USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > Connellsville > Centennial history of the borough of Connellsville, Pennsylvania, 1806-1906 > Part 3
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CONNELLSVILLE
a block house was built on Crawford's land near his home. Another similar fort was built near the home of his brother. Danger was imminent. The people fled in crowds from the country and Crawford believed that he was only doing his duty in giving himself to the public defense. His military record, as an officer in the war of Independence, and also as leader of the Sandusky Expedition, is given in another chapter. What we have said will serve to show that Craw- ford the soldier was ever superior to Crawford the civilian. Such was his devotion to the public service that personal and family interests were often made to suffer. He was compelled to borrow money from Isaac Meason in order to purchase the horse on which he rode to Sandusky, and it is said that part of his New Haven farm was sold after his death in order to satisfy this claim. We do not consider William Crawford the paragon of virtue that he is some- times said to be. Neither do we attribute his military service on the border to an unalloyed patriotism, for his natural love of adventure doubtless had much to do with it. But he is worthy of something far higher than the criticism that he was a common border ruffian, who engaged in the Indian wars for the sake of plunder. He did not wish the leader- ship of the Sandusky Expedition, and accepted it only when convinced by General Irvine and other good men that it was his duty. He served his country well, and his tragic death at the stake, on the afternoon of June 11, 1782, was mourned by true patriots all over the land.
With a presentiment of coming danger, Crawford, be- fore setting out on his last campaign, deeded to his son-in- law, Major William Harrison, a tract of sixty-eight acres of land adjoining his own. He also made his last Will and Testament, in which 2900 acres of Virginia land lying along the Ohio river were bequeathed to his children and their descendants. The old homestead, or "Spring Garden," as he affectionately termed it, was bequeathed to his wife for her lifetime, then to descend to the heirs of his son John Crawford, of whom two, William and Moses, are
37
PIONEERS OF THE YOUGH
named in the will. A tract of land, lying along the old Braddock road two miles north of Connellsville, was given to his daughter Anne Connell and her children. Four negro slaves are also mentioned in the will. All of the Vir- ginians living in this vicinity in the early days were large slave owners. When the estate was settled, the executors were deluged with a flood of small claims, many of which were not believed to have any foundation in fact. In order to settle these claims the old homestead was sold, November 27, 1786, to Edward Cook, who in turn transferred it to Isaac Meason, the founder of New Haven. The widow, however, reserved her home, where she lived until her death in 1817. For many years she was attended only by an old slave named Daniel, the most faithful servant of the Craw- ford family. Her remarkable vitality is attested by the fact that she would ride on horseback over the rough roads to visit her children and friends when she was more than eighty years of age. Her death did not come until she had almost reached her ninety-fifth birthday. For a while she was in straitened financial circumstances, and was almost re- duced to want. The State granted her a small pension in view of the military services of her husband. In November, 1804, a petition to Congress for her relief was denied.
