Century history of New Castle and Lawrence County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens, 20th, Part 35

Author: Hazen, Aaron L. (Aaron Lyle), 1837- comp. and ed. cn
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold publishing co.
Number of Pages: 1058

USA > Pennsylvania > Lawrence County > New Castle > Century history of New Castle and Lawrence County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens, 20th > Part 35

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pastoral work in this part of what was then Mercer County, it was evident that the growth of population and change of its business centers had left the Associ- ate Reformed Church without organiza- tions at several desirable points. Of these, New Castle, a growing town, was the most important. An organization was effected here by order of the Presbytery (Lakes), December 25, 1849. The same winter one was similarly formed in New Wilmington. By these organizations the session of She- nango was reduced to two elders, and its membership diminished from over 100 to forty-nine. From one-half of their pas- tor's time they were able to retain him only for one-fourth. They were still fur- ther weakened, about 1874-75, later by the organization of the Harbor congregation, four miles distant, on the other side of the Shenango pool or slackwater, though in general their number during the years be- fore 1859 ranged at about fifty communi- cants.

The union of the Associate and Associ- ate Reformed Presbyterian Churches agreed upon in 1858, occurred during Mr. Browne's pastorate. It brought Shenan- go into closer relations with a number of Associate congregations in this region, though it added but little strength to the membership.

The sixth pastor was Rev. William Find- ley, D. D., born in Mercer, and reared under the ministry of Rev. James Gallo- way and Rev. James L. Dinwiddie. He was a graduate of Jefferson College and of the Associate Reformed Seminary, Al- legheny; was licensed by the Lakes Pres- bytery May 16, 1832, and, after visiting the churches in South Carolina and else- where, was ordained by the same Presby- tery, and installed pastor over White Oak Spring and Prospect congregations in But- ler County, at White Oak Spring Church, May 25, 1837. In 1857 he became Profes- sor of Latin Literature in Westminster College, and resigned his charge and re- moved to New Wilmington. In 1867 he

was transferred to the office of general agent of the college. This office he re- signed in 1871, and after supplying the churches by Presbyterial appointment for some years settled, in 1876, at Chesley, Ontario, where a new and active congrega- tion in the United Presbyterian Presbytery in Samford erected for him a church and parsonage. He was in vigorous use of his powers, clear and forcible as a thinker and reasoner, and strong as an expounder of the Scriptures.

During his term as professor in West- minster College, he held for over six years, conjointly, the pastorate of Shenango con- gregation, namely, from July, 1859, till April, 1866.

He was followed in the pastorate by Rev. R. T. McCrea, a student of West- minster College, from Blacklick Station, Indiana County, Pa., who graduated from the college in 1863, and from the United Presbyterian Seminary, Allegheny, in 1866. He was ordained by the United Pres- byterian Presbytery of Mercer, at She- nango Church, and installed pastor of She- nango and Lebanon congregation Novem- ber 9, 1869. He resided near his Lebanon Church, Worth, Mercer County. August 26, 1873, he resigned his Shenango congre- gation, and afterwards Lebanon also, and was subsequently laboring in the ministry in Iowa. He was a young man in the vigor of his powers. During his pastorate of four years, the roll of Shenango was increased to seventy members.

In July, 1875, the congregation secured and retained for some time in connection with the Harbor, the services of Rev. A. Y. Houston. Mr. Houston was a man of experience, prudence and fidelity. He was ordained and installed in his first pastor- ate, that of Peter's Creek, Allegheny County, February 17, 1858. After that he was pastor successively of the United con- gregations of Palestine and Clarkson, Ohio, and of Rygate, Vt. He was succeeded at Shenango by Rev. J. J. Imbrie in 1880, Rev. R. A. Brown in 1885, Rev. R. W. Mc-

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Granahan in 1892, Rev. J. W. Brinley in 1900, Rev. W. V. Grove in 1904, and Rev. L. S. Clark in 1907.

