USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > Connellsville > Centennial history of the borough of Connellsville, Pennsylvania, 1806-1906 > Part 32
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SEC. 8. The maximum amount to be expended for a company of infantry shall be twenty thousand dollars; for a battery of artillery or a troop of cavalry, thirty thousand dollars; which shall include the purchase of the necessary ground, where such ground is not donated, and which shall be exclusive of any gift or donation made to or for the bene- fit of any particular armory.
SEC. 9. That when the aforesaid Armory Board shall receive from the Governor information of the disbandment of the organization of the National Guard of Pennsylvania, occupying and using an armory provided by the Common- wealth under the direction of the Armory Board, it shall be the duty of said Armory Board to take charge of such
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armory; and they are hereby authorized and directed to make sale of such armory, at public or private sale, after due publication, for the highest price to be obtained for the same, and return the proceeds thereof into the State Treasury.
SEC. 10. The Board shall make a report, annually, of the proceedings incident to the location and management of such armories, respectively ; also a detailed account of disbursements, which shall be filed in the office of the Audi- tor General, and a copy furnished the Adjutant General's Department.
SEC. 11. That, for the purpose of carrying into effect the provisions of the aforesaid act, the sum of two hundred and fifty thousand ($250,000) dollars is hereby specifically appropriated, out of any monies in the Treasury not other- wise appropriated, which shall be paid by the State Treas- urer upon the warrant of the Auditor General, upon prop- erly authorized voucher of the aforesaid Board.
Approved-the 11th day of May, A. D., 1905.
SAMUEL W. PENNYPACKER.
By the authority of this act the members of the Armory Board were appointed on September 20, 1905. The present board consists of the following persons, viz. :
Hon. Edwin S. Stuart, Governor of Pennsylvania.
Brig. Gen. Thomas J. Stewart, Adjutant General Penn- sylvania.
Col. Albert J. Logan, Commissary General N. G. P.
Brig. Gen. C. B. Daugherty, Third Brigade N. G. P.
Col. William G. Price, Jr., Third Regiment Infantry N. G. P.
Col. Louis A. Watres.
Col. Willis J. Hulings, Sixteenth Regiment Infantry N. G. P.
This board organized by electing the Governor of the State, President; General Stewart, Vice President, and Benjamin W. Demming, Secretary.
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The board decided that they would divide the appro- priation of $250,000 among the three brigades-or an allot- ment of $80,000 to each brigade-leaving a balance of $10,000 for general expenses.
The first armory located was at Pittston, Pa., for the use of Companies C and H, 9th Regiment Infantry, and this allotment was $40,000.
The armory at Mount Pleasant, for the use of Com- pany E, 10th Regiment Infantry, was completed and dedi- cated on November 10th, 1906. It is beautifully located in Frick Park, and the site was donated by the Borough of Mt. Pleasant.
The committee representing the Second Brigade, con- sisting of Colonels A. J. Logan, of Pittsburg, and W. J. Hulings, of Oil City, reported on January 10th, 1906, in favor of the erection of an armory at Connellsville, Pa., for the use of Company D, 10th Regiment Infantry. Plans and specifications were subsequently adopted, drawn by W. G. Wilkins Co., Pittsburgh, Pa., and were advertised, and bids received, and opened July 12th, 1906, but no award was made, owing to the fact that all the bids exceeded the amount of funds available.
The committee secured revised plans and specifications from the same firm of architects, which were presented at the meeting of the Board held April 30, 1907, and approved.
An option on a definite site for the Connellsville armory has been obtained and approved, on the corner of Etna street and Washington avenue.
The revised plans and specifications are superior in every respect to those first presented.
The citizens of Connellsville, led by Col. J. M. Reid, Captain J. H. Simpson, and Rockwell Marietta, succeeded in raising the neat sum of $10,000 to be added to the State appropriation, making a total of $30,000 for the Armory.
CHAPTER XIII.
MANUFACTURES.
From its birth as a frontier settlement, Connellsville might properly be classed as a manufacturing town. It was here that emigrants and travelers to the West, coming over the mountains from Bedford via Turkeyfoot, reached the first boatable point on the Youghiogheny river. Travel was made easier and expedited somewhat by taking boat at Connellsville and thus by water reaching the prairies of the middle west and the rich settlements of Kentucky.
