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 2
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
and Robinson's Runs and Canoe Creek in Frankstown Township; Canoe Creek, Fox, Roaring and Yellow Springs Runs in Catharine Township; Clover and Piney Creeks in North Woodbury, Huston and Woodbury Townships; Haltar and Plum Creeks in Taylor Township; Poplar and Roaring Runs in Blair Township; Poplar, McDonald and Donaldson's, South Dry and Paw Paw Runs in Freedom Township: Bobb's Creek, Blair Creek, Blue Knob, Poplar and Dry Runs in Juniata Township; Beaver Creek, Pole Cat, South Poplar, Amelia's, Bobbs, Diamond, Queen Esther's, Pine, Smoky and Roaring Spring Runs in Greenfield Township. The water of all these numerous streams is discharged into one or the other branches of the Juniata.
Retrospectively we note the development and growth of this territory. As a part of the great province given to William Penn in 1681 by King Charles the Second of England, it remained an unex- plored forest inhabited only by roving Indian tribes, until about 1750. If any white man visited it prior to that date he left no permanent record of the fact and our earliest knowledge of it begins with the brief mention by Conrad Weiser, Aug. 20, 1748, that he passed up the Juniata river and stopped at Frankstown .*
In 1750 it formed part of Cumberland to which it belonged until the formation of Bedford County in 1771. During this period it was opened up for settlement and clearings were made and settlers located in Morrison's Cove (about 1760) and at Hollidaysburg and vicinity (in 1768.) Some of the early settlers were massacred by the In- dians. In 1771 Bedford County was formed and included all of Blair until 1787, during which period occurred the Revolutionary war, the colonists gained their independence and began to be gov- erned to some extent by laws of their own framing yet the great body of English law, as applicable to the business and social relations of the community, were retained and enforced until specially repealed by legislation that conflicted therewith, and to this day some English statutes, enacted prior to the Revolution, are held to be in force in Pennsylvania.
Some considerable improvements was made during this period, especially the cutting of a wagon road through the forest on the old Indian trail over the mountains, and some other local roads, but nothing like a town or village with shops and stores was founded in this region until a later period.
In 1787 Huntingdon County was erected and included all of
*Frankstown being no doubt the log but of Frank Stephens for Stephen Frank ns some historians give It, while others say old Frank an Indian and perhaps oneor two other Indian Traders and the wigwams of some Indians who came with furs to trade for the white man's tinach and toys or perhaps a misket and ammunition. It is said that an Indian village was known here as early as Cao and that its Indian name was "Assunnepachla," meaning meeting of many waters. How much of fact Is contained In this tietlon no one now knows.
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
Blair except North Woodbury and Greenfield townships, continuing thus until 1846. During this period Frankstown, Hollidaysburg, Gaysport, Williamsburg, Martinsburg and several other small places were laid out, and some of them incorporated as boroughs, the pike road, from Huntingdon to Blairsville, passing through the county on the line of the old state road, was constructed and a few years later the canal and Allegheny Portage Railroad, and Hollidaysburg be- came a place of considerable importance, so much so, in fact, that the people were averse to paying tribute to Huntingdon by taking their suits there for trial and aspired to become independent of the mother county. The formation of the new county of Blair was agi- tated and having been successfully achieved in 1846, the next great improvement was the building of the Pennsylvania Railroad and the founding of a great city -- Altoona.
OFFICERS AND FIRST OFFICIAL ACTS.
The Commissioners appointed by the Governor, to run the boundary lines, performed the duties imposed on them so expediti- ously that by the first of June, 1846, all had been concluded and the Governor appointed county officers as follows, to serve until their successors should be duly elected and qualified, viz : Valentine Lingenfelter, William Bell and William C. McCormick, County Commissioners; Benjamin Betts, Sheriff; George R McFarlane and Daniel McConnell, Associate Judges; Jeremiah Cunningham, Pro- thonotary and Clerk of the Courts; John M. Gibboney, Register and Recorder and John Cresswell, District Attorney.
