History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 85

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 85

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).

There is on that farm a white-oak tree, which is twenty-one feet in circumference.

CHURCHES.

For many years after the first settlement of this township and region, there was no church edifice in what is now this township, except the log one, mentioned in the sketch of Plum Creek township. Clergymen of different denominations, who were itinerant missionaries rather than pastors, con- ducted religious services in private houses, barns, and groves.

The St. Jacob's Evangelical Lutheran and the St. Jacob's Reformed churches occupy the same edifice, a commodious frame structure, about two- thirds of a mile nearly north of the South Bend postoffice and mills.

Zion's Valley Reformed church was organized June 20, 1868. The edifice owned by the society is frame and of adequate dimensions for the pres- ent wants of the congregation. Members, 64 ; Sab- bath-school scholars, 50. This church was incor- porated by the proper court, March 14, 1873, and William G. King, Absalom Klingensmith, H. G.

398

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

Allshouse and Joseph Heisley were named trustees in the charter, to serve until the first election. The meeting-house is situated one mile east of the most western point or angle of the township, on the right bank of a large run emptying into Crooked creek, in " Barrel Valley." The pastor is Rev. John McConnell. His predecessors were Revs. James Grant and H. N. Hoffmeir.

The United Presbyterian church, at Olivet, on the Robert Lettis Hooper tract, one mile and a fourth from the eastern southern angle of the township, was organized as a settlement of the Associate Reformed church, in April, 1840. There had, however, been occasional preaching since 1836, in a tent near the site of the present meet- ing-house. The congregation, at the time of its organization, took the name of Olivet, from which the name of this point or locality was derived. The original number of church members was twenty. The pastors have been Revs. Alexander McCahan, from 1843 until 1846 ; M. H. Wilson, from 1848 until 1857; Samuel Anderson, from 1859 until 1867, and John C. Telford, the present one. This church has borne the name of United Presbyterian since the union of the Associate and Associate Reformed churches. The present num- ber of members is 67; Sabbath-school scholars 50. The church edifice is frame, 40×40 feet, built in 1842.

During the war of the rebellion there was a Soldiers' Aid Society which consisted of members of the Olivet U. P. and Elder's Ridge Presbyterian congregations. Says a correspondent :* "No records exist of the contributions of this society, but it is believed that its disbursements were not less liberal than those of sister congregations."

SCHOOLS.

For awhile after the first settlement of this re- gion, pay or subscription schools were taught in private houses in different parts of the then set- tled part of the township, which was chiefly along and in the vicinity of Crooked creek. The first schoolhouse, a primitive log one, was erected prob- ably about 1803, near the present site of St. Jacob's Lutheran and Reformed church edifice, in which the first teacher, or at least one of the earliest, was James Allison. Mrs. Nancy Kirkpatrick, widow of James Kirkpatrick, remembers that school- house, and that before its erection schools were taught here and there as above stated.

In the earlier settlement of the southern part of the township there was an ancient schoolhouse about 200 rods southwest of Olivet, on the present

farm of Joseph Coulter, and another about a mile and a half a little west of north from Olivet, on the present farm of David Finlay. The first schoolhouse at Olivet was built in or about 1820, on the present site of G. W. Steer's blacksmith shop, and was known as the "Big Run school- house," which continued to be used until 1834-5.

About a mile distant from Olivet, across the In- diana county line, is Elder's Ridge Academy, whose beneficent influence in promoting educa- tional interests in this region has for many years been effective.

The slight opposition which the common school system encountered in this part of the county was readily overcome by its more numerous friends, prominent among whom were William Davis, Joseph and Alexander A. Lowry, Anthony Mont- gomery and John Wherry, as the writer is in- formed. The further preparation of the history of that system, except some statistics, belongs to the school department.

The first school year in which this has been a distinct school district was 1868. Its first an- nual report was for 1869, when the number of schools was 6 ; average number months taught, 4 ; male teachers, 4 ; female teachers, 2 ; average sal- aries of male per month, $38.25 ; average salaries of female per month, $35 ; male scholars, 288 ; fe- male, 244 ; average number attending school, 433 ; cost of teaching each per month, 64 cents ; amount levied for school purposes, $902.84 ; minimum oc- cupation, 211; total amount levied, $1,113.84 ; received from collectors, unseated land, etc., $1,200.44; cost of instruction, $892; fuel and contingencies, $152.72 ; repairing schoolhouses, etc., $55.66 ; balance on hand, $100.06.

