History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 75

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

USA > Pennsylvania > Armstrong County > History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania > Part 75

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

The writer has ascertained these additional facts from a communication of A. S. R. Richards, one of the company's clerks : "This company now owns nearly 2,000 acres of land in fee simple, most of which is well adapted to agriculture, affording all the feed necessary for their stock and a surplus for sale. The local name of the colliery, which is a mile and a quarter in an airline northeast of Oakland, is 'Bostonia.' The first shipment of their coal east was in June, 1873, just after the opening of the Low Grade division of the Allegheny Valley Railroad. There are five workable veins of coal on this com- pany's property-an excellent gas coal known as the Red Bank ' Orrel,' which is extensively mined, and shipped to gas companies in Northern and Eastern New York, northern part of this state, to Canada and elsewhere. Veins 2, 3, 4 have not yet been worked; vein 5 is cannel, the largest in the United States, and which is claimed to be superior to the Scotch and but little inferior to the English cannel, large quantities of which are shipped to Boston, Philadelphia and New York, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Michigan and Canada, where it is used as fuel in

* The Oakland Classical and Normal Institute, under the princi- palship of Lebhens J. Shoemaker, A. B., a graduate of Princeton College, was opened in the first story of the Baptist church, April 11, 1877, in which instruction is given in the common and higher Eng- lish branches and the Greek and Latin languages. The average num- ber of pupils, male and female, is sixty-eight, and of those pursuing the higher English hranches and Greek and Latin is sixteen. A lit- erary society for improvement in composition and speaking, con- ducted by the students, is connected with this institution.

352

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

grates and stoves in dwelling-houses and to gas companies within a radius of 500 miles, by which it is used as an 'enricher.' The company's extensive deposits of iron ore, limestone and other minerals remain as yet comparatively intact, awaiting their demand hereafter for manufacturing purposes in their native territory. When the vein of coal already opened is worked to its full capacity, the daily shipments from it reach 250 tons, requiring the ser- vices of sixty miners, three inside and two outside drivers, two inside and four outside laborers, one blacksmith, one engineer, one weighmaster, one stableman, one inside foreman, one clerk and one manager, in all about seventy eight employés on an average, but sometimes numbering 125. All the employés are paid in full on or about the 15th of each month, each monthly disbursement amounting to about $5,000; the colliery is equipped with a locomotive; numerous pit-cars, a large blacksmith and car shop, all the tools necessary for the prose- cution of an extensive business; pockets, screens and other appliances to prepare the coal for the varied demands of the market. Connected with these works are about five miles of a track of T iron rail; their capacity is equal to a daily production of 350 tons of coal, and twenty-eight neat and com- fortable cottages have been erected for the em- ployés, which are provided with all the modern conveniences, the circumjacent grounds of which are tastefully laid out and beautifully adorned with flowers, shrubbery and fruit-trees. The general depression of business has caused a considerable reduction of the quantity of coal mined at and shipped from this colliery, and all connected with it are eagerly waiting for a general revival of busi- ness and consequent increase of the demand for the immense products which this colliery is capable of yielding.

In the assessment list of Mahoning township for 1876 is a separate one for this colliery, or cannel coal works, showing this company to be assessed with 1,019 acres of land at $20,980, and with personal property, $550; the number of taxables, 26, and their personal property and occupations, $1,741.50. The 26 taxables are of course that por- tion of the employés residing at the colliery. The total valuation of the company's and the employés' property and occupations is $23,271.50.

