USA > Indiana > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania > Part 32
USA > Pennsylvania > Armstrong County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania > Part 32
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"It is said that when Mr. Park first came to this region he encamped on the site of his cabin. Near it was a fine spring. On the opposite bank of the run were some Indians who had erected their wigwams there, no doubt on account of the spring, as well as the abundance of game in the surrounding forest. After the raising they all went to Hugh Thompson's place, about two and one-half miles down Pine run, where the Indians and the whites had a grand frolic. The red men danced to the music of the shaken gourd, and there was naught to disturb the har- mony of the hour."
John Park was the life of the settlement that was gathering around the site of his future town. In 1810 he built a tan-yard, and soon afterwards built a horse-power grist-mill, which he replaced in 1834 with a water-power flour- ing-mill, with a capacity of thirty bushels per day. His son James had a cabinet factory and carpenter shop in connection with the mill for several years.
"Marion was laid out by Jolın Park in August, 1842, and the first sale of lots occurred in the succeeding month. The plat embraced eight acres, with one main street and two rows of lots on either side. The first house erected after the platting of the town was the residence of Hezekiah Wood, the pioneer chair and spin- ning-wheel maker. This is still standing on the south side of West Main street, and is the property of John Riddle. Mr. Wood worked at his trade in James Park's shop. The second building was erected by James Park for James McKelvey, the first blacksmith. It stands to-
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BIOGRAPHIES OF
day on the east side of the Wood residence. The blacksmith shop was situated on the east side of Manor street, one square below the Diamoud, and is now used as a warehouse by John H. Rochester. The next house was Wil- . liam Campbell's, on the west side of the Wood property. The first wagon shop was carried on in. this building by Wni. Bowers. It is now occupied by Dr. W. S. Shields. The first saddler aud liarness maker was Wm. Richard- son, who also kept his shop and residence in the Wood house. Hezekiah Wood, Sr., was the first shoemaker. He was said to have been as good at the last as his son was at the bench. The first painter was Linton Park, whose experience has justly entitled him to be designated as the master of the craft in the Mahoning Val- ley. McCracken & Conrad (George) were the first merchants. Their store was commenced in 1845, and was located in the room now (1880) occupied. by Mrs. Mary Pounds as her dining-room for the Exchange hotel. James Park owned the building, aud in a short time he built the front part of the building, and the store was transferred to the room now used as the office. After a career of three years the store was transferred to Gettysburg."
The first hotel was opened in 1844 by James Park, and the first resident justice of the peace was Robert J. Hopkins. Kinter and Ritchey erected a steam grist-mill in 1855, C. M. Long built a woolen-mill iu 1861, and James and Linton Park erected a planing-mill in 1868. A cabinet factory was erected in 1869, the Parks & Beans window-blind factory went into operation in 1874, and about 1885 the Marion creamery was started.
The physicians of Marion have been: J. D. Baldwin, 1844-61; J. K. Thompson, 1845-90; J. B. Davidson, 1851-64; G. J. McHenry, 1864; D. M. Marshall, 1865-72; D. H. Snowdon, 1873-75; W. S. Shields, 1874-77, and A. H. Allison, the present leading physi- cian of the borough, who located there in 1880.
The population of Marion siuce 1860 has been as follows: 1860, 137; 1870, 113; 1880, 114; 1890, 133.
"In the midst of an excellent agricultural section, with never-failing supplies of water, with thousands of acres of timber at her very doors, with coal veius opened even within the corporation limits, whose extent seems inex- haustible, and whose quality is up to the re- quired standard, with a climate at once exhila- rating and balmy, and having a people indus- trious, energetic and fruitful in inveutiou, there is no reason why Marion should not increase steadily in numbers, wealth and intelligence. The academy and the public school offer facilities of no mean order. The religious privileges are the equal of any in the county. The moral tone of the community is at a most healthy stage, and there seems to be a desire to be aud to do something for the improvement not only of the town, but tlie county and State.