On the eighth day of June, 1846, the County Commissioners were sworn into office by Ephriam Galbraith, a Justice of the Peace, and held their first session. The next day they agreed on a plan for a court house and put up notices to contractors to bid for its construction. H. A. Caldwell was employed as clerk to the com- missioners at a salary of $150. per year. and Robert H. McCor- mick was appointed County Treasurer, to serve until the next elec- tion. Rooms were also rented to use for county offices until the court house should be erected. On the fourth day of July, 1846, the contract for the first court house was let to Daniel K. Ramey, and the stone house of John Mahoney was leased for a temporary jail. On Monday, the 27th day of July. 1846, the first court in the county was held in the Methodist Episcopal Church of Hollidays- burg; Hon. Jeremiah Black presiding. Judge Black held twelve terms of court in the county, when the judicial districts of the state were reorganized, and Blair County, with Huntingdon and Cambria was made the twenty-fourth district and Governor Johnston ap- pointed George Taylor, of Huntingdon, President Judge.
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
The first suit brought originally in the Common Pleas Court of Blair County was for divorce, Mary Armstrong vs. John Armstrong, subpoena issued June 23, 1846.
Perhaps the most remarkable thing in connection with the first court in the county was the number of lawyers admitted to practice therein. On the first day of the term, July 27, 1846, no less than forty-nine attorneys were sworn in and the following day three more. Evidently it was thought that Blair County was destined to be one of the most important in the state.
The county oficers, appointed by the Governor, only held their offices until the end of that year as their successors were elected at the first general election after the formation of the county, and this occurred October 13th, 1846, resulting in the election of Samuel J. Royer for High Sheriff: Joseph Smith, Prothonotary and Clerk of the Courts; Louis H. Williams, Register and Recorder; John K. Neff, Edward McGraw and William Bell, County Commissioners; Charles E. Kinkead, Wm. P. Dysart and James Wilson, Auditors; Joseph Morrow, Treasurer and Capt. Joseph C. Morgan, Coroner.
Karly Industries.
AGRICULTURE, SAW AND GRIST MILLS AND DISTILLERIES.
The first settlers of Blair County were in search of farming land and agriculture engaged their attention entirely for many years. The coal in the mountains, the iron ore in the valleys were unknown or unsought, until the beginning of the present century and the tim- ber, from which fortunes were made in after years, was only desir- able for fuel and the few logs necessary to construct their humble habitations, or make rails to enclose the fields cleared by dint of much hard labor. To them the big trees of the forest were a hind- rance requiring days of toil to cut down and burn up. Millions of feet of logs were rolled together in heaps and burned, to make the cleared fields in which to plant corn, grow wheat, oats and other grains.
The first manufactories established in the new county were saw and grist mills, but these were very small and insignificant in com- parison with those of a later day and were invariably run by water power. A saw mill that would cut 2000 feet of boards in a day was a good one for those times, and the grist mills ground from morning till night to make three to four barrels of flour. The earliest mills that we have a record of were those of Jacob Neff at Roaring Spring, erected sometime between the years 1763 and 1770 and that of Thos. Blair at the eastern end of Blair's Gap about 1785. A saw mill was usually found near a grist mill, and the same dam supplied the water power for both.
Following close on the erection of grist mills came the estab- lishment of distilleries. Our forefathers were not intemperate neither were they tetotallers, whiskey was a necessity as well as flour and tobacco, nearly all kept it in the house and used it freely on various occasions, especially log rollings and house raisings. These early "stills" which are evidenced by the assessor's lists were probably very small affairs capable of producing but a few gallons of spirits per day, but the product was undoubtedly perfectly pure, it was made only for home and neighborhood consumption, no evidence being discov- erable that any was sent away for sale until after the completion of the canal in 1832-3.
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
IRON WORKS.
Prior to the year 1800 our researches have discovered nothing in the line of manufacturers except the few grist and saw mills and stills, but soon after the beginning of the present century the erec- tion of iron works was commenced and some tanneries and woolen mills were built, as well as more distilleries: Etna Furnace and Forge built in 1805-6 by Canan, Stewart & Moore, was located in Catharine Township, near the Juniata and was the first iron works within the present limits of Blair County; Tyrone Forge, built by John Glon- inger & Co., in 1805; Cove Forge was built next by John Royer in Woodbury Township in 1810-was operated continuously for more than seventy years; Allegheny Furnace, near the present site of Altoona, was the third and was built in 1811 by Allison and Henderson, and later was owned and rebuilt by Elias Baker; Spring- field Furnace, in Woodbury Township, was built by John and Daniel Royer in 1815: Rebecca Furnace, by Dr. Peter Shoenberger in 1817, on Clover Creek : Mary Ann Forge built about 1830 by Edward Bell & Son, and Elizabeth Furnace in 1832: Antes Forge at Tipton, 1828, by Dysart & Lloyd-three fires operated until 1855 and discontinued ; the upper, lower and middle Maria Forges in Freedom in 1828 to 1832 and Sarah Furnace in Green- field Township in 1832, built by Peter Shoenberger, (the latter was demolished in the winter of 1881-2): Elizabeth Furnace and Mary Ann Forge in Antes Township about 1835 by Edward Bell. Harris' Pittsburgh Directory, for the year 1837, gave a list of the iron works in the Juniata Valley and those in the present limits of Blair County were, Elizabeth Furnace and Mary Ann Forge, owned by Edward Bell; Antes Forge, by Graham & McCamant; Tyrone Forges, William Lyon & Co .; Allegheny Furnace, E. Baker & Co .; Etna Furnace and Forge, H. S. Spang; Cove Forge, Royer & Schmucker. All these were run with charcoal for fuel.
