History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 73

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

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The first election of borough officers was directed

to be held at the public schoolhouse in Manorville, on Saturday, June 23, 1866, of which ten days' notice was ordered to be given by Alexander Cun- ningham, the then constable of Manor township, and James Cunningham was appointed judge, and William Copley and Joseph D. Brown were appointed inspectors of that election. The subse- quent elections were ordered to be held at the same place.

The following borough officers were elected at the first borough election : Burgess, Joseph M. Kelley; town council, Jesse Butler, Calvin Russell, David Spencer, Peter F. Titus and Samuel Spencer; justices of the peace, John McIlvaine and A. Briney; school directors, for three years, David Spencer and Dietrich Stoelzing; school directors, for two years, A. Rhoades and M. M. Lambing; school directors, for one year, R. C. Russell and Jesse Butler; high constable, Jonas M. Briney; borough auditors, Robert McKean, Milton McCor- mick and W. M. Patterson; judge of election, Joseph M. Kelly; inspectors of election, William Copley and H. M. Lambing; assessor, David Spencer ; overseers of the poor, James Kilgore and George W. Shoop.

If the minutes of the town council and the ordinances passed during the first few years after the incorporation of this municipality are extant, they cannot be found by the present clerk of council, so that what the council did in those years has not been ascertained. The records, since they have been kept. in. the book now used there- for, do not show that there has been any of what may be termed municipal legislation of notable interest. Indeed, the affairs of the borough seem to have moved along with but slight control of specific rules and regulations.

The first resident on the territory within the present limits of Manorville, after the revolution- ary and Indian wars, was probably William Sheerer, who, about 1803, established a tannery on a small scale, at the foot of the hill just below and adjoin- ing the northern line of the manor tract, with which he was assessed in 1805-6-7 at $15. He was the clerk of the general and presidential elec- tions in Allegheny township in 1804. He was also assessed with one horse at $10, making his total valuation $25 for each of those years. He must have abandoned his tannery and removed thence in 1807, as that is the last year in which his name appears on the assessment list. For 1805-6 it is on the assessment list of Allegheny township, and for 1807 on that of Kittanning township, which, the reader will bear in mind, was organized in September, 1806.

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

What is now the site of Manorville remained unoccupied by any permanent settler for many years after Sheerer left. It was swampy and cov- ered with thickets of laurel.

The Lambing brothers settled here in 1830, and were first assessed in Kittanning township, the next year, viz .: Matthew Lambing, with 1 head of cattle, $18; John Lambing, with 50 acres ( of Rebecca Smith tract), $100, and "young man, 25 cents;" Michael Lambing, "young man, 25 cents;" Henry Lambing, 3 horses, $60, 1 head of cattle, $6, and "young man, 25 cents," total, $66.25. Manor- ville was then a wilderness of swamp and thickets. In 1832 John Lambing was assessed with the same 50 acres as in the previous year, also with a dis- tillery, total, $375; and Michael Lambing, as shoe- maker, at $50. That distillery was situated near the foot of the hill, a few rods above the northern line of the Manor tract, with which was connected a run of stone for chopping the grain used in dis- tilling. The mill part must have been adapted during that year to grinding grists, for in 1833 John was assessed not only with the distillery, but as a "miller," and Henry with a steam mill. For a year or so afterward, the land assessed to John and the distillery were rented to John West, and afterward the mill was assessed to Henry, and the distillery to Matthew Lambing. The mill had a . capacity for grinding sixty bushels in twenty-four hours. It and the distillery ceased to be operated about 1840-1. Since then, these almost first set- tlers have carried on their respective trades - one a shoemaker and the others carpenters, cabinet- makers and machinists.

Josiah Copley began the manufacture of fire- brick in 1847-8, and continued it until 1858. It was thereafter carried on by his sons for two or three years, and then by his brother, William Copley, until the latter's death, and since then by William S. Copley. The brickworks are located on land belonging to Miss Eliza Sibbett, between the railroad and the hill, on the south side of the street, extending from the latter past the railroad station to Water street. They have a capacity for making 3,000 bricks a day. They were destroyed by a fire, but were soon after rebuilt. The number of employés was at first fifteen, which was subse- quently reduced about one-third by the use of im- proved machinery.