James Parker appears to have settled cotem- poraneously with Robert Cathcart (in 1805) on a portion of this vacant land, probably adjacent to the southern line of the latter's tract, with 400 acres of which, and two horses and one cow, $335, he appears to have been assessed in 1806. His name appears for the last time on the Red Bank

list in 1810, with the same quantity of land, and with one horse and one cow, $306. He and Cath- cart occasionally went out together on hunting expeditions, and it may have been on one of these that the latter killed the panthers above mentioned. It used to be related by John Millison, who was an early settler in another part of what is now this township, that on a certain occasion Parker went to a point on the Mahoning, called in those times the " Fish-Basket," to obtain some fish. He hitched his mare on the bank or bluff above the creek, which was captured by an Indian while he was getting his fish. When Parker discovered his loss, he made immediate pursuit, recaptured his mare, and remarked : "That young Indian will never steal another horse." That was probably in 1807, as Parker was thereafter assessed with only one horse.

The name of Stofel Reighard appears on the map of original tracts as occupying at least a part of the land which Parker seems to have abandoned. His name is on the Red Bank tax list only for the year 1822, when he was assessed with 206 acres. Edward Blakeley settled on the southeastern part of this large tract of vacant land in 1806. He was first assessed in Red Bank township for the next year with 200 acres, "improvement," two horses and two cattle, at $140, and Robert Blakeney with 100 acres, "improvement," and one horse, for 1808, at $58. Both of those parcels appear to have been covered by a warrant to Mrs. Catherine Blakeney in February, 1836. By her will, registered August 1, 1837, she devised the northern part, or "end " as she designates it, on which she and her youngest son, Robert, had resided before her death, to him, and the remainder south of a division line from east to west, to her son James, and her daughters Jane, wife of Jacob Nulf, and Margaret, wife of Samuel Buzzard. The southwestern portion of this southern purpart is skirted by the northern half of the deep northeastern bend in the Mahoning. The northern purpart contained, according to J. E. Meredith's survey, 130 acres and allowance, and the southern one 190 acres and 94 perches. James Blakeney and his sisters conveyed 158 acres and 80 perches of their purpart to Charles Johnston, Sep- tember 16, 1835, for $300; Johnston, 60 acres and allowance to Christian Shunk, June 29, 1846, for $240; Shunk to A. and J. A. Colwell, 633 acres, April 11, 1848, for $700, of which they conveyed 10 acres and 105 perches to Joseph Shoemaker, December 30, 1856, for $85.25. Johnston conveyed 131 acres to Philip Shoemaker, October 14, 1854, for $850, of which the latter conveyed 7 acres and 27 perches to Joseph Shoemaker, March 5, 1857,

353

MAHONING TOWNSHIP.

for $28.67. Philip Shoemaker also purchased-the records do not show either when or for what amount - Robert Blakeney's purpart, a part of which, along "the road leading from Nulf's old fording to McKallip's mill," he conveyed to James and Eli Simmers, July 23, 1855, in 67 acres and 21 perches of which John Shobert had, in 1844, an interest, of which he was divested by sheriff's sale, and of which Jeremiah Bonner became the pur- chaser for $350, and which he conveyed to Peter George, March 10, 1845, for $400. It is described as lying "along the Hogback road," and adjoining land of George Nulf on the west. One acre and four perches of it was sold by James Simmers to Hannah Simmers, September 6, 1856, for $62.

Philip Shoemaker settled on that parcel of these vacant lands north of Blakeney's, probably in 1814, for he was first assessed on the list of Red Bank township the next year, with 400 acres - perhaps the same that had been occupied by James Parker-and two horses, at $400. His cousin, Peter Shoemaker, who, it is said, was his favorite kinsman, settled on the western portion of that parcel probably in 1824. He was first assessed in 1825 on the last-mentioned list with 200 acres and one horse at $421. He was a prominent and active member of the Brethren in Christ church, which seceded from the German Baptist, or Dunkard church, of which his brother George was for many years the pastor. A church edifice, brick, about forty feet square, was erected on his land, about 235 rods east of Oakland, in 1846, and was completed in the autumn of 1847. In 1872 the edifice heretofore mentioned, at the north- eastern extremity of Oakland, was substituted for this one, which has since been converted into a dwelling-house. Fifty rods north of this brick building is an acre of ground which Philip and Peter Shoemaker conveyed to Alexander Cathcart, Jacob Anthony and William Smullin and their successors, "including a house sometimes occupied as a schoolhouse," " intended as a public burying- ground," February 27, 1840, for $5. It is a part of the land included in the patent to Philip Shoe- maker, dated May 25, 1827, and in the purpart which he had conveyed to Peter, June 17, 1824.