Strange as it may appear, the market for the first iron produced in the Juniata Valley was found in Pittsburgh, and it was transported at a great expense, first on the backs of horses and mules across the Alleghenies to Johnstown, and from there floated in flat bottomed boats down the Conemaugh to the Allegheny and on that stream to its destination. Later, when the pike had been constructed, it was hauled on wagons until the the canal was built. The value of a ton of iron then was several times over that of to-day.
Later iron workers were, the Duncansville Rolling Mill, 1833-4: the Bellrough Foundry at Gaysport, built in 1837-8; the Hollidays- burg Furnace in Gaysport, in 1855, and Chimney Rock Furnace in
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Semi=Centennial History of Blair County.
Hollidaysburg later in the same year. These two were much larger than any former furnaces built in the valley and cost about $60,000 each and used bituminous coal and coke. In 1857 the Juniata Furnaces were built at Williamsburg and in 1860 the Hollidaysburg Iron and Nail Company's Rolling Mill was erected although that name was not adopted until 1866. The Mckees Gap or Rodman Furnace was built in 1862. In 1855 there were thirty-two iron and steel working establishments in Blair County including the Pennsylva- nia Railroad Co.'s Foundry and the Ax and Pick works of J. Col- clesser at Eldorado, but before the year 1870 the iron industry in Blair County, as well as the other parts of the Juniata Valley, began to languish on account of the cost of production and the fact that cheaper ore and improved methods at Pittsburg and other large iron centers had reduced the market price below a profitable point for these manufacturers.
* In 1882 there were ten furnaces in blast, in Blair County, with a total capacity of 1000 tons of iron per week when running full time. There were also four rolling mills and two two nail mills. The furnaces were Allegheny, in Logan Township; Bennington, in Allegheny Township; Number One furnace, in Gaysport and Num- ber Two furnace, in Hollidaysburg; Springfield furnace, in Wood- bury Township; Gap furnace, in Freedom Township; Rodman fur- nace, in Taylor Township; Frankstown, in Frankstown Township; Elizabeth, in Antes Township; Rebecca furnace, Huston Township. Of these, the Bennington, Frankstown and Numbers One and Two were owned by the Cambria Iron Company of Johnstown; Allegheny by S. C. Baker; Springfield by John Royer, Gap by Hollidaysburg and Gap Iron Works Co., Rodman by John and Peter Duncan; Elizabeth by heirs of Martin Bell and Rebecca by heirs of Edward H. Lytle. The Rolling Mills were, those of Altoona Iron Co., at' Altoona, Portage Iron Co. at Duncansville, Hollidaysburg Iron and Nail Co. at Hollidaysburg. In addition to which was a large Foun- dry and Machine Shop in Gaysport.
To the rising generation the term forge as applied to iron works has but a vague meaning and an explanation will be necessary. The product of the iron furnace is pig iron and is in too crude a state to use without further reduction, this work is now performed in rolling mills, with costly machinery, but the rolling mill is a comparatively recent institution and in the earlier years the pig iron from the fur- nace was worked into bars in merchantable shape at forges, wherein the pig metal was heated to a pliable state and hammered into shapes,
*Africas History of Blair and Huntingdon Counties.
.
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
more of the dross removed, and made into bars that ordinary black- smiths could use by being hammered with trip hammers on a large anvil. Nails were also made at these carly forges by the slow pro- cesss of hammering each one out singly, this was before the inven- tion of nail cutting machines and nails then cost much more than they do now; 8 to 20 penny nails were quoted in 1819 at $12.50 per hundred weight at the forge.
