History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 42

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

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Solomon Nulf probably settled on allotment 2, tract 321, warrant 3279, in 1831, to whom Willink & Co. conveyed 156 acres June 9, 1836, for $234, |

and on which he erected his sawmill in 1849, for he was first assessed with it in 1850.

Tract No. 322, warrant No. 3146, adjoined the last above-mentioned one on the east, of which Willink & Co. conveyed seventy-eight and three- fourth acres of allotment 3 to David Yeager, Jr., March 2, 1846, for $157.50; 117 acres and 129 perches of allotment I to John Thompson August 5, 1842, for $265; eighty acres and forty perches, allotment 6, to Jacob Long, March 31, 1849, for $100; and Colwell et al. conveyed fifty-nine acres and sixty-one perches to Jacob Fisher June 2, 1864, for $226. lIereabouts was situated the card- ing machine, assessed to Alex. Richards in 1843. He was assessed with two in 1859.

Tract No. 305, warrant No. 3277, adjoined the last above-mentioned one on the north, of which Willink & Co. conveyed 171 acres, allotment 1, to Henry Feather February 9, 1842, for $256.55.

Adjoining the last-mentioned tract on the north was tract No. 294, warrant No. 3050. Tobias Shick settled ou allotment 2 probably in 1827-8, to whose son Jacob Colwell et al. conveyed a parcel of it May 4, 1850, on the west end of which is sit- nated the town of New Salem, which was laid out prior to 1853. Its first separate assessment list was for that year, according to which it then con- tained one church, one physician, Dr. Alex. P. Heichhold-who wielded considerable influence in changing the political complexion of this town- ship by means of the organization commonly called " Know Nothing " -- one carpenter and seven- teen taxables. The total valuation of property and occupations was $1,270.

The Evangelical, or Albright Methodist, called the Salem church, at this place was organized by Rev. Daniel Long about 1851, and its frame edifice was erected the next year, when the membership was about fifty, which is now nearly four hundred, and they own a parsonage.

The first dwelling-house (including a store- room ) was built by Jonathan Houpt, the second by Peter Anlenbancher, and the third by William Buffington and Adam Miller. The Pierce post- office was established here December 14, 1857, Solomon Wyant postmaster, whose successors have been Wm. Buffington and Peter Hoch. The lots were sold, each, prior to 1860, for $30, more or less. For instance, Wm. Buffington paid Jacob Shick $30 for the one in the central part of the town, which was conveyed to him April 27, 1857. The assessment list for 1876 shows : Preacher, 1; school-teacher, 1; blacksmiths, 2; shoemakers, 2; innkeepers, 0; merchants, 0; wagon-makers, 0 : there should be at least one each of the three last-

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named occupations. Number of taxables, 23, rep- resenting a population of 105. One of the citi- zens of this place, William Buffington, was elected county commissioner in 1872, and re-elected in 1875. One of the Red Bank district schoolhouses is situated in the upper part of this town, a short distance west of the church, near the intersection of the public roads. In the winter of 1865 the writer was accompanied by one of the school di- rectors of this township in his official visit to this school. He exhibited here, as in the other schools in the county, a hemisphere globe, and explained by it what is intended to be represented by the map hemispheres in the atlas, the shape of the earth, and how the relative motion caused by the earth's diurnal revolution makes the sun seem to rise and set - seem to move from east to west ; and had whatever satisfaction there was in learn- ing a few months afterward that that school di- rector had said, substantially, it was very foolish for the state to pay a county superintendent a sal- ary (then $400 per annum ) for carrying such a thing as that globe with him to the schools and teaching such nonsense as that this earth is round, that all things on its surface are kept in place by the attraction of gravitation, and that it is kept moving in space in its orbit around the sun by the centrifugal and centripetal forces. That school director believed then, if he does not now, that the earth is not round, that it is stationary, and that the sun daily moves over and around it.

Willink & Co. conveyed 160 acres and 59 perches of the last-mentioned allotment 2 to James Kerr, September 13, 1839, for $240.50.

Next west of the last-mentioned tract was No. 293, warrant No. 3135, skirting tract No. 306, warrant 2906, on the north and northeast, and " Lurgan " and " Quito " on the west. Willink & Co. conveyed 157} acres of allotment 1, June 22, 1831, for $200, and 323 acres and 112 perches of allotments 2 and 3, September 17, 1834, for $325, to John Holben, who conveyed 46 acres and 48 perches of allotment 1 to J. Wise, May 16, 1856, for $231.52 ; and 177 acres and 143 perches of allot- ment 5 to Mary Smith, June 18, 1833, for $127.20.

