USA > Pennsylvania > Armstrong County > Armstrong County, Pennsylvania her people past and present, embracing a history of the county and a genealogical and biographical record of representative families, Volume I > Part 14
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The present price of gas averages 25 cents per thousand cubic feet for domestic purposes, and 15 cents for manufacturing use.
The pressure, which at first was enormous, and may be exhausted in a few years. Some of the old wells are holding out better than the new
was used by them in the forging of iron. How- has held up fairly well, but is slowly decreasing
The natural gas boom was subsequent to ones. All of the companies find it necessary the oil boom, and was a sort of "back-fire" to to operate pumping stations at convenient the latter industry. At first the drillers only points, from which the gas is forced into pipe used the gas to light their works and seldom lines from groups of wells of varying pressures. allowed it to be lit around the wells, from the The Pittsburgh Plate Glass Company has a apprehension of fire. Later on, when the oil pumping station at the site of the old Tunnel-
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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
ton Mill, in Kittanning township, which has country and supplies most of the eastern end rehabilitated this little settlement. The men in of the United States with rye whiskey. charge work in two shifts, night and day. They are: H. J. Mansfield, J. M. Hawkins, J. P. STATISTICS OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY Anthony and T. G. Miller.
DISTILLERIES AND THEIR ORIGIN
The effort to obtain the necessaries of life in the most economic way led to the manufac- ture of whiskey in this county in early days of settlement. It was practically impossible for the farmers to pack enough wheat or rye over the mountains to pay for all the iron imple- ments, cloth and salt they needed; but it was comparatively easy to distill their grain into whiskey and ship it in that portable form. A five-gallon keg of whiskey slung upon either side of a pack-horse, made an easy load, and its purchasing power was great enough to insure a big load for the return trip. In this way whiskey became their current money for eastern exchange. Soon the little stills were to be found in every settlement and along most of the streams.
When the Federal government, for purposes of revenue, in 1791, laid a heavy tax on all distilled liquors, it took away a large part of the purchasing power of the western whiskey, and the whole country rose up in rebellion against it. This was the so-called "Whiskey Insurrection" of 1794, in which Armstrong county had little part. It was not caused by an inordinate love of liquor on the part of the settlers, but by the fact that the excise tax had robbed them of a convenient means of procur- ing the necessaries of life. In the army that marched to Pittsburgh to quell this insurrec- tion there were many citizens of this county, whose law-abiding inclinations overcame their resentment against the taxation of their chief source of revenue.
The great number of these old distilleries precludes an extended mention here, but they will be described in the sketches of the differ- ent townships. A few statistics of a later period are shown below.
In there were 5,052 farmers in Arm- stro ) miners, 95 persons engaged in com- merce, 711 in manufactures and trades ; 36 in navigating the canals and lakes and 64 in the learned professions.
The wealth of the county in 1840 was: Iron furnaces, 3, producing 1,340 tons ; employing I41 hands; capital, including mining opera- tions, $48,000. Coal mines produced 705,490 bushels ; employing 61 hands ; capital, $9.347. Salt works produced 322,030 bushels; em- ployed 68 men ; capital, $57.034. Live stock- 14,434 horses and mules ; 26,1 10 cattle ; 54,815 sheep ; 39.621 swine; poultry valued at $1,878. Wheat, 289,789 bushels; barley, 337 bushels ; oats, 508,998 bushels; rye, 138,120 bushels ; buckwheat, 85,040 bushels; corn, 171,089 bushels; wool, 80,416 pounds; hops, 1,528 pounds; beeswax, 1,602 pounds ; potatoes, 107,046 bushels; hay, 17,341 tons; sugar, 21,605 pounds ; dairy products, $46,854 ; fruits, $9,017 ; home products, $51,152. There were 79 stores of all kinds with a total capitalization of $186,200. Manufactures-Buildings, 159; value of machinery. $19,660 ; capital invested, $255,825. Woolen mills, 2; value of goods, $7,200 ; capital, $13,650. Tanneries, 25 ; tanned 2,569 sides sole leather, 4,276 sides of upper leather ; capital, $17.750; value leather manu- factures, $2,850. Distilleries, 25; produced 20,633 gallons ; capital, $11,290. Gristmills, 68. Sawmills, 91.
The total taxable property in 1845 was $1,618,800, of which $1,398,535 was real estate.