" The Marion subdivision of the Fourth Coal basin embraces all that portion of Indiana county situated west of the Indiana anticlinal,; and east of the Saltsburg and Perrysville sub- anticlinals. On the Conemaugh river it is a narrow trough . six and three-quarters miles wide, extending from the Deep hollow, two miles below Blairsville, to near White's station, on the West Pennsylvania railroad. Followed northeastward from the Conemaugh river the width of the sub-basin is steadily diminished by the convergence of its anticlinal sides; but in the Mahoniug townships across the 'Pur- chase Line' the Saltsburg axis is obliterated altogether, and the basin there extends west- ward to the Perrysville auticlinal, thus giving to the trough in this latitude a width of nearly nine miles. Besides the town of Marion this sub-basin includes the villages of Covode, Da- vidsville, Marchand, Georgeville, Kellysburg, Kintersburg, Jacksonville and Fillmore. As much as two-thirds, and in places, perhaps
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three-fourths, of the Lower Barren group are piled up along the synclinal axis, giving to this section gentle slopes and fertile soils, profitable to the farmer and stock-grower.
"The Lower Productive Coal Measures are little known in the southern portion of the Marion sub-basin, and it is not until we have crossed the ' Purchase Line' that we find these rocks oceupying an extended area above water level. It is true that the Freeport group rises above the drainage line at such points in the valleys of the Conemaugh, Crooked creek and MeKee's run, as lie close to the anticlinals; and these exposures, though of very limited extent, are of great importance to the surrounding country, which is thus supplied with cheap fuel both for domestic purposes and for the limekiln. North of the 'Purchase Linc,' by the uplift of the whole country, the Lower Productive meas- ures are the surface rocks along all the princi- pal streams in the eastern half of the trough ; but by the great expansion of the basin and the obliteration of the Saltsburg anticlinal before reaching the Little Mahoning, the western half of the trongh in this region is composed chicfly of Lower Barren rocks, which we find in the deep valley of the Little Mahoning to the al- most total exclusion of the Lower Productive measures above the surface. Only the highest strata of the latter group ontcrop above water level at the point where the Perrysville anti- clinal crosses the creek about three miles above the town of Smicksburg.
" At Kellysburg the narrowly contracted and rocky valley of Pine run expands under the disappearance of the Mahoning, which in turn gives place to higher and softer rocks. The developments of Mr. St. Clair Thompson have fully demonstrated that this valley is bar- ren of workable coals until the eastward course of the ravine has carried it to Marion, where the upper portion of the Lower Productive Coal measures has been pushed above the pres- ent drainage line by the Indiana anticlinal axis,
on the western flank of which the town of Marion is situated."
BIOGRAPHICAL.
A LEXANDER H. ALLISON, M.D., the pioneer physician of Cookport and now in active and successful practice at Marion, is a son of John R. and Rebecca (James) Allison, and was born in East Mahoning township, In- diana county, Pennsylvania, June 6, 1842. John R. Allison was born in Indiana county and was an industrious farmer of East Mahon- ing township, where he died December 7, 1853, aged forty-four years and seven months. He married Rebecca James, a native of Clarion county, who was born in 1814, and died Jan- uary 25, 1884, aged seventy years. Their family consisted of nine children, five sons and four daughters. One of the sons was William R., who was a prominent lawyer of Indiana, served as district attorney from 1871 to 1874, and died in 1883, aged forty-six years.
