History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 81

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

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General Armstrong's devisees, his sons James and John, in the course of the interval during which they made no sales of parts of "Victory," laid out two ranges of lots or parcels, exclusive of what they had sold, "above and adjoining the town of Kittanning," and between the river and the hill, which were surveyed by Adam Elliott. The first range contained thirteen and the second seventeen of those parcels. The original draft of the first one is not accessible to the writer. Its date is not given in any of the recorded conveyances of the parcels contained in it. The two parcels, conveyed to Brown October 18, 1809, are mentioned in the deed as "fragments." Were they fragments of parcels that had already been laid ont ? Had that first range been laid out before the date of that deed? The date of the second range is given on the draft: "Surveyed for Doctor Armstrong, November the 21st, 1818, by Adam Elliott."

The sales of the unsold portions of "Victory " were brisk during a few days in August, 1821. On the - day of that month James and John Arm- strong conveyed to Robert Brown parcel No. 1, in first range, lying along the northwestern part of the borough of Kittanning and the Allegheny river, containing 9 acres and 65 perches, including

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VALLEY TOWNSHIP.

the 2 acres, more or less, which James Armstrong had conveyed to Brown, October 18, 1809, for $470, on which he resided from 1821-in which year he built his frame house- until his death in -; to Robert Stewart, 14th, 2 acres and 16 perches which Brown had conveyed to him, and in addition thereto 24 perches, making 2} acres, for $7.50, which was, of course, the consideration for the last-mentioned 24 perches adjoining the northwest side of the parcel to which they were annexed. On the 13th the Armstrongs conveyed parcel No. 2, adjoining the last-mentioned one on the northwest, containing 5 acres and 25 perches, to Samuel S. Harrison for about $213, which he conveyed to David Reynolds, December 31, 1829, for $350, 1 acre and 144 perches of which Franklin Reynolds con- veyed to George H. Fox and Valentine Neubert, March 28, 1872, for $3,800, and two days later Ross Reynolds conveyed to them + acres and 108 perches for $9,350, the aggregate quantity contain- ing 1 of the 2 acres and 24 perches which Isaac Scott purchased August 1, 1831, off the east end of the parcel next above this, and conveyed this acre to David Reynolds. Fox and Neubert laid out the land thus purchased by them into 66 build- ing lots April 1, 1872. The shape of the plot is nearly that of the letter L, and it contains 6 acres and 902% perches, as surveyed by Wm. E. Roe. The areas of the lots vary somewhat, all of them being, respectively, less than one-quarter of an acre. Four of them are trapezoidal, the rest are parallelogramic, 37 being rectangular. Chestnut street, 60 feet wide, extends through the center of the stem part of the letter L from the public or Olean road to the ground contiguous to the Alle- gheny Valley Railroad, which is intersected, diago- nally, by alleys 12 feet wide, about 7 rods from each of its extremities, between which are other alleys 10 feet wide, skirting the northern and southern extremities of the lots on each side of that street. An alley 12 feet wide extends from Chestnut street along the western extremities of the lots in the foot or lower part of the letter L, the upper or northern one of which is skirted by an alley of the same width. Forty-eight of those lots have been sold, a few of which the vendors were obliged to take back because of the inability of the vendees to pay for them. Twenty-one dwelling houses have been erected on this plot. All, except two substantial brick ones, are frame, varying in size and quality. The proprietors have not given this town a name, but others call it Germantown and Dutchtown. Philip Mechling re- members that he cultivated tobacco on this parcel before its first sale by the Armstrongs.

Parcel No. 3 adjoined the last-mentioned one on the north, which the Armstrongs conveyed to Samuel Matthews, as containing 5 acres and 35 perches, August 14, 1821, for $208.75, whose execu- tor, John R. Johnston, conveyed it to Robert Brown, August 2, 1831, of which the latter con- veyed the 2 acres and 94 perches above mentioned to Isaac Scott, September 24, who obtained there- from the clay which he used at his pottery in Kit- tanning. This tract, at least the western end of it, is noted as the seat of an institution of learning, established by Rev. Bryan B. Killikelly, May 1, 1837, under the name of the Doanville Seminary, designed chiefly for the education of females. It, with twenty-two other similar institutions, was incorporated by act of assembly, passed April 16, 1838, by a typographical error as Deanville Fe- male Seminary. The trustees therein named were B. B. Killikelly, Joseph Buffington, Alexander Caldwell (Colwell), Robert E. Brown, George W. Smith, William P. Rupp and William F. Johnston of this, Charles C. Gaskill of Jefferson, and Dan- iel Stannard of Indiana county. Among the neces- sary corporate powers granted, the teachers or a majority of them were authorized to enforce the rules and regulations adopted by the trustees for the government of the pupils, and to grant, by the order of a quorum of the board of trustees, such degrees in the arts, sciences or other branches thereof to such pupils and others who, by their proficiency in learning, or by other distinction, they might have thought were entitled to them, that is, to such as were usually granted at other similar semi- naries, or which the trustees or quorum of them might have thought right and proper, and to grant to the graduates their certificates under the com- mon seal.

