History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 30

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

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December 12, 1871, Daniel Dougherty-"Oratory." January 12, 1872, Mark Twain-" Roughing it."

February 9, 1872, Rev. G. P. Hays, D.D .- " Talk, wise and otherwise."

March 7, 1872, Frederick Douglass-"Self-made Men." March -, Felix R. Brundt-" Indians and Indian Policy." April 3, Miss Anna E. Dickinson-"Joan of " Arc.

The amount realized from the sale of season tickets was $755, and from single admission tickets, $224.50. Total, $979.50. Expenses, 8636.10. Sur-

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

plus, $343.40, out of which the back hall-rent was paid, still leaving a balance of $143.40 to be added to the trifle that was left in the treasury as above . stated.

The committee continued to provide for three more courses, viz .:

FOR 1872-3.

December 18, 1872, Daniel Dougherty-"The Stage." January 3, 1873, S. K. Murdock-"Select Readings."

January 25, 1873, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore-" What shall we do with our Daughters?"

February 4, 1873, Rev. A. A. Willetts, D. D .- " Sunshine, or the Secret of a Happy Life."

February 21, 1873, Hon. Wm. Parsons-" Richard Brins- ley Sheridan."

March 4, 1873, Miss Anna E. Dickinson-"What's to Hinder? "

Receipts from season tickets, $586; from admis- sion tickets, $175.25. Total, $761.25. Surplus $26.95, making the balance then in the treasury $170.35.

FOR 1873-4.

November 27, 1873, Rev. A. Willetts, D. D .- "The Model Wife."

December 4, 1873, -- Andrews-" Dialect Humor."

December 26, 1873, Rev. Geo. P. Hays, D. D .- " Every- Day Reasoning."

January 28, 1874, Mrs. Mary A, Livermore-"The Battle of Money."

February 9, 1874, Josh Billings-"Specimen Bricks." February 27, 1874, John B. Gough-" Peculiar People." March 2, 1874, Frederick Douglass-"John Brown."

March 26, 1874, Rev. F. A. Noble, D. D .- " Christian Com- munism."

Receipts from season tickets, $536; from reserved seats, $195; from admission tickets, $263.50. To- tal, $994. Expenses, $1,112.53, including $118.35 paid for chairs. Deficit, $118.53, which, deducted from the balance in the treasury at the close of the last season, still left in the treasury a balance of $51.82.

FOR 1874-5.

December 3, 1874, Rev. W. H. Gill-" William the Silent." December 14, 1874, Daniel Dougherty-" American Poli- tics."

January 20, 1875, Grace Greenwood and Mrs. Sarah Fisher Ames-Impersonations of Various Characters. January 27, 1875, Rev. A. A. Willetts, D. D .- " A Plea for Home."

February 8, 1875, Mrs. Mary A. Livermore-"Concerning Husbands."

March 5, 1875, John B. Gough-" Man and his Masters."

Receipts from season tickets and reserved seats, $479.25; from admission tickets, $229.25; from other sources, $62.93. Total, $771.43. Expenses, $762.40. Surplus, $9.03, which, added to the balance in the treasury at the close of the preceding season, equaled $60.85 as the surplus at the close of the fourth and last course of lectures.

These lectures-those embraced in all the series and courses from 1868 to 1875-evinced ability and research. None of them were devoid of merit or of ideas, sentiments, and information which are well calculated to improve, elevate and purify the public taste and morals. Some of them had a practical bearing upon the affairs and every-day life of all who heard them. Genuine bursts of eloquence, flashes of wit and humor, laughter- provoking fun, and rational amusement were, dur- ing the several series and courses, happily blended with the grave matter and useful knowledge with which they abounded.

As the public interest had evidently begun to wane even in that branch of the association's work, the committee deemed it best not to provide courses of lectures for the last two seasons. Alas! all that remains of that association consists of a few members who would gladly resuscitate it, if cir- cumstances were auspicious, of some of its furni- ture, of a nucleus for a library, and of a small balance in its treasury.

How many more organizations, designed to en- hance moral and intellectual improvement, are destined to rise and fall in this community ? Is some evil genius hovering over Kittanning to blast all such benign enterprises ?

TEMPERANCE SOCIETIES.

