed for the first election in each of the townships was February 18, 1879. The place designated in Bethel was at schoolhouse No. 4, known as Bethel schoolhouse; and in Parks, schoolhouse No. 1, known as Hill's schoolhouse. The place originally ordered for the holding of the election in Gilpin was at "Spruce College" schoolhouse, but a subsequent order of the court designated the house of Joseph Lessig as being more convenient. Bethel township was named after the church and schoolhouse which had been for years so called; Parks, after the Park family, old and prominent residents; and Gilpin, in honor of John Gilpin, Esq., of Kittanning Borough, who, as an attorney, had assisted the people of Allegheny who favored the division.-EDTOa.] THE township of Allegheny, though having until 1878 an extensive area for a township in these later times, included but a small portion of the territory that once bore its name. Its name was derived from the Allegheny river, which is its western and southwestern boundary. Ileckewelder says: Allegheny is corrupted from Allegewi, the name of a race of Indians who are said to have dwelt along a river of that name, and in Allegewinnink, i. e., all the country west of the Alleghenies. The Shawanees called the river Palawu-thepi-ki, i. e. the "Turkey River place," or country, according to J. Hammond Trumbull.* *The writer gratefully acknowledges the receipt of the following letter: "THE WATKINSON LIBRARY, Hartford, Connecticut, December 4, 1877.f DEAR SIR: Mr. F. Vinton, of Princeton, encloses to me your request for the etymology of the Shawano name for Allegheny river, which you write "Palawu-thep-iki." This name properly belongs to land (or some locality) on the river, or near it. Palawo-otherwise - ritten Pelewa-is the Shawano name for the Wild Turkey; Miami, pilauh; Illinois, pi)bwa. Pelewa-sepi, or, as a Shawano often pronounced it, Pelewa-thepi, is "Turkey River; " Pelewa-thepi-ki, "Turkey River place" (or country). Whether the Allegheny was so named because of the abundance of wild turkeys, or from the Turkey tribe (Unaldchtgo) of the Delawares, I cannot certainly say; but the former is the more probable. Yours truly..1. HAMMOND TRUMBI.." On the Historical Map of Pennsylvania the upper Allegheny is named Palamuthepiki, and the lower Allegheny Palawathepi. The Indian settlements within the limits of this township were probably visited by English traders from the East, from 1730 until 1749, and thereafter by French traders and agents. In 1748 Conrad Weiser must, the writer thinks, have passed through the southeastern portion of the present township of Allegheny, on his route to Logstown. It may be remarked, in passing, that he was one of ten children of John Conrad Weiser, and was born at Herenberg, Germany, November 2, 1696. His father and family emigrated to Schoharie, New York, in the summer of 1710, where the Mohawk chief Quagnant became well acquainted with him, and induced his son Conrad to accompany him to his home and learn the Mohawk language. After acquiring a good knowledge of it hlie returned to his father's residence, and was now and then employed as an interpreter. In 1729 he removed with his wife and children to that part of the Tulpehocken valley, a half mile east of the present town of Wormelsdorf, in upper Heidelberg township, Berks county, Pennsylvania. The Muhlenbergs are among his descendants. He was a prudent, conscientious man. Because of his knowledge of the Indian language and customs, and his being a favorite with the Indians, he was frequently withdrawn from his farm, where lie wished to spend the rest of his days after leaving Schoharie, to act as interpreter and agent for the Province. Twenty-five years of his life were thus spent. On June 23, 1748, Anthony Palmer, then president of council, gave him instructions to be followed in his mission to the Indians, at Logstown, from which it appears that the government had promised the Indians who were in Philadelphia in November, 1747, that Weiser should be AA.,l 13 kpF F e F L, DAVID KEPPEL. The paternal grandfather of our subject, Nicholas Keppel, was born in Germany, and came to this country early in the eighteenth century. His son Daniel, who was David Keppel's father, was born in this state in 1767, and died in 1824. His wife was Miss Elizabeth Yearyan, of Westmoreland county; born in 1770, and died in 1821. Her father, George Yearyan, was a native of Germany, and worked his passage to America, his services being sold, before he left the Fatherland, to a farmer named David Kaufman, for a period of three years and nine months, at the expiration of which he received a horse, a saddle and bridle and two suits of clothes. His wife's maiden name was Williams. She was a Welsh woman, who came to this country with her parents and brothers and sisters at an early day. Daniel and Elizabeth (Yearyan) Keppel were the parents of twelve children, whose names were Susan, Margaret, George, Mary, Elizabeth, Daniel, Frances, Christina, Esther, Philip, Hannah and David. Three of this family are now living, viz.: Esther, wife of John Gumbert, of Westmoreland county; Hannah, widow of George Spicher, who resides in the same county, and David Keppel, our subject, who was born February 6, 1818, on the old homestead in Parks township, where he is now living and has always lived. He has never been away tVI-. DA L'iL KE P-L. from his farm longer than sixteen days, and on the occasion of that absence made a long journey to Iowa, to visit his sister Mary. He has been a hard worker, and by his steady, industrious habits has made for himself a fine farm, and, at the same time, an enviable reputation in the community in which he lives. His farm is one of the best in Parks township. Mr. Keppel has been twice married. His first wife, with whom he was united in 1844, was Miss Magdalena Hawke, daughter of Daniel and Mary Hawke, born in Westmoreland county in November, 1816. She died May 17, 1855. By this marriage five children were born, three of whom are now living, viz.: William, Mary, wife of S. S. Marshall, of Beaver, Pennsylvania, and Caroline. In 1858 Mr. Keppel married as his second wife the lady whose portrait appears with his in this work. Her name was Elizabeth Whitesell, and she was the daughter of Jonathan and Susan (Vensel) Whitesell, of Kiskiminetas township, born August 12, 1817. There were no children born of this union. Mr. Keppel's son William lives upon and carries on the old farm. He was married in 1873 to Miss Susan L. Keppel, who was bornin 1848. They have four children, as follows: David James, born April 6, 1874; Albert Jacob, born August 18, 1876; Philip Frank,born October 16, 1878, and Charles Hawke, born August 23, 1881. ALLEGHENY TOWNSIIP. sent to them early in the spring. A present of considerable value having been provided for them, he was to proceed thither with all convenient de spatch. lie and the goods were to be convoyed by George Croghan, the Indian trader, who was well acquainted with the roads to the Ohio. Weiser was instructed, among other things, " to use the utmost diligence to acquire a perfect knowledge of the number, situation, disposition and strength of the Indians in those parts; " " to use all means in your (his) power to get from them all kind of in telligence as to what the French are doing or design to do in those parts, and indeed, in every other place;" "to make particular inquiry into the behavior of the Shawanese, since the commence ment of the war, and in relation to the counte nance they gave to Peter Chartier." He set out on that mission from his house in Heidelberg township, August 11, 1748, passing on his route, Tuscarora Hill, Standing Stone, near Huntingdon, Frankstown, where he overtook the goods, because four of George Croghan's hands had fallen sick, over the Allegheny hills, past the Clear Fields, arriving at the Shawanese cabins August 23. On August 25 they "crossed the Kiskeminetoes creek, and came to the Ohio that day." The point where they crossed the Kiskiminetas must have been at the ford just below the mouth of Carno han's (formerly Old Town) run, having the latter name on Reading Howell's map, so called from Old Town, on the opposite or Westmoreland side of the river. That must have been the town men tioned in Christian Frederick Post's Second Jour nal. Post was a Moravian, unobtrusive and upright, who emigrated from Germany to this state, or province as it then was, in 1742. The next year he went with the missionaries Pyrlaeus and Seriseman to Shekomako, an Indian village on the Connecticut border, where he -married a baptized Indian woman. He preached the gospel to the Indians for several years. Though abused and persecuted, arrested at Albany and imprisoned in New York, after he was released he preached the gospel to the Indians at Shattock, or Pachgatgoch, in Connecticut, working as a joiner or carpenter. Having revisited Europe he returned to this country, and while at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he was induced to deliver messages on two different occasions, in 1758, to the Western Indians at Cushcushking, an Indian town, or rather four towns at short distances from one another, on Slippery Rock creek, in the northwestern part of what is now the county of Butler, Pennsylvania, in which were about ninety houses and two hundred able warriors. About four years afterward he made an unsuccessful attempt to establish a mission about one hundred miles west of Fort Pitt, and later went to the Bay of Honduras and preached to the more tractable Mosquito Indians. lie set out on his second mission to Cushcush king from Easton, Pennsylvania, October 25, 1758, and proceeded by the way of Bethlehem to Read ing, where, on the 27th, hlie met Capt. Bull, Lieut. Hays, Pisquetoman (an Indian chief), Thos. Hick man, Totintiontonna, Shickalomy and Isaac Still, who had been selected by Gov. Denny to accom pany him. Taking in their route Carlisle, Ship pensburg, Fort Lyttleton, Raystown, Stonycreek and the Loyal Hannon, where they were gladly received in the camp of Gen. Forbes at Fort Ligo nier on November 7. The next day the general had a conference with and made a speech to the Indians, including some Cherokees and Catawbas who happened to be present. Post and his party were detained there until near noon on the 9th for letters which Gen. Forbes was writing, and were escorted thence by Capt. Hazelet and a hundred men through a tract of good land, about six miles on the old trading-path, and again reached the Loyal Hannon, where they found an extensive and well-timbered bottom. Thence they ascended a hill to an advance breastwork about ten miles from the camp, about five miles from which Capt. Hazelet and his command separated from them, and kept the old trading-path to the Ohio. Lieut. Hays, with fourteen men, was ordered to accom pany Post and his men to the Allegheny. At three o'clock p.n., November 11, they "came to Kiske meneco, an old Indian town, a rich bottom, well timbered, good fine English grass, well watered, and lays waste since the war began." They fed their horses there, and agreed that Lieut. Hays and his party might return. They did so. Post learned after he reached Cushcushking that the lieutenant and four of his men had been killed and five taken prisoner by a party of Indians whom they encountered. The writer infers that "Kiskemnieneco" must have been Old Town, from which the first name of Carnohan's run was derived, and that Weiser and his party crossed the Kiskiminetas at the ford just below the mouth of that run. According to the recollection of Philip Mechling, who was, in his boyhood, familiar with the Kiskiminetas from Livermore to the Allegheny, that was the only ford between Kelly's, near Livermore, and the junction of those two rivers. In some old deeds land about Leechburgh is mentioned as being a mile or so below "Old Town." (Coal and two Indian towns on the right bank 157 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. of the Kiskiminetas are indicated on the historical map of this state, published by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, thus: " Coal, 1754," a short distance above the first bend below Leechburgh; "I. T. Kiskamanatas," at that bend; " I. T." on the left bank of the Allegheny, a short distance above the mouth of the Kiskiminetas. Alexander Gordon says that while surveying in 1838 he first discovered the vestiges of a circumvallation about one hundred and thirty rods above the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, on the left bank of the Allegheny. The embankment was then three and a half feet high, and enclosed from two to three acres. White oak trees had grown up on the top or crest, which were then two feet in diameter. The Indian town at or near this point must have been the one which Capt. Bienville de Celerou mentions in his account of his expedition down the Allegheny and Ohio in the summer of 1749. Its name was Atteques, and it then contained twenty-two houses. Maj. Denny, in that part of his Military Journal relating to that part of the tour of inspection which he and others made to Fort Franklin, mentions that on Monday, April 28, 1788, he and those with him " passed several lodges of Indians near the Kiskiminetas," and that he and the others that night "lay five miles above the mouth of that river," which point is at or near the present White Rock station, on the Allegheny Valley railroad. Mrs. Elizabeth Snyder, who died a few years since, in her one hundredth year, used to relate that in her girlhood-about 1787-8-she and her brother went to a cornfield one morning to hoe corn, where they then lived, on the Westmoreland side of the Kiskiminetas, below Saltsburgh, when they were startled by discovering a number of Indians in ambush. She and her brother escaped to the blockhouse in that vicinity. All, or nearly all, the horses of the white settlers in that locality were stolen that night by the Indians. They were pursued the next day by the whites, and overtaken between Pine Run and what is now Logansport, on the land now owned and occfipied by her son, Joseph Snyder, where all the horses, except a stallion that was killed, were recaptured. The Indians escaped across the Allegheny at Nicholson's Falls. Maj. Eben. Denny mentions in his Military Journal, June 1, 1794: " Two days ago the Indians attacked a canoe upon the Allegheny; there were three men in it. They killed one and wounded the other two, but got nothing. The accident happened five miles above the Kiskiminetas." Col. Charles Campell, in his letter dated at Greensburgh, June 5, 1794, to Gov. Mifflin, respecting the stopping of the d aft for the support of the Presque Isle station, wrote: The Indians, May 30, fired on a canoe between the mouth of the Kiskiminetas and the Kittanning (as he spelled it, "Cattannian ") and killed one man and wounded two. Neither he nor Denny states on which side of the river the canoe was. If on the east side it was in Allegheny, but if on the west side it was in Deer township. This river at that time was the dividing line between Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, and between those two townships from the mouth of the Kiskiminetas to the mouth of Truby's run, in Kittanning. After mentioning the attack upon Capt. Sharp and his party, he added: " The frontiers seem to be much alarmed at such unexpected news and the signs of the Indians seen on the frontiers. I consulted with Gen. Jack, and we agreed to order Capt. Elliott, of the rifle company, on the frontiers until such time as I could get your approbation, as it will be impossible to keep them from breaking unless they be well well supported." Some time during the Indian troubles, 1785-90, while Capt. Miller and Lieut. Samuel Murphy and the rest of their company were moving from Hand's Fort, at the mouth of the Loyal Hannon, in Westmoreland county, to Fort Armstrong, in this county, they met three men between Taylor's run and Crooked creek, probably at or near Logansport. The captain halted, questioned, and then let them go. The lieutenant and some of the men, thinking that the captain had not questioned them closely enough, sent ensign or sergeant Pursley back for them. They evinced a belligerent intent when they were ordered to halt. He, however, brought them back. Upon further investigation it became evident that they had deserted from the force stationed near Bald Eagle's Nest, probably at Fort Davis, northeast of Milesburgh, on Bald Eagle creek, in what is now the county of Center. Capt. Miller sent him to Pittsburgh in a canoe. The only indication of any land having been taken up prior to 1792, on Reading Howell's map of that year, is the word "Montgomery's," in the forks of the Allegheny and Kiskiminetas rivers. John Montgomery, Sr., took out several warrants for tracts of land in this township. From the ancient map of this county, elsewhere mentioned, it appears that within the present limits of this township, as nearly as the writer can trace them on that map, seventy-eight tracts had, before that map was made, been surveyed on warrants, the names of the warrantees and the number 158 t ORIGINAL BOUNDARIES. along the ridge of the said hill northeastward so far as it can be traced, or till it runs into the Alle gheny hill; thence along the ridge dividing the waters of the Susquehanna and Allegheny rivers to the purchase line at the head of Susquehanna; thence due west to the limits of the Province; and by the same to the place of beginning," from which Washington county was separated by act of March 28, 1781. It was provided by act of April 8, 1785, "That all the land within the late purchase from the Indians, not heretofore assigned to any other particular county, shall be taken and deemed, and they are hereby declared to be, within the limits of the counties of Northumberland and Westmoreland, and that from the Kittanning up the Allegheny to the mouth of Conewango creek, and from thence up said creek to the northern line of this state, shall be the line between Northumberland and Westmoreland counties in the aforesaid late pllr-- chase." ALLEGHENY COUNTY was formed out of parts of Westmoreland and Washington counties by act of September 24, 1788: "Beginning at the mouth of Flaherty's run, on the south side of the Ohio river; from thence by a straight line to the plantation on which Joseph Scott, Esq.,' then lived,' on Montour's run, to include the same; from thence by a straight line to the mouth of Miller's run, on Chartier's creek; thence by a straight line to the mouth of Perry's Mill run, on the east side of the Monongahela river; thence up the said river to the mouth of Becket's run thence by a straight line to the mouth of Sewick lay creek, on Youghiogheny river; thence up ' Turtle creek to the main fork thereof; thence by a northerly line until it strikes Rickety's creek thence down said creek to the Allegheny river; thence up the Allegheny river to the northern S boundary of the state; thence along the same to the I western line of the state; thence along the same to Sthe river Ohio, and thence up the same to the place of beginning." To which another portion of Washington county was annexed in 1789; and a tract of between two and three hundred thousand .. acres, on Lake Erie, purchased by the Governor of Pennsylvania, March 3, 1792, from the United States (to which it had been ceded by New York and Massachusetts), for $151,740.45, continental money, was declared, by act of April 3, 1792, to be a part of Allegheny county. ARMSTRONG COUNTY was formed out of parts of Allegheny, Westmore land and Lycoming counties by act of March 12, 1800: All that portion west of the Allegheny river was taken from Allegheny county; all that portion on the east side of that river, between the Kiskiminetas river and the then northern boundary of Westmoreland county, viz, a line due west from the purchase line at the head of the Susquehanna, striking the Allegheny river a short distance below the mouth of Cowanshannock creek, was taken from Westmoreland county; and all that part between the northern boundary of Westmoreland county east of the Allegheny river and Clarion river was taken from Lycoming county which had been formed out of Northumberland county by. act of April 13, 1795. The original boundaries of Armstrong county were: "Beginning on the Allegheny river, at the mouth of Buffalo creek, the corner of Butler county," which was also erected by act of March 12, 1800; "thence northerly along the line of said county of Butler to where the northeast corner of the said county of Butler shall strike the Allegheny river; thence from the said corner, on a line at a right hngle from the first line of the county of Butler, until the said line shall strike the Allegheny river; thence by the margin of said river to the mouth of Toby's creek"-Clarion river"thence crossing the river and up said creek to the line dividing Wood's and Hamilton's districts; thence southerly along said line to the present line of Westmoreland county; thence down the [Kiskiminetas] river to the mouth thereof on the Allegheny river; thence across the said river to the westwardly margin thereof; thence down the said river to the mouth of Buffalo creek, the place of beginning." By act of March 11, 1839, that part east of the Allegheny river and between Red Bank creek and the Clarion river was detached from Armstrong and annexed to Clarion county. Thus it appears that the territory of Armstrong county has been successively included in the counties of Chester, Lancaster, Cumberland and Bedford, wholly, and in Northumberland, Westmoreland, Allegheny and Lycoming, partly. It may not be so well and generally known a hundred years hence as it is now why our county received the name which it bears. It may then be a matter of greater interest and curiosity than it now is to know why it was thus christened. The writer, therefore, turns back in the chronological order of events beyond the middle of the last century. CONTEST BETWEEN THE ENGLISH AND FRENCH. From and after 1744, both the British and French governments claimed a large portion of the terriALLEGHENY TOWNSHIP. of acres being written on the respective tracts. The names of those by whom the various tracts were seated, according to an early list in the commissioners' office, will be found below, within parentheses: John Elder, 182.1 acres; John Collier, 313 acres; David McKee (Peter Shaeffer), 3641 acres; J. Heckman (P. Heckman), 10 acres; John Barrickman, captain of the drafted company from this county in the war of 1812, 100 acres; James Beatty (himself), 1251 acres; Martha Maris, 308.8 acres;* Hugh Glenn, 4021 acres; John Wigton (Win. Highfield), 403.2 acres; James Glenn, 460 acres; John Glenn, 465 acres; John Morrison (Jacob Williams), 415L acres; Nicholas Bray (Wm. Kelly), 125.1 acres; Margaret Wigton (Geo. Wolf), 3941 acres; Samuel Cochran, 110 acres; Gen. Alexr. Craig, of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, 275 acres; John Pinkerton, 424 acres; Geo. Bartram, 410.7 acres; Ann Criswell (Robert Walker), 452 acres; Alexr. Walker, 248 acres, purchased from Alexr. Clark; Sam'l Walker, 212.6 acres, purchased from Thos. Burd; Enoch Westcott, 4192 acres; Sam'l Waugh (Sam'l Stitt), 394.4 acres; Francis Bailey (Sam'l Stitt), 394.4 acres; Charles Vanderen (Henry Girt), 363.8 acres; John Steele (Jacks), 322.8 acres; Joseph Parker, member of assembly in 1777 (Wm. Stitt), 317.7 acres; Geo. Risler (- Neale), 380.8 acres; Griffeth Jones (Henry Klingensmith), 350.7 acres; James Campbell, 219.7 acres; ditto, 174.5 acres; WVm. Campbell, 219.7 acres; Jeremiah Pratt (John Hawk), 4251 acres; Sebastian Fisher (P. Klingensmith), 322 acres; John Vanderen (- Hickenlooper), 358 acres; Geo. Ingram (Philip Klingensmith), 329 acres; Thos. Campbell (Jno. Hill), 305 acres; Geo. Isebuster (Jas. and Jno. Jack), 315.7 acres; Charles Campbell, member of assembly in 1777 (James Anderson), 245.3 acres; Hugh Cunningham, 269 acres; Archibald McKatten, 213.8 acres; Michael Barrickman, 2181 acres; James Crosby (Jas. Fitzgerald), 7' acres; John Montgomery, 50.4 acres; John Hawk (same), 400 acres; Isaac Vanhorn, who was a captain in the 6th Pa. Regt. in and prior to 1782, 412.9 acres; John Vanhorn, Jr., 404- acres; John Vanhorn, Sr., 365.9 acres; Mary Gibson (Jno. Klingensmith), 355 acres; John Conrad (Sam'l Stitt, Jr.), 332.1 acres; Sam'l Evans, 338 acres; Robert Caldwell, 377.9 acres; Thos. York (Geo. Elliott), 342 acres; John Brown (Jacob Beck), * The patent for this tract was granted May 26, 1784, to Mary Paul, ex'x, and Joseph B. Paul, ex'r of John Paul, for ~1 Is 4d. The warrantee's name, as mentioned in the patent is Matthew Marts, and the tract is called " Matthewsborough." The entire tract was conveyed by Paul's heirs to Peter Klingensmith, the present owner, November 11, 1849, for $3,705. The White Rock station. A. V. R. R.. and schoolhouse No. 12 are on this tract. 357.8 acres, partly in Burrell; Barnard Macho, 430 acres; Amelia Grover, 437.2 acres; Wm. Smith (Jno. Shall), 386- acres; Thos. Hood (Wm. McAllister), 124.2 acres; Jacob Reese, 360.4 acres; Lambert Cadwallader, 314- acres; Wm. Hamilton, 314.7 acres; James Mease, 314.7 acres; Geo. Clymer, 314.9 acres; Sam'l Meredith, member of assembly from Philadelphia in 1778 (Win. Jack), 322 acres; Thos. Cadwallader (Robt. Hanna), 3221 acres; - Hesselgesser, 75 acres;.Jno. Montgomery (Robert Parks, 226 acres, 20 perches; Sam'l Crosby, 60 acres), 286 acres, 20 perches; John Montgomery (Sam'l Crosby), 270.8 acres; A. Marshall, 212 acres, 23 perches; Hugh Cunningham (Assemus Boyer), 2061 acres, in a bend of the Kiskiminetas, next above the Henry Armstrong tract, which contained about 212 acres; Jacob Hawk (Jno. Stitt), 62.10 acres; Jno. Cadwallader* (Alexr. Hanna), 320 acres; Adam Moyer (Jno. Waltenbaugh), 3321 acres; Andrew Hamilton (George Waltenbaugh), 306 acres, partly in Kiskiminetas township; Thomas Barclay, 306.6 acres; Samuel Printz, 309.6 acres; John Wilson (Philip Schutt), 357.6 acres; William Smith (Jno. Scholl), 386- acres. Some, if not all, of these tracts were designated by particular names in the patents. For instance, the Lambert Cadwallader tract was called " Oxford;" the William Hamilton tract, "Hampton Court;" the James Mease tract, "Presburg;" the James Vanhorn tract, partly in Burrell, " Sincerity;" the George Clymer tract, "Flint Castle;" the Samuel Meredith tract, "Mingrelia;" the Samuel Printz tract, "Richland;" the John Cadwallader tract, "Campus Major;" the Thomas Cadwallader tract, "Tascony "-perhaps Tuscany; the Jacob Reese tract, "Springfield;" the John Mongomery tract (above Leechburgh), "Farmers' Delight;" the Adam Moyer tract, "Union Green;" the Hugh Cunningham tract (in a bend of the Kiskiminetas), "Cornfield;" the other Hugh Cunningham tract (on Elder run), "Poplar Grove;" the Archibald McHatton tract, "Rich Hill;" the * John Cadwalader, above-mentioned, was a native of Philadelphia, was the commander of a corps of volunteers at the beginning of the revolutionary war, nearly all of whom were afterward commissioned officers in the Pennsylvania line. Ie was promoted to the rank of colonel in one of the city battalions, and then to that of brigadier general, and commanded the Pennsylvania troops in the winter campaign of 1776-7. He participated as a volunteer in the battles of Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and in other actions, and received the thanks of Washington, whose confidence and esteem he had deservedly won. He was appointed to command one of the divisions into which the army was separated when Washington determined to attack the British force at Trenton, but the ice in the Delaware river prevented both him and Gen. Irvine, the commander of another division, from crossing in time. He, however, succeeded in crossing the next day after Washington's return, and pursued the beaten foe to Burlington. Congress appointed him, in 1778, general of cavalry, which appointment he declined, because he was satisfied that he could be more useful in the position which he then held. He died February 10, 1786, aged forty-three. Lambert Cadwalader was commissioned by order of congress as colonel of the 4th regt. Pa. Inf., October 25, 1776. Samuel Meredith was major of the 3d battalion, Gen. Cadwalader's brigade. 159 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Isaac Vanhorn tract, "Parnassus;" the Charles Vanderen tract, "Charlesburgh;" the Sebastian Fisher tract, "Fishing Place;" the George Risler tract, "Rislersburgh;" the Martha Maris tract, " Marthasborough;" the Alexander Craig tract (Logansport), "Bird Bottom;" the John Wilson tract, "Wilsonburgh;" the Charles Campbell tract, "Bloomfield." At a critical period of the Revolutionary War, when there was great danger of the dissolution of the American army for want of provisions to keep it together, a number of patriotic citizens of Philadelphia gave their bonds to the amount of ~260,000 in gold and silver for procuring them. They were procured, the army was kept together and our independence finally achieved. Though the amount of these bonds was never called for, the lending of these men's credit, at that juncture, answered the purpose as well as the money would have done if they had advanced it.* Among those who thus patriotically subscribed, were the above-named Thomas Barclay, James Mease and Samuel Meredith, who each subscribed ~5,000. Barclay was American consul at Paris in and about 1784. In 1804, the valuation of some of those tracts were: Sebastian Fisher, 40 cents; John Vanderen, 65 cents; George Ingram, 50 cents: Thomas Camp bell, 65 cents; Charles Campbell, 65 cents; John Montgomery (all his tracts), 75 cents; John Vanhorn, Sr. and Jr., 50 cents; Thomas York, 50 cents; John Brown, 65 cents; Barnard Macho (or McCoo), 50 cents; Amelia Grover, 40 cents; James Vanhorn, 50 cents; William Smith, 40 cents; Jacob Reese, 50 cents; Lambert Cadwallader, 40 cents; James Mease, 65 cents; George Clyner, 65 cents; Thomas Cadwallader, 40 cents; Hugh Cun ningham, 50 cents; John Cadwallader, 40 cents; Adam Moyer, 65 cents; Andrew Hamilton, 50 cents; John Wilson, 50 cents. In 1876 the assessment of the land embraced in the John Elder, Montgomery & Stewart, and John Collier tracts, at and around Schenly station, in the forks of the Allegheny and Kiskiminetas rivers, varies from $15 to $800 per acre which, in 1804, was assessed at from 40 to 65 cents per acre. Along Taylor's run-so called after Robert Taylor, who was killed by some Indians and buried opposite the mouth of a small run, on land now owned by A. Grantz, two miles and ten rods in an air line from the mouth of Taylor's run, where a stone with the initial letters of his name on it is still standing and at and around Kelly's station land is now assessed at from $3.50 to $6 which, in 1804, as the Gleem and Wigton tracts was assessed at from 40 * The Statesman, an old Pittsburgh paper, to 50 cents per acre; the Nicholas Bray tract, at the junction of Crooked creek and Allegheny river, was then assessed at 40 cents, now at $5 per acre; in the central part of the township, then from 50 to 65 cents, now from $4.50 to $9.50; above Leechburgh, along the Kiskiminetas, "Farmers' Delight," then 75 cents, now $11 per acre. The assessment lists show a gradual diminution of the number of unseated tracts-very gradual for a number of years. In 1837 the number of such tracts returned by the assessor was sixteen, thirteen of which were returned in the names of the original warrantees, viz: Robert Caldwell, Lambert Cadwallader, Barnard Macho, John Vanhorn, Wm. Smith, John Wilson, Enoch Westcott, Amelia Grover, Mary Gibson, Adam Moyer, J. Vanhorn, Andrew Hamilton and John Wigton, i. e. in most of these instances parts of the original tracts. In 1846, 168 acres of the Barnard Macho tract were returned on the last time as unseated. Parts of two other tracts were returned as unseated in other than the names of the original warrantees. In 1876 only four parcels of land, aggregating 52 acres, are returned by the assessor as unseated. Some of the above-mentioned warrants are dated in 1792-3. Others may have been of dates varying from 1769 and onward. Alexander and Samuel Walker were among the earliest settlers in the northern part, on the south side of Crooked Creek; James Cunningham, a revolutionary sol dier, in the northwest corner, at the junction of that creek and the river; Philip Bolen and James Coulter, along Elder Run and the present Kittan ning and Leechburgh road, on lands now owned by I. Turney, Hiram Hill, J. Lessig, J. G. Allshouse, two or three miles north of Leechburgh; John Klingensmith, on the hill below Leechburgh; Philip, Peter, and Nicholas Klingensmith, farther down and back from the Kiskiminetas; Wm. Hill, between James Coulter's, now Hiram Hill's above mentioned, and the Kiskiminetas; Wm. Hum, in the vicinity of the last; Conrad Hank, Sr. and Jr., about a mile southeast of White Rock Ferry and Station; Samuel and David Hill, and John Carney, in the southeastern part, along and near Carnahan's Run; Jacob and William Hesselgesser, and Robert Hanna, on the river above Leechburgh, at and near "Farmers' Delight"; John Hawk, about a mile and a half northeast of Leechburgh, including the farm now owned and occupied by Henry Truby; John, Samuel, and William Stitt, along and near Taylor's Run, two miles more or less back from the river; Eliah Eakman, in the eastern part of the township; William Beatty, on the Margaret Wigton tract, adjoining the Manor; 160 ALLEGHENY TOWNSHIP. Thomas Gallagher carried on a distillery for many years in, probably, the northeastern part of the township; and Peter Le Fevre kept a ferry a little below the mouth of Carnahan's Run, on the Henry Armstrong tract, called "Woodland," from 1805, and perhaps from before 1800, until 1825, when he left this county. Le Fever's Ferry was a prominent point in early times. The warrant for the Henry Armstrong tract, or "Woodland," is dated November 8, 1784. Armstrong conveyed his interest therein to John Guthrie December 3, who conveyed the same to Michael Rugh April 5, 1798, who obtained a patent therefor February 17, 1806. Rugh conveyed 213 acres to Peter Le Fevre March 25, 1807, for ~1,059 and 15 shillings, who conveyed 22 acres and 122 perches thereof to Daniel Kepple August 10, 1808, for $67.91, and the residue to Jacob Drum, April 2, 1825, for $1,528, who conveyed to William Williams, May 10, 1825, for $8,000, who conveyed to Paul Morrow August 10, 1826, for $8,000, who subsequently conveyed it to John Y. Barclay, John Kuhns, and Hugh Y. Brady, together with all the rest of his real estate for the main specific purpose of paying off what he owed the Westmoreland Bank of Pennsylvania, who conveyed it to E. M. Bigham, from whom it passed, under the sheriff's hammer, to Jacob Hill, who conveyed it to Hugh Bigham, who sold an undivided moiety to William P. McCulloch. The last two conveyed it to James Hunter, from whom it passed by deed to James Shauer, the present owner. Those twenty-five persons appear from the assessment list to be the only taxables within the present limits of Allegheny township, in 1805-6. The population within those limits must have then been about one hundred and twenty. The population of Allegheny township in 1810, when it included all the territory between the Kiskiminetas and Crooked Creek, from the Allegheny to the Indiana county line, was 820; it was 1,443 in 1820, and 2,966 in 1830. In 1840, after Kiskiminetas township had been detached from it, the population was 1,839; in 1850, whites, 2,504, colored, 2; in 1860, whites, 2,493, colored, 3; in 1870, exclusive of Leechburgh and Aladdin boroughs, whites, 2,563, colored, 5. Between the census of 1850 and that of 1860, (in 1855), a part of the territory of Allegheny was detached and included in that of Burrell township. The number of taxables this year (1876) is 674. If there are four and threefifths persons for each taxable, its present population is 3,200. CHURCHES. The first church organized in this township is the Crooked Creek Presbyterian, designated in the last township map, "Union Church," located between the second and fifth bends in Crooked Creek above its mouth-a little more than half way from the neck of the second to the fifth-on the road leading from the southern part of Manor township across that creek, at a ford therein to the mill formerly owned by Robert Walker (of A.), but now by Held & Kough. Just when it was organized is uncertain, but probably by the old Redstone Presbytery, prior to 1825. "I first visited the church of Crooked Creek," wrote the late Rev. Dr. Painter, "in the summer of 1834. The people had ceased to attend church among themselves, and though they had commenced, some years before, to erect a church,* they had not finished it. They had cut and hewed and put up logs for a large church, and had it under roof; the places for the doors were cut out, but the house never had a floor, or doors, or windows, and the wide places between the logs had never been closed. When I first saw it, I noticed some sheep reposing on the ground within the log enclosure; in fact, the building appeared to be the resort of all kinds of cattle that grazed through the woods; they had free ingress into it, and egress out of it." That edifice was made tenantable, and for a few years Dr. Painter gave that church one-sixth of his time. It soon revived and began to prosper. It was statedly supplied for awhile by John Kerr, a licentiate of the Washington Presbytery, and since 1841 it has been under the pastoral charge of Revs. Levi M. Graves, William Colledge, G. K. Scott, and Perin Baker, the present pastor. It was incorporated by the court of common pleas of this county, June 21, 1843, and the trustees named in the charter were James C. Kerr, William McKee, Hamilton Kelly, Andrew Jack, and Robert Walker (of A.), who were to continue until the election, on the first Monday of the then next June. Its present membership is 84; Sabbath-school scholars, 40. A neat, new frame edifice was erected, partly on the site of the second log house, in 1869, and is designated "Union Church." It is 45 X 40 feet, and neatly furnished. The other three churches in this township are Lutheran. Zion's is situated in the forks, near a branch of Elder run, the fourth from its mouth, as indicated on Pomeroy & Co.'s map of the township. The church was incorporated by the proper court December 19, 1849. The officers named in the charter were Henry Isensee, pastor, John Torney and Henry Wanamaker, elders, Griffith Baker and Jonathan Moyer, deacons, John Allshouse and * A log edifice, built by Alexander Walker, in 1820; another log edifice was built in 1840-1, about fifteen rods from the first one. 161 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Henry Klingensmith, trustees, and the last named; treasurer. The present number of memnrbers, 150; Sabbath-school scholars, 100. The edifice is frame. St. Paul's is in the southeastern part of the township, near the main eastern branch of Carnahan's, formerly Old Town, run. Members, 75; Sabbathschool scholars, 70. Bethel, situated near the head of a small branch of Taylor's run, on the Amelia Grover tract, about two and a half miles in an air line southeast from the mouth of the latter, or Kelly's station. It is a neat-looking frame structure, which was erected in or about 1848. Church members, 128; Sabbath-school scholars, 100. This church was incorporated by the proper court June 24, 1848. The trustees named in the charter-Rev. David Earhart, Samuel Mansfield, Joseph Snyder, Peter Wareham and Jacob Kieffer, to continue until the last Saturday in March, 1849. Prior to 1826 preaching was in barns and under shade-trees, and sometimes in private houses. SCHOOLS. About 1812-14 a log schoolhouse was erected west of the present Kittanning and Leechburgh road, opposite the mouth of a short branch of Elder run, and about one hundred rods from the present schoolhouse, near Abraham Klingensmith's residence. Among its first teachers, if not its first, was James Stitt. About the same time another similar house was erected on the east side of a branch of Carnahan's run, being the first designated on the above-mentioned township map, one hundred and twenty rods above its junction, and the same distance northwest of the graded schools. The first teachers were John Criswell and Samuel Taggart. Mrs. Alexander Gordon, of Leechburgh, is one of its surviving pupils. Another schoolhouse was erected, perhaps a little later, about seventy-five rods east of St. Paul's Lutheran church, in the forks between an eastern branch of Carnahan's run and a little spring run. Townsend Adams was the first teacher. The next school was taught in a log schoolhouse, which was erected in 1820-1, on land then belonging to Robert Orr, Jr., and afterward owned by Andrew Stitt, one and a half miles from Kelly's station, or mouth of Taylor's run, on the road leading therefrom to the Bethel church. Its first teacher was Henry Girt. There was a log schoolhouse near the Presbyterian church in 1830-1, in which Robert Walker and Samuel Simoneral taught. The only other school before 1835, when the free-school system was adopted, as the writer is informed, was kept in a schoolhouse about two miles north of Jacksonville, or Bagdad, in or near the forks of the run that empties into the Allegheny,.a little below the head of the island, near Donnelly's station. The branches taught were generally those mentioned in the general sketch of the county. Upon the adoption of the free-school system the township was divided into sub-districts, in each of which a hewed log schoolhouse, with glass windows, was erected. The distance from one schoolhouse to another was about two miles. At a later period, before 1856, those log houses gave place to frame ones, except one which was brick, near Klingensmith's mill. The first graded school in a rural district, in this county, was established in 1858 by the directors of the Allegheny school district. The number of scholars in the school in the southeastern part of the township, near Stitt's, now Marshall's, mill, on Carnahan's run, about a mile and a half northeast of its mouth, became too large for one school, or at least for one room. The directors were petitioned to establish another school in another part of that portion of the township. Instead of doing that they graded the school-two grades-and erected a new building adjoining the old one. That experiment proved to be successful. The county superintendent in his annual report, dated June 20, 1859, referred to it thus: "From information derived from the directors, teachers and some of the citizens in its locality, and from my own observation, I conclude that the pupils in both departments were more diligent in their studies, more ambitious to excel, and derived more benefit from the instructions of their teachers, last term, than they ever had before the school was graded." Yet the directors had the pleasure of being brought before the court, on an application of a few citizens to have them removed, for trying that successful experiment. The court very properly dismissed that application at the costs of those who made it. In 1860 the number of schools was 15; average number months taught, 4; teachers all male; average salaries, $22; number male scholars, 442; female, 319; average number scholars attending school, 437; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 48 cents; amount tax levied for school purposes, $1,826.70; amount tax levied for building purposes, $304.45; total amount levied, $1,826.70; received from state appropriation, $155.04; received from collectors of school tax, $1,730.46; cost of instruction, i. e. whole amount of teachers' wages, $1,320; fuel and contingencies, $135.07; cost of schoolhouses, purchasing, building, renting, repairing, etc., $428.92. In 1876 the number of schools was 16; average 162 ALLEGHENY TOWNSHIP. number months taught, 5; male teachers, 5; female, 11; average salaries of males per month, $34.80; of females, $34.40; number of male scholars, 400; of female, 314; average number attending school, 344; cost per month, 86 cents; total amount of tax levied for school and building purposes, $4,039.80; state appropriation, $567.13; total receipts, $4,687.92; paid for teachers' wages, $2,914.50; fuel, collectors, contingencies, etc., $1,041.53. Total expenditures, $3,956.03. MILLS. Alexander Walker built a grist and sawmill, before 1805, near the second bend above the mouth of Crooked creek, about three-quarters of a mile southeast from the bridge across that creek on the Kittanning and Leechburgh road. He was not assessed with them after 1824. His death occurred in 1826. John Walker was assessed with a gristmill, probably that one, in 1830-1. As that was the only gristmill in early times, in that region, that could be operated all the year round, it was resorted to by people from a great distance in times of low water in other streams. Michael Mechling and others used to take their grists there in canoes from Kittanning, and found it difficult to row up the creek on account of its rapid descent. Grists were also taken by the same means to Hill's mill on the south side of the Kiskiminetas. In 1836-7 Robert Walker (of A.) erected a grist-mill about a mile and a half east of the other, in the lower part of the most easterly bend or loop of the creek, with which he was first assessed in 1838, it being then rated at $500. The mill-seat is rock and was prepared by blasting, which was done by Jacob Waltenbaugh, who is now upward of ninety years of age. A tunnel for a head-race, 160 feet long, 4 feet wide and 41 feet from base to top, was about the same time excavated by blasting through sand-rock and slate from one side to the other of the lower part of that bend, or peninsula, by two Englishmen by the names of Allison and Porter, who happened along there at that time, for the sum of $1,600. The time spent upon that work was six or seven months. That mill is still in operation, being now owned by Held & Kough. From 1812 till 1822 Michael Barrickman had a sawmill on Elder or Klingensmith's run, on a tract of land found to be vacant after the other warrants had been issued, and for which he obtained a warrant dated April 19, 1793, and seated the tract himself. Philip Klingensmith's sawmill was erected in 1817 and his gristmill in 1828, both on the lastmentioned run, on the high ground north of the Kiskiminetas, which were continued in operation until 1852-3. They were on the George Ingram tract, the warrant for which is dated December 17, 1784, 329 acres of which Klingensmith purchased from Joshua Elder, to whom a patent therefor was issued April 28, 1789, by deed dated November 7, 1802, for ~350. There must be a mistake in the description in the patent, for which reason it is here specifically and somewhat at length referred to. The patent describes this land as a "tract called' senior,' on the waters of the Kiskiminetas, in Pittsburgh township, Westmoreland county." Now, Armstrong township was organized April 6, 1773, as heretofore stated, and a part of its southern boundary was from the mouth of the Loyal Hannon down the Kiskiminetas to the Allegheny, thence up the Allegheny to the Kittanning, thence with a straight line easterly, etc., so that this Ingram tract must have been in Armstrong instead of Pittsburgh-or rather Pitttownship in 1784, when the warrant was issued, and in 1789, when the patent is dated. By deed dated March 22, 1822, Philip Klingensmith, Sr., and Catheine his wife conveyed 232 acres and 67 perches of that tract to Philip Klingensmith, Jr., for 8700. John Stitt's gristmill was erected in or about 1819 on Carnahan's run, a mile and three-fifths northeast, in an air line from its mouth, and his sawmill in the same locality in 1826, which continued to be operated by him, his widow, and one of his heirs until 1866, and since then by Thomas M. Marshall. "Just as good as wheat at Stitt's mill" used to be a common saying in that region. John Hill's sawmill was erected about 1819-20 and was continued in operation several years, probably on one of the runs about midway between Leechburgh and Donnelly's station. Jacob Riggle's sawmill was erected in 1839-40, somewhere in the forks of the Allegheny and Kiskiminetas, and appears to have been operated until about 1858. Levi Klingensmith's sawmill-now a steam millhas been operated since 1855-6, near the mouth of the first run above Donnelly's station, and Hill, Seaman & Co.'s steam sawmill for several years at WVhite Rock. Of late years a portable steam sawmill has been used in different parts of the township. Beatty's sawmill went into operation in 1855-6 at Center Valley, on Taylor's run, about a mile and a half from its mouth. Both it and a gristmill are in operation there now. OTHER INDUSTRIES. In 1835 there were ten salt wells in operation from the mouth of Carnahan's run, along the Kiskiminetas to a few miles below Leechburgh. The next year there were two less. In 1837 there were 163 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. two new ones. The number was considerably diminished in the course of a few years. There were about three on the Kiskiminetas in 1854, and for several years after, and one on the Allegheny in 1853 was continued a few years thereafter. The North American Oil Works were established by a joint stock company in 1856 and were located on the right bank of the Kiskiminetas, about 200 rods above its mouth. Oil for illuminating purposes was manufactured from cannel coal, which abounds in pots rather than regular strata in that region. The coal was placed in revolving retorts, which were heated by external coal fires. Thus the coal in the retorts was roasted and its oleaginous matter expelled in the form of gas, which was conducted into a number of iron pipes several inches in diameter, which were placed horizontally and side by side in reservoirs of cold water, where it was condensed into the form of crude oil, which was conducted into large tanks, from which it was drawn off, refined, and prepared for burning by the use of chemical agencies and suitable apparatus. The capacity of these works was from 1,500 to 2,000 barrels a month. The subsequent discovery and abundant supply of petroleum in Venango county and elsewhere proved a death-blow to the manufacture of oil from coal, which resulted in the stoppage of those works, which was severely felt both by their owners, who had invested in them a large amount of capital, and by a large number of employ6s, who were thus thrown out of employment. The Penn Oil Works were established on the Allegheny, about one hundred and twenty-five rods above the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, in 1865. Their capacity for refining crude petroleum is about 5,000 barrels per month. The chief industry is of course agricultural. The number of mechanics needed in such a population, though by no means large, has been adequate to their wants. A carding machine was established by Joshua Cooper in 1824, at what is now Donnelly's Station. It is notable that Isaac David was assessed in 1807 as a bookbinder, but where his place of business was is not known to the writer. On the side hill facing the Kiskiminetas, a short distance above Leechburgh, are two vineyards, one containing about 200 and the other about 300 vines, from which several barrels of wine have annually - that is, in some years - been produced. Farther up the river, near the first bend above Leechburgh, is a noted point called "Lover's Leap," whence, it is said, a loving but disappointed maiden precipitated herself, the cause of her rashness being different from that of the beautiful Indian girl, the daughter of an Indian chief, who, to avoid marrying against her will, threw herself from another "Lover's Leap," a projecting rock six or seven hundred feet high on the east side of Lake Pepin, some fifty years ago, in the presence of her tribe. The assessment list for 1876 shows as follows laborers, 160 (one of whom is assessed with a piano); coal-miners, 19; carpenters, 6; blacksmiths, 5; millers, 3; shoemakers, 2; coopers, 3; teachers, 3; singing teacher, 1; book-agent, 1; railroad agent, 1; dispatcher, 1; clerk, 1; plasterer, 1; mason, 1; sawyer, I; tailoress, 1; teamster, 1; wagonmaker, 1; disabled persons, 3; old man, 1. The rest of the taxables are engaged in agricultural and mercantile pursuits. The mercantile appraiser assessed twelve as merchants of the fourteenth class, one of whom was exonerated from paying license because not engaged in the business, and one in the thirteenth class. Total in both classes, 12. GREAT FOX-HIUNT OF 1828. In accordance with previous arrangements, a fox-hunt occurred on Friday, March 11, 1828. The circle commenced at Long run, in Kiskiminetas township; thence up that run to Jno. Shirley's; thence to Jacob George's; thence in a straight line down Crooked creek to its mouth; thence down the Allegheny river to the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, and thence up the same to the mouth of Long run. The closing inner circles were closed by strewing straw lightly around at or near Robert Criswell's, on Carnahan's run. The distance from the center to the inner circle was one-fourth of a mile, and to the outer circle one-half a mile, both having been marked by straw or blazing the trees. Seventeen or eighteen red foxes were taken in the course of that hunt. EARLY FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION. The anniversary of our national independence used to be observed in a proper manner by more or less of the citizens. The chronicle of the celebration of July 4, 1838, has casually come to the writer's notice. On that occasion the Armstrong Light Dragoons and a large number of citizens assembled at "Farmer's Delight," the residence of the late Robert Parks, along the first bend in the Kiskiminetas above Leechburgh. David Kuhns was appointed chairman, and Alexander Gordon secretary. After various evolutions by the dragoons, they partook of an excellent dinner. The Declaration of Independence was read, and thir164 ALLEGHENY TOWNSHIP. teen sensible and patriotic toasts were submitted and unanimously approved. There were only two volunteer toasts, one of which was complimentary to Mr. and Mrs. Parks and expressive of the thanks and gratitude of the assemblage to them, as host and hostess, for their liberality and bountiful repast, and the other complimentary to the Armstrong Light Dragoons for their correct and gentlemanly deportment, reflecting upon them honor and the admiration of their fellow-citizens. THE CANAL. The southern border of Allegheny township was skirted by the Pennsylvania canal, the construction of which, from 1826 till 1829, and its subsequent operation gave a vigorous impulse to agricultural and other interests of the people of and caused a more extensive and rapid emigration to this township than had previously been the case. The facilities for transportation of passengers and freight which it afforded are now offered by the West Pennsylvania division of the Pennsylvania railroad, on the opposite or Westmoreland side of the Kiskiminetas. RAILROAD STATIONS. Schenley, named after Mrs. Capt. Schenley, who owns, or did once own, the land around it, is a short distance above the mouth of Kiskiminetas. It is on a tract of land which, it is said, was surveyed to Montgomery and Stewart March 25, 1769. It is on the tract designated on the ancient county map as the John Elder tract. Aladdin is nine-tenths of a mile above Schenley, on the John Collier tract. Donnelly's is a little over a mile and a half above Aladdin, on the John Barrickman tract. White Rock is three miles and four-tenths above Aladdin, on the Martha Maris tract. Kelly's is a mile and two-tenths above White Rock, at the mouth of Taylor's Run, on the James Glenn tract. Logansport is two miles and two-tenths above Kelly's, on the Alexander Craig tract. TOWNS. The town of Crosbysburgh was laid out on the James Crosby tract, which adjoins the John Montgomery tract, called "Farmers' Delight," on the south, in or perhaps before 1816, for, on the 27th of June, of that year, Alexander Duncan paid James Crosby thirteen dollars as the consideration for two lots, Nos. 7 and 8, each 66 by 65 feet, fronting on the main street, and adjoining land of Robert Parks on the north. The patent to Crosby for this tract, containing seven and one-half acres, is dated July 28, 1817, and the deed for those two lots June 13, 1818. The town of Jacksonville, known for many years by the name of Bagdad, but which is now called New Jacksonville, was laid out about 1828, on the Michael Barrickman tract, which originally consisted of 218 acres, which Barrickman conveyed by deed from the commonwealth to John Hill, except the mill-seat and six acres and 150 perches, February 17, 1814, of which Hill conveyed ninetysix acres to Michael Shoop, November 28, 1814, which Shoop conveyed to John Hill for use of Michael Kiestler, August 1, 1815, which the latter conveyed to Samuel Kiestler December 1, 1843. This town is on each side of Elder or Klingensmith's run, near its mouth, along the right bank of the Kiskiminetas, two and a half miles above its mouth. The first assessment of seated property in Jacksonville was made in 1832, viz.: Catherine Byers, one lot, $15; John Klingensmith, Jr., one house and lot and one head of cattle, $33; John Stoll, one house and lot, one head of cattle, $108; John Shoop, two cattle, $41; George Walter, one house, four lots, one head of cattle, $58; Philip Walter, single man, $50; Peter Yingst, shoemaker, one house and lot, two cattle, 8266; Samuel Yingst, shoemaker, single man, $75; total, $596. The first list of unseated lots was in 1835, when two such lots were each assessed at $10. This town was in its most flourishing condition while the salt works there and in its vicinity and the canal were in operation. Kelly's Station, established June 14, 1860; Hamilton Kelly, first postmaster. Schenley Station, established May 30, 1862; Peter Eakman, first postmaster. By act of March 29, 1813, the elections were directed to be held at the house of Eliab Eakman. Sometime after the organization of Kiskiminetas township, the place for holding them was changed to the schoolhouse in the central part of the township, near Abraham Klingensmith's, where it now is, on the Charles Vanderen tract, called " Charlesburgh." LEECHBURGH. This town was formerly a part of Allegheny towjiship, in a deep bend of the Kiskiminetas, on its right bank, a little more than five miles above its mouth, is situated on the southern part of the John Vanderen tract, the warrant for which is dated February 10,1773. White Matlock obtained a patent for 1921 acres in the southern part of that tract, dated August 12, 1783, which had been surveyed to James Walker October 13, 1773. Its subsequent owners were William P. Brady, Jacob Mechling, a brother of Michael Mechling, one of the first settlers in Kittanning, Frederick Sleiff, Joseph 165 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Hunter, Matthew Shields and -)avid Leech. It was, it is said, once called "Friendship." In several of the deeds by which it was afterward conveyed from one to another, it is called "White Plains." It had been occupied by but very few persons before the construction of the Pennsylvania canal. A log cabin was erected some, perhaps ten or fifteen, years before the completion of the canal, near a spring of good water on the east side of the tract, and a small patch was cleared about the same time. Michael Moorhead and Joseph Hunter, the latter a drover, were among the earliest, if not the earliest, of its settlers. The deed from Matthew Shields and wife to David Leech for one hundred and seventy-two acres of that tract is dated October 16, 1827, which Joseph Hunter had previously agreed to sell to Leech & Trux, but being unable to make a good title, Trux became wearied with the delay and insisted on seeing the article of agreement, which, when hlie got hold of it, hlie destroyed by putting it in the stove, whereupon there was a dissolution of the partnership between Leech and him. They had entered into a contract with the canal commissioners for building a canal-lock which the engineers had located on that land, and for building a dam five hundred and seventy-four feet long and thirty-six feet high across the Kiskiminetas, adjoining that lock, which was at first called the "Big Dam," but afterward the Leechburgh dam, and dam No. 1. By reason of that dissolution Mr. Leech acquired, through the interposition of Matthew Shields, a title to that tract of land, on which, in 1828 or thereabouts, he laid out the town of Leechburgh. He was a native of Mercer county, Pennsylvania, whence he came to Sharpsburgh, Allegheny county, where he had another contract on the canal, and thence to "White Plains." The route of the canal was surveyed in 1826, and in 1828-9 boats commenced running on it from Pittsburgh to Blairsville. A high freshet, about November 18, 1827, caused considerable damage to the works along the Kiskiminetas. One-half of the "Big Dam" was swept away, and the tow-path was considerably damaged, causing a loss of six or seven thousand dollars. After the completion of those public works Mr. Leech was authorized by the proper authorities to use water from that dam for the purpose of running a sawmill, gristmill and woolen-factory. In 1829 hlie was assessed with a sawmill, and in 1830 with it and a gristmill, and in 1831 with only the former, after which he does not appear to have been assessed with either. He built the passenger and freight boats of the first line on the canal from Pittsburgh to Blairsville, and used as a boat-yard the lot on the northwest corner of Canal and Second streets, which is the one now next east of H. K. McKallip's dwelling house, and William Gosser's blacksmith shop on the northeast corner of Market and Second streets, was the one used by the builders or workmen. The work was superintended by Captain Cole. The first boat that passed Leechburgh on the canal was a packet, built near Saltsburgh, probably at Coal Port, which made a fine display, having on board banners and music. About two weeks afterward one of Leech's boats was launched and started for Pittsburgh. She was detained a considerable length of time below Freeport, in consequence of a break in the embankment at the aqueduct. After the water was let into the canal above Leechburgh a boat was drawn out of the river into the canal, run up to Johnstown and loaded with fifty tons of blooms. On her return, while passing through the tunnel, says Morris Leech, she was filled with about three tons of stone and clay. When about one hundred yards below the tunnel, hundreds of tons of earth, etc., fell from the tunnel into the canal, which shut off the water below it, so that the boat did not reach Leechliburgh until nearly a month afterward. Soon after the breach at the Freeport aqueduct was repaired, a prize of five hundred dollars was offered to the proprietor of the boat that would first arrive at Pittsburgh. Harris and Leech were the contestants. The former's boat was a light packet, and the latter's-the Gen. Leacock-was a much larger and heavier one. Harris was confident that his smaller and lighter boat would win the prize. On the 1st of July, about four miles above Pittsburgh, Leech's was within a mile of Harris'. The next day Leech's men cut poles, peeled the bark off them and laid them across the canal, in which there was then only six inches of water. By the aid of one hundred men, relays of the poles, five yoke of oxen and ten horses the boat was kept up out of the mud and moved onward. When Leech's horses came abreast of Harris' boat, an extensive and fierce fight between the crews of the two boats began. When Harris discovered that he had to contend with superior numbers, hlie proposed that he would give up the contest if his contestants would quit fighting and permit his boat to go to the rear. On a signal being given by Leech all fighting ceased, and his hundred muddy men plunged into the clear water of the Allegheny and washed. The next day all hands aided with the poles in hauling Harris' boat to the rear and starting her up the canal. On the Fourth of July tables were set in the hold and under canvas on the deck of Leech's boat, on which 166 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. tory west of the Allegheny mountains, embracing portions of Pennsylvania, Ohio and Virginia. In 1743, one Peter Chartier, a half-blood and trader, and a French spy, residing most of the time in Philadelphia, attempted to cause the Shawanee Indians on the Ohio, who had become hostile to the English and friendly to the French, to wage war against the Six Nations, who were in the main friendly to the English. With four hundred Shawanee warriors, he captured two provincial traders on the Allegheny, and, showing his coinmmission as captain, granted by the French government, seized their goods, worth sixteen hundred pounds. Thus began open hostilities in the French and Indian war. The French authorities were watching, with a jealous eye, the settlements made by the Ohio Company and others on the disputed territory. The then governor of Canada, Gallisoniere, resolved to establish evidences of the claim and occupancy of the French to and of that disputed region. Hence he ordered one Louis Celeron, with a body of soldiers, to place plates of lead, whereon was inscribed the claim of France, in the mounds and at the mouths of the Ohio. Several of those plates were afterward found. On the one at the God-rock was this inscription, as translated from the French: "In the year 1749, during the reign of Louis XV, king of France, we, Celoron, commandant of a detachment sent by the Marquis de la Gallisoniere, commander-in-chief of New France, to restore tran,quillity in some Indian villages of these districts, have buried this plate at the confluence of the Tch-a-da-koin,"-now called French Creek-" this 29th of July, near the river Ohio, otherwise Beautiful River (Belle Riviere), as a monument of our having retaken possession of the said river Ohio and of those that fall into the same, and of all the land on both sides as far as the sources of said rivers, as well as of those which the preceding kings of France have enjoyed possession of and maintained, partly by force of arms, partly by treaties, especially by those of Ryswick, Utrecht and Aix-laChapelle." The Allegheny was then called Ohio,_ so that the claim mentioned in that inscription covered the tributaries of the Allegheny and the land in our county as well as elsewhere. The English claim to the same territory was asserted thus: "That all the lands or countries westward from the Atlantic ocean to the South Sea, between 480 and 340 of north latitude, were expressly included in the grant of King James I, to divers of his subjects, so long since as the year 1606, and afterward confirmed in 1620; and under this grant the colony of Virginia claims extent so far west as the South Sea, and the ancient colonies of Massachusetts Bay And Connecticut were, by their respective charters, made t9 extend to the said South Sea, so that not only the right to the sea-coast, but to all the inland countries, from sea to sea, has at all times been asserted by the Crown of England." Thus it was that the territory of our county, in common with that of others, was disputed territoryclaimed by both French and English. The French early and vigorously endeavored to fortify themselves along the Ohio and Allegheny rivers for the purpose of substantiating their claim and title to the contiguous territory. From informnation derived by Washington while on his mission to Logstown and Venango, in 1753-4, and from prisoners who had escaped from the French and Indians, it became evident to the English that the French were making timely and vigorous efforts to establish a cordon of forts from Lake Erie to the Ohio, and thus h6m in the English east of the Allegheny mountains. The conflict could be settled only by the wager of battle, to which neither party was eager to appeal, but each sought otherwise to fortify their claims, and gain over to their respective interests the favor, good will and aid of the Indians. The French appear to have been more adroit and successful in winning the Indians to their side of the contest than were the English. There was a misunderstanding between the Six Nations and the English as to the extent of territory erkbraced in the sale and purchase of the treaty made at Lancaster, Pennsylvania, June 22, 1744, which was produced at a meeting, or conference, held at Logstown, seventeen miles below Pittsburgh, June 9, 1752. When the sales, in pursuance of that treaty, were urged as valid, the chiefs replied: "We have not heard of any sale west of the warriors' road, which runs at the foot of the Allegheny ridge." So intense was the feeling of the Indians respecting this matter, that William Fairfax said that in the conference with the Indians, held at Winchester, Virginia, in September, 1753, hlie had not dared to mention to them either the Lancaster or Logstown treaty. The Shawanees had already gone over to the French, and the Delawares were just waiting for a favorable opportunity to follow them and wreak their vengeance on the English colonists for their instrumentality in forcing them to leave the forks of the Delaware-that is, the territory of Northampton county between the Lehigh and Delaware rivers. When ordered off from their homes in the forks by the Six Nations, at the instigation of the ALLEGHENY TOWNSHIP. a sumptuous dinner was served to five hundred persons, including Gen. Leacock, then canal superintendent, who presided, engineers and a large number of Pittsburgh merchants. Such was the finality of the first trip of the first of Leech's boats that reached Pittsburgh. The number of freight and passenger boats then built was four, viz.: Pioneer, Capt. Monson; Pennsylvania, Capt. Cooper; De Witt Clinton, Capt. Joshua Leech; Gen. Leacock, Capt. Robert King. The cabin for passengers in each was in the center. A part of the dam was swept away July 7, 1831, by a sudden and heavy flood in the Kiskiminetas, causing a cessation of canal navigation for the rest of that season. A new lock and dam were located by the engineers about sixty rods below the former ones and within the limits of the town. At the letting the contract was awarded to Thos. Neil, of Tarentum, Pennsylvania, for about $16,000. He had scarcely entered upon the performance of his part of the contract when the commissioners turned it into a state job, the cost of which, says Alex. Gordon, is known to very few persons, if any. From November 10, 1831, and throughout the principal part of the following winter, the weather, most of the time, was very cold, which caused a large accumulation of ice in the river, which broke up February 10, 1832, with a high flood that carried away the lock, the northern abutment of the dam, and did much damage elsewhere. That abutment had to be repaired and a new lock built before navigation could be resumed on the canal. David Leech, Robert S. Hays, George Black, Geo. W. Harris and Win. F. Leech, constituting the copartnership of D. Leech & Co., of which David Leech was the traveling agent, subsequently established distinct lines of freight boats and packets, or exclusively passenger boats, which they continued to run until the canal was superseded by the Pennsylvania railroad. Travelers on the Pennsylvania canal in those times will not likely forget that company's packets and their attentive and obliging captains. David Leech, having purchased the right to use water from the dam, erected, in 1844, a sawmill, a large gristmill, with four runs of stone and expensive machinery, the walls in the first or lower story of the latter being stone, and those in the other stories brick, which subsequently became vested in Addison Leech, who conveyed the same to the present owners, R. D. Elwood & Bro. In addition to the above-mentioned enterprises the founder of Leechburgh was, soon after he settled here, engaged in the mercantile business; he and his sons were afterward extensively engaged in the same business. He was, still later, from 1853 till 1856, engaged as an active member of the firm of Leech, Chamberlain & Co., in the construction of the Allegheny Valley railroad from Pittsburgh to Kittanning. His vigorous constitution began to yield to the weight of years, the numerous cares and responsibilities of his active life and to the approach of disease, in 1857, and he died November 3, 1858, regretted and esteemed at home and abroad. The growth of Leechburgh as a town commenced with the construction of the canal. The first brick house in it was built in 1830 on the corner of Third street and Basin alley, by Solomon Moore. The first separate assessment list of its taxables was made in 1832, viz.: John Brown, lot No. 87, land 125 acres (Martin's), one head of cattle, valued or assessed at $833; Joshua Cooper, lots No. 78-9, one head of cattle, $58; Samuel Dickey, one house and lot, one horse, one head of cattle, $223; George Dupehorn, lots Nos. 83, 96, one head cattle, $108; Daniel Freeze, lot No. 36, one head cattle, $108; John Fee, blacksmith, lot No. 49, one head cattle, $283; Winm. Hickenlooper, lot No. 117, one head of cattle, $208; Jacob Hill, lot No. 10, two cattle, $616; David Kuhns, lots Nos. 98-9, two horses, one tanyard, one head of cattle, $286; Christian Grove, head of cattle, $8; Malcom Leech, lots Nos. 38 and 31, $225; John R. Long, lot No. 12, one head of cattle, $408; James McBride, lot No. 84, one head of cattle, $183; William F. Martin, hatter, $100; Peter Nees, lot No. 3, one head of cattle, $108; Samuel Philliber, lot No. 30, $50; Matthew Taylor, tailor, lots No. 69, 101, one head of cattle, $108; Peter Ulam, cabinet maker, lot No. 11, one head of cattle, $508; Robert Walker, hatter, $100; Peter Weaver, shoemaker, one head of cattle, $33; David Weaver, one head of cattle, $8. Total valuation, $1,198. STEAMBOAT ARRIVAL. On Friday, May 18, 1838, the steamboat New Castle made a trip up the Kiskiminetas as far as Leechburgh with a large number of passengers, on account of a slip in the canal above Freeport. She left the same day with about 150 passengers. The dam at that point prevented navigation higher up that stream. By the act of April 13, 1791, providing for the opening of sundry roads and improving sundry navigable waters, the governor was empowered to contract with certain individuals or companies for improving among others the Kiskiminetas river from the mouth of the Loyal Hanna to the second falls, inclusive, and thence to the Alle167 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. gheny river, and the sum of ~250 was appropriated for improving the navigation of the former and of ~100 for improving that of the latter portion of this. THE TOWN INCORPORATED. By the act of March 22, 1850, this town was incorporated into a borough, included within these boundaries, viz.: Beginning at a buttonwood on the Kiskiminetas river south eighty degrees, east seventy perches, north twenty degrees, east sixtyfive perches to a post corner of land of D. Leech; thence by same south sixty and a half degrees, east one hundred and twelve perches to a post; thence south five, east seventy-nine perches to a black oak (fallen) on the bank of the river; thence down the said river the several courses and distances of the same to the place of beginning. The first election, as provided by the charter, was to have been held on the first Friday of May in that year, and on the first Friday of March thereafter until 1874, since when, by the constitution of 1873, it, in common with the elections of cities, boroughs and townships, has been on the third Tuesday of February. The burgess and town council elected on the first Friday of May, 1850, and their successors are made a body politic and corporate by the name, style and title of the burgess and town council of the borough of Leechburgh, and have and possess and enjoy all the rights, liberties, franchises and privileges of a borough incorporated in pursuance of "an act to provide for the incorporation of boroughs," passed April 1, 1834. It is also provided by that charter that the constable of the borough shall perform the duties of high constable, but that the burgess and town council may authorize the election or appointment of a high constable if they deem it expedient. The other officers elective by the voters of the borough are two justices of the peace, a judge and two inspectors of election, assessors, overseers of the poor, agreeably to the laws of this commonwealth; and three school directors at the first election, one to serve one year, one for two, and one for three years, and one annually thereafter, who must perform the same duties and possess the same powers as those elected under the general laws of this commonwealth. There does not appear to have been a borough election held on the first Friday of May, 1850. At the spring election of that year, however, Alexander Gordon had thirty-five and Jonathan Hettrick twenty-six votes for justice of the peace. David Leech was elected the first burgess and Addison Leech, J. Thos. Johnston, Jonathan Hettrick, Wmin. R. Garver, and Jacob Ulam were elected the first councilmen, at the spring or borough election in 1851 and the municipal government of Leechburgh was soon thereafter inaugurated. CHURCHES. There appears to have been preaching at Leechburgh by both Lutheran and Presbyterian clergymen early in its history, before either the organization of any church there or its incorporation into a borough. The early Lutheran clergymen who preached here were Revs. Michael Steck, Sr. and Jr., Adam Mohler and Jacob Zimmerman, and, later (in 1844), David Earhart. There was preaching here by a Presbyterian clergyman (Rev. Samuel Caldwell) at times for about a year before the organization of the Presbyterian church, which appears to have been first in the chronological order of church organization. Rev. A. Donaldson, D. D., in his sketches of the churches of Kittanning Presbytery, presented at its April session in 1873, at Elder's Ridge, says: " Leechburgh, in an irregular way, had become a preaching point for a brother not in the presbytery of Blairsville, which, therefore, sent the writer to the village to inquire into the case. Having done so, and reported that an organization there was needed, it was effected April 24, 1844." That church was thereafter supplied by Rev. Levi M. Graves, Messrs. John Steele and John Black, licentiates; Revs. Andrew McElwain and William F. Keane, and Thos. S. Leason (a grandson of the Mrs. Leason elsewhere mentioned). The last named was the settled pastor from 1851 until 1859, when, by reason of "an unhappy and obstinate feud arising, the relation was dissolved." Rev. J. E. Caruthers was immediately settled as pastor for half time until 1864, and from that year until 1871 his whole time, when the state of his health required his removal west. He was succeeded by the present pastor, Rev. David Harvey Sloan, for three-fourths of his time. The present church edifice was erected in or about 1850 on the northwest corner of Main and First streets. It has been several times repaired. Membership, 178; Sabbath school scholars, 130. The Hebron Evangelical Lutheran church was organized November 21, 1844. The present brick edifice was erected in 1845, on the north side of Back, at the head of Second street. The pastors since its regular organization have been Revs. David Earhart, Louis M. Kuhns, Jonathan Sarver, and the present one, F. T. Hoover. Membership, 188; Sabbath-school scholars, 80. This church was incorporated by the court of common pleas of this county June 22, 1848. The trustees named in the 168 ALLEGHENY TOWNSHIP. charter, who were to continue until the election held on the last Saturday of March, 1850, were Rev. David Earhart, George Kepple, Jacob Trout, Thomas Van Tine, Abraham Heckman, Andrew Ashbaugh, Jr., and Samuel Shuster. The charter provided, among other things, that the pastor or pastors should be in communion with some Evangelical Lutheran Synod in the United States. That portion of the charter was amended by the same court, March 15, 1864, thus: "The pastor or pastors.of this congregation shall be members of some Evangelical Lutheran Synod which is in connection with the General Synod of the Lutheran Church in the United States." In 1860 or 1861 this church received an accession of eighteen or twenty members from the Zimmerman charge, consisting of two churches a mile or two apart in Westmoreland county, they retaining their church organization there so far as church property was concerned. Congregational unity continued until March, 1868. To understand the cause of the schism which followed, it is necessary to bear in mind that the General Synod of the Lutheran Church in the United States, organized as shown by the testimony in 1821, once embraced the territory of the principal portion of the United States, but now it embraces all north of Mason and Dixon's line; that the General Council embraces all of the United States and Canada; and that a portion of the District Synods seceded from the General Synod, and organized, in December, 1866, at Reading, Pennsylvania, an ecclesiastical body known as the General Council, which adopted its constitution at a meeting held in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in I)ecember, 1867. The original Pittsburgh synod was organized in 1845, and incorporated by act of April 18, 1846. From the organization of that synod this church was a constituent part of it. At a regular meeting of that synod, held at Greenville, Mercer county, Pennsylvania, in October, 1867, after discussing the question whether it would still adhere to the General Synod or attach itself to the General Council, a majority of its members resolved to join the latter. The minority declined to do so, but immediately met, elected officers, and then adjourned to meet at'Worthington, in this county, on the fourth of the then next ensuing December. They held a session there of three or four days. Thus there were two bodies, each claiming to be the Pittsburgh synod, one adhering to the General Synod and the other to the General Council. In April, 1866, Rev. Jonathan Sarver was elected pastor of the Hebron Evangelical Lutheran church for a term ending April 1, 1867. He was then in connection with the General Synod, but afterward became an adherent of the General Council and was aware that some of his congregation were for that reason opposed to his being their pastor. A compromise was entered into between those in favor of and those opposed to his being continued the pastor, by agreeing to employ him for another year. After examining the above-mentioned amendment to the chaifter, he thought he could not properly be the pastor of a church that did not belong to a District Synod attached to the General Council For he said in the course of the hereinafter-mentioned testimony: "The reason which would force me to leave the congregation was, that I was not and could not be connected with any synod in connection with the General Synod." The question on the amendment to the amendment of the charter was considered by members of the congregation and by the council, and notice was given from the pulpit that a congregational meeting would be held on March 5, 1868, to determine whether the congregation would be in favor of changing the amendment of 1864, so as to read: "That no minister shall be eligible to the office of pastor of this congregation unless he be a member of the Pittsburgh synod of the Evangelical Lutheran church, or connect himself with it as soon as possible after his election, and a failure to be so connected shall be considered a resignation of his office as pastor of this congregation," and to remove and repeal in both supplement and charter everything inconsistent with this amendment. The meeting was held and the vote stood fifty-seven for and forty-two against the proposed change. A petition in favor of and a remonstrance against the proposed amendment were presented to the court of common pleas of this county. The court refused to grant the prayer of the petitioners. The majority, however, continued to hold the church edifice and other property, and the pastor and council unanimously refused the use thereof to the minority or adherents of the General Synod, who thereupon employed a pastor and used the academy building for a while as a place of worship, still claiming that they were the lawfully constituted IHebron Evangelical Lutheran church of Leechburgh. Their council and trustees on April 24, 1869, filed their bill in equity in the court of common pleas of this county, No. 49, June term, 1869, against the pastor, council and trustees of the general council portion of the church, in which, among other things, they alleged or charged that they, the plaintiffs, were the duly elected council and trustees of that congregation; that the congregation was, by its connection with the Pittsburgh synod, still in connection with the 169 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. General Synod; that the defendants had dissolved their connection with the General Synod and connected themselves with the General Council who have departed from the faith and doctrinal basis of the General Synod, and adopted a doctrinal basis widely different from that of the General Synod; that the defendants were not the legal pastor, council and trustees of the congregation; and that the said pastor persisted in the possession of the church property and the exclusion of the plaintiffs. The bill concluded with the prayer that the defendants and all others of the General Council be restrained from the use of the church property, and that the plaintiffs be restored to the possession thereof, and for general relief. On the other hand the defendants, in their answer to the plaintiff's bill, averred that the Pittsburgh synod was only incorporated by the legislature by act of April 18, 1846; that said synod was organized in January, 1845, and the congregation of the Hebron Evangelical Lutheran church of Leechburgh participated, through its then pastor, Rev. David Earhart, in its organization, and that it had ever since remained a part of the Pittsburgh synod, and never in connection with the General Synod except through the Pittsburgh synod and its connection therewith; that the Pittsburgh synod united with the General Synod in 1853, and in 1866 legally and orderly dissolved that connection; that the only connection a congregation can have with a General Synod is through a District Synod; that such connection is matter of choice; that the withdrawal of the Pittsburgh synod from the General Synod was orderly and legal, and involved no departure from the faith of the church or violation of charter or constitution, but a closer adherence thereto; that the defendants' pastor was the legal pastor and the other defendants were the legal council and trustees, and that the plaintiffs were secessionists. That answer denied all schism on the part of the defendants' pastor; that any synod has control of church property; and that the defendants had not ousted or excluded the plaintiffs from the congregation or church, but alleged that the plaintiffs voluntarily withdrew therefrom. The answer concluded with a prayer that the plaintiffs' bill be dismissed with costs. During the pendency of the case for several years testimony was taken on both sides, filling one hundred and thirty-two printed octavo pages, on the questions as to which of these two divisions of that church adhered most closely to the faith and doctrinal basis of the Evangelical Lutheran church in the United States, and as to which of those two divisions was legally entitled to the use and control of the property belonging to the Hebron Evangelical Lutheran church of Leechburgh. In the latter was involved the question raised by the defendants touching the validity of the abovestated amendment of 1864, their counsel alleging in his history of the case that it was "slipped through " under pretence of amending the charter of the church so as to embrace an academy property, and referring to certain testimony adduced by the defendants in support of that allegation, which was denied by the plaintiffs' counsel in their counter history of the case, who used certain other testimony in support of their denial. That question was argued by learned counsel on both sides on the application to change that amendment by the substitution of the one above-mentioned, voted for by a majority of the congregational meeting March 5, 1868. It was claimed that the petitioners for and the remonstrants against that change were, respectively, in the majority. Judge Logan, in giving the reasons of the court of common pleas of this county for not allowing that change of the amendment of 1864 to be made, said: "Our duty, however, is but the exercise of a judicial function in determining whether, tiunder the laws of the land and of this corporation, the amendment demanded can be granted, and we shall refer to doctrinal questions only as they may be necessary to guide us in this inquiry. * * * It seems to be conceded on all hands that the Pittsburgh synod" (the body to which the petitioners for that change and defendants in the bill in equity belong) "is not connected with the General Synod, but with the General Council of the Lutheran church. It may be further stated that the General Synod and General Council, whilst both claiming to be within the Lutheran church, are yet in antagonism, neither yielding recognition or obedience to the other. * * * We do not at present say what might be the effect were this an application to set aside that decree " (allowing the amendment of 1864). " It is enough to say that here the question cannot be inquired of. But more: this amendment was acted under for almost, if not quite, three years, and it is held" (by the supreme court) "in the Commonwealth ex rel. vs. Cullen et al., 1 Harris, 140, that a single unequivocal act may be patent enough conclusively to establish assent. We are compelled, therefore, to regard this as an existing and valid provision of the charter, and in that light must examine this application. * * * Of course this is not a possessory action, but its effect is to give title under which possession may be enforced." Having cited two cases in which the 170 ALLEGHENY TOWNSHIP. supreme court of Pennsylvania holds that "the title to the church property of a divided congregation is in that part of it which is acting in harmony with its own law, and the ecclesiastical laws, usages, customs and principles which were accepted before the dispute began, are the standards for determining which party is right," and that it is "unimportant on which side the majority is." That learned judge further said: "By this rule we are bound. * * * The charter of this congregation, to the extent of its expression, was the law of the corporation before and at the time this dispute began. To that charter we must look for any expression of ecclesiastical law, usage, custom or principle relating to the present question. Within that charter and that part of the amendment of 1864 before quoted we find that the pastor or pastors shall be members of some Evangelical Lutheran Synod, which shall be in connection with the General Synod, etc. This, then, was a constituent part of the law of the congregation at the time the dispute arose, and as to the subject of which it treats, is controlling. The present amendment is, by its preface and its terms, as stated in the petition, to change and repeal this part of the charter by the substitution of a new synodical connection, consistent with the views of the petitioners, and is asked as a right because claimed by a majority of the corporation. With which side is doctrinal right in this controversy we cannot inquire. It is enough for us to know that at least a large minority of the corporation desire to retain a connection consistent with the terms of the charter as existing when the dispute began, and to that end resist this application. To allow this amendment would be but to take this church property from those who have followed the law of its charter, and give it to those who seek by this amendment" (proposed in 1868) "to establish a new law. To do this would be in violation of the announced opinion of our supreme court. This amendment cannot, therefore, he granted." From the law and the facts as above abstracted, the reader will perceive why the same court, December 14, 1871, finally adjudged and decreed in the above-mentioned bill in equity, among other things, that the defendants should deliver to the plaintiffs the church building, the lot of ground thereto belonging, with the appurtenances, and the books, records, and effects of that church, within twenty-five days from that date; enjoined that no pastor who is not in synodical connection with the General Synod from officiating as pastor in that church, unless regularly elected its pastor by the congregation agreeably to its constitution and charter; and restrained the defendants from preventing or in any manner interfering with the occupation of the church by the plaintiffs and others who are qualified members thereof, adhering in faith and practice to a church in connection with the General Synod, yet saving to the defendants the subsequent right, after compliance with the decree, to avail themselves of chartered rights and privileges in church and property under and subject to a synodical connection, as expressed in the charter and its amendment of 1864. The case was taken to and affirmed by the supreme court. The costs followed the event of the case. That controversy appears to have been.a sincere and earnest attempt of both parties to maintain their respective rights, legal and ecclesiastical. The result of it was, as is usual, the development of bitter feeling, and a division of that church into two. The General Synod branch retain the original church edifice and other church property, and employ a pastor of their own faith. The General Council branch erected, in 1872, an elegant and commodious church edifice, brick, on the south side of Main street, on the third lot east from Mulberry alley, and they still retain Mr. Sarver as their pastor. Membership, 200; Sabbath-school scholars, 150. The exact date of the organization of the Methodist church has not been ascertained. Services were held for awhile in the small schoolhouse. About 1846, a brick edifice was erected on the southwest corner of Main street and Spring alley, which has since been replaced with a frame one. Membership of Leechburgh circuit, 225; Sabbathschool scholars, 175. A Baptist church was organized in 1873. A church edifice, situated on the southwest corner of Third street and Siberian avenue, was commenced in 1875, which is not yet completed. It is frame, 40X40, and Gothic in style of architecture. SCHOOLS. The first one was taught by John Faulk, in a small frame schoolhouse, which was erected by David Leech at his own expense, before the free school system was inaugurated. In the latter part of March, 1830, a large number of the inhabitants of Allegheny township met in that schoolhouse to witness the exhibition of the pupils who had previously been taught by a Mr. Lee. Their performances were said to have been highly creditable. After their conclusion, N. P. Cooper, R. Criswell and S. Dickey were appointed a committee to draft resolutions, which, having been presented, were 171 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. unanimously adopted. They expressed the pleasure and admiration of the meeting for the public spirit evinced by David Leech in his manly and spirited exertions to promote the welfare of the people of this place, and tendered him their thanks for his liberality in erecting, furnishing and supplying with fuel at his own expense a large and commodious schoolhouse for the exclusive use of the pupils of this place. A larger one-story frame schoolhouse was erected by the school directors in 1843, on the southeast corner of Main street and Bridge alley, which continued to be used for school purposes until a few years since, when the use of the Lutheran Institute building was secured therefor until the completion of the present public schoolhouse, which was erected in 1875, on an acre lot bounded by Siberian avenue, First street, Back street and Spring alley. The area of this creditable temple of knowledge is 85 X 54 feet. Its basement story, with stone walls nine feet high, is of the same area. The superstructure consists of two stories, with brick walls. The hight of ceiling in the lower is thirteen, and in the upper story is sixteen feet. The areas of the schoolrooms in the lower story are, respectively, 34 by 25 feet. In the upper story is a hall for public exercises, 58 X 51 feet, the remaining portion of it being reserved for additional schoolrooms when they may be needed. Each room is well lighted and is supplied with nice patent furniture. The requisite outbuildings have been erected. With proper labor, attention and expenditures, whether voluntarily contributed by the pupils of the school and the people of Leechburgh, or by the school directors at the public expense, the grounds around that schoolhouse can be made a beautiful and attractive campus. The entire cost of the ground and buildings thus far is about $15,000. In 1860 the number of schools, 1; average number of months taught, 6; teacher, male; average monthly salary, $22; number male scholars, 30; number female, 40; average number attending school, 47; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 31 cents; amount tax levied for school purposes, $146.87; received from state appropriation, $37.91; received from collector of school tax, $143.74; teachers' wages, $121; fuel and contingencies, $10; repairing schoolhouse, 88. In 1876 the number of schools, 4;* average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 1; female teachers, 3; average salaries per month, male, $70; female, $41.67; number male scholars, 152; number female scholars, 119; average number attending school, 191; cost per month, 52 cents; total amount :: That is a graded school of four grades., tax levied for school and building purposes, $2,802.79; state appropriation, $332.84; total receipts, $3,667.86; paid for teachers' wages, $1,243.50; fuel, collectors and contingencies, $1,177.21; total expenditures, $3,723.88. In 1857-8 the Leechburgh Institute, an institution for the education of both sexes in the higher grades of learning, was established by people of Leechburg and vicinity. A two-story brick building of suitable size was erected on lot No. 124, on the north side of Back street, in which there was for several years a flourishing school under the charge of David McKee, now connected with Thiel College, and other principal teachers. The deed for that lot from David Leech to the trustees in trust, etc., is dated August 5, 1857. The consideration therein expressed is "for the furtherance of education and for the sum of one dollar." The size of the lot is 60X120 feet. It was conveyed "for the purpose of erecting thereon suitable buildings for an institution of learning." A company was organized, which appointed a board of trustees, who caused the building to be erected and assumed the discharge of such other duties as usually pertain to such a board. In the preamble of an act relative to certain real estate in the borough of Leechburgh, approved June 28, 1871, it is alleged that a company by the name and style of the Leechburgh Institute, etc., "was incorporated by the Court of Quarter Sessions of Armstrong county." That court had not the power and authority to incorporate an institution of that kind. If incorporated by the court it must have been by the court of common pleas. It does not appear from the records of that court to have been incorporated. That preamble further sets forth that that company became insolvent and its real estate was sold at sheriff's sale, and the proceeds thereof were applied to the discharge of the debts of record against the company; that the sheriff did, on the 4th day of June, 1862, make and deliver a deed for such real estate to Edward S. Golden, who, on the 30th day of June then instant, did transfer, set over and assign all his right, title, interest and claim thereto to the then board of trustees and their successors in trust for themselves and others interested by virtue of their written agreement. Wherefore it was enacted that the title which passed by the sheriff's deed be ratified and confirmed, and that the trustees be authorized and empowered to sell that lot and the buildings thereon, with the appurtenances, and to execute and deliver a deed in fee simple to the purchaser or purchasers thereof, and distribute the proceed, of sale amongst the stockholders in pro172 RES. OF JOHN SCHWALI, LEECH BLF(GJ, PA. ALLEGHENY TOWNSHIP. portion to the stock held therein by each one. By deed, dated November 4, 1872, the trustees conveyed that property to J. Henry Bergman for $1,000. That institution was chiefly under Presbyterian control. The Lutheran "Leechburgh Institute," commonly called the Lutheran Academy, was incorporated by the court of commnon pleas of this county, March 15, 1864. Its charter and a supplement to the charter of the Hebron congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran church of Leechburg were conjoined and granted together. The applicants for the charter of this "Institute" stated that they were "desirous of establishing a good academy or high school," the object of which was to be "to afford to both sexes opportunities for acquiring a knowledge of the common and higher branches of education." The prescribed number of trustees was nine, six of whom were to be regular members of the Evangelical Lutheran church and to be elected by the Lutheran congregation of Leechburgh and other subscribers or contributors to the institute. A three-story brick edifice, containing six schoolrooms, with cupola and bell, was soon after erected. This institution was in a flourishing condition for several years. Among its instructors were Revs. David McKee, D. M. Kemmerer and Samuel F. Breckenridge. It began to languish after the commencement of the controversy in the church and was closed in 1869. Both of those Institutes were, during their two brief careers, efficient promoters of education, and quite a large number of pupils of both sexes availed themselves of their advantages. It is probable that one alone might have been permanently prosperous if established on such a basis as to have commanded the support of the different denominations. MEDICAL. The first resident physician was Dr. George W. Marchand, who was succeeded by Drs. J. P. Pullard, William Wilson, J. Kiers; John T. Crawford, who removed to Kittanning, studied law, was admitted to the bar, entered the military service of the United States in the late war of the rebellion, and died of disease contracted in that service; T. C. McCulloch, who has been for many years a resident physician of Kittanning; Washington Reynolds, who also removed to Kittanning, where he practiced his profession until his death; W. L. Morrow, who removed to Freeport; R. P. and J. A. Hunter, J. A. Armstrong and J. A. Carson. CEMETERY. The Leechburgh Cemetery Company was incorporated by the proper court September 5, 1864. 11 The charter provides that its capital stock consist of one hundred shares at $25 a share, which can be increased to two hundred shares by the corporators holding a majority of the shares. The annual election of its officers is held annually on the first Monday of May. This company, among other things, is authorized to purchase land not exceeding twenty acres within a mile of Leechburgh for cemetery purposes, and to borrow money not exceeding $5,000. Bonds given for such borrowed money are not to be liens on the cemetery ground, but only upon the proceeds of the sale of lots. The ground belonging to this company at present consists of two lots, nearly, and is situated between Back street and Siberian avenue, and nearly midway between Spring and Bridge alleys. Lots have been laid out and a number of them have been sold, but as yet regular streets and walks have not been opened. The former, at least some of them, are appropriately adorned. The grounds generally are susceptible of being made abeautiful resting-place for the dead. The old cemetery adjoins the new one, fronting on Siberian avenue. CROSSING THE RIVER. The primitive means of crossing the Kiskiminetas was by ferrying in canoes and larger boats. More convenient facilities were needed. By act of 7th of April, 1832, the Governor of this commonwealth was authorized to incorporate a company to erect a bridge over that stream, on the big dam, at Leechburgh. The capital stock consisted of 200 shares at $25 each. The books for subscription were to be opened on the 1st of the then next October, and the company was required to commence the work of erecting the bridge in two years, and to complete it within five years after the passage of the act, or forfeit to the commonwealth the rights, liberties and franchises granted by the charter, but these portions of that act or charter were repealed by the act of April 10, 1845, and the time extended to January 1, 1846. A bridge was built, by contract with Hugh Callen, oni trestles, which, having become unsafe, was removed, and one with stone piers and abutments was erected in its place, which was carried away by a high flood, September 28, 1861, and replaced by the company in the summer of 1862. It was swept away by the heavy ice-gorge, March 15, 1875. A difference of opinion and a controversy had arisen between the bridge company and the hereinafter-mentioned iron works company respecting the tolls which the latter was to pay. The former, May 20, 1875, presented their petition to the court of common 173 THE INDIANS. colonists, they removed to Wyoming, carrying with them a keen sense of the wrongs which they conceived had been done them, among which was the famous walking purchase, or the hlian walk, a transaction which was said not to have been creditable to the proprietary government, and by which, it was alleged, the Indian title to the land in the forks was extinguished, and by which the Indians thought they were wrongfully overreached as to the quantity of land or extent of territory embraced in that sale and purchase. That was one of the prominent causes which incited the Delawares, Shawanees and Maumees to become allies of the French in 1755.* TIlE INDIANS. It is probable that the aboriginal inhabitants of the territory within the limits of this county belonged mainly to the Lenni Lenape, who held that they were the original people and of western origin. The Delawares claimed that their ancestors lived, many hundred years ago, in the far distant wilds of the West, and were the progenitors of forty other tribes; that after many years of emigration toward the rising sun, they reached the Mississippi river, where they met the Mengwe, who came from a very distant region and had reached that river higher up toward its source; that they found a powerful nation east of the Mississippi, who were called Alligewi, and from whom originated the name of the Allegheny mountains; that the Lenape wished to settle near the Alligewi, which the latter refused, but allowed them to cross the river and proceed farther to the east; that when the Alligewi discovered how multitudinous the Lenape were, they feared their numerical strength and slew the portion that had crossed the river, and threatened to destroy the rest if they should attempt to cross; that the Lenape and Mengwe united their forces against the Allegewi, and conquered and drove them out of that part of the country; that the Lenape and Mengwe lived together in peace and harmony for many years; that some of the * A part of the evidence to the contrary was the statement of Nicholas Scull, Surveyor-General, made before the Provincial Coun cil, Tuesday, January 25,1757, in which he alleged that in September, 1737, he was present at the running of the line of the Indian pur chase of those lands, and that he had reduced to writing what lihe remembered about it. His statement having been signed and affirmed by him before the Governor in council, it was duly entered. He affirmed that the day and a half's walk begun near Wrightstown, in Bucks county, and continued thence some distance beyond the Kit tatinny mountains; that he believed the whole distance walked did not exceed fifty-five statute miles; that Benjamin Easthurn, the then Surveyor-General, Timothy Smith, sheriff of Bucks county, and him self, attended that walk from beginning to end: that particular care was taken not to exceed eighteen hours; that he always thought and believed that walk to have been fairly performed, the walkers not having run or gone out of a walk at any time; that hlie (lid not remember of any of the Indians then present making any complaint of unfair practice; and that Eastburn, hlie and others lodged the night after the walk was completed at the Indian townPoaeopokunk, where were Capt. Harrison, a noted man among the Indians, and many of the Delawares, none of whomni did he remember as having made any complaint or shown any uneasiness concerning that walk. Lenape hunters crossed the Allegheny mountains, the Susquehanna and Delaware rivers, and Advanced to the Hudson, which they called the flohicannituck river; that on their return to their people they represented the country which they had discovered so far toward the rising sun to be without people, but abounding in fish, game, fowls and fruits; that thus the Lenape were induced to emigrate eastward along the Lenape-whittttck, the river of the Lenapes, also called Mack-er-isk-iskan, which the English named the Delaware, in honor of Lord de la Ware, who entered Delaware Bay in 1610 and was Governor of the Colony of Virginia from about that time until 1618. The Dutch and Swedes called it the South river to distinguish it from North river, which bears the name of Hudson. That such was the tradition preserved by the Delawares is truthfully stated by Rev. John Heckewelder, a Moravian missionary, in his "Account of the History, Manners and Customs of the Indian Nations who once Inhabitated Pennsylvania and the Neighboring States," published, in 1819, under the auspices of the historical and literary committee of the American Philosophical Society. The passing remark may here be made that Indian laws and historical events were not preserved on parchment, paper or in books, but by tradition they were handed down from one generation to another. William Rawle, in his able "Vindication of Heckewelder's History,"* pertinently says: "The ancient history of every part of Europe depends on such traditions, the probable truth of which is sometimes supported by circumstances that are subsequiently atuthenticated. In the Lenapian history of the total extirpation of the Alligewi we see nothing inconsistent with that well-known ferocity of savage tribes which still unhappily continues to rage among them." The Shawanees were driven out of Georgia and South Carolina, and came to the mouth of the Conestoga, within the present limits of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, about 1677, and spread thence over what was afterward Cumberland county, along the west branch of the Susquehanna, in the Wy oining valley, and thence to the Ohio. As early as, if not earlier than, 1719, Delaware and Shawanee Indians were settled on the Allegheny. About 1724, says Bancroft, the Delaware Indians, for the con venience of game, emigrated from the Delaware and Susquehanna rivers to the branches of the Ohio; in 1728, the Shawanees gradually followed them, and they were soon met by Canadian traders, and loncaire, an adopted citizen of the Seneca *Read at a meeting of the council of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, February 15, 1826. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. pleas of this county, praying that their charter might be disannulled, which was resisted by the latter. After argument and due consideration of the law and the facts involved, the court granted the prayer of the petitioners, July 21 of that year, and appointed the writer a trustee to sell all the lands and other real estate then owned by the former. Thereupon the Kiskiminetas Bridge Company was incorporated by the Governor of this commonwealth by virtue of a general act of assembly, with a capital of $25,000. The property of the Leechburgh Bridge Company was sold by public outcry by the trustee, at two oclock P. M., on Thursday, August 19, 1875, to the Kiskiminetas Bridge Company, for the sum of $2,301, which sale was confirmed by the court, September 6, 1875, and the trustee was ordered, on payment thereof, to execute and deliver to the purchaser a proper deed of conveyance, which was accordingly done. The new company immediately contracted for the repairing of the piers and abutments and raising them several feet higher than they had previously been, and the erection thereon of a superstructure partly of iron and partly of wood, all which was completed so that the new bridge began to be used on the then next Christmas day, and it has been in successful operation ever since. MANUFACTURES. The supply of the various kinds of mechanics, such as are usual in every town, has kept pace with the growth and wants of the population of this borough. John Taylor's tannery, between Main and Back streets, and Spring alley and the Lutheran Institute or Academy lot, was established by David Kuhns, in 1828, as appears from the assessment list. That is the first year in which he was assessed with a tan-yard. Rogers & Burchfield having purchased at what were then considered low rates divers lots in Leechburgh, and a considerable quantity of other land, partly therein and partly in Allegheny township,erectedin 1872and 1874 extensive iron andtin works, consisting of six single puddling furnaces, two knobbling fires, one refiner's fire, six heating furnaces, four sheet heating furnaces, three annealing furnaces, two pairs of muck rolls, two pairs of sheet rolls, two pairs of tin rolls, two pairs of cold rolls, one pair of muck shears, two pairs of sheet shears, one blast cylinder with engine complete, five cylinder boilers and one Allen engine of about 350 horse-power. The quantity of finished iron made per month was two hundred and fifty tons, the quality of which was equal to the Juniata charother was equal to the best brands of sheet iron. The tin works, consisting of three stacks, were built in 1874. Their daily product was ninety boxes of excellent tin. The number employed in the manufacture of iron and tin was one hundred and fifty. They were suddenly thrown out of employment by the suspension of those works September 19, 1875. The rolling-mill and other buildings are situated in the southwestern part of the borough, between Main, Third and Canal streets. By act of March 23, 1872, Canal street was vacated between the southwest corner of lot No. 19 to Main street; Market, between Third and Canal streets; and Brown alley, between Main and Market streets. That act provides that the borough shall not be charged with any damages therefor. A large store belonging to the Siberian Iron Company is situated on the southwest corner of Third and Market streets. Coal was used at first for fuel, which was abaiindoned and gas substituted, of which the well on the opposite side of the river, from which it is conducted through iron pipes, affords an abundant and ap)parently exhaustless supply. It is much cheaper than coal, and being free from sulphur, makes a much better quality of iron than can be made with bituminous coal. Besides it is used for illuminating the town at night, which is done by means of a perpendicular gas-pipe extending upward thirtyfive feet, more or less, near the rolling-mill, from the top of which jets of burning gas make a large and brilliant flame, whose light extends a great distance. That gas-well was developed in 1871 by an oil-well company, composed largely, if not entirely, of citizens of Leechburgh, who drilled for oil, having been induced to do so, as the writer is informed, by the knowledge of the sandrocks and other strata which they gained from the geological articles that had previously appeared in the Union Free Press. The depth to which that well was drilled is 1250 feet, and that of the gas yein about 1200 feet from the surface. Brickmaking is carried on in a yaid on a lot fronting on Canal street, nearly west of the intersection of Third and Fourth streets, with which a a dry-house is connected, by a joint stock company. MERCANTILE AND OTHER OCCUPATIONS. There are, according to the mercantile appraiser's list, this year eighteen stores, of which seventeen are in fourteenth and one in the thirteenth class. Under this head are included drug stores, groceries and merchant tailor establishments. The appraisement list for this year shows the coal made iron and number one stamping. All the number of ministers to be 4; physicians, 3; mill174 COCHrAN P,LOGKJ LEECH BURG, PA. ALLEGHENY TOWNSHIP. foreman, 1; puddlers, 8; rollers, 5; heaters, 5; shearers, 2; shinglers, 3; knobblers, 7; pickler, 1; tinmen, 3; teacher, 1; surveyor, 1; clerks, 7; agents, 5; contractor, 1; miners, 23; laborers, 58; wagonmaker, 1; brickmaker, 1; cabinetmaker, 1; painters, 3; miller, 1; butchers, 4; teamsters, 5; brick merchant, 1; stonemasons, 2; blacksmiths, 44 shoemakers, 9; carpenters, 9; tinners, 3; grain merchant, 1; cabinetmakers, 2; engineers, 2; baker, 1; farmer, 1; barber, 1. The postoffice was established November 18, 1829. The first postmaster was David Leech; the present one is Israel Putnam Kerr. SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETY. A humane and patriotic spirit animated the people of Leechburgh and vicinity during the war of the rebellion. Considerable quantities of lint and clothing and fruits were forwarded to the army by them before any regular organization was effected. The first meeting of the Soldiers' Aid Society was held probably in the spring of 1862, shortly after the battle of Malvern Hill. It is regretted that the minutes of that society cannot be found, because without them a full and accurate presentation of its good work cannot be made. Immediately after that battle three large boxes of sanitary stores were sent with Rev. L. M. Kuhns and Addison Leech to the wounded soldiers. As those gentlemen were not allowed to pass beyond Washington, those stores were detained until Mr. Kuhns, as chaplain, succeeded in forwarding them to Fortress Monroe, where they were handed over to the hospitals. In July of that year the contributions of this society were sent to the Soldiers' Aid Society of Philadelphia, and afterward to the Pittsburgh branch of the sanitary commission. As the records cannot be found and as the reports of its doings were not published, it is very difficult to form a correct estimate of the industry and liberality of its members and the value of the contributions made by others. One of its treasurers, Mrs. Mary Watson, told the writer that she remembered distinctly of four or five hundred dollars being in the treasury at one time, which, and all other moneys belonging to the society, were judiciously expended in procuring materials to be made up by the members, and other needed articles. It is altogether probable that the aggregate value of the labor performed by this society and the contributions made through it, if a pecuniary estimate could be made of them, might justly be set down at several thousands of dollars. The following is taken from a letter of one of its members: "I must say, for the size of the place and the means of the people generally, the amount sent elicited some very complimentary letters from officers of the commission. Everything was prepared with great care and- liberality, and evinced the patriotism and industry of the ladies of Leechburgh and vicinity, of whom Mrs. John Klingensmith, Mrs. William Parks and Mrs. Henry McKallip were particularly efficient in collecting materials and working; indeed, all did a full share." The society persisted in doing its good work until the necessity for it ceased. Most, if not all, of its meetings were held at the residence of Mrs. Addison Leech, who was one of its devoted and efficient members. SOCIETIES. 1 0. O. F. Lodge No. 650; instituted March 12, 1869; members, 70. Knights of Pythias, instituted in 1871; members, 66. Order of American Mechanics, instituted in 1873; members, 68. Order of United WTorkmen, instituted in 1874; members, 42. The hall of both these lodges is the Lutheran institute building. The Leechburgh Banking Company commenced business in February, 1873. TEMPERANCE. The sentiment of a large number of the people has been for years adverse to the granting of licenses for the sale of intoxicating beverages, which demanded the special act of March 27, 1866, prohibiting their sale within the borough limits. The old time temperance organizations at times existed. The Bay Leaf Lodge of Good Templars No. -, was organized December 19, 1868, flourished and languished, having had a membership of . At the election, February 28, 1873, the vote on the license question stood: for license, 6; against license, 77. POPULATION. The number of inhabitants in 1860 was, whites, 358; colored, 1. In 1870, whites, 350; colored, 18. The number of taxables this year is 280. If there are four and three-fifths persons for each taxable, the population this year, 1876, is 1,288. BOROUGHII OF ALADDIN. This municipality was taken from Allegheny township and incorporated as a borough by the court of quarter sessions of this county June 8, 1867. Its boundaries were prescribed thus: Beginning at a black oak, thence north 261 degrees west 22.7 perches to a post; thence north 63A degrees 175 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. east 72 perches to a post; thence south 264 degrees east 28 perches to stones; thence south 634 degrees west 42 perches to a post; thence north 264- degrees west 5.3 perches to a post; thence south 631 degrees west 22.7 perches to the place of beginning, containing eleven acres and ninety-seven perches. The site of this borough is on the upper or northern part of a long narrow tract, originally surveyed to John Montgomery and Alexander Stewart, March 25, 1769, which lay between the John Elder, John Collier and Robert McKee tracts and the Allegheny river. To that upper part of the Montgomery and Stewart tract Peter Shaeffer acquired title by occupancy, and is included in the warrant issued to him, dated December 3, 1824, and in the patent to him, dated June 8, 1836, and portions of which he conveyed, July 11, 1855, to David Boyd, viz., 60 acres and 37 perches for $249.25, and February 17, 1859, to Thomas Donnelly, viz., 11 acres for $2,450. The former conveyed his tract, September 10, 1859, to Thomas J. Brereton, J. Thos. Johnston, H. Brady Wilkins and Charles H. Shattuck for $1,125; the last-. named confirmed his title thereto to the others, viz., Brereton, Johnston & Co., May 10, 1860, and the latter conveyed his tract, June 4, 1860, to that company for $10,000. The Aladdin Oil Works, or Refinery, were erected by that company in 1859 for the manufacture of oil from cannel coal by the same process as that of the North American Oil Works in Allegheny township. About 1863 they commenced distilling petroleum. From 1870 until 1876 these works were run by Dr. H. ~W. C. Tweddle for manufacturing refined and lubricating oils and parafline. They were then purchased by the Standard Oil Company. The quantity of crude oil consumed in those manufactures was about 8,000 barrels a month. The number of men employed was from thirty to forty. The crude oil has been for some time received by a pipe line from the oil wells. The operation of the oil works has been suspended and resumed several times since they were built. Some of their products at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia so attracted the attention of some of the foreign visitors and scientists as to induce them to visit Aladdin and examine the works. * Natural gas was first discovered in Leechburgh in 1870 by Jos. E. Beale and others while drilling a test well for oil, and was first utilized for the manufacture of iron in the Leechburgh Iron Works in 1872, being conducted into the furnaces by pipes leading into the mill from the wells. A patent has been asked for and is yet in litigation in regard to the same. It has since been used for the manufacture of iron near Pittsburgh by parties who laid a pipe line some eighteen miles from the producing wells to their works. It is also now in use for the manufacture of steel by the open hearth process by Jos. E. Beale in his West Pennsylvania Steel Works at Leechburgh, the place of its first utilization. It is acknowledged by all who have any knowledge of it to be the finest fuel for the manufacture of iron or steel ever discovered; being so free from all the injurious ingredients of which coal is composed, and being so easily controlled and applied makes it invaluable for the purposes named. It can also be applied for burning brick, smelting iron ores and purposes of that kind, so that the vicinities where it is found, that are convenient to transportation, have advantages for the manufacturing of steel and iron that cannot be competed with. The first election was held by order of the court at the office of the Aladdin Oil Company, December 18, 1861. E. B. Barton was elected the first burgess, and Babteste Scott, P. Donnelly, D. Shair, William Gillman and James Boyle, the first councilmen. The vote on the license question was ten for, and none against, granting licenses to sell intoxicating liquors. SCHOOLS. A frame one-story building was erected, probably in 1867-8, which is used for a free school and for religious meetings. The first school report is for the year ending first Monday of June, 1869. In 1869 there was one school; No. months taught, 5; female teacher, 1; salary per month, $28; m-le scholars, 19; female scholars, 12; average number attending school, 23; cost per month, $1.16; amount tax levied for school and building purposes, $177.28; received from tax collectors and other sources, $218.28; from state appropriation, $8.50; cost of instruction, $140; fuel and contingencies, $30.25; cost of schoolhouse, $39.83; balance on hand, $8.23. In 1874 there was one school; number months taught, 4; one female teacher; salary per month, $28; male scholars, 8; female scholars, 14; average attendance, 19; cost per month, $1.48; received from state appropriation, $8.16; from taxes and other sources, $164.98; total, $173.14; cost school houses, etc., $24; paid for teacher's wages, $112; for fuel, contingencies, etc., $18.30; resources, $10.68. There has been no annual report since 1874. STATISTICS. Population in 1870, native, 23; foreign, 6; total, 29. Number of taxables this year 17, and the population 78. 176 ALLEGHENY TOWNSHIP. The assessment list for 1876 shows thus: Oil refinery, $11,000. Occupations-manager, 1; refiner, 1; stillmen, 2; laborers, 7; firemen, 2; mechanic, 1; miner, 1. GEOLOGICAL. The formations just below the mouth of the Kiskiminetas are, it is presumed, quite similar to those just above its mouth. They are, therefore, given as indicating what are immediately above. "On the lands of Mr. Stuart and Mr. Dodd, on the east side of the Allegheny, below the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, the slaty cannel coal is separated from the bright bituminous bed by from six to eight feet of slate. The cannel stratum averages five feet in thickness. The Freeport sandstone beneath forms massive ledges along the railroad. On the east side of the Allegheny the coals are at a much higher level than on Buffalo creek, owing to a local rise in the strata, but there can be no difficulty in identification. A proximate analysis of Dodd's cannel coal by Dr. Alter, develops thirty-four per cent of volatile matter. From twenty-two pounds of the coal he obtained thirty-three ounces of crude oil, a gallon of which yielded one ounce of paraffine, besides coal tar, lighter oils, benzole, etc. "One and one-half miles above the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, are fine exposures of the Freeport sandstone, dipping both west and north (falsely bedded, perhaps). Two and a half miles above its mouth, the Upper Freeport coal is about one hundred and eight feet above the canal, due east and twenty-five feet higher than at Freeport. Four miles above the mouth at (what used to be) Otterman's and Cochran's salt works, the Freeport sandstone has passed the fourth axis and descended below water level, dipping southeast. There the Upper Freeport coal is sixty-nine feet above the canal, all the strata below it being shales. At the canal level are black shales from four to five feet thick. The mass of shales dips up the river rapidly, and at the same time changes into sandstone beds still interstratified with shales. "A fourth of a mile below" Leechburgh "the following section exhibits the coal at a much lower elevation" than there: Descending from the sur face-" shale, 9 feet; Upper Freeport coal, 3 feet 3 inches; shale, 22 inches; coal, 7 inches; shale, 3 feet. Freeport limestone, blue, 2 feet; soft sandstone, 1 foot; shale, 17 feet to bed of Pine run, not much above slack water. "This appears to be about the middle line of the Fourth Basin. In the middle of the basin both coal and limestone seem thin and irregular. "At Leechburg, five and a fourth miles above the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, above which is a gentle undulation of the strata, the following section of rocks was obtained at the quarries: Sandstone and shale, 16 feet; Upper Freeport coal, 41 feet, 63 feet above slack water; blue-black shale, 14 inches; light shale, 6 inches; coal, 4 inches; light shale, 14 inches; iron ore, 3 inches; Freeport limestone, 1 foot; calc slate, shale, 3 feet; shale and large chunks of limestone, 31 feet; limestone, 32 inches; shale, with calcareous nodules and flags, 5 feet; calcareous shales, 6 feet 8 inches; shale, sandstone, etc., 3 feet; sandstone, 1 foot; shales, a little bituminous, 1 foot; blue ferriferous shale, 7 feet; shale and sandstone, 6 feet; massive Freeport sandstone, 42 feet; Lower Freeport coal, interstratified with slate, 4 feet. "The Freeport sandstone, near the water's edge, is a fine quartzose conglomerate, containing vegetable impressions and pebbles of nodular carbonate of iron, of all sizes, and so numerous as to compose the whole mass of the rock for a thickness of 6, 8, or even 10 inches. A slip appears to combine with the original oblique bedding of the sandstone to express to the eye of the spectator an unconformity of stratification at the upper limit of the sandstone, and upon its apparently upheaved edges rests the calcareous slates and coal above. Something similar may be observed elsewhere along the Kiskiminetas, at a point seven miles below Saltsburgh. "At the salt works, half a mile above Leechburgh, the upper Freeport coal, three and a half feet thick, covered by sixteen feet of shale, is sixtytwo and a half feet above slackwater and sinks to an altitude of fifty feet for the next two miles up the river, and is there three and a half feet thick, covered by two feet of black slate and this by eight feet of sandstone." (Rogers' Geology of Pennsylvania.) It is inferrible, then, that Leechburgh is near the synclinal axis of the Fourth Basin,* i. e. the line along which the opposite descending strata meet. The Fourth Basin lies between the anticlinals of the Fourth and Fifth, or the axes of the Third and Fourth Basins. The anticlinal of the Fifth, or axis of the Fourth Basin, passes northeast and southwest about two and three-fourths miles to the northwest of Leechburgh on to the Kiskiminetas. The distance by a straight line from the anti * According to the geologists there was in the formation of the various strata a grat wave from north to south, but between the Allegheny mountains and the highland in Erie county, l'ennsylva nia, there Nvere six minor cross waves fronm inorthea,t to s t li%Vest, which they call the -ix C,al Basins. The synclinaml fa basin is i.s bottom, or theline alongwhich its ppo ite sl(pes neet; its anticlinal is the line along the top or crest of its southeastern sh pe; and its axis is the line along the top or crest of its northwestern slope. 177 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. clinal of the Fifth Basin through Leechburgh to the anticlinal of the Fourth Basin is about ten and three-fourths miles. If there are oil-bearing rocks in the Fourth Basin the oil in them will be tapped at a less depth on the slopes than at the center of the basin, that is, the line along which the strata of each descending slope meet. The northwestern slope of the Fourth Basin appears to be about three miles, while its southeastern slope is about seven and three-fourths miles from the respective anticlinals to its center, or synclinal axis. The difference in the depth of a particular rock or stratumn at the center and along the slopes up to the anticlinals will of course be in proportion to the degree of ascent from the center to the anticlinals, provided no local changes occur to vary the regular interval between water-level and the desired rock or stratum. About 75,000 perches of sandstone have been taken out of the quarries near Jacksonville, or Bagdad, and sent to market, by Samuel Bowers and his employds, worth $3 a perch delivered on the canal boat. For the geological features or indications of the northern part of Allegheny township the reader is referred to those elsewhere given as those along Crooked creek. The following is the record of the Leechburgh gas well, furnished to J. F. Carll, of the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, by Joseph G. Beale: The well mouth is about fifteen feet below the level of the West Pennsylvania railroad depot at that point. Conductor, 22 feet; sand rock, 50; limestone, with gas and water, 6; fireclay, 12; soft, loose shale, 200; blue pebble, 60; sandstone, white, 15; pebble, dark, 12; soapstone, 18; blue rock, 5; red rock, 8; slate, dark, 35; sandstone, white, with a little salt water, 75; slate, blue, 60; soft blue rock, 100; sandstone, gray, 20; soapstone, 100; rock, soft and changeable, with salt water, 152; sandstone, white, 30; shale, 200; blue rock, hard shells, 20; pebble and sand rock mixed, present gas vein, 30; blue rock and hard shells, 20; depth of well 1,250 feet. The great flow of gas is about 50 feet above the bottom of the well and comes (observes Franklin Pratt, assistant geologist in charge of the second geological survey of Armstrong and several other counties) from the first sand rock. No coal beds are mentioned as having been passed through in drilling this well, yet coals were struck in boring various salt wells between that point and the Allegheny river. The flow of gas is apparently as strong now as when it was first struck. Levels above tide, at stations on the West Pennsylvania Railroad, along the left bank of the Kiskiminetas. The datum is the mean tide in the Schuylkill river at the Philadelphia Market street bridge. Add seven feet to each to ascertain its elevation above the mean Atlantic Ocean level: Helena, 1010 feet above tide; Salina, 948 feet; Northwest, 887 feet; Roaring Run, 820 feet; Apollo, 816 feet; Townsend's Summit, 880 feet; Grinder's (near Leechburgh), 820 feet; Bagdad, or Hill's Mills, 773 feet; Allegheny, or West Pennsylvania Junction, as corrected by J. F. Carll, 790.64 feet. (Ibid,.N) Along the Allegheny river, between the abovementioned Junction and Crooked Creek: Northwest, inside corner of north abutment of Kiskiminetas bridge, 793.21 feet above ocean; opposite mile post, 795 feet; bench mark on lower inside corner of north wall of culvert, 795.3 feet; opposite Aladdin station, 792.9 feet; opposite mile post, 786 feet; opposite mile post, 779.6 feet; B. M. on upper inside corner of south abutment of bridge No. 32, 779.8 feet; opposite mile post, 784.3 feet; B. M. on lower inside corner of north wall of culvert, 781.7 feet; opposite White Rock Station, 782.4 feet; opposite mile post, 780.4 feet; B. M. on lower inside corner of north wall of culvert, 778 feet; opposite Kelly's Station, 780.6 feet; opposite mile post, 781.3 feet; B. M. on " Hickory Right," 315 feet north of 35th mile post, 794.32 feet; opposite mile post, 784.3 feet; B. M. on lower inside corner of north wall of culvert, 782.7 feet; opposite Logansport Station, 785 feet; opposite mile post, 785.5 feet; opposite mile post, 787.9 feet; B. M. on upper inside corner of south abutment of bridge No. 38, 789 feet. 178 CH-IAPTER VI. KITTANNING. Blanket Hill-Relics of the Battle Fought There-Original Tracts of Land in the Township - Residents in 1805 -Beers' Mills - Johnii Guld - A Circle Hunt - The Paper Town of "Benton" - Churches- Popula tion - Temperance --Postal - Humboldt Gardens - Geology. K ITTANNING township, since it has been shorn of so much of its original territory as is now included in that of six other entire townships and in the major part of two others, as at present formed, is one of the most regular in shape in the county, being nearly a parallelogram in that respect, as it appears on the map. The earliest notable event that occurred on the present territory of this township was the desperate fight between Lieut. Hogg and a superior force of Indians, described in the general sketch of the country, on what has since been called Blanket Iill, being on the tract originally surveyed on a warrant to Christian Signitz, dated February 4, 1776, and, the same day, conveyed to Joseph Cauffman by deed, the executors of whose surviving executor, June 30, 1834, conveyed it to Frederick Hileman and John Cravener; IHileman having conveyed the larger part of his interest therein to Cravener, the latter conveyed his interest April 1, 1844, to Philip Dormyer-commonly called Dunmire. Besides the relics of the Blanket Hill battlefield, elsewhere mentioned, is a one-edged sword, found by John Nolder, which came into the possession of Gen. Orr. The blade had not been much injured by rust when it was found, but the wood part of the hilt had completely decayed, nothing but the silver mounting having been left. Its appearance did not indicate that it had been in its scabbard when it was lost. Various other relics have been found there at different times, viz.: a spear sixteen or eighteen inches long, an arm carried, in 1756, by a commissioned officer; the iron and brass of a pistol; a gun barrel; a black quart bottle, broken in two pieces, the glass remarkably thick; and a piece of brass with a curious device on it representing several Indians in different attitudes, supposed to have been a large clasp of a swordbelt. About sixty-two years ago, Samuel Nolder found the iron-bound bucket, heretofore mentioned, hanging on the limb of a tree, which had probably swung there since that battle. About or soon after the beginning of the revolutionary war, as related to the writer by Mrs. Joseph Clark, Fergus Moorhead and Andrew Simpson were, as their turn came, sent out from the blockhouse at or near the site of the borough of Indiana on a scout of two weeks' duration, which was extended to the Allegheny river probably by what Jacob Waltenbough says was the Pullen path, which branched off from a tree on the farm now owned by Peter Heilman, and struck that river near the mouth of Garrett's run. On their return they were unexpectedly surrounded by Indians in the vicinity of Blanket hill. Simpson was shot and scalped in the presence of Moorhead, and soon afterward the latter's horse was shot. He was then taken prisoner by the Indians and rapidly driven on ahead of them. One of them wrote a letter in English, placed it against a tree and secured it from the rain by placing it in a saddle, the purport of which was that that affair was nothing compared with what the English settlers might expect. When Moorhead learned that the Indian could talk English, he inquired why they didn't shoot him as well as Simpson. The Indian replied that they had shot and missed him three times, and that the Great Spirit wouldn't allow them to shoot at the same person more than three times. Those scouts had a supply of venison, which the Indians took and dealt out to their prisoner as rations. After it was exhausted the Indian fare was hard and unpalatable. They took him to Quebec and delivered him up to the English, where he was kept in garrison until he was released on his parole of honor. It was about nine months from the time he left Indiana until he returned. The above-mentioned letter was found, soon after it was written, by another party that was sent out in search of those scouts, who found the body of the one that was killed and the other's horse. Col. Archibald Lochry, in his letter to Thomas Wharton, Jr., president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, dated "Westmoreland, ye 20th May, 1777," stated among other things HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. that on his arrival on the 4th of April he found the county in a confused situation. The alarm of the killing of Simpson and the absence of Moorhead struck the people with such terror that they fled from the frontiers into the heart of the settlements, and great numbers of them over the mountains. In order to prevent them from entirely evacuating the country, he stated that he had ventured to raise sixty men and station them on the frontier between Two Licks and the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, in four divisions, under command of two captains and two lieutenants, which covered that frontier so well that the people generally had returned to their plantations and resumed their labors. It will be borne in mind that the territory of this township was then in Westmoreland county, over which Lochry's authority as county lieutenant extended. James White, of Pine township, informed the writer that John Guld was with Simpson when he was killed, and escaped down Cherry run toward Crooked creek, and that the Indians, after chasing him several miles, captured and kept him seven years. The following are the orignal tracts within the present limits of this township: George Gray,* 324.7 acres, partly in Manor township, seated by William Hurtman; a part of the Michael Huffnagle tract; Robert Smith tract, 317 acres, partly in Burrell, seated by John King; the Charles Uhl or John Phillips tract, 335 acres, southwest corner in Burrell, seated by John Shall; the William Stewart tract, 415 acres, partly in Burrell, seated by John Serfoos; the James Todd tract, 439- acres, partly in Burrell and Plum creek, seated by John Altman; the Thos. Smith, Sr., tract, 411 acres, seated by Jacob Hankey and - Shised; Thomas Smith, Jr., tract, 415 acres; the John Smith tract, 337 acres, seated by Jacob Waltenbough and Philip Hartman; the Robert S. Steele tract, 341.9 acres, seated by John Shotts; the Jacob Rudolph tract, 366 acres; the Robert Smith, Jr., tract, 400 acres; the Jacob Neninger tract, 330.9 acres, seated by Michael Hartman; the Charles Grubb tract, 330.4 acres, seated by John and Daniel Hileman; the Jacob Lindeg tract, 339.9 acres, seated by Henry King; the Martha Phillips tract, 345 acres, seated by George Wensel; the John Smith tract, 346 acres; the Martin Dubbs tract, 3651 acres, seated by James Patton; the Peter Thompson tract, 31.9.4 acres; the Charles Betts tract, 416.8 acres; the John Schenck tract, 301.8 acres, seated by Fred'k Hileman and George Olinger; the Christian Sig *An original member of the Board of Wars, appointed by the Supreme Executive Council March 12, 1777. nitz tract, 406.4 acres, seated by Daniel Yundt, Jr.; the Nathan'l Lewis tract, 380.7 acres, seated by Hugh Blaney; the Isaac Franks tract, 395.4 acres; the William Cooper tract, 408.4 acres, partly in Plum creek; the Samuel Smith, Sr. (member of assembly from Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in 1777-8), tract, 416.8 acres, seated by Robert Lafferty; the Samuel Smith, Jr., tract, 387.8 acres; the Thomas Hutchinson tract, 300.8 acres, partly in Plum creek, seated by Henry Bowers; the John Ewing tract, 400.6 acres, partly in Valley; the William Henderson tract, 328 acres, seated by Sebastian Bowers; the Peter Thompson tract, 407.6 acres; the Fred'k Rohrer, Jr., tract, 330 acres, seated by John Cravenor; the Thomas Salter tract, 3841 acres; the Robert Smith tract, 399.8 acres; the Jonathan Shoemaker tract, 312.2 acres; the Philip Clemburg tract, 2941 acres; the John Guld tract, 3591 acres, seated by Andrew Lopeman; the Moses Bartram tract, 338- acres, partly in Valley, seated by Jacob Schrecengost; the Christopher Oury (or Ourich) tract, 312W acres, seated by Richard Graham and Abram Tiscus; the Frederick Kuhl tract, 3131 acres, seated by Adam Olinger; the John Pomeroy tract, 2831 acres, seated by George Williams; the Fred'k Rohrer tract, 90 acres, seated by Francis Rupp; the Francis Rupp tract, 157 acres, seated by himself; the Benjamin Hogan tract, 352 acres, seated by Daniel Fitzgeralds; the Peter Hileman tract, 200 acres, seated by himself; the John Carson tract, 319 acres, partly in Manor, seated by Daniel Bouch; the Tobias Long tract, 341- acres, seated by Daniel Hileman and Adam Waltenbough; the Benjamin Scheckengaust tract, 200 acres, seated by himself. In the southwestern corner of the township a run empties into Crooked creek at the upper or northern part of the loop, which received in early times the name of " Horny Camp run," because the Indians hung deers' horns on the trees along its banks. Some years ago-Jacob Waltenbough, now ninety-one years of age, from his early life familiar with the Crooked creek region, thinks it was in 1840 -a tree was cut down on the land of a Mr. Young, in which some deers' horns were found, covered by the growth of the tree and partially decayed. The Jacob Lindeg tract was called "Medway"; the warrant is dated May 12, 1773; Lindeg conveyed his interest to Andrew Groff, to whom John Penn and John Penn, Jr., issued their patent, dated Ji ly 4, 1776. It was sold for taxes in 1818 to Robert Orr, Jr., who conveyed it to Henry King December 8, 1821, for two hundred and twenty-five dollars. 180 KITTANNING TOWNSHIP. The Benjamin Hogan tract was called "Worms;" patent to Joseph Cauffman August 2, 1781, the executors of whose surviving executor conveyed it to Daniel Fitzgeralds July 27, 1827, for $1,409. The Tobias Long tract was called " Georgia," and one hundred and seventeen acres of it became vested in Adam Waltenbough by deed in December, 1807. The Robert Smith, Jr., tract was called "Erasinus." The proprietor advertised it for sale in the Western Eagle September 20, 1810, and described it as "situate on a run on the north side of Crooked creek, about one mile southeast of Adam Waltenbough's, and about the same distance from Michael Hertman's-Hertman lives west of this tract. About four miles to the Kittanning county town." Ile also stated that families might have from forty to fifty acres, planting six fruit trees of different kinds on each acre-to erect such buildings as would best suit themselves, to keep the land improved and under good fence, and to supply rails in the place of those decayed; and that there was a prospect of several very public roads passing through that land by the then next summer or fall, which would be "a market at the door for produce raised." Those who wished to make such improvements were directed to apply to William Crawford or Robert Sloan. The warrant for this tract is dated September 13, 1784, and the survey September 3, 1787. The George Stine tract, a considerable portion of which is in this township, was called "Wheatfield;" the John Smith (337 acre) tract, "Smith's retreat; " the Moses Bartram* tract, "Hopewell," which was conveyed by the executors of the will of Mark Wilcox, deceased, to Thomas McConnell July 17, 1827, for $1,600; the Isaac Franks tract, "Walnut Bottom." Glancing over the assessment-list for Allegheny township for 1805-6, the writer infers that at least the following-named persons were then residing and had perhaps for several years before resided on the territory now included within the present limits of Kittanning township: George Beer, gunsmith, 140 acres of land, valued at $115 in 1805, and $126 in 1806, his trade being valued or assessed at $10. Samuel Beer, 30 acres, 1 gristmill and 1 sawmill, 1 horse and 1 head of cattle-total valuation, $69 in 1805, and $74 in 1806. John Beer, 53 acres, 1 head of cattle, $31.50. Daniel Fitzgeralds, 100 acres, 2 horses, 3 cattle, *Probably a son of John Bartram, for a long time botanist to Queen Caroline of England, before the revolution, and a brother of William Bartram, who was well known in Pennsylvania, and who published a journal of his travels through the Creek country and among the southern Indians. $160 in 1805, and $155 in 1806. John Guld (often written Gold), 245 acres, 1 horse, 1 head of cattle, $198.75. Daniel Guld, 76 acres, 4 cattle, $77 in 1805, and $77.50 in 1806. Michael Hurtman, 2 cattle, $10 in 1805, and *15 in 1806. Peter Hileman, 200 acres, 1 horse, 2 cattle, $170 in 1805, and $180 in 1806. John Hileman, single man, $5 in 1806. Daniel Hileman, single man. John Howser, 400 acres, 1 head of cattle, latter $5 in 1805, both in 1806 $220. Jacob Howser, 135 acres, 3 cattle, $116.25 in 1805, and $121.25 in 1806. Jacob Hankey, joiner, 92 acres, $61 in 1806. John King, tailor, 50 acres-trade $10-land $37.50 in 1806. Jacob Lafferty, single man, 150 acres, $75 in 1805, "married a wife," $85 in 1806. Christopher Oury, 3001 acres, 1 distillery, 3 horses, 3 cattle, $345.50 in 1805, and $350.50 in 1806. Adam Oury, 3 cattle, $15 in 1805. Francis Roop, 157 acres, 1 horse, 4 cattle, $187. Adam Waltenbough, 100 acres, 1 horse, 1 head of cattle, $65. Thomas Williams, 100 acres, 2 horses, 2 cattle in 1805, $70; no horse, 1 head cattle in 1806, $55. Jacob Waltenbough, 1 head cattle in 1805, $5; 163 acres in 1806, $86.50. Peter Waltenbaugh, 80 acres, 2 horses, 1 head of cattle in 1805, $85; only 1 horse in 1806, $75. Daniel Yount, 341 acres in 1805, I head of cattle, $175.50; 152 acres in 1806, 2 cattle, $86. How long before 1805 the mills, assessed to Samuel Beer, were erected is not known, probably two or three years. They were on Big Run, on a part of the John Guld tract. Although then called Beer's Mills, it is possible they at first belonged to Daniel Guld, for John Guld conveyed the portion of his tract on which they were, to Daniel Guld, August 10, 1795, and the latter to Samuel Beer, December 2, 1809, who conveyed the same to John Howser, October 29, 1810, who conveyed it to Benjamin Schrecengost in June, 1820. Since his death they have been owned by George Howser and Joseph Frantz, the present proprietor. Some of the chestnut clapboards sawed at that sawmill are still a part of the covering of the outer front side of the house erected by Michael Mechling, on lot No. 120, in Kittanning, in 1804, they having been placed there a few years after its erection. The warrant to John Guld for the tract on which these mills are situated is dated March 22, 1786, and the patent, August 8, 1787. He was a notable man in his day. The writer is informed by one of his descendants, that he was a scout as early as 1749. He was often employed, on account of his fleetness, intrepidity and power of endurance, as a bearer of dispatches from one military post to another, during and after the revolutionary war. He belonged to a company of rangers, and for 181 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. a while carried the mail from Fort Pitt to or near to the Great Meadows, which point is in what is now Fayette county, between Chestnut Ridge and Laurel Hill. While on one of his scouting tours, a surveyor was shot from his horse by ambushed Indians near Blanket Hill. He finally settled on that tract of land, from which he was occasionally forced by the Indians to flee to the blockhouse on the Allegheny river below the mouth of Fort Run. In part pay of his military services he received a grant of 200 acres of donation land, situated near Mercer, Pennsylvania, which he sold to John Dunbar for ~5. He was frequently in Kittanning during the latter part of his life, and his Indian-like appearance is still distinctly remembered by some of the oldest citizens of that borough. His last will and testament is dated December 9, 1815, and it was proven and registered December 19, then instant. He thereby devised his plantation in this township to his two sons, John and George, directed that the former should properly keep him the rest of his life, and left bequests of minor value to the rest of his children. It would be naturally supposed that he died between the ninth and nineteenth of that month. Yet the records further show, that on the 7th of May, 1818, he conveyed 183 acres of that tract to his son George for $10 and his keeping the rest of his life, and on the 14th of the same month, seventy acres thereof to Thomas McConnell for $280.40-nearly two years and a half after the probate and registration of his will, which is a singularity. These mills appear to have ben the only ones within the present limits of this township for many years. In 1849-50 John Hileman was assessed with a sawmill, and thereafter Daniel Hileman, which is probably the one near the Hileman schoolhouse, on a run flowing southeastwardly into the west branch of Cherry run. Jacob Hankey, Jr., was assessed with a sawmill for several years from and after 1852. George Loyster's grist and saw mills, on Spruce run, in the northeastern part of the township, were erected in 1868-9. Martin V. Remaley's steam flourmill, situate about 170 rods in an air line northwest of the Hileman sawmill, was erected in 1872. For an agricultural people, as the great mass of the inhabitants of this township have been since its first settlement, the number of tradesmen and mechanics usual in every community has been adequate. From 1828 until 1855 the manufacture of whisky was carried on by a variety of persons at and for different periods, as the assessment lists show. The " Hileman" was regarded as being of very good quality and had the reputation of being genuine among good judges of liquor. At least one person who kept a quantity of it on hand, having occasion-to dispense some of it rather freely in a certain emergency, was grievously affected because one or more of its imbibers intimated that it was not good whisky. A notable point in early times was on the Christopher Oury tract, where Richard Graham settled and kept an inn, which was a favorite resort for pleasure parties from Kittanning and elsewhere. On Wednesday evening, April 3, 1828, a large meeting was held in the borough of Kittanning, of which the late Michael Mechling was chairman and the late Chief Justice Thompson, secretary, for the purpose of organizing a grand circular wolf hunt, for which necessary arrangements were made and the following circle was agreed upon: From the mouth of Pine creek along the Allegheny river to the mouth of Crooked creek, thence up to Cherry run, thence across to Beck's mill (near what is now Oscar), thence to Col. Robert Walker's, and thence to the mouth of Pine creek. The closing ground was to be on the farm of Richard Graham and the time fixed for the hunt April 22. The result of which was, not the capture of a wolf, but of a number of foxes. It was on that occasion that a clergyman inadvertently became intoxicated, for which he was suspended from the ministry by his Presbytery, but was subsequently restored to his ministerial functions. The people then were deeply interested in the hunt, and the marshals and the men whom they respectively controlled were promptly in their places, and as the signal for starting, which was the blowing of horns, passed round the circle they simultaneously commenced moving from the outer circle to the inner ones, each of which was indicated by small bunches of straw placed along on the ground. The huntsmen were mounted on horses and made all the din and noise possible with yells, horns, bells and horsefiddles, for the purpose of starting the various kinds of game that may have been within the outer circle, which they finally concentrated within the innermost or smallest circle, where they were to be killed or captured. Some, probably considerable, of the game then started was suffered to escape, says one of the marshals, through gaps in the circles, caused by some of the mounted men stopping or slacking the speed of their horses to talk, regardless or perhaps oblivious of the preacher's saying, " There is a time to keep silence and a time to speak." One of the times for the former is, from the nature of the case, while a circle of huntsmen are closing in upon their game. 182 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. tribe, used his power of intrigue to win them over to'the French. THE INDIAN TOWN OF KITTANNING. The old Indian town of Kittanning was settled by the Delawares, prior to 1730.* It subsequently became an important point. Shingas, king of the Delawares, on whom Washington called, in 1753, at his residence near McKee's Rock, in the vicinity of Pittsburgh, occasionally resided with Capt. Jacobs, at the Kittanning, on the left bank of the Allegheny, or, as it was then called, Ohio, which the Indians pronounced Oh-he-hu or Ho-he-hu, meaning beautifud or handsome, of which name the Senecas are said to be very tenacious. In 1673, when Joliet and Marquette passed from Quebec, through the lakes, and down the Wisconsin to the Mississippi, there was no account of any white man visiting the head of the Ohio, that part of the stream below the mouth of the Wabash being then called Ouabache, or Wabash, and being so named on maps made before 1730. Heckewelder says: "Ohio, corrupted from Ohio-peek-hanne, signifying very deep and white stream, by its being covered all over with white caps." It does not appear just when that part north of Pittsburgh received the name of Allegheny,t which was derived from the Allegheny mountains. It is a general impression, so far as the writer has learned, that the meaning of Allegheny is clear or fair water. Benjamin Smith Barton, M. D., who had a very extensive knowledge of the aboriginal dialects, informed Rev. Timothy Alden, former President of Allegheny College, that Allegheny means "the great war path," which corresponds with what the chiefs at the Logstown conference called "the warriors' road which ran at the foot of the Allegheny ridge." ( Vide infra, the sketch of the present Allegheny township.) In consequence of the failures of the expeditions against Forts Niagara and Du Quesne, and especially Braddock's terrible defeat in 1755, hundreds of miles of the frontier of Pennsylvania and Virginia were exposed to the ravages of the Indians. In the autumn of 1755, the inhabitants along the frontier of Pennsylvania were in constant peril from the attacks of scalping parties of Indians, who were *Jonah Davenport, an Indian trader, in his examination or affidavit, taken before Lieut. Gov. Gordon, at Philadelphia, October 20, 1731, says: "Last spring was four years, as he remembers, a French Gentleman in appearance, with five or six Attendants, came down the River to a settlement of the Delaware Indians, called Kithanning, with an Intention, as this Eaniit believes, to inquire into the number of English Traders in those parts, and to sound the minds of the Indians," etc. James Le Tort's examination, taken at the same time, gives the name of that French gentleman as M. Cavalier. A list of Delaware and other Indians on the Connumnaclh and Kithenning rivers and elsewhere is attached to those examinations, in which is this item: " Kithenning River--Mostly Delawares. Fam. 50; men, 150. Dist. 50." The last probably means the distance from Fort Du Quesne. t It was called both Ohio and Allegheny as early as 1748. instigated to and assisted in their bloody attacks by the French. At a council held at Carlisle, Pennsylvania, about the middle of January, 1756, at which Gov. Morris, James Hamilton, William Logan, Richard Peters and Joseph Fox, commissioners, George Croghan and Conrad Weiser, interpreters, and Belt, Seneca George and other Indians were present, Mr. Croghan informed the governor and council "that he had sent a Delaware Indian, called Jo Hickman, to the Ohio for intelligence, who had returned to his house the day before he came away; that he went to Kittanning, an Indian Delaware town on the Ohio" (now Allegheny), "forty miles above Fort Du Quesne, the residence of Shingas and Capt. Jacobs, where hie found 140 men, chiefly Delawares and Shawanees, who had there with them above one hundred English prisoners, big and little, taken from Virginia and Pennsylvania. From the Kittanning Jo Hickman went to Logstown, where he found about one hundred Indians and thirty English prisoners; that hle returned to Kittanning, and there learned that ten Delawares had gone to the Susquehanna to persuade, as he supposed, those Indians to strike the English who might have been concerned in the mischief" then "lately done in Northampton." Mr. Croghan said he was well assured by accounts given by other Indians that the Delawares and Shawanees acted in this hostile measure by the advice and concurrence of the Six Nations, and that such of them as lived in the Delaware towns went along with them and took part in their incursions." King Shingas, who, Heckewelder says, was "a bloody warrior, cruel his treatment, relentless his fury, small in person, but in activity, courage and savage prowess unexcelled," heading a party of warriors fell upon the settlements west of the Susquehanna and committed the most cruel murders. To guard against such and other depredations a cordon of forts and blockhouses was erected along the Kittatinny hills, from the Delaware river to the Maryland line, east of the Susquehanna river. West of that river were Fort Louther, at Carlisle, Forts Morris and Franklin at Shippensburg, Fort Granville, near Lewistown, Fort Shirley, at Shirleysburg, on the Sugwick branch, Fort Littleton, near Bedford, and Fort London, in what is now Franklin county. Still Indian depredations continued to be committed through the spring and summer of 1756. In July of that year Fort Granville was stormed, and a number of prisoners taken and transferred to Kittanning. Mr. Morris informed the governor and council, August 2, 1756, that he had concerted an expedition against Kittanning, to be conducted by Col. KITTANNING TOWNSHIP. That was also a point for holding military reviews, one of which was on Tuesday, May 21, 1839, of the first battalion of the 126th regiment of the Pennsylvania militia, by the order of Philip Templeton, then the Colonel of that regiment. " BENTON." On the 10th of February, 1836, Abraham Fiscus advertised that he had laid out the plat of a new town, bearing that name, on the Armstrong and Indiana turnpike road, about five miles southeast of the borough of Kittanning. He stated that it was "beautifully situated in the midst of a thriving neighborhood and will afford an eligible situation for the prosecution of various branches of business;" and that on Thursday, March 15, then next, the lots would be offered at public sale, on the premises-a part of the Oury tract. The deed books in the Recorder's office do not show that a single one of these lots was conveyed to a purchaser. CHURCHES. The first organization of a church within the present limits of this township was Christ's, known in these later times as the one at Rupp's, four miles east of the borough of Kittanning, and one-fourth of a mile north of the Indiana Pike. Its early records were destroyed several years ago by the fire which consumed Mr. Rupp's house, in which they were kept, so that the writer is obliged to depend upon reliable tradition for the facts of its early history. Jacob HIileman, now in his eightysixth year, who came with his father to the Peter Ifileman tract in 1796, and has lived there ever since, remembers of this church having been organized about sixty-five years ago, or about 1811, by Rev. Lambrecht, a Lutheran clergyman. A log meeting-house was soon afterward, probably the next year, erected on ground adjoining the site of the present one, on the five-acre tract given as a donation by Christopher Oury for church purposes. The Lutheran and German Reformed congregations had for awhile a joint interest in the church property, but which has for many years been exclusively Lutheran. Rev. WVm. Weinel was the German Reformed clergyman, who officiated here for most, if not all the time, while the joint occupation by the two denominations existed. One of the early successors, if not the first one, of Rev. Lambrecht, was Rev. J. Sylenfelc, who, tradition says, having obtained the requisite authority and credentials from the proper church authorities, went forth on a mission to collect funds for erecting a new and better meeting-house. He never returned, though, as it was ascertained, he had collected several thousand dollars for that purpose. The supposition is that he returned to Germany with those funds. His successor was Rev. Adam Mohler, who became the object of another kind of scandal, whether justly so or not, the writer is not prepared to say. He was followed as early as, if not earlier than October 14, 1825, by Rev. Gabriel A. Reichert, Lutheran, who thereafter made this one of his points in his extensive ministrations, which, in his diary, he denoted as "Williams'." It may be that he sometimes preached at the house of George Williams, Sr., which appears to have been a stopping-place-a ministers' hotel-in those times, for itinerating clergymen, where, as at other points, they were hospitably entertained. This became one of his regular points for preaching on secular as well as Sabbath days. He preached at "Urich's"Oury's -May 27, 1826, from the sixth and seventh verses of the second chapter of Colossians. Whether the services, on that day, were in the log church or at Oury's house does not appear from his diary. He held a communion service at "Williams'," May 8, 1829, at which fifty-one communed, many of whose residences were at considerable distances from that point. In his entry, April 18, 1830, Conrad Schrecengost and George Wild (Wilt) are mentioned as elders, and George Farster and John Cravenor as deacons. Rev. -- Burnheim succeeded Mr. Reichert. Preaching in English commenced here in 1850. This church was incorporated by the proper court, December 16, 1853, by the name of the Evangelical Lutheran Christ's church, of Kittanning township. The charter officers were Rev. George F. Ehrenfeldt, pastor, who was the first who preached in English; Benjamin Schrecengost and George Williams, Sr., elders; Isaac Fitzgerald and John Cravenor, deacons, and George Williams, trustee. The charter members were Michael Kunkle, John Bouch, Elias Bouch, George Shuster, Isaac Schrecengost, David Rupp, Lewis Koon and Israel Rowley. The pastors since then have been Revs. J. A. Ernest, S. S. Miller and A. S. Miller. The present number of church members is 65, and of Sabbath-school scholars, 50. A frame structure 30X22 feet was erected in 1850 on the present site, which was burned before its completion. The present frame superstructure was erected soon afterward on the same foundation. The Emanuel (Evangelical Lutheran) church was organized by Rev. - Burnheim in or about 1840; the present edifice, frame, 32Y40 feet, was 188 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. erected in 1843. It is situated on the Peter Hileman tract, now owned by Jacob Hileman, a son of Peter Hileman, the warrantee and patentee thereof. Its pastors have been Revs.- Burnheim, Geo. F. Ehrenfedt, J. A. Ernest, S. S. and A. S. Miller. Members, 124; Sabbath-school scholars, 50. Both of these churches are attached to the General Synod. The St. John's (Evangelical Lutheran) church, commonly designated as the one at Shotts', was organized in or about 1850 by Rev. Henry Easensy, who was subsequently silenced. A frame edifice 32X29 feet was erected in 1855-6 through the exertions, in a great measure, of Rev. Michael Swigert, who has frequently supplied its pulpit in his itinerating ministerial labors. It is situated on the north side of a public road, two miles and two hundred and thirty rods, in an air line, south of Emanuel church, and two hundred and fifty rods east of "Horny Camp run." Members, 100; Sabbath-school scholars, 60. This church is attached to the general council. The Methodist Episcopal church was organized prior to 1860. It belongs to the Knox circuit. A frame edifice 37 X 30 feet was erected in the lastmentioned year; was blown down in June and the present superstructure reared on its foundation. POPULATION. The census has been taken only twice since the last curtailment of the territory of this township, which was in the formation of Burrell in 1855. In 1850, before that curtailment, the number of inhabitants was 1,175. In 1860 the number of whites was 1,236; colored, 1. In 1870 the native population was 1,431; foreign, 73; colored, none. The number of taxables in 1876 is 396, making the total population about 1,820. The assessment list for 1876 shows that there are in this township, besides the great body of agriculturists, laborers, 31; tenants, 18; hucksters, 6; blacksmiths, 4; shoemakers, 4; carpenters, 3; stonemasons, 3; painter, 1; and stores appraised, 5 in the fourteenth class. SCHOOLs. The facts relative to schools which existed before the adoption of the common school system, which the writer has been able to collect, are meager. There was, as he is informed, one of those early schools in a log schoolhouse situated about fifty rods south of Garrett's run and about a mile and fifty or sixty rods east of the Manor township line, and another about a mile and a half southwest of the former and two hundred rods east of the above-mentioned line, in the Hileman settlement, or about a hundred rods south of Emanuel church. The names of early teachers met with are those of George Farster and George Leighley. After the adoption of the common school system the requisite number of log houses were erected, at the usual distances from one another, over the township, which have finally been replaced by frame ones. In 1860 the number of schools was 8; average number months taught, 4; male teachers, 6; female teachers, 2; average monthly salaries of male teachers, $16.67; average monthly salaries of female teachers, $16.00; number male scholars, 155; number female scholars, 158; average number attending school, 251; cost of teaching each per month, 45 cents; "amount levied for school purposes, $715.53; received from state appropriation, $89.89; from collector, $715.53; cost of instruction, $528; fuel and contingencies, $43.76; repairs, etc., $10. In 1876 the number of schools was 9; average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 5; female teachers, 4; average monthly salaries of male teachers, $27.20; average monthly salaries of female teachers, $25.50; male scholars, 264; female scholars, 199; average number attending school, 288; cost per month, 61 cents; amount tax levied for school and building purposes, $1,138.55; received from state appropriation, $332.94; from taxes and other sources, $1,357.25; cost of schoolhouses, $78.23; paid for teachers' wages, $1,272.50; for fuel, collector's fees, etc., $197.58. TEMPERANCE. The vote, February 28, 1873, on the question of granting licenses to sell liquors, was 16 for, and 36 against. POSTAL. Blanket Hill postofice is the only one now in this township. It was established, May 1, 1850, and John M. Daily was appointed postmaster, who kept it at "Graham's," on the Christopher Oury tract, whence it was afterward removed to its present locality. HUMBOLDT GARDENS. In 1861-2, Charles B. Schotte began to extensively enlarge and improve the culture of fruit and garden products on his farm, which he purchased in 1855 and which consists of parts of the John Pomeroy and Fred'k Rohrer tracts. He estimates that he has since then planted from eight to ten thousand 184 KITTANNING TOWNSHIP. fruit-trees of various kinds, among which are many imported from the largest nurseries and gardens in Europe. Among his importations are different kinds of apple-trees from Russia, which he received through the kind offices of Andrew G. Curtin,while he was the minister of the United States to that country; various kinds of fruits, including the small fruits, from the Botanical Gardens, at Berlin, in Prussia; and numerous other specimens of novel productions from abroad, obtained through the Agricultural Department at Washington, for experimental purposes. The various fruits of California and Oregon are also well represented in the Humboldt Gardens. The enterprise, thus inaugurated, it is claimed, has stimulated the farmers of this section of the county to improve their orchards and the culture of their lands. It has undoubtedly been an efficient factor in so doing, and it may have considerably influenced them to make the many and extensive purchases of fruit-trees from the nurserymen of other states, which they have made within the last ten years. GEOLOGY. The geological features of this township may be inferred, in part at least, from those presented along Crooked and Cowanshannock creeks and in Manor township. The anticlinal of the fifth, which is the axis of the fourth, basin crosses this township diagonally from northeast to southwest, striking the northern boundary line nearly two miles west of its eastern terminus, and its western boundary a mile and a half north of its southern terminus. The major part of the township is, then, on the northern slope of the fourth basin, and the rest of it on the southeastern slope of the fifth basin. There is a spring on that part of the John Schenck tract now owned by Peter Heilman, which, the writer thinks, a correct analysis would show to be strongly chalybeate. 185 CHAPTER VII. SRED BANK. Originally Organized in 1806 - Name Derived from Red Bank Creek - Indian Appellations for that and Other Streams - The Creek Declared by Law a Public Highway- Rafting Lumber from Jefferson County to the Allegheny - Flatboats - Red Bank Navigation Company -Site of the Indian "Old Town "- Yost Smith and Peter Stone - Land Tracts in the Township - Indians Locate on the Creek as Late as 1816 - Emanuel Church - Railroad Project Agitated in 1852 - Indian Arrow " Factory "- Method of Making Flintheads - Numerous Transfers of Property - Freedom Village - Oil Wells - Phenix Furnace - New Salem - Albright Methodist Church - Independence - Milton- Methodist Episcopal Church - Assessment List of the Town ship for 1876- Census and Educational Statistics- Rocks- Coal- An Interesting Cave. THE present township of Red Bank, in this county, contains only about one-sixth or oneseventh of the territory included within the limits of old Red Bank township, organized September 18, 1806. A glance at a county and township map shows that all of Red Bank and Mahoning and a part of Madison townships in this county, and all of Red Bank, Porter, Monroe, Limestone, Clarion and Mill Creek townships in Clarion county were included in the original township of Red Bank. The name of this township is of course derived from Red Bank Creek. The Indian name of this stream was Lycamahoning, derived from Lycoming and Mahoning-the former corrupted from Legauihanne, a sandy stream; the latter corrupted from Mathonink, signifying where there is a lick. Mahoni in the Delaware language means for a lick. Mahonitty means a diminutive lick and _fMahonhanne a stream flowing from or near a lick. Lyccamathoning, then, must mean a sandy stream flowing from a lick, that is, Sandy Lick, which was the name of this stream as late as 1792 from its source to its mouth, according to Reading Howell's map of that year. It bore that name even later. By the act of assembly, of March 21, 1798, " Sandy Lick or Red Bank creek" was declared to be a public stream or highway "from the mouth up to the second or great fork." The writer has not been able to ascertain just when, why, or at whose suggestion its original name was changed to Red Bank, by which it has been known by the oldest inhabitants now living in the region through which it flows. Perhaps the change may have been suggested by the red color of the soil of its banks many miles up from its mouth. This stream, it seems, was first used by Joseph Barnett for the transportation of lumber in 1806, as related to Lewis W. Corbett thifty years ago by William Clark, who had been at that early period in Barnett's employ. Barnett, the first white settler in Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, settled at Port Barnett in that county prior to 1799. He and his brother-in-law, John Scott, erected a sawmill there in the spring or early part of summer in 1806. Several Indians were there the day the mill was raised, whom Barnett invited to dine with him. They accepted his invitation. After dinner one of them remarked, " Dinner-Indian sleep an hourthen strong." They then went off into the woods, their host supposing that he would not see them again that day. They, however, returned in the course of an hour and vigorously aided in raising the mill and partook of supper. The first lot of lumber which Barnett and Scott sent down the Red Bank was a small platform of timber, which Clark aided in running to the Allegheny river with poles instead of oars as the propelling power. This was a rough stream on which rafting was then very difficult. Iron used to be transported in those early times on pack-horses, in wagons, and on sleds from Center county to Port Barnett, some of which was sent down this creek on rafts which were occasionally wrecked on a bar between Timber Island and the river. As the iron was thus scattered about on that bar it received and it has retained the name of "Iron bar." There was a high flood in this stream in 1806 which reached eight to ten feet up the trees on the flat where Fair Mount now is, as related by Lewis Daubeurpeck, who saw the grass, sticks and other drift which the Indians told him were lodged in the forks of these trees when that flood subsided. There were twenty-one feet of water on the riffle at New Bethlehem October 8, 1847, which swept away bridges, Hass', Knapp's, and Robinson's mills and mill-dams. Another one, September 28-9, 1861, twenty-two feet high, did less dainmage than the preceding one. RED BANK TOWNSHIP. "Fishbasket Hill," a mile and a half above New Bethlehem, and about twenty-five rods below the mouth of Town creek, where Lewis Doverspike settled in 1870, and a point a short distance below Troy, are two of the localities on this stream from which the Indians formerly obtained lead ore, pieces of which David Doverspike gave to L. W. Corbett, then at New Bethlehem, who melted it. There were probably places where they concealed the ore which had been transported thither from Sinking Valley, in this state, or from the west. One thousand dollars was appropriated by the act of assembly "making appropriations for certain internal improvements," approved March 24, 1817, for the purpose of improving this creek, and Levi Gibson and Samuel C. Orr were appointed commissioners to superintend the application of the money. By the act of April 4, 1826, " Sandy Lick, or Red Bank creek," was declared a public highway only for the passage of boats, rafts, etc., descending it. That act also made it lawful for all persons owning lands adjoining this stream to erect milldams across it, and other water-works along it, to keep them in good repair, and draw off enough water to operate them on their own land, but required them "to make a slope from the top, descending fifteen feet for every foot the dam is high, and not less than forty feet in breadth," so as to afford a good navigation and not to infringe the rights and privileges of any owner of private property. The first flatboat that descended this stream was piloted by Samuel Knapp, in full Indian costume, in 1832 or 1833-two boats loaded with sawed lumber, owned by Uriah Matson, which found a good market in Cincinnati, with the proceeds of which Matson purchased the goods with which he opened his store at Brookville. By the act of assembly April 17, 1854, the Red Bank Navigation Company was incorporated, and authorized, among other things, to clean and clear the Red Bank, Sandy Lick and North Fork creeks of all rocks, bars and other obstructions; to bracket and regulate all the dams erected therein; to erect other dams and locks; to regulate the chutes of dams; to control the waters by brackets and otherwise for the purpose of navigation; to levy tolls on boards and other sawed stuff, square and other timber, and boats that might pass down these creeks, to be collected at the mouth of Red Bank, and to be liens on the property upon which they might be levied, in whosesoever hands it might be. Some of the members of this company who were engaged in the lumber trade commenced clearing these streams of obstructions before their charter was granted, and expended before and since it was granted and the company organized about $8,000. In or about 1850 considerable blasting of rocks and of other work in clearing the Red Bank was done, under their direction, by Lewis W. Corbett, between New Bethlehem and the mouth, but principally.t and for a distance of two and a half miles below Broken Rock. A supplement to the foregoing act, passed March 28, 1860, provides that if persons shall, without the authority of the company, place any dam or other obstructions in the Red Bank, Sandy Lick or North Fork creek, the same shall be removed by the company at the cost of the persons placing them there; that the company may make such by-laws as may be necessary-such as do not conflict with the constitution and laws of the United States and this state-for the government of the company and the safe navigation of this stream, and to enforce them by fines, each not exceeding $100. Another supplement, passed March -18, 1867, gives this company the power to increase their capital stock to $20,000; to inflict a penalty of $5 on any person who shall refuse to return to the proper officer of the company the name of the owner of any raft, boat, logs, or other craft which he may be navigating or assisting to navigate on these creeks, or return them in any false name or false amount; if any person shall injure or destroy any dam, bridge, bracket, or other property of the company, he shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, on conviction in the proper court, shall be fined not exceeding $100, or be imprisoned in the county jail not exceeding sixty days, or both or either; the company is authorized to charge tolls additional to those prescribed in the charter, but not exceeding double those, upon any raft, boat, logs, or other craft "that may be run on any bracket flood raised by order of said company;" to require persons navigating these streams on freshet brackets to take out permits, and the penalty for neglecting or refusing to do so is $10 for each craft thus navigated, provided, that the company, before raising such bracket, shall give six days' notice thereof by a sufficient number of handbills at the most public places in Summerville, Brookville, Port Barnett, Reynoldsville and Richardsville. This supplement also provides that the company shall not be liable for damages that may occur in the navigation of these creeks, and that it shall, annually, on or before the first Monday of January, publish in a newspaper in Jefferson county a statement of its receipts and expenditures for the preceding year, showing how and on what account moneys were received and 187 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. expended, sworn to by the treasurer, "and filed among the records of the court of common pleas of each of said counties." In the northwestern part of this township is the territory covered by the Pickering & Co. warrant No. 439. In the sharp northern bend of the Red Bank, opposite the mouth of Town creek, was the site of the " Old Town," an Indian village, vestiges of which, such as stone and earthen mounds, kettles and other implements used by the Indians, were found by the early white settlers. Jacob Wells cut down a hickory tree, about eighty rods south of the Red Bank, on this tract, in 1875, in the trunk of which he found an ounce lead ball, between which and the bark were one hundred and five concentric rings or annual growths. Hence, it may be inferred that the "Old Town " was located here prior to 1770. The date of that warrant is May 17, 1785, and that of the survey by George Woods, May 31, 1786. The patent to Pickering & Co., "including the Old Town," is dated March 25, and their conveyance to Yost Smith, August 17, 1820. HIe had probably settled on it in 1807, for he was assessed on the Red Bank list in 1808, with the land, and the next year with it and two horses, at $211. The first bridge across Red Bank, at the northeastern part of this tract, was built in 1839, and its superstructure has since been twice rebuilt. Cotemporaneous with Yost Smith was Peter Stone, who settled about the same time, higher up on the same side of the Red Bank, on the John Anderson tract, called "Anderson's Choice," warrant No. 3837. The patent to Anderson is dated April 25, 1793. He conveyed parcels of this tract: one hundred acres to Timothy Jaynes, April 6, 1811, for $300, who conveyed the same to Catherine Evans, June 27, for $150; two hundred and twenty acres to Peter Stone, May 1, 1815, for $240, who conveyed fifty acres thereof to John Evans' heirs, February 18, 1841, for $200, and probably another parcel to J. Mercer, as the old map shows his name on a subdivision above the parcel retained by Stone. A ferry across the Red Bank, about half a mile above Millville, was kept by Stone for several years, and as late as 1825-7. He and his wife used to relate that in early times six or eight Indians were accustomed to stop at their house and trade; one time they went about a mile from there up the southeastein side of the Red Bank, whence they returned with a considerable quantity of lead ore of good quality, which they carried to one or both of the Indian encampments at Smith's and at Leatherwood. Two Indians, John and Bill, staid over night at Stone's, in the latter part of October or fore part of November. Bill opened the door just before bedtime, snuffed the air, and remarked that there would be a fall of snow by the next morning. There was a considerable one during that night. Mrs. Stone related that a party of seven or eight Indians, in passing up and down the creek, annoyed her by their often-repeated begging. They were not otherwise troublesome. On one occasion she noticed that quite an old Indian, who had previously accompanied them, was not then with them. She inquired where he was. One of them answered: " He fell asleep, and cannot walk any more." Her inference was, that, as he had become burdensome to them, they had killed him. A considerable number of Indians must have returned and settled along the Red Bank as late as 1815-16. James White, of "Mexico," informed the writer that three hundred of them, about that time, settled along this stream below Brookville, partly in Armstrong county. Respecting their return to this section, Dr. M. A. Ward wrote to Eben Smith Kelly at Kittanning, from Pittsburgh, January 18, 1817: "I am not at all surprised that the sober, industrious, religious inhabitants of Red Bank should be highly incensed at their late acecession of emigrants, not only because by them they will probably be deprived of many fat bucks and delicious turkeys, to which, according to the strict interpretation of all our game laws, they have as good a right, if they have the fortune to find and the address to shoot them, as any'dirty, nasty' Indians whatever, but because the presence and examples of such neighbors must have a very depraving influence upon the morals. Their insinuating influence will be apt to divert the minds of the farmers from the sober pursuits of agriculture and inspire a propensity for the barbarous pleasures of the chase. * * * But what is worse than all, I have heard that they3, love whisky to such an inordinate degree as to get sometimes beastly drunk, and even beat their wives and behave unseemly before their families, which certainly must have a most demoralizing tendency on the minds of the rising generation." Stone's house was a favorite resort for lumbermen in the rafting seasons on this creek. It is said they keenly appreciated dame Stone's excellent cookery as well as her husband's whisky. Above and adjoining Pickering & Co., No. 439, was "Henry Nulf's Improvement," two hundred acres, with which he was assessed in 1806 at $100. He did not reside here, but on one of the Joseph Thomas-Daniel Brodhead-tracts, on Town creek, in what is now Red Bank township, Clarion county, and was noted as a mighty hunter. On November 19,1818, hlie and Henry C. Barrett consummated their previous agreement to trade or 188 RED BANK TOWNSHIP. exchange properties. Nulf conveyed to Barnett one hundred and fifteen acres and eleven perches of one of the Thomas Brodhead tracts for $450, and Barrett conveyed to Nulf lots Nos. 3, 4, and half-lots Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8, 37, 38, 46, 47, 48 in the town of Millville, situate on the Pickering & Co. tract 441, which they conveyed to Adam Mohney April 9, 1811, and he to Isaac Mohney October 28, 1816, and all his water-right of Red Bank creek, so far as he had the right to obstruct its navigation by law, for the use of the mill in that town, for $450, the two full lots being valued at $100, the one half of the nine at $200, and the water-right at $150. Returning from this digression into Clarion county, Nulf obtained patents for the land con tained in his " Improvement" on the southeastern side of Red Bank creek November 29, 1826, founded on a warrant to him March 14, 1823. He conveyed parts of those two tracts: two hundred and fifty acres to Jacob Shick August 10, 1827, for $687.50; one hundred and ninety-two acres and sixty-two perches to Henry Nulf, Jr., September 30, 1830, for $154; and an equal quantity to Jacob *Miller December 22, 1832, for $200. The first and only schoolhouse within the present limits of this township, prior to the passage of the school law, was erected in 1828 on the parcel of the " Improvement" conveyed to Jacob Shick, and now owned by John Harmon. It was a primitive log structure about 15 by 15 feet. Above and adjoining "Nulf's Improvement" lay the James Coulter tract, warrant No. 3836, two hundred and twenty acres, the patent for which was granted to Coulter January 17, 1817, which he conveyed to William Freas May 7, 1820, for $840, one hundred and thirteen acres and one hundred and twenty-one perches of which the latter con veyed to Henry Freas September 3, 1823, for $420. They entered into a written agreement the same day, the purport of which is, that the tract they then lived on was bought in partnership from Coul ter. It being understood that there was a mill-seat on it, they agreed to be equal owners of it, and of the water-right on Red Bank creek; the advantages arising therefrom to be equally enjoyed by both of them; no mill-race to be cut so as to injure adjoin ing land; the one acre of ground on which the mill was to be located was to be of the part of that tract taken by William Freas, and each was bound in the penal sum of $1,000 for the proper performance of his part of the contract. Henry Freas erected an oilmill on his part of this tract between 1825 and 1830, which he operated until 1834. William Freas was last assessed with his one hundred and ten acres in 1824, and the widow Sarah Freas with the same quantity in 1825. Coulter conveyed - acres and - perches. to Sarah Smith October 4, 1827, for $-, which became vested in John Smith, who conveyed one hundred and twenty-nine acres and seven perches to Philip Houpt May 13, 1837, for $1,290.63. It is on this part of this Coulter tract that the Emanuel church edifice, brick, 28 X 38 feet, is situated. It was erected in 1851 under the directions of a building committee, which consisted of George Coleman, Philip Houpt, Jacob Shelley and Jacob Shick, and under a contract between that committee and Tobias Lanker. The church had been previously organized as an Evangelical Lutheran one by Rev. J. G. Young, who was for several years afterward its pastor. Its present membership is 63. In January or February, 1852, that edifice was crowded by an assemblage of people of this region to consider the practicability of affording aid for the construction of a branch railroad from the Allegheny river along the Red Bank to Brookville. A very active member of that meeting was the late Thomas McCullough, who in a speech of an hour and a half adduced numerous facts, statistics and arguments by which to persuade the people that they would be greatly benefited by whatever contributions they might make for that purpose, and succeeded in favorably impressing his hearers with his views. They were ready to subscribe liberal amounts. But there were some opponents of that measure in that meeting, and I. W. Powell was requested to present the other side of the uplestion. He did so, and he, too, succeeded in persuading his hearers not to contribute to that project, which lay dormant for more than a decade. The benefits resulting from the subsequent construction of the low grade or Bennett's branch of the Allegheny Valley railroad are yearly beco'ming more and more evident. Adjoining the Coulter tract and "Anderson's choice," on the southeast, were the Joshua and Robert Anderson tracts, contiguous to each other, covered by warrants Nos. 3834, 3835, the patents for both of which were granted to Joshua Anderson, the latter February 24, 1801, which having become vested in James Anderson, his administrator de bonis non, John Galbraith conveyed two hundred and twenty acres to Jacob Mohny (of John) September 22, 1834, for $440, whose administrators conveyed the same quantity to John Mohney March 16, 1854, and he, the same day, to Adam Mohney, to whose estate it belongs, for $525. There is on this Adam Mohny land a vein of 189 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. what is commonly called flint, but is what geologists term quartzite, i.e., granular quartz. Quartz is pure silex, an essential constituent of granite, often occurring in pellucid glassy crystals and in masses of various colors more or less transparent to opaque. In the specimen from this vein which is before the writer at this writing there is a conglomeration of variously-colored material which is very hard. The color of some of it is almost white; of other portions blue, light and dark green, verging to slate, being the same color of the material of many Indian arrow-heads. In some of the cavities are small sparkling crystals. Boys in the vicinity of this vein, as the writer is informed, have struck fire from pieces of it with their knife-blades. The vein appears to be about eighteen inches thick and several rods long, and just above it is a spring of very good water. The present appearance of this vein indicates that large quantities of it have been excavated. From the quantity of the fragments of its material about two hundred rods distant from it, it is inferred that the Indians used it in manufacturing large numbers of their spear and arrow-heads. About thirty-one years ago Enoch Buffington, who settled on the Big Mudlick about a mile northeasterly from New Salem, in 1836, found an iron tomahawk in his orchard, which appeared to be a place where the Indians made their spear and arrow heads. Another place of the same kind, where rings and tomahawks have been made, is about three hundred rods south, on Philip Doverspike's place. Granted that spear and arrow heads were made here, the reader may be curious to know how the Indians made them, especially before iron and steel implements were introduced among them. From Jones' Antiquities of the Southern Indians, the writer has gleaned most of the following facts. They had a limited variety of copper implements, which were of rare occurrence, and which were too soft to be of use in working so hard a material as flint or quartzite. Hence is is believed that they fashioned their spear and arrow heads with other implements than those of iron or steel. They must have acquired, by their observation and numerous experiments, a thorough and practical knowledge of cleavage, that is, "the tendency to split in certain directions, which is characteristic of most of the crystallizable minerals." Capt. John Smith, speaking of the Virginia Indians in his sixth voyage, says: "His arrow-head he quickly maketh with a little bone, which he ever weareth at his bracelet, of a splint of a stone or glasse, in the form of a heart, and these they glew to the ends of the arrows. With the sinews of the deer and the tops of deers' horns boiled to a jelly, they make a glue which will not dissolve in cold water." Schoolcraft says: "The skill displayed in this art, as it is exhibited by the tribes of the entire continent, has excited admiration. The material employed is generally some form of horn-stone, sometimes passing into flint. No specimens have, however, been observed where the substance is gunflint. The horn-stone is less hard than common quartz and can be readily broken by contact with the latter." Catlin, in his "Last Ramble Among the Indians," says: "Every tribe has its factory in which these arrow-heads are made, and in these only certain adepts are able or allowed to make them for the use of the tribe. Erratic bowlders of flint are collected and sometimes brought an immense distance, and broken with a sort of sledgehammer, made of a rounded pebble of horn-stone, set in a twisted withe holding the stone and forming a handle. The flint at the indiscriminate blows of the sledge, is broken into a hundred pieces, and such flakes selected as from the angles of their fracture and thickness will answer as the basis of an arrow-head. The master workman, seated on the ground, lays one of these flakes on the palm of his hand, holding it firmly down with two or more fingers of the same hand, and with his right hand, between the thumb and two forefingers, places his chisel or punch on the point that is to be broken off, and a co-operator-a strikerin front of him, with a mallet of very hard wood, strikes the chisel or punch on the upper end, flaking the flint off on the under side below each projecting point that is struck. The flint is then turned and chipped in the same manner from the opposite side, and that is chipped until the required shape and dimensions are obtained, all the fractures being made on the palm of the hand. In selecting the flake for the arrow-head, a nice judgment must be used, or the attempt will fail; a flake with two opposite parallel, or nearly parallel, planes of cleavage is found, and of the thickness required for the center of the arrow point. The first chipping reaches nearly to the center of these planes, but without quite breaking it away, and each clipping is shorter and shorter, until the shape and edge of the arrow-head is formed. The yielding elasticity of the palm of the hand enables the chip to come off without breaking the body of the flint, which would be the case if they were broken on a hard substance. These people have no metallic instruments to work with, and the punch which they use, I was told, was a piece of bone, but on examining it, I found it to be of a substance much 190 RED) BANK TOWNSHIP. harder, made of the tooth-incisor-of the sperm whale, which cetaceans are often stranded on the coast of the Pacific." In 1854, Lieutenant Beckwith saw a Pah-Utah Indian, seated on the ground, make from a fragnient of quartz, with a piece of round bone, one end of which was semi-spherical, with a small crease in it, as if it were a thread, the sixteenth of an inch deep, an arrow-head which was very sharp and piercing, and in all respects similar to those in general use among the Indians of that region. He says: "The skill and rapidity with which it was made, without a blow, but by simply breaking the sharp edges with the creased bone, by the strength of his hands - for the crease merely served to prevent the instrument from slipping, affording no leverage-were remarkable." In 1860, Caleb Lyon communicated to the American Ethnological Society the mode of the manufacture of arrow-heads of flint, glass, obsidian and other materials by the Shasta Indians of California: "The Shasta Indian seated himself on the floor, and placing the stone anvil, which was of compact talcose slate, upon his thigh, with one blow of his agate chisel he separated the obsidian pebble into two parts; then giving another blow to the fractured side, he split off a slab a fourth of an inch in thickness. HIolding the piece against the anvil with the thumb and forefinger of his left hand, he commenced a series of continuous blows, every one of which chipped off fragments of the brittle substance. It gradually acquired shape. After finishing the base of the arrow-head, the whole being only a little over an inch in length, he began striking gentler blows, every one of which, I expected, would break it into pieces. Yet such was his adroit application, his skill and dexterity, that in little over an hour he produced a perfect obsidian arrow-head. I then requested him to carve me one from the remains of a broken bottle, which, after two failures, he succeeded in doing. He gave me, as a reason for his ill success, he did not understand the grain of the glass. No sculptor ever handled a chisel with greater precision, or more carefully measured the weight and effect of every blow, than this ingenious Indian; for even among them arrow making is a distinct trade or profession, which many attempt, but in which few attain excellence." Jones says: "It is fair to presume that the method adopted by the modern Indians in the manufacture of their common flint arrow and spear heads was but the perpetuation of a mode which existed among the red men prior to historic times." Taking into account that vein of quartzite, the quantity excavated from it and the quantity of the chippings of that material in its vicinity, it seems quite probable that the Indians in the olden time had one of their open-air workshops "for the manufacture of flint implements" where the peculiar knowledge of cleavage, skill and experience necessary to make them were brought into practical use right here on this Anderson-Mohney tract. Adjoining the Robert Anderson tract on the northwest was a small, triangular vacant parcel on was formerly a tannery which was first assessed to Daniel Hough, in 1842, to Abraham Shirey in 1847, and to George Gruber in 1859. Adjoining that tract on the southwest was the tract covered by the warrant to Joshua Anderson, to whom the patent was granted February 24, 1801. A portion of it subsequently became disputed territory. There was a conflict between the Anderson and Holland company titles and between the original surveys and that made by Robert Richards, making the quantity of land in dispute 218 acres and 57 perches and allowance of six per cent for roads. Joshua Anderson, a descendant of the patentee of this tract, brought his action of ejectment to No. 91 March term, 1849, in the court of common pleas of this county, against the then occupants, Widow Harmon, John and Jacob Harmon, Matthew Houpt and James Shannon for 330 acres. This case was tried December 20, 1850, and resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff for one-fifth of the land in dispute, on which judgment was entered. Anderson conveyed fifty-four acres and 148 perches to Philip Houpt, August 25, 1854, for $219. In the deep western bend of the Mahoning creek in the southwestern part of this township was the major part of the Samuel Wallis' tract, No. 4128, eleven hundred acres included in the Orr purchase,* the southern part being in Wayne and the northwestern part in Mahoning township. Orr conveyed 296 acres 125 perches of this tract to William Neal, July 10, 1840, for $222.56; 161 acres 25 perches to John Smith, May 25, 1841, for $162; 125 acres 46 perches to George Smith, Jr., same day, for $126; 172 acres 20 perches (in Wayne) to John Hettrick for $430; 20 acres 140 perches (in Mahoning) to George Smith, Sr., September 18, 1846, for $20; 97 acres and 66 perches to Daniel Smith, October 10, 1872, for $625. The sawmill, first assessed to McCrea & Galbraith, in 1849, was situated on the part of this tract purchased by them. * See sketch of Wayne township. 191 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. In the southeastern part of this township was a part of the Mason & Cross tract, 548 acres and 15 perches, No. 694. It was assessed as unseated to these warrantees in 1805, then in Toby township, at $548.07. It continued to be thus assessed to them on the list of Red Bank township until 1822, when it was valued at 50 cents an acre. About one-fifth of the western part of it was in this and Wayne townships. The rest was in Indiana county. The rest of the territory of this township, except a portion in the southeastern part, was covered by warrants to Harmon LeRoy & Co., and to Wilhelm Willink & Co., that is, to the Holland Land Company. That company, by II. J. Huidekoper, attorney-in-fact, agreed, sometime in September, 1805, to sell and Judge Young to purchase the tract called "Lingan," No. 2899, 990 acres, which agreement was consummated by the execution and delivery to him of Willink & Co.'s deed, dated September 1, 1810, the consideration therein expressed being $990. The major part of this tract is in what is now Mahoningtownship. This tract having become vested in Stephen B.Youngbyconveyance from his sisters, September 16, 1845, to whom it had been devised, he conveyed 250 acres to Robert Morrison, March 11, 1846, for $2,000; 100 acres to Craig Thorn, April 7, for $1,000; 100 acres to Samuel S. Harrison and Hugh Campbell, December 19, for $500; 100 acres to Alexander Colwell, July 9, 1847, for $500; 343 acres to Hugh Campbell, February 6, 1849, for $1,000. The next sales of tracts of Holland land in this township, some of them partly in what is now Mahoning township, made by Willink & Co., were: The one covered by warrant No. 2897, called "Quito," 930 acres, which adjoined "Lurgan" on the north, was first assessed to Thomas Hamilton and Alexander Craig in 1808; No. 2903, adjoining " Lurgan" on the south, to Dr. James Posthlewaite in 1808, and to Hamilton and Posthlewaite in 1809; No. 2906, adjoining "Lurgan," and No. 2903 on the east, to Thomas Hamilton in 1809, so that the agreements for their sale and purchase were probably made between 1807 and 1809. "Quito" became vested in Thomas Hamilton, to whom Willink & Co. conveyed it, September 21, 1814, for $1,018.25, and who devised 500 acres of the western part of it to Isaac Cruse, and the residue or eastern portion, adjoining the Pickering & Co.-Yost Smith tracton the north, to Thomas McConnell, who devised it to Cruse. The. latter conveyed 200 acres to Philip Kuntzleman May 24, 1834, for $725, and 250 acres, which had been sold to Cruse by Sheriff Hutchinson as the property of William Smith, to Samuel Craig, August 31, 1838, for $750, both of these parcels being parts of the portion devised to Cruse; arid 2971 acres, included in the devise to McConnell, to George Weinberg, September 14, 1837, for $966:88; 120 acres and 60 perches, to Daniel Otto June 21, 1838, for $346, which the latter conveyed to Jacob Miller, March 13, 1844, for $550. Posthlewaite's interest in No. 2903 became vested in Thomas Hamilton, to whom Willink & Co. conveyed it, October 19, 1818, for $838.80. Hamilton's surviving executor conveyed 410 acres and 76 perches of this tract to Robert and William R. Hamilton, April 18, 1837, for $963.50. Robert conveyed his undivided moiety to William R., June 6, for $1.00 and "natural love and affection." Tract No. 2906 adjoined "Lurgan" and No. 2903 on the east, in the western part of what is now the present township of Red Bank, in this county. It was assessed to Willink & Co. until 1808; the next year to Thomas Hamilton; it does not appear thereafter on the assessment list until 1821, when and afterward it was assessed to Willink & Co., who conveyed 145 acres and 53 perches of it to John Holben, June 21, 1837, for $212; 127 acres to J. E. Brown, August 18, 1847, for $158.75; 170 acres to John A. Colwell & Co., November 24, 1848, for $255. Passing north'easterly from the northeast corner of the last-mentioned tract, across No. 3050, and the two above-mentioned Anderson tracts, the tract covered by warrant No. 3053, called "Deer Park," is reached. It is another of the Holland Land Company's tracts, included among the early Hamilton purchases. Paul Burti conveyed it, as containing 941 acres and 152 perches, to Thomas and James Hamilton, December 2, 1816, for $942. It having become vested in James Hamilton, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, he conveyed 853 acres and 49 perches to James E. Brown and Thomas McConnell, November 13, 1842, for $985. One of the previous occupants of it was Charles Miller, who was first assessed with 100 acres, in 1837. After Brown and McConnell had made their purchase, the latter was deputed to visit the occupants and inform them on what terms they could purchase from the new owners. He went on his mission on horseback. Riding up to within talking distance, not venturing to dismount, and keeping at a respectful distance, he informed Miller at what price per acre he could retain the parcel occupied by him. There was then and there an exciting scene. Miller became intensely irate, and McConnell, putting whip and spur to his fleet horse, fled with 199 EXPEDITION AGAINST KITTANNING. John Armstrong, who was to have under his command the companies under Capt. Hamilton, Capt. Mercer, Capt. Ward, Capt. Potter, and besides to engage what volunteers he could. The affair was to be kept as secret as possible, and the officers and men were ordered to march to Fort Shirley and thence to set out on the expedition. Mr. Morris had given Col. Armstrong particular instructions, which were entered in the orderly book. In pursuance thereof and agreeably to the plan concerted, Col. Armstrong had made the necessary preparations and had written to Mr. Morris a letter from Fort Shirley in which he gave an account of the capture of Fort Granville by the French and Indians, and stated that they intended to attack Fort Shirley with 400 men, and that Capt. Jacobs said, "I can take any fort that will catch fire, and I will make peace with the English when they learn me to make gunpowder." EXPEDITION AGAINST KITTANNING. Eight companies of soldiers, constituting the second battalion of the Pennsylvania regiment, under the command of Lieut. Col. John Armstrong,* were stationed at the forts on the west side of the Susquehanna. For the purpose of carrying out the expedition against Kittanning, planned as above stated, Col. Armstrong, with a part of the force assigned to him, consisting of 307 men, marched upon Fort Shirley, Monday, September 3, 1756, and joined his advanced party at Beaver Dam, near Frankstown, which they left on the 4th and advanced to within fifty miles of Kittanning on the the 6th, whence an officer, one of the pilots, and two soldiers were sent forward to reconnoiter the town. These men returned on the 7th and informed Col. Armstrong that the roads were entirely clear of the enemy, but it appeared from what else they said that they had not approached near enough to the town to learn its situation, the number of persons in it, or how it might be most advantageously attacked. The march was continued on the 8th with the intention of advancing as near as possible to the town that night. A halt was, however, made about nine or ten o'clock on account of information received from one of the guides that he had seen a fire by the roadside a few perches from the front, at which were two or three Indians. The pilot returned again in a short time and reported that from the best observations he could make there were not more than three or four Indians at the fire. It was determined not to surround and *For personal sketches of Col. Armstrong, and other officers engaged in the expedition aginst Kittanning, the reader is referred to the note at the close of this chapter. cut them off immediately, lest, if only one should escape, he might communicate their presence to his people in the town, and thus their well-laid plan of attack would be, in a measure at least, frustrated. Lieut. James Hogg, of Capt. Armstrong's company, with twelve men and the pilot who first discovered the fire, was ordered to remain, watch the enemy until the break of day, on the 9th, and then cut them off, if possible, at that point, which was about six miles from Kittanning. The tired horses, the blankets, and other baggage, were left there, and the rest of the force took a circuit off the road, so as not to be heard by the Indians at the fire, which route they found to be stony. That condition of the route and the fallen trees along the way greatly retarded their march. Still greater delay was caused by the ignorance of the pilots, who, it seems, knew neither the real situation of the town nor the paths leading to it. After crossing hills and valleys, the front reached the Allegheny river shortly before the setting of the moon on the morning of the 9th, about a hundred rods below the main body of the town, or about that distance below Market street, at or near the present site of the poorhouse, on lot number 241, in modern Kittanning. They were guided thither by the beating of the drum and the whooping of the Indians at their dances, rather than by the pilots. It was necessary for them to make the best possible use of the remaining moonlight, but in this they were interrupted for a few moments by the sudden and singular whistling of an Indian, about thirty feet to the front, at the foot of a cornfield, which was at first thought by Col. Armstrong to be a signal of their approach to the rest of the Indians. He was informed by a soldierby the name of Baker that it was the way a young Indian called his squaw after the dance. Silence was passed to the rear and they lay quiet until after the going down of the moon. A number of fires soon flashed up in various parts of the cornfield, which, Baker said, were kindled to keep off the gnats, and would soon go out. As the weather was warm that night, the Indians slept by the fires in the cornfield. Three companies of Col. Armstrong's force had not, at daybreak on the 9th, passed over the last precipice. Their march of thirty miles had wearied them and most of them were asleep. Proper persons were dispatched to rouse them; a suitable number, under several officers, were ordered to take the end of the hill at which they then lay, and to march along to the top of it at least one hundred perches, and so much farther as would carry them opposite the upper part, or at least the body of the town. Col. Armstrong, presuming that the Indian RED- BANK TOWNSHIP. great celerity beyond the reach of the violent hands which that tenant, in that sudden ebullition of wrath, might just then have laid upon him. His fiery anger cooled, and in due time he agreed to pay the price asked for the land, which, 100 acres, they conveyed to his administrator, December 25, 1842, for 8800, who conveyed the same to R. M. McFarland, July 30, 1845, for $1,000. The northwestern part or corner of "Deer Park" lay in what is now Clarion county, which, or a portion of which, was inadvertently included in Willink & Co.'s conveyance of 43 acres and 94 perches to George Geist as a parcel of allotment 5, tract 254, warrant 3058, which adjoined "Deer Park" on the north. George conveyed that parcel to Daniel Geist December 17, 1838, for $3,000, which the latter conveyed to John Hess, December 26, 1839, "together with a gristmill and sawmill in Clarion county," for $1,500. These mills had been erected by Geist, as it was made to appear, on Brown & McConnell's land, the conflicting claims to which were finally and conclusively adjusted by a compromise. Hess' mills were in the track of the destructive tornado which swept through this section in May, 1860. George Mitchell was another occupant of "Deer Park." He was first assessed with 100 acres of it in 1841. Its proprietors were then extensively engaged in purchasing and selling land and were greatly in need of ieady money, so that when Mitchell offered to pay the whole amount of the purchase money at once for the parcel which he occupied, it was readily accepted, for it was just then needed to relieve those proprietors from an imminent pressure. So they conveyed to him 100 acres, "excepting one-half an acre, on which a schoolhouse was erected, so long as it should be used for school purposes," December 27, 1842, for $950. Mitchell, not being acquainted with the German language, and his partial deafness preventing him from understanding much that was said in his presence, he conceived that his German neighbors had taken a dislike to him, and, therefore, with a sad heart besought these vendors to take back the land, which they declined to do. It.so happened that they were afterward traveling through this section, and stopped at his house and found him and his wife and family distressed because their horse and wagon had been levied on and were to be sold for a store bill which they had not the money to pay. The younger of these proprietors, moved by a grateful sense of the benefit which had resulted to them from that vendee's paying the full amount of the consideration for the land which he had purchased from them, suggested to the elder that they should contribute equally to the payment of the debt for which that property was to be sold. Both promptly contributed, and relief came to the distressed, like the bursting of joyous sunlight through a dark, threatening cloud. Another purchaser of a parcel of "Deer Park" was John Shirey, to whom the proprietors conveyed one hundred and thirty-seven acres and twenty-seven perches, March 2, 1846, for $1,026. They conveyed another parcel of it, called "Chestnut Hill Lot," one hundred and two and a half acres, to Jonathan Mohney, June 22, 1854, for $985. Shirey probably settled on the parcel which he purchased, in 1826, and Mohney not long before the date of his conveyance. John Hess purchased one hundred and seven acres and fifty-four perches May 17, 1864, for $1,073.73. Adjoining "Deer Park" on the south was the tract covered by the warrant to H. LeRoy & Co., No. 3,052, which Paul Burti conveyed to James HIamilton, December 1, 1816.. It was awarded in proceedings in partition to Sarah Hamilton, who conveyed it, December 3, 1833, to Mrs. Susan H. Thorn. Adam Brinker settled and made an improvement on a part of it, not previously covered by the warrants to Joshua and Robert Anderson in 1826, and John Neis on an adjoining portion in 1837, to both of whom Mrs. Thorn and her husbane conveyed three hundred and eighty acres, January 24, 1845, for $1,330.25, on which Neis had built a sawmill in 1843. Brinker conveyed his interest in the undivided moiety, or Neis' part in the partition, which was one hundred and eighty-nine acres and one hundred and fifty-nine perches, to Moses Markle and Emanuel Rettinger, Neis' assignees, who conveyed it to Philip Mechling, May 13, 1846, for $1,246, and he to Jacob Stohlman, May 5,1852, for $1,900. Mrs. Thorn and her husband also conveyed two parcels, one hundred and fifty acres and thirty-four perches, to Adam Mohney, July 29, 1848, for $600. Adjoining the last-named tract on the east, was the one covered by the LeRoy & Co. warrant, No. 2,941, called "Willinkfieid," nine hundred and ninety acres, most of the eastern division of which was in Jefferson county, which Willink & Co. conveyed to Thomas McConnell, September 21, 1814, for $990. He conveyed one hundred and seventy-five acres of the " western division" to George Coleman, Sr., September 12, 1831, who settled'on it that year, for $481; one hundred and seventy-four acres to Frederick.Yount, May 6, 1837, for $398, who was first assessed therewith the same year. 193 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. The Holland Land Company sold none of their entire tracts, and but few, if any, parcels of their lands in this township for more than a decade of years after they had made their foregoing early sales. These tracts which they sold thus early remained on the unseated list, assessed respectively to those vendees for a considerable period before they were parceled out to their vendees. That company's sales of the rest of their lands in this township commenced about 1830, and continued with increasing briskness, so that here there were but few parcels and no entire tracts to be sold after that company's transfer of their interest in the lands covered by their warrants in this township, and elsewhere in this and adjacent counties, to Alexander Colwell and his co-vendees. Philip Mechling remembers seeing but one house between Yost Smith's ferry on the Red Bank, in the northwestern part, and Martin's ferry, on the Mahoning, in the southeastern part, of this township, as he passed from one to the other when he was collecting the United States internal revenue tax in 1817-18, which was in the vicinity of the latter ferry. There was but a slight increase of population throughout this township until after the resumption of the sales of the Holland lands in 1830. The following conveyances of parcels of those lands in various parts of the township are instanced for the purpose of showing the prices at different times, and other indications of the progress of several of the industrial interests. They are presented in topographical, not in chronological, order. Beginning with the eastern section of the township, several of the tracts covered by that company's warrants were partly in this and partly in Jefferson county. In the northeastern corner is the major part of the one covered by warrant No. 3244, of which A. Colwell's executor, Alexander Reynolds, and their co-vendees conveyed ninetyfive acres to Powell Gearhart October 16, 1871, for $222, including what had been paid prior to their purchase. Willink & Co. conveyed 105 acres of allotment 5, tract 264, warrant 3245, next south of the last preceding one, to George Coleman April 18, 1831, for $450. That allotment is in the southwestern part of the tract, on which the flourishing little town of Freedom is situated, which was founded in 1871 by Jonathan Yount. It contains about twenty houses, two stores, a postoffice,* and one church edifice (frame) 30X40 feet, which was erected in 1848 by the German Reformed and * The North Freedom postoffice was established here in 1878. Lutheran denominations, and dedicated the next spring. The churches were, however, previously organized. The first pastors were Rev. J. G. Young, Lutheran, and Rev. L. D. Lateman, German Reformed. The building committee consisted of George Coleman and Peter Minnick, Lutheran, and John Shirey and Jacob Zeats, German Reformed. George Coleman conveyed one acre and eight and a half perches, on which this edifice is erected, to John Shirey and Peter Minick, trustees of the Evangelical Lutheran and German Reformed congregations of Red Bank township, June 7, 1850, for $1. Willink & Co. conveyed 165 acres of allotment 1, tract 276, warrant 2,930, south of "Willinkfield," to Isaac Redinger May 15, 1833, for $160, on which is a public schoolhouse and on which he built his sawmill in 1848; 166 acres and 132 perches of the west end of allotments 2 and 3, tract 295, warrant 3286, adjoining the last foregoing tract on the south, to Christian and John Miller March 7, 1849, for $371. On the eastern part of this tract is a little hamlet, in which is one store. Contiguous to that tract on the south was the one covered by warrant No. 3276, which is numbered 304 on the company's maps and books, allotment 3 of which Colwell & Co. conveyed to David Yearger December 27, 1862, for $70.50, and eighty-four acres and sixty perches of allotment 5 to George Emery November 6, 1856, for $168, on which is John Emery's sawmill; Willink & Co. 156 acres and 103 perches of allotment 4, tract 323, warrant 3114, next south of last tract, to William Gallagher's administrator, August 4, 1840, for $117.50. Next south was tract 382, covered by warrant 3107, of which WVillink & Co. conveyed 154 acres and 150 perches of allotment 2 to George Potts June 6, 1837, for $163.24, and 165 acres of allotment 6 to Samuel Brooks January 1, 1840, for $165. Next south was tract 336, covered by warrant No. 3104, the southwest corner of which is in Wayne township. John Organ, whose house was the only one which Philip Mechling found between Smith's and Martin's ferries in 1817-18, settled on allotment 1, in the northwestern part of this tract in 1808, and was first assessed with one hundred acres of it the next year, at $15.* This parcel is now owned by Mrs. Susannah Hammond, and assessed at $12 an acre. Allotment 5, 173 acres, in the southern part of this tract, seems to have been claimed by Henry Lott many years ago, * As an innkeeper in 1823. 194 RED BANK TOWNSHIP. for it bears his name on the map of original tracts, though it does not appear on any of the assessment lists of this township. Benjamin B. Cooper's executor conveyed thirty-two acres and sixty-two perches of allotment 4 to Jacob and Martin Lantz June 3, 1845, for $69. A saltwell was drilled in the western part of allotment 5 in 1843-4. The drilling was probably begun in the fall of the former year, for on October 13 Daniel Wann and John Mock entered into a written agreement to purchase and jointly pay for eighty acres of this tract, and to be "at equal expense in lumbering and erecting works of any kind" they might deem proper, and Mock was assessed with this well in 1844. It is situated at or near the mouth of a small run that empties into, at that point, the east side of the Mahoning creek. Its depth is 425 feet. At first large iron kettles set in stone were used as grainers. This well produced eight barrels a day, the principal market for which was in the surrounding country. Some of it was transported in wagons to Brookville. In 1861 this well was assessed to James Mansfield and David Anderson, to whom B. B. Cooper's executor conveyed eighty acres of this allotment (5) October 1, 1863, for $353.25. The well was assessed to Beck & Anderson in 1865, and to William Beck from 1866 until 1868. It is now owned by William M. Brinker, but it has not been worked for several years. James Morgan probably settled on the eastern part of allotment 5-the Henry Lott parcel-and the western part of allotment 6 in 1843, for he was first assessed in this township as a single man in 1844, and with 150 acres in 1846. Adjoining his parcel on the west was one called the " Ore Lot," ninety-three acres and thirty perches, from which a considerable portion of the ore used by Phoenix Furnace was obtained. Hugh Allen and Wesley Coleman have owned this with other parcels. Next west was the Holland Company's tract No. 335, warrant either 3109 or 3040, only a portion of which is in this township. The patent is dated April 5, 1838. Colwell and his co-vendees conveyed 156 acres and 52 perches of allotment 4* in the eastern part of this tract to George B. McFarland September 3, 1849, for $165, in pursuance of a previous agreement between their and his predecessors, on which Henry Smith, W. B. Travis, Jonathan Grinder and Andrew G. Workman had erected Phenix Furnace in 1846, which was first assessed to Smith & Guthrie in 1849, and to George B. McFarland in 1850. Its operations ceased in 1853. It was a cold-blast charcoal furnace eight * Surveyed by J. E. Meredith to Daniel Wann April 15, 1846, as containing 173 acres and 1S perches. feet across the bosh by thirty feet high, producing from twenty-five to thirty tons a week. Its ore is described as a loamy outcrop of the lower or buhrstone kind, making excellent foundry iron. Benjamin B. Cooper's executor conveyed 160 acres of allotment 2 to Charles Coleman, June 13, 1850, for $340, now owned by Wesley Coleman. Next north was tract No. 333, covered by warrant No. 3110, of which Willink & Co. conveyed 305 acres and 50 perches of allotment 5 to William B. Neal, March 13, 1845, for $396.25, on which is schoolhouse No. 10, and in the southern part, on the Mahoning, is the sawmill first assessed to him in 1846, and to William C. Neal, in 1867. Arthur Fleming settled in the northwestern part in 1837, and was first assessed with 100 acres, the next year. He was soon after elected a justice of the peace and school director, and subsequently county commissioner. The building which he first occupied here, and in which his oldest son was born, was afterward used as a schoolhouse, in which that son first attended, and in which he first taught, school. The present schoolhouse in this locality is No. 1. Fleming's agreements with the Holland Company for the purchase of his parcels of allotments 1 and 2 were not hastily consummated, for it was not until July 4, 1849, that Colwell et al. conveyed to him 201 acres and 44 perches for $152.50, and forty acres and six perches of the west end of allotment 2, June 19, 1857, for $270. A large portion of this tract was surveyed by Jonathan E. Meredith in 1840 and 1843, and the rest of it August 30 and 31, 1875. North of the Wallis 4128 and west of the last preceding tract was No. 334, covered by warrant 3150, the western parts of allotments 1, 3, 5, being in Mahoning township. Adam Beck settled on allotment 1 in 1833, and built his gristmill on the right bank of the Mahoning in 1836, and was first assessed with it the next year, to whose administrator Cooper's executor conveyed in trust, etc., 109 acres, November 15, 1851, which, with the mill, Arthur Fleming, Beck's administrator, conveyed to Chambers Orr, December 4, for $2,500 (excepting a piece which Beck had sold to Geo. Gould), and which Orr conveyed to Robert Walker (of A.), February 24, 1858, for $9,500, to whose estate it still belongs, in connection with which he operated a distillery several years before his death. The northwestern corner of this allotment embraces a portion of Eddyville, a small town containing besides the gristmill about a dozen other buildings, and including a blacksmith shop, a store, a boatyard, and a postoffice which was established May 21, 1857, Turney S. Orr, postmaster. 195 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Next north was the tract No. 321, covered by warrant No. 3279, on allotment 3, on which Joseph and Isaac Butler settled in 1831, with 100 acres, of which the former was first assessed in 1832, and with a sawmill in 1841. Willink & Co. conveyed to him 137 acres and 128 perches, September 15, 1855, for $310. John Kuhn settled on that part of allotment 1 about the mouth of Big Pine run, in 1838, and was assessed the next year with 144 acres. The eddy, made by the flowing of that run into the Mahoning, was called Kuhn's Eddy, and hence the name of the little town Eddyville. Kuhn built a sawmill at the mouth of that run in 1838, which was afterward operated by Joseph and Isaac Butler, the title to which became vested in James E. Brown and Thomas McConnell, who agreed, June 23, 1847, to sell it and 190 acres of adjacent land, "known as the Kuhn mill property," to Adam Beck for $2,000. The mill was assessed to Francis Dobbs in 1849, to whom Beck's administrator had conveyed it; to John Beachel in 1851, who had purchased it from Jeremiah Bonner; to Bonner in 1862, who had purchased Beachel's interest at sherifFs sale, and who conveyed it to George D. Smith, September 17, 1872. North of the eastern division of the last preceding tract was the one covered by warrant No. 3274, of which Colwell and others conveyed 150 acres and 135 perches to Joseph Butler, June 3, 1856, for $262.50, and which the latter conveyed, as containing 154 acres and 17 perches, to David Rumbaugh August 16, 1867, for $2,900. Willink & Co. conveyed, November 23, 1830, to Adam Smith for $300 196 acres and 8 perches, described as being parts of allotment 5, tract 305, warrant 3277, part of allotment 1, tract 322, warrant 3146, and a part of allotment 5-it should be 4-tract 321, warrant 3279, on which, near the mouth of Mud Lick, he erected a gristmill in 1854, which was burned several years afterward, and a new one, with three run of stone, erected on its site by Charles W. Ellenberger in 1864. This mill, and the store opened by Adam Smith, became the nucleus of the present little town of Charlestown, containing, besides the gristmill, about ten dwelling houses, a schoolhouse, sawmill and blacksmith shop. The distillery, assessed to John W. Smith & Bro., in 1862, was located on this parcel. By the act of assembly, passed January, 1844, Adam Smith's house was designated as the place in this township for holding township and general elections. Solomon Nulf probably settled on allotment 2, tract 321, warrant 3279, in 1831, to whom Willink & Co. conveyed 156 acres June 9, 1836, for $234, and on which he erected his sawmill in 1849, for he was first assessed with it in 1850. Tract No. 322, warrant No. 3146, adjoined the last above-mentioned one on the east, of which Willink & Co. conveyed seventy-eight and threefourth acres of allotment 3 to David Yeager, Jr., March 2, 1846, for $157.50; 117 acres and 129 perches of allotment 1 to John Thompson August 5, 1842, for $265; eighty acres and forty perches, allotment 6, to Jacob Long, March 31, 1849, for $100; and Colwell et al. conveyed fifty-nine acres and sixty-one perches to Jacob Fisher June 2, 1864, for $226. Hereabouts was situated the carding machine, assessed to Alex. Richards in 1843. He was assessed with two in 1859. Tract No. 305, warrant No. 3277, adjoined the last above-mentioned one'on the north, of which Willink & Co. conveyed 171 acres, allotment 1, to Henry Feather February 9, 1842, for $256.55. Adjoining the last-mentioned tract on the north was tract No. 294, warrant No. 3050. Tobias Shick settled on allotment 2 probably in 1827-8, to whose son Jacob Colwell et al. conveyed a parcel of it May 4, 1850, on the west end of which is situated the town of New Salem, which was laid out prior to 1853. Its first separate assessment list was for that year, according to which it then contained one church, one physician, Dr. Alex. P. Heichhold-who wielded considerable influence in changing the political complexion of this township by means of the organization commonly called" Know Nothing "-one carpenter and seventeen taxables. The total valuation of property and occupations was $1,270. The Evangelical, or Albright Methodist, called the Salem church, at this place was organized by Rev. Daniel Long about 1851, and its frame edifice was erected the next year, when the membership was about fifty, which is now nearly four hundred, and they own a parsonage. The first dwelling-house (including a storeroom) was built by Jonathan Houpt, the second by Peter Aulenbaucher, and the third by William Buffington and Adam Miller. The Pierce postoffice was established here December 14, 1857, Solomon Wyant postmaster, whose successors have been Win. Buffington and Peter Hoch. The lots were sold, each, prior to 1860, for $30, more or less. For instance, WVm. Buffington paid Jacob Shick $30 for the one in the central part of the town, which was conveyed to him April 27, 1857. The assessment list for 1876 shows: Preacher, 1; school-teacher, 1; blacksmiths, 2; shoemakers, 2; innkeepers, 0; merchants, 0; wagon-makers, 0: there should be at least one each of the three last196 RED BANK TOWNSHIP. named occupations. Number of taxables, 23, representing a population of 105. One of the citizens of this place, William Buffington, was elected county commissioner in 1872, and re-elected in 1875. One of the Red Bank district schoolhouses is situated in the upper part of this town, a short distance west of the church, near the intersection of the public roads. In the winter of 1865 the writer was accompanied by one of the school directors of this township in his official visit to this school. He exhibited here, as in the other schools in the county, a hemisphere globe, and explained by it what is intended to be represented by the map hemispheres in the atlas, the shape of the earth, and how the relative motion caused by the earth's diurnal revolution makes the sun seem to rise and set - seem to move from east to west; and had whatever satisfaction there was in learning a few months afterward that that school director had said, substantially, it was very foolish for the state to pay a county superintendent a salary (then $400 per annum) for carrying such a thing as that globe with him to the schools and teaching such nonsense as that this earth is round, that all things on its surface are kept in place by the attraction of gravitation, and that it is kept moving in space in its orbit around the sun by the centrifugal and centripetal forces. That school director believed then, if hlie does not now, that the earth is not round, that it is stationary, and that the sun daily moves over and around it. Willink & Co. conveyed 160 acres and 59 perches of the last-mentioned allotment 2 to James Kerr, September 13, 1839, for $240.50. Next west of the last-mentioned tract was No. 293, warrant No. 3135, skirting tract No. 306, warrant 2906, on the north and northeast, and " Lurgan " and " Quito" on the west. Willink & Co. conveyed 157- acres of allotment 1, June 22, 1831, for $200, and 323 acres and 112 perches of allotments 2 and 3, September 17, 1834, for $325, to John Holben, who conveyed 46 acres and 48 perches of allotment I to J. Wise, May 16, 1856, for $231.52; and 177 acres and 143 perches of allotment 5 to Mary Smith, June 18, 1833, for $127.20. North of tract 294, warrant 3050, or the New Salem tract, was tract No. 277, warrant No. 3051, into the northwestern part of which the southeastern part of the Joshua Anderson tract seems, in the maps of -connected drafts, to penetrate. Willink & Co. conveyed 165 acres of allotment 5 to John Holewig May 14, 1832, for $165; 1804 acres of allotment 1 to Joseph Zangert April 27, 1837, for $271; 165 acres of allotment 4 to Peter Gearhart May 18, 1838, for $247.50; 166 acres and 133 perches of allotment 2 to George Kunselman June 18, 1842, for $255; 163 acres and 33 perches, which Himes had purchased from Moses Markle, September 15, 1845, for $756, on which Himes was first assessed with a mill in 1851, being the same which Willink & Co. had conveyed to John Holben, Jr., May 14, 1832, for $165; Holben to J. & A. Miller May 5, 1845, on which was located the clover and feed-mill first assessed to them in 1847. Passing down to the southeastern part of this township, there was a portion of the LeRoy & Co. tract covered by warrant No. 3102, or, according to the later numbering of the Holland Company, No. 344, of which Benj. B. Cooper conveyed 175 acres and 20 perches to Hugh Martin, November 15, 1825, for $298.72. This parcel lay chiefly in this township, some of it in Wayne. It was sold on a scire facias as the property of Hugh Martin, in the hands of his executors, by Sheriff Truby to Hugh Allen, March 23, 1844, for $700, who conveyed it to John and Thomas Allen, March 25, 1844, and they to John Segar, April 6, 1848, and he to Archibald Glenn, June 8, 1850, on the portion of which in Red Bank township the latter laid out the town of Presque Isle, containing twenty lots, 66X 1165 feet, ten of which being on each side of Main street, or the Clarion road, which is 60 feet wide, intersected by an alley, 16 feet wide, between lots 5 and 6, and 15 and 16, which were surveyed and platted by James Stewart, April 29, 1851. There was not an instant demand for many of the lots. Glenn, however, conveyed some of them: Lot No. 17 to Michael B. Hileman, October 1, 1852, for $12.50; lots Nos. 11 and 12 to Wmi. T. Glenn, the same day, for $37.50, and he to Davis H. Thompton, March 26, 1858, for $15; lots Nos. 18 and 19 to Sarah Yales, March 8, 1854, for $25; and lots Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8, to Davis H. Thompson, September 2, 1859, for $60. The first house in this town was erected in 1852. The first separate assessment list was for the year 1853, when it contained nine taxables, representing a population of 41, with a total valuation of $466. It appeared on the assessment list for several years as "Presqu' Isle City." It reached its most magnitudinous proportions in 1858, when its number of taxables was 15, and the total valuation of property, $1,303. Its last separate list, the next year, shows only two taxables and the total valuation of five and a half acres and some personal property, $283. About one hundred and ten rods to the southwest of the Mahoning, in the same Holland Company tract, is the little town of Independence, which received its name in the dry summer of 1855, when it contained but four houses, the first 197 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. of which was built by Wm. T. Glenn in 18-, thus: Dr. Sims, arriving here one day, asked the name of this place, to which James L. Thompson replied that he thought they would call it Independence, as they were then, by reason of the drouth, independent of anything to live on. A. D. Glenn and his sister were attending the Dayton Academy that summer, and gave Independence as the place of their residence, by which it has ever since been known. It was separately assessed first, in 1859, when it contained five taxables, one sawmill, one foundry and one blacksmith shop, with a total valuation of $1,245. According to its last separate assessment list, in 1860, it then contained one sawmill, one foundry, with a total valuation of $1,312. Michael Hileman was first assessed with a sawmill here in 1853; Isaiah Hopkins as a molder, in 1852; Glenn, Hopkins & Co., with a sawmill and foundry in 1859; E. V. Thomas, sawmill and foundry, in 1860-1; Hopkins, with the foundry, in 1863; Hopkins & Lamb, with foundry, in 1865, and Hopkins & Thompson, foundry, in 1867. About fifty rods southeasterly from Independence, up the creek, was Martin's ferry, heretofore mentioned, which was established-the writer has not ascertained when-by Hugh Martin, who settled on that part of tract No. 344 in 1805, then in Toby, afterward successively in Kittanning, Plum Creek and Wayne townships. His craft consisted of a canoe, at least a part of the time while he kept this ferry, which seems not to have been deemed of sufficient value by assessors to place it on their lists, even as the lowest or a seventh-rate ferry-one of that rate being then valued, for taxable purposes, at $10. It was at this point that emigrants and travelers from Westmoreland and adjacent counties to what is now Clarion county, in the early part of this century, crossed the Mahoning, many of whom were accustomed to say that they noticed a marked difference in the forwardness of vegetation in the spring, south and north of this stream, which seemed to them to be the line of demarkation in this respect. Next north of 344 and one of the Mason & Cross tracts was a vacant tract on the eastern division of which John McDonald setttled in 1822-3, and was thereafter assessed with 120 acres. His son, Robert McDonald, obtained a warrant for 155 acres and 148 perches of it, chiefly in Jefferson county, November 8, 1838, and the patent July 8, 1839. The small portion thereof in this county appears to have been divided into small parcels or lots. McDonald conveyed one acre to John G. Thompson June 19, 1849, for $55; seven acres and ninety perches to Stephen Travis March 5, 1851, for $250, on which the latter had erected a foundry in 1848, which was first assessed to him in 1849, which Travis' widow and administrators conveyed to Archibald Glenn in June, 1858, when he carried on the foundry business for several years. He conveyed this and three other small parcels which he had purchased from different persons, aggregating ninety-three acres and forty-three perches, to William Burns September 6, 1866, for $1,700, now owned by William M. Brinker. The western division of that vacant tract, 160 acres, was taken up by William Hannegan in 1838, to whom the warrant was granted May 10 and surveyed May 18, 1839, 116 acres and 30 perches of which he conveyed to William and Andrew D. Guthrie October 18, 1839, for $2,250, and fortythree acres and 130 perches to George Wheatcroft the same day for $1. The town of Milton is situated on the Hannegan portion of that vacant tract. Its rise began about 1845 by settlers who came from Milton, Northumberland county, Pennsylvania. Its first separate assessment list was for the year 1852, when it contained nine taxables and showed a total valuation of $895. The Phenix postoffice, William Guthrie, postmaster, was established here February 4, 1847. The Methodist Episcopal church was organized here about 1845. The services were held for several years in the schoolhouse. The first church edifice was erected about six years after its organization. Andrew D. Guthrie conveyed to Joseph Glenn, Archibald Glenn, Thomas Grey, George W. Thompson, James L. Thompson, Joseph W. Travis and Stephen Travis, trustees of this church, 131 square perches " on the road leading from Warren to Clarion " October 18, 1851, for $10. The assessment list for 1876 shows: Taxables, 24; merchants, 2; carpenter, 1; shoemaker, 1; laborers, 2. Total valuation of real and personal property and occupations, $3,016. The first settlers may have named this town after the one they had left in Northumberland county. Be that as it may, towns and persons of that name in this country have been so christened in honor of the great English poet John Milton, whose devotion to and defense of civil and religious liberty, as well as his brilliant mind and poetic genius, have rendered his memory fragrant to the civilized peoples of the earth, and especially to the free and enlightened people of the United States. The assessment list of this township, exclusive of Freedom, Milton and New Salem, for 1876, exclusive of farmers, shows: County superintendent, 1; 198. RED BANK TOWNSHIP. physician, 1; school teachers, 2; blacksmiths, 4; carpenters, 3; merchant, 1; mason, 1; millers, 2; machinist, 1; laborers, 10; wagonmaker, 1. According to the mercantile appraiser's list there are five merchants, all in the fourteenth class. The first census taken after Red Bank township was reduced to its present area by the organization of other townships was that of 1860, which shows its population then to have been: White, 1,304; colored, 1. In 1870: native, 1,335; foreign, 6; colored, 0. The number of taxables, including those of the above-mentioned towns, in 1876, is 376, representing a population of 1,729. The vote in this township was 122 against and 35 for granting license to sell intoxicating liquors. EDUCATIONAL. In 1860 the number of schools was 10; average number months taught, 4; male teachers, 8; female, 2; average salaries male teachers per month $17; female teachers, $17; male scholars, 240; female scholars, 200; average number attending school, 266; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 43 cents; amount levied for school purposes, $900; amount levied for building purposes, -; received from state appropriation, $79.59; from collectors, $1,200; cost of instruction, $664; fuel, etc., $90; repairing schoolhouses, etc., $40. In 1876 the number of schools was 12; average number of months taught, 5; male teachers, 12; average monthly salaries, $27.50; male scholars, 241; female scholars, 244; average number attending school, 343; cost per month, 70 cents; amount tax levied for school and building purposes, $1,772.84; received from State appropriation, $314.31; from taxes and other sources, $1,973.04; cost of schoolhouses, repairs, etc., $88.68; paid teachers' wages, $1.625; fuel, etc., $228.30. STRUCTURE. The geological features of this township are generally indicated thus: This section was obtained above Smith's sawmill on Pine run: Sandstone, 10 feet; upper Freeport coal, 5 feet 8 inches; Olive shale, 10 feet; Freeport sandstone, blue shale, 10 feet; lower Freeport coal, shale, 5 feet; sandstone (Freeport), 73 feet; black slate, four feet; Kittanning coal, 3 feet; Olive shale, 20 feet; ferriferous limestone, 8 feet; 80 feet above the creek (or run) by estimation. (Rogers' Geology of Pennsylvania.) Furthermore, near the forks of the Great and Little Mahoning the Freeport (?) limestone appears eighty feet above the water. At the crossing of the Elderton road, over the Great Mahoning creek, the strata begin to dip more steeply and soon the ferriferous limestone and its overlying Kittanning coal rise from the water. The upper Freeport coal is seen northeast of the salt works, a little east of the road, 150 or 200 feet above the creek, the Freeport limestone occurring a little lower level opposite. The fourth axis crosses somewhat below Glade run, but so rapidly does it decline, like all the others, to the southwest, that on the Cowanshannock it does not lift the ferriferous limestone to waterlevel, although where the fourth axis crosses the Mahoning that bed is at a considerable hight in the hillsides. (ibid.) The rocks here represented above water-level belong mainly to the lower productive group, the lower barren being scarcely seen at all within the limits of this township. The conglomerate and sub-conglomerate rocks make the lower portions of the slopes along Mahoning creek, as explained in the sketch of Wayne township, and the same rocks are seen occupying the same positions on past Eddyville and so on to the mouth of Little Mud Lick. Similar conditions prevail along Red Bank creek, but the structure necessitates a much less area for their exposure there. Thus the ferriferous limestone remains high above the water-level of the Mahoning along the southern edge of the township, while along the Red Bank it gradually approaches the creek, which it finally touches below Adam Smith's house below Millville. Very little of the upper Freeport coal is represented, there being only a few isolated knobs high enough to hold it. A few such knobs are found southeast of New Salem, a few more west of this village, while at the western edge of the township the coal is brought down from its high level to dip under the western side of the valley of Little Mud Lick. Wherever found it is a workable coal-bed and is usually accompanied by its limestone. The lower Freeport coal is also present but unimportant. The upper Kittanning coal here assumes its cannel feature over a considerable area, and it has been repeatedly opened by the farmers. The cannel portions of the bed are from ten to twelve feet thick, and here and there quite good, though very slaty. The whole nature of the deposit makes the bed unreliable in point of persistency. The lower Kittanning coal is three feet thick. The ferriferous limestone is from eight to ten feet thick, and so favorably situated on the hills that it can be cheaply worked for quarry lime. Little use of it has, however, been made. This township exhibits two important anticlinal axes. The first crosses the Mahoning creek between Milton and the mouth of Glade run, as before explained. It quickly passes into Jefferson county. The other axis crosses the Red Bank creek in the 199 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. extreme northeastern corner of this township, passing thence west of Freedom, and soon toward New Salem, where it dies out. It is not felt on the Mahoning. (W. G. Platt, Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania.) In this connection the following facts, communicated to the writer by Jacob Buffington, are given: There is a stratum of block coal on Mud Lick and Little Mud Lick runs about three miles wide, extending about four miles from east to west, as far as discovered, varying from seven to fourteen feet in thickness. It burns as freely as a pine knot, with but little smoke, leaving a considerable quantity of clear ashes, which make a tolerably good lye. The entry, for a distance of about two hundred feet from west to east, was straight. There a vein of "horse-back" occurs eight feet thick, which is very tough and bends like iron, but is blasted with difficulty. At a distance of three feet east from the "horse-back " is a better quality of block coal. Another vein of "horseback" occurs about thirty feet east of the other one, which the miners did not work through. Below the coal is a stratum of slate thirty inches thick, above which the coal rises perpendicularly thirty inches, that is, there is a fault. "Faults are produced by the breaking of the beds across the planes of their stratification, and thus permitting the strata to slide up or down, so that the two parts of a given bed are no longer on the same level," which " seriously retard mining operations, for suddenly the end of the bed of coal, or other substance, is reached, and the workmen know not whether its counterpart is above or below the level upon which they have been operating." There is a cave on the Adam Smith farm on Pine run in hard, fine sandrock, consisting of several rooms or apartments. The first one is about eight feet high, four wide and fifteen long, from which is a narrow opening extending into another one; thence into three others of about the same size. There are several others, one which opens toward the left, another toward the right. The entrance to them is from the east, and their walls are very smooth. A short distance east of Laurel run is a stratum of slate and cannel coal, the upper part of which is about fifteen inches above the surface, below which is slate of an excellent quality, which can be excavated in blocks of eighteen inches wide, from eight to ten inches thick, and from two to two and a half feet long, which can be separated into slabs one-eighth of an inch thick, well adapted to making slates and roofing. The coal and slate are traversed by rainbow or peacock colored streaks. The elevation above ocean level at Maysville is 1,107.8 feet; at Pine run, 1,100.8 feet; at Millville, 1,092.8 feet; at Indiantown run, 1,089.8 feet. 200 --m CHAPTER VIII. PLUM CREEK. Derivation of the Name-Organized in 181.0-Very Early Settlement- Blockhouses -An Indian Attack Women Making Bullets- Children Captured by the Savages- Bridging Crooked Creek-First Applica tion to the Court for a Bridge - Absalom Woodward - David Ralston - A Tavern Tragedy of 1809 - The Sharps - Land Tracts Originally Surveyed in the Township - Three Hundred Acres of Land for Five Shillings--Centennial Celebration 1876 (Note) -The First Iron Plow - Mills- Churches- Schools Whitesburg - Some Mentionable Events - Items - Borough of Elderton - Its Early Residents - Incorpo rated-First Officers - Religious History -Educational- Temperance -Soldiers' Aid Society- Geological Features. TIIE name is derived from the creek which the Indians called Sipu-as-han-ne. Sipuasink means the place of plums. Sipu-as-han-ne, then, means a stream in the place of plums, or a stream flowing through a section of country in which plums are abundant. It was also called Alum creek. It is so named on the Historical Map. No movement was made either to divide or to change the boundaries of the six original townships until 1809. The inhabitants of Kittanning township having presented their petition setting forth that they labored under numerous disadvantages by reason of the extent of their township, and praying that proper persons might be appointed to divide it, the court of quarter sessions, at December session, 1809, appointed Robert Beatty, John Thomas, and James Kirkpatrick for that purpose. Their report, signed by Robert Beatty and John Thomas, was presented June 20, 1810, and approved, in which they stated that they had run, marked, laid off and divided said township according to these courses and distances: "Beginning at the fording on Mahoning creek, where the road leading from Kittanning to Reed's mill crosses said creek, thence southward along said road to the top of the creek hill, about one mile thence south 640 perches to a hickory; thence south 3 degrees west 800 perches to a post; thence south 3 degrees east to a W. O. 450 perches; thence south 43 degrees east 40 perches to a W. O. at Peck's house; thence south 5 degrees west 1,293 perches to Cowanshannock, about 20 perches below the mouth of Huskinses' run; thence south 23 degrees west 2,265 perches to the west branch of Cherry Run, about 80 perches above the mouth of Long run; thence down Cherry run to where the same puts into Crooked Creek." The. name of the new township thusformed, on the draft accompanying the report, is "Plum Creek;" "Surveyed by me, Robert Orr, Jr." Its northern boundary was Mahoning creek; its eastern, Indiana county; and its southern, Crooked Creek. Such were the boundaries and extent of Plum Creek township, until the former were changed and the latter was curtailed by the formation of the townships of Wayne, Cowanshannock, Burrell and South Bend, and the borough of Elderton. The Historical Map of Pennsylvania indicates that there was an Indian town about a mile and thirty rods above Crooked Creek, on or very near the Indiana county line, in the southeastern part of the township. Permanent settlements by the whites were made in the eastern and southeastern portions of Plum Creek township, as originally formed, before and when it was a part of Armstrong townshipearlier than in any other part of this county. The reason why it was first settled is not stated. The streams, the water-power, and the considerable scope of productive and comparatively level land in that section may have been more attractive to pioneers than the more broken and rugged land in other sections. The early settlers there were subject to the attacks of the Indians. A blockhouse was built on the land then owned by William Clark, but which is now owned by S. E. Jones. There was another house with portholes-not built, perhaps, expressly for a blockhouse, but used as a place of refuge and defense from those attacks-on the road now leading from Elderton to the old Crooked Creek Salt Works, on the farm heretofore known as the Downs' farm. It was attacked one morning by the Indians. George Miller and James Kirkpatrick were then in charge of it. The Indians fired upon them, killed a child in the cradle and wounded an adult person in the building. The women made HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. warriors were at the lower end of that hill, kept the larger portion of his men there, promising to postpone the attack eighteen or twenty minutes, until the detachment along the hill should have time to advance to the point to which they had been ordered. They were somewhat unfortunate in making that advance. The time having elapsed, a simultaneous attack was made as expeditiously as possible, through and upon every part of the cornfield. A party was dispatched to the houses, when Capt. Jacobs and several other Indians, as the English prisoners afterward stated, shouted the warwhoop and yelled: "The white men are come at last and we will have scalps enough," at the same time ordering their squaws and children to flee to the woods. THE BATTLE. Col. Armstrong's men rushed through and fired the cornfield, where they received several returns from the Indians in the field and from the opposite side of the river. A brisk fire commenced soon after among the houses, which was very resolutely returned from the house of Capt. Jacobs, which was situated on the north side of Market, a short distance above McKean street, on Jacobs' Hill, in the rear of the site at the northern end of the stone wall in the garden, on which Dr. John Gilpin built, in 1834-35, that large two-story brick mansion now owned and occupied by Alexander Reynolds. Thither Col. Armstrong repaired and found that several of his men had been wounded, and some had been killed, from the port-holes of that house and other advantages which it afforded to the Indians within it. As the returning fire upon that house proved ineffectual, he ordered the adjoining houses to be fired, which was quickly done, the Indians seldom failing to wound or kill some of their assailants when they presented themselves. Col. Armstrong, while moving about and giving the necessary orders, received a bullet-wound in his shoulder from Capt. Jacobs' house. It is stated in "Robinson's Narrative," that Col. Armstrong said: "' Are there none of you that will set fire to these rascals that have wounded me and killed so many of us?' John Furgeson, a soldier, swore he would. lie went to a house covered with bark and took a strip of it which had fire on it, and rushed up to the cover of Jacobs' house and held it there till it had burned about a yard square. Then he ran and the Indians fired at him. The smoke blew about his legs and the shots missed him." That house contained the magazine, which for a time caused it to be observed, to see whether the Indians, knowing their peril, would escape from it. They, as we say nowadays, "held the fort" until the guns were discharged by the approaching fire. Several persons were ordered, (luring the action, to tell the Indians to surrender themselves prisoners. On being thus told, one of them replied: " I am a man, and I will not be a prisoner." Being told, in his own language, that he would be burned, he said: " I don't care, for I will kill four or five before I die." Had not Col. Armstrong and his men desisted from exposing themselves, the Indians, who had a number of loaded guns, would have killed many more of them. As the fire approached and the smoke thickened, one of the Indians evinced his manhood by singing. A squaw being heard to cry was severely rebuked by the Indians. But after awhile, the fire having become too hot for them, two Indians and a squaw sprang out of the house and started for the cornfield, but were imminediately shot by some of their foemen. It was thought that Capt. Jacobs tumbled out of the garret or cockloft window when the houses were surrounded. The English prisoners who were recaptured offered to be qualified that the powder-horn and pouch taken from him were the very ones which Capt. Jacobs had obtained from a French officer in exchange for Lieut. Armstrong's boots, which he had brought from Fort Greenville, where the lieutenant was killed. Those prisoners said they were perfectly assured of Capt. Jacobs' scalp, because no other Indians there wore their hair in the same manner, and that they knew his squaw's scalp by a particular bob, and the scalp of a young Indian, called the king's son. The report of the explosion of the magazine under Capt. Jacobs' house, says Patterson's History of the Backwoods, was heard at Fort Du Quesne, whereupon some French and Indians, fearing an attack had been made on the town (Kittanning), instantly started up the river, but did not reach the place until the day after the explosion and battle, when the troops had been withdrawn. They found among the ruins the bodies of Capt. Jacobs, his squaw and his son. Capt. Hugh Mercer, who was wounded in the arm early in the action, had been, before the attack on Capt. Jacobs' house, taken to the top of the hill above the town, where several of the officers and a number of the men had gathered. From that position they discovered some Indians crossing the river and taking to the hill, withthe intention, as they thought, to surround Col. Armstrong and his force, and cut them off from their retreat. The colonel received several very pressing requests to leave the house and retreat to the hill, lest all should be cut off, which he would not consent to do until HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. bullets while the men were defending them and their children. One Indian, while putting a charge of powder in his gun, was shot through the hand and body and was killed, and some of the other Indians were wounded. George Miller escaped from the rear of the building, mounted a horse and started for Clark's blockhouse. In his absence the Indians fled, carrying with them the dead and wounded. Two children, John Sloan and his sister Nancy, were captured about the time of that affair on the farm near the present Lutheran and Reformed church, formerly in Plum Creek, but now in South Bend township, and about sixty rods northwest from the present residence of William Heintzelmhnan. They were working in the cornfield at the time. Having been retained by the Indians several years, they were exchanged near Cincinnati or Sandusky, Ohio. They returned home the same year that Samuel Sloan, still living, was born. Their relatives and some other settlers soon after their capture followed the trail of the Indians to the point where they crossed the Allegheny river above Kittanning. The writer's informant, exsheriff Joseph Clark, also said he had seen bulletholes in the door of the above-mentioned house on the Downs' farm, and that his aunt, Mrs. Joseph Clark, had told him that she used to stand, with rifle in hand, and guard her husband while at work on the farm now occupied by William T. Clark in Plum Creek township. From 1816 till 1821 many tomahawks, darts and flintheads were found on the farm now owned by William Herron, which is about half a mile northwest of the junction of Plum creek with Crooked creek, and on the west side of the former, which then divided the farms of William Clark and David Ralston. George Miller was the earliest white settler in this township. He located where the Kittanning and Indiana turnpike crosses Plum creek, in 1766. Twenty years later John and Peter Thomas settled about a mile and a half north of that point at "Elder's Vale," elsewhere mentioned, where the latter built a gristmill, afterward owned by Robert Woodward. Among the earliest emigrants to the southeastern part of Plum Creek township, which was then, 1788, in Armstrong township, was the late Absalom Woodward, Sr., who, with his wife and two children, came that year from Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, and settled near what is now Idaho. He was a hardy and energetic pioneer, and an enterprising, public-spirited citizen. The petition of sundry inhabitants of this county, setting forth that a bridge was much wanted across Crooked creek, in Allegheny township, at or near the place where the road from Absalom Woodward's to Sloan's ferry crossed that creek, and praying the appointment of viewers, was presented at December sessions, 1805, the first held in this county. Whereupon the court appointed James Elgin, Christopher Ourey, James Clark, Robert Brown, James Sloan and Michael Mechling, who reported at March sessions, 1806, that a bridge was much wanted there, and that the probable expense, $450, was too much for one or two townships to bear. Their report was referred to the grand jury, who were of opinion that, as there had been no settlement between Armstrong and Westmoreland counties, it would then be improper to make any allowance out of the treasury to carry into effect the prayer of the petitioners. At September sessions, 1806, Absalom Woodward presented his petition, offering to advance the money that might be appropriated for building that bridge. The matter was again referred to the grand jury March 17, 1807, who reported favorably, and the county commissioners, after consulting with the grand jury, also reported favorably-both were of opinion that the erection of that bridge would be too expensive for the township. The application had to pass still another ordeal. The law required the approval of two grand juries. The second grand jury at December sessions, 1807, reported that bridge to be necessary, " yet the probable expense that might accrue would be too weighty a burden for our present situation." A bridge was afterward built there, either at private or public expense. The court records show nothing more concerning it, except that the petition of inhabitants of Plum Creek township was presented September 24, 1818, setting forth that the bridge at that place had been swept away by the flood in February of that year; that the fording there was impassable and that the desired bridge would cost more than is reasonable for one township to contribute; and praying the court to appoint viewers. Whereupon David Johnston, Philip Mechling, James Elgin, Joseph Clark, Isaac Wagle and James Richards were appointed, who reported favorably at the next December sessions. Their report was approved by the grand jury, and after having been held under consideration was finally approved by the court and ordered to be laid before the county commissioners, and there, except an order mentioned below, endeth the record. The writer has thus fully noticed the applications for that bridge because the original one was the first application for a county bridge that was made to the first court held in this county, and drew forth 202 PLUM CREEK TOWNSHIP. from Mr. Woodward an offer that must have been quite liberal in those early days. An order was issued by the county commissioners September 21, 1814, for $137.33 for repairing the bridge across Crooked creek at Mr. Woodward's house. Another of his commendable acts was the building of a church near South Bend. The edifice was a log one, yet the offering was liberal, considering the means which he had, in common with other early emigrants. Absalom Woodward, Sr., had thirteen children, eight of whom survived him. His sons were Robert, Sharp, and Absalom. His daughters were Mrs. David Reynolds, Mrs. Leonard Shryock, Mrs. Richard Graham, Mrs. Anthony Montgomery, mother of ex-Sheriff Montgomery, Mrs. William D. Barclay, Mrs.,James Todd, Mrs. William Clark, mother of ex-Sheriff Clark, and Mrs. - Johnston. His other children died in early life. He died in 1833. Mrs. Jane Montgomery is the only one of his children still living, who is in her eighty-first year, having thus far survived her husband seven years. David Ralston, who married Miss Agnes Sharp, the second daughter of Capt. Andrew Sharp before mentioned, and the first white child born in this region, on this side of Crooked creek, was an early settler, having come to Allegheny, afterward Plum Creek, township, in 1800. His death was tragical. It occurred in 1809, at a log tavern, then kept on the farm formerly owned by Robert Woodward, and now by John Ralston. Among the persons stopping there, at the time, was a man who went out of the house, after dark, for the purpose of waylaying another against whom hlie had some grudge. Mr. Ralston soon after went out, and, having been taken for the one for whom the other was lying in wait, was struck with a club. The blow, thus inflicted, soon proved to be fatal. lie had in his life-time purchased, and resided on, the several tracts of land now occupied by Mrs. D. Ralston, Absalom Montgomery, and James McCracken, in the southeastern part of Plum Creek township. Ile left three children-David, who died several years since; John, still living at Elderton, and Mary, intermarried with William McCracken. Mrs. Ralston, some time after her husband's tragical death, married James Mitchell, father of James, Sharp, Alexander, and William Mitchell, Eliza, wife of A. W. Montgomery, Sally, wife of Samuel Moorhead, and Rebecca, wife of Robert Lytle. The other children of Captain Sharp not heretofore mentioned were Joseph Sharp, who lived for many years on Crooked creek, descendants of his still residing in that section, and Ann, wife of Andrew McCreight, and Margaret, wife of John McCullough. The ancient map of this county indicates the following tracts to have been originally surveyed within the present limits of this township, if the writer has correctly run its present boundary lines thereon: Jane Elliott, 306 acres; William Cowden, 290 acres, seated by Absalom Woodward; Benjamin Lesher, 304 acres; Joseph Dunlap, 2333 acres; Peter Deshong, 340 acres, seated by Benjamin Lowry; John Magot, 3711 acres, seated by Andrew Dormoyer; William Sausom, 406.8 acires, seated by Church Smith; Samuel Dilworth, 408 acres; Hugh Wason, 420.9 acres, "on the waters of the east branch of Cherry Run, about two miles west of the Kittanning Path," seated by William Nolder; John Young, 326 acres, seated by Jac. Rowley; John Alison, 382.56 acres, seated (140 acres) by Absalom Dornmoyer; Wm. Hurton, 307 acres; Joseph Burden, 362.4 acres, seated by Peter Altman; Robert Cooper, 302.1 acres, seated by John Willis; A. Woodward, 157.5 acres, seated by George Smith; Christopher McMichael and James Clark, 4871 acres; George Campbell, 302.122 acres, subsequently owned by Absalom Woodward; John Findley, 237 acres, seated by widow Ralston; John Biddle, collector of taxes in Berks county, Pennsylvania, prior to 1780, 343 acres, seated by James Kean; John Smith, 175 acres; John Davidson, 425.2 acres, seated by Geo. Smith; John Cooper, 302.1 acres, seated by Michael Rupert; Michael Campbell and J. Guthrie, 359.9 acres, seated (100 acres) by R. Sloan; R. McKinley and R. Sloan, 100 acres, seated by Hugh Elgin; William Wason, 310A acres; John Nolder, 188- acres, seated by J. Nolder; Isaac Anderson, 363.5 acres, seated by James Elgin, who, May 5, 1796, bought a part of it from Anderson for ~50 lawful money of this state; Sarah Elder, 3921 acres, seated by R. J. Elder; Jas. Blakeney, 1292 acres; John Levyzy, 324 acres, seated by McCain & Jordon; Abigail McAllister, 297- acres, mostly in Indiana county; Bartholomew Mather, 329 acres, seated by Samuel McCray; Nicholas Rittenhouse, 306 acres, seated by Moses McClean; Thos. Shields, two tracts, 803acres, partly in Indiana county; Arthur Chambers, 228.6 acres; John Eakey, 179- acres, seated by himself; Samuel Dixon, 193 acres, seated by Moses McClean; Thomas Taylor, 253.4 acres; Ann Parks, 327- acres, partly in Indiana county; Jacob Amos, 426.6 acres, partly in Cowanshannock township and Indiana county; Mary Semple, 438 acres; James Semple, 4113 acres; John Semple, 408-1 203 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. .acres. A patent for this tract was granted to Walter Finney, of Chester county, Pennsylvania, March 7, 1815, who and his wife conveyed 100 1 acres of it to Walter Templeton, January 1, 1816, "for the furtherance of the said Walter Templeton in his business of life, and also for the consideration of 50 cents to them in hand paid." Robert Semple, Sr., 365J acres, partly in Cowanshannock township, seated by Samuel Sloan; John Cummins Jr., 981 acres, seated by John Willis; John Cummins, 171A acres; Thomas Cummins, 169" acres; John Paul, 361 acres, seated by Willis & Lowery; Charles Leeper, 99- acres, seated by J. Guthrie; Joseph Mather, 282+ acres; John Fitzer, 364acres, partly in Cowanshannock township; Israel Morris, 322 acres; Samuel Morris,* 2911 acres; Thos. Morris, 329- acres (the last three tracts partly in Cowanshannock township); Larken Dorsey, 312.7 acres; Thomas Hutchinson, 300.8 acres, partly in Kittanning township; Robert Smith, 400+ acres, seated by Thos. Beer; George Meade, 3371 acres, seated by Absalom Hershberger; William Ewing, 3791 acres; Andrew Milligan, 435.8 acres, seated by Philip Rearigh (300 acres), and Alexander Nelson; Abigail Sargeant, 363.8 acres, seated by Geo. Boyer; Joseph Ogden, 334.9 acres; Robert Cogley, 435.8 acres; William Smith, 305.8 acres, seated by A. Craft; Christopher Miller, 305.8 acres; Thomas Hyde, 305.8 acres; Robert Towers, 3391 acres; Stephen Lowrey, 353.3 acres, seated by Robert Sturgeon; William King, 392 acres, seated by Robert Sturgeon; Andrew Craft, 256) acres, seated by Roley Coe; Elijah Brown, 330.4 acres, seated by Jacob Ruffner; Widow Elizabeth Kealer's improvement, about 240 acres; Tobias Long, 328 acres, seated by Archibald McIntosh; Nathan Burns; 256.6 acres; Jacob Stine, 319- acres, seated by Pat. Robb; James Burnsides, 321.6 acres, seated by Daniel Ruffner; Geo. Stine, 443 acres; Henry Stine, 4041 acres, seated by John Robb; Jeremiah Stine, 401 acres, seated by Wm. Moore; John Garret, 462.3 acres, surveyed to him, November 10, 1784, "on the path leading from Ligonier to Fort Armstrong, about six or seven miles from the fort." -TVar, July 1, 1784. James Elder, 343" acres, "on the Kittanning Path," seated by Sturgeon & McIntire; Charles Moore, 3061 acres; Thomas Moore, 319 acres; Samuel Preston Moore, 305.6 acres; Henry Hill, 315 acres, seated by Geo. Shick; John Carney, 2943 acres; Robert Elder, 3381 acres, seated by Robert Woodward; Jacob Evermonde, 346 acres, partly in South Bend, seated by Samuel George and W. Smith. *Samnuel Morris, Sr., was an original member of the Board of War, appointed by the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, March 12, 1777. The first assessment list of this township, made in 1811, shows that the valuation of the occupied lands varied from 25 cents to $1 per acre. One small tract of thirty acres was assessed to William Dotty at 121 cents an acre. The valuation of the unseated lands varied generally from 50 to 75 cents per acre, a few tracts at a dollar, and those of Timothy Pickering & Co., in what are now Wayne and Cowanshannock townships, at $2 an acre. There are not any unseated lands returned this year. The present valuation of the occupied lands ranges, generally, from $5 to $8, $10, $15, $20 and $37 an acre. E. K. Bloas' single acre is assessed at $150. The order for the survey of the Jane Elliott tract is dated April 3, 1769, and that for the William Cowden tract May 16 next ensuing. The dates of a number of the other original warrants are as early as 1773. On the 7th and 24th of January and the 7th of March, 1774, several of those tracts were sold by the warrantees to Richard Welles for five shillings per tract, each being described as containing 300 acres, viz.: the William Smith tract, "adjoining Jean McAllister, three or four miles from Tohoga's cabbins" (at the junction of Plum and Crooked creeks, on the west side of the former), "on the westerly branch of a large run that empties into Plumb creek;" the Charles Moore, Thomas Hyde, William Craig, Joseph Ogden, Samuel Israel and Thomas Morris tracts. Those and other tracts were sold one hundred and two years ago (counting from 1876) at the rate of five shillings for three hundred acres, as expressed in the deeds. Names were given to some, if not all, of these tracts. For instance: the Mary Semple tract was called "Norway; " the Nathan Burns tract, "Oran More," 156 acres 153 perches, conveyed by Burns to John McMullen October 16, 1807, for ~156 15s.; the George Stine tract, " Wheatfield;" the Isaac Anderson tract, " White-Oak Bottom; " the Jacob Stine tract, "Monmouth;" the Abigail Sargeant tract, "Wolf-harborer;" the Robert Elder tract, "above the trading path from Ligonier to Kittanning," 191 acres of which became vested in Peter Thomas, then in Absalom Woodward, and then in Robert Woodward, "Elder's Vale;" the William King tract, "Palace;" the Stephen Lowry tract, "Green Park," on a part of which this centennial anniversary of our national independence was observed by a large concourse of people of this section of the country.* Its various transfers are, * The question whether the Centennial anniversary of American independence should be suitably commemorated began to be agitated by the patriotic people of Plum Creek township and Elderton in the fore part of March, 1876. A committee of arrangements was appointed at a public meeting held soon after, consisting of J. A. 204 FOBEIT MAFSH}ALL. ROBERT MARSHALL. In the year 1803, William and Catharine Marshall came to Wayne township, Armstrong county, and settled upon Glade run, near the present town of Dayton, being the first settlers upon the stream named, and having no neighbors nearer than five miles. They had a family of six sons and three daughters, of whom Robert, the subject of this sketch, was next to the youngest. The names of the sons were Joseph, William, John, James, Robert and Samuel; and the daughters were Elizabeth (MeClelland), Mary (Findley), and Margaret (Irwin). Robert Marshall was born in what is now Indiana county (in the vicinity of Clarksburg), then Westmoreland, upon the 19th of August, 1799, and was consequently about four years of age when his parents became pioneers in Armstrong county. The family was unable to secure a title to the land on which they first located, and in 1813 moved to the spot where the home of William Marshall now is, where they built a house and lived the remainder of their allotted years. Robert Marshall passed his youth at this place, working upon the farm and taking advantage of the limited opportunies offered for obtaining an education. Upon the 4th of December, 1821, he was united in marriage with Miss Mary Huidman, who was born June 6, 1801, and reared in the same locality in which her husband was born. After their marriage this young couple moved on to Glade run, about a mile and a half from the site of Dayton, where they lived until Mr. Marshall bought the old homestead where his son William now lives. Upon this farm, as upon the one on which he formerly lived, he successfully carried on farming. In 1850 he took his sons into partnership in the management of his largely increased real estate, and they also opened a general store in Dayton, which was prosperously carried on. He sold his real estate to his sons in 1868, but retained his interest in the store until his death. Mr. and Mrs. Marshall were the parents of a large family of chil dren, of whom the following grew to maturity and survived them, viz.: William, Thomas H., Catharine (wife of J. W. Marshall), Caro line (Sloan), Emmeline, Mary (Lawson), and Rebecca K. (Reid). Cath arine has died since the demise of her parents. MlvS.FOBEfT MARSHALL. Mr. Marshall's first wife, and the mother of these children, died December 29, 1869. Upon the 25th of July, 1871, Mr. Marshall married his second wife, who survives him. Her name was Mary Jane Armstrong, and she was born September 14, 1834. After his second marriage, Mr. Marshall resided in the village of Dayton until his death, which occurred October 1, 1881, at the advanced age of eightytwo years. Robert Marshall was a strong, active man, well fitted to bear his part in the brunt of the great struggle which the first residents of this county made against the wilderness. Through his long life he was a conscientious and useful citizen, and esteemed by all who knew him. He took an active part in organizing the Dayton Union Academy, and was one of the originators of the Dayton Soldiers' Orphans' School, and its rheaviest stockholder. He lent assistance, both in influence and money, to almost every local project for the public good, and earnestly sought to advance the interests of the community in which he dwelt. He was a member of the Associate or Seceders' church, and, after its formation, of the United Presbyterian church. Of the Associate congregation of Glade run be was one of the founders, and its house of worship was built and a burying-ground for the congregation set apart upon land donated by him for those purposes. Politically he was a Whig, and subsequently a Republican. William Marshall, the oldest son of Robert, who lives upon the old homestead farm, was born September 24, 1822. In politics and church affiliation, he has followed in his father's footsteps, as also in general character and public usefulness. His occupation is farming, but he has some other business interests, among which are the store in Dayton, and the Enterprise Lumber Company. He is also a stockholder in the Dayton Soldiers' Orphans' School, and one of the supporters of the Dayton Union Academy. Mr. Marshall was mar ried April 19, 1860, to Mary Ann Blair, who was born two miles from Dayton, May 7, 1835. Their children are Laura D., C. R., Rebecca, Jemima, Caroline, Blair, and Tirzah. WILLIA,M MAF SHALL, D,A\/TON, PAi. R?ES. OF PLUM CREEK TOWNSHIP. therefore, fully given: Warrant to Stephen Lowry dated July, 1784, who by deed dated December 11, 1786, conveyed his interest therein to Isaac Franks, to whom the commonwealth issued a patent therefor dated February 17, 1800, who by deed dated January 10, 1807, conveyed to Samuel D. Franks, of Berks county, Pennsylvania, for "six hundred dollars specie in hand paid," who by deed dated January 1, 1814, conveyed the same to Robert Sturgeon for $600, who by deed dated August 23, 1819, conveyed 162 acres and 26 perches to Thomas Sturgeon for $500, who died intestate in October, 1870. Proceedings in partition were instituted to No. 26 March term, 1871, in the orphans' court of this county. The inquest found that this farm of Thos. Sturgeon could not be parted and divided to and among all his children without prejudice and spoiling the whole, and appraised the 191 acres and 84 perches which it was found to contain at $42 per acre, aggregating $8,044.05. Robert McIntosh, the administrator of the estate, was directed by the court to sell it, which he did by public outcry at Elderton February 28, 1873, to John A. Blaney for $5,937.27. Exceptions to that sale were filed, but overruled. The Bartholomew Mather tract was called "Matherton;" the Nicholas Rittenhouse tract, "Rittenhousen;" the Joseph Mather tract, "Josephton;" the Thomas Moore tract, "West Corner; " the Richard Wells tract, "Hope; " the Andrew Croft tract, " Contentment;" the John Davidson tract, " Chester;" the James Elder tract, "Eldridge Farm." The warrants for the Joseph Ogden, Thomas Blaney, chairman; D. B. Coulter, secretary; John Ralston, Robert Mcintosh, L. C. Gibson, J. M. Hunter, D. S. Fraily, T. A. McKee, N. S. McMillen, Wmin. Cessna and N. Reifer, Sr., who discharged their duties effectively and acceptably. A desire to partake in this celebration seized many patriotic people of the adjoining townships, so that early this morning large numbers started in carriages, wagons, on horseback and afoot fVom all directions for this point, this grove where a platform has been erected and other suitable arrangements made for the proper celebration of this Fourth of July, 1876. The number assembled here is estimated to have been nearly 3,0)0. Precisely at 10 o'clock A.31 Robert McIntosh, the chairman, announced that President Grant's proclamation suggesting and recommending the proper observance of this day would be read. The order of exercises arranged for this occasion was partly carried out, thus: Reading of the President's proc(damation by the chairman. An eloquent and patriotic prayer by Rev. Byron Porter. Whittier's Centennial Hymn, well rendered by a chorus of a hundred voices, accompanied by a part of the Elderton cornet band. Reading the Declaration of Independence by James M. Patton. Rendering the national hymn "America" by the chorus, accompanied by the band. Offering by the chairman the sentiment, "The Day We Celebrate," which elicited an eloquent and patriotic response from Rev. A. Cameron. Recess for dinner, which was bountifully spread from numerous baskets on white cloths upon the ground, and keenly relished by the multitude who partook of the choice edibles which good housewives and fair maidens had neatly and carefully prepared. The recalling of the assemblage to the platform by a spiritstirring piece, well rendered by the Kittanning cornet band. And, finally, the delivery of a portion of this historical sketch of Armstrong county, when, before the portion intend ed for this occasion was halt completed, the vast audience was suddenly dispersed by the unexpected approach of a violent storm of rain, thunder and lightning, and thus the remaining exercises that had been arranged for the remainder of the day were, by a stern necessity, omitted. 13 Moore, George Snyder and Richard Wells tracts, elsewhere mentioned, are respectively dated June 20, 1774. They aggregated 1,267 acres, and became vested in Thomas Cadwallader, of Philadelphia, Pa., who by deed, dated February 18, 1808, conveyed them, with several other tracts,* to John Young, the then president judge of the courts of this county. It has occasionally happened that land-owners have become permanently divested of their titles by treasurers' sales for non-payment of taxes. A case of this kind is the John Cooper tract, 302.1 acres, below Elderton, on the eastern branch of the run that empties into Crooked creek, a short distance below the mouth of Plum creek. It was sold in 1822, by Samuel Matthews, who was then county treasurer, to Robert Martin, who conveyed it to David Altman, Michael Rupert and George Smith. They having divided the tract, Altman's part was conveyed to George Rowley, January 14, 1824, who conveyed it to John Ralston, November 3, 1835, for $400. Within the last half century the changes of titles have been very numerous, and the original tracts have been divided, respectively, among several purchasers. Thus, the Thomas Moore tract, northwest of and near to Elderton, became vested in Samuel Sturgeon, who by deed, dated May 7, 1860, conveyed 181 acres of it toJames M. Christie for $3,000. Among the early settlers of this township were also Abraham Frantz, Jacob Allshouse, Matthew Rankin, Philip Rearigh, now the oldest man in the township, being in his eighty-seventh year, William Bleakney, John D)owns, William Johnston, William Todd Clark, Sr., Daniel, Henry and John Frailey, Samuel, John, Robert and James Nolder, John Repine, Robert Sturgeon (1807), William Graham, Sr., Archibald McIntosh, Daniel George, who several years ago celebrated the semi-centennial anniversary of his marriage, the Ruperts, too numerous to mention, James Elgin, George Smith, George Smith (Irish), Henry Smith, whose widow and eight children survive him, Samuel and William Sloan, Jacob Ilingensmith, A. Dunmire, George Otterman and William Moore. The last-named was a scout in Westmoreland county during the revolutionary and Indian wars. Among the papers which he left, now in the possession of his grandson, John Moore, are a certificate, appraisement of damages, and a discharge, of which the following are copies: * See sketch of Cowanshannock township. 205 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. I certify that William Moore of Westmoreland county hath voluntarily taken the oath of Allegiance and Fidelity as directed by an Act of General Asseinbly of Pennsylvania, passed the 13th day of June, anno Domini, 1777. Witness my hand and seal the 30th day of May, 1778. [L. s.] CHARLES FOREMAN. A bill of damage William Moore sustained by the Indians During the time of the late war in Hempfield township, Westmoreland county. Apraized to ~13 by us. A true copy. HuGui McKEE. JOhN SHIELDS. Octr ye 11th, 1784. (All of Mr. Moore's horses and stock were stolen several times, but he did not apply for an appraisement for damages, except in that instance, and he did so then because a favorite horse had been taken. His bill was not presented for payment.) I do certify that William Moore did belong to My Company and has proved to me that he is forty-five and is now honorably discharged. Given under my hand this 19th d(lay of May, 1798. JAMES IRWINE, Capt. Mr. Moore settled a mile and a quarter southwest of Whitesburgh, about 1816, and died December 7, 1827. The first metal plow, it is said, was introduced into this township, and into this region, about 1811-12, by James Elgin, who was very chary of it, gloried in it, and would not allow others to use it. Another man, without his consent, took hold of it and started a furrow at a plowing match or frolic. The plow having struck a stone or root, "kicked" and struck a fence, whereby both of its handles were broken. Elgin quickly showed his indignation at the liberty thus taken with his plow. The trespasser made light of it. An altercation of both words and blows ensued, in which the latter was knocked down. That mode of redressing grievances was not uncommon in those days, and yet the court was seldom occupied in disposing of indictments for assault and battery. Elgin had a chivalric sense of fair play, and in his attempt to maintain it on a certain occasion in an encounter between two other men, he broke one of his own fingers and left a permanent mark of his blow on the lower jaw of one of the combatants. The first assessment list of Plum Creek township, while of course its territory was intact, indicates that there were in it then, 1811, two gristmills and sawmills, owned respectively by James and William Clark and Peter Thomas; seven distilleries, owned respectively by William George, William Johnston (two), William Kirkpatrick, James Kirkpatrick, Church Smith, George Smith and John Willis; one hatter, Williamn Fiscus, and one innkeeper, Absalom Woodward; number of taxables, 120; population, allowing 45 persons to a taxable, 598. The mills owned by Peter Thomas, on the Robert Elder tract, were the only ones then within the present limits of the township. There are at present four gristmills in this township: J. Graham's, on Cherry Run, a little north of west from Elderton; the Peter Thomas mill, now owned by Prince & McGerry, on Plum creek, nearly a mile in an air line northeast from Elderton; the Fleming mill, on the north branch of Plum creek, a little more than half a mile above its junction; and James Johnston's on Plum creek, a few rods west of the Indiana county line. The township map of this year indicates the present number of sawmills to be three: J. Ralston's, about 165 rods above Crooked creek, on the first run west of Plum creek; T. A. McKee's, on Cherry Run, about three-fourths of a mile below Graham's gristmill, and J. A Johnston's, on the longest eastern branch of Plum creek, about 100 rods west of the Indiana county line. CHURCHES. Plum Creek Presbyterian church was organized by the " Old Redstone Presbytery" prior to 1830. The congregation, about that year, erected a stone edifice about two miles northeast of Elderton, between Plum creek and one of its western branches. The facts of its early history are obscure. Rev. E. D. Barrett, a graduate of Williams College, and a classmate of William Cullen Bryant, gave one half his time to that church for one year, i. e., some one year while he was pastor of Glade Run church. He, Bryant, and Charles F. Sedgwick, of Sharon, Connecticut, are the only surviving members of their class in this centennial year. That church was demitted in 1839 on account of the dilapidated condition of the edifice, its remoteness from Elderton and the organization of another church, so that it seldom afterward had even supplies. The Blairsville Presbytery disbanded it in 1845 and attached its members to other churches. The Cherry Run Presbyterian church was organized by the Blairsville Presbytery in 1844. Its edifice is a neat frame, situated about a hundred rods southeast of Whitesburgh, on the Kittanning and Indiana turnpike. This church was supplied by the late Rev. John Stark until 1858, he having dissolved his connection with the Associate Reformed and having been ordained as an Evangelist in the Presbyterian church. After his labors ceased Rev. M. M. Shirley was its pastor until 206 PLUM CREEK TOWNSHIP. 1866; Rev. G. K. Scott from 1867 to 1869; it has since been supplied. Members, 92; Sabbath-school scholars, 85. The Methodist Episcopal church edifice, also a neat frame, is situated near the Presbyterian at this point. The church is in the Knox circuit. St. Thomas is the name of both the Reformed and Lutheran church, at the point of the disbanded Plum Creek Presbyterian church abovementioned. There appears to be no record of the time when the Reformed congregation was organized. Rev. Wilhelm Weissel, as is still remembered by certain individuals, preached for some time at the house of John Thomas in that vicinity, and continued to be the pastor until about 1851. His successors have been Revs. T. A. Boyer and Frederick Wise. Members, 44; Sabbath-school scholars, 35. The Lutheran church at this point was organized about 1850, and was occasionally supplied until 1856. For thirteen years thereafter Rev. Michael Sweigert was its pastor. His successor, the present pastor, is Rev. J. Wright. Members, 38; Sabbath-school scholars, so80. The erection of the present St. Thomas church edifice was commenced in the summer of 1867the cornerstone was laid in the fall, Revs. Michael Sweigert, F. Wise and J. Wright officiating, and the dedication occurred in the following winter. The building committee consisted of Geo. Rearich, John Sell and Luke Bierer. The building is frame, 50 X45 feet. The consistory of the Reformed congregation then consisted of Abraham Jewell and Jacob Thomas, elders, and Herman Rearich and Nicholas Reefer, deacons. The Mount Union Reformed Congregation was organized at the McCullough schoolhouse by Rev. Frederick Wise, May 28, 1864. The members of the first consistory were Elders Philip Rupert and Aaron Smith, and Deacons Obadiah Rupert and Adam Smith. The congregation soon after prepared to build a church edifice, and received assistance from individual members of other denomi. nations. During the progress of the building a Lutheran congregation was organized and took a half interest therein. Its site is about two and a half miles southwest of Elderton. The cornerstone was laid June 23, 1869, on which occasion Revs. Frederick Wise, J. J. Pennypacker and J. F. Wiant, of the Reformed, Revs. Jonathan Sarver and J. R. Melhorn, of the Lutheran, and Rev. Byron Porter, of the United Presbyterian church, took part in the exercises. This church, dual in faith and in the election of officers, but one and joint in the ownership of the church property-in these respects like the St. Thomas church-was dedicated October 23, 1870, and the congregations were incorporated by the proper court December 15, 1871.* The edifice caught fire, in the midst of communion services, which prevented their completion, on Sabbath, January 9, 1873, and was consumed. A new brick edifice-the present one50X40 feet, was soon after erected on its site by the joint contributions of the two congregations, and was dedicated June 7, 1874. The number of members of the Mount Union Lutheran church is 50; Sabbath-school scholars, 40. St. Paul's Reformed, under the charge of Rev. A. K. Kline, a little more than two miles northeast from Whitesburgh, has over one hundred members, and its Sabbath-school nearly as many. The St. Thomas church, about six miles and seven-eighths north of Elderton, has about fifty members. The German Baptist or Dunkard church was detached from the Cowanshannock church in or about 1863, and then organized into the Plum Creek church. The edifice is frame and is situated nearly a mile southeast of Elderton, on the John Davidson tract, called in the patent " Chester," on land now owned by Tobias Kimmell. This church has since its organization been under the charge of Rev. Lewis Kimmell, who has also devoted much of his time to teaching public and normal schools in that locality. Church members, 100; Sabbathschool scholars, 50. One of the five Sabbath-schools in this township is a Union school, i.e. consisting of scholars belonging to different denominations. SCHOOLS. The first schoolhouse within what are the present limits of Plum Creek township was erected in 1792 on what is now John Sturgeon's farm, in the northeastern part of the township, a half a mile or more westerly from an old blockhouse just over the Indiana county line. That schoolhouse was such a one of the primitive temples of knowledge as are elsewhere described in this work. It was built by the Hoovers, Johnstons, Repines and Templetons, who were early settlers in that region. Robert Orr Shannon was the first teacher within its walls. Another schoolhouse was built a few years afterward on land then belonging to Absalom Woodward, Sr., about fifty rods east of what is now called Idaho mill, in the southeastern part of the township. "The charter members of the Lutheran Congr(gation were- Rev. J. Wiight, the pastor. Win. Davis, Andrew )unnie S. A. Kiappenberger, David landis. A. Linsent igler, Adam I ong, Alvh, Andrew, I)avid. Edward, James, Philip (of J.) and Samuel hupert, John Sheaftr, Samuel and Joseph Young. Of the Reformed (ongregation- Vev. Frederick Wise, pastor; Samuel -, JosiAh Boyer, Adam, E. W., F. M., G. W., Josi h F., Joseph, (badiah, Philip, Ralston and Wilson Rupert, J. F. Shoup and A. Smith. 207 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. The first teacher there is said to have been a Mr. Donahoo. He taught in that house as late as 1802. Mrs. Jane Montgomery, widow of Anthony Montgomery, was then one of his pupils. The barbarous custom of barring out teachers was then in vogue, in case they refused to treat their scholars on holidays. Donahoo refused to do so on one of these occasions and was barred out. As he persisted in refusing to treat them, Abraham Woodward, Sr., as it is related, suggested to the boys that they had better let him enter the schoolroom, and then bar him in. They did so and succeeded in making him comply with their demand. When the teacher's compensation depended, to so great an extent as it did in former times, on the good will of his pupils, it may have been politic for him to have treated them on holidays. Robert Sturgeon, now one of the oldest inhabitants in this region, remembers that there was in 1803 a log schoolhouse about 125 rods west of Cherry Run, and nearly a mile southeast of Whitesburgh, near the road from Kittanning to Elderton, on land now occupied by Peter George; one in the southwestern part of the township, on land now occupied by J. Roley, the teacher in which was Cornelius Roley. Robert McIntosh remembers an old schoolhouse on the old state road from Indiana to Kittanning, about 200 rods southeast from Whitesburgh, on land formerly owned by Henry Ruffner, but afterward by William S. St. Clair, in which a teacher by the name of Cook taught in 1810-12; one nearly a mile northeast of Elderton, on the public road leading thence to Plumville, in which Rev. John Kirkpatrick, of Greenville, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, was the teacher for several terms, from 1812 until 1815. There was a schoolhouse in the northwestern part of the township, on a western branch of Cherry Run, on land now occupied by J. Boyer, in 1832, one of the teachers in which was Miss Ann Fulton, who, it is said, succeeded admirably as a teacher and a disciplinarian. Anthony O'Baldain, educated for a Catholic priest, was one of the early teachers. John Sturgeon taught from 1846 till 1874, i. e., twenty-eight consecutive terms. All of these schoolhouses were primitive log ones. The free school system was readily adopted in 1835, and the requisite number of a rather better kind of log houses were erected, at suitable distances, throughout the township, which have since been replaced by comfortable frame ones. In 1860, the number of schools was 14; average number of months taught, 4; male teachers, 11; female teachers, 3; average salaries of male, per month, $12; average salaries of female, $12; male scholars, 387; female scholars, 325; average number attending school, 396; amount levied for school purposes, $1,100; for building, $300; received from state appropriation, $176.61; from collectors, $1,057.79; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 31 cents; cost of instruction, $672; fuel and contingencies, $195; building, renting, repairing schoolhouses, $310. In 1876 the number of schools (exclusive of three in that part of South Bend taken from the Plum Creek township) was 14; average number of months taught, 5; male teachers, 11; female teachers, 3; average salaries, male, per month, $30.45; average salaries, female, per month, $27; male scholars, 310; female scholars, 248; average number attending school, 375; cost per month, 77 cents; amount of tax levied for school and building purposes, $3,644.57; received from state appropriation, $407.34; from taxes, etc., $2,827.71; cost of schoolhouses, $771.05; teachers' salaries, $2,080; fuel, contingencies, collectors' fees, etc., $384. The chief occupation of the people of this township has been agricultural. The assessment list for this year shows the number of clergymen to be 4; physicians, 2; laborers, 52; blacksmiths, 3; millers, 3; wagonmakers, 2; peddlers, 2; mason, 1; saddler, 1; shoemaker, 1; gentleman, 1. Mercantile-Number of stores, 5; in 12th class, 1; in 13th class, 1; in 14th class, 3. POSTAL. The mail matter for the people of this township is received at the Atwood, Elderton, South Bend, and Whitesburgh postoffices. The last-named is the only one in this township. It was established May 3, 1861, John A. Blaney being the first and present postmaster. Whitesburgh is a small village, named after the late Major James White, who about 1828 surveyed and laid out its lots. It contains several dwellinghouses, a store, blacksmith-shop, carpenter-shop, hotel, and an office or offices of two physicians, Drs. Parke and Kelly. A short distance west of this village and elsewhere in its vicinity are grand, extensive, and picturesque views of the surrounding country. SOME MENTIONABLE EVENTS. A military company, bearing the name of Crooked Creek Rangers, was organized many years since. It consisted of about fifty or sixty men residing along Crooked Creek and its vicinity, from across the Indiana county line down toward its mouth. 208 PLUM CREEK TOWNSHIP. The uniform consisted of a homemade linen hunting shirt, dyed in a color like that of tan-bark juice, buckskin breeches, and a cap surmounted with a coon's, fox's or deer's tail, and each member of the company, at least each private, was armed with a rifle. When that company was organized and disbanded, and who were its officers, the writer has not been able to ascertain. On Friday, March 28, 1828, occurred a circular fox hunt. The circle began at the house of Capt. Joseph Sharp; thence to Robert Walker's, on Crooked Creek; thence to where the state road crossed near Israel Thomas'; thence to James Speddy's; thence to Robert Woodward's mill ("Elder's Vale"); thence to Plum Creek bridge; and thence to the place of beginning. It was arranged that all the sections should move at the blowing of the horns, precisely at 9: 30 o'clock A. M. A few days before July 12, 1837, occurred a heavy rain which raised the waters of Plum creek several feet higher than they had ever before been known to have been by the oldest inhabitants. The principal portion of the fences, grain, timothy, clover and other crops along the valley were destroyed. A large number of hogs were drowned. One farmer l6st more than a dozen in one pen. A new bridge on the Kittanning and Indiana turnpike, and a less valuable one higher up the creek, were swept away. No lives were lost. On Thursday night, December 29, 1838, the steam gristmill on Plum creek, formerly owned by Peter Thomas, but then by Robert Woodward, was destroyed by fire, together with two carding machines, belonging to James C. Fleming, and 1,800 bushels of grain, which the people of the surrounding country had deposited there. Hence, that fire was not only a private, but a public calamity. The Plum Creek Farmers' Mutual Insurance Company was incorporated by the proper court, December 7, 1874. Its object is the compensation of its members for losses occasioned by fire. There have been a goodly number of staunch friends of the temperance cause in this township, notwithstanding the vote for granting license to sell liquor was 161, and that against it 86. . ELD)ERTON Is on the tract called "Wheatfield," which was originally surveyed on a warrant, dated August 18, 1786, to Sarah Elder, to whom a patent therefor was issued, April 14, 1799. By her last will and testament she devised that tract to Joshua Elder, who by deed of gift, dated June 19, 1818, conveyed it to Robert J. Elder, who, November 20, 1822, laid out 141 acres thereof into 41 town lots, fronting on Turnpike and Saline streets, which cross each other at right angles. Their width is sixty feet, and that of the various alleys is from twelve to sixteen feet. These lots were surveyed by James White. They are all, except three, 66X 165 feet. The course of Turnpike street is north 22 degrees west; of Saline street, south 78 degrees west; and that of the southeasterly line of the town plot is north 89 degrees west. The original shape of the town was nearly that of a cross. Mr. Elder, when he laid it out, named it New Middletown, and it is so designated in some of the early court records and assessment lists. The first house erected in it was a small log one, which was kept as a tavern by William Elgin, whose sign was about 18X8 inches, nailed to a stick stuck in a stump with this inscription on it: " Oats and whiskey for sale." Mr. Elder then lived in a house afterward occupied by John R. Adams, on a farm now owned by Matthew Pettigrew. The first assessment list of New Middletown appears to have been in 1824, thus: Thomas Armstrong, lot No. 10, valued at $1; William D. Barclay, lots Nos. 17, 20, 21, 2 houses, $8; William Coulter, lot No. 3, 1 house, $2.50; Daniel Elgin, lots Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9, 38, 1 house, $5.68; Samuel George, lot No. 13, $1; John George, lot No. 12, $1; Dr. Leonce Hoover, lots Nos. 19, 34, 1 house, 1 horse, 1 head cattle, $3.50; John Kees, blacksmith, 1 house, 2 lots, $25; William McLaughlin, 1 house, 3 lots, $25; Moses Miller, lot No. 31, $1.12; Samuel Sturgeon, lots Nos. 41, 15, $3.50; Robert Woodward, lots Nos. 27, 28, 29, $3.50. The respective valuations of 20 unseated lots varied from 29 cents to $5. Among the earliest citizens of this town were Thomas Armstrong, tailor, afterward justice of the peace; Zack Kerr, chairmaker; Hamlet Totten, shoemaker; Joseph Klingenberger, saddler; Will iam Lytle and William D. Barclay, merchants; Daniel Elgin and William Coulter, innkeepers, the latter of whom was justice of the peace for nineteen years; John and William Elgin, Robert Richey, George Shryock, A. W. Clark, George Smith, James Clark, now of Indiana, Pennsylvania, who established the tannery now owned by Charles Rosborough. John Ralston traded a horse with the late Robert Woodward for the lot on which he still lives, which he grubbed with his own hands. He and William Lytle entered into partnership in the mercantile business in 1831, which they carried on in the room now occupied by Dr. J. M. St. Clair. Among the later settlers were, as the writer is informed, Andrew Kimmel, Drs. Meeker, Kelly 209 BLANKET HILL. all the houses were fired. Although the spreading out of that part of the force on the hill appeared to be necessary, it nevertheless prevented an examination of the cornfield and river-side. Thus some scalps, and probably some squaws, children and English prisoners, were left behind that might have otherwise been secured. Nearly thirty houses were fired, and while they were burning, the ears of Col. Armstrong and his men were regaled by the successive discharges of loaded guns, and still more so by the explosion of sundry bags and large kegs of powder stored away in every house. The English prisoners, after their recapture, said that the Indians had often told them that they had ammunition enough to war ten years with the English. The leg and thigh of an Indian and a child three years old were thrown, when the powder exploded, with the roof of Capt. Jacobs' house, so high that they appeared as nothing, and fell into an adjacent corn-field. A large quantity of goods which the Indians had received from the French ten days before was burned. Col. Armstrong then went to the hill to have his wound tied up and the blood stopped. Then the English prisoners, who had come to his men in the morning, informed him that on that very day two batteaux of Frenchmen, with Delaware and French Indians, were to join Capt. Jacobs at Kittanning, and to set out early the next morning to take Fort Shirley, and that twenty-four warriors who had lately arrived were sent before them the previous evening, whether to prepare meat, spy the fort, or make an attack on the frontier settlements, these prisoners did not know. Col. Armstrong and others were convinced, on reflection, that those twenty-four warriors were all at the fire the night before, and began to fear the fate of Lieut. Hogg and his party. They, therefore, deemed it imprudent to wait to cut down the corn, as they had designed. So they immediately collected their wounded and forced their way back as well as they could, by using a few Indian horses. It was difficult to keep the men together on the march, because of their fears of being waylaid and surrounded, which were increased by a few Indians firing, for awhile after the march began, onl each wing, and then running off, whereby one man was shot through the legs. For several miles the march did not exceed two miles an hour. BLANKET HILL. On the return of Col. Armstrong and his force to the place where the Indian fire had been discovered the night before, they met a sergeant of Capt. Mercer's company and two or three others of his men who had deserted that morning immediately after the action at Kittanning, who, in running away, had met Lieut. Hogg, lying by the roadside, wounded in two parts of his body, who then told them of the fatal mistake which had been made by the pilot in assuring them that there were only three Indians at the fireplace the previous night, and that when he and his men attacked the Indians that morning, according to orders, he found their number considerably superior to his own. He also said that he believed he had killed or mortally wounded three of the Indians at the first fire; that the rest fled, and he was obliged to conceal himself in a thicket, where he might have lain safely if "that cowardly sergeant and his co-deserters," as Col. Armstrong stigmatizes them in his report, had not removed him. When they had marched a short distance four Indians appeared and those deserters fled. Lieut. Hogg, notwithstanding his wounds, with the true heroism of a brave soldier, was still urging and commanding those about him to stand and fight, but they all refused. The Indians then pursued, killed one man and inflicted a third wound upon the gallant lieutenant -in his belly- from which hlie died in a few hours, having ridden on horseback seven miles from the place of action. That sergeant also represented to Col. Armstrong that there was a much larger number of Indians there than had appeared to them to be; that they fought five rounds; that he had seen Lieut. Hogg and several others killed and scalped; that he had discovered a number of Indians throwing themselves before Col. Armstrong and his force, which, with other such stuff, caused confusion in the colonel's ranks, so that the officers had difficulty in keeping the men together, and could not prevail on them to collect the horses and baggage which the Indians had left, except a few of the horses, which some of the bravest of the men were persuaded to secure. From the mistake of the pilot in underrating the number of Indians at the fire the night before, and the cowardice of that sergeant and the other deserters, Col. Armstrong and his command met with a considerable loss of their horses and baggage, which had been left, as before stated, with Lieut. Hogg and his detachment when the main force made their detour to Kittanning. Many blankets were afterward found on the ground where Lieut. Hogg and his small force were defeated by the superior number-about double-of their Indian foes. Hence that battlefield has ever since borne the name of " Blanket Hill." It is oni the farm of Philip Dunmire, in Kittanning township, to the right, going east, of HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. and Allison. The last-named was a surgeon in the army during the war of the rebellion, and for several years past, he and his son, a native of Elderton, have practiced in Kittanning. It was in Elderton that Dr. David Alter first experimented in telegraphing, respecting which he says in a recent letter to the present writer: "In 1836, while engaged in experimenting in electro-magnetism, in Elderton, I received the idea that the galvanic current could be made available for telegraphing by causing the deflection of magnetic needles, and in accordance made a plan for pointing out the letters of the alphabet by deflection, and was successful at the distance of 120 feet. But having no time nor means to pursue the subject then, I neglected it and did not apply for a patent." There was presented December 8, 1858, to the proper court of this county, a petition of citizens of the town of Elderton, then in Plum creek township, setting forth that they labored under many disadvantages and inconveniencies for want of corporate privileges, and praying to be incorporated under the act of April 3, 1851. That petition was referred to the grand jury, who returned to the court that it was expedient to grant the prayer of the petitioners. On the next day, March 9, the court made the requisite decree incorporating that town into the borough of Elderton. It is provided by that decree that the electors of the borough of Elderton and the township of Plum creek might join in electing a judge and two inspectors of election, before whom the elections of the township and the borough might thereafter be held-the ballots to be deposited in separate ballot boxes, except those cast for judge and inspectors. The boundaries of the borough were: "Beginning at a post on lands of William Bleakney; thence south 711 degrees west 120 perches to a post in land of John Ralston; thence north 181 degrees west 183 perches to a stump on land of John R. Adams; thence north 714- degrees, east 120 perches to a post in land of Robert M. Gibson; thence south 181 degrees east 183 perches to the place of beginning," containing 1371 acres. The first borough election was directed to be held at the house of Henry Smith, on the first Friday of April, 1859, of which Robert Martin was appointed judge and Robert T. Robinson and William S. Cummins, inspectors. Notice of that election was to be given by the constable of Plum creek township. Subsequent borough elections were to be held at the time of holding elections of township officers, which was on Friday next preceding the first Monday of March until changed to the third Tuesday of February by section three, article eight, of the present constitution of this state. The first borough officers were: Burgess, William Lytle; members of town council, Robert Martin, William S. Cummins, Robert T. Robinson, BrysonI Henderson, Joseph Henderson; street commissioner, John Ralston; assessor, IHenry Smith, assistant assessors, R. M. Gibson, G. W. Burkett; auditor, D. W. Hawk; constable, Elias Kepple; overseers of the poor, William Alexander, Noah Keifer; school directors, John H. Morrison, Joseph Klingenberger, Anderson Henderson, William Haslett, G. W. Burkett, Charles Rosborough. By act of March 23, 1865, the burgess and town council were empowered to vacate and supply so much of the Ebensburgh and Butler pike as lay within the borough limits. By act of March 9, 1872, the burgess and town council were authorized to compel by ordinance the owners of property fronting on any of the streets to pave the sidewalks ten feet in front of their respective lots and keep them in good order and repair. In case any owner or owners refuse or neglect to pave, the borough authorities can have the paving of such sidewalks done and enter up liens for the cost of the labor and material within sixty days of the completion of the work, having first given thirty days' notice. CHURCHES. The United Presbyterian congregation of Elderton was organized December 25, 1854, as an Associate Presbyterian congregation, with thirty-two members, as follows: VWm. Lytle, Mrs. Mary Lytle, Miss Elizabeth Lytle, Mrs. Nancy Henderson, W. S. Cummins, Hugh Elgin, Mrs. Mary Elgin, James Elgin, Mrs. Mary Elgin, Jr., Samuel George, Mrs. Eliza George, Miss Sarah MeCreight, Mrs. Elizabeth Rupert, Mrs. Jane Clark, Mrs. Eliza Montgomery, Mrs. Martha Martin, John Ralston, Mrs. Jane Ralston, Mrs. Nancy Mitchell, Miss Nancy Mitchell, David McCullough, Sr., Robert McCullough, Mrs. Nancy Cullough, David Rankin, Mrs. L. A. Rankin, Mathew Rankin, Mrs. Margaret Rankin, Mrs. Mary Rankin, Sr., John Rankin, Mrs. Mary Rankin, Jr., Mrs. Jane Henderson, James McCreight. Wm. Lytle and James McCreight were elected ruling elders at the time of the organization. Rev. Byron Porter, the first pastor, was installed in July, 1856. For three years Mr. Porter preached at Elderton one-third of his time, and from that until his death, which occurred November 28, 1876, 210 'THOMAS H. MARSHALL-, pAF(.THOtS H. MARS HALL. hwy REFs. OF THOMAS H. MAR SHALL,I DAY{TOh, P,APLUM CREEK TOWNSHIP. one-half time. Mr. Porter's pastorate was quite prosperous, the congregation having a membership of over one hundred at his death. Until 1862 the congregation worshiped in a brick house which had been erected in 1849 as a Union church by the Presbyterians and Associate Presbyterians of the community. In 1862 the United Presbyterian congregation built the present house of worship, a single-story frame structure, at a cost of about $3,000. The house was not completed and occupied until 1863. Robert McIntosh and David Rankin were ordained elders August 16, 1856. Brice Henderson, W. S. Cummins, Robert McCullough and William Smith were ordained elders November 15, 1861. The session was further strengthened by the addition of S. B. McNeal, November 5, 1864; Alexander Hunter, October 21, 1865; and Thomas Sturgeon and John M. Hunter, October 3, 1879. Wm. Lytle died August 17, 1873, S. B. McNeal in 187-, and David Rankin October 6, 1880. William Smith and Alexander Hunter were certified in 1872, and W. S. Cummins in 1878; Messrs. McCreight, McIntosh, Henderson, McCullough, Sturgeon and J. M. Hunter form the session at this time. Rev. J. Buff-Jackson was installed pastor of this congregation in connection with Shelocta, Indiana county, December 11, 1877, and so continues at this time. There are at present one hundred and thirty names on the roll of the congregation. The following are the names of the present members given as nearly as possible in the order of their admission: Mrs. Mary Lytle, James Elgin, Mrs. Mary Elgin, Mrs. Jane Clark, Mrs. Eliza Montgomery, Mrs. Martha Martin, Robert McCullough, Mrs. L. A. Rankin, John Rankin, Mrs. Mary Rankin, Harvey M. Rankin, Mrs. Bell J. Clarke, Miss Clara B. Rankin, Mrs. Permelia Sturgeon, R. A. McCracken, Mrs. Bell McCullough, Mrs. Nancy B. McCullough, Hugh E. Rankin, Hugh H. Elgin, Mrs. Annie M. Rankin, Miss M. Ella Sturgeon, Mrs. Carrie M. Jackson, Miss M. N. Henderson, John M. Kepple, Cyrus M. Yount, Byron Porter, Joseph Fry, Mrs. Jane Fry, Mrs. Mary M. McCullough, Miss Maggie J. McCullough, Miss Amanda J. Elgin, Miss Mary A. Bleakney, Miss Iris J. Armstrong, Miss Annie M. McCreight, Miss Ella Hunter, E. L. Porter, John M. Rankin, Mrs. Mary A. Rankin, Mrs. Agnes J. McCullough, Miss Bell J. Rankin, Alexander Rankin, Mrs. Clara E. Rankin, Mrs. M. E. Harman, Miss Emma J. Painter, Miss Nancy J. Sturgeon, Miss Mary E. Lytle, Mrs. H. J. Ralston, Mrs. Elizabeth Keener, Miss A. B. Montgomery, Mrs. M. J. Ramsey, A. W. Bleakney, R. M. Keener, Mrs. E..J. Ralston, Mrs. Emma Smith, Mrs. S. A. Henderson, John R. Porter, W. D. McCullough, Mrs. Lizzie Lightner, Miss Bell J. Sturgeon, Miss Miss N. E. McCullough, T. N. Ralston, James A. Smith, John Ramsey, Mrs. Mary Ramsey, William Ramsey, L. C. Gibson, Mrs. C. Gibson, W. B. Sturgeon, A. B. Ramaley, Mrs. M. Kepple, Mrs. Bell Kaylor, Mrs. Callie Yount, Miss Clara I. Sturgeon, Miss Mary E. McNeal, James Smith, Mrs. Margaret Smith, Mrs. Nancy Schrecengost, Miss Della M. Rankin, Miss Bell H. Elgin, Alexander Clarke, Thomas A. McCullough, Alexander McCullough, Mrs. Jane Moore, James McCreight, Robert McIntosh, John McCullough, Mrs. Elizabeth McCullough, Mrs. Nancy M. Sturgeon, Brice Henderson, Thomas Sturgeon, Mrs. M. A. McIntosh, Mrs. Lois Armstrong, Mrs. Catherine Clark, Mrs. Julia A. Smith, Miss Maggie McIntosh, Miss Ellen McIntosh, Mrs. Mary Bleakney, Mrs. Jane M. McCreight, B. W. Armstrong, Mrs. Mary J. Armstrong, William Sturgeon, Mrs. Nancy Sturgeon, Mrs. Jane Sturgeon, Miss Nancy Bleakney, Mrs. Nancy McConnell, Mrs. Elizabeth Dixon, Miss Sarah Smith, William Armstrong, Mrs. Sarah Sturgeon, Mrs. Lydia A. Frailey, Mrs. M. J. Henderson, Mrs. Mary A. Elgin, John M. Hunter, Mrs. Emma Hunter, D. A. Ralston, Mrs. Catherine Bleakney, Mrs. M. J. Ramaley, Mrs. A. M. Porter, M. C. Ramaley, S. W. Smith, Miss E. I. Montgomery, Mrs. S. J. McCullough, Miss Ella E. Armstrong, Miss Alice B. Graham, W. Hays Elgin, T. Porter Sturgeon. The Presbyterian church was organized by the Blairsville Presbytery in 1855. Rev. Wm. F. Morgan was its pastor one-third of the time until his death. The edifice is frame, 40X50 feet, on the northwest corner of Turnpike street and the street leading into the Rural Village road. Members, 85; Sabbath-school scholars, 75. The Methodist Episcopal church is one of the churches belonging to the Elderton circuit, at priesent under the charge of the Rev. A. Cameron. The edifice is frame, and is situated on the extreme lot, as yet laid out and occupied, on the right-hand side of Saline street, as the observer faces southwest, near the present borough line. Members in that circuit, 230; Sabbath-school scholars, 280. SCHiiOOLS. As early as, perhaps earlier than, 1826 there was an organization called the "New Middletown Schoolhouse Stockholders," to whom Robert J. Elder conveyed, for the sum of ten dollars, a lot containing ninety-two and seven-tenths perches adjoining, or nearly so, this town, on which a schoolhouse was erected, and the first school 211 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. taught in it by Josiah Elder in 1828. That lot has been for years included within the borough limits* The building is frame. The school board contemplate securing the two lots adjoining that one and erecting thereon a creditable brick schoolhouse. In 1860 the number of schools was 1; months taught, 7; male teacher, 1; salary per month, $20; male scholars, 31; female scholars, 34; average number attending school, 53; cost teaching each per month, 39 cents; amount levied for school purposes, $175; received from collector, $175; expended-cost of instruction, $150; fuel and contingencies, $25. In 1876 there was one school; months taught, 7; male teacher, 1; salary per month, $40; male scholars, 30; female scholars, 35; average number attending school, 56; cost per month, 66 cents; levied for school and building purposes, $281.92; received-from state- appropriation, $75.33; from taxes, etc., $315.92; cost of schoolhouse, $14; teacher's salary, $280; fuel, contingencies, etc., $32.94. The Elderton Academy was founded in 1865. The edifice is frame, one story, eighteen feet high, about 60 X 30 feet, with two rooms, and situated on the left-hand side of Turnpike street, the observer facing southeast, on the ninth block below Saline street. The instructors have been competent, and the average attendance of students about forty. A brass band, consisting of fifteen pieces, organized a few years since, is one of the best in the county. TEMPERANCE. There has been for many years a strong temperance element in this place. The vote against granting license was 30, and for it, 8. SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETY. On the reception of the news of the first great battle in the war of the rebellion, and on the first intimation given that various articles were needed to make the sick and wounded Union soldiers comfortable, the ladies of Elderton and Plum Creek immediately, even on the Sabbath day, commenced preparing lint and bandages and collecting delicacies to be forwarded to the suffering with all possible dispatch, and this was continued for a considerable time before an association was regularly organized. Much-there is no record of how much-was thus done, some sending their contributions to individual soldiers whom they knew. Toward the latter part of the war an account was kept of the money and articles contributed. The aggregate of the former was $169.99, which the society expended for material on which they expended their labor. Thirteen pages, thirteen by eight inches, are filled with entries of shirts, drawers, packages of bandages, dried fruits, canned fruits, vegetables, etc., received and forwarded through the sanitary commission to the army. The money value of all the contributions made by this society from first to last cannot now be estimated, but it is fair to state that the gross amount, if accurately known, would appear to be highly creditable to the humanity and patriotism of those by whom it was contributed. GEOLOGICAL. An approximate idea of the geological features around Elderton and throughout Plum creek township is derivable from the following compilation from "Rogers' Geology of Pennsylvania:" On Crooked creek, 2- miles below Plum creek, the upper Freeport coal is seen 12 feet above the creek, and 42 inches thick as exposed; it soon dips under the stream. In the bend of Crooked creek the red and variegated shales of the Barren measures, with nodules of hematitic ore, occur 45 feet above the stream and fragments of green fossiliferous limestone.30 feet above it. The Pittsburgh coal occurs upon the upland surface threequarters of a mile southeast of this point on Crooked creek. The black limestone strata are seen rising west under the greenish strata, one quarter of a mile below the bend, and 20 feet above the creek. Over a dark greenish stratum 10 inches thick lies a nodular limestone 5 inches thick; this, again, is capped by green shales. Half a mile below this the upper Freeport coal rises to a hight of 51 feet above the water level, and is opened 31 feet thick; roof bituminous shale, 1 feet thick. The ferriferous limestone rises from the creek at Heath's; it is full of small bivalves (terebratula, etc.), is flinty, thinly stratified, dark blue, and 5 feet thick. A quarry of silicious sandstone, greenishgray and splitting into slabs, has been blasted in the strata, 20 feet above the limestone, which slabs are used for tombstones in Elderton. Sandstones are largely developed in the bed of the creek below the next sawmill. A coal bed 1 feet thick is there, from 20 to 25 feet above the water; the limestone is nowhere visible. A section made in the lofty sides of the valley at that place is as follows: Mahoning massive sandstone, 50 feet; upper Freeport coal, irregular (estimated to be 200 feet above the creek), 3 feet; unknown, 15 feet; Freeport limestone, 18 inches; unknown, 10 feet; sandstone and shale, 40 feet; Freeport sandstone, 50 212 77 j2' PLUM CREEK TOWNSHIP. feet; coal, a few inches; shale, 16 feet; sandstone, 4 feet; unknown, 41 feet. Kittanning coal (possibly the ferriferous coal), 11 feet; unknown down to the creek and full of fossils, 6 feet thick. Depth of salt well is said to be 500 feet. A little to the east of this appears to run the highest or axis line of the third anticlinal flexure. The Freeport limestone, bearing its characteristic minute fossils, has fallen so far in its level by the time it has reached Cochran's mill, 300 yards above the next saltworks, that it is but 24 feet above the dam; it is seminodular, and 2 feet thick. The upper Freeport coal overlies it 2.feet, and is itself 3 feet thick. It is a thicker bed some hundred yards southwest, and the coal outcrop is 10 feet above it. A coalbed is seen at a level 100 feet higher in the hillside. Beneath it is seen a massive sandstone, but the fossils of the limestone seem decisive against that supposition. At the lower saltworks is a coalbed 3 feet thick and 60 feet above the stream. Turning from the southern to somewhat beyond the northern boundary of Plum Creek township, at Patterson's mill, on the Cowanshannock creek, the Kittanning bed, covered by 40 feet of shale, reads thus: Bituminous shale, 3 feet; coal and slate interleaved, vegetable impressions numerous, 12 inches; coal, 12 inches, 7 feet above level of water; floor, black slate. Lower down it reads thus: Black slate, 5 feet; coal, 5 inches bituminous pyritous slate, 18 inches; coal, 15 inches; slaty coal, 14 inches. Two miles west of Rural village, on a farm formerly known as Smith's tract, the upper Freeport coalbed is 150 or more feet above the creek, and is 4 feet thick, of good quality, but with a little sulphur. Ten feet below it is the ferriferous limestone, 5 feet thick. Fifty feet below the limestone is seen the lower Freeport coal, said to be 1 feet thick. Upwards of 100 feet lower down, near the creek level, is the Kittanning coalbed, thickness unknown. This locality is on the east side of the fourth axis, and distant from it about 2. miles; dip southeast. Such are the geological features of the territory between Crooked and Cowanshannock creeks, in the scope of country comprised within the limits of Plum Creek township. 213 CHAPTER IX. WAYNE. Set off from Plum Creek in 1821 -.Named in Honor of " Mad Anthony "-The Original Land Tracts- Their Early Owners and the Settlers Upon Them - The North American Land Company -Gen. Robert Orr Succeeds the Company in Ownership of Their Lands in Armstrong County - Holland Land Company's Tracts- John Brodhead's Survey District -William and Joseph Marshall - James Shields - A Sparsely Settled Region - Slow Increase in Population - Religious History - First Sermon - Rev. Robert McGarraugh, the Pioneer of Presbyterianism - Educational Interests - Pioneer Schools - Later Advantages - Belknap Independent District - Glade Run Academy- Its Graduates -First Gristmill - Distilleries - Olney Furnace- Iron Foundry - The First Professional Men - Postoffices - B )r)ugh of Dayton - Churches - Dayton Academy - Soldiers' Orphans' School - Common Schools - Incorporation - Statistics - Appropriateness of the Name of Dayton. THE petition of sundry inhabitants of Plum Creek township, praying for its division, was presented to the court of quarter sessions of this county at September sessions, 1820. James White (surveyor), Abraham Zimmerman, Jacob Beck, Noah A. Calhoun, Joseph Marshall and John Thorn were appointed the viewers or commissioners. Their report in favor of the division was presented at the next December sessions, held over, and approved March 19, 1821. The new township of Wayne was then ordered and decreed to be erected with the following boundaries: Beginning on Mahoning creek at the lower end of Anderson's cave; thence south five miles to a white oak; thence south ten degrees east four miles to the purchase line; thence by plot along said line to the line between Armstrong and Indiana counties; thence by plot along said line to Mahoning creek; and thence down the same to the place of beginning. It having been at the same time represented to the court that the viewers had gone beyond the western line of Plum Creek township and included a part of Kittanning township, it was further ordered, "that the new township of Wayne be bounded by that of Kittanning." The records do not show who was appointed to hold the first election. In the absence of the docket containing the election returns of the various election districts in this county prior to 1839, the names of the township officers then elected have not been ascertained. This township was christened, of course, in honor of General Anthony Wayne, of fragrant revolutionary memory. His illustrious career is so familiar to the people, and especially to Pennsylvanians, that a minute and extended mention of his impetuous valor, unwavering fidelity and patriotism, military genius and ability would here be superfluous. The original tracts of land in the eastern section of this township, that is, east of an imaginary line extending from north to south, crossing Glade run about 275 rods above its mouth, were the following: Two tracts, warrants No. 5146, 5147, each containing 1,100 acres, surveyed to Thomas W. Hiltzheimer, on those warrants, dated February 6, 1794, which IHiltzheimer conveyed to Gen. Daniel Brodhead, December 29, 1795. The latter, by his will, dated August 8, 1809, devised the same to the children of his daughter, Anna Heiner, namely, John IHeiner, of Jefferson county, Virginia; Catherine, wife of John Broadhead, of Wayne county, Pennsylvania; Margaret, wife of John Faulk, of the last-mentioned county, and Rebecca J., wife of Samuel Johnston, of Sussex county, New Jersey. Faulk and wife, December 1, 1814, IHeiner and wife, August 29, 1815, and Brodhead and wife, July 14, 1817, conveyed their respective undivided one-fourth parts of those two tracts to Robert Brown, of Kittanning. Brodhead and Johnston and their wives conveyed 100 acres of tract surveyed on warrant No. 5147, to Brown, May 30, 18 16, for $20. A considerable portion of the consideration from that vendee to those vendors consisted of lots in the then town, now borough, of Kittanning. Johnston and wife conveyed 100 acres of the southern end of tract surveyed on warrant No. 5146, to James Kirkpatrick, and on February 4, 18 19, the undivided one-half part of the residue of this last-mentioned tract for $500, all of which, except $47.74, was paid in Johnston's lifetime, and the balance to his widow, who, by D)aniel Stannard, her attorney in fact, executed a WAYNE TOWNSHIP. second conveyance, January 17, 1828. From a list of taxes on Gen. Brodhead's lands in this county, for the years 1806-7-8, obtained by the writer from Edgar A. Brodhead, it appears that those two tracts, then in Kittanning township, were assessed with $8.26 road tax and $1.6.50 county tax in each of the years 1806-7, and with $7.50 road and $8.26 county, in 1808. John Rutherford seated 200 acres, and Jacob Peelor 300 acres of tract No. 5146, and Joseph Marshall, Jr., 114, James Kirkpatrick, 200, John Calhoun, 144, James McGahey, 50, Abel Findley, 100, and James Russell, 130 acres of tract No. 5147. In the southeastern corner of the township is a portion -of the Harmon LeRoy & Co's tract No. 3095, extending into Cowanshannock township and Indiana county, which will be elsewhere more particularly mentioned. North of the last-mentioned tract were the two contiguous tracts surveyed by warrants Nos. 558 and 553, the former of which contained 400 and the latter 474 acres. They were surveyed to Ephraim Blaine on those warrants. The latter was seated by Robert Marshall. Fifty acres of the former were occupied by Thomas Duke, from 1830 until 1840, and by William Kinnan for several years. Blaine was a resident of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in the earlier years of the revolutionary war. In the spring of 1777 the appointment of sub-lieutenant of Cumberland county was tendered to him, which hlie declined for these reasons, given in his letter of April 7, to President Wharton: "The difference of sentiment which prevails in Cumberland county about the constitution and the ill-judged appointment of part of the sub-lieutenants are my principal reasons for not accepting for the present the commission your honor and the council were pleased to offer me of the lieutenancy. I shall, however, study to render the public every service in my power." He was afterward appointed deputy commissary general for the middle department. In February or March, 1780, he was appointed commissary general, which position he probably filled until the close of the war. His name appears in the list of the names of men residing at Fort Pitt, July 22, 1760. He was the great-grandfather of James G. Blaine, the distinguished United States Senator from Maine-a native of Pennsylvania. Those two Blaine tracts extended from the above-mentioned Harmon LeRoy & Co.'s tract, along the Indiana county line, 325 rods; thence northwest 200 rods, thence west 200 rods, thence south 475 rods, and thence east 325 rods. Glade run traverses the territory of which the northern or larger of these tracts consisted, in a westerly and northwesterly course. Adjoining the last-mentioned tract on the west was the James Hamilton tract, covered by warrant No. 358, containing 400 acres. It was surveyed to James Hamilton, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, on that warrant. The patent was granted to his son James, March 3, 1832. It was conveyed to James Hamilton, of Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, August 6, 1834, who conveyed 131?0 acres of it to William Borland, June 18, 1836, for $492.37, which then adjoined lands of William Kirkpatrick, John Borland, William Cochran, James Marshall, John Calhoun and Noah A. Calhoun. Adjoining that tract on the north was the Timothy Pickering & Co. tract, covered by warrant No. 262, dated May 17, 1785. There being some notable points on this tract, some of its various transfers are here presented. It was a part of Gen. James Potter's estate, which became vested in his son, James Potter, who covenanted, May 9, 1795, to convey it as containing 1,000 acres to Ephraim Blaine. His heirs, believing that he had made a deed therefor which was lost, for the purpose of confirming and ratifying their father's agreement, executed, March 20, 1837, a deed to John Hays and Rev. Adam Gilchrist, whose wives were daughters of Robert Blaine and granddaughters of Ephraim Blaine, who were desirous of obtaining a patent and perfect title. The tract was found to contain 1,099 acres. Ephraim Blaine had paid for only 1,000, but these heirs considered that the excess of 99 acres would be a fair equivalent for obtaining the patent and completing the title. They therefore conveyed to Hays and Gilchrist the entire tract, which subsequently became vested in John Hays, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, partly in his own right and partly in that of his children, Mary W. IIays, afterward the wife and widow of Capt. West, of the United States army, Robert B. Hays, and John Hays, Jr., with all of whom the writer subsequently became acquainted. The two last named were his pupils at the Plainfield Academy, near Carlisle. John Hays, Sr., conveyed his right in that tract to David Ralston, March 23, 1839, for $7,375, and by virtue of an act of assembly, approved July 5, 1839, he conveyed as guardian the interest of his wards therein, October 5, then next, to David Ralston, for $1,000. The latter conveyed one-third thereof, respectively, to Thomas White and James McKennan, of Indiana, Pennsylvania, March 25, 1844, the consideration expressed in each conveyance being $1, also, April 7, 1845, his undivided third part, two tracts, to McKennan, for $850. 215 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. John Hays, Sr., was a son of John and Mary Hays, both of whom participated in the battle of Monmouth, N. J., in the revolutionary war. He was a sergeant in a company of artillery, who is said to have directed a cannon at least a part of the time. When he was carried from the field, his wife was approaching with a pitcher of water for him and others, took his place by that cannon, loaded and fired at least once, insisted on remaining, and left with much reluctance. Gen. Washington either saw or heard of the service, which she thus rendered, and commissioned her as sergeant by brevet. The morning after the battle she rescued from a pit one of her friends, who had been thrown into it, with others, as dead, carried him in her arms to the hospital and nursed him until he recovered, from whom, many years afterward, when he had learned her residence through the pension office, she received a box of presents and an invitation to make his home her home. She was in the army seven years and nine months, and in which she served with her husband after that battle. After the war she and her husband removed to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, where he subsequently died, and she married Sergeant McAuley, who embittered her life by his drunkenness and abuse, and for years lived on her earnings. She received an annual pension of $40 as the widow of John Hays, and during the last week of her life, her granddaughter says, one was granted to her in her own right. She died in January, 1832, in her ninetieth year, and was buried beside her first husband with military honors by several companies that followed her remains to the grave-" Molly Pitcher's" grave. She was called "Molly Pitcher" because of her carrying that pitcher of water to the thirsty soldiers on that intensely hot day of the battle of Monmouth. White, McKennan and Ralston sold portions of that tract as follows: To Robert Borland, 14 acres, 93 perches, strict measure, September 9, 1843, for $246.50; to James McQuoun, 90 acres, strict measure, January 17, 1844, for $1,150; to Robert and John Borland, 41 acres 20 perches, March 13, 1844, for $740.25; to Robert Marshall, 25.5 acres 102 perches, March 25, 1844, for $4,607.78; to William Cochran, 84 acres 102 perches, March 25, 1844, for $800; to John Marshall, 32 acres 11 perches, March 25, 1844, for $577; to John Hamilton, 231 acres 20 perches, January 16, 1845, for $4,696; to John Lias, 130 acres, January 31, 1845, for $1,200; Thomas White to John W. Marshall, undivided third part of 76 acres 107 perches, June 3, 1853, for $300; McKennan's executors to same, May 13, 1853, for undivided two-thirds of 76 acres 107 perches, for $600; White to Watson S. Marshall, undivided one-third of 60 acres 41 perches, for $300; McKennan's executors to same, two undivided third parts of 600 acres 41 perches, for $600; White to Margaret A., Joseph L., James K., and John McK. Marshall, the undivided third of 180 acres 87 perches, September 30, 1862, for $741.66, and McKennan's executors to same two undivided thirds of 180 acres 87 perches, September 23, 1862, for $483.33. The Glade Run Academy and the principal part of the borough of Dayton are situated within the limits of that tract. The map of original tracts indicates that a hundred acre tract of Joseph Marshall, the warrantee, adjoined that of Pickering & Co. tract on the southeast, and the Alexander McClelland tract, warrant No. 1731, dated January 31, 1786, on the northeast. These two tracts were adjoined on the east by Harmon LeRoy & Co. tract No. 3115, occupied or seated by William and Joseph Marshall. Contiguous thereto on the north was the Harmon LeRoy & Co. tract No. 3102, of which Benjamin Irwin purchased from the Holland Land Company, by deed dated April 16, 1832, 119 acres and 17 perches for $135. A portion of it was also occupied by Robert and Hugh Martin. Next north of that was a vacant tract about 200 rods wide along its southern boundary, about the same distance along the Indiana county line, its eastern boundary, and about 450 or 500 rods along the Mahoning creek, its northeastern boundary, and thence by a straight line south to its southern boundary, being the northeastern portion of the township. Adjoining the northwestern part of the above-mentioned Pickering & Co. tract No. 262-the number of the warrant meaning-was another Pickering & Co. tract No. 391, containing 439-1 acres, with a considerable portion of which Enoch and Reuben Hastings were assessed, the latter for a few years and the former from 1825 until after 1839. Adjoining thereto on the east was the Harmon LeRoy tract; covered by warrant No. 3108, containing 890 acres, 400 acres of which became vested in Robert Beatty April 26, 1814, who also purchased a portion of the McClelland tract because it was supposed to interfere with this one. Beatty then conveyed 400 acres to Thomas Taylor Mai ch 15, 1819, for $1,600, who conveyed the same to Jacob Pontius February 6, 1824, for $3,200. The IHolland Land Company sold the upper or northern portion of this tract: 100 acres to John Hyskell May 24, 1837, for $100; 76 acres and 105 perches to Joseph Glenn June 9, 1838, for $212; 146- acres to John Henderson June 19, 1838, for $109.70; 204 216 SWAYNE TOWNSHIP. acres and 68 perches to Samuel Coleman May 25, 1843, for $204.50. Contiguous thereto on the north was the LeRoy & Co. tract, covered by warrant No. 3109, small portions of which were on the north side of.Mahoning creek, and a large portion of which was in a considerable northern bend of that stream, and which contains the principal part of " Lost Hill." This hill was called "lost" in consequence of a man, on a certain occasion, going out upon it in pursuit of a deer, which he killed, and on his return homeward became bewildered and lost the points of compass, owing to the peculiar formation of the surface, and to the dense and extensive forest. Other persons were on various occasions lost on it. He and they, however, were found by their neighbors. The first assessment of any part of this tract was made in 1832 to Thomas Wilson, Jr., for 165 acres, which with that on one head of cattle amounted to $129.75. In the course of a few years Robert and Samuel Black, Joseph and Archibald Glenn, James Wilson, Sr., Joseph Marshall, Jr., Samuel Irwin, Joseph McSparren, Andrew D. Guthrie, and others who have more recently settled thereon. Immediately west of the northwestern part of the Hiltzimer tract, surveyed on warrant No. 5147, and the southwest part of the Pickering & Co. tract, surveyed on warrant No. 262, was a tract surveyed to Samuel Wallis-sometimes spelled Wallace-on warrant No. 4163, which contained 990 acres, which Wallis conveyed to George Harrison, July 28, 1797, who conveyed it to Joseph Thomas, October 18 next following, who conveyed it to Thomas W. Francis, Edward Tighlman and Thomas Ross, August 13, 1798, who conveyed it to Peter Thomas, January 13, 1813, for $990, who conveyed 200 acres thereof to Archibald Marshall, May 19, 1815, for $200; 218 acres and 15 perches to Peter Lias, May 9, 1828. Thomas sold different other tracts, containing various quantities, from 1818 until 1836, to George Scott andothers, generally at $1 an acre. The 150-acre tract, which he sold to Scott, became revested in him and he then conveyed it to Wim. Wirt Gitt, March 13, 1836, for $800, or at the rate of $5.33- per acre. Gen. Robert Orr purchased two other Wallis tracts, covered by warrants Nos. 4126-7, containing, respectively, 990 and 1,100 acres, from Henry Pratt, who had purchased the same from the trustees of Joseph Thomas by deed dated June 1, 1803. Pratt's conveyance to Orr is dated March 3, 1835. John Butler, Sr. and Jr., and Theodore Wilson purchased portions of the former in 1851 and 1858, and George Ellenberger, William Pontius, Samuel Black, John Gould, and John Bargerstock, portions of the latter in 1840-41-50. The tract covered by warrant to Wallis, No. 4146, situated between those covered by warrants Nos. 4163 and 4126, was sold by John Sloan, sheriff of Westmoreland county, for taxes to Thomas Hamilton, of Greensburgh, for $13, October 2, 1807, who, having lost the sheriff's deed, conveyed it by another deed dated at Kittanning, April 16, 1811, to the assignees of Joseph Thomas for $20. It having afterward become vested in Gen. Orr, he sold portions of it to J. W. and G. W. Marshall in November, 1858. Gen. Orr also purchased several other Wallis tracts. He conveyed portions of the one covered by warrant No. 4131 to Charles Ellenberger and John Buchanan in September, 1840. Buchanan 6onveyed his to John Steele in October, 1849. Gen. Orr conveyed a part of the Wallis tract-warrant No. 4128-to John Hettrich in November, 1847; and a portion of the Wallace tract-warrant No. 4132-to Adam Baughman in February, 1851. The North American Land Company became possessed of several large tracts in this township, covered by warrants dated December 24, 1793. That company was organized in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, February 20, 1795, by written articles of agreement. It consisted of Robert Morris, the great financier of the revolutionary struggle; John Nicholson, who was commissioned comptroller general of Pennsylvania, November 8, 1872, and escheater general October 2, 1787, and James Greenleaf, and those who should become purchasers, owners and holders of shares in the company. At the final meeting of the shareholders, December 31, 1807, Henry Pratt, John Ashley, John Vaughan, Robert Porter, John Miller, Jr., and James Greenleaf were constitutionally elected president, managers and secretary of the company. It was also constitutionally determined at that meeting by the holders and legal representatives of more than two-thirds of the whole number of shares issued that all the business of the company should be thenceforth conducted by the above-mentioned president, managers and secretary, or a majority of them, or their survivors or a majority of them, and that they should have full and unlimited power to barter, sell or convey all or any part of the land and property of the company on such terms and conditions as they might judge to be fit, and to act in all possible cases relating to the same as they might deem most proper and expedient.* They, as surviving managers, conveyed, February * Deed book No. 43, p. 227 et seq., Philadq 1pla. 217 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. the turnpike road from Kittanning to Elderton and Indiana, about four hundred and seventy-five rods, a little east of south, from the present site of the Blanket Hill postoffice, and two hundred and seventy-five rods west of the Plum Creek township line. Various other relics of that fight have been found from time to time, among which a straight sword with the initials "J. H." on it, which is owned by James Stewart, of Kittanning borough, was on exhibition with other relics at the Centennial Exposition, Philadelphia. It was impossible for Col. Armstrong to ascertain the exact number of the enemy killed in the action at Kittanning, since some were burned in the conflagration of the houses and others fell in different parts of the cornfield; but he thought there could not be less, on a moderate estimate, than thirty or forty either killed or mortally wounded, as much blood was found in various parts of the cornfield, as Indians were seen crawling from several parts thereof into the woods, whom the soldiers, in their pursuit of others, passed by expecting afterward to find and scalp them, and as several others were killed and wounded while crossing the river. THE RETURN MARCH. When the victors commenced their return march they had about a dozen scalps and eleven English prisoners. Part of the scalps were lost on the road, and some of them and four of the prisoners were in the custody of Capt. Mercer, who had separated from the main body, so that on the arrival of the main body at Fort Littleton, Sabbath night, September 14, 1756, Col. Armstrong could report to Governor Denny only seven of the recaptured prisoners and a part of the scalps. RECAPTURED PRISONERS. The English prisoners recaptured from the Indians at Kittanning were Ann McCord, wife of John McCord, and Martha Thorn, about seven years old, captured at Fort McCord; Barbara Hicks, captured at Conolloway's; Catherine Smith, a German child, captured near Shamokin; Margaret Hood, captured near the mouth of Conagocheague, Md.; Thomas Girty, captured at Fort Granville; Sarah Kelly, captured near Winchester, Va.; and one woman, a boy, and two little girls, who were with Capt. Mercer and Ensign Scott when they separated from the main body, and who had not reached Fort Littleton when Col. Armstrong made up his report. Not having met with a description of the man ner in which the Indians constructed their houses in Kittanning, which were burned by Col. Armstrong, the writer inserts here the following from the "Narrative of James Smith," hereinafter mentioned, which, it is presumed, gives in the main a correct idea of the manner in which they were constructed. He saw a cabin erected when he was a captive among the Indians, along Lake Erie. " They cut logs," says he, "about fifteen feet long, and laid them upon each other, and drove the posts in the ground at each end to keep them together; they tied the posts together at the top with bark, and by this means raised a wall fifteen feet long and about four feet high, and in the same manner they raised another wall opposite to this, at about twelve feet distance; then they drove forks in the ground in the center of each end, and laid a strong pole from end to end on these forks; and from these walls to the poles they set up poles instead of rafters, and on them tied small poles instead of laths; and a cover was made of lynn [linden] bark which will run even in the winter season. * * * At the end of these walls they set up split timber all round except a space at each end for a door. At the top, in place of a chimney, they left an open space, and for bedding they laid down that kind of bark, on which they spread bearskins. There were fires along the middle from one end to the other of the hut, which the squaws made of dry split wood, and stopped up whatever open places there were in the walls with moss which they collected from old logs; they hung a bearskin at the door. Notwithstanding our winters here are hard, our lodging was much better than I expected." Perhaps the Indian houses in Kittanning, especially that of the chief, Capt. Jacobs, were somewhat better and differently built. KILLED, WOUNDED AND MISSING. In Lieut. Col. John Armstrong's company - Thos. Power and John McCormick, killed; Lieut. Col. Armstrong, James Carruthers, James Strickland and Thomas Foster, wounded. Capt. Hamilton's company-John Kelly, killed. Capt. Mercer's company-John Baker, John McCartney, Patrick Mullen, Cornelius McGinnes, Theophilus Thompson, Dennis Kilpatrick and Bryan Carrigan, killed; Capt. Hugh Mercer and Richard Fitzgibbons, wounded; Ensign John Scott, Emanuel Minshey, John Taylor, John -, Francis Phillips, Robert Morrow, Thomas Burk and Philip Pendergrass, missing. Capt. Armstrong's company - Lieut. James Hogg, James Anderson, Holderaft Stinger, Edward O'Brians, James Higgins, John Lasson, killed; William Lindley, Robert Robinson, John Ferrall, Thomas Camplin, Charles O2Neal; HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. 8, 1836, to the lte Gen. Robert Orr all of that company's land in this county excepting and reserving such parts as were claimed by the Holland Land Company and their assigns, by the adverse surveys of Samuel Wallis, Alexander Craig, Thomas Hamilton and others. The tracts thus conveyed were covered by warrants to John Nicholson, Nos. 4573-4-5-6-7-8-9-80, and to Robert Morris, Nos. 4533-4-5 and 4528, aggregating about 9,500 acres. The consideration expressed in the deed is $2,385. Patents for those tracts were issued to the purchaser February 5, 1840, who soon after commenced selling that large body of land in tracts of suitable size for farms, at reasonable prices and on other terms easy to the purchasers, to whom he was indulgent, too much so in some instances for his own pecuniary interest. The earliest purchasers of the tract covered by warrant No. 4578 were Andrew Walker,'Noah A. Calhoun, May 11, 1840. John Calhoun and Samuel Porter, June 24, and the same day, for $1, five acres to Jacob Kammedinier and Jacob B. Hettrich, trustees for the German Reformed Church. Adjoining that tract on the south was the one covered by warrant No. 4579, containing 1,100 acres. Peter Kammedinier, who had settled there in 1825, was the first purchaser of a part thereof, namely, 286 acres and 46 perches, June 24, 1840. Between that and the next tract that formerly belonged to the North American Land Company was the Thomas Smullen tract, assessed to John Alcorn for the first time in 1830. Adjoining that on the south was the tract covered by the Nicholson warrant, No. 1123, called " Alexandred," a patent for which was issued to Alexander Craig, February 25, 1799, who conveyed 100 acres of it to Alexander and James White, November 18, 1813, for $200, and the same quantity to John and Joseph Powers, November 7, 1821, for $425. Adjoining " Alexandred" on the northwest was a vacant tract surveyed to John Alcorn on a warrant dated February 19, 1839, and to whom a patent was subsequently granted. West of "Alexandred" was the Robert Morris tract, covered by warrant No. 4533, containing 440 acres, which was the southwestern tract that Gen. Orr purchased from the North American Land Company, who conveyed, May 29, 1843, 255 acres and 8 perches of it to Alexander White for $382.75. About 200 rods east of the southeast corner of the Morris tract was the northwest corner of the Nicholson tract, No. 4573, which cornered on the southeast corner of "Alexandred," and contained 300 acres. It was included in the Orr purchase, and it is probably the one from which Mrs. Elizabeth McClemens, May 4, 18 68, and Leopold Drahn, April 13, 1874, purchased their respective tractsthose being the dates of their deeds. Directly north of that tract was the Wallis tract, covered by warrant No. 4132, immediately north of the western half of which was the Nicholson tract, covered by warrant No. 4574, included also in the Orr purchase. The deed to Thomas Foster for 23 acres and 31 perches thereof is dated November 13, 1847, and the deed to Joseph Clever for 301 acres, February 16, 1859. Next north of that and the Wallace tract, covered by warrant No. 4131, was the Nicholson tract, covered by warrant No. 4575, a part of the Orr purchase, about 60 acres of which were conveyed to Eli Schrecengost, June 26, 1843. Next north of it was the Nicholson tract, covered by warrant No. 4576, included in the same purchase, about 290 acres of which were conveyed to John Reesman, August 28, 1847; about 182 acres to Joseph Schrecengost, December 24, 1860, and about 150 acres to Joseph Steele, January 4, 1845, both being parts of the last-mentioned two Nicholson tracts. Another tract, situated in contiguous parts of what are now Wayne and Cowanshannocktownships, covered by warrant to Dr. William Smith, No. 675, dated October 20, 1785, which having become vested in William C. Bryan, he conveyed it to Gen. Orr, August 6, 1840, who conveyed about 121 acres of it to Mark Campbell, August 16, 1850, for $845, and about 1081 acres to Michael Clever, the same day, for $280. Adjoining that on the north and east was the Samuel Wallis tract, No. 4162, containing 1,070 acres, who conveyed it to George Harrison, who conveyed it to Joseph Thomas, through whose trustees it became vested in Robert Brown, who conveyed it December 23, 1818, to Jacob Beer, who sold portions of it to Jacob Beer, Samuel McGoughey, Jacob Rupp and others. Adjoining the Smith tract on the northwest was one containing 549 acres and 61 perches, called "White Oak Bottom," covered by warrant No. 695, issued to IsaacMeason, of Fayette county, Pennsylvania, member of assembly from Westmoreland county in 1779, and Robert R. Cross, of Philadelphia. A patent, dated April 21, 1788, was granted for one undivided third part to Meason and for two undivided third parts of it to Cross' executors. Contiguous to that, on the northwest was another Meason & Cross tract, covered by warrant No. 692, containing 549 acres and 68 perches, called "Walnut Bottom," which, with another tract, called " Salem," on the waters of Toby's creek, was included in that patent. These three tracts having become vested in Robert O. Cross, of 9 1 4 WAYNE TOWNSHIP. Philadelphia, mariner, he conveyed them July 3, 1809, to Thomas Hamilton, of Greensburgh, Pennsylvania, for $1,100. The latter devised "White Oak Bottom" to the late Thomas McConnell, and "Walnut Bottom" to Isaac Cruse. The former conveyed 200 acres of his tract to Hugh Gallagher, September 1, 1831, for $600, and the latter conveyed 200 acres of his to William McIlhenny, November 1, 1832, for $753.43. A vacant tract adjoined these two tracts on the northeast, on which Frederick Soxman and Jacob Rupp settled, and for all, or a portion of which, a warrant was obtained. With the exception of a vacant tract adjoining " Walnut Bottom," on the northwest, occupied by Adam Rupp, the land in the remaining or southwestern portion of this township belonged to the Holland Land Company, a sketch of which is given in Chapter I. Some of the lands belonging to that company were conveyed to purchasers by Paul Burti and by Benjamin B. Cooper, as well as by Wilhelm Willink and others. The earliest purchase made from that company in this part of the township appears to have been by George Beck for 145 acres and 52 perches for $209, by deed dated September 21, 1813, being a part of their lands covered by warrant No. 3046, on which he erected many years ago a two-story brick house, being the first of the kind in this region. Noah A. Calhoun's deed for a portion of their land covered by that warrant is dated the next day. The quantity mentioned in his deed is 197 acres and 140 perches, and the consideration therein expressed is $247.35. Some of the later, yet comparatively early, purchasers from that part of the land covered by that warrant still in this township (a part of it was in what are now Pine and Valley) were Susan, Eliza and Margaret White, December 19, 1827; Jacob Beck, March 17, 1830; and Adam Beck, December 19, 1832, according to the dates of their deeds. Some of the early purchasers of that company's land in this township covered by warrant No. 3045 were Jacob Smith, to whom 1821 acres were conveyed June 17, 1829, the consideration expressed being $92.34; John McIntire, June 19, 1832, 95 acres for $47.50; George Kline, April 28, 1834, 97 acres and 96 perches for $165; and Joseph Buffington, June 19, 1845, 417 acres and 61 perches, consideration $50. The hamlet, called Echo, is located on allotment No. 6, tract No. 367, covered by the last-mentioned warrant, and on the same tract conveyed to Jas. A. Knox by Henry Clever, September 5, 1855, containing 46 acres, consideration $300. The Holland company conveyed, October 7, 1819, to George Dill 89 acres and 85 perches in this township, covered by warrant No. 3141 for $179, being a part of allotment No. 3 and tract No. 365, and to Moses and George Dill, December 16, 1828, 119 acres and 51 perches for $59.50. Adjoining the land covered by the last-mentioned warrant, on the east, was that covered by warrant No. 3139, of which Wilhelm Willink and others conveyed, March 22, 1831, to John Kline 127 acres, consideration $55, being in allotment No. 6, in tract No. 336, and April 7, 1837, to James White 550 acres, consisting of allotments Nos. 1, 2, 3, and part of No. 4, consideration $230.90. The above-mentioned allotments and tracts are those indicated on the map of the Holland company's lands. The foregoing presentation of the original tracts and the naming of some of the early purchasers will, the writer thinks, enable all readers acquainted with the territory of Wayne township to understand the topography of those tracts; and the mention of the consideration, expressed in some of the deeds of conveyance, seems to him sufficient to afford at least a proximate idea of the increase in the market value of those lands, as it ranged in the second, third, fourth and fifth decades of this century. The dates of the deeds of conveyance do not generally indicate the times of settling upon the lands thus conveyed. Most, if not all, the early settlers occupied and improved portions of those original tracts for years before they knew or they could reach those who could grant valid titles; so that there was in early times a good deal of " squatting" and occasional shifting of locations. But when the owners of those lands or their authorized agents became accessible to the settlers, the latter readily entered into contracts for purchasing on such terms and conditions as were, in most cases, easy for them to fulfil. Nearly all the tracts in this and other townships purchased from the Holland Company, are described as being "in Brodhead's former district No. 6." It was so called because it was the one of which John Brodhead, elsewhere mentioned, was deputy surveyor-general. He was commissioned April 28, 1794. His district began at the southeast corner of district No. 5, granted to William P. Brady, which was at Canoe Place, or what is now called Cherry Tree, on the Susquehanna river, and extended thence by the Brady district to the northern boundary of Pennsylvania; thence due west until it intersected a line extending due north from the mouth of Conewango river; 219 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. thence south by that line to the Allegheny river; thence down that river, by its courses and distances, to the Purchase line of 1768, at Kittanning; and thence along that line to the place of beginning.