In January, 1788, John Crawford, becoming disheart- ened over financial matters, gave a Bill of Sale for all his cattle, slaves and household goods to Richard Graham, and removed to his western land, where he died. None of his children seemed to inherit the sterling qualities of their grandfather. Sarah Crawford, the eldest daughter of Colonel Crawford, was married to Major William Harrison, who perished in the Sandusky Expedition. Afterwards she married Captain Uriah Springer, and lived in a little home on New Haven hill, near the Brookvale school house. She was a great friend of children, and is still remembered affec- tionately by the older citizens of the community as "Granny Springer." She had children to both her husbands. Anne Crawford, the youngest daughter of the Crawford family,
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CONNELLSVILLE
was married to James Connell, the brother of the founder of Connellsville, and lived in Bullskin township. She had four children, William, James, Nancy and Polly, who, in the older histories of Fayette county, are frequently con- fused with the children of Zachariah Connell. Effie Craw- ford, another of Colonel Crawford's daughters, was mar- ried to William McCormick, who was the first man to build a permanent home within the present limits of the Borough of Connellsville. William McCormick was a teamster, who came here from Winchester, Va., about the year 1770. His name does not appear upon the list of settlers of Tyrone township in 1722, but this may be accounted for by the fact that most of his time was spent on the road and in the Indian trade. He was a professional packer, and drove six or eight horses between Baltimore and other eastern points and the Yough region. The early settlers made their farms supply them with all the necessaries of life, with the exception of salt, iron and spices. These had to be brought by pack horses from the eastern markets, and William Mc- Cormick was one of a number of men who found it profit- able employment. At first the eastern load was made up of peltry, secured chiefly by trading with the Indians; later it was generally made of western whiskey, a keg of which slung to either side of the horse made a convenient burden and one whose purchasing power was ever sufficient to insure a valuable load for the return trip. Mr. McCormick, at an early date, took up two tracts of land designated in the warrants of survey as "Stafford" and "Rich Plain." Upon one of these, directly across the river from the Crawford home, a log cabin was built. In 1776, this log cabin was replaced by what was then considered one of the finest homes in this section of the country. This home was built of hewn logs, and consisted of two large rooms, opening into a central passageway, all under one roof. Spacious fireplaces were built in each room, providing exceptional comforts for those early days.
The packing industry vanished with the advent of good
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PIONEERS OF THE YOUGH
roads, just as the stage coach vanished before the steam cars, and Mr. McCormick then turned his attention more to local interests. In 1795, or earlier, he built a saw mill, the power for which was secured from Mountz creek. On December 2, 1796, he sold 15014 acres of one of his tracts to John Gibson for a consideration of £252. It appears that for a while he was in partnership with Mr. Gibson in the saw mill business. On March 18, 1813, he deeded the "Stafford" tract to his son William McCormick, Jr., but the validity of this deed was contested, and the estate was divided among nine children, as follows: Nancy, Sarah, Mary ( Mrs. William Davies ), John, William, Charles, Han- nah (Mrs. Peter Buttermore), Jane (Mrs. John Tillard),
and Effelia. The fifth of these children, William McCor- mick, Jr., is the father of the larger portion of the McCor- mick family now residing in this community. The larger part of the orignal McCormick family at an early day re- moved to the west, and it was while visting one of his chil- dren in the State of Ohio, in 1816, that William McCor- mick, Sr., died, at the age of 14 years. The place of his burial is not known.
John Gibson, who purchased a portion of the McCor- mick tract in 1796, was the father of one of the most enter- prising and capable families of Connellsville. He was born in Chester county, Pa., in 1751. Upon coming to this part of the country in 1793, he was first associated with Isaac Meason and Moses Dillon in building Union Furnace, said to have been the second blast furnace erected west of the Allegheny mountains. After purchasing the land in the north end of town, be built a grist milf near the site of Sodom shops, which he operated with water drawn from Mountz creek. He also built a small nail factory and an oil press, at which large quantities of castor oil were made from beans grown in the surrounding country. In 1805, in connection with Thomas Ashley of Philadelphia, he built a forge on the east bank of the river, below Mountz creek, which was operated successfully for twenty years. Here
THE TWO STONE HOUSES OF THE GIBSONS.
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PIONEERS OF THE YOUGH
at this forge one of his sons, Joshua, was drowned, Febru- ary 24, 1808. Another son, James, died in 1817. Both of these sons were about thirty ears of age at the time of their death. Mr. Gibson had three children, Thomas, Joseph and Elizabeth (Mrs. Joseph Rogers). Thomas and Joseph inherited much of their father's business ability, and, in 1816, acquired large landed interests in South Connellsville, and erected Etna Furnace. The ruins of the stack of this old furnace may yet be seen in the hollow near the foot of Etna street, on the South Side. The town of Gibsonville was laid out in 1870 by a son of Joseph Gibson. The two oldest stone houses now standing in Connellsville were built by the Gibson family, but none of their children are any longer numbered among our citizens.