This seminary having come within the provis- ions of the fourth section of the Act of April 12, 1838, namely, of having at least two teachers and forty pupils, it received the annual state appro- priation in quarterly payments, as provided by that section of that act, until the close of the summer session of 1839, by which it was also provided that that appropriation to each of the female seminaries thus incorporated should continue for only ten years. The principal of Doanville Female Semi- nary, Rev. B. B. Killikelly, relinquished his charge of it at the close of that session, with sixty-two pupils, including boarding and day scholars, a goodly number of whom were from adjoining counties, and spent several years as a missionary in the West. The school edifice was the present brick mansion, which Robert Brown, Mrs. Killikelly's father, had erected in 1836. Mrs. Eliza Warren and her daughters

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

had charge of this institution from 1839 until the spring or summer of 1843, without the benefit of .the state appropriation.

Rev. B. B. Killikelly, having returned from the West, reopened a school in the same edifice in the fore part of April, 1849, which he named the Min- nesota Point Seminary, the charter of the former one having expired by limitation in 1848. The present frame annexes were erected at different times thereafter. Aided by competent assistants, he continued his principalship until April 4, 1855, when the number of boarding and day pupils was 160. It was then at different times for a few years under the charge of Revs. Hall and Carter. After filling the rectorship of two Episcopal churches and the principalship of a female seminary, Paradise, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, Rev. Killikelly re- turned, and, by the request of various residents of Kittanning, reopened his school at this point, which he then named Glen Mary, May 2, 1863. His last term closed November 28, 1865, with 110 pupils on the roll. His chief assistant, Miss Bech- ton, continued to take charge of the school on her own account until her death. She was succeeded by Miss Lena Hughes, and she by B. B. Killikelly, Jr., the present assistant rector of Emanuel Episco- pal church, Boston, Massachusetts,* until it was transferred to the control of Lambeth college, Kit- tanning.

Parcel No. 4 lay next above No. 3, and contained 4 acres and 40 perches, which the Armstrongs con- veyed to James Reichart, August 14, 1821, for $150. They also conveyed, the same day, parcel No. 5, 4 acres and 75 perches, adjoining No. 4 on the east, to John Reichart for $156.40, who conveyed it to Archibald Dickey, December 29, 1827, and Dickey to James Reichart, April 28, 1828, and the latter to David Reynolds both 4 and 5, March 8, 1835, for $700, whose executors conveyed the same to James Mosgrove the present owner, November 14, 1863, for $1,863, on which a race course has recently been prepared.

Passing for the present James Monteith's pur- chase in this first range, the Armstrongs conveyed 3 acres and 30 perches of parcels Nos. 10 and 11, lying in the eastern tier of parcels, to David John- ston, August 14, 1821, for $139.37}, and the same day to Alexander Colwell the half of Nos. 10, 11, 12 for $318.75. Johnston conveyed his portion, January 3, 1824, for $160, and Colwell his, August 24, for $338.75, to David Reynolds, to whom the Armstrongs conveyed as follows : Parcel No. 13, 12 acres and 44 perches, adjoining parcel No. 1 on

the west and the present road along the northern line of the borough of Kittanning to the new cemetery, and a larger parcel, 61 acres and 7 perches, northeasterly of the last-mentioned one, August 13, for $980; the next day, 3 acres and 30 perches, parts of parcels Nos. 11, 12, for $159.37}; and, May 10, 1822, in pursuance of a previous agreement, 155 acres adjoining ·" Sloan's old im- provement" on the east and the Robert Patrick tract on the north, being the residue of " Victory " "after selling to sundry persons in small parcels" all then unsold for $1,031.67. This and the above- mentioned 61-acre parcel he called his " Federal Spring farm," which, with the adjoining parcels which he had purchased from the Armstrongs, he devised to his sons, Franklin and Ross Rey- nolds, the greater portion of which they have devoted to agricultural purposes. The latter, in April, 1866, crected a stone limekiln at a point on the face of the hill fronting the river, on his purpart, about one hundred and fifty rods in an airline nearly north from the northeastern corner of the borough of Kittanning. It is 80 feet in length and 25 feet in hight, and 15 or 20 feet in width, containing four kilns, with a capacity for burning 800 bushels of lime a day. The material used is the ferriferous limestone, which is quarried along the brow of the hill down around and beyond the point, at the residence of Franklin Reynolds, facing what was formerly called the "Bowser's Hollow," from which to the kiln and thence to the Allegheny railroad extends a narrow railway. Pittsburgh is the market for nearly all the lime made here. The usual number of employés is twenty-five.

