USA > Indiana > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania > Part 6
USA > Pennsylvania > Armstrong County > Biographical and historical cyclopedia of Indiana and Armstrong counties, Pennsylvania > Part 6
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straight course from the Conemaugli river northeast twenty miles; and thence due north nine miles to the Jefferson county line. The northern boundary line runs due east twenty- one and a quarter miles to a point from which the eastern boundary line starts and runs due south thirteen miles to Cherry Tree corner ; thence south fifteen degrees west twenty-three miles to the Conemaugh river, which makes the southern boundary from the centre of the gap through Laurel Hill range to Salina post-office, a distance of twenty-eight miles in a straight line. Indiana county has a computed area of 828 square miles, or 529,920 acres. Its geo- graphical centre and centre of population are supposed to be not very far apart, and both but a short distance from the county-seat.
That part of the present territory of Indiana county, south of the purchase line, was a part of the following counties for the respective times specified :
Chester, from 1682 to May 10, 1729.
Lancaster, May 10, 1729, to Jan. 27, 1750. Cumberland, Jan. 27, 1750, to March 9, 1771.
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INDIANA COUNTY.
Bedford, March 9, 1771, to Feb. 26, 1773. Westmoreland, Feb. 26, 1773, to March 30, 1803.
That part of Indiana county which is north of the purchase line was a part of the general unorganized territory of Pennsylvania until 1784, when the Indian title to it was extiu- guished by treaty and it became a part of Northumberland county, and remained as such until April 13, 1796, when it was included in the couuty of Lycoming, which was that day formed from a part of Northumberland. It remained uuder the jurisdiction of Lycoming county until March 30, 1803, when it became a part of the then created county of Indiana.
Geology .- Prof. Leslie, in the second geo- logical survey of Pennsylvania, describes the geological structure of Indiana county as fol- lows : " With the exception of five spots in as many gaps, and four other spots on the anti- clinal axes, the whole surface of the county is occupied by the coal measures. The southeast county corner is in the bed of the Couemaugh river in the centre of the Johnstown gap through Laurel Hill, where XII, XI, X, and perhaps a little Catskill IX arch over each other. The northeast corner is on the crest of the continu- ation of the Chestnut Hill arch, in the midst of a wilderness elevated 2000 feet above tide. The east line of the county therefore crosses diagonally the Ligonier valley coal basin, which, however, is divided into two sub-basins by a low anticlinal arch running through Nolo P. O. and Kimball P. O., bringing up the con- glomerate (XII) on Yellow creek, at Strongs- town. Both sub-basins are so deep that they are filled with the Barren measures, but the Productive coal-beds crop out along the valleys which follow or cross the anticlinals, and an irregular belt of them, two or three miles wide, follows the great Chestnut ridge axis from Blairsville to the Jefferson-Clearfield couuty corner. This belt widens to five miles on the Conemaugh, and in the district of the south
branch of Little Mahoning creek, around Rob- ertsville, Smethport corners and the heads of Bear run, where coal out-crops are abundant.
"At the first great bend below Blairsville the ' Indiaua anticlinal' arch crosses the Kiskimi- netas river and runs in a wonderfully straight line past Indiana (one mile east of the town) and Kintersburg on the Jefferson line at the northeast corner of Canoe township. The basin between this axis aud that of Chestnut ridge, drained by Two Lick and Black Lick runs, is only deep enough to hold the Productive coals, with some areas of Barren measures in its hill- tops ; but going south the Barren measures take possession of the whole surface west of the Two Lick, and then invade the whole basin from Homer (Phillips' mills) southward. In the east end of Black Lick township the basin gets deep enough to take the Pittsburgh coal-bed into its hill-tops, and iu Burrell township the hills north and east of Blairsville hold this bed (un- der a cover of one hundred and fifty feet of upper measures) running about six feet thick, and not very good, and lying about 200 feet above the river. At the second bend above Saltsburg the 'Saltsburg anticlinal' arch crosses the river and runs on straight to the southwest corner of East Mahoning township, where it flattens out and is lost ; but here, on a line four miles fur- ther west, the 'Perryville anticlinal' arcli stands aud runs on into Jefferson county, at the northeast corner of West Mahoning township. The Saltsburg axis crosses McKee's run near the mill, and exposes the Freeport Upper coal- bed (E), but all the others are underground, and the surface of the whole country is occupied by the Barren measures. Bed E is also brought to the surface in the bed of the Little Mahon- iug by the Perryville axis. The basin west of the Indiana axis, and between it and the Salts- burg and Perryville axes, is nowhere deep enough to allow the Pittsburgh bed to be pre- served in any of its hill-tops. But west of the Saltsburg axis all the higher lands of Young
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INDIANA COUNTY.