Another pioneer family, very closely associated with the Gibsons, was that of Thomas Gregg. Gregg came to New Haven in 1799, at the solicitation of John Gibson, his uncle. Here he built the first nail factory of western Penn- sylvania, and his old order books, still preserved by his daughter, show that he did a thriving business. He was of an inventive turn of mind, patenting a turreted warship that is said to have given Ericsson his first conception of the Monitor. He also invented other useful articles. He married Margaret Moore, who bore him thirteen children, two of whom became Methodist ministers.
The founder of the Borough of Connellsville was Zach- ariah Connell, who was born in the State of Virginia in 1741. It is said that he first came to this part of the country in the fall of 1770, in company with George Washington and Doctor James Craik, but no reference is made to him in Washington's private journal. It is certain, however, that he was living here in 1772, and it is also quite probable that his former acquaintance with the Crawfords in Virginia directed his steps to this particular locality. For many years the opinion has prevailed that Mr. Connell came to western Pennsylvania a bachelor, and having boarded with the Crawfords for some time, fell in love with the Colonel's
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CONNELLSVILLE
barefoot daughter and married her. It is a romance of the imagination. The very prosaic fact is that he was the father of a family before he ever came to this part of the country. In the assessment lists of 1772, he is classed as a boarder or inmate, but this only means that he had not yet brought his own family from Virginia. It was no mere child's play to establish a home in the wilderness at that early day, and Mr. Connell took his time to it. First, he surveyed a tract of land on the east bank of the river con- taining 147 acres and allowance, a tract designated as "Mud Island" in the warrant of survey secured several years later. Then he built for himself a humble cabin home on the river bank near where the Trans-Allegheny Hotel now stands, in which he lived all the rest of his days, his stone house on West Fairview avenue not being completed until a few weeks after his death. After the building of the cabin came the task of clearing the farm, which involved the hard- est kind of work. The southern hills were covered with the finest of oak and poplar timber; the hill on the north side above the Baltimore and Ohio depot was heavily overgrown with laurel ; the level land in the vicinity of the Pennsylvania depot was a deep morass, several acres in extent, fed bv a number of vigorous springs, the largest of which flowed out of the ground near Brimstone Corner. This great swamp was covered by scrub timber, heavy undergrowth and matted vines. John Reist, a German Mennonite settler and a neighbor of the Connells, once lost himself in it while in search of a cow, and only extricated himself after con- siderable effort. In due time Mr. Connell established his family in their new home. With them came two younger brothers, Thomas and James, and a sister, who married Reazon Reagan. One of these brothers, known in the fam- ily history as James Connell, Sr., married Miss Anne Craw- ford, and it is this marriage that has been so often confused with that of Zachariah Connell. James Connell, Sr., had four children-William, James, Jr., Nancy and Polly. Zachariah Connell had six children by his first mariage-
(2 02/4 A. & All )
RUN
147 Acres. called
ZACHARIAH CONNELL
Connellsville MudIsland
Borough
WILLIAM CRAWFORD Surveyed Sept 10.1793 by order of Survey No. 374 dated April 3 1769. (300 Acres & Allowance)
CREEK
RIVER
MOUNTS
WILLIAM MCCORMICK Warranted July 24. 1794. Surveyed Mar. 251796. (85A.& All.)
ISLAND
YOUGHIOGHENY
CONNELL ZACHARIAN CONNELL
Surveyed Nov. 3.1785. warranted May 5.17\85
MAP OF MUD ISLAND AND VICINITY.
SMUDISLAND
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CONNELLSVILLE
Hiram, John Rice, Rebeca (Mrs. Greenberry R. Jones), Hettie (Mrs. Samuel Black), Nancy (Mrs. Joseph Hol- lingsworth), and Mariah (Mrs. William Page) ; and two children by his second marriage-Margaret Rice ( Mrs. John Wesley Phillips), and Eliza (Mrs. D. Howell Phillips). The first wife of Zachariah Connell was Miss Rebecca Rice, who was born in Virginia in 1741, and died in Connellsville in October, 1805; the second wife, whom he married May 10, 1807, was Miss Margaret Wallace, who died in Con- nellsville June 20, 1845, in her seventy-sixth year. The Wallace family were also Virginians and well acquainted with George Washington. Margaret was ever fond of tell- ing how the great man complimented her when, as a young girl, she served him with a drink of cool water drawn from the Wallace spring in a gourd. For many years "Aunt Jennie" Wallace, a sister of Margaret, was the toll-keeper on the old Yough bridge.
