History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 39

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

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The Robert Smith, Jr., tract was called "Eras- mus." The proprietor advertised it for sale in the Western Eagle September 20, 1810, and described it as " situate on a run on the north side of Crooked creek, about one mile southeast of Adam Walten- bough's, and about the same distance from Michael Hertman's-Hertman lives west of this tract. About four miles to the Kittanning county town." He also stated that families might have from forty to fifty acres, planting six fruit trees of different kinds on each acre-to erect such buildings as would best suit themselves, to keep the land im- proved and under good fence, and to supply rails in the place of those decayed; and that there was a prospect of several very public roads passing through that land by the then next summer or fall, which would be " a market at the door for produce raised." Those who wished to make such improve- ments were directed to apply to William Craw- ' ford or Robert Sloan. The warrant for this tract is dated September 13, 1784, and the survey Sep- tember 3, 1787.

The George Stine tract, a considerable portion of which is in this township, was called " Wheat- field; " the John Smith (337 acre) tract, "Smith's retreat; " the Moses Bartram" tract, "Hopewell," which was conveyed by the executors of the will of Mark Wilcox, deceased, to Thomas McConnell July 17, 1827, for $1,600; the Isaac Franks tract, " Walnut Bottom."

Glancing over the assessment-list for Allegheny township for 1805-6, the writer infers that at least the following-named persons were then residing and had perhaps for several years before resided on the territory now included within the present limits of Kittanning township:

George Beer, gunsmith, 140 acres of land, valued at $115 in 1805, and $126 in 1806, his trade being valued or assessed at $10. Samuel Beer, 30 acres, 1 gristmill and 1 sawmill, 1 horse and 1 head of cattle-total valuation, $69 in 1805, and $74 in 1806. John Beer, 53 acres, 1 head of cattle, $31.50. Daniel Fitzgeralds, 100 acres, 2 horses, 3 cattle,

$160 in 1805, and $155 in 1806. John Guld (often written Gold), 245 acres, I horse, 1 head of cattle, $198.75. Daniel Guld, 76 acres, 4 cattle, $77 in 1805, and $77.50 in 1806. Michael Ilurtman, 2 cattle, $10 in 1805, and $15 in 1806. Peter Hile- man, 200 acres, 1 horse, 2 cattle, $170 in 1805, and $180 in 1806. John Ilileman, single man, $5 in 1806. Daniel Hileman, single man. John Howser, 400 acres, 1 head of cattle, latter $5 in 1805, both in 1806 $220. Jacob Howser, 135 acres, 3 cattle, $116.25 in 1805, and $121.25 in 1806. Jacob Hankey, joiner, 92 acres, $61 in 1806. John King, tailor, 50 acres-trade $10-land $37.50 in 1806. Jacob Lafferty, single man, 150 acres, $75 in 1805, " married a wife," $85 in 1806. Christo- pher Oury, 3003 acres, 1 distillery, 3 horses, 3 cat- tle, $345.50 in 1805, and $350.50 in 1806. Adam Oury; 3 cattle, $15 in 1805. Francis Roop, 157 acres, 1 horse, + cattle, $187. Adam Waltenbough, 100 acres, 1 horse, 1 head of cattle, $65. Thomas Williams, 100 acres, 2 horses, 2 cattle in 1805, $70; no horse, 1 head cattle in 1806, $55. Jacob Wal- tenbough, 1 head cattle in 1805, $5; 163 acres in 1806, $86.50. Peter Waltenbaugh, 80 acres, 2 horses, 1 head of cattle in 1805, $85; only 1 horse in 1806, $75. Daniel Yount, 341 acres in 1805, 1 head of cattle, $175.50; 152 acres in 1806, 2 cattle, $86.

How long before 1805 the mills, assessed to Samuel Beer, were erected is not known, probably two or three years. They were on Big Run, on a part of the John Guld tract. Although then called Beer's Mills, it is possible they at first belonged to Daniel Guld, for John Guld conveyed the portion of his tract on which they were, to Daniel Guld, August 10, 1795, and the latter to Samuel Beer, December 2, 1809, who conveyed the same to John Howser, October 29, 1810, who conveyed it to Ben- jamin Schrecengost in June, 1820. Since his death they have been owned by George Howser and Joseph Frantz, the present proprietor. Some of the chestnut clapboards sawed at that sawmill are still a part of the covering of the outer front side of the house erected by Michael Mechling, on lot No. 120, in Kittanning, in 1804, they having been placed there a few years after its erection. The warrant to John Guld for the tract on which these mills are situated is dated March 22, 1786, and the patent, August 8, 1787. He was a notable man in his day. The writer is informed by one of his descendants, that he was a scout as early as 1749. He was often employed, on account of his fleetness, intrepidity and power of endurance, as a bearer of dispatches from one military post to another, during and after the revolutionary war. He belonged to a company of rangers, and for

* Probably a son of John Bartram, for a long time botanist to Queen Caroline of England, before the revolution, and a brother of William Bartram, who was well known in Pennsylvania, and who published a journal of his travels through the Creek country and among the southern Indians.

