USA > Pennsylvania > Blair County > A history of Blair county, Pennsylvania. From its earliest settlement, and more particularly from its organization, in 1846 to June 1896 > Part 1
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org.
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14
F 157 .B5C6
H
F
1800
Glass
Book
COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT
-
الانسْمَا لَسْالسَسَالسَّالسَانِنْ
Semi-Centen HISTORY
. . OF .
BLAIR COUNTY 1 896.
For Visitors
and Citize
PREPARED ESPECIALLY FOR TH
Celebration of the First Fifty Years OF THE County's Growth.
Held June 11 and 12, 1896, at Holliday . . r2, !-
A SOUVENIR.
PRICE, 50 CENTS.
.
UNDER THE CLEAR DAYLIGHT.
serving Blair County With Dry Goods.
"Day " and day out we're improving this store for you. "uljegiving our best thought and effort toward making .tore's service perfect in every detail.
11 We're was no better goods can be found. We're sule no greater variety is shown. We're sure no lower prices are quoted.
... ... oven all through this store's policy is the constant a try to have you pleased with the shopping you do ber's to have you perfectly satisfied with every purchase made. That's why we buy so carefully. That's why we 27 5. That's why we employ only pleasant and can range people to serve you. We want it done to know it if anything goes wrong.
"" " watch our newspaper announcements and oings of the store. We keep our ads uggerations, no misrepresentations are ppear. We want you to tell us if you
Baix County's One Great Dry Goods Supply House,
if you do not live in Altoona, see our ad. on the inside D' the back cover of this book.
WILLIAM F. GABLE & CO.
Daylight Department Store, ALTOONA, PA.
SKETCH
ALTOONA TA&
JuDista Shops
BY S. C.CORSON
ALTOONAL
HOLLIDAY
JUNIATA BOROUGH
WESTMON'
KTON
NEWBURG
ALLEGHANY
MILLERTOWI
SKETCH
S
SC
+
WAR!
POUR
ALTOONA®
LEXINGTO
PRI PARK
purista Shops. Locomotiva morte.
2/9/2 Car - Shops.
C.CORSONET
Altoona Gas
HOD WARD
MEWAR
RTH
WA
F
COM
CRAWEOU
71
CRAWFORDS
STIES
COLLINSVILLE
-
ALLEGHANY
NIA
ASTOONAURA
JUNIATA BOROUGH
AS
VE.
AVA
WARDY
VE
prosty!
WARD
LAUT
HOSPITAL.
DE
PENNSYLVANIA
LAchine Shape
DARLA
LNOWISEM
HOLLIDAYSBURG
CINES
ATANT
Charles B. Clarke.
A HISTORY OF BLAIR COUNTY
PENNSYLVANIA.
From its Earliest Settlement, and more parti- cularly from its Organization, in 1846 to June 1896.
FIFTY YEARS.
Containing, also, a map of the City of Altoona, the metropolis of the county, and a description of all the other Boroughs and smaller Towns, giving population and present condition. Also, a general resume of the various business enterprises, and a directory of the places of interest and natural curiosities which strangers should sec.
Prepared especially for the Patriotic Citizens of the County and Visitors to the
SEMI-CENTENNIAL . CELEBRATION.
JUNE 11 AND 12, 1896.
A SOUVENIR OF THAT IMPORTANT EVENT.
CHARLES B. CLARK, ESQ .. OF THE BLAIR COUNTY BAR, AUTHOR AND PUBLISHER. ALTOONA PA , 1596.
JUN181896
33702-B21
COPYRIGHT, 1896, BY CHARLES B. CLARK.
Preface.
€ VERY one of the 100,000 visitors to Blair County during the Semi-Centennial Celebration will want to know something about this favored county, and every one of the 80,000 inhabitants should be able to tell them about it ; to give facts and figures re- garding the past and present, to tell other parts of our history which to a certain extent is legendary, and to show on what substantial foundations our hopes for continued prosperity and future greatness are based.
It was to supply this desideratum that the present work was undertaken by the author at a very late date, after learning that the committee of arrangements had failed to get it done as they had contemplated. On account of the very limited time for preparation and research the subject has not been as exhaustively treated as could be wished and some errors may be found resulting from the lack of time necessary to properly verify all data, but it is confidently believed that it is accurate enough for all practical purposes, and complete enough to fill the minds of the visitors with admiration and cause the heart of the citizen to swell with pardonable pride at the growth already achieved and the glowing future lying so bright be- fore us. To meet the very considerable expense involved it was necessary to insert some advertising matter, and to the business men who have thus assisted, sincere thanks are due and are hereby pub- licly expressed by the author,
ALTOONA, PA., June 10th, 1896.
