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 II > Part 95
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On Nov. 24, 1857, Mr. Robinson was mar-
(6) Fred- ried to Caroline Truby, of Brookville, Jeffer- son county, Pa., daughter of Samuel and Anna (Sterling) Truby, and ten children were born to this union: (I) Frederick Rohrer died in infancy. (2) Elisha M., who died at the age of forty, was a resident of Pittsburgh and engaged in the store business. He married Virginia McClintock, who now lives at Rob- inson, and three sons also survive him, Philip, Harold and Richard. (3) Annie T. married Rev. John E. Eggert, a Presbyterian minister formerly located at Kansas, Ill., now of Harrington, Del. They have two living chil- dren, Joseph A. and Elizabeth. (4) Samuel T., an oil producer and farmer, resides at Robinson. He married Emma Leonard, of Parker, and has three children, Elisha (mar- ried Mary O'Donnell), Helen (married James Berry and resides at Oil City) and Malcolm (at home). (5) Elizabeth R. is the wife of A. Sydney Wightman, president of the State Bank of Parker's Landing, and they have one child, A. Sydney, Jr. (6) Horatio is de- ceased. (7) Ernest William married Mary Purvis. They have no children. (8) Olive G. married J. Bentley Forker, of Oil City, Pa., and has three sons, Bentley T., Lee T. and Truby. (9) Alice M. is the wife of William Truman, of Brookville, Pa., and has seven children, Olive, Henry, Ruth, Caroline, Elisha, William and Joseph Bentley. (10) Chase S. served during the Spanish-American war, en- listing in April, 1908, in Company H, 10th Pennsylvania Volunteers, and receiving his discharge in January, 1909, on account of dis- ability. He had a severe attack of malarial fever, from which he has never fully recov- ered. He now resides on the paternal farm. having a tract of 200 acres, which originally formed part of the family estate and to whose care he gives his attention. He married Rachel Collner.
Mr. Robinson was one of the oldest mem- bers of the Parker City Methodist Episcopal Church, with which he united in 1857, and JOHN HEILMAN, a retired farmer of Manor township, Armstrong county, is now in his ninety-second year and one of the ven- erable citizens of that section. He was born there Dec. 7, 1822, in what was then Kittan- which he served as steward and class leader. In 1902 he erected the Robinson Memorial Chapel on his farm as a family memorial. and in 1902 built the parsonage. His wife also belonged to the same church, though she was ning (now Manor) township, on part of the
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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
place where he now lives, and is a son of Jacob and Susanna (Waltinbough) Heilman, both of whom belonged to families conspic- uous among the pioneer settlers and prom- inent landowners of Kittanning township. Both names appear frequently in the old legal records and assessment lists of Armstrong county. On the assessment lists of 1807 the Heilmans appear as owners of mills, distil- leries and large tracts of land. The name in old records is found written Hileman and Hyleman.
Peter Heilman, grandfather of John Heil- man, was born in Alsace-Lorraine, son of Christian Heilman, and was but two years old when his parents crossed the Atlantic to settle in America. The mother died on the way, and was buried at sea. The father settled in Northampton county, Pa., where he remained until his death. Peter Heilman was reared in Northampton county and there learned the trade of weaver. He married Elizabeth On April 1, 1852, Mr. Heilman married Eleanor Wilson, a native of Westmoreland county, born Feb. 27, 1835, daughter of Rob- ert and Eleanor (Hilborn) Wilson, who moved about 1840 to Manor township, Arm- strong county, where Mr. Wilson farmed un- til his death. He came from near Murrysville, Harter, and came with his wife to Armstrong county, settling in Kittanning township in 1795-96. He had a tract of 350 acres, upon which he erected the log buildings usually found in those days. He reared a family of twelve children, and died at the home of his son Jacob when eighty-two years old. In Westmoreland county. The Wilsons were of politics he was an old-line Democrat, and in religion was associated with the Lutheran Church. A full sketch of his family appears elsewhere in this work.
