History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 24

Author: Smith, Robert Walter
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago : Waterman, Watkins
Number of Pages: 790

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As indicated by the foregoing partial list, there were in Kittanning, in 1804, at least one lawyer, three merchants, four joiners, one rough carpenter; one tailor, one hatter, one tanner, three shoemak- ers, one wheelwright, and one mason. There were also four single men, but whether the single ladies, if there were any, allowed these gentlemen to remain single, all that leap year, the records show not.

Other early settlers than those above-mentioned, to each of whom one or more lots were assessed, were John Brandon, George Brown, Alex. Blair, Robert Beatty, John Coon, Robert Cooper, James Gibson, Daniel Long, Jinney Mosgrove, Paul Morrow, Joseph McClurg, James Monteith, John Orr and Henry Worts.

The first hotel-keepers were Michael Mechling and David Reynolds. The former kept on the north side of Market street, adjoining the present store and residence of his son Philip, and the lat- ter on the same side of Market, near the corner of Jefferson street.

The early resident lawyers, after Mr. Massey, were Samnel S. Harrison, Guy Hiccox, Ebenezer Smith Kelly, Joseph B. Beckett, Thomas Blair, John Henderson; later, prior to 1840, Robert Findly, William F. Johnston, Joseph Buffington, James Thompson, J. H. Hepburn, John Francis, William M. Watson, H. N. Weigley, Robert E. Brown, most, if not all, of whom are dead; Thomas Struthers, Darwin Phelps, George W. Smith and Horatio N. Lee, still living. The present number is twenty .*

* He was the first court erier in this county. 7

* David Barclay, James E. Brown, J. A. Gettys, John Gilpin, Ed- ward T. Golden, Henry J. Hays, Jos. R. Henderson, J. M. Hunter, J. H. MeCain, W. Mechling, Jackson Boggs, Jas. B. Neale, Barclay Nul- ton, Grier C. Orr, Willis Patton, Darwin Phelps, H. F. Phelps, Jeffer- son Reynolds, John V. Painter, John W. Rohrer, Robert W. Smith, W. Martin and James Stewart.

[Since Mr. Smith wrote the foregoing James E. Brown, John V. Painter, Darwin Phelps, Jackson Boggs and W. Martin have died, as has also the writer, whose name is included in the list. In addition to the names given the bar includes (in 1883) G. S. Crosby, Joseph and Orr Buffington, Ross Reynolds, Jr., Alex. Reynolds, Clark Austin, D. B. Heiner, Jr., M. F. Leason, R. S. Martin, D. L. Nulton. W. L. Peart, Calvin Reyburn, Finley P. Wolf, J. F. Whitworth and R. B. Ivory .- EDITOR.]

110

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

The first resident physician was George Hays, who settled here in 1810 or 1811. His successors, prior to 1825, were Samuel S. Neale, Josiah E. Stevenson, Samuel McMasters, Abner Bainbridge, Malthus A. Ward and Samuel Byers. The pres- ent (1876) number is eight,* one of whom is a homœopathist. The first call to the physicians of this eounty to meet at Kittanning, for the purpose of organizing a medical society to regulate the practice of medicine and for other purposes, was issued November 16, 1825, by Drs. Neale and Stevenson.

SOME REMINISCENCES OF THE WAR OF 1812.

John Reed, of East Franklin, one of the oldest citizens in this county, and who has a very reten- tive memory, informed the writer that there were but very few buildings here in 1807, and they were all log ones, and that he saw the military com- pany, recruited by Capt. James Alexander, parade here on the Fourth of July, 1812. Its headquar- ters were in a log building, on lot No. 122, north side of Market street, below the alley.

One of the modes of enlisting men for the regu- lar army, a year or so later, as the writer is informed, was by placing and rattling silver coins on a drumhead, which were free to all who were capable of being mustered into the service, and whoever took one of them off was held to be enlisted. A considerable number were recruited. Capt., or Lient., Brooks was the recruiting officer. The recruiting station and barracks were on lot No. 75, corner of Arch and Water streets.

That volunteer company, after being fully recruited, was moved, with other companies, from east of the Allegheny mountains, which encamped here temporarily on the river bank, between Arch and Market streets, on the then vacant lots on the southwest corner of Market and Jefferson streets, and. on the vacant portion of the old court-house square, to Meadville, Pennsylvania, in September, 1812, where it was assigned to the 1st Inf. regt. of that Pennsylvania detachment, commanded by Col. Jeremiah Snyder. It and the 2d regt. Inf., commanded by Co. John Purviance, of Butler, Pennsylvania, the 1st regt. of Riflemen, Col. Jared Irwin, and the 2d regt. of Riflemen, Col. William Piper, were brigaded at Meadville, and Adamson Tannehill, of Pittsburgh, was elected brigadier- general.