C. B. CLARK.
Blair County.
B LAIR COUNTY is now fifty years old, having fully completed a half century of separate existence as one of the sixty-seven counties of the great State of Pennsylvania, the second State in the Union in population and wealth, and to-day, in a grand demonstration, with pomp and ceremony befitting the occasion, she celebrates her semi-centennial ; proud of her achievements in the past, glorying in her present greatness and confident of continued and increasing pros- perity for the future.
In June, 1846, she began her independent career with a popu- lation of about 16,000, with eleven townships and three small bor- oughs, Hollidaysburg, Gaysport and Martinsburg, 594 square miles of surface and a total assessed valuation of 54, 200,000. And now, while her bounds have not been enlarged she has sub-divided some of her townships so that the number is at present fifteen, one large city has grown up during this period within her limits and there are ten independent boroughs and numerous small villages. The pop- ulation of the county exceeds So, ooo and the assessed valuation is $32,000,000.
Blair County has within its bounds some of the loftiest moun- tains, the most beautifully picturesque scenery and the greatest natural curiosities in the State. It has considerable mineral wealth and many fertile and well watered valleys.
In it are the head waters of the Blue Juniata river, and passing through, from east to west, is the main line of the richest railroad in the United States, perhaps the richest in the world, the P. R. R. Here has been the birthplace or early home of some of the most noted people of the State, some whose name and fame are world wide, not as leaders of great armies but as financial giants, origi- nators of great enterprises, directors and managers of colossal indus- tries ; eminently successful business men.
The territory now included in Blair County was a part of Cum- berland County from July 6, 1754, to March 9th, 1771, when Bed- ford County was erected and it became a part of that. It was in- cluded within the limits of Bedford from March 9th, 1771, to Sept. 20th, 1787, when Huntingdon County was formed and all except North Woodbury and Greenfieldl townships were included in that County. It remained a part of Huntingdon from Sept. 20th, 1787.
Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
to Feb. 26th, 1846, or, perhaps more properly, till about June Ist, 1846, when it became a separate county, being formed from a part of Huntingdon County and the two townships of Bedford before named. No further division or change is probable for many years as the present constitution of the State prohibits the erection of any new county, the boundary lines of which will pass within ten miles of any existing county seat.
The organization of the new County began to be agitated in 1838 and on January 2Ist, 1839, a public meeting was held in the Methodist Episcopal Church, of Hollidaysburg, to take action in the matter. Christian Garber was chosen president of this meeting and a committee consisting of William Williams, Peter Cassiday, Dr. James Coffey, Peter Hewit, John Walker, Samuel Calvin, Esq., and Edward McGraw was appointed to define the boundaries of the proposed new county, draft petitions, procure the necessary signa- tures thereto and present them to the State legislature. This work was performed by the committee but the matter was held in abey- ance for several years, on various accounts, before its final consum- mation. A bill offered in 1843 failed to go through and it was not until the session of 1845-6 that the necessary Act of Assembly was passed and approved by the governor, Francis R. Shunk, whose approval thereof is dated February 26, 1846, but the formation of the county cannot properly be said to have been completed until June following.
Hon. John Blair, from whom Blair County received it name, was born at Blair's Gap, now in Allegheny township, in the year 17
His father, Captain Thomas Blair, a native of Scotland, was a soldier in the Revolutionary Army and after the independence of the colonies had been achieved he came, probably about 1785, to what is now Blair County, then part of Bedford, and established a home in the Gap which has since borne his name. The stream that comes through this gap was also called Blair's Run after he settled here. Whether it had an earlier name is not known. Captain Blair, in 1794, owned four hundred acres of land, two saw mills, two distill- eries, several slaves and considerable other personal property. He died at the home he had established here, September 10, 1808.
