USA > Pennsylvania > Montgomery County > Bridgeport > Hart's history and directory of the three towns, Brownsville, Bridgeport, West Brownsville also abridged history of Fayette county & western Pennsylvania > Part 34
USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > West Brownsville > Hart's history and directory of the three towns, Brownsville, Bridgeport, West Brownsville also abridged history of Fayette county & western Pennsylvania > Part 34
USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > Brownsville > Hart's history and directory of the three towns, Brownsville, Bridgeport, West Brownsville also abridged history of Fayette county & western Pennsylvania > Part 34
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45
430
Home Mutual Telephone Subscribers
Neihouse, Henry, Residence
Nixon, A. J., Residence.
Nixon, I. B., Residence.
Nixon, James, Residence. O'Donnell, Eliza, Residence.
O'Donnell, W. C., Residence. Pepper, John, Residence.
Pepper, William, Residence.
Pike Run Mill, Jesse Hornbake, Proprietor.
Ruble, Maggie, Residence.
Ruble, H. L., Residence.
Smith, Charles, Residence.
Smith, Henry L., Residence.
Smith, R. G., Residence.
Taylor, J. T., Residence.
Taylor, Ollie, Residence. Theakston, Annie, Residence.
Theakston, T. H., Residence.
Theakston, J. L., Residence.
Theakston, L. L., Residence.
Theakston, T. B., Residence.
Thistlethwaite, E. T., Residence.
Thistlethwaite, Russell, Residence.
Thistlethwaite, Samuel, Residence.
Ward, John, Residence.
Ward, Oscar, Residence.
Walker, S. G., Residence.
Watkins, Archie, Residence.
Watkins, Charles, Residence.
Watkins, John, Residence.
Williams, R. H., Residence. Williams, William, Residence. Willock, Frank, Residence.
Witherow, C. M., Residence.
Woodfill Brothers, Residence.
Wright, Charles, Residence.
Wright, Luke, Residence.
History of Uniontown
WHERE, WHEN AND BY WHOM LAID OUT-WHEN INCORPORATED-BEESON'S MILL-LETTER OF EPHRAIM DOUGLASS DESCRIBING THE TOWN IN 1784 -Two WIDOWS, SEVERAL REPUTED OLD MAIDS AND A STILLHOUSE- LAND-POOR-UNIONTOWN OF TODAY-FINANCIAL INSTITUTIONS-THE SKY-SCRAPER-HISTORY OF THE FIRST NATIONAL BANK AND JOSIAH VANKIRK THOMPSON-NEWSPAPER HISTORY- BIOGRAPHY AND ILLUS- TRATIONS.
THE COUNTY SEAT AND WHERE LOCATED.
Uniontown, the county seat of Fayette County, is located a little west of the center of the county between North and South Union townships, near the head waters of Redstone, and its history proper dates back to about 1767, when the land on which the town is now located was taken up by Henry Beeson and Thomas Douthet. Mr. Beeson was a Quaker and came here from Virginia. Beeson was evidently a man of energy and ability from the facts that afterwards transpired. Some time prior to 1774, the date cannot be ascertained, he bought Douthet's land and it seems from the first, contem- plated starting a town. The tract on which Beeson settled was called by him "Stone Coal Run," and was surveyed to him by Alexander McClean in 1769. It contained 355 acres, lying west of Morgantown street, which was the eastern boundary. The tract he bought from Douthet contained 314} acres. was called by Douthet "Mall Seat" and lics east of what is now Mor- gantown street. The patent for this tract was not issued to Mr. Becson till August 11, 1786, though he had bought it of Douthet about eleven years previous.
BEESON'S MILL-BEESON TOWN.