In 1850 there were in Armstrong county 21 gristmills, 13 sawmills. 12 saltworks, 5 carpen- ter shops, 5 brick yards. 3 tin shops, 3 woolen mills, I nail factory, 2 rolling mills, 6 iron furnaces, 2 foundries and 8 tanneries.
From the county commissioners' report for 1913 we learn that the number of acres of land in Armstrong county was 393,579; their valua- tion was $6,168,603. The houses and lots assessed in the county were valued at $6,176,143. Number of horses, 7,709; value, $312,829. Number of cows, 7,597; valued at 112,406. The occupational assessment was $840,597. Value of coal lands, $1,089,344. Total assessment for county purposes was $16,049,782. Total assessment for State pur- poses, $2,427,393. The valuation of personal
The number of distilleries in the county in 1840 was 25, and they produced 20,633 gallons, or nearly a gallon to each man, woman and child then living in this territory. In 1876 there was only one distillery, producing annually 50,000 gallons, or a little less than the pro- portion of the former year. At present there are in operation in the county three distilleries, but their output is not available. It is probably many times greater than the proportions above, property in the county was $3,207,461, an in- as one of the distilleries is the largest in this crease over 1890 of 87 per cent.
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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
In 1913 Armstrong county had three rolling the phonograph is a household decoration, a mills, eleven brick manufacturing plants, three distilleries, two plate glass works, six foun- dries, ten sawmills, two potteries, four quarries, and so many coal mines that it would be neces- sary to issue monthly bulletins to keep up with their establishment.
The report of the State Secretary of Internal Affairs for 1913, among other statistics has this regarding the industries peculiar to the county of Armstrong: In the steel mills the average earnings of the employees was $663.80 per year, and the value of their individual pro- duction was $3,661. That is, the cost of their labor was 18% of the receipts for the product. In the tin plate works the average salary was $722, and the value of the production was $2,127, or 23% of the receipts. Operatives in the woolen mills received an average of $363 per year, which, their production amounting to $2,825 each, was only 13% of the whole cost of manufacture.
POPULATION
The population in 1810, when the territory was more extensive than in the present year, was 6,143 ; in 1820, 10,324; in 1830, 17,625; in 1840, 28,365 ; in 1850, after the formation of Clarion county, it was 29,500; in 1860, 35,797 ; in 1870, 43,382; in 1880, 54,477; in 1890, 46,747 ; in 1900, 52,551 ; in 1910, 68,880. The excess population of the 1880 census shows the effect of the oil boom.
Of the people in the county 67,372 are white. There are 495 negroes, of which 289 are black and 206 mulatto. There are also 10 Chinese and 3 Indians in the county.
Of the white residents 49,958 are of native parentage and birth and 9,510 are foreign born. Of the foreign born 4,633 are aliens, without the rights of citizenship, almost half of them residing in Ford City.
The nationalities of these foreigners are: Italy, 2,502 : Austria, 1,990; Hungary, 1,816; Germany, 927; Russia, 484 ; other nations, to the number of sixteen, divide the remainder of the foreign population.
MODERN MIRACLES
Since Smith's history of Armstrong county was published in 1883 the wonders of inven- tion have so rapidly come into use that the public mind accepts them now as a matter of course. Railroads have grown to enormous proportions, telegraph lines cover the land with a network only equaled by the telephone lines; greater than that of any other nation.
daily amusement and a business necessity ; the typewriter is the chief instrument of writing, some business men only signing their names to letters; the automobile is supplanting the horse ; the impossibility of flying has become a daily possibility ; and the great Panama canal, not then even dreamed of, is now a completed wonder of American engineering capacity.
ELECTRICITY
The steam railroads are now threatened by the electric roads, and in self-defense are pre- paring to electrify their own lines. This year the Pennsylvania, having witnessed the electri- fication of the New York Central Lines into New York City, is preparing to do the same to its own road in that part of the country. This will also soon be done in Pittsburgh and the section near there, in which Armstrong county may share.