The first temperance organization here-the Kittanning Temperance Society-was established at a meeting held in the academy on Wednesday, August 18, 1830, and was auxiliary to the State Temperance Society, at Philadelphia, by which the temperance pledge of those times was adopted, which was not to use ardent spirits unless in cases of bodily hurt or sickness, or provide them for en- tertainment of friends or employés, and to dis- countenance their use throughout the community. How long and effectively it existed I have not learned, yet, as I have heard, for years after the public mind in Massachusetts and other states be- gan to be agitated concerning the enormous evils resulting from the use of intoxicating liquors as beverages, by Kitteridge, and other apostles of temperance, it was hazardous for speakers to pub- licly advocate the cause of temperance and de- nounce the use of and traffic in those intoxicants, in Kittanning. On one occasion, in or about 1836, as the writer is credibly informed, a temperance speaker was in imminent danger of being mobbed, and would have been if he had not been protected by several sturdy and resolute citizens who volun- teered to escort him from the place of meeting to his lodgings, at the Temperance llouse, then kept ·

139

THE BOROUGHI OF KITTANNING.

by Hamlet Totten, in the brick building on lot No. 128, southeast corner of Market and McKean streets. Several years afterward, however, the Washingtonian excitement, which had originated among some confirmed inebriates in a bar-room in Baltimore, who called themselves Washington- ians, extended to Kittanning -the constitution of the Washington Total Abstinence Society was adopted January 12, 1842- and such a change in public sentiment was effected respecting the use of such beverages, that one of the physicians remarked that he found it to be unsafe, or at least unpopular, for him to be seen carrying a bottle of whisky even for medical purposes, and one of the hotel-keepers deemed it prudent for him to temporarily close his bar.

On Thursday evening, January 7, 1842, delegates from the Washington Total Abstinence Society lectured here to a large and attentive audience. Their labors were crowned with success. Between one hundred and two hundred took the pledge, among whom were a goodly number of both tem- perate and intemperate drinkers.

That movement was instrumental in permanently rescuing at least a few from the horrors of drunken- ness. The reformation which it effected in some others was but temporary. The excitement which it caused, though spasmodic, was wholesome. After it subsided, it was followed by another organiza- tion-a close or secret order, the Kittanning Di- vision of the Sons of Temperance, its charter is dated December 23, 1848-which flourished for several years, and was effective in both saving and rescuing a goodly number from drunkenness-some at least permanently-and in helping to make up a correct and wholesome public sentiment. After prospering, with over a hundred members, for several years, it was dissolved in 1853 or 1854.

By the act of April 28, 1854, the qualified voters of this state were authorized to vote at the general election, on the second Tuesday of October, 1854, for and against a law which should entirely pro- hibit the manufacture and sale of intoxicating liquors, except for medicinal, sacramental, mechan- ical and artistical purposes. The vote in this borough was: For the law, 193; against the law, 113; majority for a prohibitory law, 80.

An open temperance society was afterward organized, but was ephemeral.

A juvenile temperance organization, called the Band of Hope, was effected and flourished for a brief period and expired. The light of science clearly discloses that the great harm which liquor- drinking causes to individuals, communities, the state and nation is done by the narcotico acrid

poison contained in even those which are pure. That is what the great chemists tell us alcohol is. The question arises, will the evils of intemperance be completely eradicated until all parents and teachers become persistent and faithful in so bringing the light of science to bear upon the ininds of their children and pupils as to show them that it is poison alone that causes drunken- ness, and thus enlighten their understanding and educate them against its use in any form of a beverage? In this as in other respects,

""Tis education forms the common mind; Just as the twig is bent the tree's inclin'd."

A lodge of another close or secret order, the Good Templars, was organized here December 28, 1868, bearing the name of "Bay Leaf Lodge, No. 654, I. O. of G. T.," holding a legal charter granted by the Grand Lodge of Pennsylvania. Its consti- tution required that "every member shall take a solemn pledge never to make, buy, sell or use as a BEVERAGE any spirituous or malt liquors, wine or cider; and shall also promise to discountenance the manufacture, sale and use thereof in all proper ways."

The total number of enrolled members, male and female, was 206, many of whom were firm in their fealty to the spirit of the constitution of the order. Some, however, soon wavered, and yielded to the temptations of the mocking demon that is concealed even in the purest wine which is "red," which "giveth its color in the cup, which moveth itself aright, and at last biteth like a serpent and stingeth like an adder."

The "Bay Leaf" bloomed with varying vigor until it, too, wilted in the summer heat of 1873.

A lodge of the Temple of Honor, or True Templars, was organized July 9, 1869. Its enrolled members numbered about 90. The discipline of this temperance order is more rigid than that of the Good Templars. It is claimed that its mem- bers, by their vigilance and concerted action, thwarted a well-laid plan of the liquor men to prevent this borough from giving a majority against license to sell intoxicating liquors at the election of 1873. That lodge was suspended in December, 1875.

