USA > Pennsylvania > A history of the Juniata Valley and its people, Volume I > Part 13
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lished at Paintersville, Soradoville and Wagner. Some of these have been discontinued on account of the introduction of the free rural de- livery system.
Derry township, the oldest in the county and at one time including the entire county, was erected by the court of Cumberland county more than twenty years before Mifflin county was organized. In August 1754, about a month after the purchase of the lands in the Juniata Valley from the Indians, Cumberland county organized four townships "tother side of the North mountain." These townships were Tyrone, Lack, Fannet and Aire (or Ayr). Early in the year 1767 a petition was pre- sented to the court by the settlers living north of the Juniata, asking for the erection of a new township in that region, and at the July term the court defined the boundaries of Derry township as follows: "Be- ginning at the middle of the Long Narrows; thence up the north side of the Juniata as far as Jack's Narrows; thence to include the valleys of the Kishacokulus and Jack's creek."
The boundaries as thus established embraced all that portion of the present county of Mifflin lying north of the Juniata river and part of what is now Brady township in Huntingdon county. Just when that portion of Mifflin county south of the Juniata was taken into the town- ship is not shown by the records, but when the assessment of 1768 was made the names of the settlers living in that territory were included, so it is probable the annexation was made soon after the township was organized. The assessment rolls for that year included the names of seventy landowners and over 25,000 acres taken up on land warrants.
One of the earliest settlers on the Kishacoquillas creek, on the south side of Jack's mountain, was Everhart Martin, whose first land warrant was dated April 2, 1755. Later he entered several other tracts, a large part of which became the property of the Freedom Iron Company and later of the Logan Iron and Steel Company. It is not certain, however, that he ever lived upon the lands thus entered in his name. His son Christopher built a saw-mill on the creek opposite Yeagertown at an early date. Mention has been made of Samuel Holliday, who came to what is now Bratton township in 1755. He located on the Juniata, near the present borough of McVeytown, where he built a grist-mill, which was probably the first one in Derry township. It was built about the time the township was organized. The site of this mill was after-
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ward occupied by the Troxwell tannery. Robert Buchanan located a trading post at the mouth of the Kishacoquillas creek, where the borough of Lewistown now stands, before the purchase of the lands from the Indians in 1754. When the French and Indian war began he went back to Carlisle and did not return to his trading post until about 1762. On July 2, 1762, he took out a warrant for 201 acres of land "lying on the northwest side of the river and extending above the mouth of the Kishacoquillas creek." His son Arthur and his daughter, at the same time, took out warrants for land in the vicinity, the former for ninety- six and the latter for 218 acres. John Early, on August 2, 1766, took up part of the land where the village of Kellyville was afterward built. John Rothrock came from Northampton county before the Revolution and settled four miles northeast of Lewistown, where his son Joseph continued to reside until his death. George Rothrock settled in Fergu- son's valley in 1773. About the same time Matthew and George Kelly settled in the south end of the Dry valley and received warrants for their lands on October 1, 1776. During the closing years of the Revo- lution and in the decade following a number of settlers came into Derry township. In 1784 Robert Forsythe came and afterward became one of the pioneer merchants of Lewistown. Andrew Gregg took up a tract below that of Jane Buchanan in 1787, built a cabin and put in a stock of goods. Two years later he was appointed one of the trustees to organize Mifflin county. John Alexander also came in 1787 and pur- chased a large tract of land of Christopher Martin in Little valley. The following year Ulrich Steely entered 100 acres on the south side of Jack's mountain. James Mayes took out a warrant on March 9, 1790, for 250 acres near the present village of Yeagertown, and his brother Andrew settled in the same neighborhood, where, in 1792, he took up a large tract of land. In 1793 Philip Minehart was running a saw-mill in that part of Derry afterward cut off to form Granville township, and the next year Joseph Strode built a grist and saw-mill on Brightfield's run. Other settlers came in before the close of the century, and in 1800 the population of the township was 1, 135.
