History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 66

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

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The earliest church in this village is. the Pres- byterian. On November 27, 1833, the trustees of the Presbyterian church at Kittanning, in accord- ance with the unanimous wish of its members, "and of some of the prominent citizens of Rural valley," invited Rev. Joseph Painter "to take charge of these two congregations as stated pas- tor," pledging themselves for the payment to him of $500 annually for his services while he should continue to be their pastor. That invitation hav- ing been accepted and a call moderated for two- thirds of his time at Kittanning, September 23, 1834, he thereafter preached to the Rural valley congregation one-fourth of his time. By direction of the Blairsville Presbytery Rev. Joseph Painter and E. D. Barrett organized this church August 1,

* He was first assessed as an innkeeper in 1838. His was probably the second tavern kept within the limits of this township.

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

1835. The first elders were Richard E. Carothers, William McIntosh and Ebenezer Smith, who were ordained and installed on the 20th. The first sac- rament in the log edifice was on the 22d, and the third and last one there was November 19, 1837. The next one was in the brick edifice, June 17, 1838. The latter was at first small, but it hav- ing increased, the Presbytery the next spring directed the Presbyterian church of Rural val- ley to be organized, which was accordingly done, and he, as its pastor, preached to it one-third of his time for several years. The first church edifice was a log one, 24× 24 feet, situated on the two acres of the Findley tract No. 3833, which John Findley, as heretofore mentioned, gave for and dedicated to church and school purposes. The pulpit consisted of a ten-bushel store box set endwise, and the seats of oak slabs, the sawed sides upward, and each supported by four wooden legs. The pastor's stipulated salary was $80 a year, pay- able in flour, meat, oats and other products at market prices in Kittanning. Services continued to be held in that primitive temple in the wilder- ness for a year or more. Then the question of a change of location to Rural Village began to be agitated, on which it was provided that each sub- scriber to the fund for defraying the expenses of the church should be entitled to vote. In this, as in most other instances, the question of location became an exciting one. The members of the con- gregation, pro and con, were deeply exercised as to its ultimate disposition. A congregational meet- ing was held in that edifice on a warm afternoon in May, 1836. Ebenezer Smith was called to the chair, and Archibald L. Robinson was appointed secretary. The word "fillibustering " had not then been coined. So William McCain, who lived over on Pine creek, a zealous opponent to a change of location and a ready and voluble speaker, under- took to prevent the taking of a vote by "killing time" with one of his long speeches. After hav- ing gained the floor, and having proceeded at some length, he was interrupted by John Patterson, who proposed that the motion or resolution before the meeting should be reduced to writing. When that was done, Patterson cut short McCain's time-kill- ing speech by calling for the previous question, which, having been put, was decided in favor of the proposed change of location by a large ma- jority. That question having been thus settled, John Patterson gave two of his in-lots, Nos. 1 and 2, on the north side of Main street, in the old plot of Rural village, for the erection of a new edifice, graveyard, and other church purposes, but, the people preferring to have their new edifice on higher

ground and a little out of the town, Alexander Foster, Sr., gave an acre of the tract which he had purchased from the Robertses, the John Craig tract, called "Leeds." Their deeds are respectively dated October 28, 1836, and the consideration ex- pressed in each is $2. Both of them conveyed to John Stoops, William McCain and Robert McIn- tosh, trustees of the First Presbyterian church in Rural village, and their successors in office, to be appointed, chosen and elected according to the rules and established practice of this church. The work of erecting the new one-story brick edifice, 30×40 feet, on the acre off "Leeds" given by Alexander Foster, was commenced soon after the congregational meeting had decided in favor of changing the location, and was rapidly completed. The material was not of the best quality, its archi- tectural style was not of the highest order; still it was a fair building, adapted, at the time, to the wants of the increasing population of this region. The pastor, Rev. Joseph Painter, regarded the alacrity and celerity with which material aid was obtained and the work was completed as wonder- ful. As he viewed it, he may have recalled Virgil's description of a hive of busy bees in com- paring to them the industry of the Carthaginians in erecting the buildings and other improvements of their city, especially the words : "Fervet opus" *__ "the work goes briskly on," which he had conned at Amwell academy. The graveyard, provided for in the donation of this acre of land, is immediately north of that edifice.