Boats had to be built for the purpose and it was not long until one of the far-seeing settlers established himself in the boat building business and had them ready for the prospective users. The earlier pioneers arriving with their families camped on the river bank and built their own boats -which suggested the setting aside of the ground now occu- pied by the City Hall-for years called "the bottom" or public square-by Zachariah Connell, for the convenience of travelers and their families and for the purpose of land- ing timber, stone and other building materials and for lading vessels, etc., etc.
Fayette county at the time of the founding of Con- nellsville had more good timber than there is now, prob- ably, in the whole state. Wm. McCormick had a sawmill here prior to 1794-and there are reasons to believe as early as 1789-much of the lumber was furnished by him to the community.
BOAT BUILDING.
Boat building might be said to have been the first nota- ble industry of the town, commenced, as already stated. by the westward bound emigrants and traders and soon
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prosecuted as a regular business by enterprising residents whom we are informed found it very profitable. The cus- tom was to build flat bottom boats 120 to 150 feet long, 18 to 22 feet wide and 6 to 10 feet deep. They were built bottom up-the frames pinned together with wooden pins, bottoms put on and caulked and then turned by the use of long levers and three or four sampsons (heavy pieces about twenty feet long with holes bored in them four inches apart alternating from side to side). A man placed at each sampson would stick pins in the holes to sustain the weight of the boat as it was raised by the levers. When near the perpendicular several men with pike-poles properly dis- tributed along the boat's length would, at a given signal. give it the necessary impetus and over it would go.
The "gunnels" were prepared by squaring the fallen tree with the broad-axe, then hauled to the river bank and placed near one end over a pit eight or nine feet deep. With a whip-saw-one man standing above on the hewed tree and another beneath in the pit-the stick was sawed through its entire length in halves, moving the timber forward over the pit as the work progressed.
The final caulking was then done, two long skids or logs extended to the water's edge and on these the boat was launched into the river and sided up. The boat, moved with two sweeps or oars, one forward and one aft, was ready for its cargo of lumber, produce or pig-iron.
The usual proceeding was to float down the river until a purchaser was found for both boat and cargo, the "crew" returning overland, unless destined for the West. Some- times a keel boat was pushed by means of pike-poles from Pittsburgh up the river, laden with merchandise, but the condition of the water had to be peculiarly favorable for such trips.
The business was continued for fifty years or more quite successfully and received a new impetus with the first establishment of the coke industry many years later, until the railroad made its rates such that it no longer
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paid to lose the time (by reason of waiting for a proper stage) or take the risk-for not all the cargoes were safely piloted through.
The men most generally engaged in the business were Col. Wm. L. Miller, Joseph Miller, his brother, John Win- ing (married to Miller's step-sister), Uriah Springer, Jr., and his brother Crawford, Christopher Taylor, the Richeys, Whites and some others.
Col. Miller's boat-yard was on Water street below the Youghiogheny bridge. He also had one on the New Haven side about where the Southwest Pennsylvania Rail- road bridge is now.
IRON INDUSTRY.
One need begets another-the necessities of the trav- elers were soon catered to by a "store" followed by shoe- makers, weavers, tailors, etc.,-these to be properly housed called for a number of carpenters, masons and other me- chanics. For while the pioneer at the outset did all of these things for himself, as soon as he became engaged in some fixed avocation he was too busy to do it properly and thus began a division of labor furnishing permanent employ- ment for many others. Men being here it was not long until the enterprising found other uses for them-the iron ore of our hills and the limestone and forests adjacent sug- gested the iron furnace and soon the mountains roundabout had a number of such industries.
The "smudge" by day and a red glow by night located numberless charcoal kilns the predecessors of the coke ovens of today-the value of coking coal was not appre- ciated in America at this time, and the proximity of the forests made charcoal the natural fuel for smelting the iron ore with which the mountains abounded.
IRON FURNACES.
All of the iron furnaces within a radius of ten miles might properly be said to have been Connellsville indus-
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tries-for it was to Connellsville their output was brought for shipment down the river and here supplies were pur- chased and men secured. In fact it was the metropolis of the industry in Fayette county. Of all of the furnaces, the only one in Connellsville proper, as it stands today, was Etna Furnace, sometimes called Mount Etna Furnace, built in 1815, by John Gibson, who came here from Ches- ter county, about 1795. `It stood in the hollow crossed by South Pittsburgh street just beyond Patterson avenue, and at the southern end of Etna street as now opened. The daily output was about 15 tons.
