History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 41

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

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Adjoining that tract on the southwest was the tract covered by the warrant to Joshua Anderson, to whom the patent was granted February 24, 1801. A portion of it subsequently became disputed terri- tory. There was a conflict between the Anderson and Holland company titles and between the origi- nal surveys and that made by Robert Richards, making the quantity of land in dispute 218 acres and 57 perches and allowance of six per cent for roads. Joshua Anderson, a descendant of the patentee of this tract, brought his action of eject- ment to No. 91 March term, 1849, in the court of common pleas of this county, against the then occupants, Widow Harmon, John and Jacob Har- mon, Matthew Houpt and James Shannon for 330 acres. This case was tried December 20, 1850, and resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff for one-fifth of the land in dispute, on which judgment was entered. Anderson conveyed fifty-four acres and 148 perches to Philip Houpt, August 25, 1854, for $219.

In the deep western bend of the Mahoning creek in the southwestern part of this township was the major part of the Samuel Wallis' tract, No. 4128, eleven hundred acres included in the Orr purchase, *.? the southern part being in Wayne and the north- western part in Mahoning township. Orr conveyed 296 acres 125 perches of this tract to William Neal, July 10, 1840, for $222.56; 161 acres 25 perches to John Smith, May 25, 1841, for $162; 125 acres 46 perches to George Smith, Jr., same day, for $126; 172 acres 20 perches (in Wayne) to John Hettrick for $430; 20 acres 140 perches (in Ma- honing) to George Smith, Sr., September 18, 1846, for $20; 97 acres and 66 perches to Daniel Smith, October 10, 1872, for $625. The sawmill, first assessed to MeCrea & Galbraith, in 1849, was situated on the part of this tract purchased by them.

* Sec sketch of Wayne township.

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

In the southeastern part of this township was a part of the Mason & Cross tract, 548 acres and 15 perches, No. 694. It was assessed as unseated to these warrantees in 1805, then in Toby township, at $548.07. It continued to be thus assessed to them on the list of Red Bank township until 1822, when it was valued at 50 cents an acre. About one-fifth of the western part of it was in this and Wayne townships. The rest was in Indiana county.

The rest of the territory of this township, except a portion in the southeastern part, was covered by warrants to Harmon LeRoy & Co., and to Wilhelm Willink & Co., that is, to the Holland Land Com- pany. That company, by H. J. Huidekoper, attor- ney-in-fact, agreed, sometime in September, 1805, to sell and Judge Young to purchase the tract called "Lingan," No. 2899, 990 acres, which agree- ment was consummated by the execution and deliv- ery to him of Willink & Co.'s deed, dated Septem- ber 1, 1810, the consideration therein expressed being $990. The major part of this tract is in what is now Mahoning township. This tract having become vested in Stephen B. Young by conveyance from his sisters, September 16, 1845, to whom it had been devised, he conveyed 250 acres to Robert Morrison, March 11, 1846, for $2,000; 100 acres to Craig Thorn, April 7, for $1,000; 100 acres to Samuel S. Harrison and Hugh Campbell, December 19, for $500; 100 acres to Alexander Colwell, July 9, 1847, for $500; 343 acres to Hugh Campbell, February 6, 1849, for $1,000.

The next sales of tracts of Holland land in this township, some of them partly in what is now Ma- honing township, made by Willink & Co., were : The one covered by warrant No. 2897, called " Quito," 930 acres, which adjoined "Lurgan " on the north, was first assessed to Thomas Ham- ilton and Alexander Craig in 1808; No. 2903, adjoining "Lurgan" on the south, to Dr. James Posthlewaite in 1808, and to Hamilton and Pos- thlewaite in 1809; No. 2906, adjoining “Lur- gan," and No. 2903 on the east, to Thomas Ham- ilton in 1809, so that the agreements for their sale and purchase were probably made between 1807 and 1809. " Quito" became vested in Thomas Hamilton, to whom Willink & Co. con- veyed it, September 21, 1814, for $1,018.25, and who devised 500 acres of the western part of it to Isaac Cruse, and the residue or eastern portion, adjoining the Pickering & Co .- Yost Smith tract- on the north, to Thomas McConnell, who devised it to Cruse. The latter conveyed 200 acres to Philip Kuntzleman May 24, 1834, for $725, and 250 acres, which had been sold to Cruse by Sheriff