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

a while carried the mail from Fort Pitt to or near to the Great Meadows, which point is in what is now Fayette county, between Chestnut Ridge and Laurel Hill. While on one of his scouting tours, a surveyor was shot from his horse by ambushed Indians near Blanket Hill. He finally settled on that tract of land, from which he was occasionally forced by the Indians to flee to the blockhouse on the Allegheny river below the mouth of Fort Run. In part pay of his military services he received a grant of 200 acres of donation land, situated near Mercer, Pennsylvania, which he sold to John Dun- bar for £5. He was frequently in Kittanning dur- ing the latter part of his life, and his Indian-like appearance is still distinctly remembered by some of the oldest citizens of that borough. His last will and.testament is dated December 9, 1815, and it was proven and registered December 19, then instant. Ile thereby devised his plantation in this township to his two sons, John and George, directed that the former should properly keep him the rest of his life, and left bequests of minor value to the rest of his children. It would be naturally supposed that he died between the ninth and nineteenth of that month. Yet the records further show, that on the 7th of May, 1818, he conveyed 183 acres of that tract to his son George for $10 and his keeping the rest of his life, and on the 14th of the same month, seventy acres thereof to Thomas McConnell for $280.40-nearly two years and a half after the probate and registration of his will, which is a singularity.

These mills appear to have been the only ones within the present limits of this township for many years. In 1849-50 John Hileman was assessed with a sawmill, and thereafter Daniel Hileman, which is probably the one near the Hile- man schoolhouse, on a run flowing southeastwardly into the west branch of Cherry run. Jacob Hankey, Jr., was assessed with a sawmill for several years from and after 1852. George Loyster's grist and saw mills, on Spruce run, in the northeastern part of the township, were erected in 1868-9. Martin V. Remaley's steam flourmill, situate about 170 rods in an air line northwest of the Hileman sawmill, was erected in 1872.

For an agricultural people, as the great mass of the inhabitants of this township have been since its first settlement, the number of tradesmen and mechanics usual in every community has been adequate.

From 1828 until 1855 the manufacture of whisky was carried on by a variety of persons at and for different periods, as the assessment lists show. The " Hileman " was regarded as being of very

good quality and had the reputation of being genut- ine among good judges of liquor. At least one person who kept a quantity of it on hand, having occasion to dispense some of it rather freely in a certain emergency, was grievously affected because one or more of its imbibers intimated that it was not good whisky.

A notable point in early times was on the Chris- topher Oury tract, where Richard Graham settled and kept an inn, which was a favorite resort for pleasure parties from Kittanning and elsewhere.

On Wednesday evening, April 3, 1828, a large meeting was held in the borough of Kittanning, of which the late Michael Mechling was chairman and the late Chief Justice Thompson, secretary, for the purpose of organizing a grand circular wolf hunt, for which necessary arrangements were made and the following circle was agreed upon : From the mouth of Pine creek along the Allegheny river to the mouth of Crooked creek, thence up to Cherry run, thence across to Beck's mill (near what is now Oscar), thence to Col. Robert Walker's, and thence to the month of Pine creek. The closing ground was to be on the farm of Richard Graham and the time fixed for the hunt April 22. The result of which was, not the capture of a wolf, but of a num- ber of foxes. It was on that occasion that a cler- gyman inadvertently became intoxicated, for which he was suspended from the ministry by his Pres- bytery, but was subsequently restored to his min- isterial functions. The people then were deeply interested in the hunt, and the marshals and the men whom they respectively controlled were promptly in their places, and as the signal for starting, which was the blowing of horns, passed round the circle they simultaneously commenced moving from the outer circle to the inner ones, each of which was indicated by small bunches of straw placed along on the ground. The huntsmen were mounted on horses and made all the din and noise possible with yells, horns, bells and horse- fiddles, for the purpose of starting the various kinds of game that may have been within the outer circle, which they finally concentrated within the inner- most or smallest circle, where they were to be killed or captured. Some, probably considerable, of the game then started was suffered to escape, says one of the marshals, through gaps in the circles, caused by some of the mounted men stop- ping or slacking the speed of their horses to talk, regardless or perhaps oblivious of the preacher's saying, " There is a time to keep silence and a time to speak." One of the times for the former is, from the nature of the case, while a circle of hunts- men are closing in upon their game.