That both of those lodges were effective in doing good while they lasted cannot, I think, be denied. Their decline is but the fate common to · kindred organizations which had preceded them.

An informant who has been cognizant of the state of affairs in this county for more than half a century says: "Profanity and drunkenness and horse-racing and fisticuffing were more prevalent, in proportion to the population, in the forepart of that period than they are now."

140

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

By the act of March 27, 1872, commonly called the local option law, the question of granting or not granting license to sell intoxicating liquors as beverages was to be triennially submitted to a vote of the people of the respective counties of this state. The vote on that question in this county was taken on Friday, February 28, 1873. The number of votes in the borough against license was 184, and for it 139; a majority of 45 against it.

Since the decadence of the above-mentioned temperance organizations and the repeal of the local option law, the only restraints upon the liquor traffic have been the penalties of the present license law and such checks as public sentiment affords.

SECRET AND BENEVOLENT SOCIETIES.

The Masonic Lodge, No. 244, was constituted March 12, 1850. Its place of meeting was in the third story, fronting on Market street, in the brick building on the southwest corner of Market and Jefferson streets, on lot No. 126, until it was trans- ferred to the third story of the brick building on the southeast corner of Market and Jefferson streets, on the old court-house square, which is still occupied by the lodge. The present number of members is 120.

The Orion Chapter of Royal Arch Masons was constituted in June, 1874, and has about 75 members.

Lodge No. 340, Independent Order of Odd Fel- lows, was instituted March 31, 1849. Its charter was surrendered December 5, 1853. This lodge was resuscitated and reorganized August 10, 1857. Members, 100. Its hall is in the third story of the above-mentioned brick building, on lot No. 126, fronting on Jefferson street.

Echo Encampment, a branch of the Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was instituted November 19, 1873. Its hall is in the third story of Orr's building, on Market, third door below Mckean street.

Ariel Lodge, No. 688, Independent Order of Odd Fellows, was instituted in November, 1869. Its hall is in the third story of McCulloch's building, on the old court-house square, corner of Jefferson street and an alley, the first alley below Market street, being one of the alleys laid ont when the lots in that square were laid ont by the county . commissioners for the purpose of sale. Mem- bers, 80.

Knights of Pythias, Lodge No. 296, was organ- ized May 10, 1871. Members, about 40. Its hall is in the third story of Orr's building, near the northwest corner of Market and McKean streets .!

INDEPENDENT MILITARY ORGANIZATIONS.

Besides the companies organized and drilled under the militia laws of the state, the first inde- pendent or volunteer company organized after the war of 1812 was the Armstrong Guards, whose organization was maintained until, perhaps, after 1830. There is in an old Columbian, also in an old Gazette, an order, dated June 21, 1828, issued by the late Isaac Scott, orderly sergeant, by order of the captain, for that company to parade precisely at nine o'clock A. M., Friday, July 4, then next, at the court-house, with arms and acconterments in complete order for training, each member to fur- nish himself with thirteen rounds of blank car- tridges. The captains of that ancient company were Thomas McConnell, Thomas Blair, John R. Johnston, James McCullough and John Reynolds. The two last named are the only ones still living. It was reorganized in 1844, and was ordered to meet for parade at the court-house at 4 P. M., Satur- day, May 23, of that year. The captains of the latter were James Rowlands, A. L. Robinson and Andrew Mosgrove.

The next company appears to have been the Independent Blues. The writer has not been able to learn when it was disbanded. The latest which he has respecting it is an order issued by Hamlet Totten, orderly sergeant, by order of the captain, dated January 20, 1836, for the company to parade at the court-house on Monday, February 22, then next, in complete winter uniform (blue pantaloons, etc.), with ammunition for twenty rounds of firing. Notice was also given that an appeal would be held on that day at the Temperance House, then kept by H. Totten, southeast corner of Market and McKean streets, where absentees might attend, and that new rifles would be given to such mem- bers as then appeared in full uniform.

The third company was the Washington Blues, which was organized about 1845. Its captain, Wm. Sirwell, and its first lieutenant, Wilson Col- well, and its second lieutenant, Daniel Crum, were in the Union military service in the late civil war. Both of these lientenants fell in battle, the former at South Mountain and the latter in the Wilder- ness.

The young ladies of Kittanning, July 4, 1846, presented to that company a beautiful silk flag, at the house of the late George Reynolds, on Water, between Arch and Market streets. The presenta- tion speech was made by Philip Templeton, colonel of the 126th regt. of Pennsylvania Militia, which was responded to by George Rodgers.