Hutchinson as the property of William Smith, to Samuel Craig, August 31, 1838, for $750, both of these parcels being parts of the portion devised to Cruse ; and 2973 acres, included in the devise to McConnell, to George Weinberg, September 14, 1837, for $966.88 ; 120 acres and 60 perches, to Daniel Otto June 21, 1838, for $346, which the latter conveyed to Jacob Miller, March 13, 1844, for $550.

Posthlewaite's interest in No. 2903 became vest- ed in Thomas Hamilton, to whom Willink & Co. conveyed it, October 19, 1818, for $838.80. Ham- ilton's surviving executor conveyed 410 acres and 76 perches of this tract to Robert and William R. Hamilton, April 18, 1837, for $963.50. Robert conveyed his undivided moiety to William R., June 6, for $1.00 and " natural love and affection."

Tract No. 2906 adjoined "Lurgan" and No. 2903 on the east, in the western part of what is now the present township of Red Bank, in this county. It was assessed to Willink & Co. until 1808 ; the next year to Thomas Hamilton ; it does not appear thereafter on the assessment list until 1821, when and afterward it was assessed to Wil- link & Co., who conveyed 145 acres and 53 perches of it to John Holben, June 21, 1837, for $212; 127 acres to J. E. Brown, August 18, 1847, for $158.75 : 170 acres to John A. Colwell & Co., November 24, 1848, for $255.

Passing northeasterly from the northeast corner of the last-mentioned tract, across No. 3050, and the two above-mentioned Anderson tracts, the tract covered by warrant No. 3053, called " Deer Park," is reached. It is another of the Holland Land Company's tracts, included among the early Ham- ilton purchases. Paul Burti conveyed it, as containing 941 acres and 152 perches, to Thomas and James Hamilton, December 2, 1816, for $942. It having become vested in James Hamilton, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, he conveyed 853 acres and 49 perches to James E. Brown and Thomas Mc- Connell, November 13, 1842, for $985. One of the previous occupants of it was Charles Miller, who was first assessed with 100 acres, in 1837. After Brown and McConnell had made their purchase, the latter was deputed to visit the occupants and inform them on what terms they could purchase from the new owners. He went on his mission on horseback. Riding up to within talking distance, not venturing to dismount, and keeping at a re- spectful distance, he informed Miller at what price per acre he could retain the parcel occupied by him. There was then and there an exciting scene. Miller became intensely irate, and McConnell, put- ting whip and spur to his fleet horse, fled with

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RED BANK TOWNSHIP.

great celerity beyond the reach of the violent hands which that tenant, in that sudden ebullition of wrath, might just then have laid upon him. His fiery anger cooled, and in due time he agreed to pay the price asked for the land, which, 100 acres, they conveyed to his administrator, Decem- ber 25, 1842, for $800, who conveyed the same to R. M. McFarland, July 30, 1845, for $1,000.

The northwestern part or corner of "Deer Park " lay in what is now Clarion county, which, or a portion of which, was inadvertently included in Willink & Co.'s conveyance of 43 acres and 94 perches to George Geist as a parcel of allotment 5, tract 254, warrant 3058, which adjoined “Deer Park" on the north. George conveyed that parcel to Daniel Geist December 17, 1838, for $3,000, which the latter conveyed to John Hess, December 26, 1839, "together with a gristmill and sawmill in Clarion county," for $1,500. These mills had been erected by Geist, as it was made to appear, on Brown & McConnell's land, the conflicting claims to which were finally and conclusively adjusted by a compromise. Hess' mills were in the track of the destructive tornado which swept through this section in May, 1860.