In 1876 the number of schools was 6; average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 6; aver- age monthly salaries, $35 ; number male scholars, 182; number female scholars, 179; average number attending school, 298; cost per month, 64 cents; amount levied for school and building purposes, $1,179.30 ; received from state appropriation, $237.15; received from taxes and other sources, $1,233.71; paid for teachers' wages, $1,050; paid for fuel and contingencies, collectors' fees, etc., $196.25.

The settlement of the lower or southern part of the township occurred much later than that of the northern part. Robert Townsend remembers that at and around the pleasant hamlet of Olivet, on the Robert Lettis Hooper tract, there were but few settlers in 1833. It had then the appearance of a wilderness rather than of a settled region. He remembers that a primitive log schoolhouse

* Robert H. Wilson.

James Hulmer

Mrs. James Fulmer.

JAMES FULMER.

James Fulmer was born in Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, June 12, 1810. When he was a year old his parents, Nicholas and Tenna Fulmer, came to this county and located near where he now lives, in South Bend township. He grew to manhood here, enjoying the limited educational and other advantages afforded at that time, and about the time he attained his majority, April 19, 1831; mar- ried Miss Sarah Smith, who was born November 5, 1806. She was the daughter of Michael and Eliza- beth (Shidler) Smith, who were early settlers of South Bend township. They had eight children - Jacob, Isaac, Michael, Abram, Conrad, Annie, Sarah and Margaret, of whom the first and the last named are dead.

Mt. and Mrs. Fulmer were the parents of ten children, namely, Labauna W., Silas, Diana, Syl- vester, Ralston, George W., Elizabeth Jane, Tea- nan, Margaret and Robert S. These children are all living except Diana, George W. and Margaret.

During the first few years of their married life, Mr. and Mrs. Fulmer resided upon a rented farm in this township. The first eight years that they

lived on their present farm it was leased. Mr. Fulmer then purchased 120 acres, and to that origi- nal farm he has added lands from time to time, until now he has about 350 acres, which is well improved. When he bought his land it was all heavily timbered, and it has been cleared and brought to its present beautiful condition chiefly by his own hard labor. His progress from com- parative poverty (if that state can be called pov- erty in which a man has health, energy and industry as capital) to his present independence has been slow but sure, the result of well-directed toil and thrift. Just after he bought liis first 120 acres of land he built upon it a plain log cabin and a small stable. Twenty years afterward, when he had become able to do so through industry and econ- omy, he erected his present homelike frame house and improved outbuildings. In the spring of 1878 Mr. Fulmer purchased the Maysville flouring and saw mill, which he carried on successfully for four years. He sold them, however, in the spring of 1883, and now devotes his whole attention to farming.

399

SOUTH BEND TOWNSHIP.

was there in 1834, which had the appearance of having been erected a few years. The only wagon in the neighborhood in 1833 belonged to John Smith. The nearest gristmill was that at South Bend. The people packed their grists to mill on horseback. There were no wagon-roads except the one from Saltsburgh. The state road was not opened until 1843. A year or two before then emigrants from Washington county, the Ewings and others, settled here.

POPULATION.

The generally good farming land in this town- ship has steadily attracted to it increasing numbers of those engaged in agricultural pursuits, together with an adequate number engaged in other branches of business incident to and usual in an agricultural community. According to the census of 1870, the only one taken since the organization of this town- ship, its population was then : White, 1,126; col- ored, 1; native, 1,116; foreign, 11. The number of taxables this centennial year is 273, making its present population 1,255, the great mass of which are farmers and their families.

Besides the sawmills at Idaho and South Bend, there are four others, viz., one a short distance west of Olivet, one on Craig's run, about 50 rods from its mouth, one on the most westerly run emptying into Crooked creek about 250 rods above its month, and the other on the same run, or its eastern branch, a mile or so higher up.

In 1875 James McNees & Co. commenced the manufacture of stone crocks at their pottery, on a run 220 or 230 rods east of the second angle in the western boundary line below the northwest corner of the township, the daily product being 200 gallons, and in the spring of 1876 the manu- facture of stone pumps and pipes. Twelve pumps and 200 feet of pipe have been made in a day. The capacity of the works is such that the daily

product of the latter can be increased to 1,000 feet. The building is 90 × 28 feet, and the machinery is worked by horse-power.