North of tract 294, warrant 3050, or the New Salem tract, was tract No. 277, warrant No. 3051, into the northwestern part of which the south- eastern part of the Joshua Anderson tract seems, in the maps of connected drafts, to penetrate. Willink & Co. conveyed 165 acres of allotment 5 to John Holewig May 14, 1832, for $165; 1802 acres of allotment 1 to Joseph Zangert April 27, 1837, for $271 ; 165 acres of allotment + to Peter Gearhart May 18, 1838, for $247.50 ; 166 acres and

133 perches of allotment 2 to George Kunselman June 18, 1842, for $255; 163 acres and 33 perches, which Himes had purchased from Moses Markle, September 15, 1845, for $756, on which Himes was first assessed with a mill in 1851, being the same which Willink & Co. had conveyed to John Holben, Jr., May 14, 1832, for $165; Holben to J. & A. Miller May 5, 1845, on which was located the clover and feed-mill first assessed to them in 1847.

Passing down to the southeastern part of this township, there was a portion of the LeRoy & Co. tract covered by warrant No. 3102, or, according to the later numbering of the Holland Company, No. 344, of which Benj. B. Cooper conveyed 175 acres and 20 perches to Hugh Martin, November 15, 1825, for $298.72. This parcel lay chiefly in this township, some of it in Wayne. It was sold on a scire facias as the property of Hugh Martin, in the hands of his executors, by Sheriff Truby to Hugh Allen, March 23, 1844, for $700, who conveyed it to John and Thomas Allen, March 25, 1844, and they to John Segar, April 6, 1848, and he to Archibald Glenn, June 8,, 1850, on the portion of which in Red Bank township the latter laid out the town of Presque Isle, containing twenty lots, 66×1165 feet, ten of which being on each side of Main street, or the Clarion road, which is 60 feet wide, intersected by an alley, 163 feet wide, between lots 5 and 6, and 15 and 16, which were surveyed and platted by James Stewart, April 29, 1851. There was not an instant demand for many of the lots. Gleun, however, conveyed some of them: Lot No. 17 to Michael B. Hileman, October 1, 1852, for $12.50 ; lots Nos. 11 and 12 to Wm. T. Glenn, the same day, for $37.50, and he to Davis H. Thomp- ton, March 26, 1858, for $15 ; lots Nos. 18 and 19 to Sarah Yales, March 8, 1854, for $25; and lots Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8, to Davis H. Thompson, September 2, 1859, for $60. The first house in this town was . erected in 1852. The first separate assessment list was for the year 1853, when it contained nine taxables, representing a population of 41, with a total valuation of $466. It appeared on the assess- ment list for several years as "Presqu' Isle City." It reached its most maguitudinous proportions in 1858, when its number of taxables was 15, and the total valuation of property, $1,303. Its last sep- arate list, the next year, shows only two taxables and the total valuation of five and a half acres and some personal property, $283.

About one hundred and ten rods to the south- west of the Mahoning, in the same Holland Com- pany tract, is the little town of Independence, which received its name in the dry summer of 1855, when it contained but four houses, the first

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

of which was built by Wm. T. Glenn in 18-, thus : Dr. Sims, arriving here one day, asked the name of this place, to which James L. Thompson replied that he thought they would call it Inde- pendence, as they were then, by reason of the dronth, independent of anything to live on. A. D. Glenn and his sister were attending the Dayton Academy that summer, and gave Independence as the place of their residence, by which it has ever since been known. It was separately assessed first, in 1859, when it contained five taxables, one saw- mill, one foundry and one blacksmith shop, with a total valuation of $1,245. According to its last separate assessment list, in 1860, it then contained one sawmill, one foundry, with a total valuation of $1,312. Michael Hileman was first assessed with a sawmill here in 1853; Isaiah Hopkins as a molder, in 1852; Glenn, Hopkins & Co., with a sawmill and foundry in 1859 ; E. V. Thomas, saw- mill and foundry, in 1860-1; Hopkins, with the foundry, in 1863 ; Hopkins & Lamb, with foundry, in 1865, and Hopkins & Thompson, foundry, in 1867.