Another portion of these vacant lands lay south of Joseph Moorehead's, west and south of Peter Shoemaker's, and west of the Blakeneys' purparts, on which George Nulf settled, probably, in 1821, when he was assessed with two oxen and one cow at $38; in 1824, with 160 acres; in 1826, with 100 acres, "improvement ;" in 1832, with 100 acres, " Mahoning," i. e., on the Mahoning. He obtained a warrant, dated June 12, 1837, on which a patent

for 208 acres and 48 perches was granted to John Gebhart, April 11, 1838, for $4.84, the upper or northern part of which was included in the above- mentioned conveyance of Nulf to Copenhauer, and which is now owned by Truitt. Nulf con- veyed 111 acres of it to Wm. McMillen, March 6, 1848, for $950. John Thorn obtained a warrant for 100 acres of these vacant lands March 6, 1827, and the patent August 7, 1828, 24 acres and 70 perches of which are south and east of the Col- well and Shunk warrant for 33 acres, and north of the Mahoning, and the rest in the northern part of the eastern bend of this creek, which he conveyed to Yost Smith January 25, 1831, for $280, and which the latter's widow and heirs conveyed to Colwell and Shunk September 29, 1845, for $1,300.

A small tract of 33 acres and allowance in the southwestern part of these vacant lands, west of the southern purpart of the Blakeney and west of the Thorn-Smith tract, was left vacant after George Nulf had acquired title to his tract, for which a warrant was granted to John A. Colwell and Christian Shunk, April 3, 1845, and which was thereon surveyed to them May 1, by J. E. Meredith, special deputy surveyor. The patent was granted to John A. Colwell March 11, 1847. A narrow strip of it extends across the Mahoning to the northern line of " Pleasant Valley." In the north- eastern acute angle formed by the eastern line of this narrow strip and the left bank of the creek, on the southeastern side of the creek, is the site of the Mahoning Furnace, which was erected by Alexander and John A. Colwell in the summer of 1845. It was a steam, cold-blast, charcoal furnace until 1860, when its fuel was changed to coke. It is ten feet across the bosh by thirty-three feet high, and made in forty-six weeks, in 1856, 4,796 tons of forge metal out of hard blue carbonate, lying on a limestone bed in the coal measures, 100 feet above water level, within the distance of a mile from the stack. Its annual average production has been about 2,000 tons, and the number of employés 100. The metal is transported in flatboats down the Mahoning creek and Allegheny river, some to Kittanning, but most of it to Pittsburgh. John A. Colwell purchased Shunk's and his wife's interest in this tract and the adjoining Thorn- Smith one, both containing 133 acres, March 2, 1846, for $8,000, and in the 633 acres of the southern purpart of the Blakeney tract, as above mentioned, April 11, 1848, for $700, those parcels constituting but a small portion of the aggregate quantity of land in this vicinity belonging to the furnace property. The only dwelling-houses within con- venient distance when the erection of the furnace

354

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

was begun were the log one, built by Adam Nulf many years ago, on the opposite side of the creek, and another log one on this side. The latter was used for some time as a boarding-house for the large number of men employed in that erection. The present number of buildings on both sides of the creek is twenty, besides the schoolhouse, built in 1855-6, and used for church purposes, sawmill, coal and coke yards, and 150 rods of rail, or tram- way. The partnership in this furnace business between Alexander and John A. Colwell was dis- solved by the death of the former in 1868, and since then it has been controlled by the latter. The bridge across the Mahoning at this point was erected in 1847-8 by the furnace company ; also the second superstructure. It was afterward de- clared a county bridge, and the present super- structure was erected at the joint expense of the county and the owners of the furnace.