Zachariah Connell, like his friend William Crawford, was a surveyor and a man of wide influence among the early settlers. Under his superintendence, many of the original surveys for the surounding country were made. In the list of surveys made by Alexander McLean, a copy of which. is given on another page, the Connell family is credited with 256912 acres. Three farms embracing 96414 acres are credited to Zachariah Connell, and two farms embracing 819 acres are credited to his two sons. These lands do not include several other valuable tracts that were purchased by Mr. Connell at a later date. A portion of the Connell land bordering on the river was claimed by David Lindsay, a blacksmith who settled in this vicinity at an early day, but the claim was amicably adjusted in 1787, when Mr. Connell, by the payment of £150, secured undisputed pos- session.
Zachariah Connell was interested not only in the care of his own land, but also in looking after the estates of others. He served as the local agent of Governor Dinwiddie of Virginia, Howard of Maryland, and the Chew family of
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CONNELLSVILLE
Germantown, Pa. The holdings of Benjamin Chew in Bed- ford and Fayette counties at one time amounted to more than one hundred thousand acres, and the care of all this vast estate was entrusted to Mr. Connell. He was a man of considerable intellectual ability, gifted with splendid busi- ness judgment, and enjoyed the confidence and esteem of all his fellow citizens. Even the eccentricities of his char- acter, of which earlier writers speak, when closely exam- ined are found to rest upon basic virtues which draw from us increasing admiration. He was called eccentric because he was never registered as a voter of the Borough. His refusal to vote, however, was due not to any lack of interest in public affairs, but to his desire that the citizens of the town might feel free to govern themselves without any interference on his part. He was called eccentric because of his belief in total abstinence. He lived in a day when whiskey sold for twenty-five cents a gallon, when it was freely imbibed by all classes of people, and when even the storekeepers found it necessary to keep a good supply on hand in order to build up their trade. Mr. Connell refused to touch, taste or handle it, and was denounced as a crank. On one occasion the subject of temperance was brought up in the local Methodist church, of which he was a devout member. Several members took the ground that whiskey was a good thing in its place, and Mr. Connell admitted the proposition, but affirmed that its only proper place was "in the rye." It was the custom of those days to furnish free whiskey to the harvest hands. Mr. Connell would never agree to this, and cheerfully paid his men fifty cents a day more than the usual wages in order to secure their services. He was also called eccentric because he lived all his life in a humble home. This, however, cannot be charged to miser- liness, for his public benefactions are without a parallel in local history. The site of the old Market House, the spa- cious grounds of the City Hall, the High School and the Carnegie Library are all the gifts of his generous hand.
It is to the generosity of Zachariah Connell that we are
THE STONE HOUSE OF ZACHARIAH CONNELL.
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CONNELLSVILLE
indebted for the very founding of our city. When emi- grants, coming over the mountains by way of Turkey Foot, arrived at the Connell farm, its owner very generously gave them the privilege of building their rafts here, on which to float their goods down the river, and the ever-increasing number of these emigrants, who availed themselves of this. privilege, opened the eyes of Mr. Connell to the fact that his. farm was the natural site for a future city. Accordingly a town of 180 quarter-acre lots was surveyed, and a charter secured for the same bearing date of March 21, 1793. This. charter, recorded in Deed Book C of the Fayette county records, is as follows :
CHARTER OF THE BOROUGH OF CONNELLSVILLE.