The Armstrong Rifles, Capt. F. Mechling, and later the German Yeagers and the Brady Alpines

REYNOLDS HOUSE

REYNOLDS HOUSE.

THE PEOPLES STORE. DRUGS & MEDICINES.

ON EXPRESS CO

WILL. A. MORRISON. [GEO. S. ROHRER & CO.)

DRUGS G.S. ROHRER&CO

TOILET ARTICLES

HATRES IRIUMERIS

UNION EXPRESS CO.

WILL. A. MORRISON.

G.S. ROHRER. F.G. SCHOTTE.

REYNOLDS

HOUSE.

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THE BOROUGH OF KITTANNING.

were organized by Col. Sirwell. The Yeagers, Capts. Ingles and Cantwell, and the Alpines, Capt. Sirwell, were consolidated at or shortly before the beginning of the rebellion, and most, if not all, of their members were in the military service during the war.

BANDS.

The first brass band was organized in 1858, and consisted of twelve pieces. Its leader was G. A. Schotte. The organization continued until 1861, when, and in the following year, several of its members went into the army. A reorganization was subsequently effected by the accession of other members. That band accompanied the company of three months men, and afterward Company A, 8th Reserves, to Pittsburgh, and was the first one present on the occasion of Ex-Gov. William F. Johnston making his first great war speech from the steps of his residence in that city. It was also in attendance at the various war meetings held in this county during the rebellion, for recruiting men for the army. In 1860, there was a schism in the band, which was caused by some of its members wishing to play for the Presbyterian, and others for the Episcopal Sabbath school on the 4th of July, and from which resulted a law suit-an action of replevin, Henry vs. Robinson, No. 15, Septem- ber Term, 1860, for the bass drum, sticks and cymbals, which were in the possession of and re- tained by the defendant, who adhered to the Presbyterian side of the controversy. The case was tried and a verdict rendered for the defendant. By consent, a motion for a new trial was granted, and discontinuance entered by the plaintiff. Several, if not all, of the instruments were de- stroyed by the fire which occurred August 7, 1862. The present cornet band was organized in Novem- ber, 1874, and consists of fifteen pieces. The in- struments were partly, if not wholly, ordered from Germany. For several months after the organiza- , tion, experienced teachers taught and drilled the members in the theory and practice of music, and fair progress has thus far been made.

BOAT CLUBS.

There have been organized, at different times, several boat clubs. The last one was the Arm- strong Boat Club, organized in the summer of 1873, and consisted of a goodly number of young men, who entered into the enterprise with much zest and vigor. They procured a neat, well- equipped, narrow, sharp-pointed boat, sixty feet long, which they named the " Alhambra." A re- gatta occurred between that and a Pittsburgh club, on the Allegheny river, over the space of about a

mile from and above the Kittanning bridge, in which the latter was victorious by reason, it is said, of the breaking of one of the former's oars. These boat clubs, like various other voluntary or- ganizations that have from time to time sprung up here, were ephemeral.

MANUFACTURES.

Besides the usual and various mechanical trades carried on in a town or borough, several branches of other manufactures have been established and prosecuted from time to time and for varying periods.

Hand-wrought nails were manufactured by John Miller, deceased, from 1811 to 1813 ; by Alexander Colwell, deceased, in 1814-15, and by Robert Speer from 1816 till 1825, on lot No. 122, on the northeast corner of Market and Jefferson streets, excepting that Mr. Speer occupied lot No. 143, on the northwest corner of Mckean street and the public alley intersecting it, during at least a por- tion, probably the latter portion, of the time that he was engaged in the business.

Alexander Reynolds, then a schoolboy, now an iron-master, employed his leisure hours in assisting Mr. Colwell in making nails, thus earning six and a fourth cents a day, which he doubtless regarded as a liberal compensation for his time and labor thus usefully and, because so, honorably spent, for all useful labor is honorable, in acquiring a knowl- edge of a useful art and enjoying the amusement which that employment afforded him. The iron from which those nails were wrought was trans- ported hither from east of the Allegheny moun- tains on pack-horses.

The first foundry was started as an experiment in 1843, by Adams & Thompson, on the upper side of Grant avenue, on out-lot No. 25 or 26, nearly opposite to the public alley between and parallel to Market and Jacob streets. It was operated at first by horse power, and afterward by steam. About three-fourths of a ton of pig metal was used per week in making plow-points, the other iron- work of plows, and other agricultural utensils. Those proprietors, after running it about six months, sold it to parties by the name of Wann, who ran it about a year, but did not find it a profit- able experiment. The next foundry was connected with the rolling-mill.