There was still another parcel, a small one, of these vacant lands south of Nulf's, covered by a warrant to Shunk, which became a part of the Furnace property.

Contiguous to those vacant lands on the east and southeast was a considerable body of the Bryan lands, for which Arthur Bryan obtained a warrant dated October 20, 1786, which he, in October, 1787, conveyed to George Bryan, and of which, among other lands, the act of assembly, March 17, 1820, as "stated in the sketch of Cowanshannock town- ship, authorized partition to be made among the latter's heirs, by Robert Orr, Jr., of this county, Thomas Smith and Joseph Spangler, of Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. Within a month after the passage of that act the partition was made, and the instru- ment evidencing it is dated April 20, and which was recorded May 8, of the same year. It and the accompanying diagram show this tract to have been thus divided into three purparts, each con- taining 363 acres and 120 perches. The northeast- ern one, No. 3, was allotted to Francis Bryan, of Albany, New York; the western and central one, No. 2, to George Bryan, of Lancaster, Pennsyl- vania, and the southern one, No. 1, to Mary Bryan, probably of Philadelphia. Francis Bryan, by . Robert Orr, his attorney-in-fact, conveyed his entire purpart to William Smullin, April 3, 1835, for $1,455, to which he removed about that time, where he has ever since since resided, most of which has been retained by him, and on which substantial improvements have been made. One of the township schoolhouses, erected many years ago, is at the cross-roads near his homestead, a few rods south of which is the site of a camp-ground where the Methodist denomination of the circum-

jacent region formerly held their camp-meetings. About 1843-4 the frame church edifice was erected near that site, which was subsequently removed to Oakland by Peter Shoemaker, and which was the only one used by the Methodists in this township for a period of eight years. Smullin conveyed 103 acres and 115 perches to Henry R. Hamilton, March 13, 1839 ; he to William Hamilton, January 12, 1841; and he to Wm. R. Hamilton, April 21, 1843, for $1,237.42, on which he resides and where he has established his homestead and made valuable improvements. He purchased from Smullen 12 acres and 113 perches, February 12, 1846, for $131.25.

An Indian path in old times extended from the run near Wm. R. Hamilton's house across the Mahoning about forty rods above the mill at Putneyville to the vicinity of Olney Furnace, where it forked-one branch extending to Punxsutawney, and the other via Dayton, and across the north branch of Plum creek near Plumville, Indiana county.

George Bryan conveyed his entire purpart to John Smullin, May 16, 1838, for $2,200; he con- veyed 265 acres to Samuel Hamilton, April 1, 1845, for $1,584, who devised the same to John J. Hamil- ton, and he to Joseph K. Hamilton, the present owner, April 16, 1855, for $5,000.

Mary Bryan, to whom the southern purpart, No. 1, was allotted, married Thomas Park. After his death she conveyed this entire purpart to George T. Bryan and John McCarter, the latter of Charles- ton, South Carolina, in trust for Sarah, wife of Jonathan Bryan, which they conveyed to Alexander Colwell, February 17, 1848, for $1,818.75, 100 acres of which he conveyed to Joseph Shoemaker, April 5, 1850, for $800. Other portions of it have not been much, if at all, cultivated. At the northern bend of the Mahoning in the southern part of it was the " Fish-Basket," heretofore mentioned, which was a favorable point for catching fish, and to which the early white settlers and Indians in this region resorted for that purpose. In 1865 a well was drilled here for oil to the depth of 800 or 900 feet, and then abandoned. A large deposit of very strong salt water was found, a few buckets of which having been boiled yielded a large percent- age of salt.