The ore was obtained from the mountain-sides nearby -some being brought from different points and mixed to get the proper quality of pig iron. The furnace was sur- rounded by many little log and frame cabins for housing the workmen. The community consisted of several hun- dred.
At first the workmen were not charged any rent. In a house centrally located resided one known as the "Doc- tor's Man," whose business it was to go for the doctor if any one was sick. Each family kept a tin horn and if any one got sick at night a blast thereon brought the "Doc- tor's Man," who, when he came made a note of every symp- tom in order to give the doctor an idea of what medicines to take with him.
The furnace was operated for thirty years or more, and practically the same workmen were employed with few changes, for most of the time, until it became necessary to charge a small rental for houses, with five days' notice to vacate, which brought a change in the personnel of the workers.
FAYETTE FURNACE.
In the mountains east of Connellsville was another fur- nace built in 1827 by Dr. Joseph Rogers, et al., and oper- ated under the firm name of Joseph & George P. Rogers & Co., until 1831, when the interests of Messrs. Freeman,
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MANUFACTURES
Miller and Linton were purchased by Dr. Joseph Rogers, the firm changed to Joseph and George P. Rogers. Under this title it was continued three years when Joseph Rogers acquired full ownership and carried on the business until 1838.
A description of this plant, which can be given accur- ately from papers and drawings still in existence and in possession of the Rogers family, might serve to give an idea as to all the others for they were conducted in much the same manner.
The furnace stack was thirty-five feet square at the base and fifty feet high with two openings, one for drawing off the molten metal and the other for the blast. The blow- ing of the furnace was done by means of two large tubes twelve feet in diameter and eight feet high with tops fit like a sausage stuffer, one going down as the other came up, driven by a thirty-foot overshot water wheel. The water was brought from three dams nearby. mostly in troughs dug from large logs. The furnace was charged or fed by means of a bridge from a high bank just back of the furnace, to the top of the stack.
The ore was mined and the charcoal burned in the im- mediate vicnity of the furnace, and required quite a number of miners, colliers, teamsters, etc., etc. The workmen were housed in 35 or 40 cabins built of round logs and, with but one or two exceptions, of one room each. A good por- tion of one end of this room was taken up by a large stone chimney with a huge fire place. The fire place was fitted with a log-pole and chain from which hung the famous "dinner pot."
The company operated in connection with the furnace a store and warehouse.
The pig-metal was hauled by six horse "bell-teams" over the ridge to Connellsville and unloaded on the banks of the river for shipment by flat-boats to Pittsburgh and other points.
In connection with Etna Furnace, John Gibson owned
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CENTENNIAL HISTORY OF CONNELLSVILLE
and operated on the river bank, a grist-mill, saw-mill, roll- ing and slitting-mill and nail shop, having also a tilt hammer.
Just below Connellsville, in fact, at its northern ex- tremity on the river, was located the "Stone Mill," built in 1805 by John Gibson and operated for some years as a rolling mill. It was run by water power from Mount's creek.
At the lower end of Davidson's Island the same John Gibson built and operated the "Yough Forge" early in 1800. After his death it was operated until 1825 by his sons, Thomas, Joseph. Joshua & James Gibson.
Breakneck or Finley Furnace, the remains of which stand in the reservoir of the Connellsville Water Company at Breakneck, was built in 1818 by James Rogers, James Paul and a man named Miller. It was run for 20 years and abandoned in 1838. It had a daily output of about 12 tons.
Union Furnace was built by Col. Isaac Meason, and put in blast March, 1791. Union Furnace was succeeded in 1793 by another and larger furnace of the same name, built near the same site by Colonel Meason and Moses Dillon. It was situated on Dunbar creek, about one mile from the present town of Dunbar. The daily output was from 3 to 6 tons, and when last named tonnage was made, the employees received extra pay. This furnace was suc- cessfully operated for a number of years.
The Youghiogheny Iron & Coal Company was incor- porated September 23, 1864, and succeeded the Union Fur- nace. The furnace was a stone stack and the native ores were used exclusively. The employees numbered about 150 men, which included ore miners, furnace men and all others connected with the company. The daily output was about 15 tons.