His son John was born at the old homestead and passed nearly the whole of his active life in this part of the State. Being an enter- prising and sagacious business man as well as a public spirited citi- zen he devoted much of his energies to the public improvements of the State, the pike in 1818 to 1820, (being president of the com-
5
Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
pany, ) and the canal in 1828 to 1832, and when the new county was formed it was but natural that it should be named after him although he had been dead for a number of years. His death occurred Jan- uary Ist, 1832, in the same neighborhood as his birth, and his re- mains were laid to rest in the burying plot at
The only lineal descendants of Captain Thomas Blair and Hon. John Blair, known to be living in this part of the State are Thomas S. Blair, a great-grandson of the Captain, now past 60 years of age who lives retired in Tyrone, and George D. Blair, of Tyrone, banker, a son of Thomas S. and therefore a great-great-grandson of the founder of the family here.
The following is the material part of the act establishing Blair County as approved by the governor Feb. 26, 1846 :
SEC. 1. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- tives of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, in General Assembly met, and it is hereby enacted by the authority of the same, That the territory within the townships of North Woodbury and Greenfield, in the county of Bedford, and the territory within the townships of Allegheny, Antes, Snyder, Tyrone, Frankstown, Blair, Huston and Woodbury, and within that part of Morris township lying west of the line lately run by William Reed and other viewers, under an order of court, for the purpose of dividing the same, in the county of Huntingdon, are hereby erected according to said boundaries into a new and separate county, to be called Blair ; and the inhabitants thereof shall, from the fourth Monday of July next, have all such courts, jurisdictions, offices, rights and privileges as the inhabitants of the other counties of this Commonwealth are or may by entitled to.
SEC. 2. That each of the portions of said Morris township, ac- cording to the said division line made by William Reed and others, shall hereafter be separate and distinct townships for all purposes ; the portion lying westward of said line to be called Catherine town- ship, and shall hold its general and township elections at the house now occupied by Walter Graham.
SEC. 3. That the qualified electors of said new county shall, at their next general election, elect three citizens thereof as commis- sioners for said county, one of whom shall serve one year, one for two years, and one for three years, and to be accordingly designated on the ticket of the electors, and the said commissioners, together with their successors in office, shall be qualified and elected accord- ing to existing laws respecting such officers : and at the same time said electors shall also elect three citizens to serve as county auditors,
6
Semi=Centennial History of Blair County.
to be designated as to their term of service as aforesaid, one thereof to serve for one year, one for two years and one for three years, who, together with their successors in office, shall be qualified and elected in the same manner as the auditors of other counties.
SEC. 4. That said commissioners shall have full power to take to themselves and their successors in office sufficient deeds and as- surances in law for such lots or pieces of ground as shall have been selected for sites for the public buildings of said county under the provisions of the thirteenth section of this Act.
SEC. 5. That the return judges of elections in said county of Blair shall meet at the place where the courts may be held in said county, and having received the returns shall dispose of the same as is directed by law with respect to other counties.
SEC. 6. That one person shall fill the offices of Prothonotary, Clerk of the Courts of General Quarter Sessions of Oyer and Ter- miner, and of the Orphans' Court in said county of Blair, and one person shall fill the office of Register of Wills and of Recorder of Deeds in said county.
SEC. 7. That until the court house shall be erected, as here- after authorized, the several courts of said county of Blair shall be held in such house, within said county, as shall be designated by the commissioners thereof, elected at the next general election.
SEC. 8. The county of Blair shall be annexed to and compose part of the Sixteenth Judicial District of this Commonwealth, and the courts shall be held and commence as follow, to wit : On the fourth Monday of March, July, October and December in each year and the first court shall be held in said county of Blair on the fourth Monday of October next. *
SEC. 12. That the said county of Blair shall be attached to and connected with the Seventeenth Congressional District, and the qualified electors of the county of Blair, together with the counties of Huntingdon, Centre, Mifflin and Juniata, shall continue to elect a member of Congress, and the qualified electors of the counties of Blair, Huntingdon and Bedford shall continue to elect a Senator of the State Legislature; and the said counties of Blair and Hunting- don shall each elect one member of the House of Representatives of this Commonwealth.
