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 14
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SEMI-CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF BLAIR COUNTY.
Hence it was an age of religious persecution; of being raised on their part. To every appeal to inimical laws against heretics by those in power. And it mattered very little, so far ; s the perse- cution was concerned, which party was in power. Citholies persecuted Protestants: Protestants persecuted Catholics, and each other; in Eng- land. all sects detested and persecuted the Quakers. When this spirit of religious persecu- tion was rife, in the year 1681, Penn, who had been persecuted and imprisoned for his religion, acquired the patent to Pennsylvania, and com-
their courage and manhood in the frontier days the invariable answer was, 'Gottes will sei gethan" (God's wille be done). While we cannot but admire steadfas; adherence to principle, we cannot fail to see they were utterly out of place as frontier-men. These are not the people who conquer homes in a new territory with a savage fre facing them, and if they had not had for neighbors men of a different stamp the -ettle- ment of this great commonwealth would have menced to colonize it, by inviting immigrants. ; been delayed half a century.
not only members of his own sect, but of all see's, promising to all freedom of conscience in religion, which promise he and his sons in the proprietor hip faithfully kept. Penn, while in prison for retusing to take an oath, ten years be- fore the date of his charter, had written a pamphlet advocating the largest liberty of con- seieuce in religious belie'; from this position he never swerved.
It is a remarkable fact, that the Quaker. whose religious belief excludes all doga a, esting wholly on th. "inner light." and the Catholics under Lord Baltimore, who settled Maryland, and whose religious belief rests almost wholly on authoritatively defined doctrine and dogma, should have giver to the world! within a few year's of each other, the first examples of eom- plete religious toleration in the new world Not a single one of the other colonies did it. I use the word "complete" religious toleration, as ap- plied to the facts of that age. 'the act of tolera- tion in Maryland declared that: "No person or persons whatsoever. professing to bel.eve in Jesus Chiist, shall from henceforth be in any way troubled or moleste l or discounten ineed for and in respect of his or her religion, nor in the free exercise there it; nor in any way comnpelle i to the belief or exercise of any other religion against his or her consent." This would not tolerate the Jew nor the Deist. Butt e numbers of these were so insignificant at that day, that it is alto- gether probable there was no intention to exclude them; they were simply not thought of.
Under Penn's great principle of religious toler- ation, emigrants began to pour into Pennsylva- nia from almost all European race -. Quakers, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Lutherans, Tunk - ers, Catbolies and Moravians in relig. ous creed; Dutch, English, Irish, Scoten, Scotch-Iris , Swedes, Welsh and Germans. Such a conglom- eration ot races and religions settled no other of the original colonies Within the next hundred years, there reached the territory now compos- ing our county, Presbyter.ans, Tunkers, Lu- therans and Catholics in religion And in race there were Scotch, Scotch-Irish, Irish and Ger- mans. The Cove, from North Woodbury town- ship to Williamsburg, was mainly originally setiled by German Tunkers; what is now Cath- arine township, Tyrone township, Logan town- ship, Allegheny township, the land around Hol- lidaysburg and part of Frankstown township, hy Scotch-Irish; that part of Frankstown township known as Scotch Valley, by Scotch In the ter- ritory now known as Greenfield and Juniata townshins many Lutherans settled. Some of them also settlel in Frankstown township and Sinking Valley. Blair township was s ttled principally by Irish Catholics in the latter part of the last century and most of the descendants of the original settlers still reside there. Besides these, Irish Catholics appear early in this centu- ry, from the old assessment books scattered all over the county; especially at the carly iron works, furnaces and forges.