George Mitchell was another occupant of " Deer Park." He was first assessed with 100 acres of it in 1841. Its proprietors were then exten- sively engaged in purchasing and selling land and were greatly in need of ready money, so that when Mitchell offered to pay the whole amount of the purchase money at once for the parcel which he occupied, it was readily accepted, for it was just then needed to relieve those pro- prietors from an imminent pressure. So they con- veyed to him 100 acres, "excepting one-half an acre, on which a schoolhouse was erected, so long as it should be used for school purposes," December 27, 1842, for $950. Mitchell, not being acquainted with the German language, and his partial deafness preventing him from ,understand- ing much that was said in his presence, he con- ceived that his German neighbors had taken a dislike to him, and, therefore, with a sad heart besought these vendors to take back the land, which they declined to do. It so happened that they were afterward traveling through this sec- tion, and stopped at his house and found him and his wife and family distressed because their horse and wagon had been levied on and were to be sold for a store bill which they had not the money to pay. The younger of these proprietors, moved by a grateful sense of the benefit which had re- sulted to them from that vendee's paying the full amount of the consideration for the land which he

had purchased from them, suggested to the elder that they should contribute equally to the pay- ment of the debt for which that property was to be sold. Both promptly contributed, and relief came to the distressed, like the bursting of joy- ous sunlight through a dark, threatening cloud.

Another purchaser of a parcel of " Deer Park " was John Shirey, to whom the proprietors con- veyed one hundred and thirty-seven acres and twenty-seven perches, March 2, 1846, for $1,026. They conveyed another parcel of it, called " Chest- nut Hill Lot," one hundred and two and a half acres, to Jonathan Mohney, June 22, 1854, for $985. Shirey probably settled on the parcel which he purchased, in 1826, and Mohney not long before the date of his conveyance. John Hess purchased one hundred and seven acres and fifty-four perches May 17, 1864, for $1,073.73.

Adjoining "Deer Park" on the south was the tract covered by the warrant to H. LeRoy & Co., No. 3,052, which Paul Burti conveyed to James Hamilton, December 1, 1816. It , was awarded in proceedings in partition to Sarah Hamilton, who conveyed it, December 3, 1833, to Mrs. Susan H. Thorn. Adam Brinker settled and made an im- provement on a part of it, not previously covered by the warrants to Joshua and Robert Anderson in 1826, and John Neis on an adjoining portion in 1837, to both of whom Mrs. Thorn and her hus- bane conveyed three hundred and eighty acres, January 24, 1845, for $1,330.25, on which Neis had built a sawmill in 1843. Brinker conveyed his interest in the undivided moiety, or Neis' part in the partition, which was one hundred and eighty-nine acres and one hundred and fifty-nine perches, to Moses Markle and Emanuel Rettinger, Neis' assignees, who conveyed it to Philip Mech- ling, May 13, 1846, for $1,246, and he to Jacob Stohlman, May 5, 1852, for $1,900. Mrs. Thorn and her husband also conveyed two parcels, one hun- dred and fifty acres and thirty-four perches, to Adam Mohney, July 29, 1848, for $600.

Adjoining the last-named tract on the east, was the one covered by the LeRoy & Co. warrant, No. 2,941, called "Willinkfield," nine hundred and ninety acres, most of the eastern division of which was in Jefferson county, which Willink & Co. conveyed to Thomas McConnell, September 21, 1814, for $990. He conveyed one hundred and seventy-five acres of the "western division " to George Coleman, Sr., September 12, 1831, who set- tled on it that year, for $481 ; one hundred and seventy-four acres to Frederick Yount, May 6, 1837, for $398, who was first assessed therewith the same year.