The church membership having increased to eighty-five, the congregation desired one-half of a pastor's time, which Mr. Painter could not give them. His successors were Rev. James D. Mason, from 1843 until his resignation in 1847; Rev. Cochran Forbes, from 1849 until he resigned in 1854, on account of "bitter and persevering oppo- sition chiefly from outside of the church ;" Rev. William F. Morgan, two-thirds of his time from 1856 until his death in 187 -. It is said of him that he acted with caution, attended to his own business, and meddled not with that of any other individual. He was an active and acceptable co-worker in advancing the educational interests of Cowanshannock township. The membership of this church in 1876 is 154, and the number of Sab- bath-school scholars 100. This church was incor- porated as " the Rural Valley church of Rural vil- lage," by the proper court, March 23, 1842. John Cowan, Robert A. Robinson, James Reed, Gouin Wallace, William Aitken, John Stoops and Isaac Rhea were the trustees named in the charter, who

* Æneid, Lib. I, 436.

SMITH NEAL.

The grandfather of the subject of this biography, Smith Neal, after whom he was named, was born in Cumberland county, Pennsylvania, in 1764. As a lad he enlisted in the colonial army and served one day in the revolutionary war. In 1796 he set- tled in Butler county, being one of its earliest pioneers. When the war of 1812 broke out his patriotic spirit had better opportunity to exhibit itself than during the first war with the British, and he served as a soldier for a considerable time. The rifle which he carried is now owned and treasured as a valuable heirloom by his grandson and namesake. The pioneer and soldier continued to reside in Butler county until 1833, when he removed to Armstrong, where he lived until his death in 1863. His wife was Sarah Cochran, by whom he had one child, Robert, who was born in Butler county, July 5, 1798. This son married Sarah Lowe, a native of this state, who was born in 1797. Robert and Sarah (Lowe) Neal came to Armstrong county in 1834, and lived here the remainder of their days, the husband dying in December, 1862, and the wife in the same month in the year 1857. They were the parents of five

MRS. SMITH NEAL.

children, four of whom are still living, viz .: Will- iam H., Rosetta P., Alexander and Smith.

Smith Neal, whose ancestry has been given in the foregoing few lines, was born in Butler county, Pennsylvania, January 25, 1822. Upon the 25th of May, 1844, having removed to Armstrong county with his parents ten years before, he was united in marriage with Miss Margaret Sloan, daughter of Samuel and Nancy Sloan, early set- tlers of Plum Creek township. She was born in 1823 and died March 17, 1861. She was the mother of five children, three of whom are still living-Nancy Jane, Amanda and Sarah C.

Upon the 10th of April, 1862, Mr. Neal married, as his second wife, Caroline Jewert, a native of. Plum Creek, born November 22, 1834. Six children were the offspring of this union, and all are liv- ing. Their names are: Loella R. (widow of John P. Beyer, a resident of Indiana, Pennsylvania), L. Adda, Alden, Robert E., Mattie V. and Alice L.

Mr. Neal has followed agriculture all of his life, and now owns a farm of 220 acres, 150 of which is finely improved. He has held various offices within the gift of his fellow-townsmen. Both Mr. Neai and his wife are members of the United Pres- byterian church of Dayton.

FMG

RES. OF SMITH NEAL.

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COWANSHANNOCK TOWNSHIP.

were to serve until the third Wednesday of Novem- i Keck, Dr. Wm. Aitken, and the present one, George ber, the time designated for the annual election of A. Gourley. the corporate officers.

A new frame edifice, 51×61 feet, was erected in 1850, on one or the other, or on parts, of the two in-lots given to the congregation by John Patter- son, on the north side of Main street and adjoin- ing the widest alley. The congregation sold their brick edifice to the Cowanshannock school district, which was almost exclusively used for school pur- poses while it stood. A new building, better adapted for school purposes, has been erected on its foundation. It was in this building that the writer, in the discharge of his official duty, held an annual examination of the teachers of this and several of the adjacent townships, and an institute in combination, which commenced on Tuesday, October 27, 1857, and continued until Friday, the 30th. Large numbers of teachers and interested spectators were present. Much attention was devoted to the rudiments, these first things in the books, the foundation work of education, which had been too much neglected. The teachers gen- erally thought their examination in these things was "awfully severe," but their attention having thus been called to the importance of a familiar knowledge of the rudiments, they began to study them, and the writer was gratified to find on his visits the next winter to their schools that even their young pupils were more familiar with those rudiments than they were when they were exam- ined. The exercises in the day session were confined to examination and illustrations, and the night ses- sions were devoted to lectures and discussions of various topics of peculiar interest to teachers. Among the former was an interesting and instruct- ive one by Rev. E. D. Barrett on language and the application thereto of the principles of grammar.