A school house was built at an early date on the farm of George Rothrock, in the Ferguson valley, and early in the nineteenth century one was erected near the present village of Vira. It was a log struc- ture and was used as a church and school house until 1843, when it
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was sold to the Freedom Iron Company, who removed it to Freedom and converted it into a dwelling. Upon the adoption of the public school system in 1834 Joseph Matthews and David Hough were appointed school directors, and they divided the township into five districts. In 1912 there were twenty-six teachers employed in the several schools of the township, exclusive of the borough of Lewistown, which is located in Derry township.
By the formation of new townships from time to time Derry has been reduced in size until it is only about six miles square. On the north it is bounded by Armagh and Brown townships, the line being the sum- mit of Jack's mountain : on the east by Decatur township; on the south by Juniata county and the Juniata river, which separates it from Gran- ville township; and on the west by Granville.
Granville township is first mentioned in the public records at the April sessions of the court in 1838, when it was erected from the western part of Derry. At that time there were 203 taxpayers living within its limits. The principal manufacturing concerns were a tan-yard, an iron furnace, four saw-mills, two grist-mills, a carding machine and a still- house. The first settlers in the township were William and James Arm- strong. A land warrant was issued to William Armstrong on February 3, 1755, the day the land office opened for business, and James Arm- strong received a warrant dated April 10, 1755, for 282 acres. Settle- ment was retarded by the French and Indian war for several years, but in 1762 Thomas Holt took out a warrant for 400 acres of land near the junction of Brightfield's run and the Juniata river. Four years later he purchased other lands. Rev. Charles Beatty stopped at Mr. Holt's house in August, 1766, while on his missionary tour through the Juniata val- ley. In 1798 Holt's heirs sold the greater part of the estate to William Lewis, who erected the old Hope furnace soon after becoming the owner of the land. James Brown also received a warrant in 1762 for 136 acres. On October 30, 1765, Joseph Swift took up 400 acres ; on April 9, 1766, 300 acres, and on August 4, 1766, 300 acres, making 1,000 acres in all, but he never became a resident of the township, his lands being purchased for speculative purposes only. In 1766 Ephraim Blaine, of Carlisle, received a warrant for 250 acres, and in August of that year Isaac Strode located on 300 acres on Brightfield's (now Strode's run). Thomas Evans took up 248 acres in August, 1767, and
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the same year James Gemmel received a warrant for 300 acres. James Lyon, who came from Ireland in 1763, located near the present railroad station of Anderson in 1768, where he entered 200 acres of land.
Other pioneers were George Bratton, John Cever, Charles Magill, Abraham Miller, Thomas Martin, James Edwards and the Baums. Most of the early settlers located along the foot of the mountain or near the Juniata river. In October, 1777, James Armstrong sold a tract of land, who purchased other land adjoining and established a tavern which was widely known as the "Rob Roy." It was afterward kept for some time by Abraham Hufferd, who purchased it after Steel's death in 1821.
The first school house of which any authentic information can be gained was about where the village of Granville now stands. It was a log house, built at an early date on the farm later owned by F. A. McCoy, and was used as a school house until about 1840, when it was torn down and a better one erected near the site. Most of the early school houses were built by the cooperation of the citizens and no record of their location has been preserved. In 1912 Granville had a township high school and fourteen teachers were employed in the several dis- tricts.
Granville township is bounded on the northeast by Derry; on the southeast by Juniata county, from which it is separated by the Blue Ridge; on the southwest by Bratton and Oliver townships, and on the northwest by Brown and Union. The Juniata river runs through it, and following the course of the river is the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad, Granville and Anderson being the two railway stations in the township.
Menno township was erected at the same time as Brown and in re- sponse to the same petition, the order of the court being issued at the January term in 1837. The viewers appointed at the April term in 1836 made a report the following July, with which report they submitted a map or plat, describing Menno township as "six and a half miles in length and the average width from the summit of each mountain four miles." It was named after Simon Menno, the founder of the Menno- nite society. Originally it was a part of Derry, but was cut off with Armagh in 1770 and remained as part of that township until the for- mation of Union in 1790, when it became the western part of that town- ship. It lies north of Jack's mountain and is bounded on the northeast
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by Union township; on the southeast by Oliver, and on the west and northwest by Huntingdon county. Kishacoquillas creek rises in this township.