* The earliest settler in the eastern part of Wayne township, on Glade Run, was William Marshall, who came from Indiana county, settled, made an improvement, erected a log cabin and barn on the Pickering & Co. tract covered by warrant No. 262, of which he occupied about 80 acres, known in that region as the "old Glade Run farm," now lying south of the borough of Dayton, between it and the boarding houses of the Glade Run Academy. An orchard was planted on it soon after its first occupancy by Marshall, which is still thrifty, and known as the "old Glade orchard." The only other white settler then within what is now the territory of this township was James Shields, who occupied a part of the above-mentioned vacant tract, the farm since owned by C. Soxaman and James Gallagher, Jr., about four miles west of south from Marshall's. The latter's next nearest neighbors were the Kirkpatricks, nearly south, on the Cowanshannock, another family about four miles to the east, and others not less than ten miles to the north. The nearest gristmill was Peter Thomas', about fifteen miles distant on Plum creek, near where the borough of Elderton now is. Even fourteen years later, the population of this region must have been very sparse, for Philip Mechling relates that he then found but very few habitations, and they were far apart, as he passed from Red Bank township to Thomas' in Plum Creek township, when he was collecting United States taxes, levied for paying the public debt incurred by the war of 1812. There were then only bridle-paths from one point to another. The streams were not spanned by bridges. When he reached the ferry kept by Robert Martin, at or near where Milton now is, he could not find either canoe or ferryman on the Red Bank side of the Mahoning. A canoe was on the other side. With dry chestnut logs, an ax and an auger, he constructed a small raft on which he ventured across the turbid stream and landed a considerable distance below his objective point. When he reached the canoe the ferryman had arrived. They crossed over to the Red Bank side and then returned to the Plum Creek side, guiding the horse by the rein or hitching as the latter swam alongside of the canoe. *Official list of deputy surveyors in the land office. Sketch of Brady's district among the Brodhead papers, in the possession of E. A. Brodhead, Kittanning. The pioneer of Glade Run, after making considerable improvement on the "old Glade farm," left it because he could not obtain what he deemed a valid title, and removed thence to the Harman Le Roy & Co. tract, covered by warrant No. 3115, 188 acres and 125 perches of which Benjamin B. Cooper conveyed to him by deed, dated October 10, 1816, whereof William Marshall, Sr., conveyed 136 acres and 110 perches to John Marshall, September 8, 1824, for the nominal sum of $30. Another cotemporaneous settler on Glade Run was Joseph Marshall, the eldest son of William Marshall, Sr., being twenty-two years of age when they settled there nearly three-quarters of a century ago. Their new home in the wilderness was then in Toby township. In 1806 Joseph Marshall was assessed on the Kittanning township list with 100 acres of land, 1 horse and 1 head of cattle, at a total valuation of $86, and his father, on the same list, with two tracts of land, aggregating 565 acres, with 1 horse and 2 head of cattle, at a total valuation of $412. Joseph Marshall, in later years, when the Marshalls in this part of the county became quite numerous, was distinguished from others bearing the same name by the appellation of "big Joe Marshall." Ile died in his eightieth year in 1859. His father had nine children, of whom the only one surviving is Robert Marshall, who on the centennial anniversary of American Independence was in his seventy-seventh year. The descendants of William Marshall, Sr., if all were living, would number about 350. The descendants of his brothers John and Archibald, who were somewhat later settlers in this region, are quite numerous. Hence, the frequency of the name of Marshall in this and other adjacent townships. The Marshalls, like many of their cotemporaries bearing different names, have generally been of good repute in their public and private relations. The eastern portion of this township received nearly all the settlers in the first decade of this century. Thomas Wilson was assessed with 300 acres of land, part of the James Hamilton tract, and with 2 horses and 1 head of cattle in 1806, so that he must have settled there as early as 1805 - then and until 1809 in Kittanning township. The records show that the other settlers in this section during that period were Hugh Martin, who settled on the Harmon LeRoy tract, covered by warrant No. 3102, as he was first assessed on that township list in 1807 with 150 acres; Alexander and Thomas McGaughey the same year, each having been assessed with 50 acres in 1807, portions of the Pickering & Co. tract, covered by warrant No. 262; James Kirkpatrick, Sr., assessed with 100 acres, a 220 THE rDPYTON SOLID IEI S O PH.ANS HOMAE, DAYTO14., PA. WAYNE TOWNSHIP. part of the Hiltzhimer tract, covered by warrant No. 5147; and John Calhoun in 1807, he having been first assessed with 200 acres in 1808, a part of the last-mentioned tract, to whom the county commissioners issued an order November 9, 1808, for $8 for catching and killing a full-grown wolf November 21, 1807. Chistopher Rupp settled in 1805 about four and a half miles west of the western line of the lastmentioned tract, in the vicinity of what is now called Echo, on the tract of the Holland Company, covered by warrant No. 3045. He was assessed with 400 acres of land and 3 head of cattle, valued at $215. He was assessed twenty years later with 800 acres of the John Nicholson tract, covered by warrant No. 4575. The population of this township increased very slowly until about and after 1825. Its total number of inhabitants in 1830, before it had been shorn of portions of its territory by the erections of other townships, was only 878. It was 1,875 in 1840. In 1850, after the curtailment of its territory, it was 1,348. In 1860 it was 1,571 white and 5 colored. In 1870, it was 1,939 native and 89 foreign. Its number of taxables, in 1876, is 395, from which its present population is estimated to be 1,867, exclusive of that of the borough of Dayton. The present territory of Wayne was a part of Toby township from 1801 until 1806; a part of Kittanning township from then until 1809; and then a part of Plum Creek township until March 19, 1821. RELIGIOUS. The religious interests have been fostered by the people of this township from its earliest settlement. The first clergyman who held religious services within its limits was Rev. Robert McGarraugh, who was also the first Presbyterian minister who preached the gospel east of the Allegheny river in what are now Armstrong and Clarion counties.* According to the most reliable information, the first sermon ever preached within the limits of Wayne was preached by him, either in the house or in the barn of William Marshall, Sr., in 1803, while en route to the then wilderness region between the Red Bank creek and Clarion river, where he subsequently settled. He preached in this settlement twice a year for ten or twelve years after 1803, while going to or returning from his kindred in Westmoreland county and meetings of the old Redstone Presbytery, which is said to have extended from the ridge of the Allegheny mountains to the Scioto river, and from Lake Erie to the. Kanawha river. The temples of worship * Rev. Dr. Eaton's HIistory of the Presbytery of Erie. 14 were the primitive log cabins of the widely-separated settlers, some of whom marked the dates of his appointments by placing pins at them in their almanacs. They loved to have the gospel preached to them in their wilderness homes.* Glade Run Presbyterian Church was the first ecclesiastical body organized within the limits of Wayne. It germinated in the four Presbyterian families of James and William Kirkpatrick, William Marshall, Sr., and William Shields, who resided several miles apart, in 1804. From data which Rev. G.W. Mechlin, D.D., has given in his historical sketch of this church, it appears to have been organized in 1808 by simply electing James Kirkpatrick and William Marshall, Sr., ruling elders, who were ordained by Rev. Robert McGarraugh. The original members of this church in the wilderness, now certainly known, were James and Margaret Kirkpatrick, William and Mary Marshall, William and Martha Kirkpatrick, and William and Mary Shields. In this connection, the writer deems a brief personal sketch of that pioneer minister, whose mission of peace and good will and Christian charity so soon followed the savage cruelties and startling war-whoops of the aboriginal inhabitants of these hills and vales, to be in place. Rev. Robert McGarraugh was born January 9, 1771, in Bedford, afterward Westmoreland, county, Pennsylvania. His parents were Joseph and Jane McGarraugh. He probably passed the early part of his life on his father's farm. His instructors during his academical course were Rev. James Dunlap, subsequently,the second president of Jefferson College, Canonsburg, Pennsylvania, from April 27, 1803, unfil April 25, 1811, and Rev. David Smith, who resided in the "Forks of Yough." In 1793 he became a student in the Canonsburg Academy, where he completed his academical studies. He afterward pursued his theological course at Canonsburg, under the instruction of Rev. John McMillan, D. D. His marriage to Miss Levina Stille occurred December 10, 1795, which must have been while he was yet a student, for he was licensed to preach by the Redstone Presbytery, October 19, 1803. Very soon thereafter he visited the field of his future ministerial labors in what was then Armstrong, but which is now in Clarion, county. After preaching awhile to the families then there, he was invited to settle among them. Having accepted their invitation, he and his family, with their household goods, began, on one of the latter days of May, 1804, their journey to their new home in the wilderness, which they reached in the * Rev. Dr. Mechlin's Sketches of Glade Run Presbyterian Church. 221 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. course of seven or eight days, on the 1st of June. Wagon roads had not then been opened in this region, so they performed their journey through the forest on horseback, following Indian trails or the paths indicated by the settlers' blazes. They probably had three horses, one of which Mr. McGarraugh rode, another bore Mrs. McGarraugh and two of the children. All the kitchen furniture was packed on the third, on the top of which John, the oldest son, was mounted. On their route they either forded or swam the Kiskiminetas, Crooked creek and Plum creek. They were detained a day at the Mahoning, and another at the Red Bank, where they were under the necessity of constructing canoes, in which they were conveyed across those streams, the horses swimming alongside of them. Their habitation, during the first year of their residence, near the present town of Strattanville, was a log cabin twelve or sixteen feet square, the door of which was made of chestnut-bark. Father McGarraugh, as he was in later years called, was ordained by the Redstone Presbytery November 12, 1807, and installed as the pastor of the New Rehoboth and Licking churches, his pastorate in which continued until April 3, 1822, after which time he preached at Callensburgh, Concord and some other places until his death, July 17, 1839, in the sixty-ninth year of his age and the thirty-sixth of his ministry. His successor, Rev. James Montgomery, says of him: "He was an humble, faithful, godly, self-denying and laborious minister of the Gospel, who labored long and well and laid deep the foundations of Presbyterianism in this region of country." Says Rev. Dr. Eaton: "He was not afraid of hardships; he did not love money; he sought not human applause. And so he was adapted to his field of labor. He pleased the people and God was with him. He was a plain, unassuming man, not of remarkable ability or blessed with the gift of eloquence, intent on this one thing-to stand in his lot and do his duty. And thus he lived, and to-day his memory is fragrant, whilst that of more highly gifted men is a byword. Today his record is higher than the stars, for it is written in God's great book of remembrance." Says the writer of a historical sketch of Clarion county: "Rev. Robert McGarraugh is represented to have been a good, Godfearing man, well educated, able in prayer, slow of speech, often taking two or three hours to deliver his sermon. So earnest was he at times that great tears would roll from his eyes to the floor. It was said that his tears were more eloquent than his voice." Says Rev. Dr. Mechlin: "I well remember, though but a boy, of seeing him once at a meeting of the Presbytery of Allegheny at Concord church, now in the Presbytery of Butler, the church of my childhood, and it will require many years yet to erase the impression his revered countenance, his gray hairs, and his athletic-almost gigantic-form made on my youthful mind." He had three sons and four daughters. Mrs. Henry Black, one of the latter, and John McGarraugh, one of the former, are still living. Robert W. McGarraugh, a son of the latter, served in the Union army in the war of 1861 three and a half years, having been confined eleven months at Andersonville, where he died. The early records of this, like many other churches, were not kept in a book. All that are now known to be extant were kept on loose pieces of paper, which were preserved by the late George McCombs. They contain the minutes of the session from September 15, 1821, until October 24, 1836. It is not known how many, if any, members were admitted between 1804 and 1821. The admissions, September 15, in the last-mentioned year, were twenty-one on examination and seven on letters. It is not apparent whether any Presbyterian clergyman preached here even occasionally between the time when Father McGarraugh ceased to travel this route and the advent of Rev. James Galbreath, who preached here a few times prior to 1820, when Rev. David Barclay commenced preaching as a stated supply and continued about five years, during which period a considerable number were admitted. Joseph Diven and George McComb were ordained elders by Mr. Barclay in 1820,* and John Marshall, Benjamin Irwin and William Kirkpatrick, July 24, 1825.t The pastorate of Rev. Elisha D. Barrett, M. D., commenced December 9, 1828, and continued until November 29, 1840, during which period John Calhoun, James Wilson, William Gaghagan, Robert Caldwell and Robert Wilson were ordained and installed ruling elders, and fifty-nine members were admitted on examination. Dr. Barrett was among the first advocates of the temperance cause and of Sabbath-schools and other great moral and temporal interests of society in this region. The pastorate of Rev. James D. Mason began June 16, 1843, and ended March 19, 1848, during which thirty-two members were admitted on examination, and Wm. M. Findlay, John Henderson and Thomas Travis were elected, ordained and installed ruling elders. An elder remarked many * Letter of Joseph Diven to Rev. G. W. Mechlin. t Sessional records. 222 WAYNE TOWNSHIP. years after Mr. Mason's departure: "It was a weeping time when he left." The pastorate of Rev. Cochran Forbes commenced about July 1, 1849, and continued until May, 1856, during which sixty-eight members were admitted on examination, and Benjamin Irwin, John C. McComb and John Wadding were elected, ordained and installed ruling elders. The present pastorate of Rev. G. W. Mechlin, D.D., commenced February 20,1857, during which there have been 281 members admitted on examination and 131 on certificate, and James R. Marshall, Joseph M. McGuaghey, Harkley K. Marshall, Win. C. Guthrie, Samuel S. Caldwell and Archibald Findlay were chosen ruling elders. The numbers of members admitted on certificates during the pastorates prior to the present one are not given, because, as Dr. Mechlin says, the roll of such is confused. All the church edifices were erected on the same site, near the northern angle of the triangle formed by three public roads, on the Pickering & Co. tract, covered by warrant No. 262. The first one was 30 X 30 feet, with walls of hewn logs, shingle roof and board floor. It was probably erected in 1821, as the subscription paper recently found among the papers of the late Benjamin Irwin shows that the " implements," as the materials are styled, were to be delivered to the building committee by the first day of May of that year. One subscriber agreed to furnish five logs, another the same, another five pairs of rafters, two others "one summer," and so on until ample provision was made for the walls, roof and floor. Another paper contains the names of more than forty subscribers, who promised to pay, respectively, sums of money varying from $1 to less than twenty-five cents "for purchasing glass and nails and fixing the windows of the meeting-house." That edifice was followed by another in 1831, frame, 44 X 54 feet, which gave place in 1857 to another, 48 X 60 feet, which in 1871 was enlarged to its present dimensions of 48 X 76 feet, all of which were from time to time required by the healthy increase of the congregation. Many of the members of this church were somewhat agitated by the proposal, made in 1825, to change the psalmody from Rouse's version to Watts' hymns. The latter were gradually introduced after close scrutiny, without which the scruples which some entertained respecting the heterodoxy which they feared might lurk in those hymns were not removed. In at least one family Watts' hymnbook was for some time kept in a place of concealment, from which it was brought out for examination after the children were put to bed and were supposed to be too sound asleep to hear the comments and discussions of their scrupulous parents concerning its merits or demerits. After a satisfactory examination they "could see nothing wrong in them," that is, in these hymns. So in due time that much-abused book was placed in broad daylight beside the Psalm-book. It is related that Rev. Mr. Barclay gave great offense to some of his congregation when with his strong, ringing voice he read the first hymn given out in this church, containing these lines: "Let them refuse to sing Who never knew their God." In the course of time all fears of and prejudices against hymns vanished, for the present Presbyterian hymnal, having been adopted soon after its publication, "gives general satisfaction." The choir was organized in 1863, of which Archibald Findlay was appointed the leader, and it has ever since been composed of a goodly number of ladies and gentlemen of musical talent and culture. The Sabbath-school connected with this church was established probably in August or September, 1826, and was organized at a schoolhouse near Abel Findlay's residence, which was then on the Hiltzimer tract, covered by warrant No. 5147. The officers on the first day were Joseph Reed, president, and John Calhoun and Abel Findlay, assistants. A list of questions in the handwriting of the last-named, on the 10th and 11th chapters of Matthew, closely written in double columns, filling a large sheet of cap paper, is still extant. In discrimination and point of adaptation to bring out the meaning of the text they are not excelled by those sanctioned by some of the publishing houses of the church. This, like other schools in the township, was soon thereafter merged in the one at the church. It has ever since been a beneficent and flourishing school. Among its devoted superintendents and teachers the name of William Kirkpatrick most frequently occurs. In this centennial year the number of church members is 240, and of Sabbath-school scholars, 202. This is not only the first church organized east of the Allegheny river, within the limits of this county, but it has been a parent church, from which emanated large portions of the original members of the Concord, Millville, Rural Village and Sinicksburgh churches, and a nucleus of the United Presbyterian church at Dayton. Its charter of incorporation was granted by the court of common pleas of this county September 7, 1857. Dr. J. R. Crouch, Jacob B. Guyer and John Mar223 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. shall were appointed its trustees to serve until the first election.* St. Michael's Protestant Episcopal church appears to have the next one established in this township. It was organized by Rev. B. B. Killikelly January 7, 1836, who was its rector for several years. His report to the convention of that year shows that the congregation or parish then consisted of sixteen families, containing ninety-one persons; that six children had been baptized, eight persons confirmed and ten communicants added. The services were held in a private house, small and inconvenient. A portion of the members had previously belonged to St. Paul's at Kittanning. The next year the number of families was twentythree, containing one hundred and thirty-four persons; fifteen communicants were added; there were eight baptisms; and $12.50 were collected for missionary purposes. A church edifice being much needed, the rector visited New York and the cities of Philadelphia and Pittsburgh for the purpose of soliciting aid for erecting one in this and another parish. For this one he obtained $243.13, which he paid over to James McElhinny and George Stockdill, the wardens. A frame edifice of adequate dimensions was soon erected and was occupied before its completion. It is located on one of the abovementioned Meason & Cross tracts in the southern part of the township, or it may be on both of them, for on April 2, 1861, Anthony Gallagher conveyed eighty-three and a half perches of the one called "White Oak Bottom," and A. Brice and William McElhinny the same quantity of the one called "Walnut Bottom," to William Borland, William Cook, William Gallagher, Andrew Stewart and James Stewart, and others, vestrymen. The rectors who succeeded Rev. B. B. Killikelly, D.D., were Rev. William Hilton and Rev. D. C. James. It is incorporated. Its charter was granted by the proper court June 6, 1866. The report to the convention for 1876 presents these facts: Rev. William Hilton, rector; James Stewart and Michael Campbell, wardens; families, 25; persons not thus included, 8; communicants admitted, 5; died, 1; present number, 54; baptized, infants, 8; confirmed, 7; public services, Sundays, 23; sittings in church, free; value of church and lot, $2,000; parsonage, $700; rector's salary, $355; parochial offerings, $405; diocesan offerings, $35.25. The rector furthermore remarks that, although the parish is not so flourishing as he would like to see it, is nevertheless in a very encouraging condition, the attend * For a m -re detailed history of this pioneer church the reader is referred to Dr. Mechlin's historical sketch of it. ance being good. A Sunday-school has again been established with very encouraging prospects. The late Rev. Joseph Painter, D. D., commenced preaching in this township late in the fall of 1840, or early in the winter of 1841. By order of presbytery he and John Calhoun, who had previously emigrated from the eastern to the northwestern part of the township, organized the Concord Presbyterian church at the house of Joseph Clever. Of that house Dr. Painter remarked: " It was a log cabin with one room. In it was a family of children and all the people that assembled at that time, and yet there was room for more, but the people were united and had a mind to work." One of the elders wrote to Rev. T. D. Ewing: "Doctor Painter usually rode out," (from Kittanning) "on Saturday, and returned on Monday, stopping with the people by turns, and although cooking, eating and sleeping were all done in the same apartment by most of them, yet his coming was hailed with pleasure by both old and young." He statedly supplied this church, which had thus arisen in that then newly settled region, until March 31, 1853, during which period eighty-six communicants were admitted. He then left it because more time and labor were required than he could give. It then became a part of the charge of Rev. Cochran Forbes until the fore part of May, 1856. From 1857 to 1866 it belonged to the charge of Rev. G. W. Mechlin, D.D. From 1867 until 1872 it was under the pastorate, for half time, of Rev. H. Magill, and since then it has been under that of Rev. F. E. Thompson. Its present number of members is 173, and of Sabbath-school scholars, 130. The first edifice of Concord church was erected in 1842 on land purchased from Robert Clever, being a part of the John Nicholson tract, covered by warrant No. 4574. It was a frame structure of adequate capacity for the accommodation of the congregation at the time of its erection. Archibald Glenn was the builder, and the committee which made the contract with him consisted of John Steele, David Buchanan, Joseph Clever and Noah A. Calhoun, Jr. The Jerusalem Evangelical Lutheran church was organized in 1832 by Rev. Gabriel A. Reichert. Peter Kamardinier was the first elder, and Christopher Rupp and Abraham Zimmerman were the first trustees. After Mr. Reichert left, its pulpit was filled by several different pastors. For some years past this church has been under the charge of Rev. Michael Swigert. It adheres to the General Council. The present number of members is 72; Sabbath-school scholars, 50. The first church edifice was a log one about 30X25 feet. The present is 224 /4C.1 4, ~b4t~1 - ri6t ~~s4c PROF. HUGH McCANDLESS. The subject of this sketch, well known in his later years and at the time of his death as the principal of the Dayton Soldiers' Orphans' Schoil, was born in Apollo, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, February 16, 1835. lie was the son of Jared and Elizabeth (Ford) McCandless, the former from Washington county and the latter from the vicinity of Gettysburg. When their son, of whom we write, was quite small, his parents moved into the country, a distance of five or six miles from Apollo, where they remained until he was about fifteen years of age. They then removed to South Bend township, where they passed the remainder of their days, both dying at a good old age in the year 1882. The subject of our sketch spent most of his youth at home, working upon his father's farm and gaining the rudiments of an education in the schools of the neighborhood. Hle was absent for a short time, attending school at Saltsburg, and he taught for a brief period at the early age of eighteen. When about twenty, upon January 4, 1855, he married Miss Mary A. France, who was born in South Bend township February 17, 1831. Her parents were John and Mary (Klingensmith) France, both natives of Westmoreland county and the children of pioneers. Hugh McCandless and wife, immnediately after their marriage, moved to Apollo. Mr. McCandless had contemplated running a boat upon the Pennsylvania canal, but finding that the usefulness of that old-time artery of commerce was very quickly to be superseded by the railroad, he abandoned his inteution, and after a few months the young couple returned to South Bend township, where Mr. McCandless followed farming during the surnimmer and taught school in the winter. After making a number of changes in location and occupation, he went to Missouri, in lDeccember, 18.9, whither his wife subsequently made preparations to follow. But while she was getting ready for the removal her children were taken sick and one of them died. This unhappy event brought the husband and father home. lie subsequently went to Illinois and spent the summer on a farm near Galesburg, but returned home in 1860, and taught school during the winter following. The next summer he attended the Elder's Ridge Academy, for he was possessed of a strong desire to make educational progress. In 1863 he moved to his father's farm. In September, 1864, he quit schoolteaching, in which he had again engaged, and enlisted as a corporal in Co. L, 6th Pa. Heavy Artillery, from which he was honorably discharged at Fort Ethan Allen, Virginia, in June, 1865. After the close of the war he went to Pithole and Tidioute, where he was engaged in oil operations, and in the following year he interested himself in the cattle business, but he soon returned to his favorite vocation, school-teaching, locating at Manorville, where his family moved the next spring. After teaching there three years he removed to Freep)rt, where he was elected principal of the graded schools. During the sunimmer he carried on a very successful select school. Upon the 1st of April, 1871, he was appointed to fill out the unexpired term of Mr. Samuel Murphy as county superintendent. This would have occupied his attention until June, 1872, but in January of that year he was called to take charge, as principal, of the Dayton Soldiers' Orphans' School, and, accepting the position, vacated the county office, Mr. A. D. Glenn filling out his term. lie took charge of the Orphans' School at a time when hard work was most emphatically demanded, and devoted himself assiduously to the task of bringing about perfect order and elevating the tone and condition of the institution. In this he was signally successful, but it was at a very dear cost. He was greatly interested in his work, and most conscientiously and energetically labored to advance the school, with the result of obtaining for it a rank second to none in the state. Under the pressure of work, responsibility and anxiety, his strength gave way, and in 1876 he found himself the victim of a disease which slowly bore him down to the grave. He died January 16, 1882, lamented and respected by all who knew him. He was a man of true worth and of the most unswerving devotion to duty His chief ambition in his early life was to obtain an education, and this laudable dlesire was gratified through his patient and persistent application, and in spite of many obstacles and disadvantages. In his later years he sought to supply to his children the opportunities for education which had been missing in his own youth. Prof. McCandless was a consistent member of the Baptist church (as was also his wife), and he was a member in good standing of the Masonic fraternity. During the years when Prof. McCandless was, to a greater or less degree, a sufferer from the malady which finally proved fatal, his eldest daughter, Miss Elizabeth (now Mrs. A. T. Ambrose), was his faithful assistant, and greatly lightened his labors. Upon his death she was appointed principal-a position which she still holds, and ably and satisfactorily fills, while Mrs. McCandless remains at the institution as matron. The other children of Prof. and Mrs. McCand less are Ada, Susannah, Bertha and Augusta. The two first named are teachers and the two lat named are pupils in the school. Mr. Ambrose has charge of the boys' department of the school, and superintends the farming and gardening. WAYNE TOWNSHIP. frame, 40X35 feet. It was erected in 1874, on an acre lot, conveyed to the trustees by Jacob Kamerdinier, August 7, 1870, being a part of the Nicholson tract No. 4579. SCHOOLS. The educational interests were cherished by the early settlers of this township. About 1815-it may have been somewhat later or earlier-according to information which has been orally transmitted to these later times, the first school within its present limits was opened in a building, perhaps not at first designed for a schoolhouse, on land of Benjamin Irwin, near the Indiana county line, which was taught by the William Marshall, distinguished from others of that name. by the sobriquet of of "Crooked," not, it is presumed, that he was so morally. Perhaps, whatever crookedness there was in his physique may have been induced by the virtue of extraordinary industry. Some of his pupils traveled three and others four miles daily to acquire the rudiments of education within the walls of that log temple of knowledge in the forest. Robert Marshall, of Dayton, is the only pupil known to be now living. Another school was taught in a primitive schoolhouse, built somewhat later, near the present site of the Glade Run Presbyterian church, one of the teachers of which was Bezai Irwin. Later and before the passage of the common school law, there must have been at least one organization for the maintenance of a public school, for John Lias conveyed for $1, March 14, 1829, one-fourth of an acre on the west side of the Red Bank road, to Benjamin Irwin, Robert Martin, George McCombs and Jacob Pontius, trustees of the Glade run school district. In 1830 there were seven children whose parents were too poor to pay for their schooling; in 1831, ten, and in 1832, eight. In 1832, David Lewis and David Scott were assessed as schoolmasters. Whether there were any other secular schools before the common school law of 1834-5 went into operation, is not apparent. The first schoolhouses built under that law appear to have been distributed in accordance with the wants of the then most thickly settled portions of the township. One was located in the Calhoun settlement, in the northwestern part; another in- the Beck settlement, in the southwestern part; another nearly two miles north of Dayton; and another about the same distance southwest of that borough, on the Wallace tract, No. 4163. The common school system was adopted, though not unanimously, by the voters of this township, as is manifest from these incidents: One morning, while the people of each township had the right'to accept or reject it by their votes, John Buchanon, who then lived on the farm now owned by John Steele, was firmly resolved to go to the election ground that day and vote for its rejection. But his grandson, Joseph Steele, about six years old, approached him as he was starting from the barn on horseback, with this earnest appeal, "Grandpa, don't vote to take the school away from me!" The old gentleman proceeded to the election with those touching words ringing in his ears, which had the effect of changing his purpose, for he voted for accepting the school system, of which he continued to be a firm friend until his death. That was an instance of families being divided on this question. He that morning determined to ride to the polling place to vote for rejecting, while his son-in-law, John Steele, was as fully determined to walk thither to vote for accepting that system. At another occasion, while this township extended southward to the purchase line of 1768, when a considerable number of the citizens were assembled, it was determined to test their sense on the school question, by those in favor of retaining the school system ranging themselves on one side of a small run in Alexander Campbell's meadow, and those opposed on the other side. After the school men and the anti-school men had thus ranged themselves, Martin Schrecengost, then one of the latter, having surveyed the two opposing lines, declared there was not a decent looking man in his line, and immediately passed over to the other side. A certain anti-school man, who had several children that needed to be educated, was bitterly opposed to the school law, because he deemed the tax required to sustain the school oppressive. It may have been so on him, for he paid of that tax the vast sum of eleven cents. In 1860 the number of schools was 10; average months taught, 4; male teachers, 7; female teachers, 3; average salaries of male, per month, $20; of female, per month, $18.47; male scholars, 221; female scholars, 178; average number attending school, 278; cost of teaching each scholar per months, 48 cents; amount levied for school purposes, $1,058.18; received from state appropriation, $94.25; from collectors, $800; cost of instruction, $704; fuel and contingencies, $74.80; cost of schoolhouses, $25.30. In 1876 the number of schools was 10; average number of months taught, 5; male teachers, 6; female teachers, 4; average salaries of male, per month, $32; average salaries of female, per month, $32; male scholars, 190; female scholars, 151; 225 TESTIMONIALS. wounded; John Lewis, William Hunter, William Baker, George Appleby, Anthony Grissy, Thomas Swan, missing. Capt. Ward's company-William Welsh, killed; Ephraim Bratton, wounded; Patrick Myers, Lawrence Donnahow, Samuel Chambers, missing. Capt. Potter's company-Ensign James Potter and Andrew Douglass, wounded. Rev. Capt. Steele's companv-Terrence Cannaberry, missing. Killed, 17. Wounded, 13. Missing, including Capt. Mercer, who reached Fort Cumberland, 19. Col. Armstrong regretted that the advantages gained over the enemy were not commensurate with the desire of himself and his command; and that they were less than they would have been if the pilots had better understood the situation of the town and the paths leading to it. Lieut. Gov. Denny, in his speech to the assembly, on Monday, October 18, 1756, among other things, said: "An express arrived from Major Burd, with letters giving an account of our old friend Ogagradarishah's coming a second time to Fort Augusta on purpose to tell several things of consequence which he had heard at Diahogo." A part of that " Honest Indian's Intelligence," given at Shamokin October 11, then instant, was: "Ten days ago, being at Diahogo, two Delaware Indians came there from the Ohio, who informed him that the English had lately destroyed the Kittanning town and killed some of their people, but avoided mentioning to him the number." If that was the first intelligence received at Diahogo of the battle at Kittanning, nearly a month must have elapsed before it reached there, that is, in traveling from Kittanning to the junction of the Susquehanna and the Cheming rivers. Ogaghradarishah belonged to a "village in the Six Nation country." AN ANCIENT PAY LIST. The original of the following voucher and signatures thereto was recently found among the papers of the late Judge Buffington, who obtained it, the writer is informed, from a kinsman of Capt. Potter. For the privilege of copying it here, the writer is indebted to Joseph Buffington, a kinsman of the late Judge Buffington, and a descendant of Richard Buffington, born in Chester county in 1679, being the first Englishman born in Pennsylvania, according to Hazard's "Annals of Pennsylvania," which fact was peculiarly commemorated in the parish of Chester May 30, 1739: "We the Subscribers Acknowledge that we have Received our full pay from the time Capt. James Potter came into Colonell John Armstrong's Company to the first day of August, 1759." Signed by John Brady Serg't, Hugh Hunter, Sergt, his his Wm Brady Corp., Andrew X Halleday, Joshh X Leany, mark mark his his his John X Neal, George X Clark, John X Cunningham, mark mark mark his his his John X Cahaner, Jaremia X Daytny, Win. X Craylor, mark mark mark his his Robert X Huston, George Gould, John Mason, John X mark mark Dougherty, Wmin. Kyle, Win. Bennet, Jos McFerren, his his William Layser, Alexander X Booth, Thos X Christy, mark mark his his his John X Devine, William X McMullan, Dennis X Miller, mark mark mark his his James X Lamon, James Semple, Thos X Canlay, Michael mark mark his his his X Colman, Robert X Colman, Rob. X Huston, John mark mark mark his his Burd, George Ross, Thos D. X Ilenlay, Potter X Lap mark mark his pan, Robert McCullough, James X McElroy, James mark Marces, William Waugh, Wm Little, Archibald Marshall, Andrew Pollock. TESTIMONIALS. The destruction of Kittanning and so many of its inhabitants was a severe blow to the French and Indians, and afforded hope of security to those of our own race who had settled along the then frontier of the Province. For the signal success which Col. Armstrong and his force achieved in the destruction of Kittanning, and thus breaking up a formidable base of French and Indian incursions, the corporation of the city of Philadelphia, October 5, 1756, voted him and his command the thanks of the city and other favors. From the minutes of the common council: "It being proposed that this Board should give some public testimony of their regard and esteem for Col. John Armstrong, and the other officers concerned in the late expedition against the Indians at Kittanning, and the courage and conduct shown by them on that occasion, and also contribute to the relief of the widows and chil dren of those who lost their lives in that expedition; "Resoh,lved, That this Board will give the sum of ~150 out of their st )ck in the Treasurer's hands, to be paid out in pieces of plate, swords, and other things suitable for presents, to the said officers and toward the relief of the said wi(lows and children." Description of the medal sent to Col. Armstrong: " Occasion.-In honor of the late Col. Arm strong, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, for destroying Kittanning Indian towns. "Device.-An officer followed by two soldiers; -the officer pointing to a soldier shooting from behind a tree and an Indian prostrate before him. In the background Indian houses are seen in flames. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. average number attending school, 251; cost per month, $1.20; tax levied for school and building purposes, $1,970.84; received from state appropriation, $309.69; received from taxes and other sources, $1,991.12; cost of schoolhouses, repairing, etc., $223.50; paid for teachers' wages, $1,600; collectors' fees, fuel, etc., $234.23. The Belknap independent district resulted from a conflict between certain portions of the people of this township respecting the location of a schoolhouse, which began in 1848-9. One portion insisted that it should be in one, and the other in another, place. The school directors could not satisfy both parties, locate it where they would. The aggrieved party applied to the court for redress, and a rule was granted on the directors, December 13, 1850, to appear on the 21st and show cause why their seats should not be vacated. The complaint against them was dismissed by the court March 6, 1851. Nevertheless, the conflict grew more determined and serious. A bill of indictment for misdemeanor in office was found against them at June sessions, 1852. William Marshall was the ostensible prosecutor, and William McIlhinney, John Lias, Jr., Joshua Foster, James R. Calhoun, Joseph T. Irwin and William W. Marshall were the defendants. The case was tried at the next September sessions. The verdict was guilty, and they were sentenced to pay a fine of $1 each, and the costs. The case was taken up to the supreme court, where the judgment was reversed and they were discharged without day. Another indictment for a similar offense was preferred against them at December sessions, 1853, which was quashed by the court. On the petition of divers citizens of the township, a rule was granted on them to appear at the June sessions and show cause why they should not be removed, which was finally withdrawn. Still the efforts of those opposed to the location of that schoolhouse in Fox Hollow, though foiled in court, did not cease. After the passage of the school law of 1854, they applied to the proper court for the formation of an independent district. Their application was resisted. Its opponents alleged that there was not enough property within the proposed limits of the district to enable the directors to raise an adequate amount of tax for maintaining a school. But when those applicants showed the amount of their freehold property and offered to become individually liable for the expense of keeping open the school four months in the year, the remonstrants changed their base of opposition, alleging that there was too much property in the proposed district, and that an undue amount of the tax then raised for defraying the expenses of all the schools in the township would be devoted to that one school. The court, however, at December sessions, 1855, appointed Robert McIntosh, John Hotham and William McCutchin, now residents of Wayne, as commissioners, to examine the grounds of that application and to report as to whether it should be granted. Their report in favor of granting it was read by the court December 12, 1855, and confirmed April 15, 1856. William Lytle, Chambers Orr and Robert Martin, non-residents of this township, havingbeen appointed commissioners by the court, reported, June 7, that they had examined and proportioned the schoolhouses in Wayne township and Belknap district, and awarded to the latter $152, to be paid in three semi-annual installments. A compliance with the terms of that report was enforced under a rule granted by the court. The Belknap directors used $100 of that sum, the balance left after paying for legal services rendered, in building a frame schoolhouse of suitable size. Although Judge Buffington was very adverse to the formation of independent districts, he deemed it best that this one should be established for the purpose of ending that protracted conflict. Thus ceased to be tossed to and fro an apple of discord, which for nearly a decade had caused intense bitterness of feeling among the people and a heavy drain upon the school fund of the township. The school board thereafter purchased of David Olinger two lots in the village of Belknap on which to erect a schoolhouse, namely, Nos. 3 and 4, the former 60X 80 and the latter 60X 751 feet, both fronting on the Kittanning road, for $19.25. They are part of the Wallace tract, No. 4127, and part of the quantity which Gen. Orr sold to Geo. Ellenberger. In 1876 the report of this school was: Months taught, 5; male teacher, 1; salary per month, $35; male scholars, 36; female scholars, 19; average number attending school, 41; cost per month, 68 cents; tax levied for school and building purposes, $151.27; received from state appropriation, $37.20; from taxes, etc., $184.98; paid for teachers' wages, $175.08; for fuel, etc., $69.37. GLADE RUN ACADEMY. This institution emanated from the Glade Run Presbyterian church, and was established for the purpose of affording facilities for the more extensive education of the youth of this region than those enjoyed in the common schools. After discussing the expediency of establishing a school of a higher grade by members of the congregation, the session of that church, May 27, 1851, resolved 226 WAYNE TOWNSHIP. "that measures be adopted for opening a parochial school as soon as possible." On the 20th of September next thereafter "the subject of a select parochial school was further discussed, but no plan adopted." The school, however, was opened in the latter part of the next month, with Rev. John M. Jones as principal, the members of the session having assumed the responsibility of paying his first year's salary. His services as principal continued to be acceptably rendered, and continuously, except for a few months, from that time until 1854. He was succeeded by Rev. G. W. Mechlin, D.D., from April, 1855, until December, 1861, when the former resumed the position and continued to fill it for nearly seven years, when he resigned and was succeeded by the present incumbent, his former successor. Both of those principals have been aided during the last quarter of a century in their educational work by various competent and efficient male and female assistants, most of the former of whom are now Presbyterian clergymen in this and several other states. Nearly 1,100 students, of both sexes, have received instruction in this institution, to which the people have deservedly given the name of academy. Between forty and fifty of those students are ministers of the Gospel. One of them is a professor in one of the oldest theological seminaries in our country. Some are foreign missionaries. One is a president judge. Some are prominent lawyers, some are successful physicians, and a goodly number are laboring efficiently in the useful and honorable vocation of teaching. The buildings appurtenant to this institution are the academy edifice, frame, and of adequate size; a boardinghouse for the female students, which was recently given to the trustees by the Glade Run congregation-the grant to continue as long as it shall be used for academy purposes; and two boardinghouses for the male students, one of which being the gift of George W. Goheen, and the other being the product of contributions made chiefly by the people of Kittanning and members of the congregation of Concord Presbyterian church in this township and of those from other sources. A liberal and perpetual charter was granted to this academy by the proper court of this county June 6, 1866. MISCELLANEOUS ITEMS. The occupation of the people within the present limits of this township appears to have been entirely agricultural until about 1820. From that year on occupations became somewhat more diversified. In that year Peter Thomas was first assessed with a sawmill, which must have been on the Wallis tract, covered by warrant No. 4163. The next one was assessed to Jacob Beck in 1822, which must have been on the Holland Company tract, covered by warrant No. 3046. Other sawmills were first assessed: To Abel Findley, on the Hiltzimer tract, covered by warrant No. 5147, in 1826; to Alvah Payne, probably on the Hamilton tract, in 1829, which was afterward transferred to Samuel Brink. The present number of sawmills is three-one on Glade Run, about 300 rods in an air line above its mouth, one at the mouth of Camp Run, and the other about 160 rods southeast of Echo, on Pine creek. The first gristmill in this township was built by Joseph Marshall, Sr., in 1822, onil Glade Run, about half a mile above' its mouth, on the Wallace tract, covered by warrant No. 4127, which was successively owned by James Kirkpatrick, John Henderson, Archibald Glenn, John Segar and Andrew J. Lowman. The next gristmill was built, in 1830, by George Beck, Sr., on Pine creek, in the southwestern part of the township, at or near which there was afterward a carding machine. The third one was built by Enoch Hastings, in 1835, about 150 rods above the first-mentioned one on Glade Run, on the Pickering & Co. tract, covered by warrant No. 391, which was subsequently owned by Daniel Schrecongost, John Segar, Alexander Getty and Andrew J. Lowman, and Alex. Haines. The fourth one was built probably by Andrew J. Lowman, in 1863, on a branch of Pine creek and on the old Anderson Creek road, in the southern part of the township, now owned by Jacob Segar. The Ellenberger & Coleman, formerly Guthrie's, saw and grist mill, on the south side of Mahoning creek, in the northeastern part of the township, just below the deep bend in that stream, was built in 1827 by Alvah Paine and Thomas Travis. All of these gristmills are now in operation, and are the only ones in the township. The first fulling-mill in this township was started by David Lewis near the first of the above-mentioned gristmills, in 1828, which was subsequeftly operated by Archibald McSperran, Archibald Glenn and James G. Morrison. The last-named was also assessed with a carding machine for the first time, in 1839. Distilleries were assessed: To Robert Marshall for the years 1823-4-5-6-7-8; to Alexander White from 1828 until 1831; to Adam Beck from 1831 until 1833; to Henry Clever from 1837 until 1839. Mechanics were assessed for the first time in this township thus: John Marshall, hatter, in 1829; William Marshall, tanner, in 1831, and William B. Marlin and Joseph Stewart, in 1832; George 227 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. McCombs and James McQuown, with tanyards, in 1836; Enoch Hastings, John Lias, Peter Lias, James Russell and John Rutherford, blacksmiths, in 1832; and, in that year, Abel Findlay, William Kinnan, carpenters; Hugh Rutherford, tailor; Jesse Cable, shoemaker, John Gould, stone and brick mason, and in 1833, Robert Borland, Jr., chairmaker. Merchants assessed for the first time: John Borland, in 1832; Jacob Brown, in 1838. There was, it is said, a store, eight or ten years later, at the mill, built by Joseph Marshall, on Glade Run. In 1876, there are three assessed-one in thirteenth, and two in fourteenth, class. Olney furnace was built by John McCrea and James Galbraith in 1846, and went into blast the next year. It was situated on the southerly side of the Mahoning creek, a little over two miles in an air line from the mouth of Glade Run, and was a hot and cold blast charcoal furnace, which for a few years made about 23 tons of pig-metal a week; and then after the enlargement of its bosh to 9 feet across by 32 feet high, 568 tons in 23 weeks, from the ferriferous and hard limestone ore, taken from the -beds in the coal measures three miles around it. The number of employ6s varied from about sixty to eighty. Galbraith retired from it in 1850, and McCrea continued to operate it until 1855. The iron was transported via the Mahoning creek and Allegheny river to Pittsburgh. An iron foundry was established by John Henderson and Archibald Glenn, probably in 1847they were first assessed with it in 1848-which was attached to the new gristmill on the site of the old one, called the lower Glade mills. It appears to have been operated by the latter until 1851, when it was transferred to John Segar, to whom it ceased to be assessed after 1852. The first resident clergymen were Rev. Elisha D. Barrett, who was first assessed with portions of the Hiltzimer tracts in 1829, and Rev. John Hindman, who was first assessed with a portion of the Blaine tract, covered by warrant No. 558, in 1834. The first resident physician was Dr. William N. Simms, who was first assessed with a portion of the Pickering & Co. tract, covered by Warrant No. 262, in 1834. The temperance element in this township has been quite strong for many years. The vote on the question of granting licenses to sell liquor, February 28, 1873, was 194 against and 56 for. The Glade Run postoffice was established December 17, 1828, at Joseph Marshall's on the then new post-route from Kittanning to the mouth 6f Anderson's creek. Reuben Lewis was its first postmaster, whose successors were Rev. E. D. Bar rett from 1831 till 1835; John Borland until 1853; William Findley until 1855, when the office removed to the village of Dayton. The postoffice at Belknap was established September 21, 1855, and its first postmaster was Charles W. Ellenberger, whose successors have been John Steele, Porter Marshall, Joseph McCorkle, Jacob Maurer and Daniel Knappenberger. The name of this office was suggested by John McCrea and was readily adopted by those interested in its establishment, as well as by the postmastergeneral. Hence, the name of the hamlet at that point, and- of the independent school district. That locality is on the Wallace tract covered by w.rrant No. 4127. The Echo postoffice was established July 14, 1857, and its first postmaster was Joseph Knox, merchant; the present one is Moses McElwain. The name of this office and of the point where it is located was suggested by the re-percussion of sound caused by the hills in its vicinity. The first lodge of Grangers, or Patrons of Husbandry, in this county was organized in this township, its first president being John Steele. In the Centennial year the great mass of the people of this township were still engaged in agricultural pursuits, the assessment list showing those in other occupations to be: Ministers, 2; teacher, 1; surveyor, 1; physician, 1; merchants, 3; blacksmiths, 2; carpenters, 3; gunsmiths, 1; laborers, 23; millers, 3; miners, 4; shoemaker, I; teamster, 1; tanner, 1; and 48 single men, valued at $50 each. BOROUGH OF DAYTON. The town or village of Dayton was laid out in 1850 on a part of the Pickering & Co. tract, covered by warrant No. 262, then owned by Robert Marshall, and on a part of the Alexander McClelland tract, then owned by John Lias. The lots vary considerably in their areas. Marshall sold at least one of his in 1850, one in 1853, one in 1854, but most of the others from 1860 until 1871, at prices varying according to their respective areas and location. For instance, he conveyed 1 acre and 16 perches, in 1850, to Michael Guyer for $52.50; 44 perches, the next year, to J. B. Guyer for $15; the same quantity, the next year, to Samuel Rearich, Sr., for $20; 1 lot to Thomas Ormond, June 8, 1861, for $136.67; lot No. 10, the same day, to Jacob R. McAfoos for $30; and lots Nos. 4 and 5 to Joseph T. Hosack for $950; 2 acres, February 2, 1863, to Sam'l McCartney for $120; 1 lot, April 1, 1864, to Dan'l W. Wamples for $425; 1 lot to John Campbell, August 9, 1867, 228 J D H N C) LH OLJ. WAYNE TOWNSHIP. for $100; and 1 lot, April 5, 1871, to Joseph W. Sharp for $40. John Lias' heirs conveyed, February 5, 1853, 25 perches to James Coleman for $40.66; 541 perches to Robert N. McComb for $27.35; and 1051 perches to Eliza A. Goodhart for $33. The growth of this town in business and population has been gradual and healthful. It was, of course, a part of Wayne township until its incorporation into a borough. The Methodist Episcopal church was organized here, it is said, as early as 1821, probably by Rev. Thomas Hudson during his itinerant labors in this region, there being then about 12 members. Its number of communicants in 1876 is 90; Sabbathschool scholars about 100. There are two other churches in the Dayton circuit, whose aggregate number of members is 200, and of Sabbath-school scholars about 240. The first church edifice of the Dayton congregation was erected in 1837. The Associate Presbyterian congregation of Glade Run was organized in the vicinity of Dayton by Rev. John Hindman in 1831, with eight members. John H. Marshall and William Kinnan were its first ruling elders. The pastorate of Rev. John Hindman continued until April 28, 1852. Rev. David K. Duff, the present pastor, first preached to this congregation in February, 1854, and was ordained and installed October 18, 1856. Although he was absent three years rendering military service as captain of Company K in the 14th regt. Pa. Cay., in the War of the Rebellion, his pastoralr relation, at the request of his congregation, was not dissolved during any portion of his absence. The Sabbath-school was organized April 18, 1859. The membership of the church in 1876 is 110, and the number of Sabbath-school scholars 59. When the union between the Associate and Associate Reformed churches was effected in 1858, the name was changed to that of the United Presbyterian congregation of Glade Run, and in 1850 to the Dayton United Presbyterian congregation. Its contributions to the various boards during the last twehty years amount to $9,980, and during the year ending in 1876 $1,170.08. Its first church edifice was frame, 30 X 35 feet, situated nearly two miles in an air line between south and southeast from Dayton, on a small branch of Glade Run, adjoining the cemetery noted on the township map, in the Borland neighborhood. It was enlarged in 1841. Its location was changed to Dayton in 1860. The present edifice, frame, about 40 X 60 feet, between the Methodist Episcopal church and the academy, on the north side of Church street, was completed in 1863. The lot on which it is located was conveyed by Robert Marshall to Smith Neal, Robert L. Marshall and Wmin. J. Stuchell, trustees, and their successors, March 27, 1869, for $10. The Dayton Union Academy was established in 1852, and it has ever since been under the control of a board of trustees chosen by the contributors to its support, irrespective of their sectarian tenets. It sprung from the united efforts of at least two (the United Presbyterian and Methodist Episcopal) denominations. Hence it is called a union academy. Its first principal was Rev. John A. Campbell, whose successors have been Rev. David K. Duff and David Love, A. M., who have from time to time had the co-operation of zealous and competent assistants. The first county superintendent of the common schools of this county was Rev. Jno. A. Campbell in 1854, then principal of this academy. One of the noble monuments of the gratitude of the people of Pennsylvania to the dead soldiers of the republic and their tender regard for the welfare of the children bereft of fathers by the war for our cherished Union adorns this municipality. It having been suggested in the summer of 1866 that there was need of a soldiers' orphans' school either in this or one of the adjoining counties, Dayton was readily admitted to be an eligible location for it. Meetings of some of its citizens were held; the subject was generally discussed, and it was finally determined to establish the needed school here. Rev. David K. Duff was authorized to confer with Thomas H. Burrowes, who was then the state superintendent of the Soldiers' Orphans' Schools, who, after having been informed of this benign movement, came hither, made a parol agreement with some of the citizens, who had become enlisted in the project, for consummating it, and selected the present site for the buildings. A joint stock company was soon organized with a capital of $15,000. Its original members were Rev. David K. Duff, Rev. T. M. Elder, Dr. William Hosack, Dr. J. R. Crouch, Robert Marshall, Wesley Pontius, William R. Hamilton, William Marshall, Thomas P. Ormond, Thomas H. Marshall, Samuel Good, Smith Neal, John H. Rupp, William Morrow, William J. Burns, J. W. Marshall, William Hindman, John Beck, Jacob Beck, John Craig, David Lawson and David Byers. The school opened in rented buildings on the 1st of November in that year, with fifty-one pupils. This company was incorporated December 1, 1873. Its charter name is the "Dayton Soldiers' Orphans' School Association." If purchased in the fall of 229 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. 1867 thirty-five acres of land, on which have been erected three substantial two-story frame buildings, one of which, 72X24 feet, was occupied in the early part of the next spring; another, 72X36 feet, was erected during the following summer, and the third one, 86 X 40 feet, was ready to be occupied by the 1st of September then next ensuing. The ones first and last erected were burned in December, 1873, and within six months thereafter new ones were erected on their sites. The three buildings have a capacity for the accommodation of 225 pupils. Rev. T. M. Elder, Rev. J. E. Dodds and exCounty Superintendent Hugh McCandless, the present one, have successively been the principals of this school; the principal assistants, J. P. Barber, G. W. Innes, W. MeKiershan, Alex. T. Ormond and M. L. Thounhurst; the aggregate of different assistant teachers of all grades, 27; superintendents of boys, 8; employes, 29. The average number of pupils, girls and boys, during the first five years, was about 150, and from 1872 until 1876, 206. Only three deaths of pupils have occurred in nearly ten years, and there has been, since the opening of the school, but very little sickness among them. Twenty-four have been transferred to other schools, 220 have been discharged by reason of their having attained the age of sixteen years, and 38 by order of the superintendent. The moral, intellectual and physical culture in this school is such as is well calculated to make its pupils good, useful and healthful men and women, and to properly prepare them for their various vocations in after life. It is gratifying to know that so many of them, as do, find eligible situations after they pass out from the portals of this temple of knowledge to participate in the earnest, continuous struggle on the world's broad battlefield. The common schoolhouse, frame, two stories, is situated on the southeast corner of South and School streets. The school is a graded one of two departments. The school statistics for 1876 are as follows: schools, 2; average number months taught, 5; male teacher, 1; female teacher, 1; salary of male per month, $33; salary of female per month, 33; male scholars, 50; female scholars, 49; average number attending school, 74; received from state appropriation, $91.14; from taxes, etc., $626,22; paid for schoolhouse, $244; for teachers' wages, $297; for fuel, $108.12. The petition of divers citizens of the town of Dayton for its incorporation into a borough, under the general borough acts, was filed in the proper court on the 3d, approved by the grand jury on the 5th of March, and finally approved by the court on June 5, 1873, when the usual decree was made, and the town duly declared to be incorporated into the borough of Dayton, with these boundaries: "Beginning at a post at the line of lands of Ezra Pontius, thence passing the lands of Thomas and William Marshall south 31 degrees east 141 perches to a post, thence passing through in part the same land and land of said Thomas H. Marshall, with other lands of widow Knox south 86 degrees west 280 perches to a stump, thence passing through lands of said Knox in part and in part through lands of Sloan Cochran north 6 degrees east 1741' perches to a post, thence passing through lands of George Kline and others south 861 degrees east 253- perches to the post and place of beginning." It was declared to be a separate election and school district. The first election was directed to be held at the schoolhouse, July 1, 1873. Wesley Pontius was appointed judge, and Ralph Kells and Theodore Wilson inspectors, and Abraham Good was directed to give notice of that election. The highest number of votes cast for any of the candidates was thirty-three, and the lowest fifteen. All the officers were unanimously elected: Justice of the peace, John Campbell; burgess, G. W. Lias; town council, H. L. Spencer, George Kline; school directors, W. W. Caldwell, Wesley Pontius; overseers of the poor, Thomas P. Ormond, J. R. Cornick; assessor, J. T. Smith; judge of election, R. L. Marshall; inspectors of election, John Beck, S. W. Marshall; auditor, A. J. Thompson; constable, G. B. Roof. The assessment list for 1876: Ministers, 4; teachers, 5; principal orphan school, 1; physicians, 2; students, 4; postmaster, 1; law student, 1; agents, 2; clerks, 2; farmers, 17; press farmer, 1; laborers, 10; merchants, 4; hotelkeepers, 2; blacksmiths, 2; carpenters, 9; harnessmakers, 2; furniture dealer, 1; plasterer, 1; painters, 2; tailors, 2; tinner, 1; teamster, 1; shoemakers, 2; wagonmakers, 2; wheelwright, 1. The number of taxables the same year, 122, from which the population is estimated to be 561. The vote of the inhabitants of this place is included in that of Wayne township. POSTAL. The postoffice was established here July 13, 1855. James McQuown was its first postmaster. 230 MES.WESLEY POPtIUS, WESLEY PONTIOUS. The grandparents of Wesley Pontious, on both sides, were from Germany. His father and mother, Jacob and Elizabeth Pontious, who were born respectively November 3, 1783, and September 15, 1789, came from east of the mountains to Wayne Township, Armstrong county, in 1816, Mr. Pontious having been out the year previous and purchased 400 acres of land, over a portion of which Dayton borough has since extended. Mr. and Mrs. Pontious were the parents of nine children, whom they lived to see raised to industrious and moral habits, and respectably settled in life. Their names, with dates of birth, were as follows: Elias, born December 25, 1811; Wesley, July 31, 1813; Ezra, December 15, 1814; Mary Ann, April 20, 1817; Eliza Jane, July 12, 1819); Catharine, July 16, 1821; Maria, March 20, 1823; Margaret, November 15, 1826; and John, January 30, 1828. Of these Mary Ann, Eliza Jane, Maria and John are now deceased. Jacob Pontious, the father, (lied in 1845, and Elizabeth, his wife, in 1842. At the time when the elder Pontious made his settlement in Armstrong county the region around his location was very sparsely peopled, and but little improvement had been made. Many of the settlers gave more attention to hunting than to clearing their lands. Jacob Pontious did not, however, belong to that class-he was an industrious and enterprising man, and his children inherited those characteristics. Ile started a tanyard upon his farm, taking into partnership a young man who knew the trade. When Wesley Pontious was about sixteen years of age he went to work under this man, and worked with him for five years; he then carried on the business for five years more for his father. Then, at his father's request, hlie went on the farm, which he managed to his father's satisfaction. When his father died in 1845 he left no will, but his son Wesley administered on the estate, and settled it up satisfactorily. He bought the old homestead, and by diligent labor paid for it and laid the foundation for his present independent condition in life. He was judicious in his farming, as he has been in the conduct of his other business, and slowly but surely (though he met with some losses, chiefly through the fault of others) accumulated considerable property. He still retains about fifty acres of his original farm, and lives in comparative retirement in Dayton, adjoining which village his land lies. He was one of the original stockholders of the Dayton Soldiers' Orphans' school, and is one of the board of managers of that institution. During the war of the rebellion he took the enrollhnent in Wayne township, on which the draft was based, and he has before and since held various offices in the gift of his townspeople. He is held in high esteem by all who have been associated with him as a conservative citizen and conscientious man in all the relations of life. At present, and since 1880, he has had, besides other investments, an interest in the general store conducted by the firm of C. S. Marshall & Co. Mr. Pontious is a member of the Methodist Episcopal church. Upon the 26th of May, 1846, Wesley Pontious was united in marriage with Hannah Jane, second daughter of Thomas Travis, an old citizen of this county, in the neighborhood of Dayton. There were three children by this marriage, of whom two are living, as follows: Mary Ann (wile of Rev. James B. Gray) and Rebecca C. (wife of Charles II. Gray). His first wife dying March 18, 1870, Mr. Pontious miarried, October 24, 1872, Miss Louisa A. Funk. WESLEY PONTIUS. WAYNE TOWNSHIP. ORIGIN OF NAME. The origin of the name of this municipality is this: On a certain evening, probably in 1849, when there were only about three buildings on the territory which it now covers, there was a small assemblage of persons then residing here and in this vicinity, at the store of Guyer & Laughlin. One topic of conversation on that occasion was the name which should be given to this point, then a mere hamlet, which, it was expected, would in time become a town. The main object was to select a name which had not been given to any other place, or at least to any postoffice, in this state. Some one present, it is not remembered who, suggested Dayton, which name, it is thought by the writer's informant, occurred to the suggestor by reason of some mental association of his with Dayton, Ohio. If such is its derivation, it is, like the name of the township from which it was organized, mediately connected with the achievements of Gen. Wayne, for his victories over, and his treaty with, the Indians immediately led to the foundation of Dayton in Ohio, which was named after Jonathan Dayton, who was one of the agents who effected a purchase for John Cleve Symmes of 248,000 acres from the United States, on a part of which is the site of that place, which is a part of the land for the purchase of which Dayton, St. Clair, Wilkinson and Ludlow contracted with Symmes in seventeen days after Wayne's treaty with the Indians was made. Jonathan Dayton was a citizen of New Jersey, and was speaker of the house of representatives in the Congress of the United States from December 7, 1795, until March 3, 1799. 231 CHAPTER X. KISKIMINETAS. Indian Origin of the Name - Organization - Early Visits of the Whites - Christopher Gist - Persons to Whom the Lands were Originally Surveyed - Old Time Attempts to Divide the Township - Churches - Schools - Temperance Element - Improving Navigation in the Kiskiminetas - Mechanical Industries - Statistics of Employments and Population - Postoffices - An Ancient Landmark - Geological Description -" Dunmire's Rock "- Borough of Apollo, Formerly Warren - Assessments at Various Dates - Ferries and Bridges - Religious Matters --Military- Soldiers' Aid Society - Lodges - Trades and Occupations - Manufacturing and Mercantile History - Statistics-- Fires. KISKIMINETAS TOWNSHIP. THIS township was named from the river which skirts its southern border. Kiskiminetas, says Heckewelder, is corrupted from Gieschgumanito, signifying, make daylight. Its etymology is: Gisch-gu-day; gisch-gue-today; gieschapen-it is daybreak; manitoon-to make. It was probably the word of command, given by a warrior to his comrades, at night, to break up camp and resume the journey, or war-path. It is said in McCullough's Narrative, that the Indians called this river KIee-ak-ksheman-nit-toos, signifying cut spirit. HIleckewelder's etymology and definition are more satisfactory to the writer. ORGANIZATION. The petition of sundry inhabitants of Allegheny township was presented December 22, 1831, to the court of quarter sessions of this county, asking that a new township be formed out of the upper end of Allegheny township, to be called Kiskiminetas. Philip Klingensmith, John Lafferty and John McKissen were appointed viewers, who, after one continuance of their order, presented their report recommending the organization of the new township, which was approved by the court June 19,1832. The boundaries were: "By a line commencing at a great bend of the Kiskiminetas river, at the mouth of a small run; thence by a direct line 6 miles and 200 perches to the mouth of Cherry run, where it empties into Crooked creek; thence up Crooked creek to the line of Indiana county; thence along said line to the Kiskiminetas river; thence down said river to the place of beginning." Some parts of the territory of this township were formerly inhabited by Indians. One of their towns, " Toquhesp, I. T.," is indicated, in the historical map of Pennsylvania, as having been situated about half-way between the present site and the Indiana county line-probably at or near the Northwest Coal Company's works. The writer has not been able to ascertain the etymology and meaning of the name, unless it is derived from Tach-quock-meaning land turtle. Some young Indians, probably Senecas, informed Gen. Thomas L. Kane, while hunting on his broad domain, in McKean county, that Toquhesp "must be a word of another language. A place near there is, in one language, Da-gaisse-gehney, which means, 'carry me across (the water) on your back.'" About a mile below Apollo, near the outlet locks, an Indian chief, bearing the name of Warren, was buried, and the tract containing his grave is designated on the ancient county map, or map of original tracts of land, as " Warren's Sleepingplace." About a mile and a quarter, in an air line, northeast from "Toquhesp," is an "Indian spring," near which is a roclZ, on the eastern face of which, fronting the run, is a rudely engraved figure, probably intended to represent an Indian medicine man. The parts representing the head and upper portion of the body are cut about an inch deep. The cutting of the other portions is more shallow. The arms appear to be extended in curved lines from the body, at the extremity of each of which is what is intended to represent a hand with three fingers extended, the legs bent or curved, each foot having two toes extended. Below the right hand is the representation of an arrow-head, while above the right arm, diagonally from the elbow, four characters are engraved somewhat like these, IOO 0R. The visits of whites to the territory included in this township, prior to 1748, were probably about the same as those mentioned in the sketch of the present township of Allegheny. The Ohio Company, consisting of Lawrence and Augustine Washington and others, an association KISKIMINETAS TOWNSHIP. organized for the purpose of affecting settlements on the wild lands west of the Allegheny mountains, sent out Christopher Gist, in 1750, to explore the country. In the course of that tour of exploration he passed from the south branch of the Potomac to the head of the Juniata, crossed the Allegheny mountains "and reached the Allegheny river by the valley of the Kiskiminetas." * That tour began October 31, 1750, from Col. Cresap's, at the old town on the Potomac river in Maryland, and continued thence, as above indicated, to the Allegheny and down the Ohio river to the falls, and thence to Roanoke river in North Carolina, where he arrived May 19, 1751. His journal of that tour, found in the appendix of Pownall's "Topographical Description of North America," published in London in 1776, shows that on Monday, November 17, 1750, he " crossed a great laurel mountain," i. e. Laurel Hill. The next day he encountered rain and snow. His journal continues: "Wednesday, 14, set out north 450 west 6' to Loyal Hannon, an old Indian town on a creek of the Ohio, called KJiskeminetas, then north 1' northwest 1' to an Indian camp on said creek. " Thursday, 15. The weather being bad, and I unwell, stayed here all day. The Indian to whom this camp belonged spoke good English and directed me the way to his town, which he called Shanoppin; he said it was about sixty miles and a pretty good way. "Friday, 16. Set out south 700 west 10'. "Saturday, 17. The same course (south 700 west) fifteen miles to an old Indian camp. "Sunday, 18. I was very sick and sweated myself, according to the Indian custom, in a sweathouse, which gave me ease and my fever abated. "Monday, 19. Set out early in the morning, the same course (south 70' west); traveled very hard about twenty miles to a small Indian town of the Delawares, called Shanoppin, on the southeast side of the river Ohio, where we rested and got corn for our horses." Shanoppin was a short distance below the present site of Sharpsburgh, the river then being called both Ohio and Allegheny. The ancient map of this county indicates that seventy-five tracts of land were originally surveyed to various persons as follows: John Montgomery, 5001 acres, including " Warren's Sleeping-place," and the site of Apollo; John Montgomery, 70" acres; James Watson, 160 acres, 148 perches; Joseph Campbell, 437 acres, seated by Watsons and John Criswell; John Clark, 521 acres, seated by Peter Yarnall and Hugh Bigham; Chistopher Hays and John Henderson, 402 acres, seated by James Bid *Rupp. dle; William Jackson, 111.7 acres, seated by Jacob McCartney; John Jackson, 367.8 acres, seated by John Miller, Sr., 50 acres, John Miller, Jr., 100 acres, and Jacob Miller, 100 acres; Robert Clark, 248 acres, seated by James Jackson; Robert Watson, 47 acres, 110 perches; Robert Ralston, 436 acres, seated by William Kerr; James Armstrong, 318 acres, seated by Joseph Irwin; J. Jackson, 46 acres; Samuel Hucheson, 280 acres, seated by John and William Watson and John Martin; John Hucheson, 297.7 acres, seated by Robert Watson; John Wells and John Reighley, 408- acres, seated by Isaac Warner and Alexander Black; John Pirn, 335 acres, seated by T. Shoemaker; James Alexander, 342 acres, seated by John Lamrner; Michael Campbell, 148 acres, seated by Joseph Eakman; John Burghy, 315 acres, seated by Robert Kilgore; Jonathan Nesbitt, 346 acres, seated by John Wilson; Reese Meredith, 299 acres, partly in Allegheny township; John Ewing (pedlar), 335.8 acres, seated by Daniel O'Brian, partly in Allegheny township; Jacob Burghy, 391 acres, seated by Philip Schellhamer; Mary Paine, 311- acres, partly in Burrell township; Peter Van Gelder, 395.8 acres, seated by William Eakman; Michael Campbell, 1531 acres, seated by Andrew McKee; Evan Evans, 393 acres, seated by John Kerr; Andrew Boner, 310 acres, seated by Henry Walker; John Steele, 310.8 acres; John Swift, 323.6 acres; Joseph Swift, Jr., 324 acres, seated by John Shoemaker, Jr.; Rachel Smith, 4001 acres, seated by John Kline; Robert Smith, Jr., 365 acres, seated by Andrew Scott; Thomas Duncan, 4101 acres, seated by George Learner, 80, Barnabas Bloss, 130, and James Biddle, 200 acres; Eve Hays, 475- acres, seated by John Fuller; Jacob Mechlin, 327.39 acres; Chr. Hays, member of assembly in 1778, 349 acres, seated by John Fuller; Thos. Allibone, 1011 acres, seated by Peter Yarnell; Isaac Townsend, 133 acres, seated by himself; James Wallace, 166.9 acres, seated by Isaac Townsend; Agnes Simpson, 2771 acres, seated by John Johnston, Jr., and Adam Johnston; Jacob Stilley, 252.4 acres, seated by James Guthrie; Jacob Wolf, 2481 acres, seated by Michael Anderson; D. Hall, 118.62 acres, seated by Samuel Guthrie; Joseph Shoemaker, 194.1 acres, seated by himself; William Todd, 125- acres, seated by Samuel Coulter; Joseph Shields, 100 acres; James Wilson, 136 acres; Henry Horn, 363 acres, seated by Michael Anderson (river); Michael Sowerwalt, 372.3 acres, seated by John Dornmoyer; Elizabeth Henderson, 359.9 acres, seated by John Fuller; George Clymer, member of assembly in 1778, 335.3 acres; George Reading, 324.6 acres; Jonathan D. Sergeant, 291 acres, seated by Mat233 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. " Legend.-Kittanning destroyed by Col. Armstrong, September, 1756. "Recerse Device.-The arms of the corporation of Philadelphia, consisting of four devices: On the right a ship under full sail; on the left a pair of scales equally balanced; in the right, above the ship, a wheat sheaf; on the left, two hands locked. " Legend.-The gift of the corporation of the city of Philadelphia." To Col. John Armstrong: Sim: The corporation of the city of Philadelphia greatly approve your conduct and public spirit in the late expedition against the town of Kittanning, and are highly pleased with the signal proofs of courage and personal bravery given by you and the officers under your command in demolishing that place. I am, therefore, ordered to return you and them the thanks of the Board for the eminent service you have thereby done your country. I am also ordered by the corporation to present you, out of their small public stock, with a piece of plate and silver medal, and each of your officers with a medal and a small sum of money, to be disposed of in a manner most agreeable to them; which the Board desire you will accept as a testimony of the regard they have for your merit. Signed by order, January 5, 1757. ATWOOD SnUTE, Mayor. To the Mayor, Recorder, Aldermen and Common Council of the Corporation of the city of Philadelphia: (iENTrLEMEN: Your favor of the 5th instant, together with the medals and other genteel presents made to the officers of my battalion, by the corporation of the city of Philadelphia, I had the pleasure to receive by Capt. George Armstrong. The officers eml)loyed in the Kittanning expedition have been made acquainted with the distinguished honor you have done them, and desire to join with me in acknowledging it in the most public manner. The kind accep)tance of our past services by the corporation gives us the highest pleasure and furnishes a fresh motive for exerting ourselves on every future occasion for the benefit of His Majesty's service in general and in defense of this province in particular. In behalf of the officers of my battalion, I have the honor to be, gentlemen, your most obedient and obliged humble servant, Carlisle, January 24, 1757. Joux ARMs'roxox. Governor Denny, April 9, 1757, wrote to the proprietaries: "After Col. Armstrong's successful expedition against the Kittanning and the conclusion of peace at Easton, the back inhabitants enjoyed rest from the incursions of the savages and the poor people who were driven from their plantations generally returned to them. Since the affair of Kittanning the Indians on this side of the Ohio [Allegheny] have mostly retired with their wives and children under the French forts on that river." Hence it was that the legislature gave our county the name which it bears, adding another testimonial to the memory of Col. Armstrong. As Herschel, by his genius and astronomical discoveries, wrote his name upon a star, so Armstrong, by his skill, prowess, patriotism and military achievements, wrote with his sword his name upon the beautifully and ruggedly varied face of this county. AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF KITTANNING. Although the success of Armstrong's expedition resulted in the removal of hostile Indians from the east side of the Allegheny river, various other causes operated to prevent this and other parts of northwestern Pennsylvania from being rapidly and permanently settled by the whites. William Findley, in his history of the Whisky Insurrection, says: "The western and southwestern portions of what is now Westmoreland, and the southeastern part of what is now Armstrong, were settled about the year 1769, the next year after the proprietary of Pennsylvania had purchased the country from the Indians as far west as the Allegheny and Ohio rivers." In 1769 the land office, for the sale or location of the lately purchased land, was opened. Several thousands of locations were applied for on the first day. The settlement on the east side of the Monongahela and Allegheny was very rapidly extended from the Monongahela forty miles northward, as far as Crooked creek, and the first settlers were generally a more sober, orderly people than commonly happens in the first settlement of new countries." At that time all of Pennsylvania west of the western boundary of Lancaster was in Cumberland county. Whatever people had then settled in what is now Armstrong county must have been few. Among the petitions sent to Gov. Penn, in 1774, from inhabitants near IIanna's Town, imploring protection and relief, it was, among other things, set forth that the petitioners were rendered very uneasy by the order of removal of the troops, that had been raised for their general assistance and protection, "to Kittanning, a place at least twenty-five or thirty miiles distant from any of the settlements," and that it was theirs, " as well as the general opinion, that removing the troops to so distant and uninhabited a part of the province as Kittanning is, cannot answer the good purposes intended, but seems to serve the purposes of some who regard not the public welfare." Later in the chronological order of events occurred the following correspondence: " KIrNNxxINxo, the 5th December, 1776. "Simm: I last night received your order from the Board of War, in consequence of which I have this day issued the necessary orders and shall march with all possible HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. thew Lampton; James Clark, 389 acres; John Scotton, 319- acres, seated by William Sansom; Moore Furman, 316 acres, seated by Joseph Shirley; John Musser, 317.8 acres, seated by Samuel Gray; William Todd, 323 acres; John Swift, 323.6 aci'es; Frederick Foulk, 313 acres; Mary Swift, 328.5 acres, partly in Burrell township; Isaac Morton, 301 acres, seated by John Barr; Henry Lisle, 301.8 acres, seated by James Kerns; Benjamin Shermer, 301 acres, seated by Nicholas Weitzell; Mellicent Wade, 301 acres; Alexander Todd, 319.8 acres, partly in South Bend township, seated by Andrew Cunningham; Henry Beck,; Geo. Morgan, 326 acres, seated by Robert Shirley; Abraham Shoemaker, 301.9 acres, seated by Christopher Eiman; Abraham Hunt, 301.9 acres, partly in South Bend township, seated by Samuel Hancock; Isaac Allen, 346.3 acres, partly in Indiana county; John Leasure, 314 acres, seated by Barnabas Steer and Solomon Dornmoyer; Joseph Shoemaker, 251.8 acres, seated by Benjamin Couch; William Ball, 297 acres, partly in Indiana county, seated by Samuel McClelland; John Laughlin, 355 acres, partly in Indiana county, seated by himself. Vacant tracts are indicated on that map as follows: Northwest of the James Armstrong and W. Jackson, and west of the Jno. Burghy, Jonathan Nesbitt, James Alexander and Evan Evans tracts, in the western part of the township, on a part of which James Neely, from Londonderry, Ireland, settled in or about 1787; west of the Isaac Allen and Ab'm Shoemaker tracts; and another one east of the Henry Horn and north and west of the John Laughlin tract, also in the southeastern part of the township. Names were given to some, if not all, of those tracts. For instance: the Samuel HIucheson tract was called "Denmark;" the Jacob Wolf tract, "Okefield;" the David Hall tract, "Mount Hall;" one of the Joseph Shoemaker tracts, "Millbrook;" the Thomas Duncan tract, "Oakland;" the Henry Horn tract, "Deedenheim;" the George Reading tract, "Hesse Cassel;" the Benjamin Shirmer tract, "Scara;" the Mellicent Wade tract, "Sciro;" the Isaac Morton tract, "Fuligno; " the tract adjoining the Michael Campbell tract, warrant dated July 1, 1784, and patent March 9, 1796, to Isaac Anderson, "White Oak Bottom;" the Reese Meredith tract, "I Harcourt;" the Joseph Swift, John Scatton and John. Swift tracts, respectively, "Digby Nos. 1, 2, 3;" the Wmin. Todd tract, "Newark; " the John Leasure tract, "White Oak Flat;" the Jacob Burgy (or Berger) tract, "Burgomaster;" the John Steel tract, " RoundHole" or "Boiling Spring," which became vested in the heirs of Robert Elder, of which John Beemer purchased six-thirteenths, and released the same to John Miller April 8, 1833, who conveyed seventy-two acres to Adam Miller for $150 April 10, 1840. From the boiling spring on this tract the names of Spring postoffice and Spring church have been derived. In 1805 the various tracts in what is now Kiskiminetas township were rated or assessed at from twenty-five cents to $1 per acre. For instance: the Agnes Simpson tract was then rated at fifty cents per acre, now at $28; the James Wallace and Isaac Townsend tracts, then at seventy-five cents, now at from $25 to $28; the Benjamin Shermer tract, then at seventy-five cents, now at $25. Several petitions of inhabitants of Kiskiminetas township were filed in the court of quarter sessions of this county December 23, 1840, asking for a division of the township, and the organization of a new one to be called Washington, by a line to commence at James Kiers', on the Indiana county line, and thence by Solomon Shoemaker's to the Allegheny township line, because, as set forth in the petitions, the area of the township was sixteen by ten miles, the inhabitants were very numerous and the country rough, which rendered it exceedingly burdensome upon the people in transacting their township business. Several remonstrances were filed at the same time. The remonstrants alleged that they had understood that a few designing individuals contemplated applying to the court for a division of the township; that, if granted, it would derange the school system and cause the inhabitants to build new schoolhouses; that the average number of voters then in the township did not exceed 380; that the area of the township exceeded eight square miles, and, if divided, it would be eight by four miles; and that a petition was then before the house of representatives for the incorporation of the village of Warren into a borough, which would, if done, "considerably lessen the township." The remonstrants prevailed: the prayer of the petitioners was not granted. In 1850 an attempt was made to organize a new township out of parts of Allegheny, Kiskiminetas, Kittanning and Plum Creek townships, to be called Knox. Jonathan E. Meredith, William McIntosh and James Stewart were appointed viewers, who, at December sessions of that year, reported that it was inexpedient to erect a township with the boundaries specified in the petition and order, but suggested that it would be proper to erect a new township with somewhat different boundaries. 234 KISKIMINETAS TOWNSHIP. That attempt failed for awhile, but it was afterward consummated by the organization of Burrell township. The people of Kiskiminetas (at least a majority of them) contended vigorously, and for awhile successfully, against the further dismemberment of their township in the erection of South Bend township; they defeated that project once or twice by their ballots, but were finally overcome, perhaps by their own supineness. Some of the warrants and patents for the tracts of land, which have already been mentioned, are dated as early as 1773; still they were not rapidly or densely settled for many years, not, in fact, until after the second decade of this century. Among the inducements to settle on them, offered by their owners, were the following, which appear in the advertisement of Robert Smith, published in the first number of the first volume of the Western Eagle, which, it will be borne in mind, was the first paper printed in this county, dated September 20, 1810, in which he offered for sale his 400-acre tract called "Smithfield," and the adjoining tract of Rachel Smith, situate on Roaring run, a mile from Rattling run, on which there was said to be a fall sufficient for a mill. He intimated that if encouragement should be given, a fulling-mill and a chemical laboratory "for refining dyes and colors would be provided by the proprietor of the land." CHURCHES. For many years after the first settlements, the nearest meeting-house was at Polk Run, in Westmoreland county, and religious services were held in barns and private houses. The only Presbyterian church was organized in the spring of 1840. It is called the Boiling Spring Presbyterian church, because of the proximity of its edifice to a spring whose water, when the basin or reservoir is open and clear of earthy deposits, is forced a considerable distance-boils as it were-above the surface of the earth. The sand in the bed of this spring is white. The first church edifice, built jointly by the Presbyterian and Lutheran congregations, was a capacious frame structure, situated near Rattling run, about two and two-thirds miles a little east of south from the northern corner of the township, was erected soon after the organization of the church. Its several pastors have been Revs. Levi M. Graves, C. C. Bristol, J. E. Caruthers and Perrin Baker, the present one. The first edifice was replaced by a new frame one in 1871. The membership is 107; Sabbath-school scholars, 115. The Boiling Spring Lutheran church has a capacious frame edifice situated a few rods west of the Presbyterian church. Its membership is 54; Sabbath-school scholars, 30. The Maysville Lutheran church has an edifice which is frame and situated about seventy-five rods west of Maysville, near a western branch of Long run. Its membership is 38; Sabbath-school scholars, 77. Both of these last-mentioned churches belong to the General Synod. SCHOOLS. The earliest schools were kept in rough log cabins, similar to those described in the general sketch of the county. Some of them were not kept coinmfortably warm in cold weather with ten-plate stoves. The teachers were old men who could not make a livelihood by manual labor. Their scholarship was very limited. Occasionally one was a good penman and arithmetician. The school month consisted of twenty-four days. The tuition was $1.50 per quarter. Some of the scholars, who depended on themselves, attended school as long as their money would enable them to pay their tuition. Some such could attend only a month in a year. The first schoolhouse, built about 1810, was situated at or near the present site of Maysville, and soon afterward another one, about two miles southwest from the first one, near Flat run. There was another one, probably somewhat later, in the Jackson and Watson settlement, two or three miles east or southeast of Apollo, which was burned in 1817-18, and was replaced by a better one which was built by the conjoint efforts of William Watson, James Jackson, Jacob Miller, and some others, whose names the writer's informant did not remember. Prior to 1822 a log schoolhouse was built on the Benjamin Shirmer tract, called "Scara," patented by John and Thomas Penn to John Mifflin, October 5, 1774, descended to Rebecca Archer, who conveyed it to Nicholas Weitzell, April 26, 1814, from whom Robert Wray purchased it, March 13, 1819. It was one of the primitive kind of schoolhouses. Among the earliest teachers, if not the earliest, who taught there, were James Craig and Samuel Scott. The number of scholars ranged from fifteen to twenty. That house was situated about twenty rods from the present Shady Plain schoolhouse. The former also taught a school at his residence on the John Salter or "Ganges" tract, or what has been, since November 5, 1850, known as the Remalley farm, in Burrell township, distant about three miles from Shady Plain, which some of the children of Robert Wray and of others in his neighborhood attended. Craig also taught at times in an old dwelling-house on the "Scara" tract, on which, as 235 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. early as 1820, were the remains of a hunter's cabin. The free school system was readily adopted. Among its most devoted and persistent supporters was the late Joseph Shoemaker, who was for many years a school director, and a model one, so far as a prompt, cheerful and conscientious discharge of official duties was concerned. The old log schoolhouses, even of the second series and better class, have given place to comfortable frame ones, distributed at convenient distances over the township. In 1860 the number of schools (including those now in South Bend) was 15; average number months taught, 4; male teachers, 11; female teachers, 4; average salaries of male teachers per month, $18; average salaries of female teachers per month, $18; male scholars, 428; female scholars, 335; average number attending school, 448; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 42 cents; amount tax levied for school purposes, $1,315.53; amount tax levied for building purposes, $886.02; from state appropriation, $191.27; from collectors, $1,630.70; cost of instruction, $1,080; fuel and contingencies, $192.75; cost of schoolhouses, building, purchasing, renting, repairing, etc., $498.22. In 1876 the.number of schools (exclusive of those now in South Bend township) was 13; average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 9; female teachers, 4; average salaries males per month, $34.55; average salaries females per month, $32.50; male scholars, 253; female scholars, 223; average number attending school, 372; cost per month, $1; total amount of tax levied for school and building purposes, $2,587.15; received from state appropriation, $400.83; from taxes and other sources, $2,474.34; total receipts, $2,875.17; cost of schoolhouses, purchasing, renting, repairing, etc., $62.71; paid for teachers' wages, $2,309; paid for fuel, fees of collectors, etc., $486.66; total expenditures, $2,858.37. The temperance element in this township has been for many years quite strong. At the election, Friday, February 28, 1873, the vote against granting license to sell intoxicating liquors was 75, and in favor, 45. The navigation of the Kiskiminetas was improved in 1811-12 by removing rocks and other obstacles as far up as the Packsaddle. It used to be dangerous boating over Big Falls, and several persons were drowned there. A dam at the foot of these falls makes the slackwater up to dam No. 3. By act of March 26, 1821, the sum of $5,000 was appropriated for improving the navigation of the Kiskiminetas and Conemaugh rivers, and George Mulholland, Jr., Peter Wallace, Andrew Boggs, John Hill and Jacob Drum were appointed commissioners to superintend its expenditure. MANUFACTURES. The early assessment lists of Allegheny township show that mills of different kinds were established within the present limits of Kiskiminetas township, thus: William Hess was assessed for the first time with a gristmill in 1810; Michael Anderson, James Findley and Robert Watson with sawmills in 1811; Benjamin Couch with a grist and saw mill in 1818; Jacob McCartney with a fullingmill in 1820, a gristmill in 1826 and a factory in 1843; Isaac Townsend with a sawmill in 1824; James W. Biddle, William Kerr and William Uncapher each with a sawmill in 1826; John Fuller with a grist and saw mill in 1830; Joseph McGeury with a sawmill in 1831. Stitt's mill, on Carnahan's run, was for years after its erection resorted to by a large portion of the people of this township. Citizens volunteered to make a road on which they could go to that mill, the work on which was commenced at the mill and progressed homeward, and, as they reached their own abodes, would respectively drop off, so that those living at the greatest distances from the mill did most of the work. There are now, as the writer is informed, one gristmill and two sawmills in this township, and most of the sawing is done by portable mills. The fulling or woolen mill of Cooker & Moore, near the head of the fourth western branch of Rattling run, was established in 18-. Raymond Deutzell was first assessed with a tanyard in 1829, and John Keely in 1834. The same yard was probably assessed, in different years, to both Deutzell and Keely, as both were assessed with land granted by the commonwealth to Thos. Harper, whose administrators conveyed "twentyfive acres, including a tanyard," to Keely, so that it appears to have been the only one in this township. Rock Furnace was established by James W. Biddle in 1825, near the Big Falls, on the Kiskiminetas river, who announced in his advertisement for woodchoppers and other laborers, dated October 5, that it would "be in blast on Christmas day." It was a steam cold blast furnace, eight feet across the bosh by thirty feet high. The fuel used was charcoal. The number of employes is said to have been from fifty to seventy-five. It was located on the Christopher Hays and John Henderson tract, between the mouth of Roaring run and its junction with Rattling run. It did 236 JOHN B. CH,A;v'IBEF(8. JF4S. JOHN B. CHAM BES. CAPT. JOHN B. CHAMBERS. James Chambers, grandfather of the subject of our sketch, was a native of Ireland, but emigrated to America and settled in Chambersburg, Pennsylvania, at a very early day. He married a Miss Hutchinson, by whom he had two children-William and Jane, the latter of whom became the wife of Judge James Bovard, of Butler county. Both are now deceased. After his marriage Mr. Chambers removed to Westmoreland county, where he lived until his death, which took place in 1848. He was taken prisoner at Sewickley sometime during the period of the Indian war, and taken to an island in Lake Erie, near Sandusky Bay, where he was kept until the close of the war and the declaration of peace. He then returned to Westmoreland county, where he had erected a log cabin upon his 700-acre tract of land. lie began immediately to improve this land, but the Indians again became quite troublesome, and he and his young wife with the few other settlers were occasionally compelled to flee for safety to the blockhouse near by. Once a skulking band of savages stole Mr Chambers' horses from the field, and detecting them in the act, the old pioneer lifted his voice in a series of stentorian shouts which attracted the attention of some soldiers in the neighborhood of the forts, nearly two miles away, who assisted him in recapturing the horses. The Chambers cabin, one of the genuine pioneer style, with puncheon floor, bark roof, etc., was the first built in the neighborhood, there being for two or three years no other within five miles of it. Mr. Chambers' land upon his death fell into the possession of his children, and is now owned by his grandchildren, the Chambers family having lived on and about this old place ever since James Chambers' settlement. The tract was improved by its industrious first owner, under many difficulties and amidst many hardships. He was obliged to pack salt and bar-iron, and various other articles which he needed, across the mountains upon horses; to use a wooden plow and other primitive tools, and his wife did all of her cooking upon an iron crane which was swung in the great fireplace. William Chambers, the father of John B., was born in 1777, in Westmoreland county, and married Fannie Bovard, who was a native of the same county, born in 1787, and like himself of Irish descent. He died in 1851 and she in 1864. Eight children were the issue of their union, four of whom are now living-Mary, James, John B. and William. The names of those deceased are-Jane, Margaret, Hutchinson and Nancy. John B. Chambers, to whom this sketch is chiefly devoted, was born in Westmoreland county, June 13,1813. He remained at home until he was twenty-three years of age, and on May 6,1837, married Martha Guthrie, a native of Westmoreland county, where she was born August 27, 1811. Her father, William Guthrie, was of ScotchIrish parentage. He was twice married. By his first wife, a Miss Nancy Dixon, he had five children-Samuel, Jane, Esther, Martha and Susan, all of whom are deceased. Mrs. Chambers is one of the children of the second marriage, and had three sisters-Nancy, Mary Jane and Sarah. Her mother's maiden name was Mary Hill. The offspring of the union of John B. and Martha (Guthrie) Chambers was four children, three sons and one daughter, whose names with their dates of birth are as follows: James II., born May 21,1838; Samuel H., June 14, 1840; William G., December 15, 1842; and Mary Jane (now the wife of D. A. Heck, of Butler, Pennsylvania), born January 20, 1844. Mr. Chambers carried on farming for ten years after his marriage, and then removed to Apollo, where he engaged in building a freight and passenger boat, which he named the "Apollo Packet," and run on the Pennsylvania canal, between Apollo and Pittsburgh. After following this business for several years, he purchased a stock of goods and has since been engaged in merchandizing, in which occupation he has deservedly been very successful. During eighteen years of his mercantile life, he was freight and ticket agent at the Apollo station, for the West Penn. Branch Railroad Company, and at the same time was express agent. He still holds the latter agency. Upon the organization of the Apollo Savings Bank, May 29, 1871, he was elected president of the institution, a position which he has ever since occupied. Hie is the possessor of about 300 acres of real estate, and has a coal bank in successful operation, from which he supplies in part the town of Apollo. His varied business interests have been well managed, and the people have apparently ever had perfect confidence in Captain Chambers' judgment and sagacity. Both as the successful business man, and the practical, useful and public spirited citizen, he enjoys the respect of all with whom he has come in contact. KISKIMINETAS TOWNSHIP. not prove to be a pecuniary success either to its first or subsequent owners. It was finally sold by the sheriff, and the writer was, for the first time after his admission to the bar of this county, appointed an auditor to distribute the proceeds of sale among the lien creditors. That was the first and last furnace for the manufacture of pig iron in this township. Eight different saltworks appear to have been assessed from 1836 till 1845, respectively, to Robert F. Stewart (2), John Laughlin, Bridget Trux, Wm. H. Richardson & Co. (2), John Johnston, H. Ridenour, J. McCauley and McCauley & Gamble. Those owned by Gamble & Son, about a hundred rods below the mouth of Flat run, are the only ones that still continue to be operated. The mode and expense of drilling the wells and manufacturing the salt need not here be repeated. The barrels in which the salt was put up were at first brought to the wells on pack horses, and, after being filled with salt, were chiefly trarnsported to Pittsburgh down the Kiskiminetas and Allegheny rivers in canoes and flatboats. Considerable quantities were sent to Clarion and Jefferson counties by sled and wagons. Those modes of transportation of course ceased after the completion of the Pennsylvania canal, which also increased the activity in various other branches of business. The general, the almost universal, occupation of the people of this township has, from its earliest settlement, been agricultural. As to those engaged in other occupations the assessment list this year shows, exclusive of Maysville: Laborers, 68; carpenters, 9; miners, 15; teachers, 6; blacksmiths, 4; shoemakers, 2; salt-boiler, 1; miller, 1; cigar manufacturer, 1; professor, 1. Maysville assessment list for 1876: Laborers, 4; merchants, 3; farmers, 4; carpenters, 2; shoemakers, 1; blacksmith, 1; miner, 1. This little town is situated on Long Run, two and a half miles in an air-line northeast from its mouth, containing, according to its list of taxables, a population of about'72, and the Long Run postoffice. The population of the township has been, since its organization, including that of Maysville, thus: 2,287 in 1840; 2,215 white, 15 colored, in 1850; 2,080 white, in 1860, after a part of Burrell township had been taken from it; 1,716 white, 12 colored, after a part of South Bend township had been taken from it. Its present number of taxables, including those of Maysville, is 436, making its present population 2,005. Until 1824 the nearest postoffices were those at Freeport and Kittanning. The Kiskiminetas postoffice was established February 24, 1824, John Royer, first postmaster; Spring Church postoffice, February 16, 1852, Robert M. Beatty, first postmaster; Long Run postoffice, October 20, 1857, Samuel Orr, first postmaster; Shady Plain postoffice, March 2, 1868, David D. P. Alexander, first postmaster. AN ANCIENT LANDMARK. In 1862-3 Samuel Lack cut down a white-oak tree on the farm of widow Coulter, near a small run that empties into the Kiskiminetas about fifteen rods above the gravel bar, whose diameter was three and a half feet. In sawing and splitting the trunk for barrel-heads, he discovered a blaze which appears to have been made with the bit of an ax, when the diameter of the tree was ten inches. Between the blaze and the bark were 246 rings or annual growths. Some of the early settlers, as the writer is informed by one* of their descendants, in the vicinity of the lower parts of Long run and Flat run, opposite the Townsend settlement, between 1790 and 1800, were Michael Anderson, George King, George Waltenbaugh and Jacob Wolf. There were probably others in that region then, but that informant distinctly remembers the names of those mentioned, as having been mentioned by his grandfather and grandmother, Jacob and Christina Wolf, in relating this occurrence: Mrs. Wolf went out early one morning to hunt her cows. She and her dog took position on a large flat rock, where she stood watching and listening for her cows, until the d(log moved and whined at her feet, which caused her to look down, when, with extreme horror, she beheld a vast number of black snakes, rattlesnakes, copperheads, and almost every other kind of serpent, lying in piles along the edge of the rock, attracted thither, probably, by her and the dog's presence. She took in her situation at a glance, and, in a moment, observing where there was the least number of her besiegers, she sprang over them from the rock, the dog soon following suit, hastened home, and, horror-stricken, related to her husband what had happened, who, with the other men above-mentioned, repaired to that rock and began to kill the snakes, and continued doing so until they were driven away by an unendurable odor. Mrs. Wolf said that none of the serpents offered to harm either herself or the dog until she attempted to escape, which she did unharmed. GEOLOGICAL. Two and three-fourths miles below Apollo was obtained the following section: "Shale, etc.: Shale, 14 feet; black slate, 2 feet; *Noah C. wolf. 237 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. upper Freeport coal, 2 feet 10 inches (61 feet above lower Freeport coal); shale, etc., no exposures, 14 feet; olive ferriferous shales and sandstone, 20 to 25 feet; sandstone, 18 feet; coal, 11 inches; shale, a few inches; sandstone, 5 feet; lower Freeport coal, bituminous slate, 2 feet-10 feet above slack water." It is divided at a short distance from this point into two members by 1i feet shale. The coal is highly pyritous, and a little further on, up the river, appears thus: "Coal in thin flakes, 1-1 inches; gray shale, 11 inches; pyritous coal, 26 inches; shale, 4 feet." Below Apollo the following section was leveled: "Greenish and brown sandstone and slate, hilltops, 21 feet; olive slate, 18 feet; interval, 67 feet; terrace interval, 45 feet. Green sandstone: green sandstone, 1- feet; olive green slate, 36 feet; limestone fragments, grayish blue, non-fossiliferous, from 12 to 13 inches in diameter; olive slates, 30 feet; blue slate, here and there containing bivalve and flat spiral shells, resembling those of the black limestone strata, 35 feet below; yellow slaty sandstone, 6 feet; bright yellow shale, 8 feet; green shale, 4 feet; green fossiliferous argillaceous limestone, 19 inches; clay and shale, 11 feet; lightcolored shale, 5 feet; blue shale, 16 feet; blue slate, 6 feet; blue fossiliferous slate, 2 feet; dark blue limestone, nodular, 4 inches; compact, full of encrinites and univalve and bivalve shells, 4 inches; blue ferriferous fossil slates, 4 feet; brown sandstone, vegetable impressions, 3 feet; shales, ferriferous above, bituminous below, almost coal for 6 inches, 17 feet; sandstone, thin bedded, 7 feet; massive, 8 feet; slaty, 4 feet; shale, greenish, 12 feet; olive, 11 feet; upper Freeport coal, 2 feet at outcrop, 15 inches where driven in; interval, 11 feet; Freeport limestone, nodular, 12 inches; shale, 12 (?) feet; sandstone, gray, 151 feet; brown shale, 17 feet; black slate, 2 feet; lower Freeport coal, 4 feet- 161 feet above bed of river." Fragments of the so-called Freeport limestone were burned for lime without success. Three-fourths of a mile above Apollo the Freeport limestone, 7- feet exposed, is quarried on the north side of the canal, 57 feet above the water level, pale in color and highly silicious. The coal is not seen. Below the four mile slackwater dam are several coal openings, one of them upon the Kittanning coal bed, 31 feet thick. The strata rise rapidly west. Just below the dam, three miles above Apollo, the following section was obtained, in which, for the first time in ascending the Kiski minetas, the Kittanning coal appears: " Hill top more than 100 feet above, 8 feet of sandstone roofing Upper Freeport coal and Freeport limestone. Interval hence downward roughly estimated at 230 feet to the ferriferous limestone, 31 feet exposed, elsewhere, 7 feet; brown shale, 30 feet; sandstone, 2 feet; greenish shale, 12 feet; gray, slaty sandstone, 5 feet; iron ore, 5 inches; shale, silicious, 7 inches; iron ore, 3 inches; shale, 5feet; iron ore, 2 inches; shale, 1 foot; argillaceous sandstone, 10 inches; iron ore, nodular, 5 inches; black slate, 3 feet; blue slate, 7 feet; Brookville (?) coal, 12 inches; blue shale, 4 feet; black slate, 18 inches, exposed at water level." The third axis-anti-clinal of the fourth basincrosses, perhaps, one mile higher up above the dam. The ferriferous limestone at Johnston's salt works is 55 feet above slackwater, 7 feet thick, and contains several species of fossil shells, a terebratula, etc. The following section was obtained two miles above the dam: "From the top of the hill downward, including 10 feet of shale just above the coal, 138 feet estimated: Elk Lick (?) coal, 5 feet; interval, 42 feet; massive (Mahoning?) sandstone, 20 to 25 feet (bottom 115.7 feet above Kittanning coal). (Freeport limestone not observed here, but a short distance up the river seen under Mahoning sandstone, 3 feet thick.) Sandstone, thickly stratified, 77T feet; slate, etc., 6 feet; shale, 29 feet; Kittanning coal, 3 feet 9 inches; shale (?), 18 feet; sandstone, 7 feet; shale, 8- feet; ferriferous limestone, 61 feet; sandstone, 12 inches; iron ore, calcareous, fossiliferous, hard, 6 inches; blue shale, 10 feet; Clarion coal, 1 foot; blue shale, 12 inches; light yellow shale, 18 inches; coal, 16 inches, 17 feet above water." It is remarkable that the lower coal bed dips so steeply into the hill that it cannot be drained by the gangway, while the upper coal is not at all open to the inconvenience. This excess of dip characterizes the lower strata in the hill. The ferriferous limestone goes under the river bed near the salt company's store, the Kittanning coal being at the level of the towpath. The outcrop of the upper coal is observed rapidly descending east up the river. Below the upper dam the Freeport limestone is seen, 7 feet thick; and again, just below the dam and nearly on a level with the towpath, where it is thin and nodular; the Upper Freeport coal being absent or easily overlooked. The middle of the third subtrough of the third basin crosses this upper slackwater (3 miles long) at about the middle of its length, and exhibits a 238 S/-Ccy1, 7 COL. SAMUEL McCARTNEY JACKSON. Samuel McCartney Jackson, who has attained considerable prominence, both civil and military, was born upon a farm near Apollo, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, September 24, 1833, and was the son of John and Elizabeth (McCartney) Jackson, both of whom were of Scotch-Irish descent. As boy and youth he shared the toils of the farm, and when sixteen years of age was sent to the Jacksonville Academy, in Indiana county. It was his intention to obtain there a good academic education, but the death of his father at the close of his first year in the school compelled him to abandon his cherished design. tie was naturally studious and had early exhibited a marked liking for history and biography, and had become quite well versed in those branches of literature. That he had some inherent taste for martial affairs is shown by the fact that at the age of thirteen he joined the local militia organization, and his subsequent promotions show that he was regarded as possessing good qualities for an officer. HIe rose successively to the rank of lieutenant and captain. When the war of the rebellion broke out his military spirit and patriotism were brought promptly into action. HIe recruited for the Union service in the vicinity of his home a company of infantry which was mustered in as Co. G of the 11th regt. Pa. Reserves, and of which he was chosen captain. He commanded his company, known as the Apollo Independent Blues, until July, 1861, when he was promoted to the rank of major. In October of the same year he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel, and in April, 1863, to colonel of the regiment. He served gallantly through his three years' term of service, and on two occasions was slightly wounded. The principal engagements in which he participated were Gaines' Hill, the second Bull Run, South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and Bethesda Church. He particularly distinguished himself at South Mountain, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg and the Wilderness, where the conflicts were of such a nature as to try officers and men to their utmost, and especially to test the bravery, decision and skill of the former. At Spottsylvania he commanded a brigade and was brevetted brigadier-general for gallant conduct. At Gettysburg he was thrown forward on the bloody ground where the 3d corps had been driven back, and supports from several corps which had been sent to the relief of the 3d had been terribly broken. The position there taken was held, and the entire field was subsequently regained. At the battle of the Wilderness, while in command of his own and the 2d regiment, he was cut off from the balance of the division by a strong force of the en enmy, but rallying his men about him, he charged the hostile lines, and by a circuitous route reached the Union front, where he had for several hours been given up as lost. The appreciative regard of the officers and men of the 11th regiment for theircolonel was indicated by their presenting him with a superb gold-encased and jeweled sword, together with sash and spurs, the accompanying speech being made on behalf of the regiment by Capt. Timblin. At the close of his term of service Col. Jackson was mustered out and returned to his home and to private life. He was engaged for a time in the oil business in Venango county, but returning to Armstrong county was elected to the legislature of the state upon the republican ticket in 1869. He was re-elected the following year and during both terms maintained the character of a wise and faithful legislator. In 1871 he was the leading spirit in organizing the the Apollo Savings Bank, of which hlie was elected cashier. He served satisfactorily in that position until 1882. In the meantime he was again called from private to public life, being nominated and elected to the state senate in 1874. Ile represented the forty-first district, composed of Armstrong and Butler counties, so acceptably that he was tendered a renomination, which, however, he saw fit to decline, le was chairman of the committee on banks, and a member of several others, among them the centennial committee. In April, 1882, Col. Jackson was appointed by President Arthur collector of internal revenue in the twenty-third district, composed of the counties of Beaver, North Allegheny, Butler, Aimstrong, Indiana, Jefferson and Clearfield. He entered upon his duties in this office July 1, 1882. Col. Jackson has taken an active and prominent part in local affairs in Apollo, of which town he has been burgess for two terms and school director for many years. He was instrumental in securing the act authorizing the building of the free bridge at Apollo and has been interested in almost every measure of public improvement. He is a member of the Presbyterian church, a trustee and a member of the session. He has been twice married. His first wife was Miss Martha J. Byerly, of Westmoreland county. They were married in 1860, and she died in 1864, leaving two children, Mary Gertrude (Townsend) and Lizzie Virginia. In December, 1869, Col. Jackson was united in marriage with his present wife, who was Miss Mary E. Wilson, of Clarion county. Five children were the offspring of this marriage, namely, Frank Wilson, John Howard, Bessie, Mamie and Emily Louise. KISKIMINETAS TOWNSHIP. very high series of rocks. The following section was made 31 miles below Saltsburgh: "Soil, 7 feet; gray sandstone, slightly micaceous, 361 feet; coal, 12 inches; black slate, 21 feet; black slate, 8 feet; olive shale, 10 feet; limestone, nodular, 4 inches; olive slate, etc., under cover, 42 feet; coal, 12 inches; clay, 5 feet; limestone, 14 inches; shale, 2 feet; limestone, 16 inches; clay, variegated calcareous nodules, 5 feet; sandstone, white massive, weathering cellular in parts, 33 feet; blue slate, 10 feet; gray shale, 7 feet; Pittsburgh coal (coal, 30 inches; black shale, 3 inches; coal, 12 inches; gray shale, 8 inches; coal, 3 feet; bituminous shale, 3 inches; coal 3 feet), in all 10 feet 2 inches; clay, 2 feet; sandy slate, 15 feet; micaceous sandstone, greenish gray, 4 feet; light-colored shale, passing into an impure limestone, 15 inches, floored with calcareous clay-in all 3- feet interval; shales, 7 feet; greenish shale, 12~ feet; nodular clay bed, 2 feet; greenish sandy slate, 41 feet; nodular clay, 2 feet green slate, 3~ feet; sandstone, 1 foot; limestone nodules in top of olive shales, 22~1 feet; green slate, etc., calcareous nodules, 8 feet; gray slate, with bluff cleavage, 131 feet; gray and purple shale, 5 feet; sandstone, 12 inches; greenish shale, 5 feet; interval down to water level, 1531 feet." Below this is the green fossiliferous limestone, as seen on the towpath, passing under water-level, at a point one-half a mile below. A small coalbed underlies it there. At least 30 feet must be added to the last interval of 153 feet to bring the present section down to the green fossiliferous limestone, which will then be about 350 feet below the Pittsburgh coalbed. The Pittsburgh coalbed of this section ranges northward and southward from the Kiskiminetas river, and toward Crooked creek is underlaid by the same frosted-looking limestone as seen at Pittsburgh and elsewhere. The limestone stratum seventy-seven feet below the Pittsburgh coal is a widely persistent bed; it is not quite non-fossilifeirous, and has a brecciated (pudding-stone) aspect, although it is not fragmentary, but concretionary. Toward Saltsburgh the strata rise very slowly, the green fossiliferous limestone emerging from below the first bank at Saltsburgh, where it consists of four bands, each between one and two feet thick, the whole measuring about three feet; and the representatives of the black fossiliferous limestone strata emerge in the first exposure above Saltsburgh. (Vide Rogers' Geology of Pennsylvania.) About three miles above Apollo, on the right bank of the Kiskiminetas, is a sandstone rock projecting out over the bank about nine feet. The space between the ground and side of the rock, at the front, is about nine feet. The rock slopes back to the ground a distance of about twelve feet. It has gained considerable notoriety in that region by reason of a strange family by the name of Dunmire, who claimed to be part Indian, having resided there (that is, under the rock) more or less of the time during several years, from whom it is called "Dunmire's Rock." There is about it considerable pebble-stone, in which is something resembling lead, which can be cut with a knife. BOROUGH OF APOLLO. Apollo is a borough. It was formerly the town of Warren, so called after either an Indian chief or an English trader who bore that name. The town as originally laid out, it is said, was partly on the upper part of a tract containing 500- acres, called "Warren's Sleeping-Place," and partly on the lower part of another tract containing 70L acres, according to the original surveys. The former was surveyed to John Montgomery and Alexander Stewart on an application dated February 9, 1769. Thomas and John Penn, the then proprietaries of the province of Pennsylvania, conveyed it by their patent dated March 5, 1773, to John Montgomery. The warrant for the latter is dated December 27, 1774, and it was surveyed to John Montgomery, as mentioned in old deeds January 17, 1775. William Smith became the purchaser of both those tracts, at sheriff's sale, December 20, 1805. The sheriff's deed therefor is dated June 28, 1806. They were sold by the sheriff of Westmoreland county. That purchaser, by deed dated February 1, 1814, conveyed them to William Johnston and Thomas Hoge for the sum of $3,708. The executors of William Smith, by their deed dated October 14, 1814, and John Montgomery (son of that patentee) and his wife, by their deed dated September 28, 1815, contributed to assure the title of those purchasers (namely, John Montgomery and wife) to both tracts, and the executors to the smaller tract. John B. Alexander, of Greensburgh, Pennsylvania, by advertisement in the Western Eagle dated December 17, 1810, offered for sale "Warren's Sleeping-Place" as containing about 570 acres, and the tract on the opposite side of the river, called the "Three Bottoms," as containing about 360 acres, and represented both tracts to be of the best quality and to contain a great proportion of excellent bottom, and, being separated by the Kiskiminetas river, to afford a good seat for waterworks. 239 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Thomas Hoge and wife, by their deed dated November 3, 1815, conveyed the undivided half part of both those tracts to Rev. William Speer for the sum of $1,856.56. By article of agreement dated October 10, 1822, William Johnston's executors agreed to sell to John Andree (or Andrews) the undivided half part of the tract called "Warren's Sleeping-Place," that is, the residue after Speer and Johnston sold 2061 acres off the lower end to Isaac McKisseek in 1818. The quantity of land thus agreed to be conveyed to Andree was supposed to be 400 acres, for which the latter agreed to pay $8.75 for each acre of that moiety, after deducting the number of acres sold to McKisseck, and in town lots, streets and alleys, which had been perviously laid out. Those executors did not execute their deed to Andree for that moiety, but he bought it at sheriff's sale September 29, 1827. The sheriff's deed is dated March 20, 1828. By deed of partition between Speer and Andree, dated March 8, 1829, the former took 208 acres and 41 perches of the northeastern part of the theretofore undivided and unsold portion of the tract, and the latter took the rest. The town of Warren was surveyed off into lots, streets and alleys by William Watson, in November, 1816. These lots are fifty in number and are respectively 66 X 165 feet, each containing a quarter of an acre. Water (now Canal) and Back (now Church) streets are parallel to the Kiskiminetas river -the former being from 90 to 100 and the latter 60 feet wide, and are intersected at right angles by North, Main, Indiana and Coal Bank streets, each 60 feet wide. An alley 30 feet wide intersects Water street between lots Nos. 20 and 21 and Back street between lots Nos. 11 and 30. Four other alleys parallel to Water and Back streets are respectively 12 feet wide. Two acres adjoining Back street and opposite the eastern end of Main street and lots Nos. 10 and 1l were laid out agreeably to the terms of sale of the town lots, as a public lot for a meeting-house, schoolhouse, etc., which have been used for cemetery purposes. Rev. William Speer, who survived William Johnston, duly acknowledged, July 26, 1827, before William Watson, a justice of the peace, the plan of the town of Warren, as above described, to be the same as was laid out by him and William Johnston in the lifetime of the latter. That plan was recorded in the office for the recording of deeds of this county, November 8, 1828. Andree, soon after his purchase, conveyed to John McElwain an interest in 11 acres of that half of the tract which he bought at the sheriff's sale, which 11 acres were called the "new addition to Warren," surveyed, probably, by Robert McKissen. Andree and McElwain jointly conveyed a number of lots in that "addition" to divers persons. John Cochran and Abraham Ludwick cleared the principal part of the land within the limits of the town exclusive of the Guthrie and Chambers plots. The first settlers before the Pennsylvania canal was made were Joseph Alford, John Cochran, Abraham Ludwick, Isaac McLaughlin, Michael Risher, Robert Stewart and John Wort. POSTAL. Before the establishment of the postoffice here, August 15, 1827, the points nearest to Warren for receiving mail matter were Freeport and Kittanning. Milton Dally was the first postmaster. The department gave this office a name different from that of the town, because there was another office in this state by the name of Warren. Whether Postmaster-General McLean or one of his subordinates conceived, when he bestowed on this office its classical name, some citizen or citizens of Warren to be endowed with some or all of the attributes ascribed by poets and mythologists to the illustrious Apollo, the writer is not informed. The first separate assessment list of the town of Warren, then in Allegheny township, was made in 1830 thus: John Alford, lot No. 22, 1 horse, 1 head of cattle, total valuation $58; James H. Bell, lot No. 16, 1 house, 1 other lot not known, $156; Catherine Cochran, lot No. 34, 1 house, 1 head of cattle, $31; Robert Cochran, single man, lot No. 9, $25; Andrew Cunningham, lot No. 48, 1 head of cattle, $31; William Davis, lot No. 17, 1 house, blacksmith, $91; Philip Dally, No. lot not known, one house, $225; Samuel Gardiner, lot No. 255; William Graham, lot No. 48, 1 house, 1 head of cattle, $31; John Lewellyn, lot No. 4, 1 house, 1 horse, $255; Robert McKissen, lot No. 15, 1 house, 1 head of cattle, $106; Alexander McKinstry, lot No. 1, 1 house, $252; William McKinstry, 1 fot and house, $225.25; John McElwain, lot No. 3, 1 house, 2 horses, 1 head of cattle, $601; Isaac McLaughlin, lot No. 38, 1 house, transferred to John McElwain, -; William Mehaffey, half-lot No. 24, -; Peter Risher, lot No. 18, 1 house, 1 horse, $225; John Wort, lots Nos. 5, 6, 1 house, 1 tanyard, 1 horse, 2 cattle, lot No. 12 unseated, $247. The valuation of unseated lots varied from five to ten, twenty, thirty and forty dollars each. Eight years before, the county treasurer advertised twenty-five of Warren inlots for sale for taxes, county and road, each of which varied from 240 KISKIMINETAS TOWNSHIP. five to seven, ten, twelve, fifteen, twenty, twentyfive and thirty-seven cents assessed upon each lot. The heaviest burden of those taxes was borne by lots Nos. 1 and 28, and the lightest by lots Nos. 9, 10, 12, 42, 43, 46 and 47. The first assessment list for the "new addition " was made in 1832, thus: Smith Agnew, 2 lots and houses, 1 head of cattle, $808; James Barr, carpenter, lot No. 41, 1 house, $150; Andrew Brown, lots Nos. 4, 5, 1 house, $50; James Chamber, lots Nos. 22, 23, 1 house, 1 head of cattle, $158; Nicholas Day, 1 head of cattle, $8; Abraham Findley, lot No. 16, 1 house, 1 head of cattle, $258; Jacob Ford, 2 houses and lots, 1 head of cattle, $366; Francis Graham, lot No. 17, 1 house, $100; William McKinstry, carpenter, lot No. 40, $100; Alexander Sharp, lot No. 21, 1 house, $100; Francis M. Thompson, lot No. 39, 1 house, $150. The first of the line of packets from Warren to Pittsburgh was called the Apollo, of which John B. Chambers was the captain. BOROUGH. By act of assembly March 15, 1848, the town of Warren, then in the township of Kiskiminetas, was incorporated into the borough of Apollo, with all and singular the powers and franchises in said act specified. One reason for changing the name from Warren to Apollo was, because goods shipped to that point from the East were often carried past it to Warren, in Warren county, Pennsylvania. By act of March 31, 1859, the boundaries of the borough were extended as follows: Beginning at the northwest corner of the borough at a post, ithence down the Kiskiminetas river, making that river a line for the distance of 155 perches, to a water-ash a few rods above the mouth of a run; thence from said river south 63 degrees east 74 perches to a locust; thence south 151 degrees west 98 perches to the northeast corner of the borough; thence to the northern line of the borough south 81 degrees west 98 perches to the place of beginning. The first borough election was held May 8, 1848, when Robert McKissen was elected burgess, and William Nichols, William Miller, George C. Bovard, John T. Smith, John Elwood and David Risher town councilmen. The first board of school directors was elected at the spring election in 1850, and consisted of Win. C. Bovard, John B. Chambers, John T. Smith, Thomas Cochran, Samuel Owens and H. M. G. Skiles. By act of March 26, 1868, forty-three feet square of North street, immediately in front of the Pres byterian church edifice, was vacated and declared to be no longer a street or highway, and the title thereto was vested in John B. Chambers, D. C. Blair, William A. Fulton and Alexander McCulloch, trustees of the Presbyterian church, and their successors, for the use of the church. By the act of March 8, 1869, the lines of the borough were so extended as to include the lands of Michael Cochran, which thereby became subject to the laws and regulations of the borough. A considerable portion of the territory annexed to the borough by the act, March 31, 1859, became vested in John B. Chambers, who caused forty-five building, or in-lots, and twenty-one out-lots, to be surveyed and laid out, December 4, 1865. The portion of Canal street in this plot is thirty-three feet wide, and those portions of Church, Locust, Wood, State, and Union streets within it, are, respectively, forty feet wide. Adjoining and above this plot, extending to the alley between and parallel to Mill and Maple streets, and between Church and Canal streets, is a smaller plot, laid out about the same time by James Guthrie, and below and adjoining it, i. e., the Chambers plot, is another plot more recently laid out by Simon Truby, through which extend, nearly east and west, First and Second streets. The land between the canal and the Kiskiminetas river from North street, down to or near the rolling-mill, was formerly owned by David McLane, for several years editor of the Pittsburgh Gazette, who long ago laid out lots thereon, called the McLane plot, but very few of them were sold. The J. Morgan lot is one of them. By the act of March 12, 1870, the burgess and town council were authorized to levy a street tax not exceeding ten instead of five mills, as provided by the act of March 15, 1848, as a street tax, and required property-owners to pave their sidewalks fronting on all streets with brick or stone; and in case they neglect or refuse to do so, the burgess and town council are authorized and directed to have such paving done, accepting, if they see fit, a plank or board sidewalk in such instances as the owners are unable to pave with brick or stone. That act also provides that liens may be entered on the mechanics' lien docket, to secure the costs incurred for any pavements made by the town council, and that the same be collected by due process of law, and furthermore that all improvements then made or to be thereafter made, should be kept in good repair by the owners and their successors. FERRIES AND BRIDGES. The first ferry was kept by Owen Jones where the bridge across the Kiskiminetas now is. Increased facilities for crossing that river were 241 AFTER THE DESTRUCTION OF KITTANNING. dispatch to the place directed. I beg leave to inform you at the same time that scarcity of Provisions and other disagreeable circumstances obliged me to permit a number of men to go to particular stations to be supplied, but have directed a general rendezvous on the 15th inst., at a proper place, and from thence shall proceed as ordered. "As I would not choose that the Battalion should labor under every disadvantage when at Brunswick, being now in need of everything, I shall be obliged to make Philadelphia in my route, in order to be supplied. I therefore hope the proper Provision will be made of Regimental Camp Kittles and Arms, as mentioned to Col. Wilson, per ('apt. Boyd. " ARN's MACKEY,* C. 8th R. P. F." Directed to Richard Peters, Esq., Secretary of the Board of War, Philadelphia. " HANNA'S TowN, April 18, 1777. " Si: We received yours, dated the 12th inst., infornming us of the incursions made by the Indians on our Neighboring Frontiers, for which we return you our most hearty thanks. Any person appointed for the victualing at the Kittanning is an appointment that's not clear t') us; but, we apprehend, I)evereux Smith, Esq., is appointed for that Post, which appointment we approve of, and would be glad if some method could be introduced to furnish Mr. Smith with money for victualing the troops at that Post, &c. "The Delawares applying to you for Powder and Lead, &c., we refer that to your wisdom, and will acquiesce with you in every measure that can be taken to preserve peace with any Tribe or Nations of Indians on whose friendship we can depend; and we are of opinion that it would be advisable to supply them with ammunition, &c., providing that confidence and trust could be depended in them, which we look upon you the only person to judge in that matter, and we repose confidence in your wisdom and abilities in Indian affairs. We shall, therefore, readily concur with you in every measure that you may recommend for the safety and defense of this Infant Country. Your humble servants, " SAMEEL SLOAN, (Chn., JAMES HAMILTON, CI'k. "Signed by order of the Committee of Westmoreland County. " Directed to Col. George Morgan, Agent for Indian Affairs, Pittsburgh. " Laid before Council, June 18, 1777." Col. A. Locherv to President Reed. " IlI.NNA's TOWN, July 20, 1779. M"AY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY: * * * "The two (Companies raised by Gen. Mcln-ii tosh's orders are nearly completed, and are now at the Kittanning, or scouting in that neighborhood, but I am sorry to inform you their times will shortly expire, so that it will be necessary for Council to give directions concerning them." "Read in Council Aug. 14." * Col. Mackey was a citizen of Westmoreland county, where he owned a plantation. " PITTSBURGH, Dec. 13, 1779. "DEAR Sin: I should have been glad to have had an earlyer information respecting the Corps of Rangers. But being uninformed, I thought it very extraordinary that they should be subsisted out of the public Magazines, and yet be under the separate direction of a County Lieutenant. The Companies have hitherto been stationed at Kittanning (Fort Armstrong) and Poketas (Fort Crawford), but as the terms of the Men were nearly expired, and the river likely to close with ice, I ordered the Troops to this place because I apprehended no danger from the enemy during the winter season, and if provisions had been laid in at those posts, they would have been exposed to loss, besides it would have been quite impracticable to have supplied them with provisions, and the Quarters at those posts were too unconimfortable for naked men. For, though the State have provided the Troops with Shoes and Blankets, they are not yet arrived. * -x- * *X * * * (Signed) " DANIEL BRODHEAD.* "D)irected to his Excellency Governor Reed." " HANNA'S TOWN, Jan'y 9, 1780. MAY IT PLEASE YOUR EXCELLENCY: * * * "The two ranging Companies were stationed at the Kittanning and Fort Crawford, at the mouth of a creek called Poketas creek, on the Allegheny river, which posts were well calculated to cover the country. "Col. Brodhead, for some reasons best known to him self, and(l without consulting me, or any of the Gentle men of this County, ordered both Companies to Fort Pitt. * * * (Signed) "A. LOCIERY, Col." After Armstrong's expedition there was a lull in Indian hostilities. They were, however, afterward renewed, and the peace and safety of the early settlers on and near Crooked creek, in what is now Plum Creek and South Bend townships, and just * Gen. Brodhead, whose name appears above, was the commandant of Fort Pitt in 1778-9. He enjoyed, to a high degree, the esteem and confidence of Gen. Washington, who said in his letter to him informing him that he had been selected to succeed Gen. McIntosh at that post: "From my opinion of your abilities, your former acquaintance with the back country, and the knowledge you must have acquired on this last tour of duty, I have appointed you to the command; but if you quit the post, I apprehend there will be no other officer left of sufficient weight and ability." Col. Brodhead was also very popular with the Indians. The Delaware chiefs resolved to confer upon him the greatest honor in their power. Accordingly, April 9, 1779, they did so. At a conference of those chiefs and others, then held at Fort Pitt, they addressed him as the Great Warrior thus: "Of our ancestors, the good men of our nation, we now hand you down a name, as we look upon you to be an upright man. You are henceforth called by us the Delaware nation, the' Gr at Moon,' that is in Delaware,'Maghingua Kceshock.' Hereafter our great-grandchildren, yet unborn, when they come to years of understanding, shall know that your name is handed down as their great-grandfather. All the speeches you now send to the nations must he signed with your present name, Maghingua Keeshock, and all the nations will address you by that name. There were five great, good kings of our nation. One of their names you have. Taimenend is another. We have yet two to bestow. Our ancestors in former times were of a good disposition, and on the cause of our now being as one man, we now place you in the same light with us. Now hereafter, perhaps, those of our nation yet unborn are to know that that was the name of the ancestor, the good man and the great warrior of the thirteen United States, given to him by the chiefs of the Delaware nation, at the great council fire at Fort Pitt." It is related that he was a tall, fine, noble-looking man, with a strikingly bland and open countenance and a mirthful, laughing blue eye. Although his services were important, valuable and ably rendered, yet they were not such, no matter by whom rendered, as would be likely to be blazoned before the nation, so that he may not have receivedin fact, he did not receive-the full guerdon of praise which was richly his due." HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. afforded by the bridge across it, which was erected by a company incorporated by the act of March 15, 1844, called the Walren Bridge Company, and its supplement of April 3, 1846. In the course of six or seven years after the bridge was erected, indebtedness had so accumulated against the company that additional legislation was resorted to to enable it to discharge its liabilities, in the act of May 1, 1852, which authorized the trustees to sell the bridge and appropriate the proceeds of the sale to the payment of the costs thereof and the claims of the creditors in full, if a sufficient amount were realized, or pro rata, if not, provided, if the company could liquidate and satisfy the claims of the creditors, before the first of July of that year, the bridge should not be sold. It was not sold by virtue of that last-mentioned act. By act of April 20, 1858, any judgment creditor was authorized to sue out execution against the company, and cause their bridge and tollhouse to be levied on and sold in the same way provided for the collection of debts on judgments which are liens on real estate upon which executions are issued. That act required the sheriff either of Armstrong or Westmoreland county, as the case might be, to execute and deliver to the purchaser such a deed as would vest in him all the interest, rights and privileges of the company; and the act provided that all the corporate powers, authorities and privileges of the company should also be vested in the purchasing; and further, that the proceeds of the sale, except the costs, should be paid into court, and distributed so as to satisfy all claims, if sufficient, but if not, pro rata. All bonds of the company, whether judgment had been obtained on them or not, were entitled alike in the distribution, under which act a sale was made to the present company. The bridge consists of two stone abutments and three stone piers, and a covered wooden arch superstructure, the original cost of which was about ten thousand dollars. RELIGIOUS. The Presbyterian church, if ever formally organized, was probably organized by the old Redstone Presbytery, in or about 1825. The first pastor was Rev. Mr. Lee; the second, Rev. Watson Hughes, whom Rev. Alexander Donaldson, D.D., assisted in his farewell communion services, in May, 1838. Dr. Donaldson preached here occasionally in July and September, and supplied statedly during the following winter one-third of the time; the third pastor was Rev. Levi M. Graves, half time, until 1843: the fourth, from 1846 until 1856, was Rev. Cyrus C. Bristol; the fifth, Rev. Robert McMillan, grandson of the first president of Jefferson College, Cannonsburgh, Pennsylvania, and apostle of Presbyterianism in Western Pennsylvania, from 1858 until he became too enfeebled to continue his pastorate, in 1865; the sixth, Rev. John Orr, from the last-named year, until compelled by neuralgic affection of his eyes, he was compelled to resign his charge in 1871; the seventh and present pastor is Rev. H. McGill. Members, 285; Sabbath-school scholars, 200. Before the first church edifice, onestory stone, was erected in 1825-6, services were held in the shade of trees. The pulpit consisted of a platform made of logs, which were raised about five feet above the ground, over which was a board roof. There were no services in the winter until the meeting-house was erected; communion services were held sometimes in barns in the country. The present edifice was erected on the site of the first one, opposite the head of North street, in 1872-3, with a lecture-room in the basement. The first Methodist Episcopal church edifice, frame, 20 X 25 feet, was erected in 1838; the present one, brick, about 40X60 feet, with lecture-room in the basement, situate on the southerly side of Mill street, on the second lot below Church street, was erected in 1851. Members, 232; Sabbathschool scholars, 150. By act of April 4, 1844, the trustees of this church were authorized to sell the lot of ground in "the new addition," No. 15, and the house of worship thereon erected and convey the interest of the church therein to the purchaser, provided that before the sale the trustees should execute a bond to the commonwealth with such penalty as should be approved by the judges of the court of common. pleas of this county, and that the proceeds of the sale should, so far as necessary, be applied to the payment of the debts of the church, and the balance in such manner as should be directed by the quarterly conference with which the church was connected. This church was incorporated by the court of common pleas of this county June 2, 1856. D. G. Kinnard was named in the charter as presiding elder, Samuel Jones, preacher in charge, and Jacob Treetley, Daniel Risher, D. L. Byres, Hugh Jones and Samuel Jack, trustees. The Union Evangelical Lutheran church edifice, frame, 38X50 feet, situate on the second lot below Church street, on the southerly side of North street, was erected in 1861. Members, 105; Sabbath-school scholars, 80. Pastors: Revs. John A. Delo, James Wefley and M. Colver, the present one. This church was incorporated by the court of common pleas of this county. The charter is 242 ,MRS. ELIZABFTH JACKSON. JOHN JACKSON. Probably no one family have been more prominently identified with the early settlement and material prosperity of Kiskiminetas township than the Jackson family. The family is of Irish extraction, and we learn that James Jackson came from Ireland with his parents when a lad about seven or eight years of age. The family first settled in Westchester, Chester county, Pennsylvania, but soon moved to Hannahstown, in Westmoreland county, and were among the first settlers of that locality, of which they were residents when the embryo village was destroyed by the Indians. From this place they soon removed to what is now Kiskiminetas township, and were among the first, if not first, to make improvements north of the river. Here James Jackson attained manhood, married, and died at the advanced age of eighty-four years. The death of his wife, Jane, occurred at a ripe old age some ten years prior to her husband's. They were blessed with five children, four boys and one girl, who attained manhood and womanhood. Their eldest son, John, was born October 12, 1797, in Kiskiminetas township, and it continued to be his home until his death, which occurred January 8, 1853. Reared, as he was, in a pioneer's home, sharing the toils and privations incident to a residence in the wilderness, he was specially prepared to cope with nature in its wildest aspect of unleveled forest and uncultivated fields, and well did he fulfill his arduous portion in life and assist in laying the foundations for the manifold blessings we now enjoy. Starting without assistance in life, the farm owned by his father having passed from their possession, he first purchased seventy-five acres of uncultivated land, now possessed by his sons, S. M. and J. Y. Jackson, and boldly began the arduous task of carrying out for himself a home in the wilderness under the many discouraging surroundings of the pioneer, but being possessed of indomitable pluck and.energy, he became one of the most successful farmers of this section, and his small farm of seventy-five acres was gradually increased, until he became the possessor, at one time, of between 600 and 800 acres. Mr. Jackson took an active part in educational affairs and was for many years a member of the district school board. Politically he affiliated with the whig party, then in a minority in the county. Although wedded to his chosen avocation, he took a deep interest in public affairs and was one of a company that built the first bridge across the Kiskiminetas, at Apollo. Mr. Jackson was very highly esteemed by his associates and was selected near and far to act as arbitrator in disputes between neighbors, and he was always just and equitable in the decisions. Although not a member of any church, he attended the United Presbyterian church, of which he was a liberal supporter. October 5, 1826, he was married to Elizabeth McCartney, of Scotch parentage, who was born in Indiana, Pennsylvania, October 10, 1805, and died August 9, 1880. She was a most estimable christian lady, being a member of the United Presbyterian church, and well fulfilled her mission in life both as a companion for her husband and a mother to her children, to whom she was devotedly attached, and her affection for them was warmly reciprocated. They became the parents of ten children, viz: Nancy Jane (Coleman), Sarah T. (Martin), James Y., Samuel M., John T., William T. (deceased), Mary E. (Owens), Martha M. (Cochran), Joseph B. and Winfield S. (deceased). KISKIMINETAS TOWNSHIP. dated June 2, 1862, and its charter officers were John A. Delo, pastor; Philip Long and Isaac Townsend, Jr., elders and trustees; James Fair and C. Kepple, deacons and trustees; and its charter members were John H. Townsend, S. Truby, George Gumbert, J. F. Cline and Isaac Townsend, Jr. The United Presbyterian church edifice, frame, 25X30 feet, is situated on a lot on the southerly side of Mill street and westerly side of an alley, between it and the lot on which the public schoolhouse is located. Members, 70; Sabbath-school scholars, 45. This church has not, as yet, had a regular pastor, but has been statedly supplied. The First Baptist church edifice, brick, onestory, about 30X40 feet, situate near the left bank of the old canal, nearly opposite the mouth of Maple street, was erected in 1873. This church was incorporated by the proper court, December 21, 1874, and William Reese, Sr., Thomas Reese, Hugh Evans, A. M. Hill, W. B. Ansley and John Morgan were the trustees named in the charter. EDUCATIONAL. Prior to the incorporation of the borough, schools were taught, first in two different log schoolhouses a short distance east of the town, and then in another schoolhouse in the hollow, the former in Allegheny township until 1832, and both thereafter in Kiskiminetas township. Soon after the organization of the borough, a frame schoolhouse, one story, about 25 X 30 feet, was erected on the northerly part of lot No. 30, cornering on Church street and an alley thirty feet wide. The first teacher was Samuel Owens. In 1863 a new frame two-story house, 48 X 45 feet, painted white, with rooms adapted to a graded school of two departments, the ceiling of one ten and that of the other twelve feet, and furnished with neat and comfortable pine desks and seats, was erected on an acre lot now on the southerly side of the upper end of Mill street, near the intersection of Wood street, which has since been so enlarged as to contain six schoolrooms, which are furnished with convenient patent seats and desks capable of accommodating, respectively, from forty to fifty pupils. The directors have generally been careful in selecting competent and skillful teachers. Subscription schools have generally been maintained during the intervals between the closing and opening of the public schools. In 1860 the numbers of schools was 2; months taught, 4; male teacher, 1; female teacher, 1; average salary of male teacher per month, $25; average salary of female teacher per month, $14; male scholars, 61; female scholars, 58; average number attending school, 76; cost of teaching each per month, 47 cents; amount levied for school purposes, $254.86; received from state appropriation, $48.71; from collector, $264.61; cost of instruction, $200; fuel and contingencies, $28.60; repairing schoolhouse, etc., $39.91. In 1876 the number of schools was 5; average number months taught, 4-; male teacher, 1; female teachers, 4; average salary of male teacher per month, $60; average salary of female teachers per month, $42.50; male scholars, 129; female scholars, 134; average number attending school, 211; cost per month for each scholar, 86 cents; total amount tax levied for school and building purposes, $3,299.40; received from state appropriation, $292.95; from taxes and other sources, $2,526.18; cost of schoolhouse, $646.19; paid for teachers' wages, $820; paid for fuel, collector's fees, contingencies, and other expenses, $1,335.42. Milton Dally is said to have been the captain of the first boat that made a trip on the Pennsylvania canal west of the Allegheny mountains. John B. Chambers was the captain of the first packet-boat that plied between Apollo and Pittsburgh. James H. McElwain is the oldest native of and now living in Apollo. MILITARY. The Independent Blues of Apollo were organized as a volunteer company in 1848. Its first captain was Thomas C. McCulloch, now a practicing physician at Kittanning. After his removal from Apollo he was succeeded by Samuel Owens in 1855, A. J. Marshall in 1856, J. C. Crawford in 1858 and Samuel M. Jackson immediately after the firing on Sumter in April, 1861. Its services were promptly tendered on President Lincoln's first call for 75,000 troops, but not in time to be then accepted. It was directed by Gov. Curtin to be held in readiness for future service, and June 5, 1861, it left Apollo for Camp Wright, and was assigned as Company G to the 11th regt. of Pennsylvania Reserves, in which it served valiantly during the war. Captain Jackson having been promoted to the rank of colonel December 13, 1863, First-Lieut. James P. Speer succeeded him as captain, who, on his subsequent promotion to the rank of major, was succeeded by First-Sergt. James H. Mills, who continued to be its captain until that regiment was honorably mustered out of the service after the close of the war. The ranks of that company were filled by gallant and patriotic men, not only from Apollo but from the surrounding country. Among its heroic deeds was 243 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. its participation in the notable charge upon the rebel breastworks at Spottsylvania. When the writer mentions the names of the officers of that or any other company he does so as though they represent or personify the rank and file of the heroic "boys in blue" who served under them. All of their names and those of their compatriots in the military service from Armstrong county would, the writer is informed by one of them, fill at least one hundred pages. There appears to have been an earlier military company bearing the name of Charlestown Guards, which was probably organized in or prior to 1840, the particulars of whose history the writer has not had the pleasure of ascertaining. SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETY. An organization of the ladies of Apollo and vicinity was effected at an early stage of the war of the rebellion, which, like those in other places in this county, was effective in collecting such material and making up such articles as were needed for contributing to the health and comfort of the sick and wounded soldiers. A post of the Grand Army of the Republic was in existence for a number of years. TEMPERANCE. Nothing has come to the writer's knowledge respecting temperance organizations, except that a lodge of Good Templars was organized in 1868. The petition of the people of this borough was effective in causing the sale of intoxicating liquors within its limits to be prohibited by the act of March 27, 1866, which is still in force. The vote February 28, 1873, was-against license, 109; for it, 4. THE APOLLO CEMETERY was incorporated by the proper court September 7, 1868. The charter members were Thomas A. Cochran, Samuel M. Jackson and John B. Chambers. LODGES. Masonic. No. 437 was constituted March 4, 1869. Its hall is in the second story of the new bank building, in the second square above the canal, on parts of lots Nos. 3 and 4, on the southerly side of North street. Its membership is 42. Independent Order of Odd Fellows. Mineral Point Lodge, No. 615, was instituted December 14, 1867; members, 75. The Kiskiminetas Encampment, No. 192, was instituted December 13, 1869 members, 30. The Improved Order of Red Men. Caughnewago Tribe, No. 228, was instituted in December, 1875 members, 20. Order of United American Mechanics. Kiskiminetas Valley Council, No. 325, was instituted in the spring of 1875; members, 53. The hall, or place of meeting, of the last named four lodges is in the Odd Fellows' building, on lot No. 2, as numbered in the original plat of the town of Warren. TRADES AND OCCUPATIONS. The number of merchants and such mechanics as are usual in every town has, from the first settlement of this place, been adequate to its wants. The first resident physician was Robert McKissen, whose successors at different periods have been William Brown; William P. McCulloch, who was surgeon, or assistant surgeon, in the 78th regt. Pa. Vols.; Thos. C. McCulloch, Thos. H. Allison, William McBriar, O. P. Bolinger, J. S. McNutt, W. B. Ansley, J. W. Bell and Robert E. McCauley. A dentist was first assessed in 1851. The first resident lawyer, since 1855, is Jacob Treetley, and later, John B. Guthrie and Horace N. McIntyre. The first tannery appears to have been established in 1823-4 by John Wort, on lot No. 41, old plot, whence he removed it to a lot in the "new addition." He purchased lots Nos. 3, 5 and 6 on the southerly side of North street in 1817, for each of the first two of which he paid $45, and for the other $38.50. The deeds from Johnston & Speer for Nos. 3 and 6 are each dated January 8, 1817, and for No. 5 June 8, 1824. In 1839-40 James Guthrie established his tannery on an acre lot on the southwest corner of the present Maple and Canal streets. In 1850-1 Simon S. Whitlinger started his tannery on the northwest part of the square, which corners on Mill and Church streets, which he sold to John F. Whilinger, who removed it, several years since, to the lower part of the borough on Risher's run, near the present northern borough line. All of those tanneries were operated in the old slow mode until the removal of the Whitlinger one to its present location, since which it has been operated by steam, that is, its process of tanning is by the use of steam, and is of course more rapid than was that of its predecessors. The various kinds of shoe and harness leather were manufactured at all of them, and they still are in large quantities at the last-named one. The first hotel, or tavern, was opened in 1824. The manufacture of pottery was introduced in 1832-3; of saddles and harnesses in 1837; of cabinet-ware in 1836; of wagons in 1840; coverlet weaving in 1841; stonecutting in 1842; chairmaking in 244 KISKIMINETAS TOWNSHIP. 1843; coopering in 1844; making tinware in 1848; carding in 1848; dentistry, cigar-making, making mill-wheels, etc., making copperware, in 1851; grocery business, as a separate branch, in 1855; teaching music, confectionery as a separate business, and butchering in 1858; coal merchant and druggist in 1860; coal hauler and miller in 1861; coal digger in 1863; brickmaking in 1865; auctioneer in 1867; planing-mill, foundry and salt merchant in 1868; stove and tin merchant, book agent and painter in 1870; barber, oil merchant and broommaker in 1871; Apollo Savings Bank-assessed with one-fourth part of lot No. 3 (old plot) at $500-livery and speculator in 1872; undertaker and silversmith in 1873; oil dealer and photographer in 1874; lumberman, furniture dealer and brickpresser in 1875. Some of those branches of business may have been introduced or commenced a year or two earlier than their first assessments indicate. The capital stock of the Savings Bank is $50,000. The Apollo gristmill was erected by John H. and Eden Townsend in 1849. For the last ten years it has been owned by George Brenner. It is 62X44 feet, three stories, frame, with three runs of burrstones, smutmill, corn-cracker and sheller, and other modern improvements. It is situated on the southerly side and at the lower end of Mill street. A barrel factory was established by Samuel Lack, at the foot of Indiana street, in 1854-5, and was continued in operation until 1864-5. The annual product was about 10,000 barrels, and the number of employ6s varied from eight to twelve. With the erection and starting of the iron works came a considerable number of persons following the various avocations incident thereto, such as manager, engineers, rollers, heaters, shinglers, shearers, etc. Kiskimine: as Iron Company.-The certificate of organization of this company is dated September 20, 1855, accompanied with the declaration of the stockholders or partners that they wished to become a body politic, under the act of assembly "to encourage manufacturing operations," approved April 7, 1849. The original number of shares of capital stock was 500. The rolling-mill was erected in 1856. The prime object at first was the manufacture of nails. That company conveys its property to George W. Cass and Washington McClintock for $40,000 by deed dated December 8, 1859. Its interests and that of Washington McClintock in the property of the company were sold by the sheriff, May 1 and 5, 1860, to Cass and McClintock for $4,100, to whom James P. Speer conveyed his interest therein, by deed, dated December 29, 1866, for $5,564.58. The mill was operated by Geo. W. Cass & Co. for eighteen months. In 1863, Washington McClintock, William Rogers, Sr., and W. E. Foale leased these works, and abandoned the manufacture of nails and commenced that of sheet iron. Until the destruction of dam No. 2, in February, 1866, these ironworks were operated by water-power, the supply of water having been obtained from the Pennsylvania canal. In August of that year, McClintock and Foale retired from, and Thomas J. Burchfield came into, the firm as active partners, and Thomas J. Hoskinson as a special partner, and the name of the firm was changed to that of Rogers & Burchfield. A large engine was procured and an additional waid of rolls laid. Then was commenced the manufacture of the cold rolled iron for which these works became noted. Their capacity was fifty tons per week. The number of employes, including the coal diggers, was 140. The different kinds of manufacture were common, Juniata, Nos. 1, 2, 3 cold rolled, and showcard sheet iron. These were operated almost continuously from 1866 until 1875, when the firm went into bankruptcy. It is claimed that William Rogers, Sr., acquired, in 1872, while in Russia, a knowledge of the mode of making Russian sheet iron, and, while thus acquiring that knowledge, was for that cause obliged to make a sudden exit from the czar's dominions. The property belonging to these works consists of two sheet-mills, seven puddling furnaces, one heating furnace, two sheet furnaces, two annealing furnaces, one new steam hammer, two gas-wells, sunk for the purpose of obtaining a sufficient supply of gas for fuel, one of which produces a moderate quantity, one large, seven-feetstroke engine, two small ones, twenty tenant houses, one other dwelling and store-house, a bakery, other necessary buildings, and a wire suspension bridge across the Kiskiminetas to the railroad siding and coalbank. The number of merchants assessed by the mercantile appraiser this year is twenty-one in the fourteenth and one in the twelfth class, in which are included the druggists, grocers and confectioners. POPULATION. In 1850 the number of white inhabitants was 329; colored inhabitants, 2. In 1860, white, 449. In 1870, white, 762; colored, 2. The number of taxables in 1876 is 315. At 41 persons for each taxable, the population is, in this centennial year, 1,449. The last assessment list, that is, for 1876, indi2 45 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. cates the numbers engaged in various avocations to be: Clergymen, 4; lawyer, 1; physicians, 3; teachers, 2; dentist, 1; laborers, 90; carpenters, 10; blacksmiths, 6; shoemakers, 3; saddlers, 2; painters, 3; tailors, 2; clerks, 12; cashier, 1; wagonmakers, 2; tanners, 2; tinners, 2; weaver, 1; watchmaker, 1; cigarmakers, 3; miller, 1; plasterer, 1; barber, 1; toll-keeper, 1; printer, 1; roll-turner, 1; rollers, 2; puddler, 1; miners, 6; engineers, 3; heaters, 4; manager, 1; agent, 1; haulers, 2; stonemasons, 3; butchers, 3; bookkeeper, 1; farmer, 1; planing-mill, 1; planer, 1; foundry, 1; foundryman, 1; old gentlemen, 4. FIRES. Considering the age and size of this municipality, its inhabitants have been rather fortunate in regard to fires. For a period of sixty years after the laying out of the town, only three buildings had been burned. An extensive conflagration occurred Wednesday night, January 19, 1876, which, it is supposed, originated from overturning a kerosene oil lamp in H. A. Rudolph's shoe-store. Twenty-nine buildings in all were destroyed, causing a loss of $32,000, on which there was insurance to the amount of only $12,000. The high wind at the time caused the flames to extend rapidly along the southerly side of North street, from its lower end to the third public alley above the canal, beyond which were the vacant lots of John B. Chambers, where they were stayed. About twentyfour buildings on the three squares or blocks above the canal, on the southerly side of North street, and about five on the northerly side of Main street, were destroyed, among which were several business houses, the postoffice and savings bank buildings on the former street. The people had no means of extinguishing the fire, except their own vigorous efforts in the use of common household buckets. It was very fortunate, under the circumstances, a high wind raging at least a part of the time, that the destruction was not more extensive than it was. Since then there has been but one building-Samuel Stull's-destroyed by fire. The burned buildings are being replaced, as is generally the case after fires, by more tasteful and substantial structures. The need of a fire department and more effective means of promptly extinguishing fires than common buckets, is very apparent. 246 CHAPTER XI. PINE (INCLUDING BOGGS). Name-Erected from Territory in Kittanning Township - Decreaged in Size by the Establishment of Boggs in 1878 -(Note)- Mahoning Creek and its Indian Name - The Old Path to LeBoeuf- The Indian Town of Mahoning- Orrsville - History of the Original Land Tracts - Ore Hill Furnace - William Trumbull - His Mill on Pine Creek, Built Prior to 1790- Peart's Mills -Ineffective Search for Oil -Associate Reformed Church - The Wallis Lands- An Ancient Earthwork Near " Slabtown "- Stewardson Furnace - North American Land Company's Tracts - Goheenville and Other Hamlets - Population, Mercantile Appraisement and Assessment of the Township-Educational Statistics - Geology. PINE township derived its name from Pine creek, which flows westwardly through the territory which it formerly embraced. Pine creek in the Delaware language is Cuwen-hanne, i. e., pinestream-a stream flowing through pine-lands. A petition of divers inhabitants of Kittanning township was presented to the court of quarter sessions of this county, December 25, 1835, setting forth that their township was entirely too large for their convenience, as some of them were compelled to travel from ten to fourteen miles to transact township business, and praying for a new township to be called "Pine Creek," to consist of the upper part of Kittanning township. Thomas Barr, Joseph Lowry and John Calhoun were appointed viewers, whose report, favoring the prayer of the petitioners was read March 22, and confirmed June 20, 1836, and "Pine Creek township" was organized with the following boundaries: "By a line commencing at the place where the purchase line crosses the line of the township of Kittanning at the corner of Wayne township; "now the southeast corner of Valley township"thence by said township to Mahoning creek; thence down said creek and the Allegheny river to the borough of Kittanning; thence by the same to the said purchase line," i. e., along the northwestern and southeastern boundaries of the borough; "and thence by said purchase line to the beginning, about equally dividing Kittanning township." Although "Pine Creek" is the legal name of this township, as prayed for by the petitioners and specified in the report of the viewers, which was confirmed by the court, the latter part of the name appears to have been early dropped. On the title-page of the Kittanning township duplicate for 1837 is its full name, " Pine Creek Township," but in the next and the subsequent separate duplicates it is simply "Pine Township," and such it has ever since been called. It was shorn, nineteen years after its organization, of about half its territory by the erection of Valley township. The present sketch of it is limited to that part of its original territory between Pine and Mahoning creeks.* At the northwestern corner of this township is the junction of the Mahoning creek with the Allegheny river. The original name of this stream was Mo-hul-buc-tee-tam, or ifo-hul-buc-ti-ton, or more properly iackol pakiton. When and why the change occurred is not known. The etymology of the original name is, A-moo-chool, a canoe, and pakiton, to throw away, the entire word.meaning, where we abandon our canoes - at the head of navigation-where the stream will no more admit of navigating it.f James White, of this township, in his eighty-fifth year related to the writer that Samuel Calhoun and Jeremiah Lochery were out hunting along this stream in early times, when the latter was shot in the shoulder by some Indian, who, with others, was also hunting there. A glance at the historical map of Pennsylvania shows that the Indian path from Le Bceuf -now Waterford - through what is now the southern part of Erie county, across and down French creek, and down the left bank of the Allegheny, terminated here, on the northern side of the creek. Hence it may be reasonably, at least not violently, presumed that this was one of the points where the Indians left their canoes, perhaps moored them to the second bank which has been washed away, and proceeded on hunting expeditions up this * It was further shorn of the greater part of its remaining territory by the organization of Boggs township, June 10, 1878, by a line extending from a point on the Allegheny river, about 125 rods in an airline below the mouth of Whisky run-south of the telegraph office-to the upper southwest corner of Mahoning township, at the bend of the Mahoning creek, in the eastern part of the Wallace tract, No. 4143, leaving only about one-sixth of the territory in Pine township. Samuel Mateer was appointed judge, and George W. Goohen and Sharon Quigley inspectors of the first election of township officers, and that election was ordered to be held at the house of Samuel Mateer, July 6. The vote on the question of the division of Pine township was 160 for and 159 against. t Heckewelder. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. stream. Here, too, the English and French traders may have bartered beads, trinkets and other commodities to the Indians for their more valuable pelts, furs and other articles. This may possibly have anciently been a busy mart for that kind of commerce. In this corner of this township is the minor portion of an original tract called "Springfield," covered by a warrant to John Elliott, No. 3619, dated January 5, 1793. Elliott conveyed it to Archibald McCall February 24, 1795, to whom the patent was granted March 4. McCall conveyed it to Robert Orr March 3, 1835. This point was formerly called the mouth of Mahoning. The Orrsville postoffice was established here in May, 1838, and Anson Pinney was appointed postmaster. Among his successors were Joseph A. Knox and Thomas Meredith. This place was thereafter called Orrsville, so named after the owner of the land on which the town is built. Charles B. Schotte was employed by the owner of " Springfield " to build a hotel -the first frame structure erected here - in 1836, which he completed the next year, and which was successively kept by him, Pinney, William Templeton, Chambers Orr, John Wallace and others. Schotte remembers that before its erection there was not a vestige of another building within the limits of Orrsville. About an acre of ground, on which is the site of that hotel, had the appearance of having been cleared years before. He also built for the proprietor the warehouse at the south side of the mouth of the creek, which was extended out somewhat over the bank of the river for the purpose of conveniently receiving such freight as might be landed here from the steamboats. James McCullough, Sr., of Kittanning, remembers having seen a log cabin here when he first descended the Allegheny in 1820, and Jonathan E. Meredith also remembers having seen several of the same kind, possibly fishermen's huts, when he passed here in 1827. The only other building along the river for nearly a mile below the mouth of Mahoning was a log one in which Hetty Brice sold whisky-some of its imbibers say it was very good whisky-without suffering the penalty for selling it without license, to some of the residents in this section and to travelers along the road from Kittanning to Olean, after it was laid out in pursuance of the act of assembly March 23, 1819. Although Orrsville is at the junction of two important streams, it was more tardily settled than some other parts of this township. It ought naturally to.have been a stopping-place for rafts in the early times of the lumber trade, which it was not until suitable accommodations for the raftsmen were provided onil both sides of the Mahoning. It became a prominent point for landing and storing freight for the upper parts of Armstrong and portions of Clarion and Jefferson counties, and continued to be until the completion of the low grade division of the Allegheny Valley railroad. Next south of "Springfield" was a vacant tract, the upper end of which extended from the river back on to the hill, containing 350 acres, according to the ancient map of original tracts, to which Peter Brice, a colored man, acquired title by improvement, and for which a patent was granted to him July 3, 1848. He conveyed the portion of it at Templeton Station and the mouth of Whisky run to John Brice August 1, 1852, who conveyed ten acres of it to Robert Thompson September 9, 1853, for $65. Abraham Parkinson settled where Templeton Station now is in 1803, and was assessed with 400 acres, which he abandoned. Peter Brice settled on the hill part of this tract in the spring of 1804. There were then but very few white settlers within a circuit of several miles. His was the only colored family here for years. The present number of colored people here and hereabouts is sixty-five. A half century or more ago Peter Brice's children found a pair of pothooks, having a hinge, about four feet below the surface, near Parkinson's, which for some years has been called Whisky run, where the Templeton Station now is. This run was known as Parkinson's until after Ore Hill Furnace went into operation, when its employds and others residing in the valley of this run used whisky so freely that it was suggested the name should be changed to Whisky run and Whisky Hollow. Next south and west of the Brice tract, between the principal portion of it and the river, was the William Elliott tract, No. 21, May 17, 1785, surveyed June 18, called "Mahoning Old Town Bottom," 211 acres, according to the original survey. It, however, like nearly every original tract, contained a surplus. "The surveying fees paid November 8, 1787, per Wm. Elliott ~2, carried to the credit of J. B. McLean," as one-half of this tract was then in his district. This entire tract passed under the hammer of the sheriff of Northumberland county, Pennsylvania, to Charles Smith, November 26, 1789. He conveyed it, September 1, 1790, to William West, and he, July 8, 1793, to Robert Elliott, who died intestate, leaving ten children, three of whom died intestate and without issue, and one intestate, leaving a widow and two sons. And yet William Elliott conveyed it to Richard Chil248 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. over the western line of Indiana county, were thereby disturbed and endangered. There were several blockhouses along down the Allegheny river below Kittanning, and one near South Bend, to which the families of the early settlers sometimes fled for safety. CAPTAIN SHARP AND OTHER PIONEERS. Among the pioneers in the Plum Creek region was Capt. Andrew Sharp, who had been an officer in the revolutionary service, under Washington. He, with his wife and infant child, emigrated to this region in 1784, and purchased, settled upon and improved the tract of land, consisting of several hundred acres, on which are Shelocta and the United Presbyterian church, near the county line, on a part of which John Anthony and the Wiggins now live, being then in Westmoreland county. The writer mentions his case in the general sketch of this county because he has reliable information concerning it, because many of his descendants now live in the county, and because it is illustrative of dangers and hardships, varying in kind, encountered and endured by the inhabitants of this region in those times. Capt. Sharp, after residing about ten years on his farm, revisited his kindred in Cumberland county, procured a supply of school-books and Bibles for his children, and returned to his home in the wilderness. Determined that his children should have facilities for education which did not exist there, he traded his farm there for one in Kentucky. In the spring of 1794 hlie removed with his family to Black Lick Creek, where hlie either built or purchased a flatboat, in which he, his wife and six children, a Mr. Connor, wife and five children, a Mr. Taylor, wife and one child, and Messrs. McCoy and Connor, single men, twenty in all, with their baggage and household effects, embarked on the proposed passage down the Kiskiminetas and Allegheny rivers to Pittsburgh, and thence on to Kentucky. Low water in the Black Lick rendered their descent down it difficult. They glided down the Conemaugh and Kiskiminetas to a point two miles below the falls of the latter, at the mouth of Two Mile run, below the present site of Apollo. Capt. Sharp tied the boat there, and went back for the canoe which had been detached while crossing the falls. When he returned the children were gathering berries and playing on the bank; the women were preparing supper, and the men who led the horses had arrived. It was about an hour and a half before sunset. A man then came along and reported that the Indians were near. The women and children were called into the boat, and the men having charge of the horses tied them on shore. It was then thought best that the party should go to the house of David Hall, who was the father of David Hall, of North Buffalo township, this county, and the grandfather of Rev. David Hall, D. D., the present pastor of the Presbyterian church at Indiana, Pennsylvania, to spend the night. While the men were tying the horses, seven Indians, concealed behind a large fallen tree, oni the other side of which the children had been playing half-an-hour before, fired on the party in the boat. Capt. Sharp's right eyebrow was shot off by the first firing. Taylor is said to have mounted one of his horses and fled to the woods, leaving his wife and child to the care and protection of others. While Capt. Sharp was cutting one end of the boat loose, he received a bullet-wound in his left side, and, while cutting the other end loose, received another wound in his right side. Nevertheless, he succeeded in removing the boat from its fastenings before the Indians could enter it, and, discovering an Indian in the woods, and calling for his gun, which his wife handed to him, shot and killed the Indian. While the boat was in the whirlpool, it whirled around for two and a half hours, when the open side of the boat, that is, the side on which the baggage was not piled up for a breastwork, was toward the land, the Indians fired into it. They followed it twelve miles down the river, and bade those in it to disembark, else they would fire into them again. Mrs. Connor and her eldest son - a young man - wished to land. The latter requested the Indians to come to the boat, informing them that all the men had been shot. Capt. Sharp ordered him to desist, saying that he would shoot him if hlie did not. Just then young Connor was shot by one of the Indians, and fell dead actoss Mrs. Sharp's feet. McCoy was killed. All the women and children escaped injury. Mr. Connor was severely wounded. After the Indians ceased following, Capt. Sharp became so much exhausted by his exertions and loss of blood, that his wife was obliged to manage the boat all night. At daylight the next morning they were within nine miles of Pittsburgh. Some men on shore, having been signaled, came to their assistance. One of them preceded the party in a canoe, so that when they reached Pittsburgh, a physician was ready to attend upon them. Other preparations had been made for their comfort and hospitable reception by the good people of that place. Capt. Sharp, having suffered severely from his wounds, died July 8, 1794, forty days after he was wounded, with the roar of cannon, so to speak, reverberating in his ears, which he had heard cele JOSEPH SHOEMAKER. The parents of the subject of this sketch, Solomon and Elizabeth (Uncafer) Shoemaker, came to this county from Loudoun county, Virginia, at the beginning of the present century, and settled in Kiskiminetas township, where Spring church now is. Mr. Shoemaker, having entered 335 acres of land, built upon it a comfortable stone house, the first in the township, in which he and his wife resided until their deaths. They were the parents of six children - John, Joseph, Catharine, George, Margaret and Elizabeth, of whom George, Margaret and Elizabeth are still living. The first named and Elizabeth, wife of William Townsend, are in Kiskiminetas township, and Margaret, widow of R. Dentzell, lives in Apollo. Joseph Shoemaker was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, April 16, 1799, and came to this county an infant. He remained at home until after his marriage, which took place May 18, 1825. His wife was Miss Salome Weinel, daughter of Rev. William and Catharine (Frye) Weinel, born July 10, 1806. Seven children were the offspring of this marriage -William L., Josiah J., Theodore T., Sarah Jane, Alexander D., Maria C. and Anna Mary, of whom Sarah Jane and Maria C. are deceased. William L. went to Iowa in 1853, where he located a farm. He returned home, where he was married. On his return to Iowa he was taken sick, and died when within a few miles of his home. Josiah and Alexander live in Kiskiminetas township, Theodore T. is in Montana, and Mary (wife of Rev. P. Baker) in Fayette county, Pennsylvania. Mr. Shoemaker and his wife lived with his parents until he could build a hewed-log house on a farm of 315 acres, which he purchased for a home. He afterward built a hewed-log barn. This land, for which he gave $700.37, was thickly covered with forest, and he began and successfully carried on the work of clearing it. In 1840 his farm had been brought into such good condition that he needed a new barn, and he built one, a frame structure, 75X50 feet. In 1845 he built the brick house in which his widow and son, Josiah J., now live, and which is probably the best farm dwelling in the township. Mr. Shoemaker began his career under difficulties, having to use the oldfashioned plow with a wooden moldboard, and similar primitive farm implements, but being an industrious man and a good manager, he developed his heavily-timbered land into a fine farm, and, with the aid of his excellent wife, secured for himself and family a pleasant home. Mr. Shoemaker died April 15, 1874, and this home passed into the possession of his son, Josiah J., and his sister, Mrs. Baker. Mr. Shoemaker's memory is cherished in the neighborhood in which, during life, he was an honored and useful citizen, and his humble but admirable character is regarded as worthy the emulation of all those who have to start in life, as he (lid, with no capital but sterling honesty and industry. RES IDE NC ~ OF JOSIAH SHOEFAAKE. PINE (INCLUDING BOGGS) TOWNSHIP. derston December 16, 1797, who conveyed it to Right Elliott, and he, January 8, 1810, to David Lauson for $800. Robert Orr, Jr., of Sugar Creek township, this county, April 16, 1818, purchased from William Elliott, one of Robert Elliott's sons, of the town of Sandwich, in the province of Upper Canada, his undivided share of this tract for $2331, and at other times from other heirs their interests, amounting in all to six-sevenths of the tract. The other seventh was purchased by James E. Brown, who conveyed it to Chambers Orr June 2, 1848, for $840. Robert and Chambers Orr conveyed it, as containing 299 acres, to Philip Templeton February 24, 1852, for $7,500. He conveyed 10,920 square feet of it to Robert Thompson October 25, 1865, for $500, and 106 acres and 72 perches to William Phillips, then president of the Allegheny Valley Railroad Company, December 1, 1869, for $25,548, subject to the right of way of that road, which passed by sheriff's deed, dated September 6, 1876, to James Mosgrove for $11,171.57. "Mahoning T." on Reading Howell's map of 1792 and "I. T." for Indian Town on the Historical Map of Pennsylvania, were on this Elliott tract. It was a Seneca or Cornplanter town. It is not known when it was founded- probably before 1790. When Peter Brice came here in 1804 it consisted of about thirty huts and one hundred and fifty people. The Indians engaged in hunting and fishing and the squaws raised the corn, which they kept in a hole about four feet deep in the ground, shaped like an earthen dish. They were friendly to Brice and his family. The friendship was mutual, not only between those who lived there, but others from the upper Allegheny who sometimes stopped here. A party of the latter reached here on an autumn day, between 1804 and 1810. After drawing their canoes out on dry land and partaking of Brice's hospitality they proceeded to the hills back from the river, where they spent several days in hunting, and returned laden with game. The river having risen in the meantime their canoes would have been swept down stream if Brice had not secured them. When those Indians became cognizant of the facts, and especially the kindness of Brice, they expressed their gratification by dancing, singing and shouting. In those times bears, deer, wolves, panthers and wild turkeys were abundant along and back from the river. When Brice was farming a portion of the river bottom below Whisky run, fifty odd years ago, he found many large blue, red and white beads, flint darts six inches long, little tomahawks with round poles, and pieces of wire five or six inches long filled with scalps of wild ducks. William Templeton was assessed with and of course occupied this tract from 1824 until 1841, with the exception that Jacob Starr was assessed with seventy acres of it from 1827 until 1830, and John Toy with the same from then until 1841. During Templeton's occupancy he was assessed with a distillery from 1826 until 1830, which was located where the water-tank of the A. W. railroad now is. The house in which he lived was in the lower part of the tract, where it is widest, between the river and the curve in the railroad, in front of which swung for several years the sign of the Green Tree, painted by James McCullough, Sr., on the 7th of April, 1828, which indicates that he kept there a public house, though not assessed as an innkeeper. Chambers and Robert Orr resided several years on this part of the tract after Templeton removed to the mouth of Mahoning. Starr and Toy, who successively lived on the upper portion, appear to have been the only other occupants of this tract for many years. Another William Elliott tract, warrant No. 633, 1271 acres, its shape a rectangular parallelogram, extended lengthwise from northeast to southwest. Its northeastern end apparently interfered with the Samuel Wallace tract No. 4149, or the latter with it. The rest of it was adjoined by the Brice tract, or vacancy, and the James Calhoun improvement. It was first noted on the assessment list of Kittanning township as seated in 1810. Peter Brice was first assessed with it in 1811, that being the first year in which name appears on the duplicate, and with which he continued to be assessed until 1846, and thereafter with a larger quantity than it contained. James Brice's present residence is on the upper or northeastern portion of it. Adjoining that tract on the southwest and southeast was James Calhoun's improvement, 400 acres, as seen on the map of original tracts. His name appears on the Toby township duplicate for 1806assessed as a weaver, and with 197 acres, rated at $1 per acre, one horse, and one head of cattle, $227. His name does not thereafter appear on the duplicate for either Toby or Kittanning township. A patent was granted to James Cochran for that Calhoun tract as containing 480 acres and 162 perches, October 9, 1833. Wmin. Lowry was assessed with a tanyard on it in 1837-8. Cochran conveyed fifty acres of it, May 9, 1845, to James Cochran, Eathen Chilcott; A. P. Moderwell and Francis Dobbs, for $500. They, by article of agreement, July 26, entered into a copartnership, under the name and style of " Cochran, Dobbs & Co.," for the purpose of erecting a blast furnace and manufacturing pig metal on that fifty-acre 249 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. tract, which Cochran put in as his share of the capital stock. That copartnership was brief, for its members conveyed these fifty acres to William and Robert McCutcheon, of Pittsburgh, November 21, 1845, for $1,200. Ore Hill Furnace was erected thereon that year. It was a steam hot-blast charcoal furnace. It was eight and a half feet across the bosh, and its stack was thirty-four feet high. It made 1,525 tons of mottle iron in forty-one weeks, in 1856, out of limestone carbonate ore obtained from two miles above it along both sides of the river and from both sides of Whisky Hollow. The McCutcheons were its proprietors while it was in blast, and Jesse Bell was, the greater part of the time, its, manager. It went out of blast in the spring of 1857 for the want of wood. William, who survived Robert McCutcheon, conveyed 48 acres and 157 perches of this furnace tract, and 66 acres and 138 perches of the tract which they had purchased from Peter P. Brice, aggregating 115 acres and 135 perches, to John B. Finlay, May 1, 1865, for $2,000, and which the latter conveyed to James E. Brown, November 15, 1866, for $10,000. The lower portion of the land embraced in the patent to Cochran became vested in Samuel Hutchison in his lifetime, on which is "Barton Bend House," now owned by William IHutchinson. Other portions, on the hill, belong to Cochran's heirs. Adjoining that Calhoun improvement or Cochran tract, on the west and south, was a regularlyshaped one whose western line extended from a point a few rods above the sharp bend in the river to a point about thirty rods below the mouth of Pine creek, covered by warrant No. 160 to Lieut.-Col. Stephen Bayard. It became vested in William Turnbull, of Philadelphia, who was one of the liberal patriots who gave their bonds,* payable in gold and silver, for procuring provisions for the American army at a critical period in our revolutionary struggle. Some time before the Indian war of 1790, as related to -the writer by James White, then in his eighty-fifth year, Turnbull built a sawmill near the mouth of Pine creek, from which some spies took all the irons and hid them in the woods along the little runs. It is related that a man by the name of Mawmy was associated with Turnbull-perhaps as millwright-in building that mill. About the 1st of June, 1794, a party of Indians with hostile intent were here, for Gen. William Jack, in his letter of the 6th, to Gov. Mifflin, wrote that he had just received a letter from Col. Charles Campbell, informing him that the spies * See sketch of Allegheny township. had discovered a large trail of Indians " on Pine creek above the Kittanning," who appeared by their tracks to be advancing toward the settlement. It was on the face of the hill on this tract that a scouting party from the blockhouse near Fort Run discovered and killed two of the Indians, who, as they believed, had decoyed and shot the three scouts mentioned in the sketch of the Manor. James White related to the writer that John Harbirm, about 1811, shot an Indian, offensive at least to him, as he was mending his moccasin on a beam in the mill, a short distance above the mouth of Pine creek. Turnbull, September 7, 1806, conveyed this tract, 548 acres, called "Pine Grove," "situate on the Allegheny river, at the mouth of Pine run, including the forks of said run," and another tract in what is now Valley township, about 307 acres, to William Peart, Sr., of Oxford township, Philadelphia county, Pennsylvania, for $4,000. Peart built a sawmill near the mouth of Pine creek in 1807, with which he was first assessed the next year, and subsequently a gristmill, with one run of stone, on the south side of the creek in what is now Valley township, with which he was first assessed in 1810. This tract was on the unseated list for the last time in that year. Two or three years later he erected another gristmill still higher up and on the south side of that stream, which was swept away by a heavy flood before it was quite completed. Some of the stones of considerable size in the masonry of that mill were carried several hundred yards below by the force of that flood, where they were visible on a small flat many years afterward. William Peart, Sr., conveyed 300 acres and 80 perches of the northern part of "Pine Grove" to William Peart, Jr., November 16, 1821, for $1, and agreed, July 30, 1828, to convey another parcel thereof, containing 248 acres, to William L. Peart, which agreement was consummated after his death by his widow, Susan Peart, executing a proper deed, October 3, 1832. Walter Sloan, who was first lieutenant of Capt. James Alexander's company in the war of 1812,* and William L. Peart entered into an article of agreement April 2, 1830, for the sale and purchase of the latter's grist and saw mill, with which Benjamin Peart was first assessed in 1825, a cabin house, barn, and 200 acres in the southeastern part of "Pine Grove," five acres of which were then cleared, for $800, of which Sloan was to pay $100 in hand, and the residue in seven equal annual installments. Peart having died without execut *See sketch of Kittanning borough. 250 PINE (INCLUDING BOGGS) TOWNSHIP. ing a deed therefor, and Sloan having complied with his part of the contract, proceedings were instituted for the specific performance of that contract on the part of Peart's administrator, the result of which was a decree by the orphans' court of this county, directing its specific performance, and that the administrator, Robert E. Brown, "make, execute, acknowledge and deliver a sufficient deed" to Sloan. These mills, assessed to Sloan in and after 1830, and since known as "Sloan's Mills," are situated a short distance below the junction of the north fork with Pine creek. Peart's eddy is in the northwestern part of "Pine Grove," where the Peart's Eddy postoffice was established July 13, 1868, Levi G. Peart, postmaster, and changed to Brattonville, December 8, 1870. In the northeastern part of "Pine Grove," and adjoining the 200 acres purchased by Sloan on the northwest, are the farms of John and Montgomery Patton, 201 acres and 39 perches, being purpart C, in the partition of William L. Peart's real estate, which his administrator, Robert E. Brown, conveyed to them, June 24, 1850, for $1,207.461. Bordering on the river below the eddy is a considerable body of land belonging to Samuel M. Peart. William L. Peart's executor conveyed 55 acres to Sharon M. Quigley, April 1, 1851, for $500. The latter conveyed three acres and fiftytwo perches of the lower part of his land to George W. Wilkins, of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, August 1, 1871, for $2,162.50, one-third of which the latter conveyed to Columbus Bell, December 23, for $1,666.66, to which has been given the name of "Bellview," on which Wilkins & Bell erected their sawmill in August, 1871, which was ready to be run in April, 1872, and was worked that year almost exclusively for the Allegheny Valley Railroad company, affording employment to seven or eight men. The planing-mill, storehouse, and six tenant-houses were erected in the next winter. The barge-yard was finished the next spring. About two-thirds of the next summer were occupied in sawing for the Allegheny Valley Railroad company, and in building, besides, eight barges, employing twenty men. The number of boats and barges built and of men employed gradually increased till 1876, when thirty-two boats and barges were built, 1,000,000 feet of other lumber cut, and thirty men employed. These works now consist of saw, lath, shingle and planing mills, and a box-factory. Between Bellevue and the mouth of Pine creek is a small tract of about five acres, which Quigley conveyed to Hugh R. Rutherford, of Indiana county, Pennsylvania, July 2, 1860, for $400, which he conveyed to James B. Walker four days thereafter for $500. The latter leased this small tract December 8, 1875, to the Midland Oil Mining Association, who were to have the exclusive right "for fifty years to bore, explore, dig for, gather, collect, manufacture, own, remove, transport in any manner, oil, gas and water," and certain other privileges necessary for prosecuting the object of the lease, and for which they were to pay the lessor one-tenth part of the proceeds of all sales at the prices realized on the premises of all the oil which might be obtained, or to deliver to him one-tenth of the oil obtained. There are various other stipulations in the lease which it is not necessary here to mention. The association, under the superintendence of J. B. Brundred, one of its managers, commenced drilling a well in March, 1876, and prosecuted the work to the depth of 1,700 feet without obtaining oil, at an expenditure of $8,000, and then abandoned this territory. A considerable vein of gas was struck at the depth of 1,060 feet. Much delay and expense were occasioned by the sticking of tools and other accidents incident to drilling such wells. The association consisted of a number of capitalists who seemed determined to thoroughly test the territory of the regions or districts in which they obtained their leases. They took thirty other similar leases of varying quantities of land in this township, forty in Mahoning and Red Bank townships, in a northeasterly direction from this well, and eleven in Perry township and in or near Parker City, and others in other counties. Another subdivision of "Pine Grove" is a tract containing 62 acres and 152 perches and allowance, being allotment D in the partition of the real estate of William L. Peach, which his administrator, Robert E. Brown, conveyed to James E. Brown March 22, 1851, for $661.70. This purpart is traversed by Pine creek, the major portion being on its north side. It is now assessed to Brown & Mosgrove. James A. Lowery opened a store near the mouth of Pine creek in 1852. The first Brattonville postoffice, James A. Lowrey, postmaster, was established here in the autumn of 1852, so named after Miss Jane Bratton Brown, daughter of the vendee of this purpart. It was removed to the " Barton Bend House," on the Hutchinson land, in 1855, and was discontinued in 1857. The Pine Creek Station on the Allegheny Valley railroad, which was extended to this point in the winter of 1866, and the junction of Brown & Mosgrove's narrow guage railroad are in the northwestern part of this purpart. The Peart's Eddy postoffice was removed hither and the second Brattonville one was established December 8, 251 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. 1870, James Hull being the first and present postmaster. Adjoining the southeastern portion of "Pine Grove" was an eighty-acre tract on Lawson & Orr's map of original tracts, in the shape of a rectangular parallelogram; and another adjoining the latter on the east, in the shape of a trapezoid, containing 220 acres, both designated as Samuel Calhoun's. The latter was called "Amherst," the warrant for which, No. 3831, was granted to Charles Campbell April 22, 1793, and the patent July 15, 1795. Campbell conveyed it to Calhoun March 28, 1816, for $1,000. The minor portion of it was in what is now Valley township. Calhoun was assessed with it in 1806 on the Toby township list, and with one horse, at a total valuation of $165. His name appears on the assessment list of Kittanning township for the last time in 1827. He left a widow, who was assessed with it in 1828, and three children, James T. Calhoun, who was first assessed with it in 1829, Eleanor M. Calhoun and Mary Calhoun, intermarried with Tate Allison. Mrs. Allison and her husband conveyed their interest therein to James T. Calhoun July 11, 1839, for $119.66. James McCauley was first assessed with 102 acres of it in 1857, whfch he still occupies. James T. Calhoun, Eleanor M. Walker, Tate and Mary Allison conveyed 40 acres and 113 perches to Alexander McAllister February 23, 1864, for $60, which the latter conveyed to Brown & Mosgrove April 14, for $1,000. Other portions of those Calhoun tracts became vested in Robert Orr by patent dated August 9, 1842. Next east of "Amherst" was a tract covered by a warrant to John Nicholson, No. 1152, dated April 20, 1792, containing 1,100 acres, called "Mexico," which Nicholson conveyed to Gen. Alexander Craig February 11, 1794. Craig conveyed it to Robert Walker, February 19, 1812, for $800. About one-fifth of "Mexico" was in what is now Valley township. It appears in the Lawson & Orr map as the Walker & White tract. Walker settled on it in 1800; his brothers Abraham and James, then or soon after; and David White in 1803. They came to this "Mexico" in the wilderness from that part of Westmoreland near where Shelocta now stands, in Indiana county, Pennsylvania. Robert Walker was first assessed with a distillery in 1808, which he had started the year before. It was situated on a small run about midway between the present roads from Kittanning and Pine Creek Furnace, and about seventyfive rods north of the present Valley township line. James Walker was assessed with it in 1820 anid a few years afterward. The first schoolhouse erected within the present limits of Pine township was built of round logs, and was situated about ten rods below the head branches of White's run, at or near the center of "Mexico" or "the Walker settlement," in which Wright or Right Elliott was the first teacher, having taught reading, writing and a little of arithmetic to ten or twelve scholars there between 1805 and 1811. The second schoolhouse within the limits of this township was on the Samuel Wallis tract, No. 4148, about two miles a little north of east from the mouth of Pine creek, on land now owned by John Leinweber, in which the first teacher was David White, Sr. His scholars numbered about twenty-five, some of whom came from the west side of the Allegheny river. His immediate successors were William White and David Hull. One of the first schoolhouses under the common school law was a log one on or near the site of the first one, which continued to be used until the present one was erected, about 275 rods northeast of it. Religious services were held for some years in private houses, barns, and, in pleasant weather, in the woods. The Associate Reformed church (commonly called Seceder) was organized probably about 1826, by Rev. John Dickey. It was dependent for many years on supplies. Its first pastor was Rev. John Hindman, whose pastorate continued from April 29, 1840, until May 19, 1853. Its second pastor was Rev. David K. Duff, whose pastorate continued from some time in June, 1856, until the summer of 1870. Since then the congregation has depended on supplies. Each of those pastors gave this church half his time. David White, Sr., and Francis Dill were among its early elders. The present number of members is sixty. The first church edifice, log, 20 X 20 feet, was erected in 1827, a short distance below the site of the first schoolhouse, on the east side of White's run. The present frame edifice was erected on that site in 1855.* The ground on which it stands was given to the congregation by William White, who conveyed one acre and thirty-eight perches, October 9, 1832, to Noah Calhoun, Moses Dill, William Lowry, Alexander Oliver, William Templeton and James White, trustees of Lower Piney congregation, in trust for the use of "Pine creek congregation," for the nominal sum of $1. The first wagon owned by any occupant of "Mexico" was purchased by William Moorhead, after Pine Creek Furnace went into operation. Robert Walker-he was commonly called Col. * The third, a neat frame edifice, was erected in 1878, in the grove on David Devers' farm on the Wallis tract, No. 4147. 252 ISAAC Vv,4,FNEI, MtS, ISAAC WAI(bER. ISAAC WARNER. Isaac Warner was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, May 16, 1800, and came to this country with his parents, who settled in Kiskiminetas township, where his widow now lives, in August, 1808. He married in 1828, Elizabeth Scott, who was born January 10, 1806, in County Tyrone, Ireland. Her parents, Andrew and Jane (Hall) Scott, were natives of Ireland and born respectively in 1777 and 1779. The former died here in 1851 and the latter in 1861. Andrew Scott emigrated to America with his son Hugh in 1820, and very soon located in this township of Armstrong county. In 1825 he sent his son back to Ireland to bring over his wife and other children. They had altogether ten children, some of whom were born in this country. Their names, in the order of their ages, are as follows: Hugh, Elizabeth, Isabella, Margaret, Mary Jane, Andrew, Sarah, Samuel, Stewart, and an infant who died unnamed. Of these, Elizabeth, Margaret, Sarah, Samuel and Stewart are now living. To Mr. and Mrs. Isaac Warner five children were born, as follows: Isabella (wife of Samuel F. Cooper), a resident of Kiskiminetas; Abram, who lives upon the old home farm; Mary Jane (wife of Robert Hunter), a resident of Indiana county; Andrew S., who lives in Freeport, and Isaac W. Warner, who resides in the West. The father of these children had purchased soon after arriving at manhood about 160 acres of heavily timbered land, on which at the time there was not more than two acres cleared. He labored very industriously to clear this land, and by the time of his death had seventy acres in excellent tillable condition. In 1871 he was thrown from a wagon by the running away of a team of horses at Spring church, and the injury received resulted in his death June 7, 1871. His widow and son Abram live upon the farm which he left them. The latter, born December 11, 1832, was united in marriage, May 13, 1875, with Miss Maria E. Crosby, who was born July 7, 1838. They have two children - Jennie, born March 18, 1876, and Ralph Irwin, born February 24, 1879. PINE (INCLUDING BOGGS) TOWNSHIP. Walker, either on account of his military services as a spy on the upper Allegheny during the Indian wars, or his rank in the militia afterward-parceled and conveyed the major portion of "Mexico" thus: To his brothers, Abraham Walker, 302 acres and 131 perches, April 1, 1820, for $319.98; James Walker, 402 acres, June 20, 1824, for $266; to David White, Sr., his brother-in-law, 78 acres and 80 perches, September 20, 1824, for $312, to whom James Walker conveyed 174 acres and 95 perches, December 6, 1827, for $600. The house erected by White in 1813, on his first-mentioned portion, is still standing, and which has been for many years occupied by his son James, commonly called Major White, and latterly by his grandson, David White. David White, Sr., conveyed 94 acres and 50 perches to Win. White, December 11, 1827, which the latter, for " one dollar and natural love and affection," conveyed to Win. W. Moorehead, December 20, 1842, 28 acres and 59 perches of which Moorehead conveyed to David Rowland, March 27, 1874, for $1,248. Other occupants of that portion of "Mexico" in this township are James Moorhead, Jacob Peters, Jacob Upperman and Abraham Walker. The Wallis lands in this township consisted of nine tracts, contiguous to one another, and eight of which are rectangular parallelograms and the other a trapezoid in shape, aggregating 8,089 acres, an allowance of six per cent for roads, according to original surveys, but in each of which, as in nearly all others, there was probably found to be a considerable surplus by later and more accurate surveys. On Lawson & Orr's map of original tracts and on their list of warrantees, the name of the warrantee of these tracts is Samuel IVWallace. Hle, however, spelled his surname Wallis in his letters from his home to Timothy Matlack, secretary of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, in one of which, dated "Muncy Farm, Aug't 8th, 1778 "-then in Northumberland county, in which these lands then were-he wrote: I find that from the attention paid to this county of late, p)articularly with the Continental Troops, that the spirit of the people seems to be returning to them; g(reat numbers have returned, & I hope the majority of them will shortly get back to their homes. Col. Brodhead's Reg't did great service, & the spirited manner in which (Col. Hartley is now acting will, I doubt not, render assential service to the Country. I observe that the Council has been pleased to order a Considerable nunher of militia into this County, amongst which 300 is ordered out into Immediate service of the militia of this County. I am at a loss to know what kind of Intelligence the ('ouncil hear. Sure I am that if they had been well informed of the Distressed, Distracted & Confused situation which the people lhave not yet recovered from, they would have Judged it Impossible to call 300 16 Troops of our militia Immediately into actual service. Experience will prove to you that what I say is right. 5 o'clock, afternoon.--Since wrighting the foregoing part of this letter we have been alarm'd with Intelligence of a reaping party of about 14 being attack'd in the field early this morning by a party of about twenty Indians-two kill'd & scap'd, one (the son of Cap'n Brady) mortally wound'd & scalped, & one taken prisoner-the other ten made their escape. Lurking partys of Indians are constantly seen about us. Several attempts have been lately made to take off our Centenals in the night. I shall be much obliged to you for a line by the return of the Express with a Newspaper inclosed. I am sincerely your friend, &c., SAML. WALLIS. Fort Muncy, erected by Col. Thomas Hartley, in 1778, at the mouth of Muncy, or Wolf, creek, was sometimes called Fort WVallis. These nine were a part of the fifty tracts covered by warrants granted to him October 2, 1793, and were covered by warrants Nos. 4140-1-2-3-4-5-78-9, all of which Wallis, February 2, 1797, conveyed to Thomas Duncan, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, afterward one of the associate justices of the supreme court of this state, who conveyed the same to Thomas Stewardson, Sr., of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, December 30, for $6,067.12, who, by his will, dated the 20th day of the eighth month, 1840, devised all of these tracts to his wife Anna Stewardson. Ile also directed in his will that his "backlands" should remain in the care and management of his executors, George Stewardson, Thomas Stewardson, Jr., and William E. Vaux, and their survivors, seven years from the day next after his death, and gave them power to sell and convey them. His widow, "for divers good causes and considerations, and especially for and in consideration of $5," conveyed all these nine tracts to George Stewardson the "4th day of fourth month," 1845. Tract No. 4147 adjoined " Mexico" on the east. The public schoolhouse, heretofore mentioned, is in the northwest corner of it, situated on a part of the 230 acres conveyed by George Stewardson to Samuel Mateer, February 12, 1855, for $1,150, on which the latter settled in 1843, for several years kept a hotel, and on which he now resides. Other p)ortions of this tract were in the occupancy of James and William Oliver from and after 1832, and John Oliver later. Stewardson's executors conveyed 127 acres and 60 perches to William Oliver, June 29, 1848, for $700.50. George Stewardson conveyed a part of this and parts of Nos. 4140-1 to James E. and John P. Brown and James Mosgrove, aggregating 683 acres and 148 perches, March 8, 1850, for $2,735.50. To David Dever, 122 acres, May 13, 1852, for $226.37. Hle conveyed 253 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. 111 acres and 74 perches to John Kneas, February 12, 1855, for $778, described as situate in "Pine Creek township." Some of its later occupants, that is before and since 1850, have been Robert Martin, William Stewart and Hugh Williamson. The Pine township postoffice, Wm. Gallagher, postmaster, was established July 16, 1855, and removed to or merged in the Pine Creek Furnace one, May 21, 1872. George Stewardson conveyed to William and Robert McCutcheon, proprietors of Ore Hill Furnace, 4,219 acres of those Wallis lands, September 7, 1849, for $13,804.82, which embrace the whole of tract No. 4142 and the residue of Nos. 4143-4-5 remaining after the sale of 119 acres and 13 perches to James Nolder, Sr. and Jr., for $297.70, and exclusive of interferences by older surveys, and parts of Nos. 4141 and 4149. John Cochran was first assessed with 163 acres of No. 4141 in 1841, of which Stewardson conveyed to him 109 acres and 74 perches, March 8, 1850, for $463, on which is the public schoolhouse at which the elections are held. He conveyed 114 acres and 95 perches to Barnabas Reedy, March 8, 1850, for $571.80. The tract covered by warrant No. 4148 corners the last-mentioned on the southwest, with a portion of which James McGinniss was first assessed in 1849, and to whom Stewardson conveyed 131 acres and 22 perches, July 27, 1859, for $1,049. As late as 1808 there was an Indian camp west of Bull Lick, run on the north fork of Pine creek, on this tract. Some of the Indians were addicted to stealing. One or more of them stole some deerskins and other articles from Col. Robert Walker. Taking his gun he went to their camp the next day and told them that if they failed to return the stolen property on the following day he would attack their camp and chastise them all. They soon returned the stolen property. Higher up the North fork, about 100 rods below the little hamlet called "Slabtown," are vestiges of an ancient earthwork-a circular basin about sixty feet in diameter, which appears to have been originally excavated to the depth of about three feet, which has been gradually filled up with a soft marshy soil, formed of decayed vegetable matter, until it is now within a foot below the surrounding surface. This formed soil is very soft, and when the writer's informant, Alexander T. Ormond, visited it several years since, he easily sunk a pole into it to the depth of thirty inches, where it struck against a hard substance which he concluded must be the original bottom of the basin. It approaches at the nearest point to within about four feet of the stream, and is connected with it by a trench about a yard wide, probably designed for an outlet for the water that would naturally collect in it. The old inhabitants of this region suppose that this curious basin was made by the Indians, but for what purpose is merely conjectural. Whether it is the work of Indians or of a prehistoric people is a question for the antiquaries. These tracts were sparsely settled before they were sold in small parcels. They are still comparatively so. After they ceased to be required for Ore Hill Furnace, its proprietors conveyed portions of them, after the allotments had been made, to William McCutcheon and the heirs of Robert McCutcheon, respectively, in the partition in the court of common pleas of this county: 1860, June 18, to Robert Patrick, 98 acres and 120 perches, for $473.75; to Samuel Anderson, 54 acres and 96 perches, for $327; 19th, to Adam Reilstein, 58 acres and 108 perches, for $340.50; to Frederick Thran, 60 acres and 3 perches, for $290; November 5, to John Houser, 60 acres and 38 perches; 1863, February 21, to John Adams, 98 acres, for $500; 1864, July 14, to Martin McCoy, 46 acres and 132 perches, for $234; December 2, to William C. Gibson, 48 acres and 16 perches, for $288; 1865, January 24, to William Anthony, 66 acres and 80 perches, for $465.50; to James Nolder, 40 acres and 157 perches, for $286; 26th, to S. M. Peart, 41 acres, for $346.10; 30th, to Leonard Brice, 91 acres and 140 perches, for $735; February 9, to George and John Kneas, 108 acres, for $540; May 1, to John B. Finlay, two parcels (subject to mineral rights), 135 acres and 135 perches, for $2,000; 23d, to James S. Cochran, 59 acres and 76 perches, for $250; June 3, to Robert Thompson, 190 acres, for $1,075, which he conveyed to I. H. McGee, February 6, for $4,000. Other small parcels may have been conveyed, the deeds for which have not yet been recorded. Christian Shunk, who had made the manufacture of iron a specialty and the subject of thorough and extensive study, and had thus, and by his close and varied observation, become a good judge of suitable locations for furnaces, in 1851 selected the site of Stewardson Furnace and the adjacent lands containing the requisite material for that manufacture. He, Alexander Laughlin and William Phillips erected this furnace and purchased various tracts of land. William and Robert McCutcheon conveyed to them 2,601 acres and 123 perches of the Wallis-Duncan-Stewardson lands, December 24, for $12,358.40. This furnace is situated on or near the northern boundary of the tract covered by the Wallis warrant No. 4144, about 375 rods slightly north of east in an air line from the 254 PINE (INCLUDING BOGGS) TOWNSHIP. mouth of Mahoning, in a deep northern bend of this stream. It was built for coke in 1851, but was not then as such successful, and was changed to a charcoal hot-blast until the spring of 1855, when coke was successfully substituted. Its first product of pig-iron was in 1852. Shunk conveyed all his interest in this furnace, personal and real, to Laughlin & Phillips, December 2, for $5,000. Phillips conveyed all his undivided one-fourth interest therein to John Bert February 1, 1856, for $10,000, and Bert, the same day, conveyed his interest therein to Laughlin for $20,430.21, the respective contracts having been made prior to the dates of the conveyances. The furnace was burned down in September, 1858. It was soon rebuilt and went into blast in January, 1859. Its stack is forty feet high, the distance across the bosh being eleven and a half feet. This furnace produced in thirty-two weeks, in 1856, 1,147 tons of pig-metal120 tons of which were by coke-out of limestone carbonate ore from the coal measures two miles around. The number of dwelling-houses for proprietors and employSs is forty, nearly all frame, one and a half story. The proprietors' residence is a two-story brick, 38X52 feet, built in 1861, at a cost of $6,000; six of the employ6s' buildings are brick, one-story. A store is connected with the furnace, in which a general assortment of merchandize is kept, varying in value from S4,000 to $5,000. The quantity of land belonging to its proprietors in Pine and Madison townships is about 3,100 acres. The sawmill on Scrub Grass run on the Wallis tract, No. 4143, was erected in 1866-7. After the death of Alexander Laughlin, Sr., this furnace and property became vested in his sons Franklin B. and Alexander Laughlin, by whom as partners the former has since been operated.* Major portions of three of the Harmon, LeRoy & Co. or Holland Land Company's tracts were in the southeastern portion of this township, namely, of No. 3047, south of the Wallis tract No. 4147, between it and Pine creek; of tract No. 3141, east of the Wallis tract last mentioned; and of No. 3046, south of the last-named Holland one. Alexander Oliver was first assessed as a single man in 1808, and with 120 acres of the western part of No. 3141 and one horse, in 1809, at $140. The Holland Company conveyed to him 113 acres of afllotment No. 7, tract No. 365, July 10, 1822, for $153.33. Noah A. Calhoun was first assessed with 150 acres of the Holland land, covered by warrant No. 3046, two horses and two cattle, in 1808, at * Alexander Lauthlin Jr., died in June, 1878. lie provided in his will that the?urnaee might continue to be operated by his brother and copartner, without dissolution, for ten years. $202. Paul Burti, by his attorney in fact, conveyed to him 197 acres and 144 perches of allotment 4 of tract 368, September 22, 1813, for $247.35. It has been retained by him and his lineal heirs for more than sixty years. It is now owned and occupied by his grandson, James Calhoun. The latter has related to the writer that, between 1820 and 1830, it was not uncommon to see squads of farmers transporting potatoes on pack-horses, each farmer having two horses, along the road from where Belknap in Wayne township now is, to Kittanning, which was then their best market, where the price of those esculents was then twelve and a half cents a bushel. So many of them were carried over that road that Thos. Donaldson named it the "Potato road," by which it was known for some years. Burti confveyed to Peter Seegrist 480 acres adjoining Oliver on the east, consisting of allotments 2 and 6, tract 365, warrant No. 3141, September 21, 1814, for $600, with which the latter was first assessed the next year, and of which he conveyed 119 acres and 17 perches to Solomon Seegrist, February 10, 1823, for $299. After his death in 1853 his land was divided into two purparts by proceedings in partition in the orphans' court of this county, which werevalued by the inquest at $1,621.71. His eldest son, Peter Seegrist, during the pendency of those proceedings, conveyed to Samuel Mateer his undivided one-eighth part of 131 acres and 90 perches, of which those purparts consisted, for $125. Peter Seegrist, Sr., conveyed 121 acres and 58 perches of the quantity hlie purchased from Burti to Susannah Zimmerman November 1, 1837, which she and her husband conveyed to John Zimmerman, April 8, 1850, for $50. The latter was first assessed with a portion of No. 3141 in 1839. Other portions were conveyed: by B. B. Cooper to Ellen, Samuel and William Dill, 150 acres and 65 perches, October 7, 1819, for $300.80; to George Dill, same day, 89 acres and 85 perches, for $179; by Wilhelm Willink and others to George and Moses Dill 119 acres and 15 perches December 16, 1828, for $59.50; to Margaret Campbell 50 acres March 20, 1832, which she conveyed to Moses Dill, June 11, 1844, for $125. Willink & Co. conveyed 84 acres of allotment 5 to Simon Robinson, April 14, 1837, for $40. Southwest of that tract and south of the Wallis No. 4147, was the tract of the Holland Company's land covered by warrant No. 3027, traversed in a northwesterly course and nearly equally divided by Pine creek, 991L acres, somewhat more than half of which was on the north side of this stream. The patent therefor was granted to Benjamin B. Cooper October 18, 1826, who conveyed 180 acres, 255 OBSTACLES TO SETTLEMENT. brating the eighteenth anniversary of our national independence, which he, under Washington, had helped achieve. Two of his daughters were the only members of his family that could follow his remains to the grave. He was buried with the honors of war, in the presence of a large concourse of people. His youngest child was then only eleven days old. As soon as his widow had sufficiently recovered, she was conducted by her eldest daughter, Hannah, to his grave. Major Eben Denny makes this mention in his military journal, June 1, 1794: "Two days ago, the Indians, disappointed in that attack"- on men in a canoe on the Allegheny river, elsewhere mentioned -" crossed to the Kiskiminetas and unfortunately fell in with a Kentucky boat full of women and children, with but four men, lying to, feeding their cattle. The men, who were ashore, received a fire without much damage, got into a boat, all but one, who fled to a house not far distant. The Indians fired into the boat, killed two men and wounded the third. The boat had been set afloat, and drifted down in that helpless condition, twentyfour women and children on board." Col. Charles Campbell, in his letter to Gov. Mifflin, June 5, 1794, respecting the stopping of the draft for the support of the Presque Isle station, stated: "The Indians, on the evening of May 30, fired on a boat that left my place to go to Kentucky, about two miles below the Falls of the Kiskiminetas, killed three persons and wounded one, who were all the men in the boat, which drifted down to about twelve miles above Pittsburgh, whence they were aided by some persons on their way to Pittsburgh." Mrs. Sharp - her maiden name was Ann Wood - and her children were removed to their kindred in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. Having remained there three years, they returned to the farm near Crooked Creek, of which they had been repossessed, where the family remained together for a long time. The eldest daughter, Hannah, married Mr. Robert Leason, who, for many years before his death, resided at Scrub Grass, Butler county, Pennsylvania. He was probably a descendant of John Leason, whose name appears as an ensign on the list of officers for Lancaster county, which then extended to the western limits of the province, to whom commissions were granted between the entries of minutes in the council books of the province of March 8 and 29, 1748. (See Col. Rec., vol. V, p. 210.) It is from her statement, written by herself, August 3, 1863, that the writer has gleaned most of the facts herein presented concerning Capt. Sharp and his family. 3 Mrs. Leason further states that the Indians who had attacked and followed the above-mentioned party on and down the Kiskiminetas River consisted of twelve, who had previously been to Pittsburgh, and, because the people refused to trade with them, became indignant and determined to kill all the whites they could. Of three men, who had descended that river in a canoe shortly before her father and the rest of his party did, one was shot dead and the other two were wounded, one of whom died. Such is a type of the hardships, inconveniences, dangers and sufferings to which white settlers in this region were subjected prior to 1796. Mrs. Leason, speaking of her father's family after their return to the farm on Crooked Creek, says, "Providence was very kind to them." Mrs. Sharp's death occurred fifteen years after her husband's. Their daughter Agnes is said to have been the first white child born this side, or west, of Crooked Creek, in this section of Pennsylvania. She was born on that farm February 21, 1785; married to David Ralston in 1803, and, after his death, to James Mitchell in 1810, and died August 2, 1862, and was buried in the Crooked Creek cemetery. OBSTACLES TO SETTLEMENT. The Indian wars, the uncertainty of land titles, and the frequent litigation growing out of unwise land laws, retarded the settlement of this in common with other portions of the northwestern part of this state. Hence many emigrants who would otherwise have been attracted to this region passed on to Ohio and other parts of the Northwest Territory. Many who had even settled in northwestern Pennsylvania, having been harassed with litigation, abandoned their claims and went west, where land titles were settled.* Less than a century ago nearly all the region within the limits of Armstrong county was uninhabited by white people -was a howling wilderness. MORE FAVORABLE CIRCUMSTANCES. Wiser legislation, Gen. Wayne's treaty with the Indians at Fort Grenville, Ohio, and other causes, operated favorably in causing permanent settlements to be made in this section of the state, from * At a meeting of the Armstrong county bar, held at Kittanning, May 3, 1871, on the occasion of the retirement of Judge Buffington from the bench, ex-Gov. Johnston, in the course of his remarks, said: "I remember well the conflicts to settle land titles in this county, rowing out of the many questions connected with the, Donation lands,' the'Stuck District, the' Depreciation Titles,' the' Old Military Permits,' the' New Descri ptive Warrants,' the'Shifting Locations' and the titles arising under the' New Purchase,' as well as the original grants from the Penn family, and the stormy disputes and controversies arising under the act of April 3, 1792, with its warrants of acceptance, and the rights relatin to settlers under its supplements, et id omne genus, how warm ani energetic our contests were." HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. being all of allotment No. 6 and part of No. 3 of tract 369, lying on both sides of the creek, to Alexander White, November 1, for $90;* to Alexander McCain allotment No. 2, 126 acres and 74 perches, June 19, 1827, for $63.25, who conveyed the same to Francis Powers, December 31, 1834, for $253, and 1101 acres of allotment 3 to McCain, June 17, 1828, for $50. Cooper conveyed allotment No. 5, 157 acres and 62 perches, to Major James White, of Wayne township, December 19, for $82.t The Holland Company conveyed allotment No. 1 of tract 369, covered by the last-mentioned warrant, 126 acres and 74 perches, to John Yorkey, June 17, 1831, for $63.25, which Yorkey conveyed to Henry Bossinger, October 30, 1839, for $175, with which the latter was first assessed in 1840, and on which he erected a sawmill in 1846, with which he was last assessed in 1867, James Hannegan having inadvertently cleared several acres north of the line of his purchase, bought 50 acres in what is now the southeastern part of this township, which he subsequently conveyed to John Ludwick, with which and a distillery the latter was first assessed in 1851, and with a mill in 1852. Here were the Hannegan mills, grist and saw, with which Thomas IHannegan was first assessed in 1841; William IHannegan with the gristmill in 1842, with which James IHannegan, Jr., was assessed in- 1843, and William with the sawmill. Ludwick conveyed this parcel of land to Robert E. Brown in 1849-50, whose administrator, by virtue of a decree of the proper court for the specific performance of contract, conveyed it to John Jordan, July 24, 1867, for $854.77. Within this section of this township is the parcel of land purchased by Peter Beck from the Holland Land Company, now owned and occupied by his son Jacob Beck, and on which the former erected a gristmill many years ago, but which has not for a long time been used. North of the LeRoy & Co. tract, No. 3141, lay the major portion of four contiguous tracts which formerly belonged to the North American Land Company, and which were included in the Orr purchase,J aggregating 3,800 acres, according to the original surveys. A narrow strip of the eastern end of each was in what is now Wayne township. Three of them were covered by warrants to Robert Morris,~ Nos. 4528, 453,3, 4534, and one to *See sketch of Valley township. t See sketch of Valley township. T No. 4534 was the southernmost. The other three lay north of it in the following order: Nos. 4533, 4580, 4528. ?Robert Morris, mentioned in this chapter and the one on Wayne township, as the warrantee of several large tracts of land, was born in Liverpool, England, January31,1731. His father, prior to 1740, emigrated to this country and settled in Maryland. Soon afterward he sent for his son, whom he placed in a school in Philadelphia. He was Washington's secretary of the treasury during the revolution, John Nicholson, No. 4580. The earliest settler on either of them appears to have been William Charlton, who was assessed with 999 acres of the Nicholson tract in 1810, at $256, and the next year with 750 acres, $350, 1 horse and 1 cow, $26. Abraham Zimmerman was assessed with 250 acres of one, or perhaps parts of two of the Morris tracts, at $125, 1 horse and 1 cow at $16. He was assessed with 1,200 acres of the Morris tracts, Nos. 4533-4, $1,200, 1 horse and 1 cow, $22. James White was first assessed with 100 acres of one of the Morris tracts in 1825, and with 350 acres in 1828; David Dormire, with 1 cow in 1827, at $6, and with 300 acres of the Morris tract, No. 4528, at $300, and 1 cow, $6, in 1828; Barnabas Reedy with 1,000 acres of the same in 1825, $500, and 1 cow, $6; Daniel Reedy with 100 acres in 1831, $100, and 2 cattle, $16. That tract was in what is now the northeastern part of this township. John Edwards was first assessed with 60 acres of the Nicholson tract, No. 4580, 1 horse and 1 cow, $80, in 1830, and James Stockville with 550 acres and 1 cow $420.50, in 1834. Such appear to have been the first, and perhaps the only, settlements on these tracts before they became vested in Gen. Orr. So far as the records show, he conveyed as follows: June 24, 1840, to Abraham Zimmerman, 300 acres, partly of No. 4533, and partly of No. 4580, for $150; April 12, 1843, 158 acres and 43 perches of No. 4534, to David Baum, for $395.62, who probably settled on during that or the next year; May 9, 1843, to James White, 110 acres and 80 perches of No. 4580, for $700; October 9, 57 acres and 143 perches of No. 4534, to Hugh R. Rutherford, for $300; September 18, 1845, 116 acres and 82 perches of No. 4533, to Jonathan C. Titus, for $582.50; August 28, 1847, 235 acres and 80 perches of No. 4528, to George Reedy, for $824; November 13, 1847, 346 acres and 54 perches of No. 4580, to Jonathan C. Titus, for $582.50; November 13, 1847, 9 acres of No. 4580, and 337 acres and 54 perches of No. 4528, to David Dormire, for $1,019.81. The 1st December, 1849, was a comparatively brisk day in the conveyances of these lands, for on that day Gen. Orr conveyed 50 acres and 12 perches of No. 4580 to Elizabeth Reedy, for the nominal sum of $1, the rest of the purchase money having been paid by her husband and his skillful financiering undoubtedly did as much toward establishing American independence as did Washington's military achievements or Franklin's diplomacy. His large private fortune was used to sustain the credit of the young nation. Notwithstanding the splendid and priceless services of this true patriot, his closing years were permitted to be darkened and his life shortened by the operation of that inhuman law which punished debt by imprisonment. After three years and six months' incarceration for a debt he was unable to pay, he was released in 1801, under the provisions of the bankrupt law passed that year. He (lied May 7,1806. 256 JAMESY JACSON ~M JAMES Yr. JACK.SOPL i-w ~ FES.OF JAMvES Y JACKsoq, Y JACKSON. JAMES PINE (INCLUDING BOGGS) TOWNSHIP. in his lifetime; 96 acres and 74 perches of the same tract to Robert Reedy, for $289; 77 acres and 118 perches ditto to Geo. Rupp for $233; 142 acres and 92 perches ditto to John Edwards, for $997; and 171 acres and 74 perches ditto to George W. Goheen, for $229, with which, and one horse, he was first assessed, in 1850, at $230. During that year he erected his grist and saw mills, which were assessed the next year (1851) at $500, with a new house in 1852, and as a merchant in 1857. Such is the origin of Goheenville, as yet but a hamlet, in the forks of the head branches of Scrub Grass, containing a public schoolhouse, a store, physician's office, three mills, blacksmith shop and a few dwelling-houses. Scrub Grass postoffice was established about a mile and a quarter northeast of this point in the summer of 1844, Wm. J. Calhoun, postmaster. It was removed hither in 1850-1. Its name was changed to Goheenville June 20, 1866, George W. Goheen being the second and present postmaster. Gen. Orr also conveyed 249 acres and 137 perches of No. 4534 to William Heffelfinger, July 1, 1851, with which he was first assessed in 1833 for $898, and on which the latter erected a sawmill in 1855; 57 acres and 143 perches ditto to John Mortimore, September 26, 1855, for $725; 200 acres and 68 perches of No. 4528 to Thomas Richey, November 24, 1856, for $1,600; 15 acres and 11 perches ditto to John Gould, October 8, 1867, for $470; 117 acres and 110 perches of No. 4533-4 to Anthony Hoover, May 3, 1868, for $2,589.12; 41 acres and 194 perches of No. 4533 to William H. Barrett, November 2, 1870, for $921.80. STATISTICS. The population of this township, by the census of 1860, the first after Valley township was taken from it, was, white, 1,406; colored, 115. In 1870 it was, native, 1,562; foreign, 80; white, 1,549; colored, 93. The present number of taxables, 413, and the present population about 1,900. The mercantile appraiser's list shows the number of merchants to be (in 1876) 9, of which there is one, respectively, in the tenth, eleventh and thirteenth classes, and six in the fourteenth class. The assessment list for 1876 shows: Miners, 71; laborers, 67; teamsters, 8; blacksmiths, 4; carpenters, 4; physicians, 4; preachers, 3; railroad bosses, 3; stonemasons, 3; clerks, 3; peddlers, 3; fillers, 3; agents, 2; keepers, 2; engineers, 2; millers, 2; gentlemen, 2; apprentice, 1; barkeeper, 1; cokedrawer, 1; innkeeper, 1; coke boss, 1; manager, 1; quarryman, 1; painter, 1; undertaker, 1; wagonmaker, 1; stable boss, 1; superintendent, 1; telegraph operator, 1. In 1860 the number of schools was 7; average number of months taught, 4; male teachers, 4; female teachers, 3; average monthly salaries of male $16.50, female $16; male scholars, 190; female scholars, 168; average number attending school, 168; cost teaching each per month, 38 cents; tax levied for school purposes, $639.74; received from state appropriation, $125.95; from collectors, $334.75; cost of instruction, $464; fuel and contingencies, $86.95; repairing schoolhouses, $10.87. In 1876 the number of schools was 12; average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 5; female, 7; average monthly salaries of male, $28, female, $25; male scholars, 244; female scholars, 231; average number attending school, 247; cost teaching each per month, 74 cents; tax levied for school and building purposes, $2,284.10; received from state appropriation, $335.73; from taxes and other sources, $2,499.28; cost building schoolhouses, etc., $771.05; teachers' wages, $2,080; fuel, collector's fees, etc., $384. GEOLOGICAL. The following section, the lower portions of which were taken from the exposures on the north side of the Mahoning creek near its mouth, and the upper portions on the south side of that creek, behind the tavern-house occupied by William Templeton, where the section was made in the course of the first geological survey of this state, under the superintendence of Prof. Henry D. Rogers: Ferriferous limestone, 15 feet; shale (ore), 35 feet; Clarion coal, 21 feet; shale, etc., 20 feet; Burkville coal, 1 foot; Tionesta sandstone, massive, 60 feet; shale, silicious, 25 feet; olive bituminous shale, 15 feet; Tionesta coal, 11 feet; Serel conglomerate, massive, also shaly, 100 feet; shale, sandy, partly carbonaceous, with seams of calcareous sandstone, from 1 inch to - inches thick, 20 feet; bituminous shale, 3 inches; Sharon coal, 2 inches; shale, sandy above, bituminous below, 3 feet; coal, 6 inches; thin bituminous slate, with stone silicious layers, 11 feet; coal, 1% inches; blue sandy clay, 2 feet; slaty sandstone, 25 to 30 feet, to the level of Mahoning creek. These soon disappear beneath the waters, with a dip of 50 S., 1200 E. None of the hills around are high enough to have the Lower Freeport coalbed, but both the Freeport limestone and Upper Freeport coalbed are seen on Scrub Grass creek, which enters the Mahoning two miles above its mouth. The coal is often so thinned away as to disappear and let the Mahoning sandstone rest upon the Freeeport limestone. This is the case at the exposure on the north 257 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. branch of Pine creek, where the Mahoning sandstone is exposed, sixty feet thick, cropping the hill. Here the lower shales of the interval between the two Freeport coalbeds are mostly dark brown and black, and contain layers of argillaceous iron ore. There seems to be just here a local dip to the west. Says W. G. Platt, of the second geological survey of this state, who had this county in charge: The same rocks make the surface of Pine township as in Wayne, such of the lower barrens as are represented, being found in the ridges which form the watersheds between the north and south forks of Pine creek, and the north fork of Pine creek and the Mahoning, are of no commercial value. The lower productive measures outcrop in all the slopes overlooking the principal streams. The entire group is represented. The Upper Freeport and Lower Kittanning coals are in workable condition, and they have been developed, each unaccompanied by its limestone. The Upper Freeport coal has with it here a bed of fireclay of rather good quality, but somewhat unreliable in its outspread. It has been worked near Templeton. Stewardson furnace uses coke from the Upper Freeport coal. The ore smelted is the buhrstone, from six to eight inches thick. The limestone used for the flux is obtained from the ferriferous. The metal produced is the cold-sheet. The coal beneath the ferriferous limestone, viz., the Clarion and Brookville, are valueless, by reason of their small size, though above water-level. The Pottsville conglomerate is magnificently exposed in the neighborhood of Templeton, forming cliffs forty feet high. It runs along the slopes northwardly from Templeton to and up the valley of the Mahoning, past Stewardson's furnace, beyond which it sinks to water-level. The shales immediately underlying it are supposed to represent the Mauch Chunck red shales, or their equivalent, although the carboniferous limestone is not here seen. The sandstones which make the base of the slopes would, in this case, be the equivalent of the Pocono. Structure-The rocks lie mainly in the synclinal of which the Barton House or Peart's eddy is the center. Here the ferriferous limestone is at its lowest level along the river front in this township; being close to the water's edge north and south from this point, the rise is short and rapid up and down the stream. The levels above tide, along the Allegheny Valley railroad in this township, are: Opposite Pine creek station, 812.1 feet; northwest outside corner Pine creek bridge abutment, one-tenth of a mile higher up the track, 812.1 feet; southwest corner of water-station platform, two and a half miles higher up the track, 822.4 feet; southwest corner of bridge abutment, one mile and two-tenths higher up the track, 821.6 feet; opposite Templeton Station, five-tenths of a mile higher up the track, 823.8 feet; opposite Mahoning Station, nine-tenths of a mile higher up the track, 824.3 feet. (Pennsylvania Second Geological Survey, N, p. 183). 258 CHAPTER XII. MADISON. Name' after the Fourth President- Territory of the Township Carved from Toby and Red Bank - One of Cap tain Brady's Notable Indian Fights-An Official Account by Col. Brodhead-The Services of a Young Delaware Chief- Col. Brodhead's Expedition Against the Seneca and Muncy Towns on the Upper Alle gheny - The Land Tracts and Settlers upon Them - Mahoning Coal Company - A French Trader's Grave - History of the Holland Land Company - The American Furnace - Settlement Law of 1792 Contested Titles - Titles from the Holland Land Company - Vain Searches for Indian Lead Mines - Petroleum - Red Bank Furnace - Kellersburg - Middle Creek Presbyterian Church -Duncansville- First School in the Township - Description of the Building - Educational and other Statistics. MADISON township was, of course, named after James Madison, the fourth president of thb United States, whose public career is familiar to the people of this township and county. The petition of inhabitants of Toby and Red Bank townships was presented to the court of quarter sessions of this county December 23, 1836, setting forth that the boundaries of these townships were so large and the increase of population and business was such as to render it extremely inconvenient for and burdensome on the township officers to properly discharge their respective duties, and praying for the appointment of viewers to lay out a new township, to be called Madison. The court appointed J. E. Meredith, William Templeton and John Sloan viewers, whose report in favor of precting the proposed new township was confirmed by the court September 22, 1837. The original boundaries of this township were: Beginning at the mouth of Mahoning creek on the Allegheny river; thence up the river to Joseph Robinson's saltworks, a short distance above what is now Sarah Furnace Station, in Clarion county; thence 7 miles and 220 perches to the Toby and Red Bank township lines; thence south 470 east three miles to Red Bank creek, at the mouth of Middle run, where the Olean road crosses; thence up Red Bank creek to the southern extremity of Big Bend; thence south 1 mile and 273 perches to the Mahoning creek, at the mouth of a run opposite Philip Anthony's; and thence down this creek to its mouth. All that part of it north of the Red Bank creek is now in Clarion county, and a section of the eastern part of it is now in Mahoning township, in this county. At the mouth of the Mahoning in the southwestern corner of this township was the terminus of the Indian path heretofore mentioned. Here, too, Captain Samuel Brady had one of his notable and successful fights with the Indians, near the middle of June, 1779. About the 10th of that month, three men whom Col. Brodhead had sent from Fort Pitt to reconnoiter the Seneca country returned, having been closely chased some distance below Kittanning, and nearly captured, by several Indian warriors who were descending the Allegheny in canoes. In a few days thereafter Captain Samuel Brady obtained with difficulty, on account of the envy excited in some of his fellow-officers by his previous brilliant successes, permission from the commandant of that fort to proceed with twenty men and a young Delaware chief toward the Seneca country, to catch the Indians. While he and his command were moving these Indian warriors advanced to the settlements. They killed a soldier between Forts Hand and Crawford, that is, between the mouths of the Loyal Hannon and Poketas creek, and at the Sewickley settlement they killed one woman and her four children and took two other children prisoners, their father being absent. Brady and his party-they were all well painted-crossed the Allegheny and advanced up its west side, carefully examining the mouths of all its principal, especially its eastern, tributaries, supposing that the Indians would descend it in their canoes. On reaching a point opposite the mouth of Mahoning, they discovered the Indians' canoes moored at the southwestern bank of the creek. Brady and his force then went some distance down the river, halted until dark, made a raft, crossed over to the east side, advanced along it to the creek, found the canoes had been removed to the opposite side of the creek, vainly attempted to wade it, then moved up along its left bank and shore a considerable distance. Richard B. McCabe, who obtained his information from one of Brady's brothers in 1832, says three or four miles, tradition says to the point where the Olean road crosses the HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. creek, which is less than a mile from its mouth. After crossing the creek, wherever they did cross it, a fire was made, their clothes dried, and arms inspected. They then moved down toward the Indian camp, which was pitched on what was then a second bank of the Allegheny, a short distance east of where the Allegheny Valley railroad track now is. Brady posted his men on the first bank, which has since been worn away. A stallion, which had been stolen from the whites at Sewickley, was fettered on the last-mentioned bank and seemed to enjoy the company of the whites, to which one of the Indians, probably his captor and quasi-owner, occasionally went, so that the former were obliged to be very cautious and watchful lest their presence should become known to their foes. To avoid this the utmost silence was necessary. Brady was inclined to tomahawk that Indian, but discreetly forbore. He, however, ventured near the fires after all was again quiet. The Delaware chief, not even daring to whisper, having endeavored in vain to restrain him by plucking his hair, crawled away. While Brady was thus examining the number and position of the Indians, one of them threw off his blanket and arose. As Brady could not make the slightest movement without being discovered, lihe remained as quiet as possible, but drew his head under the brow of the bank, placing his forehead to the earth to avoid discovery. " His next sensation was that of warm water poured into the hollow of his neck, as from the spout of a teapot, which, trickling down his back over the chilled skin, produced a feeling that even his iron nerves could scarce master. He felt quietly for his tomahawk, and had it been about him he would probably have used it, but he had divested himself even of that when preparing to approach the fires, lest by striking against the stones or gravel it might give alarm."* So he was compelled to submit to that great humiliation until his humiliator again slept. He then quietly posted his men. At the dawn of day the Indians arose. While standing around their fires, seven rifles at a given signal were discharged and five of those Indians fell dead. The other two fled. One of them was traced by the blood from his wound, which he stanched. The Delaware chief, who was Brady's pet, imitated the cry of a young wolf, which being answered, he was again pursued, and on another answer of the wolf-cry the pursuit was continued into a windfall, where, probably having observed his pursuers, he ceased to answer and they ceased to pursue. Tradition says he concealed himself in a dense thicket on the hill, where he died. McCabe says that * McCabe. Brady, three weeks afterward, discovered his remains, being led to the place by ravens that were preying upon his carcass. Col. Brodhead, in his letter to President Reed, June 24, and to Gen. Washington, June 25, 1779, gave this account of that fight: Capt. Brady fell in with seven Indians of this party-that had committed the depredations at Sewickley-about fifteen miles above Kittanning, i. e., from where Fort Armstrong was situated, where the Indians had chosen an advantageous situation for their camp. Ile, however, surrounded them, and attacked at break of day. Thus in his letter to Reed, but in that to Washington hlie states: lie surrounded them as well as the situation would admit, and finding he was discovered by break of day, hlie attacked them. To Reed: The Indian captain, a notorious warrior of the Muncy nation, was killed on the spot, and several more mortally wounded, but the woods were remarkably thick, and the party could not pursue the villains' tracks after they had stopped their wounds, which they always do as soon as possible after receiving them. To Washington: And killed the captain, who was a notorious warrior of the Muncy nation, and mortally wounded most of them; but they being encamped near a remarkable thicket, and having, as customary with them, stopped their wounds just after they received them, they could not be found. To Reed: Capt. Brady, however, retook six horses, the two prisoners, the scalps, all their plunder, and took all the Indians' guns, tomahawks, match-coats, moccasins-in fine, everything they had, except their breech-clouts. To Washington: Capt. Brady retook six horses, the two prisoners and all the plunder, which was considerable, and took six guns and everything else except, etc. To Reed: Capt. Brady has great merit, but none has more distinguished merit in this enterprise than the young Delaware chief, whose name is Nanowland, or George Wilson. To Washington: Capt. Brady and most of his men acted with great spirit and intrepidity, but it is confessed that the young Delaware chief Nanowland, or George Wilson, distinguished himself in this enterprise. That camp-ground was in the northwestern corner of the tract subsequently called " Springfield,"* several rods east of what was still more recently the old steamboat wharf. The thicket into which the wounded escaped was on the hill still higher up the creek than the camp. The two prisoners that were here recaptured were Peter and Margaret Henry, children of Frederick Henry, referred to in a footnote, page 505, * See Pine township. 260 GF-Of GE SHCEMAKEf, MF S.GEORGE SHOEM,,KER, F ES.OF GEORGE SHOE AAKF-f. MADISON TOWNSHIP. Vol. VII, Pennsylvania Archives, where it is stated that Lyman C. Draper had obtained statements from them. He intended to do so, but, as he informed the writer, did not. They had been captives about two weeks before they were recaptured. Peter settled in Butler county, Pennsylvania, and was a member of Capt. Brinker's company in the war of 1812. He was a farmer, raised a large family, and was highly respected. He died in his ninety-fourth year in 1858. Peter Henry, Jr., of Brady's Bend, father-in-law of Andrew W. Bell, is one of his sons. Margaret married and lived in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. An erroneous idea prevails among some of these captives' descendants that they were recaptured at Brady's Bend. Col. Brodhead left Fort Pitt on his expedition against the Seneca and Muncy nations on the upper Allegheny, August 11, 1779. His report of it to Gen. Washington is dated at Pittsburgh, September 16, two days after his return, in which he says he left that point with 605 rank and file, including militia and volunteers, and one month's provisions, which, except the live cattle, was transported by water under the escort of 100 men to a place called Mahoning, about fifteen miles above Fort Armstrong, where, after four days' detention and the straying of some cattle, the stores were loaded on packhorses, and the troops proceeded on the march for Conawago on the path leading to Cushcushing, that is, the place of that name on the upper Allegheny. Respecting the route of the main force to the mouth of Mahoning, William M. Darlington, in a letter to the writer of this sketch, says: "In the absence of positive evidence, I think there can be little doubt that the route taken by Gen. Brodhead's forces was by the Kittanning path from near Fort Pitt to the shore of the river opposite Kittanning. There was no path or road on the east side of the Allegheny then, nor is there one now, except the Valley railway." From Kittanning to this point it was, he thinks, along the left bank of the river. That was a very important and successful expedition, although Brodhead's force did not, as contemplated, form a junction with the larger forces under Gens. Sullivan and Clinton from the east. In his above-mentioned report, and in his letter to Sullivan, October 10, he states what was done, the substance of which is: He marched to the upper town on the river called Yahrungwago, meeting no opposition, after killing six or seven and wounding a number of forty warriors that were advancing against the settlements, which occupied the advanced guard but a few minutes, without any loss on his side, except that three men were slightly wounded; destroyed 165 cabins, most of which were new and each one large enough for the accommodation of three or four Indian families, and about 500 acres of corn and vegetables, the plunder taken amounting to $30,000, which he directed to be sold for the benefit of the troops. To Washington: "On my return I preferred the Venango road, the old towns of Conawago, Buchloons and Mahusqueechikoken, about twenty miles above Venango, on French creek, consisting of thirty-five large houses, were burnt "- meaning, the writer thinks, that Venango was on French creek, and these towns twenty miles above it, not on French creek, but on the Allegheny river, where they were situated according to ancient maps. The "Venango road" on the historical map of Pennsylvania extends from Venango, or Franklin, southeasterly to the Kittanning path, which it intersects in the northern part of what is now Indiana county. This is the only " Venango road" on that map, or any other which the writer has examined. It therefore seems that he preferred to return by this route instead of the one vi# Meadville and Slippery Rock, or any other west of the Allegheny river, at least to Kittanning, where he, perhaps, recrossed the Allegheny and thence followed the Kittanning path to Fort Pitt. The fact is, Buchloons, Conawago, Mahusqueechikoken and Venango are the only places which he mentions as being in his route on his return. To Washington: "Too much praise cannot be given to both officers and soldiers of every corps during the whole expedition. Their perseverance and zeal during the whole march through a country too inaccessible to be described can scarcely be equaled in history. Notwithstanding many of them returned barefooted and naked, they disdained to complain, and to my great mortification I have neither shoes, shirts, blankets, hats, stockings, nor leggings to relieve their necessities. * * * It is remarkable that neither man nor beast has fallen into the enemies' hands on this expedition, and I have a happy presage that the counties of Westmoreland, Bedford and Northumberland, if not the whole western territories, will experience the good effect of it." To Sullivan: "I congratulate you on your success against the Indians and the more savage tories, and am quite happy in the reflection that our efforts promise a lasting tranquillity to the frontiers we have covered." To Rev. John Heckewelder, April 14, 1780: "The stroke up the Allegheny last fall has answered my expectations, and I believe the confederate nations are brought to their senses, they having already solicited peace with congress." 261 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. An early, perhaps the earliest, white settler on that portion of " Springfield," in this township, was Samuel Adams, who was first assessed with twenty acres of it and as a blacksmith, in 1824, in Red Bank township, in which the northeastern portion of it then was; in 1828 with 394 acres; in 1831 with 300 acres and one cow at $42.50, with which he continued to be assessed until he removed, in 1834, to near the Great Bend in the Red Bank creek.* The northwestern part of "Springfield," where Brady's fight with the Indians occurred, was occupied for a store and warehouse and steamboat wharf in 1848. A hotel was built in 1849, which, with the warehouse, was burned in 1852, on the site of which the present large twostory frame structure was soon after erected. It was for several years a dining place for stagepassengers from Kittanning to Brookville and Clarion. The large quantity of freight landed here before the railroad was completed and the large number of lumbermen stopping here in the rafting seasons made this old battlefield for years a busy mart. Contiguous to "Springfield" on the northwest and extending up the Allegheny between its left bank and the line of the Holland Company's lands was a tract containing about 400 acres, on which appears to have been an improvement made by David Hull prior to 1825. His name is upon it on the map of original tracts. The assessment list of Toby township, made in 1824, shows that 200 acres of this "improvement" were seated by Oliver Gray, in 1819, and by John and Daniel Guld, in 1824, and purchased as unseated by the county commissioners in 1825. John Guld probably settled on this tract in 1821, when he was first assessed in Toby township with 200 acres and one cow at $206. Henry Hamilton appears to have been assessed with another hundred acres, in 1819, at $50, and with which Aaron Gray was assessed, in 1824, at $50.621. Isaac Hull appears to have been assessed with the whole 400 acres, one horse and one cow, at $130, in 1817, and thereafter with the land until 1820. David Lawson also appears, not, however, from the records, to have subsequently had some title to or interest in this tract, for he conveyed those 400 acres, except Aaron Gray's improvement, 100 acres, and 100 acres on both sides of the line between old Toby and old Red Bank townships, as surveyed by Lawson, to Robert Orr, November 5, 1835, for $200, and the excepted 100 acres, the same day, for $200. Orr obtained a warrant for this tract July 21, 1840, and a patent March 29, 1848. He conveyed 108 acres and 99 * See Mahoning township. perches of the western part to Oliver Gray March 3, 1849, for $50, who had been first assessed with 206 acres and one horse in Toby township at $111, in 1818, 5 acres and 122 perches of which the latter conveyed to Robert Thompson, January 5, 1855, for $1,400. This point has for many years been known by the name of Gray's Eddy, where Gray built the first house about 1840, and where Thompson kept a store, hotel and warehouse for several years, and where considerable freight was delivered until after the completion of the railroad. Since then this has been a less brisk mart. In the lower part is the portion included in the sale to Jeremiah Bonner, and by the latter to Charles P. Badger, and by him to Wesley Wilson in trust for the Mahoning Coal Company.* That company erected their works about 125 rods above the mouth of Mahoning on this tract, in 1872, and commenced operations in October, a month or more before the date of the conveyance to them. The president is Win. D. Mullin. The first superintendent was James Van Horn-the present one 1. B. Stevenson. The number of employ6s is eightyfive. The average daily production is 125 tons of coal from the Lower Freeport vein, one-fourth of a mile from the scaffold which is on the Allegheny Valley Railroad. This coal is shipped to Buffalo, New York, and is the fuel used by the New York Central and Hudson River railroads. The company's store is at Orrsville, and does an extensive business.t Contiguous to the last-mentioned tract was the John Nicholson one, covered by warrant No. 5161, dated February 15, 1794, 459- acres, chiefly depreciated land, which is numbered 5161 in the unseated assessment lists of Toby township from 1808 to 1816, and thereafter 1161 until 1819, when it is not numbered; continues so until 1822, and from then until 1834 the tract itself was dropped from the list. It then reappeared unnumbered on the assessment list as containing 400 acres until 1836, and thereafter permanently disappeared. The list shows that it was seated by John Mock in 1835. Nicholson conveyed his interest in it to James Buchanan June 28, 1797; Buchanan to Thomas Hamilton June 28, 1806; and Adam Elliott, treasurer of this county, to Hamilton June.20, 1811. Nicholson had also conveyed to some one else besides Buchanan, whose interest became vested in Robert Orr. Thus from Nicholson down there were two titles. This tract was included in Hamilton's devise to Thomas McConnell, Sr., and in the latter's devise to Thomas * See Orrsville. t The operations of this company ceased. 262 MADISON TOWNSHIP. McConnell, Jr. Under the act of assembly of April 16, 1840, which was passed to facilitate the settlement of the estates of John Nicholson and Peter Boynton, a board of commissioners was appointed with full authority to make compromises with and to release the claims of the commonwealth to such persons as were entitled thereto. The lien or claim which the commonwealth had upon or against Nicholson's interest in this tract was released to the present Thomas McConnell and Isaac H. Pritner by the deed of Anson V. Parsons, secretary of the commonwealth, January 21, 1843, for $75, and thus ended the conflict between those two titles. McConnell and Pritner conveyed 126 acres and 57 perches to Robert Hooks April 3, 1843, for $453.75. Hooks settled on this parcel in 1837-8. He was first assessed in the latter year with 127 acres and two cattle on the Madison township list at $405. While sinking one of the postholes for a board fence which he was building, in or about 1843, near the left bank of the Allegheny, about thirty rods above his house, he discovered a grave, in which were the remains of a man, probably a French trader. The root of a chestnut-tree, says William, a brother of Robert Hooks, who was present when the grave was opened, had extended or grown over the middle of the body. These articles were found in the grave: A French cutlas, two feet and two inches long and one and onefourth inches wide, on which was an impression of a light horse; a butcher-knife, on the blade of which was impressed the name of "Wilson; " a copper kettle, considerably dented, in which was a quantity of large beads with square ends, and a number of what appeared to be gold finger rings; and a manuscript in French, enveloped in a piece of thin oiled silk, which Robert took to some scholar who understood the French language to be translated, but what it contained William never learned. James Stewart has informed the writer that when he was surveying on this parcel Robert told him about finding that skeleton while building a fence where the Allegheny Valley Railroad now is on his farm, and with it a copper kettle about half full of beads and rings imitating gold, and a ball of wax containing a piece of parchment on which there was some small handwriting in French, which he took or sent to Athens, Ohio, to be translated, which gave the man's history, and that after leaving Fort Pitt he was wounded on the road and was taken care of by a squaw. John Jamison, afterward proprietor of the American Furnace, where he resided, in a letter to the writer, says: " In regard to Robert Hook, as I was informed, that in digging postholes for a fence he discovered a grave, supposed to be an Indian's, in which he found a lot of brass rings (I got one of them), a brass kettle, and a tin case enclosing a paper on which was written in French, describing a place where some treasure was buried. Hooks got it translated by the Catholic priest in Freeport. The neighbors thought it-the treasure-was on the old trail between Kittanning and Franklin. At any rate, Robert, as it were, disappeared shortly after and was absent for a considerable time. When he returned he gave no account of himself, but had plenty of money-so the story goes." Robert admitted to the writer that he had found the skeleton, kettle and trinkets, but denied having found the French manuscript. His brother William, on the other hand, told the writer that there was no use of Robert's denying that, for he did find that manuscript. Robert told John Rimer that he found it, as the latter informed the writer. McConnell & Pritner conveyed 291 acres of this tract (No. 5161) to Samuel T. Crow, May 19, 1843, for $875.30. The latter conveyed 101 acres thereof to William Crow, July 14, 1855, for $300. John Crow conveyed about 47 acres to David Guld, June 16, 1857, which was a part of the parcel of 118 acres which Guld agreed to sell to John H. and William G. Himer, July 15, 1873, for' $3,200. The other part of this parcel consisted of about 62 acres, being a part of the 150 acres lying north of No. 5161, for which John Guld obtained a warrant, dated January 16, and a patent January 28, 1851, for 150 acres, which had long ago been claimed by David Lawson. Between the tract covered by the Guld warrant and patent and the above-mentioned parcel conveyed to Oliver Gray was a tract containing 168 acres and 80 perches, improved by Elijah French in April, 1821, in whose uninterrupted possession it had continued until it was surveyed by J. E. Meredith, June 24, 1839, and thereafter. The warrant to French is dated May 1, 1852, and resurveyed by Meredith on the 18th. French was first assessed with 500 acres and I house in Toby township in 1817. Fifty-four acres and 150 perches in the southern part of lis tract had been included in the Hewlett Smith survey. Adjoining this tract and the Oliver Gray parcel on the south, and skirting the northern bend in the Allegheny river, is another parcel containing about 110 acres, on which Benedict Haas settled in 1842, and which he purchased from Gen. Orr. He was impressed with the belief that somewhere on this parcel was a large quantity of gold, and was fully persuaded that on a certain occasion he almost had it in his grasp, but alas! his 263 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. and after 1796. Such had been the increase of population therein that the Legislature, by act of March 12, 1800, organized the counties of Armstrong, Beaver, Butler, Erie, Venango and Warren. POPULATION AND NATIONALITY OF EARLY SETTLERS. In 1800 the population of Armstrong county, when its territory was more extensive than it now is, was 2,339; in 1810 it was 6,143; in 1820 it was 10,324; in 1830 it was 17,625; in 1840 it was 18,685. After deducting the number in that portion detached in the formation of Clarion county, in 1850, it was 29,500; in 1860 it was 35,797; in 1870 it was 43,382. The number of taxable inhabitants in 1870 was 9,355. Dividing the whole population by the number of taxables gives 4 621, or about 44 inhabitants for each taxable. The number of taxables this year is 11,843, which, multiplied by 4-, gives 54,477 as the total population of this county in the centennial year, 1876. The colored population was 96 in 1830,129 in 1850, 178 in 1860, 179 in 1870. The early settlers of this county were chiefly of Scotch-Irish and German descent. Most of the former came from Westmoreland and adjacent counties, and most of the latter from Lehigh and Northampton. CABIN BUILDING-NEIGHBORLY KINDNESS. In early times, in this as in other counties, neighbors were sparse and less independent than in older and denser society. Neighborly kindness was then cordial as well as necessary. The interchange of obliging acts was frequent and pleasing. If, for instance, a log cabin was to be raised, the inhabitants from several miles around would assemble where the cabin was to be erected, with their teams, axes, and other implements needed for the purpose. Such a cabin was generally one and a half stories high, roofed with clapboards and weight-poles, with openings cut in the side and end of the building for a door and chimney. The logs were round, the loft was covered with split puncheons, and the chimney was chunked and daubed. The walls and roof were made from the stump in a single day. The work was cheerfully done by neighbors for a neighbor. At the close of the day, when their work of charity was done, the ground floor was cleared and then followed a jolly hoe-down until midnight, the dancers and lookers on being exhilarated by what was left of the contents of a fivegallon keg of whisky, which was placed, at the beginning of the dance, in a corner of the room. The light of science had not then disclosed to these good-hearted pioneers in the wilderness the true character of the mocking fiend that lurked in their whisky-kegs. GAME. For years after the early settlement there was an abundance of deer, wild turkeys, rabbits, squirrels, foxes, crows and partridges. Wolves must have been troublesome, for there are several items of amounts paid for wolf scalps, and wolf orders in the statement of the final settlement made between the commissioners of Armstrong and Westmoreland counties in 1808: For 1803, wolf scalps, $195.67; for 1804, wolf orders, $139.33; for 1805, wolf orders, $96,60; for 1806, wolf orders, $104; for 1807, wolf orders, $8; for 1808, wolf orders, $24. Total for those years, $567.60. The bounty paid for a full-grown wolf's or panther's scalp was $8 until 1820, and after that $12. Trivial amounts are still paid annually for fox scalps. Crows and squirrels must have been destructive pests, for it was provided by the act of March 4, 1807, that a tax of $300 be levied, out of which the county treasurer was required to pay for all scalps produced to and receipted by a justice of the peace and then burned, viz., for each crow's scalp, three cents; for each squirrel's scalp, one and one-half cents. AMUSEMENTS. The amusements in rural districts in early times consisted chiefly of frolics, or, as elsewhere called, bees, grubbings, rail-maulings, corn-huskings, quiltings, singing-schools at private houses, and occasional dances at frolics. In 1828 there was a prevalent mania for circular fox and wolf hunts. The areas of the several circles covered nearly the entire territory of the county. Several columns in the papers were filled with notices of the routes, times and arrangements. Those hunts temporarily excited a deep and general interest in the aged, middle-aged, and the young. They were designed not only for amusement, but for the beneficial purpose of exterminating these pestiferous and destructive animals. Yet the Indiana and Jeferson Whig denounced them as demoralizing and causing a useless waste of time. THE ARMSTRONG PURCHASE. Gen. Armstrong purchased from the proprietors of the then Province of Pennsylvania 5561 acres with the usual allowances. The tract was surveyed to him by virtue of a proprietary letter to the secretary, dated May 29, 1771, on November 5, 1794. The patent for that tract bears date March 22, 1775. It is thus described: "A certain tract of HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. wife spoke when she ought not to have spoken, and that valuable treasure became intangible. Adjoining the northern part of the Guld tract on on the west was one which in 1837 was claimed or occupied by Isaac Cousins, who had been assessed with it and other land as early as 1830, and with which, 160 acres, one horse and two cattle, George O. Young was first assessed in this township at $250 in 1840, and which was afterward known as the Young tract, but for which a warrant was granted to Robert Orr December 11, 1851, and which he conveyed to John Wills, August 31, 1858, for $576. It was occupied by Young and Wills, each one-half, until 1868, then by I. Lawrence and B. Miller. Adjoining the southern part of the Guld tract on the west and the northwestern part of the Nicholson tract (No. 5161) was the tract, 175 acres and 128 perches, surveyed to Christopher Byerly December 11, 1837, on warrant to him November 14, which Byerly conveyed to Henry Reigle August 10, 1838, for $1, his " decent and Christian-like maintenance during his natural life," and the payment of all the just debts which he then owed. These conditions must have been performed by Reigle, for lie conveyed this tract to John Rimer March 9, 1847, for $800. Adjoining the Cousins-Young-Wills tract on the west was the main part of the one, containing 239 acres and 120 perches, to which Samuel T. Crow acquired title by "settler's right," with 200 acres of which, a gristmill, one horse and one cow, he was first assessed at $126 in 1834. That mill was built in 1832 by Thos. Ramsey, a colored man, who sold it to Crow. George Craig (big) aided in building that mill, which was a log one with two runs of stone. It is related that he carried the summer beam, which was from twenty to twenty-five feet long and sixteen or eighteen inches square, on his shoulder utip the side of the building, it being steadied with pike-poles held by others, and put it in its place. This tract was conveyed by Crow to David Cowan March 26, 1840, for $1,000, who in 1842 was also assessed with a sawmill. Cowan exchanged this property with Samuel Duff July 3, 1848, for 145 acres of land in Red Bank t6wnship, Clarion county. Duff conveyed this property to Aaron Whittaker's administrator February 2,1849, for $1500, who had conveyed the same and other lands in this township to George Ledlie. Thus it became a part of the American Furnace property. Adjoining the last two mentioned tracts on the south and the Nicholson one-No. 5161-on the west, and skirted by the Allegheny river on the northwest, was the tract, containing about 270 acres, to which Robert Orr acquired an inchoate title, which he conveyed in two parcels November 18, 1851, and August 19, 1853, to John Jamison for $808, the latter to obtain the title from the Commonwealth at the former's expense. The project of erecting the American Furnace near the mouth of the run on the former of these parcels was inaugurated by Aaron Whittaker of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, in 1846, when he was first assessed with 494 acres in this township. He, John Jamison and George Ledlie April 24, 1847, associated themselves under the firm name of Whittaker, Jamison & Co. in the art and business of making pig-iron at that furnace. Whittaker transferred to them the undivided two-thirds of the furnace and its appurtenances, and of about 800 acres of land in this township at two-thirds of the cost thereof, leaving the other undivided third as his share, and $1,000 as his compensation for his personal services thus far in the erection of the works. Whittaker's administrator conveyed all of Whittaker's interest in the furnace and lands and other things appurtenant to Ledlie December 23, 1848, for $4,000, and the amount of liens of purchasemoney then due to divers persons. Ledlie conveyed all his interest in furnace and lands and other property belonging to it to Jamison July 12, 1854, for $8,000. This was originally a hot-blast charcoal furnace, 8 feet across the bosh and 28 feet high, and made 1,60(tons of forge metal in 41 weeks in 1856, averaged 33 tons per week until 1858, when it was changed to a coke furnace and thereafter averaged 50 tons a week, when in blast, out of fossiliferous limestone ore, outcropping horizontally among the coal measures in all directions within a circuit of three miles around the furnace, until 1860, when it ceased to be operated. Jamison leased it and all property connected with it, July 11, to R. C. Loomis, to whom the title subsequently passed. He conveyed 788 acres, including the furnace, to John Rimer November 10, 1864, for $2,500. This point has since been called Rimerton, an important railroad station; sixteen town lots, with areas varying from one-fourth to threefourths acre on both sides Mill run, have been laid out. The Rimer postofiice, John Rimer, postmaster, was established here December 9, 1868. The first separate assessment list of Rimerton was in 1867, according to which there were then in it 19 taxables, 1 innkeeper, 1 merchant and 1 laborer. The real estate was valued at $2,229; personal, $44; and occupations, $150. That in 1876 shows: 19 taxables, 2 storekeepers, 1 innkeeper, 7 laborers and 1 shoemaker. The telegraph office was established here in - 264 -1 -3 3)4 N H o r o.g:g 4 NHOr'S Jl' MADISON TOWNSHIP. Rev. B. B. Killikelly preached here monthly in 1853. Next above the American Furnace tract along the Allegheny river was the "Andrew Early Improvement," as it is designated on the map of original tracts. Andrew Early was first assessed with 200 acres "imp." and one cow at $158 in Toby township in 1819. Among drafts in J. E. Meredith's possession is one in the handwriting of Thomas Barr, one of the deputy surveyors of this county: Beginning at a linnwood on the Allegheny river; thence north 1 degree east 120 perches to a post; thence north 25 degrees west 220 perches to a post; thence south 31 degrees west 170 perches to a black oak on the river; thence down the river by five different courses and distances 280 perches to the place of beginning, containing 207 acres and 35 perches; surveyed July 14, to Early, in pursuance of a warrant dated April 5, 1820. Meredith surveyed 168 acres and 30 perches of this tract to Christopher Ruffner February 22, 1841, with 100 acres of which the latter was first assessed in 1843, and a few years afterward with the entire parcel, which now belongs to his heirs. Another parcel of 75 acres and 80 perches was conveyed by Earley to Aaron Jeffries July 17, 1846, for $200, which passed by sheriff's sale to William Hindman March 17, 1857, who, through his attorney-in-fact, conveyed it to John Jamison June 28, when it was included in the American Furnace property. Next above the last-mentioned tract, along the river up to the line of Holland land, was the one to which Samuel Earley, the father of Andrew, ac(quired title by settler's right, which at first included 340 acres. Hle was first assessed with 200 acres of it, 2 horses and 2 cows, at $220, in 1806, and the next year with I horse, 1 cow, and 120 acres, "the rest taken by Holland company" at $120. He was subsequently assessed with 200 acres until 1828, and thereafter his widow until 1831, and thereafter his son, John Earley, Sr., to whom the patent was granted, May 11, 1854. He conveyed 25 acres of it to John Paxton, April 1, 1863, for $400, and the latter, 20 acres to Ernest H11. Cramer and Isaac Fair, April 1, 1867, for $600, on which the former and W. J. Kromer commenced the manufacture of wagons and wagon-spokes in the spring of 1868, which the former still continues. Paxton conveyed 2 acres to Benjamin Blanchard, January 19, 1867, for $800, and the latter the same to Isaac Mast, December 15, 1870, for $900. Passing, for the present, the contiguous Holland tract bordering on the river, another Nicholson tract, No. 1151, is reached. The warrant to Nicholson is dated April 20, 1792, and covers 1,000 acres. Nicholson having become indebted to the Commonwealth, the act of March 31, 1806, for the more speedy and effectual collection of her debts, and its supplement of March 19, 1807, were passed. Cadwallader Evans, Jr., and John Lyon, two of the commissioners appointed by virtue of the former of these acts, certified that at a public sale of the lands belonging to the estate of Nicholson, subject to the lien of the Commonwealth upon them, held at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, July 7, 1807, this tract, supposed to contain 1,000 acres, at the mouth and on both sides of the Red Bank creek, was purchased by Thomas Hamilton, then of Greensburgh, Pennsylvania. The patent for it was granted to him November 1, 1811. It was one of the tracts which he directed his executors to sell for the payment of certain legacies.* They accordingly conveyed it to Richard Reynolds January 21, 1837, for $1,000, who settled the same year on that part of it on the Allegheny river below the mouth of Red Bank, whose executor conveyed 538 acres to Andrew Schall, May 11, 1859, for $6,000, which proved to be a fortunate purchase, for he conveyed 14 %40- acres to the Allegheny Valley Railroad Company, January 2, 1871, for $6,645; to Robert Hays 15 acres and 20 perches, December 7, 1872, for $1,000; 1 acre to Emanuel Wiser, November 13, 1873, for $1,200; and 200 acres to Allen Anchors, March 13, 1876, for $11,000, or about 231 acres for $19,845, leaving a residue of over 300 acres unsold. East of the mouth of Red Bank 2 3 miles in an airline was the western boundary of another Nicholson tract, No. 1150, 1,000 acres, which, like the last-mentioned one, does not appear on the assessment list until 1813. The northwestern portion of it is traversed by the Red Bank, whose course here is southern, at a point on which, nearly west from what is now called the Hawk schoolhouse, the Indians had a smelting furnace. A prisoner who had been with them seven years told the late James Watterson that hle had carried to it lead ore from where the Indians dug it out of the ground, between it and Dogwood flat, which must have been one of the places in which they concealed the ore, transported thither from some other region where it abounds. The geological features do not indicate - no one has yet found - the presence of a vein of such ore anywhere along this stream. It has been mentioned to the writer that a prisoner among the Indians by the name of Guthrie stated that their mode of concealing lead See borough of Kittanning. 2 6 1 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. and silver ore was in an excavation made in the earth in which the ore was placed, and then so skillfully covered that persons not cognizant of the deposit would not notice that the surface of the ground had been broken. The depositors could describe it to others only by certain trees, streams, or other natural indexes at or near the place of deposit, from which the ore was sometimes carried in blankets to the smelting furnaces. This tract, like the last preceding one, was conveyed to Thomas Hamilton by the Commonwealth. The earliest settler on it was probably Philip Essex, who was first assessed in Toby township with 2 cows, at $10, in 1806; with 200 acres "imp.," and 1 cow, at $30, in 1807; with 100 acres in 1812, and 200 acres in 1813. The tract must have been divided into six parcels, with various areas. Essex occupied the eastern end of the northwestern one, which was traversed by an old Indian trail from the mouth of Mahoning across the Red Bank at Lawsonham, and thence northwesterly, along which Jerry Lochery, it is said, was wounded while on one of his scouting expeditions in the olden time. Benjamin Leasure was first assessed with 107 acres between Essex and the Red Bank, at $107, in 1816. The map of original tracts indicates that Fleming Davidson occupied that portion of this parcel on the west, or Clarion side, of the Red Bank. Hamilton agreed, September 7, 1813, to sell 156 acres of this parcel to Leasure and Essex. They not having paid any of the purchase money, and not having been able to do so, renounced, released and quitclaimed those 150 acres "on the road leading from Kittanning to David Lawson's," September 16, 1820, which Hamilton's executor conveyed to Leasure September 1, 1832, for $82. Hamilton devised this tract to Thomas McConnell, who devised it to "the children, male and female, of Richard Reynolds." They conveyed 882 acres of it to their father February 19, 1846, for $3,000, and he conveyed 769 acres to Reynolds and Richey, March 23, 1846, for $3,845. Another early occupant of this tract was Charles Edwards, who was first assessed with 100 acres of it and 1 cow, at $106, in 1821. He was succeeded by George Howk, who was first assessed as a single man, and with 125 acres, including the last-mentioned 100 in Toby township, in 1823, at $125, to whom Reynolds and Richey conveyed 183 acres and 135 perches, June 19, 1854, for $1,500, on which parcel is situated the last-mentioned schoolhouse, on the road to Lawsonham. Hawk in his lifetime, June 11, 1864, conveyed 46 acres and 92 perches to Samuel Hawk for $460. Reynolds and Richey conveyed another parcel, 169 acres and 130 perches, to Joseph Earley, April 29, for $1,190, of which the latter conveyed 61 acres and 27 perches to John W. Paine (who was captured by the rebels at the battle of Gettysburg, and confined as a prisoner for several months at Belle Isle), April 7, 1869, for $1,000. In a deep bend in the Mahoning, in the southeastern part of this township, was a tract, 330 acres, warranted to Joseph Cook, the patent for which was granted to John Davis March 12, 1798. The southern part of it having become vested in Andrew W. and Robert W. Porter, of Indiana county, they assigned it to Richard B. McCabe in June, 1839, who conveyed it to Alexander Colwell September 28, 1841, for $90, and Colwell to Owen Sullivan, 131 acres, December 5, 1857, for $1,000. Davis conveyed the upper or northern part to Christopher Repine, November 1, 1801; Repine to James Hannegan, May 24, 1833; Hannegan to Colwell, September 14, 1839; and Colwell to George Martin, 104 acres and 60 perches, November 9, 1841, for $500. There was a strip of vacant land, extending from the western line of the Herman LeRoy & Co. tract, No. 3001, skirting "Springfield" on the east and north, along the Allegheny river and the southern boundary of Holland lands to where the latter strikes the river, about eighty rods above the second run below the mouth of Red Bank, the width of which was varied by the bends and courses of the river. The eastern portion of that vacant land was occupied by Jacob Moyers as early, probably, as 1801-2. His name does not appear at all on the Toby township assessment list, and not on that of Red Bank township until 1816, when he was assessed as John Moyers, with 400 acres, two horses and two cows, at $194. The mistake in his Christian name was corrected on the next year's list, i. e., changed from John to Jacob, by erasing the former and substituting the latter. Ile must have escaped the notice of the assessor for fourteen or fifteen years, for Philip Mechling remembers having seen him at Kittanning soon after his father and family removed thither in 1805. Moyers obtained a warrant for 440 acres, dated December 2, 1837, which was surveyed to him by J. E. Meredith, deputy surveyor, February 12, 1839, to the acceptance of whose return of survey Aaron Gray and Robert Orr filed their caveat, alleging that Moyers had lately purchased a part of the vacant land from the Holland Company without the knowledge of their agent, thereby defrauding the commonwealth of the purchase money for about one hundred and fifty acres, and throwing 266 MADISON TOWNSHIP. out at another place a vacancy where it did not adjoin the remaining vacancy on the west, which would likely be a loss to the commonwealth and every other person except Moyer; and that he had surveyed on his warrant 440 instead of 400 acres, thus encroaching still further west upon and depriving them of their right to a full tract of 400 acres. They were, however, willing for him to have 400 acres surveyed on his warrant west of the Holland land, i. e., the above-mentioned tract covered by warrant No. 3001, but not to throw out and take in of the vacancy where he pleased for the purpose of encroaching upon them further to the west. The result was an action of ejectment by Orr against Moyer, to No. 34 September term, 1840, in the court of common pleas of this county. The case was tried at December term, 1841, and the verdict of the jury, on the 21st, was for the plaintiff, by establishing the line running north from the Black Oak corner on the line of John Elliott (" Springfield") as his eastern boundary, as marked on the general diagram, and found for him all the land west of that line, with nominal amounts for damages and costs, on which judgment was entered. John Smith, of Kiskiminetas township, this county, and David Peeler, of Indiana county, were the surveyors under the rule of court. Moyer obtained his patent for 400 acres east of that line, March 17, 1846, the tract having been resurveyed on the 2d by order of the board of property. THE HOLLAND LAND COMPANY. The rest or major part of the territory within the present limits of this township was covered by warrants to The Holland Land Company, and because so much of the area of this township was thus covered (as well as portions of other townships), a sketch of that company is here given. It was organized at the city of Amsterdam, in the Kingdom of Holland, in the latter part of the eighteenth century. Its original members were Wilhelm Willink, Nicholas Van Staphorst, Pieter Stadnitski, Christian Van Eghen, Hendrick Vollenhoven and Rutgert Jan Schimmelpenninck, of that city; at least those are the names mentioned in a prevention patent for a tract called "Normandy," dated October 7, 1799. They were joint tenants, subject to the right of survivorship, except, perhaps, for about sixteen years. The act of assembly of Pennsylvania, March 24, 1828, provided that the act of March 31, 1812, abolishing survivorship in j6int tenancy, should not apply to the lands held by that company in this state and sold under either the former act or the act of March 31, 1823, which were acts enabling them and their vendees, though aliens, to.-sell and purchase their lands, as though they were not aliens. Stadnitski, Van Eghen and Van Staphorst died prior to April, 1805, and subsequently Willink, Vollenhoven, Van Henkelom and Schimmelpenninck. The original members, it is said, had loaned large amounts of money, either directly to the United States, or, indirectly, to Robert Morris, to aid in achieving American independence. As they preferred to invest the amount which they received, after the close of the revolutionary war, in this country, they purchased from Morris, in 1792, an immense quantity of land west of the Genesee river, in the State of New York, on which they, as one of their agents stated, lost $3,000,000. They acquired, about the same time, inchoate titles to numerous tracts of land in Pennsylvania, on both sides of the Allegheny river, in the territory included in the purchases from the Six Nations, at Fort Stanwix, October 23, 1784, and from the Delawares and Wyandots at Fort McIntosh in January, 1785. The boundaries of these purchases began "at the south side of the Ohio river, where the western boundary of the State of Pennsylvania crosses the said river, near Shingho's old town, at the mouth of Beaver creek, and thence by a due north line to the end of the forty-second and the beginning of the forty-third degrees of north latitude, thence by a due east line, separating the fortysecond and forty-third degrees of north latitude, to the east side of the east branch of the river Susquehanna, and thence by the bounds of the purchase line of 1768 to the place of beginning," which included all the northwestern part of this state, except the triangle bordering on Lake Erie, which, having been purchased from the Indians by the United States, January 9, 1789, by the treaty at Fort Harmon, for ~1,200, was conveyed by the latter to Pennsylvania, March 3, 1792, for $150,640.25. "The Holland Company," said Judge Yeates, at March term, 1800, in the Commonwealth vs. Tench Coxe, "have paid to the state the consideration money of 1,162 warrants, and the surveying fees on 1,048 tracts of land, besides making very considerable expenditures by their exertions, honorable to themselves and useful to the community, in order to effect settlements. Computing the sums advanced, the lost tracts, by prior improvements and interferences, and the quantity of 100 acres granted to each individual for making a settlement on their lands," i. e., west of the Allegheny river, "it is said, that, averaging the whole, between $230 and $240 have been expended by the company on each tract of land they now claim." 267 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Forty of those tracts, within the original limits of Armstrong county, that is, between Toby's creek, now Clarion river, and the purchase line, were covered by warrants to Herman Le Roy and John Linklain, of the State of New York. William Bayard, of the same state, appears to have succeeded to Linklain's interest in these tracts prior to April, 1805, for he and Le Roy were then two of the complainants in the bill of interpleader in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Pennsylvania, in which Jesse Waln, Isaac Wharton, in his lifetime, David Lewis, Samuel M. Fox, in his lifetime, and John Adlum,* citizens of the United States, were defendants. That proceeding was instituted for the purpose of ascertaining to whom and in what proportion belonged the title, estate and interest to 145 tracts of land and unsatisfied warrants in this state, which had been sold for taxes due the United States, and conveyed by John Smith, United States marshal for the district of Pennsylvania, by his deed dated May 23, 1805, to Paul Burti, who purchased for the company. These tracts were, of course, claimed by both complainants and defendants. After hearing the bill and answer, October 31, 1807, it was ordered and decreed by the court that a conveyance be made to the defendants Waln, Wharton's heirs and Lewis, in proportion to their claims, and in favor of Fox's heirs and Adlum for the residue. In obedience to that decree Burti, in whom, as agent of the complainants, was the legal title, conveyed to the defendants their respective portions of these tracts, February 25, 1812, of which partition was made among such of the defendants as were living and the heirs of such as were dead, by virtue of the act of March 28, 1814, and its supplement of February 6, 1815. Twenty-five of the tracts covered by warrants to H. LeRoy & Co. contained, respectively, 990 acres, and some of the other fifteen of them contained more and others less than that number. They aggregated 38,872 acres. Twenty-eight tracts were covered by warrants to Wilhelm Willink & Co., of which one contained 880, and each of the rest 990 acres, aggregating 27,610 acres. Those tracts appeal to have been taken up both by Le Roy & Co. and Willink & Co. under the act of April 8, 1785, according to which the secretary of the land office was to receive applications for lands in the abovementioned late purchases, except north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny rivers and the Conewango creek, not exceeding 1,000 acres in one application, after the price had been reduced by the first section of the act of April 3, 1792, to ~5 per 100 acres of See Cowanshannock township. the land embraced in those purchases east of the Allegheny river and Conewango creek, which were not subject to the rigid conditions of settlement of those on the other side of these streams. The Holland Company soon after its organization appointed Paul Burti, an Italian gentleman, of Bloekley's Retreat, Philadelphia-whose house, now on the grounds of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, is occupied by Dr. Thomas S. Kirkbride *-and Harm Jan Huidekoper, a Holland gentleman, of Meadville, their agents and attorneysin-fact, the latter being designated in one of the former's letters of attorney to David Lawson, " the general superintending agent." They not only sold lands belonging to the company, but in some instances acquired and held in themselves the legal title to some of the latter's tracts, and as grantors conveyed tracts and parcels of tracts to purchasers. Patents for various tracts were granted to them in trust for the company. For instance, John Smith, United States Marshal for Pennsylvania, conveyed to them October 16, 1804, the interest of James Wilson, who was a prominent member of the convention of this state for the ratification of the Federal Constitution, in thirty tracts, partly in Brodhead's former district No. 6. Huidekoper released his part to Burti March 16, 1811, more or less of which the latter conveyed to the company's vendees. The records of this county show incidentally that Robert Beatty was their sub-agent for the sale of Holland lands east of the Allegheny and south of Toby's creek prior to 1811. Burti executed two letters of attorney to David Lawson August 19, 1811, one authorizing him to sell lands warranted to Willink & Co. and to Le Roy & Co., to receive moneys on contracts of sale, and such as were due on contracts made by Beatty, and to be subject to the instructions that he might from time to time receive from either Burti or Huidekoper. He continued to act as such until 1817-18. Some of the company's extensive sales in the fifth and sixth, or Brady's and Brodhead's, districts were: By Burti, as attorney-in-fact, by article of agreement, May 2,1816, to sell to Benjamin B. Cooper, of Coopersport, New Jersey, 253 tracts, some of which were in this county, or to such person or persons as the latter should appoint, provided that title should not be made to any of them until all the purchase money should be paid. Proceeding not in chronological order, Burti conveyed to Cooper the legal title in him to 47 tracts, covered by warrants to Le Roy & Co., dated December 13, 1792, some of the patents for which were granted STownsend Ward's Walk to 1)arby. 268 JOHV,l S TJ JAKSN!8JH N T. jA CKs oN. F\E-S. OF JOflp. T. JACKSON'. 0 H T, JjA G 0 1,4, MADISON TOWNSHIP. to him, and others to him and Huidekoper, in 1812 and 1813; and the same day Burti, as attorney-infact for the company, conveyed 25 other tracts, covered by warrants to Willink et al., dated December 13, 1792, for which patents were granted to them August 26, September 6, October 14, November 4, 5, 6, 1802. The consideration expressed in each of these conveyances was $1, whence it is inferrible that the full consideration was paid at some other time, and perhaps in some other way than by cash. Cooper executed his letter of attorney to David Lawson November 18, 1816. Cooper and Charles C. Gaskill entered into an agreement April 1, 1818, authorizing the latter to sell the lands which the former had agreed to purchase from the company, May 3, 1816, in farms of not less than 50 or more than 500 acres each. Under that agreement it was made optional with Gaskill to take about 100,000 acres of those 253 tracts, at any time in three years after the date of the agreement, at $2 per acre, with interest from January 1, 1819, in ten annuq1 payments, or at an annual ground-rent of 14 cents per acre, redeemable at any time before January 1, 1830, at $2 per acre and arrearages of ground-rent; or to take 5 per cent on all sales of those lands that he might make. He mhust have accepted the last-mentioned condition, as Mrs. Cooper, February 8, 1819, executed a release of her dower to every person that had purchased, and that might thereafter purchase, any of those lands from Gaskill by virtue of the above-mentioned agreement between him and her husband. Gaskill, as Cooper's executor, conveyed some parcels after Cooper's death. The company, by their attorney-in-fact, conveyed 65 tracts, partly in this county, July 27, 1816, to Sommers Baldwin, then of Troy, Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, but formerly of Fairfield county, Connecticut, for $75,284.06, for which he gave his obligations, for securing which he gave his mortgage on those tracts, May 28, 1819, to Burti and Vanderkemp. The latter became the sole mortgagee on the death of the former, which occurred some time after March 19, 1823. Baldwin sold or agreed to sell 38 parcels of these tracts, varying in quantity from four acres to a thousand, to Hewlett Smith, of New Haven county, Conn., and thirty-five others. Baldwin died intestate, without having satisfied that mortgage. Henry Jack, of Jefferson county, was appointed administrator of his estate, against whom judgment was obtained for the above-mentioned amount, on which writs of levari facias were issued to the sheriffs of Armstrong and Indiana counties, on which Jacob Mechling, sheriff of- the former county, sold 13 17 tracts covered by warrants to LeRoy & Co., and the same number, covered by warrants to Willink & Co., to Vanderkemp, for $500; and Clemence McGarra, sheriff of Indiana county, sold 33 LeRoy & Co. tracts and 13 Willink & Co. tracts to Vanderkemp for $1,000. Both of these sales were in December, 1826. The name of Vanderkemp was used in those proceedings in trust for the company. He executed a letter of attorney to Gaskill, June 16, 1825, authorizing him to sell those lands, and he continued in charge of those Holland lands in this, Indiana and Jefferson counties until the spring of 1849. On August 14, 1816, Burti, as holder of the legal title, conveyed 21 LeRoy & Co. tracts, partly in this county, for $15,120, and, as attorney-in-fact, 27 Willink & Co. tracts, for $19,000, August 14, 1816, to Oliver W. Ogden, of New Germantown, New Jersey, for the aggregate amount of which he gave his mortgage thereon to Burti and Vanderkemp, and appointed David Lawson his attorney-in-fact to sell those tracts, which, however, he re-conveyed to Burti and Vanderkemp May 3, 1819, for $34,682, and they executed their letter of attorney August 9 to Eben S. Kelly, authorizing him to satisfy that mortgage, which he did September 15. Several of the company's tracts in this county were sold for taxes. Thomas Hamilton, county treasurer, sold one of them to the county commissioners, October 10, 1818; Samuel Matthews, county treasurer, one, October 25, 1820, and eleven others, October 1, 1822, which the commissioners conveyed to Vanderkemp, March 24, and he to Willink & Co., November 7, 1826. The act of March 31, 1823, authorized the company to sell their lands and their vendees to purchase them, though they or any of them were aliens, notwithstanding any previous law to the contrary. In 1849 the surviving members of the company were Walrave Van Henkelom, Wilhelm Willink, Jr., and Gerret Schimmelpenninck, Rutgert Jan's son. On April 26 they, by their attorney-in-fact, John Jacob Vanderkemp, whom the company had appointed as such and as the successor to Paul Burti, deceased, September 5, 1824, conveyed all their lands, tracts, pieces and parcels of land, tenements and hereditaments that had not been previously conveyed, including all outstanding contracts for the sale and purchase of their lands in Armstrong, Indiana and Jefferson counties, to Alexander Colwell, Dr. John Gilpin, Horatio N. Lee, of the borough of Kittanning, Alexander Reynolds and David Richey, then of Madison township, in this county, embracing 23,083 acres and 45 269 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. perches of unsold land, and about 55,000 acres subject to executory contracts, for $50,000-the vendors not to be liable for the payment of money due or to become due on these contracts, or for any judgments, mortgages or other evidences of debt arising from any of these contracts. Reynolds entered into a conditional agreement with his copurchasers, August 11, 1835, to purchase their several interests in about 21,000 acres of these lands for $26,130. By divers transfers that agreement was consummated, and these interests became vested in him and P. Jenks Smith, of Philadelphia. All the lands which were included in the purchase from the Holland Company, except about 1,000 acres, have been sold at such an advance that the last purchasers have realized handsomely from their ventures, besides a considerable amount still due them on executory contracts. Some of those lands have since become so valuable that they cannot now be purchased for less than twenty-six times the price for which Reynolds and his co-purchasers sold them. The sketch of the Holland Company has thus far been confined to its operations east of the Allegheny river and Conewango creek. It remains to be stated what obstacles they had to meet and overcome in their purchases on the other side of those streams, in the presentation of which it is necessary to keep in mind the provisions of the act of assembly of April 3,1792, entitled " An act for the sale of vacant lands within this Commonwealth." The first section relates to the price and sale of lands within the purchase of 1768, east of the Allegheny river and the Conewango creek. The other sections relate chiefly to the sale and purchase of the lands north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny rivers, and west of the Conewango creek, and, among other things, fixed the price of those lands at ~7 10s. per 100 acres to such persons as would settle, cultivate and improve them or cause them to be settled, cultivated and improved; required each tract not to contain more than 400 acres, its shape to be oblong, the full quantity of each warrant to be surveyed in one entire tract, and not to contain in front on any navigable river or lake more than one-half its length or depth, and ten per cent surplus to be allowed and paid for when the patent should be granted. The phraseology of the ninth section, and especially of its proviso, occasioned much difference of opinion as to the intent of the legislature, and, consequently, a great deal of litigation. That section required that a warrant should not be issued or a survey made in that part of the state to vest any title in the lands there unless the grantee had, before the date of his warrant, made or caused to be made an actual settlement thereon by clearing, fencing and cultivating at least two acres for every 100 acres contained in one survey, erecting thereon a messuage for the habitation of man, and residing or causing a family to reside thereon for the space of five years next following his or her first settling of the same, if he or she should so long live; and in default of such settlement it should be lawful for the Commonwealth to issue new warrants, reciting the original ones, and that actual settlements and residence had not been made in pursuance thereof, and so often as default in those respects should be made, and that new grants should be made subject to all the regulations in the act. "Provided always, nevertheless, that if any such actual settler, or any grantee in any such original or succeeding warrant shall, by force of arms of the enemies of the United States, be prevented from making such actual settlement, or be driven therefrom, and shall persist in his endeavors to make such actual settlement as aforesaid, then, in either case, he and his heirs shall be entitled to have and to hold the said lands in the same manner as if the actual settlement had been made and continued." Along with the requirements of that act should also be kept in mind the specially perilous condition of that part of the state, resulting from the then pending Indian war. The perils to settlers, or those who attempted to settle there, were fearfully enhanced by the disastrous defeat of Gen. Harmar in October, 1790, and that of Gen. St. Clair, in November, 1791. It is a well established fact that settlements by the whites in that region were unsafe until 1796. There was, nevertheless, a great contrariety of opinion on the bench, at the bar, and among the people as to the requirements of that section and its proviso respecting the settlement to be made, and the persistent endeavors required to effect a settlement under these perilous circumstances, on those lands. One portion insisted that the conditions of actual settlement and residence, required by the act, were dispensed with, on account of the prevention for two years after the date of a warrant by Indian hostilities, and that the warrant-holder was not bound to do anything further, but was entitled to a patent. Another portion insisted that the right under the warrant was forfeited at the expiration of two years, without a settlement, and that actual settlers might then enter on such tracts and hold them by making a settlement. A great deal of litigation resulted from the contrariety of construction of that act, which, for nearly 270 0 COUNTY SEAT. land called'Victory,' etc. Beginning at a marked black oak* by the side of the Allegheny River; thence by vacant hills east thirty-eight perches to a marked white oak; south four degrees, west one hundred and ten perches to a marked maple; south seventy-nine degrees, east forty-seven perches to a marked white oak; north thirteen degrees, east one hundred and thirteen perches to a marked white oak; south seventy-seven degrees, east forty-nine perches to a marked black oak; south forty degrees, east ninety-six perches to a marked white oak; south two and three-fourths degrees, east four hundred and fifty-four perches to a marked sugar-tree; south six degrees, west eighty-four perches to a marked hickoryt at the side of the Allegheny River aforesaid; thence up the same river seven hundred and two perches to the place of beginning, containing five hundred and fifty-six and one-half acres and the usual allowances, including the Indian town and settlement called Kittanning." That tract of land, with other property, was devised by the will of Gen. Armstrong, proven July 25, 1797, to his two sons, John and James. The former was secretary of war during a part of Madison's administration. COUNTY SEAT. The seat of justice of this county was directed by act of assembly to be located at a distance not greater than five miles from "Old Kittanning Town." By the same act of March 12, 1800, John Craig, James Sloan and James Barr were named and constituted trustees to receive and hold the title for the necessary public buildings; and for that purpose they were authorized to receive proposals in writing from any person or body corporate for the conveyance or grant of any lands within the limits of that act. That portion of that act was repealed by the act of April 4, 1803, and James Sloan, James Matthews and Alexander Walker were appointed trustees for the county, for locating the county seat and organizing the county. The last-named declined to act, and the duties were performed and the powers exercised by James Sloan and James Matthews. It having been contemplated by the legislature to lay out a town to be called Kittanning, in the most convenient place for the seat of justice of this county, and the abovedescribed tract of land having been considered the most convemnient therefor, application was made to Dr. James Armstrong, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, one of the devisees of Gen. Armstrong, for so much * At the corner of the tract surveyed and patented to Robert Patrick, which now belongs to Gen. Orr s estate. t A short distance below the rolling-mill, anda little less distance below the present southern limit of the borough of Kittanning. of that tract as might be necessary for that purpose, who, in behalf of himself and his brother, John Armstrong, the other devisee, as well for enhancing the residue of the tract as for and in consideration of one-half of the purchase-money of all the town lots to be laid out, executed and delivered to the governor of this state, to and for the use of this county, an obligation whereby he bound himself and his brother John to make and execute a deed of conveyance in fee simple to the trustees of this county, which offer the trustees were, by an act of 1803, empowered to accept. In pursuance thereof, John Armstrong and Alida his wife -a daughter of Chancellor Livingston - and Dr. James Armstrong and Mary his wife, did, by their deed dated December 17, 1804, convey to James Sloan, James Matthews and Alexander Walker, the trustees or commissioners of this county, and their successors, that part of the above-described tract bounded thus: "Beginning at a post on the Allegheny River, thence north fifty-one degrees, east one hundred and fifteen and one-tenth perches to a post; thence south thirty-nine degrees, east one hundred and sixty-three and nine-tenths perches to a post; thence south fifty-one degrees, west thirty-five and five-tenths perches to a post; thence south thirty-nine degrees, east forty and seventenths perches to a post; thence south fifty-one degrees, west twenty-four perches and seven-tenths to a post; thence south thirty-nine degrees, east thirty-six and seven-tenths perches to a white oak; thence south fifty degrees, west fifty-four and ninetenths perches to a walnut-tree on the Allegheny river aforesaid; thence up the same north thirty degrees, west two hundred and forty-one and ninetenths perches to the place of beginning, containing one hundred and fifty acres, be the same more or less." By the act of 1804 the trustees or commissioners of this county were authorized to lay out in that one hundred and fifty acre tract lots for the public buildings, and to sell the remainder in town lots, containing not less than one-fourth nor more than two-thirds of an acre each. Two acres were reserved for public use, namely, one acre on the southeast corner of Market and Jefferson streets, where the first court-house and public offices were erected, and the other acre on the northwest corner of Market and McKean streets, on which the first jail was erected. One-half of the proceeds arising from the sale of those lots went to the donors, and the other half was to be applied to the erection of the public buildings. Our county town was laid out in 1803, with convenient streets and alleys crossing one another at MADISON TOWNSHIP. a quarter of a century, was suffered to dishearten many people from settling that particular region, even after the perils from the Indian hostilities had ceased. It seems strange that the legislature, when it became apparent how great a difference there was in the construction of that act, did not so amend or supplement it as to relieve it from that difference and check the resultant evils. Chief Justice Tighlmnan intimated in Hazard's lessee vs. Lowrey,* that the ninth section was " expressed with such obscurity as to have occasioned great diversity of opinion among men of the first abilities." And Justice Yeates in the hereinafter-mentioned motion for a mandamus on the secretary of the land office said in reference to that act, he had hoped " that the difficulties attendant on the present motion would have been brought before the justice and equity of the legislature for solution, and not come before the judicial authority, who are compelled to deliver the law as they find it written, for decision." And further on in the same case, he continued: " Though such great disagreement has obtained as to the true meaning of this ninth section, both sides agree in this, that it is worded very inaccurately, inartificially and obscurely." It is passing strange that the legislature did not, after those severe judicial criticisms, correct the faulty phraseology of that section and its proviso. Because legislative wisdom and acumen were not thus exercised, the Holland Company, as well as numerous individuals, were involved in expensive litigation. It was under that act that the Holland Company took out many of their warrants. They, like others, could not make the settlements required by the strict letter of that act, within two years from the dates of their warrants, on account of the Indian hostilities. The board of property during Gov. Mifflin's administration construed that act as meaning that the warrantees were entitled to patents after two years' prevention, and, with the advice of Attorney-General Ingersoll, framed a prevention certificate, setting forth that the warrantee or settler, as the case might be, had been prevented from making a settlement on a described tract of land containing 400 acres or less, conformable to that ninth section and proviso, by force of arms of the enemies of the United States, and that he had persisted in his endeavors to make such settlement, upon which, when signed by two justices of the peace, a prevention patent, as it was called, was issued. This practice continued until 1800, and under it the Holland Company obtained numerous prevention patents. Gov. *1 Binney, 166. McKean was elected in October, 1799. The new board of property construed that proviso differently from their predecessors, and their practice in granting such patents as not binding. Tench Coxe, who was then secretary of the land office, refused to issue any more of them. The company then moved the supreme court for a rule to show cause why a mandamus should not be awarded commanding him to prepare and deliver divers patents on prevention certificates. The case* was fully argued at March term, 1800. The court differed in opinion. Chief Justice Shippen held that "the legislature meant to sell the remaining lands of the state, particularly those lying on the north and west of the rivers Ohio and Allegheny. The consideration was to be paid on issuing the warrants. They had likewise another object, namely, that, if possible, the land should be settled by improvers. The latter terms, however, were not to be exacted from the grantees at all events," i. e., in all exigencies that might arise. "The act passed at a time when hostilities existed on the part of the Indian tribes. It was uncertain when they would cease. The legislature, therefore, contemplated that warrants might be taken out during the existence of these hostilities, which might continue so long as to make it impossible for the warrantees to make the settlements required, for a length of time, not perhaps, until after these hostilities should entirely cease. Yet they made no provision that the settlements should be made within a reasonable time after the peace, but expressly within two years after the date of the warrants. As, however, they wished to sell the lands and were to receive the consideration money immediately, it would have been unreasonable, and probably have defeated their views in selling, to require settlements to be made on each tract of 400 acres, houses to be built, and lands to be cleared, in case such acts should be rendered impossible by the continuance of the Indian war. They, therefore, make the proviso which is the subject of the present dispute." He then asks: "When were such actual settlements to be made?" His reply is: "The same section of the act which contains the above proviso gives a direct and unequivocal answer to this question, 'within the space of two years next after the date of warrant.'" He then argues: "If the settlements were not made within that time, owing to the force or reasonable dread of the enemies of the United States, and it was evident that the parties had used their best endeavors to effect the settlement, then, by the express words of the law, the residence of the improvers for *The Commonwealth vs. Tench Coxe, 4 Dallas, 170. 271 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. five years afterward was expressly dispensed with, and their titles to the land were complete, and patents might issue accordingly. It is contended that the words'persist in their endeavors' in the proviso should be extended to mean that, if within two years, they should be prevented by the Indian hostilities from making the settlement, yet when they should no longer be prevented by these hostilities, as by a treaty of peace, it was incumbent on them then to persist to make such settlement. The legislature might, if they had so pleased, have exacted these terms, and they would not, perhaps, have been unreasonable, but they have not done so; they have expressly confined the time of making such settlements to two years from the date of the warrant. * * * If the contrary had been their meaning they would not have made use of the word'endeavors,' which supposes a possibility at least, if not a probability, as things then stood, of those endeavors failing on account of the hostilities, and would, therefore, have expressly exacted actual settlements to be made when the purchasers should no longer run any risk in making them. "The state having received the consideration money and required a settlement within two years, if not prevented by the enemies, and in that case dispensing with the condition of settlement and residence, and declaring that the title shall be then good and as effectual as if the settlement had been made and continued, I cannot conceive they could mean to exact that settlement at any future indefinite time. * * * It is urged that the main view of the legislature was to get the country settled and a barrier formed. This was undoubtedly one of their views, and for that purpose they have given extraordinary encouragement to individual settlers. But they had likewise, evidently, another view, that of increasing the revenue of the state by the sale of the lands. The very title of the act is, "For the sale of vacant lands within this commonwealth." This latter object they have really affected, but not by the means of the voluntary settlers. It could alone be effected by the purses of rich men or large companies of men, who would not have been prevailed upon to lay out such sums of money as they have done, if they had thought their purchases were clogged with such impracticable conditions." Thus he argued, that the words "persist in their endeavors" related to the grantees, or warrantees, as well as to the settlers, and, after showing why he did so, proceeded: "The act says, in either case, that is, if the grantees are prevented from making their settlements, or if th.e settlers are driven away, and persist in their endeavors to complete their settlements, they shall be entitled to the land." On the other hand, Judge Yeates, after paying a high tribute to the enterprise and liberality of the Holland Company, and presenting a summary of the provisions of the first eight sections of that act and of the three constructions placed upon its ninth section and the proviso, held that the words "actual settlement" were used in an extensive sense, "as inclusive of residence for five years, because its constituent parts are enumerated and described to be by clearing, fencing and cultivating at least two acres for every 100 acres contained in one survey," and so on, as contained in the act. After commenting on the grammatical construction of a portion of the ninth section and the proviso, he proceeded: "The words'actual settlement aforesaid' evidently relate to the enumeration of the qualities of such settlement. Again, the confining of the settlement to be within the space of two years next after the date of the warrant seems to be a strange provision. A war with the Indian nations subsisted when the law passed, and its continuance was uncertain," and surveys might thus be prevented, "and until the lands were appropriated by surveys the precise places where they lay could not be ascertained generally." He adhered to this construction of the ninth section, which was, "That in all events, except the death of the party, the settlement and residence shall precede the vesting of the complete and absolute estate." He continued: "'Persist' is the correlative of attempt, endeavor, and signifies to'hold on,''persevere.' The beginning words of the section restrict the settlement to be within two years next after the date of the warrant by clearing, etc., and by residing for the space of five years next following his first settling of the same,'if he or she shall so long live,' and in default thereof annexes a penalty of forfeiture in a mode prescribed. But the proviso relieves against this penalty if the grantee is prevented from making such settlement by force, etc., and shall persist in his endeavors to make such actual settlement as aforesaid. The relief, then, as I read the words, goes merely as to the times of the two years next after the date of the warrant, and five years next after the party's first settling of the same, and the proviso declares that persisting, etc., shall be equivalent to a continuation of the settlement. * * * The proviso supplies the chasm of successive years of residence; for every day and week he resides on the soil he is entitled to a credit in his account with the commonwealth, but upon a return of peace, when the state of the country will admit of it, after making 272 MADISON TOWNSHIP. all reasonable allowances, he must resume the occupation of the land and complete his actual settlement. * * * It is admitted, on all sides, that the actual settlement and residence are, in the first place, precedent conditions to the vesting of absolute estates in these lands, and I cannot bring myself to believe that they are dispensed with by unsuccessful efforts either in the case of warrantholders or actual settlers. In the latter instance our uniform decisions have been, that a firm adherence to the soil, unless controlled by imperious circumstances, was the great criterion which marked the preference in such cases. * * * It is obvious from the preamble and section 2, that the settlement of the country, as well as the sale of the lands, was meditated by the law. The latter, however, appears to be a secondary object with the legislature. The peopling of the country by a hardy race of men to the most extreme frontier was certainly the most powerful barrier against a savage enemy. * * * If the lands are forfeited in the eye of the law, though they have been fully paid for, the breach of the condition can only be taken advantage of by the commonwealth in a method prescribed by law." It had been decided in the cases of Morris' lessees es. Neighman and Sheiner, that individuals could not, the commonwealth alone could, take advantage of the laches of either a settler or a warrant-holder to perfect his title to any chosen tract or tracts of land. That had become the established doctrine before the inception of this case. Judge Smith concurred with Judge Yeates, and Judge Brackenridge, having been concerned for the Holland Company, while at the bar, declined to give an opinion. The rule was discharged. The mandamus was not granted. The divided opinion of the court did not allay the controversy between the warrant-holders -in this instance, the Holland Company-and the settlers. The latter sent up numerous petitions to the legislature, asking for needed legislation. The writer has an unsigned copy of one found among the papers of the late David Reynolds. It was probably one of those prepared, but needed for signing in this county. It is headed: "The petition of the inhabitants northwest of the Allegheny, etc." It represented that prevention certificates had been obtained in some unaccountable manner, on which patents had been issued for numerous tracts of land on which no settlements or attempts at settlement had ever been made, which had been substituted in the courts for sufficient titles, regardless of all the requisitions of the law of 1792, whereby numerous families of the most useful class of citizens were threatened with immediate ruin and the country with depopulation, with being reduced to its primitive state of an uncultivated wilderness; that "all the humane and economical uses of your predecessors of 1792 are, with one brush of the besom of destruction, swept into everlasting oblivion, and as an aggravation of our calamities, while we are yet a maiden character, we are calumniated as lawless and unruly violators of the laws, unworthy of notice, and absorbed in total ignorance." That petition further represented and prayed: "We have submitted to oppression and injustice beyond all former example. Hoping that our conduct would have excited your clemency, we now pray your honors to take our present circumstances into your consideration by examining these prevention certificates, as being in our opinion merely dead, comprehending no facts, and as for Indian war or prevention, in vain do search the secretary of war's office for documents proving hostilities. So extremely enigmated (enigmatic) are these certificates, that we are unable to unriddle how men could prevent (be prevented) from making improvements they never attempted, of being driven from land they never saw. We therefore pray that by your interference you remove our embarrassments by destroying the idea of a prevention, of giving the due weight and operation to the. law, of fulfilling the intention of the former legislature, of restoring peace and harmony to our country, and delivering thousands of useful families from the fangs of voracious speculators. And your petitioners as in duty bound will ever pray." It is without date, but it was probably prepared in or about the year 1800, and it is, perhaps, a fair specimen of the petitions presented to the legislature about that time from inhabitants occupying tracts and parcels of tracts west of the Allegheny river, whose inchoate titles were affected by those prevention certificates and patents. Though the Holland Company had no tracts within the limits of that part of this county, the principle involved in those certificates and patents for the tracts thus granted to them elsewhere west of the Allegheny river would operate within those limits, and thus affect the titles claimed there by settlers. That and other companies, whose titles rested upon such certificates, presented counter memorials to the legislature setting forth their side of the question. The controversy still continued to rage. The legislature, therefore, passed the act of April 2, 1802, entitled "An act to settle the controversies arising from contending claims to land within that part of the territory of this Commonwealth north and west of the rivers Ohio and Allegheny and Cone273 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. wango creek, which, among other things, directed the judges of the supreme court to meet within three months from the then 1st of April, and devise a form of action for trying and determining certain proposed questions relative to those disputed titles, and transmit the same to the governor, whose duty it was made, with the assistance of the attorney-general, to carry the same into effect without delay. The proposed questions related, 1. To the validity of warrants theretofore issued under the act of April 3, 1792, in cases where the warrantees had not fully and fairly complied with the conditions of settlement, improvement and residence required by that act, at any time before the respective dates of those warrants, or within two years after; 2. To the validity of titles against the Commonwealth or any person claiming under that act, founded upon those prevention certificates, without any other evidence being given of the nature and circumstances of prevention, whereby, as it was alleged, the conditions of settlement, improvement and residence required by that act could not be complied with. The Holland Company, in declining to submit their claims to the control of that special jurisdiction, assigned as reasons to the judges that they could not approve of the terms of the preamble of the act by which the legislature had undertaken to declare the meaning and construction of the original contract, which was the very point in controversy, nor could they admit the right and propriety of dictating a new and, perhaps, unconstitutional mode of settling a judicial question without the assent of all parties interested. They also intimated that the merits of the case involved several other considerations respecting the effect and operation of the ninth section of that act and its proviso, but the questions proposed by the legislature excluded an investigation and decision upon any other point than those embraced in their two proposed questions as above stated. Hence, they declined becoming a party to the proposed suit, because a decision on those two abstract questions would still leave untouched and undecided the great and essential part of the controversy. The judges devised and published the form of a feigned issue on a wager to try those two proposed questions,* and gave public notice that all parties interested in the issue would be heard at the trial. The other necessary proceedings having been prescribed, the court met at Sunbury November 25, 1802, when a jury was empaneled and sworn. The chief justice was not present. No counsel * See the case of the attorney-general vs. the grantees, 4 Dallas, 237. appeared for the grantees. Judge Yeates presided, and the next day delivered an extended and elaborate charge to the jury reflecting the views of the other members of the court, except chief-justice Shippen, which were substantially those expressed in their opinion in the Commonwealth vs. Tench Coxe. The jury found a general verdict in favor of the plaintiff (i.e., the attorney-general) on that feigned issue upon which judgment for the plaintiff was entered, subject to the above-mentioned proviso. The result of that trial did not stop the controversy, did not prevent law suits, no particular title was settled, and the act authorizing that trial was not favorably regarded. The Holland Company, being foreigners, resorted to the courts of the United States. While their cases were there pending, the legislature passed the act of April 3, 1804, for ascertaining the right of this state to certain lands north and west of the above-mentioned streams, which provided that applications of actual settlers under the act of April 3, 1792, describing particularly the lands applied for, and filed with the secretary of the land office, vouching such other requisites as were provided for by the act of September 22, 1794, should for two years after its passage entitle the applicant to all the privileges of an original or vacating warrant, and in all land suits brought and to be brought between warrantees and actual settlers, the actual settler should be permitted to plead and make proof of his improvement and residence, as fully as if he had obtained a vacating warrant, without impairing any contract, altering the legal and equitable claims of any persons to the lands in dispute, or releasing such lands from the conditions of settlement, residence, improvement, purchase money and interest required by the act of April 3,1792, and it empowered the governor to employ counsel to attend to the interests of the state in these cases in the United States courts. A test case was that of Huidekoper's lessee vs. Douglass, reported in 4 Dallas, 392 et seg. It was an ejectment for a tract of land lying north and west, etc. The plaintiff claimed under the Holland Company, to whom a patent had been issued upon a warrant and survey. The defendant claimed as an actual settler under the act of April 3, 1792. It was tried in the circuit court of the United States, Pennsylvania district, April term, 1805. Numerous other ejectments were depending on the same facts and principles. At the trial of another ejectment, at a former term, Judge Washington delivered the charge to the jury, concurring generally with the construction given by a majority of the supreme court of this state to the 274 MADISON TOWNSHIP. last-mentioned act, from which Judge Peters dissented. It was, therefore, determined to submit the questions, upon which the opinions of the judges were opposed, to the supreme court of the United States, under the provision made in case of such disagreement, by the act of congress, April 29, 1802. Three questions, involving the various matters in controversy, had been formally settled at the preceding October term. After argument in the supreme court, its opinion was delivered by Chief Justice Marshall, in the course of which he said: "Two classes of purchasers are contemplated. The one has already performed every condition of the sale, and is about to pay the consideration money; the other pays the consideration money in the first instance, and is afterward to perform the conditions. They are both described in the same sentence, and from each an actual settlement is required as indispensable to the completion of the title. In describing this actual settlement, it is declared that it shall be made, in the case of a warrant previously granted, within two years next after the date of such warrant,'by clearing,' etc. * * * The manifest impossibility of completing a residence of five years within the space of two years would lead to an opinion that the part of the descriptions relative to residence applied to those only who had performed the condition before the payment of the purchase money, and not to those who were to perform it afterward. But there are subsequent parts of the act which will not admit of this construction, and, consequently, residence is a condition required from the person who settles under a warrant, as well as from one who entitles himself to a warrant by his settlement. "The law, requiring two repugnant and incompatable things, is incapable of receiving a literal construction, and must sustain some change of language to be rendered intelligible. The change, however, ought to be as small as possible, and with a view to the sense of the legislature, as manifested by themselves. The reading suggested by the counsel for the plaintiff appears to be most reasonable, to comport best with the general language of the section and with the nature of the subject. It is by changing the participle into the future tense of the verb, and instead of'and residing, or causing a family to reside thereon,' reading and shall reside, etc. The effect of this correction of language will be to destroy the repugnancy which exists in the act as it stands, and to reconcile this part of the sentence to that which immediately follows, and which absolutely demonstrates that, in the view of the legislature, the settlement and the residence consequent thereon were distinct parts of the condition; the settlement to be made within two years from the date of the warrant, and the residence of five years from the commencement of the settlement. This construction is the more necessary, because the very words' such actual settlement and residence,' which prove that the residence is required from the warrantee, prove also that settlement and residence are in contemplation of the law distinct operations. From the nature of things and the import of words they are also distinct. To make a settlement no more requires a residence of five than a residence of five hundred years; and, of consequence, it is much more reasonable to understand the legislature as requiring the residence for that term, in addition to a settlement, than as declaring it to be a component part of a settlement." After thus defining the terms settlement and residence he proceeds to consider the proviso. "That part of the act treats of an actual settler, under which term is intended as well the person who makes his settlement the foundation of his claim to a warrant as a warrantee who had made an actual settlement in performance of the conditions annexed to his purchase, and if'any grantee in any such original warrant or succeeding warrant,' who must be considered as contradistinguished from one who had made an actual settlement. Persons thus distinctly circumstanced are brought together in the same sentence, and terms are used appropriate to the situation of each, but not applicable to both. Thus the idea of'an actual settler''prevented from making an actual settlement,' and, after'being driven therefrom,' 'persisting in his endeavors' to make it, would be absurd. To apply to each class of purchasers all parts of the proviso would involve a contradiction in terms. Under such circumstances the plain and natural mode of construing the act is to apply the provisions, distributively, to the description of persons to whom they are adapted, reddendo singula singulis. The proviso, then, would read thus: 'Provided, that if any such actual settler shall be driven from his settlement by force of arms of the enemies of the United States, or any grantee in any such original or succeeding warrant shall, by force of arms of the enemies of the United States, be prevented from making such actual settlement, and shall persist in his endeavors to make such actual settlement as aforesaid, then, in either case, hlie and his heirs shall be entitled to have and to hold the said lands in the same manner as if the actual settlement had been made and continued.' The two cases are the actual settler who has been 275 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. driven from his settlement, and the warrantee who has been prevented from making a settlement, but has persisted in his endeavors to make one. It is perfectly clear that the proviso, in each case, substitutes something for the settlement to be made within two years from the date of the warrant, and for the residence to continue five years from the commencement of the settlement, both of which were required in the enacting clause. What is that something? The proviso answers, that in case of'an actual settler,' it is his being driven from his settlement by force of arms of the enemies of the United States, and in case of his being a grantee of a warrant, not having settled, it is his 'persisting in his endeavors to make such settlement.' In neither case is residence, or persisting in his endeavors at residence, required. Yet the legislature had not forgotten that by the enacting clause residence was to be added to settlement, for in the same sentence they say that the person who comes within the proviso shall hold the land'as if the actual settlement had been made and continued.' "It is contended, on the part of the defendant, that as the time during which persistence shall continue is not prescribed, the person claiming the land must persist until he shall have effected both his settlement and residence, as required by the enacting clause of the act, that is, that the proviso dispenses with the time during which the condition is to be performed. But the words are not only inapt for the expression of such an intent; they absolutely contradict it. If the proviso be read so as to be intelligible, it requires nothing from the actual settler who has been driven from his settlement. He is not to persist in his endeavors at residence, or, in other words, to continue his settlement, but is to hold the land. From the warrantee who has been prevented from making a settlement no endeavors at a residence are required. He is to'persist in his endeavors,' not to make and continue such actual settlement, but'to make such actual settlement as aforesaid.' And if he does persist in those endeavors he is to hold the land'as if the actual settlement had been made and continued.'" * * * "By persisting he has become an actual settler, and the part of the proviso which applies to actual settlers protects him. If after two years he should be driven off he is still protected. The application of external violence dispenses with residence. The court feels itself bound to say so, because the proviso contains a substitute, which, in such a state of things, shall be received instead of a performance of the conditions required by the enacting clause, and.of that substitute residence forms no part. * * * That the exclusive object of an act to give lands to settlers would be the settlement of the country will be admitted. But that an act to sell lands to settlers must have for its exclusive object the settlement of the country cannot be so readily conceded. In attempting to procure settlements the treasury was certainly not forgotten. How far the two objects might be consulted, or how far the one yielded to the other, is only to be inferred from the words in which the legislative intention has been expressed. * * * This is a contract, arid, although a state is a party, it ought to be construed according to those well established principles which regulate contracts generally. The state is in the situation of a person who holds forth to the world the conditions on which he is willing to sell his property. If he should couch his propositions in such ambiguous terms that they might be understood differently, in consequence of which sales were to be made and the purchase money paid, he would come with an ill grace into court to insist on a latent and obscure meaning which should give him back his property and permit him to retain this purchase money. All those principles of equity and fair dealing which constitute the basis of judicial pi'oceedings require that courts should lean against such a donstruction." It was thereupon directed that an opinion in accordance with the foregoing utterances be certified to the circuit court, in which the case was again tried, and Judge Washington charged the jury in accordance with that opinion. Verdict for plaintiff. Thus the vexed question of the validity of the Holland Company's prevention certificates and of the titles founded on them was settled by the highest judicial tribunal in the United States. Still there was considerable controversy thereafter as to what constituted a settlement under the law. Much light was shed upon this point, which was at issue in the trial, in the opinion of Judge Washington, in the case of Balfour's Lessee vs. Meade, in the circuit court of the United States. One of the earliest occupants of Holland lands in this township was Philip Essex, who was first assessed in Toby township, with one cow, at $10, in 1806; the next year with 200 acres "imp.," and one cow, at $36, and thereafter with 100 acres "imp.," and one cow for several years, and then purchased the land. Benjamin B. Cooper conveyed to him ninety-seven acres of allotment 6, tract 287, warrant 2872, called "Burton Hall," May 20, 1817, for $97. It was that part of "Burton Hall" adjoining the Nicholson tract, No. 1150, on the north, south of Red Bank creek, and about 276 )f~d />-~)9~ ( 6 ( WILLIAM McKINSTRY. The subject of this sketch is a namesake of his grandfather, who was a native of Mifflin county, Pennsylvania; emigrated at an early day to Westmoreland county, where he lived for a short time and then removed to Armstrong county, and settled two miles east of Apollo. After a three years' stay he went on a business trip to his original home and died while there. At the time of his settlement here he entered 136 acres of land, built a cabin and made quite a clearing. He married Elizabeth Ross, who was born in Mifflin county, but died here in 1847. She was twice married, her second husband being James Harel. Her children by her first marriage were James, Margaret, Alexander, Sarah and William, who are all deceased. By her second husband she had four children-Jane, John W., Mary and David. James McKinstry, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Mifflin county, May 17, 1794. He married Sarah Jackson, January 16, 1819. She was born January 16, 1800. The offspring of this union were ten children: William, Sarah, Elizabeth, Jackson, Polly, James, Thompson, Jane, Catharine and Alexander, all of whom are now living. The father and mother of this family lived in the neighborhood of Apollo all of their married lives, except five years when they were upon a farm in Jefferson county. They experienced the hardships and privations incidental to the lives of the early settlers. During her early married life Mrs. McKinstry had no stove, but did all of the cooking for the family over the old-fashioned fireplace. She used the spinning-wheel expertly, and spun and wove the flax and wool from which the clothing for all of the members of the family was made. She is still living and makes her home with her son William. This son was born October 20, 1819, and married February 5, 1844, Miss Lydia Andre, who was born in this state, July 16, 1823. They have had eleven children:Sarah E., John B., James B., Samuel T., Matilda A., William C., Mary E., Eunice T., Emily E., Zilla S., and an infant who died unnamed. After their marriage this couple lived for a number of years upon Mr. McKinstry's grandfather's farm, but in 1856 he purchased his present home of 100 acres. Mr. McKinstry has followed farming and also occupied himself with the manufacture of grain cradles, and from these industries combined he has made a livelihood and paid for a valuable farm, which he has well improved. Mrs. McKinstry's parents were John and Elizabeth (Iseman) Andre, the former born in Northampton county and the latter in Westmoreland, this state. They had ten children, as follows: Mary (now dead), William, Eliza, Lydia, Catharine, Samuel, Andrew, Sarah, Daniel and Hannah. John Andre died in 1849, at the age of fifty-six, and Elizabeth, his wife, October 7, 1881, at the age of eighty-eight years and eight months. fES IDENCE OF W/I LLIAM M& KINSTF(Y. MADISON TOWNSHIP. three miles from its mouth. It was noted on the assessment for the next year as transferred to Sommers Baldwin, who probably did consummate his contract with Essex by paying the purchase money before his death, for Essex, April 17, 1827, then of Morgan county, Ohio, conveyed it to Robert Brown, who conveyed it, June 20, for $200, to Fred'k Crisman, to some of whose heirs it now belongs. It was adjoined by allotment 3 on the north, which was first occupied, if not owned, by Francis Stanford, who was first assessed with twenty acres of it, two horses and two cows, at $55, in 1807; with 130 acres in and for several years after 1810, and then with 200 acres until 1820, and then his widow with that number until 1823, when it appears to have been transferred to Alexander Duncan, who was then first assessed with the same and fifty acres additional, two horses and two cows, at $316. Cooper conveyed 224 acres, parts of "Burton Hall," and tracts 284 and 285, covered by warrants 2876 and 2875, to Duncan, January 23, 1834, for $280, portions or all of which still belong to his heirs. When he first settled here there were not more than six or eight other permanent settlers within the present limits of this township. Allotment No. 1 is a parallelogram in the northwestern part of the tract, now in Clarion county, and was one of the tracts purchased by Philander Raymond for the Great Western Iron Works, at Brady's Bend. Allotment 2, 170 acres, adjoined No. 1 on the east, and it appears from the map of original tracts, though not from the tax-list of Toby township, to have been occupied by Harman Farber. So, also, allotment No. 4, 140 acres, chiefly in the northwestern bend of the Red Bank, which adjoined No. I on the south, and both 1 and 4, adjoining the Nicholson-Hamilton-Reynolds tract, No. 1151, on the west, appear to have been occupied by John Davis. It was, however, conveyed by Willink & Co. to Jacob Christman, as containing 157 acres and 41 perches, November 22, 1834, for $251. Christman having died intestate, it became vested in Jacob H. Christman, whose guardian, by virtue of an order of the orphans' court of this county, conveyed it to John M. Christman, October 3, 1874, for $2,500, who, with Ann Craig, late the widow of Jacob Christman, conveyed it to Alexander Reynolds, October 5, for $5,000, and it is now a part of the present Red Bank Furnace property. Allotment 5, 200 acres, in the broad, deep bend of the Red Bank, now in Clarion county, was settled by Fleming Davidson about 1806. lHe was first assessed the next year with it and two horses, at $266. Not having perfected his title to it, Willink & Co. conveyed it, as containing 201 acres and 35 perches, to John Reed, November 17, 1837, for $301.87. The heretofore-mentioned Indian path from the mouth of Mahoning via the Dogwood corner in "Springfield," and along the ridge, traversed the central portion of allotment 6 and the western portion of allotment 3 of "Burton Hall," a short distance east of the present public road from Duncanville to Lawsonham. Willink & Co. conveyed 111 acres and 96 perches to Hugh C. Jackson, March 29, 1849, for $111.50. Willink & Co. conveyed 146 acres and 44 perches partly of "Burton Hall" and of tract No. 288, warrant No. 2871, to Alexander Duncan, November 24, 1837, for $109.87, and 254 acres of the latter tract, March 10, 1840, for $392.25. Duncan's executors conveyed 190 acres of the latter tract to George Duncan, June 5, 1851, which was, after his death, awarded to A. McNickle, who conveyed it as containing 201 acres and 154 perches to D. C. Collingwood, May 7, 1870, for $5,600, to whom 196 acres are assessed in 1876 at $2,352. Colwell & Co. conveyed 50 acres and 95 perches of this tract to Samuel Balsiger, June 22, 1849, for $20.50. Adjoining "Burton Hall" on the north were the Holland tracts 284 and 285, covered by warrants Nos. 2876 and 2875, with 300 acres partly of each, two horses and three cattle. David Lawson was first assessed in 1812 at $300, to whom Cooper conveyed 454 acres, June 23, 1824, for $500. Lawson resided on the westernmost of those tracts when he was a member of the house of representatives of this state, from Armstrong county, in 1824-5 and in 1828-9. He subsequently conveyed portions of the land embraced in that purchase to his sons, Robert D. and John Lawson. The present town of Lawsonham is situated, probably on tract No. 284, on the north or Clarion side of the Red Bank. There was a small portion of this parcel on the south side of the Red Bank, containing about five acres, which was sold as unseated for taxes assessed on it to Lawson's heirs, and which Thomas McMasters, treasurer of this county, conveyed to Robert Lawson Brown, June 19, 1854; the latter to Hunter Orr, January 17, 1861, for $100; and he to George W. Bain, November 9,1868, for $300. This little parcel now belongs to the Brookville Oil company, on which they drilled an unproductive oil well. The first conveyance of any part of this tract was of 151 acres of allotment 1, in the northeastern part, by Willink & Co. to Jacob Bowser, of Washington county, Maryland, December 27, 1829, for $110. It does not appear from the assessment list that he ever resided on this parcel. It has nevertheless been known for many years as the " Bowser Flat." Hle having 277 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. died intestate, without issue, his father and next of kin conveyed it to John A. Colwell & Co., March 26 and October 11, 1855, and they to Peter Shoemaker, September 1, 1859, for $1,200, and he to the present owner of the main portion of it, Joseph B. Shoemaker, June 10, 1869, for $1,800. In the southern part of this township, between the heretofore-mentioned tracts covered by a warrant to Joseph Coosh and the tract of vacant land covered by the patent to Jacob Moyers, was a Holland tract No. 318, warrant to Le Roy & Co., No. 3001, which was not placed on the unseated list of Red Bank township until 1816. Its first white settler appears to have been Philip Anthony, who was first assessed in 1814 with two horses and two cows, at $12, and the next year with 100 acres as an improvement, one horse and one cow, at $41. Proceedings to dispossess him were instituted soon after the company's agent ascertained that he had settled on it, in 1817-18, while Philip Mechling was sheriff, during the pendency of which Anthony died. Portions of it may have been occupied by settlers during the next quarter of a century. Willink & Co. conveyed 148 acres and 147 perches of allotment 3 to Jeremiah Bonner, June 28, 1843, for $149; 113 acres of allotment 6, in the southwestern part, to Jacob Moyers, December 9, for $71; to James Anthony 183 acres and 80 perches of allotment 2, in the southeastern part, August 12, 1846, for $202; to Reynolds & Richey, 122 acres and 22 perches of allotment 4 in the southern part, June 5, 1846, for $115, which had previously been occupied by I. M. Sparr, and 72 acres and 136 perches, November 24, 1848, for $36.50, the former of which parcels, being partly in Madison and partly in Pine township, they conveyed to George Reedy April 2, 1861, for $1,000, on which, near the mouth of a run emptying into the Mahoning from the northwest, a gristmill was erected in 1874, which was first assessed in 1875. A considerable portion of this tract (318) is now included in the Stewardson Furnace property. Contiguous to that tract on the north was the main portion of tract No. 316, covered by warrant No. 2865. Willink & Co. conveyed 103 acres and 13 perches off the east end of allotments 4 and 6, to Joseph Moorhead, November 30, 1836, for $103.50; to George Nulf, 108 acres and 41 perches, June 5, 1837, for $108.35, which the latter conveyed to David Yuant (who had settled on it in 1839), May 17, 1841, for $550, and he to Samuel Myers, 180 acres and 34 perches, May 14, 1864, for $1,700. Isaac E. Shoemaker opened a store on this parcel, with which he was first assessed in 1868. Here, too, has sprung up the little town of Centerville, containing a dozen or more buildings, among which is one of the public schoolhouses of this township. It is said that this town was named Centerville because its position is about central on one of the routes between Kellersburgh in this and Oakland in Mahoning township. Mail matter from several postoffices was brought for awhile by private conveyances to Shoemaker's store for persons living at Centerville and its vicinity, for which reason it is noted on the township map of 1876 as "Private P. O." Willink & Co. conveyed 193 acres of allotment 2 to Jeremiah Bonner, August 5, 1840, for $463, which he conveyed to Thomas Black twelve days afterward, for $1,300. Willink & Co. conveyed to George W. Truitt 138 acres and 148 perches off the east end of allotments 3 and 5, March 7, 1859, for $163.47, on which is his present homestead. The northeastern part of this tract was formerly occupied by George Painter, who came here from one of the Wistar tracts, north of the Red Bank, in 1833, with a portion of which and of the Joseph Cook tract he was assessed for several years, but the records do not show that he perfected his title to either of these parcels. A glance at the township map shows that various parts of this tract are comparatively well populated. Next north of the foregoing was tract No. 309, covered by warrant No. 2864, of which Willink & Co. conveyed 170 acres and 131 perches, parts of allotments 4 and 6, to Daniel Reedy, Novemher 20, 1837, for $178.75; to James Delp 180 acres and 18 perches of the same allotments, February 17, 1840, for $177, and he to Peter George, May 1, for $810.47; to Reynolds & Richey 95 acres off another part of this tract, November 4, 1848, for $95.50; to Thomas McKee, 207 acres and 120 perches of allotment 1, February 28, 1846, for $208; to Jacob Williams 190 acres of allotment 5, March 10, 1849, for $199; to Samuel Rhodes 175 acres and 140 perches of allotment 2, May 25, 1840, for $175.80, and he to George Nulf 50 acres and 80 perches, September 20, 1841, for $50.80; Willink & Co. to Samuel Balsiger 178 acres and 131 perches of allotments 4 and 6, June 17, 1840, for $178.75. Next north of the foregoing was tract No. 290, warrant No. 2852. Willink & Co., conveyed 135 acres and 96 perches of allotment 1 to Reynolds & Richey, March 8, 1844, for $300; 121 acres and 100 perches to William Paine, June 18, 1845, for $74.11, with 60 acres of which he was first assessed *Deanville postoffice was established here August3, 1877, Isaac E. Shoemaker, postmaster, so called after Rev. J. F. Dean, a Baptist clergyman, who occ(asionally preached to the people here. 278 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. right angles. It was divided into two hundred and forty-eight in-lots and twenty-seven out-lots. One hundred and sixty-one in-lots were sold soon after and assessed at $1,858, or an average of $11.54 per lot. The eighty-seven in-lots then remaining unsold were assessed at $882, or an average of $10.14 per lot. The twenty-seven out-lots at $288, or the average of $10.67 per lot. ATTACHED TO WESTMORELANI). This county was for several years after its organization by the act of 1800 attached to Westmoreland county, until there was an enumeration of its taxable inhabitants. The first settlement of accounts between the boards of commissioners of the two counties was in 1808, when there was found to be a balance due from Westmoreland to Armstrong county of $2,978.11, which was certified by the commissioners of the former, and for which they also certified that they would draw an order on the treasurer of their county in favor of the treasurer of our county. JUDICIAL ORGANIZATION. Armstrong county was organized for judicial purposes in 1805, and the first court was held in a log house, on lot number 121, the present site of the Reynolds House, in December of that year. The bench was a very primitive one, and consisted in part of a carpenter's bench. The chair in which the president judge then sat is now in the possession of Mrs. Jane Williams, of Kittanningborough. It is a splint-bottom arm-chair. At that and subsequent terms, until the bell for the court-house was procured, the times for opening the daily sessions of the court were signified by the blowing of a horn by the court crier, who was James IHannegan. John Young, of Greensburgh, was soon after appointed president judge of the judicial district, then composed of Armstrong, Cambria, Indiana, Somerset and Westmoreland counties, and Capt. Robert Orr, George Ross and James Barr, Esqs., were appointed associate judges of the several courts of this county. The constitution of 1790 prescribed that the governor should appoint, unless otherwise directed by law, "not fewer than four judges in each county." The act of February 24, 1806, prescribed that if a vacancy should thereafter happen in any county then organized, by the death, resignation or removal of any associate judge or otherwise, the governor should not supply the same unless the number of associates should thereby be reduced to less than two; in which case, or in case of any county thereafter organized, he should commission so many as would complete that number in each county, and no more. The act of April 14, 1834, prescribed that the courts of common pleas of the several counties of this commonwealth, except Philadelphia, should consist of a president judge and two associate judges, who, as was the case before, were also constituted judges of the courts of Oyer and Terminer, quarter-sessions of the peace and orphans' courts. The courts were held in the jail after it was built until the first court-house was erected. THE FIRST COURT. From the minutes of December sessions, 1805, recorded in the neat and legible chirography of Paul Morrow, the first prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas and clerk of the other courts, it appears thus: Present, Samuel Roberts, Esquire, President, and James Barr, Robert Orr and George Ross, Esquires, Justices of the same court. Sheriff: John Orr, Esq. Coroner:. Constables: Alexr. Blair, Buffalo township; James Scott, Allegheny township; and Joseph Reed, Toby township. Attorneys admitted: Samuel Massey, Samuel Guthrie, George Armstrong, John B. Alexander and Wmin. Ayers. John B. Alexander was sworn to execute the office of Attorney-General within the county of Armstrong. Grand Jurors: Wmin. Parker, Esq., James McCormick, Adam Maxwell, Joseph Shields, Gideon Gibson, James Elgin, John Laughlin, Isaac Townsend, John Corbett, Wmin. Freeman, Sam'l Orr, Esq., Sam'l Walker, Capt. Thos. Johnston, James Coulter, Jacob Allimony, John Craig, Esq., James Lindly, Col. Elijah Mounts, Thos. Barr, John Henry, James Clark, Esq., James Thompson and David Todd. Traverse Jurors: James Smith, Jacob Young, Philip Bolin, Sam'l Hill, Parker Truitt, Jacob Wolf, James Gaff, Thos. Herron, George Beck, John Week, Eli Bradford, Tate Allison, Peter Le Fever, John Beatty, Win. Cochran, Michael Anderson, Gilbert Wright, Timothy Lermonton, Thos. Foster, John Patrick, Andrew Milligan, Thos. Watson, Abraham Gardner, Sam'l Elder, Philip Templeton, Ezekiel Lewis, John Davis and Joseph McKee. Petitioners for tavern licenses recommended: David Reynolds, David Shields, Joseph Wiles and Win. Cochran. Ex. orders: Petitions were also presented for the division of this county into townships, for the Crooked Creek bridge, and for public roads from Kittanning to Toby's Creek, from Freeport to the Butler county line, from Freeport to Brown's Ferry, and from Thomas's Mill to Reed's Mill. Viewers were appointed. MADISON TOWNSHIP. in 1840; and he to John and Jacob Pence, present owners, the same, December 29, 1859, for $1,100; 62 acres and 40 perches, the same day, to Peter G. Reed, for $37.98; 1011 acres of allotment 1 of this tract, and allotment 3 of the contiguous tract No. 382 to Robert Drain, September 14, 1846, with which he was first assessed, at $160, in 1840; B. B. Cooper's executor conveyed 150 acres and 40 perches to George C. Nulf, February 15, 1853, for $300.50, and he conveyed 75 acres and 20 perches to John Bish, September 17, for $751, with which the latter had been first assessed in 1839, at $75. Cooper's executor conveyed 2531 acres of allotment 2 to Anderson, David J. and James A. Truitt, November 17, 1855, for $800, with which Anderson had been first assessed in 1837 at $370.50, and his father, Thomas Truitt, with one cow at $8. A part of this parcel now belongs to Anderson Truitt's heirs. Next north was tract No. 282, warrant No. 2848, the northeastern portion of which was in what is now Clarion county. It was skirted on the north by the eastern half of "J. Maxwell's, 400 acres, Improvement." The latter, as represented on the map of original tracts, was a notably long and narrow parallelogram, which extended from the original line between Toby and Red Bank townships to the western line of the " W. & R. White" tract, thirty or forty rods east of the Leatherwood, by which it and allotment 2 of tract 282 were traversed. Digressing somewhat some distance north from the mouth of Leatherwood, David Shields settled in 1810 on vacant land, with 200 acres of which he was then assessed, and some years afterward with a less quantity, until 1834, after which his name does not appear on the tax-list of Red Bank township. Tradition, which appears to be well authenticated, says that one of his sons, when five years of age, was captured or kidnapped by the Indians who took him to some point within what are now the limits of Jefferson county and elsewhere. Nineteen years afterward his father, having ascertained where he was, and some others who aided him, succeeded in effecting the rescue and return home of the captive. The latter remained there but a week or ten days. He said there was a leadmine near the mouth of Leatherwood, and promised to point it out to his brothers, but did not. Subsequent diligent but vain searches were made for it. Having married a squaw and having become fond of Indian life, the home of his parents became irksome to him, so he escaped one night with a party of Indians who were whooping around his father's house, and never returned. One of the earliest settlers on tract No. 282 was John Switzer, who was first assessed with 100 acres of allotment 3, 1 horse and cow, at $338, in 1837. He does not appear to have perfected his title, for Willink & Co. conveyed the 156 acres and 110 perches with which he was last assessed in 1841 to Owen Meredith, August 12, 1845, for $314, which is now owned by Thomas Meredith, which is assessed this year (1876) at $1,248. The earliest permanent white settler on. tract 282 appears to have been Philip Bish, who was first assessed with 70 acres of it and 1 horse, in 1817, at $72, which quantity of land and 17 acres more Willink & Co. conveyed to him August 23, 1847, for $87. George Kogh was first assessed with 50 acres in that part of allotment I in the deep northwesterly bend of the Red Bank, 1 sawmill, 1 yoke of oxen, and 1 cow, in 1830, at $146.25, to whom Willink & Co. conveyed 68 acres and 60 perches, July 12, 1848, for $51. This point is called "Broken Rock." There is a small parcel of this allotment in the deep bend of the creek belonging to the Broken Rock Oil Company, who several years ago drilled a well, striking a moderate vein of gas, but not a paying quantity of oil. Kogh conveyed 14 acres of his parcel to Mary Bleakney July 4, 1862, for $50, which she conveyed to the present owner, James Courson, March 20, 1871, for $305. John Payne was first assessed with 120 acres, 1 yoke of oxen and 1 cow, in 1838, at $154, the land being then valued at 75 cents an acre. Willink & Co. conveyed 198 acres of allotments 1 and 3, September 9, 1847, for $250. He died intestate. His son, Alexander B. Paine, conveyed 120 acres of this parcel to Mary Thompson, August 13, 1860, for $1,240, who conveyed 20 acres and 73 perches thereof to James Courson, May 5, 1873, for $200. Passing down the left bank of the creek, tract No. 289, covered by warrant No. 2859, is reached. Willink & Co. conveyed 175 acres and 24 perches of allotment 6, the southeastern one, to George Arnold, October 3, 1835, for $109.46. Willink & Co. conveyed 250 acres of allotments 2 and 4 to Jacob F. Keller, April 8, 1841, for $156.73, in pursuance of a previous agreement to sell and purchase. Keller having agreed to sell 200 acres of his parcel to Joseph Sowash, January 18, 1838, and Sowash having agreed, June 15, 1841, to sell the same to Christian Shunk, and the latter and Alexander Reynolds having entered into an agreement of copartnership, July 3, for purchasing the same and to erect thereon a furnace for the manufacture of pig-iron from the ore under the name and style of Reynolds & Shunk, Keller conveyed to them, July 3, the 250 acres and 123 perches 279 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. which he had purchased from Willink & Co., for $752, which thus became the parcel on which Reynolds & Shunk erected the Old Red Bank Furnace in 1841. Shunk retired soon after the furnace went into blast, and was succeeded by David Richey. The firm name was then Reynolds & Richey until the furnace ceased to be operated in 1853. It was a steam, cold-blast, charcoal furnace, 9 feet in the bosh by 32 feet high, and made, on an average, 50 tons of pig metal a week, giving employment, on an average, to 150 persons, and was in the end a source of profit to its proprietors, who purchased a large quantity of land in the circumjacent region, considerable portions of which they have sold at a reasonable advance. Contiguous to that tract were other Holland Company tracts, Nos. 283 and 288, covered by warrants Nos. 2847 and 2876, partly in what is now Clarion county. Willink & Co. conveyed 1509 acres and 31 perches, parts of them, and No. 289, to the late Judge Buffington, October 15, 1845, for $1,131, 776 acres and 135 perches of which in this county he conveyed to Reynolds & Richey, fifteen days later, for $3,395.68, which of course became a part of the furnace property, the greatly enhanced value of which was attributable to the successful operation of the old Red Bank Furnace. The present Red Bank Furnace - which is, so to speak, a descendant of the old one - was erected by Alexander Reynolds and the late Thomas McCullough, in 1858, on the tract originally owned by James Watterson, about 300 yards above the mouth of Red Bank, in Clarion county, just below the neck of Brady's Bend, a large portion of its supplies being obtained from this county. It is the first coke-furnace near the Allegheny river. The proprietors met with some difficulty in finding a ready market on this side of the mountains for their coke-made iron. Its present owners are Reynolds & Moorhead. Its product has been from 90 to 105 tons a week of gray mill metal, wasting less than 6 per cent in puddling, with coke made from the Upper Freeport coalbed coal and buhrstone ore and limestone, all mined in the hillsides back of the furnace. The stack is 39 feet and 8 inches high, and 11 feet across the boshes, with a squarecut stone base and a round looped cylinder, of 3 feet brick wall, with 18 inches lining and 6 inches packing between. The fuel used in 1865 was one-half coke and one-half coal, in alternate charges, thus: First charge, raw coal, 10 bushels; ore, 633 lbs.; limestone, 253 lbs.; three of these making a charge. Second charge: three times 10 bushels coke and 633 lbs. ore, and 253 lbs. limestone. The upright furnace engine worked 30 lbs. steam, and the gauge stood between 31 and 4 lbs. pressure on the cylinder; a very beautiful engine, with a 28-inch steam cylinder, mounted'endwise on a 5- feet blowing cylinder, the stroke common to both being 41 feet. The gases are taken off on each side of the tunnel-head some feet down,'and introduced beneath the hot-blast house and boilers, standing on a t6rrace about 6 feet above the casting floor, but under the same roof. The length of the air cylinder is 20, and its diameter 10 feet. The three boilers are 3 by 36 feet, with an extra flue boiler in case of accident. The coke is shot upon high screens; the raw coal is deposited on the stockyard floor, part of which is used for a calcining yard.