The Methodist Episcopal church was organized in 1851-2, and has since belonged to the Dayton circuit. Its edifice is situated on the second lot west of the widest alley on the north side of Main street. It is a frame structure, 31 ×45 feet, erected in 1852.

The Rural Valley postoffice was removed to this village along with the removal hither of John Pat- terson. His successors as postmaster have been Thompson Purviance, Robert A. Robinson, Joseph Alcorn, John Colwell, Zachariah Knight, Henry

The eastern part of Rural village is traversed by Craig's run, so called either after John Craig, the warrantee of the adjoining tract called " Leeds," or after John Craig of Loyal Hannon, who, in the latter part of last century, had his hunting camp on that part of it within the present limits of the village.

The Rural Valley lodge, No. 766, of the Inde- pendent Order of Odd Fellows was instituted here, June 16, 1871, the original number of members being twenty-one. The present number is fifty- four. This lodge first purchased in-lot No. 30 in the old plot, but sold it to Josiah Miller for $85- the deed to him being dated April 3, 1876. Their hall is situated on the north side of Main street, at its intersection with the widest alley. It is a suitable two-story frame structure, 48 × 20 feet, which was dedicated in October, 1875.

A brass band, thirteen pieces, was organized here in September, 1875, which has thus far made fair progress.

In the absence of desirable statistics, the writer cheerfully states that the people of this village and of Cowanshannock township generously con- tributed to the aid of the soldiers of the Union army during the war of the rebellion.

STRUCTURE.

In addition to what we have given in the sketch of Plum Creek and Elderton, the following has been kindly furnished by Mr. W. G. Platt, who has in charge the second geological survey of this county : Nearly all the surface rocks of this township are lower barrens. The country along the creek is famous for its smooth, fertile soils. The lower productive rocks are above water level for about a mile along the north branch of Plum creek, extending into Indiana county. A small area extends southward from Wayne township np the valley of Pine creek to Gourley's. A much larger and more important area projects eastward from Valley township. The lowest rock exposed is the ferriferous limestone, only in the extreme western edge of the township.

The rocks are nearly horizontal, the township representing the edges and center of the synclinal of which Rural village is about the center.

CHAPTER XIV.

MANOR.

Formed out of the Western Part of Kittanning in 1849-First Township Election - Named from one of the Proprietary Manors - Kittanning, afterward Appleby Manor - Ancient Works - Numerous Relics - Specu- lation in Regard to the Origin of the So-called "Old French Fort" -Soldiers Here in 1777-8-Correspond- ence of Officers Relating Thereto - Fort Armstrong -Indian Murders - The Claypoole Blockhouse - Early Settlers -Transfers of Real Estate in the Manor - William Green's Mill Built in 1789-" Fort Green " -The Indians Become Aggressive - Measures Taken for the Protection of the Frontier-Cornplanter's Friendship for the Whites - The Militia - Game - Judge Ross - Other Pioneers - Schools - Postoffice - Cradle Factory - Number of Inhabitants - Village of Rosston - Borough of Manorville- Its Pioneer Settler - Its Industrial Interests - Mercantile - Educational -Temperance - Population of the Borough - Geology of Manor Township.

M ANOR township was formed out of the western part of Kittanning township. The petition for its organization was presented to the proper court, at June sessions, 1849, and Hugh Campbell, Samuel Green and James Stewart were appointed viewers or commissioners, who presented their report in favor of the organization, at the then next September sessions. A remonstrance was presented, on the 20th of the same month, against the confirmation of their report, and against the organization, setting forth that it would leave Kittanning township too small in extent, and would cause much additional expense in rearranging the locations of the schoolhouses. The court, however, at December sessions of that year, confirmed the report of the commissioners, and ordered and decreed that the new township of Manor be erected according to the following boundaries: Beginning at a red oak, at Walker's ferry, on Crooked creek, on land of Robert Walker; thence by Kittanning township, or a line running through the township as it stood, north 18 degrees east 6 miles and 278 perches to a post on the purchase line (of 1768) on land of John Morehead, or 16 perches west of Sam- uel Mechling's upper corner; thence along the pur- chase line and boundary of Pine (now Valley) township north 80 degrees west 3 miles to the line of the borough of Kittanning; thence along the southeast line of said borough by the curve thereof 250 perches to the Allegheny river ; thence down said river by the meanderings thereof 5 miles and 120 perches to the mouth of Crooked Creek; thence by the meanderings thereof, being also the bound- ary line of Allegheny township, 53 miles to the place of beginning.