Alexander H. Allison was reared on his father's farm and received his literary education in Dayton and Glade Run academics of Arm- strong county. At twenty-two years of age he commenced the study of medicine with Drs. McEwen and Annesly, and after completing the required course of reading, entered Jefferson Medical college of Philadelphia, from whichi he was graduated March 4, 1867. On May 13th, of the same year, he located at Cookport and became the first physician of that place. He was prominently identified with the town in its growth and progress for over thirteen ycars. In 1880 he left an extensive and lucrative prac- tice and a large circle of personal friends at that place to establish himself in another and very inviting field for the practice of his pro- fession. This section which lic had selected was Marion borough and vicinity. He located
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BIOGRAPHIES OF
at Marion in 1880, where he soon built up a large practice which, has continually increased ever since. In 1881 he opened his present well-stocked drug-store in order to have pure and fresh drugs always convenient for his prae- tice and also as an accommodation to the pub- lic. During Lee's threatened invasion of Penn- sylvania, in 1863, he enlisted in Co. B, sixty- second regiment, Pa. Militia, and participated in the battle of Antietam.
On July 4, 1879, Dr. Allison united in mar- riage with Mary Lockard, of Indiana, whose father, David Lockard, owns the well-known Lockard flouring-mills of Indiana.
Politically Dr. Allison is a democrat. In addition to his practice he has given some atten- tion to agriculture and business pursuits. He owns one hundred and thirty-three acres of the old Allison homestead farm in East Mahoning township, where he keeps some of the finest thoroughbred horses to be found in the county. He is proprietor of the Marion creamery, in which from 100 to 200 pounds of butter are made daily and shipped to various parts of the eounty. He is a genial and courteous gentle- man. He successfully discharges the duties of his profession with care and sincerity and has well-earned his deserved popularity as a physi- cian.
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" JOHN PARK was born in 1776, in the town of Baltiwalter, county Down, Ire- land, and was the son of Robert and Jane (Bailey) Park. The family removed in 1794 to Philadelphia, where Robert instructed elasses in navigation. He died about a year after his location, and his widow subsequently married James Johnston, the surveyor, who resided near Green Castle, Franklin county, and whose name is associated with the early surveys of northern Indiana county. She died in Johnstown, Cambria county, in 1828, and was one hundred and eight years of age at the time
of her death. Our subjeet studied surveying with his father and step-father, and received a commission as deputy surveyor for the western district of Pennsylvania, from Gov. Snyder. His location near the present site of Marion is related in the history of the borough. He died August 10, 1844, at the age of seventy. His wife was Mary Lang, whom he married in Franklin county, in 1807. She died in 1864, eighty-one years old. She was the daughter of Rev. James Lang, a Presbyterian minister of White Spring, Franklin county. John and Mary Park's children were : Margaret H., mar- ried to Samnel Craig; Robert, married first to Mary G. Cannon, second to Margaretta Thomp- son and third to Martha Caruthers, a sister of Rev. John Caruthers; Jane R., married to Alexander Sutor; Mary B., married to Joseph Brady; James L., married first to Susannah Early, and second to Anna Loughry ; Ann E., married to James Martin; Amanda, married to Robert Barbour; John, married to Martha Curtiss; and Lindon. Lindon was for six years in the United States service, one year of which he was a member of the 'President's Guards,' 2d regiment, District of Columbia. Lindon engraved the broad-axe presented to Lincoln in 1860."
ITON. JOHN KEENE THOMPSON, M.D., ex-member of the Pennsylvania legislature, and ex-associate judge of the courts of Indiana county, was one of the oldest and ablest physicians of western Penn- sylvania. He was born at the village of Ston- erstown, twelve miles west of Bellefonte, Centre county, Pennsylvania, December 25, 1821, and was a son of John and Lydia (Blake) Thomp- son. Among the many settlers of Centre eounty who came from county Derry, Ireland, was John Thompson, Sr., the grandfather of Dr. Thompson. He was a Presbyterian in religious faith, and died in early life. He
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had a war claim from the war of 1812, and settled near the site of Stonerstown, where he served for several years as justice of the peace. His son, John Thompson (father), was born and reared on his father's farm, upon which he con- tinuously resided until his deatlı, in 1877, at seventy-eight years of age. He was well edu- cated for his day, and ably sustained the repu- tation of an honest and upright man. He acted as elerk for the Potter Furnace company, after- wards became manager of their extensive iron works, but resigned the latter position to engage in the general mercantile business at Stoners- town, where he became quite wealthy. He was elected sheriff of Centre county, where he served one term with great eredit to himself and advan- tage to the county. He married Lydia Blake, of Kennett Square, Chester county, against the wishes of her parents, who disinherited her on aocount of her marriage. Respected for his honesty and integrity, his services were con- stantly in demand among his neighbors in all matters of importance, especially in legal busi- ness.