OTHER MANUFACTURES OF EARLY DAYS.
Soon after the beginning of the present century some other lines of manufacture than those above mentioned were begun. In 1806 or 1808 Willis Gibboney built fulling and wool carding works on Burgoon Run just above the present site of Eldorado, which he op- crated until 1828 when he moved to Duncansville and built a similar establishment therc.
Robert Gardner erected a wool carding and fulling works at the castern end of Blair's Gap near the old grist mill, about 1832 which he operated successfully for many years. In 1834 there was quite a large woolen mill at Williamsburg, perhaps the most exten- sive one ever in the county. There was a fulling mill owned and operated here in 1820 by John Smith. In 1832 or thereabouts Daniel Colclesser established an ax and pick factory where the Gib- boney woolen mill had previously been and it was run with 5 to 6 men for many years, has not been totally abandoned yet. In 1821 Wm. McFarland had a cabinet shop in Frankstown and in 1830 a bucket factory was in operation at Williamsburg, and in a hat factory at Newry.
As carly as 1800 Christian Hoover was assessed as owner of an oil mill and so continued until 1830 or later, but we have no partic- ulars as to what kind of oil was made, doubtless it was but a small quantity of linseed oil. Michael Sellers, of Woodbury Township, was assessed with one tannery in 1800, and Joseph Patton had one at Frankstown in 1810, Francis Smith built a small tannery a Dun- cansville about 1810 which was afterwards enlarged so as to be quite a pretensious establishment, remains of which are still standing. David Caldwell owned a quite extensive tannery at Gaysport before the organization of Blair County, which he operated successfully for many years. Numerous other small tanneries were built and oper- ated in the territory between 1810 and 1860. In 1862 Louis Plack erected a large one at Altoona, the latter ceased operations about 1884 and was torn down in 1889-90, and now there is not a single tannery operated within the county except the one at Tyrone.
The Aboriginese.
The following brief sketch, copied from a historical work written by Sherman Day and published in 1843, covers the subject so com- pletely and concisely that the present writer does not feel competent to add a word or alter a syllable :
"The Indian tribes who dwelt among the primitive forests of Pennsylvania-as well as those of Delaware, New Jersey and a part of Maryland - called themselves the Lenni Lenape, or the original people. This general name comprehended numerous distinct tribes, all speaking dialects of a common language, (the Algonquin, ) and uniting around the same great council-fires. Their grand council house, to use their own expressive figure, extended from the eastern banks of the Hudson on the northeast to the Patomac on the south- west. Many of the tribes were directly descended from the common stock; others, having sought their sympathy and protection, had been allotted a section of their territory. The surrounding tribes, not of this confederacy, nor acknowledging allegiance to it, agreed in awarding to them the honor of being the grandfathers-that is the oldest residents in this region. There was a tradition among the Lenni Lenape, that in ages past their ancestors had emigrated eastward from the Missippi, conquering or expelling on their route that great and aparently more civilized nation, whose monuments, in the shape of wounds, are so profusely scattered over the great western valley, and of which several also remain in Pennsylvania along the western slope of the Allegheny Mountains.
The Lenna Lenape nation was divided into these principal divi- sions: The Unamis or Turtle tribes ; the Unalachtgos or Turkeys, and the Monseys or Wolf tribes. The two former occupied the country along the coast, between the sea and the Kittatinny or Blue Moun- tain, their settlements extending as far east as the Hudson and as far west as the Potomac. These were generally known among the whites as the Delaware Indians. The Monseys or Wolf tribes, the most active and warlike of the whole, occupied the mountainous country between the Kittatinny Mountain and the sources of the Susquehanna, and they had also a village, and a peach orchard in the forks of the Delware, where Nazareth is now situated. These three principal divisions were divided into various subordinate clans, who assumed names suited to their character or situation.
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
The Shawanos, or Shawnees, a restless and ferocious tribe, having been threatened with extermination by a more powerful tribe at the south, sought protection among the friendly nations of the north, whose language was observed to bear a remarkable affinity with their own. A majority of them settled along the Ohio, from the Wabash to near Pittsburgh. A portion was received under the protection of the Lenni Lenape's, and permitted to settle near the forks of the Delaware, and on the flats below Philadelphia. But they soon became troublesome neighbors and were removed by the Delawares (or possibly by the six nations) to the Susquehanna valley, where they had a village at the Shawnee Flats below Wilkesbarre, on the west side of the river. During the revolution and the war of 1812, their name became conspicuous in the history of the northern frontier.
