History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 38

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

USA > Pennsylvania > Armstrong County > History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania > Part 38

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).

176

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

east 72 perches to a post; thence south 264 degrees east 28 perches to stones; thence south 634 degrees west 42 perches to a post; thence north 264 de- grees west 5.3 perches to a post; thence south 634 degrees west 22.7 perches to the place of begin- ning, containing eleven acres and ninety-seven perches.

The site of this borough is on the upper or northern part of a long narrow tract, originally surveyed to John Montgomery and Alexander Stewart, March 25, 1769, which lay between the John Elder, John Collier and Robert McKee tracts and the Allegheny river. To that upper part of the Montgomery and Stewart tract Peter Shaeffer acquired title by occupancy, and is included in the warrant issued to him, dated December 3, 1824, and in the patent to him, dated June 8, 1836, and portions of which he conveyed, July 11, 1855, to David Boyd, viz., 60 acres and 37 perches for $249.25, and February 17, 1859, to Thomas Don- nelly, viz., II acres for $2,450. The former con- veyed his tract, September 10, 1859, to Thomas J. Brereton, J. Thos. Johnston, H. Brady Wilkins and Charles H. Shattuck for $1,125; the last- named confirmed his title thereto to the others, viz., Brereton, Johnston & Co., May 10, 1860, and the latter conveyed his tract, June 4, 1860, to that company for $10,000. The Aladdin Oil Works, or Refinery, were erected by that company in 1859 for the manufacture of oil from cannel coal by the same process as that of the North American Oil Works in Allegheny township. Abont 1863 they commenced distilling petroleum. From 1870 until 1876 these works were run by Dr. H. W. C. Tweddle for manufacturing refined and lubricat- ing oils and paraffine. They were then purchased by the Standard Oil Company. The quantity of crude oil consumed in those manufactures was about 8,000 barrels a month. The number of men employed was from thirty to forty. The crude oil has been for some time received by a pipe line from the oil wells. The operation of the oil works has been suspended and resumed several times since they were built. Some of their products at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia so attracted the attention of some of the foreign visitors and scientists as to induce them to visit Aladdin and examine the works.

Natural gas was first discovered in Leechburgh in 1870 by Jos. E. Beale and others while drilling a test well for oil, and was first utilized for the manufacture of iron in the Leechburgh Iron Works in 1872, being conducted into the furnaces by pipes leading into the mill from the wells. A patent has been asked for and is yet in litigation

in regard to the same. It has since been used for the manufacture of iron near Pittsburgh by parties who laid a pipe line some eighteen miles from the producing wells to their works. It is also now in use for the manufacture of steel by the open hearth process by Jos. E. Beale in his West Pennsylvania Steel Works at Leechburgh, the place of its first utilization. It is acknowledged by all who have any knowledge of it to be the finest fuel for the man- ufacture of iron or steel ever discovered; being so free from all the injurious ingredients of which coal is composed, and being so easily controlled and applied makes it invaluable for the purposes named. It can also be applied for burning brick, smelting iron ores and purposes of that kind, so that the vicinities where it is found, that are convenient to transportation, have advantages for the manufactur- ing of steel and iron that cannot be competed with.

The first election was held by order of the court at the office of the Aladdin Oil Company, Decem- ber 18, 1861. E. B. Barton was elected the first burgess, and Babteste Scott, P. Donnelly, D. Shair, William Gillman and James Boyle, the first coun- cilmen.

The vote on the license question was ten for, and none against, granting licenses to sell intoxicating liquors.

SCHOOLS.

A frame one-story building was erected, probably in 1867-8, which is used for a free school and for religious meetings. The first school report is for the year ending first Monday of June, 1869.

In 1869 there was one school; No. months taught, 5; female teacher, 1; salary per month, $28; m .. le scholars, 19; female scholars, 12; average number attending school, 23; cost per month, $1.16; amount tax levied for school and building purposes, $177.28; received from tax collectors and other sources, $218.28; from state appropriation, $8.50; cost of instruction, $140; fuel and contingencies, $30.25; cost of schoolhouse, $39.83; balance on hand, $8.23.