The first township election was held in March, 1850, at which the following officers were elected : Judge of election, George M. King; inspectors of

election, John Christy and Michael Isaman ; con- stable, Isaac Bouch ; assessor, David McLeod ; justice of the peace, William Copley; supervisors, George Bouch and John Hileman ; township andi- tors, Richard Bailey, John Shoop and John Will- iams ; township clerk, A. J. Bailey ; overseers of the poor, Josiah Copley and William Truby; fence viewers, John Davis and John R. Shoop. The record shows only five school directors to have been then elected, namely, Matthew (Matthias) Bowser, John Christy, William Ehinger, Rev. Levi M. Graves and John Robinson.

The name of this township originated from one of the proprietary manors, which was a part of the territory within what are now its boundaries. The word manor is derived from manere, to remain, because in England the usual residence of the owner. It was a piece of land generally consisting of several thousand acres, owned and held by a lord or some great personage, who occupied as much of it as was needed for the use of his own family, and leased the remainder to tenants for certain rents or services. This is said to have been the origin of copyhold estates, which were those held by copy of the court roll, or a tenure for which the tenant had nothing to show except the rolls made by the steward of the manor, who was the registrar of the cour -baron, and who held that court when business relating to tenures and tenancies, etc., was before it.

The reader will keep in mind that the charter granted in 1681 by Charles II to William Penn vested in the latter and his heirs the absolute ownership of all the land in Pennsylvania, with comparatively slight exceptions. From then until July 4, 1776, all titles to that land were derived either from Penn himself or some of his family. Though a manor had not been granted in England

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MANOR TOWNSHIP.

since the reign of Edward III, which began in 1327, the surveyor-general under the Penns sur- veyed to them forty-four manors in the eastern, western and other parts of Pennsylvania, aggre- gating 421,015 acres and 82 perches. One of them was "The Manor of Kittanning," which was surveyed, March 28, 1769, on a warrant dated February 23 next preceding. Its boundaries, as given in certain quit-claim deeds and releases else- where mentioned, were : Beginning at a black oak on the east or southeast side of the Allegheny river, which was about 125 rods below the mouth of Garrett's rnn, and running thence by land sur- veyed to Rebecca Smith, south 72° east 391 perches to a "Lynn " (linden tree); thence extend- ing by hilly poor land south 18° west 977 perches to a white oak ; thence by vacant land south 45° west 500 perches to a white oak; thence extend- ing by hilly poor land north 35° west 560 perches to a birch at the side of Crooked creek, at the first bend above its mouth ; thence down said creek, the several courses and distances thereof about 170 perches to a hickory at the side of said river ; and thence up the said river the several courses thereof, crossing the mouth of said creek, 969 perches to the place of beginning, containing 3,960 acres, and allowance of six per cent for roads, but, according to later surveys, 4887 acres and 86 perches.

Neither records nor the oldest inhabitants solve the question why, by whom and just when the name of this manor was changed to that of " Appleby." It may be inferred from the follow- ing recorded facts about what time that change occurred : John Penn, of Stoke Pogis, and Richard Penn, of Queen Ann street west, in the parish of Marylebone, in the county of Middlesex, England, by John Reynal Coates, of Philadelphia, Pennsyl- vania, their attorney-in-fact, conveyed this entire manor to Frederick Beates, of the last-mentioned place, by deed dated June 26, 1804, in which it is mentioned as " all that tract of land called and known by the name of 'The Kittanning Manor,'" for the sum of $6,400. Beates by his deed, dated the next day thereafter, conveyed "the undivided moiety or half of the Kittanning manor" to Thomas and Robert Duncan for $8,000, and the other undivided moiety to Alexander Cobeau for an equal sum, a gain of $9,600 in the brief space of twenty-four hours. The Duncans and Cobeau mutually agreed upon a partition of this manor tract, by which the former took 2,367 acres and 130 perches of the upper or northern part, and the latter 2,458 acres of the lower or southern part, as mentioned in their quit-claim deeds. The division line between their purparts began at a |

