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 9

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 618

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 9

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From the correspondence at hiand I am satis- fied that soon there will be a horticultural society formed in that county, and this will aid greatly all persons interested in this important work.

In addition to the demonstration and super- vision work we are pushing the work of inspec- tion of orchards as rapidly as possible. In this service we send a competent man into each orchard to determine what pests are present, and notify the owners as to what they are and how to prevent loss by them. Printed literature is sent to each owner concerning the exact pests found on his trees. If he does not heed the advice thus given him, the responsibility of further loss lies with him. In most cases he does prevent such loss and acts upon the advice furnished him gratuitously, and obtains results which are sur- prisingly gratifying.

In addition to the inspection work we have a heavy correspondence extending into your county, and are endeavoring by personal corre-

spondence to meet the needs of each person pos- sible. Also, we are sending bulletins regularly to various fruit growers and farmers there, and are gratified to know that they read them and apparently profit by them.

My recommendation for the horticultural ad- vancement of the county would be for the citi- zens to refrain from being led into temptation of planting many varieties or many trees of a new variety. It is far better to plant but few varieties, and those of the kinds that are known to be standard and profitable in that region. I would also recommend them to form an organi- zation and have quarterly meetings, both indoors and in the orchards, having an annual exhibition, and also an exhibition and meeting in connection with the State Horticultural Society. The busi- ness development of such an organization may prove very profitable to many. The extensive grower in this and other counties should form and make use of a Commercial Fruit Growers' Association of the State.

Very truly yours, H. A. SURFACE, Economic Zoologist.

COLLEGES

The State College at State College, Pa., de- votes several weeks each year to lecture courses on fruit growing and kindred subjects to which all who are interested are invited to come. A number of young men from Arm- strong county have taken advantage of this opportunity. James Patterson, Apollo, Pa .. took the short course in the winter of 1911-12. His studies included horticulture and other branches of agriculture. A. R. Alshouse, Avonmore, Pa., took a similar course at the same time. Russel George also took a short course in 1910-1I. T. P. Scott, Shady Plain, Pa., attended "Farmer's Week" at State Col- lege during the winter of 1910-II. These young men are making a practical use of what they learned and are succeeding very well.

ASSOCIATIONS

The State Horticultural Association, which now numbers 725 members, is an organization whose object is to foster and encourage the development of horticulture in the State of Pennsylvania. Public meetings are held an- nually, lasting four days, at which addresses are delivered by the very best available talent on the subject of practical horticulture, ques- tions are asked and answers are given, so as to constitute the whole meeting a veritable school of practical education. These agencies have wrought together to raise the art of fruit culture to the level of a science, and, while much remains to be done, have already brought our State to the front rank in the fruit industry. Armstrong county has a few rep-

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

resentatives in this association, but not as many as it should have.

Horticulture is now both an art and a science. An absorbing love for it as such is another factor in its modern development. The successful fruit grower of today is in love with his art. His environment fascinates him. He finds in it not only profit but recreation and enjoyment. He serves nature well and compels nature to serve him well in turn. Hle feels as if he were master of an inspiring sit- uation. Ilis healthy growing trees; their dense, dark green foliage; the beautiful blos- soms; the developing fruit; its handsome col- oring and luscious quality ; all conspire to en- chant him. He almost forgets that to secure this result he was obliged to wage constant war with pests, that he had to prune, to spray, to till, to restrain, to feed, to think and keep at it. There is vastly more in this than senti- ment. There is stimulus in it. Not only is the love of gain an inspiration to him, but the love of being useful, the love of leadership in the onward march of human progress and the love of the divine approbation.

This noble industry is fast passing the ex- perimental stage. At a meeting of the State Horticultural Association in January, of 1911, W. W. Farnsworth, of Waterville, Ohio, stated that he had had no crop fail in twenty- eight years. This was said of his peach crop. Similar testimonies to success are becoming a common thing. So far as Armstrong county is concerned, the writer can say that he has had a fair crop of apples every year for twen- ty-one years. Since he has learned something of modern scientific methods of peach culture he has not failed of securing good returns. The summer of 1911 was dry and hot. We did not have any rain in May and very little in June or July, yet in consequence of contin- uous tillage his trees showed no sign of suffer- ing from drouth, but matured successfully one of the heaviest crops of both apples and peaches in the history of the orchard. It is our conviction that there is no more risk to run in the business of fruit growing, because of drouth, pests, blight, storms and other natural causes, than in growing the common crops of the farm. The up-to-c ... it fruit grower is guided by certain well established principles. Prominent among these are securing the proper trees, planting them in the right place. selecting suitable varieties, prep ration of the soil, tillage, fighting pests, pruning, thinning, picking and marketing. Information on all these subjects is now so easily obtained that it is not possible to go much amiss.