194

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

The Holland Land Company sold none of their entire tracts, and but few, if any, parcels of their lands in this township for more than a decade of years after they had made their foregoing early sales. These tracts which they sold thus early re- maincd on the unseated list, assessed respectively to those vendees for a considerable period before they were parceled out to their vendees. That company's sales of the rest of their lands in this township commenced about 1830, and continued with increasing briskness, so that here there were but few parcels and no entire tracts to be sold after that company's transfer of their interest in the lands covered by their warrants in this town- ship, and elsewhere in this and adjacent counties, to Alexander Colwell and his co-vendees.

Philip Mechling remembers seeing but one house between Yost Smith's ferry on the Red Bank, in the northwestern part, and Martin's ferry, on the Mahoning, in the southeastern part, of this town- ship, as he passed from one to the other when he was collecting the United States internal revenue tax in 1817-18, which was in the vicinity of the latter ferry. There was but a slight increase of population throughout this township until after the resumption of the sales of the Holland lands in 1830.

The following conveyances of parcels of those lands in various parts of the township are instanced for the purpose of showing the prices at different times, and other indications of the progress of sev- eral of the industrial interests. They are pre- sented in topographical, not in chronological, order. Beginning with the eastern section of the town- ship, several of the tracts covered by that com- pany's warrants were partly in this and partly in Jefferson county. In the northeastern corner is the major part of the one covered by warrant No. 3244, of which A. Colwell's executor, Alexander Reynolds, and their co-vendees conveyed ninety- five acres to Powell Gearhart October 16, 1871, for $222, including what had been paid prior to their purchase.

Willink & Co. conveyed 105 acres of allotment 5, tract 264, warrant 3245, next south of the last preceding one, to George Coleman April 18, 1831, for $450. That allotment is in the southwestern part of the tract, on which the flourishing little town of Freedom is situated, which was founded in 1871 by Jonathan Yount. It contains about twenty houses, two stores, a postoffice,* and one church edifice (frame) 30×40 feet, which was erected in 1848 by the German Reformed and

Lutheran denominations, and dedicated the next spring. The churches were, however, pre- viously organized. The first pastors were Rev. J. G. Young, Lutheran, and Rev. L. D. Late- man, German Reformed. The building committee consisted of George Coleman and Peter Minnick, Lutheran, and John Shirey and Jacob Zeats, Ger- man Reformed.

George Coleman conveyed one acre and eight and a half perches, on which this edifice is erected, to John Shirey and Peter Minick, trustees of the Evangelical Lutheran and German Reformed con- gregations of Red Bank township, June 7, 1850, for $1.

Willink & Co. conveyed 165 acres of allotment 1, tract 276, warrant 2,930, south of “ Willink- field," to Isaac Redinger May 15, 1833, for $160, on which is a public schoolhouse and on which he built his sawmill in 1848; 166 acres and 132 perches of the west end of allotments 2 and 3, tract 295, warrant 3286, adjoining the last foregoing tract on the south, to Christian and John Miller March 7, 1849, for $371. On the eastern part of this tract is a little hamlet, in which is one store. Contiguous to that tract on the south was the one covered by warrant No. 3276, which is numbered 304 on the company's maps and books, allotment 3 of which Colwell & Co. conveyed to David Yearger December 27, 1862, for $70.50, and eighty-four acres and sixty perches of allotment 5 to George Emery November 6, 1856, for $168, on which is John Emery's saw- mill ; Willink & Co. 156 acres and 103 perches of allotment 4, tract 323, warrant 3114, next south of last tract, to William Gallagher's administra- tor, August 4, 1840, for $117.50.

Next south was tract 332, covered by warrant 3107, of which Willink & Co. conveyed 154 acres and 150 perches of allotment 2 to George Potts June 6, 1837, for $163.24, and 165 acres of allot- ment 6 to Samuel Brooks January 1, 1840, for $165.