Jacob Heilman was born in April, 1791, in Northampton county, and died in Kittanning
JOHN ARTHUR HEILMAN, son of John Heil- township, Armstrong county, Dec. 27, 1876, man, was born Feb. 1, 1860, at the home in his eighty-sixth year. He was an extensive place, of which he is now owner, making farmer, owning eight hundred acres of land, his home there. He received his early edu- and was a prominent distiller of his day, when cation in the schools of the home district and Armstrong county whiskey had a reputation as at Kittanning, later attending school in Jef- far south as New Orleans for being good, and ferson and Clearfield counties, Pa. All his the "Heilman whiskey" was highly esteemed as one of the purest whiskies in the market. When his son John was six years old Jacob Heilman purchased the old home tract from the heirs, and lived there until his death. He has thirty-five, most of which is under culti- attention has been devoted to farming, and he has made a specialty of dairying, his place being known as the Maple Grove dairy farm. Mr. Heilman owns ninety acres, and his wife vation. He has twenty full bred cows, and raises considerable hay and grain. Mr. Heil- man is a member of the I. O. O. F. lodge at Manorville, No. 932. He married Anna Ditty, and they have had three children, Paul C., Mildred A. and Lois Elva LaVerne.
started in life with an ax and grubbing hoe, and acquired his wealth by honest labor and judicious management. He was a good busi- ness man, served his township as school direc- tor, and in political connection was originally a Democrat, becoming a Republican upon the organization of the party, in 1854. He mar- ried Susanna Waltinbough, daughter of Adam Waltinbough, of Fayette county. She died April 27, 1878, in her eighty-sixth year, a member of the Evangelical Lutheran Church. Mr. and Mrs. Heilman were the parents of
four children: John Adam, deceased, who married Eliza Wilson; Christina, deceased ; John; and James, born Feb. 15, 1829, who married Magdalena Reichert, daughter of Rev. G. A. Reichert.
John Heilman grew to manhood on the home place and in time purchased 181 acres of the tract, where he continued to follow gen- eral farming throughout his active years. He has always ranked among the most progressive agriculturists of his time, and improved his land much beyond the ordinary, taking a practical interest in up-to-date methods and putting into application many ideas generally considered in advance of the day. His prop- erty shows the effect of his discriminating care, being one of the most desirable in this part of the county. Mr. Heilman has been a Republican in politics since the formation of the party. He has several times been elected to the office of township supervisor.
Scotch-Irish stock. Eight children were born to Mr. and Mrs. Heilman, the eldest three dy- ing in childhood. The others are: Amos Simeon, John Arthur, Jacob Lemuel, Edgar Hilborn and Ellen Gertrude.
GEN. DANIEL BRODHEAD, of Revo- lutionary fame, was born in Marbletown, Ulster Co., N. Y., in 1736, and died and was buried in Milford, Pa., Nov. 15, 1809. He was the great-grandson of Capt. Daniel Brod- head, of the English army, who came to this
ODmust Brodin
GEN. DANIEL BRODHEAD
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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
country in 1664, as a member of the expedi- tion commanded by Col. Richard Nichols, in the service of King Charles II, after the Restoration. After the surrender of Stuy- vesant Captain Brodhead was sent up to Albany, in September, 1664, and was a wit- ness to the treaty made with the Indians there in that month. He was afterward promoted to the command of the military forces of Ulster county, by commission from King Charles, dated Sept. 14, 1665, which position he held till his death in 1670. He left one daughter and two sons-Ann, Charles and Richard.
Richard Brodhead was born at Marble- town, N. Y., in 1666, and was the grandfather of General Brodhead. He had two sons, Richard, Jr., and Daniel, the latter born in Marbletown, Ulster Co., N. Y., in the year 1698. He died at Bethlehem, Pa., in the year 1755. This Daniel Brodhead, the General's father, removed with his family from Ulster county, N. Y., in the year 1737, to Danville, Pa., while his son Daniel was but an infant. The latter was the youngest of his three sons who reached maturity and married. Inured to the dangers of the Indian frontier from his very cradle, the impression made as he grew up among the scenes of Indian barbarities, and the outrages of the savages, helped to form his future character and to mold him into the grand, successful soldier and Indian fighter which his subsequent history proved him to be.
General Brodhead first appeared promi- nently in public life when he was elected a deputy from Berks county to a provincial meeting which met at Philadelphia, July 15, 1774, and served on a committee which re- ported sixteen resolutions, one of which rec- ommended the calling of a Continental Con- gress and acts of non-importation and non- exportation from Great Britain. These were among the first steps toward the Revolution which followed. At the beginning of the war of the Revolution he was commissioned by the Assembly of Pennsylvania at Philadel- phia as colonel of the 8th Regiment, Pa. Colonial Troops. He first participated in the battle of Long Island. Before the close of this battle he commanded the whole of the Pennsylvania contingent troops, composed of several battalions. He was especially men- tioned by Washington in his report to Con- gress on this battle, for brave and meritorious conduct. He also participated in several other battles of the Revolution. Having re- ceived the approbation of Washington he was
sent by him, in June, 1778, with his troops to Fort Muncy, where he rebuilt that fort formerly destroyed by the Indians, which command he held until Washington, in the: following spring, recommended his selection. to Congress for the command of the Western department. Washington, being personally acquainted and warmly attached to him, knew well his qualifications as a brave, judicious. and competent general. Washington, with the sanction of Congress, issued an order, dated March 5, 1779, directing him to proceed to Fort Pitt, Pa., to take charge of the Western department, extending from the British pos- sessions, at Detroit, on the north, to the- French possessions (Louisiana) on the south. a command and responsibility equal to any in the Revolutionary army.