In 1874 there was one school; number months taught, 4; one female teacher; salary per month, $28; male scholars, 8; female scholars, 14; average attendance, 19; cost per month, $1.48; received from state appropriation, $8.16; from taxes and other sources, $164.98; total, $173.14 ;- cost school houses, etc., $24; paid for teacher's wages, $112; for fuel, contingencies, etc., $18.30; resources, $10.68. There has been no annual report since 1874.

STATISTICS.

Population in 1870, native, 23 ; foreign, 6; total, 29. Number of taxables this year 17, and the population 78.

177

ALLEGHENY TOWNSHIP.

The assessment list for 1876 shows thus : Oil refinery, $11,000. Occupations - manager, 1 ; re- finer, 1 ; stillmen, 2 ; laborers, 7 ; firemen, 2 ; me- chanic, 1 ; miner, 1.

GEOLOGICAL.

The formations just below the mouth of the Kis- kiminetas are, it is presumed, quite similar to those just above its mouth. They are, therefore, given as indicating what are immediately above.

"On the lands of Mr. Stuart and Mr. Dodd, on the east side of the Allegheny, below the month of the Kiskiminetas, the slaty cannel coal is sep- arated from the bright bituminous bed by from six to eight feet of slate. The cannel stratum averages five feet in thickness. The Freeport sandstone beneath forms massive ledges along the railroad. On the east side of the Allegheny the coals are at a much higher level than on Buf- falo creek, owing to a local rise in the strata, but there can be no difficulty in identification. A

proximate analysis of Dodd's cannel coal by Dr. Alter, develops thirty-four per cent of volatile matter. From twenty-two pounds of the coal he obtained thirty-three ounces of crude oil, a gallon of which yielded one ounce of paraffine, besides coal tar, lighter oils, benzole, etc.

" One and one-half miles above the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, are fine exposures of the Freeport sandstone, dipping both west and north (falsely bedded, perhaps). Two and a half miles above its mouth, the Upper Freeport coal is about one hun- dred and eight feet above the canal, due east and twenty-five feet higher than at Freeport. Four miles above the mouth at (what used to be) Otter- man's and Cochran's salt works, the Freeport sand- stone has passed the fourth axis and descended below water level, dipping southeast. There the Upper Freeport coal is sixty-nine feet above the canal, all the strata below it being shales. At the canal level are black shales from four to five feet thick. The mass of shales dips up the river rapidly, and at the same time changes into sand- stone beds still interstratified with shales.

"A fourth of a mile below" Leechburgh "the following section exhibits the coal at a much lower elevation" than there : Descending from the sur- face-" shale, 9 feet ; Upper Freeport coal, 3 feet 3 inches ; shale, 22 inches; coal, 7 inches ; shale, 3 feet. Freeport limestone, blue, 2 feet; soft sandstone, 1 foot; shale, 17 feet to bed of Pine run, not much above slack wåter.

"This appears to be about the middle line of the Fourth Basin. In the middle of the basin both coal and limestone seem thin and irregular.

"At Leechburg, five and a fourth miles above the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, above which is a gentle undulation of the strata, the following sec- tion of rocks was obtained at the quarries : Sand- stone and shale, 16 feet ; Upper Freeport coal, 4} feet, 63 feet above slack water ; blue-black shale, 14 inches ; light shale, 6 inches ; coal, 4 inches ; light shale, 14 inches; iron ore, 3 inches ; Free- port limestone, 1 foot; calc slate, shale, 3 feet ; shale and large chunks of limestone, 33 feet ; lime- stone, 32 inches ; shale, with calcareous nodules and flags, 5 feet; calcareons shales, 6 feet 8 inches ; shale, sandstone, etc., 3 feet; sandstone, 1 foot ; shales, a little bituminous, 1 foot ; blue fer- riferous shale, 7 feet ; shale and sandstone, 6 feet ; massive Freeport sandstone, 42 feet; Lower Free- port coal, interstratified with slate, 4 feet.

