USA > Massachusetts > History of the early settlement of the Juniata Valley : embracing an account of the early pioneers, and the trials and privations incident to the settlement of the valley ; predatory incursions, massacres, and abductions by the Indians during the French and Indian wars, and the War of the Revolution, &c. > Part 25
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It may be as well here to mention that the furnace of Wat- son, White & Co. is just completed ; the Chimney Rock Furnace will be completed during the summer of 1856, as well as the
371
THE VALLEY AS IT IS.
furnace of Messrs. Smith & Caldwell, in Gaysport. These three furnaces follow the discovery of immense fossil ore- veins immediately back of Hollidaysburg, which are supposed to extend, in irregular strata, from the river east as far as the basin extends. In addition to this, in' the Loop,-a basin lying between points of the Cove Mountain, south of Franks- town,-mines capable of the most prolific yield have also been opened. The ore, smelted with coke, is said to produce the best iron in market, and commands a ready sale at excel- lent prices. From the discoveries of ore-deposits already made, and those that will follow future explorations, it is but reasonable to infer that, during the next four or five years, the number of furnaces will be considerably augmented; and at this time there is a project on foot for building an extensive rolling-mill and nail-factory at Hollidaysburg.
The foregoing list of iron establishments numbers seventy- three, (and we are by no means certain that we have enume- rated all,) and employ some six or seven thousand men, directly or indirectly, and the capital invested cannot possibly fall far short of five millions of dollars. And all this vast source of wealth and happiness is drawn from the bosom of mother earth in a valley a little over a hundred miles in length. . We say it boldly, and challenge contradiction, that the iron-mines of the Juniata Valley have yielded more clear profit, and entailed more blessings upon the human family, than ever the same extent of territory did in the richest dig- gings of California.
But, great as the valley is, unquestionably half its resources have not yet been developed. Along the base of the moun- tain are vast seams of coal that have never been opened, and forests of the finest timber, which only await capital and enter- prise to show the real extent of our coal and lumber region. Of the extent of the ore-fields of the valley no man can form any conception. Time alone can tell. Yet we are not without
372
APPENDIX.
hope that ore will be found in such quantities, before the present generation shall have passed away, as shall make the valley a second Wales in its iron operations.
From De Bow's Census Compendium of 1850 we copy the following, set down as an accurate statement of the amount of capital, hands employed, and amount produced, in all the counties of the valley, by manufactures, in that year :-
Counties.
Capital. $212,500
Hands employed.
Bedford
427
Amount produced. $561,339
Blair
1,065,730
1383
1,385,526
Huntingdon.
1,335,525
1218
1,029,860
Mifflin
129,235
300
310,452
Juniata.
309,300
182
467,550
Perry
336,992
609
845,360
Total.
$3,389,282
4119
$4,600,087
This is manifestly an error; for we are satisfied that more capital and hands were employed in the iron business alone in 1850, leaving out Perry county, only a portion of which belongs to the valley proper. The gatherers of the statistics evidently did not enumerate the wood-choppers, charcoal- burners, teamsters, ore-diggers, and others, who labor for fur- naces. Yet, granting that the statistics of the manufactures of the valley, as given in the census report, are correct, and we deduct a tenth for manufactures other than iron, we are still correct; for since then new furnaces, forges, and foun- dries have been built, the capacity of old ones greatly en- larged, and many that were standing idle in 1850 are now in successful operation. In Altoona alone, since then, 600 hands find steady employment in working up the Juniata iron at the extensive machine-shops and foundries of the Pennsylvania Railroad Company.
373
THE VALLEY AS IT IS.
The following shows the population in 1840, and in 1850, together with the number of dwellings :-
Counties.
Pop. in 1840.
Pop. in 1850.
Dwellings.
Bedford
29,335
23,052
3,896
Blair, (formed out of Huntingdon and Bedford, 1846).
21,777
3,718
Huntingdon
35,484
24,786
4,298
Mifflin
13,092
14,980
2,591
Juniata.
11,080
13,029
2,168
Perry.
17,096
20,088
3,412
Total
106,085
117,712
20,083
If we add to Bedford the 7567 inhabitants taken from it to form Fulton county, we shall find that the population increased 19,192 in the valley, between 1840 and 1850. This may be rated as an ordinary increase. To the same increase, be- tween 1850 and 1860, we may add the extraordinary increase caused by the building of the Pennsylvania and the Broad Top Railroads, which, we think, will increase the population to double what it was in 1840 by the time the next census is taken.
The number of dwellings in the valley, it will be observed, amounted, in 1850, to 20,083. Since then, five hundred build- ings have been erected in Altoona, one hundred and fifty in Tyrone, five hundred in the towns and villages along the line of the Broad Top Road, a hundred along the line of the Pennsylvania Road, while the towns of Hollidaysburg, Hunt- ingdon, McVeytown, Lewistown, Mifflin, and Newport, and, in fact, all the villages in the valley, have had more or less buildings erected during the past five years. A corre- sponding number erected during the next five years will, we venture to predict, bring the census return of buildings up to 40,000.