General Brodhead established the head- quarters of his department at Fort Pitt, now- Pittsburgh, Pa. He had under his command the posts of Fort Pitt, Fort McIntosh, Fort Laurens, Fort Tuscarora, Fort Wheeling, Fort Armstrong and Fort Holliday's Cove. He: made a number of successful expeditions in person against the Indians with a large part of his command. In 1779 he executed a bril- liant march up the Allegheny with 605 men, penetrating into New York, overcoming almost insurmountable difficulties, through a. wilderness without roads, driving the Indians before him, depopulating and destroying their villages all along his route, killing and captur- ing many. This expedition began Aug. II and ended Sept. 14, 1779, between three hundred" and four hundred miles in thirty-three days, through a wilderness without a road. Gen- eral Brodhead received the thanks of Con- gress for this expedition, and the following- acknowledgment from General Washington : "The activity, perseverance and firmness which marked the conduct of General Brod- head, and that of all the officers and men of every description in this expedition, do them great honor, and their services entitle them to the thanks and to this testimonial of the general's acknowledgment."
A great number of the thrilling Indian stories of which we read in the present day occurred under General Brodhead's command. The famous Captain Brady was a captain in General Brodhead's Sth Regiment, and sel- dom ever went out on a scout but by orders from the General. General Brodhead's devo- tion to the cause of liberty was untiring. He never doubted the result of the war, and his letters of encouragement to General Wash- ington and others are part of the history of"
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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
our country. In one, lamenting the coldness to the credit of being the founder of Kittan- of some former patriots, he writes: "There is nothing I so much fear as a dishonorable peace. For heaven's sake, let every good man hold up his hands against it. We have never suffered half I expected we should, and I am willing to suffer much more for the glo- rious cause for which I have and wish to bleed."
General Brodhead had a treble warfare to wage-a warfare which required the genius and daring of a soldier, the diplomacy of a statesman and the good, hard sense and clear judgment of an independent ruler over an extensive country composed of a variety of elements. He waged war upon the unfriendly Indians, and held as allies in friendship sev- eral friendly nations. He watched and con- trolled, to a great extent, the British influence upon the Indians in the direction of Detroit. He kept in subjection a large Tory element west of the mountains in sympathy with Great Britain, and punished them by confiscating their surplus stores and provisions for the benefit of his starving soldiers, when they had refused to sell to his commissary officers on the credit of the government; but he never resorted to this punishment until his starving soldiers paraded in a body in front of his quarters and announced they had had no bread for five days.
On June 24, 1779, General Brodhead issued his famous order directing Colonel Bayard to proceed to Kittanning and erect a fort at that point for the protection of all settlers desiring to settle in that vicinity, and for the better protection of the frontier. After the erection of this fort settlers took up land and built their houses around and in the vicinity of this fort, under its protection, until the accumula- tion of houses and homes in the vicinity trans- formed the Indian town of Kittanning into the present thriving capital of Armstrong county, which can only justly and truthfully be acknowledged the result of the fort erected by command of General Brodhead, and which he was too modest to have called after him- self, regardless of the importunate efforts of Colonel Bayard, whom history shows to have earnestly entreated Brodhead to permit him to call it Fort Brodhead.
General Brodhead's untiring watchfulness of the settlements along the Allegheny, the building of his fort at Kittanning, his pro- tection of the inhabitants in its vicinity until they became numerous enough to defend them- selves, his modesty in not permitting the fort to be called after himself, justly entitle him
ning, just as the erecting of every fort on our western frontier from that day to this has been the foundation of a city or town which invariably sprang from such a planting, as Pittsburgh, Fort Wayne, Leavenworth, Fort Dodge, Detroit, for never until that time had Kittanning any white inhabitants, and never from that time until the present has it been without white inhabitants.