SEC. 13. That the Governor be and he is hereby authorized and required, on or before the first day of May, next ensuing, to appoint three judicious and disinterested persons, not residents in the counties of Huntingdon, Bedford, or Blair, as Commissioners, whose duty it shall be, after being duly sworn, to perform their du- ties with fidelity, to run correctly, ascertain, and mark the boundary lines of said county of Blair and to fix upon a proper and conven-
Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
ient site or location for the seat of justice of said county of Blair, and for a court house, prison, and county offices within and for the said county of Blair; and that the said Commissioners, or a majority of them, having run, ascertained and marked the boundary lines aforesaid or caused the same to be done and fixed the site or lo- cation which they shall have chosen for the purpose or purposes aforesaid, shall, on or before the first day of August next, by a written report under their hands and seals, of a majority of them, certify, describe and limit the site of location which they shall have chosen for the purpose or purposes aforesaid; and make out a cor- rect plot or draft of the said county of Blair, and shall transmit the said report and draft to the Secretary of the Commonwealth; and the said Commissioners shall each receive two dollars per day for their services, together with their reasonable expenses in running, or causing to be run, the said boundary lines, and in doing what is re - quired to be done by them, out of the moneys to be raised in pur- suance of this Act, Provided, that the said Commissioners, in and on or before fixing the site and location of the seat of justice, court house, prison and county offices for the use and benefit of said County of Blair, shall and are hereby authorized and required to receive propositions and agreements from any and all persons willing and desirous to make the same for the building of said court house, prison and county offices, or any of them, at their own expense, free of charge to said county, or for the giving of money, land or other valuable things for, towards, or in part of the expense of building the same, or any of them, by which propositions and agreements the person or persons making the same shall be bound to and for the use of the said County of Blair, if the terms and conditions of the same, or any of them, are acceded to and concurred in by the said Commissioners; and the said Commissioners shall take into con- sideration and be influenced by said propositions and agreements in fixing and determining upon the site or location of the seat of justice, court house, prison or jail and county offices of and for the said County of Blair; And provided further, that in case the seat of jus- tice, court house, prison or jail, and county offices of and for said County of Blair should be located by the said Commissioners at or within the limits of Hollidaysburg or Gaysport, in said County of Blair, the bond bearing the date the twenty-ninth day of August, Anno Domini eighteen hundred and forty-five, in the penal sum of twenty thousand dollars, conditioned to indemnify and secure the inhabitants of the said county, created or to be created by this Act against any increase of county taxes by reason of or for the erection of the said court house, public offices and jail of said county, created
8
Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
or to be created by this Act, signed by James Gardner, Samuel Calvin and others, and deposited in the office of the branch of the Exchange Bank of Pittsburgh at Hollidaysburg, on said day shall be binding on the obligors therein and thereto according to the terms and conditions thereof and other like or similar bond or in- struments of writing which may be given by other persons in rela- tion to the location of the seat of justice of said County of Blair at any other point, town or place, within the limits of the said County of Blair, shall in like manner be binding on the obligers or signers therein and thereto *
A supplement to the foregoing Act was passed during the same session of the Legislature and approved April 20th, 1846, which provided that the October term of court should begin the third Monday of the month, the July term was changed to the second Monday in June and it also provided that "the Governor shall, on or before the second Monday of June next, appoint three judicious persons as Commissioners of said county, to serve until their succes- sors shall be duly elected and qualified, who shall perform the usual duties of County Commissioners, together with such duties in relation to jurors and a place for holding the courts as by said Act were imposed on the Commissioners to be elected at the next general election."
From the text of the foregoing Acts it is apparent that the county of Blair could not have a complete and separate existence until its boundaries were definitely ascertained and fixed by a Com- mission to be appointed later. It is also apparent that the Act was framed with great care and with the view of outlining a complete modus operandi for consummating the wishes of the people resident in the territory embraced. It is evident also that some over con- servative people, fearing that taxes might be increased to provide for the new county buildings, had interposed such objections to the project that it became necessary for others more broad-minded and liberal to step into the breach and give their personal obligations, to the extent of a twenty-thousand dollar bond, that this would not occur. The names of James Gardner and Samuel Calvin were con- sequently incorporated in the Act, and for the deep devotion to the public welfare, denoted by their generous deed, have been thus im- mortalized. while the names of the petty objectors to a grand object are now buried in deserved oblivion. All honor, then, to those noble spirits who have been found in every age and every clime ready to lay both life and fortune on their country's altar when oc- casion demands the sacrifice.