In the southern part of what is now this town- ship, including what has from early times been called "the Cove," "the Big Cove," "the Mahon- ing Cove," west of the two deep bends, crossed by a line extending due south from a point about 60 rods east of the mouth of Long Run, on the Red Bank to and across the Mahoning, and east of that

WILLIAM FREAME JOHNSTON. [GOVERNOR OF PENNSYLVANIA, 1848-52.]

William Freame Johnston, the third Governor of Pennsylvania under the constitution of 1838, was born at Greensburg, Westmore- land county, Pennsylvania, November 29, 1808. His paternal ancestors were originally from Annandale, Scotland, where they at one time held valnable estates. The head of the house, Alex- ander Johnston, however, being killed at the battle of Fontenoy, April 30, 1745, the estate fell into dispute, and finally, throngh political strife, was lost, The family then removed to Ireland and settled in County Fermagh, where, in July, 1772, the governor's father, Alexander Johnston, was horn. He emigrated to America in 1796, and after serving for a time as a surveyor in Western Pennsylva- nia, located in Westmoreland county, of which he was sheriff when his son, William F., was born. The mother of the governor, Eliza- beth Freame, was born in Franklin county, Pennsylvania, in Novem- ber, 1781, and was a daughter of William Freame, a private in the British army, who bore arms against the French in America, and afterward accepted the proposition of the English government to re- main in this country. The issue of the marriage of Alexander John- ston with Elizabeth Freame was eight sons and two daughters. The subject of our sketch was not the only member of the family who at- tained exalted position. Several of the sons bore themselves gallantly as officers in the Mexican war and the war for the Union.

The subject of this sketch had a limited common school and academic education, but acquired a great fund of general informa- tion by reading and observation, He studied law under Major J. B. Alexander, and was admitted to the bar in May, 1829, when in his twenty-first year. Shortly afterward he removed to Armstrong county, and here he engaged in practice, and soon rose to a com- manding position. He was appointed by Attorney-Gen. Samuel Douglas, and subsequently by - Attorney-Gen. Lewis, district attor- ney for Armstrong county, which office he held nntil the expi- ration of Gov. Wolf's first term. For several years he repre- sented the county in the lower house of the legislature, and in 1847 was elected a member of the senate from the district composed of the counties of Armstrong, Indiana, Cambria and Clearfield. " As a legislator, Mr. Johnston," says a biographer, " was bold and original, not beholden to precedents, and was an acknowledged leader." During the period in which he was in the legislature a great finan- cial crisis occurred, and the distress which ensned was extreme. " At this crisis Mr. Johnston came forward with a proposition to issue relief notes, for the payment or funding of which the state pledged its faith, This he advocated with his usnal energy and logical acuteness, and tbongh a majority of the legislature was politically opposed to him, it was adopted, and gave instant relief." In 1847 Mr.

Johnston was elected president of the senate. By a provision of the constitution-if any vacancy occur by death or otherwise, in the office of governor, the speaker of the senate become the acting exec- utive officer-Gov. Shunk resigning on the 9th of July because of ill health, Speaker Johnston became governor. In 1848 he was the Whig nominee for the office, and was elected over Morris Long- streth, after a very sharp and remarkably close contest. Gov. Johnston managed the financial affairs of the commonwealth during his administration in a very creditable manner. One of the subjects which first and most fully occupied his attention was the material interests of the commonwealth, and he argued with great ahility in his first message for a protective tariff. One work of last- ing and high value which he accomplished was the publication of twenty-eight large volumes, known as the Colonial Records and Penn- sylvania Archives, composed of important papers relating to the most interesting period of state history. Upon retiring from office, after failing to secure a reelection, Mr. Johnston returned to Kittanning, engaged in the practice of his profession, and also entered upon an active business life, at different periods being interested in the manu- facture of iron, boring for salt, the production of oil from bitumi- nous shales, and the refining of petroleum. He was prominent in organizing the Allegheny Valley Railroad Company, and was its first president. Under his management the road was built from Pitts-