John Keene Thompson was reared at Stoners- town, and at the age of seventeen entered Alle- gheny college, at Meadville, Pa., in which he remained for two years. He then left college and read medieine with Dr. George B. Engles, after which, in 1844, he entered Jefferson Med- ical college of Philadelphia, from which insti- tution he was graduated in 1845. In March, 1846, he located at Marion, when Dr. Baldwin was the only physician in that section. Dr. Thompson soon came into a wide practice that extended over parts of Jefferson, Armstrong and Clearfield counties, in addition to his home- practice at Marion. In 1863 lie removed to Indiana, but two years later he returned to Marion, where of late years he had retired from active practice, except in his own town, or when ealled in consultation. In 1856 Dr. Thomp- son was elected associate judge of Indiana county, and at the expiration of his term in
1861, was re-elected, and served until 1866. In 1874 he was elected a member of the Pennsylvania legislature, and was re-elected in 1875. Before the war he was a free-soiler, and since 1865 had been an active Republican. He was a delegate to the National Republican eon- vention in Philadelphia that nominated General Grant for president, and was alternate to the Chicago convention of 1888, that nominated Benjamin Harrison for president.
Dr. Thompson was serving as president of the Marion school board and burgess of the borough at the time of his death, in 1890. He married Jane Thompson, daugliter of Robert Thompson. (See sketch of Robert Thompson, of Indiana). Mrs. Thompson died and left one child : Horace J., a successful merchant at Decker's Point. On March 6, 1889, Dr. Thompson was united in marriage, by Rev. H. A. Ottman, of Salamanca, N. Y., with Mrs. Anna M. (Weamer) Sylvis, an estimable and finc-looking woman. She is a native of Indiana county, and a daughter of David Weamer, who was a merchant at Indiana and Newville, and died in 1877.
In addition to his town property, Dr. Thomp- son owned about five hundred acres of valuable land. He was a charter member and one of the directors of the Indiana County Deposit bank, and a trustee of the State Normal school at Indiana. During the last summer (although it was not apparent to any) his sands of life were nearly run out, and on September 17, 1890, his spirit went home, when he was well advanced in his seventy-ninth year. With impressive funeral ceremonies his remains were entombed in Gilgal cemetery amid a large and sorrowing assemblage of people. It has been the privilege of very few men to be so eminently useful as Dr. John Keene Thompson was in all that pertained to the well-being of liis neigh- bors and the prosperity of his community. As a physician he had always been successful, as a judge he was able and impartial, as a legislator
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BIOGRAPHIES OF INDIANA COUNTY.
none were more active in the interests of their constituents, and as a man he stood high in the estimation of his fellow-citizens throughout the county.
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TAMES M. WORK, a well-qualified justice of the peace and a prominent citizen and leading business man of Marion borough, is a son of William and Nancy (Brown) Work, and was born about five miles northeast of Marion, in East Mahoning township, Indiana county, Pennsylvania, April 8, 1832. He is of Scotch- Irish lineage, and his paternal grandfather, William Work, Sr., was a native of eastern Pennsylvania. He was married, in 1792, in Cumberland county, to Miriam Seroggs, daugh- of Alexander and Rachel (Ireland) Scroggs, the former a native of Scotland and the latter of Irish descent. Soon after his marriage William Work, Sr., removed to the foot of "Squirrel Hill," near the site of New Florence, in Westmoreland county. In 1805 he came to East Mahoning township, where he died in 1828, aged sixty-eight years. He was an hon- est, honorable man and a member of the Se- ceder church. His widow survived him until 1855, when she passed away at eighty-one ycars of age. William Work, Sr., was a prominent man although no aspirant for political honors. He was among the first (if not the first) teach- ers in the Mahoning country, and left the im- press of his excellent character, to some extent, on the generation that succeeded him and received its education at his hands. His children were : Rachel Hamilton, James, Lettice Ewing, Alex- ander S., John, William, Hon. Allen N., who was a member of the Pennsylvania legislature; Sarah Stcele, Mary S,. Miriam Limerick, Moses T., Susan E. Smith, and Elijah I. William Work (father) was born in November, 1800, and died in 1878. He was reared in his na- tive township, where he always resided, and where he followed farming until his death. He
married Nancy Brown, who was a daughter of Jeremiah Brown, a farmer and distiller of this county. After Mrs. Work's death, Mr. Work married for his second wife Mary T. Hamilton.