The late Andrew Arnold, about 1850, established a tannery on a somewhat large scale, about 35 rods north of the northern line of the Manor tract, on that part of the 62-acre tract which he pur- chased from Robert Speer, lying between the rail- road and Water street, with which he was assessed

from 1851 until 1855. The next year it was assessed to A. & H. J. Arnold. Its valuation varied from $600, in 1851, to $1,000 in 1853, and to $1,200 in 1856. It was assessed to H. J. Arnold in 1859 at $2,000, and in 1862 at $1,500. It was first assessed, after their deaths, to Mrs. Isabella Arnold in 1865. The Arnolds carried on the manu- facture of fire-brick, the father from 1852-3 till 1856, the brickyard being assessed, each of those years, at $50; and another year thereafter by father and son, the valuation being $500. The tanning was done on the old slow process of keeping the hides in the vats a year-those for sole-leather eighteen months. The number of lay- away vats was about forty-five. The capacity of the tannery was 3,500 sides of leather a year- sole, upper, harness and bridle leather, including 1,000 sides of calfskin.

Dietrich Stoelzing was first assessed as proprie- tor of this tannery in 1867, and as owner in 1868. He came here in May, 1863. From then on during the continuance of the war 5,000 hides were tanned yearly, making 10,000 sides of leather for the United States government, which was used for gun-slings and cartridge-boxes. During the first year after the close of the war this tannery turned out 10,000 sides of harness leather, and the next year 5,000. Then followed the tanning of cup- leather at the rate of 2,500 sides annually. He commenced the process of tanning in air-tight vats, or vessels, in 1875.

The number of employés during the war, and a year or two after its close, was twelve, and since 1867 from four to six.

The apparatus consists of forty-eight lay-away vats, four lime-vats, four leach-tubs, four bates, one large cistern, two posts, six handlers, one stopping- wheel, one steam-pump, and a steam-engine of twenty-five horse-power. The tanhouse is a large two-story frame structure.

While making leather for gun-slings and cart- ridge boxes the hides were kept in the vats six weeks, afterward six months, and now on the vacuum plan, two weeks for heavy belting and sole-leather, and only four days for calfskins. The idea of tanning on this plan originated, as the writer is informed, with one Davis, of Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, in 1868. Stoelzing tried it then and made it a success on a small scale, but could not make large vats or vessels air-tight, i. e., he did not make it a success on a large scale. In 1875 J. J. Johnston, patent agent, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, took out a patent in his own name for a large, air-tight vat. Stoelzing put up one of that kind in his tannery at Manorville, and made

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MANOR TOWNSHIP.

it successful beyond his expectations. The process of tanning by the vacuum method is this : After the hides are prepared in the usual way they are suspended in the air-tight vat; the vat is then closed and the air exhausted, so that the pores of the hides are opened and the liquor from the bark is absorbed, the pressure being at the rate of ten pounds per square inch, the liquid rising, of course, to fill the vacuum caused by exhausting the air. The liquor is changed until the hides are com- pletely tanned. It is made by placing ground oak- bark in an air-tight swinging circular leach ; when filled with the bark the air is exhausted and spent liquor is forced in from below with a pressure of ten pounds per square inch ; after standing an hour the leach is turned half around, so as to reverse its ends; after standing another hour the liquor is run into the air-tight vat; the bark remains in the leach, and whatever liquor remains in it is expelled by a pneumatic pressure of twenty- five pounds per square inch, caused by pumping the air in on the top.

The leather thus tanned is of better quality and greater weight than is that tanned by the old process. The leaching extracts almost instanta- neously all the tannic acid contained in the bark.

In the spring of 1861, J. C. Crumpton estab- lished an oil refinery on a tract about 20×15 rods, next below the brick-yard and railroad station, between the railroad and an alley extending along the easterly line of the borough, and a tank lot between the railroad and Water street. The ca- pacity of its still was at first only thirty barrels, or sixty a week, as there were but two runs in that time. During the proprietorship or superintend_ ency of Benny, several stills were added, varying in capacity from 80 to 250 barrels. Between 1867 and 1870, while Oliver B. Jones was proprietor, another still, with a capacity of 500 barrels, was added. During those years the refinery and ground were assessed at $7,000, and the tank lot at $600. The capacity was not subsequently increased. The proprietorship passed from Jones to King, Barbour & Goodwin, who gave it the name of the Federal Oil Works. John B. Barbour and Edward L. Goodwin sold their undivided two-thirds interest in those works to the Standard Oil Company May 18, 1876, for $8,000, by whom they have been re- moved to some other point down the river.

MERCANTILE.