The Mutual Fire Insurance Company of South Bend township was incorporated by the proper court December 15, 1875. According to the origi- nal charter the members and insurers were to be persons owning land in and adjoining this town- ship, but that limiting clause was subsequently stricken out by an amendment to the charter granted by the court. The object of this com- pany, like that of the Farmers' Mutual Insurance Company, of Plum Creek township, seems to be to effect insurance on such property as is peculiar to farmers, and at a lower rate than in other com- panies, for the charter provides that its officers are to be-paid only for such services as are necessarily rendered, and no dividends are to be made. The passing remark may here be made that disastrous fires have not been frequent in this township. The most serious one, perhaps, occurred November 29, 1836, by which the house of Anthony Montgomery and its contents, including about $200 in money, were destroyed.

Official .- Sheriff, Alexander J. Montgomery.

The stores assessed this year are five in the four- teenth and one in the thirteenth class.

The assessment list for this year shows: Laborers, 27; blacksmiths, 7; shoemakers, 4; carpenters, 2; millers, 2; wagon-makers, 2; teachers, 2; invalids, 2; preacher, 1; agent, 1; clerk, 1; cooper, 1; ap- prentice, 1; and 26 single men. Will they all be single at the close of this leap-year?

The geological features of this township are generally similar to those presented in the sketches of Plum Creek and Kiskiminetas townships. There is a vein of bituminous coal in the southeastern part of the township on the Townsend farm which, including three feet of slate, is fifteen feet thick- twelve feet of pure coal of excellent quality.

CHAPTER XIX.

FREEPORT.

Probable Presence of the French in this Locality 1750-60-Adventures with the Indians-Craig's Blockhouse - Reed's Station -An Indian Attack -Capture and Escape of Massy Harbison -Murder of Her Children - William and David Todd -"Toddstown"-Origin of the Name Freeport -The Early Settlers - Reminis- cences of Old Times - Boat-Building -Salt Wells-Irish Settlements in 1828 - Transfers of Property -The Town Incorporated -Freeport Ambitious to be a County Town -The Professions-Dr. Alter's Discoveries- Industrial Interests - Churches - Schools - Societies - Military-Soldiers' Aid Society - Cemeteries - Roads- Statistics.

TT.is premised, at the outset of this sketch, that it is inferrible from various traces of the past, which have come to the writer's knowledge, that the territory constituting the forks of the Alle- gheny river and Buffalo creek was quite anciently occupied by human beings. Their presence here, centuries since, appears to be indicated by at least one of those traces. But what kind of people they were is hidden by the veil of obscurity which one or more of those traces may, perhaps, enable some antiquary to penetrate.

Passing from what is now conjecture to a blending of the known and hypothetical, the reader's attention is here directed to known occurrences late in the autumn of 1758. The French were then ocenpy- ing Fort Du Quesne with a force of about 400 men, exclusive of Indians. On the approach of the British army, under the command of Gen. Joseph Forbes, " the head of iron," which the Indians, who had watched its movements, reported to the French commandant to have been "as numerous as the trees of the forest," the latter during the night of November 24 evacuated and burned that fort. From what Forbes and his officers and men learned on their arrival at their objective point, the French had left in three detachments. They seem to have made the impression, or endeavored to have made it, that one of those detachments had proceeded down the Ohio to near its mouth, another by land to Presqu' Isle, and the other under M. de Lignery, the commandant of Fort Du Quesne, up the Allegheny to Venango.

It is at least doubtful whether the detachment that started down the Ohio proceeded so far as it was intimated it would. There was a small French post at Kushkuskee on the southwest side of the Mahoning river, four miles above its junction with the Shenango, in what is now Lawrence county, in this state. Did the detachment that was ostensibly destined for Presqu' Isle stop there? Another

question arises just here. Did all of the detach- ment under M. de Lignery proceed directly by the Allegheny river to Venango? This question occurs here because early settlers in the forks of the Allegheny and Buffalo and vicinity thought, from what they had traditionally learned and from their observation of certain vestiges, which will be presently mentioned, that either all or a part of that detachment halted at the mouth of the Buf- falo, where Freeport now is, and proceeded thence up that stream and Rough run to a certain point where they encamped for the winter. If the weather had become cold enough, as it sometimes does at that season of the year, to make ice rapidly in the upper Allegheny, their course up that stream may have thus been impeded, and they may there- fore have diverged, taking the Indian path or trail along or near the Buffalo to and beyond the Con- noquennessing, the same which David Moorehead and James Karns followed when, in 1798, they proceeded to what is now a part of Mercer county, where they commenced a settlement and improve- ment on a tract of land which they, however, soon after abandoned. That trail intersected one or more others leading to Venango, which was osten- sibly De Lignery's immediate objective point. He may, however, have feigned that to have been such, while he really designed to post the whole or a part of his force at an intermediate point for the purpose, it may be, of collecting supplies of pro- visions for the intended spring campaign against the English.