The field of electric research and invention may almost be said to be contemporaneous with the present generation. Men not yet old can remember when the first arc lamps appeared, and what a wonder they were ;and the incan- descent light was of later invention. One thing has followed another so rapidly, indeed, that the real marvel of electric development has hardly been realized by the generation that has witnessed it. In the public lighting stations of the United States upward of fifty thousand persons are employed, at wages amounting to forty million dollars; and it is estimated that more than one hundred thousand private plants employ thirty-five thousand more at wages that total at more than seventeen million dollars. Even this, however, repre- sents but one department of the field of elec- trical industry as it is today. The lighting stations are dependent upon factories where thousands of other persons are employed. The manufacture of poles, both iron and wood, the making of porcelain, wire, glass, rubber, mica, insulators and many other things is enormously stimulated by this industry. The telephone, and the transmission of power for all sorts of pur- poses from distant waterfalls, are among the marvels of the present electrical age ; and wire- less telegraphy is so recent that it has not yet ceased to attract the curiosity always bestowed upon the latest scientific wonder. In all this work the United States has been a leader. Not only are the most important electrical inven- tions to be credited to this country, but our volume of electrical manufacture and export is
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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
TIIE AEROPLANE
The greatest of the inventions of the last ten years is the aeroplane. In 1904 the first flight in a heavier-than-air machine was made at Kitty Hawk Hill, S. C., by Orville Wright, of Dayton, Ohio. Since that date the strides taken by this new method of transportation have above sea level. been greater than those of any other invention
in the world. Today the speed of the aeroplane is 124.8 miles an hour ; machines have been run over 1,000 miles in 14 hours ; seven passengers have been carried upon one machine ; aero- planes have been continued in flight for twenty hours without a stop; and the highest altitude reached by one aviator has been 19,600 feet
CHAPTER VIII
RELIGIOUS SOCIETIES-EDUCATIONAL GROWTH
THE PRESBYTERIANS-THE LUTHERANS-OTHER DENOMINATIONS-SUNDAY SCHOOLS-BIBLE SO- CIETY-PRIMITIVE SCHOOLHOUSES-EARLY TEACHERS-FREE SCHOOLS-COUNTY SUPERIN- TENDENTS - INSTITUTES - CONVENTIONS - MEDICAL INSPECTIONS - STATISTICS
The first settlers of Armstrong county began Rev. John Boyd, is a strange document. The to worship the Lord in their different ways members' names, together with their pledges of almost as soon as they completed their simple log homes. Most of the services were held as often as representatives of the different de- nominations came through by horseback over the faint trails of the forests, and for some years there were no domiciles for the congre- gations, the open air meetings being held under the shade of the primeval forests. half cash and half produce, are : "Adam Max- well, $2, 3 bushels wheat ; William Barnett, 50 cents, 11/2 bushels wheat : Joseph Cogley, ȘI ; William McNinch, ȘI ; James Green, $1, 2 bushels wheat; James Travis, 67 cents ; John Jack, ȘI ; Thomas Jack, 50 cents, 11/2 bushels wheat : George Ross, $3; Charles Boner, ȘI ; William Park, - -; George Byers, $1.33, 2 bushels wheat ; Isabella Hill, $1; Jean Kiska- PRESBYTERIANS den, 50 cents ; David Reed, 11/2 bushels wheat ; Thomas Cumberland, 50 cents, 1-3 of a bushel of wheat."
It is interesting to note that the two earliest established churches of the Presbyterian and Lutheran congregations in this county were located within a few miles of each other in South Buffalo township. The friendly rivalry between the denominations resulted in good to the work of this church.
both, and the historian has hard work to decide which of them is entitled to priority in the field. The Lutherans had services in the German language in 1796, but did not organize regularly until after the Presbyterians, whose pastors began serving them in 1798.
The first church established in Armstrong county was the Presbyterian Church of Slate Lick. The precise date of its organization is not known, in fact it was probably never organized according to the custom of recent times. It was a preaching point and had recog- nition as a congregation before the beginning of the present century, probably as early as 1798. The minutes of the Presbytery of Red- stone show that on Oct. 15, 1799, the congre- gation of "Union and Fairfield in Allegheny County" asked for supplies.
The total is sixteen names, fifteen dollars, and eleven and five-sixth bushels of wheat. Surely the love of gain was not the impelling motive which caused this pastor to enter upon
LUTHERANS
The first Lutheran pastor to preach in this county was Rev. John M. Steck, who began to hold services in German in the year 1796, and continued to do so until 1815. These services were held in private homes, in barns and in the open air, and were confined to the southern portion of the county, principally in the limits of South Buffalo township. He organized the "Blue Slate" Church, near Boggsville, about 1804, the congregation later adopting the name of St. Matthew's.