* Adjoining tract 289 on the south was No. 310, covered by warrant No. 2860. Peter and David Bish appear to have been first assessed with 166 acres in the southeastern part of it, and one cow, in 1828, at $91. Willink & Co. conveyed to the former 186 acres of allotment 6, February 1, 1830, for $116.25, 50 acres and 106 perches of which he conveyed to Samuel Bish, March 15, 1844, who conveyed the same to the present owner, Thomas Truitt, Jr., June 21, 1847, for $400. They conveyed 121 acres of the northern part of allotment 2 to Nicholas Keller, June 3, 1834, for $75.62, who settled thereon the same year. Red Bank postoffice, C. Shunk, postmaster, was established here May 13, 1842. It was changed to Kellersburgh, February 24, 1871; David Gaunt, postmaster. Keller laid out on the parcel which he had purchased the town of Kellersburgh, consisting of twenty-three lots, thirteen of which are on the east and ten on the west side of the Olean road, which is the main street, three rods wide. The only other street is the one between lots Nos. 5 and 6, one rod and a half wide. The area of each lot is 4X10 rods, and contains one-quarter of an acre. The bearings of the main street and the easterly and westerly boundary lines of the town are north ten degrees east, and south ten degrees west. These lots were surveyed by J. E. Meredith for Nicholas Keller, Sr., July 19, 1842. The first sale of them was advertised by the proprietor in this wise: "The site is a beautiful one and in an excellent settlement, as there is no part of Armstrong county improving as rapidly at this time as that section. The surrounding country abounds with iron ore and coal, and the great road, leading from the borough of Kittanning to Olean Point, passes through the same, also the road from the former place to the new and thriving town of Clarion, and * Prof. Lesley's report. 280 Y>AP, G A1ET TODC G LIrTHllE. GUTHRIE FAMILY. James Guthrie was among the earliest pioneers of this county, coming here about 1798. He was of Irish birth, as was also his wife, Margaret (Dixon) Guthrie. They patented and settled upon a tract of heavy timbered land, containing 336 acres. This Mr. Guthrie cleared up and lived upon it until his death. His son, Andrew Dixon Guthrie, was born on this farm and lived there all of his life. lie married Margaret Todd Cummins, of whom a portrait appears on this page. She was born on Crooked creek, Indiana county, where her parents, who were of Scotch-Irish descent, had settled at a very early day. They emigrated from the Shenandoah valley, Virginia, where the families located on coming to America, and where some of their descendants now reside, a strong and thriving race of people. Mrs. Guthrie now lives with a brother at the place of her birth. She was thUe mother of six children, three of whom grew to maturity. The names of the latter are Margaret Jane, John Calvin and William C. Guthrie. The two first named are single and are living with their brother on the old home farm. William C. Guthrie was born December 16,1848. He is now engaged in farming and also manufacturing at Apollo a good article of charcoal, for which he finds a market at the ironmill. He is one of Apollo's pushing business men, and a social, genial character. Ile married Margaret, daughter of William and Nancy (Gallagher) McAdoo, of Maysville, Pennsylvania, who was born July 19, 18 19. They have two children, John Andrew, who was born August 25, 1879, and Nancy Todd, born April 11, 1881. 'aILLIAmc CGLITHP~IE, MR~S.ILLAfA C.670THRflE. THE OD'O ~ ESIDENCE OF VVILLIAM C. GLJTHT ]E. J MADISON TOWNSHIP. as the town is about midway between the two places, it offers every inducement that the mechanic and the merchant could require." The sale took place on the 10th of August, which was a very warm day, and was attended by a large number of persons who, inspirited as they were, at least some of them, by Keller's whisky and the music of John Campbell's violin, had a merry time. A number of lots were sold at from $20 to $30 each. The proprietor retained fifteen-sixteenths of an acre for his hotel, store, etc., between lots 19 and 20 on the westerly side of the main street. The first separate assessment list was of twenty-two unseated lots at $10 each, in 1845. The next year sixteen unseated lots were assessed at $20 each, and six at $15 each. In 1876 the number of taxables is 21; minister, 1; laborers, 4; miners, 2; shoemakers, 2; blacksmith, 1; merchant, 1. The real estate is valued at $2,780; and personal property and occupations at $595. Kellersburg has a Lutheran and a Methodist Episcopal Church. The first-mentioned society built in 1838, two years after it was organized, a log house of worship, but now has a very good frame building, nicely finished, 40 X 30 feet in dimensions. Rev. G. A. Reichert, the first minister, was succeeded by Rev. Kyle. Rev. W. Selner was pastor in 1876. The Methodist Episcopal Church is a substantial frame building erected in 187-. Its dimensions are 45 X 40 feet. Willink & Co. conveyed 59 acres of the southern part of allotment 2 to Caspar Beer, June 4, 1834, for $36.87, which he conveyed to Jacob F. Keller, July 22, 1840, for $108, and the latter conveyed 22 acres and 80 perches thereof to John Heasley, February 16, 1860, for $265; Willink & Co. to John Mohney 173 acres of allotment 4, June 21, 1837, for $108.12, who kept a hotel; 135 acres and 46 perches of allotment 5 to Charles Merrill, August 28, 1838, for $1,000, which Merrill conveyed to James and Thomas Feely, November 1, 1845, they to William Garner, October 26, 1848, and he to William Geddes, March 3, 1851, for $6,000. Adjoining that tract on the south was No. 315, covered by warrant No. 2867. Willink & Co. conveyed 165 acres of allotment 5 to Peter Bish, December 15, 1828, for $103.12; to Jacob Moyers, heretofore mentioned, 191 acres and 85 perches of allotments 2, 4, 6, November 29, 1830, for $119, of which he conveyed 1 acre and 45 perches to Elizabeth Courson, June 9, 1856, for $50, and 152 acres and 30 perches of allotments 4 and 6, September 7, 1846, for $100; 48 acres and 100 perches to Samuel Cassat, October 3, 1835, for $30.40, with which and 12 acres more and one cow, he was first assessed in 1838 at $68. John Bain was first assessed with 70 acres of allotment 5, one horse and one cow in 1833, at $66, to whom Willink & Co. conveyed 96 acres, February 6, 1838, for $60, of which Bain conveyed 12 acres and 33 perches to John Shobert, November 7, 1839, for $50. On the run by which it is traversed the latter erected a second-rate gristmill, with which he was first assessed in 1840 at $100. He conveyed this parcel, "with a frame house and gristmill thereon," to Abel Llewellyn, November 17, 1849, for $700. If there has been a subsequent conveyance, it is not on record. Willink & Co. conveyed 126 acres of allotment I to Joshua Baughman, February 6, 1838, for $78.37, which was occupied by his widow after his death. North of that parcel was one containing 131 acres and 49 perches, occupied and perhaps owned by M. D. Fayette Ely, who was first assessed with 100 acres in 1837, at $130, with which he continued to be assessed until 1840. Jacob Pettigrew was first assessed with 100 acres, mostly of this, but partly of tract No. 314, and one cow, in 1837, at $83, to whom Colwell and his co-purchasers conveyed 173 acres, June 19, 1852. He conveyed 25 acres thereof to John Pettigrew, October 8, for $50, and 28 acres the next day to Josinah Pettigrew, for $84. Just north of the Pettigrew purchase was another parcel containing about the same quantity, which was formerly occupied by John Neil, to whom it and an additional quantity and one horse were first assessed in 1842 at $475. Contiguous to tract No. 315 on the west was tract No. 314, covered by warrant No. 2868, called "Elliott Grove," which adjoined the original line between Toby and Red Bank townships on the east and the heretofore-mnientioned vacant land on the south. It and several of the other foregoing tracts * were included in the purchase made by Sommers Baldwin, alluded to in the sketch of the Holland Land Company, which appears in Chapter I. Baldwin conveyed 200 acres of allotment 5, which was in the south central part of the tract, to Hewlett Smith, April 19, 1817, for $400. Those tracts having become revested in Willink & Co., they conveyed 165 acres and 17 perches of allotment 6, in the southeastern part of "Elliott Grove," to Joseph Sowash, June 3, 1830, which he conveyed to Charles B. Schotte, April 26, 1831, for $800, which the latter conveyed to George Smith, August 1, 1839, for $1,000, 50 acres of which Smith conveyed to Abraham Bailey, August 23, 1851, for $500, and he to Casper Flick, March 23, 1867, for $1,000, and Smith to Flick 100 acres, * Warrants 2848. 2852, 2860, 2864, 2865, 2867, 2869,2881, 2886, and the hereinafter-mentioned ones, 2869, 2870. 281 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. June 16, 1853, for $1,800,t leaving about 15 acres now belonging to one or more of Smith's heirs. Willink & Co. also confveyed other portions of "Elliott Grove" thus: One hundred and sixtythree acres and 79 perches to John Mulholland, March 1, 1832, for $102.17, which John L. Mulholland conveyed to Oliver Gray, April 29, 1847, for $700, 104 acres and 91 perches of which he conveyed to Harvey Gray, November 23, 1854, for $350, and 77 acres to Aaron Gray, October 9, 1855, for $350; Willink & Co. to Oliver Gray, 186 acres and 8 perches, June 16, 1841, for $372; 194 acres and 130 perches to Samuel Balsiger, July 5, for $194.75, a portion of which he conveyed to James Duncan, September 14, 1847, and 1 acre of which Duncan conveyed to James Craig, Samuel Craig, Sr., and Henry Heasley, trustees of the Middle Creek Presbyterian church, June 28, 1854, for $13. That church, so-called because of its situation between Mahoning and Red Bank creeks, was organized by the Saltsburg Presbytery in 1844, but was not reported as having a "pastor-elect" until 1854, and soon thereafter a commodious frame edifice, 30X 40 feet, was erected on that last-mentioned acre. It enjoyed a stated supply until the next year. After a vacancy of about four years it was favored with the ministrations of Rev. WV. P. Moore, afterward "the popular and successful pastor of Manchester church, in Allegheny City." Its pastor from 1863 till 1867 was Rev. J. H. Sherrard, since of Bucyrus, Ohio, who was succeeded by Rev. J. A. E. Simpson from 1868 until 1870. About that time it was detached from the Clari,on and attached to the Kittanning Presbytery. Its membership in 1876 was seventy. Duncanville, a hamlet containing eighteen build ings, so called after James Duncan, who in 1854, was first assessed with "a new house and store room," is situated on this parcel. Jeremiah Bon ner was assessed the same year with " a new store house," at $100. Bonner & Duncan kept a store here for a few years. Frederick Fair was assessed as a merchant here in 1866, and was succeeded by Thomas Meredith in 1868, who is still here. The elections have been held here since the organization of Clarion county. Here too, for many years was the site of one of the public schoolhouses of this township, in which, after 1854, the annual examina tions of teachers were held. It was situated west of the Lawsonham road in a grov-e, built in and, like soime others of that period, was a shell that ought to have been replaced by a better one much sooner t In the spring of 1880, in the course of digging for ore, a capacious cave with several rooms was opened, which has been visited by numerous persons an( from which fine specimens of stalactite and stalagmite have been obtained. than it was. Its successor, a comfortable frame structure, is situated at the crossroads, about eighty rods southeast of Duncanville. The United Brethren and the Presbyterians also have organized churches here and have houses of worship. Other purchasers of parcels of "Elliott Grove" were: Oliver Gray, to whom Willink & Co. conveyed 186 acres and 8 perches, June 16, 1841, for $372; Elijah French, to whom they conveyed 1391 acres;,- May 29, 1844, for $139.50. According to Meredith's connected draft of parcels, George Craig owned 100 acres and 10 perches, William Toy 100 acres and 150 perches, and George Young 200 acres of " Elliott Grove," when that draft was made. North of allotments 2 and 3 of " Elliott Grove" lay allotment 4 of tract No. 289, warrant No. 2876, north of which and between the above-mentioned original township line and the Nicholson tract, No. 4150, lay the other three allotments of this tract, which was included in the Buffington purchase, 776 acres and 135 perches he conveyed, as before stated, to Reynolds & Richey. This tract originally contained 990 acres, a small parcel of which was conveyed to Alexander Duncan, so that after the conveyance to Reynolds & Richey there was a residue of somewhat more than 130 acres in the southeastern part of this tract, which are assessed in 1876 to E. Buffington, at $798. On the south and west of the Nicholson, No. 1150, was the Holland tract, No. 311, warrant No. 2870, of which Willink & Co. conveyed 220 acres, of allotments 2 and 5, to George Craig, Sr., November 23, 1837, for $137.50, who had been first assessed in 1834, with 180 acres, of tract 315,. warrant 2869, one horse and one cow, at $233, of which he conveyed fifty acres to Catherine Craig, November 13, 1856, for $350. He was a member of Captain Shaeffer's company, Col. Snyder's regt., in the War of 1812, and enlisted in the 103d regt. Pa. Vols. in the late War of the Rebellion, but on account of his advanced age, was not permitted to go to the front. At and before the time of his purchase, allotment 1 of No. 311 was occupied by George Craig, Jr. Willink & Co. conveyed 140 acres and 143 perches of the last-mentioned allotment to George N. Craig, November 21, 1837, for $88 12. Colwell & Co. conveyed 75 acres and 151 perches of allotment 2 to George Craig, April 8, 1859, for $600, with which and one yoke of oxen, hle was first assessed, that year, at $150. South of the last-preceding tract and west of "Elliott Grove" was tract No. 313, warrant No. 2869. The earliest purchaser of a parcel of it 282 JAMES GLfTHFIE. M S.JAMES GUITHF (IE. JAMES GUTHRIE. James Guthrie is one of the oldest residents of Apollo, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, having come there in 1833, from Westmoreland county, where he was born September 20, 1806. His parents, William and Agnes (Dixon) Guthrie, were among the earliest settlers in the county last named. During his early life the subject of our sketch was a land surveyor. He has been engaged in the real estate business, arid for fifteen years followed the occupation of a tanner. Hle was a justice of the peace in the borough of Apollo for ten years, and in the years 1872-3 was assistant clerk in the land office at Harrisburg, under his son. In 1834 Mr. Guthrie married Mrs. Margaret Hall, whose maiden name was Beatty. She was a native of Westmoreland county, born June 9, 1797, and the daughter of John and Jane Beatty, the former born in Maryland, and the latter in Ireland. Mr. and Mrs. Guthrie are living a retired life in Apollo. Both are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. John B. Guthrie, son of James and Margaret Guthrie, was born in 1835. He volunteered as captain of a company of drafted men in the war for the Union. Prior to that time lie had studied law with Mr. Fretty, of Apollo, and had been admitted to the bar in 1857. He practiced his profession until 1872. He married, in 1859, Miss Mary Jane Fretty, daughter of Jacob Fretty, and of this marriage two children were the offspringLuretha A., Walter J. John B. Guthrie died September 21, 1875. His widow now resides with his parents, and his son Walter is receiving an education at Meadville College. MADISON TOWNSHIP. appears to have been Thomas Gray, to whom Willink & Co. conveyed 130 acres and 35 perches of allotment 5, June 19, 1833, for $81, now occupied by Samuel B. Gray, with which and one cow Thomas Gray was first assessed in 1834, at $133.50. The company conveyed some other parcels, thus: 1581 acres of allotment 6 to Robert Campbell, May 31, 1836, for $118.50; 179 acres and 137 perches of allotment 2 to James Coats, October 5, 1836, with which and one horse William Coats was first assessed in 1842; 102 acres and 72 perches of the southern part of allotments 4 and 5 to Gabriel P. Lobeau, April 4, 1837, which he conveyed to John Harman, the present owner of the greater part of it, July 28, 1842, for $80, 13 acres of which the latter conveyed to Lewis Enhurst in 1872, for $150; 175 acres and 60 perches of allotment 3 to John McIninch, June 5, 1837, for $131.50, 13 acres and 46 perches of which he conveyed to William and John R. McCullough, October 3, 1838, and May 13, 1848, and which they conveyed to James Taylor on the last-mentioned day, and he to W. P. Conner, 9 acres, March 8, 1850, for $400, and then, or some other time, Conner conveyed 4 acres to John Craig, who conveyed 1 acre and 32 perches to John A. Craig, Joseph Earley and Samuel B. Gray, "trustees of the Coats Graveyard," March 12, 1870, for $5, and 17 perches and 171A feet to Lewis Shoup, March 6, 1871, fol $50,where the lattgr was first assessed as a blacksmith in 1870, and around which is a small hamlet containing six or more buildings, making somewhat of a business point. George Craig and Andrew Earley must have settled on other portions of this tract in 1834, as they were both then first assessed with portions of it, the assessor then being Richard Reynolds, who very carefully noted the names of the warrantees and the numbers of the tracts. Craig was then assessed with 180 acres and two cows, at $196; Earley with 160 acres, one horse and one cow, at $180, and John Crozier with 100 acres in 1836, at $50. When Meredith made his connected draft of parcels of this and other tracts, Craig owned 179 acres and 100 perches, Crozier 165 acres and 26 perches, and Earley 179 acres and 137 perches. Colwell & Co. conveyed to Earley 89 acres of allotment 1, July 10, 1859, for $179.25. William Watterson was first assessed with 160 acres of this tract and one cow in 1854, at $168. He transferred his interest in the land during the ensuing year to Samuel Craig, who became a permanent resident on that parcel, or at least until he purchased a parcel of the adjoining tract. The only tract of the Holland Company's lands in this county that touched the Allegheny river was No. 312, warrant No. 2910. Robert Dixon and John Hardy were the first purchasers of parcels of it. Willink & Co. conveyed to them as tenants in common 1551 acres of allotment 2, December 24, 1835, for $108.85, and 335 acres and 69 perches of allotments 1 and 2, November 2* 1836, for $235.75. Hardy was first assessed with 167 acres, two horses and one cow in 1841, at $382, and 170 acres at $340. Dixon was first assessed with 100 acres and one cow in 1842, at $60, and the next year with 150 acres and one cow, at $160. Hardy kept a hotel on the parcel, which he occupied for several years. Dixon conveyed his interest in their first parcel to Hardy, and Hardy his interest in 178 acres of the second parcel to Dixon, April 9, 1857. Dixon conveyed the latter quantity to Mrs. Ellen Turner, April 13; she and her husband conveyed 1 acre and 75 perches thereof adjoining the road from the mouth of Red Bank to Duncanville, " upon which St. Mary's Episcopal church has been recently erected," to the " board of trustees of the Diocese of Pittsburgh of the Protestant Episcopal Church of the United States," in April, 1872, for $1-in other words, she gave the ground to the church. The next sales of parcels of this tract by Willink & Co. appear from the records to have been: 122 acres of allotment 6, the southeastern one, to John Wilkins, July 15, 1841, for $92, which, with 403 acres and 32 perches of allotments 5 and 6, adjoining Samuel Earley's improvement on the south and the Allegheny river on the west, his administrator conveyed to Aaron Whittacre's administrator, April 16, 1849, for $2,499.02, which became a part of the American Furnace property. Willink & Co. conveyed 107 acres of the east end of allotment 4 of this tract, and the west end of allotment 1 of tract No. 313, to James Watferson, September 14, 1844, for $107, which he conveyed to George K. Wolf May 6, 1858, for $2,000, 95 acres and 72 perches of which the latter conveyed to the present owner, George W. Craig, April 9, 1866, for $1,850. Willink & Co. conveyed 362 acres of allotments 3 and 5, along the river, to Aaron Whittacre, February 6, 1846, for $372.75, which also became a part of the American Furnace property, 54 acres and 69 perches of which John Jamieson conveyed to Thomas Morrow, July 9, 1860, for $462. In the winter of 1864-5 Charles A. Hardy and Aaron D. Hope expended $1,050 in the purchase of several parcels of this tract, aggregating 112 acres; $1,100 in the purchase of 50 acres of the Samuel Earley improvement; and $500 in the purchase of the coal and mineral rights of two 283 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. other parcels of that Holland tract, which Robert Dixon, John Jamison and R. C. Loomis had conveyed to John Booher, Samuel Nichols, Thomas Morrow, John Langler and Mrs. Ellen Turner, in which Hope still retains his interest. The surface of a large portion of the territory of this township was, when first settled, comparatively sterile. That in the northeastern part, especially in the vicinity of the old Red Bank Furnace, was so much so that it was vulgarly called "Pinchgut." The foregoing prices at which various parcels of the land have at different periods since been sold, as weJl1 as the present condition and appearance of the farms, indicate the beneficial effects of a more skillful and kindly culture than was at first adopted, which was to a great extent induced by the home market created for agricultural products by the Red Bank and Stewardson Furnaces. Until about 1835 the only other road in this township besides the Olean was the one cut through from Bain's to Lawsonham. As late as 1839 there were only two wagons in this township. The most convenient educational facilities enjoyed for several years by the first settlers (Alexander Duncan and others, in the northern part of the township) were afforded by the school on the north side of the Red Bank, near where Lawsonham now is, which was first taught by James Hunter, and then by Robert Lawson and others. The first schoolhouse within the present limits of this township was a primitive log one that was built on Elijah French's farm, about a mile from Gray's Eddy and a greater distance northeast of Rimerton. The first school in that house was taught by Henry Fox, and some of his scholars traveled five miles daily to attend it. The second schoolhouse was similar to that one, and situated near Kellersburgh, in which David Truitt was the first teacher. Daylight entered both of those primitive temples of knowledge through greased paper instead of glass.* The next was situated about 145 rods west of the present eastern boundary line of this township, "near the present residence of John Bish." t The first under the free school law was situated nearly a mile northwest of the last-mentioned one, on the farm of Henry Pence. Most, if not all, of the rest were the usual log structures. One of them - the one near what is now Centerville - was still in use on the writer's last tour of visitation to the schools of this county, in 1866. In 1860 the number of schools was 8; average *John Rimer's statement respecting those two schools and schoolhouses. t Superintendent Glenn's Historical Sketch of Education in Arm strong county. number of months taught, 4; male teachers, 8; female teachers, 0; average salaries, $17; male scholars, 229; female scholars, 184; average number attending school, 226; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 35 cents; amount levied for school purposes, $784.20; received from state appropriation, $91.87; from collectors, $563; cost of instruction, $546; fuel and contingencies, $37.79; cost of schoolhouses, $15.58. In 1876 the number of schools was 8; average number of months taught, 5; male teachers, 7; female teachers, 1; average salaries of both male and female, per month, $30; male scholars, 255; female scholars, 256; average number attending school, 119; cost per month, 52 cents; amount of tax levied for school and building purposes, $2,852.06; received from state appropriation, $413.85; from taxes, etc., $3,254.01; cost of schoolhouses, $1,303.17; paid for teachers' wages, $1,243.50; fuel, etc., $1,177.21. Population, including that of the section now included in Mahoning township, in 1850 was: White, 1,142; colored, 9. In 1860: White, 1,140; colored, 0. In 1870: Native, 1,485; foreign, 136. In 1876, number of taxables, 543, representing a population of 2,397. The vote on the question of granting license to sell intoxicating liquors, February 28, 1873, was 99 against and 41 for. There are six merchants of the fourteenth class in this township, according to the Mercantile Appraisers' List for 1876. Occupations other than agricultural and mercantile, according to the assessment list of 1876, including the towns: Laborers, 118; miners, 32; carpenters, 4; shoemakers, 3; blacksmiths, 2; miller, 1; minister, 1; mason, 1; section boss, 1; innkeeper, 1; old persons, 5. Of those engaged in agriculture, 7 are assessed as croppers. GEOLOGICAL. The general geological features of this township, as given to the writer by W. G. Platt, are: Only Lower Productive rocks make the uplands. The lower part of the deep valleys, which skirt the township, are composed of conglomerate and subconglomerate rocks. The Upper Freeport coal is represented only in a few knobs in the eastern and western portions of the township, and has there barely enough rock on top of it to protect it from percolating waters. The Lower Kittanning Coal is the bed chiefly mined, and is from three to four feet thick. The remaining beds of the series are represented where the land is high enough to include them, but, so far as 284 t4)A2 THE WRAY FAMILY. ROBERT WRAY. The progenitor of the Wray family in this section of Pennsylvania was Daniel Wray, who emigrated with his family from County Antrim, Ireland, in the latter part of the eighteenth century, but little of their history is known further than that they were sturdy people who were held in high esteem by those who knew them. Some time previous to 1794 he settled in Franklin county, where Robert Wray was born in the year above mentioned. From Franklin county the family removed to Mount Pleasant, Pennsylvania, and several years later to Indiana county, where the elder Wray purchased a farm adjoining the now prosperous town of Saltsburg. Robert was at this time a young man full of energy and push, and as his father had seriously involved himself in the purchase of the property and was in danger of losing it, he assumed the indebtedness, took the claim, and by engaging in the manufacture of salt (an industry in which he was a pioneer), he paid for the farm, which did not pass out of his possession until after his death. Early in life he was united in marriage with Miss Abagail Manners, whose parents were of German extraction and among the early settlers of Armstrong county. She was a most estimable lady-possessed of many ennobling traits of character; she endeared herself to all by her kindness and benevolence; she was an example of all that is Christian in charity and thought, ready for every good work, herself an illustration of all she taught. Industry and thrift were salient points in her character, and it was with pride that she referred to the fact that her wedding-dress and bonnet were purchased with linen cloth, manufactured by herself from flax of ber own raising. After her marriage she spun and wove a quantity of cloth with which she purchased a copper kettle which is still in possession of the family. Her husband was her counterpart in all that pertains to true nobility of character-a typical pioneer, hardy and resolute, and, inured to all the privations and hardships of frontier life, he was well fitted for the arduous work he did so well. Possessed of more than an ordinary amount of intelligence, he soon became a leading spirit, and his counsel was sought after and many a difficulty between neighbors was amicably adjusted by him, that had it not been for his kindly services would have involved the parties in litigation. His social qualities were marked and his hospitality was proverbial. His "latchstring was always out," and no one was ever turned from his door. In his eighty-fourth year this good old man went to his reward, "full of days, riches and honor." He died on the farm to which he removed soon after his marriage, and which is in possession of his son Robert. His wife survived him until she attained the ripe old age of eighty-four, beloved and honored by all her acquaintances. "None knew her but to love her, None named her but to praise." 64r144fiJ A They reared a family of nine children-Daniel, John M., William H., Robert, Sarah, Elizabeth, Nancy, Anna J. and Abbie M. In his political and religious affiliations, Mr. Wray was a republican and a Presbyterian; all religious enterprises found in him a friend and supporter. His interest in politics was great, and he took a leading part and was one of those citizens desirous of the best welfare of the state and society. JOHN M. WRAY. John M. Wray, the second son of Robert and Abagail Manners, was born in 1818, and was reared on the old homestead in Kiskiminetas township, Armstrong county. His early life was replete with toil and hardship, and it was only by the possession of strong hands and a robust constitution that he was able to endure the arduous labor imposed upon him in making the great transition from the wilderness to productive fields. The present generation can scarcely comprehend the magnitude of the work performed by this pioneer and is cotemporaries, and to them we are indebted for the substructure of our present wealth and prosperity. The father, with his sons, John M., Daniel, William and Robert, cleared a trio of the finest farms in Western Pennsylvania, one of which is still occupied by John M., the others by Daniel and Robert (his elder and youngest brothers). In histwenty-first year he married Miss Anna Margaret, daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Townsend. whose portraits and biography appear elsewhere in this volume. The result of this union were eight children, Harriet M. (Scott), Clara E. (Marshall), Abagail G. (Alexander), Hiram H., Anna M. (deceased), Robert T., Mary A. and Emma E. (deceased). Robert T. is a prominent and successful businessman, and is at present connected with extensive coke works in the Fayette region. The only child remaining under the parental roof is Mary A., the youngest child. Mr. Wray has devoted his life to agricultural pursuits, and in his chosen avocation has been eminently successful; he has given special attention to the rearing of fine stock, especially English draft horses. Notwithstanding he has passed threescore years he is still active, and gives promise of many years of industry and usefulness. During his eventful career he has been three times engaged in mercantile pursuits, but his preference has always been for the farm, which is endeared to him by many precious associations. But few men can retrospect a more successful career; starting in life with only his natural resources for his capital, he has conquered success in everything, and now in his old age surrounded by his children, whose love and respect he holds in the highest degree, and whose positions both in business and society reflect credit upon him, he is still actively engaged in business, and bids fair to attain the position reached by his father. THE SECOND COURT-HOUSE. In the Common Pleas nine suits and one certiorari were brought to December term, 1805, none of which were then tried. Eight judgments by confession on warrant of attorney were also entered as of that term. It appears from the court minutes that Judge Barr was on the bench, for the last time, at December term, 1817; Judge Ross, at March term, 1829, his successor Joseph Rankin; Judge Orr, at June term, 1833, his successor the late Gen. Robert Orr; Judge Young, at September term, 1836, his successor Thomas White, of Indiana, Pennsylvania. So that the first Judges of the courts of this county held their respective positions as follows: Judge Barr 12 years, Judge Ross 24 years, Judge Orr 28 years, and Judge Young 31 years. The act of 1806 obviated the filling of the vacancy caused by the retirement of Judge Barr. Joseph Rankin, then a Member of Assembly, was appointed, though not an ostensible applicant, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Ross. There were several earnest applicants for the vacancy caused by the death of Judge Orr in 1833. Governor Wolf was not a little perplexed by the eager contest between them, to compromise which he tendered the appointment to the son of the deceased, the late Gen. Robert Orr, who at first declined it because he did not wish it, but was finally persuaded by the Governor and Philip Mechling, who was then in the State Senate, to accept it. The tendering of the appointment to Gen. Orr was suggested to the Governor by Mr. Mechling. The circuit court was occasionally held at Kittanning by Chief-Justice Tighlman, and Justices Yeates and Huston, of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, from 1807 until 1834, when it was abolished. THE FIRST COURT-HOUSE was built on one of the acres reserved for public buildings, situate on the southeast corner of Market and Jefferson streets, on the present sites of J. A. Gault & Co.'s and McConnell & Campbell's stores in the then town of Kittanning. It was a substantial brick edifice, about fifty feet square, two stories high, with two one-story brick wings containing the county offices, the one fronting on Market and the other Jefferson street. The roof of the main building was hipped, in the center of which was a cupola in which the bell was suspended. The court-room, in the first or lower story, lacked proper means of ventilation. The jury-rooms were in the second story. Both the brick and wood work, the latter especially, was, in its day, considered a fine specimen of architectural taste and skill. For about two-fifths of a century that edifice was used as a temple of justice, and for a considerable portion of that period as a temple of religion by various denominations, and for political and other secular meetings. Its erection must have been begun in 1809, as the date of the first order for brick, viz., 120,000 at $5 per thousand, is October 7, 1809. It and the public offices were not probably completed until about 1819. An order was issued February 29, 1812, for $5.20 for boards and nails to close it up; July 10, 1816, one for $100, the first payment for plastering and painting the first and second stories; August 7, 1818, one for $212.81- for the bell-283 lbs. at 75 cents; and September 23, 1819, one for $290 for building the register's office. The latest order on account of that court-house and its annexes appears to have been issued March 21, 1820, for $33.78 for carpenter work in the "new room." The commissioners' order-book shows the total amount of orders issued on that account to have been $7,859.19. In 1805 a substantial two-story stone jail was erected on the acre reserved for public use, extend ing from Market, along the west side of McKean street, to a public alley near the present site of the Methodist Episcopal church. THE SECOND COURT-HOUSE. New public buildings at length became necessary. But the county commissioners hesitated to erect them, more on account of the expense that would be incurred than their lack of conviction that they were needed. By the act of April 8, 1850, they were authorized to divide the two acres reserved for public buildings into lots, sell them, and use the proceeds in the erection of new buildings else where within the Borough of Kittanning, which they did. A new two-story brick court-house, with its westerly end fronting toward the river, the .offices on the first floor and the court-room in the second story, was erected in 1852-3, at the head of the easterly extension of Market street. The good acoustic properties of the court-room were, to say the least, among the chief excellencies of that edifice, which was not so well constructed and heated as a court-house ought to be. It was destroyed by fire, which was discovered about noon, March 10, 1858 - shortly before or during the noon adjournment of the courts. The writer was absent at the time, but was informed on his return that some people from the country, taxpayers, regarded its destruction with complacency, and some of them even exclaimed "Let it burn!" The dockets and papers in the county offices were saved, but were sadly disarranged in their hurried removal to the rooms that were temporarily used as oflices. MADISON TOWNSHIP. investigated, they are devoid of importance. The Lower Kittanning Coal has been quite extensively developed, it being the bed worked on the property of the Mahoning Coal Company. The ferriferous limestone underlies all the center of the township, and far above water level. The buhrstone ore accompanies it, and hence the supply of Stewardson Furnace is chiefly derived. The Pottsville conglomerate is above water level throughout the whole length of valleys of the Allegheny, Mahoning and Red Bank in this township, and is nearly three hundred feet above water level at the mouth of Mahoning. STRUCTURE. An anticlinal divides the township nearly in halves in a northeast and northwest direction. It crosses the river just above the mouth of Mahoning, and the Red Bank above Lawsonham. It has sharp dips on its southeastern flank. The eastern and western portions of the township are in the synclinal. Prof. Lesley, in his Geological Report on the present Red Bank Furnace property, says, respecting the chief supply of ore for this furnace: The ore-bed is a layer of brown hematite mixed with blue carbonate, out of which the hematite seems to have been made by decomposition. The less blue carbonate, the more brown hematite, and the softer and better the ore, is the accepted rule. The orebed is very irregular, sometimes running down to six inches, and sometimes up to five feet. It will probably average two feet along its whole outcrop. It is mined along the hillsides at about the same level on the south side of Red Bank and down the river. * * * It covers the ferriferous or great fossiliferous limestone, a bed of fifteen feet thick, filling depressions of all sizes in its upper surface, and penetrating its top layer, so as to render it a superior flux, yielding a large percentage of its own. Above the ore-bed is a mass of shales many feet thick, more or less silicious, and more or less charged with balls of blue carbonate of iron. This ore-bed is remarkable for its extent of area, covering Armstrong, Venango, Clarion, Jefferson, and Butler counties, and it has been, in fact, the principal reliance of the fifty furnaces in Northwestern Pennsylvania, and the forty-odd furnaces of Southern Ohio and Eastern Kentucky. Its outcrop is usually very soft, easily mined by stripping, and afterward by gangways, driven partly in the limestone and partly in the ore. * * * There must be over two miles of ore outcrop on the 538-acre lot south of Red Bank-Nicholson tract No. 1151-and allowing only two feet of an average thickness, and forty feet of stripping floor before commencing the drift, we have one hundred thousand tons of soft brown hematite in sight. The quantities lying back of the outcrop are too large to need estimation. * * * The Kittanning, or "middle " coalbed south of Red Bank, is only about twenty inches thick, and, if it underlies two hundred acres, contains about five hundred thousand tons. Levels referred to tide, or hights above the ocean in feet and tenths of a foot: north abutment of Mahoning bridge, lower outside corner, 826.2; upper inside corner, 829.6; opposite Rimerton Station, 836.7; north abutment, lower inside corner, 831.5; south bridge seat, lower inside corner, 836.6; south abutment, lower outside corner, 850.4; south abutment Red Bank bridge, inside corner, 840.4; north abutment, Red Bank bridge, lower end, 849.6; Red Bank junction, 850.8; Fiddler's run, 915; Lawsonham, 919; Buck Lick run, 939; Rock run, 966; Leatherwood, 1027. 285 CHAPTER XIII. COWANSHANNOCK. Its Organization in 1848-First Officers-Indian Purchase Line of 1768-The Original Land Warrants - Timo thy Pickering & Co.'s Tracts-An Ancient Earthwork - Relics - Land Disputes Settled by Arbitration - Village of Atwood - U. P. Church - Green Oak - Town of Bradford-St. John's Lutheran Church - Dunkard Church - An Early Day Indian Encounter- Example of the Low Price of Land - Eight Hun dred Acres for $44- The Roberts Lands - First Store Opened in 1831 by the McElhinneys - The Findley Lands - Huskens' Run and the Man it was Named After - Rural Valley- The Bryan Lands - Fourth of July, 1837 - Salem Reformed Church - Isaac Simpson - Roads - Schools- Miscellaneous Statistics - Rural Village - Mercantile and Other Occupations - Educational Matters - Religious - Postoffice - I.O.O.F. Lodge. ON the 22d June, 1841, the petition of divers inhabitants of Kittanning, Plum Creek and Wayne townships was presented to the proper court of this county, asking for the erection of a new township out of parts of those above named. On the 25th of the same month it was dismissed because of informality; no particular part of either of these parts was designated in the petition. The application was renewed December 21, 1847, and John McEwen, Findley Patterson and George B. McFarland were appointed commissioners, who presented their report, designating the boundaries of the proposed new township, February 8, 1848. A remonstrance against its confirmation was presented and filed March 20. The report was confirmed December 22, 1848, and the township of Cowanshannock was by decree of the court erected, with these boundaries: "Beginning at the purchase line on land of Samuel Elgin, thence north 62 perches to the Cowanshannock creek; thence north 6 degrees east along the Pine township line 898 perches to a stone on Hannegan's land; thence east 8 miles to a post on John McEwen's farm, at the Indiana county line; thence south along said county line 4 miles and 100 perches to a chestnut at the purchase line; thence south 37 degrees west along county line 3 miles to a post on Hoover's land; thence north 75 degrees west 71 miles to a post on Bradford's lands, at the Kittanning township line.; thence along said township line north 24 degrees east 2 miles and 14 perches to the purchase line, the place of beginning." At the first spring election, 1849, the following township officers were elected: Justice of the peace, Samuel Cassady; constable, John Adams; assessor, Samuel Black; assistant assessors, Jacob Beer and James Stewart; supervisors, John Whittaker and John Stoops; school directors, Samuel Elgin, John McEwen, Samuel Fleming, Samuel R. Ramage, William McIntosh and Joseph Elgin; overseers of the poor, Alexander P. Ormond, William Rearich; judge of election, George Stewart; inspectors of election, James Reid, Robert Neal; township auditors, Joseph Kirkpatrick, William Sloan, Samuel Potts; township clerk, David Hill. The township was named Cowanshannock after the creek flowing through the very picturesque valley which it drains the entire length --beyond the entire length-between its eastern and western boundaries. Cowanshannock is an Indian name, and, like other such names, is significant. The general opinion of the people of this region is, that it means "banks of flowers." On the 26th of January, 1833, "C.", enchanted with the beauty of this valley, as he or she had seen it in the different phases, indited a poem, the theme of which was, " Cowanshannock, or Bed of Roses," from which this stanza is cited: From sloping hills and valleys deep, The Bed of Roses takes its rise, Winding its way through glade and steep, From eastern tow'rd the western skies. That pretty conception of the meaning of Cowanshannock is, however, spoiled by the reality, for Heckewelder says: "Cowanshannock, a branch of the Allegheny in Armstrong county, corrupted from Gawansch-hinne - signifying green-brier * stream, or brier creek. Gawunschige- briery. So it must be inferred that the Indians found this now lovely valley more thorny than rosy. The purchase line of 1768, or the old purchase line, as it is often called, traverses the township from the chestnut-tree mentioned in the boundaries at the angle south of the north branch of * Green brier- a thorny climbing shrub having a yellowish green stem and thick leaves, with small bunches of flowers. It is common in the United States, and is also called cat-brier. 4,0 /11Xr,,' e /z/m41W REV. DAVID KENNEDY DUFF. David Kennedy Duff was born in Beaver county, Pennsylvania, May 8, 1825. He left home when seventeen years of age to attend school at the academy in Darlington, Pennsylvania, and remained there two years; thence he went to the college in Athens, Ohio, where he finished his literary collegiate course in 1849. After teaching school for about a year at Mount Jackson, Pennsylvania, he entered, in 1850, the theological seminary at Canonsburg, where, during the next three years, he completed a careful theological course. lie was immediately licensed (in November, 1853) to preach as a home missionary, and traveled in that capacity for two years, performing useful services in O-io, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Eastern New York, and also in the cities of Philadelphia and Baltimore. In May, 1856, he entered upon the duties of his first settled charge, being installed as pastor over the United Presbyterian church at Dayton, Wayne township, and Mount Zion church at Pine Creek. He remained in active duty as pastor of these congregations until September 14, 1862, at which time, having previously enlisted, he was mustered into service as captain of Co. K, 14th regt. Pa. Cay., in which capacity he served until his discharge in 1865. He was in the following engagements: Droop Mountain, August 27, 1863; in Newmarket (on the Averill Salem raid); Jefferson, May 8, 1864; Wytheville, May 10, 1864; Union, May 13, 1864; Piedmont, June 5, 1864; Buchanan, June 13, 1864; Lynchburg, June 17 and 18, 1864; Liberty, June 19, 1864; Salem. June 20, 1864; Bunker Hill, June 26, 1864; and then with Sheridan, at Darkesville, July 2, 1864; Opequau, September 19, 1864; StonP Bridge, September 18, 1864; Fisher Hill, September 21 and 22, 1864; Forrestville, September 24, 1864; Mount Crawford, September 25, 1864; Wyer's Cave, September 26 and 27, 1864; Middletown, October 1), 1864; Milford, October 25, 1864; Mount Jackson, November 22, 1864; Ashby Gap, February 19, 1865. Captain Duff, in the cavalry engagement at Ashby Gap, Virginia, was wounded three times-in the head, right shoulder and left hand. He was honorably discharged because of these wounds May 15, 1865. In June he resumed charge of his congregations at Dayton and Pine Creek, and upon June 21, 1866, took pastoral charge of the Concord (now Atwood) church. His time was equally divided among the three until 1870, when he was released from the charge of the Mount Zion church at Pine Creek. lie is now pastor of the congregations at Dayton and Atwood. Mr. Duff was principal of the Dayton Academy from the spring of 1857 to the fall of 1862, and from the winter of 1866 to the spring of 1867. He was united in marriage October 27, 1868, with Miss Nannie Henry, who was born in East Franklin township, Armstrong county, September 30, 1840. Her parents, James and Sarah (Richmond) Henry, were natives of Ireland. To Mr. and Mrs. Duff six children have been born, as follows: James Gordon, August 21, 1869; Samuel Calvin, April 20, 1872; Willie Richmond, December 5, 1874 (died April 14, 1876); Johnie, March 11, 1877 (died March 23, 1877); Robert Marshall, January 21, 1879; and Alice Gertrude, May 17, 1881. Mr. Duff lived at Dayton until 1878, when he removed to Atwood, where he owns 92 acres of well improved land. ,./ -A rA A 0'73 0 NA Cl 133 \ A ,-4 -4 n a # i, a - li cl' G 0 0,hA I-V COWANSHA.NNOCK TOWNSHIP. Plum creek in the line between this and Indiana county, north 79 degrees west, passing through the brick house of Jno. Boyer about twenty-five rods east of Huskins' run, and crossing the western boundary of the township a little above the angle therein. All that portion south of that line was taken from Plum Creek township, and was included in the old purchase of 1768, and it constitutes about one-third of the territory of Cowanshannock township. The original tracts in this portion were in the names of warrantees as follows: A part of the Alexander Dallas tract; the John D. Mercer tract, 402 acres, seated by David McCausland; James Dundas, 402 acres; Parsons Leaming, 4063 acres, seated by John Byerly; parts of the Jacob Amos and Mary Semple tracts; Joseph Fisher, 402 acres; Joseph Nourse, 402 acres, seated by David McCausland; Patrick Farrell, 406 acres; Samuel Fisher, 4432 acres, seated by William McCausland; Joseph Norris, 356 acres, seated by James Guthrie; Thomas Bradford, 452 acres; Elizabeth Henderson, two tracts, 4151 and 413A acres; nearly all of Andrew Henderson's, 413 acres, seated by George McLaughlin; the greater part of Robert Semple, Jr., tract, 421 acres; William Finney, 427.2 acres, seated by John Black; William Wistar, 306 acres; John Dealing, 3181 acres; parts of the Isaac and Samuel Morris tracts; John Lart, 3303 acres, seated by Daniel Wampler; George Snyder, 3071 acres; John Gill, 321- acres, seated by Jacob Beer, Jr.; Benjamin Davis, 325-1 acres, one-half above the purchase line, seated by George and Michael Somers; Jonathan D. Sergeant, 402 acres - small portions of it are in Kittanning and Plum Creek townships; parts of the Larken Dorsey and James Dubbs tracts; Richard Wells, 3304 acres, seated by Jacob Beer. Wells purchased, January 7, 1774, the George Snyder tract and various other tracts elsewhere mentioned, at five shillings per tract.* He was an adherent of the English in the revolutionary struggle. Colonel John Bayard, in his letter to the Council of Safety, from the camp at Bristol, Pennsylvania, December 13, 1776, wrote this of him: " We are informed today by a gentleman from Burlington that Richard Wells was there yesterday, doubtless with advice to the enemy, and returned that night. He informed the people that General Putnam intended burning the city." At a meeting of the Council of Safety, January 14, 1777, Wells was nominated as a member of that body. In his reply to the communication informing him thereof, the next day, he said: "Sincerity and candor forbid my concealing the true reason of my wishing to decline the appoint * Vide sketch of Plum Creek township. ment; I hope not to offend by my honesty, yet I cannot, I think, with an upright conscience, withhold the confession. The post, gentlemen, which you fill is built on a foundation so opposite to my sentiments, and the money I should have to distribute on your account so expressly put into your hands for the purposes of war, that I should stand condemned by my own heart if I accepted the charge. Far be it from me to undertake here to arraign your conduct in the prosecution of your office; I cheerfully grant to all men that freedom of action which I claim in return, and assure you with great sincerity that whilst, on the one hand, I cannot give a hearty approbation to the present system; on the other, I will never oppose or disturb it; my constant study being to pass through life at peace with my own breast and all the world. I know that I have been more explicit than common policy might have dictated, but thought I should have been wanting in justice to you and myself not to have ingenuously told you the truth. I am much obliged by your entertaining so good an opinion of my integrity as to nominate me to so important a trust, and hope you will not think too unfavorably of me for the part I act." In the other portion, north of the purchase line, were these tracts: Henry Shade, 400 acres, warrant 584-bounded by the purchase line on the south, which, according to the description of this tract in the mortgage from Shade to John Foyle, Jr., July 2, 1805, must have been the northern boundary of Westmoreland county, for this tract is there represented as having previously been in Northumberland county, and if so, that northern boundary line of Westmoreland county must have struck the Allegheny river near Truby's run, in Kittanning, instead of near the mouth of the Cowanshannock, as seems to have been the case by its location on some of the old maps; H. Le Roy & Co., 958 acres, warrant No. 3118, along the north side of the purchase line; H. Le Roy & Co., two tracts, 9481 and 990 acres, warrants Nos. 3126 and 3128, partly in Indiana county; H. Le Roy & Co., 10961 acres, warrant 3125; James Kirkpatrick, 100 acres, mostly in Indiana county; Samuel Bryan, 544 acres and 106 perches, warrant 679; T. W. Hiltzimer, 1,100 acres, warrant 5146, partly in Wayne; H. Le Roy & Co., 847- acres, warrant 3095, seated by John Simpson and John Kirkpatrick; John Denniston, 180- acres, warrant 3829, tract called "Dublin;" John Denniston, 1701 acres, warrant 3830, tract called "Abbington;" John Sloan, 226acres, warrant 5639, tract called "Stanton;" Joseph Cook, treasurer of Westmoreland county, Pennsyl287 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. vania, in 1789-90, 393 acres, warrant 5637, called "The Grove;" part of the Wallace tract, warrant 4162; part of the Dr. Wm. Smith tract, mentioned in the sketch of Wayne township-he was a member from Philadelphia of the committee for the Province of Pennsylvania, July, 1774, and one of the deputies chosen by the several counties; George Bryan-he was vice-president of the supreme executive council of this state in 1777, and was commissioned a puisne judge of the supreme court, April 3, 1780-5481 acres, warrant 669; Samuel Denniston, 255T acres, warrant 3621, tract called "Alexandria;" John Denniston, 239 acres, warrant 3922, tract called "Derry;" Joseph Cook, 4474 acres, warrant 3636, tract called "Wheatfield;" Aaron Wor, 447 acres, warrant 5483; John Craig, 245 acres, warrant 3652; John Denniston,* 309 acres, warrant 3618, seated by Robert McIlwain; William Denniston, 220 acres, warrant 3620; Archibald McGahey, 100 acres; Meason & Cross 543 acres, warrant 675; George Bryan, 1,0971 acres, warrant 672-500 acres seated by John Schrecongost, and 500 by Jacob Torney; William Findley, 281 acres, warrant 5638, dated June 27, 1894, tract called "Fidelity," patent to George Roberts, March 2, 1895, Roberts' heirs to Samuel Patterson (55 acres), April 16, 1836; Robert McClenechan, 328 acres, warrant 515; William Findley, 100 acres, warrant 3658, seated by Daniel River; Reynolds & Clark, 428- acres, warrant 6041; H. Le Roy & Co. (Holland Company), two tracts, 1,028a and 1,000 acres, warrants 3022 and 3030; Timothy Pickering & Co., 6271 acres, warrant 11, seated by James Craig, James Simpson and Isaac Simpson; Timothy Pickering & Co., 1,057~ acres, warrant 176; Timothy Pickering & Co., 1,1321 acres, warrant No. 25. The last-named company consisted of Timothy Pickering, Tench Coxe, Samuel Hodgdon, Duncan Ingraham, Jr., Andrew Craiger, and Morris Fisher. It is set forth in their article of agreement, dated April 6, 1785, that they expected a land office to be opened on the 1st of the next month for the sale of lands purchased from the Indians in 1784, which is frequently called "the late purchase," and that they were desirous of purchasing a considerable quantity of these lands. Pickering, Coxe, Hodgdon and Ingraham were appointed a committee to procure warrants and manage the other business of the company. It was stipulated that the members of the company should be joint tenants, that the lands purchased by their committee * Appointed by Col. Charles Campbell, contractor for the militia of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, who was to be paid eightpence per ration on account of the stations being so small, as stated in Campbell's letter to Gov. Mifflin, August 13, 1791. should be conveyed to them as such in fee, and that a contract should be made with Gen. James Potter to locate their warrants, to show the lands covered by them to the surveyors of the districts or counties in which they lay, and to cause returns thereof to be made to the Surveyor-General's office. Potter was to receive seventeen thousand acres as his compensation for surveying and locating sixty-three thousand acres for the company, for the division of which from the company's land, by his executors or two of them, he provided in his will, dated October 27, 1789. The company and Andrew Gregg and James Poe, two of Potter's executors, entered into an agreement for the partition, March 3, 1795. By that partition the Pickering tracts, warrants Nos. 11 and 176, were allotted to Potter's executors for the use of his heirs. The ostensible evidences of earliest occupation in that part of this township south of the purchase line are on the farm now owned by Thomas McCausland, which is a part of the Joseph Nourse tract. There are vestiges of a circumvallation on that Nourse tract, which encompassed about one acre and a half, and was circular. According to reliable information, which has been transmitted from the persons who settled thereabouts in and prior to 1812, the parapet must have been four or five feet high, with a fosse or trench surrounding it, the depth and width of which could not be accurately ascertained, as it was partly filled when it was discovered. There is the stump of a cherry-tree within the parapet, eighteen inches, and another one of the same kind in the trench, twenty inches in diameter. The tree had grown from an old stump which is very much decayed. Both of these trees were cut down in 1872 or 1873. There is a mulberry-tree from twelve to fifteen inches in diameter two rods south of the parapet, which has also grown from an old stump, and there are two white-oak trees about two feet in diameter about the same distance east of the parapet. There appears to have been a well at the center within the parapet. Clay smoking-pipes, with the initials "W. W." upon them, and hatchets, of a superior quality of steel, supposed to be of English manufacture, were found here by the early settlers. Traces of that circumvallation are still visible. Its location is on a beautiful elevation, which commands an extensive view up and down the valley of the north branch of Plum Creek, anciently called Finney's Run, thirty rods north of this branch and twenty rods west of McDole's, or Madole's run; between that location and Branch is the Plum Creek road; 288 COWANSHANNOCK TOWNSHIP. one hundred and twenty rods southwesterly from it is the site of what, tradition says, was "Hutchison's hunting camp," on a run emptying into the Branch on its south side, and, therefore, called Hutchison's run. Who Hutchison was or whence he came has not been handed down to the present residents in this region. The most northeastern portion of the division of this township south of the purchase line is covered by the less part of the Alexander Dallas tract, the warrant being dated July 1, 1784, the greater part being in Indiana county. Its locality, as well as the localities of the other tracts, will be manifest to those familiar with the topography of this region, from the names of some of its owners subsequent to the warrantee. This part of that tract became vested in James Oliver and Alexander McCreary, who conveyed 119 acres of it to John Oliver, July 15, 1839, for $500, who conveyed the same, June 13, 1840, to Hugh Elgin for $600, who in consideration of love and natural affection and the sum of $300, conveyed it May 22, 1849, to Joseph M. Elgin, the present owner and occupant. The original tract adjoining that one on the west was the one covered by the warrant to John D. Mercer, dated about the same time as the Dallas warrant. By virtue of the act of Congress of January 9, 1815, and its supplements for raising the United States direct tax for 1816, it was sold by Theophilus T. Ware, collector of that tax for the then tenth collection district of Pennsylvania, to Robert Orr, Jr., for $3.67, on March 10, 1819, who conveyed it June 14, 1830, to David McCausland, for $10, It was first mentioned on the assessment list as seated by him in 1824. Following the original tracts westwardly along the purchase line, the next one is the Joseph Fisher tract, on which George McCausland settled in 1817-18, of which he conveyed 107 acres, and which was sold by Samuel Matthews, county treasurer, for taxes, September 21, 1820, and was bid in by the county commissioners, who, viz.: their successors, John Patton, Samuel Matthews and James Green, sold it to McCausland June 10, 1828, of which he conveyed 107} acres to John Fisher, May 7, 1836, for $100. Next is the Thomas Bradford tract, which will be noticed elsewhere in connection with several other tracts. Next the larger of the Elizabeth Henderson tracts, called "Pleasant," patent to James Carnahan, May 12, 1790, who conveyed it to Joseph Larkey, May 11, 1812, for ~75 10s., which became vested in John Hutchinson, who, September 19, 1836, conveyed it to James Ashkittle, who, November 10, 1854, conveyed 53 acres of it to Finney Templeton, for $696. Schoolhouse No. 12 is on it. Adjoining the northwestern portion of it, on both sides of the purchase line, was a vacant tract, for which Robert Simpson took out a warrant, January 22, 1847, 321 acres of which James McGranahan conveyed to Finney Templeton, December 3, 1859, for $390.30. Next, bordering on the purchase line, the Benjamin Davis, a long, narrow tract, widening considerably toward its western limit. The warrant for it is dated January 20, 1774. It is the same tract of which Jacob Beer, John Boyer and Peter Rearich conveyed, January 19, 1855, 90 acres and 132 perches to Susannah Wampler, for $550, and the next day, the first two and David Wampler, 89 acres and 125 perches to Elizabeth Rearigh, for $673.50. Returning to the above-mentioned Elizabeth Henderson tract, next west of it and south of the Davis, was the William Wistar tract, from the west end of which Mrs. Ellen M. Douglass, an heir and devisee of Judge Young, conveyed, May 5, 1847, about 83 acres to John G. Kline, for $427, July 16, to George B. McFarland, 1411 acres for $380, and May 1, 1851, 803 acres to Alexander Dixon, for $413.75. Next west was the George Snyder tract, included in the Young purchase. Next the Richard Wells tract, which became vested in Jacob Beer, Sr., blacksmith, who erected thereon, about 270 rods above the mouth of Huskins' run, in 1819-20, a gristmill and sawmill, with which he was assessed first in 1820, which, with 200 acres of that tract, he conveyed May 13, 1826, to Henry McBride, for $1,100, whose executors conveyed the same, June 19, 1849, to John Hughes, for $2,000, who conveyed, December 26, 1862, 132 square perches thereof, with the gristmill and other buildings thereon, to John C. Wilt, for $800, who conveyed the same, April 5, 1864, to John A. Boyer, for $1,200, who conveyed the one-half part thereof January 3, 1866, to Peter and Henry Louster, for $600, and which is now owned by Louster, Sowers & Co. This mill has been successively known, since its erection in 1819, as Beer's, McBride's, Hughes', Wilt's, Boyer's and now as the North Star gristmill. John Boyer purchased 1032 acres of this Wells tract, January 19, 1855, for $918.50, and was assessed as a coverlid-weaver in 1857. Next and also west of the Benjamin Davis tract is a portion of the James Dubb's tract. South and west of the Wells is the major part of the Jonathan D. Sargeant tract, which having become vested in Charles S. Coxe, he conveyed it, April 26, 1837, to Samuel Patterson for $800, who 289 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. conveyed 123 acres of it, March 1, 1840, to Moses Beer, for $493. Next south of the Sargeant is that portion of the Larken Dorsey tract which is in this township, for which tract a patent, dated June 30, 1801, was granted to James Abercrombie, who conveyed the entire tract to Samuel Patterson, October 13, 1836, for $546, of which Patterson conveyed 150 acres and 13 perches to Samuel McCurdy, November 6, 1847, for $530. East of the two last above-mentioned tracts was the John Gill tract, a patent for which was granted to John Vanderen, October 12, 1776, which having become vested in Judge White, Archibald Stewart, and James McKennan, the two former and the latter's executors conveyed 304 acres of it to Jacob Beer, May 8 and June 7, 1847, for $2,079, and 32 acres the next year to William McIntosh, for $160.50. The latter was first assessed with 235 acres of it in 1835. The next to the east was the John Lart tract, the warrant for which is dated January 20, 1774, who, two days afterward, conveyed it to Richard Wells, the consideration expressed in the deed being 5 shillings. Wells conveyed it, August 17, 1795, to John Vanderen. It "fell by lot" to Susannah V. Johnston, to whom Vanderen's executors conveyed it, December 14, 1819. It was seated and first occupied by Daniel Wampler, in 1826-7. Samuel F. Peters and Susannah V., his wife, nee Johnston, conveyed 239 acres of it, February 14, 1870, for $5,975, to James S. Peters. The public schoolhouse No. 10 is situated on it. Next east was the John Dealing tract, being one of the tracts purchased by Richard Wells for the nominal sum of 5 shillings. In the deed from Dealing to Wells are these words: "To include a spring that rises among some little ridges and leads into a branch of Crooked creek about one mile southeast from an encampment of Benjamin Jacobs, and to extend toward said camp." Mrs. Ellen M. Douglas conveyed 145 acres of it to George Mitchell, December 30, 1846, for $500. Next east is the William Craig tract, included in the Young purchase. It was seated by Samuel Brown, "in the spring of 1837," and on which he must have resided until 1846, for that is the last year in which his name appears on the assessment list of Plum Creek township, in which this tract then was. Judging from the maps and records to which the writer has access, it has since been very sparsely, if at all, inhabited. Next east is the William Finney tract, the warrant for which is dated July 1, 1784, and the survey, November 10, 1786. It must have been seated by John Black in 1827, as he was first assessed with it in 1828. It was conveyed by William Finney to Mrs. Ann Black, July 18, 1833, as containing 427 acres, for $100. A sawmill was erected on it in 1840, which was assessed to Samuel Black, and which is probably the one now owned by Finney Templeton, situated fifty rods slightly north of west from the public schoolhouse No. 11. Next east is the smaller one of the Elizabeth Henderson tracts, the warrant for which is dated July 1, 1784. The patent for it was granted to James Carnahan May 17, 1790, and by him conveyed to Absalom Woodward, who, March 18, 1823, conveyed it to his daughter Mary, wife of David Reynolds, the consideration expressed in the deed being "good-will and affection," 111 acres and 24 perches of which Alexander Reynolds, a lineal heir-a son of David and Mary Reynolds-conveyed, January 11, 1858, to Martin John, for $1,111.50, and April 30 to George Elwood, 55 acres and 16 perches, for $551; to J. T. Sloan, April 19, 1856, 109 acres and 76 perches, for $1,175; to Samuel Sloan, July 6, 1857, 108 acres and 85 perches, for $1,175. Next east was the Joseph Norris tract, which, being included in the Bradford purchase, will be elsewhere noticed. Next east was the Joseph Nourse tract, in which are the vestiges of the circumvallation heretoforementioned. This tract was seated by David McCausland. Hle was first assessed in 1809, in Kittanning township, in which this tract was then included, with 368 acres, his title thereto being by an "improvement," but on the first assessment list of Plum Creek township, in 1811, by a "warrant." The first mention of his having seated this tract is on the assessment list of the last-mentioned township, in 1814. Next east is the James Dundas tract, the warrant for which is dated July 1, 1784. It became vested in John Montgomery, of Indiana county, Pennsylvania, who, May 4, 1833, in consideration " of natural love and affection and the comfortable maintenance of Elizabeth Montgomery, or paying her $30 a year during her natural life," conveyed as containing 452 acres to James Montgomery and Daniel Devinney, the former "to inherit the lower end where McGahey had improved," who settled on it in 1807, both being equal sharers as to quantity and quality. The former conveyed to the latter, two years afterward, 128 acres and 4 perches for $50. A few years later a dispute arose between Devinney and David McCausland, who had, as above mentioned, become the owner of the Mercer tract, 290 COWANSHANNOCK TOWNSHIP. respecting the division line between these two contiguous tracts, which, after the preliminary steps had been taken for a prosecution in the court of quarter sessions, and a suit had been instituted in the court of common pleas of this county, was settled by a domestic tribunal selected by the parties litigant. On October 22, 1840, they agreed to submit their controversy to the arbitrament of Thomas Armstrong and John McEwen, who, as they were authorized by the agreement of the parties, chose David Peelor as the third member of the tribunal, whose decision was to settle all matters contraverted in that suit and that prosecution. Armstrong and McEwen met at McCausland's house, November 25, 1840, and examined the papers presented by both parties and then adjourned to meet on the disputed ground, December 11th, when the three referees met at Devinney's. On examining the ground about a mile below his house they found old marks of a division line for that block of surveys corresponding to the Mercer and Dundas surveys, which they traced up and found marks near to McCausland's land and Devinney's west line, and by continuing run them within about two feet of where McCausland claimed " the warrantee corner," as he called it. Then after finding, by an actual survey made on the ground, what bearing would take them to "the Bishop White's maple corner," in Indiana county, and found it to bear at that date, by Peelor's compass, south 800 42' east. Then they commenced at that "warrantee corner," and without any regard to lines made before, as there were none older than thirty-nine or forty years, they run a division line between McCausland and Devinney and marked it on the ground. Thus ended a controversy which might otherwise have occupied much of the time of the civil and criminal courts, have embittered the parties and their families toward each other, and entailed upon one or the other of the litigants a large amount of taxable costs, and upon each a considerable loss of time, expenditure of money, and racking anxiety, whichever of them would have been victorious in that action and prosecution. It may be remarked in passing, that 100 acres and 97 perches of this Dundas tract was sold in July, 1835, for $200, to Thomas J. Brandon, who exchanged it with David Ralston for another tract, who conveyed it to Jesse Henderson in January, 1857, for $1,000. Next east was the William Ramsey tract, most, if not all, of which is in Indiana county, but which was returned as an unseated tract by the assessors of both Kittanning and Plum Creek townships, by those of the latter until 1819, but it is not on the more recent list on parchment of warrantees and of the persons who seated the original tracts, which was made by James E. Brown in 1827. Next south of the Dundas was the Parsons Leaming tract, which was sold for taxes September 20, 1822, by Samuel Matthews, county treasurer, for the use of the county, and sold by John Patton, Samuel Matthews and James Green, county commissioners, March 17, 1828, to David Johnston, of Kittanning borough, for $34, who conveyed it to Thomas Bradford March 10, 1829, for $100. The Jacob Amos tract adjoins it on the south. Twenty years later the southern part of the Leaming tract was occupied by Daniel Fyock, and the northern part of the Amos tract by Thomas Price, between whom a controversy arose respecting the division line between the two tracts. For the purpose of settling it without further legal proceedings, Thomas Bradford's executor agreed with Price, December 31, 1849, to submit the question in dispute to Jonathan E. Meredith, and that he should permanently establish the division line, which it was agreed should be final and conclusive, and, furthermore, if Price was not in the occupancy of any part of the Leaming tract, Bradford was to pay him all the costs of the prosecution for forcible entry and detainer which had been instituted against him, and if Fyock had occupied any part of the Amos tract, the referee was to determine the amount of rent and damage which Bradford ought to have. The referee found that Price was occupying 8 acres and 100 perches of the Leaming tract. Thus ended a prosecution before it had reached the court of quarter sessions. The locality of the Leaming tract may be otherwise recognized by that part of it, 70 acres and 102 perches, conveyed March 14, 1864, by Benjamin Rush Bradford to Ephraim Buffington and J. A. and Richard Coulter,* and by them, May 30, 1866, to John W. McClain for $700, or nearly $10 an acre. The Amos tract was returned by assessors as being in Kittanning township until 1810. It was returned the next year on the first assessment list of Plum Creek township as being in Indiana county. The returns made of this and various other tracts indicate that, for several years after the organization of this county, the division line between this part of it and Indiana county was not clearly known, at least to the assessors. It was afterward ascertained to be partly in each county. The portion of it in this county is in the southeastern part of this and the northeastern part of Plum Creek township. * Colonel of the 11th regt. Pa. vols. in the war of 1861. 291 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Next west was about one-third of "Norway," as the Mary Semple tract was called. Next west of the Leaming and northwest of the Amos tract was the Patrick Farrell, west of which was the Samuel Fisher tract. North of the last was the Joseph Norris, which appears on some of the assessment lists and in some of the Bradford conveyances as the "John Nourse " tract; on the ancient map of original tracts, and on Brown's list above-mentioned it is written "Joseph Norris;" and north of that was the Thomas Bradford tract. The last-mentioned five tracts, the John Ewing and Thomas Hutchinson-called "Hutchins" in some conveyances-tracts in Kittanning, and the James Burnsides one in Plum Creek township, became vested in Thomas Bradford, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, printer. The warrants for them are dated July 1, 1784. His trustees conveyed them, July 1, 1857, to Benjamin Rush Bradford for $9,000. The latter, May 1, 1858, conveyed the Farrell and Fisher tracts, and parts of the Bradford and Norris tracts, containing 1,183 acres, to Dr. Thomas H. Allison, for $7,000, and 170 acres and 34 perches of the Bradford and Norris tracts, July 19, 1864, for $960. Bradford wished to convey to Allison 1,700 acres; but James, Alexander and John Guthrie were in the occupancy of and claimed the title to 150 acres of the Norris tract, and William and James McCausland, William Kennedy and Andrew Mitchell were in the occupancy of and claimed title to 154 acres of the Thomas Bradford tract. It was necessary for them to be ousted before Bradford could make a satisfactory conveyance of these 304 acres. The disputed points or questions in these cases were in regard to the boundary lines of the original surveys of these two tracts and the uninterrupted hostile and adverse possession of the above-mentioned portions of them by the occupants for twenty-one years. Bradford instituted ejectments against these occupants, at Nos. 97 and 98 of September term, 1858, in the court of common pleas of this county. Struck juries were drawn, who went on the ground and examined the original lines so far as they were apparent. The cases were continued several times. The former was tried September 19, 1863, and resulted in a verdict for the defendants. A motion for a new trial having been granted on the filing of an adequate bond by the plaintiff, the venue in each case was subsequently changed to Allegheny county by a special act of assembly, to the district court of which the records and papers were certified June 23, 1864. The trials there also resulted in verdicts for the defendants. Writs of error having been taken to the supreme court, the judgments in the court below were affirmed. James Guthrie, Sr., must have settled on that Norris tract as early as, perhaps earlier than, 1804, for he was assessed with 250 acres of it in 1805, it being then in Allegheny township. William McCausland- sometimes spelled McCaslin -was first assessed in Plum Creek township with personal property in 1812, and with 200 acres of land in 1813, so that he must have settled on the Bradford tract in 1811-12. Patents for those Bradford lands were granted to Thomas B. Darrach, James H. Bradford and William Bradford, Jr., in trust for the heirs of the above-mentioned Thomas Bradford, not until March 22, 1856. Their more rapid settlement began after Allison's purchase. He divided them into comparatively small tracts, most, if not all, of which he sold at considerably advanced rates, within fifteen years after his purchase. As an evidence of the ready demand for such tracts, he conveyed, June 3, or about one month after his purchase, 65 acres and 4 perches of the Farrell tract to William M. Cox for $942.50; July 24, 100 acres of the Samuel Fisher tract to George McLaughlin for $1,030, and 22 acres and 31 perches of the Thomas Bradford tract for $227.60, and 70 acres to Finney Templeton for $910. The summary of which is, he sold, within three months after his purchase, 2571 acres for $3,110.10, or a trifle more than onefifth of the quantity of his first purchase for nearly half of what he paid for the whole of that purchase. A glance at the map of this township made in 1860 and the one made in 1876 will give an idea of the greater density of the population of that portion of this township covered by those four original tracts since than before they were thus brought into market. The respective localities of the Thomas Bradford, Joseph Norris (John Nourse) and Samuel Fisher tracts can be readily recognized by readers familiar with this region from the localities of the smaller portions purchased as above stated. The locality of the Patrick Farrell tract may be identified by the town of Atwood, which is situated about equi-distant from its northern and southern lines, in the western part of the tract,-and about sixty rods east of its western line, which is the boundary between it and the Samuel Fisher tract. In 1860 the site of this town was covered by the forest. It was then cleared by Dr. Allison. The writer remembers the primeval appearance of the scope of country around this town, as he traversed it on tours of official duty, from and after 1857. When he was there the last time, in 1866, Atwood 292 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. THE SECOND JAIL. A new stone jail was erected cotemporaneously with, and a few yards northwardly of, the second court-house. It was a two-story structure with a two-story brick jailer's house attached, fronting the road or street extending northwardly from the head of Market street. That jail at length proved to be insecure both for the health and custody of the prisoners. Their escapes through the roof and elsewhere became frequent. After several presentments by the grand jury respecting its condition, the county commissioners contracted with Harrison Bros. of Pittsburgh for raising the walls several feet higher, and putting on a new and secure roof. On the removal of the old roof it was discovered that the walls were insufficient for sustaining the increased weight of such a new roof as would be adequate for the retention of the prisoners. It therefore became necessary to tear down the old walls and build new ones. A farmer, passing by one day and observing the material of the old walls as it lay before him, remarked, "Those were never fit for prison walls." THE THIRD AND PRESENT COURT-HOUSE was erected by Hulings & Dickey, on the site of the burned one, in 1858-60, at a cost of about $32,000. It is a substantial building, partly of brick and partly of stone, of the Corinthian order of architecture. Its sides front nearly west and east. There is an elegant portico on its west front, with stone columns, and capitals and all parts of that order, the whole resting on an arcade of cut stone. The dimensions of this edifice are 105 feet by 65 feet. A beautiful cupola or dome, highly ornamented, crowns the center, with a large bell therein suspended. The first story, which is reached from the western side by a flight of stone steps of the same length as the portico, is divided into a cross hall, with a floor laid with English variegated tile, grand-jury and witness rooms, the commissioners', prothonotary's, fegister and recorder's, sheriff's and county treasurer's offices, three of which offices are substantially fire-proof. The court-room is in the second story. It is elegantly frescoed, ceiling twenty-three feet, length sixty-two feet, and breadth fifty-eight feet. Being so nearly square in shape, its acoustic properties are very unfavorable for both speaking and hearing. That defect has been obviated by suspending a screen,* twelve feet wide, from the ceiling, the entire width of the room, making that part of the room where the speaking is done, so far as sound is concerned, * It was suspended Saturday, December 9,1873. a parallelogram 58 X 31 feet, causing an almost entire cessation of the previous excessive reverberation incident to a large room that is square, or nearly so, in shape. The rest of the second story contains vestibules separated by flights of stairs in the lower or southerly end, and a hall twelve feet wide, reached by a flight of stairs, and two traverse jury rooms in the upper or northerly end. In the northerly end of the third story are two other rooms, one of which is used for an office by the county superintendent of common schools. THE THIRD AND PRESENT JAIL. On the presentments of two grand juries, after the tearing down of the second jail, recommending the erection of a new jail and jailer's house, the plan and specifications of the present structure having been before these grand juries, were adopted, and the contract for building both was made with Harrison Bros., and for superintending the work with Jas. McCullough, Jr. The erection was commenced in 1870, and was completed in 1873. The whole structure cost $252,000. It is one of the strongest, securest and most substantial buildings in the United States. It is constructed of stone, brick and iron. It contains twenty-four cells, 8 X 13 feet each. The ceiling is 131 feet high. The ventilation is good. The main corridor is 68X16 feet, and 38 feet high. The jailer's house contains eight rooms with proper ventilation. The woodwork of the whole building is of North Carolina pine, with iron guards on the outside of the windows of the jailer's house, made of 1,-inch round iron. The dimensions of the entire structure on the ground are 114X50 feet. Its foundation is 24 feet deep, down from the surface, and 7 feet wide at the bottom. It required that depth for a solid foundation, which greatly increased the cost. The tower is 96 feet high, 18 feet square at the base and 10 feet square at the top, all of solid stone, neatly tooled, and surmounted with battlements. All the outer surface of the house and jail, including gutters and cornices, is an Ashlar facing of wrought stone, neatly tooled. The outer walls are 2- feet thick, and are lined on the inside with brick 4 inches thick. All the floors are brick, 13 inches thick. The arches are of solid concrete 4 inches thick, and of cast iron 1 inch thick. The flagging in the main corridor and cells is 2- inches thick-brick in the former and wood in the latter. There are four large rooms in the jail part to be used as hospitals when needed. Both the house and jail are well supplied with gas and water from the Kittanning Gas and Water Works. The house part of the structure is ocA#~ 5/~4/~ JOHN WILSON MARSHALL. The parents of the subject of this sketch, John and Elizabeth (Stewart) Marshall, were natives of Indiana county, Pennsylvania, and were among the early settlers in Wayne township, Armstrong county. John Marshall and his father, Archibald Marshall, are known to have located here in 1812. John Marshall was born in 1794; married Miss Elizabeth Stewart in 1817, and died in 1872. Mrs. Marshall was born in 1789, and died in 1842, in the fifty-third year of her age. There were born to them eight children, five sons and three daughters, as follows: Archibald and William S. (deceased); John Wilson (of whom we shall have more to say presently); Sarah Jane (deceased); Watson S. (deceased); Margaret C. (wife of Peter Good, now a resident of Wayne township); Alexander S. (a minister in Linn county, Iowa), and Elizabeth (who lives in this county). John W. Marshall was born in Wayne township, Armstrong county, October 15, 1821, and remained with his father until twenty-four years of age. Shortly afterward he purchased a homestead in Wayne township, to which he took his bride, nee Catharine Marshall, with whom he was united in marriage February 19, 1850. This lady, born in Wayne township, August 23, 1826, died December 7, 1882, after a long life of usefulness. After their marriage this couple resided upon the farm and in the village of Dayton until their removal to Atwood, where Mr. Marshall entered the mercantile business, in which he was engaged for nine years, until 1879, when he moved to his new farm residence, where he still lives. He owns about 125 acres of land adjoining Atwood. This village was laid out by Mr. Marshall, and he was its first postmaster. He accomplished also the laying out of the Atwood cemetery, and the organization and incorporation of the association which controls it. The United Presbyterian church of Atwood has been liberally supported by the subject of this biography. He is one of its oldest members, and was made an elder of the church October 12, 1866. The present house of worship, a very creditable structure, was built by him upon contract, for the sum of $2,300, in 1873. I'l, 1. P ESIDENCE OF J-W, MA SHALL, ykTWOOD) PA. COWANSHANNOCK TOWNSHIP. seemed to have just begun to emerge from the wilderness. Only one house had been built there before then. Its name was suggested by its being at, or near, or more properly in the woods. It was not named after any person living or dead. Dr. Allison resolutely and successfully resisted the suggestion of naming it after him. The inhabited parts of the town plot are on Indiana and Jefferson streets, each about forty-one feet wide, and crossing each other at right angles, the course of the former being from southeast to northwest, and of the latter from northeast to southwest, on which are twenty-four dwelling-houses, one of which is a hotel, three stores, two blacksmith shops, two carpenters' shops, one cabinetmaker's shop, two wagonmakers' shops. According to the assessment list for 1876 there are one blacksmith, three carpenters, one merchant, two pedlars, five laborers, two shoemakers, one wagonmaker, one physician, and the number of taxables forty-two, which ought to give a population of 193. The only permanent resident physician is Dr. John W. Morrow, who settled here in the spring of 1873. The only church here is the United Presbyterian. The congregation was organized about 1827, though there was occasional preaching earlier, the first sermon having been preached by Rev. Mr. Jamison in 1815. Services were first held under the white-oak trees near the house of Samuel Sloan, Sit., near the boundary line between Cowanshannock and Plum Creek townships, on the Robert Semple, Sr., tract. The number of its original members was thirty-five. It was called the Associate Presbyterian Congregation of Concord. Rev. David Barclay, of the Presbyterian church, commenced preaching to the Concord congregation several years later than Rev. Jamison. The first permanent pastor was Rev. John Hindman, whose pastorate continued from 1832 until April 29, 1840. That of the second pastor, Rev. William Smith, commenced June 24, 1851, and continued until in 1859. James Hutchison and Henry McBride were the first elders. A union having been formed in 1858 between the Associate and Associate Reformed churches, this congregation thereafter took the name of the United Presbyterian Congregation of Concord, and as such it was incorporated by the proper court December 4, 1876. The present pastbr, Rev. David K. Duff, was installed June 21, 1866. Its present membership is 95; its contributions for 1876 amount to $882, and its number of Sabbath-school scholars is 117. The first church edifice of this congregation was a hewed log structure, which was erected in 1826. The second one was a frame, 60 X 54 feet, and was erected in 1852. The present one, frame, was erected in 1873, on the southwest side of Indiana street, near an angle therein, nearly twenty rods from the southeast corner of the town plot of Atwood, on a half-acre lot, conveyed February 11, 1873, by J. W. Marshall and Thomas Martin, for $1, to the trustees of that congregation, "for the purpose of erecting a United Presbyterian house of worship thereon, and to continue as long as it shall be used for a house of worship," which is two and a half miles northeast from the sites of the former ones. A one-story frame schoolhouse is situated oppo site the church, on the other side of Indiana street. A private school of eighteen pupils is maintained here for a considerable portion of the year. The Atwood postoffice was established July 14, 1868, J. Wilson Marshall, postmaster. It was situ ated on the northeast corner of Indiana and Jeffer son streets. The second postmaster was John A. Johnston. The present one is Dr. John W. Mor row, and the office is on the corner of Jefferson street and a public alley northeast of Indiana street. Southwest of the Samuel Fisher tract was the Robert Semple, Sr., tract, called "Belmont," the northeastern portion of which is in Cowanshan nock township. The warrant is dated July 1, 1784. Semple conveyed his interest in this tract, March 3, 1786, to William Betts, Jr., for five shil lings; the latter to David Heston, October 12, 1790, for ~27; Heston to Stephen Smith, March 1, 1792, for ~50, to whom the liatent was granted July 20, 1796; Smith to Witson Canby, March 7, 1803, for $1,000; Canby, by his attorney-in-fact, to Samuel Sloan, April 5, 1815, for $1,228, who con veyed 114- acres to his son James Sloan, Septem ber 17, 1827, who conveyed the same, March 18, 1837, to Samuel Patterson for $900; Patterson to Samuel Lawton, April 14, 1847; Lawton to Joseph and Valentine Kerr, the same day; the Kerrs to Washington Chrisman, November 12, 1856, "one hundred and seventeen acres strict measure," for $3,000. In the summer of 1869 Chrisman laid out the town of Green Oak on that part of this tract through which the division line between Cowan shannock and Plum Creek townships passes diago nally, so that about the half of the town is in each township. It was surveyed by John Steele into lots respectively 60 X 120 feet. One of the lots was sold for $40, and eleven for $30 each. This new town contains one store (Josiah J. Shaeffer's), through the center of which passes the township 293 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. line, one blacksmith shop, and seven dwellinghouses. It is presumed, from the large number of arrowheads found here, that this was formerly an Indian encampment, hunting-ground, or battlefield. The sawmill assessed for the first time to William Sloan in 1837, and the carding-machine and fulling-mill assessed to him for the first time in 1843, were on the run emptying into the north branch of Plum creek, within the limits of "Belmont." Next north of the Robert Semple, Sr., tract was the Andrew Henderson tract, the warrant for which is dated July 1, 1784, which was surveyed to him May 10, 1786, and conveyed by him April 2, 1787, to Walter Finney, to whom the patent was granted March 6, 1815, and which William Finney, of Harford county, Maryland, conveyed to William McLaughlin, February 18, 1830, for $600. John McLaughlin was first assessed in Plum Creek township, in 1811, and with 313 acres of land in 1814, with which quantity his son George, who seated this tract, was subsequently assessed until 1820, when he was assessed with 413 acres, which corresponds within the fraction of an acre to the quantity contained in this tract, according to the original survey. Next west is the greater part of the Robert Semple, Jr., tract, for which a patent was granted to Samuel Smith, of Bucks county, Pennsylvania, February 5, 1805, which became vested in George W. Smith, of the borough of Kittanning, who conveyed 1411 acres in the northern portion of it, January 6, 1826, to Thomas Fitzgeralds, for $380, to whose heirs it still belongs. The rest of this tract is as yet but sparsely settled. Next along the township line was the John Fitzer tract, most of which is in this township. The patent for it was granted to John Vanderen, October 12, 1776. It was sold June 25, 1830, by David Johnston, county treasurer, for taxes for the year previous, amounting to $5.46, to James E. Brown, for $5.96. It was one of the tracts that became vested in White, McKennan and Stewart, who conveyed 170 acres and 148 perches of it to Brown, July 18, 1842, for $175, from whom John and Samuel Graydon agreed to purchase it, December 8, 1850. Brown's deed to Samuel Graydon is dated November 2, 1863, conveying to him 190 acres subject to the rights of the heirs of John Graydon. Next along the same line, on the Cowanshannock side of it is, about one-third of the Samuel Morris tract, assessed to Joseph Spiker for several years after 1825, 103 acres and 51 perches, of which were conveyed, May 7, 1871, by John Y. and J. F. Woods, heirs of one of Judge Young's devisees, to George Harkelrode for $2,310. Next along that line is the Israel Morris tract, mostly in this township, which became vested in Henry D. Foster and his wife, a daughter of Judge Young. They conveyed it as containing 322 acres to Robert McFarland, September 24, 1847, for $2,845.00, who conveyed 194 acres and 40 perches of the part in this township to William and John Lewis, December 17, 1850, for $2,233.75. William (having obtained a release of John's interest) conveyed 105 acres and 48 perches, one-half of what they had purchased from McFarland, to James R. Utt and Harvey Stagers, of Morgantown, Virginia, August 2, 1855, for $2,015, which they conveyed to Jacob Espey, Jr., December 22, 1856, for $1,800. Another portion of this tract, bordering on the township line, was purchased by Mrs. Lavinia Foy. Next along the township line was the Thomas Morris tract, about two-fifths of which is on the Cowanshannock side, and of which Mrs. Ellen M. Douglass conveyed 150 acres to Jacob Beer, August 26, 1852, for $1,050, 80 acres of which he conveyed to John Peterman, March 27, 1857, for $720.39. The William Craig, John Dealing, George Snyder and William.Wistar tracts, wholly in this township, and the Morris tracts, partly in Plum Creek township, and the Joseph Ogden tract principally in the latter, were covered by warrants, dated January 20, 1774, and were conveyed, four days afterward, to Richard Wells for five shillings each, who conveyed them, with five other tracts in Plum Creek township, February 15,1800, to Thomas Cadwalader for divers good considerations, but especially "for five shillings," who conveyed those thirteen tracts to John Young, then President Judge of the courts of this and other counties in the judicial district of which this county was then a part, February 18, 1808, for $1,854, or about $1,142 for the first-mentioned eight tracts, and which were devised by him to his daughters Mrs. Ellen M. Douglass, Mrs. Mary Jane Foster, and Mrs. Elizabeth F. Woods. The first-mentioned eight tracts of that purchase are described in Cadwalader's deed to Young as situated "on the waters of Kawanshanock and Plum Creek." The foregoing statistical facts afford a fair idea of the settlement, advance in the value of the lands, and general progress respectively, in the eastern, central and western portions of the part of this township south of the purchase line. The early settlers were chiefly agriculturists. Those following other occupations were very rare. The *See general sketch of the county. 294 COWANSHANNOCK TOWNSHIP. nearest gristmill was Peter Thomas', heretofore mentioned, until Jacob Beer, Sr., built his on Huskens' run, in or about 1819. The town of Bradford was laid out in 1818, "at the junction of a small stream with a larger one; "* " at the cross roads, where the old Franklin and Indiana road crosses the Elderton and Martin's ferry road," t on the Samuel Fisher tract. Ten inlots and ten outlots were assessed therein in 1820, respectively, at $100. In 1823, William Coulter was assessed with 4 of these lots and 2 houses, $33. Hamlet Totten's recollection is that Coulter kept a hotel there at that time. He resided there three years. John Kier, blacksmith, was assessed the same year with 1 house and 3 lots, $58, and in 1824-5, at $25. William McLaughlin, each of the last-mentioned years, with 1 house and 3 lots, $25. "Bradford" thereafter disappeared from the assessment list. Its site is better known to the present inhabitants of this region as " Frogtown" and "Toad-alley." The petition of divers inhabitants of Plum Creek township setting forth that they labored under great inconvenience for want of a road or highway "to lead from the town of Bradford to the town of Kittanning," the court appointed Jacob Beer, Daniel Guld, Robert Orr, Jr., Conrad Schrecongost, Robert Sturgeon and John Thomas, viewers. The order to them was renewed March 18, 1819. The report of the viewers, favoring the opening of the road, with a draft of its courses and distances, was presented to and read by the court June 23, 1819, and approved September 22, and the road ordered tobe opened thirty feet wide. The draft shows that there were then six buildings at Bradford; that the proposed road would intersect the "road to Woodward's," pass Jacob Beer's mill on Huskins' run, " Early's mill," on Big run, on the John Guld tract, and intersect the " State road from Indiana to Kittanning," at "the end of Samuel Beer's lane, supposed to be about two miles and one-half from Kittanning "-the distance from Bradford to the last intersection being eleven miles and forty-two perches. In the southeastern portion of the division of this township, above or north of the purchase line, was the Henry Shade tract, called "Shadeville." The patent to himis dated July 21, 1796. He was a resident of Northampton township, cordwainer, as expressed in his conveyance of this tract, September 3, 1798, to James Seagreaves, of the same place, saddler, and Peter Lysenring, of Whitehill township, in that county, tanner. They reconveyed, * Letter from Benjamin R. Bradford. t Letter from Hamlet Totten. as containing 400 acres, to him November 28, 1801, for $328, which subsequently became vested in James Brady, of Greenburgh, Pennsylvania, who, June 27, 1815, conveyed it to Adam Altimus, of Indiana county, for $1,053, who conveyed 210 acres and 98 perches of it to William McLaughlin, September 8, 1839, for $1,053, who conve*ed 104 acres and 40 perches thereof to George McLaughlin, March 9, 1840, for $875.82, who conveyed the same June 8, 1846, to Henry Eyler, for $1,100. Errors sometimes creep into not only history and biography and encyclopedias, but even into deeds of the conveyance of land. For instance, in those last two conveyances of this land it is stated that the original tract was "patented to Henry Shade, June 27, 1815," whereas the only patent to him is the one above mentioned, dated July 21, 1796. Some of the present occupants of portions of " Shadeville" are the Mikesells and William Roof. The site of the present edifice of the Evangelical Lutheran church of Plum Creek is in the northeastern part of the tract last mentioned. The nucleus of this church consisted, in the summer of 1829, of eight Lutheran families, namely, those of Conrad Lukehart, Andrew Weamer, Andrew and Philip Harmon, Philip Bricker, Christian Hoover, Philip Whitesell and John Byerly, who then resided in this vicinity. Rev. Gabriel A. Reichert began to preach to them occasionally in German and English, that year, in Philip Bricker's old round log barn, which was situated within a few rods of the county line. The church was organized in 1830 by electing Conrad Lukeheart and Andrew Weamer elders. This became one of Mr. Reichert's points, at which he preached once in eight weeks, in that barn in the summer and in the dwelling-house in the other seasons of the year. Measures were taken for erecting a church edifice in 1833, and these elders were appointed the building committee. Philip Bricker gave one-half an acre on the county line for the site. Others contributed logs, rafters, etc. It was a hewed log structure, 28 X 32 feet. William Rearigh did the carpenter work and various members of the congregation did the "chunking and daubing." The floor was made of loose boards. It was used in an unfinished condition until 1835, when the doors, windows and board ceiling, tight floor, high pulpit and neat seats were supplied. It was then regarded as the neatest church in this section, and was used until 1861, when the present frame edifice, 45 X 55 feet, well and neatly painted, furnished, seated, plastered and papered, was erected on a site adjoining that of the other in this township, which was purchased from Will295 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. iam Mikesell, and for style and finish was considered the best in this section. It was then named St. John's Evangelical Lutheran church. Its original number of members was 18; its present about 200. Rev. Gabriel A. Reichert continued his ministerial services six times a year to this congregation until 1839. After he left, this church united with the Indiana and Blairsville charge. His successors-pastors-were Revs. Jacob Medlart, one-fourth of his time, from March 1, 1839, until March 25, 1843; Rev I. Bishop, one-third of his time, from December 10 until August, 1846, when the Blairsville charge was divided and this congregation united with that of Smithsburgh; Rev. A. C. Ehrenfeld, one-half his time, from January 1, 1847, until April 1, 1849; Rev. G. M. Pile, until May 18, 1851; Rev. F. A. Barnitz, until August, 1854; Rev. Christian Dehl, until May, 1859, when he resigned on account of ill-health, and died December 1, prox.; Rev. C. L. Stieamer, one-half his time, until September 1, 1869; Rev. J. S. Hooper until August 1, 1782; Rev. G. A. Lee until September 1, 1874; and Rev. W. E. Crebbs.* The present members of the session are Thomas R. Lukehart and Abraham Green, elders; Jacob Roof, William H. Wramer, Joseph Lukeheart and John S. Harmon, deacons. The facts respecting this church have been furnished to the writer by Thomas R. Lukeheart, who says that records of its doings did not begin to be kept in a book until 1828. The Sabbath-school of this congregation was organized in May, 1840, with Thomas R. Lukehart, superintendent, Jacob Weamer, assistant, and Robert Whitacre, librarian, since which time it has been in a flourishing condition; and although there are now six other schools within a circuit of three miles, its present number of scholars is about ninety. The boundaries of "Shadeville" were--on the north and west by the Harman Le Roy & Co. tract No. 3118, on the east by the Indiana county line, and on the south by the purchase line. North of and contiguous to the above-mentioned tract No. 3118 were the H. LeRoy & Co. tracts, Nos. 3125 and 3126, and north of and contiguous to the lastnamed was the H. LeRoy & Co. tract No. 3128, all of which, except No. 3125, were partly in Indiana county. These four tracts have been generally known as "the Whitacre lands." Joseph Whitacre, of Muncy, Lycoming county, Pennsylvania, had the legal title to, but he was not the real owner of them. Those four tracts were, among others, *Who on account of ill-health resigned September 1, 1879, and a call extended to Rev. Ephraim Miller, Cincinnati, Ohio, who entered upon his duties October 1. granted to Harmon Le Roy and Jan Linklain by warrants dated December 13, 1792. By the act of assembly of March 28, 1814, and the supplement thereto of February 6, 1815, a partition of these and other lands in Armstrong, Indiana and Jefferson counties was authorized, whereby these four tracts were assigned to John Adlum, of the District of Columbia. On May 29, 1828, he conveyed those four tracts, containing 3,9903 acres, to Whitacre. The true intent and object of that conveyance was to enable Whitacre to sell those lands with greater facility, which was duly acknowledged by him, and he was to render to Adlum annual statements of the money arising from the sales and to reconvey to the latter all of those lands that should not be sold by him, and, after deducting expenses and his compensation, to pay over all the money arising from the sales of such as he would make. The patents therefor were granted to Whitacre May 11, 1829. Whitacre's first sale was of 12il acres of tract No. 3125, to Joseph Gibson, October 29, 1828, for $254.50, who probably settled in 1822 on the portion which he purchased, and Levi Gibson on another portion the same year. Samuel Porter commenced occupying 74 acres of it in 1833. Joseph Gibson conveyed the quantity purchased by him from Whitacre October 30, 1832, to John Simpson, for $900, who conveyed 43 acres and 120 perches of it to Smith Neal, March 30, 1834, for $300, who con veyed the same and 133 acres and 26 perches to Alexander P. Ormond, April 13, 1839, for $1,400, who conveyed the same, viz., 176 acres and 154 perches, to John M. and James Hosack, August 4, 1849, for $1,842, one or both of whom must have ~purchased the saw and grist mills on "Little Cowanshannock creek," within the limits of their purchase, as they were first assessed to Andrew Ormond in 1838. They conveyed 130 acres and 20 perches to John W. Marshall, April 6, 1861, for $100. Some of the other early purchasers of this tract were Mrs. Isabella McCaulley, March 12, 1833, 26 acres and 46 perches, for $65; William Rearich, October 20, 1838, 104 acres, for $208; Cornelius Barker, April 7, 1842, 217 acres, for the nominal sum of $1, who conveyed the same, March 13, 1845, to Jacob Bowser, for $107. George Ormond was first assessed with a sawmill on this tract in 1842, and Thomas Ormond with a gristmill in 1846. Of the Le Roy & Co. tract, No. 3118, William Cochran, Jr., was first assessed with 50 acres in 1817, and with 150 acres in 1823;. George Rearich, with 400 acres in 1822; Samuel Rearich, with 135 296 COWANSHANNOCK TOWNSHIP. acres, in 1824; Alexander Jewart, with 282, and Jacob Zimmerman, with 85 acres, in 1833. Some of the early purchasers of this tract were: Ezekiel Green, January 18, 1830, 100 acres for $200, who conveyed the same to John Hildinger, June 18, 1841, for $1,200; James Brady, of Greensburgh, Pennsylvania, June 5, 1838, 82 acres and 15 perches, for $200, which his executors by virtue of a decree of the court of common pleas of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, February 24, 1841, for the specific performance of a contract, made by Brady of the one part, in his lifetime, to Abraham Green on the payment of $32, the balance of the purchase money. Some of the other purchasers from Whitacre were James Morrow, August 12, 1838, 80 acres and 120 perches for $161.50; Alexander Jewartspelled " Guert" in the deed-December 29, 1835, 282 acres and 88 perches for $353.67; and George Baker, September 30,1841, 83 acres and 110 perches, for $167.37. William Cochran, Jr., June 7, 1836, conveyed 165 acres of this tract, having acquired his title thereto by an "improvement," to John L. Kirkpatrick, being the same on which the latter then resided, for $700. Of the Le Roy & Co. tract, No. 3126, John Whitacre was first assessed with 26 acres in 1823, and Thomas Hockenberry with 100 acres in 1826. Of this tract Whitacre, November 10, 1834, conveyed 54- acres to Solomon Kniceley for $82; to John Whitacre, November 8, 1838, 138 acres for $276, 81 acres and 15 perches of which the latter the next day conveyed to James Thompson for $392.16; Joseph Whitacre to John Whitacre, September 30, 1840, another quantity of 126 acres and 45 perches, for $252.53, 61 acres and 85 perches of which the latter, December 8, 1844, conveyed tt William Rearich, for $378. Nearly midway between the northern and southern boundaries in the western part of this tract is located the edifice of the German Baptist or Dunkard church, a neat frame 35 X 40 feet. This church was organized about 1832. Its first resident minister was Rev. George Rearich; its present ones are Revs. Levi Wells, Robert Whitacre, J. B. Wampler and S. W. Wilt. Church members, 105. There is a Sabbath school held in this house numbering about 80. Of the Le Roy & Co. tract No. 3128, James Hays was first assessed with 400 acres in 1826; Jacob Pierce with 100 acres in 1831; and John Hays with 61 acres in 1832. 1201 acres of it were conveyed June 6, 1837, to John Mikesell, for $180; 100 acres, October 25, 1839, to Robert Caldwell, for $200; 411 acres, September 9, 1840, to Reuben Brown, for $74.62; 931 acres, October 1, 1840, to John Burns, for $161.59; 64 acres to William Jewart for $112; and, September 30, 1841, 160 acres to Robert Caldwell, for $120; the same day, 73 acres and 153 perches to George Buyers, for $184.85, who was assessed the next year as a "clay potter." Stephen De Tancy, an early settler in this region, used to relate, in his lifetime, that a white family was captured by a party of Indians in what is now Indiana county, before the Indian troubles were allayed. A party of whites, having pursued, overtook them near the head of the third run west of the Indiana county line which empties into the "Little Cowanshannock creek," near the present site of the Dunkard church. The point where those hostile parties met and where, in the encounter between them, three Indians were killed and the white captives recaptured, was probably in the northern part of this Le Roy & Co. tract, about 230 rods south of the present site of the Barnard postoffice. Adjoining the last-mentioned tract on the north and west was the Samuel Bryan one, warrant No. 679, of which John Hannegan was first assessed with 165 acres in 1823; Samuel Scott with 100 acres in 1834; David McPherson with 107 acres in 1838, who afterward conveyed it to George O. Barnard; William McIntire with 100 acres in 1837. This tract became vested in Samuel F., William H. and John C. Smith and Lewis R. Phillips and their wives, to whom the patent therefor was granted January 18, 1838. They by their attorney-infact conveyed 50 acres and 119 perches of it, July 25, 1839, to John Hays for $200, and 66 acres, January 2, 1843, to George A. Barnard for $150, on which is the public schoolhouse, and on which also is his residence, where for several years he kept a hotel. This point has been known for thirty or more years past as "Barnard's." It is on the public road, formerly a turnpike. Extending from Kittanning to Smicksburgh, James Patrick was first assessed with 125 acres in 1841, and John McFarland with a brickyard in 1842. The territory embraced within the Samuel Bryan tract is traversed by the Cowanshannock creek, the major portion of it being on the northwest side. On the north and east of the last-mentioned tract was the Le Roy & Co. No. 3095. Its territory now lies in this and Wayne townships and Indiana county. James Kirkpatrick settled on it as early as, if not earlier than, 1800. On or about September 20, 1807, that pioneer settler, mounted on one of his four horses, might have been seen wending his way along paths through the dense forest, across Crooked creek and the Kiskiminetas, to Greensburgh. Why? It had been advertised in 297 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. October, 1806, in certain papers published in Philadelphia and Greensburgh, that the tract on which he had made his home would be sold, as the law then provided, by the sheriff of Westmoreland county, unless the county taxes assessed thereon for the years 1798, 1800, 1802, 1804, 1805, and the road taxes for 1803-4-5 should be paid within three months from the date of the advertisements. On September 24, 1807, that entire tract, containing 847-1 acres, was sold by John Sloan, sheriff, for unpaid taxes, aggregating $9.43, to James Kirkpatrick for $44, he having been the highest and best bidder. He conveyed 1581 acres of it to Moses Kirkpatrick, June 30, 1829, for $100; another portion to John Simpson and his wife about the same time, and agreed to sell another portion off the east end to Thomas Haughenberry and his wife. He conveyed the rest of the tract, November 30, 1829, to David Kirkpatrick. The grantor and his wife Mary, as mentioned in the deed, were then aged, infirm and incapable of providing for their worldly maintenance. So, by their own choice and for the great love and affection which they had for their son David, and for his past kindness to and affection for them, and for the further consideration that he should bind himself to provide for them sufficient maintenance and such comforts as they were entitled to during the natural life of each of them, they invested him with all their right, title and interest therein. Whatever interest he thus acquired has descended to his lineal heirs. On the map of original tracts appears a smaller tract, carved out of that larger one, on both sides of the Cowanshannock, containing 100 acres and 77 perches, the larger portion of which is now in Indiana county, and bearing the name of James Kirkpatrick, which is probably the quantity he reclaimed and cultivated. The Barnard's postoffice, in the western part of this smaller tract, was established July 11, 1861 -its first and present postmaster being John T. Kirkpatrick, who was first assessed as a merchant at that point in 1858. David Kirkpatrick built a gristmill on tract No. 3095 in 1837, which he conveyed to George A. Barnard in 1845-6. Next west of the two last-mentioned original tracts was the Hiltzimer, No. 5146, included in the Brodhead purchase and devise, noticed in the sketch of Wayne township. John Rutherford must have settled on this tract in 1819, as he was first assessed with 150 acres of it in 1820; from 1823 until 1834, with 200 acres. Jacob Peelor was first assessed with 300 acres of it in 1826, to whom Rebecca J. Johnston conveyed the same, January 17, 1828. He conveyed, December 12, 1832, the tract which he had thus purchased, containing 323 acres and 54 perches, to John Rutherford for $533.50. In this last deed it is described as "beginning at a white-oak corner in the line of Samuel Bryan," west 120 perches, and on which Rutherford was then living. Rutherford conveyed 38 acres of it, May 21, 1833, to James McFarland, who conveyed the same, March 14, 1835, to James Brice for $100. Rutherford agreed with his son James to convey to him 60 acres and 14 perches thereof, on which the latter then lived, for $152.75, but died without executing the deed therefor, which his executors did, April 21, 1835, by virtue of a decree granted by the court of common pleas of this county, for the specific performance of that agreement, and which James Rutherford conveyed to James Brice, April 30, 1835, for $167.75. Brice conveyed these two last-mentioned tracts, aggregating 99 acres and 14 perches more or less, to Jacob Lias, May 11, 1853, for $800, on one or the other of which he has, within the last few years, made several fish-ponds, which are situated in the forks of the two branches forming the fifth northern tributary to the Cowanshannock west of the Indiana county line. Pond No. 1 is 20X20 feet; No. 2 is 24X44 feet; No. 3 is 20X24 feet. Each pond is supplied from a spring of pure cold water. They are well arranged, and contain about 5,000 trout and perch, which are in a thriving condition. Lias obtained his first stock from Seth Green & Co. The Cowanshannock portion of this Hiltzimer tract will be otherwise recognized as that of portions of which William J. Burns, William T. Burns, S. Cassiday, D. Whitacre and J. Borland are present owners, and on which Hugh Rutherford commenced his trade as a tailor in 1837. George Roberts, of Philadelphia, merchant, in or about February, 1795, purchased twelve original tracts the territory of which is now within the limits of this section of this township, aggregating, according to the original surveys, 3404 acres, patents for which were granted to him March 28, the same year, which, with other tracts elsewhere in this and in other counties, by his will dated December 13, 1800, he devised to his sons George and Hugh Roberts and three others of his lineal heirs. Among the latter was Elizabeth F. Roberts, whose share, or undivided one-fifth part, of those lands then unsold, and one-fifth part of all the purchase money then remaining due and unpaid, she conveyed April 25, 1836, to her nephew, George Roberts Smith, in consideration of natural love and affection and the sum of $1. Those and other tracts are designated in her father's will as "unimproved and back lands." 298 COWANSHANNOCK TOWNSHIP. The following tracts are included in the Roberts purchase: The John Denniston tract, No. 3830, called "Abington," which contained, according to the original survey, 170 acres. William and John McFarland were first assessed with portions of it in 1838. They had probably settled on it in 1836 or 1837. The John Sloan tract, No. 5639, called "Stanton," 2261 acres, with a portion of which Peter Brown was first assessed in 1822-3. The Roberts heirs conveyed parts of these two last-mentioned tracts, containing 201 acres and 46 perches, to James Cunningham, June 17, 1837, for $362. The John Denniston tract, No. 3829, called "Dublin," 1803 acres, with 1801 acres of which William Abercrombie was first assessed in 1834, and John Gallagher, with 50 acres, in 1838. This entire tract was conveyed by those heirs to William Patterson, April 16, 1836, for $285. The Joseph Cook tract, No. 5637, called "The Grove," 383 acres, with 80 acres of which Richard Crim and Thomas Duke were each first assessed in 1836. Ninety-three acres and 139 perches of it were conveyed by those heirs to Samuel Patterson, April 16, 1836, for $125, and on October 30, 1839, 80 acres and 112 perches to Richard Crim for $161, and 205 acres and 80 perches to William McFarland for $411. The Joseph Cook tract, No. 5636, called "Wheatfield," 447A acres, with 184 acres of which Robert Stoops was first assessed in 1833. The Roberts heirs conveyed 164 acres of this tract to Allen Foster, April 16, 1836, for $328, and 183 acres and 100 perches to John Simpson, November 24, 1838, for $367. The Aaron Wor.tract, No. 5483, 447 acres, with 108 acres of which Stewart Fitzgerald was first assessed in 1831, and Robert Adams with 97 acres in 1837. The Robertses conveyed 320 acres off the west end of it to James Simpson, November 20, 1830, for $640, and 128 acres and 26 perches to Isaac Simpson, December 19, 1834, for $288.97. The John Craig tract, No. 3652, called "Leeds," 245 acres of which Alexander Foster purchased May 24, 1828, for $612.50. Craig's run traverses it in a southerly course nearly through, a little west of, the center. The John Denniston tract, No. 3618, 309 acres, with which Robert McElwain was first assessed in 1828, and which the Robertses had conveyed to him January 30, 1827, for $675. He conveyed the same as containing 401 acres and 109 perches to Samuel R. Ramage, April 3, 1836, for $4,000, which he conveyed January 20 and 28, 1848, and April 4 and 10, 1850, to Alexander and James Dixon, John Walker, William Dill and John McCouch, as containing 423 acres and 53 perches for $5,056.82. John McCouch conveyed the 150 acres which he had purchased to John McCauley, March 31, 1857, for $3,000, or at an advance of $750 since April 10, 1850. The William Denniston tract, No. 3620, called "Hopewell, " 220 acres, on which William and Thomas McElhinney settled in 1830. It was conveyed to them by the Robertses May 12 of that year, for $450. The first store within the limits of this township was opened by them on this tract in 1831. They were assessed for the first time as merchants in 1832, and the last time as such in 1833. They probably kept that store open about three years. William McElhinney conveyed his undivided half, except 20 acres therefrom sold to Archibald McGaughey, to James McElhinney for $220, and James and Thomas McElhinney conveyed their interests to Rev. Bryan B. Killikelly, September 23 and 27, 1844, for $1,567, who conveyed the entire tract, 221 acres, to William and Joshua Hall, February 1, 1865, for $1,779.20. The John Denniston tract, No. 3622, called "Deerry "- probably a clerical error for Derry - 239 acres, with 120 acres of which Andrew Stewart was first assessed, and James McGaughey with 80 acres, in 1835. The Robertses conveyed the whole tract as containing 280 acres and 21 perches to James McGaughey, April 16, 1836, for $490.21. The Samuel Denniston tract, No. 3621, called "Alexandria," 255 acres, with 190 of which William McGaughey was first assessed in 1838. W. Hall and J. Peoples are present owners of portions of it. The William Findley tract, No. 5638, called "Fidelity," 100 acres, on which John McAfoos settled in 1834, to whom the Robertses conveyed 120 acres and 134 perches, December 23, 1836, for $188.50; to Samuel Patterson, April 16, 1836, 55 acres and 54 perches, for $101.37, and December 23, 106 acres and 114 perches for $50; of which Peter Brown purchased 50 acres and 32 perches April 20, 1837, for $225, on which Peter Brown, Jr., was first assessed with a tannery in 1862, which is still in operation. The Findley lands, besides the last-mentioned tract, which Findley conveyed to Roberts, consisted of the four following: The William Findley tract, No. 751, called "Williamsburgh," 409 acres and 140 perches, bordering on the purchase line and Valley township, 313 acres of which were first assessed to Daniel River in 299 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. 1828, and 311 acres to James Elgin in 1831. The patent to Findley for this tract is dated May 27, 1796. "By"his will, dated March 20, 1820, he devised this and other tracts to his children-John Findley, Elizabeth Patterson, Eleanor Caruthers and Mary Black. John Findley was authorized, February 1, 1828, by all parties in interest, except Elizabeth Patterson, who appointed her son, Findley Patterson, to divide and convey these lands, and, on the 7th of March, all the devisees released the undivided one-fourth part to one another. John Findley, May 25, 1830, conveyed 311 acres of "Williamsburgh" to James Elgin for $900, who by his will, dated January 2, 1834, devised it to his son Samuel Elgin, in whose possession the major part of it still (1876) remains. Huskins run empties into the Cowanshannock on the south side at or near the center of " Williamsburgh," about fifty rods slightly east of south from Samuel Elgin's residence. There is a tradition respecting John Huskins, who, it is said, gave this stream its early name, which, the writer thinks, is a mixture of truth and error. It is traditionally related that he was employed by Penn's agents to aid in making treaties with the Indians; that the condition of one treaty was that the Penns were to have as much land as a man could walk over between sunrise and sunset, starting from a point on the west branch of the Susquehanna, formerly called Canoe Place, now Cherry Tree, and proceeding westward; that Huskins, having the reputation of being a great walker, was employed for that purpose; that, with Indian guides to halt him at the proper time, he started for the above-mentioned point on the Susquehanna at sunrise on a certain day, and, having passed over hills and valleys along the purchase line, and having arrived at that part of "Williamsburgh" near the Boyer's sawmill, he and the Indians collected, through the night, a quantity of stones and piled them up around a tree, some of which are still there; that the Indians, being wearied, exclaimed, " White man, big walk!" and that on the next morning Huskins went to that stream and christened it "Huskins' run." When that event occurred is not known. One thread of error woven into the web of that tradition is, that the quantity of territory between the Susquehanna and the Allegheny was to be ascertained by a day's walk, for the boundary line of the purchase of 1768 between these two rivers was agreed upon and clearly defined in the treaty made at Fort Stanwix.* " Huskins run" is mentioned in the report of the viewers who laid out Plum Creek township in 1809, to designate a point in its western boundary line. * See sketch Kittanning borough. The name of this run is, then, quite ancient, and it is probable that John Huskins originated it. He may, perhaps, have accompanied the surveyor who ran the purchase line, or he may have traversed this region at a later period. However that may be, the narrators of his expedition have, at one time or another, confounded the walking purchase* of 1737 with the later one of 1768. Another probable thread of error in that web is, that the walk from one to the other of the above-mentioned points was a "big" one for hardy foresters of those times, who were thoroughly accustomed to traveling on foot, the distance between these points being about thirty miles. The William Findley tracts, Nos. 3833, 1971 acres, and No. 3658, 100 acres, contiguous to each other, the former lying between " Williamsburgh" and the latter, No. 3658, was probably first occupied by Daniel in 1825, he having been first assessed with it in 1826. Thomas Patterson, a sonin-law of William Findley, was first assessed, in 1830, with 340 acres, as of No. 3833, but of course included portions of one or more other Findley tracts. His sons, John and Findley Patterson, were jointly assessed the next year with the same, and the latter as a merchant, and thereafter separately, the former with 125, and the latter with 200 acres, until 1834; in 1835 John was assessed with 345 acres of the McClenechan tract, No. 515, and the next year with the same and 75 acres of No. 3658. John Patterson settled on No. 3833 in 1829, and gave the name of Rural valley to that part of the Cowanshannock valley east of Laurel Grove, formerly called the Narrows, but now Greendale. IHe resided there until his removal to the portion of the Pickering & Co. tract, No. 11, which he purchased, as hereinafter mentioned, in 1836. The Rural Valley postoffice was established May 19, 1830, and he was its first postmaster, keeping the office at his residence. Findley Patterson moved farther down the Cowanshannock in 1834-5. Ebenezer Smith, of Cross Creek township, Washington county, Pennsylvania, soon thereafter became the purchaser of a considerable body of these Findley lands, it having been represented to him that the erection of a gristmill and other improvements in their vicinity would induce those in quest of new homes to settle in this part of this beautiful valley. Thomas and Elizabeth Patterson, by Findley Patterson, their attorney-in-fact, conveyed to him 88 acres and 99 perches of No. 3658, March 30, 1835, for $1,070; and John Patterson conveyed to him 156 acres and 84 perches of tract No. 3833, May 23, the * See general sketch of this county. 300 ARMSTRONG COUNTY CIVIL ROSTER. tagonal, with bay fronts and surmounted with battlements. All the window and door openings, the tower, battlements and outer walls are of cut stone, the facing on the front side of the house being finely wrought, and the doors and windows capped with elaborately wrought, substantial and beautiful.keystone arches. All the stone of which all the outer walls of both house and jail are constructed was obtained from the sandstone quarry at Catfish, Clarion county, Pennsylvania, and is said to be among the best for outer walls and to stand the chemical test better than any other stone used for building in Pittsburgh. All the stonework is laid or put together with the best of hydraulic cement, no lime having been used except in plastering the inner walls. This jail is on the site of the second one, a little west of north of the present court-house, with an interval between the two of nearly thirteen feet. The material and workmanship of it and the jailer's house are such that both will stand for centuries, unless they be purposely torn down by official authority and human instrumentality, or overthrown by some powerful convulsion of nature. ARMSTRONG COUNTY CIVIL ROSTER. Governors.-William F. Johnston, of Pennsylvania; Andrew J. Faulk, of Dakota Territory. Congressmen.- Gen. Robert Orr, Samuel S. Harrison, Joseph Buffington, Darwin Phelps and James Mosgrove - all citizens of Kittanning. Walter A. Burleigh, a former citizen of this county, delegate to Congress from Dakota Territory. State Senators.-Robert Orr, Jr., 1822-25 Eben Smith Kelley, 1825-29 (died in the discharge of his duties at Harrisburg, Saturday, March 28, 1829); Philip Mechling, 1830-34; William F. Johnston, 1847, until he was inaugurated Governor in January, 1849; Jonathan E. Meredith, 1859-62. embers of Assembly, or Representatives. James Sloan, 1808-9; Samuel Houston, 1817-1819; Robert Orr, Jr., 1818-19-20-21; James Douglass, 1834-5-6; William F. Johnston, 1836-7-8, and 1841; John S. Rhey, 1850-1-2; J. Alexander Fulton, 1853; Darwin Phelps, 1856; John K. Calhoun, 1857-8; Philip K. Bowman, 1872-3; Andrew W. Bell, William G. Heiner, 1877-80; W. F. Rumberger, Lee Thompson and Frank Martin, 1880; Thompson and A. D. Glenn, 1882. lember of Constitutional Convention for 1873-4.-John Gilpin. United States Commissioner.- Grier C. Orr. Collector of U. S. Taxes in 1816-17.-Philip Mechling. Collector of Internal Revenue, Twenty-third District.-Robert L. Brown. Deputy Collector for this County.- William H. H. Piper. Chief Justice Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.James Thompson.* President Judges.-John Young, Westmoreland county; Thomas White, Indiana county; Jeremialih M. Burrell, Westmoreland county; John C. Knox, Tioga county; Joseph Buffington, Armstrong county; James A. Logan, Westmoreland county; John V. Painter, Armstrong county; Jackson Boggs and James B. Neale. Associate Judges.-Robert Orr, Sr., James Barr, George Ross, Joseph Rankin, Robert Orr, Jr., Charles G. Snowden, John Calhoun, Andrew Arnold, Hugh Bingham, Robert Woodward, Michael Cochran, Geo. F. Keener, John Woods, Josiah E. Stevenson, H. A. S. D. Dudley, John F. Nulton, Robert M. Beatty, James M. Stevenson. Prothonotaries of Common Pleas and Clerks of the Courts of Oyer and Terminer and Quarter Sessions.-Paul Morrow, James Sloan, George Hiccox, Eben S. Keley, James E. Brown, Frederick Rohrer, Simon Torney, W. W. Gibson, James Douglass, Jonathan E. Meredith, Samuel Owens, Simon Truby, Jr., James S. Quigley, John G. Parr, James G. Henry, A. H. Stitt. County Commissioners. -Appointed: James Sloan, James Matthews and Alexander Walker. Elected: Jonathan King, Adam Ewing, James Jackson, Thomas Johnston, John Henery, George Long, Alex. McCain, John Davidson, David Johnston, Philip Clover, Isaac Wagle, David Reynolds, Joseph Rankin, Joseph Waugh, Daniel Reichert, Philip Templeton, Sr., Joseph Shields, Hugh Reid, *Mr. Thompson, although not a citizen of Kittanning when elected, or while on the bench, was so for several years prior to 1830. He came here from Butler, Pennsylvania, in 1826, being then twentytwo years of age. He was a printer, and took Josiah Copley's place in the office of the Kittanning Gazette while the latter was absent getting married in Philadelphia. He afterward assisted in printing Bennett's Lectures on Theology, and read law in the office of Thomas Blair, working at his trade three hours a day to pay for his boarding. During a part, if not all, the period of his clerkship, he boarded with Mr. Copley, who says he found him "a very pleasant and genial member of his family. He was a good printer and had literary genius of a high order for one of his age and opportunities." On Wednesday, March 19, 1828, he was admitted to, and then for a year and a half or so practiced at the bar of this county, having in the meantime married a daughter of Rev. Nathaniel G. Snowden, after which he removed to Franklin, Venango county, Pennsylvania. In an old number of the Gazette, and of the Columbian, is his professional card in these words: "James Thompson, attorney at law, has opened an office on Jefferson street, in the borough of Kittanning, next door to the office of David Johnston, Esq., where he will be found at all times, and ready to transact any business in the line of his profession. Deeds, bonds, mortgages, etc., will be drawn at a short notice, in legal form, and on moderate terms. " Kittanning, April 19, 1828." His residence here was not long continued. The office which he had then opened must have been on lot No. 152, on the west side of Jefferson, and the third lot above Jacob street, for on that lot was the office of David Johnston, afterward occupied by Darwin Phelps, and now by John Kennerdell. COWANSHANNOCK TOWNSHIP. same year, for $1,500, making a total of 245 acres and 23 perches, which had been allotted to Thomas and Elizabeth Patterson in the above-mentioned partition. Smith settled thereon in 1837, and lived in the house on No. 3833 theretofore occupied by John Patterson. He purchased, February 25, 1843, 29 acres of "Williamsburgh " from Samuel Elgin, for $125. He sold about eight acres of the latter to John Boyer, February 5, 1843, for $8, and 125 acres and 11 perches of No. 3833 to Samuel Elgin, February 19, 1848, for $800, two days before which he had conveyed 246 acres and 19 perches to Robert McFarland for $5,045, and removed thence to McKeesport, Allegheny county. That farm is designated in Rogers' Geology of Pennsylvania as the "Smith tract." ( TVide sketch of Elderton.) John Findley had dedicated two acres of tract No. 3833, adjoining "Williamsburgh," prior to Smith's purchase, for a site for a schoolhouse, common bury ing-ground and a meeting-house, or meeting-houses, and conveyed the same, November 27, 1836, to Will iam McKean, Robert McIntosh, James Elgin and Findley Patterson, in trust for those purposes, giv ing an equal right to the Presbyterians of the Gen eral Assembly church, the Associate Reformed or the Associate church to build, if they so wished, their respective houses of worship thereon, granting to the congregation that should first do so full liberty to choose the site, provided that they should do so in such manner as would not render it impracti cable for either of the other denominations to erect their church edifice thereon. His grant was qualified by the restriction that those two acres should not be sold for or dedicated to any other purposes than those above mentioned.* The Robert McClenechan tract, No. 515, drawn by lottery, 328- acres, the warrant for which was granted to McClenechan, of Chester county, Penn sylvania, May 19, 1785, and the patent August 17, 1787. Hle conveyed this entire tract, March 15, 1796, to William Findley. In the partition between the latter's heirs it was allotted to his daughter Eleanor Caruthers, and it was first assessed to her husband, Richard E. Caruthers, in 1830, 100 acres and 116 perches of which they conveyed to Will iam F. Caruthers, January 6, 1842, for $1. The northern tributaries of the Cowanshannock in this part of the township are: Elgin's run, traversing " Williamsburgh," so named by James Elgin, who first traced it from its mouth to its head; Hill's run, traversing tract No. 3833', so called because it rises in and flows through at least a part of the Hill settlement north of that tract; Rose run, traversing tract No. 3658, so called be * See sketch of Presbyterian church, Rural village. 19 cause of the great quantities of wild roses that erst fringed its banks. The Bryan lands included a number of tracts in this township. Tract covered by warrant No. 674, partly in Wayne, granted to Dr. William Smith, of Philadelphia, druggist, October 20, 1780, as containing 5493 acres, which Smith conveyed to George Bryan, December 31, 1787, " particularly in consideration of the sum of five shillings." The act of assembly of March 17, 1820, subsequent to Bryan's death, authorized Jacob Spangler and Thomas Smith, of Dauphin county, Pennsylvania, and Robert Orr, Jr., of this county, to make par tition of his real estate, and it also authorized his soni, George Bryan, Jr., to sell and convey all the title to and interest in the same of Sarah, daugh ter of the elder Bryan. Among the lands thus allotted to her was the eastern half of this tract, which George Bryan, Jr., conveyed to Robert B. Stille, October 12, 1826, for $1,200, and which the latter reconveyed to the former four days after ward for the same consideration, who conveyed it August 6, 1833, to Archibald Marshall for $800. The earliest settlers upon it were probably Harmen Lenhart, who was first assessed with 30 acres in 1832, and Adam Lenhart, with 90 acres in 1833, who migrated thither from the Le Roy & Co. tract No. 3045. It was sold in June, 1834, for taxes, by Samuel McKee, county treasurer, to George Bryan, who again conveyed it to Archibald Marshall, April 15, 1837, for $1,300, to whom the patent was granted June 6, 1840. The latter conveyed 108 acres and 135 perches to Samuel McCarthy, Jan uary 1, 1841, for $979, and 163 acres and 53 perches to Robert McMeans, December 3, 1841, for $637.871. The tannery on this tract was probably established in 1850. John Marshall was first assessed with it in 1851. William Gallagher's store is also on the same original tract, which he opened there in 1873-4. The George Bryan tract No. 669, 548- acres, adjoined the above-mentioned Dr. Smith tract on the southwest. It became vested in Richard R. Bryan, to whom the patent was granted February 13, 1850, who conveyed it April 6, 1851, to Robert Orr, Jr. Its earliest settler appears to have been Michael Thomas, in 1835. John Butler, Jr., was first assessed with 125, and William McGaughey with 208 acres of it in 1838. Gen. Orr conveyed 14 acres and 127 perches of it to John Marshall, April 10, 1872, for $369. It is traversed by a southern branch of Pine run, on which, about 100 rods above its mouth, is schoolhouse No. 3. Samuel Gourley was first assessed with a tanyard on this tract in 1844. 301 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. The George Bryan tract No. 672, 1,0971 acres, the warrant for which is dated October 20, 1785. John Schrecongost, Sr., and Martin Schrecongost, brothers, were each first assessed with 100 acres of it in 1814, and John Schrecongost, Jr., with 1,000 acres in 1819. The elder John began the manu facture of plows with wooden moldboards, soon after he settled here. He was called " Gentleman John" because of the comparative neatness of his apparel and his comparatively polished manners and gentlemanly bearing. Martin owned a part of this, but resided on another tract containing about 100 acres, which he purchased from Archi bald McGaughey. The former acquired title to abouit 550 and the latter to 100 acres of this tract by -' improvement," as it appears from the assess ment lists. Bryan's heirs conveyed this tract to Richard R. Bryan, October 9, 1847, by whom it was.conveyed to Gen. Orr, April 6, 1859, who con veyed 48 acres and 14 perches thereof to C. O. Schrecongost, January 30, 1872, for $681.79; and 59 acres and 98 perches to Henry Giger, Novem ber 25, 1874, for $1,031.41. Two military companies - the Wayne Artillery and the Pine Creek Infantry- and a large num ber of citizens celebrated the Fourth of July, 1837, at Martin Schrecongost's house. The Declaration of Independence was read, and some remarks were made by Mr. A. L. Robinson. The other features were the parade and evolutions of those mili tary companies, and volunteer toasts of a decided partisan tone given by members of both of the po litical parties, Whig and Democrat. An early resident on a portion of the Bryan tract, No. 672, was James Cogley, who was first assessed with 100 acres in 1818, and continued to be until 1834. He was one of the pioneer school teachers in this region before the passage of the common school law of 1834. His knowledge, like that of most of the other teachers of those early times, was limited to reading, writing and arith metic. Some of the older citizens of this county, though not his pupils, remember him out of his pedagogical sphere, as an entertaining singer of the entire ballad of "Robin Hood," and other shorter ones. He was a nephew of the surveyor Robert Cogley elsewhere mentioned. Robert Orr conveyed 94 acres and 77 perches to Thomas Foster, March 30, 1871, for $2,078. The Pleasant Union Evangelical Lutheran church edifice is situated in the northwestern forks of the cross-roads fifty rods northwest of Thomas Foster's residence. The Reynolds and Clark lands consisted of one tract, partly in Wayne, covered by warrant No. 6041, granted, probably, in 1817 to David Reynolds and William Clark. It was returned on the unseated lists of Plum Creek and Wayne townships from 1818 until 1843. It adjoined the Bryan tract No. 672 on the east and the Holland Company's lands on the north, west and south. It was probably not much occupied except by Philip Drum, a hunter from some other county, who had a cabin and hunting-camp, located near the present residence of John H. Hill, for ten years or so from about 1790, until after Alexander and Absalom Reynolds, David Reynolds' executors, and James Clark, guardian of Julia, James and William Maize, heirs of William Clark, conveyed it, December 8, 1859, to Henry Clever for $1,125. On the 21st of that month he conveyed one-half of it to Judge Buffington and one-fourth to Horatio N. Lee for the last-mentioned sum. They conveyed 114 acres and 120 perches to John H. Hill, March 24, 1866, for $918, and 34 acres and 54 perches to Joseph Keifer for $248.90, who, five days afterward, conveyed the same to William Garner for $300; 100 acres to Samuel and Wilson Schrecongost for $800; and 196 acres to Henry Clever, May 10, for $1. Clever conveyed 30 acres and 9 perches to Jacob McAfoos, May 2, 1870, for $360.60, and 46 acres to George McIntire, March 2, 1871, for $552, small portions of which are in Wayne township. The public schoolhouse No. I and the Salem Reformed church edifice are situated on this original tract, 425 rods nearly southeast of the northwest corner of this township. Next west of the Reynolds and Clark was the Le Roy & Co. or Holland Co. tract, No. 3036, viz., of allotment No. 1, and tract No. 368, the main portion of which was in what is now Valley township. The first settler on the Cowanshannock portion of it was the eccentric Frederick Altman,* to whom Wilhelm Willink and others conveyed 160 acres, December 19, 1833, for $90. He probably settled on it in 1834, as he was first assessed with that number of acres in 1835, and built his sawmill in 1839, with which he was assessed from 1840 until 1846. He also manufactured for awhile stone pumps, which were one of his inventions. The next earliest settler on this tract was probably Andrew King, who was first assessed with 155 acres of it in 1843. Adjoining the last-mentioned on the south was another of the Holland Co. tracts, No. 3022. The earliest settler on the Cowanshannock part of it was probably Andrew King, to whom Wilhelm Willink and others conveyed 1553 acres of allotment No. 3, June 18, 1828, for 877.88, with which SSee sketch of Burrell township. 302 SAM JE L ELG IN. MIS. SAMUEL ELGIN. SAMUEL ELGIN. James Elgin, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in County Derry, Ireland, in the year 1760. In 1782, having attained his majority, he came to America, and in 1791 was married. He first settled where Elderton now is, at a time when the region around him was a perfect wilderness, and while the Indians still infested the country. After passing many years as a pioneer in this locality, he removed to Cowanshannock, then Wayne, township, in 1830. The remainder of his life was spent quietly there, and he died December 20, 1837. His son, Samuel Elgin, whose portrait appears above, was born December 1, 1811. He was married October 1, 1836, and lived at the old homestead until his death, which occurred July 25, 1876. He was a farmer by occupation, and led a busy, useful, honorable life, and stood well in the estimation of all who knew him. He held various offices in the township in which he resided, and discharged the duties of each and every one of them conscientiously and efficiently. Isabella Elgin, his wife, was a daughter of Michael Truby, one of the first and most prominent settlers of Kittanning. She was born March 10, 1820. Samuel and Isabella Elgin were the parents of fourteen children, eleven of whom are still upon and around the old homestead. The names of those still living are as follows: Jeremiah, Rebecca, Ellen, Samuel, Isabella E., Martha Jane, Margaret R., Jane T., George L., William S. and Robert B. Those deceased are Amanda, Alexander and John A. S. Elgin. COWANSHANNOCK TOWNSHIP. he was first assessed in 1829. They subsequently conveyed as follows: To Abraham Rosenberger, 2161 acres of allotment 8, September 17, 1828, for 8108.25, 1 22 acres of which Rosenberger conveyed to Abraham Hill, April 28, 1837, for $300, and to Joseph Hill 1163 acres, March 14, 1837, for $230. The Timothy Pickering & Co. lands in this township lay to the east of the Findley lands and consisted of the following tracts: No. 25, 11321 acres. The earliest permanent white settler on it was William Kirkpatrick. In or about 1800 he commenced occupying 200 acres of its northwestern part, and with which he was assessed, successively, in Toby, Kittanning, Plum Creek and Wayne townships, and which James Potter Murry, a devisee of Gen. Potter, conveyed to him, September 28, 1807, for $800, payable in annual installments, without interest. In the same instrument Murry agreed to deliver to Kirkpatrick a good and sufficient title in three years, and Kirkpatrick agreed to secure the payment of the purchase money by bond and mortgage. Murry was enabled to comply with his part of the agreement by these 200 acres having been conveyed to him by Potter's executors, May 19, 1810, and by the granting of the patent therefor to him, January 12, 1813. In April he consummated the performance of his covenant by delivering his deed to Kirkpatrick, whose name appears on the northwestern part of No. 25, on the map of original tracts. After residing there about thirty years, he removed to the Blaine tract No. 553,* with 150 acres of which he assessed in and after 1831. He conveyed that part of No. 25 to William Porter, April 17, 1832, for $1,300. Porter conveyed 194 acres and 89 perches of it to John Cowan, May 8, 1837, for $1,960, on which there is a log barn which was raised about 1808, which, although now under its third roof, is still a substantial structure. It required two days to notify the men then living within a circuit of thirty miles of such a raising. Until as late as 1834 trees suitable for building-logs on this and adjoining tracts were considered common property. If any one saw a tree which would answer his purpose, either on the tract on which he had settled or on any other, he appropriated it to his own use, without leave from any one and without the apprehension of litigation. Another early settler on No. 25 was William Cochran, Sr., who was first assessed with 250 acres of it in 1811, which had been devised by Gen. Potter to John P. McMillen, to whom his executors conveyed the same, consisting partly of tract No. 11, August 19, 1815, and which hlie conveyed to See sketch of Wayne township. Cochran, December 2, 1816, for $500. Another portion became vested in Samuel Cochran. William and Samuel Cochran united in conveying 302 acres and 17 perches (except 20 acres of the east end) to Archibald L. Robinson, July 18, 1826, for $1,500, which he conveyed to James E. Brown, June 21, 1839, for $3,650. Two hundred and fifty acres of Nos. 25 and 11 were devised to Thomas Potter, who conveyed the same to William Marshall, June 18, 1814, for $550, with which the latter was first assessed in 1828, and as a tanner in 1829. He conveyed it as containing'265 acres and 117 perches, to Samuel Patterson, December 10, 1835, for $1,200, which, with 93 acres and 139 perches of "The Grove," he conveyed to Alexander P. Ormond, March 30, 1840, for $2,100. Other devisees of portions of No. 25, were John and James P. Jordan. William Stanford occupied 20 acres of it for several years after 1825; Andrew Morrow, Robert Neal and Alexander Rutherford commenced occupying portions of it in 1835. Smith Neal, Sr., settled on the James P. Jordan portion of it January 3, 1833, and afterward on the Le Roy & Co. tract, No. 3125. He was born in what is now Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, in 1763. At the age of sixteen he enlisted in the American army at Carlisle, and participated in a number of the important battles of the revolution. He was present at the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, at Yorktown, Virginia, October 19, 1781. Three of his uncles fell in the battle of Brandywine, September 11, 1777. Hle settled, some time after the close of that war, in the neighboring county of Butler, when he enlisted and elsewhere served in the war of 1812. The gun which he carried is now in the possession of grandson Smith Neal. He removed from Butler to this county at the time above-mentioned, and was a resident successively of Wayne and Cowanshannock townships until his death, which occurred August 13, 1863, when he was within three months of being a centenarian. The James P. Jordan portion of No. 25, viz., 200 acres and 128 perches, was sold for taxes by David Johnston, county treasurer, in June, 1830, to Robert Brown, who conveyed the same to Robert Neal, December 3, 1833, to whom the patent was issued, who conveyed 100 acres to William Morrow, January 26, 1843, for $20, the latter having been first assessed therewith in 1836. Samuel Cassady, Samuel Fleming and Samuel Porter were first assessed with other portions of No. 25 in 1838, and Jacob Linsebigler with 140 acres in 1841. Tract No. 11, 6271 acres, lay next west of No. 303 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. 25, and south of the Wor and Craig tracts. Isaac and James Simpson were each assessed with 150 acres of it in 1823, the latter afterward with 127 acres. James Craig and Hamlet Totten were jointly assessed with 367 acres of it in 1828. Craig probably settled on it in 1827, and Totten a year or two later. Stewart Fitzgerald was assessed with 327 acres in 1830, James Simpson, Jr., with 65 acres in 1833, and John Morrow with 75 acres in 1834. Three hundred and sixty-one acres and 90 perches of this original tract were sold for taxes to the county commissioners November 19, 1816, who sold the same to James Pinks August 1, 1825, who conveyed the same to Hamlet Totten May 26, 1827, for $150. Gen. Potter's surviving executor and heirs and devisees conveyed that lastmentioned quantity to Elizabeth and Margaret Latimore, August 22, 1834, for the purpose of making up a deficit of two shares of the Potter lands, which had become vested in their father, George Latimore, and which they conveyed to Hamlet Totten December 18 for $350, 151 acres of which he conveyed to John Patterson, of Washington county, Pennsylvania, May 5, 1836, for $750, 46 acres and 26 perches of which the latter conveyed to John McElroy September 1, 1838, for $1,800. John Totten was assessed with some of it for several years, and Sidney Totten with 210 acres from 1837 until 1840, when he removed to the Meason and Cross tract No. 692; Zachariah Knight with 45 acres, first in 1838; James Reed with 100 acres, first in 1838; David Simpson, as chairmaker, in 1838, and wheelwright in 1839; Samuel Smith with 100 acres, first in 1840, though he had purchased earlier; and James Morrow, as a blacksmith, in 1841, Three hundred and one acres and 45 perches were devised by Gen. Potter to James P. Carothers, including parts of Nos. 11 and 25, to whom Potter's executors conveyed the same, September 10, 1819, and to whom the patent was granted July 15, 1822. He conveyed 250 acres and 130 perches thereof to James and John Simpson as "tenants in common," September 17, 1822, for $675. James conveyed his interest therein for $1, and John his for $765, to Isaac Simpson, August 12, 1826. James Simpson, Sr., removed in 1807 from Indiana county to that part of tract No. 11 bordering on the southwest part of the Wor tract, where Anthony Gallagher now resides. He died some years since. As late as 1855-6 he said that he was offered, soon after he settled there, as much land as hlie could see from his residence for a cow, but was unable then to pay even that price, for hlie had not the cow to barter for the land. John Simpson was first assessed as a single man in 1809. Isaac Simpson was born in Fort Lydick, five miles east of Indiana, Pennsylvania, in 1790, and removed to this part of No. 11 in 1822, where he still resides in his two-story brick mansion, and is quite active for one of his advanced age. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, in the army of the Northwest, under Gen. William H. Harrison, and participated in the military operations at Sandusky and Fort Meigs. On this part of No. 11, on the crossroads, is the little town or hamlet of Tottenham, called Centerville on the attest township map, containing eleven dwelling-houses, one cabinetmaker, one carpenter, one sewing-machine agent, and about forty inhabitants. It was laid out by Hamlet Totten in 1859 or 1860. Briefly digressing from the Pickering & Co. lands, the reader's attention is diverted for a few moments to the " Simpson" tract, as designated on the map of original tracts, but really consisting of three tracts, for which warrants were granted to Robert Simpson dated, respectively, December 21, 1832, May 29, 1834, and January 22, 1847, aggregating about 268 acres, south of No. 11 and east of No. 176, and on both sides of the purchase line, the patents for which were granted to Simpson, respectively, June 1, 1836, and February 26, 1847, the latter tract adjoining the 91 acres assessed to John Morrow, and for which a warrant was issued to him. Simpson conveyed 193 acres and 127 perches to John Simpson, December 6, 1851, for $1 and his proper and comfortable maintenance during the rest of his life. The writer has been informed that he settled here in 1806, but he presumes he did not until 1814, as his name does not appear on the assessment list until 1815. It is said that he served in the Indian war in and about 1790. Returning from that digression, the Pickering & Co. tract No. 176, 1057 acres, lay west of" Leeds," No. 11, and the Simpson tract, south of" Leeds," "Fidelity," and Bryan No. 672, east of Findley No. 3658, and the McClenechan tract, and north of and bordering on the purchase line. It was a part of the Potter lands which became vested in George Latimore of Philadelphia, to whom the patent was granted February 8, 1812, who, by his will, dated July 15, 1823, devised it to his wife Margaret, and after her death, to his daughters, Elizabeth and Margaret Latimore. The Indian Lick run empties into the Cowanshannock from the north about fifty rods east of its western boundary, and Bell's Camp run from the south 275 rods east of Indian Lick, which was so-called after an old hunter by the 304 COWANSHANNOCK TOWNSHIP. name of Bell, of Westmoreland county, who in early times, for many years when deer were plenty, established on it his hunting camp, which he occupied during a considerable portion of the winter and left in the spring. Peter Torney, Sr., appears to have been the earliest permanent settler on No. 176, with 200 acres of which he was first assessed in 1823. The Latimore sisters, after their mother's death, conveyed to him 152 acres, September 18, 1833, for $456. Alexander Foster was first assessed with 150 acres in 1829, to whom Mrs. Margaret Latimore conveyed the same October 22, for $450. Jacob Ripple was assessed with 100 acres in 1829, to whom Mrs. Latimore conveyed 103 acres and 35 perches September 12, 1831, for $336.37; Peter Torney, Jr., with 74 acres in 1829, to whom she conveyed 73 acres and 83 perches September 2, 1830, for $200.50; Samuel Marshall, with 130 acres, in 1830; Moses Miller, with 130 acres, in 1831, to whom she conveyed 60 acres, December 20, for $180; the same year Christopher Schrecongost, with 62 acres, and Jonathan Yount, with 134 acres, 40 acres besides which he purchased from the sisters Latimore, March 18, 1335, for $122.25, both which, 174 acres, Yount conveyed to Lyle Kerr, April 7, for $2,000; John Stoops, with 150 acres, in 1832, to whom his father-in-law, Alexander Foster, Sr., conveyed 128 acres, allotment No. 1, July 26, 1854, for $1,000; Daniel Schrecongost, with 61 acres, in 1835; John T. Patterson, with 196 acres-two parcels-in 1836, to whom widow Latimore conveyed 69 acres and 116 perches, December 22, 1831, for $209, and the sisters Latimore, 82 acres and 76 perches, December 20, 1833, for $227; Samuel Patterson, with 123 acres-two parcels-in 1836, which the sisters Latimore had conveyed to him, January 27, 1835, for $370.50; James and Joseph Reed, each, with 94 acres, in 1838; and John Karn, with 52 acres, in 1842. Glancing at the township map of 1876, the reader will notice on the portion of this original tract east of Rural village and north of the Cowanshannock the location of property belonging to the estate of Rev. William F. Morgan, deceased, and that of the farm of Joseph Ritner Ambrose, late of John Neal, deceased, and south of that stream, between it and the purchase line, the farms of T. W. Stoops, Henry, Jonathan and Resinger Yount, William Carson, and John Torney. This township was not well supplied with good public roads until about 1845. The Kittanning and Smicksburgh turnpike was authorized to be made ten or twelve years before. Its original route diverged from near Patterson's mill in Valley township to the left to the Anderson creek road. The present route through Rural village was adopted by the pledges given by the inhabitants of that place and vicinity to make several miles of the pike, if the route were changed, Which they did. Some of the early schoolhouses within the present limits of this township were built prior to 1820. The first one was on the Ormond farm, about 75 rods south of the Cowanshannock. The second one was about 400 rods southwest of that one, near J. T. Sloan's. The third one was 1 mile and 80 rods northwest of Atwood, on land now owned by D. McCoy. It was a square building of round logs, one end of which was devoted to a triangularly shaped chimney, and in other respects it resembled other primitive schoolhouses in this county. The first teacher in this house was John Russel. Four years afterward he taught in the upper story of a stillhouse, nearly a mile southeast of Atwood, in the bend of the public road extending from that village to Indiana, near the present residence of Christopher Hoover. The heating apparatus consisted of an iron kettle, with coals, instead of wood. for fuel. The fourth one, after 1820, was situated about 900 rods nearly east of Rural village, at the present cross-roads, about 50 rods southwest of where James Morrow's blacksmith shop now is. The fifth one was about 200 rods a little north of east of the fourth one. The sixth one was about one mile east of Rural village at the present crossroads, near what is now Centerville. The seventh one was 2 miles and 60 rods south of Rural village, near Black's or Templeton's sawmill. The eighth one was northeast of Rural village, and about 150 rods slightly south of west from the present site of the Barnard schoolhouse. The ninth one was about a mile northeast of Atwood, and 100 rods west of the Derimney schoolhouse. When the common school system went into operation, most of the comparatively few persons who then inhabited parts of Wayne and Plum Creek townships which are now included in this township readily adopted it. In 1860, the number of schools was 15; average number of months taught, 4; male teachers, 11; female teachers, 4; average monthly salaries of male, $14.45; average monthly salaries of female, $13.50; male scholars, 340; female scholars, 334; average number attending school, 405; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 34 cents; amount levied for school purposes, $1,192; received from state appropriation, $130.70; from collectors, $682; cost of instruction, $854; fuel and contingencies, $64.70; repairing schoolhouses, etc., $18. In 1876, the number of schools was 16; average 305 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. number months taught, 5; male teachers, 11; female teachers, 5; average monthly salaries of male, $34; average monthly salaries of female, $35; male scholars, 407; female scholars, 352; average number attending school, 532; cost per month, 85 cents; amount of tax levied for school and building purposes, $3,700. Receipts - From state appropriation, $493.83; from taxes, etc., $3,666.06; cost of schoolhouses, $564; teachers' wages, $2,745; fuel, contingencies, etc., $597.29. STATISTICS OF POPULATION, VALUATION, ETC. The census of 1850, the first one after the organization of this township, shows its population, including that of the villages, to have then been: white, 1,318; colored, 0. In 1860, white, 1,963; colored, 1. In 1870, white, 2,246; colored, 0 native, 2,155; foreign, 91. The number of taxable in 1876, is 599, and the population, estimated on that basis, 2,755. The assessed valuation of this township, in 1 850, was: real estate, $90,020; personal property, $13,295; single men, $2,900; occupations, $400; money at interest, $1,651; carriages, $325; watches, 50 cents. Total, $107,791.50. The total valuation of the same, single men omitted, in 1876, is $817,051. Occupations, other than agricultural, exclusive of Atwood and Rural village, not wholly according to the assessment list for 1876: Laborers, 28; blacksmiths, 5; merchants, 5; carpenters, 8; stonemasons, 6; miners, 2; shoemakers, 2; teachers, 3; harness makers, 3; painter, 1; gristmills 2; sawmills, stationary, 5; portable, 1; tanneries, 2. According to the mercantile appraiser's list, there are twenty-one merchants of the fourteenth and two of the thirteenth class. The vote on the local option law, including Atwood and Rural village -for license, 124; against license, 152. RURAL VILLAGE. In the summer of 1836, John Patterson laid out Rural village on that part of the west end of the Pickering & Co. tract No. 11, which he had, as elsewhere stated, purchased from IHamlet Totten. The town plot has not been recorded. If it is still extant, it is not accessible. Forty lots, each 62-X165 feet, part of them on each side of the turnpike, or Main street, were surveyed by the late Major James White; Hamlet Totten remem bers that he was the surveyor. They were shortly afterward offered for sale. Archibald L. Robin son cried them, and his recollection is, that about twenty-five were bid off the first day. The follow ing conveyances from Patterson to the purchasers indicate the general values of those lots at that time, in the old plot of the village, which extended 80 X 25 rods eastward on the Pickering & Co. tract 11, from the present alley between the Presbyterian church and the Odd Fellows' hall, including Main street and the alleys. On the 12th October, 1836, he conveyed to Judge Buffington lots Nos. 38 and 39 for $40; to Thompson Purviance lot No. 6 adjoining " an alley 19 feet wide," for $34; to William W. Gibson lot No. 4, for $20; to Jacob Pence lot No. 10 for $39.50; to Samuel R. Ramage lot No. 3 for $13; to Samuel Smith lots Nos. 8 and 9 for $154; September 20, 1837, to Andrew L. McCloskey lot No. 7, for $117.50; February 4, to Zachariah Knight lot No. 5, for $400; September 12, 1838, to James Gourley, 2 lots for $39; October 2, 1839, lots Nos. 17, 18, 19 to Thompson Purviance for $40; April 28, 1840, to Findley Patterson lots Nos. 20, 21 for $35. Alexander Foster, Sr., conveyed, January 27, 1837, to Alexander Foster, Jr., the 150 acres of Pickering tract No. 176, which hlie had about ten years before purchased from Mrs. Latimore. In the summer or fall of 1839, the elder and younger Foster laid out the new plot of Rural village on that part of the Pickering & Co. tract last mentioned, adjoining on the west the alley between the present sites of the Presbyterian church and Odd Fellows, hall. This new plot consisted of 20 lots, partly on each side of Main street, 621 feet in front on the street, and extending back, some 165 and others 150 feet. They were surveyed by Jonathan E. Meredith October 10, 1839. Alexander Foster, Sr., conveyed some, but Alexander Foster, Jr., conveyed most of those lots which were sold. Conveyances of them dated November 9, 1839: To Robert A. Robinson, lot No. 1, for $55; to Zachariah Knight, lot No. 23, for $51; to Wesley Knight, lot No. 4, for $27.87; November 11, to Dr. William Aitkin, lot No. 13, for $47.561; December 14, to Andrew L. McCloskey, lot No. 8, for $17.50; January 10, 1840, to Benjamin Schrecongost, lot No. 8, for $15.31; to Jacob Beer, lot No. 9, for $16; January 25, to Peter Brown, lot No. 6, for $25; April 16, 1844, toJames R. Woods, lot No. 15, for $15; May 21, to Catherine Jones, lot No. 14, for $15; January 28, 1851, to Hugh R. Morrison, lot No. 11, for $40. The first separate assessment list of this village was in 1839, and included only the old plot, and is: Joseph Buffington, lots Nos. 38 and 39,valuation, $20; Samuel Cassady, valuation, $10; Samuel Flemming, lot No. 14, $10; Alexander Foster, Esq., lots Nos. 15 and 16, $20; William W. Gibson, lot No. 3 (4?), $10; James Gourley, black306 L IAS. JACGOB LiA4S. R AO R(ESIDENCE Or JACO0B LJfrS. MF S- JjACOB 44 COWANSHANNOCK TOWNSHIP. smith, lots Nos. 11 and 12, 1 head of cattle, $100; Zachariah Knight, lot No. 5, tavern,* 2 cattle, $116; Andrew McCloskey, carpenter, lot No. 7, 1 head cattle, $150; John Patterson, I house and lot $300, and lots Nos. 17, 18, 19, 20, $40; Samuel Potts, 1 house and lot, $50; Samuel Ramage, lot No. 4 (3?), $10; Archibald L. Robinson, lots Nos. 32, 33, $20; Martin Schrecongost, lot No. 30, $10; Samuel Smith, lots Nos. 8, 9, $20; James Strain, lot No. 10, $10. The first separate assessment list of the new plot is that of 1841. It is meager, except as to lots and their value: William Aitkens, lot No. 13, $14; Jacob Beer, lot No. 9, $5; James Boyd, lot No. 14, $5; Peter Brown, lots Nos. 6, 8, $10; Richard Crim, lot No. 5, $5; Archibald Findley, lot No. 12, $5; Alexander Foster, Esq., lot No. 15, $5; James Gibson, lots Nos. 7, 17, $10; Wesley W. Knight, lot No. 4, $5; Robert A. Robinson, lots Nos. 1, 2, $325; Benjamin Schrecongost, lot No. 18, $5; Robert Stoops, lots Nos. 3, 16, $10; John Uplinger, lot No. 22, $5. This portion of this beautiful valley and its vicinity proved to be especially attractive to those desiring to settle in this region after 1830. Hence it was that John Patterson changed his base of operations and laid out the old plot of Rural village, which soon became the central commercial point for a considerable scope of the surrounding country. Merchants regarded it as a favorable opening for their branch of business. Thompson Purviance was the pioneer merchant of this village. He must have opened his store here in 1836, for he was first assessed as a merchant here in 1837; David Patterson the next year. The former died about the middle of September, 1840, and the latter removed to Kittanning in 1841, where he has ever since continued to carry on the mercantile business. Among their successors have been Robert A. Robinson, John McEroy, Joseph Alcorn, who for several years had charge of a kind of co-operative company store, which was not, like some others of the kind, a financial success. George B. McFarland and James E. Brown had a store here several years, which was transferred to Phwnix Furnace after they had acquired an interest in it. Among the later merchants of this village are George A. Gourley, Andrew Gallagher, Joseph K. Patterson and James McFarland. The mechanical trades and other occupations have kept pace with the increase of population here and in the surrounding country. The first resident clergyman was Rev. James * He was first assessed as an innkeeper in 1838. His was probably the seeond tavern kept within the limits of this township. D. Mason, and the first resident physician, William Aitkins. The assessment list for this year (1876) shows: Merchants, 4; mason, 1; physician, 1; tinsmith, 1; peddler, 1; printer, 1; blacksmiths, 5; carpenters, 2; justice of the peace, 1; wagonmakers, 3; laborers, 4; shoemakers, 2; tailor, 1; artist, 1; innkeepers, 2. The number of taxables is 43, giving a population of 197. The first school within what are now the limits of this village was taught before 1836, in the first log cabin built here, by Thomas McElhinney, afterward a member of the bar of this county, and the author of several treatises on "Love, Courtship and Marriage," and " Getting through the World." He also wrote and published a biography of Martin Van Buren. A select school in which the higher English branches and the Latin and Greek languages were taught, was opened by Rev. James D. Mason in the first church edifice, in 1845, which he continued to teach until 1847. Among his pupils were Dr. Alcorn, the late John K. Calhoun, a member of the bar of this county and of the house of representatives of this state, and Rev. - Marshall, of Iowa. His immediate successor was Rev. Cochran Forbes. The number of pupils, male and female, ranged from 25 to 35. John McElroy, a few years after the latter left, opened a similar school in the same building, until he erected a school building on his own premises, in which, like his predecessors, he devoted himself to the thorough instruction of his pupils, the usual number of which, of both sexes, was from 25 to 30, among whom were Dr. John W. Morrow and other successful teachers of common schools. His successors have been Mr. Talmage, L. R. Ewing, Louis Kimmel, Joseph Beer, - Belden, James Morrow, Joseph Buyers and J. A. Ewing, the number of their pupils ranging from 25 to 35. The earliest church in this village is the Presbyterian. On November 27, 1833, the trustees of the Presbyterian church at Kittanning, in accordance with the unanimous wish of its members, "and of some of the prominent citizens of Rural valley," invited Rev. Joseph Painter "to take charge of these two congregations as stated pastor," pledging themselves for the payment to him of $500 annually for his services while he should continue to be their pastor. That invitation having been accepted and a call moderated for twothirds of his time at Kittanning, September 23, 1834, he thereafter preached to the Rural valley congregation one-fourth of his time. By direction of the Blairsville Presbytery Rev. Joseph Painter and E. D. Barrett organized this church August 1, 307 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. 1835. The first elders were Richard E. Carothers, William McIntosh and Ebenezer Smith, who were ordained and installed on the 20th. The first sacrament in the log edifice was on the 22d, and the third and last one there was November 19, 1837. The next one was in the brick edifice, June 17, 1838. The latter was at first small, but it having increased, the Presbytery the next spring directed the Presbyterian church of Rural valley to be organized, which was accordingly done, and he, as its pastor, preached to it one-third of his time for several years. The first church edifice was a log one, 24 X 24 feet, situated on the two acres of the Findley tract No. 3833, which John Findley, as heretofore mentioned, gave for and dedicated to church and school purposes. The pulpit consisted of a ten-bushel store box set endwise, and the seats of oak slabs, the sawed sides upward, and each supported by four wooden legs. The pastor's stipulated salary was $80 a year, payable in flour, meat, oats and other products at market prices in Kittanning. Services continued to be held in that primitive temple in the wilderness for a year or more. Then the question of a change of location to Rural Village began to be agitated, on which it was provided that each subscriber to the fund for defraying the expenses of the church should be entitled to vote. In this, as in most other instances, the question of location became an exciting one. The members of the congregation, pro and con, were deeply exercised as to its ultimate disposition. A congregational meeting was held in that edifice on a warm afternoon in May, 1836. Ebenezer Smith was called to the chair, and Archibald L. Robinson was appointed secretary. The word "fillibustering " had not then been coined. So William McCain, wholived over on Pine creek, a zealous opponent to a change of location and a ready and voluble speaker, undertook to prevent the taking of a vote by "killing time" with one of his long speeches. After having gained the floor, and having proceeded at some length, he was interrupted by John Patterson, who proposed that the motion or resolution before the meeting should be reduced to writing. When that was done, Patterson cut short McCain's time-killing speech by calling for the previous question, which, having been put, was decided in favor of the proposed change of location by a large majority. That question having been thus settled, John Patterson gave two of his in-lots, Nos. 1 and 2, on the north side of Main street, in the old plot of Rural village, for the erection of a new edifice, graveyard, and other church purposes, but, the people preferring to have their new edifice on higher ground and a little out of the town, Alexander Foster, Sr., gave an acre of the tract which he had purchased from the Robertses, the John Craig tract, called " Leeds." Their deeds are respectively dated October 28, 1836, and the consideration expressed in each is $2. Both of them conveyed to John Stoops, William McCain and Robert McIntosh, trustees of the First Presbyterian church in Rural village, and their successors in office, to be appointed, chosen and elected according to the rules and established practice of this church. The work of erecting the new one-story brick edifice, 30X40 feet, on the acre off "Leeds" given by Alexander Foster, was commenced soon after the congregational meeting had decided in favor of changing the location, and was rapidly completed. The material was not of the best quality, its architectural style was not of the highest order; still it was a fair building, adapted, at the time, to the wants of the increasing population of this region. The pastor, Rev. Joseph Painter, regarded the alacrity and celerity with which material aid was obtained and the work was completed as wonderful. As he viewed it, he may have recalled Virgil's description of a hive of busy bees in comparing to them the industry of the Carthaginians in erecting the buildings and other improvements of their city, especially the words "Fervet opus" *-"the work goes briskly on," which he had conned at Amwell academy. The graveyard, provided for in the donation of this acre of land, is immediately north of that edifice. The church membership having increased to eighty-five, the congregation desired one-half of a pastor's time, which Mr. Painter could not give them. His successors were Rev. James D. Mason, from 1843 until his resignation in 1847; Rev. Cochran Forbes, from 1849 until he resigned in 1854, on account of "bitter and persevering opposition chiefly from outside of the church;" Rev. William F. Morgan, two-thirds of his time from 1856 until his death in 187-. It is said of him that he acted with caution, attended to his own business, and meddled not with that of any other individual. He was an active and acceptable co-worker in advancing the educational interests of Cowanshannock township. The membership of this church in 1876 is 154, and the number of Sabbath-school scholars 100. This church was incorporated as " the Rural Valley church of Rural village," by the proper court, March 23, 1842. John Cowan, Robert A. Robinson, James Reed, Gouin Wallace, William Aitken, John Stoops and Isaac Rhea were the trustees named in the charter, who * 2Eneid, Lib. I, 486. 308 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. James Barr, George Williams, John Patton, Samuel Matthews, James Green, Job Johnson, Jacob Allshouse, James Reichert, Alex. A. Lowry, John R. Johnston, William Curll, Jacob Beck, George W. Brodhead, Lindley Patterson, James Stitt, Joseph Bullman, William Coulter, Amos Mercer, Philip Hutchinson, John Boyd, Robert McIntosh, Arthur Fleming, Andrew Roulston, John Shoop, William McIntosh, Archibald Glenn, Wilson Todd, Thos. H. Caldwell, James Douglass, David Beatty, George B. Sloan, William W. Hastings, John M. Patton, Win. H. Jack, James Blair, Thomas Templeton, James Barr, Daniel Slagle, George H. Smith, Augustus T. Pontius, Peter Heilman, William P. Lowry, Thomas Montgomery, Thomas Herron, Wm. Buffington, Brice Henderson and Owen IHandcock, Lewis W. Corbett, John Murphy, James White, John Alward, T. V. McKee. County Treasurers.-Appointed annually by the county commissioners, as provided by acts of April 11, 1799, and April 15, 1834: Adam Elliott, Robert Brown, Samuel Matthews, Guy Hiccox, Thomas Hamilton, James Pinks, Alexander Colwell, David Johnston, Jonathan H. Sloan, Samuel McKee, Andrew Arnold, James Douglass, Samuel Hutchinson, John F. Nulton. Some of them were reappointed once or twice. Elected as provided by act of May 27, 1841 John F. Nulton, George Beck, James McCullough, Sr., Absalom Reynolds, Henry J. Arnold, Alexander Henry, Thomas MeMasters, Andrew J. Faulk, Samuel Crawford, Robert Anderson, William Brown, William MeClelland (George Kron appointed to fill unexpired term of Wm. McClelland, deceased), J. Norman McLeod (Samuel McLeod appointed to fill unexpired term of J. N. McLeod, deceased), Samuel W. Hamilton, Samuel C. Davis, John E. Alward, James Piper, James H. Monroe, T. Jeff. Elwood, John C. Walters. The present constitution of this state makes the term of county treasurer three years instead of two, as itwas under the act of 1841. R-egisters and Recorders and Clerks of Orphans' Courts.-Paui Morrow, James Sloan, George IHiccox, Eben S. Kelley, David Johnston, Philip Mechling, Frederick Rohrer, John Croll, John Mechling, John R. Johnston, Joseph Bullman, William Miller, David C. Boggs, Philip K. Bowman, Wm. R. Millron, James H. Chambers and H. J. Hayes. Until 1821 the offices of prothonotary, clerk of the courts, and register and recorder were held by one person. Deputy Attorneys-General.-Deputy attorneysgeneral were appointed by the attorney-general until, by act of May 3,1850, the name was changed to district attorneys, one of whom was thereafter to be elected for by the voters of each county. Thos. Blair, Wm. F. Johnston, Michael Gallagher, J. B. Musser, John B. Alexander, John Reed, Geo. W. Smith, John S. Rhey, Thos. T. Torney, Daniel Stanard, Hugh H. Brady, Ephraim Carpenter, J. G. Barclay, John W. Rohrer, James Stewart. District Attorneys.-John W. Rohrer, Franklin Mechling, William Blakeley, Henry F. Phelps, John V. Painter, John O. Barrett, Jefferson Reynolds, Joseph R. Henderson, M. F. Leason, R. S. Martin. Sherifs.-John Orr, Jonathan King, James McCormick, Joseph Brown, Philip Mechling, Robert Robinson, Thos. McConnell, Jacob Mechling, Jas. Douglass, Chambers Orr, Samuel Hutchinson, Job Truby, George Smith, John Mechling, William G. Watson, Joseph Clark, Hamilton Kelly, George B. Sloan, Jonathan Myers, Robert M. Kirkadden, George W. Cook (appointed vice Kirkadden, deceased), David J. Reed, Alexander J. Montgomery, John B. Boyd, George A. Williams, James G. Henry, James H. Chambers. County Superintendents.-J. A. Campbell, Robert W. Smith, John A. Calhoun, James Richey, William Davis, Hugh McCandless, Samuel Murphy, A. D. Glenn, D. C. Stockdill. Deputy Surveyors- General.-Robert Richards, J. E. Meredith, Jackson Boggs. County Surveyors.-James Stewart, Robert S. Slaymaker, John Steele, Robert H. Wilson. POLITICAL. Armstrong county, 1825, Congress: Robert Orr, Jr., had 1148 votes, and Abner Lacock I11. Orr's majority, 1037. Constitutional convention, 1825. Against, 921; for, 379 votes; majority against calling a convention to revise the constitution, 542. The foregoing statistics were obtained from papers published in 1825. From 1828 to 1854 there was uniformly a democratic majority of several hundred, except that a volunteer whig candidate was, now and then, elected to some county office. In 1854 a new secret political organization, commonly called "Know Nothings," swept the political field with, to the uninitiated, an unexpected and astounding majority. In the campaign of 1856 the republican party, newly organized, entered the political arena with the following result in this county: PresidentialFremont, Rep., 2,963; Buchanan, Dem., 2,680. Rep. maj. 283. In 1858: Judge of Supreme Court-Read, Rep., 2,386; Porter, Dem., 2,003. SMITH NEAiL. SMITH NEAL. The grandfather of the subject of this biography, Smith Neal, after whom he was named, was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, in 1764. As a lad he enlisted in the colonial army and served one day in the revolutionary war. In 1796 he settled in Butler county, being one of its earliest pioneers. When the war of 1812 broke out his patriotic spirit had better opportunity to exhibit itself than during the first war with the British, and he served as a soldier for a considerable time. The rifle which he carried is now owned and treasured as a valuable heirloom by his grandson and namesake. The pioneer and soldier continued to reside in Butler county until 1833, when he removed to Armstrong, where he lived until his death in 1863. His wife was Sarah Cochran, by whom he had one child, Robert, who was born in Butler county, July 5, 1798. This son married Sarah Lowe, a native of this state, who was born in 1797. Robert and Sarah (Lowe) Neal came to Armstrong county in 1834, and lived here the remainder of their days, the husband dying in December, 1862, and the wife in the same month in the year 1857. They were the parents of five MPS.SMITH NE\EAL. children, four of whom are still living, viz.: William H., Rosetta P., Alexander and Smith. Smith Neal, whose ancestry has been given in the foregoing few lines, was born in Butler county, Pennsylvania, January 25, 1822. Upon the 25th of May, 1844, having removed to Armstrong county with his parents ten years before, he was united in marriage with Miss Margaret Sloan, daughter of Samuel and Nancy Sloan, early settlers of Plum Creek township. She was born in 1823 and died March 17, 1861. She was the mother of tive children, three of whom are still living-Nancy Jane, Amanda and Sarah C. Upon the 10th of April, 1862, Mr. Neal married, as his second wife, Caroline Jewert, a native of Plum Creek, born November 22, 1834. Six children were the offspring of this union, and all are living. Their names are: Loella R. (widow of John P. Beyer, a resident of Indiana, Pennsylvania), L. Adda, Alden, Robert E., Mattie V. and Alice L. Mr. Neal has followed agriculture all of his life, and now owns a farm of 220 acres, 150 of which is finely improved. He has held various offices within the gift of his fellow-townsmen. Both Mr. Neai and his wife are members of the United Presbyterian church of Dayton. -S- OF SM17H N,E AL. COWANSHANNOCK TOWNSHIP. were to serve until the third Wednesday of November, the time designated for the annual election of the corporate officers. A new frame edifice, 51 X 61 feet, was erected in 1850, on one or the other, or on parts, of the two in-lots given to the congregation by John Patter son, on the north side of Main street and adjoin ing the widest alley. The congregation sold their brick edifice to the Cowanshannock school district, which was almost exclusively used for school pur poses while it stood. A new building, better adapted for school purposes, has been erected on its foundation. It was in this building that the writer, in the discharge of his official duty, held an annual examination of the teachers of this and several of the adjacent townships, and an institute in combination, which commenced on Tuesday, October 27, 1857, and continued until Friday, the 30th. Large numnbers of teachers and interested spectators were present. Much attention was devoted to the rudiments, these first things in the books, the foundation work of education, which had been too much neglected. The teachers gen erally thought their examination in these things was "awfully severe," but their attention having thus been called to the importance of a familiar knowledge of the rudiments, they began to study them, and the writer was gratified to find on his visits the next winter to their schools that even their young pupils were more familiar with those rudiments than they were when they were exam ined. The exercises in the day session were confined to examination and illustrations, and the night ses sions were devoted to lectures and discussions of various topics of peculiar interest to teachers. Among the former was an interesting and instruct ive one by Rev. E. D. Barrett on language and the application thereto of the principles of grammar. The Methodist Episcopal church was organized in 1851-2, and has since belonged to the Dayton circuit. Its edifice is situated on the second lot west of the widest alley on the north side of Main street. It is a frame structure, 31 X 45 feet, erected in 1852. The Rural Valley postoffice was removed to this village along with the removal hither of John Pat terson. His successors as postmaster have been Thompson Purviance, Robert A. Robinson, Joseph Alcorn, John Colwell, Zachariah Knight, Henry Keck, Dr. Win. Aitken, and the present one, George A. Gourley. The eastern part of Rural village is traversed by Craig's run, so called either after John Craig, the warrantee of the adjoining tract called "Leeds," or after John Craig of Loyal Hannon, who, in the latter part of last century, had his hunting camp on that part of it within the present limits of the village. The Rural Valley lodge, No. 766, of the Inde pendent Order of Odd Fellows was instituted here, June 16, 1871, the original number of members being twenty-one. The present number is fifty four. This lodge first purchased in-lot No. 30 in the old plot, but sold it to Josiah Miller for $85 the deed to him being dated April 3, 1876. Their hall is situated on the north side of Main street, at its intersection with the widest alley. It is a suitable two-story frame structure, 48 X 20 feet, which was dedicated in October, 1875. A brass band, thirteen pieces, was organized here in September, 1875, which has thus far made fair progress. In the absence of desirable statistics, the writer cheerfully states that the people of this village and of Cowanshannock township generously con tributed to the aid of the soldiers of the Union army during the war of the rebellion. STRUCTURE. In addition to what we have given in the sketch of Plum Creek and Elderton, the following has been kindly furnished by Mr. W. G. Platt, who has in charge the second geol,gical survey of this county: Nearly all the surface rocks of this township are lower barrens. The country along the creek is famous for its smooth, fertile soils. The lower productive rocks are above water level for about a mile along the north branch of Plum creek, extending into Indiana county. A small area extends southward from Wayne township up the valley of Pine creek to Gourley's. A much larger and more important area projects eastward from Valley township. The lowest rock exposed is the ferriferous limestone, only in the extreme western edge of the township. The rocks are nearly horizontal, the township representing the edges and center of the synclinal of which Rural village is about the center. 309 CHAPTER XIV. MANOR. Formed out of the Western Part of Kittanning in 1849-First Township Election-Named from one of the Proprietary Manors - Kittanning, afterward Appleby Manor - Ancient Works - Numerous Relics - Specu lation in Regard to the Origin of the So-called "Old French Fort" - Soldiers Here in 1777-8- Correspond ence of Officers Relating Thereto - Fort Armstrong - Indian Murders - The Claypoole Blockhouse - Early Settlers - Transfers of Real Estate in the Manor - William Green's Mill Built in 1789- " Fort Green "- The Indians Become Aggressive - Measures Taken for the Protection of the Frontier -Cornplanter's Friendship for the Whites - The Militia - Game - Judge Ross - Other Pioneers - Schools - Postoffice - Cradle Factory - Number of Inhabitants - Village of Rosston - Borough of Manorville - Its Pioneer Settler - Its Industrial Interests- Mercantile - Educational - Temperance - lPopulation of the Borough - Geology of Manor Township. MANOR township was formed out of the western part of Kittanning township. The petition for its organization was presented to the proper court, at June sessions, 1849, and Hugh Campbell, Samuel Green and James Stewart were appointed viewers or commissioners, who presented their report in favor of the organization, at the then next September sessions. A remonstrance was presented, on the 20th of the same month, against the confirmation of their report, and against the organization, setting forth that it would leave Kittanning township too small in extent, and would cause much additional expense in rearranging the locations of the schoolhouses. The court, however, at December sessions of that year, confirmed the report of the commissioners, and ordered and decreed that the new township of Manor be erected according to the following boundaries: Beginning at a red oak, at Walker's ferry, on Crooked creek, on land of Robert Walker; thence by Kittanning township, or a line running through the township as it stood, north 18 degrees east 6 miles and 278 perches to a post on the purchase line (of 1768) on land of John Morehead, or 16 perches west of Samuel Mechling's upper corner; thence along the purchase line and boundary of Pine (now Valley) township north 80 degrees west 3 miles to the line of the borough of Kittanning; thence along the southeast line of said borough by the curve thereof 250 perches to the Allegheny river; thence down said river by the meanderings thereof 5 miles and 120 perches to the mouth of Crooked Creek; thence by the meanderings thereof, being also the boundary line of Allegheny township, 51 miles to the place of beginning. The first township election was held in March, 1850, at which the following officers were elected: Judge of election, George M. King; inspectors of election, John Christy and Michael Isaman; constable, Isaac Bouch; assessor, David McLeod; justice of the peace, William Copley; supervisors, George Bouch and John Hileman; township auditors, Richard Bailey, John Shoop and John Williams; township clerk, A. J. Bailey; overseers of the poor, Josiah Copley and William Truby; fence viewers, John Davis and John R. Shoop. The record shows only five school directors to have been then elected, namely, Matthew (Matthias) Bowser, John Christy, William Ehinger, Rev. Levi M. Graves and John Robinson. The name of this township originated from one of the proprietary manors, which was a part of the territory within what are now its boundaries. The word manor is derived from manere, to remain, because in England the usual residence of the owner. It was a piece of land generally consisting of several thousand acres, owned and held by a lord or some great personage, who occupied as much of it as was needed for the use of his own family, and leased the remainder to tenants for certain rents or services. This is said to have been the origin of copyhold estates, which were those held by copy of the court roll, or a tenure for which the tenant had nothing to show except the rolls made by the steward of the manor, who was the registrar of the cour:-baron, and who held that court when business relating to tenures and tenancies, etc., was before it. The reader will keep in mind that the charter granted in 1681 by Charles 11 to William Penn vested in the latter and his heirs the absolute ownership of all the land in Pennsylvania, with comparatively slight exceptions. From then until July 4, 1776, all titles to that land were derived either from Penn himself or some of his family. Though a manor had not been granted in England MANOR TOWNSHIP. since the reign of Edward III, which began in 1327, the surveyor-general under the Penns surveyed to them forty-four manors in the eastern, western and other parts of Pennsylvania, aggregating 421,015 acres and 82 perches. One of them was "The Manor of Kittanning," which was surveyed, March 28, 1769, on a warrant dated February 23 next preceding. Its boundaries, as given in certain quit-claim deeds and releases elsewhere mentioned, were: Beginning at a black oak on the east or southeast side of the Allegheny river, which was about 125 rods below the mouth of Garrett's run, and running thence by land surveyed to Rebecca Smith, south 72' east 391 perches to a "Lynn " (linden tree); thence extending by hilly poor land south 180 west 977 perches to a white oak; thence by vacant land south 450 west 500 perches t6 a white oak; thence extending by hilly poor land north 350 west 560 perches to a birch at the side of Crooked creek, at the first bend above its mouth; thence down said creek, the several courses and distances thereof about 170 perches to a hickory at the side of said river; and thence up the said river the several courses thereof, crossing the mouth of said creek, 969 perches to the place of beginning, containing 3,960 acres, and allowance of six per cent for roads, but, according to later surveys, 4887 acres and 86 perches. Neither records nor the oldest inhabitants solve the question why, by whom and just when the name of this manor was changed to that of "Appleby." It may be inferred from the following recorded facts about what time that change occurred: John Penn, of Stoke Pogis, and Richard Penn, of Queen Ann street west, in the parish of Marylebone, in the county of Middlesex, England, by John Reynal Coates, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, their attorney-in-fact, conveyed this entire manor to Frederick Beates, of the last-mentioned place, by deed dated June 26, 1804, in which it is mentioned as " all that tract of land called and known by the name of' The Kittanning Manor,' " for the sum of $6,400. Beates by his deed, dated the next day thereafter, conveyed "the undivided moiety or half of the Kittanning manor" to Thomas and Robert Duncan for $8,000, and the other undivided moiety to Alexander Cobeau for an equal sum, a gain of $9,600 in the brief space of twenty-four hours. The Duncans and Cobeau mutually agreed upon a partition of this manor tract, by which the former took 2,367 acres and 130 perches of the upper or northern part, and the latter 2,458 acres of the lower or southern part, as mentioned in their quit-claim deeds. The division line between their purparts began at a witch-hazel, on the left bank of the Allegheny river, about 200 rods above the mouth of Tub-mill run, and extended thence south 520 east 98 perches to a post; thence south 480 west 69 perches to a post; thence south 53-10 east 245 perches to a white oak; thence north 330 east 9 perches to a post; thence south 550 east 324 perches to a post, on the line between the manor and the John Biddle tract. The quit-claim deeds or releases of the Duncans to Cobean, and of the latter to them, are respectively dated the 11th and 12th July, 1805, in which the land thus divided is still mentioned as " The Kittanning Manor." Cobeau conveyed 681 acres and 151 perches in the southwestern portion of his purpart to Samuel Cochran, by deed dated April 25, 1807, for $4,086, in which it is mentioned as a tract of land situate in " the Manor of Appleby." This being the first instance in which the writer has met with that name in the old records, he infers that the change of name occurred between July 12, 1805, and April 25, 1807. But why and by whom it was made is not manifest to him. It appears to have been made while Cobean and the Duncans simultaneously held and owned their respective purparts. Was it made by one or all of them? The termination by is a Norse word, meaning a town. Had apples then begun to be abundantly produced in the manor, and did the then proprietors, or either of them, for that reason conceive the idea of calling it Appleby, which is equivalent to Appletown? Or was it so called after some person of that name who had resided on it? The writer has not discovered that any one by the name of Appleby ever resided in this county. There was a private by the name of George Appleby in Capt. Armstrong's company in Gen. Armstrong's expedition to Kittanning. IlIe was reported as among the missing, but there is no evidence of his having remained or of his having afterward settled in this region. Did Cobeau and the Duncans, or either, prefer to give their recently acquired possessions the name of some older and favorite place? And if so, is Appleby in England that place? It is situated on the river Eden, 32 miles from Carlisle and 270 from London. Appleby is also the name of a parish in the county of Lincoln, and of another in the counties of Derby and Leicester, in England. It is probable that the later name of this manor tract was derived from either that borough or one of those parishes. Cobeau conveyed the remainder of his purpart, namely, 1,837 acres and 125 perches, to Jonathan Smith, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for $10,000, by deed, dated May 11, 1807, in which it 311 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. is mentioned as a tract in "Appleby Manor," and the tracts subsequently conveyed by the Duncans are described as situated in "Appleby Manor," so that both the Cobeau and Duncan purparts took that name. The original name of Kittanning is the only one appearing on the records at the land office in Ilarrisburg. The manor, when surveyed by Joshua Elder, Deputy Surveyor-General, was in Cumberland county. It appears to have been divided by. George Woods into seven tracts, their areas varying somewhat in extent. Tract No. I was the most northern, and tract No. 7 the most southern. Ile made a plot of a town on two of those tracts, which he mentioned thus: " A proposed plan for a town at the Kittanning, on the Allegheny river, on tracts Nos. 2 and 3. George Woods." The northern boundary of tract No. 2 was 179 perches below the northern boundary of the Manor. Its width was 287 perches, and that of tract No. 3 was 219 perches. " The Kittanning" is an expression almost invariably used in the old records and documents, and it must have included a much longer stretch of territory along the left bank of the Allegheny river than was included in the extent of the site of the old Indian town destroyed by Gen. Armstrong. This is manifest from the etymology and meaning of the word Kittanning, elsewhere given. The idea that the borough of Kittanning "is located on this manor" is erroneous, for the borough is a mile or more north of the manor's northern limit. Perhaps some reader is wondering why this manor was retained by the Penn family until 1804. Notwithstanding the discontinuance of granting manors in England for more than three centuries before the granting of the charter to Penn, the provisions of the nineteenth section of that charter evinced a disposition to engraft, as Sergeant says, on our provincial institutions some of the features of feudal nobility.* They empowered Penn, and such as he might license, to erect any parcels of lands into manors, with a court-baron and other incidents belonging thereto by the laws of England. Yet no manor in that sense was ever erected in Pennsylvania. But there is reason to believe *That section is in these words and in this orthlography: "WEE give and grant license vnto the said William Penn, and his heires, likewise to all and every such person and persons to whom the said William Penn, or his heires, shall at any time hereafter, grant any estate of inheritance as aforesaid, to erect any parcels of Land within the pvnce aforesaid, into mannors, by and with the licence to be first had and obteyned for that purpose vnder the hand and seal of the said William Penn, or his heires, and in every of the said mannors, to haue and hold a Court Baron, with all things whatsoever, which to a Court Baron do belong; and to haue and to hold view of ffrankpledge, for the conservacon of the peace, and the better government of those parties by themselves or their Stewarts, or by the Lords for the time being, of other mannors to be deputed when they shall be erected and in the same to vse all things belonging to view of ffrankpiedge," &c. that Penn was induced, onil his last visit to England, to erect such manors. But the commissioners of property, when applied to for that purpose, declined to erect such a manor, because it was repugnant to the spirit of the provincial laws and the habits and ideas of the people. By his charter, Penn and his heirs became the owners, subject to the Indian titles, of all the land in Pennsylvania, except that in the possession of the Swedes, Dutch and English along the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers. It having become evident, in the course of the first four years of the Revolutionary war, that the independence of the United States would result, it was obvious that the possession and control of so much territory by the Penn family, who adhered to the English side of that contest, were incomp)atible with the principles enunciated in the Declaration of Independence, the safety and stability of free institutions, the growth of the commonwealth, and the just and proper distribution of the rights, duties, and burdens of the people. Hence, the act of June 28, 1779, was passed, which provided forthepayment to the proprietaries, after the close of the war, of ~130,000 for their lands, except their manors, quit-rents and private estates, the last mentioned of which consisted of tracts of land other than the proprietary manors in the interior, eastern and northeastern parts of the state, aggregating nearly 89,000 acres, all of which were reserved to them, that is, all which had been "duly surveyed and returned into the land office," on or before the 4th day of July, 1776. In pursuance of that act, and particularly its 15th section, Joseph Reed, then president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, addressed to Edmund Physic, as Receiver-General under the late proprietaries, a written demand, dated February 19, 1780, for the books, certificates and other documents, instruments, records, writings and seals belonging to that office, which must have been complied with, as the ~130,000 and interest were paid within eight years after the peace of 1783. In Richard Penn vs. Ann Penn, executrix, and John F. Mifflin, executor of John Penn, deceased, 2 Yeates, 550, ChiefJustice Shippen treated that amount as having been paid to John Penn in his lifetime in money or certificates, and one-third thereof paid over to Richard Penn. The Kittanning (Appleby) manor having been one of those thus reserved, its title was never vested in the commonwealth, and did not pass from the Penns until they conveyed it to Beates. John Penn and William Penn, by their deed, dated November 27, 1820, the consideration therein expressed being $1, conveyed to Thomas W. Morris 312 MANOR TOWNSHIP. all their lands, manors, reserved tracts, tenements, rents and hereditaments in Pennsylvania, by virtue of the act of January 16, 1799, which was passed to facilitate the barring of entails. Events of historical interest in this township occurred chiefly within the limits of this manor. Various aged inhabitants of this township and other parts of this county remember having seen the vestiges of a military fortification, consisting of a fosse, parapet and fort, on the left bank of the Allegheny, between Tub-mill run and Fort run. Samuel Monroe, now of South Buffalo township, who was born onl this manor and resided near those vestiges until hlie was twenty-four years of age, or from 1809 until 1833, has described them to the writer as they appeared to him in his youth, when, during a period of eighteen years, he saw them very often. A trench or fosse extended along the bottom about seventy rods easterly from the river, and thence at an obtuse angle southeasterly, twenty or thirty rods, which, he estimates from the quantity of earth thrown up, must have been four or five feet deep, and as many or more wide.* The parapet around the fort, which was a considerable distance below the trench, must have been several feet high when it was constructed. Its shape, as he remembers it, was somewhat like, though more circular than a horseshoe, and enclosed about two acres, which is in accordance with the recollection of John Christy, who, in 1833, owned and cleared a part of the land on which it had been constructed. The latter's impression is that a ditch originally four or five feet deep had once extended all around it. Monroe, on the other hand, thinks that ditch-like appearance was caused by excavating the earth used in constructing the parapet. Robert Thompson, now of Templeton station, who plowed there soon after the land was cleared, and John Patterson, of Manor township, whose remembrance of it extends back to 1834-5, think it was not a regular trench. According to the recollection of the latter and John Mechling, the shape of the parapet was nearly semi-circular, or nearly that of a half-moon, the distance between the extremities of its hines, or the horns of the half-moon, being about fifty rods, along the bank of the river-that would have been the length of the diameter of the entire circle, or rather oblate spheroid, if it had been completed. Many lead bullets were found in the river bank in front of that parapet, which must have been shot from the opposite side of the river. Christy found, within the parapet, vestiges of small build *It is possible that that trench may have been dug for the purpose of draining the marsh near the hill, either when that fort and parapet were constructed, or at a later period. ings, and, at the depth of four feet, arrow-heads and pieces of pottery. A red-oak, says Monroe, which had grown up on the southern or lower lune of that parapet, indicated 105 annual growths when it was cut down in 1.823-4, so that it must have germinated there prior to 17 18-19. How much longer before then had that parapet been constructed? Mechliling remembers having seen, in 1836-7, a black-oak on the upper or northern lhimne fully two feet, more likely two and a half feet, in diameter, which must have germinated there more than two centuries since. How long before then had that parapet been constructed? And Christy remembers that there was a tree in what he thinks was the trench, that was between four and five feet in diameter. These works evinced a higher degree of skill, intelligence and civilization than the Indians possessed. Their construction required a different kind of labor from that performed by them. There are vestiges of similar works in other parts of the Allegheny valley, on the southern shore of Lake Erie in this state, in the Ohio and Mississippi valleys, and in Western New York. In the trench and on the parapet of those near Lake Erie are trees three feet in diameter, indicating that they were constructed two or more centuries before either the French or the English began to erect military fortifications in that region. The parapets in Western New York were earthen, from three to eight feet high, with trenches on their exterior sides. On some of the parapets, many years ago, were oak-trees whose concentric circles indicated that they were 150, 260 and 300 years old, and there were evident indications that they had sprung up since the erection of those works. Some of the trenches were deep and wide, and others shallow and narrow.* Patterson plowed up in the vicinity of those works various relics-a hundred or more white beads, and some colored ones, about a quarter of an inch in diameter, and from half an inch to two inches in length; a silver band, probably like that found by Joel Monroe, an inch wide and ten inches long, with one edge scalloped and the other straight, a hole near each end, and letters and some other inscriptions oni the surface-he does not remember what they were-which his brother James traded to Samuel Quest, then a jeweler in Kittanning, for a gold finger-ring; knife blades of rather large size, the sharp edge of which was straight from heel to point, and the back was straight from the heel to within an inch of the point, where it was * Gov. Clinton's address. 313 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. arched, making that part of the blade somewhat wider than the rest, and its shape somewhat like that of a lancet. Other and longer blades with hilts and arched backs were also found. Another relic, found in that vicinity, appears to have been made from a dark-red soft stone or hard clay, whose present surface color is dark brown-below the surface, deep red. Its shape is ovate. The length of its axis is one inch and three-eighths, and that of its transverse is two inches. A groove one-quarter of an inch wide and one-eighth of an inch deep extends lengthwise, or in the direction of its transverse axis, entirely around it. Its surface, as well as that of the groove, must have been very smooth when it received the finishing touch. The whole evinces much expertness. Now, the question arises, when were that ancient fortification and its outworks built? The answer cannot be found in the records of history. If they had been constructed by either the French or the English, before or during the period when this valley was disputed territory, there would probably have been some mention of them in the records of the one or the other, or of both claimants. Are they a part of the pre-historic works of the moundbuilders? Rev. Di. Eaton, of Franklin, Pennsylvania, who has devoted much time and attention to these ancient people and their wonderful works, is inclined to think the Allegheny and Ohio valleys were among the prominent places in their settlements. The valley of the Allegheny was, says Heckewelder, according to the tradition cherished by the Lenni-Lenape, or Delawares, inhabited by the Alligewi, who are represented to have been tall, athletic and superior in other respects to the other aboriginal nations. It is also a part of the traditional history of various Indian nations, that the Alligewi, as stated in Cummings' sketches, had made considerable progress in the arts, and that the remains of some of the fortifications which they constructed still exist. Were the fosse, parapet and fort in question a part of them? and was it around them that one of the long and bloody battles was waged between the Alligewi, the primitive occupants of this valley, and the united forces of the Lenni-Lenape, and the Five Nations, as the Mohawks, Oneidas, Cayugas, Onondagas and Senecas were subsequently called? Was it here that the Alligewi, centuries since, were defeated and exterminated by the superior numbers of their allied foes, as the latter swept along in their triumphant advance from beyond the Mississippi to the Delaware and the HIudson? According to the accounts once common among the Leni-Lenape, they and their allies found the Alligewi their most valiant and powerful opponents, who bravely, and for awhile successfully, defended themselves, their homes and their native soil from the attacks of their invaders. In a field above those fortifications, as Samuel Monroe further related, which appeared to him to have been cleared many years, various relics of an ancient battle-field were found, namely, 300 pounds of lead bullets, each weighing several ounces, some of which were wrought into a lead cannon; twenty or more open dirk-knives, with narrow blades six or seven inches long, having sharp points, whose stamps had been effaced by rust, and nothing but the back springs of their handles left; gun-locks unrifled gun-barrels; pistol barrels and butts, about the size of those of old holster horse-pistols; pecks of flint arrow-heads; numerous remnants of horseshoes, the size of which was between that of the horse and the mule; many pieces of brass about the shape and size of an old American cent, on both sides of which letters had been impressed, but had become illegible -on one side of each piece was the representation of a buck running at full speed, with his head up, his fore-feet thrown forward, and his hind-feet backward, and on the edge of each was something like the eye of a brass button; three brass kettles, set in one another, the largest holding three or four gallons, the next, a size less, and so on; three pieces of silver coin, each of the value - of 25 cents; a silver band, found by Joel Monroe, which the latter sold or traded in Pittsburgh for a set of silver tablespoons and a-set of silver teaspoons. The remnant of what appears to have been either a medal, or a trinket which traders, perhaps, sold to the Indians, was plowed up by A. B. Starr, in the spring of 1878, on the same tract. It may be an alloy of brass and some other metal. Its shape is circular. Its diameter is one inch and its original thickness was one-sixteenth of an inch. On its upper edge is the half part of an eye which was one-sixteenth of an inch in diameter. On the obverse side is a king's bust, with this inscription along the border: " GEORGIVS, II. 1D. GRATIA. R." If there were any other letters, they have been effaced by corrosion. On the reverse side is a queen's bust, with this inscription along the border: " CAROLINA-REGINA." The date, if there was one, is invisible. It must have been struck during the reign of George II, who was king of England from 1727 until 1760. The writer has another relic, plowed uip by Williamn Hileman, on the Murphy and Craig farm, on that part of the hill portion of the Manor tract, 314 MANOR TOWNSHIP. between Fort Run and Tub-mill run, about 280 rods east of the Allegheny river, and about 175 rods south of the former run. It is a pipe differing in shape from that of Indian pipes. The diameter of the bowl is nearly three-fourths of an inch at its top; the length one inch and five-eighths; the circumference of the bulge on its outer surface, four and one-eighth inches; the circumference of the neck, three inches; the portion below the neck is cuneal, in the upper part of which is an aperture for the stem, nearly three-eighths of an inch in diameter; the length of the pipe from the top of the bowl to the lower end, i. e., the sharp end of the wedge part, is two inches and seven-eighths; and the material appears to be a fine soft stone, or hard clay, containing considerable aluminous matter. There were indications that there had been a burying ground on the second bench or bottom above or northerly from the trench, in which a large number of persons had been interred. Such of the bones as were exhumed were sound. Samuel Monroe found a skull in which there was a hole about the size of a bullet, just above the ear, but none in any other part. Matthias Bowser has related to the writer that, while he was plowing on the same tract, in 1836, then owned by John Mechling, he struck the bones of a human skeleton and part of a moccasin about sixty-two rods east of the Allegheny. river, and 300 rods north of Tub-mill run, or about thirty feet a little west of north from the house now occupied by A. B. Starr. About two rods southeast from that grave he opened another, sixteen feet square and two feet deep, in which was a large number of of human bones, so arranged as if the bodies had been piled one upon another, when they were buried. In the early part of this century those old fortifications and vicinity were frequented by various persons now living, to gather plums. James E. Brown remembers of that fort being then called "the old French fort." In 1835 James W. Campbell, now of North Buffalo township, and his brother were returning from the mill at Nicholson's falls, and stopped near these old works over night. George Cook, an old resident in the manor, accompanied them to the remains of the parapet, and showed them how the women and children of the surrounding country were protected there one night during the Indian troubles, 1790-5, when forced to flee thither from their homes. After the women and children had entered, the men guarded the entrance to the interior of the parapet. He said that James Claypole, John Guld and others with their families, used to flee thither in those times for refuge. At least some of the bullets used on such occasions were made by the women while in the blockhouse, who melted their pewter plates and other dishes for that purpose. Such being the vestiges and surroundings of and the facts connected with that ancient fosse, parapet and fort, and history being otherwise silent in relation to them, it can of course only be conjectured when and by whom they were originally constructed, and on this question there is ground. for an honest difference of opinion among antiquaries. It is a question well calculated to stimulate research, and one, too, that affords ample scope for profitable and interesting discussion by historical and debating societies. It is stated in Albach's Western Annals, page 716, that " a fort was built on the site of the old village of Kittanning, known also by the name of Appleby's fort, by the government, in 1776." His authority for that statement is not given. The writer has not been able to ascertain that there was ever a vestige of a fort on the site of that village. The manor does not appear to have been called Appleby until between 1805 and 1807. It seems clear, then, that Mr. Albach must have been misinformed respecting both the name and location of that fort. It is a well-established fact, however, that troops were stationed that year at Kittanning, most likely in the vicinity of the present site of that borough, and within the limits of the manor. A memorial was presented June 5, 1776, to the assembly of Pennsylvania from the inhabitants of Westmoreland county, setting forth that they feared an attack from Detroit and the Indian country, and that Vaun Swerengen, Esq., had raised a company of effective men at a considerable expense, which the memorialists had continued and stationed at the Kittanning, and which they prayed might be continued. Congress resolved, July 15, that the battalion which was to garrison the posts of Presque Isle, LeBoeuf and Kittanning be raised in the counties of Westmoreland and Bedford, in the proportion of seven in the former to one in the latter. July 18, John Hancock, then president of congress, informed the president of the Pennsylvania convention that congress had resolved to raise a battalion in these two counties for the defense of the western part of Pennsylvania, and requested the convention to name proper persons for field officers, which was accordingly done July 20. Sometime afterward, the battalion, commanded by Col. zEneas Mackey, was stationed at the Kittanning, where it remained until about December 15, when he collected his scattered force at a suitable place of general ren315 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. dezvous, preparatory to a compliance with the direction of congress of November 23, to the board of war of Pennsylvania, to order his and Col. Cook's battalions to march with all possible expedition to Brunswick* (now New Brunswick), New Jersey, where, at Amboy, Elizabethtown and Fort Lee, Washington, being perplexed by Howe's movements, distributed troops, about the middle of November, "so as to be ready at those various points to check any incursions into the Jerseys." t Philip Mechling remembers of his father, Michael Mechling, relating that when young, before his marriage, hlie and others hauled provisions from about Hiannastown and Greenburgh to the soldiers then stationed in the manor, but whether to those under Col. Mackey's command or to others stationed here afterward, he cannot state. During 1777-8 the chief military protection to the inhabitants of Westmoreland county was afforded by the ranging companies acting under the authority of and paid by the state. Col. Lochry wrote to Thomas Wharton, then president of the supreme executive council, December 6, 1777: "Not a man on our frontier, from Ligonier to the Allegheny river, except a few at Fort Hand, on continental pay." In the same letter he mentioned that he had sent five Indian scalps, taken by one of the scouting pairties which hlie had sent out, commanded by Col. Barr, Col. Perry, Col. Smith and Capt. Kingston, who were volunteers in the action which occurred near Kittanning. They recaptured six horses which the savages had taken from the suffering frontiersmen. During those two years detachments of Westmoreland county rangers were occasionally here. Early in the spring of 1779, Gen. Washington contemplated the establishment of a military post at this point. In his letter to Col. Daniel Brodhead, commandant at Fort Pitt, dated at his headquarters, Middlebrook,. New Jersey, March 22, he wrote: "I have directed Col. Rawlings with his corps, vonsisting of three companies, to march from Fort Frederick in Maryland, where he is guarding the British prisoners, to Fort Pitt, as soon as hlie is relieved by a guard of militia. Upon his arrival you are to detach him with his own corps and as many as will make up 100, should his companies be short of that number, to take post at Kittanning, and immediately throw up) a stockade fort for the security of convoys. When this is accomplished a small garrison is to be left there, and the remain * Col. Mackey's letter in the general sketch of this county. t Irving's Life of Washington. SNow Bound Brook, on the Raritan river, in Somerset county, seven miles northwest of Newv Brunswick. The upper part of the village is called Middlebrook. der are to proceed to Venango (now Franklin) and establish another post of the same kind for the same purpose. The party is to go provided with proper tools from Fort Pitt, and Col. Rawlings is to be directed to make choice of good pieces of ground, and by all means to use every precaution against a surprise at either post. "Col. Gibson is to be ordered to hold himself ready to join you with his force when matters are ripe for execution. But hlie is to keep his intended removal from Tuscarora a profound secret; and when he receives his orders to march let it be as sudden as possible. Hasten the water-craft by all means, that you may not have to wait for them when other matters are ready. Neither the Indians nor any other persons are to know your destination until your movements point out the probable quarter. Engage at a proper season as many warriors as you can to accompany you, and at all events procure good guides, who know the way from the head of the navigation of the Allegany to the nearest Indian towns and to Niagara. After you have moved let it remain a secret, as long as possible, to which place you are going. You are to inform me with precision, and by a careful express, when you will be ready to begin your movement from Fort Pitt, when you can be at Kittanning, when at Venango, when at the head of navigation, how far it is from thence to the nearest Indian towns, and when you can reach them. In making your estimate of the times, you are to calculate upon moving as light as possible, and with only a few pieces of the lightest artillery. These things it is necessary for me to know with as much accuracy as possible, that the plan of co-operation, upon which much depends, may be perfectly formed. "I wish you to pacify and cultivate the friendship of the western Indians, by all the means in your power. When you are ready to move, and your probable destination can be no longer concealed, contrive ways and means to inform them that you are going to meet a large force* to fall upon and destroy the whole country of the Six Nations, and that if they do in the meantime give the least disturbance to the frontiers, the whole force will be turned against them; and that we will never rest till we have cut them off from the face of the earth." The commander-in-chief's views respecting that project underwent a change during the next month, for on April 21, 1779, he wrote again from Middlebrook to Col. Brodhead: "Since my last letter and upon further consideration of the sub *That under Gen. Sullivan's command. 816 loss= C9 Of 4%1 If 4 lll -AA -pp w NNW MANOR TOWNSHIP. ject I have relinquished the idea of attempting a co-operation between the troops at Fort Pitt and the bodies moving from other quarters against the Six Nations. The difficulty of providing supplies in time, a want of satisfactory information of the route and of the nature of the country up the Allegany river and between that and the Indian settlements" on the Upper Allegheny, "and consequently the uncertainty of being able to co-operate to advantage, and the hazard which the smaller party might run, are principal motives for declining it. The danger to which the frontier would be exposed by drawing off the troops from their present position, and the incursions of the more western tribes, are additional, though less powerful, reasons." On the 3d of May then next he again wrote to Col. Brodhead. The latter replied on the 22d: "I am honored by yours of the 3d instant and the L closure. The strictest attention shall ev,,r be paid to all the instructions your excellency may from time to time be pleased to give me, and I am very happy in having permission to establish the posts at Kittanning and Venango, and am convinced they will answer the grand purposes mentioned in your letter. The greatest difficulty will be to procure salt provisions to subsist the garrison at the different advanced posts, but I have taken every promising step to obtain them. * * * I have about twenty canoes ready made of poplar, and more are making; some will carry two tons. I have not heard a word from Col. Rawlins nor any of his officers, and fear they are not yet relieved by the militia." May 26th Col. Brodhead wrote to Gen. Greene: "I most sincerely wish Gen. Sullivan success against the black caitiffs of the north, and should be happy to meet him near the heads of the Allegheny, and assist in giving the Senecas a complete flogging." May 29th he informed Gen. Washington that Col. Rawlins' detachment had arrived at Pittsburgh the day before, under the command of Capt. Beall, and, as he was informed, the terms of half the men would expire in July, when the officers intended to resign on account of some neglect shown them by the state. June 3 he wrote to Col. Archibald Lochry, lieutenant of Westmoreland county, that two Delaware runners had arrived with intelligence that the Wyandot nation had bidden the English farewell forever, and their chiefs were then en route to take him by the hand and make a lasting peace with the Americans; that, according to his private intelligence, Butler, with about 200 rangers and a number of Mingoes, 20 was to attack the frontier on the west side of Laurel Hill, to prevent the American forces from carrying on a campaign against the British, and that it would, therefore, be necessary for him (Lochry) to warn out seventy-five more men of the militia to hold themselves in readiness to march at a short notice, promising all possible protection notwithstanding the angry letters which he had sent him a few days before. He further stated that the enemy would strike when the strawberries were ripe, requesting him to put the frontier inhabitants on their guard, and give them assurance of protection from himself. " I propose," he also wrote, "building a small fort at Kittanning as soon as possible, and that will be a more effectual security to the inhabitants than all the little posts now occupied by the garrison; these will be considerable, and I intend to send a fieldpiece there to command the water, etc." June 11 he wrote to Col. Lochry: "A considerable garrison will, in my opinion, afford greater security to your settlements than as many again trifling forts as are now garrisoned;" and on the 23d of the same month: "Lt.-Col. Bayard is at Kittanning, and will cover the frontier effectually." June 25th he wrote to Gen. Washington: "Lt.-Col. Bayard, with 120 rank and file, is now erecting a stockade fort at Kittanning." Then followed correspondence between him and Lt.-Col. Stephen Bayard respecting the name which that fort should bear. Bayard's letters, even if still extant, are not accessible to the writer, so that what he said about naming that fort is inferrible from Brodhead's replies, from which it seems that Bayard wished to have it named after Brodhead, or Col. John Bayard, or himself. In answering Bayard's letters of June 24 and 27, Brodhead, July 1, wrote: "I pity the men who are lame, and as a partial supply have ordered thirty pair of shoes out of my regimental stores, which I hope will be sufficient to alleviate their distresses and render them serviceable. Mr. Van Lear declares hlie has sent everything he was ordered to send, and if you have pickaxes and shovels, they are the proper tools for such ground as you mention. We will, however, send you some other articles which have been mentioned by you and Capt. Findley. * * * I think it is a compliment due to Gen. Armstrong to call that fort after him, therefore it is my pleasure from this time forward it be called Fort Armstrong, and I doubt not we shall soon be in the neighborhood of a place where greater regard is paid to saints than at Kittanning, where your sainthood may not be forgotten. I cannot conclude without once more 317 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. recommending the strictest economy of public stores, and particularly ammunition." On July 9, Brodhead to Bayard: "I am favored with yours of 7th inst. by Mr. Morrison. It is with great pleasure I learn your strict economy, and I hope you find your situation more agreeable than you expected. I have said that I thought it a compliment due to Gen. Armstrong to name the fort now erecting at Kittanning after him, and I should be very sorry to have the first fort erected by my directions in the department named after me. Besides, I consider it will be more proper to have our names at a greater distance from our metropolis. I never denied the sainthood of Stephen or John, but some regard to priority must be necessary even among the saints. I am glad the fort is in forwardness, and hope you are able to keep out the scouts I ordered for the protection of the inhabitants. Capt. Harrison is ordered on a tour to Fort Armstrong, and he will deliver you this and my compliments to the officers. * * * " In conclusion: "Whilst I am writing, I am tormented by at least a dozen drunken Indians, and I shall be obliged to remove my quarters from hence on account of a cursed villainous set of inhabitants, who, in spite of every exertion, continue to rob the soldiers, or cheat them and the Indians out of everything they are possessed of." Same to same, July 20: "Yours of 17th was delivered to me by Capt. Finley, and by him I will send such articles as may be necessary for your garrison and completing the fort. His excellency the commander-in-chief has at length given me leave * to make an excursion into the Indian country, and as my route will naturally cover the garrison at Fort Armstrong, a few men can maintain it till my return. Therefore, you will order two officers and two sergeants, and twenty-four rank and file of ye worst kind to remain at ye post, and with all the rest march to this place"-Pittsburgh -"by the first of next month, and bring with you likewise all the best men from Fort Crawford, except a sergeant and twelve privates." If the tradition that a woman was brutally and mortally outraged at that fort is true, perhaps some of those "worst kind" who then remained there committed that base and horrible crime. Same to Gen. Washington, July 31: "A complete stockade fort is erected at the Kittanning, and now called Fort Armstrong." Same to Capt. Campbell, October 2, ordering him to march his company with all his stores immediately to Fort Crawford, which post he was to * By his letter dated June 23, his headquarters being then at New Windsor. garrison until further orders. He further stated: "Capt. Irwin will be ordered to Kittanning, and I will order you a sufficient quantity of provisions." The same day he wrote to Francis McIlwaine: "I have ordered a quantity of provisions to Fort Armstrong, and Capt. Irwin is to garrison that post with his company. As soon as he takes the command (if the water will permit), you will proceed to this place (Pittsburgh) with your men, leaving the provisions with Capt. Irwin, bring down the canoes and other stores to these magazines; but should the water continue too low, you will march down your men by land, and take a receipt for all the provisions, craft and stores left with Capt. Irwin." Same to Captain Joseph Irwin, October 13: "Your letter of the 3d inst. is now before me. The contents are insolent and inconsistent, and, therefore, scarcely merit an answer. Your letter, too, to Mr. McIlvaine, contains a false assertion (if he has copied it right), for you had my positive orders to wait upon me for instructions to govern you at Fort Armstrong, which orders you have been hardy enough to disobey and are to answer for. * * * "If, as you seem to apprehend, you are at liberty to disobey my orders, you cannot expect to be supplied from my magazines, and I shall take care to report your conduct to the Governor and Council. My former orders to you were verbal. I now command you in writing immediately to wait on me at headquarters, and if your company is not yet marched, it is immediately to proceed to Fort Armstrong, where your lieutenant will relieve Mr. McIlvaine and his small garrison, and take the command of that post until further orders." Same to Francis McIlvaine, October 13: "I received yours of the 11th inst. per express. I expect Capt. Irwin's company will be at Fort Armstrong within a few days. * * * "I cannot send regular troops to be stationed at Fort Armstrong; the new levies raised in Pennsylvania are properest for that duty. "You will pay particular attention to my last instructions; I did not recollect there was a commissary there at the time of writing them. He will take proper case of the provisions, therefore you will only take account of all other stores and craft, should any be left. "I conceive the firing about Fort Armstrong is done by hunters, and not by Indians." Same to Lt. Glass, or the commanding officer of Capt. Irwin's company, October 18: "You are to march the company under your command to Fort Armstrong, and there relieve the present gar318 MANOR TOWNSHIP. rison under Mr. McIlvaine. Mr. Douglass, assistant commissary of issues, will furnish you with provisions for your garrison at that post. Mr. McIlvain will. consult with you and leave a proper quantity of military stores, for which you are to be accountable. "Capt. Camble " (Campbell), who had, October 16, been ordered with his company to Fort Crawford, is "instructed to send scouts to the mouth of Kiskamanitis, where you are to order scouts from your post to meet them, and upon discovery of the enemy, or tracks, you are to give me immediate notice. It may be likewise proper for you to keep out a spy or two up the Allegheny river to give you notice of an approaching enemy, of which I must likewise be acquainted. You are to be particularly careful to prevent any waste of public stores, and not suffer any firing, except at an enemy, or by a hunter particularly employed, if you have any in your company. You are to transmit to me a particular return of the company and the provisions and stores left at Fort Armstrong. You will write to me by every opportunity and inform of the state of your garrison." Same to Lt. Jno. Jameson, October 27: "I have rec'd your favor of the 24th inst. I am glad to hear you are at length got to Fort Armstrong, and I should be happy [if] it was in my power to contribute to the relief of your men, but the means are not yet come up the country. I have wrote to the presid't of the state for blankets and daily expect his answer. I have ordered for your garrison two kegs of whisky and fifteen pairs of shoes. Whisky being an expensive article, you will not issue it except in rainy weather, and to guards and fatigues. I approve of building the sentry boxes, as they will in some measure shelter the poor soldiers from the weather, which will soon be unfavorable. Your captain returned me forty-five men. I shall be glad to know from you where the men are, which, it appears, you have not returned." Jos. L. Finley, M. B., to Lieut. Jno. Jameson, dated at headquarters, Pittsburgh, November 27: "I am directed by Col. Brodhead to require you to evacuate Fort Armstrong, and repair to this post with all convenient dispatch, taking care to bring off all the stores in your possession and pertaining to the garrison of whatsoever kinds. For this purpose, I have sent you two canoes, with which and the craft you already have I expect you will be able to transport all the stores by water. If not, you must have recourse to pack-horses, which you can receive from Capt. Carnaghan, who is now with a party at Bulls Town on the mouth of the Kiskaminitis, and will herewith receive an order to supply you, if necessary "- that order was issued by Col. Brodhead the same day.-" Immediately on receipt of this, you will proceed to put the above order into execution." The troops at Fort Armstrong were not exempt from the discomforts and suffering which resulted from the delays in receiving provisions, clothing and other public stores at Pittsburgh. Col. Brodhead wrote to Gen. Washington, July 31, 1779: "Many of the troops are still suffering for want of shoes. I have been obliged to give some soldiers' clothing to the Indians, and unless they can be replaced by the 1st of October, they will be great sufferers." A few days later, to Timothy Pickering: "Notwithstanding my frequent applications, I have not received a hat or a pair of stockings for my regiment, or a coatee or pair of overalls for my officers. Besides this, there has been a great deficiency in blankets, shirts and shoes, buckskin breeches and woolen overalls for the troops in general." To Gov. Reed: "My officers begin to be very ragged, and some have worn and lost their blankets, and I have not a single stocking for my men. Many other articles of clothing are wanting to render them useful in this part of the country." Amid the privations endured and patriotism evinced by officers and men, there was, even in those virtuous times, some plundering of public property. For, on the 2d of August, Col. Brodhead wrote to Gen. Greene and Col. Mitchell: "Two barrels of pitch were opened on the rop _, the pitch stolen, and some gravel and straw put into them; and I have been obliged to send almost everyone of the boat carpenters down the country for want of stuff to enable them to finish the work." Col. Brodhead, in one of his letters to Gen. Washington, mentions Mahoning as being "about fifteen miles above Fort Armstrong." The distance between the mouth of the Mahoning creek and the site of that fort is twelve and nine-tenths miles. Its site was about ninety rods above Fort run, on the lot now owned and occupied by P. F. McClarren, or about 280 rods below Garrett's run. A well was sunk, with an approach to it like a gangway, down which the soldiers went safely for water. A brass cannon is said to have been sunk in it, and a willow has grown over and in it, by which and other matter it has been for many years filled up. After the removal of the troops from Forts Armstrong and Crawford, Col. Lochry, the lieutenant of Westmoreland county, chided Col. Brodhead quite severely for thus exposing the country to the incursions of the enemy. A brisk paper war 319 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. was for awhile waged between them.* Brodhead acted under the authority of congress and the orders of the commander-in-chief of the continental army, and Lochery under the control, mainly, of the president and supreme executive council of Pennsylvania, so that it was but natural, though not at all desirable by either, that there should be occasional clashing of ideas as to their respective rights and duties. President Reed wrote to both of them October 30, 1779, regretting the difference of opinion between them respecting the destination of the corps of rangers, who, he stated, was a body of men raised by congress by the express desire of the assembly of the state, for the defence of the frontiers - the whole to be executed by the supreme executive council, and as the members of council were not personally acquainted with those stations where the rangers might be most useful, they were put under the direction of the lieutenants of the counties in which it was supposed they would be necessary. On December 13, 1779, Col. Lochery wrote from Hannastown to Col. Brodhead, informing him that the president of this state had invested him (Lochery) with authority to station Capt. Irwin's and Capt. Campbell's companies of rangers where he might think their services would be most beneficial for covering Westmoreland county and benefiting the distressed frontiers. In consequence of the orders which hlie had thus received, he requested Col. Brodhead to send those troops to Hannastown as soon as possible, where he would assign them to stations, where he flattered himself their services would be more beneficial to that county, in which the present territory of Manor was then included, than they possibly could be at Fort Pitt. Col. Brodhead, in his reply, dated at Pittsburgh, December 18, stated that President Reed had acquainted him, just before Lochery's had been received, with the latter's authority for stationing those companies, and the reasons for delegating that power to him, and intimated that, as the officers had doubtless received his orders to march to that point, where they would receive their further orders, he would not prevent their paying the strictest obedience to them; that as he was vested with the authority to station these troops, he would undoubtedly be able to have them supplied with provisions by applying to the proper commissaries. It was absolutely necessary that these poor, naked men should first be supplied with some kind of clothing before being ordered out of their barracks; and as they were then under * See Brodhead's and Lochery's letters in the general sketel) of the county. his (Lochery's) immediate discretion, except in cases of offensive operations, hlie concluded his letter thus: "I request that you will see that the articles I have furnished out of my regimental store be returned. The officers can inform you what they are," and with such other courteous words as are usual. Another letter from Brodhead to Lochery, dated at Pittsburgh, December 29, stated that the bearers, Capt. Clark and Ensign Cooper, with a recruiting party, would proceed to Hannastown to recruit some men, and doubted not that Lochery would give them every possible assistance; they took with them an account of the various articles furnished to the different ranging companies to be replaced by the articles sent up by the state; the quantity of provisions was much less than he had a right to expect. The ranging companies, as soon as mustered and paid, which he expected would be done immediately, should be discharged. The recruiting officers were ordered to send up such of the men of the ranging companies as had been recruited into the eighth Pennsylvania regiment during the war, and asked Lochery to impress on the minds of the officers of these companies that they could not then more essentially serve their country than by encouraging their men to enlist during the war. Lochery, in his reply, December 31, intimated that the captains' own receipts were to be given for supplies sent there by the state; he did not pretend to take charge of them; he doubted not the stores furnished these companies from the continental magazine would be replaced on the arrival of those furnished by the state; flattered himself that when the defenseless state of this country should be represented, he and those acting with him would have orders to re-enlist these companies; if the magazine, ordered by the board of war to be " laid in" at Hannastown, should not be, he was determined to represent that with every other slighty and indifferent support given to this county since the war commenced; it would be imprudent for him, as he was circumstanced, to order anything concerning those of the rangers who had enlisted in the eighth Pennsylvania regiment, or even to give any active encouragement till hlie should hear from the council, who in that respect were his superiors; and that it ever had been and ever should be his principle to give every assistance to every recruiting party. Brodhead replied January 2,1870, stating: The president of the state (Joseph Reed) had written to him that the ranging companies had been raised by order of congress, " but I know of no power hlie is invested with to discharge or re320 MANOR TOWNSHIP. enlist the men;" he would be much pleased to have them re-enlisted during the war, and provided for as other continental troops, otherwise they could be of but little service. If there should not be a reinforcement by the next spring, it would be out of his power to afford the frontier the protection which he wished; if the board of war had ordered a magazine to be established at Hannastown, he had not been acquainted with any orders concerning it; he did not know what Lochery meant by "slighty and indifferent support" given to that county, for he was very certain that it had had a much greater support since he had had command of the western department than any other frontier county; the late expedition,* to which that county had contributed a very small force, had evidently been calculated for its protection, and in its effects contributed greatly to the protection of Bedford and Northumberland counties; if some gentlemen could find pleasure, even under full gratification, let them be indulged; if Lochery apprehended there was an impropriety in giving the orders which he had requested, he would direct Capt. Erwin to send up the men, and if he should refuse to do so on the receipt of his orders, he requested Lochery to arrest him and send him to Fort Pitt for trial; he had just received a very insolent and impertinent letter from Capt. Thomas Campbell, whom he likewise requested Lochery to arrest and send to Fort Pitt, where a general court-martial of the line had already been ordered, that he might have an immediate trial; and while the ranging companies were under his command, hlie took all possible care to have them supplied, but he did not conceive it to be any part of his duty to provide for troops who were under the immediate command of any other gentleman. Lochery, in his letter of January 9, 1780, to President Reed, a portion of which is quoted in the general sketch of this county, stated that the principal people in Westmoreland county, and more particularly on the frontier, were alarmed at Brodhead's stripping that part entirely of troops; he would not suffer "a magazine to be laid in" at Hannastown, and refused to give the ranging companies any subsistence, so that "we are obliged to billet them out in the country by fours and fives in a house, the distressed inhabitants being willing to share the store laid in for their own families rather than let the men be dispersed;" he had refused to send the men of ranging companies who had been recruited into continental service before their times had expired, to Fort Pitt, as he could not see any * Against the Seneca and Muncy towns on the upper Allegheny. See sketch of Pine townKhip. right they had to be tried, if any fault had been committed, by those who had totally refused them even necessary subsistence; Capt. Moorhead's independent company, which had been raised for the protection of the county and stationed on its frontiers for nearly the last three years, had been removed to Fort Pitt and annexed to the 8th Pa. regt.; if that company were to be filled, which he thought would have soon been done, if proper officers had been appointed, and a magazine to sup. ply them had been established, and it had been stationed with the ranging companies on the frontiers, the country would have been better supported and more able to have given effective assistance to the continental troops, if any offensive measures had been carried on against the enemy. The next day, Capt. Joseph Erwin took the opportunity by Capt. Campbell to inform President Reed "of a piece of conduct Col. Brodhead has been pleased this day to adopt, which was a ticket dated Hannastown, January 10, signed by John Clark, Capt. 8th Pa. reg., then handed to him, namely: "I am ordered by Col. Daniel Brodhead to arrest you for detaining the rangers that were re-enlisted into 8th Pa. regiment during the war from joining said regiment, and for disobedience of his orders." Capt. Erwin flattered himself that since he had taken command of the first ranging company, he had done everything in his power for the benefit and advantage of the state, and trusted his excellency and the council would take proper measures on that occasion, as he had been arrested for strictly adhering to the instructions given him, and the county lieutenant's directions, by order of council. It will be borne in mind that Lochery and other Westmorelanders complained of Brodhead for removing the troops from Forts Armstrong and Crawford, and thus uncovering their county to the incursions of the enemy. His reasons for so doing are given in his letter * to Gov. Reed. He wrote to Gen. Washington, December 13, 1779: "This frontier is at present [in] a perfect state of tranquillity, and many of the inhabitants who were driven away by the savages are returned to their respective habitations;" and April 27, 1780, to President Reed, "no damage has yet been done in Westmoreland county." Another clashing of opinion between him and Lochery was as to the length of time for which men should be enlisted or re-enlisted. The former wrote to President Reed, February 11, 1780, that if any troops should be raised for Westmoreland county and other frontiers of this state, he trusted they would be raised for a longer time than were those * See general sketch of the county. 321 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. under Capts. Erwin and Campbell, for they had been raised and subsisted at great expense, and their services had been slight. In his reply, January 20, to an anonymous letter, of January 15, which, from its contents, he judged to have been written by Lochery, he said, it would thereafter be discovered who had been the best guardian of the frontiers; he would not allege any want of inclination in Lochery to protect the frontier, but, by his own confession, he had generally if not constantly lacked the power to give it any considerable protection even by his own militia, and if he imagined his people would be benefited by another short enlistment of troops, experience of what had already been done would argue much against his seeming proposal and in favor of a durable engagement of such as were or might be employed for protecting that and the other parts of the frontier. The closing paragraph is in these words: "You have discovered your knowledge of military matters by denying the propriety of my having any continental officer arrested, who is not under my immediate command, and the assertion that I have positively refused them* any subsistence is as positively false, and I expect your superiors will candidly determine thereon." In that last-mentioned letter Brodhead also intimated that he supposed Capt. Campbell had been sent to Philadelphia to avoid a trial for his insolence to him. President Reed, in his letter to Brodhead, dated " In Council, Philadelphia, February 14th, 1780," mentioned that Campbell had attended the "Board with a representation of the affairs of his company." The above-mentioned correspondence between Brodhead and Lochery had also been transmitted, and examined by the president and council. Reed's letter continued: "Your appointment to the present command was a most desirable event to the authority of the state, as we considered your connection with us and natural attachment to the state to afford the most substantial grounds of harmony, and expectation that you would on all occasions promote the interests and welfare of its inhabitants. These happy prospects we had endeavored, on our part, to improve by a careful attention to the comforts and interests of your command, of which we gave you the most substantial proofs in the supplies and clothing forwarded to you from time to time. We cannot, therefore, but lament this change of prospect, for without entering into any discussion of the causes of dispute, it is easy to see that the friendship we endeavored to cultivate between Fort Pitt and the county of Westmoreland is most materially inter * The ranging companies. rupted, and that unless some happy measures of conciliation are adopted, there is little probability of that union of sentiment and action so essential to the public welfare in time of great and general danger. Such rheasures we have recommended to the inhabitants of that county, and such we must recommend to you. We have, though much pressed, declined taking any measures for restoring the men enlisted into the 8th Pa. regt. out of the rangers' companies before the expiration of the term of service, but at the same time we think it our duty to acquaint you that we cannot esteem the enlistment, under these circumstances, proper, for if they might be taken from their officers one month before their discharge, they might have been taken at any time, and the very design of their enlistment frustrated. Still less can we approve the refusing of the companies provisions, which must have, in a great measure, destroyed their usefulness and made them a burthen to the country instead of a benefit; and we doubt not, on due reflection, you will admit the measures to have been hasty, and, in their consequences, prejudicial to the public. Your zeal to enlist them we highly commend, and had you engaged them so that at the expiration of their term you could have turned them into your regiment, we should have thought it the duty of the officers to have promoted your men by any means in their power. We observe in your letter of January 2 to Col. Lochery you express yourself to the effect that you do not know of any powers the President has to discharge or re-enlist the men. If you mean any powers vested in him as an individual, it is readily agreed no such powers exist, nor was it attempted to exercise any but in conjunction with the council. It was supposed he was fully authorized to discharge the men at any time the public service would admit. Not being disposed to assume powers to which we are not entitled, we hope the officers connected with the state will not easily suppose such a case, much less suffer it to influence their actions. But when they have reasonable doubts, we shall, on proper application, endeavor to remove them. "We have carefully avoided expressing our sentiments with respect to any of the above points to Col. Lochery or any of the gentlemen of Westmoreland, for as we retain a great personal respect for your character and services, we impute what has happened rather to inadvertency than intention, and therefore would by no means lessen your weight and influence in your command or its neighborhood. On the other hand, we shall seek occasions to show our attention and regard." In his reply, dated at headquarters, Pittsburgh, 322 MANOR TOWNSHIP. April 20, 1780, Brodhead said: "As it expresses a want of attention to my duty, and is doubtless of record in the books of the supreme executive council of the state, whereof, although at present a soldier, I glory in being a citizen, I feel the rebuke, gentle and discreet as it may seem, very sensibly. It is, however, a small consolation, that the honorable supreme executive council was not, perhaps, at the time of writing this letter, fully acquainted with circumstances on this side of the mountain, or with my instructions from his excellency the commander-in-chief; and therefore I take the liberty here of mentioning that it was by his instructions that I enlisted as many men from the different corps, whose terms were nearly expired, as could be prevailed on to serve during the war, and those of the ranging companies enlisted into my regiment, being destitute of clothing, I immediately ordered them to be clothed by my regimental clothier; and after having done this I felt an unwillingness to have the men marched to places where, considering the inclement season of the year, there was but little prospect of their answering any salutary purpose, or even a probability of having them subsisted; and the more so, as their movement appeared to be calculated only to favor the humor of a couple of unmilitary men at the heads of the ranging companies, or to prevent me from engaging them during the war into one of the regiments of the state, stationed on its frontier. As to my refusing provisions, I conceive my letter to Col. Lochery might have convinced the supreme executive council that I did not refuse them to those companies, but as I had received no instructions concerning them, and your letter assured me they were not under my command until some offensive operations should take place, it appeared to me that I had nothing more to do with their subsistence than with the other companies raised at the same time for the defense of the frontier, and stationed below the mountain, and therefore I thought it unnecessary to give any orders respecting them, but left the matter between Col. Lochery and the deputy commissary of issues. I have a great personal regard for Col. Lochery, and by his late letters I am convinced that the harmony subsisting between us is uninterrupted, but I conceive on account of his connection with Capts. Irwin and Campbell he has been led to do things contrary to his own judgment. The inhabitants of Westmoreland in general, I flatter myself, are ready at any time to acknowledge my particular attention and protection. I appeal to the wisdom of the supreme executive council whether, considering the inclemency of the season, the scantiness of our provisions and the necessity of preventing every unnecessary expense to the public, the ranging companies ought not to have been discharged agreeably to my recommendation to Col. Lochery, and whether Capts. Irwin and Campbell ought not to have been tried by a general court-martial of the line for their insolence and disobedience of orders. * * * I could wish, when other troops are to be sent to this district under its particular command, the honorable executive council would be pleased to communicate to me or any succeeding commanding officer the terms upon which they are raised, and from what magazines they are to draw their provisions and stores." Reed subsequently replied to Lochery's letter of January 9, in which, among other things, he wrote: "We very much lament the misunderstanding which has arisen between the commander at Fort Pitt and the principal inhabitants of Westmnoreland. We consider the appointment of a Pennsylvania officer to that command as a very happy circumstance to the state, considering the state of our affairs with Virginia, and as it is highly probable that, in case of a change, some person from that state would be appointed to that command, policy, as well as prudence, makes it necessary to pass over transactions which, at another time, ought to be more fully discussed. * * * You will see the propriety of keeping secret our sentiments with respect to the commander at Fort Pitt, and doubt not, on consideration, you will see very powerful reasons for avoiding any disgusting measures, and that you will also on such an occasion make somines acrifice of private feelings to public necessities." Lochery to Reed, June 1: "Col. Brodhead called me to Fort Pitt to confer on measures for the protection of the frontiers. I am sorry to inform your excellency that he is able to give very little assistance to our settlements from the continental troops, although I am certain he will do everything in his power." The proceedings of a certain suit in trespass, instituted against Col. Brodhead for appropriating the house occupied by Edward Ward and Thomas Smallman, in the vicinity of Fort Pitt, to military use, in an expected imminent emergency, in which ~5,000 damages were claimed, and of another for taking the demised King's garden for soldiers' gardens, in which ~40,000 damages were claimed - these proceedings, at least in the first suit, having been referred to congress, that body, April 18, 1780, passed the following: Resolved, That a copy of Col. Brodhead's letter of the 27th February, and the papers referred to in it, be 323 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. sent to the governor and council of Virginia, and to the supreme executive council of Pennsylvania. Resolved, That Col. Brodhead shall be supported by congress in any acts or orders which the nature of the service, and the discharging of his duty as commanding officer at Fort Pitt, hath made or shall make necessary. The then president of congress, Samuel Huntington, in communicating these resolutions, or act of congress, to President Reed, reiterating the substance of the last resolution, remarked, "with which sentiment I doubt not the legislative and executive powers of this commonwealth will fully concur, and, so far as appertains to them, support him in every act that is necessary for a faithful discharge of his duty as commanding officer at Fort Pitt." That clashing of opinion between Brodhead and Lochery is given so much at length because the keeping of a force at Fort Armstrong was affected by it. Though the troops were removed therefrom, it was not intended by the commander of the western department that it should be permanently vacant. On April 3, 1780, he wrote to Col. Lochery requesting him to order out from the militia of Westmoreland county sixty able-bodied rank and file and a proportionate number of commissioned and non-commissioned officers, one-third of whom were to be detached to Fort Armstrong and the other two-thirds to Fort Crawford and to the forks of Black Legs. They were to be drafted for two months, if not sooner discharged. That body of men, with a number of regulars to support those detached to Fort Armstrong, he hoped, would give sufficient countenance to the inhabitants of that county. He wished Lochery "to inculcate a principle of virtuous resistance against the common enemy." He did not think that that frontier, under the circumstances, need apprehend danger, but it might be necessary for the inhabitants to be on their guard, and they might rest assured of every possible protection in his power. On the 25th of the same month he wrote again to Lochery that he had been disappointed beyond all description in getting clothing for his troops, and, therefore, could not until then send a detachment to Fort Armstrong, and sent an express with his letter informing Lochery that Capt. Thomas Beall would start the next morning with the party and provisions for Fort Crawford, where he was to leave a part, if any troops were there, otherwise to move the whole to Fort Armstrong, whence Lochery's detachment was to be furnished. On the 29th Reed wrote to Brodhead: The assembly, at its last session, had voted that four companies be raised for the frontiers, but the deficient state of the treasury had prevented its being carried into execution. "You will, therefore," wrote he, "render a very important and acceptable service to us, if you can cover Westmoreland in any considerable degree. After many consultations and much deliberation, we have concluded to offer a reward for scalps, and hope it will serve as an inducement to the young fellows of the county and others to turn out against the Indians." As to the reward proposed to be offered for scalps, Brodhead expressed his apprehension, in his reply of May 18, that it would be construed into a license to take off the scalps of some of the friendly Delawares, and produce a general Indian war. He was not ignorant of the influence of the Delaware councils over nearly twenty different nations, and for that reason much notice had been taken of them. Their councils had been steady, and their young men serviceable. Goods, paint and trinketsa small assortment of them - he thought would be more efficacious in keeping them so than paper money without these articles, which they could not be taught to regard as a proper reward. On the 6th of May, Brodhead wrote to Beall that he had been informed of the discovery of a number of Indians opposite Fort Crawford; that Beall had sent a man by the name of Guthrie for the Westmoreland militia, and wished that he might not cause too great an alarm; if the alarm should prove to be false, or the militia should arrive at Fort Crawford, Beall should then proceed to Fort Armstrong. On the 13th of May, he informed Washington that the above-mentioned detachment of regulars was then at that fort. On the 3d of August, he wrote to Carnahan that he intended to again garrison the upper forts when a sufficient supply of provisions should be secured, and on the 18th, to Reed, that necessity had compelled him to evacuate for a short time Forts Armstrong and Crawford, but that he would return to the garrisons so soon as they could be subsisted. On the 19th, he expressed to Lochery his hope that, as the Monongahela was slightly rising, he would soon be able to return those garrisons to their stations, and suggested, September 6, that as the Allegheny had then risen considerably by the late rains, no time should be lost in sending out those garrisons, since it was uncertain what views might be entertained by the British at Niagara. On the 27th of March, he wrote to President Reed that it would be impossible, under existing circumstances, to further garrison Forts Armstrong and Crawford, until the commander-in-chief would direct him to evacuate Fort McIntosh, which was at or near the mouth of Beaver creek. 324 JOHN CHRISTY. The old and well-known resident of this county whose name stands at the head of this brief biography was the son of Daniel and Rebecca Christy, respectively of Irish and Scotch-Irish descent, and was born in Hopewell township, Beaver county, Pennsylvania, November 7, 1800. He lived with his parents until he attained his majority, and then went into Allegheny county, where he learned the trade of hatmaking, then one of the leading manufacturing industries of the rural regions, but now carried on only in the cities and upon a large scale. In 1822 he was married to Miss Agnes McGregor, of Allegheny county, by whom he had three children- one daughter and two sons. Being early bereft of his wife, he was married again in 1830, to Miss Sallie Ann Ross, daughter of Hon. George Ross, of Armstrong county, born February 4, 1805, by whom he had ten children-seven sons and three daughters. After his second marriage Mr. Christy lived in Noblestown, Allegheny county, for about three years, working at his trade; but, yielding to his wife's influence, in the year 1833 hlie removed to Armstrong county, and purchased the farm on which he and his wife still reside. Here they reared their large and interesting family of thirteen children, all of whom attained manhood or womanhood. With the exception of two sons, one of whom gave his life for his country when in his twenty-sixth year, and one who died in his own home, aged twenty-nine, all are now living to cheer and comfort their parents in their declining years. Coming to the county as they did when it was new and still bore many traces of its recent savage inhabitants, the Christys had much to contend with. Besides being in straightened circumstances, with nearly the whole of their farm to clear, and no market for their produce nearer than Pittsburgh,their early years were full of hardships and deprivations. Their guiding motto in life, however, was, "Industry and perseverance conquer all things," and they have lived to realize in some measure its verity. While securing by their well-directed efforts and correct lives personal and family success, Mr. and Mrs. Christy have also ever diligently sought the good of the people among whom they have dwelt, and both by their effort and example have been useful to the community. In their religious views they are Presbyterians. They labored zealously for the building and sustaining of the Appleby Manor church, of which Mr. Christie has been a ruling elder since its organization. Politically Mr. Christy has progressed from "' old line " Whigism to Republicanism, and has always been deeply interested in all the issues involving the public good. The names of the children of Mr. Christy are, by his first wife, Jane (Wilson), in Saline county, Illinois; Will iam M., a lawyer of Saline county, Illinois, and Daniel, a farmer of Manor township; by his second wife, George Ross and Joseph Moss, twins, the former deceased Mary (Mum), living in Pittsburgh; Rebecca A., who lives at the old homestead with her parents; James, who died as a Union soldier, in his twenty-sixth year, from exhaustion after the seven days' fight in front of Rich mond; John Calvin, a merchant of Rosston (who was also a soldier belonging to the western division of the army); Washington and Jefferson, farmers in Manor township; Amelia (Blair) and Stephen, who live in the same township. MANOR TOWNSHIP. It does not appear from the letters either of Col. Brodhead or of Gen. William Irvine, who, in September, 1781, succeeded him in the command of Fort Pitt, that Forf Armstrong was afterward either entirely or partly garrisoned by continental or regular troops. Detachments of rangers and scouting parties were stationed here at various times, after the close of the revolutionary war, while the Indians were troublesome and dangerous. Two men were killed near that fort by the Indians, a day or two before Capt. Miller and his company* reached it, whose blood was fresh on the ground when they arrived. George Cook, who was born about 1764, was a soldier, a scout, and resided in the Manor from either his boyhood or his early manhood until he was nearly fourscore, used to narrate to his neighbors, among whom was William MeKelog, of "Glentworth Park," from whom the writer obtained a statement of these tragical facts: While Cook was a member of a scouting party who occupied a fort or blockhouse near Fort Run, so called from Fort Armstrong, some Indians made a small cord from the inner bark of a linden tree, with which they anchored a duck in hole or pool in that run, formed by the action of the water about the roots of a sugar maple tree on its brink. Three of the scouting party, while out on a tour of duty, noticed the duck which must have appeared to them to be floating on the water. They set their guns up against a buttonwood tree, which, with the sugar maple tree, was cut down after that land came into the possession of Richard Bailey. While they were stooping to catch the duck, as it was presumed they did, they were shot by Indians, probably three, because three reports of gun shots were heard. They fell dead into the run, whose water was colored with their blood. Hence that stream also bears the name of Bloody Run. The bodies of those three men were buried on a knoll opposite where they were shot, eight or ten rods higher up the river. The Indians were probably concealed among the weeds, which were then quite rank and abundant. Several of the men who were in the fort or blockhouse, on hearing the gunshots, came out, saw what had occurred, and discovered the Indians' trail, which, on that or the next day, they followed to the mouth of Pine creek, and were about to give up the pursuit, when, looking up the hill, they saw a smoke on its face. After dark, they crossed the mouth of the creek, and ascertained the exact position in which the Indians were. The next morning they crawled as carefully and quickly as possible through the weeds and * See sketch of present township of Allegheny. willows, until they thought they were within sure gunshot of the murderers of their comrades. They saw one of them mending his moccasin. The other two were, they thought, cooking meat for breakfast. They shot and killed two of the Indians, and captured the other. Having brought him past the mouth of that creek, on their return, and having reached "an open grove," they told him that they would give him a start of some distance ahead of them, and if hlie would beat them in running a race he should be released. He accepted the offer, started, but was overtaken, fatally shot, and his body was left where he fell. The late Lt. Samuel Murphy related in his lifetime that a man by the name of McFarland had a store about fifty rods below Fort Run, between 1787 and 1790, and carried on a considerable trade with the Indians, with whom he was apparently on friendly terms. They finally captured and took him to Detroit. McFarland was a brother-in-law of Gen. Andrew Lewis, of Virginia. A blockhouse called the Claypoole blockhouse was built by James Claypoole about eighty rods below Fort Run, near the river bank. It is not now known just when it was built. It must have been between 1790 and 1796. His wife, Lavinia Claypoole, died in the last-mentioned year, and was buried but a few rods from the graves of the three men killed by the Indians as above stated. Peter Ehinger, with the ax-end of his mattock, cut her name and the year of her death on the headstone of her grave, which some persons still living remember to have seen. That blockhouse was one of the places of refuge for the settlers and their families from the attacks of the Indians. About 120 rods southeast from the site of that blockhouse, at the present residence of Charlton Bailey, is a very ancient well, bedded and walled with limestone. It is not known by whom it was sunk; some conjecture it was done by the French, and others by James Claypole. The probability is it was there before the latter's advent to the manor. As soon as it was safe to live out of the blockhouse, his son George built a log house between it and the hill, where D. S. Herrold now resides. There are two species of grapes still extant in this locality, which have been perpetuated from vines imported and cultured by the French. One is of the ordinary size, very sweet, of a deep purple, and ripens earlier than other grapes. The other is of much larger size, delicious, and is called, whether correctly or not, the fox grape. The security of the Westmoreland frontier, of which the territory included in Manor township was a part, was either directly or indirectly affected 325 STUDENTS AT LAW AND ADMISSION OF ATTORNEYS. Rep. maj. 383. In 1860: Governor-Curtin, Rep., 3,474; Foster, Dem., 2,698. Rep. maj. 776. The presidential election was not earnestly contested by the democrats, so that the republican majority for Abraham Lincoln was large. In 1862: Auditor General-Cochran, Rep., 2,250; Slenker, Dem., 2476. Dem. maj. 226. In 1863: Governor- Curtin, Rep., 3,146; Woodward, Dem., 2,977. Rep. maj. 169. In 1864: Constitutional amendment allowing soldiers to vote in camp and field. For, 2,466; against, 1676. Maj. for amendment, 790. In 1865: Auditor GeneralHartranft, Rep., 2,810; Davis, Dem., 2,506. Rep. maj. 304. In 1866: Governor -Geary, Rep., 3,758; Clymer, Dem., 3,078. Rep. maj. 660. In 1867: Judge of Supreme Court-Williams, Rep., 3,439; Sharswood, Dem., 3,079. Rep. maj. 360. In 1868: Auditor General- Hartranft, Rep., 3,987; Boyle, Dem., 3,459. Rep. maj. 528. In 1869: Governor - Geary, Rep., 3,439; Packer, Dem., 3,079. Rep. maj. 360. In 1870: Assembly-Putney, Dem., 3,206; Steele, Rep., 3,197. Dem. maj. 109. In 1871: Auditor General-Stanton, Rep., 3,515; McCandless, Dem., 3,144. Rep. maj. 371. In 1872: Governor - Hartranft, Rep., 4,434; Buckalew, Dem., 3,469. Rep. maj. 965. In 1874: Lieut. Governor- Olmstead, Rep., 3,858; Latta, Dem., 3,523. Rep. maj. 335. In 1875: Governor --Hartranft, Rep., 3,605; Pershing, Dem., 3,121. Rep. maj. 484. Brown, Prohib., 196. JUDICIAL AND LEGAL. The learned judges who have presided over the courts of this county have adorned their positions by their ability, integrity, impartiality and profound and varied knowledge of the law, and the learned professions have not been barren of devoted, well-read and eminent members who have held a high rank in the esteem of their brethren in other counties of our state. To the heritage of this county also belongs some of the credit and usefulness of inventive genius. STUDENTS AT LAW AND ADMISSION OF ATTORNEYS. Prior to September 1, 1873, any man, irrespective of his literary attainments, was allowed to study law without being registered as a student by the prothonotary, and members of the bars of other counties could be admitted to practice generally and permanently in this county on mere motion. At the time last above mentioned Judge Logan suggested and the court adopted a set of new rules, requiring all persons desiring to study law in this county to undergo a preliminary examination in all the branches of a thorough English education and the elements of the Latin language, by the board of examiners created by these rules, and each to produce and file with the prothonotary a certificate, signed by at least a majority of the members present, that the applicant is prepared and qualified to commence the study of the law, and that they have received satisfactory evidence of his good moral character, and that each applicant give in writing one month's notice to the secretary of the board of his desire to be registered, before he shall come before them for examination, and making it the duty of every attorney of the courts of this county to register with the prothonotary the name, age and place of residence of every person studying the law under his direction, and the time of clerkship to be computed from the date of such registry. If the applicant is under the age of twenty-one years when registered, his clerkship is to be three years, and two years if he has then arrived at his majority, under the direction and in the office of a practicing attorney or a judge of said court; but if he shall have studied in a law school of good repute, the time thus spent may be counted as part of the term, except the last year, which must be spent in the office of his preceptor. After the expiration of the term of his clerkship he must undergo an examination by the board of examiners on the principles and practice of law and equity, and produce and file with the prothonotary, when his admission is moved for, a certificate signed by all the examiners who were present at his examination, that he is sufficiently qualified for admission to the bar, and that they have received satisfactory evidence of his good moral character. Every such examination shall consist partly of written questions to be answered by the student in writing, which questions and answers are to be reported to the court. By a rule adopted and published December 6, 1875, each applicant for preliminary examination must pay to the secretary of the board of examiners the sum of $3, and each applicant for final examination the sum of $5, before he be entitled to his certificate of registration or a report in favor of his admission to the bar, for purchasing such books as the board may need and defraying such other expenses as may be incurred by the board. Members of the bars of other counties of this state or of other states cannot be admitted to practice in the courts of this county until they shall have appeared before the board of examiners and produced a certificate signed by them, wherein all the examiners present shall certify that they have received satisfactory evidence of his moral HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. by the causes which embarrassed operations at and around Fort Pitt, among which was the confusion resulting from the unsettled question * as to whether Pennsylvania or Virginia had the rightful jurisdiction over the territory in which that fort was located until the latter part of the summer of 1780, when the boundary line between the two states was definitely ascertained, viz., Mason and Dixon's line, which was adopted and agreed upon by George Bryan, Rev. John Ewing and David Ritterhouse, commissioners on the part of Pennsylvania, and Right Rev. James Madison, Bishop of Virginia, and Robert Andrews, commissioners on the part of Virginia, at their joint convention held at Baltimore, Maryland, August 31, 1779. Another distracting element was the project of forming a new state out of that portion of the southwestern part of Pennsylvania, which Lord Dunmore, "in the extravagance of his views and designs," had claimed as belonging to Virginia, and which was inconsiderately favored even by some Pennsylvanians in that part of our commonwealth. Not only the confusion in the public mind and the lack of fealty and harmony caused by that project, but the want of ammunition and other necessaries, interfered with the adequate protection of this frontier and the constant and adequate garrisoning of Fort Armstrong. "We have observed with much concern," wrote President Reed to Col. Piper, June 12, 1780, "that supplies of ammunition intended for the frontiers, as well as other articles sent by casual opportunities, seldom arrive at the place of destination without much loss. * * We find much more difficulty in the means of transportation than procuring the articles. The public business has sometimes been delayed a whole day while members of the council were employed in looking for wagons and horses, which is not only inconvenient but degrading." Later in the season, on September 16, Brodhead wrote to Reed from Fort Pitt: "Since my last, the whole of this garrison drew out to my quarters. The soldiers were led by sergeants. Upon being asked the cause of such an assembly, the sergeants answered that they came to represent to me that they had been five days without bread. They behaved well, and upon being told that their officers were equal sufferers, and that every possible exertion was making to supply their wants, they immediately returned to their quarters." Lochery advised Reed, June 1, that hie then needed 600 pounds of powder and the same quan * Pennsylvania claimed under the charter granted by Charles II, and Virginia on that granted by James I. tity of lead, and a quantity of flints; that since the beginning of hostilities in the spring he had received but six pounds of powder, a large quantity having been damaged in its carriage over the mountains; so that, at that time they had only twenty pounds of good powder, of public property, in the county. That part of the frontier consisting of the manor also shared directly or indirectly in the benefits resulting from the money and other sinews of war furnished to the authorities of Westmoreland county. Reed, in his letter to Lochery, indorsed June 2, 1780, advised him that he would therewith receive ~10,000 for the supply and service of his county, stating that it was, in the first instance, to be employed in recruiting the company of rangers agreeably to the accompanying instructions, and should there be any particular exigency, hlie must use the money with discretion and judgment, ever remembering that money had then a fixed value, and that there was then such an attention given to expenditure as had not theretofore been observed. The instructions required the proposed company to consist of one captain, one lieutenant, one ensign, four sergeants, four corporals, one drummer, one fifer and sixty privates. They were to be enlisted to serve until January 15, 1781, unless sooner discharged by the supreme executive council, under whose orders and direction they were to be during the service. The lieutenant of the county (Lochery) was authorized to muster in the recruits, but not to admit any under eighteen or over fifty years of age, all to be able of body, and at least five feet and six inches high. Ile was to be especially careful not to enlist any deserters from the continental army, or prisoners of war. Lochery, August 24, acknowledged the receipt of supplies in good order. William Amheron was informed by President Reed, by letter dated August 5, that his appointment as commissioner of purchases for Westmoreland county had been forwarded to him early in the summer, with a sum of state money with which to make purchases. In fixing the quotas of supplies to be drawn from each county, that of Westmoreland was fixed at 50 barrels of flour, 500 bushels of Indian corn, and 100 gallons of whisky per month, with which to supply the garrison at Fort Pitt. That post was then in danger of being evacuated for want of provisions. As the harvest in that county that year was plentiful, it was hoped there would be no difficulty in getting those needed supplies, but if there were, he was directed to impress them. Yet, as late as the middle of September, that garrison was sadly in need 326 MANOR TOWNSHIP. of provisions. One cause of the difficulty in obtaining provisions Brodhead attributed to the unsettled state of the boundary between Pennsylvania and Virginia, which had greatly discouraged the people, and, he apprehended, had "given a handle to the disaffected." A conception of the difficulties encountered by his foraging parties in the country may be had from his reply to Capt. Samuel Brady, October 11, in which he said: "I am favored with yours of the 9th inst., and am much distressed on account of the apparent aversion of the people to afford supplies, and the more so as I see no alternative between using force and suffering. If Col. Lochery expects to claim a share in the cattle that may be collected, his proposal is inadmissible, but if it is intended to provide for the regulars only, it ought to be accepted. Under our present circumstances we cannot admit a modest thought about using force as the ultimate expedient; and in case you are likely to meet with opposition, yon must send notice to Captain Springer, near Little Redstone, who will doubtless detach a party to your assistance." There was also an embarrassing lack of money. On the 21st August he wrote to President Reed: "Could a considerable sum of our state money be obtained, our wants would speedily be supplied, for I am informed that the people will gladly receive it in payment for their produce. * * * If we could be furnished with some half Johannes here we could recruit a number of excellent men for the service, but they will scarcely agree to go all the way to Philadelphia to be mustered before they receive their bounty. I think it sounds best upon the drumhead;" and on the 16th September, "If a little hard money could be sent to this side [of the] hills for the recruiting service, I flatter myself that a number of good men might be raised for my regiment. But paper money is too plenty amongst the lower class of people to allure them." Another drawback to the recruiting service for awhile after he assumed the command at Fort Pitt was the higher bounty paid by Virginia, which, including that allowed by Congress, amounted to $750 to each recruit. "This puts it out of my power," he wrote to Gen. Washington, July 31, 1779, "to recruit my regiment until the state of Pennsylvania offers a higher bounty." It appears from the foregoing stubborn facts how great and various were the obstacles to garrisoning Fort Armstrong as constantly and effectively as the exigencies along this frontier at times required. One of the earliest settlers in the upper part of the manor, and, in fact, in this region, was Jeremiah Cook, Sr., who emigrated from Virginia, and was, perhaps, among those mentioned by Wm. Findley as having moved up to Crooked Creek in 1769. Ile was the father of Conrad, George and Jeremiah Cook, whose names are on the assessment list of Allegheny township for 1805, within whose limits the manor tract was then included. Others were James Barr, one of the associate judges of this county, James Claypoole, John Monroe, Joel Monroe, Jonathan Mason and Parker Truitt. John Mason volunteered in Capt. Alexander's company, and was killed by a bombshell. What induced Claypoole, and probably the others, to settle here was their impression that the manor bottom would be divided into tracts of about 100 acres each, and sold at moderate prices. But when the Duncans became the owners they determined not to sell in small tracts. Barr and Claypoole purchased elsewhere. The others - some of them, at least - remained as renters. John Monroe was one of them, living at first on the hill, and afterward on the bottom, about halfway between Fort Run and Tub-mill Run, on that part of the tract now owned by Brown & Mosgrove. The Duncan portion of the manor remained undivided about eighteen years after the death of Robert Duncan. By his will, dated April 5, and registered May 2, 1807, he directed that the residue of his real and personal estate, after paying his debts, should be divided into fifteen parts, nine of which he devised and bequeathed to his wife, Ellen Duncan, and six to his daughter Mary. By proceedings in partition, No. 32, March term, 1825, in the court of common pleas of this county, 651 acres and 21 perches of the lower part, and 580 acres and 57 perches of the upper part, were awarded to and taken by Thomas Duncan, and 1,130 acres and 141 perches of the central part were awarded to and taken by Ellen and Mary Duncan, under and by virtue of the decree of the court made on March 24, 1825. Thomas Duncan was appointed a puisne judge of the supreme court of Pennsylvania, March 14, 1817, which position he filled until his death, in the spring of 1827. By his last will and testament he authorized his executors to sell and dispose of all his estate, except what he had specifically devised and bequeathed. As he did not specifically devise his manor lands, they were first advertised for sale by Eben S. Kelly, agent for the executors, July 26, 1828. The executors having, at their own request, been discharged from their executorship, without selling these lands, Thomas Chambers was appointed administrator, with the will annexed, who, through his agents, whom he selected after 327 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Mr. Kelly's death, disposed of themn, viz.: 349 acres and 7 perches to John Christy and Moses Patterson, June 5, 1833, for $3,839.45; 304 acres and 33 perches to John R. Johnston, July 1, 1835, for $2,437.60; 147 acres and allowance to William Ehinger, August 2, 1842, for $1,029; 17 acres and 93 perches to Rev. Gabriel A. Reichert, January 13, 1845, for $123; 111 acres and 17 perches toQ Mary and Eliza Sibbett, June 12, for $777.70. The records do not show to whom the residue, or 305 acres and 88 perches, adjoining the eastern line of the tract sold to Christy and Patterson, was conveyed. It is said to have been owned by David McLeod and John McGraw, both of whom have been dead for many years. Ellen and Mary Duncan sold their part of these lands thus: 349 acres and 140 perches to John Mechling, March 16,1835, for $4,200, and to Daniel Torney 330 acres and 149 perches, for $2,887; 108 acres and 34 perches to John Houser, December 28, for $324; 222 acres to Jacob and Joseph Hileman, May 22, 1838, for $666; and 106 acres and 64 perches to Jacob Wolf, for $318. Mechling sold his tract to Charles Montgomery, May 3, 1837, for $8,500-an advance of $4,300 in less than two years. The territory included within the Thomas Duncan and Ellen and Mary Duncan purparts has since been so divided and subdivided by numerous transfers, that it now contains, besides the major part of Manorville, 57 tracts, whose areas vary from 3 acres to 256 acres. That part of the southern portion of the manor conveyed by Cobeau to Cochran was conveyed by the latter to the late Judge Ross by deed dated October 25, 1813, namely, 681 acres and 151 perches, for $6,000. In 1848 the latter conveyed 318 acres and 37 perches to his son Washington, and devised 200 acres to his son James, and the residue, or 163 acres and 123 perches, with the mills, to his daughters Margaret, Mary, Amelia, Elizabeth and Hannah. The other part of the southern portion, conveyed by Cobeau to Smith, remained in the ownership of the latter and of his legal representatives until and subsequent to 1844. The latter, under the authority of his will, on the 1st of October of the last-mentioned year, conveyed 453 acres and 133 perches to John J. and Frederick Klingler; * April 1, 1849, 245 acres and 131 perches to John Christy, 175 acres and 116 perches to John Huston, 111 acres and 15 perches to Robert Wil *On which Archibald Dickey, and afterward Thos. Correy previ ously resided. The stone house-the second one on the manor tract-was built by the latter, near the river, about 130 rods above Tub-mill run, in 1821-2. son; May, 1849, 35 acres and 9 perches to William W. Beatty; April 4, 1852, to John Stephenson and David Barr 104 acres and 52 perches; April 24, 195 acres and 120 perches to Rev. L. M. Graves, whose wife is one of that testator's heirs; July 21, 1855, to Margaret Jane Fry, 150 acres and 80 perches; March 20, 1857, to Joseph Wolf 195 acres and 139 perches; June 30, 1859, to Thomas Montgomery 50 acres and 7 perches; June, 1877, to the administrators of the estate of Hamilton Kelly, in trust, etc., 229 acres and 48 perches, in pursuance of an article of agreement dated December 12, 1848. The aggregate amount of the purchase money for these tracts is $25,710.13. The Cobeau portion of the Manor tract contains, besides the town of Rosston, twenty-five tracts, with areas varying from 20 to 250 acres. Among the first, if not the very first, white settlers on the southern part of the Manor were William Green and his sons James, John and Samuel, who emigrated from Fayette county, in the spring of 1787, and took up their abode above the mouth of Crooked creek, on what is now the site of Rosston. They brought with them a quantity of cornmeal, which, for want of shelter for it, became wet and was spoiled. The nearest points of supply were Pittsburgh and Brownsville. Food was very scarce. They lived for about six months on milk, venison and ground-nuts. They boiled the ground-nuts in milk, which imparted to them a taste somewhat like that of potatoes. John Green said that he and the rest of them became quite weak on that kind of food, so much so that it required two of them to carry a rail. Deer were caught by means of a large steel trap set in a deerlick, with a chain to which three prongs were attached, which left their marks on the ground whereby the deer were traced and captured. The pioneer settlers here experienced the want of a mill for grinding corn and other grain. For a few years they used handmills for that purpose. In 1789, or the next year, William Green erected a small tub-mill, about sixty rods from the river, at a short turn on the stream still called Tub-mill run. The forebay was constructed from the trunk of either a gum or sycamore tree, and a pair of small millstones, from material near the run, which were moved by the stream that flowed through the millrace and forebay falling on fans attached to the shaft. That was the only mill for grinding grain in this region, until Alexander Walker's mill, elsewhere mentioned, was erected. The Indians were numerous and had camps on both sides of the Allegheny river. From 1787 until 1791, they were not troublesome. They had 328 MANOR TOWNSHIP. their war-dances where Rosston nbw is, and occasionally vied with the white settlers in running foot-races. Soon after the Indians become troublesome and dangerous, Col. Charles Campbell wrote to William Green to remain there ten days longer, and assured him that he would send thither some soldiers. Mrs. Green and the children for safety occupied the fodder house at night, which consisted of a ridge-pole, placed upon two forked stakes which were sunk into the ground, with poles about four feet apart, slanting therefrom in opposite directions to the ground, on which smaller ones were fastened transversely. Bundles of topped corn were placed on the outside, and calves, husks and pumpkins were deposited within. In ten or twelve days thereafter, a body of soldiers arrived and built a log fort about the size of a common blockhouse, and a number of huts around it for soldiers' dormitories, about thirty-five rods above the mouth of Crooked creek, or what is now the Heigley lot, or lot No. 22, eight or ten rods below the street extending from the railroad past Christy's store to the river. It was called Fort Green, at least it is so named on the historical map of this state. There were different commandants, one of whom was Capt. Sparks, who is the only one whose name the writer's informant, Samuel Green, of North Buffalo township, a grandson of William Green, remembers to have heard mentioned in connection with the foregoing and following facts respecting these pioneer settlers, and that fort. Both drafted and enlisted men were stationed there. The number of scouts usually sent out together was twelve or fourteen, and the number of spies two. Among the events that occurred, while that fort was thus occupied, and which Samuel Green remembers to have heard related, is this: Capt. Sparks and William Green discovered, one day, an Indian under a large sugar tree on the opposite side of the river. Having crossed to Bushy island, afterward called " Cast-off," they shot at him. But the scouts who were sent over to ascertain whether he had been killed could not discover any trace of him. They supposed, from the appearance of the trail, that there were about thirty Indians on the top of the hill further back from the river. After Harmar's defeat on the 19th and 22d October, 1790, the Indians became more troublesome, aggressive and dangerous, and still more so after St. Clair's defeat November 4, 1791. Before the first of those defeats, early in the year 1790, correspondence respecting the alarming and defenceless condition of the frontier counties of this state - of which Westmoreland was one - was commenced between citizens of these counties and Gov. Mifflin and Gen. Knox, then the United States Secretary of War. The General Assembly, February 23, 1790, having set forth that for many years the Indians had harassed and distressed the inhabitants on these western frontiers, that they were likely to continue to do so unless provision were made against their future murders and depredations, and that this commonwealth was desirous of procuring the protection and safety of all its citizens, recommended the Supreme Executive Council to apply to the President and Congress of the United States to afford protection to those inhabitants, but which was rescinded within two weeks thereafter, but why does not appear from the published minutes of that body. James Marshall and David Redick, of Washington county, were among the first to call the attention of Gov. Mifflin, by their letters, to the perilous situation of persons and property along these frontiers, of which the territory of Armstrong county was then a part, who transmitted them to President Washington. Some murders were committed on the Allegheny in March, 1791, respecting which Maj. Jonathan Heart, in his letter, May 10, wrote to the Secretary of War, assuring him that they were not committed by the Munsee and Senecas - not by the Indians on the Allegheny, for they in every particular manifested the most sincere attachment to the United States. He intimated that they were committed by Indians living on the Beaver waters, some of whom were friends and relations of the Indians killed by Capt. Brady. Presley Neville and others had fears that the Senecas were really hostile, though professedly friendly. In those days the intelligence of murders committed by the Indians spread rapidly from settlement to settlement, considering the kind of facilities then enjoyed for transmitting it. On the 29th April, 1791, William Findley, who resided beyond Greensburgh, wrote to A. J. Dallas, secretary of the commonwealth, that "yesterday morning the Indians attacked the house of James Kilpatrick" (Kirkpatrick) "on Crooked creek" - near the mouth of Plum creek -" and killed two men and broke a child's leg. The people, however, supported the house. There were six militiamen stationed at the house, and nine, I understand, at a house in the neighborhood." That event made a wide and deep impression. David Stewart wrote concerning it, "Sunday, 8th day of May, 1791," to Gov. Mifflin: "I have this day received information which may be depended upon, that a party of Indians known to be Senecas, sometime in the last week of April, killed two men and one child * * 329 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. at a place known by the name of Crooked creek, near Kittaning Old Town, and within twentyeight or thirty miles of our frontiers. * * * Our settlements are in considerable fear and danger." Andrew Gregg, in his letter to Col. Bryson* dated "Penn's Valley, 16th May, 1791," wrote: "We have received some tolerably well authenticated accounts of the Indians being on our frontiers. Not many days since they attacked a house on Crooked creek, where a party of seven men had assembled for their mutual defence, and killed two men and one boy in the house. The Indians had one killed on the spot and another appeared badly wounded. Crooked creek, where the above happened, is not more than eighty or ninety miles from my house. * * * The people here are a good deal alarmed, and are urging me to do something in the way of preparing for defence." The Secretary of War, May 19, 1791, informed Gov. Mifflin, in accordance with the latter's request, he had given Col. Clement Biddle, the quartermaster-general of this state, an order on Maj. Craig, at Fort Pitt, for 200 arms and accouterments and a proportionate quantity of ammunition. Col. Chas. Campbell, at Greensburgh, August 13, wrote to Gov. Mifflin that in consequence of the latter's letter of the 19th of May he had ordered by draft a full company of militia of Westmoreland county to guard the frontiers until the general government would grant them protection; that he had applied to Major John Clark, who had command of the troops in that county, for the discharge of all its militia, but as the latter had not sufficient men to guard so extensive a frontier, lihe requested Campbell to continue fifty of his men, which he did, having discharged the captain and thirty of his men; those retained served their proper time. When their term had expired Gen. Butler informed Campbell that he intended to withdraw the new levies from their posts, and requested him to protect the frontiers of his own county. He added that he had agreed with the lieutenants of Allegheny, Fayette and Washington counties to furnish for his quota for that purpose seventy-five men, which force he found to be insufficient on account of there being so many of the enemy along the frontiers constantly stealing horses, but doing no other damage. He therefore ordered to their assistance one lieutenant and twenty-five men, and with all of them hlie found it difficult to keep the frontier inhabitants from breaking up, i.e., fleeing to some other less exposed part of the state. In conclusion, he said he ex * Lieutenant of Miffin county, Pennsylvania, pected the governor would order the expenses to be paid to William Findley, as his character was at stake for the punctual payment of the men and provisions. Lt. J. Jeffers, Fort Franklin (in what is now Venango county), December 26, 1791, sent a message to the commanding officer at Pittsburgh, or to Maj. J. Irwin of the militia, stating that he had just then "received authentic accounts from the Cornplanter that an attack on this garrison will almost immediately take place, for the Indians from below declare that they are determined to re. duce this place, and shake the Cornplanter by the head and sweep this river from end to end," and he earnestly requested that one subaltern and thirty men, with his men who had been left sick at Pitt, should be immediately sent to him as a reinforcement. At the same time he wrote to Eli Williams, the contractor: "I am happy to inform you that the cattle and salt arrived safe; the danger is so great in this country, that I sent soldiers and Indians to escort them. The bearer of these dispatches and one from Col. George McCully of the same date, said that a council of hostile Indians was then sitting at Buffalo creek (N. Y.), and that Cornplanter had been summoned to it." The reliability of that information could only be estimated by the then late disasters. These dispatches reached Pittsburgh at 3 P. m. on the 28th of December. A few days before the reception of these dispatches, the inhabitants of Allegheny, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties drew up a memorial to Gov. Mifflin, dated at Pittsburgh, December 21, presenting the defenseless state of their frontiers, the fearful apprehensions of the people resulting from the defeat of the army under Gen. St. Clair, requesting arms and ammunition to be furnished, recommending the raising of 800 active partisans under experienced officers and provided with good rifles so as to meet the enemy on equal terms, and to scout and give the alarm when needful, who should be paid in proportion to the price of common labor, which then averaged 50 shillings per month, as the pay allowed to the troops of the United States would not be a sufficient inducement to able-bodied men, possessing the requisite qualifications, and representing that the drafting of men in those counties had been going on all the preceding summer, and in Westmoreland even until the time of their meeting. It was signed on behalf of the last-mentioned county by Charles Campbell, then the lieutenant thereof, and John Young, afterward president judge of the courts in the tenth judicial district of this state. 330 MANOR TOWNSHIP. Such having then been the imminent need of protection to the people and their property along this as well as other parts of the frontiers of Western Pennsylvania, President Washington through the secretary of war, December 26, 1791, communicated to Gov. Mifflin his adoption of the following measures, which were then being put into execution: On the 16th of that month, orders were issued to Maj. Isaac Craig to build a blockhouse at Fort Pitt and surround it with palisades, so as to contain about 100 men, where, viz., at Fort Pitt, a commissioned officer and thirty-four non-commissioned and privates should remain, they being taken from two companies, a part of which had been stationed there from the 20th of October to the 15th of December, when they were under orders to descend the Ohio. On the 26th of December, besides commissioned officers, a detachment of about 120 non-commissioned officers and privates were to march from Philadelphia, a part of whom to be stationed at Fort Pitt, and detachments posted at such other places on the Ohio and up the Allegheny as would be most conducive to the general safety of these parts. Then the lieutenants of Allegheny, Washington and Westmoreland counties were to be authorized to call out scouts or patrols not exceeding eight for each county, who were to be the best of hunters or woodsmen, and to be allowed, as an inducement to render such service, the high pay of five-sixths of a dollar a day, which was equal to the amount paid for that kind of service on the frontiers of Virginia. On the 29th of December, the secretary of war issued his circular to the lieutenants of those three counties, informing that the above-mentioned detachment of recruits for the regular army had marched for Fort Pitt, who were to be posted so as best to conduce to the safety of the inhabitants, reiterating what had been communicated to Gov. Mifflin as to the kind of men that should be selected for scouts and the high pay they should receive, and directing how they should be mustered into and out of the service. The president having directed the secretary of war to consider the above-mentioned memorial of December 21, the latter reported, January 1, 1792, that it was unfortunate that the United States had no general militia law, and as the frontiers required immediate protection, no other expedient presented itself except requesting the executives of the states that had exposed counties to call out such numbers of militia as would afford the necessary aid. He suggested that, as the militia were to be called out for the general defense and to be paid out of the general or national funds, they should be called for six months, unless sooner discharged. The general assembly of Pennsylvania, in order to make some effectual provision in aid of the measures of the federal government for the protection of the frontiers, passed an act, January, 1792, authorizing the governor to engage for six months, unless sooner discharged, a number of active and experienced riflemen, not exceeding 228 non-commissioned officers and privates, who were to be stationed at such places and in such proportions as should in his judgment be best calculated to defend these frontiers. He was required to organize the men thus engaged into three companies, over which he might, if necessary, appoint and commission one major, and one captain, one lieutenant, one ensign, four sergeants, four corporals and two musicians for each company to consist of sixty-six privates. The pay of the commissioned officers was the same as that of like officers in the service of the United States, and that of the non-commissioned officers and privates, with the bounty added, was equal to 60 shillings per month to each sergeant, 55 shillings to each corporal, and 50 shillings to each musician and private. The sum of ~4,500 was appropriated for rendering that act operative. The circular letter of Gov. Mifflin, January 20, 1792, to the lieutenants of Allegheny, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties, advised them, among other things, that those three companies, when filled, should be stationed thus: The first one at the southwest corner of Washington, now Greene county, and range thence to the Ohio; the second one at the mouth of Great Beaver, and range thence by the heads of Pine creek to Fort Crawford; the third one at the Kittanning, and range thence up and down the Allegheny river. Maj. George McCully was appointed commandant of the corps. To Col. Clement Biddle, who was then quartermaster-general for the state, were assigned the inspection and management of the same. John Wilkins, Jr., was the contractor of rations. The commissioned officers of the first company were: Captain - James Paul, Fayette county; lieutenant - Henry Enochs,* Washington county; ensign - Jeremiah Long, Washington county. Those of the second company: CaptainSamuel Smith, Washington county; lieutenant - Daniel Hamilton,t Washington county; ensign - William Jones, Allegheny county. Those of the third company: Captain - John Guthrie; Westmoreland county; lieutenant -William Cooper, * Declined; John Gray was appointed in his stead. t Declined; Robert Stevison, or Stevenson, was appointed in his stead. 331 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Westmoreland county; ensign - Samuel Murphy, Westmoreland county. The estimate of the money required for the then immediate purpose of raising and equipping the troops under the command of Maj. George McCully, as made by Q. M. G. Clement Biddle, which included one month's pay, rifles, powder, lead, etc., was ~2,700, for which Gov. Mifflin, February 8, 1792, directed a warrant to be drawn. The stationing of these companies at the abovementioned points covered the frontiers of Allegheny and Westmoreland counties quite effectually, but left a considerable gap open in the northwesterly part of Washington county, as David Redick demonstrated by his pen and ink sketch or map of the river and region on that side of the last-mentioned county, which accompanied his letter of February 13, 1792, to Gov. Mifflin, in which letter he stated that he had been informed that many of the riflemen of that county had declined entering into the six months' service for that reason. Said they, "Why will we go into a service which appears to be calculated for the protection of Allegheny county, whilst our own friends and families will continue exposed? " A meeting of the inhabitants living on the Ohio, at and near Holliday's cove, held on Saturday, February 4, took a similar view of their situation, and resolved, among other things, that the drafting of the frontier inhabitants to serve on militia duty in any other part of the country, except where they resided, was unjust, oppressive and impolitic. Thby bound themselves to keep respectively, in good order, at least one gun, and to have always in readiness a sufficient quantity of ammunition to be prepared at a minute's warning to repulse any attack which might be made on the frontier inhabited by them. Maj. McCully was satisfied from the survey shown him by David Redick that there was "a frontier of forty miles on the southwest of that county, exclusive of ninety miles from Yallow creek to Kittannion, on the Ohio and Allegheny," and intimated to Gov. Mifflin, two days before the meeting at Holliday's cove, that if the Governor would order one company of militia to be drafted for that uncovered part of the frontier, he would dispose of his three companies on the river, hoping to give a good account. lHe wrote to the quartermaster-general from Greensburgh, March 31, that Capt. Paul, with a beautiful company, had marched from Pittsburgh on Wednesday, the 28th, to cover that southwestern frontier. McCully wrote to Biddle, March 11, that on the arrival of certain articles which the latter had ordered to be forwarded, he would "send detachments to fixed posts." Such was the exposure of the white settlers to hostile attacks from the Indians along the Allegheny and Ohio rivers, from above Kittanning to Yellow creek, when the site of Fort Green was selected as one of those "fixed posts," whither it is probable "Ensign Murphy marched, on Thursday, 29th, with twenty-eight men of Capt. Guthrie's company, completely armed, to join some who had been sent out before to cover the frontiers of Westmoreland county," as Maj. McCully wrote from Greensburgh on the 31st, adding that he was then on his way to those frontiers, and that he should order Capt. Guthrie out with the rest of his company with all possible haste. In his letter to the secretary of the commonwealth, April 6, regretting the non-arrival of any part of his and the companies' camp equipage, a portion of the rifles, which prevented him establishing posts on the frontier of Allegheny county, which would otherwise have been done, he stated that the three companies needed but six privates to complete the whole two companies, and that hlie had posted the one on the frontier of Washington, and the other on the frontier of Westmoreland county, though not completely armed and equipped. The latter probably remained at Fort Green several weeks, and then the principal portion of it was stationed several miles below; for Col. Charles Campbell, from Black Lick, his residence in what is now Indiana county, May 28, wrote to Gov. Mifflin, that on the 22d the Indians attacked Lieut. William Cooper's station, near the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, and killed one man and wounded another, and that Maj. McCully had taken all his men away from Green's and Reed's stations, except a few to keep up Green's. He suggested that as Smith's and Guthrie's companies were to be stationed at the mouth of the Puckety-Fort Crawford-he would have to give up the settlements near these stations, or, as requested by McCully, send the militia thither. Hle insisted that both of these stations should be supplied or manned by continental troops, as it was distressing to call on the militia of the one county to guard so extensive a frontier, to stand as a barrier to the interior, but that, if a sufficient number of men were not kept out, those settlements would break up, as they could not support themselves without raising some crops. In a postscript hlie stated that he had just received a dispatch by express, that 100 Indians had crossed the Allegheny river, and fifty others had been seen the day before in the inhabited parts, and one man had been killed. William Findley, in his letter 332 *V,8'Noj- 3so y'Sso./V\ -4 C) - 9:g \ 4 MANOR TOWNSHIP. June 1, to -Secretary Dallas, after relating the attack at Reed's station, stated that the alarm caused by it spread rapidly. The Indians heralded their approach by burning some of the houses which they first reached. There were only about forty of them, but they created so great a panic that the people fled before them. They went out in squads of from five to seven, keeping nearly the course of the Kiskiminetas. They did not seem to be so anxious to kill as to plunder. Their eager desire to capture horses seemed to divert their attention from shedding blood. A scout pursued one of these squads up the north side of the Kiskiminetas to the mouth of Black Leg's creek and down to the Allegheny, but could not get a shot at them, on account of the unfavorable character of the ground, but succeeded in recapturing ten horses. The scarcity of arms among the whites was a distressing circumstance. Thus voluntary exertions were prevented and many families were compelled to flee. The white settlers had become so confident that the Indians would not wage war again and the need of money was so imminent, to repair their desolated homes, that they had sold their guns to the people going down the river. On the 18th he wrote that Col. John Pomeroy, one of the best and most trustworthy officers on this side of the mountains, was then out with six companies of militia. In his letter of the 18th he stated that the neglect and disobedience of the officers and scouting parties along the Allegheny river had obliged Maj. McCully to keep two companies - mentioned by Col. Campbell-embodied at one station where he could enforce the execution of his own orders; that the small scouting parties, sent out by Capt. Guthrie, never went the length of their appointed tours; Cooper did not send out any scouts; and there was excessive drunkenness. The secretary of war, July 11, informed Gov. Mifflin that the troops of the United States, in considerable numbers, would soon arrive on the frontiers of this state, and that a sufficient portion of them would remain there until the effect of certain pacific overtures to the Indians should be known. In that condition of affairs, and as the time for which the state troops were raised would soon expire, he asked whether it would be compatible with the views and arrangements of his excellency to permit the continental officers, recruiting in this state, to endeavor to enlist such noncommissioned officers and privates of those companies as would be inclined thereto. Whereupon A. J. Dallas, secretary of this commonwealth, presuming that the proposals in the 21 communication of the secretary of war were satisfactory to Gov. Mifflin, proposed: That instructions should be transmitted to the lieutenants of the exposed counties, that they should keep up the same number of spies, drafted from the militia, that had been authorized to be employed before the organization of the three companies; that any surplus in the appropriations of the 1791-2 should be used for bounties to engage the best woodsmen in that service; that the spies should be engaged to commence their services at the expiration of the term of service of these companies; that so much of the arms and ammunition of those companies as were necessary should be supplied to the spies, and the rest given into the custody of the county hlieutenants; that it should be stipulated that the spies should be in constant motion on the exposed parts of the frontiers, and keep up a constant communication with the federal camp on the upper part of the Ohio and at Fort Franklin, giving all the information possible; and that a copy of these instructions should be sent to Maj. McCully, inclosed in a.letter of thanks to him and his corps. He deemed it imprudent to enter into that arrangement or suggest it to the officers for some time, because a delay of two or three weeks might obviate its necessity, either by the receipt of the news of peace, or some unexpected and untoward event might render a more powerful exertion unavoidable. John Wilkins, Jr., December 21, informed the quartermaster-general that he had advertised in the Pittsburgh Gazette that he would be at Washington on the 4th, at Uniontown on the 7th, and at Denniston's mill on the 17th of January, 1793, to pay the officers and men of the six months state militia. Captain Guthrie's company was of course paid off at the last-mentioned place. Col. Charles Campbell, from Black Lick, February 27, wrote to Gov. Mifflin that although there had not been'any damage done for some time, the people on the frontiers of his county were apprehensive that they would receive a stroke from the Indians in the spring, as the winter had been very open and clear of snow. In the same letter he stated that there were then about thirty of the continental soldiers stationed "at the Cattannian" and at Coe's station. The latter was on the west side of the Allegheny river, about a mile below a point opposite Fort Crawford, or the mouth of Poketas. The former must have been Green's, as it was called "the Kittanning" for several miles along the river above Crooked creek. Kittanning was pronounced and spelled variously in those times by those who knew not its correct orthogra333 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. phy and orthoepy. That station became and was called a fort-Fort Green-on being occupied by United States troops. The secretary of war informed Gov. Mifflin, Sep tember 3, 1793, that information had that day been received that, notwithstanding the utmost efforts of the commissioners, the pacific overtures to the Indians north of the Ohio had been rendered abortive by their insisting upon the Ohio as the boundary. The majority of the Indians of various tribes determined on war, notwithstanding Capt. Brandt and his Mohawks, who were among them, strongly urged the hostile ones to make peace with the United States. Gen. Knox thought that the sword only, under the circumstances, could afford ample protection to the frontiers, and although it was believed that the militia collected on the frontiers and the scouts, under the governor's orders, were sufficient for their defense, he deemed it proper to caution the people immediately that every measure necessary to guard against surprise should be adopted. A few weeks later an Indian runner, sent by Cornplanter, raised an alarm by informing the peo ple that a party of Indians was about to attack some part of the frontiers, which caused Col. Campbell and others at a meeting, held in reference thereto, to recommend that a company should be raised and stationed on the frontiers. Gen. Will iam Jack wrote the governor from Greensburgh, November 19, that he had consulted with Gen. John Gibson, several militia officers and "respectable characters of this county," and he and they were of the opinion that there was reasonable cause for continuing in service the additional company un der Capt. Murray, which had for some time been stationed on the Westmoreland frontier. Gov. Mifflin, February 28, 1794, requested the secretary of war to loan four brass nine-pounders to be used in defense of the frontiers. An act of assembly was passed the same day providing for that de fense, and on the 1st of March the governor issued his circulars to the lieutenants and ensigns of the three defensive companies, who were therein di rected to apply immediately to their respective captains for instructions to raise their respective complements of non-commissioned officers and men. One of them was directed to Samuel Murphey, lieu tenant, Allegheny county; James Patterson, ensign, Allegheny county, and Stephen McHuffy, ensign, Westmoreland county. The secretary of war, May 19, transmitted to Gov. Mifflin the act of congress directing a detachment from the militia of the United States, and stated that in pursuance thereof the president desired the governor to take effectual measures as soon as might be to organize, arm and equip according to law, and hold in readiness to march at a moment's warning, 10,768 of the militia of Pennsylvania, including the officers, who were to be either the militia officers or others at the option of the constitutional authority of this state, and the organization of the corps or detachment was to be conformable to the act of congress, May 8, 1792, which provided for establishing a uniform militia throughout the United States. At that time, the present territory of Armstrong county lay partly in Allegheny, Northumberland and Westmoreland counties. It appears, from the roll designating the several brigades which were to constitute that detachment, that the quota of Allegheny county was 297; of Northumberland county, 456, and of Westmoreland county, 410. Brig.-Gen. Wilkins was assigned to the command of the brigade, which consisted of the quotas from Allegheny and Westmoreland counties. Military discipline must have been very lax, for John Adlum wrote to Gov. Mifflin from Fort Franklin, August 31, 1794: "The posts along the Allegheny river kept by the eight-months' men are a burlesque on the military art, at least those of them that I have seen, for the officers and men are generally jack fellows alike, and I have passed them when the men have been lolling about without either guard or sentry, and, from inquiry, find it to be too generally the case, and I am certain they might be surprised any day or night by an inferior number." Wolves, bears and deer were numerous. Samuel Green, Sr., killed a very large bear with a club. He shot and killed a panther on Green's, now Ross' island, which is said to have been the largest one ever killed in this county. It measured eleven feet from the tip of its nose to the end of its tail. William Green and his sons iemoved, prior to 1804, to the west side of the river, and Judge Ross became thereafter the first permanent white settler in this southwestern portion of the Manor, probably in 1807, as he is first assessed in Kittanning township in 1808. He and his family occupied for awhile one of the cabins near Fort Green. In the course of a few years he built the stone house now owned and occupied by his son, Washington Ross, which was the first one of that material erected in this region, and probably one of the first within the present limits of that part of this county which is on the east side of the Allegheny river, except the one in Kittanning borough. He was then (1808) assessed with 100 acres, valued at $4 per acre. He was first assessed with a gristmill and sawmill in 334 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. character and professional qualifications, including at least two years' diligent study or practice of the law, and recommending his admission to the bar. Written notice of any such applicant's intention to apply for admission must be given to the board at least two weeks prior to the application, accompanied with the certificate of the president judge of the court in which he last practiced of his good moral character and of the length of time he had practiced therein. An attorney of another court can be admitted for special cases without the foregoing requisites. The board of examiners consists of five members, a majority of whom constitute a quorum. At September term, 1873, the court appointed as members thereof Darwin Phelps, Edward S. Golden, John V. Painter, John Gilpin and Robert W. Smith. At June term, 1874, James A. MeCulloch was appointed, vice John V. Painter, by reason of the vacancy occasioned by the latter's accession to the bench. RELIGIOUTS. In the early part of this century the facilities for the enjoyment of religious worship and privi leges in this county were, as is the case in newly and sparsely settled regions, very meager. Two Presbyterian churches were organized and two log church edifices, about eight miles apart, were erect ed on the west side of the Allegheny river, in what was then Buffalo township, in 1802. From those two churches have sprung all the other churches of that denomination in this county. Those and other churches will be more specially noticed in the sketches of their respective localities. Rev. T. M. Hudson, a venerable clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal church, had that portion of this county east of the Allegheny river in his circuit of three hundred miles, which he traversed fifty-four years ago. There were then, he informed me, no church edifices within that part of his cir cuit included in this county. Meetings were held in private houses and in the open air, under trees, in pleasant weather, to which women, in some instances, went a distance of five or six miles with infants in their arms. The dwelling-houses did not lack ventilation. They were not as warm as modern dwellings. In one instance, said he, the feet of another clergyman were frozen while he was preaching in such a mansion. Sabbath schools began to be organized in 1818 20. They were at first regarded, by at least some of the pastors and church members, as innovations upon the proper functions of the church, as the writer is informed by a gentleman who was cogni zant of their first establishment in this county. That unfavorable view soon vanished, so that they have here, as elsewhere, been accepted and cherished, by pastors and people, for many years as important adjuncts to the church. The number of churches in the county in 1850 was 65. That the great interests of religion have been liberally fostered in this county is evident from the following statistics: Presbyterian - 187 6 -No. churches, 24; No. members, 2,989; No. Sabbath schools, 20; No. scholars, 2,097. ]Methodist Episcopal-No. churches, 19; No. members, 1,814; No. Sabbath schools, -; No. scholars, about 1,523, exclusive of the number attending the Union Sabbath school at Worthington. United Presbyterian-1875-No. churches, 13 No. members, 1,038; No. Sabbath schools, 12; No. scholars, 744. Episcopalian-No. churches, 5; No. members, 330; No. Sunday schools, 4; No. scholars, 265. (Number of members and Sunday school scholars partly estimated.) Lutheran (both synods)-No. churches, 29; No. members, 2,672; No. Sabbath schools, 25; No. scholars, 1,907. Reformed-No. churches, 12; No. members, 825 No. Sabbath schools, 11; No. scholars, 630. Baptist-No churches, 10; No. members, 650; No. Sabbath schools, 12; No. scholars, 500. Dunkard-No. churches, -; No. members, - No. Sabbath schools, -; No. scholars, -. Roman Catholic-No. churches, -; No. mem bers, -; No. Sunday schools, -; No. scholars, -. During the winter of 1876 there was a peculiarly deep and extensive interest awakened in religious matters, which resulted in considerable accessions to many churches of the different denominations. THE ARMSTRONG COUNTY BIBLE SOCIETY. The first meeting was held on Monday, Septem ber 15, 1828, at the court-house. Thomas Hamil ton was chosen president, and James E. Brown sec retary. A series of resolutions were adopted indi cating, 1. An approval of the benevolent object of the Philadelphia Bible society to give a copy of the Bible to every family in Pennsylvania unable or unwilling to pay for it. 2. That a society for this county be formed. 3. That the business of the so ciety be conducted by a president, six vice-presi dents, and twelve other managers, who were to choose from their own body a secretary and treas urer. 4. The appointment of four for each town ship to visit every family in their respective townMANOR TOWNSHIP. 1820, so that they were probably erected in 1819. They were situated on the right bank of Crooked creek, about 200 rods above its mouth, having been since known as "Ross' mills." In the former were two runs of stone. Grists were brought to it at times from a distance of from twenty to thirty miles. It is said that this portion of the Manor tract was once called "Egypt," on account of the abundant quantity of grain which it yielded. The island opposite the mouth of Crooked creek became the property of William Green by virtue of his "improvement right." His application therefor in writing to the secretary of the land office is dated March 17, 1807, and an order was issued the same day to James Sloan, James Matthews and James McCormick to appraise it. Green conveyed it to Ross, February 18, 1808, for $100. The quantity of land in it, as specified in the deed, was 21 acres and 59 perches. The latter conveyed it to his son Washington, March 17, 1848, containing, as specified in the deed, 38 acres and 6 perches, showing its quantity, as ascertained by a later and more accurate survey, to be 16 acres and 107 perches greater than that ascertained by the original and less accurate survey. It is assessed this year (1876) as containing 30 acres, at $40 per acre. The diminution of its quantity has probably been caused by the action of the ice and water in the floods and freshets that have occurred in the Allegheny river during the last quarter of a century. Crooked creek was declared to be a public highway from its mouth to Jacob Frantz's mill, by act of March 19, 1816. The small island next above the last-mentioned one contains about seven acres, and is called "CastOff" in the records, probably because it has been separated from the other. It formerly belonged to the estate of Samuel Cochran. By the act of March 9, 1847, for the settlement of that estate, P. Fraizer Smith, the present reporter of the cases in the supreme court of this state, was appointed trustee for that purpose. He conveyed this island to Patrick Black, December 14, 1854, for $75, that being the highest and best price bidden for it, who conveyed the undivided half part of it, April 11, 1861, to Simon Truby, Jr., for $200, who conveyed two-thire of that undivided half to J. B. Finley and Thos. McConnell, on the 15th of that month, for $133.34, showing an appreciation in value of that one-half part of 166A per cent in a little over six years. The last-named purchasers and Darwin Phelps conveyed the entire island, November 9, 1863, to George C. King for $225. The other original tracts which and parts of which were within what are now the limits of Manor township, were: The Samuel Findley tract, 2023 acres, seated by Michael Ritchards, and adjoined the southeastern part of the Manor, the survey of which was made June 2, 1770, by order dated April 3, 1769, a part of which now belongs to the estate of John Williams, deceased; the Thomas Burd tract, 180 acres, seated by Samuel Simmeral; the John Roberts tract, called "Robertsburgh," 237- acres, partly in Kittanning township seated by John Hartman; the Clement Biddle tract, called "Biddlesburgh," 317 acres, seated by James Kilgore and Joshua Spencer; the John Biddle tract, called " Biddleton," 319.3 acres, became vested in Jonathan Paul, of New Castle, Delaware, who conveyed it to Thomas Newlin, May 2, 1808, for $620; the Simon Herman tract, 295 acres,partly in Kittanning township, seated by Jacob Wolf; the Peter Ehinger tract, 400 acres, partly in Kittanning township, seated by himself; the William Betts, Sr., tract, 401 acres, seated by John Howser; the William Betts, Jr., tract, 3781 acres, seated by Henry Hartman; the Alexander Hunter tract, called "Mahogany," seated by Jacob Hileman; the John Smith tract, called "Maria's Choice," " situate on the Kittanning path," 4111 acres, partly in Kittanning township, seated by Joseph and Tobias Stiveson; the Michael Mechling tract, called "Mechlingburgh," 105 acres and 59 perches, seated by Jacob Wilyard; the John Gray tract, 280 acres, seated by Jacob Wilyard; the Rebecca Smith tract, 390.9 acres, seated by Thomas McMasters; the James Glentworth tract, called "Glentworth Park," 415 acres, seated by David McKelvy; and the Robert Davidson tract, 430.9 acres, seated by James Dougherty and John Truby. " Glentworth Park " is skirted by the Allegheny river from the southwestern corner of " Victory" to the northwestern corner of "Rebecca's Hope," or the Rebecca Smith tract, and from which there is an extended view of the beautiful scenery up and down and on both sides of that river. To show the advance in the value of the land in the northern part of Manor township in the lapse of thirty or forty years, the transfers of "Glentworth Park" and the Robert Davidson tract are given. The warrant for the former is dated September 13, 1784. Glentworth conveyed his interest therein January 7,1788, to John Ashley, the consideration expressed in the deed being $1. Ashley conveyed this tract to Thomas Skelly April 29, 1808, for $605, and the latter to Mrs. Rebecca McKelvy, wife of David McKelvy, "by and with the consent and approbation of her said husband," the undivided one-half part thereof, Deceruber 8, 1808, for $310.45, and 335 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. the residue to David McKelvy, August 10, 1818, for $415, aggregating $725.45. The Robert Davison tract, adjoining it partly on the north, was purchased by the late Judge Buffington from the heirs of Robert Davidson in 1846-7, for $2,170. The Rebecca Smith tract lay between "Glentworth Park" on the north, "Mahogany " on the east, the manor on the south and the Allegheny river on the west. The mouth of Garrett's run is near its northwestern corner. One branch of this run rises on that part of the John Schenck tract now owned by Peter Heilman, in Kittanning township. It was probably named after Garrett Pendergrass, who established a trading post near its mouth, about where Patterson's store now is, prior to 1800, with whom Jacob Waltenbough occasionally traded. His stock consisted chiefly of dry goods, which he sold to the whites, and traded with the Indians for skins. He must have left there before 1805, as his name does not appear on the assessment list of Allegheny township for that year, or afterward on that of Kittanning township. The Pullen path, which it is said the Indians traveled when they went east to commit depredations, extended from this point eastward to where it intersected the Kittanning or Ohio path, on the John Schenck tract. Its route, in part, was probably past the front of George Bovard & Sons' store, and thence over the hill a little north of his dwellinghouse, for Alexander Cunningham and William McKelvy found a line of trees along there, which appeared to have been blazed by the Indians many years before they cleared the land there, some forty years ago. In the trunk of one of the trees, which they cut down, was a bullet, between which and the surface the concentric circles indicated that it must have been there eighty or more years. When George Bovard took possession of that part of "Rebecca's Hope," in 1853-4, there were on it three or four circular mounds, ten or twelve feet in diameter, and five or six feet high, and about ten feet apart, made of the sandstone which was abundant near them. The warrant for this tract is dated September 13,1784. Rebecca Smith became Rebecca Bakewell, and this entire tract continued in the ownership of William G. Bakewell and others of her descendants, until they conveyed it to Robert Speer, January 10, 1846, for $1,173, who has since then, at divers times since 1853, sold about two hundred and forty-five acres in twenty different parcels, varying in quantity from about the sixteenth of an acre to one hundred and thirtyseven acres, for $8,210.71. It was formerly thought that a vein of lead existed within what is now the territory of this township; such an idea has crept into Gordon's "Gazetteer" of this state. The supposition used to be somewhat prevalent that there were veins of silver in this western region. As late as December 20, 1866, Speer made the special reservation in his deed to Rev. J. N. Dick for the 13 acres and 121 perches in the northwestern part of "Rebecca's Hope" to search for ten years in the ravine, on the east side of the tract thereby conveyed, "for gold, silver and lead, and, if found, to mine the same." It does not appear that the geological and mineralogical features indicate the existence of any one of these metals in its native state as a natural product anywhere in this county. If pieces of either ore were ever found here, they were probably brought from the west by the Indians and lost. Among the white settlers near the mouth of Garrett's run, in the latter part of the last and the early part of the present century, was James Henry. Jeremiah Lochery, a singular and somewhat noted character in those times, lived with him. Lochery was reputed to have accompanied Gen. Armstrong in his expedition to Kittanning, and to have been wounded in one of Capt. Sam Brady's raids. Sherman Day learned, more than thirty years ago, from those who knew Lochery, that "he had no family, and wandered from house to house, staying all night with people and repaying their hospitality with anecdotes of his adventures," a knowledge of which has not come down, so far as the present writer is informed, to any of the present generation. Peter Ehinger, with his family, removed from the west side of the river to this side of it and resided, for several years, a few rods above the mouth of Garrett's run, and removed thence to the tract warranted in his name, a part of which is now occupied by his son James. The original tracts outside of the manor appear to have been unoccupied for many years after they were surveyed, except by those who seated them and a few others who were transient residents. Patrick Dougherty, however, settled on the northwestern part of the Davison tract, a short distance below where the rolling mill now is, and above the small run between the Armstrong and the Glentworth tracts, in 1790, where he resided twenty-two years, during a part of which period he traded with the Indians and others, and transported freight to and from Pittsburgh in a canoe capable of carrying twelve barrels of flour, according to the statement of one of his descendants. The writer has his account book, less a few of its first pages, which have been torn out. His accounts were kept in pounds, shillings and pence, in Pennsylvania German, probably by his wife, who was a daughter 336 MANOR TOWNSHIP. of the elder Jeremiah Cook, elsewhere mentioned. It appears from the entries that Dougherty was trading there as early as October, 1793. On the fourth day of that month, Stephen Allen was charged with sundry quantities of cherry, walnut and poplar boards, and about the same time Gollit and Himmig was also charged with divers quantities of the same materials. Those parties, perhaps, resided in Pittsburgh, whither Daugherty transported these articles in his large canoe. The reader may be curious to know the prices which those kinds of lumber then brought. The following items are therefore given: 450 feet cherry boards, ~1 10s 6d; 400 feet walnut boards, 16s; 700 feet poplar boards ~2 5s 6d. The price of liquors, probably whisky, appears to have been two shillings a quart in 1799. Daugherty also kept a ferry between his place and Sloan's on the opposite side of the Allegheny river. The ferriage for one person was sixpence, and the same for one horse. That book shows that some who habitually crossed the river there did not pay their ferriage instanter, for it contains charges therefor against various persons, some of which are quite numerous and extend through the years 1800-1-2, but which appear to have been from time to time adjusted. The names of the persons thus charged are of interest in this connection as showing some of the then residents in the vicinity of that ferry and on both sides of the river. They are: Frederick Monroe, Thomas Williams, Levi Hill, Hamilton Kilgore, William Broch, Samuel Kelly, Jonathan Mason, Andrew McQuirn, Sebastian Wolf, Samuel Sunerall, Archibald Moore, James Hall, Malfus Sisrot. In 1812 Patrick Daugherty enlisted in Capt. James Alexander's company, accompanied to Black Rock, and died the next year of fever contracted in the service. A part of the Davison tract was occupied several years after 1826 by James, son of Patrick Daugherty. In 1839 David Crytzer was assessed with 430 acres of the last-mentioned tract; William McKelvy with 200 acres, and James McKelvy with 100 acres of the Glentworth tract; Robert Speer with 200 acres of the Rebecca Smith tract; James Lowther with 285 acres of the John Gray tract; John Richard with 80, and John Lopeman with 25 acres, of the Michael Mechling tract; Jacob Hileman with 307, Caskey with 50 and George Olinger with 50 acres of the Alexander Hunter tract; Charles Rupert with 100, George Smeltzer with 150, and Philip Houser with 50 acres of the Win. Betts, Sr., tract; Philip Houser with 189 acres of the Win. Betts, Jr., tract; Jacob Wolf with 295 acres of the Simon Hermon tract; John Hustman with 336 acres of the John Roberts tract; John Cunningham with 240, Wm. Hartman with 83, and John Wolf with 73 acres of the John Biddle tract; Michael Isaman with 169, Solomon King with 143, and Joshua Spencer with 100 acres of the Clement Biddle tract; and Samuel Simmerall with - acres of, probably, the Thos. Burd tract, which was surveyed to George Beck, who conveyed it to Jacob Beck, to whom the commonwealth granted a patent, March 27, 1837, who, on April 3, conveyed it to James C. Kerr, as containing 180 acres, for $2,000. He conveyed it to Robert Walker (of A), who devised it to his son Alexander, the present owner and occupant. Jonathan Mason was assessed with 225 acres from 1804 till 1816. The reader who is familiar with the topography of this township can readily recognize the respective locations of the above-mentioned tracts, by beginning at the Davison tract and tracing them in the order in which they are named southerly to Crooked creek. On the draft of the original survey of the Manor tract, the land adjoining the line from its northeast corner, which is on the tract now occupied by Rev. A. S. Miller, south 18 degrees west 977 perches to a point about 200 rods nearly west of the present residence of Mrs. M. Lease, including the southern part of the Hunter, the whole of the two Betts and John Biddle tracts, and part of the Clement Biddle tract, is designated as "hilly poor land," from which designation, thus made by the then deputy surveyor-general of Cumberland county, the present owners, it is presumed, emphatically dissent, so far as it includes the qualifying word "poor." Its hilliness is patent, but the soil is generally too productive to be called poor, while the scenery visible from several points is grand, variegated and picturesque. Among the early settlers in the southeastern part of this township was Joshua Spencer, Sr., who settled on the Clement Biddle tract, whose early biography is not without interest, from the fact of his having been a captive in his boyhood. He was about twelve years old at the beginning of the revolutionary war. While he and another person were thrashing in a barn where he then lived in the Susquehanna country, in the fall of 1776, five Indians rapidly entered the barn. Their moccasins being slippery, they fell, but instantly arose, captured Spencer and his companion, and, with the aid of three other Indians who remained outside, took the captives to the Indian country, where they were compelled to run the gantlet, which Spencer did without injury, but the other was badly hurt and covered with blood. When 337 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Spencer had finished an Indian came up to him, called him "a d-d Yankee," and knocked him down. Having been adopted by the tribe, a squaw was selected for his wife. One day an Indian having suddenly raised his head from stooping over the fire, in the cabin where Spencer was, struck it against the front of the chimney over the fireplace, and was so provoked by being thus hurt that he seized a butcher-knife with which he chased Spencer to the end of the cabin, where he suddenly stopped and left him unharmed. He was adopted in place of an Indian boy that had died. The men wanted to kill him, but the squaws saved him. He planned his escape thus: While out fishing, daily, he marked his time by the shadow of a tree, so that he knew how much longer he remained away from his Indian quarters one day after another. He escaped on one of these days to the British, surrendered himself as a prisoner of war, was taken to Canada, transferred thence to Prisoner's island, in Lake Erie. Either there or in Canada he and Lieutenant Samuel Murphy, afterward of Murphy's bend, were fellowprisoners. At the close of the revolutionary war he was exchanged. He then returned to his old home in the Susquehanna country, where he married, emigrated in 1799 to what is now Burrell township, in this county, and afterward removed to the Clement Biddle tract, in Manor township, where he died about 1844. SCHOOLS. The first schoolhouse within what are now the limits of this township was a primitive log structure, which, according to a rather ancient draft of that portion of the manor tract purchased by Jonathan Smith, was located a few rods north of the present site of the Appleby Manor Presbyterian church, on the Duncan purpart of the manor tract, very near the line between it and the Cobeau purpart on the right hand side of the Kittanning and Leechburgh road, facing to the north. It was probably erected as early as, perhaps earlier than, 1802, and was for years the only one within a circuit of several miles, to which the children of this then sparsely settled region resorted for instruction. The first teacher in it was probably Harrison Cook; the next, - Conkling, who was succeeded, several years afterward, by one whom his pupils rather ungraciously called "the old girl." He taught there in 1811-12. Hugh Campbell was one of his pupils and the only one of those who attended that school, so far as the writer has learned, now living. IHe had previously taught elsewhere in this county. His name was pronounced as if it were spelled Girl or Gurl, neither of which is correct. His name in full is Edward Gorrell. The orthoepy was faulty, as much so as in our own times is the construction of Horrell into Hurl or Hirl. His name appears for the first time on the assessment list of Allegheny township in 1811; in 1813 he was assessed with twelve acres of land. In 1814 the assessor wrote his name "Gurral." He may have been a kinsman of Lt. Gorrell, who commanded the English garrison at Green Bay, in the summer of 1763, when the great Pontiac's mighty conspiracy was raging, and which, through the tact and good conduct of its commandant, was the only forest garrison that was not then overpowered. Perhaps some of that name in and about Pittsburgh are descendants or other kindred of that early teacher in the manor. These were considered, so far as the writer can learn, good teachers in those times; they were good penmen, and taught thoroughly the few branches then embraced in the course of study in those early schools. Gorrell's pupils say he wrote a very fine, neat and beautiful hand. That primitive temple of knowledge, in the course of several years, was abandoned and another log one was erected about sixty rods southwest of it, on the opposite side of the last-mentioned road, which continued in use after the adoption of the common school system until 1866, when a frame one was erected, about forty rods east of it, a few rods below the church, which is still used for school purposes. In 1860 the number of schools was 7; average number months taught, 4; male teachers, 7; average monthly salaries, $20; male scholars, 179; female scholars, 143; average number attending school, 191; cost of teaching each per month, 46 cents; amount levied for school purposes, $646.82; amount received from state appropriation, $87.51; amount received from collectors, $317.01; cost of instruction, $560; fuel and contingencies, $31 repairs, etc., $11. In 1876 the number of schools was 9; average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 2; female teachers, 7; average salaries per month of male teachers, $32; average salaries per month of female teachers, $33.29; male scholars, 247; female scholars, 202; average number attending school, 283; cost per month, 65 cents; total amount tax levied for school and building purposes, $2,380.68; received from state appropriation, $298.53; from taxes and other sources, $2,791.75; cost of schoolhouses, viz., purchasing, renting, etc., $996.20; teachers' wages, $1,320 fuel, contingencies, etc., $588.16. 338 MANOR TOWNSHIP. CRADLE FACTORY. The proprietor of this factory for the manufacture of grain-cradles, Thomas Montgomery, commenced the business in his twelfth year on a very limited scale, and with a very meager stock of tools. In the manufacture of his first cradle he used an old drawing knife, a shingle nail, ground sharp for a chisel, a fire-poker for a bit or boring tool, and a condemned cradling scythe, which he procured from his brother. His first cradle, thus made, was used for several years. It won a somewhat extensive reputation, which induced several of his neighbors to apply to him to make cradles for them. Ile did so, they finding the scythes and trimmings, and he finding the wood. The demand for his cradles increased to such an extent that the boy began to regard himself as a manufacturer. He collected about $25, with which he purchased, at Pittsburgh, one and a half dozen scythes, a brace, three bits, three chisels of different sizes. He also purchased on credit an additional dozen and a half of scythes from P. H. Laufman, who insisted on his thus taking them, and which he used in making thirty-six cradles,which were readily sold. The next year he made 160 cradles -all by hand. He thus continued to manufacture on a small scale until his father moved from the Manor to near Cochran's mills, where he made them about four years - during the latter part of that period at the rate of 350 annually. He removed thence to near the junction of the Anderson Creek road and the Clearfield turnpike, in what is now Valley township, where, for nine years, he annually made nearly 600. Thence he removed to Manor township, where-except two years during the war, on that portion of the lower tract taken by Thomas Duncan and purchased by Moses Patterson--in connection with his agricultural pursuits, he has continued to manufacture them at the rate of from 450 to 650 each year. He has from first to last made and sold 18,000 cradles, and still continues to make them. TEMPERANCE. The vote, February 28, 1873, for granting a license to sell liquors, 34; against it, 85. POSTAL. The Ross' Mill postoffice was established June 16, 1843, George Ross, postmaster. The only one now within the limits of this township is the one at Rosston. It was established June 15, 1858. The first postmaster was Thomas McConnell; the present one is John C. Christy. POPULATION. According to the census there were, in 1850, white, 754, and colored inhabitants, 11; in 1860, white, 1,210; in 1870, native, 1,013, foreign, 58. There has been a considerable accession of colored persons, employ6s and their families, at the quarry, since the taking of the last census. The present number of taxables is 426, making the present population 1,967, exclusive of Manorville, whose population was included in that of the township in 1850 and 1860. ROSSTON is a town or village on the Ross tract, extending from the mouth of Crooked creek up along the left bank of the Allegheny river, on its west side, and the Allegheny Valley Railroad on its east side. It was surveyed and laid out into thirty lots for Washington Ross-hence its name-by James Stewart, September 18, 1854. Its shape, by reason of the curvature of the railroad and the bend in the river, is nearly lanceolate. Lot. No. 30, the one between the southmost street and the mouth of the creek, contains 1 acre and 70 perches. The width of the east ends of each of lots Nos. 1, 2 and 3, fronting on Railroad street, is 66 feet and 10 inches, and that of the eastern ends of all the rest, except No. 19, is 66 feet. The width of the western ends of lots Nos. 14, 15, 16, 17 and 18 is 661 feet each; of lots Nos. 12, 13 and 19, 68 feet each, and that of the west end of No. 11 and east end of No. 19 is 65 feet. Their lengths vary, the greatest being 277, and the least 100 feet. The plan of this town shows four streets and two alleys to have been laid out. Water street is 40 feet wide, and extends along the river, between the two unnamed streets, which intersect it, north 44 degrees east 672 feet. Railroad street extends from the southmost street north 50 degrees east 3321 feet to an alley, thence north 44 degrees east 342 feet to the northmost street, and thence north 34- degrees east to the upper extremity of the plot. The two alleys are each 12 feet wide, and cross each other at right angles nearly midway between the northmost and southmost streets. At the upper extremity of the plot is a parcel of ground that was not laid out in lots, containing 100 square perches, which Anthony Kealer purchased for an acre more or less for $100, by deed dated March 3, 1863. On lot No. 22, fronting on Water street, which is the third lot below the northmost street, that is, the street extending from the railroad station west to Water street, now known as the Heigley lot, was the site of Fort Green, elsewhere mentioned. Some of its outworks extended back on 339 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. to lot No. 9. The first sales of lots appear from the records to have been made November 25, 1854, to John Isamon, No. 1 for $106; to Jacob Isamon, Nos. 3, 27 and 29 for $281, averaging $93.66 for each. A steam sawmill was erected by Messrs. Washington Ross and George Householder on lot No. 30, which cost $3,000. Ross purchased Householder's interest in the mill, and afterward, September 23, 1859, sold it and that lot to Andrew J. Faulk for $4,500. Faulk reconveyed the same to Ross, April 1, 1861, for $4,000, who conveyed the same, April 8, 1867, to William T. and George Reiter for $6,300, from whom it subsequently passed by public sale to Elisha Robinson, Jr. For the first three years its capacity was such as to enable the proprietors to saw 3,000 feet a day. Afterward, by the introduction of the muley saw, the capacity was increased to 10,000 feet a day. The Allegheny Valley Railroad afforded an extensive market for the stuff sawed until the completion of the Bennett's branch or Low Grade division. A large quantity of the lumber sawed here was also used in the construction of boats or barges, which was carried on at Rosston for several years. The number of employes in the mill, which was run by steam, and the boatyard was from fifteen to twenty. Other lots were sold at various times for different prices. For instance, lot No. 22, the site of Fort Green, was conveyed to Emmanuel Heigley for $51, and Nos. 15 and 16 to Jacob Spencer for $100, both on February 6, 1858. Lots Nos. 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 were conveyed to Andrew J. Faulk, afterward governor of Dakota territory, November 25, 1859, for $420, averaging $84 each. At a later period, February 16, 1863, Nos. 13 and 14 were conveyed to George C. King for $90. There have been several transfers of lots Nos. 9 and 10, from Ross to George Bovard, July 29, 1856, who soon after ward conveyed to Joseph L. Reed, and in which Thomas McConnell acquired an interest, which he released to Reed, who conveyed the same, includ ing the storehouse erected by McConnell and Reed on No. 10, to James Ross, February 17, 1863, for $2,200, whose collateral heirs conveyed both lots to John C. Christy, August 31, 1867, together with two other small parcels out of the town plot, for $2,500. No. 10 has been the site of the only store in Rosston. The first storehouse erected on it, while in the possession of Christy, was destroyed by fire on the night of August 30, 1874. The present structure, better and more substantial than its predecessor, was soon after ward erected on the same site, which is on the corner of Railroad street and the northmost cross, or, as it is called in some of the records, Market street, opposite to which, on the east end of lot No. 11, is the Allegheny Valley Railroad warehouse, in which, when emergencies. require, a telegraph office is kept in operation. Rosston is not an incorporated or separate municipality. For all municipal purposes it is part and parcel of Manor township, and its inhabitants are liable for their proportionate part of the township taxes. There is no schoolhouse within the limits of the town plat, but there is one a few rods east of its eastern boundary, where the children of Rosston and of the southwestern part of the township resort for instruction, the cost of which is paid out of the township school tax for five months in the year. The cost of maintaining a " summer school" is raised by subscription; such schools are also called " subscription schools," the teachers of which, in some places, are too often illqualified for the important work of teaching young children, whom some, aye, too many, unreflecting parents think such teachers can properly instruct. The truth is, that class of pupils require the most intelligent, skillful and faithful teachers, so that the foundation of the educational work may be thorough and solid. The best and most experienced and skillful teachers are selected in Prussia for the youngest scholars. There is not as yet any church edifice in Ross ton. The schoolhouse is occasionally used as a place of public worship by different religious de nominations. The number of taxables shows the population of this village to be about one hundred and seventy-four. Various occupations: Merchants, 2, one doing business elsewhere; teachers, 2; boss, 1; brakemen, 3; carpenters, 2; laborers, 12; con ductor, 1; mechanic, 1; saddler, 1; cobbler, 1. Slabtown is a hamlet in the northwestern corner of the township, with a population of about ninety. The chief occupation of the men is that of laborer. THE BOROUGH OF IMANORVILLE was formed out of a part of the Thomas Dun can purpart of the Manor tract and a part of " Rebecca's Hope," or the Rebecca Smith tract. Twenty-four lots were laid out for John Sibbett "in the town of Manorville," June 28, 1854, lying between the present eastern boundary of the borough and Water street, and between the northern boundary of the manor tract, which extends through the borough along the center of a "lane 22 feet wide," as designated on the plat of the borough, and which is between H. M. Lamb ing's shop and dwelling-house-between that lane 340 MANOR TOWNSHIP. and the unnamed street, 35 feet wide, extending from the eastern line of the borough past the Copley brickyard and James Cunningham's store to Water street. At and before the time of laying out these lots this place was called Manorville, obviously from the manor. The northern line of the manor tract is about equidistant from the northern and southern lines of the borough, but the southern portion being considerably wider than the northern, the major part of the borough was taken from what was formerly that tract. Those Sibbett lots appear from the plat to be the only ones that have as yet been numbered. Arnold and others laid out lots at different times on that part of the borough taken from " Rebecca's Hope." The taxables of Manorville were first assessed by themselves, or separately, in 1851. The construction of the Allegheny Valley Railroad a few years thereafter gave the chief impetus to settlements here. The first petition for incorporating this place into a borough was presented to the court of quarter sessions of this county December 7, 1865, but was not approved by the grand jury. A second one, signed by two-thirds of its taxable inhabitants, was presented at June sessions, 1866, which having been approved by the grand jury and having laid over the time required by law, the court ordered and decreed, June 6, 1866, that the village of Manorville be erected and incorporated into a body corporate and politic, to be known and designated as the borough of Manorville, with the following metes and bounds: Beginning at a red oak on the bank of the Allegheny river; thence on the line between Calvin Russell and P. F. McClarren south 680 east 28 perches to the Allegheny Valley Railroad; thence along said railroad 17' east 5-A perches to a post; thence by land of John Shoop south 680 east 20 perches to a post; thence by land of Chambers Orr, now of Adam Reichert, north 140 east 64 perches to a post; thence 680 west 1 perch to a post; thence north 140 east 56 perches to a post; thence north 100 east 27 perches to a post; thence by land of Arnold's heirs north 770 west to said railroad; thence along said railroad north 17' east 35T perches to a post; thence south 610 east 4 perches to a post; thence north 250 east 3 perches to a black jack; thence south 68' east 7 perches; thence north 100 east 34 perches to a chestnut; thence north 680 west 13 perches to a post on the bank of the Allegheny river; thence down said river south 280 west 80 perches, and 22' west 130- perches to a red oak and the place of beginning. The first election of borough officers was directed to be held at the public schoolhouse in Manorville, on Saturday, June 23, 1866, of which ten days' notice was ordered to be given by Alexander Cunningham, the then constable of Manor township, and James Cunningham was appointed judge, and William Copley and Joseph D. Brown were appointed inspectors of that election. The subsequent elections were ordered to be held at the same place. The following borough officers were elected at the first borough election: Burgess, Joseph M. Kelley; town council, Jesse Butler, Calvin Russell, David Spencer, Peter F. Titus and Samuel Spencer; justices of the peace, John McIlvaine anid A. Briney; school directors, for three years, David Spencer and Dietrich Stoelzing; school directors, for two years, A. Rhoades and M. M. Lambing; school directors, for one year, R. C. Russell and Jesse Butler; high constable, Jonas M. Briney; borough auditors, Robert McKean, Milton McCormick and W. M. Patterson; judge of election, Joseph M. Kelly; inspectors of election, William Copley and H. M. Lambing; assessor, David Spencer; overseers of the poor, James Kilgore and George W. Shoop. If' the minutes of the town council and the ordinances passed during the first few years after the incorporation of this municipality are extant, they cannot be found by the present clerk of council, so that what the council did in those years has not been ascertained. The records, since they have been kept in the book now used therefor, do not show that there has been any of what may be termed municipal legislation of notable interest. Indeed, the affairs of the borough seem to have moved along with but slight control of specific rules and regulations. The first resident on the territory within the present limits of Manorville, after the revolutionary and Indian wars, was probably William Sheerer, who, about 1803, established a tannery on a small scale, at the foot of the hill just below and adjoining the northern line of the manor tract, with which he was assessed in 1805-6-7 at $15. He was the clerk of the general and presidential elections in Allegheny township in 1804. Ie was also assessed with one horse at $10, making his total valuation $25 for each of those years. He must have abandoned his tannery and removed thence in 1807, as that is the last year in which his name appears on the assessment list. For 1805-6 it is on the assessment list of Allegheny township, and for 1807 on that of Kittanning township, which, the reader will bear in mind, was organized in September, 1806. 