Let it also be remembered that the increase of population between 1840 and 1850 was made when the mania for moving
374
APPENDIX.
to the West was at its height; when more people from the Juniata located in Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, and Indiana, than will leave us during the next twenty years, unless some unforeseen cause should transpire that would start a fresh tide of western emigration. The fact that many who have taken up their residences in the Far West would most willingly re- turn, if they could, has opened the eyes of the people, in a measure; and many have become convinced that a man who cannot live and enjoy all the comforts of life on a fine Penn- sylvania farm can do little better upon the prairies of Iowa or the ague-shaking swamps of Indiana. As an evidence that money may be made at home here by almost any pursuit, attended with perseverance, we may incidentally mention that a gentleman near Frankstown, who owns a small farm, -- probably one hundred and sixty acres,-not only kept his family comfortable during the last year, but netted $1400 clear profit, being half the amount of the original purchase. Is there a farm of the same size in Iowa that produced to its owner so large a sum over and above all expenses ? But, more than this, we can safely say, without fear of contradiction, that every acre of culti- vated land in the Juniata Valley has, during the last two years, netted as much as the same amount of land in the most fertile and productive Western State in the Union. A large propor- tion of the people who have located in the West, actuated by that ruling passion of the human family-the accumulation of money, (mostly for dissipated heirs to squander,)-are engaged in speculating in lands. Now, we venture to say that the in- crease in the price of some of the lands in the Juniata Valley will vie with the rapid rise in the value of Western lands; and we are prepared to maintain our assertions with the proof. Some years ago a gentleman in Huntingdon county took a tract of tim- ber-land, lying at the base of the mountain in Blair county, for a debt of some four or five hundred dollars. The debt was deemed hopelessly bad, and the land little better than the debt itself.
375
THE VALLEY AS IT IS.
Right willingly would the new owner have disposed of it for a trifle, but no purchaser could be found. Anon the railroad was built, and a number of steam saw-mills were erected on lands adjoining the tract in question, when the owner found a ready purchaser at $2500 cash. A gentleman in Gaysport, in the summer of 1854, purchased twelve acres of ground back of Hollidaysburg for seven hundred dollars. This sum he netted by the sale of the timber taken off it preparatory to breaking it up for cultivation. After owning it just one year, he disposed of it for $3000! A gentleman in Hollidaysburg, in the fall of 1854, bought three hundred and eighty acres of ground, adjoining the Frankstown. Ore Bank, for three hun- dred and eighty dollars. The undivided half of this land was sold on the 22d of February, 1856, for $2900, showing an in- crease in value of about 1400 per cent. in fifteen months; and yet the other half could not be purchased for $5000. By this the land speculator will see that it is not necessary for him to go to the Far West to pursue his calling while real estate rises so rapidly in value at home.
Within a few years past, the Juniata country has been made a summer resort by a portion of the denizens of Phila- delphia, Baltimore, and Pittsburg. From either city it is reached after but a few hours' travel. The romantic scenery, the invigorating air, and the pure water of the mountains, are attractions that must eventually outweigh those of fashionable watering-places, with their customary conventional restraints. The hotels erected along the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad are admirably adapted, and have been built with a view to ac- commodate city-folks who wish to ruralize during the summer months. Prominent among them we may mention the Pat- terson House, kept by General Bell; the House, kept by Mrs. C. C. Hemphill, at the Lewistown station; the Keystone Hotel, at Spruce Creek, kept by Colonel R. F. Haslett; the City Hotel, Tyrone City; the large hotel at Tipton; the
376
APPENDIX.
Logan House, in Altoona; the two large hotels lately erected at Cresson, by Dr. Jackson, (capable of accommodating five hundred guests;) and Riffle's Mansion House at the Summit. In addition to these, all the larger towns contain excellent hotels. In short, we may say that the hotels of the valley, collectively, cannot be surpassed by country hotels any- where.
The valley is not without its natural curiosities to attract the attention of the man of leisure. The Arch Spring and the Cave in Sinking Valley are probably among the greatest curi- osities to be found in any country. The spring gushes from an opening arched by nature in such force as to drive a mill, and then sinks into the earth again. The subterranean pas- sage of the water can be traced for some distance by pits or openings, when it again emerges, runs along the surface among rocky hills, until it enters a large cave, having the appearance of an immense tunnel. This cave has been ex- plored as far as it will admit-some four hundred feet,-where there is a large room, and where the water falls into a chasm or vortex, and finds a subterranean passage through Canoe Mountain, and emerges again at its southern base, along which it winds down to Water Street and empties into the river.
Another of these subterranean wonders is a run back of Tyrone City, where it sinks into the base of a limestone ridge, passes beneath a hill, and makes its appearance again at the edge of the town.
The most remarkable spring, however, is one located on the right bank of the river, some seven miles below Hollidaysburg. The peculiar feature about this spring is the fact that it ebbs and flows with the same regularity the tides do. The admirer of natural curiosities may arrive at it when it is brimming full or running over with the purest of limestone water; yet in a short time the water will commence receding, and within
.