About fifty rods sontheasterly from Independence, up the creek, was Martin's ferry, heretofore men- tioned, which was established-the writer has not ascertained when-by Hugh Martin, who settled on that part of tract No. 344 in 1805, then in Toby, afterward successively in Kittanning, Plum Creek and Wayne townships. His craft consisted of a canoe, at least a part of the time while he kept this ferry, which seems not to have been deemed of suffi- cient value by assessors to place it on their lists, even as the lowest or a seventh-rate ferry-one of that rate being then valued, for taxable purposes, at $10. It was at this point that emigrants and travelers from Westmoreland and adjacent coun- ties to what is now Clarion county, in the early part of this century, crossed the Mahoning, many of whom were accustomed to say that they noticed a marked difference in the forwardness of vegeta- tion in the spring, south and north of this stream, which seemed to them to be the line of demarka- tion in this respect.

Next north of 344 and one of the Mason & Cross tracts was a vacant tract on the eastern division of which John McDonald setttled in 1822-3, and was thereafter assessed with 120 acres. His son, Robert McDonald, obtained a warrant for 155 acres and 148 perches of it, chiefly in Jefferson county, No- vember 8, 1838, and the patent July 8, 1839. The small portion thereof in this county appears to have been divided into small parcels or lots. Mc- Donald conveyed one acre to John G. Thompson June 19, 1849, for $55; seven acres and ninety

perches to Stephen Travis March 5, 1851, for $250, on which the latter had erected a foundry in 1848, which was first assessed to him in 1849, which Travis' widow and administrators conveyed to Archibald Glenn in June, 1858, when he carried on the foundry business for several years. He conveyed this and three other small parcels which he had purchased from different persons, aggregat- ing ninety-three acres and forty-three perches, to William Burns September 6, 1866, for $1,700, now owned by William M. Brinker.

The western division of that vacant tract, 160 acres, was taken np by William Hannegan in 1838, to whom the warrant was granted May 10 and sur- veyed May 18, 1839, 116 acres and 30 perches of which he conveyed to William and Andrew D. Guthrie October 18, 1839, for $2,250, and forty- three acres and 130 perches to George Wheatcroft the same day for $1.

The town of Milton is situated on the Hannegan portion of that vacant tract. Its rise began about 1845 by settlers who came from Milton, Northum- berland county, Pennsylvania. Its first separate assessment list was for the year 1852, when it con- tained nine taxables and showed a total valuation of $895. The Phoenix postoffice, William Guthrie, postmaster, was established here February 4, 1847. The Methodist Episcopal church was organized here about 1845. The services were held for sev- eral years in the schoolhouse. The first church edifice was erected about six years after its organi- zation.

Andrew D. Guthrie conveyed to Joseph Glenn, Archibald Glenn, Thomas Grey, George W. Thompson, James L. Thompson, Joseph W. Travis and Stephen Travis, trustees of this church, 131 square perches " on the road leading from Warren to Clarion " October 18, 1851, for $10.

The assessment list for 1876 shows : Taxables, 24; merchants, 2; carpenter, 1; shoemaker, 1; labor- ers, 2. Total valuation of real and personal prop- erty and occupations, $3,016.

The first settlers may have named this town after the one they had left in Northumberland county. Be that as it may, towns and persons of that name in this country have been so christened in honor of the great English poet John Milton, whose devotion to and defense of civil and relig- ious liberty, as well as his brilliant mind and poetic genius, have rendered his memory fragrant to the civilized peoples of the earth, and especially to the free and enlightened people of the United States.

The assessment list of this township, exclusive of Freedom, Milton and New Salem, for 1876, exclu- sive of farmers, shows: County superintendent, 1;

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physician, 1; school teachers, 2; blacksmiths, 4;

coal rise from the water. The upper Freeport coal carpenters, 3; merchant, 1; mason, 1; millers, 2; | is seen northeast of the salt works, a little east of machinist, 1; laborers, 10; wagonmaker, I. Accord- ing to the mercantile appraiser's list there are five merchants, all in the fourteenth class.

The first census taken after Red Bank township was reduced to its present area by the organization of other townships was that of 1860, which shows its population then to have been: White, 1,304; col- ored, 1. In 1870: native, 1,335; foreign, 6; col- ored, 0. The number of taxables, including those of the above-mentioned towns, in 1876, is 376, rep- resenting a population of 1,729.

The vote in this township was 122 against and 35 for granting license to sell intoxicating liquors.

EDUCATIONAL.

In 1860 the number of schools was 10; average. number months taught, 4; male teachers, 8; female, 2; average salaries male teachers per month $17; female teachers, $17; male scholars, 240; female scholars, 200; average number attending school, 266; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 43 cents; amount levied for school purposes, $900; amount levied for building purposes, -; received from state appropriation, $79.59; from collectors, $1,200; cost of instruction, $664; fuel, etc., $90; repairing schoolhouses, etc., $40.