One of the first things Mr. Becson did was to erect a mill on the ground bought from Douthet, which stood, and proved a godsend to the people between the Youghiogeny and the Monongahela for over fifteen years. In fact it is not many years since the last traces of the old raceway disappeared. This was known as Beeson's mill and this was the name he gave to the first town plot he laid out in 1776, which was also located on the lands purchased from Douthet. The plat consisted of 54 lots and they are said to have been raffled off on the day the Declaration of Independence was signed in Phila- delphia. "Beeson's Mill"' soon gave way to "Becson's Town," by which latter name it was principally known till 1800, though it was sometimes called Union Town as early as 1780. For many years the town grew but little, and was of little consequence, as is shown by the following letter to Gen. James Irvine by Ephraim Douglas early in 1784:
U. S. Senator Bois Penrose
U. S. Senator M. S. Quay, Deceased
133
Letter of Ephriam Douglas
LETTER OF EPHRAIM DOUGLAS.
"My Dear General:
"If my promise were not engaged to write to you, my inclinations are sufficiently so, to embrace with alacrity any opportunity of expressing the gratitude so justly due to your friendship, of declaring the sincerity of mine.
"This Uniontown is the most obscure spot on the face of the globe. I have been here seven or eight weeks without one opportunity of writing to the land of the living, and, though considerably south of you, so cold that a person not knowing the latitude would conclude we were placed near one of the poles. Pray, have you had a severe winter below? We have been frozen up here for more than a month past, but a great many of us have been bred in another state, the cating of Homany is as natural to us as the drinking of whisky in the morning.
WIDOWS, MAIDS AND A STILLHOUSE.
"The town and its appurtenances consist of our president and a lovely little family, a court-house and school-house in one, a mill, and consequently a miller, four taverns, three smith shops, five retail shops, two tan-yards, one of them only occupied, one saddler's shop, two hatters' shops, one mason, one cake woman (we had two, but one of them having committed petit larceny is upon banishment), two widows, and some reputed maids, to which may be added a distillery. The upper part of this edifice is the habi- tation, at will, of your humble servant, who, beside the smoke of his own chimney, which is intolerable enough, is fumigated by that of two stills below, exclusive of the other effluvia that arises from the dirty vessels in which they prepare the materials of the stills. The upper floor of my parlor, which is also my chamber and office, is laid with loose clapboards or punch- eons, and both the gable ends entirely open; and yet this is the best place in my power to procure till the weather will permit me to build, and even this I am subject to be turned out of the moment the owner, who is at Kentucky, and hourly expected, returns.
PLENTY OF LAND BUT NO MONEY.
"I can say little of the country in general but that it is very poor in every- thing but its soil, which is excellent, and that part contiguous to the town is really beautiful, being level and prettily situated, accommodated with good water and excellent meadow-ground. But money we have not, nor any practicable way of making it; how taxes will be collected, debts paid, or fees discharged I know not; and yet the good people appear willing enough to run in.debt and go to law. I shall be able to give you a better account of this hereafter.
"Col. Maclean received me with a degree of generous friendship that does honor to the goodness of his heart, and continues to show every mark
Hon. Samuel W. Pennypacker Governor of Pennsylvania
Frank M. Fuller, of Uniontown Secretary of the Commonwealth
435
Uniontown of To-day
of satisfaction at my appointment. He is determined to act under the commission sent him by Council, and though the fees would, had he declined it, have been a considerable addition to my profits, I cannot say that I regret his keeping them. He has a numerous small family, and though of an ample fortune in lands, has not cash at command.
DISSENSION OVER PUBLIC BUILDINGS.
"The general course of the country, disunion, rages in this little mud- hole with as much fierceness as if they had each pursuits of the utmost im- portance, and the most opposed to each other, when in truth they have no pursuits at all that deserve the name, except that of obtaining food and whisky, for raiment they scracely use any. The commissioners-trustces, I should say-having fixed on a spot in one end of the town for the public buildings, which was by far the most proper in every point of view, exclusive of the saving expense, the other end took the alarm and charged them with partiality, and have been ever since uttering their complaints. And at the late clection for justice, two having been carried in this end of the town and none in the other, has made them quite outrageous. This trash is not worth troubling you with, therefore I beg your pardon, and am with unfeigned esteem, dear general, am
"Your very humble servant, "EPHRAIM DOUGLAS."