The Lenni Lenape tribes consisted, at the first settlement of Pennsylvania of the Assunpink, or Stony Creek Indians; the Ran- kokas, (Lamikas or Chichequaas:) Andastakas at the Christina Creek, near Wilmington; Neshaminies, in Bucks County: Shacka- maxons, about Kensington; Mantas or Frogs, near Burlington; the Tuteloes and the Nanticokes, in Maryland and Virginia, (the latter afterwards removed up the Susquehanna); the Monsey or Mini- sinks, near the forks of the Delaware; the Mandes and the Narriti- congs near the Raritan; the Capitanasses, the Gacheos, the Monsey's and the Pomptons, in New Jersey. A few scattered clans, or warlike hordes, of the Mingoes, were living here and there among the Lenapes.
Another great Indian Confederacy claims attention, whose acts have an important bearing upon the history of Pennsylvania. This confederacy was originally known in the annals of New York as the Five Nations, and subsequently, after they had been joined by the Tuscaroras, as the Six Nations. As confederates, they called them- selves Aquanuschioni, or United People; by the Lenapes they were called Mengue, or Mingoes, and by the French the Iroquois. The original Five Nations were the Onondagas, the Cayugas, the Onei- das, the Senecas, and the Mohawks. In 1712 the Tuscaroras, be- ing expelled from the interior of North Carolina and Virginia, were adopted as a sixth tribe. The language of all the tribes of the con- federacy, except the Tuscaroras, was radically the same. from the borders of Vermont to Lake Erie, and from Lake Ontario to the headwaters of the Allegheny, Susquehanna, and Delaware rivers. This territory they called their long house. The grand council-fire was held in the Ononodaga valleys. The Senecas guarded the west- ern door of the house, the Mohawks the castern, and the Cayugas
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Semi=Centennial History of Blair County.
the southern or that which opened upon the Susquehanna. The Mohawk nation was the first in rank, and to it appertained the of- fice of principal war chief; to the Onondagas, who guarded the grand council-fire, appertained in like manner the office of principal civil chief, or chief sachem. The Senecas, in numbers and military ener- gy, were the most powerful.
The peculiar location of the Iroquois gave them an immense advantage. On the great channels of water conveyance to which their territories were contiguous, they were enabled in all directions to carry war and devastation to the neighboring or to the most dis- tant nations.
Nature had endowed them with a height, strength and sym- metry of person which distinguished them, at a glance, among the individuals of other tribes. They were as brave as they were strong; but ferocious and cruel when excited in savage warfare; crafty, treach- erous, and over-reaching, when these qualities best suited their pur- poses. The proceedings of their grand council were marked with great decorum and solemnity. In eloquence, in dignity, and pro- found policy, their speakers well bear comparison with the states- men of civilized assemblies. By an early alliance with the Dutch on the Hudson, they secured the use of firearms, and were thus enabled, not only to repel the encroachments of the French, but also to exter- minate, or reduce to a state of vassalage, many Indian nations. From these they exacted an annual tribute, or acknowledgment of fealty; permitting them, however, on that condition, to occupy their former hunting grounds. The humiliation of tributary nations was, however, tempered with a paternal regard for their interests in all negotiations with the whites, and care was taken that no trespasses should be committed on their rights, and that they should be justly dealt with. To this condition of vassalage the Lenni Lenape, or Del- aware nation, had been reduced by the Iroquois, as the latter as- serted, by conquest. The Lenapes, however, smarting under the humiliation, invented for the whites a cunning tale in explanation, which they succeeded in imposing upon the worthy and venerable Mr. Heckewelder, the Moravian missionary. Their story was, that by treaty, and by voluntary consent, they had agreed to act as meditators and peacemakers among the other great nations, and to this end they had consented to lay aside entirely the implements of war, and to hold and keep bright the chain of peace. This, among the individual tribes, was the usual province of women. The Dela- wares, therefore, alleged that they were figuratively termed women on this account; but the Iroquois evidently called them women in
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Semi-Centennial History of Blair County.
quite another sense. 'They always alleged that the Delawares were conquered by their arms, and were compelled to this humiliating concession as the only means of averting impending destruction.' In the course of time, however, the Delawares were enabled to throw off the galling yoke, and at Tioga, in the year 1756, Teedyuscung extorted from the Iroquois an acknowledgment of their independence.
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