The following are the succeeding established Lutheran churches in the county, in the order of precedence: St. Michael's on Crooked creek : "Rupp's," Kittanning township ; Zion or
The call of this church to its first pastor, "Forks," in Kittanning township; St. Jacob's,
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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
South Bend township; St. Mark's, near Eddy- ship, but failed to outlast the years. The build- ville, in Red Bank township; Christ's, at Gas- ing is still standing in a good state of preser- town, in Plum Creek township; Trinity, Kit- vation. tanning borough; St. John's, on the edge of Plum Creek township and Indiana county ; ROMAN CATHOLICS Salem, at Kellersburg, in Madison township.
The foundation of Roman Catholicism was made in Sugar Creek township in 1801, when
The pioneer pastors of the county following "Father" Steck, were: Rev. John Gottfried Lampbrecht, 1813-15; Rev. Peter Rupert, St. Patrick's congregation was organized. In 1814; Rev. Adam Mohler, 1817-23 ; Rev. M. C. the sketch of that township will be found a Zielfels, 1824-25 ; Rev. Gabriel Adam Reichert, complete history of this first church of that
1823-37. The last named pastor was the greatest of the old German ministers. He organized six congregations and was one of the prominent citizens of the county in his time.
the split resulting therefrom did great harm to the church. For many years a sharp division continued between the adherents of the General Synod and the General Council, and bitter feeling was engendered between the two con- gregations and even members of other denom- inations. This often resulted in the contending parties seeking fellowship in churches of other denominations and abandoning their native beliefs.
At the present time there are 27 pastors, 40 churches, and 4,500 members of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Armstrong county. Of these 14 churches, with about 1,500 members, belong to the General Council; 23 churches, with about 3,000 members, belong to the Gen- eral Synod; one church, with about fifty mem- bers, to the Ohio Synod ; and one church, with eighty members, is independent. The services of these churches, with the exception of Em- manuel, at Freeport, and Trinity, at Ford City, are held in the English language. The two churches mentioned hold their services in he was preaching in such a mansion. German.
UNITED PRESBYTERIANS
The Associate Reformed church, which later became the United Presbyterian, was first established in this county in Kittanning, in 1845. burg, Freeport and Brady's Bend. This For a time they were quite prosperous, but of denomination is not numerous in the county, late years their numbers have been slowly de- but their prosperity is assured and they have. fine buildings.
creasing.
CUMBERLAND PRESBYTERIANS
BAPTISTS
Only one congregation of the Cumberland Pine Creek was the first home of the. Baptists, who formed the church of that name in 1836. From that centre sprang many other congregations, and now this denomination is branch of the Presbyterian denomination is known to have been formed in this county. It was organized in 1843 in South Buffalo town- ship, near Slate Lick, with a small member- numbered among the most progressive and:
denomination in this part of the State.
METHODISTS
Armstrong county was the center of the The Methodist Episcopal denomination had great Lutheran controversy of 1866-68, and its first organization in Kittanning in 1816. Before and after that date the services were held by the few circuit riders who passed through this county. Shortly after the organi- zation in Kittanning the residents of South Buffalo township met and organized. After those came many revivals and incorporations. among the Methodists all over the county.
Rev. T. M. Hudson, a venerable clergyman of the Methodist Episcopal church, had that portion of this county east of the Allegheny river in his circuit of three hundred miles, which he traversed nearly one hundred years ago. There were then no church edifices with- in that part of his circuit included in this. county. Meetings were held in private houses. and in the· open air, under trees, in pleasant weather. to which women, in some instances, went a distance of five or six miles with infants in their arms. The dwelling-houses did not lack ventilation. They were not as warm as. modern dwellings. In one instance, said he, the feet of another clergyman were frozen while
EPISCOPALIANS
The Protestant Episcopal denomination was: organized first in Kittanning in 1824. Other churches were later brought into life at Leech-
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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
numerous of the county's religious beliefs. All of the Baptist churches in this county are in Methodist Protestant, I Hebrew, I Greek and I Magyar.
the Clarion Baptist Association, of the neigh- boring county of that name. The next meeting of the association will be held at the old Union Church in South Buffalo township.
STATISTICS
Statistics of the different churches of this county are difficult, if not impossible, to obtain. Many of the denominations do not keep com- plete records, and others are reluctant to have their status published. Taken as a whole, the cause of religion is not lessening in power or number of converts, but the proportion of members of churches compared with popula- tion is somewhat less than in former times. This is partly due to the increase of a spirit of unbelief, and also to the lack of interest displayed in the country churches. So many methods of amusement have been developed in these days that a lack of attendance can be traced to their influence on church members. The most potent, but perhaps not evil, influence on the attendance of the churches is the spring- ing up within the last ten years of the wonder- ful motion picture show houses. Fortunately many of the churches have "taken the bull by the horns" and utilized this invention to enter- tain and instruct their members, thereby reviving an interest in the better class of stories and illustrations.