341 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. What is now the site of Manorville remained unoccupied by any permanent settler for many years after Sheerer left. It was swampy and covered with thickets of laurel. The Lambing brothers settled here in 1830, and were first assessed in Kittanning township, the next year, viz.: Matthew Lambing, with 1 head of cattle, $18; John Lambing, with 50 acres (of Rebecca Smith tract), $100, and "young man, 25 cents;" Michael Lambing, "young man, 25 cents;" Henry Lambing, 3 horses, $60, 1 head of cattle, $6, and "young man, 25 cents," total, $66.25. Manorville was then a wilderness of swamp and thickets. In 1832 John Lambing was assessed with the same 50 acres as in the previous year, also with a distillery, total, $375; and Michael Lambing, as shoemaker, at $50. That distillery was situated near the foot of the hill, a few rods above the northern line of the Manor tract, with which was connected a run of stone for chopping the grain used in distilling. The mill part must have been adapted during that year to grinding grists, for in 1833 John was assessed not only with the distillery, but as a "miller," and Henry with a steam mill. For a year or so afterward, the land assessed to John and the distillery were rented to John West, and afterward the mill was assessed to Henry, and the distillery to Matthew Lambing. The mill had a capacity for grinding sixty bushels in twenty-four hours. It and the distillery ceased to be operated about 1840-1. Since then, these almost first settlers have carried on their respective trades - one a shoemaker and the others carpenters, cabinetmakers and machinists. Josiah Copley began the manufacture of firebrick in 1847-8, and continued it until 1858. It was thereafter carried on by his sons for two or three years, and then by'his brother, William Copley, until the latter's death, and since then by William S. Copley. The brickworks are located on land belonging to Miss Eliza Sibbett, between the railroad and the hill, on the south side of the street, extending from the latter past the railroad station to Water street. They have a capacity for making 3,000 bricks a day. They were destroyed by a fire, but were soon after rebuilt. The number of employes was at first fifteen, which was subsequently reduced about one-third by the use of improved machinery. The late Andrew Arnold, about 1850, established a tannery on a somewhat large scale, about 35 rods north of the northern line of the Manor tract, on that part of the 62-acre tract which he purchased from Robert Speer, lying between the railroad and Water street, with which he was assessed from 1851 until 1855. The next year it was assessed to A. & H. J. Arnold. Its valuation varied from $600, in 1851, to $1,000 in 1853, and to $1,200 in 1856. It was assessed to H. J. Arnold in 1859 at $2,000, and in 1862 at $1,500. It was first assessed, after their deaths, to Mrs. Isabella Arnold in 1865. The Arnolds carried on the manufacture of fire-brick, the father from 1852-3 till 1856, the brickyard being assessed, each of those years, at $50; and another year thereafter by father and son, the valuation being $500. The tanning was done on the old slow process of keeping the hides in the vats a year-those for sole-leather eighteen months. The number of layaway vats was about forty-five. The capacity of the tannery was 3,500 sides.: of leather a yearsole, upper, harness and bridle leather, including 1,000 sides of calfskin. Dietrich Stoelzing was first assessed as proprietor of this tannery in 1867, and as owner in 1868. He came here in May, 1863. From then on during the continuance of the war 5,000 hides were tanned yearly, making 10,000 sides of leather for the United States government, which was used for gun-slings and cartridge-boxes. During the first year after the close of the war this tannery turned out 10,000 sides of harness leather, and the next year 5,000. Then followed the tanning of cupleather at the rate of 2,500 sides annually. He commenced the process of tanning in air-tight vats, or vessels, in 1875. The number of employes during the war, and a year or two after its close, was twelve, and since 1867 from four to six. The apparatus consists of forty-eight lay-away vats, four lime-vats, four leach-tubs, four bates, one large cistern, two posts, six handlers, one stoppingwheel, one steam-pump, and a steam-engine of twenty-five horse-power. The tanhouse is a large two-story frame structure. While making leather for gun-slings and cartridge boxes the hides were kept in the vats six weeks, afterward six months, and now on the vacuum plan, two weeks for heavy belting and sole-leather, and only four days for calfskins. The idea of tanning on this plan originated, as the writer is informed, with one Davis, of Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, in 1868. Stoelzing tried it then and made it a success on a small scale, but could not make large vats or vessels air-tight, i. e., he did not make it a success on a large scale. In 1875 J. J. Johnston, patent agent, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, took out a patent in his own name for a large, air-tight vat. Stoelzing put up one of that kind in his tannery at Manorville, and made 342 MANOR TOWNSHIP., it successful beyond his expectations. The process of tanning by the vacuum method is this: After the hides are prepared in the usual way they are suspended in the air-tight vat; the vat is then closed and the air exhausted, so that the pores of the hides are opened and the liquor from the bark is absorbed, the pressure being at the rate of ten pounds per square inch, the liquid rising, of course, to fill the vacuum caused by exhausting the air. The liquor is changed until the hides are completely tanned. It is made by placing ground oakbark in an air-tight swinging circular leach; when filled with the bark the air is exhausted and spent liquor is forced in from below with a pressure of ten pounds per square inch; after standing an hour the leach is turned half around, so as to reverse its ends; after standing another hour the liquor is run into the air-tight vat; the bark remains in the leach, and whatever liquor remains in it is expelled by a pneumatic pressure of twentyfive pounds per square inch, caused by pumping the air in on the top. The leather thus tanned is of better quality and greater weight than is that tanned by the old process. The leaching extracts almost instantaneously all the tannic acid contained in the bark. In the spring of 1861, J. C. Crumpton established an oil refinery on a tract about 20X15 rods, next below the brick-yard and railroad station, between the railroad and an alley extending along the easterly line of the borough, and a tank lot between the railroad and Water street. The capacity of its still was at first only thirty barrels, or sixty a week, as there were but two runs in that time. During the proprietorship or superintend_ ency of Benny, several stills were added, varying in capacity from 80 to 250 barrels. Between 1867 and 1870, while Oliver B. Jones was proprietor, another still, with a capacity of 500 barrels, was added. During those years the refinery and ground were assessed at $7,000, and the tank lot at $600. The capacity was not subsequently increased. The proprietorship passed from Jones to King, Barbour & Goodwin, who gave it the name of the Federal Oil Works. John B. Barbour and Edward L. Goodwin sold their undivided two-thirds interest in those works to the Standard Oil Company May 18, 1876, for $8,000, by whom they have been removed to some other point down the river. MERCANTILE. Henry J. Arnold opened a store near what is now the upper part of the borough, on the river side of the railroad, in 1855, which was continued by, at least assessed to, James Daugherty until 1862. James Cunningham opened his store, opposite the railroad station, in 1864-5, which is still open. John McElwain kept a store in the Arnold storeroom in 1867-8. These are probably the only mercantile houses that ever were within what are now the borough limits. This year, only one, and that in the fourteenth class, appears on the mercantile appraiser's list. Manorville has not yet been adorned by a church edifice. Religious services are occasionally held by different denominations in the schoolhouse. SCHOOLS. The first school in what are now the limits of this municipality was opened in a log dwelling house, built by James Kilgore, probably a year or two before the adoption of the common school system. That house was situated in the rear part of the oil refinery lot, or between the railroad and the hill, a few rods below the brickyard. It was a pay or subscription school, taught by William Stewart. The next one, nearest to Manorville, was a one-story dwelling, converted into a schoolhouse, on the lower side of the Leechburgh road, near its intersection with the river road. In 1853 a frame schoolhouse was erected by the school board of Manor township, at the head of School or Butler street, in the Sibbett plot, near the hill, which was several years afterward moved from its base by a land-slide. The present school-building is a substantial frame, painted white, 38 X 28, ceiling 12 feet, with a cupola and bell, erected by the lastmentioned board in 1862. The first annual report of Manorville was for the school year ending June 1, 1868, for which year the statistics are: School, 1; number months taught, 5; male teacher, 1; salary per month, $50; male scholars, 40; female scholars, 39; average number attending school, 49; cost per month, each, 771o cents; levied for school purposes, $315.18; levied for building purposes, $121.22; received from collector, etc., $355; from state appropriation, $21.08; cost of instruction, $250; fuel and contingencies, $54.94; repairs, $4.82. . Statistics for 1875 are here given: School, 1; number months taught, 5; male teacher, 1; salary per month, $50; male scholars, 37; female scholars, 28; average number attending school, 51; cost, each, per month, 92 cents; tax levied for school and building purposes, $339.99; received from taxes, etc., $430.78; from state appropriation, $38.69; teacher's wages, $250; fuel, collector's fees, etc., $86.98. TEMPERANCE. The temperance element has for several years been strong. The vote on the question of granting license was 85 against, and 34 for it. A Good 343 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Templars' lodge was established in 1873, which continued to flourish for a year and a half, into which among others a goodly number of juveniles were initiated, some of whom had not secretiveness enough to keep secret the passwords and other private matters of the order, which was one of the reasons for disbanding. RESIDENCES. There are pleasant sites for residences with extensive views of fine scenery on the extended line of hill adjoining the borough on the east. Rev. Gabriel A. Reichert, the zealous and faithful Lutheran missionary and pastor, elsewhere mentioned, has resided on one of the subdivisions of the Thomas Duncan portion of the manor tract, about one hundred and seventy rods back from the railroad since his return from his pastorate in Philadelphia. Josiah Copley was a resident near the brow of the hill, where he lived many years, when he invented at least one of his modes of navigating our western rivers with steamers in low stages of water. The cottage built some twenty or more years since by the Sibbetts, is a few rods below, which, with eighty-seven acres and fifty perches of land, they conveyed to the late Chambers Orr, who conveyed the same, together with forty-two acres and fifty-two perches of other contiguous land, to Mrs. Emma R. Reichert, wife of Gabriel A. Reichert, Jr., April 6, 1871, for $18,000. It is now called "Reichert Hall." The grounds around it have been tastefully improved. POPULATION. The only census taken since the organization of this borough is that of 1870, by which it appears there were then 316 native and 14 foreign-born inhabitants. The number of taxables in 1876 is 86, from which it is inferred the population now is 395. The assessment list for the same year shows the occupations to be: Laborers, 23; merchants, 3, two of whom do business out of the borough; carpenters, 3; tanners, 3; coopers, 2; teamsters, 2; brickmakers, 2; teacher, 1; cabinet-maker, 1; plasterer, 1; shoemaker, 1; blacksmith, 1; coaldigger, 1; butcher, 1; refiner, 1. POSTOFFICE. The Manorville postoffice was established January 27, 1864, and James Cunningham was the first and he is the present postmaster. GEOLOGICAL. Near the mouth of Crooked Creek, the Freeport limestone is within fifty feet of the Allegheny river. A cutting on the railroad, one-third of a mile below the rolling-mill, which is in the lower part of Kittanning borough, well exposes the small coalbed next above the Kittanning seam, from 9 to 18 inches thick, divided in the middle by a thin band of slate, immediately underlaid by a band of impure, somewhat indurated, fireclay, 2 to 10 feet thick, through which are scattered nodules of rough iron ore. Beneath the fireclay is an irregularly stratified mass of highly micaceous sandstone, the natural color of which is blue, but when weathered is chiefly light olive-green and reddish brown, containing regularly marked vegetable forms, over which are dark-blue shales, 25 feet thick, weathering rusty brown, in some places curiously distorted, become more compact and silicious toward the top, and a thin layer of bituminous shale and coaly matter is interstratified with the mass-dip southwest 20 to 30. About thirty feet above those small coalbeds, on the Buffington land, is another coalbed, 4 feet thick when regular, but which in some places in the mines thins away to a mere streak. Thirty feet above it the Freeport limestone is nearly six feet thick; ten or fifteen feet above this the upper Freeport bed, 3 feet thick, contains 24 feet of available coal. The strata rise northwest. The following imperfect section was partially leveled in the little ravine below the borough of Kittanning: Green shale, 2 feet; light blue shale, 21 feet; upper Freeport coal, 5 feet; unknown, 6 feet; Freeport limestone in fragments; unknown (shale, etc.), 40 feet; brownish-gray slaty standstone, 81 feet; blue and gray shale (6 to 8 feet exposed), 251 feet; coal, 4 inches; shale, brown, passing into sandstone, 5 feet; gray slate, 3 feet; unknown (shale), 29 feet; shale, 5 feet; arenaceous shale, 41 feet; sandstone, white above, slaty below, 14 feet; blue slate, 3 feet; bed of sandstone, 4 to 6 inches thick, immediately upon the Kittanning coal, 3 feet; unknown, 24 feet to the road, and 15 feet more to the river, at low water. (First geological survey of Pennsylvania.) The small coalbed above specified as being next above the Kittanning seam, from 9 to 18 inches thick, because of its insignificant size was not known to be persistent throughout the country, as has been shown in the course of the second geological survey. It has been proven by J. C. White, who has charge of the district composed of Beaver, North Allegheny and South Butler, not only to be persistent but to increase in bulk westward, culminating as the great Darlington cannel coalbed, in Beaver county. It has also been found by Franklin Platt, another member of the geological corps, as a large and workable bed throughout Jefferson and Clearfield counties, and he has traced 344 EDUCATIONAL. ships. A permanent organization was effected at the evening session by electing Rev. John Dickey, president; Rev. John Reddick, Rev. Gabriel Adam Reichert, Rev. Henry Koch, Rev. John Core, Thos. Smullen, and Samuel Green, vice-presidents; Thos. Hamilton, Simon Torney, Philip Mechling, Frederick Rohrer, Robert Brown, Sr., Samuel Matthews, James Green, John Monroe, James Brown, Jr., David Johnston, Alexander Colwell, and James E. Brown, managers. The committees for the several townships were also appointed. The society was made auxiliary to the Philadelphia Bible Society. The executive committee, D. Phelps, secretary, issued a circular November 17, 1841, inviting the aid of individuals in each township to distribute Bibles and Testaments, and visit each family in their respective districts. Application was directed to be made to Alexander Colwell before the 13th, and to enter upon their duties on December 27. Clergymen and church officers of all denominations were solicited to co-operate. The committee desired to ascertain the names of individuals in central situations who would be willing to keep depositories of Bibles and Testaments for the supply of their respective neighborhoods. That society still exists. A special effort, the centennial year, to see that every family in this county is supplied with the Bible. EDUCATIONAL. The only educational facilities, except those afforded by the Kittanning academy, until after the passage of the act of Assembly of 1834 establishing a system of free schools, were afforded by pay or subscription schools, sparsely located, kept in log shanties in some places, and in octagonal log houses built expressly for school purposes, in other places, with puncheon floors, primitive desks and seats, and long openings in the walls, a little above the desks, which were attached to the walls, covered with greased paper for windows. Spelling, reading, writing and arithmetic-the last-named in many instances to a limited extentwere about all that was taught in most of those schools. The teachers were generally men of mature age, of severe aspect and discipline. At least some of them were "Irish schoolmasters." The teacher in those pristine days, in most instances, might be described as Goldsmith describes the teacher of the village school: "A man severe he was, and stern to view. * 5 * * 5 * Well had the boding tremblers learned to trace The day's disasters in his morning face; Full well they laughed with counterfeited glee At all his jokes, for many a joke had he; Full well the busy whisper, circling round. Conveyed the dismal tidings when he frown'd, 5 * 5 * * * While words of learned length and thundering sound Amazed the rustics ranged around; And still they gazed, and still the wonder grew, That one small head could carry all he knew. But past is all his fame. The very spot Where many a time he triumph'd, is forgot." Several academies were founded in later years, which will be elsewhere noticed. Among the county expenses for 1828 is the sum of $9.53 for teaching poor children. The mixed system of paying tuition by those who were able to pay, and the county paying it for those who were unable to pay, proved to be impracticable, and was rarely of any avail to those for whose benefit it was designed, on account of their strong and natural repugnance to attending school as dependents, unlike their wealthier companions, on public charity for acquiring an education. The free-school system placed all on an equal footing, and it has steadily progressed in accomplishing its beneficent purpose. When it was optional with each school district - i. e., borough or township - whether it would accept the system' or not, it was readily accepted by all the districts in this county. As required by the act of April 1, 1834, the county commissioners and the delegates appointed by the several boards of school directors convened in the court-house on Tuesday, November 4, 1834. The number of delegates present was eleven. The Plum Creek district, and that consisting then of Kittanning borough and township, were not represented. On the question: "Will the convention agree to appropriate for the establishment and support of common schools? " the vote was: Yeas-Jacob Mechling, Franklin township; James Adams, Sugar Creek township; George Means, Toby township; Samuel Marshall, Perry township; John Calhoun, Wayne township; Jacob McFadden, Clarion township; Sherman Bills, Kiskiminetas township, and James McCall, Freeport. Nays - John Hidley, Red Bank township, and James Hindman,, Franklin township. A resolution was passed providing that a tax of $1,920.18, or double the amount of the quota appropriated by the state, should be appropriated for that year. In the convention held on Monday, November 2, 1836, the vote to appropriate for the support of common schools was unanimous. The districts of Allegheny, Freeport, and Perry were not represented. Double the amount of state appropriation to this county was ordered to be levied. In 1840 there were fourteen school districts and MANOR TOWNSHIP. it into Cambria county. It is properly called the "Upper Kittanning coal" in the Allegheny valley series, and the "Darlington Cannel" in Beaver county, because "at Darlington the bed seems to acquire its maximum size and importance." (Second geological survey, Pennsylvania, Q.) Levels above tide: Opposite Rosston station, 788.4 feet; opposite mile post, 782.5 feet; opposite mile post, 789.8 feet; opposite mile post, 797.6 feet;. opposite Manorville station, 796.9 feet; bench mark on outside corner of south wall of culvert No. 42, 794.4 feet; opposite mile post, 43 miles above Pittsburgh, 804.7 feet. (Ibid, N.) On May 31, 1871, Andrew J. Dull leased from William M. Bailey and several other heirs of the late Richard Bailey the exclusive right to operate for and remove all the limestone and iron ore, etc., on 93 acres, being those heirs' purparts, for the term of twenty years, on condition that he would commence operations on or before April 1, 1872, and pay the lessors eight cents a ton for all the limestone which he should remove therefrom. On March 27, 1873, he took a similar lease from David Spencer for twenty acres of his land contiguous to the Bailey premises, but higher up Fort run, at six cents a ton for limestone. Operations under the Bailey lease were commenced in February, 1872, and, of course, later under the Spencer lease. The following facts were obtained from Joseph R. Smith, the superintendent of the quarry and the store connected with it: The stone quarried thus far is the Freeport limestone, interstratified with three layers of slate, each about twelve inches thick. The aggregate thickness of the three layers of limestone is about fifteen feet. The number of employes for the first year and a half after the quarrying was begun was 135, forty of whom were colored men who were formerly slaves in the Shenandoah valley, Virginia. The average number of employes since then has been about seventy-five. The quantity of limestone annually quarried and shipped by the Allegheny Valley Railroad to Pittsburgh until 1876 has been 48,000 tons. The pay-rolls show that during the same period the amount paid for wages monthly has been $4,000, and an equal amount for freight. From 1872 till 1875 the amount paid as freight from this quarry exceeded the amount received by the Allegheny Valley Railroad as freight from all sources during the first three years after it began to be operated. This limestone is used for fluxing in the manufacture of iron. The quarrying thus far has been along the course of the right-hand bank of Fort run, a distance of about 200 rods up that run from the face of the hill looking toward the Allegheny river. A branch railroad, intersecting the Allegheny Valley road about twenty-five rods below Fort run, has been constructed along the valley of that run, a distance of 275 rods, including the length of a branch to that branch, which is about twenty-five rods, over which the limestone is transported, without transshipment, en route to Pittsburgh. The Baileys formerly operated a kiln on a limited scale, in which limestone from that vein was burned. It was a draw-kiln. The lime was used as a fertilizer and for building. Seven thousand bushels were sold in one summer for the latter purpose in Kittanning, besides a considerable quantity for both purposes in the surrounding country. 345 CHAPTER XV. MAHONING. Organized in 1851 from Territory in Madison, Pine, Wayne and Red Bank Townships-Boundaries -First Election-Mahoning Creek Navigation Company-The Early Settlers and First Owners of the Land Tracts -Transfers - Village of Texas, now Oakland -Joint Stock Company - Methodist Episcopal Church - Baptist Church- Brethren in Christ Congregation- Oakland Classical and Normal Institute-Red Bank Cannel Coal and Iron Company- Dunkard Church -- Mahoning Furnace - Casper Nulf and Wife, Cente narians-German Reformed and Lutheran Churches -Putneyville - Building Flatboats - Methodist Epis copal Church - United Presbyterian Church - Firebrick Works - Population -Educational and Other Statistics of the Township - Geology. THE petition of divers inhabitants of Madi son, Pine, Wayne and Red Bank townships having been presented to the court of quarter sessions of this county, December 19, 1849, praying for the erection of a new township out of parts of the above-mentioned ones, James Stewart, William Kirkpatrick and Joseph Lowry were, December 21, appointed viewers, to whom the usual order was issued May 14, 1850, which was not executed. A second petition, therefore, was presented December 17, held over March 7, and March 21, 1851, the court appointed William Kirkpatrick, James Stewart and Archibald Glenn viewers. Their report, favoring the granting of the prayer of the petitioners, was presented and read June 9, and confirmed September 20, 1851, and the new township was then organized and christened Mahoning. Omitting a tedious, formidable number of courses and distances, its boundaries or outlines, as designated in the report of the viewers and confirmed by the court, are: Beginning below Olney furnace, on Mahoning creek, at the point where the new line* between Wayne and Red Bank townships strikes the creek; thence down the Mahoning to a point opposite the mouth of Pine run; thence by various courses and distances northwesterly to a white oak; thence northerly along a line dividing school districts, i. e., sub-districts, as they then were, along the eastern boundary of Robert Morrison's land; thence northwesterly to the Red Bank creek, at or near the west end of the Fort Smith tract; thence along the left bank of Red Bank creek, around its big bend to a point opposite the mouth of Leatherwood creek; thence southwesterly to "a school district line;" thence along that line passing George Nulf's improvement, "taking a section off Madison township," to a black oak; thence * See sketch of Wayne township. southeasterly to the Mahoning creek; thence down the same, "taking a section off Pine township," to a hemlock, the corner of George Reedy's land; thence southwesterly, northeasterly and northwesterly to the corner of Pine and Wayne townships, as it stood before the division; thence southeasterly to a white oak by the roadside; thence northeasterly and southwesterly to the place of beginning, "containing about twenty-five square miles." At the first township election the following officers were elected: Judge of election, William R. Hamilton; inspectors of election, John Sheridan, John McCauley; assessor, Samuel Ferguson; assistant assessors, John A. Colwell, Alexander Cathcart; supervisors, William Smullin, Thomas Buzzard; township clerk, Milton Osbein; township auditors, David Putney three years, R. C. Williamson two years, John Sheridan one year; school directors, J. W. Powell and J. J. Wich three years, James Stockdill and John Shoemaker two years, James McLaw and Thomas Buzzard one year; overseers of the poor, Peter Shoemaker and John Duff; justice of the peace, James T. Putney; constable, Absalom Smullin. This township was, of course, named from Mahoning creek, which skirts its southeastern, and, with its deep bends, flows through its southern, part. The meaning of Mahoning, as elsewhere given,* is a stream flowing from or near a lick. By the act of assembly, March 21, 1808, this creek was declared to be a public highway for the passage of rafts, boats and other vessels, from its confluence with the Allegheny river to the mouth of Canoe creek in Indiana county. That act authorizes the inhabitants along its banks, and others desirous of using it for navigation, to re *See sketch of Red Bank township. MAHONING TOWNSHIP. move all natural and artificial obstructions in it, except dams for mills and other waterworks, and to erect slopes at the mill and other dams, which must be so constructed as not to injure the works of such dams. Any person owning or possessing lands along this stream has the liberty to construct dams across it, subject, however, to the restrictions and provisions of the general act authorizing the riparian owners to erect dams for mills on navigable streams. William Travis and Joseph Marshall were appointed to superintend the expenditure of $800 for the improvement of this stream, authorized by the act of March 24, 1817, to whom an order for their services for $201 was issued by the commissioners of this county December 23, 1818. The erection of the first bridge across it was at a point a short distance above its mouth, on the Olean road, which was granted to John Weld June 19, 1822, at $500. Vestiges of its southern abutment are still visible. By the act of assembly, April 22, 1858, the Mahoning Navigation Company was incorporated, and Henry Brown, Stacy B. Williams, Isaac C. Jordan, Harrison M. Coon and James E. Mitchell were appointed commissioners-for the last-named three William Bell, Charles Kremer and Irvin Gillespie were substituted by the supplement to that act passed April 10, 1863-who were authorized to open books for subscription to the capital stock of the company, and keep them open until $5,000 should be subscribed, but no longer. The par value of each share is $10. The charter officers are one president and four managers, who are to be elected annually. Each stockholder has one vote for each of his shares not exceeding ten, and one for every five shares exceeding ten. The president and managers have the requisite power to make such by-laws and regulations not inconsistent with the constitution and laws of the United States and of this state. Besides the usual powers conferred upon such corporations, the special ones conferred upon the president and managers of this company are to clean and clear the Mahoning, Canoe, Big Run Stump, and East branch creeks from all rocks, bars and other obstructions; to erect dams and locks, to bracket and regulate and alter the dams that were then and to be thereafter erected in these streams, so that no injury be done to the water power of the owners; to control their waters by bracket or otherwise for the purpose of navigation; to levy tolls not exceeding one and one-fourth cent for each five miles run upon the Mahoning, and by the supplementary act of April 10, 1863, on the other above-mentioned streams, per thousand feet of boards or other sawed stuff; one and one-fourth cent for every fifty feet, lineal measure, of square or other timber; the same per foot of every boat passing down these creeks, to be collected at their mouths, and at such other points along these streams as may be necessary; and, besides various other specified things, including the levying of tolls upon logs, viz., twenty-five cents per hundred logs for every five miles they are driven down these streams, generally to do all things necessary for their safe navigation. Any person who runs his rafts, boats, logs and other craft past a collector's office without paying his toll is subject to a fine of five dollars. The tolls are liens upon the property on which they are assessed and levied, into whosesoever hands it may come. Among other provisions is this: Whenever the dividends arising from the tolls shall in gross equal the amount of stock actually subscribed, clear of all expenses, and ten per centum per annum, the tolls shall be reduced so as to be only sufficient for the improvement of these streams. The act of assembly, April 2, 1869, declares the Mahoning creek to be a navigable stream and public highway for all kinds of crafts that can navigate it, both up and down, from its mouth to the Mahoning furnace or iron works. It also authorizes John A. Colwell to make, at his own expense, a towingpath for horses to travel on along this stream between those two points, for the purpose of towing boats laden with metal or merchandise. When thus made, it is to be open for public use, free of expense or toll to him. He has the right, on the same conditions, to improve the bed of the creek by removing stone and widening the channel. He is to pay the owner of the land for the right of way for the towing-path such an equivalent as may be agreed upon between him and them, but if they cannot agree, the damages are to be assessed by three persons " appointed by the courts," in the same manner as damages are assessed for lands taken for public roads in this county; and in case of a failure to agree, the owners of land along the route of the towing-path shall not delay the making of it, but he is authorized to tender them a bond for the payment of such damages as may be legally assessed, and thereupon he shall proceed to make the towing-path. The portion of "Quito " in this township, elsewhere mentioned as conveyed by Isaac Cruse to George Weinberg, was successively owned by William Benton, Abraham Mohney, Rev. John G. Young, who conveyed 115 acres, April 26, 1867, to Moses Stahliman for $2,600. Other portions of "Quito" in this township are now owned chiefly 347 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. by John A. Colwell, Elias and John Cunselman and William Procious and Blinker & Jones, to the latter of whom and another Craig conveyed 272 acres and 130 perches, June 2, 1874, for $12,500, excepting the half acre on which schoolhouse No. 6 is situated. John McClelland and his family occupied a log house on this parcel in the winter of 1845-6. On one of the severely cold nights of that winter, the house-it was a log one-caught fire in the upper part from, it was supposed, the chimney, which was constructed of wooden slats and daubing of clay. The four children, sound asleep in the loft, were consumed by the flames, which had enveloped them before they were aware of their peril. The father and mother were not awakened until the devouring element had nearly eaught them asleep on the first floor, from which they had barely time to escape with their lives in their nightclothes through a window near their bed. Frederick Mohney was the first one who discovered the fire. He hastened to it, and found Mrs. McClelland trying to keep from freezing by walking to and fro near the burning cabin, and her husband sitting on a log near by sadly moaning. When asked why he moaned so, he pointed to the flames, and with heart-rending anguish, said: "There is my all-my four boys!" The population in this region was then sparse, but as the painful intelligence of their terrible calamity spread, contributions of clothing, provisions and other necessaries flowed in upon them, and thus they were made as comfortable as that intensely afflictive bereavement would permit. They soon afterward removed to Craigsville, in the western part of this county, where he for several years followed his trade of miller. In 1867, he received the nomination as republican candidate for county treasurer, but died before the election. Samuel W. Hamilton, of Mahoning township was nominated and elected. There is a larger area of "Lurgan' " than of either "Quito" or No. 2903 in this township. That parcel of it conveyed by Stephen B. Young to Samuel S. Harrison and Hugh Campbell was by them conveyed, March 3, 1850, toWilliam Horn, who conveyed 50 acres, May 10, 1856, to Elias Cunselman for $800. A considerable portion of the parcel conveyed by Stephen B. Young to Robert Morrison is now owned by the latter's son, James H., and a portion by another son, Harvey Morrison, besides the 100 acres conveyed by Alexander Cathcart, April 7, 1863, to D. Slade for $1,000. The parcel containing 310 acres and 116 perches which Young conveyed to Henry D. Foster, December 1, 1840, for $2,000, the latter conveyed to Mrs. Elizabeth Hewett, September 6, 1843, for $3,000, who conveyed 100 acres and 50 perches thereof to her son, Robert Ferguson, June 6, 1854, for $1 and the annual payment to her during her life of $20, and the residue she divided between her other son, Samuel Ferguson, and her son-inlaw, John Duff, or his wife. The Fergusons settled here 1844, and Duff in 1845. The parcel, 343 acres and 108 perches, purchased by Campbell, was conveyed by him to Alexander Colwell, June 7, 1849, for $1,000, which was devised to and is retained by his daughter, Mrs. Harriet H. Calhoun. Of the parcel contiguous to "Lurgan" on the south, No. 2903, William Hamilton conveyed 117 acres and 19 perches to Alexander Colwell, May 19, 1843, for $110, which he also devised to Mrs. Calhoun. William R. Hamilton conveyed 225 acres and 142 perches to John A. Colwell & Co., February 2, 1854, for $1,000, the other portions remaining as noticed in the sketch of Red Bank township. Another parcel of it became vested in Thomas McConnell, who conveyed one-half of it to James E. Brown, so that they are its present joint owners. Camp run, formed by tributaries from the northeast and northwest, traverses this tract and empties into the Mahoning creek at the foot of the deep bend northeast from Putneyville. It is so named from an Indian camp that existed on the bottom between the mouth of this run and that of Little Mud Lick, before and for a short time after the beginning of this century. Some of the early white settlers, Robert Cathcart and others, used to state that some of the Indians who occupied that camp were still there after they came here. About 125 rods east of the junction of these tributaries to Camp run is a subterranean burnt district, containing about three acres, judging from the red color of the surface above it. The roof of the cavity, caused by the burning of the coal, appears to be two or three feet thick, as it extends under the hill. The roof appears to have been slate, fireclay and other matter, as appears from cemented portions of it. At least some of the coal is of two kinds -block coal, an analysis of which is elsewhere given, and bituminous, closely united without slate or any other matter between them - the former about eleven and the latter four feet thick. The depth of the ashes on the floor or at the bottom of the cavity is from three to four feet. Their color is similar to that of lime. The block coal is very easily ignited, and the subterranean ignition in this instance may have originated from some fire kindled by the Indians who occupied that camp. The trees on the surface appear to have grown up since the extinguishment of the subterranean fire. 348 MAHONING TOWNSHIP. One of them, near the opening, is about eighteen inches in diameter. The earliest permanent white settlers on 2903 were William R. Hamilton and John Kuhn. It is still sparsely inhabited. Adjoining "Lurgan " on the west was the upper or northeastern portion of a large vacant tract, in the northern part of which, as Lawson & Orr's map of original tracts indicates, Jacob Hettrick settled as early as 1808, for hlie was assessed that year with 50 acres at $37-his kind of title being "improvement." Next south of that parcel was the one occupied under an "improvement" right by Robert Cathcart, who must have settled on it in or before 1805, as he was first assessed in 1806 with 330 acres, one horse and three cattle, at $320. His two-story red house, the first frame one in this section, was for many years one among the few for several miles around. The commissioners of this county granted him an order, March 20, 1810, for $16 for killing two panthers. Before his death - June 4, 1846-which occurred in the fore part of August, 1847, he had agreed to sell 51 acres and 31 perches of his land to John A. Colwell & Co., which his executors conveyed to them, March 23, 4849, for $255. They also conveyed 15 acres to his son, Alexander Cathcart, March 19, 1851, for $225, in pursuance of an agreement made in that decedent's lifetime. The rest of his estate, real, personal and "merchandise," hlie devised and bequeathed to his children. Contiguous to the above-mentioned parcels of that vacant land on the west, including the one covered by Alexander Catheart's warrant, was another one, on which John Moorehead, who came from Franklin county, Pennsylvania, settled, probably in 1807, was first assessed with 100 acres, "improvement," two horses and two cattle, at $88, in 1808, and was somewhat notable in those early times as a moneyed man. He obtained a warrant, No. 6029, for 438 acres and 47 perches, March 20, 1811, which, mainly, by his will, registered March 19, 1839, he devised to his sons Isaac and Joseph, to be divided by them "according to the division made by Robert Richards," which they did by conveyances to each other, February 5,1848, the patent for the same having been granted to them, June 30, 1844. Isaac took the eastern purpart, containing 194 acres and 117 perches, and Joseph the western, 239 acres and 44 perches. Several town lots were laid out on each side of the Anderson Creek road in the southern part of Joseph's purpart, surveyed by J. E. Meredith probably in Febmruary, 1848. Joseph Moorehead conveyed 176 acres of the southern portion of his purpart along 22 the northwestein side of the Anderson Creek road, to William R. Hamilton, March 14, 1854, for $3,000, who laid out a number of lots, surveyed by John Steele, consisting of a part of the town of Texas, now Oakland, within the limits of which there were a very few residents in 1848. The assessment list of Red Bank township for 1850 shows that this town or village then contained eight taxables, including one stonemason and one bricklayer, and a total valuation of real and personal property and occupations amounting to $772. All of the Hamilton lots are on the northwestern side of the Main street, as the Anderson Creek road is here called, between the Brethren in Christ Church and the eastern line of the Lamberson land, about eleven rods east of the road which intersects Main street and extends thence northwesterly across Red Bank creek, about 350 rods below the point where the Rockport road crosses it. The lots west of that road were laid out on Isaac Lamberson's land, and those on the southeastern side of that street and east of that road are parcels of the Joseph Moorehead purpart. For the purpose of showing the general value of these town lots, the following conveyances are here given, as found in the public records: Wm. R. Hamilton to Jane Hettrich, May 7, 1858, lots Nos. 7 and 8 for $90; to Mary Reese, March 4, 1859, lot No. 5, $68.33; to Mahoning school district, same day, lot No. 10, for $40, on which the present frame, painted schoolhouse was erected; to Christian Reesman, April 1, 1861, lot No. 2, $50; to Lewis W. Corbett, December 12, 1864, lots Nos. 6, 7, 10, $145. Lot No. 1 appears to have been purchased by Henry Musser, and by sheriff's sale and other transfers became vested in Hamilton, Shoemaker & Co., who conveyed it to Joseph T. Shoemaker, June 19, 1863, for $25. On this lot was located the storehouse of the Joint Stock Company of Oakland, or the Oakland Company trading store. The organization of this company was effected in the summer of 1856, and it went into operation under a constitution signed by John Steel, Samuel Ferguson, John Shoemaker and William R. Hamilton, September 26 of the last-mentioned year, and was recorded in the recorder's office of this county, March 10, 1858. Forty-seven persons, five of whom were females, became stockholders, their respective number of shares varying from one to six, amounting to $5,200. The constitution contained stringent and prudential provisions for starting and managing the business of this coMnpany, which was not to be dissolved before 1862. A joint stock store was opened and supervised by three directors, prudent, conscientious men, cho'sen 349 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. by the stockholders. Its business, however, after a continuance of several years, was not a financial success, and in winding it up there was incipient litigation, which was finally checked. Plots of the Lamberson lots were made by Jonathan E. Meredith in February, 1848, and March, 1849, and another one by David Putney, March 19, 1868. Some of them were sold thus: To Joseph W. Moorehead, May 17, 1869, 19,200 square feet of lots 13 and 14, for $205, and 5,152 square feet of lot 14, April 26, 1871, for $52; to P. W. Shoemaker, April 28, 1875, the portion added to lot 9, for $158. Lamberson conveyed 2,970 square feet on the south side of Main street and about fifteen rods nearly west from the angle in this street, to the trustees of the Methodist Episcopal church of Oakland, September 19, 1874, for $10, on which, in that year, was erected the present church edifice, frame, 30X40 feet, one story, fifteen feet. The writer has not ascertained when this church was organized. It is without regular classleaders, and enjoys preaching, generally, only once in two weeks. The old Oakland schoolhouse, frame, unpainted, was situated northwesterly from this lot, on the opposite side of the Anderson creek road. The lots onil the southeastern side of Main street were surveyed by Jonathan E. Meredith probably in 1848-9, and belonged originally to the Joseph Moorehead purpart (except the one owned by David Jones), which, or a considerable portion of which, appear by recitals in some of the conveyances to have been purchased of Moorehead by D. and J. Baughman. As a number of those conveyances are not recorded, so full a statement of the prices for which these lots were sold as is desirable cannot be here given. The one now occupied by Dr. W. S. Hosack, containing about one-quarter of an acre, appears to have been owned by Stephen Norris, which was conveyed by Sheriff Kelly to Wm. R. Hamilton, June 3, 1857, for $30, by whom it was conveyed to Samuel McGary, May 10, 1858, for $92, who, the same day, conveyed it to James A. Truitt for $274.50. Adjoining the road from Mahoning furnace on the east was a parcel containing 2 acres and 55 perches, consisting partly of the George Nulf tract, which, with other contiguous land, became vested in Samuel Copenhauer, who conveyed to John Carson, and he to John and James Murphy. They conveyed these 2 acres and 55 perches to Mary Reece, March 27, 1855, for $275, of which she conveyed 1I acre and 32 perches to Joseph T. Shoemaker, February 2, 1874, for $65. George C. Nulf conveyed 85 perches to Mrs. Reece March 25, 1857, for $35. Along both sides of the road from Mahoning furnace and along the southeastern side of Main street, contiguous in part to the Norris lot, was a parcel containing 12 acres and 138 perches, the northern part of which Moorehead conveyed to Joseph Baughman, and Nulf the southern part to Samuel Copenhauer; the Moorehead and Nulf portions having thus became vested in Copenhauer, he conveyed the entire parcel, February 12, 1848, to John Carson, and he to Joseph WV. Powell, March 8; Powell to George C. Nulf, DI)ecember 8, 1852; Nulf to George Reesman, January 21, 1859; Reesman to John McCauley, November 18, and McCauley to James A. Truitt,. January 30, 1860, for $420, on which Truitt resides, and where he has had his store and kept the Oakland postoffice for several years, he having been the deputy and the postmaster since about 1848. This office was established in 1841, and was kept elsewhere until about 1846. George Nulf kept a hotel on this parcel from about 1847 until the building thus occupied was burned in 18-. Truitt started his tannery about 50 rods south of Main street, on the eastern side of the road from Mahoning furnace, on this parcel in 1860. The present church edifice of the Baptist Congregation, frame, 36X56 feet, two stories, the first twelve and the second sixteen feet in the clear, which cost $5,000, was erected on this parcel in 1874, adjacent to which is the parsonage.* This church was organized April 10, 1837, by Rev. Thomas Wilson, and worshiped elsewhere until the completion of this edifice. It was incorporated by the court of common pleas of this county September 13, 1876, its corporate name being the "Red Bank Baptist Church of Oakland." The number of its members is sixty, and of Sabbath-school scholars seventy-five. A union Sabbath school, with different officers, which most of the scholars of the Baptist school attend, is held, at a different hour, in this edifice, except in the winter. Lot No. 1 was conveyed by John Heighhold, who purchased it at sheriff's sale, to Mary Reece October 3, 1856, for $75, and the lot now owned by Julia Taylor, contiguous to the church lot, was conveyed to her by Truitt, November 23, 1867, for $75. The Brethren in Christ congregation have a church edifice at the northeastern extremity of this village, on Peter Shoemaker's land, frame, 31 X 41 feet, one story. It formerly belonged to the Methodist congregation, and was erected in 1844 on that part of the Bryan lands conveyed to William Smullin, and was purchased by Peter Shoemaker in 1872, *This lot, 12,480 square feet, was conveyed by James A. Truitt to this church, August 1, 1877, for $1. 350 MAHONING TOWNSHIP. taken down, removed to its present site, and reconstructed just as it was before its removal. This church was organized prior to 1846, and worshiped elsewhere until the present edifice was provided. It has been so carefully fostered by Peter Shoemaker and some of his kindred that it has frequently been called "Shoemaker's church." Its membership is 67, but is at present without a resident minister. The educational facilities of this village have been thus far those afforded by the public school.* I)r. W. S. Hosack is the first resident physician of Oakland. He settled here in 1874. The second one is Dr. P. W. Shoemaker, who settled here in 1875. The separate assessment list of Oakland for 1876 shows its number of taxables to be 55; laborers, 26; carpenters, 7; single men, 3; merchants, 2; physicians, 2; shoemaker, 1; plasterer, 1; schoolteacher, 1; farmer, 1; artist, 1; pauper, 1; landlord, 1. Before the completion of the Allegheny Valley and Low Grade railroads, when the travel and hauling of freight along this route were considerable, there were two hotels, which were reasonably well patronized. Adjoining the Isaac Moorehead purpart of the John Moorehead tract on:the east was another part of the vacant land which was covered by the warrant to Alexander Cathcart, dated February 22, to whom the patent was granted May 29, 1836. No important transfers of any of this tract occurred until January 15, 1870, when Cathcart's two parcels (including the one conveyed to him by his father's executors), aggregating 399 acres and 96 perches (exclusive of the "Gumbert lot," which had been previously conveyed to James E. Brown), to James H. Mayo for $14,095. On the same day Jacob Anthony conveyed to Mayo 50 acres and 32 perches, part of the Isaac Moorehead purpart, and 50 acres conveyed to him by Philip Shoemaker, guardian of the minor children of Jos. Shoemaker, for $3,000; and Philip Shoemaker to same 50 acres and 32 perches, which he had purchased from Alexander Colwell, and 35 acres, which he had purchased at sheriff's sale for $3,400. Mayo purchased these lands for theR ed Bank Cannel Coal & Iron Company, of which hlie was a member. This company commenced operations in six or seven weeks after those purchases were made, but little was done, except to prepare for shipping their coal, when rail * The Oakland Classical and Normal Institute, under the princi palship of Lebbens J. Shoemaker, A. B., a graduate of Princeton College, was opened in the first story of the Baptist church, April 11, 1877, in which instruction is given in the common and higher Eng lish branches and the Greek and Latin languages. The average num ber of pupils, male and female, is sixty-eight, and ot those pursuing the higher English branches and Greek and Latin is sixteen. A lit crary society for improvement in composition and speaking, con ducted by the students, is connected with this institution. road facilities should be afforded. It was incorporated in accordance with the general act of assembly, passed April 21, 1854, to enable joint owners, tenants in common, and adjoining owners of mineral lands to manage and develop the mineral resources in their lands. The charter members were Chester Snow, of Harwick; Jonathan Higgins, Orleans; J. K. Butler, Dennisport; Francis Childs, Charlestown; Charles B. Lane, Boston; George W. Lobdell, Mettapoisett, Massachusetts; and James H. Mayo, Ridgeway, Pennsylvania. Their certificate or application for a charter set forth, among other things, the objects of the company to be, the developing of their lands, and the mining, preparing for and the carrying to market of the coal, iron, fire-clay and other minerals and mineral products which might be found in and under their lands; to construct roads, railroads on their lands; to erect dwelling-houses and other necessary buildings; to introduce all necessary machinery for raising, preparing their minerals for and removing them to market, and to make all other improvements preparatory to leasing their lands; that their land was divided into 5,000 shares, the par value of each $100; and that each of the above-mentioned members owned 625 shares. F. Carroll Brewster, then the attorney-general of this state, having examined and considered their certificate or application, certified, January 24, 1871, that it was properly drawn and signed, and the same was duly recorded, February 14, in Deed Book No. 39, page 221, inthe recorder's office of this county. The writer has ascertained these additional facts from a communication of A. S. R. Richards, one of the company's clerks: "This company now owns nearly 2,000 acres of land in fee simple, most of which is well adapted to agriculture, affording all the feed necessary for their stock and a surplus for sale. The local name of the colliery, which is a mile and a quarter in an airline northeast of Oakland, is' Bostonia.' The first shipment of their coal east was in June, 1873, just after the opening of the Low Grade division of the Allegheny Valley Railroad. There are five workable veins of coal on this com pany's property-an excellent gas coal known as the Red Bank' Orrel,' which is extensively mined, and shipped to gas companies in Northern and Eastern New York, northern part of this state, to Canada and elsewhere. Veins 2, 3, 4 have not yet been worked; vein 5 is cannel, the largest in the United States, and which is claimed to be superior to the Scotch and but little inferior to the English cannel, large quantities of which are shipped to Boston, Philadelphia and New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Michigan and Canada, where it is used as fuel in 351 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. grates and stoves in dwelling-houses and to gas companies within a radius of 500 miles, by which it is used as an'enricher.' The company's extensive deposits of iron ore, limestone and other minerals remain as yet comparatively intact, awaiting their demand hereafter for manufacturing purposes in their native territory. When the vein of coal already opened is worked to its full capacity, the daily shipments from it reach 250 tons, requiring the services of sixty miners, three inside and two outside drivers, two inside and four outside laborers, one blacksmith, one engineer, one weighmaster, one stableman, one inside foreman, one clerk and one manager, in all about seventy eight employds on an average, but sometimes numbering 125. All the employds are paid in full on or about the 15th of each month, each monthly disbursement amounting to about $5,000; the colliery is equipped with a locomotive; numerous pit-cars, a large blacksmith and car shop, all the tools necessary for the prosecution of an extensive business; pockets, screens and other appliances to prepare the coal for the varied demands of the market. Connected with these works are about five miles of a track of T iron rail; their capacity is equal to a daily production of 350 tons of coal, and twenty-eight neat and comfortable cottages have been erected for the employes, which are provided with all the modern conveniences, the circumjacent grounds of which are tastefully laid out and beautifully adorned with flowers, shrubbery and fruit-trees. The general depression of business has caused a considerable reduction of the quantity of coal mined at and shipped from this colliery, and all connected with it are eagerly waiting for a general revival of business and consequent increase of the demand for the immense products which this colliery is capable of yielding. In the assessment list of Mahoning township for 1876 is a separate one for this colliery, or cannel coal works, showing this company to be assessed with 1,019 acres of land at $20,980, and with personal property, $550; the number of taxables, 26, and their personal property and occupations, $1,741.50. The 26 taxables are of course that portion of the employes residing at the colliery. The total valuation of the company's and the employes' property and occupations is $23,271.50. James Parker appears to have settled coteinmporaneously with Robert Cathcart (in 1805) on a portion of this vacant land, probably adjacent to the southern line of the latter's tract, with 400 acres of which, and two horses and one cow, $335, hlie appears to have been assessed in 1806. His name appears for the last time on the Red Bank list in 1810, with the same quantity of land, and with one horse and one cow, $306. He and Cathcart occasionally went out together on hunting expeditions, and it may have been on one of these that the latter killed the panthers above mentioned. It used to be related by John Millison, who was an early settler in another part of what is now this township, that on a certain occasion Parker went to a point on the Mahoning, called in those times fhe "Fish-Basket," to obtain some fish. He hitched his mare on the bank or bluff above the creek, which was captured by an Indian while he was getting his fish. When Parker discovered his loss, he made immediate pursuit, recaptured his mare, and remarked: "That young Indian will never steal another horse." That was probably in 1807, as Parker was thereafter assessed with only one horse. The name of Stofel Reighard appears on the map of original tracts as occupying at least a part of the land which Parker seems to have abandoned. His name is on the Red Bank tax list only for the year 1822, when he was assessed with 206 acres. Edward Blakeley settled on the southeastern part of this large tract of vacant land in 1806. He was first assessed in Red Bank township for the next year with 200 acres, "improvement," two horses and two cattle, at $140, and Robert Blakeney with 100 acres, "improvement," and one horse, for 1808, at $58. Both of those parcels appear to have been covered by a warrant to Mrs. Catherine Blakeney in February, 1836. By her will, registered August 1, 1837, she devised the northern part, or "end" as she designates it, on which she and her youngest son, Robert, had resided before her death, to him, and the remainder south of a division line from east to west, to her son James, and her daughters Jane, wife of Jacob Nulf, and Margaret, wife of Samuel Buzzard. The southwestern portion of this southern purpart is skirted by the northern half of the deep northeastern bend in the Mahoning. The northern purpart contained, according to J. E. Meredith's survey, 130 acres and allowance, and the southern one 190 acres and 94 perches. James Blakeney and his sisters conveyed 158 acres and 80 perches of their purpart to Charles Johnston, September 16, 1835, for $300; Johnston, 60 acres and allowance to Christian Shunk, June 29, 1846, for $240; Shunk to A. and J. A. Colwell, 631 acres, April 11, 1848, for $700, of which they conveyed 10 acres and 105 perches to Joseph Shoemaker, December 30, 1856, for $85.25. Johnston conveyed 131 acres to Philip Shoemaker, October 14, 1854, for $850, of which the latter conveyed 7 acres and 27 perches to Joseph Shoemaker, March 5, 1857, 352 MAHONING TOWNSHIP. for $28.67. Philip Shoemaker also purchased-the records do not show either when or for what amount - Robert Blakeney's purpart, a part of which, along "the road leading from Nulf's old fording to McKallip's mill," he conveyed to James and Eli Simmers, July 23, 1855, in 67 acres and 21 perches of which John Shobert had, in 1844, an interest, of which he was divested by sheriff's sale, and of which Jeremiah Bonner became the purchaser for $350, and which hlie conveyed to Peter George, March 10, 1845, for $400. It is described as lying "along the' Hogback road," and adjoining land of George Nulf on the west. One acre and four perches of it was sold by James Simmers to Hannah Simmers, September 6, 1856, for $62. Philip Shoemaker settled on that parcel of these vacant lands north of Blakeney's, probably in 1814, for he was first assessed on the list of Red Bank township the next year, with 400 acres - perhaps the same that had been occupied by James Parker-and two horses, at $400. His cousin, Peter Shoemaker, who, it is said, was his favorite kinsman, settled on the western portion of that parcel probably in 1824. He was first assessed in 1825 on the last-mentioned list with 200 acres and one horse at $421. Hle was a prominent and active member of the Brethren in Christ church, which seceded from the German Baptist, or Dunkard church, of which his brother George was for many years the pastor. A church edifice, brick, about forty feet square, was erected on his land, about 235 rod east of Oakland, in 1846, and was completed in the autumn of 1847. In 1872 the edifice heretofore mentioned, at the northeastern extremity of Oakland, was substituted for this one, which has since been converted into a dwelling-house. Fifty rods north of this brick building is an acre of ground which Philip and Peter Shoemaker conveyed to Alexander Cathcart, Jacob Anthony and William Smullin and their successors, "including a house sometimes occupied as a schoolhouse," "intended as a public buryingground," February 27, 1840, for $5. It is a part of the land included in the patent to Philip Shoemaker, dated May 25, 1827, and in the purpart which he had conveyed to Peter, June 17, 1824. Another portion of these vacant lands lay south of Joseph Moorehead's, west and south of Peter Shoemaker's, and west of the Blakeneys' purparts, on which George Nulf settled, probably, in 1821, when he was assessed with two oxen and one cow at $38; in 1824, with 160 acres; in 1826, with 100 acres, "improvement;" in 1832, with 100 acres, "Mahoning," i. e., on the Mahoning. He obtained a warrant, dated June 12, 1837, on which a patent for 208 acres and 48 perches was granted to John Gebhart, April 11, 1838, for $4.84, the upper or northern part of which was included in the abovementioned conveyance of Nulf to Copenhauer, and which is now owned by Truitt. Nulf conveyed 111 acres of it to Wm. McMillen, March 6, 1848, for $950. John Thorn obtained a warrant for 100 acres of these vacant lands March 6, 1827, and the patent August 7, 1828, 24 acres and 70 perches of which are south and east of the Colwell and Shunk warrant for 33 acres, and north of the Mahoning, and the rest in the northern part of the eastern bend of this creek, which he conveyed to Yost Smith January 25, 1831, for $280, and which the latter's widow and heirs conveyed to Colwell and Shunk September 29, 1845, for $1,300. A small tract of 33 acres and allowance in the southwestern part of these vacant lands, west of the southern purpart of the Blakeney and west of the Thorn-Smith tract, was left vacant after George Nulf had acquired title to his tract, for which a warrant was granted to John A. Colwell and Christian Shunk, April 3, 1845, and which was thereon surveyed to them May 1, by J. E. Meredith, special deputy surveyor. The patent was granted to John A. Colwell March 11, 1847. A narrow strip of it extends across the Mahoning to the northern line of "Pleasant Valley." In the northeastern acute angle formed by the eastern line of this narrow strip and the left bank of the creek, on the southeastern side of the creek, is the site of the Mahoning Furnace, which was erected by Alexander and John A. Colwell in the summer of 1845. It was a steam, cold-blast, charcoal furnace until 1860, when its fuel was changed to coke. It is. ten feet across the bosh by thirty-three feet high, and made in forty-six weeks, in 1856, 4,796 tons of forge metal out of hard blue carbonate, lying on a limestone bed in the coal measures, 100 feet above water level, within the distance of a mile from the stack. Its annual average production has been about 2,000 tonis, and the number of employes 100. The metal is transported in flatboats down the Mahoning creek and Allegheny river, some to Kittanning, but most of it to Pittsburgh. John A. Colwell purchased Shunk's and his wife's interest in this tract and the adjoining ThornSmith one, both containing 133 acres, March 2, 1846, for $8,000, and in the 63 acres of the southern purpart of the Blakeney tract, as above mentioned, April 11, 1848, for $700, those parcels constituting but a small portion of the aggregate quantity of land in this vicinity belonging to the furnace property. The only dwelling-houses within convenient distance when the erection of the furnace 353 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. 120 schools, which were kept open four months in the year. By the general act of 1854 and its supplements each city, borough and township is made a district for school purposes, made subject to one board of directors or control, and causing to be selected, triennially, by the directors of the several school districts in each county except Philadelphia, a suitable person to be appointed (by the superintendent of public instruction) a county superintendent, whose duties are to examine all the applicants for teaching the public or common schools in his county, no applicant being permitted to teach such a school unless he or she has a valid certificate of qualification granted by that officer; to visit all the schools in the county as often as practicable, and perform various other duties prescribed by the school law. The intent of the law requiring teachers to be examined and their schools to be visited by the county superintendent is to exclude from the useful, honorable and responsible vocation of teaching such as are incompetent morally, intellectually, and by the want of proper culture. The number of school districts reported in this county in 1837 was 14; whole number, 61; number then required, 87; average number months taught, 4-; male teachers, 58; female teachers, 10; average salaries of male teachers per month, $17.71; average salaries female teachers per month, $11.61; male scholars, 1,155; female scholars, 1,088; average number in each school, 46T; cost of each per month, 52- cents. In 1850 the number of pupils attending the public schools was 6,477, and the number attending academies and private schools, 135. The number of common schools in this county in 1858 was 199; then still required, 12; average number of months taught, 4.52; male teachers, 163; female teachers, 50; average monthly salaries, male, $24.17; female, $18.18; number of scholars, male, 5,094; female, 4,472; average attendance of scholars, 7,323; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 48 cents. Tax levied: For school purposes, $22,970.26; for building schoolhouses, $5,235.07; total amount levied, $28,205.33. Mills on the dollar for school purposes, 8.72; for building schoolhouses, 3.96; received from state appropriation, $2,654.38; from collectors of school tax, $18,114.60; cost of instruction, $19,358.11; fuel and contingencies, $1,593.22; cost of schoolhouses, viz, purchasing, building, renting, repairing, etc., $5,192.66. In 1876 the whole number of common schools in this county was 261; average number of months taught, 5.9; male teachers, 163; female teachers, 106; average salaries per month of male teachers, $41.12; female, $34.40; scholars, male, 6,730; female, 5,933; average attendance, 8,252; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 76 cents; tax levied for school purposes and building schoolhouses, $75,719.25; received from state appropriation, $10,480.08; from taxes and all other sources, $87,854; total receipts, $98,334.08. Expended: For building, renting and repairing schoolhouses, etc., $22,949.37; teachers' wages, $47,711.68; fuel, fees of collectors, etc., $21,068.53; total expenditures, $91,729.58, being $3,000 less than for 1875. Contribution to Centennial fund, $36.50. Thus it appears by comparison that the interest of and facilities for popular education in this county have progressed with its increase of population and development of material resources. It is a part of the educational history of this county that there was for awhile considerable opposition to the county superintendency on the part of many of the supporters of the common school system. It was at first so strong that the first convention of school directors, May, 1854, fixed the annual compensation of the first county superintendent at the meager sum of $300, some of them thinking, as the writer was informed, that no one would serve for that sum, and that they would thus discharge the duty imposed on them by law of selecting a suitable person and fixing his compensation, and in that way dispense with the superintendent. They did not seem to consider that the law also prescribed that every teacher of common schools must be examined by that officer, and that if any schools in a district should be taught by teachers not having proper certificates there would have been a forfeiture of the state appropriation to the schools of such district, which, for all the districts in the county, amounted to several thousand dollars. The gentleman then selected, Rev. J. A. Campbell, after deliberation, concluded that he could not devote the time, labor and attention which the law required for that compensation, but proposed to accept the position for a year if the amount fixed by the convention would be increased to $400. In order that the school districts of this county might not lose their state appropriations, several citizens-the writer does not remember the names of all of them-pledged the additional hundred dollars, which they paid out of their own pockets, and the first incumbent of the new and to some extent obnoxious office entered upon the discharge of his official duties, in which he continued during the first two years and a part of the third year of the term, teaching part of the time a normal class and preaching to his congregation. At the triennial convention of school directors in HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. was begun were the log one, built by Adam Nulf many years ago, on the opposite side of the creek, and another log one on this side. The latter was used for some time as a boarding-house for the large number of men employed in that erection. The present number of buildings on both sides of the creek is twenty, besides the schoolhouse, built in 1855-6, and used for church purposes, sawmill, coal and coke yards, and 150 rods of rail, or tramway. The partnership in this furnace business between Alexander and John A. Colwell was dissolved by the death of the former in 1868, and since then it has been controlled by the latter. The bridge across the Mahoning at this point was erected in 1847-8 by the furnace company; also the second superstructure. It was afterward declared a county bridge, and the present superstructure was erected at the joint expense of the county and the owners of the furnace. There was still another parcel, a small one, of these vacant lands south of Nulf's, covered by a warrant to Shunk, which became a part of the Furnace property. Contiguous to those vacant lands on the east and southeast was a considerable body of the Bryan lands, for which Arthur Bryan obtained a warrant dated October 20, 1786, which he, in October, 1787, conveyed to George Bryan, and of which, among other lands, the act of assembly, March 17, 1820, as stated in the sketch of Cowanshannock township, authorized partition to be made amniong the latter's heirs, by Robert Orr, Jr., of this county, Thomas Smith and Joseph Spangler, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Within a month after the passage of that act the partition was made, and the instrument evidencing it is dated April 20, and which was recorded May 8, of the same year. It and the accompanying diagram show this tract to have been thus divided into three purparts, each containing 363 acres and 120 perches. The northeastern one, No. 3, was allotted to Francis Bryan, of Albany, New York; the western and central one, No. 2, to George Bryan, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and the southern one, No. 1, to Mary Bryan, probably of Philadelphia. Francis Bryan, by Robert Orr, his attorney-in-fact, conveyed his entire purpart to William Smullin, April 3, 1835, for $1,455, to which he removed about that time, where he has ever since since resided, most of which has been retained by him, and on which substantial improvements have been made. One of the township schoolhouses, erected many years ago, is'at the cross-roads near his homestead, a few rods south of which is the site of a camp-ground where the Methodist denomination of the circumjacent region formerly held their camp-meetings. About 1.843-4 the frame church edifice was erected near that site, which was subsequently removed to Oakland by Peter Shoemaker, and which was the only one used by the Methodists in this township for a period of eight years. Smullin conveyed 103 acres and 115 perches to Henry R. Hamilton, March 13, 1839; hlie to William Hamilton, January 12, 1841; and he to Win. R. Hamilton, April 21, 1843, for $1,237.42, on which he resides and where lihe has established his homestead and made valuable improvements. Hle purchased from Smullen 12 acres and 113 perches, February 12, 1846, for $131.25. An Indian path in old times extended from the run near Wmin. R. Hamilton's house across the Mahoning about forty rods above the mill at Putneyville to the vicinity of Olney Furnace, where it forked-one branch extending to Punxsutawney, and the other via Dayton, and across the north branch of Plum creek near Plumville, Indiana county. George Bryan conveyed his entire purpart to John Smullin, May 16, 1838, for $2,200; he conveyed 265 acres to Samuel Hamilton, April 1, 1845, for $1,584, who devised the same to John J. Hamilton, and he to Joseph K. Hamilton, the present owner, April 16, 1855, for $5,000. Mary Bryan, to whom the southern purpart, No. 1, was allotted, married Thomas Park. After his death she conveyed this entire purpart to George T. Bryan and John McCarter, the latter of Charleston, South Carolina, in trust for Sarah, wife of Jonathan Bryan, which they conveyed to Alexander Colwell, February 17, 1848, for $1,818.75, 100 acres of which he conveyed to Joseph Shoemaker, April 5, 1850, for $800. Other portions of it have not been much, if at all, cultivated. At the northern bend of the Mahoning in the southern part of it was the "Fish-Basket," heretofore mentioned, which was a favorable point for catching fish, and to which the early white settlers and Indians in this region resorted for that purpose. In 1865 a well was drilled here for oil to the depth of 800 or 900 feet, and then abandoned. A large deposit of very strong salt water was found, a few buckets of which having been boiled yielded a large percentage of salt. In the southern part of what is now this township, including what has from early times been called " the Cove," "the Big Cove," "the Mahoning Cove," west of the two deep bends, crossed by a line extending due south from a point about 60 rods east of the mouth of Long Run, on the Red Bank to and across the Mahoning, and east of that 354 WILLIAM FREAME JOHNSTON. [GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA, 1848-52.]1 William Freame Johnston, the third Governor of Pennsylvania under the constitution of 1838, was born at Greensburg, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, November 29, 1808. His pateral ancestors were originally fromnt Annandale, Scotland, where they at one time held valuable estates. The head of the house, Alexander Johnston, however, being killed at the battle of Fontenoy, April 30, 1745, the estate fell into dispute, and finally, through 1political strife, was lost.'fite family then removed to Ireland and settled in County Fermagh, where, in July, 1772, the governor's father, Alexander Johnstonit, was born. He emigrated to Amterica in 1796, and after serving for a time as a surveyor in Western l'ennsylvania, located in Westmoreland county, of which hlie was sheriff when his son, William F., was born. The mother of the governor, Elizabeth Freame, was hborn in Franklin county, l'ennsylvania, in Noveimber, 1781, and was a daughter of William Freamte, a private in the British armiy, who bore arms agaiist the French in America, and afterward accepted the proposition of the English government to remain in this country.'iThe issue of the marriige of Alexanider Jolhn - ston with Elizabeth Freamie was eight sons and two ldautighters. The subject of our sketch wais not the only imember of the faltily who attained exualtedl position. Several of the sons bore themselves gallantly as officers in the Mexican war and the war for the Union. The subject of this sketch hd a limited common school and academic ediucation, but acquiired a great fiunid of genteral informia tion by reading a indl observationi. Hle studied law uinder Major J. i. Alexander, and was adminitted to the bar in May, 1829, when in his twenty-first year. Shortly afterward hlie removed to Armstrong counity, and here hlie engaged in practice, an(l sooni rose to i coim matiding position. Ife was appolinted by Attorney-Gen. Samuel Dlouglas, and subsequently by Attorney-Gen. Lewis, district attor ney for Armstrong county, which office lie held until the expi ration of Gov. Wolf's first term. For several years he repre sented thle county in the lower lih;,use of the legislature, and in 1847 was elected a member of the senate from the district composed of the counties of Armstrong, Indiana, Cambria and Clearfield. " As a legislator, Mr. Johnston," says ait biographer, " was bold and original, not beholden to precedents, and was an acknowledged leader." IDuring the period in which he was in the legislature a great finan cial crisis occurred, and the distress which ensued was extreme. " At this crisis Mr. Johnston came forward with a proposition to issue relief notes, for the payment or funding of which the state pledged its faith. This he advocated with his usual energy and logical acuteness, and though a majority of the legislature was politically opposed to him, it was adopted, and gave instant relief." In 1847 Mr. Johnston was elected president of the senate. By a provision of the constitution-if any vacancy occur by death or otherwise, in the office of governor, the speaker of the senate become the acting executive oflicer-Gov. Shunk resigning on the 9th of July because of ill health, Speaker Johnston became governor. In 1848 he was the Whig nominee for the office, and was elected over Morris Longstreth, after a very sharp and remarkably close contest. Gov. Johnston managed the financial affairs of the commonwealth during his administration in a very creditable manner. One of the subjects which first and most fnlly occupied his attention was the material interests of the commonwealth, and he argued with great ability in his first message for a protective tariff. One work (of lasting and high value which he accomplished was the publication of twenty-eightlarge volumes, knowxvn as the Colonial Records and Pennsylvania Archives, conposed of important papers relating to the most interesting period of state history. Upon retiring from office, after litiling to secure a reelection, Mr. Johnston rettiurnied to Kittanning, engaged in the practice of his profession, and also entered upon an active business life, at diflerent periods being interested in the anufacture of iron, boring for salt, the production of oil from bituiniinous shales, and the refiting of petroleumn. lie was prominent in organizing the Alleghieny Valley Railroad Company, and was its first president. Under his management the road was built from Pittsburgh to Kittaiiing. During the war of the rebellion lie took in active part in organizing troops, atnd superintenildedi tihe construction of the defelnses at l'ittsburgh. lie was appointed iy'resident Andrew Johnson collector of the port of l'Phila(tlelphia, the duties of whicih otice hlie disceltrged for several months, hut through the hostility of a majority of the senate to the President, he was rejccted by tliit body, though ample testimony was given that the office was faithfully and impartially admiinistered. Hlie then practiced law in Philadelphia, associating with himself lion. George S. Selden, of Meadville, and sutibse(tuiently - some time in 18(8 - returned to Kittanning. In 1871 lie removed to Pittsburgh, and he died there at the residence of Mrs. Saimuel Bailey, October 25, 1872. At the eomtmemorative meeting (of the Armstrong bar Judge Logan made a brief address, a single paragraph fromt which will convey some idea of the Governor's character. "I gladly testify," said hlie, "to the fine ability of Gov. Jolhnston as ait lawyer, and his powers as an advocate: to his marked courtesy of address, and his uniformly gentlemanly bearing; to his absolute integrity in professional relation, always the characteristic of the great lawyer and man; and to his scorn of the wrong. To say that Gov. Johnston was distinguished in these things is but the tribute of truth to the recollection of a man whose presence commanded affection, and whose memory compels respect." Mr. Johnston was married April 12, 1832, to Miss Mary Monteith. The offspring of their union wvere five sons and two daughters. MAHONING TOWNSHIP. part of the Mahoning which is the southern part of the western boundary line between this and Madison township, lay three contiguous tracts, the easternmost one of which, called "Pleasant Valley," was covered by warrant No. 5172, 660 acres, granted to Isaac Anderson February 15, 1794; the central one, called " Curiosity," was covered by warrant No. 453, 413 a.cres, granted to Jeremiah Murry May 17, 1785, and the western one, called "Isaac's Choice," covered by warrant No. 3833, 220 acres, granted to Isaac Anderson April 27, 1793. Murry conveyed No. 453 to Anderson December 13, 1790, and Anderson conveyed all these three tracts, February 4, 1795, to George Roberts, of Philadelphia, to whom the patents were granted February 10. The aggregate number of acres in the three tracts was 1,293, which, in 1807, were assessed at $646.50. "Curiosity" was seated by Jacob Anthony in 1816, and John Edwards was assessed with 125 acres of it, one horse and one cow, in 1818, at $88. "Isaac's Choice" by Philip Anthony in 1817, and "Pleasant Valley" in 1818. There was, however, a sale by Roberts' heirs of 43 acres and 141 perches of "Pleasant Valley" to Jacob Nulf December 23, 1806 -probably a mistake either in the deed or the record, as the deed was acknowledged December 24, 1836-for $88. That parcel is described in the deed as adjoining lands of John Shoemaker, Alexander and John White, and "the meetinghouse lot." It does not appear from any of the tax or assessment lists that either Nulf or any of his adjoiners resided here when that conveyance was made. Thomas Blair, it may be remarked in passing, offered these three tracts for sale by advertisement in the Kittanning Gazette March 22, 1826. Roberts' heirs conveyed 15 acres and 78 perches of "Pleasant Valley" to Nulf, April 30, 1832, for $31, which, with an additional quantity subsequently purchased by him, aggregating 220 acres, he agreed to sell to Christian Shunk, November 27, 1844, for $3,000, which the latter agreed to sell to John A. Colwell, March 2, 1846. Nulf having died without executing a deed to Shunk or Colwell, by virtue of a decree of the proper court for the specific performance of the contract between Nulf and Shunk, James Galbraith, Nulf's administrator, conveyed these 220 acres to Colwell on the payment of $905, the unpaid balance of the purchase money. This "meeting-house lot" contains five acres of "Pleasant Valley." It was conveyed by Roberts' heirs November 21, 1832, for $10, to John White and John Shoemaker, who agreed and declared, December 16, 1834, that they and their executors and administrators should hold, possess and be interested in these five acres and all their appurtenances, and "the buildings erected and to be erected thereon," in trust for the persons resident in the vicinity thereof, for the purposes of a public burying-ground, the erection thereon of meeting-houses, schoolhouses, and other buildings for public use. They also agreed that upon a written request of two-thirds of the male citizens residing within five miles of this lot being presented to them, their heirs and legal representatives, they would duly convey their trust to such trustees as should be selected by those persons, who should hold the same in trust for those purposes in the same manner as they then held them, subject to such modifications as two-thirds of such citizens might deem best calculated to effect the design of the trust. A log church edifice was erected thereon perhaps in 1812 or 1813, for Philip Mechling remembers having passed it one summer-day when a meeting of some kind was being held in it, and having noticed the people within looking at him through the open spaces between the logs, which had not then been filled with clay or mortar. The house then had the appearance of having been built several years. He is not certain whether he was then riding as constable or sheriff. If as the former, it was in 1815, but if as the latter, it wasin 1817-18. That edifice was used for church purposes by different denominations, and for a schoolhouse for several years after the furnace went into operation. Some portions of it still remain. This "meeting-house lot" is situated at an angle on the eastern side of the "Hogback road," and is designated "Cem." on the township map, being about 130 rods south of Mahoning Furnace. Rev. B. B. Killikelly preached in that house occasionally. Roberts' heirs conveyed other parcels thus: 103 acres and 41 perches of "Pleasant Valley" to John and Alexander White, September 1, 1830, for $303, for which they were first assessed in 1831; 91 acres and 60 perches, partly of " Curiosity," to Michael Hollobough, November 1, 1830, for $182.70; 186 acres, wholly of " Pleasant Valley," to John Nulf, April 21, 1838, for $314; 58 acres, parts of " Pleasant Valley" and" Curiosity," to Adam Nulf, November 1, 1830, for $116.40; 100 acres, parts of "Curiosity" and "Isaac's Choice," to John Martin, November 1, 1830, for $200; 112 acres, parts of the last-mentioned tracts, to Jacob B. Hettrick, September 4, 1828, for $225; 51 acres of " Curiosity" to George Stewart, June 17, 1837, for $115.50; 68 acres and 29 perches of "Isaac's Choice " to Philip Anthony, June 18, 1837, for $160. In the south355 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. western part of this township is a portion of the Robert Morris tract, No. 4528, noticed in the sketch of Pine township, 235 acres and 80 perches of which Robert Orr conveyed to George Reedy, August 28, 1847, for $824, now owned in part at least by James Roberts. All the rest of what is now Mahoning township, besides those three tracts, and the northwestern corner of the S. Wallis tract, No. 4128, was covered by warrants of the Holland Land Company. Adjoining "Curiosity" and "Pleasant Valley" on the north, was that company's tract No. 317, warrant No. 2880, the southeastern part of which, consisting of allotment 6 and part of allotment 4, became vested in Adam Nulf, on the right bank of the Mahoning, in the southeastern part of which he settled. The log house in which he lived is still there, and is said to have been built in 1799 or 1800. He must have planted an orchard soon after his settlement, for it contained the oldest trees and the largest number of them in this section of the country. If he settled here as early as above indicated, he must have escaped the assessor's notice for several years, for his name is not found on any tax list until that of Red Bank township for 1809, when he was assessed with 50 acres, improvement, and one horse, at $190. He died intestate, and his heirs entered into an agreement, November 14, 1837 (his widow having previously died), for an amicable partition of the lands which he had left, consisting of about 215 acres, nearly all of which was then in Red Bank township, which, except the 15 acres on the left bank of the Mahoning, then in Wayne township, which their father had agreed to sell to Jacob Nulf, on which about 40 acres were then cleared, and on which there were a house, stable and the abovementioned orchard, which they finally agreed to sell to the highest and best bidder on the first Monday of April, 1838. They, however, did not thus sell their lands, but subsequently conveyed them to the Colwells, so that they are now included in the Furnace property. In the eastern part of the broad, deep bend in the Mahoning in the southeastern part of this township, opposite Eddyville, is a portion of the Holland land, covered by warrant No. 3150, the patent for which is dated July 21, 1836, in the southeastern portion of which is the Smith burying ground, quite an old one, which is somewhat overgrown with weeds and bushes, in which are the graves of Gasper or Casper Nulf, Sr., and his wife. They had formerly resided on another Holland tract on the north side of the Red Bank. The assessment list of 1817 shows that he had "moved away"that is, he had the year before removed thence, where he had resided since 1808, when he was first assessed there with 100 acres, two horses and one cow at $51. He was first assessed on the Plum Creek township tax list for 1817, when the territory within this bend was in that township. His and his wife's deaths were noticed in the Kittanning Gazette thus: "Died, February 1, 1837, Casper Nulf, aged one hundred and six years, and on November 11, 1836, Phebe, his wife, aged one hundred and three years. They had lived together more than eighty years, and were the parents of eighteen children. Their descendants are believed to number 300. They had supported themselves by their own industry until within three years of their deaths." George Smith, almost a centenarian, who was employed as rodman, axman or chain-carrier in the surveys of the Holland lands many years ago, was an early settler on this tract, in this part of what is now this township, of which Willink & Co. conveyed to him 105 acres, September 17, 1839, for $275. There may have been some other cotemporaneous early settlers on it besides those above mentioned. The later settlers appear from the following conveyances: Willink & Co. to Andrew Foreman, who had settled on it in 1830, 105 acres in the northeastern part of the bend, January 9, 1839, for $250, and he to Reuben Huffman, March 14, 102 acres and 32 perches thereof for $900; Willink & Co. to John Doverspike, March 12, 1840, 121 acres and 120 perches for $303. The German Reformed and Lutheran churches were organized in this bend. Services were held by clergymen of both these denominations in George Smith's house, in an old log schoolhouse and elsewhere until 1873, when the present neat and substantial frame edifice, 40X40 feet, was completed, in which there has been regular preaching, alternately, by clergymen of both these denominations. This Le Roy & Co. tract and warrant No. 3119 were laid over the southern part of an earlier one to Charles Campbell. It was not known for many years just where the latter was laid, but it extended about an equal distance north and south of the Mahoning, was surveyed on warrant No. 3832, April 22, 1793, and contained 226 acres and 70 perches, and which was conveyed by Campbell's heirs to John McCrea, who instituted an action of ejectment, October 6, 1857, against its occupants, John Kuhn, John Huffman, Daniel Doverspike and Andrew Foreman, which finally resulted in McCrea's recovering all but the 58 acres included in the commissioner's deed to Doverspike. 356 GEORGE S. IUTKEY. MFS.GECtGE S. PJT1EY. GEORGE S. PUTNEY. The father of the subject of this sketch, David Putney, the beginner of the improvement which developed into Putneyville, where his descendants reside, was born in Connecticut, October 18, 1794, and came to Pittsburgh, then considered a town of the Far West, before he was of age. There he married, upon September 29, 1818, Miss Lavinia Stevenson, who was born January 7, 1796. The children of David Putney and wife were: James Thompson, born July 8, 1819; George Stevenson, May 29, 1821; David Taylor, August 20, 1823; Mary Eleanor (Smullin), September 26, 1825; William Nelson, April 13, 1829; Samuel Boyd, May 24, 1831; Nelson Osborne, September 7, 1833, and Ezra Judson, July 31, 1837. Of this family the only members now living are the subject of our sketch and Mrs. Smullin, both of whom reside in Putneyville. Shortly after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Putney moved to Freeport, and it was there that their son George Stevenson was born. In 1833 l)avid Putney purchased from the Holland Land Company, at $1.50 per acre, a tract of 1,000 acres of land surrounding and including the site of the present village named after him. Soon after this purchase was made, Mr. Putney, with his sons James Thompson and George Stevenson, came to the spot where the village now stands. The bottomlands and the hillsides were then covered with a thick growth of laurel and hazel-brush, through which a road was cut with considerable difficulty. A little shanty was erected upon the creek bank, near where the gristmill now stands. The material of which it was constructed was slabs gathered along the creek, and it was roofed with bark taken in large pieces from trees in the vicinity. This served as their home, and in it George S. Putney discharged the duties of head cook. Instead of plates fresh chips of wood were used, each serving for only one meal and then going into the fire over which the next was cooked. About four months later a second cabin was built, similar to and near the first. This was to serve the purpose of a store, and was stocked with a limited assortment of staple goods brought from Freeport and Pittsburgh. For about a year there were no other buildings erected, but during that period Mr. Putney was engaged in working upon a headrace and dam and taking out tiimber for a grist and saw mill, employing ten or twelve hands. The sawmill was completed the second year. Shanty life no longer possessing the charmi of novelty, and now having a mill to manufacture lumber, a story-and-a-half frame dwelling-house was erected-the first in the neighborhood. Father and sons were then made happy by association with the rest of the family, who moved up from Freeport; and George S. Putney, being relieved from the duties of chief cook, was promoted to the position of "boss sawyer" in the mill, and commenced getting out the lumber for the gristmill, which was built and put in successful operation during the third year of the settlement. The elder Mr. Putney was a natural genius in mechanics and a typical New England pioneer, able to turn his hand to almost any industry. With the improvements alluded to buisiness was continued very successfully up to the spring of 1840, by whichl time considerable land had been cleared and the sunshine allowed to reach the fertile soil of the little valley. A few houses for tenants had also been erected. About this time David Putney contracted to furnish a large amount of timber for the completion of dam No. 1 on the Monongahela river, at Pittsburgh, and to meet the contract lihe purchased some rafts on Mahoning and Red Bank creeks. But in addition to these purchases he was obliged to buy a tract of timber land on the Clarion river, where he and his son James Thomipson went to get out what they needed. The two brothers being greatly attached to each other, James Thompson refused to stay longer than about thirty days, and returned home. His father then summoned George S. to his assistance. In a reasonable time the timber was all taken out and in readiness for high water to run it to market. George S. Putney, having to remain there awaiting a rise, went to work and took out frame timber for the Methodist Episcopal church at Freeport. To their misfortune there was no freshet during the fall sufficient to afford them the opportunity to make a delivery, and the timber was frozen up in the ice the following winter and lost. In consequence, David Putney became financially involved, and in 1842 was obliged to effect a sale of the greater part of his property to meet his indebtedness. It was then that James Thompson and George S. Putney, by request of their creditors, purchased the grist and saw mills with about 190 acres of land surrounding them, agreeing to pay therefor the sum of $4,000. This was for the time, and to them, in their condition, a heavy undertaking, as they were entirely destitute of funds and had to rely wholly upon the proceeds of the mills to pay for the property. About the same time they made another purchase, which time has demonstrated to have been a wise one. This was a tract of pine land in Henderson township, Jefferson county, then of small value, but now, left unmolested and with a railroad running through it, worth from $75,000 to $80,000. Fortunately for the young men who succeeded their father in business, the Mahoning furnace was put in operation, in 1845, by John A. Colwell & Co., and an outlet was demanded for the metal which they manufactured. This the Putney brothers supplied, putting up a boat scaffold and building boats upon which, under contract, they carried the comDany's pig-iron down the creek and the Allegheny river to Pittsburgh. They put up a new sawmill, entered into a general lumber business, and in 1848 engaged in merchandizing, taking into partnership in the latter a third brother, David T. These industries were fairly remunerative, but it was the business of building and purchasing boats to carry metal for the furnace people which gave them the greater part of the revenue with which they discharged their indebtedness. By 1852 they had discharged the obligations which they incurred at the start. The partnership in the store remained unchanged until 1854, when David T. Putney went to the West for grain, and on his return home was attacked with cholera and died on the steamer, near St. Louis, May 2, 1855, his remains being brought to Putneyville. In the meantime a tannery had been established, and this, with the two mills, the store, boating interest, etc., was carried on by James T. and George S. Putney quite successfully until the death of the former, December 24, 1858. During this year the gristmill was burned, and at the time of James T. Putney's death a new one was in process of construction. Upon his brother's death, George S. Putney bought from his heirs his entire interest in the firm property, with the exception of two tracts of land. He now had the business of the two mills, the store, tannery and metal-carrying to attend to, and employed his brother, Samuel B. Putney, and A. Smullin to assist him, the former devoting his attention principally to the boat business, and the latter going into the store. Both continued with him during the war. Through this period Mr. Putney carried on business under many disadvantages, chief among which was an almost universal credit system. He had, about the time the war broke out, suffered a severe loss by a great flood, which carried away his milldam, boats, and some other property. But notwithstanding his misfortune, he was able during the war to assist others who needed favors. No soldier's widow or other deserving person was obliged to go without the comforts of life because lacking the cash with which to buy them. His liberality also found expression in large money subscriptions to protect from the draft some of his fellowmen who could illy afford to go into the army and abandon family and the business or labor which supported them. He paid many times the amount which, had he been subject to the draft and chosen, would have hired a substitute, and did it disinterestedly. Mr. Putney worked on alone, ambitiously, although with little encouragement, until 1868, when he was joined by his sons, W. F. Taylor and L. Miles, the latter assuming the active management and attending to the bookkeeping and buying. From the fact that Mr Putney had not been able to give his personal attention to the store its business had declined, but under the new management it was rapidly built up, and the other lines of business were correspondingly developed. In 1869 the sawmill was rebuilt, and the boat scaffold soon after. By 1870 the business of the store had so increased that its proprietors were compelled to build an addition. The gristmill was remodeled at a cost of from $7,000 to $8,000, and steam introduced in the tannery. Various improvements attested from time to time the enterprise and energy of father and sons. Upon Sunday, October 7, 1877, fire destroyed the store, and Mr. Putney and his sons suffered a loss over and above their insurance of about $10,000. L. Miles Putney was in New York buying goods at the time, and was apprised of the calamity by telegraph. After a few messages had been passed between himself and the people at home, it was decided to continue the business and he went on with his purchases. Business was resumed, eight days afterward, in a small building and under many disadvantages, but the firm had a prosperous trade. Preparations were made for building a new store as soon as the adjusting agent of the insurance company had estimated aid reported the losses by the fire, and the new structure was erected and goods sold in it in April, 1878. It was fully completed by July of that year This store building, of which the sole architect was Mr. L. Miles Putney, is 80 feet deep by 40 in width, and two stories in hight. The store proper, than which there is none finer in Pennsylvania outside of the great cities, is 24X80 feet, and is adjoined by a wareroom and private office. It is a marvel of convenience and elegance, and contains many ingenious devices which are suggestive of the New England descent of its designer. The second story is finished off in fine style as a hall, which is occupied by Putneyville Lodge, No. 735, I. O. O. F. The firm of George S. Putney & Sons is now engaged in this store, in which they do a large business, in the grist and saw mills, a boat yard, fannrming, stock raising and a general lumber business. Mr. George S. Putney's father, David, lived to see the country in which he settled finely developed and to enjoy the sight of a wellordered village developed through his own and his family's enterprise upon the land which he took up at an early day in its virgin state. He was honored by an election to the legislature in 1854, and was a useful, esteemed citizen all of his life. He died August 31, 1879, and his wife, Lavina, April 20, 1871. George S. Putney, who has carried on and amplified the enterprises begun by his father, and resulting in the building up of Putneyville, has been, like him, a most highly respected resident of Armstrong county, and one who has materially aided in its improvement. He was elected to the legislature, upon the democratic ticket, in 1870, defeating M. M. Steele. He has held nearly all the offices of trust and honor in the gift of his fellow-townsmen, and both in official and private life done much to advance the interests of the community. The new house of worship of the Methodist Episcopal church, of which he is a member, was built largely through his influence and pecuniary aid. Mr. Putney was married, October 10, 1844, to Margaret, daughter of Jacob and Susannah Andrews, born in Allegheny county, July 25 1826. To his wife, a very superior woman, great credit is due for wise assistance which very materially enhanced her husband's suc cess and prosperity. The offspring of this union were six sons, of whom four are living. Their names and respective dates of birth are as follows: Nelson Boyd, born October 20, 1845 (died April 27, 1861); William Taylor, June 30, 1847; Lemuel Miles, June 17, 1849; Homer Clark, December 25, 1855 (died April 6, 1881); George Wesley, October 8, 1860, and Calvin Kingsley, April 23, 1867. William Taylor Putney was married to Clara B. Hamilton, December 25, 1872, and George Wesley Putney to Nancy Nolf, December 8, 1881. MAHONING TOWNSHIP. Adjoining the last-mentioned tract on the west was tract No. 320, covered by warrant No. 3119, the eastern part of which is traversed by Millseat run, which flows in a northwesterly course and empties into the Mahoning about 150 rods below the "Narrow Sluice," where this creek is only twenty-two feet wide. Tradition relates that a mill, with one set of stone, was erected in the first decade of this century, by Adam Smith, on this run, 75 rods northeasterly from the present schoolhouse No. 5, but ceased to be used many years since. John Daubenspike's name on this tract is one of the few that appears on the map of the original tracts which were between the Mahoning and Red Bank creeks. He settled on it in 1816, and was assessed on the Plum creek township list for the next year with 130 acres at $130. The Holland Company did not obtain their patent for this tract until November 3, 1827. They conveyed to him 92 acres and 110 perches of it June 24, 1830, then in Wayne township, for $150; and 56 acres and 46 perches of it March 21,1832, for $28.75; 150 acres and 91 perches to Andrew Foreman, February 26, 1841, for $125, on which is the public schoolhouse No. 5; 85 acres and 48 perches to David McCullough, December 15, 1842, for $70; 100 acres and 39 perches to John Huffman, September 21, 1842, for 882; 208 acres and 100 perches to David Putney, March 14, 1843, for $150 - he must have settled on this tract in 1834, about which time he removed hither from Freeport, for he was first assessed for the next year on the Wayne township list, with 750 acres of No. 3119, and two horses, at $622. He may have agreed to purchase that or a greater quantity from the Holland Company, and they may have conveyed directly to his vendees. The only persons, according to the tax lists, assessed with parcels of this tract in 1840 were John Daubenspike and David Putney. The latter built his sawmill in 1835-6 and his gristmill in 1838-9, on the western part of his parcel, near the left bank of the Mahoning. That portion of Putneyville on the same bank was founded by him. Fifteen town lots, betweern East Main and East Water streets, were laid out in 1841, surveyed by J. E. Meredith July 7, 1842, several of which are numbered. The two earliest sales of them were, according to the public records: David Putney to Dr. J. H. Wick, the first resident physician here, lot No. 5, containing 45 perches, September 29, 1848, for $40; lot No. 6, 24 perches, to Ambrose Shobert same day for $30, and lot No. 3 to David Kirkland for $20. The following conveyances are given as indicating the value of real estate in various portions of the eastern part of this town, at different periods: David Putney to George S. Putney, 1 acre and 118 perches, December 27, 1850, for $10, which was not, of course, the full pecuniary value, but as he also conveyed another parcel for a similar consideration to one of his other sons, portions of which the former and the heirs of the latter conveyed to others, it is here given; 13 4 perches to Wm. Cunningham, February 28, 1861, for $50, which, with the improvements, the latter conveyed to G. S. Putney, November 25, 1865, for $800; 1 acre and 25 perches to S. B. Putney for $50; 504 feet to Wm. A. Brown, March 26, 1861, for $5; lot No. 2, 26 perches, to Andrew Bradenbaugh et al., October 28, 1865, for $5; George S. Putney to George Beck, same day, one-half an acre and onehalf a perch for $50; David Putney to W. C. Putney et al., 2 acres and 81 perches, between Main street and the Mahoning, November 30, 1867, for $150; George S. Putney to Adam Nulf, 90 perches, December 12, for $50; to Susan Boyle, one-fourth of an acre, December 25, 1862, for $33; to C. C. Keesey, two lots between First, Second, Keesey and Walnut streets, May 11, 1874, for $510. The postofice, David Putney, postmaster, was established here July 18, 1844. The building of flatboats for transporting pigmetal to market was begun here in 1847-8, which has been continued to the present time by the Putneys, and has afforded employment to' an average of ten or twelve persons. About fifteen are built annually. Their length, at first, was seventy-five or eighty, and their width eighteen feet. Since the improvement of the navigation of the Mahoning below this point, their width has been increased to twenty-five, and their length to one hundred and seventy-five feet. The boat-yard is at the junction of First, East Main and East Water streets. The tannery south of Walnut, and between Second and Third streets, was established in 1852-3. James Wilson was first assessed as a tanner here in 1853. This tannery was first assessed to J. T. and G. S. Putney in 1855. It was originally one of the common kind, but it is now operated by steam. The common school has afforded the chief educational facilities. Rev. J. A. Campbell, the first county superintendent, taught a normal class here in 1855-6. The second resident physician in this part of the town is Dr. Theodore P. Klingensmith, who settled here in 1874. The first store here was opened by George W. 357 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Goheen in 1845, with which and a house and lot he was then assessed at $700. He does not appear to have been assessed with the store after 1846. The mercantile business in this part of the town has since then been chiefly limited to the Putney brothers and sons. G. S. Putney and sons are the present owners of two stores - one containing a general assortment of goods and the other limited to hardware. The place of worship of the Methodist Episcopal church was changed from edifice near William Smullins' to this place, in 1844, and held public services in the schoolhouse and occasionally in the Associate Reformed or U. P. church edifice, until their present edifice, frame, 40 X 60 feet, two stories, costing $5,000, was erected, in 1873, on the northeast side of First, about sixteen rods above Grant street, on a lot conveyed, December 27, 1870, by George S. Putney to Amzi Loomis, John F. Gearhart, William B. Smullin and himself, trustees, "containing sixty-four perches, also five feet from the south line for hitching purposes." David Putney, endearingly called Father Putney by his neighbors, was elected a member of assembly in 1853, but was defeated for the nomination the next year on account of the hue and cry raised against him because of his instrumentality in procuring the passage of an act authorizing the taxing of dogs for the purpose of paying damages for the loss of sheep killed by them-a piece of legislation that was needed and which has since been supplied. His son, George S. Putney, was elected to the same office in 1870, and served during the next session of the legislature. The Associate Reformed, now called United Presbyterian church, was dependent on supplies most, if not all the time, until quite recent years, when it ceased to exercise its ecclesiastical functions. Its membership was too small to maintain a regular pastor. The lot, containing 100 perches, adjoining Grant, between Third and Fourth streets, on which its frame edifice is situated, was conveyed by J. T. and G. S. Putney to James L. Armstrong, John Duff and Samuel Ferguson, committee or trustees, and their successors, December 8, 1853, for $1. The congregation became divested of their title to it by sheriff's sale to William R. Hamilton, who had been one of the chief contributors to the maintenance of the organization during its ephemeral existence. The first bridge across the Mahoning, connecting the two parts of this town, was erected at an early date. The present superstructure is the third one. Lodge No. 735, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was established here December 1, 1870. The western portion of Putneyville is situated on the right bank of the Mahoning on a part of the Le Roy & Co. tract No. 319, warrant No. 3000, the patent for which to the Holland Company is dated February 12, 1829, which Willink & Co. conveyed to John Millison, October 8, 1836,* that is, the upper or northwestern part of the 98 acres and 8 perches which were then conveyed to him for $197-that part seeming on a connected draft to project into the northeastern and southern purparts of the Arthur Bryan tract. This part of the town does not appear to have been laid out, like the eastern part, into town lots. Small parcels have, however, been sold to divers persons at various times. Millison conveyed half an acre to J. T. and G. S. Putney, July 7, 1842, for $2; 1 acre and 84 perches to John Grinder, June 17, 1850, for $200, and 1 acre and 8 perches to him, December 7, 1853, for $100; Grinder to John C. and Miles D. Gray, part of the parcel which Millison had conveyed to him, June 17, 1850, for $111.50-they were first assessed on the Putneyville list in 1856, and John C. Gray as a merchant in 1862-his store being on this lot, south of West Main and west of Short streets. South of the former and east of the latter street is the parcel which Millison conveyed to Grinder, 1 acre and 84 perches, June 17, 1850, for $200 (where the latter opened a hotel in 1860), 524 perches of which Grinder reconveyed to Millison, January 28, 1860, for $100, and which Millison conveyed to Michael Huffman, June 2, 1866, for $100, where the latter kept one of the two hotels in this town for several years, and which is now kept by S. Nulf. Opposite this hotel, on the corner of West Main and West Water streets, is the other hotel, kept by Joseph C. Sbchrecongost, which is on the parcel conveyed by Millison to Enoch Lewis, November 11, 1848, who conveyed it to George W. Goheen, May 1, 1861, for $500, and lihe to Schrecongost, June 6, 1850 - their deeds evidence this anachronism-for $500, where he was first assessed as an innkeeper in 1860. Grinder to L. W. Corbett, one-fourth acre, which the latter conveyed to Jas. L. Hettrich, July 21, 1861, for $52.50. Conveyances of various other parcels have been made from one to another which have not yet been recorded. The first separate assessment list for Putneyville was in 1851, showing that the entire town then contained 24 taxables, indicating the number of inhabitants then to have been 110. Though the occupations were assessed at $320, there are no specifications of what any of them were. The ag * He was first assessed with fifty acres of it and two oxen in 1832, at $100. 358 MAHONING TOWNSHIP. gregate valuation of real estate was $1,735, and of personal $165. The assessment list for 1876 shows: taxables, 51, indicating the population to be 234. The occupations were specified thus: Minister, 1 school-teacher, 1; surveyor, 1; physician, 1; farmers, 2; laborers, 8; merchants, 2; millers, 2; shoemakers, 2; blacksmith, 1; cabinetmaker, 1. Willink & Co. conveyed other portions of this tract: 87 acres and 6 perches to John Daubenspike, June 17, 1829, for $168; 224 acres and 19 perches to John Shoemaker, December 20, 1832, for $140.07, and he to Jacob Smith 164 acres and 87 perches, June 23, 1840, for $662.50; 93 acres and 63 perches to Peter Hine, December 19, 1833, for $58.30, and he to George S. Putney; 186 acres and 100 perches to A. and J. A. Colwell, August 18, 1847, for $186.60. Sixty-five acres "in the northwestern corner" of this tract in the southern half of the eastern bend of the Mahoning, southeast of the furnace, were conveyed by Benjamin B. Cooper to John Thorn, January 6, 1819, for $97.50. This parcel appears to have belonged to the heirs of Yost Smith, and it is now a part of the furnace property. Passing up to the northern portion of this township, west of "Quito," is the territory covered by the warrant to Willink & Co., No. 2896, on tract No. 280, called "Lisburn," 990 acres, divided into six allotments, the patent of which is dated September 6, 1802. Allotment 2 is in the northeastern part and chiefly on the northern or Clarion side of the Red Bank, traversed by Leasure's Run, and on which the town of New Bethlehem is situated. Lewis Dauhenspecht appears to have been the first permanent white settler on this allotment when it was in Toby township. He was first -assessed on the list of that township as a single man in 1806, and the next year with 200 acres, "improvement." Willink & Co. conveyed 130 acres and 16 perches to him October 5, 1811, for $195. The portion of this allotment on the southern, or Armstrong side of the Red Bank continued to be owned by Daubenspike and his heirs, who released to his son Lewis April 2, 1850, for $654, until the latter conveyed 54 acres and 124 perches, including onehalf an acre formerly sold, to William R. Hamilton, January 22, 1874, for $7,500, on a part of which he laid out the town of South Bethlehem. As indicating the value of real estate in this new town a few years since and up to the present time, the following conveyances are here given: Win. R. Hamilton to C. C. Cochran, lot No. 79, 64 perches, October 23, 1875, for $250; 12 acres and 49 perches, "beginning at the corner of Short and Broad streets," to Washington Craig & Co., November 16, for $2,750; lots Nos. 5 and 7 to James H. Craig, November 19, for $500; lots Nos. 10 and 12 to C. H. Ide, March 15, 1876, for $1,500; lot No. 81 to Mary C. McMillen, March 25, for $300; lot No. 8 to George E. Cowan, April 6, for $200; lots Nos. 16, 18, 20, 22, 78 to Philip Eaker, May 7, for $1,200; lots Nos. 104, 106 to W. Craig & Co., December 28, for $200; lot No. 85 to James McMillen, May 10, for $250;* lot No. 8 to L. W. Corbett, May 27, for $500. In West Bethlehem: Lots 40, 42, 44 and part of 46 to Jacob F. Anthony, June 2, for $1,325; twofifths of an acre to L. M. Putney, January 6; 64 perches to Mahoning school district September 1. The major part of allotment 1, in the northwestern part of this tract, is on the north side of the Red Bank. This allotment has upon it on the map of original tracts the name of Casper Nulf, probably the younger. Casper Nulf, Sr., was first assessed with 100 acres, two horses and one cow, on the list of Red Bank township in 1808, at 851, and Casper Nulf, Jr., with 50 acres, one horse and two cows, in 1812, at $100. It was probably from this allotment that the former "moved away"-to Plum Creek township in 1816-17, where he and his wife died at the advanced age heretofore mentioned. Benjamin B. Casper conveyed this allotment to John Mohney, December 20, 1831, for $165, and he to Frederick Mohney, March 7, 1835, for $300, who had been assessed with it, one horse and one cow at $207, in 1833. Willink & Co. conveyed 157 acres and 46 perches of allotment 6 to James Cathcart, who had formerly occupied a parcel of "Lurgan," March 13, 1838, for $11R. He must also have acquired allotment 4, or a portion of it, for he conveyed 59 acres and 148 perches off the east end of it and allotment 6 to John Corbett, April 1, 1851, for 849.62, and 137 acres and 12 perches off the same to George Space, March 29, 1855, for $1,500; he had been assessed with 94 acres at $94, in 1844. Moses McLain was assessed with 100 acres of allotment 3, one horse and two cows at $72, in 1831. It does not appear from the records that he purchased this parcel. A portion of this tract was included in the purchase made by Alexander Colwell and his co-vendees, for they conveyed 157 acres of it -it seems to have been of this allotment-to Thomas McKelvy, April 15, 1863, for $460, which he conveyed to Isaac Lamberson July 22, 1865, for $600, 28 acres of which the latter conveyed to George Seward October 14 for $250. The father of the last-named, Chauncy * Since the centennial year-in South Bethlehem-lots Nos. 14, 17, 19 to C. C. Cochran, December 20, 1877, $900; to A. S. Brown, lot No. 54, October 30, for $200; lots Nos. 27, 28, 29, 31, 69, 71, 73, 75, 80 and 82 to Geo. S. Putney and sons, January 15,1878, for $1,830. 359 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNITY. Seward, who claimed to be a kinsman of ex-Governor, Senator, Secretary William H. Seward-lhe may have descended from the family or a branch of the family of Deacon Seward, of Durham, Connecticut, where there were families by the name of both Chauncy and Seward - settled on this"part of this tract about 1839, for he was assessed with 350 acres of it, two horses and two cows in 1840, at $435. Whatever inchoate title he may have acquired does not appear to have been perfected. Lamberson conveyed 100 acres to John McClain, July 31, 1866, for $-, and McClain to James H. Mayo, June 28, 1871, for $1,500. Willink & Co. conveyed 94 acres and 93 perches of allotment 4 to Frederick Mohney, March 13, 1838, for $70.90. The latter conveyed 27 acres and 139 perches, either of this or an adjoining allotment, to John Lamberson, May 12, 1862, for $350. James McLain was assessed with 170 acres of allotment 5 and one yoke of oxen in 1837, at $115. Colwell et al. conveyed this allotment to him December 19, 1849, for $171.50, and McClain to Mayo, June 6,1872, for $5,000, so that this allotment, on which was formerly a schoolhouse, and the above-mentioned John McClain parcel are now a portion of the Red Bank Cannel Coal and Iron Company's property. Adjoining the last preceding tract on the west was the Holland tract No. 281, covered by warrant to Willink & Co. No. 2891, the chief part of which was in the upper part of the Great bend in Red Bank creek, in what is now Clarion county. It contained six allotments. Portions of 2, 4, 6 are on the east side, and portions of 3, 5 are on the west side, of the Great bend. Jacob Anthony was assessed with 200 acres of it, two horses and three cows in 1824, at $93. James Anthony's name appears on the Red Bank township assessment list the same year. He appears to have been assessed with 50 acres, the eastern part of allotment 2, 260 acres of some other tract, one yoke of oxen and two cows at $120. Willink & Co. conveyed 72 acres and 32 perches of the east end of this allotment to him February 3, 1837, for $54.45. Benjamin Price was assessed on the Red Bank township list in 1833 with 140 acres in the east end of allotment 4, two horses and two cattle, at $201. Willink & Co. conveyed to his administrator in trust for his heirs 111 acres and 4 perches thereof June 14, 1841, for $130, which his widow and heirs conveyed to Jacob Nulf March 19, 1845, for $700, which, with other land belonging to his estate, was divided by proceedings in partition February 20, 1854, into two purparts, the one of which contained 108 acres and 137 perches and the other the same quantity less three perches. The former, "A," valued at $1,632.84, was taken by Barbara Baughman, and the other, valued at $1,197.21, by the guardian of Jacob Nulf, Jr., which the latter with his mother and the other heirs, for the purpose of releasing him from his recognizance, conveyed to David Gumbert August 21, 1865, for $1,525. A parcel in the west end of allotment 5, on the west side of the Great Bend, was formerly conveyed to James Bleakney, who conveyed the same to George W. Goheen March 15, 1845, and Goheen to the present owner, Joseph Hettrich, 82 acres, May 19, 1857, for $300. The Rockford road seems to cross the Red Bank on or near the line between allotments 4 and 6. The tract next south of the last preceding one was No. 291, covered by warrant No. 2886, a considerable portion of which is within the Great Bend in what is now Clarion county, the patent for which to Willink & Co. is dated September 6, 1802. Jacob Anthony was, according to one of J. E. Meredith's connected drafts, formerly the owner or occupant of the portions of allotments 4 and 6 east of the Red Bank. ie was probably here, or in the vicinity, in 1822, when he was first assessed with one cow at $10, with 200 acres, two horses and three cattle at $93, in 1824, and with 400 acres of Holland land, two horses and two cattle at $500, in 1837, which must have included the quantity in the southern part of the Great bend, which he also owned. The records in this county do not show from whom he purchased or to whom he sold. Willink & Co. conveyed 100 acres of the east end of allotment 2 to Win. Anthony August 4, 1847, for $109. The eastern part of allotment 6 was settled by William McClain, who was first assessed with 50 acres of it, one horse and two cows in 1832, at $62.50. Hle afterward, according to Meredith's connected draft, possessed 106 acres and 50 perches, the title papers of which are not recorded. There is a parcel consisting mostly of allotment 1, in the northwestern part of this tract, on which Samuel Buzzard settled in 1833. He was first assessed with 75 acres and two cows at $91; the next year, being then in Red Bank, but after 1836, in Madison, township. Colwell et al., in pursuance of a previous agreement, conveyed 181 acres and 60 perches to Robert Blakeney, in trust for Samuel Buzzard's heirs, December 23, 1852, which they conveyed to William Willison May 27, 1858, for $400, 10 acres of which, along the southern or left bank of Red Bank creek, became vested in David Stewart, on which he erected the firebrick works in 1872-3. The cost of these works, including that of the rail360 JOURNALISTIC. this county, May, 1857, the annual compensation of the county superintendent was fixed at $800. A majority of the directors subsequently elected deemed that too large a compensation, some of them thinking it ought to be about the average salary of clergymen in the rural districts. On the other hand, a minority of the directors thought otherwise, and favored an increase. In the attempt in the triennial convention, May, 1860, to reduce it to $600, it was, in the clashing of resolutions for increasing and diminishing, through want of sufficient knowledge of parliamentary rules, unintentionally reduced to $400, and thus it remained until May, 1865, when, on the petition of the requisite number of the board of school directors, the state superintendent ordered a reassembling of the convention, by which it was raised to the rate of $800 per annum for the rest of the term, which expired on the first Monday of June, 1866. It was afterward raised to $1000. For the present term it is $1200. The state pays the salaries of county superintendents out of state revenue, but allows them to be fixed by the conventions of school directors of the respective counties. There is now little if any opposition in this county to that office, which State Superintendent Hickok used to denominate the "right arm" of the educational service in Pennsylvania. TEACHERS' INSTITUTES, district and county, are important features of our present school system. They have proved, when properly conducted, to be useful agencies in improving teachers. In conducting the former the teachers rely chiefly upon their own resources. Until the generous provision made by act of 1867, the county superintendent and teachers were obliged to rely principally upon their own mental and material resources in conducting the latter, which were, prior to 1868, local, that is, held in different parts of the county, and in which teachers were obliged to do a large part of the work. They were thus benefited, because "self-dependence is the great principle to be aroused," and because teachers will not attain their full statures if allowed to remain solely under the shadows of eminent instructors from abroad, however useful and serviceable the latter may be. The earlier county institutes, though less prominent before the public and more dependent on home talent than those held since 1867, were nevertheless busy, working, improving ones, which awakened a lively interest in both members and spectators. For instance, the one held at Worthington in April, 1860, attracted thither a certain candidate* for nomina * Josiah Copley. tion as candidate for an important county office, who, supposing a large number of people would be there, which proved to be the case, thought that that would be an available point for electioneering. He went into that institute and became so deeply interested in its proceedings that he didn't electioneer worth a cent, or rather worth a vote. He afterward wrote a graphic account of what was done in the institute, which was published in the Free Press, and reproduced in the then next May or June number of the Pennsylvania School Journal. The material aid afforded by the provisions of the act of 1867, and realized from elocutionary and musical entertainments and series of able lectures, which have been liberally patronized, has enabled the county superintendent, since 1867, to secure the valuable services of some of the ablest, most skillful, and experienced educators of this and other states in rendering the more modern institutes attractive and effective. They have thus far been held at Kittanning, and attended by most of the teachers in the county. Stores of knowledge useful to teachers and highly practical have thus been bestowed which ought not to be fruitless in enhancing their culture and refinement. Progress in the intellectual and esthetic culture of teachers and pupils, and improvement in school-buildings and furniture within the last two decades, has been considerable, though not to so high a degree as devoted, enthusiastic and perfection-loving educators desire. Every section of the county is now dotted over with comely temples of knowledge, in which every child of proper age can receive at least a good common English education. JOURNALISTIC. As early as 1810, a newspaper, bearing the name of The Western Eagle, was established at Kittanning, by Capt. James Alexander. The first number was issued September 20, 1810. It was discontinued while its proprietor was in the military service, but was revived for a short time after his return. Its size was 18X11 inches. It contained sixteen columns, i. e., the above-mentioned first number. The Kittanning Columbian and Farmers' and XMechanics' Advertiser was the next newspaper established in this county. Its proprietor and publisher was Frederick Rohrer, assisted by his younger brother, George Rohrer. It was of medium size, published weekly, and democratic republican in politics. Its issue of June 5, 1819, No. 14, Vol. I, is before the writer, from which it appears that its first issue was on Saturday, MAHONING TOWNSHIP. road from them to the claybank, and of the bridge and trestle-work, was about $32,000. The clay used in the manufacture of the brick, which is said to be of an excellent quality, its analysis comparing favorably with that of any other in this country or in Europe, is obtained from a vein from four to ten feet thick on the farm of Thomas Buzzard, about three-quarters of a mile southeasterly from the works, up the creek. The capacity of these works is said to be adequate to the daily manufacture of 8,000 bricks and work for about thirty employ6s, though the present daily production is only about 3,000. During the time of their erection about fifty persons were employed. The number employed in 1874, when these works were first represented in a separate assessment list, was fourteen, including the proprietor, one manager, one yard-manager, one clerk, one miner and eight laborers. The number in 1876 is only three. This property now belongs to John B. Bell, of Allegheny City, and the estate of Samuel M. Kiers, of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Next south or above that Buzzard-Willison parcel is the one on which Thomas Buzzard settled in 1836, when his land, two horses and two cows were assessed at $225. Willink & Co. conveyed 168 acres and 155 perches of allotment 3 to him, June 19, 1847, for $338. Contiguous thereto on the south is the western end of allotment 5, containing 132 acres and 22 perches, which Willink & Co. conveyed to George Nulf, August 15, 1839, for $265.50, with 50 acres of which, one yoke of oxen and one cow he had been first assessed in 1831. The Oakland postoflice, George Nulf, postmaster, was established here December 20, 1841. The first edifice of the Red Bank Baptist church, frame, was erected on this parcel in 1846, and was burned in the fall of 1873. Its site may yet be recognized by the graveyard north of the Anderson Creek road, nearly opposite the schoolhouse. This part of allotment 5, except the Baptist church lot, and 50 acres and 70 perches of allotment 2, tract 309, warrant 2864, were conveyed by George C. Nulf to John McCauley, October 9, 1855, for $2,800. The latter conveyed these two parcels and another one of 4 acres and 100 perches, which he had purchased from Thomas Buzzard, to W. W. Wakelee, March 13, 1865, and which Wakelee reconveyed to McCauley, January 17, 1868, for $3,000. One hundred and thirty-eight acres of the last-mentioned parcel were, according to Meredith's connected draft, occupied by W. Mitchell. Another parcel, according to the same, 126 acres and 127 perches, southeast and east of the latter and south of the Great Bend, was occupied by Samuel Adams, wh, appears to have removed hither from "Springfield "- that part of it north of the Mahoning-in 1834, when he was first assessed in Red Bank township with 100 acres of the Holland land, probably the parcel of allotments 1, 3, containing 127 acres, conveyed by Willink & Co. to James Anthony, August 11, 1845, for $122.50. Fifty acres of it became vested in Samuel W. Kinney, which he conveyed to James Stewart, July 19, 1850, for $400, which passed from him to Joseph K. Wright by sheriff's sale, in March, 1856, and which he conveyed to John McCauley in June, 1862, for $400. East of the lastnamed parcel and southeast of the Great Bend was another parcel, consisting of parts of allotment 6, of tract 291, warrant 2881, and allotment 2, of tract 308, warrant 2886, with which, 318 acres, two horses and one cow, Conrad Lamberson was first assessed at $209, in 1835, and which Willink & Co. conveyed to him, October 3, for $337. He conveyed this parcel to his son, Isaac Lamberson, and his son-in-law, James Anthony, January 8, 1839, each one's purpart to be determined by the survey and division made by Robert Richards, December 1, 1838. Anthony's purpart, containing 140 acres and 34 perches, included the western portion of the parcel, and Lamberson's, 151 acres and 84 perches, the eastern portion, in the northeastern part of which are the town lots which he laid out in the village of Oakland. The agreement between the grantor and grantees was that the former and his wife should have the privilege of living on either of these purparts, either in the house where they then resided, or with the family of either one or the other of the grantees; that the grantor be furnished with hay and pasturage for one cow, sufficient firewood, one-fourth of all the grain raised on those premises, fifty pounds of beef and fifty pounds of pork annually, and that he should have the privilege of digging for and raising stone coal thereon during his life. Anthony conveyed 35 acres of his purpart to Henry Adams, May 23, 1857, for $175, and 52 acres and 96 perches to John Shoemaker (of Philip), May 19, 1866, for $631; and Lamberson, 136 acres and 130 perches of his purpart to Charles E. Andrews, March 29, 1873, for $5,500. Other portions of tract 308, warrant 2886, south of the foregoing, were conveyed by Willink & Co., namely: 164 acres and 52 perches of allotment 6 to Philip Shoemaker, June 22, 1831, for $125, and 175 acres of allotment 5, September 20, 1832, for $127.50, and hlie to his son John, 112 acres and 10 perches of allotment 6, February 27, 1840, for $100, and the east half of allotment 5, together with the east end of allotment 1, tract 317, warrant 361 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. 2880, for $120.60. John Reedy was assessed with 160 acres of allotment 2 of the last-mentioned tract, one yoke of oxen and one cow, in 1836, at $48. He did not perfect his inchoate title. This allotment was included in the sale from Willink & Co. to Colwell et al., who conveyed 125 acres and 10 perches of it to John Beham, February 5, 1856, who conveyed this parcel to J. A. Colwell & Co., May 10, 1871, for $3,000.* It is singular that in the several deeds this allotment is described as No. 2 of tract 319, warrant 3000, the northeast corner of which adjoins the southwest corner of the southern purpart of the Bryan tract. Willink & Co. conveyed 93 acres and 50 perches of allotment 1 to Daniel Reedy, May 1, 1840, for $93.33, with 46 acres of which he is still assessed; and 172 acres and 72 perches of allotments 3 and 5 to Joseph K. Wright, July 15, 1841, for $112.50, with 160 acres of which his heirs are still assessed. The population of this township, including that of the above-mentioned towns, in 1860, was 1,446 white; in 1870, native, 1,333; foreign, 69, and colored, 1. The number of taxables in 1876 is 426, indicating a population of 1,959. In 1860 the number of schools was 9; average number months taught, 4; male teachers, 7; female teachers, 2; average monthly salaries of male, $16.86; average monthly salaries of female, $17.50; male scholars, 208; female scholars, 163; average number attending school, 226; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 54 cents; amount tax levied, $734.02; received from state appropriation, $72.07; received from collectors, $673.16; cost of instruction, $612; cost of fuel and contingencies, $185.74; cost of schoolhouses, $378.66. In 1876 the number of schools was 10; average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 7; female teachers, 5; average salaries male per month, $31.14; average salaries female per month, $25.40; male scholars, 272; female scholars, 242; average number attending school, 322; cost per month, 76 cents; amount tax levied, $3,035.89; received from state appropriation, $378.51; from taxes and other sources, $2,974.56; cost of schoolhouses, $1,158.79; paid teachers, $1,615; paid fuel, etc., $517.90. The vote on the question of granting license to sell intoxicating liquors was, for, 35; against, 119. The population of this township having been small and sparse prior to the adoption of the common school system, the educational facilities were correspondingly meager. The buildings purposely erected for schoolhouses before the passage of the free or common school law of 1834 appear to have *J. A. Colwell & Co. conveyed 118 acres and 153 perches of this parcel to Hiram Beham, November 11, 1878, for $2,900. been the primitive log ones heretofore mentioned, located nearly a mile east of Oakland, in the " Cove," and on Millseat run. The pioneer teachers were Robert Walker, George Ellenberger and William Foster. The mercantile appraiser's list for 1876 shows the merchants in this township to be two in the fourteenth class, three in the thirteenth, and one the eleventh. The general geological features of this township, as communicated to the writer by W. G. Platt, after completing his geological survey of this county: The deep valleys of Mahoning and Red Bank creeks exhibited conglomerate and subconglomerate rocks. The lower productive measures usually make up the interval between the conglomerate and the highlands, except in the eastern corner of the township, where a small portion of the lower barrens cap the hills. Of these lower barrens the Mahoning sandstone forms the principal part. It is handsomely exhibited on the slopes overlooking Putneyville from the north. It is very massive and seventy-five feet thick. The lower productive coal measures present some exceptional features of interest, the entire group, with all its coals and limestones, being favorably situated for study. At the "Point," at Putneyville, a complete section of those measures is obtained, displaying all the typical members of the group in connected succession. By typicalmembers are meant the following strata in descending order: Freeport upper coal, formerly called Upper Freeport, 31 feet thick; Freeport upper limestone, the one chiefly mined in this vicinity; Freeport lower coal; Freeport lower limestone, the iniddle bed at Bostonia; Freeport sandstone, massive and prominent; the Kittanning upper coal; the Johnstown cement limestone; Kittanning middle coal; Kittanning lower coal, 3 feet thick; ferriferous limestone, 10 feet thick, and supports its usual iron ore; Clarion coal; Brookville coal. The last-mentioned coals are not important here. Further down the Mahoning the ferriferous limestone and iron ore used at Colwell's furnace, where the Upper Freeport coal supplies the fuel for the stack. The Pottsville conglomerate is conspicuous at the base of the slopes at Putneyville and below the furnace, and extends along Red Bank creek to the outskirts of New Bethlehem, where it sinks under water level. In the eastern part of this township, including the heretofore-mentioned subterranean burnt district, is the continuation of the stratum of block coal described in the sketch of Red Bank township, where it is from 10 to 12 feet thick, which con362 MAHONING TOWNSHIP. tains, according to Dr. F. A. Genth's analysis of a specimen of it, moisture, 1.06; volatile matter, 34.00; fixed carbon, 56.78; ash, 8.16,100.00; sulphur,.21. This stratum extends northwesterly, and as it approaches Bostonia, is what is commonly called cannel coal, though in reality a cannel slate, containing, according to A. S. McCreath's analysis of a specimen of it, 25 per cent of ash. This deposit, says Platt, is irregular, existing only in "pots" or concave areas, disconnected, and often widely separated, so that the occurrence of cannel is confined to certain localities. The thickness or thinness of the mass may be judged by the depth or shallowness of the "pots." A mistaken idea prevails in the Red Bank region that the outspread of the "cannel" is as regular as that of one of the coalbeds of the productive series. The origin of these "pots" is not exactly clear. They may represent depressions which existed originally in the surface when the coalbed was formed; or they may be due to floating sheets of vegetation, similar to those which now exist in the Dismal Swamp, North Carolina. Underlying the "cannel" at all points is a thin layer of bituminous coal, with a regular and continuous outspread, being the equivalent of the Kittanning upper coal, by which the geological horizon of the cannel deposit is defined. An anti-clinal axis crops the western part of this township, passing over the Mahoning valley, near the Mahoning furnace, thence between Oakland and the Narrows, and across Red Bank creek in the neck of the Great Bend. The eastern part of this township is a synclinal, perfectly regular and without any disturbances. The elevation above ocean level at New Bethlehem is 1,079.8 feet; at Bostonia junction, 1,073.8 feet; at the west end of the railroad tunnel, Anthony's Neck, 1,050.8 feet; at Leatherwood, 1,026.8 feet. 363 CHAPTER XVI. BURRELL. Named after Judge Burrell - Organization - Indian Names of Crooked Creek - Original Owners of the Soil - Warrants Dated in 1776-Names of the Citizens of the Township in 1805-Strange Conjugal Arrange ments - Powder-Mills - Captain Sam Brady's Autograph - An Eccentric Manufacturer of Plows -" Will iamsburg"- Salt Works - Religious History - Primitive Schools - Recent Educational Statistics - Mercantile and Other Occupations - Population. BURRELL TOWNSHIP was named after the late Judge Burrell, who was at the time of its organization president judge of the tenth judicial district, which was then composed of Armstrong, Indiana and Westmoreland counties. An unsuccessful attempt, as elsewhere mentioned,* was made to organize a new township to embrace most of the territory of which Burrell now consists. In 1853-4 another attempt was made, which, the objectionable feature in some of the boundaries, which were first prayed for, having been removed, succeeded against a somewhat formidable opposition. The remonstrance of citizens of Allegheny township set forth that they were not unwilling to part with a portion of their territory, but objected to the cutting up of their school districts, which they feared would result. The remonstrance of the citizens of Kittanning township set forth that the formation of the new township would derange the school districts, and since Manor township had been, a few years before, formed out of Kittanning, the taking of another part of it off would leave it too small for township purposes. The court, however, appointed James Stewart, Archibald Glenn and William McIntosh viewers or commissioners, whose report in favor of the formation of the new township was filed March 22,1854, which was subsequently, in 1855, approved, and the organization of Burrell township consummated. Its boundaries are: Beginning at Crooked creek, at the end of Walker's tunnel; thence through the territory of Kittanning township south eighty degrees, east four miles and one hundred and sixtysix perches, to a maple on Cherry run, near the house of Samuel George; thence south fifteen degrees west three hundred and thirty-nine perches, to a buttonwood at the forks of Cherry run; thence through the territory of Plum creek township south fifteen degrees east.two miles and eighty-four perches, to Lindsey Argler's run; thence down said run south seventy degrees west one hundred * In sketch of Kiskiminetas township. and ten perches, and south fifty-six degrees west sixty-four perches, to Crooked creek; thence through territory of Kiskiminetas township south thirty degrees, west one mile and three hundred and eight perches, to a white-oak on land of Jacob Hart; thence north eighty-six degrees west one mile and a half; thence north forty-seven and a half degrees west one mile and two hundred and forty-five perches, to a post on the line between the townships of Allegheny and Kiskiminetas; thence through the territory of Allegheny township north twenty-five degrees west two hundred and twenty perches to a post; thence north forty-five degrees west one hundred and seventy-six perches, to M. Lane's, taking him into the new township; thence due north three miles and seventy-six perches, to a black-oak on the bank of Crooked creek; thence down said creek north forty-seven degrees west fourteen perches, south eighty-four degrees west ninety-two perches, north eighty-four degrees west thirty perches, north forty-one degrees west ninety-six perches, north fourteen degrees east fifty-four perches, north sixty-two degrees west twenty-six perches, north sixty-seven degrees east ninety-three perches, north forty-four degrees east sixteen perches, north twenty-one degrees east thirty-six perches, and north forty degrees east fifteen perches, to the place of beginning. The chief stream in this township is Crooked creek, whose ten large bends, between the points at which the eastern and western boundary lines cross it, make its course very crooked. These and numerous other great bends in other parts of the territory through which it flows make it a very crooked stream. Hence the Indians called it Woak-hanne, Crooked Stream, the Stream with Largqe Bends; Woak-tschin, to bend; Woak-tsche-n, crooked. The ancient county map shows that the thirty six original tracts, exclusive of the Clemons tract, within the present limits of this township, were: BURRELL TOWNSHIP. Reading Beatty, 436.7 acres, seated by Jacob Hart; James Shields, 261 acres 62 perches, partly in South Bend; Robert Finney, Jr., 385.9 acres; William Palmer, 4371 acres, a small portion in Kiskiminetas; Robert Carnahan, 396 acres, seated by John Wagle;* James Vanhorn, 450 acres, partly in Allegheny, seated by Adam Fiscus; Jacob Beer, 313 acres 109 perches, seated by William Kerr; Thomas York, 346 acres, partly in Allegheny, seated by George Elliott; John Brown, 357.8 acres, partly in Allegheny, seated by John Beck; James Renwick, 305 acres, seated by John Pitts; James Clark, 418 acres, seated by John Schall; William Sykes, 3291 acres, seated by Michael Schall, Sr.; William Eckart, 361 acres. The foregoing tracts are on the lower, or southerly and southwesterly, side of Crooked creek. The following are on the opposite side of that creek: John Salter, 327 acres; Christopher Hoover, 192 acres, seated by himself; Agnes Kyle, 221.5 acres; Robert Adams, 321.65 acres, partly in South Bend, seated by Isaac Wagle and - Wilson; Samuel Kyle, 215.6 acres, partly in South Bend, seated by David Sloan; Joseph Shoemaker, 382 acres; Henry Davis, 200 acres, seated by himself; R. Cogley, in right of Malcom Campbell, 257 acres, seated by George Shoemaker, heirs of William Clark; R. Cogley, 91~ acres; Adam Wilhelm, 140 acres, seated by; John Craig, 2051 acres, seated by George Helffreich, patent to Craig, dated September 21, 1789, deed from Craig to R. Cogley, May 1, 1790, consideration ~50, Cogley to Michael Schall, December 31, 1805, consideration ~200, Schall to George Peter Sheffer, January 27, 1806, for 1851 acres, consideration ~150; Francis Cooper, 3081 acres, afterward John Davison's; George Risler, 345.8 acres, seated by Andrew Beck; Isaac Mechlin, 325 acres, seated by John Robb and George A. King; Mary Field, 318 acres, 109 perches; Michael Huffnagle, 382.9 acres, seated by Robert Walker. Huffnagle was captain of one of the volunteer companies raised in Westmoreland county for the defense of the frontiers, served as major of two companies under appointment of the lieutenant of that county, from February 11 until July 1, 1779, was favorably mentioned by Col. Daniel Brodhead in his letter to President Reed of April 27, 1780. In 1783 he had charge of the timber and the land of the reserved tract opposite Pittsburgh. In the course of his * This tract was sold by the sheriff of Westmoreland county for taxes to Jacob Beck, the deed for which is dated October 20, 1807, who, by deed dated January 15, 1844, conveyed it in trust for the heirs of John Wagle to Catherine Wagle, an equal share to herself, for $7. The bulk of this tract is southwesterly from the mouth of Pine run, in the southwestern part of what is now Burrell township. 23 varied correspondence with Major, afterward General, John Armstrong, Jr., who was then Secretary of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, is a letter from the Secretary to Huffnagle, then prothonotary of Westmoreland county, dated at Philadelphia, November 15, 1783, in which lihe said: "The licentious disposition discovered in Manellan township is not a little alarming, and in the opinion of council requiries an early and rigorous correction. Upon receipt of this you will therefore assemble the magistracy of that part of the county and with them adopt the most efficient measures to investigate the business and enforce the laws." Returning to the original tracts: James Arnold, 49 acres; Valentine Shallus, 445 acres, called "Mount Joy," seated by Michael Schall; Thomas Milliken, 228 acres, seated by George P. Sheffer, warrant dated October 3, 1778, deed to R. Cogley, January 17, 1789, consideration ten shillings; Cogley to Michael Schall, May 8, 1806, for 225 acres, consideration ~200; Schall to George P. Sheffer, July 9, for 228 acres, consideration ~350; Joseph Sansom, 4011 acres; Jacob Shallus, 327.4 acres, seated by Isaac Wagle; John and Samuel Hall, 314.14 acres, seated by James Hall; Isaac Mather, 325 acres, seated by Peter Rupert, warrant dated August 20, 1776; Mather to John Paul, November 10; Paul to John Vanderen, Jr., June 3, 1779; Vanderen to Michael Hillegas, who was for several years treasurer of this state, and of the United States, before the close of the revolutionary war; Hillegas to Lazarus de Francy, then late of Auteen, France, May 1, 1780; Madam Philebert Guichet de Francy, by her attorney-in-fact, William Reynolds, of Bedford, Pennsylvania, to the heirs and devisees of James Hamilton, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and Thomas Hamilton, Greensburgh, Pennsylvania, February 19, 1830, from whom the present owners have more immediately derived their titles. This tract was for many years adversely claimed by different parties, and there was much litigation respecting it, before two verdicts and judgments in favor of the validity of the title by which the present owners hold it. From the ancient county map and descriptions in some old deeds there appears to have been a vacant tract of considerable extent skirting Crooked creek from its first large bend above the mouth of Cherry run and the Malcolm Campbell tract, and that runs up to the southern boundary of the Joseph and William Sansom tracts, and adjoins the northern, northeastern and eastern boundaries of the Joseph Shoemaker tract. The John Wilson tract, called "Wilsonburgh," HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. mostly in Allegheny and Kiskiminetas townships, appears to have been looked after quite early. The order or application for a warrant is dated April 13, 1769. The warrant is dated July 26 and the patent July 31, 1781. Joseph Landis and wife conveyed 60 acres of "Wilsonburg" to Joseph Beck October 31, 1856, for $475. The warrant for the Michael Huffnagle tract, called "Isaac's lot," is dated September 5, 1776. Huffnagle conveyed his interest in it to John Vanderen July 10, 1778, who conveyed it to Isaac Vanhorn, January 24, 1782, whose executors, by James Brady, of Greensburgh, Pennsylvania, their attorney-in-fact, conveyed it to John Shotz, the consideration expressed in the deed being $1, August 7, 1810, and he conveyed 280 acres of it to Alexander Walker, January 22, 1814, for $1,250. The warrants for several of those tracts are dated in 1776, one of them as early as the 4th of February; those for other tracts are dated one, two, eight and twelve years later. The surveys of some are dated a few days, and others a few months, after those of the warrants. The John Brown tract, called "Engina," or "Algenal," has remained in the ownership of the Clemens family during the last century. The patent for it to Paul Engle, or Angle, is dated September 7, 1781, which subsequently became vested in Jacob Clemens, who devised it to Charles W. Clemens. So far as the writer can determine from the assessment list of Allegheny township for 1805-6, the following are the assessments then made in that part thereof now included in Burrell: George Beck, 160 acres, three horses and four cattle, appraised at $210 in 1805, and $205 in 1806; John Henry, 63 acres and three cattle, $33.90 in 1805, and $18 in 1806; James Hall, 250 acres, one distillery, two horses and two cattle, $242.50 both years; Christopher Hoover, 200 acres, one horse, two cattle, $120 both years; George Helffreid (Ielffreich), one horse, one head of cattle, $15 in 1806; George Painter, 98 acres, one gristmill, one sawmill, one head of cattle, $119 in 1805, and $10 in 1806; George Peter Sheffer, 400 acres, one horse, one head of cattle, $315 in 1806; Michael Schall, Sr., 400 acres, one head of cattle, $305 in 1805, and $233 in 1806; Michael Schall, Jr., 275 acres, two horses, two cattle, $167.50 each year; John Schall, blacksmith, $10 in 1805; Jacob Schall, schoolmaster, single man; George Shoemaker, 225 acres, two cattle, $178.75 in 1805, $183 in 1806; Adam Wilhelm, 160 acres, one horse, two cattle, $100 each year; Isaac Wagle, 50 acres, $75 in 1806. There must then have been a population of about sixty. The valuation of these tracts of land then varied from twenty-five to fifty, sixty-nine and seventy-nine cents an acre. The portion of that list showing the returns of unseated land for those years is not accessible -it is probably lost. Such land, a few years later, was generally valued at fifty cents an acre. More or less of the tracts, like those in the adjoining townships, probably had particular names. "Rotterdam," for instance, is the one given to the R. Cogley (91- acres) tract lying partly on Cherry run and partly on Crooked creek, above the mouth of that run. There must have been a mill of some kind, probably a gristmill, on this tract, at or near the mouth of Cherry run, as early as, or before, 1802,* for in the act of assembly of that year fixing the place for holding the elections in Allegheny township at the house of George Painter, at the mouth of that run, he is described as "miller." He was assessed with a gristmill and a sawmill in 1804. Indeed, "Rotterdam" has been a prominent point in this region ever since. The warrant for it to R. Cogley is dated April 3, 1789, the patent to Michael Schall June 14, 1806; the deed from Schall to George Painter, July 29 of that year; deed from Painter to Isaac Wagle, June 9, 1809, two tracts, one for 11 acres and the other for 42 acres and 53 perches, for ~600; deed from Wagle to Robert Richards, February 13, 1816, for $1,650; Richards to Andrew Craig, January 18, 1820, for $2,000, the above-mentioned 53 acres and 53 perches; release from the heirs of Andrew Craig to William Craig; William Craig to Adam Thompson and John Wright, August 27, 1825; Wright agreed, March 18, 1829, to convey his interest therein to John and Samuel Pitts; that contract having been proven in proceedings in the Orphans' Court, Wright was directed to deliver one moiety to John Pitts for himself, and the other moiety to him in trust for Salona, the sole heir of Samuel Pitts, deceased, which was done, the deed having been executed in 1839; the interest of Salona Pitts was conveyed by herself and her husband, David Speer, to John Jack for $500; a contract was entered into between John Pitts in his lifetime to convey his interest to John Jack, which, after his death, having been duly proven in proceedings in the Orphans' Court of this county, Robert Walker (of A.), administrator of the estate of John Pitts, was directed by the court to make to Jack a deed therefor (except 25 acres) of the mill tract and parcel of land, which deed is dated *Painter built a mill some distance up Cherry run, it is said, in 1800, and at the mouth in 1802. 366 BURRELL TOWNSHIP. March 29, 1840; Jack to Michael Cochran, April 19, 1845 (except 1 acre, sold by John Pitts in his lifetime to Daniel Ruffner), one undivided halfpart for $1,000. The transfers of the other moiety are: Adam Thompson, February 26, 1830, an undivided half to Daniel Shoemaker and Peter Hine; transfer by Hine of his interest to Shoemaker; Shoemaker to Jacob Hart, April 15, 1837; Hart to Joseph Miller, April 29, 1843, for $1,000; Miller to Michael Cochran, June 2, 1849, for $1,200; Michael Davis to Michael Cochran, March 21, 1858, for 112 perches of the Henry Davis tract, for eighty cents; Cochran's executors -his heirs having refused to take the property at its appraisement in proceedings in partition - to John Schwalm and W. H. Carnahan, June 30, 1871, for $17,000, who are the present owners. The present site of their mills is the most ancient mill-seat in what is now Burrell township. These mills, prior to 1830, were, perhaps, known as Painter's, Wagle's, Richards', Craig's, Davis', and Wright & Thompson's mills. They have since been called Pitts' and Cochran's mills, which last-mentioned name they and their locality still bear,* though recently changed to that of Carnahan's. The first store at this point was opened by Michael Cochran in 1849-50, which he continued while he owned the property. A grange store is now kept here by Schwalm & Carnahan. On December 21, 1822, Irwin & McClelland advertised -Robert Irwin having been first assessed as a carder in 1821-that they "continued as usual, fulling and dressing cloth at the mouth of Cherry run." Anthony Helffreich was first assessed with that fulling-mill (and with a sawmill) in 1824-5, and for several years afterward. He announced in his advertisement in October, 1826, that he intended to have everything necessary to full, dye and dress cloth in the best manner. Isaac Kinnard was first assessed there as a carder in 1834. He subsequently became the proprietor of the fulling-mill that he ultimately * To show the mutations both in the ownership and the value of this property for a series of years, or the variations of value in the estimates of the assessors, the following facts are collected from assessment lists of Plum Creek township, in which this portion of Burrell formerly was: In 1832, Pitts & Shoemaker were assessed with 101 acres and one gristmill, valued at $501; in 1833, Latimer & Shoemaker 101 acres and one gristmill, transferred to Win. Calhoun, to whom they were assessed, together with one fourth-rate horse and one head of second-rate cattle, at a total valuation of $544; in 1834, Pitts & Calhoun, 101 acres and one second-rate gristmill, $501; in 1835, John Pitts, 100 acres, fourteenth -rate, and one fourth-rate gristmill, $225; in 1836I, Pitts & Shoemaker, 100 acres, etc., same as in preceding year; in 1837, Pitts, J. Hart & Abraham Liningbigler, 100 acres, etc., $325; in 1838, Hart & Pitts, 103 acres, seventeenth-rate, and one gristmill, thirdrate, $803; in 1839, Hart & Pitts, same as in preceding year; in 1840, Miller & Pitts, 103 acres, seventeenth-rate, and one gristmill, third-rate, $803; in 1811, Miller & Pitts, 103 acres, seventeenth-rate, and one gristmill, third-rate, $500; in 1842, Miller & Jack, 24 acres at $2 per acre, and one gristmill, $450, total, $198; in 1813, Jack & Miller, 50 acres at $2 per acre, and one gristmill $100, total, $500; in 1844, Jack & Miller, 50 acres and one gristmill, $670; in 1845, 50 acres at $1 per acre, and one gristmill at $300, total, $500; in 1846, Michael Cochran, 50 acres and one gristmill, $650. converted into a woolen-factory, which is now operated by him and his son. This point has ever since its settlement, been supplied with an adequate number of such mechanics as are usual in such a place. A substantial county bridge, with stone pier and abutments and wooden superstructure, has for many years spanned Crooked creek between the mouth of Cherry run and Cochran's mills. Thus it is, that "Rotterdam" has been, from the beginning of this century, an important point for business for the surrounding country. During the late rebellion, flagrante bello, when the success of the Union forces was essential to the preservation and perpetuity of our national integrity, this was, as it were, a focus of the peace element of the adjacent region, which was an obstruction, to say the least-an irrational, illogical obstruction-to the successful prosecution of the war, to obviate which in a portion of this region required, at a certain stage of the war, the presence of a detachment of United States troops to prevent the partial nullification of the equable and necessary demand of the government for additional forces. Yet even this point was not then barren of that other element, which regarded the vigorous prosecution of that war as indispensable to securing, conquering a permanent peace by the effective triumph of the national arms. Among the early settlers on the territory included in this township, George Shoemaker was noted as a thrifty and successful farmer. He seated the tract called "Monmouth," designated on the ancient county map as the one warranted to " R. Cogley in right of Malcolm Campbell," which contained 257 acres, the patent to him bearing date March 20, 1801.* Its territory as originally surveyed, lay about a mile south of "Rotterdam," in a large western bend of Crooked creek. His wife must have been an efficient helpmeet, as many another wife is. He must not only have cherished a strong affection for her, but have had a high appreciation of and great confidence in her as a woman of sound judgment and excellent business capacity, for by his last will and testament, registered October 1, 1821, he gave to her all his personal and real property, provided his eldest sons and one of his daughters should have what had already been advanced them. Hle further directed that the rest of his children should have * As showing the value of land in this section in the early part of this century, the passing remark is made that George Shoemaker sold thirty-three acres of that tract, May 29, 1805, to Henry Davis, for $99. That tract "Monmouth" was surveyed April 26, 1790, by warrant dated March 7, 1788, "situated on the north side of Crooked creek, and near the mouth of Cherry run, in Armstrong township, Westmoreland county." 367 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. "schooling equal to that of their eldest brothers and sister-then as each of them come of age, with good behavior and due respect to their mother's advice, shall have to the amount of what the estate will possibly admit of." The writer has not learned that any of them has ever forfeited his or her right to a share of that patrimony. Mrs. George-or rather Margaret, for ladies in their widowhood resume their maiden Christian names -Shoemaker, a comely lady, was, in due time after her husband's death, wooed by Barnard Davers, who lived near the South Bend. She, however, would not be won, unless he would enter into an antenuptial agreement respecting the separate use, occupation and management of their respective lands and other property, to which the wooing widower assented. An "indenture" was accordingly prepared, dated December 14, 1824, and executed by them and Eben Smith Kelly, the preamble of which set forth that, whereas, a marriage was intended, by permission of God, to be shortly had and solemnized between the said Barnard Davers and the said Margaret Shoemaker, wherefore, in consideration of that intended marriage Barnard Davers covenanted, promised and agreed to and with the said Eben Smith Kelly, that in case that marriage should take place, it should be lawful for the said Margaret Shoemaker, from time to time, and at all times during their joint lives, to have the possession and enjoyment of all and singular the goods and chattels, moneys and personal property of whatever description, also of all the rents, issues and profits of her lands and tenements, or those of her late husband, then in her possession, and to sell and dispose of the same or any part thereof to such person or persons and in such manner as she should think proper, notwithstanding the said intended marriage, and as if she were sole and unmarried, and without being subject to the debts, contracts, disposal or engagement of the said Davers, or of any person or persons claiming under him; that after her death the same should go to her children or such other persons as she might by her last will and testament appoint; and in case she should survive him, then his heirs, executors or administrators should not claim, challenge or demand any right of, in, to or out of those goods, chattels, rents, issues and profits; that she should be at liberty to carry into execution the last will and testament of her deceased husband in all reapects, and be free to act therein just as if she were sole and unmarried. It was also declared and agreed by and between all these three parties, and she thereby agreed and consented, to accept and take the provision thus made for her in lieu of her dower or third part of the rents, issues and profits of the lands and tenements which the said Barnard Davers then had, and of her part of the personal property which she possessed under the laws of this state. The marriage occurred early in 1825, and they used, managed and occupied their separate estates as distinctly and independently of each other, pleasantly and harmoniously, until Davers' death in December, 1829. In due time another suitor, George A. King, a substantial farmer, who owned and cultivated, besides other lands, a part of "Edgeware," as the Isaac Mechlin tract was called, west of the western branch of Pine run, and north of the Isaac Mather tract, known also as the Samuel Peebles tract, to whom the patent was granted, whose heirs sold to John Robb 301 acres of it September 5, 1810, for $602, who sold 121 acres of it to Geo. A. King June 16, 1812, for $242, sought her hand. Her children had then grown up, some of them were married, and with her were cultivating and managing the fertile acres of " Monmouth," which their father had devised to her. In that emergency-as related by the then editor of the Pittsburgh American, and whose statement is reproduced in Sherman Day's Historical Collections of Pennsylvania-she consulted the late Samuel Houston, of Kittanning, her factor and confidential merchant. When she had stated to him her intention to marry again, he is reported to have said, "I should suppose that one so happily situated as you are, with everything rich and comfortable about you, and your sons and daughters grown up, would not think of such a thing at your time of life. I would advise you by no means to entangle yourself again in any marriage alliance." "You tink not, Mr. Houston?" "Why, it is very sincerely the advice I would give you, if that is what you want." "Well, dat maybe all verywell and very goot; but, see here, a man I want, and a man I will have!" " O, that is a very different thing altogether, and in that case, I would advise you by all means to marry." She, however, would not accept her new suitor's proposal, unless he, too, would enter into an ante-nuptial agreement, like that with Barnard Davers, which he did. The parties to the agreement in this instance were Geo. A. King, of the first part, James E. Brown, of the second part, and Margaret Davers, of the third part. The date of the this second agreement is March 8, 1832. They were subsequently married, and managed their respective estates as she and Davers had done. In both instances husband and wife were separate, on their farms, from Monday morning until Saturday night each week; their accounts were kept separately; they knew hardly any more about each other's 368 BURRELL TOWNSHIP. business affairs than if they were single. There were no clashing interests, no coveting of each other's possessions, to cause trouble and discord. At the death of her third husband, in the spring of 1843, as at that of her second one, the Shoemaker estate was left intact. She never claimed dower in either Davers' or King's estate. From loyalty to her first husband's estate, not from stinginess, did she, by ante-nuptial stipulations, require each of her last two husbands to pay, as they cheerfully and regularly did, an annual stipend in flour for his boarding and horsekeeping from Saturday night until Monday morning of each week of their singular, and, in this county, unprecedented, conjugal lives. She is said to have been well educated in German. She survived her last husband several years, having enjoyed the affection of her kindred, and the esteem of friends and acquaintances, to which the good qualities of her heart and mind justly entitled her. POWDERMILLS. As early as 1811 George Beck, Sr., commenced the manufacture of powder near the mouth of Pine run, on the George Risler tract, which was continued by him and his sons until Thursday, June 29, 1826, when an explosion of about fifty pounds of powder in the mortar occurred, caused, it was supposed, by a spark elicited by one of the pounders. John and Daniel Beck were at the time employed in the mill. The latter was thrown out of the door and so injured that he afterward died. The former was severely but not fatally injured. A part of the roof was also carried away by the explosion, but the building was saved. Willow charcoal, the writer is informed, was used in making powder at that mill. The reputation of Beck's powder stood high at home and abroad. Large quantities of it were transported to Pittsburgh in canoes, Some of the Kittanning merchants made prominent mention of it in their advertisements. In September, 1875, Thomas Logan, Jr., deputysheriff, found, near the junction of Pine run with Crooked creek, a flagstone which had apparently been detached from the face of a rock, on which is this inscription: "CAPT. S. BRDY, 1780," the figures being under the central part of the words. This relic is now in the possession of Col. Winm. Sirwell of Kittanning. It is said by some of the oldest inhabitants that there was another powdermill at the mouth of a run above Cochran's mills, either Fageley's or the one lower down, in what was formerly a part of Plum creek township. It does not appear that anyone was ever assessed with a powdermill in that township. But George Beck's name with the initials "P. W." after it, being those probably of powderworks, appears on the assessment lists for 1817-18. The lowest of the three rates then fixed for powdermills was $50. George Beck's occupation, one horse and two cattle were assessed at only $38 in 1817, and $36 in 1818, so that although he then manufactured powder he must have done so on too small a scale to be assessed with a powdermill. John R. Shaeffer erected a powdermill in 1822 near Pine run, about 100 rods south of the present northern boundary line of the township, near W. and L. Shaeffer's present residences. About two years thereafter an explosion, probably caused by friction, occurred while the proprietor and his employ6 were returning from the house, whither they had gone a short time before. It was afterward converted into a linseed-oil mill, which was in a few years converted into a distillery, which was operated for several years by Shaeffer. More than half a century ago Frederick Altman commenced, and continued for some years, the manufacture of plows with wooden moldboards. He advertised in the Kittanning Gazette, September 21, 1825, that he was then making half-patent plows, that is, those with cast-iron moldboards and wrought-iron colters. His plows of both kinds are still remembered as having been excellent ones. The locality where he made them is in the northern part of the township, near the head of a spring run which empties into Pine run about 230 rods above its junction with Crooked creek. That locality is on the Valentine Shallas tract, which became vested in Michael Shall. Altman must have been endowed with a good degree of mechanical ingenuity and inventive genius. Besides guns and other things, he made a good pocket-knife with twelve blades, and invented an auger with a chisel attachment, by which he bored holes in his wooden moldboards, etc., which were nearly square.* He was certainly eccentric enough to have been a man of genius. One of his eccentricities was his constant refraining from speaking to any of his children. Their mother was the medium of communication from him to them, except on one occasion, which was when he and one or more of them were going to Kittanning in a wagon. When they were descending, or about to descend a hill he said to his son Isaac, in German, perhaps involuntarily, "Nun yetz der wagon must gespert sein! " "Now the wagon must be locked," equivalent to "down brakes" on railroad cars. * There was on exhibition a similar invention at the International Exposition in Paris in 1878, which attracted much attention. 369 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. " WILLIAMSBURGII." A patent dated June 9, 1818, was issued to William Fiscus, Sr., for 138 acres of a tract adjoining the Henry Davis, Agnes Kyle and Joseph Shoemaker tracts, which must have been the major part of the Christian Hoover tract, on which Fiscus soon afterward laid out the town of "Williamsburgh," with 51 in-lots and 6 out-lots, and convenient streets and alleys. The lots were numbered and the streets named Main and Market. The records show that the proprietor conveyed lot No. 11, containing one-quarter of an acre, on the corner of Main and Market streets, August 15, 1818, to Canady Hunter for $31. Hunter assigned his interest therein to John Pounds, September 9, 1818; Pounds assigned his interest to Edward Carlton December 1, 1819; Carlton conveyed the same to Rachel Pounds, April 2, 1823, for $1, and there endeth the record. It is not apparent to the writer that another of these lots was ever sold. The passing remark may here come in that William Fiscus was assessed as a "hatter" from 1811 until 1816. Perhaps some of the oldest inhabitants of that region remember whether his manufacture of hats was extensive and lucrative enough to warrant the expense incident to purchasing the ground for, and the laying out of, a town. From 1820 until 1822, inclusive, these lots were assessed separately; the tax on each varied from ten to twenty, fifty, seventy-five cents and one dollar. The assessor and his assistants returned in 1823 that the value of the lots was so small that "the tax could not be got off them." They therefore agreed with Fiscus to aggregate the 24 of them on the list that year at 6 acres, on which they assessed a tax of $6. South of "Williamsburgh" and below and adjoining the western projection of the Henry Davis tract, in a southern bend of Crooked creek, was " Ganges," as the John Salter tract was called, which extended several rods across the creek, and was surveyed May 22, by warrant of February 4, 1776. Opposite to "Ganges," on the west side of the credek, was "Nemidid," on the William Eckhart tract, surveyed May 21 by warrant of February 12, 1776. SALTWORKS. Some time prior to 1820, perhaps as early as 1812, a salt well was bored and the salt manufacture commenced on the southern part of the Abovementioned Christopher Hoover tract, on that part of it called "Hooversburgh." These "saltworks " were for the first time assessed to W. R. Richards in 1841, and then successively until 1844. The patent for sixty-nine acres of that tract was issued to Christian Hoover June 10, 1809, who conveyed the same to James Richards, November 18, next thereafter, for $139, who by deed dated March 18, 1820, conveyed two-fifths of the sixty-nine acres, on which " Crooked creek salt works are erected," to William R. Richards for $80, who by deed of March 5, 1857, conveyed one-fifth thereof to David Ralston for $100. Another salt-well, called the "lower saltworks," was drilled, about 1824, a half a mile or so below Cochran's, now Carnahan's, mill, on the Francis Cooper, afterward John Duncan, tract, on the upper or north side of Crooked creek, by Michael Townsend, who with the intent, Jacob-like, of deceiving his father, as Michael Davis relates, showed a bottle of salt water to his father, as having been obtained from that well. The father, thus induced to believe that the well would yield a good supply of the briny fluid, erected a shed and procured pans which were put in place. When he discovered that the well did not yield that kind of water, he became so disgusted that he burned the shed. Le Fevre and John Parks made salt several years, which they hauled away by teams. It was not a profitable well, and was of course abandoned. CHURCHES. The lirst Evangelical Lutheran church within the present limits of this county is the St. Michael's, which was organized in 1806, by Rev. Michael Steck, Sr., of Greensburgh, Pennsylvania. The original members of the church were twenty-four, namely: John George Helfferich and George Peter Shaeffer, elders; John Philip Shaeffer, Michael Schall, Sr., Isaac Wagley, Sr., Jacob Waltenbaugh, Henry Davis, Jacob George, Sr., Win. Heffelfinger, Adam Wilhelm, Philip Hartman, George A. King and their wives. The number increased rapidly. At least two other Lutheran churches have sprung from this one. Before the regular organization of churches in this region, clergymen, chiefly Lutheran and German Reformed, itinerated and held religious services at private houses, one of which, in what is now Burrell township, was George Peter Shaeffer's, frequently mentioned in Rev. Gabriel A. Reichert's diary, which was in the vicinity of the mouth of Cherry run, near which Mr. Reichert resided several years before he was called, in 1837, to the pastorate of Christ's and Immnanuel churches in Phil. adelphia. Previous to his removal thither, his itinerations had extended east to the Allegheny furnace, then in Hluntingdon, now in Blair county, north to Venango and Crawford counties, and through the western and southern parts of this 370 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. March 6. (It was finally merged with the Gazette.) The presidential election proclamation in the issue of October 7, 1820, shows that Philip Mechling was still sheriff. It also appears from other contents that the late Gen. Orr was then a candidate for assembly, on the democratic republican ticket, and the late Samuel Houston for the same, on both the democratic-republican and Indiana county tickets; that John Cribbs, James Pinks, Robert Robinson and Thos. McConnell were volunteer candidates for sheriff, and Anthony Montgomery, Peter Klingensmith and Jas. Jackson were candidates for county commissioner at the October election. The Kittanning Gazette was established by Josiah Copley and John Croll, and its first number was issued August 17, 1825. It was conducted under the firm name of Copley, Croll & Co. until 1829, when Copley withdrew. It and the Columbian were merged about April 12, 1831, and was published as the Gazette and Columbian, by Simon Torney and John Croll, under thile firm name of John Croll & Co., until November 6, 1832, when Croll withdrew, and Copley became the editor and publisher for the estate of Simon Torney, deceased, until 1838- the Columbian part of the name having been dropped prior to 1836-when, i. e., about April 5, 1838, it passed into the control of the late Benjamin Oswald, who, in the first week of May, 1841, changed the name to that of the Democratic Press, and afterward to the Kittanning Free Press, which name was retained until May, 1864, when it was purchased from Mrs. Oswald by an association, and its name changed to Union Free Press, which it still retains. Marshall B. Oswald succeeded the association as publisher of the paper, and in 1876 sold an interest to James E. Neale, Esq., who, after being elected to the bench in the spring of 1881 (April 9), transferred his half to G. S. Crosby, Esq. It was issued under the name of Gazette uninterruptedly, except the short period during which it bore the name of Gazette and Columbian, from 1825 until 1841. It was, for a few years, while it bore the name of Gazette and Columbian, the organ of the democratic-republican party in this county. It was afterward a whig paper. On the dissolution of the whig party it became a republican organ, which it still is. It was never a professedly antimasonic paper, though for a year or two it acted in harmony with the antimasonic organization, while it bore the name of Gazette. As Gazette and Free Press it has flourished more than half a century. In February, 1830, the publication of the Armstrong Advertiser and Antimasonic Free Press was commenced by the late Judge Buffington, which was subsequently continued by William Badger until August or September, 1833, when the type and other materials thereof were transferred to Freeport, and thereafter used in the publication of the Olive Branch. Though not germain to the history of journalism, it is to the history of printing in this county,the fact that fifty years ago, in 1826, Copley, Croll & Co. entered into book-printing. In that year they printed for the author, a Kittanning clergyman, a book of 286 pages duodecimo, entitled "Lectures on Theology, or Dissertations on some of the most important Doctrines of the Christian Religion, by the Rev. Moses P. Bennett, Minister of the Episcopal Church," which did not prove to be pecuniarily profitable to either the author or the printers. There are thirteen lectures on as many different topics, written in a perspicuous style, and evincing much study and research. The reasoning is logical, but whether all the ideas accord with those of such as are held to be orthodox is a question for the theologians to settle. Proposals were made in 1830 for publishing a weekly German paper, to be called the Armstrong Republican and Friend of Liberty, by Simon Torney & Co., as soon as sufficient encouragement should be afforded. That project was not consummated. The Armstrong Democrat was established by Frederick Rohrer and John Croll June 4, 1834. It continued to be a democratic paper under their proprietorship, under that of Andrew J. Faulk, and under that of Wm. McWilliams, until 1864, when it espoused the cause of the republican party. Its name was soon after changed to that of Armstrong Republican. It has been owned and conducted for several years past by A. G. Henry, whose son, WV. M. Henry, local editor, has also been manager since 1880. The Mentor was established in the fall of 1862, by J. A. Fulton, and was published and edited by him until May or June, 1864, when he disposed of it to an association, and its name was changed to that of Democratic Sentinel, which has since been published and edited by John W. Rohrer. The lentor was the organ of the peace wing of the democratic party in this county. The Sentinel is democratic in politics. The Centennial, an amateur juvenile monthly, owned and published by Reichert Bros., near the corner of Water and Mulberry streets, was first issued in April, 1874. Its size for the first three months was about 7 X 5 inches; it was then enBURRELL TOWNSHIP. county, so that his ministrations occurred at Shaeffer's but once in four weeks. He preached a trial sermon there, July 6, 1823. A congregational meeting was held there August 3, when St. Michael's church was reorganized, and it was determined that his salary should be paid from the 1st day of July. The officers were installed August 31. His diary shows that on April 11, 1824, he baptized four children, two of whom were John Householder's, and then or about that time, confirmed twenty-five persons, the youngest of whom was fourteen years of age, and the oldest fifty-five. Of that number Peter George is known to be still living. There were then sixty-four church members. The number present at the communion, August 11, 1827, was small, on account of a difficulty or controversy in one of the largest families, that is, a family consisting of a large number of persons, with extensive family connections. The first church edifice, 30 X 40 feet, was constructed of square hewed logs, about 1820. Its site was about a mile and a half northeast of the mouth of Cherry run, on the northeastern part of the John Craig tract, on land then owned by George P. Shaeffer, which continued to be used until 1852. Shaeffer for $1, conveyed, August 3, 1830, five acres and eight perches of that land to John P. Shaeffer and Peter Rupert, "trustees for the German Evangelical Lutheran and German Reformed churches in the townships of Allegheny, Kittanning and Plum Creek," meaning, probably, that the members of these churches then consisted of persons residing in those townships. It was announced in the Kittanning Gazette that the Evangelical Lutheran church, near George P. Shaeffer's, was consecrated on Sunday, September 16, 1832, when Revs. Steck and Hacke, of Greensburgh, Pennsylvania, officiated-the former a Lutheran, and the latter a German Reformed clergyman. The Lutheran church was then under the charge of Rev. G. A. Reichart. The St. Michael's Evangelical Lutheran church was incorporated by the proper court, March 20, 1850. The charter officers were: Rev. George F. Ehrenfeldt, pastor; Isaac Kinnard and George King, elders; Peter Hileman, Samuel Woodward and George Riggle, deacons, who were to serve until an election should be held. The second church edifice, brick, 44X60 feet, height of ceiling fourteen feet, was erected in 1852, at the crossroads on Anthony Helfferich's land, and was dedicated soon after its completion, by Rev. Daniel Earhart and others. It was razed to the ground by one of the violent storms in the summer of 1860. The present brick edifice was soon after erected, through the exertions, in part at least, of Rev. Michael Swigert, on the same site, which is probably on the southeastern part of the Jacob Shallas tract. Members in 1876, 225; Sabbath-school scholars, 100. The church of Christian Brethren was organized about 1852. The edifice is a one-story frame. It was incorporated by the proper court June 7, 1853. The charter officers were: Jos. Shoemaker, elder; Jos. B. McKee, Thos. A. McKee, deacons; Samuel Wilcox, Jr., John Carnahan, Daniel Shoemaker, Daniel Keefer, David Rarich, trustees. The Methodist Episcopal church was also organized about the same time as the last-mentioned one. Its edifice is one-story, frame. Both of these edifices appear to be near the central part of the William Sykes tract. The former is possibly on the southwestern part of another ancient tract, designated " vacant" on the map of original tracts. SCHOOLS. Not record evidence but reliable tradition says, that before 1807 some of the more forehanded citizens employed teachers to instruct their children in their families. That is probably what Mrs. Kirkpatrick means when she says that she remembers of schools being kept here and there in private houses in the locality where she spent her childhood, several miles up Crooked creek.* A primitive log schoolhouse, according to reliable tradition, was built on the Christopher Hoover tract, perhaps on the "Hooversburgh" part of it, in 1807, then in Allegheny township. Whether the first teacher in that house was Jacob Shall or Williamin Smith, or James Moor, who were assessed as " schoolmasters" somewhere in Allegheny township in 1805-6 and afterward, or someone else, is not manifest to the writer. Reliable tradition indicates that some, if not the mass, of early settlers of the territory included in Burrell township paid a due degree of attention to the education of their children. It is but fair to infer that thorough and accurate teachers were sought, that is, thorough and accurate in their limited degree of advanceminent, and that the desire for thorough and accurate teaching has been transmitted, at least such is the writer's conclusion from his past observations, made in the discharge of his official duties in the educational service. A fair type of the early teachers, probably, is Isaac Kinnard, who, before and since the adoption of the common school system, taught twenty-three consecutive seasons. His penmanship was neat and legible, and *See sketch of South Bend township. 871 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. so far as he had progressed in the other branches, he was thorough and accurate. This feature is not mentioned here as exclusively peculiar to Burrell township, but rather as illustrative of the force and effect of a good beginning, a right start in the early settlement of a place or section of country. Prominent among the good and zealous teachers, under the common school system, was Samuel Murphy, who had become a veteran in this important branch of public service, in Burrell and Allegheny townships, in both of which hlie trained a goodly number in his schoolrooms and normal classes to be thorough, accurate and acceptable teachers. A peculiar feature of the Teachers' District Institute in Burrell, for one term at least, was the presence of a number of pupils selected from the respective schools, who were formed into classes for drills, which were conducted by the different teachers, one session of which the writer had the pleasure of attending and observing the good effect of that feature upon teachers and pupils and upon the parents who were thus induced to be present. In 1860 the number of schools was 8; average number months taught, 4; male teachers, 8; average salaries per month, $16.88; male scholars, 172; female scholars, 114; average number attending school, 177; cost of instructing each scholar per month, 49 cents; amount levied for school purposes, $664.87; received from state appropriation, $60.62 from collector, $500; cost of instruction, $540 fuel and contingencies, $24. In 1870 the number of schools was 8; average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 7; female teachers, 2; average salaries of males per month, $31.55; average salaries females per month, $30.69.; male scholars, 185; female scholars, 131; average number attending school, 224; cost per month, 83 cents; amount tax levied for school and building purposes, $1,164.60; received from state appropriation, $209.25; from taxes, etc., $1,283.74; cost of schoolhouses, $64.75; paid for teachers' wages, $1,254.72; paid for fuel, collector's fees, etc., $135.45. POSTAL. Pitts' Mill postoffice was established June 16, 1843, whose first postmaster was Joseph Miller, and the Cochran's mills one August 1, 1855, Robert A. Paul postmaster, both at the same point. MERCANTILE AND OTHER OCCUPATIONS. The stores were appraised this year thus: In 10th class, 1; in 13th class, 1; in 14th class, 1. The number assessed as merchants, 4. The assessment list for 1876 shows, besides 127 farmers, laborers, 62; blacksmiths, 4; carpenters, 3; teachers, 3; preachers, 2; physicians, 2; wagonmakers, 2; professor, 1; civil engineer, I; miller, 1; shoemaker, 1. POPULATION. According to the census of 1860, the first one after the organization of this township, the number of whites was 830, colored 3. In 1870, native, 941; foreign, 23; total, 964. The number of taxables in 1876 is 253, which indicates the present population to be 1,163, showing an increase of 199 in the last six years. For the geological features of this township the reader is referred to those presented in the sketches of Plum creek township and Elderton. 372 CHAPTER XVII. VALLEY. Set Apart from Pine- Mills -Monticello Furnace - The Patentees and Subsequent Owners - Lands of Gen. Armstrong's Heirs- Doanville Seminary- Donaldson Nurseries-Troy Hill - The Old State Road-The Collins Lands-Pine Creek Baptist Church -Methodist Episcopal Church at West Valley-Pine Creek Furnace - Holland Land Company Warrants- Geological Features. VALLEY TOWNSHIP. THE petition of divers inhabitants of Pine township, praying for its division into two townships, was presented to the court of quarter sessions of the peace of this county, at June sessions, 1855. James Stewart, Archibald Glenn and John H. Lemmon were appointed viewers or commissioners. Their report, favoring the division, was filed September 13, and confirmed December 13, of that year. It was suggested that the new township to be organized by that division be called Buffington, and also after some other individual. In speaking of it to the writer, Judge Buffington remarked that he was opposed to naming any new township after any living person. He suggested the name of Valley, inasmuch as its territory is traversed from east to west by the valley of the Cowanshannock. The court, consisting then of three judges, adopted this name, and on the lastmentioned day Pine township was divided and Valley township erected, with the following boundaries: Beginning at the corner of the cemetery in the borough of Kittanning; thence. by the borough line north 52 degrees east 110 perches; thence along the upper line of said borough south 372 degrees east 160 perches to the purchase line; thence along said line and the townships of Manor and Kittanning south 80 degrees east a distance of about 8 miles to the corner of Plum Creek (?), Kittanning and Cowanshannock townships; thence along the line of Cowanshannock and Wayne townships north 2 degrees east 4 miles to Pine creek near Peter Beck's; thence down Pine creek by the several meanderings thereof a distance of 3 miles and 28 perches to a point near Bossinger's sawmill; thence south 46 degrees west 113 perches to a chestnut; thence north 891 degrees west 58 perches to a white-oak; thence north 89 degrees west to a maple; thence south 86 degrees west 75 perches to a white-oak; thence north 72 degrees west 23 perches to a white-oak; thence north 57 degrees west 24 perches to McAllister's dam on Pine creek; thence down said creek by the several meanderings thereof a distance of 2 miles and 132 perches to the Allegheny river at the mouth of Pine creek; and thence down said river by the different meanderings thereof a distance of 5 miles and 100 perches to the place of beginning. The records do not show who were appointed to hold the first election of township officers. The following were elected at the first spring election, in 1856: Justice of the peace, Jas. K. Tittle; constable, Wm. S. Campbell; judge of election, John B. Starr; inspectors of election, Andrew Wauggaman, John I. Sloan; school directors, Robert E. Brown, James K. Tittle, one year; Daniel Slagle; John Robinson, two years; John Howser, Wm. Peart, three years; assessor, John Robinson; township auditors, Wm. Gillis, one year, Hugh Space, two years, George Hill, three years; overseers of the poor, Abraham Fiscus, Abraham Bossinger; township clerk, Geo. W. Speace. In the northwestern section of this township, west of the bridge across Pine creek, near Hepler's blacksmith shop, it is found that James Walker, of "Mexico," and Philip Essex, afterward of Morgan county, Ohio, agreed, May 5, 1811, for the sale and purchase, at $4 per acre, of a portion of "Mexico" contained within specified boundaries, so that Essex might "have the benefit of the creek." Essex also purchased about that time 40 acres, "surveyed off the southwest side of Samuel Calhoun's land." He conveyed both of those parcels, the former for $120, and the latter for $40, to Robert Brown, April 17, 1827, both of which the latter conveyed to Alexander McAllister, of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, May 3, for $200, who erected a fulling-mill in the northwestern part of the parcel which he had purchased from Calhoun, with which he was assessed from 1829 until 1848-9, and a gristmill, with which he was assessed from 1832 until 1837. Portions of the Samuel Calhoun tracts became vested in Robert Orr, for some of which a patent was granted to him October 9, 1842. He conveyed 111 acres and 88 perches, consisting partly of the HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. smaller Calhoun tract and partly of " Amherst," to Joseph Starr, February 9, 1853, for $892, and which, with 18 acres and 15 perches of one of the Collins tracts, the latter conveyed to James Walker, the present owner, January 10, 1857, for $1,700.27. Orr conveyed a small part covered by that patent, and a part of "Amherst," aggregating 213 acres and 66 perches, to George Sheckler, December 15, 1856, for $756. For several years after 1856 Barton W. Blanchard manufactured fanning-mills in this part of the township. Passing the small portion of "Pine Grove," below Pine creek, on which are the Sloan mills, was the Steel Semple tract, covered by warrant No. 748, 178 acres and 84 perches, which, having become vested in Robert Brown, the patent therefor was granted to him May 15, 1828, 106 acres of which he conveyed to Walter Sloan June 7, for $306, and the residue, 781 acres, in the southern part of the tract, including the mouth of Hays' run, to David White, Jr., August 4, for $130, to which the latter removed from one of the hereinafter-mentioned Collins tracts. Ile operated a distillery near the mouth of Hays' run during a portion of the time while he resided here. He conveyed 2 acres of this parcel to John Howard, February 26, 1846, for $25, and 110 acres to Joseph K. and James A. Lowry, June 20, 1851, for $1,000, on which they erected a two-story sawmill near the mouth of the run, with a twenty-foot overshot wheel, and a two-story frame dwelling-house, which buildings, with 2 acres of curtilage, were conveyed, September 6, 1855, by Joseph Clark, then sheriff of this county, to John J. Sloan for $615. Joseph K. conveyed his interest in the whole parcel to J. A. Lowry, August 11, 1854, and the latter's interest therein was conveyed by the same officer to Robert E. Brown, who purchased an undivided moiety for himself and the other for James E. Brown, December 12, 1855, for $320. That sawmill, not having been used for several years, is in a state of - decadence. Hays' run, on which it is situated, tradition says, was so called after an Indian bearing the English name of John IIays, who resided on it in early times. Indians, probably Senecas or Cornplanters, had a camp on this stream, about 300 rods in an airline from its mouth, and about two miles from Pine Creek Furnace, in the early part of this century. Next below that tract along the river was one of the Collins tracts, elsewhere noticed. Next below that one was a tract called " Monticello," 263 acres and 63 perches, including in its southwestern corner the mouth of the Cowanshannock, the patent for which was granted to Robert Semple, November 22, 1802. He devised it by his will, dated August 10, 1808, to his wife, Elizabeth Semple, who conveyed it, August 9, 1809, to Robert Beatty for $900. He erected a gristmill and sawmill on it the next year, a short distance above the mouth of the Cowanshannock, with which he was assessed until 1813, which, with the entire tract, he conveyed to David Loy, of Bedford county, Pennsylvania, November 2, 1813, Vho conveyed the same, February 19, 1818, to Robert Brown for $4,000, which, with 47 acres and 53 perches of the adjoining Nicholson tract, he conveyed to his son, Robert E. Brown, October 11, 1841. The twostory brick mansion house was built by him in 1842. Matthias Bowser, a brother-in-law of David Loy, was assessed with those mills from 1814 till 1819; Robert Brown from then until 1827, and with a distillery from 1826 till 1828; Isaac Cunningham with those mills from 1827 till 1828; John P. Brown from then until 1837, and Robert E. Brown from 1842 until 1863. He turned out large quantities of lumber from the sawmill prior to 1859, among which was the material for the Pipetown, or upper covered, bridge at Pittsburgh. The fall of water in the Cowanshannock for the first mile above its mouth is over 100 feet. Notwithstanding the advantage of so great a water-power, that large flouring-mill and the sawmill were taken down in 1866-7, and their material used for other purposes about Monticello Furnace. This furnace, at first a charcoal and then a coke hot-blast one, was erected by Robert E. Brown, in 1859, about 175 rods up the river from the mouth of the Cowanshannock. He conveyed it, with the Monticello, and about forty-eight acres of the adjoining Nicholson tract, his moiety of the parcel of the Steel Semple tract, which he had purchased at sheriff's sale, Monticello island, and eighty acres on the west side of the river, to McKnight, Martin & Co., March 14, 1863, for $26,000. The firm name was afterward changed to McKnight, Porter & Co. They purchased a considerable additional quantity of land containing ore and coal. Embarrassment caused them to suspend operations at the furnace, in 1875, and their property, including sixty-eight dwelling-houses for their operatives, was subsequently sold by their assignees. This furnace was in almost constant operation from its completion until it went out of blast, and afforded employment in all its departments to a large number of employes, at times to about two hundred. Its product aggregated 60,000 tons of pig-iron, which found a market in Pittsburgh and Kittanning. Between 1866 and 1874 20,000 tons of Lake 374 VALLEY TOWNSHIP. Superior ore were mixed with the native ores in this region, producing a superior quality of neutral iron, well adapted to the manufacture of nails, hoop-iron and tool-steel. Guthrie's run, which empties into the Allegheny at the railroad station, was named after a teamster by the name of Guthrie, whose team of four mules slipped on the ice over the precipice at its mouth, years ago, causing his and their death. The dismal hollow along this run has, until within a few years, been a terror to the superstitious who had occasion to pass it after night. Some have remained away from their homes all night rather than pass it in the dark. The patent for Monticello Island, opposite the mouth of Limestone run, in the Allegheny river, was granted to John Q. Sloan, March 2, 1814, which he devised to William Q. Sloan, by his will, dated January 18, 1816, who conveyed it to Samuel Hutchinson, November 19, 1833, and he conveyed it to Robert E. Brown, August 28, 1849. It once contained between four and five acres, which were cultivated as late as 1874. The last tree on it, with several feet of the soil around its roots, was swept away by the ice in March, 1875. A large sandbar is now the only vestige of that once beautiful island. The Monticello postoffice, kept at the furnace store, was established July 15, 1864, William Acheson, postmaster, and was discontinued February 15, 1876. The Allegheny Valley railroad was extended to this point, and the Cowanshannock station was established here in the latter part of 1865 or the fore part of 1866. Next below "Monticello" was the John Nicholson tract, coveied by warrant No. 5163, 400 acres, dated February 15, 1794. He conveyed it, March 9, 1797, to James Buchanan, and he to Alexander Craig and Robert Patrick, February 6, 1798. They conveyed it to John Patrick, March 18, 1811, for five shillings. Patrick agreed in his lifetime to sell thirty-nine acres and seventy-one perches of the northwestern part of this tract to Robert Brown, but died without executing a deed, which necessitated the proof of the contract after his death, in the proper court. The residue and 100 acres covered by application No. 632, made by William Elliott, and adjoining the Nicholson tract on the east, which Elliott conveyed to Patrick, December 25, 1807, for five shillings, was subsequently divided into three purparts in proceedings in partition in the orphans' court of this county. The one marked "A," extending to the Allegheny river, contained 191 acres and 150 perches, which William Coulter, the administrator, by order of the court, sold to Joseph Patrick, an heir of John Patrick, on the second Monday of May, 1841, for $1,051.15, which he conveyed to James W. Coulter, November 10, 1846, for $600, who conveyed it to Rev. B. B. Killikelly, J. E. and R. E. Brown, May 3, 1847, for the last-mentioned sum. From a recital in the deed from Jeremiah Bonner to Daniel Fish, September 17, 1849, thirty acres of this purpart appears to have been conveyed by Joseph Patrick to Jeremiah and James C. Bonner, November 10, 1846. The latter conveyed this parcel to Fish for $121. It was conveyed by John Mechling, then sheriff of this county, to Philip Templeton, December 12, 1850, for $230, who conveyed it to James G. Henry, Samuel G. W. Brown and Robert B. Brockett, January 3, 1873, for $2,000. Brown conveyed his undivided moiety to his copurchasers, April 25, for $1,000. This parcel contains several stone-quarries-it abounds in the Pottsville conglomerate sandstone-it used to be called Templeton's "stone farm." The present proprietors laid out upon this property the town of Brockettsville, which has not yet grown into magnitudinous proportions; it is still a hamlet of four or five buildings, in which lots have been laid out. The principal street is named Modoc avenue. Brockett & Henry conveyed two of these lots, Nos. 16 and 17, situated on that avenue, to Matilda A. McAnulty, November 5, 1873, for $150. James Patrick purchased the purpart marked "B," adjoining "A" on the east, containing 196 acres and 110 perches, for $1,303.05, second Monday of May, 1841, which he conveyed to Abraham Fiscus, October 14, 1842, for $1, and 124 acres and 99 perches, part of the Henry Reed tract, which he still owns and occupies. Fiscus entered into an agreement with James Galbraith, February 2, 1858, to convey the major part of this parcel to him for some real estate in the borough of Kittanning, and in Paulding county, Ohio, but having died, the following summer, without executing a deed, his administrator, by order of the proper court, executed one for 144 acres and 75 perches to Galbraith, the present owner. Fiscus had in his lifetime conveyed the residue of that purpart to his sons, Christopher and James, who subsequently conveyed the same to Jackson Boggs, in exchange for other parcels of land in Kittanning township. John Patrick's administrator sold purpart " C," 160 acres and 30 perches, to Peter Boyers, June 22, 1841, for $488.57, which included the tract covered by warrant to William Elliott, No. 632, 100 acres, and which Elliott conveyed to Patrick, December 25, 1807, for "five shillings specie," that being the 375 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. only consideration expressed in the deed. It was in the sharp bend of the Cowanshannock on this Elliott tract that Patrick built his sawmill, in 1819, and with which he was assessed from 1820 till his death in 1826. It was assessed for two years thereafter to Margaret Patrick. It was a very substantial structure. James Thompson, father of Robert and Henry Thompson, of Pine township, settled here in 1815, and was assessed the next year as a millwright. James Patrick, a brother of John Patrick, settled here in 1816, and was first assessed as a single man the next year. They did the work in the erection of that mill, in which considerable quantities of oak, poplar, hemlock, cherry and blackwalnut boards were sawed, some of which were three feet wide. Boyers conveyed this entire purpart to Alexander Colwell, June 7, 1843, for $310, and the latter to Jeremiah Bonner, June 16, 1851, in pursuance of a previous agreement, for $600, on which, at or near the site of the sawmill, he erected the Cowanshannock furnace, in 1845, and with which he and his brother, James C. Bonner, were first assessed in 1846. It was thereafter assessed to the former until 1850, John Hudson paying the taxes on it in 1849. It was assessed to James E. Brown, and to Brown and McConnell, and operated by Brown and Barr from 1850 till 1853, when the assessment list indicates it was "not in blast." It was a charcoal, cold blast, quarter stack furnace, eight feet across the bosh, and produced two and a half tons a day. Jeremiah Bonner erected a large frame gristmill with three runs of stone and a corn crusher near that furnace, in 1845-6, which he conveyed, some years since, to James S. Quigley, its present owner. Next below that Nicholson tract along the river was the one covered by warrant No. 5847, 216 acres and 18 perches, granted December 8, 1803, to Robert Patrick, who had probably settled on it soon after the Indian hostilities ceased. The patent to him is dated February 28, 1816. He was a brother of the above-mentioned John Patrick. Both of them served as militia men and scouts in different terms along the valley of the Allegheny river in 1791-2-3. Robert served one term of two months under Capt. John Craig, and another of two months under Capt. William Donahue, in 1791; two months in 1792 under Capt. Joseph Dilworth, and two months as a volunteer under Capt. Elliott in 1793. The fact of his having rendered those services is verified by his own affidavit, October 21, and he is corroborated by the affidavits of Col. Robert Walker and Capt. John Craig, October 31, 1837. Furthermore, the writer obtained a land warrant for his widow, Barbara Patrick, to which she was entitled under the act of Congress passed September 28, 1850. By his will, dated February 2, 1841, and probated February 16, 1846, he provided that his land should be sold after his wife's death, and the proceeds, after paying certain legacies, be equally divided among his children. The executor, James Galbraith, having filed his declination to serve, Jonathan E. Meredith was appointed administrator, cum testamento annexo, who, by virtue of an order of the proper court, sold that tract, less 241 acres, to Gen. Robert Orr, June 4, 1859, by public outcry, for $4,100, to whose estate it still belongs. The eastern terminus of the Helms Ferry was near the center of the western or river line of this track. The above-mentioned 24 acres are a part of a trapezoidal portion of the southern part of the tract which seems, on the connected drafts of this and the tract next below it, to project into the latter, 13 acres and 102 perches of which Patrick conveyed to James Watterson, May 7, 1829, for $64.28, on which the latter operated a distillery for several years. Patrick, by his deed, dated September 29, 1830, granted to Watterson, in common with all others, the right to travel on a road which he had opened from the Allegheny river, beginning at a corner at the intersection of the Olean road with his line; thence by out-lots of Daniel Lemmon north 88 degrees east 38 perches to a white-oak corner called for in his survey; thence south 2 degrees west by Lemmon's and James Gibson's lots to the premises which he had granted to Watterson, over which all persons were to enjoy the right of way with equal rights and privileges with himself and without molestation or hindrance on his part. Watterson agreed to sell this parcel to James Stewart, who afterward agreed to sell his interest in it to Daniel Lemmon, to whom Watterson conveyed it, March 28, 1840, for $150. It afterward became vested in his son, Thomas McC. Lemmon, from whom it was purchased, as containing 14 acres, by the Catholic Cemetery Company of St. Mary's church, Kittanning, May 5, 1873, for $3,000. Eight acres have been laid out for the cemetery into five sections, subdivided into 596 lots, 10X20 feet, valued at from $25 to $50. Four lots, 40 X 40 feet, each valued at $100. The Main or Central avenue and the Grand avenue around the entire grounds are each 40 feet wide. The rest of this company's premises consists of two green plats, one on each side of the central avenue and west of the abovementioned sections, with a picnic ground in the southwestern corner of the southern plat; of a piece of woodland and ground for building lots west of the green plats, through which a serpentine road 30 376 VALLEY TOWNSHIP. feet wide extends from the western line of these premises to the foot of the central avenue. Eleven building lots have been laid out, each of which, except a triangular one, is 50 X 100 feet. Seven of them have been sold at $150 each. The proceeds of their sales are applied toward paying the purchase money for the entire premises. This tongue of the Patrick tract on which these premises are situated has been considerably improved by the Cemetery Company since it come into their possession. It was naturally a piece of rough, stony, hilly ground, so much so that it was probably purposely surveyed around and excluded from the adjoining tract. Patrick also sold 10 acres and 138 perches adjoining this cemetery parcel on the south to John Mosgrove. Next below the Robert Patrick tract was the tract* granted to Col. John Armstrong by virtue of "a proprietary letter to the secretary, dated May 29, 1771," surveyed November 5, 1774, and the patent was granted by John Penn, March 22, 1775. The major part of this tract lay north of the purchase line of 1768, in territory which was not purchased from the Indians until thirteen years after the inception of Armstrong's title, which, however, has never been invalidated. The northern end of "Victory," as this tract was called, seems to be penetrated by the above-mentioned trapezoidal portion or tongue of the Robert Patrick tract, as they are presented on connected drafts. Gen. Armstrong's executors, James Armstrong and Thomas Duncan, were authorized by his will to sell all his personal and real estate that might remain after the payment of his debts and a legacy of ~50. The first sale made by them of any part of "Victory," after the laying out of Kittanning, was of "three triangular lots at the northeast corner" of that town, May 19, 1808, for $100. If they were "at the northeast corner," they would include a part of the new cemetery. But one of them is the triangle, formed by a line drawn from the southeastern corner of out-lot No. 27 to the southeastern corner of Mulberry street, which appears to have been divided into nineteen small "coal lots," or " coalbank lots," as surveyed many years ago by Robert Orr, Jr., one of which, No. 5, Beatty conveyed to Matthew Kern,. September 10, 1815, for $28. Divers other persons became possessed of the rest. No. 16 was conveyed by Richard Graham to James McCullough, Sr., in 1829, which the latter conveyed to Anderson & Marshall, March 26, 1873, for $60. Coal lot No. 17 was conveyed by Beatty to John Donaldson, September 15, 1815, for $17. Beatty conveyed another of those "triangular * See its boundaries in general sketch of the county. lots," " adjoining to Mulberry and McKean streets," to David Reynolds, September 15, 1817, for $20, whose executors, Alexander and Absalom Reynolds, conveyed it to John Scott, April 23, 1849, for $345. Beatty conveyed the other or lowest of those three "triangular lots," "beginning at a hickory," the southernmost corner of "Victory," "on the bank of the Allegheny river; thence up said river 53 perches to the end of Walnut street," etc., containing 61 acres, to George Crawford, September 2, 1813, for $270, which the latter devised to his daughter Sarah, wife of John A. Patterson, of Westmoreland county, wh.ich, with in-lot No. 169 and the half of in-lot No. 175, in Kittanning, they conveyed to Jonathan H. Sloan, and he conveyed that triangular lot below Walnut street to Alexander Colwell, William F. Johnston and Horatio N. Lee, trustees of the Kittanning Iron Works Company, 5A acres, August 4, 1847, for $2,600, on which stands the rolling-mill. Now the question is, who erred in describing these "three triangular lots" as lying "at the northeast corner of Kittanning?" Was it the person who drew the deed from Armstrong's executors to Beatty, or Paul Morrow's clerk who recorded it? Dr. James Armstrong conveyed two other parcels, containing respectively 2 acres more or less, and 2 acres and 16 perches, to Robert Brown, October 18, 1809, for $130. A part of the description of the former is "up the river to where the road from Kittanning to Helms' ferry strikes the same." Brown conveyed the other to Robert Stewart, January 1,1813, who operated on it the first brickyard* in this part of the county. The next sales of parcels of "Victory" were by Dr. James Armstrong, October 25, 1810: To Robert Brown 12 acres, "beginning at a post in the northeasternmost part of the town of Kittanning," for $25; and another parcel contiguous thereto, to David Lawson, 10 acres and 130 perches for $48.75. Both parcels are described as adjoining out-lots in Kittanning. Brown conveyed 7 acres and 80 perches, December 30, 1811, and 6 acres and 14 perches, July 19, 1817, to Matthias Bowser, 7 acres of which, parts of both parcels, Bowser conveyed to David Reynolds, April 19, 1823, for $150, which, with 8 acres and 4 perches of the 61 acres which the latter purchased from the Armstrongs, August 13, 1821, make the parcel which Franklin Reynolds conveyed to the Kittanning cemetery.f Lawson conveyed the above-mentioned 10 acres and 130 perches to Matthias Bowser, January 1, 1812, for $82, which, with the residue of his pur*See sketch Kittanning borough. t See sketch of Kittanning borough. 377 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. chase from Brown, Bowser's widow and heirs conveyed to Thomas McConnell, March 23, 1849, for $845.62, and which the latter conveyed to James E. Brown, the present owner, September 12, 1851, for the last-mentioned consideration. Dr. James Armstrong conveyed 22 acres and 102 perches, "contiguous to Kittanning," on the east, to Paul Morrow, October 25, 1810, for $226, which the latter conveyed to Thomas Hamilton, February 19, 1818, for $550. "Doubts having arisen " as to whether Dr. Armstrong alone " could legally and effectually convey" this parcel to Morrow, he and his brother John Armstrong, for the purpose of assuring Hamilton's title, subsequently conveyed it to him. Thomas McConnell's administrators conveyed "4 or 5 acres" of it and Kittanning out-lots Nos. 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, in pursuance of an article of agreement dated May 28, 1831, to David Reynolds for $1,000. These 4 or 5 acres-5 acres and 2 perches, as ascertained by a recent surveyare mentioned in that agreement as "woodland." This parcel, now owned by Absalom Reynolds, includes the Reynold~ grove. The remainder of these 22 acres and 102 perches was devised by Thomas Hamilton to Miss Margaret Lemmon, now Mrs. Margaret Nulton. It extended southwardly between the borough line and the eastern line of "Victory," across the old state road and the hollow back of the present court-house, to a point in Mrs. Margaret Colwell's orchard, where the intersection of these two lines forms an acute angle. The triangular parcel of it south of the hollow, containing 60 perches, more or less, was conveyed by John F. and Margaret Nulton to Mrs. Colwell, November 24, 1869, for $500. The reservoir of the Kittanning water-works is in the northeastern part of the parcel north of the hollow. This parcel was traversed diagonally by the Anderson creek road, from a point a few rods north of the present jail, before the opening of the Clearfield turnpike. That road was opened and laid out by virtue of the act of assembly of January 27, 1819, and extended from Kittanning to Anderson's creek to intersect the road from Belle Fonte to Erie, Pennsylvania, with a bearing of 581' east through Valley township. That creek flows from the northwestern part of Clearfield county and empties into the west branch of the Susquehanna, a short distance above Curwensville. The sum of two thousand five hundred dollars was appropriated by the act of April 26, 1821, for opening that road, to be expended in Clearfield, Jefferson, Indiana and Armstrong counties, in proportion to the distance it extended through each. For the amount expended in this county the governor was authorized to draw his warrant in favor of James Hannegan and Joseph Marshall. The other portions of " Victory" were not sold by the Armstrongs until the lapse of a decade from the last of their above-mentioned sales. They, however, leased parts of it in the meantime, for instance, to Michael Mechling, that part between what they had sold along the northern line of Kittanning and the parcel since occupied by Rev. B. B. Killikelly, and still higher up between the present bed of the Allegheny railroad and the base of the hill. The lessee had the use of what he cleared and fenced, for five years, according to Philip Mechling's recollection. The part near the hill was covered principally with white-oak timber and the portion westward to the river, with hickory, black-walnut, chestnut, beech, buttonwood and some maple. The trees were thrifty. The annual yield of white and black walnuts, of a large size, was abundant. Before and after 1805 a wagon road extended from the stone quarry along the base of the hill, over which the stone obtained from the hillside, back of where Quigley's sawmill now is, for building the first jail of this county, was hauled. When it became badly cut up it was abandoned and another one substituted near where the railroad track now is, which continued to be used until the Olean road was laid out along the river bank. General Armstrong's devisees, his sons James and John, in the course of the interval during which they made no sales of parts of "Victory," laid out two ranges of lots or parcels, exclusive of what they had sold, "above and adjoining the town of Kittanning," and between the river and the hill, which were surveyed by Adam Elliott. The first range contained thirteen and the second seventeen of those parcels. The original draft of the first one is not accessible to the writer. Its date is not given in any of the recorded conveyances of the parcels contained in it. The two parcels, conveyed to Brown October 18, 1809, are mentioned in the deed as "fragments." Were they fragments of parcels that had already been laid out? Had that first range been laid out before the date of that deed? The date of the second range is given on the draft: "Surveyed for Doctor Armstrong, November the 21st, 1818, by Adam Elliott." The sales of the unsold portions of "Victory" were brisk during a few days in August, 1821. On the - day of that month James and John Armstrong conveyed to Robert Brown parcel No. 1, in first range, lying along the northwestern part of the borough of Kittanning and the Allegheny river, containing 9 acres and 65 perches, including 378 VALLEY TOWNSHIP. the 2 acres, more or less, which James Armstrong had conveyed to Brown, October 18, 1809, for $470, on which he resided from 1821 -in which year he built his frame house -until his death in -; to Robert Stewart, 14th, 2 acres and 16 perches which Brown had conveyed to him, and in addition thereto 24 perches, making 21 acres, for $7.50, which was, of course, the consideration for the last-mentioned 24 perches adjoining the northwest side of the parcel to which they were annexed. On the 13th the Armstrongs conveyed parcel No. 2, adjoining the last-mentioned one on the northwest, containing 5 acres and 25 perches, to Samuel S. Harrison for about $213, which he conveyed to David Reynolds, December 31, 1829, for $350, 1 acre and 144 perches of which Franklin Reynolds conveyed to George H. Fox and Valentine Neubert, March 28, 1872, for $3,800, and two days later Ross Reynolds conveyed to them 4 acres and 108 perches for $9,350, the aggregate quantity containing 1 of the 2 acres and 24 perches which Isaac Scott purchased August 1, 1831, off the east end of the parcel next above this, and conveyed this acre to David Reynolds. Fox and Neubert laid out the land thus purchased by them into 66 building lots April 1, 1872. The shape of the plot is nearly that of the letter L, and it contains 6 acres and 90% perches, as surveyed by Wim.-E. Roe. The areas of the lots vary somewhat, all of them being, respectively,'less than one-quarter of an acre. Four of them are trapezoidal, the rest are parallelogramic, 37 being rectangular. Chestnut street, 60 feet wide, extends through the center of the stem part of the letter L from the public or Olean road to the ground contiguous to the Allegheny Valley Railroad, which is intersected, diagonally, by alleys 12 feet wide, about 7 rods from each of its extremities, between which are other alleys 10 feet wide, skirting the northern and southern extremities of the lots on each side of that street. An alley 12 feet wide extends from Chestnut street along the western extremities of the lots in the foot or lower part of the letter L, the upper or northern one of which is skirted by an alley of the same width. Forty-eight of those lots have been sold, a few of which the vendors were obliged to take back because of the inability of the vendees to pay for them. Twenty-one dwelling.houses have been erected on this plot. All, except two substantial brick ones, are frame, varying in size and quality. The proprietors have not given this town a name, but others call it Germantown andDutchtown. Philip Mechling remembers that he cultivated tobacco on this parcel before its first sale by the Armstrongs. Parcel No. 3 adjoined the last-mentioned one on the north, which the Armstrongs conveyed to Samuel Matthews, as containing 5 acres and 35 perches, August 14, 1821, for $208.75, whose executor, John R. Johnston, conveyed it to Robert Brown, August 2, 1831, of which the latter conveyed the 2 acres and 94 perches above mentioned to Isaac Scott, September 24, who obtained therefrom the clay which he used at his pottery in Kittanning. This tract, at least the western end of it, is noted as the seat of an institution of learning, established by Rev. Bryan B. Killikelly, May 1, 1837, under the name of the Doanville Seminary, designed chiefly for the education of females. It, with twenty-two other similar institutions, was incorporated by act of assembly, passed April 16, 1838, by a typographical error as Deanville Female Seminary. The trustees therein named were B. B. Killikelly, Joseph Buffington, Alexander Caldwell (Colwell), Robert E. Brown, George W. Smith, William P. Rupp and William F. Johnston of this, Charles C. Gaskill of Jefferson, and Daniel Stannard of Indiana county. Among the necessary corporate powers granted, the teachers or a majority of them were authorized to enforce the rules and regulations adopted by the trustees for the government of the pupils, and to grant, by the order of a quorum of the board of trustees, such degrees in the arts, sciences or other branches thereof to such pupils and others who, by their proficiency in learning, or by other distinction, they might have thought were entitled to them, that is, to such as were usually granted at other similar seminaries, or which the trustees or quorum of them might have thought right and proper, and to grant to the graduates their certificates under the common seal. This seminary having come within the provisions of the fourth section of the Act of April 12, 1838, namely, of having at least two teachers and forty pupils, it received the annual state appropriation in quarterly payments, as provided by that section of that act, until the close of the summer session of 1839, by which it was also provided that that appropriation to each of the female seminaries thus incorporated should continue for only ten years. The principal of Doanville Female Seminary, Rev. B. B. Killikelly, relinquished his charge of it at the close of that session, with sixty-two pupils, including boarding and day scholars, a goodly number of whom were from adjoining counties, and spent several years as a missionary in the West. The school edifice was the present brick mansion, which Robert Brown, Mrs. Killikelly's father, had erected in 1836. Mrs. Eliza Warren and her daughters 379 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. had charge of this institution from 1839 until the spring or summer of 1843, without the benefit of the state appropriation. Rev. B. B. Killikelly, having returned from the West, reopened a school in the same edifice in the fore part of April, 1849, which he named the Minnesota Point Seminary, the charter of the former one having expired by limitation in 1848. The present frame annexes were erected at different times thereafter. Aided by competent assistants, he continued his principalship until April 4, 1855, when the number of boarding and day pupils was 160. It was then at different times for a few years under the charge of Revs. Hall and Carter. After filling the rectorship of two Episcopal churches and the principalship of a female seminary, Paradise, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, Rev. Killikelly returned, and, by the request of various residents of Kittanning, reopened his school at this point, which he then named Glen Mary, May 2, 1863. His last term closed November 28, 1865, with 110 pupils on the roll. His chief assistant, Miss Bechton, continued to take charge of the school on her own account until her death. She was succeeded by Miss Lena Hughes, and she by B. B. Killikelly, Jr., the present assistant rector of Emanuel Episcopal church, Boston, Massachusetts,* until it was transferred to the control of Lambeth college, Kittanning. Parcel No. 4 lay next above No. 3, and contained 4 acres and 40 perches, which the Armstrongs conveyed to James Reichart, August 14, 1821, for $150. They also conveyed, the same day, parcel No. 5, 4 acres and 75 perches, adjoining No. 4 on the east, to John Reichart for $156.40, who conveyed it to Archibald Dickey, December 29, 1827, and Dickey to James Reichart, April 28, 1828, and the latter to David Reynolds both 4 and 5, March 8, 1835, for $700, whose executors conveyed the same to James Mosgrove the present owner, November 14, 1863, for $1,863, on which a race course has recently been prepared. Passing for the present James Monteith's purchase in this first range, the Armstrongs conveyed 3 acres and 30 perches of parcels Nos. 10 and 11, lying in the eastern tier of parcels, to David Johnston, August 14, 1821, for $139.37, and the same day to Alexander Colwell the half of Nos. 10, 11, 12 for $318.75. Johnston conveyed his portion, January 3, 1824, for $160, and Colwell his, August 24, for $338.75, to David Reynolds, to whom the Armstrongs conveyed as follows: Parcel No. 13, 12 acres and 44 perches, adjoining parcel No. 1 on * Since assistant minister of Trinity church, Boston, on the Green foundation. the west and the present road along the northern line of the borough of Kittanning to the new cemetery, and a larger parcel, 61 acres and 7 perches, northeasterly of the last-mentioned one, August 13, for $980; the next day, 3 acres and 30 perches, parts of parcels Nos. 11, 12, for $159.371; and, May 10, 1822, in pursuance of a previous agreement, 155 acres adjoining " Sloan's old improvement" on the east and the Robert Patrick tract on the north, being the residue of "Victory" "after selling to sundry persons in small parcels" all then unsold for $1,031.67. This and the abovementioned 61-acre parcel he called his " Federal Spring farm," which, with the adjoining parcels which he had purchased from the Armstrongs, he devised to his sons, Franklin and Ross Rey. nolds, the greater portion of which they have devoted to agricultural purposes. The latter, in April, 1866, erected a stone limekiln at a point on the face of the hill fronting the river, on his purpart, about one hundred and fifty rods in an airline nearly north from the northeastern corner of the borough of Kittanning. It is 80 feet in length and 25 feet in hight, and 15 or 20 feet in width, containing four kilns, with a capacity for burning 800 bushels of lime a day. The material used is the ferriferous limestone, which is quarried along the brow of the hill down around and beyond the point, at the residence of Franklin Reynolds, facing'what was formerly called the "Bowser's Hollow," from which to the kiln and thence to the Allegheny railroad extends a narrow railway. Pittsburgh is the market for nearly all the lime made here. The usual number of employ6s is twenty-five. James Monteith purchased the following parcels of "Victory " from the Armstrongs: Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9, lying in a tier between the above-mentioned No. 5, now between the railroad and the hill, 15 acres and 40 perches in the first range, and parcels Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 212 acres, in the second range, lying on the south side of the road or lane extending eastwardly from the river, August 11, 1821, for $1,197.50. The Armstrong county fair-ground and Camp Orr, heretofore mentioned, were located on the southern and major part of No. 1, in this second range. The dwelling-house on the upper part of this parcel was the one in which Monteith resided in Kittanning, whence it was removed. Mrs. Mary M. Johnston, widow of Gov. Johnston, was born in it. Adjoining the upper side of that road or lane was another tier of parcels, second range, Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8. No. 5 was next to the hill and No. 8 next to the river. The Arminstrongs conveyed Nos. 7, 8, 380 READINGS FROM OLD KITTANNING JOURNALS. larged to about double that size, and in Apr il, 1875, to 10X14 inches. The Valley Times was transferred to Kittanning from Freeport, the first number being issued here May 6, 1876. It is published by Oswald & Simpson in Reynolds' building, northeast corner of Market and McKean streets. The first newspaper published in Freeport was the Olive Branch, of which William Badger was the proprietor and editor, who had previously published and edited the Armstrong Advertiser and Antimasonic Free Press at Kittanning, the type and material of which he transferred hither in August or September, 1833. Its publication continued for about two years. The Freeport Columbian and Leechburgh and Warren Advertiser was established here by A. J. Foster in 1839, which was transferred in April, 1842, to John and Samuel McCulloch, by whom it was published as a democratic paper until about 1845. The Visitor, after making divers visits to the domiciles of its patrons here and round about, departed. The Freeport Ledger was published by A. J. Gibson from 1853 until 1855-6. The New Era was established by Simon Shoop in the spring of 1872, who, a few years afterward, transferred it to James A. MeCulloch, and its name was changed to that of the Valley Times, which, in the early part of 1876, was transferred to Oswald & Simpson, and removed to Kittanning. The seventh and present paper published here is the Freeport Journal, edited in part by Rev. John J. Francis. Those were all issued weekly, and were neutral in politics, except the Columbian. The first newspaper published in Apollo was the Warren Lacon, the first number of which must have been issued on or about November 6, 1835. It was of medium size, and printed by Robert McKissen. The writer is indebted to Dr. Robert E. McCauley for No. 47, Vol. III, issued on Wednesday, October 31, 1838, which contains but a part of a column of editorial matter; it was a democratic paper; most of the advertisements were from abroad; it is barren of items of local interest save the election returns and the list of letters for twelve individuals remaining in the Apollo postoffice on the first day of October, then instant, furnished by Samuel Owens, postmaster. Its publication ceased, as the writer is informed, in a few years thereafter, probably in 1840. The Apollo Lacon and Kiskiminetas Review was established in September, 1875, by Miss Jennie Stentz, who shortly afterward transferred it to J. Melhorn, its present publisher. The Leechburgh Enterprise is the title of a monthly journal that was established in 1873, and was edited and published by Mr. Robertson for several years. It was conducted later by H. H. Wray, and was made a valuable special medium for the presentation of the various branches of business and the facilities therefor peculiar to Leechburgh and its vicinity. The people in Dayton being in an extreme corner of the county, where they were not easily reached either by the city or Kittanning papers, resolved at a late day to have a journal of their own. Thus it came about that the Dayton News company was organized, and on November 10, 1882, the first number of the paper issued. It soon acquired a circulation, and has since been in prosperous condition. The publishers of the News are Messrs. Elder, Orr & Co. READINGS FROM OLD KITTANNING JOURNALS. A few old newspapers, published here at different periods, are before the writer. The oldest of them is the first number* of the first volume of the Western Eagle, which was issued on Thursday, September 20, 1810, by James Alexander, whose office was then on lot No. 217, at or near the corner of Water and Mulberry streets, and subsequently lot No. 122, below the alley on the north side of Market street. The quality of the paper is fair and reasonably tough. The type must have been new or nearly so. The size of the sheet is 18 X 11 inches. Its sixteen columns are filled chiefly with foreign news, and contain but little of domestic or local interest. That Eagle, figuratively speaking, took its flight from its eyrie the second day before the autumnal equinox, but as it did not utter a single screech indicating stormy weather, it is presumable that its first appearance to the then 250 inhabitants of "Kittanning town," as this place is written on some of the old assessment lists, was in a genial flood of September sunlight. Dropping the figure, the reader may readily imagine that groups of Kittanningers, at least the reading portion of them, devoured the contents of that first Kittanning newspaper, and gathered in groups in the inns, stores and offices, or in the shade of that large old wild-cherry tree that stood in Market below Jefferson street, or beneath the thrifty and fruitful hickory trees thlat were frequent along the river bank, to welcome their new visitor and discuss the foreign and domestic news thus wafted to them. That number of the Eagle contains only three advertisements, which fill a column and a half. One of them is a reference to lands in other parts of the county. Another one is the proclamation * Furnished to the writer by George Stimson. Cj) cc__ Aw 17 r1l 1 0 77' Im io. VALLEY TOWNSHIP. 11 acres, to James Pinks, August 13, 1821, for $330, which he conveyed to Monteith, July 29, 1825. No. 6, 4 acres and 2 perches, was conveyed to Robert Speer and Hugh Rogers the same month for $135, equal moieties of which they conveyed to Henry Roush and Matthias Bowser. Roush's interest became vested in Alexander Colwell by sheriff's deed. William F. Johnston, who was elected governor of Pennsylvania in 1848, and Dr. John Gilpin were Monteith's sons-in-law. After they became tenants by courtesy of the parcels vested in him, they purchased this parcel from Colwell and from Bowser's heirs, and other parcels, as will be seen. No. 5, four acres and two perches, was conveyed to Samuel S. Harrison, August 13, 1821, for about $130, which he conveyed to Matthias Bowser, April 19, 1823, for $115, whose heirs conveyed it to Johnston & Gilpin. One of the Valley township schoolhouses is located in the southeastern corner of this parcel. Next above that tier was No. 9, 9" acres, conveyed to Thomas Hamilton, August 13, for $195, whose surviving executor, James Hamilton, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in pursuance of an agreement of Thomas McConnell, his co-executor, deceased, conveyed it to John Mechling, April 3, 1837, for $400, who, after clearing it, conveyed it to Robert Orr, January 12, 1842, for $600, by whom it was conveyed to Gilpin & Johnston, March 4, 1843, for $1,000. They also purchased and sold two other parcels further up in this range, so that now the northern limit of the Gilpin & Johnston farm is No. 9. This farm was leased to John Donaldson for a term of eleven years, which has been extended. The lessee in his lifetime planted upon it, on portions above and below the lane extending through it, and on both sides of the railroad, a varied and extensive nursery of different kinds of fruit, evergreen and shade trees, the culture of which has been continued in the interest of his heirs since his death. This nursery consisted, in the centennial year, of 300,000 trees of different kinds, over 2,000 plants, three hot-houses, and 100 sashes of hot-beds. The annual sales are about 20,000 trees of all kinds, among which are those yielding the leading varieties of the best fruits, which find a market not only in this county and state, but in New York, Michigan, Indiana and other states; 25,000 greenhouse plants; 2,000 of various species of roses, and a general assortment of vegetables. The number of employes engaged in the packing seasons, spring and fall, is about twenty, and at other times fourteen. Next above lay No. 10, 9 acres, No. 11 (its southeast corner being the southwest corner of the tongue 24 in the Robert Patrick tract), 3 acres, No.12, 31 acres, which were conveyed to John Mosgrove, August 11, 1821, for $700.50, which became vested in Joseph Mosgrove, who purchased 10 acres and 138 acres off the lower end of the tongue of the Robert Patrick tract, the four parcels aggregating 27 acres and 18 perches, of which he conveyed to Ross Reynolds a portion off the lower side of No. 10, and on which the latter erected, in 1870, a claymill, with a steam engine of eighty horse-power, in which thirty tons of fire-clay are daily crushed, ready for the Pittsburgh market, and four small frame cottages for employ6s on that part of this strip between the railroad and the river. Joseph Mosgrove and Andrew Arnold some time prior to 1854, agreed upon the purchase and sale of these last-mentioned parcels, and the latter erected the present large frame cottage on No. 10, but had not quite completed it when an arrangement was made between them by which Mosgrove conveyed to Frederick G. Creary 25 acres and 128 perches, including that cottage, May 11, 1860. Creary took possession in 1855, and commenced the erection of a steam sawmill and gristmill on the river bank, about 50 rods above the lower line of No. 10, which cost $30,000, with which he was assessed only once and then in 1858. Both mills had probably been in operation a year or more when, on the very night after the finishing touch had been given to their fine machinery, they were destroyed by fire, supposed by Creary to have been the work of a spiteful incendiary who had been seen about the premises that day. Creary conveyed all of what had been thus conveyed to him, except a small parcel sold to John A. Colwell, to James S. Quigley, the present owner,* January 2, 1869, for $6,500, who, the next spring, erected a shinglemill which saws 12,000 shingles in twelve hours; his steam sawmill in 1870, in which he saws from 6,000 to 10,000 feet of all kinds of bill lumber a day, and his cooper-shop in 1873, in which when in full operation the daily production of kegs was 250; all three are situated on and near the sites of the burnt mills. Nearly opposite these works, on the brow of the hill included within the limits of this Quigley property, is a chalybeate spring of considerable strength, whose water has not yet been analyzed. So far as the writer can judge from its taste, it resembles that of a similar spring at Stoneboro, Mercer county, Pennsylvania. Along the base of the hill are several one-and-a-half-story frame dwelling-houses, erected by Quigley for his employes. * Quigley conveyed the cottage and 1 acre and 143 perches to Rev. T. D. Ewing, July 31, 1878, for $4,000. 381 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Above No. 12 were Nos. 13, 14,15, each 3-1 acres, which the Armstrongs conveyed to James Gibson, August 13,1821, for $112.50, which he subsequently conveyed to Gilpin and Johnston, they to Jackson Boggs, and he to Edward S. Golden, the present owner. The remaining parcels of "Victory" were Nos. 16-17, north of No. 15, which became vested in Daniel Lemmon and which are now owned by his son, Thomas McC. Lemmon. The second range contained, according to Ellicott's survey, 86 acres. Adjoining "Victory" on the northeast was a tract, 190 acres, that once belonged, according to the map of original tracts, and the list of warrantees and owners, to David Lawson and Samuel S. Harrison. But it does not appear to have been assessed to them. James Patrick remembers having heard that it was conveyed, or it was agreed that it should be conveyed, to his father, John Patrick, by Alexander Craig; that it was claimed by George Ross, who brought either an ejectment or an action of trespass qucere clausumn fregit, which was tried after his father's death, and resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff. John Donaldson was assessed with 200 acres of it in 1822, and afterward with 100 acres, until 1837. His right was founded on settlement and improvement. There appears to have been no granting of title thereto by the commonwealth until June 10, 1836, when a warrant was granted to Robert Donaldson, on which a survey was made by J. E. Meredith, June 24, for 123 acres and 11 perches. It was thereafter assessed to Thomas Donaldson, who conveyed it to James Mosgrove, June 9, 1863, for $4,760. A portion of this tract on the ridge was traversed in the early part of this century by the old Helms' ferry road, which crossed the purchase line a short distance from the late residence of John Reichart, the Sloan tract near where James Sloan, Jr., settled on the parcel now owned by Simon Truby, that part of the Reed tract and of James Patrick's farm, now used as a German Catholic cemetery, across the Donaldson tract, the northeastern corner of " Victory," and the Robert Patrick tract, to the Allegheny river. There were no guide-boards in these early days. Initials were in some instances cut on trees to indicate the directions to certain points. It is remembered that the initials "D. H. F." for "David Helms' Ferry" were cut in several trees at different points along that road. It is related that a traveler, not knowing their significance, observed these on a tree out toward Christopher Oury's place. Looking at them a few moments, he concluded, at least so he said, that they stood for "Devil-Hell-Fire," declared he wouldn't travel that road any further, and changed his course. Adjoining that on the east was the Henry Reed tract, 286 acres, traversed by the Cowanshannock, with several curves diagonally from the southeast to the northwest, dividing it nearly into equal portions. The patent to Reed is dated February 21, 1786. He devised it to his children. It became vested by release, September 12, 1812, in Robert Brown and Nathaniel Stewart. It was sold for taxes by Samuel Matthews, county treasurer, to Robert Brown. Stewart's interest passed by sheriff's sale, June 19, 1817, to Thomas Blair, who, seven days afterward, conveyed it to Henry Jack, and he to Brown, August 7. Brown conveyed the entire tract to Andrew Arnold, January 24, 1833, for $3,000. Reed's administrator having released the interest of all the heirs to Brown, January 5, 1836, the latter reconveyed this tract to Arnold ten days afterward, who had conveyed 100 acres to James Watterson, April 16, 1833, for $1,000, which WVatterson conveyed to Abraham Fiscus, April 4, 1842, for $1,500, and which Fiscus exchanged with James Patrick as before mentioned, 72 acres and 80 perches of which the latter conveyed to Jeremiah and James C. Bonner, June 19, 1845, for $700, and 6 acres and 94 perches to Frederick Biehl and seven other German members of St. Mary's Catholic church, Kittanning, January 30, 1875, for $1,000, three acres of which they conveyed, April 16, to the Rt. Rev. M. Domenec for $1, "in trust for laying out, holding and using the same under such rules and regulations as the bishop of Pittsburgh or his successors may, from time to time, make and prescribe, as and for a Catholic burial place, to be known and designated as the' German St. Joseph's Cemetery.' " Indians must have encamped or had a small vil lage on that part still retained by Patrick, where his orchard now is, for among the relics found here were many beads, arrowheads, gunflints, sev eral tomahawks, stone bullet-molds, three pipes, and an ovate net-sinker with two transverse grooves. Arnold conveyed 222 acres and 66 perches of this Reed tract to Jeremiah Bonner, December 9, 1845, for $2,000, which, with what he purchased from James Patrick and some other contiguous land, aggregating 388 acres and 156 perches, Bon ner conveyed to Benjamin Glyde, July 2, 1853, for $500, which, having become vested, through the intervention of a third party, in Mrs. Annie Glyde, she conveyed 46 acres and 61 perches to John Fair ley, February 28, 1861, for $940; 63 acres and 101 perches to Mrs. Nancy R. Bowman, November 18, 382 - VALLEY TOWNSHIP. 1864, for $1,717.87; and 44 acres to Mrs. Jane B. Finlay, November 9, 1875, for $800, and portions to Henry Bush. Adjoining the purchase line on the north, "Victory" on the east, and the Reed and Donaldson tracts on the south, was the Sloan tract, 400 acres, with which James Sloan, Jr., a son of one of the trustees and one of the first commissioners of this county, was first assessed in 1807 at 50 cents an acre. His title was gained by settlement and improvement. He probably settled on it in 1805-6on that part, now on the north side of the Clearfield turnpike, heretofore owned by John F. Nutting and wife, but now by Simon Truby, where he built a house, cleared the land around it, and planted an orchard. In 1808 he was assessed with the same quantity of land as in the previous year at $1 an acre, and one horse and one cow at $16; total, $416. Sloan conveyed three contiguous parcels between the purchase line and the old state road in the southwestern part of this tract to Robert Beatty: 2 acres, April 7, 1809, for $14; 1 acre, June 6, for $4; and 131 acres, April 5, 1810, for $39. "Wood-lots " are occasionally mentioned in the records as being " near the borough," of which Nos. 1, 5, 8, 9, 15 belonged to Robert Brown, Sr., prior to and after June, 1822. One of the boundary lines of the hereinafter-mentioned parcel conveyed by him to James E. Brown, April 3, 1835, is given thus: " Thence by sundry woodlots," etc. On upper margin of the copy of the plan of Kittanning, printed by James Alexander, in the county commissioners' office, is the plan of 34 lots, made with pen and ink, 18 of which are, seemingly, south, and the rest north of the hollow back of the present court-house. There are two alleys, each 12 feet wide, intersecting each other at right angles in those on the southern side, and two streets, each 20 feet wide, crossing each other at right angles on the northern side of the hollow. The whole seem to adjoin the eastern line of the borough of Kittanning, from the southeastern part of out-lot No. 19 to a point 66 feet below the southeastern corner of out-lot No. 27. The writer cannot ascertain that any such lots were ever laid out on any part of the Armstrong tract. They were probably laid out in the southwestern part of the Sloan tract, and although they appear in the abovementioned pen-and-ink plan of them to be on both sides of that hollow and the "old state road," they may have all been on the south side, and were perhaps on the three parcels conveyed by Sloan to Beatty, which parcels subsequently became vested in Alexander Colwell, to whose estate they still belong. These lots undoubtedly adjoined the eastern line of "Victory," for, in 1839 and for a few years afterward, John Donaldson was assessed with 4- acres, which the entry in the pl oper column of the assessment lists indicates to have once belonged partly to the Armstrong tract, and partly to land at some time theretofore owned by Beatty. Those 34 lots were probably laid out by the latter about the time he laid out his heretofore-mentioned coallots. James Patrick remembers having, when he was a young man, hauled wood from and plowed the one owned by Donaldson. The foregoing is the only knowledge respecting those lots which the writer has been able to glean from records and the oldest inhabitants. Sloan conveyed 17 acres to Paul Morrow, July 1, 1809, for $56, and agreed to sell to him 180 acres, more or less, the residue of the tract on which he then lived and which he held "by virtue of his actual residence thereon," May 5, 1810, both of which parcels Morrow conveyed to Robert Brown, November 28, 1815, for $300, on which the latter planted a small orchard near where the reservoir of the Kittanning water-works now is. Brown, having purchased from James Buchanan "by his articles of sale" 200 acres contiguous thereto, conveyed 300 acres to John Brodhead, July 14, 1817, for $1,800, which subsequently became revested in Brown by sheriff's sale. He conveyed 29 acres and 75 perches bordering on the purchase line to Robert Brown, Jr., December 10, 1831, for $300, who conveyed the same to Rev. Joseph Painter and Darwin Phelps, September 18, 1838, for $350. Robert Brown, Sr., in accordance with an agreement made between him and Alexander Colwell, March 27, 1819, conveyed to the latter 150 acres, part of the "tract settled by James Sloan, Jr.," "including Sloan's improvement," "surveyed by R. Orr, Jr.," June 17, 1828, for $900. This tract appears on the map of original tracts as having belonged, when the map was made, to Robert Brown, Sr., and the heirs of Thomas H. Sloan-the southern part to the former, and the northern to the latter. The commonwealth granted a patent to the former for the southern part, Janu ary 31, 1828, and for the northern part, November 9, 1831. He conveyed 150 acres southeast of the present route of Walker road, lying on each side of the Clearfield turnpike, to James E. Brown, April 3, 1835, for $300. Thirteen acres and 83 perches of this tract, embraced in the last-men tioned patent, on the northwest side of the Walker road, became vested in Mrs. Mary M. Killikelly, which she conveyed to James G. Henry, in pursu ance of a previous agreement, September 19, 1873, for $4,055.63. He, Daniel A. Daugherty, Fred383 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. erick Hague, Marshall B. Oswald and Robert G. Curren conveyed all the coal therein to George B. Daugherty, December 23, 1875, for $700. Troy Hill is the name given to the town laid out on this parcel by its proprietors. It is a pentagon, yet almost a parallelogram in shape. Its twentyeight lots, with alley and avenues, were surveyed by Robert S. Slaymaker, in 187-. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, varying from 250 to 260 feet in length, and from 82.5 to 82.91 feet in width, constitute the northern tier of lots fronting south on Dogwood avenue. Fronting that avenue on the north are Nos. 5, 6, each 144 by 82.5 feet. Adjoining No. 6 on the west are Nos. 7, 8, each 115 by 72 feet, fronting west on Wabash avenue-the north side of No. 7 adjoining Dogwood avenue. South of 5, 6, 8 are Nos. 9, 10,11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, each 280 by 100 feet, fronting west on Wabash avenue, No. 17 adjoining Spring on the south. South of Spring avenue-between it and Kentucky avenue-is another tier of lots, Nos. 18, 19, 20,21, 22, trapezoidal, their sides varying in length from 145 to 216 feet, and their ends from 56 to 57.2 feet. South of Kentucky avenue, and between it and Cemetery avenue, is another tier of lots, Nos. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, all trapezoidal except 24, which is nearly a scalene triangle. Their sides vary in length from 165 to 221.10 feet, and their ends from 50 to 58.25 feet. No. 24's sides are respectively 170, 165 and 581 feet long. No. 23 is a rectangular triangle, its perpendicular being 80, and its base 50 feet, on the southeastern side of Cemetery avenue. No. 1 sold for $255; No. 4, $265; Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8 (aggregated), $425; No. 9, $175; No. 13, $225; No. 15, $250; No. 16, $250; No. 17, $265; No. 24, $300; No. 25, $300; No. 26, $300; Nos. 27 and 28, $690; and No. 23, the little triangle on the outside of Cemetery avenue, $100. Wabash avenue extends from the northwestern end of Kentucky avenue along the western side of the town, north 2- degrees west 17732 feet to the western end of Dogwood avenue. Cemetery avenue extends from the southwestern corner of the town north 88 degrees east 330 feet along the southern end of the town, thence its course is about northeast between Nos. 23 and 24. The alley is 20, and each of the avenues is 60 feet wide. Vestiges of the old state road are still visible on the southwestern part of this tract. The laying out of this road was authorized by the act of assembly of April 4, 1805. By the act of March 31, 1806, the sum of $5,000 was appropriated for opening and completing it. It extended from Blair's gap, then in Huntingdon county, through the towns of Ebensburgh, Indiana, Kittanning, Butler, to the western boundary of this state at or near the place where the Mahoning branch of the Big Beaver creek crosses that boundary. The amount appropriated was apportioned among the counties which it traversed, according to its length or distance in each. The amount thus apportioned to this county was $1,040. Although the law required one of the three viewers to be a practical surveyor, that road must have been, at least along some parts of the route, laid out on very unfavorable ground, respecting which loud complaints went up to the legislature, whereupon the act of March 26, 1808, was passed, authorizing the courts of quarter sessions of Armstrong and Cambria counties to appoint six disinterested and reputable freeholders to view such parts as passed through these two counties, and if their report should make alterations in the route they were to be confirmed by the courts. Portions of the territory of the Sloan tract became historical before the purchase line, its southern boundary, was run; before the inception of his title to it, and before the boundaries of any other tract in what is now this county were indicated by the surveyor's compass and chain. At early dawn on the 8th of September, 1856, the minor portion of Col. Armstrong's force, which had not then been "brought over the last precipice," when the front had " reached the river Allegheny, about 100 perches below the main body of the town," was ordered to march along the top of the hill from its end, "at least 100 perches and so much further, it being daylight, as would carry them opposite the upper part, or at least the body of the town," that is, across the western part of the Davidson-Buffington tract and the purchase line, to that part of this tract a few rods north of the old state road hollow, where it halted, whence it and the main force below "the last precipice," were simultaneously, from their respective points, to attack the town.* Philip and John Mechling remember seeing Jeremiah Lochery, soon after they came to Kittanning, from their father's door on the north side of Market near Water street, point out the hollows down which, he said, Armstrong's force, separated into three detachments, descended. He was reputed to have accompanied Armstrong in his expedition to Kittanning. Whether he did or not, he was evidently mistaken as to there having been three detachments and as to their having reached the town through the ravines in the adjacent hill. His statement does not accord with Col. Armstrong's report, written at Fort Littleton six days after the action. Such would *See general sketch of the county. 384 VALLEY TOWNSHIP. have been an unwise order for any commandant to make, because of the danger of one or more of the detachments being hemmed in and captured or destroyed, if, as it was possible might have been the case, the enemy should become aware of their approach. It may, then, be reasonably presumed that the detachment on the hill descended a few rods north of the ravine back of the courthouse, through what is now Mrs. Nulton's field, which would be the direct course to "the body of the town." Capt. Hdgh Mercer was taken to "the top of the hill" immediately after he was wounded. It is not stated in Armstrong's report whether his company was one of the three on the hill. If so, he may have been taken to that part of the hilltop north of the ravine. If, however, his company was one of those that descended "the last precipice" and made the attack upon and through the cornfield, as he was wounded "early in the action," he was probably taken to a point not far north or south of the purchase line, on either this or the Davidson tract, whence some of his men represented they could take him " into the road a nigh way." Col. Armstrong proceeded, after the houses were fired, probably to the hill part of this tract north of that ravine, "to have his wound dressed and blood stopped." It may be presumed that, as he beheld from this point the landscape below, he conceived the idea of adding "Victory" to his acquisitions. At this point he received information from the English prisoners, who had escaped, that twenty-four warriors had started eastward the night before, which intelligence induced him and his force to proceed instantly to the relief of Lieut. Hlogg and his detachment at Blanket Hill. Adjoining that tract on the east was one called "Roan," 5314 acres, for which a lottery warrant No. 109 was granted to Maj. Isaac Craig, May 17, 1785, and the patent May 5, 1789. He was born of respectable Protestant parents near Hillsborough, County Down, Ireland, whence he emigrated to Philadelphia in 1767, where he followed his trade of house-joiner until the beginning of the revolutionary war. Having been appointed a captain of marines by the authorities of Pennsylvania, he sailed in the sloop-of-war Andrew Doria, Capt. Nicholas Biddle, in Commodore Hopkins' squadron, to the island of New Providence, in the West Indies, where they seized and brought home a large quantity of much-needed arms and munitions of war. Craig was appointed, soon after his return, a captain in Col. Thomas Proctor's artillery regiment, and participated in the capture of the Ilessians at Trenton, and in the battles of Princeton, Brandywine and Germantown. He accompanied Gen. Sullivan's expedition up the Susquehanna against the hostile tribes of the Six Nations, and was afterward ordered to Fort Pitt, then under the command of Col. Brodhead. After the close of his military service he made Pittsburgh his permanent place of residence, and the historical writings of his son, Neville B. Craig, are regarded as standard authority respecting early events in and about that place. Dewalt Mechling, of Greensburgh, Pennsylvania, must have settled on that part of "Roan" a short distance, perhaps twenty or thirty rods, west of the run which flows northeasterly past the western side of Merganthaler's, formerly Taylor's, grove, into the south side of the Cowanshannock, and about seventy-five rods southwesterly from that creek, on the line of the old road which intersected the old state road at the head of the ravine back of the present court-house. Ie must have settled here very early, perhaps between 1784 and 1790the precise time cannot now be ascertained. He erected a shanty and cleared a patch of the level ground, respecting which he repeatedly inquired of his grandson, Philip Mechling, on the latter's occasional visits to Greensburgh after his removal to Kittanning. It was probably the first improvement made north of the purchase line in this county. Whether he abandoned it because of Craig's better title, or because of the dangerous proximity of the Indians, the writer's informant has never learned. Craig conveyed all of "Roan" to Jacob Lowery, September 15, 1791. Lowery on the one part, and Thomas Taylor and Alexander Blair on the other part, entered into an agreement for the sale and purchase of this entire tract, March 19, 1816, at $6 per acre. Blair, three days afterward, released all his interest therein to Taylor. The latter by several articles of agreement, dated, respectively, March 29 and April 17, 1816, and January 10, 1818, agreed to convey three parcels, aggregating 317 acres and 30- perches to David Reynolds for $2,227.151, and, March 25, 1826, authorized the deed therefor to be made by Lowery to Reynolds. Lowery conveyed 208 acres to Taylor, March 1, 1828, for $4,132.89, so that Lowery seemingly received $3,172.54 more than the price agreed upon between him and Taylor and Blair, while the quantity of land ultimately conveyed by him to Reynolds and Taylor was 14 acres and 9" perches less than the patent calls for. Taylor conveyed 6 acres and 142 perches to Thomas Hamilton, March 7, 1829, for $165.30. He agreed, January 2, 1833, to sell 103 acres on the south side of the Cowanshannock to his son John, but having died intestate, without executing a deed, a specific 385 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. performance of his agreement by his administrator was subsequently decreed by the proper court. John Taylor conveyed this parcel to Thomas and Matthew Montgomery, March 26, 1857, for $2,000, on which the manufacture of grain-cradles was carried on for nine years. They conveyed this parcel to George W. Nulton, the present owner, July 21, 1863, for 82,800, at the forks of the roads, on which he recently erected a two-story frame house for a hotel. The rest of "Roan," which Thomas Taylor, Sr., purchased from Lowery, became vested by proceedings in partition in his daughters, Esther and Martha Taylor, and Isabella Merganthaler, the lastnamed now owning the whole purpart. A large, pleasant grove, now called Merganthaler's, remains on this last-mentioned parcel, between the Cowanshannock and the Kittanning and Clearfield turnpike, in which a Methodist campmeeting was held about the middle of June, 1833, the Sabbath day exercises of which were somewhat interrupted by a swarm of bees alighting on one of the trees, which Thomas Taylor, Sr., persisted in capturing. The Grangers have erected one of their halls in this grove. The portion of "Roan " purchased by David Reynolds has been disposed of since his death by his executors: To Alexander Colwell 93 acres and 109 perches, south of the Cowanshannock, February 25, 1856, which he conveyed to Dr. T. K. Allison, the present owner, April 7, 1863, for $3,000, and 129 acres and 77 perches to John and John H. Burleigh, March 23, 1857, for $2,530, which the latter, after his father's death, and after having erected a two-story frame dwelling-house and made other improvements, conveyed to Judge Buffington, January 18, 1869, for $8,000. Next east of " Roan" was " Williamsburgh," 307 acres, on both sides of the Cowanshannock, and adjoining the purchase line on the south, " in line of districts Nos. 1 and 2 in the late purchase." The warrant was granted to William Amberson. He was appointed commissary of purchases for Westmoreland county early in the summer of 1780. President Reed wrote to him August 5, among other things: "Having already quota'd the counties within the state, we must do the same by yours, and do therefore direct you to supply the garrison" (at Pittsburgh) "with 50 barrels of flour,.500 bushels of Indian corn and 100 gallons of whisky per month. After the plentiful harvest which has been gathered in that county, as we are informed, we hope no difficulty will occur to prevent you getting this supply; but if there does, you must impress it. We have no other means of effecting it, and we trust we shall stand both excused and justified in taking this measure, if indolence and avarice interpose their baneful influence." Amberson conveyed his interest in "Williamsburgh " to William Turnbull, to whom the patent issued, July 17, 1793. He conveyed this entire tract and "Pine Grove " to Wmin. Peart, September 7, 1806, for $4,000, who thereafter occupied it for a number of years. Dr. Abner Bainbridge, who, after Peart's death, married his widow, resided on it in 1814-15-16. Peart conveyed it, in pursuance of an article of agreement, to Philip Mechling and Simon Torney, September 19, 1826, for $3,944. George Wilt was assessed with it from 1829 till 1832. Torney having released his interest to Mechling, November 11, 1830, the latter conveyed 201 acres and 19 perches to William Cunningham, June 7, 1836, for $2,900, which the latter's executors subsequently conveyed to James K. Tittle, the present owner. Mechling conveyed the residue of " Williamsburgh," 136 acres, to John Hood, April 14, 1837, for $1,500. Next east of " Williamsburgh" was the tract called "Hickory Grove," 302 acres, covered by warrant No. 496, to Robert McClenechan, May 17, 1785, to whom the patent issued, August 7, 1787. Peter Richards settled on this tract in 1806, and was first assessed with 150 acres, and two horses and one cow, $150, in 1807. He was commissioned by Gov. Snyder a justice of the peace, March 3, and was sworn April 15, 1809. His district was designated both in his commission and oath as No. 3, and "composed of Kittanning and Middlesex townships." John Davidson, who then resided in the town of Kittanning, was at the same time commissioned and sworn as a justice of the peace for the same district and townships, and William Kirkpatrick, who then lived on the Pickering & Co. tract No. 25, in what is now Cowanshannock township, was commissioned a justice of the peace, and sworn May 10, 1813, and his district was designated as No. 3, " composed of the township of Middlesex." Nowhere else in the records of this county has the writer seen a mention of that "township of Middlesex." McClenechan conveyed " Hickory Grove" to Samuel and Michael Mebchling, August 17, 1814, for $1,500. The latter's share became vested in his son Philip, who conveyed it-155 acres and 51 perches-to John Hood, April 10, 1837, for $2,040. The former built the two-story brick mansion on the north side of the turnpike opposite the deep southern bend in the Cowanshannock in 18-. He died intestate, and his share of " Hickory Grove" was divided into three purparts, one of which," C," * See sketch of Pine township. 386 VALLEY TOWNSHIP. 48 acres and 148 perches, was conveyed by his administrator to James Douglass, December 9, 1857; "A," 81 acres and 68 perches, was taken at the appraisement, $20 per acre, by decedent's son Samuel, and "B," 72 acres and 49 perches, $18 per acre, by decedent's son Daniel, both of whom have since disposed of their interests therein to others. Hood conveyed 53 acres and 53 perches to Rev. Joseph Painter, November 5, 1851, for $400, and 100 acres and 68 perches to Robert Dougherty, March 13, 1851, for $800; Dougherty to Robert McFarland, March 16, for $1,100, and McFarland to John Robinson, March 20, 1854, for $2,000, who made valuable and substantial improvements before his death. Southeast of "Hickory Grove" was a triangular tract covered by warrant to William Elliott, No. 74, 143 acres and 70 perches, with which Henry Schrecongost was first assessed in 1834-5. Adjoining that Elliott tract on the east was one occupied by Jacob Bumgardner as early as 1806; he was first assessed with 300 acres in 1807. He agreed, March 10, 1814, to convey his improvement right to 250 acres, which he warranted to be vacant, to Henry Schrecongost for $300, for which the latter obtained a patent January 17, 1831, and conveyed 100 acres to Peter Schrecongost, April 1, 1835, for $500. The Collins lands consisted of nine contiguous tracts, each containing 440 acres, covered by warrants to Stephen Collins of Philadelphia, some, if not all, of which are dated July 3, 1795. Collins was one of the number of citizens of that city who took the oath of allegiance to Pennsylvania and the United States June 25, 1778. Tract No. 3804 lay between "Monticello" on its southwest and the Samniple-Brown tract on its north, fronting along the central part of the eastern bend in the Allegheny river between Cowanshannock and Pine creeks. It became vested in Henry Chapman. John Campbell settled on it in 1824. It was sold by Chambers Orr, sheriff, on a judgment against George Cadwallader, Chapman's administrator lde bonis non, and conveyed by him to Thomas Cadwallader, September 20, 1833, being then occupied by Campbell, with 15 acres cleared and a cabin and stable erected on it. Cadwallader conveyed 125 acres and 129 perches to John Campbell, December 11, 1833, for $251.50; 101 acres and 15 perches to Joseph Campbell, January 5, 1834, for $202.06; to Samuel S. Harrison, Robert Robinson, James E. Brown and Thomas McConnell, 73 acres and 27 perches for $146.30, on which, about 200 rods below Hays' run, two salt-wells were bored by spring-poles about 800 feet deep. Considerable oil was brought up in the sand-pump from between 700 and 800 feet, as stated by James Campbell, who bored the upper one, which burned nicely on the surface of the water collected in a trough. No salt was made from the upper one until it was tubed. The lower well was bored by William Burns and produced about seven barrels daily for a few years. These "salt works" were first assessed to F. Rohrer & Co. in 1838, and to Robinson & Harrison in 1839. Portions of the machinery used in manufacturing the salt were on the ground long after the wells were abandoned. Cadwallader conveyed 25 acres and 39 perches of this tract to William S. Campbell June 4, 1840, for $50, and 37 acres and 23 perches to H. N. Lee, January 30, 1854, for $94. Other portions were occupied by Thomas Irwin, Sr. (weaver), and Thomas Irwin, Jr., from and after 1836-7. Tract No. 3805, called "Darby," adjoined the preceding one on the south and the Reed tract on the east, on which Alexander Schrecongost settled in 1812-13. Collins having transferred his interest in it and in Nos. 3806 and 3807 to Jeremiah Parker of Philadelphia, the patents for them were granted to the latter July 10, 1799, and subsequently devised by him to his son, William Parker, who conveyed 170 acres off the northern part of "Darby" to Thomas B. Erwin, June 1, 1829, for $405, which he conveyed. Jacob Millison, Sr., April 16, 1846, for $1,600. After the latter's death a portion of it became vested in James Walker, who exchanged it to Joseph Starr for the farm, heretofore mentioned, over toward the mouth of Pine creek. That devisee conveyed other portions of Darby: To William Burns, May 12, 1830, 62 acres and 139 perches for $156.06; 1291 acres to Thomas Wallace, January 31, 1834, for $323.12. Thos. Taylor conveyed 13 acres and 152 perches to Archibald Marshall in trust for Thomas Taylor Marshall, November 21, 1839, for $1 and "natural love and affection." Adjoining "Darby" on the east wAs tract No. 3806, of which and of No. 3807, Parker conveyed 202 acres and 35 perches to James Moorehead, August 6, 1829, for $306; all but about 8 acres became vested in Samuel Black, who conveyed to John F. Ross, May 29, 1857, for $3,900, and Ross, after making valuable improvements, conveyed the same to Robert Banks, April 4, 1876, for $11,500; 141 acres and 78 perches to Archibald Marshall, September 7, 1836, for $350. No. 3807, called " Chester," lay north and northeast of 3806, which, as above stated, became vested in William Parker, who conveyed portions of it: To David White, Jr., 126 acres and 25 perches, 387 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. June 1, 1829, for $7,200; White to Alexander Colwell, and Colwell to Jacob Millison, October 3, 1846, for $1,200; Parker to Hugh Speace, 136 acres and 133 perches, February 16, 1831, for $429. Three hundred and forty acres were assessed to Anthony Schrecengost in and for a few years after 1815. No. 3808 lay east of 3804 and north of " Chester," and with 3804 passed by sheriff's sale to Thomas Cadwallader, and was described in the writ on which it was sold as occupied by George Forsyth, with 30 acres cleared, and a cabin, house and stable on it in September, 1833. Forsyth was first assessed with 25 acres, probably of this tract, in 1815. Thomas Cadwallader's executrix, Mary Cadawallader, conveyed 109 acres and 65 perches to Robert and William McCutcheon, October 19, 1846, for $275. Her executor, George Cadwallader, to Daniel L. Forsyth, 185 acres and 19 perches, April 11, 1854; for $370, 18 acres and 15 perches of which Forsyth conveyed to Joseph Starr, August 31, 1855, for $181. Dr. W. A. Burleigh was assessed with the residue of what Forsyth purchased, from 1859 until 1861, during which time he operated on it a distillery. Forsyth's interest passed by sheriff's sale to Thomas McConnell and Andrew J. Faulk, who conveyed it to James B. Walker the present owner, July 8, 1865, for $2,000. Mrs. Cadwallader's executor to James L. Cunningham, 89 acres and 45 perches, January 8, 1860, for $223. No. 3809 lay north and east of " Chester," south of which lay No. 3810, and west of that, No. 3811. Patents for these three were granted to Zaccheus Collins, July 3, 1795. His only child, Anne, married Gen. Daniel Parker, and died before her father, leaving two children, Charles Collins and Sarah Ann Parker, in the latter of whom, by her father's intestacy and her brother's devise, these tracts became vested. She married Clement Hill, of Upper Marlborough, Maryland, and with her husband conveyed parcels of these tracts as the records show: 1233 acres of allotment 1 of subdivisions of Nos. 3809-10-11 to George Wilt, August 22, 1850, for $795; 116 acres and 123 perches, "lot No. 8 of the subdivisions of tracts Nos. 3809-10-11," to Anthony Schrecongost, August 22, 1 850, for $-. The first schoolhouse in what is now Valley township was erected on his farm. The place for holding elections has been at his house on this parcel ever since the erection of this township; 48 acres and 150 perches of No. 3809 to A. Colwell, December 9, 1852, for $196; 41 acres of 3810 to Emanuel Schrecongost, July 11, 1854, for $240; 160 acres and 12 perches of the same to Joseph Harris, August 16, 1857, for $835; and 843 acres of 3811 to George Miller, August 1, 1861, for $427. Henry Schrecongost probably settled on No. 3810 in 1811, for he was assessed the next year with 1 horse and 1 cow at $11; in 1813 with 40, and afterward with 440 acres of this tract. Samuel Schrecongost was assessed with I horse and 2 cows in 1826, with 133 acres in 1827, and 440 of No. 3811 in 1828. The parcels now owned by Joseph Mosgrove and Patrick McAfee, belonged to Henry Schrecongost's estate. Tract No. 3812 lay between 3809 on the south and "Amherst" and "Mexico" on the north. Jarues Hall was first assessed with it in 1829. It was conveyed by sheriff's deed along with 3804 and 3808, which lay between it and the Allegheny river, September 20, 1833, to Thomas Cadwallader, occupied by David Hall, 30 acres cleared, with a square log house and daub barn, who conveyed 16 acres and 146 acres of it to Henry Cunningham, May 15, 1834, for $34; 140 acres and 96 perches to Alexander Colwell, April 11, 1838, for $307.20; his executrix to James McClure, 52 acres and 16 perches for $130; and her executor, 100 and 105 acres and 19 perches to William Croyle, June 12, 1854, for $370. The Pine Creek Baptist church is the outgrowth of occasional itinerant preaching in this region before and regular preaching after 1836. There were occasional supplies by Revs. Thomas and Wilson. The church was organized with ten members in 1830, on which occasion Revs. Wilson, McCumber and Scott officiated. The first church edifice, frame, 24X32 feet, was erected on the lastmentioned Collins tract in 1841. The present one, a neat frame, 38 X 45 feet, has been erected on the site of the old one during this centennial year. The original members of this church were Joseph Davis, Daniel Hepler, Sarah Hepler, James Hall, Nancy Hall, Margaret Walker, Harriet Peart, Robert Walker and Tabitha Walker. There was quite a large body of vacant land, as presented on the map of original tracts, extending from the southern line of the eastern portion of "Mexico" between the Collins lands and the Elliott tract No. 74 on the west and the Holland lands covered by warrants Nos. 3047, 3032, 3023, 3003 to the purchase line. The southwestern part of it borders on the eastern side of 74 and the southwestern part of Collins' 3810, and is the Bumgardner-Schrecongost parcel above mentioned. Adjoining that parcel on the east and north lay one containing 400 acres, with which and three horses and two cattle Conrad Schrecongost was first assessed in 1807 at $310, which, in pursuance of an 388 WILLIAM DEVERS. William Devers, the oldest man living in South Bend township, is one of the few who still remain of a fast decreasing circle of pioneers. He is one of the men who witnessed and partook in the work of planting civilization in the wilderness, and is more blessed than some of them in being allowed to remain and enjoy an old age of ease, contemplate the country in its condition of peace, prosperity and plenty, which he helped to bring about. His residence in this county antedates its judicial organization. Born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, September 26, 1798, he came with his parents to South Bend township, and to the very farm on which he now lives, in the year 1802. He grew up inured to hard labor, and by his own exertions cleared and brought into cultivation a large part of the property wlhich he now owns. He was in the prime of his manhood, a man possessed of a rugged constitution and great physical strength, and was better qualified than many to bear the toil and hardship of a life in the woods during the early part of the century. He married in early life (1825) Miss Nancy Henry, born in Indiana county in 1801, and, like himself, the child of pioneers. It was not destined, however, that the wife of his young manhood should be his helpmeet in old age, for she died in 1835. She was the mother of four children, Henry, James, Joseph and Martha Jane. Mr. Devers' sons, Henry and Joseph, live on farms in the township, and his son James upon the old homestead. Mr. Devers has followed farming all his life, and is universally respected in the community in which he lives, having always exhibited the qualities of a good man and useful citizen. He is of Scotch-Irish descent, his grandparents having been natives of Scotland, and those upon his mother's side of Ireland. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. of Jonathan King, the then high sheriff of this county, for the election of one person for member of the House of Representatives of the United States, for the district composed of the counties of Armstrong, Indiana, Westmoreland, Somerset, Jefferson and Cambria; one member of assembly in conjunction with Indiana county; and one county commissioner. The remaining one is the letter list, dated September 17, of that year, by which it appears that David Lawson was then postmaster, and letters of seventy-six persons were then remaining in that office, a considerable number of whom must have resided from fifteen to twenty or more miles from this point. It may here be mentioned as quite remarkable that David Lawson had in all eleven children, four of whom were boys and seven girls, and that every one of them is still living, the youngest being about fifty-four years of age. That family circle, excepting by the deaths of the parents, is still unbroken. The only original matter in that number of the Western Eagle is a column and a third of introductory remarks by the editor, announcing the price of the paper to be $2 a year, exclusive of postage, payable in cash or rags, at 21 cents per pound, half-yearly in advance; that the paper would be forwarded immediately after publication by a private post, if there should be a sufficient number on the route to defray the expense, at 50 cents a year each, payable half-yearly in advance; and during the then existing arrangement for the arrival of the mail the publication day would be every Friday. The other portions of those remarks are well written, and contain correct ideas as to the province and duty of an editor in relation to laying before the people correct information concerning the foreign and domestic policy of our government and the treatment of public and private individuals. He says that "in conducting the Western Eagle, it is determined that foul and malicious calumny shall not be permitted to vilify its columns. If the public character of any man be necessarily examined, the examination shall be made fairly but not maliciously; it shall be confined to him as a public character, and shall not descend to a scrutiny of his private conduct unconnected with his public station. The intention on this subject, as well as on all others, is not to abuse, not to descend to scurrilous invective, but on all occasions to present an open, candid and honest statement to the public scrutiny." His prospects seemed to be "flattering. Friends appear on all sides determined to exert themselves in fostering a paper and assisting its continuance in the county of Armstrong." The name of Wm. McCorkle, written in ink on the margin, indicates that he was one of the first or original subscribers. The office in which it was published was, I am informed, in a log building on lot No. 122 on the north side of Market street near the public alley, which was afterward destroyed by fire while occupied by the late Nathaniel Henry as a cabinet-shop. Passing over a period of ten years, the writer's eye falls upon No. 83, Vol. II, of the Columbian, issued October 7, 1820. "Jefferson street, southwest corner of the public lot, near the courthouse." From the proclamation of Philip Mechling, then sheriff of this county, for the general election, on Tuesday, the 10th of that month, it appears that the law then required two persons to be voted for for sheriff and two for coroner. By the act of 1817-18 the court-house was made the place for voting at the general elections by the voters residing in the election district, then composed of Kittanning township, which, until the formation of Pine township, embraced all the territory on the east side of the river between Crooked and Mahoning creeks, and extending east from the river to the present western boundary lines of Plum Creek, Cowanshamock and Wayne townships; and that election district also embraced that part of the territory on the west wide of the river between the Allegheny river and a line beginning at the mouth of Glade run, now in the township of North Buffalo, thence to the place where the line of what was then Buffalo township crossed that run, which point is in the present township of East Franklin, about one mile and forty rods southeast of Middlesex, and thence to Cummins' Rock, on the Allegheny river, which is a short distance above the mouth of Mahoning creek, at the foot of Kelly's chute. There are now within the limits of that district six entire election districts and parts of three others. The number of business advertisements, aside from those connected with the printing office, did not exceed six, and there are only nine announcements of candidates for county offices in that issue of the Columbian. The claims, merits and demerits of the gubernatorial and congressional candidates then before the people for election were sharply but not scurrilously discussed by contributors. The issue of October 5, 1825, contains seven legal notices, among which are the proclamation of Thomas Burnside, speaker of the Senate, and of Thomas McConnell, sheriff of this county, for the election of a State Senator, in the district then VALLEY TOWNSHIP. agreement made in his lifetime, his heirs conveyed to Daniel Schrecongost, September 6, 1844, for $500, on which the latter erected a two-story brick house, which for several years he kept as an inn, a few rods east of which is one of the public schoolhouses of this township. In 1872-3, a company consisting of twenty members sunk a well for oil on the southern part of this tract to the depth of 1,920 feet, which proved to be a dry one. A large vein of gas was struck at the depth of 1,005 feet. The well after it was abandoned was plugged. In 1875, an attempt was made to clean it for the purpose of piping the gas to Kittanning, to be used as fuel in the iron-works and water-works. So much matter of one kind and another had been thrown into the well, it was so much clogged up that, after the expenditure of $10,000, including the expense of drilling the well, the attempt was abandoned. A diminished quantity of gas is still emitted. Frederick Yockey settled on that vacant land north of the last-mentioned tract, in 1807, and was first assessed with 200 acres at $75, and one horse and one cow at $16, in 1808. He obtained a warrant for 383 acres and 103 perches February 22, 1836, on which the survey was made April 9. Military musters were occasionally held on his premises. The seventh battalion of volunteers, Findley Patterson, Major, was notified by James McCullough, Sr., of Kittanning, adjutant, to meet at Yockey's house at 10 o'clock A.M., on Wednesday, September 10, 1834, completely armed and equipped for training. The German Reformed Church edifice is located on this Yockey tract. It is a frame structure, 36 X 40 feet, which was erected in 1850. This church, called the Mount Union, was organized by Rev. L. B. Leberman in 1851. Its pastors have been: Rev. F. Wire from 1853 till October, 1853; Rev. E. Shoemaker in 1860; Rev. R. R. Duffenbosker from May 30, 1862, till -; Rev. J. F. Snyder in 1865; Rev. J. J. Pennypacker from 1867 till 1872, and Rev. D. S. Duffenbosker since June 1, 1873. Its membership is 83; Sabbathschool scholars, 60. Another portion of that vacant land, north of Yockey's, was settled by George Waugaman in 1811, with 40 acres of which, with one horse and cow, and as a weaver, hlie was first assessed the next year at $34. His warrant for 201 acres and 113 perches is dated February 22, and the survey March 3, 1836. Patents for some other portions were granted: To John Davis, March 29, 1827, for a tract including the parcel now owned and occupied by Daniel Davis, at whose house the Davis postoffice, he being the postmaster, was established July 14, 1857; the portion now owned and occupied by Daniel Slagle, at whose house the West Valley postoffice, he being the postmaster, was established April 22, 1861, to which the Davis office was then changed; and the parcel of 5 acres and 8 perches conveyed by Daniel Davis to Levi Davis in March, 1868, for $225. The Methodist Episcopal Church edifice, frame, was erected in 1873 on that part of that vacant land now owned by George Boringer, who conveyed an acre to the "Trustees of the Pine Creek Methodist Episcopal Church, July 22, 1873, for $1. The church was organized in 1846, and until the completion of the present edifice services were held in the house about 75 rods northeast of it, which was built for both church and school purposes, and known as the Furnace schoolhouse, which is situated in the southeastern part of "Mexico." Another portion of that vacant land was included in the patent to Alexander Colwell, June 14, 1836, and which, with a portion of the parcel which he had purchased from the Holland Land Company, he conveyed to Jacob Sleese, Sr., aggregating 196 acres and 27 perches, April 18, 1848, for $508.50, 126 acres and 38 perches of which the latter conveyed to his son Jacob November 25, 1851, for $100. A warrant for 116 acres and 80 perches, in the northwestern part of that vacant land, was obtained by Joseph Davis March 27, on which the survey was made July 3, 1837, adjoining "Mexico" on the north, Sleese on the east, Waugaman on the south, and the Collins tracts, Nos. 3809 and 3812, on the west. He sold it to Peter Mobly. That belt of vacant land was bounded on the north by a narrow strip of "Mexico" south of Pine creek. In the west end of that part of Valley township north of Pine creek, near the junction of the Pine Creek & Dayton Railroad, Daniel Hepler settled in 1828, and was assessed the next year as a blacksmith and with one cow at $81. William White conveyed to him 40 acres and 58 perches, on which his blacksmith shop was erected, January 21, 1839, for $120. James E. Brown and James Mosgrove erected Pine Creek Furnace in the east end of the part of this township north of Pine creek in 1845-6, hotblast, steam, charcoal, ten feet across the bosh-stack and thirty-three feet high; made its first pig-metal in July, 1846; used charcoal until 1863, when the hight of the stack was increased to forty feet and the fixtures were improved; commenced making iron with coke in 1865.* The capacity of this * It continued with coke until June, 1879, when it went out of blast, the price of pig-iron being then $16 to $17 per ton. 389 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. furnace is fifty-six tons of forge metal out of limestone ore from beds in the coal measures for miles around. In 1869 Brown & Mosgrove built a three-foot-gauge railroad from the north of Pine creek to the furnace, a distance of four miles, for transporting ore and metal from and to the Allegheny Valley Railroad, which has proved to be very successful. It is designated on the township map the Pine Creek & Dayton Railroad, so named because the people of the borough of Dayton, in this county, and of the valley of Pine creek, have evinced considerable interest in its extension to Dayton, but as yet without securing the requisite pecuniary means. Subscriptions reaching $30,000, one-half the required amount, were made for this purpose in 1871. Allotment No. 3 of the tract covered by the Le Roy & Co. warrant, No. 3036, was in the northeast corner of this township, which was occupied first by Adam and Thomas Beer, Daniel Guld and George Williams in the latter part of the first decade of this century. Martin Kneas, a volunteer in Capt. James Alexander's company, followed the last named and occupied the cabin which he had built. Benjamin B. Cooper conveyed 153 acres and 121 perches of that allotment to James Hannegan, the first court-crier in this county, June 7, 1819, for $191.34, with which and two horses and two cattle, he was first assessed in 1816. It is the same land which his heirs released to William Peart, March 18, 1850, which point the latter named Oscar, where the Oscar postoffice, Francis Martin, postmaster, was established, July 25, 1861, and where a store had been opened several years before. Cooper conveyed 160 acres of allotment 2, same warrant, to Hannegan, April 4, 1817, for $192.19, and Wilhelm Willink et al., 1741 acres of allot ment 4, same warrant, December 19, 1827, for $98. The portion of the LeRoy & Co. tract, No. 3047, south of Pine creek, was in what is now Valley township. Parts of the parcels conveyed to Alexander and James White border on the south side of this stream, which were mentioned in the sketch of the southeastern part of Pine township. Alexander White erected a gristmill in 1828 and a sawmill in 1831, with which he was assessed from 1829 and 1832, respectively, until 1838. He and William Love entered into an agreement for the sale and purchase of these mills and 180 acres of adjacent land, September 11. Love went into pos session soon after and was first assessed with that property in 1839. After Love's death White exe cuted a deed therefor to William McCain, executor in trust for Love's heirs, devisees and legal representatives, March 1, 1849, for $2,000. Joseph Barker, miller, Thomas McConnell and Joseph L. Reed acquired an interest in this property in 1845-6, and Barker was assessed with the mills for several years from 1846. Hie and McConnell and Reed acquired from Noah A. Calhoun a grant of onehalf the water-power used in running these mills, October 21, 1847. Barker conveyed the one-half of the 48 acres and 13 perches on which these mills are situated, March 31, 1857, for $500. The mills were assessed to Secrist from 1861 till 1868, since which time they have been assessed to Francis Martin, by whom they are still operated. James White-distinguished on the assessment list by the title of Major from James White, of David-erected in 1837 a carding-machine and fulling-mill some distance below the grist and saw mills erected by his brother Alexander on the parcel of 3047 purchased by him on the south side or left branch of Pine creek. After operating them for about a year he employed William Gillis, skilled and experienced in these branches of business, who advertised in the Kittanning papers, May 9, 1839, the " Pine Creek Woolen Factory," in which "carding and spinning" were done, and " wool manufactured into cloth, satinet, flannels, blankets, cassimeres," and other articles. Before these works were started the people of this region had their carding and fulling done in the southern part of Indiana county. James White conveyed 157 acres and 92 perches, allotment 5, tract 369, warrant 3047, to John Adair, May 2, 1845, for $1,700; Adair conveyed the same, " together with machinery for a woolen factory, carding machine, two spinning jennies, one power loom, picker, shearing machine, one stove, fulling stock, press power, one hand loom, and other machinery," to James E. Brown, February 25, 1846, for $100, who reconveyed the land to White, April 14, 1847, for $1. James White died intestate, leaving only as next of kin his full brother, Alexander, who conveyed those 157 acres and 90 perches to Brown & Mosgrove, the present owners, May 13, 1853, for $1,106. Adjoining allotment 5 on the west was allotment 4, 112 acres of which became vested in John W. McLinn, which, excepting ten acres and the water right in Pine creek between them and the eastern boundary of McLinn's parcel, his administrator, by virtue of an order granted by the proper court for their sale, conveyed to James E. Brown, October 3, 1846, for $325. McLinn had agreed, September 14, 1841, to convey those ten acres and that water right to William Gillis, which that administrator conveyed to him when he conveyed to Brown. 390 VALLEY TOWNSHIP. Gillis has, since his purchase from McLinn, carried on his woolen factory on that part of these ten acres a few rods below the mouth of Dill's run. Other parcels of allotment 4 consisted of a part, the west end of that allotment, of the 86 acres and 42 perches which Willink & Co. conveyed to Alexander Colwell March 23, 1835, and included in the latter's conveyance to Jacob Sleese; and 112 acres to George W. Mechling, May 30, 1836, for $56.15. Passing to the southeastern part of this township is the territory covered by the warrant No. 666 to William Findley, 3281 acres, a strip of which is in Cowanshannock township, the patent for which was granted to him May 24, 1796. Mrs. Mary Black, one of his devisees, conveyed 200 acres of it to Isaac Rhea, April 9, 1833, for $600, with which he was first assessed in 1840. The rest of the territory of what is now Valley township was covered by Holland Land Company warrants: No. 3003 extended west from the Findley tract No. 666 along the purchase line to the southeastern part of the above-mentioned belt of vacant land, and contained 990 acres. It will be readily identified by the following: B. B. Cooper conveyed 171 acres and 131 perches of allotment 3 to George Gravenor, April 8, 1817, for $199, he having been first assessed with 211 acres in 1812; Willink & Co. to Daniel McAfoos, 118 acres and 117 perches, April 19, 1827, for $59.37; to Richard Gravenor, 1101 acres, September 19, for $55; to William McIntire, 1511 acres adjoining the Findley tract, September 17, 1828, for $25.90, which McIntire conveyed to George Somers, April 12, 1836; to Benjamin Schrecongost, 188 acres, October 1, 1830, for $70, and to Findley Patterson, 149 acres and 25 perches of allotment 5, March 19, 1833, for $87.50, on which he was that year assessed with a sawmill. He soon after erected the p esent gristmill with two runs of stone, in which was made the first flour shipped from this county to Philadelphia and Baltimore, which, with this parcel of land, passed by sheriff's deed, June 21, 1848, to Thomas Sturgeon, who conveyed the mills and land to John Kammadinier, March 7, 1855, for $4,000. The expense which the latter incurred in attempting to operate the gristmill by steam embarrassed him so that this property again passed under the sheriff's hammer, when David Patterson became the purchaser, to whose estate it now belongs. The public schoolhouse No. - is on this allotment. The Greendale postoffice, George Bowser, postmaster, was established here February 7, 1867. While Findley Patterson resided at this point, then in Pine township, he was elected county commissioner in 1837, one of whose duties it then was to view, value and grade all the unpatented lands in the county. He was elected state senator in 1838; appointed revenue commissioner in 1843; elected member of assembly in 1844 and 1845, and was elected and re-elected speaker of the house of representatives; and in 1847 he was again appointed revenue commissioner to represent this and Indiana counties, and was chosen president of the board. He was also a member of the board of school directors, first of Kittanning and then of Pine township during the greater part of his residence in this county, and was captain of the Wayne township artillery company and major of the regiment, and was appointed in 1857 receiver in the land office, Kansas, for four years. His maternal grandfather was William Findley, a native of the north of Ireland. He came to this state when he was a young man; served in the American army during the revolution; after its close he settled in Westmoreland county; was elected a member of the legislature of this state, of the constitutional convention of 1790, and was a member of congress 1791-9 and 1803-17. To distinguish him from Gov. William Findley, who was cotemporaneous with him in public life, hlie was called "Congress Findley." He was the author of "A Review of the Funding System," published in 1794, "History of the Insurrection of Western Pennsylvania," 1796, and "Observations" vindicating religious liberty. He was the warrantee and patentee of various tracts of Findley lands, mentioned in the sketch of Cowanshannock township, the one in Valley and of several on the west side of the Allegheny river in this county. Adjoining the last-mentioned tract was the Le Roy & Co., No. 3023, 1,000 acres, of which B. B. Cooper conveyed 207 acres and 70 perches, allotment 6, to Philip Gravenor, April 8,1817, for $275; 103- acres to George Gravenor, December 21, 1818, for $240. Willink & Co. conveyed 126 acres, allotment 3, to John Howser, July 2, 1827, for $63.25, which was subsequently purchased and occupied by George Leighley; 113 acres, allotment 5, to George D. Shaeffer, March 7, 1830, for $56, with which and as a blacksmith he was first assessed in 1831; 74 acres and 141 perches, allotment 4, to Jacob McAfoos, March 24, 1831, for $37.50, with 111 acres of that allotment he was first assessed in 1811, and on which he had probably resided since 1806, and 74 acres 141 perches, December 23, 1835, for $37.50, and he to George Schrecongost, February 3, 1841, for $300; 126 acres and 64 perches, allotment 1, to Jacob King, January 19, 1835, for $63.25, 110 acres of which were subsequently owned by Andrew and then by Joseph Mosgrove, who conveyed the same to Aaron Black, January 24, 1855, for $800, 391 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. and the latter to John Rutter, except 10 acres, January 24, 1866, for $1,800. The next tract to the north was Le Roy & Co., No. 3032; 1,000 acres was parceled: B. B. Cooper to Alexander McElwain, 100 acres, allotment 3, October 7, 1819, for $200, and Willink & Co. 55 acres and 24 perches, June 20, 1827, for $28; B. B. Cooper to Francis Dill, 155 acres and 98 perches, allotment 2, September 20, 1820, for $311.16, and Willink & Co. 112 acres, allotment 1, June 1, 1832, for $56, both of which parcels Richard Dill conveyed to Charles Moore, Jr., March 3, 1868, for $4,000; Willink & Co. 162- acres to Jacob Howser, July 3, 1827, for $81.25, subsequently occupied by George Howser; 167 acres and 52 perches to George Stiffey, October 7, 1828, for $83.75. East of No. 3023 lay the western portion of Le Roy & Co. tract No. 3022 of which Willink & Co. conveyed 120 acres of allotment 2 to William Powers, September 12, 1831, for $255; 97 acres and 154 perches of allotment 1 to Jacob McAfoos, March 8, 1837, for $90; 176 acres and 110 perches, allotment 5, to Abraham Beer, August 7, 1842, for $126.50, which he had occupied since 1826. STATISTICS. The people of this township voted, February 28, 1873, on the question of granting license to sell intoxicating liquors: Against, 103; for, 41. The mercantile appraiser's list shows four stores in the fourteenth and one in the eleventh class in 1876. Occupations other than agricultural, according to the assessment list for 1876: Furnace managers, 2; laborers, 102; miners, 5; teamsters, 4; carpenters, 3; shoemakers, 3; blacksmiths, 2; hucksters, 2; millers, 2; bookkeeper, 1; bricklayer, 1; butcher, 1; clerk, 1; coker, 1; cooper, 1; grocer, 1; harnessmaker, 1; marble-cutter, 1; pit-boss, 1; printer, 1; school-teacher, 1; sexton, 1. The population in 1860: White, 1,551; colored, 1. In 1870: Native, 1,665; foreign, 156; colored, 0. Number of taxables in 1876, 460, giving about 2,116 of a population. Schools, 1860: Number schools, 9; average number months taught, 4; male teachers, 5; female teachers, 4; average monthly salaries of male teachers, $16.60; average monthly salaries of female teachers, $16; male scholars, 210; female scholars, 156; average number attending school, 246; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 42 cents; tax levied for school purposes, $674.10; tax levied for building purposes, $421.32; received from state appropriation, $104.64; from collectors, $561; cost of instruction, $572; fuel, etc., $62; repairs, $10. 1876: Number schools, 13; average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 5; female teachers, 8; average salaries of male teachers per month, $28.60; average salaries of female teachers per month, $26.75; male scholars, 316; female scholars, 305; average number attending school, 240; cost per month, 61 cents; tax levied for school and building purposes, $3,309.12; received from state appropriation, $412.92; from taxes, etc., $2,160.57; cost of schoolhouses, $210.70; paid for teachers' wages, $1,785; fuel, etc., $284.24. GEOLOGICAL FEATURES. The uplands have a thin covering of lower barren rocks. These are the measures which make the summit of the ridge which the Anderson Creek road traverses. The lower productive measures are exposed along the Cowanshannock and Pine creeks throughout the entire township. The hills skirting the river from Kittanning borough to the mouth of Pine creek and beyond consist mainly of these rocks. The Pottsville conglomerate, sixty feet thick, rises to the day over an area extending from Quigley's mill nearly to the mouth of Hays' run, and this rock makes the sandstone bowlders along the river's edge. The upper Freeport coal and limestone, the lower Freeport coal, the upper and lower Kittanning coals, the fireclay underlying the lower Kittanning coal, the ferriferous limestone and the fireclay underlying it, have all in turn been developed. The ferriferous limestone is above the Cowanshannock from John C. Rhea's property nearly to below the Hague schoolhouse, between it and the Robinson farm, and is above the waters of Pine creek a like distance and extending to Pine Creek furnace, and supports here the buhrstone ore; along the river front it is continuous above water-level from the southern to the northern end of the township. The structure is somewhat complicated by the gradually diminishing force of the anticlinal axis, which crosses the river near the site of the old Allegheny furnace. This gradual decline of the axis gives to the rocks a southwest dip down the river rather than the usual and normal incline toward the northwest and southeast. Another and well-developed anticlinal crosses the Cowanshannock near Greendale, where it lifts the Pottsville conglomerate to daylight, and it crosses Pine creek near Oscar postoffice.- W. G. Platt. A slight undulation is suspected to pass from the neighborhood of Scrubgrass creek through the neighborhood of Allegheny Furnace, crossing local northwest dips.-Rogers. The ferriferous limestone is seen on Reynolds' 392 rOBET TOVWIVSEfD, ROBERT TOWNSEND. The man whose name heads this sketch, until late years a resident of South Bend township, was born in this county, December 3,1796. The lady whom he afterward married, Elizabeth, daughter of Samuel and Eva B. (Miller) Hine, was born August 27, 1797. They were joined in wedlock by Squire Paul, in the year 1816. After their marriage they lived near the river in South Bend township for three years, and then went to Westmoreland county. After remaining there seven years they returned to this county, where Mr. Townsend spent the remainder of his days. In 1837 Mr. Townsend purchased a farm of 386 acres of land, all timbered except a few acres which had been cleared by its former owner. When they went upon the farm they lived for a year in a small, rough log cabin, but afterward moved into a better one, made partly of hewed logs, which they could not have at first, as it was rented. The farm on which Mr. and Mrs. Townsend lived was commonly known to the hunters for miles around as "The Bucks Farm," for the reason that it abounded at an early day in deer, which came there to feed on the acorns. During the first years of their housekeeping they were obliged to grind their corn in what was then known as the "Pint Mill," owned by a Mr. Johnson. Mrs. Townsend did most of her cooking at the fireplace, but baked bread in an outdoor oven, built for the purpose. She obtained her first cook-stove in 1845. She used the spinning-wheel to make linen for clothing from the flax they raised upon the farm. To keep her family properly clothed she was often compelled to weave until midnight, after being busy all day with other domestic 1P,S.P\OBERT TOANSND. duties. Having no mill to clean their wheat, they used a bed-sheet, which was handled as a huge fan by husband and wife, separating the chaff from the grain. As time passed the disadvantages under which household and farm labor was performed were lessened, and work done with more ease and rapidity. Mr. Townsend kept abreast of the times in agriculture, and in the matter of fruit-growing was far ahead of his neighbors, having the greatest variety and choicest fruit in the township. Upon December 28, 1874, Robert Townsend passed away, after a long, useful and honorable life. He was a member of St. Jacob's church, near South Bend. His widow is a faithful communicant of this church today. She is in a remarkable state of health, and as active in her movements as a woman of fifty, although in her eightysixth year. Mr. and Mrs. Townsend have been blessed with ten children, all of whom are now living. Their names, with dates of birth, are as follows: Isaac, born February 23, 1817; Anna Margaret, March 15, 1819; Susannah, December 13, 1821; Henry, October 15, 1823; Simon P., March 19, 1826; Rachel, August 12, 1829; Elizabeth E., November 23, 1831; Robert, August 28, 1834; Sarah, October 6, 1837; John L., July 16, 1840. John L. Townsend lives upon the old homestead. He was married in 1864, to Miss Jemima D. Wherry, born January 31, 1847. She died July 20, 1867, leaving one child, Annie, born July 22, 1867. On April 17, 1871, Mr. Townsend married as his second wife Mary Jane, widow of William Robertson, whose maiden name was Barr, and she was born January 19, 1836. She has one son, William, a child of her first husband. I ESIDENCE OF THE LATE JWSE T TOWN 3END, VALLEY TOWNSHIP. farm, one mile north of the borough, where the Kittanning coal is twenty feet above it; on Nulton's land, north of the court-house, it is four feet thick, and is divided by a thin slate about one foot from the top.-Rogers. The following is an analysis of a piece of perforated red ore, obtained from John C. Rhea's farm, the above-mentioned part of the Findley tract No. 666, by F. A. Genth, Jr., of the University of Pennsylvania: Ferri oxide, 77.10; ferrous oxide, 0.43; manganous oxide, 1.02; alumina, 2.47; silicic acid, 7.17; phosphori acid, 0.38; carbonic acid, 0.47; water and organic matter, 11.23.- 100.27. 393 CHAPTER XVIII. SOUTH BEND. Organized in 1867 from Territory in Kiskiminetas and Plum Creek - The Thirty-five Original Land Warrants - The Pioneers and First Owners of the Several Tracts - Transfers of Property - " Captain Tom's Hunting Camp " - A Political Meeting of 1810 - Woodward's Mills - Postoffice- Blockhouses Built by the Early Settlers - Churches -Primitive Schoolhouses and Pioneer Pedagogues - Later Schools - Miscellaneous Items - Census and Other Statistics - Mechanical Industries. ON the 17th day of April, 1867, the petition of divers inhabitants of Kiskiminetas and Plum Creek townships-that is, of those within the boundaries of the then proposed new township,-setting forth that they labored under great inconvenience for the want of a new township to be composed of parts of those two townships, was presented to the court of quarter sessions of this county. Whereupon, after considering the same, the court appointed Reuben Allshouse, James Y. Jackson and John Smith viewers or commissioners, to inquire into the propriety of granting the prayer of the petitioners. This report in favor of erecting the new township, to be called South Bend, as prayed for by the petitioners, accompanied by a draft thereof, was presented to the court, and ordered to be filed June 4, 1867. Three days afterward, June 7, the court ordered that an election of the qualified voters of those parts of Kiskiminetas and Plum Creek townships, within the boundaries of the proposed new township, be held at the usual place of holding elections in the former, on Friday, June 28, then instant, and to be conducted as other township elections, on fifteen days' notice to be given by the constable of Kiskiminetas township. The returns of that special election were made by the election officers, and filed July 1, then next ensuing. The vote was, for dividing those two old townships and erecting the new one, 152, and against the same, 90. The court thereupon ordered and decreed that the township of South Bend be erected according to law and the lines of division reported by the viewers, and appointed James Fulmer, judge, and James Armstrong and Jonathan Crum, inspectors, to hold and conduct the then next general and spring elections. The boundaries reported by the viewers or commissioners are: Beginning at a corner of Burrell township, on land of Jacob Hart; thence south 29 degrees east 1 mile and 120 perches to A. Walker's; thence south 2 miles to the top of a hill on I. Horn's land; thence south 34 degrees east 1 mile and 108 perches to the Indiana county line, on or near to land of Robert Elder; thence by Indiana county line north 37 degrees east 6 miles and 172 perches toa point on land of John Ramsey; thence north 40 degrees west 220 perches on the bank of Crooked creek, near Reuben Allshouse's (Idaho) mill; thence down said creek north 80 degrees west 150 perches; thence across said creek north 50 degrees west 3 miles on land of Isaac Rowley, deceased; thence south 87 degrees west 1 mile and 97 perches, on land of M. Davis; thence by the line of Burrell township south 15 degrees east 1 mile and 258 perches to Linsbigler's run; thence down said run south 70 degrees west 110 perches; thence south 56 degrees west 64 perches to Crooked creek; thence 31 degrees west 1 mile and 308 perches to the place of beginning, containing about 23 square miles, to be called South Bend. The name is derived from a great southern bend in Crooked creek, the extreme southern part of which is in the southeastern part of the township, about 75 rods from the Indiana county line. Along that portion of that creek in this township some of the earliest settlements, by the whites in this county were made. The warrants for some of the thirty-five original tracts, as they are indicated on the ancient county map, are dated as early as 1773. Those tracts are: James Gray, 3641 acres, partly in Indiana county; Abraham Hunt, mostly in Kiskiminetas township, 301.9 acres, seated by Samuel Hancock; James Elder, 1581 acres, partly in Indiana county, seated by James Smith; Robert Lettis Hooper (of Northampton county, an assistant deputy commissary of purchases in 1779), 321 acres, partly in Kiskiminetas; William Forbes, 335.3 acres, partly in Kiskiminetas; Stephen Duncan, 322.3 acres; Joseph Speer, 352 acres, partly in Indiana county; Ann Kirk, 346.6 acres, seated by Samuel Fleming; Daniel Drinker, 322 acres, seated by Charles Hancock; Alexander Todd, 319.8, partly in Kiskiminetas, seated by Andrew Cunningham; John SOUTH BEND TOWNSHIP. Bringhurst, 285.3 acres, partly in Kiskiminetas, seated by Jacob Snow; Walter Finney, 390 acres, seated by Peter Henry; Samuel Sloan, 3141 acres; Samuel Massey, 321.6 acres, seated by Win. Heffelfinger and Christopher Miller, the latter 160 acres; Joseph Saunders, 326.4 acres, partly in Indiana county; John Finney, 337.7 acres, seated by Henry Allshouse; Matthew Irwin, 360 acres, seated by Jacob George, now owned chiefly by John and James Wherry; John Walker, 374.2 acres, seated by John Householder; James Davis, Sr., 421.4 acres; James Davis, Jr., 422 acres; Erasmus Beatty, 4281 acres, partly in Kiskiminetas and Burrell, seated by Nicholas Fulmer; John Righter, 163.2 acres, seated by William Eakman; George Woods, 297.3 acres, seated by H. and Geo. Rupert; John Levering, 316 acres, seated by Peter and Christopher Rupert; Samuel Dixon, 315- acres; James Skullknot, 334 acres, seated by George Smith; Robert Dick, 159 acres; Elizabeth Pile, 346.3 acres, seated by Widow Smith; Hannah Gregory, 346 acres, seated by- Rankin; John Sloan, 201 acres, 69 perches; David Todd and William Wason, 570 acres, seated by Philip Rearigh, 170, Joseph Lowrey, 107, and Alexander George; Rowland Chambers, 225 acres, seated by Joseph Lowrey; Hugh Neely, 267 acres, 146 perches, mostly in Indiana county, seated by Anthony Montgomery. Another tract, making the thirty-fifth, covers territory within the great bend of Crooked creek above mentioned, which originally contained 299 acres, for which a warrant was issued to John Ladd Howell, dated February 8, 1776. As a part of this tract has for many years been a prominent point in this region, its various transfers may not be without interest to the reader. By deed dated May 22, 1776, Howell conveyed his interest in the entire tract to John Vanderen, of Philadelphia (miller), for five shillings. Vanderen's executors, being so authorized by the will of their testator, conveyed it to Charles Campbell by deed dated July 18, 1795, for ~59 4s. Campbell, by deed dated May 17, 1813, conveyed it to James Clark for $2,000; Clark, by deed dated May 20, 1813, conveyed it to Jacob France, or, as spelled in later times, Frantz, for $3,000, who by his will, proven April 28, 1832, devised it to his children, from whom David Ralston, at divers times from 1837 until 1855, bought portions including the mill, aggregating 75 acres, which, with the mill, he conveyed for $13,000 to Chambers Orr, by deed dated June 14, 1859, who, by deed dated May 22, 1865, conveyed it to the present owners, Robert and Henry Townsend, for $14,000. In the deed from Howell to Vanderen a mill-seat is mentioned as included in the tract. A grist and saw mill must have been erected thereon while it was owned by Campbell, for as early as 1805, James and William Clark were assessed in Allegheny township, in which this territory was then included, with one of each kind. For many years afterward Frantz's mill was resorted to by settlers from the lower part of the county, it being then the nearest to them. By act of March 16, 1819, Crooked creek was declared a public highway from its mouth to that mill. The names given to some of these tracts are as follows: The Samuel Dixon tract was called "Partrenship "-so it is spelled; the Hannah Gregory tract "Pised "; the Elizabeth Pile tract, "Phenicia;" the Matthew Irwin tract, "Truxillo; " the Rowland Chambers tract, " Cha-; " the John Shaw tract, " Brabant;" the Abraham Hunt tract, "Hunt's Forest; " the William Forbes tract, "Franconia;" the John Bringhurst tract, "White Oak Plains;" the Alexander Todd tract, "Todd's Plains;" the Daniel Drinker tract, "Hickory Ridge;" the Samuel Sloan tract,." Long Meadow;" the Samuel Massey tract, "Limestone Runs;" the Joseph Saunders tract, "Desart Sin; " the James Davis, Jr., tract, "Slephenton;" the Alexander Craig tract, a very small portion of which is in this county, " Craig's Farm." As described in the deed from Absalom Woodward to Robert C. Peebles, dated April 20, 1815, this lastmentioned tract was "situate on a large run emptying into Crooked creek, opposite to a place known by the name of Capt. Tom's Hunting Camp, in Plum Creek township." That "large run "must be the one that empties from the southeast in Crooked creek about eighty rods northeast from the lowest point in its great southern bend, so that "Capt. Tom's Hunting Camp" must have been on the John Ladd Howell tract, about a hundred rods southeast from the " mill-seat," mentioned in the deed from Howell to Vanderen, the present site of the Townsend mills, on the right bank of that creek. Who Capt. Tom was, or whence he came, the writer has not yet ascertained. He probably made annual hunting excursions to this region from one of the older and more densely settled counties. The writer has not yet met with anyone who can correctly inform him concerning the exact locality of that "hunting camp," which was one of the old landmarks. Strange it is, that none of those born and raised in its immediate and more remote vicinity, of whom he has inquired, had ever heard of it! One who has resided in its neighborhood for more than forty years thinks it was about three miles below, on the farm now owned by 395 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Jared McCandlers, which is a part of "Phcenicia." Another, who has passed his four score and ten years, and who in early life was familiar with this region, thinks'it must have been at the mouth of "Horny Camp Run," which is in the southwest corner of Kittanning township, several miles still further down the creek. The writer has, to his own satisfaction at least, ascertained its locality by putting together certain facts, points and boundaries, mentioned in several old deeds for different tracts. AN EARLY POLITICAL DELEGATE MEETING. The following is from the Western Eagle of September 20, 1810: At a meeting of the delegates appointed by the democratic-republicans of Armstrong and Indiana counties, for the purpose of consulting and recommending a proper person to represent this district in the legislature of this state, and when met agreeably to appointment at the house of Samuel Sloan [on the John Sloan tract next below the John Ladd Howell tract], near Crooked creek, on Thursday, the 9th day of August last, JOHN BRANDON, Esq., of Armstrong county, was chosen chairman, and ALEXANDER TAYLER, Esq., of Indiana county, secretary, eleven delegates from the two counties being present. The following resolutions were adopted by the meeting: "1st. Resolved, with the exception of one dissenting voice, That JAMES SLOAN, Esquire, of Armstrong county, be and is hereby recommended to our fellow-citizens to represent the counties of Armstrong, Indiana and Jefferson in the legislature of this commonwealth. "2nd. Resolved, That a committee of three members be appointed to prepare and send forward copies of these resolutions to the editors of The Commonwealth in Pittsburgh and of the Farmers' Register in Greensburgh for publication, and that Jonathan King, John Davidson and John Brandon, Esquires, compose the aforesaid committee. "3rd. Resolved, That when the tickets are printed for the ensuing election, 1,000 shall be delivered to John Brandon, of Kittanning, and 1,000 to Alexander Tayler, of Indiana, who are hereby requested to have the same dis tributed in their respective counties previous to the election. "4th. Resolved, That the above resolutions be signed by the chairman and attested by the secretary, and that the original copy thereof be lodged with John Brandon, in the town of Kittanning. " JOHN BRANDON, Chairman. "Attest: " ALEXANDER TAYLER, Secretary." That nominee was not elected that year: James McComb was. WOODWARD'S MILLS. Absalom Woodward was first assessed with grist and saw mills in 1811, which he had erected on the southeastern part of the William Cowden tract, on the south side of Plum creek, near its junction with Crooked creek, in the northeastern part of the present township of South Bend, where he resided for many years, and where he died in August, 1833. These mills were, for a long time after their erection, a noted point in this region of country. He devised the William Cowden tract, including these mills and various other tracts, to his son Absalom. The mill property has been subsequently and successively owned by Stacy B. Barcroft, George S. Christy and Reuben Allshouse, the present proprietor, who has changed its name to that of "Idaho," to which name he is probably partial on account of the valuable mineral acquisitions which he had the good fortune to make in the Territory of Idaho. IIHugh Brown's store was located two miles below this point more than seventy years ago. He was assessed as a "store-keeper" in 1805. How many years before that he opened his store there, the writer has not been able to learn. POSTAL. The only postoffice between Kittanning and Indiana sixty years ago was at Absalom Woodward's. The record of its establishment having been destroyed by the burning of the postoffice building in Washington, in 1836, there is but little knowledge of it left. A postoffice was kept there in 1817-18, when Josiah Copley carried the mail from Indiana to Butler. He presumes that Absalom Woodward was then the postmaster, because he opened the mails. That office was probably discontinued when the one either at Elderton or Shelacta was established. In this connection, though not in the chronological order of events, it may be stated that the Frantz's Mill postoffice was established February 21, 1843. James Mitchell, Jr., was the first postmaster, and the South Bend postoffice was established April 6, 1848, at the same point, and its first postmaster was James Johnston, Jr.; the Olivet postoffice was established April 10, 1850, and John McGeary was its first postmaster. BLOCKHOUSES. Prior to 1795, or to the time when the Indians ceased to be troublesome and dangerous in this region, there was a blockhouse on the John Shaw tract, on what is now called Jones' hill, about a mile a little east of south from the junction of Crooked and Plum creeks, or Idaho. According to a tradition which has come down from the ear liest settlers, there was, in those times, another blockhouse, called by some a fort, at or near the present site of the Townsend mills and the South Bend postoffice. Abraham Frantz and others for396 READINGS FROM OLD KITTANNING JOURNALS. composed of the counties of Armstrong, Cambria, Indiana, Jefferson, Venango and Warren, to fill the vacancy in our State Senate caused by the resignation of Robert Orr, Jr.; four announcements of candidates for Senator - Eben. Smith Kelly was elected; five for Member of Assembly; five for county offices; six business advertisements; two lists of letters, one of which is that of Samuel Houston, postmaster, dated October 1, 1825, and containing the names of sixty-one persons, some of whom must have resided at least twenty miles distant; and the appeal made by divers citizens in favor of the election of David Reynolds as County Commissioner, in which is the following paragraph, showing the then embarrassed condition of our county finances: "Mr. Reynolds was elected a Commissioner in 1816, when our finances were as gloomy, if not more so, than at present; when his term of service expired, by his exertions and the co-operation of his colleagues, the situation of the treasury was so much improved that upward of five hundred dollars in cash remained in the treasury after extinguishing existing debts and the current expenses of the county, without imposing any extraordinary burthen upon the citizens thereof." It is noticeable that in the issue of June 21, 1828, the number of legal and official notices and business advertisements had increased to twentyfour. The report of John Galbraith, the borough treasurer, signed by S. S. Harrison, burgess, and attested by James Douglass, clerk, appears therein, showing the receipts into the borough treasury, for the year ending May 27, 1828, to have been $8392.251, and the expenditures for borough purposes for that year $355.344. It also appears from the Columbian of June 21, 1828, that a "large and respectable Jackson repub lican meeting" was held at the court-house on Thursday evening, June 19, 1828. Resolutions were unanimously adopted concurring with the nomination of James S. Stevenson, of Allegheny county, theretofore made in that county, and instructing the two delegates-Frederick Rohrer and John Mechling-from this county to support that nomination in the general convention to be held at Butler. That candidate was not, however, nominated by that convention. But John Gil more was. So it is nothing new under the sun for Butler to secure the nominations of candi dates for important offices. It is a fact of his tory, at least of political history, that Butler county has been favored with very many, if not more than her full share, of such nominations, as well as important appointments. 4 In No. 526, issue of October 3, 1829, the number of notices and advertisements is thirty-seven, yet occupying nearly a column less than those of the issue of June 19 of the previous year. Among the advertisements is the professional card of the late Governor, William F. Johnston, dated September 26, 1829, in which he tendered his services as attorney at law to the citizens of Armstrong and the adjacent counties. His office was then " directly opposite Mr. Reynolds' inn," which was on lot No. 126, south side of Market below Jefferson street. Among the legal and official notices are the proclamations of Daniel Sturgeon, then speaker of our State Senate, and of Jacob Mechling, then sheriff of this county, for the special election of a senator to represent the Twentyfourth senatorial district, vice Eben Smith Kelly, deceased, to be held on Tuesday, October 13, then instant. That paper contains announcements of candidates, viz., three for State Senator, four for Assemblyman, eight for County Commissioner, three for County Auditor, three for Sheriff, and four for Coroner. Those papers contain but very little original editorial matter, and no information of immediate local interest, except such as may be gleaned from the above-mentioned notices and advertisements. Leaving the Columbian, and glancing at its successor, the Gazette and Columbian, new series, Vol. I, No. 42, Whole No. 458, 18X13 inches, issued on Wednesday, September 3, 1834, it is found that four of its twenty columns are filled with legal and official notices and advertisements. Among the former is the proclamation of Chambers Orr, then sheriff, dated August 6, giving notice to the qualified voters that an election, as required by the act of April 1, 1834, would be held at the usual places of holding elections in the various boroughs and townships of this county, on Friday, September 19, then next, for the purpose of choosing six persons to serve as school directors in each school district, which consisted of either a township or borough, which was the first election of directors by virtue of the first act of assembly establishing a system of common schools in this state. A contributor had discovered some opposition to that system, which, he found, arose from two classes of citizens-one opposed it from sordid and selfish motives, and the other for political purposes. After giving cogent and substantial reasons for supporting the system, he urged the people to turn out on that day and elect directors whom they knew to be " sterling friends of the system." JAMES D. WILSON. The Wilson family, to which the subject of this sketch belongs, ivas one of the earliest settled in Washington county, Pennsylvania. His grandparents on his mother's side (the Hendersons), were from Lancaster and Chester counties, and settied at an early day in Washington county, and his grandparents on his father's side were from Franklin and Adams counties. The father of James D. Wilson, Hugh M. Wilson, married Mary Henderson, a granddaughter of the Rev. Matthew Henderson, the pioneer of Washington county, and prime mover in the establishment of Jefferson college. It is not out of place to state here (and it may be of interest to some readers who have hitherto been ignorant of the fact), that at a little meeting held under a tree in the pioneer settlement of Washington, Pennsylvania, the college we have named had its inception. Rev. Henderson labored zealously for the establishment of that useful educational institution, and it is a worthy monument to his memory. James D. Wilson was born, of the marriage of which we have spoken, in Allegheny county, November 5, 1818. He remained at home until 1847, in which year he was united in marriage with Nancy, daughter of Robert and Abigail Wray, who was born in this county, August 11, 1825, C--- by Rev. Alex. Donaldson, D. D., March 24, 1847. In April following Mr. and Mrs. Wilson moved to the farm where they now reside, and which was purchased by his father in 1838. The farm, containing 120 acres, was deeded to Mr. Wilson by his father some time after his marriage. He has at different times since purchased land adjoining, till the farm now contains about 180 acres. Mr. Wilson has followed farming all of his life except four years, when he was engaged in milling. He owns about 180 acres of good land, situated near Olivet Village, South Bend township. He is a director of the Apollo Savings Bank, and has held that position for about ten years. To Mr. and Mrs. Wilson have been born six children, viz.: Robert H., born July 9, 1851; studied engineering at the Western University of Pittsburgh, county surveyor, married December 5, 1878, to Miss Emma L. Blakely, of West Lebanon, Pennsylvania; they have two children, Florence and Karl; Mary L., June 5,1854; Abigail, September 18,1856; Hattie, April 27, 1864; and Hugh and Sarah, born respectively in 1849 and 1860, both of whom died in infancy. James D. Wilson and wife, together with all their children, are members of the United Presbyterian church at Olivet. He is the last one remaining of the original members of this congregation. SOUTH BEND TOWNSHIP. merly found many bullets in the ground thereabout. Numerous flint arrow-heads of various sizes are still found on the Hugh Neely tract, now Alexander J. Montgomery's farm, and elsewhere in the vicinity of those blockhouses. The general, especially the early, history of this township is nearly identical with that of Plum Creek and Kiskiminetas townships; the dangers, hardships and inconveniences of its early settlers were similar to those of those two townships. It was along that part of Crooked creek in this township that the earliest settlements by the whites were made in this county. Early settlers, as indicated by the assessment list of Allegheny township for 1805, within whose limits the present territory of this township was- then included, were Hugh Brown, James and William Clark, Barnard Davers (mason), George and Henry Hoover, John Householder, John and Adam Johnston, Samuel George, George King, Daniel Linsinbigler, Peter Rupert, Sr., Peter Rupert (weaver), Samuel Sloan, John Sloan, Joseph Thorn (blacksmith), David Todd, and Absalom Woodward (?). It may be that the last-named then resided on the George Campbell tract, nearly two miles above Idaho, on Plum creek. Twenty years or so later, Henry Allshouse, on the John Finney tract, Samuel Fleming, on the Ann Kirk tract, Nicholas Fulmer, on the Erasmus Beatty tract, Jacob George, on the Matthew Irwin tract, William Heffelfinger, on the Samuel Massey tract, Nicholas Jordan, on the John Levering tract, Joseph Lowry, on the Rowland Chambers tract, Anthony Montgomery, on the Hugh Neely tract, John McCain, on the John Levering tract, George and Henry Rupert, on the George Woods tract, James Smith, on the James Elder tract, Jacob Snow on the John Bringhurst tract, were residents in those parts of Allegheny and Plum Creek town, ships now included in South Bend township. Among the residents, eight or nine years later, were John and Peter Dice, Alexander Lowry, John and Robert Smith, Robert Townsend, James and John Wherry in the Kiskiminetas portion; Jacob Allshouse, John and Jonathan Crum, Jacob, John, Samuel and Abraham Frantz, Peter, Samuel and Jacob George, Thomas Kinnard, Joseph Lowry, Frederick and Peter Rupert, John Shoup, Robert W. Smith-not this writer,-Samuel Sloan, Sr. and Jr., John Windgrove, William Wilkison, and Absalom Woodward, Jr., in the Plum Creek portion of South Bend township. There may have been others in both sections of the township, and it is possible that some of the above-mentioned ship. The writer has formed his judgment as to their residence chiefly from the assessment lists of those various periods. RELICS. Ten or fifteen years ago Robert Townsend, as related by his son, S. P. Townsend, found a mattock oni his farm, near Whiskey run. It was struck by the plow, at the depth of about ten inches, in good soil. Several bunches of oxide of iron, about the size of hen's eggs, were on it. Its ends were steel, which he had sharpened at the blacksmith's. It is still extant on that farm, on the ridge or watershed from which the runs flow into Crooked creek and the Kiskiminetas. From six to ten inches below the surface, in a gravelly soil, on the same farm, various Indian relics have been found: A stone implement, shaped somewhat like a wedge, with one end sharp like the bit of an ax, while near the other end was a groove, probably for holding a strap, used, probably, for skinning animals; several very hard stone utensils, some of which were a foot in diameter, the interior of which was somewhat like an apothecary's mortar, some holding a quart and others two quarts of water, which were probably used for breaking and grinding corn; numerous flint arrow-heads; a mound of stones, which must have been brought some distance, as the field in which it is is clear of stone, about twenty feet in diameter, and two feet high, its shape being circular, and under which no bones have been found. There is on that farm a white-oak tree, which is twenty-one feet in circumference. CHURCHES. For many years after the first settlement of this township and region, there was no church edifice in what is now this township, except the log one, mentioned in the sketch of Plum Creek township. Clergymen of different denominations, who were itinerant missionaries rather than pastors, conducted religious services in private houses, barns, and groves. The St. Jacob's Evangelical Lutheran and the St. Jacob's Reformed churches occupy the same edifice, a commodious frame structure, about twothirds of a mile nearly north of the South Bend postoffice and mills. Zion's Valley Reformed church was organized June 20, 1868. The edifice owned by the society is frame and of adequate dimensions for the present wants of the congregation. Members, 64; Sabbath-school scholars, 50. This church was incorporated by the proper court, March 14, 1873, and were at the time residents of Plum Creek town- William G. King, Absalom Klingensmith, H. G, 397 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Allshouse and Joseph Heisley were named trustees in the charter, to serve until the first election. The meeting-house is situated one mile east of the most western point or angle of the township, on the right bank of a large run emptying into Crooked creek, in "Barrel Valley." The pastor is Rev. John McConnell. His predecessors were Revs. James Grant and H. N. Hoffmeir. The United Presbyterian church, at Olivet, on the Robert Lettis Hooper tract, one mile and a fourth from the eastern southerni angle of the township, was organized as a settlement of the Associate Reformed church, in April, 1840. There had, however, been occasional preaching since 1836, in a tent near the site of the present meeting-house. The congregation, at the time of its organization, took the name of Olivet, from which the name of this point or locality was derived. The original number of church members was twenty. The pastors have been Revs. Alexander McCahan, from 1843 until 1846; M. H. Wilson, from 1848 until 1857; Samuel Anderson, from 1859 until 1867, and John C. Telford, the present one. This church has borne the name of United Presbyterian since the union of the Associate and Associate Reformed churches. The present number of members is 67; Sabbath-school scholars 50. The church edifice is frame, 40X40 feet, built in 1842. During the war of the rebellion there was a Soldiers' Aid Society which consisted of members of the Olivet U. P. and Elder's Ridge Presbyterian congregations. Says a correspondent:* "No records exist of the contributions of this society, but it is believed that its disbursements were not less liberal than those of sister congregations." SCHOOLS. For awhile after the first settlement of this region, pay or subscription schools were taught in private houses in different parts of the then settled part of the township, which was chiefly along and in the vicinity of Crooked creek. The first schoolhouse, a primitive log one, was erected probably about 1803, near the present site of St. Jacob's Lutheran and Reformed church edifice, in which the first teacher, or at least one of the earliest, was James Allison. Mrs. Nancy Kirkpatrick, widow of James Kirkpatrick, remembers that schoolhouse, and that before its erection schools were taught here and there as above stated. In the earlier settlement of the southern part of the township there was an ancient schoolhouse about 200 rods southwest of Olivet, on the present *Robert 11H, Wilson. farm of Joseph Coulter, and another about a mile and a half' a little west of north from Olivet, on the present farm of David Finlay. The first schoolhouse at Olivet was built in or about 1820, on the present site of G. W. Steer's blacksmith shop, and was known as the "Big Run schoolhouse," which continued to be used until 1834-5. About a mile distant from Olivet, across the Indiana county line, is Elder's Ridge Academy, whose beneficent influence in promoting educational interests in this region has for many years been effective. The slight opposition which the common school system eacountered in this part of the county was readily overcome by its more numerous friends, prominent among whom were William Davis, Joseph and Alexander A. Lowry, Anthony Montgomery and John Wherry, as the writer is informed. The further preparation of the history of that system, except some statistics, belongs to the school department. The first school year in which this has been a distinct school district was 1868. Its first annual report was for 1869, when the number of schools was 6; average number months taught, 4; male teachers, 4; female teachers, 2; average salaries of male per month, $38.25; average salaries of female per month, $35; male scholars, 288; female, 244; average number attending school, 433; cost of teaching each per month, 64 cents; amount levied for school purposes, $902.84; minimum occupation, 211; total amount levied, $1,113.84; received from collectors, unseated land, etc., $1,200.44; cost of instruction, $892; fuel and contingencies, $152.72; repairing schoolhouses, etc., $55.66; balance on hand, $100.06. In 1876 the number of schools was 6; average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 6; average monthly salaries, $35; number male scholars, 182; number female scholars, 179; average number attending school, 298; cost per month, 64 cents; amount levied for school and building purposes, $1,179.30; received from state appropriation, $237.15; received from taxes and other sources, $1,233.71; paid for teachers' wages, $1,050; paid for fuel and contingencies, collectors' fees, etc., $196.25. The settlement of the lower or southern part of the township occurred much later than that of the northern part. Robert Townsend remembers that at and around the pleasant hamlet of Olivet, on the Robert Lettis HIooper tract, there were but few settlers in 1833. It had then the appearance of a wilderness rather than. of a settled region. Hle remembers that a primitive log schoolhouse 398 6~~P-d UA~2 ~9L ~Aitme'~. JAMES FULMER. James Fulmer was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, June 12, 1810. When he was a year old his parents, Nicholas and Tenna Fulmer, came to this county and located near where he now lives, in South Bend township. He grew to manhood here, enjoying the limited educational and other advantages afforded at that time, and about the time he attained his majority, April 19, 1831, married Miss Sarah Smith, who was born November 5, 1806. She was the daughter of Michael and Elizabeth (Shidler) Smith, who were early settlers of South Bend township. They had eight childrenJacob, Isaac, Michael, Abram, Conrad, Annie, Sarah and Margaret, of whom the first and the last named are dead. M). and Mrs. Fulmer were the parents of ten children, namely, Labauna W., Silas, Diana, Sylvester, Ralston, George W., Elizabeth Jane, Teanan, Margaret and Robert S. These children are all living except Diana, George W. and Margaret. During the first few years of their married life, Mr. and Mrs. Fulmer resided upon a rented farm in this township. The first eight years that they lived on their present farm it was leased. Mr. Fulmer then purchased 120 acres, and to that original farm he has added lands from time to time, until now he has about 350 acres, which is well improved. When he bought his land it was all heavily timbered, and it has been cleared and brought to its present beautiful condition chiefly by his own hard labor. His progress from comparative poverty (if that state can be called poverty in which a man has health, energy and industry as capital) to his present independence has been slow but sure, the result of well-directed toil and thrift. Just after he bought his first 120 acres of land he built upon it a plain log cabin and a small stable. Twenty years afterward, when he had become able to do so through industry and economy, he erected his present homelike frame house and improved outbuildings. In the spring of 1878 Mr. Fulmer purchased the Maysville flouring and saw mill, -which he carried on successfully for four years. He sold them, however, in the spring of 1883, and now devotes his whole attention to farming. SOUTH BEND TOWNSHIP. was there in 1834, which had the appearance of having been erected a few years. The only wagon in the neighborhood in 1833 belonged to John Smith. The nearest gristmill was that at South Bend. The people packed their grists to mill on horseback. There were no wagon-roads except the one from Saltsburgh. The state road was not opened until 1843. A year or two before then emigrants from Washington county, the Ewings and others, settled here. POPULATION. The generally good farming land in this township has steadily attracted to it increasing numbers of those engaged in agricultural pursuits, together with an adequate number engaged in other branches of business incident to and usual in an agricultural community. According to the census of 1870, the only one taken since the organization of this township, its population was then: White, 1,126; colored, 1; native, 1,116; foreign, 11. The number of taxables this centennial year is 273, making its present population 1,255, the great mass of which are farmers and their families. Besides the sawmills at Idaho and South Bend, there are four others, viz., one a short distance west of Olivet, one on Craig's run, about 50 rods from its mouth, one on the most westerly run emptying into Crooked creek about 250 rods above its mouth, and the other on the same run, or its eastern branch, a mile or so higher up. In 1875 James McNees & Co. commenced the manufacture of stone crocks at their pottery, on a run 220 or 230 rods east of the second angle in the western boundary line below the northwest corner of the township, the daily product being 200 gallons, and in the spring of 1876 the manufacture of stone pumps and pipes. Twelve pumps and 200 feet of pipe have been made in a day. The capacity of the works is such that the daily product of the latter can be increased to 1,000 feet. The building is 90 X 28 feet, and the machinery is worked by horse-power. The Mutual Fire Insurance Company of South Bend township was incorporated by the proper court December 15, 1875. According to the original charter the members and insurers were to be persons owning land in and adjoining this township, but that limiting clause was subsequently stricken out by an amendment to the charter granted by the court. The object of this company, like that of the Farmers' Mutual Insurance Company, of Plum Creek township, seems to be to effect insurance on such property as is peculiar to farmers, and at a lower rate than in other companies, for the charter provides that its officers are to be paid only for such services as are necessarily rendered, and no dividends are to be made. The passing remark may here be made that disastrous fires have not been frequent in this township. The most serious one, perhaps, occurred November 29, 1836, by which the house of Anthony Montgomery and its contents, including about $200 in money, were destroyed. Official.- Sheriff, Alexander J. Montgomery. The stores assessed this year are five in the fourteenth and one in the thirteenth class. The assessment list for this year shows: Laborers, 27; blacksmiths, 7; shoemakers, 4; carpenters, 2; millers, 2; wagon-makers, 2; teachers, 2; invalids, 2; preacher, 1; agent, 1; clerk, 1; cooper, 1; apprentice, 1; and 26 single men. Will they all be single at the close of this leap-year? The geological features of this township are generally similar to those presented in the sketches of Plum Creek and Kiskiminetas townships. There is a vein of bituminous coal in the southeastern part of the township on the Townsend farm which, including three feet of slate, is fifteen feet thicktwelve feet of pure coal of excellent quality. 399 CHAPTER XIX. FREEPORT. Probable Presence of the French in this Locality 1750-60 -Adventures with the Indians -Craig's Blockhouse - Reed's Station - An Indian Attack - Capture and Escape of Massy Harbison - Murder of Her Children - William and David Todd - " Toddstown " - Origin of the Name Freeport - The Early Settlers - Reminis cences of Old Times - Boat-Building -Salt Wells- Irish Settlements in 1828 - Transfers of Property - The Town Incorporated - Freeport Ambitious to be a County Town - The Professions - Dr. Alter's Discoveries - Industrial Interests - Churches - Schools - Societies - Military - Soldiers' Aid Society - Cemeteries - Roads- Statistics. IT is premised, at the outset of this sketch, that it is inferrible from various traces of the past, which have come to the writer's knowledge, that the territory constituting the forks of the Allegheny river and Buffalo creek was quite anciently occupied by human beings. Their presence here, centuries since, appears to be indicated by at least one of those traces. But what kind of people they were is hidden by the veil of obscurity which one or more of those traces may, perhaps, enable some antiquary to penetrate. Passing from what is now conjecture to a blending of the known and hypothetical, the reader's attention is here directed to known occurrences late in the autumn of 1758. The French were then occupying Fort Du Quesne with a force of about 400 men, exclusive of Indians. On the approach of the British army, under the command of Gen. Joseph Forbes, "the head of iron," which the Indians, who had watched its movements, reported to the French commandant to have been "as numerous as the trees of the forest," the latter during the night of November 24 evacuated and burned that fort. From what Forbes and his officers and men learned on their arrival at their objective point, the French had left in three detachments. They seem to have made the impression, or endeavored to have made it, that one of those detachments had proceeded down the Ohio to near its mouth, another by land to Presqu' Isle, and the other under M. de Lignery, the commandant of Fort Du Quesne, up the Allegheny to Venango. It is at least doubtful whether the detachment that started down the Ohio proceeded so far as it was intimated it would. There was a small French post at Kushkuskee on the southwest side of the Mahoning river, four miles above its junction with the Shenango, in what is now Lawrence county, in this state. Did the detachment that was ostensibly destined for Presqu' Isle stop there? Another question arises just here. Did all of the detachment under M. de Lignery proceed directly by the Allegheny river to Venango? This question occurs here because early settlers in the forks of the Allegheny and Buffalo and vicinity thought, from what they had traditionally learned and from their observation of certain vestiges, which will be presently mentioned, that either all or a part of that detachment halted at the mouth of the Buffalo, where Freeport now is, and proceeded thence up that stream and Rough run to a certain point where they encamped for the winter. If the weather had become cold enough, as it sometimes does at that season of the year, to make ice rapidly in the upper Allegheny, their course up that stream may have thus been impeded, and they may therefore have diverged, taking the Indian path or trail along or near the Buffalo to and beyond the Connoquennessing, the same which David Moorehead and James Karns followed when, in 1798, they proceeded to what is now a part of Mercer county, where they commenced a settlement and improvement on a tract of land which they, however, soon after abandoned. That trail intersected one or more others leading to Venango, which was ostensibly De Lignery's immediate objective point. Ile may, however, have feigned that to have been such, while he really designed to post the whole or a part of his force at an intermediate point for the purpose, it may be, of collecting supplies of provisions for the intended spring campaign against the English. The reader's attention is now directed to some known facts: In or about 1840, William S. Ralston found a French rifle at the foot of High street, Freeport, which was laid bare by hauling sawlogs out of the Buffalo by James Bole to Joseph Kenniston's boat-yard, and which had been, before being thus brought to light, embedded about three feet below the surface. There is a considerable FREEPORT TOWNSHIP. western bend of the Buffalo about a mile and a half above its mouth, the foot of which is twentyfive or thirty rods west of the county line in Butler county, and is embraced in Depreciation tract No. 35, which is now owned by Peter S. Weaver. At or near the foot of that bend is a ravine extending westward from the right bank of the creek, on each side of which rude stone terraces, about 30X40 feet, fronting the creek, were noticed by two of the writer's informants* forty or more years ago, when they appeared to be quite ancient. The high points or bluffs on each side of the ravine had evidently been cleared of all trees when the terraces were made. There are but a very few on them even now. There is a clear view from the tops of those bluffs to the river and a considerable distance up the creek. The terraces appear to one of those informants to have been prepared for planting artillery upon them. Andrew Ralston and other early settlers who noticed them and the cleared bluffs in the early part of this century could not conceive what their purpose was unless for a French outpost. The late George Armstrong, of Greensburgh, was another who entertained that opinion. Among the relics found along Buffalo creek were two brass implements, one of which, it was thought, belonged to a compass, and the other was used for measuring angles. Because Hoover's vendees and other Germans resorted in pleasant weather on Sundays to these terraces to enjoy their wine and music, some have supposed that they had made them and cleared those bluffs. That is not probable, for the appearance of those works indicated their construction long before the advent of those persons to this region. Why would they denude those bluffs of all their shadetrees? About three miles above the mouth of Rough run, a western tributary of Buffalo creek, in the southwestern part of Clearfield, and the northwestern part of Winfield township, Butler county, is a parcel of territory which, like other similar parcels in various other localities in this state, was in early times called "the clearfields," and such as were in Western New York called the "open fields." That on Rough run contained about 200 acres. It may possibly have been a glade. The opinion of the early settlers who saw that open place before it had been cultivated is that whatever work had been bestowed upon it was done by white men, or at least not by the Indians. Whether it was a glade or an artificial clearing, several strong springs on the side hill evinced at an earlier period, if they do not now, that they had been ar. James S. Bole and Win. S. Ralston. tificially, though not very mechanically, walled with stone. Another fact is, there was an abundance of deer and various other kinds of game in the circumjacent region in early times. Still another fact is, that open place was on the Indian trail from the mouth of Buffalo creek to the Connoquennessing, as the writer is informed. Now, keeping in mind the foregoing facts, as judges do when the law and the evidence are not altogether clear and certain, it is to be queried: Did Monsieur De Lignery station all or a part of his detachment on those'clearfields," for the purpose of securing army stores or provisions for the contemplated campaign in the spring, or as a piece of strategy to avoid the pursuit by the English, which Forbes in his messages and Post in his conferences had intimated would be made? Be that as it may, the design of the French to recapture Fort Du Quesne, though not attempted in the spring, was not abandoned. After the battle of Niagara Charles Lee was ordered out on a scout with one officer and fourteen men to discover, if possible, what had become of the remains of the French army which had escaped from the battle. They ultimately reached Fort Du Quesne. It is probable that after leaving Venango they went across the country to the head waters of Buffalo creek, and then down that stream to the Allegheny, or, as it was then called, the Ohio. If so, they were among the earliest white men who visited the site of Freeport. Later, during the revolutionary and the Indian wars, scouting parties of the whites occasionally traversed, and perhaps encamped in the forks of the Buffalo and Allegheny. During the one or the other of these wars a scouting party of sixty men crossed the Allegheny over the first shore above the mouth of the Buffalo. John Guld, elsewhere mentioned,* and two other men by the name of Carnahan and Jack, as related to the writer by onet of Guld's descendants, being its vanguard, advanced to Buffalo creek, ascended it a short distance, where they crossed to the opposite side, and there observed eight Indians and a Frenchman. Either Carnahan or Jack was in advance of the other two. When he saw the Indians dodging behind trees, he ran toward the point near the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, where the rest of the party had halted. The other one followed him. Guld approached the chief of the Indian party, leveled his flintlock rifle at him, which missed fire. He then ordered Carnahan and Jack to come to his aid. They refused. He then attempted to * Kittanning township. t Capt. William C. Beck. " 401 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. follow them, but was overtaken by the Indians, one of whom advanced near to him with an uplifted tomahawk. Guld dropped his gun and held up both his hands. Then the Indian whom he attempted to shoot said something to his assailant, which induced the latter to change his tomahawk to his left hand, seize Guld's right arm, and force him violently toward the chief and the Frenchman. All of the Indian party except those two pursued Carnahan and Jack. Guld, understanding the French language well enough to converse with the Frenchman, informed him that there was a large body of men a short distance ahead of his fleeing comrades, fearing that a fight might ensue and he be scalped. The chief having been informed of that fact, signaled the pursuers to return, which they did, two of them wearing Carnahan's and Jack's hats, which the latter had lost in their flight. The Indians, after a brief parley, separated into two squads, one of which advanced up the right, and the other the left bank of the creek, one of them taking Guld along as a prisoner. The two squads kept nearly opposite each other, by means of signals, as they proceeded up the creek, and united during the night. When they encamped, they confined their prisoner by a stake at each shoulder and one at his feet, and an Indian as guard on each side of him. He was thus kept and guarded about two weeks en route to the lakes and Detroit. Having remained a prisoner about three years, one day while the party that had charge of him were out hunting, he had a quarrel with a squaw who attempted to tomahawk him, escaped, and traveled about eighty miles the first day and night; and subsisting on a small quantity of dried venison which he had taken with him, and crab-apples and roots which he gathered by the way, he finally succeeded in reaching his friends east of the Allegheny river. Some time prior to the establishment of permanent peaceby Wayne's victory over and treaty with the Indians, a blockhouse was erected on the Allegheny, about 120 rods above the mouth of the Buffalo, which is now on Water, below Fifth street, Freeport. Its commandant was Capt. John Craig, whose command consisted of forty or fifty men, most of whom were inexperienced soldiers, "raw recruits," and were addicted, before they had been tried, to boasting how easily they could defeat the Indians. They were "brave in words," and continued to be until they were tried. Gordon and Mellaffey, two old rangers, determined to test their pluck. With the consent of the commandant, they were marched one day to the spring on the hillside north of the blockhouse. Gordon and Mehaffey, disguised as Indians, having posted themselves among some rank iron-weeds just below the spring, yelled and whooped and shook those weeds, which so frightened those raw soldiers that they hastily threw their guns down in the road and rushed pell-mell into the blockhouse, to which Gordon and Mehaffey returned in the evening by the way of the "eddy" and over the river bank, and were refused admittance by those soldiers because they feared the presence of Indians below the bank, who would rush into the blockhouse if it were opened. The commandant finally ordered Gordon and Mehaffey to be admitted. When those soldiers learned from them that they were the only Indians in those iron-weeds near the spring-when they realized how readily they had allowed themselves to be alarmed by that piece of " bushwhacking "-that they had so needlessly proved themselves " co,"ards in the field," they hurriedly left the blockhouse. Craig said a regiment couldn't have kept them there after they saw how easily they had been scared. On a certain occasion Craig ordered a scouting party to make a tour of observation as far up the country as the mouth of Red Bank. They went, and on their return reported that they had not discovered any Indians. One of them, however, while on his death-bed, many years afterward, sent for Craig and confessed to him that, while on that tour, he and his comrades had captured an Indian, and after obtaining all the information possible from him, and not wishing to have the trouble of taking him as a prisoner to the blockhouse, they concluded to keep his capture a secret, and to dispatch him by tying him to a tree and each one shooting him, so that, all being equally guilty, there would be no danger of anyone disclosing their dread secret. Others of that scouting party, having been questioned about that affair, acknowledged to finding the Indian, but averred that John Harbison, who had just cause for a deadly hate toward all Indians, tomahawked him while he was conversing with another one of the party who understood the Indian language, and that they all agreed to keep that deed secret on Harbison's account.* In those early war times there was a place of refuge on John Reed's farm on the left bank of the Allegheny, about two and a half miles below the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, called "Reed's Sta tion," which was named after "Uncle Johnny Reed," as the owner of the ground on which it was situated was called. He was much addicted to trapping and fishing, in which he became quite * Communicated to the writer by a descendant of Capt. Craig. 402 CAFT,jAME-S P. MLJ,PPHY'. CAPTAIN SAMUEL MURPHY-CAPTAIN JAMES P. MURPHY-THE MURPHY FAMILY. The progenitor of the Murphy family of this county was Capt. Samuel Murphy, a native of Frederick county Virginia, born in 1756. He led a remarkable career, one full of adventure, vicissitude and usefulness, and was famous both as soldier and pioneer. Left an orphan at an early age, he was reared by a Col. Stinson, a revolutionary patriot. He accompanied the forces of Lord Dunmore in their expedition into the region now Southern Central Ohio, in 1774, and joining the Continental army (the 8th Pa. regt.), served through the revolutionary war. In the fall of 1781 he was captured by the Indians, on the north fork of Salt river, in Kentucky, and taken by Simon Girty to an island in the St. Lawrence river, sixty miles above Montreal. Ile performed valiant and valuable service on the frontier during the revolutionary war and the subsequent Indian wars, and IViajor Denny said that he was "the best soldier he ever knew." lie was intimately acquainted with Gen. Washington, and on one occasion, while a boy, at the suggestion of Col. Stinson, he perpetrated upon that great man a practical joke which so pleased Gen. Washington that he gave young Murphy a silver coin. Shortly after the close of the revolutionary struggle, Murphy removed with his family to what is now Sharpsburg, where he remained, with the exception of some brief absences, until 1798. He assisted in the laying out of the town of Erie, and was a lieutenant in a company of rangers in 1794. In 1798 he removed to that part of Armstrong county now known as South Buffalo township, and settled upon the farm which is still in the possession of the Murphy family. He remained here, following the quiet vocation of farming, until his decease, which occurred in 1850. Ie wasa fine type of the Armstrong pioneer, six feet two inches in stature, muscular, well formed, and possessing great courage and endurance.