James Monteith purchased the following parcels of "Victory " from the Armstrongs : Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9, lying in a tier between the above-mentioned No. 5, now between the railroad and the hill, 15 acres and 40 perches in the first range, and parcels Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 212 acres, in the second range, lying on the south side of the road or lane extending east- wardly from the river, August 11, 1821, for $1,197.50. The Armstrong county fair-ground and Camp Orr, heretofore mentioned, were located on the southern and major part of No. 1, in this second range. The dwelling-house on the upper part of this parcel was the one in which Monteith resided in Kittanning, whence it was removed. Mrs. Mary M. Johnston, widow of Gov. Johnston, was born in it.

Adjoining the upper side of that road or lane was another tier of parcels, second range, Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8. No. 5 was next to the hill and No. 8 next to the river. The Armstrongs conveyed Nos. 7, 8,

* Since assistant minister of Trinity church, Boston, on the Green foundation.

LLY

FMG

RES, OF JOSEPH CAMPBELL, VALLEY TP., ARMSTRONG CO., PA.

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VALLEY TOWNSHIP.

11 acres, to James Pinks, August 13, 1821, for $330, which he conveyed to Monteith, July 29, 1825.

No. 6, 4 acres and 2 perches, was conveyed to Robert Speer and Hugh Rogers the same month for $135, equal moieties of which they conveyed to Henry Roush and Matthias Bowser. Roush's in- terest became vested in Alexander Colwell by sheriff's deed. William F. Johnston, who was elected governor of Pennsylvania in 1848, and Dr. John Gilpin were Monteith's sons-in-law. After they became tenants by courtesy of the parcels vested in him, they purchased this parcel from Colwell and from Bowser's heirs, and other parcels, as will be seen. No. 5, four acres and two perches, was conveyed to Samuel S. Harrison, August 13, 1821, for about $130, which he conveyed to Matthias Bowser, April 19, 1823, for $115, whose heirs conveyed it to Johnston & Gilpin. One of the Valley township schoolhouses is located in the southeastern corner of this parcel.

Next above that tier was No. 9, 92 acres, conveyed to Thomas Hamilton, August 13, for $195, whose sur- viving executor, James Hamilton, of Carlisle, Penn- sylvania, in pursuance of an agreement of Thomas McConnell, his co-executor, deceased, conveyed it to John Mechling, April 3, 1837, for $400, who, after clearing it, conveyed it to Robert Orr, Janu- ary 12, 1842, for $600, by whom it was conveyed to Gilpin & Johnston, March 4, 1843, for $1,000. They also purchased and sold two other parcels further up in this range, so that now the northern limit of the Gilpin & Johnston farm is No. 9. This farm was leased to John Donaldson for a term of eleven years, which has been extended. The lessee in his lifetime planted upon it, on por- tions above and below the lane extending through it, and on both sides of the railroad, a varied and extensive nursery of different kinds of fruit, ever- green and shade trees, the culture of which has been continued in the interest of his heirs since his death. This nursery consisted, in the centen- nial year, of 300,000 trees of different kinds, over 2,000 plants, three hot-houses, and 100 sashes of hot-beds. The annual sales are about 20,000 trees of all kinds, among which are those yielding the leading varieties of the best fruits, which find a market not only in this county and state, but in New York, Michigan, Indiana and other states ; 25,000 greenhouse plants ; 2,000 of various species of roses, and a general assortment of vegetables. The number of employés engaged in the packing seasons, spring and fall, is about twenty, and at other times fourteen.

Next above lay No. 10, 9 acres, No. 11 (its south- east corner being the southwest corner of the tongue

in the Robert Patrick tract), 3} acres, No.12, 32 acres, which were conveyed to John Mosgrove, August 11, 1821, for $700.50, which became vested in Joseph Mosgrove, who purchased 10 acres and 138 acres off the lower end of the tongue of the Robert Patrick tract, the four parcels aggregating 27 acres and 18 perches, of which he conveyed to Ross Reynolds a portion off the lower side of No. 10, and on which the latter erected, in 1870, a clay- mill, with a steam engine of eighty horse-power, in which thirty tons of fire-clay are daily crushed, ready for the Pittsburgh market, and four small frame cottages for employés on that part of this strip between the railroad and the river.