and Conemaugh townships between the streams which enter Black Leg creek from Armstrong county contain the Pittsburgh bed, ten feet thick, with its regular upper bench and main clay parting, as in the Monongahela river coun- try. The highest geological ground in the county is in Elder's ridge, four miles northeast of Coalport, where 200 feet of measures, capped by the great limestone, and containing the Se- wickley coal and limestone, the Redstone coal and the Pittsburgh Upper sandstone overlie the Pittsburgh coal-bed. On Harper's run 217 feet of Barren measures may be seen beneath the Pittsburgh coal-bed, containing thin fossil- iferous limestone beds, olive and red shales, and the Morgantown sandstone (fifty feet thick), the massive upper fifteen feet member of which makes the picturesque cliff scenery of this quar- ter of the county. The Barren measures in Indiana county may be called 600 feet thick. Nowhere in the Ligonier basin has more than the lower 400 fcet been preserved. Seven or eight coal-beds exist in the Barren measures, but no reliance can be placed on any of them, although one or another may be found in a good condition (three or four feet thick) in some re- stricted locality, like Painter's coal, at Nineveh, and the Philson coal, at Armagh. The beds seem to be pretty persistent throughout the region, but running only one or two feet thick. The Green Crinoidal limestone and the Black Fossiliferous limestone of the Barren measures are of not much economic importance, but have great geological value as bases of measurement down to the Productive coal beds. Limestone is very abundant in the county, and the beds very numerous. Besides the two above-men- tioned there are three others in the Barren measures and six in the Productive coal series, of which the Freeport Upper limestone is 10 feet thick in several parts of the county ; the Freeport Lower, 6 feet on Two Lick; the Johnstown Cement bed (under coal D) varies from 2 to 16 feet, and is 15 feet in Black Lick
gap; but the Ferriferous Limestone, which is the great key rock of all the more western and northern counties, fades away to nothing at the Indiana anticlinal, and is nowhere to be found to the eastward of that line.
" The coal-beds of the county will in future years be mined mostly by shafts. The upper- most one of the series (Freeport Upper coal E) is 150 feet beneath the Conemaugh river at New Florence, and 600 feet at Blairsville; 400 fect underground beneath the turnpike between Armagh and Ling's, and so on elsewhere ; where it comes to the surface it is a fine bed from 32 to 6 feet thick ; at Griffith's and other mines on Yellow creek, 7 feet ; at Agey's and St. Clair's, on Two Lick, 7 feet 3 inches; on McKee's run, 7 fect 4 inches. The Frecport Lower coal (D) gets up to 4} feet on Little Yellow creek, and 5} feet in the German scttle- ment. The middle coal is 3 feet (C feet) ; the lower coal (C) small, but is 4 feet at McFar- land's, at Greenville. The Clarion coal (B) is a noble bed, ranging widely, as 4 to 8 feet thick, over a valuable fire-clay ; but the famous fire-clay bed of Bolivar is under the Brook- ville coal (A). There seems to be very little workable iron ore in the county. No evidence of the existence of productive oil sands has been obtained ; most of the wells bored have been too short to reach the Venango oil rocks, much less the Warren and Bradford horizons. Of the natural gas springs, that of 'Burning spring,' in Deep Hollow, two miles below Blairsville, is best known, but it comes from the Mahoning sandstone, which yields oil and gas on Dunkard creek, in Greene county."
Prof. W. G. Platt, in his report of progress in Indiana county in 1878, says : " The geological structure of the district is one of extreme sim- plicity. Briefly stated, it consists of a series of seven anticlinal and six cynclinal folds of the strata, or broad rock waves, the crest of lines which run nearly parallel to each other across the map in a northeast-south west direction through the
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GEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCH OF
county. The rocks therefore dip northwest and southeast, except in places where the anticlinals and synclinals are sufficiently tilted along their central line to effect the normal incline of the strata. If then we start in the extreme soutli- east corner of the county, say about a mile above the old Conemaugh furnace, and proceed in a straight line northwest to where the Jeffer- son and Armstrong county lines join in the northwest corner of West Mahoning township, we shall cross the following anticlinal and syn- clinal axes :
" The Laurel Hill Anticlinal. (First Axis of the old Survey.)
The Centreville Synclinal.