Those volunteer troops were detained at Mead- ville until the latter part of October-Col. Purvi- ance's regiment until about the 1st of Novem-

ber-on account of their arms being defective. When properly inspected one half of them were found to be totally unfit for service. So that instead of marching immediately to the place of destination, as Gen. Tannehill expected, he was under the mortifying necessity of sending teams to Pittsburgh for a supply to make up the defi- ciency. Between two and three weeks were thus lost. It is said that the deficiency of proper arms was caused by the shameful impositions of brigade inspectors on the adjutant-general. Furthermore, the amount of funds was sufficient to pay off only three regiments, so that seven or eight days were lost in a trip to Pittsburgh to procure enough to pay off the fourth one.

A considerable number of that detachment of Pennsylvania volunteers, while at Meadville, ex- pressed their determination not to cross the line, that is, not to go over into Canada. Some of those volunteers must have either lost their conrage or become weary of military service before their brigade was moved from that rendezvous, for the Sunbury Times of October 9 said that it was related of a volunteer of a neighboring county that he had deserted and returned home, and that "his wife refused speaking to him or having anything to do with him unless he would return." So he shoul- dered his knapsaek and retraeed his steps to Mead- ville. The same paper lamented the arrival at Sunbury of five deserters from Capt. Jared Irwin's rifle company, which had been reernited in that part of Northumberland county. They were promptly arrested and confined in jail, and in ease they did not give approved security for their return to their corps, were sent thither under guard by order of the adjutant-general. The writer has not met with a statement or intimation that any of Captain Alexander's company deserted while the detachment to which it belonged remained at Meadville.

It has come to the knowledge of the writer that Walter Sloan was the first lientenant, Jacob Hughes ensign and Joseph Shields first sergeant of that company. Thirteen members of it, James White remembers, volunteered to cross over from Buffalo or Black Roek to Canada and afterward won a solid and brilliant fame in the sortie of Fort Erie and were said (in the report of the General commanding) to have " stood undismayed amidst the hottest fire and repulsed .the veterans opposed to them."

AN ALARM OF 1812.

In July or August, 1812, a lively sensation was caused by a report brought here by a Mr. Snyder, who was then employed to distribute the pamphlet

$ T. H. & T. M. Allison, H. K. Beatty, J. G. Cunningham, C. J. Jessop, T. C. McCulloch, W. W. Smith (homœopathist), and W. H. Stewart.

111

THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING.

laws throughout this and the northwestern part of the state (which he then conveyed to the various counties in a wagon), that a large force of British troops and Indians were moving toward this place, whereupon a public meeting was called. Thomas Hamilton was appointed its chairman, who ad- dressed the excited assemblage from a stump in Market, a short distance below Jefferson street. Grave fears were entertained that this town was in danger of being taken by the enemy. That meet- ing resolved, after an interchange of opinions, to employ Daniel Lemmon to proceed to Meadville and elsewhere in that direction for the purpose of ascertaining the whereabouts and proximity of the supposed invaders. He soon started on his mission, from which he returned in a few days with the welcome intelligence that a false alarm had been raised by the rumor which Snyder had heard in his travels, and which probably sprung from the gen- eral alarm that Gov. Snyder alluded to in his mes- sage of December 3, 1812, to the legislature, as having prevailed in the town and vicinity of Erie, caused by the appearance of a British Indian force on the opposite side of the lake, in consequence of which he had ordered, July 15, a portion of the sixteenth division of the Pennsylvania militia to be organized under Gen. Kelso for the protection of the frontier, which, he said, he was happy to add, "prevented the British or their savage allies from polluting our soil with hostile feet."

POSTAL.

As several of the earliest record books were destroyed by the fire which consumed the post- office department building in Washington, D. C., on the night of December 15, 1836, the exact date of the establishment of the postoffice here is not known. But it is ascertained from the ledger books of the auditor's office, which were mostly saved, that it was in the winter of 1807, as Joseph Miller, the first postmaster, was appointed in that year and began to render his quarterly accounts on April 1, then instant. He was a merchant, to whom lot No. 75, corner of Arch and Water streets, was assessed for several years. His store is said to have been there, and there, too, the writer con- cludes, he kept the postoffice. Philip Mechling, who was then a lad, thinks it was kept by Miller on lot No. 120. The next postmaster must have been David Lawson, as he published the list of letters remaining in the Kittanning postoffice in September, 1810.