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KITTANNING TOWNSHIP.

That was also a point for holding military re- views, one of which was on Tuesday, May 21, 1839, of the first battalion of the 126th regiment of the Pennsylvania militia, by the order of Philip Tem- pleton, then the Colonel of that regiment.

" BENTON."

On the 10th of February, 1836, Abraham Fiscus advertised that he had laid out the plat of a new town, bearing that name, on the Armstrong and Indiana turnpike road, about five miles southeast of the borough of Kittanning. He stated that it was "beautifully situated in the midst of a thriving neighborhood and will afford an eligible situation for the prosecution of various branches of busi- ness :" and that on Thursday, March 15, then next, the lots would be offered at public sale, on the premises-a part of the Oury tract. The deed books in the Recorder's office do not show that a single one of these lots was conveyed to a pur- chaser.

CHURCHES.

The first organization of a church within the present limits of this township was Christ's, known in these later times as the one at Rupp's, four miles east of the borough of Kittanning, and one-fourth of a mile north of the Indiana Pike. Its early records were destroyed several years ago by the fire which consumed Mr. Rupp's house, in which they were kept, so that the writer is obliged to de- pend upon reliable tradition for the facts of its early history. Jacob Hileman, now in his eighty- sixth year, who came with his father to the Peter Hileman tract in 1796, and has lived there ever since, remembers of this church having been or- ganized about sixty-five years ago, or about 1811, by Rev. Lambrecht, a Lutheran clergyman. A log meeting-house was soon afterward, probably the next year, erected on ground adjoining the site of the present one, on the five-acre tract given as a donation by Christopher Oury for church pur- poses. The Lutheran and German Reformed con- gregations had for awhile a joint interest in the church property, but which has for many years been exclusively Lutheran. Rev. Wm. Weinel was the German Reformed clergyman, who offi- ciated here for most, if not all the time, while the joint occupation by the two denominations ex- isted.

One of the early successors, if not the first one, of Rev. Lambrecht, was Rev. J. Sylenfelc, who, tradition says, having obtained the requisite au- thority and credentials from the proper church authorities, went forth on a mission to collect funds for erecting a new and better meeting-house.

He never returned, though, as it was ascertained, he had collected several thousand dollars for that purpose. The supposition is that he returned to Germany with those funds. His successor was Rev. Adam Mohler, who became the object of another kind of seandal, whether justly so or not, the writer is not prepared to say. He was followed as early as, if not earlier than October 14, 1825, by Rev. Gabriel A. Reichert, Lutheran, who there- after made this one of his points in his extensive ministrations, which, in his diary, he denoted as "Williams'." It may be that he sometimes preached at the house of George Williams, Sr., which appears to have been a stopping-place-a ministers' hotel-in those times, for itinerating clergymen, where, as at other points, they were hospitably entertained. This became one of his regular points for preaching on secular as well as Sabbath days. He preached at "Urich's"- Oury's - May 27, 1826, from the sixth and seventh verses of the second chapter of Colossians. Whether the services, on that day, were in the log church or at Oury's house does not appear from his diary. He held a communion service at " Will- iams'," May 8, 1829, at which fifty-one communed, many of whose residences were at considerable distances from that point. In his entry, April 18, 1830, Conrad Schrecengost and George Wild (Wilt) are mentioned as elders, and George Farster and John Cravenor as deacons. Rev. - Burnheim succeeded Mr. Reichert. Preaching in English commenced here in 1850. This church was in- corporated by the proper court, December 16, 1853, by the name of the Evangelical Lutheran Christ's church, of Kittanning township. The charter officers were Rev. George F. Ehrenfeldt, pastor, who was the first who preached in English; Ben- jamin Schrecengost and George Williams, Sr., elders; Isaac Fitzgerald and John Cravenor, dea- cons, and George Williams, trustee. The charter members were Michael Kunkle, John Bouch, Elias Bouch, George Shuster, Isaae Schrecengost, David Rupp, Lewis Koon and Israel Rowley. The pastors since then have been Revs. J. A. Ernest, S. S. Miller and A. S. Miller. The present number of church members is 65, and of Sabbath-school scholars, 50.

A frame structure 30×22 feet was erected in 1850 on the present site, which was burned before its completion. The present frame superstructure was erected soon afterward on the same foun- dation.