In 1781 General Brodhead was given com- mand of the Ist Pa. Colonial Regiment, and during that year received his full commission as general. His services extended through the entire war of the Revolution, and at its close he was elected by the officers assembled at the cantonment of the American army on the Hudson river, May 10, 1783, as one of a committee to prepare the necessary papers for the organization of the Society of the Cin- cinnati. In 1789 General Brodhead was elected by the Pennsylvania Assembly sur- veyor general of the State of Pennsylvania, which position he held for nearly twelve years.
For his services in the Revolution General Brodhead received several thousand acres of land, which he located in western Pennsyl- vania. Besides this he purchased largely of land through western Pennsylvania, Virginia and Kentucky. He located much land in the vicinity of Kittanning and on the Allegheny, the scenes of his former exploits, which he never ceased to love. General Brodhead was twice married, and by his first wife, Elizabeth (Dupuy), had two children, Daniel and Ann Garton. The son, Daniel, Jr., was wounded at the battle of Long Island and captured, was exchanged, and died soon afterward. Like his father he was a member of the So- ciety of the Cincinnati. The General's second marriage was to the widow of Gen. Samuel Mifflin. His only daughter, Ann Garton, married Casper Heiner, of Reading, Pa., a surveyor by profession and author of a series of mathematical works.
To Ann Garton Heiner and her children General Brodhead left all his lands and prop- erty. Ann Garton Heiner had but one son, John Heiner, who removed to Kittanning in 1812, and took possession of all the lands left him by his grandfather, General Brodhead. Capt. John Heiner died and was buried in Indiana, Pa., in 1833. He left but one son, Daniel Brodhead Heiner, late of Kittanning, Pa., and three daughters: Ann Eliza, who married John Mechling, sheriff of Armstrong county from 1845 to 1848; Margaret, who was
Ino Heinen
BbSeiner
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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
twice married, first to a Mr. Carson, later to a German city of ten thousand inhabitants, was Mr. Porterfield, and moved to Sidney, Ill .; once destroyed by the Huns. Kraft Heiner, and Catherine, wife of Gov. George W. Smith, of Lawrence, Kansas. the first of this line to come to America, was from the city of Weinheim, then not far from the French and German border. He was a man of education, a physician by profession. At the nearby town of Lampertheim, on the Rhine, he married Anna Maria Gresheim, and they came to this country about the middle of the eighteenth century. At any rate, they were residents of Reading, Pa., in 1755. They were Huguenots, in America uniting with the Ger- man Reformed Church, and Dr. Heiner was one of a committee of two appointed to pur- chase ground for a church there for his peo- ple. The title was made out in his name, and the deed, given him by the Penn heirs, is recorded at Reading. The church is still in existence there. Kraft Heiner and his wife had one son, Casper Heiner.
Ann Garton (Brodhead) Heiner had, be- sides her son John, four daughters. (I) Re- becca was the mother of Hon. Henry John- son, of Muncy, Pa., presidential elector in 1848 on the Whig ticket, State senator of Penn- sylvania from 1861 to 1864, and chairman of the Judiciary committee and author of the bill to entitle soldiers to vote in the field (after the Supreme court of Pennsylvania had de- cided their voting unconstitutional). She was the grandmother of Hon. Henry John Brodhead Cummings, colonel of the 39th Iowa Infantry during the war of the Rebel- lion, and member of Congress from the · Des Moines district from 1877 to 1879. (2) Margaret married John Faulk, and was the mother of Hon. Andrew J. Faulk, governor of Dakota, from Aug. 4, 1866, to May I, 1869, also superintendent of Indian Affairs for Dakota and member of the com- mittee-with Gen. William T. Sherman, Gen- eral Stanley and others-which made the fam- ous treaty with the Sioux Indians at Fort Sully, Dak., in 1868. (3) Catherine mar- ried Colonel Brodhead, a distant cousin, de- scendant of a brother of Gen. Daniel Brod- head. General Brodhead's descendants by this marriage were the children of George Brodhead, of Kittanning; Mark Brodhead, of Washington; Mrs. Kate Van Wyke, wife of United States Senator Van Wyke, of Ne- braska, and Mrs. Van Auken, wife of John Van Auken, member of Congress from Pike county from 1867 to 1871. (4) Mary mar- ried John Weitzel, of Reading, Pennsylvania.