Among the later but early postal facilities was a weekly mail, carried on horseback, from Greens- burgh, Pennsylvania, via Freeport. Still later, in

1818, a weekly mail was carried in the same way, from Indiana, Pennsylvania, via Woodward's mill, to Kittanning, thence to Butler, Pennsylvania, and thence back via Freeport, by a youth bearing the familiar name of Josiah Copley. As he was the only person who gladdened the people of this region with the mail during that and the next two years, it may readily be supposed that he was a very important personage, whose weekly arrival, her- alded by the blowing of his horn as he came over the hill below town, at the postoffice, then kept by Robert Robinson, down on Water street, where P. K. Bowman now lives, was hailed with delight by the expectant multitude gathered there to receive their letters and papers.

The old "Kittanning Inn," kept by David Rey- nolds, was then the principal hotel. There that youthful mail carrier tarried over night on his return trips from Butler and witnessed in its large front room, which was then the chief social hall of the town, many a lively scene in which the jovial seniors of the place participated, when each played off his peculiar humor on the rest. Their fun, if sometimes not what the fastidious would enjoy, was always good-natured.

THE TOWN IN 1820.

An old citizen* who settled here in 1820, and who distinctly remembers the condition of every part of the town as he then first saw it, has kindly furnished the writer with the following facts :

There were then on Water street nineteen dwel- ling and business houses, two of which were brick. Jacob Truby's gunsmith shop was on lot No. 17, where William Brown now lives ; Henry Rouse's cooper shop on lot No. 25 ; William Reynolds' leather store on lot No. 93, now occupied by the widow of George Reynolds, deceased ; Samuel McKee's saddler's shop on lot No. 151, now occu- pied by Mrs. Matilda Robinson ; Joseph Erwin's inn, in the stone house built by David Lawson, in 1808-9, on the southwest corner of Jacob and Water streets, now owned by Miss Amanda Col- well and occupied by F. E. Willis ; Robert Robin- son's store and the postoffice were on lot No. 193, southwest corner of Water street and a public alley, now owned and occupied by P. K. Bowman, and an inn, kept by Walter Sloan, on lot No. 221, now owned and occupied by Darwin Phelps.

There were not any buildings on Jefferson street above the public alley between lots Nos. 53 and 59-between David Patterson's and St. John's (Lutheran) Church. Thence down to the lower end of the town there were twenty-three dwellings

* James McCullough, Sr.

112

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

and business houses, two of which, including the eourt-house, were brick. John Gillespy's shoe shop was on lot No. 83, southeast corner of Arch and Jefferson streets, now owned and occupied by James Mosgrove ; the Columbian printing-office, on the old court-house square, on the lower part of lot No. 6 of the plot of that square made just before the sale thereof by the county commissioners ; Wm. Small's tailor shop and Hugh Rodgers' hat shop, on lot No. 165, northwest corner of Jacob and Jefferson streets, now owned and occupied by John Croll ; James Richart's chair and wheelwright shop, on lot No. 183, next below the present site of the First Presbyterian church ; and David Craw- ford's blacksmith shop on lot No. 194, southwest corner of Jefferson street and a public alley, now owned by G. F. Fischcorn and W. Hirscher.

There were seven dwelling and business houses, including the jail, on Mckean street. Robert Speer's nail factory was on lot No. 143, southwest corner of MeKean street and a public alley, and Isaac Scott's pottery on lot No. 190, southwest corner of Mckean street and a public alley.

There was not then any dwelling or business house on Baek street, now Grant avenue. The first house thereon was crected by James McCul- lough, Sr., the one in which he now resides, in 1851. None others were built for several years afterward.

At that time there was not a dwelling or busi- ness house on either High, Vine, Areh, or Mulberry streets.

There were eight dwelling and business houses on Market street, including the Eagle House block, southwest corner of Market and Water streets, erected by James Monteith, deceased, and which was then nearly completed. Michael Mechling's inn was on lot No. 120, just above the northwest corner of Market and Water streets ; Samuel Houston's store on the same lot, near the public alley ; David Reynolds' inn, on lot 121 ; Hamilton & MeConnell's store on same lot, northwest corner Market and Jefferson streets ; Joseph Shields' hatter shop on lot No. 122, northeast corner of Market and Jefferson streets ; James Montieth's store in Eagle House block, southwest corner of Market and Water streets ; William Hannegan's tailor shop on lot No. 126, where the insurance office now is ; and Henry Jack's store, on same lot, southwest corner of Market and Jefferson streets, and his saddlery establishment a little farther down on Market street. There were on Jacob and Walnut streets respectively one tannery and one dwelling house.