* *Other facts concerning Capt. Murphy will be found in the chapter on South Buffalo. C,k-T. SANiL,EL ALf fP H'. Capt. Murphy's wife, whose maiden name was Elizabeth Powers, was a native of Maryland, and ten years his junior. She died in 1820. Their children were: William, Thomas, Mary, James, Elizabeth, Margaret, Samuel, Benjamin, Nancy, Susan, John and George, all of whom are living except William, Thomas, Elizabeth and Samuel. William, who was a farmer, removed to Washington county, Ohio, about 1818, and died there in his eighty-third year. Thomas died in Mississippi, and Samuel in California, in the year 1872. The others are all living in this county. Mary married James Patterson. James, or Capt. Murphy, as he is more familiarly known in this part of the state, was born in Sharpsburg, September 10, 1796, and reared in Armstrong county. Ile remained under the parental roof until he was twenty-five years of age, when he became a river man, which occupation lie followed in various capacities for about twenty years. He ran the first steamboat which ascended the Allegheny river, in 1828. In 1850 he went to California by the overland route, walking the greater part of the distance. Ile remained on the Pacific coast about a year, during which time his father died, and on his return lie went on to the farm where he has since resided. He possesses many of the distinguishing characteristics of his father, and is widely known for his integrity of character and marked social qualities. Margaret, Nancy, James and John are unmarried, and live upon the homestead farm acquired by their father. Susan became Mrs. William Truby. Elizabeth married Benjamin King, one of the prominent citizens of Freeport; both are deceased. Benjamin was born May 10, 1815, and reared on the old home farm, a portion of which he owned and tilled, until his removal to Freeport, where lie now lives, in 1879. He married Miss Jane, daughter of James Green, of North Bufl4o township. They have reared a family of eleven children: James, Elizabeth, Rebecca, Samuel, Margaret, Emily, Walter P., Isabella, Theodore, Sarah and Lovina. Samuel died in the service. Walter P., one of the prominent business men of Freeport, is the only son living. FREEPORT TOWNSHIP. notable. Mrs. Gibson, mother of William Gibson, Freeport, who in the last quarter of the last century resided not far from Reed's, and had authentic knowledge of some of the incidents of his life, used to relate that he was accustomed to set his traps in the mouth of the Kiskiminetas. He found, on going there one evening to examine them, about 1782-3, that they had been robbed. Hle then attempted to remove them to and set them in another place. While thus engaged he perceived an Indian coming down to examine his traps. He soon saw others coming from an Indian camp in that vicinity. Not having his rifle, he was compelled to run for his life, the Indians pursuing him to within gunshot of the blockhouse, or Reed's station, which was situated a few rods up the river from McKean's run, the stone chimney and fireplace of which can still be seen from the cars on the A. & P. R. R. lie was of course thoroughly frightened, and said it was "the fastest time he had ever made in his life." His fleetness on that occasion may have rivaled John Guld's. John Harbison was a soldier in St. Clair's army. Having been wounded, he was, after his recovery, employed as a spy to watch the movements of the savages. In the spring of 1792, his family resided in a house near Reed's station. While hlie was absent on duty, his house, about 200 yards distant from the blockhouse, was entered by Indians on the morning of May 22, and his wife and children were captured. Before proceeding with the account of their capture, the reader's attention is directed to what William Findley wrote to A. J. Dallas, secretary of the commonwealth, June 1: "I was but a few days at home until the Indians broke into the settlement by Reed's station. It was garrisoned by rangers under Cooper. They had never scouted any. They had been drinking and were surprised, in want of ammunition, and the officer was absent from the station. However, the Indians fired only a few rounds upon the blockhouse, with which they killed one man and wounded another, and went away without any exertions being made by the rangers. They then killed and took Harbison's family in sight of the station. IIarbison was one of the spies, and was reported as having relaxed a little in his duty. Indeed, the duties of the spies in this county is [are] too hard, and they are not assisted by the troops as was designed at laying the plan. The alarm was quickly spread; indeed, they themselves (the Indians) promoted the news of their coming by burning some of the first houses they came to. This occasioned the country to fly before them with the greatest rapidity, and being about forty in number took the country before them, keeping nearly the course of the Kiskiminetas, going in small parties from five to seven, as far as has been observed." Two spies, Davis and Sutton, having lodged at IHarbison's house, left the next morning, Sunday, May 22, when the horn at the blockhouse was blown, leaving the door open. Several Indians soon afterward entered, and drew Mrs. Massey (corrupted from Mera) Harbison and her two eldest children by their feet from their beds, the third or youngest one, about a year old, being in bed with her. While these dusky burglars were rummaging the house and scrambling to secure whatever each one could of her clothing and other articles, she went outdoors and hallooed to the men in the blockhouse. One Indian then ran up and stopped her mouth, another rushed toward her with his raised tomahawk, which a third one seized, calling her his squaw and claiming her as his own. Fifteen Indians then advanced toward and fired upon both the blockhouse and the storehouse, killing one and wounding another of the soldiers, one of whom, by the name of Wolf, was returning from the spring and the other either coming or looking out of the storehouse. When Mrs. IHarbison told the Indians who remained with her that there were forty men in the blockhouse, each having two guns, those who were firing were brought back. Then they began to drive her and the children away. Because one of her boys, three years old, was unwilling to leave and was crying, they seized him by his feet, dashed his brains out against the threshold of the door, and then stabbed and scalped him. Her heart rent with agony, almost bereft of sight and all her other senses, still keeping her infant in her arms, she gave a terrific scream, and for that one of her savage captors dealt a heavy blow on her head and- face, which restored her to consciousness. She and her two surviving children were then taken to the top of a hill, where they all stopped, and while the Indians were tying up their booty, she counted them, their number being thirtytwo, among whom were two white men painted like Indians. Those were probably the "treacherous persons among us" mentioned in another part of Findley's letter to Secretary Dallas. Several of those Indians could speak English. Mrs. Harbison knew three or four of them very well; two were Senecas and two were Munsees, whose guns her husband had repaired almost two years before. Two Indians were detailed to guard her, and the rest then went toward Puckety. When she, her children and their guards had advanced about 20,0 yards, the latter caught two of her uncle John Currie's horses, and then placing her and the 403 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Nearly a colamn of that issue is filled with a forcible editorial in favor of " Our Immediate Interests," and insisting on the Allegheny river and French creek as a better and more direct route for the extension of the Pennsylvania canal to Lake Erie than the Beaver and Shenango one, which was afterward adopted. Meetings had been previously held in favor of the former, canal extension route. An unusually large and respectable one of the citizens of Kittanning was held Wednesday evening, January 16, 1828, of which Thomas Hamilton was president, and Frederick Rohrer and James E. Brown were secretaries, by which resolutions strongly condemnatory of the latter and as strongly in favor of the former route were adopted. A committee to draw up a memorial to the Legislature onil the subject was appointed, consisting of Samuel S. Harrison, Robert Robinson, Thos. Blair, Geo. W. Smith, John Francis, Philip Mechling and Robert Brown. Another committee of correspondence was also appointed, consisting of Samuel Houston, Thos. Hamilton, Frederick Rohrer, James E. Brown and Josiah Copley. Similar meetings were recommended to be held elsewhere, in counties interested in the navigation of the Allegheny river. In pursuance of that recommendation, meetings were held at Lawrenceburgh and other places. On February 2 another large meeting was held at Kittanning, of which S. S. Harrison was president, and Thos. Blair and G. W. Smith were secretaries. The suggestion of the Lawrenceburgh meeting, relative to the call of a general convention at Franklin, Venango county, was approved, and David Lawson, Thos. Blair and Philip Mechling were appointed delegates. That general convention was held at Franklin, on Monday, March 25, and strong resolutions in favor of the Alleghleny and French creek route were adopted. Still the Beaver and Shenango route was adopted by the Canal Commissioners and the Legislature. About three columns are occupied by the correspondence between J. McCullough, Sr., A. W. Lane, James Douglass and many other citizens, and John Gilmore, of Butler, who was then a volunteer candidate for Congress, which clearly indicates that they were mutually in favor of a national bank, and presents their reasons for being so. Among the miscellaneous matter is an amusing narrative of a scene in the first court held in Butler county, which was both serious and comical, taken from Brackenridge's Recollections of the West. Among the official notices is that issued by James McCullough, adjutant, for the Seventh battalion of volunteers to meet at the house of Frederick Yockey, in Kittanning (now Valley) township, at 10 o'clock A. M., on Wednesday, September 10, then next, completely armed and equipped for training. It also appears from that number or issue that the regular nominees of the "democratic-republican " party that year were Samuel S. Harrison, of Kittanning, for Congress, and Meek Kelly, of Indiana, for State Senate. The volunteer candidates were John Gilmore, of Butler, for Congress, and Joseph Buffington, of Kittanning, and Alexander McCalmont, of Franklin, Venango county, for State Senate. The regular nominees were elected. There were thirty causes on the trial list for the third week of September, that year. Turning to the Kittannipg Gazette, new series, Vol. III, No. 9-113, whole number 529, same size as the preceding, issued on Wednesday, January 20, 1836, the writer finds four of its columns filled with advertisements and official notices. Among the latter is a list of letters remaining in the postoffice January 1, 1836, Alexander Reynolds, postmaster, giving the names of sixty-seven persons, some of whom resided several miles distant. The slavery question had then begun to be freely discussed in the columns of the Gazette. A contributor who had resided in one of the slave states fills more than a column of that number in showing the fallacy of the postulate assumed by McDuffie and other slaveholders: "That the African negro is destined by Providence to occupy this condition of servile dependence, is not less manifest. It is marked on the face, stamped on the skin, etc." lie shows from the Bible that man-stealing and man-selling are crimes, whose penalty, prescribed therein, was death. As to the mark on the face and stamp on the skin, lihe asks how came they? And then argues, if all on whom they are found may be pressed into the service of the South as menial slaves, then some, at least, who were born with as pure blood as any son of liberty, may fall under this dreadful doom; for instances are not wanting in our own country, and one of a very remarkable character in the State of New Jersey, of a gentleman becoming as dark as an aboriginal African, in consequence of disease, and continued so for more than twenty years after the recovery of his health. This was the natural effect of a peculiar state and condition of the bile, and such an appearance from this cause is urged by Dr. Blumenbach as undoubtedly analogous with the natural color of the skin in the African race." He further argues that this "mark" is produced by natural causes, principally HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. youngest child on one and one of the guards and the remaining child on the other, proceeded toward the Kiskiminetas to a point opposite the upper end of Todd's island, where in descending the steep river hill the Indian's horse fell and rolled more than once. The boy fell over the horse's back, receiving a slight injury, and was taken up by one of the Indians. On reaching the shore the horses could not be made to swim, so the Indians took the captives across to the head of that island in bark canoes. After landing, the elder boy, five years old, complaining of the injury lihe had received from his fall and still lamenting the death of his brother, one of the guards tomahawked and then scalped him, the other guard having first ordered the mother to move on ahead of them, actuated, perhaps, by a slight assertion of humanity, to save her the pain of witnessing the murder of another of her children. When she beheld that second massacre of her offspring she fell senseless to the ground with her infant in her arms beneath her with its little hands about her head. She knew niot how long she remained in that insensible condition. The first thing she remembered on recovering her consciousness was raising her head from the ground and being overcome by an extreme, uncontrollable drowsiness, and beholding as she looked around the bloody scalp of her boy in the hand of one of these savages. She then involuntarily sank again to the earth upon her infant. The first thing which she remembered after that, was the severe castigation that her cruel guards were inflicting upon her, after which they aided her in rising and supported her when on her feet. Why they did not massacre her she attributed to the interposition of Divine Providence in her behalf. There must have still been a little streak of humanity lingering in their ferocious breasts, for they concealed the scalp of her boy from her sight. Having restored her dormant senses by leading her knee-deep into the river, all proceeded to a shoal near the head of the island, between it and the mainland or "Indian side of the country," where her guards forced her before them into and through the water breast deep, she holding her child above the surface, and by their assistance she with her child safely reached the opposite shore. They all moved thence as fast as they could across the forks to the Big Buffalo, which, being a very rapid stream, her guards were obliged to aid her in crossing. Thence they took a straight course "to the Connoquennessing creek, the very place where Butler now stands." (The narrator probably wrote or the compositor printed to for toward.) Thence they advanced along the Indian trail, heretofore mentioned, to the Little Buffalo, which they crossed at the very place where B. Sarver's mill stood when her narrative was written, and there ascended the hill. Having become weary of life she fully determined to make these savages kill her, to end her fatigue and the prospective miseries and cruelties which she conceived awaited her. They were then moving in single file, one guard before and the other behind her. She stopped, withdrew from her shoulder a large powderhorn which, besides her child, they compelled her to carry, and threw it to the ground, closing her eyes and momentarily expecting to feel their deadly tomahawks. But, contrary to her expectations, they replaced it on her shoulder. She threw it off a second time, expecting death. But they, looking indignant and frightful, again replaced it. She threw it down a third time as far as she could over the rocks. While the one that had been engaged in that little contest was recovering it, the other one who had claimed her as his squaw and who had witnessed the affair, approached and said: " Well done, you did right and are a good squaw, and he is a lazy son of a b-h; he may carry it himself." That would-be husband of hers had evidently a penchant for at least some of the polite language which he had heard some of the white men use. The guards having changed their positions, the latter taking the rear probably to prevent the other from injuring her, they proceeded until they reached, shortly before dark, without refreshment during the day, the Salt Lick on the Connoquennessing, nearly two miles above the present site of Butler, where there was an Indian camp made of stakes driven into the ground sloping, covered with chestnut bark, long enough for fifty men, appeared to have been occupied for some time, was very much beaten, and from which large beaten paths extended in different directions. Mrs. Harbison was taken that night from that camp into a large dark bottom, about 300 rods up a run, where they cut away the brush in a thicket, placed a blanket on the ground and permitted her to sit down with her child, which it was difficult for her to manage, as they had pinioned her arms so that she had but slight freedom of their use. There, without refreshment, thus pinioned, with those two savages who had that day massacred in her presence two of her boys, one of.those guards on each side of her, she passed the first night of her captivity. The next morning one of the guards left to watch the trail they had traveled, and ascertain whether any of the white people were in pursuit. During his absence the other, being the one who 404 J C \ G'F AM. THE GRAHAM FAMILY-JOHN GRAHAM. Joseph Graham, father of John Graham, the well-known citizen of South Buffalo township, was born in Scotland in 1768, and reared in Ireland, where he married a Miss Mary Ralston. In 1803 he and his wife and three children came to America and located in Baltimore, and thence in 1808 they immigrated to Buffalo township, Armstrong county, and settled upon the farm where Philip Kepple now lives. Both Mr. and Mrs. Graham were members of the Slate Lick Presbyterian church, and numbered among its founders. Joseph Graham died in 1847, and his widow in 1862. Their children were: Jane (Ralston), Ann (Moorehead), Robert Joseph, Rebecca (Keenear), Mary, John, Sarah (Mateer) and Elizabeth (Smith). Of these all are deceased except Joseph, who lives in West Virginia; Mary, a resident of Allegheny City; Mrs. Smith, who lives in North Buffalo, and John, the subject of our sketch. Ife was born October 18, 1814, and reared a farmer. June 20, 1844, hlie was married to Miss Margaret B. Smith, daughter of John B. and Mary (Bell) Smith, who was born January 8, 1825. Her parents were, like Mr. Graham's, early settlers of the township. John B. Smith was born east of the mountains, November 13, 1790, and came to Westmoreland county with his parents when two years of age. The family was driven back by the iF-(S. JUH-Q GF Ai,A M. Indians, but in 1800 came to Armstrong county and effected a settlement. Prior to this time John B. Smith's grandfather, Joseph Brown, had been killed by the Indians east of the mountains. Mr. and Mrs. Smith reared a large family of children, their names being: John, George H., Joseph B., James G., Margaret B., A. Wilson, S. II., R. M. and Richard N. Of these the two first named are deceased. Joseph B., who now lives in North Buffalo township, was a member of the 78th regt. Pa. Vols., as were also his brothers Richard N. and R. M., who are both now in the West. A. Wilson Smith was in the 8th Pa. Reserves, and subsequently in the 78th regt., and died from disease contracted in the service. S. H. Smith died in the Sandwich Islands. James G. Smith is a well known farmer of West Franklin township. Returning to Mr. and Mrs. Graham, we will add that both are members of the Slate Lick Presbyterian church, and among the most respected residents of their township. They have no children of their own, but have adopted a son, John D. Graham, who lives upon a farm near them. They have reared several others, and particularly during the war period were friends of the little ones whose fathers were in the field, taking several of them into their home. Mr. Graham, like his father, has been in politics a democrat. FREEPORT TOWNSHIP. claimed her as his squaw, and who had that day killed her second boy, remained with her and took from his bosom the scalp which he had so humanely concealed from her sight on the island, and stretched it upon a hoop. She then meditated revenge, attempting to take the tomahawk which hung by his side, and deal a fatal blow, but was, alas! detected. Her dusky wooer turned, cursed her, and called her a Yankee, thus intimating that he understood her intention, and to prevent a repetition of her attempt, faced her. The feigned reason that she gave for handling his tomahawk was, that her child wanted to play with its handle. The guard that had been out returned from his lookout about noon, and reported that he had not discovered any pursuers, and remained on guard while the other went out for the same purpose. The one then guarding her, after questioning her respecting the whites, the strength of their armies, and boasting of the achievement of the Indians in St. Clair's defeat, examined the plunder which he had brought from her house, among which he found her pocketbook, containing $10 in silver and a half-guinea in gold. All the food that she received from her guards on that Sunday and Monday was a piece of dried venison, about the size of an egg, each day, for herself and her child, but by reason of the blows which they had inflicted upon her jaws she could not eat any of it, and broke it up and gave it to her child. The guard who had been on the lookout in the afternoon returned about dark. Having been removed to another station in the valley of that run, that evening, she was again pinioned, guarded, and kept without either fire or refreshment, the second night of her captivity, just as she had been during the first one. She, however, fell asleep occasionally and dreamed several times of her arrival at Pittsburgh. Her ears were regaled the next morning by the singing of a flock of mocking-birds and robins that hovered over her irksome camp. To her imagination they seemed to sing, " Get up and go off!" One of the guards having left at daybreak to watch the trail, the remaining one appeared to be sleeping, on observing which, she began to snore and feigned to be asleep. When she was satisfied that he had really fallen asleep, she concluded it was her time to escape. She would then have slain or disabled him, but for the crying of her child when out of her arms, which would of course awaken him and jeopardize her own life. She, therefore, was contented to take a short gown, handkerchief, and child's frock from the pillow case containing the articles which the Indians had brought from her house, and escape, about half an hour after sunrise. Guided by those birds, and wisely taking a direction from instead of toward her home, in order to mislead her captors she passed over the hill, reached the Connoquennessing, about two miles from the point at which she and they had crossed it, and descended it through thorns and briers, and over rocks and precipices, with bare feet and legs. Having discovered by the sun and the course of the stream that she was advancing too far in her course from her home, she changed it, ascended the hill, sat down till sunset, determined her direction for the morrow by the evening star, gathered leaves for her bed, without food, her feet painful from the thorns that were in them, reclined and slept. About daybreak the next morning she was awakened by that flock of birds which seemed to her to be attending and guiding her through the wilderness. When light enough to find her way, she started on her fourth day's trial of hunger and fatigue, advancing, according to her knowledge of courses and distances, toward the Allegheny river. Nothing unusual occurred during the day. It having commenced raining moderately about sunset, she prepared to make her bed of leaves, but was prevented by the crying of her child when she sat him down. Listening she distinctly heard the footsteps of a man following her. Such was the condition of the soil that her footprints might be discerned. Fearing that she was thus exposed to a second captivity, she looked for a place of concealment and providentially discovered a large fallen tree, into whose thick foliage she crept with her child in her arms, where, aided by the darkness, she avoided detection by the Indian whose footsteps she had heard. He having heai'd the child's cry, came to the spot whence the sound proceeded, halted, put down his gun, and was then so near to her that she distinctly heard the wipingstick strike against his gun. Fortunately the child, pressed to her bosom, became warm and lay quiet during the continuance of their imminent peril. That Indian in the meantime, amidst that unbroken stillness, stood for nearly two hours with listening ears to again catch the sound of the child's cry, and so profound was that stillness that the beating of her own heart was all she heard, and which seemed to her to be so loud that she feared her dusky pursuer would hear it. Finally, answering the sound of a bell and a cry like a night-owl's, signals which his companions had given, and giving a horrid, soul-harrowing yell, he departed. Deeming it imprudent to remain there until morning, lest her tracks might be discovered in day405 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. light, she endeavored, but found it difficult, by reason of her exhaustion, to remove, but compelled by a stern necessity and her love of life, she threw her coat around the child, with one end between her teeth, thus carrying the child with her teeth and one arm, with the other she groped her way among the trees a mile or two, and there sat in the damp, cold air till morning. At daylight the next morning, wet, hungry, exhausted, wretched, she advanced across the headwaters of Pine creek, not knowing what they were, and became alarmed by two freshly indented moccasin tracks of men traveling in the same direction that she was. As they were ahead of her she concluded that she could see them as soon as they could see her. So she proceeded about three miles to a hunter's camp at the confluence of another branch of the creek, in which those who preceded her had kindled a fire, breakfasted, and leaving the fire burning, had departed. She afterward learned that they were spies, viz., James Anderson and John Thompson. Having become still more alarmed, she left that path, ascended a hill, struck another path, and while meditating there what to do, saw three deer advancing toward her at full speed. Theyturned to look and she, too, looked intently at their pursuers, and saw the flash and heard the instantaneous report of a gun. Seeing some dogs start after the deer, she crouched behind a large log for shelter, but fortunately not close to it, for, as she placed her hand on the ground to raise herself up, that she might see the hunters, she saw a large mass of rattlesnakes, her face being very near the top one, which lay coiled ready to strike its deadly fangs into her. With a supreme effort she left that dangerous spot, bearing to the left, reached the headwaters of Squaw run, which, through rain, she followed the rest of the day, her limbs so cold and shivering that she could not help giving an occasional involuntary groan. Though her jaws had sufficiently recovered from the pain caused by the blows inflicted upon her by the Indians, she suffered from hunger, procuring grapevines whenever she could and chewing them for what little sustenance they afforded. Having arrived at eveningtide within a mile of the Allegheny river, though she did not know it, at the root of a tree, holding her child in her lap and her head against the tree to shelter him from that night's drenching rain, she lodged that fifth night since her capture. She was unable for a considerable time the next morning to raise herself from the ground. Hav ing, with a hard struggle, gained her feet, with nature so nearly exhausted and her spirits so completely depressed as they were, her progress was very slow and discouraging. After proceeding a short distance, she struck a path over which cattle had passed, following which for about a mile, she reached an uninhabited cabin on the river bottom. Not knowing where she was, and overcome with despair, she went to its threshold, having resolved to enter it and then lie down and die. But the thought of the suffering to be endured in that event nerved her to another desperate effort to live. Hearing the sound of a cowbell, which awakened a gleam of hope in her extreme despondency, she followed that sound until she reached a point opposite the fort at Six-Mile Island, where, with feelings which can be more readily imagined then expressed, she beheld three men on the left bank of the river. They appeared to be unwilling to come for her when she called on them, and requested her to inform them who she was. When she told them that she was the one who had been taken prisoner up the Allegheny on the morning of the 22d-in the narrative it is Tuesday morning-and had escaped, they requested her to walk up the bank of the river for awhile that they might see whether or not the Indians were making a decoy of her. When she told them her feet were so sore that she could not walk, James Closier came over for her in a canoe, while the other two stood on the river bank with cocked rifles, ready to fire in case she proved to be a decoy. When Closier approached the shore and saw her haggard and dejected appearance, he exclaimed: "Who, in the name of God, are you?" So great was the change wrought by her six days' sufferings that he, one of her nearest neighbors, did not recognize either her face or voice. When she arrived on the other side of the river she was unable to move or to help herself in any way. The people at the fort ran to see her. Some of them took her child and others took her from the canoe to Mr. Carter's house. Then, all danger being passed, she enjoyed for the first time since her capture the relief which comes from a copious flow of tears. Coming too suddenly to the fire and the smell of the victuals, she fainted. Those hospitable people might have killed her with their exuberant kindness, had not Maj. McCulley, who then commanded the line * along the Allegheny river, fortunately arrived. When he saw her situation and the bountiful provision those good people were making for her, he immediately ordered her out of the house, away from the heat of the fire and the smell of the victuals which were being cooked, and prohibited her from taking anything but the whey of * Manor township. 406 FREEPORT TOWNSHIP. buttermilk, in very small quantities, which he himself administered. By that judicious treatment she was gradually restored to health and strength of mind and body. Sarah Carter and Mary Ann Crozier-whether single or married is' not stated-then began to extract the thorns from her feet and legs, to the number of 150, as counted by Felix Negley, who watched the operation, and who afterward resided at the mouth of Bull creek, Tarentum. Many more were extracted the next evening. Some of the thorns went through and came out on the top of her feet. The skin and flesh were excruciatingly mangled and hung in shreds to her feet and legs. So much exposure of her naked body to rain by night and heat of the sun by day, and carrying her child so long in her arms without relief, caused so much of her skin to come off that nearly her whole body was raw, and for two weeks her feet were not sufficiently healed to enable her to put them to the ground to walk. The news of her escape spread rapidly in various directions, reaching Pittsburgh the same evening of her arrival at the fort at Six-Mile Island. Two spies proceeded that evening to Coe's-now Tarenturn - and the next morning to Reed's station, bearing the intelligence to her husband. A young man employed by the magistrates at Pittsburgh came for her to go thither for the purpose of making before one of them her affidavit of the facts connected with her captivity and escape, as was customary in early times, for publication. Being unable either to walk or ride on horseback, she was carried by some of the men into a canoe. After arriving at Pittsburgh she was borne in their arms to the office of John Wilkins, a justice of the peace and a son of the late Judge Wilkins, of the United States court, before whom she made her affidavit, May 28, 1792. The facts which she thus stated, being circulated, caused a lively sensation in and for twenty miles around Pittsburgh. Her husband arrived there that evening, and the next morning she was conveyed to Coe's station. That evening she gave to those about her an account of the murder of her boy on Todd's Island, whither a scout went the next morning, found and buried the corpse, which had lain there unburied nine days. From her above-mentioned affidavit and her subsequent and more elaborate narrative, prepared from her statement by John Winter, the writer has condensed the foregoing facts, credited by the early settlers who were her neighbors, and which were made during those six terrible days of her life. She resided during several subsequent years at Salt Lick, a mile and a half north of Butler, on the Connoquennessing, at or near the site of the Indian camp mentioned in her affidavit and narrative. The last years of her life were passed in a cabin on the lot on the northeastern corner of Fourth street and Mulberry alley, Freeport, opposite the Methodist Episcopal church, being the same lot now occupied by William Murphy, where she died on Saturday, December 9, 1837. THiE TODD PURCHASE. Among the earliest sales of depreciation lands northwest of the Allegheny, within the limits of Armstrong county, was one to William Todd, "of Unity township, Westmoreland county, esquire," and David Todd, of Armstrong township, and county aforesaid, "farmer," as they were described in their early conveyances of parcels of land. David Todd resided on the tract called "Brabant," on the eastern side of that part of Crooked creek called the South Bend.* They, having taken the necessary preliminary steps, obtained patents, Sep tember 16, 1786, for lot No. 70, called "Union," 348y acres, and lot No. 71, called "Friendship," 302 acres, both of them in Elder's district, No. 5, and in the forks of the Allegheny and the Buffalo, further mention of which is deferred for the present. The following entries are among the minutes of the proceedings of the supreme executive council, at Philadelphia, Friday, February 26, 1790: "Upon application of William Todd, Esquire, of the right of pre-emption to a certain island in the riverAllegheny, nearly opposite to and above the mouth of Buffalo creek, containing 25 or 30 acres, upon which he has made a small improvement, it was " Resolved, That the said island be granted to the said William Todd upon his paying for the same at the rate of 25 shillings per acre in certificates of this state, interest to be computed from this date," which has since borne the name of Todd's Island. Todd conveyed one-half of his interest to Francis Johnson the same day for ~5, and the patent was issued to them as tenants in common, January 15, 1795, and on April 1, 1796, Johnson reconveyed his interest to Todd. William Todd conveyed an undivided half part of "Union" and "Friendship" to Francis Johnston, of Philadelphia, September 16, 1786, for ~300, which he reconveyed to Todd, April 5, 1796, the latter having conveyed an undivided half to David, March 9, 1794. Thus it was that these Todd brothers became seized of "Friendship" and "Union" as tenants in common. * See South Bend township. 407 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. A man by the name of Edmonson kept a ferry here across the Allegheny as early as, if not earlier than, 1795, for the writer is credibly informed by an eye-witness that one Sunday evening in February, 1796, he skillfully ferried a young surveyor of eighteen, through much ice, from a point about 95 rods above what is now Garver's ferry, to some point on the above-mentioned parcel or tract called "Friendship," who tarried over night at the house of Robert Thornburg, who was then almost the sole, if not the sole, head of a family in the forks. That young surveyor was then migrating from Franklin county to seek some profitable field for the exercise of his knowledge of and skill in the art of surveying, which he thereafter practiced extensively and for many years within what is now Butler county. In the summer or autumn of 1796 William and David Todd laid out a town, the plan of which is recorded in Allegheny county, on parts of "Friendship" bordering upon the Allegheny and the Buffalo, extending up both of those streams from their confluence. The streets parallel to the river were Water and Market, and those intersecting them at right angles and nearly parallel to the creek were First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth. The lots were numbered from 1 to 135, and were chiefly 66 feet, fronting on the first-named streets, by 159 feet between those streets and the alleys. This place may have been thereafter "for a long time known as Toddstown,"* but that is not the name given to it by its proprietors. David Todd declared, as related to the writer by Peter E. Weaver, that all the ground between the houses on Water street and the river should be free to all the lot-owners, and that boats, rafts and other river craft landing here should be free of wharfage. This has been ever since the laying out of the town a freeport for all the river craft. So this town was christened by the proprietors, and it has ever since been called Freeport. The eddy, one of the best on that river, formed by the mouth of Buffalo and Todd's island, it was expected would make this a very important point. The records of this county and Allegheny county show that William and David Todd conveyed 27 of their Freeport lots, January 10, 1797, for $24 each: to James Armstrong, No. 19, north side of Water street, and Armstrong to Thomas Robinson, July 29, 1829, for $200; to James Bole, No. 2, north side of Market street; to Thomas Campbell, No. 35, south side of Market street, and his administrators, in pursuance of an agreement before his death, to Henry S. Weaver, August 5, 1829, for $55; to *Appendix to Early History of Western Pennsylvania, p. 344. James Cooper, No. 130, north side of Market street, he to James Ross, December 30, 1797, for $50, and Catherine Ross, of Carlisle, to Henry S. Weaver, December 6, 1829, for $90; to William Crawford, Nos. 1,116; to William Cunningham, No. 93, west side of Sixth street; to Nicholas Day, No. 87, north side of Market street; and he to Jacob Weaver, March 13, 1811, for $20; to James Dunlap, No. 50, south side of Market street, and he to William F. Smith, September 18,1829, for $20; to Thomas Dunlap, No. 45; to Thos. Graydon, No. 99; to Robert Hill, No. 103, west side of Fourth street, and he to James Hill, October 14, 1812, for $10; to Robert Hunter, No. 55, south side of Market street; to Alexander Hunter, No. 13; to David Hutchinson, No. 9, north side of Water street, and he to Henry S. Weaver, March 18, 1829, for $100; to William Jamison, No. 75, north side of Market street, his heirs to John Karns, April 15, 1816, and April 1, 1829, and he to Stephen Furlong, August 21, 1833, for $225; to Benjamin Lodge, No. 43, south side Market street, and he to Joseph Lyon, May 24, 1827, for $100; to John Mehaffey, No. 27, north side of Water street, and he to Henry S. Weaver, March 23, 1827, for $50; to John Miller, No. 62, north side of Market street, and he to Stephen Furlong, April 3, 1835, for $300; to John Craig Miller, No. 115; to William Morrison, No. 75; to Samuel Murphy, Nos. 2, 96, 104; to Sarah McDowell, No. 95, west side of Sixth street, and she one-half to Dr. Chas. G. Snowden, December 5,.1859, for $1,000, probably in pursuance of a previous agreement; James McCormick, Nos. 2, 3, 7, 23, 60, 106; to Alexander McKinney, No. 111, west of Second street; to Robert Parker, No. 6, north side of Water street, and No. 2, north side of Market street; to Thomas Powers, No. 83; to Hamilton Robb, No. 127, and he to Alexander Hunter, December 13, 1799, "for a valuable consideration to me in hand paid; " to Samuel Robb, No. 73, north side of Market street, and he to Jacob Weaver, March 23, 1812, for $5; to same, No. 26; to Charles Rogers, No. 132, east side of Sixth street; to George Smith, Nos. 4, 66; to Thomas N. Sloan, No. 67, north side of Market street; to Abraham Walker, No. 14, north side of Water street, and he to George Ross, November 5, 1810, for $30; to Hugh Wasson, No. 102, west of Fourth street; to Benjamin F. Weaver, No. 86, north side,of Market street, and he to Henry S. Weaver, June 2, 1832, for $200; to Eliza Weaver, No. 58, south side of Market street; and to Jacob Weaver, No. 94. The first house was built by Andrew Patterson, adjoining the old blockhouse. 408 FREEPORT TOWNSHIP. James McCormick, the second sheriff of this county, settled here, probably in 1797, and opened a hotel, and established a ferry. By the act of April 4, 1798, such parts of Allegheny county as were then within Elder's district, being part of Deer township, were made an election district, and the place fixed for holding the elections was "at the house of James McCormick, in the town of Freeport," which was the first house built onWater street. It was situated on lot No. 23, below Fifth street. Some time during that year Charles Duffy and his family arrived here from Ireland and stopped at McCormick's, where his daughter Barbara, then in her eleventh year, remained several months. Her father located on the headwaters of one of the western tributaries of Buffalo creek, then in the wilderness. Barbara, as she advanced in years, evinced, like many other pioneer women of this region, great force of character and a generous patriotic spirit. She married, quite early, Neil Gillespie, and removed to a small parcel of land that belonged to him north of the "Gillespie tract," that is, the one owned by his father, John Gillespie. Her husband responded to the call for men to serve in the war of 1812, and was elected first lieutenaut of his company. She and her young son, James, who is now one of the oldest citizens of Freeport, were left alone. During his absence in the service, she, with a yoke of young cattle, did all the plowing required on their place, and cultivated their little cleared patch so successfully that on her husband's return she had a bountiful supply of provisions as well as a cordial welcome for him and his men when they returned from "the lines and tented field." Their farm in the course of time proved to be too small for the maintenance of their family, so they removed to Freeport and opened a hotel on what is now the Gillespie homestead, on Water, above Second, street, Freeport. Her son, Charles B. Gillespie, was captAin of Company " F " in the 78th regiment of Pennsylvania volunteers in the war of the rebellion. She read much, had a very retentive memory, could entertain attentive listeners with her correct presentations of early scenes and events, and of the personal characteristics of pioneer settlers. Generous, warm-hearted, she was also charitable in all things "to the Jew and Gentile, so they did the good work." So appreciative was she of the protection of the beneficent government of her adopted country that she persistently declined to apply, when often urged, for a pension as the widow of an officer in the war of 1812. To the close of her life, eighty-seven years, she retained all her mental powers. Among other later arrivals at this place were those of Jacob Mechling, formerly of Greensburgh, and afterward of Butler, and his co-commissioners, Hamilton, Lane, Morton and Weaver. Mechling, in his "journal of proceedings to fix the seats of justice in the counties of Armstrong," etc., notes their arrival at the mouth of Puckety, June 3, 1802, and then "eleven miles to Freeport, where we lodged that night," which is all he noted in his journal respecting this town, in which there were then but a very few log houses, besides McCormick's tavern, where he and the other commissioners probably lodged. In 1805 there were, as related to the writer by Peter E. Weaver, only eight indifferent houses of hewn logs. The first one was McCormick's tavern; the second one, built by Thomas Johnston, adjoined McCormick's; the third, by one of the Thornburgh's on or near Water, above Fifth street; the fourth, by Henry A. Weaver, on lot No. 24, on the north side of Market street; the fifth on the second lot above the last-mentioned one; the sixth, by Alexander Hunter, on Water, between Second and Third streets; the seventh, by - Porterfield, oni Water, between Third and Fourth streets; the eighth, on Water, near Fifth street. The assessment list of Buffalo township for 1805 shows the valuation of lots, personal property and occupations in Freeport to have then been:. Alexander Hunter, one house, one lot and four cattle, $102; the next year, $96; Thomas Johnston, one house, one lot, two horses, two cattle and 400 acres elsewhere in the township, $262; the next year, $150; James McCormick, one house, five lots, one horse, one cow and one ferry, $216; the next year, $222. Jacob Weaver was first assessed here in * 1806, with one house, one lot, one horse, one cow, and as storekeeper, at $111. Some persons have the impression that Henry A. Weaver settled here before Jacob Weaver did; that he had a Frenchman as a partner in trade, and who was an interpreter to the Indians; that, as Peter Clawson, who was raised near Greensburgh, lived for years on his father's farm at Rumbaugh's ferry on the Kiskiminetas, and was well versed in early events, used to relate that, about 1806, a considerable quantity of wheat and flour was transported from Greensburgh or Hannahstown to Rumbaugh's ferry, thence to Freeport, and shipped thence by Weaver and his partner to Blennerhasset's island for the use of the expedition fitted out by Aaron Burr, and that Weaver in consequence of being engaged in that shipment was obliged to be absent for a while. If Henry A. Weaver had lived here before 409 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. that time, and he was living and doing business here then, he was overlooked by the assessors of Buffalo township for several years, for the first time that the name of any Henry Weaver appears on the assessment list of that township in which Freeport then was is on the one for the year 1812, when there were assessed to "Henry Weaver" two horses and two cattle, cows probably, at $44, though Joseph Morrison had been the assessor for 1807, John Matthes for 1809, John Smith for 1810, and David Reed, with John Galbraith and Samuel Murphy assistants, for 1811. He was assessed the next year (1813) by Samuel Murphy, with two horses, one cow, one house and one lot, at $109, and the next year by Adam Maxwell, with John Craig and John Smith assistants, with 300 acres of the land "formerly occupied by Thomas Johnston." At the first term of the court of quarter sessions in this county, December, 1805, the petition of sundry inhabitants of Buffalo township was presented, setting forth that they labored under great inconvenience for want of a public road from James McCormick's ferry, at the town of Freeport, to intersect the state road at Robert Brown's ferry. The court appointed James McCormick, Casper Earley, Samuel Murphy, Adam Ewing, John Young and John Painter, viewers, whose report in favor of opening the road was presented June 16, 1806, and considered under advisement until December 17, when it was disapproved by the court. POSTOFFICE. The exact day on which the Freeport postoffice was established cannot be ascertained, for the reason elsewhere given,* but it must have been in the fall of 1806, as Jacob Weaver, the first postmaster, began to render his quarterly accounts January 1, 1807. McCormick, having been elected sheriff in 1809, retired from the hotel, in which he was succeeded by James Bole, Jr., to whom he conveyed it, May 8, 1813. The eddy and free wharfage made this a good point for raftsmen to stop at. Among the many who stopped with Bole was one who wanted some liquor, but had no money to pay for it, and, as he could not obtain it on credit, he offered to exchange an ax for it. His offer was accepted, and the liquor and ax were exchanged. It happened, some time after the raftsman had left, that an ax was needed, but could not be found. Bole, being apprised of the fact, handed over the one which the raftman had left, remarking that there was one which'he had bought. He soon discovered that he had parted with his liquor, for he had bought his *See borough of Kittanning. own ax, and laughed heartily as he occasionally related the affair to his guests. Many years ago, when the Stockbridge Indians dwelt along the Oneida creek, in Madison county, New York, one of that tribe, after graduating creditably at Dartmouth college, returned to his people, became the slave of "fire water" and a sot, and resorted to various ingenious expedients to obtain the poisonous beverage. Jacob Konkerpot was his name. His brother was the chief of the tribe who, before theiir departure to the west, had erected a large frame mansion, in which the writer resided during several years of his boyhood. One day, Jake was in the adjoining town of Augusta, and asked the landlord for liquor, but not having money to pay for it was refused. "Well," said he, "there's a man over here that owes me, perhaps I can get some money from him." After a short absence he returned to the inn and told the landlord that the man was absent, so hlie couldn't get his money then, but he had got a duck which he would pawn until he could get his money. The duck was taken and the liquor furnished, and Jake didn't stay long. After hlie had left, the landlord took the duck back to his yard, when he was surprised to find that Jake had pawned to him one of his own flock. It is presumed he bore Jake's sharpness and the loss of his liquor with a cheerful fortitude. Returning to soberer facts, that first tavern site in Freeport was conveyed by Bole to Peter Eichart, April 1, 1816, for $1,500, who agreed, February 17, to sell it to John Drum for that amount, who soon after took possession, and to whom Eichart's executor conveyed it in pursuance of that agreement, September 7, 1832. Drum conveyed it to Robert Lowry, September 25, for $2,000, and Lowry to John Keever four days afterward for the same amount, who conveyed it, September 7, 1837, to Jacob Weaver, Thomas B. Williamson and James Bole in trust for his creditors. A correspondent of the Commercial Gazette says that Bole's successor was a man by the name of Stoeffer, a brother-inlaw of Jacob Weaver, and father-in-law of Henry S. Weaver, and kept a very orderly house. But his name is not found in the conveyances of this property, or on the assessment lists. The public records show that Robert Loughrie was assessed with 2 acres, 1 house, 2 horses and 1 cow, and he and James Loughrie (single man), with a tanyard, in 1816, at $245. The land, house and tanyard were sold by Philip Mechling, sheriff, on Vend. Ex. No. 21, December term, 1818, common pleas of this county, as the property of James Loughrie to Andrew Arnold and Henry Jack for $178. This parcel of land was described as adjoin410 FREEPORT TOWNSHIP. ing the town of Freeport, lands of Henry S. Weaver, James Armstrong and other land of Arnold This tanyard was assessed to Arnold until he and Jack coniveyed it with the 2 acres and dwelling-house to Thomas Robinson, September 21, 1830, for $650, who was not thereafter assessed with that tanyard, which was the first one operated in Freeport. On that parcel of land " Robinson's Row" was laid out, in which John and William L. Trimble were afterward assessed as tanners from 1846 until 1853, and from then until 1860 that tannery was assessed to.William Crow, when he conveyed the property to David Taylor, since when there has been no tannery in Freeport. Freeport, notwithstanding the great expectations of its founders, based upon its natural advantages, increased very slowly during the first two decades of its existence. One who was born and raised on the opposite side of the river, says it was in 1812 a mere village, with a liquor store and blacksmith shop. Benjamin Harbison remembers that in 1816 its southwestern part, that part west of Fifth street, was covered with a bountiful crop of wheat, and there were only five houses then on Water street. James Armstrong's wife, an heir of William Todd, instituted proceedings in partition to No. 8, of September term, 1817, in the common pleas of this county. After the issuing and service of the summons to William Todd and the other children and heirs of David Todd, deceased, George Armstrong appeared as attorney for all the defendants, and on September 17 confessed judgment that partition be made, and agreed that the writ of partition be executed on the then next first Monday of October, which was accordingly done, and on December 16, on motion of Eben S. Kelly, judgment that the partition remain firm and stable forever was ordered by the court. Thus James Armstrong, the plaintiff, became vested with a large portion of the land in and around Freeport. In that partition, in-lots Nos. 39, 41, 44, 47, 53, 63, 117, 118, 121 and 125, and the strip between Water street and the river were allotted to William Todd and his sisters, Barbara, afterward intermarried with Jesse Martin, Elizabeth, with David Shields and Sarah, with John Thrush. They, with their husbands, released their interests in these lots, except No. 41, to their brother William, April 29, 1834, for $112.50. The latter conveyed that strip to the borough of Freeport September 18, 1839, for $100. They all conveyed their interest in in-lot No. 41 to Hugh Kirkland December 24, 1829, for $209. Josiah Copley remembers that when he carried the mail, in 1818, from Indiana via South Bend or Woodward's, Kittanning and Butler, to Freeport, there were only ten or twelve log houses in it. Jacob Weaver, who was still postmaster, was the only merchant. John Drum's was the only tavern, and that was where he stopped over night. This being then a river town from which no important highway extended into the country, the chief patronage to that house was derived from the river men, who liberally patronized the bar. A large proportion of the lumbermen in those days, says Copley, were rough fellows. One of those that he met here was superlatively so. His looks, actions and language were perfectly hideous. He uttered the most horrible oaths and imprecations before and after retiring for the night. On his renewal of them in the bedchamber, Copley requested him to cease. He became more furious and revolting, until Copley went to the door and called the landlord, who he knew didn't hear him. Then that personification of hideousness and profanity succumbed, as noisy, cowardly blusterers generally do, and all was quiet there the rest of the night. Copley further states, that he has never seen a place in which there was so much drunkenness, swearing, cardplaying, quarreling and fighting as there were in and about that public house, not, however, chargeable to the then permanent inhabitants of Freeport, most of whom were not at all addicted to those vices, but to those who resorted thither from the river and the surrounding country, whose highest idea of manhood was to drink, fight and mingle the grossest profanity with nearly all their talk, whose bad example was caught and followed by at least one young lad whom he heard pouring out a torrent of the wickedest kind of oaths, and seemingly in the angriest mood, upon a man on horseback, at which that man and the bystanders grinned like idiots, as if they really enjoyed that shameful display of juvenile depravity. BOATBUILDING. .There was, however, a brighter, a lovely spot in the picture. About that time, during that year, the hum of a new branch of useful industry began to be heard in this town. Edward Hart, of Boston, Massachusetts, who had been a sea captain, brought hither a small number of New England mechanics, of gentlemanly, decorous and correct deportment, who persisently refrained from profanity. They boarded at Drum's tavern, where Copley became well acquainted with them, and occasionally visited the yard where they were constructing a boat of different shape from those built now, but had, he thought, "sufficient depth for a seagoing vessel," 411 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. which he saw launched early in December. Another correspondent, who was present, relates: When all the blocks were taken from under the keel and the boat rested on the skids or timbers, on which it was to descend to the river, it was kept in its place by a stay at each end, at each of which a man was placed with instructions to knock out the stay with the hatchet which each had in his hand, on a signal being given by the captain, whose son Edward was one of the persons on whom that duty devolved. The stay where the other man was placed was discovered to be in such a position that it could not be knocked out, but must be cut. After a few strokes of the ax it yielded suddenly to the pressure, and the boat moved at that end. The captain then shouted to his son, who then gave the blow, the stay yielded and the boat descended suddenly, sideways, into the river, amid the cheers of the interested spectators. She was neither side nor stern wheeled. There were two openings, separated by timbers, for the wheels several feet forward from the stern. RELIGIOUS. There were then no churches here. Rev. John Redick, pastor of the Slate Lick and Union Presbyterian churches, and clergymen of other denominations occasionally preached here in private houses. Copley was present one evening at a meeting held at the house of a widow lady, about opposite the foot of Todd's Island, on Water street, on which occasion an itinerant clergyman preached a rather poor and rambling sermon, if it was intended for and could be called a sermon, at the close of which he invited any present to speak if so inclined. Capt. Hart, who wAs imbued with an ardent and cheerful piety, who had here become a favorite with all who came in contact with him, and who was then soon to leave, rose and delivered what might be called his farewell address in so pious a strain, and which was so touching and eloquent as to bring tears and sobs from his hearers, who deeply lamented that they would soon see him no more. SALT WELLS. About 1820 a well for salt water was sunk on the left bank of the Allegheny, opposite Freeport, by a man of the name of Fleming. A vein of oil was struck at the depth of 114 feet, which, increasing subsequently, became so troublesome as to cause work to be abandoned at the depth of 416 feet. The well, as far down as the rock, which was twenty feet below the surface, was eight feet square and walled with timber. The people in the vicinity, by means of a ladder, descended to where the water rose in that square part of the well and with woolen blankets collected the oil on the surface, which they used for illuminating and medicinal purposes. About 1857 James A. McCulloch and William S. Ralston purchased that property. In cleaning out that well they collected a considerable quantity of oil, which they sold for $1.50 a gallon. They then pumped for oil and obtained daily half a barrel, which Ralston refined for burning in lamps, and thus became the pioneer oil refiner. Ile met with no difficulty in distilling, but he did in treating it with chemicals and deodorizing, which, he says, he at length overcame. The gravity of the oil when pumped from the rock was 36, when refined, 42, a safe oil for illuminating. There was a residuum of four per cent of tar, which was equal to pine tar for lubricating wagon axles. In 1830 commenced the business of taking ice from the mouth of Buffalo creek, from the basin above the Kiskiminetas, and from the river below the town for the southern market. Some seasons between then and 1855 several large cargoes of it were transported in barges down the Mississippi. IRISH SETTLEMENTS OF CANAL TIMES. While the canal was being made there were two Irish settlements of Irish laborers, called Garry Owen and Mullengan, one above and the other below Freeport. The inhabitants thereof occasionally came to patronize, at least they did patronize, the three taverns which then flourished here, and seldom failed to enliven the town with their boisterous hilarity. There was a racecourse on the lower flat on which some of the best blooded horses from Kentucky and Virginia evinced their wonderful speed. Jumping and foot-races were common. Betting was brisk, and large sums were won and lost on the quadruped and biped racers. John Karns on a certain occasion jumped from one side of the canal lock to the other, a distance of sixteen feet. It is related that Simon Shields won $50 by jumping three " stand-and-jumps." Other noted jumpers were Elliott and Samuel D. Karns and Henry Gass. On St. Patrick's day, 1828, the Irish from Garry Owen and Mullengan had a large procession. They were decked with pine and laurel to represent the shamrock. After marching through town regaled by strains of music, they closed their celebration with real Irish joviality at Neil Gillespie's tavern. There were then about thirty houses in Freeport. Benjamin, Weaver, was EARLY ASSESSMENTS. probably meant for Benjamin F. first assessed here as a single man in 412 POSTAL AND TRAVELING FACILITIES. by the influence of climate, citing the physiological fact that the true skin or cutus in people of all the different grades of color is white, and the external or scarf-skin is the most perfectly transpIarent in those of the darkest color, and instancing the graduation of color-the perfectly white, the less white, the olive, the tawny and the black - caused by the influence of the varying heat of the sun from the highest latitudes to the equator, so that with the exceptions made by the operations of particular local causes, every parallel of latitude presents us with a different shade of complexion. He then p)ertinently asks: Where shall the line be drawn to designate those who are so manifestly marked out for slavery from those who have an undoubted right to liberty? Nearly two other columns of that number are filled with a portion of the debates on the slavery question, in the then recent synod of Virginia. It is announced in another column of that number of the Gazette that a copy of a printed protest of the American Anti-Slavery Society against the denunciations of the President of the United States in his message, signed by Arthur Tappan, William Jay, and others, had been sent to each member of congress, and the following reply from J. Speight, M. C. from North Carolina: "I herewith return you your protest, inclosing, as a testimony of my high regard for your necks, a piece of rope. You will no doubt appreciate my motives." In another part of that issue are some of the proceedings in the "Investigation of Masonry" in the legislature of this state. Such was some of the reading matter which agitated the minds and stirred the blood of the readers of the Gazette in Kittanning and elsewhere over twoscore years ago. The writer has casually picked up the Kittanning Free Press, Vol. XII, No. 23, issued July 14, 1853, size 23X16 inches. Advertising had then considerably increased, for in that issue are nine and a half columns of business advertisements and legal and official notices. Among the latter is the statement of state appropriations to the common schools of this county for that year, showing that the amount then appropriated to the school in this borough was $159.12; also the list of letters remaining in the Kittanning postoffice July 1, then instant, Simon Truby, postmaster, containing 266 names of individuals and firms. POSTAL AND TRAVELING FACILITIES. In 1818 there was only one postoffice between Kittanning and Indiana, and only a weekly mail, which was carried on horseback. In 1820, people living several miles above Red Bank creek received at least some of their mail matter from the Kittanning office. The mail route in 1818 was from Indiana via Absalom Woodward's and the Blanket Hill battle-field to Kittanning and Butler; and thence via Freeport, Kittanning, the Peter Thomas' (afterward Robert Woodward's) mills, on Plum creek, back to Indiana. In 1819 the route was more circuitous, extending from Indiana via Greensburgh, Freeport, Roseburgh (now in Clarion county), Lawrenceburgh (now Parker City), to Butler, and thence via Kittanning back to Indiana. The mail-carrier over these routes was Josiah Copley, then an apprentice to James McCahan, the proprietor and publisher of the American, a weekly newspaper published at Indiana. McCahan had the contract for carrying the mails over these and other routes, and his contract with his apprentice was that the latter should spend onehalf of the first three years of his apprenticeship in carrying the mail on horseback. Thus the contractor got his mail-carriers without cost, and distributed his paper, carried in open saddle-bags, to many of his subscribers along these and other routes. The number of postoffices has been so increased from year to year since then that there are now fifty-one, distributed at convenient distances over this county, at several of which daily mails are received. At the'early settlement of this county there were not any well-made roads. From 1805 till 1810 the court of quarter-sessions granted orders for opening twenty-five public roads in various sections within the present limits of this county. Yet those who traversed the county as late as 1821 say that most of the roads then afforded very poor facilities for travel and transportation of goods. Most of the traveling was done on foot and horseback, and for lack of bridges the fording of streams was often hazardous. Some of the turnpikes began to be made about 1815. Prior to 1810, before the manufacture of iron was begun on the Connemaugh, and salt on the Kiskiminetas, those articles were transported, viz.: iron from Winchester, Virginia, and salt from Hagerstown, Maryland, as well as other goods from the east, on pack-horses, over the Allegheny mountains. After the commencement of the manufacture of salt and iron west of the Allegheny mountains, they were transported to Pittsburgh, in flatboats, down the Connemaugh, Kiskiminetas and Allegheny rivers. After the completion of the turnpike from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia, goods purchased in the latFREEPORT TOWNSHIP. 1814; Henry, probably meant for Henry A. Weaver, with lot No. 128, one house, one horse, one cow, at $132, besides the 300 acres heretofore mentioned; Benjamin King, single man, carpenter, one lot and one house, in 1819-20, at $150; John Woods, single man, in 1819-20; Henry S. Weaver, with 72 acres and a distillery in 1818, at $222. David Putney says there were only two weatherboarded houses here in 1820, one of which was frame and the other log. Thos. O'Neil, No. 13, one house, $200; Boyle, No. 15, one house, $200; Johnston Canaan, No. 14, one house, one cow, $131; David H. Potts, shoemaker, No. 34, one house, one cow, $136; David Scott, No. 3, one house, one cow, $26; Henry Drum, one cow, $8; Andrew Glenett, one horse, one cow, $28; H. G. Bethune, - -; David Calkin, shoemaker, No. 57, one house, four oxen, one cow, $176; Win. Painter, No. 126, one house (transferred from Thos. Ryan), $50. The only occupations noted on that list are those above mentioned. The first separate assessment list for Freeport was in 1826, when Philip Bohlen was assessed with lot No. 13, one house and one horse, at $210, in the occupancy of Hugh Gillespie; John Drum, lot No. 22, one house and two cows, $308; John Fullerton, No. 25, one house, one cow, $156; Matthias Folcake, No. 15, one house, formerly to William Gibson, two cows, $200; William Gibson, No. 17, one house, two cows, $346; George Helterbrand, No. 14, one house, $50; William Painter, tailor, No. 2, one house (Andrew Stenett), one horse, one cow, $298; Thomas Regan, No. 126, one house (John Dougherty), $50; James Cain, No. 34, one house (Dugan & Co.), $50; Patrick Pree, No. 68, one house (Hugh Carson), $50; Jacob Weaver, No. 24, one house, $150; widow of Henry A. Weaver, No. 128, one house, two horses, two cows, $206; Henry S. Weaver, No. 26, one house, $150; John Wodison (absent), one house. Returned as unseated lots the same year, from No. 30 to 135 inclusive, of which, however, the following were, according to the corrected list, seated and assessed as follows: No. 52, by M. Moorehead, including one cow, $238; No. 54, by same, $200; No. 55, sold to A. Ralston, $214; No. 57, by M. McGraw, $206; No. 59, by H. G. Bethune and occupation, $256; No. 60, by William Haggerty, $200; by H. S. Weaver, No. 30, $80, Nos. 86, 87, each $150; No. 83, by J. Canaan, $150; No. 88, by B. F. Weaver, $50; No. 91, by John Fullerton, $50; No. 92, by Jacob O'Donnell, $116; No. 131, by N. P. Lang, carpenter, $100. The corrected list also shows: No. 4, assessed to Andrew Bradley, $286; No. 8, to Mrs. Rachel Elliott, 26 $280; No. 11, and one cow, to Esq. Bohlen, $286; No. 12, sold to William Porter, $280; No. 16, seated by Gibson; No. 21, by J. L. Easton, $342; Nos. 27 and 29, to H. S. Weaver, each $280. TRANSFERS OF PROPERTY. Armstrong disposed of but few, if any, of his lots for more than a decade after the partition. Ile was of course benefited by the impetus given to the growth of the town by the making of the Pennsylvania canal. Its excavation above, through and below the town, the construction of the canal-lock here, and of the aqueducts across the Allegheny and the Buffalo, the commercial facilities offered by the canal, and the boring of several salt-wells in its vicinity, made Freeport a brisk business center. The work on the canal commenced here in the summer of 1827, and boats made their first trips on it in 1828-9. The Benjamin Franklin was the first packet-boat, said to have been a very neat one, that plied regularly between Freeport and Pittsburgh. Her first trip was on'February 6, 1829, with about thirty passengers. Her speed was five miles an hour.* An improvement meeting, similar to the one held at Kittanning, except that it was of a more local character, was held here January 23, 1828, of which Jacob Weaver was president, and William W. Gibson and Henry S. Weaver were secretaries. About May 27, 1829, a part of the aqueduct across Buffalo creek fell down. Armstrong's sales of his lots appears from the records to have commenced about the time of the completion of the canal. He made several additions to the town. The first was from the land immediately adjacent to the original plot, by which the number of in-lots was increased to about 200. His other additions are the "Hill Plot," the "Buffalo Plot," and those dated respectively November 30, 1841, October 21, 1846, and December 4, 1847. His sales of town lots and other parcels, "Union" and "Friendship," extended through a period of twenty-eight years, which the records show to have been: In 1829, to John Patterson, out-lot No. 12, January 23, for $100; to James Bole, William W. Gibson and James White, "in trust for the three denominations of christians worshiping or to worship. in the meeting-house near Freeport, the Episcopal, Associate or Seceder, and the Presbyterian," 1 acre and 36 perches, "including the burial-ground, which is to be considered a general interest by the citizens of Freeport and vicinity," * Culuanbian of Saturday, September 12, 1829. 413 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. January 24, for $100; to Benjamin King, out-lot No. 3, 1 acre and 181 perches, same day, for $90; to Andrew Arnold, his interest in 2 acres and 16 perches, "near the town of Freeport," July 13, for $35 (and he to Thomas Robinson, January 30, 1839 for $150); to Rev. Hugh Kirkland, out-lot No. 13, 2 acres and 13 perches, for $147; to Thomas Robinson, in-lot No. 19, July 29, for $200; to Michael Moorehead, one-eleventh of in-lot No. 51, July 30, for $9.55; to Henry S. Weaver, in-lots Nos. 30, 123, 124, 125, December 21, for $500. In 1830, to Francis Anderson, out-lot No. 2, July 25, for $130; to Andrew Earley, in-lot No. 7, July 29, for $61. In the summer or autumn of this year a slight breeze of intestine discord disturbed this community, which originated from the erection of a house on the strip between the river and Water street, a short distance below Fifth, by Hugh Kirkland and John Patterson for their own use. Some of the good citizens resisted such a use and occupancy of any part of that strip of free land. William Martin, Joseph Shoop, Benjamin, Henry and Peter E. Weaver and William Younkins went to the building, after its completion, with the intention of throwing it into the river. Hence arose the action of trespass vi et armis brought by Kirkland and Patterson against them to No. 34, December term, 1830, in the common pleas of this county. After the narr. and the pleas were filed the case was compromised, before which the defendants had proceeded to carry out their intention. Patterson, having become aware of their purpose, entered the building and, armed with an adz, bade them stay out. After a brief altercation he agreed that the building should be removed, which was accordingly done. If a trial of the case had been reached, the defendants were prepared to prove David Todd's declaration, that that strip of land should always be free to the lotowners and rivermen.* In 1831 Armstrong conveyed to Jacob Weaver, in-lot No. 48, January 9, for $139; to William W. Gibson, in-lot No. 136, January 26, for $159; to David and James Murry, out-lot No. 4, January 28, for $60; to James McCullough, in-lot No. 154, January 29, for $34; to William Younkins, in-lot No. 143, January 31, for $38; to John Kerns, outlot No. 9, 1 acre and 8-1 perches the same day, for $75; to Isaac Bole, in-lots Nos. 146, 147, same day, for $199; to James E. McDonald, in-lot No. 144, same day, for $50; to Joseph McKee, in-lot No. 51, February 1, for $105 (which McKee afterward conveyed to Alexander Armstrong for $200, and the latter to John McGinler, March 10, 1838, for $200); * Peter E. Weaver's statement to the writer. to Andrew Ralston, in-lot No. 142, same day, for $39; to William Miller, in-lot No. 157, February 3, for $50; to Nathaniel Miller, in-lot No. 149, same day, for $60; to James Bole, out-lot No. 5, June 31, for $35; to John Bole, in-lots Nos. 138, 139, January 31, for $93. Armstrong was first assessed as a resident here, in 1832, with in-lot No. 18, 1 house, 1 horse and 1 cow, at $828. He conveyed to David Putney 3 acres and 106 perches, adjoining Putney's lane, on Franklin street on the south, Fifth street on the west, and an alley on the north, April 6, for $400. Putney removed about that time from Bole's mill to Freeport, where he was that year first assessed with out-lot No. 14, 1 house and 1 cow, at $43. He soon after started a brickyard and was the pioneer in building brick houses in Freeport. In 1833 Armstrong conveyed to John Miller inlot No. 62, June 21, for $43. In 1837, to William P. Rupp and Thomas B. Williamson, wardens, and Jacob Mebchling, Jr., James D. Torbett, John S. Weaver, Peter S. Weaver and Samuel L. Weaver, vestrymen of the Trinity Episcopal church, a part of in-lot No. 131, March 29, for $200; to Charles J. Kenley, part of out-lot No. 18, September 4, for $1,000. In 1838, to Thomas B. Williamson, in-lots Nos. 189, 190, November 17, for $47; to James Carnahan, in-lots 179, 180, December 16, for $53, and three-fourths of an acre of "Union," beginning at a post in Baker street, for $100. In 1839, to William Bohlen, in-lot No. 191, August 23, for $40. In 1840, to Margaret Stewart, part of out-lot No. 18, i.e. out-lot No. 2, from No. 15 to No. 18 inclusive, February 18, for $40. In 1841, to Samuel Maxwell, in-lots Nos. 186-78, " recently laid out," January 23, for $77; to Jas. E. Griffin, in-lot No. 131, February 6, for $300; to John Kerns, out-lot No. 15, 1 acre, 98 perches, April 19, for $230; to Jacob Shoop and Peter E. Weaver, in-lot No. 88, May 17, for $550. Weaver released to Shoop, and he conveyed one-half to Jas. Carnahan, June 5, for $53; to James Carnahan, December 18, three-fourths of an acre in plot of November 30, 1841, for $100; to Isaac Coyte, out-lot No. 16, 1 acre and 111 perches, October 20, for $200; to Samuel D. Karns, in-lots Nos. 178, 184, November 15, for $58; to Washington Bales, December 18, Nos. 2, 3, in plot of November 30, 1841, for $76. Bales to Alexander Bales and Jane Rowen, November 14, 1857, for $300, and Mrs. Rowen to Martha Miller, March 15, 1859, for $2,000. In 1842, to John Johnston, June 16, Nos. 10, 11, plot of November 30, 1841, for $140; to John Arnold, 414 M. E.CHLFRCH, FR ErPOIT, PA. FREEPORT TOWNSHIP. June 19, No. 12, ditto, for $60; to Dr. David Alter, June 29, No. 4, ditto, for $50; to Polly Rowley, Nos. 20, 21, ditto, for $60; to James Carnahan, July 11, Nos. 16, 17, 18, ditto, for $80; to Robert McKee, same day, Nos. 32, 33, ditto, for $119; David Wilson, Nos. 28, 29, ditto, October 13, for $136; to John Johnston, 361 perches out of in-lot No. 18, October 3, for $90; to Andrew McGinniss, No. 1, south side of Buffalo creek, June 29, for $55. He advertised, August 9, in the Freeport Columbian, 20 building-lots in the borough "and suburbs" for sale, and two excellent coalbanks for lease, from which were " delivered thousands of bushels of stone coal every year." In 1844, to Lewis Brenneman, January 3, No. 25, plot November 30, 1841, for $94, and, same day, in-lot No. 85, for $1,000. In 1845, to John Arnold, May 3, parcel adjoining plot November 30, 1841, for $1; he to Robert Carnahan, same day, for $63; to Peter Bowers, No. 1 Armstrong's plot, December 8, for $100. In 1846, to Asa Rowley, S.ptember 9, No. 24, plot November 30, 1841, for $1 )1. In 1847, to Richard Armstrong, in-lots Nos. 164-5, August 19, for $400. In 1848, to David Callen, in-lot No. 184, April 4, for $35; to Rev. E. M. Miles, September 12, No. 42, plot December 4, 1847, for $33.50; to I. Smith Bole, same day, No. 40, ditto for $36; to Conrad Nulf, a parcel adjoining the river on the south and in-lot No. 1 on the north and Buffalo creek on the west, October 12, for $50; to Frederick Kayler, same day, Nos. 22-3, plot December 4, 1847, for $50; to Joseph Kenniston, the only one of Capt. Hart's employes who remained here, in-lot No. 120, December 16, for $35. In 1849, to John W. Redpath, a parcel partly in Freeport and South Buffalo township, March 14, for $200; to Abner W. Lane, a parcel adjoining northeast side of Stewart street and Lane's line, between the creek and the public road from the west end of Market street, April 2, for $100; to James Hoaks, November 26, No. 4, plot December 4, 1847, for $50; to William Bates, same day, Nos. 13, 35, plot November 30, 1841, for $60. In 1850, to Robert Morris, December 10, No. -, plot November 30, 1841, for $150. In 1851, to Bridgett Torbett Nos. 5, 6, "Buffalo plot," September 6, for $100; to William Phillips, October 18, Nos. 14-15, plot December 4, 1848, for $100. In 1853, to James Gillespie and John McCue, 75 acres and 129 perches, beginning at a post on Washington street, etc., June 9, for $6,000. In 1855, to Dr. David Alter, No. 19, Armstrong's plot, December 21, for $120; to Robert Morris, same day, No. 5 plot October 21, 1846, for $100. 1858, to John L. Churchill, one-fifth of an acre between Second street and the creek, also the island in the creek, but without warranty of title to the latter, December 20, for $100, which seems to have been the last sale made by him before his death. Lots Nos. 4 and 8 of the " Hill plot" remained unsold as a part of his estate until after proceedings in partition, when they were conveyed by George B. Sloan, trustee, to Jacob Shoop, June 5, 1862, the former for $44 and the latter for $55, who conveyed them, December 21, to William A. Long, the former for $100 and the latter for $150. He also left in-lot No. 108, which was retained by his widow. She conveyed it to Charles E. Shaw, February 9, 1866, for $500. Shaw conveyed the western half of it to Henry S. Ehrenfeld, April 13, 1867, for $250, and he to Archibald M. Shaw, June 21, 1870, for $1,000. Charles E. Shaw conveyed the eastern half of this lot to Milton E. Shaw, February 1, 1874, for $500, and Archibald M. Shaw the other or western half to him, June 7, 1875, for $1,100, and the latter conveyed the whole lot to Samuel Hepworth, June 10, for $1,300. Thus passed to others the title to the last parcel of the real estate within the present borough limits which had been, more than half a century ago, allotted to James Armstrong, an heir of one of the original proprietors of the town of Freeport. Todd's Island having become vested in the heirs of David Todd, they by their attorney, Thomas White, conveyed it to John O'Neil, May 1, 1830. In April, 1831, O'Neil laid it out into twenty-one lots, fifteen of which contained 1 acre each; No. 21, 6 acres; No. 1, 1391 perches; No. 10, 112 perches; No. 11, 1101 perches; No. 12, 99* perches, and No. 13, 100 perches. A street 33 feet wide extended, with a bearing north 59 degrees east, through the central part of the island. On the 30th of May, 1833, the sales of lots were quite brisk. On that day O'Neil conveyed No. 20 to John Karns for $90.50; Nos. 12, 13, to John Keever, for $51; Nos. 21, 22, to Benjamin King, for $66; to David Scott, No. 17, for $-; No. 18 to John Shoop, for $51; No. 3 to Henry Weaver, Jr., for $55. June 14, No. 9 to Jacob Williams for $71.50. Doubts having arisen as to whether this island was within the limits of this county, it was declared to belong thereto, and was annexed to the borough of Freeport by the act of March 19, 1840. It has been previously claimed by Westmoreland county. Edward H. Day, Henry Eichert and Peter Weaver acquired an interest in Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, which passed from them by sheriff's sale, March 21, 1846, to Robert M. Porter, 415 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. which he conveyed to Samuel B. Porter, April 22, 1847, for $700, from whom the northern part of No. 1-the southern part being then vested in A. Colwell and P. Templeton -passed by sheriff's sale to Hiram Neyman, March 5, 1855, for $1,500, and which Neyman conveyed to Thomas Magill in May, 1866, for $975. A company, consisting of John and Thomas Magill and McCandless, Jamison & Co., wa~ organized March 1, 1868, who erected a woolen mill on O'Neil's lot No. 2 and a dye-house on No. 3, known as the " Freeport Woolen Mills," with which Thomas Magill has been since assessed.* Others appear to have been conveyed, the deeds for which are not on record. David Scott conveyed No. 17 to James Milligan, December 9, 1833; Milligan to John Boyd, January 10, 1837; Boyd to Conrad Nolf, May 6, 1843; Nolf to Fr. and Samuel Sheldon, October 27, 1860, for $300; they to Ann E. Sheldon one-third of the eastern portion, June 8, 1867, for $100, and she to Magill, January 15, 1869, for $100. Sheriff Hutchinson conveyed No. 6 to Win. H. Richardson, March 21, 1838; the latter to Peter Ford, March 30, 1841, who, by his will dated January 17, 1852, devised it to his daughter, Nancy L. Ford, who, with her husband, John Turner, conveyed it to Elizabeth Shaner, March 12, 1864, the eastern part of which she conveyed to Magill, March 30, 1867, for $625. Charles Vantine conveyed Nos. 21 and 22, lying "east of a cut through the island," to Thomas Magill, December 1, 1868, for $150. Samuel B. Porter leased the "southwestern part or termination" of this island, including lot No. 1, to Robert Cooper, Jr., and Matthew Henderson for six years from April 1, 1849, at an annual ground rent of $10, the lessor to have the privilege of taking, at the end of the term, the sawmill thereon erected at a fair valuation, or sell it at a fair price. The lessees transferred one-third of the lease and buildings to Robert M. Porter, February 2, 1850, to whom Cooper transferred all his remaining interest, June 5, and Porter conveyed all his interest to Henderson, February 8, who, having acquired the entire interest, conveyed it to James Milligan, June 4, for $3,250, which included the steam sawmill, erected by Cooper and Henderson in 1849, with which Milligan continued to be assessed and which he operated until 1854, when it was purchased by Colwell and Templeton at sheriff's sales. Alexander Anderson and Edward S. Golden, having acquired an interest in a portion of No. 1, * Until 1877, and J. R. Magill and others thereafter. conveyed a part of it, 100 feet on Main street and extending back to the eddy, to John J. Long, March 30, 1866, for $200, and 106 perches, previously, to A. V. McKim, on which a distillery had been erected by John Moyer in 1858, and with which Rhey & Bell were assessed in 1859, and McKim in 1862-3. For the purpose of removing all conflict of title, John S. Bole and Thomas Magill purchased McKim's interest, January 23, 1866, for $250, and Long's October 24, 1868, for $256. Magill, March 18, 1870, subdivided Nos. 4 and 5 of O'Neil's plot into twenty lots, each thirtythree feet wide, ten of which are 110, six are 100, aid the rest vary from less than 100 to 75 feet in length, and are traversed by Short street, thirty feet wide from north to south,.and by an alley, fifteen feet wide from east to west. CORPORATE HISTORY. The town of Freeport was incorporated into a borough by the act of April 8, 1833, which prescribed its boundaries thus: Beginning at a chestnut on the bank of the Allegheny river at the mouth of Buffalo creek; thence up the river north 14 degrees east 120 perches to the mouth of the eddy opposite the town; thence up the river north 53 degrees east 67 perches to the corner of Thomas Robinson's survey; thence north 19 degrees west 66r7o perches to a white oak on Robinson's land; thence south 721 degrees west 741 perches to a black oak on the bank of Buffalo creek; thence down the creek south 28 degrees west 441% perches to a chestnut; thence down the same south 20 degrees west 18 j6 perches; thence south 12 degrees west 47 perches to a maple; thence 21 degrees east 24r76 perches to the eastern abutment of the aqueduct over the creek; and thence south 49 degrees east 22 perches to the beginning. It was provided by the same act that all voters of what is now South Buffalo township residing below a line beginning at Walker's ferry on the Allegheny river and extending thence to the Armstrong and Butler county line should vote at general elections at Freeport, which was made a separate election district, the elections to be held in the schoolhouse. The first election was directed to be held on the first Friday of May, 1833, and Benjamin King and Dr. J. B. Williamson, or either of them, were to publish and superintend it, and the annual borough elections were to be held on the first Monday of May thereafter, until, by act of March 7, 1840, it was changed to the second Friday of March, and is now, under the new constitution, on the second Friday of February. At the first borough election, May 3, 1833, Jacob 416 FREEPORT TOWNSHIP. Weaver was elected burgess; James McCall, assistant burgess; Andrew Earley, James Milligan, William Moorehead, William Painter, David Putney and Henry Weaver, town council,men; David McCall, high constable; John Drum, street commissioner; James Ralston and Joseph Shoop, overseers of the poor; Jacob Alter, assessor; William Painter and James Ralston, assistant assessors. The first meeting of the burgess and town council was held May 10, when William W. Gibson was appointed clerk. At the meeting, May 31, the council determined the dimensions of each square to be 333 feet and 3 inches, including the alleys, the width of the sidewalks 8 feet, increased to 10 feet by ordinance of May 29, 1868, but directed at a meeting held on the 1st to remain at the old width until repairs should be made. The valuation of property in the borough in 1833 was $48,078, and the rate per cent of tax thereon was six mills. According to the charter it could not exceed one and a half per cent in any one year. The amount of tax collected, that year, was $192.31. At a meeting of council, held June 7, ordinances were passed prohibiting public bathing, swimming, or washing by nude persons in the river and canal between sunrise and 8- o'clock P. M., which made the penalty for each offense $1; running or driving horses and carriages and other vehicles at a faster gait than a slow trot, penalty $5; and firing guns within the borough limits, penalty $2; the obstruction of any of the lanes, streets or alleys, penalty $10; swine running at large, penalty 25 cents; riding or driving horses on pavements, penalty $1; and providing for grading streets and sidewalks by an assessment of one-half a cent on the dollar of the valuation of the property in the borough. These ordinances, although passed then, were not recorded, were recognized by the burgess and were subsequently repassed. The council adopted a resolution May 12, 1824, requiring the pond on the low ground in the borough to be drained along the old route of the drain into Buffalo creek; and December 22, levied a tax of six mills in addition to the $44.38 assessed by the delegate meeting of school directors, held at Kittanning, November 4, and adopted by a meeting of the citizens of Freeport school district, according to the act of assembly then in force providing for a general system of education within this Commonwealth. At a meeting of council, held June 19, 1835, assent on part of the borough was given to the compromise of the suit brought by Kirkland and Patterson against Martin, Shoop and others, to test the title of the strip of free land between Water street and the river. A resolution was adopted, June 20, imposing a fine of 25 cents for each absence of a member of council or other borough officer for absence from a meeting of council, which became obsolete and was rescinded, June 23, 1838. The privilege was granted to the Weigh Scale Company, April 7, 1836, to use that part of Market street then opposite Robert Lowther's, now John W. Redpath's store, nearly half-way between Fourth and Fifth streets. Those scales were afterward removed to that part of Market between Fifth and Sixth streets, and they are now on Fourth between High and Market streets, opposite John R. Shirley's lot. The council resolved,. July 23, to appoint two fence-viewers, whose duty was to view all fences when called on in cases of damages and report the same to any of the justices of the peace of the borough. A contract was made, August 12, to purchase a fire-engine, which was then here, for $250; the council, August 30, directed an enginehouse to be erected on the south side of Market, at the intersection of Fourth street, and that not less than twenty yards of rope or cable, with requisite cross-bars, be attached to the engine. It was determined, September 10, that the engine-house should be frame, twelve feet square and twelve feet high. It was ordained, July 10, 1837, to impose a tax on all dogs within the borough. A resolution was adopted, May 26, 1838, to level Fifth street from the canal bridge to the foot of the hill; and, June 23, that a bridge should be built over the ravine at the north end of Second street. A resolution was adopted by the council, March 3, 1843, turning over the fire-engine, engine-house, ladders, fire-hooks and other equipments to the Allegheny Fire Company in consideration of their organization and the services rendered and to be rendered, which in the course of time vanished, so that now there is no fire company, no engine, no means of extinguishing fires, except water buckets, and what may be called a water brigade, improvised as fires occur. The council resolved, September 3, 1846, that Fourth street should be located and opened from its then termination to the public road from Freeport to Butler, as provided by the Act of April 17, 1841. The proposal of Peter Ford to build the eddy bridge for $4,500 was accepted October 2, 1849. It was swept away by a high flood, and two or three 417 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. others were afterward erected on its site, where there is now a foot bridge from the mainland to the island. An agreement was made, May 4, 1868, between the burgess and town council and John McCue and James McGonigle to furnish the stone for riprapping Water street, the quantity amounting to $744.10. The assessment list for 1833 shows that the borough contained the year its charter was granted 107 taxables. The only occupations given in that list were: Merchants, 4; carpenters, 3; blacksmiths, 2; tailor, 1; laborers, 2; hatters, 2; shoemakers, 4; innkeepers, 3; tanner, 1; mason, 1; limner, 1; teacher, 1; joiner, 1; wagonmaker, 1. ADDITIONS TO THE TOWN PLOT. Additions to the town or town plots were laid out by several of the purchasers of out-lots ftom Armstrong. Rev. Hugh Kirkland subdivided outlots Nos. 11 and 13 into smaller parcels, some of his conveyances of which were: To the Presbyterian Association of Freeport, April 4, 1832, 70 feet square, part of out-lot No. 11, "on the eminence on the west end of said lot," for $50; to David M. Alter, October 29, 1836, lot No. 1, being a part of out-lot No. 13, for $150, which Alter conveyed to the "Reg. Baptist Church of Freeport," November 6, 1847, for $175; to William H. Queere, 33 feet along the Kittanning road by 99 feet along an alley, part of out-lot No. 13, February 7, 1839, for $75; to Alexander Anderson, No. 6, part of outlot No. 13, January 12, 1840, for $80; his assignees to John Keener, No. 21, part of out-lot No. 11, March 29, 1836, for $210; to Peter Ford, No. 13, part of out-lot No. 13, December 16, 1837, for $49. In the latter part of 1831 or early part of 1832, David Putney laid out a plot of twelve lots on that part of the three acres which he purchased from Armstrong, adjoining Putney's lane, afterward Franklin street, on the north, an alley on the east, an alley on the south and Fifth street on the west. The western ends of the first three front on Fifth street, No. 1 being 44X152 feet, Nos. 2 and 3 each 40X152 feet. The northern ends of all the others front on Putney's lane, and their southern ends on the alley, Nos. 4 to 11 inclusive being 33X124 feet, and No. 12, 38X 124 feet. The lane and alley are respectively 12 feet wide, and the bearing of each north 72- degrees east, and the bearing of Fifth street north 171 degrees west. Putney lived in a small house on the west side of the lane, opposite No. 3, until he built his brick house. He sold his lots, March 26, 1832: To Robert Haughton, No. 1, for $300; to David Robeson, No. 2, for $103; to John Keever, No. 4, for $50; to Peter Weaver, No. 5, for $40; to William Miller, No. 6, for $40; to Joseph Shoop, No. 7, for $40; to same, No. 8, for $40; to John Johnston, No. 9, for $50; to John Robeson, No. 10, for $53; to George Syphax, No. 11, for $60; to James Milligan, No. 12, for $60. Pneuman's row consists of eight lots, each 35X 160 feet, adjoining Second street, being out-lot No. 3, which Armstrong conveyed to Benjamin King, January 4, 1829; King to Samuel De Graff, March 10, 1832; De Graff to James Pneuman, November 15, 1833. Pneuman, who was assessed as a teacher that year, sold some, perhaps most, of those lots at public sale, November 1. He conveyed No. 4 to James Milligan, September 14, 1835, for $75; Nos. 2 and 5 to John Thompson, November 3, for $81. Rowley's addition consisted of subdivision of out-lot No. 10 into nine lots, surveyed July 26, 1833, for Robert Lowrey, agent for Asa Rowley. The Anderson plot was also an extensive addition. Those additions, when made, were without the borough limits, but were included within them by the annexation thereto by act of March 24, 1851, of the territory included within the following boundaries: From the extreme point of the then borough line at the head of Todd's island, thence by a direct line running in a northwestern direction to the eastern end of what was then Abner W. Lane's milldam on Buffalo creek; thence down the eastern margin of the creek to the then borough line. By the same act the burgess and town council were authorized to widen Putney's lane and convert it into a street 40 feet wide, to be opened from Fifth street to the line separating the outlots in Armstrong's plot from Henry S. Weaver's heirs' land. It was then named Franklin street, but it is still known by its original name. NEW COUNTY PROJECT WITH FREEPORT AS THE SEAT OF JUSTICE. In the early part of 1842 the people of Freeport and vicinity were very active in attempting to form a new county out of the circumjacent portions of Armstrong, Allegheny, Butler and Westmoreland counties. A bill for the erection of Madison county was reported to the house of representatives February 27, 1842, but was lost by a vote of 58 to 15. If that bill had passed, the hope of the founders of Freeport that it would be a county town might have been realized, unless Tarentum had grasped the prize. Whether that bill ought to have passed or not, Freeport has at times enjoyed the unenviable notoriety of furnishing so many cases for the court of quarter sessions 418 FREEPORT TOWNSHIP. as to provoke the remark that she ought to be a county by herself. Such a state of affairs has not been attributable, it should in justice be said, to the mass of the people so much as to a few litigious spirits among them. PROFESSIONS. The first resident clergyman appears to have been Rev, Hugh Kirkland, who, as is elsewhere noticed, engaged extensively in buying and selling town lots, and who was first assessed here in 1830, and was the first pastor of the Associate church. Rev. William Galbreath was first assessed here in 1843 for the next year, though not as a clergyman until a year or two later. He was pastor of what is now the First United Presbyterian church from then until. Following on the assessment list of 1846 was Rev. McKee, who occupied lot No. 2, Rev. Hawkins in 1849, and others at subsequent times, as mentioned in connection with their respective churches. Dr. Charles G. Snowden was the earliest resident physician, who was first assessed as such for 1832. Dr. J. B. Williamson was first assessed here the next year; Dr. D. M. Borland 1841; Dr. David Alter in 1843; Dr. Henry Weeks in 1844; Drs. Thomas Galbreath and Samuel T. Redick in 1849; Dr. James A. Donaldson in 1850; Dr. N. E. McDonnell in 1851; Dr. Win. P. McCulloch in 1859; Drs. Charles B. Gillespie and Thomas Magill in 1860; Dr. Robert L. McCurdy in 1862; Dr. Christopher Krunpe, in 1867; Dr. A. G. Thomas in 1868; Dr. William Plank in 1871: Dr. W. L. Morrow in 1872; Dr. A. M. Hoover in 1876. Dr. Alter's scientific discoveries deserve in this connection a special notice, for it was here in Freeport that they were made. In the latter part of the summer or in the early part of the autumn of 1847 he invented the method of manufacturing bromine in large quantities. He obtained a patent for his apparatus used in making it July 5, 1848, and soon afterward commenced its manufacture in company with Edward and James Gillespie, whose works were situated on the right bank of Buffalo creek opposite the upper part of the island, or about 120 rods above the mouth of the creek. In the latter part of 1853 and fore part of 1854, he discovered the bands in the spectrum of the elementary bodies, which was the foundation of spectrum analysis, and published some of his observations in the numbers for July, 1854 and 1855, of Silliman's American Journal of Science. Within a year after their publication he met in Pittsburgh a graduate of the university of Munich, who showed him a number of a journal published in Europe containing the first of his articles that had been published in Silliman's Journal. Professor G. Kirchoff's researches on the solar spectrum were not published until 1862, in Cambridge and London. Dr. Alter has an excellent spectroscope, which was presented to him by Hageman, of Sweden. A signal service station was established here April 16, 1873, under the charge of Dr. Alter, which has for awhile been in charge of his son, Dr. Myron H. Alter. The present mode of making monthly reports, showing the relation between the quantity of rain and the rise in the river, is the work of the latter. High water here, March 17, 1865, reads 31.42 feet. Ice, February 20, 1875, was 17- inches thick in the river. The earliest resident lawyer assessed here was James Stewart, United States commissioner in bankruptcy, in 1843. The next were James Donnelly and J. Noble Nesbitt, in 1846; Lawrence S. Cantwell, in 1848; James B. Fullerton, in 1849; James A. McCulloch, in 1850; J. G. D. Findley, in 1869; Thomas N. Hathaway and George G. Ingersoll, in 1871. INDUSTRIAL INTERESTS. The number of tradesmen, mechanics and innkeepers increased adequately with the increase of the population. Several other industrial interests, not incident to all towns, sprang up here thus: In 1835, J. N. Nesbitt was assessed with a fullingmill and carding-machine; Joseph Clark and William Laugher, as turners; William Todd, chairmaker; F. M. Thompson, with a sawmill, in-lot No. 123; David O. Walker, a sawmill, in-lot No. 60. With salt wells: Peter Weaver, in-lot No. 97; Jacob Weaver, in-lots Nos. 24 and 54; H. S. Weaver's estate, in-lot No. 30; Benjamin F. Weaver, inlot No. 128; J. B. Williamson, in-lot No. 129; Andrew Wilson, in-lot No. 143; Samuel Walker, in-lot No. 60, also with sawmill, assessed to Benjamin King, in 1843. In 1836, Lowery & McCain, sawmill; Robert Morris, joiner; Jamison Hendricks, lumber merchant; David Scott, tanyard. In 1837, John Fritzman, sawmill, in-lot No. 1; Alexander Anderson, with "occupation," whatever it was. In 1838, Henry Hellerick, potter; William McKee, factory; Robert Martin, weaver; John Rowan, plowmaker. In 1839, George McCain, gristmill, in-lot No. 123, to Robert Lowery's estate in 1843, to Lowther, Beele & Bole in 1849, and now to Iseman & Patterson. In 1840, T. P. & S. C. Williamson, foundry, in419 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. lot No. 122; John R. Magill, foundry, in-lot No. 122, in 1867, now J. & J. R. Magill. In 1841, Samuel and William P. Fullerton, Hope Woolen Mills, in-lots Nos. 25 and 91, which are still in operation; Jacob K. Rupp, windmill maker. In 1842, Charles Bills, barber; John W. McKee, and William Lowery's estate, and Patrick Sheny, cord winders; Robert Porter, brickmaker, No. 11 Robinson's Row, the next year, in-lot No. 136; David Putney had a brickyard elsewhere in Freeport ten or eleven years previous. In 1846, S. A. Marshall, dentist; Charles Tow.ser, coachmaker, succeeded by G. Shamburg in 1857, and James H. Douglass in 1872. In 1848, John King, oysterman; William Gibson, oyster merchant; Morrison & McIlwain, boat and stage men; afterward McIlwain & White, whose partnership business was ultimately closed by a protracted suit at law, an action of account render. Their stage routes extended from Freeport via Kittanning to Brookville, and via Worthington and Brady's Bend to Clarion. Their successors were Lightcap & Piper until travel was diverted from these routes by the Allegheny Valley railroad. In 1849, Thomas J. Clawson, foundryman. In 1850, J. B. Atkinson, tanyard, in-lot No. 187. In 1851, William Bates, foundryman. In 1852, John Morgan and John Wallace, gunsmiths; Henry Weishaupt, tobacconist. In 1853, Hugh Reed, druggist. The first route of the Northwestern Railroad was laid out on the eastern part of High street to Sixth, thence northwesterly across the northern parts of Fifth, Fourth and Buffalo streets, and thence northerly along Buffalo creek. In 1854, John Woods, bakery. In 1857, A. S. Barnett, messenger (telegraph, probably). In 1859, John Ralston, merchant tailor; C. H. Smyth, bookseller; Ventrel Cantine, restaurant. In 1861, Kreitz, brewery, and distillery in 1862. In 1863, Leonard Billkeffer, basket-maker. In 1866, J. P. Stubengen, brewery, still operated. In 1867, Lewis Rosenthall, grain merchant. Gluckenheimer Bros' distillery, which was started in 1855, by Williamson & Rhey, was begun to be operated by the present owners in August, 1866. The buildings are: the distillery, brick, three stories; grain-house, frame, one story, and holds 30,000 bushels; ice-house, one story, above ground, holds 150 tons; malt-house, three stories, brick, 100 bushels malted per day; cooper-shop, frame, two stories, daily production 50 barrels; bonded warehouse, brick, three stories, capable of storing 8,000 barrels; employes, in all the departments, 95. The average daily consumption of grain is 250 bushels, the capacity of the distillery being equal to the consumption of 500 bushels. The daily product of whisky is 22 barrels, 42 gallons each.The number of cattle fattened annually is 100, and of hogs, 500. Under the present national revenue law the services of a United States storekeeper and gauger are here required. In 1868, J. D. Stewart, photographer; Albert Hawk, livery stable. In 1869, Thomas H. Maher, banker; John R. Magill, cashier of Freeport Savings Bank, now the First National Bank. The latter was first assessed with part of in-lot No. 95, in 1876. In 1871, William Rowen, manufacturer, probably planing-mill, on Buffalo street, near the creek, built by him and Bole, which was burned; Patrick Cosgrove, planing-mill on Second street, near the creek. In this or the next year a portion of the Heagy land was laid off into lots which are known as the Heagy Extension. In 1874, the gas well on the property of the Freeport Planing-Mill Company, corner of Buffalo and Mill streets, was drilled to the depth of 1,904 feet - the drilling having ceased at 12 M. October 16; the present vein of gas was struck at the depth of 1,075 feet. The Freeport Planing-Mill Company was incorporated in 1875 with a capital of $20,000, divided into shares of $100 each. The incorporators were J. W. Ralston, R. F. Turner, W. H. Hyde, M. E. Miller, James P. Murphy, Samuel Turner, J. S. Morrison, R. S. Sproul, John Hilt, John Shoop, J. E. Hoak, J. R. McGill, A. M. Shoup, E. G. Lighthold, E. A. Helmbold, E. F. Muder, H. G. Muder, Addison King, W. J. Sproul, W. J. Vann, John Ralston, A. D. Weir, R. L. McCurdy, D. E. Jackson, O. J. Sarver, David McCormack, John L. Bricker, W. P. Murphy, J. G. D. Findley, Annie Lawall, M. Coward, J. M. Norris, Mary Boyd and Annie Boyd. This company erected the building now occupied-a substantial brick structure, 50 X 100 feet, with engine-house attached-upon the site of one owned by W. P. Murphy & Co., but burned down in 1875. The establishment was leased in 1879 by Murphy, McCain & Co., and is now carried on by them. They run, in connection with their planing-mill, and sash and door factory, a sawmill, and in the two are handled annually between five and seven million feet of lumber. They have also a warehouse two stories in hight and 30X60 feet in dimensions. The fuel under the boilers in the planing-mill is natural gas from a well near at hand. 420 kall Q I illt zi,4vwks-- 8UFFALO,M1LA CO,f D F EEFORT PLANIN'G MILL CO., 1~EOT BUFFjkLO MlLLQ4G CO., FF EEPO T, PA. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. ter for this region were left at Blairsville, and distributed thence to their various places of destination. They were generally hauled by six-horse teams in large covered Conestoga wagons, bells being a part of the horses' trappings. One of the writer's informants says that hlie had seen as many as twenty of these teams stop at a country tavern over night. The drivers, each having his own hammock, would lie in every direction in the barroom. Each prided himself on having the best team and hauling the heaviest load. When intoxicated, they would get into broils and scuffles in making good their respective claims to those merits, from.which blackened eyes were occasional results, which were then deemed but trivial circumstances. It behooved travelers stopping at those wagon taverns, in those days, not to cast any disrespect upon any of the teamster fraternity, for if they did, especially such as happened to be well dressed, they soon "got into hot water." The commercial traffic between the upper country and Pittsburgh was chiefly carried on by means of canoes and keelboats, which were propelled by manual power. Large numbers of rafts of sawed lumber, many of them from Olean, N. Y., descended the Allegheny river in those days, and on which it was common for emigrants to migrate westward. Josiah Copley informed the writer that he had seen fully a hundred men, women and children on a single raft. While he was standing on the shore one evening, at Freeport, he saw a large Olean raft swinging to the landing to lie over night. While some of the men were managing the raft, hlie saw one grooming and feeding a span of horses, a girl milking a cow, another making mush in a shanty, an old lady sitting at her wheel spinning flax, and all seeming to be quite at home. Thus they were quietly floating toward their new homes which they were seeking in Ohio and Indiana. Twenty years afterward, from 1835-40 and later, the lumber floated down the river exceeded 50,000,000 feet of boards and plank, which, with various kinds of timber, exceeded in value $1,000,000. According to the "Western Navigator," a voluime published in Pittsburgh in 1811, the quantity of boards and lumber floated down the Allegheny annually was 3,000,000 of feet, at $9 per 1,000, amounting to $27,000, and from 12,000 to 16,000 barrels of Onondaga salt had the year before arrived by keelboats down that stream at Pittsburgh, averaging $8 a barrel, amounting to about $104,000. The keelboats returned with cargoes of whisky, iron, castings, cider, apples, bacon, other articles of home production, and foreign goods. Those primitive modes of transporting goods from the east were obviated by the completion of the Pennsylvania canal, skirting the southern border of this county, in or about 1828. Freeport thereafter became an entrep6t for merchandise and other freight from the east, and of considerable quantities from Pittsburgh for the region drained by the Allegheny river. By act of March 9, 1771, the Kiskiminetas, and by act of March 21, 1798, the Allegheny river and the Sandy Lick or Red Bank creek were declared public highways, the Allegheny to the northern boundary of the state and the Red Bank from its mouth to the second great forks. An order was issued by the county commissioners, June 22, 1819, to Saml. C. Orr, for $77.68, for his services as a commissioner, appointed by act of assembly to superintend the expenditure of $1,000 appropriated for the improvement of Red Bank, and *200 for the improvement of Toby's creek. On the same (lay an order was issued to Alexander Wilson for $16, and on September 22 to David Lawson for $12, for their services for examining the improvement of the navigation of those two creeks. From and after 1828, passengers, goods and other freight were transported up and down the Allegheny river in steamboats and barges towed by them during such portions of the year as there was a sufficient stage of water. The increase of various branches of business, resulting from the rapid increase of population along and east and west of that river, and the multiplicity of furnaces for the manufacture of pig iron, caused a vast deal of transportation by steamboats. The last trip of a steamboat for passengers was made by the Ida Reese, Capt. Reese Reese, in April, 1868, and the last trip of a keelboat from Pittsburgh to Warren was by the Yorktown, the next month thereafter. As early as 1825 there was a mail-stage line from Ebensburgh, Cambria county, Pa., via Indiana, Elderton and Kittanning, to Butler, leaving Ebensburgh at 3 o'clock P. -i. on Thursday and reaching Butler at 10 o'clock A. 3f. on the following Saturday. That was considered a very important line, because it opened up a direct communication between the eastern and most western counties of this state, and a cheap and expeditious mode of conveyance. The fare from Ebensburgh to Butler was $3.75, 6 cents a mile for way passengers, and the time between those two points was forty-three hours. Either before or shortly after 1825 lines of stages were established extending from Freeport via Slate Lick, Worthington, Brady's Bend and Catfish, with a 1branch from Slate Lick via Kittanning, to FREEPORT TOWNSHIP. The Buffalo Milling Company, composed of a majority of the original stockholders of the Freeport Planing-Mill Company, and some others, was incorporated in 1881, and commenced business in September, 1882, in a building erected for the purpose, which is 40X65 feet, and three stories and basement high. There is an engine-house attached, of which the dimensions are 25X40 feet. The manufacture of flour is by the Hungarian roller process, and the mill has an exclusively merchant patronage. Its capacity is about 125 barrels of flour per day. The incorporators were Samuel Turner, W. M. Lowther, William Nolf, James Spargo, O. J. Sarver, J. W. Craig, M. Coward, W. G. McCain, T. J. Douglass, W. P. Murphy, W. H. Hyde, D. S. Wallace, James Jones, F. P. Brown, J. N. Patterson, Myers & Yenney, William Jones, Isaac Jones, J. N. Chamberlain, Thomas Patterson, G. W. Iserman, Robert Morris, J. G. D. Findley, John Walters, Mary E. Patterson, S. E. Patterson, Miss Celia J. Thomas, Mrs. Elizabeth Hill, C. G. L. Peffer, J. H. McCain, James P. Murphy, H. S. Syphax, John Maxler, John Heilman. The present officers of the company are: president, W. G. McCain; treasurer, T. J. Douglass; secretary, J. G. D. Findley; manager, John Turner; directors, W. G. McCain, T. Patterson, W. P. Murphy, M. Coward, D. S. Wallace. FREEPORT JOURNAL. About the first of May, 1876, Messrs. Rev. J. J. Francis, W. J. Murphy and Thomas C. Nicholson formed a copartnership under the name of the Journal Printing Company, for the purpose of publishing a weekly paper in Freeport, to be called the Freeport Journal. W. J. Murphy, the only one of the three who had any knowledge of the business, was to have charge of the mechanical department, and T. C. Nicholson was to do the writing, keep the books, solicit, collect and have the general management of the paper, while Rev. J. J. Francis was to render assistance in case of emergency. The first number was issued on May 19, and was a neat seven-column folio, independent in politics and purely local in character. The paper was measurably successful during the summer, but in the fall it began to show evidences of going the way of all its predecessors. The reasons for this it is not necessary to state, but on the 4th day of November, 1876, Rev. J. J. Francis bought out the interest of T. C. Nicholson and assumed the duties of editor-in-chief, while W. J. Murphy cared for the local department. From this time on the Journal prospered, adding daily to its circulation, and having its columns full of good paying advertisements. In the issue of December 8, same year, it announced that Frank Shoop had become a partner, and we find his name associated with Murphy's as local editor. On February 16, 1877, F. K. Patterson became identified with the Joutrnal as business agent, in which position he continued for several years. Toward the close of the first year Rev. J. J. Francis determined to retire from the active management of the paper and suggested that a stock company be formed for the purpose of running it. R. B. McKee, at that time in the grocery business, took hold of the matter, and in a few days raised the amount of stock, which was $1,200, in $25 shares. The new company organized by electing J. R. McGill president and George M. Hill manager and local editor. Messrs. Shoop, Francis and Patterson still remained members of the company, Murphy retiring. About the I st of July George Hill resigned, and W. J. Murphy was elected manager, and in the following October, 1878, Murphy again retired and R. B. McKee was elected to succeed him, and'still remains in charge as editor and business manager. Of the twelve who were original stockholders at the organization of the company, but four are now connected with it. J. R. Magill is still president, and George M. Hill secretary. The paper has doubled in circulation under its present management, having now near a thousand. Its prospects for the future are good and it bids fair for a long lease of life and continued prosperity. CHURCHES. The Presbyterian is said to have been the first religious organization in Freeport. The congregation appears to have existed prior to 1825, for in that year they, the Associate and Episcopal congregations jointly erected a church edifice on the parcel of ground adjoining the old cemetery on the southwest appropriated for that purpose. The most active and prominent member of the Presbyterian congregation in that work was James Bole. His, Isaac Bole's, Andrew Arnold's, John Drum's, Washington Beale's,- Elliott's, Mrs. Girt's, Alexander Given's, William Hill's, Michael Moorehead's, Andrew and James Ralston's and John Weir's families were the first members of this congregation. The first sacrament was administered by Rev. John Redick. on the second Sabbath of May, 1828. On the morning of that day there was snow here six inches deep. The peach-trees blossomed in March. The fruit was blasted. The church was organized July 3, 1833.* Mrs. Arm * Historical sketch of churches in Kittanning Presbytery, by Rev. A. Donaldson, D. D., p. 22. 421 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. strong, formerly Mrs. Given, and James Ralston, both over eighty years of age, are the only two surviving heads of those families. William Hill and Michael Moorehead were elected and ordained its first elders. Its pastors have been Rev. Samuel Caldwell, who resigned in 1847; Rev. W. F. Kean, from 1850 until 1867; Rev. John J. Francis, from October 22, 1869. The Presbyterian church edifice, brick, was erected in 1828, and is situated on lot No. 149, on the north side of High street, between Fourth and Fifth. The church was incorporated by decree of the proper court June 26, 1847. The trustees named in the charter were Isaac Bole, James Hill, William Hughes, W. M. Lowther and John Woodburn, who were to serve till the second Tuesday of May, 1848. The corporate name of this body politic is the Presbyterian church of Freeport. Nearly a quarter of a century after the granting of the charter certain amendments were proposed, namely, changing the number of trustees from five to six, and making the quorum four instead of three, and adding section 9, which provides that the congregation should elect six trustees and two suitable persons as choristers on June 29, 1871, and annually thereafter. The latter, with two members of the session, are authorized to select a sufficient number of competent singers. The decree making these amendments is dated March 16, 1871. The number of church members in 1876 is 228, and of Sabbath-school scholars, 200. The Associate Presbyterian-commonly called Seceder-church was organized about 1826. The original families of the congregation were the Brewers, Colmers, W. W. Gibsons, Millers, Pattersons and Painters. Rev. - Dickey, pastor of the Rich Hill and Slate Lick churches, preached here occasionally, before the labors of the first pastor, Rev. Hugh Kirkland, began. His successors have been Revs. William Galbraith, R. B. Robertson. Its church edifice is situated on outlot No. 11, on the south side of Fourth street, about fifteen rods below the public schoolhouse. It was incorporated by the proper court April 15, 1866. The trustees named in the charter were John S. Dimmitt, Robert A. Hill, Thomas Magill, Joseph B. Miller, William Moorehead and James Ralston, who were to serve until the first annual election on the first Monday of January, 1867. The Associate Reformed Presbyterian - commonly called Union-church was organized about 1850. The first pastor was Rev. John Jamison. His successor was Rev. E. N. McElree.t * He resigned in 1879. t Until 1878, when he was succeeded by Rev. A. E. Linn. The first place of worship of this congregation was the hall above Peter S. Weaver's store, on the southeast corner of Market and Fifth streets, and their present one is in the second story of the large brick edifice on the southeast corner of Market and Fourth streets. The membership of these two churches is 154, and of the Sabbath-school scholars, 100. The St. Mary's Catholic church was organized about 1826. The original families of this congregation were Philip Bohlen's, Patrick Blacke's, Donnelly's, Andrew Earley's, Neil Gillespie's, Magrand's, McKenna's, O'Reiley's, Patrick Shara's, andothers. The first pastor was Rev. Patrick O'Neil, who was educated in France and came to this country as a missionary. He was fond of athletic sports, an expert hunter and horseman, and self-possessed. One evening, as he was passing down the lane on what is now known as C. Duffy's grade oil, reading his prayers, a large buck chased by several dogs leaped the fence just before him, and fell. O'Neil caught him by the hind legs and held him firmly until assistance came from the house and the buck was dispatched. The succession of priests after Father O'Neil included Revs. Patrick Rafferty, Joseph Cody (neither of whom were resident pastors), M. J. Mitchell, R. Phelan, J. Hackett, James Holland, A. A. Lambing, W. A. Nolan, G. S. Grace, Frederick Eberth, C. McDermott, James Canivan, P. M. Garvey and James McTighe. The church edifice or chapel is situated on in-lots Nos. 132-3, southwestern corner of High and Sixth streets, was among the first brick structures built by David Putney, after his removal to Freeport in 1832. A portion of the ground on which this chapel stood was devoted to burial purposes until a new cemetery was elsewhere laid out. The Baptist church was organized December 11, 1830, by the Revs. William Shadrack and George I. Miles, with the following members: Samuel Logan, Robert Lowry, Rhoda Lowry, William Critchlow, David Robinson, George Montgomery, John Robinson, Silas Ramsey, Benjamin Harbison, Daniel Howe, James Harbison, James McWilliams, Jacob Robinson, Elizabeth Bowser, Hannah Longwell, Margaret Given, Sarah Evans, Harriet Critchlow, Julian Hickenlooper, Rachel Myler, Martha J. Leonard, C. G. Snowden, Sarah C. Snowden, John Congliton, Samuel Foreman, John Haney, Andrew Wilson, Elizabeth Ulam, Abigail Howe, Adaline Rowley. The house of worship of this congregation was built in 1849. The succession of pastors has been as follows: Revs. William Shadrach, George I. Miles, 422 FREEPORT TOWNSHIP. William Penny, John Thomas, W. Rockafellow, Benoni Allen, J. A. Davis, Edward M. Miles, William A. Barnes, Peter M. Weddell, Thomas J. Penny, L. L. Still, D. W. C. Hervey, J. G. Penny, David Williams, J. E. Dean, J. P. Jones, F. H. Jones, J. W. Ewing and S. Drummond. Rev. Moses P. Bennett, a missionary of the Protestant Episcopal church, resided at Greensburgh in the early part of the second decade of this century. In 1823 hlie reported the church convention at Philadelphia, having made one visit to Freeport. In 1833 Rev. William Hilton reported having held three services, one in every six weeks, and in 1834 regular services every six weeks, and a parish organization here, the date of which is November 1, 1833, but gave no particulars. He was succeeded by Rev. B. B. Killikelly as missionary, whose first report was made in May, 1835, in which he stated that he had been able to devote only one-fifth of his time to this congregation, which then consisted of 18 families, 81 persons; there were 4 adult and 6 infant baptisms, 2 marriages, 1 burial, and a Sunday school just organized. In 1836, 19 families, 82 persons; baptized 6 adults and 19 children; 14 persons confirmed, 15 added to the communion list, which then numbered 27; 2 marriages, 2 burials, 8 Sunday-school teachers and 40 pupils; cash collections, $52.45; and that the congregation had secured a lot on which to build a church edifice for $225, and had collected a few hundred dollars for that object. Lay reading and the Sunday-school had been zealously sustained, and a sewing-circle organized. In 1837, 24 families, 95 persons, 11 communicants added, the whole number then being 38; 5 adult and 7 infant baptisms, 13 Sunday-school teachers and 55 pupils, and missionary contributions $20. Immediately after the convention of that year the missionary went on a collecting tour to New York, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, and collected in money and material $1,141.04, of which $897.91* was paid over to T. B. Williamson and W. P. Rupp, wardens, to be used in the erection of a church edifice, and obtained from Mrs. E. Stott, of Grace church, Philadelphia, a heavily plated chalice and patten, a handsome desk bible, prayer-book, and a copy of D'Oyley and Mants' commentary, three volumes in leather, worth $20. The report to the convention in 1838 shows that he resigned Trinity parish, Freeport, and St. Peter's, Butler, because they and the other two east of the Allegheny, St. Paul's, Kittanning, and St. Michael's, Wayne township, being so far apart *The residue was appropriated to St. Michael's church, Wayne township. the four charges were too laborious for each to have as frequent services as were desirable for their spiritual improvement. During that part of 1837 prior to his resignation, there were fourteen public services, four communicants added, and one infant baptized in Trinity parish. The church edifice, brick, on in-lot No. 31, was covered, floored, and otherwise advanced toward completion. He was succeeded by Rev. William White, under whose charge and that of Rev. William Hilton it has since chiefly been. The Methodist Episcopal church of Freeport was organized about the year 1833. Services were at first conducted in a schoolhouse on what is now High street, between Second and Third streets; afterward in a currier's shop which stood somewhere near the present intersection of Market street and the old Pennsylvania canal; and still later near the place where the West Pennsylvania Railroad station nbw stands, the Baptist congregation kindly granting the use of their church at communion seasons and on other special occasions. A church edifice was erected in 1840 on in-lot No. 101, on the southeast corner of Fourth street and Mulberry alley. Especial honor is due to Peter Ford and Wesley Bowman for the energy and self-sacrifice with which they pushed the undertaking to success. This church was incorporated by the proper court December 26, 1846, the trustees provided for and named in the charter being Jacob Alter, John Atkinson, Wesley Bowman, Peter Ford, Leonard Leidy, Daniel Richards, John A. Stearns and Robert C. Williamson. In 1877 the old building gave place to the present elegant and commodious structure, of which a view appears in this work. This enterprise was undertaken and carried almost to completion during the pastorate of the Rev. M. McK. Garrett, the lecture-room being used for services during part of his pastoral term. The architects were Bailey & Anglin, of Allegheny City, and the building committee appointed by the quarterly conference consisted of the Rev. M. McK. Garrett and Messrs. John Ralston, John Turner, J. H. Douglass and D. E. Jackson. The plan of the first floor embraces the lecture-room, capable of seating about 250,.with four class-rooms adjoining. The main audienceroom is seated with carved pews of ash trimmed with walnut, and will accommodate about 500 people. The building was formally dedicated to the worship of God, July 27, 1879, by the Rev. Bishop Matthew Simpson, D.D., LL.D. Among the earliest pastors of this church were the Revs. Bradshaw, P. M. McGowan, Joseph Ray, C. C. Best, J. Murray, B. F. Sawhill, J. Phillips, 423 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. M. L. Weekly and D. Hess, but it is to be regretted that a complete list, in the order of their service, cannot be given with the data now at hand. The following pastors served in the order named: Wm. Cooper, A. G. Williams, A. H. Thomas, J. W. Shiver, R. Morrow, E. M. Wood, E. B. Griffin, J. B. Uber, N. P. Kerr, M. McK. Garrett, S. T. Mitchell, M. M. Sweeny and C. W. Miller. The membership of the church as reported at the conference of 1882 is 190; Sabbathschool scholars, 172. The first Lutheran church here was organized about 1835. Its edifice is situated on in-lot No. 150, on the northwest corner of High street and an alley. It was incorporated as the Evangelical Lutheran church by the proper court, June 19, 1851. The number of trustees prescribed by, but not named in, the charter is five, to be elected annually on the first Monday of April. Members, 48; Sabbath-school scholars, 50. There are two other Lutheran churches, one English and the other German, both of which belong to the General Council. St. John's English Lutheran church of Freeport was organized prior to 1840, but just when it is impossible to state, as there are no records in existence bearing date anterior to 1841. Following is a list of the pastors: 1839-43, John H. Benheim; 1845-48, G. B. Holmes; 1848-51, G. F. Ehrenfeld; 1852-56, S. M. Kuhns; 1856-60, Jacob Wright; 1861-64, J. H. Brown; 1865-71, J. K. Melhorn; 1871-81, J. H. A. Kitzmiller; 1882, the present pastor, Rev. H. K. Shanor. The church was incorporated in 1851, the charter bearing date of September 17. The present officers are: Elders, J. R. Garver, Henry Petzinger and William Wolf; deacons, J. H. Long, M. L. Vandyke and Conrad Wolf, Jr. About sixty persons are communicants of the church. The German Lutheran church was incorporated by the proper court April 23, 1862, as the German Evangelical Lutheran Zion's church of the borough of Freeport. Its charter officers were Rev. Gabriel A. Reichert, pastor; George Epiler and David Kraft, elders; John Mangold and George Pfaff, deacons. The charter requires "the German language to be used forever in preaching the doctrines of the church among this association." There has been for many years past a strong temperance element in this community. Here, as in other places, temperance organizations have risen, flourished, done much good and drooped. On the petition of many inhabitants of Freeport and its vicinity the act of April 11, 1866, was passed, which prohibits the granting of any license "to sell spirituous, vinous, malt or brewed liquors for drinking purposes," within the limits of this borough, or within two miles of it in this and Allegheny county, and within three miles in Butler county, but not to apply to Westmoreland county, not to affect those having licenses until after their expiration, and does not prohibit the manufacturers of domestic wine from selling their own product in quantities not exceeding one pint. The penalty for violating this act is a fine not less than $50 and not exceeding $200, and for a second offense the additional penalty of imprisonment not over three months. This act is still in force, and appears to be sustained by a majolity of the people in the sections of the three counties affected by it. The vote of this borough, February 28, 1873, was 72 for and 144 against granting license to sell intoxicating liquors as beverages in this county. SCHOOLS. There was no school within the limits of Freeport for nearly a quarter of a century after it was laid out. The most accessible educational facilities to its inhabitants were then afforded at the Hall school, about half a mile distant. P. R. Bohlen is said to have taught the first school here, in a log dwelling-house on Water street. According to Peter E. Weaver's recollection the first one was taught by a man of the name of Woodford in a house on Market street, above Fifth. The next teacher was of the name of Lee, who taught but one quarter. Those were what used to be termed "pay schools," in which some of the common English branches were taught-arithmetic, reading in the Testament, spelling and writing. In 1832-3, James Pneuman, reputed to be a good mathematician, taught a pay-school on High street, between Fourth and Fifth. Such schools were more or less liberally patronized until the adoption of the common or free school system a few years later. Dr. Thomas Galbraith was the first teacher here under this system. A frame schoolhouse was erected soon after its adoption on in-lot No. 101, the southwest corner of Fourth and High streets, fronting on the former, which was of adequate dimensions, while the school consisted of only one department. The writer distinctly remembers his first official visit to this school in the winter of 1857-8, when there were two departments and two teachers in one room, and the great confusion that resulted from the two teachers' different classes reciting at the same time and the immoderate loquacity and playfulness of the pupils. It seemed to him impossible that any degree of desirable progress in study could be made. After quietly 424 FREEPORT TOWNSHIP. observing matters for awhile, he called to him a few of the ringleaders in that vice of schoolrooms, whispering, loud talking and other mischief, and made this agreement with them: That, if their teachers would give them and all the other pupils a few minutes between the opening of school and recess, and between recess and the closing of the school, forenoon and afternoon, for talking, they would agree to refrain from whispering and talking at all other times during schoolhours. They promised to do so. The writer was afterward gratified to notice considerable improvement in the order of that school, his next visit to it being after it was transferred to the new brick, two-story schoolhouse, which was erected the next season on the south side of Fourth street, adjoining the old cemetery on the south, which, with the lot, cost more than $3,000. It was at first adapted to a school of four grades, but it has since been enlarged sufficiently for eight grades, that is, the number of rooms is increased to eight, which are each about 33 X231 feet, with ceilings about 16 feet, well ventilated and supplied partly with patent cherry and partly with pine furniture. The halls are 10 feet wide, in the shape of the letter T, like that of a house. This is at present a school of six grades, with a principal and five assistants. The belfry is in the center of the building, in which a new bell has been recently suspended. 1860-Schools, 4; average number of months taught, 4; male teacher, 1; female teachers, 3; monthly salary of male, $30; monthly salary of female, $18; male scholars, 170; female scholars, 168; average number attending school, 267; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 28 cents; levied for school purposes, $674; levied for building purposes, $674.60; received from state appropriation, $108.10; received from collectors, $1,136; cost of instruction, $336; fuel, etc., $40; cost of schoolhouse, etc., $1,100. 1876-Schools, 6; average number of months taught, 7; male teacher, 1; female teachers, 5; average salaries per month-male, $80; female, $40; male scholars, 201; female scholars, 173; average number attending school, 322; cost per month, 85 cents; levied for school and building purposes, $2,318.28; received from state appropriation, $418.50; received from taxes, etc., $1,900.25; cost of schoolhouse, etc., $35.52; paid for teachers' wages, $1,680; paid for fuel, etc., $691.48. Rev. Hugh Kirkland, soon after his advent here in 1830, erected an academy at the corner of High and Fourth streets, in which the classics and the common and higher English branches were taught by him and Samuel Wallace, where William S. Ralston and other Freeport youth of that period acquired their education, imbibed from the Pierian spring, and slaked their thirst at the Mahantango. Though the latter is a Delaware word meaning deevil, it ought not to be inferred that those youth became devilish by their copious drafts from a fountain bearing so devilish a name. Rev. William Galbraith's academy was opened in 1843. SOCIETIES. The Armstrong Lodge of Ancient York Masons, No. 239, was constituted here in 1852, when its charter officers were William F. Logan, W. M.; Alexander Anderson, S. W.; Charles G. Snowden, J. W.; George W. Syphax, treasurer; Reuben Mickel, secretary. This lodge meets in Anderson's hall on the fourth Monday of each month, and numbers about seventy-five members. Freeport Lodge, I. 0. O. F., No. 379, was organized October 1, 1849, at Freeport. The charter members were the following, who were also officers: Samuel Shafer, N. G.; J. D. Torbett, V. G.; J. W. Redpath, secretary; J. Welshaus, assistant secretary; Henry White, treasurer. Number of members at present time, 34. MILITARY. The Freeport Blues was the first military company raised here. It was organized in 1818, and its officers: John Drum, captain; James Patterson, first, and Benjamin F. King, second lieutenant. The uniform consisted of wool hats, trimmed with white cord, white plumes tipped with red, blue jackets trimmed with red tape and bullseye buttons, white pants, and red sash; and the arms of the rank and file were rifles and shotguns. That company was reorganized about 1831. William WV. Gibson was then major of the battalion to which it belonged. The company officers then were: Benjamin F. King, captain; William Rupp, first, and Henry Weaver, second lieutenant. Its uniform: Leather hats trimmed with buttons, cord and tassels, white plumes tipped with red, blue coats trimmed with light-blue braid, white pants, white gloves, and ruffled shirt-bosoms. Arms: State muskets and accouterments. The Freeport and Leechburgh Dragoons were organized about 1832-James T. McKaig, captain; Alexander Scott, first, and Alexander Sharp, second lieutenant; Bruce Sutherland, first sergeant. Uniform: Leather caps tipped with bear skin, blue coats faced with yellow, blue pants with yellow stripes, and saddle-cloth bordered with yellow tape. Arms: Swords and horse-pistols. The Freeport Artillery Company was organized 425 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. about 1850-William F. Logan, captain; Samuel Lane, first, and J. D. Torbett, second lieutenant. Its uniform was in accordance with the United States army regulations. Arms: Cannon, swords and muskets. Washington Guards, 1849. Alexander Anderson, captain; John J. Long, first, and William S. Ralston, second lieutenant; James White, first, Joseph Johnston, third sergeant. Its uniform was that of the regular army. It was reorganized in 1854, Lieut. Ralston acting as captain. Anderson was promoted to brigadier-general. The members of his staff were: James A. McCulloch, colonel; A. D. Ambrose, major; Addison Leech, adjutant, and Thos. C. McCulloch, surgeon. William Sirwell was then brigade inspector; Addison Leech, major, and John M. Orr, adjutant of battalion. The Freeport Zouaves were organized in 1860. Charles B. Gillespie, captain; William B. McCue, first, and Henry Torbett, second lieutenant; Jonathan Murphy, first, and Absalom Weaver, second sergeant. This company's name appears to have been changed to Freeport Cadets. It entered Camp Orr in September, 1861, was assigned to the 78th regt. Pa. Vols., in which it served creditably during the war of the rebellion. Two companies were raised here during the continuance of that war, the members of which went some into the 103d, some into the 139th, some into the 14th and 15th cavalry, some into the 5th and 6th regiments of heavy artillery, and others into Mississippi Marine Brigade. A company of Home Guards was organized, of which the late Abner W. Lane was captain. Since the war an independent company, the Dune. Karns Rifles, has been organized, which was uniformed and equipped by S. D. Karns. A large number of both sexes here participated in the humane and patriotic work of furnishing material aid for the wants and comfort of the men in the service. Much was done in this way before any regular organization for that purpose was effected, of which no record was kept, the value of which cannot of course be stated. THE SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETY was organized January 31, 1863, and its officers were: President, Mrs. Mary Galbraith; secretary, Miss Mary Kennedy; treasurer, Mrs. Anna B. Weaver; committee on work and expenditures, Mrs. Mary Murphy, Misses Selima Gibson, Hannah McClelland and Fannie Woods, and seventy-three members, beside eighty-four "gentlemen who were always at hand in any emergency." The records of that society are lost, so that a full and accurate statement of its noble work cannot be obtained. The treasurer has kindly furnished the following facts from some private papers in her possession: Cash, taken in dues and collections, $5; from children's exhibition at Baptist church, May 27, 1863, $27; from exhibition at Presbyterian church, in March, 1864, $160.20. Total, $192.20. Articles sent to Pittsburgh branch of the Sanitary commission during the fourteen months ending May 18, 1864: Shirts, 239; sheets, 28; pairs of drawers, 89; pillows, 33; pillow-cases, 109; towels, 47; handkerchiefs, 47; lint, 6 pounds; pads, 112; pairs of hose, 86; rolls of bandages, 164; cans of fruit, 85; dried peaches, 6 bushels; dried berries, 6 bushels; dried apples, I bushel; onions, 2 bushel; books, 135 volumes; pamphlets, 40; packages of papers, 14; Elderberry wine, 15 gallons. TUe society continued its good work for some time after the collapse of the rebeiion, in filling large orders for arm-slings, the material for which having been furnished by the Pittsburgh branch of the sanitary commission. BURIAL-GROUND. The first white person buried within the limits of Freeport was Miss Faits, who was drowned in crossing Buffalo creek in 1794, where Harbison's mill was afterward erected. Her grave was the first one in the old cemetery. David Todd gave half an acre for burial purposes which, with an additional quantity circumjacent thereto, Armstrong afterward conveyed to certain persons in trust to be used as a burial-ground by the people of Freeport and its vicinity. It in time became filled with graves, so that a new one became necessary. Hence originated a company styled "The Freeport Cemetery," which was organized in the winter of 1864, and incorporated by the proper court March 16 following. The charter provides, among other things, that the business of the company shall be conducted by five managers, elected annually by members of the corporation, and that all persons who contributed not less than $20 each to the capital stock on or before April 1, 1864, should be members. The managers named in the charter were Dr. David Alter, Samuel Fullerton, Robert Morris, John Ralston and John Turner, who were to serve until the first annual election and until others were chosen. Dr. David Alter was chosen president and John Turner secretary of the board of managers. The other charter members of the company besides the managers were John W. McKee, Conrad Nolf and Jacob 426 FREEPORT TOWNSHIP. Shoop. Arrangements were soon made for the purchase of suitable ground, which culminated in Rev. William Galbraith's conveying to the company, May 18, 1864, for $1,900, nine acres and twelve perches, reserving to himself the coal-right and lot No. 1 in section C, being a part of the tract which belonged to the heirs of Mrs. Mary Weaver, deceased, situated on the hill in South Buffalo township overlooking Freeport from the northeast, and which he had purchased in proceedings in partition to No. 34, September term, in the common pleas of this county. The grounds were soon tastefully laid out in sections, lots, walks, streets and alleys, and so decorated as to have become one of the most beautiful and appropriate cities of the dead in this region of country. Many lots have been sold, though deeds for only six of them are as yet on record, which perhaps fairly indicate the average prices: On June 4, 1864, to William Ewing, lots 19 and 20, 400 square feet, for $40; to Robert Miller, No. 21, section C, 480 square feet, for $60, on December 24, to Thomas Harbison, lots Nos. 98 and 121, section A, 320 square feet, for $30; to James Harbison and Jacob Hilyard, lots Nos. 99 and 120, section A, 320 square feet, for $23; to Conrad, Anthony and William Nolf and Lewis Foster, No. 12, section C, 480 square feet (sometime during that year), for $80; on September 8, 1873, to Barbara A. Neff, No. 51, section E, 200 square feet, for $40. ROADS. The state road from Kittanning via Freeport to Pittsburgh was authorized by an act of the legislature, and its route, as laid out by the commissioners, was, with a slight exception, west of an airline from Kittanning to Freeport, along and near which then resided Barnett, Boney, older and younger, McLenaghan, Sipe and Shrader. A review of that part of it in this county being authorized by the act of March 30, 1824, the court of quarter sessions of this county, June 21, appointed Thomas Blair, David Lawson, Robert Robinson, James Douglass, Samuel McKee and James E. Brown to review that part of it between Kittanning and Freeport, and lay out the same on such ground as would not at any place exceed an elevation of five degrees from a horizontal line. The confirmation of their report, substituting the river route, so called because the major part is along the right bank of the Allegheny, was resisted by those who preferred the other, or back route, perhaps on account of its location as much as for any other reason. Hence followed remonstrances against the report of the reviewers, and affidavits pro and con, the partisans of both routes stating facts and expressing opinions favorable to the one which they respectively favored, in regard to suitable ground, average elevation and expense of construction. The report was confirmed September 22, 1825, and the road ordered to be opened. It extended to the eastern line of the town of Freeport, which was then between Andrew Arnold's tannery and Benjamin King's house. The only other public road extending to Freeport from the north was the Bear creek one, which must have been laid out before this county was organized for judicial purposes. For many years past the most usual through route from Freeport to Kittanning has been via Center Hill in North, and Slate Lick in South Buffalo township, both for stages, when they were running, and for private conveyances. By the act of April 14, 1834, the Butler and Freeport Turnpike Company was incorporated. The commissioners named in the charter were William Ayres, John Bredin and Jacob Mechling, and others, of Butler, and James Bole, John Drum, William W. Gibson, Samuel Murphy, J. Noble Nesbett, Thomas Robinson, Jacob Weaver and Henry S. Weaver, of Armstrong county. It was to be commenced within five and completed within ten years, and if not, the legislature could resume the rights, privileges and franchises granted by the charter. On June 22, 1813, the petition of divers inhabitants of Buffalo township was presented to the proper court, praying for a road beginning at the Butler county line on the west side of Buffalo creek, at or near the dwelling-house of George Weaver, and thence past Jacob Weaver's mill, to intersect the great road leading from Freeport to Erie. John Craig, Wm. Sloan, Charles Sipe, Nicholas Best, Nicholas Eiseman and Samuel Murphy were appointed viewers, whose report in favor of a road from Weaver's mill to the Freeport and Erie road was presented and read September 21, and approved December 22, and the road ordered to be opened twenty feet wide, and, March 22, 1814, the court directed that it be opened as a public road, which was soon done. STATISTICS. The population of Freeport in 1840 was 727; in 1850, white, 1,064; colored, 9; in 1860, white, 1,688; colored, 13; in 1870, white, 1,632, of whom 165 were foreign; colored, 8. In 1876 the number of taxables is 493, which ought to represent a population of 2,037. The assessment list for the last-mentioned year shows: Resident clergymen, 6; physicians, 7; 427 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. dentist, 1; lawyers, 4; editor, 1; justices of the peace, 3; druggists, 4; refiner, 1; tailors, 2; clothiers, 4; shoemakers, 8; broom-makers, 2; lumberman, 1; merchants, 25 (according to mercantile appraiser's list, 42; in 14th class, 35; in 13th class, 5; in 12th class, 2); carpenters, 22; laborers, 96; boss, 1; butchers, 4; agents, 4; coopers, 5; stone-masons, 4; stone-cutters, 2; constable, 1; tinner, 1; foreman, I; barbers, 2; flagman, 1; clerks, 4; oil-merchant, 1; coalminers, 6; machinist, 1; marble-cutters, 2; painters, 4; conductors, 2; wagonmakers, 2; teamsters, 11; bankers, 2; quarryman, 1; plasterers, 2; hotel-keepers, 3; water-hauler, 1; blacksmiths, 5; auctioneer, 1; confectioner, 1; baker, 1; limedealer, 1; lumber merchant, 1; contractors, 2; clerks, 4; peddler, 1; measurer of lumber, 1; sawyer, 1; stationer, 1; foreman railroad, 1; vineyard keeper, I; engineers, 3; livery stable, 1 tobacconist, 1; boss cooper, 1; bricklayer, 1; watchmakers, 2; weaver, 1; brakeman, 1; tinner, I; flour merchant, 1; photographer, 1; dyer, 1; lumber merchant, 1; miller, 1; eating-houses, 2; insurance agent, 1; car inspectors, 2; foreman at acidworks, 1; cabinetmaker, 1; baker and confectioner, 1; furniture dealer, 1; oil merchant, 1; saddler, 1; Freeport Planing-mill Company; and last, but not least, old gentlemen, 4; gentlemen, 17. 428 R~ES.,AND TA14NEf?Q( OF C. MADR.FEPR,P CHAPTER XX. SOUTH BUFFALO. The "Depreciation Lands" Described - Early Owners of the Soil and Transfers of Title-The Famous Soldier and Pioneer, Samuel Murphy-First School House and Early Teachers -Benjamin Franklin as a Land Owner in South Buffalo- Archibald McCall-Relics of Antiquity -Clinton's First Masonic Lodge in the County-Blue Slate Church-Slate Lick Congregation, from which Originated the First Presbyterian Church in the County-United Presbyterian Church of Slate Lick-Srader Grove Presbyterian Church Academy and Other Schools- Temperance- Census Statistics --Geology. THE DEPRECIATION LANDS. THE major part - about three-fourths - of that Spart of this county on the north and western side of the Allegheny river consists of deprecia tion lands, a large tract appropriated by the act of assembly of March 12, 1783, for the redemption of depreciation certificates. Its boundaries, as specified in that act, were: Beginning where the western boundary of the state crosses the Ohio river, thence up that river to Fort Pitt, thence up the Allegheny river to the mouth of Mogulbuch tilon (Mahoning) creek, thence by a west line to the western boundary of the state, thence along it south to the beginning, of which three thousand acres opposite Fort Pitt and an equal quantity on both sides of Beaver creek, including Fort Mac Intosh, were reserved for the use of the state. The surveyor district assigned to Joshua Elder consisted of the territory between the Allegheny river and a line extending due north from or near the mouth of Bull creek to the northern boundary of the depreciation tract, a portion of which, under a previous allotment of surveyor districts, had been embraced in Stephen Gapen's district. The bills of credit issued both by congress and by this commonwealth depreciated between 1777 and 1781 from one to nearly one hundred per cent. The difference of opinion as to the degree of de preciation and the consequent cash value of those bills of credit, the chief portion of the money then in circulation, caused much confusion in the settlement of accounts between both individuals and public officers. The act of assembly of December 18, 1780, provided that the hereinafter mentioned certificates of depreciation, given to the officers and soldiers of the Pennsylvania line in the army of the United States in payment for their services, should be receivable at the land office of this state, equal to gold and silver, in payment of, if they should wish to purchase, unlocated lands, and the act of April 3, 1781, adjusted 27 the scale of the depreciation of these bills of credit at from one and a half to seventy-five per cent, varying each month from 1777 to 1781, and in accordance with that scale certificates, called certificates of depreciation, were issued to those officers and soldiers for the indebtedness of the state to them. The above cited act of March 13, 1783, also provided that the unreserved portion of the tract of depreciation lands should be laid out thus: The surveyor-general, in accordance with such directions as should be given him by the supreme executive council, should cause it to be laid out into lots of not less than 200 and not more than 350 acres each, numbering them in numerical order. As soon as the whole tract, or a hundred lots of it, were surveyed, the surveyor-general, secretary of the land office and receiver-general were directed to sell them, in numerical order, at such times and places, and under such regulations, as should be prescribed by the supreme executive council. The amounts bid at these sales were to be paid into the receiver-general's office either in gold or silver or in those certificates; whereupon, and on the payment of the expenses of surveying and the fees of the different offices, patents should be issued to the vendees, and whatever specie the receiver-general thus received he was to pay into the state treasury for the purpose of redeeming such of those certificates as remained unsatisfied at the close of these sales. Three pounds and ten shillings, including the wages of chain-bearers and markers, were allowed for laying out and returning the survey of each lot into the surveyorgeneral's office, to be paid in specie before the patent could be issued. But very few lots or parcels of that depreciation tract were sold until after the passage of the act of April 3, 1792, respecting the provisions of which enough has already been given in the sketch of the Holland Land Company. (See Madison Township.) Settlements on this side of the Allegheny river HISTORY ARMISTRONG CO)UNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. ROBERT WALTER SMITH, Esq. IL TLIT ST BATE D. CHICAGO: WATERMAN, WATKINS & CO. 1883. POSTAL AND TRAVELING FACILITIES. Clarion, and another branch from the mouth of Mahoning to Brookville, which were withdrawn after the completion of the Allegheny Valley railroad and its branches. There were for awhile two opposition lines of stages running north from Freeport, and so brisk was the competition that passengers were carried for almost nothing, and in some instances furnished with meals and grog gratis. While the canal was closed through the winter, and the river was too low for steamboats, stages were the public conveyances for passengers from this region to and from Pittsburgh. While the canal was open they were conveyed by packetboats from Pittsburgh to Freeport, thence by stage-some of the time by a packet-boat towed by horses, to Kittanning and other points, and by canal packets also to Leechburgh, Apollo, and other points along the canal, and thence to their respective destinations by private conveyances. Those who traveled those routes know the rate of speed with which trips used to be made. But for the information of those who will succeed us a century hence, it may be appropriate to state, in this connection, that it required about eighteen hours to make a trip by stage and canal from Kittanning to Pittsburgh. To us who used to be all night and half a day thus traveling forty-five miles, it is not as apparent as the sun at noonday that travelers now-a-days have good reason to complain, as they sometimes do, in the accommodation trains on the Allegheny Valley railroad, which convey them very safely and comfortably the same distance in three hours. By act of April 4, 1837, when the late WVm. Th. Johnston, represented this county in the lower house of our state legislature, a charter was granted for constructing the Pittsburgh, Kittanning & Warren railroad. Various supplements were afterward passed, by one of which the name was changed, as suggested by Josiah Copley, to the Allegheny Valley railroad. Nothing was done toward making the road until about fifteen years after the granting of the original charter, when Mr. Johnston, the first president of the board of managers, and other earnest and energetic friends of the project, began to utilize the power and privileges conferred by that charter, and succeeded in raising a sufficient amount of stock to build it as far as Kittanning, to which point it was completed in January, 1856, which was its northern terminus for about nine years, when the late William Phillips became the leading energetic spirit in prosecuting its extension to Brady's Bend, and thence to Oil City, and in leasing other roads above, until the company now controls the lines through to Brocton, N. Y., and Irvineton, on the Philadelphia & Erie railroad, in Warren county, Pa. Within the past few years the Bennett's Branch, or Low Grade Division, and several less branches, have been completed from themouth of Red Bank Creek to Driftwood. Thus vast regions of country which were theretofore dependent on freshets in the Allegheny and its tributaries, and had country roads as means of travel and transportation, are now subserved by rapid transit on well-constructed and well-managed railroads, which enable the various classes of producers to throw their products into market whenever they can command the highest prices therefor. In this connection the following incident is illustrative, and which is related substantially as the writer heard it: A farmer of this county, who was a stockholder in the Allegheny Valley railroad, remarked on a certain occasion after the opening of the road to Kittanning, that hlie would be a gainer, even if he should not receive any div-. idend on his shares of stock, because having on hand a considerable quantity of rye, in the winter when navigation was closed, hlie was enabled by the railroad to throw it into market so as to reap the benefit of the sudden advance in the price of his product, which soon after declined, so that by that one operation he cleared enough to compensate him for the money which he had invested in railroad stock. Four daily passenger trains going north and the same number south traverse that part of this county lying along the Allegheny river, between the mouth of Kiskiminetas and the mouth of Red Bank, a distance of about thirty-five miles. The River Division on the Clarion side of the Allegheny river, and the Bennett's Branch or Low Grade Division, on the Clarion side of the Red Bank Creek, subserve the wants of the people of those portions of this county adjacent to those streams above their junction. The freight trains are numerous. Two narrow-gauge railroads intersect the Allegheny Valley railroad, respectively, at Pine Creek and Parker stations. The number of stations on the Allegheny Valley railroad in this county is thirteen. A telegraph line, belonging to the road, extends along the entire routes of the river division and the main branches, with several offices at proper distances between the Kiskiminetas and Red Bank. The Allegheny valley is diversified with a pleasing variety of grand, beautiful and picturesque scenery, abounds in varied and valuable natural HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. did not begin to be rapidly made until the latter part of 1795. Although the settlers were then safe from Indian hostilities, there was danger of intestine troubles, disturbances and conflicts among the settlers themselves in their eagerness to acquire inchoate titles to favorite tracts of land. Hence it was that Judge Addison wrote to Gov. Mifflin, March 11, 1796: "The idea of a new county ought to be fixed and prosecuted as soon as possible. I dread the consequences of the flood of mad people who have gone over the Allegheny and Ohio to make settlements; their number is inconceivable, and they will, perhaps, be dangerous, unless law can be brought in among them. The establishment of a new county and a seat of justice there, with the additional number of officers that would be occasioned by that, would awaken and keep up a sense of submission, and have a good influence on conduct and tempers which otherwise may give rise to some apprehensions." All the territory between those rivers and the western line of the state up to Lake Erie, the reader will remember, was then included in Allegheny county. In a previous letter to the governor, February 3, Judge Addison had intimated: "Indeed, I should think that in all the unsettled parts boundaries of counties and sites of county towns ought to be ascertained beforehand and purchases made of 600 or 1,000 acres to be laid out in in-lots and out-lots, and the profits to be applied to academies." Thus it will be seen the question of organizing a new county or new counties out of that territory had then begun to be agitated. That agitation may have awakened in David and William Todd the hope that the town, which they laid out a few months later, might become the seat of justice of some one of those prospective counties. The reader's attention is now directed to a conmparatively small part of that territory, to the comparatively small remnant of Old Buffalo, now embraced within the limits of South Buffalo township. Passing near to and above the northeasterly boundary line of Freeport, on the map of original tracts or lots as they are termed in the depreciation district, is a portion of No. 71 or " Friendship," 72 acres of which David Todd agreed, August 30, 1810, to sell to Jacob Weaver for $360. That written contract and payment of part of the purchase money in Todd's lifetime having been satisfactorily proven before the court of common pleas of this county, Henry A. Weaver, administrator of Todd's estate, in accordance with the provisions of the act of March 31, 1792, executed a deed to the purchaser, January 2, 1815. Jacob Weaver established a distillery on this parcel in 1812. Hugh Brown, the early merchant at South Bend, on Crooked creek, near whose store David Todd had resided, having obtained a judgment against the latter before a justice of the peace, on which was issued a scire f,cias qwere executionemn non to No. 16, September term, 1813, in the court of common pleas of this county, to Henry A. Weaver, Todd's administrator, on which judgment was confessed. The debt was $20.98, and the costs $8.93. A writ of fi. fa. or execution having been issued and no goods and chattels belonging to the defendant's estate having been found, Sheriff McCormick levied on his interest in No. 71, or "Friendship," in the hands of the administrator, and sold the same to Jacob Weaver for $500, his deed being dated December 22, 1814. The real quantity which Weaver acquired by that purchase appears from his subsequent conveyances to have been 65 acres, which and the 72 acres he had agreed to purchase from Todd in his lifetime, as above mentioned, amounted to 136 acres of " Friendship," which became vested in him in his own right, except an undivided half part of the 72-acre parcel which he held in trust for the wife and children of Henry A. Weaver, to which he applied $262.62 of the $400 which Peter Hobach, of Greensburgh, had deposited with him to invest for their use in such property as he should deem fit, having invested the remaining $137.78 in the purchase of in-lots Nos. 87, 93, 94 and 128 in Freeport. Hle afterward, April 6, 1818, conveyed his own undivided half that 72-acre parcel, except 2 acres conveyed to James Loughrie, to IHenry Smith Weaver for $700, and all of the 65-acre parcel for $600. Thus it was that all of the latter and one-half the former became a part of Henry S. Weaver's estate, and the other half of the former a part of the estate of the wife and children of Henry A. Weaver, together with one-half of the profits arising from the distillery which Jacob Weaver had established thereon in 1811 or 1812-hewas first assessed with itin the latter year-and which continued to be assessed to Henry S. Weaver for several years after his purchase. That distillery was situated six rods below the Fifteen-mile point, on the river route of the road from Kittanning to Freeport. The first point after that Fifteen-mile one, mentioned in the report of the viewers, dated September 21, 1824, is "continued six perches to stillhouse," which was 147 rods above the then eastern line of the town of Freeport. All of the 65-acre parcel became vested in Mrs. Emily White, who, with her husband, John White, conveyed it to James B. and John Heagy, April 1, 1859, for $4,000. The other parcel remained undivided; proceedings in partition 430 SOUTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. No. 34, September term, 1860, in the court of common pleas of this county, were had. This portion of real estate embraced in that partition was found, on a more accurate survey than had before been made, to contain 79 acres and 138 perches; not having been taken by any of the heirs, it was ordered to be sold. Sheriff Sloan conveyed it to Rev. William Galbreath, June 5, 1862, for $2,875.05, of which the latter conveyed 2 acres and 107 perches along the Kittanning and Freeport road and adjoining the Protestant cemetery to Bishop Dominec and his successors in trust for St. Mary's church of Freeport for the purposes of a cemetery, December 1, 1863, for $621, on which has since been laid out an appropriate and beautiful city of the dead. Hie conveyed 9 acres and 154 perches between the W. P. R. R. and the river and adjacent to the southeastern part of the borough of Freeport to Patrick Meenan, January 16, 1864, for $1,000, on which the latter has since laid out the town of Meenanville, which, according to the assessment list in 1876, contains nine taxables. The last conveyance of a portion of " Friendship" appears to have been of 41 acres on the Freeport and Kittanning road and Heagy's line to John Prager, April 20, 1866, for $325. North of " Friendship" lay "Union," or No. 70, which extended westwardly to Buffalo creek. David Todd's undivided half of it having become subject to the liens of two judgments, one in favor of John Donaldson, for $9, and the other in favor of Francis Harbison, for $4.89, was sold in the hands of the administrator by sheriff McCormick on writs of vend. ex., and conveyed by him to George Armstrong, of Greensburgh, December 21, 1813, for $140. Armstrong's interest in it became subject to the lien of a judgment in favor of the Westmoreland Bank. for $2,350, passed under the sheriff's hammer, and was conveyed by Jacob Mechling, the then sheriff of this county, to William W. Gibson, September 12, 1827, for $260, who for the same consideration transferred it, January 1, 1828, to Andrew Arnold and James Bole, and they, the same day, conveyed 120 acres and 42 perches of the west end to William Painter, for $400, and 91 acres and 128 perches of the east end to James, John and Lindsay Patterson, for $400, an instant gain of $540. The other half of "Union " became vested in Mrs. Armstrong, an heir of William Todd, and was sold in parcels by her and her husband, as heretofore mentioned. Adjoining " Union " on the west was deprecia tion lot No. 35, called "Plombiers," which origi nally contained 201 acres, partly in Butler county, the patent for which was granted to Claudius Antonius Bertier, December 14, 1786, whose widow and heirs conveyed it to James Bole, April 12, 1815, for $700. Bole conveyed 101 acres of the east end to Thomas WV. Carrier, October 27, 1815, for $562, having previously conveyed 100 acres of the west end, on which a sawmill was then erected, to William Girt. The eastern part of "Plombiers" must have become reinvested in Bole, though the records do not show how, for he conveyed it, together with 60 acres and 17 perches of depreciation lot No. 34, which Archibald McCall had conveyed to Daniel McBride, and the latter to Bole, November 26, 1818, and the undivided half of 107 acres and 50 1 perches, of "Union," which Armstrong had conveyed to Bole, January 27, 1829, to John A. Stearns, July 24, 1834, for $5,000, on the latter parcel of which James Bole, Jr., was first assessed with a sawmill, in 1816, and with a gristmill in 1819. Those three parcels were conveyed by Stearns to Benjamin F. King, April 30, 1840, and which King conveyed to Abner W. Lane as containing 150 acres, more or less, January 1, 1842, for $8,500, except the quantity that had been conveyed to James and Peter Clawson, on which were their salt-works, which were first assessed in 1837, and, including the grist and saw mills erected by Bole, Lane conveyed two acres of the McCallMcBride-Bole parcel to John M. Orr, July 30, 1858, for $600; portions of the three parcels which he had purchased from King, partly in Butler county, about 55 acres, including the mills, to John Hilnes and Samuel Kurtz, May 20, 1862, for $4,000; and a small quantity, excepting the ground on which the public schoolhouse No. 10 is situated, to A. & C. Mardorff, August 19, 1867, for $400, on which their tannery is located, with which they were first assessed in that year. Lane having died intestate, about December 29, 1868, letters of administration were granted to his widow, to whom an order was granted by the court to sell three small parcels, aggregating 6 acres and 76 perches, for the payment of debts, two of which, containing 2 acres and 65 perches, she sold for $325, and obtained an alias order for the sale of the other. Her letters of administration having been vacated, March 6, 1871, John Boyd was appointed administrator de bonis non, who laid out the town of Laneville on such portions of the decedant's estate as remained unsold, April 14, Thomas Magill and J. G. D. Findley, surveyors, consisting of 53 lots of various shapes and dimensions, skirted on-the east by the Butler branch of the West Pennsylvania Railroad, on the west by the Freeport and Butler turnpike, and traversed from north to south by Main street, and a public alley west of the street, 431 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. which are intersected by an unnamed street about 42 rods north of the southern end of the plot of the town. Two several orders having been granted by the court to the administrator to sell those lots for the payment of debts, the first sale, May 28, aggregated $3,844, and the second one, July 13, $2,502. The creek is spanned by an iron bridge at the lower or southern end of Laneville, it having been preceded by one or two wooden ones, which were swept away. By the act of January 13, 1840, the commissioners of this county were authorized to appropriate $500 out the county funds to aid in building a bridge across this stream where the Butler and Freeport road crosses it. The present is a county bridge. The first separate assessment list for Laneville was in 1871, when it contained about a dozen taxables, one tannery, one miller and four laborers. The number of taxables in 1876 is nearly 40; laborers, 26; tanners, 2; carpenter, 1; cooper, 1; miller, 1; old man, 1; tinner, 1. Michael Conrad was this year first assessed with his brickyard on what is known as the brickkiln lot, about forty rods above the Freeport flouring-mill. This mill, with 63 acres of circumjacent land, became vested in C. M. Bird, after Lane's sale to Hilnes and Kurtz, from whom it passed by sheriff's sale, March 5, 1873, to Joseph B. Way for $5,300, who conveyed it the same day to Adolph Fisher, the present owner, for $5,500. It was then a three-story frame steam and water mill, with three runs of stone. Next north or above "Plombiers" lay "Mount Joy," a tract containing 400" acres, partly in Butler county, for which a patent was granted to John Harbison, December 11, 1807. He had resided there before 1805, for in that year he was assessed with a sawmill, 200 acres of land, two horses and two cows, at $250. His gristmill was erected afterward, and was first assessed to him in 1812, with which he continued to be assessed until 1815. He, like other pioneer settlers, was dependent on his neighbors to aid him in erecting his mills, other buildings and dam. He was wont to say, in inviting them, that he wished they would bring their own provisions, except whisky, which he probably obtained from William Hazelett's distillery, which was not far distant, which was first assessed at $20 in 1807. His wife Massy frequently tended the mill. He conveyed 50 acres, including these mills, to Aaron Dyer, Jr., May 6, of that year, for $1,600, which Dyer, two days afterward, conveyed to Thomas W. Carrier, of Broome county, New York, for $2,500, with which he was assessed for several years, until the same were conveyed by Philip Mechling, sheriff, to William Ayres, of Butler, March 21, 1820, for $281, having been sold on a judgment in favor of John Harbison. Ayres leased this property for several years: To David Kirkpatrick from 1820 till 1824; to John Kelty from 1824 until 1832; to John Hoover from 1832 until 1833, and on October 2 conveyed it, with other 50 acres of "Mount Joy," which Wmin. Colmer had conveyed to him February 1, 1832, to Joseph McLaughlin and Samuel Thompson as tenants in common, for $500. Those 100 acres and the gristmill were assessed to McLaughlin until 1843. He conveyed his undivided half of the land and mill to Asa Rowley, April 1, 1845, for $1,000. It was last known as the Rowley mill, but a few vestiges of which now remain, and only 36 acres of the land are now (1876) assessed to Rowley at $360. The old Pittsburgh and Kittanning road crossed the creek a short distance above that mill. Other portions of "Mount Joy" on the west side of the eastern bend in the Buffalo are now owned by Samuel Hepworth and L. Johnston, the former being assessed with 52 acres at $1,040, and the latter with 50 acres at $1,000. Massy Harbison released her dower for $30, and Benjamin, James, John and Thomas Harbison their interests for $30 in 18 acres of that part of "Mount Joy" east of the Buffalo, March 8, 1833, to James Patterson. The southern one of the two tracts which skirted "Mount Joy " on the east was depreciation lot No. 69, called "Bar-le-Duc," 277 acres, the patent for which was granted to Claudius Antonius Bertier, December 14, 1786. This tract was named after an ancient and important town in France -Bar-leDuc, or Bar-sur-Ormain, which is the chief town of the department of the Meuse. It is situated at the base and on the declivity of a hill, on the river Ormain, a tributary of the Marne, 125 miles east of Paris, and consists of an upper and lower town, the latter being the more modern and respectable of the two. Long aftcr this tract was named from it, it became a railway station on the Paris and Strasburg line, and not far from which is the Marne and Rhine canal. A college, a normal school, an agricultural society, a society of the arts and a public library are some of its educational facilities. Its only building of mark is the halfdecayed body in marble which originally formed a part of the Rene of Chalons, Prince of Orange. The castle which was the nucleus of the upper town was built by Frederick I, duke of Lorraine, in the tenth century. Louis XI got possession of the town and caused it to be fortified in 1474. It was dismantled under Louis XIV in 1670, but it still retains a few relics of its ancient works. An 432 SOUTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. extensive traffic is there maintained in wines, wood and wool, and its manufactures of cotton stuffs, hats, hosiery, leather and confections are very extensive-its confections being especially noted. Its population in 1872 was 15,175. From 959 till 1354 the district of Bar was governed by a series of counts, and was then raised to a duchy, which was ceded to Rend of Anjou in 1419, and thereafter followed the fortunes of Lorraine. The motto of the dukes, which has been adopted by the town, was Pls penser que dire. Their coins were usually distinguished by two barrels. Bertier's widow and heirs, by their attorney-infact, conveyed " Bar-le-Duc" to Jacob Weaver, April 10, 1815, for $1,500, 97 acres and 103 perches of which he conveyed to Andrew Patterson, December 23, 1816, for $529.25, and 155 acres to Jacob Mechling, September 4, 1823, for $750, which the latter devised to his son Jacob, and he conveyed 175 acres and 86 perches to Andrew R. Stewart, October 20, 1863, for $5,000. Near the center of "Bar-le-Duc" is the junction with Big run of one of its northwestern tributaries, which is about 25 rods west of the division line between the Mechling and Patterson parcels of that depreciation lot No. 69. There was a vacant tract extending from a point opposite the mouth of the Kiskiminetas up the right bank of the Allegheny, nearly to the foot of the bend; thence westerly along the John Craig tract and depreciation lot No. 72 to the southwest corner of the latter, and thence by various courses and distances along "Bar-le-Duc" and "Union " to the place of beginning, which contained 95 acres and 31 perches, to which Andrew Patterson acquired title by settlement and improvement, probably made prior to 1800. He was a carpenter, and built the first dwelling-house in Freeport, ad joining the old blockhouse on Water street. The earliest assessment list for Buffalo township acces sible to the writer is for the year 1805, when he was assessed as a wheelwright with 95 acres, at 25 cents per acre, and two cattle, amounting to $55.75. It is not clear to the writer just when he bored the salt-well about 225 rods above the Kiskiminetas, on this tract. An agreement was entered into be tween James, John and Lindsey Patterson with John and Th.omas Robinson, April 26, 1825, by which the latter, as lessees of that well, agreed to put one pan in operation immediately, and a second one if there should be sufficient water, by January 1, 1826, and to pay as annual rent 100 bushels of salt for each pan, if the water yielded 20 bushels to each pan every 24 hours, and more or less in proportion to the yield. If the well should not produce daily 15 bushels to each pan, the lessees were immediately to bore to the depth of 75 feet if necessary, and if there were not then sufficient water they were to bore 125 feet deeper, with the privilege of quitting at the end of that or any future year, and remove the apparatus belonging to well and works. If the well should not yield more water than would be sufficient for one pan, the lessees were to pay as rent every fourteenth bushel of salt so made. They do not appear to have operated the well more than a year or two. By his will, dated February 4, and registered September 19, 1832, he devised to his sons Andrew and John, respectively, the "undivided one-half of the land lying between the salt-works land and Craig's line." These works were assessed for the first time to "J. J. & L. Patterson," in 1838, at $750, and to John and James for several years afterward, and were for awhile operated by Thomas Donnelly; 111 acres, partly of this tract and partly of "Bar-leDuc," were not devised or disposed of by Andrew Patterson's last will, for the division of which a writ of partition was issued at No. 19, June term, 1852, in the common pleas of this county, which the inquest divided into four allotments, and, not having been taken at the appraisement, were sold by sheriff Watson, under an order of the court, December 6, 1852. "A," opposite the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, 35 acres and 80 perches, its lower line extending 108 and its upper line 123 perches back from the river, was appraised at $20 per acre and purchased by Rev. Win. Galbraith for $561. "B," next above "A," 34 acres and 70 perches, its lower line extending 123 and its upper 136 perches back from the river, was appraised at $30 per acre, and purchased by John Patterson for $799. "C," next above " B," 34 acres and 20 perches, its lower line extending 136 and its upper 144 perches back from the river, was appraised at $40 per acre, and was purchased by Lindsey W. Patterson for $995. "D," 25 acres and 94 perches and salt-works, its lower line extending 34 and its upper 40 perches back from, and 102 perches by various courses and distances up, the river, was appraised at $5,500, and was purchased by John Patterson for $2,540. The Keystone Company located their two oil-tanks* near that salt-well in 1875, their capacities being, respectively, 8,000 and 3,000 barrels, into which oil was pumped from St. Joe, in Butler county. Northeast of the Patterson tract and east of No. 72 lay the John Craig tract, 394 acres and 30 perches, to which he acquired title by the purchase * Since removed. 433 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. of Samuel Paul's interest in it, October 2, 1794, for $90, and by settlement and improvement which lihe commenced in the summer of 1795. It probably attracted his attention while he was commandant of the blockhouse at Freeport. He brought with him that summer a two months' supply of provisions and built a cabin near a spring on the parcel now owned by L. W. Patterson. Craig, while returning to his home in Westmoreland county, met Charles Sipes, who was moving his family to this region. Not having a cabin of his own, he asked for and obtained leave to occupy Craig's until he could build one. On the arrival of Craig with his family, the next spring, Sipes declined to give up his possession of the cabin and survey. Craig encamped his family and built another cabin on the opposite side of the spring, and prosecuted Charles Sipes, Sr., No. 3, June sessions, in the court of quarter sessions of Allegheny county, and Charles Sipes, Jr., No. 4, same sessions, for forcible detainer. Those cases were tried at the next September sessions, and there was a verdict of guilty against the elder, and of not guilty against the younger Sipes. Still that litigation cost Craig about $100, which in the then great scarcity of money was a heavy burden to a pioneer in the wilderness. The war between those claimants of that tract was a very civil one, for they were, during the whole of their contest, on friendly terms, used the same springhouse for their milk, and their families shared with each other such rarities and delicacies as either obtained. Sipes removed soon after that trial on to another tract of land. Craig was assessed with two distilleries from 1808 till 1810. In his younger days he had belonged to what was then called "the flying camp." He was taken prisoner by the Indians, and was confined in a guardhouse on an island, sixty miles above Montreal, from which he was released after the surrender of Cornwallis. He was one of the earliest justices of the peace in this county, and resided upon and improved that tract of land until his death, in 1845, on which he was buried, being then almost a centenarian, with failing mind and memory. Contiguous to the John Craig tract on the east was "Sugar Bottom," 109 acres, which became vested in Samuel Murphy, adjoining which on the east was "Bellemons," 205 acres, depreciation lot No. 76, the patent for which was granted to Joshua Elder, October 18, 1786, which Elder conveyed to William Todd, March 27, 1795, and which Todd conveyed to Samuel Murphy, April 18, 1798, for "~57 current money," on which the latter, with his family, soon after settled. His farm consisted of "Bellemons" and "Sugar Bottom." On the former, nea:ly opposite the foot of Murphy's island, in the field above the private road from the public road to the river, were vestiges of a circumvallation, which were quite distinct for many years after his settlement. Its shape was nearly circular, with an opening to the river. The distance from one lune to the other was five or six rods. The parapet consisted chiefly of gravel and sloped from the top to the base, the latter being eight or ten feet wide, and enclosed about half an acre on which a tree of considerable size had grown up. Pieces of crockery and copper kettles were found in the adjacent fields, and a tomahawk about thirty rods below it. An iron instrument, hollow, about eight inches long and one in diameter, probably a whistle, for it had an aperture for blowing in the middle, was exposed about forty years ago by the caving-in of the river bank at a depth of eighteen inches below the surface, not very far from the site of that circumivallation. The northwestern part of "Bellemons" and the central part of "Sugar Bottom " are traversed by Knapp's run, socalled from John Knapp, who built a cabin and resided on the upper part of it from 1822 until 183, in single blessedness all those fifteen years. Whether it had any other name before it was thus christened is not manifest to the writer. James Mehaffey kept a store about seventy-five rods above the mouth of that run on the river bank, near the southeast corner of "Sugar Bottom," in 1792-3-4, in the vicinity of which old coins have been occasionally exhumed. "Bellemons" and "Sugar Bottom" have in later years been known as "Murphy's Bend." Samuel Murphy conveyed 52 acres and 40 perches of "Bellemons" to Benjamin Murphy, April 20, 1839, for $1 and " natural affection." By his will, dated January 26, 1844, and registered November 4, 1851, he devised the residue of "Bellemons" and "Sugar Bottom" to his other sons, George P., James P., John and William, share and share alike, except the quantity of the latter tract which he had appropriated for a burying-ground, and for which he had executed a deed. They made partition among themselves and released to one another. Samuel Murphy was born at Bullskins, Frederick county, Virginia, in 1756. As he informed Dr. William Denny, a son of Major Denny, who visited him a few years before his death, he first came to Pittsburgh to get a saddle which had been lent to Dr. Conolly, where he first met Major Denny, and passed the night with him at " Granny Myers'," at Turtle creek. He accompanied the Earl of Dunmore's expedition as far as it proceeded in 1774. 434 SOUTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. (The Earl, he said, was "a large, full, red-faced man, who looked as if he lived high; was near him when, on foot among the men, he came to Hocking; saw him step into the water and wade the river with the unconcern of an Indian, rejecting the offer of a young sergeant to carry him over.") He served in the 8th Pa. regt. through the revolutionary war. He was captured by the Indians on the north fork of Salt river, in Kentucky, and taken by Simon Girty to an island in the St. Lawrence river, sixty miles above Montreal, in the fall of 1781. The Indians who had captured Col. Archibald Lochery, Capt. Robert Orr and Samuel Craig were there. John Craig used to relate, that Murphy, one quiet morning, jumped to the ceiling of the guard-room and gave the warwhoop, being incited to do so by the sentinel informing him, that if hlie would not mention it, he would tell him something that would make him very glad, Murphy having promised to keep the secret, the sentinel slowly whispered in his ear"Cornwallis is taken!" Murphy then told the sentinel that he had dreamed it three nights in succession. When that event became known to the prisoners, that night, there was a boisterous jubilee among them. Murphy rendered much and valuable service in defense of the frontier after the close of the revolutionary war and during the succeeding Indian war. In accordance with the act of assembly, passed January, 1792, providing for the defense of the frontiers of this commonwealth, Gov. Mifflin, on the 29th of that month, issued his circular to the lieutenants of Allegheny, Fayette, Washington and Westmoreland counties, directing three defensive companies to be raised, which were to consist of not more than 228 non-commissioned officers and privates, each company to consist of one captain, one lieutenant and one ensign, to be appointed and commissioned by the governor, four sergeants, four corporals, two musicians and sixty privates, for the term of six months, unless sooner discharged, to commence on the 1st of March. Murphy was appointed ensign of the third company, which was directed to "be stationed at the Kittanning, ranging thence up and down the river." When the capture of Massy Harbison and her children became known, he and a squad of his company pursued the captors to the Kiskiminetas, but did not overtake them. The act of assembly of February 28, 1794, having provided for the defense of the frontiers, a company was raised in Allegheny county, of which Eben Denny was appointed captain, Thomas Bell Patterson, lieutenant, and Samuel Murphy, ensign. Patterson resigned and recommended the appointment of his brother James in his place. Murphy was, however, appointed to fill that vacancy, and James was appointed ensign, March 1. Gov. Mifflin in his circular to them directed them to apply to their captain "for instructions to raise your complement of non-commissioned officers and men; and I rely upon your rendering all the assistance in your power in that respect, as well as upon your zeal and spirit in executing the other duties of your commission." Capt. Denny wrote to the governor May 2, 1794, from Pittsburgh: "Lieutenant Murphy and Ensign Patterson have been about three weeks away endeavoring to find men for the Allegheny company. Patterson has been tolerably successful. I have not heard from Murphy-he is in Fayette county. They must both be here in a few days," and they were. In his military journal, April 4, he states that Murphy had "been out since the 24th of March." Captain, afterward Major, Denny, as stated by his son, was wont to say that " Samuel Murphy was the best soldier he ever knew." Often for several years after his discharge, he plowed the bottom portion of "Murphy's Bend" with a rifle on his shoulder. Dr. William Denny presents him as he saw him in August, 1849, thus: "I was taken by his two maiden daughters to the original cabin, a rod or two detached from thepresent family dwell ing, where he sat on a chair in the middle of the puncheon floor, with his hat on, in his Sunday suit, which hung loosely upon him. It was evident that the noble and gigantic form was wasting away with age." Adjoining "Bar-le-Duc" on the north was the Kincaid tract, 440 acres, on which James Kincaid made an improvement, November 14, 1793, and which was surveyed by Stephen Gapen on the 21st. Kincaid conveyed his interest in it to Samuel Kincaid, November 21, 1794, for $40; the latter to Col. Charles Campbell and John Denniston, July 16, 1795, for $80; they to Samuel Denniston and his wife, to whom the warrant was granted, August 25, 1796; and they to John B. Alexander, February 10, 1818, for $1,000. This tract having become vested in the Westmoreland Bank of Pennsylvania, which, under its corporate seal, conveyed it to Hugh Y. Brady, John Kuhns and Morrison Underwood in trust for its creditors, who conveyed 318 acres of it to John Atkinson, April 27, 1831, for $1,470.75, of which he conveyed 100 acres to James B. Atkinson, February 24, 1848, for $2,000, and which the latter conveyed to James Ralston, November 29, 1 855, for $3,000. John Atkinson died intestate in March, 1853. By subsequent proceedings of 435 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. partition in the orphans' court of this county, the 156 acres and 103 perches which he had not disposed of in his lifetime were divided into two purparts. "A," containing 95 acres and 145 perches, was appraised by the inquest at $38.33 per acre, and taken thereat by James B. Atkinson, the eldest son. "B," containing 60 acres and 118 perches, appraised at $55.92, was taken by Robert Morris, of Freeport, in trust for his ward, George Atkinson, the second son. The western part of the latter purpart is traversed by Big run, on which the sawmill was erected by John Atkinson in 1842, and which, with 13 acres, was first assessed to Joseph Atkinson in 1859 at $239. The assignees of that bank conveyed the other portion of the Kincaid tract as containing 2052 acres to George Keener, January 23, 1833, for $1,007.47, who subsequently conveyed the same to James Hill and William Selkeld. Passing on further west on the north of "Mount Joy" on both sides of the Buffalo and partly in Butler county lay a tract which had been occupied several years by Jacob Weaver, for which a patent was granted him March 10, 1817, on which, on the left or north branch of the creek, Robert Mc Cormish built a gristmill in 1803-4, with which he was assessed until 1805, to Wmin. Colmer in 1809-10, and which was thereafter assessed to Jacob Weaver until*1814. He conveyed 116 acres and 34 perches, with the mill, to Isaac Frantz, August 18, 1817, for $1,200. The adjoiners then were Isaac Hughes, Young's heirs, William Col mer and George Weaver. Frantz was assessed with the gristmill from 1815 until 1823. Adjoin ing that was another tract for which Jacob Weaver obtained a patent, October 6, 1823, of which he conveyed 150 acres to James and William McEl wain, January 2, 1835, for $1,000, the former of whom was assessed with that mill until 1857. Their assignees, John George and John Irwin, con veyed 166 acres and 26 perches, not including the mill, to John Dampman, of Venango county, Sep tember 30, 1857, for $5,750, which then adjoined lands of Robert J. Hill, William Hughes and James Patterson, and the Kittanning road. The mill has not been in operation for several years. The building, a three-story frame of considerable dimensions, is still standing, opposite which on the right bank of the creek is Harbison station on the Butler branch of the West Pennsylvania Railroad. FIRST SCHOOLHOUSE. The first schoolhouse within the limits of South Buffalo township was built in 1800 on this Weaver McElwain-Dampman tract, about sixty rods west of Big run. The first teacher was James Clark, whose only surviving pupil is John Patterson. The second teacher was Evangelus Jones, one of whose pupils studied the German and another the Latin language. His only surviving pupils are James P. Murphy, James Patterson* and his wife, and John Patterson. The third teacher was Edward Gorrellt- commonly pronounced Girl - who taught the usual English branches of that period. His penmanship was excellent; the copies which he set looked like copperplate. The late William W. Gibson was one of his pupils. The only surviving ones are Jacob and John Iseman, Mrs. Martha Mechling, James Patterson aniid wife, and John Patterson. Dr. Benjamin Franklin purchased 11 depreciation lots in Elder's district No. 5 at sales of depreciation lands at the Merchants' Coffee House, Philadelphia, some of which he paid I penny and for some 2 pence an acre, for which patents were granted to him, November 1, 1787, which are noticed respectively below, 10 of which are in this township. By his will, dated July 17, 1788, he devised them and other property to his son-in-law, Richard Bache, who by his will, dated January 2, 1810, directed that all his property of whatever kind be divided into seven equal parts, and apSpointed David Lenox and Louis and Richard Bache his executors. Lenox renounced, and the other two acted. Bache devised and bequeathed as follows: One-seventh of all his estate respectively to his executors and their survivors in trust for the children of his son Benjamin F. Bache; to his executors in trust for William Bache and Catherine, his wife, and their children; to Louis Bache; to Richard Bache; to his executors in trust for his daughter Elizabeth Franklin Hamond and her children; to his daughter Deborah Duane; and the remaining seventh to his daughter Sarah, wife of Thomas Sergeant. Richard Bache having authorized his executors to sell any or all of his real estate, they as testamentary trustees for the above-mentioned devisees and the other devisees, seven parties, and Randall Hutchinson, of Philadelphia, party of the eighth part, agreed upon a partition of those eleven tracts or depreciation lots. Eight of them, rectangular parallelograms, occupied a range extending from the eastern part of Butler county along the above-mentioned Weaver-McElwain-Dampman, Kincaid, John Craig, and beyond " Sugar Bottom" and " Bellemons" tracts and lots on the south, and the other three, a range along the Allegheny river, as hereinafter specified. Those devisees and *Since deceased. f See Manor. 436 SOUTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. testamentary trustees conveyed their interests in these tracts or lots, October 29, 1814, to Randall Hutchinson, to the intent that he should, by seven separate deeds of even date with theirs to him, grant to them their several shares and allotments according to that partition, which was accordingly done. The two westernmost ones, "Preston," 2842 acres in Butler county, and "Kirkham," 2071 acres adjoining the Armstrong and Butler county line on the west, were conveyed by Hutchinson to these testamentary trustees in trust for the use and benefit of William and Catherine Bache and their children. Their daughter Sarah and her husband, Rev. Charles Hodge, D.D., one of the eminent professors in the Presbyterian theological seminary, at Princeton, New Jersey, conveyed her interest in these two lots to William J. Duane, April 29, 1829, for $166.67. The other children of William and Catherine Bache also conveyed their interests in these two lots to Duane: Benjamin F. Bache, absent in the service of the United States at Pensacola, Florida, April 26, 1831, for $166.67; Catherine W. Bache to Duane, August 13, 1829, for $166.67. Duane conveyed his interest in " Kirkham" to John McLean, May 18, 1832, for $1,200, who conveyed it as containing 214 acres and 56 perches to Thomas King, October 7, 1853, for $6,340. Hutchinson conveyed " Walton," No. 63, adjoining "Kirkham" on the east, 207 acres, and "Poulton," No. 64, adjoining "Walton" on the east, 207 acres, to those trustees in trust for the use and benefit of Mrs. Elizabeth Franklin Harwood, whose interest having become vested in A. A. Harwood, he and his wife conveyed the same to Duane, April 10, 1829, for $500. Duane conveyed 100 acres of "Walton " to Charles Gregory, March 10, 1830, for $400. Gregory, while a lad, had the good fortune to meet Capt. Hart while he was building one of his boats at Freeport, who, ascertaining that the lad wanted employment, and liking the disposition which he evinced, hired him. The money which he thus earned enabled him to make a start in his reasonably prosperous career through life. He erected a distillery on that parcel of land with which he was assessed from 1821 until 1823. Duane conveyed" Poulton "to George Grinder, April 23, 1833, for $1,100, who conveyed 103 acres and 123 perches of it to James Law, May 10, for $550. Hutchinson conveyed "Wigan," No. 65, 2071 acres, adjoining "Poulton" on the east, and "Bolton," No. 84, adjoining "Wigan" on the east, 207 acres to Richard Bache, who conveyed them to Duane, October 31, 1814, for $1,600, who conveyed " Wigan" to Andrew Srader, April 13, 1829, for $950, on which is the church edifice of Srader Grove Presbyterian church, members, 40; Sundayschool scholars, 70; and "Bolton" to John Baker, May 1, for $900. Hutchinson conveyed "Garstang," No. 85, 1812 acres, adjoining Bolton on the east, and " Clifton," No. 86, 21510 acres, adjoining " Garstang " on the east, to Louis Bache, who conveyed them to Duane, July 27, 1818, for $1,600.10; who conveyed " Garstang " to Abraham Boyd and Joseph Shields May 1, 1832, for $800,-Boyd was assessed with a tanyard from 1840 until 1846-and "Clifton" to Patrick Duffy, December 20, for $1,000, one-half of which the latter conveyed to John Duffy, March 13, 1833, for $500. Passing to the Allegheny river, about 60 rods above Stewart's run, is the western line of "Broughton," No. 81, 209r acres, which Hutchinson conveyed to those testamentary trustees for the use of the children of Benjamin F. Bache, deceased, which they conveyed to Duane June 3, 1829, for $100, and which hlie conveyed to Walter M. Skelton, formerly of Fayette county, January 24, 1840, for $4,180, and the same day " Settle," No. 82, 200 1 acres, adjoining "Broughton " on the east, for $4,000. Skelton gave mortgages on both tracts, on which there would have been due a balance of $1,882.50 on July 15, 1843, with inter est from April, 1840. Duane, for reasons stated in a letter from Skelton to him, authorized Judge Buffington, by letter of attorney, June 9, 1842, to accept $1,200 in full satisfaction. Hutchinson conveyed "Chorley," No. 83, 204 acres, adjoining " Settle" and "Stephen's Green" on the east, and skirted by the Allegheny river on the east and southeast, to those testamentary trustees for the use of Mrs. Sarah Sergeant, who conveyed it to Duane August 31, 1827, for $500, and which he conveyed to Enos McBride June 10, 1830, for $1,100. McBride laid out the town of Clinton on that part of " Chorley" in the deep southeastern bend of the river, consisting of 71 in-lots, most of which are 70X155 feet, and 4 out-lots, 2 of which are 280J X155 feet, and the other 2 respectively 155X210 and 155X370 feet and a fraction more, which were surveyed in July, 1830. Water street, about 80 feet wide, extends the whole length of the town along the river. Washington, Franklin, Jackson, Olinda and Liberty streets, whose courses are from east to west, are intersected at right angles by First, Second and Third streets,-whose bearing is north 31 degrees west,-each 60 feet wide. The 24 upper lots appear like a separate plat, and are traversed by Fourth and Fifth streets, whose bear437 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. ing is north 52 degrees west, which are intersected by two unnamed streets, whose bearing is north 38 degrees east, each 40 feet wide. The lots and streets cover an area of about 29 acres. McBride sold most if not all of his lots, though deeds for but few of them are on record. The first separate assessment list was in 1834, which includes lots from No. 1 to 60 inclusive, assessed to almost as many persons, and all but eleven are noted as unseated. The following sales show the prices of the lots in various parts of the town: On June 27, 1832, McBride conveyed to James Stewart, lot No. 9, fronting on Washington, Franklin, Second streets, for $60; to Jonathan Porter, No. 28, fronting on Jackson and Olinda streets, between Second and Third, for $15; to Patrick Sherry, Nos. 35 and 37, fronting on Olinda and Liberty, between First and Second streets, for $11 and $10. On the 29th to Joseph Kenniston, No. 49, fronting on Water, Fourth and one of the unnamed streets, for $16. On the 14th of July to William WV. Gibson No. 4, fronting on Water and Washington, between First and Second streets, for $20; on January 23, 1838, to Samuel Walker, No. 18, fronting on Franklin, Jackson and Second streets, for $24. In 1843, this town contained five taxables, with the corresponding population, including three mechanics, viz.: Robert Graham, carpenter; Samuel Patterson, wagonmaker, and David Whitehead, cooper, and twelve seated lots. There appear to have been about twenty-eight taxables here in 1858, including three carpenters, one cooper, one shoemaker, and one stonemason. The people of Clinton then cherished a laudable ambition to improve their town, and a high appreciation of its eligible location. For the writer was informed by Samuel Murphy, whose business on the river made him cognizant of what transpired here during that year- he was afterward county superintendentthat shortly after the burning of the court-house at Kittanning, the people of Clinton held a meeting and adopted resolutions asserting that this was the proper location for the new county buildings. These proceedings were not published and the minutes of the meeting, if any were kept, do not seem to have been preserved. The late William Coyle, shortly before his death, also informed the writer that that meeting was held and those resolutions were adopted. One of the. public schoolhouses of South Buffalo township was located, several years since, at the corner of First and Liberty streets, fronting the east side of the former and the north side of the latter. The Presbyterian church was organized here, with eleven members, by a committee of the Presbytery of Allegheny-now Butler-June 7, 1852. It was statedly supplied by the late Rev. George Carns, from 1853 until 1856. There were occasional supplies until 1864, and from then until 1866 Rev. D. W. Townsend was its stated supply, who was followed by Rev. David H. Sloan, as supply until 1869, when the Rev. J. H. Aughey was installed as pastor and continued until 1870. It was supplied by Rev. John J. Francis in 1871. The present pastor, Rev. David I. Sloan, after preaching statedly for a year, was installed in April, 1873. The present membership is sixty; Sabbath-school scholars,. The first church edifice was erected, in 1850, jointly by the Presbyterians and Lutherans, each denomination having a half-interest and occupying it half the time for the following eight years. The corner-stone was laid, July 4, 1850, by Rev. David Earhart. The Lutheran church was organized by Rev. David Earhart, August 13, 1851, and had only occasional services after 1860, until the members connected themselves with other churches. The present church edifice is a neat frame structure 36X56 feet including a vestibule 9 feet wide. It was begun in the fall of 1875 and completed in the spring of 1876, and is tastefully finished and furnished. The house and furniture cost about $2,500. According to the assessment list for 1876, the number of taxables appears to be forty-four: Laborers, 19; boatmen, 2; old man, 1; farmer, 1; storekeeper, 1; stonemason, 1. Owners of other parts of " Chorley" are William and Thomas Coyle and H. Sheridan. In the northeastern part of it is a stone-quarry. Another purchaser of numerous lots and tracts of land in this and most of the other townships on this side of the Allegheny river, in this county, was Archibald McCall, of Philadelphia. Says Townsend Ward, in his " Second Street and its Associations:" "In 1762-3 Archibald McCall, the India merchant, built a house, still standing at the northeast corner of Second and Union streets. Its garden extended a considerable distance down the latter street, and was well stocked with various animals brought by his supercargoes from foreign parts, so that it was, in a manner, our first Zoological Garden." McCall purchased immense quantities of land in various parts of this state, and having become embarrassed, he executed a deed of assignment for the benefit of his creditors, of all those lands to William Reed and Victor Du Pont, July 2, 1817, which were subsequently reconveyed to him. So discouraged was he at one time during 438 SOUTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. his embarrassment that he suggested the sale of his coal lands in the anthracite region for a trifling amount. His agent, however, urged him to retain them another year, which he did, and realized an independent fortune from the great and rapid increase in their value. His real estate transactions, on this side of the Allegheny in this county, were numerous and extensive until his death, as will be seen in the progress of this work through the townships in which his lands were situated. After his death his heirs conveyed forty-two parcels of them to the late William F. Johnston, April 13, 1846, for $30,000, and his other parcels to George A. McCall, U. S. Army, July 10, 1847, for $4,500, who purchased for James E. Brown and the late Dr. John Gilpin, as well as for himself. Though the legal title was conveyed to him, the equitable title was two-thirds in them, i. e. those three were equal owners. One of those parcels was depreciation lot No. 80, called "Mulberry Lane," 239-, acres, adjoining "Broughton" on the west and the Allegheny river on the south, the patent for which was granted to Joshua Elder, April 25, 1787, who conveyed to McCall and Alexander McDowell, March 17, 1797, and which Johnston had agreed, October 13, 1848, to sell to William R. Watson, who paid a part of the purchase money in his lifetime. By proceedings in partition, after his death, this land was divided into two purparts, which were taken by his son, Israel Watson, to whom the tract was conveyed by Johnston, September 30, 1863, for $1,400. The western part of this lot is traversed by a small stream, now called Stewart's run. South Buffalo public schoolhouse No. 7 was situated among bowlders near the river bank on this tract before the site was changed to Clinton. Next to "Mulberry Lane " on the west was depreciation lot No. 79, called "Gensing Hill," which the commonwealth conveyed by patent to Joshua Elder, April 25, 1787, and which he conveyed to McCall and McDowell, March 17, 1797, which, in the settlement of their partnership accounts and division of unsold lands, made by Brown, Gilpin & Johnston, February 1, 1866, was allotted and conveyed to Gilpin. Next west of " Gensing Hill " was depreciation lot No. 78, called "Les Chamettas," 2711% acres, the patent for which was granted to Joseph Mercier, June 12, 1789, whose administrator, Peter Barrier, conveyed it to John Woods, November 7, 1796, for ~253 Os 10 d. Woods conveyed one-half of it to Archibald McCall, May 31, 1811, which became vested in the Bank of North America. Woods by his last will authorized his executors, Henry Woods, John McDonald and James Ross, to sell it. Ross, by virtue of a letter of attorney from that bank, dated May 20, 1834, and as surviving executor of Woods, conveyed the entire tract to John Hill, July 2, 1834, for $474. It is traversed from the northwest corner nearly southeast by a small stream now called Hill's run. About thirty or thirty-five rods below its mouth is the mouth of a still smaller run, several rods above which, on the east side, a small clearing is visible from the cars on the Allegheny Valley road, on which Alexander Gordon, an old and experienced surveyor, informed the writer that a white-oak tree was felled in 1839 or 1840, and split, and that inside of it was found a smoothly cut notch, such as surveyors cut in line trees, in the wood that had grown, over which 368 concentric circles were counted, indicating that the notch had been cut in 1471 or 1472, twenty or twenty-one years before Columbia discovered America. By whom was it cut? By the Alligewi, or some prehistoric people? Jefferson Hill called the writer's attention to some burnt stones and charcoal which he had found at the depth of about eight feet and fifteen feet or more back from where the river bank was not many years since. These ancient vestiges were developed in digging away the ground on the east side of Hill's run for a gangway from his sawmill. The stones, as he found them, appeared to have been used instead of or for a hearth or fireplace. The charcoal appears to have been made from pine or other soft wood, and readily pulverizes on being pressed between the thumb and finger. About thirty rods above Hill's run were the salt-works, which were first assessed to Hiram Hill, in 1837, and which continued to be operated by him, and some of the time by his brother Daniel, until 1872-3. Contiguous to "Les Chamettas" on the west was depreciation lot No. 77, whose patent name, if it ever had one, has been dropped in the conveyances after the patent. It was one of the Joseph Mercier lots, which, like "Les Chamettas," became vested in the Bank of North America and John Woods, the northern part of which, 125 acres, was conveyed by that bank's attorney and Woods' executors, to John Isaman, April 21, 1836, for $400. Its southern part has had a greater variety of owners. It was conveyed as containing 15810 acres, by the same attorney and executor, to Benjamin Willis, April 29, 1830, for $750, who conveyed it to Joseph A. Benton, March 25, 1842, for $2,400, who, having become embarrassed, conveyed it in trust for the benefit of his creditors to his assignee, John Woods, of Freeport, January 21, 1843, who released it to him September 15, 439 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. resources, many of which have not yet been developed, and is pervaded by a salubrious atmosphere, which is free from the miasma caused by sluggish streams and stagnant water. As its comely as well as rugged features, its hidden stores of wealth and its salubrity become more generally known, it must become more and more attractive to settlers, tourists and artists. Views of some of the finest and most varied scenery in the world can be enjoyed from the rear windows of the rear cars of trains passing up and down the Allegheny Valley railroad, to say nothing of the comfort and gratification and sense of security resulting from able and skillful management and the courtesy of obliging employes. Bayard Taylor, in some of his correspondence several years ago, expressed his high appreciation of Alleghany Valley scenery, and especially that from the lower part of the Manor to the bend above Kittanning. The latter, he said, is not surpassed in beauty by any that he had seen in Italy or elsewhere. On Friday night, May 5, 1876, Dom Pedro II, the present emperor of Brazil, passed through the Allegheny valley, from Pittsburgh to Oil City, on a special train of the Allegheny Valley railroad, and returned next day, reaching Kittanning about 1 1. M., from which point the train reached the union depot, Pittsburgh, in fifty-seven minutes. His majesty must have been very favorably impressed with what he saw between Oil City and Pittsburgh, for he remarked, in the presence of the conductor, Richard Reynolds, that "this (the Allegheny) is one of the finest valleys I have ever passed through." He said that his transit over the Allegheny Valley railroad had been more rapid than over any other railroad in the United States. That was after his return from California. There is, verily, scope and verge enough of fine scenery along the Allegheny valley to attract to it the skill, genius and pencil of the best of artists. The telegraph line was first extended into this county in the fall of 1863. There were for awhile two competing lines, the Western Union and the Atlantic & Pacific. The latter was discontinued in the course of a year or two after it was established, so that the former and the one belonging to the Allegheny Valley railroad are the only ones now in operation along the Allegheny valley. MERCANTILE AND COMMERCIAL. For several years after the organization of this county, the stores were few, and all, or nearly all, of them were located in the county town. Goods must have been sold sixty years ago at a reasonably large profit, for a Kittanning merchant of the olden times having been asked, while making one of his purchases in Philadelphia, what percentage of profit he charged on his goods, replied that he didn't know anything about percentage, but if he bought an article for $1, and sold it for $2, he reckoned he didn't lose anything. An act of 1823-4 required the county treasurers to publish annually, in November, a list of the names of all persons returned to them as retailers of foreign merchandise, designating those who had and those who had not taken out licenses in their respective counties. In pursuance of that requirement the lists of such retailers, dated November 16, 1824, were published by James Pinks, the then treasurer of Armstrong county, in the Columlian of November 30, 1825, as follows: "Lists of Retailers of Foreign Merchandise in Armstrong County who have taken out Licenses: Samuel Houston, Philip Mechling & Co., Alexander Colwell & Co., Jonathan IH. Sloan, Richard Reynold & Co., Robert Robinson, Henry S. Weaver, David Stoner, William D. Barclay, John Elliott, Jr., Joseph Marshall, James Fitzgerald." List of such as had not taken out Licenses: "Michael McCullough, John Fullerton, James Adams, Bear Creek Furnace, William P. Sterrett, Thomas Johnston (of Ind.), Andrew Hickenlooper, Andrew Sterrett." Thus it appears that then the total number of stores in this county, which then extended up to the Clarion river, was twenty. The number of stores of all kinds in 1840 was seventy-nine. The mercantile appraiser's list for 1876 presents 358 wholesale and retail dealers, rated thus: In the 14th class, or those selling less than $5,000 worth of goods a year, 278;* 13th class, selling from $5,000 to $10,000 worth a year, 45; 12th class, selling from $10,000 to $15,000 worth a year, 21; 11th class, selling from $15,000 to *20,000 worth a year, 9; 10th class, selling from $20,000 to $30,000 worth a year, 2; 9th class, selling from $30,000 to $40,000 worth a year, 2; 4th class, selling from $50,000 to $100,000 worth a year, 1. DISTILLERIES. The number of distilleries in 1840 was twentyfive, and they produced 20,633 gallons of distilled spirits, or nearly a gallon to each man, woman and child in the county. There is now only one distillery, which annually produces about 50,000 gallons of whisky, or a little less than a gallon to each * Twelve of those appraised in this class were exonerated from paying mercantile license, because they proved that they were not engaged in the mercantile business at all. So that the real number of wholesale and retail dealers in all classes is 346 instead of 358, and the number in the 14th class is 266 instead of 278. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. and which Benton, thenext day, conveyed, as containing 172 acres, to Richard Renshaw, for $2,500, who conveyed 65 acres adjoining the river to Mrs. Eliza J. Bartholomew, March 2, 1852, for $2,400, 63 acres of which she and her husband conveyed to James Noble, April 13, 1854, for $2,650. Renshaw conveyed the other part of his parcel, 961 acres to Charles Saltmore, May 7, 1852, for $1,400. Adjoining "Les Chamettas" and No. 77 on the north was another Mercier-Woods' lot, No. 87, called "Les Digrettes," which James Ross, as attorney for the Bank of North America, and surviving executor of Woods, conveyed to Robert Rogers, November 3, 1834, for $700, 45 acres of which he conveyed to William Winterbun, November 19, 1850, for $825. One of the earliest settlers within the limits of South Buffalo township was Stephen Mehaffy, who had been for several years in the military service in the defense of the frontiers, as a spy or scout from, perhaps, before 1790, at times, until the organization of the three companies for frontier defense, under the act of assembly of February 28, 1794, when he was appointed ensign of the Westmoreland or third company, vice James McComb, who had resigned. He was assigned to the force or detachment under the command of Capt. Eben Denny, for carrying into effect the act for establishing the town of Presqu' Isle. Capt. Denny wrote to Gov. Mifflin, April 25, 1794, from Pittsburgh: Ensign Mehaffy, from Westmoreland, had the direction of the state troops, two sergeants, two corporals and forty-three privates, and the volunteers, consisting of one captain, one lieutenant, one ensign and thirty men. In Denny's military journal, April 21: Ensign Mehaffy came in with his quota from Westmoreland. They marched along with Miller's men, each with a sergeant, corporal and twenty men. They will join the volunteers next morning. Lt. Miller returned to Washington to recruit. The state troops under Mehaffy, 43; sent with boats, 4; volunteers, 32; total in Mehaffy's command, 79. On Denny's arrival at LeBoeuf, June 24, he entered in his journal: Ensign Mehaffy and his detachment we found fenced in. The quarters of the men who were here before us and the whole place in the most abominable and filthy condition, and one-third of the men ill with the flux. * * * He noted in his journal July 19: Ensign Mehaffy with six men started for Pittsburgh with dispatches, and with orders to bring us on a supply of provisions. July 27: Ensign Mehaffy with his party, with thirteen head of very small cattle, and a few horse loads of flour and whisky, ten in number. November 17: Left Ensign Mehaffy, Quartermaster McCutcheon and nineteen men, and embarked with the rest of my command in boats for Pitt. After his arrival at Pittsburgh, January 4, 1795: Ensign Mehaffy and Ensign McCutcheon, with the men left at LeBoeuf, arrived and were discharged the next day. Mehaffy, after having served as a scout along the Allegheny river, after his discharge from that detachment, until danger from hostile Indians was over, settled on a tract, 4111 acres, adjoining "Chorley," " Settle" and "Broughton" on the north, June 4, 1801. It had probably attracted his attention while serving as a scout, a patent for which-253 acres and 73 perches-is called " Stephen's Green," dated April 5, 1811. According to the first survey the whole contained the abovementioned quantity, but, like all the original tracts, it probably contained a considerable surplus. Mehaffy conveyed his inchoate interest in 212 acres of the west end of the original survey to William Freeman, December 17, 1800, for ~5, which the latter conveyed to John Sloan, May 22, 1806, for the same consideration. Mehaffy conveyed 37 acres and 42 perches of "Stephen's Green" to John Reamer, October 9, 1810, whose interest therein was sold by Sheriff Robinson to James Monteith on Vend. Ex. No. 49, September term, 1821, for $71. Mehaffy conveyed 42 acres and 63 perches thereof to Jacob Christman, April 30, 1811, for $150, on that part of which, traversed by Nicholson's run, the latter erected a gristmill which was first assessed to him in 1813, to Andrew Brown first in 1817 and last in 1820. Mehaffy conveyed the residue of " Stephen's Green" to his son Robert, June 12, 1823, for $70, natural affection and the payment of several debts of record, and for the further reason that he had become too infirm to take proper charge of his estate. During the Indian hostilities, about 1790, a blockhouse was built at the mouth of the stream afterward called Nicholson's run, which Henry Truby remembers having seen in his boyhood. It was about 20 X 25 feet, constructed of round logs, with a puncheon door and loft-floor several inches thick, and with port-holes on all sides about six feet above the ground. James Dougherty settled in this vicinity in 1809, and seems to have acquired titles to about 165 acres, now in the occupancy of his descendant, Joseph Dougherty, and by Joseph Atkinson, who built his sawmill on Dougherty's run. James Dougherty came from Westmoreland county, and brought with him into what is now South Buffalo 440 SOUTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. township the first wagon ever owned within this part of its territory. He erected the first windmill in this region, which was located west of the blockhouse, was visited by many people on Sundays, and which was then considered a great curiosity, and(I he made hatchets and nails from wrought iron, the latter of which were used for saddlers' tacks. At or below the mouth of the run, now called Nicholson's, an Indian trail crossed the Allegheny river and extended along the ridge northwesterly to a point a short distance north of Penny's Pointso called from James Penny to whom a tract in the western part of what is North Buffalo was surveyed in or about 1794 in the Buffalo creek, and thence across the creek to the upper Allegheny region. Opposite " Stephen's Green," in the Allegheny river, is an island, for which a warrant was granted to the late George Ross, September 20, 1810, and the patent, May 16, 1816, then containing 26 acres and 5 perches, which Ross conveyed to Andrew Brown, August 6, 1818, for $500, and which Philip Mechling, sheriff, conveyed to " James Pinks & Co., of Kittanning," June 23, 1820, for $126.121, having sold the same to them on a judgment in favor of Ross against Brown for $100 of debt and $2.47 of costs. The purchasers were James Pinks and James Monteith, his undivided one-half of which the former conveyed to the latter, July 29, 1825, so that this island was included in the latter's devise to his daughters-Mary, afterward intermarried with William F. Johnston, and Nancy, intermarried with Dr. John Gilpin, to whose estates it still belongs. It and the run and the falls of that name are said to have been so called after one Nicholson who early made a settlement on the run. James Nicholson-spelled Nickelson-was assessed with 200 acres in Buffalo township in 1806, but not before or after. If the reader could take a glance at the map of original tracts, he would see on it a tract of 414 acres and 133 perches, adjoining " Stephen's Green" on the west and "Mulberry Lane" and " Gensing Hill" on the north, bearing on its face "Abram Leasure or John Truby," with which Leasure appears to have been assessed as a settler at 40 cents an acre prior to 1805 and afterward as an improver at 50 cents an acre until 1809, and thereafter Truby was assessed as an improver with 200 acres at 50 cents an acre, the tax on 100 of which was to be paid by Henry Brough, as noted on the assessment list for the year 1810. It was surveyed to Truby, June 27, 1810, by Isaac Moore, deputy surveyor-421 acres and 93 perches. Truby continued to be assessed with 100 acres until 1817, when the list shows this parcel was transferred to Conrad Hollabough, to whom it was assessed for one year. Truby entered into an agreement, February 10, 1812, to convey 100 acres of this tract, on which he then lived, to Hollabough and George Shearer for $260, including an "improvement known as Henry Brough's." Truby was to give possession on the 1st of the next April, and the vendees were to pay $30 in money before the execution of the article of agreement, a certain mare, saddle and bridle, and one heifer, which the vendor was to take from them at the valuation to be placed upon them by two honest and judicious neighbors on or before the 1st of April, and the vendees were to pay the further sum of $20 on the 1st of the next October, and the residue in four equal annual payments, the first of which was to be made on April 1, 1813. None of those occupants seem to have perfected his title. A patent for it, as containing 423 acres and 87 perches, was granted to Daniel Bush, September 5, 1820, who conveyed about 20 acres to Jacob Bush, April 5, 1825, and he to Sebastian Spangler as 21 acres and 79 perches, February 28, 1834, for $64.50, and he to James Arp, the same quantity, April 5, 1850, for $252. David Bush conveyed 100 acres and 47 perches to George Shearer, April 5, 1825, for $550, and 109 acres and 29 perches of his tract to Andrew Bush, December 5, 1825, for $450. John Shearer, as devisee of George Shearer, 200 acres and 47 perches to James H. Reddick, December 15, 1851, for $1,600. North of " Stephen's Green," on that map, is a tract containing 3611 acres, one parcel of which, adjoining the river-253 acres, 119 perches-were surveyed by Stephen Gapen to John Green September 12, 1789, which adjoined another parcel on the south which had been previously surveyed to Green, bearing the name of William Van Dyke, and with which he was assessed, probably several years, before 1805. It was assessed to his executors as an improvement in 1806; then to Barbara Van Dyke until 1809; then to George Van Dyke until 1815, and then to the heirs of William Van Dyke until 1820, when George was assessed with 475 acres. Nicholson's run flows southeasterly through the central part of it, and crosses the line between it and "Stephen's Green," about 100 rods west from the river. The entire tract remained in the possession of the Van Dyke heirs for many years. From recitals in some of the conveyances of portions of this tract, it appears that these heirs, some time prior to 1837, it is not apparent from the records just when, conveyed 233 acres and some 441 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. perches of the eastern portion to William Bitts, Sr., and by agreement of the vendor and vendee the patent was issued to Archibald McCall, who conveyed to Bitts, to whom a warrant of acceptance was issued for 158 acres and 22 perches August 29, 1837, and the patent the same day. Bitts conveyed the last-mentioned quantity to John D. Bitts November 13, 18:38, for $600, which the latter in his lifetime agreed to sell to Andrew McCaslin for $1,000. A part of the purchase money having been paid in Bitts' lifetime, and he having died without executing a deed, his administratrix, by virtue of the decree of the proper court, executed one February 26, 1853, which was delivered on payment of the unpaid balance of the purchase money. McCaslin was first assessed with this parcel of land in 1846, and with the gristmill, which he erected on it, in 1849, and with his sawmill in 1853. He conveyed 30 acres and one-half of the gristmill to Eliza McClelland February 15, 1856, for $1,800. In that year the assessment on the gristmill was increased $250 for the addition of steam. The next year George McClelland was first assessed with one-half of the mills. William Bitts conveyed 133 acres of what he had purchased from the Van Dyke heirs to George B. Sloan November 15, 1847, which the latter conveyed to John Boyd September 9, 1856, for $1,700, with reservations respecting coal and lime. The McVille postoflice was established here May 5, 1864, Robert McCaslin postmaster. The same year John Boyd opened his store about 35 rods northwest of the steam mill on the west side of Nicholson's run. The first and only resident clergyman at McVille is Rev. Jacob F. Dean, Baptist, who settled here in 1868. The heirs of Elizabeth, widow of George Van Dyke, conveyed 75 acres and 146 perches of the southern part of the original tract to Jacob Shoop, of Freeport, January 11, 1851, for $911, which Shoop conveyed to Joseph Spangler September 26, 1851, ten acres of which Spangler conveyed to George McClelland April 20, 1863, for $150. Next above or north of that Vandyke-Bitts tract is one on that map containing 440 acres, the southwestern part of which is traversed by Nicholson's run, and the northeastern part is in what is now North Buffalo township, being in shape almost a scalene, the township line and the original northern and northeastern boundary lines of the original tract giving that portion such a form, and which was claimed by Jacob White as early as 1794. "The heirs of Steele Semple and Samuel Massey" are inscribed on it. It is not apparent how Semple acquired any title to it. Robert Fleming gained an interest in it by early settlement-before 1805which was sold by John Orr, sheriff, and conveyed by him to Samuel Massey, June o20, 1808, under a judgment in favor of Mark Kelly against Samuel Dickenson, as Fleming's administrator. Massey conveyed it to Samuel S. Harrison, June 1, 1815, who conveyed it to Philip McCue, as per agreement with Charles McCue, August 23, 1818, for $200. It was conveyed as the property of McCue and as containing 400 acres more or less by Robert Robinson, sheriff, on a judgment in favor of William Coulter to Alexander Colwell, September 18, 1823, for. $84, who conveyed it to Francis Duff, February 5,1824, for $270. A comparatively small portion of it is now owned by Duff's heirs. Among other owners of other portions in this township are Philip Mechling, Win. Hartman and A. Decker. As far back as 1836-7 Duff and White had occasional disputes about their respective lines. Duff conveyed a parcel of it to James Hartman, March 4, 1840; Hartman to James, and he to James Long; James Long to Charles Long, 3 acres and 20 perches, August 20, 1842, for $200, who reconveyed it to James Long, November 14, 1850, for $and he to H. N. Lee, November 14, 1850, for $and Lee to Robert S. Connor, the present owner, January 2, 1860, for $1,000. Glancing at a map of the connected surveys made by Deputy Surveyor Stephen Gapen in 1793-4, the territory on this side of the Allegheny river and below the line between the donation and depreciation lands in this county and a part of the adjoining territory in Butler county, being then in his, that is, the eighth surveyor district, contiguous to " White's Claim," i. e., the above-mentioned Fleming-Massey-Harrison tract, on the west is seen the Richard McCall tract, 402 acres and 112 perches, the eastern part traversed by Nicholson's run and the central by a western tributary to that run. Adjoining it on the south is the Jasper McCall tract, 408 acres and 50 perches. On the south of the greater it is the John Bell, Jr., tract, 292 acres and 139 perches, through the central part of which flows a run southeasterly, and south of which is a portion of "Stephen's Green." Immediately west of these several last-mentioned tracts are seen two others, the southern one David Todd, 412 acres, and 117 acres; the northern one John Rambo, containing the same quantity as the Todd one, both traversed by what is now called Knapp's run. Adjoining these last-mentioned two tracts on the west are those of John Jackson, Jr., James Mehaffy, William Todd and John Scott, tracts whose boundaries and quantities are not 442 SOUTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. given. West of the last-named is Samuel Paul tract. North of it is the Peter McCall tract, 406 acres and 100 perches, very near the center of which is the sharp southeastern bend in Pine run, with Peter Pieper a short distance above its northern line. West of it and the Samuel Paul is another David Todd tract, 411 acres and 90 perches, traversed by Buffalo creek and adjoined on the west by depreciation lots No. 148, also traversed by Buffalo creek, and No. 149. A considerable portion of territory north and northeast of this Todd tract appears to be vacant, though not so mentioned. The inchoate titles to those tracts acquired by Gapen's surveys do not appear to have been consummated. So passing from the Gapen surveys to the other mentioned map of surveys or original tracts, which are the surveys made by Joshua Elder in the fifth surveyor district, in place of the Richard McCall, is seen the Patrick McCue tract, 437 acres and 33 perches, called "Wood Lawn," the patent for which was granted to Archibald McCall and McCue, July 30, 1806. The latter settled on and improved it prior to 1805. It is probable, though the records do not show it, that he and McCall made partition of the tract and released to each other. McCall's heirs conveyed 240 acres of it to William McIntire, October 4, 1845, for $565. The latter conveyed 70 acres of his parcel to James McIntire, February 14, 1848, for $700, and 170 acres, except the ground which he had reserved for a public schoolhouse, to John Step, September 4, 1850, for $2,000. McCue was assessed with 250 acres of it as held by patent until 1812, but what disposition he made of his interest therein is not apparent from the records. Hle was assessed With another parcel of 368 acres as held by "improvement" in and after 1810. Somewhat east of the center of that McCall-McCue tract is the junction of a small western tributary with Nicholson's run. Next south of "Wood Lawn" is seen on the later map the McCall-Stoup tract, called " Concordance," in place of the Jasper McCall one on the Gapen map. It was settled by Vensel or Wendel Stoup before 1805, and the patent for 403 acres and 107 perches was granted to him and Archibald McCall, February 3, 1809. Stoup conveyed 15 acres of his part to Sebastian Spangler, May 2, 1828, for $37.50. McCall's portion was included in his transfer to Du Pont, who released 200 acres to Samuel Ferguson, June 20, 1831, for $1. Next south of " Concordance," on the later of the two last-mentioned maps, is seen the Frederick Razer and A. McCall tract, 313 acres and 104 perches, called " Mount Hope," the greater part of which was included in Gapen's survey to John Bell, Jr. Razer's improvement began in August, 1793, and the patent for which was granted to Razer and McCall, February 6, 1809, who made partition of it between themselves, and McCall conveyed 165 acres of it to Razer, May 23, 1813, and Razer conveyed the remaining 148 acres to McCall, June 21. Razer conveyed 165 acres and 104 perches to John Reamer, June 21, 1813, for $828.121, which Robert Robinson, sheriff, sold to Samuel S. Harrison on pluries yen. ex., No. 55, March term, 1823, in the common pleas of this county, for $280, which the latter conveyed to Hugh and James Forrester, April 2,1833, for $500, of which about 50 acres were then cleared, "with a cabin house and cabin barn." Hugh Forrester conveyed all his interest in these 165 acres to Stephen Forrester, January 8, 1859, for $1,100, and on the same day the widow, administrator and administratrix of James Forrester released,to Stephen all their interest therein, to whom it still belongs. On the west of " Mount Hope" lay the McCall and James Clark tract, 412 acres and 87 perches, called " Temperance," included in Gapen's survey to David Todd, the patent for which was granted to McCall and Clark May 16, 1807. Clark's settlement and improvement began several years before, by virtue of which the tract was surveyed to him and McCall May 7, 1805. "Temperance" was included in the transfer from McCall to Du Pont, and in the re-transfer from Du Pont to McCall, the latter conveyed 100 acres to William Vandike, June 20, 1836, for $--, which, with two other parcels, one which he had purchased from Sype, a part of " Temperance," and the other, which was a part of "Mount Pleasant," aggregating 138 acres and 125 perches, which by his will, registered May 12, 1847, he devised to his children, by whom the same was conveyed to Hiram Vandike, March 21, 1868, for $4,000. McCall conveyed 97 acres and 47 perches of "Temperance" to William Sipe, June 25, 1837, for $59.75, and he conveyed 12 acres and 122 perches to William Vandike for $62. Clark's interest in 120 acres of " Temperance" was conveyed by Samuel Hutchison, sheriff, on a judgment in favor of Nathaniel Torbett's administrator to James Clark, Jr., September 20, 1836, for $200, 68 acres and 96 perches of which he conveyed to William Vickers, June 10, 1841, for $300, and which the latter conveyed to George Hill, July 15, 1847, for $550. James Clark, the younger, conveyed 80 acres and 152 perches to Jacob Best, February 1, 1825, for $320, which had been devised to him, a part of which he bad sold to John Clark, which the latter had agieed, March 2, 1824, to sell to Best. 443 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Adjoining "Temperance " on the north was the McCall and Enos McBride tract, 410 acres and 14 perches, called " Mount Pleasant," included in Gapen's survey to John Rambo. The warrant for it was granted September 7, 1808, and the patent to McCall and McBride, February 6, 1809. McBride's improvement and settlement began in April, 1796, and it was surveyed to him by George Ross, September 13, 1801. McCall and McBride having made partition of "Mount Pleasant" between themselves, the former conveyed to the latter 205 acres of it, September 2, 1809, and the latter to the former the remaining portion at or about the same time. McBride and Isaac Frantz traded lands on or before October 15, 1823. McBride conveyed his 205 acres of "Mount Pleasant to Frantz for the latter's 118 acres, on which he then resided, and a carding-machine. Frantz conveyed the 205 acres to which hlie had thus acquired title to Jacob Frantz, December 23, 1823, for $1,862.76, about two-thirds of which consisted of a certain writing obligatory which Jacob held against Isaac. McCall conveyed 50 acres of "Mount Pleasant" to John Graham, October 22, 1841, for $450. McCall's heirs conveyed 168 acres and 140 perches to William B. Clymer and Amos N. Mybert, August 7, 1858, and Mybert conveyed his moiety to Clymer, October 7, who conveyed the entire parcel to William McCain in March, 1859, for $411.40, 60 acres of which the latter conveyed to Joshua Nickle, June 1, 1859, for $600. Adjoining " Temperance" on the west was a tract, 438 acres and 40 perches, for which a patent was granted to John Sloan, of Derry township, formerly sheriff of Westmoreland county, March 31, 1813, which appears to have included portions of the earlier surveys by Gapen to John Scott and William Todd, to a part of which James Sloan had acquired a right by settlement. William Sloan was assessed with the entire tract as early at least as 1805. On August 21, 1818, John Sloan conveyed 40 acres to Charles Sipe, for ~50; 32 acres and 48 perches to Abraham Lowman, for $226; and 284 acres, exclusive of James Sloan's part, then adjoining Conrad Colmer, William Sloan, James Steel and others, to Mrs. Lavinia Culbertson, Mrs. Martha Orr and Mrs. Ann Ralston, for $1,704. On June 17, 1829, the three lastnamed vendees with their husbands, Alexander Culbertson, Samuel C. Orr and William Ralston, conveyed 77 acres and 6 perches adjoining the lands of Monteith's heirs and William Sloan, Sr., to George Best for $308.17; 94 acres and 19 perches to Henry and Jacob Keever for $376; and 117 acres and 84 perches to George Isaman for $468.21. The St. Matthew's Evangelical Lutheran church was organized by Rev. David Earhart, in 1846. It was incorporated by the proper court, June 22, 1848. The trustees named in the charter, to serve until the third Saturday in March, 1849, were Rev. David Earhart, John Myers, George Grinder, George Baker and Jacob Somers. The church edifice, about 25X38 feet, frame with clay filling between studs, and hence called "the mud church," was erected during Rev. Earhart's pastorate on 80 square perches, "part of a tract patented to John Sloan, March 31, 1813," which George Isaman conveyed to the church, December 18, 1848, for $10.* The number of members in 1876 is forty-eight. The ground of the graveyard was cleared by Charles Sipe, Sr., in 1796, and put in corn. It is recited in the deed from William Sloan to Samuel Sloan, September 8,1845, for 3 acres and 48 perches, for $13.80 "and natural affection," that Mrs. Culbertson and others had conveyed the parcel purchased by them from John Sloan to William Sloan, and which is reiterated in the latter's will, dated Janary 15, 1847, and registered April 21, 1849. As their deed to him is not on record, and as they conveyed nearly the same quantity, which they had purchased from John Sloan, to their other vendees, there is an ambiguity in that recital which the records do not explain. A small parcel, 10 acres, of the John Sloan tract, which William Sloan devised to his son Samuel, has been several times transferred since that devise, with considerable variations in price. Sanmuel Sloan conveyed it to Isaac Aker, March 30, 1859; Aker to Stephen Stokes, March 31, 1863, for $600; Stokes to Maria Daniels, in 1864; Daniels to James C. Edwards, October 2, 1866, for $1,200; and the latter to William Sloan, March 1, 1873, for $1,700, on which is " Ginger Hill," so called from a ginger-cake shop that was kept here on the public road many years ago, about 75 rods northeasterly from which, or where there was a blacksmith shop in and after 1860, is the public schoolhouse No. 5, called the Sloan schoolhouse,t where the elections in this township are held. Immediately west of that John Sloan tract lay another one in his name on the Lawson and Orr map of surveys, 282-1 acres, and adjoining it on the north and west-seeming to be carved out of its original area- is another 155 acres and 120 perches, in the name of James Sloan, included * That edifice has, since 1876, been removed, and a new one erected at MAeVcille. f A new schoolhouse has since been erected about 60 rods west of this one: 444 SOUTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. apparently in Gapen's surveys to Samuel Paul, John Scott and William Todd. Contiguous to those last-mentioned Sloan tracts on the west were the two Colmer, or Coleman, tracts, including most of the Gapen survey, to Paul, and about half of his survey to Peter McCall. The southern one, 383 acres and 3 perches, adjoined " Bolton," "Wigan " and " Poulton " on the south, on which Abraham Colmer made an improvement in August, 1793, an actual settlement in October, 1795, which was surveyed to him by George Ross, deputy surveyor, May 8, 1801, to whom the warrant was granted, January 15, 1802, which he conveyed to John Craig, November 3, to whom the patent was granted June 30, 1804, 81 acres and 84 2 perches of which Craig conveyed to Nicholas Isaman, May 10, 1806, for $271, and another portion of it to Conrad Colmer, May 16, 1806, who devised it to his son, George Colmer, he to John Sheaffer, May 17, 1817, he to Philip Heckman, January 22, 1822. There was a conveyance from Heckman to Michael Fry, whose administrator, Peter Phillipi, conveyed it to Robert Morrison, September 19, 1836, he to William Carson, March 16, 1846, whose agent, John Carson, conveyed 119 acres and 148 perches to Stephen Stokes, April 3, 1849, for 82,200. The Conrad Colmer or Coleman tract, 385 acres and 115 perches, called "Cole Mount," was probably settled and improved by him in or about 1795. The patent for it was granted to him and McCall, May 11, 1807. They having made partition between themselves, Colmer by his will, dated November 8, 1809, and registered June 14, 1813, devised the 100 acres on which his second son, Abraham, then resided, to him, who conveyed the same, as containing 99 acres, to John Craig, July 11, 1814, for $400. Conrad Colmer also devised to his third son, Daniel, that portion of his purpart then, i. e. at the date of his will, occupied by the latter, to whom Du Pont, by his attorney J. C. McCall, released his and the McCall interest therein, September 5, 1820, and on October 31 Daniel conveyed 120 acres to Catherine Colmer and George Holebach, for $600, which Hiolebach conyeyed to James Tracy, of Ohio, November 19, 1827, for $650. One hundred and seventy-one acres and 36 perches of " Cole Mount" were included in the purchase from McCall's heirs by William F. Johnston for himself and for Brown & Gilpin. Adjoining "Cole Mount" and the Abraham Colmer tracts on the west was the McCall and Nichola. Myers tract, 442 acres and 36 perches, called "Mount Charles;" 442 acres and 36 perches were 28 surveyed them, May 9, 1805, by virtue of actual settlement and improvement. The patent to McCall and Myers is dated July 30 in that last-mentioned year. They having made partition between themselves, McCall by his attorney, Thomas Collins, conveyed 125 acres to Myers, April 6, 1808. Eli Myers was assessed with a gristmill in 1811 and 1812, which was, perhaps, on this parcel of "Mount Charles." McCall's heirs conveyed 298 acres and 115 perches to William F. Johnston for himself, Brown and Gilpin, which then (1846) adjoined lands of John Beatty and George Todd. William F. Johnston conveyed 100 acres and 8 perches of the McCall purpart of "Mount Charles" to William Bickett, November 16, 1853, for $700.35, which the latter conveyed to Charles McCafferty, October 5, 1855, for $1,800. Martin Wackerlie purchased a portion of "Mount Charles" some twenty or more years later, and John W. Johnston, attorney-in-fact, and John Gilpin conveyed 22 acres and 3 perches to George Otterman, January 1, 1875, for $264. Wackerlie conveyed 105 acres to Barnet Step, February 26, 1875, for $1,867.67. On the west of the southern part of "Mount Charles" lay a tract, the warrant for which was granted to Aaron Wor, and which contained 214 acres and 105 perches, 209 acres and 145 perches of which were surveyed to Nicholas Myers, May 9, 1805, by virtue of improvement and settlement, the patent for which was granted to him February 7, 1815, who conveyed it to his son, John Myers, February 5, 1835, for $1,000, who still occupies it. North of the Wor tract and west of the northern part of " Mount Charles," lay the depreciation lot No. 149, 234 acres and 8 perches, the patent for which was granted to Joshua Elder, May 9, 1791, which, at least a part of it, having become vested in George A. McCall, he conveyed 125 acres and 80 perches to George Todd, May 1, 1838, for $1,004, with which he was first assessed in that year. Next north of No. 149, lay depreciation lot No. 150, 235 acres and 8 perches. Immediately north of the last-mentioned tract lay the depreciation lot No. 152, 23510 acres, called "Le Cher Maurin," partly in Butler county, was included in the patents to Peter B. Audibert, and in his sales to Lewis A. Dupuy, and of him to Maguire and Donath, of which John Gilmore, attorney-in-fact for Donath, and the executrix and executor of Maguire, conveyed 20 acres to David Bricker, April 1, 1836, for $120. Immediately east of No. 150 lay depreciation lot No. 145, 314 acres and 8 perches, divided by Buffalo creek, there being about an equal portion of the tract on each side of the deep northwestern 445 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. bend. A portion of it and portions of its southern adjoiners, "Mount Charles" and " Cole Mount," appear to have been included in Gapen's survey to David Todd. It is not manifest from the records that any portion of it was occupied by any settler so early as its adjoiners. Abraham Leasure appears to have been first assessed with 100 acres of the southwestern part of it in 1809, and afterward with 125 acres, which he conveyed to John Empey, January 3, 1820, for $288.76, which the grantor described as the parcel on which he then lived, on Buffalo creek, adjoining Robert Galbraith on the north, Samuel Dickason on the east, Nicholas Myers on the south and David Moorehead on the west, some of whom may have then occupied other portions of it. George Ross surveyed 442 acres and 36 perches "on Buffalo creek south by Conrad Colmer and A. McCall," to Dickason, May 25, 1808. In the southeastern part of this tract, near its southern line, at a rather sharp eastern bend of the Buffalo, is the junction of Pine run with that creek. There is a considerable cleft in the rocks at the mouth of this run, in which the early white settlers were accustomed to watch the Indians. This was one of the Audibert tracts called " Lami Rous." The patent to Peter Benignus Audibert is dated February 9, 1787. His administrator, James J. Mazerie, conveyed it to Lewis Alexander Dupuy, November 2, 1785, for 8$-, who conveyed it to Joseph Donath and Mazerie. The latter by his last will authorized his wife as his executrix, and John H. Roberjot, his executor, to sell it. Mrs. Mazerie, Donath and Roberjot conveyed it to John Beatty, November 4, 1831, for $625. It having become vested in John G. Beatty, he conveyed 200 acres of it to William Ewing, April 1, 1864, for $5,600, a portion of which Ewing subsequently conveyed to Martin Wackerlie, on which he built his sawmill about 1870. Adjoining No. 145 on the north and No. 152 on the east was depreciation lot No. 151, "La Janton Ray," traversed in its eastern portion by the Buffalo in a nearly southerly course, and its central part by Cornplanter's run in a nearly southeastern course, the two streams forming a junction in the southeastern part of the tract. It may in this connection be stated that this run is so called after the distinguished Indian chief, Cornplanter, who was born at Conewagus, on the Genesee river, his father, a white man, said to be a resident of Albany, New York. After the war of the revolution he was an unswerving friend of the whites, and performed some valuable services for them, for which he received grants of land in various localities. The fact that he and some of his people once resided at and near the month of Cornplanter's run, where they raised corn, has come down from early explorers of and settlers in this region to James P. Murphy and others. It was related by Charles Sipe, Sr., who fished and hunted along these streams in and after 1796, that he and his sons could see the rows of cornhills on a parcel of about three acres opposite the mouth of Cornplanter's run and on another parcel on the west side of the creek about half a mile up. A hatchet was plowed up, many years since, about three-quarters of a mile above the mouth of the run. Jacob Bricker, Charles Sipe and others, in opening a road, found another hatchet about 150 rods above the mouth of the run, opposite what is now known as Bricker's milldam. About four rods below was a stone-pile, on removing which they found a full set of very large human bones, the skull-bone being three-fourths of an inch thick. In 1830-1 James Law plowed up a set of puzzling-irons in the same vicinity. It does not seem improbable that John O'Bail, as Cornplanter was also called, derived his Indian name, Ki-en-twa-ka, from those cornfields. The Cornplanter had two sons, Charles and Henry, who survived him. He and one or the other of them and others of his people occasionally passed down and up the Allegheny, stopping some times at Kittanning, whom Philip Mechling and some others of the oldest citizens remember having seen. He died at his home on his long-loved Allegheny, in Warren county, March 7, 1836, in or about the one hundred and fifth year of his age. The depreciation lot No. 151, 300 acres, called "La Janton Ray," is the one traversed as above mentioned by Cornplanter's run. The patent for it was granted, February 9, 1787, to Peter Benignus Audibert, a French merchant of Philadelphia, who took the oath of allegiance September 20, having then resided there two years. Under an order of the proper court, James Mazurie, Audibert's administrator, conveyed this tract to Lewis Alexander Du Puy, November 2, 1795, who conveyed it the next day to Mazurie and Joseph Donath. They conveyed it to James McCormick, April 26, 1817, for $1,101.80, who conveyed 138 acres and 13 perches of it to John McCormick, June 29, 1826, for $500. The latter conveyed 117 acres to William Kiskadden, April 27, 1829, for $550, and 20 acres to Joseph Ralston, July 3, 1826, for $100. James McCormick conveyed 621 acres of "Le Janton Bay" to John Bricker, June 29, 1826, for $200, and 7 acres and 38 perches, the same day, to Nicholas Bricker for $78, on which latter parcel Nicholas Bricker built his sawmill, with which he was first assessed in 1830, and his gristmill, with which he 446 SOUTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. was first assessed in 1831, and with both of which John Bricker was assessed from 1844 to 1855, and thereafter to David and Harvey Bricker, and to Harvey and Hiram A. Bricker after October 20, 1865, when John Bricker agreed to sell the same to them. They conveyed 140 acres, with the gristmill and machinery, to Peter Clark, January 8, 1872, for 86,000, and he to Samuel A. Barnes and George B. Sloan, December 31, 1874, for $4,000. The mill and the land were assessed to Alexander Storey in 1876.* Twelve of Peter B. Audibert's tracts in this and other townships in this county were sold by Joseph Brown, sheriff, and purchased by Audibert. The sheriff's deeds to him are dated March 21 and 22, 1815. In 1817 he gave Gabriel Philibert Lobeau a power of attorney to sell these lands, both being then naturalized.citizens of the United States. Lobeau as attorney-in-fact conveyed depreciation lot No. 153, 2983 acres, called "La Bonne Genevieve," to Nicholas Bricker, September 28, 1817, for $450, and depreciation lot No. 156, 235 acres, called "Louis Thomas," partly in Butler county, to Bricker, January 4, 1818, for $20, the amount bid by Joseph Audibert at the sheriff's sale. Those two tracts adjoin Nos. 151 and 152 on the south. Adjoining "Louis Thomas" on the north was No. 155, 23820 acres, called "La Marie Possessante," partly in Butler county, and the northern part of it traversed by the southern boundary line of North Buffalo township, and which Joseph Audibert by his attorney conveyed to Arthur Hill, of Vesailles township, Allegheny county, January 29, 1818, for $200. Adjoining "La Marie Possessante" on the east was depreciation lot No. 154, 5981' acres called " La Maria Rosallie," traversed in a southeasterly course by the Buffalo, and was included in Joseph Audibert's purchase at sheriff's sale, and was conveyed by his attorney-in-fact G. P. Lobeau, to John Ralston January 24, 1818, for $400, on which he appears to have settled in 1814, when he was first assessed with one horse and one cow, and the next year with 74 acres of the land. The first Masonic lodge constituted in this county held its meetings in an upper room of his log house for several years after its erection, as the writer has been informed by one of his grandsons. Hie conveyed a portion of this tract to James Rea July 21, 1837, who conveyed to George Rea February 8, 1857, and he conveyed 51 acres and 15 perches to Isaac Acker, the present occupant, April 2, 1864, for $1,200. Another portion is in possession of W. L. Ralston. *.1,400 taken off the valuation in 1878, in consequence of the mill being burnt. Adjoining " La Bonne Genevieve" and a small portion of "La Maria Rosallie" on the east was a tract, 133 acres and 153 perches, surveyed by George Ross to Nicholas Bricker, by virtue of his improvement settlement thereon in October, 1797, where he followed his occupation of tailor, with which hlie was assessed before and after 1806. This tract may have been included in the 230 acres which he transferred to John Bricker December 15, 1852, for 25 cents. Adjoining that last-mentioned Bricker tract on the east was one surveyed by George Ross May 26, 1802, to Jacob Everhart, by virtue of an improvement made in February, 1793, and actual settlement March 5, 1796, who afterward removed to Trumbull county, Ohio, and conveyed 145 acres, more or less, called " William farm," to William Morrison, of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, November 24, 1807, for $500. In the first decade of this century, perhaps in 1804-5, a log church edifice was erected on this tract by the German Reformed and Lutheran congregations, or it may have been by one of them, and the other united afterward. The earliest record evidence of the time of the erection of that edifice, accessible to the writer, is in Road Book A, page 18, which shows that on the 18th of March, 1807, upon the presentation of the petition of sundry inhabitants of Buffalo township, the court of quarter sessions of this county appointed David Hall, James Hill, James Matthews, Jr., James McCullough, John McKean and John Painter, viewers, to lay out a private road " from the Dutch meeting-house, on the Pittsburgh road, to intersect with the Bear creek road at the house of James Rebarn " (Rayburn, meaning), to be opened, bridged and kept up at the expense of the petitioners, which the court, September 18, allowed to be opened as a private road fifteen feet wide. Morrison conveyed TO acres of his tract to "the trustees of the Blue Slate congregation" May 16, 1825, for $1.50. The cemetery is about 25 rods northwesterly from the meeting-house, north of a small run. The writer regrets his meager information respecting those two churches. The members of this church ceased to worship in this locality soon after the organization of St. Matthew's church. The preaching and other exercises. in that "Blue Slate" church were mostly, if not altogether, in German, which was very acceptable to the older members, but not so to the younger. It was by the aid of the latter, chiefly, that Rev. David Earhart succeeded in organizing St. Matthew's. Some of the oldest members, who were attached to German language, as well as to the locality of the " Blue Slate" edifice, 447 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. were not pleased with the change, and some of them said they were just trampled on, deprived of their choice, by the younger members. Northwest of the last-mentioned tract lay two parcels, Robert McCreary's and John Crookshanks', which were, perhaps, included in the survey to Jacob Everhart, 2393 acres, called " Rathfuland," for which a patent was granted to McCreary for himself and in trust for Crookshanks. The southwestern one of these two parcels was settled by McCreary in 1806, and in the assessment list of that year, opposite his name is this notation, "bought a part of Jacob Everhart's place," and the abovementioned patent is dated July 5, 1810. This parcel was inherited by his son, William McCreary, who conveyed 1 acre and 20 perches of it to John Keener, April 12, 1829, for $7, and 130 acres to John Monroe, April 13, 1832, for $950, who conveyed 127 acres and 31 perches to John Monroe, Jr., December 2, 1847, for $750, and hlie to Isaac Monroe, April 1, 1854, for $1,100. Crookshanks' parcel having become subject to liens of certain judgments under the control of Thomas Blair, attorney, Kittanning, he and Crookshanks agreed, April 28,1824, to sell it to John Keener. Thomas McConnell, sheriff, by virtue of a sale for taxes, conveyed it to Blair June 25, 1824, for $300.01-, and he to Keener, February 4, 1828, for $400, and William McCreary released to Keener whatever title he had inherited from his father, April 10, 1829. Adjoining the four last-mentioned tracts or par cels on the north, was the tract, 417 acres and 130 perches, for which a patent was granted to John Sipe, January 10, 1809. About half its territory is now in North Buffalo township. Sipe's run flows through the northwestern part of it into the Buffalo. Sipe conveyed 209 acres of the eastern part of it to Thomas Kiskadden, January 8, 1810, for $185. East of the southeastern part of the Sipe tract, and north and east of the Crookshanks parcel of the Everhart survey, lay that part of the James Ray burn tract in this township, on which, near the township line, are the sites of the United Presby terian church edifice, parsonage and cemetery. This church, as the Buffalo Associate, was organ ized in or about 1811 or 1812. The first edifice was a log structure. The present frame one, about 35 X 45 feet, was erected in 1844. This church was incorporated by the proper court, December 1, 1862, The trustees named in the charter were Robert Galbraith, Robert Huston, David McCune, Robert Ralston and James Rayburn, who were to act until their successors should be appointed, according to the form of discipline of the United Presbyterian church of the United States.* Its membership is 80; Sabbath-school scholars, 70. James Rayburn conveyed 211 acres of the western part of his tract to James Ralston, December 15, 1832, for $1, of which the latter conveyed 168 acres to George F. Keener, February 15, 1839, for $3,000, on which the latter erected a large twostory frame mansion house, and made other improvements, for the sale and purchase of which, for $6,300, hlie and David C. Boggs entered into an agreement, February 19, 1866, which and another parcel, a part of Matthew Rayburn's farm, are in South Buffalo township. East of the before-noticed depreciation lots Nos. 145 and 151 and south of the William Morrison and Nicholas Bricker tracts, was the tract on which Nicholas Best made an improvement and settlement in March, 1796, and which was surveyed to him by George Ross as containing 439 acres and 52 perches, May 25, 1802, by virtue of a settlement and improvement made in March, 1796. The warrant was granted December 7, 1802, and the patent March 26, 1806. Best conveyed 231 acres and 26 perches, then adjoining John Painter and Jacob Everhart, to Abraham Gardner, January 2, 1808, for $800, on which Gardner had settled before 1805. He conveyed the last-mentioned quantity to William Todd, of Kiskiminetas township, March 24, 1828, for $900, 10 acres of which Todd conveyed to William Morrison, October 9, 1858, for $190. Todd's executors, John Graham and George Todd, conveyed to Isaac Pearce, July 14, 1855; Pearce to John McMurry, December 1, 1859, including the 10 acres conveyed by Todd to Morrison; McMurray to Jacob Frantz, October 3, 1865, for $6,500; and Frantz to Andrew Ivory, June 15, 1870, for $44. Best died about the 12th of January, 1845, and not having devised his real estate to any person by name, his executors, George Best and John Keener, obtained an order from the proper court to sell. They conveyed 218 acres and 26 perches of the eastern portion of the original tract to John A. Patterson, October 30, 1847, for $1,898.01, who built the sawmill on Pine run in 1850. There must have been a surplus in this parcel, for Patterson conveyed it as containing 253 acres and 96 perches to Harvey Gibson, the present owner, June 18, 1875, for $10,000, which, with 2 acres, was reserved in the conveyances to Patter son. Nicholas Best, Jr., manufactured pottery ware in " the pottershop" from 1843 until 1845. * The charter was amended July 5, 1879, changing the name of trustees to that of deacons. 448 SOUTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. Adjoining about 150 rods of the southern part of the Best tract and about 25 rods of the northern part of " Cole Mount" was a tract of 219 acres and 36 perches, adjoining which onl the east was a tract of 208 acres, which appears to have been covered at one time by a warrant to Aaron Wor for 208 acres, January 10, 1796, who conveyed his interest in it to John Craig, January 5, 1801, for $40, and Craig probably conveyed it to Matthews soon after, for George Ross surveyed 427 acres and 36 perches, the aggregate quantity of those two contiguous tracts, to Matthews, September 18, 1801. He conveyed 149 acres of the eastern part of the Wor tract to George McKean, June 7, 1811, for $409.25; 4 acres to Enos McBride, October 10, for $14; 56 acres and 105 perches to Charles Sipe, the same day, for $198.18; and his executrix and executor 100 acres of the other or western tract to George Keener, Jr., April 1, 1837, for $700, of which George, Henry, Jacob and John H. Keener conveyed a fourth of an acre to Abraham Frantz, John H. Keener and Henry Shoup, trustees of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, August 21, 1843, for $1. McKean conveyed 25 acres of his parcel to Samuel Ferguson, January 8, 1823, for $100. Keener was choked by eating cherries, made a nincupative will and died July 4, 1846, which having been duly certified by George Best and Ellis Limpkings, was registered on the 14th, by which he devised that parcel of land to his son William, and appointed his brothers, Jacob and John I. Keener, to settle up his business. A small parcel, 201 acres, in the northwestern corner of the Wor tract, appear on the map to have been surveyed to John McKean. North of the last-mentioned two tracts lay a body of land, 422 acres and 100 perches, on which John Painter made an improvement in October, and a settlement in November, 1795, and which was surveyed to him as 416 acres and 2 perches May 20, 1802, but for which George Ross obtained a patent for himself, and in trust for James Foreman and Colen McGinley, to whom he released their respective shares June 9, 1816. Their parcels each contained 100 acres. McGinley conveyed his to Thomas Jones, October 13, 1810, for $400, which the latter reconveyed to him, April 3, 1811, for the same consideration. It has of late years been occupied by Simon Hank and William Jewell. James Foreman devised nearly all his parcel to his son David. North and east of the McGinley and south of the Foreman parcel was the residue of the quantity, 222 acres and 100 perches, included in the patent to Ross, which the latter conveyed to James McCormick, May 1, 1816, and which McCormick the next day conveyed, with the 20 acres and 48 perches which he then purchased from George McKean, to George Keener for $1,600. The latter was first assessed in that year with these two parcels as 240 acres, 1 horse and 3 cattle, at $398. His name was on the assessment list for the last time in 1842, when that land was valued at $1,944. It was thereafter assessed jointly to Jacob and John H. Keener until 1853, when it was "surveyed and divided." It was found by that survey to contain a surplus of several acres. For the next year Jacob was assessed with 125 and John H. with 124 acres. With the exception of minor portions of two other tracts, which will be elsewhere noticed, the only remaining original tract whose territory was within what is now South Buffalo township was one of 435 acres and 53 perches bearing on its face on the map of original tracts the name of " Kerscaddon," which appears from the ancient list of warrantees or owners to have once belonged to Arthur Kiskadden, whose inchoate title to it does not seem to have been perfected. Perhaps lie sold, though it does not thus appear from the records, his interest to the hereinafter- mentioned patentees. Its adjoiners on that map are James Rayburn on the north, "Kerskaddon," probably James Kiskadden, and Enos McBride on the east, Aaron Wor on the south, James McCormick, James Foreman and John Crookshanks on the west, or rather on the south of west. Jacob made an improvement on it in February, 1793, and a settlement in March, 1796, by virtue of which George Ross surveyed it to him May 20, 1802. Adam Ewing acquired at an early day an interest in the southern portion of it, for he conveyed 151 acres and 131 perches to Joseph Graham and John Ralston, January 18, 1809. A patent was granted to them, February 4, 1833. Graham conveyed 75 acres to John Graham, June 9, 1836, for $5,000; and Ralston 80 acres to George F. Keener, June 13, 1837, for $1,000, on which the latter soon after opened a tavern, and was first assessed here as a merchantin1846. He and Christian Shunk agreed, May 9, 1853, to sell and purchase this parcel of land, including the tavern stand and the merchandise in the store, for $7,100, to be paid thus: $5,000 on completing inventory of the goods in the store, and $900 annually with interest at 3 per cent, to begin May 20, 1854. Shunk having refused to pay those last-mentioned installments as they became due, Keener brought his action of ejectment to No. 52 September term, 1855, in common pleas of this county. The case was arbitrated, tried in court, the defense being divers liens on and a deficiency of the land included in that contract or 449 AGRICULTURAL. man, woman and child, if it were sold in this county. Heretofore there was but one brewery, now there are two. IRON FURNACES. Three furnaces for making iron were in blast in this county in 1830, one of which was then the largest in the United States, yielding forty tons per week, and the other two respectively fifteen and fourteen tons. All of them went out of blast or ceased to be operated many years since. Of the eleven others which followed them only three are now in blast. The four rolling-mills heretofore operated are at present idle. Some other industrial interests will be noticed in the more local sketches. SALT WVELLS. The number of salt wells in this county in 1830 was twenty-four, which produced annually 65,500 barrels of salt, each containing five bushels, which sold at $2.12 per barrel. Those wells were chiefly along the Allegheny and Kiskiminetas rivers. They were from 500 to 650 feet deep, three inches in diameter for the first 200 feet, and two inches in diameter below that depth. To aid in perpetuating a knowledge of the cost of boring salt wells, and the art of making salt, a few facts in relation thereto are here inserted. The boring or drilling of a salt well then cost $2 a foot for the first 500 feet, and $3 a foot below that depth. To prevent the fresh from mingling with the salt water, copper tubes with bags of flax-seed tied around them were inserted into the wells to just above the point where the salt water is reached. The swelling of the flax-seed filled the hole around the tube, and thus prevented the fresh from reaching the salt water below. The brine, after having been pumped through those tubes by steam power into large reservoirs, flowed thence into the boiling pans, whence, after boiling the requisite length of time, it was turned into a cooling vat, where the sediments settled and was passed thence into the graining pan, where, after evaporation, the salt remained in the bottom. Those pans were eight feet wide, twenty feet long, and placed over furnaces in which the requisite heat was maintained. Each establishment consumed daily from 175 to 200 bushels of bituminous coal. The cost of boring such a well in 1840 was about $3,500. The annual yield of salt from a single well was from 1,000 to 5,000 barrels. MANUFACTURING STATISTICS FOR 1850. Grist mills, 21; saw mills, 13; salt-boiling establishments, 5; manufactories of brick, 9; manufactories of tin and sheet-iron ware, 3; manufactories of woolen fabrics, 3; manufactories of nails, 1; rolling-mills, 2; furnaces for making iron, 6; iron foundries, 2; tanneries, 8. PRICES OF LAND. In 1825 Charles C. Gaskill, agent of the Holland Land Company, offered 150,000 acres for sale, a considerable portion of which was in this county, at from $1.50 to $2 per acre, on these very easy terms: if at $2 per acre, 5 per cent of the purchase money was to be paid at the time of the purchase; if at $1.75 per acre, 25 per cent in hand; and in case one-half of the purchase money was paid in hand, $1.50 per acre, and the balance in either case to be paid in eight equal annual payments, with interest after the second year. Mr. Gaskill stated among other things that the county was considerably improved by good roads, mills, and other conveniences which do not usually exist in infant settlements. In 1830 the best improved farming land sold from $12 to $20 per acre. The best improved farming land is now worth from $60 to $100 and upward per acre. VALUE OF PROPERTY. The report of the commissioner of- statistics of Pennsylvania for 1873 shows the assessed valuation of real and personal property in Armstrong county to have then been as follows: Real estate, $11,488,318; personal estate, $2,259,795. Total, *13,748,113. Multiple to produce true value, 3. True value of real and personal estate, $41,244,339. PRICES OF PROVISIONS AND LABOR. In and before 1830: flour, $3 a barrel; beef, 3 cents a pound; venison hams, 1- cents a pound; fowls, 6 cents each; butter, 6 to 8 cents a pound; eggs, 6 dents a dozen. The price of labor was fifty cents a day per hand, besides boarding, but very little cash was paid. There is a great contrast between those and present prices. For instance, flour is now quoted at $7 to $8 a barrel; butter varies from 14 to 35 and 40 cents a pound through the year, and eggs from 10 to 20 or more cents a dozen, and so on. AGRICULTURAL. The people of this county have been generally engaged in agricultural pursuits. The number of those engaged in other avocations is comparatively small. There were raised and made in this county in 1870, according to the census, 298,194 bushels of lishments, 12; carpentering and building estab- wheat, 135,257 bushels of rye, 680,314 bushels of HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. agreement. A verdict was rendered in favor of the plaintiff for somewhat over $1,900, on which judgment was rendered, which, being taken to the supreme court, was affirmed, and the plaintiff became repossessed of the land by a writ of habere facias. Another patent for 125 acres of that tract was granted to John Beatty, March 24, 1824, who conveyed 11 acres and 7 perches thereof to James Foreman, May 4, 1826, for $80, and 113 acres to John Rea, November 15, 1328, for $550, and he, the same, to George F. Keener, June 1, 1839, for $3,000, and he to James Brown, 109 acres, April 9, 1852, for $2,600, said in the deed to be the entire quantity which Keener had purchased from Rea. Robert M. and William Kiskadden obtained a patent for about 160 acres of the northern and northeastern part of that tract, January 9, 1839, of which 5 acres and 16 perches were conveyed to David Robinson, April 4, 1853, for $250. By order of the proper court, Joseph B. Smith, surviving executor of the last will and testament of Robert M. Kiskadden, deceased, conveyed 108 acres and 73 perches to Andrew L. Eakman, of Allegheny township, March 3, 1873, for $7,204.99, and he to James F. Adams, the present owner, April 10, 1874, for $7,703.66. Slate Lick, so called from a deer-lick, on that part of the last-mentioned tract which was in the early times Arthur Kiskadden's farm, has been a prominent point since the first settlement of this region. Its territory consists of parts of the lands included in the patents to James Rayburn, John Beatty, Joseph Graham and John Ralston, Robert M. and William Kiskadden, and the Crookshanks parcel of the McCreary patent, and the Foreman and McCormick parcels of the patent to Judge Ross, on the last-mentioned of which is the public schoolhouse No. 6. As early as, perhaps earlier than, 1802, initiatory steps were taken by the few and widely separated settlers of this region to organize a religious society. Slate Lick became the central point of their operations, from which resulted the "Slate Lick Congregation," and from which originated the first Presbyterian church in this county, the exact date of whose organization cannot now be ascertained. At the first meeting of the presbytery of Erie, held at Mount Pleasant, Beaver county, April 13, 1802, calls from the churches of Slate Lick and Union were intrusted to John Boyd, who had been licensed by the presbytery of Redstone, April 23, 1801, who, at the next meeting of the presbytery, at Union, or what is now Middlesex, in this county, June 16, 1802, was ordained and installed pastor of these two churches. The first subscription paper at this point reads thus: " We, the undersigned, subscribers of Slate Lick congregation, do promise to pay the several sums annexed to our names, and that in regular half-yearly payments from the commencement of the year, which begins the 1st of January, merchantable wheat, at five shillings per bushel, rye and corn, at three shillings per bushel, and the other half of the sums in cash, and this for the stated one-half of the labors of the Reverend John Boyd in the Gospel as long as he shall be the regular and stated pastor of this congregation. In testimony whereunto we do hereby set our names," which were as follows: "Adam Maxwell, $2, 3 bushels of wheat; William Barnett, 50 cents, I bushels wheat; Joseph Cogley, $1; William McNinch, $1; James Green, $1, 2 bushels wheat; James Travis, 67 cents; John Jack, $1; Thomas Jack, 50 cents, 1I bushels wheat; George Ross, $3; Charles Boner, $1; William Park, -; George Byers, $1.33, 2 bushels wheat; Isabella Hill, $1; Jean Kiskaden, 50 cents; David Reed, l1 bushels wheat; Thomas Cumberland, 50 cents, - bushel wheat." Thomas Fails, George Long and Adam Maxwell were the first elders of the Slate Lick church. The walls of the first church edifice were built of logs hewn, it is said, by George Bell, after they were brought upon the ground, as the voluntary contributions of the members of the congregation, and was covered with a shingle roof, which was then a rarity, and the floor consisted of loose boards, and without seats,. stoves or fireplace, for many years called "Mr. Boyd's lower meeting-house." It was built on the Arthur Kiskadden tract, and was thought to be within the limits of the Beatty patent, for John Rea, after his purchase from Beatty, conveyed 1 acre and 44 perches to "the trustees of Slate Lick congregation," July 31, 1824, for $5. It must have been ascertained by a later survey that it was not included in the Beatty patent, for Robert M. and William Kiskadden, after they had obtained their patent, conveyed the same, less 40 perches, to " the trustees of Slate Lick congregation," May 29, 1839, for $5.* As the lack of money was incident to the pioneer settlers of this as well as of many other regions, the first members of this congregation were necessarily constrained to contribute their time, labor and material to its erection. They, of course, had but little if any money with which to pay the salary of their pastor, and were, like some other pioneer congregations, compelled to pay much of * James S. Brown conveyed 80 perches to this church, October 14, 1878, for $100. 450 SOUTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. it in the products of their labor. This congregation was not anomalous in this respect. Some other congregations in the United States, older, larger, and that have become far wealthier than this one now is, once paid their ministers in products instead of money. For instance, John Emerson, who was graduated at Harvard in 1656, the third minister of the congregation in Gloucester, Massachusetts, the record shows, was paid "sixty pounds per annum in Indian corn, peas, barley, fish, mackerel, beef or pork." That primitive edifice was ample enough for ordinary or the usual weekly service, but on communion occasions, when an unusually large number of people from far and near assembled here, its capacity was inadequate. On such occasions there was erected a short distance from the edifice a tent in which the minister stood while conducting the communion services, and the communicants sat at the table extending from the tent into the grove. James Hill and Jonathan Moore were elected elders in 1808. The latter having removed to the west the next year, William Morrison was elected in his place. The pastorate of Rev. John Boyd continued until April 17, 1810, when at his own request he was released from his charge and removed to Ohio, and this church was dependent on supplies for nearly five years. The original of the call to the second pastor of this church is in these words: "The congregation of Sleate Lick being on sufficient grounds satisfied of the ministerial qualifications of you, John Redick, and having good hopes from our past experience of your labouers that your ministrations in the Gospel will be profitable to our spiritual interests, do earnestly call and desire you to undertake the pastoral office in said congregation, promising you in the discharge of your duty all proper support, encouragement, and obedience in the Lord; and that you may be free from worldly cares and avocations we hereby promise and oblidge ourselves to pay the sum of $150 in half-yearly payments, the one-half to be paid in grain, wheat at 75 cents, corn and rye at 50 cents per bushel, in regular payments during the time of your being and continuing the regular pastor of this church. In testimony whereof, we have respectively subscribed our names this third day of November, 1814. " N. B. This call is designed for the one-half of your labours in the gospel. "James Hill, Adam Maxwell, James Matthas, Jr., Jacob Young, Sr., Jacob Young, Jr., Patrick Callon, John Boney, David Feales, Thomas Cuskaden, George McCaine, John Ralston, David Ralston, James Clark, James Boles, William Morrison, Robert Morrison." That call having been accepted, he was ordained and installed as the pastor of Slate Lick and Union churches, September 28, 1815, on which occasion his preceptor, Rev. Robert Johnston, of Meadville, preached the sermon and Rev. John McPherrin, of Butler, delivered the charges. His pastorate continued until the autumn of 1848, when because of his infirmities he resigned his charge, which had extended through a period of thirty-four years. During his pastorate, Arthur Hill and James Green (about 1830), James Blain, John Boyd and Joseph Galbraith (March 19, 1844) were elected elders; a brick church edifice was erected in 18-, and fronted " the lower road," whose building committee consisted of James Hill, John Rea and James Smith. Although deemed a substantial structure, it was defective. During the communion services on a certain Sabbath-day, a large number of people being present, the floor sunk or gave way, causing a fearful panic. There were several outer doors through which the multitude passed, many being slightly, and only Mrs. Ann Ralston being seriously injured. The edifice was soon repaired, but the confidence of the congregation in it was not restored. The first frame edifice, fronting south, whose building committee were George F. Keener, George B. qnd James Sloan, was erected on the foundation of the brick one in 1842, and was used by the congregation for more than twenty years after the close of the second pastorate. Rev. John Redick was a son of John and Elizabeth Sorrell Redick, and was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, about 1787. His father was wounded in the arm and permanently disabled at the time of the burning of Hannastown, and soon after sold his farm, and removed to the northeastern part of Butler county, where he for several years aided his father in his agricultural pursuits, which, perhaps, he would have followed through life, had he not been wounded by the accidental discharge of a gun in a canoe while crossing the Allegheny, with others, on a hunting excursion. His father then concluded to educate him, and he was soon placed under the instruction of Rev. Robert Johnston, who was then the pastor of the Presbyterian churches at Bear creek and Scrubgrass, where the late Chief Justice Lowrie, Rev. James Wright and Rev. Alexander Crawford were among his schoolmates. Thence he went to the academy at Greensburgh, now Darlington, Beaver county; afterward pursued his theological studies under the instruction of his old preceptor, Rev. Robert Johnston, and was licensed to preach by 451 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. the Presbytery of Erie, at Meadville, October 20, 1813, having been married the year before to Miss Elizabeth Coulter, a sister of Rev. John Coulter, then of the Presbytery of Allegheny. He continued to be the pastor of Slate Lick and Union churches until the autumn of 1848, when, by reason of the infirmities of age, he sought and obtained a dismission, and the relation between those two churches was then dissolved. He purchased 50 acres of land at Slate Lick, soon after the commencement of his pastorate, on which he resided until his death, which occurred July 11, 1850, having deservedly won the high esteem and affectionate regards of his co-presbyters and parishioners by his sincere devotion to his chosen work and his earnest endeavors to promote the best interests of the individuals and families in both of his congregations, so that he was endearingly called " Father Redick." Rev. William F. Kean was ordained and installed pastor of the Slate Lick and Freeport churches in the spring of 1849, and was released from the former in June, 1864. There was an extensive revival in this congregation during his pastorate, and forty-three new members were added to the list of communicants. At the seventh and last election of elders, in 1861, James Brown, James II. Redick and Samuel Sloan were chosen elders. Redick declined to serve, and James Shields was substituted. They were installed October 4, 1861. Rev. Thomas C. Anderson was installed pastor of Slate Lick church, October 17, 1864, and was released in June, 1868. It was during his pastorate alone that this church was not connected with some other. Rev. John H. Aughey, of "Iron Furnace" memory, was installed May 8, 1869, as pastor of this and the church at Clinton, then belonging to the Presbytery of Allegheny. Rev. J. McPherrin delivered the charge to the pastor, and Rev. J. M. Jones to the people. Rev. William M. Kain supplied this church in 1870, and was installed as the pastor of it and the Srader's Grove church, in January, 1871, having been transferred to the Presbytery of Kittanning. Rev. T. D. Ewing preached the sermon, Rev. H. Magill charged the pastor, and Rev. S. H. Holliday the people. His pastorate ended in October, 1872. The basement of the present edifice was completed in 1870, in which services were held, and the edifice itself in the course of a few months. At its dedication, in January, 1871, the sermon was preached by Rev. David Hull, D. D., and the dedicatory prayer offered by Rev. W. F. Rea. A call was made to the present pastor, Rev. B. F. Boyle, April 8, 1873, he having preached here for several months while a student at the theological seminary in Allegheny City, and was ordained and installed June 23, 1873, when Rev. David J. Irwin presided and offered the ordination prayer, Rev. Alexander Donaldson preached the sermon, Rev. S. H. Hughes charged the pastor, and the presiding officer the people. This congregation fondly hoped that, after the completion of their present edifice, which is the fourth, including the primitive log one, they could securely worship in it for many years to come. But that bright hope was doomed, to be darkened by another cloud of adversity. A storm swept with almost the force of a hurricane over this locality, on the first Thursday of May, 1875, and in its course struck and beat in the west end of this edifice, leaving it a ghastly wreck. But the good people of this church and congregation did not sink down in despair. They soon rose above the weight of their new sorrow, and appointed John Graham, William Rea and Samuel Sloan a committee on repairs, who in due time caused that wreck to be restored to more than its former strength and beauty. It was re-dedicated August 23, on which occasion Rev. John J. Francis, of Freeport, preached the sermon, and Rev. James Boyd offered the dedicatory prayer. The Sabbath school of this congregation was organized about 1817, and reorganized under the union system in 1832. Its first superintendents were James Hill and John Rea. John Boyd was another for sixteen years, under whose charge and that of J. S. Brown it is now in a flourishing condition. The church membership, in 1876, w.-s 155; Sabbath-school scholars, 70. The members of Slate Lick church who have become ministers of the Gospel are: Rev. David Hall, D. D., Indiana, Pennsylvania; Rev. James Boyd, Kirkville, Missouri; Rev. David H. Sloan, Leechburgh; Rev. R. B. McCaslin, Plain Grove; Rev. Fulton Boyd, Pleasant Unity, and Rev. D. R. McCaslin, Bowling Green, Kentucky. The Slate Lick United Presbyterian church was organized about the year 1812. The preaching on that occasion and for some time afterward was in a tent where the present church stands, though occasionally the meetings were held in the woods at other points. Rev. McClintick, of Bear creek, was the first preacher of this denomination who labored here, coming as a supply as early as 1808, and preaching in the log cabins of the settlers. The first church was a log structure, thirty-three feet square, built by Abram Smith and William Minteer in 1815. The men of the congregation 452 SOUTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. felled the timber for this house, and it is remembered that the wall.plate was hauled up the hill by a big yoke of oxen, owned by Joseph Miller. Rev. John Dickey, the first settled pastor, came here about 1812 and remained thirty-five years. He was succeeded by Revs. Galbraith and Robertson, and then came the present pastor, Rev. L. McCampbell. The congregation now has a frame structure about forty feet square. The Srader Grove Presbyterian church was organized the 1st day of May, A. D. 1871, by a committee of the Presbytery of Kittanning, consisting of Rev. John M. Jones, Rev. Alex. S. Thompson and Elder James Quigley. A sermon was preached by Rev. John M. Jones, after which an expression was given by the members present of their desire to be organized into a Presbyterian church. Thereupon said committee proceeded with the organization. The following persons presented certificates of membership from other churches: From the church of Slate Lick - James Shields and Rebecca Shields, John G. Weaver and Margaret Weaver, Joseph and Jacob Weaver, Andrew C. Srader, Jr., Eleanor Srader, Andrew Srader, Sr., Elizabeth Srader, Robert J. Hill, Mary Hill, William Hill, Elizabeth Hill, Rachel B. Hill, Elizabeth Hill, Jr., M. Hillis Boyd, Elizabeth F. Boyd, William Sloan, Mary Sloan; and from the church of Freeport, John G. Bowser and Eliza Bowser. Four persons were elected ruling elders of said church, viz.: James Shields, R. J. Hill, John G. Weaver and M. Hillis Boyd. Mr. R. J. Hill would not accept the office of ruling elder to which he had been elected. Messrs. John G. Weaver and M. Hillis Boyd were ordained May 26, 1871, Mr. Shields having been ordained when elected elder while a member of Freeport Presbyterian church. Mr. William Hill, Andrew C. Srader and William Sloan were elected deacons and trustees of said church, and on May 28, 1871, were installed as deacons of said church. On May 18, 1872, Mr. W. B. Srader and wife were received on certificate from Union church. Mr. W. B. Srader, having been a ruling elder in the church of Union, was elected and installed a ruling elder in the church of Srader Grove. This church was organized with 22 members, and now numbers 53 members, as reported to presbytery in 1882. The Sabbath-school membership, 65, kept up the whole year. This church has had three pastors: Rev. J. H. Aughey, Rev. Wmin. M. Kain and Rev. B. F. Boyle. The latter was relieved by presbytery of Kittanning, April 25, 1882, at his own request. St. Matthew's Lutheran church at its original organization was German. In connection with a Reformed congregation, for many years almost extinct, it formed the "Blue Slate" congregation. There is no record of the separate organization. The earliest English pastor was the Rev. D. Earhart, who took charge in 1844. In 1852, Rev. L. M. Kuhns became pastor, and since that time the church has been a part of the Freeport charge. A house of worship was built in 1845-6, near George Isaman's residence, which was superseded by a better one in a more convenient location in 1876. The contractors for the first building were John Myers and Jacob Hawk. In 1846 the church was incorporated by the legislature. The church was greatly weakened, in 1868, by the withdrawal of many of its members to form a congregation, which has since been consolidated with the General Synod church in Freeport. It now has about 75 members. The Slate Lick postoffice was established April 1, 1837, George F. Keener, postmaster. The first resident physician here was I)r. Ellis Simpkins, first assessed in 1846. Dr. John Kennedy settled here in 1860-1, Dr. Robert C. McClelland about the same time, and Dr. A. D. Johnston in 1868. John Brown's store, at the forks of the public roads near the Presbyterian church, was opened in 1858-he having then been first assessed as a merchant, and James Brown from and after 1868. In 1857-8 the people of Slate Lick and vicinity became so deeply interested in the establishment of a normal school here that they subscribed a considerable amount for that purpose, but did accomplish it. The Slate Lick academy was opened in 1864 in a building erected for educational purposes. D. S. Tappan was the first principal. The second schoolhouse 6rected within what is now this township, before the adoption of the free school system, was situated about 275 rods in an airline northeasterly from the first one heretofore mentioned; the third one about 250 rods northwesterly from the first; the fourth one in Stony Hollow, about a mile north of Freeport; and the fifth one about 250 rods from the mouth of and a few rods south of Daugherty's run. One of the teachers in the last two was William WV. Gibson. Following are school statistics: 1860-Schools, 10; average number months taught, 4; male teachers, 6; female, 4; average monthly salaries of male teachers, $19.38; average monthly salaries of female teachers, $16.88; male scholars, 273; female scholars, 263; average number attending school, 293; cost of teaching each scholar peir" month, 40 cents; amount levied for school purposes, $871.86; 453 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. received from state appropriation, $116.82; from collectors, $830; cost of instruction, $735.20; fuel, etc., $120.81; cost of schoolhouses, repairing, etc., $6. 1876-Schools, 11; average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 8; female teachers, 3; average monthly salaries of male and female teachers, $33; male scholars, 250; female scholars, 258; average number attending school, 337; cost per month, 78 cents; tax levied for school and building purposes, $2,581.45; received from state appropriation, $343.17; from taxes, etc., $2,272.77; paid for teachers' wages, $1,815; paid for fuel, etc., $207.80. The mercantile appraiser's list for 1876 shows the number of merchants in this township to be 6, but the assessment list 2, all of whom are in the 14th class. According to the last-mentioned list the occupations, exclusive of farmers, are: Ministers, 2; school teachers, 3; music teacher, 1; physician, 1; laborers, 81; blacksmiths, 4; carpenters, 7; stonemasons, 2; agents, 2; painters, 2; insurance agent, 1; plasterers, 2; harnessmaker* 1; miller, 1; wagonmaker, 1; cripple, 1; old man, 1; operator, 1; peddler, 1. The present occupants of this part of old Buffalo township would be very impatient if they were obliged to wait for the news of important events as long as did their pioneer predecessors. John Craig used to relate that he and his neighbors did not get an account of Jackson's victory at New Orleans until June, or five months after it was achieved. The people of this region caught the mania for fox hunting that once prevailed in this county. A meeting, of which John Drum was president and B. S. Chadwick secretary, was held in March, perhaps about the middle, which arranged a grand fox hunt for Tuesday, the 25th. The circle extended from Freeport to the mouth of Glade run; thence up it to David Reed's; thence across to Beatty's mill on Buffalo creek; thence down it to Freeport, with the closing ground on the farm of Isaac Frantz, which was probably that part of " Mount Pleasant" which hlie purchased from Enos McBride. The vote on the question of granting license to sell intoxicating liquor in this township stood 145 against to 24 for. There had been for many years a strong temperance element in this section of the county. The first annual report of the Buffalo Township Temperance Society is dated January 10, 1831, which was subsequently published in the Gazette and Columbian. The writer addressed one or two of the series of temperance meetings held at Slate in 1850. The 4th of July, 1851, was observed by a large number of the people of North and South Buffalo and Franklin townships. The sky, cloudy early in the morning, became clear before noon. About 1,500 people of these townships - fathers and mothers and young men and maidens and children - including several Sabbath schools and temperance organizations, assembled in a beautiful grove near Slate Lick. Peter Graff was called to preside. After a bountiful repast the writer was called upon to read the Declaration of Independence, and to deliver the oration, which was devoted to a consideration of the costly sacrifices of our revolutionary fathers in achieving our national independence, the wisdom, patriotism and philanthropy of the framers of our system of free popular government, and the imminent perils to our government and people from the use of intoxicating beverages. The first census of this township after it was reduced to its present limits was in 1850, when its population was: White, 1,266; colored, 0. In 1860, white, 1,570; colored, 1. In 1870, native, 1,522; foreign, 111; colored, 4. In 1876, no taxables. The geological features of Freeport and this township: The uplands consist entirely of the lower barrens, the areas of the lower productives being confined to the valleys of the Buffalo creek and Allegheny river. Only a portion of the lower productive group is above water level, the section extending only down to the lower Kittanning coal, the ferriferous limestone not being above water level. The lower Kittanning is 3 feet thick, but obtainable above water level only in the region opposite Logansport. The upper Freeport coal is, however, in a favorable position for mining, 31 feet yielding tolerably good coal. This bed supplies Freeport with fuel, and in fact the whole township. Its geographical name was derived from Freeport, where it is about 125 feet above the river level. The lower Freeport coal is 35 feet below it, and in the vicinity of Freeport partakes of the cannel nature, and was once mined and distilled for oil. It ranges from a few inches to 7 feet thick, but little dependence can be placed on it, the bed thinning out and often disappearing at short intervals. The Freeport sandstone is massive and makes a line of cliffs above the borough. It shows some sudden and curious changes in shale round about there. The same rock shows similar changes in the long cut near the rolling mill at Kittanning, where the change is beautifully displayed. The upper Kittanning coal is present at Freeport, but worthless. The Mahoning sandstone in the vicinity of Freeport is a 454 SOUTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. very compact and massive deposit, yielding good stone for building purposes. Opposite the borough on the Westmoreland side it makes a line of bold cliffs 50 feet high. Above, in South Buffalo township, soft, argillaceous shales come in, making easy slopes along the little valleys by which the township back from the river is diversified. This is the smooth glade land stretching north from Freeport to Slate Lick, famous for good pasture lands and fair yield of crops when properly tilled. Near Slate Lick on this upland, the green fossiliferous limestone may be seen on the William Rea farm near the hilltop. No coalbeds of remarkable dimensions may be sought for in this vicinity, but along Buffalo creek and Pine run the upper Freeport coal is above water-level as already described. Structure.-An anticlinal axis which crosses the Allegheny river near the mouth of Mahoning, and crosses Limestone run near Montgomeryville, has weakened to such an extent before reaching this township that it exerts but little influence here. It is on this account that the lower barren rocks occupy so much of the surface of this town ship. Had this axis the same force here as there, we should find the same conditions repeated about Freeport that we find about the mouth of Ma honing, or nearly so. But the axis, though weak ened, is yet recognizable in the gentle southeast dips which prevail just west of Freeport. Other wise the rocks are nearly horizontal. The record of the gas well at the planing-mill, Freeport, shows from the surface downward: Soft shale, 60 feet; hard sand, 40 feet; slate, 25 feet; limestone, 12 feet; slate, 20 feet; hard sand, a little oil at the bottom, 65 feet; slate and shell, 10 feet; sandstone, 25 feet; slate, 15 feet; limestone and slate, 20 feet; very hard sandstone, 6 feet; fireclay, 5 feet; hard sandstone, 100 feet; black slate, 75 feet; hard sandstone, 20 feet; slate and shell, 20 feet; sandrock, 80 feet; sandstone, principally, and a large vein of salt water strong enough to bear up an egg, 115 feet; slate, good drilling, 135 feet; sandstone, 10 feet; slate and sandstone, 54 feet; slate and sandstone, 18 feet; gas used as fuel for planing mill; hard shell, slate and sandstone, 80 feet; hard shell, slate, sandstone and pebble, 125 feet; slate, sand and pebble, 35 feet; white and gray sandstone, with strong salt water at the bottom, 50 feet; soft slate, 21 feet; slate, shell and red rock, 97 feet; very red rock, 12 feet; very hard gray sandstone, 10 feet; reddish slate, 15 feet; slate, shell and red rock, 70 feet; hard sandstone (10 feet), slate and shell, 55 feet; slate, easy drilling, 340 feet. Depth of well, 1,904 feet. Gas vein at 1,075 feet. Quit drilling at 12 M. October 16, 1874. Prior to 1859 the members of the Methodist denomination in the middle eastern portion of this township numbered but two individuals, viz.: Robert Rodgers and George Venables; but they had been accustomed, for several years, to holding religious services in their houses. At this date, considerable interest being evinced in the religious services of this particular denomination, they decided to erect a house of worship. Accordingly a modest, unpretentious church building was erected on the farm of S. A. Forrester, who donated the land for this purpose. The church was completed in 1861, and a church organization effected with the following officers: Robert Rodgers, George Venables and S. A. Forrester. The church was dedicated this same year, the dedicatory sermon being preached by I. C. Pershing. Rev. D. Rhodes first officiated as pastor, and during the first year the church obtained a membership of about 40, which result demonstrated the wisdom of its founders. Mr. Rodgers gave liberally for the support of this church, and upon his death left $500 as a permanent fund for the church, the proceeds only to be used. A cemetery, known as the Union cemetery, was also established on the farm of Mr. Forrester. Since its organization the church, although having but few wealthy adherents, has enjoyed great prosperity, its present membership being about 80. It also has a flourishing Sunday school. In September of 1882 it was decided to erect a new building to accommodate the largely increased congregation, and accordingly an elegant frame church edifice, 32 X 55 feet, graced with an elegant spire, has been erected at an expense of about $2,500 and dedicated to the service of God. Rev. R. Cartwright now officiates as pastor. The present church officers are: Trustees- S. A. Forrester, J. Bush, A. G. Mahaffey, C. Saltmer; Stewards- S. A. Forrester and C. Saltmer. 455 CHAPTER XI. NORTH BUFFALO. Erection of the Township in 1847-First Election-White's Claim-" The Green Settlement "-First Mill-Other Tracts of Land and Their Transfers-Baptist Church-Population Statistics-School Statistics, 1860 and 1876-Industrial-Topography-Rock Structure. ORTH BUFFALO township was organized by dividing what remained of Buffalo after the organization of Franklin township in North and South Buffalo townships. That division was authorized by act of assembly of March 15, 1847, which prescribes that dividing line thus: Beginning on the Butler county line at the northwest corner of the then sub-schooldistrict No. 3 of Buffalo township; thence along the north line of that sub-schooldistrict to its termination on the land of John Rea; thence by a direct line to the southwest corner of a tract of land patented to Jacob White, then occupied by John Woodward, on the bank of the Allegheny river, for running which the county commissioners were to appoint a suitable person who was to return to them a draft of it, and the expenses to be paid out of the county treasury. The first election in North Buffalo township was directed to be held at the house of John Boney, Sr., conducted by James McCullough, judge, and David Beatty and John B. Smith, inspectors. The first election in South Buffalo township was prescribed by the same act to be held at the house of Andrew Srader, conducted by John Haman, judge, and William Hughes and James Tracy, inspectors. The people were to determine by their votes at those elections where the elections in each of these two townships should be thereafter held. The places thus designated were the Claypoole schoolhouse (No. 6) in North and the Sloan schoolhouse (No. 5) in South Buffalo township. The then collector of taxes of Buffalo was to be the one for North, and the county commissioners were to appoint one for South Buffalo township. At the first township election in North Buffalo, held in March, 1848, John Boney was elected justice of the peace; James Claypoole, judge, and James Kiskadden and Edward Manso, inspectors of election; Robert Galbraith, constable; John Barnett and David Beatty, supervisors; James Maxwell and Reuben Stonapher, school directors; Joseph Bullman and John Smith, Jr., township auditors; Jacob Arb and John Boney, overseers of the poor; and William Colwell, assessor. There is a considerable area of territory along the river between the southwestern and northeastern corners of what is now this township, and extending back about two miles from the river in the southwestern and about three and a half miles in the northeastern part, which appears to be vacant on the map of Stephen Gapen's surveys. In the southwestern part is an unsurveyed area noted as " White's claim," on which Jacob White made an improvement in June, 1793, and an actual settle ment in March, 1796, and 396 acres and 84 perchesof which were surveyed to him by George Ross, September 16, 1801, the patent for which to him is dated February 1, 1820, the southwestern corner of which, at White's eddy, is the southwest corner of this township. This tract, as it appears on the Lawson & Orr map, is very nearly a rectangular parallelogram, extending northwesterly from the river, and including or interfering with the southeastern part of the McCall and Claypoole tract. White transferred or agreed to sell this tract to James Clemens, of Blockley township, Philadelphia county, in 1817, and conveyed it to him, May 2, 1820, for $2,553.511. Clemens devised it to his wife during her life or widowhood, and in the event of her death or marriage, to William and Kezia Henry. Mrs. Clemens having married, John and William Henry conveyed 100 acres and 132 perches to Jehu and Kezia Woodward, October 22, 1846, for $1, etc. Woodward was first assessed with a distillery, 400 acres and one horse, at $735, in 1832. William Henry conveyed 100 acres and 130 perches to James H. Claypoole, October 31, 1863, for $1,500, and the residue of the tract, May 19, 1865, 80 acres and 34 perches to Robert S. Connor for $1,604; 64 acres and 63 perches to Samuel B. Bruner for $680; and 101 acres and 126 perches to Andrew J. Bruner for $687. Adjoining the southern part of that Jacob White tract on the east, in the unsurveyed area on the map of Gapen's surveys, is a tract containing, according to the Lawson & Orr map, 2061 acres, in the northeastern corner of which is the mouth of Glade run, which was settled by James Sloan in 1816. NORTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. It and the island opposite have remained in the possession of Sloan's heirs until they conveyed both to Joseph B. Smith for the latter's hereinafter-mentioned mill property. Adjoining that Sloan tract on the east and northeast is what has been known, since the latter part of the last century, as " the Green settlement," in Gapen's unsurveyed area, extending along the Allegheny river from about 25 rods above the mouth of Glade run to within 15 rods below the mouth of Manor run, and on Glade run and its waters. That " settlement" on the Lawson & Orr map comprises five tracts: John Green's, 224 acres; James Green's, 226 acres and 130 perches; Samuel Green's, 220 acres and 30 perches; Daniel Green's, 210 acres and 150 perches, and Jeremiah and Samuel Green's, 150 acres, each of which probably contained more or less of a surplus. Warrants, as mentioned in the records, for the two first-mentioned tracts were granted to Samuel and William Green, April 21, 1794. They soon after settled on them-William on the lower one, the western part of which is traversed by Glade run, on which tract, on the river hill, between the river and the present public road, he laid out the town of Williamsburgh, in 1802, covering an area of about 15 acres, each lot containing one-fourth of an acre. The price of each lot was to be about $2. It is not known that more than one was sold, the purchaser of which was a man by the name of Hollander, who built a house upon it. It was intended to have the county buildings located here, and it is said that the ground was staked off for them by the first board of county commissioners, who afterward accepted the offer of Gen. Armstrong's heirs, at Kittanning.* In 1804 or 1805 he erected a log gristmill on this stream, about three-quarters of a mile above its mouth, with one run of stone, with which and one horse and two cows, he was first assessed at $150, in 1806, and the sawmill was erected soon after where the present gristmill is. The bolting-chest of the first gristmill was made of the trunk of a large, hollow buttonwood tree, which was divided into two equal parts, one placed above the other, with an interval of about two feet between them. The entire interval on one side was closed by shaved clapboards, and all on the other, except about four feet in the middle, which space was covered by a piece of homemade linen cloth, nailed on the upper, and which dropped on the inside of the lower part of the trunk so as to keep the flour from falling out of the chest. Instead of a leather belt, a rope made of straw was used, which required moistening to make it effective. People brought * See general sketch of the county. their grists to that mill from 10, 15 and 20 miles around. One of its customers was a little Irishman from Butler county, who fell asleep while waiting for his grist. As he awoke, he saw the large cog-wheel and the trundle-head turning between him and the moonlight which penetrated a crevice in the wall. Being alarmed, he screamed and yelled lustily. On being asked what was the matter, he replied, " I though I was in hell, and the big devil and a little one were after me." William Green continued to be assessed with that mill until 1816. He conveyed his tract, 224 acres, reserving the mill and the house in which he lived, to John Green, July 2, 1816, for $1. The latter was assessed with the grist and saw mills until 1822, when the former was leased to William Boney and to William Kelly. The present one was erected about 40 rods above the site of the first one, in 1828-9-two-story frame, with two runs of stone at first, to which another has since been added. The gristmill was first assessed to Noah Bowser, in 1853. It and the sawmill were first assessed to Barnett, Bonner and Smith, in 1854, and the former continued to be assessed to them until 1857; from then until 1866 to Bonner and Smith, and to Joseph B. Smith from then until now. On the right bank of this stream, about 50 rods below the mill, is the North Buffalo postoffice, which was established February 10, 1870, Miles J. Green, postmaster. This hamlet consists of about a dozen dwelling-houses and the mill, Green's store and Bricker & Co's blacksmith-shop. Samuel and William Green conveyed the second or 226-acre tract to James Green, July 2, 1816, for $2, who retained the ownership of most of it during his life. He resided here while he was county commissioner, from 1827-8 to 1830-1, and before and after. When military parades were more in vogue in various parts of the county than they are now, his place was selected for some of them, especially of the battalion of which the late Andrew Arnold was major. James Green, by his will, dated August 31, 1842, and registered April 30, 1853, devised 80 acres of this tract, except a fourth of an acre which was reserved for schoolhouse lot, to his son Levi, and 120 acres more or less to his son Robert. The latter having died intestate, proceedings were instituted in the proper court for the partition of his real estate. The inquest found that it could not be advantageously divided into purparts, and valued it at $11,696.80. Joseph B. Smith, administrator of his estate, was appointed trustee to sell it. The sale having been confirmed, hlie conveyed the land, 164 acres and 19 perches, to George B. Sloan, September 8, 1873, 457 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. for $8,401.50. Levi Green, by his will, registered October 24, 1874, devised that part of his land north of Glade run, on which is the public schoolhouse No. 5, to his son Miles J., and the residue to his son James R. Green. Samuel Green settled on the third of these tracts, 225 acres and 30 perches, in 1795, on which, where his descendant, James Green, now resides, on what is now the river road from Kittanning to Freeport, he built a log house, cleared two acres, which he sowed in wheat, to which he removed his wife and child the next year, James and John Green having settled on the two lower tracts about the same time. In the southeastern part of this tract, opposite the central part of "Cast Off," is what the Indians called a "medicine spring." Its water has not yet been analyzed, but from what the writer has learned respecting its qualities, he infers it is strongly chalybeate. About fifty rods northwest of it on this tract is an artificial excavation in the rock, and about seventy-five rods northwest of the latter, on the James Green tract, is another, each about six inches in diameter and in depth, in which the Indians pounded, cracked and prepared their corn for making samp. There was, in the course of three or four years, a sufficient number of children in "the Green settlement" and vicinity for a school. So the first schoolhouse within what is now North Buffalo township was erected on the above-mentioned second tract, settled by James Green. It was a log structure, sixteen feet square, and finished and furnished like other primitive temples of knowledge described in the general sketch of this county. Benjamin Biggs was the first teacher in that house, who taught spelling, reading, writing and about the first half of arithmetic. The text-books in orthography and reading were Dillworth's spelling book, the Testament and the Bible. Another log schoolhouse, with clapboard doors, was soon afterward built in place of the first one about ten rods northeast of it. The Daniel Green tract, 210 acres and 150 perches, adjoined a small parcel of vacant land and parts of the above-mentioned James and John Green tracts on the northwest, on which Daniel Green made an improvement, June 2, 1793, and an actual settlement, April 7, 1796, and which was surveyed to him by George Ross, September 12, 1801, 201 acres and 32 perches of which he conveyed to Ross, February 4, 1804, for $250, which included a part of 100 acres more or less which William Green conveyed to Daniel the same day, for $10, and which then adjoined lands of John and William Jack and William McLaughlin, with which, and two horses and two cows, Ross was assessed in 1805 and 1806 at $212, and where he resided a part of the time while hlie was deputy surveyor and when lie was appointed an associate judge of the courts of this county. He conveyed the same quantity which he had purchased from Green to John Boney, January 8, 1813, for $800. Another part of "the Green settlement" consisted of a part of a tract adjoining the abovementioned Samuel Green tract on the north and the Allegheny river on the east, on which Adam Morrow made an early improvement and settlement. Three hundred and sixteen acres and thirty perches, "including his actual settlement," were surveyed to him by Deputy Surveyor Ross, November 2, 1801. William Parks was then a settler on this land for Alexander, who entered a caveat to the survey, alleging that Kelly had a prior right by an earlier and continued settlement. Hence there was litigation concerning it. Morrow employed William Ayres, then of Pittsburgh, as his attorney, and agreed, in case of his success, and also in consideration of his professional services in trying an ejectment for him in Allegheny county in 1800, to convey to Ayres a portion of this land. In pursuance of that agreement they made an amicable division of the tract, April 12, 1809, when Morrow conveyed to Ayres 139 acres, which he conveyed to the late Judge Young, March 22, 1811, and which the latter conveyed to James and Samuel Green, June 20, 1818, for $367.50, 70 acres of which James Green devised to his son Samuel Green. The commonwealth, in consideration "of the moneys paid by Adam Morrow," to whom a warrant had been issued, April 25, 1814, granted a patent to Jeremiah and Samuel Green, May 9, 1857, who( made partition between themselves, July 11, 1857, by a line beginning at a post 154 perches from the corner end on the Allegheny river, dividing it into equal parts, the eastern being taken by Jeremiah and the western one by Samuel. In the northeastern corner of the former purpart, about thirty rods below the mouth of Morrow's run, the Indians had a furnace for smelting lead, vestiges of which were heretofore visible. Some pieces of lead ore found hereabouts many years since led some persons to think that a vein of it exists in this region, which has not yet been discovered. In the northwestern corner of the western pur. part on Glade run is a mill-seat which Jeremiah Green leased to Jerome S. and Alexis J. Bonnett, July 27, 1858, at an annual rent of $25 for the term of twenty years, but in case the 458 NORTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. mill which they should erect should be burned or swept away and the lessees should "find it necessary to discontinue the sawmill business," the lease was to be thenceforth "null and void in all its parts." The lessees erected a sawmill at that seat immediately after the execution of the lease, which was assessed to Alexis J. Bonnett, and which was soon after "swept away," as noted on the first assessment list after its erection. It was soon rebuilt and was operated by him until his death, and was thereafter for several years assessed to his heirs. He had acceptably filled the position of American consul at Bordeaux, France, during President Pierce's administration. Adam Morrow conveyed his interest in the northern part of the tract retained by him to James Morrow, June 13, 1814, for $800. One hundred and fifteen acres having become vested in Jacob Keim, he devised the same, by his will, dated October 22, 1839, to his sons, to whom a patent was granted, May 8,1857, and which they conveyed to Jerome S. Bonnett, June 25, and he to James Obey, February 28, 1859, for $3,000. Adjoining the Morrow tract on the north was one of 354 acres and 91 perches, on which Samuel Kelly, tailor, made an improvement and settlement, March 2, 1796, and which was surveyed to him by George Ross, November 3, 1801, a small portion of which was then claimed by Adam Maxwell. Kelly's interest in more than 200 acres of it was conveyed by John Orr, sheriff, to George Armstrong, September 1, 1808, and by Kelly to him, February 24, 1809, and which he conveyed to John Campbell, December 22, 1813, for $500, who by his will, dated 15th and registered October 18, 1827-and required him to resign his right to other land adjoining lands of William Barnett, Joseph Cogley and James Hampton-devised to his son Nathaniel, who conveyed 207 acres to Hugh L. Cooper, April 20, 1838, for $1,200, of which Cooper conveyed 104 acres and 142 perches to John and William Dick-on which the latter still resides and is still assessed with 26 acres-April 20, 1838, for $1,300. Cooper conveyed 107 acres and 145 perches to Robert Adams, August 13, 1842, for $1,250, which, with other 4 acres and 10 perches, he conveyed to Mrs. Mary J. IHeiner, August 30, 1864, for $3,000. William Dick and others conveyed 73 acres and 85 perches to Robert McKee, April 22, 1875, for $2,757.42. Next north on that Kelly-Campbell tract, on the Lawson & Orr map, are two contiguous tracts, one bearing the name of Henry Jack and the other that of James Hannegan, both containing 368 acres and 10 perches, which must have constituted the tract on which James Cogley, Sr., settled in or before 1797, and with which, or 100 acres of which, 1 horse and 4 cattle, hlie was assessed in 1805 at $94. He died intestate, and his son James conveyed his interest therein to Robert Brown, July 1, 1820, for $100, and his daughter, Mrs. James Fish, and her husband conveyed their interest therein to Robert Brown, July 10, 1820, for $100. In both of these deeds this land is described as being opposite the mouth of Garrett's run and adjoining lands of Dr. McCullough and others. Next north of that Kelly-Campbell tract were two contiguous tracts, in the lower one of which, 186- acres, Henry Jack, and in the upper one, 181 acres and 130 perches, James Hannegan, once had inchoate interests, for both of which the late Robert Brown and James Cowan obtained a patent, June 16, 1837, and conveyed the latter to Henry Cowan eleven days afterward, for $325, on or near the northern line of which is public schoolhouse No. 4, or "Bunker Hill," so-called from a fight between two belligerent individuals which occurred there many years ago. James Cowan retained the lower one of these two tracts, and died intestate, October 11, 1867. In pursuance of a writ of partition this tract was valued as containing 203 acres and 70 perches, at $5,250, and were taken by the decedent's son, Robert WV. Cowan, at the valuation, and was ordered and adjudged to him, March 1, 1869, by whom it is still retained. Adjoining the northeastern part of the tract which Brown and Cowan conveyed to Henry Cowan was the one to which Robert Cogley acquired a title by improvement and settlement, commenced probably as early as, if not earlier than, 1800. He was assessed with 113 acres and 1 cow in 1805, at $73.80, and the next year with an additional cow, at $79.80. He resided on this tract until his death, shortly after which a writ of partition was issued, and the tract, 114 acres, was appraised at $795.15. No one having appeared, after the usual notice given in such cases, to. accept it at the valuation, the court ordered the administrator, the late Robert Brown, who had purchased the interest of Joseph Cogley, the decedent's nephew, in his uncle's estate, January 31, 1831, for $100, to sell it, which he did, and conveyed it to James E. Brown, August 29, 1822, for $130, which the latter conveyed to - November 14, 1836, for $1,000; he to Michael Truby, 180 acres, January 5, 1866, for $2,700.73; and Truby to Thomas J. Roney, 102 acres, August 28, 1869, for $2,700, and 80 acres to J. E. Brown, September 20, for $300. The next tract north is depreciation lot No. 299, 459 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. corn, 883,846 bushels of oats, 33,192 tons of hay, 126,068 pounds of wool, and 964,020 pounds of butter, besides large quantities of other agricultural products. The report of the secretary of internal affairs shows the area of this county to be 612 square miles, or 391,680 acres, of which nearly two-thirds are under cultivation. THE ARMSTRONG COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY was organized in 1855.* Its object was to foster agricultural, horticultural, domestic and mechan ical arts, and for a while excited a lively interest in these objects. A fair ground was leased for a term of years and put in proper condition. Cred itable and largely attended fairs were held in Octo ber, 1856 and 1857, after which they ceased to be held, and the society languished and died. The order of Grangers or Patrons of Husbandry has been introduced into this county within the last three years. The present number of lodges or granges is twenty-two, and the number of mem bers about 1,550. The object of this order is to advance the interests of agriculturists by the inter change of opinions, diffusion of useful knowledge, and by dispensing, as far as possible, with the aid of middle-men in their purchases of store goods and agricultural implements - purchasing those articles, as far as practicable, directly from the manufacturers and wholesale dealers. As those middle-men constitute a considerable percentage of the consumers of agricultural products, a ques tion to be solved is: What will be the effect of changing that class of consumers into producers? The agricultural implements in former years were quite primitive. The plow, for instance, was of the old wooden moldboard kind. Spring carriages and wagons began to be used at a com paratively recent date. Small quantities of grass seed were sown. The principal crops were rye, wheat, corn, oats and buckwheat. In 1819-20 the price of wheat was fifty cents a bushel, rye, forty cents, and oats twenty cents. Threshing ma chines began to be used in this county about 1849. A few mowing machines and reapers began to be introduced about 1859-60. They and sulky rakes were brought into use from 1863 to 1865. The various labor-saving agricultural machines now in * A movement must have been inaugurated as early as 1823, for organizing an agricultural society in this county, which, so far as the writer can learn, was not consummated. That an attempt was then made to organize such a society is evident from the following clause in a letter from Malthus A. Ward who had previously been a resident physician at Kittanning, to the late Eben Smith Kelly, dated Salem, Mass., August 8, 1823: " I rejoice to see the doings toward an agricultural society, and wish that in a few years your cattle-show may rival that at Brighton. I fear, however, that it will be many ye,rs before Armnstrcng county can show such a farm as Josiah quincy's, or Ilenry l)uby's.use are as numerous, or nearly so, as the broken surface of the territory of this county will permit. The culture of the soil is becoming more effective as the light of science and the tests of experiments are more freely enjoyed. About 1838 a superior breed of sheep was intro duced into this county. Other stock have since been improved by importations of choice breeds from abroad. Some of the soil, especially along the streams, is very fertile. Much of the rest is strong, and may, with proper culture, be made remunerative. Some other portions are unfit for cultivation. SURVEYS OF THE ALLEGHENY RIVER. By resolutions of Congress, surveys of the Allegheny river were heretofore ordered to be made. One was made, in 1829, under the superintendence of James Kearney, Lt. Col. Topographical Engineers, from Pittsburgh to eleven miles above the mouth of French creek, and another, in the summer and autumn of 1837, under the superintendence of George W. Hughes, U. S. Civil Engineer. The maps, charts and plan of the latter, who was required to examine into the practicability of constructing a canal along the valley of the Allegheny river, were unfortunately destroyed by the burning of the building occupied as an engineer office. Nothing was saved but a mutilated portion of the profile, and the journal which was kept by the gentleman charged with the soundings and making an examination of the bed of the stream, so that he was obliged to avail himself of the report of Col. Kearney's survey, from which the writer has gathered the following: The Allegheny river, above the Kiskiminetas, flows generally through a deep, rocky and precipitous ravine. Its bed is formed of a succession of eddies or ponds, with intervening natural dams, having an inclination or slope in the direction of the current, the limits of which, in terms of the altitude and base, may be expressed by the fraction A and -u nearly. The bottom is mostly of sandstone in place, except upon the ripples or obstructions, where it is usually covered with gravel and stones broken and rounded by attrition. The navigable depth of water on these obstructions does not exceed two feet; and upon some of them there is not more than eighteen inches-a depth which is often confined to a very narrow space; the greater part of the shoals being nearly, and, in some places, quite bare at low water. Following the lines of the survey, which are not always parallel to the axis of the stream, the distance from the mouth of French creek to the Kiskiminetas wol1d be ninety-four and a half miles, HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. 307 ra acres, called "Greenfield," about one-sixth of which is in East Franklin, for which a patent was granted to John McCulloch, merchant of Philadelphia, January 2, 1792, which, with his other real estate, he directed by his will, dated October 28, 1797, his executors to sell, and which his surviving executor, John S. McCulloch, of Baltimore, Maryland, conveyed to James E. Brown, February 25, 1850, for $6,000. The eastern portion of " Greenfield" is traversed diagonally by a run whose sources are on depreciation lot No. 303, hereinafter mentioned,* nearly two miles northwesterly from the Kittanning bridge. Along that run in the southern part of "Greenfield" is "Whiskey Hollow," so called from the distillery some distance above on that run, which was operated by John Truby, Jr., from 1817 till 1825, by Isaac Wible from then until 1827, and then by James Blair until 1830. Farther up that stream is what was formerly called " Mutton Hollow," from the number of sheep formerly dispatched in it. Adjoining "Greenfield" on the west, on the Lawson & Orr map, is a tract of 40 acres, whose eastern and northern lines are straight, but whose southern line is irregular, and forming with the eastern line a right angle at the southeast corner and with the northern line a very acute angle at the northwestern corner, partly in East Franklin, which was surveyed by Ross, deputy surveyor, to William McAnninch, February 11, 1806, and thereafter assessed to Matthew Hopkins until 1816. West of " Greenfield" and south and southwest of the McAnninch-Hopkins tract, on the same map, is another irregularly-shaped tract of 70 acres, for which a patent was granted to Joseph Cogley, January 15, 1822, which, or at least 43A acres of which, he conveyed to Judge Ross, March 11, which the latter conveyed to David Huston, weaver, March 16, for $100, with 36 acres of which the latter was assessed until 1818, being in what is now East Franklin. South and west of "Greenfield" and south of the last-noticed tract was another Joseph Cogley tract, hexagonal, whose area was much larger than that of his other one, on which he settled about 1805, and was assessed with 50 acres in 1806, on which he had previously erected his blacksmithshop, which, before 1808, was the one most convenient to Kittanning, and to which its inhabitants resorted, the patent for which was granted to him and his wife, May 8, 1829. He ceased to follow his trade after 1891. Hle and his wife conveyed 67 acres of the former, and 69 acres and 20 perches of the latter tract to Robert G. Porterfield, Septem: East Franklin. ber 6, 1836, for $1,150, which, aggregating on a more accurate survey 143 acres and 78 perches, Porterfield conveyed to Dr. Thomas II. Allison, September 7, 1868, for $5,000. Adjoining those two (Cogley tracts on the west was depreciation lot No. 287, 2351( acres, called "Liberty Hiall." It was one of the ten tracts in what are now Armstrong, Allegheny and Butler counties, which were purchased from the commonwealth by Simon Fishlibaugh, which Robert Ralston, of Philadelphia, his assignee in bankruptcy, conveyed to Walter Stewart, March 20, 1792, and which, with numerous other tracts in various surveyor districts, became vested in Robert Morris, Jr., all of which he conveyed to Wilson Hunt, May 21, 1796, for "five shillings and other valuable considerations." "Liberty Hall" was sold by Adam Elliott, county treasurer, for taxes, who conveyed it to George Armstrong, December 16, 1810, for $30, and the latter to Hunt, August 25, 1813, for $10 which, among other tracts, the latter assigned for the benefit of his creditors to Lewis Clapier and Edward W. Robinson August 4, 1826, who by their attorney-in-fact, William Foster, of Meadville, conveyed it to Joseph Barnett, September 21, 1833, for $475, 50 acres and 20 perches of which the latter conveyed to William Barnett, December 5, 1836, for $125, and 10 acres and 64 perches to Joshua C. Bowser, July 21, 1849, for-, "and building a barn." The rest of "Liberty Hall," 196 acres, was conveyed by David J. Reed, sheriff, to Dr. Thomas H. Allison, September 7, 1868, for $5,000, which, with what he purchased from Porterfield, constitutes his noted stock farm,* which he began stocking with the Jersey cattle in 1868. He purchased 12 head of thoroughbred registered stock of this species in Philadelphia, in 1876, and he has sold a considerable number of calves, the rearing of which he has found pleasant and profitable, at from $60 to $100 each. His further purchases, this year, were: 7 head of young Shorthorns, for $1,000; 6 head of Holstein cattle, which he finds not adapted to the climate of this region; 28 pure-bred Merino sheep of the Alwood family, of the United States Merino Sheep Register, of Spanish descent. Adjoining "Liberty Hall" on the south was depreciation lot No. 286, 23580 acres, which Benjamin Holland purchased from the commonwealth at public auction, probably at the Coffee-House, in * Dr. Allison has since increased the area of his farm by the purchase of 60 acres from - Quigley. and 100 acres from Samuel Crookshanks. In 1877, he bought 3 head ofAyrshires, and now has 8 ofthis species, which fatten easily and quickly, and are good milkers. In 181, he has 48 head of Jersey or Alderney cattle, thoroughbred and registered; 16 head of shorthorns; sold a few calves at an average price of $65 each, and 8 head of Ayrshires. 460 NORTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. Philadelphia, September 23, 1786, which is described in the patent as situated on Beaver creek, as Glade run was then called. His only lineal heir was his son Samuel, to whom the patent was granted, September 27, 1828, for $15.66, who conveyed the entire tract to William Barnett, November 8, 1828, for $240, on which he appears to have made an improvement and settlement in 1825, which he retained till his death, and which by his will, dated July 10, and registered September 13, 1838, he devised to his wife during her life, and after her death to his son John. He bequeathed legacies to his other children, and directed that if any difficulty should arise among his legatees respecting their legacies, "no suits at law should be brought, but the same should be referred to the order and determination of his loving friends, James Green, Sr., and Hugh L. Cooper," and what they should "order, direct, and determine therein shall be binding and conclusive." South and west of the Holland-Barnett was the Adam Maxwell tract, 386 acres and 70 perches, skirted on the east by the above-mentioned KellyCampbell tract, on the southeast by the MorrowGreen tract, on the south by vacant land, and on the west by the Daniel Green-Ross-Boney and the hereinafter-mentioned William Jack tract. Adam Maxwell, as he states in his affidavit respecting the two routes for a public road from Freeport to Kittanning, "was appointed a spy by the state in the last Indian wars," and his "route was from the mouth of Buffelow to the mouth of Limestone on the Allegheny river," and that since he had come to live in this part of the country he had been three or four times supervisor. He probably made an improvement and settlement on his tract abont 1796, at all events before 1805, for in that year he was assessed with the land, two horses and three cattle, at $318, and the next year at $258. HIe was one of the earliest elders of the Slate Lick Presbyterian church, of whom Rev. B. F. Boyle, in his historical sketch of that church says, he "was a godly man; he was spared to rule many years." The next schoolhouse after that on the James Green tract was a log one, with clapboard roof, was built on this tract about 1812, in which John Harris was the first teacher. Schools had been taught in private houses before its erection. The warrant for this tract was issued to him December 10, 1813. He directed by his will, dated November 11, 1820, and registered September 26, 1837, that 80 or 100 acres be sold off the northeast end of the tract on which he then lived for the payment of his debts, but if it could not be sold to advantage that they be paid out of his personal property, and that quantity of land be equally divided between his sons Adam, David, James, John and William, and one-third of the rest of his land to James, and the residue to his other sons equally, to be laid off in such manner as they might think proper. James and the other heirs released their respective interests to John and William, August 21, October 11 and 27, and November 10, 1852, who conveyed 95 acres to Robert Dinsmore, August 23, 1852, for $950. Northwest of "Liberty Hall" lay depreciation lot No. 284, 220TO acres, called " Center Hill," a part of whose area is in what is now East Franklin township, the patent for which was granted to William Findley, November 30, 1786, who agreed, June 21, 1815, to sell it to Joseph Bowser for $220, to be paid within four years with interest, but did not execute a deed before his death. Bowser having proved this contract before Frederick Rohrer, prothonotary of the court of common pleas of this county, December 22, 1825, as provided by the act of June 31, 1792, the court ordered Findley's executors to convey it to Bowser. He had agreed to sell one-half to Thomas Jack, and the other half to Matthew Cole for the purpose of realizing the purchase money which he had not paid to Findley or his executors. Jack having paid to the latter $275, the principal and interest, they conveyed to him 110 acres, November 28, 1836. Bowser was Cole's administrator, and by virtue of an order of the orphans' court of this county, sold his intestate's interest, and after confirmation of sale, conveyed 105 acres to William Toy, October 5, 1837, for $60, which the latter conveyed to Bowser for $1 and other considerations, which the latter conveyed to Alexander McNickle, April 10, 1838, for $250, which Chambers Orr, sheriff, conveyed to Robert Buchanan, of Cincinnati, Ohio, March 17, 1841, for $170, which the latter conveyed to William Shaffer June 6, 1855, for $535.80, and 71 acres of which he conveyed to James F. Crookshanks, of Butler county, March 29, 1862, for $600; he to Hugh C. Black, November 11, 1863, for $820, and he to Joseph Bowser, March 31, 1866, for $1,200, which is now assessed to Jacob M. Bowser. At the crossroads on this tract is the hamlet of Center Hill, containing about a dozen buildings, in which are the Dunkard church and cemetery. This church was organized about 1820. Services were at first held in private houses. Rev. George Hoke was the first pastor. Adam, David and Joseph Bowser and their wives and Elizabeth Swighart were some of the original twelve members. The present church edifice, frame, one-story, 40X48 feet, was 461 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. erected in 1861. Members in 1876, -; Sabbathschool scholars, 35. Schoolhouse No. 3 is on the public road, nearly forty rods southeast of the crossroads, in its immediate vicinity. Chambers T. Bowser was first assessed here as a blacksmith in 1871, and J. F. Crookshanks as a merchant in 1872. Adjoining the " Center Hill" tract on the south was depreciation lot No. 285, 220 i4 acres, for which a patent was granted to William Findley, November 20, 1786, and which he agreed in his lifetime to sell to Charles Bonner, who had settled on it before 1805, and who had paid Findley part of the purchase-money before the latter's death. Bonner's death occurred after Findley's. The latter's executors, in pursuance of that ante mortem agreement, conveyed this tract to Charles Bonner, in trust for the heirs of Charles Bonner, deceased, November 29, 1836, for $587, including the portion paid before their testator's death, nearly the whole of which is now owned and occupied by the last-mentioned Charles Bonner, who conveyed 1 acre and 6 perches of it to David G. Claypoole, March 27, 1874, for $103.75, and the same day, 1 acre to J. F. Crookshanks, for $100, and another parcel, 1 acre and 75 perches, March 7, 1876, for $881. Adjoining " Center Hill" on the west was depreciation lot No. 275, 276-0 acres, called "Antrim," for which a patent was granted to William Findley November 20, 1786, which he conveyed to Adam Bowser, June 21, 1815, for $736, the northern part of it being in East Franklin. The records show that 101 acres and 117 perches of "Antrim" became vested in Bowser's grandchildren, Francis and Jeremiah Donze, who made an amicable partition and mutually released to each other, May 9, 1866, thus: Francis to have 56 acres and 57 perches, then adjoining James Robinson on the north, Joseph Bowser on the east, and Mrs. Sarah Long on the south; Jeremiah to have 45 acres and 60 perches adjoining the public road extending through the middle of the tract, John Summerville on the north, Jacob Bowser on the west, and Mrs. Sarah Long on the south. Jeremiah conveyed 30 acres and 60 perches of his purpart to Lydia McCollum, April 1, 1868, for $1,500. Adjoining "Antrim" on the south was depreciaciation lot No. 274, 2761' acres, called "First Choice," the patent for which was granted to to Findley November 20, 1786, which he conveyed to Joseph and Samuel Bowser, one-half to each, June 21, 1815, for $225 for each half. Joseph conveyed 125 acres to David Sturgeon, April 19, 1866, for $4,000. Samuel conveyed 120 acres to Alexander Colwell, November 26, 1844, for $600. Adjoining the two last-mentioned Findley-Bowser and Findley-Bowser-Sturgeon tracts, was a hexagonal one of 4191 acres, surveyed by Stephen Gapen to William Cain, on which William Jack made an improvement and settlement, August 9, 1799, of which 316 acres and 74 perches were surveyed to him by George Ross, September 12, 1801, for which a warrant was issued to Jack, March 16, 1807, who conveyed this tract to Jacob Weaver, June 3, for $282, to whom the patent was granted, January 16, 1809, to whom Thomas Jack conveyed whatever interest he had in it, October 14, 1817, for $10. Weaver conveyed this tract as containing 330 acres and 75 perches to Benjamin F. Weaver, January 31, 1831, for $1,000, who conveyed 316 acres and 75 perches of it to James Milligan, February 21, 1840, for $1,583.121, having conveyed 14 acres and 136 perches to John Boney, August 15, 1836, for $100. Milligan conveyed 80 acres and 120 perches to William McCune, February 21, 1840; McCune conveyed the same quantity to William Clark, September 26, 1848, for $731, and he to Joseph Claypoole, 29 acres, May 2, 1856, for $300. Milligan conveyed 40 acres and 150 perches to Joseph Bowser, August 4, 1845, for $122, and 95 acres to William F. Coyle, December 8, 1845, for $760; Coyle to John Barnett, the same quantity, March 27, 1850, for $765. Milligan also conveyed 100 acres to Samuel Ashbaugh, February 4, 1846, for $900, which the latter conveyed to William Huston, April 2, 1850, for $1,300. Adjoining the western part of that Jack-Weaver tract on the south was a septangular one of 418 acres and 134 perches, including the southern part of Gapen's survey to Cain, on which John Jack, Jr., had made an improvement and settlement before it was surveyed to him by George Ross, April 26, 1805, one-third of the northwestern part of which was then claimed by William Jack. This tract was conveyed by John and Thomas Jack as containing 400 acres, more or less, to Joseph McCullough, boatbuilder, of Pittsburgh, April 5, 1810, for $600. It and portions of the adjoining Daniel Green-BoneyRoss tract, making an octagonal-shaped tract 407 acres and 95 perches, appear to have been-included in a survey, November 14, 1833, to McCall and McCain, on an order of the board of property of March 29, 1833, for which a patent was granted to McCall November 26, 1833. Partition having been made between him and John Boney, who had purchased from Ross and Green, McCall conveyed to Boney 150 acres "on the waters of Glade run," 462 NORTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. September 30, 1834, for $1, and 100 acres, August 12, 1837, for $75. Next south of the Jack-McCullough tract, on the Lawson & Orr map, are two contiguous ones aggregating 201 acres and 11 perches-Benjamin and William White's-on one of which the former settled in 1812, in which year he was first assessed with 200 acres and 1 horse, at $210. The next year, 100 acres, 1 horse and 1 cow were assessed to William White, at $103, and 100 acres to Benjamin White; so there must have been a division between them between those two assessments. Benjamin continued to be assessed with his part of the land until 1817, when it is noted on the assessment-list " transferred to Jacob White." Both of those tracts are noted on the next year's assessment-list "transferred to Nathaniel Torbett." The patent for the land included in those two tracts was granted to John Craig February 18, 1815, who transferred it to Jacob White, and the latter conveyed the 201 acres and 11 perches, which it covered, to Torbett, May 4, 1820, for $600, who, by his will dated April 28, and registered May 23, 1825, devised the same to the children of his deceased brother, Henry Torbett. " By sundry mesne conveyances, good and sufficient in law," this property became vested in Robert McKnight, who conveyed it, 201 acres, to Thomas Roney, March 12, 1840, for $1,500.50. One of its boundaries is along the "line of Jacob White's old plow." Adjoining "Antrim" on the west was depreciation lot No. 272,203 acres, called "Armagh," the patent for which was granted to Joshua Elder, May 9, 1791, which, and his interest in 25 other tracts in this and other counties, he conveyed to Archibald McCall and Alexander McDowell, March 27, 1795, for $4,760g. It was assessed as unseated to the latter, in 1805 and 1806, at $812. It bears on its face, on the map of Gapen's surveys, " A. McC. " and " 203.9 " acres. It must have fallen to McCall in the division between him and McDowell, for McCall conveyed the southern part of it, 120 acres, to Christian Bowser, December 20, 1835, for $420, who was first assessed with it in 1834. He conveyed this parcel to Joseph Bowser, April 16, 1839, for $360. The northern part of this tract is in the northwestern part of East Franklin township. Adjoining " Armagh" on the south, on the map of Gapen's surveys, was another of the same size, blank in all respects except the boundary lines, which, like its northern adjoiner, is a square. On the other map of surveys it bears on its face " No. 273," and its quantity of land " 203.9 "acres. It was one of the tracts which Elder sold to McCall and McDowell, and in the division between them fell to the latter, whose heirs mutually and amicably agreed, June 26, 1833, that partition of their father's real estate in Armstrong, Butler, Venango and Warren counties, in this state, be made by Andrew Bowman, James Kinnear and Myron Parks. They first met July 22, 1833, and adjourned until the 30th. After adjusting the claims of two of the heirs, Parker and Thomas McDowell, they valued and allotted the various tracts to the respective heirs, No. 273 to Parker McDowell at $203, which he conveyed to John, Elizabeth and Mary Roudebush, July 15, 1837, and which they soon after divided into two equal parts, one of which was taken by John and the other by Elizabeth and Mary. That amicable partition was formally ratified by the heirs of John and Mary and by Elizabeth, February 2, 1855, " for the purpose of preventing difficulty from hereafter arising in regard to the partition aforesaid." Christian and Elizabeth Roudebush conveyed Elizabeth and Mary's purpart to David Bowser, February 21, 1855, for $544.80, and the heirs of John Roudebush released their respective interests in the other purpart to William Bowser, March 28, 1855, and May 15, 1858, for $100 to each. South of that McDowell-Roudebush tract lay the eastern portion of a tract, nearly a rectangular parallelogram, its longest sides extending from east to west, bearing on its face on the map of Gapen's surveys "Joseph Collins, 419.130" acres, but on the other map "Jonathan Moore," and the same number of acres. The patent was granted to McCall and Moore May 6, 1806, in which it is named "Dundee." Those patentees made partition between themselves, and on June 18, 1807, McCall released 150 acres of the western part to Moore, and Moore 265 acres and 100 perches of the eastern part to McCall. Moore settled on this tract before 1805, and he was assessed with his purpart until 1809. He was, as before stated, elected an elder of the Slate Lick Presbyterian church in 1808, but " remained within the bounds of the congregation only one year." He then emigrated to Ohio. His purpart was then assessed to Henry Brough until 1812, and then to his widow, Mary Brough, until 1814. McCall conveyed 42 acres and 136 perches of his purpart of "Dundee" to Joseph Claypoole, October 29, 1832, for $128.55; 87 acres and 76 perches to James Earley, June 29, 1846, for $699; McCall's heirs to William F. Johnston, 109 acres and 114 perches, April 13, 1846, of which he conveyed 50 acres to Hezekiah Claypoole, August 6, 1852, for $328; 23 acres and 109 perches to Joseph Clay463 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. poole, August 9, 1853, for $153.72, and 35 acres and 87 perches to William Miller, for $231. Adjoining the eastern or McCall purpart of "Dundee" on the south, on the map of Gapen's surveys, is a tract, a rectangular parallelogram, its longest sides extending from north to south, bearing on its face "John Sloan " and " 419'.130," and on the other map "A.. McCall and Hezekiah Claypoole," and the same number of acres, its southwestern part seeming to lap over on to the Jacob White tract. Claypoole settled here prior to 1805. The patent for it was granted to him and McCall, March 8, 1820. They having made partition between themselves, McCall conveyed to Claypoole 180 acres of the southern part, July 17, 1835. Hezekiah Claypoole and divers other early settlers in this part of the township were Baptists. As early as 1810 there was occasional preaching by itinerant Baptist clergymen at Jacob White's house at White's eddy, the first of whom was Rev. Speers. Arrangements were made several years later to secure a site for a church edifice, and an agreement was entered into by Nathaniel Bowser and Hezekiah Claypoole for that purpose, in pursuance of which the latter gave the former his bond in the penal sum of $300, the condition of which was, that Claypoole should make a good and sufficient deed for one-half an acre of the 120 acres of this tract, which McCall had agreed to sell to Peter Hammer in August, 1796, " for the purpose of building a meeting-house of the regular Baptist church, and for a burying-ground." The boundaries of that half-acre as described in the conditions of thatbond were: Beginning five rods southwest of the grave of Elizabeth Hammer, the former wife of Peter Hammer; thence around that grave, and thence to to the lower east line of the survey of that 120acre parcel; "thence the same with that it would be above, and thence to the beginning." It is not manifest from the records that a conveyance of that half-acre was ever made for the above-mentioned purposes. For many years after that agreement was made, religious services were held at private houses, in later years at the house of James H. Claypoole. The present frame edifice, about 30X40 feet, built by David J. Reed, in 1852, and the burying-ground are on that half-acre, opposite the junction of two streams. The Baptist church was reorganized October 19, 1841, at which time Hezekiah and Lucinda Claypoole, Archibald and Rachel Moore, Mary Geary, Mary Hazlett and Mary Bowser were among the members, who remained from the original organization. Other members were James H. Claypoole and his wife Isabella, David Campbell and wife, Joseph Claypoole and wife, Mary Claypoole, James Jack, Mary Ann Jack, Reuben McKenna, Hannah Claypoole, Sarah Jane Price, John Cook. Upon the 18th of April, 1846, twenty members withdrew and formed the Franklin church. John P. Connor conveyed one acre of the land which he had purchased from Thomas Roney to Andrew J. Bruner and Wallace Claypoole, trustees of the Union Baptist church and their successors, in trust for the church, March 18, 1875, for $80. Hezekiah Claypoole conveyed 64 acres and 94 perches of his part to Isaac Bowser, July 8, 1844, for $100. McCall's heirs conveyed their purpart, 254 acres, to James Claypoole, June 29, 1846, for $889. Adjoining the last-mentioned tract on the west was one lying parallel with it and containing the same quantity of land -twin tracts, except on the map of Gapen's surveys, the latter has on its face, "John Scott & David Todd," and on the other map, "Leonard White." White gave Archibald McCall a bond, dated August 16, 1796, in the penal sum of $500, in the consideration of which these facts are embodied: Scott and Todd made an improvement on this tract to whom Gapen surveyed it, and then transferred their interest in it to McCall, who had paid the purchase-money to the commonwealth and obtained a warrant of acceptance, but no patent for it could issue until the improvement, settlement and residence on it required by the act of April 3, 1792, had been effected. So McCall conveyed to White, the day of the date of that bond, 120 acres of this tract, "to be of good and bad according to the quantity and quality of the whole tract," in consideration whereof White agreed to make the required improvement, settlement and residence, and pay McCall I penny, and before February 16, 1797, build thereon a house fit for the habitation of a family. It is said, though it is not apparent from the records, that White sold his purpart. He then moved on to McCall's, and persisted in retaining possession. McCall, in order to regain possession of his 299 acres, brought his action of ejectment to No. 61, June term, 1828, in the common pleas of this county, which resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff, March 16, 1830, on which judgment was entered on the 21st. By virtue of a second pluries habere facias, No 2, September term, 1834, Chambers Orr, sheriff, removed the defendant, who still persisted in "holding the fort," from the premises, and delivered possession to the plaintiff. The sheriff in his discharge of that official duty encountered the opposition of both the defendant and his wife, who continued to occupy their chairs after all their furniture had .464 NORTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. been removed, so that he was obliged to carry them off in their chairs by main force. The patent for this tract was granted to McCall for himself, James Kiskadden and James Matthews, March 9, 1820. McCall conveyed 119 acres and 150 perches of it to Samuel and May Hopkins, sole heirs of Andrew Kiskadden, of Highland county, Ohio, October 21, 1831, as their purpart in the partition which had been made- 113 acres to William Boney, March 6, 1841, for $1,130, which Boney conveyed to Joseph Wilson, April 28, 1843, for $1,400, Wilson to John Burford; Burford to L. N. Bartholemew, March 5,1852, for $-, and Bartholomew to Jacob Bowser, June 20, 1853, for $-; 203 acres and 115 perches of this tract were included in the Brown-Gilpin-Johnston purchase from McCall's heirs, of which Johnston conveyed, April 15, 1852, 50 acres and 150 perches to William Bowser, for $433.08, and 50 acres and 78 perches to William Walker, for $429.15. Adjoining the last-mentioned tract on the west is one on the map of Gapen's surveys bearing on its face " James Scott," " 403.48 " acres, traversed from near its northwestern to its southeastern corner by Nicholson's run, and on the other map "Casper Early," "440 a. 49 p." Earley settled on it probably during the last half of the last decade of the eighteenth century. It was surveyed to him by George Ross, June 16, 1802, "by virtue of actual settlement and improvement." He was assessed with 200 acres of it, a sawmill, 1 horse and 1 cow, as early as 1805, at $136, and he continued to reside on it "during his life as an actual settler." A patent for the whole tract, the southwest corner of which is in South Buffalo, was granted to Archibald McCall, October 2, 1828, who, in pursuance of the partition which had been made, conveyed 215 acres and 123 perches to him, November 4, 1830. Earley, by his will, dated April 13, and registered May 18, 1829, devised 200 acres to his son, Casper, who was required to maintain his mother during her natural life, or so long as she remained unmarried, and his oldest son, John, during his natural life, and pay certain bequests to the testator's other children, who were enjoined not to oppress and embarrass their brother Casper in paying them-none of them was to demand more than $25 of his or her share annually. He bequeathed to "Rev. Mr. O'Neil, Roman Catholic priest, $25 for the good of my (his) soul, the greater honor and glory of God and support of his holy church militant on earth." Nearly all of Casper Earley's purpart of this tract remains in the possession of his descendant, Casper W. Earley. The only portion of it which he has sold appears from the records to be 1 acre and 89 perches, which he conveyed to the religious society called " the Holy Guardian Angel of the Catholic Church," June 29, 1876, for $1 "and other valuable considerations." The McCall purpart is included in the BrownGilpin-Johnston purchase, and which (295 acres and 96 perches) Johnston conveyed to James H. Claypoole, April 12, 1853, for $1,884.80, of which Claypoole conveyed 50 acres and 9 perches to Isaac Steel and William A. Jack in trust for the heirs of James Jack, July 16, 1866, for $700. Contiguous to the last-mentioned tract on the west on the map of Gapen's surveys is a hexagonal tract, the eastern line of which is the western one of the McCall-Earley tract, its bearings and length being 3 degrees west 400 perches, which corresponds to the bearings and lengths of the eastern and western lines of the three last-mentioned tracts. The width of the northern half of it is 200, and that of the southern half is 178 perches. The headwaters or sources of Pine run are in its northwestern and central parts, nearly two-thirds of the southwestern part of its southern half being in what is now South Buffalo township. This tract has on its face on that map " Geo. Smith" and "412.117," but on the other map "Hugh Callen and A. McCall, now Kerscaddan," and figures representing 412 acres and 117 perches. There were, within the memory of James Rayburn, vestiges of an Indian camp in its northwestern part. It was surveyed to McCall and Callen October 29, 1805. The patent for 409 acres and 31 perches, called "Last Night," was granted to McCall and Callen, May 9, 1807, the latter having settled on it in March, 1796. He went, some time afterward, to Westmoreland county, to get a wife, and during his absence John Cowan took possession of his cabin, of which he was informed by Mrs. Rayburn, at whose house he stopped on his return. He said nothing except to ask for something to eat. Partition having been made, McCall released to him, February 13, 1810, 160 acres of the western side, which then adjoined Enos McBride on the south, and Jacob Young and James Rayburn on the west, which Callen conveyed to "James Carskaadan," March 16, for $640, which the latter conveyed to Samuel Beatty February 7, 1826; Beatty to James Ralston, June 25, 1827; Ralston to Margaret Reed, October 14, 1828; she to James Caldwell, January 24, 1829, for $500, and she having married Isaac Allsworth, they both released to Caldwell, March 8, 1833; 50 acres of which Caldwell conveyed to John Boyd, May 18, 1833, for $200. McCall's purpart, 249 acres and 37 perches, partly 465 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. in South Buffalo township, was included in his assignment to Du Pont, who, by the late Judge White, his attorney, agreed, December 15, 1832, to sell it to George B. Sloan, and for which the latter agreed to pay $312. That agreement was subsequently consummated by deed from George A. McCall by his attorney, A. McCall, June 22, 1838. Sloan conveyed 50 acres to John Boyd, July 6, 1839, for $137. Adjoining "Last Night" and the McCall-Earley tract on the north were two depreciation lots, Nos. 222 and 223, and adjoining No. 222 on the north, No. 221, both lying north of "Last Night" and No. 223 north of and adjoining the McCall-Earley tract. All is blank on the map of the Gapen surveys, except their boundary lines and numbers, and so on the other map except their respective quantities are noted, No. 221, with other land attached, "310a,'' and bearing the name of "John Galbraith," No. 222, " 200.6," and No. 223, "220a.2." The earliest assessment lists of unseated land in Armstrong county show that at least one of them, No. 221, once belonged to Andrew Kennedy. The patents for Nos. 221 and 222 were granted to Anthony and John Kennedy, of Berks county, Pennsylvania, September 11, and No. 223 September 13, 1819. John having conveyed his entire interest in them to Anthony, the latter devised them to his executors during the natural life of his niece, Rebecca Joice, and after her death to her children, except Anthony Joice. In the course of human events the wife of Samuel H. Harrison and her brother, Andrew R. Joice, became the devisees. Mrs. Harrison and her husband and Andrew R. Joice and his trustee conveyed these three tracts to James E. Brown, March 19, 1849, for $4,000, who conveyed Nos. 222 and 223 to Peter Groff, April 8, 1858, for $5,379.25, of which the latter, as the records show, conveyed 102 acres and 100 perches to Robert Boyd, November 22, 1865, and he to William C. Barnett, April 10, 1867, for $3,489.25, and April 17, 1874, 14 acres and 2 perches to Samuel Dumm, for $460.50, and 83 acres and 28 perches to John Dumm, for $1,016, both of those parcels being parts of Nos. 222 and 223. Brown conveyed 100 acres of No. 221 to James C. Galbraith, November 21, 1859, for $800, and 16 acres and 24 perches to George McCracken, September 29, 1866, for $323. Nos. 191 and 192 were assessed to Andrew Kennedy on the list for Buffalo township until 1815, when it was discovered they were not in this county. No. 221 was noted on the assessment list for 1815 as seated, but by whom it was not indicated. Nos. 222 and 223 do not appear to have been on the unseated list after 1807, but the latter and No. 221 were assessed to Andrew Kennedy at $82.80 and $88.80, respectively, in 1805 and 1806. East of No. 221, north of No. 223 and the western portion of "Dundee," on the map of the Gapen surveys, is a septangular tract, " 425 " acres, which Gapen surveyed to " Wm. Crawford," but on the other map "A. McCall and Andrew Earley." The patent for 422 acres and 92 perches, called "Copenhagen," was granted to them, February 13, 1809, in the southern part of which, near the northwest corner of "Dundee," are the forks of Nedulvis run. There was probably a partition between them, though the records do not show it, for Earley continued to possess 200 acres of it. McCall's purpart was included in his assignment to DuPont of June 23, 1817, and which, 259 acres, was included in the sale by McCall's heirs to Brown, Gilpin and Johnston, of which Johnston conveyed 107 acres to James Earley, October 21, 1853, for $751; 50 acres and 19 perches to Joseph Earley, August 21, 1854, for $338; 97 acres and 133 perches to John Leister, June 24, 1859, for $684.81. Public schoolhouse No. 2 is situated on the Earley purpart of "Copenhagen." The predecessor of the present one was burned on the night of the 5th or 6th of December, 1865 - the work of an incendiary, as all the books in the house were removed to a safe place before the conflagration. Adjoining " Copenhagen" on the north, on the map of the Gapen surveys, is a quinquangular tract, "David Todd," "406.80," but on the other, "A. McCall and Jonathan Moore, 406a.80." The patent for that quantity, called "Moorefields," was granted to McCall and Moore, February 1, 1809. George and Jacob Cornman appear to have been its first settlers, the former having been assessed with one horse at $10, and the latter with 50 acres of it at $25, first in 1811. They both continued to be afterward assessed with portions of it. David Leonard was first assessed with 60 acres of it and one horse in 1830 at $113. " Moorefields" was included in McCall's assignment to Du Pont, but was subsequently reconveyed. McCall conveyed 406 acres of it, "except the settler's share as derived from and under Jonathan Moore," to George and Jacob Cornman and David Leonard, July 9, 1835, for $300. It does not appear from the records that Moore ever returned to look after his "settler's share." The Cornmans and Leonard conveyed 60 acres to Peter Shearer, October 8, 1841, for $300. Jacob Cornman ceased to be assessed with any part of " Moorefields" after 1842. His interest in 120 acres passed by sheriff's sale to J. M. Torney, who conveyed it to Alexander 466 NORTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. Colwell, March 29, 1842, for $265.53; Colwell to John Summerville, November 14, 1844, for $680, and Summerville to David Claypoole, the present owner, 125 acres and 57 perches, November 5, 1855, for $1,800. George Cornman and David Leonard conveyed 126 acres to Samuel Cornman, November 5, 1854, for $1761. Jacob appears to have conveyed his interest in it to Samuel, December 7, for the latter conveyed 11 acres and 48 perches, which Jacot had before then conveyed to him, to James Claypoole, July 4, 1855, for $43.83, and which, with other 62 acres and 30 perches, Claypoole conveyed to Henry D. Weaver, August 1, 1863, for $1,080. Samuel conveyed to Lewis Cornman 62 acres and 30 perches, April 25, 1857, for $1, which the latter, two days afterward, conveyed to Frederick Bowser for $615. A small parcel of land, containing about 85 acres, contiguous to or a part of "Moorefields," was granted to David Griffin by patent dated December 17, 1836, who devised it to his eldest son, John, by his will, dated January 20 and registered March 5, 1859, who still retains it, except the 4 acres and 80 perches which he conveyed to Chambers Claypoole, March 3, 1863, for $100. To the west of "Moorefields," on the map of Gapen's surveys, is a considerable area vacant, except in the eastern part, north of the before-mentioned depreciation lot No. 221, is the name of "David Hall," so that David Hall, Sr., of "Mount Hall," in what is now Kiskiminetas township, must have been here and acquired an inchoate interest in the 399 acres and 12 perches extending westward into the loop of Buffalo creek, before these surveys were made, and on which he soon after settled and built a gristmill, on the right bank of that stream, with which and the land and two cows he was assessed at $192 in 1805, and $214 in 1806. A small portion of his original tract is north of the present line between this and Franklin townships. The patent for this tract was granted to him July 7, 1815. He conveyed 100 acres and 29 perches to David Hall, Jr., January 12, 1817; 100 acres and 29 perches to Hugh Harkins, November 22, 1822, for $500; 56 acres to William Beatty, January 11, 1823, for $600; 88 acres and 7 perches to Samuel Porterfield, July 9, 1825; and the residue, 154 acres and 136 perches, to David Hall, Jr., November 15, 1828, for $1,000. The latter conveyed 113 acres and 83 perches of his parcel to James Hall, April 17, 1857, for $750, and 120 acres to John A. Hall, January 23, 1858, for $200 and one-third of the annual crops of hay and grain raised thereon, and the use of the front room inii the mansion house. It was here that Rev. DaVid Hall, D.D., Indiana, Pennsylvania, was born and reared, and caught magnificent ideas from the grand, picturesque scenery which abounds in this region. The David Hall tract is traversed in a southwest course by Marrow Bone run, which is so named from a lick which is probably on Depreciation-Kenedy lot No. 227, which derived its name from this event that happened in the olden time: Two cattle strayed from a drove, perhaps of government cattle en route to Venango or Fort Franklin, which were afterward found at this lick, where they were killed and all the meat stripped from their bones, their bare bones being left at the lick. Hence it was called Marrow Bone lick. Those familiar with this part of this township are aware that portions of the various parcels purchased from David Hall, Sr., are still owned by the descendants of his vendees. The last above-mentioned gristmill was on the parcel purchased by William Beatty, who was a miller. He devised by his will, dated March 14 and registered March 23, 1827, that parcel and other land to his son David, who purchased 150 acres of the tract, September 29, 1836, for $500, for which a warrant was granted to Catherine Kier, ne'e Miller, June 7, 1824. Seventy-three acres passed by sheriff's sale to Jackson Boggs, for $1,000, on which there was then "a sawmill in full operation, an old fullingmill now used as a dwelling-house, and a good seat for a mill," which he transferred to his brother, David C. Boggs, June 17, 1865, for $500. That parcel and the rest of David Beatty's land have been known for many years as the "Beatty mill and farm property." * In the vacant area on the map of the Gapen surveys John Smith, one of the earliest justices of the peace in this county, made an improvement, February 23, 1793, and a settlement, March 3, 1796, and the tract on the other map, west of the Depreciation-Kenedy lots Nos. 221 and 222 and south of the Hall tract, 390 acres and 69 perches, was surveyed to him by George Ross, May 2, 1802. From 1800 until 1803 his house was the place designated by law for holding elections in Buffalo township, which then consisted of all that part of this county north and west of the Allegheny river. John Smith's will, not dated, not signed, not witnessed, but proven by James Hill, Jr., and Abraham Smith, Jr., to have been in his hand *The Batavia postoffice, Charles McClatchey, postmaster, was established here June 26, 1877. David Beatty, by his will, dated August 9, 1878, and registered September 8, 1879, devised his land, in three separate parcels, to his three sons: that on which the gristmill isto R. M. Beatty. His devisees conveyed 160 acres, partly of the Hall and partly of the Kier tracts, to Henry Exall, Jr., of Dallas, Texas, November 7, 1879, for $12,000, the price of a patent-right for a smoothing-iron which they purchased from him, or traded for their several parcels of land. 467 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. writing, was registered December 27, 1830, by which he devised to his wife the mansion house and all improvements during her life, and, should she "think proper, to let Johnny work the farm and give her one-third part of the grain and hay or what she may stand in need of," besides the household furniture; to his son Abraham " 100 acres of the land next to James Hill and Patrick Callen's, in the forks of the run between me and David Hall;" 90 acres to Polly McElhaney, " or whatever she and her brothers may agree upon; " the place that was formerly Abraham Smith's to Betsey Bole; and the mansion house and 200 acres to "Johnny after his mother's death." Letters of administration with the will annexed were issued the same day it was registered, to John B. Smith, i.e., "Johnny." He and George H. Smith entered into an agreement, November 26, 1866, for the sale and purchase of the 100 acres on which the latter then lived, for $1,600. Abraham Smith, Sr., the above-mentioned devisee, died intestate, and letters of administration on his estate were granted to his son, Abraham Smith, Jr., August 7, 1840. About nine years afterward proceedings in partition were had of this intestate's real estate, consisting in part of the 100 acres devised to him by his father, which was divided into two purparts, the one containing 46 acres and 71 perches, valued at $396.37, and the other 56 acres and 71 perches, $396.37, and taken by George H. Smith, the allienee of the intestate's daughter Nancy, intermarried with Bennett Dobbs. About 75 rods below the southern line of the John Smith tract in the vacant space on the map of the Gapen surveys, is the name of "James Hill," but on the other map, a tract in shape an octagon, all of whose angles are right, but whose sides are of different lengths, about one-third of whose area is in what is now South Buffalo, on which are "4James Rayburn," " 429.80" acres, on which Raymond made an improvement in August or September, 1794, a settlement in March, 1796, and which was surveyed to him by George Ross, May 20, 1802. Alexander McKinney had acquired an interest in this tract, which passed by sheriff's sale to George Armstrong, June 22, 1816, for $500, "held," as recited in the sheriff's deed, "in right of settlement made by James Rayburn, who is thereby entitled to 150 acres." In the eastern part of this tract, about 25 rods west of the line between it and "Last Night," was an Indian camp, the vestiges of which some of the old residents remember to have seen. The entire tract ultimately became vested in Raymond, to whom the patent for it was issued February 23, 1826. He conveyed 211 acres of it to James Ralston, December 15, 1832, for $1,* and by his will, dated June 1, 1837, and registered February 20, 1838, devised 118 acres to his eldest son, the present James Rayburn, agreeably to a division line which had been previously run, with which quantity he is still assessed, and 97 acres on the south side of that division line to his younger son, Matthew, with which quantity, less 5 acres, lihe is still assessed. Adjoining the Rayburn tract on the west, in the vacant space on the Gapen map, is a tract on the other map, 317 acres and 130 perches, on which John Sipe settled in the spring of 1795, about half of the area of which is in this township. The patent for this tract, called " Honstorn," was assessed to Sipe, January 16, 1809. The western portion of it is traversed in a southwesterly course by Sipe's run. As heretofore stated,f he conveyed 209 acres thereof to Thomas Kiskadden, 11 acres and 130 perches of which the latter conveyed to James Hill, April 28, 1812, and November 20, 1826, for $32. Sipe conveyed 10 acres and 98 perches to William Hill, November 5,1836, for $30, and 1981 acres to Charles Sipe, -, 1838, for $1 and the comfortable support of himself and his wife during their lives, and respectable burials after their death, with which quantity Charles is still assessed. Adjoining "Honstown " on the north, on the Gapen map, is the name of "James Hill," and on the other map his name and " 364a.25P," and the boundary lines, the eastern, southern and western ones being straight and of considerable length, but the northern ones shorter, making eight right or nearly right angles. James Hill settled on this tract in the spring of 1796. It was surveyed to him, by virtue of his improvement and settlement, by George Ross, May 18, 1802, and the patent for it was granted to him March 23, 1807. He conveyed 91 acres and 41 perches to Joseph Shields, October 16, 1830, for $1.50; 231 acres and 92 perches to Edward Wilson, April 11, 1836, for $3,062.46, on which is the public schoolhouse No. 1; 94 acres and 80 perches to Reuben Stonecipher, March 16, 1839, for $940.60, with which his heirs are still assessed, and 79 acres and 80 perches to Henry Fullerton, March 21, for $1,272, with 50 acres of which Jane Fullerton is still assessed. A warrant was granted to James Hill, June 29, 1814, and the patent July 6, 1815, for 97 acres and 41 perches contiguous to the northwestern part of his other tract, which he conveyed to David Linton, October 9, 1840, for $1,000. Adjoining those two Hill tracts on the north, in * See sketch of South Buffalo t See sketch of South Buffalo 468 GEORGE B. SLOAN~. SURVEYS OF THE ALLEGHENY RIVER. nearly, with a descent of the stream of two hundred and sixteen feet; and from the Kiskiminetas to Pittsburgh, twenty-seven miles, with a fall of forty feet. From Cumming's trunk, which is at or near the northwestern corner of this county, down along the river to Freeport, the numbers of obstructions in, and the geological features on each side of the river, are noted as follows: Cumming's trunk-obstruction No. 34. Sandstone and timber in abundance. Clarion river-obstruction No. 35. Sandstone and timber in abundance. Parker's Falls, Bear Creek-obstruction No. 36. Bed of river chiefly of sandstone rock in this vicinity. Right bank rises 10' in 15 yards; soil sandy. Left bank rises 15' in 40', and is also stony. Obstruction No. 37. Right bank: soil, clay: rises 23' in 70'. Left bank stony, with a rise of 15' in 40'. Fox Island Rapid-obstruction No. 38. Right bank rises 60' in 25', and left bank is at an angle of 35': soil stony. Eagle Island Rapid-obstruction No. 39. Head of shoal. Right bank retreats 30 yards; sandy, then rises 15' immediately. Armstrong's Rapid-obstruction No. 40. Left bank slope of 450, and is a mixture of sand and (clay; rubble along shore, and continues much the same to the 356th picket (below Catfish), at which point the right bank rises from shore 14' in 30'. Left bank generally at an angle of 450 as before, and composed of a mixture of sand and clay. Catfish Falls-obstruction No. 401. Banks generally mixture of sand and clay, with stony beach receding from 0 to 5 yards, and then rising about 14' in 30'. Left bank generally at an angle of 450 in this vicinity. Opposite Sugar Creek - obstruction No. 41. Banks generally mixture of sand and clay, with stony beach receding from 0 to 5 yards, and then rising about 14' in 30'. Left bank generally at an angle of 450 in this vicinity. Goose Bar-obstruction No. 42. Banks generally mixture of sand and clay, with stony beach receding from 0 to 5 yards, and then rising about 14' in 30'. Left bank generally at an angle of 450 in this vicinity. Above Frazer's run or Denneston's-obstruction No. 43. Banks generally mixture of sand and clay, with stony beach receding from 0 to 5 yards, and then rising about 14' in 30'. Left bank generally at an angle of 450 in this vicinity. Red Bank Ripple, near Red Bank Creek-obstriucetion No. 44. Right bank rises at an angle of 350; soil clay. Left bank rises 18' in 50', and is rocky; the bed of the stream gravel; rubble along the shore. Early's Ripple - obstruction No. 45. Right bank rises 20' in 60', and is a mixture of sand and clay; plenty of rubble along the beach. Left bank rises 25' in 40"; soil a mixture of clay and stones (debris). Dixon's Falls-obstruction No. 46. Right bank stony, at an angle of 45'. The beach on the left is about 24' in width, and the bank of sandy soil; rises suddenly to an altitude of fifteen feet. The dam at this place is about 10' high. It does not back the water more than about ten rods above the highest point of the dam. Banks angular, 150 slope; sandstone. Nelly's Chute-obstruction No. 47. Hills very steep on each side of river; rubble in abundance. Banks nearly the same as at Dixon's Falls. Near Mahoning Creek - Obstruction No. 48. Right bank rises 32' in 80', and is a mixture of sand and clay. The left bank is sand, with a rise of 26' in 56 yards. Near Col. Orr's-obstruction No. 49. Right bank rises 32' in 80', and is a mixture of sand and clay. The left bank is sand, with a rise of 26' in 56 yards. Near Pine Creek-obstruction No. 50. Banks perpendicular; strata of sandstone rock; 12' high, timbered. Cowanshannock Creek- obstruction No. 51. Banks perpendicular; strata of sandstone rock; 12' high, timbered. Above Kittanning-obstruction No. 52. Right bank is stony, with a rise of 25' in 26 yards. Left bank steep, having a rise of 28' in 20'; soil sandy. Kittanning Ferry-obstruction No. 53. Very small stone on beach. Right bank recedes from the river 120 yards, with a very gradual rise of from 12 to 15 feet; sandy soil. Left bank soil the same, rising 20' in 30 yards. Cogley's Island-obstruction No. 54. Very small stone on beach. Right bank recedes from the river 120 yards, with a very gradual rise of from 12 to 15 feet; sandy soil. Left bank soil the same, rising 20' in 30 yards. Cogley's Island-obstructions Nos. 55 and 56. Bed of stream rocky; sandstone. Crooked Creek Island - obstruction No. 57. Banks rise at an angle of 300. Soil a mixture of sand and gravel. Nicholson's Run, Shafer's Mill-obstruction No. 58. Banks rise at an angle of 300. Soil a mixture of sand and gravel. Nicholson's Run, Shafer's Mill- obstruction NORTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. the vacant space below "Improved Land" on the Gapen map, is a very irregularly-shaped tract, having twelve sides, on the other map 383 acres and 95 perches, fully one-third of which is in the loop of Buffalo creek, or on the right bank of that stream, on which Patrick Callen was an early settler. He made his improvement in November, 1793, and settlement in April, 1801; surveyed to him April 27, 1802. He was assessed with 360 acres, 1 horse and 1 cow, in 1805, at $110, the patent to him for which, called "Downpatrick," is dated June 30, 1804. He conveyed 97 acres to Robert Morrison, January 8, 1811, for $321; 100 acres to John Callen, September 13, for ~100; 91 acres and 51 perches to James and John Hill, May 8, 1819, for $274, "in good current bank notes." Callen's executors, Hugh Callen and James Rayburn, by the authority given them in his will, dated April 19, 1823, and registered March 23, 1825, conveyed 180 acres of "Downpatrick" to Robert Houghton, July 9, 1827, for $500. The parcel which Robert Morrison purchased was conveyed by him and John Morrison to George Hill, who conveyed the same to Joseph Shields, August 10, 1829, for $500 "in Pennsylvania currency," and which the latter conveyed to James Blain, April 18, 1839, for $500. Houghton conveyed the parcel which he had purchased from Callen's executors to William Smith, February 12, 1830, for $800, which the latter reconveyed to him, October 8, 1831, for $58 "and other good and valuable considerations," which Houghton conveyed to Charles Gense and Edward Manso,.both of -, Germany, October 10, 1831, for $800, Gense having transferred his interest therein to Manso, who was a well-educated homeopathic physician, the first one of that kind in this region. The latter conveyed 195 acres, strict measure, to David Shields, March 29, 1856, for $3,300. Shields conveyed 101 acres and 145 perches to James Blain, June 22, 1863, for $1,852; and 96 acres and 11 perches to Charles McClatchey, April 9, 1864, for $1,900. Adjoining the James Hill tracts and "Honstown " on the west and "La Maria Rosallie" on the north, on the Gapen map, is a tract, in shape a rectangular parallelogram, 306 X 193 rods, bearing on its face "Mordica McDonald," and its western part traversed by Buffalo creek, but on the other map " A. McCall &James Barr, " 342a.129." James Barr, farmer, as he is distinguished from Judge Barr on the early assessment list, was among the earliest settlers in this region. This tract was surveyed to him by George Ross, "by virtue of his improvement and settlement," May 7, 1805, in which year he was assessed with 250 acres, 2 horses and 2 cows, at $99.50. He conveyed his interest in this tract and his "household property, goods and chattels" to James Steel, November 30, 1815, in consideration of keeping him and Martha his wife during their natural lives in a decent and Christian-like manner, and to be decently interred when they should depart this life. Steel did not comply with the conditions of that sale; for Barr conveyed his interest in this tract to David Ralston for the same consideration, reciting in his conveyance that Steel did "in no manner comply with his agreement, but shortly after moved his family down the river Ohio." Ralston must have performed his part of that agreement, for the patent for this tract having been gianted to McCall, November 30, 1835, he and Ralston made partition, and McCall conveyed to Ralston 185 acres and 67 perches of the eastern part, June 22, 1836, for $1, which must have been considered the share to which Barr had become entitled by virtue of his improvement and settlement. The purpart, 180 acres and 150 perches, retained by McCall passed by the sale of his heirs to William L. Johnston for himself and his co-purchasers, Brown and Gilpin. Robert Richards, deputy surveyor, surveyed 315 acres and 132 perches, July 3, 1829, to David Ralston on warrant dated April 8. Adjoining that McCall-Barr tract on the north, on the Gapen map, is a larger one, in shape nearly a rectangular parallelogram, which bears the name of "James Perry," after whom Perry's Point on Buffalo creek was possibly named. The original warrant for this tract was issued to William Elder. On this tract on the other map are the names of "John McKean and James Barr," and " 402".74P." McKean made an improvement and settlement on it, June 4, 1801, by virtue of which it was surveyed to him by George Ross, September 19. McKean was assessed with 300 acres of it, 1 horse and 1 cow, in 1805, at $96, and afterward until 1814 with 400 acres at $202. That year the assessor noted on his list opposite McKean's name, "Left the part," meaning, probably, that he had left these parts. He was again assessed with the same quantity as "unseated," at $300, in 1819, and at the same rate the next year, though it was not then noted as unseated. It is not probable that he resumed possession after leaving it in 1814. Eben Smith Kelly purchased the interest of McKean in 200 acres and 10 perches of the southern part, one-half of which he conveyed to Philip Mechling. The patent for the entire tract was granted to Archibald McCall, August 15, 1838, who recognized the validity of the Kelly-Mechling title, for he purchased Mechling's interest before he obtained 469 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. his patent, namely, October 31, 1836, for $100, and he conveyed 100 acres and 5 perches to Samuel S. Harrison, guardian of Kelly's minor children, October 15, 1842, for $1, which the latter transferred to his wards, June 17, 1850, after they had attained their majority, the whole of which ultimately became vested in one of them, who, with her husband, William D. Robinson, conveyed the entire parcel to Isaac L. and John Steel, May 10, 1854, for $1,050, which Isaac conveyed to John W. and Robert A. Kiskadden, the present owners, April 1, 1859, for $1,700. Adjoining the last-mentioned tract on the north on the Gapen map is one 313 X220 rods, on whose face are "John Caffey, 406;" its southeastern and some of its southern parts being traversed in a westerly and southwesterly course by the Buffalo creek, and a strip of its northern part being in what is now West Franklin township. It was settled, probably before 1800, by John Duffy, who was assessed in 1805 with 400 acres and 2 cows, at $92. "John Duffy's heirs" were first assessed with 400 acres, in 1816. By his will, not registered in this county, but mentioned in the conveyance of one of his heirs, he devised his interest in this tract to his son James and his daughter Catherine, afterward the wife of Henry Seymour. The patent for this tract to A. McCall is dated October 2, 1828. She and her husband conveyed her interest "in a piece of land on the waters of Buffalo creek, on which John Duffy, Sr., made a settlement, and on which he resided at the time of his death," to her brother James, November 20, 1837, for $50, and to whom McCall conveyed 150 acres, September 17, 1838, for $1. James Duffy, Sr., by his will, dated February 20, and registered March 29, 1856, devised his real estate to his three sons, James, John and Lawrence, at the valuation to be put upon it by three men, the cleared and woodland portions to be respectively divided into three equal parts, which are now occupied by those three devisees. James Duffy was first assessed with a distillery in 1832. McCall's purparts of this and the other lastmentioned tract were included in the conveyance from his heirs to William F. Johnston for himself, Brown and Gilpin, about 586 acres of which, in North Buffalo township, they agreed to sell to William L. Speer, proprietor of the Winfield Furnace, and for which he agreed to pay $3,326.74, and went into possession. John McDevitt kept a hotel on this land in the northwest corner of the township in 18569-60. The purchase-money not having been paid, an action of ejectment for its recovery was brought in the common pleas of this county. The case was arbitrated, December 18, 1858, and an award given to plaintiff for the above-mentioned quantity of land to be released on payment of the above-stated amount with interest, on December 18, 1859, and costs. No appeal having been taken, a writ of haberefacias was in due time issued and possession of the land delivered by Sheriff Sloan to the writer as plaintiff's attorney, May 1, 1860, a rather rough day for that season of the year, but not rougher than the land of which the plaintiff thus became repossessed. Three hundred and six acres thereof were conveyed by William Brown, county treasurer-a tax sale-to J. K. Finley and W. H. Jack, June 16, 1862, for $4.40, which they conveyed to J. E. Brown, in 1875, for $10.64, which had become vested in him after the partition between him, Gilpin and Johnston, February 1, 1866, and with which, as unseated, he is still assessed. Gilpin and Johnston conveyed 274 acres in the northeastern part of the tract, partly in West Franklin township, to John Lundy, of Pittsburgh, May 16, 1866, for $3,295.35. The first piece of calico for wear was introduced into what is now North Buffalo by William Parke, who packed goods from east of the mountains, in 1805, for dresses for his wife and Mrs. James Green. The vote of this township, February 28, 1873, was 94 against and 16 for granting license to sell intoxicating beverages. The population of this township in 1850 was: White, 916. In 1860, white, 1,175. In 1870, native, 1,024; foreign, 33. The number of taxables in 1876, 291. In 1860, number schools, 6; average number months taught, 4; male teachers, 3; female teachers, 3; average salaries of both male and female teachers, $18.33; male scholars, 180; female scholars, 166; average number attending school, 220; cost monthly for each scholar, 35 cents; levied for school purposes, $513.95; levied for building purposes, $308.37; received from state appropriation, $77.22; from collectors, $468.25; cost of instruction, $440; fuel, etc., $38.23. In 1876, number of schools, 6; average number of months taught, 5; male teachers, 6; average monthly salaries, $33; male scholars, 250; female scholars, 258; average number attending school, 337; cost per month, 78 cents; levied for school and building purposes, $2,581.45; received from state appropriation, $343.17; from taxes, etc., $2,272.77; teachers' wages, $1,815; fuel, etc., $207.80. According to the mercantile appraisers' list there are 3 merchants of the fourteenth class in this 470 NORTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP. township in 1876. According to assessment list for the same year, those of other occupations, except agricultural, are: Laborers, 32; blacksmiths, 2; carpenters, 4; schoolteachers, 3; wagonmaker, I; miners, 2; plasterers, 2; stonecutter, 1. Geological.