first after the organization of the county, it num- bered fully one-third of our population. At an early day the Germans sought exclusiveness, preserved their own language, and neither sought nor desired intercourse with others; espe- cially was this the case with the 'luukers; their principles were in one respe .t not unlike those of the Quakers; they were opposed to war, but they went further; they were non-resistauts; whole families of them were massacre:l and scalped by the Indians in the Cove and they resisted not; a dozen savages would devastate and destroy a set- ilement containing thirty men without a hand
They are, however, the very embodiment of thrift and industry, and as cultivators of the soil have had no equils in the United States. Travel through the Cove, where their descend- auts still live on the splendid limestone farms; notice the fences, straight, with no broken rails; the large bank barns, generally painted red, a touch of old country e flor; houses often of a size, that a half dozen would go inside the big barn, but always neat and presenting an air of com- fort; what sleek, contented cat le; heavy, fait horses. And these honest, simple people are the soul of hospitality; enter the r houses, whether for a meal or lodging. without many words you feel you are welcome. the food. though plain. always appetizing and well cooked: the liquid beverages, cider and milk: the meals were not French, principally napkins, eut-glass and flowers; it was ·be-for pork, potatoes, dried ap- ples or snits, the finest of bread in huge loaves, and large wheat flour cakes. Nearly all their clothing was madeon the farm, from the wool clip- ped from their own sheep, the.r shoes from hides taken fromthe catile on the farm, and then to the nearest tannery to be made into leather. Often-at least snen was the case thirty-five years ago-the women of the house did not speak English. and but poorly understood it; Pennsylvania Dutch was the language of a cen- tury; it is probably much the same now, for these people loathe change. In many respects, they excel in good citizenship; they are never found in the courts, civil or criminal; their disputes among themselves are settled by the congrega- tion: often outsiders impose on them, teeling sure they will not seek redr. 's at law. They are benevolent; they would consider it disgraceful for any of their own poor to reach the almshouse; but towards those without the pale they are also kind and charitable.
Their taxes are always poid promptly, notwith- standing some grumbling at times at the amount. They hate debt, and > eldom buy what they cannot pay for. Many years ago they did not vote, but this rule of their church is gradu- ally becoming obsolete. They are still averse 10 serving on juries, and I'know of no instanee in this county where they have accepted publie office, though in other portions of the state they have done so. They were from the beginning opposed to public schools In Is57, when superin- tendent of schools, I often visited them in their homes and conversed with them on the subject. Always hospitable and kind, still I remember of no instance in which I succeeded in persuading the elder members of the faith to aid in promot- ing the cause of education. The fact i-, their ancestors had been poiseented bitterly in Ger- many by both Catholics and Lutheran; in the hands of these religionists were the government and all institutions f learning; by tradition, they associated much lenining with despotic power and cruel persecution, and they abhorred it. But in the last thirty five years this hostility has in a great part disa pear d; tre younger generation, more acute in its perceptions, is more favorable to education: these citizens, before long, we may hope, will take their proper place in the government of a great commonwealth to
As to the German element, most authorities estimate that at the commencement of the revo- lutionary war it constituted from a third to a half of the population of the state. I would judge, in looking over the assessment of 1847, the . whose material wealth they have splargely con-
tributed. I yet expert to see a Funker she iff, or at least a county commissioner; my children, I doubt not, will see Tunker governors, judges and congressmen.
The other branch of German relig onists, the Lutherans, had no such notions as the Tunkers. From the.r first coming into;the colony they took an active fighting part in affairs. In fact, when Muhlenberg, their great preacher, arrived among them in 1742, he called them a trongh set " He was a learned, able and pious man; it was not long until his character was felt by his co-religionists; he organized them into congrega-
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SEMI-CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF BLAIR COUNTY.
tions, and sought to impress upon them the wis- dom as well as duty of becoming Americanized; he opposed, with all his great ability, that segre garion so dear to the Tunker. He taught Eng- lish himself. had his children educated in it by an English governess. His son Peter was a prominent general in the revolution. Ma y of these Lancaster and Berks German Lutherans found their way into our valleys soon after the revolutionary war, and their nimes can be traced on the assessments trom these counties. They were a far better class of citizens in one particular than the Tunkers; they took part in government, focal, county and stale; always voter; were always ready 10 lake up arms in ur- fense of their homes and country.