The Emanuel (Evangelical Lutheran) church was organized by Rev. - Burnheim in or about 1840; the present edifice, frame, 32×40 feet, was

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

erected in 1843. It is situated on the Peter Hile- man tract, now owned by Jacob Hileman, a son of Peter Hileman, the warrantee and patentee thereof. Its pastors have been Revs. - Burn- heim, Geo. F. Ehrenfedt, J. A. Ernest, S. S. and A. S. Miller. Members, 124; Sabbath-school scholars, 50.

Both of these churches are attached to the Gen- eral Synod.

The St. John's (Evangelical Lutheran) church, commonly designated as the one at Shotts', was organized in or about 1850 by Rev. Henry Eas- ensy, who was subsequently silenced. A frame edifice 32×29 feet was erected in 1855-6 through the exertions, in a great measure, of Rev. Michael Swigert, who has frequently supplied its pulpit in his itinerating ministerial labors. It is situated on the north side of a public road, two miles and two hundred and thirty rods, in an air line, south of Emanuel church, and two hundred and fifty rods east of " Horny Camp run." Members, 100; Sab- bath-school scholars, 60. This church is attached to the general council.

The Methodist Episcopal church was organized prior to 1860. It belongs to the Knox circuit. A frame edifice 37×30 feet was erected in the last- mentioned year; was blown down in June and the present superstructure reared on its foundation.

POPULATION.

The census has been taken only twice since the last curtailment of the territory of this township, which was in the formation of Burrell in 1855. In 1850, "before that . curtailment, the number of inhabitants was 1,175. In 1860 the number of whites was 1,236; colored, 1. In 1870 the native population was 1,431; foreign, 73; colored, none. The number of taxables in 1876 is 396, making the total population about 1,820.

The assessment list for 1876 shows that there are in this township, besides the great body of agriculturists, laborers, 31; tenants, 18; hucksters, 6; blacksmiths, 4; shoemakers, 4; carpenters, 3; stonemasons, 3; painter, 1; and stores appraised, 5 in the fourteenth class.

SCHOOLS.

The facts relative to schools which existed before the adoption of the common school system, which the writer has been able to collect, are meager. There was, as he is informed, one of those early schools in a log schoolhouse situated about fifty rods south of Garrett's run and about a mile and fifty or sixty rods east of the Manor town- ship line, and another about a mile and a half

southwest of the former and two hundred rods east of the above-mentioned line, in the Hileman settlement, or about a hundred rods south of Emanuel church. The names of early teachers met with are those of George Farster and George Leighley.

After the adoption of the common school sys- tem the requisite number of log houses were erected, at the usual distances from one another, over the township, which have finally been replaced by frame ones.

In 1860 the number of schools was 8; average number months taught, 4; male teachers, 6; female teachers, 2; average monthly salaries of male teachers, $16.67 ; average monthly salaries of female teachers, $16.00; number male scholars, 155; number female scholars, 158; average num- ber attending school, 251; cost of teaching each per month, 45 cents; amount levied for school pur- poses, $715.53; received from state appropriation, $89.89; from collector, $715.53; cost of instruction, $528; fuel and contingencies, $43.76; repairs, etc., $10.

In 1876 the number of schools was 9; average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 5; female teachers, +; average monthly salaries of male teachers, $27.20; average monthly salaries of female teachers, $25.50; male scholars, 264; female schol- ars, 199; average number attending school, 288; cost per month, 61 cents; amount tax levied for school and building purposes, $1,138.55; received from state appropriation, $332.94; from taxes and other sources, $1,357.25; cost of schoolhouses, $78.23; paid for teachers' wages, $1,272.50; for fuel, collector's fees, etc., $197.58.

TEMPERANCE.

The vote, February 28, 1873, on the question of granting licenses to sell liquors, was 16 for, and 36 against.

POSTAL.

Blanket Hill postoffice is the only one now in this township. It was established, May 1, 1850, and John M. Daily was appointed postmaster, who kept it at "Graham's," on the Christopher Oury tract, whence it was afterward removed to its present locality.

HUMBOLDT GARDENS.

In 1861-2, Charles B. Schotte began to exten- sively enlarge and improve the culture of fruit and garden products on his farm, which he purchased in 1855 and which consists of parts of the John Pome- roy and Fred'k Rohrer tracts. He estimates that he has since then planted from eight to ten thousand

185

KITTANNING TOWNSHIP.

fruit-trees of various kinds, among which are many imported from the largest nurseries and gardens in Europe. Among his importations are different kinds of apple-trees from Russia, which he received through the kind offices of Andrew G. Curtin, while he was the minister of the United States to that country; various kinds of fruits, including the small fruits, from the Botanical Gardens, at Berlin, in Prussia; and numerous other specimens of novel pro- ductions from abroad, obtained through the Agricul- tural Department at Washington, for experimental purposes. The various fruits of California and Oregon are also well represented in the Humboldt Gardens. The enterprise, thus inaugurated, it is claimed, has stimulated the farmers of this section of the county to improve their orchards and the culture of their lands. It has undoubtedly been an efficient factor in so doing, and it may have- considerably influenced them to make the many and extensive purchases of fruit-trees from the

nurserymen of other states, which they have made within the last ten years.