-The surface rocks here consist of lower barrens and lower productives, nearly 300 feet of the barrens being here represented, and covering the highlands about Slate Lick with smooth argillaceous shales. The hills along the river front are more forbidding in consequence of the massive condition of the Freeport sandstone which overlies the lower Kittanning coal. The ferriferous limestone is above water-level in this township only along Rough run and Buffalo creek, where it rises above the level of the stream-beds in obedience to the Craigsville anticlinal extending here across the Butler county line. The limestone is from 15 to 18 feet thick, with the buhr-stone ore in place. It was once operated here for Winfield Furnace. The Clarion coal is also here above water-level, 3 feet thick, which yields indifferent coal. The upper Freeport coal is nearly obscure throughout almost the entire township. The lower Kittanning coal is above the water-level for a brief interval along Buffalo creek in the region of Winfield Furnace and elsewhere along the river, below the mouth of Glade run, and under the stream-beds elsewhere in the township. Structure.-An anticlinal axis runs lengthwise through the township from northeast to southwest. It passes close to Center Hill; thence southward into South Buffalo township. The dips are gentle. -Platt. 471 CHAPTER XXII. WEST FRANKLIN. Organization of the Old Township of Franklin from Territory in Buffalo and Sugar Creek - Limestone Town ship - First Election in West Franklin - First Owners of Land Tracts - Transfers of Property in Early and Late Years - John Shields' Bequest to the Free Presbyterian Church of Worthington - His Wife's Gift - The Craig Woolenmill - Flouringmill - Craigsville - Buffalo Furnace - Buffalo Woolenmill - Regu lar Baptist Church - James Barr and the Town of Worthington - Early Assessment of the Village - In corporation - Evangelical Lutheran Church - U. P. Church - M. E. Church - Free Presbyterian Church - Academy- Schools- Statistics - Sketch of James Barr- Local Geology. THE petition of divers inhabitants of Buffalo and Sugar Creek townships was presented to the proper court of this county, at June sessions, 1830, setting forth that they labored under great inconvenience because these townships were " entirely too large for the convenience of their inhabitants;" that, by laying out a new township to be composed of parts of both of the old ones, the proposed new one would be a great accommodation to the people inhabiting it; and prayed the court to appoint "three impartial men to inquire into the propriety of granting the prayer of the petitioners," and that they should make a plot of the proposed township. The court appointed Elisha Davis, John Shields and John Templeton, whose report in favor of organizing the township of Franklin, signed by two of the viewers, Davis and Shields, was filed December 23, 1830. At the same sessions a remonstrance of some of the inhabitants of both of these old townships against the organization of the proposed new one was presented and filed, setting forth: "That by an application of a few of the inhabitants of said townships an order for the erection of a new township out of parts thereof hath been granted," etc. They, therefore, remonstrated against the confirmation of the report because the old township of Sugar Creek would be left quite a narrow strip of its poorest parts, "incapable of supporting the poor, if any should unfortunately be so reduced, and it is generally believed that four or five paupers will shortly have to be supported by Sugar Creek township, and it appears as if the rich and wealthy parts were endeavoring to throw that burden on a few who are comparatively poor." Franklin township was, nevertheless, organized with the boundaries reported by the viewers: "Beginning at a sugar tree on the bank of the Allegheny, being the southeast corner of a tract of land in Sugar Creek township, formerly owned by John Orr, but now by Archibald Dickey; thence west 11 miles 26 perches to the Butler county line; thence by the Sugar Creek [line] 6 miles and 28 perches to a post on the south bank of a large run "-the one next north of Rough run-" thence east in part along the line of Franklin election district 9 miles 110 perches to a post on the bank of the Allegheny river, 20 perches below the northeast corner of William Phillips' land; and thence by the Allegheny river, being the boundary of Kittanning township, the several courses and distances thereof to the beginning." That Franklin election district was formed in 1829 out of parts of Buffalo and Sugar Creek townships: "Beginning at the place where the southern boundary of depreciation tract No. 283 "-conveyed by William Linley to David Reed in 1815 - "crosses Glade run; thence west to the Butler county line; thence by the line of said county to a point thereon west of the northwest corner of the tract on which Davis' mill was erected; thence east to the line of the election district of the borough of Kittanning; thence by said line to the place of beginning." The record of the first township election in Franklin is not accessible to the writer. At September sessions, 1857, was filed and read the petition of divers inhabitants of Franklin and Sugar Creek townships, for the organization of a new township out of parts of those two old ones, and Hugh Campbell, Joseph McCartney and James Stewart were appointed viewers, whose report in favor of the organization of the township of Limestone was filed and read, and the court, September 16, ordered a vote of the qualified electors of Sugar Creek township, of those residing both within and without the territory sought to be embraced within the new township, on the second Tuesday of November. That election was held, and resulted thus: Against the new township, 101; for it, 91. The boundaries of LimeWEST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. stone township were to have been: From the lower side of the mouth of Limestone run, past John Ambrose's house, west of an old house then on William McClatchey's land, to include the village of Middlesex, on to the land of Moses Dickey, on the line between the two old townships and through the territory of Sugar creek to J. Ellenberger's spring, and thence to a point on the Allegheny river near the foot of Earley's riffle, and thence along the river to the place of beginning, containing about 25 square miles. A petition of numerous citizens of Franklin township was filed in the court of quarter sessions of this county, March 17, 1866, praying for a division of their township by a line beginning at a point on Daniel Shaffer's farm, and at the corner between schoolhouses Nos. 4 and 7, and running in a northerly direction, so as to follow the dividing line between the subdivisions of territory represented by schoolhouses Nos. 4 and 7, 6 and 9, and 5 and 8. Viewers were appointed the same day. This matter was continued June 9, and their report was filed and read September 4, and December 8 the vote of the qualified electors of the town. ship was ordered to be taken on the third Friday of January, 1867, the return of which was filed January 19, showing 180 against, and 176 for the division. Another petition for the division was filed April 8, and viewers or commissioners were appointed, whose report in favor of the division was filed May 25. The court, June 6, ordered the vote of the qualified electors of the district to be taken on the first Saturday of August, the return of which was filed November 6, showing 191 votes for and 33 against the division. The court, January 27, 1868, decreed, ordered and adjudged that Franklin township be divided, the new or eastern, to be called East Franklin, and the other or western part, to be called West Franklin, the area of the former being about 28 and that of the latter 26- square miles. Schoolhouse No. 11, commonly called Moore's, was designated by the decree of the court as the place for holding elections in East Franklin, and the house of Andrew Sample, in the borough of Worthington, in West Franklin. At the first election held in West Franklin the following township officers were elected: Justice of the peace, William Claypoole; constable, R. J. Atwell; supervisors, Peter Kerr, J. T. McCurdy; school directors, Chiristopher Leard, for 3 years; J. C. Minteer, for 2 years; Peter Kerr, for 1 year; overseers of the poor, Christopher Leard, James Minteer; assessor, J. Y. Minteer; judge of election, J. C. Morrison; inspectors of election, James Claypoole, J. A. Minteer; auditors, John F. Brown, Samuel Dumm; treasurer, John Craig, Jr.; clerk, William Claypoole. Turning to that portion of the Gapen map, in what is now the northwestern part of this township, is seen the eastern and minor part-the major part being in what is now Butler county- of a tract surveyed by John Gapen to Mahaffey "401 " acres, the eastern portion of which on the other map bears the name of Hugh McElroy, 91 acres and about 51 perches of which, in this county, partly in Sugar Creek adjoining the Gapen surveys to Martha Craig. John Bond, William B. Clymer and Amos N. Mylert agreed, September 6, 1852, to sell to Dennis Boyle, which agreement was afterward consummated, and Boyle conveyed the lastmentioned quantity to Edward Boyle, August 22, 1870, for $400. The northwestern corner of this parcel is now occupied by C. Harrigan. East of that Mahaffey tract there is an extensive vacant space N. E. and S. on the Gapen map, but on the other is an octagonally-shaped tract, the northern part of which is in what is now Sugar Creek township, 229 acres and 18 perches, on which Bryan Kelly made an improvement and settlement in July, 1799, which was surveyed to him by George Ross, April 29, 1802. His name does not appear in any of the records of this county, unless he was identical with "Barney Kelly," who was assessed with 100 acres, 2 horses and 1 cow, in 1805, at $31, and in 1806, at $51. He must have resided on the northern part of his tract, for after the organization of Sugar Creek township his name is on its assessment list until 1812, when he removed to Butler county. For several years he packed iron, salt and other merchandise from east of the Allegheny mountains. The records of this county do not show the transfer of his interest in this tract of land to any one else. Adjoining the Kelly tract on the east, on the Lawson & Orr map, is the tract, about 400 acres, surveyed in the olden time to Cornelius Sweeney, on which Thomas Hindman settled probably in the latter part of the last century. He was assessed with that quantity of land, 1 horse and 2 cows, as early as 1805, at $202, the next year at $252, and continued to be assessed with a greater or less quantity until 1839. Two patents were granted to him, dated respectively February 23, 1836, and July 5, 1839. He and his son John conveyed 17 acres and 140 perches included in the first of the patents to James Brown, November 1, 1839, for $124. John conveyed 115 acres included in the same patent to Thomas McKee, August 12, 1840, for $924; 97 acres and 35 perches (in Sugar Creek) included in the second patent to Daniel Boyle, June 473 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. 6, 1843, for $900; 98 acres and 14 perches of second patent to Th. McKee, May 13, 1846, for $864.06, and 150 acres of first patent to William Ramsey, September 8, 1856, for $3,000. McKee conveyed 115 acres and 80 perches to Andrew H. McKee, December 25, 1852, for $630, and 108 acres and 14 perches to James B. McKee, July 17, 1855, for $-, who conveyed the same to Augustus Uhl, the present owner, April 1, 1856, for $1,800. Adjoining the Thomas Hindman tract on the southeast was one, 392 acres and 126 perches, on which Manassah Coyle made an improvement and settlement, probably about 1800. It was surveyed to him by Judge Ross, May 7,1807, in whose notes of survey it is described as being adjoined on the northwest by Cornelius Sweeney and Thomas Hindman. Coyle was assessed, as early as 1805, with 400 acres, 2 horses and 1 cow, at $216. He was assessed the last time with the land in 1808, and then at $427. It is noted on the assessment list of Sugar Creek township, in which this tract then was, "Transferred to Miles McCue." The patent to Coyle is dated June 5, 1811. August 19, 1812, he conveyed 140 acres to McCue for $590, and 196 acres to Enos McBride for $250. McCue, by his will, dated August 19, 1812, witnessed by his neighbors, Patrick McBride and Edward Wiggins, and proven by them and registered March 13, 1821, devised his parcel of the Coyle tract to his sons Neil and Roger, 21 acres and 117 perches of which they conveyed to James Brown, November 19, 1839, for $87.38. Neil and his family continued to occupy the residue until he conveyed it to his son William P., the present owner, November 9, 1863, and a portion of it thereafter until his death. The consideration for that conveyance was one of those mutual domestic arrangements by which the grantee agrees to maintain the grantor and his wife. In this instance the grantors, or parents, were to be furnished by the grantee, annually, with certain specified quantities of provisions, and allowed the use of certain rooms in the mansion-house, a certain quantity of pasturage and vario,is other privileges, during their natural lives. In the description of the parcel thus conveyed, the Hindman tract is mentioned as the " Cornelius survey "-the scrivener probably inadvertently omitted " Sweeney "" and so mentioned in the Coyle patent," that is, as an adjoiner. The place of beginning in the boundaries of this parcel is at a corner on the line between the Wiggins and Coyle tracts, " ten rods west of the old Reu corner, including the Reu tract." The eastern portion of the Coyle tract included at least a part of what appears to be "Joseph Irwin's claim" on the Gapen map, and a narrow strip of it extends on the other map, across or to the eastern side of Little Buffalo creek. The parcel which Brown purchased from the McCues and Hindmans he conveyed to A. L. LeDoo, 139 acres and 114 perches, April 1, 1852, for $2,300, which, as containing 148 acres, more or less, he conveyed to James P. Hartman, March 29, 1865, and he to J. T. Hohn, the present owner, March 12, 1866, for $4,500. There was a schoolhouse on this Hohn parcel when Robert Brown lived in this neighborhood; Herman Cook, teacher. Among the pupils were J. E. Brown and the late Neil McCue. McBride conveyed 50 acres of his parcel of the Coyle tract to Nathaniel Patterson, September 8, 1828, for $220, and 149 acres to John Y. Stewart, July 4, 1839, for $500, which his administrator conveyed to Philip Templeton, June 30, 1849,.for $1,005.75. Patterson was first assessed with 100 acres and 2 cows in 1820, at $37, with a sawmill in 1822, and with that 50-acre parcel and a gristmill in 1826, and was assessed with the latter until 1861. The tract, 340 acres, adjoining the one last above noticed, was settled and improved by Peter Pence about 1800-probably two or three years before. As early as 1805 he was assessed with 300 acres, 2 horses and 1 cow, at $181, and the next year, with the same and an additional cow, at $186. By his will, dated November 2, 1811, and registered March 2, 1812, he did not devise any part of this tract to any one. It was assessed to his son Henry until he and the rest of his co-heirs conveyed their respective interests therein to Joseph Shields, March 9, 1833, for $50 each, except John Pence, who conveyed his interest to Shields, for the same amount, June 7, 1834, which the latter, by his will, dated June 17, 1852, and registered May 16, 1857, devised to his son David, who had conveyed 234 acres, including propably 30 acres of the tract east of Little Buffalo, to James B. McKee, March 31, 1850, for $2,600. There is an apparent discrepancy between the dates of the will and the last-mentioned conveyance. It is recited in the latter that Joseph had conveyed the land to David, November 2, 1845, and that the patent was granted to Joseph, December 20, 1813. The probability is that the patent for this tract was granted to Joseph and John Shields, June 9, 1836, for 330 acres and 156 perches, and the latter released his interest in 204 acres and 71 perches to the former, June 2, 1842, for $50, and that Joseph had either sold or agreed to sell the last-mentioned quantity to David, which hlie afterward devised to him. On the Lawson & Orr map, adjoining the Pence 474 WEST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. tract on the south, is a narrow one of considerable length from east to west-its western portion somewhat narrower than its eastern, and forming with its western adjoiner two angles, the southwestern one acute, and its northwestern one obtuse, containing about 170 acres, on which John Shields settled and established his tannery in 1816. The patent for this tract was granted to him March 7, 1828. By his will, dated September 10, 1862, and registered March 7, 1864, he devised his mansionhouse and 170 acres and 114 perches of land to his wife, and a tract of 146 acres, adjoining that one on the north, to her during her life, which latter tract his executors, James Brown, of Slate Lick, and John Craig (of Samuel) conveyed to Martin Guiser, September 8, 1866, for $2,700. He directed his executors to sell a lot of 5 acres and 70 perches, partly in Worthington and partly in the township, and pay the proceeds of the sale to the elders of the Free Presbyterian church of Worthington at the rate of $40 annually, "for supporting the pastor, or supplies to the church for preaching the gospel." The amount paid to the elders for that purpose was $200.50. Hle directed that what remained, after satisfying various legacies, to be paid to the treasurer of the American Missionary Society in the city of New York, to be applied to its charitable uses and purposes. If there should not be enough to pay all the legacies for which he had provided, he directed that the farm, on which John Stewart then lived, be sold as soon after his wife's death as could be reasonably done, and whatever remainder there might be, after dischaiging the legacies, to be paid over to the Iberia college, Morrow county, Ohio, under the control of the Free Presbyterian church. His widow, Mrs. Mary Shields, by her will dated December 6, 1864, and registered January 26, 1866, authorized her executors, John Boyd and John Brown, to sell all her property, personal and real, and, after satisfying her debts, expenses and divers legacies, to appropriate the balance to the trustees of the board of education of the Presbyterian church of the United States, to be "applied to the education of young men for the gospel ministry." Her executors conveyed 170 acres of her real estate to Findley Wilson, August 3, 1866, which he conveyed to Joshua Nickle, the present owner, June 29, 1868, for $3,000. Southwest of the Kelley and Coyle and northwesterly of the Pence and Shields tracts, on the Gapen map, is one nearly a trapezoid in shape, on which are inscribed "Robert Jordan," "407. 63 "its southeasterly end being 221 and its northwesterly 144 perches long, traversed southwesterly by two parallel runs, the easternmost one nearly through the center, and the other one between it and the northwestern end of the tract. On the other map the same tract has the inscriptions "Edward Wiggins, 408a," who made an early improvement and settlement on it. He was assessed with it, 1 horse and 1 cow, in 1805, at $111, and the next year, with an additional horse and cow, at $140. The patent for this tract was granted to McCall and Wiggins, November 5, 1819. They made partition and released to each other, June 25, 1823, McCall to Wiggins, 216 acres and 7 perches, and Wiggins to McCall, 191 acres and 86 perches. Wiggins conveyed 112 acres of his purpart to his son-in-law William Blaine, January 7, 1843, for the proper and sufficient maintenance of himself and his wife during the rest of their lives. Blaine conveyed his entire parcel to William Denny, February 25, 1853, for $896, 39 acres and 155 perches of which hlie conveyed to Patrick Denny, June 21, 1864, who conveyed the same to James Kinsley, the present owner, May 21, 1866, for $425. William Denny conveyed the residue of his parcel, 72 acres, to Geo. S. Ross, the present owner, October 2, 1873, for $1,900. The McCall purpart, containing by a later survey 201 acres and 64 perches, was included in the sale by McCall's heirs to Brown, Gilpin and Johnston, 163 acres of which Johnston conveyed to Peter Graff, October 5, 1857, for $1,304, and which the latter conveyed to Andrew Hindman, the present owner, October 27, 1864, for $2,100. The northwestern end of the Jordan-Wiggins tract on the Gapen map is adjoined by the John Jordan tract 4031 acres, about three-fourths of its territory being in what is now Butler county-the portion of it in this county making, with the county line, a heptagon in shape. This tract was improved and settled by John Donaldson, probably about 1797. He was assessed with 400 acres, 1 horse and 1 cow, in 1805-6, at $121. The patent for this tract was granted to him and McCall November 23, 1827. They having made partition, McCall conveyed 150 acres and 53 perches, mostly on this side of the county line, to Donaldson, November 3, 1830, which the latter conveyed to Andrew Minteer, May 17, 1836, for $700, who conveyed the same quantity to James Minteer, November 17, 1840, for $700, on which he built a sawmill, in 1854, which was operated until 1859. South of that tract was one for which a patent was granted to Samuel Milligan, March 6, 1838, who conveyed it to John Milligan, Sr., July 12, and he to John Milligan, Jr., subject to the maintenance of Joseph Milligan, who conveyed 30 acres 475 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. and 40 perches to John Beemer, March 31, 1856, for $360, on which he afterward built a limekiln. Southeast of the John Jordan tract, and south west of the Jordan-Wiggins tract, is a vacant area on the Gapen map, except the inscription " John Ellis," which in some of the records is written " John Elliott." On the other map is a long, nar row, rather irregularly-shaped tract, 367 acres and 96 perches, the central part of which is traversed in a southeastern course by the Buffalo creek, on which James Hindman made an improvement and settlement in March, 1797, and which was surveyed to him by George Ross, December 15, 1801, to whom the patent for 368 acres and 40 perches was granted January 23, 1816, on warrant dated March 7, 1807. He was assessed in 1805 with 350 acres, 1 horse and 3 cattle, at $173. By his will dated July 9, 1845, and registered May 6, 1846, he devised the land in this tract and the parcels which he had pur chased from John Griffin and Samuel S. Harris to his sons, Andrew, George, John and William, to each a specified quantity. John appears to have lived on the northwestern part of this tract, now occupied by Joseph Baker, to whom John had probably in his lifetime sold or agreed to sell 106 acres, reserving 131 acres for the benefit of his minor child, Margaret. The conveyance therefor to John appears to have been mislaid or lost, for his son, Joseph, and his daughters, intermarried with Philip Griffin and John P. Milligan, and their husbands undoubtedly intended to supply the want of that conveyance by making one to Baker, who singu larly is the party of the first instead of the second part in their deed, which is not signed Griffin and his wife; and, again, those who signed that deed dated December 14, 1867, receipted for the purchase money, $900, to themselves. Perhaps an inad vertent contretemps of the scrivener. South of that part of the John Jordan-McCall Donaldson tract, mainly in this county, including, perhaps, parts of "McNitt's Claim" and "Im proved Land " on the Gapen map, is a long, narrow tract on the other map, whose southeastern end projects eastward like the foot of the letter L, with the inscription, "A. Smith, 400'." It was improved and settled by Mary Gallagher, whom Smith married. It, 1 horse and 1 cow were first assessed to him on the Buffalo township list in 1812, at $26, and the next year at $226. Smith and his wife, March 22, 1831, conveyed the southeastern end of this tract, supposed to contain 150 acres, "to be laid off by running a line along the fence that runs from the shop, near the turnpike road, in the direction of the said fence across the said tract." They conveyed that parcel to John Douglass for $200, which he conveyed to Archibald McCullough as containing 105 acres and 74 perches, March 1, 1837, for $527, to whom the patent for it was granted April 14, 1838. He conveyed it to James Walker, March 14, 1846, for $800, and the latter to Nicholas Clark, April 3, 1850, for $2,200. The 300 acres remaining after the sale to Douglass were divided by inquest, heretofore mentioned,* into six purparts which, though varying somewhat in quantity, were each valued at $396.37. No. 1 was taken at the appraisement by James Minteer, as guardian of Andrew McCoy Smith, a minor child of James G. Smith, who conveyed it to Nicholas Clark, February 18, 1854, for $300; No. 2 by John, the eldest son of Abraham Smith, who conveyed its 37 acres and 138 perches to Nicholas Clark, February 9, 1850, for $700; No. 3 by William Smith; No. 4 by George Morrison, alienee of Mary Van Horn, ne'e Smith; No. 5 by Hugh Daugherty alienee of H. N. Lee, who was the alienee of Joseph B. Smith, and No. 6 by Abraham Smith, Jr., by whom it is still occupied. Southeast of the James Hindman and east of the Abraham Smith tract is unsurveyed territory on the Gapen map, but on the other the Patrick McBride, an irregularly shaped one, 384 acres and 91 perches, which was surveyed by George Ross to McBride, April 28, 1802, by virtue of his previous improvement and settlement. Its southeastern part is crossed by Big Buffalo creek. The patent for this tract was granted after Patrick's death, June 23, 1838, to Michal McBride for himself and in trust for the rest of the legal heirs of his father. Hugh McBride sold his interest in this tract to John Gillespie, who conveyed 116 acres and 100 perches to Nicholas Clark, June 2, 1848, for $1,000; 71 acres and 106 perches of which Clark conveyed to James Blain, April 2, 1858, for $925. Michael McBride conveyed about 20 acres to John McBride May 13, 1841, which the latter conveyed to William Blain, March 28, 1842, and which he conveyed to James Blain, February 16, 1863. for $300. Michael also conveyed 120 acres to John Blain, June 27, 1849, for $1,060. South of the western half of the John Shields and east of the James Hindman and Patrick McBride tracts, on the Gapen map, is the tract surveyed by Gapen to "Thomas Jordan," " 418 " acres, an octagon in shape, and traversed in a southeasterly course by the Big Buffalo creek, with three tributaries nearly parallel to one another, flowing into it from the north-northeast. On the other map are inscribed: "A. McCall and Sam'l Taylor, 400a.1' Taylor probably made an improve * See sketch of North Bufhfalo. 476 WEST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. ment and settlement on it before 1800. He was assessed with it, 1 horse and 1 cow, in 1805, at $121, and in 1806 at $125. The patent for it, 416 acres and 8 perches, was granted to McCall and Taylor, February 13, 1809. McCall conveyed 79 acres and 155 perches to Samuel Clark, August 14, 1838, for $159.88. The rest of McCall's interest in it was included in his assignment to Du Pont, and in the latter's reconveyance to McCall. Taylor's interest was levied on under a judgment in favor of David Edwards for $114, besides costs. Fi. fa. No. 17, of March term, 1825, inquisition held and property condemned. After returns of several writs, "not sold for want of a sufficient bid," it was finally sold by Jacob Mechling, sheriff, on seventh Pluries Vend. Ex. No. 80, June term, 1827, to Eben S. Kelly, 140 acres, for $202, which S. S. Harrison and wife, formerly Mrs. Kelly, and Eleanor, Emily and Mary Kelly, heirs of Eben S. Kelly, conveyed to John Craig, September 15, 1849, for $800, who conveyed 122 acres and 38 perches to Ludwig Guiser, July 18, 1856, for $730.55. The residue of the McCall purpart, 208 acres and 82 perches, was conveyed by McCall's heirs to Brown, Gilpin and Johnston, 175 acres and 67 perches of which they conveyed to Peter Graff, March 17, 1858, for $877.10, of which he conveyed 6 acres to William F. -Rumberger, December 15, 1860, for $90; 10 acres and 47 perches to John Crawshaw, December 21, for $200; and 117 acres and 18 perches to Crawshaw and Frederick Ruth, April 7, 1865, for $1,307. This tract was called " Samos" after an island, one of the Sporades, in the,Egean Sea, the modern Archipelago, near the western coast of Asia Minor, about midway between the site of the once magnificent and often rebuilt city of Ephesus and the island of Patmos. Adjoining "Samos" on the east is unsurveyed territory on the Gapen map on which is inscribed "John Craig," but on the other map is a tract with boundary lines along its eight sides, the southeastern corner of which touches the northeastern corner of depreciation lot No. 250. In its southern part about sixty rods from its southwestern boundary is the junction of Big and Little Buffalo creeks, northeast, east and southeast of which is about one-fifth of its territory, its southeastern point being a very acute angle. It bears the name of William Stevenson, who occupied it several years for Craig. The improvement began March 3, 1793, and the settlement in October, 1795, and was surveyed to Stevenson by George Ross May 7, 1801. A warrant for 200 acres of it was entered in 30 Deputy Surveyor Ross' office, December 24, 1794, which had been granted to Aaron Wor. Stevenson was assessed with 200 acres, one horse and 2 cows in 1805, at $77, and continued to occupy under Craig for several years. James Karr, Sr., was also an early occupant under Craig of a part of this tract. The patent for it was granted to John Craig, Sr., May 24, 1836. It had been settled by his son Samuel at or before the beginning of this century, on the southwestern part of which on or near the left bank of Big Buffalo creek he erected a fulling-mill with which, 400 acres and 1 horse he was assessed in 1805 at $20, and in 1806 at $200. The carding of wool into rolls was begun here about 1814. The fulling-mill was assessed to him until 1821, when it and the 200 acres, with which he had been for several years assessed, were assessed to his brother, John Craig, Jr., who continued the fulling and carding until 1835, when, according to recollection of John Craig (of Samuel), his uncle, John Craig, Jr., and Robert Cooper entered into a partnership for manufacturing flannels, blankets and other woolen goods. The passing remark may here be made, that the patent for this tract of land was granted to John Craig, Sr., May 24, 1836. Cooper sold his interest in the factory to John Craig, Jr., and James Craig, September 1, 1837, by whom it was operated for several years. John Craig, Sr., conveyed 80 acres of this tract to John Craig, Jr., July 18, 1836, for $400. The factory building was burned, December 14, 1843, and a larger one was erected soon after on the same site. John Craig, Sr., by his will, dated September 5, 1836, and registered April 5, 1850, devised to John Craig, Jr., that part of this tract on which the latter then resided. William F. Rumberger became a partner in the woolen factory in 1856, the firm name being Craigs & Rumberger, until James Craig sold his interest to him and John Craig, May 26, 1862, when he conveyed to them his interest in the factory and the 103 perches of land on which it is located, 1 acre and 77 perches, included in the patent to John Craig, Sr., and the 24 acres and 69 perches of " Samos," for $3,700. John Craig conveyed his interest in the factory and those 4 parcels of land to Rumberger, February 11, 1867, for $10,000. He and John P. Scott entered into a copartnership, which continued two or three years, when the latter sold out his interest, and David Gregg and - Richardson became partners, and still do business under the firm name of Rumberger, Greggs & Co. On Friday night, December 15, 1871, just 28 years and 1 day after the last-mentioned fire, their factory was consumed by a fire 477 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. caused by one of the employes attempting to fill a large lighted lamp. They soon erected a larger building on and adjoining the site of the old one, in which they manufacture, daily, 1,000 yards of flannel and numerous blankets. They have also started a stocking factory in the woolhouse on the opposite side of the road, which is capable of knitting, daily, 216 pairs of socks. Craigs & Rumberger furnished the troops recruited at Camp Orr with a large number of blankets, in the winter of 1861-2, for which, on account of some irregularity, they have never been paid. Rumberger, Gregg & Co. have since furnished the United States government with large quantities of flannel for the underwear of the troops. This point began to be called Craigtown in or about 18-, and afterward Craigsville, which name it still retains. The first child was born within its limits March 30, 1809, who is still living. The present flouringmill, about 13 rods below the woolen factory, on the right bank of the creek, was erected by John Craig, Jr., Joseph T. McCurdy, and Samuel S. Wallace, early in 1849, and they agreed, August 20, that McCurdy and Wallace should pay Craig $166.661 for the 1 acre and 25 perches on which they had erected the mill, a three-story frame structure, and he to execute to each of them a deed for the one-third part, so as to make them, respectively, equal owners. John Craig died suddenly, soon after breakfast one morning, from neuralgia of the heart. His heirs conveyed the undivided two-thirds of the millproperty to McCurdy and the alienee of Wallace's interest, Jos. Minteer, May 14, 1872, for $2,000, with the privilege of taking from the present darn, above the mill, whatever quantity of water may be necessary for the use of the mill and for damming the water back on that decedent's land. Preliminary to opening a store at Craigsville, John Craig, Samuel S. and John C. Wallace entered into an agreement, December 15, 1860, for the sale and purchase of two-thirds of 152 perches of the parcel devised by John Craig, Sr., to John Craig, Jr., for a "store lot," as it is elsewhere called, for which the latter agreed to pay $533.33. It was also agreed by them that neither of them should sell his interest without first giving the other parties the refusal, and, in case of disagreement as to the price of it, the matter should be referred to three disinterested men, two of whom should be chosen by the parties, and the third one by the ones thus chosen, whose decision should be final and conclusive, if excepted to by the retiring partner. The store was soon after opened, for John C. Wallace was first assessed as merchant in 1861. It was afterward transferred to Christopher Leard & Sons, the latter being first assessed as merchants in 1872. The present firm name is C. Leard & Sons. The Craigsville postoffice was established here, November 29, 1869; William F. Rumberger, postmaster. The new shoolhouse, in lieu of No. 14 before the division of Franklin township, is situated on the public road on the lower or right-hand side of the creek, about 100 rods below the gristmill. The first separate assessment list of Craigsville is for this year, 1876, according to which there are 25 taxables: Physician, I; clerks, 3; boss carder, 1; boss weaver, 2; laborer, 1; helper, 1; dyer, 1; engineer, 1; wool-sorter, I; picker, I; teamsters, 2; spinner, 1; blacksmith, 1; wagonmaker, 1; miller, 1; weaver, 1. Adjoining that John Craig tract on the west and southwest, and touching the southeast corner of " Samos," the northeastern and south) vestern portions of which are traversed by Buffalo creek, and in the former portion is the mouth of Long Run, is a tract, octagonal in shape, whose original boundary, courses and distances are: Beginning at a post, thence along the John Craig tract south 60 degrees east 2331 perches to a white oak; thence south 4 degrees west 175 perches to a black-jack; thence south 87 degrees west 159 perches to a corner on the west side of the creek; thence across the creek south 3 degrees east 120 perches to a corner on line of depreciation lot No. 250; thence south 70 degrees west 71 perches to a white-oak; thence north 20 degrees west 200 perches to a post; thence along vacant land north 241 degrees west 240 perches to a white-oak; thence north along " Samos" 4 degrees west 37 perches to the place of beginning. " Surveyed on the 20th day of September, 1794, the above described tract of 433 as. & 59 P. & allowance of six pr cent situate on Buffalow creek in Armstrong township, Allegheny county, in District No. 8-the improvement began in March, 1793. Surveyed at the request of Simon Craig. STEPHEN GAPEN, D. S." " Dan'l Brodhead Esq., surveyor general." It is noticeable that Gapen was mistaken as to this tract being in Armstrong township, whose western boundary then was the Allegheny river. This tract was then in Deer township. There was a similar mistake in a description of the tract called " Senior," on the north side of the Kiskiminetas, either by the surveyor or the scrivener. The patent for this tract was granted to A. McCall and Stephen Sheldon, February 23, 1825. After Sheldon's death, McCall released, August 23, 1827, 160 478 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. No. 59. Banks ascend at an angle of 450; soil sand and gravel. Above the mouth of Kiskiminetas, and below where the aqueduct was-obstrution Nos. 60, 61 and 62. Banks the same as before, soil sand and stones. In the middle of July, 1842, the stage of water in the Allegheny was such that its navigable condition was very good, which had been and which has since been an unusual occurrence at that season of the year. The water was so high that rafts of the largest size passed down it to Pittsburgh, and the steamers Izak Walton, Warren, Ida, Pulaski and Forrest made trips to points in the upper Allegheny. MINERAL. Every section of this county is pervaded by different systems and species of bituminous coal, sandstone and iron ore. Here and there are veins of excellent fire-clay, from one of which specimens have been tested that proved to be equal in quality to any in the world, except one in Germany, from which crucibles are made. According to an estimate made by J. McFarlane from facts collected by him, 355,586 tons of bituminous coal were mined in the county in 1870. Large quantities of petroleum have been produced in the northwestern section during the last ten years. LOCOMOTION. The increased need of facilities for locomotion, arising from increasing population, has been met by the public authorities, in the construction of numerous roads and bridges. Iron superstructures of bridges have, within the last few years, taken the place of wooden ones in several instances, because they are found to be the best, and in the end the cheapest. There are now nine county bridges of that material, most of which are already completed. PATRIOTIc.-THE WAR OF 1812. Whenever war's dread toesin has sounded in our land, the hardy sons of Armstrong county, imbued as it were with the martial spirit of him whose name it bears, have patriotically rallied in defense of our country's glory, honor and integrity. During the progress of the revolutionary war there was but a mere handful of permanent residents within what are now the limits of this county, so that the number therefrom that engaged in that war, if any, must have been very small. In the war of 1812, when the population of this country was still small1 and sparse, one full company volunteered its services and was ordered to Black Rock, N. Y. It was recruited by Capt. James Alexander, the editor and proprietor of the TVWestern Eagle. Another company was drafted, of which John Banuckman was captain, and assigned to the army of the Northwest. Its members, in common with the rest of the militia from Pennsylvania, must have evinced true valor and patriotism. Their six months' tour of duty had expired before the arrival at Fort Meigs of the reinforcements which Gen. Harrison was then awaiting. Impending charges from the hostile foes appeared to threaten all around. That fort was exposed - it was besieged. Longer services of those whose terms had expired were needed. Then, April 1 or 2, 1813, it was that our late fellow citizen, Gen. Robt. Orr, then holding the rank of major, and others of the Pennsylvania detachment, numbering two hundred, volunteered, officers and all, as private soldiers, for fifteen days longer in defense of the fort. They were honorably discharged on the 17th of that month, on the arrival there of the expected reinforcements from Kentucky and elsewhere. From the general orders then issued by Gen. Harrison, which the writer finds in the Pittsburgh A[erc ary of April 29, 1813, he cites this paragraph: "The General, on behalf of the government, gives his thanks to Majors Nelson, Ringland and Orr, and every other officer, non-commissioned officer and private of this detachment for their services and magnanimous conduct upon this occasion." The ]1rcry said: "Fort Meigs is now "-Thursday, April 29, 1813-" in a perfect state of security and defence in men and works. The conduct of these men in volunteering for its defense when left nearly destitute was truly patriotic and deserving the notice of government." The writer has learned from another source that Major Orr kindly administered to the wants of the men under his command, and if a private soldier became sick or unable to march, the major would dismount and give the disabled the use of his horse. In the Mexican war the services of an organized company were tendered to and almost accepted by the government. About half a dozen citizens of this county served through that war in other companies. WEST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. acres of it to William Stevenson and Mary, his wife, she being Sheldon's daughter and sole heir, 110 acres of which she and her husband conveyed to John Craig, December 18, 1833, for $169, 4 acres and 39 perches of which he conveyed to Peter Graff, June 18, 1854, for $1 and other considerations. Joseph McDonald and Samuel Richey were brothers-in-law and millwrights. The former was assessed as such and with 80 acres of probably this tract, one horse and three cattle, as early as 1805, at $38, and the latter was assessed that year, with his occupation, one horse and one cow, at $82. They built a two-story log gristmill, with two runs of stone, one for wheat flour and the other for chops, in the early part of 1810, on the creek, above the present bridge across the creek, on the K. & B. turnpike, with which, 20 acres of land, 1I horse and 2 cows, Richey was assessed, that year, at $107. Stevenson and his wife conveyed 50 acres and 9 perches of this tract to McDonald and Richey, January 19, 1829, for $150. The latter conveyed his undivided half to Elijah Horner, January 1, 1830, for $50, on which the latter laid out the town of Hornersville, and advertised the sale of lots to take place at 9 o'clock A.M., October 14, 1833. Among the conveniences of his proposed town mentioned in his advertisement were a gristmill, horsemill and sawmill in its vicinity, but did not make any sales, and conveyed his interest in that parcel of 50 acres and 9 perches to John C. McKinney, January 1, 1840, for $1 and other considerations, which passed by sheriff's sale in Vend. Ex. No. 97, March term, 1845, for $64. McCall conveyed his purpart of this tract, 271 acres and 150 perches, to Horner, August 30, 1829, for $400, of which the latter conveyed 149 acres and 128 perches to McDonald, March 14, 1840, for $200, and 141 acres and 80 perches to McKinney, April 1, 1840, for $6,000, and McDonald, the same day, conveyed the quantity which he had purchased from Horner to McKinney for $2,000. McKinney conveyed the 50-acre parcel, which he had purchased from Horner and McDonald, to John Craig, Jr., December 19, 1843, for $100. McKinney conveyed the two parcels which he had purchased from Horner and McDonald, and another tract of 273 acres, to Henry D. Rodgers and IRoswell L. Colt, as trustees for all the real owners, December 22, 1841, for $25,000. That last conveyance in trust was after the erection of Buffalo Furnace on the southeastern part of this Simon-Craig-McCall-Sheldon tract, which is designated on the Lawson & Orr map as the Joseph McDonald tract, in 1839-40, by Nicholas Biddle, formerly president of the Bank of the United States; Henry D. Rodgers, the eminent geologist who had charge of the first geological survey of this state and was subsequently professor of geology in the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, whose death, several years since, was deeply lamented by the scientific world; John C. McKinney, one of the corps of geologists in that survey; Roswell L. Colt, and perhaps one or two others, and of which McKinney was the manager. It was a steam cold-blast charcoal furnace, its stack 35 feet high and 8 feet across the bosh. The weekly product of this furnace, for the first few years after it went into blast, was 33 tons, the number of employ6s being 100. That furnace company became embarrassed. Judgments against it began to be entered in 1841, the number of which increased largely until March term, 1844. The furnace and the land, aggregating 563 acres, passed under the sheriff's hammer (Vend. Ex. Nos. 83 and 84, September term, 1844) to Reuben Bughman, Peter Graff and Jacob Painter, for $7,200. Its business was conducted from the fall of 1843 under the firm name of P. Graff & Co., who built a new charcoal furnace, with a better blast, and in which ore of a better quality was used. The two furnaces, from 1846 and on, produced weekly, on an average, when in full blast, 80 tons, the number of employ6s being 150. The latter company, having been successful, closed their furnaces permanently in 1864. The present gristmill, brick, three-story, with four runs of stone, near the furnace, was erected in 1846. The Buffalo woolenmill of Edward Firth and Peter Graff, situated on that part of the northeastern portion of this tract between the left or south bank of the run and the creek, was built in 1865. Its original dimensions, three stories, 70X35 feet, were increased in 1867 by the addition of 60X35 feet, and the same hight. The other original buildings consist of a ware and wool house, twostory, 50 X 25 feet, a stone dryhouse, 60 X 25 feet. In 1876 a new woolhouse and a new storehouse, each two-story, 40 X 35 feet, were erected. The machinery consists of 8 carding-machines, 2 self-acting mules, with 384 spindles to each, and a spinning-jack, with 180 spindles, used for twisting stocking-yarn, and for doubling and twisting yarn for cassimeres. There are 13 looms, wide and narrow, for weaving jeans, blankets, flannels, cassimeres and fine cassimeres. The mules and 4 considerable part of the other machinery, the latest and best, so far as known, were made in England. There is also all the other machinery required for fulling and finishing those various 479 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. kinds of goods. The average number of employes is 25. The quantity of wool used annually is 80,000 pounds. The blankets are of good quality. The kinds of cassimeres and flannels, all wool, are fine, medium and common. The chief market for these goods is in the western states. Adjoining the last-mentioned tract on the northwest and "Samos" on the south is unsurveyed land on the Gapen map, but on the other a vacant tract, with boundary lines, with four sides, which, if the southern line of " Samos" were protracted a few rods westward, would change it into the shape of two isosceles triangles, one quite large, and the other, in the northwestern part, very small. Its land history is brief. The patent for it was granted to Samuel Clark, March 25, 1839, who conveyed 77 acres and 19 perches to Job P. Paine, April 28, for $525, which he conveyed to Peter Graff, April 3, 1849, for $600. South of Patrick McBride tract, and southwest of " Samos," the Clark and McCall-Sheldon tracts, was a large scope of territory of about 900 acres, unsurveyed on the Gapen map, on which improvements and settlements were made, probably before 1800, by James Gallagher, Jr., and William Gallagher, in behalf of James Gallagher, Sr., of Derry township, Westmoreland county, which was subsequently divided into two tracts, containing, respectively, 435 and 400 acres. The northern one, as it appears on the Lawson & Orr map, is in shape nearly that of a carpenter's square, the northeastern corner of which touches the southwestern part of "Samos," the longer part or blade bordering on the southwestern line of the Clark and McCallSheldon tracts, and the shorter part or blade adjoining the McBride tract on the north and the Smith tract on the west. This tract was conveyed by John Orr, sheriff, as containing 434 acres, and described as adjoining John Simons and others, to Samuel Massey, November 1, 1808, having previously sold it to him for $80, as the property of James and William Gallagher on a judgment in favor of Alexander McConnell against them for $9.28 debt and 40 cents costs. Massey and Samuel S. Harrison were joint purchasers, and Massey conveyed his half part to Harrison, June 1, 1815, for $100, William Minteer occupying the land for them from 1809 until 1813. James Gallagher continued to assert his claim to this tract, which he conveyed to Philip Gallagher, July 27, 1826, for $100. The patent, however, was granted to Harrison, September 8, 1834, who conveyed 136 acres and 69 perches of the part adjoining the Smith tract on the west, to James Hindman, November 21, 1835, for $545.56, on which is the public schoolhouse No. 2, and 273 acres and 118 perches to John C. McKinney, March 2, 1840, for $2,463.18, which became part of the Buffalo Furnace property, that passed by sheriff's sale to P. Graff & Co., who conveyed 148 acres and 130 perches of it to Archibald McCullough, February 2, 1846, for $830. South and southwest of that Harrison-Massey tract is vacant territory on the Gapen map. The other map shows the name of Isaac Bole in the southeastern part of it, who made an improvement and settlement there, and was first assessed with 100 acres of it, 2 horses and 2 cows, in 1815, at $131. Near the northwestern border is the name of "William Minteer, 150," with which he was first assessed in 1813. Philip Gallagher conveyed the entire tract, 400 acres, to James Gallagher, April 27, 1826, for $100. The parcel on which Bole settled, after various transfers, became vested in Daniel O'Neal, who conveyed it to John P. O'Neal, May 9, 1868, in consideration of the maintenance of himself and wife during the rest of their lives and the payment of $300 to Hugh F. O'Neal. A patent for more than 200 acres of the western part of this tract was granted to William Minteer, Sr., March 30, 1836, 100 acres and 15 perches of which he conveyed to William Minteer, Jr., July 21, for $200, and 101 acres and 145 perches to John Minteer, April 15, 1857, for the proper maintenance of himself and wife during the rest of their lives. West of that Minteer tract, in the unsurveyed territory on the Gapen map, is the inscription "Improved Land." On the other map is a trapezoidal tract "Samuel Clark, 151a," which and probably other 100 acres were first improved by William Gallagher, who conveyed 100 acres to Abraham Smith, June 1, 1806, for $100. The rest of Gallagher's improvement was conveyed by John Orr, sheriff, to Thomas Lawson, December 9, 1807, who conveyed it to David Lawson and John Orr, March 23, 1812. Orr conveyed an undivided half part to Samuel Clark, October 13, 1814, which Clark conveyed to William Spencer, July 1, 1837, to whom a warrant was granted August 3, 1839, and a patent for 65 acres, August 7, 1849, 65 acres of which he conveyed to William Minteer, October 1, 1866, for $1,050. It is not apparent from the record to whom Lawson conveyed his interest in this tract. Contiguous to that Gallagher improvement on the west is vacant territory 6n the Gapen, but on the other map, a tract of 414 acres, about three-fourths of it being in Butler county, which seems to have been surveyed to A. McCall and Jacob McGinley. A patent appears to have been 480 WEST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. granted for the 85 acres of it in this county to James Offutt, April 19, 1839, which he conveyed to James Sample, June 3, and which Sample conveyed to Joseph Williams, January 28, 1840, for $685. It is not apparent from the records to whom he conveyed the major part of this parcel before his death. His daughter Elizabeth conveyed the undivided one eighth of 12 acres of it to William Minteer, May 22, 1858, for $23. Peter Graff and Edward Manso, guardians of the minor children, conveyed one-half of 11 acres to David Goldinger, February 25, 1858, for $95, and 4 acres to Minteer, for $95.40. Graff, having purchased three-eighths of 9 acres from some of the heirs who were of age, conveyed the same to Goldinger, May 22, for $71, to whom Elizabeth conveyed her one-eighth, the same day, for $23.75. Adjoining the two last-mentioned Gallagher and the McCall-McGinley's tracts, on the south there is one on the Gapen map, designated thus, "Joseph Brown, 484.110," but on the other, "A. McCall and James Sheridan, 394.114." About 80 acres of its northwestern part is in Butler county. The patent for this tract, called " Union," was granted to McCall and Sheridan, February 13, 1809. The latter settled on it probably before 1800. He was assessed with 400 acres, 2 horses and 1 cow, in 1805, at $156-the next year with the land, 1 horse and 2 cows, at $132. John Sheridan was first assessed in 1818, and James Sheridan in 1824, with a distillery on this tract. McCall's undivided share of "Union" was included in his assignment to Du Pont, and in the latter's reassignment to McCall. McCall's heirs conveyed 74 acres 80 perches to James and Matthew Millen, June 30, 1846, for $896, whose interests subsequently became vested in William Millen, and 148 acres of it in the sale from McCall's heirs to Brown, Gilpin and Johnston, 86 acres and 121 perches of which the latter conveyed to William Minteer, Jr., July 5, 1849, for $690.50; 37 acres and 80 perches to John and Rody Rogers, February 27, 1862, for $281.25, and 12 acres and 80 perches, same day, to Margaret Dugan, in trust, for $93.75. James Sheridan left about 53 acres of his purpart to his grandsons, Bernard and William Sheridan, who made an amicable partition, August 26, 1858. William conveyed 261 acres of his purpart to Cornelius McFadden, January 17,1859, for $500. James Sheridan devised 200 acres to his son John during his life, who conveyed his life estate therein to Mark McLaughlin, March 28, 1837, for $30, and released his interest in 100 acres, more or less, to Hugh D. Sheridan, December 11, 1863, for $1. The only one of the Sheridan family now assessed with any part of " Union "is Hugh. Adjoining "Union" on the east on the Gapen map is unsurveyed territory inscribed with "James Gallagher," on which Joseph Millen settled about, perhaps before, 1800. He was assessed as a settler with 257 acres of it, 1 horse and 2 cattle, in 1805, at $112. The warrant was granted to him, November 13, surveyed December 12, 1801, and the patent for 359 acres and 52 perches was granted to him, December 22, 1806. He conveyed 99 acres and 62 perches of it to his son James, March 21, 1828, for $200, which the latter devised by his will, dated March 13, 1844, and registered February 26, 1851, to his sons Matthew and William, to be equally divided by a line through the center from east to west, which they still occupy. Adjoining that Millen tract and "Union" on the south, on both of the above-mentioned maps, are three contiguous depreciation lots included in the purchases by McCall and McDowell from Joshua Elder, and which, in the partition between those vendees, were allotted to McCall. The easternmost one, No. 249, is a square containing 201-1 acres, the western part being traversed southwesterly by Buffalo creek, which Archibald conveyed to George C. McCall, June 23, 1817, and which the latter conveyed to John Way, of Allegheny town, January 26, 1819, for $1,400.90, and which his executors, James C. and Nicholas Way, conveyed to Alexander and Thomas McCullough, December 30, 1837, for $1,000. This tract was called " Cheshire," after one of the counties in England, adjoining the northeastern border of Wales, whose northwestern part, like a tongue of land between the rivers Dee and Mersey, touches the Irish Sea. The city of Chester, Birkenhead and various other important towns and boroughs are in that county. Adjoining " Cheshire" on the west is, on both maps, depreciation lot No. 246, containing 230 0 acres, which, like " Cheshire," was included in the sale to George C. McCall, who conveyed it to Richard McCall, October 27, 1830, for $716.96, whose heirs, by their attorney, Amos N. Mylert, agreed, January 19, 1851, to sell it to Matthew and William Millen for $1,200, which they agreed to pay. William F. Johnston, for himself, Brown and Gilpin, released and quitelaimed to them whatever interest he and they had in it, and a strip of the depreciation lot adjoining it on the west, May 31, 1859, for $100. This tract was called "Plymouth;" like Plymouth, Massachusetts, called by the Indians Aceomack, where the pilgrims, who came over in the Mayflower, settled in 1620, and other towns of this name in the United States, this tract of land was 481 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. named after Plymouth, in the county of Devon, in England, on the north side of the British channel. Contiguous to " Plymouth " in the west, on those maps of surveys, is depreciation lot No. 245, containing 325r1 acres, which, in the partition between McCall and McDowell, fell to the latter, and in the partition between his heirs was allotted to Archibald Tanner, guardian, in trust for his wards, Laura M. and Sarah P. Tanner, daughters of Margaret Tanner, who was one of McDowell's daughters. Joseph McDonald had acquired some kind of an interest in it, for he and Jacob S. Garver agreed, April 20, 1804, to put Jacob S. Garver in possession of it, which was then decided as adjoining John Durning, James Sheridan, and Garver's " old place," for the term of two years, and have all the benefit of the improvements by paying an annual rent of $1, and give McDonald peaceable possession if required; and McDonald was to give Garver 50 acres of the northwestern part, for which he was to take out an office right. Garver remained in possession until his death. Those minor children by their guardian brought an action of ejectment to No. 6, of June term, 1834, in the common pleas of this county, against Garver for the entire tract, which abated, December 25, 1835, by reason of the defendant's death. McDonald sold his claim to the tract to Archibald McCall, who accepted 163 acres of it as a compromise between him and the plaintiffs, which purpart was included in the conveyance from his heirs to Brown, Gilpin and Johnston, who claimed that 40 acres of the eastern end belonged to "Plymouth," of which Johnston conveyed 73 acres and 96 perches to Daniel McCarren, October 1, 1861, for $515.20, and the same quantity to James C. McCarren, the same day, for the same amount. This depreciation lot, like some counties and towns in this country, was named "Somerset," after the county of Somerset, in the southern part of England. South of the southwestern part of "1 Somerset," on the Gapen map, is about one-third of a tract, which portion is on this side of the county-line, that was surveyed by Gapen to Joseph Brown, as containing 414 acres and 66 perches, which should be the same on the other map, but is not-an inadvertent transposition of the one above it having probably been made, upon which Jacob McGinley made an improvement in the spring of 1797, and on which McCall obtained a warrant of acceptance. By an agreement entered into between McCall and McGinley, April 1, 1808, founded partly on another one of the preceding month, McGinley covenanted that he had continued his settlement and improvement for about 11 years, and McCall in consideration thereof, and to encourage McGinley to continue to faithfully perform his covenants, to convey to him 200 acres off the east side of this tract, by parallel to "1 the last boundary of survey," and the use of the improvements on the tract for ten years. McGinley agreed, May 16, 1823, to convey that parcel of 200 acres to Mary McGinley for $175, which was conveyed to her by McCall, after her marriage to Peter McAnamy, August 10, 1837, for $1, and which she and her husband conveyed to Patrick Coyle, August 22, 1837, for $950. Adjoining that Jos. Brown tract on the east, on the Gapen map, is one of the same shape and area, which was surveyed by Gapen on an improvement for Joseph Stone, on which Jacob McGinley settled, April 9, 1797, and McCall afterward obtained a warrant of acceptance. McGinley continued his settlement on it for several years. He was assessed with 400 acres and 1 cow, in 1805, at $106, and the next year, with the addition of 2 cattle, at $110. It was one of the covenants in the above-mentioned agreement, that he should have the use of the improvements on this tract for ten years. The patent for it was granted to McCall and MeGinley, March 18, 1820. McCall conveyed his interest in this tract to his son, George A. McCall, July 8, 1834, and which was included in the latter's conveyance to William F. Johnston, July 10, 1847, who conveyed, March 28, 1857, 15 acres to Michael Kyle, for $110, and 50 acres and 14 perches to Jacob Yost, for $356, of which he conveyed 14 acres and 158 perches to Kyle, April 9, 1867, "to finally settle disputes between the parties as to lines and boundaries between them," which were run by J. E. Meredith, September 18, 1861. Other purchasers of other parcels of this tract were John McDade, Patrick McGonagle and Thomas Patterson, portions of which are in Butler county. Adjoining the last-mentioned tract, the StoneMcCall-McGinley on the east, and "Somerset" on the south, on the Gapen map, is unsurveyed territory, but on the other, a tract of 400 acres, traversed southeasterly by Long run, on which Thomas Johnston, who was county commissioner of this county in the year 1807-8-9, made an early improvement and settlement, with which (at 600 acres), 1 house, 2 lots and 2 cows, he was assessed, in 1805, at $262 on the Buffalo township list, which then included that of the town of Freeport. The next year he was assessed with only 400 acres, 1 lot and 2 horses, at $150. He continued to be assessed with these 400 acres, a horse and cows, until 1812. The next year, Henry Weaver was 482 WEST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. assessed with 300 acres "for the land that Thomas Johnston formerly held," and with which quantity he continued to be assessed for the next three years. The records do not show any conveyance of any part of this tract by either Johnston or Weaver, with the exception that, by the will of Thomas Johnston, a resident of West township, Huntington county, Pennsylvania, dated July 20, 1847, and registered in Armstrong county, February 1, 1855, after making several bequests, he devised "all the residue and remainder" of his estate to his third and youngest son Joseph, whom he appointed his executor. Portions of this Johnston tract are now occupied by Barney Kerr and James Callahan. Schoolhouse No. 1 is situated on it. Adjoining that Johnston tract on the east and "Plymouth" on the south, unnamed on the Gapen map, but on the other to "William Kier and Alexander McKinney, 440,.," to whom it was originally surveyed on warrant of March 16, 1807. It is a very irregularly shaped tract, having thirteen sides, its southwestern part extending over the line between this and North Buffalo township. The warrant was granted to Andrew Kier and Catherine his wife, ne'e Miller, June 7, 1824, who conveyed their interest in it to David Beatty, John Keener and others, which they conveyed to other parties, and they to others until the interest of the warrantees became vested in the following patentees: Joseph Barnes, James Campbell, John C. Duffey, Henry Hartman, Michael Kyle and Charles C. McClatchey, to whom the commonwealth granted its patent April 25, 1873, for 440 acres, on the payment of $98.60, besides the amount paid by Kier and McKinney. East of the northwestern part and northeast of the eastern projection or tongue of the Kier-McKinney tract in a western bend in the Buffalo creek, is th name of John Craig on unsurveyed territory on the Gapen map, but on the other a tract with ten sides, " 114a.11P," south of the southwestern part of " Cheshire" and the southeastern part of "Plymouth," the major part being on the east side of the creek, for which a warrant was granted to John Craig, April 4, 1793, all his interest in which, "at the mouth of a run emptying into Buffalo creek, commonly known by the name of Glade run," he conveyed to Robert Long, June 25, 1807, for ~55, and which the latter by his will, dated June 7, 1848, and registered October 19, 1852, devised to his daughter Elizabeth McGary, during her life, and to her children after her death, by whom it is still retained. East of the Kier-McKinney tract and below the Craig-Long tract, is unsurveyed territory on the Gapen map, but on the other is one containing 440 acres, traversed southeasterly by Buffalo creek, with 150 acres in the western part of which Samuel Walker was assessed from 1809 until 1812, when that quantity was transferred to George Hollobough and assessed to him until 1818, and then transferred to John Hoover and assessed to him until 1830, and was then transferred to David Hoover and assessed to him until 1832, when it was transferred to John McClain, who was thereafter assessed with 200 acres. William Beatty was first assessed in 1816 with 150 acres of its southeastern part, partly in what is now North Buffalo township, adjoining the parcel which he had purchased from David Hall, and which, after 1824, was assessed to his son David, to whom it was devised. The rest of this tract on the northeast side of the creek was settled, probably before 1800, by Jacob Garver, who was assessed with 200 acres in 1805 at $80, and thereafter with quantities varying from that to 400 acres, until 1830. The records do not show what disposition, if any, he made of his interest in it before his death. Jacob Garver, Jr., was for years assessed with 100 acres. On the county and township map of 1860 appears on this part of that tract the name of "Jac. Graver," and on the township map of 1876, " Garver Est." There does not appear to have been any administration on his estate. Adjoining that Beatty-Garver-Walker tract on the "vacant lands" on the Gapen, but on the other map a tract containing 400 acres, on which Thomas Hooks made an improvement February 25, 1793, and a settlement March 10, 1796, and which was surveyed to him, by Deputy Surveyor Ross, July 3, 1801. The patent for this tract, called " St. Thomas," was granted to Hooks, June 3, 1804. He was assessed with 200 acres of it, 2 horses and 2 cows, in 1805 and 1806, at $128. He conveyed 200 acres of its southern part to David Hall, Sr., miller, January 9, 1806, for ~10; 153 acres and 13 perches of which the latter conveyed to George Long, the same day, for $366, where the latter probably resided when he was county commissioner in 1811-12-13. Hooks conveyed 216 acres of " St. Thomas" to Allen and Robert Hooks, May 3, 1831, for $200, the half of which Allen conveyed to Daniel and Hugh McCreary, March 15, 1834, for $280, of which they conveyed 62 acres and 110 perches to Robert C. Claypoole, August 5, 1854, for $1,000, and 69 acres and 13 perches to George Miller, March 26, 1861, for $124.46. (As there is a considerable scope of other territory in this part of what is now West Franklin 488 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. township vacant, except the numbers of some of the depreciation lots on the Gapen map, it will not be referred to until the Gapen surveys be again reached. Until then the readers may consider the other map before them.) Adjoining " St. Thomas" on the east on the other map is depreciation lot No. 260, surveyed October 20, 1785, one of the Holland tracts, for which, 200A acres, a patent was granted to Samuel Holland, August 14, 1830, and which he conveyed to James Campbell, Sr., November 22, for $400, who conveyed 101 acres and 30 perches of it to James Campbell, Jr., November 15, 1844, who conveyed 53 acres and 24 perches to Valentine Bowser, January 7, 1854, for $650, and 52 acres and 110 perches, two days later, for the same amount, or $1,300 for the two parcels. James Campbell, Sr., conveyed 101 acres and 30 perches of No. 260 to his other son Samuel, for $1 and " natural love and affection," August 14, 1830, who, by his will, dated August 4, and registered August 15, 1871, devised the part " next to the Bradford farm" to his son Jacob, and the part " next to the David Claypoole farm" to his son John, i. e. the northwestern part of " Moorefields." Adjoining No. 260 on the east and the eastern part of "Moorefields" on the north is depreciation lot No. 264, 2011 acres, called " Springfield," for which a patent was granted to John McCoollbach, January 22, 1792, and was a part of the real estate which he authorized his executors to sell. Dr. Samuel McCulloch, his sole surviving executor, agreed to sell it to Peter Groff for $562.17. The purchase money was paid to that executor in his lifetime, who died without executing the deed. Hence his administrator, John S. McCulloch, conveyed it to Groff, June 4, 1849, for $1-being the tract of which the latter conveyed 3 acres and 39 perches to Samuel H. Bowser, April 1, 1854, for $100, and 154 acres and 6 perches to David Shaffer, March 23, 1855, for $924, who conveyed 50 acres and 70 perches thereof to Elizabeth Fails, June 18, 1857, for $200. William Anthony's store, with which he was first assessed in the fall of 1870, is near the township line in the southern part of No. 264. Adjoining the last-noticed depreciation lot on the north is depreciation lot No. 265, 203T acres, which also belonged to John McCulloch's estate, and which John S. McCulloch, administrator, conveyed to James B. and Robert O. Porterfield, June 5, 1849, for $1,019.50. James B. conveyed his interest therein to Robert O. Porterfield, March 23, 1852, for $239, and the latter to John Shields, the next day, 103 acres and 15 perches, for $1,700, which Shields conveyed to John Brown, April 1, 1862, for $2,500.* James B. Porterfield conveyed 103 acres and 15 perches of the western part to James Clark, April 21, 1855, which the latter conveyed to George Monroe, September 5, 1863, and he to Robert Noble, April 28, 1866, for $2,600. Adjoining No. 265 on the west is another square tract, 202 acres and 62 perches, in the southern part of which is the junction of the run that flows through Worthington into Buffalo creek, which was improved and settled by Abner Bradford about 1796-7. He was assessed with 270 acres, 2 horses and 2 cows, in 1805, at $210, for which a warrant, as recited in a conveyance of a portion of it-perhaps the patent was meant-was granted February 2, 1836. A primitive log schoolhouse was built on this tract before 1820. The first school in it was taught by a Mr. Jack, who was followed by Mr. Speer, and he by Mr. Russell. Bradford, by his will, dated April 13, 1829, and registered March 2, 1841, devised this tract to his sons, John and Samuel, who were to live together on it and properly maintain their mother during the rest of her life, and if they should not prefer to continue to live together after they were twenty-one years of age, they were to divide the tract between themselves as equally as possible, but if it could not be divided without injury, it was to be appraised by three honest and judicious men, and the one who should take it at their appraisement should make the other secure for his undivided half. They occupied it together as long as both lived. They conveyed 1 acre along its eastern line to James Campbell, David and John Claypoole, "the building committee or trustees of the regular Baptist church, called 'Union,' and their successors," April 2, 1845, for $1, on which the present frame edifice is located. This church was organized by 20 members of the regular Union Baptist church in North Buffalo township, who withdrew from the latter, April 18, 1846, for that purpose. The original members of this church, then, were Elizabeth, Mary, Peter and Sophira Bowser, Mary, Sarah and William Bradford, James and May Campbell, David Claypoole, Jr., Jane, John, Mary Ann, Nancy, Sarah, Samuel, Samuel, Jr., Susannah and William Claypoole and Catherine Martin. John Bradford died intestate and without lineal heirs, so that the entire tract, except the church lot, became vested in his brother Samuel, who conveyed 136 acres and 59 perches of the eastern part to John Bonner, June 24, 1868, for $1,185. Adjoining the Bradford tract on the west, " St. * Which he conveyed to his son, John F. Brown, May 7, 1877, for $1 and natural love and affection. 484 WEST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. Thomas" and the Garver part of the recently noticed 440-acre tract on the south, the CraigLong-McCreary tract on the west, and the southeastern part of " Cheshire" on the northwest, is a tract with ten sides, several of which, like those of most other multi-lateral tracts, are very short, on which James McCullough made an improvement, January 26, 1793, a settlement in February, 1797, and which was surveyed to him by Deputy Surveyor Ross, July 4, 1801, containing 373 acres and 44 perches, for which a patent was granted to him March 8, 1804. He conveyed 73 acres of its eastern part to Abner Bradford, January 6, 1814, for $10, 50 acres of which the latter conveyed to Robert Long, March 23, 1818, for $100, and was first assessed with his sawmill in 1828. The records do not show that McCullough conveyed any other portion of this tract in his lifetime. By his will, dated May 25, 1838, registered September 21, 1841, he gave his sons Alexander and Thomas " all the plantation on which" he then resided, subject to the maintenance of his son George during the rest of his life and of daughter Anne during the rest of her life, or until her marriage-she " to have the free and undisturbed possession of the house" while single, and the payment to each of his other sons, Archibald, John and Samuel, after the death of George and the marriage of Anne. Schoolhouse No. 4 (before Franklin township was divided), in the forks of two public roads, is in the eastern part of this tract. The major portion of the original tract is now assessed to Alexander and T. B. McCullough. Adjoining the McCullough tract on the north are depreciation lots Nos. 250 and 256, both rectangular parallelograms, their longest sides extending from north to south. The former's northwestern corner is traversed by the Buffalo creek. It adjoins " Cheshire" and the McDonald, afterward Buffalo.Furnace, tract on the west. Patents for it and its adjoiner No. 256 were granted to William Todd, October 13, 1786, who conveyed them to Abraham Nilson, March 28, 1789, to whom they were assessed, as unseated, at 40 cents an acre, in 1805 and 1806. Nilson, by his last will, dated July 6, 1798, and probated in New York, devised both of these tracts to his only child Martha, who afterward married Joseph Thompson. They being residents of the townland of Islandmore, in the parish of Ballywillin and county of Londonderry, Ireland, by their letter of attorney, dated July 1, 1826, empowered James Stewart, who was " about to proceed to the United States of America as a general agent," to sell both of these tracts. He conveyed No. 250, 3514T acres, called "Williamsburgh," to John Young, February 22, 1827, for $150, who by his last will, dated November 17, 1833, and registered March 26, 1835, devised all his "plantation of land, with the appurtenances," to his son-in-law and Elizabeth his wife, and his daughters Isabella and Nancy, to be divided equally between them at the expiration of five years, subject to the payment of a legacy to his grandson, James Young McCullough. James Stewart empowered the late Judge Bredin, of Butler, Pennsylvania, to sell the other tract, No. 256, which Thompson and his wife, by John Bredin, their attorney-in-fact, conveyed No. 256, 33916 acres, called "Toddsborough," thus: 100 acres of the northern part to Peter McAnamy, March 18, 1828, for $175, who conveyed 53 acres and 122 perches to Jeremiah Hare, May 1, 1829, for $12, and which Chambers Orr, sheriff, conveyed to James Sample June 18, 1834; 2 acres and 38 perches of which Sample conveyed to Peter Graff in July, 1849, for $75; McAnamy conveyed 124 perches to John Ross March 21, 1829, for $6, and another parcel of 49 acres and 49 perches to Hare, July 11, 1831, for $12; and 50 acres to John Young, January 11, 1831, for $100, which parcel was ordered to be sold by the orphans' court after Young's death, and was purchased by Christopher Foster, his son-in-law, and conveyed to him June 20, 1843, which, with other 33 acres and 43 perches, having become vested in Rev. Henry S. Ehrenfeld, he conveyed the same to Peter Graff March 5, 1859, for $4,000, which, with 101 acres and 80 perches additional, Graff conveyed to George W. Benton, September 26, 1863, for $7,250. Thompson and wife, by their attorney-in-fact, conveyed 134 acres and 73 perches of the central part of "Toddsborough " to Henry and John McAnamy, April 4, 1828, for $175, which James Douglass, sheriff, conveyed to Samuel Porterfield, September 21, 1830, for $201, which was described in the levy as consisting in part of 43 acres cleared, 6 of which were meadow, with an orchard, 2 cabin houses, 1 cabin barn and a cabin stable thereon, which that vendee conveyed to John Porterfield, February 18, 1831, for $225. Thompson and wife, by their attorney, conveyed 100 acres and 34 perches of the southern part of " Toddsborough" to David Campbell and Baker Grafton, April 4, 1828, for $175, which they conveyed to Samuel Porterfield, March 5, 1849, for $170, which, with other 29 acres and 131 perches, he conveyed to Aaron Benton, September 26, 1863, for 84,700, and emigrated to Champaign county, Illinois. 485 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Adjoining the southern half of "Toddsborough" on the east is a tract of 223 acres and 70 perches, whose eastern portion is traversed by the stream flowing northwesterly into Buffalo creek, a short distance above Firth & Graff's woolen factory. John Hall made an improvement on it February 24, 1793, and it was surveyed to hinr June 30. George Brown also made an improvement on this tract, called "Oakland," in January, 1793, and an actual settlement in April, 1796, which was surveyed to him by Ross, deputy surveyor, January 31, 1801, and for which the patent was granted to him, March 2, 1805, and which he conveyed to James Claypoole and his son George Claypoole, April 16, for $893.75. They afterward made an amicable partition of " Oakland" "by a line running east and west, or nearly so; and the south side or part of said tract by the said division by lot or otherwise, free to said James Claypoole, as his part of said land," who, by verbal agreement, sold 30 acres in the southeast corner of his purpart to his son James, which the other heirs of James Claypoole, Sr., released and quit-claimed to James Claypoole, Jr., of Beaver county, Pennsylvania, September 8, 1829, for " divers valuable considerations," and which the latter conveyed the next day to Alexander Findley for $63.75. A glance at the township maps of 1860 and 1876 shows that the major part of " Oakland" is still in the possession of the descendants of James Claypoole, Sr., and George Claypoole. One hundred and eight acres of the latter's purpart are still assessed to his son James, from whom the writer obtained the statement that his grandfather, James Claypoole, Sr., was the first white settler in what is now the borough of Kittanning, and an early settler on the manor tract, from which he and his family removed to "Oakland." Adjoining " Oakland" on the east is depreciation lot No. 266, one of the numerous tracts in this and other counties which became vested in Gen. Andrew Porter, a citizen of Montgomery, Pennsylvania, a proficient surveyor and engineer, who was a captain in the Pennsylvania regiment of artillery in the revolutionary war, and with his company in common with the devoted patriots of other regiments or companies endured the terrible hardships in camp at Valley Forge. Depreciation lot No. 266 is one of the tracts which Andrew Porter conveyed in his lifetime to his son, George B. Porter, who by his last will, dated March 29, 1830, devised to his wife, Sarah H. Porter, and which she conveyed as containing 196 acres and 100 perches, as surveyed by J. E. Meredith, to George Monroe, January 5, 1842, for $1,771. Adjoining No. 266 on the north is depreciation lot No. 267, 2251% acres, called "Sugar Tree Grove," which was surveyed by Joshua Elder, October 14, 1785, sold at public auction to John McCulloch, who released it to Andrew Porter, to whom the patent was granted, January 22, 1792, who conveyed it to his son, George B. Porter, in 1812, for $1 and " natural love and affection," and he to Washington Ross, September 10, 1829, for $775. Adjoining " Sugar Tree Grove" on the west, "Oakland" on the south, and the northern part of "Toddsborough" on the north and east is an octagonal tract on the Gapen map, 366 acres and 72 perches, surveyed by Gapen to David Bell. Gilbert Wright settled on this tract in the early part of 1807, Archibald McCall having obtained a warrant of acceptance for it. He, by his attorney, Thomas Collins, and Wright entered into a written agreement, June 18, the terms and conditions of which were: That Wright had settled on it; that McCall and he should divide the land between themselves; that the "one-half to be the estate of said Wright and to be laid off at the end where he has improved, and the other to be Archibald McCall's; " that Wright should make due proof of his settlement, and McCall should, at his own expense, take out the patent, or, if it should issue jointly, they should execute to each other deeds of partition agreeably to their contract. The patent was granted to both of them, February 3, 1809, in which the tract is called "Mount Lorenzo." In 1811 the site of Worthington was.so thickly covered with blackjacks and underbrush that one could not see through them, and forty years ago the former were so thick on other parts of " Mount Lorenzo," on what is now Peter Kerr's farm, that the chain-carriers for the surveyors were obliged to crawl on their hands and feet in carrying the chain through them, and rattlesnakes were abundant. Judge Barr erected a sawmill on that Glade run within the limits of " Mount Lorenzo," about 1808. It was first assessed to his son William in 1809, and was in the course of a few years removed and a distillery erected on its site, which was first assessed to James Barr, Jr., in 1813, and was noted the next year "not in use." It was removed and on its site James Barr, Jr., erected a gristmill with one run of stone, which was operated for several years. Some vestiges of it are still visible. Not many years since the buhr-stones used in it were on or near its site. James Barr, Jr., was assessed as a " schoolmaster" on the list for Buffalo township in 1806-7, but just where his school was is not known. The en486 WEST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. tire tract was included in McCall's assignment to Du Pont. The latter, by his attorney, the late Judge White, conveyed 202 acres of it to James Barr, a son of Judge Barr, December 31, 1 830, for $1. Wright conveyed his entire interest in "Mount Lorenzo" to Barr, March 22, 1831, for $760, and McCall's heirs conveyed their ancestors' purpart, 164 acres and 67 perches of the eastern side, to Neven and Peter Kerr, June 20, 1844, for $99.35. Barr, soon after perfecting his title to the purpart which he purchased from Wright, laid out the town of Worthington in the spring of 1829, on that part of "Mount Lorenzo" adjoining the northern line of "Toddsborough," consisting of 38 lots, each one-fourth of an acre, east and west of several acres traversed by a northern tributary of Glade run, and all of them north of the Kittanning and Butler turnpike, 19 of them between Ross street and Virgin alley, the latter 14 feet wide, and the other 19 between that alley and the turnpike, the course of the pike and Ross street being nearly east and west, and both intersected at right angles by Bear and Brown (now Church) streets, each 30 feet wide, and Glade alley, 14 feet wide, about midway between the two last-mentioned streets. In the original plan* of the town there are 3 lots varying in their areas, south of the pike and west of Bear street. The sale of lots, soon after they were laid out, were cried by William Cowan. The traveling facilities of this region were increased about that time by the construction of the Kittanning and Butler turnpike. The records do not show many sales of these lots by Barr in his lifetime, or by his executors, to whom he gave power to sell in his will. Barr, before his death, conveyed lot No. 24 to William Q. Sloan, April 2, 1831, for $22, and the same No. to James Gallagher, April 30, for $23.50, which the latter, the same day, conveyed to Samuel Hutchinson for $50, to Levi Bowser lot No. 20, May 9, 1831, for $15, and he to Christian Kemen, July 21, 1836, for $17; to David Claypoole, May 9, 1831, lot No. 11 for $4; to John Craig, lot No. 27, for $8. Barr, by his will dated September 26, 1822, and registered August 24, 1833, authorized his executor, David Barr, his brother, and Joseph Shields, to sell to the highest and best bidders all the lots of ground in the town of Worthington sold at the sales, and the purchasers had not at the time of his death complied with their contracts, and that the part of his plantation adjoining that part, "Toddsborough," then occupied by Jeremiah Hare, and adjoining the land of David Barr, near * Recorded September 20,1848, in deed book, vol. 16, p. 316. the culvert, "over the run which flows through David Barr's meadow," enough to pay all his debts, and devised the rest equally to his six children, subject to affording his wife as comfortable a living as possible out of his plantation. His executors conveyed lot No. -, "on which the blacksmith-shop is erected," to Samuel Hutchison (one of the sheriffs of this county), March 19, 1835, for $15.52. They conveyed 40 acres and 40 perches of the plantation to David Johns uon, September 22, 1838, for $100. The decedent in his lifetime had agreed to sell to his brother David 82 acres and 52 perches, which agreement was so far executed as that the purchase-money had all been paid before his death, but the deed had not been made. The proper court decreed a specific performance of that contract, and that the other executor make and execute a deed therefor, which he did, November 15, 1841. The first separate assessment list of the "taxable inhabitants in Worthington" appears in the assessment list for Buffalo township for 1832, the assessments having been made in the latter part of 1831. Fourteen lots were then assessed to eleven persons, six of them at $5 each, 4 at $10 each, 1 at $25 and I at $50, aggregating $145. As none of these lot-owners were assessed with either occupations or personal property, it is probable they were all then non-residents of Worthington. This town, the next year, was in Franklin township, when its separate assessment list showed one person having an occupation, Christian Kenson, weaver, whose occupation and the lot he had purchased from Levi Bowser were valued at $60 and one of Samuel Hutchison's lots, and the "house and stable" on it, at $58. George Claypoole's lot was valued at $58. All the others at $4 and $8 each. The growth of Worthington in population and in the various trades and occupations was for years quite slow. James Sample was first assessed with his lot on the south side of the turnpike and west of Bear street, in 1833-4, and with a tavern stand in 1837-8; William C. Piper as the first merchant in 1837-8; Charles Foreman and John McDonald as the first tailors, and Matthias Burnheimer as the first shoemaker, in 1838-9; Robert Staley as the first blacksmith in 1840-1; Robert Armstrong, first wagonmaker; Jacob McDonald, first carpenter, and William Cratty as the first tanner in 1841-2; John McDonald as the second landlord in 1842-3. As late as 1845 the number of taxables did not exceed ten. Its being a point on the stage route from Freeport to Brady's bend and Clarion and its proximity to Buffalo Furnace contributed somewhat to the maintenance of its life and business. 487 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. The petition of thirty-four inhabitants of the town of Worthington was presented to the court of quarter sessions of this county December, 1854, representing that there was a large number of children in their town who needed schooling, but labored under great inconvenience on account of their schoolhouse being a mile or more distant from their homes; that the taxes collected off the inhabitants of their town ought to be applied to the repairs of its streets and alleys, but were expended on the roads of the township, to the great inconvenience and damage of the inhabitants of the town and the traveling public; and praying the court to incorporate their town into a borough under the act of April 3, 1851. The grand jury approved of their application, and the court approved it December 6, but took off the approval on the 8th, but ordered and decreed, March 15, 1855, that the town be incorporated into the borough of Worthington and established the boundaries specified in the petition: Beginning at or near an appletree on John Shields' lot, which is the northeast corner of the borough; thence south 100 perches to a post on Peter Kerr's land; thence north 83 degrees east 20 perches to a post on Peter Kerr's land; thence south 104 perches to a post on Peter Kerr's land; thence west 238 perches to a post on Henry Ehrenfeld's land; thence north 20 degrees east 228 perches to a post on James Barr's land; thence east 140 perches to the beginning, containing 254 acres, 2 roods and 20 perches, as protracted by R. L. M., including portions of "Mount Lorenzo" and " Toddsborough." The election officers appointed by the court were: A. D. Keely, judge; John W. Green and S. B. Gamble, inspectors. The borough officers elected at the spring election, 1856, were: Dr. John K. Maxwell, burgess; Michael Duffey and Adam Rhodes, justices of the peace; Jacob Mechling, constable; J. G. Clark, H. S. Ehrenfeld, Joseph C. King, John McNarr and James Monroe, town councilmen; James Barr and Samuel Monroe for three years, and Dr. John K. Maxwell for two years, school directors; John T. Ehrenfeld, assessor; David Landis, borough auditor, and John Blain and Samuel Lego, overseers of the poor. This borough contained the next year after its incorporation nearly 70 taxables, 3 blacksmiths, 2 carpenters, 3 clerks, 2 coachmakers, 1 cabinetmaker, 6 farmers, 1 grocer, 1 harnessmaker, 1 huckster, 10 laborers, 2 merchants, 1 manager, 1 preacher, 1 miller, 1 physician, 3 shoemakers, 1 saddler, 1 teacher, 1 tanner, 1 theological student, 1 tailor, I wagonmaker. The Evangelical Lutheran church of Buffalo Furnace (changed to Evangelical Lutheran church of Worthington) was organized in 1847 by Rev. George F. Ehrenfeld. Its first officers were: Peter Graff, elder; John Barr, William Blain and John Schantz. Its original members: James Barr, Sr., John and Susan Barr, Peter and Susan Graff, George Hutley, Jacob and Barbara Mechling, Mary C. Mechling, John and Elizabeth Porterfield, Nancy Porterfield, Francis and Sydney Regis. Its pastors have been Rev. George F. Ehrenfeld from 1847 until 1848; Rev. A. C. Ehrenfeld from 1848 until 1858; Rev. F. Ruthrauff from 1858 until 1859; Revs. C. Witmer and H. J. H. Lemicke until 1867, and from then the present one, Rev. J. W. Schwartz. This church in 1876 has a membership of 120; Sabbath-school scholars, 125. For about two years the congregation worshiped in a small chapel at Buffalo Furnace. The present edifice, brick, 42X52 feet, ceiling about 15 feet, erected in 1849, is situated in that part of Worthington about 20 rods east of the western borough line, in the western part of "Mount Lorenzo." The lecture room is in the upper story, a building near the church edifice, in which the teachers' county institute was held in April, 1860, whose lower story was formerly used as a public schoolroom. A young lady who taught the school there one winter had occasion to flog one of her juvenile male pupils. His irate father the next day rushed into the schoolroom and gave her, as indiscreet parents sometimes do under like circumstances, a severe scolding, and intimated that if she were not a woman he would flog her. She promptly replied, " Oh, you needn't make that an excuse. Try it and I'll flog you." He didn't try it. The Associate, now the United Presbyterian, church here was organized in 1848. It depended the first year upon supplies. Rev. J. N. Dick, D. D., was its first pastor. He preached here semi-monthly until 1851. Then there were supplies for two years. Rev. John Jamison was pastor for about three years, then supplies for nearly a year, when Rev. Thomas Seaton became pastor and continued as such six or seven years-supplies two years, followed by the present pastor, Rev. J. L. Grover. The number of members in 1876 is 77; Sabbath-school scholars, 50. The church edifice, frame, one-story, ceiling 12 feet, 40X40 feet, is situated on lot No. 9, which adjoins Ross street on the north, and Brown, now Church, street on the east. The Methodist Episcopal church was organized in 1849, and its first pastor was Rev. Mr. Coopei. Rev. Mr. Tiballs, one of his successors, was in the war of the rebellion. Membership, in 1876, is 80, with a union Sabbath school. Its edifice, frame, onestory, 40 X 35 feet, ceiling 12 feet, is situated on lot 488 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. COL. JOHN ARMSTRONG. Col., afterward Gen., John Armstrong was born in the north of Ireland in the year 1720. About 1746 he came to Pennsylvania, and settled in what was then called the Kittatinny, now the Cumberland valley, on the southeast side of the Kittatinny or Blue mountains. The passing remark may here be made, that on Reading Howell's map of Pennsylvania, published in 1792, the valley south of Bedford and between Will's and Evit's mountains, through which flows Evit's creek, is named Cumberland. On the historical map of this state the word and query, "Armstrong (?)," are along the Kittatinny or Blue mountains in the northwest part of the present county of Franklin. It may be that that is the place where Armstrong first settled, which was then a part of the western frontier of Pennsylvania. He was a good surveyor. After the organization of Cumberland county, in 1750, he and a Mr. Lyon were employed by the then proprietaries to lay out Carlisle. In 1762 the former resurveyed and laid it out according to its present plan. He was sent, in 1754, by Gov. Morris to the then colony of Connecticut, respecting the, as it turned out to be, illegal purchase of land in Pennsylvania by the Susquehanna company, or Wyoming settlers, from the Indians. Ile accordingly visited New Haven and conferred with Gov. Fitch and others concerning that purchase, and on December 11, 1754, reported to Gov. Morris the discoveries which hlie had made while in Connecticut. He ascertained that Gov. Fitch, some of the prominent men, and the generality of the people of that colony believed that purchase to be entirely of a private nature, and contrary to the laws of both colonies, while some instanced the antiquity and extent of their charter on which the claims of that company were based. Hlie was selected, the next year, to be the surveyor and one of the commissioners for laying out roads from Carlisle to "Turkey Foot," in the forks of the Youghiogheny, in the present county of Somerset, and to Will's Creek, the present site of Cumberland, Md. He was appointed a captain of a company in the second battalion of provincial troops in January, 1756, and lieutenant colonel May 11 following. In 1757 he rendered valuable services in arranging the defenses along the frontier. Iie was appointed colonel May 27, 1758, and participated as commandant of the advance division of the Pennsylvania troops in Gen. Forbes' march to and capture of Fort Du Quesne. Five years later, while Pontiac's war was raging, he recruited 300 volunteers, and in the latter part of September moved against the Indian towns on the west branch of the Susquehanna, Great Island and Mauniqua-the latter at the junction of Kettle creek with that river. The Indians had left, leaving behind them large quantities of provisions, which, with those towns, were destroyed. Hle was appointed the first on a committee of correspondence by a large meeting of the citizens of Cumberland county, held at Carlisle, July 12, 1774, for the purpose of expressing their sympathy with the people of Boston. He was also the first one on a committee appointed to tender to Benjamin Franklin, who was then president of the committee of safety, their services in raising a full battalion in that county. Hle was the first of the six brigadier generals who were chosen by Congress, February 29, 1776. In the following April he was ordered to South Carolina, whither he proceeded and took command of the troops collected at Charleston, which place was in danger of being attacked by the British fleet under the command of Sir Peter Parker. Gen. Charles Lee, who was commandant of the southern department, having arrived there in the fore part of April, assumed command, keeping G-en. Armstrong with nearly 2000 men at Haddrell's Point, which was a mile or so from Fort Moultrie, as the fort on Sullivan's Island was afterward called in honor of Col. Moultrie, who, under the immediate orders of Gen. Armstrong, so heroically commanded it during the bombardment of the British fleet for ten hours, June 28, when it was defeated. Gen. Armstrong, having resigned his position in the Continental army, April 4, 1777, was the next (lay appointed first brigadier general, and, June 5, major general of the troops in Pennsylvania, to whom Gen. Washington wrote, July 4, and expressed his "pleasure at this honorable mark of distinction conferred upon him by the state." lIe afterward, during the last named year, rendered efficient and valuable services in erecting works of defense along the Delaware river, and at the battles of Brandywine and Germantown, and when an invasion was apprehended at Philadelphia he was ordered thither to command the militia. His public life ended with his services in Congress, to which he was elected for the years 1779-80 and 1787-88. Judging from a likeness of him which the writer has seen, his personal appearance must have been somewhat like that of Washington, his presence commanding and dignified and well calculated to win the esteem and confidence of those who came in contact with him. He was a citizen of Cumberis - ). *~*~-~ WEST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. No. 15, adjoining Glade alley on the west and Ross street on the north, which Samuel Porterfield, December 26, 1849, for $50, conveyed to John Blain, Peter Mobley, Elijah Newton, James B. Porterfield, James, Samuel and Thomas Scott, trustees in trust that they should "erect thereon a place or house of worship, for the use of the members of the Methodist Episcopal church." This lot was conveyed by James Barr to Joseph Claypoole (of David), May 5, 1831; by Claypoole to Francis Dobbs, February 16, 1842, and by Dobbs to Porterfield, March 3, 1848. The Free Presbyterian church, of Worthington, was organized by authority of the Presbytery of Mahoning, March 10, 1850, and at first consisted of 12 members, who withdrew from the Old School Presbyterian denomination on account of their conviction of the crime and injustice of the institution of slavery in the United States, and especially its proposed extension by the abrogation of the Missouri compromise line. Hence, although they adhered to the tenets of the Old School Presbyterian church, except what they deemed its pro-slavery sentiment, they separated and organized a distinct denomination, which they distinguished from the one they had left by the qualifying word " Free." Its stated supply until 1860 was Rev. George McIlhenny, and thereafter until 1866 Revs. T. S. and J. W. Moffit. Its edifice, frame, one-story, ceiling 12 feet high, about 40X40 feet, situated partly in Worthington and partly in West Franklin townships, on the northern line of the borough, being equally divided by that line, was erected in 18- on that parcel of " Mount Lorenzo " conveyed by James and Samuel Monroe to the church, 1 acre, December 26, 1852. The anti-slavery pastor, church members and congregation that worshiped here felt and manifested a deep interest in the political as well as religious affairs of our country. They did not hesitate to open the doors of their temple of religion to the political assemblages of the antislavery element, uninfluential as it then was with the great mass of the American people. A convention of those belonging to that element, or the "Free Democracy of Armstrong county," was held in this church edifice July 4, 1853, of which Robert Robinson, of Kittanning, was chosen president; John Craig, of Franklin township, and Dr. J. E. Stevenson, of Kittanning, vice-presidents, and Robert M. Kiskadden, of South Buffalo, secretary. On motion of its pastor, Rev. George McIlhenny, Rev. William Smith and Dr. S. A. Marshall were appointed a committee to draft resolutions, who reported the following, which were adopted: WHEREAS, In the judgment of this meeting, the time has come in which the cause of humanity and equal rights demand at our hands a full, free and determinate position in their defense, such as was maintained by our Pilgrim Fathers for the right of all mankind: Therefore, Resolved, That we acknowledge no affinity with any of the old political parties of the day, nor can we hope for their aid in preventing the curse of slavery from blighting the hopes of the free territories of our nation. Resolved, That the free democracy having adopted a platform consistent with the Declaration of Independence and maintaining the truths therein exhibited, it is our duty and the duty of those who hold these truths to support that party. Resolved, That, trusting in the rectitude of our cause and the help of our God, we will do all in our power to advance the cause of equal rights under the broad banner of the free democracy of the nineteenth century. Resolved, That, the growing opposition to American slavery, both at home and abroad, the increasing popularity of anti-slavery literature, the unabating energy of the free democracy throughout the states, and the facilities now enjoyed by means of the press for scattering our principles broadcast over the land, and, above all, the healthy sentiments inculcated from many pulpits of our country, give us strong hope that the triumphs of the free democracy may be nearer than we or our political opponents had supposed. Resolved, That we will use all honorable means in our power to elect our candidates for the different offices in our county and district. Resolved, That we hereby approve the nominations of the Harrisburg convention, and will support them to the extent of our power. Resolved, That the freedom of more than 3,000,600 of our colored brethren from degrading and cruel bondage and bitter prejudice is a cause next in importance to the procuring of our liberties by our revolutionary fathers. Resolved, That in view of the evils arising in our country from the use of and traffic in intoxicating drinks, it is the opinion of this meeting that the interest of our state demands a prohibitoryliquor law, and has no right to license any class of men to traffic in an article so ruinous to itself and its citizens. The last and only other resolution was in reference to signing the proceedings of the convention by the officers, and publishing them in the Kittanning and several other papers.* Several animated addresses were delivered during the session of the convention. The feeling of hostility to the encroachment of slavery continued to deepen, widen and strengthen in this county as well as in other portions of the free states, and a sequel to that convention was another one, held at the court-house in Kittanning, Thursday, September 30, 1855, to organize a Re publican party. It will be borne in mind that the American, or, as it was commonly called, the Know-Nothing party, had carried the elections in this county and various other parts of the country * Vid. Kittanning Free Press, July 14, 1853. 489 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. by immense majorities in 1854, and that the next year it had made open nominations-in this county prior to the meeting of the last-mentioned convention. That first Republican convention in this county was organized by electing Dr. David Alter, of Freeport, president; John Craig, of Franklin township, and Alexander Henry, of Kittanning, vice-presidents; and Dr. S. A. Marshall, secretary, and by appointing Josiah Copley, Rev. William Galbraith, Rev. William Smith, Hugh Reed and John Burford a committee to prepare business and report resolutions, who reported the following: WHEREAS, A crisis has arrived in the history of the country which has made the question of slavery paramount to all other issues in its politics, a crisis forced upon us in the first place by the abrogation of the Missouri compromise, followed, as it has been, by a series of outrages upon the people of Kansas territory, unparalleled in our history, It was therefore Resolved, 1. That the people of the Free States owe it to their brethren in Kansas to stand by them and aid them by every means in their power, with the border ruffians Achison and Stringfellow, for the avowed purpose of forcing slavery upon them against their will. 2. That if the people of the Free States expect to do anything effective, they must stick together. The people of the south do so in favor of slavery; we must do so in opposition to it. 3. That to this end we give the right hand of fellowship to every man, of whatever party, who affiliates with us in this great struggle. 4. That we cordially adopt the platform of the late Republican convention, at Pittsburgh, as our declaration of sentiments. 5. That we deem it inexpedient at present to put in nomination candidates for the legislature and for the several county officers to be chosen at the ensuing election, because it is the opinion of many friends of liberty that the gentlemen put in nomination by the American party agree with us in sentiment on the great question of slavery, but in order that there may be no doubt on that question, 6. That a committee of three be appointed to correspond with such of them, and draw from them a full and explicit declaration of their sentiments, so that such correspondence be published. 7. That in taking this course we do not wish to be understood as approving of the organization or of the peculiar principles of the American or Know-Nothing party. All the foregoing resolutions were received and adopted. The following minority report of the committee was read, and, after some spirited discussion, was rejected: Resolved, That this meeting proceed to nominate a Republican ticket for this county, independent of the Democratic and American parties, and that they ap prove of the nomination made by the state convention for canal commissioner. The president of the convention appointed Dr. S. A. Marshall, James M. Brown and Josiah Copley a committee to correspond with the candidates of the American party. That committee presented each of these candidates with a copy of the foregoing fifth and sixth resolutions, with pointed questions as to whether they were hostile to the further encroachment of slavery, in favor of the repeal of the fugitive slave law and the restoration of the Missouri compromise, to which the committee received satisfactory answers - from Darwin Phelps, candidate for assembly; Andrew J. Faulk, for county treasurer; William W. Hastings, for county commissioner, and Hamlet Totten, for county auditor. Thus all the anti-slavery elements became consolidated in the Republican party, which, in this county, sprung from the proceedings of that convention. The writer remembers the hearty and pleasant greetings of some of those original anti-slavery men, as he met them in Kittanning just after the convention had adjourned. They were gratified. A good old John Craig, with a smiling countenance, said: "We rejoice that we now can act together on this great political question." He, James Walker and other kindred spirits had the still higher gratification of knowing, ere they left for " the better land," that one of the compensating results of the war of the rebellion was the restoration to freedom by President Lincoln's emancipation proclamation of the four millions of dusky slaves, whose bondage they had so long lamented and abhorred. A congregational meeting of that Free Presbyterian Society was held August 26, 1866, by which it was unanimously resolved: "That we, as a congregation, respectfully request the Presbytery of Allegheny (0. S.) to take us under their care and grant us supplies, and we will endeavor to seek the peace, the purity and prosperity of the church." That request was presented to the Presbytery at Brady's Bend, October 16, by John Craig and James Stephenson, elders, and the request was cheerfully granted. This church had previously been called Buffalo, but afterward Worthington. At the reconstruction of Presbyteries this church was assigned to that of Kittanning. Rev. A. S. Thompson was ordained and installed as its pastor for half time, November 20, 1867. Its membership in 1876 was about 75; Sabbath-school scholars about 90. The farmers and some others of Franklin and adjacent townships held an agricultural meeting on Wednesday and Thursday, October 4 and 5, 1865, on the farm which Joseph M. Jordan sold to James and Samuel Monroe, that part of "Mount 490 WEST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. Lorenzo" adjacent to the Free Presbyterian church, at which, for so limited a local one, there was a very creditable display of animals and agricultural and mechanical products. James Barr, Jr., was assessed as a "schoolmaster" in 1806-7, whose school was probably on or near " Mount Lorenzo." Worthington became, of course, when incorporated as a borough, a separate school district, and a frame schoolhouse of adequate size was erected in the obtuse angle formed by the junction of Ross street and the public road extending northeasterly through the northeastern corner of the borough. Its statistics for 1860: One school; average number of months taught, 4; teachers, male, 1; monthly salary, $20; male scholars, 24; female scholars, 37; average number attending school, 48; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 41 cents; levied for school purposes, $127.25; levied for building, $127.25; received from state appropriation, $24.95; received from collectors, $122; cost of instruction, $80; fuel, etc., $18.66. For 1876 - one school; number months taught, 5; male teacher, 1; monthlysalary, $35; male scholars, 28; female, 37; average number attending school, 3; cost per month, 64 cents; levied for school and building purposes, $188.41; received from state appropriation, $53; from taxes and other sources, $192.24; paid for teacher's wages, $175; for fuel, etc., $43.62. The Worthington Academy organized in 1852, and was at first called the "Buffalo Institute." Its first principal was Mr. C. J. Ehrehart, a graduate of Pennsylvania College, Gettysburg. lie taught during the winter of 1852-3. In the fall of 1853, Mr. W. F. Ulery, of the same institution, took charge of it and taught until the next spring. In 1856, Rev. A. C. Ehrenfeld, who had resigned his position as pastor of the Lutheran church at Worthington, taught one term. From this time until 1868 the academy was practically dead. In the spring of that year, Messrs. S. Knipe and E. S. Heaney, graduates of Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania, resuscitated it, and for several years it was in a very prosperous condition. They taught one summer, and were succeeded in the fall by Mr. E. H. Dickenson, of Connecticut, who taught until the spring of 1870. His successor was Mr. S. Crist, of Washington and Jefferson College, who taught one term in 1871. Mr. S. H. Culp, of Pennsylvania College, was his successor in the summer of 1873. He was succeeded by Mr. J. C. R. Ewing, of Washington and Jefferson (now a foreign missionary in the Presbyterian church), who taught in 1874. Mr. M. Cunningham followed him, teaching during that winter and the next summer. Mr. J. T. Young, of Washington and Jefferson, took charge of the academy in the spring of 1878, and taught during three successive summers. The first year he taught alone; the second, he was assisted by Mr. A. C. Good, of the same institution (who is also laboring in the foreign missions work, under the care of the Presbyterian Board), and the third year he was assisted by Mr. J. P. Wiley. Mr. N. Donaldson, of Washington and Jefferson, assisted by Mr. Wiley, taught during the summer of 1881, and he in turn was succeeded, in 1882, by Mr. H. Wallace, of Westminster College, New Wilmington, Pennsylvania. In the last 15 years one prominent aim of the institution has been to qualify young ladies and gentlemen for teaching, and its success has been marked in this direction. It has also fitted a number of young men for the higher classes in college and for professional life; and it numbers among its former students some who are reflecting great credit on the academy in which they were trained. Worthington postoffice was established February 12, 1840, with John McDonald, postmaster. The vote of Worthington, February 28, 1873, was 4 for and 21 against granting liquor licenses. The cemetery was laid out on the lot given to the town for that purpose by Joseph M. Jordan. The assessment list for this borough for 1876 shows the number of taxables to be 62; blacksmiths, 2; carder, 1; cabinetmaker, 1; carpenters, 4; clerk, 1; farmers, 13; gardener, 1; manufacturer, 1; merchants, 4; millwright, 1; miner, 1; ministers, 3; painter, 1; peddler, 1; saddler, 1; shoemaker, 1; tailor, 1; tanner, 1; tinner, 1; wagonmaker, 1. The population of this borough in 1860 was 213. In 1870 it was: native, 202; foreign, 14. Adjoining "Mount Lorenzo" on the north and east, and " Sugar Tree Grove" on the north, on the Gapen map, is open territory, on which is inscribed the name of "John Titers." On the other map is an octagonal tract, " 395a13lP,"' to which James Barr removed from the Manor soon after 1800, and on which he made an improvement and settlement. He conveyed his interest in it to Thomas Scott, of Franklin county, Pennsylvania, June 1, 1812, for $1,100, when its eastern adjoiners were John Campbell and William Moffit, and Isaac Lennington its northern one. About one-fourth of it is in what is now East Franklin township. The first occupant of this tract, James Barr, was a prominent citizen of this state from his early 491 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. manhood until his death. He was born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, in 1749, whence he removed to that part of Bedford county afterward included within the limits of Derry township in Westmoreland county; that is, he removed thither prior to 1773. He evinced his patriotism and devotion to the cause of the colonists in the beginning of the revolutionary struggle by aiding in the organization of what were then called "the associated battalions," or bodies of "Associators," which were raised for the defense both of the western frontier and the whole state and country. His fellow-citizens returned him as a member of the constitutional convention of this state, which met July 15, 1776, and framed the first constitution of the state of Pennsylvania. He was afterward appointed a justice of the peace. From 1787 until 1790 he was a member of the general assembly of the state, and opposed the calling of the convention of 1790 for revising the constitution. After the adoption of the constitution of that year he was appointed one of the associate judges of the courts of Westmoreland county, and a remonstrant against the attempt to impeach Judge Addison, who was then the president judge of the judicial district of which Westmoreland was then a part. The writer has not been able to ascertain when Judge Barr removed from Derry township to Appleby Manor, on the hill part of which he resided when hlie was appointed a trustee of this county, at or near where Thomas Montgomery now lives, until his removal to this tract, on which he was residing when this county was organized for judicial purposes, when he was appointed one of the three associate judges of the courts of Armstrong county, which position he held until December term, 1817. He died, as one of his descendants has informed the writer, in August, 1820, on that part of "Mount Lorenzo" then occupied by his son, David Barr. Patents for different portions of this tract were granted to Thomas Scott, respectively, July 7, 1815, and February 29, 1816. He gave the principal portion of this tract to his children in his lifetime. He conveyed 100 acres of the quantity included in the first patent to his son James, June 22, 1821, for $1-, who having died intestate, his heirs conveyed to William Hindman, April 1, 1872, for $5,500; 95 acres to David Barr, October 17, 1822, for $1, of which James Barr, guardian of the minor children of Titus Barr, conveyed - acres to William Galbraith,. March 18, 1875, for $1,040; 128 acres to his son William, February 5, 1828, for "natural love and affection," which having become vested in Henry Drake, his heirs conveyed as containing 135 acres and 10 perches, to Robert Huston, March 5, 1872, for $6,100. North of the Barr-Scott tract is unsurveyed territory on the Gapen map bearing the name of "Timothy Lennington," who must have settled on it before Gapen made the surveys of some adjoining tracts. On the other map it is a surveyed tract, nearly square, "400'," about one-fourth of which is in what is now East Franklin. It was surveyed to Lennington on a warrant, dated August 6, 1801, to whom the patent was granted March 6, 1802, who soon after conveyed 99 acres of the southern or southeastern part to Rev. John Boyd, which was his place of residence while he was pastor of the Slate Lick and Union Presbyterian churches, and which, after his removal from this county, he conveyed to William Stevenson, September 30, 1811, for $400. The witnesses present at the execution of the deed by him were Judge Barr, Jacob Garver and George Wright. His acknowledgment was made the same day before Judge Barr, and that of Mary his wife before Jacob Gamber, associate judge of the courts of Guernsey county, Ohio, October 14, 1811, and which Stevenson conveyed to his son Alexander, April 17, 1818, for $1, whose sons John and Johnston conveyed a portion to Jas. Stevenson, September 3, 1849. Timothy Lennington conveyed other parcels of this tract thus: 99 acres to his son Isaac, August 5, 1808, "for and in consideration of the good services" done by him to.his parents, and which the latter conveyed to James Summerville, May 17, 1817, for $455; 201 acres to his son-in-law John Titus, for "divers good considerations" and on condition that the latter should suitably maintain the former and his wife during the rest of their lives, which Titus conveyed to his daughter Jane, April 29, 1840, in consideration of his maintenance during the rest of his life, and to his son-in-law, Francis A. Regis, his daughter Jane's husband, in consideration of his maintenance and the payment of from $1 and $10 to $50 to his sons and other daughters, respectively, aggregating $124, from the payment of which he, by his will, dated February 27, 1849, and registered February 14, 1853, released him; and the heirs of Jonathan Titus also released their interest in this parcel to him, August 3, 1854, " for a full and valuable consideration." Regis and wife conveyed 148 acres to Joseph T. McCady, March 27, 1855, for $1,500. Adjoining that Lennington-Titus tract on the west and "Mount Lorenzo " on the north is a hexagonal tract, " 410" acres on the Gapen map, which had been surveyed by Gapen to " Samuel Parr," on which James Simmeral made an improvement and 492 WEST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. settlement March 5, 1796, which was surveyed to him by Deputy Surveyor Ross, July 6, 1801, which survey was disputed by Hugh Lennington to whom and A. McCall it was resurveyed, "41 P1)," March 14, 1805, by virtue of previous improvement and settlement, with 200 acres of which and four cattle James Simmeral was assessed in 1805-6 at $82. Its central part is traversed in a westerly course by Lennington run. It is not apparent from the records whether Hugh Lennington abandoned or sold his claim. The patent for the entire tract was granted to McCall and Simmeral as tenants in common, October 29, 1829. They made partition and McCall conveyed to Simmeral 212 acres and 25 perches, June 26, 1832, on which the latter and his family resided until his death. By his will, dated September 18, 1841, and his codicil, dated September 9, 1851, and registered August 19, 1854, he directed his executors, John Craig and Thomas McCullough, to sell 99 acres of the eastern part of the tract and divide the money equally among six of his sons and two of his daughters, which those executors accordingly conveyed to James, John, Joseph and Josiah Summerville, May 22, 1856, for $1,800. The testator devised 100 acres " off the south side of the mansion tract " to his daughters Fanny and HIannah. The first schoolhouse erected within the present limits of West Franklin, log, about 16 X 16 feet, was situated about fifty rods south of Lennington run in the forks of the crossroad near William Younkins' house, about 60 rods southwesterly from schoolhouse No. 5, as the schoolhouses were numbered before the division of Franklin township. McCall conveyed 100 acres of his purpart to Ann M. O'Connor, March 14, 1843, for $800, 26 acres and 133 perches of which she conveyed to Azel Summerville, March 31, 1846, for $707, which the latter conveyed to William Younkins, April 9, 1868, 4 acres of which Younkins conveyed to Rev. J. Y. Burwell, March 31, 1870, and which the latter reconveyed to Younkins, April 5, for $550. She also conveyed 30 acres to Jane Garraway, July 10, 1855, for $1,000. McCall's heirs conveyed 115 acres of this purpart together with parcels of other tracts to P. Graff & Co., April 16, 1845, of which Graff conveyed 115 acres and 78 perches to Leander Henry, November 2, 1855, for $524, and which with another parcel constitutes a part of the 295 acres and 71 perches which Graff conveyed to John T. Ehrenfeld, November 28, 1870, for $3,500. Adjoining that McCall-Simmeral tract on the northwest is " vacant " land on the Gapen, but on the other map, a heptagonal tract, "241 135P," on which William Stevenson made an improvement 31 in April, 1800, and a settlement April 10, 1802, and which was surveyed to him by Ross, deputy surveyor, April 24. This tract must have been abandoned by Stevenson. A warrant for it was granted to Joseph Shields and others, December 2, 1837, on which it was surveyed to them by Meredith, deputy surveyor, December 14. Adjoining that last-noticed Stevenson tract on the north is unsurveyed territory on the Gapen, but on the other map two surveyed tracts traversed by Long run, an eastern tributary of Little Buffalo creek. The western one, " 192a 94P " was first settled by James Kerr, Sr., who was assessed with 190 acres, 2 horses and I cow, in 1805, at $103.50, and in 1806 at $94.50. He conveyed the interest which he had acquired in it as an actual settler, under the claim of Patrick Hervey, to Samuel Shields, in 1815-16, who conveyed a portion of it to James Kerr, Jr., and John Kerr, and they to John Shields 19 acres and 127 perches, November 28, 1823, for $79. The patent for most of it was granted to Joseph Shields in trust for the heirs of Samuel Shields, April 9, 1827, and for another portion in tri'st for those heirs and John Craig, Sr., April 14, 1838, 18 acres 90 perches of which Craig conveyed to Joseph Shields, May 8, 1839, for $92.80, having, on April 27, released 82 acres and 70 perches to Joseph Shields in trust, as aforesaid. Samuel Shields died intestate and his son, Joseph, inherited the residue of this tract, who conveyed 128 acres and 52 perches to John Leard, July 7, 1840, for $1,500, and to whom his widow released her dower or third therein, February 26, 1848, for $1, the same being now in the possession of Christopher Leard. Adjoining that Kerr-Shields-Leard tract on the east in the unsurveyed territory on the Gapen map, is on the other an octagonal tract on which Daniel Sloan made an early improvement and settlement, and was assessed with 190 acres, 2 horses and 1 cow, in 1805, at $113.50, andwith the same and an additional cow the next year, at $119.50. He was thereafter assessed with 180 acres of the land until 1810, which was for several years thereafter assessed to his son, James, and was in 1817 placed on the unseated list, on which it was continued until 1819. David Sloan's heirs, of Marion county, Indiana, conveyed their interests in it to the present owner, James Claypoole, September 2, 1845, and April 23, 1846, for $60 for each one's one undivided oneseventh of 170 acres and 40 perches. Adjoining those Sloan-Claypoole and KerrShields tracts on the east, on the Gapen map, is an octagonal tract " 432.30," surveyed by Gapen to "Samuel Wallace," its center traversed westerly 493 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. by Long run. Wallace's interest probably became vested in Archibald McCall. On the other map is the same shaped tract with "400'" and "Ab'm Lenonton" on it, who improved and settled it while he was a single man, perhaps before 1800. He was assessed with that quantity in 1805-6, at $100. The patent for it, 440 acres, was granted to McCall and Lennington, February 13, 1809. They having made partition, McCall by his attorney, Collins, released 140 acres and 54 perches of it to Lennington, February 13, and Lennington to McCall 299 acres and 106 perches, September 5, and the same day conveyed his purpart to John Mounts, who had erected his gristmill thereon in 1806, from which a public road was opened to " Boyd's upper meetinghouse," as surveyed by Robert Cogley, in the winter of 1808-9, for $500, who conveyed the same to Anthony Gallagher, September 22, for $350, to whom it was assessed until 1858, and thereafter to Joseph Gallagher until 1863, and was conveyed by Jonathan Myers, sheriff, to Ross Mechling, September 14, with about 100 acres cleared, log dwelling-house, double log barn, apple and peach orchard. McCall's purpart of this tract, called " Hartford," was included in his assignment to Du Pont, who reconveyed it to him, January 17, 1833, and which his heirs, by their attorney, Chapman Biddle, conveyed 115 acres and 78 perches and 278 acres and 80 perches of another tract to Peter Graff, April 16, 1845, for $4,700, which parcel was included in his conveyance to John T. Ehrenfeld. The name of this tract is traced to Hartford parish, in the county of Cheshire, England, through which passes in these later times the London & Northwestern Railway. The county and city of Hartford-the latter being one of the capitols of Connecticut-were so called after that township of Hartford, in England. The etymology of Hartford is hart, a stag, and ford, the passage of a stream, i. e., a shallow place in a river or other stream where harts cross. A small portion of another tract,* on which James McDowell's sawmill was erected in 1846, adjoins " Hartford" on the east. Contiguous to " Hartford" on the north is the minor portion of a tract which will be noticed hereafter, and all of another, surveyed by Gapen to " Samuel Haslet," " 202.8" acres, whose interest probably became vested in McCall. James Hanna was an early settler on this tract. He was assessed with it and 4 cattle, in 1805, at $112, and in 1806 with the land, 1 horse and 1 cow, at $110. The patent for it, 410 acres and 6 perches, called " Reserve," was granted to Hanna and McCall, May 16, * Vide East Franklin. 1807. Hanna conveyed his interest therein and 2 horses, 1 cow, 4 sheep, 7 hogs, 1 loom and tackling, and his household furniture, to Andrew McKee, June 24, 1807, for $300, who probably conveyed his interest in the land to Andrew Messenheimer, for McCall released 150 acres and 92 perches of his purpart of " Reserve" to the latter, July 2, 1841, for $1. Messenheimer conveyed the same to Presley Irwin, August 12, for $800, 58 acres and 20 perches of which he conveyed to Jacob Hepler, November 6, 1849, for $406.87. J. E. Merdith, Irwin's administrator, conveyed 51 acres and 7" perches to Peter Graff, April 7, 1854, which he conveyed to John Koller, December 2, 1859, for $600. McCall's purpart of " Reserve" was included in his assignment to Du Pont, in the reconveyance from DuPont to him, and in the conveyance from McCall's heirs to William F. Johnston, 100 acres of which the latter conveyed to John Buzzard, March 28, 1857, for $800; and 100 acres to Peter Graff, September 13, 1859, for $800, of which Graff conveyed 90 acres to Grace B. Dickson, September 29, 1868, for $500, and, same day, 12 acres and 121 perches to John Koller for $165.83. Adjoining the northern part of "Hartford" and the southern part of "Reserve" on the west, unsurveyed on the Gapen, but surveyed on the other, is a hexagonal tract, almost a rectangular parallelogram, " 442a 309P," on which Joseph Shields made an improvement in February, 1793, a settlement in April, 1797, and to whom it was surveyed by Ross, deputy surveyor, April 24, 1802. The patent for it was granted to him December 20, 1813. He conveyed 171 acres to Christian Kenson, October 23, 1827, for $-. By his will, dated June 17, 1852, and registered May 16, 1857, he devised 50 acres of his " mansion tract" to his son David; to his daughter, Mary Adams, 10 acres, on which she then lived; 20 acres to his daughter Elizabeth; directed 100 acres to be sold by his executors, and the proceeds to be equally divided between his six daughters and his son Joseph; and devised the rest of the " mansion tract," supposed to contain 226 acres, to his son, Robert Shields, who conveyed 2 acres and 129 perches thereof to Godfreed Guiser, January 12, 1867, for $300. Schoolhouse No. 6 is situated in the forks of a northeastern tributary of Little Buffalo creek, at the crossroads, on this Shields tract. Adjoining that tract on the north is a hexagonal one, nearly a rectangular parallelogram, "420" acres, surveyed by Gapen to " Nicholas Day." On the other map is the same shaped tract, with the same quantity of land, and on its face the names 494 WEST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. of "Philip Templeton and A. McCall." The patent for the entire tract was granted to McCall, November 22, 1837, was included in the conveyance from his heirs to Johnston as containing 413 acres and 25 perches, of which he conveyed 100 acres and 127 perches to Peter Graff, October 5, 1857, for $1,200.50; and 200 acres and 89 perches to Francis A. Regis and Joseph B. Shields, March 17, 1858, for $1,604. West and northwest of that Templeton-McCall tract is unsurveyed territory on both maps, included, perhaps, in " Joseph Irwin's claim," partly in what is now Sugar Creek township, the central part of which is traversed about due south by the Little Buffalo, with 100 acres of which Nathaniel Patterson was first assessed in 1820, to whom J. E. Meredith, deputy surveyor, surveyed 193 acres and 90 [70] perches, December 12, 1837, being a very irregularly shaped tract, with twelve sides, which became vested in Philip Templeton (of Philip), and was returned on warrant, dated December 14, 1865, and surveyed December 26, and to whom the patent was subsequently granted. Geological.- Within the limits of West Franklin township the section extends upward from the Pottsville conglomerate into the lower barren group, thus embracing all the lower productives. The area of the lower barrens is confined to the southeast and northwest corners of the township. The area of the Pottsville conglomerate stretches from McKee's schoolhouse (No. 6) on Little Buffalo creek southward to the milldam above the Buffalo mills, and thence westward up the Big Buffalo past Craigsville to A. Hindman's. In all this area it is closely confined to the region of the creek, being in fact only just lifted above the water's edge. The lower productives have therefore a wide outspread in this township. The outcrop of the upper Freeport coal skirts the edge of the lower barren area, passing just above Worthington into East Franklin. So far as investigated, it has little thickness here, and its limestone is not of much consequence. The same is true of the area of this coal found in the northwest corner of the township. But the lower Kittanning coal is persistent as a workable bed, usually about 31 feet thick. The ferriferous limestone is in good condition and has the buhrstone ore on its top. Both were used in the Buffalo Furnace, which also used some ore from the Freeport deposit, found in the hills west of the stack. Structure.- An important anticlinal axis traverses the township from northeast to southwest, crosses the Big Buffalo near Craigsville and extends across the Little Buffalo below the mouth of Long Run. It is the axis which crosses the Allegheny near the mouth of Red Bank.-Platt. The upper Freeport coal on the hillside, over the turnpike, near Buffalo Furnace, on the west bank of Buffalo creek, is 18 inches thick. The Kittanning coalbed is there below it, which used to yield 3 feet of pure non-pyritous coal. The ferriferous limestone is there 15 feet thick, blue and solid, above which is an orebed, accompanied by very little buhrstone. The Tionesta sandstone appears there in the bed of the stream with the ferriferous shales and workable Clarion coal above.Rodgers. The population of West Franklin, in 1870, was, native, 1,205; foreign, 109; colored, 0. Number of schools in 1876, 8; average number of months taught, 5; male teachers, 2; female teachers, 6; average monthly salaries of both male and female, $30; male scholars, 263; female scholars, 160; average number attending school, 249; cost of teaching each per month, 73 cents; tax levied for school and building purposes, $2,355.60; received from state appropriation, $243.66; from taxes and other sources, $2,690.50; cost of schoolhouses, $25 paid teachers' wages, $1,200; fuel, etc., $401.58. 495 CHAPTER XXIII. EAST FRANKLIN. First Township Election-The Early Settlers as Shown by Land Titles- Tribulations of Thomas Barr as Teacher-An Oil Company Organized in 1870-West Glade Run Presbyterian Church-A Notable Law Suit - Allegheny Furnace Lands - Roads - Coal Mining and Oil Manufacturing Company Organized in 1859 -Montgomeryville - Cowansville -Middlesex -Union Presbyterian Church Organized in 1801 Schools-Rich Hill U. P. Church -Population and other Statistics- Geological Features-The Town ship named after Benjamin Franklin. T HE first township election in East Franklin, in the province of Ulster, Ireland, and is situated held in the spring of 1868, resulted thus: J. C. opposite Lifford, on the Mourne, which is there Claypoole was elected justice of the peace; Hugh spanned by a bridge, near its confluence with the Hooks, constable; Solomon Hooks, school director Finn and Foyle, and is now a railway station. Its for three years; D. C. Quigley and Abraham Zille- trade is facilitated by a canal from it to the point frow, for two years; Henry Blair and John Mont- where the Foyle becomes navigable for barges of gomery, supervisors; a tie between Franklin Am- forty tons. Adjacent to Strabane is a salmon brose and Jonathan Geary, for assessor; John fishery. The population of this town, some years Moore and John Summerville, overseers of the poor; ago, was 4,896. Henry Dougherty, township auditor for three, Adjoining " Strabane" on the east in a large Thomas Armstrong for two years, and J. D. Carr scope of apparently unsurveyed territory or blank for one year; J. H. Dickey, judge of election; W. space on the Gapen map, is on the other depreciaG. Cowan and Sharon Mateer, inspectors of elec- tion lot No. 276, in shape a rectangular parallelotion. The readers may now in imagination place the Gapen map and the Lawson & Orr map of surveys before them and follow the writer as he traverses this township alternately from west to east, and from east to west, beginning at its southwest corner, in which is depreciation lot No. 271, a square, the patent for which, called "Strabane," was granted to Joshua Elder, May 9, 1791, which he conveyed to McCall and McDowell, March 27, 1795, and in the partition between them was one of the tracts allotted to McCall, who conveyed it to George C. McCall, June 23, 1817, and the latter reconveyed it. One hundred and ten and two-thirds acres of it were conveyed by A. McCall to John Bowser, June 16, 1830, for $330, and the same quantity to Daniel Shaeffer, the same day, for the same price. Bowser conveyed 29 acres to Susannah and Charles McClatchey, which they conveyed to Frederick Bowser, April 3, 1849, for $300, and 37 acres and 100 perches to Frederick Bowser, August 26, 1842, for $230, who conveyed the same to David C. Bowser. The parcel purchased by Shaeffer is still retained by him. A. McCall conveyed 50 acres of the southeast end to John Summerell, June 12, 1834, for $175. This tract was named after Strabane, a municipal borough and market town in the county of Tyrone, gram, for which, called "Unequal Contest," the patent was granted to William Findley, November 20, 1786, as containing 276-% acres, which he conveyed to Francis and Samuel Robinson, November 7, 1806, for $736.80, 50 acres and 79 perches of which they conveyed to Margaret Peebles, April 24, 1821, for $200, and 111 acres and 55 perches to John Summerville, October 20, 1827, for $200. Samuel released 121 acres to Francis Robinson, November 3, for five shillings, who conveyed the same to Sarah Robinson, November 11, 1831, for $1. Adjoining "Unequal Contest" on the east is depreciation lot No. 283, another of William Findley's tracts, 220-1 acres, which he conveyed to David Reed, June 5, 1815, for $200, being the tract on which Reed and his family had then "resided for several years," who by his will, dated May 28, 1838, and registered January 19, 1839, devised the part of it west of Glade run to his son David, subject to the proper maintenance of the latter's mother during the rest of her life, and the payment of $50 to John Reed with interest thereon from the year 1803. That part of it east of Glade run he agreed, March 19,.1834, to sell to Jacob Denny, of Pittsburgh, for $338, of which $238 remained unpaid at his death. No deed for it having been executed by him in his lifetime, the specific performance of the contract was decreed by EAST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. the proper court, December 16, 1839, and his executors, John Reed and John Summeal, conveyed 104 acres and 91 perches, neat measure, or 98 acres and 110 perches and allowance, according to the survey of B. Meredith, September 8, 1838, to Denny, March 30, 1840, for $313, which was probably the balance of purchase-money and interest then due. It subsequently became vested in Alexander McNickle, and was among other parcels conveyed by Chambers Orr, sheriff, to Robert Buchanan, March 17, 1841, for $136, having then 20 acres cleared, 5 of which were meadow, a log cabin and small stable, and which Buchanan conveyed to Isaac Wible, March 23, 1853, for $550. Adjoining the southern part of No. 283 and the northern part of "Center Hill" on the east is depreciation lot No. 288, 235,' acres, called "Speculation," which, like its southern adjoiner, "Liberty Hall," became vested in Robert Morris, Jr., who conveyed it to Wilson Hunt, May 21, 1796, for "five shillings and other valuable considerations." It was sold for taxes by John Sloan, then sheriff of Westmoreland county, to Samuel Murphy and James Sloan, October 13, 1807, for $4.77, and which they released to Hunt, October 14, 1812, for $20. It became vested in Alexander Colwell, who conveyed it to his brother William, to whom it was surveyed by J. E. Meredith, March 30, 1838. Adjoining " Speculation " on the north is depreciation lot No. 289, hexagonal, 284 acres, called "Pleasant Grove," whose northwestern part or tongue extends across Glade run, bounding the eastern part of No. 283 on the north, for which the patent was granted to John McCullough, of Philadelphia, January 22, 1792, which his executor, Dr. Samuel McCullough, agreed to sell to Isaac Wible for $2,850, one-half of which was paid before that executor's death, and on taking security for the other half Dr. John McCullough, administrator de bonis non, etc., conveyed the entire tract to Wible, January 1, 1839. In and after 1811, Thomas Barr, afterward deputy surveyor for this county, taught school in a log schoolhouse on that part of "Pleasant Grove" near the present site of Isaac Wible's house. His scholars barred him out for three days from January 1, 1812, as related to the writer by one of his pupils. He attempted to smoke them out by covering the top of the chimney with boards and placing himself on them. They thrust the long poles, with which they had provided themselves, up the chimney and threw him off into the snow. With hair-springs he threw pins at them, from which the eyes of some of them barely escaped severe and permanent injury. He then ascended the roof, tore off some of the roof-boards, and descended to the schoolroom. Some of the pupils seized him by his legs and others by his arms and ejected him into the snow. After a three days' struggle he capitulated, and signed a written agreement to furnish his conquerors with a bushel of apples and four or five gallons of cider, with which he complied.* The door was then unbarred, and the usual scholastic exercises were resumed in that primitive temple of knowledge. Adjoining "Speculation" on the east is the Cogley-Ross-Huston land, heretofore mentioned,t adjoining the southern part of which on the east is a tract, a rectangular parallelogram, 100 acres, surveyed to John McAnninch, on which he settled probably before 1800; with 75 acres of which, 1 horse and 2 cows, he was assessed in 1805, and the next year at $62. He continued to be assessed with the land until 1834. This is probably a part of a larger tract which included the heretofore-mentioned Joseph Cogley tracts, which was assessed to Nathaniel George in 1805, and respecting which Rachel Jones and John McIninch entered into a written agreement, August 16, 1797, the substance of which was, that Rachel and John should keep settled for George for five years "a certain tract of land, situate on Slippery Rock path, bounded by James Cogley, Sr., N. 87 E. 343, and by Daniel McClelland, 87 W., 240 perches," to clear and put under fence 8 or more acres, and convey to him the remainder of the tract left after deducting 50 acres containing the improvement to be made by them, for which George was to give them "a clear deed out of the office," ~5 in store goods and ~5 in cash. George's inchoate title does not appear from the records to have been perfected. McIninch conveyed 99 acres to Asa Freeman, April 6, 1834, for $450. Adjoining that McIninch tract and the northern part of the Huston parcel on the east is a long and rather narrow tract, 330 acres and 250 perches, extending to the Allegheny river, which was surveyed to John Scott, on a warrant dated January 22, 1794. Scott conveyed his interest to Charles Campbell and James Sloan ("Col."), May 30, 1799, about which time the latter settled on it, kept a ferry and the only hotel in this region for several years, and where he resided when he was appointed a trustee of this county. He was assessed with 200 acres, 2 distilleries, 3 horses, 4 cattle and 1 ferry, in 1805, at $402; but the next year his valuation was only $250. He conveyed his interest to Paul Morrow, September 15, 1813, for $1,980; Campbell * Vide Plum Creek. t Vide North Buffalo. 497 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. conveyed his interest to Robert Brown, October 15, 1821, for $1,100, "on which Brown and Sloan had formerly resided," which Brown conveyed to Morrow, July 13, 1825, for $5,000, to whom the patent for the whole tract was granted, March 22, 1826. Morrow reconveyed 165 acres of the northern part to Brown, February 21, 1827, for $2,500, onehalf of which the latter conveyed to his brother, Joseph Brown, September 9, 1836, in " consideration of $1 and the improvements made on the premises," who was first assessed with his ferry across from here to Kittanning in 1833. James E. Brown was first assessed with saltworks on this parcel in 1835, and continued to be until 1840, the last two years to his father and heirs, which yielded daily 5 or 6 barrels. Peter Bellas fell into one of the salt-boilers Wednesday, January 29, 1835, and was so severely scalded that he died that evening. Robert Brown conveyed the undivided one-half of this parcel, and the heirs of Joseph Brown the other half, to Philip Mechling, October 14, 1846, for $5,800. There is on the southern part of it an ancient pile of stones, such as the Indians placed over their dead. Morrow conveyed the southern parcel of this tract to William Phillips June 10, 1828, who conveyed 154 acres and 158 perches to Asa Freeman, August 10, 1832, for $1,000. Freeman conveyed 72 acres and 150 perches, partly of this tract and partly of what McIninch had conveyed to him, included in patent to Freeman, August 10, 1832, to Conrad Reiter, April 9, 1846, for $442; and 92 acres and 15 perches to John Portsmouth, April 4, 1852, for $2302.34, which the latter conveyed to James Mosgrove, October 2, 1858, for $4,800. Adjoining the western part of that Scott-BrownMorrow tract and its western adjoiner, the Huston tract, for which Freeman probably obtained a patent, on the north is depreciation lot No. 293, a rectangular parallelogram, 216-' acres, the patent for which was granted to John McCullough, January 22, 1792, and which Dr. Samuel McCullough conveyed to James Blair, August 8, 1844, for $2169, on which he had resided from 1840, while he was county commissioner. By his will, dated September 20, 1875,* he devised 103 acres of the southern part to his son Joseph, and the residue to his son Henry, subject to an annuity of $300, to be paid by them to their mother during the rest of her life. Adjoining the southern part of No. 293 on the east is a trapezoidal-shaped tract, rather narrow, extending from the river back on the hill, 201 acres and 55 perches, on which John Cunningham made * Registered June 9, 1877. an improvement and settlement, probably about 1800, by virtue of which it was surveyed to him by Ross, deputy surveyor, January 7, 1807, with which he was assessed, and with 1 distillery and 1 cow, in 1805, at $176. A teacher by the name of Beard taught a school of thirty scholars, some of whom resided three and four miles distant on Glade run and elsewhere, in 1808-9, in a log cabin about 16X16 feet, on the hill part of this tract. The patent was granted to him September 10, 1824. He conveyed 10 acres and 118 perches to his son Williami, October 8, for $1,000, at the river, and hence called Williamsburgh, where the latter established his chain ferry, mentioned in the sketch of the borough of Kittanning, on which a hotel has been kept by various persons for many years. Hle and Philip Mebchling were first assessed with their saltworks on this parcel in 1835. They bored a well the usual depth, but some oil and considerable gas rendered it unprofitable as a saltwell, and it was abandoned. While it was being operated Philip Templeton was in the upper part of the derrick one day, when the gas became ignited, and he was for awhile in danger of being burned. George Monroe was assessed as a merchant at this point in 1836, and Philip Templeton in 1841. Philip Mechling was first assessed with the ferry here in 1846. John Cunningham, Sr. and Jr., conveyed 1l acres adjoining the river to William Boney and William Herron, January 10, 1840, for $12, on which Boney erected a carding-machine in 1844, with which he continued to be assessed until they conveyed 6 acres adjoining the river on the east and Philip Mechling's parcel on the south, to Robert Robinson, February 18, 1846, for $360, with the privilege of taking coal from their farm, and which he christened " Linden " in 1848, from a linden tree on the river bank, and his preference for the "sage of Lindenwald," who was then the presidential candidate of the free democracy, which he conveyed to Philip K. Bowman, January 15, 1850, for $300, on which the latter and James S. Quigley were first assessed with a steam sawmill in 1852. Bowman conveyed his interest in this parcel to Quigley, April 2, 1857, for $2,800, who continued to operate-the mill until he sold the land, mill and several houses to George W. Cook and James G. Henry for $16,000. His deed to them is dated May 14, 1869. They operated the mill until Henry sold his interest to James Cathers, which has since continued to be operated by Cook & Cathers.* John Cunningham laid out the town of Belleville * The mill was burned in October, 1876. 498 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. land county, Pa., where hlie lived and died* highly esteemed and gratefully remembered, and, says Bancroft, in his cursory notice of the battle at Kittanning, " famed as inheriting the courage and piety of the Scotch covenanters." Gen. James Wilkinson, in his memoirs, pays this tribute to him: "The hero of Kittanning in the war of 1756, and one of the most virtuous men who has lived in any age or country." And William B. Reed, in his oration, delivered on the occasion of the reinterment of the remains of Gen. Mercer, paid him this just tribute: "To fearless intrepidity of the highest cast there was united in his character a strong sense of religious responsibility that rarely blends with military sentiment. He belonged to that singular race of men, the Scottish Covenanters, in whom austerity was a virtue of high price, and who, in the conflicts to which persecution trained them, never drew the sword or struck a mortal blow without the confidence, which enthusiasm seemed to give them, that agencies higher and stronger than human means were battling in their behalf, and that their sword, whether bloodless or bloody, was always'the sword of the Lord.' Educated in these sentiments, John Armstrong never swerved from them. He was foremost in his country's ranks, whether her cause was defense against a foreign foe or revolt against oppression-in the colonial conflicts as well as in the war of the revolution. He was always known to kneel in humble devotion and earnest prayer before hlie went into battle, and never seemed to doubt in the battle's fury that the work of blood was sanctified to some high purpose. Under this leader did young Mercer-for a common sympathy, at least on this soil, united the Jacobite and the Cameronianfight his first American battle; and it was in the arms of the son of this his ancient general that lie was carried mortally wounded from the bloody field of Princeton." Gen. Armstrong becainm9 a Presbyterian, and was an active and influential member of the first church at Carlisle, whose first church edifice was erected in 1757. CAPT. MERCER. Capt. Hugh Mercer, in the action at Kittanning, was induced by some of his men, as Col. Armstrong believed, to detach himself with his ensign and ten or twelve others from the main body by being told that the main force was in great danger and that they could take him into the road by a nearer route. He had not, however, been heard * He died at Carlisle, Pa., March 9,1795. from when Col. Armstrong closed his report to Gov. Denny. He and those with him were then supposed to have been lost. From another source than Col. Armstrong's report, I learn that he was wounded in the wrist and discovered there was danger of his being surrounded by the hostile Indians, whose war-whoop and yell indicated their near approach. Having become faint from the loss of blood, hlie concealed himself in the hollow trunk of a large tree. The Indians came there, seated themselves for rest, and then disappeared. Capt. Mercer then left his hiding place and pursued his course through a trackless wild, a hundred miles, to Fort Cumberland, subsisting, in part at least, on the body of a rattlesnake which he had killed. Some writers state that it was in the battle of the Monongahela that he was separated from the main force, and that he started on that lonely tour to Fort Cumberland from Fort Du Quesne. In confirmation of the opinion that Capt. Mercer's lonely and perilous journey and escape to Fort Cumberland was when he was separated from the main force at Kittanning, instead of near Fort Du Qu esne, Ban croft, in his brief account of the affair at the former place, says: "Mercer, who was wounded severely and separated from his companions, tracked his way by the stars and rivulets to Fort Cumberland." His authority for saying that Kittanning was the starting point of that journey is the above mentioned oration by William B. Reed. Patterson's "History of the Backwoods" contains the following account of Capt. Mercer's escape, compiled from Robinson's narrative, which, though varying as to some parts of his journey from the foregoing account, which the writer has adopted as correct, is confirmatory of the fact that it was from Kittanning, and not from near Fort Du Quesne, that Capt. Mercer started on that lonely and perilous journey. It is there stated, "Capt. Mercer, who had had his arm broken in the engagement, was unhappily persuaded by sonicme of his men to leave the main party; and, as they were old traders, they proposed to conduct him a nearer way home. They accordingly detached themselves from the company, but, unhappily, soon fell in with the Indians with whom Lieut. Ilogg had had the engagement in the morning, by whom several of the party were killed, and the remainder dispersed. Mercer made his escape in company with two others. But the bandage on his arm having become loosed, they stopped to rebind it, whereby he grew faint. At that moment an Indian was seen approaching them. The Captain's two companions, having abandoned him, sprang upon his horse, from which EAST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. on the hill part of his tract, nearly equally divided as to the number of lots by the Butler and Kittanning turnpike, consisting of 46 lots, which were surveyed by James Stewart January 24, 1855, 33 of them being rectangular parallelograms, each 66X165 feet, the others varying in shape and areas. Lots Nos. 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, 46, containing about 2 acres and fronting on the northwestern side of the Freeport road, were conveyed - - 1863, by John Barnett and Mark B. Colwell to George Bowser, for $300. One of the frame schoolhouses of Franklin township was located, a short distance back from the river, on this parcel, which was abandoned a short time since, and a brick one erected in its stead oin the south side of the Kittanning and Butler turnpike, on the brow of the hill, on the Cunningham tract. Adjoining that tract on the north is depreciation lot No. 302, 274 acres and 71 perches, the patent for which was granted to Andrew Porter in January, 1792, who conveyed it to his son, George B. Porter, March 18, 1812, for $1 and " natural love and affection," who by his will, dated March 25, 1830, devised it to his wife, Sarah H. Porter, who conveyed it to Peter Graff, June 24, 1850, for $3,224.72. The latter conveyed 138 acres and 100 perches of the southern part to Joseph Brown, May 26, 1851, for $1,612. Brown laid out the town of Linden, called after the parcel so named by Robert Robinson, into - lots, each fronting 6 rods on the river and extending back to the brow of the hill, and containing nearly an acre, and which were surveyed by J. E. Meredith, Monday, March 24, 1851. Brown conveyed 150 perches, with the privilege of drifting and mining coal, iron ore, limestone, etc., the width of this parcel, through to the line between this and the tracts adjoining it on the west, to Hugh Campbell, May 29, 1851, for $198; two small parcels, aggregating I acre and 156 perches, with like mineral privilege, to Alexander Colwell, the same day, for $250. Graff conveyed, in pursuance of a previous contract, 132 acres of the northern part to J. Alexander Fulton, January 6, 1865, for $6,276, on which the latter planted a valuable orchard, and made other improvements, in the interval of several years between the date of the agreement with and the conveyance of Graff to him, and then conveyed the same quantity, known as " Clara Vista," to Robert Criswell, January 7, for $16,000, to whose estate it still belongs. Adjoining No. 202 on the west is depreciation lot No. 292, 249l acres, " on the waters of Beaver creek," which was surveyed by Joshua Elder, October 21, 1785, and was sold at public auction to John McCullough, who released his interest therein to Andrew Porter, to whom the patent for it, called " Hop Yard," was granted January 22, 1792, and which was included in the latter's gift to his son, George B. Porter. The latter, adjutant-general of Pennsylvania, conveyed it to George Beitz, Jr., of Manor township, Lancaster county, February 14, 1828, for $873, from whom it was sold by Jacob Mechling, sheriff, who conveyed it to Pherson Campbell, September 26, 1829, who was the next year assessed with a distillery. Hie conveyed 1241 acres to John Brown, the present owner of most of this parcel, December 27, 1830, for $374.25. The latter sold 21 acres and 13 perches of the southeastern part to William McAninch for building him a barn, which Margaret McAninch, as surviving administratrix of her husband's estate, conveyed to Gabriel P. Lobeau, December 30, 1837, for $120. This parcel of "Hop Yard" afterward became vested in James P. Wick, who conveyed it to James E. Brown, January 16, 1846; Brown to John Morgan, June 14, 1847, for $400; Morgan to Robert R. Fleming, April 5, 1850; and Fleming to John Donaldson, to whose estate it belongs, April 1, 1854, for $630, who, soon after his purchase, planted upon it a large nursery, containing various species of the fruits that flourish in this region, and of evergreens, which aided essentially in introducing into various parts of this county a better quality of fruit. Pherson Campbell assigned the other portion of "Hop Yard," together with his other property, April 14, 1832, to Peter Rummell, for the benefit of his creditors, directing that a judgment in favor of Robert and Chambers Orr be first paid out of the proceeds of sale. Before he found a purchaser it was sold by Chambers Orr, sheriff, to Rummell, who conveyed it, 125 acres, to Jonathan Whitesell, the present owner, January 1, 1839, for $1,000. Adjoining "Hop Yard" on the west is depreciation lot No. 291, 210 acres, the patent for which, called "L'Orient," was granted to Peter B. Audibert, and was included in Sheriff Brown's sale to Joseph Audibert, who conveyed it to Gabriel P. Loeben, May 20, 1817, for $1,200. The latter conveyed 150 acres to Michael Red, December 28, 1819, for $1,100, for which he took the vendee's mortgage, which, it is presumed, was not paid, as Red reconveyed to Loeben, February 13, 1821, for the same consideration. Loeben conveyed all of "L'Orient" to Alexis Jordell, April 29, 1822, for $800, which the latter transferred to Bakewell Page, February 17, 1827, for $1 and other "valua499 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. ble considerations," as the record shows. But the record also shows that Loeben conveyed all of No. 291, "L'Orient," to William Shultz, January 22, 1833, for $1,000, who conveyed it to James Thompson, April 13, 1837, for $2,700, who, by his will, dated April 9, 1855, and registered April 21, devised it to his soni, James A. Thompson, the present owner. This tract was, of course, called after the seaport of that name, 350 miles southwest from Paris, on the bay of Port Louis, at the mouth of the river Scorf, in the department of Morbabon, France. Adjoining "L'Orient" on the west is depreciation lot No. 290, included in Joseph Audibert's sale to Loeben, who conveyed the northern part of it, and the southern part of depreciation lot No. 306, 177 acres and 138 perches, to Joseph Boney, February 5, 1839, for $1,760. The latter conveyed 6 acres and 110 perches, to George Bowser, April 12, 1852; 20 acres and 38 perches to John Bradford, October 5, 1854, for $621; and 124 acres and 101 perches to John M. Thompson, November 25, 1855, for $3,395. Loeben's executor, James Amstrong, conveyed 50 acres of the southern part of No. 290 to Anna Regina Erfmans, September 17, 1852, which she conveyed to James Noble, August 12, 1867, for $700. Joseph Audibert, by Loeben, his agent and attorney, conveyed 10 acres, in the central part of the tract, to George Bowser, January 5, 1836, for $50, on which, or on the parcel which he purchased from Boney, he erected a sawmill in 1841, and a gristmill in 1843, which and these 2 parcels he conveyed to John Burford, April 17, 1852, for $1,000, and which the latter, together with 42 acres which he had purchased from Jonas Bowser, April 6, 1853, and 28 acres and 38 perches, from Boney, October 5, 1854, conveyed to James Noble, March 14, 1856, for $4,000.* In pursuance of a previous call, a meeting of landowners was held Saturday afternoon, May 28, 1870, at James Noble's house, the object of which was to consider the practicability of organizing an oil company, to develop the territory along Glade run. It was a respectably large assemblage, and considerable enthusiasm was evinced. Fifty acres of land and $1,000, it was stated, had already been subscribed to drill a test well at some point on that stream. Among those present were ex-Governor Johnston, Judge Boggs and the writer. The two former were quite sanguine that a test well or two would develop oil in the valley of Glade run, * James Noble, by his will, dated August 22, and registered September 29, 1878, devised his farm, consisting of the above-mentioned parcels, to his wife, during the rest of her life, and after her death, one-half to his son, and the other half, "share and share alike," to his three daughters. The writer, in the course of his remarks, referred to the geological features of this valley, as found in Rogers' Geology of Pennsylvania, from which he concluded that the first, second and third sandrocks, of the Venango region, if present here, are respectively 1,150, 1,350 and 1,550 feet, more or less, below the bed of that run, and directed the attention of those present to the undulation, which Rogers says " is suspected to pass from ScrubGrass creek through the neighborhood of Allegheny Furnace, causing local northwest dips," and to the general fact "that these undulations of the strata are in the form of long, parallel waves, resembling much those great continuous billows called in dynamics'waves of translation,' and by seamen 'rollers,'" and queried whether there is not too much undulation of the subterranean strata for the generation of oil. The experiments since made on Buffalo creek and David Reed's farm seem to indicate that such a geological condition is more adapted to the generation of gas than oil. The proposed project of sinking a test well in this valley was deferred until the one on the Reed farm was drilled, which yields no oil, but an abundance of gas. Adjoining the southern half of No. 290 and the northwestern part of the McCullough-Wible tract on the west is depreciation lot No. 282, called "Lamie Bay," one of the Audibert tracts, which Loeben as attorney-in-fact conveyed thus: 29 acres and 46 perches to Alexander B. McGregor, October 9, 1832, for $100, which, with 20 acres 157 perches additional, he conveyed to Thomas Armstrong, March 5, 1839, for $600; 6.50 acres and 53 perches to David Reed, March 9, 1839, for $400, and 100 acres to Joseph D. Bowser, November 2, 1840, for $450. Adjoining "Lamie Bay" on the west is depreciation lot No. 277, 201 acres called " Out-lot," the patent for which was granted to William Lindley, November 20, 1786, for ~5, who conveyed one-half of it to Margaret Peebles (who was first assessed in Buffalo township with 1 horse and 2 cows in 1806 at $32), adjoining her other land on which she then resided and including "an improvement made by Samuel Claypoole " where he then resided, June 30,1810, for $150, which she conveyed to John Reed, October 30, 1833, for $5, "natural love and affection," and his covenant to maintain her during the rest of her life "in such a manner as a woman of her age requires," and to afford her a proper Christian burial. The Glade Run, latterly called the West Glade Run, Presbyterian church was organized at the house of John Reed on this parcel of "Out-lot," 500 T 1 EAST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. December 27, 1845. Its first elders were John Craig, William Cratty and John Patton, with Rev. John Stark, moderator, who was its stated supply about ten years. Rev. George Cairns was installed as its pastor in 1856, who was succeeded by Rev. John V. Miller from 1859 until 1864. It was then dependent on occasional supplies until the present pastor, Rev. A. S. Thompson, was installed for half time in 1867. Its number of members is 65; Sabbath-school scholars, 80. Services were held for several months in the schoolhouse on this parcel. The present church edifice, frame, was built by David J. Reed in 1846, on ground conveyed by his father, John Reed, to the trustees of this congregation. The other half of No. 277 was conveyed by Lindley to Samuel Huston, September 29, 1810, which, having become vested in William Huston, was conveyed by him to James Noble, November 20, 1851, for $1,400, who conveyed it to Van Buren Bowser, January 20, 1868, for $2,450. The next tract on the west of "Out-lot" is depreciation lot No. 270, 2031% acres, called " Portsmouth," included in the purchase by McCall and McDowell from Joshua Elder, May 9, 1791, and allotted to McCall in the heretofore-mentioned partition between him and McDowell, which he conveyed to his son, George A. McCall, July 8, 1834, for $500, who conveyed it to James and John Noble, March 6, 1839, for $1,100. "Portsmouth must have been seated by William McLaughlin prior to 1805, for in that and the next year he was assessed with it, one distillery and one cow at $96. This tract, like places of the same name in this country, was so called after Portsmouth, a noted seaport in the English channel, 72 miles southwest of London. Adjoining "Portsmouth" on the north and the present township line on the west is a tract on the Gapen map, a rectangular parallelogram, "408 " acres, surveyed by Gapen to Joseph Baldridge, but the warrant, dated September 10, 1805, and the patent for which the latter were granted to William Noble, Sr., July 13, 1806, called "Huntingdale," in consideration of his having made it appear that he had made, or caused to be made, a settlement thereon, who conveyed 100 acres and 80 perches to William Noble, Jr., May 3, 1839, for $100. This parcel, after his death, was appraised July 23, 1873, in proceedings in partition as containing 109 acres and 73 perches, at $7,790.30, and was conveyed by his heirs to the present owner, Adam Stewart, April 13,1874, for $9,000. John and William Noble must have acquired an interest in a part of " Huntingdale," for they conveyed 151 acres and 54 perches of it to William Noble, Sr., being the same on which he then resided, July 8, 1831, for $5 to each and divers other good causes. In an amicable partition, July 4, 1845, James Noble released 67 acres of western part of that parcel to Jane and Mary Noble, and they by the same deed released to him 85 acres and 48 perches of the eastern part. Robert Noble conveyed 28 acres and 151 perches of it to John Richey, April 5, 1865, for $1,275. Adjoining " Huntingdale" on the east are depreciation lots Nos 278 and 279, the latter being the northern one, called "Polignac," 201T acres, one of the Audibert tracts included in Sheriff Brown's sales to Joseph Audibert, and of which he by Loeben conveyed 75 acres to John Houston, June 21, 1837, for $337.50; 25 acres and 25 perches to Jacob Swigert, August 11, for $112.50. Seventy-five acres of the southern part having become vestedthe records don't show how-in John G. Dieterly, he conveyed the same to William Noble, Jr., April 1, 1853, for $1,875, which the latter conveyed to John Richey, October 24, 1868, for $3,700, who conveyed the same to the present owner, Paul McDermitt, April 21, 1874, for $8,000. This tract was evidently named after Melchior de Polignac, abb6 and afterward cardinal, who was born in 1661, of a distinguished family, in Languedoc, France. Adjoining "Polignac " on the south is depreciation lot No. 278, called " Walnut Bottom," included in survey by Joshua Elder, March 12, 1783, purchased at the Coffee house, Philadelphia, by John McCullough, released by him to Andrew Porter, to whom the patent was granted January 22, 1772, and given by him to his son, George B. Porter, March 18, 1812, who conveyed it to James Hindman, August 12, 1824, for $855, which was subsequently divided between him and William Hindman by a central line run from north to south by J. E. Meredith. James Hindman conveyed 105 perches of his purpart to Mark Colwell, Robert Hindman and Robert Wible, trustees of the West Glade Run Presbyterian congregation, July 18, 1872, for $1, adjoining the parcel which John Reed had previously conveyed to the church. Adjoining " Walnut Bottom" on the east is depreciation lot No. 281, an Audibert tract called "Orleans," included in the sheriff's sales to Joseph Audibert, and in the sales from him to Loeben, who conveyed 100 acres to Abraham Bowser, October 9, 1832, for $200. He died intestate, in April, 1853. This parcel of "Orleans," containing 105 acres and 97 perches, was in proceedings in partition valued at $1,399.36, November 21, 1854, and was 501 502 HISTORY OF AR taken by his son, Benjamin S. Bowser, the eldest of his eleven children, who conveyed 100 acres of it to John M. Thompson, April 1, 1862, for $2,300. Loeben conveyed 45 acres of " Orleans" to Samuel Bowser, December 22, 1835, for $100, and the same quantity to Jacob Flanner, seven days later, for the same price. This tract was named after the city of Orleans, situated on the river Loire, in France. Adjoining " Orleans" on the north is depreciation lot No. 280, 201 V acres, which was surveyed October 18, 1785, and the patent for it, in which it is called "Great Meadow," one of the lines of which is mentioned as " crossing Beaver creek," was granted to Richard Freeman, October 4, 1786, who, at the time of his death, was a resident of Washington, District of Columbia. Samuel Bowser settled upon and improved, cleared four or five acres of that portion of it at and around the falls in Glade run, and built a small cabin, about 1805. He was living at the falls after harvest in that year. He built a small cabin a few rods west of the falls and south of Slate Lick run and the present turnpike road from Kittanning to Butler. Joseph Bowser testified that, when hlie came out in 1805, Samuel had his small one-story cabin with one room, about fifteen or twenty rods from the run, with a turnip-patch south of the cabin. He was first assessed on the Buffalo township list with 1 horse and 1 cow, at $20, in 1806, and opposite his name, in the column headed "Title of Land," is the word " sold," and the next year with the same and 200 acres at $80, and " Imp." in the title column, with which quantity of land he continued to be assessed until 1816, and for some time thereafter with only 100 acres. lie and David Flanner, September 7 of the lastmentioned year, entered into a written agreement, remarkable for its brevity and informality, and want of an express consideration, by which the former sold to the latter "his improvement," and agreed " to give up his settlement against the 1st of May next, and the half of the survey where he pleases to have it;" that is, Bowser agreed to sell to Flanner the one-half of "Great Meadow," either north or south of Slate Lick run, which the latter might prefer. Bowser having left in pursuance of his agreement, Flanner moved on to the improvement, which consisted of four or five acres of cleared land and the cabin, and occupied the house which he erected-a cabin house which he bought for sixteen days' work and built an addition to itabout forty rods northwesterly from the junction of Glade run and Slate Lick run, between the latter and the present turnpike road, his stable or barn MSTRONG COUNTY. being a few rods southeast of the house, south of that road, according to J. E. Meredith's draft of his survey of " Great Meadow," made May 29, 1845. Flenner continued to occupy and improve the part south of Slate Lick run until about 1832. There was a primitive log schoolhouse a short distance north of the mouth of Slate Lick and west of Glade run, which was an old one when first occupied by William Burnheimer, who cleared some land and made shoes for the neighbors, in or before 1822, possibly the house in which James Barr, Jr., had taught from 1805 till 1808.* Burnheimer's successor in that house was Peter Toy, who resided there from 1825 until the spring of 1833, during which time he cleared some land and paid the taxes. Both were tenants under Samuel Bowser, who then claimed the whole of "Great Meadow." Anthony Cravenor, another claimant of this tract, then a single man, came upon it, as early as 1825, and proposed building a mill, and was first assessed with 100 acres of it, 1 horse and 1 cow, in 1832, at $226. He boarded for awhile with Flanner, became a steady resident in 1833, and afterward built a house, a few rods north of Slate Lick run and northeast of Flanner's house. He claimed, while boarding with Flanner, to have a foreigner's title, and wished Flanner to co-operate with him in acquiring possession. That title consisted of three deeds from Francis and Simon Freeman and others, heirs-at-law of Richard Freeman, of the county of Wicklow, Ireland, to Cravenor, releasing and quitclaiming their respective interests in "Great Meadow," dated February 28, 1831, for $300; from Richard B. Freeman, September 22, for $13; and from Anthony Wilson and wife, of Elverston, county of Dublin, June 8, 1832, for $1. The firstmentioned of these deeds was executed by James Stewart, formerly of Neury, Ireland, but then of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, who was a "general European agent," by virtue of a power of attorney, which was duly executed and acknowledged before E. Butler, " Sovereign of Carlo," in the county of Carlo, Ireland, September 16, 1830, which was recorded in Armstrong county, March 3, 1831. The other two deeds were executed by the grantors in Ireland, and their signatures were proven by Stewart's affidavits, made before an alderman of Pittsburgh. Cravenor, having thus acquired the proper title to the whole tract, purchased, as he insisted, the interest which Bowser had acquired in it by his improvement and settlement. While Toy was living in the old schoolhouse, Bowser told him that he had sold the north * Vide West Franklin. EAST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. half to Cravenor; and he told James Noble that he had sold the northern part to Cravenor, who, he said, had paid him and had got his deed for it; and there was some evidence that Cravenor had said that he bought only the half of the tract north of Slate Lick run from Bowser; but that deed is not recorded. Bowser brought an action of assumpsit against Cravenor to No. 15, June term, 1828, in the common pleas of this county, and obtained a verdict and judgment for $264.55, December 25, 1829, which probably originated from their agreement about this land. Cravenor, it seems, did not go on to this tract so much for farming as .for building a mill, which he began to do soon after his advent, and located it several rods below ,the mouth of Slate Lick, and east of Glade run. He cut logs for it on both sides of Slate Lick. The walls of the lower story were clay and stone, eight feet high. Some if not all the stonework and the raising of the second story were done by " frolics," as the gratuitous labor of neighbors was called. Several of the pieces of timber had become so much decayed that some of the men, who were helping to put them in their places, were in danger of being killed. The head and tail races were dug. The work progressed very slowly for about twelve years, yet it was " merely the shell of a mill," and was never completed. Its roof having become very rotten, the whole building was torn down about 1865, and Robert Armstrong procured some of the logs for the sills of his house. Cravenor also set out an orchard of twenty trees on a hill, and cleared land south of Slate Lick run. Flanner, after clearing fifteen acres and building a house on the part of " Great Meadow," which he had purchased from Bowser, and after learning the nature of Cravenor's claim to the whole tract, "threw up the old article and gave up the land to Bowser," but not by writing. It was merely a parol recision of Bowser's above-mentioned con veyance to him, and he was permitted, if he so wished, to remain on eight or nine acres and pay one-third of the crops raised thereon as rent to Bowser. He, however, left soon after Cravenor became a permanent occupant. Hence arose long-continued litigation between Bowser and Cravenor and their heirs respecting the title to the southern half of " Great Meadow," or that part of it south of Slate Lick run. Bowser instituted his action of trespass, etc., for mesne profits to No. 97, March term, 1844, in the common pleas of this county. The writ not hav ing been delivered to the sheriff, an alias summons to No. 42, June term, 1844, was issued and served. The case was ruled out and arbitrated Tuesday, February 11, 1845, at the house of David Reynolds, Kittanning, and the award of the arbitrators for $140.80 and costs in favor of the plaintiff was filed February 27, from which the defendant appealed. A jury having been called in this case, June 16, 1846, the plaintiff became nonsuit. Bowser issued an alias summons in ejectment to No. 9, March term, 1845, for 100 acres and 12 perches of the southern part of " Great Meadow." A jury having been called and sworn, January 16, 1846, rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for "one hundred acres to be laid off the south side of the tract No. 280, to commence at the western side of the tract at Slate Lick run, thence down said run to Glade run; thence down the southwest side of Glade run till anl east line crossing Glade run, to the eastern boundary of the tract, will include the hundred acres, and the defendant to be entitled to the mill and water privilege attached to the mill." Judgment was entered on the verdict, and the same day a writ of error to the supreme court was filed. The court below (White, P. J.) instructed the jury thus: "If the fact is that Cravenor came into possession under Bowser's tenant, he is in the same situation, and the law regards him as Bowser's tenant, and he must surrender the possession to him when called on for that purpose, and this whether Bowser has a title or not, and the defendant cannot retain possession, although he may have purchased a better title," which instruction was the only error assigned. The opinion of the supreme court was delivered October 23, by Coulter, J., who, inter alia, said: "As an abstract proposition the doctrine of the court is unquestionable law. The error consists in the application of it to the facts of this case." The syllabus of the opinion is: A written contract for the purchase of land, in part executed by entry and improvements made, cannot be rescinded by a verbal agreement and surrender of the instrument, the vendee remaining in possession under a verbal agreement to occupy as tenant. And the entry by one having a better title with the consent of the vendee continuing in possession under such agreement, and with notice thereof, is not subject to the rule which estops one entering by collusion with a tenant from setting up an adverse title against the landlord. There having been that error in the instruction of court below, the judgment was reversed and a new trial awarded. The death of Cravenor having been suggested, June 26, 1847, his heirs-at-law, Anthony and John Cravenor, were substituted, and their guardian, William Noble, was admitted to defend, June 23, 503 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. 1848, and on the 26th a jury was called and sworn, which rendered a verdict in favor of the defendants. Bowser having brought another action of ejectment to No. 27, September term, 1850, for 112 acres and 12 perches, a jury was called and sworn June 21, 1852 (Knox, P. J.), which rendered a verdict in his favor for that portion of land embraced in the writ lying south of Slate Lick run, according to the draft made by J. E. Meredith, and for the defendants for the residueof the land embraced in the writ. In that draft the central line of "Great Meadow " extends from the point at which its western line is crossed by Slate Lick run due east across the western bend and falls of Glade run to its eastern line, leaving several acres, on which were Flanner's house and barn and a portion of the turnpike road to the north of it. That line was run at the instance of Bowser in 1844, and at the instance of Cravenor in 1845. A writ of error to the supreme court was filed July 13; record returned November 25; judgment affirmed, and under a writ of habere facias possession was delivered to Bowser February 11, 1853. That, however, was not a finality. John S. Cravenor, who had purchased his brother Anthony's interest in this land, brought his action of ejectment to No. 32, March term, 1864, against David S. Bowser and about a dozen others, heirs-at-law of Samuel Bowser, deceased, to recover the 100 acres south of Slate Lick run, Judge Buffington having been concerned as counsel in this case before his election and appointment, it was tried before Judge Campbell, of the 18th judicial district, at a special court held atKittanning, in November, 1866. The jury was called and sworn on the 20th, and rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for the land, the above-mentioned 100 acres described in the writ. Judgment having been entered on the verdict, a writ of error to the supreme court was filed December 11. The record was returned January 18, 1868, with the judgment reversed and a new trial awarded. A part of the earlier history of this case is that a son and son-in-law of Samuel Bowser, October 26, 1846, induced Flanner to sign an assignment to Bowser of all his interest in the land to which he was entitled under that informal written agreement of September 7, 1816, for $1, and "divers other and sufficient considerations." That was while the first case was in the supreme court, and was there decided favorably to Cravenor as above stated. After Judge Buffington, who was then of Cravenor's counsel, returned from Pittsburgh, he and Governor Johnston conferred and sent for Cravenor and Flanner to come to them. In the course of the interview Flanner stated he signed the above-mentioned assignment under the impression made upon his mind by those who solicited him to sign it that he was signing merely the old article of September 7, 1816, and not selling out or transferring his interest under it. His statement was reduced to writing and signed and witnessed. Both of Cravenor's counsel then advised him, after fully explaining his relationship to the title and of the reversal of the judgment in the supreme court, to execute a conveyance to Cravenor of all his right, title, interest and claim of, in, to and out of that tract of land for $50, which he did, and the money was paid. Thus it became an important question whether Flanner's interest was that of a purchaser or tenant, and consequently whether he transferred to Cravenor a purchaser's or tenant's interest in that disputed territory. It was insisted in this, the third, trial in the court below, that as there was no consideration expressed in the contract of September 7, 1816, and none shown in the evidence, it was on the part of Bowser a mere voluntary engagement without any equivalent, and not enforcible at law; that that contract, being executory, might be rescinded by parol, and if the jury believed from the evidence that it was delivered up to Bowser, and that Flanner afterward left the land and abandoned all claim to it, there was a sufficient evidence of a rescission of the contract, and any subsequent conveyance made by Flanner was void; that if the jury believed from the evidence that Flanner, after taking possession of the land under that contract, attorned to Bowser as his landlord, or agreed to pay rent to him, or fixed upon himself any other character than that under which he had entered, he thereby abandoned his equities under that contract, and his possession was referred to his new agreement and would inure to the benefit of Bowser, and if he and Flanner had held adverse possession for twenty-one years, Cravenor could not recover; that if Cravenor was a mere boarder in Flanner's house, it was not such an entry as would justify the possession of Flanner, or suspend the running of the statute of limitations, although he might be the holder of the legal title; that until he did some act indicative of his intention to claim the possession, or declared he entered for the purpose of taking possession under his title, and if the possession of Bowser and his tenants to that of Flanner was exclusive, adverse and continued for twenty-one years before such entry by Cravenor, the statute of limitations would be a complete bar to Cravenor's right to recover in this action. The court held that there was no consideration men504 EAST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. tioned in that contract, but whether any had been shown by the evidence was referred to the jury, but the defendants had given evidence that Flanner gave up his possession because he was unable to pay the purchase money, and although no consideration was proven, if he entered and made valuable improvements on the faith of that agreement, he would still have an interest that could be enforced; that the loose declarations of Flanner, as to changing his possession from a purchaser to a tenant were insufficient to establish the relation of landlord and tenants that if he entered as a purchaser in 1816 under that contract he could only become a tenant of Bowser by a conveyance good under the statute of frauds and perjuries, a parol surrender of the article and possession alone would not divest his title, and, therefore, the possession of Cravenor under Flanner would not inure to Bowser unless under the agreement of 1846; if Bowser and Flanner had the adverse, exclusive and continued possession of the whole land for twenty-one years, it would confer a good title against all the world, and that a mere casual entry of the holder of a legal title would not stop the running of the statute, but as soon as done with the claim of right and exercising acts of ownership, it would suspend the running of the statute. Those rulings of the court were among the errors assigned, and were all affirmed. Another error assigned the admission of the above-mentioned power of attorney to James Stewart in evidence. The ruling of the court in that respect was affirmed. The only ground on which the judgment was reversed was the admission of Flanner's unsworn written statement, along with his and Judge Buffington's depositions. That statement was made to show that Flanner's transfer of his interest to Bowser was procured by fraud. Says the supreme court (Thompson, C. J.), "it was hearsay of the most objectionable kind, and should never have been offered. * * * A charge of fraud, such as it contained, would, in a case in which there were any facts for the jury, be likely to be damaging. It is possible it did no harm, but it is very probable it did. This assignment of error we think is sustained, and on account of it the judgment must be reversed." This case was retried before Judge Sterrett of Pittsburgh, at a special court commencing on the fourth Monday of February, 1870. The jury was called and sworn March 3, and rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff, on which judgment was entered and to which a writ of error was filed March 30. The second was returned, with the judgment affirmed, January 16, 1872, and possession was subsequently delivered to John S. Crayenor, who brought his action of trespass, etc., for mesne profits to No. 50, June term, 1872, and the defendants by their attorney confessed judgment, August 26, 1873, for $300 and costs, and thus ended the litigation about the southern half of " Great Meadow," which commenced nearly thirty years before its close. Another name by which No. 280 was commonly known by the early settlers was the " Glade Run Falls Tract." There is a hamlet at and near the falls now called " Walkchalk." A drum-band was organized here a few years since. John Crayenor on a certain occasion remarked respecting that band, that if he had command of it he would make its members "walk chalk." Hence the modern name of this point. The grangers several years ago erected a two-story frame building here for a hall, but on account of differences among them it has never been used for that purpose. Adjoining "Great Meadow" and the northern part of "Orleans" on the east is depreciation lot No. 306, called "Morlaix," pronounced Mor-lai, 2103 acres, one of the Audibert tracts which became vested in Gabriel Philibert Loeben, who conveyed 103 acres and 11 perches to Peter Toy, January 21, 1836, for $200, having been previously occupied by Bowser, to which Toy removed from the old schoolhouse on " Great Meadow." Loeben conveyed 40 acres and 8 perches, with 3 acres and 68 perches of No. 305, to James Armstrong, October 13, 1840, for $656.25, and as attorney-in-fact of Christopher Garnier, of L'Orient, France, 43 acres and 75 perches, with 6 acres and 82 perches of No. 303, June 10, 1846, for $300. This tract was named "Morlaix" after a town in the department of Finisterre in France. Adjoining "Morlaix" on the east is depreciation lot No. 305, 21117 acres, with 200 acres of which Michael Starr was first assessed in 1810 at $200, and with which he continued to be assessed until 1817, when it was transferred to G. P. Loeben, having been included in Sheriff Brown's sales to Joseph Audibert, who by Loeben, his attorney-infact, conveyed it to James Laubie, "sojourning in the city of Pittsburgh," April 29, 1822, for 8800, who conveyed it to Loeben, June 4, 1823, for the same consideration, and which, with small parts of three other adjoining tracts, 219 acres and 57 perches, the latter conveyed to James Armstrong, October 13, 1838, for $3,285, which quantity was included in his devises by his will dated July 5, 1859, and registered August 6, 1866, to his sons John, Robert and Thomas, subject to the payment 505 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. by John and Robert respectively of $300 to his daughter, Mrs. Ann Eliza Coventry, and with which they are still assessed. Adjoining No. 305 on the east are depreciation lots Nos. 303 and 304. The western part of the former adjoins " Hop Yard," and the eastern part depreciation lot No. 302 on the south, which, projecting a few rods above "I Hop Yard," the eastern part of 303 extending to the river, is somewhat narrower than its western part. The other lot, also extending to the river, is a rectangular parallelogramn. Both were included in Sheriff Brown's sales to Joseph Audibert, and descended to Marie Touissant Audibert, " as sole heiress at law." She, by her will dated December 11, 1840, and registered at L'Orient, France, February 15, 1841, devised No. 303, called " Quimper," to Christopher Garnier, of the city of Nantes, which he empowered Loeben to sell by his letter of attorney in French, the acknowledgment of which before Charles P. Dasnier and his colleagues, notaries public, at L'Orient, April 16, 1841, which was translated by Lewis V. Carron, who swore that his translation was "correct and faithful " before Thomas Steele, alderman of Pittsburgh, February 9, 1846. The acknowledgment before these foreign notaries was made valid by act of April 22, 1846. Loeben, as attorney-in-fact, and James Miller, of Bedford county, Pennsylvania, entered into a written contract for the sale and purchase of 299 acres and 69 perches, February 26, 1847, for $4,500. The former executed and delivered to the latter a deed therefor August 30. Loeben, as attorney-in-fact, conveyed 27 acres and 53 perches of this tract to Daniel Lemmon, August 24, 1848, for $327.75. Joseph Audibert, by-Loeben, his attorney-in-fact, conveyed 281 acres of No. 304, called "Audibert," after its patentee, Peter Benignus Audibert, to Daniel Lemmon, January 21, 1828, for $156, and Marie Touissant Audibert, by Loeben, attorneyin-fact, conveyed 127 acres and 155 perches of "Audibert" to Lemmon, August 24, 1848, for $446, probably in pursuance of an agreement made prior to her death. Lemmon probably settled on the smaller one of these parcels ten or eleven years before it was conveyed to him, for in 1817 he was assessed with two tracts, each 200 acres, in what was then Buffalo township, one of them and 2 horses and 3 cattle at $248, and the other at $200. He kept a hotel in the eastern part of "Audibert," its sign, with two cross-keys, having been painted by James McCullough at his shop in Kittanning, April 7, 1828, and he was first assessed with his ferry at this point in 1827. He retained those two parcels, the westernmost one containing the small parcel which had been part of No. 303, until his death, after which, in proceedings in partition, they, without regard to their original quantities, were divided into two purparts. The western one, marked "A," containing 114 acres and 111 perches, was valued by the inquest, September 20, 1852, at $16.08 an acre, and the other one marked "B," 40 acres and 94 perches, at $13.41 an acre, as surveyed to Daniel Lemmon's heirs by J. E. Meredith, October 19, 20. His surveys on these days included those of several other tracts on both sides of the Allegheny river. The court decreed purpart A to John H. Lemmon, and purpart B to Mrs. Margaret Nulton, December 20. The Allegheny Furnace lands consisted chiefly of several depreciation lots, lying north of " Audibert," for all but one of which patents were granted to John Nixon, Sr., December 14, 1786, and others, May 28, 1788. The northern adjoiner of "Audibert" is No. 309, on the eastern part of which David Helm settled probably about 1797 and established a ferry, which became in those early times a prominent point. As early as, probably earlier than, 1805 Helm was assessed with 259 acres, 1 horse, 1 cow and 1 ferry, at $120.75. Divers citizens of Buffalo, Sugar Creek and Toby townships presented petition to the court of quarter sessions of this county, representing that they labored under great inconveniences for want of a public road from David Helm's ferry to intersect with the old Franklin road at a path "known by the name of Bullock path." That application was held under advisement until March 18, 1807, when John Corbett, Elijah Mounts, Alexander McKean, Abraham Stanford, Thomas and William Thompson were appointed viewers. At the next June sessions Jacob Anthony, John Heffier and Christopher Reichert were substituted for Mounts, Stanford and Thomas Thompson. A remonstrance of sundry persons was presented, December 26, setting forth that the viewers had laid out the road neither on the best ground nor along the shortest route, and prayed for persons to be appointed to review that road from James Watterson's ferry to David Helm's ferry, and William Cochran, John Foster, James Matthews, Robert McDonald, Thomas Thompson and James Watterson were appointed reviewers. Their report was held under advisement from March till June sessions, 1808, when the court did " not approve." The petition of a number of inhabitants of this county was presented to that court at March sessions, 1807, setting forth that they labored under great inconveniences for the want of a road from David Helm's ferry to Joseph Brown's, opposite the town of Kittanning, 506 EAST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. a distance of about two miles; that it frequently happened that the river was passable at one of these places when not at the other; and that by the then only route it was a distance of six or seven miles " over prodigious hills." Robert Brown, William Cochran, David Lawson, James Matthews, John Orr and James Sloan were appointed viewers, whose report in favor of the proposed road, with a draft of its courses and distances, 2 miles and 192 perches, abated June 6, was approved nisi, September 24, and "confirmed of the width of 33 feet," December 24. The petition of a number of the inhabitants of Sugar Creek township was presented at June sessions, 1810, praying for a road from David Helm's ferry to the bend of the Allegheny river opposite the mouth of Mahoning. Frederick Christman, David Helm, James Matthews, Robert McDonald, Robert Orr, Jr., and James Thompson were appointed viewers, whose report in favor of the proposed road, 7 miles and 26 perches, with a draft of the courses and distances, was approved June 21, and confirmed as a public road, 20 feet wide, September 19. It having been represented to the court at December sessions, 1810, by inhabitants of Kittanning and vicinity that there was need of a road from Helm's ferry on the east side of the Allegheny river, where the road from Kittanning intersected the road from Ourey's up the river to Robert Beatty's grist and saw mills at the mouth of the Cowanshannock, Matthias Bowser, Adam Elliott, Daniel Lemmon, Michael Mechling, John and Robert Patrick, viewers. Their report in favor of the road, with a draft of its courses and distances, 1 mile and 40 perches, was read and approved, March 18, 1811, and confirmed as a public road, 33 feet wide, June 20. Helm was last assessed in 1815, and then with two tracts of land, each 200 acres, 1 horse and 2 cattle, at $222, but not with the ferry for several years before. He left this part of the country soon after his last assessment. Peter Humman was first assessed in the Buffalo township list with 150 acres, 1 horse, 2 cows and a ferry, in 1814. Did he succeed Helm at this point? This and several other adjacent tracts having become vested in Alexander McNickle, he erected the Allegheny furnace in the northeastern part of No. 309 in 1826-7, went into blast in the latter part of July, 1827, and with which he was first assessed, together with 700 acres, 10 horses, 2- yoke of oxen in 1828, at $5,950, and with a tanyard in 1831, and a ferry in 1834. James W. Biddle, who had previously erected Rock furnace, had some connection with McNickle either in building or operating the Allegheny furnace, which was a hotblast charcoal one, whose capacity was about 15 tons of metal a week, which was transported to Pittsburgh, its nearest market, in flatboats. McNickle was last assessed with this furnace in 1836, which, before the next assessment, went out of blast. It and all the lands belonging were conveyed by Chambers Orr, sheriff, to Robert Buchanan, of Cincinnati, Ohio, December 17, 1841. This tract is described in the sheriff's deed as containing 250 acres, 50 of which were cleared, and 15 were meadow. The buildings and other improvements were: A hewed log house, with a kitchen annexed, a store-room, two small buildings, one of which was frame and the other of round logs, used as a warehouse, a large smokehouse, a large quarter stack furnace, first rate, i. e. at $3,000, a twelve-inch cylinder engine, with the necessary buildings attached, furnace and coalhouses, blacksmith and carpenter shops, 1 kiln, 14 log-cabins, each onestory, and 2 stables, all which brought $1,000 under the sheriff's hammer. Buchanan conveyed 179 acres ahd 32 perches of the western part of No. 309, a long, narrow tract extending westward to the Kittanning, Middlesex and Brady's Bend road, to Robert O. Quigley, October 16, 1856, $942, 125 acres and 58 perches of which he conveyed to Joseph R. Ambrose, December 10, 1858, for $2,757.55, 32 acres and 113 perches of which Ambrose conveyed to George W. Burford, September 25, 1859, for $327, and about 96 acres to Obadiah Barnhart, the present owner, June 26, 1876, for $9,000. Buchanan conveyed 5 acres and 10 perches of the southeastern part to Thomas McLemmon, January 20, 1858, for $75.93, and the residue of 63 acres on which the furnace was situated was included in his sale to Darwin Phelps. About May 1, 1859, Rev. John N. Dick, James Dick, James T. Dickey, - Duff, Marcus Hulings and James S. Quigley organized themselves into a company for the purpose of mining cannel coal and making coal-oil, for which purpose they erected suitable buildings near the site of the stack of the Allegheny furnace, put in position four corrugated cast-iron retorts about 8 feet long and 4 feet in diameter, opened a seam of coal of good quality about 18 inches thick, made from 80 to 100 barrels of crude oil, and sold $200 worth, which they lost. The company also erected a refinery, which caught fire and was destroyed. Their losses aggregated about $7,000. Another obstacle was the development of petroleum in 1860. So that company ceased its operations. Adjoining the western part of No. 309 on the north is depreciation lot No. 310, included in the Nixon purchase, on which John Bish settled in 507 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. he had alighted, and hurried away. Having thrown himself behind the log on which he sat, which happened to be overgrown with weeds, he concealed himself from the Indian, who approached to within a few feet of him, when, on discovering the two others fleeing on horseback, he gave the war-whoop and pursued them. "Shortly afterward, Capt. Mercer crawled from his place of concealment and descended into a plum-tree bottom, where, hidden by the thick undergrowth, hlie remained till night. Having refreshed himself with the plums, which he found abundant, and which afterward were his only food for a whole month while hlie struggled on his homeward way, except a rattlesnake which the cravings of hunger had induced him to kill and eat raw. "One day when he had reached the north side of the Allegheny mountain, lie discovered a person whom he supposed to be an Indian. The other saw him. They both took trees and remained a long time. At length Mercer concluded to advance and meet his enemy; but when he came near lie found him to be one of his own men. Both rejoiced to meet, while both were so faint and weary that they were scarcely able to walk. They pushed on over the mountain, and were not far from Frankstown, when the soldier lay down, not expecting evermore to rise. Mercer struggled on about seven miles further, when lie also lay down on the leaves, abandoning all hope of ever reaching home. There was at that time a company of Cherokees in British pay; and being at Fort Lyttleton, sonicme of them had been sent out to search along the foot of the mountain to see if there were any signs of Indianis on that route. Those Indians by chance came upon Mercer while hlie was unable to rise. They gave him food, and lie told them of the other. They took Mercer's track and found the soldier, and brought him to Fort Lyttleton, having carried him on a bier of their own making." Captain, afterward General, Hugh Mercer was a native of Scotland, born near Aberdeen about 1723, liberally educated, a physician who had acted as surgeon's assistant at the battle of Culloden. Hle emigrated to Pennsylvania and settled near the present town of Mercersburg, Franklin county, and thence to Virginia, where lie settled. Before lihe engaged in Armstrong's expedition, he had been engaged with Washington in the Indian wars of 1755. Having been promoted to the rank of coloniel, he participated in the campaign under Gen. Forbes, was present at the capture of Fort Du Quesne, and after its evacuation by the French and occupation by the English, was left in command of it, or rather Fort Pitt, during a'part of 1759, and there judiciously participated in the conference held with the nine chiefs of the Six Nations, Shawanese and Delawares, from a town upl the Ohio (Allegheny) about a hundred miles above Venango (Franklin), near the Boughelloor, on January 4, 6 and 7 of that year. They "came fromnt Weayough, the king, or Great Chief of Konnawagogh," who had heard "that their friends, the English and Delawares, had talked together, and we (they) are come to talk with you likewise." Whether they came down the Allegheny or took the land route from Venango to Fort Pitt, is not stated. At that season of the year, when there was probably too much ice in the upper Allegheny for navigation, they likely took the other route. On the evening of the 6th five of the head-counsellors went to the tent of Col. Mercer, where he and Capt. Ward were present, who informed the chiefs that they were "to unbosom themselves and freely open their minds" to those officers, which they did, telling them, among other things, that " the Delawares and Shawanese are not to be depended upon." They made quite a long speech, giving assurances of their fealty to the English, strings of wampum, and finally a large belt. On the afternoon of the 7th, the officers of the garrison and a large number of Indians being present, the chiefs made another speech, to which Col. Mercer replied, concluding thus: "Brothers! When the French came here, they made us quarrel with our good old friends, and by so doing they have hurt both you and us; your brothers, the English, are a great people. Their eyes are now opened, and while the sun shines and the rivers run, they will never suffer a Frenchman to sit here. Brothers! I return you this belt; what you have now said must be told to General Forbes; if you have a mind to send this belt to him, I will send one along with you." The Six Nations said: "Brothers! Listen and be attentive to what I say; I am sorry that you have returned the belt which I gave you; but if you will give me one keg of rum, I shall feel perfectly well again." Another conference commenced on July 4, and continued at intervals until the 16th, between George Croghan, deputy agent to Sir William Johnson, Col. Mercer, commandant, and a number of other officers of the garrison, and chiefs and warriors of the Six Nations, Delawares, Shawanese and Wyandots. About five hundred Indians were there during the conference. The object of this conference seemed to be the settlement and confirmation of peace, and the regulation of trade between the English and the Indians, the HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. 1806, when he was first assessed in Buffalo township with 1 cow at $6. He was first assessed with 40 acres of this tract in 1808, and 200 acres in 1809. Hle resided on it until 1819, when he left it. This tract in the sheriff's sale to Buchanan was bid off at $280. Adjoining on the east is No. 311, which was bid off at that sale at $250, 25 acres of which Buchanan sold to William Toy. Adjoining No. 311 on the north is depreciation lot No. 313, 2461 acres, called "Clover Hill," the patent for which to Nixon is dated May 28, 1788, and the consideration expressed is ~18 9s 9d, which Nixon's heirs by their attorney-in-fact conveyed to Dr. John Gilpin, July 6, 1857, for $1,500. Adjoining "Clover Hill" and No. 311 on the east is depreciation lot No. 312, 24813 acres, called "Arragon," the patent for which was granted to James Stokes, December 14, 1786, for ~59 19s 4d, which he by his will, dated August 5, 1.828, directed his executors to dispose of either at private or public sale. They conveyed " Arragon" to Alexander McNickle, April 27, 1836, for $1,900, which brought $100 at sheriff's sale. This tract was named after Arragon, which was, until about 360 years ago, the second principal division of Spain. "Arragon" is traversed in a southeasterly course by Organ's run, so-called after John Organ, who settled on it probably before 1800. He was assessed with 244 acres of "Arragon " and 1 cow in 1805 at $61, and the next year with the same and I horse, at $71. His last assessment on this side of the river* was with 200 acres and 1 cow in 1808, at $200. Buchanan conveyed to Darwin Phelps all of SArragon," the residue of "Clover Hill " after selling 100 acres of it to Loeben Tarr, 63 acres of No. 309, 199 acres and 110 perches of No. 310, 215 acres, the residue of No. 311 after selling 25 acres of it to William Toy, aggregating 876 acres and 110 perches, December 13, 1858, for $8,500, who conveyed 71 acres of "Arragon" to James E. Brown and James Mosgrove, December 22, 1863, for $1,500; 29 acres and 71 perches thereof to Loeben Tarr, April 4, 1864, for $590. There is at present a public schoolhouse on that part of "Ar ragon" at the cross-roads near Organ's run. Phelps conveyed the rest of the lands which he had purchased from Buchanan, 835 acres, to Mc Knight, Martin and others, of the Monticello Fur nace Company, July 30, 1860, for $12,000, 810 acres of which the assignees of McKnight, Porter & Co. conveyed to the present owners, James E. Brown, James B. Neale and Grier C. Orr, November -, 1877. *See Red Bank township. Adjoining Nos. 309 and 310 on the west, and No. 305 and " Morlaix" on the north, is depreciation lot No. 308, 218 acres and 141 perches, called " Sainte Marie," included in Sheriff Brown's sales to Joseph Audibert, 123 acres, and 106 perches of which the latter by Loeben, his attorney-in-fact, conveyed to Peter Bowser, October 16, 1837, for _; the consideration in the deed is blank, and the receipt is for purchase money mentioned in the deed. Bowser conveyed 68 acres and 155 perches of this parcel to Robert Campbell, May 18, 1847, for $758.60, who by his will, dated- -, 1865, and registered July 21, 1873, devised his parcel to his wife during her widowhood, and after her to his two daughters equally, or to the survivor of them; and in the event of his having children born after the making of his will, they were to have each an equal share. Audibert, by his attorney, conveyed 66 acres and 132 perches of "Sainte Marie" to William Toy, December 28, 1845, for $200, who, at an advanced age, still resides on that portion of this parcel, in the angle formed by the intersection of the Kittanning, Middlesex and Brady's Bend road, and the one extending northwesterly and southwesterly from the one along the Allegheny river to the Kittanning and Butler turnpike. Adjoining "Sainte Marie" on the west is de preciation lot No. 307, 21880 acres, called "Tou louse." It descended to Marie T. Audibert, who, by her attorney, Loeben, conveyed it to Anna Re gina Erfmans, September 13, 1845, for $1,500; and the latter to James Miller, the present owner, March 13, 1868, for $5,250. Loeben, as attorney-in-fact, conveyed 50 acres and 25 perches, parts of " Sainte Marie" and " Tou louse," to Jacob Bowser, January 21, 1836, for $100. This tract was named after the ancient city of Toulouse, which is situated on the Garonne river in France. Adjoining "Toulouse" on the west, and "Great Meadow," "Polignac" and " Huntingdale" on the south, is a hexagonal tract, 397 acres and 100 perches, called " Campbelltown," on which John Campbell, father of Hugh and Nathaniel Camp bell, made an improvement, March 12, and a settle ment April 9, 1796, and which was surveyed to him by Ross, deputy surveyor, June 11, 1802, and for which the patent was granted to Campbell November 20, 1807. He conveyed, June 6, 1808, 150 acres to Jonas Bowser, for $260, and 114 acres and 9 perches to Adam Bowser for $228. The former by his will, dated July 1, 1846, and regis tered March 7, 1848, devised all his real estate, 508 EAST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. including his parcel of "Campbelltown," to his wife during the rest of her life and widowhood, and, after her death or marriage, to her son, Henry Stauffer. The latter, by his will, dated October 4, 1850, and registered June 12, 1852, devised his parcel of "Campbelltown," on which he then lived, to his daughter, Priscilla, wife of James Russell. Campbell also conveyed 50 acres of "Campbelltown" to David Claypoole, who conveyed the same to Adam Bowser, March 23, 1816, for $200, which he conveyed to John Swigert, July 26, 1833, for -, who conveyed the same to William Boney, August 23, 1840, for -, and which he conveyed to Abraham Bowser about March 3, 1845, for $350, which, having become vested by proceedings in partition, in Matthias S. Bowser, he conveyed to Peter Bowser, September 11, 1862, for $1,000. Campbell conveyed what was left of "Campbelltown," after selling the foregoing parcels, to Abraham Swigard, January 31, 1814, for $300, two shares of which, and whatever other real estate he owned, he devised to his son Jacob, by his will dated March 15, 1830, and registered May 27, 1832, and one share to each of his other four children. Adjoining "Campbelltown" on the west is the eastern portion of the Barr-Scott tract,* 84 acres of which Scott conveyed to Margaret Herron, February 5, 1828; she to James S. Herron, August 19, 1851; he to John Richey, February 28, 1865; he to Robert Huston, April 1, and Huston to A. J. Nicholson, the present owner, September 14, 1869, for $3,500. Adjoining that eastern portion of the Barr-Scott tract and the western part of " Campbelltown" on the north is a tract, hexagonal, nearly a rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise north and south, 2021 acres, with which, and 200 acres other land and 2 horses and 2 cows, John Mann was first assessed in 1814, at $856, to whom a warrant issued November 24, 1828, and to whom this tract was surveyed by Robert Richards, deputy surveyor, April 25, 1829. He conveyed 207 acres and 63 perches thereof to William Patton, May 2, 1829, for $600-one of the adjoiners being John Kerr, who held "the residue of the tract of which this is a part,"-to whose sons, William and John, this parcel as divided by J. E. Meredith, May 21, 1863, still belongs. The portion of the tract covered by that warrant which Kerr held adjoins the Patton portion on the east, a rectangular parallelogram, 2024 acres, with which John Kerr was first assessed, in 1822, at $150. He and his brothers, * Vide West Franklin. 32 James and William - a trio of bachelors,- remained in possession until their interest in it passed from them by sheriff's sale, being the same which Chambers Orr, sheriff, conveyed to William Wylie, June 23, 1841, to whom the patent was granted March 8, 1844, and which he conveyed to John N. Wylie, the present owner, November 7, 1853, for $1,600, 111 acres and 60 perches of the northern half of which, as surveyed by J. E. Meredith, August 15, 1874, he conveyed to his son, William Wylie, for $200 "and natural love and affection." Adjoining the Kerr-Wylie parcel on the east and the eastern part of "Campbelltown " and the western part of " Toulouse " on the south, is a tract a decagon in shape, 348 acres and 46 perches, on which John Titus, Jr., made an improvement, in May, 1792, and a settlement, in March, 1796, and which was surveyed to him by Deputy Surveyor Ross, July 7, 1801, for which the patent issued to Titus, March 9, 1826, which he conveyed thus: 100 acres to Timothy Titus, November 29, 1826, for $16, in the southwest corner of which is schoolhouse No. 8, of the old Franklin school district; 100 acres to Jenkins Reese, April 7,1829, for $300; 82 acres and 8 perches to Simon Steelsmith, November 9, for $290, and 82 acres and 154 perches to Gabriel P. Loeben, April 28, 1840, for $200. Steelsmith conveyed his parcel to Peter John, June 19, 1830, for $200, but the records do not show how it passed from him. Loeben conveyed 41 acres and 20 perches to Peter Bowser, 1845, for $471.50, and 82 acres, more or less, to William Bowser, November 27, 1848, for $800. The Timothy Titus parcel appears now to be owned by Peter Titus; the Jenkins-Rees parcel by Wilson Bowser, and the Steelsmith-John parcel by Peter Bowser. Adjoining the northern part of the John Titus tract on the east is a hexagonal tract, nearly a rectangular parallelogram, traversed west of its center by Glade run, on the Gapen map, " Elijah Rabb," "410" acres. Thomas Herron made an improvement in the western part of it in August, 1796, and a settlement in November, 1797. It is said that he inadvertently built his cabin first beyond the western line on the Robert McDowell tract, from which he removed when the mistake was discovered, and the question of boundary was settled after a course of litigation. It was surveyed to Herron by Ross, deputy surveyor, as containing 399 acres and 71 perches, June 15, 1802. The patent for it, called "Union," was granted to Herron and McCall, May 16, 1807. They afterward made partition, and McCall conveyed, or released, 150 acres of the western part, traversed by a western tribu5 ()) HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. tary of Glade run, September 3,1829, the whole of "Union" having been included McCall's conveyance to George Clymer McCall, of June 23, 1817, and the latter's subsequent reconveyance. The McCall purpart was included in the sale from McCall's heirs to William F. Johnston, 100 acres of which he conveyed to John Ambrose, April 15, 1852, for $702.32; 90 acres and 104 perches to John Neil, October 21, 1853, for $725.50. Adjoining the main portion of " Union " on the south is the main portion of a tract, a rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise east and west, traversed by Glade run, with "Absalom Woodward" and "400" acres and " 152" perches on the Gapen map, and on the other "Thomas Willard" and " 390a. 52." Thomas Willard, of Woodbury township, Bedford county, Pennsylvania, came on to it about July 22, 1797, and he and John Titus, who was then living on the tract adjoining it on the west, entered into a written agreement, on that day, by which the former agreed to sell to the latter all his right therein for ~60 Pennsylvania currency, of which the latter agreed to pay ~20 in hand and the remainder on May 15, 1798, and to make an actual settlement agreeably to law. Willard immediately made an improvement, which was followed by his actual settlement, December 9, 1797, on which he soon erected a small log gristmill. Ross surveyed this tract to him, as containing 390 acres and 52 perches, June 14, 1802, with which, 1 mill, 2 horses and two cows, he was assessed, in 1805, at $182, and he continued to be assessed with the land, mill and 1 horse until 1810. He and his son John entered into a written agreement, March 27, 1808, by which he transferred to John all his land on Glade run, 390 acres and 53 perches, the mill, the old improvement, all houses and buildings thereon, his horses, cattle and sheep, in consideration whereof John agreed to give his father a house, the site to be chosen by himself, in which to live, to furnish him annually with 25 bushels of wheat, 10 pounds of coffee, 20 pounds of sugar, 400 pounds of pork, the use of and feed for 2 cows, a horse for him and his wife to ride when they wished; John to keep one-third of the land himself, and divide the rest equally between his two sisters Hannah and Sarah when the latter should arrive at the age of 18 years, and give each of them a good bed, 2 cows, a good horse and 2 sheep. John ceased to be assessed with the mill after 1812. The warrant for this tract was issued to McCall and Titus, May 20, 1806, on which another survey was made December 13, and the patent, in pur suance of the above-mentioned sale of Titus' interest, was granted to McCall and Willard March 20, 1818. John B. Mann and Hannah his wife, and Henry Shoutz and Sarah his wife, released their interests in the Willard purpart of this tract, 150 acres, to John Willard, April 9, 1821, for $50; he and Mann and his wife released their interest in 50 acres to Shoutz, the same day, for $50; and Margaret Willard, widow, John Willard, and Shoutz and wife conveyed 100 acres to John Y. Stewart, April 23, 1822, for $325, which he conveyed to Esther Boyd, Sarah, John and William Neil, August 22, 1833; they, by their attorneys-in-fact, to Loeben; he to Henry Fluck, of Bedford county, April 13, 1836; his executors to Christian Bowser, 104 acres and 40 perches, July 4, 1850, for $1,570.26, and he to Harvey Dougherty, 110 acres and 58 perches, for $-; and Bowser to Robert Dougherty, 50 acres, April 5, 1851, for $850. The McCall purpart was sold by Sheriff Robinson on a judgment for 885.66 debt and $7.871 costs in favor of John Titus, 240 acres, of which 14 were cleared, to John Y. Stewart, the date of the deed being March 22, 1822, for $222, which was reconveyed to McCall, who conveyed 100 acres to Abraham Cornman, June 22, 1839, for $500. The other portion was included in the sale to Wmin. F. Johnston, who conveyed 142 acres and 159 perches to Robert Dougherty, July 11, 1850, for $1,001. Adjoining " Union" on the east, and the eastern part of the McCall-Willard tract on the north and east, is an octagonal tract, 359 acres and 106 perches, called " Moran," with a long, narrow, rectangular tongue extending south between the McCall-Willard tract and depreciation lot No. 314, with " Sold Lots" on the Gapen map, on which Andrew Milligan made an improvement, November 10, 1793, and a settlement in January, 1798, and which Ross, deputy surveyor, surveyed to him July 8, 1801. Milligan conveyed "Moran" thus: 203 acres and 70 perches to Archibald Moore, April 2, 1804, for " nine pounds and forty cents," who was assessed, in 1805, with 400 acres at $100, and, the next year, with the same and 1 horse at $120. By his will, dated February 13, and registered February 26, 1852, he devised all his real estate, subject to the maintenance of his son William during the rest of his life, to his son John, who still retains it. Milligan also conveyed 156 acres and 36 perches of "Moran" to John Wylie, April 2, 1804, for ~22 9s. 11d, which having become vested in William Wylie, he devised it by his will dated 22d, and registered March 27, 1858, " 150 acres more or less," on which he then lived to his son William, to whose estatb it belongs. 510 EAST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. Adjoining that southern tongue on the east and the main portion of " Moran" on the south is depreciation lot No. 314, called "Wheatfield," 246TU acres, the patent for which was granted to John Nixon, of Philadelphia, May 28, 1788, who by his will, dated December 4, 1807, devised it to his five children, each one-fifth, who by Charles Willing, their attorney-in-fact, conveyed it, " found to contain 258 acres and 115 perches," to William Montgomery, December 16, 1847, for $1,811, 100 acres and 50 perches of which his executors conveyed to Robert R. Fleming, the present owner, September 10, 1856, for $1,454.53, on which is schoolhouse No. 11-Moore's-of the old Franklin school district, between which and the Allegheny river the writer was caught, while on a tour of official duty, in the heaviest part of the rainstorm that caused the flood of March 17, 1865. The rain ceased and the sun shone cheerfully soon after he entered the schoolroom. This is the place designated for holding the elections in East Franklin township. Adjoining the main portion of "Moran" on the east is the southern part of a tract, nearly a rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise north and south, traversed near its center from west to east by a tributary of Limestone run, with" William Todd, Esq." and "429.58" acres on the Gapen map, but on the other the name of " John Mateer" and the same number of acres. Mrs. Rosannah Mateer made an improvement and settlement on it in 1807, and having married a young Irishman by the name of McCune, much younger than she, who after a while left her and married another woman in Washington county, she was assessed with 400 acres, 1 horse and 1 cow, in 1808, at $131, and with which she continued to be assessed until her death. By her will, drawn by Dr. Samuel McMasters, dated July 31, and registered August 23, 1826, she devised the farm on which she then lived to her son, Samuel Quigley McCune, who transferred his interest to Jonathan H. Sloan. Todd's interest became vested in Archibald McCall, and Mateer's in Jonathan H. Sloan, and the patent for the entire tract was granted to them, as tenants in common, October 29, 1829. Sloan took 193 acres and 3 perches in the partition between them, which McCall conveyed to him July 8, 1830, and which he conveyed to William McCollim, Sr., October 21, 1831, for $637.50, 102 acres and 56 perches of which the latter conveyed to William McCollim, Jr., June, 1850, for $1,000. McCall conveyed his purpart thus: 19 acres and 2 perches to Robert Brown, Frederick Rohrer, Philip Mechling and Simon Turney, trustees of the Protestant Episcopal and Evangelical Lutheran churches of Kittanning, October 20, 1830, for $1; 180 acres and 124 perches to Joseph Tarr, April 5, 1837, for $994. Adjoining the southern part of that McCallSloan tract is a nearly square one, 211 acres, adjoining " Arragon " on the south and the northern part of "Clover Hill" on the west, without boundary lines, but bearing on its face " William Todd, Esq." on the Gapen map, but on the other within boundary lines, "Dan'l Lemon," whose father settled upon it in 1797, but soon after removed to Lexington, Kentucky. It became vested by patent, April 12, 1838, in his son Daniel, who before his death conveyed the principal portion of it to his son Thomas. Purpart " D," 72 acres and 48 perches, was not taken by any of his heirs in the proceedings in partition, but they joined in releasing their respective interests to Joseph Lemmon, January 30, 1865, for $400, that is $50 to each, who afterward conveyed it to his brother Thomas, to whom it is now assessed at $648. Daniel Lemmon agreed to sell 89 acres to Nathaniel Richey, July 11, 1834, who transferred his interest to William Richey, to whom Lemmon conveyed the same, May 27, 1846, for $150, which Richey conveyed to George Rummel June 13, he to John Campbell July 23, 1849, and he to Thomas Ingram, March 11, 1857, for $1,400. Adjoining that Lemmon tract and "Arragon" on the east is a tract in shape a trapezium, traversed southeasterly in a meandering course by Limestone run, which in its southeastern part empties into the Allegheny, so that the southwestern part of it was left in Buffalo when Sugar Creek township was organized in 1806, the mouth of Limestone being the eastern point of the line which then divided these two townships. Much of this tract on the Gapen map is included within boundary lines within which is " Win. Todd, Esq.," but on the other map is included a larger area with "Fred'k Tarr" and "371 -." The warrant for this tract was granted to Todd April 15, 1794, who conveyed it to James Matthews, March 3, 1809, for $1,000, and the latter to Frederick Tarr, April 20, 1811, for $1,856.50, with which, 2 cows and 2 horses he was first assessed that year at $259.50. He erected his sawmill thereon in 1813, which was afterward assessed to his son Joseph. Frederick Tarr resided on this tract when he was appointed and commissioned a justice of the peace for district No. 5, then consisting of Buffalo township, by Governor Snyder, March 26, 1817, and was qualified two months thereafter. He and Samuel Richey entered into an agreement, June 4, 1815, for the sale and purchase of a portion of 511l HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. this tract bounded by a "condition-line marked on the creek [Limestone], on a Spanish oak, an elm and plum tree, to run in a straight line by those three marks across the tract, and bounded by lands of Daniel Lemmon, John Quigley and Christian Shull," for $3 an acre. Richey paid Tarr before the latter's death $372.95, the full amount of the purchase money, but as the vendor did not execute a deed for that parcel before his death, the vendee proved the contract and payments in the court of common pleas in this county, which the court, December 24, 1835, ordered to be recorded as provided by the act of March 31, 1792. That parcel was afterward known as the "Richey Farm." Having died intestate in 1825, on application of the administratrix and administrator the orphans' court, March 18, 1835, ordered 100 acres of the upper end to be sold for the payment of debts, but the records do not show that any report of the sale was made. 228 acres and 17 perches of this tract were in proceedings in partition awarded to Joseph Tarr, December 18, 1837, which he conveyed to Alexander Colwell, August 29, 1838, for $3,000, which the latter agreed to sell to Morris P. Hicks, who conveyed his interest to Henry J. Arnold, October 7, 1854, for $6,000, and Colwell conveyed his interest to Arnold, March 27, 1856, for $4,560. Adjoining that Todd-Matthews-Tarr tract on the east is a hexagonal one on the Lawson & Orr map, 340 acres, the eastern part of which is traversed in a southerly course by the first run above Limestone, which, having been sold for taxes, was conveyed by Samuel Matthews, county treasurer, to William Brown, March 19, 1814, for $105, which Brown conveyed to John Quigley and John Sloan, March 23, for $29, which they conveyed to Christian Shull, of Westmoreland county, September 20, for $40, and which Shull agreed to convey to Frederick Tarr as containing 366 acres more or less, for $1,300, who agreed to convey 200 acres of the central and northern part to William Orr, December 30, 1816, for $1,000, but as the patent was not granted to him in his lifetime, and not to his administrator and administratrix until April 19, 1831, Orr did not get his deed until September 22, then next. He conveyed this parcel to William Zillafrow, March 22, 1833, for $887.621, who conveyed it to his son Abraham, April 6, 1850, for $1. A log schoolhouse about 20 X 24 feet was erected on the left bank of Schoolhouse run, on this parcel, about 1815, among the teachers in which were Joseph Bullman, George Forsyth and Robert Kirby, whose pupils numbered from 35 to 40, some of them living from 11 to 2 miles distant. Those of them known to be now living are John and Montgomery Patton, James S. Quigley, Mrs. Mairgaret Richardson, Mrs. Mary Tarr and Abraham Zillafrow. The present schoolhouse is situated about 60 rods east of the site of that old one, on or near the line between that Orr-Zillafrow parcel and "Montreal." Frederick Tarr and John McAfoos entered into a written agreement, January 21, 1817, for the sale and purchase of 150 acres, as they estimated the quantity, of the southern part of this tract, " to be run agreeably to a line that had been run between William Orr and McAfoos, and to continue up the run on the side near to John Q. Sloan's field, agreeably to a course that Robert Orr run." The terms of that agreement were that Tarr should pay Mrs. McAfoos $500 as her dower, probably in the 110 acres on the Cowanshannock creek, which her husband in the same agreement covenanted to convey to Tarr, and $300 to McAfoos, in all $800. That line between those two parcels extended southwesterly from a point on the eastern line of the tract about 115 rods above the point where it touches the river, across the run nearly the same distance above its mouth to the western line of the tract, the Orr parcel containing 240 and the MeAfoos 100 acres, their names being on their respective parceels on that map. Adjoining that Shull-Tarr tract on the east, in the bend of the Allegheny river, is a tract, 427 acres, surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to Robert Cooper, who conveyed his interest to McCall, and he, having paid the purchase money to the commonwealth, obtained a warrant of acceptance for that survey. But, as he could not obtain a patent for it without the improvement, settlement and residence thereon, required by the act of April 3, 1792, for the purpose of complying with that legal requirement, McCall agreed to convey 150 acres of it to William Little, in consideration whereof the latter gave the former, August 12, 1796, his bond in the penal sum of $500, conditioned for improving, settling and residing on this tract, building thereon a house fit for the habitation of a family, clearing, fencing and cultivating 8 acres thereof before February 12, 1797, and paying "one penny" on the delivery to him of the deed. There are these inscriptions on the Gapen map: "Rob't Cooper, 4271," and "Patented to A. McC. & Wmin. C., 431.96." But on the other map is this inscription: "A. McCall & James Sloan, Jun'r, 4311a.'" It was surveyed to McCall and William Cochran, by Ross, deputy surveyor, May 1, 1805. The patent for this tract called " Montreal" was 512 EAST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. granted to McCall and William Cochran, who had probably bought Little's interest, February 6,1809. They made partition, and McCall conveyed to Cochran the 158 acres, April 4, 1816, when it then adjoined Robert McDowell, William Sloan and the Allegheny river. Cochran released 281 acres and 96 perches to McCall, April 18. Cochran was first assessed with 400 acres of "Montreal," 3 horses and 4 cows, in 1806, at $244; and the next year with two horses and two cows less, at $197. lie conveyed his purpart of "Montreal " to James and John Q. Sloan, October 19, 1819, for $750, which James Sloan, of Buffalo, New York, conveyed to Jonathan H. Sloan, August 1, 1883, for $700, and which the latter conveyed to Robert O. Quigley, April 5, 1872, for $3,135. McCall conveyed 109 acres and 39 perches of his purport of "Montreal " to James Patton, November 18, 1833, for $546.22, and the residue, 169 acres and 79 perches, was included in the sale of McCall's heirs to William F. Johnston, who conveyed the same to John Swigert, November 5, 1855, for $1,525.50, one hundred and three or four acres of which the latter conveyed to Robert O. Campbell, to whose heirs it belongs, April 18, 1860, for $2,500, and 3 acres and 1571 perches to Esther M. Zillafrow, April 13, 1861, for $200. This tract was named after Montreal, meaning Mount Royal, either the island or the city in Canada. Adjoining the Shull-Tarr tract and "Montreal" on the north is a hexagonal tract, "424 " acres, which was surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to Samuel Cooper, November 7, 1794, whose interest was purchased by Archibald McCall, who obtained a warrant of acceptance, July 3, 1795. John Carroll and John Orr having commenced an actual settlement on it, they and McCall, by his attorneyin-fact, Thomas Collins, entered into a written agreement, the terms of which were that they should continue their settlement five years, to furnish proof of it and render the necessary assistance for obtaining the patent, and hle to make them a deed for 80 acres adjoining the land then occupied by them and Christopher Ober, and they to make a deed to McCall for the remainder of the tract, which was surveyed to them and McCall by Ross, deputy surveyor, May 1, 1805. Carroll transferred his interest to Orr, who agreed, August 21, 1815, to convey 100 acres or more off the northeast corner of this tract, including Robert McDonald's improvement, to John Quigley for $1 per acre, the deed for which was made by Robert Orr, Jr., and Samuel C. Orr, John Orr's administrators, June 19, 1827, to John P. Quigley, whose heirs conveyed 20 acres thereof to John A. Quigley, January 10, 1850, for $-. 225 acres and 108 perches of the McCall purpart of this tract were included in the sale by McCall's heirs to William F. Johnston, 75 acres and 30 perches of which he conveyed to Mary Bowser, July 11, 1850, for $175; 67 acres and 20 perches to Charles Merrill, July 10, 1852, for $469.87; 137 acres and 104 perches to Abraham and Leonard Cornman, August 31, 1854, for $903.55. Merrill conveyed 17 acres and 20 perches of his parcel to James S. Cochran, October 2, 1854, for 8700, and the rest to Solomon Hooks; A. Cornman conveyed 87 acres and 20 perches of his parcel to Matthias Bowser, November 22, 1854, for $1,254, which he afterward conveyed to Hooks; and 25 acres and 30 perches of Mary Bowser's parcel was conveyed by J. E. Meredith, who was appointed a trustee by the orphans' court of this county to sell her real estate, to Thomas McConnell, June 7, 1860, for $155, and which the latter conveyed to John Claypoole, Jr., June 2, 1869, for $200. Solomon Hooks conveyed the two parcels which he had purchased from Bowser and Merrill to Jacob Toy, February 1, 1865, for $1. Adjoining that Cooper-McCall-Orr tract on the north is another hexagonal one, 437 acres and 71 perches, surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to John Cooper, Jr., on which Thomas McClymonds settled, probably before 1800. He was assessed with 200 acres of this tract and 4 cattle in 1805, at $82. Robert McKinley also settled about the same time on the other part of it, and was assessed with 200 acres, 2 distilleries, 2 horses and 1 cow in 1805, at $166, and the next year, with the land, 1 distillery and 2 cows, at $170; in 1807 with 100 acres, 1 distillery the last time, 1 horse and 1 cow, at $191, and the last time with the land as unseated, in 1809. The next year William Kiskadden was assessed with 40Q acres of it, 1 horse and 1 cow, at $216, afterward with 100 acres, and the last time with that, or any other quantity thereof, in 1815. This tract was surveyed to McCall and McClymonds by Ross, deputy surveyor, May 5, 1805, and the patent for it, called "Perseverance," was granted to them and McKinley, May 11, 1807. McClymonds probably disposed of his interest either to McCall or McKinley, for the latter conveyed 237 acres, September 20, 1821, for $1 and in consideration of the partition made between him and McCall, to E. J. Du Pont, de Nemons, who was then McCall's assignee, by whom it was reconveyed to McCall, January 17, 1833, and was included in the sale by the latter's heirs to William F. Johnston, who conveyed the northeastern por513 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. tion to John P. or George L. Davis, or both of them, and which was conveyed by Sheriff Sloan to Ross Mechling, September 7,1861, for $610, which the latter conveyed to George Neff, April 4, 1862, for $1,112, and he to Henry Ekis 100 acres, a small portion of which is in Washington township, December 28, 1864, for $1,800. Johnston conveyed 68 acres and 10 perches of "Perseverance" to John Ruffner, April 1, 1856, for $576.75.* Passing southwesterly across "Perseverance" and the McCall-Orr tract to the latter"s western adjoiner, is a nearly rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise from east to west, 420 acres and 49 perches, for which a warrant must have been issued to John Heaton, for on the Gapen map Heaton's name is inscribed on the face of this tract, and on the other map, his and John Quigley's names. It was seated by John Quigley, who was assessed, as a single man, with 400 acres in 1805-6 at $100. Adjoining that Heaton-Quigley tract on the north is one, a pentagon, nearly a rectangular parallelogram, without full boundary lines on the Gapen map, but having "John McKissick" on its face. On the other map the names of James Gibson and John McKissick, and 407 acres and 34 perches. McKissick probably occupied or claimed a right to this tract some time between 1792 and 1796, when Gapen surveyed adjoining tracts. Gibson was assessed with it as unseated as early as, perhaps earlier than, 1805, at $100, to whom the patent for it was granted, April 19, 1820. Dr. James Hutchinson, of Philadelphia, also had an interest in it-perhaps he purchased McKissick's. His heirs and Gibson made partition, and the latter conveyed to the former 207 acres and 34 perches, August 5, 1820, for $1. Gibson conveyed 200 acres and 16 perches of his purpart to Frederick Christman, November 1, 1834, for $400, which he and George F. and John Dodd agreed, December 13, 1847, to sell and purchase for $2,200. Jacob Myers and his wife having acquired an interest therein, they and George F. Dodd conveyed 106 acres to Robert and Sarah Coleman, March 19, 1863, for $1,300, 99 acres and 92 perches of which Dodd conveyed to Joseph Higgenbotham, April 14, 1866, for $1,500. Adjoining that McKissick- Gibson - Hutchinson tract on the north is a tract, 416 acres, a rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise east and west, the northern portion of which is in what is now Washington township, which was surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to Jared Ingersoll, who probably transferred his interest to Dr. James Hutchinson. * Elizabeth and Mary McKinley conveyed 48 acres and 35 perches of this tracet to Solomon Hooks, April 6, 1877, for $1,000. It was settled first by Daniel Henry, who was assessed with 400 acres and 1 cow in 1805-6, at $106. The patent for it was granted to him, March 25, 1824. He and Hutchinson's heirs having made partition, he released their purpart to Randall Hutchinson, November 25, who conveyed an undivided half to Mrs. Margaret Pepper, and the other to Israel P. Hutchinson. Mrs. Pepper's executor conveyed her half to Israel P. Hutchinson, who conveyed thus: 113 acres and 38 perches to John D. Wolf, May 12, 1852, for $900; 184 acres and 81 perches to Robert and William McCutcheon, December 5, 1853, for $1,387.50; 73 acres and 62 perches to William Bowser, December 28, 1855, for $770.57; 108 acres and 140 perches to John McGarvey, January 18, 1853, for $690, which and three other parcels, aggregating 182 acres and 100 perches, the latter conveyed to Thomas McCracken, September 28, 1855. An oil-well was put down here by the Monticello Oil Company. Daniel Henry conveyed his purpart, at least a part of it, to Alexander Duncan, September 13, 1824, who conveyed the same to John P. Davis, April 21, 1834, who conveyed it to David Flanner, who conveyed 38 acres and 60 perches, including ten acres which had been conveyed to him by John Bowser, to William Wiley, April 15, 1840, for $100, which, with 5 acres that David had conveyed to David Flanner, Wiley conveyed to McMcGarvey, June 30, 1841, for $190. Adjoining that Henry-Hutchinson tract on the west is a heptagonal one, 403 acres and 136 perches, on which Andrew McKee settled, probably in 1797, and was assessed with 400 acres, 1 horse and 1 cow in 1805 and 1806, at $131. He, by virtue of his improvement, settlement and residence on it, had a joint interest in it with Francis Johnston. In the partition between them, McKee took the southern part, the chief portion of which is in what is now East Franklin township. In the latter part of 1814, or early in 1815, McKee and John Christman agreed to sell and purchase the former's interest, and the latter built his gristmill on Limestone run, with which, 400 acres, 1 horse and 1 cow he was first assessed in the last-mentioned year, at $307. He built his sawmill five years later. McKee obtained the patent, April 19, 1820, and conveyed to Christman 201 acres and 148 perches, June 27, for $1,100. By his will, dated December 11, 1860, and registered March 13, 1862, he devised his real estate* equally to his daughters. The Johnston purpairt is chiefly in what is now Washington township, of which 78 acres and 70 perches were conveyed to Thos. Laird, April 1, * See Washington township. 514 EAST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. 1834, for $75.48; 101 to Jacob Toy, October 26, 1839, for $505; 50 acres and 150 perches to Oliver Leard, the same day, for $254.70; and 28 acres and 8 perches to John Montgomery for $75. Adjoining the Johnston-McKee-Christman tract on the south is the one, a pentagon, 304 acres, on which John Montgomery made an improvement and settlement, about 1797, with which and 3 cattle he was assessed in 1805, at $72, and the next year, with 2 cattle less, at $66. The patent for this tract was granted to him April 18, 1831, and he conveyed 200 acres of it to Henry and Philip Christman, May 28, for $400, on which they built their giist and saw mills in 1834. Montgomery, by his will, dated March 4, 1832, registered December 4, 1837, devised his real estate to his son John, who conveyed 119 acres of this tract to Jacob Bowser, September 15, 1848, for $1,071. In 1851 Montgomery laid out the town of Montgomeryville, consisting of 17 in-lots and 7 out-lots, 14 of the former 66X165 feet. The out-lots, except 1, contain, respectively, much larger areas. The streets, Washington and Jefferson, are each 30 feet wide. The bearing of the former is south 74 degrees east, and of the latter, north 13 degrees east. The lane is 26 feet wide, with a bearing south 33 degrees west. Union street is 16 feet wide, with a bearing south 3 degrees east. Another street, not named in the plot, between the southern tier of in-lots and the out-lots and the southeastern tier of in-lots, 26 feet wide, with a bearing of north 741 degrees west. The town, surveyed by James Stewart, lies between the parcels conveyed to Jacob Bowser and the Christmans. The conveyances of but few of these lots have as yet been recorded. The prices of the in-lots appear to have varied from $12.50, $17 to $103.33. Montgomery conveyed 4 acres and 122 perches, within the limits of the town, to Johnston Best, April 25, 1867, for $325. Joseph Lemmon conveyed lots Nos. 5 and 7 to Daniel Hufham, February 2, 1866, for $250. A log schoolhouse was built on the site of Montgomeryville, about 1830, one of the teachers in which was Robert Kirby, among whose pupils were Samuel Mateer and James S. Quigley. Adrian postoffice was established here, June 26, 1862; James Hughes, postmaster. Adjoining that Montgomery tract on the west is a heptagonal one, 434 acres and 134 perches, on which James McKee made an improvement and settlement about 1797. He was assessed with 400 acres as a single man, in 1805, at $100, and the next year, as married, and 1 horse and 1 cow, at $121. Philip Anthony conveyed 108 acres to McKee for $400, which he conveyed to Anthony Montgomery, October 17, 1812, for $600, who reconveyed to him 108 acres of the southwestern part, May 20, 1813, for 5 shillings and his bonds for $500. Montgomery conveyed his interest in the entire tract to John Mateer, December 12, 1822, for $900. John Buchanan, who had obtained a warrant for this tract, February 13, 1794, conveyed his interest to the heirs of Francis Johnston, June 18, 1823, for $1. Montgomery conveyed his interest in the 400 acres to John Mateer, December 12, 1822, for $900. The patent was granted to Alexander W. Johnston, executor, in trust for the heirs of Francis Johnston, and to John Mateer, October 18, 1833. Partition having been made between them, Johnston's executor released 18 acres and 71 perches to Mateer, December 26, who released the residue to that executor in trust for the heirs of his testator. The Johnston purpart was conveyed thus: 78 acres and 70 perches to Thomas Leard, April 1, 1834, for $75.48, which Thomas Leard, Jr., conveyed to John Leard, the present owner, August 27, 1867, for $1,270.60; 101 acres to Jacob Toy, February 26, 1829, for $805; 50 acres and 151 perches to Oliver Leard, the same day, for $254.70; and 28 acres and 80 perches to John Montgomery, for $75. Mateer conveyed his purpart to his son Samuel, April 10, 1855, for $3,100, who conveyed it to Jonathan H. Quigley, August 18, 1856, for $3,800, who conveyed it to Esther and Rosannah Quigley, the same day, for the same amount, which they conveyed, as containing 240 acres and 24 perches, to David C. Quigley, June 1, 1857, for $2,800 "and other valuable considerations;" 30 acres and 108 perches of which he conveyed to Jacob Toy, March 15, 1859, for $90.80; and 25 acres to Abraham Frick, October 31, 1860, for $50. Quigley, with whom William H. Leard and James Wylie and and their wives joined, conveyed 109 acres and 9 perches to Robert Ralston, April 6, 1867, for $6,362.50, which, except 50 acres and 50 perches conveyed to Esther Quigley, he conveyed to James Long, April 26, 1873, for $6,000. Adjoining that McKee-Montgomery tract on the west, or rather the southwest, is one, an equilateral, though not a rectangular, parallelogram, 95 acres, to which Andrew Milligan acquired title, on which he probably settled in or about 1797. He was assessed 200 acres and 4 cattle, in 1805 and 1806, at $112, to whom the patent was granted April 4, 1834. He having died intestate, leaving a widow and three children, Rachel Milligan, one of them, conveyed her interest to William M. Lyons, 141 515 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. acres and 41 perches, December 3, 1857, for $1,000 and some other conditions with regard to maintenance, to whom Ezekiel M. and M. M. Lyons, children of Mary Lyons, ne'e Milligan, conveyed their interests, March 13 and July 20, 1858, for $125 each. Adjoining the Milligan tract on the south and west is an octagonal one, 342 acres, on which Fred erick Razor must have either lived, or to which he claimed title, for his name is on it on the Lawson & Orr map, though it does not appear on the assessment list of either Sugar Creek or Franklin township. The warrant for it was granted to James Buchanan February 13, 1794. Buchanan sold his interest to John Milligan September 18, 1808, 102 acres, which his son James sold to Robert Brown, of Kittanning, June 29, 1810, and the remaining 102 acres to Jesse Young April 2, 1806, which Young sold to Thomas Leard, February 15, 1812, for $409, " six hundred weight gross of iron" to be paid in hand to Young, and the residue to Milli gan. This tract was surveyed to Buchanan June 24, 1815. Leard released all his interest in the en tire tract to Brown, December 16, 1817, for $1, and having paid all the purchase money which he had agreed to pay to Young, most of it to Brown, the latter having obtained the patent for the whole tract conveyed to Leard. Brown conveyed 228 acres and 60 perches of it to Benjamin Am brose, May 5, for $500, on which he resided during the rest of his life, and which, by his will dated August 16 and registered August 27, 1847, he de vised to his son John, who was required to pay $1,000 to his executors and receive $400 from them, which was to be his full portion of his father's estate, and release to his brother Franklin the 200 acres elsewhere on which John then re sided. Brown conveyed 113 acres of this tract to Thomas Leard, May 24, 1819, for $450. Adjoining those Milligan and Brown tracts on the north, 399 acres and 146 perches, a southern strip of which is in East Franklin township, the major of which will be noticed elsewhere.* This tract became vested in Jacob Steelsmith, who conveyed the portion in this and a small portion in Washington township, both portions being then in Sugar Creek township, 116 acres and 116 perches, to Simon Steelsmith, April 6, 1818, for $50, who conveyed the same to Michael Fair, November 24, 1821, for $100, and which his administrator, by virtue of a decree of the proper court for the specific performance of a contract made in his intestate's lifetime, conveyed to the present owner, William Fair, April 8, 1867, for $1,000. See Washington township. Adjoining the James McKee, Anthony Mont gomery and Francis Johnston tract, and the Andrew Milligan tract, 95 acres on the south, and "Moran " on the north, is one nearly a rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise east and west, 394 acres, claimed by William Wasson. When Gapen made the survey of its eastern adjoiner to William Todd, the patent for which adjoiner was, as before stated, granted to McCall and Jonathan H. Sloan. This tract, on the Lawson & Orr map, bears the name of "Elizabeth Leasure," on which she probably settled about 1797, and with which and 1 horse she was assessed, in 1805, at $168; and the next year with the land and 1 cow, at $164. She disposed of her interest in this tract by her verbal declarations, which were made late Saturday night, before July 26, 1826, in the pres ence of her brother, Benjamin Leasure, William Montgomery and Archibald Moore, who were then at her house. She expressed a wish to have her will drawn, her brother having gone to Montgom ery's before midnight to get some candles, a pen and ink. Montgomery asked her how she would leave her property. She answered that she would leave "all her effects, land, cattle and all, to her son, Joseph Wasson." Moore asked her if she allowed "Wasson to be her whole (sole) executor." She replied: "To be sure." Leasure and Mont gomery designated Moore to write the will, but there being no paper in the house, the latter went to his own house for it, and his spectacles. On his return, he and the others thought she was too ill to be again disturbed; hence her will was not written. But the statements of her brothers, Mont gomery and Moore, respecting her verbal disposi tion of all her property were sworn to before the register of wills of this county, Philip Mechling, August 5, 1826, who admitted her declarations, thus proven, to probate, as her nuncupative will. Benjamin and John Leasure conveyed their inter est in this tract, which, it is stated in their deed, "was settled by Benjamin and Elizabeth Leasure, to George Leasure, March 18, 1842, for $1 and "natural love and affection." To settle the ques tion of title, George Leasure brought his action of ejectment against Hugh J. Wasson to No. 98 of June term, 1842, in the common pleas of this county, which was tried, and the verdict of the jury, September 20, 1843, was in favor of the plaintiff for the land embraced in the survey made for Wasson, May 6, 1837, lying " north of the dotted line, marked' Richards' line,' on the diagram returned with the verdict." Both parties then agreed to release to each other the portions of the tract according to the finding of the jury; so the 516 EAST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. northern part was ordered and decreed by the court to Leasure and the southern part to Wasson, a warrant having been granted to the latter, March 27, 1837. Leasure conveyed 40 acres of his purpart to Nicholas Best, May 10, 1848, for $200, which his executors conveyed to William Wylie, May 15, 1852, for $800; 126 acres and 50 perches to William Wylie, September 3, 1852, for $615. Wasson conveyed 200 acres of his purpart to Dr. John Gilpin, September 13, 1844, for $600, which the latter conveyed to John and Robert Wasson, December 18, 1848, for the same price. Adjoining that Wasson-Leasure tract on the west and " Union" on the north is one, a rectangular parallelogram, 436 acres and 51 perches lengthwise east and west, on which is the name of David Todd on the Gapen, but of Thomas Milliken on the other map, on which the latter made an improvement in August, 1793, and a settlement July 5, 1797, to whom it was surveyed by Ross, deputy surveyor, June 22, 1802, the patent for which was granted to Milliken, January 28, 1807. Widow Milliken and Thomas Milliken (or Milligan) were assessed with 600 acres, 2 horses and 4 cows in 1805 and 1806, at $344. Thomas Milliken conveyed 200 acres adjoining the east bank of Glade run to his son Andrew,* August 17, 1849, for $1, " and natural love and affection," which he still owns, and by his will, dated June 11, and registered July 5, 1853, devised all the rest of his real estate to his son James as long as he and his sisters Mary and Sarah lived together, but if they separated he was to give them 50 acres along the Kittanning road. James Milliken conveyed 64 acres of his purpart to Thomas Leard, Jr., March 31, 1863, for $2,010. One of the early primitive schoolhouses, said to be the second one within the limits of this township, was located on this tract about 20 rods east the present site of Andrew Milliken's house about 1819, in which Archibald and William Moore, John Reed and George Speers were teachers. Samuel Mateer was a pupil of that school in 1829. Adjoining that Milliken tract on the west is a hexagonal one which was surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to "Joseph Clark," "403.80," as shown by his map, on which Robert McDowell made an improvement and settlement in February, 1798, to whom it was surveyed by Ross, deputy * Who by his will, dated June 28, 1879, registered April 24, 1880, devised to his sons Ross and William the western portion of the original tract where was the old mansion-house in which his father had lived, and 40 acres off the part on the east side of Glade run on which he, the testator, was then residing, which quantity he directed to be equally divided between them, and to his youngest son Andrew the rest of the farm on which he was living at the date of his will, and to his son John the 0 acres which he bought off the Leasure tract. surveyor, June 22, 1802, as containing 429 acres and 38 perches, with 400 acres of which and 1 horse he was assessed, in 1805-6, $185, the increased quantity resulting from a protraction of the survey westward from the northwestern portion of the Gapen survey, making it a tract with nine sides, the patent for which was granted to McDowell, March 16, 1808, one-half of which he conveyed to Thomas Barr, August 17, 1810, " for a valuable consideration." McDowell's last assessment on the Sugar Creek township list was in 1809, and Barr was thereafter assessed with 400 acres until 1818. Two hundred and seventy-eight acres and 80 perches of this tract having become vested in Archibald McCall, descended to his heirs, who, by Chapman Biddle, their attorney-in-fact, conveyed the same and two other parcels of other tracts to Reuben Burghman, Peter Graff and Jacob Painter, who conveyed 89 acres to John Shearer, August 1, 1859, for $834. Adjoining that Clarke-McDowell tract on the west is, on the Gapen map, an octagonal one, nearly a parallelogram, which Gapen, deputy surveyor, surveyed to " Robert Williby," August 25, 1794, as containing 421 acres and 136 perches, on which Williby made an improvement, which he conveyed toArchibald McCall, who paid the purchase money to the court and obtained a warrant of acceptance, July 3, 1795, on which John McDowell made an improvement and settlement, March 1, 1796, to whom it was surveyed by Ross, deputy surveyor, May 5, 1801, as a decagon containing 439 acres and 145 perches, about one-fourth of which is in what is now West Franklin township, with 400 acres of which, 1 horse and 2 cows he was assessed in 1805-6 at $232. His house was the place designated for holding elections in Buffalo township from 1803 till 1811. McCall conveyed this tract to his son, George A. McCall, June 22, 1835, for $500, who for the same consideration conveyed it to McDowell, September 26, by A. McCall, his attorney, to whom the patent was granted May 27, 1837, who conveyed 100 acres and 126 perches to John Moore, May 20, 1842, for $400; 150 acres of it to Matthew McDowell, May 18, 1848, for $150, which the former had conveyed to Thomas Barr, May 10, 1816, and which the latter reconveyed, May 18, 1848, for $150, and 150 acres same day to James McDowell for $150, partly in West Franklin township, in which is his sawmill on Long run. Matthew conveyed 5 acres of his parcel to Andrew Messenheimer, August 24, 1853, for $90; 13 acres and 150 perches to Abram Young, June 3, 1854, for $408, and 71 acres and 108 517 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. finale of which was, that at the request of the Indians and with the approbation of Col. Mercer, Capt. Croghanii sent a speech by two Wyandot to Venango, in which it was asserted, among other things, that "the English are not come here to war with the Indians, but to carry on trade and commerce with all nations of them, as far as the sun-setting," and sent along with the speech twelve fathoms of white wampum. Indians of the several nations there represented sent their speeches to enforce Croghlian's. At the beginning of the Revolutionary War Col. Mercer left a large medical practice and sided with the colonists. On June 5, 1776, he was appointed a brigadier-general. "It is not improbable," says Reed, "that his services were solicited by Washington himself," whose confidence he enjoyed beyond most of his fellow-officers, "as it appears from his correspondence that the Commander-in-chief repaired to Philadelphia to concert with Congress plans for the organization of the army, and that he remniained there until the day after the date of his commission, and those of two others of his most valued friends.* General Mercer soon left, and forever, his peaceful home, his young wife and children, and joined the army at New York."' General Mercer afterward won distinction, especially in the battles of Trenton and Princeton. While at Bristol, Pa., his quarters were at Mr. Keith's, a little out of town. It is related that when the American army marched to McConkey's Ferry, he told Mrs. Keith that he had dreamed the previous night that he had been attacked and overpowered by a huge black bear. In the battle of Princeton hlie commanded the van of the American army. While exerting the utmost valor and activity his horse was killed under him. Being thus dismounted hlie was surrounded by some British soldiers, with whom, when they refused to give quarter, hlie fought desperately until hlie was completely overpowered. After stabbing him with their bayonets and inflicting several blows on his head with the butt ends of their muskets they left him, under the impression that he was dead, on the field, whenice hlie was taken to the house of Thomas Clark, some of whose kindred now reside at Princeton. Says Barber in his Historical Collections of New Jersey: "Mr. Joseph Clark states that General Mercer was knocked down about fifty yards from his barn, and after the battle, was assisted by his two aids into the house of Thomas Clark, a * Joseph Reed, adjutant-general, and Stephen Moylan, colonel. new house about one and a quarter miles from the college." Hle was nursed by Miss Sarah Clark and a colored servant. "Nor was his dying bed," says Reed, "a bed of utter desolation. The house whither the wounded soldier was carried was tenanted during that day by two delicate females, who, wearing the garb and professing the principles of peace, were too brave to fly from the field of battle or the bed of death. While the conflict raged around their humble dwelling those tender, helpless women lost no confidence in the protection which the God of innocence rarely withholds-and when the dying warrior was brought to their threshold and left beneath their roof, their ministering charities were ready to soothe his solitary anguish and smnooth the passage to the grave. One of these American women of better times has died near Princeton within the last few months (1840), aged upward of ninety years. It was part of her household story that she had watched the deathbed of a soldier of the Revolution." General Mercer died January 12, in the arms of Major George Lewis, a nephew of General Washington, who was commissioned by his uncle to watch over him. His mangled corpse was removed under a military escort to Philadelphia, and there exposed in the Coffee House, with the design of exciting the indignation of the people. Though a lion in battle he was uncommonly placid, and almost diffident in private life. That he should thus perish at the age of fifty-six sent a thrill of anguish and indignation through every patriotic American heart. Gen. Wilkinson in his Memories remarks: " In Gen. Mercer, we lost at Princeton a chief who, for education, disposition and patriotism, was second to no man but the Conmander-in-chief, and was qualified to fill the highest trusts of the country." It had been erroneously stated that Gen. Mercer was bayoneted after having surrounded. That statement is corrected in Custis' "Recollections of Washington." When Major Lewis expressed the extreme indignation which prevailed in the American army at that treatment, the magnanimous Mercer observed: The tale which you have heard, George, is untrue. My death is owing to myself. I was on foot endeavoring to rally my men2 who had given way before the superior discipline of the enemy, when I was brought to the ground by a blow from a musket. At the same moment the enemy discovered my rank, exulted in their having taken a rebel general, as they termed me, and bid me ask for quarters. I felt that I deserved not so opprobrious an epithet, and determined to die as I had lived, an honored soldier in a just and HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. perches to Van Buren 3Bowser and Samuel Stambaugh, October 31, 1865, at $1,380. Adjoining that Williby-McCall-McDowell tract on the north is the one surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to "David Bead," " 402.8" acres, a rectangular parallelogram, traversed from its northeastern corner in a southerly meandering course by Long run, as it appears on the Gapen map, about one-fourth of which is in what is now West Franklin township, but on the other map, " samuel Robinson," " 402a," to which Robinson acquired an inchoate title by an early improvement and settlement, with 400 acres of which he was assessed in 1805 at $100, and the next year, with the land and 1 horse, at $115. He conveyed 150 acres, " including his improvement on the waters of Long run," to William McAdoo, December 21, 1812, for $100, which the latter conveyed to Conrad Helm, November 18, 1814, for $300. A portion of this tract became invested in McCall to whom the patent was granted, October 2, 1833, and was included in the sale from his heirs to William F. Johnston, who conveyed 54 acres and 20 perches of it to Helm, who, by his will, dated April 5, 1862, and registered April 7, 1864, devised the same and the parcel which he had purchased from McAdoo to his son George, to whom the two parcels, or the major part of them, still belong. Adjoining that McCall-Robinson tract on the east is one not fully defined on the Gapen map, with the name of " Wm. Williby," but on the other a rectangular parallelogram, 399- acres, with the name of " Wm. Cowan," who made an improvement and settlement on it, May 6,1796, and to whom it was surveyed by Ross, deputy surveyor, June 14, 1802, which Jacob Mechling, sheriff, sold on judgment in favor of John Cowan, Sr., for $2,000 debt, and $9.41- costs, to whom he conveyed it, September 17, 1827, for $1,000, to whom the patent was granted August 24, 1829, who, by his will, dated May 24, and registered December 16, 1841, devised his mansion-house and 100 acres to his son-in-law, William Porterfield, which the latter conveyed to John CQwan, Jr., January 16, 1845, for $100, on which the latter opened his store. John Cowan, Sr., conveyed 53 acres and 30 perches to Philip Cowan, August 23, 1840, for $2, in a meadow of which was the frame schoolhouse, No. 9, of the Franklin district, in which John Cowan was the first teacher, and which was not so easily accessible as a temple of knowledge should be. The present schoolhouse is of brick and is on a more eligible site, on the west side of the public road from Kittanning to Middlesex. Philip Cowan conveyed this parcel, reserving that schoolhouse lot (No. 9), to Nicholas Cloak, April 4, 1865, for $3,100. John Cowan, Sr., conveyed 97 acres and 6 perches of the eastern or northeastern part of this tract to John Cowan, Jr., August 23, 1831, for $1, which he conveyed to William McClatchey, November 20, 1848, for $1,600, along the eastern border of which hlie laid out the town of Middlesex, and 16 lots were surveyed by J. E. Meredith, May 15, 1849, each 18X4 rods, 8 on each side of the public road, called Main street, 60 feet wide, with a bearing north degree west. Irwin street is of the same width with a bearing south 881 degrees west. The alleys are 161 feet wide, one of which intersects Main street between lots Nos. 5 and 6, and Nos. 12 and 13. The Cowansville postoffice, John Cowan, postmaster, was established here August 8, 1849. The prices for which some of the lots in Middlesex sold appear in the following conveyances: McClatchey to Samuel F. Crookshanks, lots Nos. 6 and 7, June 16, 1849, for $100; to William H. Foster, No. 4, April 1, 1851, for $50, and Foster to John T. Ehrenfeld, May 11, 1867, for $1,000; to A. H. McKee, April 3, 1855, No. 11 for $400; to Rev. David Hall, lots Nos. 21 and 22, November 9, 1864, for $1,175; to Charlotte Thompson, November 16, No. -, for $50; to Joseph Rumbaugh, November 17, Nos. 22, 24, for $55; to James Foreman, August 13, 1856, Nos. 2, 3, 12, for $2,500, which he conveyed to Ignatius Dougan and Wmin. H. H. Piper; September 5, 1858, for $-, and they to James T. Wilson, July 11, 1862, for $2,000; to A. H. McKee, No. 10, July 21, 1862, for $100. The site of Middlesex and the circumjacent ter ritory very early became a prominent point by the organization of the Union Presbyterian church here by the Presbytery of Erie, in 1801, in this then so sparsely inhabited region (about one settler to every 640 acres) that many of the men, women and children who first attended its services had to travel from four to seven miles, and afoot for want of passable roads. Those people were generally well clothed, and the fashions were then so durable that their articles of clothing were worn out before they were abandoned. Very little can be learned respecting the earliest membership of this church, save that the number was small, but they were zealous in their efforts to plant Presbyterianism in this part of the wilderness. The first edifice, log, with chestnut pulpit and puncheon floor, must have been soon after erected on the five-acre parcel of land, within the limits of the 110 acres and 77 perches of the John Cowan tract, conveyed by him to Wmin. Bell, and 518 EAST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. which after divers transfers now belongs to James H. Dickey, which John Cowan, Sr., probably gave to the church, to which it still belongs, and on which is the cemetery, at the eastern terminus of Irwin street. That edifice must have been erected in the latter part of 1801, or in the fore part of 1802, for Jacob Mechling, one of the commissioners heretofore mentioned, who were appointed to examine sites for public buildings in this and some other counties,* says in his diary, on Sunday, June 6, 1802: "Proceeded toward Butler county, 7 miles" (from Kittanning) "to Boyd's meetinghouse-heard him preach.". That was then called "Boyd's Upper Meeting-House," and was so called in a certain road petition as late as 1845. The cemetery on that five-acre parcel is nearly coeval with the church, and the first person buried in it was William McKee. The presbytery met, June 16,'1802, within the bounds of Union congregation, and ordained and installed Rev. John Boyd as pastor.* He, moderator, and James Barr, Charles McClatchey, William Noble and Joseph Shields, elders, constituted the first session. During Mr. Boyd's pastorate, onehalf time, nearly of eight years, till April 17, 1810, this church prospered. After he left, the pulpit was supplied for about a year by Rev. Robert Lee, and was thereafter vacant four years. The next pastor was Rev. John Redick, who, having been licensed by the Presbytery of Erie, at Meadville, October 20, 1813, was ordained and installed by the same presbytery pastor of the Slate Lick and Union churches, September 28, 1815, at Slate Lick, which he served alternately until the autumn of 1848, when he resigned his charge on account of his infirmities, the membership of Union church having varied during his pastorate from 50 to 100. The annual salary paid him by each church was $150. Rev. George Cairns was ordained and served as pastor of Union church about two years. After a vacancy of three years, Rev. David Hall, D.D., was ordained here, July 20, 1856, as pastor of both Union and the Brady's Bend churches, during whose pastorate the membership of Union church was from 100 to 150. Ile was dismissed at his own request in November, 1866. The vacancy continued until July 1, 1868, when Rev. John M. Jones became the pastor, whole time. His pastorate closed October 1, 1873. Then ensued another vacancy until April 1, 1876, when the present pastor, Rev. W. J. Wilson, entered upon his pastoral duties, and was ordained here June 14, and became * Vide Freeport, Kittanning borough. * Vide South Buffldo. the pastor also of the Midway church in Sugar Creek township, one-half time to each. The present number of members is 74*; Sabbath-school scholars, 50. A weekly prayer-meeting and a woman's missionary society are also connected with this church. This church was incorporated by the decree of the court of common pleas of this county, June 7, 1871, as "the Union Presbyterian congregation of Middlesex, composed of the pew-holders of the Union Presbyterian Church." The old log edifice continued to be used until about 1820, when a frame addition was annexed to its eastern end, making the length about 70 feet, with the pulpit on the south side. That edifice was crushed by a heavy fall of snow on the roof on New Year's night, 1840. A frame edifice, 60X40 feet, with a ceiling 12 feet high, was erected the next summer, which cost $1,400. The congregation, realizing the necessity of a new edifice, prepared in the summer of 1873 for its erection on the lot fronting Main street on the west and Irwin street on the north, and adjoining the five-acre parcel on which the old ones were located, the same lot which McClatchey conveyed to William Fair, which, after several transfers, became vested in John Fair, who conveyed it to C. A. Foster, John and Thomas Leard, Thomas V. McKee, William Patton and William Wylie, trustees, February 3, 1873, for $330, on which a two-story frame edifice was afterward erected, which was burned February -, 1875. The present two-story frame one was erected on the same site the next summer, at a cost of $4,000, which was soon after dedicated by Rev. Thomas D. Ewing. The second schoolhouse, a primitive log one, said to be the first in this part of East Franklin township, was situated a few rods west of the old log Union church edifice, near the line between the tracts surveyed to John and William Cowan, in which the first teacher was James Hannegan. Among the pupils who attended school there were Andrew Milliken and Philip Templeton. It was torn down by some persons to whom it was obnoxious. Another log schoolhouse, in which a subscription school was taught, was erected on the Dickey parcel of the John Cowan tract, about thirty rods southeasterly from the preceding one, in which the teachers were Miss Martha Irwin, Robert Kirby, James McDowell and John Cowan. Among the surviving pupils that have come to the writer's knowledge is Mrs. Samuel Rumbaugh. After Franklin township was districted under the present school system, the children of Middlesex and vicinity attended the above-mentioned * Afterward increased to 85. 519 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. school No. 9, in Philip Cowan's meadow, until the present brick house was erected near the Kittanning road. Select schools in which the Greek and Latin languages and some of the higher English branches, besides the common ones, were taught, have been from time to time liberally patronized, of which Rev. William F. Ewing was one of the principals. About seventy rods north of Middlesex, at the crossroads, is the Rich Hill United Presbyterian church, which was organized as an associate church about 1811, according to the recollection of some old residents, for the records were destroyed by the burning of the house in which they were kept. Its first pastor was Rev. John Dickey, a native of the county of Derry, Ireland, who was partly educated at Dublin, and partly at Glasgow, and who continued to be its pastor until his death, in 1849. The first heads of families belonging to this church were William Blaney, John Cowan, Archibald Dickey, Stewart Henry, Thomas Herron, Thomas Milliken, Robert Orr, Sr., John Y. Stewart, James Summerville, Philip Templeton, Sr., John Young, and others, whose names the writer has not ascertained, who occupied portions of an area of about ten miles square. Its earliest members of session were Robert Orr, Sr., and Philip Templeton, Sr. Thomas Milliken and John Y. Stewart are known to have been chosen at the second election, and William Dickey and William MceGarvey, at the third election, in 1836. The second pastor was Rev. William Smith, who was ordained in 1849, and released in 1859. Moses Dickey, James Henry, David McGarvey and John Templeton were chosen members of session at the fourth election, in 1851. The third pastor was Rev. Thomas M. Seaton, who was ordained in 1861 and released in 1870. John Cowan, James H. Dickey, Thomas Herron and George Pence were chosen members of session at the fifth election, in 1861, all of whom and William McGarvey, chosen at the third, and James Henry and John Templeton, chosen at the fourth election, still survive. The present pastor, Rev. John L. Grone, was ordained in 1872. The first religious services of this congregation were conducted by itinerant preachers in the barn of Philip Templeton, Sr. After awhile a tent was erected on the site of the present burying-ground, from which the minister spoke, the congregation being seated around on logs. The first church edifice, erected here in 1820, was of hewn logs, about 32X28 feet, which was used until 1849, when the present frame one was erected. The largest membership of the Rich Hill church was 109 in 1851. In 1876 it is 69; Sabbath-school scholars, 39. The third schoolhouse in the immediate vicinity of what is now Middlesex, a primitive log one, was located near Rich Hill church, in the latter part of the second decade of this century, in which John Dickey was the first teacher. He was a theological student, and returned to Ireland and became a preacher. The next teacher in this house was T. Stewart, during whose term of teaching it was crushed by some of the pupils mounting the roof. James Spear afterward opened a school in the Union Presbyterian church. The next schoolhouse hereabouts was the one heretofore mentioned, near the spring on the Dickey parcel of the John Cowan tract. The Rich Hill United Presbyterian church edifice is situated on the southern part of the tract for which a patent was granted to David Johnston, February 4, 1815, who conveyed 101 acres and 140 perches of it,. mostly in what is now Sugar Creek township, to Rev. John Dickey, December 6, for $335, of which the latter gave to the congregation the lot used for church purposes. Mrs. Nancy Cowan by her will, dated May 29 and registered July 24, 1872, bequeathed $50 to this church. The population of Franklin township, in 1840, was 1,713. In 1850: white, 2,405; colored, 5. In 1860: white, 2,8 77; colored, 10. The population of East Franklin, in 1870, was: white, 1,448; colored, 3; native, 1,391; foreign, 60. The number of taxables, in 1876, is 398. According to the mercantile appraiser's list for 1876 there are 4 merchants in the fourteenth and one in the thirteenth class in this township. Schools in 1876-Whole number, 10; average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 8; female teachers, 2; average salaries of male teachers per month, $33.18; female teachers, $31.88; male scholars, 235; female scholars, 234; average number attending school, 353; cost per month, 75 cents; tax levied for school and building purposes, $3,000; received from state appropriation, $343.17; from taxes, etc., $2,961.83; cost of schoolhouses, $1,054; paid for teachers' wages, $1,645.38; paid for fuel, $497.37. All' the schoolhouses in East Franklin school district are now substantial brick ones. The school statistics for Franklin township, in 1860, are-Whole number schools, 16; average number months taught, 4; male teachers, 13; female teachers, 3; average salaries of male teachers per month, $17.61; average salaries of female teachers, $17.66; male scholars, 414; female scholars, 370; average number attending school, 520 EAST FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP. 476; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 42 cents; amount levied for school purposes, *1,675.36; amount levied for building purposes, $358.45; received from state appropriation, $211.46; received from collectors, $1,768.81; cost of instruction, $1,128; fuel, etc., $188; cost of schoolhouses, $382. The occupations, agricultural exclusive, of the people of East Franklin, in 1876, were: Laborers, 57; carpenters, 10; merchants, 7; miners, 6; teachers, 5; blacksmiths, 4; sawyers, 4; millers, 3; masons, 3; teamsters, 3; tenants, 3; ministers, 2; painters, 2; clerk, 1; cropper, 1; grocer, 1; cripple, 1; daguerreotypist, 1; innkeeper, 1; gunsmith, 1; ferryman, 1; physician, 1; shoemaker, 1; speculator, 1; wagonmaker, 1. The vote of East Franklin township, February 28, 1873, stood 101 against and 61 for granting licenses to sell intoxicating liquors. The geological features: The surface rocks consist of lower barrens, lower productives and the Pottsville conglomerate. A large quantity of Freeport coal is represented, but in many places is obscure by reason of its reduced size. The Freeport limestone is more easily recognized than the coalbed. Along Glade run, however, the upper and lower Freeport coalbeds are large. The Johnstown cement is also here represented, but of little value, except as means for identification. The ferriferous limestone is along the river front through the entire length of the township, and its ore is on top. The ore has been extensively worked by the Allegheny, American and Monticello furnaces. The Pottsville conglomerate is from 60 to 75 feet thick. The river gravel, including rounded pebbles of gneiss and granite, are found on the slopes near the old Allegheny furnace, 100 feet or more above the present river channel. An ancient island in the river can be distinctly traced by means of this gravel and sand depoist, 20 feet thick above Loeben Tarr's house, in the vicinity of the old Allegheny furnace. The Freeport sandstone is very prominent along the river front in this township. It makes a line of cliffs 40 feet high, opposite Kittanning. The upper Kittanning coal appears directly below it, but is small and unaccompanied by the Johnstown cement, and the middle Kittanning coal is not seen at all in this vicinity. The interval between the lower Kittanning coal and the ferriferous limestone undergoes some instructive changes in this locality. At Loeben Tarr's the distance between the two is 13 feet. On the hill, directly below Judge Boggs' residence, the same interval is 50 feet, while opposite, at Ross Reynolds' quarries, not more than 30 feet intervene between the two. The Clarion coal, one foot thick, is represented at the foot of the hill, where the Worthington road begins to ascend toward the west. Structure.-An anticlinal axis runs lengthwise through the township, which it enters near Montgomeryville and leaves in the neighborhood of Center Hill. The southeast dip from the Craigsville axis is sharply felt near Middlesex in the northwest corner of the township.-Platt. The following sections are from Rogers' Geology of Pennsylvania: At Allegheny Furnace - top of the hill - shales, 70 feet; coal, 3 feet; unknown, probably shales, 42 feet; Elk lick coal, pure coke vein, 4 feet; unknown, 40 feet; upper Freeport coal, 21 feet; Freeport limestone, nodular iron ore, 1 foot; unknown strata, containing o6litic (egg-shaped) iron ore, 80 feet; lower Freeport coal, 3 feet; shale, limestone in nodules; brown and black shale, with nodular ore, 55 feet; Kittanning coal, 3 feet; shale, with nodular ore, 27 feet; ferriferous limestone, overlaid by ore, from 30 to to 40 inches thick, 14 feet; brown and blue shales, with argillaceous ore, 40 feet; Clarion coal, impure, 3 feet, is 135 feet above the Allegheny river. The Tionesta or Sharon coal is said to have been found. A little farther down the river: Shale; upper Freeport coal; shale, 10 feet; Freeport limestone, 6 feet; shale and yellow sandstone with vegetable remains, 40 to 50 feet; blue shale in the river, 18 feet. The Franklin election district and Franklin township were of course named after Benjamin Franklin, whose illustrious public life is so familiar to the generality of readers, that it is superfluous to give anything of his history in this connection. 521 CHAPTER XXIV. SUGAR CREEK. A Small Remnant of the Parent Township- Original Owners - Conveyances- Ezekiel Lewis and other Pioneers - The Middlesex Presbyterian Church - St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church - The Donation Lands - Lutheran Church- Robert Orr, Sr. -Orrsville - Damages of the Tornado of 1860 - Sugar Creek and Philips burg Ferry Company - Templeton Oilwell - Census and School Statistics- Geology. THE present township of Sugar Creek is a com paratively small remnant of the parent one, left after organizing from what was its original territory, besides the portions of it included in East and West Franklin, 4 townships, 2 boroughs and I city. In the southeastern part is the tract, nearly a square, 356 acres and 147 perches, which appears from the Gapen map to have been claimed by Samuel Kincaide, but the other map shows it to have been the Michael Red tract, about one-half of which is in what is now Washington township. Red probably settled on it the latter part of the last century. He was assessed, in 1805, with 400 acres, 1 horse and 2 cows, at $142, and the next year, with 300 acres and 4 cattle, at $122, and with 2 distilleries in 1812. Red's heirs conveyed it as containing 360 acres to Daniel Red, December 4, 1816, for $1,000. Chambers Orr, sheriff, conveyed it as containing 356 acres to Thomas R. McMillen, September 23, 1840, for $100, of which 130 acres were then cleared, and on which were a stone dwelling-house, a square log barn, stillhouse and other buildings, a meadow, and apple and peachorchards. McMillen conveyed it to Patrick Red, December 3, 1851, for $5, who by his will dated March 15, and registered June 6, 1854, devised it to his son Charles, the present owner. Adjoining that Red tract on the north is a tract, a rectangular parallelogram, 386 acres and 136 perches, partly in Washington township, to which Robert Beaty once had a claim, and on which David Henry settled about 1797, with 300 acres of which, 2 horses and 2 cows, he was assessed in 1805 and 1806 at $212, and which was surveyed to him by Ross, deputy surveyor, March 5, 1805. He agreed to convey 162 acres and 136 perches of the northwestern portion of which were surveyed in his lifetime to his son, Stewart Henry, to whom Alexander and Nathaniel Henry, Mrs. Margaret Colwell and the other heirs released that parcel October 8, 1838. He and his son-in-law, James Hutchison, entered into a written agreement March 27, 1850, for the sale and purchase of 100 acres in consideration of the vendor's proper maintenance during the rest of his life, in pursuance of which the vendee removed thither and entered upon the due performance of his part of the agreement May 6, having given his bond in the penal sum of $2,400 conditioned on such performance. In six weeks and four days thereafter the vendor died. The vendee subsequently presented his petition to the orphans' court of this county for the specific performance of that contract, which was the first case of the kind in which the writer was concerned after his admission to the bar. On due proof of the contract and compliance therewith on the part of the vendee, the court ordered and decreed the specific performance thereof April 3, 1851, and the vendor's administrator accordingly executed a deed to the vendee. The latter conveyed 50 acres, reserving a strip of the Summit coal-vein in the northeast corner to Sarah Buyers and John E. Gilchrist, June 12, 1858, for $700, 120 acres and the above-mentioned strip of coal to Catherine Olkus, February 6, 1865, for $3,250, and all his interest in that strip of coal to Joseph Sutton, March 1, for $75. The vendor's administrator, Stewart Henry, Jr., by order of the proper court, conveyed the remaining 68 acres of his father's land to Hutchison, September 15, 1851, for $619.65. The other portion of the David Henry tract, 200 acres, was conveyed by James Mechling, sheriff, in proceedings in partition, to Alexander Colwell, Alexander Henry and Philip Mechling, June 18, 1829, for $420, which they conveyed to Samuel Templeton, Jr., March 9, 1830, for $600. Adjoining the Beaty-Henry tract on the north is a rectangular one, extending north to the line between the depreciation and donation lands, the major portion of which is in what is now Washington township, where it will be further noticed. Adjoining it on the west and the last-mentioned line on the north is a hexagonal one, 296- acres, on which John Crawford was the first settler, and with 100 acres of which he was assessed in 1805 at $40, and SUGAR CREEK TOWNSHIP. the next year with the same and 1 horse and 1 cow at $66; to whom the patent for the entire tract was granted December 15, 1826, which he conveyed thus: To Robert G. Crawford, 169 acres and 146 perches, October 20, 1828, for $100, of which the latter conveyed 20 acres and 25 perches to Joseph Thomas, July 13, 1857, for $320; to Andrew Shriver, 129 acres, same day as to Robert G. Crawford, for $-, which Shriver conveyed to Josiah Woodroe, April 13,1839, which Woodroe conveyed to Sylvanus S. White, April 5, 1841, and which White conveyed to Solomon Wolf, November 8, 1853, for $1,300. West of the northern and north and northwest of the southern part of that Crawford tract is an irregularly shaped one, 390 acres and 97 perches, at one time claimed by John Blain, on which Ezekiel Lewis made an improvement in March, 1793, and a settlement in April, 1797, surveyed by Ross, April 23, 1802, to whom the warrant was granted March 18, 1805, and the patent September 5, 1809, in which it is called "Lewisburgh," for $71.78. He was assessed with 20.0 acres, 3 horses and 1 cow, in 1805, at $176, and the next year with the same, less 1 horse, at $156. Lewis conveyed " Lewisburgh" thus: To Andrew Blair, 190 acres and 97 perches of the eastern part, December 8, 1810, for $1, 187 acres of which Joseph Brown, sheriff, sold on judgment in favor of Andrew Kelly against Blair-debt $118, costs $24-to William Ayres, and conveyed the same to him, September 17, 1816, for $167, who conveyed the same to George and William Byers, December 29, 1819, for $400, Blair having agreed to sell it to George Byers, in April; 1811, for $760. Adam A. Byers conveyed 90 acres and 114 perches to Joseph Thomas, February 11, 1850, for $1,050. George Byers having died intestate, William Dickey, his administrator, by order of the orphans' court, in proceedings in partition, conveyed 108 acres of this parcel of " Lewisburgh" to John Moore, August 28, 1856, for $1,730.16, which the latter conveyed to Richard Meldrun, September 6, 1864, for $2,160. Lewis conveyed 200 acres, the western part of " Lewisburgh," to William Lewis, his son, and Peter Pence, his son-in-law, April 17, 1832, for $400 and "natural love and affection," which they reconveyed to him, March 6, 1833; 125 or 130 acres of which the latter conveyed to Pence, April 5, 1837, for $800. Pence agreed to convey 3 acres, "a rectangular triangle," on the southwest side of the Kittanning and Fairview road, to James Witherow, September 7, 1846, which the latter agreed to sell to Samuel Caldwell, March 13, 1847, for $175, which, with four more acres, was included in Pence's deed to Caldwell for $25. Pence conveyed 861 acres to Platt Sutton for $2,600, and 33- acres to Joseph Thomas, March 3, 1865, for $1,000. There was a schoolhouse as early as 1829 in the northeastern portion of " Lewisburgh," near the intersection of the old Butler and Watterson Ferry road and the one branching northerly from the Kittanning and Brady's Bend road, about 12 miles from the town of Middlesex, among the earliest teachers in which were Matthew Brown and Cyrus Kilgore. Ezekiel Lewis was a citizen of Westmoreland county, and, in the early part of the summer of 1781, volunteered to serve in Captain Campbell's company of cavalry, which constituted a part of Captain Robert Orr's command, which participated in Col. Archibald Lochery's disastrous expedition down the Ohio to aid Gen. George Rogers Clark. Lewis was, among others, captured by the Indians at the mouth of an inlet, since called Lochery's creek, about ten miles below the mouth of the Miami river. Ile and his comrades, with their horses, were about landing from their boats to cook their breakfasts on shore, when they encountered a shower of bullets from a large force of Indians lying in ambush. The men shielded themselves as far as they could by placing themselves behind their horses, which were shot down. A number of the men were killed and others wounded, so they were forced to surrender. After being removed to the river-bank, several were killed. Lewis may have avoided the fate by the dark color of his hair, for the Indians spared none with red hair. He ran the gantlet so swiftly that the Indians could not hit him. They were then taken to Montreal, Canada, and taken over in squads and sold to the English. They suffered so severely from hunger while on their way, that when the Indians killed and dressed a deer and cooked the venison with pieces of its unwashed entrails, they relished the meal thus prepared. The squaws, when the Indians were intoxicated with whisky, hid the prisoners to prevent their being killed. After Lewis was sold to the English, he was clothed and well fed. He and his comrades became weary, so he and four of them escaped, crossed the St. Lawrence and landed near a camp where the Indians were jolly, dancing around their fire. Lewis and his companions having discovered a young bull which the Indians had tied to a tree, intending, no doubt, to feast on him the next day, dispatched him, cut out the best of the meat, took it with them and concealed themselves all the next day, and after traveling all night they were sur523 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. prised to find themselves in the morning at the point whence they had started. It so happened because clouds obscured the star which they had learned to follow as a guide. After seventeen days' weary traveling they reached a settlement and finally their homes. It is not improbable that Lewis subsequently rendered other military services during the Indian troubles. In March, 1793, he came west of the Alleghen.y, made an extensive examination of the timber-land in what is now East Franklin township, especially near that part of " Hop Yard" now owned by John Brown, and slept, one night, under a white oak which stood west of the present Kittanning and Butler turnpike road, with a rock for his pillow; but, not liking what he deemed the scantiness of timber, lihe traveled northward and selected the tract afterward called " Lewisburgh." He was very active until his death, which occurred in April, 1850, aged 95 years and 2 months, not long before which the writer saw him at Kittanning, looking quite hale and hearty. Adjoining the above-mentioned John Crawford tract on the south and the.David Henry one on the west, is one, a rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise from north to south, but partly defined on the Gapen map, but having the name of John Craig inscribed on it, but which was settled by Philip Templeton in March, 1796, to whom it was surveyed as containing 391 acres and 100 perches by Ross, deputy surveyor, April 23, 1802, and to whom the patent was granted January 30, 1805, in which year he was assessed with this tract, 2 horses and 5 cattle at $258, and the next year with an additional cow at $264. He erected his dwelling-house on the eastern part of the tract, where he resided when he was elected county commissioner in 1818, and until his death, which occurred January 28, 1826. By his will, dated October 24, 1825, and registered February 20, then next, hlie devised the half of the tract on which he then lived to his wife until the arrival of his son Philip at the age of 21 years, directing the tract to be divided by a straight line, beginning at Patrick Graham's line; thence to the big road; thence to the foot of a tenacre field; thence to where the line crossed, and thence straight to the Crawford line. The eastern half he devised to his son Philip, but if he should die without legal heirs as he did, September, 1876, he directed to be sold and the proceeds to be equally divided between his sons and daughters. To his son John he devised the western part on which the new house was, but if he should die without lawful heirs, as he did not, he directed it to be sold and the proceeds to be divided as in the other case. John conveyed his purpart, 194 acres and 80 perches, to his brother Philip, who had been a successful merchant, May 18, 1864, for $4,000, and removed to Illinois where hlie afterward died, and which Philip conveyed to the present owner, William Richardson, August 19, 1865, for $5,400. Adjoining the Templeton tract on the south is, on the Gapen map, a nearly square one, surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to Patrick Harvey, as containing 402 acres, the central part being traversed southwardly by Long run, and a southern strip of which is in what is now East Franklin township. The records do not show to whom Harvey conveyed his interest. This entire tract was surveyed as containing 394 acres and 148 perches to John Johnston by Ross, deputy surveyor, March 6, 1805, against whom Absalom Woodward had a judgment for ~69 14s 7d debt, 9d costs on transcripts, and 3s 9d "damages by occasion of detention of debt." By virtue of an execution on that judgment, Jonathan King, sheriff, sold Johnston's interest in 250 acres of this tract to Woodward for $120, and which he conveyed, October 14, 1811, which the latter conveyed to Philip Templeton, December 17, for " a stud horse and $850," and which he conveyed to David Johnston, August 25, 1812, for $225. The records do not show when and for what consideration the latter conveyed this parcel to Patrick Graham. David Johnston obtained a patent for 153 acres and 60 perches of the eastern part of it, February 4, 1815, and conveyed 101 acres and 140 perches of the southern part to Rev. John Dickey, December 6, for $335, to whose estate most of it still belongs.* Johnston conveyed 51 acres and 80 perches of the northern part to John P. Quigley, December 20, 1815, for $100, which the latter conveyed to James C. Porterfield, March 14, 1816, for $160, 50 acres of which he agreed to sell to Samuel Swartzlander, August 31, 1837, for $300, on which he soon after erected his blacksmith shop. Patrick Graham was first assessed with the other part of it, 250 acres, 1 horse and 2 cows in 1818 at $157. By his will, dated May 22, and registered May 31, 1831, he did not devise it, but his widow, Margaret Graham, by her will, dated May 8, 1833, and registered January 24, 1838, devised 50 acres to her sonin-law, Edward McKinney, and 150 acres to her daughter Polly, with 125 acres of which Leander and William Graham are assessed in 1876 at $1,750. Adjoining that Harvey-Graham-Johnston tract on the west is a rectangular hexagonal one, surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, as containing 421 acres * See East Franklin. 524 C HAR L Among the first settlers of Armstrong county we find the name of Read. Michael Read, grandfather of Charles Read, emigrated from County Derry, Ireland, in 1794. He died in Armstrong county, April 15,1817, in his fifty-ninth year. For three years he resided at Laurel Furnace, east of the Allegheny mountains, from whence he came and settled where the immediate subject of this biography now resides. Five years subsequent to his settlement his family came, which consisted of three sons and three daughters-Daniel, James, Bridget, Alice, Patrick and Catherine-all of whom were born in Ireland. Michael, the youngest, was born in Armstrong county. Daniel, James and Patrick engaged extensively in the cattle trade, and were the first who drove a herd of cattle across the Allegheny river near Kittanning, in 1810, on their way "east of the mountains," to find a market for them. Patrick Read married Miss Mary Bradley, of Cambria county, 1821. She was daughter of Charles Bradley, one of the six who built the first church in Cambria county for Rev. Demetrius Galitzin. He was a blacksmith by trade. His last work in Ireland was to shoe a general's horse of the English army that was bound for colonial service during the revolutionary war. The following anecdote is given to the writer regarding him: As he had finished the shoeing of the general's horse he remarked to those present in the shop, "That is the last work I will do in Ireland until I oppose that general in the cause of freedom in the colonies." Several of his companions accepted his cause, and at once sailed for the States. During their voyage they were pursued by an English ship, which would eventually have captured them were not the impending dangers overcome by the skill and tactics of their valiant captain. When they landed, they joined the revolutionary soldiers, and opposed and successfully captured the very general whose horse he shod in Ireland. Patrick Read succeeded his father in the homestead, and in those early days of inconvenience, trials and hardships, not only contributed to secure the church farm attached to St. Patrick's church (Sugar creek), but helped to build the old log church in 1806. He also helped the Rich Hill congregation to build their first church, now ES EAD. the United Presbyterian church of Middlesex, notwithstanding he was always a practical and devoted Catholic. He had two children-Mary, who is married to Cornelius Kelly, of Butler county, and Charles, who is the subject of this memoir. He died April 25, 1854, aged sixty-four years. Mr. Charles Read was born November 8,1822. In 1859 he was married to Mrs. Mary Gallagher, of Freeport. Previous to this marriage Mrs. Gallagher had several children with her former husband, and only three sur vive-James and William, who live in Minnesota, and Miss Annie Gallagher, who has always lived in the family. Mr. and Mrs. Read were blessed with four chil dren, two of whom survive -Catherine, born in 1860, died in 1879; Mary Jane, born in 1862, and Charles, born 1864, still live with their parents, and Margaret Eliza beth, who was born in 1866, died in 1879. Mr. and Mrs. Read and family are practical, devoted and highly honored members of St. Patrick's church, of Sugar Creek township. Although now exclusively engaged in farming, Mr. Read carried on the stilling business nearly all his life until 1864. This business was first established in 1804, on the homestead, by his grandfather, and the famous "Charley Read" brand of whisky became extensively known because of its well-merited qualities. It was not only used by business and professional men generally, but found a ready welcome in legislative halls and was selected for the army for medical use. Mr. C. Read affiliates with the democratic party, and has always taken an active part in the politics of his county. In 1867 he was candidate for the sheriffalty, and came within one hundred and ten ballots of being successful, notwithstanding the fact that he had an ad verse majority of eight hundred to overcome, and the large number of adherents he drew from the oppos ing political party (republican) attest the esteem and popularity of the man. In 1871 he was a candidate on the democratic ticket for associate county judge. Mr. Read is numbered among the large, progressive and prosperous farmers of Armstrong county, and is a man whose identification with any enterprise is productive of good. 'N41 LOG CHUR GH 5LIILT 1606, EF FZCTEQ 1876. S T. PAT F I G P(S CHURCH, SUGAF GF EEK) lit, SU(iAR CREEK TOWNSHIP. to Nathan Williams, on which Robert Nelson, blacksmith, was an early settler, with 400 acres of which, I horse and 2 cows he was assessed in 1805, at $155, and in 1807 with the addition of 1 more cow and a yoke of oxen at $186. By his will, made in 1826, and registered December 20, 1827, he devised this tract, his title to which he had acquired by improvement and settlement, to his niece Sarah Nelson, who was wooed and won by William Campbell, to whom she conveyed it, February 20, 1827, for $5, and in consideration of the solemnization of their marriage, which by their mutual agreement was soon to occur, with which he and his son John are still assessed-in 1876, at $4,400. Adjoining the Nelson-Campbell tract on the north is one, a rectangular parallelogram, surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to Joseph Irwin as containing 396 acres and 18 perches, who perhaps conveyed his interest to McCall. James and William Blain made an improvement and settlement on it in August, 1797, and to whom it was surveyed by Ross, deputy surveyor, as containing 410 acres and 20 perches, November 17, 1803. The whole of the Blain interest seems to have become vested in James, for McCall, to whom the patent was granted October 2, 1828, conveyed 200 acres to him, June 22, 1829, for $1, and Blain by his will, dated March 27, and registered December 6, 1815, devised his purpart equally to his sons, James, John and William. The two last-named conveyed their interests to their brother James, March 3, 1839, for $150 each. Adjoining the western part of that Irwin-McCallBlain tract on the north and "Lewisburgh " on the west, its northern boundary being the dividing line between the depreciation and donation lands, is an incompletely defined one, nearly a rectangular parallelogram, on the Gapen map, to which on it Edward McKee appears to have had a claim. John Davis had a subsequent interest in it, against whom Thomas Collins had a judgment for $300 of debt, and $5.20 of costs. By virtue of a vend. ex. thereon, Alexander Johnston, sheriff of Westmoreland county, sold it to Nicholas Day as containing 200 acres more or less, for $403, and conveyed it to him June 30, 1808, which the latter conveyed to James Fulton, October 31, for $500. On the other map it appears as belonging to Fulton's heirs, to whom it still chiefly belongs, and as containing 182 acres. Nicholas Snow was first assessed as a blacksmith on this tract, in 1810, who is said to have been the first one within the present limits of Sugar Creek township. Adjoining the northern part of the Fulton tract on the west and lengthwise along the depreciation 33 and donation line on the north is one on the Gapen map, a rectangular parallelogram, on which is inscribed the name of "John Denniston," a part of which became vested in John Brown, thus: The patent for it was granted to Charles Campbell and Elisha Wick. Campbell and Denniston, before the latter's death, became "jointly and severally seized of 250 acres" of it. They entered into an agreement, February 7, 1804, with Brown, who then resided at Salem, Westmoreland county, to sell those 250 acres on which Wick then resided, at 19 shillings an acre. Brown paid the latter in his lifetime $353.14. But the deed not having been executed before his death, the agreement having been proven as provided by the act of March 31, 1792, the court ordered Denniston's administrators to join with Campbell in the conveyance, which they did, September 21, 1826, in the payment of the balance of the purchase-money, $512, with which, as containing 250 acres, 2 horses and 1 cow, he was first assessed, in 1806, at $146, where he resided when he was commissioned by Governor McKean as a justice of the peace, "for district No. 2, called Buffalo district," January 1, 1807, and he took his oath of office February 9. He resided on this tract until his death, which, by his will, dated February 18 and registered September 22, 1835, he devised to his sons, Matthew and Robert. The latter conveyed 80 perches on the south side of his purpart, where a schoolhouse had been erected, to the school directors of this township, October 31, 1848, for $1. In 1874-5 a new and larger frame schoolhouse was erected about 125 rods northwesterly from the site of the old one where Joseph McElroy's blacksmith shop formerly was, at a slight western bend in the Kittanning and Brady's Bend road, on the Robert Brown purpart, which is adapted to both school and church purposes, and is used for the latter by the Midway Presbyterian church, which was organized by a committee of the Kittanning Presbytery, September 4, 1875, with 46 members,* and the present pastor, Rev. W. J. Wilson,t entered upon his pastoral duties April 1, 1876. Members, 49; Sabbath-school scholars, 50. John Adams and Daniel L. Rankin were the first elders. Adjoining the eastern portion of that Brown tract on the south is an octagonal one not fully defined on the Gapen map, bearing the name of "John Barron," but on the other map that of "John Orr," and " 400'." What became of Orr's interest in it is not manifest from the records. Adam Moyers obtained a patent for about 107 *The membership has increased to 65. Five adults and fifteen infants have been baptized. t Since left. '25 T;t T TIT r-r 1-1 l=;L -c3 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. righteous cause; and without begging my life or making reply, I lunged my sword at the nearest man. They then bayoneted and left me. While the surgeons were dressing his wounds, of which he had received thirteen, the General remarked: "Never mind those; they are mere scratches. Look under my arm, and there you will find a fellow that will soon do my business." Gen. Mercer was buried in Christ Church cemetery, Philadelphia, January 16, 1777, where for years a plain slab with the initials H. M. denoted his last resting place. His bones, being remarkably well preserved, were raised November 26, 1840, and reinterred in Laurel Hill cemetery, over which an appropriate monument was erected, on the north side of which is this inscription: "lie received a medal from the corporation of Philadelphia for his courage and conduct against the Indian settlement of Kittanning." A fort on the Delaware, towns and counties in various states bear his honored and illustrious name. CAPTAIN POTTER. Captain, afterward General, James Potter,* whose voucher or pay-list is alone given, was born "on the bank of the river Foyle, Tyrone, Ireland, in" 1 729, and was about twelve years of age when his father, John Potter, landed at New Castle, Delaware. In 1742 he was a lieutenant in a border militia company, and captain in 1756, in Armstrong's expedition to Kittanning, in which they became attached friends. He was in active service as major and lieutenant colonel in 1763 and 1764, during all which period he was a successful farmer. He was eminent and influential in the agitation which preceded the beginning of the revolutionary war. There was not, it is said, a meeting of the patriotic inhabitants of the then large county of Northumberland held without his presence and influenced by his advice. lie was appointed a colonel in 1775, and a brigadier general along with John Armstrong, John Cadwalader and Samuel Meredith-all of whose names, it will be perceived, in some of the more local sketches have been impressed upon the face of this countyApril 5, 1877. Potter's services in the campaign of that year were very distinguished. With the troops under his command in the counties of Philadelphia, Chester and Delaware he gained for Washington important information respecting the movements of the enemy, and with great vigilance * Vid. Pa. Mag. of Hist. and Biog., Vol. I, p. 346 et seq. gave all possible annoyance to the foraging parties sent out from Philadelphia. While the army under Washington were marching to Valley Forge, after a portion of it had crossed the Schuylkill at Matson's Ford December 11, it was found that the enemy under Cornwallis were in force on the other side. Washington wrote: "They were met by Gen. Potter with great bravery and gave them every possible opposition till he was obliged to retreat from their superior numbers," and the next spring he wrote from Valley Forge: " If the state of Gen. Potter's affairs will admit of returning to the army, I shall be exceedingly glad to see him, as his activity and vigilance have been much wanted during the winter." lie was Vice President of this state; was commissioned a major general in 1782; and was one of the council of censors in 1784, when he was within a few votes of defeating for President of the council the very distinguished John Dickenson. Ile rendered military service during the entire revolution, and won the confidence of Washington, Greene, Pickering, Mifflin and his fellow brigadiers. He resided in Penn's Valley in the present county of Center from 1772 until his death in November, 1789, being then one of the associate judges of the courts of Northumberland county, and leaving a very large and valuable estate. He was stout, broad-shouldered, courageous, five feet and nine inches in height, with a dark complexion, a strong type of the Scotch-Irish race. His father was the first sheriff of Cumberland county, Pa. His family relations have furnished two other Generals Potter, one United States Senator, a Governor of this state, several law judges and members of the State Legislature. He served with marked fidelity and acceptance in the various civil and military positions which he filled, and was in private life one of the most enterprising and successful of all our revolutionary officers. [The writer regrets that he has been unable to ascertain the parentage, native place and antecedents of Lieut. James Hogg, who so dauntlessly braved an overwhelming force of the enemy, immortalized his name and rendered Blanket Hill memorable by his sanguinary struggle and heroic death.] Such are but glimpses of the illustrious careers of gallant soldiers who in September, 1756, moistened the soil of what is now Armstrong county with their blood in defense of the families, the homes, the security and the happiness of the settlers along the then frontier of the Province of Pennsylvania. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. acres of the northern part of it, April 13, 1838, which he conveyed to James Hutchison, who conveyed 66 acres and 128 perches, January 20, 1839, who conveyed 13 acres to Harmon Vasbinder, January 16, 1847, for $65, and 57 acres to Matthew Brown, February 29, 1848, for $400. A patent for the other portion of it and some vacant land, an irregularly shaped and comparatively narrow strip or tongue standing from the southwestern part of the tract beyond the Little Buffalo, aggregating 400 acres and 52 perches, was granted to Elijah Davis, June 28, 1838, surveyed June 3, 1837, in pursuance of a warrant granted to Thomas Barr, March 5, 1794. Davis conveyed 230 acres and 47 perches to Joseph Blain, September 1, 1848, for $1,100, 10 acres of which Blain conveyed to Thos. IH. Foster August 11, 1855, which the latter conveyed to George Pence, April 3, 1860, for $120. Blain conveyed 145 acres and 103 perches to Foster, June 28, 1838, for $1,747.50. The rest of the Blain purchase has been subsequently owned by Thomas Patton and D. C. Mobley. Davis conveyed 150 acres and 80 perches, including the above-mentioned tongue, and 25 acres and 26 perches of the 150 acres conveyed by McCall to Ebenezer Davis' executors, August 7, 1828, to which their testator had acquired title by previous settlement, to John Cowan, June 29, 1852, for $2,400. Ebenezer Davis was first assessed with a gristmill in 1809, and Elijah Davis with a sawmill in 1815 and a gristmill in 1817, which were situated on the northeastern tributary of Little Buffalo, whose head branches rise respectively in the southwestern part of "Lewisburgh" and the southeastern of the Brown tract. These mills were rebuilt by Cowan after his purchase from Davis. Cowan conveyed the two parcels and the mills sold to him by Davis, to John Burford, April 3, 1856, for $5,000, which the latter conveyed to Christopher, James and Thomas H. Foster, April 1, 1859, for $4,400, since known as Foster's mills, which have been remodeled by them, and their store opened soon after. The postoffice, James Y. Foster, postmaster, was established here May 5, 1862. About 100 rods northeasterly from the mill is the site, 80 perches, "on the road from William Campbell's to Cowan's mills," which John Cowan conveyed to the school directors, February 2, 1849, on which they erected a schoolhouse, which has been recently substituted by a new one on another site, about 50 rods to the north. Adjoining that Barron-Orr-Davis-et al. tract on the south and the Williams-Nelson-Campbell one on the west is one, a rectangular parallelogram, on the Gapen map, bearing the name of " John Bell, Sr.," and " 403a.24," as surveyed to him by Gapen, deputy surveyor, but on the other map is the name of "Samuel Templeton," and " 403a, about onesixth of which is in what is now West Franklin township. Bell probably conveyed his inchoate interest in it to Alexander Campbell, which the latter transferred to Archibald McCall in February, 1800, who claimed an undivided interest, to whom the patent was granted, October 2, 1828. He conveyed 150 acres and 38 perches to Samuel Templeton, October 24, 1832, for $1 and certain notes and bonds. Philip Templeton, Sr., claimed a part of it as settler's right. It was his intention to convey the other portion of it to his son, William, but inadvertently omitted to do so in his lifetime, and doubts having been likely to arise as to his intention to make that devise, his other heirs released their respective interests to William, July 10, 1836, who conveyed it to McCall, July 15, for $250, and which was included in his heirs' conveyance toWilliam F. Johnston, of which he conveyed 20 acres to John Cowan, Sr., August 9,1853, for $300, and 115 acres and 96 perches to Harmon Vasbinder, October 9i 1866, for $1,600. Twenty acres of this tract having become vested in James C. Burford, he conveyed the same to Christopher Foster April 1, 1859, which he conveyed to James and Thomas H. Foster, March 28, 1865, for $220, being the 20 acres conveyed by Johnston to Cowan. Immediately west of the last-mentioned tract is a hexagonal one, nearly square on the Gapen map, with "Dan'l Morrison, 4321 " on its face, and traversed southwesterly by the Little Buffalo, but on the other map " Ab'm Lennington & A. McCall, 400," and in the northern part " Eben'r Davis, 60a." Lennington and Davis, May 18, 1809, made this trade: Lennington sold Davis the gristmill which he had recently erected and 75 acres of land, in consideration of which Davis sold him his interest in 125 acres of this tract, on which he then lived, and obtained a clear patent therefor as soon as it could be conveniently obtained from McCall, and to pay him $400, thus: ~25 March 1, 1810, in rye, at 3 shillings a bushel; ~25 in cash, May 1, 1811; ~16 13s 4d, March 1, 1812, in rye, at 3 shillings a bushel, and the last-mentioned annually thereafter until the whole amount of boot money should be paid. Lennington agreed to sell 125 acres adjoining Samuel Templeton, April 12, 1817, for $700. The patent was granted to McCall November 22, 1827, and he conveyed 150 acres to Davis' executors. Davis had agreed in his lifetime to sell those 125 acres to Jacob Schless, but did not execute a deed. Their agreement having been duly proven and the court of common pleas of this county having ad526 SUGAR CREEK TOWNSHIP. judged the Name to be sufficient, March 22, 1827, Davis' executors conveyed this parcel to Schless, who conveyed it to Thomas Stewart, April 1, 1830, for $500. His heirs, after his death, released their interests in it to Mary Stewart, who conveyed it to Thomas McKee, April 5, 1847, for $900, which, and 7 acres and 98 perches adjoining, he conveyed to his son, William W. McKee, January 17, 1855, for the last-mentioned amount, and he conveyed 125 acres to Jehu and John B. Fulton, April 2, 1868, for $3,475, with which, and 15 more acres, Mrs. Maria Fulton is now assessed. Between this parcel and the other parcel of this tract, 247 acres and 146 perches, which was included in the sale by McCall's heirs to Johnston, is a narrow strip, 45 acres, belonging to George Elsor, as is seen on J. E. Meredith's connected draft of several contiguous parcels, and extending a few rods south into what is now West Franklin township. Elsor also occupied a considerable portion of this tract west of that strip, and conveyed 225 acres of it to Benjamin Shaffer, June 28, 1862, for $500, 110 acres of which Shaffer conveyed to George Forster, November 17, 1875, for $300. Elsor's title to which was acquired by his " living on it for near 30 years," the southeastern part of which being in what is now West Franklin township. Adjoining that Morrison-Davis-Lennington-McCall tract on the north is the above-mentioned tongue of land included in the patent to Elijah Davis, immediately north of which on the Gapen map is a partially bounded tract bearing on its face, "Alex'r Craig," but on the other two tracts, one of which, a pentagon, 112 acres and 13 perches, with the name of " R. McDonald," which was included in the patent granted to Christian Yockey, November 2, 1807, which he and Abraham Yockey conveyed to John Patton, September 5, 1817, for $100, which Patton conveyed to Robert Orr, Sr., for $300, which he conveyed to John Orr, September 10, 1817, for $800, who conveyed it to James Monteith and Philip Templeton, as guardians and executors in trust for the heirs of McDonald, September 17, for $800. This tract subsequently became vested in James Monteith, and descended to his daughters Mary and Nancy who, with their husbands, William F. Johnson and Dr. John Gilpin, conveyed it to Samuel Dinsmore, April 7, 1840, who conveyed it to Elizabeth Dinsmore, September 26, 1845, and she to Matthew Wilson, to whose estate it belongs, March 12, 1856, for $1,905. It looks on the map as if it had been, though it was not, carved out of the southeastern part of a larger tract adjoining it on the north and west. That last-mentioned one, 3911 acres, a heptagon, with which John Patton was first assessed in 1809, at $145, and to whom the patent was granted February 20, 1810, in the northeastern part of which he built his mansion-house, where he resided when he was elected county commissioner in 1825, near which he established his tannery in 1824. About one-third of this tract is west of the Little Buffalo. By his will, dated April 4, and registered May 8, 1849, he devised to his son James H. a part, including the tannery and its stock and tools, to his son John the other part of his land east, except the sawmill which his three sons were to enjoy equally, and to his son Robert, who was first assessed as a wheelwright in 1826, all west of Little Buffalo creek. The third schoolhouse in this township was erected in 1821, near John Patton's mansion-house, some vestiges of which were recently visible. Adjoining that Patton tract on the north is an incomplete rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise east and west, with the name of " Wmin. Denniston." On the other map it appears in two purparts, with the name of "Thos. Foster," " 250a," on the eastern, and " Jno. Gillespie," " 150a," the western part of the entire tract. Foster was assessed with 200 acres, 1 horse, 2 cows, and 1 distillery in 1805, at $157. They probably purchased Denniston's interest, for the patent was granted to Gillespie, May 12, 1818, and he conveyed 250 acres of it to Foster June 12, for $1. Foster by his will, dated February 25, and registered December 16, 1839, devised the farm on which he then lived to his son Thomas H., his son James to have one-half the products until 21 years old, he to do one-half the work, and to his sons Christopher and William the farms on which they respectively lived, the three farms to be valued and made equal. Thos. H. is assessed with 242 acres of this tract in 1876 at $1,356. The first schoolhouse, a primitive log one, erected in 1812, within the present limits of Sugar Creek township, was situated on that part of the Foster purpart of this tract, near the Painter spring on the farm now owned and occupied by Thomas H. Foster, the first teacher in which was Hugh Rogers, of Kittanning. Gillespie by his will, dated April 5, 1850, and registered January 3, 1856, devised his purpart to his son Henry, who conveyed it thus: 2 acres and 80 perches to I. R. Wick, May 10, 1862, for $75, and 157 acres to William Devinney, April 6, 1872, for $3,950. Between the Barron-Orr, the Gillespie-Foster tracts and the division line between the deprecia527 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. tion and donation lands, is one, a rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise east and west, bearing the name of " John Denniston " on the Gapen, but of "J. Wick " on the other map, on which Elisha and John Wick appear to have been early settlers. Elisha, Sr., was assessed with 150 acres, 1 horse and 3 cattle in 1805, at $151, and the next year with an additional horse and cow, at $171. John was assessed in both of these years and in 1807 with the same quantity of land, 1 horse and 2 cattle, at $82, after which his name does not appear on the assessment list. Elisha Wick, by his will, dated July 17, and registered August 17, 1807, devised 75 acres of the west end to his son Jeremiah, and the rest, about 220 acres, to his son Elisha, whose heirs released their interests in 99 acres to Chambers Wick, September 28, 1854, for $100, and in 121 acres to John R. Wick, January 6, 1855, for the same consideration. Chambers Wick conveyed 99 acres and 71 perches to Thomas Foster, March 16, 1856, for $2,000. West of that Wick tract is one partly of the same width, which part is nearly a rectangular parallelogram, but the other part is a long narrow strip, extending along line dividing the depreciation and donation lands, vacant on the Gapen, but with the name of Reuben Burford on the other map, on which he probably settled before 1800, for he was assessed with 300 acres, 1 horse and 5 cattle in 1805, at $183, and with 2 cattle less the next year, at $160. He acquired title thereto by improvement, settlement and residence. By his will, dated August 12, 1847, and registered October 28, 1852, he directed his farm on which he then lived to be divided into three parcels, the eastern one of which he devised to his son Reuben, the western one to his son David, having previously given the central one to his son George, with which parcels they are still respectively assessed. Adjoining the narrow portion of the Burford tract on the south is a quadrilateral, nearly a triangular one, having two right angles, one acute, and one obtuse angle, contiguous to which on the southeast is a pentagonal one, lengthwise from northeast to southwest, having three right and two obtuse angles, across which on the Gapen map are inscribed, " Daniel Brodhead, Esq.-two tracts." The records of this county do not show how he disposed of his interest in them. The former consists, on the other map, of two parcels, the smaller of which being a quadri but not an equi lateral one, in the northeastern part with the inscription, "Widow Gallagher, 100,'," and the larger parcel of similar shape, with the inscription, "John Gillespie & A. McCall, 310k," the latter of whom probably purchased Brodhead's interest, and the former was the settler who probably commenced occupying it about 1797, and was assessed with 400 acres and 1 horse in 1805, at $200, and the next year with the land only, at $100. The first patent was granted to Gillespie, January 8, 1829, who conveyed 215 acres to McCall, June 20, for 21, and a second one to McCall, September 9, 1837. Gillespie conveyed the above-mentioned " 100" " parcel to Mary Riley, formerly widow Gallagher, March 23, 1844, which she conveyed to Henry Gallagher the same day for $60, to whom the heirs of Adam Gallagher released their respective interests, April 9, for $102. McCall's heirs conveyed 55 acres and 40 perches to Daniel Black, June 29, 1846, for $386, and another portion to William F. Johnston, who conveyed 108 acres and 42 perches to Michael Maley, July 2, 1849, for $920.12, and 100 acres and 94 perches to Patrick Lacey, October 5, 1854, for $995.30. On the other Brodhead tract is this inscription on the other map, " Griffith & heirs of Quin, 410-"." The warrant for this tract was granted to James McCoy, February 3, 1794, and the patent to A. McCall, May 22, 1835. It was settled and improved by John Griffin, who was first assessed with 300 acres, 1 horse and 2 cows in 1814, at $182. Partition having been made between him and McCall, the latter conveyed to him 100 acres and 80 perches, June 25, 1837, as settler's part, who by his will dated February 17, 1840, and registered June 2, 1842, devised this purpart to his son Andrew, who by his will dated November 17, 1853, devised it to his son John A., which he conveyed to Theresa and Stephen McCue April 2, 1860, for $1,220. McCall's heirs conveyed 169 acres and 48 perches to William B. Clymer, January 20, 1852, which the latter by A. N. Mylert, his attorney-in-fact, conveyed to Patrick Red, December 23, 1856, for $1,470.65, in pursuance of an agreement between McCall and Red, June 1, 1852, with 165 acres of which Red was first assessed in 1843. He conveyed 70 perches, including the schoolhouse then erected on it, of this parcel to the school directors of this township, November 24, 1847, for $1. Red conveyed 164 acres to William Robbett, June 10, 1861, for $3,000. A. McCall conveyed 100 acres and 30 perches of this tract to John McBride, October 22, 1841, for $1,000, which he conveyed to John M. Gillespie, March 3, 1871, and which, with other 3 acres, the latter conveyed to Francis Miller, April 25, for $3,500. An early warrant was granted to James Rankin 528 SUGAR CREEK TOWNSHIP. for 385 acres and 86 perches hereabouts, whose interest therein Nicholas Day, as Rankin's legal representative, conveyed to John Gillespie, February 17, 1813, for $100. Another somewhat later transaction shows the value of personal property in early times in this part of Sugar Creek township. Richard Price sold "1 mare and colt, 3 cows, 3 calves, 5 year-old steers, 1 two-year-old heifer, 10 sheep, 4 lambs, 3 beehives, all the grain in the ground (on the land occupied by Price), oats and and flax, all goods and household stuff, and implements of household and husbandry" to Gillespie, June 25, 1817, for $135.18. West of the narrow portion of the Reuben Burford tract and of the Broadhead-McCall-Gillespie one is vacant land to the county line on the Gapen map, except narrow strips of the eastern ends of tracts surveyed by Gapen to "Peter Cardan," "Jonathan Craig," "Win. Craig" and "Martha Craig." On the other map, in the angle formed by the intersection of the line between the depreciation and donation lands with the eastern line of the "Peter Cardan" tract, is a nearly square tract, "340'." Was it "Burns' Surplus" mentioned in George and Thomas Stewardson's conveyance of 35 acres to John Doulatty, October 23, 1863, for $100? Patrick Boyle settled 150 acres of the vacant land next below or south of the last above-mentioned tract in 1807, with which he was then assessed at $22.50, 76 acres and 47 perches of which he conveyed to Hugh Boyle, May 23, 1846, for $214.93. Adjoining the before-mentioned Brodhead-McCoy-McCall-Griffin-Quin tract on the southeast is an undefined one on the Gapen map, claimed by "John Denniston," the patent for which, 400 acres, called "Duncannon," was granted to Samuel Denniston for himself and in trust for the heirs of John Denniston, June 25, 1807. The latter had agreed, March 11, 1797, to convey 150 acres of it to Andrew Bullman, part of the tract on which he had made a settlement, for 1 penny, and making the improvement, settlement, and continuing the actual residence required by law. The deed not having been made before John Denniston's death, the proper court, on due proof of the performance by Bullman of his part of the agreement, ordered decedent's administrator to execute to him a deed for that quantity of land, which they accordingly did, June 8, 1809. He, by his will, dated July 18, and registered August 5, 1833, devised his purpart equally to his sons Andrew and Joseph. The former conveyed his interest to the latter, December 24, 1838, for $400, 100 acres of which the latter conveyed to Robert Dickey, June 17, 1839, for $875, who died intestate in 1841, leaving one daughter, whose guardian, George F. Keener, by order of the orphans' court of this county, sold it to Connell Boyle and Philip Lowe, on Monday, September 1, 1851, for $1,215, 34 acres and 95 perches of which they conveyed to Daniel Boyle, March 15, 1854, for $245, on which he opened his store, and 14 acres and 30 perches to Stephen McCue, the next day, for $125, which he conveyed to his wife, June 29, 1874, for $1,000, which she had received from the estate of her brother, Michael Maloney. Boyle and Lowe subsequently made partition, and Lowe released 54 acres and 132 perches to Boyle on the last-mentioned day, which the latter conveyed to James Forquer, August 13, 1855, which he conveyed to Patrick McBride, March 12, 1859, for $1,000, and which parcel was included in the 90 acres which McBride conveyed to Martin Wick. Joseph Bullman continued to occupy the rest of this purpart until shortly after he was elected register of wills, recorder of deeds and clerk of the orphans' court of this county in October, 1845. He conveyed 56 acres to Jacob Hepler, Sr., July 27, 1846, for $675, who, by his will, dated June 21, 1859, and registered June 17, 1864, devised it equally to his sons Isaac, Jacob, Moses and Tobias, which they conveyed to Archibald Black, December 18, 1866, and which, with other 12 acres and 88 perches, a part of the McBride parcel of "Duncannon," he conveyed to Chistopher Malone, April 17, 1869, for $1,600. Samuel Denniston and Nicholas Day, administrators, conveyed 250 acres, the Denniston purpart of " Duncannon," to Hugh Milligan and Robert Wallace, September 11, 1811, for $150, the unpaid balance of $500, in pursuance of an agreement between John Denniston and them, October 21, 1803, 150 acres of which they conveyed to Neil McBride, November 19, 1811, for $560, who, by his will, dated April 30, and registered May 9, 1827, devised this parcel equally to his sons John and Miles. The latter conveyed 77 acres and 119 perches to the former, May 22, 1847, for $600, who conveyed 24 acres to Enos McBride, February 1, 1850, for $192, 2 acres and 150 perches to Enos McBride, January 2, 1858, for $50. Milligan and Wallace conveyed 100 acres of the eastern part of "Duncannon" to Robert Boyd, November 19, 1811, for the express consideration of $1, who, by his will, dated February 16, and registered March 22, 1813, devised this parcel to his heirs equally, except Elizabeth, after the death of his wife, whom, and his son John, hlie appointed 529 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. his executors. It continued to be occupied by Mrs. Boyd, to whom it was assessed until 1849, when it was transferred to Thomas Burns. It may be remarked in passing that Burns was a stanch opponent of the county superintendency until the winter of 1859, because he thought the superintendent's salary was paid out of the school or county tax. Then he happened to be present when that officer visited the school in the Quinn schoolhouse, and remarked to another citizen of this township, that if necessary he would "willingly pay a dollar more of tax to keep the superintendency." This tract was named after Duncannon, a maritime village on Waterford harbor, in Leinster, county of Wexford, Ireland. Immediately east of "Duncannon" is vacant land on the Gapen map, but on the other it appears to have been Abraham Yockey's. He settled on it quite early, and built a gristmill on a western tributary of Little Buffalo, it is said, in 1800, with which, 100 acres, 2 horses and 4 cattle he was assessed in 1805, at $142, and the next year with 1 cow less, at $136. Anthony Cravenor having obtained judgment against him for $492.43, exclusive of costs and interest, a writ of fl. fa. was issued, by virtue of which Jacob Mebhling, sheriff, levied on 110 acres, on which he returned, there appeared "to be no cleared land," but "with a shingle-roofed house, cabin-house and gristmill thereon erected." A writ of vend. ex. was issued to No. 86, December term, 1830, on which it was sold by James Douglass, then sheriff of this county, to Cravenor, the plaintiff, for $450. This property afterward became vested-the records do not show how-in Rev. R. P. O'Neal, who, by William Gallagher, his attorney-in-fact, conveying 110 acres to Stephen McCue, January 20, 1862, for $20. It was occupied several years by Francis O'Neal, noted for his singularities. The vacant land south of that Yockey-O'Neal tract and "Duncannon" was settled very early by Christian Yockey, to whom 300 acres were assessed in 1805-6, at $140. He was some years afterward assessed with only 100 acres-the last time in 1827. Peter Yockey was afterward assessed with 30 and John Yockey with 73 acres, who is still assessed with 75 acres, at $975. Adjoining the last-mentioned parcel on the east or southeast is vacant land on which Nathaniel Patterson made an improvement and settlement in or about 1820.* There is a considerable scope of country west and southwest of "Duncannon " which appears on * See West Franklin township. both maps to be vacant. It, however, embraces 97 acres and 35 perches of the "Thomas Hindman tract,* which his sole lineal heir, John IHindman, conveyed to Daniel Boyle, June 6, 1843, for $900. About 320 acres, perhaps more, were vacant. Stephen McCue obtained a patent for about 120 acres adjoining "Duncannon" on the east, which George Smith, sheriff, sold to Alexander Colwell, on a judgment in favor of William Crow, and conveyed the same to him December 18, 1844, which Colwell conveyed to McCue, November 20, 1851, for $611, on which he erected his distillery, with which he was first assessed in 1864.4 North of that tract was one of 117 acres, to which Owen Quinn acquired title by early improvement, settlement and residence, with which and 83 more acres and 4 cattle he was assessed, in 1805, at $112. Having died intestate without obtaining a patent, it was granted to his son Henry in trust for Owen's heirs, September 30, 1847. The interests of the other heirs-Owen left eight childrenwere transferred by releases of all but James, who devised his interest to James McElroy, to Mary Bromfield, James McElroy and Henry Quinn, who conveyed 39 acres to Stephen McCue, February 15, 1858, for $1,287. By an amicable partition Mrs. Bromfield became possessed in severalty of 39 acres, which by article of agreement April 4, 1868, she agreed to sell to William Robbitt for $1,000, and which she afterward, March 31, 1874, conveyed to Stephen McCue for $1,000. The claims of these two vendees of course clashed, which were adjusted by an agreement between them that McCue should pay Robbitt $950 out of the money he expected to receive from John Graham, Jr., to whom he had sold this and some other parcels of land, and if the latter neglected to pay, McCue was to pay Robbitt. Hence arose litigation on that agreement, namely: Robbitt vs. McCue, No. 292, June term, 1875, in the common pleas of this county.1 McCue conveyed 130 acres and 91 perches, including the last-mentioned parcel, which he had purchased from Mrs. Bromfield, to John Graham, Jr., April 17, 1875, for $6,000. ST. PATRICK'S CHURCH. The above-mentioned church is located in Sugar Creek township, and its congregation is composed of people of this and Butler counties. The Catholic settlers of 1796 mainly located in Butler county. The first priest who visited the settlement was * See West Franklin. t He conveyed this tract to his son Stephen June 21,1877, for$7,500. I The verdict was rendered March 12, 1877, in favor of the plaintiff for $1,064. 