Professor Wickersham, in his "History of Edu- cation in Pennsylvania," says: "The Germans, when they first came t Pennsylvania, were no more opposed to education than other races. But, wherever they refused to learn English. they deteri rated and became obstructionists of pro- gress." I think this is applicable to Germans others than Tunkers; but the opposition of the latter, I know personally, was often put upon the ground that education was hurtful. Contin- ing themselves to German certainly tended to isolation and narrowness; they had not the En- glishman's or Irishman's instinct for politics and government, and, by self iso ation, their children did not acquire it. Composing so large a part of the population of the commonwealth alnost from its foundation, they have never taken that part in its government their numbers and wealth war- ranted. Wherever they abandoned their exclu- siveness, and by education, business associations and inter-marriages, mixed with other races and their descendents, their natural capacity for seience and affairs becomes undeniable. Dr. Cas- par Wistar, Dr. Gross and Dr. Leidy were ofthis German stoek; Governors Snyder, Hfester, Shultz, Wolf, Ritner, Shunk and Hartranft were also. But all these eschewed German exclusiveness and Tunker opposition to war and education; they were of the Muhlenberg party and ideas. Of thetwo classes of Germans, theTunkers and the Lutherans, with their allied seets, the Lutheran contributes most to the greatness of a state, and is therefore the better citizen In so far as great- ness consists in well tilled Jand, large and well filled barns, the Tunker is superior. But no free commonwealth was ever built up norlong contin- ued'free, whose citizens took no part in the govern- ment; who would vote for no candidate, from the governor to the township supervisor. The very genius of our constitutions: state and national, demands that all citizens who value life, liberty and property, should take an active aud intelli- gent part in politics.
We next have the Scotch and Scotch-Irish. They, as noticed, settled a large part of the most fertile part of the county They were all Presbyterians. I never heard of a Scotch-Irish- man in the first generation, being other than Presbyterian, until I became acquainted with Mr. Thomas Rooney, late of this town, a most ex- cellent man, now gone to hisrest. He was a most exemplary Lutheran, and came to this country from Ireland in his youth. l'he Scotch-Irish were not all Scotch, although all who came from the north of Ireland were so called. Many of them had emigrated 10 Ireland from England in the relgros of Elizabeth and James I., and were correligionists with those who emigrated from Scotland. Many of these Seoteh emigrants were Celts of the same race as the native Irish; the only difference was in religion. Large num- bers of these Irish settlers, Scotch and English, left Ireland in the reign of James II., and came to Pennsylvania; this migration of the Seoteti- Irish eentinned for years down to the commence- ment of the revolutionary war. It is generally supposed they were all driven from Ireland by Catholic persecution, but this is not the truth in all cases; many of them had taken long leases from the English government of Irish lands in the reigns of Queen Elizabeth and James I, and these leases were expiring in those of Charles II. and James II .; the government would not renew them, or demanded such exorbitant rents for the future that they preferred to emigrate. And this state of affairs continued long after Protestant ascendancy on the English throne under William and Anne. As I always under- stood from the tradition in our family my
piternal great-grandfather, Matthew Dean, came to Pennsylvania about the year 1760, be- cause he preferred to own land here rather than lease it in Ireland. And I have no doubt this was the case with many others of that stock.
The Scotch-Irish were intense Presbyterians. A copy of the Confession of Faith, with the Larger and Shorter Catechism, was in every Presbyterian family in my boyhood. The copy in our family was quite old; it bore a London publisher's imprint, and was said to have been brought from Ireland by my mother's ancestors. I don't remember that the doctrine was express- ly taught-rather think it was not-but I got the impression somehow, from my drilling before I was 12 years old, that while those outside of the Presbyterian church might be saved, their case was an exceedingly doubtful one. I pitied my Methodist, Lutheran and Catholic boy com- panions, because, not being Presbyterian boys, they were in peril of everlasting punishment. I can realize now, from my own teachings, which must have been greatly moderated in their tone by nearly a century of New World liberty, how intolerant, cruel and bigoted must have been the attitude of the religious seets of Europe in the previous century. No one who has read his- tory doubts that, in the seventeenth and elgh- teenth centuries, religious persecution was the rule, toleration a rare exception: Catholics killed Protestants, Protestantsor dissenters from the Established Church killed Cathofies; the Church of England killed both, and all because of a difference of creed as to the authority of the pope, the effieasy of the sacraments, or the in- terpretation of revelation.