In 1876 the number of schools was 12; average number of months taught, 5; male teachers, 12; average monthly salaries, $27.50; male scholars, 241; female scholars, 244; average number attend- ing school, 343; cost per month, 70 cents; amount tax levied for school and building purposes, $1,772.84; received from State appropriation, $314.31; from taxes and other sources, $1,973.04; cost of schoolhonses, repairs, etc., $88.68; paid teachers' wages, $1.625; fuel, etc., $228.30.

STRUCTURE.

The geological features of this township are gen- erally indicated thus : This section was obtained above Smith's sawmill on Pine run: Sandstone, 10 feet; upper Freeport coal, 5 feet 8 inches; Olive shale, 10 feet; Freeport sandstone, blue shale, 10 feet; lower Freeport coal, shale, 5 feet; sandstone (Freeport), 73 feet; black slate, four feet; Kittan- ning coal, 3 feet; Olive shale, 20 feet; ferriferous limestone, 8 feet; 80 feet above the creek (or run) by estimation. (Rogers' Geology of Pennsylvania.)

Furthermore, near the forks of the Great and Little Mahoning the Freeport (?) limestone appears eighty feet above the water. At the crossing of the Elderton road, over the Great Mahoning creek, the strata begin to dip more steeply and soon the ferriferous limestone and its overlying Kittanning

the road, 150 or 200 feet above the creek, the Free- port limestone occurring a little lower level oppo- site. The fourth axis crosses somewhat below Glade run, but so rapidly does it decline, like all the others, to the southwest, that on the Cowanshannock it does not lift the ferriferous limestone to water- level, although where the fourth axis crosses the Mahoning that bed is at a considerable hight.in the hillsides. (Ibid.)

The rocks here represented above water-level belong mainly to the lower productive group, the lower barren being scarcely seen at all within the limits of this township. The conglomerate and sub-conglomerate rocks make the lower portions of the slopes along Mahoning creek, as explained in the sketch of Wayne township, and the same rocks are seen occupying the same positions on past Eddyville and so on to the mouth of Little Mud Lick. Similar conditions prevail along Red Bank creek, but the structure necessitates a much less area for their exposure there. Thus the ferriferons limestone remains high above the water-level of the Mahoning along the southern edge of the township, while along the Red Bank it gradually approaches the creek, which it finally touches below Adam Smith's house below Millville. Very little of the upper Freeport coal is represented, there being only a few isolated knobs high enough to hold it. A few such knobs are found southeast of New Salem, a few more west of this village, while at the west- ern edge of the township the coal is brought down from its high level to dip under the western side of the valley of Little Mud Lick. Wherever found it is a workable coal-bed and is usually accom- panied by its limestone. The lower Freeport coal is also present but unimportant. The upper Kit- tanning coal here assumes its cannel feature over a considerable area, and it has been repeatedly opened by the farmers. The cannel portions of the bed are from ten to twelve feet thick, and here and there quite good, though very slaty. The whole nature of the deposit makes the bed unreliable in point of persistency. The lower Kittanning coal is three feet thick. The ferriferous limestone is from eight to ten feet thick, and so favorably situ- ated on the hills that it can be cheaply worked for quarry lime. Little use of it has, however, been made.

This township exhibits two important anticlinal axes. The first crosses the Mahoning creek between Milton and the mouth of Glade run, as before ex- plained. It quickly passes into Jefferson county. The other axis crosses the Red Bank creek in the.

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

extreme northeastern corner of this township, pass- ing thence west of Freedom, and soon toward New Salem, where it dies out. It is not felt on the Mahoning. (W. G. Platt, Second Geological Sur- vey of Pennsylvania.)

In this connection the following facts, commu- nicated to the writer by Jacob Buffington, are given: There is a stratum of block coal on Mud Lick and Little Mud Lick runs about three miles wide, extending about four miles from east to west, as far as discovered, varying from seven to fourteen feet in thickness. It burns as freely as a pine knot, with but little smoke, leaving a consid- erable quantity of clear ashes, which make a tolera- bly good lye. The entry, for a distance of about two hundred feet from west to east, was straight. There a vein of "horse-back " occurs eight feet thick, which is very tough and bends like iron, but is blasted with difficulty. At a distance of three feet east from the "horse-back " is a better quality of block coal. Another vein of "horse- back" occurs about thirty feet east of the other one, which the miners did not work through. Be- low the coal is a stratum of slate thirty inches thick, above which the coal rises perpendicularly thirty inches, that is, there is a fault. " Faults are produced by the breaking of the beds across the planes of their stratification, and thus permitting the strata to slide up or down, so that the two

parts of a given bed are no longer on the same level," which " seriously retard mining operations, for suddenly the end of the bed of coal, or other substance, is reached, and the workmen know not whether its counterpart is above or below the level upon which they have been operating."