"The Freeport sandstone, near the water's edge, is a fine quartzose conglomerate, containing vege- table impressions and pebbles of nodular carbon- ate of iron, of all sizes, and so numerous as to compose the whole mass of the rock for a thick- ness of 6, 8, or even 10 inches. A slip appears to combine with the original obligne bedding of the sandstone to express to the eye of the spec- tator an unconformity of stratification at the upper limit of the sandstone, and upon its apparently up- heaved edges rests the calcareous slates and coal above. Something similar may be observed else- where along the Kiskiminetas, at a point- seven miles below Saltsburgh.

" At the salt works, half a mile above Leech- burgh, the upper Freeport coal, three and a half feet thick, covered by sixteen feet of shale, is sixty- two and a half feet above slackwater and sinks to an altitude of fifty feet for the next two miles up the river, and is there three and a half feet thick, covered by two feet of black slate and this by eight feet of sandstone." (Rogers' Geology of Pennsylvania.)

It is inferrible, then, that Leechburgh is near the synclinal axis of the Fourth Basin," i. e. the line along which the opposite descending strata meet. The Fourth Basin lies between the anti- clinals of the Fourth and Fifth, or the axes of the Third and Fourth Basins. The anticlinal of the Fifth, or axis of the Fourth Basin, passes northeast and southwest about two and three-fourths miles to the northwest of Leechburgh on to the Kiskimine- tas. The distance by a straight line from the anti-

* According to the geologists there was in the formation of the various strata a great wave from north to south, but between the Allegheny mountains and the highland in Erie county, Pennsylva- nia, there were six minor eross waves from northeast to southwest, which they eall the Six Coal Basins. The synelinal of a basin is i:s bottom, or the line along which its opposite slopes meet ; its anticlinal is the line along the top or crest of its southeastern sl pe ; and its axis is the line along the top or erest of its north western slope.

178

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

elinal of the Fifth Basin through Leechburgh to the anticlinal of the Fourth Basin is about ten and three-fourths miles. If there are oil-bearing rocks in the Fourth Basin the oil in them will be tapped at a less depth on the slopes than at the center of the basin, that is, the line along which the strata of each descending slope meet. The northwestern slope of the Fourth Basin appears to be about three miles, while its southeastern slope is about seven and three-fourths miles from the respective anticlinals to its center, or synelinal axis. The difference in the depth of a partienlar rock or stratum at the center and along the slopes up to the anti- clinals will of course be in proportion to the degree of ascent from the center to the anticlinals, provided no local changes occur to vary the regular interval between water-level and the desired rock or stratum.

About 75,000 perches of sandstone have been taken out of the quarries near Jacksonville, or Bagdad, and sent to market, by Samuel Bowers and his employés, worth $3 a perch delivered on the eanal boat.

For the geological features or indications of the northern part of Allegheny township the reader is referred to those elsewhere given as those along Crooked creek.

The following is the record of the Leechburgh gas well, furnished to J. F. Carll, of the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, by Joseph G. Beale : The well mouth is about fifteen feet below the level of the West Pennsylvania railroad depot at that point. Conduetor, 22 feet; sand rock, 50; lime- stone, with gas and water, 6; fireclay, 12; soft, loose shale, 200 ; blue pebble, 60; sandstone, white, 15; pebble, dark, 12; soapstone, 18; blue roek, 5; red rock, 8; slate, dark, 35; sandstone, white, with a little salt water, 75; slate, blue, 60; soft blue rock, 100; sandstone, gray, 20; soapstone, 100; rock, soft and changeable, with salt water, 152; sandstone, white, 30; shale, 200; blue rock, hard shells, 20; pebble and sand roek mixed, present gas vein, 30 ; blue roek and hard shells, 20; depth of well 1,250 feet. The great flow of gas is about 50 feet above the bottom of the well and comes (observes Frank-

lin Pratt, assistant geologist in charge of the second geological survey of Armstrong and several other counties) from the first sand rock. No coal beds are mentioned as having been passed through in drilling this well, yet coals were struck in boring various salt wells between that point and the Alle- gheny river. The flow of gas is apparently as strong now as when it was first struck.