The history of the first church edifice has already been given. The second was built in 1826, in the midst of Mr. Dinwid- die's ministry. The contract, as illustra- tive of the hardships of the times and the scarcity of money, provided that the build- er for enclosing and flooring the house, 42 by 53 feet square, was to receive in pay- ment "good and sufficient subscription lists" to the amount of $518, and that, in- stead of cash, wheat at 66 2-3 cents per bushel, and other products of the country at proportionate rates, should be a legal tender. This building, thus contracted and paid for, had its pulpit located in front, between the doors, a style of church archi- tecture preferred by Mr. Dinwiddie, but not always by his hearers, who, if they en- tered late, were thus forced to face all who were in their seats before them. This was afterward changed, however, and the seats were faced about. The contract for build- ing did not include the pews, and there- fore, at the opening for service, families provided their own seats according to their preferences as to style and material, and without regard to uniformity, which made the interior present an odd appearance until one became accustomed to it. In one case the head of a household, who had located his seat well up toward the pulpit, and furnished it with legs too long for con- venient range of vision to those who sat behind him, afforded some amusement to his fellow-worshipers by his change of countenance when he entered the meeting- house one Sabbath morning and found his seat had been lowered to a level with its neighbors. To many, near and far, who have worshiped there in the quiet Sab- baths of more than half a century, pleas- ant and sacred memories cluster around the old church.

NORTH BEAVER TOWNSHIP.

This is the largest subdivision of Law-

rence County, and was one of its original townships. In area it is about 26,800 acres. The surface is varied, being in places much broken by hills and ravines, and in others approaching nearer to a level. The latter is the case in the southern and west- ern portions. For agricultural purposes the township is not excelled in Lawrence County. The finest varieties of fruit are also grown, and the crop is nearly always a certainty. Numerous streams abound, affording the necessary water facilities, and on some of them there is excellent power. The principal streams are the Ma- honing and Beaver Rivers and Hickory Creek.

The northeast corner of the township is crossed by the old Lawrence Railway, now the Ashtabula, Youngstown and Pittsburg division of the Pennsylvania Railway. The Beaver Valley division of the Erie and Pittsburg Railway crosses the Mahon- ing near its mouth, and follows the valley of the Beaver River the remaining dis- tance across the township. The only sta- tion on this road in North Beaver is Mo- ravia, where a small village has sprung up since the road was built. The most im- portant village in the township is Mount Jackson, and, aside from these two, the inhabitants are almost exclusively en- gaged in agricultural pursuits.

EARLY SETTLERS.

Asa Adams came from Washington County, Pennsylvania, some time previous to the War of 1812, and settled a mile from the State line, in the western part of the township.

Major Edward Wright came from Alle- gheny County, Pennsylvania, in the spring of 1797, and settled on the farm now or was lately owned by his grandson, William Williams. He was originally from New Jersey, and while living there, before he was married, he had bought the 200-acre tract on which he afterward settled, for a horse, bridle and saddle, and was soundly berated by his mother for so doing. The

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investment, however, proved to be a good one, and the farm is now among the best in western Pennsylvania. Major Wright built the fourth house that was erected within the limits of North Beaver Town- ship. It was 16 by 18 feet in dimensions, was built of round logs, and was located near a spring just west of Mr. Williams' residence. It had a common bed-spread or quilt hung up for a door, and a hole left in one corner of the roof through which the smoke could pass. He died on this farm May 7, 1849, at the age of eighty years.

Major Wright brought to the township the first apple trees that were set out with- in it. He hauled forty-five of them from Washington County in 1799, on a "slide car," made of poles. He set out forty of the trees on his own place, gave two of them to a neighbor (Jonathan Leslie, aft- erwards a Presbyterian minister), two miles west, and three to Bryce McGeehan, living near what is now Newburg, in Little Beaver Township. Mr. Wright's only child, Sarah, was married to John Will- iams, in September, 1805, a few months before she was fifteen years old. Mr. Will- iams came from near the Warm Springs, in Virginia, and settled on a farm which his father, Thomas Williams had bought for him some time before, and which lay a mile west of the Wright place. After his marriage he lived for some time with his father-in-law, Major Wright. He moved to his own farm in the spring of 1812. His brother, Thomas, settled, in 1802, on a farm northeast of Wright's and lying partly in Mahoning Township. Thomas Williams, Sr., never settled in the county. The farms all along the old county line, now the boundary between North Beaver and Mahoning Townships, lie partly on each side of the line.

Thomas Cloud settled on the farm later owned by Matthew Davidson, and built one of the first four houses in the town- ship.

Walter Clarke came to the farm after- wards owned by Joseph and Sarah McCol-

lum, on the 20th day of October, 1802. He came from near what is now Lewisburg, Snyder County, Pennsylvania, with two unmarried daughters, and others of his children and grandchildren, and his son- in-law. He bought 450 acres of land, and divided it among them. His son, John, was married, and had two children; and one daughter was also married and had two children. Her husband's name was Benjamin Wells. There were also two or- phan grandchildren, and thus the party was quite large. John Clarke's son, Sam- uel D. Clarke, lived on a part of the old farm, west of Mount Jackson. The por- tion later owned by the McCollum estate became the property of Walter Clarke's granddaughter, Eunice Shearer, who was married to William Adair. Ephraim Phil- lips owned it next, and Mr. McCollum's wife was one of Mr. Phillips' daughters, and the place became her share of the property. It is familiarly known as the "Old Phillips farm."