James M. Work was reared on a farm, re- ceived a good, practical education and taught school for five years. At fifteen years of age he learned barn-building, but was principally engaged in farming until 1871, although he de- voted a portion of each winter to lumbering. In the last-named year he came to Marion, where he embarked in the manufacture of fur- niture and window blinds. After seventeen years of successful experience as a manufac- turer he disposed of his factory and engaged in his present prosperous undertaking business. In 1874 he was elected as county commis- sioner and served very faithfully during his term. In 1875 he was appointed to fill out an unexpired term as justice of the peace, and rendered such good satisfaction that he has been elected to that office three times in succession since. On Oct. 13, 1853, he married Margaret Hamilton, who died September 7, 1874. Mr. Work was remarried April 17, 1879, to Anna R. (Getty) Morton. By his first marriage he had six children : Jeremiah W., Jessie F., wife of James L. Park, Jr .; Elizabeth Estella, mar- ried to Robert C. Meanor, editor of the Cherry Tree Record ; Lottie N., wife of Samuel Rue, of Ft. Collins, Colorado; Maud C., married to A. L. Guthrie, a merchant of Marion ; and Mar- garet.
In 1863 he enlisted in a regiment of Pennsyl- vania Militia, and served on the southern bor- der of the State. He is a member of the Ma- honing United Presbyterian church, and has been as prosperous in his present as he was in his past lines of business. Squire Work has carefully studied the principles as well as the practice of law, and while an expert in drawing up legal documents in correct form, is also recognized as an authority in his section upon points of law.
CONEMAUGH, BLACK LICK, BURRELL AND EAST AND WEST WHEATFIELD TOWNSHIPS. .
Historical and Descriptive .- The southern townships of Indiana county are Conemaugh, Black Lick, Burrell and East and West Wheat- field, on whose territory the earliest settlements in the county were made.
Conemaugh township is in the southwestern part of the county, was organized from Arm- strong township about 1803, and received its name from the river which separates it from Westmoreland county.