As early as 1754 Alexander Torrentine and Robert Brotherton vis- ited the upper Kishacoquillas valley in search of land, and as soon as the land office was opened the following year they took out warrants and settled in what is now Menno township. The first religious services at which a regular preacher officiated were held at the house of Robert Brotherton some years later. Other pioneers were Matthew Kenney, Hugh McClellan, Samuel Gilmore, John McDowell, John Wilson, the Allisons-Joseph, James and Robert-Joseph Kyle and Henry McCon- key. For services rendered at the grand council with the Indians, held at Easton in October, 1758, several tracts of land were granted to An- drew Montour, one of which, called "Sharron," was where the village of Allenville is now located. It contained over 1,700 acres, and was surveyed in May, 1767, more than a year before it was granted to Mon- tour. Subsequently it became the property of Rev. Richard Peters, whose executors sold it to Benjamin Chew, who obtained a patent for it dated September 3, 1796.
Nothing can be learned of the early schools. In 1834, when the present public school system was inaugurated, there were four school houses in the township, to wit: one at Yoder's, near the county line: one at King's, east of Allenville; one at Wilson's, and one near the "Brick Church." In 1912 Menno had a township high school, and in the several districts there were employed seven teachers.
Oliver township, situated in the western part of the county, was erected in 1835. A petition asking for a division of Wayne township was presented to the court at the October term in 1834. when David Hough, William P. Elliott and Thomas McClure were appointed viewers, with instructions to report as to the advisability of granting the peti- tion. On January 8, 1835, they recommended the division of the town- ship on the following line: "Beginning at the Strode mountain ; thence north 36° west, crossing the Juniata river to the mouth of Shank's run ; thence through Joseph Langton's lane to Jack's Mountain." They also stated, "Our opinions are that said division is the best that can be made satisfactory to a large majority of the inhabitants of said town- ship."
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At the April session of the court the report and recommendations of the viewers were approved and confirmed and an order issued for the erection of a new township to be called Oliver, in honor of John Oliver, long a judge of the court. The assessment rolls for 1836, the year fol- lowing the erection of the township, showed 183 taxpayers and about 25,000 acres of land under ownership. At that time there were within the limits of the township one iron furnace, one distillery, one carding and fulling machine, two taverns, two cabinet-makers, two wagon- makers, three tan-yards, three coopers, three grist-mills, three shoe- makers, four weavers, six tailors, eight blacksmiths, seven stores and ten saw-mills ..
One of the early settlers was Robert Samuels, who on June 2, 1762, took out a warrant for 200 acres of land. William Samuels received a warrant for fifty acres in the same locality in 1768. In that year Alexander and James Stewart located in the township, the former taking up 100 acres and the latter 400, and Matthew Wakefield entered 100 acres. Robert Forgy, a weaver by trade, came to America about 1772 and soon after came to the house of John Beatty, in what is now Brat- ton township. He married Elizabeth Beatty and settled in Oliver town- ship shortly after their marriage. William Moore located in what is now Oliver township some time prior to the year 1770. Upon the break- ing out of the Revolutionary war he enlisted in the Continental army and died in the service. His widow, Isabella, continued to live upon the old homestead of 100 acres until her death in 1822. Some of their descendants still live in Mifflin county. About the close of the Revolu- tion, or between that time and the year 1800, a number of settlers came into the township. Among them were Robert Elliott, William Robison, John Allen, Richard Coulter, James Stackpole, Benjamin Walters, John Rankin, John Culbertson, Thomas Collins, Hector Galbraith, James Hus- ton, Henry Hanawalt and John Swigart.
John Oliver, for whom the township was named, was a native of Ireland, where he was born in 1752. He came to this country when a young man, and in 1780 was engaged in teaching school in Wayne (now Oliver) township. In 1782 he married Margaret Lyon, daughter of James Lyon, and from 1794 to 1837 was an associate justice of the Mifflin county courts. He died on February 9. 1841.