UNIONTOWN OF TODAY.
Many years have elapsed since that letter was written and many things have transpired since then. Uniontown has grown from an insignificant village to one of the most important and one of the most progressive towns in Western Pennsylvania. Almost every branch of commercial industry is today represented within her bounds; magnificent brick blocks have re- placed the log cabins; the National Pike took the place of the more primitive roads and was in turn succeeded by the steel rail and the locomotive; money is no more scarce, but plentiful, if you have an equivalent, the town boasting one of the finest banking houses in the State, a magnificent "sky-scraper," and one of the strongest banking institutions in the United States; one court-house after another has occupied the site sold to the county by Henry Beeson in 1784, as he says in the transfer "for and in consideration of the love I bear for the inhabitants of Fayette County and for the further con- sideration of sixpence to me in hand well and truly paid," till the result is the present group of magnificent public buildings. The little insignificant shops of which Prothonotary Douglas wrote, have vanished and in their place we find metropolitan stores where each hour of the day more people are served than then constituted the entire population of the town.
President Judge E. H. Reppert Judge R. E. Umbel Supreme Judge S. I. Mestrezat
437
The Union Bank of Pennsylvania
THE UNION BANK OF PENNSYLVANIA.
The first banking institution established in Uniontown was named "The Union Bank of Pennsylvania," which commenced operation (though then tinchartered), in the autumn of 1812. The promoters of the project were a number of gentlemen, whose names are embraced in the following list, it being that of the first directors of the bank, viz: John Kennedy, Nathaniel Breading, J. W. Nicholson, Jesse Evans, Joseph Huston, Samuel Trevor, Thomas Meason, Hugh Thompson, Ellis Bailey, Jacob Beason, Jr., John Campbell, Reuben Bailey, John Miller, David Ewing, George Ebbert.
The articles of association were signed May 1. 1812, and the bank (or rather the unchartered association which so designated itself) commenced business in October of that year, in an old frame building which stood on the site of Mr. Z. B. Springer's present store. By the tenor of the following letter (copied from the old letter book of the bank), it will be seen that the amount paid in was less than one-eighth of the nominal capital:
"Union Bank of Pennsylvania, 7th Dec., 1813.
"Sir,-The directors of this institution have unanimously agreed to accept the Composition mentioned in the act of Congress laying duties on notes of Banks, bankers and certain companies, on notes, bonds, and obligations discounted by banks, bankers and certain companies, and on bills of exchange of certain descriptions passed August 2nd, 1813, and I have been directed to write you on the Subject. As we have rec'd no letters from you we are at a loss to know precisely the information that may be required.
"This bank went into operation in October, 1812, on a capital of only $60,000, and declared a dividend on the first day of May last of five per Cent. An additional sale of Stock was then made of 4,000 shares of $10 each, and on the first of November last a Second Dividend was declared of five per cent. At present our capital is $100,000 actually paid in. According to the Articles of associations the directors may sell stock until the Capital shall be $500,000, but it is not contemplated by them at this time to make any addition to the present amount. Should they do so, you shall be regularly advised. Any further information you may wish, I will with pleasure com- municate, and am,
"With much respect. "Your Obt Servant. "JOHN SIMS, Cashier. "HON. W.M. JONES, "Acting Sec'y of the Treasury, U. S."
The instituttion became a chartered bank in 1814 under a legislative act of incorporation approved March 21st of that year. On the 28th of May, 1814, Cashier Sims wrote to a correspondent : * * We expect in a few days to move into a new banking house now finished for our occupation." This is found in the old letter book of the bank. The new building referred to in the letter was the depot of the Southwest Railroad Company. It was afterwards purchased by the bank of Fayette County.
Congressman Allen F. Cooper Assemblyman Andrew A. Thompson
State Senator B. N. Freeland Assembly man Lewis F. Arensberg
439
National Bank of Fayette County
It has been often stated, and seems to be the general belief, that the Union Bank of Pennsylvania failed and went out of business in 1817.
The exact date of the final closing of the bank has not been ascertained, but it is certain that it was not long after the date of the above notice.