Next south was tract 336, covered by warrant No. 3104, the southwest corner of which is in Wayne township. John Organ, whose house was the only one which Philip Mechling found between Smith's and Martin's ferries in 1817-18, settled on allotment 1, in the northwestern part of this tract in 1808, and was first assessed with one hundred acres of it the next year, at $15 .* This parcel is now owned by Mrs. Susannah Hammond, and assessed at $12 an acre. Allotment 5, 173 acres, in the southern part of this tract, seems to have been claimed by Henry Lott many years ago,

* The North Freedom postoffice was established here in 1878.

* As an innkeeper in 1823.

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RED BANK TOWNSHIP.

for it bears his name on the map of original tracts, though it does not appear on any of the assessment lists of this township. Benjamin B. Cooper's executor conveyed thirty-two acres and sixty-two perches of allotment 4 to Jacob and Mar- tin Lantz June 3, 1845, for $69. A saltwell was drilled in the western part of allotment 5 in 1843-4. The drilling was probably begun in the fall of the former year, for on October 13 Daniel Wann and John Mock entered into a written agreement to purchase and jointly pay for eighty acres of this tract, and to be "at equal expense in lumbering and erecting works of any kind " they might deem proper, and Mock was assessed with this well in 1844. It is situated at or near the mouth of a small run that empties into, at that point, the east side of the Mahoning creek. Its depth is 425 feet. At first large iron kettles set in stone were used as grainers. This well produced eight barrels a day, the principal market for which was in the surround- ing country. Some of it was transported in wagons to Brookville. In 1861 this well was assessed to James Mansfield and David Anderson, to whom B. B. Cooper's executor conveyed eighty acres of this allotment (5) October 1, 1863, for $353.25. The well was assessed to Beck & Anderson in 1865, and to William Beck from 1866 until 1868. It is now owned by William M. Brinker, but it has not been worked for several years.

James Morgan probably settled on the eastern part of allotment 5-the Henry Lott parcel-and the western part of allotment 6 in 1843, for he was first assessed in this township as a single man in 1844, and with 150 acres in 1846. Adjoining his parcel on the west was one called the " Ore Lot," ninety-three acres and thirty perches, from which a considerable portion of the ore used by Phoenix Furnace was obtained. Hugh Allen and Wesley Coleman have owned this with other parcels.

Next west was the Holland Company's tract No. 335, warrant either 3109 or 3040, only a portion of which is in this township. The patent is dated April 5, 1838. Colwell and his co-vendees con- veyed 156 acres and 52 perches of allotment 4* in the eastern part of this tract to George B. McFar- land September 3, 1849, for $165, in pursuance of a previous agreement between their and his pre- decessors, on which Henry Smith, W. B. Travis, Jonathan Grinder and Andrew G. Workman had erected Phoenix Furnace in 1846, which was first assessed to Smith & Guthrie in 1849, and to George B. McFarland in 1850. Its operations ceased in 1853. It was a cold-blast charcoal furnace eight

feet across the bosh by thirty feet high, producing from twenty-five to thirty tons a week. Its ore is described as a loamy outerop of the lower or buhr- stone kind, making excellent foundry iron.

Benjamin B. Cooper's executor conveyed 160 acres of allotment 2 to Charles Coleman, June 13, 1850, for $340, now owned by Wesley Coleman.

Next north was tract No. 333, covered by warrant No. 3110, of which Willink & Co. con- veyed 305 acres and 50 perches of allotment 5 to William B. Neal, March 13, 1845, for $396.25, on which is schoolhouse No. 10, and in the southern part, on the Mahoning, is the sawmill first assessed to him in 1846, and to William C. Neal, in 1867. Arthur Fleming settled in the northwestern part in 1837, and was first assessed with 100 acres, the next year. He was soon after elected a justice of the peace and school director, and subsequently county commissioner. The build- ing which he first occupied here, and in which his oldest son was born, was afterward used as a schoolhouse, in which that son first attended, and in which he first taught, school. The present schoolhouse in this locality is No. 1. Fleming's agreements with the Holland Company for the purchase of his parcels of allotments 1 and 2 were not hastily consummated, for it was not until July 4, 1849, that Colwell et al. conveyed to him 201 acres and 44 perches for $152.50, and forty acres and six perches of the west end of allotment 2, June 19, 1857, for $270. A large portion of this tract was surveyed by Jonathan E. Meredith in 1840 and 1843, and the rest of it August 30 and 31, 1875.