The number of churches in Armstrong county in 1850 was said to have been sixty-five, but no further facts are at hand regarding them.
From Smith's "History of Armstrong County," 1876, we learn that in the county there were then 115 churches, with 10,800 members. Of these the Presbyterian had 24 churches, with 2,989 members ; the Lutherans, 29 churches, with 2,672 members ; the Metho- dist Episcopal, 19 churches, with 1,814 mem- bers; the United Presbyterians, 13 churches, with 1,038 members; the Reformed,
12 churches, with 825 members; the Baptists, 10 churches, with 650 members; the Roman Catholics, 3 churches, with 500 members ; and the Protestant Episcopal, 5 churches, with 330 members. The Dunkards, or German Baptists, were represented by a few churches in differ- ent parts of the county, but they did not fur- nish statistics of any kind.
4 Brethren in Christ, 3 Free Methodist, I
REMINISCENT
Speaking of the early Presbyterian churches of this county a writer says: "The original edifice in Rural Valley was as square as the character of its builders and as humble and simple. It was of logs, 24x24 feet, and when the congregation outgrew it they simply laid open one side and added another length of logs. It was heated by a single stove and the crowd was deepest upon the side where the little heater stood. The pulpit was a ten-bushel store box set endwise and the seats were oak slabs, the sawed side up, each supported by four peg- legs.
"The communion 'tokens' were manufac- tured by Richard E. Caruthers, one of the first ruling elders. They were of lead. the size of an old-style copper cent, with the letters R \' stamped thereon. These tokens were given to the people at Saturday eve service, and were taken up on the following Sabbath after the members were seated at the communion table. 'An elder passed along on either side of the table and the tokens were dropped into his hand. In 1850, Elder Totten purposely failed to take up these tokens at communion one Sabbath. Many of the surprised members offered them to him after the service, but were told to retain them as souvenirs of a dying custom.
"In 1851 an elder refused to serve when the communion tables were removed, and insisted that they be replaced. Shortly thereafter he changed his opinion and voluntarily made a motion to dispense with them.
"Rev. Cochran Forbes was the first minister in the history of the church to invite members of other denominations to the communion. He had been a missionary, and said you couldn't be a missionary without losing your sectarian- ism.
"The first Sabbath school was held in a private house. There was no room for separate classes, so all were seated compactly on boards laid on trestles. When the winter came on the school moved into Mr. Stoop's kitchen, where the smell of the good things sometimes inter- fered greatly with the attention of the younger scholars."
At present there are in Armstrong county PRESBYTERY OF KITTANNING 40 Lutheran churches, 28 Presbyterian, 24 Methodist, 11 Baptist, 10 Reformed, 12 Roman The Synod of Pittsburgh, in 1856, organized Catholic, 10 United Presbyterian, 4 Episcopal, the Presbytery of Saltsburg, including within
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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
its bounds the counties of Armstrong and Indiana. This was the actual organization of the Presbytery of Kittanning, as the change of name in 1870 only resulted in the loss of two ministers. At the date of the first meeting at which the name was altered the Presbytery had under its care twenty-five ministers and fifty churches.
The members at the organization in 1870 were Revs. Joseph Painter, D. D., John H. Kirkpatrick, Alex Donaldson, D. D., Levi M. Graves, John Caruthers, Carl Moore, William
Morgan, G. W. Mechlin, D. D., J. Molton
Jones, George K. Scott, James E. Carruthers, W. K. Fiscus, vice-president ; C. A. Williams, David J. Irwin, Samuel H. Holliday, J. L. secretary ; E. A. Townsend, treasurer.
Sample, T. D. Ewing, John Orr, Hezekiah McGill, James A. Ewing, Alex. S. Thompson and John J. Francis.
The April meetings are held in Kittanning and the September meetings in Indiana.
SUNDAY SCHOOLS
The first Sunday school in the county was a union school, organized in Kittanning in 1818, with a membership of twenty. This was regarded at first by the pastors as an unwar- ranted innovation, but in time they grew to depend on the schools to direct the younger generation into the path of righteousness. The first school held sessions in the courthouse, but later as the different churches grew in num- ber each denomination developed schools of their own.
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