NATIONAL BANK OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
By an act of the Legislature of Pennsylvania, approved December 5, 1857, the bank of Fayette County was incorporated. The corporators were Isaac Beeson, John Huston, Henry W. Beeson, Armstrong Hadden, Joshua B. Howell, Ewing Brownfield, Joseph Johnson, John K. Ewing, Alfred Pat- terson, William Bryson, Asbury Struble, Everard Bierer, Sr., Josiah S. Alle- baugh, Henry Yeagley, Isaac Franks, Jacob Overholt, Thomas B. Searight, Jacob Murphy, Joseph Hare, Joseph Heaton, John Morgan, and Farrington Oglevee. The charter was dated July 9, 1858. @
The first board of directors was composed of John Huston, Daniel Sturgeon, Isaac Beeson, Everard Bicrer, John Murphy, James Robinson, Robert Finley, Isaac Skiles, Jr., Henry W. Gaddis, J. Allen Downer, Joshua B. Howell, Alfred Patterson, Daniel R. Davidson. President, Alfred Patterson; Cashier, W. Wilson.
The first meeting of directors was held August 16, 1858, and the bank commenced business on the first day of September following.
PEOPLE'S BANK OF FAYETTE COUNTY.
This bank was chartered March 21, 1873, the following-named gentlemen being the corporators: S. A. Gilmore, Alfred Howell, C. E. Boyle, William McCleary, Eli Cope, J. D. Roddy, Ewing Brownfield, E. M. Ferguson, J. H. McClelland, J. A. Searight. The board of directors was composed of the following: Ewing Brownfield, President; Alfred Howell, James Robinson, James A. Searight, Cashier, John D. Roddy, James Beatty.
The bank commenced business July 14, 1873. On the 12th of August in that year the cashier, Mr. Searight, resigned, and was succceded by M. H. Bowman.
DOLLAR SAVINGS BANK OF UNIONTOWN.
This bank commenced business January 1, 1870, with the Hon. A. E. Wil- son as president, and Armstrong Hadden as cashier. Upon the election of Mr. Wilson as judge of this district in 1873 he retired from the presidency of the bank, and was succeeded by Robert Hogsett, Esq. In October, 1872, C. S. Scaton was appointed to the cashiership made vacant by the death of Mr. Hadden. Mr. Seaton remained cashier until April, 1878, when he retired, and was succeeded by Henry McClay, who had previously been teller. The business of the bank closed July 19, 1878.
District Attorney Alfred E. Jones Sheriff Samuel E. Frock
Asst. District Attorney Thos. H. Hudson County Detective Alex. McBeth
411
Fayette County Mutual Fire Insurance Company
FAYETTE COUNTY MUTUAL FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY.
This company was organized Sept. 2, 1844, the corporators being Isaac Beeson, John Dawson, Alfred McClelland, Andrew Byers, William B. Roberts, James T. Cannon, Ewing Brownfield, John Huston, Robert T. Flenniken, Daniel Kaine, James Piper, Samuel Y. Campbell, and Everard Bierer. Isaac Beeson was chosen president, and Daniel Kaine secretary.
During the first year of the company's business fifty-three policies were written, aggregating a risk of $107,000. The total amount of risks from the organization of the company in 1844 to Jan. 1, 1881, was $5,259,505. Total number of premium notes taken, 3,317, aggregating $444,260.21.
UNION BUILDING AND LOAN ASSOCIATION.
On the 2d of April, 1870, a number of citizens convened at Skiles' Hall in Uniontown, for the purpose of organizing the above-named association. Officers were elected as follows: President, Jasper M. Thompson; secretary, A. C. Nutt; treasurer, John H. McClelland; directors, John H. Miller, A. M. Gibson, J. A. Laughead, John K. Ewing, W. H. Bailey, D. M. Springer, and Hugh L. Rankin.
On the 18th of April a constitution and by-laws were adopted. Section 2 of the former declares that "The object of this association shall be the ac- cumulation of money to be loaned among its members for the purchase of houses 'or lands, or for building or repairing the same and acquiring home- steads.