In 1803 John Clarke left his father's house and settled for himself on the por. tion of the 450 acres now or recently owned by his son, Samuel D. Clarke.

One of Walter Clarke's daughters mar- ried John Nesbit, who was the first set- tler on the land now occupied by the vil- lage of Mount Jackson, and who laid out the town.

William Woods settled just west of Mount Jackson in 1801. He came from Ireland with his brother in 1798, and first located in Westmoreland County. He was married in 1801, after he came to North Beaver, to Miss Elizabeth Davidson, who was living with her relatives where the borough of Wampum now stands. Mr. Woods' son, William, born in 1808, lived near Westfield Presbyterian Church, southwest of Mount Jackson. He held the rank of major in the "cornstalk" militia of the township. William Woods, Sr., built a carding mill on his place on Hickory Creek (at that time called Sugar Creek, owing to the great number of "sugar

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trees" which grew along it), in 1813; a fulling mill in 1817, and a distillery in 1821. The carding machine and fulling mill were run until about 1840.

James Kiddoo was an early settler east of Mount Jackson. He owned a distillery on Hickory Creek, and also had a small mill for grinding the grain he used.

William McCord came originally from Ireland, and, after the Revolution, settled in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. About 1805-6 he came to what is now North Bea- ver Township, and settled on a 250-acre tract of "donation land."

Francis Nesbit came, with his family, in 1802, and*settled on Hickory Creek, south of Mount Jackson. The family consisted of his wife, five sons, and two daughters. The sons were John, Francis, William, James and Allen; and the daughters, Eliz- abeth and Anna. They came from Cum- berland County, Pennsylvania, although the Nesbits were originally from Scotland.

William Espy, who married Elizabeth Nesbit, settled in 1801. His son, Thomas Espy, afterward went to North Carolina, and died there. A daughter of his after- ward married Governor Vance, of that State. Wiliam Espy had made arrange- ments to build a mill, and Mr. Nesbit, who had also been out in 1801, brought out the mill gearing with him in 1802, and he and Espy built the mill. They located on Do- nation tract, number 1786, supposed to contain 400 acres, but a survey showed that it contained over 500. Mr. Nesbit sold his interest in the mill to Espy, and took all but 100 acres of the land. Mr. Nesbit died in September, 1802, and was the first person ever buried in the cemetery at Westfield Presbyterian Church. A man named Charles Clarke was the second per- son buried in it. He was killed while help- ing John Hunter raise a "still-house" in 1805, near the church. Francis Nesbit di- vided his land up among his sons before he died. His wife died in 1823. Allen Nesbit, the youngest, born in 1796, was given the old homestead. He finally be-

came a physician of the botanic or Thomp- sonian school, and got his medical educa- tion principally from his sister's library. She married a Presbyterian preacher, who afterward died. Dr. Nesbit, in later life, lived with his grandchildren, on the old place. John Nesbit, the eldest son of Fran- cis, died in 1869, and left his share of the place to his son, James, who afterward sold it and went to Missouri.

Francis Nesbit, Jr., died on the farm, in 1816. William Nesbit lived on his place until his death, which occurred in 1847. During his life he was a prominent man. He was a Presbyterian elder, a justice of the peace for a long time, and afterward one of the associate judges of Beaver County.

After William Espy became sole pro- prietor of the grist mill mentioned, he trad- ed it for a farm, about 1806, to a man named Wylie, who owned it about four years, and traded it to a man named James Boyes. Boyes kept it some eight years, and sold it finally to Elder John Edgar, from Westmoreland County, who had pre- viously started a distillery near West- field Church. Edgar also put a still in op- eration, in connection with the mill, and was at one time collector of the excise tax. He sent a large lot of whisky to Erie, Pa., for sale, and finally shipped it on a vessel to Canada. The vessel was lost, and Edgar was broken up in consequence, and sold out by the sheriff-the whole property (100 acres of land, the mill, dis- tillery and all) being purchased by James Wallace for $800.