Henry J. Arnold opened a store near what is now the upper part of the borough, on the river side of the railroad, in 1855, which was continued by, at least assessed to, James Daugherty until 1862. James Cunningham opened his store, op-

posite the railroad station, in 1864-5, which is still open. John McElwain kept a store in the Arnold storeroom in 1867-8. These are probably the only mercantile houses that ever were within what are now the borough limits. This year, only one, and that in the fourteenth class, appears on the mer- cantile appraiser's list.

Manorville has not yet been adorned by a church edifice. 'Religious services are occasionally held by different denominations in the schoolhouse.

SCHOOLS.

The first school in what are now the limits of this municipality was opened in a log dwelling house, built by James Kilgore, probably a year or two before the adoption of the common school sys- tem. That house was situated in the rear part of the oil refinery lot, or between the railroad and the hill, a few rods below the brickyard. It was a pay or subscription school, taught by William Stewart. The next one, nearest to Manorville, was a one-story dwelling, converted into a schoolhouse, on the lower side of the Leechburgh road, near its intersection with the river road. In 1853 a frame schoolhouse was erected by the school board of Manor township, at the head of School or Butler street, in the Sibbett plot, near the hill, which was several years afterward moved from its base by a land-slide. The present school-building is a sub- stantial frame, painted white, 38×28, ceiling 12 feet, with a cupola and bell, erected by the last- mentioned board in 1862. The first annual report of Manorville was for the school year ending June 1, 1868, for which year the statistics are:

School, 1; number months taught, 5; male teacher, 1; salary per month, $50; male scholars, 40; female scholars, 39; average number attending school, 49; cost per month, each, 7711% cents; levied for school purposes, $315.18; levied for building purposes, $121.22 ; received from collector, etc., $355; from state appropriation, $21.08; cost of instruction, $250; fuel and contingencies, $54.94 ; repairs, $4.82.

Statistics for 1875 are here given: School, 1; number months taught, 5; male teacher, 1; salary per month, $50; male scholars, 37; female scholars, 28; average number attending school, 51; cost, each, per month, 92 cents; tax levied for school and building purposes, $339.99; received from taxes, etc., $430.78 ; from state appropriation, $38.69; teacher's wages, $250; fuel, collector's fees, etc., $86.98.

TEMPERANCE.

The temperance element has for several years been strong. The vote on the question of grant- ing license was 85 against, and 34 for it. A Good

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

Templars' lodge was established in 1873, which continued to flourish for a year and a half, into which among others a goodly number of juveniles were initiated, some of whom had not secretiveness enough to keep secret the passwords and other pri- vate matters of the order, which was one of the reasons for disbanding.

RESIDENCES.

There are pleasant sites for residences with ex- tensive views of fine scenery on the extended line of hill adjoining the borough on the east. Rev. Gabriel A. Reichert, the zealous and faithful Lutheran missionary and pastor, elsewhere men- tioned, has resided on one of the subdivisions of the Thomas Duncan portion of the manor tract, abont one hundred and seventy rods back from the railroad since his return from his pastorate in Phil- adelphia. Josiah Copley was a resident near the brow of the hill, where he lived many years, when he invented at least one of his modes of navigating our western rivers with steamers in low stages of water. The cottage built some twenty or more years since by the Sibbetts, is a few rods below, which, with eighty-seven acres and fifty perches of land, they conveyed to the late Chambers Orr, who conveyed the same, together with forty-two acres and fifty-two perches of other contiguous land, to Mrs. Emma R. Reichert, wife of Gabriel A. Reich- ert, Jr., April 6, 1871, for $18,000. It is now called " Reichert Hall." The grounds around it have been tastefully improved.

POPULATION.

The only census taken since the organization of this borough is that of 1870, by which it appears there were then 316 native and 14 foreign-born in- habitants. The number of taxables in 1876 is 86, from which it is inferred the population now is 395. The assessment list for the same year shows the occupations to be : Laborers, 23; merchants, 3, two of whom do business out of the borough; car- penters, 3 ; tanners, 3; coopers, 2; teamsters, 2 ; brickmakers, 2; teacher, 1; cabinet-maker, 1; plasterer, 1; shoemaker, 1; blacksmith, 1; coal- digger, 1; butcher, 1; refiner, 1.

POSTOFFICE.

The Manorville postoffice was established Janu- ary 27, 1864, and James Cunningham was the first and he is the present postmaster.

GEOLOGICAL.

Near the mouth of Crooked Creek, the Freeport limestone is within fifty fect of the Allegheny river.