Anderson & Buffington's foundry went into operation about June, 1853, and was destroyed by fire in March following. Its site was on lot No. 206, on the west side of Jefferson street. It was rebuilt and operated by Mr. Anderson for awhile, then by Anderson & Buffington. For the last few

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

years it has been operated by Anderson & Mar- · shall. Its average consumption of pig metal has been about two and a half tons at each of the three heats per week. Its products are stoves and a general assortment of iron castings.

Hulings & Robinson's, afterward Robinson & Crawford's foundry, went into operation about 1857-8, and continued until May, 1876, when it was closed by reason of the dissolution of partner- ship, caused by the death of Mr. Robinson, which occurred in the winter previous. It was situated on lot No. 84, corner of Arch street and the public alley between, and parallel to, Mckean and Jeffer- son streets. From three to four tons of pig metal were consumed each week, in the production of stoves, machinery, and various other iron castings. An explosion occurred at this foundry September 23, 1870, by which James Kerr, an employé, was seriously and permanently injured, the building was considerably damaged, and the boiler pro- pelled with so great foree that it penetrated the brick wall of the then dwelling of Judge Boggs, and was deposited in the middle of the dining-room, in which no one except his aged aunt happened to be at that time. She was slightly. injured. Had that casualty occurred half an hour later, the family would have been at dinner, and most if not all of them would probably have been killed or severely injured. Mccullough's National foundry, on lot No. 240, west side of the lower end of McKean street, was built and put in operation in 1873. From sixteen and a half to eighteen tons of pig metal are used weekly in producing stoves and a general assortment of iron castings.

The rolling-mill was built in 1847, and was put in operation in January, 1848. The cost was chiefly furnished by the solid men of Kittanning. The original firm name was the Kittanning Iron Works. Then in the mutations of ownership the firm names were Brown, Phillips & Co., Brown, Floyd & Co., R. L. Brown & Co., Martin, Brickel & Co., and Meredith, Neale & Titzell. Connected with it were a foundry and nail factory. The pro- ducts were common bar, rod, sheet and hoop iron, nails, and castings. It gave employment, while in full operation, to about 150 men, and thus afforded support to about 750 persons. Other beneficial effects were a considerable impetus to the general business of the borough, and an in- creased demand and consumption of, and a cash market for, agricultural products. Its benefits in these respects were sensibly felt while it was in operation, and the loss of them was sadly realized in the several intervals during which it was tem- porarily idle, and since it became, at least thus far,

permanently so. The buildings and machinery were so much injured by fire Wednesday night, December 18, 1867, that the then proprietors, Mar- tin, Brickel & Co., did not repair them, but subsequently sold their interest therein to Mere- dith, Ncale & Titzeli, who repaired them, and operated the works until March, 1873, since which time they have been idle. They are now owned by Brown, Colwell & Mosgrove. There were con- nected with that rolling mill sixteen puddling and five heating furnaces, three trains of rolls, twenty- two nail machines, and one squeezer .. Its annual capacity is said to have been seven thousand tons.

The Kittanning Iron Company (limited), consist- ing of James E. Brown,* James Mosgrove, J. A. Colwell, Henry A. Colwell and C. T. Neale, of Kittanning, and several Pittsburgh men, associated under the name and style of Groff, Bennett & Company, organized in October, 1879, with a capital of $150,000, purchased the property of the last named firm, and, enlarging their facilities, began iron manufacture on an extensive scale. This company built a large blast furnace, the capacity of which is at least 15,000 tons per annum, the product of which is in part sold and in part manufactured by the company into muck bar. New puddling furnaces were constructed and old ones repaired, until at present (1883) the works include thirty-three. The company has, besides, all of the machinery necessary for the manufacture of iron in all its forms. The product of the furnace and the mill reaches a value of about $600,000 per annum. Fully $100,000 has been expended by the company in the erection of buildings, repairs, purchase of machinery and in building railroad side-tracks, etc. The company owns several thou- sand acres of iron land and leases several thousand more in the Allegheny valley, in Armstrong and Clarion counties, the ore from which is used with- out admixture in their blast furnace. When the pig-iron goes to the puddling furnaces it is mingled with about one-fourth its own bulk or weight of lake ore. The coke used is also manufactured at works from coal mined in the immediate vicinity.

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History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 30

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