The Nesbit family, as before stated, came originally from Scotland. They were followers of John Knox, and, like other dissenters, suffered persecution from the English Church. ' Portions of the old fam- ilies went to Belfast, Ireland. John Nes- bit, the father of Francis, was born in Rox- burghshire, in 1702, and came to Philadel- phia, previous to the American Revolu- tion, finally settling in Cumberland Coun- ty.

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Francis Nesbit had four brothers-John, James, Allen and William-and all served more or less during the Revolutionary War, in the American army.

"At the time when the Nesbits came here, there were but two houses (log ones) in Darlington, one of them a tavern partly chinked and daubed. There was then but one house between Darlington and Mount Jackson, and not a dozen families in the bounds of what is now North Beaver, and a part of them were 'squatters,' who soon moved away. But during the next two or three years twenty or thirty families came in, principally from Cumberland County.

"The load of 'moving' which the Nes- bits brought with them consisted princi- pally of the iron and other fixings for a grist and sawmill, a barrel of salt, and one of flour, two sets of china cups and saucers, two sets of pewter plates, two pewter dishes and a pewter mush-basin, a cedar churn and a tub. In affectionate memory of the olden time, they brought with them a singularly-built arm chair, that had been brought from Scotland about seventy years before. They soon began to build mills, having to give $18 per barrel for flour, at Beaver Falls, twenty cents for meat, and $1.25 per gallon for the whisky, that seems to have been one of the things indispensable at that day, and that was furnished to the hands with the regularity of the bread and meat.

"A bill of fare for breakfast then em- braced bread, butter and coffee, a small allowance of pork and of preserved wild plums or crab apples, pone or Johnny cake, milk, butter, and perhaps a wild tur- key, or leg of venison, or chunk of bear's meat, or a roasted raccoon, for dinner; and corn meal mush, out of that pewter basin, with butter and milk, for supper.

"Then there were no meeting houses, no preaching, and no graveyard. Francis Nesbit died six or seven months after he came to the county, and was buried in the then woods, where the Westfield graveyard

now is. Perhaps this was the first funeral in the township. Near that spot a small log meeting house was soon built, and in it there was occasional preaching.

"The appearance of the country was truly beautiful. The rich, loamy appear- ance of the soil, the density of the forests and thickets, the wonderful multiplicity, variety and gorgeousness of the blossoms and flowers, the exhilarating perfume they sent forth, the continual singing of the birds, the chattering of the many squir- rels, the beautiful plumage of the vast flocks of turkeys, and the nimble skipping of the deer and fox, produced a sublimity and a grandeur far beyond anything we have now in the cleared fields and mead- ows into which these forests have been transformed.

"Ere long came the vast profusion of wild fruits. Leading the van came the service-berry, growing luxuriantly on bot- toms, flats and hills, and on the shelving banks small bushes bending to the ground with their loads of fruit. Men, birds and animals were fully supplied, and a great many left. Then the strawberry, plum, huckleberry, haw, cherry and grape, each added its share to the richness that nature afforded, together with the vast amounts of delicious nuts. The woods abounded in native (crab) apple, said by the Econo- mites to be the best fruit for wine on this continent."

There was a wonderful variety of me- dicinal herbs, many of whose virtues in curing disease were not well known, neither are they now appreciated as they ought to be. Then, in thick and broad patches, with its beautiful flower of every con- ceivable color, and moccasin shape, stood the admirable Cypripedium Pubescens of Linnæus, known to the people then by the name of "ladies' slipper," and by the In- dians "moccasin flower." There, too, was the Verticillati (golden seal), with Vir- ginia snake-root, ginseng, and many others of greater or less medicinal value.

For a few years the settlers in the

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northern part of Beaver County were prin- cipally from Eastern Pennsylvania, and some from Allegheny and Washington Counties, mostly of Scotch and Irish ex- traction.

Soon, however, people came in from Vir- ginia, Maryland, Delaware, New Jersey, and from different countries of Europe, most of whom were respectable, while some were ignorant and degraded, and not calculated to improve society.

In 1802 there were twenty-four families living in the township, and the first town- ship election was held that year.

Among those who came to North Beaver in 1801 were William Barnet, Robert Lusk, William Espy, William Mercy, Nicholas Bryant, Leonard Dobbins, William Woods, Joseph Pollock, John Dunnon, James Ap- plegate, Samuel Semple, John Clelland, James McKinley, Joseph Jackson and Will- iam Ritchie. Of these, the last five fam- ilies were Finns, and were all related to each other. They formed a kind of clan, and came out together. Jackson was a stone mason, and built chimneys, and Sem- ple carried a case of lancets and did bleed- ing for the settlers whenever his services were called for.