A cutting on the railroad, one-third of a mile

below the rolling-mill, which is in the lower part of Kittanning borough, well exposes the small coal- bed next above the Kittanning seam, from 9 to 18 inches thick, divided in the middle by a thin band of slate, immediately underlaid by a band of im- pure, somewhat indurated, fireclay, 2 to 10 feet thick, through which are scattered nodules of rough iron ore. Beneath the fireclay is an irregularly stratified mass of highly micaceons sandstone, the natural color of which is blue, but when weathered is chiefly light olive-green and reddish brown, con- taining regularly marked vegetable forms, over which are dark-blue shales, 25 feet thick, weather- ing rusty brown, in some places curiously distorted, become more compact and silicious toward the top. and a thin layer of bituminous shale and coaly matter is interstratified with the mass-dip south- west 2° to 3°. About thirty feet above those small coalbeds, on the Buffington land, is another coal- bed, 4 feet thick when regular, but which in some places in the mines thins away to a mere streak. Thirty feet above it the Freeport limestone is nearly six feet thick; ten or fifteen feet above this the upper Freeport bed, 3 feet thick, contains 23 feet of available coal. The strata rise northwest.

The following imperfect section was partially leveled in the little ravine below the borough of Kittanning : Green shale, 2 feet ; light blue shale, 23 feet ; npper Freeport coal, 5 feet ; unknown, 6 feet ; Freeport limestone in fragments ; unknown (shale, etc.), 40 feet ; brownish-gray slaty stand- stone, 8} fect ; blue and gray shale (6 to 8 feet exposed), 253 feet ; coal, 4 inches ; shale, brown, passing into sandstone, 5 feet ; gray slate, 3 feet ; unknown (shale), 29 feet ; shale, 5 feet ; arena- ceous shale, 43 feet ; sandstone, white above, slaty below, 14 feet ; blue slate, 3 feet ; bed of sand- stone, 4 to 6 inches thick, immediately upon the Kittanning coal, 3 feet ; unknown, 24 feet to the road, and 15 feet more to the river, at low water. (First geological survey of Pennsylvania.)

The small coalbed above specified as being next above the Kittanning seam, from 9 to 18 inches thick, because of its insignificant size was not known to be persistent throughout the country, as has been shown in the course of the second geolo- gical survey. It has been proven by J. C. White, who has charge of the district composed of Beaver, North Allegheny and South Butler, not only to be persistent but to increase in bulk west- ward, culminating as the great Darlington cannel coalbed, in Beaver county. It has also been found by Franklin Platt, another member of the geologi- cal corps, as a large and workable bed throughout Jefferson and Clearfield counties, and he has traced

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MANOR TOWNSHIP.

it into Cambria county. It is properly called the | "Upper Kittanning coal " in the Allegheny valley series, and the " Darlington Cannel " in Beaver county, because " at Darlington the bed seems to acquire its maximum size and importance." (Sec- ond geological survey, Pennsylvania, Q.)

Levels above tide : Opposite Rosston station, 788.4 feet ; opposite mile post, 782.5 feet ; oppo- site mile post, 789.8 feet ; opposite mile post, 797.6 feet ; opposite Manorville station, 796.9 feet ; bench mark on outside corner of south wall of culvert No. 42, 794.4 feet ; opposite mile post, 43 miles above Pittsburgh, 804.7 feet. (Ibid, N.)

On May 31, 1871, Andrew J. Dull leased from William M. Bailey and several other heirs of the late Richard Bailey the exclusive right to operate for and remove all the limestone and iron ore, etc., on 93 acres, being those heirs' purparts, for the term of twenty years, on condition that he would commence operations on or before April 1, 1872, and pay the lessors eight cents a ton for all the limestone which he should remove therefrom. On March 27, 1873, he took a similar lease from David Spencer for twenty acres of his land contiguous to the Bailey premises, but higher up Fort run, at six cents a ton for limestone.

Operations under the Bailey lease were com- menced in February, 1872, and, of course, later under the Spencer lease. The following facts were obtained from Joseph R. Smith, the superin- tendent of the quarry and the store connected with it: The stone quarried thus far is the Freeport limestone, interstratified with three layers of slate, each about twelve inches thick. The aggregate thickness of the three layers of limestone is about fifteen feet. The number of employés for the