Settlements were made in the township as early as 1779, and by 1807 it contained two hundred and thirty-eight taxables, as returned in the following assessment list of that year :
John Barr, tanner; Charles Barr and Sam- uel Barr, weaver; Samuel Barr, cooper; Thos. Bell, weaver; John Bell, David Blakely, Jas. Black, saddler; Alexander Barkley, Nancy Bollman, widow ; James Brown, David Black, James Burns, William Crawford, Thomas Cun- ningham, Samuel Coulter, Andrew Cunning- ham, John Cunningliam, William Croazer, shoemaker; George Cunningham, Thos. Curry, John Coleman, William Coleman, Nicholas Coleman, Hugh Cunningham, John Crosier, Anu Canning, widow; Thomas Carey, James Curry, Robert Dunlap, reedmaker; Fred- erick Deemer, Thomas Duncan, shoemaker ; John Davis, James Elder, Robert Elder, David Elder, Mary Elder, widow; John Ewing, Rob- ert Ewing, blacksmith ; Thomas Elder, James Elder, fuller; Benjamin Edwards, shoemaker; Abb Findley, Robert Fulton, John Flemming,
William Flemming, James Flemming, Alex- ander Flemming, James Gailey, cooper; John Garey, John Gray, Jas. Gibson, Andrew Getty, John Getty, joiner; Wm. Gains, Anna Gibson, widow ; Robert Henderson, David Henderson, joiner; Robert Henderson, Joseph Henderson, Edward Hutchison, David Hutchison, George Hutchison, James Hutchison, John Hutchison, Francis Harbison, tailor; Jos. Harbison, tailor ; Robert Harbison, John Hopkins, Moses Hart, Rosannah Haselet, widow; John Henry, Robert Henry, Thomas Hood, James Hamilton, Eliza- beth Hutchison, widow; Joseph Hutchison, Catherine Hindman, widow; Eliphlet Irwin, Hannah Irwin, widow; Beza Irwin, school- master ; Thos. Kier, David Kerr, Jacob Keener, Samuel Kelly, Samuel Kilpatrick, Henry Kilpatrick, weaver; Robert Kelly, John Long, Tobias Long, carpenter; Jacob Long, Tobias Long, Abraham Lowman, John Lewis, Hugh Lynn, John Laird, Zacharialı Loughrey, Margaret Loughirey, widow; Sam- uel Lyon, Robert Lafferty, John Lafferty, Alexander Little, Jacob Libengood, Robert Little, James Leaclı, John Lepley, wagonmaker; Allen McComb, James McNeal, Susanna Mill- irons, widow; James Millen, Joseplı Millen, carpenter; Christian Miller, stiller; Mathias Miller, blacksmith; R. McCready, R. Miller, J. Mardanand, J. McCreight, J. McKissock, J. Mitchell, Margaret Marshall, widow; John McClelland, Daniel McClelland, Matthew Mc- Cowell, James McDowell, Francis Mcclellan,
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BIOGRAPHIES OF
Robert McKissoek, John Marshall, Archibald Marshall, James Marshall, John McKee, hatter; Alexander McCurdy, Alexander McLean, James McLean, Esq., Samuel McMean, Johu Mc- Lcan, Samuel Marshall, Archibald Mar- shall, William Marshall, tanner; Robert Miller, Samuel Miller, John Matthews, James Matthews, Rev. Johu Matthews, Samuel Mil- ler, Joseph Marshall, William McElhaney, blacksmith; Samuel Mitchell, Andrew Mc- Curdy, Joseph Mitchell, Andrew McCreery, Samuel McCreery, Robert Mitchell, shoemaker; Isabella Martin, widow; Thomas McClelland, shocmaker; Jaue Madre, widow; Robert Mc- Comb, John McNeal, blacksmith; William Newel, John Neal, Wm. Ncal, Rosannah Neal, John Nisbet, Jonathau Nisbet, Mary Nisbet, widow; Agnes Oliver, widow; James Oliver, John Patterson, Alex- ander Patterson, William Patterson, Joseph Pitts, Joseph Pierce, cooper; Samuel Reed, merchant; Thomas Reed, Johu Reed, shoc- maker; Robert Robinson, Sr., George Randles, John Robinson, Robert Robinson, Jr., Rebecca Rosborough, widow; Joseph Ross, John Ri- therford, James Smith, weaver ; Thomas Smith, James Smith, Robert Shields, Robert Shirley, John Shirley, James Simmons, weaver; Nich- olas Snow, blacksmith; Mary Thompson, widow; Moses Thompson, cabinetmaker ; Moses Thompson, Sr., Adam Thompson, Alexander Thompson, Alexander Templeton, Jas. Thomp- son, Wm. Thompson, Jane Thompson, widow ; John Thompson, Robert Virtue, Samuel Vir- tue, Adam Wreath, weaver; Matthew Watron, Jacob Wimmer, Robert Wilson, Daniel Wray, Robert Wray, John Wray, Joseph Wray, John Wright, Francis Riddle, weaver; Joseph Yates, James Alexander, weaver.
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