North of the Wallis 4128 and west of the last preceding tract was No. 334, covered by warrant 3150, the western parts of allotments 1, 3, 5, being in Mahoning township. Adam Beck settled on allotment 1 in 1833, and built his gristmill on the right bank of the Mahoning in 1836, and was first assessed with it the next year, to whose adminis- trator Cooper's executor conveyed in trust, etc., 109 acres, November 15, 1851, which, with the mill, Arthur Fleming, Beck's administrator, conveyed to Chambers Orr, December 4, for $2,500 (excepting a piece which Beck had sold to Geo. Gould), and which Orr conveyed to Robert Walker (of A.), February 24, 1858, for $9,500, to whose estate it still belongs, in connection with which he operated a distillery several years before his death. The northwestern corner of this allotment embraces a portion of Eddyville, a small town containing besides the gristmill about a dozen other buildings, and including a blacksmith shop, a store, a boat- yard, and a postoffice which was established May 21, 1857, Turney S. Orr, postmaster.

* Surveyed by J. E. Meredith to Daniel Wann April 15, 1846, as containing 173 acres and 185 perches.

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

Next north was the tract No. 321, covered by warrant No. 3279, on allotment 3, on which Joseph and Isaac Butler settled in 1831, with 100 acres, of which the former was first assessed in 1832, and with a sawmill in 1841. Willink & Co. conveyed to him 137 acres and 128 perches, September 15, 1855, for $310. John Kuhn settled on that part of allotment 1 about the mouth of Big Pine run, in 1838, and was assessed the next year with 144 acres. The eddy, made by the flowing of that run into the Mahoning, was called Kuhn's Eddy, and hence the name of the little town Eddyville. Kuhn built a sawmill at the mouth of that run in 1838, which was afterward operated by Joseph and Isaac Butler, the title to which became vested in James E. Brown and Thomas McConnell, who agreed, June 23, 1847, to sell it and 190 acres of adjacent land, "known as the Kuhn mill property," to Adam Beck for $2,000. The mill was assessed to Francis Dobbs in 1849, to whom Beck's admin- istrator had conveyed it ; to John Beachel in 1851, who had purchased it from Jeremiah Bonner ; to Bonner in 1862, who had purchased Beachel's interest at sheriff's sale, and who conveyed it to George D. Smith, September 17, 1872.

North of the castern division of the last preced- ing tract was the one covered by warrant No. 3274, of which Colwell and others conveyed 150 acres and 135 perches to Joseph Butler, June 3, 1856, for $262.50, and which the latter conveyed, as con- taining 154 acres and 17 perches, to David Rum- baugh August 16, 1867, for $2,900.

Willink & Co. conveyed, November 23, 1830, to Adam Smith for $300 196 acres and 8 perches, described as being parts of allotment 5, tract 305, warrant 3277, part of allotment 1, tract 322, war- rant 3146, and a part of allotment 5-it should be 4-tract 321, warrant 3279, on which, near the month of Mud Lick, he erected a gristmill in 1854, which was burned several years afterward, and a new one, with three run of stone, erected on its site by Charles W. Ellenberger in 1864. This mill, and the store opened by Adam Smith, became the nucleus of the present little town of Charlestown, containing, besides the gristmill, about ten dwell- ing houses, a schoolhouse, sawmill and blacksmith shop. The distillery, assessed to John W. Smith & Bro., in 1862, was located on this parcel. By the act of assembly, passed January, 1844, Adam Smith's house was designated as the place in this township for holding township and general elections.

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History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 41

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