The first school house of which any definite knowledge can be ob-
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tained was near Strode's Mills, but the date when it was built or when the first school was taught there cannot be ascertained. Another early school house was on the farm of John Culbertson, about a mile west of the present borough of McVeytown. Soon after the township was formed in 1835 John Haman and Richard Miles were appointed directors for the five school districts taken from Wayne. Nine teachers were employed in the schools in the year 1912-13.
Oliver township was reduced in size by the formation of Bratton in 1850, when that portion south of the Juniata was taken for the new township. At present it is bounded on the northwest by Union and Menno townships; on the northeast by Granville; on the southeast by the Juniata river, which separates it from Bratton; and on the south- west by the township of Wayne. Huntingdon county forms a small portion of the boundary near the southwest corner. The borough of McVeytown is situated in this township. Near McVeytown are large sand quarries from which large quantities of sand are shipped to glass factories in different parts of the country.
Union township, the first to be organized after the erection of Mif- flin county, lies northwest of Jack's mountain and extends to the Hunt- ingdon county line. At the March term of the Mifflin county court in 1790 a petition was presented on behalf of the inhabitants of the west end of Armagh township, asking that a new township be formed and that the division line be made, "Beginning at a certain stream of water extending from the Plumb bottom to Kishacoquillas creek, emptying into the same near the widow Alexander's." At the June term in the same year the court ordered "That the said township of Armagh be divided according to the prayer of the petitioners, and that the township erected out of the west end thereof be called and known by the name and style of Union township, and that the inhabitants thereof choose township officers according to law."
One of the first white men to settle in what is now Union township was James Alexander, who was born in Ireland in 1726, but came to America with his parents when he was but ten years of age. The fam- ily located near West Nottingham, Chester county, Pennsylvania, and when the purchase of 1754 was made he and his brother Hugh started for the new domain in search of land. Hugh settled in Sherman's val- ley, Perry county, but James came on to the valley of the Kishacoquillas
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creek, where he made a selection, and on February 5, 1755, he received a warrant for a tract containing a trifle over 239 acres. He was driven out by the Indians in 1756 and did not return to his frontier farm for six years. He married Rosie, daughter of Robert Reed, of Chambers- burg, and reared a family of eleven children. During the winter of 1777-78 he served in the commissary department of General Washing- ton's army at Valley Forge, for which service he received 1,600 acres of land in Clearfield county. He died in 1791, and some of his descendants still reside in Mifflin county.
In September, 1762, Thomas Ferguson took out a warrant for a tract of 400 acres, which was later purchased by Robert and John Campbell, who settled there in the spring of 1774. In July, 1762, Caleb Gordon entered land in Union township. John McKee and Samuel Maclay re- ceived their land warrants on August 1, 1766, the former for 106 acres and the latter for 352. Other early settlers were David Johnson, Chris- tian Voght, William Baker, the Hartzlers, Yoders, Peacheys, Rennos and Zooks.
The last named families were either Mennonites or Amish, a large number of people belonging to these religious sects locating in the township before the close of the eighteenth century. The assessment roll of the township for 1791-the first after its erection-showed the names of sixty-two landowners, who held about 10,000 acres. There were at that time one mill, one tan-yard, two negro slaves and eight still- houses in the township, which had a total population of about 600.
The western part of Union was cut off in 1837 to form the town- ship of Menno, leaving it only about one-half its original size. Since then the township is bounded on the northwest by Huntingdon county ; on the northeast by Brown township; on the southeast by Granville and Oliver, from which it is separated by Jack's mountain; and on the south- west by the township of Menno. The most thickly settled portion is along the Kishacoquillas creek, and Belleville is the only village of im- portance.
No record of the early schools has been preserved. At the Novem- ber term of court in 1834 William P. Maclay and David Zook were appointed school directors for the township, and the following March these directors established nine school districts (including the territory cut off two years later by Menno township). A township high school is
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now established at Belleville, and in 1912 thirteen teachers were em- ployed in the public schools.