And on their theory, logically, they were right. They assumed their particular creet was un- doubtedly orthodox; every one that differed from it was rank heresy; whosoever believed in and practiced the heresy would incur eternal damna- tion; if no one but the then holder of the false re- ligion should believe in it the effect would be limited, but if the heretie should go on propagat- ing the heresy, and those imbibing it should so continue, the result would be millions of souls would be destroyed. "It is my duty to God," they reasoned, "to exterminate this soul destroy- ing heresy and thereby save millions of sonis." And they at once proceeded to perform their duty by cutting off the heads of the hereties. And assuming their premises to be correct, they were right, whether Catholle or Protestant. It took a long time, almost a century and a half of religious civilization, before the large majority of Christians of all creeds fully comprehended that there was no divine authority committed to any man or body of men to determine that an- other man would certainly be damned because of his religious creed; that the Great Judge had reserved that attribure of sovereignty to himself, and that the individual conscience was answer- able to him alone, for he alone can determine certainly the wickedness of the offense and therefore ean alone justly fix the punishment.
But out of these religious wars, persecutions and cruelties, came the Scotch-Irishman into the beautiful valleys of our county. They wanted a fertile soil, and they got it; they wanted to own it: in that their desire Was accomplished. The first settlers had to war with the Indians. There was no "Gottes wille sei Gethan," with them, as with their Tunker co-settlers. Their idea was, "The Lord hath given to his saints the heathen for an inheritance." They had not a spark of doubt who were the saints, nor who were the heathen Their only season of respite from war in the early years was in the winter; the Indians seldom made a winter campaign; but in sowing and reaping, their fields were guarded by the boys as sentinels. Many of them were killed by the cunning and eruel foe. Not a half mile from where we are now assembled, part of the Holli- day family was massacred; in Dell Delight, one of the Moores; in Catharine township, half of my great-grandfather's family was killed and sealped, and his house burned. Permit me to show how closely tradition connects events; the massacre of the Dean family occurred in the autumn of 1780, almost 116 years ago; my great- grandmother and four of her children were in the house, her husband and three children in the corn field; while they were in the corn held, the Indians killed and scalped all in the house, and set it on fire, without discovering those in the
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SEMI-CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF BLAIR COUNTY.
corn field. One of the girls In the corn field was Polty, who married Huch Means, a farmer in the lower end of Sinking Valley. I visited her more than once from 1844 10 1848,a bout which time she died, i being then 10 to 12 years of age and she probably 80; more than once, she narrated to me all the stekening details of the massacre, as far as she or any one knew them. So that tradition in this instance, through but two persons, runs back 116 years to a terrible event in a family. I now tell it to my children, and thev pass It on, $0 that three or four lives will possibly reach 250 years. Some of the details of the story may be lost, some possibly added, but the substance will remain correct. I have frequently, of Jate years, thought of this, when I have heard scientists hoot at the value of tradition as testimony to historleal facts, arguing that written evidence alon- can be elied on. Tradition, in the larger number of instances, has the kernel of truth. But this is a digression.
To hear the orators of the Scotch-Irish at t'ines one would be led to think they were the embodiment of all the virtues; that but for them there would have been no Pennsylvania, and possibly no nation. In these claims there is mnuch pardonable exaggeration.