SOIL SURVEYS

What then are some of the prospects in favor of the fruit industry in Armstrong county ? In the spring of 1910, H. J. Wilder, expert on soils, in the service of the United States Department of Agriculture, at Wash- ington, D. C., visited officially Armstrong county and remained several weeks. His ob- ject was to report on the possibilities of the fruit industry in this county. During his stay he called at the author's fruit farm at Spring Church. Before he left he remarked, "You and the people of these hills have three essentials for successful fruit growing, a suit- able soil. sufficient altitude, and the best mar- ket at your doors." Our soil is a sandy loam, in some places a gravelly loam, underlaid by a deep subsoil of porous clay. These clay beds are often ten feet in thickness. They are of more importance than the top soil. Clays gen- erally contain calcium carbonate, calcium sul- phate, oxide of iron, magnesium and small quantities of phosphates. They possess also the property of absorbing ammonia and or- ganic matter from the surface. All these sup- ply more or less elements of plant food.

According to "A Reconnaisance Soil Sur- vey of Southwestern Pennsylvania," by Henry J. Wilder and Charles F. Shaw, published in I911, we have two distinct types of soil in Armstrong county-the Westmoreland type in the extreme southern part and the DeKalb type in the much larger northern part. The former differs from the latter only in that it contains more lime. Both these soils are de- clared good for fruit culture. The Baldwin apple for instance is said to be at home in these soils. This "Soil Survey" and "The Report of the Pennsylvania State College" for 1910- 11, in two large volumes, are to be had for the asking. They are full of up-to-date informa- tion on soil studies. It should be borne in mind that by the term soil is here meant not only eight or ten inches of the top soil, but the subsoil as well, often many feet in depth. These publications emphasize the important fact that the right kind of subsoil is an es- sential factor in successful tree culture. They show by analysis that clay subsoils as a rule contain large quantities of plant food. When soil conditions are right, fruit trees, as well as all other trees, send their roots deep down into the under soil for many feet. This not only enables them to withstand strong winds but they find there inexhaustible stores of just the food upon which they thrive. In cases where the undersoil is too compact to be

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

easily penetrated by the roots it is best to loosen it up by dynamiting.

Our country is largely a succession of high hills and deep hollows. The tops and sides of these hills, if not too steep, afford suitable localities for orchards. The deep gorges in connection with the hills secure the necessary air-drainage. Good air-drainage is as neces- sary as good water-drainage. It is air in slow motion caused by gravity when there is no wind. It is consequent upon the fact that cold air near the surface, being heavier, bulk for bulk, than the warmer air above, will, by force of gravity, roll down the hills into the lower depressions, to be replaced by the warmer air above. This slow but constant movement of the air in a still, cold night, markedly lessens the formation and damage of frosts. It often means the difference between success and fail- ure.

MARKETING

ket for our fruit. In spite of the expense of long-distance transportation, the world every- where has been drawn upon by these nearby markets for their fruit supply. The people have turned to eating artificially ripened ba- nanas from Cuba, sour oranges from Cali- fornia, unripe peaches from Michigan and inferior apples from the Northwest-princi- pally because they could not get a satisfactory supply of fruit nearer home. This condition is likely to be gradually changed. We can produce an abundance of first-class fruit of all kinds adapted to our climate, such as apples. peaches, pears, plums, cherries and quinces.

This fruit can be ripened on the tree, as it should be to be the best, and delivered to any place in western Pennsylvania the day after it is taken from the tree. These facts are be- ginning to be well known. Actual demonstra- tion of them has been made, which cannot fail to have a good effect upon the fruit industry in our section and help to lift it to that com-

The extensive commercial interests of west- ern Pennsylvania afford an ever growing mar- mercial plane to which its importance entitles it.