Wayne township, which was formed seven years before Mifflin county was erected, occupies the extreme southwestern part of the county. The records of the Cumberland county court for July, 1782, contain the following entry :
"Upon the petition of the inhabitants of Derry township to the court, setting forth that they labour under considerable disadvantage, from the great extent of their township and the inconvenience of serv- ing in public offices for the same, met by appointment on Thursday, the 13th day of June, 1782, and chose Arthur Buchanan, Samuel Holliday, John Keever, James Ross, Joseph Westbrook, William Armstrong and Matthew Wakefield to form a line to divide said township into two equal parts, and that they mutually agreed the run called Brightfield's Run should be the division line, from the rise of the main branch thereof until the mouth, and from thence in the course that it enters the Juniata, directly to the mountain. And praying the Court that the said division may be confirmed and entered of record according to the aforesaid line, and that the inhabitants of the upper division desire the name of their township may be distinguished by the name of Wayne township, which division having been taken into consideration by the Court, is accordingly approved and confirmed, and that the upper division thereof be distinguished by the name of Wayne township."
The assessment rolls for 1783 showed the names of 121 landowners, holding nearly 20,000 acres. Besides the farming interests there were in the township two saw-mills, two grist-mills, one tan-yard and five still- houses.
The first warrant issued for land in Wayne township was dated February 14, 1755, and was issued to Barnabas Barnes for a tract "situate on the north side of the Juniata river, about a quarter of mile below the falls." This land was soon after sold by Barnes to Richard Tea, who sold it to Daniel Carmichael in December, 1767. In 1762 James Ross, Hugh Brown, John Carmichael and Christian Hamilton settled in the township. David Jenkins, a native of Ireland, was a sol- dier with General Braddock in 1755. Not long afterward he came to the Juniata valley, and for several years was a teacher in the early schools of Mifflin county. His wife, a Miss Miller, was a cousin of General Anthony Wayne, for whom the township was named. James Jenkins,
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a son of David, was with the Aaron Burr expedition in 1806 and later served in the United States army in the War of 1812. Robert, another son was also in the War of 1812 and was killed at Black Rock. On February 28, 1766, George Galloway took out a warrant for 150 acres of land on the south side of the Juniata, at the place long known as Galloway's ford. Other early settlers were Alexander Mckinstry, John Miller, Patrick Dunn, William Scott, Arthur Starr, Joseph Corbett, John Cunningham, William Morrison, John Unkles, Samuel McKeehan, Fran- cis Hamilton, Samuel Drake, James Macklin and William McMullen.
Samuel Drake settled on fifty acres of land at Jack's Narrows, where he established a ferry and conducted a tavern for many years. About 1840 he removed to Newton Hamilton, where he passed the remainder of his life. His sons continued to operate the ferry for several years, when they also located in Newton Hamilton. Drake's ferry was known far and the tavern was a favorite stopping place for travelers. It was at this tavern that the sheriff of Huntingdon county was arrested in 1791, while the dispute concerning the boundary line was before the people of the two counties, an account of which may be found in Chapter IV.
William Scott's warrant, which was dated February 22, 1776, called for 100 acres of land, including the site of the present village of Atkin- son's Mills, in the northern part of the township.
At the time the township was erected the line ran from Concord gap to a point on the Juniata between McVeytown and Galloway's ford and included territory that remained a part of Huntingdon county until annexed to Mifflin by the act of April 15, 1834. The township is now bounded on the north and west by Huntingdon county ; on the east by the townships of Oliver and Bratton; and on the south by Juniata county, from which it is separated by the Blue ridge. The Juniata river flows through the township, and closely following its course is the main line of the Pennsylvania railroad, the stations in Wayne being Vineyard, Ryde and Newton Hamilton. Large sand quarries are operated at Vine- yard.
Probably the first school teacher in Wayne was David Jenkins, men- tioned above, who taught in a small house built of poles on the old Galloway farm. In 1793 there was a school house on the farm of John James. When the public school system was adopted in 1834 John
MONUMENT SQUARE, LEWISTOWN.
J
COURTHOUSE, MIFFLINTOWN
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Oliver, Jr., and Dr. L. G. Snowden were appointed school directors for the township, which then included Oliver and Bratton, in which they established ten school districts in March, 1835. In 1912 there were eleven teachers employed in the public schools.
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