In 1830 the number of dwellings was 90; stores, 10.

THE TOWN INCORPORATED.

By act of assembly, April 2, 1821, the town, then a part of Kittanning township, was incorporated as a borough, comprised within the limits hereto- fore given .* The original boundaries were subse- quently extended. By acts of May 4, 1844, and April 2, 1850, one and three-fourths acres and thirty perches of land in the lower part of the borough, owned by Philip Hutchinson and John Turner ; by act of March 20, 1849, the rolling mill plot, which had until 1846 been a meadow, and some winters a skating pond; and, by act of March 31, 1860, two acres and thirty perehes owned by John Scott and John Baker, were annexed to the borough. Some property a short distance above the northern limit, belonging to the late Robert Brown and others, was also an- nexed thereto by act of April 16, 1845, but was afterward detached and put back into the town- ship. The act of April 2, 1821, contained the usual provisions in charters granted at that period to small towns. The population of Kittanning was then about 325. The burgess and town council had rather limited powers, yet adequate, perhaps, for so small and well-disposed a population.

About the year 1854, the borough subscribed for a considerable amount of Allegheny Valley rail- road and Kittanning bridge stocks. In 1857, the eourt of quarter sessions of Armstrong county, on the petition of the requisite number of the inhabit- ants of this borough, made several amendments to its charter : changing its corporate name from "The Burgess and Town Council of the Borough of Kittanning" to "The Borough of Kittanning ;" increasing the number of councilmen from five to six, three of them to be elected annually and the term of each to be two years; prohibiting the members of the town council from receiving com- pensation for their services in that capacity, and from having any pecuniary interest in contracts made by the borough ; and providing that the debts of the borough, exclusive of those created by the subscriptions to the stock of the above men- tioned companies, should be reduced, as soon as practical, to $1,000, and that the amount thereof should not be increased unless to promote some object of general utility and authorized and re- quired by two-thirds of the taxable inhabitants of the borough.

A supplement to the original act or charter was made by the act of April 4, 1866, providing a board of overscers of the poor, changing the name of the chief executive officer from that of burgess

* Vide pages 99 and 100.

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THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING.

to mayor, investing him, the town council and the justices of the peace, with needed additional police power, and enlarging the powers of the town council to pass ordinances fixing licenses on wagons, carriages and other vehicles traversing the streets of the borough, and in regard to the municipal regulation, sanitary condition, revenue and financial affairs, which new powers have been from time to time beneficially exercised. An act repealing the supplement of April 4, 1866, was passed May 5, 1876, which has been judicially de- clared to be unconstitutional by the president judge of the courts of this county.

The first election of borough officers was held on the first Monday of May, 1821, of which the writer cannot find any record, either in the minutes of the town council or in the prothonotary's office. The oldest inhabitants do not remember who were then elected. He is, therefore, unable to state who the first burgess, town councilmen and other borough officers were. The most ancient minutes of the town council which he has been able to find are those dated June 2, 1823, from which and from those of subsequent dates it appears that David Reynolds was then burgess, David Crawford, Frederick Rohrer, Joseph Shields, Isaac Scott and Michael Truby, Sr., town councilmen, and James E. Brown, clerk. Joseph Shields was one of Capt. Alexander's company, who was not deterred by constitutional scruples from crossing the line into Canada, when it was necessary for the American forces to go there.

SECURITY AGAINST FIRES.

On Wednesday, May 26, 1824, the town council received a certificate, signed by fifty-five of the taxable inhabitants of the borough, stating that, in their opinion, a fire engine would be of general utility to them, and, therefore, requesting that a tax of one cent on the dollar be laid on the valua- tion of the taxable property in the borough, to be applied to the purchase of a fire engine. The tax prayed for was then laid, and on Thursday, November 10, 1825, it was ordered : That the bur- gess purchase a fire engine in the city of Phila- delphia at the price of - dollars. The burgess was authorized, Tuesday, May 9, 1826, in case a sufficient sum to pay the balance of the price of the fire engine should not be collected, to borrow the sum required and pledge the faith of the borough for its repayment. It does not appear from the minutes of the council what that engine cost. The burgess must have resorted to a loan to pay for it in part, for it was ordered by the council, July 30, 1832, that an order be issued to A. Colwell

and J. E. Brown for $78.65, paid by them for the engine in 1826.