Levels above tide, at stations on the West Penn- sylvania Railroad, along the left bank of the Kiskiminetas. The datum is the mean tide in the Schuylkill river at the Philadelphia Market street bridge. Add seven feet to each to ascertain its elevation above the mean Atlantic Ocean level : Helena, 1010 feet above tide; Salina, 948 feet ; Northwest, 887 feet; Roaring Run, 820 feet ; Apollo, 816 feet ; Townsend's Summit, 880 feet ; Grinder's (near Leechburgh), 820 feet ; Bagdad, or Hill's Mills, 773 feet ; Allegheny, or West Penn- sylvania Junction, as corrected by J. F. Carll, 790.64 feet. (Ibid, N.)

Along the Allegheny river, between the above- mentioned Junction and Crooked Creek : North- west, inside corner of north abutment of Kiski- minetas bridge, 793.21 feet above ocean ; opposite mile post, 795 feet ; bench mark on lower inside corner of north wall of culvert, 795.3 feet ; oppo- site Aladdin station, 792.9 feet ; opposite mile post, 786 feet ; opposite mile post, 779.6 feet ; B. M. on npper inside corner of south abutment of bridge No. 32, 779.8 feet ; opposite mile post, 784.3 feet ; B. M. on lower inside corner of north wall of culvert, 781.7 feet ; opposite White Rock Sta- tion, 782.4 feet ; opposite mile post, 780.4 feet ; B. M. on lower inside corner of north wall of culvert, 778 feet ; opposite Kelly's Station, 780.6 feet ; opposite mile post, 781.3 feet ; B. M. on " Hickory Right," 315 feet north of 35th mile post, 794.32 feet ; opposite mile post, 784.3 feet ; B. M. on lower inside corner of north wall of culvert, 782.7 feet ; opposite Logansport Station, 785 feet ; opposite mile post, 785.5 feet ; opposite mile post, 787.9 feet ; B. M. on upper inside corner of sonth abut- ment of bridge No. 38, 789 feet.

CHAPTER VI.

KITTANNING.

Blanket Hill - Relics of the Battle Fonght There-Original Tracts of Land in the Township- Residents in 1805 -Beers' Mills-John Guld -A Circle Hunt- The Paper Town of "Benton" - Churches- Popula- tion - Temperance - Postal - Humboldt Gardens - Geology.

K ITTANNING township, since it has been shorn of so much of its original territory as is now included in that of six other entire town- ships and in the major part of two others, as at present formed, is one of the most regular in shape in the county, being nearly a parallelogram in that respect, as it appears on the map.

The earliest notable event that occurred on the present territory of this township was the des- perate fight between Lieut. Hogg and a superior force of Indians, described in the general sketch of the country, on what has since been called Blanket Hill, being on the tract originally sur- veyed on a warrant to Christian Signitz, dated February 4, 1776, and, the same day, conveyed to Joseph Cauffman by deed, the executors of whose surviving executor, June 30, 1834, conveyed it to Frederick Hileman and John Cravener ; Hileman having conveyed the larger part of his interest therein to Cravener, the latter conveyed his inter- est April 1, 1844, to Philip Dormyer-commonly called Dunmire.

Besides the relics of the Blanket Hill battlefield, elsewhere mentioned, is a one-edged sword, found by John Nolder, which came into the possession of Gen. Orr. The blade had not been much injured by rust when it was found, but the wood part of the hilt had completely decayed, nothing but the silver mounting having been left. Its appearance did not indicate that it had been in its scabbard when it was lost. Various other relics have been found there at different times, viz. : a spear six- teen or eighteen inches long, an arm carried, in 1756, by a commissioned officer ; the iron and brass of a pistol ; a gun barrel ; a black quart bottle, broken in two pieces, the glass remarkably thick ; and a piece of brass with a curious device on it representing several Indians in different attitudes, supposed to have been a large clasp of a sword- belt. About sixty-two years ago, Samuel Nolder found the iron-bound bucket, heretofore mentioned, hanging on the limb of a tree, which had probably swung there since that battle.