530 SUGAR CREEK TOWNSHIP. Father Lanigan, who performed baptisms here in 1801. The next visit was made by Rev. P. Heilbron, in 1803, who also performed baptismal services at Sugar Creek and Slippery Rock. In 1805,* Rev. Lawrence Sylvester Phelan-also known as Father Whelen or Whalen-came to Sugar Creek, and located where the church was subsequently built. The Catholic people were greatly pleased with the thought of having a priest among them, and, soon after Father Phelan's arrival, held a meeting to devise measures for securing him a home and building a church. It was decided to send men among all the Catholics to solicit donations. The territory to be canvassed was at least fifteen miles square. Four collectors were chosen and districts assigned them as follows: Casper W. Easly took the southern district, near Slate Lick; James Sheridan the southwestern, or Clearfield township; Neil Sweeny took Butler and vicinity, and C. Rodgers McCue the north and northwestern, or Donegal township. These solicitors were successful in their mission, although they received no subscription larger than the sum of $2. The present farm, consisting of nearly 200 acres, was purchased and a small log cabin was built for the priest. Then, upon a certain day, each of the four who had solicited subscriptions was required to meet at the farm, bringing with him as many men as would be required to cut and hew logs enough for one side of the church. Patrick McElroy was assigned the work of making shingles and obtaining and driving the nails. The building was erected the fall after Father Phelan's arrival, but, as nails could not be secured, it was not roofed until the next spring. It was then put under the invocation of the Apostle of Ireland. The building is still standing. It is 22X35 feet, with a gallery and altar standing against the end wall. Each side contains three small windows, and each end of the gallery one. This is the oldest Catholic church now standing in the entire western part of the state. It was attended by people from all the surrounding country for ten miles or more. People often walked ten or twelve miles, fasting, to be present at the services. The stations which the priest was obliged to visit were so numerous, and so far apart, that mass was not celebrated more than once a month, and, in some instances, one in two months. There was then but one priest in the whole district west of the Allegheny river from Erie to Beaver. Father Phelan withdrew in 1810. From 1810 to 1820 the congregation was visited occasionally * Others say 1806 or 1807: but the date above given is believed to be correct. by Fathers O'Brien and McGuire, from Pittsburgh, and by Father McGirr, from Sportsman's Hill. In 1821, Rev. Charles Ferry came to the church and resided here. He visited all the surrounding district, a territory at least thirty miles square, which was then estimated to contain about 140 families. He remained until 1827, when he was succeeded by Rev. Patrick O'Neil, the first resident priest at St. Patrick's, who also performed missionary work in Butler, Armstrong and adjacent counties. He remained until 1834, and subsequently was engaged in missionary labors in the West. He died in 1879, in the 84th year of his age, and the 58th of his ministry. In the summer of 1834, Rev. Patrick Rafferty was placed in charge of the mission and resided at Freeport, visiting St. Patrick's one Sunday in a month. He remained in charge about two years, then withdrew. He was pastor of St. Francis church, Fairmount, Philadelphia, and died in that position in 1863. He was a man of great learning and ability. St. Patrick's remained without a pastor until the summer of 1837, when Rev. Joseph Cody was appointed to the pastorate and took up his residence at the church. Mass was celebrated here two Sundays in the month, the remainder of the pastor's time being given to Freeport and Butler. By 1840, the congregation had become so large that a larger church was needed. A brick edifice, 45 X 80 feet, with a sacristy, a separate building against the rear of the church, was erected. It was dedicated July 29, 1842, by Very Rev. M. O'Connor, V. G. In 1844, the pastor's field of labor was rendered somewhat smaller by the appointment of a pastor at Butler, who also had charge of Murrinsville and Mercer. Father Cody, however, visited Brady's Bend occasionally, and a little later officiated at the newly established church at Donegal (now North Oakland). In 1847, Freeport and Brady's Bend were assigned to another priest, and thenceforth Father Cody gave threefourths of his time to St. Patrick's and the remainder to North Oakland. In 1854, the log parsonage was replaced by a brick residence. After about the year 1861, Father Cody, on account of age and failing health, ministered only to St. Patrick's congregation. At length he was obliged to cease from labor, and at the end of the year 1865, Rev. J. O. G. Scanlan was transferred from Kittanning to St. Patrick's. Father Cody soon afterward went to the Mercy hospital, Pittsburgh, where he died August 7, 1871, in the 70th year of his age. He was buried from St. Patrick's, and his remains repose in front of the church. Father Scanlon set about improving the interior 531 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. of the church, but before the work could be accomplished he was transferred to another congregation, and Rev. James P. Tahany became pastor in October, 1868. He collected means and carried out the proposed improvements and the church became one of the most beautiful in the diocese. In November, 1871, Fathei Tahany was succeeded by Rev. S. P. Herman. On the night of January 1, 1872, the church was destroyed by an incendiary fire. It was a severe loss, as there was still a small debt and no insurance. The congregation then returned to the old log church as a place of worship. Rev. Thomas Fitzgerald became pastor and remained about a year. He was succeeded by Rev. P. M. Doyle, who remained in charge until the fall of 1875, when he was obliged to retire on account of ill health. He died in July, 1876, in the 47th year of his age and the 22d of his ministry. On the 9th of January, 1876, Rev. P. J. Quilter became the pastor. He at once took measures to replace the church which had been destroyed, and succeeded well. The corner-stone of the structure was laid August 5, 1876, with ceremonies by the bishop. The church was finished the next summer and dedicated by Very Rev. R. Phelan, administrator of Allegheny, on the 3d of July. The building is of Gothic style, brick, 45 X 90 feet, with a basement. It is furnished with three altars and beautifully finished. Butts, of Pittsburgh, was the architect, and William Feigel, of Butler, contractor. There was perfect harmony between Father Quilter and all concerned in building the church. It was only by a great effort that the congregation was able to erect so large and costly an edifice. The debt is now reduced to $1,800. The membership is about 100 families at present. Oil developments gave the church a temporary increase. Millerstown, a new parish, is under the care of the pastor of St. Patrick's. HISTORY OF THE DONATION LANDS. Thus ends the sketch of that part of the present township of Sugar Creek south of the division line between the depreciation and donation lands. Before commencing the sketch of its northern half, a brief account of those donation lands is here requisite. It was enacted by section 5 of the act of assembly of March 12, 1783, for the purpose of effectually complying with the letter and intention of their resolve of March 7, 1780, promising to the officers and privates belonging to this state, in the federal army, certain donations and quantities of land, according to their several ranks, to be surveyed and divided off to them severally at the end of the war, a donation district be appropriated thus: A certain tract of country, beginning at the mouth of " Mogulbughtiton" creek (now Mahoning); thence up the Allegheny river to the mouth of " Cagnawaga" creek; thence due north to the north boundary of the state; thence west to the northwest corner of the state; thence south by the western boundary of the state to the northwest corner of the depreciation lands, and thence by these lands to the place of beginning; and was divided into ten districts, which were numbered 1, 2, 3, and so on. That portion of this county lying between the division line separating the depreciation and donation lands and a parallel line extending due west from a short distance below the foot of the bend in the Allegheny river, just above Hillville, to the Butler county line, constituted the first donation district. The act of March 12, 1783, further provided that former improvements on these donation lands should be null and void; that officers and privates entitled to land should make their applications within two years after peace, which by subsequent acts was extended, the last limitation ceasing April 1, 1810; and that they should not sell their shares of land before they were actually surveyed. By the act of March 16, 1785, such lands were exempted from taxation during the life of the officer or soldier, unless the same were aliened to another person or persons. The appointment of deputy surveyors to survey and lay off in lots the donation lands. It was provided by the same act, among other things, that all officers and soldiers of Pennsylvania regi.ments, or of independent corps, acknowledged by this state as of its quota in the Federal army, officers who were citizens of this state when they entered the service, not attached to the line of any state, who had served therein until the close of the war; such officers who had been "deranged by the regulations and arrangements of the army according to the act of congress" of' October, 1780, or at any subsequent period of the war; and the widows and children of those officers and privates who had been slain in battle, or died in the service, should be entitled to lands according to their pay and rank just before they left the service, except such rank as was obtained by brevet unless paid in accordance therewith by the United States; that the lots should be of four descriptions, one to con. tain 500 acres each, another 300 acres each, another 250 acres each, and another 200 acres each, with the usual allowances; that a quantity equal to what might be necessary for the major-generals, brigadier-generals, colonels, captains, and twothirds of the lieutenant-colonels, should be laid off into lots of 500 acres each; a quantity equal to 532 I Cl)o c 7K -7K Atli WilliSUGAR CREEK TOWNSHIP. what might be necessary for the regimental surgeons and mates, chaplains, majors and ensigns, into lots of 300 acres each; a quantity equal to what might be necessary for one-third of the lieutenant-colonels for the sergeants, sergeant-majors, and quartermaster-sergeants, into lots of 250 acres each; and a quantity equal to what might be necessary for the lieutenants, corporals, drummers, fifers, drum-majors, fife-majors and privates, into lots of 200 acres each. The surveyor-general and each of his deputies were required to be sworn or affirmed that in laying off those lots he would not select the best land, either as to quality or situation, to favor anyone of those four classes of lots to the prejudice or injury of the others, or of this state, and in running the boundary lines of the lots, each surveyor should cause them to be well defined, by marking the trees on the lines, at small distances, and particularly the angles, and on the northwestern corner-tree of each lot should be marked, in Roman figures, the number of the lot, but if there should be a post at any such corner, on the tree in the lot nearest to the post. When all the lots had been laid off, a draft of them should be made, which should be deposited in Rolls-office after all the applications were satisfied. The supreme executive council was required to cause numbers, corresponding to each of the four classes, to be made on square pieces of white paper of uniform size, or as nearly so as might be, and in their presence to roll and bind well those numbers separately and carefully, with silken thread, as uniformly as possible, and deposit them in four wheels, " like unto lottery wheels," which, before any applicant should be permitted to draw therefrom, should be repeatedly "well turned round." Those wheels were to be safely kept and remain sealed, except when drawn from, under the direction of a committee of three members of the supreme executive council, who were to judge and determine on the right of each applicant to receive grants of land, with the right of appeal in all cases of doubt and difficulty to the supreme executive council, whose decision thereon was final and conclusive. The successful applicants were entitled to draw thus: A major-general, 4 tickets from the wheel containing the numbers on the 500-acre lots; a brigadier-general, 3 tickets; a colonel, 2 tickets; a lieutenant-colonel, 1 from that wheel and 1 from the wheel containing the numbers on the 250-acre lots; a surgeon, chaplain or major, each 2 tickets from the wheel containing the numbers on the 300-acre lots; a captain, 1 ticket from the wheel containing the numbers on the 500-acre lots; the numbers on the 200-acre lots; an ensign, or regimental surgeon's mate, respectively, 1 ticket from the wheel containing the numbers on the 300acre lots; a sergeant, sergeant-major or quartermaster-sergeant, respectively, 1 ticket from the wheel containing the numbers on the 250-acre lots; a drum-major, fife-major, drummer, fifer, corporal or private, respectively, 1 ticket from the wheel containing the numbers on the 200-acre lots. Before the boundary line between Pennsylvania and New York was definitely established, some of the donation lots were laid off on territory of the latter state. It was provided by acts of April 5, 1793, and February 23, 1801, that those who had drawn lots in that territory should be allowed, under prescribed regulations, to draw others in lieu of them from the undrawn ones in any of the donation districts within this state. After April 1, 1810, the undrawn donation lots reverted to the commonwealth, which were to be disposed of in such manner as the legislature should thereafter by law direct. By the act of April 9, 1828, the secretary of the land office was authorized to extend the provisions of the act to encourage the warranting and patenting of lands north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny rivers and Conewango creek, passed March 1, 1811, to the settlers or owners of the undrawn donation lands. As the Gapen map of surveys does not extend northwardly beyond the division line between the depreciation and donation lands, the other heretofore-mentioned map is the only one representing the early surveys in the west of Sugar Creek township, on which at the southwestern part of the donation lands in this township is one, a rectangular parallelogram, 400 acres, for which a warrant was granted to John Cox March 1, 1797, whose interest was probably purchased by Charles Campbell, to whom the patent was granted July 28, 1817. Robert McCutcheon settled on it first. He was assessed with it, with 2 horses and 2 cows, in 1805 and 1806, at $122. There was an early agreement between him and Campbell that he should have 200 acres and one-half of the excess of 400 acres that might be in the tract at the valuation made by two or three respectable freeholders, with such proof of settlement as would enable Campbell to obtain the patent. McCutcheon conveyed his interest in the major part on the depreciation and donation line, June 7, 1807. It appears from the map that 150 acres of the northern part were laid off to McCutcheon, who sold or agreed to sell 50 acres of the northern part to Dennis Quinn, and agreed to a lieutenant, 2 tickets from the wheel containing convey the other part, 100 acres, to William D. 533 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. McCutcheon, June 15, 1809, for $500 in annual payments. That McCutcheon purpart, 150 acres, was sold by Robert Robinson, sheriff, on Vend. Ex. No. 86, September term, 1823, in Philip Mechling, late sheriff, vs. Robert and William D. McCutcheon, to William Ayers and John Bredin for $230, 50 acres of which they conveyed to Dennis Quinn, February 5, 1842, for $100, having previously sold to him the other 100 acres, which last-mentioned parcel he conveyed to John Boyle, January 5,] 846 for $600, with which the latter is assessed in 1876 at $1,400. Quinn appears to have been in possession of the Campbell half of the excess over 400 acres, which Campbell had sold or agreed to sell to James Wilson, who instituted an ejectment for it against Quinn to No. 64, June term, 1843, in the common pleas of this county, which was tried and resulted in a verdict-for Wilson for 48 acres to be released on payment of $140.67, in twelve months from September 15, 1844, which Wilson conveyed to Quinn, October 2, 1845. Quinn conveyed onefourth of an acre on the eastern part of his land to the school directors of this township for school purposes about April 9, 1839, in which is what is known as the Quinn schoolhouse. Adjoining the Campbell-McCutcheon tract on the north is one of the same shape, 439 acres and 101 perches, contiguous to which on the north, chiefly in what is now Brady's Bend township, is another, 436 acres and 108 perches, for both of which patents were granted to Charles Campbell, and the two together were named "Campbelltown," on which Nicholas Allimong and his family were early settlers, which Campbell, in Allimong's lifetime, agreed to convey to him, and which he did convey to his executors, Jacob Allimong and Jonathan King, in trust for his legatees, August 19, 1809, and those executors the same day conveyed the southern tract, or southern half of "Campbelltown," and part of the northern, thus: 200 acres by King to Jacob Allimong, 100 acres to Elizabeth Sheetley, and 200 acres to Susanna Wiles. Mrs. Wiles, her husband, conveyed 118 acres and 158 perches of her purpart to Frederick Wiles, September 21, 1841, for $400, which he conveyed to William McCrea, May 14, 1842, for $1,250, and 117 acres and 40 perches to Samuel S. Sanderson, April 16, 1851, for $1,260.43, which by his will, dated January 15, and registered May 21, 1872, devised to his son James. Mrs. Shectley conveyed her purpart to David Sheakley, October 1, 1853, for $850. There is a narrow strip of the northern tract of "Campbelltown " in this township, on which Harrison Miller resides, being a part of his purchase elsewhere mentioned,* together with the southern part of the tract adjoining it on the east. Jacob Allimong by his will, dated March 15, and registered April 12, 1823, devised and bequeathed all his property to his wife so long as she retained his name. He directed his real estate to be sold after her death for the best price that could be obtained, and the money arising from its sale to be divided among his son John and the latter's four children, 151 acres of which Jacob Allimong's grandchildren conveyed to James E. Brown, November 5, 1852, for $45.25, which he conveyed to Samuel Sanderson, March 9, 1852, for $1,510; 15 acres and 74 perches of which Sanderson conveyed to James Patty, November 6, 1858, for $400, 8 acres and 44 perches of which Patty conveyed to John McSweeney, and which he conveyed to David Byers, April 4, 1865, for $325. Adjoining South "Campbelltown " on the east is a tract which seems to have been originally a rectangular parallelogram that contained about 400 acres, the warrant for which was granted to James Buchanan, from the southeastern part of which a smaller parallelogram appears to have been laid off to John Boyers, but when it was the records do not show. It was first settled by Valentine Snyder, probably about 1797 or 1798, with 244 acres of which and 1 cow he was assessed in 1805-6, at $102.60. He transferred his interest in it to Samuel Sanderson in 1807, who was then assessed with 369 acres and one cow, at $169.60. This tract afterward was known as the " Sanderson tract." The indication on the map is, that James Ramsey settled on it, who was first assessed in Sugar Creek township in 1809. The inchoate title to this tract became vested in Charles Campbell. James Campbell's executors obtained a judgment against his executors for $3,436.95 debt, and for $3.50 costs, on which a writ of Vend. Ex. was issued by virtue of which Jacob Mechling sold it and several other tracts to Daniel Stannard, of the borough of Indiana, and conveyed it and them to him, December 7, 1828, for $780. It was included among the three tracts which James Campbell agreed to convey to Dr. John Gilpin, December 12, 1838, and which three tracts Stannard, by Campbell's direction, conveyed to Gilpin, January 29, 1840, for $4,650, the patent having been granted to the latter for 383 acres and 56 perches, January 9, 1839, which he conveyed thus: 2 acres to Peter Keemeser and Henry Wiles, April 9, 1840, for $40; 17 acres and 112 perches to William Morgan, August 9, 1847, for $255; and 100 acres and 1 perch to Thomas Rockett, January 30, 1848, for $2,400; 54 * ide Brady's Bend. 534 CHAPTER II. ARMSTRONG COUNTY IN THE WAR OF THE REBELLION. Introductory-The First Companies-Camp Orr Established-Departure of the Regiments-Amount of Money Raised in the County for Relief of Soldiers' Families-The Amount of Bounty Money-Soldiers' Aid So ciety -"In Perpetuam Memoriam" - Roster of Armstrong County by Regiments and Companies- Regimental Histories-" Brady Alpines"-Eighth and Eleventh Reserves-Fifty-Ninth, Sixty-Second and Sixty-Third Regiments- Seventy-Eighth Regiment-The One Hundred and Third-One Hundred and Fouirth - One Hundred and Thirty-Ninth - One Hundred and Fifty-Ninth -Two Hundred and Fourth - Soldiers in Other Organizations- Militia. W HEN the great Rebellion came, and men and means were needed to crush treason and preserve our cherished Union and the heritage of our Revolutionary fathers, the fires of patriotism glowed brightly and fervidly in the hearts of the great mass of the people of this county. The patriotic response to the reverberations of the first gun, fired upon Sumter, was prompt and willing. The following facts speak more forcibly and eloquently of that response than any words of mine can do. In less than six days after President Lincoln issued his call for 75,000 men to aid the government in repossessing the forts, arsenals and other national property which had been violently seized by the insurgents, and in re-establishing law, order, and the dominion of the legitimate government, a company of 114 men of this county, under the command of Capt. Win. Sirwell, left Kittanning by rail, April 18, 1861,* for Pittsburgh, and thence went to Harrisburg. During its tour of duty the company visited Harper's Ferry, where the gallows on which John Brown was hung was then standing, a piece of which Col. Sirwell has in his possession. Having served well and faithfully through the period for which they enlisted, the men were honorably discharged, at Pittsburgh, Pa., August 14, 1861, and on its return to Kittanning, where most of its members resided, was honored with an ovation. On April 22, 1861, another company enlisted, which was afterward assigned to the 8th Regiment of Pennsylvania Reserves. And soon after the enlistment of the last named company fol *On April 18,1861, a large concourse of people from the town and country assembled to witness the departure of the company of three months men, organized in pursuance of the call of President Lincoln. The sky was clear and the weather pleasant for an April day. The company formed in the Diamond, at the intersection of Market and Jefferson streets, where the ladies presented to each member a copy of the New Testament. The sum of nearly four thousand dollars was soon after raised by the people of Kittanning and vicinity for the support of the faImilies of such of these as depended on their labor to subsist them. The night of August 14 was made memorable by the return of that company, the first since 1812 that had gone hence to meet the hardships and perils of war. lowed that recruited by Capt., afterward Col., S. M. Jackson, consisting largely of men from Apollo and elsewhere in the southern part of this county. It was assigned to the 11th Regiment of Pennsylvania Reserves. Soon after the return of the first, or three months' company, Camp Orr was established on the Fair Ground, a short distance above Kittanning, where the 78th and 103d Regiments of Pennsylvania Volunteers were recruited, drilled, and mustered into the United States service. The former, under command of Col. William Sirwell, moved by railroad to Pittsburgh, October 14, 1861.* The 103d Regiment, under the command of Col. Theodore F. Lehman, left Camp Orr, 24th February, 1862. Large numbers of people from this and other counties were present to witness the departures of, and bid reluctant farewells to, both of these gallant regiments, which, as well as the rest of the patriotic hosts that participated in that struggle, it was fondly though vainly hoped, would have returned, crowned with the laurels of final victory, from the battlefields of the Rebellion before the then next September equinox. The recruiting of several other companies and parts of companies for other regiments followed later in the conflict. Capt. W. C. Beck's for the 62d, Capt. C. W. McHenry's in part for the 63d, Capt. Joseph Steele's for the 59th (cavalry), Capt. James L. McKean's and Capt., afterward Col., John G. Pan's for the 139th, Capt. John A. Cline's for the 155th, Capt. John E. Alward's for the 204th, Capt. J. K. Calhoun's (the short term for the defense of Pennsylvania) for the 22d, Capt. C. W. E. Welty's (who succeeded Capt. E. M. Daily, promoted), Capt. DI). K. Duff's, Capt.W. H. Libbel's * The regiment presented a fine, military, and, to most of the spectators from town and country, an unaccustomed appearance as, in the clear sunlight of that beautiful October (lay, it moved down Jefferson street to the depot. SUGAR CREEK TOWNSHIP. acres and 64 perches to William Reese, March 22, 1852, for $800; 19 acres and 120 perches to Catherine Byers, May 12, 1862, for $439.75; 126 acres and 32 perches, reserving 2 acres above mentioned, "sold to and occupied by a German churchyard and burial-place," to Henry Bolz, May 30, 1866, for $3,786, 28 perches of which he conveyed to Jacob Ellenberger, David L. and William Kemerer, David King, William Millison, David Sheakley, and George Vensel and their successors, consisting of St. Paul's Reformed church in the United States, August 19, 1871, for $25, and 126 acres and 32 perches with the reservation of the 2-acre church lot, 20 acres theretofore sold to Thomas W. George and the privilege of the spring of water southeast from the church edifice which had been granted by Bolz to St. Pauls church, leaving 106 acres to Michael Myers, May 14, 1873, for $13,500. About 1835 Rev. Mr. Sweitzerbort of Butler county commenced holding religious services among the Lutherans, who had settled here and hereabout, and were members of the White church in that county, preaching at first to congregations in private houses, barns and the grove, which resulted in the organization of the Evangelical Lutheran church of $ugar Creek township. In the course of about four years the congregation erected a church edifice, frame, about 40X50 feet, hight of ceiling 12 feet, which had not been completed and furnished when it was broken down by the weight of the heavy snow on New Year's night, 1840. Its site was on the above-mentioned two-acre parcel, the legal title to which being in Henry Wiles and Peter Kemerer, they conveyed it to John Ellenberger, Joseph King, John Marchand, David Snyder and Barnhart Vensel, trustees of the Evangelical Lutheran church, and John Boyers, Adam and Daniel Kemerer, John Millison and Frederick Wiles, Jr., trustees of the Presbyterian (?) church of Sugar Creek township, and their successors, April 20, 1841, for $40, the St. Paul's having been organized about that time with Rev. Mr. Dale as pastor, and soon after erected their present church edifice, frame, 34 X 50 feet, hight of ceiling 16 feet, substantially built and painted white and neatly furnished. The next pastor was Rev. J. W. Alspach, who and several members of the church presented to the court of common pleas of this county a bill in equity, praying that the deed from Kemerer and Wiles to the trustees of both of the last-mentioned congregations might be reformed by striking out the word "Presbyterian" wherever it occurred in the deed, and inserting in lieu thereof the word " Reformed." It having been duly proven that the former had by mistake been inserted instead of the latter, the court ordered and decreed, December 22, that the mistake be corrected as prayed for. The membership of this church is quite large, probably exceeding 150 members, with a Sabbath school of about 100 scholars. The writer regrets that he has not been able to obtain from the records of these churches more detailed statements of facts. The above-mentioned 100-acre tract, which appears to have been surveyed off the " Sanderson Tract," was settled by John Boyers-spelled Buyers for a few years on the assessment-list-in 1810, when he was first assessed with 100 acres at $100, to whom the patent was granted, May 5, 1818, which he conveyed to David Boyers, February 17, 1849, with certain reservations during his and his wife's lives, on condition and in consideration of the grantee's paying him annually certain quantities of grain and provisions, and which, as containing 113 acres and 84 perches, strict measure, he conveyed to Thomas Foster, Jr., February 27, 1868, for $4,600. Contiguous to those Boyers and Sanderson tracts on the south is one, a rectangular parallelogram, 413 acres, 46 perches, adjoining the division line between depreciation and donation lands on the south, early settled by Josiah White, to whom the warrant was granted April 19, 1804, surveyed January 29, 1805, and the patent was issued to him March 25, 1818. He was assessed with 200 acres and 1I horse in 1805 and 1806, at $110. He conveyed 219 acres and 49 perches of the northern part to Daniel B. Heiner and John Mechling, March 7, 1839, for $3,000, which they conveyed to James Wilson, April 1, 1840, for $4,400. He, by his will dated November 19, 1870, and registered February 22, 1871, devised it to his wife during her life, and directed it to be sold as soon as convenient after her death, and the proceeds of the sale to be divided among his children, so that each one's share after deducting his or her bequest be equal. White conveyed 207 acres of the southern part to Andrew Sbchriver, April 7, 1845, for $1,700, who conveyed 50 acres and 12 perches to John McLaughlin, April 1, 1848, for $500; 105 acres to Thomas P. Jenkins, April 1, 1859, for $1,700, and 52 acres to David Bish, June 7, 1847, for $500, which the latter conveyed to John McLaughlin, April 4, 1857, for $714. Adjoining the White tract on the east is one of the same shape and area, bounded by the division line between depreciation and donation lands on the south, the warrant for which was granted to John Chambers March 1, 1794, who probably conveyed his inter st in it to Robert Cathcart, and he 535 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. to Leonard Trees, who seems to have been the first settler. He was assessed with 100 acres, 1 horse and 3 cows, in 1805, and the next year with an additional head of cattle, at $126. The patent was granted to him January 24, 1809. He and his stepson, Charles Ellenberger, entered into a written agreement September 17, 1808, by which he agreed to sell to Ellenberger the southern part of this tract, including the orchard, upland, meadow and pasture, and all his live stock, excepting a piece of meadow near the house and some of the live stock, in consideration of which Ellenberger agreed to pay Cathcart what was due on the land, all of Trees' debts, and deliver to him annually certain quantities of different kinds of grain, provisions, and, if required, " ten gallons of good whisky," and do certain work in case of Trees' inability to do it. Thus continued that domestic arrangement respecting that portion of this tract until August 12, 1812, when Trees conveyed 100 acres to Ellenberger for $100, and 89 acres and 60 perches to Peter Hummon for $89. Ellenberger, by agreement, October 22, 1847, conveyed 200 acres to Tobias HIepler, in consideration of maintenance, etc., which the latter conveyed to Charles Seckler, April 15, 1869, for $6,500, which he conveyed to Joseph McElroy, May 15, 1874, for $10,500. Hummon having removed to Crawford county, Ohio, by William Green, his attorney-in-fact, conveyed his parcel to William Devinney, January 18, 1833, for $700, 14 acres and 38 perches of which he conveyed to Dr. Samuel S. Wallace, September 7, for $81.87, who was the first resident physician within the present limits of Sugar Creek township, and as such was first assessed in 1827. The site of one of the public schoolhouses, called the "Wallace schoolhouse," was on the eastern part of this parcel. It appeared like quite an old building in 1855. An affluent farmer of this township accompanied the county superintendent in his visit to the school in that house, in the winter of 1860, during which it so happened that an arithmetical class recited. That officer, in the course of his questions and explanations, so elucidated some of the principles on which the rules of arithmetic are founded as on another occasion to elicit from that farmer the remark, "That even if the salary of the superintendent were paid by the people of the county, he had learned enough while in the school with the superintendent to pay him for what would be his share of it." Adjoining that Trees-Ellenberger tract on the north was a 400-acre one, the inchoate title to which became vested in Nicholas Day, who agreed to convey it to Joseph Wiles, July 16, 1796, for XC130, to be paid in installments, and obtain a patent to him "clear of all incumbrances," which was granted to him July 27, 1818, 50 acres of the northern part of which he conveyed to Peter Hummon, March 1, 1819, for $400, which the latter, with the 89 acres and 60 perches he had purchased from Trees, conveyed to William Devinney, January 18, 1833, for $700, 14 acres and 38 perches of which the latter conveyed to Dr. Samuel S. Wallace, September 7, for $81.87. By the act of April 11, 1806, Joseph (written Jost) Wiles' house was designated as the place for holding elections in old Sugar Creek township. The portion of this tract of which Joseph died seized descended to his son, Henry, at whose house the elections continued to be held until after the organization of Brady's Bend township, where, says one of the writer's correspondents, there was generally "plenty of Paddy's eye-water,"-meaning Patrick Reed's whisky,-and one or more fisticuffs before the voters left the election-ground. A call was issued August 19,1829, "for a meeting at Henry Wiles', on Tuesday, September 1, to deliberate and advise, but not to dictate to the people, as the opinion was entertained, that there was too much intrigue and mystery involved in the management of political business in both state and county," and requested the people of other townships to do so. That meeting was held, of which John Brown was chairman, and James Adams secretary, and resolutions were adopted in accord with the spirit of the call. Henry Wiles conveyed 53 acres and 80 perches of this tract to Solomon Rumbaugh, January 3, 1850, for $1,000, and by his will, dated October 26, 1852, and registered May 27, 1854, he devised 68 acres and 89 perches to his son-in-law, David King, and 30 acres, on which the testator then resided, to his daughter Catherine. The 50 acres which he had in his lifetime surveyed to John F. Wiles, the latter's heirs conveyed to Jabez Griffith, September 26, 1874, for $10. Adjoining the Joseph Wiles tract on the north was another similar one, a considerable portion of it being in what is now Brady's Bend township, for which a warrant was granted to Samuel Buchanan, James C. Campbell and William McCoy, February 3, 1794, to whom it was surveyed April 19, 1795, on which John Wiles settled and made an improvement in November, 1796, to whom it was surveyed by Ross, deputy surveyor, December 18, 1801, and was one of tracts sold by Presley C. Lane, United States marshal of the western district of Pennsylvania, and conveyed by him to Thomas Stewardson, May 19, 1802, who 536 SUGAR CREEK conveyed it and three other similar tracts to Charles Campbell, February 23, 1807, for $398.14. John Wiles was the earliest permanent settler on this tract, with 400 acres of which, 1 horse and 3 cattle he was assessed in 1805, at $196, and which Campbell conveyed to him, March 14, 1818, for $280, to whom the patent was granted January 18, 1819. It appears on the map to have been divided by Wiles into five parcels, rectangular parallelograms, the two southern ones lengthwise east and west, each 100 acres, and bearing his own name, and the other three lengthwise from north to south, the eastern one, 127 acres, bearing the name of Peter Wiles, the central one of the same area bearing the name of Jacob Wiles, and the western one, 50 acres, bearing the name of Benjamin Swaim, the major portion of all three being in what is now Brady's Bend township. John Wiles conveyed 260 acres, mostly in what is now Sugar Creek township, to John Crawford, May 8, 1820, for $549, which the latter conveyed to Jonathan Mutimore, January 10, 1832, for $1,000. One hundred and forty-one acres and 40 perches of the Sugar Creek portion of this parcel became vested in David Boyers, which he conveyed to Samuel Sanderson-the last two conveyances are not on record - which he conveyed to Thomas F. Toule, August 30, 1849, for $2,030, and which the latter conveyed to William D. Watkins, April 27, 1860, for $3,300. The latter, by his will, dated May 14, and registered September 9, 1873, devised and bequeathed all his property to his wife and authorized her to sell it, and if she should remarry, the property and its effects to be divided equally among his children. Adjoining the John Wiles tract on the east is one similar in shape and area, 421 acres and 92 perches, the warrant for which was granted to William McCoy, February 3, 1794, to whom it was surveyed April 19, 1795, and on which Conrad Moyers made a settlement and improvement, June 22, 1796, to whom it was surveyed by Ross, deputy surveyor, April 30, 1802. The northern half, or about that quantity, is in what is now Brady's Bend township. Moyer was assessed with 400 acres of it and 1 cow, in 1805, at $166, and afterward with 200 acres until 1808, when it was transferred to John Pontius. Samuel and William Crawford subsequently obtained all the interests in this tract, to whom the patent was granted January 9, 1839. They, having laid the northern part of it off into small lots or parcels, conveyed the whole tract, 425 acres and 12 perches, to William F. Johnston, May 16, 1840, for $1,675. The records show conveyances from him to divers perTOWNSHIP. 537 sons of about 205 acres, in lots and parts of lots, and parcels, the largest one not exceeding 51 acres, from November 19, 1847, to June 16, 1865, for $4,608.05. The largest number of conveyances on any one day were made August 31, 1854. The town or hamlet of Greenville is situated on this tract along the Kittanning and Brady's Bend road. Adjoining that McCoy-Moyer tract on the south is one like it, for which the warrant was granted to Thomas Buchanan, February 3, 1794, on which it was surveyed to him April 19, 1795, and on which Adam Moyer made an improvement in April, and a settlement, June 22, 1796. Buchanan having leased it to another party who attempted to obtain possession, a surveyor was employed, either by Buchanan or his lessee, to trace the lines, June 1, 1797. Moyer threatened that he would cripple him if he did not desist, and, with a gun in his hand which he cocked, declared that he would shoot any one who would attempt to settle on this tract. Several persons were thus intimidated from going on this land to make a settlement. Ross, deputy surveyor, surveyed this tract as containing 437 acres and 24 perches to Adam Moyer, April 30, 1802. Buchanan's lessee brought an ejectment suit against Moyer for 400 acres of this land, then in Buffalo township, in Armstrong county, but still within the jurisdiction of Westmoreland county, November, 1803. The case was tried before Smith and Yeates, justices of the supreme court, who charged the jury that, there having been no actual settlement anterior to the plaintiff's survey, the plaintiff's title must prevail unless it had been avoided by his non-performance of the conditions of settlement and improvement. But, they asked, who prevented that performance? Who expected to derive a benefit from that improper conduct? The defendant. If they counted the period from which the settlement was to commence, from December 22, 1795, the ratification of the treaty at Fort Greenville, the defendant had, within the time allowed for making the settlement, obstructed the plaintiff or his agents from complying with the law, and, according to all their decisions, should reap no advantage therefrom, and, if the case were even dubious, the defendant's lawless conduct should postpone him, on principles of general policy and safety. Verdict for the plaintiff, instanter.* Moyer remained in possession and was assessed with 400 acres and 5 cattle in 1805 and 1806, at $198, to whom, before his death, Charles Campbell had agreed to convey whatever title he had ac * See that case reported in Vol. II of Laws of Pennsylvania, ed. 1810, p. 224. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. quired, which he did to George Moyer in trust for Adam Moyer's heirs, June 22, 1813, for $700, to whom the patent was granted March 15, 1816. Thomas Buchanan conveyed whatever interest he had therein to Philip Moyer, September 28, 1839. Adam Moyer, by his will, dated March 27, and registered June 16, 1812, devised "the old place of 200 acres" to his sons, George and Philip, they to pay the legatees at the rate of $3.50 per acre, and to keep their mother the rest of her life, unless she should remarry. He directed that if Gen. Campbell should not make a title for the land they should make it themselves, and keep the expense out of the price of the land, either in two years after their mother's death or in two years after they should obtain the title; and that they should take a fatherly care of the little boys, clothe and school them until they should be sixteen years old, who should be obedient to them, and then "go to trades." So it continued to be occupied by these heirs until they sold to others. George and Philip Moyer conveyed 200 acres of the southern part to David Rumbaugh, September 19, 1816, for $1,300, who soon erected thereon a large two-story house, which he weatherboarded, and a capacious barn, which were then the best buildings in that neighborhood. He had the likeness of a clock painted on the gable end of his house next to the public road, being what is now the Kittanning and Brady's Bend one, the hands representing the time to be 11: 45 o'clock, and he was occasionally amused by travelers comparing the time indicated by their watches with and setting them by it. He agreed, April 14, 1841, to convey these 200 acres to his son Solomon, in consideration of the proper maintenance of him and his wife during the rest of their lives, which agreement must have been complied with, for the latter conveyed 212 acres to James A. Adams and William Varnum, April 2, 1856, for $5,500, 200 acres being assessed to Adams in 1876 at $3,000, having previously conveyed 1 acre and 26 perches to Dr. Wallace. George and Philip Moyer conveyed, October 16, 1839, 115 acres and 30 perches of the northern part or "old place," to William Hart for $1,380, and 34 acres and 26 perches to John Marchand for $155. Frederick Moyer conveyed 131 acres, which had become vested in him, reserving one acre for his own use, and the use of the spring, to Jacob Ellenberger, December 8, 1855, for a comfortable maintenance. Next south of that " disputed territory" is a tract, a rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise east and west, 130 acres, on which is the name of Henry Moore, to whom the warrant was probably granted, and to whose heirs it was assessed in the unseated list in 1812, and for a few years thereafter. It appears to have been subsequently occupied by James Adams, who was first assessed with 50 acres unseated in 1825, having previously purchased about that quantity from the next hereinafter-mentioned tract. Hle was first assessed with 170 acres of seated land in this township in 1828. The interest of Moore's heirs having become vested in him, he obtained a warrant for at least the greater part of this tract March 27, 1837, and the patent June 2, 1840, a portion of which he conveyed to Chambers and Robert Orr, and 35 acres and 49 perches of which he conveyed to William Cowan, October 8, 1841, for $1, which the latter conveyed to Dr. Samuel S. Wallace, the same day, for $215, which, with the 14 acres and 38 perches which the doctor had purchased from Devinney, and the 1 acre and 26 perches which he had purchased from Rumbaugh, Dr. Wallace's heirs conveyed to Andrew McElroy, April 1, 1873, for $4,500. James Adams was first assessed in this township as a single man, and with i horse, in 1815, at $20, and the next year as " storekeeper," the first one in this township, and 1 horse, at $50. His store, it is said, was at first kept in the loft of a springhouse on an adjoining tract, but was afterward removed to the southern part of this Moore-Adams tract, which point has been for many years known as " Adams." Hay scales, not common in rural districts, were erected here soon after the Great Western or Brady's Bend iron-works went into operation, and proved to be very convenient to the farmers of this section, who sold their hay and other products at these works. The postoffice was established here September 23, 1853, James Adams postmaster. This property still belongs to the Adams estate. Next south of that Moore-Adams tract is a square one, 300 acres, on which Robert Orr, Sr., settled, and with 197 acres, 1 horse and 5 cattle, he was assessed in 1805 and 1806 at $146.80. The patent for the entire tract was granted to him February 16, 1815; 140 or more acres of the northern part he conveyed to John Conly July 4, 1816, who conveyed 100 acres, including the orchard and meadow, to William Brownfield, May 20, 1821, for his proper maintenance with an annual supply of "ten gallons of good whisky, if required." Conly also conveyed 50 acres and 62 perches, in three separate parcels, to James Adams, July 25, 1822, for $158, in whom the Brownfield parcel subsequently became vested. Robert Orr, Sr., continued in the occupancy of the southern half of this tract until he leased it to 538 SUGAR CREEK TOWNSHIP. Solomon Rumbaugh about 1825, about which time he removed to Kittanning. He conveyed this parcel to his sons, Chambers and Robert, May 7, 1831. He died at Kittanning, September 4, 1833, in his 89th year. Robert Orr, Sr., was a native of the county of Derry, Ireland, whence he emigrated to this country in 1766, resided in what is now Mifflin county, where he married Miss Culbertson, until 1773, when he and his wife removed to Hannastown, Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, where he resided until he settled in what is now this township. He espoused the colonial cause on the adoption of the declaration of independence, and was an earnest, active and devoted patriot, and readily volunteered his services and encouraged others to volunteer theirs, when needed, to protect the western frontier from the Indian incursions and attacks. Gen. George R. Clark, of Virginia, having communicated to Archibald Lochery, the lieutenant of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, his determination to enter upon a campaign against the Indians down the Ohio river, in the summer of 1781, and, having requested him to raise 100 volunteers and a company of cavalry in his county, and Lochery having intimated the same to Orr, the latter promptly raised a company of volunteer riflemen and furnished such of its members as were unable to furnish themselves with necessaries for that expedition, chiefly at his own expense, as he could not order the company of militia, of which he was captain, from home. The force consisted of two companies of rangers, commanded, respectively, by Captains Shannon and Stokeley, and a company of horse, commanded by Captain Campbell, aggregating about 125 men, who rendezvoused at Carnahan's blockhouse, eleven miles west of Hannastown, July 24, and moved the next day, via Pittsburgh, for Fort Henry, where Wheeling now is, where, according to a prearrangement, they were to join Clark's army, which, they ascertained on their arrival, had advanced twelve miles down the river, having left some provisions and a boat for them. With an inadequate supply of ammunition and provisions, they proceeded down the river, expecting to meet Clark at the mouth of the Kanawha, but were again disappointed, as he was obliged to move his force before their arrival to prevent desertion. Their provisions and forage being nearly exhausted, there being no other source of supply than from what Clark had, and the stage of water in the river being low, Lochery, who was the only field officer in command, dispatched Captain Shannon with four men in a small boat, hoping that they might overtake the main army and secure supplies, who were soon captured by the Indians, together with a letter to Clark, disclosing the destitute condition of Lochery's force, from which, and the accounts given by the nineteen deserters from Clark's army, whom Lochery had arrested, and who, on being released, joined the Indians,. they thus learned that Clark and Lochery were not together, and ceasing to be awed by Clark's artillery, they collected in force below the mouth of the Great Miami and placed their prisoners in a conspicuous position on the right bank of the river and promised to spare their lives if they would hail their comrades as they should pass down, and induce them to surrender. But they, being weary and despairing of meeting Clark's army, landed about 10 o'clock A. M., August 25, at the mouth of an inlet, since called Lochery's creek, where they landed their horses to feed on the grass. While preparing a repast of the meat of a buffalo which they had killed, they were assailed by a volley of rifle balls from an overhanging bluff, where the Indians had assembled in large force. The men, being thus surprised, seized their arms and defended themselves until their ammunition was exhausted, and then attempted to escape in their boats, but, as they were unwieldy, as the water was low, and the men too weak to render them available; they only 106 strong, were obliged to surrender to more than 300 Indians, who hastily massacred Lochery and several of their prisoners, which Brandt, or whoever their chief commanding was, condemned. Forty-two of those prisoners were killed, and 64 were taken prisoners. Among the latter was Captain Orr, whose arm was broken in the engagement, who was taken to Sandusky, where he was retained for several months, when, his captors not being able to properly treat his fracture, he was removed'to the hospital at Detroit, whence he was that winter removed to Montreal, and with his fellow prisoners was exchanged after the close of the revolutionary war, and returned to Westmoreland county in the summer of 1783, his house and property having been destroyed by the burning of Hannastown, July 13, 1782. He was one of the few men who were in Lochery's unfortunate expedition that ever reached their homes. Soon after his return he raised another company to serve two months in the defense of the frontier, which advanced to the mouth of Bull creek, on the right bank of the Allegheny river, where Tarentum now is, where, under his direction, a blockhouse was built. Having completed that term of service satisfactorily, he was elected the same fall (1783) sheriff of Westmoreland county, and was prompt and faithful in the discharge of his official duties. From 539 ISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. the time of his settlement in what is now Sugar Creek township he resided on the heretofore-mentioned McDonald-Monteith-Dinsmore-Wilson tract until about 1812, when he removed to this tract, on which he remained until he rented his farm to Solomon Rumbaugh, about 1824, about which time he removed to Kittanning. When this county was organized for judicial purposes in 1805, he was appointed one of the three associate judges of its several courts, which position he creditably filled until his death. By the act of assembly of March 30, 1821, the state treasurer of Pennsylvania was authorized to pay to him or his order, immediately thereafter, $750, in consideration of his services and losses during the revolutionary war, which was to be considered as a full compensation for those services and losses, including all his claims for military service. In 1818 or 1819 he laid out north of his residence on this tract, and west of the present Kittanning and Brady's Bend road, the town of Orrsville, the plan of which is not on record, and the writer has not been able to ascertain the exact number of the lots which it contained. Its first separate assessment list was in 1819, when Henry Torringer was assessed with Nos. 44 and 46, seated, at $25 each, and William Shea, tailor, with lots Nos. 53 and 56, seated, and his occApation at $75. Robert Robinson, sheriff, sold Torringer's two lots on a judgment in favor of J. E. Brown for $30.20, of debt, and $6.74 of costs, on the premises, to Robert Orr, Sr., September 23, 1822, for $15 each, and executed his deed therefor the next day, both of which the latter conveyed to James Adams, May 2, 1831, for $30. These last two conveyances are the only ones of lots in that town of Orrsville on record. The assessment list shows that these Torringer lots were "transferred to William Adams," and the Shea ones were " taxt to John McClatchey" in 1824. James Torringer had his blacksmith-shop on one of these lots about 1823-4. Robert Orr, Sr., conveyed his interest in this tract to his sons Chambers and Robert, May 7, 1831, which, and the parcel of the Moore tract which Adams had sold to them, they conveyed to Christopher Foster (of Thomas), 199 acres, except all the Orrsville lots that had been sold by their father, and for which the purchase money had been paid. The violent tornado that occurred on the 29th or 30th of May, 1860, began to move with or to gather its devastating force on the Kittanning and Brady's Bend road 6n this tract, between Christo pher Foster's house and barn, where it swept in a course slightly south of east to David C. Porterfield's, and turned thence northeasterly to William A. Foster's, tearing off the roof and upper story of his house. Hle was absent at the time. As he saw, returning from Middlesex, the storm moving toward his house, apprehensive for the safety of his two young children whom he had left there, he hastened thither with utmost speed. The little girl, when she saw the storm approaching, took the little boy with her from the house, and both, as they were just about to encounter it, lay down in a gatter which proved to be a place of safety for them. It passed thence northeasterly through Washington township, crossed the Allegheny river a short distance above the mouth of Sugar Camp run, through Madison township with slight deflections to Red Bank creek nearly east of Owen now Thomas Meredith's residence, moving everything in its course. Lewis Bish said he was standing on a hillside of Red Bank creek, between the old Red Bank Furnace and William Shoemaker's, while the tornado passed above him. It did not disturb anything where hlie then was; some sand fell on him while viewing it; the hillside is steep and the bench of the hill was 100 feet above; he saw the largest trees whirling in the air above him, and felt thankful that none of them fell on him. William Shoemaker's house, near Anthony's tunnel, except the sleepers and kitchen floor, was swept away. Two boards having been taken out of the floor, a small nursing child was dropped down through the opening thus made and was unhurt. Neither the cradle in which that child was, nor any part of the house or spring-house, was ever found, nor any part of the barn which was blown away. The orchard, except six stumps of apple-trees whose bark was stripped off, was uprooted and borne along in the irresistible current of the tornado. Pieces of stone were driven so deeply into these stumps that Lewis W. Corbett could not draw them out. The fences were strewn all over the farm, and Shoemaker was so seriously injured that he was disabled from work for several weeks. Passing with increased force through the southern part of Clarion county, it swept away everything in its track. Passing about half a mile north of New Bethlehem, it reached Charles Stewart's place while the family were at dinner. Mrs. Stewart, as the door opened, exclaimed: "What a storm is coming!" which struck the house while she was attempting to close the door, and removed it some distance from its foundation. She was found lying between two rafters and beneath a heavy piece of oak timber, whose crushing weight caused her death in three hours. 540 SUGAR CREEK TOWNSHIP. Her child was in the cradle, which dropped into the cellar, where it was found in the same position in which it had been in the room, with its occupant uninjured. The rest of the family were scattered over the meadow and more or less injured. Stewart's barn was ignited by what appeared to Philip Huffman to be a stream of burning fluid, two feet thick, borne along by a dark cloud. The grass in some places was burned on the ground. Some of the timber, used two years afterward in building John Henry's barn, was so imbedded with small stones that it could scarcely be worked. John Dougherty's daughter, about sixteen, in attempting to escape from the house was killed by a falling log, while those who remained about the chimney suffered no injury except a few light scratches. Valentine Miller, who resided across the hollow from Dougherty's, his mother, wife and children were together in a log house which was struck by the tornado. The superstructure was blown away, but they, having huddled about the chimney, were not injured. It struck John Mohney's house north of Millville in the absence of himself and wife. Their oldest son, when he saw it approaching, ordered all the children into the cellar; taking the youngest in his arms, he sprang to the foot of the cellar stairs, and before he had time to think of anything the house was blown away, but neither he nor any of the children were injured. The bank barn was nearly leveled to the ground, and a heavy new four-horse wagon standing back of the barn was found crushed within the foundation of the barn, and a new wheelbarrow at the other end of the barn was blown into the top of a maple tree about 75 rods distant, where it was found unbroken. John Shields and his horses were blown over and over through a large field about half a mile east of Mohney's without serious harm. When the tornado struck Maysville, Dr. Stramley was having his horses shod at the blacksmith shop, which was blown away and the blacksmith seriously injured; the horses were borne some distance, and when the storm ceased the doctor was found lying in the middle of the street beside a large dog; the latter, which was well enough before the storm, was dead. The doctor's boots, coat and hat flew away, and were never again seen by him; he never afterward saw any part of his buggy but the seat, which was found a quarter of a mile up the creek. The bridge and every building in that town was swept away. There were three run of buhrs in the gristmill, one set of which was.turned upside down; another pair were carried up to the dam and left setting as they were 34 in the mill; the third pair fell into the millpit; and the gearing was blown away, only pieces of the metal part having since been found. The book kept by the miller was afterward found 65 miles distant in Union county. Irvin McFarland's hotel was borne diagonally across the street and precipitated down the bank of the creek above the bridge. His wife, who was in it, lived about two and a half hours after her removal. He, in searching for his little boy,four years old, thought he heard a noise like his voice, and, in endeavoring to follow the sound, he approached a pile of brick-the large brick chimney had tumbled into a pile where it stood-and, thinking he could hear the sound more distinctly, he began to throw the loose brick off the pile. About four feet of the foundation was still standing, at the side of the lower part of which he found his boy unharmed, with his right hand extended as high as he could reach against the chimney. Adam Bachman was carried, with his own building, a short distance, and died of the injury which he received. All that was ever found of the three new wagons at the blacksmith shop, one finished, and two unfinished, were the rims of two wheels and a few spokes left on the ground where the wagons were. The width of that tornado varied from 30 rods to half a mile. It carried everything before it where it was widest, but its force was greatest where it was narrowest, plowing up the ground three feet deep and from three to five feet wide, swinging trees on the ground, large oaks around, as if on pivots, one-fourth of a circle, and pruning off all the branches within reach. It took a northeasterly course three miles south of Brookville, and, passing through Clearfield, Union and other counties in this state, struck the ocean between New York and Philadelphia. Thus sped to the mighty deep that tornado which, wherever else it was generated, began its devastating career in a whirlwind in the public road on this Orr-Foster tract, reminding one of DeKay's description of this destructive force of nature, which closes thus: "And as in court-yard corners on the wind Sweep the loose straws, houses and stately trees Whirl in a vortex. His unswerving tread Winnows the isle bare as a thresher's floor, His eyes are fixed; he looks not once behind, But at his back fall silence and the breeze. Scarce is he come, the lovely wraith is sped. Ashamed the lightning shuts its purple door, And heaven still knows the robes of gold and sun While placid ruin gently greets the sun."* * The church edifice of the Medway Presbyterian congregation, frame, one story, 36X,54 feet, ceiling 18 feet, was erected in the summer of 1880, and its interior is very neatly finished and furnished. It was dedicated Friday, October 29, the services being conducted by Rev. David Hull, D. D., of Indiana, Pennsylvania. 541 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Adjoining these Moore and Orr-Conly tracts on the east and the division line between the depreciation and donation lands, is one, a rectangular parallelogram, 356 acres and 37 perches, on which John Davis was an early settler, with 200 acres of which and 1 cow he was assessed, in 1805, at $126. Josiah White acquired an early interest in it. James Fulton having obtained a judgment against White, his interest was sold by John Orr, sheriff, to Robert Brown, for the use of Charles Campbell, for $450, to whom the deed was executed June 23, 1808, Campbell and Nicholas Day having agreed, the day before, with Fulton, that Campbell should make him the sheriff's deed, including all of Davis' interest in the 200 acres, and Campbell and Day agreed to pay one-half of the purchase money and of the fees on the patent, and Fulton agreed to make to them a deed in fee simple. That agreement was, however, to be void if the sheriff's sale should be set aside, unless the sale should be again made good, and Fulton also agreed to acknowledge satisfaction of the sum at which the land was struck down to Brown, in order that the sheriff's deed might be acknowledged in court. All these preliminaries must have been satisfactorily adjusted, for Campbell conveyed the 200 acres to Fulton, October 31, for $454. The patent was granted to Campbell, January 19, 1819. After the latter's death, July 5, 1819, Campbell conveyed to Robert Orr, Sr., and John Patton 100 acres and 36 perches, which he had agreed to sell to Fulton, in trust for the persons claiming under Fulton, which they conveyed to Andrew McKee, Sr., December 25, 1820, who had agreed to purchase, and had paid the purchase money for the same. One hundred and forty acres of this tract appears to have been vested in John Brown, for he conveyed that quantity to Andrew and Thomas McKee, October 25, 1819, for $775, which became vested in the latter, who conveyed 115 acres to his son, Thomas V. McKee, July 17, 1855, for $800, and which the latter conveyed to William H. Leard, October 20, 1866, for $3,300. Andrew McKee conveyed 100 acres and 36 perches to Andrew Rodgers, December 27, 1830, for $800, which, with another parcel, his heirs conveyed to Joseph and Samuel Rodgers, November 17, 1849, for $1 " as well as other good considerations." Next north is a similar tract, 405 acres, on which are the names of Robert Buchanan and John Clark, to one or both of whom the warrant was probably granted in 1794, whose interests having become vested in John Orr, the patent was granted to him February 19, 1818. He conveyed 122 acres and 94 perches to Jacob Bish, Sr., April 17, 1818, for $366, which the latter conveyed to Jacob Bish, Jr., April 6, 1853, for $800. -Orr conveyed 50 acres and 113 perches to Henry Buzzard, June 13, for $52, which the latter conveyed to Leonard Rumbaugh, April 1, 1828, for $125, which he conveyed to Jacob Hepler, Sr., September 9, 1837, for $150, who conveyed the same to William Hepler, September 2, 1847, for $800. Orr agreed to sell 24 acres to Joseph Blaine, October 15, 1819, for $54, to whom the deed for which was made by the grantor's administrators November 12, 1826, by virtue of a decree of the proper court, and which parcel was included in Blaine's conveyance of 134 acres to Robert Farley and others, trustees of the Brady's Bend Iron Company, April 14, 1846, for $500. Orr agreed, August 28, 1820, to convey 70 acres and 87 perches, as surveyed by Robert Orr, Jr., September 25, 1819, to Peter Bish, to whom the former's administrators, by virtue of a decree of the proper court, executed a deed November 12, 1826, 12 acres and 132 perches of which the latter agreed, October 20, 1865, to convey to James Bish, and which the latter conveyed to David Harmon, June 12, 1868, for $384. In the northwest corner on the map, and on Meredith's more recent connected drafts, is a rectangular parcel of 40 acres bearing the name of Peter Harmon. Adjoining the Buchanan-Clark-Orr tract on the north is a similar one, 416 acres 55 perches, in which James McCoy had an inchoate interest, on which Frederick Shoop was an early settler, with 100 acres of which, 2 horses and 2 cows, he was assessed, in 1805, at $102, and the next year with 1 cow and 1 horse less at $71. On July 18, 1807, Shoop, by written article of agreement, agreed to convey to Peter Harmon, of Hempfield township, Westmoreland county, 100 acres of this tract, then adjoining Nicholas Pontious, Jacob Millison and Melchior Buzzard, on which Jacob Hepler was then living, for $550, and both parties were to occupy the cabin then erected thereon until they could erect one suitable for the habitation of Harmon and his family, which, 102 acres 90 perches, Shoop's administrators conveyed to Harmon's heirs, Catherine and John Harmon, and Hannah, wife of Barnabas Vensel. Shoop agreed, October 29, 1813, to sell to James Blain 100 acres, for $300, in four annual payments, a part of each to consist of 1 cow, to be valued by two neighbors, if the parties could not agree upon the price. Shoop also agreed, November 15, 1813, to sell to John Linaberry (Linaberger) 100 acres adjoining Conrad Moyers, John Read and Peter Harmon, for $100, of which $45 were to be "in good, lawful 542 SUGAR CREEK TOWNSHIP. money," and $55 " in trade or produce at market price." Shoop received the same day $27 in cash and $16 in trade. The agreement and payment were duly proven in the court of common pleas of this county by the affidavit of Peter Wiles, September 23, 1818, and there ends the record. The warrant for the entire tract, about one-third of which is in what is now Brady's Bend township, was granted to Shoop March 8, 1814, to whom it was surveyed, and the patent was granted to John Hepler, his administrator, and Margaret Shoop, his administratrix, September 8, 1819. Shoop's administrators conveyed to Blain the parcel which Shoop had sold to him, to Deborah and Joseph Blain, executors of James Blain, which he had vested in Joseph Blain, and was included in his conveyance to the Brady's Bend company. Adjoining the McCoy-Shoop tract on the east is one, a rectangular parallelogram, 401 acres and 102 perches, lengthwise east and west, for which a warrant was probably granted to John Buchanan in 1794. This tract was conveyed by Presley C. Lane, United States marshal for the western district of Pennsylvania, to John Reynolds, May 19, 1802, who conveyed it to John Vensel (formerly written Wentzel), June 22, 1805, for ~50 "lawful money of Pennsylvania." Vensel was assessed with 300 acres of this tract and 3 cattle in 1805, at $142, and the next year, with an additional head of cattle, at $148, and on which he erected his sawmill in 1807. By virtue of a writ of Vend. Ex. No. 9, March term, 1814, on a judgment in favor of Samuel S. Harrison for the use of John Wells, it was sold by James McCormick, sheriff, to Jacob Hershey and Frederick Howard, June 20, 1814, for $505, and so much thereof as was needed was applied to the payment of a prior judgment in favor of John Reynolds against Vensil. Howard conveyed his 150 acres to David Snyder, March 10, 1825, for $250, to whose heirs this parcel still belongs, and from whom the run by which the tract is traversed has been called Snyder's run. Hershey's heirs released their interest in the other purpart of 150 acres to Andrew Hershey, February 17, 1845, for $100. It is probable that Jacob Hepler, whose name is on this tract on the map, occupied Howard's portion of it until the latter's sale to Snyder. Adjoining the Moyer portion of that BuchananReynolds-Vensel tract is a similarly-shaped one, 400 acres and 112 perches, lengthwise from north to south, the warrant for which was granted probably to William Buchanan in 1794, who conveyed his inchoate interest to Alexander Blair, who conveyed his interest therein to Josiah White, June 20, 1811, for $200 paid by Thomas Taylor, and $200 paid by White per Taylor, and empowered White to take the title-papers out of the landoffice, to whom the patent was granted December 5, 1837, and who conveyed 216 acres of the southern part to Jacob Rumbaugh, January?3, 1840, 80 acres of which the latter conveyed to Samuel Philips, July 1, 1845, for $480. White conveyed a parcel covered by his above-mentioned patent and his other one, granted November 13, 1839, to Thomas Leard, February 26, 1840, which he conveyed to Charles Wick, March 13, 1841, which he conveyed to James P. Wick, February 26, 1849, who conveyed the same, 133 acres, to John M. Gillespie and Charles McKeever, November 21, for $950, who and Mannasses McKeever conveyed 20 acres and 6 perches to Samuel Phillips, January 10, 1856, for $250, and 41 acres and 106 perches to Nimrod Flick, same day, for $500. Charles McKeever conveyed to Flick 4 acres and 105 perches, January 5, 1859, for $93, to whom also Charles McKeever's administrator, Stephen McCue, conveyed 26 acres, June 15, 1860, for $384; Hugh McKeever, committee of Manasses McKeever, conveyed to Joseph McElroy, June 8, 1861, for $300, who conveyed 22 acres to James Brownfield, April 5, 1863. Next south of that Buchanan-Blair-White tract was one of a similar shape and of nearly the same area, the patent for which was granted to Charles Campbell, March 22, 1816, who conveyed 100 acres and 22 perches to William Blaney, June 24, 1819, for $250. Blaney by his will dated September 6, and registered September 16, 1842, devised that and another parcel mentioned below, being the farm on which he then lived, to his son John. Campbell conveyed the southern part of this tract, 200 acres, to James C. Porterfield, September 13, 1816, for $500, who occupied it for several years, and by his will dated November 8, and registered December 30, 1837, he devised it to his son, David C. The second schoolhouse in this township was built on this parcel about 1814, and the first teacher in it was David Cunningham, after whom that lastmentioned devisee was named. Adjoining the Campbell-Blaney-Porterfield tract on the east and the depreciation line on the south, is another of the same shape, 356 acres and 37 perches, March 1, 1794, which was conveyed to Charles Campbell, June 15, 1814, for $200. The early settler on it was Alexander Foster, who was assessed with 100 acres, 1 horse and 1 cow in 1805 at $91. Campbell conveyed to him 100 acres and 25 perches, June 14, 1821, for $10. Foster acquired title to the rest of this tract, except about 90 acres 543 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. in the northwestern part, which constituted the farm on which hlie lived at the time of his death, and which by his will, dated April 17, 1828, and registered May 19, 1838, he devised to his sons, Christopher, Thomas and William, which he directed to be divided in three equal parts as to quantity, and allotted the part on which was the house, in which he then lived, to Christopher, the west end to Thomas, and the northeastern part to William. William McKean acquired an interest in 93 acres in the northwestern part of this tract, which was conveyed by Philip Mechling, sheriff, to James Monteith, March 23, 1819, who devised it to his daughters. The legal title to this parcel having become vested temporarily in Thomas Foster and Robert Orr, they conveyed it to Dr. John Gilpin and William Johnston, who, and their wives, Mon teith's daughters, conveyed it to William Blaney, November 13, 1843, for $500. Adjoining the Shields-Foster tract on the north is a similar one, 405 acres and 112 perches, the warrant for which was granted to William Campbell and which was improved and settled by John Craw ford, who was assessed with 220 acres and 3 cattle in 1805 and 1806, at $114. The warrantee's interest having been transferred to "Judge James Wilson," and vested in Charles Campbell, he and Crawford agreed March 25, 1825, on such a division as that Crawford's 200 acres should include the settlement which he had made and for which he had paid taxes for the land, and Crawford agreed to prove his settlement on the tract, so as to enable Camp bell to obtain the patent. Campbell and Crawford conveyed the entire tract to James Hart for the purpose of enabling him to procure the patent for them. Crawford, desiring him to make a deed for his purpart, brought an ejectment suit therefor to No. 41, December term, 1837, in the common pleas of this county, which resulted in a verdict, Sep tember 20, 1838, for the plaintiff, on which judg ment was rendered September 22. By consent of the parties the verdict was to be released on the de fendant procuring a patent for the whole tract in the name of William Campbell, and executing a conveyance to the plaintiff for one-half of the whole tract, which was to be delivered within six months, and the plaintiff was to furnish the neces sary proof of settlement and conveyances to enable the defendant to procure the patent, which was granted January 9, 1839. Crawford conveyed his entire interest in his purpart to his son John, April 20, 1839, for $1 "and natural love and affection," 67 acres and 73 perches of which he conveyed to Alexander Crawford, February 16, 1861, for $22.50. The Campbell purpart was included in the con veyance of Jacob Mechling, sheriff, to Daniel Stannard, December 7, 1828, who conveyed 200 acres to James Hart, June 5, 1855, for $1,000, who conveyed 67 acres and 44 perches to Thomas Templeton, May 20, 1841, for $326. Adjoining the eastern part of that Campbell Crawford tract on the north and the Buchanan Vensil tract on the east is a hexagonal one, 448 acres and 89 perches, the southern part of which extends, like the short blade of a carpenter's square, eastward into what is now Washington township. The map indicates that the warrantee was James Buchanan. The warrant was granted to him Febru ary 3, 1794, but in one of the conveyances, Charles Thompson, is mentioned as the warrantee. Its earliest settler was Archibald Thompson, who made his improvement in February, and settlement on it April 9, 1801, surveyed by Ross, deputy sur veyor, November 3, 1802, and who was assessed with 400 acres of it and 1 horse, in 1805 and 1806, at $120. It was sold for taxes, and Robert Brown, county treasurer, conveyed it to William Brown, September 17, 1816, for $9, who assigned his inter est in it to James Monteith, December 11, for $13. It is in that treasurer's deed that Charles Thomp son is mentioned as the warrantee. Monteith ob tained a judgment against Archibald Thompson for $56 of debt, on which it was sold, and was con veyed by Joseph Brown, sheriff, to Monteith, Sep tember 17, 1816, for $20, who conveyed it to Philip Templeton, Sr. He, by his will heretofore men tioned, devised it to his sons Samuel and Thomas, the former of whom transferred his undivided half to the latter in 1829, and conveyed it, July 14, 1836, for $200, to whom the patent was granted, June 26, 1838, he having been first assessed with 200 acres of it, and 1 cow, in 1824, at $76. He erected his sawmill near the mouth of Snyder's run, in 1843, which was then assessed at $150. T. Templeton & Co. were first assessed with 2 mills, in 1849, at $300, and 1 factory, at $150; T. Temple ton with a furnace in 1852, and with a distillery, in 1854, at $50. His last assessment with mills was in 1856, at $100. Thomas Templeton con veyed 120 perches to the school directors of this township, October 31, 1850, which parcel was to revert to him if it should cease to be used for school-purposes for a period of three years; and, May 13, 1855, 111 acres and 158 perches, nearly all off this tract, to his son James S., for $600 "and natural love and affection;" and 106 acres and 56 perches, small portions of which were taken off the parcels which he had purchased from James Hart and Thomas McKee, to his son John, for the same 544 IN PERPETUAM MEMORIAM. and Capt. R. M. Kirkadden's for the 159th or 14th Cavalry, and five of one of the companies in the 15th Cavalry or Anderson's Troop. How many other men of Armstrong county enlisted in other regiments recruited in other counties the writer cannot now state. The aggregate, exclusive of the latter, furnished by this county, according to Col. Sirwell's calculation, is, of officers, musicians and men, three thousand six hundred and fifty-two. The amount paid out of Armstrong county treasury, by authority of law, for the relief of soldiers' families, from 1861 to 1866, was $57,063 54; for county and veteran bounties, from 1864 to 1867, $33,220 50. Total, $90,284 06.* An immense quantity of clothing, provisions and other things were also sent to the men in the army from this county by Soldiers' Aid Societies and branches of the Christian and Sanitary Commissions, and by individuals. SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETY OF KITTANNING.t The ladies of Kittanning borough and its vicinity were active from the outbreak of the war, in collecting material aid for the comfort of the men in the field. Their efforts in this behalf finally crystallized in the organization of the Ladies' Soldiers' Aid Society, March 28, 1863, the members of which were zealous and persistent in accomplishing its beneficent purpose during the continuance of the war. It is to be regretted that the records of this patriotic society have not been preserved, so that from them a full and accurate statement of its transactions may be given. From some of the monthly presentations of its doings by its president, the late Mrs. Catherine Buffington, it appears that it was instrumental in collecting large quantities of lint, handkerchiefs, clothing, books, magazines, newspapers, fruits and vegetables, which were grateful to the soldiers in field or camp, while the reports of the treasurers, Misses Margaret McElhenny, Alice Colwell and Fannie E. Orr, show that the cash receipts and disbursements amounted to $1,489.54. The balance of $33.49, finally remaining in the treasury, was transferred to the society connected with the Christian Commission. Besides direct appeals to individuals for contributions, a supper was given by the society in 1863, the net proceeds of which amounted to about $250; in March, 1864, a grand musical concert was given in the courthouse, which was well patronized, but run the society in debt $4.20; * Of this amount, the sum of $15,170 38 was raised in Kittanning of which the sum of $5,033 83 was raised by tax, and the residue, $10,136 55, was contributed by individuals. t Accounts of other aid societies will be found in the history of those places in which they were organized. 5 in December following Prof. Kidd gave two of his masterly elocutionary entertainments, and divided the proceeds with the society, from which the latter, without any trouble or expense, realized the sum of $32.25. The people of this county may justly claim to hold a high rank among the patriotic hosts of other parts of our state and country, in aiding our imperiled government in maintaining the perpetuity of the free institutions, founded by the wisdom, valor, patriotism and philanthropy of the fathers of our republic. While attending the obsequies of a Union soldier in July, 1863, it occurred to the writer that the names and patriotic deeds of the hosts of subordinate officers and privates who fell in the War of the Rebellion, should in some way be rescued from the oblivion into which the names of such usually fall, and so the ideas contained in the following and closing paragraphs in this general sketch of our county then sprang up in his mind, which he subsequently shaped into an article published in the Kittanning Free Press, January 1, 1864, and which is here reproduced: IN PERPETUAM MEMORIAM. All who have gone and all who may yet go forth to defend our country, its free institutions, its best of civil governments, and the cherished flag for which our fathers fought against the ruthless attacks of conspirators and traitors, should be held in perpetual remembrance. The names and heroic deeds of our generals and other prominent officers will be perpetuated on the historian's enduring pages. But the names and frequent equally heroic deeds of thousands of private soldiers, because too numerous, cannot thus be rescued from oblivion. Yet they will deserve to be kept in grateful remembrance at least by those of their countrymen who now inhabit, and who will continue to inhabit, the respective localities which gave them to the service of the country. Wherein the injustice of history, if we may so speak, withholds from subordinates and privates their well earned meed of praise and immortality of fame, the people who are the recipients of the benefits resulting from their devotion, prowess, privations, hardships, dangers and bloody sacrifices should so far as possible remedy this unavoidable injustice of history. The names of all, it is true, will be on the rolls in the war office. But is this enough? We think they should also be permanently enrolled in the respective cities, boroughs and townships from which they entered the army. Hence we beg leave to suggest that a proper SUGAR CREEK TOWNSHIP. consideration. James conveyed his parcel to his uncle, Philip Templeton, October 14, 1864, for $1,800; and as administrator, by virtue of an order of the orphans' court of this county, he conveyed the residue of his father's real estate, about 332 acres, to the same, June 6, for $4,500; 22 acres of which he conveyed to David Hepler, April 12, 1873, for $1,100. In 1865 the Templeton Oil Company was organized and drilled a well about 1,500 feet deep, near the mouth of Snyder's run, on this tract, at a cost of about 86,000. There was in the course of the drilling a slight but not remunerative show of oil, the " smelling " for which was not of course successful. The Sugar Creek and Phillipsburgh Ferry Company, with a capital stock of $300, each share $10, was organized in 1878, for the purpose of transporting passengers, animals, vehicles and freight across the Allegheny river, with its principal place of business at this point, named Ferryton in the charter. John Templeton was chosen president, Henry C. Pritner secretary and treasurer, John E., Thomas and William B. Templeton, directors of the company for the first year. The letters patent were granted by Governor Hartranft, January 2, 1879. Adjoining that Buchanan-Thompson tract on the east and north is a trapezoidal one, 390 acres, the warrant for which was granted to Adam Maxwell, and the patent to James Watterson, February 8, 1820, who, in pursuance of a previous agreement, conveyed it to Archibald McCall amnd Samuel A. Gilmore, August 9, 1836, for $1, who conveyed it to Joseph White, July 9, 1839, for $300, and which he conveyed to Joseph Hicks, March 31, 1846, for $1,400, to whose heirs it now belongs, being partly in Washington township. Contiguous to the Buchanan-Thompson tract on the south is one, 447 acres and 116 perches, a rectangular parallelogram, partly in what is now Washington township, the warrant for which was granted to James Campbell in 1794, on which John Elder was the early settler, with 400 acres of which and 1 horse he was assessed, in 1805, at $185, and the next year, with the same and 1 cow, at $190, when it was transferred to Andrew Blair, to whom it was assessed until 1812, after which it was occupied by James Elder, to whom 100 acres of it, 1 horse and 1 cow were assessed, in 1813, at $76. The patent for the entire tract was granted to Charles Campbell, June 2, 1828, who conveyed it, the same year, to Thomas Foster, who conveyed 150 acres of it to James Elder for $1 and the settler's right, which hlie conveyed to Robert Thorn, shoemaker, March 9, 1833, for $300, which the latter conveyed to Joseph Thorn, August 15, 1844, for $500, 75 acres of which hlie conveyed to David Hays, August 20, 1844, for $750, and 83 acres to David W. Burk, six days later, for $800, which he conveyed to David Hays, April 26, 1847, for $550. Hays conveyed 186 acres to Robert Hays, May 19, 1852, for $625, and 12 acres and 82 perches to Henry Coffman, February 6, 1861, which the latter conveyed to Robert Hays, February 16, 1862, for $191. Foster- conveyed 265 acres and 135 perches of his purpart to Thomas McKee, September 15, 1831, for $450, 5 acres and 2 perches of which hlie conveyed to Thomas Templeton, April 28, 1832, for $14. McKee resided on this tract until his decease, where he opened his store prior to 1860. He died intestate, and in proceedings in partition the inquest valued the residue of this parcel, 264 acres, as surveyed by J. E. Meredith, February 2, 1867, at $8,470, which was not taken by any of the heirs at the appraisement, but all of them except one having conveyed their interests to Thomas V. McKee, the court decreed, June 3, 1867, that this land be awarded to him. Between that Campbell-Elder tract and the depreciation line is a similar one, 367 acres and 52 perches, the warrant for which was granted to Samuel Dixon, March 1, 1794, who conveyed his interest in it to Charles Campbell, June 19, 1814, for $400, to whom the patent was granted, June 16, 1816, on which Samuel Elder was the early settler, to whom it was surveyed by Ross, deputy surveyor, March 6, 1805, and with 200 acres of which, 1 horse and 2 cows he was assessed in 1805, at $117, and the next year, with 1 cow less, at $111. His widow remained in the tenure of it several years after his death, who was succeeded by Abraham Swartzlander in 1827, who was assessed in 1834, as a shoemaker. This tract was included in the conveyance of Jacob Mechling, sheriff, to Daniel Stannard, December 7, 1828, and in the agreement between James Campbell and Dr. Gilpin, and in Stannard's conveyance to the latter, January 29, 1840. McCall claimed an interest in it, which Charles Campbell in his lifetime agreed to purchase. George A. McCall, then of Memphis, Tennessee, having brought an ejectment against Abraham Swartzlander and other occupants in the circuit court of the United States to recover it, Gilpin purchased his interest, which was conveyed to him, October 26, 1839, for $500. Gilpin conveyed 100 acres to Jacob Hepler, Jr., August 25, 1845, for $650, and 135 acres and 118 perches to George Kenworthy, June 21, 1854, for $1,357.77, 545 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. which Kenworthy conveyed to William B. Srader, September 27, for $2,443.27, and which the latter conveyed to Isaac C. Steele, August 9, 1871, for $6,400. Those two parcels are chiefly, if not wholly, in what is now Washington township. Elder, widow Elder and Swartzlander probably occupied the western part of the tract. The records are obscure respecting the disposition of the settler's purpart. It is noted on the assessment list for 1837, which was made in the fall of 1836, that the 256 acres that had been assessed to Swartzlander for several years were "transferred to Alexander Foster, Sr.," of whose farm the western part of this tract was a portion included in his devises to his sons Christopher and William. The first census taken after Sugar Creek was reduced to its present area was that of 1860, when its population was 1,101. In 1870, it was: Native, 969; foreign, 54. Its number of taxables in 1876 is 287. The assessment list made in the last-mentioned year shows the occupations of the inhabitants exclusive of the agricultural portion to have been: Laborers, 25; carpenters, 6; blacksmiths, 3; merchant, 1 - there were at least 3; miller, 1; shoemakers, 2. 1860. Number schools, 9; average number months taught, 4; male teachers, 9; average salaries per month, $20; male scholars, 196; female scholars, 163; average number attending school, 204; amount levied for school purposes, $884.88; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 56 cents; received from state appropriation, $143 35; from collectors, $520; cost of instruction, $720; fuel, etc., $90; cost of schoolhouses, $20. 1876. Number schools, 9; average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 5; female teachers, 4; average number salaries per month, both male and female, $30; male scholars, 143; female scholars, 129; average number attending school, 200; cost per month, $1.06; tax levied, $1,860; received from state appropriation, $227.85; from taxes, etc., $2,327.90; paid teachers, $1,350; fuel, etc., $771.75. The people of this township voted on the license question, February 28, 1873, thus: Against granting licenses, 63; for licenses, 39. Geological.-The surface rocks in this township consist largely of the Lower Barrens. This is evident from the smooth condition of its upland farms. The lower productive rocks skirt the eastern edge of the township, and in the northeast corner, where the river touches the ferriferous limestone, are also above water-level for a short distance on Little Buffalo creek near Foster's mills. The upper Freeport coal is small and unimportant in this section. Further west below the Catholic church it expands to four feet thick, and has its limestone underneath it. Structure.-An anticlinal axis extends across the southeast corner of the township, so that, westward from this past Adams, the dip is to the northwest, which explains the absence of coal and the presence here of the Lower Barrens. 546 CHAPTER XXV. WASHINGTON. The Township Struck off from Sugar Creek in 1858- First Election of Officers - Major Part of the Town ship South of the Donation Land Line -The Pioneers and First Owners of the Principal Tracts - Church of the Brethren of Christ - Lands North of the Donation Line - Van Buren Laid Out - Watter sonville - Methodist Episcopal Church - Statistics - Geology. THE petition of citizens of Sugar Creek township was presented to the court of quarter sessions of this county April 3, 1858, representing that their township was entirely too large to be convenient, being nearly sixteen by six or seven miles; that many of them living on the river and in the outskirts were virtually disfranchised on account of their great distance from the place of holding the elections and "the difficulties of the roads," and prayed the court to appoint suitable persons to divide their township by a line beginning on the southern boundary east of William Campbell's farm, and extending to or near Nicholas Cook's, on the Allegheny river, and to name the part east of that line Washington. The course of the proposed line was nearly from southwest to northeast. Other citizens remonstrated against.such a division. The court, August 11, 1858, appointed James Douglass, Franklin Reynolds and James Stewart the commissioners. Their report, presented September 18, was adverse to the proposed division, because the proposed line would not " divide the township fairly;" would " destroy two school districts and disturb a third," " running within eight feet of the Templeton schoolhouse and within 17 perches of McClatchey's schoolhouse," and would leave many of the voters in as "bad if not worse condition than they were in before." They believed " Sugar Creek township large enough to make two good townships, giving to each an area of about thirty square miles, by a line running north and south." They therefore recommended to the court such an alteration in the order given them as would make the division satisfactory. Their report was held over until October 18, when, by consent of the attorneys for the petitioners and the remonstrants, the court granted leave to withdraw the petition and the order to be so amended as to give those commissioners full power to divide the townships by such lines as they should think best, and an alias order was accordingly issued. The township was then divided by a line beginning at a point on the Allegheny river, on the heretoforementioned Maxwell-White tract,* and extending somewhat southeasterly to the Franklin, now the East Franklin township line. The first election held in Washington township, in February, 1859, resulted thus: Leonard Fair and David Wolf were elected justices of the peace; Geo. W. Cousins, constable; Samuel H. Dickey, treasurer; Geo. L. Davis, Jacob Woods and David Wolf, auditors; James F. Cowan and David Yerty, supervisors; John A. Foster, town clerk; William S. Campbell and George Claypoole, overseers of the poor; George C. Claypoole, James F. Cowan, John A. Foster, Philip Templeton (of S.), David Wolf and Jacob Woods, school directors; George W. Cousins, assessor; Jacob Woods, judge; and John A. Foster and Absalom Wolf, inspectors of election. For the place of holding elections, Henry Helzel, 69, Adam Wyant, 52, and William Groves, 5 votes. The greater portion of the territory of Washington township is below or south of the depreciation and donation line, the original tracts of which will be first sketched. The eastern portions of the Michael Red and David Henry tracts, as heretofore mentioned,t are in the southwestern part of this township. Adjoining the Henry tract on the north is one, a rectangular parallelogram, 4071 acres, extending north to the donation line, and west into what is now Sugar Creek township, which is but partially bounded on the Gapen map, on which is the name of "Alexr. Denniston," to which Charles McClatchey acquired title by improvement and settlement, to whom it was surveyed by Ross, deputy surveyor, April 23, 1805, 407 acres and 91 perches, with 400 acres of which, 1 horse and 1 cow he was assessed in 1805 and 1806 at $191, and which he conveyed to Archibald Dickey, March 1, 1834, for $400. The latter conveyed it to John McGarvey, October 25, 1836, for $700, who conveyed it to his sons: 213 acres and 148 perches to William, November 16, 1849, for $100, in the northeastern part of which is the McClatchey * See Sugar Creek township. t See Sugar Creek township. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. schoolhouse. Ile conveyed 113 acres and 106 perches to Peter Mobley, June 5, 1850, for $904, which he conveyed to John Sutton, April 11, 1855, for $-, who conveyed 57 acres to Christopher Foster, May 29, for $803.70. John McGarvey to his son David, other 213 acres and 138 perches, the southern part of the tract, December 13, 1849, for $1,000, of which he conveyed 25 acres to James B. Morrison, September 8, 1864, for $500, and 38 acres and 30 perches to John McBride, April 24, 1866, for $826. Adjoining the northern part of that DennistonMcClatchey tract on the east is a partially bounded one, a rectangular parallelogram, if completely bounded, lengthwise, east anid west, with the name of "Arch'd Denniston." John Kerr was its original settler, to whom it was surveyed by Ross, deputy surveyor, May 4, 1805, as containing 403 acres and 123 perches, with 350 acres of which, and 1 cow, he was assessed in 1805, at $93.50, and the next year with the same and 2 additional cattle, at 108.50. James Fulton obtained a judgment against Kerr, for $109.32 of debt, on which the latter's interest in this tract was sold by Jonathan King, sheriff, who conveyed it to Robert Orr, December 19, 1809, for $46, who conveyed it to Paul Morrow, December 21, 1810, for $50, which Morrow conveyed to Nathaniel Stewart, April 9, 1813, for $200, who conveyed it to Joseph Taylor, August 12, 1816, for $1,000, the last-mentioned names being on it on the other map. The records do not show what became of Taylor's interest in it. Matthias Buiheimer claimed, acquired an interterest in, obtained a warrant for about 75 acres of the northern part, which David Johnston, county treasurer, sold to Alexander Colwell, for taxes, and conveyed the same to him, June 26, 1830, for $2, which he conveyed to Michael Fair, September 8, 1838, for $103, which he conveyed to Simon Fair, April 8, 1841, for $75, who conveyed 23 acres to William McClatchey, September 30, 1843, for $50; 40 acres to Nicholas Clark, March 16, 1842, for $67, both of which parcels have been considerably subdivided. James Cowan was first assessed with 240 acres of it, and 1 cow, in 1825, at $180. He continued in the occupancy of it until 1843. That portion of it was thereafter assessed to James F. Cowan, to whom the warrant was granted April 24, and the patent July 3, 1848, for 241 acres and 156 perches for 39 cents, exclusive of the amount paid on obtaining the warrant, to whom Orr conveyed whatever interest he had in it by virtue of Sheriff King's sale to him, November 23, 1867, for $1. Cowan conveyed 7 acres March 9, 1868, and 241 acres and 56 perches, the same day, to John W. Littey, for $7,500, and removed to the West. The northern part began to be cleared about 1856, and it has since been occupied by divers persons, whose proper title is not apparent from the records. A portion of the northwestern part became vested in David IIays, which he conveyed to John Donnell, who conveyed it to William Donnell, who conveyed 67 acres and 100 perches of it to Michael Fair, February 1, 1865, for $500, reserving 1 acre and 40 perches, the Methodist church lot, on which a frame church edifice was erected in 1854, while Hays owned it, as stated by David J. Reed, who was the contractor and builder. Adjoining that Archibald Denniston-Kerr tract on the south is an incompletely bounded one on the Gapen map, bearing the name of "Jas. Nichols." Oni the other map is a hexagonal one, the northern part, like the-short blade of a square, extending eastwardly, and the other part, like the long blade, extending southwardly along the Henry, and the northern part of the Red tract, on which the original settler appears to have been Robert Galbraith, who was assessed with 400 acres in 1805 and 1806, at $100. Ile probably had some one else on as settler for him, for he had a tannery near where Worthington now is, where he died in 1807, when the 75 acres which he had there occupied were " rated to David Graham, doctor." Galbraith's interest in this tract, 150 acres, was sold by Jonathan King, sheriff, on a judgment in favor of Samuel Matthews for $50 of debt, and $2.50 of costs which the sheriff conveyed to James Mateer, September 16, 1811, for $60.25, and which Mateer agreed to sell to William Gibson, tailor, June 8, 1813, for $200, one-half in cash and the other half in trade, who was first assessed with 400 acres in 1814, at $100, to whom it continued to be assessed until 1828, when it was noted on the assessment list as " seated by John Green." John Remor was also a settler on this tract, against whom James Monteith obtained a judgment for $27.37 of debt, on which fi. fa. to No. 41, June term, was issued and a levy taken on 400 acres, about 4 acres of which were cleared, on which a cabin house and barn were erected. Inquisition was held and the land was appraised at $744 and condemned. It was sold by Robert Robinson, sheriff, to Monteith for $55, who devised it to his daughters, whose husbands, Gilpin and Johnston, obtained a patent for the entire tract March 29, 1837. They and their wives conveyed 121 acres and 64 perches in the central part, including the settler's improvement, to Nancy McGregor, to whose husband, Allen McGregor, it was assessed 548 WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. after John Green left, July 25,1837, for $75, which she conveyed to Conrad Helm, August 1, who conveyed the same to Jacob Helm, June 12, 1849, for $200. They and their wives conveyed 137 acres and 32 perches of the southern part to William Dickey, July 25, for $411, to whose estate it still belongs. They also conveyed 55 acres of the northern part to James Porterfield, August 12, 1848, which he the same day conveyed to his son James C. Porterfield, which he conveyed to Robert Dickey, April 8, 1854, which he conveyed to Philip Templeton, July 25, 1857, for $1,200. Adjoining that Nichols-Galbraith tract on the south, vacant on the Gapen map, is one on the other map, a rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise north and south, 399 acres and 146 perches, on which Jacob Steelsmith began an improvement in 1793, a settlement May 7, 1796, which Ross, deputy surveyor, surveyed to him July 9, 1801, and for which, called "Smith's Choice," the patent was granted to him September 3, 1810, who conveyed 100 acres and 8 perches to John Leard, April 11, 1814, for $325, which the latter by his will, dated November 29, 1814, and registered March 16, 1821, devised to his son Oliver. Steelsmith conveyed that portion of " Smith's Choice " on which he then lived, 110 acres, to his son Simon, August 16, 1816, for natural love and maintenance; also the 116 acres and 116 perches heretofore mentioned,* which latter parcel he conveyed to Michael Fair, who conveyed to John Fair, who conveyed 56 acres of that part of it in what is now Washington township, April 16, 1866, for the comfortable maintenance of himself and wife the rest of their lives. East of " Smith's Choice" on the Gapen map is vacant territory, but on the other is a square tract, 331 acres, on which Anderson Truitt was the original settler. He was assessed with 300 acres of it, 1 horse and 1 cow, in 1805, at $101. On the assessment list of that the land is noted as "transferred." He and Elijah Mounts agreed July 30, to sell and purchase 150 acres of it for $350, in payments: ~50 in hand, and the rest in annual payments of ~50, except the last, which was to be ~17 10Os, Truitt to make "a clear deed" by May 1, 1806, which he did not do. The warrant was not granted to him until February 5, and the patent July 5, 1810. He conveyed this tract, called " Albany," to John Beatty, November 15, 1813, for $220, which he conveyed to Robert Beatty and David Rankin, November 15, 1813. Rankin having released his interest therein to Beatty, the latter conveyed the entire tract, 353 acres, to Martin *See East Franklin. John, Jr., January 13, 1833, in pursuance of an agreement made November 16, 1827, for $430, 20 acres and 6 perches of the western part of which he conveyed to Oliver Leard, July 3, for $50, and 85 acres and 96 perches to his oldest son, Michael, April 19, 1855, for $1 and " natural love and affection," with which the latter is assessed in 1876 at $1,190, and by his will dated March 8 and registered April 30, 1856, devised the rest to his wife "to have and to hold for her living and to dispose of as she pleases," and which she by her will, dated December 27, 1866, and registered September 12, 1870, devised to her son Christman John, who conveyed 106 acres to George H. Foster, June, 10, 1873, for $3,930. Adjoining "Albany" and " Smith's Choice" on the north is vacant territory on the Gapen map, with the name of " Allan McCard," for 400 acres of which, a rectangular parallelogram lengthwise east and west, John Mounts obtained a warrant November 13, 1807, and the patent January 16, 1809, 200 acres of the western part of which he conveyed to Leonard Hearley, June 6, for $800, which he conveyed to Christian Ruffner, October 17, 1812, for $1,809, which he occupied until his death. All his heirs except IHannah Marvin and Daniel Ruffner released their interests to Alexander and Solomon Ruffner, December 15, 1843, for $500. In subsequent proceedings in partition this parcel was divided by the inquest, May 26, 1859, into two purparts, "A," 91 acres and 70 perches, valued at $731.50, and "1 B," 121 acres and 20 perches, at $969. "A" was awarded by the court to Alexander, and "B" was accepted by Solomon, September 7, at the valuation. Daniel was absent and had not been heard from for more than twenty years prior to the inquisition, and was supposed to be dead. Mounts conveyed the eastern part of this tract, 200 acres, to Martin John, Sr., September 20, 1809, for $250, which, and 325 acres in Toby township, he conveyed to his sons John and Peter, and his sons-in-law, John Christman and Henry Helsel, June 4, 1836, for $5 and "natural love and affection." Adjoining that Mounts-John-Ruffner tract on the north is a hexagonal one, " 435a,' bounded on the north by the depreciation line, surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to "Arthur Denniston," on which the original settler was William Freeman, to whom and A. McCall it was surveyed by Ross, deputy surveyor, May 3, 1805, 422 acres. Freeman was assessed with 400 acres of it and 2 cows, in 1805, at $112, and the next year, with the same and 1 horse, at $122, and the last time with 549 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. the same in 1812, at $125. What disposition he made of his settler's right is not apparent from the records. Henry Heltzell was assessed with it and 1 cow, in 1825, at $106. The patent was granted to him and McCall, October 29, 1831, 200 acres and 50 perches of which McCall conveyed to Heltzell, June 21, 1832, for $1, 31 acres of which the latter conveyed to Valentine Bowser, who conveyed the same parcel to John Ellenberger, Sr., which the latter conveyed to John Ellenberger, Jr., and was included in his conveyance of 108 acres and 30 perches, the major part of which was included in the survey on warrant to Johfi Ellenberger, Sr., April 16, 1830, to Simon Ellenberger, June 4,1859, for $2,200. Heltzell by his will dated July 15, and registered August 4, 1866, devised the rest of his purpart, about 160 acres, to his stepson, "Emanuel Rydybush" (Roudabush). McCall conveyed 100 acres and 122 perches of his purpart to Peter John, July 10, 1834, for $250. The other portion, 130 acres and 18 perches, was included in the sale by McCall's heirs to William F. Johnston, 80 acres and 16 perches of which he conveyed to Gideon Morrow, June 24, 1856, for $568.70, which the latter had occupied for several previous years, where he opened a store in 1860 and started a distillery in 1865, and 50 acres and 100 perches to Alexander Chilcott, August 9,1853, for $354.38 The place for holding the elections in this township has been since its organization at Heltzell's, and since his death at Roudabush's house. Adjoining that Denniston-Heltzel-McCall tract on the east is one, nearly a rectangular parallelogram, extending south and lengthwise from the depreciation line, which appears on the Gapen map to have been surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to" Simon Hovey, 400. 120." Contiguous to it on the east and the depreciation line on the north is one just like it, except a slight southern projection of its southeastern part, which appears from that map to have been surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to " John Elliott, Jr., 410.80." The original settler on the former of these two tracts was Valentine Bowser, with 100 acres of which, 2 horses and 1 cow he was assessed, in 1804, at $55, and the next year at $67. This tract was surveyed to him and McCall as containing 375 acres and 63 perches, by Ross, deputy surveyor, May 4, 1805. He was assessed with 400 acres and the same stock, in 1806, at $182, and the next year at $186. One or another of his sons appears to have been afterward assessed with it, or a portion of it. The name on the latter of these two tracts in not legible; on the other map there is nothing but its boundary lines and "410'.' James Sloan, "farmer," appears from Ross' descriptions of the lands surveyed to Bowser and McCall to have been the original settler, for "James Sloan," there mentioned as the eastern adjoiner, and in his survey to McCall and Elijah Mounts as a southern adjoiner. He was assessed with 400 acres, 2 horses and 2 cows, in 1804, at $172, and the next year with the same, less 1 horse, at $172. Patents for these two tracts were granted to McCall October 29, 1829. He conveyed 185 acres to Valentine Bowser, June 21, 1832, for $1, who by his will, dated October 21, 1835, and registered March 12, 1836, devised this land, on which he then resided, to his children "as tenants in common, and not as joint-tenants," in equal portions, except that his daughter Christina should have $50 over the otherwise equal proportion. All or nearly all of this purpart still belongs to his heirs. McCall conveyed 150 acres and 94 perches of his purpart of this tract to John McCauley, July 16, 1834, for $602. Sixty-one acres and 110 perches of it were included in the conveyance from McCall's heirs to William F. Johnston, which he agreed to sell to William Neville, who failed to pay the purchase money, so that an ejectment was brought to recover either the land or the purchase money. The land was restored to the vendor by a writ of habere facias, which was subsequently purchased by John McCullough, the stepfather of Neville's heirs. It is not apparent from the records what disposition was made of the settler's right to a portion of these two tracts. A. and Daniel Bowser appear to have acquired it, for they conveyed 85 acres and 8 perches of it to Christian Yerty June 20, 1831, who conveyed 108 perches, including the cold spring, on which schoolhouse No. 13, then in Sugar Creek township, was to be erected, to the school directors, September 8, 1849, for $1. Yerty's heirs conveyed this Bowser-Yerty parcel to Benjamin S. Bowser, July 13, 1863, for $725. Daniel Bowser conveyed 94 acres and 28 perches to McCall, June 17, 1833, for $330. McCall's heirs conveyed 338 acres and 64 perches of this tract, among other parcels, to William F. Johnston, 120 acres and 118 perches of which he conveyed to William Grover, August 9, 1833, for $955.90, on which the latter opened his store and hotel; 101 acres and 45 perches to John John, August 2, 1854, for $706.40, which the latter's heirs conveyed to Benjamin S. Bowser, March 22, 1862, for $1,350; 1031 acres to Frederick R. Bowser, June 27, 1856, for $826. Adjoining these two last-described tracts on the 550 WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. south is a very nearly square one on the Gapen map, which was surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to "Sam'l Kincade, 400.38." Kincade's interest in it having become vested in Archibald McCall, by the transfer to him of Kincade's survey and obtaining a warrant of acceptance, McCall and Elijah Mounts entered into an agreement respecting it, August 30, 1796, the terms of which were: McCall having paid the purchase money, Mounts agreed to improve, settle, and reside on it as required by law, to enable McCall to obtain a patent for it, who agreed to make title to Mounts for 120 acres, "including Kincade's improvement," "to be taken of good and bad according to the quantity and quality of the whole tract." It was accordingly settled by Mounts, to whom it was surveyed as containing 399 acres and 93 perches, by Ross, deputy surveyor, March 5,1805,and resurveyed by him as containing the same quantity, December 18, 1806. Three hundred acres were assessed to Mounts in 1805, at $105. The warrant was granted to McCall and Mounts' administrators, John Mounts and Jesse Young, March 6, 1809, to whom McCall conveyed 120 acres of the western part of the tract, making a hexagonal parcel, March 5, 1815, which they conveyed to Martin John, Sr., May 16, 1817, for $450, and which was included in his abovementioned conveyance to his children, being a part of the 320 acres which they agreed to sell to Jacob Frick in his lifetime, who by his will, dated October 12, and registered November 6, 1838, bequeathed and devised all his personal and real estate to his wife Elizabeth during her life or widowhood, to be divided equally among his children, except Michael, who had received his share, after her death or marriage. This parcel of 120 acres and the 200 acres which John had purchased from John Mounts were conveyed by John's heirs to Mrs. Frick, May 4, 1839, for $3,000. Some of Jacob Frick's heirs subsequently conveyed their interests in the residue of the real estate which their father and mother had left, to Adam Wyant, some of which he conveyed to Christian Wyant, March 21, 1864. The patent for this tract was granted to McCall, November 2, 1827, whose purpart was included in his heirs' sale to William F. Johnston, who conveyed it, October 5, 1854, thus: 134 acres and 85 perches to Peter Bowser, for $1,100, and 173 acres and 51 perches to David J. and Samuel M. Reed, for $1,473.20. Bowser conveyed his parcel to Henry Isaman, April 13, 1857, for $2,152, whose widow, guardian of his children, conveyed 114 acres and 85 perches of it to Christopher Wyant, by virtue of an order of the orphans' court of this county of March 13, 1865, for $1,000. The Reeds conveyed portions of their parcel, March 28, 1863, 92 acres to Bartholomew Wyant, for $1,472; 4 acres to Adam Wyant, for $80, and 20 acres to Bartholomew Bucher, for $360. Adjoining that Kincade-McCall-Mounts tract on the south is the northern and major part of the Francis Johnston tract heretofore mentioned.* Alexander W. Johnston, executor of Alice Johnston, who was the sole executrix of Francis Johnston, conveyed the Johnston purpart of this tract, February 26, 1839; 106 acres and 7 perches to Eli Fair for $212, who traded 7 acres with Martin John for an equal quantity, June 17, 1845; conveyed 4 acres to George S. King, September 1, 1847, for $40, and 95 acres and 7 perches to Philip Christman, May 2, 1849, for $650, Johnston conveyed 108 acres and 146 perches to Peter Fair the same day as to Eli, for $217.75, which the latter for $1 "and natural love and affection" conveyed to Leonard Fair, August 17, 1849. The early settlers in this section were Lutherans, to whom Rev. Gabriel A. Reichert occasionally preached in private houses, barns and groves in his early ministerial itinerations. In February, 1824, he organized the Limestone Evangelical Lutheran church, of which John Christman and Michael Fair were the first elders. They and their wives, Frederick Christman, John Ellenberger, Peter Fair, Peter and William Toy, David and John Wolf, and their wives, and Jacob Wolf were the original members. The religious services were held at the house of John Crissman from 1824 until 1844, and at the house of Leonard Fair thereafter until 1855. The name of this church was changed in 1844 to Bethlehem, and in 1855 to St. Mark's, its present one. The present number of members is 150, and Sabbath-school scholars 50. The various pastors of this church have been Rev.. G. A. Reichert from 1824 till 1837; Rev. John Errenser, from 1843 till 1844; Rev. Krantz, from 1844 till 1847; Rev. J. A. Miner, from 1847 till 1851; Rev. M. Steck, from 1851 till 1854; Rev. A. C. Ehrenfeld, from 1855 till 1858; Rev. F. Rutherauff, from 1858 till 1859;.Rev. C. Whitmer, from 1860 till 1862; Rev. J. Singer in 1863; Rev. H. J. H. Leneke, from 1864 till 1866, and from then Rev. J. W. Schwartz, the present one, to whom the writer is under obligations for these facts. The present church edifice, frame, painted white, 30 X 40 feet, on the right bank of the Limestone, was erected on the Johnston purpart of this tract. Leonard Fair conveyed 135 square perches of the parcel which his father conveyed to *See East Franklin township. 551 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. him to John Fair, Jr., and Jacob Toy, trustees of this congregation, November 1, 1859, and Philip Chrissman, 34- square perches of the parcel which he purchased from Eli Fair, to these trustees, March 17, 1860, each for $1. Adjoining the central part of that JohnstonMcKee tract on the east in what is now Washington township, about one-third of the heretofore described Ingersolt-Henry tract,* contiguous to which on the north is a hexagonal one which appears on the Gapen map to have been surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to "Alex'r Trimble, 431.60," whose interest became vested in Archibald McCall, on which Benjamin Leasure was the original settler, who was assessed with 400 acres of it and 1 cow in 1804, at $86, and the next year with the land only, at $80. The patent was granted to him and McCall, February 13, 1809, in which this tract is named " Canton." McCall not having released the settler's portion to Leasure before his assignment to Du Pont, the latter by Thomas White, his attorney-in-fact, conveyed 150 acres of the southern part to Benjamin Leasure, as his purpart, June 21, 1832, to whom Du Pont himself conveyed it, May 24, 1836. Leasure conveyed 85 perches off the north side of his purpart, including schoolhouse No. 23, to the school directors of Sugar Creek township, in January, 1846. Leasure by his will, not dated, but registered March 19, 1847, devised his "plantation on which George Hooks lived," which was this purpart of "Canton," to his son George, who became satisfied from his father's acts and declarations, both before and after making his will, that the person who wrote it had erred in limiting the devise to George-that his intention was to devise it to both him and his brother Abraham. They, therefore, made an amicable partition, and George conveyed one parcel of 29 and another of 34 acres to Abraham, August 19, 1853. The Brethren in Christ church was organized in this part of what is now Washington township, about 1842, by Rev. George Shoemaker, and was sometimes called the "Shoemakerian church." The church edifice, frame, was erected in 1858 on the above-mentioned portion of "Canton," conveyed by George to Abraham Leasure. For the purpose of conveying a moiety of the edifice and ground to the Church of God, Abraham Leasure conveyed the lot to Nicholas Leasure, Samuel Stouffer and Adam Wyant, February 13, 1864, which they conveyed, the same day, to Abraham Leasure and J. C. Plowman, who conveyed "one half of a house of worship and graveyard * See East Franklin township. with all the appurtenances " and the 80 square perches on which they were situated, to " John Hovis, chairman of the Standing Committee of the West Pennsylvania Eldership of the Church of God," March 26, 1866, for $302.67, since when the property has been jointly owned by both congregations. The membership of the Brethren in Christ church is about 2.5; number of Sabbathschool scholars, 15. The McCall purpart of "Canton," 272 acres and 130 perches, passed from his heirs to William F. Johnston, a part of which he conveyed to Abraham Leasure, Jr., July 19, 1852, 61 acres and 150 acres of which, including about 32 acres previously conveyed, hlie conveyed to Abraham Leasure, Sr., August 25, 1853, for $587.50, that is for both parcels. Johnston conveyed a portion of the land to John John, June 27, 1856, whose heirs conveyed 72 acres and 27 perches to Philip John, January 26, 1869, for $500, which their father in his lifetime had agreed to sell to him. Adjoining " Canton" onii the north is another hexagonal tract, which appears on the Gapen map to have been surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to "Jas. Trimble,* 354" acres, whose interest became vested in McCall. The original settler was Samuel Clark, to whom and McCall it was surveyed by Ross, deputy surveyor, as containing 361 acres and 43 perches, May 3, 1805, who was assessed that and the previous year with 400 acres and 1 cow, at $106, to whom it continued to be assessed until 1816, then to Robert Colgan until 1817, when it was transferred to John Wolf, who *Alexander Trimble, father of the one of that name above mentioned, came, it is supposed, from the north of Ireland. Little is known of him, says Mrs. Paul Graff in her contribution to the Pennsylvania lMagazie of History and Biography. He was member of the Second Presbyterian church of Philadelphia, while it was under the pastorate of Rev. Gilbert Tennent. Ile died prior to 1769, leaving several children, of whom James, above mentioned, was the eldest. Mr. Hamilton states that he was apprenticed in the land office about 1770, when he was fifteen years old. He was a subordinate clerk of the state council as early as 1775. When Timothy Matlack became secretary of the commonwealth, March 6, 1777, James Trimble was appointed deputy secretary, or assistant secretary, of the supreme executive council. Alexander J. Dallas, the first secretary of the commonwealth, under the constitution of 1790, appointed Trimble deputy secretary March 12, 1791. He was deputy secretary through all the administrations from 1777 until 1837. "In the judgment of his cotemporaries he was a faithful public servant; a man of unimpeachable integrity, of obliging manners, respected by the community at large, and beloved by his family, to whom he greatly endeared himself by his kindness and affection." James Trimble married the widow of John Hastings April 22,1782. Her maiden name was Clarissa Claypoole, a descendant of James Claypoole, an intimate friend of William Penn, who emigrated from England in 1682, accompanying the first settlers of Germantown, on the Concord, and a brother of John Claypoole, who married Oliver Cromwell's daughter Elizabeth. James Trimble aided in packing and removing the state papers when the British occupied Philadelphia, and when the seat of government was removed to Lancaster in 1799, and thence to Harrisburg in 1812. He was a member of and a pewholder in the Second Presbyterian church in Philadelphia, which he attended until he removed to Lancasterin 1799. After his removal to Harrisburg he was appointed trustee and treasurer of the Presbyterian congregation there, which position he held until his death, January 26, 1837, in his eighty-third year, having served his state faithfully for sixty-seven years. The mortification of his removal from the position which he had so long and creditably filled, although for mere partisan reasons, was too intense, for he died of a broken heart in eleven days after it occurred. There is a portrait of him, painted by Waugh from an original by Eicholz, in the chamber of the secretary of the commonwealth. 552 WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. probably acquired the settler's purpart, which chiefly belongs to his heirs. The patent for it was granted to McCall May 28, 1833, 203 acres and 47 perches of which his heirs conveyed to William F. Johnston, of which he conveyed 134 acres and 34 perches to Bartholomew Wyant, April 15, 1852, for $739.52, and 64 acres and 156 perches, August 16, for $505.80, who soon afterward sold 6 acres to John Wolf for $10 an acre, and about three years later 25 acres to Matthias Wolf at $17.40 an acre. Johnston conveyed 72 acres and 77 perches to Daniel Woods, August 31, 1854, for $497.37, which the latter conveyed to Barbara Woods, October 19, 1857, at the same price, which she and her husband, Jacob Woods, conveyed to Bartholomew Wyant, March 17, 1866, which he conveyed to Jeremiah Wyant, April 5, 1879, for $2,900. There must have been a considerable surplus in this tract. Adjoining that James Trinible-McCall tract on the north is a pentagonal one, the boundary of whose northwestern part is the depreciation line, its northeastern side being skirted by the Allegheny river. From the Gapen map it appears to have been surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to "Thos. Patterson, 334.132." William Fish appears to have had an early claim to it, to whose son John it was assessed as containing 370 acres, in 1804 and 1805, at $92, on which another of his sons, Robert Fish, settled in 1809, and was then assessed with 330 acres, 1 horse and 1 cow, at $100. He became its permanent occupant, to whom John Fish and Rebecca, his wife, as legatees of William Fish, September 23, 1814, released all manner of actions and claims which they ever had or might thereafter have, concerning the management and disposition of the lands and tenements of William Fish in Sugar Creek township, or of any money, rents, issues and profits received therefrom by him, or by reason of any matter, cause or thing whatsoever, "from the beginning of worlds until the date" thereof, and to whom this tract continued to be assessed until his death in 1824, which was thereafter assessed to his widow until 1841. Paterson's interest became vested in McCall, to whom the patent was granted November 11, 1830, and to whose heirs Fish's heirs conveyed their interest in 190 acres, August 13, 1849, who by Amos N. Mylert, their attorney-in-fact, conveyed 179 acres and 100 perch.es, the settler's purpart, to Robert Fish's six heirs, October 5, 1849, for $1. There was probably a surplus of 18 acres and 96 perches in this purpart, as each heir's share seems to have been subsequently ascertained to have been 33 acres and 6 perches. The heirs released to one another: Elsa Phillips and her husband conveyed her share to William Hooks; William Fish conveyed his interest in 86 acres and 80 perches to Andrew Henry, July 5,1851, for $10; Mary Bowser and her husband conveyed her share, 33 acres and 6 perches, to John Paxton, September 1, 1849, for $440, which he conveyed to John McClatchey, May 23, 1863, for $700, which the latter conveyed to Joseph and Simon Fair, and William T. Richardson, February 18, 1865, for $1,000; Sarah Adams and her husband conveyed her interest in her father's heirs' purpart to Matthew S. Adams, November 30, 1843, who conveyed it to Andrew Henry, March 22, 1844, for $75; Alexander Adams' interest was conveyed by John Tuly, sheriff, to David Wolf, March 23, 1842, for $57, which he conveyed to Henry, May 4, 1848, for $100. McCall's purpart was conveyed by his heirs to William F. Johnston, who conveyed 86 acres and 126 perches to Andrew Henry, October 5, 1854, for $683.90. The interest of Henry and his wife in this parcel, and in their share of her father's heirs' purpart, that is in 120 acres, was conveyed by George B. Sloan, sheriff, to Philip Templeton, of Kittanning, September 9, 1861, for $480, who reconveyed it to them June 1, 1863, "for value received." David Wolf conveyed one-fifth of 129 acres of the Fish estate, which John Tuly, sheriff, had conveyed to him, March 23, 1842, to Andrew Henry, May 9, 1848, for $100. He, his wife and her mother, Elsie Guld, formerly widow of Robert Fish, joined in conveyance of 123 acres, partly of the Fish and partly of the McCall purpart, to Joseph and Simon Fair, and William T. Richardson, February 20, 1865, for $10,000, which Joseph Fair conveyed to Samuel Fair, August 26, 1868, for $3,500, subject to the payment of a mortgage on the land to Walter Titley for $1,200. Between the Patterson-McCall-Fish tract, the James Trimble-McCall tract and the Allegheny river and other as yet unmentioned tracts, is a pentagonal one, which appears on the Gapen map to have been surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to " George Elliot, 402 " acres, on which John John was ani early settler, who was first assessed in Sugar Creek township as a single man and with 1 horse, in 1810, at $25, and in 1815 with 400 acres, 1 horse and 1 cow, at $66. He acquired title to the southern half of this tract, about 200 acres, by improvement and setttement, one-half acre in the emstern corner of which he conveyed, January 5, 1838, to the school directors of Sugar Creek township, so long as it should be used for school purposes, on which schoolhouse No. 1 had been erected in accordance with the provisions 553 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. of the school law of April 1, 1834, and its supplements. He' agreed to sell about 50 acres . of the eastern part of this parcel to his daughter Esther, wife of Elijah Flanner, but did not execute the deed before his death, which his heirs conveyed to her daughter Esther Florence March 1, 1866. He conveyed about the same quantity of the western part to his son Adam C. John. There were 119 acres left undisposed of at his death. The inquest in subsequent proceedings in partition valued this parcel at $20.41 per acre, June 28, 1867, at which it was taken by his eldest son, Martin John, on which is the first brick house erected in what is now Washington township. The legal title to the rest of this tract became vested in John W. Johnston, which, 202 acres and 118 perches, he by John Gilpin, his attorney-in fact, conveyed to Robert L. Brown, George F. Frishcorn, William H. H. Piper and Simon Truby, Jr., April 28, 1871, for $3,097.82, in pursuance of a previous agreement with William Bartheld and Piper. Next south of the Elliott-John tract is a hex agonal one, its southern part projecting eastward, which appears on the Gapen map to have been surveyed to "William Trimble, 432.65'," on which William McAnninch was the original settler, who was assessed with 400 acres of it, in 1804 and 1805, at $80, who conveyed his interest in it to Mordecai McDonald, July 9, 1806, for $300, which he conveyed to John McNickle, August 7, for the same consideration, but what became of his inter est the records show not. The patent, in which it is called "Williamsburg," nevertheless, was granted to McAnninch and McCall, to the latter of whom Trimble's interest had passed. "Williams burgh" was included in McCall's assignment to Du Pont. Samuel Matthews, county treasurer, sold it for taxes to William Wylie, to whom he con veyed it September 17, 1820. Du Pont reconveyed it to McCall January 17, 1833, whose heirs con veyed whatever interest they had in it to Wylie, July 27, 1847, for $500, who conveyed a portion of it to John J. John July 2, 1857, a portion of the northwestern part of which he conveyed to Adam C. John, and another parcel he agreed to sell to his son Isaac, to whom his heirs conveyed it after his death. A small parcel of it, 9 acres and 105 perches, remained undisposed of at his death, which the inquest valued at $36.66 per acre, at which it was taken by John J. John. Wylie con veyed the remainder of "Williamsburgh," 212 acres and 47 perches, to George Leasure, Septem ber 30, 1852, for $615. John John agreed in his lifetime to convey parcels of his part of " Williamsburgh," but not having done so before he died intestate, his heirs, March 1, 1866, conveyed 88 acres and 14 perches to Isaac John, for $790; 72 acres and 27 perches to Philip John, for $500. Contiguous to "Williamsburgh" on the south is an octagonal tract, about one-fifth of which extends south into what is now East Franklin township, which appears on the Gapen map to have been surveyed to "David Cooper, 413" acres, whose interest passed to McCall, which appears to have been seated by Joseph McKee, who was assessed with 400 acres of it in 1804 at $80, to whom and McCall it was surveyed as containing 411 acres and 89 perches by Ross, deputy surveyor, May 1, 1805. McKee was afterward assessed with a less quantity, the last time in 1810, with 200 acres, when it was noted on the assessment list "transferred to Jacob Andoni" (Anthony). John Christman must have acquired the settler's interest, for McCall, to whom the patent was granted May 28, 1833, conveyed 200 acres of the "south end" to him July 16, 1835, for $1, who conveyed 100 acres "partly in Franklin township," to ex-sheriff George Smith, February 28, 1848, in consideration of the proper maintenance of his son, Michael Christman, during his natural life, who had been tried for arson and acquitted on the ground of insanity, and was then a charge upon Franklin township, which parcel Smith conveyed to John P. Davis, April 6, 1850, for $600. Christman conveyed 6 acres in Franklin township to his son John, April 20, 1866, for $284, and by his will, dated December 11, 1860, and registered March 13, 1862, devised the remaining part of this purpart and his other real estate to his daughters, Catherine, Jane, Margaret and Susannah, for "the valuable services" which they had rendered as well as for "natural love and affection." McCall conveyed his purpart, 210 acres, of this tract to John John, June 14, 1839, for $1,050, which he parceled out to his sons in his lifetime, for two parcels of which he did not execute deeds. Hence his heirs, March 1, 1866, conveyed 71 acres and 52 perches to Frederick John for $356.62, and 69 acres and 88 perches to Peter John for $436.76. The site of the German Baptist or Dunkard church edifice is in the southwestern part of " Will iamsburgh," which is frame, 30 X 40 feet, one story, erected in 1865. The present pastor of this church is Rev. J. B. Wampler. Its membership is 75; Sabbath-school scholars, 40. Between "Williamsburgh " and the Cooper-Mc Call:McKee tract and the Allegheny river is a hexagonal one, "Vacant" on the Gapen map, on which Caleb Paull was an early settler, who was 55 4 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. sense of respect for and gratitude to our country's defenders in this war should prompt the citizens of each city, borough and township in our own and other states, respectively, to spontaneously cause to be recorded in a durable volume the name of every officer and private whom such city, borough or township has already supplied, or may hereafter supply, his regiment and company, the battles in which he has participated or may yet participate, his casualties and heroism, and such other matters of interest as can be concisely noted in a suitable space to be left after each one's name. It would not now be difficult to make up such records, which, when made up, should be sacredly preserved. Although it may be truly said of those lamented ones who have fallen, as Byron says of the Greeks at Thermopyle: "They fell devoted but undying, The very gale their names seemed sighing, The waters murmur of their name, The woods are peopled with their fame, The silent pillar lone and gray Claims kindred with their sacred clay; Their spirit wraps the dusky mountain, Their memory sparkles o'er the fountain, The meanest rill, the mightiest river, Rolls mingling with their fame forever." Yet each city, borough or township, by erecting in a suitable locality an enduring monument to their memory, with their honored names thereon indelibly inscribed, would but render such a tribute of grateful regard for the names and fame of its own dead heroes as their services, patriotism and valor demand. Thus, too, would the youth of this and future ages, when their services may be needed, be incited to achieve patriotic and heroic deeds. Does it not become the people, while this year is new, to volunteer for the laudable purpose of accomplishing a work which will be so honorable to them and so gratifying to and so well deserved by the soldiers of our republic? A grateful people should never suffer the names of such benefactors to perish. Let enduring tomes and marble or granite pillars rescue them from oblivion. REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIP TIVE ROSTER.* BRADY ALPINES-NINTH REGIMENT. The Brady Alpines were mustered into the three months service, April 22, 1861, and attached to the 9th Pa. Vol. Inf., Col. Longnecker. About April 1 it was generally understood that the South would rebel against the North, when Capt. William * This roster has been compiled with much care and at considerable expense, under the direction of the publishers, as an addition to Mr. Smith's history.-EDITOR. Sirwell, who was commanding the Brady Alpines and the Kittanning Yeagers, with his military forethought, tendered the services of his company to Gov. A. S. Curtin, of Pennsylvania, in case war should be declared. Capt. Sirwell received notice from the Adjutant General of Pennsylvania that the tender of his company to the state had been received and placed on file. At the firing of the first gun on Fort Sumter, Capt. Sirwell received orders to form his company at once and proceed to Harrisburg. When this order was received the day was very pleasant, and the town was quiet as though it was Sunday. In less than an hour the whole town was up in arms. Recruiting at once commenced for the camp, and in forty-eight hours the company was in Harrisburg, 114 strong, ablebodied men. The maximum strength of a company at the breaking out of the war was seventy-seven, officers and privates. Hence that was a surplus of thirty-seven men. Eighteen of the men joined other companies and regiments, leaving still a surplus of fifteen men. Those fifteen, all being from Kittanning and Armstrong county, utterly refusing to join any other company, but would remain with the Brady Alpines, and did remain during the three months' service, and asked nothing for their service. The captain managed to get three of his men attached to the quartermaster's department, and by that means was enabled to get as many rations and clothing as fed and clothed the men during the service and rations to spare. In fact, so careful were the men of their rations that they fed Capt. John Hastings' company, from Pauxatawny, supper and breakfast, that company having run out of provisions. When Capt. Sirwell returned home he could only count ninety-one men, when he finally discovered he never counted himself, which would have made the number correct on the rolls. Only seventy-seven of those men have ever been paid by the government only what Capt. Sirwell gave them, he having divided his own pay with the extra men. There were in this company twenty-two men, each of whom measured over six feet, sixteen that weighed 200 pounds each. The good citizens, men and women alike, contributed all their time, labors and money to make the soldiers comfortable in their departure for the war. A splendid silk flag was presented to this company, and each member was presented with a Bible by the ladies of Kittanning. All that the mind could imagine was done to make the soldiers comfortable. After the company left, the citizens organized a committee to visit the families and provide everything that was needed by the families to make them comfortable. WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. assessed in 1804 with 1 horse and 3 cows at $66. On the other map this tract bears the name of "John Orr, 400a," of which and the Mahoning island, about 27 acres in the Allegheny river, opposite the northern part of this tract, he became seized, but did not obtain a patent for the same before his death, after which his administrators, Robert Orr, Jr., and Samuel C. Orr, by virtue of an order of the orphans' court of this county, to sell his real estate on the first Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of April, 1825, for the payment of his debts and the maintenance of his children, conveyed both this tract, 410 acres and 144 perches, and that island and another small one near it, to Archibald Dickey, February 12, 1838, for $671, to whom the warrant and patent were subsequently granted, who agreed, May 14, 1830, to sell the same to Ezekiel Dickey for $800, which the latter paid in the former's lifetime, who did not execute a deed therefor. The specific performance of that agreement was decreed by the proper court December 15, 1845, whereupon George Means, administrator, the same day conveyed this tract and the island to the vendee. The latter conveyed 117 acres of this tract to Rev. John Dickey, May 21, 1846, for $500, which he conveyed to Samuel H. Dickey, June 12, 1849, for $300. Ezekiel conveyed 8 acres and 121 perches to Charles Morrall, May 6, 1853, for $87, and 96 acres and 38 perches to Samuel H. Dickey, May 26, 1853, for $886, to whom he agreed, June 18, 1868, to convey 200 acres more for the consideration of working the farm and providing him with proper maintenance during the rest of his life. Simon Torney either leased or owned 57 acres of the northeastern part of this tract, on which he drilled a salt-well in 1831, which does not appear to have been operated after his death, which soon after occurred. Mahoning Island was early surveyed to Thomas Thompson, whose interest became vested in John Orr, who conveyed it to Hans J. Huidekooper, September 22, 1813, for 5 shillings and a debt of $320, whose reconveyance to Orr, if any was made, is not on record. North of the Orr-Dickey tract, north and east of "Williamsburgh," and east of the southern part of the George Elliot-John John tract, is one, nearly a rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise from east to west on the right bank of the Allegheny river, which appears on the Gapen map to have been surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to "Jane Denniston, 434" acres, on which Thomas Thompson made an actual settlement and improvement, March 21, 1796, who conveyed his interest to Henry Christman, of Franklin county, Pennsylvania, January 1, 1810, for ~200. Thompson was succeeded by John Burns, to whom the land; 1 horse and 2 cows were assessed in 1805, at $112, and the next year, at $127. It was surveyed as containing 430 acres to Henry Gristman (Christman) by Ross, deputy surveyor, January 2, 1808. The patent, in which it is called " Coll Hill," was, however, granted to Burns and McCall, February 13, 1809. Burns remained thereon several years. Christman retained the settler's and acquired nearly all of the McCall purpart. His heirs in their conveyance to John Christman, August 7, 1845, state that their father, late of Franklin county, died intestate, seized of 404 acres, that is, " Coll Hill," leaving nine children, of which John conveyed 350 acres to Charles Bonner, May 15, 1850, for $2,806.80, of which he conveyed 170 acres and 90 perches to Thomas D. M. Gibson, May 31, 1862, for $2,065.54, which he conveyed to James Mosgrove, April 19, 1864, for $3,000. Bonner conveyed 186 acres and 25 perches to George Best, September 17, for $3,500, who conveyed 48 acres to John K. Best, for $862.84, which he conveyed to Mosgrove, April 19, 1864, for $1,213. George Best conveyed 48 acres to John L. Gaughegan, September 26, 1864, for $1,000, and 100 acres to Brown and Mosgrove, for $3,000. The McCall purpart of "Coll Hill "was included in the sale by McCall's heirs to William F. Johnston, stated in their deed to be 239 acres, which must be a mistake as to quantity, for 33 acres that he conveyed to Peninch Hooks, November 19, 1856, for $330, appears to be all thereof that he really had to convey. "Coll Hill" was included in McCall's and Du Pont's conveyance and reconveyance. Contiguous to "Coll Hill " on the north is a hexagonal, almost pentagonal tract, surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to "William Elliot, Jr., 3533 " acres, whose interest became vested in McCall. The early settler on this tract was Frederick Christman, who was assessed with 350 acres, 2 horses and 1 cow in 1804-5, at $198. Ross, deputy surveyor, January 2, 1808, surveyed 170 acres and 88 perches of the southern part to Christman, and 175 acres and 81 perches of the northern part to McCall. The patent was granted to both of them for the entire tract, March 7, 1820, and they released and quit-claimed to each other, May 29, 1835. Frederick and Henry Christman entered into a written agreement, January 5, 1810, "by and in company with Peter Pence and James Thompson," for the exchange of an equal quantity of land. Frederick to leave an open road on the parcel conveyed to him by Henry, and to have the use of the 555 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. improvement on the parcel conveyed by him to Henry for three years. Frederick and John Christman exchanged 128 acres, July 4, 1840. Frederick conveyed 51 acres and 59 perches to his daughter, Katy Wyant, December 28, 1848, for $8 "and natural love and affection." By his will, dated June 6, 1850, and registered, January 22, 1851, he devised all the rest of his real estate to his " poor dumb son, Henry Christman." McCall conveyed his purpart with those of other tracts to George A. McCall, November 4, 1834, which was included in the latter's conveyance to William F. Johnston, July 10, 1847, which now appears to belong to Brown & Mosgrove, and on which is the western terminus of a ferry across the Allegheny river. Contiguous to the Elliot-McCall-Christman tract on the north is one on the Gapen map, which appears to have been surveyed on warrant to "Wm.in. Denniston, " 371a 80S," whose interest passed to McCall, on which Francis Thompson was the original settler, who was assessed with 380 acres and 1 cow, in 1804, at $158, and the next year at $150. Ross, deputy surveyor, December 31, 1807, surveyed 187 acres and 21 perches, the northern part, to McCall, and 181 acres and 30 perches to Thompson, to both of whom the patent was granted March 7, 1820. Thompson having conveyed his interest to Jacob Wolf, McCall conveyed to him the Thompson purpart, June 20, 1845, for $1. Wolf by his will, not dated, registered December 19, 1838, devised his real estate to his wife during her life or widowhood, and to be sold after her death-if she remained till then his widow -and the proceeds to be equally divided among his sons, David, George, Jacob, Joseph, Matthias and Solomon, and his daughters, Christina and Elizabeth. But if she should remarry, all his real estate was to vest in his children, which was the case, for his heirs, children and grandchildren and the alienee of one of them conveyed their respective interests to and in this purpart and in other 42 acres to David Wolf, at different times from May 4, 1848, till May 11, 1867, for $1,578. The Wolf schoolhouse is on this purpart. The other purpart, extending to the foot of the deep northern bend or loop in the Allegheny river, was conveyed, among others, by McCall's heirs to William F. Johnston, which he conveyed to Thomas Armstrong, who, by his will, dated September 2, 1847, and registered November 19, 1851, devised 30 acres of the upper or northwestern corner to his daughter, Eleanor Shall, 30 acres adjoining Mrs. Shall's to his son John, 30 acres adjoining John's to his son William, and the rest of this purpart to his son Adam. There is a hamlet of a few years' growth along the south side of the public road, near the foot of that loop, consisting of eight or nine dwelling-houses, one store, opened this year (1876) by Benjamin McElroy, and a frame church edifice, called Union, because erected by the contributions of and used by various religious denominations. There appears to be the conveyance of only one of the lots in this hamlet on record, which is the one consisting of 1 acre that William B. Summers conveyed to Rebecca Summers, January 19, 1866, for $150, which she conveyed to Robert Fulton, May 26, 1873, for $750, which he conveyed to McElravy, September 11, 1875, for $600. It was then ascertained that the first of the above-mentioned conveyances of this lot had not been acknowledged so as to make it a legal conveyance, so that William B. and Rebecca Summers joined in a legally acknowledged deed therefor to McElravy, September 13, 1875, for the nominal consideration of $1. Fulton was first assessed with a store on this lot, in 1870, whose successor is McElravy. There is on the Gapen map a rather narrow strip of land between those William Denniston and William Elliot, Jr., tracts and the Allegheny river on the west, whose southeast corner touches the southwest corner of "Coll Hill," and its southwestern corner is on the right bank at the foot of the sharp southern bend in the Allegheny river, noted "vacant," but on the other is the name of "Benjamin Edwards," which does not appear on the either early or late assessment lists of Sugar Creek township. It is noted on the assessment list of 1817, " Three hundred acres transferred from Maria Edwards to Frederick Christman." Jacob Wolf acquired a title to at least a portion of the northern part of this strip, and Frederick Christman to southern part, for which he obtained a warrant January 15, and the patent June 7, 1836. He conveyed 105 acres to Simon Singer, May 9, 1838, for $100, which passed under the sheriff's hammer to Thomas Williams, and which he conveyed to Alexander Reynolds, November 28, 1864, for $350, as the alienee of the interests of John Jamison therein under an agreement between him and Williams, June 26, 1856. The remainder of Washington township is north of the depreciation line and consists of what were formerly donation lands, so that the Gapen map again and finally ceases to be used in developing the early land history of the remaining portion of this county. The Lawson & Orr map of surveys is the only one meant in subsequent references to such a map. About 550 rods above the heretofore-mentioned 556 WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. sharp southern bend in the Allegheny river is the depreciation line, adjoining which on the north is a long and comparatively narrow tract, lengthwise from east to west, rendered trapezoidal by the southeasterly course of the river, which skirts it on the northeast, bearing on its face on the map "Charles Campbell, 361a. 67P," whose interest in which or a part of which probably became vested in Michael Fair, who was first assessed with 100 acres, 1 horse and 1 cow, in 1806, at $66, and with a distillery first in 1831. The patent was granted to him February 4, 1831. He conveyed 189 acres and 33 perches of this tract to his son Isaac, May 10, 1836, for $1, "and natural love and affection," on which, opposite the American furnace, now Rimerton, he erected his sawmill in 1855, now operated by steam. Isaac Fair leased all the land thus conveyed to him, except 20 acres, on which were his orchard and improvements, to J. M. Gillette and A. J. Warner, June 18, 1870, for the term of 30 years, for oil and mining purposes, for $1, and one-eighth of all oil and minerals obtained therefrom. Those lessees soon after drilled a well, which was unproductive. Michael Fair also conveyed 127 acres and 25 perches of the western part of this tract to his son Simon, May 10, 1836, for $1, "and natural love and affection." Adjoining that Campbell-Fair tract on the north is an irregularly shaped one, with 400 acres of which, 1 distillery, 1 horse and 1 cow, Thomas Miller appears to have been assessed in 1804, at $241, and the next and the following year for the last time with the same, less the horse and cow, at $160. On the map this tract bears the name of "Peter Miller, 404a. 65P," whose interest probably became vested in Robert Brown, who is mentioned as an adjoiner in conveyances of portions of some of the contiguous tracts. John Foster, Jr., was first assessed with this tract in 1827-8, to whom and James E. Brown the patent was granted October 18, 1831. Foster was assessed with 150 acres at the time of his death. He, by his will, dated October 1, and registered November 5, 1851, devised all his real estate to his wife as long as she should remain his widow, and one-third if she should remarry, and the rest to be equally divided among his children. The other purpart, about 250 acres, belongs to Brown & Mosgrove, who leased a strip along the river to J. M. Gillette and A. J. Warner, August 2, 1870, to be used by the lessees "for oil and saline purposes only," for one-eighth of all oil and salt-water" that they might therefrom produce. Stretching north along the river is a narrow 35 strip of land bearing the name of "John Fulton" on the map, the warrant for which was granted to Daniel Dahle, February 27, 1838, who conveyed his interest to John Evans, August 7, 1841, which the latter conveyed to Nicholas Cloak, to whom the patent for about 105 acres was granted September 23, 1853, 17 acres and 61 perches of which he conveyed to John D. Mhelly February 17, 1854, which he conveyed to David Kelly May 19, and which he conveyed to Walter Litley, May 24, 1855, for $300. Cloak conveyed the rest of this tract, 88 acres and 25 perches, to Joseph Fair, April 1, 1865, for $2,900, to whose heirs it now belongs. Adjoining that Fulton-Dahle tract on the north, and extending to a point on the right bank of the Allegheny river about 80 rods below the mouth of Red Bank creek, is another narrow tract which became fully vested in James McClatchey, Sr. He was probably the original settler on this and one of the hereinafter-mentioned contiguous tracts, for he was assessed with 600 acres, 1 horse and 1 cow, in 1804, at $271, and the next year with the same and 3 more cattle, at $291. He made his first improvement on that contiguous tract probably before 1800. He was first assessed with 200 acres in 1810, probably soon after he commenced his exclusive occupancy of this tract, for which he obtained a patent April 2, 1831, and which, 225 acres and 33 perches, he conveyed to his son James, May 10, 1831, for $75, who conveyed 47 acres and 23 perches to William McClatchey, July 5, 1841, for $424.22. He also conveyed 91 acres and 42 perches to Hugh, James and Stephen Forrester, which they conveyed to David Lewis, November 14, 1848, for $1,025. He may have conveyed another small parcel or two to others. There were about 50 acres left at the time of his death. By his will, dated July 8, 1841, and registered May 7, 1842, he directed that his land should be sold immediately after the death of his wife, and the money arising from the sale should be divided equally among his seven children, and in case of the death of any of them before the sale, the children of each deceased should receive his or her share, that is, one-seventh, and appointed his wife Elizabeth executrix, and his son James executor. The former survived the latter, so that the land was not sold during the life of either.* Both the Fulton and McClatchey portions of this narrow strip are denominated "the Adam Maxwell Im * It remained unsold several years after her death. Samuel McLaughlin, the executor's administrator, declined to sell that-land, and min his written declination suggested the appointment of James Watterson as trustee for that purpose, who, having been appointed by the orphans' court of this county, and, after taking all the required preliminary steps, sold this parcel to Mrs. Margaret Tyler, May 23, 1880, for $900. 557 II STORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. provement" on the map of connected drafts of surveys made by James Buchanan. The rest of the territory of Washington township, except the eastern strips of three tracts already mentioned in Sugar Creek township, among which is the presently again-mentioned Adam Maxwell tract, consists of six tracts between the depreciation line on the south and the large northern bend in the Allegheny river, which were warranted and settled thus: Archibald Denniston, warrantee, James Watterson, succeeded by William Holder, settler; John Elliott, warrantee, John Foster, settler; Robert Patrick, warrantee, James Craig, settler; Samuel Kincade, warrantee, John Bowser, settler; Alexander Denniston, warrantee, Michael Guyer, settler; William Denniston, warrantee, Hugh Gillespie, settler. These six tracts and the Adam Maxwell one became vested in Levi Hollingsworth, of Philadelphia, who entered into a written agreement, November 15,1819, with James Craig, John Foster, Hugh Gillespie and James Watterson, the terms and conditions of which were: These settlers having settled on several of these tracts, and desiring to compromise their respective claims, were to furnish Hollingsworth with the proper, necessary proof of the settlement .of such tracts as they respectively had settled. The patents were to be issued in the names of the settlers for the warrantees, who were each to have 150 acres of the tract he had thus settled, to include the improvement he had made, and to be of equal quality with the rest of the tract, and to be included between parallel lines so as not to injure the rest of the tract, which was to be conveyed to Hollingsworth or his assigns in fee simple, who was to refund to them their respective proportionate shares of the taxes which they had paid on the entire tracts. The southwestern one of these tracts adjoins the depreciation line on the south, and its central part is traversed from south to north by Denniston's run, the original name of Huling's or Riggle's run. The warrant for 376 acres and 71 perches was granted to Archibald, February 28, 1794, on which James Watterson settled a few years later, who was assessed with it, 2 horses and 3 cattle, in 1804, at $248, and the next year with the same, less one cow, at $236. In October, 1815, he and William Holder entered into a written agreement, the terms of which were that Watterson should be at one-half of the expense and furnish one-half of the material for building a mill on this tract, then occupied by Holder, who was to furnish the other half for building and keeping it in repair, and to have the privilege of taking all the timber needed for its erection from this tract, and each party was bound in the penal sum of $100 for the due performance of his part of the contract. Holder erected a log mill, and was assessed with this tract from 1815 until 1817, when it was transferred from him to John Crawford. Watterson, it will be borne in mind, was one of the parties to the abovementioned contract *ith Hollingsworth. The patent for this tract was granted to Watterson, February 7, 1820, who conveyed 205 acres and 59 perches of it to James McClatchey, March 25, 1843, probably in pursuance of a previous agreement for the sale and purchase from Watterson to him, for he was first assessed with the gristmill thereon in 1832-3, which was known as " McClatchey's mill" for thirty years afterward, and which with 205 acres and 59 perches McClatchey conveyed to George B. Sloan, April 7, 1863, which he conveyed to David Shields, April 9, 1864, for $4,050, who subsequently rebuilt the mill on an enlarged and improved scale, and it was known for several years as the Shields mill. He conveyed several parcels, aggregating 64 acres and 116 perches, to Christopher, James and Thomas H. Foster, January 14, 1868, for $2,100, and D. S. Reed, sheriff, conveyed to Christopher and James Foster 50 acres, another parcel of Shield's land, April 4, 1868, for $1,445, which he sold on a judgment in favor of James Y. Foster for $346.84 of debt. Christopher and James Foster conveyed thQ undivided onethird part of 63 acres, that is of two of the first of the above-mentioned parcels, to James Y. Foster, May 13, 1869, for $4,590. The heirs of James Foster conveyed one undivided third of 193 acres, the "McClatchey mill property," to Thomas V. McKee, in 1875, for $8,200. The present steam and water mill with two runs of stone, was erected in 1868-9. Redick, Foster & Co. were first assessed as merchants here in 1866. The mill property was first assessed to James Foster & Co., in 1867; to Foster, McKee & Co., in 1873; to McKee & Foster, in 1876, when McKee & Litley were first assessed with their store. The Hollingsworth purpart of this tract became vested in McCall, whose heirs by Amos N. Mylert, their attorney-in-fact, conveyed 100 acres of the western part to Alexander Foster, August 10, 1848, for $100, which was included in his devises to his sons, * and to Robert Foster the rest of the tract, supposed to be 113 acres, after deducting Watterson's 197 acres and 55 perches, and Alexander Foster's 100 acres, July 13,1848, for $340. There must have been a surplus of nearly 39 acres in this tract. * See Sugar Creek. 558 WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. Adjoining the Denniston-Watterson tract is another similar one, a rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise from the depreciation line north, warranted in the name of John Elliott, 382 acres, on which John Foster was the original settler, who was assessed with 400 acres in 1804, at $76, and the next year, at $84. He afterward resided permanently on this tract, and his residence on the Watterson Ferry road was the beginning of the circle for a circular fox hunt in the spring of 1828. It extended thence to Andrew Harshy's; thence to Henry Wiles'; thence to Thomas Hindman's; thence to Joseph Shields'; thence to John McDowell's; thence to Thomas Milliken's; thence to John Mateer's, and thence along the Watterson Ferry road to John Foster's, the entire circle being within the then limits of Sugar Creek township. The coming-in place was at Bushy run near the present site of the Templeton schoolhouse. The chronicles of these times do not state whether these huntsmen were silently intent upon encircling coveted game, or were too carelessly colloquial to prevent its escape.* They captured one deer, which they did not retain, and either five or seven foxes. The patent for this tract was granted to John Foster in 1837, who transferred the 150 acres to which he was entitled by the Hollingsworth agreement to his son Robert, November 19, 1850. The other purpart became vested in John Graham, of Butler, who conveyed 59 acres and 32~ perches to Thomas Morrow, February 28, 1853, for $181.85, who was the first postmaster of the Sherrett postoffice, which was established here, August 5, 1861, and was afterward removed to McKee & Foster's mills, D. C. Mobley being the present postmaster. Adjoining that Elliott-Foster tract on the north is one like it, 423 acres, the warrant for which was granted to Robert Patrick, on which James Craig settled in 1815, when he was assessed with 100 acres, 2 horses and 1 cow, at $51. In 1818 he was assessed with 350 acres, at $87.50, and was a party to the Hollingsworth agreement, and towhom the patent was granted in February, 1820. Robert Randolph was assessed with 400 acres of it in 1826, at 8$200, and conveyed whatever interest he had in it to Robert Thompson, May 3,1827, for $20, to whom it was not thereafter assessed. The Craig purpart consists of the northern portion, and still belongs to his heirs. The Hollingsworth purpart become vested in McCall's heirs who by Mylert, their attorney-in-fact, conveyed 64 acres and 125 perches off the south end to John * Vide Kittanning township. Foster, August 10, 1848, which he assigned to his son Robert, November 19, 1850. Mylert conveyed 176 acres adjoining that Foster parcel on the north to John Graham, October 8, 1857, which he conveyed to Rev. John Sherrett, a Baptist clergyman, August 10, 1859, for $603.25, who released all his interest as tenant by courtesy to Mrs. Rose Ann Sherrett, August 4, "for a full and valuable consideration." They conveyed 33 acres and 119 perches to Thomas Hopper, April 9, 1865, for $200; 100 acres of this Sherrett parcel are now assessed to Mrs. Sarah Litley. Adjoining that Patrick-Craig tract on the west is one like it, 400 acres, warranted to Samuel Kinkead, the patent for which was granted to John Foster February 7, 1820, the western part being traversed meanderingly by Denniston's run, on which John Bowser appears to have settled in 1815, and George Reickle, in the southern part, in 1825, on which the latter commenced building a gristmill, which was never completed. Reickle acquired title to 159 acres-prob'ably Foster's purpart, the records show not how-which, in proceedings in partition, was valued by the inquest, August 26, 1859, at $1,000, at which it was taken by Henry Reickle, and was awarded to him by the decree of the proper court December 14. The other purpart became vested in Amos N. Mylert, who agreed to sell it to John E. Barnaby June 30, 1851. The latter's interest in it passed by sheriff's sale to George B. Sloan, which he conveyed to John Graham December 20, 1856, 120 acres of which the latter conveyed to Georg J. Bert, July 29, 1861, for $870.24; 49 acres and 23 perches of which Bert conveyed to James McClatchey, October 10, 1863, for $300. Adjoining that Kinkead-Foster tract on the north is another, trapezoidal, nearly a rectangular parallelogram, 440 acres, extending lengthwise north to the Allegheny river, the warrant for which was granted to Alexander Denniston, the western part of which is meanderingly traversed by Denniston's run, on which Michael Guyer was the original settler. He probably made an improvement and settlement on it prior to 1800. He was assessed with 200 acres, I horse and 4 cattle, in 1804 and 1805, at $120, and as a potter in 1812. This entire tract was afterward assessed to him until 1817, when it was "transferred to Hugh Gillespie," that is, Guyer's interest in it. The patent for the whole tract was granted to - Gillespie February 7, 1820, who was a party to the contract with Hollingsworth, whose interest became vested in McCall's heirs. J. G. McClatchey owned or was in possession at one time of 127 acres and 50 perches, and William Holder 50 acres and 46 perches, 559 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. the two parcels aggregating 177 acres and 96 perches of the southern part, conveyances either to or from whom are not on record. Mylert, as attorney-in-fact for McCall's heirs and John E. Barnaby, agreed, June 30, 1851, to sell and purchase the rest of the Hollingsworth-McCall purpart, 234 acres and 75 perches, which Mylert conveyed to John Graham October 8, subject to Barnaby's interest, which afterward passed by sheriff's sale to Samuel Owens and Darwin Phelps, which they conveyed to Graham December 12, 1855, which he reconveyed to them December 30, 1856, and which they conveyed to Mary Stephens January 15, 1858, who, and her husband, Robert Stephens, granted the ore privilege and so much timber as was needed for mining the ore, to Thomas McCullough and Alexander Reynolds April 25, 1863, and, subject to that grant, they conveyed 102 acres and 34 perches to Marius Hulings, January 10, 1865, for $771, of which he conveyed the undivided fourteentwentieths to Andrew Barron, Jacob Boolyer, S. A. Chamberlin, Evans Davis, William A. Lee, John Rees and Thomas Scundreth, November 28, at $40 per acre. Gillespie appropriated the northeastern part of his purpart of this, and the northwestern part of his parcel of the tract adjoining on the east, to a town, which he named Van Buren, after the then president-the eighth president-of the United States. This town was surveyed or laid out by Gillespie, prior to March, and surveyed by J. E. Meredith on Wednesday and Thursday, July 19 and 20, 1837, " dry and very warm." The 96 inlots were laid out in two sections, between which is a parcel containing territory for nine lots of various areas called the reserve. The first tier of lots in the section above, that is the tier nearest the river, are 62X100 feet; those in the second and third tiers, 62X95 feet; those in the fourth tier, 62X92 feet. That first section bears along down the river north 75 degrees east, and back south 15 degrees east. The section below the reserve bears down the river north 87 degrees east and back south 3 degrees west. The area of each lot in the first tier is 62-1X100 feet; in the second tier, 62-X95; in the third tier, 62IX93. The streets parallel with the river are Back, Carroll, 30 feet wide, and Water. Those extending back from Water, First, Second, Third, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth, each 18 feet wide. The alleys, Bredin and Jackson, parallel with the river, 12 feet wide. The gristmill and sawmill lots, each 10 acres, are several rods above the mouth of Denniston's run. The twelve out-lots, each 4X40 rods, are several rods below the lower section of in-lots, on the adjoining tract. Gillespie conveyed in-lots Nos. 52 and 53 to Marcus Hulings, March 8, 1837, for $18 and $13, respectively, and one of those mill-lots, 10 acres, August 21, 1847, for $200, "with the privilege of using the stream of water running through from the line of the same to the Allegheny river," probably in pursuance of a previous agreement, for Hulings had erected his grist and saw mills thereon in 1845. The records do not show how many other lots and to whom Gillespie sold. He conveyed his remaining interest in this purpart and other 50 acres and 20 perches to the Brady's Bend Iron Company, April 20, 1849, for $1,282.38. James Craig purchased in-lots Nos. 45, 46 and 95, which he conveyed to John Craig, which the latter conveyed to William P. Connor, February 4,1851, for $100, who conveyed them to John E. Barnaby, May 9, 1853, for $75. A number of them became vested in Nicholas Liebling, who conveyed Nos. 33, 35, 38, 40, 41, 48 to Barnaby, September 25, 1853, for $120, and Nos. 49, 55, 56 and the reserve, April 14, 1854, for $105, of which Nos. 38, 39, 40, 41, 42, 43, 46, 47, 48, 49, 55 were sold on John Thomas' judgment against Barnaby, and conveyed by Joseph Clark, sheriff, to Samuel Weir, December 12, 1855, for $55, who otherwise acquired four others, for he conveyed the eleven last-mentioned ones and Nos. 33, 34, 50 and 56 to John Truby, Jr., September 28, 1859, for $107.26. Truby conveyed lot No. 28 to Mary Montgomery, February 22, 1860, for $1. A much larger number of lots was owned by John Truby than those above mentioned, over 30 which were afterward assessed to Henry Crum. Twenty-three were for a few years assessed to Simon Truby, Jr. The first and only resident physician at Van Buren is Dr. A. M. Barnaby, who settled here in 1867. The first separate assessment list was in 1838, on which are the names of eighteen owners of lots, some of one and others of several, more or less. It never attained the magnitude and importance which its founder undoubtedly desired and anticipated. The most important industrial enterprise in this place was the large cooperage business carried on by Barnaby, William Geddes and John Meyer, who entered into a copartnership for the term of five years, from April 1, 1853, for carrying on "the business of coopering and all things thereto belonging, buying and selling all goods necessary for carrying on this business." The assessment list for 1876 shows only six or seven taxables, 1 of whom is a physician, 3 are laborers, and 1 a brakeman. Adjoining that Denniston-McGuyer tract on the 560 WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP. east is one similar, 440 acres, for which the warrant was granted to William Denniston, February 28, 1794, on which the original settler was probably James McClatchey, Sr., that is, the first James McClatchey, Sr., for after his death his son James became Sr. Indeed James has been a continuous name in the McClatchey family. The first one, as before stated, was assessed with 600 acres, which must have included this tract and the one between it and the river. He was, perhaps, employed by James Watterson to keep up the settlement to enable him to procure the patent for it, which was granted to him June 28, 1837. The Hollingsworth purpart became vested in McCall's heirs, who by their attorney-in-fact conveyed 240 acres of the southern part to Wilhliam McClatchey, July 12, 1848, for $700, which he conveyed to Joseph Thomas, October 3, for $1,100, two parcels of which, 25 acres and 32 perches, and 115 acres and 128 perches, he conveyed to John E. Barnaby, June 10, 1849, for $500; 115 acres of which, more or less, Sheriff Clark conveyed to John Graham, of Butler, December 20, 1855, for $495; of which 15 acres were cleared and on which a coalbank had been opened-which Graham conveyed to George Swisher, March 10, 1860, for $1,002, and which Swisher conveyed to Thomas McCulloch and Alexander Reynolds, April 4, 1863, for $1,400, and which is now a part of the Red Bank Furnace property. Another parcel of this tract which Barnaby had purchased was conveyed by Sheriff Clark as containing 75 acres, of which 70 were cleared and fenced, 12 in meadow, and on which there were a two-story plank dwelling-house and kitchen attached, and barn, etc., to Jonathan H. Sloan, December 5, 1855, for $1,30, who conveyed to H. A. S. D. Dudley, October 24,1861, for $1,700. The same parcel was conveyed by Sheriff Sloan to E. S. Golden, who purchased for H. A. S. D. Dudley the interest of Barnaby, William Geddes and John Meyer, December 8, 1860, for $25, which Dudley conveyed to S. J. Carr, June 30, 1863, for $1,500; the judgment on which this last sale was made being against the defendants as copartners. Thomas conveyed 101 acres of this purpart to Benjamin and John Fellows, July 26, 1849, for $1,200. Benjamin released his interest to John, May 22, 1858, who conveyed this entire parcel to McCulloch and Reynolds, June 23, 1864, for $3,900, and which is now a part of the Red Bank Furnace property. Thomas also conveyed 40 acres to William Lambert, July 26, 1849, for $400, 6 acres of which he agreed, July 27, to sell to Mary Wilkinson, and which John Morris, his administrator, in pursuance of a decree of the proper court for the specific performance of that agreement, conveyed to her. The rest of this parcel was conveyed by A. J. Montgomery, trustee, in proceedings in partition by virtue of an order of the orphans' court to sell to Levi Henkey, June 17, 1871, for $40. McCall's heirs by Mylert conveyed 50 acres and 20 perches of the northwestern part of this tract to Hugh Gillespie, April 4, 1849, for $1, on the northwestern part of which are the 12 out-lots in the town of Van Buren. Gillespie conveyed this parcel to the Brady's Bend Iron Company, April 20. James Watterson conveyed his purpart of this tract, 151 acres and 40 perches, a hexagonal parcel, mostly in the northeastern part of the tract, to Henry Watterson, May 16, 1833, for ~125, "Pennsylvania currency," in the northeastern part of which, opposite the mouth of Red Bank creek, the latter laid out the town of Wattersonville, which was surveyed off into 44 lots by Marcus Hulings, Jr., August 6, 1842. No. 25 contains 20 perches; No. 27, 34 perches; No. 28, 19 perches; No. 32, 35 perches. The area of each of the rest is 4X6 perches. The streets parallel to the river are Water, McConnell and Fish; those extending from Water to Fish are Apple, Market and Mulberry. The two alleys are parallel to Water, McConnell and Fish streets. The first sale of a lot on record is that of No. 1, to James Pinks, March 1, 1856, for $25. He sold lots from time to time until October 31, 1871, when he conveyed Nos. 18 and 23 to William Hileman, for $175. If deeds forall the lots which he sold before his death are on record, the aggregate amount of sales is $1,938.67. The first separate assessment list of Wattersonville was in 1862, when there were only three taxables; the valuation of real estate, $920, and of personal property, $106. John Donnell opened his store here in 1865. The assessment list for 1876 shows the number of taxables to be 39; occupations -laborers, 6; car inspectors, 2; agent, 1; blacksmith, 1; carpenter, 1; dentist, 1; engineer, 1; freight agent, 1; innkeeper, 1; operator, 1; tinner, 1; tool-dresser, I. The Methodist Episcopal church was organized here in 18-. The church edifice, frame, one story, was erected on ground that belonged to James Watterson, who conveyed 41 square perches to Alexander N. Chilcott, George W. Cousins, F. A. Dietrich, John Donnell, John M. Perkins, Andrew Schall and George Steen, trustees of the Methodist Episcopal church of Wattersonville, and their successors in office, for church purposes, May 30, 1872, for $100. The public schoolhouse is situated at the upper part of the town. Watterson conveyed other or 561 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. rural portions of the land purchased from James Watterson in small parcels at various times before his death for $4,864.46, if the deeds for all the parcels which were sold are recorded.* Among these conveyances was that of one-half acre about half a mile below Wattersonville, along the public road, to the school directors, for $1. Occupations of the inhabitants of Washington township other than agricultural, and exclusive of Van Buren and Wattersonville, in 1876: Laborers, 56; carpenters, 4; blacksmiths, 3; plasterer, 1; merchant, 1; wagonmaker, 1. According to the mercantile appraiser's list for the same year there were then 2 merchants in the thirteenth and 3 in the fourteenth class. The population of this township including that of Van Buren and Wattersonville, in 1860, was: white, 988. In 1870, native, 1,140; foreign, 40. Taxables, in 1876, 340. Schools.-In 1860, number, 6; average number of months taught, 4; male teachers, 6; average salaries permonth,$18.,50; male scholars, 175; female scholars, 135; average number attending school, 168; cost of teaching each per month, 61 cents. Levied for school purposes, $597.58; received from collectors, $380.33; cost of instruction, $444; cost of fuel, etc., $84.55. In 1876: Schools, 8; average number of months taught, 5; male teachers, 7; female teachers, 1; average salaries of male *He left about 12 acres which John Donnell, his executor, by virtue of an order of the orphans' court, sold for the payment of debts, which he conveyed to William Donnell, August 3, 1880, for $500. and female per month, $33; male scholars, 220; female scholars, 170; average number attending school, 240; cost per month, 61 cents; levied for school and building purposes, $2,531.32; received from state appropriation, $272.49; from taxes and other sources, $2,419.25; paid for teachers' wages, $1,122; fuel and other expenses, $1,569.74. The people of this township voted, February 28, 1873, on the license question-for, 77; against, 59. Geological.-Says Platt: The surface rocks are mainly the lower productions in the highlands. Along the river from the mouth of Red Bank to the mouth of Mahoning and beyond opposite Templeton the conglomerate and sub-conglomerate measures occupy the greater part of the slopes. The upper Freeport coal is known only in the southeastern part of the township, unless there is a small patch of it on the extreme hilltop overlooking Watterson's ferry. The lower Kittanning coal is the bed chiefly worked, but the upper Kittanning also assumes prominence in places. The free ferriferous limestone supplies its iron ore. Both are valuable and have been worked along Limestone run from the Lutheran church across into East Franklin township. Structure.-An anticlinal axis extends through the southeastern portion of the township, crossing the river near the mouth of Mahoning. Another and similar axis crosses the northwestern corner of the township, so that the central part of the area lies within its synclinal. 562 CHAPTER XXVI. BRADY'S BEND. Erection and Organization in 1845 - First Officers Elected - Successive Owners of and Residents on the several Land Tracts - The Great Western Iron Works and Brady's Bend Iron Company - Mention of Founders and Managers. BRADY'S BEND township was organized by virtue of the 59th section of the act of April 16, 1845, and bounded thus: Beginning at a point on the Allegheny river, where the line dividing Perry and Sugar Creek townships stretches (touches) the same; thence by the line of Perry township to the Butler county line.; thence by the Butler county line to the house of Daniel Kemerer, or near it; thence by a direct line to the Allegheny river, at the mouth of Snyder's run, on the farm of Thomas Templeton; and thence by the Allegheny river to the place of beginning. The citizens of this township were authorized to hold the general and township elections at the house then occupied by John R. Johnston, and to elect township officers and two justices of the peace, as provided for other townships, on Saturday, July 6, 1845, at Johnston's, who were to hold their offices until the then next spring election-notice of that special election to be given by the constable of Sugar Creek township. By the act of April 11, 1850, the place of holding elections was changed to schoolhouse No. 4, "near the public house kept by James Morrison," where they are still held. At the election July 6, 1845, the following citizens were elected to the various offices: Joseph King and John A. Thompson, justices of the peace; Daniel B. Balliet, constable; Andrew Kayler and Andrew McKee, supervisors; Ephraim Myers, judge of election; George Duncan and William Hagerson, inspectors of election; William H. Davis, Daniel Kemerer, Jacob Millison, Robert A. Phillips, John Truby and Simon Wiles, school directors; James E. Crawford and Thomas Donaldson, overseers of the poor; Thomas S. Johnston, township clerk. ~ Four persons had each 1 vote for township auditor. At the spring election, 1846: Daniel B. Balliet, constable; Peter Kemerer, judge of election; Leonard Rumbaugh and John Truby, inspectors of election; Andrew Kayler and Andrew McKee, supervisors; James Summerville, assessor; Joseph King and Matthias C. Sedwick, assistant assessors; Hugh Moore and John Wiles, township auditors; Samuel M. Bell, Daniel Kemerer, M. C. Sedwick, John A. Thompson and John Truby, school directors-there was a tie vote between Peter Brennenau and Joseph King; Thomas Donaldson, overseer of the poor-a tie vote between Jacob Millison, Patrick Mehan, Andrew McKee and M. C. Sedwick; Samuel M. Bell, township clerk; Thos. Donaldson and John Quinn, fence viewers. In the southwestern part of what is now Brady's Bend township is a strip of the nortlhern part of South " Campbelltown," mentioned in Sugar Creek township, and the whole of a similar tract, a rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise from south to north, 436 acres and 108 perches, warranted to James T. Campbell, whose interest became vested in Charles Campbell, to whom the patent was granted simultaneously with the one adjoining it on the south, to distinguish it from which it is here called North "Campbelltown," which with South " Campbelltown," it will be remembered, Campbell conveyed to Nicholas Allimong's executors in trust for his legatees. These executors conveyed 88 acres to Margaret Yorkey, wife of Abraham Yorkey, which they conveyed to Adam Kemerer, October 29, 1811, for $80. Those executors conveyed 149 acres at the same time, August 19, 1809, to Barbara Lauffer, which she probably conveyed to Adam Kemerer. Jacob Allimong conveyed 531 acres of the parcel devised to him to Kemerer June 8, 1811, for $142.66, who was first assessed in Sugar Creek township, of which this was then a part, with 266 acres in 1816, at $130.25. The parcel which he purchased from Mrs. Yorkey lihe conveyed to David Kemerer May 20, 1818, who conveyed it, as containing 96 acres, to Samuel Kamerer, January 18, 1869, for $250. This entire tract appears to belong to the Kamerers, except the portion owned by Adam Barnhart. Adjoining North " Campbelltown" on the north is a square tract, 400 acres, the warrant for which was granted to David Nixon, probably in 1794, on which George King appears to have made an early improvement and settlement. He and Leonharte Kealor entered into a written agreement HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. February 1, 1815, for the sale and purchase of 200 acres of it for $200, each to bear one-half the expense of the survey and patent. If there should prove to be an excess of more than 50 acres within the designated boundaries, Kealer was to pay $2 an acre for such excess, and defray one-third of the expense of the patent. They mutually bound themselves in the penal sum of $300 for the due performance each of his part of the contract. Peter Kealer was assessed with a sawmill on this tract, first in 1817. John McCullough, of the adjoining township of Donnegal, had some interest in or claim to this tract, that he had acquired from Jacob and John Spangler "by article of bargain and sale," which he conveyed to King August 15, 1816, for $150. The Spanglers' interests in lands in this region originated thus: John Elliott, Jr., of Derry, Westmoreland county, was empowered by John Denniston and McCall to settle their bodies of lands on the waters of Buffalo and Sugar creeks. He as their agent entered into an agreement May 27 and June 23, 1796, with James Craig, George and John Spangler, and nearly twenty others. He agreed that each party who signed that agreement should have 200 acres of the tract on which he should settle. Each settler was to pay his own share of the purchase money due the commonwealth, to live at least five years on and cultivate not less than 8 acres of his chosen tract, and the parties were mutually bound in the penal sum of ~100 for the performance of their respective parts of the contract, and that there was no prior claim to the land. King conveyed 20 acres to John Richard, May 18, 1818, for $80, on which he was first assessed with his carding machine, in 1822. George King conveyed 70 acres of this tract, October 24, 1818, to Jonathan King, Sr., for $3.50 per acre. This tract was sold by Robert Brown, county treasurer, for taxes, and conveyed by him to Joseph Brown September 17, 1816, as a tract of 400 acres "surveyed on a warrant to John Spangler." Joseph Brown conveyed it to Alexander Colwell January 24, 1818, who conveyed to Daniel Torringer 100 acres, to James Torringer 100 acres, to Andrew Kayler 70 acres and to Jacob Kayler 40 acres, those being the quantities of which they were respectively in possession, September 15, 1832, for $71. Nixon's warrant, having been prior to Spangler's, prevailed. Nixon's interest became vested in McCall, to whom the patent was granted December 6, 1827. He conveyed August 8, 1829: To Samuel McCartney, 115 acres, more or less, for $76-, which he conveyed to John Y. McCartney, November 13, 1853, a part of which, on which is the Torringer schoolhouse, with some that lihe had bought from John Sybert, in all 150 acres and 67 perches, he conveyed to Joseph Torringer, February 20, 1856, for $2,000, where he was first assessed with a fulling-mill, in 1844, afterward with 1 and then with 2 carding machines, and last as a "woolen," in 1867, and with a store in 1868; McCall to Daniel Torringer, a parcel of which the latter conveyed, 18 acres and 47 perches, to Jonas Grove, November 19, 1863, for $262; McCall to James Torringer, 100 acres, which the latter conveyed to Michael Barnhart, July 11, 1837, on which was a schoolhouse, built while this was in Sugar Creek township, which he conveyed to Moses Copler August 17, 1839, and which he conveyed to Isaac Myers, April 27, 1850, for $800, which Myers conveyed to John Barr, January 5, 1865, and he to Daniel Carney, April 14, 1871, for $3,500; McCall to Jacob Kayler, a parcel of which the latter conveyed, 38 acres and 121 perches, to Thomas Butler, September 13, 1866, for $425; McCall to Jacob King, 42 acres, for $36. McCall's heirs, by Lloyd Mifflin, their attorney-in-fact, conveyed 70 acres and 74 perches to John Y. McCartney, July 26, 1843, for $1 and other land conveyed to them by him the same day, 66 acres of which he conveyed to John Wassol, July 1, 1848, for $125. A portion of this tract, consisting of several parcels, was included in the conveyance from McCall's heirs to William F. Johnston. le conveyed one of them, 42 acres and 95 perches, to Thomas Butler, July 5, 1849, for $510; another, 50 acres and 64 perches, to Henry Fennel, October 10, 1863, for $684.18, 45 acres and 64 perches of which Christopher Fennel conveyed to Matthias Olcus, July 6, 1870, for $1,800; Johnston to Jacob Snow, October 10, 1863,106 acres and 110 perches, for $1,280.18, 5 acres of which Elizabeth Snow conveyed to Christopher Fennel, November 1, 1867, for $200. The mineral rights were excepted in those several conveyances from Johnston and in the subsequent ones. Adjoining that Nixon-Spangler tract on the north is a similar one, extending to the Perry township line, the warrant for which was granted to Thomas Elder, probably in 1794, whose interest became vested in McCall. Adjoining that Elder-McCall tract on the east is a similar one, 405 acres, for which the warrant was granted to John B. Elder, on which John Linaberger was the original settler, and with which he was assessed in 1804 and 1805, at $100, and the next year, with the land and one cow, at $106. HIe acquired title to the settler's share, which descended to his children. Eli Linaberger 564 REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. This infant company was the root of all the military organizations that left Armstrong county during the war. OFFICERS. Capt. William Sirwell, 1st Lieut. Norwood G. Penny, 2d Lieut. Samuel Robertson, 1st Sergt. James L. McCain, 2d Sergt. James Hillberry, 3d Sergt. James Lowther (resigned), 4th Sergt. James Gates, 1st Corp. Darwin Phelps, 2d Corp. Henry Grazier, 3d Corp. Henry Glauts, 4th Corp. Matthias Freese. Musicians Theo. Barrett (14 years old), Dan A. Golden (12 years old). PRIVATES. George Armstrong, William Bell, Joseph P. Beggs, Joseph Brown, William Bauer, Francis Boyd, Samuel Bouvard, Murray Cunningham, Alexander S. Davidson, James Dugan, George W. Davis, Philip Edwards, Alfred L. Fluke, John Frederick, August Frederick, Michael Fishter, George S. Frailey, William Frailey, Joseph Gates, Joseph Garver, William Hill, Jacob Hobaugh, Henry W. Hoaks, James Hetherington, Hiram Henry, Aldin Henry, George Hilterbran, James Huston, Samuel Jordan,* Charles M. King, Valentine Kerr, Samuel F. Keiner, Scott King, William A. Logan,* John Mott, George W. Mackey, George Mathews, George McComb, George W. McMillen, James McMasters, George McCandless, David L. McVey, Robert McNett, Milton McCormick, Charles McManus, John L. McElwain, Archibald McMullin, Martin McCann, John McElravey, James McGarvey, George Mathews, Randolph Oswald, Henry F. Phelps, Harrison Premkard, Isaac A. Price, James Porter, Jefferson Reynolds, Albert Robinson, James Rhoads, - Rogers, Orlando W. Russ, John Roth, - Rumbaugh, James H. Stevenson, Charles W. Smith, August Singer, Francis Shoup, George Sintser, George Serene, John Scott, John H. Truby, Charles Trew, Jefferson Truit, - Vourhour, Samuel Walker,* James B. Welty, Samuel Wasson, Henry Wygant, Frederick Wagoner, Peter Whal, William W. Wallace, Thomas C. Wilson. THIRTY-SEVENTH REGIMENT-EIGHTH RESERVES. Company A of this regiment was an Armstrong organization, and the second raised in the county. The regiment was formed from companies recruited for the three-months service, but not accepted,which had rendezvoused at Camp Wright, twelve miles above Pittsburgh, on the Allegheny river. The regiment was organized June 28, 1861, George S. Hays, M.D., of Allegheny county, being elected colonel; S. D. Oliphant, lieutenant colonel; and J. B. Gardner, major. On July 20 it was ordered to Washington, where it remained until August 2, when it was assigned to the first brigade, and located in the Reserve Camp at Tenallytown; from thence it went to Great Falls, on the Potomac, to assist the 7th in checking the advance of the enemy. Returning to Tenallytown the 8th, moved October 9 across the Potomac to Langley, Va., where it took position with the division in line with the army of the Potomac, and where it subsequently went into winter quarters. During its three years' service, the regiment (including Company A, of which the roster is given below) participated in the following battles: Mechanicsville, June 26, 1862; Gaines Hill, June 27, 1862; Charles City Cross-roads, June 31, 1862; Malvern Hill, July 1, 1862; second battle of Bull Run, August 28, 29, 30, 1862; South Mountain, September 14, 1862; Antietam, Septem *The men whose names are thus marked were soldiers in the Mexican war. her 17, 1862; Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862; Gettysburg, July 3, 4 and 5, 1863; Wilderness, May 5 and 6, 1864; Laurel Hill, May 8, 9, 10, 11, 12 and 13, 1864. Company A crossed the Potomac with 104 men, and afterward had sixteen recruits. Only thirty men were present at the muster out at Pittsburgh, May 24,,1864. A number had been transferred to other regiments, but the graves of many had been made on the battle-fields of the army of the Potomac. After their muster out, and upon their arrival at Kittanning, the few survivors of this gallant company were greeted by a concourse of enthusiastic citizens. Speeches were made, and in the evening the war-worn veterans, with many of their old friends, were regaled with a sumptuous supper at the Reynolds House. COMPANY A. OFFICERS. Captain L. S. Cantwell, m. i. s. April 22, 1861; res. Dec. 4, 1861. Captain James G. Henry, m. i. s. April 22, 1861; pro. from first ser geant Dec. 4, 1861; m. o. with company.* First Lieutenant Felix McManus, m. i. s. April 22, 1861; res. Dec. 30, 1861. First Lieutenant Samuel McCandless, m. i. s. July 3, 1861; pro. to first lieutenant Dec. 31, 1861; m. o. with company. Second Lieutenant Geo. W. Cook, m. i. s. April 22, 1861; dismissed Jan. 30, 1862. Second Lieutenant Patrick H. Murray, m. i. s. April 22, 1861; pro. from sergeant Jan. 30, 1862; res. March 12, 1863, for wounds received in action. Second Lieutenant John E. Alward, m. i. s. April 22, 1861; pro. from sergeant to second lieutenant Sept. 14, 1863; m. o. with com pany. First Sergeant Wm. H. Dickey, m. i. s. April 23, 1861; dis. Dec. 19, 1863, for wounds received in action. First Sergeant Wilson A. Williams, m. i. s. April 23, 1861; m. o. with company. Sergeant Henry M. Wick, m. i. s. April 23, 1861; pro. to sergeant; m. o. with company. Sergeant Thos. M. Huston, m. i. s. April 22, 1861; pro. from corporal; killed at Mechanicsville June 26, 1862. Sergeant Andrew J. Elliott, m. i. s. April 22,1861; pro. from corporal; m. o. with company. Sergeant Robt. K. Hine, m. i. s. July 10, 1861; pro. to corporal, to sergeant; m. o. with company. Sergeant Daniel W. Hill, m. i. s. April 23, 1861; pro. to sergeant; m. o. with company. Sergeant V. F. Shackhouse, m. i. s. -; died Aug. 20, 1864; buried at Hampton, Va. Corporal Benjamin F. Weaver, m. i. s. May 15, 1861; m. o. with com pany. Corporal John S. McGeary, m. i. s. April 23, 1861; died Feb. 6, 1863, of wounds received at Fredericksburg; buried in Military Asylum cem., D. C. Corporal Christopher Hoss, m. i. s. July 6,1861; died Jan. 3, 1863, of wounds received at Fredericksburg; buried in Military Asylum cem., D. C. Corporal James H. Truby, m. i. s. June 15, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 18, 1862. Corporal Alex. J. Baily, m. i. s. April 22, 1861; m. o. with company. Corporal Scott W. Furnee, m. i. s. April 23, 1861; wounded at Wilder ness May 6, 1864; m. o. with company. Corporal Win. G. Jack, m. i. s. June 22, 1861; pro. from musician; m. o. with company. Corporal Richard M. Shawl, m. i. s. April 23,1861; m. o. with com pany. Corporal Thos. Casserly, m. i. s. Aug. 20, 1862; trans, to 191st reg. Pa. Vols. May 15,1864. * The company was mustered out May 24, 1864. -i ~ ~ T FCA A1E? BRADY'S BEND TOWNSHIP. released his interest in 150 acres of the northern part to his brother John, January 29, 1859, for $50, and Adam Linaberger released his interest to John, March 2, for $60, with the major part of which the latter is still assessed. The patent for this tract was granted to McCall, March 9, 1820, whose heirs conveyed 285 acres and 80 perches more or less to William F. Johnston, who conveyed 50 acres and 97 perches to William Torringer, October 5, 1854, for $607.50, and 135 acres and 118 perches to Jacob J. Hallabaugh, for $1,608.10. Matthew Smith, of Fairview, Butler county, had a claim to 200 acres of the southern part, which appears to have been recognized as valid, which William G. Watson, who was appointed a trustee by the orphans' court of this county, conveyed to William McGarvey, in trust for Smith's heirs, March 22, 1854, for $500, who conveyed 75 acres and 20 perches to George Heath, December 5, 1855, for $806, which his executors sold by order of the proper court for the payment of debts, and conveyed to John Lloyd, March 2, 1858, for $802. McGarvey, as trustee, conveyed 136 acres and 24 perches to Joseph Jenkins, July 6, 1865, for $1,413.40. Adjoining that Spangler-McCall tract on the south is a similar one, 439 acres and 118 perches, on which George Spangler was the original settler, with 400 hundred acres of which and 2 cows he was assessed in 1804 at $120, and the next year, with the land and 1 cow, at $190. He applied to the land office and obtained a warrant for that quantity May 3, 1814, which was surveyed to him September 3, for which the patent was granted November 22, 1816. He conveyed 302 acres and 140 perches to Henry Sybert, January 3, 1817, for $957 "in hand paid." He had probably settled on this parcel several years before, for he was assessed with a mill and 1 cow on the Sugar Creek township list in 1812, and afterward with a grist and sawmill. In 1830 he died, and the land and the gristmill were noted as transferred to his heirs on the assessment list, after which it was assessed to Adam Sybert until 1834-5. A second patent for this entire tract was granted to McCall, December 6, 1827. Mrs. David Rumbaugh, Daniel and Barnard Sybert conveyed their interest in 30 acres to John Truby, in 1843, for $400. Bernard Sybert conveyed his interest in 33 acres "and the old mill seat, race and dam, and all the land alleged to have belonged" thereto, "and all the water privilege of the creek passing through the land." Hamilton Kelly as trustee conveyed Daniel Sybert's interest to Truby, January 14, 1859. Truby conveyed one-half his interest to David and Michael Truby, which they conveyed to Simon Truby, Jr., February 24, 1860, to whom Jonathan Myers, sheriff, conveyed John Truby's interest, which, 30 acres and 120 perches, the latter conveyed to Joseph Rodgers, September 6, 1864, for $4,000. Eighteen acres a short distance below, on Sugar Creek, became vested in Peter Brenneman, on which he opened his store in 1874. In the near vicinity of this mill, chiefly along the creek, is a population dense and numerous enough for a town or village, in which are, in 1876, 2 stores and 3 hotels. McCall's heirs conveyed another portion of this tract, 63 acres and 75 perches, to Sebastian Sybert, which he conveyed to Michael McClosky, May 23, 1853, for $700, six parcels of which, aggregating 48 acres and 82 perches, he and his widow sold to various parties, from December 7, 1854, till October 4, 1867, for $1,488.80, besides leasing 10 acres to a coal company, October 17, 1863, who were to pay him 15 cents per ton of clear merchantable coal taken therefrom. George Spangler conveyed 145 acres and 44 perches in the form of a trapezoid, partly in the eastern but chiefly in the southeastern part of this tract, to John Barnhart, April 25, 1829, for $435. McCall's heirs compromised with Barnhart, John Y. McCartney, and Henry Sybert's heirs, July 26, 1843, for a nominal money consideration and the mutual exchanges of certain parcels of this and another tract. Adjoining that Spangler-McCall tract on the south is a similar one, 400 acres, the warrant for which was granted to James C. Campbell, a portion of whose land history is given* in the sketch of Sugar Creek township, a considerable portion of its southern part being still in that township. The warrantee's interest became vested in Charles Campbell. Its original settler was Jonathan King, who was assessed with 200 acres, 1 horse and 3 cattle in 1804, at $148, and with the same and an additional horse the next year, at $158. He was residing on this tract when he was elected the second sheriff of this county in 1808. After the close of his term, on being asked if he had made or saved any money from the income of his office, replied that he had not, but that he had had "a good living" during his term. He was in his early life a soldier in the revolutionary war, and was at the time of his death, which occurred here June 16, 1837, aged 79 years 8 months and 14 days. There is not any conveyance on record of any part of this tract either to or from him, which was on his tenure when Jacob Mechling conveyed it to Daniel Stannard, December 7, 1828, when 100 acres were *See Sugar Creek township. 565 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. cleared, and there were on it four cabin-houses and a cabin-barn. Dr. Gilpin conveyed 90 acres of the part in this township to Abraham F. Myers, March 25, 1858, for $975; 31 acres and 40 perches to David T. Lewis, December 24, 1859, for $468.75, and Lewis to Thomas W. George, October 18, 1862, for $331; Gilpin to Jacob Ellenberger, 70 acres, March 15, 1848, and he to Isaac Myers, April 9, 1861, for $1,400; Gilpin to Thomas W. Ginge, 155 acres, March 25, 1858, for $2,333.75; he to William Llewellyn and William P. R. Stevens, 131 acres and 60 perches, January 23, 1863, and they to David, John and William Williams, July 22, 1863, for $2,364.75; Gilpin to Philip King, 25 acres, partly in Sugar Creek township, February 19, 1840, for $10, which King by his will, dated August 12, and registered August 24, 1842, devised to his sonin-law and daughter, John and Mary Yockey, which they conveyed to John Jenkins, April 8, 1845, for $170, and which he conveyed to Joseph Hertwick, May 1, 1869, for $1,450. If there have been other conveyances of parcels of this tract by Gilpin they have not been recorded. The early history of the next tract east of that Campbell-King one has already been given.* John Weil conveyed 76 acres and 26 perches, chiefly in what is now Brady's Bend township, in two parcels, to Benjamin Swain, May 8, 1820, for $437. Swain's interest in about 78 acres was sold by Robert Robinson, sheriff, on a judgment against Swain in favor of Alexander Colwell, to whom the sheriff conveyed that quantity, December 19, 1821, for $101, on which there were then a cabin-house and barn and about 20 acres cleared, and which Colwell conveyed to James Summerville, Jr., March 25, 1834, for $250. Adjoining that Swain parcel on the east were the 260 acres which Weil conveyed to John Crawford, May 8, 1820, for $549, which the latter conveyed to Jonathan Mortimer, January 10, 1832, for $1,000, on which the latter built a fourthrate log gristmill in 1833, which and 91 acres and 145 perches he conveyed to William Holder, November 4, 1845, for $1, and a deed for 101 acres and 55 perches of other land, after which the run on which that mill was situated was called Holder's run. Holder conveyed 23 acres to James Summerville, May 23, 1846, for $18, and 50 acres, except 1 acre marked to David Boyes, to Jacob and John Millison, September 15, 1858, for $300, and 15 acres with the gristmill and water privileges, excepting the mineral privilege, to George Howser, April 17, 1860, for $900, which he conveyed to James Summerville, October 4, 1865, for $1,000. Mortimer conveyed 72 acres of his purchase * See Sugar Creek. from Crawford to F. W. Redmond, January 13, 1844, for $430.61. Next north is a similar tract, covered by a warrant to John Nixon, February 3, 1794, on which Nicholas Snow was the original settler, with 63 acres of which and 1 cow he was assessed in 1804 and 1805 at $41.20, and in later years with 400 acres. Whether Snow purchased Nixon's interest is not manifest from the records. If he did not, he acquired a title to the whole tract by improvement and occupancy. By section 5 of the act of April 18, 1853, the surveyor-general was authorized to issue a patent on payment of office fees and any balance of purchase-money that might be due, to Nicholas Snow's heirs, or to his administrators, for their use, for this tract which he owned and on which he resided at the time of his death, containing 405 acres and 112 perches, more or less. The patent was accordingly granted to J. Alexander Fulton, administrator, for the use of those heirs. Nicholas Snow, before his death, which occurred prior to May 29, 1852, when his administrator was appointed, agreed to sell parcels of this tract to his sons and others, but did not execute the deeds therefor, but which were subsequently executed and delivered by the administrator by virtue of the decrees of the proper court for the specific performance of the decedent's agreements. He conveyed 45 acres to James Sage, August 6, 1853, for $90; 57 acres and 24 perches to James Parker, September 12, for $114.30; 10 acres to the Brady's Bend Iron Company. Jacob Snow conveyed parcels of his portion thus: 44 acres and 84 perches to Daniel Jenkins, May 11, 1858, for $890, and 32 acres and 88 perches to John E. Rees, November 19, 1856, for $552, which (391 acres) the latter conveyed to David R. Lewis, March 14, 1865, for $1,000. Samuel Snow conveyed 48 acres of his share to Charles Boyle September 13, 1854, which the latter conveyed to Patrick Cusick, September 23, 1857, for $550. Sage conveyed his parcel to Henry Dyerman and Harrison Miller, November 19, 1856, for $850, who made an amicable partition April 4, 1859, by which Miller took 21 acres and 118 perches, which he conveyed to John Snow, Jr., Apiil 8, 1859, for $6,400. Adjoining that Nixon-Snow tract on the east is a similar one, covered by the warrant to Simon Nixon, February 3, 1794, who conveyed his interest in it to Jacob Millison, to whom the patent was granted March 25, 1816, who conveyed 405 acres and 112 perches to the Brady's Bend Iron Company, September 17, 1845, for $3,000. It was afterward ascertained that a small parcel of 11 square perches, diminutive as it was in quantity, was 568 BRADY'S BEND TOWNSHIP. nevertheless important on account of its locality, for then every site for a store or other business stand outside that company's lands was eagerly sought, was not included in that conveyance, and which Millison conveyed to his sons, John and Jacob, April 23, 1846, for $1. Millison was the original settler on this tract. He was assessed with it and 2 cows in 1804, at $132, and the next year with 1 horse and 2 cattle besides, at $156. After his sale to that company he removed to what is now Valley township.* Adjoining that Nixon-Millison tract on the south is the one heretofore mentioned,f a portion of which is in this township, included in the sale of Samuel and William Crawford to William F. Johnston, parcels of which he conveyed to Richard Charles, Thomas Griffith, Evan A. James, William Hart, Adam Myers, John McBride, John Richards and Paul Rosser, most of whom have transferred their interests to others. There are on this part of the Johnston purchase a dozen or more houses, two stores and a hotel. Adjoining the northern part of that McCoyMoyers-Crawford-Johnston tract in this township is the northern part of James McCoy-Frederick Shoop tract, heretofore mentioned, 112 acres of which Shoop conveyed to Jacob Hepler, October 19, 1825, which he conveyed to F. W. Redmond, June 26, 1846, for $1,500, except 6 acres and 40 perches which he had conveyed to Andrew Snyder. Adjoining the northeastern part of that Shoop tract is a hexagonal one, 297 acres, covered by a warrant to David McCoy, February 3, 1794, whose interest became vested in Jacob Hepler, to whom the patent was granted August 6, 1836, 150 acres of which he conveyed to Leonard Rumbaugh, September 9, 1837, for $150, 57 acres of which and the ore and coal on 100 acres Rumbaugh conveyed to Philander Raymond, of Geauga county, Ohio, February 4, for $10; Hepler to Raymond, February 16, 1839, 57 acres and 157 perches, February 16, 1839, for $145; and 100 acres to F. W. Redmond, June 26, 1846, for $1,500, in pursuance of an agreement, made June 2, 1845, who conveyed 106 acres and 40 perches to Raymond, December 29, 1846, for $3,000. This tract has been chiefly occupied by the operatives of the Brady's Bend Iron Company, who were engaged in working the Summit colliery, the coke yard and the Greenfield ore hill, which are on it. Passing over to the deep eastern horseshoe bend, the first above Brady's bend, is a tract, 350 acres, covered by a warrant to John Denniston, which * See Valley township. f See Sugar (reek township. was early settled by John Weems (Major), who was assessed with 400 acres in 1804 and 1805 at $160. He conveyed his interest in it to Sarah Weems, April 26, 1807, who afterward married Francis Lease. They conveyed to William Ferguson, May 12, 1820, for $16 per acre. The patent was, however, granted to Charles Campbell, who conveyed 150 acres to Ferguson, February 6, 1826, for $375, which and 94 acres in Toby township he conveyed to Andrew Grinder, March 21, 1832, for $574, and which the latter conveyed to Henry Sybert, April 3, 1845, for $2,800, who laid out five lots varying in quantity from 1 to 10 acres. He having died intestate in 1863-4, proceedings in partition were instituted. The inquest valued this parcel, exclusive of those five lots, July 12-13, 1864, at $11,018.75. It having been suggested that a portion of the land is claimed absolutely, the court ordered, December 14, 1864, that proceedings be stayed until the title should be tried by an action of ejectment, and if that should not be brought within three months the right would be adjudged against the demandants. Chambers Orr, sheriff, conveyed 200 acres, the Campbell purpart of this tract, to Matthew Pugh and John Truby, Jr., March 20, 1835, for $600. They conveyed 90 acres to John Richards, which they had purchased for him, April 28, 1844, for $1, which (97 acres and 60 perches) he conveyed to Henry, Sr. and Jr., and Sebastian Sybert, February 12, 1849, for $600. John Mechling conveyed Truby's interest in 50 acres, on which were one hewed log cabin house, two carding-machine houses and one spinning jenny, to Matthias C. Sedwick, September 17, 1849, for $450, on a judgment in favor of E. & F. Faber & Co., for $210.86 of debt. Sedwick having agreed to sell 10 acres to H. J. Thompson, they united in conveying that quantity to H. A. S. D. Dudley, July 7, 1857, for $500, which the latter conveyed to William J. Chiswell, July 13, for $1,100, on which is a quarry of sandstone, which Criswell leased to John Harrison, of Pittsburgh, the latter to pay 15 cents for every perch quarried and removed, but, if a railroad should be constructed along this side of the river, 25 cents per perch, for the term of five years, and five years longer Harrison to pay Criswell whatever the stone should be valued at in the same neighborhood with equal facilities for shipping. Some of the stone from this quarry was used in the construction of the new jail at Kittanning. Hamilton Kelly, sheriff, conveyed 41 acres, on which were a two-story frame dwelling-house, a frame stable, a sawmill, and two acres cleared, to Dudley, March 11, 1857, for $560, on judgment in 567 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. favor of Samuel Lowrey against Sedwick. Dudley having conveyed these two parcels to Criswell, the latter conveyed them, 51 acres, to Henry H. Cummings and John Hunter, April 18, 1876, for $4,000. Matthias Pugh having died intestate, the inquest in proceedings in partition valued the 61 acres and 62 perches which he left at $3,560.47}, July 12, 1864, which was taken by Henry Sybert, the alienee of three of Pugh's heirs, at the appraised valuation, by virtue of the decree of the court, December 16, 1864. Certain relics and vestiges found on this tract indicate that the Indians formerly had a town or camp on it. Among the relics which the writer has seen are a completely finished small arrowhead and an implement for skinning animals. The latter is trap or green stone, very neatly wrought, its lower end wedge-shaped, from which to the other end it is tapering and rounding, and very accurately proportioned. Its length is about seven inches, and it is well adapted to the purpose for which it was designed. Henry Sybert, Jr., was first assessed with his distillery on this tract in 1849. Adjoining that Denniston-Weems tract on the west is one, a rectangular parallelogram, 327 acres, partly in the neck of the horseshoe bend, covered by a warrant to Robert Campbell, on which Thomas Armstrong was the original settler, and which was claimed by him by virtue of his actual settlement. He and Campbell's executors, however, compromised, made an amicable partition, and they conveyed to him 163- acres of the eastern part to him, December 1, 1840, which he conveyed to Robert Farley and others, trustees of the Brady's Bend Iron Company, October 23, 1845, for $2,200. The Campbell purpart also became vested in that company. Adjoining that Campbell-Armstong tract on the west and southwest, and the heretofore-mentioned William Jameson, Simon Nixon and John Nixon tracts on the north is a large area of vacant territory on the map, containing about 1,800 acres. A warrant for 200 acres in the northwestern part was granted to William Benson July 22, 1836, which were surveyed to him by Meredith, deputy surveyor, September 17, which, or most of which, belongs to his heirs. William Benson, by his will dated October 12, 1858, and registered June 20,1859, devised that part of his land north of Peters' Spring run to his daughter, Eleanor Hooks, which 28 acres and 128 perches she conveyed to Thomas Hooks, September 6, 1873, for $100; 5 acres south of that run to his daughter Susannah Snow, and the rest of his tract equally to his three sons-John to have the southwestern part, Thomas the east end, and William the northwestern part. South of the Benson tract are three smaller contiguous ones. James Barrickman improved and settled 100 acres hereabouts, "including a part of Pine run," which he conveyed to Raymond, December 4, 1836, for $150. For one of which, an octagon, 144 acres and 37 perches, a warrant was granted to Philander Raymond, December 17, 1836, was surveyed to him by Meredith, deputy surveyor, May 30, 1838, a tongue of which, 34 perches wide, one side 100 perches, and the other or western side 83 perches, extends between Robert A. Phillips' and Philip Snow's tracts, to the southern line of the Benson tract, on which, near the mouth of Pine river, is a public schoolhouse, which, and the Benson, Phillips and Snow tracts, make an area of the usual size of tracts as they were originally surveyed in this part of this surveyor district. Adjoining the southern half that tract is a hexagonal one, 160 acres, for which a warrant was granted to Robert A. Phillips, December 17, 1836, and surveyed to him by Meredith, deputy surveyor, January 26, 1838, which with other 27 acres and 156 perches he conveyed to Raymond, February 17, 1839, for $35, having previously conveyed 100 acres for $150. Paul Woolcot seems to have claimed 100 acres pentagonal on the east of Phillips, which he agreed to sell to Thomas Roberts, April 13, 1840, for $8 an acre, the warrant for which had been granted to Randolph Lawrence, November 4, 1837, and for which the patent was granted to him February 10, 1844, and which he conveyed to Roberts, May 6, for $800; east of which, and of the Robert A. Phillips tract, is a long, narrow one, a rectangular parallelogram, the patent for which was granted to Thomas McClure, August 6, 1836, who conveyed 45 acres and 111 perches to John Millison, January 26, 1838, for $150, and July 30, 30 acres to William Holden for $400, and 54 acres and 81 perches to Samuel Le Fevre, for $327. North of these Lawrence and McClure tracts is a hexagonal one, 99 acres and 140 perches, covered by a warrant to Elisha Lawrence, October 6, 1837, and surveyed to him by Meredith, deputy surveyor, January 25, 1838, and to whom the patent was granted, December 6, 1840, 99 acres of which he conveyed to Peter Townsend, July 23, 1841, for $900, and 1 acre in the southeast corner, touching the northeast corner of the McClure tract, to William Morgan, Jr., July 22, 1842, for $100, which he conveyed to Philip Templeton, August 9, 1847, for $300, on which he and his nephews have since done a prosperous mercantile business. The rest of that area, vacant on the map, was in 568 BRADY'S BEND TOWNSHIP. the early times disputed territory-disputed between Joseph Phillips and Dr. Elisha Wall, that is, there was an interference of their surveys. The former settled on the part adjoining the Benson tract on the east, and was assessed with 400 acres, I horse and 3 cattle in 1804, at $211, and the next year with 200 acres less, $135. He conveyed 130 acres of that part of the 400 acres of which he had "become seized and possessed by settlement and improvement," adjoining Henry Sybert on the south, William Horton on the east, and Jacob Millison on the west, to John Phillips, October 31, 1826, for $50, and 200 acres, including the old improvement made by him, adjoining land then in the tenure of William Dougherty on the west, Samuel Phillips on the north, and Thomas McClure on the south, to Randolph Lawrence, October 7, 1831, for $350, in twelve annual payments, but the records do not show any conveyance thereof from Lawrence, except his conveyance of 100 acres to Thomas Roberts. The rest of Phillips' land seems to have descended to his son John, who conveyed 200 acres to Raymond, December 5, 1836, for $125. After John Phillips' death, in proceedings in partition, the inquest, February 19, 1856, valued 67 acres and 92 perches adjoining William Benson on the west, and the eastern part traversed by Cove run, at $643.32, which John C. Ahner, alienee of Thomas G. Phillips one of the decedent's heirs, took at the valuation, June 15. Ahner conveyed 2 acres to Thomas Griffiths, March 18, 1858, for $6,000, which he conveyed to William G. Jones, August 25, 1870, for $125, and he to William Dando, August 12, 1871, for $160; Ahner to John Worthington, March 18, 1858, 2 acres for $50, and the latter to Dando, May 28, 1873, for $200; same day to George Heath 1 acre and 40 perches, for $31.75, to William G. Jones 1 acre and 148 perches, for $53.12). The remaining portion of the vacant territorythat is, appears to be so on the map-are 800 acres, two tracts, surveyed to Dr. Elisha Wall, April 4, 1795, in pursuance of his "actual settlement." He resided near the mouth of Sugar creek, and he was assessed in 1804 with 400 acres, 1 horse and 3 cattle, at $211, with same less 1 head of cattle, at $205. He must have made the improvement on what was called "the green " on the left bank of Sugar creek near its mouth. Another early improvement was on the hill, afterward the site of Raymond's house. The Great Western Ironworks * commenced operations at Brady's Bend in August, 1839, under charge of Mr. Raymond. This company acquired possession of several hundred acres of land lying * Contributed by a resident of Brady's Bend. along the valley of Sugar creek, and in that year selected the site of their first blast furnace, which was completed and blown in about Christmas of the following year. A merchant-mill was also erected; the first intention being to manufacture merchant iron and nails. Several machines for the latter purpose were erected, but on trial the iron was found not adapted for this branch of manufacture. The manufacture of strap-rails was then commenced, and continued until the dissolution of the Great Western Iron Company, in 1843. The Brady's Bend Iron Company acquired possession of the property in 1844, erecting a second blast furnace, which was completed in 1845. The manufacture of strap-rails was continued till 1846, in the latter part of which year the works were altered for the manufacture of T-rails, which has continued to be sole product during their succeeding operation. They are entitled to the credit of rolling the first T-rail made west of the Alleghenies. With a short stoppage from the fall of 1848 to the summer of 1849, the works were in prosperous operation until 1858, when, owing to the death of the principal proprietor, they were completely shut down for five years. A new organization was effected in the fall of 1862, and work was commenced in all departments in February, 1863, continuing with no noticeable interruption until October, 1873. From a small beginning, this industry grew to be a blessing to the whole surrounding country, giving employment to from 1,200 to 1,500 operatives, supporting a population'of over 5,000, and benefiting not only Armstrong county, but the neighboring counties of Clarion and Butler. The output of coal for the sole use of these works rose to the aggregate of upward of 110,000 tons per annum; of ore, to over 70,000 tons. The product of the mill was shipped to all parts of the country, returning millions of dollars to enrich the laborer, and which, circulating through all the channels of trade, proved a source of wealth to hundreds not connected with the works. From a dense wilderness sprung up a town, built by the proprietors for their employ6s, of about 700 houses, with churches of every denomination, and schoolhouses which rank with the best in the county for size and convenience, while the neighboring town of East Brady can also be said to owe its existence to this great enterprise. This hasty sketch would be incomplete without a mention of the managers, to whom in a great measure the success attending the operation of the works was due. Although now the hum of the mill is silent and the furnaces are cold, these differ569 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. ent managers can feel the proud satisfaction that this result is due to no fault of theirs. Foremost on the list stands the honored name of Mr. H. A. S. D. Dudley, a gentleman whose name is nowhere mentioned but with respect by all who knew him. From 1850 to 1864, under his management, the works rose to their highest state of prosperity, ably seconded as he was by Mr. Joseph Winslow in the management of the mill, and by Mr. Richard Jennings in the management of the furnaces and internal development of the lands. His successor, Mr. John H. Haines, sustained the high reputation of these works, and on his retirement in 1869 to engage in other business, Col. W. D. Slack took chiarge, a gentleman whose energy was liberally expended in sustaining, under most adverse circumstances, the falling fortunes of the place. This was a task beyond any one man's powers, and in October, 1873, when the financial crash, whose effects are yet but slowly disappearing, burst upon the country, these works succumbed to the pressure. It would have been difficult to find in any part of this country a corps of employes more devoted to the interests of their locality or who could show longer terms of service. Among those who for over twenty-five years occupied responsible positions, can be named Mr. Alexander Campbell, whose hand guided the first T-rail rolled west of the Allegheny mountains, and who very appropriately in this centennial year, thirty years from the date of this achievement, assisted at the Edgar Thompson steelworks in rolling the enornious steel rail exhibited at the centennial exposition, measuring 120 feet in length and weighing 64 pounds to the yard; the Hon. A. W. Bell, who has just been returned for the second time to our state legislature, and Mr. James Keen, whose skillful hand shaped the rolls through whose massive jaws passed the hundreds of thousands of tons of rails which have borne the iron horse to the remotest sections of this country. In closing, a few words as to the resources of this property will be very appropriate. Comprising in all about 6,000 acres of diversified surface, covered with much valuable timber and dotted with highly cultivated farms, it is the hidden riches which make its great value as a manufacturing center. The beds of bituminous coal have been pronounced by experts capable of withstanding the same drain as in the past for a hundred years longer, with valuable ores in proportion, while the beds of limestone, whetstone, fireclay, etc., etc., are practicably inexhaustible. The oil development is yet in its infancy, but enough has been shown to make it probable that the wealth from this source may yet compare favorably with, if not surpass, its other mineral riches. With all these abundant resources it certainly seems but a question of time when the valley shall again be alive with the tread of thousands of prosperous operatives, and the present stagnation and decay seem but a nightmare, which has vanished before the dawn of a brighter day. That such may be the future fortune of these works must be the earnest prayer of all who have ever been connected with them. .570 CHAPTER XXVII. PERRY. Organization of the Township - The Pioneers - Their Work and their Hardships - Early Roads and Primitive Manufactures - The Pioneer Schools - Truby's Mill- The Borough of Queenstown. PERRY TOWNSHIP was formerly a part of Sugar Creek. In 1845 it was organized as Perry, with the following limits: Brady's Bend township on the south; Butler county on the west and the Allegheny river on the east, thus including all that part of the county lying north of Brady's Bend township. In 1870 that portion lying north of Bear Creek was taken from Perry and erected into a township by the name of Hovey. The land lying west of the Allegheny river in the northern part of this county, on account of its rugged and hilly character, was little sought by the pioneers of Western Pennsylvania. Consequently few settlements were made within the territory of Perry township until after other portions of the county had become considerably populated. The progress of settlement and improvement was very slow, and this part of the county remained the favorite hunting-grounds of the early settlers and the wandering Indians many years after the encroaching population had banished game from the surrounding neighborhoods. A few courageous pioneers located in this township as early as 1796, and began the arduous task of subduing its stubborn soil. They subsisted largely upon game at first; but as years went by their strong arms and axes made perceptible inroads upon the forests, and here and there small fields appeared to brighten the monotonous aspect of the surrounding wilderness. William Love was among the first settlers. IHe located on a 400-acre tract and made a small improvement, for which he received a deed for the land from its owner, Charles Campbell. Charles, James, Robert and Samuel Campbell each owned a tract of 400 acres. The land lay in a body, and was settled by Love, Truby and others. Love sold his right to the land to John Binkerd, who came to this township about 1798. Binkerd was a native of Virginia, who moved from Eastern Pennsylvania to Butler county, and thence with his father and mother to the tract above mentioned. The original farm is now mainly owned by his sons, Isaac and John K. Binkerd. Another son, Dr. A. D. Binkerd, now of Cincinnati, Ohio, is well known in this county, having practiced medicine in Parker several years, besides being long identified with the interests of Perry township. Binkerd was of German descent, as were most of his neighbors. Chistophel Truby, best known as "Stophel" Truby, settled upon an adjoining tract, and owned the land which is now the Walley and George farms. lie once offered to sell "Dogwood flat," containing over 200 acres, for John Binkerd's small black horse, but the offer was declined. After some years Truby sold his property here and moved to Catfish, where he died. He left no children. Jacob Truby, a brother of Stophel, was likewise an early settler and lived upon the farm now belonging to John Williamson. He reared a large family. Four of his daughters, Mrs. Rambaugh, Mrs. Seibert, Mrs. Barger and Mrs. Walley, still reside in the neighborhood. William Parker * built the first gristmill in this part of the county. It stood on Bear creek, nearly a mile from its mouth. A few years later Stophel Truby's log mill was erected. These mills proved a great convenience to the settlers, who, prior to their erection, had depended for flour and meal either upon the few mills run by horse-power then in the county, or else upon the result of long journeys on horseback to the distant mills of Westmoreland county. Mr. Isaac Steele states that Truby's mill, occupying the site of Barnet Fletcher's present mill on Binkerd's run, was erected by William Love some years after the arrival of the first settlers. About the year 1797 Isaac Steele came from Westmoreland county and took up a tract of land in the woods of this township. He brought all of his goods and his family (consisting of his wife and two children) by means of two horses and packsaddles.' Michael Shakeley had settled on a tract in the edge of Butler county a few years before and had made a small improvement which Steele had agreed to purchase. But when the lat * See history of Parker City. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. ter arrived he found that Shakeley had changed his mind, concluding that the price agreed upon was too little. The Steele family sought admission to the house, which was refused. Shakeley was inside and had the door fastened. Steele found a mallet and broke in the door. A consultation ensued, during which Shakeley persuaded Steele to settle upon another tract. Mr. Steele resided in this township until his death, and reared eight children, two of whom are still living-Isaac and Elizabeth (Hyle). Isaac Steele, born in 1805, is the oldest native resident of this township, and has a vivid recollection of the experiences of pioneer life. Despite his advanced age hlie proved himself too smart for a gang of burglars who, a few years ago, broke into his house and sought to rob him of a large sum of money. Mr. Steele fought them single-handed until the neighbors were summoned and arrived, and the robbers fled without having accomplished their purpose. The early settlers found game abundant, and very little hunting enabled them to keep a constant supply of fresh meat on hand. Grain food was not so easily procured. The farmer's supply of wheat and flour was often exhausted before harvest-time; and in such cases wheat was cut while in the milk, and boiled, making a very palatable and wholesome food. Salt was a valuable commodity and very scarce. The settlers were obliged to go to the eastern counties to obtain it. When a man made a trip "east of the mountains," or to Pittsburgh or Westmoreland county, he went literally loaded with errands, generally taking several packhorses along to bring back supplies. Cabins were made without nails being used in any part of the structure. The principal implement employed in constructing them was -the ax. With this tool the timbers for walls, floors and doors were fashioned. A saw and a drawshave shaped the shingles for the roof. When the 'weight-poles had been adjusted and the open spaces between the logs forming the walls carefully chinked with mud, the cabin was warm and comfortable. Chimneys of sticks and mud, fireplaces of stone and mortar, greased paper in place of windows added the finishing touches to the dwelling. Rude benches served as chairs and tables, and troughs hewed from logs largely took the place of pans, pails, tubs and other kitchen vessels. On the farm wooden plows were used after one or two crops had been planted with the hoe and mattock. The first scythes were known as the "Dutch scythes" and were of soft material. They were sharpened by means of a hammer and an anvil. When clearing, it was customary to burn the brush at night. As soon as the fires were lighted the wolves set up their mournful howls from every hilltop and valley, nor did they cease as long as the brush continued burning. Such were some of the accompaniments of pioneer life. George Knox, whose descendants are very numerous in Armstrong and Butler counties, was one of the earliest pioneers of old Sugar Creek township. He had one of the first orchards in the new settlement and visitors came many miles to test the quality of his fruit. Not infrequently were these visits made without the knowledge or consent of the proprietor of the orchard. He manufactured apple and peach brandy, which articles were in great demand. Thomas Miller and Jacob Edinburg were the first settlers at Miller's eddy. Dr. Hovey was the proprietor of considerable land in that neighborhood. About 1808 Jonathan Hyle came from Westmoreland county with his family and located on land adjoining the Steele tract. The family lived seven weeks in a wagon while a cabin was being erected. In early days every cabin was a factory where clothing was manufactured. Busy hands kept the spinning-wheel and loom buzzing and slamming early and late. In almost every household there were a large number of mouths to feed and bodies to clothe. Shoes were used sparingly by the lucky few who possessed them, for leather was high and money scarce. Often girls and women could be seen walking to church barefooted, carrying shoes and stockings, which they put on when near the house. Tow and linen, buckskin and similar home-made goods formed the clothing worn by males of all ages. The girls' best dresses were frequently spun, woven, dyed, cut and made by the wearers. An old resident remarks: "The girls were just as pretty in those days as they are now, but could one of our fashionably-dressed belles have stepped among them, some might have gone wild with envy and excitement." All the travel of the settlers was performed on foot or on horseback. Wagons were almost unknown within the memory of men now living, while carriages are a comparatively modern innovation. As in most new settlements, the first lines of travel were paths markedby blazed trees. Afterward trees and underbrush were cut away, and some of the principal routes of travel were converted into highways. There is, however, scarcely a road in the township that follow its course as originally traced. Thoroughfares were built at the cost of a great expenditure of time and labor. 572 PERRY TOWNSHIP. John Beatty and Daniel Revere were among the early settlers of this township, and resided here until their deaths. Gideon Gibson, near the river, was an early settler and had a fine farm. Henry Byers located in this township about fifty years ago. Samuel and William Crawford and David Hutchison are also among the oldest residents. James Steele and John Hyle were the noted hunters of early years. A man named Foster was the first settler on the farm afterward owned by David White. White erected a frame house, which was perhaps the first in the township. No later than 1845 nearly everybody lived in log houses. The oil developments in this township since 1870 have produced many changes. Many old residents disposed of their farms and moved away. Others remained, and received in one year such incomes as the results of scores of years of labor in tilling the soil had not produced. The little oil village of Criswell sprang up on the farms of James A. Parker and Sidney Crawford. All the wells in that vicinity are fourth sand-wells, and two of them were very large. A few are still producing, though the yield is small. In 1880 the population of Perry township was 1,309. The oil business largely increased the number of inhabitants. SCHOOLS. Perry township now contains six schoolhouses, and the schools are generally well conducted. At Miller's eddy there is a school building which is also used as a church, and is free for all religious denominations, having been specially constructed for the double purpose of affording educational and religious privileges. Before the free school system was inaugurated, the schoolhouses of the township were few and far apart. Many of the children of the pioneers attended schools in Butler county, and were taught by Archibald Kelly, "Dominie" Cook, Thomas McCleary, and others of the " old masters." One of the earliest schoolhouses stood on the farm of James Hunter, near Queenstown. Hunter was the teacher. He was jovial, good-natured and popular. Edward Jennings was an early teacher at the Peters schoolhouse. He taught several years. At noon he often gave a very long recess that he might go to Jacob Peters' distillery and fortify himself with whisky for the remaining duties of the day. Any man who could read and write, and possessed a very slight knowledge of arithmetic, was a competent teacher in those days. 36 QUEENSTOWN. The borough of Queenstown was incorporated in 1858. The town was named after John Queen, who located in the place in 1848. At that date the only persons residing within the present limits of the borough were Daniel Day and Abraham Teegard and their families. Teegard, now deceased, was a farmer. Day is now a resident of East Brady. While he resided at Queenstown, he worked for the Brady's Bend Iron Company, building log houses for employ6s, and performing other kinds of work. The first houses built in the place were the log buildings of Day and Teegard. Day's cabin stood on a six-acre lot, afterward owned by Rev. David R. Davis. Teegard's house stood where Edward Jennings now lives. No regular survey of lots was ever made, but pieces of land were sold to purchasers as they were wanted, by J. Queen, R. Jennings and Daniel Day, who owned the land now comprised in the borough. These lots were taken up by employ6s of the Brady's Bend Iron Works, and in a few years Queenstown became a small but flourishing village. The first store was established by R. Jennings, in 1851. It stood a short distance north of his ptesent place of business. The second store was started in 1866, by John Queen, who still continues the mercantile business. When he first came to the place, Mr. Queen followed carpentry and building. The third store was established also in 1866, by M. H. J. Meldron. Mr. Meldron died in 1867, and the business has since been conducted by his brother, William J. Meldron. The stores receive custom from a wide extent of country, and do a much larger business than is usual in small places. The first hotel in Queenstown was opened by James Morley, in 1852. Subsequently it was conducted by Richard Meldron, Jr., then by Thomas Jennings. Mrs. Mitchell, daughter of Thomas Jennings, is the present proprietor. In 1853, a gristmill, run by steam power, was erected by J. Queen, R. Jennings and Daniel Evans, who operated it until 1866 under the firm name of Queen & Co. J. L. Meldron is the present owner. The first blacksmith in Queenstown was Giles Morgan, who began business soon after the settlement of the place. Oil production, while it did not greatly increase the population of Queenstown, materially aided its business interests. The Armstrong well, on the Meldron farm, was the first producing well struck in the neighborhood. This well began flowing 573 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Corporal Jerome C. Douze, m. i. s. April 23, 1861; trans. to 191st reg. Pa. Vols. May 15, 1864; vet. Corporal Wmin. Troutner, m. i. s. April 23, 1861; trans. to 191st reg. May 15, 1864; vet. Corporal S. E. Lines, m. i. s. -; died June 18, 1864; buried near Meade Station, Va. Musician Henry O. Jack, m. i. s. May 15, 1861; m. o. with company. PRIVATES. Atkinson, Geo. B., m. i. s. May 15, 1861;: absent sick at m. o. Armstrong, Lee, m. i. s. July 6,1861; killed at Charles City crossroads June 30, 1862. Anderson, Coursan, m. i. s. July 6, 1861; died Jan. 2, 1863, of wounds received at Fredericksburg; buried in Military Asylum cem., D.C. Brown, Jos. C., m. i. s. April 22, 1861: m. o. with company. Brennan, John, m. i. s. April 23, 1861; wounded at Spottsylvania C. H. May 8, 1814; m. o. with company. Brooks, Henry, m. i. s. May 7, 1861; m. o. with company. Bell, James, m. i. s. July 6,1861; m. o. with company. Barnett, Win. H., m. i. s. May 15, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate March 20, 1863. Badger, Mat. P., m. i.-s. April 23, 1861; died of wounds received at Charles City crossroads June 30, 1862. Barnett, Wmin. W., m. i. s. Jan. 27, 1862; trans. to 191st reg. Pa. Vol. May 15,1864. Baker, James, m. i. s. Jan. 27, 1862; trans. to 191st reg. Pa. Vol. May 15, 1864. Bolinger, Jacob, min. i. s. Aug. 15, 1862; trans, to 191st reg. Pa. Vol. May 15, 1864. Brodhead, Frank D., enl. Sept. 21,1861; wounded three times; dis. Sept. 21, 1864, expiration of term. Bailey, Alex., enl. May, 18;1; dis. Sept. 21, 1864, expiration of term. Brown, Andrew, m. i. s. Feb. 10, 1864; trans. to 191st reg. Pa. Vol. May 15, 1864. Crumey, John C., min. i. s. April 22, 1861; m. o. with company. Clark, James C., m. i. s. May 4, 1861; m. o. with company. Crouch, William S., min. i. s. April 23,1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 8, 1862. Campbell, Knox G., mi. i. s. Jan. 27, 1862; trans, to 191st reg. Pa. Vol. May 15, 1864. Croll, J hn F., m. i. s. April 22, 1861; killed at Gaines Mill June 27, 1862. Christy, Jame(,s R., m. i. s. April 23, 1861; died Sept. 8, 1862; buried at Military Asylum cem., D. C. Campbell, John, min. i s. July 6, 1861; killed at Bull Run August 30, 1S62. Davis, David W., n. i. s. April 23, 1861; wounded at Fredericksburg Dec. 13, 1862; m. o. with company. Duncan, Robt. B., m. i. s. July 6, 1861; m. o. with company. Detbaum, William L., m. i. s. April 22, 18;2; m. o. with company. Davidson, Alex. S., m. i. s. Aug. 20, 1862; trans. to 191st reg. Pa. Vol. May 15, 1864. Elgin, Daniel, m. i. s. July 23, 1861; trans. to 191st reg. Pa. Vol. May 15, 1864; vet. Espy, Frederick, min. i. s. April 22, 1861; trans. to 6th U. S. Cay. Nov. 12, 1862. Fuller, B.nj. F., m. i. s. July 6, 1861; trans. to 191st reg. Pa. Vol. May 15, 1864; vet. Gallagher, Hugh, m. i. s. April 23,1861; trans. to 6th U. S. Cay. Nov. 12, 1862. Galbraith, Geo. H., m. i. s. May 15, 1861; trans. to 191st reg. Pa. Vol. May 15, 1864. Green, John F., min. i s. April 25, 1861; killed at Charles City cross roads June 30, 1862. Grey, Aaron, m. i. s. July 6,1861; killed at Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862. Heiner, John H., m. i. s. April 25,1861; mn. o. with company. Hammond, John D., m. i. s. April 25, 1861; wounded at Bull Run Aug. 30,1862; absent at m. o. Hunter, Jos. W., m. i.s. April 25, 1861; m. o. with company. Henry, Nelson, m. i. s. Sept. 10, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 4, 1863. Isaacson, John P., m. i. s. April 25, 1861; wounded at Fredericksburg Dec. 13,1862; m. o. with company. Jordon, Jos. C., m. i. s. May 15, 1871; dis. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 1, 1862. Klingensmith, G. W., m. i. s. April 23, 1861; m. o. with company. Keys, John, m. i. s. July 6, 1861; absent, on detached service, at m. o. Kritzer, David, m. i. s. April 23, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 4, 1863. King, Jonas J., m. i. s. Aug. 30, 1862; dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 4,1863. King, Wmin. R., m. i. s. Aug. 20, 1862; trans. to 6th U. S. Cay. Nov. 12, 1862. Keys, Wmin., m. i. s. July 6, 1861; Lightly, Geo. T., m. i. s. April 23, 1861; m. o. with company. Lewis, Lewis, m. i. s. May 7,1861; min. o. with company. McManus, John, m. i. s. April 22,1861; m. o. with company. McPherson, Jas. S., m. i. s. April 23, 1861; min. o. with company. McCartncy, Washington, m. i. s. April 23, 1861; m. o. with company. Moore, Win. H., m. i. s. April 23, 1861; m. o. with company. Moorehead, D. Milton, mn. i. s. May 15, 1861; m. o. with company. Montgomery, P. C., m. i. s. April 23, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate March 16, 1863. McMasters, Wmin., m. i. s. May 4, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Sept. 17, 1862. McWilliams, John, m. i. s. Aug. 20, 1862; dis. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 1, 1862. Morris, John G., April 23, 1861; trans. to 6th U. S. Cay. Nov. 12, 1862. Milligan, Edward, m. i. s. April 26, 1861; trans. to 6th U. S. Cay. Nov. 12, 1862. Musser, John B., m. i. s. Feb. 8, 1864; trans. to 191st reg. Pa. Vol. May 15, 1864. McClarren, Win., m. i. s. Feb. 1, 1864; trans. to 191st reg. Pa. Vol. May 15, 1864; vet. Moore, Frank F., m. i. s. July 19, 1861; killed at Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862. McGregor, James T., m. i. s. April 23, 1861; died Dec. 17, 1862; buried in Military Asylum cem., D. C. McAfoos, Geo. W., m. i. s. July 6, 1861; died April 11, 1863, of wounds received at Fredericksburg; buried at Philadelphia. McColburn, Alex., m. i. s. April 23,1861; died of wounds received at Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863. Newell, James, m. i. s. April 23, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Sept. 23, 1862. Neuergold, John B., m. i s. May 10, 1861; died of wounds received at Laurel Hill May 8,1864; buried on field. Oswald, Randolph, m. i. s. Aug. 20, 1862; trans. to 191st reg. Pa. Vol. May 15, 1864. Richards, Daniel, m. i. s. April 23, 1861; m. o. with company. Richards, Varner, min. i. s. April 23, 1861; m. o. with company. Rodgers, Alvin S., m. i. s. July 6, 1861; m. o. with company. Ross, Wmin., m. i. s. June 10, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 1, 1863. Renshaw, Frank M., m. i. s. April 23, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 10, 1862. Reynolds, Jefferson, m. i. s. Feb. 15, 1862; dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 13, 1863. Reed, Archibald, m. i. s. April 23, 1861; trans. to 6th reg. U. S. Cay. Nov. 42, 1862. Ross, John W., m. i. s. Feb. 27, 1862; trans. to 191st reg. Pa. Vol. May 15, 1864. Ross, Andrew J., min. i. s. Feb. 21, 1862; trans. to 191st reg. Pa. Vol. May 15, 1864; vet. Shoof, John R, m. i. s. April 23, 1861; m. o. with company. Shawl, Josiah, min. i. s. April 23, 1861; wounded at Mechanicsville June 26, 1862; absent at m. o. Schrecenghost, P. H., m. i. s. April 23, 1861; m. o. with company. Sharrow, Wmin., min. i. s. July 6, 1861; m. o. with company. Stien, Jacob, m. i. s. July 10, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Sept. 10, 1861. Shauer, Sam'l S., m. i. s. Feb. 8, 1864; trans. to 191st reg. Pa. Vol. May 15, 1864. Smith, A. Wilson, m. i. s. Sept. 1, 1861; pro. to sergeant major July 5, 1862. Smith, Valentine, m. i. s. April 2, 1861; killed at South Mountain Sept. 14,1862. Truby, Robt. B., m. i. s. May 15, 1861; killed at Antietam Sept. 14, 1862. Todd, Charles, m. i. s. April 22, 1861; pro. to commissary sergeant March 1, 1863. Weaver, Roderick D., m. i. s. July 19, 1861; m. o. with company. Westwood, John, m. i. s. July 6,1861; m. o. with company. Winters, John M., m. i. s. April 23, 1861; detailed to Kearne's battery March 7, 1862; absent at m. o. Wadsworth, John, m. i. s. Aug. 10, 1861; trans. to 191st reg. Pa. Vol. May 15, 1864. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. April 17, 1870. It caught fire and burned three or four days. Good judges estimated the first day's flow at one thousand barrels. Other wells were soon completed in the vicinity of Queenstown, some of which are still producing. In 1872, Chas. Phillips began manufacturing all kinds of oil producers' implements at Queenstown. He employed from eight to ten men, and carried on a very successful business until 1881, when he moved away. The first schoolhouse was erected soon after the borough was incorporated, and continued to be used until 1876, when the present school building took its place. The new schoolhouse was erected partly by subscription and partly by taxation. It is two stories in hight. The lower story is used for school purposes, and the upper part as a place for public worship, free to all religious denominations. There are no churches in the place. A Catholic church, erected in 1845, was occupied until 1864, when its congregation united with other churches more conveniently situated. Queenstown is situated on a small tributary of Sugar creek. The southern limit of the borough is the northern line of Brady's Bend township. In 1860, the population was 127; in 1880, 217. 574 CHAPTER XXVIII. HOVEY. Organization - Dr. Simon Hovey -The Early Settlers - Discovery of Oil -Wonderful Production of the Robin son Farm- Thorn's Run--The Bridge Across the Allegheny - Miscellaneous Information. HOVEY is a new township, formed in 1870, - from a part of Perry. In 1873 its dimensions were much r.educed by the formation of Parker City from the southern part of its territory. The township derives its name from Dr. Simeon Hovey, who was one of the pioneer settlers, and a very prominent man in the early history of the county. Dr. Hovey was a native of Connecticut, a man of liberal education and fine abilities. He served as a surgeon under Gen. Wayne during the Indian campaigns of the latter, and afterward settled at Greensburg. In 1797 he came into the then sparsely settled region west of the Allegheny river, and located on a tract of land within the present limits of this township. Why a man of his talents should desire to escape from civilization and bury himself in the wilderness, it is not our province to determine. It may have been that he was actuated by a love of adventure. He established himself upon his land and remained about three years. He then returned to Greensburg, where he practiced medicine about five years, then returned to his former habitation in this county. His knowledge and skill as a medical adviser became known, and as physicians were then very few in this section, he was kept constantly busy ministering to the sick and afflicted in all the surrounding region. His opinions were highly valued, and he ranked among the best and most skilled physicians in the county. He was employed night and day visiting patients in localities far remote from his home, besides often being called to consult with the physicians of Kittanning, Clarion, Butler and neighboring towns. His life was one of usefulness and good works, and he was widely esteemed. He was a perfect gentleman in appearance and character. He died about 1837, in the seventy-eighth year of his age. His nephew, Elisha Robinson, inherited his property. Dr. Hovey was married, but left no children, and, but for the memory of the older people of this county who knew him and rightly estimated his worth, his name might long since have been forgotten. Alexander Gibson was one of the first settlers of the township. He took up land and made a small improvement, but disposed of it to Dr. Hovey. Elisha Robinson, a native of Windham, Connecticut, came to this county in 1812, while a young man, and began improving a part of the tract belonging to his uncle, Dr. Hovey. Soon after his arrival he started a tannery, where he carried on the business of tanning and making shoes for over fifty years. He was a man possessed of true Yankee spirit and enterprise. Commencing life with nothing but his hands and his trade as a means of support, he gradually acquired land and property until he became the possessor of 1,100 acres in his home farm, besides holding other interests which it is not necessary to specify. He was honest, upright and benevolent. He married Elizabeth Rohrer, of Greensburg, a niece of Dr. Hovey's wife, and had a family of six children, who reached mature years: Mary A. (Bovard), Manorville; Olive (McConnell), deceased; William D., Kittanning; Simeon IH., Samuel M. and Elisha, Hovey township. Mr. Robinson died in 1874 at a very advanced age. His sons, Elisha and Samuel, wealthy and prominent farmers, now own the homestead farm. Mr. Robinson's first purchase of land was the " Thom's run " property, a 400-acre tract, which he paid for in shoes and leather. The Grant farm in Butler county, which became famous as oil territory and produced from $200,000 to $300,000 worth of petroleum, was sold by Mr. Robinson to Abel Grant for $100, and was never paid for until its value as oil property was discovered. The Robinson farm became one of the most noted properties in the entire oil region. Upon it was made the first discovery of oil which led to the development of the Parker and Butler county fields. In 1865 a portion of the farm was purchased by a Philadelphia company and a well was sunk under the superintendence of WV. D. Robinson. Oil was struck October 10, 1865. The well proved to have a production of about twenty-five barrels per day, which HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. was an important yield at the price of oil which then prevailed-$8.50 per barrel. This well was controlled by the Clarion and Allegheny River Oil Company, and was known as Clarion No. 1. Three other wells were put down in the neighborhood prior to 1869, one on the Robinson farm and two on the Parker farm. Then came the excitement and wells multiplied in every direction. Mr. Robinson received one-eighth royalty from the production of the wells as his share, and for a continuous period of six or seven months this royalty netted him from $30,000 to $40,000 per month. Mr. W. D. Robinson, of Kittanning, estimates that the oil pumped from this farm from the first discovery up to the present time must have reached the value ot nearly $2,000,000. There are still several producing wells yielding from 200 to 300 barrels daily. Robert Mena and Hamilton Redick were the first settlers upon the land which subsequently became the Graham farm. Gen. Thomas Graham, a land surveyor, came from the eastern part of the state and settled upon this farm soon after Robinson settled in the township. Graham had been a militia general in former years. He devoted himself to farming and surveying. He was a man of contentious disposition and did not get along well with his neighbors. He once sued Dr. Hovey, charging him with slander. The case attracted much attention. Distinguished counsel were employed on both sides. The jury brought in a verdict for the plaintiff, placing the damage at six cents. Gen. Graham's death resulted from a horse kicking him upon the head. After this sad event, his family scattered. The farm is now owned by the Fox heirs and others, and has proved valuable oil territory. James Fowler, a prominent and respected citizen of this township, purchased that part of the Graham tract which is his present home in 1850. Mr. Fowler is a native of Parker township, Butler county, where his father, John Fowler, was one of the pioneer settlers. A small oil town was built upon his farm, opposite Foxburg. The first discovery of oil on this farm was made in 1869 by the Ridgeway Oil Company. John Lowrie, a Scotchman, settled in Butler county, near Emlenton, in 1796. His land extended to the river and included the most northern portion of Armstrong county. He was the father of Hon. Walter Lowrie, afterward United States senator, secretary of the senate, and secretary of the American Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian church. Another of his sons, Hon. Matthew B. Lowrie, became a prominent citizen of Pittsburgh, and was the father of the late Judge Lowrie, of the supreme court of this state. A revolutionary soldier named Joseph Thom was a pioneer settler on the stream which is still known as Thom's run. He built the first sawmill in this part of the county and operated it for several years. He sold his tract to Elisha Robinson and moved away. Hovey is a small township both in territory and in population. In 1880 the inhabitants numbered 560. There are two schools in the township but no churches. In 1873 a strong iron bridge was built over the Allegheny river between Foxburg and Hovey township. Its cost was $64,000. James Fowler and the Fox estate were the largest stockholders in the enterprise, each having invested $20,000. The bridge has recently been sold for $50,000 to the Pittsburgh & Western and the Pittsburgh, Bradford & Buffalo Railroad Companies. These owners have removed the iron bridge and are now replacing it by a wooden structure which is to have a railroad, carriage-road and foot-walk across it. The railroad from Foxburg to Parker was built in 1881-2. 576 JAM ES FOQVLER. M4PS.JAMES FOVW/LE. JAMES FOWLER. John Fowler, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Bucks county, Pennsylyania, July 4, 1776. He lived for several years in Westmoreland county, and married there, in 1802, Miss Margaret Carson. His wife died the following year, leaving one child, and Mr. Fowler soon afterward removed to Butler county, where he followed, as he had in Westmoreland, the occupations of millwright and carpenter. In 1807 he married as his second wife, Frances Turner. The fruits of this union were six children, of whom three are living: James, Sarah and Margaret C. James Fowler was born in 1817, and reared upon a farm in Parker township, Butler county. His chief employment was that incidental to farm life, but he was engaged for several years in cabinetmaking and carpentry, in both of which trades he attained considerable skill. His advantages for obtaining an education were quite limited, as hlie could only attend the common country schools of the neighborhood, which were far inferior to those of the present (lay. Nevertheless, he obtained through other channels a fair fund of information while he was still a young man. On February 22, 1844, hlie was united in marriage with Miss Ann L. Leonard, and in 1851 he came to Armstrong county, purchasing and settling upon 29 acres of rough, unimproved land, in what is now Hovey township. This he cleared and brought into good condition, handling some of the timber upon it, and much more besides, in a sawmill which he put up in 1852, and which he operated for six years. In 1859 he went across the Allegheny and leased a hotel in Foxburg, which he carried on for seven years. In the meantime it had been found that the lands in the northwestern part of Armstrong county were valuable oil territory, and he sold his hotel lease and began leasing his land in small parcels to the operators who thronged into the country. Soon some test wells were put down and petroleum found in abundance. He received from one-sixth to one-fourth of the oil produced upon his land as royalty, and it was only a comparatively short time before he had $40,000 in the bank as a result. Not long afterward he and the Messrs. Fox, of Foxburg, established the ferry at that place, which proved a profitable investment. The amount of travel, however, became so great that an iron bridge was thrown across the river to accommodate it, and in this he invested about $20,000. He retained his interest in this until quite recently, when it was sold to the railroad company. Mr. Fowler has at this time, in addition to the place where hlie resides, a good farm of about 128 acres in Kittanning township, a farm in Plum Creek township, and a valuable property in Manorville. He ranks among the most enterprising citizens of the county, is a man of large usefulness to the people among whom hlie lives, and his friendly and kindly disposition have made him generally esteemed. Both Mr. Fowler and his wife are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. They have been the parents of six children, four of whom are living: Marion L., Charlotte A., James T. and Nelson M. Charlotte A. married Philip Foust, and resides at St. Petersburg, Clarion county. James T. married Hannah E. Roof, and resides with his parents. Nelson M. married Jennie R. Reed, and lives near Manorville, in which village he carries on a drug store. CHAPTER XXIX. PARKER CITY. An Oil Town of Phenomenal Growth - Settlement of the Parker Family - An Indian Village on the River Bot tom - Bear Creek Furnace- Lawrenceburg - Its Origin and Decline - Parker's Landing -The Discovery of Oil and the Rapid Upbuilding of a City - Important Events - Leading Industries - The Past and the Present Contrasted - Educational and Religious Institutions. THE discovery of oil was one of the most im portant events in the history of Armstrong county. As a result of that discovery, land that was worthless, or nearly so, for agricultural purposes, appreciated in value a thousand fold; a new industry of manifold branches sprang into being, and great social and commercial changes followed. The northern portion of the country was most affected by the oil excitement. Here in a region, hitherto thinly peopled, there suddenly sprang up a thriving and populous town, which soon became the chief emporium of the lower oil region. Parker City is situated on the western bank of the Allegheny river, eighty-two miles above Pittsburgh, and about three miles from the most northern limit of Armstrong county. It takes its name from Hon. John Parker, who originally owned nearly all the land now included within its limits and was the first settler of the neighborhood. About the year 1786, acting as a deputy under Moore, John Parker left his home in Washington county and came into the wilds of Western Pennsylvania in the capacity of a surveyor. He surveyed much of the land west of the river now included in the northern portions of Armstrong and Butler counties. At the same time his brother William was engaged in the same work east of the river. There were Indians in the country, and on one occasion a man named Elliot, one of the surveying party, getting into a difficulty with them, shot an Indian at the mouth of Bear creek. The surveyors were greatly alarmed and fled. The Indians followed them for a considerable distance, but at length abandoned the pursuit and gave the whites no further trouble. At the time of the survey, the "flat " on which now stands the main portion of the first ward of Parker was occupied by an Indian village. No account of this bottom-land was taken by the surveyors, they considering it worthless, and extending their surveys only to the top of the bluff. Afterward, a man named Baird purchased the flat from the Indians, and then sold it to Parker after the latter had settled here. About the year 1797, Mr. Parker, who had been granted several hundred acres for his services in surveying, removed to his land and thenceforth resided here. His house stood on the hill in the edge of Butler county. The old homestead is now the property of his son George. The elder Parker was appointed one of the first associate judges of Butler county, and held the office thirty-five years. He was a man of prudence and sagacity in business affairs, and one of the most prominent and respected citizens of his day. He devoted himself to farming and stock-raising principally, and was very successful in business. He greatly encouraged and promoted the settlement of the surrounding iterritory by his advice and example, and many of the early pioneers found in him a true and trustworthy friend. He reared a large family, but two members of which are now living-Fullerton, of Parker City, and George, of Parker township, Butler county. All of the sons were intimately identified with the business interests of this section, and Fullerton Parker,* though he has long since passed the age when most men retire from active participation in business affairs, is still interested in many public enterprises of the city, which is mainly built upon his land. William Parker, the father of Judge Parker, moved from Washington county with his family about the year 1798, and settled upon Bear creek. Several families came in company with him, making their way up the river from Pittsburgh on keelboats, which also carried their goods. When opposite the garrison at Pittsburgh one of the boats upset and several persons were drowned, among them a son of William Parker. Several children of the party saved their lives by getting upon feather-beds which kept afloat until they were rescued. Mr. Parker erected a mill soon after his arrival on Bear creek, not far from the spot where * Born in 18i06. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. the furna.ce was afterward built. It was built of logs and contained only the rudest machinery; nevertheless it proved very valuable to the scattered settlers who came many miles to avail themselves of its privileges. It was the first mill erected in the northern part of the county. THE BEAR CREEK FURNACE. One of the pioneer industries of Armstrong county was a charcoal blast-furnace for the reduction of iron ore, erected at a date probably not later than 1820. The old stack was torn down years ago, and now nothing remains of the once important industry save the memory existing in the minds of old residents. The furnace stood on the north side of Bear creek, about three-fourths of a mile from the mouth of the stream. It was built by Whiting & Stackpole, who failed after conducting the business for a time. Col. Robinson, Henry Baldwin (afterward Judge Baldwin), and a Mr. Beltzhoover were the next managers. They also failed, and were succeeded by John and Alexander McNicoll. A Mr. Davis, of Pittsburgh, next tried the business, and failed. Samuel and Reuben Leonard became the owners of the furnace, and carried on a successful business until about the year 1840, when they ceased operations on account of the scarcity of timber and the increased cost of conducting the business. The furnace was run by steam, and had a large capacity for those days. The product was frequently seventy-five tons of pig iron per week. LAWRENCEBURG. This village was brought into existence by the Bear Creek furnace, and consisted mainly of rude dwellings occupied by employes of the company operating the furnace. The closing up of business by the Leonards was the death-blow of the place, which steadily declined until, at the commencement of the oil excitement, only three or four houses and two churches remained. Lawrenceburg was laid out by Judge Parker about the year 1819. John Conway, a wheelwright, built the first house, and was the first settler. He was soon followed by William Cartwright. The old stone house erected by him was used while he owned it as a blacksmith shop, and also contained a carding machine. It is now the oldest building in Parker, and is owned by Elisha H. Bailey. The first store in Lawrenceburg was established about 1820, and was conducted by Judges Parker and Bovard, of Butler county. It was run on the co6perative plan, and many settlers of the neigh borhood were interested. It flourished a number of years. James Reed opened the first tavern. The number of stores and taverns increased as the village grew, and it was not long until there were three stores and three taverns, each doing a thriving business for those days, and attracting customers from points many miles distant. There was a large amount of traffic and travel upon the river, by means of canoes and keel-boats, and all who had business to transact at Parker's landing naturally came to Lawrenceburg to do their trading, as there was no village at the former place. Besides those already mentioned, Michael McCullough, John Andrews, Edward Carleton, Dr. Beggs and John McCaslin were among the first residents of the place. McCullough kept store and built the first brick house. John Marshall, now the oldest living resident of Lawrenceburg, came to the place in 1825, and bought 20 acres of land at $1 per acre, of which he is still the possessor. His land was not included in the original plot of the village, but was adjacent to the northern line of the town. When his land was found to be valuable oil territory, $45,000 was offered for it, but Mr. Marshall concluded not to sell. Mr. Marshall is a native of Greensburg, and was born in 1802. His sister, Mrs. Bailey, is also one of the old residents, having resided here forty-six years. From the closing up of the furnace business in 1840 until the discovery of oil in 1865, Lawrenceburg continued to exist in name, but was a place of no importance. At the latter date there were, at a liberal estimate, less than fifty inhabitants. By 1870 thousands of people had located here either as permanent or transient residents, while all the surrounding oil fields were thickly populated. No one who has not witnessed the rapid up-building of towns in the oil region can form an adequate idea of the growth of the place. The importance of the oil discoveries was not fully realized until midsummer of 1869, and that date really marks the beginning of Parker City. Lawrenceburg became a part of the second ward of Parker City in 1873. PARKER'S LANDING. In the early years of the settlement of this part of the country, Parker's landing was an unimportant station, occasionally visited by the canoes and keel-boats flying upon the river. Subsequenitly it became a steamboat landing and a lumber station. A store was kept at the landing many years, but no village ever sprang up around it. In 1824, Judge Parker erected a large building which was used as a warehouse. It is still standing and.is the oldest house in this part of the city. It has been converted into a hotel, and is now known as the Parker House. 578 PARKER CITY. Samuel Craig, who opened a blacksmith's shop at the landing in 1851, thus summarizes the industries and the inhabitants at that date: Fullerton Parker was the proprietor of the warehouse and ran a tannery; Peter McGuff and William Rogers acted as storekeepers; Thomas M. Parker kept hotel, and James P. Parker ran a ferry. The condition of the place at tho beginning of 1869 was substantially unchanged. W. D. Robinson, now of Kittanning, ran a store at Parker's landing from 1843 until 1869, not conducting the business personally all the time, however. The few industries just enumerated and two or three dwelling-houses - these were all that the "flat" comprised in 1869. A few years later the same spot becomes the heart of a busy mart. Here is a railroad, a city, daily newspapers, banks, hotels, hundreds of flourishing industries! All this grand transformation has been wrought by one potent factor-petroleum. DISCOVERY OF OIL AND THE RESULTS. The first oil discovered in Armstrong county was struck at the Clarion well, No. 1, on the Robinson farm one mile north of Parker City, on October 10, 1865. From that discovery no important results immediately followed. It was not until the latter half of the year 1869 that a genuine oil excitement revealed the importance of the oil fields surrounding Parker. About a dozen wells had been put down on the hill near Parker prior to the time mentioned. But these test wells had proclaimed the value of the Butler county oil territory in addition to that of Armstrong, and such an impetus was given to the business that it speedily became evident that Parker was to become an important point as a base of operations for producers and operators. Lawrenceburg had already become a thrifty village, and in 1869 and 1870 the landing rapidly became the scene of the busiest activity. Rude shanties were constructed in which business was commenced before the echoes from the carpenter's hammer had died away. Saloons, stores, hotels, machine-shops and shops of every kind soon crowded every available space between the bluff and the river. Fires raged and destroyed whole blocks of these box-like structures, but others were built in their places and business was resumed almost before the ashes were cold. November 4, 1870, there was a fire which destroyed the greater part of the buildings at the landing, and on the 4th of December following the central part of Lawrenceburg was burned. January 19, 1873, and again on the 4th of April of the same year, the business portion of the first ward was almost entirely destroyed. But fires counted for little in those days; the buildings were replaced in a few days and everything went on as usual. After thelast fire of 1873, the streets of the flat were laid out on a new plan, and gradually substantial and more costly buildings were erected. River avenue was built up on both sides, and consisted of business houses for almost its entire length. The effects of the great fire of 1879 will be noticed further on. THE CITY. The lawlessness and loose morals characteristic of the followers of the oil excitement did not fail to pervade the new town with a contaminating influence. Good citizens soon saw that there was every necessity for strict and vigilant government. The rapid influx of population naturally led to the belief that Parker was destined to become a large and important place. Accordingly a petition for a city charter was presented to the legislature; it was favorably received, and by an act approved March 1, 1873, all that portion of Armstrong county, from the Butler county line to the river, situated between Bear creek on the south and "Thom's Run" on the north, became incorporated into the city of Parker. By a supplementary act, approved March 23, 1873, it was ordered that the first municipal election of the city be held Friday, March 28, 1873. The mayors of the city have been as follows: J. W. McFarland, 1873-4; George S. Kelly, 1875-6; H. R. Fullerton, 1877-8; E. I. Randolph, 1879-80-1-2. Until 1872 there was no means of reaching Parker station on the Allegheny Valley Railroad, except by the ferry plying between that station and Parker City. But in the year mentioned, three of the most enterprising business men of Parker, S. D. Karns, H. R. Fullerton and Fullerton Parker, caused a superb iron bridge to be constructed. The structure cost $80,000. It is a tollbridge, and serves also as a means for the Pittsburgh & Western trains to cross to the junction. Mr. Karns, who was the leading spirit in this as well as many other important public enterprises, disposed of his interest in the bridge (one-half) to James E. Brown, whose heirs now own it. The other owners still retain their shares. The importance of having further railroad facilities became apparant to the citizens of Parker after the town had attained to an encouraging degree of prosperity. In 1873 the work of building the Parker & Karns City narrow-gauge railroad was undertaken. The road was completed 579 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. as far as Petrolia early in 1874, and in April of the same year trains began running to Karns City. The Butler and Karns City extension was built in 1876, largely increasing the business of the road. This railroad was the result of an enterprise of which S. D. Karns, H. R. Fullerton and Fullerton Parker were the chief projectors and supporters. In 1881 the road became a part of the Pittsburgh & Western company's lines, and during 1881-2 it was extended up the river to Foxburg, there to be connected with the Pittsburgh, Bradford & Buffalo road. From Butler another extension was built during the summer of 1882, joining with the main line at Collery junction. On the 1st of January, 1883, through trains began running from Parker City to Allegheny. Parker is thus placed on the direct through line of the Pittsburgh & Western. The repair shops and carworks of the railroad have been located at Parker from the commencement of the Parker & Karns City road and have formed one of the most important industries of the city. The Parker City waterworks were built in 1872 by Miller & Vesey, who sold out to Coulter & Overy. In 1874 H. R. Fullerton purchased the works, greatly enlarged their capacity and laid several miles of new pipe. In 1882 the present owners, Tinsman & Russell, purchased the property of Mr. Fullerton. The works consist of two large Cameron pumps, with a capacity for raising the water 280 feet and amply supply all parts of the city. A. Randolph and John Walker have had the management of the works for the last six years. The rapid growth of the town and the consequent increase of business soon rendered the establishment of a bank a necessity. The Parker Savings Bank was opened in 1869, and continued to do business until July, 1882, when it failed, involving large losses to its depositors. The Exchange Bank was established in 1871, and quit business in 1880. In October, 1882, Parker, Fullerton & Co. began the banking business, and their bank is now the only one in the city. Parker City gasworks were built in 1877 by a stock company, in which W. C. Mobley, William Smith, M. Naylor and J. Dougheity were most largely interested. Gas is manufactured from crude oil under the process known as Smith's patent. The pipes extend to the principal part of the first ward and to the residences on the bluff. The fire department of the city consists of two volunteer fire companies, one in each ward. First ward, Columbia Engine and Hose Company, John Tonks, foreman; second ward, Citizens' Hook, Ladder and Hose Company, S. M. Brewer, foreman. In the fall of 1869 the first machine-shop was opened by Bradley & Duff, in Lawrenceburg. A large business was carried on, affording employment to many hands. The firm continued to do a successful business until 1882, when the shop was closed. Two machine-shops in the first ward are still in operation, those of John Sweeny and Tinsman & Russell. Sweeny's machine-shop, a three-story building, was erected in 1872. Mr. Sweeny started a foundry in 1875, which is still running, giving employment to seven men. J. McNutt also has a foundry. Evans & Foster are the proprietors of a carriage factory. Another business interest is the establishment of Wilkins & Fullerton, manufacturers and dealers in lumber. The business began in 1875 with the starting of a sawmill. In 1880 the proprietors added a planing-mill and box factory. They are now doing a business of $12,000 to $15,000 per year. One of the most important industrial enterprises ever undertaken in Parker is the Parker City glassworks. The company, as at first formed, consisted of over 100 members, of whom the following gentlemen were the most largely interested: John Duff, John Leonard, Fullerton Parker, W. C. Mobley, C. P. Hatch, William Morgan, James P. Parker, Wilson & Manifold, and others. The works were built in 1880 and set in operation in September of that year. The first board of managers of the company was as follows: John B. Leonard, president; William Morgan, J. P. Parker, A. Sheidemantle and C. P. IHatch. The present managers are John Duff, president; J. J. Campbell, secretary; S. H. Manifold,. treasurer; Fullerton Parker and W. C. Mobley. The product of the works for the past year is estimated at $100,000. Twenty-six blowers are employed; 20 to 25 laborers about the works and 40 men and boys in other departments. Diffenbacher's directory of the oil region for the years 1875-6 places the population of Parker City at over 4,000. At the same time an equally large number of people were residing in the immediate vicinity and dependent upon the city for supplies and commercial facilities. The years 1878-9 witnessed a decline in the oil business, resulting from the partial exhaustion of the wells and the low price of oil. It does not require a long time for an oil town to fall from the hight of prosperity to a position of comparative unimportance. The population of Parker today is probably little more than 1,500. Property has depreciated in value to an 580 ELISH-. R.ORISO4S. MTS. ELISHA POblNSOO. ELISHA ROBINSON. Elisha Robinson, one of the best known of the early settlers in Armstrong county, was born in Windham, Connecticut, December 4, 1791. His parents, Andrew and Olive Robinson, were of English descent, and of a family which had been for several generations in New England. The subject of our sketch learned a trade with a Mr. Bingham of his native town, and in 1814 came out to what was then known as the West to seek his fortune, his only capital being that trade. He located in that portion of old Perry township now constituting Hovey, upon the land where his son Elisha now lives. His first occupation was tanning and shoemaking, and his tannery was undoubtedly the first one in the northern part of the county. He followed these industries until about 1846, working hard, saving money and securing land. Shortly after his settlement in this county he had married, and by this time had sons who had nearly attained their majority. To one of them, Samuel M., he transferred his tannery, and henceforth devoted his whole attention and energy to farming. He followed this quiet avocation until 1870, by which time pioneer or "wild cat" oil operations had demonstrated beyond a doubt that the region around Parker's landing was rich in petroleum. He then began to lease his land to operators for onefourth and one-eighth royalties, and as a large number of good wells were soon struck, he found himself in receipt of a heavy income. The production in 1870 and 1871 was very large, and in some of the months in the latter year Mr. Robinson received as high as 20,000 barrels of oil as his share. In the fall of that year he placed the business under the control of his son Elisha, who succeeded him upon his death three years later. The exact date of his decease was October 17, 1874. He passed away after a comparatively short sickness. His life was one of activity and well directed industry, and he achieved by his own labors an independency before the great value of the lands he owned was proven by the drill. Mr. Robinson was a man of sturdy and sterling character, a very moral man, scrupulously honorable in his dealings, and actuated in all the affairs of his life by the principle of the golden rule. He was not a church member. Politically he was a democrat, and one of lifelong standing. Mr. Robinson's marriage, which has been already alluded to, occurred January 7, 1816. His wife was Elizabeth Rohrer, of Greensburg. She survived her husband several years, passing away at a ripe old age, upon September 21, 1881. Mr. and Mrs. Robinson were the parents of ten children, whose names, with the dates of their births, are as follows, viz.: Simeon H., born March 20, 1817 (deceased); Mary Ann (Bovard), January 14, 1819; W. D., October 20, 1820 (now a resident of Kittanning); Olive (McConnell), June 28, 1822 (deceased); Simeon H., May 2, 1824 (a resident of Hovey township); Frederick Augustus, May 22, 1826 (deceased); Andrew Jackson, April 17, 1828 (deceased); Samuel M.. March 10, 1830; Elisha, December 4, 1832 (both residents of Hovey township); and Frederick Rohrer, May 29, 1835 (deceased). Elisha Robinson, who has been mentioned as taking charge of his father's business in 1871, and succeeding him upon his death, has since carried on a large farm and continued his oil business. He has operated but little himself, but has leased land on royalty. There are now about twenty producing wells upon his farm. He has a finely improved and valuable farm of about 400 acres, and is regarded as one of the most advanced and successful agriculturists and stock-raisers in the county. His carriage and horse barn is probably unsurpassed, in fine appearance, perfection of detail and convenient arrangement, by any to be found in the rural regions of Western Pennsylvania. For about five years-from1861 to 1866-Mr. Robinson carried on a store at a point between his residence and the site of Parker City. Like his father, his political predilections have been with the democratic party. He is one of the oldest members and a steward of the Parker City Methodist Episcopal church. Mr. Robinson was united in marriage with Miss Caroline Truby, of Brookville, Jefferson county, November 24, 1857. Ten children have been born of this union, of whom eight are living. RESIDENCE OF ELISHA F(OB pI4SO. REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. Wilson, Sam'l T., m. i. s. May 15,1861; died of wounds received at Gaines Mill June 27, 1862. Wagner, Simon J., m. i. s. May 12,1861; killed at Charles City Cross Roads June 30, 1862. COMPANY E. Peter Drum, John Piper. COMPANY F. Simon Holley, John Gallaher. THIRTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT-NINTH RESERVE. COMPANY F. [Except where otherwise indicated, the Armstrong men, about thirty in number, in this company, were mustered into service in July, 1861, and mustered out with the company May 11, 1864.] OFFICERS. Sergeant J. Hudson Miller, dis. March 20,1863, for wounds received in action. Sergeant Samuel Schrecenghost, trans, to Vet. Res. corps Aug. 1, 1863. Sergeant James R. Gibson, trans. to Vet. Res. corps, Aug. 1, 1863. Sergeant T. Clark Miller. Corporal J. E. Turk, died Aug. 1, 1862, of wounds received at Gaines' Mills, June 27,1862; buried in Military Asylum cem. Corporal Hartings D. Stoofs, m. i. s. June 27, 1861; killed at Mechan icsville, June 26, 1862. Corporal T. Clark Stockdale. Corporal Samuel Young. PRIVATES. Allen, William F., trans. to 1st U. S. Cay. Nov. 20,1862. Birch, Shunk, trans, to Bat. C, 5th U. S. Art., Nov. 20, 1862. Cable, Jesse, trans. to 59th reg. Pa. Vol. Nov. 10, 1863. Hosack, James R. Hyskill, J. Fletcher. Hawley, Francis, dis. Nov. 2,1862, for wounds received in action. Henderson, J. F., dis. Aug. 10, 1862, for wounds received in action. Hindeman, Thos., dis. Oct. 1, 186', for wounds received in action. Hamilton,Jeff. H., dis. Nov. 8, 1862, for wounds received in action. Hill, Peter, killed at Charles City Cross Roads June 30, 1862. Lamb, William, dis. on surgeon's certificate. Moore, Adam. McQuown, 0. D. Miller, Charles W., dis. Sept. 6, 1862, for wounds received in action. Milliron, William, dis. March 20, 1862, for wounds received in action at Dranesville, Va., Dec 20, 1861. McPherson, H. A., trans. to 190th reg. Pa. Vol. May, 1864; vet. Painter, Ashford, trans. to Bat. C, 5th U. S. Art., Nov. 20, 1862. Painter, Linus, trans. to Bat. C., 5th U. S. Art., Nov 20, 1862. Smiley, David, died Feb. 13,1864: vet Stark, Thos. S., killed at Charles City Cross Roads June 30,1862. Travis, C. Glaston, trans. to 6th U. S. Cay. Oct. 20, 1862. Turner, Alfred, killed at Charles City Cross Roads June 30, 1862. Wagner, William, trans. to Bat. C, 6th U. S. Art., Oct. 20, 1862. FORTIETH REGIMENT- ELEVENTH RESERVE. Company G of this organization was from Arm strong (the Independent Blues of Apollo) and the others from adjoining or near counties. Most of the companies were raised for the three months service, but failing of acceptance still preserved their organizations, and when the call for the reserve corps was issued marched to the rendez vous at Camp Wright, near Pittsburgh. On July 1, 1861, the regiment was organized by the choice of the following officers: Thos. F. Gallagher of Westmoreland county, colonel; James R. Porter of Indiana county, lieutenant-colonel, and Samuel M. Jackson of Armstrong county, major. The regiment already mustered into the service of Pennsylvania was mustered into the service of the United States, nine hundred strong, at WVashington, on June 30. Soon after it was placed in the reserve camp at Tenallytown, where the men were drilled until they were proficient in all movements and the use of arms. Their skill proved of inestimable value on many a contested field. The regiment was assigned to the second brigade of the reserve corps. In the month of September it was sent to Great Falls to picket the Potomac from a short distance below to a point six miles above, and while engaged in that duty Company G obtained its first experience with the enemy in a skirmish. From Tenallytown the regiment moved with the division and took position in line with the army beyond Langley, Va., where it subsequently went into winter quarters. The Fortieth was present at the battle of Mechanicsville, and fought bravely at Gaines Mill, only to be taken prisoners at the close. The men were sent to Richmond, and thence to Belle Isle, where they remained until August 5, when they were released. The regiment, greatly reduced by battle and the diseases consequent to imprisonment, reassembled at Harrison's Landing, and thence to Gainesville, where it joined the main body of Pope's army, and engaged in the second Bull Run campaign. In the battle of Gainesville upon August 29 and 30, the Eleventh reserve took a prominent part. Subsequently it was engaged in the battles of South Mountain, Antietam, Fredericksburg, Gettysburg, Bristoe Station, Rappahannock Station, New Hope Church, Wilderness and Bethesda Church. The regiment was mustered out at Pittsburgh, June 13, 1864. FIELD AND STAFF. Colonel Samuel M. Jackson, m. i. s. June 8, 1861: pro. from Capt. Co. G to Major July 2,1861; to Lt. Col. Oct. 8, 1861; to Col. April 10, 1863; to Bt. Brig. Gen. March 13, 1863; m. o. with reg. June 13, 1864. Major James P. Speer. m. i. s. June 8,1861; pro. from Capt. Co. G to Major May 28, 1863; to Bt. Lt. Col. March 13, 1865; dis. August 27, 1863, for wounds received in action. COMPANY G. OFFICERS. Captain Samuel M. Jackson, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; pro. to Major July 8,1861. Captain James P. Speer, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; wounded at Gaines Mill June 27, and Fredericksburg Dec. 13, 1862; pro. to Major May 28, 1863. Captain James H11. Mills, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; pro. from Corp. to 1st Sergt. July 2, 1861; to Capt. Aug. 17, 1863; to Bt. Major and Bt. Lt. Col. March 13, 1865; m. o. with company.* 1st Lieutenant Joseph F. Cline, m. i. s. June 29, 1861; res. Dec. 27, 1861. 1st Lieutenant John F. Jackson, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; pro. froln Corp. to Sergt. Nov. 1, 1862; to 2nd Lt. Sept. 22, 1863; to 1st Lt. March 4, 1864; to Bt. Capt. March 13, 1865; m. o. with company. * Company G, 40th reg., 11th Reserve was mustefed out June 13, 1M64. PARKER CITY, alarming extent. During the period of greatest prosperity many costly and elegant residences were erected on the beautiful sites which the crest of the bluff affords. To-day their value is reckoned in hundreds of dollars instead of thousands.* On October 30, 1879, River avenue, from Smullin's building to the site of the glassworks, was entirely destroyed by fire. The state of business at that time did not warrant the erection of new buildings, and consequently but a small portion of the burned district has been rebuilt. In ten years Parker has experienced more vicissitudes than has fallen to the lot of many other towns whose years amount to half a century. THE PRESS. A number of unsuccessful newspaper enterprises originated in Parker during the prosperous period of the city's history. A daily paper was established by Johns & Jackson, and published a short time in 1871-2. Clark Wilson conducted the Oilman's. Journal several years. These papers, and several others which were started, were never financially successful. The Parker City Daily, however, had an exceptionally prosperous career. Established in September, 1874, by G. A. Needle, it soon became recognized as one of the most reliable and influential journals of the oil regions, and its circulation rapidly increased. The Daily was started as a rival of the Oil City Derrick, and was of the same size as the latter journal. It was controlled by able editors, who were assisted by a staff of enterprising reporters and correspondents. The Daily contained the Associated Press dispatches and much general information, in addition to its careful digest of news from every part of the oil region. It was published as a morning paper until 1879, when it was issued as an evening journal for about three months. The office was destroyed by fire in that year, and the paper ceased to exist. Mr. Needle, who had for some years been issuing a weekly edition of his journal, at once began the publication of The Phoenix, a weekly local newspaper, which is still flourishing. PHYSICIANS. For many years Dr. Simeon Hovey was the only medical adviser for the entire northern region of Butler and Armstrong counties, as well as considerable portions of Venango and Clarion counties. Some account of his services will be found in the history of Hovey township. The first physician who settled in Lawrenceburg * As an example the fact may be stated that a house costing at least $4,500 recently sold for the small sum of $400! 37 was Dr. Joseph Beggs, who came from Ireland and located at this place about the year 1824. Ile was accounted a good and skillful doctor, and won many friends and a most excellent reputation. He practiced in Lawrenceburg several years, and died at Miller's eddy. Dr. James Goe, a cousin of Dr. Beggs, came from Ireland a little later, and joined his uncle in the practice of his profession. After the death of Dr. Beggs he moved to Callansburg, Clarion county, and thence moved west and died. After 1869 physicians became so numerous in Parker that it would be useless to attempt to catalogue their names. Scores took up their abode here, some of whom remained a few days, others a few weeks or months. The principle of "the survival of the fittest," however, appeared to prevail, and the number of those whose stay lengthened into years was not large. We mention the names of those who have practiced longest and most successfully: Dr. A. M. Hoover, who has been a resident physician of Parker longer than any other member of the profession in the city, located at this place in 1870, coming from Freeport. Dr. Hoover is a native of Butler county, and a graduate of the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. Dr. J. Eggert is the second oldest physician in Parker. He came in 1870, after having practiced for some years in neighboring towns. His son is now associated with him in practice. Since 1870 the following physicians have located in Parker City: Dr. J. Eggert & Son, Dr. Murdoch, Dr. J. R. Murray, Dr. J. E. Hall, Dr. B. F. Goheen, Dr. J. Y. MeCulloch, Dr. A. M. Hoover and Dr. W. B. Wynne. All are still practicing, with the exceptions of Drs. Murdoch, Hall and McCulloch. PETROLEUM AGRICULTURAL ASSOCIATION. Application for a charter for the above association was made to the county court in May, 1881, by E. Robinson, G. A. Needle, Samuel Robinson, J. P. Parker, Dr. J. W. Wick, William Dee and others-- J. Smullin, attorney for the application-and on the 26th of the month a decree was granted by the court, approving the proposed charter. The following directors were chosen for the first year: Elisha Robinson, Hovey township, Armstrong county; Henry Kohlmeyer, Crawford's Corners, Butler county; Ira D. McCoy, Crawford's Corners, Butler county; John M. Shira, North Hope, Butler county; J. S. Grant, Perry township, Clarion county; William Crawford, Emlenton, Venango county; Dr. J. W. Wick, William Dee and W. J. Parker, Parker City. 581 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. The association leased thirteen acres of land for the fair grounds, and erected suitable buildings. The capital stock is divided into 1,000 shares, and has been largely taken by farmers of Arm strong, Butler, Venango and Clarion counties, at $5 a share. Two successful exhibitions have been held, at each of which the exhibits were creditable, and much interest was manifested. The officers of the association consist of a presi dent, vice-president, nine directors (one of whom shall be president), a secretary and a treasurer. The following are the officers and directors for 1882: Officers - A. Tippery, president; Ira D. McCoy, vice-president; G. A. Needle, secretary; E. Y. Fullerton, treasurer. Directors-A. Tippery, Foxburg, Clarion county; E. Robinson, Hovey township, Armnstong county; J. M. Shira, North Washington, Butler county; J. M. Fox, Foxburg, Clarion county; H. R. Fullerton, Parker City, Armstrong county; J. P. Parker, Parker township, Butler county; William Dee, Parker City, Arm strong county; Joseph Grant, Pollock, Clarion county; William Martin, Crawford's Corners, Venango county. SECRET SOCIETIES. Masonic.-Parker City Lodge, No. 521, F. and A. M., was instituted October 28, 1873, with 14 charter members. The present membership is about 75. Odd-Fellows.-Parker Lodge, No. 761, I. O. O. F., was instituted June 13, 1871, with 20 charter members. There are now about 30 members in good standing. Lawrenceburg Lodge, No. 782, I. O. O. F., was instituted November 22, 1871. The membership, which has numbered over 100, is now reduced to 64. Workmen.-Penn Lodge, No. 10, A. O. U. W., instituted December 21, 1871, now has about 50 members. Royal Templars of Temperance.-Hughes Council, No. 37, R. T. of T., was instituted April 4, 1879, with 32 charter members. Present membership, about 75. Knights of Honor.-Parker City Lodge, No. S580, K. of H., was instituted April 6, 1877, with 22 charter members. Knights and Ladies of Honor. - Parker City Lodge, No. 103, K. and L. of H., was instituted December 12, 1878, with 27 charter members. Grand Army.-Calvin A. Craig Post, No. 75, G. A. R., was chartered April 21, 1880. Sixteen names appear on the charter. The post is now large and flourishing, numbering 65 members. Royal Arcanum. -Parker Council, No. 179, Royal Arcanum, was organized October 17, 1878, with 32 charter members. The membership January 1, 1883, was 46. Aid Union.-Parker Union, No. 420, Equitable Aid Union, was organized in March, 1882, with 175 charter members. The present membership is about 130, 74 of the number being beneficiary members. Labor Union.-Garver Assembly, No. 2370, was organized November 2, 1882. Meetings are held in Odd-Fellows' hall, in the Second ward, every Thursday evening. SCHOOLS. The first school building erected within the present limits of Parker was a log structure which stood in Lawrenceburg. The school was supported by subscription, and presided over by the itinerant schoolmasters of pioneer days. Later, a union school district was formed, and the schools jointly supported by Perry (afterward Hovey) township, Armstrong county, and Parker township, Butler county. During the past eight years the city schools have consisted of three school buildings, in which schools have been conducted at an annual cost of about $3,400. For six years the schools have been thus divided as to grades: one grammar school, two intermediate and two primary. The fact that the three school buildings are situated about half a mile apart has prevented thorough grading. The schools have generally been well managed, and the pupils have made fair progress. The value of the schoolhouses is about 85,000. Seven teachers are employed, T. J. Moffitt being the principal. In 1882 the school board, against strong opposition, began the erection of a large two-story brick schoolhouse, which. is to be completed and occupied by the 1st of September, 1883. The opposition came from citizens who feared an increase of taxes, but all dissatisfaction seems to have passed away, and the new school building is pointed out with pride by some who strongly opposed the project of building. The house contains eight schoolrooms, and will afford ample accommodations for all the pupils of the city. Its cost is $11,000. At last reports, the school population was 497. PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. The earliest Presbyterian church in the northern part of the county was the church of Ebenezer, organized at Lawrenceburg in 1819. William Redick and Gideon Gibson were the first elders. The congregation was largely composed of residents of Butler 6ounty, though the church was 582 PARKER CITY. attended by all the Presbyterians of the surrounding country. A meeting-house was erected in 1882. For several years the congregation was without a pastor, bui there was preaching by supplies at stated intervals. The pastors have been as follows: Rev. Ebenezer Henry, 1847-55; Rev. James Coulter, 1860-9; Rev. Samuel A. Hughes, 1870-7; Rev. James N. McGonigle, 1878-80; Rev. H. W. Lowry, 1881, now in charge. The present church edifice was erected in 1867. The church enjoyed great prosperity during the period of oil development. There has since been some decline, but the congregation is still a strong body, numbering 205 members. The membership of the Sabbath school is 215. UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. In 1834 the Lawrenceburg Associate Reformed Church was organized by Rev. Joseph Johnston. A house of worship was erected the following year. Rev. Mr. Johnston became pastor, and after getting the church well established returned to his native country, Ireland, and his friends never again heard from him. There are but scanty records of this ancient organization. James Turner, Thos. Allen and Samuel Hutchison were among the first elders. Rev. James Green succeeded Johnston as pastor, and was followed by Revs. Robert Oliver, Riddle and Fife. The congregation became so reduced as to be unable to support a pastor, and there were no regular services for a number of years prior to the oil excitement. The present United Presbyterian organization was formed May 12,1871, by a committee appointed by the Presbytery, and consisting of Rev. M. Clark, and Elders Robert Campbell, Robert Black and Joseph Rosenberry. The number of members was about 35. The first elders elected were E. McHenry and G. W. Weller. The first pastor, Rev. W. G. Nevin, was installed in May, 1872, and served during 1872-3. Rev. J. T. Wilson was pastor in 1874-9. The present pastor, Rev. William Robertson, was installed in 1879. The present membership is about 60. The number of Sabbath-school scholars is about 65. The new church edifice is a commodious and costly building, erected during the years 1877-8, at a cost of $8,500. METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH. At the first session of the Erie conference in 1836, Lawrenceburg and vicinity was missionary territory. From 1836 to 1840 the following ministers were appointed to the mission: Revs. D. Richey, H. Elliot, A. S. Hitchcock, Stephen Heard and W. S. Winaus. The closing up of business by the company operating the Bear Creek Furnace caused the appointment to be discontinued. In the winter of 1858-9, M. S. Adams, a local preacher, helda series of meetings at Lawrenceburg, which awakened great interest. Rev. John McCombs, then in charge of the North Washington (Butler county) circuit joined with Mr. Adams in carrying forward the work. As a result of their labors, a society was formed and Elisha Myers became class-leader. The charge was added to the North Washington circuit and continued a part of the same from 1859 to 1869. During this period the circuit was supplied by the following ministers: Revs. Milray, Johnson, Paden, Boyd, Bennett, Clark, Moore, Hubbard, Domer, Perry, Hays, Hicks and Mendenhall. The following were the class-leaders during the same period: Elisha R. Robinson, Reuben Leonard and George W. Morrow. In 1870, the Lawrenceburg charge was removed from the circuit and made a station. The first pastor, Rev. R. W. Crane, served until 1873, and has been succeeded by the following ministers: R. M. Baird, 1873-4; R. N. Stubbs, 1874-6; J. S. Lytle, 1876-9; E. D. McCreary, 1880; J. M. Bray, 1881-3. No church edifice was built by the society until 1870, when the present house was erected. The dedication took place January 15, 1871, with services conducted by Rev. Dr. Pershing. A parsonage was subsequently erected. Many improvements in the church property have since been made. Since April, 1882, the sum of $1,400 has been expended in improvements. The church is out of debt and in good financial condition. The present membership is 240, and the number of Sabbath-school scholars, 230. A number of revivals have blessed the labors of the pastors. CHURCH OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION. The first Catholic services in Lawrenceburg, so far as there is any record, took place September 6, 1831, when Bishop Kenrick visited the place and confirmed eighty-three persons, gathered from a wide extent of surrounding country. Few if any Catholics were residents of the place until the discovery of oil. In 1869, Rev. Joseph Haney, of Murrinsville, visited Lawrenceburg and conducted services. He continued his labors until July of the following year, when lots were purchased and the work of erecting a church was begun. Though the building was not completed until the summer of 1871, it was occupied in October, 1870. It was then a frame building 45X30 feet. In March, 1871, 583 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Rev. J. Stillerich became pastor. He remained until November of the same year, when hlie was succeeded by Rev. James P. Tahany. To Father Tahany's labors much of the temporal prosperity of the church was due. He built a neat house to be occupied as a parsonage; and after the congregation had increased, enlarged the church by an addition 18 feet to the front and 24 feet to the rear. The belfry was added and the interior of the church finished. The edifice was dedicated by the bishop as the Church of the Immaculate Conception, November 24, 1874. Father Tahany also organized a church in Petrolia, and the two formed one pastorate. In December, 1875, Father Tahany was succeeded by Rev. James Donelly, who acted as pastor until October, 1877. Rev. P. M. Garvey then became pastor, and in August, 1879, was succeeded by Rev. F. X. McCarthy. Father Melady is the present pastor. The church is in a prosperous condition, although its membership has been greatly diminished by the decline of the town. BAPTIST CHURCH. While Parker was most flourishing, a Baptist congregation was organized, which during 1875-6 enjoyed great prosperity. A church was erected and the congregation became quite large. But with the decline of the oil interests, the membership diminished rapidly, and the organization ceased to exist. ENGLISH LUTHERAN CHURCH. Christ's Evangelical Lutheran church of Parker City was organized in the fall of 1879. During the summer of that year R. M. Zimmerman, a theological student, had conducted services in the place, and succeeded in awakening an interest which resulted in the formation of the church. The congregation was organized by Rev. W. A. Passavant, D. D., of Pittsburgh, with twenty-one members. A house of worship was erected during the fall of 1879, at a cost of $3,300, and was dedicated about the close of the same year. Rev. J. H. Kline became pastor in 1880, and resigned after serving one year. The congregation finding it impossible to support a pastor any longer, the church was taken under the care of the Pittsburgh synod as a mission, and the appointment has since been filled by regular supplies. 584 4 3"rllllz D BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. GENERAL DANIEL BRODHEAD.* General Daniel Brodhead, of revolutionary fame, whose portrait appears elsewhere in this volume, was born in Marbletown, Ulster county, New York, in 1736, and died and was buried in Milford, Pennsylvania, November 15, 1809. He was the greatgrandson of Capt. Daniel Brodhead, of the English army, who came to this country in 1664, as a member of the expedition commanded by Col. Richard Nichols, in the service of'King Charles II, after the Restoration. After the surrender of Stuyvesant Capt. Brodhead was sent up to Albany, in September, 1664, and was a witness to the treaty made with the Indians there in that month. He was afterward promoted to the command of the military forces of Ulster county, by commission from King Charles, dated September 14, 1665, which position he held till his death in 1670. He left one daughter and two sons-Ann Brodhead, Charles Brodhead and Richard Brodhead. The latter was born at Marbletown, New York, in 1666, and was the grandfather of General Brodhead. Richard Brodhead had two sons, Richard Brodhead, Jr., and Daniel Brodhead, born in Marbletown, Ulster county, New York, in the year 1698, and died at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, in the year 1755. This Daniel Brodhead, the father of the subject of this biography, removed with his family from Ulster county, New York, in the year 1737, to Danville, Pennsylvania, while the subject of this biography was but an infant. Inured to the dangers of the Indian frontier from his very cradle, the impression made as he grew up among the scenes of Indian barbarities, and the outrages of the savages, helped to form his future character and to mold him into the grand, successful soldier and Indian fighter which his subsequent history proved him to be. General Brodhead first appeared prominently in public life when he was elected a deputy from Berks county to a provincial meeting which met at Philadelphia, July 15, 1774, and served on a committee which reported sixteen resolutions, one of which recommended the calling of a continental congress and acts of non-importation and non-ex * Prepared by Capt. Robert G. Heiner. portation from Great Britain. These were among the first steps toward the revolution which followed. At the beginning of the war of the revolution he was commissioned by the assembly of Pennsylvania at Philadelphia as colonel of the 8th regt. Pa. Colonial Troops. He first participated in the battle of Long Island. Before the close of this battle he commanded the whole of the Pennsylvania contingent troops, composed of several battalions. He was especially mentioned by Washington in his report to congress on this battle, for brave and meritorious conduct. He also participated in several other battles of the revolution. Having received the approbation of Washington, he was sent by him, in June, 1778, with his troops to Fort Muncy, where he rebuilt that fort formerly destroyed by the Indians, which command he held until Washington, on the following spring, recommended his selection to congress for the command of the western department. Washington, being personally acquainted and warmly attached to him, knew well his qualifications as a brave, judicious and competent general. Washington, by sanction of congress, issued an order, dated March 5, 1779, directing him to proceed to Fort Pitt, Pennsylvania, and take charge of the western department, extending from the British possessions, at Detroit, on the north, to the French possessions (Louisiana) on the south, a command and responsibility equal to any in the revolutionary army. Gen. Brodhead established the headquarters of his department at Fort Pitt, now Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. He had under his command the posts of Fort Pitt, Fort McIntosh, Fort Laurens, Fort Tuscarora, Fort Wheeling, Fort Armstrong and Fort Holliday's Cove. He made a number of successful expeditions in person against the Indians with a large part of his command. In 1779 he executed a brilliant march up the Allegheny with 605 men, penetrating into New York, overcoming almost insurmountable difficulties, through a wilderness without roads, driving the Indians before him, depopulating and destroying their villages all along his route, killing and capturing many. This expedition began August 11 and ended September 14, 1779, between 300 and 400 miles in HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. thirty-three days, through a wilderness without a road. Gen. Brodhead received the thanks of congress for this expedition, and the following acknowledgment from Gen. Washington "The activity, perseverance and firmness which marked the conduct of Gen. Brodhead, and that of all the officers and men of every description in this expedition, do them great honor, and their services entitle them to the thanks and to this testimonial of the general's acknowledgement." A great number of the thrilling Indian stories of which we read in the present day occurred under Gen. Brodhead's command. The famous Capt. Brady was a captain in Gen. Brodlicad's eighth regiment, and seldom ever went out on a scout but by orders from the general. Gen. Brodhead's devotion to the cause of liberty was untiring. He never doubted the result of the war,and his letters of encouragement to Gen. Washington and others are part of the history of our country. In one, lamenting the coldness of some former patriots, he writes: " There is nothing I so much fear as a dishonorable peace. For heaven's sake, let every good man hold up his hands against it. We have never suffered half I expected we should, and I am willing to suffer much more for the glorious cause for which I have and wish to bleed." Gen. Brodhead had a treble warfare to wage a warfare which required the genius and daring of a soldier, the diplomacy of a statesman and the good, hard sense and clear judgment of an inde pendent ruler over an extensive country composed of a variety of elements. He waged war upon the unfriendly Indians, and held as allies in friendship several friendly nations. He watched and con trolled, to a great extent, the British influence upon the Indians in the direction of Detroit. He kept in subjection a large tory element west of the mountains in sympathy with Great Britain, and punished them by confiscating their surplus stores and provisions for the benefit of his starving soldiers, when they had refused to sell to his com missary officers on the credit of the government; but he never resorted to this punishment until his starving soldiers paraded in a body in front of his quarters and announced they had had no bread for five days. On June 24, 1779, Gen. Brodhead issued his famous order directing Col. Bayard to proceed to Kittanning and erect a fort at that point for the protection of all settlers desiring to settle in that vicinity, and for the better protection of the frontier. After the erection of this fort settlers took up land and built their houses around and in the vicinity of this fort, under its protection, until the accumulation of houses and homes in the vicinity transformed the Indian town of Kittanning into the present thriving capital of Armstrong county, which can only justly and truthfully be acknowledged the result of the fort erected by command of Gen. Brodhead, and which hlie was too modest to have called after himself, regardless of the importunate efforts of Col. Bayard, whom history shows to have earnestly entreated Brodhead to permit him to call it Fort Brodhead. Gen. B.'s untiring watchfulness of the settle ments along the Allegheny, the building of his fort at Kittanning, his protection of the inhabi tants in its vicinity until they became numerous enough to defend themselves, his modesty in not permitting the fort to be called after himself, justly entitle him to the credit of being the founder of Kittanning, just as the erecting of every fort on our western frontier from that day to this has been the foundation of a city or town which invariably sprang from such a planting, as Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, Leavenworth, Fort Dodge, Detroit, for never until that time had Kittanning any white inhabitants, and never from that time until the present has it been without white inhabitants. - In 1781 Gen. B. was given command of the 1st Pa. Colonial regt., and during that year received his full commission as general. His services extended through the entire war of the revolution, and at its close he was elected by the officers assembled at the cantonment of the American army on the Hudson River, May 10, 1783, as one of a committee to prepare the necessary papers for the organization of the Society of the Cincinnati. In 1789 Gen. Brodhead was elected by the Pennsylvania assembly surveyor-general of the State of Pennsylvania, which position he held for nearly twelve years. For his services in the revolution Gen. B. re ceived several thousand acres of land, which he located in Western Pennsylvania. Besides this he purchased largely of land through Western Penn sylvania, Virginia and Kentucky. He located much land in the vicinity of Kittanning and on the Allegheny, the scenes of his former exploits, which he never ceased to love. His second mar riage was to the widow of Gen. Samuel Mifflin. He had but one child, Ann Garton Brodhead. She married Casper Heiner, of Reading, Pennsylvania, a surveyor by profession and an author of a series of mathematics. To Ann Garton Heiner and her children Gen. Brodhead left all his lands and property. Ann Garton Heiner had but one son, John einer, who 586 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. removed to Kittanning in 1812, and took possession of all the lands left him by his grandfather, Gen. Brodhead. Captain John Heiner died and was buried in Indiana, Pennsylvania, in 1833. HIe left but one son, Daniel Brodhead Heiner, late of Kittanning, Pennsylvania, and three daughters, Ann Eliza, who married John Mechling, sheriff of Armstrong county from 1845 to 1848; Margaret Heiner (Carson), of Sidney, Illinois, and Catherine Heiner Smith, wife of Gov. George W. Smith, of Lawrence, Kansas. Ann Garton Brodhead Heiner had, beside her son John Heiner, four daughters, Rebecca Heiner, who was the mother of the Hon. Henry Johnson, of Muncy, Pennsylvania, presidential elector in 1848 on the whig ticket; state senator of Pennsylvania, from 1861 to 1864, and chairman of the judiciary committee and author of the bill to Ontitle soldiers to vote in the field (after the supreme court of Pennsylvania had decided their voting unconstitutional). She was the grandmother of Hon. Henry John Brodhead Cummings, colonel of the 39th Ia. Inf. during the war of the rebellion, and member of congress from the Des Moines district from 1877 to 1879. Ann Gorton Brodhead Heiner's second daughter (Margaret Heiner) married John Faulk, and was the mother of Hon. Andrew J. Faulk, governor of Dakota, from August 4, 1866, to May 1, 1869, also superintendent of Indian affairs for Dakota, and member of the committee, with Gen. William T. Sherman, Gen. Stanley and others, which made the famous treaty with the Sioux Indians at Fort Sully, Dakota, in 1868. Ann Garton Brodhead Heiner's third daughter (Catherine Heiner) married Col. Brodhead, a distant cousin, descended of a brother of Gen. Daniel Brodhead. Gen. Brodhead's descendants by this marriage are the children of Geo. Brodhead, of Kittanning Mark Brodhead, of Washington; Mrs. Kate Van Wyke, wife of United States Senator Van Wyke, of Nebraska, and Mrs. Van Auken, wife of John Van Auken, member of congress from Pike county from 1867 to 1871, and Ann Gorton Brodhead ' Heiner's fourth daughter (Mary Heiner), married John Weitzel, late of Reading, Pennsylvania. GEN. ROBERT ORR. Robert Orr was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania (probably in Hannahstown), upon March 5, 1786. His father,* whose name de scended to the subject of our sketch, had been one of the defenders of the Pennsylvania frontier A sketch of Robert Orr, Sr., appears in the chapter devoted to Stgar Creek township. had enjoyed some official distinction in Westmoreland county, and was one of the earliest pioneers of Armstrong county west of the Allegheny. His mother's maiden name was Fannie Culbertson. Coming with his parents to what was then almost the verge of the inhabited portion of the country while still a minor, Robert Orr entered upon his manhood as a pioneer, and had considerable experience in that rugged condition of life for which the strong alone were fitted. His boyhood had been passed in a region which afforded educational and other opportunities scarcely in advance of those he found in sparselysettled Armstrong county. His instruction had been very meager, his schoolmasters few and, doubtless, of limited talent; but as boy he had been (and as man ever continued to be) an apt pupil in that great and thorough school wherein the teachers are observation and experience. To this fact, in conjunction with strong native ability, strict honesty and more than average energy of character, may be attributed both his usefulness and his success in life. The young man resided with his parents in Sugar Creek township for a few years, and in 1805, when the county was organized for judicial purposes, came to Kittanning to serve as deputy for his brother John, who was the first sheriff of the county. Subsequently he studied and followed surveying, and in still later years was appointed deputy district surveyor. Gen. Orr inherited from his father the strongest spirit of patriotism and a fondness for military pursuits. When the war of 1812 broke out he was very naturally found among the defenders of our country, and rendered valuable services. History states that the second brigade of the army rendezvoused at Pittsburgh on October 2, 1812-where the subject of this sketch was elected major,-and left that place the same fall under command of Gen. Crooks to join the northwestern army under Gen. Harrison, on the Miami river, where Fort Meigs was afterward built. At Upper Sandusky they were joined by a brigade of militia from Virginia. From that place Maj. Orr, by the direction of the general, took charge of the artillery, munitions, stores, etc., and set off with about 300 men to headquarters of Gen. Harrison. While on the march he was met by an express from Harrison, bringing information of the defeat of Gen. Winchester on the River Raisin, and requesting him to bring on his force as rapidly as possible. After consolidation with the balance of the army from Upper Sandusky, they proceeded to the rapids of the Miami (Maumee), where they remained until the six-months term of duty of the Pennsyl587 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. vania and Virginia militia had expired. Gen. 1arrison then appealed for volunteers to remain fifteen days longer, until he should receive reinforcements from Kentucky. Maj. Orr and about 200 other Pennsylvanians did volunteer and remained until they were discharged, after the battle at Fort Meigs, upon April 19, 1813. It was not long after Gen. Orr's return from Fort Meigs that he received his first honor in civil life. He was elected to the legislature in 1817. He served two terms in that body and was then (1821) sent to the state senate to represent the large, but comparatively thinly settled, district composed of the counties of Armstrong, Warren, Indiana, Jefferson, Cambria and Venango, the latter county including much of the territory now in Clarion. After serving one term he was led to enter the contest for election to congress, and, doing so, defeated Gen. Abner Laycock. He thus became the vepresentative in the nineteenth and twentieth congresses of the district composed of Armstrong, Butler, Beaver and Allegheny counties. In the legislature, in the state senate and in the congress of the United States he served satisfactorily to his people and with unwavering integrity of purpose. Calm, judicious and experienced, his presence in the national counsels could not but exert a beneficial influence in the direction and control of the affairs of the country, which at that time witnessed the earlier symptoms of the disturbance that eventually culminated'in the tragical events of 1861. Later in life Gen. Orr was appointed by the governor associate judge of Armstrong county and served very acceptably to the people. He retained his interest in military affairs and was active in the militia organizations of Western Pennsylvania, thereby acquiring the rank and title of general. After all, it was not in official life that Gen. Orr was greatest or that he was most useful to his people. He was one of those men who needed not the dignity of office to give him a name among his fellow citizens, or to command their love and respect. His true loftiness and kindliness of character were daily attested by little acts, which in his long lifetime aggregated an immense good. Gen. Orr became possessed of a large number of land tracts in Armstrong and adjoining counties, which he leased or sold as he had opportunity. During the years he was most extensively engaged in his land business, money was scarce and it was very frequently the case that purchasers were unable to meet their payments. Debtor never had better creditor than Robert Orr. When those to whom he sold were embarrassed and could not meet their obligations, he extended their time and gave them easier terms. With many individuals this was done again and again, until at last they were able to pay. Gen. Orr never dispossessed a man of property on which he was toiling to discharge his indebtedness. Often the sons of the men who contracted with him for lands completed the payment for them. Through this leniency and lack of oppression in the subject of our sketch many families were enabled to gain homes. He was in a very literal sense the steward of his riches, holding them for others' good as well as his own. His kindness of heart and practical philanthropy found expression in many ways beside the one on which we have dwelt. He was unostentatiously and judiciously charitable throughout his life. He did much to advance the interests of the school and church, and for many years prior to his death was a member of the Presbyterian church. Gen. Orr's whole life was identified with Armstrong county. For about three years (1848-52) he resided in Allegheny City, and for a short time, about 1845, he lived at Orrsville (mouth of Mahoning), but the greater number of his years were passed in Kittanning. He was interested in and helped to advance almost every local public improvement inaugurated during his time. Laboring zealously for the construction of the A. V. R. R., he lived to realize his hope in that direction and to see the wealth of his county practically increased by its mineral and agricultural resources being made more easily available to the uses of the world. In politics Gen. Orr was a Democrat, in 1861 a War Democrat. He used his influence and contributed liberally of his means to assist the organization of the military, and the camp where the 78th and the 103d regts. rendezvoused was appropriately named in his honor.* His appearance upon the ground, when the soldiers were encamped there, was always the signal for an ovation, or at least hearty cheers, and all who knew him gathered round him to shake the hand of the old soldier of 1812. Gen. Orr lived to see the war ended and the country he loved so much still preserved in union. He lived to witness the nation recover from the worst effects of that war and in the centennial year rejoice in peace and prosperity. Upon May 22, 1876, this grand, good old man passed away at his residence in Kittanning, after a lingering but not severe illness, " full of riches, full of honors and full of years." Gen. Orr was married in 1836 to Martha, sister *See introduction to Chapter II. 588 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. of the late Judge Robert C. Grier, of the United States supreme court, who died December 7, 1881. Two children were the offspring of this propitious union-Grier C. Orr, Esq., and Fannie E. Orr. The last-named, of most esteemed memory, died March 14, 1882, after a brief illness. HON. JOSEPH BUFFINGTON. Joseph Buffington, for many years judge of the "old tenth" district, and whose life was intimately connected with the history of Armstrong county, was born in the town of West Chester, county of Chester, on the 27th of November, 1803, and died at Kittanning on the 3d of February, 1872. The ancestors of Judge Buffington were Quakers or Friends, who left England several years before Wmin. Penn, and in 1677, five years before the arrival of Penn, we find one of them, Richard Buffington, among the list of "tydables" at Upland, which same Richard was the father of the first-born child of English descent in the Province of Pennsylvania. From Hazard's Annals, page 468, as well as from the Pennsylvania Gazette from June 28 to July 5, 1739, we learn that, " on the 30th of May past, the children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren of Richard Buffington, Sr., to the number of 115, met together at his home in Chester county, as also his 9 sons and daughters-in-law, and 12 great-grandchildren-in-law. The old man is from Great Marle upon the Thames, in Buckinghamshire, in Old England, aged about 85, and is still hearty, active and of perfect memory. His eldest son, now in the 60th year of his age, was the first-born son of English descent in this Province." The second son, Thomas, was born about 1680, and died in December, 1739. He was married to Ruth Cope, and among other children left a son William, who was first married to Lena Ferree, as appears in Rupp's History of Lancaster county, page 112, and afterward to a second wife, Alice, whose maiden name is unknown. By this second wife there was born in 1736 a son Jonathan, who died October 18, 1801. This Jonathan Buffington was the grandfather of Judge Buffington. He owned and operated a gristmill which is still standing at North Brook, near the site of the battle of the Brandywine. At the time of that battle (September, 1777) his mill was taken possession of by the British troops, and the non-combatant Friend compelled to furnish food for the British. Jonathan Buffington was married to Ann (born 1739, died June 16, 1811), daughter of Edward and Ann Clayton. Their third child, Ephraim Buffington, was born March 23, 1767, and died December 30, 1832. Ephraim Buffington was married to Rebecca Francis, March 4,1790, at the old Swedes church, Wilmington, Delaware. He kept a hotel at West Chester, at a tavern stand known as the "White Hall," a venerable hostelry, and well known throughout that region for many years. It was here that Judge Buffington was born and lived until his tenth year, when his father, in hopes of bettering his fortunes in the then West, left Chester county, came over the mountains and settled at Pine creek, about five miles above Pittsburgh, on the Allegheny river. When about 18 years of age he entered the Western University at Pittsburgh, then under the charge of Dr. Bruce, at which place he also enjoyed the instructions of the venerable Dr. Joseph Stockton. After finishing a liberal course of studies he went to Butler, Pennsylvania, and for some time prior to studying law, edited a weekly newspaper called the Butler Repository, and in company with Samuel A. Purviance, afterward a well-known member of the Allegheny county bar and attorney-general of the commonwealth, he engaged in keeping a small grocery store. Soon afterward he entered, as a student of law, the office of Gen. William Ayers, at that time one of the celebrated lawyers of Western Pennsylvania, under whose careful training he laid a thorough foundation for his chosen life work. During his student life he married Miss Catharine Mechling, a daughter of Hon. Jacob Mechling, of Butler county, a prominent politician of that region, and for many years a member of the house of representatives and the senate of Pennsylvania. Mrs. Buffington survived her husband, dying September 11, 1873. They left no children, their only child, Mary, having died in infancy. In July, 1826, he was admitted to practice in Butler county, and in the supreme court on September 10, 1828. He remained at the Butler bar for about a year, but finding that the business was largely absorbed by older and more experienced practitioners, he determined to seek some new field of labor and finally decided upon Armstrong county, to which he removed and settled at Kittanning, where he continued to reside until his death. Shortly after his coming he purchased from his perceptor, Gen. Ayers, the lots on Water street which afterward became his home and oni which hlie built the old homestead. Though the first years of his professional life were ones of hardship and narrow means, yet his industry, integrity and close application soon brought him to the front of the bar, and in a few years he was in possession of a practice that absorbed his time and afforded him a comfortable 589 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. 2d Lieutenant Walter F. Jackson, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; killed at South Mountain Sept. 14, 1862. 1st Sergeant Samuel T. Stewart, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; pro. from Sergt. Jan. 1, 1862; killed at South Mountain Sept. 14, 1862. 1st Sergeant Andrew G. Mehaffey, m. i. s. June 8, 1361; pro. to 1st Sergt.; dis. on surgeon's certificate March 26, 1863. 1st Sergeant Win. J. Ford, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; pro. to Corp. Aug. 17, 1861; to Sergt. Jan. 1, 1862; to 1st Sergt. Sept. 23. 1863; m. o. with company. Sergeant Daniel Jack, m. i. s. June 8,1861; m. o. with company. Sergeant John A. Speer, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; dis. on surgeon's cer tificate May 17, 1862. Sergeant Richard P. Jack, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; died at Camp Pier pont, Va., Feb. 15, 1862. Sergeant James Johnson, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; pro. to Sergt.; killed at South Mountain Sept. 14, 1862. Sergeant George S. Gourley, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; pro. from Corp.; killed at Antietam Sept. 17, 1862. Sergeant A. K. Vantine, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; trans. to 190th reg. Pa. Vol. June 1, 1864; vet. Sergeant Henry C. Trout, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; pro. from private July 1, 1863; m. o. with company. Sergeant Samuel Maguire, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; pro. from private Dec. 1, 1863; wounded May 6, 1864; absent at m. o. Corporal Levi Shauer, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; trans. to Marine Corps date unknown. Corporal John A. Shearer, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; died at Alexandria June, 1862. Corporal Thomas Young, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; killed at Gaines Mill June 27, 1862. Corporal Robert W. Hunter, m. i. s. July 5, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 1, 1862. Corporal Geo. W. Magulre, m. i. s. June 22, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate April 28, 1863. Corporal Wmin. Artman, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; trans. to Vet. Res. Corps Feb. 16, 1864. Musician Hugh F. Forbes, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; trans. to 190 reg. Pa. Vol. June 1, 1864; vet. Musician D. D. P. Alexander, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; m. o. with com pany. PRIVATES. Armstrong, Robt. G., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; m. o. with company. Arnold, James D., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; m. o. with company. Anderson, Andrew J., m. i. s. July 9,1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 2, 1863. Artman, James W., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; trans. to Vet. Res. Corps Feb. 16, 1864. Anderson, Alonzo, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; died at Richmond, Va., Aug. 24, 1862. Beatty, Robt., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; m. o. with company. Brunton, James M., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; wounded at Bethesda Church May 30, 1864; absent at m. o. Bovard, Charles, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate April 2, 1862. Brown, Johnson W., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Sept. 8, 1862. Bovard, Joseph H., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; trans, to 190th reg. Pa. Vol. June 1, 1864; vet. Beobout, James A., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; killed at Antietam Sept. 17, 1862. Bentley, Frank, min. i. s. June 8, 1861; killed June 30, 1862. Cupo, W. D., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; m. o. with company. Colver, Jacob H., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate June, 1862. Coulter, Thos. B., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate March 10, 1863. Cline, Wmin. F., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; trans. to 190th reg. Pa. Vol. June 1, 1864, vet. Carney, Johnson, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; killed at Gaines Mill June 27, 1862. Crofut, Charles M., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; killed at Gaines Mill June 27, 1862. Cunningham, W. B., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; killed at Gaines Mill June 27, 1862. Duffield, Calvin, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; m. o. with company. Duff, John R., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; trans. to 190th reg. Pa. Vol. June 1, 1854; vet. Edgar, John S., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; trans. to Bat. B, 5th U. S. Art., Feb. 25, 1864, vet. Faulk, David, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; m. o. with company. Fulton, Henry B., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 2, 1863. Fuller, John A., m. i. s. June 8, 1661; trans. to 190th reg. Pa. Vol. June 1, 1864, vet. Fry, George, m. i. s. Sept. 2,1862; trans. to Vet. Res. Corps Sept. 1, 1863. Foster, James S., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; died at Craney Island Aug. 24, 1862. Gamble, John M., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Oct. 10, 1862. Gallagher, Graves, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; killed at Gettysburg July 2, 1863. Huey, Sam'l, m. i. s. July 10,1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate March 27, 1863. Hawk, David A., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; trans. to 7th reg. U. S. Inf. Oct., 1862. Harper, Washington, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; killed at Gaines Mill June 27, 1862. Howell, Win. W., m. i. s. Sept. 6, 1861; died Dec. 25, 1872, of wounds received at Fredericksburg; buried in Military Asylum cem., D.C. Ivory, Andrew, m. i. s. Sept. 11, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 19, 1863. Jack, John, m. i. s. June 8, 1861: trans. to 4th reg. U. S. Inf. Oct., 1862. James, Thomas, m. i. s. July 10, 1861; killed at South Mountain Sept. 14, 1862. Jack, Geo. E., m. i. s., Sept. 21, 1861; died at Richmond, Va. Dec. 22, 1862, of wounds received at Fredericksburg. Kunkle, John S.. m. i. s. June 3, 1861; m. o. with company. Klingensmith, A., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; m. o. with company. Klingensmith, H., m. i. s. Sept. 21, 1861; prisoner from May 5, 1864, to Feb. 27, 1865; dis. March 5, 1865. Lieblang, Win. N., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 6, 1863. Marsh, Fred'k P., m. i. s. July 19, 1861; m. o. with company. McIlwain, James X., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; m. o. with company. Mann, David R. P., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 31, 1862. Maguire, Robt. N., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; trans. to 190th reg. Pa. Vol. June 1, 1864; vet. Maguire, James N., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; trans. to 190th reg. Pa. Vol. June 1, 1864; vet. Marsh, Geo. J., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; died at Washington, D. C., of wounds received at Fredericksburg Dec. 13, 1862. Maguire, Washington, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; killed at Gaines Mill June 27, 1862. Nolder, John, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; prisoner from May 5, 1864, to March 4, 1865; dis. March 10, 1865. Ogden, Thomas, m. i. s. Sept. 1861; dis. date unknown-minor. Patterson, James A., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; wounded at Spottsylvania court-house May 10, 1864; absent at m. o. Potter, Samuel L., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; prisoner from May 30 to Nov. 26, 1864; dis. Dec. 3, 1864. Rutter, Win., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; trans. to 190th reg. Pa Vol. June 1. 1864; vet. Rutter, James, m. i. s. July 19, 1861; died at Richmond, Va., Jan. 9, 1863, of wounds received at Fredericksburg. Scott, John W., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; m. o. with company. Stuart, David G., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; m. o. with company. Shauer, Simon P., m. i. s. Sept. 10, 1861; died Aug. 4, 1862; buried in Prospect Hill cem., York, Pa. Sweeney, Charles, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; trans. to 190th reg. Pa, Vol. June 4, 1864; vet. Scott, Wmin. D., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; trans. to 190th reg. Pa. Vol. June 1, 1864; vet. Sarver, Labanah, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; killed at South Mountain Sept. 14, 1862. Shauer, Peter, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; killed at Gaines Mill June 27,1862. Taylor, David L., min. i. s. June 8, 1861; trans. to 190th reg. Pa. Vol. June 1, 1864; vet. Toomey, John, m. i. s. June 8, 1861; prisoner from May 5 to Dec. 6, 1864; dis. Dec. 12, 1864. Withington, W. H., m. i. s. June 8, 1861: dis. on surgeon's certificate March 12, 1863. Williamson, A. J., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; mis'd in action at Bethesda church May 30, 1864; trans. to 190th reg. Pa. Vol. June 1, 1864; vet. Williamson J. D., min. i. s. June 8, 1861; trans. to 190th reg. Pa. Vol. June 1, 1864; vet. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. income. During the years that intervened between his comining to Kittanning and 1843 he was closely engaged in the line of his profession. Patient, laborious and attentive, full of zeal and energy for his clients' causes, he acquired an extensive practice. Ile was constantly in attendance upon the courts of Clarion, Jefferson, Armstrong and Indiana, and his services were often in demand in other counties. Hle was connected with all the important land trials of these regions, and his knowledge of this intricate branch of the law was thorough and exhaustive. To practice successfully in these counties indicated no meager abilities as one recalls to mind the array of legal talent of those days, among whom may be mentioned Thomas Blair, Gov. Wmin. F. Johnston, H. N. Lee, Darwin Phelps, of Armstrong county; Hon. Samuel A. Gilmore, Hon. Charles C. Sullivan, Hon. Samuel A. Purviance, Gen. I. N. Purviance, of Butler county; Hon. Thomas White, Daniel Stannard, William Banks, of Indiana county; Hon. Henry D. Foster, Edgar A. Cowan, of Westmoreland county; Hon. James Campbell and Thomas Sutton, of Clarion county. Upon coming to manhood, Judge Buffington took a strong interest in politics. At the inception of the anti-masonic party in 1831 or thereabouts he became one of its members and served as a delegate to the national convention of that body which met at Baltimore in 1832 and nominated William Wirt for the presidency. During these and the few succeeding years he was several times nominated for the position of state senator or member of the house of representatives, but without success, his party being largely in the minority. In 1840 he became a whig, taking an active part in the election of Gen. Harrison and serving as one of the presidential electors on the whig ticket. In the fall of 1843 he was elected a member of congress as the whig candidate in the district composed of the counties of Armstrong, Butler, Clearfield and Indiana, his competitor being Dr. Lorain, of Clearfield county. In 1844 he was again elected in the same district, his competitor being Judge McKennan, of Indiana county. During his membership of the house he voted with the Whigs in all important measures, among others voting against the admission of Texas on the ground of opposition to the extension of slave territory. His fellow townsman and warm personal friend, Ilon. W. F. Johnston, having been elected governor, he appointed Mr. Buffington in 1849 to the position of president-judge of the eighteenth judicial district, composed of Clarion, Elk, Jefferson and Venango counties. This position he held until 1851, when he was defeated in the judicial election by Hon. John C. Knox, the district being largely democratic. In 1852 he was nominated by the whig state convention for the judgeship of the supreme court. In the general overthrow of the whig party which resulted in the defeat of Gen. Scott for the presidency, Judge Buffington was defeated, his competitor being the late Chief Justice Woodward, of Luzerne county. The same year he was appointed, by President Fillmore, chief justice of Utah territory, then just organized. He was strongly urged by the president personally to accept, as the position was a trying one and the administration wished it to be filled by one in whom it had confidence. Its great distance from civilization and the customs of the country, which were so abhorrent to his ideas, led him, however, to decline the proffered honor. In the year 1855, on the resignation of Hon. John Murray Burrill, judge of the tenth district, he was appointed to that position by Gov. Pollock, with whom he had been a fellow-member of congress. In the fall of 1856 he was elected to fill the position to which he had been appointed, for a term of ten years. In this election he had no contestant, the opposition declining to nominate. This position he held until 1866, when he was again elected to fill the judgeship for another term of ten years. His position during these years was one of hard and constant labor, and the growing business of the three counties of Armstrong, Indiana and Westmoreland kept his mind and time fully occupied. In 1871 failing health admonished him that the judicial labors, already too great for any one man to perform, were certainly too severe for one who had passed the meridian of life, and had borne the burden and heat of the day. It was indeed hard for him to listen to the demands of a feeble frame, but, sustained by the consciousness of duty well done, and cheered by united voices from without, proclaiming his life-mission to the public nobly performed, he left the busy scenes of labor and retired to private life after forty-six years' connection with the bench and bar of the commonwealth, to the thoroughness and industry of which the state reports of Pennsylvania bear silent but eloquent testimony. Surrounded by friends and every comfort of life the following year passed quickly, but as in the case of many an overworked professional man, the final summons came without warning. On Saturday, February 3, 1872, he was in his usual health, and, rising from dinner, he went to an adjoining room, 590 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. across which he commenced walking as was his custom. His wife, coming in a few moments later, found him lying peacefully upon the sofa in the sleep of death. He was buried according to the services of the Episcopal church, of which he had been an attendant, officer and liberal supporter for many years. He was buried in the cemetery at Kittanning, where his "resting-place has been marked by a substantial granite monument, a fitting emblem of the completeness of his own life. Said one of his life-long friends, Gov. William F. Johnston, " To speak of Judge Buffington's career as a lawyer would be a history of the judicial contests in this section of the state for more than a quarter of a century. He had a large practice in Armstrong, Jefferson, Clarion and Indiana counties, the courts of which counties he regularly attended. It was a pleasure to be with him, either as assisting or opposing counsel, in any of those counties. It may not be forgotten that in those early times, in the judicial history of Middle Western Pennsylvania, the bar constituted a kind of peripatetic association, each and all contributing his share to the social enjoyments of the occasion, and to the instruction of the unlearned in law of the obligations that were imposed upon them. These unions at different places created necessarily many happy reminiscences. But, like the schoolmaster of the village,'the very spot where once they triumphed is forgot.'" Of Judge Buffington as a lawyer we have spoken; as a citizen he was public-spirited and gave a ready support to every undertaking calculated to benefit the community. In common with Gen. Orr, Gov. Johnston and others, he took an active part in procuring the building of the Allegheny Valley Railroad, and served for some time as one of its directors. In his younger days he took much pleasure in hunting and fishing. Naturally fond of an outdoor life, he took kindly to agricultural pursuits. From time to time he acquired farming lands in the neighborhood of Kittanning, and their care and cultivation absorbed most of his leisure time. Of industrious habits, and a hard worker, Judge Buffington gradually added to his worldly possessions. Fond of making money, he never cared for it for the purpose of hoarding it, but only for the pleasure its expenditure gave himself and those around him. It was in private life and in the familiar intercourse of friends that he is best remembered. His courtesy to all, joined to the natural, courtly dignity of the man, stamped him at once in the minds of all with whom he came in contact as a gentleman in the truest sense of the word, while his well-stored mind and fine conversational powers lent a charm to his acquaintance- that drew around him a circle of warm and intimate friends. While his words were to the point and his language incisive, his naturally kind heart kept him from bitterness, and his judgment of others was never harsh or prompted by ill will. Kind, sympathetic and generous, he was always ready to listen to and aid those in distress. He never lost sympathy for the young, and there are venerable men at the bar today who will tell how the kindness of Judge Buffington in the early days of their professional career was a real help when they needed friends and encouragement. A grateful tribute was paid to his memory at March court, 1883, by the Hon. James B. Neale, president judge of the district, and son of his esteemed neighbor and life-long friend, Dr. S. S. Neale. Judge Neale had an excellent oil portrait of the judge painted, and at that time presented it to the county of Armstrong. It was placed, with appropriate remarks, above the judge's bench in the court-room where hlie had so long presided. JOHN RALSTON. Concerning the ancestors of the subject of this biography but little need be here said, as they have prominent places elsewhere in this volume. His father, David Ralston, a pioneer of Scotch-Irish descent, settled in Plum Creek township, Armstrong county, in 1800, and met with a tragical death nine years later.* His grandfather, upon the maternal side, was the famous Capt. Andrew Sharpt, an officer in the revolutionary army, who, coming from Cumberland county to what is now Indiana county, settled near the Armstrong line in 1784, and subsequently had some thrilling adventures with the Indians. His mother, Agnes Sharp, second daughter of the gallant captain, born February 21, 1785-the first white child who had its nativity in the region-was married to David Ralston in 1803. John Ralston was their third son, and was born January 30, 1807, in Plum Creek township. His life was spent upon the farm which was his birthplace, and in the near-by village of Elderton; but although thus passing his days in rural or semi-rural quietude, and never seeking public honor, he became one of the best known citizens of Armstrong county. As he was also one *See chapter upon Plum Creek township. t For an account of Captain Sharp's settlement and his adventures with the Indians, see Chapter I. 591 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. of the most respected and much loved, it is fitting that these pages should contain a few lines to revive the recollection of those who knew him, and convey some idea of the man to those who come after. His life was without important events-unless we call important those seemingly little incidents which tend to develop the sturdy character-to make the manly man. When about 22 years of age he entered the drygoods store of William Lytle at Elderton as clerk, and lie doubtless exhibited in that capacity the qualities in embryo which eventually made him the successful man of business, for we find that he was taken into partnership in 1832. This partnership was dissolved in 1838, and Mr. Ralston immediately opened a business house of his own, which he carried on with signal ability and success. Keeping apace with the growing wants of the people, he increased his business until he made it tributary to the patronage from the farmers for many miles in every direction. Fair and honorable dealing made him extremely popular. HIe procured for and supplied to the agricultural population everything they needed, and in return bought and shipped their produce of all kinds. We will remark here that upon June 26, 1833, Mr. Ralston was united in marriage with Miss Jane Sloan, of Blairsville. Through her good management and good judgment, she was a very efficient helper to Mr. Ralston in his efforts. His business required him to be much away from home, and thus more than usual care and responsibility fell to her, which she proved fully competent to assume. Their family consisted of four sonsAndrew S., now in Titusville; D. Alexander, now a citizen of Kittanning; William M. and Thomas N., both residents of Elderton. These sons, as they arrived at suitable age, were taken into the business by their father, and thus obtained a practical knowledge Qi business affairs, and a successful start in life. Mr. Ralston was identified with the business of producing petroleum from the time of its discovery on Oil creek, and was one of the original members of the Ralston Oil Company, which consisted of himself, his brother and the Kirkpatricks of Pittsburgh. Later in life he was a member of the wholesale house of Romberger, Long & Co., of Philadelphia. He was one of the original stockholders in the Indiana County Deposit Bank, of Indiana; had an interest in the banking house of John Ralston & Co., of Elderton, and also in the Fairview Deposit Bank. Mr. Ralston was far too large a man to be successful in naught but business. His life was a blessing upon the community in which lie lived, and one rich in good results, material and moral, to individuals and to society. His kindly counsel was the impetus of many a good career entered upon by young men, and his influence was one which had much effect upon men who were abreast of him in the march through years. His liberality was proverbial. He was one of the original members of the Elderton United Presbyterian church, and until the close of his life one of its strongest supporters. For a number of years he sustained with a few others an advanced school, and he was afterward one of the promoters and steadfast friends of the Elderton academy. Public-spirited in a high degree, he was the leader in almost, and the hearty assistant in all, measures for the good of the people among whom he dwelt. His own farms-he owned several-were among the best improved in the county, and the same spirit of neatness and order which made them so led him to take advanced steps in beautifying and practically benefiting the village of Elderton. Ever a friend of peace and harmony, he stopped many a lawsuit by his friendly intercession. His intervention was effective because he was highly esteemed by all who knew him. Owing to his unswerving integrity he was often called upon to act in the capacity of arbitrator when difficulties arose between people in the neighborhood. One of the marked characteristics of the subject of our sketch was his faculty of close observation and reflection upon what he saw. The difficulty attending the shipment of petroleum during the early years of its production set him to thinking whether some more economic method might not be devised than that of barreling it. He was not long in arriving at the idea of building tanks upon platform cars. Not long afterward, the plan occurring to someone else, such tanks were constructed and proved a success. He traveled much, was quite an assiduous reader, and by these and other means he secured the varied stock of information which proved a greater education to him than many possessed who had better school advantages. Politically Mr. Ralston was a republican and an active worker in polities. Although frequently urged to become a candidate for the higher offices, he was unwilling, by accepting them, to break in upon a successful business career, for which he considered himself better adapted. Hle took a warm interest in the prosecution of the war, and aided, by his influence, the raising of troops in his vicinity. He personally took supplies 592 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. to the troops, visiting them in Virginia, and later, during the invasion of Pennsylvania, he accompanied to the field a company raised in the immediate vicinity of Elderton, and went with the organization subsequently to Ohio, where it was engaged in the movements which led to the capture of Morgan. Although not subject to the draft, hlie paid a large bounty to one man and sent him into the field, as in a certain sense his representative, for which he received an acknowledgment from the government in the form of a diploma. The death of John Ralston occurred at his home in Elderton, August 24, 1879, and was preceded by that of his wife, who died August 9, 1874. The following tribute to the memory of John Ralston is contributed by Judge James B. Neale: Experience shows that a successful career is often denied to some, not on account of natural deficiencies unfitting them for every vocation, but because of special disqualification for certain kinds of labor or enterprise. We often recognize in the successful, even distinguished professional man, one who has utterly failed in other undertakings, and as often we discover in the professions men who have wholly mistaken their calling. They fail, and we attribute their want of success to general incompetency. A criterion of success in any pursuit, in a majority of cases, is adaptation. This, in the individual instance of John Ralston, was peculiarly true; his was a successful career, because he was admirably adapted, by natural inclination and talent, to the duties which hlie had undertaken. He was essentially a business man, and whether his field of labor was limited or extended, he was bound to succeed, and he was as certain in the end to embrace all that his circumstances and surroundings would admit of-even if a whole community must be built up to accomplish that result. He made business a study, andlife and experience was a constant development of business capacity. He did not wait for opportunities; he created them. Out of the unpromising materials of an inland rural village he developed sources of income, thrift and enterprise. The mere trading that could be carried on in a village store did not satisfy him. He reached out for more, and a whole section of country responded. He made a market for the entire productions of a wide extent of country, and in order to increase that production and to improve its quality to the highest standard, he took a personal interest in the seed that was planted, and in all the stock that was raised upon every farm. He instilled into the mind of every man the true idea that it cost but little more, and that only in the original outlay, to produce the superior qualities of grain or to raise the better grades of stock than the inferior. He managed his own farms upon this principle, and the example was widely contagious. He did not barter with his neighbors by the narrow methods usually pursued, but dealt with them always with a view to their own advantage as well as his own; by allowing higher prices for the better articles, he made it an inducement to excel, and excited a competition that produced most beneficial results. Standing at the head of the community in which he lived, his influence was felt in every direction; the higher grade of schools were established and liberally patronized, churches were erected, and religious observances earnestly encouraged. In the course of time he was recognized as the arbitrator of all disputes among his neighbors, and by his instrumentality litigation and strife were measurably restrained. In nearly everything his counsel was sought, and his advice implicitly followed. It was so fully understood that he was acting for the good of all, that in everything he did his conduct was beyond cavil, and his influence prevailed at all times with old and young alike, and when death finally laid his hand upon him to remove him from a field of so much usefulness, it was regarded as a bereavement to every household-the taking off of its truest, most devoted benefactor. HON. JAMES MOSGROVE. John Mosgrove, father of the subject of this sketch, was a native of Ireland, and one of the first settlers of Kittanning, coming to the locality as a young man about the time the town was laid out. He was a carpenter by trade, and followed that occupation during the greater part of his residence in Kittanning, which only terminated with his death. His wife, Mary Gillespie, was the daughter of John Gillespie, one of the pioneers of Armstrong county. They were the parents of five children. Andrew J. Mosgrove, the only brother of our subject, was by profession an attorney. He entered the service of the United States as a volunteer soldier and met his death in the Mexican war. Of the three sisters, Margaret, the eldest, is the wife of Thomas B. Storey; Phebe Isabella is the widow of the late Judge Jackson Boggs, and Anna Jane is the wife of Simon Truby. James Mosgrove was born in Kittanning, June 14, 1822. At a very early age he engaged in the iron business, accepting the position of clerk at the Buffalo Furnace in this county. Combining a well regulated and fine business capacity with the qualities of integrity and perseverance, he at once commanded the respect and confidence of his employers, and the management of the furnace was soon placed in his hands. In 1845 he married Miss Rebecca Jane, daughter of Robert Brown. About the same time he entered into a partnership with his brother-in-law, the late James E. Brown, of Kittanning, and became part owner and active manager of Pine Creek Furnace, which position he held from 1845 to 1880, passing through all the different phases and vicissitudes of the iron business during that long period of thirty-five years. He has also been engaged quite extensively in oil production. Mr. Mosgrove's superior ability as a practical, strong and enterprising business man 593 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. is universally admitted. Few men can be found in Armstrong county, or for that matter in Western Pennsylvania, who equal him in the possession of the combination of characteristics which command success. Ie is now largely interested in the business affairs of the county, being president of the Kittanning Ironworks and president of the National Bank of Kittanning. He was the principal organizer of this financial institution, and from the death of James E. Brown until July, 1882, when its charter expired, was president of the old First National Bank. In politics Mr. Mosgrove has always been a democrat. He accepted the nomination of the greenback party for congress in 1878, when it was tendered to him, not because he had abandoned any of his democratic principles, but because he had for years advocated the financial doctrines of the greenback party. In that campaign he ran far ahead of his ticket, but was defeated on account of the failure of the democrats to indorse his nomination, which he had a right to expect they would do. He never sought a political office in his life, and he furnishes a notable example of the office seeking the man instead of the man seeking the office. In 1880 he was nominated for congress by both the democratic and greenback parties without any solicitation on his part, and was elected by a majority of 756 votes over his competitor, and that, too, in a republican district. He served his constituency intelligently and efficiently-creditably to himself and acceptably to the people of the twenty-fifth congressional district of Pennsylvania. In 1882 he was renominated, but declined to serve as a candidate. ROBERT WALTER SMITH.* Robert Walter Smith was born at Litchfield, New Hampshire, June 16, 1816, at the residence of his grandfather (on the maternal side), Judge Parker. His great-grandfather, Capt. Ebenezer Smith, was an officer throughout the whole of the revolutionary war, and was appointed captain of the guard over Maj. Andre the night before his execution. His grandfather, the Rev. David Smith, D. D., was at the time of his death in his ninetyfifth year, probably the oldest Yale College gradtiate in the United States. His father, the late Rev. David M. Smith, was also a graduate of Yale College, being a member of the class of 1811. He studied theology at Andover, Massachusetts, and was ordained a minister in the Presbyterian * It is a matter of regret to the publishers that they cannot present in this volume a portrait of the author. The only one extant is not suitable for production, being a daguerreotype taken when Mr. Smith was about thirty years of age. church. For many years he was the stated missionary to the Tuscarora Indians. Ile settled at Lewiston, and in connection with his missionary duties he presided for twelve years over a large school. It was there that Robert Walter Smith laid the foundation for his future course. Hle was a very resolute, methodical and active boy. After leaving Lewiston, his father removed to ClintoD, Oneida county, New York, and after preaching a year or so at Little Falls he removed to Stockbridge, in the same county; took charge of a very flourishing academy and also officiated as pastor of the Presbyterian church. At this place the subject of our sketch was very thoroughly prepared for Hamilton College, from which he graduated in 1837. He afterward read law in the office of Hon. Darius Pecet, a noted lawyer of Warsaw, New York. After leaving there he was for awhile principal of the Red Hood seminary. From there he found his way to Saugerties, New York, but not being satisfied there he soon removed. He next went to Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and from that place came to Kittanning. The time of Mr. Smith's location in Kittanning, where it was destined he was to pass the remainder of his days, was the year 1846. Soon after his arrival hlie was associated in a law partnership with the late Judge Buffington, and remained with him for several years, afterward practicing alone. He was the first county superintendent of schools, being appointed to fill that position by the governor of the state in 1856. He served until 1860; was elected to the same office in 1863, and altogether occupied it over six years. During that period he devoted himself very conscientiously to the duties of the office, and made an admirable superintendent. From 1863 to 1876 he was editor of the Union Free Press, and performed his newspaper labors with the same care and thoroughness for which he was noted in other lines of employment. lie was mayor or burgess of the town for two terms, and held other municipal offices as well as many positions of private trust. He was a man of studious habits and literary tastes. Very naturally, therefore, he was the chief promoter of the several fine lecture courses which the people of Kittanning enjoyed during the seventies. Appropriately and by common consent the duty of introducing the lecturers was assigned to him, and it was one which he well performed. He was also frequently called upon to address the people upon various subjects, and his history of Armstrong county in reality grew out of one of these addresses-the one delivered upon the centennial anniversary of independence at Cherry 594 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Run, in Plum Creek township. Conceiving the idea of writing an elaborate history of the county, he entered upon his arduous, self-imposed task with the determination of making it thorough and reliable. Toward this end he toiled patiently for full five years. How minute and painstaking was his research, and how devotedly he followed the tedious labor of collecting and collating facts, can be in some measure appreciated by whoever reads even a small portion of the volume, but the full measure of difficulty attending the work can only be understood by one who has attempted a similar production. Mr. Smith labored with conscientiousness and zeal. How deeply he was absorbed in his work (and also a glimpse of his method in writing the history and the regard which at least one man entertained for it) is shown by a paragraph from a letter written by him to the editor of the Pennsylvania Magazine of _History aad _Biography, under date of April 5, 1880. Mr. Smith says: I hope to finish my manuscript, if not too much interrupted, in a few months. I have maps of all the original surveys of tracts of land in this county, and have become much interested in tracing up whatever of interest has occurred on each one and locating the same on it, so that every original tract is touched more or less minutely, according to what has transpired on it. You may readily conclude that I occasionally get on to a sticking place which detains me for a considerable time. It is encouraging to know that the facts which I have collected deeply interest people from different parts of the county, to whom I have read a few pages here and there of what I have written. For instance, a farmer to whom I read a few pages one day, respecting a different locality from his own, became so deeply interested in the facts that he told another person that he meant to have a copy of the work if it should cost him $25. So you see there are some very interesting facts connected with the history of this county. Sadly enough the author was not permitted the quiet satisfaction of seeing the book on which he had so long toiled come from the press. He could not have been fully recompensed for his labor had he lived, but he might have been in some measure rewarded by the knowledge that its results were placed before the people. He worked without expectation of adequate pecuniary return, but whether wittingly or not reared for himself a monument which will ever perpetuate his name among the people of the county in which he spent the last half of his life. Robert W. Smith, Esq., died December 6, 1881, at the home of his brother at Bronxville, Westchester county, NewYork, aged sixty-four years. He had been in poor health for about two years prior to that time, and for a much briefer period so ill as to be incapacitated for his duties. He had gone to his brother's upon a visit, thinking that change of scenery and air would restore his health, and his death was not expected by his friends. A meeting of the bar of Armstrong county was held upon the 9th of December, over which Edward S. Golden, Esq., presided, to take action upon the death of their deceased brother. Appropriate remarks were made and tributes of respect paid to Mr. Smith's memory by Judge James B. Neale and others, and a committee was appointed to draft suitable resolutions to be engrossed upon the journal. Mr. Smith never attained a large law practice. He had not that kind of eloquence or art of speaking which is effective in the court-room, but he possessed a good knowledge of the law, and it was generally conceded was an able counselor. His character was untarnished, and he held the respect of all with whom he was associated, whether professionally or otherwise. JAMES E. BROWN, ESQ. A history of Armstrong county would be radically incomplete without a sketch of James E. Brown, Esq., who, more than any other individual person, was identified and connected with its growth and development; nearly its entire history was compassed by his life and included within the period of his active business experiences. Mr. Brown's ancestry has been traced back two hundred years. His remote progenitor was James Brown, a Scotchman and a soldier in the famous Enniskillen dragoons (according to an old song, composed entirely of men " six feet two without a shoe"), killed at the battle of the Boyne. He left a son James, who had two sons-John by his first wife and James by his second. John Brown had a son John, who married Margaret Eaton, and after her death an Irwin. His children were, by his first wife: Mrs. Betty ThImpson, Jane Hughes, Nancy Montgomery, John, Joseph, Robert, George, James and William; by his second wife: Thomas, Frank,Irwin, Margaret and Mary. John Brown,who became the father of these children, was fourteen years of age when his uncle James Brown, son of Grazilla Kennedy, was born, and these two, uncle and nephew, were the grandfathers of James E. Brown, who was the fifth possessor of the name in the direct line of the family.* His father was Robert Brown, a true type of the Scotch-Irish, was born in Ireland in 1775, and came to this country about the year 1795. Soon thereafter he was mar *James E. Brown, Jr., is the sixth James Brown in regular succession from the one who fell at the battle of the Boyne. 