The Nolo Anticlinal.
Ligonier Basin.
The Mechanicsburg Synclinal.
The Chestnut Ridge Anticlinal. (Second Axis of the old Survey.)
The Blairsville Synclinal.
The Indiana Anticlinal. (Third Axis of the old Survey.)
The Marion-Fillmore Synclinal.
The Saltsburg Anticlinal.
The West Lebanon Synclinal. The Perryville Anticlinal.
Westmoreland gas- coal basin.
The Smicksburg Synclinal.
The Roaring run-Port Barnet Anticlinal. (Fourth Axis.)
" Excepting the small patches of Upper Pro- ductive Measuresat Blairsville and Saltsburg, the Lower Productive group are the only rocks that can be depended upon for coal in Indiana county ; and by reference to the geological map it will be seen at a glance that west of Chestnut ridge these measures are chiefly below the present water-line of the streams. They tliere- fore underlie the whole of the western uplands, and to reach them at many points would require deep shafts, but fortunately for this part of the county such a necessity is avoided by sufficient coal having been raised at a few localities above water-level for a short distance by the anticlinal axes. Cheap fuel, therefore, while not every- where obtainable in the western townships, is easily accessible from almost any point.
" In the Ligonier Basin (east of Chestnut ridge) the greater part of the area is occupied by Lower Productive rocks, and coal therefore abounds in that section in prodigious quantities. Many hillsides contain for a long distance the entire Lower Productive group with all its en- closed coal-beds, lime-stones, etc. Some day these vast stores of fuel will be needed for the arts and manufactures.
" The amount of available lime-stone in the county is no less great than the coal, while its distribution is wider and much more even, for layers of this valuable rock are intercalated not only in the Lower Productive group, but in the Barren series as well.
" The fire clays, although existing in great abundance in all parts of the county, have as yet been developed only along the lines of rail- road communication. At these points the clays worked are of excellent quality, the bricks and retorts made from them being well and favor- ably known,
" The compact and heavy bedded sand-stones prevailing in some parts of the county furnish building material almost without limit.
" The iron ores of the county have never been systematically investigated."
And while Prof. Platt seemed to think there were not workable beds of iron ore, yet some of the leading citizens are of a different opinion, and discoveries of very rich iron ore deposits in the county have been recently reported. Some coal veins, also, have been opened whose exist- ence was not stated in the State geological report.
Surface Features .- " In the eastern part of the district the topography is easily separable into a succession of high anticlinal ridges sepa- rated by shallow synclinal valleys, out of which have been scoured, generally at right angles to the strike of the rocks, a number of ravines and deep, narrow valleys. West of Chestnut Ridge the country is more in the nature of a high rolling table-land.
" The increase in the general elevation of the
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INDIANA COUNTY.
surface from south to north is very gradual. The country is of course very much broken and diversified by small hills and valleys ; but the topography nevertheless presents in substance one broad incline plane tilted gently towards the south west.
"The country may be divided by the main arteries of its drainage system into four parts : The first comprehending the Conemaugh river with its-intricate system of tributary streams ; the second, Crooked creek draining a central zone ; the third, the Mahonings in the northern part of the district ; and the fourth, the affluents - of the Susquehanna.
" Generally speaking, the surface of Indiana county requires only intelligent cultivation to yield abundant and profitable returns.
" A few kinds of wood make up the bulk of the forests. These leading varieties may be enumerated in the order of their extent as fol- lows : white oak, pine, hemlock, chestnut, pop- lar, hickory, ash, beech, rock oak (sometimes called chestnut oak), wild cherry, black walnut, sugar maple and locust."
Indians .- Of the aboriginal inhabitants, mention has been made on page 17 of the Mound-builders, and it remains to notice. the Indian occupants of the territory of the county. They were the Delawares and Shawanees, and their occupation was principally for the purpose of hunting. They had a few villages whose sites are unknown to-day, and their war-paths or trails were the Kittanning trail, over which Colonel Armstrong passed, and a trail intersect- ing the great "Catawba War-path," which passed through Westmoreland county from South Carolina to New York. Besides this, they had several minor trails which cannot be traced from the information at our command. The Delawares and Shawanees had all left the county by 1770 to locate in Ohio. Jonathan. Row and Richard B. McCabe rescued much of what little information exists at the present time concerning the Indians of this county.
Conrad Weiser .- Probably the first white man that ever was on the soil of Indiana coun- ty was Conrad Weiser, who, in his mission to Logstown, in 1748, passed down the Cone- maugh river.