CHAPTER V

METHODS OF TRANSPORTATION, ANCIENT AND MODERN

RIVERS AND STREAMS-SURVEYS AND IMPROVEMENTS-DECLINE OF WATER TRANSPORTATION-THE SIX CAPTAINS-THE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL-POSTAL FACILITIES- ROADS AND ROAD BUILDING -MODERN METHODS- RAILROADS-A NOTABLE GATHERING-ELECTRIC RAILWAY LINES

The Allegheny river passes nearly north and south through the western part of the county, fed on the east by the Red Bank, Mahoning, Pine, Cowanshannock and Crooked creeks, and the Kiskiminetas river ; on the west by Buffalo creek and several large runs. The Allegheny is now the only navigable stream in the county. Red Bank creek forms the northern boundary line, and is so called from the outcropping deposits of red sandstone near its mouth. Ma- honing creek, a large and rapid stream, rises in Jefferson county and after flowing through Armstrong for about forty miles, joins the Allegheny, ten miles above Kittanning. Crooked creek rises in Indiana county, winds its tortuous way through Armstrong and enters the Alle- gheny six miles below Kittanning. There are many good mill sites on this stream and in the past there were seven large flouring mills on its banks, but in 1913 there were no mills by a dam site in operation except at South Bend, where D. B. and L. A. Townsend operate a large waterpower mill. The Kiskiminetas on the southern boundary line is a beautiful stream of considerable width, with frequent shallows

and rapids. On its banks were many salt wells and iron furnaces, and at one time the Pennsyl- vania canal utilized its waters for most its length. Buffalo creek rises in Sugar Creek township, flows southward for twenty miles, supplying several mills on the way, and finally enters the Allegheny one mile below the mouth of the Kiskiminetas. In the county are also Pine, Mill, Licking, Plum, Bear, Catfish and Limestone creeks, and many small runs with appropriate or romantic names. Cowanshan- nock creek is the most sedate of the streams and bears almost a straight course through the county, emptying into the Allegheny two miles above Kittanning.

KEELBOATS AND RAFTS

Before the invention of steamboats the traf- fic on the streams was carried on by means of keelboats and barges, propelled by sweeps. Large numbers of rafts were sent down in the flood stages of the rivers and creeks, most of them being of sawed lumber. These were utilized by the pioneers as a method of trans-

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

portation to the south and west, and many a The increase of various branches of business, raft held the entire family, cattle and house- resulting from the rapid increase of popula- hold goods. Josiah Copley recalled seeing a tion along the east and west of that river, and raft moored to the bank at Freeport that held fully one hundred persons. The travelers were going about their household duties in as uncon- cerned a manner as if they were on dry land, instead of having ten feet of water under their feet.

From 1835 to 1840 the quantity of lumber floated down the Allegheny exceeded 50,000,- 000 feet, board measure, and the total was over $1,000,000 in value. According to the Western Navigator of Pittsburgh, the quantity of boards and timber floated down the Allegheny in 18II was 3,000,000 feet, amounting to $27,- 000, at $9 per thousand. That timber is now worth at least $24 per thousand. In that year keelboats brought to Pittsburgh 16,000 bar- rels of salt, averaging $8 a barrel, and re- turned with cargoes of whisky, iron castings, cider, apples, bacon and foreign imported goods.

EARLY IMPROVEMENT OF STREAMS

Those primitive modes of transporting goods from the North and East were obviated by the completion of the Pennsylvania canal, skirting the southern border of this county, in or about 1828. Freeport thereafter became an entrepôt for merchandise and other freight from the East, and of considerable quantities from Pittsburgh for the region drained by the Allegheny river.

By act of March 9, 1791, the Kiskiminetas, and by act of March 21, 1798, the Allegheny river and the Sandy Lick or Red Bank creek were declared public highways, the Allegheny to the northern boundary of the State and the Red Bank from its mouth to the second great forks.

An order was issued by the county commis- sioners, June 22, 1819, to Samuel C. Orr, for $77.68, for his services as a commissioner, ap- pointed by act of Assembly to superintend the expenditure of $1,000 appropriated for the improvement of Red Bank, and $200 for the improvement of Toby's creek, now the Clarion river. On the same day an order was issued to Alexander Wilson for $16, and on Sept. 22d to David Lawson for $12. for their services for examining the improvement of the navigation of those two creeks.