witch-hazel, on the left bank of the Allegheny river, about 200 rods above the mouth of Tub-mill run, and extended thence south 52° east 98 perches to a post; thence south 48° west 69 perches to a post ; thence south 531º east 245 perches to a white oak; thence north 33º east 9 perches to a post; thence south 55° east 324 perches to a post, on the line between the manor and the John Biddle tract. The quit-claim deeds or releases of the Duncans to Cobeau, and of the latter to them, are respectively dated the 11th and 12th July, 1805, in which the land thus divided is still men- tioned as " The Kittanning Manor." Cobean con- veyed 681 acres and 151 perches in the south- western portion of his purpart to Samuel Cochran, by deed dated April 25, 1807, for $4,086, in which it is mentioned as a tract of land situate in "the Manor of Appleby." This being the first instance in which the writer has met with that name in the old records, he infers that the change of name oc- curred between July 12, 1805, and April 25, 1807. But why and by whom it was made is not manifest to him. It appears to have been made while Cobean and the Duncans simultaneously held and owned their respective purparts. Was it made by one or all of them? The termination by is a Norse word, meaning a town. Had apples then begun to be abundantly produced in the manor, and did the then proprietors, or either of them, for that reason conceive the idea of calling it Appleby, which is equivalent to Appletown ? Or was it so called after some person of that name who had re- sided on it ? The writer has not discovered that any one by the name of Appleby ever resided in this county. There was a private by the name of George Appleby in Capt. Armstrong's company in Gen. Armstrong's expedition to Kittanning. He was reported as among the missing, but there is no evidence of his having remained or of his having afterward settled in this region. Did Cobean and the Duncans, or either, prefer to give their re- cently acquired possessions the name of some older and favorite place ? And if so, is Appleby in England that place ? It is situated on the river Eden, 32 miles from Carlisle and 270 from London.

Appleby is also the name of a parish in the county of Lincoln, and of another in the counties of Derby and Leicester, in England. It is prob- able that the later name of this manor tract was derived from either that borough or one of those parishes.

· Cobean conveyed the remainder of his pur- part, namely, 1,837 acres and 125 perches, to Jona- than Smith, of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, for $10,000, by deed, dated May 11, 1807, in which it

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

is mentioned as a tract in " Appleby Manor," and the tracts subsequently conveyed by the Duncans are described as situated in " Appleby Manor," so that both the Cobean and Duncan purparts took that name.

The original name of Kittanning is the only one appearing on the records at the land office in Har- risburg. The manor, when surveyed by Joshua Elder, Deputy Surveyor-General, was in Cnmber- land county. It appears to have been divided by George Woods into seven tracts, their areas vary- ing somewhat in extent. Tract No. I was the most northern, and tract No. 7 the most southern. Ile made a plot of a town on two of those tracts, which he mentioned thus: " A proposed plan for a town at the Kittanning, on the Allegheny river, on tracts Nos. 2 and 3. George Woods." The northern boundary of tract No. 2 was 179 perches below the northern boundary of the Manor. Its width was 287 perches, and that of tract No. 3 was 219 perches. "The Kittanning " is an expression almost invariably nsed in the old records and docu- ments, and it must have included a much longer stretch of territory along the left bank of the Alle- gheny river than was included in the extent of the site of the old Indian town destroyed by Gen. Armstrong. This is manifest from the etymology and meaning of the word Kittanning, elsewhere given. The idea that the borough of Kittanning "is located on this manor" is erroneous, for the borough is a mile or more north of the manor's northern limit.

Perhaps some reader is wondering why this manor was retained by the Penn family until 1804. Notwithstanding the discontinuance of granting manors in England for more than three centuries before the granting of the charter to Penn, the pro- visions of the nineteenth section of that charter evinced a disposition to engraft, as Sergeant says, on our provincial institutions some of the features of feudal nobility." They empowered Penn, and such as he might license, to erect any parcels of lands into manors, with a court-baron and other incidents belonging thereto by the laws of Eng- land. Yet no manor in that sense was ever erected in Pennsylvania. But there is reason to believe

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History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 66

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