Armstrong's march .- In his march against Kittanning, in 1756, Colonel Armstrong camped on September 7th at the "Forks of the Kit- tanning and Shenango trails," in what is now Green township, and the next night, it is said, he halted his force at a spring just south of the present county-seat. The next day he passed out of the county over the site of Shelocta.
The Purchase Line .- On November 5, 1768, a treaty was made with the Indians at Ft. Stanwix, New York, by which the Six Nations ceded all the land within a boundary extending from the New York line, on the Susquehanna, and up the west branch of that river to a cherry tree that once stood close to the site of the present town of Cherry Tree, and then to Kittanning, and thence down the Ohio. It is said that those who established the line was to run up the west branch of the Susquehanna as far as a canoe could go. This point was where a cherry tree stood, which was a perch above the island, near the town of Cherry Tree, the spot has since been known as "Canoe Place."
Early Settlements .-- As early as 1766 white explorers had come into the territory of Indiana county and found the country clear of timber or brush. It was a prairie, in fact, being clothed in high grass. The first settlement was in 1768, in the forks of the Conemaugh and Black Lick. About this time George Findley settled in what is now East Wheatfield town- ship, and was said to have been the first settler in the county. William Clark, William Bracken and Matthew Dill settled near him and soon afterward came Robert Rogers, John Bolar, George Farmer, Daniel McClentock, David Wakefield, F. Pershing, Jr., John Elder and others. In 1769 William Evans was on Two
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he
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GEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCH OF
Lick creek ; Francis Waddel and George Pum- roy, Sr. (at Long Bottom) on Black Lick creek ; and Michael Worley, Samuel Waddel and Thomas Jameson were near the Conemaugh.
In 1772 Fergus, Samuel and Joseph Moor- head and James Kelley commenced improve- ments near Indiana, and Fergus Moorhead was one of the first, if not the first, settler in the county. Moses Chambers, who had served on an Englishi war vessel, was another early settler near Indiana. In 1773 William Bracken built a grist-mill on Black Lick, and near him set- tled John Stewart, Joseph McCartney, John Evans, Thomas Barr and John Hustin.
On Crooked creek located Andrew Sharp, who was killed by the Indians in 1794, Jacob Anthony, James McCreight, John Patison, David Peelor, Israel Thomas and Benjamin Walker. Philip Altman, Jacob Bricker, Charles Campbell, Archey Coleman, William Clark, Samuel Dixon, Jonathan Doty, James Ewing, Peter Fair, James Ferguson, William Graham, the Hices, John Harrold, Robert Lig- got, William Loughry, George Mabon, Samuel McCartney, James McComb, John McCrea, James McDonald, Patrick McGee, John Neal, David Reed, Daniel Repine, George Repine, Alexander Rhea, William Robertson, John Shields, Hugh St. Clair, Malachia Sutton and Ephraim Wallace.
In early days the northern part of the county was called "the Mahoning country," and was settled at a more recent date. Among the early settlers were the Bradys, the Thompsons, Hugh Cannon, R. Robert Hamilton, John Jamison, John Leasure, Joshua Lewis, William McCall, William McCrery, John Park, the Pierces and William Work. In addition to those named, among the early settlers, in the central portion of the county, were Blaney Adair, Gawin Adams, John Agey, Andrew Allison, Thomas Allison, Thomas Burns, Andrew Dixon, Daniel Elgin, William Lowry, Patrick Lydick, John Lytle, Thomas McCrea, Daniel McKisson, James
Mitchell, Robert Pilson, Conrad Rice, James Simpson, William Smith, Christopher Stuchal, Alexander Taylor, John Thompson, George Trimble, Thomas Wilkins and John Wilson.
Frontier forts .- Richard Wallace, in 1765, erected "Wallace's Fort" somewhere in the southern or southeastern part of the county, about six miles from New Derry, in Westmore- land county, but in the accounts of this fort which are accessible at this writing, its location is not given. Two Indian attacks were pro- jected against this fort. In the first one over a hundred Indians invested the log stockade. Major James Wilson (grandfather of the late Wilson Knott, of Blairsville), with forty men from " Barr's Fort," relieved the besieged gar- rison. In 1783 an Indian half-breed, serving as an English officer, led a body of Indians against the fort, but while displaying a white flag was shot, and his followers hastily beat a retreat. Richard Wallace was captured by the Indians and carried to Canada, where he soon escaped.