Joseph Mosgrove and Andrew Arnold some time prior to 1854, agreed upon the purchase and sale of these last-mentioned parcels, and the latter erected the present large frame cottage on No. 10, but had not quite completed it when an arrange- ment was made between them by which Mosgrove conveyed to Frederick G. Creary 25 acres and 128 perches, including that cottage, May 11, 1860. Creary took possession in 1855, and commenced the erection of a steam sawmill and gristmill on the river bank, about 50 rods above the lower line of No. 10, which cost $30,000, with which he was assessed only once and then in 1858. Both mills had probably been in operation a year or more when, on the very night after the finishing touch had been given to their fine machinery, they were destroyed by fire, supposed by Creary to have been the work of a spiteful incendiary who had been seen about the premises that day. Creary conveyed all of what had been thus conveyed to him, except a small parcel sold to John A. Colwell, to James S. Quigley, the present owner,* January 2, 1869, for $6,500, who, the next spring, erected a shingle- mill which saws 12,000 shingles in twelve hours ; his steam sawmill in 1870, in which he saws from 6,000 to 10,000 feet of all kinds of bill lumber a day, and his cooper-shop in 1873, in which when in full operation the daily production of kegs was 250 ; all three are situated on and near the sites of the burnt mills. Nearly opposite these works, on the brow of the hill included within the limits of this Quigley property, is a chalybeate spring of considerable strength, whose water has not yet been analyzed. So far as the writer can judge from its taste, it resembles that of a similar spring at Stoneboro, Mercer county, Pennsylvania. Along the base of the hill are several one-and-a-half-story frame dwelling-houses, erected by Quigley for his employés.

*Quigley conveyed the cottage and 1 acre and 143 perches to Rev. T. D. Ewing, July 31, 1878, for $4,000,

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

Above No. 12 were Nos. 13, 14, 15, each 34 acres, which the Armstrongs conveyed to James Gibson, August 13, 1821, for $112.50, which he subsequently conveyed to Gilpin and Johnston, they to Jackson Boggs, and he to Edward S. Golden, the present owner.

The remaining parcels of " Victory " were Nos. 16-17, north of No. 15, which became vested in Daniel Lemmon and which are now owned by his son, Thomas McC. Lemmon.

The second range contained, according to El- licott's survey, 86 aeres.

Adjoining "Victory" on the northeast was a tract, 190 acres, that once belonged, according to the map of original tracts, and the list of warran- tees and owners, to David Lawson and Samuel S. Harrison. But it does not appear to have been assessed to them. James Patrick remembers lay- ing heard that it was conveyed, or it was agreed that it should be conveyed, to his father, John Patrick, by Alexander Craig; that it was claimed by George Ross, who brought either an ejectment or an action of trespass quære clausum fregit, which was tried after his father's death, and re- sulted in a verdict for the plaintiff. John Donald- son was assessed with 200 acres of it in 1822, and afterward with 100 acres, until 1837. His right was founded on settlement and improvement. There appears to have been no granting of title thereto by the commonwealth until June. 10, 1836, when a warrant was granted to Robert Donaldson, on which a survey was made by J. E. Meredith, June 24, for 123 acres and 11 perches. It was thereafter assessed to Thomas Donaldson, who conveyed it to James Mosgrove, June 9, 1863, for $4,760. A portion of this tract on the ridge was traversed in the early part of this century by the old IIelms' ferry road, which crossed the purchase line a short distance from the late residence of John Reichart, the Sloan tract near where James Sloan, Jr., settled on the parcel now owned by Simon Truby, that part of the Reed tract and of James Patrick's farm, now used as a German Catholic cemetery, across the Donaldson tract, the northeastern corner of " Victory," and the Robert Patrick tract, to the Allegheny river. There were no guide-boards in these early days. Initials were in some instances cut on trees to indicate the direc- tions to certain points. It is remembered that the initials "D. H. F." for "David Helms' Ferry" were cut in several trees at different points along that road. It is related that a traveler, not know- ing their significance, observed these on a tree out toward Christopher Oury's place. Looking at them a few moments, he concluded, at least so he

said, that they stood for " Devil-Hell-Fire," de- clared he wouldn't travel that road any further, and changed his course.