GEOLOGY.

The geological features of this township may be inferred, in part at least, from those presented along Crooked and Cowanshannock creeks and in Manor township. The anticlinal of the fifth, which is the axis of the fourth, basin crosses this town- ship diagonally from northeast to southwest, strik- ing the northern boundary line nearly two miles west of its eastern terminus, and its western boundary a mile and a half north of its southern terminus. The major part of the township is, then, on the northern slope of the fourth basin, and the rest of it on the southeastern slope of the fifth basin. There is a spring on that part of the John Schenck tract now owned by Peter Heilman, which, the writer thinks, a correct analysis would show to be strongly chalybeate.

CHAPTER VII.

RED BANK.

Originally Organized in 1806- Name Derived from Red Bank Creek -Indian Appellations for that and Other Streams -The Creek Declared by Law a Public Highway-Rafting Lumber from Jefferson County to the Allegheny -Flatboats - Red Bank Navigation Company -Site of the Indian "Old Town "- Yost Smith and Peter Stone - Land Tracts in the Township - Indians Locate on the Creek as Late as 1816- Emanuel Church - Railroad Project Agitated in 1852 - Indian Arrow "Factory " -Method of Making Flintheads - Numerous Transfers of Property - Freedom Village -Oil Wells - Phenix Furnace - New Salem - Albright Methodist Church - Independence - Milton- Methodist Episcopal Church - Assessment List of the Town- ship for 1876- Census and Educational Statistics- Rocks-Coal - An Interesting Cave.

T THE present township of Red Bank, in this | county, contains only about one-sixth or one- seventh of the territory included within the limits of old Red Bank township, organized September 18, 1806. A glance at a county and township map shows that all of Red Bank and Mahoning and a part of Madison townships in this county, and all of Red Bank, Porter, Monroe, Limestone, Clarion and Mill Creek townships in Clarion county were included in the original township of Red Bank.

The name of this township is of course derived from Red Bank Creek. The Indian name of this stream was Lycamahoning, derived from Lycoming and Mahoning-the former corrupted from Legoui- hanne, a sandy stream ; the latter corrupted from Mahonink, signifying where there is a lick. Mahoni in the Delaware language means for a lick. Muhonitty means a diminutive lick and Mahon- hanne a stream flowing from or near a lick. Lyca- mahoning, then, must mean a sandy stream flowing from a lick, that is, Sandy Lick, which was the name of this stream as late as .1792 from its source to its mouth, according to Reading Howell's map of that year. It bore that name even later. By the act of assembly, of March 21, 1798, "Sandy Lick or Red Bank creek " was declared to be a public stream or highway " from the mouth up to the sec- ond or great fork." The writer has not been able to ascertain just when, why, or at whose sugges- tion its original name was changed to Red Bank, by which it has been known by the oldest inhabi- tants now living in the region through which it flows. Perhaps the change may have been sug- gested by the red color of the soil of its banks many miles up from its month. This stream, it seems, was first used by Joseph Barnett for the transportation of lumber in 1806, as related to Lewis W. Corbett thirty years ago by William Clark, who had been at that early period in Bar-

nett's employ. Barnett, the first white settler in Jefferson county, Pennsylvania, settled at Port Barnett in that county prior to 1799. He and his brother-in-law, John Scott, erected a sawmill there in the spring or early part of summer in 1806. Several Indians were there the day the mill was raised, whom Barnett invited to dine with him. They accepted his invitation. After dinner one of them remarked, " Dinner-Indian sleep an hour- then strong." They then went off into the woods, their host supposing that he would not see them again that day. They, however, returned in the course of an hour and vigorously aided in raising the mill and partook of supper. The first lot of lumber which Barnett and Scott sent down the Red Bank was a small platform of timber, which Clark aided in running to the Allegheny river with poles instead of oars as the propelling power. This was a rough stream on which rafting was then very difficult. Iron used to be transported in those early times ou pack-horses, in wagons, and on sleds from Center county to Port Barnett, some of which was sent down this creek on rafts which were occa- sionally wrecked on a bar between Timber Island and the river. As the iron was thus scattered about on that bar it received and it has retained the name of "Iron bar."

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History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 39

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