The first fire company was organized hy a meet- ing in the court-house, Saturday evening, August 27th, in the last-mentioned year. The last notice of that company which the writer has observed in files of old papers is that of a meeting held Satur- day evening, April 11, 1835, for the annual elec- tion of its officers.

A frame engine-house, costing about sixty dol- lars, was erected, during the summer of 1827, on the east side of Jefferson, below Market street, a short distance below the present alley between J. A. Gault & Co's store and Dr. McCulloch's build- ing. By orders of council, May 31, 1827, the borough and the county were each to furnish twelve fire-buckets, and each owner or renter of a house one. Two hooks and two ladders were to be procured.

Such were the means provided by the public authorities for extinguishing fires until 1854, when, after a serious fire-the burning of L. C. Pinney's carriage factory-which had occurred shortly before, the requisite number of taxable inhabitants petitioned the town council to procure a larger and more effective fire-engine. Where- upon a special tax was levied, and a new hand- engine, costing $2,500, was procured. It was better than the old one, but inadequate for the extin- guishment of large fires.

In 1871 the borough entered into a contract with the Kittanning Water Works Company to furnish and put down in their main water-pipes, twenty- three of Lowry's patent fire-plugs, one at each diamond or intersection of streets, for the sum of $2,783.09. They are well distributed over the bor- ough. Such is the hight of the reservoir above the streets that the pressure forces the water from the fire-plugs through hose two inches in diameter over the highest buildings, and, when under proper management, is effective for the extinguishment of extensive and dangerous fires. This arrangement, even when there was not a properly organized fire department, has been the means, on several occa- sions, of saving a large portion of the buildings in this borough from destruction.

By that contract the Water Works Company agreed to furnish the borough with water for extinguishing fires, practicing with the hose and sprinkling the streets at an annual rent of $500 for ten years.

STREETS AND ALLEYS.

The original streets were Water, Jefferson, McKean and Back, extending northeastwardly and southwestwardly parallel to the Allegheny river,

114

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

which are intersected at right angles by High, Vine, Arch, Market, Jacob, Mulberry and Walnut streets. The original names of all the streets are still retained, except that of Back, which, by act of March 24, 1868, was changed to Grant avenue.

The public alleys, laid out when the streets were, are twelve feet wide, three of which are par- allel with the river, and are intersected at right angles by six others.

As late as July, 1824, the streets were far from being in a perfect condition either for health or convenience. Mckean street was a gully for years afterward, and so deep that persons sitting on benches or chairs on the sidewalks on Market, below Jefferson street, could not see persons travel- ing along Mckean, owing in part to a ridge of moderate hight which crossed Market street, be- tween Mckean and Jefferson streets, near where the town hall now is.

That part of Jefferson between Market and Arch streets was covered with water in July, 1824. That part of Market between Back and Mckean streets was then in a bad condition from having been washed by heavy rains. There was a pond on MeKean between Jacob and Mulberry streets, and another pond on the same between Arch and Market streets. The town council ordered those parts of those streets to be repaired, which was done, the cost of which was as follows: repairing Jefferson street, $58.50; Market street, $4.94; filling the upper pond on MeKean street, $59.73, and draining the lower pond on the last-mentioned street by digging a drain four feet wide at the top and two feet at the bottom, regularly slanted, with a well made bridge of slabs, sixteen feet wide, across it, opposite Mulberry street, $7.75. Total, $130.92. The aggregate of annual outlays on the streets since then is immense. Still the mud is very deep in wet weather except on that portion of Grant avenue recently covered with a hard cinder, and that portion of Market street between the railroad and Jefferson street recently covered with broken limestone. Other substantial improvements made within the last two years are excellent street crossings and a solid stone culvert over Truby's Run on Water, above Arch street, in the place of wooden bridges which used to be greatly injured or swept away by floods in the river. In making and repairing public thoroughfares, as in other matters, the best is in the end the cheapest.

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History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 24

Author: Smith, Robert Walter Publication date: 1883 Publisher: Chicago : Waterman, Watkins Number of Pages: 790

Author: Smith, Robert Walter
Publication date: 1883
Publisher: Chicago : Waterman, Watkins
Number of Pages: 790