Adjoining that on the east was the Henry Reed tract, 286 acres, traversed by the Cowanshannock, with several curves diagonally from the southeast to the northwest, dividing it nearly into equal por- tions. The patent to Reed is dated February 21, 1786. He devised it to his children. It became vested by release, September 12, 1812, in Robert Brown and Nathaniel Stewart. It was sold for taxes by Samuel Matthews, county treasurer, to Robert Brown. Stewart's interest passed by sher- iff's sale, June 19, 1817, to Thomas Blair, who, seven days afterward, conveyed it to Henry Jack, and he to Brown, Angust 7. Brown conveyed the entire tract to Andrew Arnold, January 24, 1833, for $3,000. Reed's administrator having released the interest of all the heirs to Brown, January 5, 1836, the latter reconveyed this tract to Arnold ten days afterward, who had conveyed 100 acres to James Watterson, April 16, 1833, for $1,000, which Watterson conveyed to Abraham Fiscus, April 4, 1842, for $1,500, and which Fiscus exchanged with James Patrick as hefore mentioned, 72 acres and 80 perches of which the latter conveyed to Jere- miah and James C. Bonner, June 19, 1845, for $700, and 6 acres and 94 perches to Frederick Biehl and seven other German members of St. Mary's Catholic church, Kittanning, January 30, 1875, for $1,000, three acres of which they con- veyed, April 16, to the Rt. Rev. M. Domenec for $1, "in trust for laying ont, holding and using the same under such rules and regulations as the bishop of Pittsburgh or his successors may, from time to time, make and prescribe, as and for a Catholic burial place, to be known and designated as the 'German St. Joseph's Cemetery.' "

Indians must have encamped or had a small vil- lage.on that part still retained by Patrick, where his orchard now is, for among the relics found here were many beads, arrowheads, gunflints, sev- eral tomahawks, stone bullet-molds, three pipes, and an ovate net-sinker with two transverse grooves.

Arnold conveyed 222 acres and 66 perches of this Reed tract to Jeremiah Bonner, December 9, 1845, for $2,000, which, with what he purchased from James Patrick and some other contiguous land, aggregating 388 acres and 156 perches, Bon- ner conveyed to Benjamin Glyde, July 2, 1853, for $500, which, having become vested, through the intervention of a third party, in Mrs. Annie Glyde, she conveyed 46 acres and 61 perches to John Fair- ley, February 28, 1861, for $940; 63 acres and 101 perches to Mrs. Nancy R. Bowman, November 18,

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VALLEY TOWNSHIP.

1864, for $1,717.87; and 44 acres to Mrs. Jane B. Finlay, November 9, 1875, for $800, and portions to Henry Bush.

Adjoining the purchase line on the north, "Vic- tory" on the east, and the Reed and Donaldson tracts on the south, was the Sloan tract, 400 acres, with which James Sloan, Jr., a son of one of the trustees and one of the first commissioners of this county, was first assessed in 1807 at 50 cents an acre. His title was gained by settlement and im- provement. He probably settled on it in 1805-6- on that part, now on the north side of the Clear- field turnpike, heretofore owned by John F. Nutting and wife, but now by Simon Truby, where he built a house, cleared the land around it, and planted an orchard. In 1808 he was assessed with the same quantity of land as in the previous year at $1 an acre, and one horse and one cow at $16; total, $416.

Sloan conveyed three contiguous parcels between the purchase line and the old state road in the southwestern part of this tract to Robert Beatty: 2 acres, April 7, 1809, for $14; I acre, June 6, for $4 ; and 133 acres, April 5, 1810, for $39.

" Wood-lots " are occasionally mentioned in the records as being " near the borough," of which Nos. 1, 5, 8, 9, 15 belonged to Robert Brown, Sr., prior to and after June, 1822. One of the boun- dary lines of the hereinafter-mentioned parcel conveyed by him to James E. Brown, April 3, 1835, is given thus : "Thence by sundry wood- lots," etc. On upper margin of the copy of the plan of Kittanning, printed by James Alexander, in the county commissioners' office, is the plan of 34 lots, made with pen and ink, 18 of which are, seemingly, south, and the rest north of the hollow back of the present court-house. There are two alleys, each 12 feet wide, intersecting each other at right angles in those on the southern side, and two streets, each 20 feet wide, crossing each other at right angles on the northern side of the hollow. The whole seem to adjoin the eastern line of the borough of Kittanning, from the southeastern part of out-lot No. 19 to a point 66 feet below the south- eastern corner of out-lot No. 27. The writer can- not ascertain that any such lots were ever laid out on any part of the Armstrong tract. They were probably laid out in the southwestern part of the Sloan tract, and although they appear in the above- mentioned pen-and-ink plan of them to be on both sides of that hollow and the " old state road," they may have all been on the south side, and were per- haps on the three parcels conveyed by Sloan to Beatty, which parcels subsequently became vested in Alexander Colwell, to whose estate they still belong. These lots undoubtedly adjoined the east-

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History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 81

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