Casper Heiner married Ann Garton Brod- head, daughter of Gen. Daniel Brodhead by his first wife, Elizabeth (Dupuy-now writ- ten Depew). They had but one son, John. Casper Heiner was a man of extraordinary attainments and mental power. As evidenced by his records, he followed the profession of surveyor. A book of 150 pages, 9 by 14 inches, entirely in his own handwriting, is now in the possession of his grandson, Wil- liam G. Heiner, of Kittanning. Its title reads : "Casper Heiner, his ciphering book, Reading, Pa., Fourth Mo. 22nd 1767." It embraces, in condensed form, an analysis of various branches of mathematics, astronomy, chron- ology, navigation, etc., and the rules are so abbreviated, the examples so plainly stated, that an ordinary reader can comprehend them.
HEINER. The Heiner family has been one of the most influential in Kittanning from its earliest days as a white settlement, and as the descendants and heirs of Gen. Daniel Brodhead the association dates back even fur- ther. Its present representatives in the bor- ough, the brothers Hon. William G. Heiner and Hon. Daniel B. Heiner, have been con- spicuously active in business circles and the administration of public affairs, the latter espe- cially, as member of Congress and in other high positions of responsibility, rendering im- portant services to his fellow citizens. For Kittanning, in which vicinity were many of high character and distinguished ability the name has been honored in every generation as far back as known.
Capt. John Heiner, son of Casper and Ann Garton (Brodhead) Heiner, removed to west- ern Pennsylvania in 1812 and took possession of all the lands left him by his grandfather, General Brodhead, locating temporarily at Indiana, Pa. At the breaking out of the war of 1812 he returned East with his family, to Charlestown, Va., the home of his wife's fam- ily, with whom he left his wife and children and entered the army as captain of volunteers, serving with distinction through the war. At its conclusion he removed again with his fam- ily to western Pennsylvania, locating at the Brodhead lands. Captain Heiner was a prominent Mason. He died and was buried in Indiana, Pa., in 1833. His wife, Mary (Haynes), who lies buried in the old Kittan-
It is of ancient German origin and was origi- nally spelled Hühner. Heinersdorf, an old ning cemetery, was a daughter of Peter
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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
Haynes, a planter, of Shepherdstown, Va. founders, and for nearly fifty consecutive Mr. Haynes served in the war of the Revolu- tion and was an ardent patriot. That he was a man of high principles and advanced ideas is shown by the fact that he freed the slaves he owned. "One of the marked features of his life was a deep-seated hatred for Hessians because they fought against our liberties for pay alone. After the war of the Revolution if ever one spoke in his presence he never failed to strike him with his cane, regardless of con- sequences." John and Mary (Haynes) Heiner had two sons (one dying when a young man) and three daughters, as above mentioned in the sketch of General Brodhead.
Daniel Brodhead Heiner, the only son of Capt. John Heiner to marry, was born Sept. 24, 1807, at Milford, Pike Co., Pa., and passed most of his life at Kittanning, where he died Dec. 29, 1883. For a number of years he was engaged in merchandising, and he served twenty years as justice of the peace. He grew up with the town. In early life he engaged in the mercantile business with Thomas McCon- nell, under the firm name of Heiner & Mc- Connell, and later was in the same line with John Mechling, the firm being Heiner & Mechling. Mr. Heiner was a man of unswerv- ing principles. A cousin of Hon. Richard Brodhead, United States senator from Penn- sylvania from 1849 to 1855, who married the daughter of Jefferson Davis, afterward presi- dent of the Southern Confederacy, and with buried in Arlington cemetery, at Washington, numerous relatives in Virginia, on his D. C. By his marriage to Helen G. Schle- mother's side, who held commissions in the macher (now written Sleymaker), of Wash- Southern army, he never wavered in his ington, D. C., where she still resides, he had loyalty to his own belief in the right of the three children. (3) John Haynes was a private Union cause. As the only lineal male descend- ant of Gen. Daniel Brodhead he inherited a membership in the Society of the Cincinnati, which in turn descended to his eldest son, Capt. R. G. Heiner; the certificate of mem- bership is signed by Generals Washington and Knox.
Mr. Heiner was a man of irreproachable morals, a Christian of the most exemplary type, and in every relation of his public and private life bore an unblemished reputation. "Seldom do we find a life so blameless and so full of the graceful amenities of Christian tenderness and social benignity. In the ex- ample of an upright and patriotic citizen, a kind and tender parent, and a consistent Christian deportment, he left a legacy of priceless inheritance." He and his wife were members of the Methodist Episcopal Church at Kittanning and leading workers in that organization. Mr. Heiner was one of its
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