STEAMBOATING

From and after 1828 passengers, goods and other freight were transported up and down the Allegheny river in steamboats and barges towed by them during such portions of the year as there was a sufficient stage of water.

the multiplicity of furnaces for the manufac- ture of pig iron, caused a vast deal of trans- portation by steamboats. The last trip of a steamboat for passengers was made by the "Ida Reese," Capt. Reese Reese, in April, 1868, and the last trip of a keelboat from Pittsburgh to Warren was by the "Yorktown," the next month thereafter. For several years a line of ten steamboats had plied from Pittsburgh to Oil City, but the completion of the Allegheny Valley railroad killed this traffic. Of these the passenger steamers "Bell," Capt. John Russel, "Laclair," Capt. James Kelly, both of Arm- strong county, and the "Ida Reese," Capt. Isaac Reese, were the principal boats. The largest distributing warehouse on the river was at the mouth of Mahoning, from which point Brook- ville, Clarion and several furnace towns were supplied with freight. Jeremiah Bonner owned the warehouse.

SURVEYS

By resolutions of Congress, surveys of the Allegheny river were heretofore ordered to be made. One was made, in 1829, under the super- intendence of James Kearney, lieutenant-colo- nel topographical engineers, from Pittsburgh to eleven miles above the mouth of French creek, and another, in the summer and autumn of 1837, under the superintendence of George W. Hughes, United States civil engineer. The maps, charts and plan of the latter, who was required to examine into the practicability of constructing a canal along the valley of the Allegheny river, were unfortunately destroyed by the burning of the building occupied as an office. Nothing was saved but a mutilated por- tion of the profile, and the journal which was kept by the gentleman charged with the sound- ings and making an examination of the bed of the stream, so that he was obliged to avail him- self of the report of Colonel Kearney's survey, from which are gathered the following :

The Allegheny river, above the Kiskimi- netas, flows generally through a deep, rocky and precipitous ravine. Its bed is formed of a succession of eddies or ponds, with interven- ing natural dams, having an inclination or slope in the direction of the current, the limits of which, in terms of the altitude and base, may be expressed by the fraction 1/12 and 1/700 nearly. The bottom is mostly of sandstone in place, except upon the ripples or obstructions, where it is usually covered with gravel and stones broken and rounded by attrition. The navigable depth of water on these obstructions

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

does not exceed two feet; and upon some of breakup in the spring of this year, Capt. them there is not more than eighteen inches- James M. Hudson. a depth which is often confined to a very nar- The only business done on the Allegheny now is the dredging of sand and gravel, the business being in the hands of practically one family, the Hudson brothers, who have almost three million dollars invested in dredging ma- chinery and boats. James M. Hudson alone has $80,000 tied up in the stretch of river between Parker and Freeport. row space ; the greater part of the shoals being nearly, and, in some places, quite bare at low water. Following the lines of the survey, which are not always parallel to the axis of the stream, the distance from the mouth of French creek to the Kiskiminetas would be ninety-four and a half miles, nearly, with a descent of the stream of two hundred and six- teen feet ; and from the Kiskiminetas to Pitts- burgh, twenty-seven miles, with a fall of forty feet.

HIGH WATER

In the middle of July, 1842, the stage of water in the Allegheny was such that its navig- able condition was very good, which had been and which has since been an unusual occur- rence at that season of the year. The water was so high that rafts of the largest size passed down it to Pittsburgh, and the steamers "Izaak Walton," "Warren," "Ida," "Pulaski" and "Forrest" made trips to points in the upper Allegheny.

The tremendous floods in the Allegheny in 1913 caused the national government to estab- lish "flood relief boats" for this section. Light draft, high speed boats will be stationed at Pittsburgh to be sent in cases of high water to remove imperiled persons and afford prompt relief in cases of hunger and destitution. Com- plete crews will be held at instant call and all the most improved life saving devices will be kept on board for instant use. Medical men will be summoned for the emergency work, when needed. The great flood of March, 1866, was most destructive, when over two hundred barges of oil and several steamers were swept away when the ice broke up.

LATER IMPROVEMENTS

Within the last twenty years the improve- ment of the Allegheny has consisted of only a few dikes to confine the stream to smaller limits and deepen the channel. Three of these dikes are located in the boundaries of Arm- strong county, at Nicholson's island, near the mouth of the Cowanshannock and opposite Watersonville.