Zachariah Connell, proprietor of the tract of land situate on the East side of Youghiogheni River, where the State Road from the - north fork of Turkey Foot intersects said river. To all to whom these presents shall come sendeth Greeting, Whereas it is necessary that some provision be made at the place aforesaid for the reception and entertainment of Travelers, and as well to accommodate such Tradesmen and others inclining to settle at or near said place, for their encouragement and better regulation, Has laid out a small Town at the aforesaid place by the name of Connellsville, agreeably to the plan hereunto annexed. And the said Zachariah Connell, for himself, his heirs, and assigns, doth grant that the streets and alleys of the said town shall forever continue as they are now laid out and regulated by the plans aforesaid, viz .: Spring Street or State Road, sixty feet wide, and all the other streets forty feet wide, and Alleys twenty feet wide, and that the space left opposite the ferry and fronting on said River, as represented, in the plan and distinguished by public ground, and Water Street, shall be and con- tinue free for the use of the Inhabitants of said Town, and for Travelers who may erect thereon temporary boat-yards, or may from time to time occupy the same or any part thereof for making any vessels or other Conveniences for the purpose of conveying their property to or from said Town. And the said Zachariah Con- nell doth further promise and Covenant with the Inhabitants of said Town and others who choose to frequent the same, that all land- ings, harbours or other conveniences and advantages of said River opposite said town or adjoining Water Street aforesaid shall be free to them at all times for the purpose of landing Timber, Stone, or other materials for building, or for the use of lading Vessels for
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. YOUGHIOGHENY RIVER
MUD ISLAND
THE ORIGINAL, PLAN OF THE BOROUGH.
STREET
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CONNELLSVILLE
removal of their persons or property to any place whatever. But the said Zachariah Connell reserves to himself, his heirs, and assigns all that piece of Land situate between Water Street and the River, and extending from Rogers Mills down to Spring Street or State Road, Provided always that none of said town or others shall at any time erect a ferry-boat for public use, or Keep and maintain a Canoe or other Vessel for the purpose of conveying any person or persons, thing or things, across said River other than their own families or their own property. And providing also as the privilege is joint, that no person or persons, Company or Companies, shall at any time or times hereafter occupy more of the margin of said River for the purpose aforesaid than is absolutely necessary, accord- ing to the various changes and circumstances of the case, to the end that all foreigners as well as Citizens may be equally or pro- portionately advantaged thereby as their necessity require.
And, whereas, there is near said Town, on the verge of said river an excellent Stone Coal Bank from which coal may be conveniently conveyed by water along all the front of said Town, and also a Stone Quarry, where stone may be got for building, and the said Zachariah Connell being desirous of giving all the encouragement and advan- tages that the nature of the case will admit of, consistent with his own interest and safety, doth hereby grant unto the inhabitants of said Town, their heirs, and assigns forever, the free and full privilege of digging and removing, from said Stone Coal Bank and Stone Quarry to their habitation or place of abode within said town only any quantity of Coal and Stone necessary for their own particular use. And the said Zachariah Connell doth hereby grant to be sur- veyed and laid out for the use of the Inhabitants of said town the timber and stone on one hundred acres of land adjacent thereto for building, &c. And whereas there are sundry springs within the lim- its aforesaid, and the said Zachariah Connell being desirous that as many of the Inhabitants of said Town as possible may receive mutual advantages therefrom, doth give and grant unto the inhabit- ants of said town, and others traveling through said town, the com- mon use and benefit of said springs, to be by them conveyed or conducted through all and every part of said town at their pleasure for their mutual convenience and advantage, reserving, nevertheless, to the owner of Lots out of which the fountain issues the full privi- lege of erecting any house or other convenience at the head of said spring, so as not to prevent the other inhabitants from free access thereto at all times. And provided the said house or other conveni- ence will and shall not have a tendency to disturb or affect the water flowing from said spring so as to render it disagreeable to the other inhabitants. And provided also that by said building or other con- venience the Inhabitants shall not be prevented from having access to the fountain for sinking Pipes or conduits for the conveying of the water aforesaid and screening or securing the same from filth or other injury, and Whereas it is the desire of the said Zachariah
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