In their domestic lives the Scotch-Irish were probably more considerate of the comfort of the women of the household than the Tunkers; they were always more liberal in expenditure: they generally a e the best of the product of their farms and sold the poorest; whisky distilled on the farm, or very near It, was used without stint; they favored education. The schoolmaster was installed as soon as possible after a settlement was made, and there were but few of the second generation who could not read, write und cipher. They had one most erroneous idea brought with them from the old country ; that is, that the girls could marry and needed no estate: so in their wills in the early part of the century you will find they generally gave about nine-tenths of their estate to the sons and divided the remain- ing tenth among the daughters. I can even show you two or three wills of this kind probated after Seoteh-Irishmen's decease subsequent to the or- ganization of this county.
Sargent, in his "introductory Memoir to the Journal of Braddock's Expedition," says: ' They were a hardy, brave, hot-headed race, excitable in temper, unrestrainable in passion, invincible in prejudice. Their hand opened as impetu- ously to a friend as it clinched against an en- emy. Ifoften rude and lawless, it was partly the fault of their position. They hated the In- dian while they despised him, and it does not seem, in their dealings with this race, as thoughi there were any sentiments of honor or magnani- mity in their bosoms that could hold way against their passionate, blind resentment. Impatient of restraint, rebellious against everything that in their eyes bore the semblance of injustice, we find these men readiest, among the ready on the battlefields of the Revolution. If they had faults, a lack of patriotism or of courage was not among the number."
Scotch-Irishmen, as a rule, protest against this picture as one that does them gross injus- tice. It is perhaps over-drawn against them, but it comes nearer a presentation of their true character than the indiscriminate laudati 'n of their own orators. I feel warranted in thus speaking, because of my own blood, being Scotch- Irish on both paternal and maternal sides of my ancestry. While all the first settlers had passed away before my years of recollection, I saw and knew some of their immediate children, and many of their grand-cinidren. My uncle, Sam- uel Dean, who lived to an advanced age, was. born in the year 1800. James M. Bell, my pre- ceptor in the law, in the year 1799. My father 1808. Tobias Foreman, late of Huntingdon county, lived with and was reared by my grand- father; James Clark, grandfather of John Clark of Williamsburg, an off revolutionary soldier, an unele of my father, was often at our house; he was vivacious, and a great narrator of past events; these all knew and mingled with the orig- inal settlers of Sinking Valley, Canoe Valley, and Frankstown township. I have heard them tell of their domes ic life, of their political di - ferenees. local feuds and church disputes. Sar- gent's description, from my own opinion of ma- ture years, approaches accuracy.
Mr. Sydney George Fisher, in his most valua- ble brok, "The Making of Pennsylvania," says: "There is no doubt the Scotch-Irish were rough, but roughness is not always a serious vlee, and there are various degrees of it. They had the lands of the Irish rebels given to them; they had entered on them with a strong hand, and they had grown accustomed to maintaining them- seives among a hostile population from whom they expected but little consideration. They were not mueh addicted to politeness or asking leave for what they took, and they entered l'enn- sylvania in a manner that was rather irritating to the proprietors. Large numbers of them marched to the York Barrens, in what was then Lancaster county, near the Maryland boundary line, without first offering to buy the land from Penn. When spoken to on the subject, they re- plied that Penn had solfeited colonists and they had come accordingly. A more serious offense was their settling without purchase on the lands of the Indians, an Intr usion which Is gen- erally believed to have caused several massa eres. "
In their merry-making's they were rude; a rough and tumble figot with fists was not unusual; whisky was among them a beverage partaken of on all occasions, whether feast, wedding or funeral; when a boy, within a radius of two miles of where i went to school, there were five distil- leries, owned by Scotch-Irish Presbyterians and Pennsylvania Germans. The Washingtonian tempera nee reform in 1843 and 1844 closed all but one of these. But without this, it is probable they would have closed. New means of trans- portation enabled them to ship their rye to mar- ket in bulk, instead of concentrating it into a small package of whisky.