About or soon after the beginning of the revo-

lutionary war, as related to the writer by Mrs. Joseph Clark, Fergus Moorhead and Andrew Simp- son were, as their turn came, sent ont from the blockhouse at or near the site of the borough of Indiana on a scout of two weeks' duration, which was extended to the Allegheny river probably by what Jacob Waltenbough says was the Pullen path, which branched off from a tree on the farm now owned by Peter Heilman, and strnek that river near the mouth of Garrett's run. On their return they were unexpectedly surrounded by Indians in the vicinity of Blanket hill. Simpson was shot and scalped in the presence of Moorhead, and soon afterward the latter's horse was shot. He was then taken prisoner by the Indians and rapidly driven on ahead of them. One of them wrote a letter in English, placed it against a tree and secured it from the rain by placing it in a saddle, the purport of which was that that affair was nothing compared with what the English set- tlers might expect. When Moorhead learned that the Indian could talk English, he inquired why they didn't shoot him as well as Simpson. The Indian replied that they had shot and missed him three times, and that the Great Spirit wouldn't allow them to shoot at the same person more than three times. Those scouts had a supply of veni- son, which the Indians took and dealt out to their prisoner as rations. After it was exhausted the Indian fare was hard and unpalatable. They took him to Quebec and delivered him up to the English, where he was kept in garrison until he was released on his parole of honor. It was about nine months from the time he left Indiana until he returned.

The above-mentioned letter was found, soon after it was written, by another party that was sent out in search of those scouts, who found the body of the one that was killed and the other's horse.

Col. Archibald Lochry, in his letter to Thomas Wharton, Jr., president of the Supreme Executive Council of Pennsylvania, dated " Westmoreland, ye 20th May, 1777," stated among other things

180

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

that on his arrival on the 4th of April he found the county in a confused situation. The alarm of the killing of Simpson and the absence of Moor- head struck the people with such terror that they fled from the frontiers into the heart of the settle- ments, and great numbers of them over the moun- tains. In order to prevent them from entirely evacuating the country, he stated that he had ven- tured to raise sixty men and station them on the frontier between Two Licks and the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, in four divisions, under command of two captains and two lieutenants, which covered that frontier so well that the people generally had returned to their plantations and resumed their labors. It will be borne in mind that the terri- tory of this township was then in Westmoreland county, over which Lochry's anthority as county lieutenant extended.

James White, of Pine township, informed the writer that John Guld was with Simpson when he was killed, and escaped down Cherry run toward Crooked creek, and that the Indians, after chasing him several miles, captured and kept him seven years.

The following are the orignal tracts within the present limits of this township : George Gray,* 324.7 acres, partly in Manor township, seated by William Hurtman ; a part of the Michael Huffnagle traet ; Robert Smith traet, 317 aeres, partly in Bur- rell, seated by John King ; the Charles Uhl or John Phillips traet, 335 acres, southwest corner in Bur- rell, seated by John Shall; the William Stewart tract, 415 acres, partly in Burrell, seated by John Serfoos ; the James Todd tract, 4394 acres, partly in Burrell and Plum creek, seated by John Alt- man ; the Thos. Smith, Sr., traet, 411 acres, seated by Jacob Hankey and - Shised ; Thomas Smith, Jr., tract, 415 acres ; the John Smith tract, 337 aeres, seated by Jacob Waltenbough and Philip Hartman ; the Robert S. Steele tract, 341.9 acres, seated by John Shotts ; the Jacob Rudolph tract, 366 aeres ; the Robert Smith, Jr., tract, 400 acres ; the Jacob Neninger tract, 330.9 acres, seated by Michael Hartman ; the Charles Grubb tract, 330.4 acres, seated by John and Daniel Hileman ; the Jacob Lindeg traet, 339.9 acres, seated by Henry King ; the Martha Phillips traet, 345 acres, seated by George Wensel ; the John Smith traet, 346 acres ; the Martin Dubbs tract, 3653 acres, seated by James Patton ; the Peter Thompson tract, 319.4 acres; the Charles Betts tract, 416.8 acres ; the John Schenck traet, 301.8 acres, seated by Fred'k Hileman and George Olinger ; the Christian Sig-