On a map of Indiana county, given by Cald- well, he locates an old fort near Indiana, a block-house near Chambersville, and marks the sites of forts, block-houses, stations or fortified houses near Indiana, Saltsburg, Newport, Cen- terville, Strongtown, Elder's Ridge, Homer City, Tannery P. O., Jacksonville, Crete P. O., and Lewisville.
Several of the early settlers were captured and killed by Indians, and the county has an interesting Indian history, if it were carefully collected and then put in proper shape, which, however, would require several years' work, to secure accuracy.
Old Frankstown Road .- The first road west of the Alleghenies was the old Braddock road from Cumberland to Ft. Pitt. The second road was the Forbes military road, which passed just south of Indiana county. The first main road in the county was the " Old Frankstown Road," which was surveyed in 1787 and established
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INDIANA COUNTY.
" between the navigable waters of the Franks- town branch of the river Juniata and the river Conemaugh." course was somewhat changed in 1800, and some parts of its route was parallel with the latter northern turnpike. It passed through Sharpstown, Armagh, crossed the track of the present Indiana railway, and left the county at Williams Ferry, on the Cone- maugh (west of Blairsville). Prior to this road the Kittanning path was the road to the east as well as to Fort Pitt, while a pack-saddle trail or road ran from Indiana town south to Ft. Ligonier, where it intersected the Forbes road, and some distance beyond that point a road con- nected with the old Braddock road.
In 1807 the following reports of county roads were confirmed : " Roger's mill to Indi- ana, Clark's mill to Indiana, Indiana to inter- sect at McFarland's mill, Armstrong county line to Brady's mill ; David Fulton's to Brady's mill, and Newport to intersect with Indiana road." In 1810 the State road from Milesburg to Lebouf was surveyed through the northeast- ern part of the county, and a road was soon opened from Indiana and connected with it. In 1818 the Bedford road was surveyed and passed through Armagh and Indiana to Franklin in Venango county. Seven years later the "old State Road " was located from Centre county via Indiana to Pittsburgh, and the next year the Ligonier, Blairsville and Indiana roads were surveyed. In 1838 the "New State Road " was located from Curwensville, Clear- field county, to East Liberty, Allegheny county, and in 1842 the road from Cherry Tree to the Susquehanna turnpike was surveyed.
County Formation .- Indiana county was cre- ated by an act of the Legislature passed March 30, 1803, and its erection and boundaries are described in the following language :
" An act to erect certain parts of Westmore- land and Lycoming counties into a separate county.
"Sec. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and
House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, that those parts of the counties of West- moreland and Lycoming, included within the following boundaries, viz. : Beginning at the corner of Armstrong county on the Kiskimine- tas river ; thence up said river to the mouth of Conomauch (Conemaugh) river; thence up said river to the line of Somerset county ; thence a straight line to Canoe place on the west branch of Susquehanna ; thence -a north course along Potter's district line twelve miles; thence a due west course to Armstrong county line; thence along said line to place of beginning,-be and the same is hereby erected into a separate county, to be henceforth called Indiana county, and the place for holding the courts of justice in and for said county shall be fixed by the Legislature at any place at a distance not greater than four miles from the centre of the said county."
By the same act the governor was empow- ered to appoint three commissioners to run the boundary lines and ascertain the centre of the county ; and William Jack, James Parr and John Pomroy, of Westmoreland county, were named as trustees for locating the county-seat, which they established at Indiana in consider- ation of a gift of 250 acres of land at that place from George Clymer, of Philadelphia. The "fork " of Two Lick and Yellow creeks was an unsuccessful competitor for the county- seat. (See Indiana borough.)
The first court which was held at Indiana is thus described on the records: " December term, A. D. 1806. Pleas returnable to the County Court of Common Pleas held at Indiana for the county of Indiana on the second Monday of December, Anno Domini, one thousand eight hundred and six, by virtue of an act of Gen- eral Assembly of the Commonwealth of Penn- sylvania passed the 10th day of March, A. D. 1806. Before John Young, Esq., president,
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GEOLOGICAL AND HISTORICAL SKETCH OF
and Charles Campbell, associate judge of the court of Common pleas in and for the county aforesaid." The first attorneys admitted were George Armstrong, John B. Alexander, Samuel S. Harrison, James M. Riddle, Samuel Masscy and Samuel Guthrie. Of the first court of quarter sessions, we have the following record :
" Minutes of a court of quarter sessions of the peace held at Indiana for the county of In- diana, the second Monday in March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and seven. Present, Charles Campbell and James Smith, esquires, justices of the same court."
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