595 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. ried to Rebecca, daughter of James Brown, a soldier of the revolutionary war, then living in Carlisle. After his marriage he settled near Ebenezer, in the adjoining county of Indiana, where, on the 5th day of May, 1799, his first child, James E., was born. About this period the eyes of the frontier settlers were directed to the valley of the Allegheny river, and to the new county of Armstrong, through which it extended, then recently organized. The father, Robert Brown, after several visits to the new settlement, moved his family thither and took up his residence at the mouth of the Cowanshannock creek. The town of Kittanning was laid out in the year 1804, and at about that time he removed to it, becoming one of its earliest citizens. He soon acquired a large amount of property within and adjoining the village, and contributed very much to its improvement by the erection of many of the houses, the first tenements in the place. During life he occupied a prominent position as a citizen. For many years at the beginning of this century he held a commission as justice of the peace, and after a long and useful life died on Easter Sunday, April 4, 1858, at the advanced age of 83. In the first years of the settlement of the new town, extremely few facilities for education existed; civilized life had then barely a foothold on this frontier soil, but the boy James E., already ambitious and restless even in childhood, availed himself of every attainable means to advance his education, totally ignoring the usual amusements and devoting the whole time of his juvenile years to the reading and study of such books as the scanty settlement could supply, at a very early period manifesting an aptitude for mathematics, in which he always excelled, as evidenced*by the accuracy of the numerous and extensive surveys subsequently made ly him throughout his own and the adjoining counties. SIn the course of time a select school was established, over which the then accomplished teacher, Master Elliott, as he was called, presided. An unplastered room in the then unfinished jail was set apart for the purpose. In this place many of the future prominent citizens of the town received their first regular instruction. The youthful student was one of the first enrolled, and was soon recognized as the first in scholarship, retaining his precedence till the teacher had no longer a place or anything to teach his precocious pupil. In those days penmanship was regarded an indispensable requisite to a good education, the teachers themselves rating more by their handwriting and good spelling than by any other test of scholarship. In this the pupil also excelled, an accomplishment that early in life brought him into prominence as the village scribe, copyist and accountant, youthful employments tending to fit and prepare him for the active duties of his subsequent career. At an early age he opened a store on his own account on the.northeast corner of Market and Water streets. While thus engaged, on March 2, 1819, he was married to Miss Phebe Bratton, daughter of the late venerable Robert Parks, one of the original settlers of Armstrong county. Two years later he was appointed prothonotary of the county, a position in which he acquired considerable practical and legal knowledge, but was not admitted to the bar until 1860. Before this he had secured the agency from some of the large landed proprietors living in the East, who were owners of many undivided tracts of land in this section of the state; the care, subdivision and sale of these tracts was committed to him. Many of these he afterward purchased or received in payment for his services. After his term of office expired he was commissioned as a justice of the peace. He also formed a mercantile partnership with the late Alexander Colwell, a gentleman of large means and excellent business judgment. In a few years this firm was dissolved, and he then became associated with the late Andrew Arnold, and with him and others undertook several experiments in boring wells for salt, which, however, were unsuccessful. In the year 1841 he formed another partnership with Thomas McConnell and the late David Patterson, under the firm name of Brown, McConnell & Patterson. Retiring from this firm, his attention was next directed to the development of the rich mineral resources of the county. In 1845, in conjunction with his brother, John P., and brother-in-law, James Mosgrove, he erected and put into operation the well known Pine Creek Furnace, which proved throughout many subsequent years a most successful and profitable enterprise. In 1847 he organized the Kittanning Iron Company, and erected the rolling-mill and factory at Kittanning, which, under various partnership changes, he continued to superintend and control till the year 1858. In 1856 the first bank in Kittanning was established, known as the Kittanning Bank. He was its principal stockholder and continued to be its president during its chartered existence. Imme596 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. diately after the passage of the national banking act he organized the First National Bank of Kittanning, only fifty-five preceding it. Of this he was also nearly the exclusive owner, and his recognized financial experience and large means contributed to establish it as one of the most undoubted and secure institutions in the country. During the later years of his life his attention was chiefly directed to its management, and he continued its president till his death. His business judgment was unsurpassed and enabled him to discern successful results from the very inception of his multifarious enterprises, and so strong was his own confidence in this discernment that he did not hesitate to engage in projects from which the more timid would cautiously shrink, so that in the course of his tireless and busy life he had become identified directly or indirectly with an almost inconceivable variety of enterprises and duties. He had delved into the hills for their hidden minerals and made them largely contribute to his wealth. He had bored into the depths of the earth years ago to tap the undercurrents of salt water, wholly unconscious then that from a lower stratum he would subsequently be largely engaged in extracting a much more valuable deposit of petroleum. He was the projector and principal owner of the bridge spanning the Allegheny river at Kittanning and the chief owner of the one at Parker. He was largely interested in the railroad from Parker to Butler, a stockholder and director in several pipe line and transporting companies, and more recently in a refining company, and in the year preceding his death reorganized a company to erect a large blast furnace and rebuild the long dismantled rolling-mill at Kittanning, all now in successful operation. Energy, enterprise and a fearless and indomitable will were the predominant traits of his character. To these qualities, in a life commenced in unpropitious poverty and beset throughout with many obstacles, may be attributed the ultimate financial success that crowned its close. His first wife and most faithful partner throughout many years of his ceaseless toil died November 1, 1864, leaving surviving her an only daughter, Mrs. Jane B. Finlay, who also died on December 30, 1876. Afterward, on November 27, 1865, he was married to Miss Kate L. Hughes, who with one son, James E. Brown, their only offspring, still survives. His own unexpected death, after a brief illness, occurred on November 27, 1880. Mr. Brown was throughout the greater part of his life a member of the Presbyterian church, and always took a deep interest in all that tended to 38 its success. From its earliest organization he was connected with the Sunday-school work of his church, and for upward of forty years preceding his death had been its constant superintendent and head. He contributed very largely to the mission work of his church, and gave largely and always unostentatiously to many charities. In social intercourse Mr. Brown was always kind, considerate, courteous, unassuming in manner, and as free from display as the plainest citizen. The Rev. A. Donaldson, in his remarks at the funeral of Mr. Brown, thus spoke of the religious element in his life: "Whilst unremitting in attention to his vast and complicated business concerns during six days of the week, on the Sabbath of the Lord he was a diligent, devoted and successful student of his Bible. * * * As an elder, beyond most others, he was determined to uphold his pastor's hands." He was further spoken of as "an elder whose place can never be supplied." Dr. Donaldson further said: "In the Presbytery often, in the synod several times, and in the general assembly his presence was prized and his influence was great and good." In personal appearance Mr. Brown united characteristics of form and feature that would attract attention from every observer. He was very erect, upward of six feet in hight, of symmetrical proportion, quick and active in his movements, and physically a perfect specimen of that sturdy manhood that can assert its power by merely external influences. His features were of the true ScotchIrish type, regular and at the same time prominent, with a florid complexion, clean blue eyes and light-brown hair. DR. SAMUEL S. NEALE. Dr. Samuel S. Neale was born in Burlington, New Jersey, on January 15, 1792, where he received the usual education afforded by the excellent academy of that city. Afterward he commenced the study of medicine in the city of Philadelphia, under such eminent physicians as Dr. Rush and Dr. Physic, and also attended the course of lectures in the University of Pennsylvania. About the year 1814, he settled in Conneltsville, Pennsylvania, and in the course of two or three years thereafter located in Kittanning, where he continued to practice his profession till the time of his death, with but a single interruption of a short residence in the city of Pittsburgh. He was married on July 4, 1826, to Margaret E., daughter of Robert Brown, Esq. Her death occurred March 18, 1851. He died on August 22, 1857, leaving surviving 597 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. him two daughters and three sons-Rebecca B., Phebe I., Charles T., James B. and Alonzo P. Neale. As a physician he commanded the respect of his professional brethren as well by his skill as by his uniform courtesy and constant observance of professional etiquette; but, more than all, hlie became greatly endeared to those to whom he bore the relation of family physician. Constant and devoted in every case of illness, skillful in his treatment of disease, kind and thoughtful in his manner, and gentle and sympathetic in times of distress and affliction, his presence and words could always soften the grief and allay the sorrows, even at the bedside of the dying. In social life he was always genial and open, refined in his manner and conversation, and warm and sincere in his friendships. In his death he bore with him the respect and good will of all who had known him. COL. WILLIAM SIRWELL. William Sirwell, son of Richard and Elizabeth (Graham) Sirwell, both natives of England, was born in the United States army, at the Allegheny arsenal, on August 10, 1820, his father, who had been principal musician, at that time being armorer at the arsenal. Of a military turn of mind he entered the militia service in 1839, and commanded in succession the City Blues, of Pittsburgh, and the Washington Blues, Brady Alpines and Kittanning Yeagers, of Kittanning, to which place he removed in 1855. He was also for ten years brigade inspector of Armstrong county. In person he is six feet in hight, broad shouldered and robust. He was married on November 6, 1840, to Miss Elizabeth McCandless, of Butler county. They have had eight children, viz.: Lucinda Ann, Alexander Nelson (dead), Sarah C., Mary H., William Mitchell, Samuel (dead), Elizabeth M., and Emma J. (dead). In 1854 being in Iowa, he raised at Davenport the first military company in the state, and in 1855, while on his way home, he organized in Pittsburgh the-first military company of colored men known to have been formed in the United States. They were called the Hannibal Guards. On the breaking out of the rebellion Col. Sirwell with his company, the Brady Alpines above mentioned, were the first company in Western Pennsylvania to offer their services to the United States government, and were at once accepted and served through the three months compaign in the 9th regt. Pa. Vol. Inf., under Gen. Patterson, in Virginia. Upon the expiration of their term of service and return home, Capt. Sirwell at once proceeded to organize the 78th regt. Pa. Vol. Inf., was commissioned colonel of the same, and with his brigade, under the command of Gen. James S. Negley, ordered to the army then stationed in Kentucky. In the affair at Lavergne, one of the actions for the defense of Nashville, the regiment particularly distinguished itself, and its commander was complimented by Gen. Negley and by Andrew Johnson, then military governor of Tennessee. At Stone River the regiment captured the White Horse Artillery, of New Orleans, consisting of four twelve-pounder brass Napoleon guns, the regimental colors of the 26th Rebel Tennessee, and the guidon of the 4th Florida. As a reward of his service here, Col. Sirwell was made provost marshall of Murfreesboro, and was afterward placed in command of the 3d brigade, 2d division, of the 14th corps, department of the Cumberland. In the terrible conflicts of Chickamauga and Missionary Ridge, and in the subsequent campaign of Atlanta, he rendered valuable services. At New Hope Church so marked was his gallantry that he was commended by Gen. Thomas. When Atlanta finally was taken after a campaign of a hundred days in which the smoke of battle scarcely cleared away, it became difficult to keep open the base of supplies, stretching away to Chattanooga. Col. Sirwell was assigned to this duty and preserved unbroken the line of transportation, supplies being rapidly brought up. After his term of service expired, at the solicitation of the commander of the department, Col. Sirwell remained in the field, his regiment as mounted infantry being employed in attacking and pursuing Forrest's cavalry through Middle and Southern Tennessee. Col. Sirwell was a gallant but prudent officer. He was much admired by his brother officers and the men of his command. He was made the recipient of two swords, both handsome and valuable ones, but prized by him more dearly for their associations than aught else. At one time Col. Sirwell saw fit to resign his command (which, however, he almost immediately resumed), and the officers of the 78th regt. at that time, November 20, 1863, presented him with the following resolutions: WHEREAS, Col. William Sirwell has felt it his duty to resign his commission as colonel of this regiment, we, the commissioned officers, do resolve, 1. That we sustain Col. Sirwell in the cause that induced him to take this step which sunders the reciprocal ties which for over two years have held him and his military family together. Declining health induced by hard service in the field entitle "the old soldier" to an honorable retirement. 598 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 2. That the history of this regiment from its organization to this time, its superior discipline, its undaunted courage on the field of battle, and its complete appointment in every department are the handiwork of Col. Sirwell, and stamp him as a military commander of the first order. 3. That the name and services of Col. Sirwell will ever be associated in our minds with recollections of Lamb's Ferry, White Creek, Neely's Bend, Goodletsville, Lavergne, Brentwood and Stone River, Dug Gap, Chickamauga. 4. That the kindness of disposition and the frankness of Col. Sirwell have endeared him both to officers and men, and in parting with him they feel that they are losing a father who watched over them with fond care. 5. That we each and all resolve here tonight in taking the parting hand of Col. Sirwell that we will do our utmost to bring this regiment home to him with its colors flying and its bright. escutcheon untarnished. 6. To William Sirwell, late colonel of this regiment, the strict disciplinarian, the accomplished soldier, the high-toned gentleman, the kind and genial companionyou have toiled with us, you have endured all the sufferings and enjoyed many of the glories of the soldier's life-to you we say farewell, and God bless you. 7. Resolved, that copies of these resolutions be forwarded to Col. Sirwell and to the papers in Kittanning (except the Mentor), Indiana, Clarion, Butler, Lawrence and Pittsburgh. (Signed by the commissioned officers of the 78th Regiment). Having performed his duties faithfully to the government during the time of war, Col. Sirwell has since resided in Kittanning, and has held the offices of postmaster and justice of the peace. He has spent much time in collecting curiosities and relics, especially those which pertain to Armstrong county, and has perhaps the most valuable private cabinet in Western Pennsylvania. FREDERICK ROHRER. Frederick Rohrer was born in Westmoreland county about 1794. He learned the printing business in Pittsburgh in the Mercury office and came to Kittanning in the latter part of the year 1818 or in the early part of the year 1819, during which year or about the month of February, 1819, he started the then only paper published in the county, called The Columbian. He was appointed by Gov. Schultz register and recorder of the county, and afterward was appointed by Gov. Wolf prothonotary. He held the office of postmaster during the time he was prothonotary, and was after the expiration of his term engaged in mercantile pursuits. He ceased the publication of The Columbian during the year 1831 or 1832. He afterward was appointed a justice of the peace, and was holding that office at the time of his death, which occurred in 1837. HON. JOHN CALHOUN. James Calhoun, the father of the old and honored resident of Armstrong county whose name stands at the head of this sketch and of whom a portrait appears, came from Ireland to this country prior to the issuance of the declaration of independence, and settled in Lancaster county, Pennsylvan'ia, where he married a Miss Ellen Templeton, by whom he had two children, Samuel and William. James Calhoun served through the revolutionary war and was wounded in one of its battles. After the close of the struggle he settled in what is now Indiana county, and his first wife having died he there married a Mrs. Mary Walker, whose maiden name was Abrams. She had a large family of children by her first husband, of whom Col. Robert Walker, well known as a spy in the Allegheny valley during the long period of Indian hostility, was one. He subsequently became a settler in what is now Boggs township. Our subject, John Calhoun, was born in Armstrong township, Indiana county, January 16, 1784. In his youth his parents moved to the region now known as Boggs township, Armstrong county, and he of course accompanied them. He purchased a tract of land in that township and improved it. In 1806 he was united in marriage with Miss Elizabeth Anthony, with whom he continued to reside upon his original purchase until the spring of 1814, when he sold it. He immediately bought another tract in Wayne township, south of the site of Dayton, to which he moved in the spring of 1815. He lived upon this farm until the spring of 1839, in the meantime, September 1, 1827, losing his wife. His final removal was to a fine body of land in the northwestern part of Wayne township, about seven miles from Dayton, which he purchased from Gen. Robert Orr. To this place his children by his first marriage and his second wife, Catharine Marshall, whom he had married January 1, 1828, went with him. Her death occurred upon April 26, 1865. Mr. Calhoun departed this life ten years later, in his ninety-first year. In his early years Mr. Calhoun was a great hunter, and in his old age he delighted in relating reminiscences of adventure in that sport, which was the pioneer's chief means of relaxation from arduous toil. He had learned the carpenter's trade, but his occupation throughout life was farming. He was a man of sturdy character, of great usefulness to the people around him, widely known and universally respected. He held office during a large portion of his active life. Upon August 30, 1811, he was commissioned lieutenant-colonel, and 599 REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. Withington, A. W.. m. i. s. July 23,1861; trans. to Bat. L 5th U. S. Art. October, 1862. Whitlinger, B. F., m. i. s. June 20, 1861; killed at South Mountain Sept. 14, 1862. Young, James M., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; m. o. with company. Young, Wallace W., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; killed at Gaines Mill June 27, 1862. Young, Henry, m. i. s. July 24, 1861; killed at Bristoe Station, Va., Dec. 29, 1863. Zimmerman, A. L., m. i. s. June 8, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 19, 1862. Zimmerman, C. L., m. i. s. June 20,1861. FIFTY-NINTH REGIMENT - SECOND CAVALRY. Company M of this regiment was from Armstrong. The regiment was principally recruited in Philadelphia, and rendezvoused at Camp Patterson, near that city, in the spring of 1862. Richard Butler Price, of Philadelphia, was commissioned colonel. The 2d Cavalry arrived at Washington April 25, and advanced into Virginia June 27. It was assigned to the brigade of Gen. Buford, and at once entered upon an active campaign, making a series of long forced marches and successful reconnaissances. After taking part frequently in skirmishes, and being almost constantly engaged in scouting, the regiment went into winter quarters at Accotink, which were left in April, 1863. Subsequently the 59th was in the battle of Gettysburg, and then followed a series of effective raids, which resulted in the destruction of great quantities of stores and many miles of railroad, being a portion of the time under Gen. Phil Sheridan. It was in the unsuccessful attempt to cut the rebel lines at Gordonsville that Capt. Walker, of Company M, was killed. After the conclusion of Sheridan's second grand raid the command returned to the Army of the Potomac, and confronted the enemy before Petersburg, and afterward participated in the engagements at Deep Bottom, Malvern Hill, Charles City Cross Roads and Ream's Station. It was now reduced to a strength of about 200 men, but still performed active service at Wyatt's Farm, Boydton Plank Road, McDowell's Hill and Five Forks, and was present at the surrender of Appomattox CourtHouse. It participated in the grand review at Washington, on May 23, 1865, was consolidated with the 20th Pennsylvania Cavalry June 17, and was finally mustered out upon July 13. COMPANY M. (OFFICERS.) Captain Joseph Steele, m. i. s. Sept. 16, 1861; pro. to Major May 1, 1863. Captain Albert C. Walker, m. i. s. Nov. 20, 1861; pro. from Adjt. May 1, 1863; died Aug. 3,1864. Captain Joseph A. Steele, m. i. s. Oct. 6, 1863; pro. from 1st Lt. Sept. 26, 1864; dis. June 17, 1865. 1st Lieutenant James R. Gates, m. i. s. Sept. 16, 1861; res. Sept. 15, 1862. 1st Lieutenant Hugh B. Campbell, m. i. s. Oct. 1, 1861; pro. from 2d Lt. Feb. 25, 1863; res. Oct. 5, 1863. 1st Lieutenant Jacob lobaugh, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; pro. from 1st Sergt. Nov. 25, 1864; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cav. June 17, 1865; vet. 2d Lieutenant David L. Ferguson, m. i. s. October, 1861: pro. to 2d Lt. Feb. 3, 1863; m. o. Oct. 1, 1864. 2d Lieutenant James H. Morrow, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; pro. from Q. M. Sergt. Dec. 12, 1864; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cav. June 17, 1865; vet. 1st Sergeant Quintin Armstrong, m. i. s. Oct. 1, 1861; dis. by G. O. June 28,1865; vet. Quartermaster Sergeant John C. Powell, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay. June 17, 1865; vet. Commissary Sergeant John R. Swan, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay. June 17, 1865; vet. Commissary Sergeant Solomon Wiant, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; died Oct. 12, 1864; buried in Cyprus Hill cm., L. I.; vet. Sergeant John W. Rinker, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cav. June 17, 1865; vet. Sergeant Isaac Milliken, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay. June 17, 1865; vet. Sergeant Henry Tray, m. i. s. Oct. 1, 1861; dis. by G. O. June 28, 1865; vet. Sergeant Jacob S. Haines, m. i. s. Oct. 1, 1871; dis. by G. O. June 28, 1865; vet. Sergeant Samuel Steck, Dec. 17, 1863; not accounted for; vet. Corporal Murry Cunningham, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay. June 17, 1865; vet. Corporal Emanuel Rummel, m i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cav. June 17, 1865; vet. Corporal Samuel A. Jordan, min. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans, to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cav. June 17, 1865; vet. Corporal Simon Penrod, m. i. s. Dec. 17,1863; pro. to Corp. March 1, 1865; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cav. June 17, 1865; vet. Corporal Thomas Shaw, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; pro. to Corp. March 1, 1865; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay. June 17, 1865; vet. Corporal James R. C. Fink, m. i. s. Oct. 1861; dis. by G. O. June 28, 1865; vet. Corporal John L. Fink, m. i. s. Oct. 1, 1861; dis. by G. O. June 28, 1865; vet. Corporal Michael Smith, m. i. s. Oct. 1,1861; dis. by G. O. June 28, 1865; vet. Corporal Dominick Gallagher, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; not accounted for; vet. Bugler Joseph Allshouse, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M,1st Pro. Cav. June 17, 1865; vet. Blacksmith George Hanes, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cav. June 17, 1865; vet. Blacksmith Jacob Smith, m i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; not accounted for; vet. Farrier Orlando W. Ross, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay. June 17, 1865; vet. Saddler Isaac A. Price, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cav. June 17,1865; vet. PRIVATES. Anthony, George W., m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro Cav. June 17,1865; vet. Abel, George, m. i. s. -; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay. June 17, 1865; vet. Austin, Benjamin F., m. i. s. Sept. 23, 1861; not accounted for. Armstrong, John, m. i. s. March 31, 1864; not accounted for. Brown, Jesse G., m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay. June 17, 1865; vet. Bechtel, Emanuel, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M. 1st Pro. Cav. June 17,1865; vet. Bush, Jonathan, m. i. s. Feb. 21, 1865; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cav. June 17,1865. Brown, Joseph, m. i. s. Feb. 22,1865; trans. to Co. M,1st Pro. Cay. June 17, 1865. Brown, John C., m. i. s. Sept. 10, 1864; dis. by G. O. May 31, 1865. Brown, Andrew J., m. i. s. Aug. 11, 1864; dis. by G. O. May 31, 1865. Beck, Michael, m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1864; not accounted for. Cramer, Jobun, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans, to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay. June 17, 1865; vet. Crytzer, John A. H., m. i. s. Oct. 1, 1862; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cav. June 17, 1865. Clener, Jacob, m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1864; dis. by G. O. July 13, 1865. Carr, George W., m. i. s. Feb. 8, 1865; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay. June 17, 1865. Cornelius, James C., m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1865; dis. by G. O. June 21, 1865. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. upon March 30, 1813, captain of militia, by Gov. Snyder. He was commissioned by Gov. Heister in 1822 as justice of the peace for district No. 7, composed of Plum Creek and Wayne townships, a position which he filled for many years. In 1840 he was appointed and commissioned associate judge of Armstrong county, serving out the unexpired term of an incumbent of the office removed by death. In 1842 he was commissioned to the same office for a full term by Gov. D. R. Porter, and again appointed by Gov. Shunk in 1848. Ile gave the utmost satisfaction in this and other offices which he held. Politically he was a democrat and a life-long adherent of the party, taking a deep interest in its success and the measures which tended toward it. He was one of the founders of the Glade Run and the Concord Presbyterian churches, and served as an elder in each. He was a man of strong and practical religious tendencies and exerted a valuable influence in the community. The children of John and Elizabeth (Anthony) Calhoun, with the dates of their respective births, were as follows: Noah A., born December 26,1806; William J., July 22, 1809; Mary (Ritchey), January 15, 1812; Nancy (Porter), September 18, 1814; James R., March 25, 1817; Sarah (wife of James Calhoun), October 4, 1819; Samuel S. N., March 22, 1823, and John K., February 26, 1825. Of these, all are deceased except Noah A., James R. and Samuel S. N. The first and last named of these three live upon the old farm, Samuel S. N. having the homestead place, and James R., having retired from active farming, lives in Dayton. All of the daughters married farmers, and all of the sons followed farming, except John K., who was an attorney. When quite young, this son went to Kittanning to obtain an academical education. He studied law in the office of Judge Buffington, and was admitted to practice December 18, 1850, upon motion of Hon. Thomas White. He soon exhibited unusual talent, and rose rapidly in his profession. In 1856 he was elected, upon the Democratic ticket, to represent Armstrong county in the legislature, and served during the session of 1856-7. By re-election he became a member of the legislature of 1857-8. When the war broke out he took a deep interest in the success of the Unionists, and was elected captain of a Kittanning company of militia or emergency men. While attending court in Pittsburgh in the fall of 1863, he fell ill with what proved to be typhoid fever, from which his death resulted upon December 5 of that year. He was deeply lamented by his professional colleagues and a wide circle of friends,.who appreciated his ability and sterling, manly qualities. By his second marriage John Calhoun had one child, a daughter, Elizabeth - Anthony - born October 30, 1830. The grandchildren of John Calhoun number fifty-seven. Of this number three have studied divinity, three law, four medicine, and six were in the war for the Union. The names of the latter were: Ephraim, son of James R. Calhoun, killed in the battle of the Wilderness; James Robert, son of William J. Calhoun, who died in the hospital at Wheeling, West Virginia; William D. Porter, John A. Ritchey, John A. and John C. Calhoun. REV. THOMAS McCONNELL ELDER. The grandfather of the well-known citizen of Dayton whose name heads this sketch, Robert Elder, was a soldier through all of those seven long years of the revolutionary war, and, soon after the close of that great struggle for liberty, moved with his family from the vicinity of Harrisburg to Westmoreland county, where he was one of the earliest settlers. He took up an exceedingly fine tract of land near New Alexandria, known as "the Richlands," which is still owned by his descendants. His son Thomas, father of the subject of this biography, who was two years old when the family settled in Westmoreland county, was born in or near Harrisburg. He was reared upon "the Richlands," and on arriving at manhood's estate married Mary McConnell, a native of Lancaster county. Their son, Thomas McConnell Elder, was born March 24, 1826, near New Alexandria, Westmoreland county. After a good common school education he commenced a more advanced literary course under the tuition of the Rev. Dr. James Milligan, an old Scotchman of fine scholarship, who resided in the neighborhood. He was for some time engaged in school teaching at this period of his life. He was the first teacher of the female seminary at Northwood, Ohio, and principal of the Loyal HIanna Institute in Westmoreland county for two years. He then took a collegiate course at Geneva College, Logan county, Ohio, and finished in 1855. During the period he was in attendance at that college he exhibited something of the energy and influence which characterized him in after-life. He spent one summer in traveling in the western, eastern and middle states, and succeeded in raising for the college an endowment of $18,000. After his course at the Ohio college, he spent four years at the theological seminary of the Reformed Pres600 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. byterian church at Allegheny City, graduating and being licensed to preach in 1858. He was ordained to the ministry May 11, 1859, previous to which time he had been regularly called to churches at Baltimore and Boston. He was then called to Rehoboth congregation in Armstrong county, a charge which also embraced territory in the counties of Clarion, Indiana and Jefferson, and in which two or three pastors now preach. Subsequently he received another call from Boston, one from Kossuth, Iowa, and a number from other congregations in various localities. Mr. Elder settled in Dayton about 1860. In 1862 he became principal of Dayton Union Male and Female Academy, a position which he held until 1866. In 1863 he was appointed by his church to take charge of mission shcools among the freedmen at Fernandina, Florida, where he spent the summer of that year, serving also as chaplain of the 11th regt. Me. Vols., then stationed there. In 1864 he was appointed to take charge of missionary operations in Washington, District of Columbia, where he remained until the spring of 1865. During these absences from home his place in the academy was supplied by subordinates. Returning in the spring of 1865, he resigned his position as principal of the academy in 1866, to take charge as principal of the Dayton Soldiers' Orphans' School, which he opened in the building now known as the Exchange Hotel. He had labored zealously for the establishment of this institution, and now labors with equal ardor and effectiveness to insure its usefulness. During the time he was principal, buildings were erected where those now in use stand, and the school was put upon a firm and sure basis, very largely owing to his efforts. He may be called in fact the successful originator of this valuable institution. During the second year of his connection with the school, in the fall of 1867, Mr. Elder met with a very serious accident. While watching a game of baseball among the children, he was struck with great force by a heavy bat which flew from the grasp of one of the larger boys who was striking at the ball. He was knocked senseless, and for a time it was thought could not recover from the effects of the terrific blow. Providentially his life was spared, but he had received permanent injury from the concussion. The shock was very severe upon his nervous system, and he' found to his sorrow that it incapacitated him in a great measure for hard and protracted study. He was thus compelled reluctantly to give up active duty as a preacher, which he had always enjoyed, and to abstain from long-continued and hard study. Shortly after this accident, in the fall of 1868, Mr. Elder met with another great misfortune-the loss of his second wife. In consequence of the combined effects of this bereavement and of the injury which he had received, he resigned the principalship of the Orphans' School, although strongly urged to remain, in 1871. Since that time he has resided in Dayton, leading a somewhat retired life, but giving his attention to business, and still taking a deep interest in all that pertains to the welfare of his fellow men. He is still a stockholder in and a member of the board of managers of the Soldiers' Orphans' School. In 1880 he was the principal organizer of the Dayton Agricultural and Mechanical Association, and was elected its first president, which office he held for two years. Subsequently he became vicepresident, and now holds that office. Ile is also editor of the Dayton News, a recently established but prosperous local journal, which he ably conducts. In his chosen high calling, the ministry, Rev. Elder was very successful, his labors being attended with the best results. He combined the advantages of broad and thorough scholarship with great native ability, and his discourses were interesting, instructive and full of force, logical and lucid. He is said to have possessed marked eloquence. The genial qualities of nature and the earnestness which were valuable in the varied labors of the minister outside of the pulpit have been preserved, and with his other characteristics command for him the respect and esteem of the people among whom he has dwelt, as well as render him useful to all with whom he comes in contact. He is a man looked up to in the community where he is best known, and has an influence for good which is exerted in many ways, among others in allaying local strife and obviating litigation between neighbors. As a teacher Mr. Elder has been almost or quite as successful as a preacher, and he is held in most respectful remembrance by many who have made the beginnings of their intellectual life under his guidance. He excels most men in executive ability. Mr. Elder was united in marriage with Miss Tirzah Mason, of Westmoreland county, September 14, 1848. One son by this marriage, M. M. Elder, is a successful business man of New Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, and has a most estimable wife in Miss Hannah Knox, granddaughter of Sheriff Chambers Orr. Mr. Elder's first wife died in 1851, and upon October 10, 1854, he was joined in wedlock with his second wife, Miss Mary P. Lindsay, of Philadelphia, whose death, hitherto referred to, occurred upon September 12, 1868. She left two 601 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. children: Tirzah (wife of C. S. Marshall, of the firm of C. S. Marshall & Co., Dayton), a graduate of Union Academy, and a most esteemed lady in the community, and A. W. Elder, who is pursuing a medical education, and has already spent two years at Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia. Mr. Elder is still living in Dayton, and it is to be hoped may be spared for many years. And when the time comes that he must pass away, this at least will be said of him, he was a worker of more than ordinary ability in his day and generation. GLENN FAMILY-HON. A. D. GLENN. John Glenn, the progenitor of the Glenn family in Armstrong county and the great-grandfather of A. D. Glenn, came from Ireland when eighteen years of age and settled in Center county, Pennsylvania. He married Mary Borland by whom he had two daughters, Ann and Mary, and four sons, Robert, John, James and Joseph. The latter, of whose family we shall here give a brief history, was born February 10, 1787, and was married, date unknown, to Mary Thompson who was born the same day as himself. The fruits of this union were three children, Archy, William Turner and Mary Ann. In 1818 he moved to Indiana county where he remained for three years, after which he located near Mahoning creek in Wayne township, Armstrong county, about two miles from Dayton. On this farm to which he came while the region was almost a wilderness, he lived until his death in April, 1852, seeing the country cleared up, the game destroyed and villages spring up all around him. He was a strongly religious man, a member of the Methodist church, and particularly zealous in Sunday-school work, superintending at different times many schools at quite a distance from home, one of them being on Pine creek, twelve miles away. His family were all of the same religious faith as himself. After his death his wife lived with her children until her own demise in 1866. Of the three children, Archy, the father of A. D. Glenn, was married January 28, 1828, to Miss Susannah B., daughter of Abraham and Elizabeth Coursin, who lived near Curlsville, Clarion county. William Turner was married to his cousin, Mary Jane Thompson, in 1849, and died in the army in eastern Virginia in 1864. His widow and family still reside in Milton, this county. Mary Ann was married in 1856 to Isaac Hopkins, who died in December, 1882. She and her family now live at West Decatur, Clearfield county, Pennsylvania. Archy Glenn first settled at Rockport in Clarion county, but subsequently lived at various places in Armstrong county, among them Milton, Eddyville, and Putneyville, where he now resides. He was elected to the office of county commissioner in 1849, and served efficiently and acceptably to the people for three years. This is the only public office of consequence he ever held except that of jury commissioner to which he was elected in 1873, and from which he resigned before the expiration of the term because his private business conflicted with its duties. He has held various township offices and has been justice of the peace for about fifteen years. While Mr. and Mrs. Glenn were living at Camp Run about three miles from Dayton, their son A. D. was born, January 30, 1842. He attended the public school at Milton, the Dayton Union Academy and the Iron City College. He engaged in teaching when between fifteen and sixteen years of age, taking a place in Milton which the directors had left vacant. Subsequently he taught in Red Bank and Brady's Bend townships in this county, West Mahoning in Indiana county and Robinson township in Allegheny county. In the latter he taught four consecutive terms of seven months each. When he ceased teaching he was principal of the Woods Run school in Allegheny City. In 1861 he and all of his brothers living, namely, Abraham R., Elijah, C. T., James A. and William T., went into the Union army. The first two named and our subject went into Co. B, 78th regt. Pa. Vol. Inf.; James A. into Co. I, 62d regt., and William T. into the 48th regt. By the spring of 1862, the vicissitudes of war had so separated the family that no two of them were within a hundred miles of each other. On account of continued sickness, A. D. Glenn was discharged from duty, February 16, 1863. William T. was also discharged the same spring for the same cause, but re-enlisted in the spring of 1864 in Co. M, 2d Pa. Cay., and on account of inflammatory rheumatism was unable to get home until six months after the close of the war. Subsequently he enlisted in Co. L, 2d U. S. Cay., and spent several years in the Rocky Mountain region. He returned much broken down, and died at Eddyville in April, 1875. The other brothers passed through three years' service, James A. being badly wounded in the battle of the Wilderness. A brother-in-law and two uncles were also in the service. Returning to Mr. A. D. Glenn's civil life we find that when he ceased teaching he traveled as the representative of Wilson, Hinkle & Co. (now Van Antwerp, Bragg & Co.), of Cincinnati, one of the largest schoolbook publishing houses in the United States. He remained with this house from April, 1868, to July 1, 1870, having his headquarters suc60 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. cessively at Pittsburgh, Crestline (Ohio), Cleveland and Meadville. After quitting the agency he was engaged with his father in the mercantile business at Eddyville. In 1872 he was elected over six competitors to the office of county superintendent of public schools, to which he was re-elected with comparatively little opposition in 1875 and in 1878, serving nine years-the longest continuous term served by any incumbent since the establishment of the office. At his first re-election the salary was increased from $1,000 to $1,200 per annum. Mr. Glenn's services were very valuable in the way of elevating the standard of public instruction, and were generally so recognized, a fact which was attested by the offer of a fourth election, which, however, he declined. He was editor of the Kittanning Union Free Press from June, 1879, to April, 1881, and ably conducted that well known journal. He served as D.D.G.M. of the I.O.O.F. in Armstrong county for two terms and was urged by several lodges to longer continue in that capacity. He was nominated without opposition by the republicans of Armstrong county for the assembly in 1882, and was elected to the legislature by a majority of 180 votes, while his colleague on the ticket for the same office had a much smaller majority. The career of Mr. Glenn which has carried him to the halls of legislation now, when he has but scarcely reached the prime of his manhood, will doubtless be fruitful of greater successes in the future. At least the beginning augurs well for his filling a broad field of usefulness and attaining the eminence that his intellectual and moral merits entitle him to. Whatever he has thus far attained is traceable to his good character and to his own exertions. Enjoying only limited advantages in his boyhood he obtained, however, a thorough education, and has made his way in the world by close application and energetic, manly endeavor. The family of Archy and Susannah (Coursin) Glenn consisted of six sons and one daughter, A. D. being next to the youngest. Their names in order of birth are as follows: John Coursin, Abraham R., Elijah C. T., James Alexander, Mary Jane, Archy D. and William Turner. John C. died unmarried in Illinois in 1855. Abraham R. married Sarah E. McCurdy in 1853, and now lives in Smicksburg, Indiana county. Elijah married Louisa Allen in 1858. He died in February, 1871, and his widow and family now live in Dayton. James A. was married to Mary Broombaugh in 1875, and now lives in Eddyville. Mary J. was married in 1857 to John S. Oyler, and now lives near Murrysville, Westmoreland county. THOMAS H. MARSHALL. The subject of this sketch, second son of Robert and Mary (Hindman) Marshall, was born July 29, 1824, about one and one-half miles from Dayton. When he was about twenty years of age, his father purchased the land on which a part of the village of Dayton now stands, and six years later took into partnership his sons, William and Thomas H., the subject of this biography. The stock owned by this firm consisted of the personal property on a farm of about 400 acres and a store which was established by them. It was the especial duty of Thomas H. Marshall to attend to this store, his father and brother carrying on the farm, and this he did until 1861, a period of about eleven years, when a half interest was sold to J. Campbell, who has since conducted the business under the firm name of J. Campbell & Co., the Marshall brothers still retaining a half interest. The partnership of father and sons in the farming interest was continued until April 9, 1868, when Robert Marshall sold his real estate to his sons. The west end of the farm adjoining and around Dayton, and amounting to about 136 acres, was purchased by Thomas H. Marshall. It included the land on which his grandfather, William Marshall, the pioneer of Glade run, had settled in 1803. Since he has been in business for himself Mr. Marshall has gradually increased the amount of his real estate possessions, until at present he owns about 520 acres of fine farming land in the immediate vicinity of Dayton. He has been remarkably successful and is recognized as a model farmer. His land has been carefully improved and has thus increased in value from year to year. Building improvements have kept pace with his increase in real estate ownership, his barn at Dayton, for instance, being one of the largest and best in the county, and sheltering as fine stock as one could wish to see. He carries on farming in what might be called a wholesale way, giving employment to many men and raising upon the average about 4,000 bushels of corn, 1,000 of wheat and 100 tons of hay per year. Besides his extensive farming he carries on in Dayton one of the best tanneries in the county, butchers about 100 head of cattle per year, is a partner in the store of J. Campbell & Co., owns considerable timber land, is interested in the Enterprise Lumber Company, the Dayton Agricultural and Mechanical Association, and is a stockholder in the Dayton Union Academy and the Dayton Soldiers' Orphans' School. He has been treasurer of the last-named institution from its organization, and took the first contract looking toward the erection of the buildings-that of get603 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. ting out the stone for foundations. Mr. Marshall has served as justice of the peace for two terms - ten years-from 1864 to 1874, and has held other offices of honor and trust, although he has never been in any sense a place-seeker, and has taken only the interest of a good citizen in politics. He is a republican. His church connection is with the United Presbyterians, and he has been one of the chief supporters of the Dayton church of this denomination. Thomas H. Marshall was united in marriage, March 14, 1850, with Miss Rosetta P., daughter of Robert Neal, of Cowanshannock township, who was born September 26, 1827. The offspring of this union are five children, living: Silas W. and David Duff, both married, and following farming; Robert Neal, who is engaged in the study of medicine; Clark Hindman, who has graduated after a four years' course at Princeton, and has been one year at the U. P. Theological Seminary at Allegheny City, and Mary Samantha. WILLIAM McBRYAR, M. D. The subject of this sketch was born of a generous strain of sturdy Scotch-Irish blood, both of his parents being descended from those races, though both natives of Pennsylvania. His father was born July 18, 1784, in Westmoreland county, and his mother, Elizabeth Dickey, near Carlisle, Franklin county. They were married June 28, 1811. In their old age, in 1868, they removed to this county. The offspring of their auspicious onion were eight children, four sons and four daughters, of whom five are living-Nancy L. (widow of Charles McLaughlin), resides in Westmoreland county, and Samuel, William, Mary and Sarah P. McQuilkin), in Apollo. Those deceased are Margaret, Watson and David D. William, the subject of this sketch, was born November 29, 1822. He remained at home upon his father's farm until 1842, and obtained the rudiments of an education in such schools as the neighborhood possessed. He was, however, determined to obtain a greater store of knowledge, and with that end in view, upon May 1, 1844, entered the Richmond Classical Institute, of Jefferson county, Ohio, where he remained until he graduated in September, 1847. On the 1st of the following November he commenced reading medicine under Dr. John Dixon, of Allegheny City (now of Pittsburgh), with whom he remained until October, 1848, and rejoined in the summer of 1849. During the winter of 1848-9 he taught school, an employment in which, by the way, he had gained some valuable experience in 1842 and 1843. Upon October 18, 1849, he left the office of Dr. Dixon to attend the medical department of the university, city of New York, from which he returned home in February, 1850. In July of the same year he engaged in the practice of medicine at New Salem, Westmoreland county, in partnership with Dr. John McNeal, with whom he remained associated until April 1, 1852. He then went to Congruity Church, Westmoreland county, where, however, he sojourned but two or three months, going in June to Saltsburg, Pennsylvania, and forming a partnership with Dr. Allison, of that place. The death of this physician took place August 3, 1852, and in September Dr. McBryar went to New York, where he completed his medical education in the spring of the ensuing year, graduating under the allopathic system. On April 19, 1853, he located in Apollo, where he has ever since been engaged in an active and lucrative practice, enjoying the respect both as man and physician of the people of the town and surrounding country. Extensive and onerous as his professional duties have been, his energy has not been wholly confined to them, and he has found time to assist in the advancement of several enterprises, as well as to give attention to important educational and other interests, such as it is the duty of the good citizen to foster. He was one of the principal promoters of the Apollo Savings Bank, which was organized May 27, 1871, and has ever since been one of its directors, being elected successively each year. In 1878 he was elected a director of the academy at Kittanning, and president of the academy board the same year. In 1874 he was very favorably considered as a candidate for the assembly by the republicans. In October, 1880, he was one of the organizers of the Du Bois Savings Bank, of Clearfield county, this state, was chosen president of the institution, and has held that office ever since by repeated re-election. He was prominently identified with the construction of the new iron bridge at Apollo, purchasing the old abutments of several owners for the sum of $5,000, and receiving $4,000 from the county commissioners of Westmoreland and Armstrong, and $1,000 from citizens of Apollo. The doctor is president of the Westmoreland and Armstrong County Mutual Fire Insurance Company, which has its offices at Apollo, and is medical examiner for the Penn Mutual Life Insurance Company, of Philadelphia. He owns about 300 acres of valuable land. Dr. McBryar was united in marriage October 4, 1855, with Miss Sarah Jane Callen, daughter of Matthew and Jane (Paul) Callen. Her mother's parents were'Squire Samuel and Jane (Porterfield) 604 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Paul; the father was born in Ireland, and the mother in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, both being of Scotch-Irish descent. To Mrs. Dr. McBryar's parents were born six children, besides herself, she being the oldest. Their names are: Eliza M., Harriet C., Emeline S., Samuel P., Anna Maria (deceased) and Johanna (deceased). To Dr. McBryar and wife were born five children-Lizzie J. (deceased), James C. (deceased), Ada M., William Lyle and Hattie Dickey. ROBERT P. HUNTER, M. D. Robert Hunter, grandfather of our subject, was born in Westmoreland county, in 1782, and was one of the first settlers of Indiana county. He married Miss Mary Lawrence, a native of New Jersey, born in the year 1781.' There were born to this pair fourteen children, nearly all of whom grew to maturity. The father died in Jacksonville, Indiana county, in 1861, surviving his wife three years. John M. Hunter, father of the subject of this sketch, was born June 12,1807, and lived all of his life in his native county, dying in Blairsville March 28, 1868. He was married May 30, 1830, to Miss Annie Reese Banks, who was born in this state October 10, 1810. She died August 16, 1875, in Leechburgh, where she had come to reside with her son. Nine children were born of this union, whose names, together with dates of their births, are as follows: Joshua Banks, born November 5, 1832; Mary A., born October 23, 1835; Robert P., January 23, 1837; William I., September 29, 1839; Ella M. (wife of Dr. W. H. Kern, of McKeesport), August 16, 1842; Morgan R., April 4, 1844; John A., August 20, 1846 (the last-named became a physician; was elected to the legislature, and died upon the day he became a member of that body); Milton C. was born August 7, 1850, and J. Irwin, June 19, 1852. Of the above, Joshua Banks, Morgan R. and John A. served their country in the war for the Union. Of the above, those who are deceased, besides John A., are William I. and Mary A., who became the wife of William F. Boyer, in 1855. John M. Hunter, the father of these children, followed shoemaking most of his life, but during the years 1854 and 1855 was a foreman on the Pennsylvania canal, under his son-in-law, Mr. Boyer, who was its superintendent. Robert P. Hunter began the study of medicine under his uncle, Dr. M. R. Banks, of Livermore, Westmoreland county, in 1862. Prior to this time he had worked on the Pennsylvania canal under his father for two years, and had taught school during the winter months for five years. The proceeds of both his manual and intellectual labor were saved with commendable economy and prudence, and, supplemented by his limited earnings from the practice of his profession after he had taken a few lectures, enabled him to obtain a thorough professional education at the Jefferson Medical College of Philadelphia. Doubtless he studied harder and with better results from the fact that he had earned by hard work the means necessary to pay his way through college. His first course of lectures was taken in 1864, and he graduated, standing well in his class, in 1869. He first located in Leechburg to follow his profession, May 9, 1865, and has been permanently and prosperously engaged in practice there since his graduation. He is a man who finds exercise for his energies outside of his profession, although the greater part of his time and attention is devoted to it. In 1873 he was one of the leading spirits in organizing the Leechburgh bank, and has been a stockholder and director in the institution continuously since, until 1880. He was also among the first to bring fine short-horn cattle into the county, procuring them in Kentucky in 1878. As a result of the interest he has felt in good stock and the action he took to secure it, there are now many fine blooded cattle and horses in the immediate vicinity. Dr. Hunter served two ternis as burgess of Leechburgh, and during'the Pittsburgh railroad riots was surgeonin-chief of Gen. Harry White's staff, 9th division, N. G.,having been commissioned by Gov. Hartranft December 29, 1875. On June 29, 1882, he was made president of the Armstrong County Prohibitory Amendment Association, a temperance organization which met in Kittanning upon that date. He is an elder of the Presbyterian church of Leechburg, and superintendent of its Sunday school. Highly respected both as physician andcitizen, Dr. Hunter occupies a useful position in the community, and is an active worker for good. Upon May 18, 1875, Dr. Hunter was united in marriage with Miss Rebecca Hill, daughter of Daniel and Eliza (Kuhns) Hill, who was born in Armstrong county June 30, 1853. They have had three children-John A. H., born June 18, 1876; Anna Lyda, born January 10, 1878, and Robert K., born October 19, 1879, all of whom are living. MAJOR JOSEPH G. BEALE. The family of which the subject of this sketch and of the accompanying portrait is a representative is one of the oldest in the State of Pennsylvania. One of the progenitors of the family came 605 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. over the ocean with William Penn, and, being a civil engineer by profession, was employed by the proprietor to lay out the city of Philadelphia. The family afterward settled in the Tuscarora valley, east of the mountains, where they engaged in agriculture and manufacturing pursuits, and in the year 1800, Washington Beale, grandfather of the man whose name heads this biography, crossed the mountains and settled in what at that time was almost a wilderness near Natrona, or the site of the soda-works in the northern part of Allegheny county. He accumulated a valuable property in this region, and the family flourished, as was natural from their enterprise and intelligence. Washington Beale, Jr., father of Joseph G. Beale, settled near his paternal homestead and devoted his energies to farming and stock-raising. To him the people of this section of country are indebted for a practical advantage and improvement. Seeing the necessity of a better class of heavy draft horses in the manufacturing districts, he went to England in 1859 and purchased and imported into this country the first English draft horses that were ever brought into Western Pennsylvania. From these horses descended the fine stock for which the immediate locality is now so much noted. It may be mentioned in this connection that Joseph G. Beale has taken much interest in the same matter, and that in 1875 he imported a superb draft horse from Scotland, after a visit to that country with his father. Joseph G. Beale was born March 26, 1839, and reared upon his father's farm. His first enterprise undertaken for himself was drilling for oil in the Kanawha valley, and he was there when the war of the rebellion broke out. He won an enviable reputation as a soldier. Immediately after the breaking out of the rebellion and under the first call for volunteers he enlisted for three months' service in the Iron City Guards of Pittsburgh. Before his time was up, however, he re-enlisted for three years and was mustered into the United States service in Co. C of the 9th Pa. Reserves. He was wounded during the sixth day of the seven days' fight in front of Richmond, upon June 30, 1862, and left on the battlefield of Charles City Cross-roads, where the rebels found him seven days later, he having lain there during that time without food, except a few crackers. He was taken by them to Richmond and placed in confinement in the dreaded Libby prison, where he remained until the following fall, when he was released and sent to Fortress Monroe. After the battle in which he was wounded he was promoted to captain. His wound, however, was of such nature that he was never fit for active service again. After leaving the army, and while still suffering from his injury, he studied law in Pittsburgh under the Hon. Samuel Purviance and N. Nelson, Esq. In 1865 he engaged in the coal business, which he sold out in 1868, and then bought the Leech property at Leechburgh. Resolved to make his purchase practically useful, he began a systematic series of endeavors to induce the building up of manufactures, and in 1872 succeeded, by giving land and extending other aid, in securing the establishment there of large ironworks for the manufacture of fine sheet iron and tin plate. In this mill natural gas was first used as a fuel. The gas came from a well put down by Mr. Beale, in 1869-70, which was the first one in this country, or in the world, so far as is known, from which gas was used for any kind of manufacturing. In 1875 the company who built the works having failed, Maj. Beale, with some others, bought them and carried on the manufacture of iron very successfully until 1879. In that year he sold out his interest and built the West Pennsylvania Steelworks, the first established in Armstrong county and the first steelworks in the world in which natural gas was utilized. Although Major Beale has a number of other heavy interests, among them the ownership of a large body of lands in the Shenandoah valley of Virginia, he is devoting almost his entire time and energy to the management of the steelworks, of which he is the sole owner. In maintaining and improving this manufacturing establishment, of which he was the founder, he has added largely to the material prosperity of Leechburg, and it is safe to say that no citizen has done more than he in that direction. After the war he was appointed major on Gen'. Harry White's staff and served in that capacity at the time of the Pittsburgh riots. JOHN SCHWALM. The career of the subject of this sketch is a remarkably good illustration of the success that can be attained in life, however humble the beginning, through industry, enterprise and honesty. John Schwalm was born in Hesse-Cassel, Prussia, February 27, 1835, and was the son of John George and Catharine Elizabeth (Koehler) Schwalm. He came to America with his father in 1852, landing August 14, and coming immediately to Leechburg, in this county, by way of the old Pennsylvania canal, from Philadelphia. The first labor that he performed was done soon after his arrival, for he was determined to make his way to an independency in his chosen country, and cared 606 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. little how he began, provided it was in honorable employment. He went out to that part of old Allegheny township which is now Bethel, and began as a laborer upon the Allegheny Valley Railroad. His father bought a small farm in what is now Parks township, and his son subsequently worked for him a few years. In 1863, however, he went into the mercantile business in a country store, which he carried on with growing success until 1871. He then went into partnership with W. H. Carnahan (under the style of Schwalm & Carnahan), and bought what was known as Cochran's mill, in Burrell township. He was there engaged in the milling and mercantile business until the fall of 1876, when he went to Leechburg and bought the Hill mill property. He built a new mill on the site of the old one, in which he did a good business until 1881, when it was unfortunately carried away by ice. Mr. Schwalm gave the people of Leechburg evidence that he intended to remain there, when he came in 1876, by purchasing the homestead of David Leech, the founder of the town. And a further indication of his intention was afforded in 1877,when he erected the large two-story store building in which he has since carried on a heavy business. He bought also and rebuilt the Ulam Hotel, now known as the Schwalm House. He is a one-half owner of the Elwood flouringmill (the old Leech mill), and has an interest in three coal mines in Westmoreland county, not far from Leechburg. Besides these investments and his store, he owns three farms in Armstrong county. His property has all been accumulated by his own exertion and enterprise, and his quite phenomenal prosperity, extending and increasing through a period of more than thirty years, marks him as a man of unusual ability, judgment and industry. He is in all respects worthy of the success he has achieved. His business ability has been a powerful factor in the improvement of Leechburg, for he has done a great deal directly and indirectly to advance the interests of the town. He is liberal and public spirited, and always one of the foremost in any enterprise for the good of the community. In politics Mr. Schwalm is a democrat. He has never been an office seeker, but his popularity and strength being recognized in his party, he was nominated for the assembly in 1882. There was a majority of 600 votes in the county for the republicans and they made a strong canvass, yet Mr. Schwalm was defeated by only sixteen ballots. Mr. Schwalm was married in 1854, to Sarah Sminail, daughter of Jacob Smail, an early settler in that part of old Allegheny township now known as Bethel township. -The offspring of this union were nine children-Catharine Elizabeth (Carson), Anna Mary (Taylor), John Matthew, Margaret, Matilda, Sarah Amanda, Ida Louisa, Charles Bismark and Edward Walter. The oldest son is engaged in the study of law in Attorney-Gen. Brewster's office, in Philadelphia. THOMAS BUTLER. The subject of this sketch was born February 1, 1825, near the great manufacturing city of Birmingham, England, and was the thirteenth child of Joseph and Fanny (Garrington) Butler. There was one child younger, and of the fourteen but three are now living. The family was in good circumstances and the children were well reared, receiving a good education and being practically fitted for life. The father dying, a portion of the family emigrated to America, landing in Boston, June 29, 1844. Thomas very soon came to Chester county, Pennsylvania, to meet an older brother, William, who had come to America before him, and whom he supposed to be there engaged in a rolling-mill. Upon arriving he found, however, that he had left. Although disappointed he went to work in the mill, getting $100 bonus, and remained there three months. He then went to Troy, New York, where he worked at puddling for the famous iron firm of Henry Burden & Co. While there, in 1846, he sent to England for a young lady, a neighbor, whom he had known all of his life and to whom he was affianced. He met this young lady, Miss Elizabeth Darby, in New York, and was married to her in Troy, July 18, 1846, the ceremony being performed at St. Paul's Episcopal church, by the Rev. Dr. Van Kleeck. After his marriage he moved to Boston, and while at work there was hired with others by the Brady's Bend Iron Company, and upon March 18, 1847, arrived at their- works, which were the third in the United States to turn out T rails. Mr. Butler was a thoroughly skilled workman, as good as the best in the country, and he very soon quit puddling and took a contract for running four heating furnaces. This was a responsible and a remunerative position, and although a very young man he filled it to the entire satisfaction of the mill owners, and held it continuously from 1847 to 1872. While prospering financially, he was, however, destined to suffer a great domestic sorrow, for his young wife died September 12, 1847, and was followed to the grave only a week later by her infant child. He married as his second wife Miss Martha Wassell, who like himself was a native of England and had come to America at the same time, though upon 607 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. ;0.c: ship. They were united in wedlock April 22, 1849. A short time before this marriage Mr. Butler, seeking a safe investment for the little money he earned by his industry and economically saved, bought the farm where he now lives in Brady's Bend township. He built a house upon this farm and improved the property by degrees, but did not go there to permanently reside until 1875. In 1879 this farm was found to be rich in petroleum, and Mr. Butler leased it in parcels to II. L. Taylor & Co. and other operators, receiving certain proportions of the production as royalties. The land which he had secured by the proceeds of his labor thus gave him an independency, which he now enjoys in well earned ease and contentment. Mr. Butler is a fine example of what a man may make himself by earnest, well-directed endeavor and by habits of thrift and providence. His energies were by no means monopolized by his arduous labor, but he sought by every means at hand to advance in knowledge, and became a great reader of the best works of classical and current literature. He has taken a deep interest in public affairs and measures for the general good, and is known as a man of practical benevolence and an active, useful citizen. His reputation is an enviable one and his character one worthy of emulation for those who like himself have made the start in life with no capital but honesty and industry. In politics he is a strong republican, and in religious life a firm adherent of the Episcopal church. He is a member of Kittanning Lodge, No. 244, F. and A. M., and stands high in the fraternity in this county. Mr. Butler has one son, William, surviving of the two born of his second marriage. The other son, Horace Mann, of most estimable character, was killed September 30, 1875, by an explosion of glycerine which by some accident had been left in the pipe of a torpedo-case which had been sent as junk to the ironmill where he was working in Pittsburgh. WILLIAM ARMSTRONG WILSON. The parents of the gentleman whose name stands at the head of this biography were Armstrong and Jane (Hutchison) Wilson, the former born in 1806, and the latter in 1808. They were married in 1834, upon May 20, and settled in Fairview township, Butler county. Three children were born of this union-Hutchison, who was killed when fourteen years old (as was also his stepbrother) by a stroke of lightning; Maria, who died an infant, and William Armstrong Wilson, the subject of this sketch, and the only one surviving, who was born in 1838. His parents were highly respectable people and members of the United Presbyterian church. They had succeeded in making for themselves a comfortable home when the father was hurt at a barn-raising so severely that he only lived a few hours afterward. His son was reared upon the farm, and" received only the limited education which the primitive schools of the time in his neighborhood afforded. At the age of twentyfour he enlisted in Co. G, 134th regt. Pa. Vols., for the nine months service. June 2, 1864, he was married to Miss Mina Hart, daughter of William and Elizabeth Hart, of Sugar Creek township, Armstrong county. Mr. Wilson had, when he was twenty-one years of age, come in possession of his father's farm in Butler county, about 106 acres of land, worth perhaps $30 per acre. In 1872 petroleum was discovered on the farm adjoining his, which led to his leasing 15 acres of land to oil operators, who gave him a one-eighth royalty, and this led to the sale of the farm for the snug sum of $40,000. Soon afterward he purchased his father-in-law's old homestead in Sugar Creek township, Armstrong county, a good farm of 122 acres, on which he has since resided. He gave for this farm about $12,000, and has spent fully two-thirds of that sum in buildings and other improvements, and has made himself a pleasant and beautiful home. He has a half interest in a general store at Grove City, Mercer county, the capital stock of which is $10,000, and his son represents him in its management. Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are members of the United Presbyterian church of East Brady. In politics Mr. Wilson is purely and strongly republican. The children of Mr. and Mrs. Wilson are: Andrew Newton, Elizabeth Jane and Ethelda Eudel. ROBERT MORRIS. The subject of this sketch, one of the oldest and most prominent citizens of Freeport, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, September 27, 1804, and came to this country with his parents, James and Elizabeth (McLaughlin) Morris, in 1819. The family first located in Indiana county, from which they soon removed, however, to Greensburg; thence after a sojourn of several years they went to Pittsburgh, where the lives of the parents were both ended, and where they were married. Robert served an apprenticeship under his father, and learned the carpenter's trade. July 28, 1829, he was united in marriage in Allegheny (then a borough) with Isabella Gilchrist, who, like himself, was a native of Scotland. In 1832 they removed to Freeport, where Mr. Morris has ever since lived. His wife died in 1854. Four children 608 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. were the offspring of the union-James M. (deceased), Elizabeth J. (wife of Judge A. D. Weir, of Butler county), Alexander G. (located in Tyrone, Pennsylvania), and Margaret G. (Mowry), deceased. Upon September 11, 1855, Mr. Morris married his second wife, who is still living, Mrs. Sophia D. Boyd, nee Weir. Mr. Morris has led a very active and useful life. Besides working at the carpenter's trade and as a builder and contractor, he has taken a prominent part in several enterprises. He was the prime mover in the project which resulted in the laying out of the Freeport cemetery, and was one of the original stockholders and organizers of the Freeport Planing Mill Company, and the Buffalo Milling Company. He has several times been elected councilman, and has held other offices in the borough government. Politically he is a democrat, and religiously his affiliation is with the United Presbyterian church. GEORGE B. SLOAN. His grandfather lived and died in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania. His family consisted of four sons-Samuel, James, William and David. Two of the children of Samuel-John, afterward Col. John Sloan, and his sister, afterward Mrs. Gibson-were carried away by the Indians and held for some time in captivity by them. James Sloan, Esq., lived near Kittanning on the west bank of the Allegheny river. He was the first prothonotary of Armstrong county, and in his house the first court was held. David Sloan, father of the subject of this notice, when quite a young man purchased a farm in Buffalo township, about two miles from Freeport, but being dispossessed by some defect in his title, he lQcated in Franklin township about a mile from Worthington, on the farm recently owned by James Claypoole. He was a tall, portly man and very agile. One of his feats was to jump over a covered wagon by means of a pole-feats of skill and strength being held in higher esteem in that day than in this. About 1812 he was killed while felling timber, a portion of a falling tree rebounding and striking him with violence. He was twice married. By the first marriage there were five children-James, David, William, Nancy and Jane. James and David removed to the State of Indiana, the latter returning to this county and locating near Worthington, where he died in 1877. Nancy married a Mr. McAdoo and settled in Indiana. Jane became the wife of James Claypoole, already mentioned, and died about 1850. William died near Worthington eight or ten years later. The second wife of David Sloan was Nancy Jack. To them four children were born-John who died in infancy, Samuel and George Byers, twins, of whom the former died at five years of age, and Margaret, afterward Mrs. John Maxwell, now a widow and residing in Chicago. Mrs. Nancy Sloan, after the death of her husband, was united in marriage to Samuel Robinson. Both died near Slate Lick, where they are buried. They had four children-John, Samuel, David and Isabella, now Mrs. Lewis. George B. Sloan was born at the family home in Franklin township, February 20, 1809. The death of his father occurring when he was but three years of age, he was left in the care of his mother, an amiable, industrious and pious woman. But their fortune was slender, and while yet a mere boy, George found himself mainly thrown upon his own resources.. - He had good health and a will to work, and accepting such employment as in that day was to be had (grubbing, chopping, reaping, etc.), he gained a livelihood and formed those habits of industry and energy that characterized his whole after-life. When about twenty years of age he spent a winter thrashing grain by hand, as the custom then was, in the barn of William Morrison, of Slate Lick, a circumstance materially affecting his whole after life, as will presently be seen. His formal education extended only to the common elements of an English course, and for the privilege of this he had to walk a distance of two or three miles, and pay his own way in a subscription school. At the age of twenty-one, December 9, 1830, he was united in marriage to Mary, daughter of William Morrison, already named, a union fraught with happiness to both. Mrs. Sloan's mother was Martha Barnes. Her grandparents were Robert Morrison and Elizabeth Culbertson, who resided in Greene county, Pennsylvania,. near Carmichael's of the present day. Her great-grandparents were William Morrison and Elizabeth Hamilton, of Ayr, Scotland. In the wife of his choice, Mr. Sloan found a true helpmeet; when he wooed he had but himself to offer. But from the first she fully and cheerfully accepted his lot, and, blessed with good health, prudent in counsel, and untiring in energy, she contributed her full share to whatever of success he attained in life. Upon his marriage he purchased and settled on the farm with which his whole after-life was identified, at Slate Lick, then in unbroken forest, with the exception of a few acres. Beginning without capital other than he had in his own faculties and endowments, he yet managed to meet his payments. Often he prosecuted the work of clearing his land 609 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Clarke, Alexander, m. i. s. Feb. 27, 1865; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17,1865. Cunningham, D. E., m. i. s. Oct. 14, 1861; not accounted for. Crytzer, Benj. F., m. i. s. Jan. 1, 1864; not accounted for; vet. Conaman, John, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; died Aug. 24, 1864; buried in Cav. corps cem., Va.; vet. Collins, Edward B., m. i. s. Dec. 17,1863; died at Point Lookout, Md., May 19, 1864; vet. Call, Henry H.,m.i. s. Dec. 17, 1861; died at Charleston, S. C., Dec. 5, 1864; vet. Dick, James K., m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865; vet. Danner, John F., m. i. s. Feb. 21, 1865; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Dodson, Geo. W., m. i. s. Sept. 10, 1864; dis. by G. O. May 31. 1865. Darron, John, m. i. s. Sept. 15, 1862; dis. by G. O. May 31, 1865. Dormel, Geo. W., Feb. 27,1864; not accounted for. Ferguson, Wmin. B., m. i. s. Aug. 8, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Fryer, David, m. i. s. Feb. 13, 1865; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Fricker, John H., m. i. s. Dec. 20, 1863; not accounted for; vet. Farris, James, m. i. s. Feb. 13, 1864; not accounted for. Fox, Elijah, min. i. s. Feb. 25, 1864; not accounted for. Gohn, Abraham, min. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865; vet. Gold, Evan L., min. i. s. Aug. 27, 1864; dis. by G. O. May 31,1865. Glenn, Win. T., en]. spring of 1864; dis. at expiration of service; enl spring of 1868 in 2d U. S. Cay. Hutchison, John, min. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trns. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Heck, John, min. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Harlan, Michael, m. i. s. Dec. 21, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay. June 17, 1865. Hathaway, Stephen, min. i. s. Feb. 2, 1865; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Hughes, Alex. W., min. i. s. Feb. 21, 1865; trans, to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Hall, James A., min. i. s. Aug. 25, 1863; dis. by G. O. June 17, 1865. Hotherington, J. R., in. i. s. Dec. 10, 1861; not accounted for; vet. Heilman, Albert E., min. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; not accounted for; vet. Henry, Daniel, min. i. s. Feb. 27,1864; not accounted for. Hines, Adam, in. i. s. Feb. 25, 1864; not accounted for. Hartzer, Adam, m. i. s. Feb. 22, 1864; not accounted for. Hiant, Archibald, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865; vet. Jones, Hiram, min. i. s. Feb. 24,1865; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. John, George N., min. i. s. Feb. 24, 1864; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Kane, Anthony, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Kneese, John, in. i. s. Dee. 17,1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay.,. June 17, 1865; vet. Kerr, George N., min. i. s. Sept. 25, 1862; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Keener, Sam'l F., min. i. s. Feb. 24,1864; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865; vet. Kepple, John, min. i. s. March 22, 1864; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Ca., June 17,1865. King, Chambers, m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1864; not accounted for. Lafferty, James S., m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans, to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cav., June 17, 1865: vet. Lutz, Win. C., m. i. s. Feb. 26, 1864; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Moyers, Jeremiah, min. i. s. Feb. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay, June 17, 1865; vet. Mathews, John T., m. i. s. Feb. 23, 1864; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17,1865. Monley, Patrick, m. i. s. March 4, 1864; not accounted for. Meekling, Levi, m. i. s. Feb. 9, 1864; trans. to Vet. Res. corps; dis. July 22, 1865. Miller, Geo., m. i. s. Feb. 9, 1865; not accounted for. McCain, Win., in. i. s Feb. 21, 1865; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. McDonald, Henry, m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1864; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. McKelleps, IIugh, r. i. s. -; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17,1865. McClelland, James, m. i. s. Sept. 10, 1864; dis. by G. O. May 31, 1865. Neal, Turner, m. i. s. Feb. 8, 1864; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Nichelson, John, m. i. s. Feb. 24, 1865; trans. to Co. M., 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Pugh, John R., m. i. s. Oct. 1, 1862; trans, to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Painter, Win., m. i. s. March 30, 1864; trans, to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Powell, Amos D., m. i. s. Oct. 1, 1861; prisoner from July 12, 1864, to March 1, 1865; dis. April 21, 1865. Painter, Wmin., min. i. s. Aug. 19, 1864; dis. by G. O. May 31, 1865. Painter, Jacob, m. i. s. Aug. 19, 1864; dis. by G. O. May 31, 1865. Pander, John, m. i. s. Feb. 12, 1865; not accounted for. Pollam, Geo. W., m. i. s Dec. 17, 1863; not accounted for; vet. Rosenberger, John, min. i. s. Feb. 29, 1864; transferred to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Rosenberger, Dan'l, min. i. s. Feb. 28, 1864; trans, to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Rash, Jonas L., m. i. s. Dec.17,1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865; vet. Rolland, Jacob, min. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay. June 17, 1365; vet. Ryckman, Alonzo, mn. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; not accounted for; vet. Rupert, Hiram, min. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; died at Alexandria, Va., July 9, 1864: grave 2,356; vet. Rimer, John, m. i. s. March 31, 1864; not accounted for. Rupert, Isaac, m. i. s. Feb. 22, 18641; not accounted for. Smith, Nathan C., min. i. s. Sept. 27, 1862; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Snowden, John, m. i. s. Dee. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M., 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865; vet. Speare, Adam, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M., 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865; vet. Sweeney, Chas. H., m. i. s. Dec. 17,1863; trans. to Co. M., 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1855; vet. Sweck, Chas. H., m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1861; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865; vet. SSwigart, Abraham D., m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans, to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865; vet. Starr, Win. L., m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17,1865; vet. Seward, Griffin, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865; vet. Strichter, John K., m. i. s. Nov. 19, 1861; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865; vet. Schrecenghost, M., m. i. s. Oct. 1, 1861; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Steck, Theodore, m. i. s. July 1, 1863; trans, to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Smith, Charles, m. i. s. Feb. 24, 1865; trans, to Co M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17,1865. Swan, Robert, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; not accounted for; vet. Schall, Isaac IH., m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; not accounted for; Yet. Shoop, Jacob, in. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; captured; died at Andersonville, Ga., June 24, 1864; grave 2,412; vet. Schich, David, m. i. s. Feb. 26, 1864; not accounted for. Stiffley, Wesley S., min. i.s. Feb. 26, 1864; not accounted for. Stoops, Thomas, m. i. s. Aug. 15, 1864; not accounted for. Sloop, William, m. i. s. Feb. 12, 1865; not accounted for. Thompson, William, m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865; vet. Tobian, George, m. i. s. Oct. 3, 1862; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17,1865. Turner, Thomas, min. i. s. Sept. 22, 1862; dis. by G. O. July 10, 1865. Tunblin, David, min. i. s. Feb. 25, 1864; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Truby, J. J. H., m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; prisoner from July 12, 1864, to April 29, 1865; dis. by G. O. June 5, 1865. Walker, Campbell, m. i. s. Dec. 17,1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro.Cay., June 17, 1865; vet. Wiant, Andrew H., m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865; vet. Wiley, James F., m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1863; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865; vet. Wonderly, John, m. i. s. Feb. 21, 1865; trans, to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. Waters, Francis P., m. i. s. Feb. 27,1865; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17. 1S65. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. into the night, lighted by the blazing fires, and cheered by the presence of his young wife, sitting, with knitting in hand, conveniently by. Their first house was a rude cabin of logs, so open that the twinkle of the stars could be seen through the chinks at night. But the material comforts of his home steadily increased. Prudent, he was yet progressive, and was ever among the first to avail himself of improvements and conveniences. He was one of the first to take a newspaper in his neighborhood. He owned almost the first machine for thrashing grain introduced into the neighborhood. Aside from the ordinary pursuits of the farm he engaged to some extent in a variety of other business enterprises. In the general outcome he was fairly successful, not amassing great wealth, but having as the fruit of his honest industry an easy competence. To a very large extent he enjoyed the confidence and respect of those who knew him. Often he was called to make peace and adjust differences between other people. In 1854 he was chosen to fill the office of county commissioner. In 1859 he was elected to the office of sheriff. He also served as one of the first jury commissioners under the new system. Each of these offices he filled with fidelity and to the satisfaction of all concerned. Especially as sheriff, while true to the duties of his office, by his kindly manner and the allowance of all proper indulgence, he won from many the praise of being the friend of the poor and the unfortunate. He loved to encourage and help those whom he saw struggling, as he had done, to gain homes for themselves, not infrequently, as it turned out, obliging others to his own hurt. Early in life he united with Slate Lick Presbyterian church, an active and consistent member of which he remained to the time of his death, with the exception of the three years spent in Kittanning while he held the office of sheriff, during which he was identified with the church in that place. When quite a young man he adopted the principle of total abstinence from intoxicating liquors, at a time when few were found to take a position generally regarded as radical. For more than fifty years he was a zealous advocate of the cause of temperance, and ever refused in any way to barter or compromise his principles. In his own neighborhood he was the friend and promoter of the cause of education. A school of higher grade having been organized, and known as the " Slate Lick Classical Institute," in 1870, he erected at his own expense a building, and for several years gave to this school the free use of it. He was the. father of six children, two sons and four daughters. John Boyd, his second son and youngest child, died in Kittanning December 3, 1861, in the fourteenth year of his age. Mary Elizabeth, his'third daughter, died at Slate Lick October 7, 1865, at the age of twenty-two years. His other children survive: Rev. D. H. Sloan, pastor of Presbyterian church, Leechburg, Pennsylvania; Mrs. Rev. J. H. Blackford, of Glasgow, Ohio, and Mrs. J. F. Boyd and Mrs. B. S. Robinson, of Slate Lick, Pennsylvania. In April, 1877, he was stricken by paralysis while yet seemingly in his usual vigorous health. He never was able to resume any of the activities of life. A portion of the time he was able to attend church, and to make visits to near-by places. He bore his protracted affliction with Christian patience and resignation. His golden wedding anniversary occurred December 9, 1880, and was duly observed, all his children and many friends gathering to extend their congratulations. He delighted in the grace of hospitality. His friends were always welcomed, and many a wayfarer sought the shelter of his cheerful home. In October, 1882, his illness took an unfavorable turn, and on the 2d day of November he peacefully passed away. His remains repose in the cemetery at Slate Lick, but he still lives in the influence of his earnest, upright life, and in the affections of those who knew him. JOHN THOMPSON JACKSON. The subject of this brief sketch was born February 23, 1837. February 25, 1864, he was joined in wedlock with Mary Jane, daughter of 'Squire William G. and Elizabeth Watson. Four children, all of whom are now living, were the offspring of this union. The oldest son, William Murray, was born August 17, 1865; Myra E. was born September 7, 1867; Edwin Stanton was born February 19, 1870, and Howard Thompson, June 6, 1874. This family resides upon a good farm of about 200 acres, five and a half miles northeast of Apollo. Mr. Jackson served his country during three years of the war of the rebellion, and made an excellent reputation as a soldier. Hle enlisted in June, 1861, in Co. G, 11th Pa. Reserves (infantry), entering the service as a private. In December, 1862, he became sergeant, and was soon promoted to orderly-sergeant. Onil March 30, 1863, he was made second lieutenant, and upon the 18th of the following August promoted to first lieutenant, which position he held until he was honorably discharged and mustered out, June 13, 1864. He 610 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. was wounded at the battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, 1862, and taken a prisoner. At Gaines Hill, on the June previous, he was taken prisoner and confined on Belle Island. JAMES Y. JACKSON. James Y. Jackson was born July 21, 1831, on the old home farm owned by his father, and on which he now lives. He was united in marriage with Miss Wilhelmina R. Townsend, in 1856. Her parents were Henry and Catharine (Ulam) Townsend. She was born April 20, 1839, and died April 2, 1880. To Mr. and Mrs. Jackson were born twelve children, five sons and seven daughters, whose names, together with the dates of their births, are as follows: Laura V. (wife of W. W. Beatty), born July 28, 1857; Katie E. (wife of Jay P. Wilson), born May 8, 1859; Hannah M., born November 15, 1860 (died November 5, 1865); Winnie Z., born January 11, 1863; Ada M., born December 19, 1864; Carrie A., born October 11, 1866; Harry S., born April 17, 1868; Berton W., born May 3, 1870; John Sherman, born January 31, 1872; James E., born November 1, 1873; Florence W., born September 3, 1875, and Arthur N., born November 21, 1877. Mr. Jackson has been a farmer all of his life, and a respected citizen. In company with his brother, Samuel M., he owns the old homestead, consisting of over 400 acres of land, well-improved, and constituting one of the best farms in the southeastern part of Armstrong county. JOSEPH AND JOSEPH I. CAMPBELL. Joseph Campbell was born in Ireland in 1808, and his father dying when he was quite young, he was adopted by an uncle, who cared for him until he reached manhood, and then, after paying a visit to his mother, whom he had not seen since he was first separated from her, he came to America. He first took up his residence in Pittsburgh, and secured a position as clerk in a mercantile house. Afterward he worked on the Pennsylvania canal, earning and saving the money, $202.06, with which he purchased, in 1834, 100 acres of land in Valley township, upon which not a tree had been cut. In 1837 he married Margaret Irvin, and about 1838 they moved onto the farm, where he had already made a clearing and built a log cabin. Although surrounded by adverse circumstances, they rose superior to them through patient toil. Slowly the land was cleared, and the lonely home improved by the addition of hard-earned conveniences. Both were hard-working, thrifty, honest people, respected by all who knew them. Mr. Campbell was a member of the Methodist church, and was for years a class leader; his wife was a member of the Presbyterian church. Mrs. Campbell's death occurred March 29, 1846, and from that time the father endeavored by increased care for his children to compensate in some degree, however small, the loss of a mother's influence. His own death occurred in October, 1858. He left two sons: Joseph I., born January 6, 1841, and John, born in 1844. Joseph I. Campbell for several years after his father's death rented and continued upon the homestead farm, and in the meantime bought land adjoining. Subsequently he purchased his brother's interest, and is therefore the sole possessor of the paternal estate, which through his skillful management has been transformed into one of the best homes in the county, as may be seen by a view of the house and surroundings, which appears upon another page. Mr. Campbell is now numbered among the progressive and successful farmers of the county. In politics he is a republican. Upon September 5, 1860, Mr. Campbell was united in marriage with Miss Isabella Irvin, a lady of Irish parentage, born in Kittanning in 1828. Her death occurred December 29, 1882, preceded by that of her son John I., which took place December 6. The family thus suffered a two-fold bereavement. Mrs. Campbell was a most estimable wife and mother, and much loved in the Episcopal church, of which she was a member. Her surviving children are: Irvin T., Mary and Joseph. JAMES FOWLER. John Fowler, father of the subject of this sketch, was born in Bucks county, Pennsylvania, July 4, 1776. He lived for several years in Westmoreland county, and married there, in 1802, Miss Margaret Carson. His wife died in 1803, leaving one child, and Mr. Fowler soon afterward removed to Butler county, where he followed, as he had in Westmoreland, the occupations of millwright and carpenter. In 1807 he married as his second wife, Frances Turner. The fruits of this union were six children of whom three are living-James, Sarah and Margaret C. James Fowler was born in 1817, and reared upon a farm in Parker township, Butler county. His chief employment was that incidental to farm life, but he was engaged for several years in cabinetmaking and carpentry, in both of which trades he obtained considerable skill. His advantages for obtaining an education were quite limited, as he could only attend the common country schools of the neighborhood, which were far inferior to those of the present day. Nevertheless he obtained 611 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. through other channels quite a fund of information, while he was still a young man. On February 22, 1844, he was united in marriage with Miss Ann L. Leonard, and in 1851 he came to Armstrong county, purchasing and settling upon twenty-nine acres of rough, unimproved land in what is now Hovey township. This he cleared and brought into good condition, handling some of the timber upon it (and much more besides) in a sawmill which he put up in 1852, and which he operated for six years. In 1859 he went across the Allegheny and leased a hotel in Foxburg, which he carried on for seven years. In the meantime it had been found that the lands in the northwestern part of Armstrong county were valuable oil territory, and he sold his hotel lease and began leasing his land in small parcels to the operators who thronged into the country. Soon some test wells were put down and petroleum found in abundance. He received from one-sixth to onequarter of the oil produced upon his land as royalty, and it was only a comparatively short time before he had $40,000 in the bank as a result. Not long afterward he and the Messrs. Fox, of Foxburg, established the ferry at that place, which proved a profitable investment. The amount of travel, however, became so great that an iron bridge was thrown across the river to accommodate it, and in this he invested about $20,000. He retained his interest in this until quite recently, when it was sold to the railroad company. Mr. Fowler has at this time, in addition to the place where he resides, a good farm of about 128 acres in Kittanning township, a farm in Plum Creek township, and a valuable property in Manorville. Ile ranks among the most enterprising citizens of the county, is a man of large usefulness to the people among whom he lives, and his friendly and kindly disposition have made him generally esteemed. Both Mr. and Mrs. Fowler are members of the Methodist Episcopal church. They have been the parents of six children, four of whom are living-Marion L., Charlotte A., James T. and Nelson M. Charlotte A. married Philip Foust, and resides at St. Petersburg, Clarion county; James T. married Hannah E. Roof, and resides with his parents; Nelson M. married Jennie R. Reed, and lives near Manorville, in which village he carries on a drug store. OBEDIAH BARNHART. The Barnhart family have been prominently identified with the early settlement of Western Pennsylvania, especially the county of Butler. The Barnharts, as their name would indicate, are of German extraction. John William Barnhart, the progenitor of the American branch of the family, came from Germany in 1764 and settled in Westmoreland county. He died in January, 1822. Three of his sons, Phillip, Rudolph and Daniel, emigrated to Butler county in 1796, and were among the very earliest settlers in the region around Millerstown, and did much to redeem the country from a wild, uncultivated region to one fitted for the habitation of man. In January, 1836, Mr. Barnhart purchased the primitive gristmill which was erected by Abraham Lasher in 1805, and also a tract of 150 acres, which includes the land on which Millerstown is now located. Mr. Barnhart soon tore down the ancient log mill and erected a more modern building. Soon after coming into possession of the property in 1836, Mr. P. Barnhart laid out Millerstown, which took its name from the location of the mill, although the postoffice is known to this day as Barnhart's Mills. Mr. Barnhart thus became the founder of what was destined to become a prosperous village. Phillip Barnhart died in 1860, after a long and useful life, respected by all. Mr. Barnhart raised quite a family of children, one of whom, also named Phillip Barnhart, Jr., married Susannah Kemerer, and they became the parents of four children-Henry (deceased), Maigaret, Jeremiah (deceased), and Obediah. After the death of his first wife in 1851, aged fifty-one years, he married her sister Catharine, by whom he had three children-Susannah (deceased), Mary, Catharine (deceased). Mr. Barnhart, who died October 7, 1861, aged forty-seven years, was for the major portion of his life engaged in farming, although he for a time was engaged in milling at the old mill site. Obediah Barnhart was born in Millerstown, May 10, 1848, and in 1869 was married to Miss Rosanna Aldinger (born June 19, 1848), daughter of David Aldinger, of Millerstown. Their children are Walter H., born November 9, 1870; Laura A., born November 2, 1872; Harmon D., born January 22, 1875. When, in 1875, Mr. Barnhart moved to his present farm of 110 acres in East Franklin township, it presented anything but an inviting appearance, being incumbered with old buildings, but a fine view of his residence, which appears on another page, will show it to be now numbered among the best farms in the township. Mr. Barnhart still retains the home farm in the vicinity of Millerstown. Mr. and Mrs. Barnhart are members of the Reformed Church of Kittanning. 6 12 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. JOHN HILL. - Among the pioneers of Western Pennsylvania was the Hill family. They came from "east of the mountains," and settled near Salem, Westmoreland county. While residing here the father of the family was captured by a band of Indians, and taken to Hickory Flats, above Oil City, where he was mercilessly slaughtered. He left three children-John, Jacob and Hannah. John, the eldest, was born in 1772, and became the possessor of the old homestead, where he lived for many years diligently engaged in clearing and improving the farm. He frequently related to his family in after-years the trials and hardships through which they were obliged to pass, notably among them their persecution by the Indians, from whom they used to flee to blockhouses for a place of safety. It was also frequently necessary to corral their stock against the depredations of the savages. Reared as he was amid scenes of danger and toil, he became a fine type of the hardy pioneer to which the present and succeeding generations are and will be deeply indebted. He was well known as an expert with the ax, and for a time followed the business of erecting log houses and barns, in which he was exceptionally successful. In an early day he erected a grist and saw mill on Beaver Run, and settlers for a radius of twenty miles visited his mill with their grists, and sometimes they were so far behind owing to low water, notwithstanding the mill was run Sundays as well as week-days, that settlers would wait two weeks for their grist, camping out near the mill. About 1800 he built a gristmill on the river, to which place he moved his family. The millsite included some seventy acres of land, which was acquired by settler's right. He also erected a mill on the Kiskiminetas. In 1812 he moved to a tract of land in Allegheny, now Gilpin township, Armstrong county, now in possession of one of his sons, and soon became one of the most successful farmers of that section. His sagacity was evidenced by his planting an orchard of 1,000 apple trees, while his farm was visited by neighbors from miles around to pick cherries from the numerous trees he had planted. He became an expert in the manufacture of wooden moldboard plows, then exclusively used. He was one of the commissioners appointed by government to clear out the Kiskiminetas river. A member of the Lutheran church, he was a man of strong religious sentiments, and church services were frequently held in his barn. His death occurred January 9, 1848, and thus quietly passed away another of that band of noble pioneers who now only live in 39 the memory of a grateful posterity. He was twice married, first to Elizabeth Waltz, who died October 13, 1817, and by whom he had ten children-Mary, Elizabeth, John, Jacob, Levi, Eli, Daniel, Hiram, Israel and Deborah. His second wife was Susan Ammon, who is still living at the advanced age of ninety-two years. They became the parents of nine children-Hetty, Leah, John, Ammon, Charlotte, Phillip, Sarah, Noah and Seni. One of his sons, Ely, was born in 1807, and died in Leechburg, October, 1843. Arriving at manhood's estate, Eli, in connection with his brothers, Levi and Jacob, engaged in the manufacture of salt, and drilled the third well in this section for this valuable product. They drilled altogether some eight wells, and became quite extensive salt manufacturers. Eli, Levi, Daniel and Hiram also engaged in the mercantile business in Leechburg, which they carried on quite extensively for about four years. Eli Hill married Susan Ashbaugh, who died in March, 1878, aged about sixty-two years. They became the parents of children as follows: John, Eveline, Margaret (Barr), Priscilla (Lytle). Their son, John Hill, was born in Allegheny township, Westmoreland county, December 6, 1832, and grew to manhood's estate with no other educational advantages than those accorded the farmers' sons at that time. Having inherited the genius for mechanism so prominent in his grandfather's character, he learned the carpenter's trade, and soon became a successful contractor and builder, which avocation he followed until 1872, when he engaged in the lumber business in Leechburg, which is still carried on, but since 1879 in connection with his son, Charles A., under the firm name of John Hill & Son. Mr. Hill was one of the original association organized in 1872, that the year following established a bank known as the Leechburg Banking Company, and was one of the first directors, which office he held until the spring of 1878, when he was elected cashier, which position he still retains. Mr. Hill has been school director, and held this position when the present fine school building was erected in Leechburg. In politics he is a republican, and, although always exercising the rights of the elective franchise, is no aspirant for office. Starting in life with his own resources - energy, perseverance and industry - as his only capital, he has made a success in life, and is now accounted as among the most energetic, successful, honored and respected citizens of Leechburg. January 8, 1857, he was married to Mary Jane, daughter of Charles and Ann (Mears) McCauley, who was born April 20, 1833. They 613 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. have been blessed with two children-Charles A., born December 9, 1857, and Edward, born April 19, 1861. Mr. and Mrs. Hill are both members of the General Synod Lutheran church. HIRAM H. WRAY. Hiram H. Wray, prominently identified with the mercantile interests of Leechburg, was born Janu ary 24, 1848, in Kiskiminetas township, Armstrong county, and was the son of John M. and Margaret (Townsend) Wray. His father followed farming, and the son was reared to that calling, sharing its healthful toils. After receiving his preliminary education in the common schools, he attended the Elder's Ridge Academy in Indiana county, and then took a course of instruction in the Iron City Com mercial College, from which he graduated in 1864. Entering his father's store at Olivet, he gained his first practical knowledge of business. From there he went to Mahoning, where he was engaged as bookkeeper for Jeremiah Bonner, and the follow ing year he took charge of the Adams Express office at that point, then the northern terminus of the Allegheny Valley Railroad, and at the same time became the representative of the Good Intent Mail Line. He remained at Mahoning until the spring of 1867, and then returned to Shady Plain, where he became a partner with his father in a store, under the firm name of J. M. Wray & Son. He continued to be identified in the management of that business and its branches until 1872, when he came to Leechburg to take charge of the books of the firm of Beale, Rodgers & Burchfield. He was connected with that firm in a very responsible position until 1873, when he purchased an interest in the business of Ashbaugh & Co (now Ashbaugh & Wray). The firm as now constituted has car ried on business continuously and successfully since 1875, and is one of the best-known firms in Leech- burg, or, for that matter, the southern part of the county. Their place of business is located directly across the river from Leechburg. At or about the same time that Mr. Wray formed his present business relation, he became the owner and editor of the Leechburg Enterprise, which had been established two years before, in 1873. He edited this journal with ability through the Cen tennial year, and transferred it to Messrs. Truxal & Hill, in 1877. He was one of the prime movers in the project of establishing the Leechburg Bank, and has been for a number of years one of its di rectors. He has also identified himself with various other business enterprises, notably among them that of the introduction of the new process flour jing-mill, in which he was associated with five other gentlemen. The mill referred to is located at Leechburg, and is known as the "Leechburg Milling Company." It is doing a large merchant business, and was the first to adopt the "gradual reduction system," now in general use. Mr. Wray has also given special attention to stock-growing, and, in company with Robert Wray, is breeding superior Southdown sheep. He is also rearing Clydesdale and thoroughbred horses. Upon September 7, 1880, Mr. Wray was united in marriage with Miss Alice M. Harrison, daughter of John and Eliza (Sampson) Harrison, of Allegheny county, who was born December 28, 1855. Two children have been born to them-Edith M and John Harrison; the former died in infancy. Mrs. Wray's father was of English descent and related to the famous Featherstone family. He came to this country when nine $ears of age with his parents, who settled in Germantown, near Philadelphia, where he was reared. He remained here until he was twenty-one, when he emigrated westward, and settled in Allegheny county, where he was prominently identified with its business interests, and was noted as one of the pioneers in importing English and Scotch draft horses, a business in which he was engaged up to the time of his death, which occurred from an accident, in 1879. THlE JACKSON FAMILY-WILLIAM J. JACKSON. James Jackson and his wife, Sarah (Thompson) Jackson, came to this county about 1798, and settled two and a half miles east of Apollo. He was born in Ireland, and his wife in America. James, their son, was born September 4, 1806, and his wife, Jane McCartney, in Indiana county, August 31, 1811. They had nine children, as follows: Nancy Y., Sarah T., Martha Jane, Elizabeth, Walter F., William J., Maria J., James T., and an infant, not named. These children are all now dead except William John Jackson, who still lives on the old homestead farm, containing 270 acres of fine land, and is one of the best known residents of this part of the county. He was born March 1, 1845. On the 1st of August, 1866, he was united in marriage with Martha E. Watson, who was born June 1, 1846. They have had nine children, whose names, with dates of their births, are as follows: Walter F., born September 16, 1867; Ida I., October 29, 1868; Zilla M., February 18, 1870; Lizzie J., November 6, 1871; William B., March 25, 1873; James M., September 1, 1874; Horace P., February 24, 1876; Herbert W., February 18, 1878; and John Clifton, March 13, 1881. Mrs. Jackson's father and mother were William G. and Elizabeth M. (Brown) Watson.'Squire 614 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. Watson, as he was commonly called, was a justice of the peace for several years, and sheriff of Armstrong county for three years, being elected in 1850. He died December 5, 1881, at the age of sixtyeight. His wife, born in 1814, died May 1, 1864. They were the parents of seven children, of whom Mary J., Susan E., Martha E. and Nancy M. are living. Those deceased are Thomas M., Margaret J., and an infant daughter. THE SHOEMAKER FAMILY. One of the earliest settlers of the county, and one now represented by a large family, was George Shoemaker, who came from Virginia and located at Cochran's mills, in what is now Burrell township, about the year 1800. His wife was Margaret Miller. They were the parents of ten childrenIsaac, John, Peter, Daniel, George, Jesse, Joseph, Catharine (Blogher), Margaret (Hind), and Hannah (Uncapher). Of these all are now deceased except Daniel, who resides at Rosston, and has three sons, I. W., L. J. and A. L., all of whom are ministers of the Baptist church. Peter Shoemaker married Sarah Ringer and settled at Oakland, where he followed farming and was a very successful and widely known man of affairs, until his death, which occurred in 1872. He was the father of twelve children, ten of whom grew to maturity, and eight of whom are now living, as follows: Isaac, in Mahoning township; William, in Clarion county; Catharine (Young), in Madison township; Mary (Montgomery), in Manor; Jesse and George on the old homestead; Joseph B. and Sarah in Madison. George Shoemaker, son of the original pioneer progenitor of this family, was a minister of the Gospel and founder of the church of Brethren in Christ, which was formed by a body who seceded from the Dunkards. This church was organized at Mount Pleasant, Westmoreland county, about 1834, and for a number of years, chiefly through the labors of Rev. Shoemaker, flourished very fairly, but since his death in 1867 a portion of its adherents have merged themselves with the FreeWill Baptists. George Shoemaker married Lydia Newcomer. Their son Jacob attained national celebrity as the founder of the Philadelphia Elocutionary College. An older son, John, now lives in Kansas. Joshua, who is a minister, resides in Madison township, and Sarah (Neff) in Westmoreland county. THE SHOEMAKER FAMILY. Solomon Shoemaker, father of George Shoemamaker, the well-known old resident of this county, was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, in 1770, and emigrated from there to Armstrong in the fall of 1799. Prior to his becoming a pioneer here he had married Miss Elizabeth Uncafer, who was also a native of Loudoun county, Virginia, and born in 1774. Upon their arrival here Mr. Shoemaker entered 340 acres of land, and built upon it a cabin in which he and his wife lived until 1806, when he completed a stone house, which served them as a more comfortable home. This house, the first of its kind erected in the township, is still standing, but is commencing to show the ravages of time. In it Mrs. Shoemaker cooked over the great fireplace all of her married life, never owning a cookstove. In this old house, too, she used the spinning-wheel, and spun the flax from which she made all of her own, her husband's and her children's clothing. She died in 1846, and her husband in 1854, after rearing a family and passing through the hardships and privations peculiar to the life of the pioneer. There were born to them six children, three sons and three daughters, whose names were: John, Joseph, Catharine, George, Margaret and Elizabeth. The three last named are living. George Shoemaker was born May 26, 1804. lHe now owns a portion of his father's old homestead farm, which he has cleared and brought into a fine state of cultivation, principally by his own labor. He lives upon this land, about 225 acres, in a house which he built in 1834. Mr. Shoemaker married in December, 1826, Miss Elizabeth Grimm, who was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, in 1808. The fruits of this union were six children, whose names, with dates of birth are as follows: Jacob, born September 21, 1827; John, November 1, 1830 (died in 1864, leaving a wife and three children); Catharine, February 11, 1834; Elizabeth, August 23, 1838; Mary, June 22, 1845, and Solomon, April 6, 1847. The parents of Mrs. George Shoemaker, Jacob and Margaret (Silvees) Grimm, were both born in this state, and were early settlers in Westmoreland county, where they lived until their deaths. They had twelve children, of whom Adam, Margaret and Elizabeth are living. CHRISTIAN MARDORF. This gentleman, one of the prominent manufacturers of Freeport, was born in the city of Melsungen, province of Hesse-Cassel, Germany, January 23, 1847. In 1852 the family came to this country and located in Butler borough, Butler county, Pennsylvania, where the father followed his trade, that of a tanner. His son Christian was brought up to this trade, and at the age of fifteen began to work at it regularly, having before that 615 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. time engaged in it at intervals. After completing his term of apprenticeship he followed his calling in Pittsburgh, where he remained until the war broke out. He went into the army, and was at Richmond and Petersburg. After the close of the war he went to East Liverpool, Ohio, where he engaged in the manufacture of leather in company with his brother Augustus. After the expiration of two years they came to Freeport, where they established the business of which Christian Mardorf is now the sole proprietor. At first the business was conducted on the most rigorously economical principles, and in a comparatively small way. Having been reared in the business and thus securing a thorough, practical acquaintance with all of its details, and having also a sincere desire to produce only the best goods, it was not long before his leather obtained the reputation which it deserved abroad, and his business increased to such an extent that he was obliged to improve his facilities. Since the date of establishing the tannery in Freeport, 1867, the business has grown steadily from its small beginning, until at the present Mr. Mardorf's sales amount to fully $75,000 per annum. It is still increasing although no traveling salesmen are employed, and additional facilities for manufacturing must soon be provided, a fact which affords positive evidence of the superiority of the goods His patronage comes from all parts of the great region between Maine and Missouri. Mr. Mardorf was married in 1869 to Miss Wilhelmina, daughter of Andrew Zimmerman, of Jefferson township, Butler county. Both are consistent members of the Lutheran church of Freeport. JAMES DOUTT. Anative of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, born November 10, 1832, now a resident of Armstrong. James Doutt, thrown upon his own resources at the early age of fourteen years with no capital save industry, finds himself in the prime of his manhood enjoying a well earned independency. His first work was performed for Reynolds & Ritchie, furnace proprietors. He was engaged for five years in this county, and has since followed the furnace business until the year 1875. In April, 1854, he was married to Miss Hannah Shall, who was born in Armstrong county, May 18, 1835. Soon after their marriage this young couple removed to Ironton, Ohio, where they remained until 1870, when they went to Greenup county, Kentucky. When Mr. Doutt located in Ironton he had but $7 in cash, but securing employment at once in a furnace owned by a certain Robert Hamilton, he succeeded by hard work and frugality in acquiring and saving sufficient means to enable him to begin housekeeping. While in Ohio and Kentucky he accumulated by his labor so much more money than was necessary to support his family that lihe found himself able to purchase his mother's estate from the heirs. lie returnedto Armstrong county in 1875 and settled upon this property-a farm of 137 acres of as good land and well improved as can be found in Cowanshannock township. Mr. Doutt is a republican in politics, a man of sterling character and a respected citizen. The offspring of the marriage of James and Hannah (Shall) Doutt were eleven children, whose names, together with dates of birth are as follows: Lizzie J., born January 30, 1855; Daniel F., March 22, 1857; Martha Ann, September 13, 1861; James Albert, January 20, 1863; Tillie B., April 12, 1865; Maggie B., October 15, 1867; Emma V., March 26, 1869; Essie R., May 15, 1871; Addie M., December 30, 1873; Cora E., February 12, 1874; and Ettie L., October 10, 1876. JACOB LIAS. The man whose name heads this sketch was born in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, May 27,1811, where he spent his youth. In the spring of 1831, his mother having died, he came with his father to Wayne township, Armstrong county. In the fall of the following year, October 4, 1832, he married Miss Susanah Schrecengost, a native of the township, born June 22, 1814, and daughter of Martin and Christiana Schrecengost, who were very early settlers. Eleven children were born of this union, eight of whom are living-James W., Eliza Ann, Asbey M., Elzada C., Leander E., Cyrus B., Mary C. and Laura C. Those deceased are Sarah Jane, McKindra C. and Curtis E. Soon after their marriage Mr. and Mrs. Lias settled in the old home farm which belonged to Mr. Lias' father, and there they lived for fifteen years. Then they removed to the farm in the northern part of Cowanshannock township, where they now reside. This farm purchased by Mr. Lias consists of 237 acres of land. His grandparents on both sides of the house and also his wife's were of German birth or extraction and had followed farming. Mr. Elias' name has been by common usage abbreviated to Lias, and an uncle of his, John Elias, was so called before him. ROBERT COCHRAN. Robert Cochran was the son of Robert and Catharine Cochran, an old pioneer family who settled in Allegheny county, where he was born in the year 1805. He learned the carpenter's trade 818 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. when a boy and worked at it for fifteen years in Pittsburgh when that city was quite a small place. At first he received only seventy-five cents per day, and the largest wages he received were $1.50 per day. In 1835 he married Margaret Green, born in Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, about 1818, but then living in Harrison county, Ohio, where she had immigrated with her parents. Eighteen months after their marriage a child was born and the mother died. This child, Margaret Elizabeth, also died in her eleventh year. In 1843 he married as his second wife Mary Richardson, who was born in Allegheny county, October 16, 1816. By this union there were born five children, as follows: Robert L., born March 16, 1848; Edwin G., born September 10, 1850; Willison A., born April 7, 1853; Marietta Ann, born June 16, 1857, and Alice K., born December 16, 1860. Only Willison A. and Alice K. are now living, the latter unmarried and residing with her brother in Leechburg. The mother of these children died September 6, 1871. Mr. Cochran came to this county early enough to experience some of the disadvantages of life in a comparatively new country. He planted corn on the ground where Leechburg now stands, when it was partly timbered. In that early day the articles which were put upon the table were cornbread, hominy, mush and milk, tea made from herbs grown in the garden, and coffee made from corn and rye. The clothing then worn was chiefly made from the flax which the settlers raised. In Mr. Cochran's family the clothing was mostly of linen spun by his young wife. They were compelled to live cheaply in order to raise their little family of children and to educate them, and sometimes their clothing and food supply was not as abundant as they might wish. Mr. Cochran now lives a retired life, making his home with his son, Willison A. This young man is employed as a sheet-iron shearsman in the Leechburg ironmill, and by steady hard work has secured for himself a pleasant home as well as become the owner of several houses in Apollo which bring him in a fine income. He was married in 1879 to Miss Sarah E. Gosser, who was born in this county in 1858. They have one child, Robert Lee. HENRY KIPP McKALLIP. Archibald McKallip, father of the old citizen of Leechburg whose name stands at the head of this brief biographical sketch, was the son of a pair of Scotch immigrants, and was born on shipboard while they were en route to America, in the year 1774. He married Catharine Kipp, who was of German descent, and born in this state in 1779. Archibald McKallip died in 1842, and his wife in 1844. They had a family of nine children, of whom Henry K. and Nathaniel are the only ones now living. Henry Kipp McKallip was born January 9,1809, and married Miss Mary Kelley, daughter of Daniel and Mary (Idings) Kelley, who was born December 10, 1817. By this union ten children were born, whose names in the order of their age are as follows: Labana S., Amanda C., Caroline, (Rev.) John K., Joanna Jane, James Albert and Mary Hannah. Caroline and two children not named are deceased. Mr. McKallip has been an industrious, prudent and successful business man. He has been constantly engaged in the mercantile trade since he was twenty-one years of age, and now carries on a large store, and owns besides four farms in Westmoreland county, and a number of houses in Leechburg. His commencement in business was made with a capital of only $100, for one-half of whi-ch amount he received a credit. He has transacted business carefully, and as a result has now an independency. He is an upright and respected citizen and widely known in southern Armstrong and northern Westmoreland counties. JOHN KEELY. John Keely was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, February 19, 1810, and was the son of Daniel and Mary Keely. The family moved to Indiana county, and his father died February 7, 1851, at the age of seventy-four, and mother March 25, 1846, at the age of sixty-three. In 1833 John Keely came to this country and purchased the farm in Kiskiminetas township, which he now owns. He carried on a tannery until 1864, but has since that time devoted himself entirely to agricultural pursuits. Upon March 4, 1841, he married Miss Nancy Watson, daughter of Robert and Sarah Watson, early settlers of the township. She was born October 29, 1821, and died August 18, 1881, leaving five children, the survivors of ten of whom she was the mother. The following are the names of these children, together with dates of births and deaths: Mary E., born'July 4, 1843; William W., December 15, 1845; Sarah J., March 27, 1848; an infant, 1850, who died the same year; Nancy M., August 23, 1852; James H., July 11, 1855; Alice Ann Amanda, May 8, 1857; Flora E., January 25, 1859; John N., January 22, 1861, and Mary M., July 9, 1862. Deaths occurred as follows: John N., September 8, 1861; Nancy M., March 23, 1862; James H., April 2, 1862; Mary E., May 13, 1862. 617 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. THE TRUITT FAMILY. Thomas Truitt, from whom sprang the Truitt family of Madison township, was born in New Jersey, in 1789, and came to this county about 1800, with his father, Parker Truitt. The latter did not long remain here, moving to the State of Indiana. Thomas Truitt was in the war of 1812, and, returning from his tour of duty in 1813, married Lydia, daughter of Thomas Williams, who was an early settler of Madison township. She was born in 1794. After his marriage, Mr. Truitt worked upon leased land until about 1832, when he bought the farm in the northern part of the township, on which one of his sons now lives. He remained there until his death, which occurred in 1854. His wife died in 1866. Their children were: Anderson (deceased), Elizabeth (Hetrick), G. W., Thomas and D. J., all residents of Madison township, Mary (Buzzard), who lives in Ohio, J. A., a farmer of Mahoning township, and William, who lives in Clarion county. THE CRAIG FAMILY, of Madison township, is one of the largest in its territory, or, for that matter, in the county. George Craig was born in Butler county April 6, 1798, and came to Armstrong county in 1831, settling where his son Alexander T. now lives, where he resided and followed farming until his death in 1862. Before leaving Butler county he married Magdalen Conrad, of Harmony, who still survives and lives with her son, Alexander T., at the old homestead. Mr. and Mrs. Craig were the parents of twelve children, of whom nine are now living. Their names are: Samuel H., John A., James A., George W., Thomas G., William H. H., Alexander T., Elizabeth, Margaret (Hines), Nancy Ann, Mary Jane (Fox) and Nancy Elizabeth (Fox). Of these William H. H., Elizabeth and Nancy Ann are deceased. The first-named of these three was a member of the 78th regt. Pa. Vol. Inf., and died in Andersonville prison. Samuel H. was also a member of the 78th regt., and James A. was in the 107th regt. Pa. Vol. Inf. They both live in Madison township, as also do their brothers John A., George W., Thomas G., Alexander T., and their sisters Margaret and Mary Jane. Nancy Elizabeth resides in Pine township. JOHN WANAMAKER. The parents of John Wanamaker, the old and well known resident of Leechburg, were Henry and Susannah (Silves) Wanamaker. The former was born in this state in 1792, and died August 7, 1860, and the latter born in 1794, and died January 14, 1880. They had ten children: John, Ehlizabeth, Annie, Cyrus, James, Henry, Joseph, George, Esther and Caroline; Joseph and George are deceased. Mr. and Mrs. Wanamaker removed from Westmoreland county, in 1813, and settled in Allegheny township (now Gilpin), where the remainder of their lives were spent. Their son John was born in this county February 22, 1814. Hle was joined in wedlock with Miss Margaret Wagley, daughter of John and Catharine (Beck) Wagley, upon May 31, 1838. She was born January 25, 1814, in what is now Burrell township, where her parents were early settlers. The fruits of this union were seven children, whose names with their respective dates of birth are as follows: Mary Ann, born July 28, 1839, died May 11, 1863; James, born June 21, 1841, died same year; Sarah, born July 2, 1842, died same year; Eliza (now the wife of Henry Byrer, and living in Shelby, Ohio), born June 23, 1844; Emma (now the wife of Levi Hill, of Leechburg), born October 21, 1847; Martin L., born March 12, 1849 (he married Sarah Jane Artman, and has two children, Emma Irene and Effa Thirza); Elizabeth the youngest of the family of children (now the wife of Joseph Bowers, of Venango county), was born October 4, 1851. Mr. Wanamaker has followed the furniture and undertaking business most of his life in Leechburg, and is one of the most respected citizens of that town. THE MILLER FAMILY. Jacob Miller, the progenitor of this family, was one of the earliest settlers of Kiskiminetas township, where his descendants now reside. He was born in Loudoun county, Virginia, in 1774, and his wife, Mary Uncafer, was born the same year. They emigrated to this county in the spring of 1803, the year the county was organized judicially, and lived here the remainder of their lives, rearing a family of five children. Jacob Miller died May 3, 1856, and his wife in 1821. Their children were: Joseph, born October 31, 1798, died October 31, 1862; John, born February 18, 1800; Margaret (wife of David Black), born December 18, 1803; William, born May 13, 1806; Andrew, born April 15, 1814; and Mary, born 1809, who died in infancy. Andrew Miller, who owns the old homestead farm, and lives upon it, married June 21, 1855, Miss Mary Jane Baker, who was born in Westmoreland county, October 4, 1834. They have had eight children, as follows: Wilhelmina, born September 18, 1856 (wife of William McKustry, 618 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. and a resident of Kiskiminetas township); Oliver Milton, born February 25, 1860; William John, born November 21, 1861; Jacob Andrew, born July 7, 1865; David Franklin, born July 21, 1867; Harry A., born February 10, 1870; an infant not named, born January 31, 1874, and Ida Rosetta, born April 27, 1875. Andrew Miller has been all of his life a farmer. He owns about 130 acres of land, the old homestead, which is well improved and valuable. KITTANNING TOWNSHIP. David Shoemaker was born in Columbiana county, Ohio, in 1828; moved to Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, 1844; is of German descent. James Hielman, a son of Jacob Hielman, of Germany. James H. was born on his present farm in 1829. Isaac Hielman, son of Daniel Hielman, who died in this county in 1832. Isaac was born in 1821; now lives on the same place where born; is of German descent. Jacob H. Schall enlisted August 24, 1864, in the 6th Heavy Pa. Art., Co. M, discharged July 3, 1865, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, at close of war. Benjamin Evans enlisted August 9, 1862, in Co. C, 139th Pa. Vols.; discharged on June 21, 1865, at Washington, District of Columbia; received a severe wound in left wrist at battle of Wilderness; was taken prisoner at Fredericksburg on May 8, 1864, and lay five months in rebel prison at Richmond, Virginia, when he was exchanged. Charles Nichols enlisted August 18, 1862, in Co. K, 155th regt. Pa. Vol. Inf., in Pine township; discharged June 2, 1865, at Washington, District of Columbia; served the entire time in the army of the Potomac in the 5th corps. William H. Barnett enlisted September 7, 1863, Co. II, 6th regt. U. S. A.; discharged May 29, 1865. Josiah J. Shaffer, son of Philip and Susanah Shaffer, was born in Kittanning township July 25, 1838; taught school ten years, and is postmaster and merchant at Blanket IHill. William K. Gibson enlisted August 29, 1861, in Co. A, 78th Pa. Vol. Inf.; discharged October 12, 1864; laid in the hospital at Bridgeport, Alabama, six weeks with smallpox, from which has never fully recovered. Solomon S. Peters enlisted September 1, 1862, at Brady's Bend, in Co. C, 139th regt. Pa. Vols.; discharged June 6, 1865, at West Chester, Philadelphia; lost leg at the battle of Fisher Hill, West Georgia, by fragment of a shell. John Brice enlisted in Co. H, 6th regt., in July, 1863; was killed in battle in front of Petersburg, Virginia, June 4, 1864; went from Templeton, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania. Peter Brice enlisted in Co. H, 6th regt., July, 1863; was killed at Dead Bottom, Virginia, same year. J. J. Shaeffor enlisted February 23, 1864, Co. D, 112th Pa. Vols.; discharged January 22, 1866; was slightly wounded in hand at Chaparis farm, Virginia, October 29, 1864. WAYNE TOWNSHIP. William W. Caldwell enlisted August 23, 1862, in Co. K, 155th Pa. Vol. Inf.; discharged May, 1863. Ephraim Morrow enlisted May 15, 1861, in Co. K, Pa. Reserves, "Buck Tail Regt.," and was transferred in November, 1861, to the U. S. Signal Corps; was discharged June 17, 1864. William T. McFarland enlisted August 27, 1861, at Kittanning, Pennsylvania, in Co. H, 78th regt. Pa. Vol. Inf.; discharged November 4, 1864, at Kittanning. Frederick Broombaugh enlisted August 28, 1862, at Eddyville, in Co. A, 78th regt. Pa. Vols.; discharged May 12, 1865, at Nashville, Tennessee. David S. Cochran enlisted October 13, 1861, at Kittanning, Pennsylvania, in Co. G, 78th Pa. Vols.; discharged November 4, 1864. VALLEY TOWNSHIP. Ernest Miller enlisted September 7, 1861, Co. B, - Pa. regt.; discharged for disability October 15, 1863, at Chester IHill. Jesse F. Hyskell enlisted June 28, 1861, at Camp Wright, Pennsylvania, in Co. F, 9th Pa. Reserves; discharged May 12, 1864, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; wounded in leg severely at battle of Antietam, Maryland, in September, 1862. Archaberd A. Marshall was mustered into the state service in Co. G, 22d regt., on September 16, 1862, called into the service by the governor of Pennsylvania for state defense. John Cochron was mustered into state service in Co. G, 22d regt., September 16, 1882; called into service by the governor of Pennsylvania for state defense. Jeremiah Bowser enlisted November 25, 1864, at Belknap, in Co. I, 76th regt. Pa. Vols.; discharged in April, 1865, at Washington, District of Columbia. Joseph T. Irwin was mustered into the state volunteer service as captain of Co. G, 22d regt., 619 PUBLISHERS' PREFACE. IN placing this History of Armstrong County before their patrons, the publishers feel that the work will stand the test of candid criticism in every respect. They have spared neither endeavor nor expense which could add to its value, and to make it a volume which would reflect credit upon its author and themselves has been their aim, and therefore they rest assured that those citizens who have watched with friendly interest the progress of the work since the time it was undertaken by Mr. Smith will not be disappointed with the product of that long period of careful labor. That so voluminous a work, containing, as it does, in its eight hundred broad pages, at least six thousand dates and fifty thousand names, should be absolutely free from trivial error, thinking people will not expect; but the publishers believe that such has been the care bestowed upon it by competent, experienced men-writers, engravers, printers and proof-readers-that even inconsequential errors have been reduced to the minimum, and that essential misstatements of statement have been entirely avoided. The riches of historic lore, gathered from a thousand different sources by its author, have been returned to the patrons of the work in what has seemed the most appropriate and acceptable form; and it has been the study of the publishers, by aid of all that is most excellent in the art of typography and in the bookbinder's skill, to send the history to the people of Armstrong County clothed as its worth deserves. The publishers wish to return most sincere thanks, on their own behalf and those in their employ, to all who have aided them in the preparation of this volume. To mention the names of all whose courteous and cordial co-operation has been extended to them, and fully appreciated, would be impossible, for their number is hundreds. However, we cannot refrain from presenting the names of a few whose positions have enabled them to be of especial service. To this class belong Hon. James B. Neale, Grier C. Orr, James Mosgrove, Joseph Buffington, D. A. Ralston and Col. Sirwell, of Kittanning; John Turner, Capt. James P. Murphy, Walter P. Murphy, Robt. Morris, Capt. A. S. Warner and John Ralston, of Freeport; Col. S. M. Jackson, John B. Chambers and W. McBryar, M. D., of Apollo; John Schwalen, R. P. Hunter, Maj. Joseph E. Beale and H. H. Wray, of Leechburg; Thomas H. Marshall, William Marshall, T. M. Elder, of Wayne township; John W. Marshall, Rev. D. K. Duff and Smith Neal, of Cowanshannock; George Putney and Hon. A. D. Glenn, of Mahoning township. To this brief list should be added the members of the press and county officials. The exhaustive chapter on " Armstrong in the War of the Rebellion," and the supplementary roster owes much of its fullness and accuracy to the Grand Army Post of Freeport, Capt. A. S. Warner, Col. Wm. Sirwell and Col. Archibald Blakely, of Pittsburgh. WATERMAN, WATKINS & CO. CHICAGO, ILL., July 15, 1883. REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. Whittaker, Martin, m. i. s. Sept. 10, 1864; dis. by G. O. May 31, 1865. Wilson, Chas. B., m. i. s. Feb. 26, 1864; not accounted for. Weaver, William, m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1864; died at Point Lookout, Md., Oct. 20, 1864. Young, John J., m. i. s. Feb. 21, 1865; trans. to Co. M, 1st Pro. Cay., June 17, 1865. SIXTY-SECOND REGIMENT. Of this regiment, recruited by Col. Samuel W. Black, under authority of Simon Cameron, Secretary of War, principally in Allegheny county, Company D was from Armstrong. The order for recruiting was issued on the 4th of July, 1861, and in less than a month the regiment was full. Originally it was designated as the Thirty-third Independent Regiment. The Sixty-second proceeded to Washington, and thence, September 11,into Virginia. Subsequently it bore itself well in the actions at Gaines Mill, the second battle of Bull Run, Fredericksburg, Antietam, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, Bethesda Church, and also in minor engagements. FIELD AND STAFF. Major A. W. Lowry,m.i. s. July 4,1861; pro. from 1st Lt. Co. C, to Major Sept. 10, 1862; killed at Gettysburg July 2, 1863; buried in Nat. cem. Sec. B, grave 26. Surgeon John T. Crawford, m. i. s. Aug., 1861; pro. to brigade sur geon, Oct. 7,1861. COMPANY D. [The members of this company, except when otherwise specified, were mustered into the service July 24, 1861, and mustered out with the company July 13,1864]. OFFICERS. Captain Wm. C. Beck; captured at Wilderness May 5, 1864; dis. Dec. 28, 1864. First Lieutenant Ezra J. Putney; res. Oct. 30,1862. First Lieutenant Robert S. Townsend; pro. from Sergt. to 2d Lt. July 2, 1862, to 1st Lt. Oct. 30, 1862; m. o. with company. Second Lieutenant Wm. M. Duke; res. Feb. 6,1862. Second Lieutenant Jefferson Truitt; pro. from Sergt. Oct. 30, 1862; killed at Bethesda Church, Va., June 3, 1861; buried in Nat. cem., Cold Harbor, Va., Sec. C. First Sergeant Dan'l Swigart, pro. from Corp. to Sergt. Nov. 1, 1862, to 1st Sergt. May 5, 1864; m. o. with company. First Sergeant M. M. Steel; not on m. o. roll. Sergeant Sam'l M. Crawford, pro. from Corp. Feb. 7, 1862; m. o. with company. Corporal Jas. J. Barrett, absent sick at m. o. Corporal Jos. J. Callen, pro. to Corp. July 1, 1862; m. o. with com pany. Corporal David P. Truitt, pro. to Corp. Dec. 10, 1862; m. o. with company. Corporal Win. Turney, not on m. o. roll. Corporal Arthur Cassedy, not on m. o. roll. Corporal Martin M'Canna, not on m. o. roll, PRIVATES. Martin Aaler, Harrison Anthony, Win. Bailey, Henry Baryerstock, Win. G. Black, Geo. W. Blake, Alfred B. Barnhart, C. Bradenbaugh (died at Alexandria, Va., May 19, 1862, grave 8), James I. Brown, J. Daughenbaugh, Richard C. Dodson, John M. Fleming, John Fleming, Jos. Foreman, Ezra Grinder, Josiah George (m. i. s. Nov. 29, 1861), Joshua M. George (m. i. s. Nov. 29,1861), Peter C. George (m. i. s. Nov, 29, 1861), Robt. Gamble, Tho. M. Kuhn (prisoner from July 2 to Sept29, 1863), Chas. G. Kuhn, H. Klingensmith (m. i. s. Nov. 29, 1861), Sam'l M. Myrtle (trans. to Co. A, 155th Pa. Vol., July 3, 1864-vet.). Wm. G. M'Sparnen, John M'Crea, Sam'l M'Knabb (m. i. s. Feb. 27. 1864, trans. to Co. A, 155th Pa, Vol. July 3, 1864), Geo. W. Pontius (not on mn. o. roll), G. W. Reesman, J. G. Schreckengost (died at Columbia College hos, D. C., Oct. 6, 1861), J. Schreckengost, Henry R. Soxman, Peter A. Stockdill, Christopher Stuchell (vet.), Abraham Smeltzer (m. i. s. March 31, 1864, trans, to Co. A, 155th Pa. Vol., July 3, 1864), Wilbert Wilson (trans. to Co. A, 155th Pa. Vol., July 3,1863; vet). COMPANY G. [Where the date of muster into service does not occur immediately after the name, it may be understood as August 1,1861, that being the time when the company was mustered in. Unless otherwise noted, the men were mustered out with the company August 1,1864. This company was composed only in part of Armstrong county men. Charles W. McHenry was its first captain.] OFFICERS. Captain Isaac Moorhead, pro. from 2d to 1st Lt. June 27, 1862; to Capt. May 19, 1863; killed at Petersburg, Va., June 18, 1864. Sergeant John Cessna, pro. to Sergt. June 1, 1864. Sergeant John M. Thomas, pro. to Sergt. Feb. 24, 1863; wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 6, 1864; absent, in hospital, at m. o. Sergeant Robert W. Martin, dis. Feb. 12, 1863. Corporal John Pickel, wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 6, 1864. Corporal James N. Coulter, died 1864. Corporal William M. Smith, dis. Sept. 17, 1862. Corporal Benjamin H. Smith, pro. to Corp. Feb. 20, 1863; killed at Chancellorsville, Va., May 3,1863. Corporal Matthew A. Rankin, pro. to Corp. Feb. 1, 1864; killed at Petersburg. Corporal Simon Steffey, killed at Fair Oaks, Va., May 31, 1862. Corporal William J. Graham, pro. to Corp. Feb. 24, 1863; died May 25, 1864, of wounds received in action; vet. Corporal Thomas L. Martin, pro. to Corp. Feb. 1, 1864; killed at Wil derness, Va., May 6, 1864. PRIVATES. Brown, Robert M. Blystone, George, m. i. s. Jan. 18,1864; wounded at Wilderness May 5, 1864; trans. to Co. G, 99th reg. Pa. Vol. Blystone, William, m. i. s. March 31, 1864; died June 25, 1864, of wounds received at Petersburg, Va., June 18, 1864. Bleakney, John, m. i. s. July 17, 1863; drafted; wounded June 16, 1864; trans. to Co. G, 99th reg. Pa. Vol. Boyer, Peter, dis., date unknown. Blystone, Simon, m. i. s. Jan. 4, 1864; killed at Wilderness, Va., May 6, 1864; vet. Cox, John R., dis. March 26, 1863. Calhoun, William L., dis. Oct. 9, 1862. Daily, Robert H., wounded at Wilderness May 5,1864; absent, in hos pital, at m. o. Fulton, Joseph H., absent, sick, at m. o. Fulton, Robert A., m. i. s. Sept. 9, 1862; dis. Feb. 14, 1863. Frailey, Henry, dis. Sept. 26, 1862. Frailey, John A., dis. April 26, 1863. Frailey, William, killed at Fair Oaks, Va., May 31, 1862. Gardner, Daniel M. Gardner, Joseph. George, David R., killed at Nelson's farm, Va., June 30, 1862. Gardner, Jacob, killed near Pohick Church Nov. 7, 1861. Gress, Henry R., died at New Haven, Conn., July 3, 1862, of wounds received in action. Hoover, William C. Henderson, John, absent, sick, at m. o. Henderson, Andrew, m. i. s. July 18, 1863; drafted; wounded May 24, 1864; trans. to Co. G, 99th reg. Pa. Vol. Hoover, Ralston, died at Baltimore Cross Roads, Va., June13, 1862. Jones, John F. Kelly, John, killed at Chancellorsville, Va., May 3, 1863. Klugh, Henry, m. i. s. July 18, 1863; drafted; died at Washington, D. C., Feb. 24,1864. Keppel, Win. R., m. i. s. Feb. 23, 1864; killed at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864. Martin, David C. Martin, Geo. W., m. i. s. Feb. 15, 1864; trans. to Co. G, 99th reg. Pa. Vols. Mulberger, Samuel, m. i. s. July 18, 1863; drafted; died July 15, 1864; buried National cem., Arlington, Va. Martin, Thomas L., killed at Wilderness, Va., May 5,1864. Moore, Cyrus J., killed near Pohick Church, Va., March 6, 1862; buried at Alexandria, Va., grave 1,456. Moore, Adam. Moore, Andrew J., m. i. s. March 21, 1862; died May 15, 1864, of wounds received at Wilderness, Va. Miller, Jacob, died March 6, 1863, near Falmouth, Va. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. September 16, 1862, called into service by the governor of Pennsylvania for the state defense. David L. Marshall enlisted September 5, 1864, in Co. M, 5th Pa. Heavy Art.; discharged on July 8, 1865, at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. John T. Mathews enlisted December 12, 1862, at Kittanning, Pennsylvania, in Co. M, 2d Pa. corps; discharged July 24, 1865, at Cloud's Mill, Virginia; captured at the battle at Ream's Station, Virginia, July 12, 1864, and in the following prisons: Libby, Andersonville, Charleston and Florence, South Carolina-nine months in all; paroled at Wilmington, North Carolina, April 6, 1865. SOUTH BEND TOWNSHIP. William H., son of William and Margaret Wilson, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1835; resides on a farm of 160 acres, purchased by his father in 1844; was married in 1857, to Lenna A., daughter of William and Mary Armstrong, of Indiana county, Pennsylvania. He is a farmer and stock dealer. Postoffice, South Bend. Z. J. Heilman, son of William and Margaret Heilman, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1851; followed farming until March, 1882, when he embarked in mercantile business at Idaho, where he keeps a full line of goods such as is usually found in a village store. Was married in 1873, to Rosannah, daughter of Joseph and Anna N. Klingensmith. Postoffice, South Bend. Henry, son of Robert and Elizabeth Townsend, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, in 1823; came with his father to this county in 1825. At the age of twenty-eight commenced the mercantile business; came to South Bend in 1862, where he still resides. Was married to Levena, daughter of David and Mary Boggs, who died September, 1875, leaving two children. In 1876 was married to Rebecca, daughter of Mathew and Mary Harbinson. Postoffice, South Bend. George I., son of John H. and Frances A. Smith, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1825; was raised a farmer; learned blacksmithing, which business he carries on at South Bend. In 1873 was married to Eliza J., daughter of Samuel and Hettie France. Postoffice, South Bend. Lebius, son of William and Esther Heinselman, born in South Bend, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, 1828, where he still resides on a part of the old homestead, having 104 acres. Was married in 1853, to Jane, daughter of Jared and Elizabeth McCandless. Postoffice, South Bend. John N., son of James and Sarah Wherry, was born near South Bend, Armstrong county, in 1847; was reared on a farm. He learned the tanning and currying trade, in which business he is now engaged. Was married in 1872, to daughter of James and Margaret Walker. Postoftice, South Bend. Thomas T., son of John and Jemima Wherry, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1848; was raised on a farm, resides on the old homestead, 81 acres of which he now owns, one mile south of South Bend. In 1874 was married to Ida B., daughter of James and Susan Armstrong. Postoffice, South Bend. James, son of William and Nancy Devers, was born on the place where his father settled in 1802, in Armstrong county, where he has always resided, and is engaged in farming. In 1880 was married to Margaret, daughter of Samuel and Catharine Klingensmith. Postoffice, South Bend. Simon P., son of Robert and Elizabeth Townsend, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, and resides on a part of the old homestead. In November, 1857, was married to Elizabeth J., daughter of John and Elizabeth Townsend, of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania. Postoflice, South Bend. John L., son of Robert and Elizabeth Townsend, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1840. Has always lived on a portion of the old homestead, of 400 acres, 134 of Which he now owns. In 1864 was married to Jemima D., daughter of John Wherry, Esq. She died in 1867, leaving one child, a daughter. In 1871 he married Mary J., daughter of Charles and Nancy Boer. Postoflice, Olivet. Robert H., son of James and Nancy Wilson, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1851. He has followed surveying seven years. Is at present the county surveyor. In 1879 he was married to Emma, daughter of James and Jane Blakeley. Postoffice, Olivet. Labanah W., son of James and Sarah Fulner, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1832, on the farm where he now resides, he owning 110 acres of the old homestead. He was married in 1861 to Elizabeth, daughter of James and Sarah Black. Postoffice, Olivet. Walter H., son of James and Susan Armstrong, was born in Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, in 1853. He is engaged in farming, and resides on the farm purchased by his father in 1864, known as the Samuel France piace. His father died in 1857 at the age of fifty-four years. Postoffice, South Bend. Thomas B., son of Alexander and Leah Coulter, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 620 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. 1845. In November, 1871, was married to Clara J. Pike, a native of Ohio. Postoffice, South Bend. James T., son of James and Sarah Wherry, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1865, and was married in 1880 to Elizabeth, daughter of Leon and Jane King. Postoffice, South Bend. James, son of James and Magdalena Rupert, was born on the old homestead where he now resides, one and a half miles north of Girty. He is a farmer, and has served three terms as justice of the peace. Hle was married in 1862 to Margaret A., daughter of Joseph and Elizabeth Klingensmith. Postoffice, Girty. Noah, son of Phillip and Elizabeth Rupert, was born in 1840 on the old homestead, where he now resides with his parents. He has an only brother, Solomon, in Kansas, engaged in farming. Postoffice, Girty. Solomon, son of George and Elizabeth Rupert, was born in 1826 on the old homestead near Girty, 75 acres of which he now owns. He was married in 1868 to Catharine, daughter of NicholasReefen. Postoffice, Girty. Alexander J., son of Anthony and Jane Montgomery, was born at South Bend on the old homestead in 1833; is a farmer and stock dealer; was sheriff of Armstrong county from 1870 to 1873. He entered the bonds of matrimony in 1871 with Mary, daughter of John and Mary Jane Valentine, of Allegheny City. Postoffice, South Bend. James McNess, Jr., is a son of James and Elizabeth, of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, although for many years they resided in Butler county, where his father died in 1843 and his mother in 1846. James, Jr., came to Armstrong county in 1875 and settled at Girty, where he commenced the manufacture of stone jugs and crocks, in which he is still engaged. His business has increased until his annual sales aggregate $5,000; he employs eight laborers. He was married in 1858 to Sarah Van Dyke. Postoffice, Girty. Rev. Lycurgus Mechling, son of William and Catharine Mechling, was born in Butler county, Pennsylvania, in 1841. At the age of twenty years he enlisted in the 63d Ohio Vol. Inf. He veteraned and served until August, 1865; was four times wounded and still carries the scars of his numerous encounters on his face, in which is lodged a piece of a confederate bullet. Since the war he graduated at the Glade Run Academy in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, and at Jefferson College, Washington county, Pennsylvania, and is also a graduate of the Western Theological Seminary at Allegheny City. He became pastor of the Elderton Presbyterian church in 1877, and was ordained June 29, of that year. The church had 87 members at the time he became its pastor, but under his ministrations it has increased in membership until at present it numbers 121. His brother, G. W. Mechling, D. D., has been for twenty-six years pastor of the Glade Run Presbyterian church. PLUM CREEK TOWNSHIP. Rice Henderson, son of Brice and Anna Henderson, was born in Indiana county, Pennsylvania, in 1829; came to this county in 1846 and settled at Elderton, where he now resides. He followed blacksmithing twenty-five years; has since followed farming; was for six years county commissioner; was married in 1848 to Nancy Clark, daughter of Alexander and Jane Clark. She died in 1862. His second marriage was in 1863, to Martha J., daughter of Judge Robert and Mary Woodward. Postoffice, Elderton. David B. Coulter, son of William and Sarah Coulter, was born in Elderton, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1833; was raised on a farm; present occupation, plastering; was married in 1856 to Rachael Smith, daughter of ex-Sheriff George and Elizabeth Smith. Postoffice, Elderton. David A. Buckley, son of Jacob and Eva Buckley, born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1856. He learned the blacksmith trade, which business he carries on in Elderton at the present time. In 1878 was married to Mary, daughter of David and Elizabeth Altman. Postoffice, Elderton. Henry Hargrave, son of John and Ann B. Hargrave, was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1837; came to Armstrong county in 1841 with his father, who engaged in the marble business. In 1873 Henry returned to Philadelphia, but came back in 1875; since then has continued the business established in Elderton in 1841 by his father; was married in 1861 to Isabel, daughter of Lewis and Margaret Lukens. Postoffice, Elderton. John Waterson, son of John and Margaret Waterson, was born in Ireland; came to Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, with his parents in 1841, where he still resides; was reared on a farm; engaged in mercantile business in Elderton in 1861, where he keeps a general stock of goods; was married in 1865 to Sarah J., daughter of Alexander and Eleanor Elgin. Postoffice, Elderton. William N. Ralston, son of John and Jane Ralston, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, where he still resides; has been for many years engaged in mercantile business. Postoffice, Elderton. W. B. Henderson, son of Samuel and Sarah 621 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Henderson, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, in 1849; was raised on a farm. He is a wagonmaker by trade, which business hlie has carried on in Elderton since 1870; was married in 1871 to Sarah A., daughter of Esquire Alexander and Jane Clark. Postoflice, Elderton. T. N. Ralston, son of John and Jane Ralston, was born in Elderton, Armstrong county, Penniisylvania, in 1845; follows farming and makes a speciality of wool growing; was married in 1871 to Eliza J., daughter of Augustus and Mary Read. Postoffice, Elderton. J. A. Blaney, son of Hugh and Hannah Blaney, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1832; been engaged in mercantile business twenty-four years; in 1857 married Minerva, daughter of William and Jane St. Clair. Postoffice, Elderton. Dr. J. K. Parks, son of Hugh and Hannah Parks; born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, in 1828; came to this county in 1855, where he has practiced medicine ever since; is at present located in the village of Whitesburg; was married in: 1853 to Elizabeth, daughter of Jacob and Agnes Ludwick. Postoffice, Whitesburg. J. P. Dunmire, son of Joseph and Mary Dunmire, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1840; is a farmer and merchant and is justice of the peace. In 1874 married Mary J., daughter of Michael and Harriet Rugh. Postoffice, Whitesburg. Jacob Kough, son of William and Elizabeth Kough; born in Huntingdon county, Pennsylvania, in 1826; came to Armstrong county in 1849, and purchased the property known as the Allen farm; also owns a good gristmill known as the Walker mill. He does a general custom business. Was married in 1850 to Elizabeth, daughter of Joseph and Mary Dunmire. Postoffice, Whitesburg. Isaac N., son of Frederick and Rachel Boarts, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1853; was raised on a farm, and was married in 1876 to Margaret, daughter of A. and J. G. McKee. Has been engaged in mercantile business some two years at Cherry Run. Keeps a general stock of goods such as is usually found in a village store. Postoffice, Elderton. Richard T., son of Thomas and Elizabeth Pollard, was born in England in 1848; came to America in 1868, and first settled in Morris county, New Jersey; came to Armstrong bounty in 1875. His principal business has been farming. For the last four years has been a minister in the German Baptist church. He has a three-foot vein of coal on his farm. Was married in 1876 to Mrs. Hannah Kimmel, daughter of Joseph and Catharine Shoemaker, of Red Bank township, Armstrong countyj Pennsylvania. Joseph Shoemaker was also a minister in the German Baptist church. Postoffice, Elderton. Joseph Buckley, son of Thomas and Frances Buckley, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1829. Ile followed the blacksmith business for twenty-eight years; at present owns a farm of 154 acres on the line of Armstrong and Indiana counties. In 1854 was married to Eva, daughter of Michael and Mary Truby. Postoffice, Elderton. James S., son of David and Margaret Ralston; born in Indiana county, Pennsylvania; came to Armstrong county in 1869 and settled on the farm known as the David Ralston farm. In 1859 married to Maria A., daughter of William and Hannah Blakeley. Has a farm of 115 acres. Postoffice, Elderton. Mathew R. Hall, son of Clark and Hannah Hall, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1832; purchased the farm where he now resides, near Elderton, of 100 acres, in 1857. In 1858 married Mary A., daughter of James and Catharine Neal. Postoffice, Elderton. Daniel, son of Daniel and Christianna Frailey; born on a farm of 150 acres, where he now resides. Was three years in the Pennsylvania cavalry; was married in 1866 to Sarah, daughter of William and Mary Baxter. Postoffice, Elderton. James M., son of James and Mary Christie, was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, in 1822; came to Armstrong county in 1860, and purchased 123 acres of land, where he now resides, near Green Oak. Was first married to Catharine Davidson, who died in 1865; second marriage was with Elizabeth, daughter of Casper and Catherin Kaufman. Postoffice, Atwood. John A., son of Samuel and Leah Woodward, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1846; was raised on a farm. At the age of seventeen years enlisted - in the 6th Pa. Heavy Art. for one year; after the war, 1876, purchased onehalf interest in the Shaffer gristmill, which he still owns with Linus Shaffer; they do a custom and merchant milling business. He was married in 1868 to Elizabeth, daughter of John and Anna C. Kimple. Postoflice, Elderton. John F., son of Samuel and Rebecca Bell, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1840. Married in 1865 to Sarah J., daughter of Joseph and Jane Stewart. Postoffice, Elderton. James M., son of Chas. and Susan Moore, was born in Ireland in 1812; came to Pennsylvania in 1849, and to Armstrong county in 1869; pur622 BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. chased 102 acres of land of Augustus Miller, where he now resides. Was married in 1840 to Rachael, daughter of John and Elizabeth Bradshaw. Postoffice, Nulton. Robert, son of David and Elizabeth McCullough, was born on the farm of 140 acres, where he now resides, two miles west of Elderton, in 1829. Was married in 1.852 to Nancy, daughter of Hugh and Mollie Elgin. She died in 1872, leaving three children. He married for his second wife Bell, daughter of James and Mary Patton. Postoffice, Elderton. John, son of David and Elizabeth McCullough, was born in Plum Creek township, Armstrong county, about two miles west of Elderton. Married Elizabeth, daughter of Michael and Elizabeth Rupert. Postoffice, Elderton. BURRELL TOWNSHIP. J. W. McKee, M. D., son of William and Harriet T. McKee, is native of Armstrong county. He is a graduate of Wooster University, of Cleveland, Ohio. He has practiced medicine at Cochran's Mills some eight years successfully. He was married to Amanda, daughter of John and Christina King, in 1872. His postoffice address is Cochran's Mills. J. Kinnard, son of Isaac and Mary A. Kinnard, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, and a resident of Burrell township. He follows teaching and working in a woolen-factory. Postoffice, Cochran's Mills. W. H. Carnahan, son of John and Mary Carnahan, was born in Allegheny county in 1839, and in 1844 came to Armstrong county. He was raised on a farm and taught school winters. Engaged in mercantile business ini 1863. Was engaged for some time in the manufacture of lampblack. In 1866 he engaged in mercantile business a't Cochran's Mills, where he has since erected a fine business block, and is now the leading merchant of that village. Hle is also extensively engaged in farming. John Cooper, son of Naboth and Jane C. Cooper, was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania. He came to Armstrong county April 18, 1875. He engaged in farming until twenty-two years of age, when he learned milling. In 1875 he purchased the Cochran mill, which now has four runs of stone. It is the best mill property in this section of the county. He ships quite a quantity of flour. Postoffice, Cochran's Mills. Adam Lookabaugh, son of Peter and Eveline Lookabaugh, was born on the Maryland and Pennsylvania line, in 1821. In 1829 he came to Allegheny county and settled within four miles of Leechburg. He is engaged in farming on 148 acres, purchased in 1854, on which he has made some very fine improvements and is a successful agriculturist. He undoubtedly has coal on his farm and has recently discovered what seems to be rich iron ore in considerable quantities. W. R. Ramaley, son of Wmin. and Mary A., was born in Armstrong county in 1841; occupation, farming and teaching. Is said to be the only man on the east side of the county who holds life certificate to teach. He does job printing; has a farm of 112 acres. Postoffice, Cochran's Mills. Jackson Davis, son of George and Susanna D., was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1840; is a farmer by occupation, and has been justice of the peace nine years. He married Nancy Cessure, daughter of William and Elizabeth. Postoffice, Cochran's Mills. George Slease, son of Jacob and Ann Slease, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1825. He is engaged in farming on 144 acres near Cochran's Mills. Married in 1846 to Helen, daughter of John and Susannah King. Postoffice, Cochran's Mills. O. J. Woodward, son of Samuel and Leah, is a native of Armstrong county, Pennsylvania. He was reared on a farm. Has been a partner of H. A. King in the mercantile business for the past ten years. In July, 1874, was married to Christena R., daughter of John and Christena King. Postoffice, Cochran's Mills. H. A. King, son of John and Christena King, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1852, and was raised on a farm. In 1872 engaged in mercantile business in company with O. J. Woodward, one mile east of Cochran's Mills, where they keep a general stock of goods. He was married to Clarissa, daughter of Samuel and Leah Woodward, in 1873. Postoffice, Cochran's Mills Lee Hileman, son of Jacob and Catharine Hileman, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1845. He is a farmer, and owns one of the best farms in Burrell township. Postoffice, Cochran's Mills. David Myers, son of Henry and Elizabeth Myers, was born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1858; raised on a farm. Since 1879 hlie has clerked in the store of W. H. Carnahan. Postoffice, Cochran's Mills. Amos Altman, son of Isaac and Elizabeth Altman, born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, 1843. Farmed until 1876, at which time he engaged in mercantile business at Cochran's Mills, where hlie still resides and keeps general stock, also postmaster. Was married in 1866, to 623 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Mary M. Schall, daughter of Michael and Susanah Schall. S. M. Gibson, son of William and Rebecca G. Gibson, born in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in 1837, farmer and teacher, resides on a farm of 125 acres, at Cooper's Mills. Was married 1859 to Elizabeth George, daughter of Peter G. His mother's name was Plant. Postoffice, Cochran's Mills. COWANSHANNOCK TOWNSHIP. John Boyer, a native of Somerset county, Pennsylvania, settled in Cowanshannock township, in 1831, or the following year, and married Miss Mary Beers. They were the parents of eleven children, of whom John A. Boyer, a successful farmer of this township, is one. He married Miss Mary E. St. Clair, daughter of Capt. William St. Clair, of Whitesburg. A. W. Beer, of Cowanshannock township, is the son of Jacob and Catharine (Wampler) Beer, and was born near where he now resides. He has carried on a store at Blanco for about ten years, and is one of the active, enterprising men of this part of the county. He has been considerable of a traveler, and was once shipwrecked off the coast of Central America. George B. McFarland settled in Kittanning about 1838, coming from Washington county, of which he was a native. In 1842 or the following year he removed to Rural village, in which place as in Kittanning he carried on a general store. About 1849 he bought the Phoenix Furnace on Mahoning creek, which he successfully carried on until his death, which occurred in September, 1851. A son, Robert McFarland, now resides in Cowanshannock township. Henry Lanster was born in Hesse-Darmstadt, Germany, and first settled in this county in Kittanning township in 1855. He located in Hughsville in 1868, and is now interested in the milling business with Mr. David Sowers, as is also his brother, Peter Lanster, of Allegheny City. Mr. Henry Lanster married Miss Anna C. Koch, daughter of John Koch, of Kittanning township. 624 HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. McConnell, Hugh, killed at Fair Oaks, Va., May 31,1862. Rankin, Joseph P., Aug. 1, 1864. Robinson, John A., wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864; absent at m. o. Rearick, Isaac L., m. i. s. July 18,1863; drafted; wounded at Wilder ness, Va., June 18, 1865; trans. to Co. G, 99th reg. Pa. Vol. Russell, Labin, dis., date unknown. Rupert, Alexander, m. i. s. Feb. 23,1864; died near Orange and Alex andria railroad. Sloan, William H. H. Saddler, Jacob, wounded at Petersburg, Va., June 18,1864. Sell, John A., wounded at Petersburg, Va., June 18, 1864. Smith, Wm. C., m. i. s. Feb. 2, 1864; wounded at North Anna. Va., May 2.3, 1864; trans. to Co. G, 99th reg. Pa. Vol. St. Claire, John, wounded at Chancellorsville, May 3, 1863; dis. Sept. 22, 1863. Shiery, David, died near Yorktown, Va., May 25, 1862; buried at Citizens' Graveyard, Annapolis, Md. Smeltzer, Andrew J., captured; died at Richmond, Va., date un known. Thomas, William, m. i. s. July 18, 1863; drafted; trans. to Co. C, 99th reg. Pa. Vol. Thomas, David J., m. i. s. July 18, 1863; drafted; trans. to Co. G, 99th reg. Pa. Vol. Wilhelm, Aug. A. G., prisoner from May 12, 1864, to March 1, 1865; m. o. March 7, 1865. Wilhelm, A. W., died at Philadelphia Nov. 11, 1862, of wounds re ceived in action. THE SEVENTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT, P. V. I. The 78th regt. Pa. Vol. Inf. was recruited and organized by Col. William Sirwell, at a rendezvous on the Allegheny river, immediately above the town of Kittanning, in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania. This rendezvous was called "Camp Orr," in honor of Gen. Robert Orr, a distinguished citizen of Kittanning, who had also rendered his country efficient service in the field in the war of 1812. The companies composing the regiment came into camp in the following order: August 14, 1861, a company from Kittanning, Armstrong county, Pa., in charge of James S. Hilberry; August 27, 1861, a company from Indiana county, Pennsylvania, in charge of William Cummins; August 29, 1861, a company from Clarion county, Pennsylvania, in charge of John M. Brinker; August 29, 1861, a company from Apollo, Armstrong county, Pa., in charge of Robert D. Elwood; September 3, 1861, a company from Freeport, Armstrong county, Pa., in charge of Dr. Charles B. Gillespie; September 5, 1861, a company from Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, known as the "Buffington Blues," in charge of John Jordon; September 6, 1861, a company from Cherry Tree, Indiana county, Pa., in charge of Michael Forbes; September 10, 1861, a company from Clarion county, Pennsylvania, in charge of James N. Hosey; September 11, 1861, a company from Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, in charge of Rev. De Witt C. Hervey; September 17,1861, a company from Butler county, Pennsylvania, in charge of William S. Jack. These ten organizations remained in " Camp Orr," drilling and recruiting, until October 12, 1861, when they were mustered into the service of the United States as the 78th regt. Pa. Vol. Inf., by Capt. H. B. Hays, U. S. A., mustering officer, on duty at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. On October 11 and 12, 1861, the government of the United States issued clothing, arms and accouterments to all the companies except that commanded by Capt. Charles B. Gillespie. On October 14, 1861, the regiment was transferred to Pittsburgh by the Allegheny Valley railroad, where all the clothing, arms, equipments, camp and garrison equipage yet required were drawn. On October 18, 1861, the field and staff of the regiment were mustered into the service of the United States by Capt. H. B. Hays, as follows: William Sirwell, Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, colonel; Archibald Blakeley, Butler county, Pennsylvania, lieutenant-colonel; Augustus B. Buffington, Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, major; Richard C. Cristy, Butler county, Pennsylvania, chaplain; Joseph W. Powell, Clarion county, Pennsylvania, adjutant; Adam Lowry, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, quastermaster. The surgeon, William J. Mark, and assistant surgeon, William Morrow Knox, did not join the regiment until some time in November, at Camp Nevin, Kentucky. On the afternoon of October 18, 1861, the regiment, accompanied by the 77th regt. Pa. Vol. Inf., commanded by Col. Stambaugh, and the 79th regt. Pa. Vol. Inf., commanded by Col. Hambright, and the 26th Pa. Batt. commanded by Capt. Muller, all under command of Brig. Gen. James S. Negley, of Pittsburgh, embarked on steamboats, and proceeded to Louisville, Kentucky, and debarked there on October 22. On October 24 the brigade, then known as the Pennsylvania or Negley's Brigade, was transferred by rail from Louisville to Nolin Station, near Nolin creek, Hardin county, Ky., on the line of the Louisville & Nashville railroad. At this place the division, known as the Old Second Division of the Army of the Cumberland, under the command of Gen. A. McD. McCook, was encamped, and the brigade of Negley was assigned to that division. The encampment at this place was called "Camp Nevin." The regiment remained here doing regular field and camp duty until November 24, when it with the brigade marched to the south side of Nolin creek and established "Camp Negley." The mortality of the regiment at Camp Negley was very great, owing to the wet weather and the bad condition of the ground on which the troops were encamped. On December 12 the regiment with the brigade marched southwardly to Bacon creek, and remained there until December 17, when it again moved REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. southwardly to Mumfordville, Hart county, Kentucky, on the north bank of Green river, where it was halted, and with the division encamped at " Camp Wood." The time here was spent in field and camp duty, drilling and picketing on the south side of Green river to hold the south bank, and to protect the workmen engaged in rebuilding the railroad bridge across the river at this point. On February 14, 1862, the spring campaign commenced. On that day the 78th regiment with McCook's division marched from the camp at Green river northward, with the view of taking boats at West Point, on the Ohio, and joining in Grant's advance on Fort Donelson, but on arriving at Upton Station, on the Louisville & Nashville railroad, the division was halted over night, and on the following morning countermarched for Nashville. Passing the old encampment at Mumfordville, and crossing Green river, the line of march was mostly along the line of the Louisville & Nashville railroad. Halting a few days at Cave City, and again in front of Bowling Green, until the Barren river was pontooned, the regiment arrived at Edgefield, opposite Nashville, on March 2, and on the 7th it crossed the Cumberland river, marched through Nashville, and encamped two miles south of Nashville, at "Camp Andy Johnson." When Gen. Buell moved his army forward and joined Grant at Pittsburgh Landing, he left Negley's brigade in the rear to guard the communications from Nashville to the front. The 78th was detailed to guard the railroad from Nashville to Columbia, Tennessee, with headquarters at Franklin, Tennessee. This duty was performed from March 24 to May 1, 1862, when the regiment rendezvoused at Columbia, Tennessee, and was then ordered to Pulaski, Tennessee, and garrisoned that place until May 12, 1862. On May 12 Gen. Negley passed through Pulaski, on an expedition to drive the rebel cavalry across the Tennessee river, and in this movement the 78th joined, and after severe skirmishing drove the enemy across the river at Rogersville, Alabama, May 16, 1862, the expedition commenced the movement back to Columbia, arriving there May 21. The 78th was again ordered to Pulaski, and arrived there May 23; held the garrison till the 25th, and was then ordered to Rogersville, Alabama, and stationed there to guard the passage of the Tennessee river at Lamb's ferry. While at this place the 78th made several excursions across the Tennessee, capturing a considerable amount of rebel property with several prisoners. June 18 the regiment was relieved from duty at Rogersville and ordered to guard the Tennessee & Alabama railroad, from Columbia to Elk river, with headquarters at Columbia. On August 31 the regiment was again assembled at Columbia, and on September 1 commenced the march northward to Nashville, constituting a portion of the rear guard of Gen. Buell's army, then on the race to Kentucky with the rebel army of Bragg, either moving on a line parallel to that of the other. September 2 the regiment encamped five miles south of Nashville, at "Camp Lucinda," and on September 10 the regiment moved into Nashville, and became a part of the force which garrisoned that city during the siege occasioned by the movement of the body of the army into Kentucky. During this siege the 78th was assigned to the 7th brigade, composed of the 78th Pa. Inf., the 21st Ohio Inf., the 74th Ohio Inf. and the 37th Ind. Inf., the brigade being commanded by Col. John F. Miller, of the 29th Ind. Inf. During the siege the 78th had many engagements with the enemy, at that time surrounding the city, and making strenuous efforts to capture it. In an engagement at Lavergne the 78th captured about one hundred prisoners, including two commissioned officers of the 32d Alabama, and 100 stand of arms. Also at Neeley's Bend, White's Creek, Charlotteville, Franklin Pike and other places, the 78th engaged the enemy, and always with success. These engagements were principally brought on by the movement of the troops against the rebel forces around Nashville, or in the marches into the country for the supplies necessary to feed the starving garrison. While besieged in this city affairs wore a gloomy aspect. Shut out from the world; no news from the main army or home for months; surrounded by an enemy vindictively resolved to capture the capital of the state, with Andrew Johnson, who was then in Nashville, and the military governor of the state. Although compelled to fight for every mouthful of food, no one was discouraged, but all seemed determined to stand by the city, and with full faith that all would be well the city was successfully defended, and early in November the banners of the old army of the Cumberland were seen entering the groves of Edgefield, and on the following day the army, now under the command of Gen. Rosecrans, entered the city and the siege was raised. The 78th regiment remained in the city doing provost-guard duty until December 12, 1862, when it moved with the army to " Camp Hamilton," six miles south of Nashville, on the Franklin pike. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. The 7th Brigade was then assigned to the 8th Division, center, the division being commanded of Brig. Gen. James S. Negley, and the center by Maj. Gen. George H. Thomas. The regiment remained here until December 26, 1862, when the memorable campaign commenced which ended in the bloody battle and victory of Stone River. In this battle the 78th regiment led the charge across Stone river to the elevated ground beyond-the key to the battle-field, and from which the Union artillery enfiladed the lines and entrenchments of the enemy-and drove them from the field. During the entire engagement the 78th bore itself honorably and gallantly, and was, in consequence, accorded the honor of first entering Murfreesboro and hoisted the Stars and Stripes over the dome of the Rutherford court-house, on January 5, 1863. During this battle and campaign the 78th lost 190 men in killed and wounded. Among the killed were Lieut. Halsted, of Company K. Capt. Jack, of Company H, was mortally wounded, and soon afterward died of his wounds in the hospital at Nashville. Lieut. J. H. Anchors, of Company E, was also wounded and lamed for life. From January 5 to April 20, 1863, the 78th had charge of and did provost-guard duty at Murfreesboro, around which town the victorious Army of the Cumberland was encamped. While the army lay at Murfreesboro Gen. James A. Garfield joined it as chief-of-staff, and the organization was changed from "center,"" right" and " left," to three corps, the 14th, commanded by Gen. George H. Thomas; the 20th, commanded by Maj. Gen. Alex. McD. McCook; and the 21st, commanded by Maj. Gen. Thomas L. Crittenden. The 78th was assigned to the 3d brigade, consisting of the 78th Pa. Inf., the 21st Ohio Inf., the 74th Ohio Inf. and the 37th Ind. Inf., under command of Col. John F. Miller, of the 29th Ind. Inf., and to the 2d division, commanded by Maj. Gen. Negley, and to the 14th corps, commanded by Maj. Gen. Thomas. On April 20 the 78th was relieved from provost-guard duty, and took position with its brigade in camp, and went vigorously to work to prepare for the summer campaign. On June 19, 1863, Col. John F. Miller was relieved from the command of the brigade and assigned to duty elsewhere, when the command of the brigade devolved on Col. William Sirwell, and the command of the 78th regiment on Lieut.-Col. Archibald Blakeley. On June 24, 1863, the summer campaign of the Army of the Cumberland commenced by the movement south against the intrenched position of the rebel army under Gen. Bragg, at Tullahoma. The 78th participated in many of the engagements of the campaign without any considerable loss, and July 8, 1863, sat down in camp with the balance of the corps at Decherd, Tennessee, the position of the enemy at Tullahoma having been turned and the rebel army driven across the Cumberland mountains and the Tennessee river. The time from July 8 to August 16, was spent in general field and camp duty, and organizing and drilling for the fall campaign against Chattanooga, the chosen position of-the enemy, which began August 15, by the movement of the whole Army of the Cumberland. The 78th regiment followed mostly the line of the Nashville and the Chattanooga railroad, rising out of the elevated plateau which forms the eastern portion of Middle Tennessee, crossing one of the loftiest ranges of the Cumberland mountains, then descending into and down the valley of the Crow creek and on to Cave spring, near Stevenson, Alabama, where it halted and rested a few days, then across the Tennessee river on the beautiful moonlight night of September 7, 1863, andup the south side valley of the Tennessee to a point opposite Bridgeport, then outward to the south and east from the valley until the Sand Mountain range was reached, then upward and across its lofty heights, and when the power of the horse and the mule failed to haul up the artillery and the provisions, the strong arms of these hardy sons of Pennsylvania supplied the needed strength. The top of these heights was gained, and in passing over to the eastern slope a mountain gorge was encountered, one hundred feet wide and fifty feet deep, impassable, and the whole army was stopped. Company C, of the 78th, under command of Lieut. David R. Brinker, was immediately thrown forward and to work, and by morning the gallant company constructed across this chasm a bridge over which the whole army of Gen. Rosecrans crossed. Descending the eastern slope of the Sand mountain, they came to Lookout valley, Dade county, Georgia. On Lookout creek there was a mill, and Col. Blakeley was ordered to take charge of it with his regiment, and to gather surplus grain in the valley, griud it, and turn the flour and meal over to the passing army. To this work the 78th assiduously devoted itself, gathering in also large supplies of beef cattle until the army had passed, when it marched up the valley to Johnston's crook, where it again became the pioneer regiment in crossing the Lookout Mountain range, on September 9, and down the eastern slope to McLemons' cove, in the valley of the Chickamauga. It yet being in the advance, set out for Lafayette, Georgia, on the 10th, and at REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. Dug Gap was met by the enemy in force, and the division of Negley was surrounded by overpowering numbers. The position, however, was skillfully and heroically maintained until the arrival of other forces enabled the division to retreat to the base of Lookout Mountain, on the evening and night of September 11, 1863. In this engagement, at Dug Gap, sixtyeight men of the 78th, under command of Lieut. Brinker of C company, and Lieut. Anchors of E company, held in check for over two hours a heavy massed force of the enemy, in which engagement the 78th lost but four men killed and wounded. From the night of the 11 th to the 17th the regiment lay at the base of Lookout range of mountains waiting for the corps of McCook to recross the mountain at Valley Head and to join the corps of Gen. Thomas. On September 17 it marched six miles in the direction of Chattanooga, where it bivouacked until 4 o'clock on the morning of the 18th, when it marched four miles eastwardly, where it halted and lay on its arms in an open field until 11 o'clock at night, when a staff officer from Gen. Thomas came to Col. Blakeley, and, pointing out a star, said he assumed it to be directly west, and ordered that the regiment be moved one mile and a half in the direction of the star, then faced and deployed south, and moved on a line to the south until the Chickamauga river was reached, where it was assumed there was a fording, and that if the fording was not struck as the river was reached, it was to be found and held against the enemy, who it was feared would break through that night to strike the corps of McCook in flank as it was passing to position in the impending battle. Although the night was pitch dark, with scarce a star to be seen, except the one to which the march was directed, the 78th executed the movement, the distance from the point at the change of direction being quite as long as the movement before the change, and the fording was struck by a company next to a flank company, and the ford was held until the corps of McCook had passed. This movement, executed through an almost impenetrable jungle, the night being quite cold and dark, was highly commended by Gen. Thomas, being, as he said, a severe test of its well-known bravery through drill and discipline. On the morning of the 19th the men were nearly frozen, and the heavy firing on the left indicated that the enemy was heading for Chattanooga. In the afternoon the 78th was withdrawn from the river and moved in the direction of Crawfish Springs, and went into line against the enemy, and after a severe skirmish held the position assigned it, on the left of the 21st Ohio Inf., that being the only force within view on the right or left. During the night of the 19th the line was per fected and filled with troops, and a substantial breastwork was thrown up by the men of the 78th, and the morning of the 20th found them in splen did condition and ready for action. On that morn ing the general engagement was resumed, and a terrific battle raged till nightfall. The position of the 78th and Negley's division on the night of the 19th and morning of the 20th was far to the right of the battle front of Thomas' corps, to which Negley's division be longed. In the forenoon of the 20th Negley's division, including the 78th, was withdrawn by order of Gen. Rosecrans from the position it had occupied to that time, and moved to the left by the rear of the general battle line to reinforce the flank of Thomas' corps. The division of Gen. Wood was to have taken the place in line vacated by Negley, but owing to a misunderstanding of orders the movements were not simultaneous, and after Negley left and before Wood got in the enemy broke through at this point, and cut off and drove back all the troops on our right, being the larger portions of the corps of McCook and Crittenden, including the command ers of these corps and the commanding general of the army. Thomas, however, maintained his posi tion and his fight, and Negley's division, being caught en passant in flank and rear, was fearfully shattered. The brigade, of which the 78th consti tuted a part, was weakened by the withdrawal of the 74th Ohio Inf. to another portion of the field, but the remaining three regiments, under the skill ful supervision of its commander, Col. Sirwell, re mained for a time intact, and were brought into line at what was supposed to be the right of the line of Gen. Thomas, and in front of the Chicago Board of Trade Battery. The 78th regiment was finally left alone, but was very strong and occupied a commanding position, possibly seeming to the enemy much stronger than it really was. While occupying this position Maj. Bonnaffan approached Col. Blakeley and asked what he was going to do; the answer was, " Hold our line till we die unless ordered back." Bonnaffan's characteristic reply was, "Then we'll all go to hell, for there is no pne within reach to order us back." Maj. Bonnaffan never counted on anybody going to heaven. The enemy threw out skirmishers and advanced with great caution, and about the time the 78th commenced to engage him a staff officer appeared with an order to retreat, delivering the order in HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. haste and leaving. The movement was made to the rear with as much precision and cool purpose as if on drill, Maj. Bonnaffan commanding the skirmishers to cover the retreat. A long distance was traveled, with no troops in view excepting the pressing and exultant rebel army, which numbered at least 10,000, following in the wake of this handful of the sturdy sons of Armstrong and surrounding counties. After marching at least a mile the regiment passed into a gorge or ravine covered with timber, and here it passed from the view of the enemy and was met by Gen. Negley, who ordered Col. Blakeley to form and defend the passage of this gorge. The formation being perfected, the enemy was pressing on all sides, and Bonnaffan was laughing at the chance of a fight. At this juncture a staff officer from the staff of Gen. Thomas rode down the wooded hill from the direction of Chattanooga and asked Col. Blakeley what he was doing here, to which he replied stating his orders. The staff officer said that the regiment was then at least a mile outside of the new battle-line established by Gen. Thomas, that he was hunting a place to get in, and gave as a command from Gen. Thomas the direction of a line of march, which might lead in a mile and a half to the Dry Valley Road. The march was renewed and continued in the same calm, measured step, and just before reaching the Dry Valley Road Gen. Negley was met, who immediately ordered the regiment, the only one of his division left to him, to guard the trains and artillery from the defeated portion of the army, which were then engaged in a pell-mell contest down the Dry Valley Road to Chattanooga, the enemy in hot pursuit. The 78th was thrown between the trains and the enemy, and the pursuers kept at bay until the trains had all passed out of immediate danger. The regiment was then placed at the junction of the roads near Rossville gap to intercept the retreating troops, for the purpose of reorganization of the broken army. Gen. Thomas having held the main body of the rebel army in check till after dark, a new line was established in his rear, and the whole army formed upon it during that night, and it was successfully maintained during the following day, and on the night of the 21st the army fell back upon Chattanooga, and on the morning of the 22d a battle line was formed. This whole day was spent in great anxiety, and momentary expectation of an attack that would drive the Federal troops into the Tennessee river. During this trying day and the previous night, the command of the brigade having fallen upon Col. Archibald Blakeley, the command of the regiment devolved upon Maj. A. B. Bonnaffan. For several days the men of the 78th worked day and night on the fortifications until their lives were nearly worked out of them. On October 10 Gen. Negley's farewell to his division was received, and on October 12 the 78th regiment was assigned to the 3d brigade, 1st division. On October 20 Gen. Rosecrans left, having been relieved from the command of the Army of the Cumberland, and on October 23 Gen. Grant arrived and assumed command. November 17, 1863, the resignation of Col. William Sirwell was accepted, and the command of the brigade was assigned to Gen. Starkweather. From October 22 till November 23 Chattanooga and the Army of the Cumberland was closely besieged. The rebels occupied all the prominent positions around Chattanooga, and day and night were plunging their shot and shell into the Union camp from their batteries on Lookout Mountain, Missionary Ridge and Orchard Knob. At times our troops were in a state of starvation. While the army lay at Chattanooga it was reorganized into two corps, the 4th and the 14th. The 3d brigade, composed of the 78th regt. Pa. Inf., the 79th regt. Pa. Inf., the 21st regt. Ohio Inf., the 74th regt. Ohio Inf., the 1st regt. Wis. Inf., the 21st regt. Wis. Inf., the 37th regt. Ind. Inf. and the 24th regt. Ill. Inf., was assigned to the 1st divison, 14th corps. The division at its first organization was commanded by Gen. Lovell H. Rousseau, but was soon thereafter assigned to Gen. Richard W. Johnson. The corps was commanded by Maj. Gen. John M. Palmer. After participating in the battles around Chattanooga, Lookout Mountain and Missionary Ridge. on November 23, 24 and 25, 1863, the 3d brigade, including the 78th, was ordered to make a reconnaissance, and on November 29 ascended Lookout Mountain by the Summertown Road, and made a careful reconnaissance of the mountain as far south as Johnston's Crook, and returned to Summertown, near the point, on December 2. The 78th and the 21st Wis. Inf., for good conduct during the actions and reconnaissance, were assigned to duty on the mountain, and placed under command of Col. Blakeley, of the 78th Pa. These two regiments remained on the mountain until May 2, 1864. The position was dangerous, the duties onerous, and the privations great. The encampment of these troops was near the north point of the mountain, far above the surrounding country and the camps of the Union army. The mountain running southwardly into the rebel lines near Rome, Georgia, gave the enemy a REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. perfectly safe route along its top to attack the troops on the point, as the lofty palisades of the mountain would protect both flanks; and in case of an attack, reinforcements from Chattanooga could not be expected in less than two hours. Col. Blakeley immediately surveyed and laid out a line of earthworks across the mountains, and the men, though wearied and starving, went vigorously to work and soon completed the line, which rendered the position comparatively defensible. Supplies had to be hauled up the mountain from Chattanooga by mules scarcely able to walk. Notwithstanding the scarcity of provisions, and the heavy details for picket and fatigue duty, the men of the 78th bore up cheerfully and performed every duty with alacrity. The situation of the regiment on this historic mountain made it the cynosure of all eyes. To its camp officers and soldiers from all parts of the army, and citizens from all parts of the country, came and looked out upon the hills and valleys of seven states. The dark banks of the Chickamauga, where but a few weeks before the Union army had struggled in vain for victory; the battle-ground of Wauhatchie, where young Geary fell, and over whose corpse the heroic father fought and won, in the darkness of midnight, one of the most brilliant victories of the war; Missionary Ridge, up which the combined armies of Grant charged and conquered the hosts of Bragg and Longstreet, were all in distinct view, while at its feet they looked down upon the giddy heights where Hooker fought above the clouds. On April 8, 1864, Col. Blakeley resigned, and the command of the regiment devolved on Col. Sirwell, who had been recommissioned and was now remustered. On May 8 the regiment left its camp on the mountain and rejoined the brigade at Graysville, Georgia, and participated in the engagements fought by Gen. Sherman with the enemy at Tunnel Hill, Buzzard Roost, Resaca, Dallas, New Hope Church and Kenesaw Mountain. While at the last mentioned place, on June 21, 1864, the regiment was ordered to Chattanooga for the purpose of guarding trains from there to the front, and it was thus engaged until September 22, when it was ordered to Tullahoma, Tennessee, and assigned to the 4th division of the 20th corps. On September 24, when on the eve of moving to Tullahoma, the order was countermanded and the regiment ordered to Athens, Alabama. On its way to Athens on the evening of the 25th, at Decatur, Alabama, an order was received to report at once to Maj.-Gen. Rousseau, at Nashville. Arriving at Nashville on the 26th it was immediately ordered to Pulaski, Tennessee, at which place it arrived at noon of the 27th, and participated in an action which defeated the enemy then threatening that post. September 29 the regiment was transported by rail from Pulaski to Nashville, and on reporting at Nashville it was immediately ordered to Tullahoma, Tennessee, which place was menaced by the enemy; arrived at Tullahoma on the night of the 29th and remained there until October 1, when it was transported by rail to Nashville, and on arriving at Nashville on the evening of the 1st, it was immediately ordered to Franklin, Tennessee, which place it reached on the morning of the 2d. On the 3d the regiment was mounted, and constituted a part of the force under Gen. Rousseau, then moving against the rebel cavalry which had been harassing the southern part of middle Tennessee. The enemy was driven across the Tennessee river and the regiment returned to Nashville on October 17, six days after its term of service had expired. On October 18, 1864, the regiment received orders from Maj.-Gen. Thomas, relieving it from duty in the department of the Army of the Cumberland, and ordering it to Pennsylvania for muster out. It embarked on the steamer Caroline, on the night of the 18th, and by the Cumberland and Ohio rivers proceeded to Pittsburgh, where it arrived on the afternoon of the 29th, and on the same evening reached Kittanning, in Armstrong county, Pennsylvania, the place of its organization over three years before. The regiment was mustered out of the service at Kittanning, November 4, by Lieut. Ward, of the U. S. A., and was paid on the following day, when the "old 78th" was disbanded, aud the toils, privations, sufferings and dangers of a three years' campaign were forgotten amid the congratulations, kind greetings and hearty welcomes which the good citizens of Western Pennsylvania showered on these bronzed veterans. The members of the regiment who had reenlisted and thereby became "veteran volunteers," and the recruits of the regiment whose terms of service had not expired, were left at Nashville, Tennessee, under command of Lieut. Torbett, of Company F, and Lieut. Smith, of Company K. To these the governor of Pennsylvania assigned a sufficient number of new recruits to make a minimum regiment, and designated as the 78th regiment, and it was popularly known as the "new 78th." Augustus B. Bonnaffan, who had been major and lieutenant-colonel of the "old 78th," was comHISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. missioned colonel of the "new 78th," with Lieut. H. W. Torbett as lieutenant-colonel, and Lieut. R. M. Smith as major. The regiment thus reorganized remained on duty at Nashville until September 11, 1865, when it was also honorably discharged from the service, in consequence of the closing of the war. The flag of the "old 78th" regiment was returned to the governor of the state, with the names of its battles inscribed upon it as authorized by the orders of the commanding generals of the armies under whom the battles were fought. In concluding this sketch it is deemed proper to say that no regiment from the state reflected more honor on the national arms than this one organized here in the county of Armstrong. This was largely due to the personnel of the regiment. In the main its officers and men were educated, intelligent, patriotic and brave. The manifold duties and obligations resting upon the soldier were cheerfully, intelligently and nobly executed. Where all did so well it would be useless to attempt to name one and not another. To mention the humane, generous, brave, heroic deeds of each member of this regiment during its term of service, would be impossible. Yet there is one of the number who by common consent stands out so conspicuously in all the ennobling elements of manhood, in all the grand qualities of a brave soldier and successful military commander that we know it to be the expression of every heart, living or dead, of those who served in the Seventy-Eighth regiment, to now write upon the pages of the history of Armstrong county, his name, the name of Colonel William Sirwell. He organized the regiment, he commanded it, he encamped with it, he marched with it, he bivouacked with it, he fought with it, he was with it in defeat, he was with it in victory, he went away with it, he came home with it, he loved it, he loves it yet. And its each annual reunion shows the old soldier hearts warming to his with a love strong and bright at first, but growing stronger and brighter as the years run apace-a better monument to William Sirwell than empty promotions, or the tallest shaft of purest marble. FIELD AND STAFF. Colonel William Sirwell, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; res. Nov. 17, 1863; re commissioned March 9, 1864; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Colonel August B. Bonnaffon, m. i. s. Sept. 17, 1861; pro. from Major to Lt. Col. July 25, 1864; to Col. March 26,1865; dis. Dec. 14,1863. Colonel David Barclay, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; res. Oct. 17, 1861. Lieutenant Colonel Archibald Blakeley, m. i. s. Sept. 17, 1861; res. April 8,1864. Lieutenant Colonel Henry W. Torbett, m.i. s. Sept. 10,1861; Iro. from Capt. Co. A March 26, 1865; m. o. with reg.* *This regiment was mustered out September 11, 1865. Where the date of muster out does not follow the name, the reader will take for granted that it was as here given. Major Robert M. Smith, m.i.s. Sept. 11, 1861; pro. from Capt. Co. B March 15, 1865. Adjutant Joseph W. Powell, m. i. s. Oct. 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Adjutant Abram W. Smith, m. i. s. April 29, 1865; absent with leave at m. o. Quartermaster Adam Lowry, m. i. s. Oct. 18, 1861; died at Chatta nooga, Tenn., Sept. 28,1863. Quartermaster Thomas G. Blakeley, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. from Hos. Steward Nov. 1, 1863; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Quartermaster William B. McCue, m. i. s. Feb. 29, 1864; pro. from 1st Lt. Co. A Dec. 4, 1864; m. o. with reg. Surgeon John I. Marks, m. i. s. Oct. 15, 1861; res. Aug. 30, 1862. Surgeon John McGrath, m. i. s. April 14, 1862; res. June 23, 1863. Surgeon Jos. B. Downey, m. i. s. Aug. 2, 1862; pro. from Ass't Surg. 77th reg. May 31, 1863; res. April, 1864. Surgeon William D. Bailey, m. i. s. March 14, 1863; pro. from Ass't Surg. July 26,1864; dis. Nov. 4,1864. Surgeon John T. Walton, m. i. s. June 19, 1865; m. o. with reg. Assistant Surgeon William M. Knox, m. i. s. Oct. 15, 1861; acciden tally killed at Louisville, Ky., April 27, 1862. Assistant Surgeon Elijah W. Ross, m. i. s. May 16, 1862; res. Jan. 13, 1863. Assistant Surgeon Victor D. Miller, m. i. s. Aug. 1, 1862; res. March 9, 1863. Assistant Surgeon W. P. McCullough, m. i. s. April 11, 1863; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Assistant Surgeon Oliver P. Bollinger, m. i. s. April 3, 1865; res. June 22, 1865. Assistant Surgeon Florilla B. Morris, m. i. s. April 18, 1865; res. July 1, 1865. Assistant Surgeon Thomas P. Tomlinson, m. i. s. July 24, 1865; died Sept. 7, 1865. Chaplain Richard C. Christy, m. i. s. Oct. 18, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Sergeant Major Henry A. Miller, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. from Sergt. Co. H Feb. 18, 1863; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Sergeant Major Franklin Mechling, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to 2d Lt. Co. B Dec. 26, 1862. Sergeant Major Samuel Edwards, m. i. s. Feb. 16, 1865; pro. from Sergt. Co. I July 1, 1865; m. o. with reg. Sergeant Major Samuel M. Dumm, min. i. s. Sept. 13,1862; pro. from 1st Sergt. Co. B May 1, 1865; dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865. Quartermaster Sergeant Lewis Martin, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. from private Co. E March 1, 1862; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Quartermaster George J. Reese, m. i. s. Feb. 1, 1864; pro. from Corp. Co. B April 1, 1865; m. o. with reg.; vet. Commissary Sergeant Joseph M. Lowry, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; pro. from private Co. D April 24, 1864; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Commissary Sergeant John N. McLeod, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans. as private to Co. G March 1, 1862. Commissary Sergeant William J. Williams, m. i. s. Oct. 1861; pro. from Q. M. Sergt. to Com. Sergt. May 1, 1862; to 2d Lt. Co. G April 24, 1864. Commissary Sergeant Peter Keck, m. i. s. Feb. 8,1864; pro. from Sergt. Co. B Aug. 27, 1865; m. o. with reg.; vet. Commissary Sergeant John Miller, m. i. s. Sept. 20, 1862; pro. from Corp. Co. A May 1, 1865; dis. by G. 0. June 19,1865. P1. Musician Benjamin T. Dean, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. from pri vate Co. H Feb. 1, 1864; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. P1. Musician Gus. Wickenhacker, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. from pri vate Co. K March 17, 1864; dis. Nov. 4,1864. P1. Musician William H. Jack, m. i. s. Oct. 18, 1861; dis. Feb. 22, 1863. PI. Musician Henry Dresher, m. i. s. - 15,1865; pro. from private Co. E Sept. 1, 1865; m. o. with reg. P1. Musician A. G. Nixon, m. i. s. Feb. 21, 1865; pro. from private Co. E Sept. 1, 1865; m. o. with reg. Hospital Steward A. M. Barnaby, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. from pri vate Co. E Nov. 1863; m. o. Nov. 4, 1864. Hospital Steward William A. Coulter, m. i. s. March 9,1865; pro. from private Co. B May 1, 1865; absent on furlough at m. o. Wagon Master James Morrison, pro. to Wagon Master 2d Div., 14th Army Corps. COMPANY A. [Except where otherwise specified, the men whose names appear in the roster of this company were mustered into the service Oct. 12, 1861, and mustered out with the company Sept. 11, 1865.] OFFICERS. Corporal Lorenzo D. Bigelow, pro. to Corp. Oct., 1862; dis. Oct. 12, 1864; exp. of term. Musician Dennis Golden, m. i. s. March i, 1862; dis. at exp. of term. REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. PRIVATES. Bryan, Nathaniel S., dis. Nov. 4, 1864; exp. of term. Beltz, Andrew J., dis. Nov. 4, 1864; exp. of term. Beyers, Daniel, dis. Nov. 4, 1864; exp. of term. Currie, George F., dis. Nov. 4, 1864; exp. of term. Cochran, William, died March 20, 1863, of wounds received at Stone River, Tenn. Doverspike, Daniel, mn. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; dis. by G. O. May 27, 1865. Graham, William W., dis. Nov. 4, 1864; exp. of term. Gibson, William K., dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Guthrie, James D., m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865. Guthrie, James A., died at Stone River, Tenn., Jan. 23, 1863. -Graden, James M., died at Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 1, 1862. Harmon, Philip, prisoner from Sept. 20, 1863, to Dec. 10, 1864; dis. March 15, 1865. Jewart, Robert, dis. Nov. 4, 1864; exp. of term. Lawson, Wesley, trans. to Signal Corps Oct. 22, 1863. Moore, Martin, dis. Nov. 4, 1864; exp. of term. McElroy, David W., wounded at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862; dis. Nov. 2, 1864; exp. of term. McFarland, William T., dis. Nov. 4, 1864; exp. of term. McLean, James D., dis. Nov. 4, 1864; exp. of term. Neal, Albert J., died at Nashville, Tenn., April 13, 1863. Rarah, Daniel B., dis. Nov. 4, 1864; exp. of term. Rarah, James W., dis. Nov. 4, 1864; exp. of term. Rapp, Nathaniel, wounded at Stone River, Tenn., Jan. 2, 1863; dis. Nov. 4, 1864; exp. of term. Shetler, John, dis. Nov. 4, 1864; exp. of term. Simpson, Henry M., dis. Nov. 4, 1864; exp. of term. Schrecenghost, C., mn. i. s. Feb. 27, 1864; mn. o. with company; vet. Turney, Peter, m. i. s. April 9, 1864; m. o. with company; vet. Unsbaugh, John, dis. Nov. 4, 1864. COMPANY B. OFFICERS. Captain James S. Hillberry, m. i. s. Aug. 14, 1861; res. Dec. 25, 1862. Captain Martin McCanna, m. i. s. Aug. 14, 1861; pro. from 1st Lt. Dec. 26, 1862; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. 1st Lieutenant Samuel N. Lee, m. i. s. Aug. 14, 1861; pro. from 2d Lt. Dec. 26, 1862; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. 1st Lieutenant Wm. H. H. Stepp, m. i. s. Sept. 11, 1861; pro. from 1st Sergt. to 2d Lt. March 15, 1865; to 1st Lt. Aug. 7, 1865; m. o. with Co. Sept. 11, 1865: vet. 2d Lieutenant Franklin Mechling, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. from Sergt. Major Dec. 26, 1862; dis. Nov. 4. 1st Sergeant James B. Fleming, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; pro. from Sergt. Aug. 29, 1862; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. 1st Sergeant Samuel M. Dumm, m. i. s. Sept. 13, 1862; pro. from Corp. to Sergt. Dec. 1, 1864; to 1st Sergt. March 15,1865; to Sergt. Major May 1, 1865. Sergeant Davis K. Thompson, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. from Corp. April 30, 1862; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Sergeant Franklin Croll, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. Oct. 31, 1861; to Sergt. July 1, 1863; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Sergeant Elijah C. T. Glenn, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. June 30, 1862; to Sergt. Jan. 12, 1864; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Sergeant James B. McNobb, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. by order War Dept. Aug. 26, 1862. Sergeant John M. Fleming, m. i. s. July 20, 1863; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Sergeant George A. Watson, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; died at Camp Wood, Ky., June 27, 1862. Sergeant Patrick Sharrer, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Putneyville, Pa., July 1, 1864. Sergeant Archibald D. Glenn, m. i. s. Aug. 14, 1861; as Sergt. dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 16, 1863. Corporal S. A. McClelland, m. i. s. Sept. 11, 1861: absent at m. o.; vet. Corporal Jos. C. Himes, m. i. s. May 17, 1863; mn. o. with Co.* Corporal Samuel Painter, mn. i. s. Sept. 11, 1861; m. o. with Co.; vet. Corporal Alfred Maitland, mn. i. s. Sept. 29, 1861; m. o. with Co.; vet. Corporal Jacob Thomas, m. i. s. March 9, 1864; m. o. with Co. Corporal Robert M. Allen, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. June 30, 1862; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Corporal Daniel H. Barnett, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. June 26, 1863; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Corporal James Moorehead, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. Dec. 11, 1863; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. * This company was mustered out September 11, 1865. Corporal Archibald Allen, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. Jan. 26, 1863; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Corporal William McCanna, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Jan. 28, 1862. Corporal James S. Croft, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certifi cate Feb. 16, 1863. Corporal John B. Adams, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certi ficate April 20, 1863. Corporal John H. Schick, m. i. s. Aug. 28, 1862; dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865. Corporal James Curren, m. i. s. March 4, 1862; dis. March 13, 1865. Corporal William B. Irwin, m. i. s. Feb. 2, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct.18, 1864; vet. Corporal Jacob Slagle, m. i. s. Feb. 2, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864; vet. Corporal C. O. Hammond,m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Corporal William Matthews, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died Jan. 16,1863, of wounds received in action. Musician John Gates, m. 1. s. Oct. 22, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Musician Dennis Golden, mn. i. s. March 1, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. PRIVATES. Alcorn, Jesse, m. i. s. Oct. 13, 1861; dis. Nov. 4,1864. Adams, Thomas B., mn. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 12, 1863. Allen, Charles, m. i. s. Aug. 1, 1862; trans. to Co. A, Oct. 18,1864. Adams, George, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Camp Negley, Ky., Dec. 8, 1861. Bowser, William, m. i. s. Sept. 11, 1861; m. o. with Co. Bell, William, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4,1864. Bayne, John, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4,1864. Burket, Henry, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Brink, Andrew, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Black, Joseph, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1764. Birdet, James, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate June 30, 1862. Bayle, Patrick, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans. to 15th reg. U. S. A. Bowser, Matthias A., m. i. s. March 4,1862; dis. March 13, 1865. Black, John A., m. i. s. Feb. 26, 1862: dis. Feb. 25, 1865. Bumbaugh, Frederick, m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1863; trans. to Co. C, Oct. 18, 1864. Beed, Peter, m. i. s. Aug. 14, 1861; trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps, June 27, 1863. Black, Samuel C., m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861: died at Mumfordsville, Ky., Feb. 22, 1862. Bnrket, John, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Louisville, Ky., March 15, 1862; buried in Nat. Cem. sec. A, range 18, grave 5. Branthover, Daniel, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Louisville, Ky., March 16, 1862; buried in Nat. Cem., sec. A, range 21, grave 19. Bier, George, mn. i, s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Chattanooga, Tenn., Nov. 16, 1863; grave 233. Beck, Joseph, m. i. s. Jan. 14, 1865. Burket, Peter, m. i. s. Sept. 30, 1864; not on m. o. roll. Clark, David, m. i. s. Sept. 11, 1861; m. o. with Co.; vet. Copenhauer, John, m. i. s. Feb. 2, 1864; died at Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 8, 1865; vet. Copenhauer, John J., m. i. s. Sept. 13, 1864; dis. by G. O. Aug. 5, 1865. Champion, Jas. A., m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1862; m. o. with Co. Couder, Andrew J., m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Collins, Barnard, m. i. s. Aug. 14, 1861. Coussins, John A., m. i. s. Aug. 28, 1862: dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865. Cherry, John, m. i. s. March 3, 1864; trans. to Co. A, Oct. 18, 1864. Doverspike, George, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Downry, James, m. i. s. Dec. 25,1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate, Aug. 18, 1862. Dinsmore, Thos. J., m. i. s. April 1. 1862; dis. March 31, 1865. Doverspike, Daniel, m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; trans. to Co. A, Oct. 18, 1864. Dibler, Elias, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; missing in action at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31,1862. Ellenberger, Levi, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Eastley. Raymond, m. i. s. Aug. 12, 1864; dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865. Ferry, Patrick S., m. i. s. Sept. 15, 1863; absent, sick, at m. o. Fiscus, Abraham K., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4,1864. Fiscus, James A., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Fulton, Samuel T., m. i. s. Aug. 14, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate June 30, 1863. Frauntz, Jacob, m. i.,s. Aug. 24, 1863; trans. to Co. A, Oct. 18, 1864. Fowzer, Edward, m. i. s. Feb. 28,1864; trans. toCo. A, Oct.18, 1864. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Fetler, Henry, m. i. s. Oct.12, 1861; died at Jeffersonville, Ind., Aug. 3, 1864, of wounds received in action; buried in Nat. Cemn., sec. 1, grave 152. Gould, Henry, m. i. s. Sept. 29, 1861; absent, sick, at m. 0.; vet. Glenn, Abraham R., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Gamble, Robert, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Graham, Samuel, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Glenn, Archibald D., m. i. s. Aug. 14, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 16, 1863. Gray, Wm. H., m. i. s., Sept. 5, 1862; dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865. George, John, m. i. s. Sept. 18, 1862; dis. by G. 0. June 19, 1865. Guthrie, James D., m. i. s. Aug. 25, trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Gamble, Wm., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Marietta, Ga., Sept. 15, 1864, of wounds received accidentally. Gilchrist, John E., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Field Hospital, Ga., June 4, 1864, of wounds received in action. Hendricks, Elias, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861: dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Himes Matthew, m.i. s. Oct. 12,1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Himes, Joseph, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Hetrick, Adam, m. i. s. Aug. 8, 1862; dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865. Hughes, William, m. i. s. Feb. 2, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864; vet. Himes, Solomon, m. i. s. Aug. 25,1865; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18,1864; vet. Holbin, Jacob, m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864; vet. Hains, Solomon, m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18,1864; vet. Himes, Jacob, m. i. s. Aug. 14, 1861; trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps Aug. 1, 1863. Himes, Levi, m. i. s. Aug. 28, 1862; trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps April 13, 1865; dis. by G. O. June 30,1865. Himes, Israel, m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; died July 4, 1864, of wounds re ceived in action. Hindman, MeClelland, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Nashville, Tenn., July 29, 1864, of wounds received in action. Henshaw, Eli H., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Nashville, Tenn., Oct. 16, 1862. Holben, Solomon, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Louisville, Ky., March 21, 1862. Henry, Ebenezer, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; died at Louisville, Ky., Feb. 20, 1862; buried in National cem., sec. A. range 13, grave 3. Klingensmith, F., m. i. s. Aug. 14, 1861; trans. to 4th reg. U. S. Cay. King, Francis M., m. i. s. Aug. 5, 1862; dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865. Kilgore, John, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Camp Wood, Ky., Dec. 28, 1861. Long, Solomon, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Leck, Adam, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Lewis, Robert, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; died at Murfreesboro, Tenn., Jan. 17, 1863, of wounds received in action; buried at Stone River, grave 307. Myers, David R. P., m. i. s. Sept. 29, 1861; m. o. with Co.; vet. Moorhead, Franklin, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Miller, Henry, m. i. s. Aug. 28,1862; dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865. Matthias, David, m. i. s. Feb. 2, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18,1864; vet. Milligan, John P., m. i. s. Dec. 25, 1861; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Matthews, John W., m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Michael, John, m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; died at Murfreesboro, Tenn., March 21, 1863; buried at Stone River, grave 70. Martin, George, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; killed at New Hope Church, Ga., May 27, 1864. McDonald, Wesley, min. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. McGarvey, Edward, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. McCanna, Barnabas, m. i. s. Jan. 19, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. McKilvey, William, min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Lookout Mountain, Tenn., March 30, 1864. MeCollum, Henry, mn. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; killed at New Hope Church May 31, 1864. MeCurdy, James W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Kingston, Ga., June 4, 1864, of wounds received in action. McCormick, Robt., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 14, 1865. McCollum, Robt. J., m. i. s. Feb. 22,1865; dis. by G. O. June 13, 1865. Nolf, James O., m. i. s. Aug. 28,1863; dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865. Nolf, Simon, m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Neville, John B., m. i. s. Aug. 14, 1861; trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps Aug. 1, 1863. O'Harra, Win., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Procius, Adam, mn. i. s. March 4, 1864; m. o. with Co. Pigley, Jos. H., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Patrick, Wash'n C., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Reed, Jos. L., m, i. s. March 31, 1864; m. o. with Co. Reese, Levi, m. i. s. March 8, 1865; m. o. with Co. Robinson, Sam'l B., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Rettinger, Elias, m.i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Rumberger, Peter J., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Rutter, John, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Reese, Edward M., m. i. s. Aug. 28, 1862; dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865. Rea, Lemuel S., m. i. s. Aug. 30, 1862; dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865. Roessler, Christian, mn. i. s. Feb. 2, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Rhoads, David C., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Louisville, Ky., March 16,1862. Silvis, Jeremiah, m. i. s. Sept. 29, 1861. Schick, Adam, m. i. s. Sept. 29, 1861. Schmidt, Carl, m. i. s. Sept. 16, 1861; m. o. with Co. vet. Sagaser, Henry S., m. i. s. Feb. 22, 1864; m. o. with Co. vet. Schick, Christian, m. i. s. Feb. 29, 1864; m. o. with Co. vet. Schick, Reuben M., m. i. s. Feb. 29, 1864; m. o. with Co. Schick, Wmin. F., m. i. s. March 9,1864; m. o. with Co. Shannon, Geo. B., m. i. s. March 29,1864; m. o. with Co. Smith, Geo. M., m. i. s. Jan. 23, 1864; m. o. with Co. Shannon, Oliver, m. i. s. Jan. 4, 1864; m. o. with Co. Sheen, Patrick, m. i. s. July 25, 1863; absent by sentence ofG. M. C. at m. o. Steele, Samuel R., m. i. s. Oct. 17, 1863; m. o. with Co. Sullivan, Mark, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Smith, Philip, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 864. Spencer, John J., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Shomo, Jos. E., m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Schick, Jos., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Scott, Win., m.i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4,1864. Slagle, Daniel, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Stuart, Archibald M., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Staley, Wmin. H. R., m. i. s. Aug. 14, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate; Sept. 6, 1862. Smeltzen, John, m. i. s. Aug. 14, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate; date unknown. Space, John, m. i. s. Aug. 14, 1861; trans. to 4th reg. U. S. cay. Smith, Levi H., m. i. s. Aug. 28, 1862; dis. by G. O. May 25, 1865. Smith, Andrew J., m. i. s. Sept. 21,1864; drafted; dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865. Snyder, Albert, m. i. s. Sept. 5, 1862; dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865. Shirley, John R., m. i. s. Feb. 28, 1864; dis. by G. O. May 27,1865. Sherman, John, m. i. s. Aug. 21, 1862; dis. by G. 0. June 19, 1865. Smith, Geo. D., min. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Smith, Samuel, m. i. s. Sept. 3,1863; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Shaffer, Adam, m. i. s. Aug. 25,1862; died at Field Hospital, Tenn., Jan. 9, 1863. Spencer, Hiram L., m. i. s. Feb. 17, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Shiffer, Geo. H., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Louisville, Ky., March 13, 1862; buried in Nat. Cem. sec. A, range 14, grave 23. Schick, John R., m. i. s. Aug. 21, 1861; died at Ringgold, Pa, June 23, 1865. Shay, John, m. i. s. -; died at Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 29, 1864. Walker, Enoch, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Wise, Wmin. H., m. i. s. Feb. 2, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Wheatcroft, G., m. i. s. Aug. 19, 1863; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Yount, David, m. i. s. Aug. 14, 1861; trans. to 4th reg. U. S. cay. Yount, Wmin., m. i. s. Aug. 14, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate April 27, 1863. Yarger, John, m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1863; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18,1864. Yockey, William, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Louisville, Ky., Jan. 12, 1862; buried in Nat. Cem. sec. A, range 6, grave 10. COMPANY C. OFFICERS. First Sergeant Andrew Brown, m. i. s. Sept. 29, 1861; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864; vet. Corporal Henry J. Gray, m. i. s. Sept. 16, 1861; dis. on surgeon's cer tificate Feb. 12, 1864. PRIVATES. Brinker, William, - Sept. 16, 1861; m. o. with company Nov. 4. 1864. Burket, Peter, m. i. s. Sept. 30, 1864; dis. on surgeon's certificate Aug. 5, 1865. Cramer, Martin V., m. i. s. Sept. 16, 1861; m. o. with company Nov. 4,1864. Dewire, John, m. i. s. Sept. 16, 1861; m. o. with company Nov. 4, 1864. Gould, Henry, m. i. s. Sept. 29, 1861; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864; vet. REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. Horn, John L., m. i. s. Sept. 21, 1864; not on m. o. roll. Myers, David R. P., m. i. s. Sept. 29, 1861; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864; vet. Maitland, Alfred, m. i. s. Sept. 29, 1861; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864; vet. Richards, George, m. i. s. Sept. 21,1864; dis. by G. O. May 30, 1865. Stokes, Simon, m. i. s. Sept. 16, 1861. dis. on surgeon's certificate May 13, 1863. Thomas, Jacob, m. i. s. Sept. 16, 1861; m. o. with company Nov. 4, 1864. Turner, G. W., m. i. s. Oct. 23, 1863; dis. by G. O. Oct. 13, 1864. Wiant, Frederick, m. i. s. Sept. 16, 1861; trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps Oct. 1, 1863. Wiant, Jacob, m. i. s. Sept. 16, 1861; killed at M'Lamore's Cove, Ga., Sept. 11, 1863. Young, John P., m. i. s. Aug. 28, 1862; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. COMPANY F. OFFICERS. Captain Charles B. Gillespie, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with com pany Nov. 4, 1864. First Lieutenant William B. McCoe, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; res. Nov. 29, 1862. First Lieutenant Henry W. Tobett, m. i. s. Sept. 10,1861; pro. from 2d Lt. to 1st Lt. Nov. 30, 1862, to Capt. Co. A Dec. 3, 1864. Second Lieutenant John D. Murphy, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. from 1st Serg. March 1, 1863; m. o. with company. First Sergeant George W. McGraw, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. from Serg. May 1, 1864; m. o. with company. Sergeant John Keifer, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Serg. May 1, 1864; m. o. with company. Sergeant William H. Huff, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. from Corp. Aug. 1, 1863; m. o. with company. Sergeant John Flanigan, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Sergeant A. R. Weaver, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's cer tificate April 7, 1864. Sergeant William B. McCue, m. i. s. Feb. 29, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct., 1864. Corporal John M. Alter, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861: m. o. with company. Corporal James M. Slusser, m.i.s. Oct. 12, 1861; wounded near Dallas, Ga., May 27, 1864; dis. Oct. 15, 1864. Corporal John L. Davidson, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. Dec. 21, 1861; m. o. with company. Corporal Samuel Borland, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Corporal William H. Sheffer, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with com pany. Corporal Daniel Huey, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. March 1, 1863; wounded near Dallas, Ga., May 27, 1864; m. o. with com pany. Corporal Chas. E. Shaw, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; pro. to Corp. Aug. 7, 1863; m. o. with company. Corporal Adam Ekas, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. Aug. 7, 1863; m. o. with company. Corporal Wm. W. Hughes, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Camp Wood, Ky., Jan. 20, 1862. Musician James S. K. Huff, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with company. Musician Jas. McCain, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's cer tificate June 23, 1863. PRIVATES. Adams, James, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; absent, sick, at m. o. Adams, Duncan, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861: m. o. with company. Alter, David, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; wounded at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862; m. o. with company. Ash, Michael, m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18,1864. Barr, John T., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Boyle, John, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Bowers, Lewis, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Boyle, Peter, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps Aug. 1,1863. Bradin, John, m. i. s. Sept. 15,1863; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Boyle, Michael, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; captured at Chickamauga, Ga., Sept. 20, 1863; dis. by G. O. May 23, 1865. Churchill, John W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Clawson, Albert H., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Clowes, John, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861;. o. with company. Conley, Geo. W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Critzer, Daniel, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 22, 1862. Cypher, James S., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 13, 1862. Casterlon, Elijah T., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 18, 1862. Conway, Dennis, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; killed at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862; buried in Nat. Cem., grave 87. Cypher, Reuben A., m. i. s. Feb 29, 1864; not on m. o. roll. Denny, James W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Dunn, John K., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Dujan, Dennis, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 23, 1863. Duff, Andrew J., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Chattanooga, Tenn., June 19, 1864; grave 230. Edwards, Philip, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Gibson, Elijah, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Gibson, Geo. W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Garrison, Robert R., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate June 3, 1862. Girt, Joseph, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; transferred to Veteran Reserve Corps April 10, 1864. Gable, Martin, m. i. s. March 31, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Griffith, Philip, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; killed at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862. Haws, Benj. F., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; wounded at New Hope Church, Ga., May 30, 1864; m. o. with company. Hardy, Frederick, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans. to 4th reg., U. S. Cay., Dec. 4, 1862. Haslett, Reuben A., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate June 2, 1863. Hellan, John, m. i. s. May 21,1863; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18,1864. Henry, James, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; died at Stone River, Tenn., March 9, 1863; Nat. Cem., grave 113. Hipman, Conrad, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Nashville, Tenn., May 1, 1863. Harris, Horatio, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; killed accidentally at Decherd, Tenn., April 4, 1863. Hagius, John, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Louisville, Ky., Dec. 18, 1861. Kistler, Andrew J., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Keibler, Joseph, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; wounded near Dallas, Ga., May 27,1864; m. o. with Co. Kipp, Abraham, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with Co. Keibler, Samuel, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate June 23, 1862. Kenniston, David, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; killed accidentally at Pulaski, Tenn., Aug. 9, 1862; Nat. Cem. Louisville, Ky., sec. A, range 4, grave 5. Lewis, Lewis, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans. to Veteran Reserve corps Aug. 1, 1863. Meredith, John, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Mitchell, Francis, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Mitchell, Robert, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Meyers, Francis, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Market, Valentine, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans. to 4th reg. U. S. Cav. Dec. 4, 1862. Miller, John, m. i. s. Sept. 20, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Messirk, Hiram, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; killed at Stone River Dec. 31, 1862. Morrow, John, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; prisoner from Sept. 20, 1863, to Nov. 20, 1864; dis. Feb. 6, 1865. McFadden, Hugh F., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. McCracken, Nathan, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m.. with Co. McCracken, Geo., m. i. s. Oct. 31, 1863; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18,1864. McGlaughlin, J. W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; wounded near Dallas, Ga., May 31, 1864; m. o. with Co. McDonald, Theo., m. i. s. Feb. 29, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. McGee, Patrick H., m. i.. Feb. 28, 1864. Needham, Jonathan, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; wounded at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862; m. o. with Co. O'Connor, Festus J.. m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans. to 4th reg. U. S. Cay. Dec. 4, 1862. Otterman, Charles, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Bowling Green, Ky., March 17,1862. Pennington, Jas., m. i. s. Feb. 2, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Pennman, James, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died Jan. 8, 1863, of wounds received at Stone River, Tenn., Nat. Cem., grave 171. Reed, Johnston, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Ross, John K., m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with Co. Rowley, Westey, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Roney, James M., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Reagan, James, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 31, 1862. Rappey, Thomas B., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Jan. 20, 1864. Rivers, John, m. i. s. Feb. 29, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Rofenacht, Emmel, m. i. s. Aug. 5, 1864; substitute-not on m. o. roll. Sheffer, Samuel, m. i. s. Oct. 12. 1861; m. o. with Co. Shearer, Daniel, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Sheldon, Samuel, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Sindorf, John, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Supplee, Peter, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; wounded at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862; min. 0. with Co. Street, William, min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Smith, William, m. i s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 13, 1862. Shoffer, Samuel, Sr., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Sept. 8,1862. Sproul, William I., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 19, 1863. Sarver, Benjamin, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans. to Veteran Reserve corps April 10, 1864. Sill, Conrad, m. i. s. March 31, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Stewart, Christopher, m. i. s. Aug. 6, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18,1864. Stivers, Abraham, m. i. s. Aug. 28, 1862; died at Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 25, 1863. Slusser, Samuel, m. i. s. Aug. 28, 1862; died Jan. 9, 1863, of wounds received at Stone River, Tenn. Sullivan, Michael, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died Jan. 13, 1863, of wounds received at Stone River, Tenn. Sossa, Lewis, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; killed at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862; buried in Nat. Cem, grave 65. Taylor, Geo. W., m. i. s. Oct 12, 1861; wounded at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862; m. o. with Co. Thomas, John B., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Trexford, John, m. i. s. Aug. 28, 1862; trans. to Co. A, Oct. 18, 1864. Uhl, Joseph A., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Weir, Alfred L., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Weir, Benjamin F., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; min. o. with Co. Wilson, James, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 27, 1862.. Walters, Coston, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Nashville, Tenn., March 28, 1862. Weaver, Henry S., m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; killed at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862. Walker, John B., m. i. s. Feb. 26, 1864; not on m. o. roll. Zerby, Daniel, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; killed at Hermitage Ford, Tenn., Oct. 20, 1862. COMPANY G. OFFICERS. Captain John Jordan, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; res. April 12, 1864. First Lieutenant Win. J. Galbraith, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans. to U. S. Signal Corps June 20, 1863. First Lieutenant Jacob R. McAfoos, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. from 2d Lt. Aug. 26, 1863; min. o. with Co. Second Lieutenant Win. J. Williams, m. i. s. Oct. 18, 1861; pro. from Com. Sergt. April 24, 1864; commissioned Capt. April 13, 1864 not mus.; m. o. with Co. First Sergeant Samuel H. Croyle, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Sergeant Bernard Huber, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Sergeant Andrew J. Thompson, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Sergeant Geo. G. Borland, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; wounded at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862; m. o. with Co. Sergeant Peter O. Bowser, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Nov. 4, 1864. Sergeant Wmin. A. Henderson, min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 18, 1862. Sergeant Samuel Klugh, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certifi cate May 18, 1862. Sergeant John C. White, min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certifi cate July 20, 1863. Corporal Thomas Shea, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861;.m. o. with Co. Corporal Robert L. Marshall, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Corporal Isaac Schrecengost, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; min. o. with Co. Corporal David L. Cochran, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Corporal Wmin. G. McElhiney, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Corporal Jos. McElwee, min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; min. o. with Co. 'Corporal John C. Roof, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans. to 4th reg. U. S. Cay. Nov, 30, 1862. Corporal Thos. McCleary, in. i. s. Feb. 2, 1864; trans. to Co. A, Oct. 18, 1864; vet. Corporal John W. P. Blair, m. i. s. Feb. 2, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864; vet. Corporal James M. Collums, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Camp Wood, Ky., Feb. 17, 1862. Corporal Arthur L. Myrtle, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; killed at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862. Musician John G. Webb, min. i. s. March 4, 1862; trans, to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Musician James M. Hawk, m. i. s. March 12, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Musician McKendria M. Lias, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Camp Negley, Ky., Dec. 11, 1861. PRIVATES. Borland, Samuel, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; min. o. with Co. Bowser, Wmin. J., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Bowser, John G., m. i. s. Sept. 13, 1862; dis. on surgeon's certificate June 29, 1863. Becket, William, min. i. s Oct. 12,1861; trans. to 4th reg. U. S. Cay. Nov. 30, 1862. Bowser, Washington R., min. i. s. Aug. 7, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Bridget, Hamilton, m. i. s. Sept. 13, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Burket, John, min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Louisville, Ky., Nov. 16, 1862. Bennett, Abraham, min. i. s. Feb. 2, 1864. Campbell, Mark, min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Clark, Wmin., m. i. s. Sept. 13, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Coursins, James H., m. i. s. Sept. 13, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Coursins, Simon, m. i. s. Sept. 13, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Cable, John W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Camp Wood, Ky., Dec. 14, 1861. Clever, Wmin. H. H., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 1, 1862. Christman, Michael, min. i. s. Sept. 13, 1862; died at Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 25, 1863. Croyle, John, min. i. s. Sept. 13, 1862; missed in action at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862. Davis, Orlando P., min. i. s. July 8, 1863;: trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Dickson, John, m. i. s. Sept. 12, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Erwin, James M., min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; killed at Stone River, Tenn., Jan. 2, 1863. Fowler, Francis, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 18, 1862. Flenner, Elijah, m. i. s. Sept. 13, 1862; dis. on surgeon's certificate, date unknown. Guyer, Wmin. W., min. i. s. April 1, 1862; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 18, 1862. Hagerty, Wmin. A., min. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; wounded at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862; absent sick at m. o. Hughes, Geo., min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; min. o. with company. Hoover, Jacob, min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; min. o. with company. Hopkins, John A. min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; min. o. with company. Hosack, Wmin. S., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Henesy, Oliver, min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; min. o. with company. Hooks, Hugh A., min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; wounded at Stone River, Tenn., Jan. 2, 1863; min. o. with company. Henesy, Charles, min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; min. o. with company. Hall, John, min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; captured at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862; absent at m. o. Howser, Isaac, min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 18, 1862. Heath, Joshua, min. i. s. Feb. 2, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864; vet. Hastings, John S., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Camp Negley, Ky., Dec. 11, 1861. Hull, Morrison, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; killed at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862. Jewell, Thos. M., min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; min. o. with company. Johnston, Wmin. C., min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Johnston, Thos., min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 18, 1862. Lemon, John H., min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Aug. -, 1862. Myrtle, Henry A., min. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; absent sick at min. o. Marshall, James W., min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; wounded near Dallas, Ga., May 27, 1864; min. o. with company. Marshall, William A., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; min. o. with company. Myers, Joseph L., min. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; min. o. with company. REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. Myrtle, Jacob B., m. i. s. Feb. 2, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Mains, Daniel, m. i. s. March 4, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Murph, Daniel, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died Jan. 5, 1863, of wounds received at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862. McLeod, Jas. A., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; wounded at Stone River, Tenn.; m. o. with company. McCracken, Jas., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. McVey, Daniel L., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. McPherson, Eli, m. i. s. March 4, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. McMillen, Daniel, m. i. s. Sept. 10, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18,1862. McBride, Enos, m. i. s. March 12, 1862; died at Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 30, 1862. McCrady, George, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Nashville, Tenn., Oct. 12, 1862. Pool, Win. R., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate July 20, 1863. Porter, Wmin. M., m. i. s., Oct. 12,1861; died at Louisville, Ky., Dec. 21, 1861; buried in Nat. Cem., Sec. A, range 3, grave 9. Reed, George S., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Ruffner, Simon, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with company. Runyan, Phineas, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Ruffner, Daniel, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with company. Ruffner, William H., m. i. s. March 3, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Roudybust, Michael, m. i. s. March 24, 1864. Soxman, Henry F., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; wounded at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862; m. o. with company. Snyder, John S., m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with company. Sowers, William, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Sowers, Samuel H., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Schrecengost, W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Slease, Samuel, m. i. s. Feb. 2,1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18,1864; vet. Sowers, Joseph N., m. i. s. Aug. 30, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Shannon, George W., m. i. s. Aug. 30, 1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Shannon, James, m. i. s. Aug. 30,1862; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Sowers, Henry, m. i. i s. Sept. 13, 1862; died at Murfreesboro, Tenn., May 11; buried in Nat. Cem., Stone River, grave 306. Troutner, Thomas, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans. to 4th reg. U. S. Cay. Nov. 30, 1862. Troutner, George W., m. i. s. March 4, 1864; trans. to Co. A Oct. 18, 1864. Thompson, John H.,. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died, date unknown, of wounds received at Stone River, Tenn., Jan. 2, 1863. Wilson, Thomas, mN. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died near Nashville, Tenn., March 15, 1862. Yingst, Henry E., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans. to Vet. Reserve corps July 1, 1862. Yount, Daniel, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans. to Vet. Reserve corps Aug. 1, 1862. Yount, Jacob, m. i. s. Sept. 13, 1862; died at Louisville, Ky., Nov. 24, 1863; buried Nat. Cem., sec. A, range 28, grave 10. COMPANY I. OFFICERS. Captain Robert D. Elwood, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. 1st Lieutenant Geo. W. Black, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with com pany. 2d Lieutenant Sam'l M. Crosby, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. Dec. 9, 1862. 2d Lieutenant John S. McIlwain, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. from Sergt. Feb. 18, 1863: m. o. with company. 1st Sergeant Win. Henry, Jr., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. from Corp. to Sergt. Feb. 1, 1863; to 1st Sergt. March 1, 1863; m. o. with com pany. 1st Sergeant Samuel H. Kerr, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate, Jan. 12, 1863. Sergeant William B. Kerr, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Sergeant William J. Davis, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Sergt. Feb. 17, 1863; m. o. with company. Sergeant Hezekiah V. Ashbaugh, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; pro. from Corp. April 30, 1863; m. o. with company. Sergeant John D. Hall, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certifi cate March 26, 1863. Sergeant Win. C. Murphy, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans. to Vet. Reserve Corps Aug. 1, 1863. Sergeant William J. Wright, m. i. s. Sept. 18, 1862; pro. from private Oct. 1, 1864; trans. to Co. B, Oct. 18, 1864. Corporal Aaron Hawk, in. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Corporal Joseph Kerr, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with company. Corporal James Drummond, min. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with company. Corporal James C. Bair, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. March 1, 1863; min. o. with company. Corporal James H. Stitt, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. April 30, 1863; m. o. with company. Corporal William Young, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. June 1, 1863; m. o. with company. Corporal James Curren, m. i. s. March 4, 1862; pro. to Corp. Oct. 1, 1864; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Corporal Lewis T. Hill, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Corporal George Edmonson, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861. Musician T. A. Cunningham, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with com pany. Musician Theodore Barrett, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with company. PRIVATES. Bair, George, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Bond, Richard, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Bryson, Daniel, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with company. Bowser, Matthias P., m.. s. March 4, 1862; trans. to Co. B Oct.18,1864. Brown, Allen, n.. s.. March 31, 1864: trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Baker, Morrison M., m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861. Cline, Rudolphus M., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Clements, Jesse A., m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with company. Cochlin, James, m. i. s. Oct 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Champion, Jas. A., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans.'to Co. B Oct. 18,1864. Chapman, John C., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; killed at Stone River, Tenn., Dec. 31, 1862. Drake, Geo. S., m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with company. Devers, Neal, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with company. Dunlap, Thos., m. i. s. Oct. 1861; m. o. with company. Darin, John, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate, June 6, 1863. Depp, Geo., m. i. s. March 31, 1864; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Dougherty, Harrison, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Murfreesboro, Tenn., May 6, 1863. Davis, Win. P., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Nashville, Tenn., Nov. 5, 1862. Erb, Uriah F., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Elliott, William, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Eakman, Aaron, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died Jan. 24, 1863, of wounds received at Stone River, Tenn. Fennell, John M., m. i. s., Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Fleck, Martin L., m. i. s. March 31,1864; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18,1864. George, Samuel, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Getty, Thos. C., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Gray, Win. H., m. i. s. Sept. 5,1862; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18,1864. Georgeh, John, m. i. s. Sept. 18, 1862; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Gray, Samuel A., m. i. s. Sept. 18, 1862; died Feb. 24,1863, of wounds received at Stone River, Tenn.; buried in Nat. Cem., grave 339. Hunter, Martin V., min. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; in. o. with Co. Hodil, Jacob D., m. i. s. Jan. 4, 1864; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Irwin, John, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Chattanooga, Tenn., Aug. 23,1864; buried in Nat. Cem., grave 482. Kerr, Robert, mn.. s. Oct. 12, 1861; min. o. with Co. Kerr, Patrick, mi.. s. Oct. 12,1861; in. o. with Co. Kensington, Jos. A., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. King, Francis M., m. i. s. Sept. 5, 1862; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Ketcham, Jefferson, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Louisville, Ky., March 9, 1862; buried in Nat. Cem., sec. A, range 14, grave 10. Kennedy, Geo. F., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861: died at Pulaski, Tenn., July 27, 1862. Love, John, in. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Long, Jacob L., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. Lambing, Geo. W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; in. o. with Co. Lambing, Jos. B., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate June 24, 1862. Marsh, Absalom K., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 24, 1863. Martin, John W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate June 25, 1862. Mott, Henry, in. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Louisville, Ky., Jan. 15, 1862; buried in Nat. Cem., sec. A, range 8, grave 2. Mcllravy, John. m. i. s. Oci. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. McLaughlin, Jos. C., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. McElroy, Johnston, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with Co. McMillen, Geo. W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Jan. 2, 1864. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. McMeans, James, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; died at Nashville, Tenn., July 8, 1863. Nolder, Martin, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. 0. with company. Pifer, Conrad, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Procious, Adam, m. i. s. March 4,1864; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Rogers, Hugh H., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Relsinger, Geo. W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Reed, Joseph L., m. i. s. March 31, 1864; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Row, Christopher H., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans. to 4th reg. U. S. Cay. Dec. 1, 1864. Shields, Cornelius, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Smullin, Henry, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Snyder, Theodore, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with company. Snyder, Frederick, m i. s. Oct. 12, 1861. Stevenson, Geo., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Snail, Daniel, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Oct. 15, 1862. Silvis, Jonathan, m. i. s. Sept. 18, 1862; dis. on surgeon's certificate Oct. 25, 1863. Shick, Christian, m. i. s. Feb. 29, 1864; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Shannon, Oliver, m. i. s. Jan. 4,1864; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18,1864. Snyder, Albert, m. i. s. Sept. 5, 1862; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Stark, Robert B., m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; died at Camp Negley, Ky., Dec. 6, 1861. Stark, Joseph M. P., m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; died at Nashville, Tenn.. March 14, 1862. Sarver, Lynus T., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Louisville, Ky., Jan. 15. 1862; buried in Nat. Cem., sec. A, range 2, grave 24. Thorn, Robert B., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Twiney, Henry, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate June 22, 1863. Thompson, John W., m. i. s. Jan. 4,1864; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Thomas, Jacob, m. i. s. March 9, 1864; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Tarmer, John L., m. i. s. Dec. 17, 1862; died at Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 4, 1863. Tittle, Richard J., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Camp Wood, Ky., Feb. 9, 1862. Uptigraff, James, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Woods, Joel, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Wilson, James F., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Aug. 12, 1862. Williamson, B. F., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Chattanooga, Tenn., June 6 of wounds received in action May 27, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem., grave 917. Wanderling, W. H., m. i. s. March 28,1864; died at Chattanooga, Tenn., July 21, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem., grave 44. Young, Theodore, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Bowling Green, Ky., March 27, 1862. COMPANY K. OFFICERS. Captain Dewitt C. Hervey, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; res. Nov. 17, 1862. Captain Jos. B. Smith, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. from 1st Lt. Feb. 17, 1863; m. o. with Co. 1st Lieutenant Robert W. Dinsmore, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. from 1st Lt. Feb. 17,1863; m. o. with Co. 2d Lieutenant Matthew J. Halstead, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; killed at Stone River, Tenn., Jan. 2, 1863. 2d Lieutenant Robert M. Smith, m. i. s. Sept. 11, 1861; pro. from Sergt. to 2d Lt. Jan. 2, 1863; to Capt. Co. B Dec. 3, 1864; m. o. with Co. 1st Sergeant Joel Crawford, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. Oct. 18, 1862; to Sergt. March 1, 1863; to 1st Sergt. Feb. 1, 1864; m. o. with Co. Sergeant William Martin, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. from Corp. March 1, 1863; m. o. with Co. Sergeant William C. Barnett, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. May 26, 1862; to Sergt. March 1, 1863; m. o. with Co. Sergeant Albert Limkins, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. Oct. 18, 1862; to Sergt. March 1, 1863; m. o. with Co. Sergeant Benjamin Oswald, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. May 26, 1862; to Sergt. March 1, 1863; m. o. with Co. Sergeant Marvin J. Dinsmore, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate June 1, 1862. Sergeant Adam J. Hastings, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; trans. to Signal Corps June 28, 1864. Sergeant William W. Smith, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died Jan. 18, 1863, of wounds received at Stone River, Tenn. Sergeant William H. Green, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Manchester, Tenn., Jan. 6, 1863; buried at Nat. Cem., Stone River, grave 285. Corporal William P. England, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. March 1,1863; m. o. with company. Corporal James C. Burford, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. May 27, 1862; mn. o. with company. Corporal H. H. Bengough, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. May 27, 1862; m. o. with company. Corporal Amos Claypool, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to Corp. May 27, 1862; m. o. with company. Corporal Thomas Callender, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Nov. 10, 1862. Corporal Erastus Pierce, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certifi cate Dec. 8, 1862. Corporal William W. Maxwell, m. i. s. Sept. 11, 1861; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18,1864; vet. Corporal William H. H. Step, m. i. s. Sept. 11, 1861; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864; vet. Corporal Samuel M. Dunn, m. i. s. Sept. 13, 1861; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18,1864. Corporal Stuart P. Henry, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died Jan. 24, 1863, of wounds received at Stone River, Tenn. Musician Robert Callender, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. PRIVATES. Adams, James, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Alwine, Francis, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with company. Alwine, Lewis, m. i. s. Feb. 24, 1864; trans, to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Altman, Samuel, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died Jan. 3, 1863, of wounds received at Stone River, Tenn. Aikens, Adam, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died Jan. 20, 1863, of wounds received at Stone River, Tenn. Baney, George H., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Blair, Milton, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Bowser, Hezekiah, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Jan. 10, 1862. Bowser, William, m. i. s. Sept. 11, 1861; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864; vet. Beal, Peter, m.. s. Feb. 27, 1864; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Baney, William W., m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864 Boner, Sam'l C., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Louisville, Ky., Feb. 5, 1862. Bowser, Mark C., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died March 12, 1863, of wounds received at Stone River, Tenn. Bailey, Win. C., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861. Callender, James, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Claypool, Henry, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Clark, David, m. i. s. Sept. 11, 1861; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Cobert, Daniel, m. i. sAug. 30,1862; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18,1864. Copley, David, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861: died at Knoxville, Tenn., Jan. 21, 1863, of wounds received at Stone River, Tenn. Dinsmore, Thos. J., m. i. s. April 1, 1862; trans. to Co B Oct. 18, 1864. Doty, John C., m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Davis, David, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Nashville, Tenn., Oct. 1, 1862. Davis, Michael, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Louisville, Ky., Dec. 19, 1863. Doty, Geo. W., m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; died at Louisville Ky., March 28, 1864. Edwards, Albert, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate June 26, 1862. Edwards, Adam, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate June 26, 1862. Fiscus, John W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; absent sick since Dec. 31, 1862. Geary, John W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Gibson, Albert, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Gilliam, Enoch, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Gilliam, James, m. i. s. Sept. 13, 1862; trans. to Veteran Reserve Corps May 1, 1864. Hastings, Enoch, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Hindman, Charles, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Hooks, Hugh, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Nov. 10, 1862. Hogan, John W., m. i. s. Dec. 16, 1863; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864; vet. Hutchison, S. A., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Nashville, Tenn., Feb. 6, 1862. Hollingsworth, B. F., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died Jan. 16, 1863, of wounds received at Stone River, Tenn. Harman, John P., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Murfreesboro, Tenn., April 13, 1863. REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. Hutchison, J. W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Green River, Ky., Feb. 17, 1862; buried in Nat. Cem.. Stone River, grave 100. Jack, Maurice, m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with company. Jack, James W., m. i.s. Oct. 12,1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate June 30, 1862. John, Daniel, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Green River, Ky., Jan. 28, 1862. King, James, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Karnes, Godfrey C., m. i. s. Feb. 29, 1864; trans. to Co B Oct. 18,1864. Lemon, Lobin, m. i. s. Oct.12,1861; m. o. with company. Lloyd, Absalom, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Lytle, C. W. E., m. i. s. Feb. 27, 1864; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18,1864. Malone, Rodney O., m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with company. Mechling, Laird, m. i. s. Sept. 12, 1862; dis. on surgeon's certificate March 7, 1863. Monroe, James M., m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Nov. 27, 1862. Moore, William C., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Nashville, Tenn., Jan. 28, 1863. Minteer, Samuel A., m. i. s. Sept. 13, 1862; died at Nashville, Tenn., Dec. 19, 1863. McClelland, S. M., m. i. s. Sept. 11, 1861; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864; vet. Painter, John, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Prunkard, John, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Prunkard, David, m. i. s Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Pugh, Jackson, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Painter, Peter A., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate March 29, 1863. Painter, Sam'l, m. i. s. Sept. 11, 1861; trans, to Co.B Oct. 18,1864; vet. Pugh, Jos. K., m. i. s. oct. 12, 1861. Rigley, Reuben M., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans. to 4th reg. U. S. Cav. Dec. 1, 1862. Row, Joseph, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 10, 1862. Roney, John W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; trans. to Signal Corps Oct. 21,1863. Rea, Lemuel S., m. i. s. Aug. 30; 1861; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Richey, Win. A., m. i. s. Sept. 1, 1862; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Rhodes, John, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Louisville, Ky., Dec. 15, 1861. Saltsgiver, Isaac, m. i. s. Oct. 12.1861; absent, sick, since Aug. 15, 1863. Shields, Robert, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Sife, Solomon, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Smith, Richard W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Smith, Richard H., m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with company. Southworth, J., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Stuart, Geo. W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Summerville, S., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Swartzlander, W., m. i. s. Oct. 12,1861; m. o. with company. Strayeik, John K., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate, Aug. 29, 1863. Stet, Levi, m. i. s. Sept. 29, 1861; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Smith, Levi H., m. i. s. Aug. 28, 1862; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Steele, Samuel R., m. i. s. Oct. 17,1863; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18,1864. Salinger, Paris G., m. i. s. March 3, 1864; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Spangler, Abraham, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died at Green River, Ky., Jan. 4, 1862; buried in Nat. Cem., Louisville, Ky., sec. A, range 3, grave 1. Smith, Jacob C., m. i. s. Feb. 2, 1864. Unger, John W., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Jan. 29, 1863. Wade, John, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Wolff, William B., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Wade, Jacob, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate July 12, 1863. Wickenhacker, G., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; pro. to principal musician March 17, 1864. Wolf, John G., m. i. s. Sept. 1, 1862; trans. to Co. B Oct. 18, 1864. Wolf, Jacob, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; died, date unknown. Young, John, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Younkins, John F., m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. Younkins, Michael, m. i. s. Oct. 12, 1861; m. o. with company. THE ONE HUNDRED AND THIRD REGIMENT P. V. I. This regiment was recruited principally in the counties of Armstrong, Allegheny, Butler, Clarion and Indiana. Companies B, C and D were made up almost entirely, and F, G and K partly, of Armstrong men. Recruiting was commenced early in the fall of 1861, the men rendezvousing at Camp Orr, Kittanning. The 78th regt. had been organized there a short time before and many of the men who went into the 103d had originally enlisted expecting to go out with the former, which they could not do on account of the large excess of recruits. Much suffering was experienced at Camp Orr when cold weather came on, the government being unable to promptly furnish adequate clothing and camp and garrison equipage. In January, 1862, the regiment was reported for duty with one company more than the number required, which was transferred to the 2d Cavalry. On February 24, it was ordered to Harrisburg, where a regimental organization was effected by the choice of the following field officers: Theodore F. Lehman, colonel; Wilson C. Maxwell, lieutenantcolonel; Audley W. Gazzam, major. It was soon afterward ordered to Washington, where it was assigned to a provisional brigade of Gen. Casey's division. The regiment proceeded with the corps to the Peninsula, and, after remaining in camp a short time near Hampton, moved forward and participated in the operations of the siege of Yorktown. A month of severe duty, combined with exposure to the miasmatic influence of the climate, caused much sickness, and many died. When the enemy withdrew, the 103d, with the corps, pushed on in pursuit, and, on the morning of May 5, arrived upon the battlefield opposite the enemy's forts at Williamsburg. In the battle which ensued the regiment did effective service. Moving forward in advance of the army, Casey's division crossed the Chickahominy and took position at Fair Oaks, which it was proceeding to fortify when upon May 31 it was suddenly attacked. In this fight the regiment, commanded as it had been at Williamsburg by Maj. Gazzam, bore itself gallantly and, being in the hottest of the fight, suffered terrible loss. The total number wounded and killed was eighty-four. Among the killed was Capt. George W. Gillespie, of Company B. After the battle, the regiment, with the brigade of which it formed a part, was posted at White Oak swamp and put to fortifying. IHere again there was great suffering from the unhealthfulness of the climate. Later, the regiment took part in the seven days' fight at Malvern. At the close of the Peninsula campaign it had lost nearly one-half of its original strength. When the army of McClellan was ordered to join Pope upon the Rapidan, Wessell's brigade, then including the 103d regt., was separated from the army of the Potomac HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. never again to rejoin it, and went via Norfolk to Suffolk, where it remained until December. On the 5th of that month the brigade broke camp and proceeded to Newburn, North Carolina, where it joined the forces under Gen. Foster, then about to move into the interior. With the exception of a slight skirmish at Southwest creek, little opposition was encountered on the march until the command reached Kingston, where the enemy was discovered occupying a strong position upon a little eminence. After several ineffectual attempts had been made to cross an intervening swamp and dislodge the confederates, the 103d was called out and directed to make a last endeavor. They succeeded in forcing a passage through the swamp, under the rapid fire of the enemy's guns, and, without firing a single musket, charged so quickly and effectually that the enemy was routed. The 85th P. V. I. came promptly to its support and almost an entire rebel North Carolina regiment was captured. Gen. Foster highly complimented the regiment for its services in this action. At the conclusion of this expedition, the brigade returned to Newbern and went into barracks on the Neuse river where the remainder of the winter was pleasantly passed. During the spring of 1863 frequent expeditions were made into the surrounding country, but little of moment was effected. Afterward, the regiment took part in operations in the vicinity of Washington, on the Tar river, and still later removed to Plymouth, which place was strongly fortified. It was attacked by the confederates on April 17, and the fight lasted until 11 o'clock of the 20th, when the 103d regt. surrendered. The rebels had a large force and the other federal troops had been compelled to surrender before this time, so that there was no alternative left for Col. Lehman but to give up his men as prisoners. There were then in this organization about 400 men, rank and file, many of whom had been in service since the regiment was formed. "The officers were immediately separated from the men, not again to be united, the latter being sent to Andersonville to starve and die by scores, and the former to Macon, Georgia, and, subsequently, those of highest grade to Charlestown. The wounded, of whom there were thirty-five, were left with the surgeon at Plymouth in the hands of the enemy. Of the men who entered Andersonville prison, 132 died while in confinement. Many died in the prisons to which they were subsequently removed and while they were on their way to and at Camp Parole, Annapolis; and many more after lingering sickness. When the regiment was mustered into service, there were seventy-two men upward of six feet in height, of whom not one was present at the final muster out." * The officers, after their release from confinement, were paroled and returned to duty, Col. Lehman resuming command of the district of the Albermarle. One company, which had not been included in the surrender, with the few men who were absent at the time, in all about eighty, were still on duty in the district and was known as the 103d reg. In March and April, 1865, eight new companies were assigned to the regiment. The command was finally mustered out at Newbern, North Carolina, June 25, 1865, but eighty-one of the original men being present. FIELD AND STAFF. Sergeant-Major Samuel Murphy, m. i. s. Sept. 16, 1861; trans. to Co. C 1863. Sergeant-Major Watson C. Mobley, m. i. s. Sept. 7,1861; pro. from 1st Serg. Co. A April 19, 1865; m. o. with regiment June 25, 1865; vet. Sergeant-Major James H. Chambers, m. i. s. Sept. 16,1861; pro. from Serg. Co. C June 1, 1862, to 2d Lt. Co. F May 1, 1863. (See Co's C and F). Commissary Sergeant John R. Kron, m. i. s. Jan. 10, 1862; pro. from private Co. G May 18,1865, m. o. with regiment June 25,1865; vet. COMPANY B. [The members of this company, except when otherwise specified, were mustered into the service September 24, 1861, and mustered out with the company June 25, 1865.] OFFICERS. Captain Joseph Rodgers, m. i. s. Sept. 10, 1861; pro. from 1st Lt. June 5, 1862; res. Jan. 24, 1863. Captain Daniel L. Coe, m. i. s. Sept. 12,1861; pro. from 2d to 1st Lt. June 5, 1862; to Capt. Jan. 25, 1863; res. Nov. 9, 1863. First Lieutenant Solomon Barnhart, pro. from Serg. to 2d Lt. Jan. 25, 1863, to 1st Lt. July 15, 1863; res. Nov. 3, 1863. Second Lieutenant George W. Stoke, m. i. s. Nov. 13,1861; trans. from Co. D Oct. 31, 1863. First Sergeant G. W. Swartzlander, pro. from Corp. Feb. 7,1862; com. 2d Lt. July 16, 1863; not min.; captured at Plymouth, N. C., Apr. 20,1864. First Sergeant James Adams, pro. to Capt. Co. K Feb. 22, 1862. Sergeant William T. Blair, pro. to Serg. June 2, 1864; prisoner from May 6,1864, to Feb. 20, 1865; dis. by G. O. June 8,1865; vet. Sergeant Thomas Hart, pro. to Serg. Jan. 2, 1864; absent on furlough at mn. 0.; vet. Sergeant C. M. Rumbaugh, pro. to Corp. June 2, 1864, to Serg. May 1, 1865; prisoner from April 20, 1860, to Feb. 20, 1865; dis. by G. 0. June 8, 1865; vet. Sergeant Daniel L. Rankin, pro. to Corp. Jan. 2, 1864; to Serg. May 1, 1865; absent on furlough at m. o.; vet. Sergeant Sher'n M. Criswell, captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Florence, S. C., Nov. 10, 1864; vet. Sergeant Cyrus K. M'Kee, captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Charleston, S. C., Dec. 7,1864; vet. Corporal George Waterson, captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; pro. to Corp. May 1, 1865; mn. o. with Co.; vet. Corporal John S. M'Elhany, prisoner from April 20, 1864, to Feb. 24, 1865; dis. by G. O. April 24, to date March 1, 1865. Corporal Isaac Swartzlander, captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died; buried in Nat. Cem., Wilmington, grave 984. Corporal Jas. H. Crawford, captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., Sept. 7, 1864, grave 8117. Corporal Win. Harrison, dis., date unknown. Corporal Tho. Hays, trans. to 4th reg. U. S. Art., date unknown. Musician Andrew Rodgers, mn. i. s. Aug. 13, 1862; captured at Ply mouth, N. C., April 20,1864; m. o. with Co. *Bates' History of rcinsylvania Volunteers. REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. Musician Harrison W. Coe, captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; absent on fur. at m. o.; vet. PRIVATES. Brenneman, Jas., pris. from April 20 to Dec. 11, 1864; dis. by G. O. March 28, 1865, to date Dec. 17, 1864. Benninger, Henry L., captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20,1864; vet. Bish, John B., missing in action at Fair Oaks, Va., May 31, 1862. Burford, Reuben, captured; died at Andersonsville, Ga., June 4,1864; grave 1601; vet. Brenneman, L. A., dis. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 4,1861. Barnhart, Isaac, dis. exp. of term. Burford. Winm. Coe, Benj. F., dis., date unknown. Devenny, Thos. J., captured; died Dec. 17, 1864; vet. Eminger, Michael C., captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; vet. Foster, John, m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonsville, Ga., Aug. 28, 1864, grave 7097. Gilchrist, Stewart, m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; trans. to Vet. Res. Corps. Hayes, Hezekiah, prisoner from April 20, 1864, to Feb. 24, 1865; dis. by G. O. April 5, to date March 1, 1865. Harper, Robert, captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonsville, Ga., Sept. 30, 1864, grave 10109; vet. Haukey, Ephraim, died March 9, 1862; buried in Mil. Asy. Cem., D.C. Hankey, John B., captured; died at Salisbury, N. C., July 9, 1862. Hayes, Robert, m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; dis., date unknown. Hile, Simon, dis., date unknown. Hayes, John M., trans. to 4th reg. U. S. Art., date unknown. Hile, John L., captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; vet. Jordan, David W., Captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., July 5, 1864, grave 2914; vet. Jones, John M., captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died. Kennedy, Win., died. McClure, Harvey B., captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died March 16, 1865; buried in Camp Parole Hos. Cem. Anna polis Md.; vet. McClure, Tho. L., died at Annapolis, Md., Dec. 5, 1864; buried in U. S. Gen. Hos. Cem.; vet. Pemburthy, Wm., captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; absent on fur. at m. o.; vet. Pierce, Win. G., dis. Pool, Sam'l, dis. Rumbaugh, Joseph, m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; captured at Plymouth, N. C. Reese, Wm., Died at Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 25, 1862. Reese, Jacob, captured; died at Andersonville, Ga., Aug. 17, 1864, grave 5912. Regus, Alex., died. Regus, Henry, died. Snyder, Abram, prisoner from April 20 to Dec. 10, 1864; dis. by G. O. March 15, 1865, to date Dec. 16, 1864. Sweet, Jas., absent on fur. at m. o.; vet. Snow, Nicholas, died at Annapolis, Md., March 11, 1865; buried in U. S. Gen. Hos. Cem.; vet. Sanderson, Sam'l S., died. Shields, Jas., dis. exp. of term. Sowers, Wim., dis. Scharem, John, captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; vet. Truby, Chas. M., prisoner from April 20, 1864, to Feb. 24, 1865; dis. by G. 0. June 19, 1865; vet. Woodruff, Wim. D., captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., July 16, 1864, grave 3384. Walley, David, dis. Wolft, Jas., dis. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 4,1861. COMPANY C. [The members of this company, except where otherwise specified, were mustered into service September 16,1861, and mustered out with the company June 25, 1865.] OFFICERS. Captain Simon P. Townsend, res. July 7, 1862. Captain John M. Cochran, pro. from 2d Lt. to 1st Lt. July 7, 1862; to Capt. Jan. 14, 1863; dis. June 16, 1863. Captain Thomas A. Cochran, pro. from 1st Sergt. to 2d Lt. July 7, 1862; to 1st Lt. Jan. 14, 1863; to Capt. July 1, 1863. First Lieutenant James M. Wilson, pro. from Corp. to Sergt. May 1, 1862; to 1st Sergt. July 7, 1862; to 2d Lt. Jan. 14, 1863; to 1st Lt. July 1, 1863. First Sergeant Wilson S. Cochran, pro. to Sergt. Jan. 1, 1864; 1st Sergt. Sept. 20, 1864; vet. First Sergeant Baptist H. Scott, pro. from private to 1st Sergt. Jan. 14, 1863; com. 2d Lt. June 16,1863; not mustered; m. o. Sept. 16,1864; exp. of term. Sergeant Win. M'Elfresh, pro. to Corp. Jan. 1, 1864; to Sergt. March 1, 1865; m. o. with Co.; vet. Sergeant Win. N. Barr, dis. on surgeon's certificate March 11, 1863. Sergeant Jas. H. Chambers, pro. to Sergt. Major Jan. 1, 1862. Corporal Francis M. Fleming, pro. to Corp. March 1, 1865; m. o. with Co.; vet. Corporal Geo. W. Pifer, pro. to Corp. March 1, 1865; m. o. with Co.; vet. Corporal Salem Crum, pro. to Corp. Feb. 16, 1862; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 13, 1862. Corporal Isaac W. Warner, pro. to Corp. May 1, 1862; dis. on surgeon's certificate June 20, 1863. Corporal Andrew J. Scott, dis. on surgeon's certificate June 20, 1863. Corporal Thos. J. M'Kee, pro. to Corp. April, 1863; m. o. Sept. 16,1864; exp. of term. Corporal Wm. Leech, m. i. s. Sept. 15, 1861; trans. to Vet. Res. Corps Dec. 1, 1863. Musician Lewis Barlett, m. i. s. Sept. 7, 1861; m. o. with Co.; vet. Musician Dallas B. Taylor, m. o. with Co., vet. PRIVATES. Altman, David, dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 17, 1862. Ammendt, H. At., dis. on surgeon's certificate April 26, 1863. Anthony, Philip, m. o. Sept. 16, 1864; exp. of term. Altman, Win., died June 30, 1862. Anthony, Tanser, died June 30,1862. Bash, Robert, vet. Beer, Thos. M. C., m. i. s. Feb. 29, 1864; m. o. with Co. Bargerstock, Adam, m. o. Sept. 16, 1864; exp. of term. Birch, Winfield S., trans. to Vet. Res. Corps, Sept. 24, 1863. Beighley, Jacob. Canfield, Jas., m. i. s. Dec. 16, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate, Jan. 13, 1862. Cochran, Geo. W., dis. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 4, 1863. Cochran, Win. W., n. i. s. Jan. 19, 1863; died at Plymouth, N. C., Jan. 6, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem., Newbern, plot 7, grave 108. Dickason, David H., dis. on surgeon's certificate Sept. 1, 1862. Dougherty, Win., dis. on surgeon's certificate March 28, 1863. Davis, Jackson, dis. on surgeon's certificate June 20, 1863. Dentzell, Solomon, m. i. s. Sept. 15, 1861; died at White Oak Swamp, Va., June 30, 1862. Elgin, Jas., m. o. Sept. 16, 1864; exp. of term. Elgin, Samuel, wounded at Kingston, N. C., Dec. 14, 1862; trans, to Vet. Res. Corps July 27, 1863. Findley, Samuel, 1st; vet. Findley, Samuel, 2d, m. i. s. Sept. 21, 1864; mn. o. with Co. Franklin, Benj., m. i. s. April 6, 1864. Franklin, Benj., dis. on surgeon's certificate Sept. 3, 1862. Fleming, Alex., dis. April 9, 1863, for wounds received at Kingston, N. C., Dec. 14, 1862. Fleming, John, m. o. Sept. 16, 1864; exp. of term. Gallagher, John J., m. i. s. Feb. 13, 1862; vet. George, Jeremiah, dis. on surgeon's certificate Nov. 2, 1862. Graden, John, m. i. s. Feb. 13, 1862; m. o. Feb. 13, 1865; exp. of term. Harkleroad, Martin, m. i. s. Feb. 13, 1862; vet. Hetrick, Geo. D., vet. Hetrick, David, absent sick at m. o. Helty, Hezekiah, m. i. s. March 15, 1865. Hammer, Thos., dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 5, 1862. Harkleroad, Wm., m. i. s. Dec. 26, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 26, 1862. Hetrick, Peter W., dis. on surgeon's certificate March 3, 1863. Hays, Wim., dis. on surgeon's certificate March 9, 1864. Jones, J. L. Lone, Emanuel, vet. Linsenbigler, Jacob, dis. on surgeon's certificate March 23,1863. Mosbaughle, Geo., dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 17, 1862. Murphy, Samuel, m. o. Sept. 16, 1864; exp. of term. Meredith, Thos. A., killed at Fair Oaks, Va., May 31, 1862. Murdock, Win. J., died at White Oak Swamp, Va., June 27, 1862. M'Killips, Wm. M., vet. M'Kee, Geo. W., m. o. Sept. 16, 1864; exp. of term. M'Intire, Joseph, m. i. s. Feb. 13, 1862; died at Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 24, 1862. M'Guire, Joseeph. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Noble, John, vet. Pautious, Geo. W., m. i. s., Sept. 3, 1863. Pifer, Henry, m. i. s. March 1, 1864; died at Roanoak Island, N. C., Aug. 14, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem., Newbern, plot 7, grave 22. Price, Hiram. Risher, Win. G., dis. on surgeon's certificate Jan. 13, 1862. Richards, John, dis. on surgeon's certificate, March 28, 1863. Smith, Philip, absent sick at m. o.; vet. Sheaffer, Wmin. H., absent sick at m. o.; vet. Schrecengast, Jeremiah, m. i. s. Sept 3, 1863. Shultz, John, m. i. s. Sept. 2, 1864. Shay, Reese, min. i. s. March 10, 1864. Stewart, Win. R., m. i. s. Jan. 13, 1862; dis. Feb. 26, 1862. Sadler, Israel, dis. on surgeon's certificate June 19, 1862. Scott, Sharp W., dis. on surgeon's certificate Aug. 29, 1862. Shoup, John F., m. o. Sept. 16, 1864; exp. of term. Stiffy, Jacob, died at Kingston, N. C., Dec. 14, 1862. Smith, John R., died near Washington, D. C., March 26, 1862. Stiffy, Isaac. Thompson, Samuel, dis. on surgeon's certificate Jan. 18, 1865; vet. Wilson, Jesse B., min. i. s. Aug. 29, 1864. Yount, John, died at Rose Cottage hospital, Va., May 29, 1862. COMPANY D. [The members of this company, except in cases otherwise specified, were mustered into service November 13,1861, and mustered out with the company June 25, 1865.] OFFICERS. Captain Jos. K. Hamilton, res. April 9, 1862. Captain M. M. Meredith, pro. from 1st Lt. April 10, 1862; res. July 13,1862. Captain Fletcher Smullin, pro. from 2d Lt. to 1st Lt. April 10, 1862; td Capt. July 15, 1862; absent without leave at m. o. First Lieutenant Alfred L. Fluke, pro. from Serg. to 2d Lt. April 10, 1862; to 1st Lt. May 1, 1863. Second Lieutenant George W. Stoke, pro. to2d Lt. Oct. 31,1862; trans. to Co. B Oct. 31, 1863. First Sergeant John H. Brown, m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; pro. to 1st Serg. Jan. 2, 1864; vet. First Sergeant James W. O'Donald, m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; killed at Fair Oaks, Va., May 31, 1862. Sergeant J. A. Humphreys, in. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; pro. to Serg. Jan. 2, 1864; prisoner from April 20 to Dec. 10, 1864; vet. Sergeant Daniel A. Stokes, min. i. s. Aug. 30, 1862; captured at Ply mouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; pro. from Corp. May 1, 1865. Sergeant Thomas A. Gray, captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20,1864. Sergeant John S. Moorehead. m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; prisoner from April 20, 1864, to April 28, 1865; dis. by G. O. June 12, 1865; vet. Sergeant Anthony Spangler, killed at Kingston, N. C., Dec. 14, 1862. Sergeant Levi Nolf, captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Annapolis, Md., March 18, 1865. Corporal Robert C. Fritz, pro. to Corp. Jan. 2, 1864; prisoner from April 20, to Dec. 14, 1864; vet. Corporal John D. Orr, m. i. s. Jan. 26, 1864; prisoner from April 20, 1864, to Feb. 27, 1865; pro. to Corp. May 1, 1865. Corporal John M'Clain, min. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; prisoner from April 20, 1864, to Feb. 26, 1865; dis. by G. O. June 3, 1865; vet. Corporal Adam Nolf, m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; prisoner from April 20, 1864, to Feb. 28, 1865; dis. by G. O. June 12, 1865; vet. Corporal Henry Gumbert, m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; captured at Ply mouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., June 26, 1864; grave 2,531; vet. Musician John J. Stoke, m. i. s. Sept. 25,1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; vet. Musician Joshua C. Bowser, m. i. s. Aug. 30, 1862; prisoner from April 20, 1864, to March 8, 1865; dis. by G. O. June 2, 1865. PRIVATES. Anthony, Jacob J., prisoner April 20 to Dec. 6,1864; dis. by G. O. May 9,1865. Alton, Hamilton, prisoner from April 20 to Dec. 13, 1864; dis. March 15, 1865, to date Dec. 19, 1864. Ailer, Benjamin, captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., Aug. 11, 1864; grave 5,286. Armstrong, Chain's, died at Kittanning, Pa., date unknown. Andrews. Jacob, dis. on surgeon's certificate 1862. Allman, Conrad, not on m. o. roll. Baily, Samuel, min. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; prisoner from April 20, 1864, to Feb. 27, 1865; vet. Bowser, Daniel, m. i. s. Aug. 30, 1862; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; dis. by G. O. Aug. 16, 1865. Baughman, Joseph, dis. on surgeon's certificate April, 1862. Baughman, Joshua, trans. to Vet. Res. Corps 1863. Blake, Win. N., m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; vet. Beeham, Jas. A., captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., Aug. 16, 1864, grave 6127. Brown, Jas. F., captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Charlestown, S. C., Oct. 10, 1864. Bowser, Aaron J., m. i. s. Aug. 30, 1862; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Charlestown, S. C., Oct. 10, 1864. Brooks, Jas., died at Yorktown, Va., April 13, 1862; buried in Mil. Asy. Cem., D. C. Brown, W. S., died at Yorktown, Va., May 28, 1862; buried in Nat. Cem., see. D, grave 386. Crow, Sam'l, m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; absent with leave at min. o.; vet. Clark, Sam'l, m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; vet. Crookshank, W. A., prisoner from April 20, 1864, to Feb. 24, 1865; dis. May 19, to date March 1, 1865. Crow, Aaron T., dis. on surgeon's certificate Jan., 1862. Crowr, Robt. M., dis. on surgeon's certificate Aug., 1862. Craig, Sam'l H., dis. on surgeon's certificate Aug., 1862. Craig, Win. R., dis. on surgeon's certificate Aug., 1862. Craig, Geo., dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb., 1862. Coursin, Benj. F., dis. on surgeon's certificate June, 1862. Cathcart, Robt., captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., Aug. 29, 1864, grave 7176. Craig, Win. H. H., captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., Sept. 1, 1864, grave 7456. Crow, Jas. H., died at Harrison's Landing, Va., July, 1862. Davidson, Geo. W., dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb., 1862. Dailey, Wmin., trans. to 8th N. Y. Ind. Bat. Jan. 1, 1864. Duncan, Winm. Early, Andrew, m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; vet. Elder, Job, m. i. s. Sept. 25,1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; vet. Eyman, Geo. W., dis. on. surgeon's certificate June, 1862. Fish, Robert, dis. on surgeon's certificate, 1863. Gould, John, m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; prisoner from April 20, 1864, to Feb. 27, 1865; vet. Gray, Chas. C., m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; prisoner from April 20 to Dec. 10, 1864; absent with leave at m. o.; vet. Galentine, Win., Sr., dis. on surgeon's certificate Aug., 1862. Given, Geo. W., dis. on surgeon's certificate March, 1863. Griffen, Lewis, m. i. s. Aug. 30, 1862; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; vet. Galentine, Abraham, m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; vet. Galentine, Wm., Jr., died at Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 30, 1862. Huffman, John H., m. i. s. March 15, 1865. Hooks, Robert, m. i. s. Feb. 18, 1864. Henry, Levi, m. i. s. March 25, 1862; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864. Hamilton, Sam'l E., captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864. Hamilton, Sam'l W., prisoner from April 20, 1864, to Feb. 28, 1865; dis. April 20, to date March 6, 1865. Hamilton, John E., dis. on surgeon's certificate, 1862. Haller, Peter, captured at Plymouth, N. C. April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., July 22, 1864, grave 3795; vet. Henry, Jeremiah B., m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., Sept. 1, 1864, grave 7537. Hooks, Thos. J., m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1862; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20,1864; died at Andersonville,Ga., June 24,1864, grave 2387. Hamilton, Sam'l S., died at Washington, D. C., June 1, 1862; buried in Mil. Asy. Cem. Hays, Robert, died at White Oak Swamp, Va., date unknown. Kness, Martin, dis. on surgeon's certificate April, 1862. Kroson, Wm. B., min. i. s. Nov. 11, 1861; pro. to 2d Lt., Co. K, Dec. 15, 1861. Kness, Win. H., captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Annapolis, Md., Dec 1, 1864; vet. Leisure, Geo. W., prisoner from April 20, 1864, to April 29, 1865: dis. June 16, to date May 21, 1865; vet. REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. Mack, Geo., m. i. s. March 14, 1865. Mills, Lorenzo F., m. i. s. Aug. 30, 1862; deserted; returned June 30, 1863; prisoner from April 20 to Dec. 10, 1864. Merikel, Jos. S., dis. on surgeon's certificate, 1862. Myers, Jacob, m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; vet. Martin, John, m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., Aug. 22, 1864, grave 6,480; vet. Moorhead, Isaac S., m. i. s. Nov. 18, 1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., Sept. 1, 1864. Myers, David, captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died on board transport Northern Light, Dec. 13, 1864; vet. Metzler, Barnhart, died at Plymouth, N. C., 1863. M'Annich, Henry, dis. on surgeon's certificate, April, 1862. M'Lafferty, John, not on m. o. roll. Nolf, Barney, m. i. s. Jan. 15, 1864; prisoner from April 20, 1864, to April 28, 1865; dis. June 21, to date May 18, 1865. Oliver, Wm., captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., Aug. 9, 1865, grave 5184. Procious, Daniel, captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864. Parsons, Jas. T., captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., July 5, 1862, grave 2904. Pontious, Wm. O., captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Charleston, S. C., Sept. 23, 1864. Porter, James, died at Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 3, 1862. Ritchey, Jas., trans. to Co. B Jan. 1, 1864; vet. Rugh, Michael J., captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., July 8, 1864, grave 3023. Reese, Samuel, captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., Aug. 1, 1864, grave 4507. Smullin, Raphael S., m. i. s. March 31, 1865. Smullin, Adolph M., m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; prisoner from April 20 to Dec. 10, 1864; absent with leave at m. 0.; vet. Smith, Martin, m. i. s. Sept. 25,1861; prisoner from April 20 to Dec. 10, 1864; absent with leave at m. o.; vet. Schrecengast, Levi, mn. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; prisoner from April 20, 1864, to Feb. 26, 1865; dis. by G. O. June 2, 1865; vet. Scott, Geo., dis. on surgeon's ceOrtificate, 1862. Simmers, Jas., dis., date unknown, for wounds received at Kingston, N. C., Dec. 14, 1862. Sackett, Jas., dis., date unknown, for wounds received at Kingston, N. C., Dec. 14, 1862. Smith, Samuel, dis. on surgeon's certificate, 1862. Shall, Thomas, trans. to Vet. Res. Corps 1863. Slazle, Geo. K., trans. to Vet. Res. Corps 1863. Simpson, Thompson, trans. to Vet. Res. Corps 1863. Smith, Geo., trans. to Co. K, date unknown. Simmers, Eli, captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Wil mington; buried in Nat. Cem., grave 987. Spong, Henry, captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864. Stultz, Jacob, killed at Fair Oaks, Va., May 31, 1862; buried in Mil. Asy. Cem., D. C. Schrecengast, A., m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., Aug. 12, 1864, grave 5429; vet. Smeltzer, Jas., m. i. s. Sept. 8, 1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., July 17, 1864, grave 3480. Stine, Leonard, died at Yorktown, Va., 1862. Smullin, Z. C., died at Harrison's Landing, Va., July, 1862. Shall, Wm., died at Orrsville, Armstrong Co., Pa., 1862. Todd, Wm., trans. to Co. K, date unknown. Trolinger, Isaac S., trans. to Vet. Res. Corps 1863. Trolernan, Conrad, trans. to Vet. Res. Corps, date unknown. Welch, Martin, m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; prisoner from April 20 to Nov, 30,1864; vet. Wyant, Jeremiah, m. i. s. Aug. 30,1862; prisoner from April 20 to Dec. 10, 1864. Wilson, Wibber F., m. i. s. March 15, 1865. Wolf, Mathias, dis. on surgeon's certificate April, 1862. Wheeler, Win., killed at Kingston, N. C., Dec. 14, 1862. Wolf, Andrew, m. i. s. Aug. 25,1862; died at Newbern, N. C., March 17, 1863; buried in Nat. Cem., plot 7, grave 115. COMPANY F. OFFICERS. 1st Lieutenant Jas. H. Chambers, m. i. s. Sept. 16, 1861; pro. from Sergt. Major to 2d Lt. May 1, 1863; to 1st Lt. July 4, 1863; cap tured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; m. o. March 15, 1865. Corporal Benj. Edwards, m.i. s. Dec. 6, 1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Annapolis, Md., March 9, 1865; vet. PRIVATES. Bish, Jacob, m. i. s. Dec. 7, 1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., July 5, 1864; grave 2913, vet. Mohney, Franklin, m. i. s. Dec. 7, 1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died; buried Nat. Cem., Millen, Ga., sec. A., grave 107. Slagle, Lemuel C., m. i. s. Dec. 7, 1861; wounded in action Jan. 27, 1864; trans. to Co. A, 18th reg. Vet. Res. Corps; dis. on surgeon's certificate March 27, 1865; vet. Springer, John, m. i. s. Dec. 7, 1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., Aug. 28, 1864; grave 7141. Waterson, Win. B., m. i. s. Dec. 7, 1861; prisoner from April 20, 1864; to April 21, 1865; dis. by G. O. June 2, 1865; vet. COMPANY G. OFFICERS. 1st Lieutenant Zachariah M. Cline, m. i. s. Jan. 10, 1862; pro. from 1st Sergt. to 2d Lt. Jan. 25, 1863, to 1st Lt. July 1, 1863; killed at Ply mouth, N. C., April 18, 1864. Sergeant Wm. J. Stuchell, m. i. s. Jan. 10, 1862; dis. Musician Saul H. Hagerty, m. i. s. Jan. 10, 1862. PRIVATES. Gourley, Geo. M., m. i. s. Jan. 10,1862; prisoner from April 20 to Dec. 7, 1864; absent on fur. at m. o.; vet. Kron, John R., m. i. s. Jan. 10, 1862; prisoner from April 20 to Dec. 14, 1864; pro. to Com. Sergt. May 18, 1865; vet. Montgomery, Robt., m. i. s. Jan. 10, 1862; dis. Shakley, Geo., m. i. s. Sept. 7, 1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., July 25, 1864; grave 4012; vet. COMPANY K. [The members of this company, except when otherwise specified, were mustered into the service Oct. 28, 1861, and mustered out with the company June 25, 1865.] OFFICERS. Captain James Adams, m. i. s. Sept. 24, 1861; pro. from 1st Sergt. Co. B, Feb. 22,1862; trans. to Vet. Res. Corps Dec. 15, 1863; res. March 26, 1864. 2d Lieutenant Wm. B. Kroson, m. i. s. Nov. 11, 1861; pro. from private Co. D, Dec. 15, 1861; res. Aug. 2, 1862. Sergeant Alex. Duncan; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; absent on fur. at m. o.; vet. Sergeant David Baughman, prisoner from April 20, 1864, to April 28, 1865; dis. June 8 to date May 18, 1865; vet. Sergeant Henry Graff, dis. on surgeon's certificate. Sergeant Joseph Thom, trans. to Vet. Res. Corps. Musician Sylv's G. Rosansteel, m. i. s. Sept. 24, 1861; trans. to Co. A., Jan. 1, 1864; vet. PRIVATES. Allman, John, killed at Fair Oaks, Va., May 31, 1862. Burns, Thos., dis. exp. of term. Heasly, Harrison, m. i. s. Jan. 25,1862; dis. on surgeon's certificate. Hawk, John, dis. on surgeon's certificate, Feb. 18, 1862. Heasly, John, captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; vet. Kaemerer, H. W., died at Plymouth, N. C., Feb. 10, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem., Newbern, plot 7, grave 109. Knox, Thomas; died. M'Curdy, John W. C.; vet. Nelson, Geo. W., died in Hos. at Philadelphia, Pa., Sept. 5, 1862. Nelson, Andrew, m. i. s. Aug. 7, 1862; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., July 22, 1864; grave 3822. Porter, Jacob, dis. at Ladies' Home Hos., N. Y., July 28, 1864. Reed, Samuel, died at Yorktown, Va.; buried in Nat. Cem.-, sec. B, grave 233. Reeseman, Thomas C., m. i. s. Jan. 5, 1862; died at Point Lookout, Md., June 22, 1862. Smith, Thomas A., dis. exp. of term. Smith, Geo., m. i. s. Nov. 13, 1861; dis. on surgeon's certificate. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Shoop, Samuel, m. i. s. Dec. 5, 1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., Aug. 19, 1864; grave 6205; vet. Todd,Wm., m. i. s. Nov. 13,1861; captured at Plymouth, N. C., April 20, 1864; died at Andersonville, Ga., July 17, 1864; grave 3473; vet. Taylor, John, m. i. s. Feb. 12, 1862. Worchter, John; died at David's Island, N. Y., July 28, 1862. Weaver, Jacob, m. i. s. Oct. 30, 1861; died at Philadelphia, Pa., Aug. 21, 1862. ONE HUNDRED AND FOURTH REGIMENT, COMPANY K (NEW). This company was recruited in Armstrong county by Capt. Martin McCanna and Lieut. Joel Crawford after their term of service in the 78th regt. had expired. The company was mustered into the 104th regt. as a new company for one year of service, but actually served for only a little over six six months. [The men in this company (as well as those in the other new comrpanics of the 104th regt.) were mustered out August 25,1865, with the exception of those referred to in foot notes.] OFFICERS. Captain Martin McCanna, m. i. s. March 16, 1865. 1st Lieutenant Joel Crawford, m. i. s. March 16, 1865. 2d Lieutenant Samuel A. Bowser, m. i. s. March 16, 1865. 1st Sergeant Nelson Henry, m. i. s. Feb. 27, 1865. Sergeant Thomas M. Kuhn, m. i. s. March 15, 1865. Sergeant Wm. Martin, m. i. s. March 1, 1865. Sergeant James W. Jack, m. i. s. Feb. 27, 1865. Sergeant David G. Stewart, m. i. s. March 11, 1865. Sergeant Arch. M. Stewart,* m. i. s. March 11, 1865. Sergeant George S. Drake, m. i. s. March 14, 1865. Corporal John W. Unger, m. i. s. March 13, 1865. Corporal Win. W. Graham, m. i. s. March 14, 1865. Corporal Obediah Cratty, m. i. s. March 15, 1865. Corporal James Curry, m. i. s. March 13, 1865. Corporal Asa Crossman, m. i. s. March 13,1865. Corporal John Blain, m. i. s. March 13, 1865. Corporal Robert Beatty, m. i. s. March 1, 1865. Corporal Robert Pennington, m. i. s. March 3, 1865. Corporal William C. Griffin, m. i. s. March 2, 1865. Musician Phillip Young, m. i. s. March 11, 1865. Musician James E. Martin, m. i. s. March 10, 1865. PRIVATES. Anderson, Samuel T., m. i. s. March 10, 1865. Anderson, Jacob, m. i. s. March 15, 1865. Adams, Peter, m. i. s. March 7, 1865. Ammon, Peter T., m. i. s. March 7,1865. Aul, Casper,t m. i. s. March 13, 1865. Bengough, H. H., m. i. s. March 18, 1865. Brown, David A., m. i. s. March 9,1865. Beatty, Samuel A., m. s. March 9, 1865. Brunton, James M., m. i. s. March 11, 1865. Barickman, Abram, m. i. s. March 10, 1865. Barickman, Simon, m. i. s. March 10, 1865. Brandon, Pretley, m. i. s. March 10, 1865. Bean, Henry, m. i. s. March 13, 1865. Bush, Michael, March 13, 1865. Brunermer, Frederick, m. i. s. March 11,1865. Cloak, Andrew, m. i. s. March 10, 1865. Cooper, John, m. i. s. March 10, 1865. Croup, Jacob, m. i. s. March 15, 1865. Cowan, William, m. i. s. March 13,1865. Cousins, George W., m. i. s. March 10, 1865. Devo, Glendora, m. i. s. March 9, 1865. Ducket, Geo. W., m. i. s. Feb. 27, 1865. Edwards, Jas. C., m. i. s. Feb. 27, 1865. Fleming, John K., m. i. s. March 2, 1865. Henry, James F., m. i. s. March 2, 1865. * Dis. by G. O. May 30, 1865. t Dis. Aug. 9, 1865. Henry, Sylvester, m. i. s. March 10, 1865. Hancock, Lewis, m. i. s. March 10, 1865. Henshaw, Lewis, m. i. s. March 11,1865. Hogan, James H., m. i. s. Feb. 27, 1865. Hawk, Alfred T., m. i. s. Feb. 27, 1865. Hammond, T. J.,* m. i. s. March 10, 1865. Jack, Chambers, m. i. s. Feb. 27, 1865. Klingensmith, N. K., m. i. s. March 13, 1865. Leedom, James M., m. i. s. March 10, 1865. Lemmon, Andrew, m. i. s. March 11, 1865. Morgan, Josiah, m. i. s. March 9, 1865. Morgan, Henry, m. i. s. March 10, 1865. Montgomery, R. B., m. i. s. March 10, 1865. Moyer, John, m. i. s. March 14, 1865. Moore, John W., m. i. s. March 14, 1865. Miller, John M., m. i. s. Feb. 27, 1865. May, John,t m. i. s. Feb. 20, 1865. McDonald, Jas. A., m. i. s. March 9, 1865. MeCollister, J. M., m. i. s. March 11, 1865. McKain, David, m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1865. McKain, Abner, m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1865. Pence, Washington, m. i. s. March 2, 1865. Pearce, Samuel A., m. i. s. March 11, 1865. Parke, Robert, m. i. s. March 10, 1865. Quigley, John, m. i. s. March 6, 1865. Ralston, John, m. i. s. March 13, 1865. Ridgley, George, m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1865. Rowley, William,T m. i. s. Feb. 27, 1865. Sprankler, W. H. B., m. i. s. March 13, 1865. Spencer, Jas. R., m. i. s. March 13, 1865. Stewart, William, m. i. s. March 13, 1865. Sowers, Adam, m. i. s. March 14, 1865. Stevenson, James, m. i. s. March 11, 1865. Sarver, Abraham, m. i. s. March 11, 1865. Saylvas, William, m. i. s. Feb. 27, 1865. Swartzwelder, Isaac, m. i. s. March 13, 1865. Sypes, Robert M., m. i. s. Feb. 27, 1865. Swan, George, m. i. s. March 13, 1865. Toomey, Daniel, m. i. s. March 3, 1865. Wolf, Solomon P., m. i. s. March 9, 1865. Wolf, George, m. i. s. March 14, 1865. Wolf, Lewis J., m. i. s. March 9, 1865. Wilson, Alexander, m. i. s. March 11, 1865. White, John T., m. i. s. March 13, 1865. Wyant, Martin, m. i. s. Feb. 27, 1865. Wray, William, m. i. s. Feb. 27, 1865. Yount, Abraham, m. i. s. March 14, 1865. Young, John, m. i. s. March 13, 1865. ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-NINTH REGIMENT. Companies B and C of this regiment were almost entirely made up of Armstrong men, and E and F contained each a small number. The greatest number of recruits was supplied by Allegheny county, but there were nearly two companies from Beaver and Mercer. The 139th was organized at the place of rendezvous, Camp Howe, near Pittsburgh, September 1, 1862, when the defeat of the Union army at Bull Run had made apparent the need of reinforcement. The field officers elected were Frederick H. Collier, colonel; James D. Owens, lieutenant colonel; William H. Moody, major. The regiment was immediately ordered to the front and departed on the evening of the day it was organized, receiving arms at Harrisburg on the 2d and arriving at Washington on the 3d. The first duty to which it was assigned was that * Died at Norfolk, Va., June 1,1865. t Died at Norfolk, Va., Aug. 10, 1865. 1 Died at Norfolk, Va., Aug. 23,1865. REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. of burying the Union dead left upon the field of Bull Run, which work being accomplished, the regiment was hurried forward after the main army, which was overtaken upon the 17th at Antietam. The 139th was at once put in line, but did not become engaged. The regiment was assigned to the 3d brigade, 3d division of the 6th corps. In the battle of Fredericksburg, December 13, the 6th corps was held in reserve and, beyond being under a heavy artillery fire, was not engaged. The regiment lost thirteen men killed. In the Chancellorsville campaign of May, 1863, the 139th, as a part of Gen. Wheaton's brigade, did splendid service and suffered severely, losing 123 men in killed, wounded and missing. July 1, when the great fight at Gettysburg opened, the 6th corps was resting thirty miles away, and, immediately upon receiving orders, marched to the scene of carnage. Wheaton's brigade arrived upon the 2d, and, forming with the 139th upon the extreme left of the line, swept across the open ground to the right of Little Round Top and over the rugged, wooded knoll to the right of the road leading over to the peach orchard, where it took up a position which it firmly held, checking the enemy in every attempt to penetrate the Union lines. The regiment participated in the campaign which was inaugurated after the return of the two armies to the valley of Virginia, and afterward went into winter quarters at Harper's Ferry. About the middle of March, 1864, it returned and rejoined the corps at Brandy Station, where it was transferred from the 3d to the 2d division. A number of recruits had been added during the winter, and the regiment presented an array of nearly its original strength. While moving forward to participate in the Wilderness campaign, and soon after crossing the Rapidan, the division was suddenly attacked and a two days' fight ensued, in which the federal force was victorious. The 139th, however, lost in killed and wounded 196, including nearly every commissioned officer. In the operations about Spottsylvania C. H., which lasted from May 8 to the 21st, the regiment bore a part, being almost constantly under fire and at times contesting the ground with the most determined bravery. At the North Anna, it was but lightly engaged, but at Cold Harbor the fighting was most bloody and heroic. June 15, the corps crossed the James and commenced operations in front of Petersburg. July 9, the corps was ordered to Washington to meet the enemy under Early, advancing triumphantly through Maryland. Early was repulsed easily and the corps was not engaged in any decisive action until Sheridan took command, when the hard-fought battles of Winchester, Fisher's Hill and Cedar Creek followed. "In this triumphant campaign, brilliant in victories beyond any other during the war, the 139th bore an honorable part, attesting its bravery by severe losses in every field." There being nothing more for it to do in the valley, the 6th corps returned, December 1, to its place in the lines before Petersburg, where it remained in quiet during the winter. March 25, 1865, the 139th took part in an assault upon the enemy's works. While the army was in front of Petersburg, Gen. Grant received from patriotic citizens the sum of $460 to be presented to that soldier who should be the first to plant the Union flag on the ramparts of Richmond, upon its downfall. Richmond was not taken by assault, but fell without resistance, as a consequence of the successful assault on Petersburg, April 2. Gen. Grant deemed that the donors' wishes would be best met by dividing the sum among the three color sergeants most conspicuous for gallantry in the three corps of the army most warmly engaged in the final struggle. One of those three men designated by the commander of the 6th corps was Sergeant David W. Young, of Co. E, 139th regt. The action on the part of the brigade in which this regiment was included was very spirited at the taking of Petersburg and a considerable loss was involved. Afterward, while pushing on to the support of Sheridan, the 6th corps had a sharp engagement with the confederate cavalry at Sailors' Creek. After the rebel army had surrendered, the regiment moved with other troops to the North Carolina border to support Sherman. But, Johnston soon after surrendering, hostilities ceased and the 139th returned by way of Richmond to the neighborhood of Washington, where it was mustered out June 21, 1865. COIPANY B. [All of the men of this company, except those otherwise designated, were mustered into service for a term of three years, upon Sept. 1, 1862, and were mustered out June 21, 1865.] OFFICERS. Captain James L. McKean, wounded at Spottsylvania C. H., Va., May 12,186; pro. to Lt. Col. July 4, 1864. Captain Daniel Crum, pro. from 1st Lt. July 6,1864; died Nov. 25 of wounds received at Cedar Creek, Va., Oct. 19, 1864. Captain Geo. A. Williams, pro. from 1st Sergt. to 2d Lt. April 23,1863; to 1st Lt. July 6, 1864; to Capt. Feb. 28, 1865; wounded at Flint's Hill, Va., Sept. 21, 1864; dis. by G. O. May 15,1865. First Lieutenant Andrew H. Stitt, pro. from Sergt. to 1st Sergt. April 24, 1863; to 1st Lt. Feb. 21, 1865. second Lieutenant Geo. Williams, res. March 21,1863. First Sergeant Geo. W. Robinson, pro. from Sergt. Feb. 21, 1865. Sergeant August T. Pontious, wounded with loss of arm at Peters burg, Va., June 19, 1864; absent at m. o. Sergeant D. W. Schrecenghost, wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864; pro. from Corp. Feb. 21, 1865. Sergeant Geo. H. Foster, wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864; pro. from Corp. Feb. 21, 1865. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Sergeant David Gilchrist, pro. to Corp. April 28, 1863; to Sergt. May 24, 1863; wounded at Spottsylvania C. H., Va., May 18,1864; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 15, 1865. Sergeant Win. C. Beatty, pro. to Corp. Oct. 15, 1862; to Sergt. April 23, 1863; trans. to Co. G, 6th reg., Vet. Res. Corps, Sept. 13, 1864; dis. by G. O. July 5,1865. Sergeant Alex. M. Elgin, died at Washington, D. C., May 21, 1863: Corporal Samson L. Cover, dis. by G. O. July 11, 1865. Corporal Washington Smith, wounded at Flint's Hill, Va., Sept. 21, 1864. Corporal Geo. H. Kinnard, pro. to Corp. July 18, 1863; wounded at Wilderness May 5, 1864, and at Petersburg, Va.; absent at m. o. Corporal Elias Rupert, pro. to Corp. May 14, 1864. Corporal Daniel Yockey, pro. to Corp. Nov. 1, 1864. Corporal Ephraim Butler, wounded at Cedar Creek, Va., Oct. 19, 1864; pro. to Corp. Feb. 21, 1865. Corporal John Houser, pro. to Corp. July 18,1863; wounded at Peters burg, Va., April 2,1865; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 24,1865. Corporal HenryJ. Cogley, pro. to Corp. April 21, 1863; died June 17, 1863, of wounds received in action; buried in Mil. Asy. Cem., D.C. Corporal James Cogley, pro. to Corp. April 21, 1863; killed at Wilder ness May 5, 1864; buried in burial ground, Wilderness, Va. Corporal Louis S. Davis, pro. to Corp. May 21.1863; killed at Wilder ness, Va., May 5, 1864. Corporal Sam'l R. Rupp. PRIVATES. Anthony, James W., killed at Wilderness May 5, 1864. Altman, David, m. i. s. Jan. 25, 1864; killed at Cedar Creek, Va., Oct. 19, 1864. Allebaugh, Jos. A., died at Washington, D. C., May 13,1863, of wounds received in action. Bowser, Alex. M. Bouch, Win. B., wounded at Opequam, Va., Sept. 19, 1864; absent, in Hos., at m. o. Bowser, Alex. D., died at Washington, D. C., Feb. 13, 1863. Bowser, John R., died May 14 of wounds received at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864. Barr, Wm. M. Bowser, Jacob F., died near Falmouth, Va., April 15, 1863; buried in Nat. Cem., Arlington. Bouch, Buffington, died, Sept. 20, of wounds received at Opequam, Va., Sept. 19,1864. Cowan, Samuel T. Clingensmith, John. Cook, Benjamin S. Campbell, Andrew, m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1864; trans. to Co. E, 93d reg. Pa. Vol. June 21, 1865. Cunningham, John, m. i. s. March 17, 1864; trans. to Co. E, 93d reg. Pa. Vol. June 21, 1865. Claypool, John C., died near Falmouth, Va., March 27, 1863. Craig, John D., died at Danville, Va., Oct. 17, 1862. Cochran, Samuel, died Jan. 21, 1863. Crum, Geo. H., killed at Wilderness, May 5, 1864; buried in Wilder ness Burial Grounds, Va. Cochran, James B. Ellenbarger, Robert C. Ellenbarger, W. P. Edwards, Richard. Emery, John D., wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864; dis. Feb. 15, 1865. Farster, Jonathan, wounded at Petersburg, Va., March 25, 1865; dis. by G. O. July 6, 1865. Fuller, David J., trans. to Co. E, 93d reg. Pa. Vol. June 21, 1865. Fair, Chambers, died at Hagerstown, Md., Nov. 13,1862. George, Christopher, wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864; trans. to Co. E, 93d reg. Gray, Aaron, died at Washington, D. C., April 14, 1863; buried in Harmony Burial Grounds. Hileman, Joseph, wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864; absent, in Hos., at m. o. Hooks, Merchant B., wounded at Spottsylvania C. H., Va., May 1", 1864. Howser, Jos. R. Highfield, Reed J., dis. on surgeon's certificate May 22, 1863. Halem, Sylvanus, died near Baltimore Nov. 15, 1862; buried in Mili tary Asylum Cem., D. C. Houser, Jeremiah, trans. to 12th reg. Ind. Cay. Sept. 22, 1862. Hoover, Samuel M., trans. to Vet. Res. Corps Jah. 10, 1865. Highfield, Joseph, died April 18, 1863. Isaman, Henry, died at Philadelphia, June 28, of wounds received at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864. Kness, John, wounded at Petersburg, Va., March 25, 1865; dis. by G. O., June 21, 1865. Kennedy, Joseph. King, James H., trans. to Co. - 22d reg. Vet. Res. Corps, Nov. 15, 1863; dis. by G. O. July 3, 1865. Kunkle, Jacob L., died near Falmouth, Va., March 28, 1863. Kealer, Matthias. Love, John A. Linsinbigler, W. R., woundedat Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864; died at Washington, D. C., June 8, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem., Arling ton. Mock, Philander. Morrow, Thomas, died at Potomac creek, Va., May 11, 1863. McKean, Abner, dis. on surgeon's certificate, Jan. 12, 1863. McIntire, Stephen S., trans. to Vet. Res. Corps, Sept. 13,1864; dis. by G. O. Aug. 21, 1865. McMillen, Win., died, May 17, of wounds received at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864. Oliver, Alex. R. Painter, Henry. Rosenbarger, Fred. Rowe, Eli. Rearich, Leonard, trans. to 93d reg. Pa. Vol. June 21, 1865. Rupert, Absalom W., trans. to Co. E, 93d reg. Pa. Vol. June 21, 1865. Rhoads, Oliver M., killed at Flint's Hill, Va., Sept. 21, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem., Winchester, lot 9. Remely, Anthony H., died at Hancock, Md., Oct. 18,1862. Shearer, Jacob S. Shawl, Levi. Southorth, John B. Schrecenghost, J. M. Schrecenghost, H. L. Say, Abner D., wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864; absent, in hospital, at m. o. Sinclair, Win. J., dis. on surgeon's certificate, Sept. 21, 1864. Schrecenghost, John, dis. on surgeon's certificate, May 31, 1865. Spence, Thos. T., dis. by G. 0. June 2, 1865. Speane, Geo. W., trans. to Co. E, 93d reg. Pa. Vol., June 21,1865. Sinclair, Michael B., trans. to Vet. Res. Corps Sept. 15, 1864. Shawl, Stephen, died at Hagerstown, Md., Dec. 23, 1864. Timblin, Wmin. M. Timblin, Isaac B. Travis, Andra, trans. to Vet. Res. Corps, Sept. 10, 1863; dis. by G. O. July 5, 1865. Uplinger, John. Young, Daniel W., trans. to Vet. Res. Corps, June 15,1863. Williams, Geo. A. COMPANY C. [All of the men in this company, except those otherwise designated, were mustered into service Sept. 1, 1862, and mustered out with the company June 21, 1865. OFFICERS. Captain John G. Parr, wounded at Cold Harbor, Va., June 3, 1861; pro. to Lt. Col. July 6, 1864. Captain Samuel C. Crawford, pro. from 1st Sergt. to 1st Lt. Sept. 1, 1863; to Capt. July 6, 1864; Bt. Major April 2, 1865. First Lieutenant Wm. Fitzgerald, died Nov. 16, 1862. First Lieutenant John C. Sample, m. i. s. July 22, 1861; pro. from pri vate, Co. F 62d reg. Pa. Vol., to 2d Lt. March 11, 1863; to 1st Lt. July 6, 1864; to Capt. Co. I Feb. 4, 1865. Second Lieutenant Joseph W. Norris, com. 1st Lt. Feb. 8,-1863; not mustered; dis. on surgeon's certificate March 10, 1863. First Sergeant Samuel S. W. Steel, wounded at Flint's Hill, Va., Sept. 21, 1864; pro. from Corp. to 1st Sergt. Jan. 1, 1865; dis. on sur geon's certificate April 20, 1865. First Sergeant Harvey Park, pro. from Corp. to Sergt. July 1, 1863; to 1st Sergt. Sept. 2, 1863; wounded at Cold Harbor, Va., June 2, 1864; trans. to Vet. Res. Corps Dec. 30, 1864; dis. by G. O. Aug. 31, 1865. Sergeant John H. Giles, pro. to Corp. May 10, 1863; to Sergt. July 19, 1864; wounded at Cedar Creek, Va., Oct. 19, 1864; absent, in hos pital, at m. o. Sergeant Edward Armstrong, pro. to Corp. May 10, 1863; to Sergt. Jan. 1, 1865. Sergeant Andrew Mock, pro. to Corp. Aug. 1,1863; to Sergt. Jan. 1,1865. REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. Sergeant Samuel C. Davis, pro. from Corp. 1863; wounded at Wilder ness, Va., May 5, 1864; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 13, 1865. Sergeant John B. Lardin, pro. from Corp.; trans. to Vet. Res. Corps July 27, 1863. Sergeant James B. Parks, pro. from private; wounded at Gettysburg, Pa., July 3, 1863; died Aug. 8, 1863; buried in Nat. Cem., sec. C, grave 88. Sergeant Henry Harding, pro. from private May 4, 1863; wounded at Petersburg, Va., June 18, 1864; died June 25, 1864; buried at City Point. Sergeant James R. McQuilkin, pro. from Corp. to Sergt. Nov. 1, 1863; wounded at Wilderness May 5, 1864; died at Fredericksburg May 9, 1864. Sergeant Geo. W. Hawk, pro. from Corp. to Sergt. July 1, 1864; died at Pittsburgh Sept. 12, 1864. Corporal Daniel Shauer, pro. to Corp. Aug. 1, 1863; wounded at Spott sylvania C. H., Va., May 12, 1864. Corporal Alexander H. Giffin, pro. to Corp. Sept. 1, 1864. Corporal Solomon Peters, pro. to Corp. Sept. 1, 1864; wounded at Flint's Hill, Va., Sept. 21, 1864; absent, in hospital, at m. o. Corporal James Lynch, pro. to Corp. Jan., 1865. Corporal John McWhinney, pro. to Corp. Oct. 9, 1862; dis. on surgeon's certificate June 20, 1863. Corporal Joseph Walker, pro. to Corp. 1863; wounded at Opequam, Va., Sept. 19, 1864; dis. on surgeon's certificate April 20, 1865. Corporal Thomas A. Templeton, pro. to Corp. Aug. 24, 1863; trans. to Vet. Res. Corp Jan. 1, 1865; dis. by G. O. June 29, 1865. Corporal Thomas Ogden, pro. to Corp. Sept. 1, 1864; killed at Ope. quam, Va., Sept. 19, 1864. Musician Graves S. Crosby. Musician James A. Bair. PRIVATES. Artman, Jonathan, wounded at Cold Harbor, Va., June 2, 1864; pris oner from March 27 to May 15, 1865. Barrickman, D. R. P. Blase, Hamilton, dis. by G. O. May 15, 1865. Bryant, Wm., dis. by G. 0. May 13, 1865. Burtch, Sam'l S. W., wounded at Spottsylvania C. H., Va., May 12, 1864; trans. to Vet. Res. Corps Jan. 10, 1865; dis. by G. 0. July 3, 1865. Critzer, Abraham, dis. on surgeon's certificate, Feb. 23, 1863. Cline, Simon H., wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864; trans. to Co. F, 19th reg. Vet. Res. Corps, Sept. 30, 1864; dis. by G. O. July 13, 1365. Conley, Henry Y., not on m. o. roll. Dout, John S. Doyle, Moses, prisoner from May 7, 1864, to April 14, 1865. Donaldson, Samuel, m. i. s. Sept. 19, 1864; not on m. o. roll. Evans, Benjamin, prisoner from May 7,1864, to Feb. 20, 1865. Forninger, Abraham. Fowler, Jacob M. Frank, John, wounded at Petersburg, Va., March 25, 1865; absent in hospital, atm. o. Ford, John. Fiscus, Win. W., wounded at Fredericksburg, Va., Dec. 13, 1862; dis. or.surgeon's certificate Feb. 1863. Ferry, John C., died April 12, 1863. Graham, Robert, wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864. Gourley, Geo., died Jan. 12, 1863. Grinder, Sam'l, died at Pittsburgh,Dec. 25, 1864. Gibb, Mitchell, wounded at Petersburgh, Va., April 2, 1865; died May 9, 1865; buried in Nat. Cem., Arlington. Haines, John H. Hawk, Geo. A. Jack, Labanna S., wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864. Kennedy, Edward G. Klingensmith, J. W., wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864; dis. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 24, 1864. Kepple, Lemuel A., wounded at Salem Heights, Va., May 3, 1863; trans. to Co. F, 24th reg. Vet. Res. Corps, March 7, 1864; dis. by G. O. June 23, 1865. Kerr, Valentine, wounded at Gettysburg, Pa., July 2, 1863; trans. to Vet. Res. Corps, 1864. Klingensmith, J. A., died Dec. 2, 1862. Lessig, Joseph F., wounded at Fort Stevens, D. C., July 11, 1864; trans. to Co. G, 14th reg. Vet. Res. Corps; dis. by G. O. June 26, 1865. Long, John J., wounded at Spottsylvania C. H., Va., May 12, 1864; absent, in hospital, at m. o. Long, Jacob M., dis. by G. O. July 17, 1865. Lookabaugh, E. E., wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864. Long, Robert, dis. on surgeon's certificate March 3, 1864. Layton, John, trans. to Vet. Res. Corps Oct. 2, 1863. Long, Geo. W., wounded at Salem Heights, Va., May 3, 1863; died at Washington, D. C., Sept. 19, 1863. Long, -William, killed at Cold Harbor, Va., June 3, 1864. Myers, Christopher F. Mullen, Mahlon L., wounded at Spottsylvania C. H., Va., May 12, 1864; trans. to Vet. Res. Corps Jan. 10, 1865. Maypole, Wm. F., wounded at Spottsylvania C. H., Va., May 12,1864; trans. to Vet. Res. Corps Jan. 10, 1865. Maypole, John D., wounded at Spottsylvania C. H., Va., May 12,1864; trans. to Vet. Res. Corps Jan. 10, 1865. Maculey, George L., killed at Salem Heights, Va., May 3, 1863. McQuilkin, John, dis. on surgeon's certificate June 10, 1863. Mc Whinney, H., wounded at Spottsylvania C. H., Va., May 12, 1864; dis. on surgeon's certificate April 27, 1865. McKee, Robert W., wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 19, 1865. McKee, James F., trans. to Signal Corps Nov. 15, 1863. McIntire, James C., wounded at Salem Heights, Va., May 3, 1863; trans. to Vet. Res. Corps Feb. 11, 1864; dis. by G. O. July 3,1865. McKean, J. C. M., died, May 13, of wounds received at Spottsylvania C. H., Va., May 9, 1864. McKee, James, died, June 6, of wounds received at Cold Harbor, Va., June 3, 1864. Novinger, Isaac. Phillips, John, dis. on surgeon's certificate May 4, 1863. Parks, Robert, died at Martinsburg, W. Va., Oct. 23, of wounds received at Cedar Creek Oct. 19, 1864. Ross, Daniel B. Rupert, John C., wounded at Spottsylvania C. H. May 12, 1864; dis. by G. 0. June 6,1865. Schriber, Geo. W. Slease, Jacob. Spang, Oliver, wounded at Fort Stevens, D. C., July 11, 1864; absent, in Hos., at m. o. Stewart, Samuel B., wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864; dis. by G. 0. May 31, 1865. Straywick, Hugh M. Schrock, David F., wounded at Spottsylvania C. H., Va., May 12, 1864; dis. on surgeon's certificate May 19, 1865. Stewart, Win. R., dis. by G. O. May 12,1865. Scott, Alexander, wounded at Gettysburg, Pa., July, 2, 1863; trans. to Vet. Res. Corps July 11, 1864; dis. by G. O. July 3, 1865. Stitt, Win. J., trans. to Co. C, 93d reg. Pa. Vol. June 21, 1865. Shauer, William, wounded at Spottsylvania C. H., Va., May 12, 1864; trans. to Vet. Res. Corps Jan. 10, 1865; dis. by G. O. July 10,1865. Straywick, Jacob W., killed at Salem Heights, Va., May 3, 1863. Stivison, Wm. F., died, May 14, of wounds received at Spottsylvania C. H., Va., May 12, 1864. Sederick, Thomas M., captured; died at Andersonville prison, Ga., Aug. 15, 1864; grave 5699. Smith, Enoch W. Templeton. John, dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865. Toomey, David, wounded at Spottsylvania C. H., Va., May 12, 1864; m. o. with Co. Templeton, James S., dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 23, 1863. Weniel, Jos. J. COMPANY E. [The members of this company, except when otherwise specified, were mustered into the service Sept. 21, 1862, and mustered out with the company June 21, 1865.] OFFICERS. Captain A. S. Warner, m. i. s. as 1st Sergt. on organization of Co.; pro. to 1st Lt. Nov. 2, 1863; pro. to Capt. July 1, 1862; brvtd Major at battle of Wilderness May 5 and 6,1864; wounded at Cold Har bor, Va., June 2, 1864; wounded at Cedar Creek, Va., Oct. 19, 1864. First Lieutenant I. A. Pearce, m. i. s. as 1st Lt. at organization of Co.; appointed Chap. of reg. July 18, 1863; wounded at Fredericks burg, Va., May 2, 1863. First Sergeant H. G. Owens, pro. to Corp. March 1, 1863; to Sergt. July 1, 1863; to 1st Sergt. Dec. 31, 1864; wounded at Winchester, Va., Sept. 19, 1864. Sergeant D. W. Young, appointed Color Sergt. March 30, 1864; wounded at Fisher's Hill Sept. 22, 1864; wounded at Peters burg, Va., April 2,1865. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. Sergeant John Burket, pro. to Sergt. July 1, 1864. Corporal Michael Anderson, dis. at close of war. Corporal Sam'I A. Gray, dis. at close of war. Corporal Geo. W. Belles, dis. at close of war. Corporal Erastus C. Smith, wounded at Salem Heights May 3, 1863. Corporal John H. Anderson, died at Apollo, Pa., Jan. 14, 1864. Corporal Jas. H. Cochran, killed at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864; buried in burial grounds, Wilderness. Corporal Chas. S. Whitworth, wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 5,1864; killed at Cedar Creek, Va., Oct. 19, 1864. Musician Thompson C. Kerr, dis at close of war. Musician Robt. C. Alexander, dis. at close of war. PRIVATES. David Bair, m. i. s. Aug. 22, 1862; dis. at close of war. John Bash, m. o. with Co. David Ford. David B. Freetley, wounded at Salem Heights May 3, 1863, and at Spottsylvania C. H. May 12, 1864. Henry F. Gray, wounded in front of Fort Stevens, D. C., July 12, 1864. Jas. S. Graham, wounded on Salem Heights May 3, 1863; captured Oct. 14, 1863; ex. May 5, 1864. John Jones. John T. Cerr. John Lininger. Joseph Miller. Jas. Rumbaugh, wounded at Cedar Creek, Va., Oct. 19,1864. John A. Shirley, wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 5,1864, and in action before Petersburg, Va., April 2, 1865. Harvey W. Withington, dis. at Frederick City, Md. Paul Wilmot. S. C. Wilson, captured at Fredericksburg, Va., May 5,1863. A. J. Wilson. A. J. Wilmot. Smith Jack, dis. Feb. 26, 1863. Kelley D. Cochran, dis. Dec. 23, 1862. Lewis B. Cupps, dis. Sept. 14, 1863. Jacob B. Eakman, wounded at Salem Heights May 3, 1863, and at Wilderness May 6, 1864; dis. Nov. 28, 1864. S. F. Hildebrand, dis. special order June 7, 1865. Wesley George, wounded at Spottsylvania C. H. May 12, 1864; dis. Dec. 23, 1864. J. C. Guthrie, wounded at Cold Harbor June 3, 1864, and at Win chester Sept. 19, 1864; dis. April 12, 1865. Augustus Slusher, dis. Feb. 1, 1863. Alfred Verner, dis. Feb. 20, 1863. J. B. Wilson, dis. Jan. 14, 1863. Jas. Stiveson, trans, to Vet. Res. Corps June 9, 1865; m. o. with Co. Jas. Johnston, trans. to Vet. Res. Corps Oct.26,1863; dis. by G. O. July 20, 1865. Washington Anderson, killed at Cold Harbor, Va., June 3, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem., sec. A. Hugh Kerr, died, Sept. 18, of wounds received at Fort Stevens, D. C., July 12, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem., Arlington, Va. Wm. G. Risher, died, July 15, of wounds received at Fort Stevens, D.C., July 12, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem., Arlington, Va. Samuel L. Spicher, killed at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864. Reuben Freshwater. Jas. M. Stevenson, trans. to Co. E, 9th reg. Vet. Res. Corps, Jan. 10, 1865; dis. by G. O. July 19, 1864. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-FIFTH REGIMENT. Nearly all of the men in Company K of this regiment were from Armstrong. The regiment was recruited in Allegheny county in the summer of 1862, moved to the front in September and first met the enemy in the battle of Fredericksburg. Subsequently it was at Gettysburg, the Wilderness, Laurel Hill, Taloptomy, Cold Harbor, Ream's Station, Peebles' Farm, Hatcher's Run, Dabney's Mills, Gravelly Run, Five Forks, Sailor's Creek and Appomattox Court House, beside some smaller engagements. Throughout its three years term of service the 155th conducted itself gallantly and received much praise from corps, division and brigade commanders. COMPANY K. [Nearly all of the men in this company were mustered into service Sept. 3, 1862, and mustered out with the company June 2, 1865. In those cases which were exceptions to this rule the date of muster is given following the name.] OFFICERS. Captain John A. Cline, m. i. s. Sept. 11, 1862; pro. to Major Jan. 23, 1865. Captain Benjamin Huey, m.i. s. July 25, 1861; pro. from 1st Lt. Feb. 15, 1865. First Lieutenant Risdon DeFord, m. i. s. Sept. 4, 1862; res. Sept. 9, 1863. First Lieutenant John A. H. Foster, pro. from. Sergt. to 2d Lt. July 3, 1864; to 1st Lt. Feb. 15, 1865. Second Lieutenant Wm. W. Caldwell, mn. i. s. Sept. 11, 1862; res. Nov. 23, 1863. Second Lieutenant David Brown, pro. from 1st Sergt. Nov. 24, 1862; res. March 9,1863. Second Lieutenant D. Porter Marshall, pro. from 1st Sergt. March 7, 1865; Bt. 1st Lt., Capt. and Major March 13, 1865. First Sergeant D. B. Kirkpatrick, pro. from Corp. to Sergt. Dec. 1, 1862; to 1st Sergt. March 7, 1865. Sergeant John D. Armstrong, pro. from Corp. April 1, 1863. Sergeant William D. Porter, pro. to Corp. April 1,1863; to Sergt. March 7, 1865. Sergeant John A Richey, dis. on surgeon's certificate March 29, 1863. Sergeant Robert O. Clever, wounded at Petersburg, Va. June 18,1864; dis. by G. O. May 29, 1865. Sergeant Frederick Sheckler, killed at North Anna river, Va., May 23, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem. at Richmond, see. C, division 3, grave 158. Corporal George H. Clever, pro. to Corp. Oct. 1, 1864. Corporal Robert P. Shields, pro. from Corp. Oct. 1, 1864. Corporal Spencer P. Barrett, pro. from Corp. Jan. 1, 1865. Corporal John C. Russell, pro. from Corp. Jan. 1, 1365. Corporal Sam'I Schrecenghost, pro. from Corp. March 7, 1865. Corporal Joseph L. Erving, dis. on Surgeon's certificate Sept. 1863. Corporal August Schmuck, m. i. s. Sept. 11, 1862; pro. to Capt. 41st reg. U. S. colored troops Sept. 29, 1864; dis. Sept. 30, 1865. Corporal K. G. Fleming, wounded at Five Forks, Va., April 1, 1865; absent, in hospital, at m. o. Corporal Adam L. Wilson, trans. to Vet. Res. Corps, July, 1863. Corporal Geo. A. Serene, trans. to Vet. Res. Corps, Dec., 1863. Corporal Win. E. McClure, died near Falmouth, Va., Nov. 20, 1862. Musician James H. Hill, m. o. with Co. Musician Geo. M. Smith. Musician James A. Galbraith, died March 2, 1863. Musician John L. Ferer, drowned April, 1865. PRIVATES. Bechtel, Abraham. Bell, Benjamin, dis. on surgeon's certificate, Feb. 17, 1863. Black, Win. G. L., trans. to 96th Co., 2d bat. Vet. Res. Corps, July, 1863; dis. by G. O. Sept. 2, 1865. Brewster, Robert, killed at Five Forks, Va., April 1, 1865; buried in Poplar Grove Nat. Cem., Petersburg, Va., div. A, sec. D, grave 4. Bryan, John M. Cogley, Daniel. Crawford, John J., wounded at Peeble's farm, Va., Sept. 30, 1864; absent, in hospital, at mn. o. Chrisman William, wounded at Five Forks, Va., April 1, 1865; absent, in hospital, at m. o. Cline, Win. F., m. i. s. Dec. 24, 1863; trans. to Co. K, 191st reg. Pa. Vol., June 2,1865. Cowan, John, killed at Gettysburg, Pa., July 3, 1863. Carney, John, died March 4, 1865. Calhoun, Eph A., killed at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864. Crogle, Jacob, died at Stoneman's Switch, Va., Dec. 4,1863. Campbell, John, died at Frederick, Md., Nov. 9, 1863; buried in Nat. Cem., Antietam, Sec. 26, lot E, grave 464. Eaton, Benjamin B., died at Acquia Creek, Va., Jan. 20, 1863. Fitzgerald, John R., dis. on surgeon's certificate March 29, 1863. REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. Fleming, John A., killed at Chancellorsville, Va., May 3, 1863. Gray, Oliver. Gray, Calvin, killed at Peeble's farm, Va., Sept. 30, 1864. buried in Poplar Grove Nat. Cem., Petersburg, div. E, sec. E, grave 409. Hawk, Daniel C. Hetrick, George J. Hetrick, August J. Hetrick, Peter C., prisoner from June 2 to Nov. 20, 1864. Hartman, Christ, dis. on surgeon's certificate Feb. 22, 1863. Hanegan, Geo. L., absent, in hospital, at mn. o. Henderson, James R., trans, to Vet. Res. Corps June, 1864. Hayes, James W., trans. to Vet. Res. Corps July, 1863. Howser, Daniel, died at Stoneman's Switch, Va., Jan. 12, 1863. Hayes, Wmin. B., died at Frederick, Md., Nov. 19, 1862; buried in Nat. Cem., Antietam, sec. 26, lot E, grave 456. Hosack, Thomas, killed at Laurel Hill, Va., May 8, 1864. Johnson, Win. J., died at Washington, D. C., July 11, of wounds re ceived at North Anna river, Va., May 25, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem., Arlington. Kirkpatrick, D. C., dis. on surgeon's certificate March 28, 1863. Logan, Charles A. Moore, John. Mahan, Wmin. R., dis. by G. O. July 27, 1865. Moore, Isaac L., died at Frederick, Md., Nov. 15, 1862; buried in Nat. Cem., Antietam, sec. 26, lot E, grave 463. Marshall, David, died Feb. 11, 1863. McGaughey, R. L. McGregor, William. McCullough, William, killed at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864. McCloskey, D. L., died at Washington, D. C., June 15, of wounds re ceived at Spottsylvania C. H., Va., May 10, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem., Arlington. Nicely, George. Nichols, Charles. Ollinger, David, killed at Petersburg, Va., June 18,1864. Pettigrew, John, dis. on surgeon's certificate Nov. 26, 1861. Reed, Gasper. Reesman, Win. H., wounded at Wilderness, Va., May 5, 1864; dis., date unknown. Ruffner, David H., wounded at Petersburg, Va., June 18,1864; absent, in hospital, at m. o. Ramsey, Win. B., dis. on surgeon's certificate March 30, 1863. Smith, Charles M. Sproul, Martin V. B., wounded at Five Forks, Va., March 31, 1865; absent, in hospital, at m. o. Shoemaker, Joseph, dis. on surgeon's certificate March 31, 1863. Schrecenghost, Simeon, died at Frederick, Md., Dec. 7, 1862; buried in Nat. Cem., Antietam. Schreckler, George, died at Stonerman's Switch, Va., Feb. 5, 1863. Thompson, George W., died at Washington, D. C., Nov. 29, 1863. Upperman, Henry. Whited, William. Whited, Samuel. Wells, William W., wounded at Laurel Hill, Va., May 8, 1864; absent, in hospital, at m. o. Whittaker, Williamrn, dis. on surgeon's certificate Jan. 27, 1863. Walf, David, wounded at Petersburg, Va., June 18, 1864; absent, in hospital, at m. o. Walker, John S., dis. Feb. 16, 1863. ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-NINTH REGIMENT-FOUR TEENTH CAVALRY. August 18, 1862, Lieut. James M. Schoonmaker, of the 1st Maryland Cavalry, but a citizen of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, was authorized by Secretary of War Stanton and Gov. Curtin to recruit a battalion of cavalry of five companies. Recruits came in so rapidly that on the 29th the authority was extended to the recruiting of a full regiment of twelve companies. The companies were composed chiefly of men from Allegheny, Armstrong, Butler, Erie, Fayette, Lawrence, Washington and Warren counties. Companies K and L were principally, 6 and Company M entirely, composed of Armstrong men, and, for that reason, a brief outline of the history of the regiment is here inserted. The regiment rendezvoused first at Camp Howe and subsequently at Camp Montgomery, near Pittsburgh, where, on November 24, organization was effected, with the following officers: colonel, James M. Schoonmaker; lieutenant colonel, William Blakeley; majors,Thomas Gibson, Shadrach Foley and John M. Daily. On the same day, the regiment moved toward Hagerstown, Maryland, and from thence to Harper's Ferry, where it remained on picket duty, varied with an occasional skirmish with the guerrilla bands which infested that region, until May, 1863, when it was sent to Grafton, on the Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, and attached to the mounted command of Gen. Averill. The service at this time consisted in holding the towns of Beverly, Phillipi and Webster against a body of the enemy's cavalry. The 14th was held at Phillipi, and the remainder of the command at Webster and Beverly. The force at the latter place was surrounded by a brigade of the enemy. The 14th marched to their relief, and after a toilsome march reached the town early in the morning. A short skirmish took place and the enemy was compelled to withdraw. After this time, Gen. Averill's command was engaged on the Upper Potomac during the Gettysburg campaign; also at the Greenbrier White Sulphur Springs, where the 14th distinguished itself by repulsing three determined charges of the enemy. It was in the Droop Mountain raid and some smaller engagements. At Craig's creek, where Gen. Averill and his command seemed doomed to certain capture, hie skillfully eluded the enemy, and no less thllan seven times in twenty-four hours the artillery was dragged by hand through the creek, which was deep and filled with floating ice. In November, 1863, the 14th, by the destruction of the bridge over the Jackson river, was cut off from the main troops, and Gen. Early sent in a flag of truce demanding its surrender. Although surrounded by adverse circumstance, the men of the 14th reg. were not the kind to weakly yield, but setting fire to the train and fording the river, they made their escape and rejoined the command, which swam the Greenbrier that same night, crossed the Alleghenies by an old bridle-path, and, finally, after a march of five days over almost impassable roads, where the men were compelled to walk, reached Beverly. From this point, the command went to Martinsburg and into winter quarters. In recognition of the great service which the command had performed, the War DeHISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. partment gave to each man a new suit of clothes as a gift from the government, the only instance of the kind during the war. The command was engaged on picket duty all of that winter, and arduous duty it was, too. In the spring of 1864, Gen. Averill's command undertook a movement through Virginia, which was successfully accomplished after great difficulty. While on this march, the soldiers of the 14th, on one occasion, were without food for five days, and many died from hunger. The last portion of the service in which this regiment was engaged included the battle of Moorefield and those brilliant engagements under Sheridan, which have made his name famous. April 20, 1865, the regiment went to Washington, D. C., and on June 11, to Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, where it was consolidated into a battalion of six companies. The date of the muster out was August 24, 1865, and the companies returned in a body to Pittsburgh, where they disbanded. During all the campaigns in which it was engaged, the 159th lost about eighty men killed and more than 200 wounded, besides many reported missing. FIELD AND STAFF. Lieutenant Colonel Win. Blakeley, mn. i. s. Nov. 24, 1862; res. June 6, 1865. Lieutenant Colonel John M. Dailey, m. i. s. Nov. 24, 1862; pro. from Major June 28, 1865; dis. Sept. 22, 1865. Veterinary Surgeon Joseph Miller, m. i. s. Nov. 23, 1862; pro. from private Co. E Nov. 23, 1862; dis. by G. O. May 31, 1865. Quartermaster Sergeant John W. Barclay, m. i. s. Sept. 30, 1862; pro. from Q. M. Sergt. Co. L Oct. 22, 1862; to 2d Lt. Co. C June 6,1864. Quartermaster Sergeant George S. Matthews, m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1864; pro. from private Co. L. June 1, 1865; dis. by G. O. July 31,1865. Hospital Steward William Todd, m. i. s. Oct. 25, 1862; pro. from pri vate Co. L Nov. 9, 1862; dis. by G. O. July 31, 1865. Hospital Steward Cyrus Goss, m. i. s. Nov. 23, 1862; pro. from private Co. K June 1, 1865; dis. by G. O. July 31, 1865. COMPANY K. [It will be observed that a large number of men in this company are marked "not accounted for "-a circumstance which doubtless arose from an imperfection in the muster-out roll. As a matter of fact nearly all of these men were mustered out with the company, or discharged at the expiration of their term of service by General Order. The men were mustered into service November 23, 1862, except where otherwise noted.] OFFICERS. Captain David K. Duff, m. i. s. Nov. 14, 1862; captured and wounded with loss of arm at Ashly's Gap, Va., Feb. 19, 1865; dis. May 15, 1865. Captain James L. Kelley, m. i. s. Nov. 18, 1862; pro. from 2d to 1st Lt. Jan. 26, 1865; to Capt. June 8, 1865; trans. to Co. B July 31, 1865. Commissary Sergeant David Wright; not accounted for. Sergeant David K. Armstrong, trans. to Co. B July 31, 1865. Sergeant James G. Rankin, m. i. s. March 15, 1864; trans. to Co. B, July 31, 1865. Sergeant Will C. Ames, m. i. s. Nov. 23, 1862; not accounted for. Sergeant William R. Cowan, m. i. s. Nov. 23, 1862; not accounted for. Sergeant Marsh Johnston, m. i. s. Nov. 23, 1862; not accounted for. Corporal Henry F. Russell, m. i. s. March 3, 1864; trans. to Co. -July 31, 1865. Corporal Geo. S. Frailey, not accounted for. Corporal Jos. Case, not accounted for. Corporal Win. Morrow, not accounted for. Corporal James J. Frazier, not accounted for. Corporal David Martin, not accounted for. Corporal Henry P. Lewis, not accounted for. Corporal Win. Pears, not accounted for. Corporal Moses Miller, not accounted for. Farrier John E. Stoughton. Farrier David McCullough, wounded at Gilmore's Mill, in charge, June 13, 1863; m. o. with Co. Saddler William R. Campbell, dis. by G. O. May 31, 1865. PRIVATES. Aultman, John S., m. i. s. Feb. 24, 1864; trans. to Co. B July 31,1865. Akey, John, not accounted for. Angle, Peter, died at Andersonville, Ga., May 28, 1864; grave 1436. Anstead, John A., not accounted for. Altman, Solomon, m. i. s. Feb. 23, 1864; not accounted for. Burns, Win. J., m. i. s. Sept. 10, 1864; dis. by G. O. June 23, 1865. Briggs, Samuel W., m. i. s. Nov. 14, 1862; dis. by G. O. June 6, 1865. Bowser, John F., m. i. s. Feb. 29, 1864; trans. to Co. B July 31, 1865. Bouch, John G., died Aug. 23,1864; buried in London Park Nat. Cem., Baltimore, Md. Blakely, W. Brown, John, not accounted for. Bodenhorn, Jacob J., not accounted for. Bellos, John, not accounted for. Brown, Noah H., not accounted for. Bodenhorn, H. J., not accounted for. Barrett, Samuel E., not accounted for. Cox, John R., mn. i. s. Feb. 27, 1864; dis. by G. O. June 6, 1865. Cougherty, John, trans. to Co. B July 31, 1865. Caldwell, Samuel A., captured; died at Andersonville, Ga., May 19, 1864, grave 1206. Cravener, Simon P., captured; died at Andersonville, Ga., May 19, 1864, grave 837. Cooper, Jeremiah, died at Frederick, Md.; buried in Mt. Olivet Cem. Cable, Montgomery, not accounted for. Clark, Loven G. Chamberlain, Jacob, not accounted for. Felt, John, not accounted for. Frailey, Daniel, not accounted for. Farringer, Philip, not accounted for. Grim, Adam W., died Nov. 13, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem., Antietam, Md., sec. 26, lot F, grave 607. Gardner, Geo. W., not accounted for. Garner, William, not accounted for. George, David A., killed at White Sulphur Springs, Va., Aug. 26, 1863. Goheen, James M., not accounted for. Goss, Cyrus, pro. to Hospital Steward Jan. 1, 1865. Gibson, Samuel M., not accounted for. Geiger, Benj. D., not accounted for. Hepler, Milon, m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1864; trans. to Co. B, July 31, 1865. Henderson, John A., not accounted for. Hankey, James M., not accounted for. Hankey, Benj. W., not accounted for. Hayes, Jas. F., not accounted for. Hetrick, Joseph C., not accounted for. Haas, John, not accounted for. Harman, Andrew J., not accounted for. Henderson, Jacob, not accounted for. Harvey, Redick, not accounted for. Heffiefinger, V. S., m. i. s. Feb. 20, 1864; captured; died at Anderson ville, Ga., July 28, 1864; grave 4136. Heffiefinger, Win., m. i. s. Sept. 8, 1862; died at Philadelphia, Oct. 19, 1864. Irwin, John, m. i. s. March 29, 1864; trans. to Co. B, July 31, 1865. Irwin, Robert, not accounted for. Johnston, John A., not accounted for. Johnston, David, not accounted for. Jellison, Washington, not accounted for. Kness, Martin, not accounted for. Krider, Wmin. A., not accounted for. King, John, dis. by G. O. June 9, 1865. King, Thomas, m. i. s. April 7, 1863; dis. by G. O. June 9, 1865. Kilgore, James, not accounted for. King, David, not accounted for. King, Hamilton, not accounted for. King, Abraham, not accounted for. REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. Keiffer, Joseph, not accounted for. Lytle, Robert J., not accounted for. Lytle, Morrow, not accounted for. Martin, John F., captured; died at Andersonville, Ga., April 4, 1864; grave 361. Matthews, John W., not accounted for. Miller, Philip, trans. to 3d Co., 1st bat. Vet. Res. Corps; dis. by G. O. Sept. 1, 1865. Miller, Silas, not accounted for. Miller, John, not accounted for. Miller, Jacob S., not accounted for. McGregor, Joseph, m. i. s. Feb. 29, 1864; trans. to Co. B July 31, 1865. McClure, Jos., not accounted for. McCracken, R. A., not accounted for. Nolf, Zachariah, not accounted for. Nichols, Win. A., not accounted for. Pontious, Levena C., not accounted for. Pickering, Thos., not accounted for. Ritchie, James, m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1864; trans. to Co. B July 31, 1865. Reddick, James E., mi. i. s. March 10, 1864; died at Staunton, Va., July 6, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem., sec. A, grave 44. Rhodes, Solomon, not accounted for. Ross, Joseph, not accounted for. Rupert, Win. B., not accounted for. Shaum, Win. B., m. i. s. Feb. 23, 1864; trans. to Co. B July 31, 1865. Steffey, James H., m. i. s. Feb. 18, 1864; trans. to Co. B July 31, 1865. Speedy, Alexander, m. i. s. Nov. 23, 1864; not accounted for. Stockdill, Jacob, died atAnnapolis, Md., Aug. 18, 1864. Sell, Wm. H., died Aug. 17, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem., Antietam, Md., sec. 26, lot F, grave 606. Stallnman, David, not accounted for. Simms, Robert, not accounted for. Stoughton, Joseph, not accounted for. Thompson, Thos. W., not accounted for. Todd, George, not accounted for. Underburgh, H., not accounted for. Wissinger, Levi S., not accounted for. Westwood, John, not accounted for. Young, William, not accounted' for. Young, Robert, killed at White Sulphur Springs, Va., Aug. 26, 1863. COMPANY L. [It will be observed that a large number of men in this company are marked "not accounted for," a circumstance which doubtless arose from an imperfection in the muster-out roll. As a matter of fact, nearly all of the men so marked were mustered out with the company or discharged by general order. The date of muster into service, where not otherwise stated, was November 14, 1862. OFFICERS. Captain William H11. Tibbles, res. March 24, 1863. Captain R. M. Kiskadden, pro. from 1st Lt. Oct. 26, 1863; Bt. Major March 13, 1865; res. March 18, 1865. First Lieutenant David C. Beale, pro. from private to 1st Serg. Jan. 15, 1863; to 2d Lt. Nov. 22, 1863; to 1st Lt. May 20, 1865; dis. by G. O. July 31, 1865. Second Lieutenant Robert Wilson, pro. from private to 1st Serg. April 20, 1864; to 2d Lt. May 20, 1865; dis. by G.O. July 31, 1865. First Sergeant Robert W. Hunter, pro. from private to Serg. Feb. 20, 1863; to 1st Serg. June 1, 1865; dis. by G. O. July 31, 1865. First Sergeant,James M. Rhoney, trans. to Vet. Res. Corps; dis. by G. O. July 31, 1865. Quartermaster Sergeant Wmin. H. Boyd, not accounted for. Quartermaster Sergeant, John W. Barclay, m. i. s. Sept. 30, 1862; pro. to Reg. Q. M. Sergt. Oct. 22, 1862. Commissary Sergeant Win. Blain, not accounted for. Sergeant Jacob Bush, captured; died at Richmond, Va., Feb. 14, 1865. Sergeant Win. G. Rhoney, not accounted for. Corporal J. Milton Hill, not accounted for. Corporal Henry Franz, not accounted for. Corporal James W. Geary, not accounted for. Corporal Wm. C. Younkins, not accounted for. Corporal Valentine Beecher, not accounted for. Farrier Isaac Dickey, not accounted for. Farrier Jacob B. Kerr, not accounted for. Saddler John Bullmnan, not accounted for. PRIVATES. Aker, William, died Jan. 9, 1865; buried in Nat. Cemin., Antietam, Md., sec. 26, lot E, grave 543. Bonner, William, dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865. Bouch, Isaac, trans. to Co. E, July 31, 1865. Boyd, Harvey C., m. i. s. Feb. 29, 1864; trans. to Co. E, July 31, 1865. Burford, Jeremiah, died at Chambersburg, Pa., date unknown. Boyd, Abraham C., not accounted for. Boner, Robert, not accounted for. Bullman, Henry, not accounted for. Barr, Titus, died, date unknown; buried in Nat. Cem., Gallipolis, Ohio, grave 135. Beamer, John, not accounted for. Burford, Sam'l W., not accounted for. Clark, Sam'l M., not accounted for. Craig, T. F., not accounted for. Campbell, Jas. W., not accounted for. Colier, Joel, not accounted for. Clough, John, not accounted for. Duffey, Michael, not accounted for. Edwards, Edwin, not accounted for. Fox, Jacob, captured; died at Danville, Va., Dec. 9, 1864. Gruner, Henry C., not accounted for. Grinder, Jonathan. Garvin, John. Haines, Win. C., not accounted for. Hill, Joseph H., not accounted for. Helper, John, not accounted for. Henry, James, not accounted for. Hill, James B., not accounted for. Johnston, Thomas, not accounted for. Kinson, Matthias A., captured, died at Andersonville, Ga., June 29, 1864; grave 2639. Kennedy, Leoben. Lewis, John, captured; died at Andersonville, Ga., Oct. 26, 1864; grave 11465. Landis, David, not accounted for. Mock, Samuel, dis. by G. 0. May 19, 1865. Minteer, John, dis. by G. O. July 24, 1865. Minteer, Joseph. Milligan, Jos., captured; died at Richmond, Va., Nov. 27, 1863. Miller, John L., not accounted for. Matthews, John A., not accounted for. Monroe, James W., not accounted for. Murphey, Samuel, not accounted for. McLain, Geo. W., not accounted for. McNanney, Henry, not accounted for. McFadden, Michael, not accounted for. Rudolph, Isaac, not accounted for. Rhoads, George, not accounted for. Redd, John M., not accounted for. Rogaus, Francis A., not accounted for. Reynolds, Chas. L., not accounted for. Reyburn, James, not accounted for. Sloan, George, captured; died at Richmond, Va., Nov. 7, 1863. Smith, John H., not accounted for. Sepp, Wm., not accounted for. Shaffer, Hiram, not accounted for. Southworth, Samuel, not accounted for. Smith, H. Steele, not accounted for. Schalts, Wm. C., not accounted for. Sourwine, John D., not accounted for. Smith, Wm., not accounted for. Sweeney, Dennis, not accounted for. Todd, Wm., m. i. s. Oct. 25, 1862; pro. to Hospital Steward, Nov. 9, 1862. Vandyke, Win. H., not accounted for. Vandyke, Nathan S., m. i. s. Sept. 15, 1864; not accounted for. Yale, John, not accounted for. COMPANY M. [A large number of men in this company are marked "not accounted for" who, as a matter of fact, were either mustered out with the company or discharged by general order. This error, which it is now impossible to correct, doubtless had its origin in an imperfection of the muster-out roll. The date of muster into service, except where it is otherwise stated, was either Nov. 22 or 23, 1862. OFFICERS. Captain Charles W. E. Welty, trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. First Lieutenant Matthew Wilson, wounded and captured at White Sulphur Springs, Va., Aug. 26, 1863; com. Capt. Sept. 19, 1864; not mustered; died Sept. 19,1864, at Libby prison. HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. First Lieutenant Jacob Shoop, wounded at White Sulphur Springs, Va., Aug. 26, 1863; pro. from 2d Lt. Sept. 19, 1864; res. March 24, 1865. First Lieutenant David B. Coulter, pro. from 1st Sergt. to 2d Lt. Jan. 27, 1865; to 1st Lt. April 16, 1865; dis. by G. O. July 31, 1865. Second Lieutenant Milton McCormick, pro. from Sergt. to 1st Sergt. Jan. 1, 1865; to 2d Lt. May 19, 1865; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. First Sergeant James S. Mateer, pro. from Q. M. S. April 30, 1865; dis. by G. O. July 31, 1865. Quartermaster-Sergeant E. N. Campbell, pro. to Q. M. S. Jan. 1, 1865; dis. by G. O. July 31, 1865. Quartermaster-Sergeant George Klough, not accounted for. Commissary-Sergeant Clark McLaughlin, trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Commissary-Sergeant James Williams, not accounted for. Sergeant Benjamin T. Siple, trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Sergeant Samuel M. Kerr, m. i. s. Feb. 14, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Sergeant David S. Burnham, not accounted for. Sergeant Charles M. King, not accounted for. Sergeant James M. Clay, not accounted for. Corporal Aaron T. Crow, trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Corporal John Boyd, trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Corporal John A. Mikesell, m. i. s. Feb. 4, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Corporal Joseph E. Richey, m. i. s. Feb. 8,1864; trans. to Co. F July 31,1865. Corporal John Fleming, m. i. s. Feb. 1, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865; vet. Corporal Samuel A. Bryson, m. i. s. Feb. 6, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Corporal Daniel Wolf, not accounted for. Corporal David Richards, not accounted for. Corporal Joseph Garver, not accounted for. Corporal James G. Shaw, not accounted for. Corporal Joshua Groft, not accounted for. Corporal Henry Young, not accounted for. Corporal James Watterson, not accounted for. Corporal Charles McManus, not accounted for. Blacksmith John Dunmire, not accounted for. Farrier Michael Frick, m. i. s. March 31,1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Farrier John P. Graham, not accounted for. PRIVATES. Alexander, David, dis. by G. O. June 9, 1865. Altman, Francis S., nm. i. s. Feb. 29, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Aharah, Robert, not accounted for. Buzzard, Lewis D., trans, to Co. F July 31, 1865. Beer, Samuel, died April 6, 1863; buried in Nat. Cem., Antietam, Md., sec. 26, lot E, grave 502. Bouch, Isaac, died April 28,1864; buried in Nat. Cem., Antietam, Md., see. 26, lot F, grave 629. Barnhart, Geo. W., not accounted for. Barrett, David, not accounted for. Bish, Josiah M., not accounted for. Bowers, Johnston R., not accounted for. Barrett, David, m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1864; not accounted for. Cogley, David D., m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1864; dis. by G. O. May 30, 1865. Cowan, Gilmore, dis. by G. 0. May 22, 1865. Carson, John, not accounted for. Campbell, Edward, not accounted for. Crozier, Samuel, not accounted for. Dodson, Andrew, m. i. s. Feb. 26, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Dunbar, James, not accounted for. Dunbar, John, captured; died at Andersonville, Ga., Aug. 6, 1864; grave 4897. Dunmire, Isaac, not accounted for. Dodson, Samuel, m. i. s. Sept. 19, 1864; not accounted for. Dailey, John M. Evans, Abraham, trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Earley, John A., m. i. s. July 12, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Forster, Absalom, m. i. s. Aug. 10, 1864; dis. by G. 0. June 9, 1865. Fry, David T., m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Fleming, Wm. A., m. i. s. Feb. 4,1864. Fleming, R. O. Foster, Allen, captured; died at Richmond, Va., Dec. 3, 1863. Forste, Joshua, not accounted for. George, James A., m. i. s. March 27, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31,1865. George, John A., not accounted for. George, James E., m. i. s. Jan. 30, 1864; captured; imprisoned in Libby; died after release. Hetherington, F., dis. by G. O. May 13, 1865. Houk, Eckhart, m. 1. s. Feb. 22, 1864; trans. to Co. F. July 31, 1865. Hawk, Jacob, m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Hare, Henry, m. i. s. Feb. 4, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31,1865. Hill, Abram, m. i. s. Feb. 25, 1864; trans, to Co. F. July 31, 1865. Hunter, James, mi. i. s. Feb. 15, 1864; captured; died at Anderson ville, Ga., Oct. 20, 1864; grave 11219. Hartman, John, not accounted for. Irwin, David, not accounted for. Irwin, James W., not accounted for. Kirkpatrick, Wm., m. i. s. April 20, 1864; dis. by G. O. May 16, 1865. Kunkle, Jacob, dis. by G. O. June 7. 1865. Kirkwood, Win., m. i. s. Feb. 23, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Kelley, James G., not accounted for. King, Joseph, not accounted for. Klingensmith, L. A., not accounted for. Kilgore, James, not accounted for. Keane, Thomas. Linsinbigler, V. T., m. i. s. Feb. 16, 1864; prisoner from July 6 to Dec. 14, 1864; dis. by G. O. June 6, 1865. Lambing, John A., not accounted for. Myers, Tobias, m. i. s. Sept. 3, 1864; dis. by G. O. June 6, 1865. Marks, Samuel, not accounted for. Miller, Daniel, not accounted for. Miller, David, not accounted for. Miller, John T., not accounted for. Myers, Moses, not accounted for. Moorhead, Walker, m. i. s. Sept. 10, 1864; not accounted for. McKinnis, John, captured; died at Richmond, Va., Feb. 10, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem., sec. C, div. 1, grave 138. McClay, Charles, not accounted for. McCoy, Daniel, not accounted for. McAfoos, Simon, m. i. s. Feb. 22, 1864; not accounted for. McAfoos, Absalom, m. i. s. Feb. 22, 1864; not accounted for. Orr, Alexander M., m. i. s. Feb. 1, 1864; dis. by G. O. May 16, 1865. Olinger, Joseph M., m. i. s. Feb. 22, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Orr, James W., m. i. s. Feb. 1, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Orr, Isaac M. m. i. s. Feb. 27, 1864; died April 10, 1864; buried in Nat. Cem., Winchester, Va., lot 26. Olinger, Nicholas J., not accounted for. Olinger, John, not accounted for. Peterman, Geo. D., m. i. s. Feb. 29, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Peterman, Martin, In. i. s. Feb 13, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Patrick, John, not accounted for. Peters, John A., not accounted for. Richart, Geo., not accounted for. Richards, John, not accounted for. Robb, James A., not accounted for. Rosenberger, M., not accounted for. Sseabaugh, David, dis. by G. O. May 16, 1865. Shaffer, Henry, dis. by G. 0. June 19, 1865. Shannon, Newton D., mn. i. s. April 26, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Snyder, William, m. i. s. March 28, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Shaffer, Henry, m. i. s. Feb. 20, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Shaffer, Henry, dis. by G. 0. May 16, 1865. Siple, Jacob, Jr., m. i. s. March 23, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Siple, Christian P., nm. i. s. Feb. 22, 1864; died at York, Pa., Sept. 29, 1864; buried in Prospect Hill Cem. Shearer, John H., not accounted for. Stevenson, Jacob, not accounted for. Shotts, Levi, not accounted for. Schrecenghost, Fin. P., not accounted for. Schrecenghost, I., not accounted for. Spencer, John, not accounted for. Spencer, William, not accounted for. Spencer, Daniel, not accounted for. Smith, John H., not accounted for. Schrecenghost, David, not accounted for. Tarr, Alexander, m. i. s. March 17, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Toy, Joseph, trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Turney, Henry, m. i. s. Feb. 15, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Truby, Reuben, not accounted for. Withington, H. W., mn. i. s. Feb. 29, 1864; dis. by G. O. Oct. 11, 1865. Watt, Joseph A., mn. i. s. Feb. 13, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31,1865. REGIMENTAL HISTORIES AND DESCRIPTIVE ROSTER. Watterson, Wallace, m. i. s. July 12, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Waltenbaugh, S. P., m. i. s. Feb. 23, 1864; trans. to Co. F July 31, 1865. Waggoner, Conrad, not accounted for. Wabl, Joseph, not accounted for. Wallace, Samuel, not accounted for. Waltenbaugh, A., not accounted for. Weston, Valentine, not accounted for. Wible, John, not accounted for. Wiles, Franklin F., not accounted for. Wilson, Samuel, m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1864; not accounted for. Yount, George, not accounted for. Yount, Daniel, not accounted for. Yount, James, not accounted for. Yount, Jonathan, not accounted for. Young, Peter S., not accounted for. TWO HUNDRED AND FOURTH REGIMENT-FIFTH ARTILLERY. This regiment was principally recruited in Allegheny, though considerable numbers of its men were from Armstrong, Beaver, Cambria, Greene, Lawrence and Westmoreland. Battery M was entirely composed of men from this county. Recruiting was commenced in August, 1864, the place of rendezvous being Camp Reynolds, near Pittsburgh. Soon after its organization the 204th was ordered to Washington, and upon its arrival was assigned to duty in the forts north of the Capitol. Afterward it was employed in guarding railroads, and during the period it was discharging that duty the regiment had several sharp brushes with the rebel forces under Mosby. In the winter of 1864-5 the regiment was engaged in building stockades and blockhouses, and in the spring of 1865 expeditions were sent out to bury the dead of the second battle of Bull Run. In June the regiment was ordered to Pittsburgh, where it was mustered out upon the 30th. BATTERY M. [The members of this battery were mustered into service at various dates from August 20 to September 10, 1864, and nearly all of them were mustered out with the battery upon June 30, 1865. Opposite the names of such we have not inserted any remarks; but in the case of those who were promoted, who died in the service, were wounded or killed in action, transferred to other organizations, or who were mustered in or discharged upon other dates than that of the common muster-in or muster-out, the facts are stated.] OFFICERS. Captain John E. Alward. First Lieutenant Adkinson H. Sellers, m. i. s. Nov. 15, 1864; absent on detached duty at m. o. First Lieutenant Albert C. Pontious, pro. from 1st Serg. Jan. 19, 1865. Second Lieutenant Charles G. Barclay. Second Lieutenant Win. W. Barnett, pro. from Serg. Jan. 19, 1865. First Sergeant J. A. Stephenson, pro. from Serg. Jan. 19, 1865. Sergeant Peter Stockdill. Sergeant Miles Beatty. Sergeant Joseph W. Traves. Sergeant William McCanna. Sergeant Geo. W. Thompson, pro. from Corp. Jan. 19, 1865. Sergeant Patterson River, pro. from Corp. Jan. 19, 1865. Sergeant James Stivenson. Sergeant Win. T. Glenn, died at Alexandria, Va., Oct. 20, 1864, grave 2782. Corporal Andrew H. Sheisley. Corporal Barton Guthrie. Corporal Charles F. Morgan. Corporal John O. Delancey, pro. to Corp. Jan. 19, 1865. Corporal Alexander Browne. Corporal Alexander George. Corporal Elijah W. Martin. Corporal John Stoops, pro. to Corp. Jan. 30, 1865. Corporal John Browne. Corporal Archibald Hemphill, dis. by G. O. June 7, 1865. Corporal John W. Morrow, dis. by G. O. June 9, 1865. Corporal B. W. Blanchard, dis. by G. O. June 15, 1865. PRIVATES. Nelson C. Arnold, Eli J. Artman, Thomas M. Allen, Ephraim A. Adams, Samuel Ayres (prisoner from Nov. 1,1864, to Feb. 5,1865); dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865. Samuel W. Beatty, Geo. L. Blose, Henry Beer, William Blain, William M. Blain, Thos. D. Buzzard, Peter Beck, Samuel W. Bruner, Henry H. Burket, Thomas C. Byers, Robert A. Barr, Simon D. Brown, Geo. W. Brown (absent, sick, at m. o.), William J. Brown, Samuel Brown, Jacob Buzzard (died at Alexandria, Va., Oct. 6, 1864, grave 2736), Henry Brown (died at Fairfax C. H., Va., Feb. 19,1865). Samuel Clark, Ephraim F. Coffman, William Coleman, Daniel L. Coleman, William Carson, Andrew Carson. John E. Dunmire, Phillip Dunmire, Isaac Dunmire, Jacob B. Dar barker (died at Piedmont, Va., Oct. 21,1864; buried in Nat. Com., Arlington, block 2, sec. E, row 14, grave 60). Hugh Elgin, Jeremiah Elgin, Samuel Ecencey, Samuel J. Elgin (dis. by G. 0. June 19, 1865). Geo. W. Fry, John Fink, Jas. R. Flemming (died at Fort Sumner, Md., Oct. 1,1864; buried in Nat. Cem., Arlington, Va.). Jacob George, Peter George, Philip George, Josiah George, John Gould, William H. Gray. Andrew Hardy, David B. Hankiman, John Hartman, William Hart man, Henry Hallman, Philip Hawk. A. Klingensmith, S. Klingensmith, Wmin. J. Kelly, Anthony H. Ken nard, John J. Kral, John G. Kline, Samuel Kelley. Joseph Low, Abraham Lessig. Joseph Mathiet, William M. Mock, David Moyer, Samuel Metzler, Samuel Mansfield, James R. Moore, Samuel R. Moore, William A. Morrow, David L. Marshall, James A. Mikesell (died at Fort Simmons, Md., Dec. 10, 1864), Robert McCrum, Geo. W. McCon nell, Joseph W. McKee, John A. McElroy, Thomas D. McCol gin, James McGreggor, Robert McFarland, W. W. McCracken (wounded at Salem, Va., Oct. 7, 1864), John W. McElfresh, Peter McCanna, Joseph McAllister (died at Fairfax C. H., Va., Dec. 13, 1864). Matthew Nelson. John L. Pitts, James H. Patrick, Thomas Patterson, Francis Powell Edward G. Rummel, Jacob Robb, Thomas K. Robb, Oliver G. Rey nolds, James Robinson (trans. to Co. E, 147th reg. Pa. Vol., date unknown). John B. Shaffer, Christopher Shaffer, Jacob Sell, John B. Sowers, Matthew Stanford, Jacob Scholl, John C. Stewart, John A. Stewart, John Silvis, Solomon D. Silvis, John C. Stiffey, Isaac Seachrist, Henry Segar, E. Z. Schrecenghost, Thomas Sturgeon (dis. by G. O. June 19, 1865), Henry Simmers (killed at Rector town, Va., Oct. 8, 1864), John Sheridan. Henry Trollinger, Nathan G. C. Turner (dis. by special order Feb. 26, 1865). William H. Weaver, Adnum R. Wolf, James W. Watterson, William Wareham, James Wadding (dis. by G. O. June 9, 1865), Adam Wagle (dis. by G. O. June 9, 1865). Alexander Yales, Ressinger Yount (dis. by G. O. April 28, 1865), Levi K. Young (trans. to Bat. H, 212th reg. Pa. Vol.; date unknown), George K. Young (trans. to Bat. H, 212th regt. Pa. Vols., date unknown). James Zell. BATTERY I. [The men in this company from Armstrong county, twenty-seven in number, were from the vicinity of Freeport. Except where otherwise indicated, they were enlisted August 30, 1864, and discharged June 30, 1865.] OFFICERS. 1st Lieutenant J. B. Miller. Sergeants Alex. Ashbaugh, Hiram Brickel. Corporals J. A. Murphy, R. B. McKee, Win. E. McLelland (dis. May 15, 1865). HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY. PRIVATES. Joseph Evarts, Samuel A. Gourley, Samuel Klingensmith, Addison L. Klingensmith, James S. Klingensmith, William Kirkwood, Jacob Kuhn, John B. Morton, Elisha G. Pitt, James S. Ross, Alex. Rowland, John A. Shoop, Harry Syphax, Stewart Therrp sen, Daniel Varner, John J. Wile, D. M. B. Weir, John A. Hughes (trans. to 147th reg. Pa. Vet. Vol. July 1, 1865), Wm. S. Russ, Geo. A. Stilt, Jno. M. Spiecher. MISCELLANEOUS LIST. THIRTY-THIRD REGIMENT-FOURTH RESERVE. Company A-John Hartman, wounded at Hatcher's Run; Vincent Kreidle. THIRTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT-NINTH RESERVE. Company D-Sergeant John H. Mechling, m. i. s. May 3, 1861; pro. to Sergt. May 3, 1861; killed at Charles City Cross Roads, June 30, 1862. Alex. Schreeenghost, m. i. s. Oct. 18, 1862; dis. Jan. 6, 1864. Wm. Sweeney, William Barnet, Henry Barnet, David Hunnell. THIRTY-NINTH REGIMENT-TENTH RESERVE. 1st Lieutenant Wilson Smith, William B. Gilison, Enoch Bennett, William Roberts. Company B-William B. Gibson, m. i. s. June 17, 1861; lost right arm at Gaines Mill, Va.; dis. on surgeon's certificate, Sept. 1, 1862. FORTIETH REGIMENT-ELEVENTH RESERVE. Company E-Captain John F. King. FORTY-THIRD REGIMENT-FIRST ARTILLERY. Battery B-Leander Vaughn, m. i. s. Aug. 25, 1864; m. o. June 9,1865. Battery F-Wmn. W. Kline, Henry Byers. FORTY-FIFTH REGIMENT. Surgeon J. K. Maxwell. FORTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT. Company F-William T. Glenn. m. i. s. Oct. 4, 1861; dis. 1863. FIFTIETH REGIMENT. [Mustered in Sept. 2, 1864, and mustered out June 21, 1865, except where otherwise specified.] Company H-Jacob Baker, Michael Boycer, Jacob Clark, John A. Dunmire, James A. Lowry, James Rufer, George Sheaffer, John Rankin (m. i. s. Sept. 21,1864; dis. on surgeon's certificate Dec. 29, 1864). Company F-Jacob Eppler. FIFTY-SIXTH REGIMENT. Philip Adams. FIFTY-NINTH REGIMENT-SECOND CAVALRY. Samuel Keener, John Thomas, Alfred Pearson, Jackson Pugh, John Montgomery, George Harris, - Gray, Jerry Myers. Company M-Lieutenant Bart. Campbell, Robert Swan (died at Rich mond), John Conarman, John Critsar, Henry Critsar, George Miller, John R. Swan, Jos. Altshouse, George Bell, William T. Glenn (enl. spring of 1864; dis. at expiration of service; enl. in 2d U. S. Cay. 1868). SIXTY-FIRST REGIMENT. Company D-John McNab (also soldier in Mexican war, 11th regt. U.S.A. SIXTY-SECOND REGIMENT. Company C-James Pence. Company I-James Alexander Glenn (m. i. s. July 29,-1861; pro. to Corp. Sept., 1863; m. o. with Co. July 13,1864). SIXTY-FOURTH REGIMENT-FOURTH CAVALRY. Company D-Captain John C. Paul (m. i. s. Sept. 12, 1861; pro. from 1st Lt. Co. C to Capt. Nov. 1, 1864; to Bt. Major March 13, 1865; Corm. May 18, 1865; m. o. July, 1865). Company E-Sergeant H. W. Kerr, Corporal John O'Brian, Corporal L. S. Cline, Emanuel Girt, William Smith, David Speilman, George Speilman, all veterans. Company L-Captain Samuel W. King, A. L. Breneman, Thomas Beale. SEVENTY-FIRST REGIMENT. Principal musician Joseph Clark, m. i. s. May 28, 1861, Co. E; pro. from musician of that Co. to principal musician of reg. Jan. 1, 1864; m. o. with reg. July 2, 1864. Note.-Joseph Clark, a native of Kittanning and now a resident of the place, was at the time of his enlistment in Philadelphia, and enlisted in April in the 71st Pa. Vol. Inf., originally called Colonel Baker's California regiment. He was without doubt the youngest soldier in the Union army, being born Jan. 4, 1849, and therefore about twelve years and three months old when he enlisted, or twelve years and four months when mustered. SEVENTY-FOURTH REGIMENT. Company F-John Kohlepp, John Weston, Fred Whal. SIXTY-FIFTH REGIMENT-FIFTH CAVALRY. John Peacock. Otto Bauer. SEVENTY-NINTH REGIMENT. EIGHTIETH REGIMENT-SEVENTH CAVALRY. George McLane. EIGHTY-THIRD REGIMENT. Company G-James M. Lambing, m. i. s. Sept. 2, 1862; dis. on sur geon's certificate March 25, 1863. EIGHTY-EIGHTH REGIMENT. Company I-John Nelson, enlisted Feb. 10, 1864; dis. Aug. 20, 1865. ONE HUNDREDTH REGIMENT. James Moor. ONE HUNDRED AND FIRST REGIMENT. Company G-S. P. Briney (enlisted Sept. 20, 1861; min. i. s. Dec. 2,1861; dis. Dec. 31, 1863; re-enlisted as veteran Jan. 1, 1864; dis. July 23, 1865; prisoner eight months at Andersonville, Charleston and Florence); Augustus Truxell. ONE HUNDRED AND SECOND REGIMENT. David Wallace. ONE HUNDRED AND THIRD REGIMENT. Company E-First Lieutenant Christopher M. Otto, m. i. s. Dec. 7, 1861; dis. Oct. 28, 1862. ONE HUNDRED AND EIGHTH REGIMENT-ELEVENTH CAVALRY. Company L-Captain John B. Loomis, (m. i. s. Sept. 25, 1861; killed at Ream's Station, Va., June 29, 1864), Samuel D. McMasters, G. R. Armstrong, Thomas Bales, Joseph Gates. ONE HUNDRED AND TWELFTH REGIMENT-SECOND ARTILLERY. Company D-D. W. Scheaffer, J. J. Scheaffer, Al. Scheaffer, A. C. Finley, P. C. George, W. R. Helfrick. Company E-J. J. Shaffer. Company I-J. R. Henderson,* P. M. Klingensmith, Henry Hancock, S. P. Walker. [These men were enlisted in winter or spring of 1864 and served to the close of war.] Company L-E. Miller, killed. Company M-Daniel Miller, Simon Rupart, Isaac Woodside, John Fricks (died), Robert Cook (died), Nelson Mason, Henry Liar grave. *J. R. Henderson enlisted at the age of thirteen years. He was transferred to the 19th N. Y. Independent Battery, and on account of not being able to engage in the nmrches of the campaign was made powder monkey. He was discharged Jan. 29,1866. He was in the following engagements: Eighteen days in the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, North Ann River, Coal Harbor, Shady Grove Church, Petersburg, Welden R. R., Chapman's Bluff, mine explosion Petersburg, evacuation Richmond, and Appomattox C. H.