nitz tract, 406.4 acres, seated by Daniel Yundt, Jr .; the Nathan'l Lewis tract, 380.7 acres, seated by Hugh Blaney ; the Isaac Franks tract, 395.4 acres ; the William Cooper tract, 408.4 acres, partly in Plum creek ; the Samuel Smith, Sr. (member of assembly from Bucks county, Pennsylvania, in 1777-8), tract, 416.8 acres, seated by Robert Laf- ferty ; the Samuel Smith, Jr., tract, 387.8 acres ; the Thomas Hutchinson tract, 300.8 acres, partly in Plum creek, seated by Henry Bowers ; the John Ewing tract, 400.6 acres, partly in Valley ; the William Henderson tract, 328 acres, seated by Sebastian Bowers ; the Peter Thompson tract, 407.6 acres ; the Fred'k Rohrer, Jr., tract, 330 acres, seated by John Cravenor; the Thomas Salter tract, 3843 acres ; the Robert Smith tract, 399.8 acres ; the Jonathan Shoemaker tract, 312.2 acres ; the Philip Clemburg tract, 2944 acres ; the John Guld tract, 3593 acres, seated by Andrew Lopeman ; the Moses Bartram tract, 338} acres, partly in Valley, seated by Jacob Schreeengost ; the Christopher Oury (or Ourich ) tract, 312} acres, seated by Richard Graham and Abram Tis- cus ; the Frederick Kuhl tract, 3132 acres, seated by Adam Olinger ; the John Pomeroy tract, 2833 acres, seated by George Williams ; the Fred'k Rohrer tract, 90 acres, seated by Francis Rupp ; the Francis Rupp traet, 157 acres, seated by him- self ; the Benjamin Hogan tract, 352 acres, seated by Daniel Fitzgeralds ; the Peter Hileman tract, 200 acres, seated by himself ; the John Carson tract, 319 acres, partly in Manor, seated by Daniel Bouch ; the Tobias Long tract, 341} acres, seated by Daniel Hileman and Adam Waltenbough ; the Benjamin Scheckengaust tract, 200 acres, seated by himself.

In the southwestern corner of the township a run empties into Crooked creek at the upper or north- ern part of the loop, which received in early times the name of "Horny Camp run," because the In- dians hung deers' horns on the trees along its banks. Some years ago-Jacob Waltenbough, now ninety-one years of age, from his early life familiar with the Crooked creek region, thinks it was in 1840 -a tree was cut down on the land of a Mr. Young, in which some deers' horns were found, covered by the growth of the tree and par- tially decayed.

The Jacob Lindeg tract was called '" Medway "; the warrant is dated May 12, 1773; Lindeg con- veyed his interest to Andrew Groff, to whom John Penn and John Penn, Jr., issued their patent, dated July 4, 1776. It was sold for taxes in 1818 to Robert Orr, Jr., who conveyed it to Henry King December 8, 1821, for two hundred and twenty-five dollars.

* An original member of the Board of Wars, appointed by the Supreme Executive Council March 12, 1777.

181

KITTANNING TOWNSHIP.

The Benjamin Ilogan tract was called " Worms;" patent to Joseph Cauffman August 2, 1781, the executors of whose surviving executor conveyed it to Daniel Fitzgeralds July 27, 1827, for $1,409.

The Tobias Long tract was called " Georgia," and one hundred and seventeen acres of it became vested in Adam Waltenbough by deed in Decem- ber, 1807.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 38

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