FIRST NATIONAL BANK OF UNIONTOWN.
In April, 1854, a private banking office was opened in Uniontown by Mr. John T. Hogg. Prior to that time, and after the closing of the old Union Bank of Pennsylvania, the financial business of the borough had been done principally with the bank of Brownsville. Mr. Wilson was its first cashier. In August, 1858, he resigned to accept the cashiership of the Bank of Fayette County, and James T. Redburn succeeded him in Mr. Hogg's bank. Soon afterwards the bank passed into possession of Isaac Skiles, Jr., by whom it was continued as a private institution until 1864, when, in conformity with the provisions of the National Banking law, it became the First National Bank of Uniontown, with a paid-up capital of $60,000, increased January 1, 1872, to $100,000.
The corporators of the National Bank were Robert Finley, C. S. Seaton, Jasper M. Thompson, Elcazer Robinson, William Hurford, Isaac Skiles, Jr., James T. Redburn, Hiram H. Hackney, and John Wilson ; articles of associa- tion dated January 2, 1864. The bank commenced business May 3, 1864, in the banking rooms which it occupied until it moved into its commodious and elegant rooms in the sky-scraper.
The first board of directors was composed of Messrs. Skiles, Robinson, Seaton, Thompson, Redburn, and Finley. Pres. Isaac Skiles, Jr .; Cashier, James T. Redburn. In January, 1870, Jasper M. Thompson was elected president, and in the following May, Josiah V. Thompson was elected cashier on the death of Mr. Redburn.
Thos. Scott Dunn Prohibition County Chairman
Wooda N. Carr Democratic County Chairman D. W. Henderson Republican County Chairman
143
Uniontown's "Sky-Scraper"
THE PRESENT FIRST NATIONAL BANK-THE SKY-SCRAPER."
On the corner of Union and Pittsburg streets, Uniontown, Pa., the First National Bank building, rears its eleven stories skyward. It is one of the finest "sky-scrapers" in Western Pennsylvania, contains 509 rooms and has a floor space of 162,845 square feet. It is the first structure of its kind ever built in a town the size of Uniontown and stands as a lasting monument to the energy and acumen of Joshia V. Thompson, President of the First National Bank. a sketch of whose remarkably successful career appears else- where. The building has a south frontage of 145 feet on Main Street and an east frontage of 68 feet on Pittsburg Street ; also a north frontage of 102 feet on Peter Street and adjoins the MeClelland House on the west, extending 151 feet from Main Street. The building consists of eleven floors, basement and attic, built after the most improved pattern of modern steel frame con- struction, and is absolutely fireproof throughout.
The exterior finish is of solid granite up to the third floor, and above this buff brick and terra cotta. The interior finish is handsome and expensive. All corridors and toilet rooms are wainscoted in marble and have floors of mosaic tile, while a staircase with marble tread runs from basement to attic. Plate glass is used in all the windows, and there is an unobstructed view above the third floor. A large court, 35 by 50 feet, in the center of the build- ing, admits an abundance of light to all the rooms. The woodwork is of mahogany and quartered oak. There are private elevators and entrances to the apartments and flats.
The first floor is occupied by the First National Bank and seven store rooms of various descriptions; three of these store rooms facing on Main Street and four on the Arcade.
The second and third floors, excepting rooms fronting on Main Street, are arranged for apartments with handsomely equipped bathrooms. There are offices, tailoring shops and lodge room on the third floor front.
The fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh floors are arranged for offices. Vaults, hot and cold water, coat closets, wash basins and electric-light fixtures are placed in all these offices.
The eighth, ninth and tenth floors are arranged for apartments, with bath- rooms, and the appointment of these is unsurpassed in elegance and con- venience.
The eleventh floor is arranged for flats. These rooms have been placed in suites suitable for families desiring kitchens, dining rooms, etc., with all the modern conveniencies. These flats are arranged in rooms of four to cleven rooms, including everything for the comfort and convenience of tenants.