The cradles on the boats operate endless chain bucket dredges, that delve thirty-five feet into the bed of the stream, bringing up the sand and passing it over screens where it is drained of water and loaded into barges alongside. One of these boats can average 500 tons a day. The product is sold to the plate glass works at Ford City, Tarentum and Kittanning, and shipped even as far as New York. For grind- ing glass the sand is unsurpassed, the Kittan- ning plant using 150 tons a day and the works at Ford City, 250 tons daily.

An interesting and remarkable fact is that the Allegheny river in this county is practically controlled by the Hudson brothers, who are the last remnant of the old guard who are trying to have the stream restored to its pristine popu- larity. For over sixty years this family of steamboatmen have plied the rivers and piloted its steamers and they have an undying faith in the value of the watercourses of this county. At all times they are ready to champion the cause of river improvement, and they have hopes to realize their ambition of seeing again the procession of craft plying up and down the Allegheny, as in the days of yore. They with most other business men in the valley belong to the Allegheny River Improvement Company. whose slogan is "On to Cairo."

Every one of the six Hudson brothers was born in Westmoreland county, but their homes are in Armstrong and here their life work has been done. Each of the six brothers is either a captain or pilot, holding working certificates now, although the oldest one will be seventy- nine in January of the coming year-1914. W. K. Hudson was born Jan. 24. 1835; J. P. Hudson, April 16, 1838 : John S. Hudson, Sept. 9, 1844: T. P. Hudson, May 11, 1847; H. P. Hudson, Sept. 11, 1849; James M. Hudson, March 16, 1852.

The traffic on the river has become prac- THIE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL tically nothing, the old-time passenger and freight steamers being converted into sand The act of the Legislature authorizing the construction of the Pennsylvania canal was passed in 1825 and the work of digging and blasting started in the following year. The length of the canal from Johnstown to the dredges and the flatboats are only seen at Pitts- burgh during high stages of water. The last passenger steamer to make the trip between Kittanning and Pittsburgh was the "Nellie Hudson," in 1913, being wrecked in the ice mouth of the Kiskiminetas river was sixty-

OLD LOCKS OF THE PENNSYLVANIA CANAL, NEAR APOLLO

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

four miles, in which space there were a num- She was detained a considerable length of time below Freeport, in consequence of a break in the embankment at the aqueduct. After the water was let into the canal above Leechburg a boat was drawn out of the river into the canal, run up to Johnstown and loaded with fifty tons of blooms. On her return, while which was along the bank of the Kiskiminetas. passing through the tunnel, says Morris Leech, she was filled with about three tons of stone and clay. When about one hundred yards below the tunnel, hundreds of tons of earth, ber of locks. This did not include the different sections of slackwater, one of which extended from Leechburg to below Apollo. This was called the seven-mile level. The distance cov- ered by the canal within the bounds of Arm- strong county was twenty-five miles, most of At the mouth of that river the canal was car- ried across the Allegheny by means of a wooden aqueduct, resting on stone piers. Thence the course was through Freeport, etc., fell from the tunnel into the canal, which across Buffalo creek on another aqueduct, and shut off the water below it, so that the boat did down the Allegheny to Pittsburgh. The water not reach Leechburg until nearly a month after- ward.

for this thirty-five miles was supplied from the dam at Leechburg, this county, where the boats were locked out of the seven-mile level into this the longest stretch of canal on the entire route.

The stone for the locks and bridge piers was obtained from the quarries near the rivers, and the work of construction was mostly done by Irish immigrants, who finally became settlers and land owners after their labors were ended.

The estimated cost of the canal was: Exca- vation, embankment, etc., $654,124.93 : 368 feet of lockage at $600 per foot, $220,800; 35 bridges at $250, $8,750; 32 miles of fence at $480, $15,360. The total cost is estimated at about one million dollars. The dimensions were: Width at the waterline, 40 feet ; width at the bottom, 28 feet ; depth, 4 feet. The locks were 15 feet wide and go feet long.

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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 9

Author: J.H. Beers & Co Publication date: 1914 Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers Number of Pages: 618

Author: J.H. Beers & Co
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers
Number of Pages: 618