9
Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
Under the Act just recited the Governor appointed on the Commission to run the county lines and determine the location of the seat of justice, Henry McBride, of Westmoreland County; Gen- eral Orr, of Armstrong County; and Judge Christy, of Juniata County, who acted promptly, established the county lines as they now are and chose Hollidaysburg as the county seat. The choice of Hollidaysburg was a foregone conclusion, it being then the largest town in this part of the State and the residence of most of the active workers for the new county : the only other towns of importance in this vicinity were Frankstown, Martinsburg, Williamsburg and Gays- port. Altoona and Tyrone, now so greatly exceeding it in popula- tion and importance, were undreamed of. The number of town- ships in the county at its formation was eleven, since then four more have been added by dividing the original ones. The town- ships are now Allegheny, Antes, Blair, Catharine, Frankstown, Freedom, Greenfield, Huston, Juniata, Logan, North Woodbury, Snyder, Taylor, Tyrone and Woodbury, of which the following have been formed since 1846, viz : Juniata in 1847, Logan in 1850. Taylor in 1855, Freedom in 1857.
The territory thus segregated, separated from the other civil divisions of the Commonwealth and established as an independent county by the highest authority in the State, is well defined by nat- ural boundary lines most of which are tops of mountain ranges, and Blair County is in fact a little empire by itself, though by no means a little county, surrounded on all sides by mountains of considerable elevation; ingress and egress being had only through a few gaps or breaks in these ranges. Dry Gap, Kittanning Gap and Blair's Gap on the west, to Cambria County, the eastern limit of the Mississippi Valley; a narrow gap north of Tyrone up the Bald Eagle creek to Center County, and another east of the same town and down the Juniata river to Huntingdon County; still another from Williams- burg eastward along the valley of the Frankstown branch of the Ju- niata to Petersburg, in Huntingdon County-the route of the okl canal-and two or three wagon roads south from Martinsburg and Claysburg into Bedford County. Its extreme width from cast to west is about twenty miles and its length north and south thirty miles; area, 594 square miles or 380, 160 acres. The entire county may be regarded as one great valley containing numerous detached mountains and large hills, interspersed with many smaller fertile val- leys and little streams, besides the larger valley and three branches of the Juniata river.$ Its geographical position is about thirty miles
*The Indian name for this river was Scokoonlady.
10
Semi=Centennial History of Blair County.
southwest of the center of the State, and it lies between the 40th and 4Ist degrees of North Latitude and between the 78th and 79th de- grees of Longitude west of Greenwich.
The geographical center of the county is in Frankstown town- ship about three miles northeast of Hollidaysburg. The center of population , which at the formation of the county was not far from Hollidaysburg, is now within the limits of Altoona City and firmly anchored there.
The principal mountains within the county, aside from the Alle- ghenies on the western boundary and Tussey's Mountains and Bald Eagle Ridge on the east are Brush Mountain, Canoe, Dunning's, Short, Cove and Lock Mountains.
Of the valleys, Logan is the largest, extending from Altoona to Tyrone, the western portion of this, in earlier years, was known as "Tuckahoe;" Sinking Valley, in Tyrone Township, in which sink- ing Run, after a course of several miles, disappears in the earth; Scotch Valley, extending from Frankstown north-eastwardly and Morrison's Cove in the southern part of the county; Canoe Valley along Canoe Creek; and many others not dignified with a name.
The streams of the county are Frankstown branch of the Juniata, which is the largest and flows north-east from Greenfield Township through Freedom, Blair and Frankstown townships and between Catharine and Woodbury, to Porter Township, in Huntingdon Coun- ty, where it empties into the main stream near Petersburg, on the Penn'a R. R. Beaver Dam branch of the Juniata, which flows through Allegheny and Blair townships, separates Hollidaysburg from Gaysport, and empties into the Frankstown branch near the village of Frankstown; and the Little Juniata, the true stream, which rises in the Allegheny Mountains, in Logan Township and flows south to Juniata Borough, near Altoona, thence north-eastward to Tyrone, thence south-eastward through Huntingdon County and after being joined at Petersburg by the Frankstown branch and at Huntingdon by the Raystown branch, it flows on as a noble river to its confluence with the Susquehana, fifteen miles west of Harrisburg. The other streams are Bald Eagle Creek, coming in from Center County on the north, and emptying into the Juniata near Tyrone, Moore's Run, Sinking Run, Hutchison's Run, Elk Run and Three Springs Run all in Snyder Township; Taylor, Bells Gap, Laurel and Beaver Dam Runs in Antes Township; Elk, Arch Spring and Sinking Runs in Tyrone Township; Homers, Mill, Kit- tanning, Burgoons and Brush Runs in Logan Township; Blair Creek, Sugar and Brush Runs in Allegheny Township; Old town
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.