Special arrangement of floor space has been made for the C. D. & P. Tele- phone Exchange, two lodge rooms, a clubroom and a business college.
There are four main entrances to the building proper, besides store-room entrances, bank entrances, corner Main and Pittsburg streets. Apartment entrance, Main Street: Arcade entrance, Peter Street.
15
Josiah V. Thompson - First National Bank Building, Uniontown
445
Josiah Vankirk Thompson
There are two artesian wells of excellent water located in the building, insuring an abundance of pure water at all times.
The building is equipped with four rapid elevators, steam and electric plant and mail chute. A refrigerating plant furnishes ice water to all the rooms and offices in the building.
Lavatories and toilet rooms are located on the third floor for the use of the offices. Also on this floor, under capable managment, is a well-appointed barber shop, with bath and showers. Special toilet rooms for ladies arc provided on the second and seventh floors.
Janitor service is the best that can be had, and everything is done to make the building as fine in its appointment as it is in construction, finish and modern convenience.
However, the building with all its magnificences in proportion and archi- tecture, as an index to Mr, Thompson's businesss tact and judgement, pales into insignificance when compared with the history of his management of the banking institution that has its home in the stately structure. In this construction a brief sketch of Mr. Thompson's career may not be out of order and will certainly be interesting to all who seek a closer knowledge of men whose lives are worthy of emulation.
JOSIAH VANKIRK THOMPSON.
Foremost among Fayette County men who have achieved notable success in the business world, stands Josiah Vankirk Thompson, president of the First National Bank, of Uniontown. Like a majority of the other leaders in the business and professional life of Uniontown, Mr. Thompson was a country lad, born and reared on a farm along Jennings Run in Menallen Township, the youngest of the four children of the late Hon. Jasper Markel and Eliza (Carethurs) Thompson. As a boy he engaged actively in farm work, mastering all its phases and cultivating a taste for the pursuits of agriculture which even the more exacting demands of complicated business enterprises have not dulled.
Mr. Thompson's early education was acquired at the short winter terms of the Hague and Poplar Lane public schools of South Union Township. and at Madison College, Uniontown. With this equipment he entered Wash- ington and Jefferson College in 1868 and graduated in 1871, and has been a trustee of that institution since 1889. In the same year in which he gradu- ated he entered the First National Bank of Uniontown as a clerk, and so thoroughly did he master the details of banking that in eighteen years there- after he had passed through successive promotions until, though but thirty- five years of age, he was at the head of the leading financial institution of the county. On April 3, 1872, he was made teller; on June 5, 1877, he became cashier, succeeding the late James T. Redburn; and at the death of his father in March, 1889, he was elected president to succeed him.
Mr. Thompson soon developed banking capabilities of a high order, and he adopted a policy which has rapidly brought this bank to a front position in the honor list of banks published by the Comptrollers of the Currency.
446
Statements of First National Bank.
The First National Bank of Uniontown now ranks first in the county, third in Pennsylvania and fifth in the United States. In addition to his banking business Mr. Thompson has borne a leading part in the industrial development of the county. He has bought direct from the farmers of Fayette County more coal, and paid them more money, than any other one man or company or corporation operating in the county.
Mr. Thompson's rare business judgment received high recognition in his appointment as one of the seven government viewers to view and condemn the locks and dams, franchises, etc., of the Monongahela Navigation Company in the proceedings taken by Congress to make the Monongahela river free to navigation. The other members of that commission were William Metcalf, George W. Dilworth, Stephen C. McCandless and William McConway, all of Pittsburg: Charles N. Andrews, of New Bethlehem, and ex-State Treasurer S. M. Jackson, of Armstrong County, Pa. They were appointed on Novem- ber 26, 1896 : held meetings and made views along the river through the winter months and made their final report on March 26, 1897, fixing the price to be paid by the Government at $3,761,615.46. Other awards had been made in former years, but did not stand. This award was accepted by both the United States Government and the Navigation Company, and the river was formally thrown open to the free passage of boats on July 1, 1897.
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