As noticed, the Tunkers would not vote or hold office. No one ever said that of a Scotch- Irishman; Ihave never known of his refusal to vote at least once, and he was willing to hold as many offices as he was eligible to. The records of this county since its orgamzation wil, I think, bear me out in thisstatement. Although many of them deny it, the Tunkers excelled them as farmers. As a rule, the Scotch-Irish farmers, after three generations, are giving way, and their places are being taken by others.
The Catholic Irish settled what is now Blair township about the close of the revolutionary war; the borough of Newry is, next to Franks- town, the oldest village in the county. I have heard the late James M. Hewit say that when a boy he went to Newry to see a circus; Ho lidays. burg was then too Insignificant to warrant the showmen in stopping; Newry was the larger town. This Irish settlement for a time throve and was prosperous, but thelocation of the canal and the Portage road north of it, with their junetion at Hollidaysburg, arrested its growth and Hollidaysburg forged ahead, just as the lo- cation of the main line of the l'ennsylvania rail- road six miles north of Hollidaysburg created Altoona, leaving Hollidaysburg standing still. But the Catholic Irish settlement at Newry, and Blair township, for many years, was a very im- portant part of Huntingdon county. The old settlers were progressive and exemplary citizens, none better; the Cassi 'ays, McIntoshes, Con- rads, McGraws, Malones and others, were all ae- tive in the formation of our new county. Be- sides these Catholics, as I have already said, there were others scattered all over the county, but for many years Newry had the only Catholic church. There was, when I was a boy, a small Catholic graveyard in Williamsburg, how oldl 1 do not know; but here, every now and then, gome devout member of the church was laid to rest in consecrated ground. A neat church has been erected there within thirty years.
It is but a century ago that the two races, hostile in rellgion, and hating each other in Ire- land, again met. In Ireland they had been im- placable foes, but when they reached this New World of religious liberty, where every one had a right to pursue his own happiness, their re- sentments seem to have disappeared, and they labored together for the common good. Up until 1854 1 never heard of religious pro cription, or religious antagonism in polities. i know I have seen my father, at an early day, in consultation with the "Catholle Mckiernans and Harbisons relative to the promotion of education in the common schools, and other publle measures af- fecting the township. But in 1854 a wave of in-
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SEMI-CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF BLAIR COUNTY.
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tolerance, bigotry and proscription passed over the state. The Catholic was persecuted, just as far as our constitution permitted; he was not imprisoned, not killed ou account of his religion, but he was voted out of every office he could pos- sibly aspire to from state to township. It was a shameful perseention. and lasted about three years: in less than five years thereafter these
most active in the movement were busy denying , Scotch-Irish and Catholic Irish of this county
they had any connection with it. In less than ten years came the war for the preservation of the union. Our Catholic fellow citizens all around us, then, by their patriotism at home in promoting enlistments, their courage on many a bl ody battlefield, gave the lie to all accusations made against them in the know nothing cru- sade. Good citizenship is not determined by creed; conscience and capacity for public service are not measured by doctrine or dogma. All re- Ilgio s proscription is utterly at war with the fundamental principles of our constitution. And whether our remote ancestors cut each other's heads off in Ire'and two hundred years ago. because one did not acknowledge the spiritual authority of the pope, and the other refused to acknowledge the spiritual authority of a presby- tery, or their descendants figuratively a th's day cut each other's political heads off at the polls, the principle is precisely the same, religious bigotry and proscription. Ispeak now asa citizen of this growing county and this grand old common- wealth in which I was born and bred. No one doubts my religious creed: of a Scotch-Irish Presbyterian ancestry, religious training and education, I could not be other and do not wish to be other than Presbyterian. At the same time, with all my years of study, experience and thought, I;cannot but tremble when I see the least sign of a revival of that intolerant religi- ous spirit which for centuries bathed Europe in blood. Lincoln said of slavery, "A house di- vided against itself cannot stand." I do not be- lieve a house divided against itself on a religi- ous question can stand. Once religious belief is made a political issue; once you determine a man's fitness for office by his opinion on the doctrine of the "real presence,"-intercession of the saints, of the Virgin Mary, the very founda- tion of our free institutions disappears. Take away that foundation stone, laid in all its breadth and beauty by Penn, and on which the great and glorious edifice of this free common-
wealth has been build. d, grand as is the super . by these progressive railroad towns. True, many structure, it may fall: if it do not fall, it will cease to grow; there will be -no further 'addi- tions, wherein may be sheltered and made happy the sons of men.