377
THE VALLEY AS IT IS.
an hour or two the hole in the ground alone remains. Then a rumbling noise is heard up the hill-side, and soon the water pours down until the spring is again overflowed.
In the town of Williamsburg, on the property of John K. Neff, Esq., there is a remarkable spring. It throws out a volume of water capable of operating a first-class mill, together with other machinery, although the distance from the spring to the river does not exceed the eighth of a mile.
At Spang's Mill, in Blair county, is by far the largest spring in the upper end of the valley. It has more the appearance of a small subterranean river breaking out at the hill-side than that of a spring. It is about three hundred yards long, varying in width from one hundred to one hundred and fifty feet. The water has a bluish-green tinge, and is so exceedingly pure that a drop of it placed under a microscope would show fewer ani- malculæ than a drop of river-water would after being filtered. Formerly it contained thousands upon thousands of the finest brook trout; but of late years the number has been consider- ably diminished by the sportsmen who could obtain permis- sion from Mr. Spang to entice them from their element with the tempting fly. A hundred feet from what is considered the end of the spring, there is a large grist-mill driven by its waters, which empty into the eastern reservoir of the Penn- sylvania Canal, after traversing a distance of about three miles. Within two miles from the head of the spring, its waters furnish motive-power to two grist-mills, a saw-mill, and four forges.
As a singular circumstance in connection with this subject, we may mention that, within the memory of some of the older inhabitants, a considerable stream of water ran through the upper end of Middle Woodbury township, Bedford county ; but the spring at the head of it gave out, as well as several other springs which fed it, and now scarcely any traces of it remain.
378
APPENDIX.
In facilities for teaching the rising generation the counties composing the valley are not behind any of their sister coun- ties in the State, as the Common School Report for 1855 proves.
Ever mindful of the Giver of all good and his manifold mercies to mankind, the people of the Juniata region have reared fully as many temples to the worship of Almighty God as the same number of inhabitants have done in any land where the light of the gospel shines. The following table, compiled from the census statistics, shows the number of churches in 1850 :-
SECTS.
Bedford.
Blair.
Huntingdon.
Mifflin.
Juniata.
Perry.
Total.
Baptist.
5
5
6
1
..
4
21
Christian .
..
1
1
Congregational
1
Episcopal.
...
......
1
2
.. ..
...
..
......
3
....
......
......
3
Friends.
2
5
5
.....
.. ....
10
27
Lutheran .
14
10
5
5
9
8
51
Mennonite
10
6
22
8
7
14
67
Moravian .
2
2
1
1
11
10
8
54
Roman Catholic.
1
3
1
1
..
Tunker
1
1
2
1
1
9
Minor Sects.
1
2
3
Total.
52
42
60
32
27
47
260
..
3
Free.
2
German Reformed.
7
3
3
Methodist.
7
Presbyterian
6
6
13
6
2
Union
5
During the six years that have elapsed since the above sta- tistics were taken, quite a number of new churches have been erected-probably not less than twenty. Of this number four have been erected in Altoona and three in Tyrone City alone.
And now, worthy reader, our voluntarily-assumed task is ended. As we glance over the pages of our work, we are
1
......
..
1
1
379
THE VALLEY AS IT IS.
made painfully aware of the fact that many of the narratives given are too brief to be very interesting. This is owing alto- gether to the fact that we chose to give unvarnished accounts as we received them, broken and unconnected, rather than a connected history garnished with drafts from the imagination. In thus steering clear of the shoals of fiction,-on which so many historians have wrecked,-we conceive that we have only done our duty to those who suggested to us this under- taking.
We are strongly impressed with the idea that a history of the early settlement of the valley should have been written a quarter of a century ago. Then it might have made a volume replete with all the stirring incidents of the times, for at that period many of the actors in the trials and strug- gles endured were still among us, and could have given details; while we were compelled to glean our information from persons on the brink of the grave, whose thoughts dwelt more upon the future than on the past.
The modern history of the valley will be a subject for the pen of the historian a quarter of a century hence. We have given him a hint of some occurrences during the last half century ; and for further particulars, during the next twenty- five years, we would refer him to the twenty newspapers published in the seven counties, from whose columns alone he will be able to compile an interesting history, sparing himself the trouble of searching among books, papers, and old inhabitants, for incidents that, unfortunately, never were recorded.
The future of the valley no man knoweth. We even tax the Yankee characteristic in vain when we attempt to guess its future. Many yet unborn may live to see the fires of forges and furnaces without number illuminating the rugged mountains, and hear the screams of a thousand steam-engines. They may live, too, to see the day when population shall
380
APPENDIX.
have so increased that the noble stag dare no longer venture down from the mountain to slake his thirst at the babbling brook, and when the golden-hued trout, now sporting in every mountain-stream, shall be extinct. . But, before that time, there is reason to believe that the present generation, including your historian, will have strutted upon the stage the brief hour allotted to them, performed life's pilgrimage, and, finally, arrived at
THE END.
STEREOTYPED BY L. JOHNSON & 00. PHILADELPHIA,
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