All the tragical deaths which have oc- curred in the township were purely acci- dental, and not a murder has ever been committed within its limits-the whites coming after the Indians were mostly gone.

A distillery was built by Lawrence Dob- bins in 1801, in the northeast corner of the township. As early as 1817 there were upward of a dozen distilleries in the town- ship. Nothing in that business has been done for more than eighty years, and for nearly that length of time there has been no place for selling liquor in the limits of the township.

In 1876 there was a population of 2,500, with 750 church members and four congregations and thirteen schools.

William Carson came from Virginia in the fall of 1799, and stayed that winter in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania. In

the spring of 1800 he brought his family, consisting of his wife and ten children, to the farm in North Beaver Township, now owned by John Alexander. He had hired a hand in Pittsburg to help him, and they built a cabin and made other improve- ments. The youngest child, James, was born after they came out, in 1802.

James Bowles came in 1796, and settled on the Beaver River, on what was after- ward known as the Zeigler farm. He left the country previous to the War of 1812.

Joseph Pollock came to the township in 1800, and located on one of two farms near where Westfield Presbyterian Church now stands. He afterwards moved across the Beaver River into what is now Tay- lor Township. When he removed from North Beaver, he cut his own road through the woods, and the track he made was afterwards called "Pollock's road."

John Dunnon settled the tract next south of the old Pollock (Wood's) place, in 1801.

John Coleman settled on a tract south of Mount Jackson, in 1801 or 1802. His land laid next north of a tract settled by John Patterson. Mr. Coleman lived to be about 100 years old, and was buried "with the honors of war" in the United Pres- byterian graveyard at Mount Jackson. He had been in one or two skirmishes in the Revolutionary War, and had taken the no- tion that he must be buried with the honors of war, and accordingly his whim was grat- ified.

But two men settled in North Beaver Township on land they had served for in the Revolution. They were Jacob Justice and Jeremiah Bannon, the latter settled on a place in the northeast part of the township.

The Justice family was originally from Würtemburg, Germany, from which coun- try John Justice came to America, at some period prior to the American Revolution, and settled probably in Franklin County, . Pennsylvania. Jacob Justice was one of six brothers, sons of John Justice. He was

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born in Franklin County, in 1757. He enlisted in the Sixth Pennsylvania Bat- talion of the Continental Line on January 20, 1776 (he being then nineteen years of age), and served until the close of the war with England. After the independence of the Colonies was established, he re- turned to his home in Franklin County and remained there until 1797, when he re- moved West, with the intention of set- tling in what is now Lawrence County ; but on account of Indian troubles he stopped in Washington County for about two years, and in 1799 carried out his original design, and settled in the southeastern part of North Beaver Township, on land which he drew for his services as a Revolutionary soldier. His family consisted of his wife and seven children, six sons and one daugh- ter-James, John, Joseph, George, Mat- thew, Scott and Eliza.

James Justice married Esther Hopper, a daughter of Robert Hopper, who came to North Beaver Township from Ireland in 1797. Mr. Justice died in 1815, leav- ing a wife and three daughters, Margaret, Elizabeth and Esther. His wife, although but twenty-eight years old at the time of his death, remained true to his memory until her demise in 1870, having been a widow fifty-five years.

In 1813 Joseph Justice went to the new town of New Castle, and became promi- nently identified with the early history of that place.

George Justice married a Miss Douglass, and, with his wife, went West, where he lived to a ripe old age. Scott Justice, the youngest son, met his death by being kicked by a horse.

Jacob Justice lived on his farm in North Beaver Township until his death, which oc- curred in April, 1829, he being seventy-two years old. He was buried in the grave- yard of the Westfield Presbyterian Church.

Nicholas Bryant, who came to the town- ship in 1801, settled on a farm in the north- western part now owned by the heirs of Alexander Steele. Mr. Bryant's son,

Stephen, is said to have been the first white child ever born in North Beaver Town- ship.

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Century history of New Castle and Lawrence County, Pennsylvania and representative citizens, 20th, Part 35

Author: Hazen, Aaron L. (Aaron Lyle), 1837- comp. and ed. cn Publication date: 1908 Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold publishing co. Number of Pages: 1058

Author: Hazen, Aaron L. (Aaron Lyle), 1837- comp. and ed. cn
Publication date: 1908
Publisher: Chicago, Richmond-Arnold publishing co.
Number of Pages: 1058