first year and a half after the quarrying was begun was 135, forty of whom were colored men who were formerly slaves in the Shenandoah valley, Virginia. The average number of employés since then has been about seventy-five. The quantity of limestone annually quarried and shipped by the Allegheny Valley Railroad to Pittsburgh until 1876 has been 48,000 tons. The pay-rolls show that during the same period the amount paid for wages monthly has been $4,000, and an equal amount for freight. From 1872 till 1875 the amount paid as freight from this quarry exceeded the amount received by the Allegheny Valley Railroad as freight from all sources during the first three years after it began to be operated. This limestone is used for fluxing in the manu- facture of iron. The quarrying thus far has been along the course of the right-hand bank of Fort rin, a distance of about 200 rods up that run from the face of the hill looking toward the Allegheny . river. A branch railroad, intersecting the Alle- gheny Valley road about twenty-five rods below Fort run, has been constructed along the valley of that run, a distance of 275 rods, including the length of a branch to that branch, which is about twenty-five rods, over which the limestone is trans- ported, without transshipment, en route to Pitts- burgh.

The Baileys formerly operated a kiln on a limited scale, in which limestone from that vein was burned. It was a draw-kiln. The lime was used as a fertilizer and for building. Seven thousand bushels were sold in one summer for the latter purpose in Kittanning, besides a considerable quantity for both purposes in the surrounding country.

CHAPTER XV.

€ MAHONING.

Organized in 1851 from Territory in Madison, Pine, Wayne and Red Bank Townships-Boundaries - First Election- Mahoning Creek Navigation Company-The Early Settlers and First Owners of the Land Tracts -Transfers- Village of Texas, now Oakland-Joint Stock Company - Methodist Episcopal Church - Baptist Church-Brethren in Christ Congregation-Oakland Classical and Normal Institute-Red Bank Cannel Coal and Iron Company-Dunkard Church - Mahoning Furnace-Casper Nulf and Wife, Cente- narians-German Reformed and Lutheran Churches-Putneyville- Building Flatboats- Methodist Epis- copal Church - United Presbyterian Church - Firebrick Works -Population -Educational and Other Statistics of the Township-Geology.

T !! WHIE petition of divers inhabitants of Madi- son, Pine, Wayne and Red Bank townships having been presented to the court of quarter sessions of this county, December 19, 1849, pray- ing for the erection of a new township out of parts of the above-mentioned ones, James Stewart, William Kirkpatrick and Joseph Lowry were, Decemher 21, appointed viewers, to whom the usual order was issued May 14, 1850, which was not executed. A second petition, therefore, was presented December 17, held over March 7, and March 21, 1851, the court appointed William Kirkpatrick, James Stewart and Archibald Glenn viewers. Their report, favoring the granting of the prayer of the petitioners, was presented and read June 9, and confirmed September 20, 1851, and the new township was then organized and christened Mahoning. Omitting a tedious, formid- able number of courses and distances, its bounda- ries or outlines, as designated in the report of the viewers and confirmed by the court, are : Begin- ning below Olney furnace, on Mahoning creek, at the point where the new line* between Wayne and Red Bank townships strikes the creek ; thence down the Mahoning to a point opposite the mouth of Pine run ; thence by varions courses and dis- tances northwesterly to a white oak; thence northerly along a line dividing school districts, i. e., sub-districts, as they then were, along the eastern boundary of Robert Morrison's land ; thence northwesterly to the Red Bank creek, at or near the west end of the Fort Smith tract; thence along the left bank of Red Bank creek, around its big bend to a point opposite the month of Leatherwood creek; thence southwesterly to "a school district line ;" thence along that line pass- ing George Nulf's improvement, "taking a section off Madison township," to a black oak; thence

southeasterly to the Mahoning creek ; thence down the same, "taking a section off Pine township," to a hemlock, the corner of George Reedy's land ; thence southwesterly, northeasterly and north- westerly to the corner of Pine and Wayne town- ships, as it stood before the division; thence southeasterly to a white oak by the roadside ; thence northeasterly. and southwesterly. to the place of beginning, "containing about twenty-five square miles."

At the first township election the following officers were elected : Judge of election, William R. Hamilton ; inspectors of election, John Sheri- dan, John McCauley ; assessor, Samuel Ferguson ; assistant assessors, John A. Colwell, Alexander Cathcart ; supervisors, William Smullin, Thomas Buzzard; township clerk, Milton Osbein; town- ship. auditors, David Putney three years, R. C. Williamson two years, John Sheridan one year; school directors, J. W. Powell and J. J. Wich three years, James Stockdill and John Shoemaker two years, James McLaw and Thomas Buzzard one year; overseers of the poor, Peter Shoemaker and John Duff ; justice of the peace, James T. Putney ; constable, Absalom Smullin.

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History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 73

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