burgh to Kittanning. During the war of the rebellion he took an active part in organizing troops, and superintended the construction of the defenses at Pittsburgh. He was appointed by President An- drew Johnson collector of the port of Philadelphia, the duties of which office he discharged for several months, but through the hos- tility of a majority of the senate to the President, he was rejected by that hody, though ample testimony was given that the office was faithfully and impartially administered. He then practiced law in Philadelphia, associating with himself Hon. George S. Selden, of Meadville, and subsequently - some time in 1868 - returned to Kit- tanning. In 1871 he removed to Pittsburgh, and he died there at the residence of Mrs. Samuel Bailey, October 25, 1872. At the commemorative meeting of the Armstrong bar Judge Logan made a brief address, a single paragraph from which will convey some idea of the Governor's character. "I gladly testify," said he, . "to the fine ability of Gov. Johnston as a lawyer, and his powers as an advocate ; to his marked courtesy of address, and his uniform- ly gentlemanly bearing; to his absolute integrity in professional rela- tion, always the characteristic of the great lawyer and man; and to his scorn of the wrong. To say that Gov. Johnston was distin- guished in these things is but the tribute of truth to the recollection of a man whose presence commanded affection, and whose memory compels respect."

Mr. Johnston was married April 12, 1832, to Miss Mary Monteith. The offspring of their union were five sons and two daughters.

355

MAHONING TOWNSHIP.

part of the Mahoning which is the southern part of the western boundary line between this and Madison township, lay three contiguons tracts, the easternmost one of which, called "Pleasant Valley," was covered by warrant No. 5172, 660 acres, granted to Isaac Anderson February 15, 1794; the central one, called "Curiosity," was covered by warrant No. 453, 413 acres, granted to Jeremiah Murry May 17, 1785, and the western one, called "Isaac's Choice," covered by warrant No. 3833, 220 acres, granted to Isaac Anderson April 27, 1793. Murry conveyed No. 453 to Anderson December 13, 1790, and Anderson con- veyed all these three tracts, February 4, 1795, to George Roberts, of Philadelphia, to whom the patents were granted February 10. The aggregate number of acres in the three tracts was 1,293, which, in 1807, were assessed at $646.50. "Curi- osity" was seated by Jacob Anthony in 1816, and John Edwards was assessed with 125 acres of it, one horse and one cow, in 1818, at $88. "Isaac's Choice " by Philip Anthony in 1817, and " Pleasant Valley " in 1818. There was, however, a sale by Roberts' heirs of 43 acres and 141 perches of "Pleasant Valley " to Jacob Nulf December 23, 1806 -probably a mistake either in the deed or the record, as the deed was acknowledged December 24, 1836-for $88. That parcel is described in the deed as adjoining lands of John Shoemaker, Alexander and John White, and "the meeting- house lot." It does not appear from any of the tax or assessment lists that either Nulf or any of his adjoiners resided here when that conveyance was made. Thomas Blair, it may be remarked in passing, offered these three tracts for sale by advertisement in the Kittanning Gazette March 22, 1826. Roberts' heirs conveyed 15 acres and 78 perches of "Pleasant Valley " to Nulf, April 30, 1832, for $31, which, with an additional quantity subsequently purchased by him, aggregating 220 acres, he agreed to sell to Christian Shunk, Novem- ber 27, 1844, for $3,000, which the latter agreed to sell to John A. Colwell, March 2, 1846. Nulf having died without executing a deed to Shunk or Colwell, by virtue of a decree of the proper court for the specific performance of the contract between Nulf and Shunk, James Galbraith, Nulf's adminis- trator, conveyed these 220 acres to Colwell on the payment of $905, the unpaid balance of the pur- chase money. This "meeting-house lot " contains five acres of "Pleasant Valley." It was conveyed by Roberts' heirs November 21, 1832, for $10, to John White and John Shoemaker, who agreed and declared, December 16, 1834, that they and their executors and administrators should hold, possess

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 75

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