There is a cave on the Adam Smith farm on Pine run in hard, fine sandrock, consisting of several rooms or apartments. The first one is about eight feet high, four wide and fifteen long, from which is a narrow opening extending into another one; thence into three others of about the same size. There are several others, one which opens toward the left, another toward the right. The entrance to them is from the east, and their walls are very smooth.

A short distance east of Laurel run is a stratum of slate and cannel coal, the upper part of which is about fifteen inches above the surface, below which is slate of an excellent quality, which can be excavated in blocks of eighteen inches wide, from eight to ten inches thick, and from two to two and a half feet long, which can be separated into slabs one-eighth of an inch thick, well adapted to making slates and roofing. The coal and slate are traversed by rainbow or peacock colored streaks.

The elevation above ocean level at Maysville is 1,107.8 feet; at Pine run, 1,100.8 feet; at Millville, 1,092.8 feet; at Indiantown run, 1,089.8 feet.

CHAPTER VIII.

PLUM CREEK.

Derivation of the Name -Organized in 1810- Very Early Settlement - Blockhouses - An Indian Attack - Women Making Bullets-Children Captured by the Savages- Bridging Crooked Creek - First Applica- tion to the Court for a Bridge- Absalom Woodward - David Ralston - A Tavern Tragedy of 1809 - The Sharps - Land Tracts Originally Surveyed in the Township-Three Hundred Acres of Land for Five Shillings -Centennial Celebration 1876 (Note) - The First Iron Plow - Mills-Churches -Schools- Whitesburg -Some Mentionable Events-Items - Borough of Elderton - Its Early Residents - Incorpo- rated-First Officers - Religious History - Educational-Temperance -Soldiers' Aid Society -Geological Features.

THE name is derived from the ereek which the Indians called Sipu-as-han-ne. Sipuasink means the place of plums. Sipu-as-han-ne, then, means a stream in the place of plums, or a stream flowing through a section of country in which plums are abundant. It was also called Alum creek. It is so named on the Historical Map.

No movement was made either to divide or to change the boundaries of the six original town- ships until 1809. The inhabitants of Kittanning township having presented their petition setting forth that they labored under numerous disad- vantages by reason of the extent of their township, and praying that proper persons might be ap- pointed to divide it, the court of quarter sessions, at December session, 1809, appointed Robert Beatty, John Thomas, and James Kirkpatrick for that purpose. Their report, signed by Robert Beatty and John Thomas, was presented June 20, 1810, and approved, in which they stated that they had run, marked, laid off and divided said township according to these courses and distances : " Beginning at the fording on Mahon- ing creek, where the road leading from Kittanning to Reed's mill crosses said creek, thence southward along said road to the top of the ereek hill, about one mile thenee south 640 perches to a hiekory ; thence south 3 degrees west 800 perches to a post ; thence south 3 degrees east to a WV. O. 450 perches ; thenee south 43 degrees east 40 perches to a W. O. at Peck's house ; thenee south 5 degrees west 1,293 perches to Cowanshannoek, about 20 perches below the mouth of Huskinses' run ; thenee south 23 degrees west 2,265 perches to the west branch of Cherry Run, about 80 perches above the mouth of Long run ; thence down Cher- ry run to where the same puts into Crooked Creek." The name of the new township thus formed, on the draft accompanying the report, is

" Plum Creek ;" "Surveyed by me, Robert Orr, Jr." Its northern boundary was Mahoning creek ; its eastern, Indiana county ; and its southern, Crooked Creek.

Sneh were the boundaries and extent of Plum Creek township, until the former were changed and the latter was enrtailed by the formation of the townships of Wayne, Cowanshannock, Burrell and South Bend, and the borough of Elderton.

The Historical Map of Pennsylvania indicates that there was an Indian town about a mile and thirty rods above Crooked Creek, on or very near the Indiana county line, in the southeastern part of the township.

Permanent settlements by the whites were made in the eastern and southeastern portions of Plum Creek township, as originally formed, before and when it was a part of Armstrong township- earlier than in any other part of this county. The reason why it was first settled is not stated. The streams, the water-power, and the considerable scope of productive and comparatively level land in that section may have been more attractive to pioneers than the more broken and rugged land in other sections.

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History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 42

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