The Dunbar Iron Company succeeded the Yough- iogheny Iron & Coal Company in 1870. They employed about 200 men, in and around the furnace and ore mines. The daily output averaged 50 tons.
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MANUFACTURES
The Dunbar Furnace Company succeeded the Dunbar Iron Company, and was incorporated June 21st, 1876, with a capital of $300,000.00 which has since been increased to $1,000,000.00. It is an up-to-date plant, having all the modern improvements for making pig iron. Its two fur- nace stacks are each 80 feet high and 18 feet bosh. It has a battery of eight high-pressure boilers, consisting of two 400 H. P. and six 300 H. P. It has five blast engines, consisting of two Southwark Verticals, one Mackintosh, one Scranton and one Weimer. The charging system used is what is known as the skip hoist, in connection with subway, all operated by electricity.
The coke used is made in ovens of Semet-Solvay Com- pany, which is the by-product system, and the coke is found to work as well as that made in the bee hive ovens.
The company makes foundry, mill and chill basic iron, the last named being cast in a pig iron machine, and chilled with water. This iron is used in the steel mills of Pittsburgh and vicinity, and is in great demand. The employees number over 700 which includes furnace men, miners, railroaders and all others connected with the com- pany. The daily output has increased from 61 tons in 1876 to 300 tons per day in 1906.
The company is owned by Eastern capitalists, and its general managers and sales agents are Messrs. L. & R. Wister & Co., Philadelphia, Pa. The officers of the company are: W. C. Harris, President, Philadelphia, Pa .; Wm. M. Ketzmiller, Secretary, Philadelphia, Pa .; Reginald Palmer, Treasurer, Dunbar, Pa .; H. Cook, Auditor, Connellsville, Pa.
NAIL MAKERS.
Norton & Stewart (L. L. Norton, his brother Philo Norton and John B. Stewart) manufactured the Douglass spike machine at the factory formerly operated as a carding machine factory. This was the first spike machine made in Pennsylvania.
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When Philo Norton died, L. L. Norton sold out to Stewart, who shortly thereafter died and his widow sold the property, to settle the estate.
James and Campbell Johnston came to Connellsville ¿bout 1818 and started two nail-shops, one at Meadow lane and Spring street (about where the Frisbee Hardware Com- pany warehouse stands today) and the other on the pri- vate alley between the Wallace Furniture Company's and Goldsmith Brothers' stores.
They continued in business until 1825. The process was somewhat tedious and very simple as compared with present day methods. The iron was cut the proper lengths -one end heated to a cherry red, stuck in a vice, hot end up, and struck a sharp blow with a hammer-making the head. The vice was then loosened and the nail was made. Wm. Waugh was the master workman and several boys were employed to loosen and tighten the vice, count and put the nails in kegs or boxes.
About 1825 or a little earlier, Herman Gebhart and Asa Smith had a nail factory where the B. & O. R. R. depot now stands. They were succeeded in the business by Harvey and Silas White, who discontinued it at that stand about 1830.
The blast for the furnace at this point was operated by a "tramp wheel," the "power" being a blind horse.
The Whites later moved to the "Gibson Mill" where they carried on this and other lines for some time.
On the New Haven side of the river, one of the early enterprises was a rolling mill. It was located on the river bank near where the present grist-mill stands. The leading spirit in this was Thomas Gregg, a man of many enter- prises and an inventive genius of note. Gregg was an inventor and not a business man. The industry was not therefore successful from a financial standpoint, but it still stood in 1816 as a monument to his endeavor, and was the means of giving the hot-blast stove, in common use by iron furnaces, to that trade.
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MANUFACTURES
Another industry which thrived about this time was a tack factory-which was run by the White family in a small frame building on Front street, a little south of the rolling mill.
The present dam on the New Haven side was built in 1823 by Col. Wm. L. Miller, who operated a grist mill, also a saw-mill and a small establishment for carding and preparing wool for the country looms. All of which were burned together with Foster's woolen factory about 1835.
Colonel Miller also built a paper mill just below Thomas Foster's woolen mill. He employed twenty-five hands and made writing paper by the exceedingly tedious process of moulding one sheet at a time. This mill was built about 1829, and the foundations and a part of the walls were still standing in 1883.