Our Bill of Rights declares: "All men have a natural and indefeasible right to worship Al- mighty God according to the dictates of their own consciences.
"No person who acknowledges the being of a God and a future state of rewards and punish- ments shal, on account of his religions senti- ments, be disqualified for any office or place of trust or profit under this commonwealth."
Under this benificent declaration, or the sub- stance of it, declared by the wise founder of our state, the whole commonwealth has grown and prospered. Any departure from it must be a step backward into a dark age of persecution and bloodshed, when ignorance undertook to fashion men's consciences by cruelty and bar- barity.
"Lord," said the woman of Sichem, "our fathers worshipped in this mountain, and ye say that Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship." Jesus replied, "Woman, believe.me, the hour cometh, when ye shall worship neither | sure, are the best attainable.
in this mountain nor yet at Jerusalem, but when the true worshippers shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth."
It is almost nineteen centuries since the great Founder of Christianity proclaimed this sum of all religion at Jacob's Well, yet, during all those centuries, it is only an occasional glimpse we get of it in practice. The Tunkers, Lutherans,
lived up to it for almost seventy-five years, or until 1854. May we not hope, that since the miserable failure then to adopt a religious test in po ities, none other will ever be attempted.
Such were the men, such their religion, such the race of the hardy people who originally set- tled the territory which now forms our county. When the county was organized in 1846 many of the descendants of the or ginal Germans and Scotch-Irish hal become Methodists, and some of them Baptists. The Methodist was a mission- ary church; its circuit riders had penetrated into all corners of the county hy that time; their con- gregations were organized in almost every school district: they were specially effective at the iron work -: two large setiled congregations with con- fortable churches existed at Hollidaysburg and Williamsburg;but while strong in numbers, they were generally of limited me is; their influence and wealth aremainly thegrowth of the last fifty years, and the same may be said of the Baptists. Many other religious sects have also in that period grown in numbers and importance. What I have sought specially to point out is the kind and character of the people who, by more than seventy years of struggle, made our county what it was in 1846, brought it to the point where its people had a right to demand a separate county organization and the legislature was warranted in creating it.
When the county was formed in 1846, in my judgment the population was about 11,000. I think fully four-fifths of this was made up of first settlers and their immediate descendants. The population rapidly increased; it certainly num- bers now not far from 75,000. I donut if more than one-third of these can trace deseent to the Germans, Scotch-Irish and Irish of the first half of the century; take away the population of Altoona and its immediate surroundings in Logan township, of Tyrone and Bellwood, and the last thirty years would show but little change. The greater Blair county is made up
of their citizens are descendants of the original stock, but the larger proportion is from other counties and states, and many from beyond the seas. By their joining us they have raised our noble old county from one of the smallest to one of the greater countries in wealth, population and enterprise. In the not distant future we shall seeit reach more than 100,000 in population. Its past rapid growth has been due in great de- gree to the growth and liberal management of that great corporation, the Pennsylvania Rail- road. Our material prosperity and progress in the future must depend largely on the prosperity of that enterprise. As it grows our county will grow.
But I have already wearied you in endeavor- ing to present in as concise a narrative as possi- ble a glimpse of the early physical, intellectual and religious growth of our beloved home. In it. I was born and reared; with it are associated all my fondest recollections; to its future cling all my most fervent hopes; if any want to point to some better, some golden age in some other county or some other years, I have no sympathy with them, for our county and our age, I feel
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