The present grist mill operated by Kell Long was built in 1848. It has been remodeled several times since, how- ever.
On Second street there was until recently an old mill, formerly operated by steam, built in 1838, but operated only ten years. It was known for many years as the home of a quaint character by the name of Thomas Forsythe, who utilized the mill for the purpose of drying ginseng in which he was a large dealer. He also taught bookkeeping and many of the present generation owe their knowledge of the art to "Tommy" Forsythe. Many stories are told of the odd contrivances invented by him for the purpose of pre- paring ginseng for the market. The establishment could hardly be called a factory as he employed only two or three besides himself even at the busiest periods, but so many inventions came from there, all manner and kinds and for the most varied purposes, that it can hardly be passed without mention, at least.
The most memorable of these was a fire escape, a model of which was always at hand near his bed in the third story of the mill. In giving a practical demonstration of its use he almost hung himself on one occasion-the audience wavering between amusement and alarm.
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Thomas Foster erected his factory about 1823-1824, a little below Miller's mill, and manufactured cassinettes, jeans and cloths, employing thirty people most of the time. William Yates was a weaver there. After the fire, Foster replaced his burned woolen factory with a much larger one, equipped it with machinery, and started what was then considered a business enterprise of the first import- ance. He employed about one hundred work people and manufactured blankets, woolen cloths, etc., For a time he did a large and apparently successful business-but this success was only temporary, for in the end financial dis- tress forced him to retire. A Mr. Blucher succeeded him and also failed, as did likewise a Mr. Hill who continued the business after Mr. Blucher's failure. The property came into the hands of Orth Brothers, who, during the war, engaged in the manufacture of army cloths, and the busi- ness was pushed night and day with a force of one hun- dred and fifty hands. The factory was enlarged, and the west side of the river was full of life and enterprise.
Like those who had preceded them, however, they were doomed to disaster. The close of the war found them with an enormous stock of manufactured goods on hand, and in the depression that followed, with shrinkage in prices natural to such times, they went down.
The property lay idle until April, 1871, when J. Y. Smith and Company converted it into a manufactory for light locomotives, called the
NATIONAL LOCOMOTIVE WORKS.
For a time this business prospered and gave employ- ment to upwards of one hundred men. The establishment was sold to Bailey & Dawson and by them to William H. Bailey. The enterprise appeared to thrive-employment was given to two hundred men and the shop was kept running night and day. Confidence was almost unlimited. prosperity was evidenced on every hand and the activity in general business ran high. Suddenly it developed that
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the enterprise bordered on failure-when the crash came it developed that the loss entailed was about $100,000.00.
New Haven especially had leaned upon this industry and in consequence was well nigh paralyzed, for a time, by the failure. Thousands of dollars were owed to store keepers, employees, mechanics and others-the calamity was wide-spread and the community was long in recovering from its dire effects.
The buildings were razed some years ago, the old office only remaining, at the left as you approach the bridge, and occupied as a fruit and candy store. The works occu- pied a strip of ground fifty by two hundred and forty feet- fronting on Ferry or Main street and extending down the river to Trader's alley.
In the tower of the old building was a bell which served as a curfew for the children of the ?0's. It was not so called, but at nine o'clock every night the factory bell rang, the stores closed, lights went out, and most of the younger generation made for home, as it was a com- mon admonition on the part of parents, "You must not stay later than the ringing of the factory bell."
FOUNDRIES.
Gebhart, Norton and Kurtz bought the old Methodist Episcopal Church, which stood where the Roman Catholic Parochial School is now located, in 1836, and erected a "cupola" as it was then called, or foundry. They first intended to build on Witter avenue on the lot now occu- pied by the residence of Captain J. M. DuShane; this ground and forty acres adjoining, now known as John- ston's Addition to Connellsville, was covered with timber which was cleared at the point intended for the foundry and a well sunk. The church property being offered for sale, their plans were changed and it was purchased in- stead. They manufactured plows and all kinds of small castings and peddled them over the country in exchange for produce. Money was scarce and the products of ex-
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change were used in paying the labor. Shortly after the operation of the plant was begun, Norton sold out to Sam- uel Freeman, and the firm name was changed to Gebhart, Freeman and Kurtz.
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