The reader's attention is now directed to some known facts: In or about 1840, William S. Ralston found a French rifle at the foot of High street, Freeport, which was laid bare by hauling sawlogs out of the Buffalo by James Bole to Joseph Ken- niston's boat-yard, and which had been, before be- ing thus brought to light, embedded about three feet below the surface. There is a considerable

401

FREEPORT TOWNSHIP.

western bend of the Buffalo about a mile and a half above its mouth, the foot of which is twenty- five or thirty rods west of the county line in But- ler county, and is embraced in Depreciation tract No. 35, which is now owned by Peter S. Weaver. At or near the foot of that bend is a ravine ex- tending westward from the right bank of the creek, on each side of which rude stone terraces, about 30×40 feet, fronting the creek, were noticed by two of the writer's informants* forty or more years ago, when they appeared to be quite ancient. The high points or bluffs on each side of the ravine had evidently been cleared of all trees when the terraces were made. There are but a very few on them even now. There is a clear view from the tops of those bluffs to the river and a consid- erable distance up the creek. The terraces appear to one of those informants to have been prepared for planting artillery upon them. Andrew Ral- ston and other early settlers who noticed them and the cleared bluffs in the early part of this century could not conceive what their purpose was unless for a French outpost. The late George Armstrong, of Greensburgh, was another who entertained that opinion. Among the relics found along Buffalo creek were two brass implements, one of which, it was thought, belonged to a compass, and the other was used for measuring angles. Because Hoover's vendees and other Germans resorted in pleasant weather on Sundays to these terraces to enjoy their wine and music, some have supposed that they had made them and cleared those bluffs. That is not probable, for the appearance of those works indicated their construction long before the advent of those persons to this region. Why would they denude those bluffs of all their shade- trees?

About three miles above the mouth of Rough run, a western tributary of Buffalo creek, in the southwestern part of Clearfield, and the north- western part of Winfield township, Butler county, is a parcel of territory which, like other similar parcels in various other localities in this state, was in early times called " the clearfields," and such as were in Western New York called the "open fields." That on Rough run contained about 200 acres. It may possibly have been a glade. The opinion of the early settlers who saw that open place before it had been cultivated is that what- ever work had been bestowed upon it was done by white men, or at least not by the Indians. Whether it was a glade or an artificial clearing, several strong springs on the side hill evinced at an earlier period, if they do not now, that they had been ar-

tificially, though not very mechanically, walled with stone. Another fact is, there was an abun- dance of deer and various other kinds of game in the circumjacent region in early times. Still an- other fact is, that open place was on the Indian trail from the mouth of Buffalo creek to the Conno- quennessing, as the writer is informed. Now, keeping in mind the foregoing facts, as judges do when the law and the evidence are not altogether clear and certain, it is to be queried: Did Monsieur De Lignery station all or a part of his detachment on those "clearfields," for the purpose of securing army stores or provisions for the contemplated campaign in the spring, or as a piece of strategy to avoid the pursuit by the English, which Forbes in his messages and Post in his conferences had inti- mated would be made? Be that as it may, the design of the French to recapture Fort Du Quesne, though not attempted in the spring, was not aban- doned.

After the battle of Niagara Charles Lee was ordered out on a scout with one officer and fourteen men to discover, if possible, what had become of the remains of the French army which had escaped from the battle. They ultimately reached Fort Du Quesne. It is probable that after leaving Venango they went across the country to the head waters of Buffalo creek, and then down that stream to the Allegheny, or, as it was then called, the Ohio. If so, they were among the earliest white men who visited the site of Freeport.

Later, during the revolutionary and the Indian wars, scouting parties of the whites occasionally traversed, and perhaps encamped in the forks of the Buffalo and Allegheny. During the one or the other of these wars a scouting party of sixty men crossed the Allegheny over the first shore above the mouth of the Buffalo. John Guld, elsewhere mentioned,“ and two other men by the name of Carnahan and Jack, as related to the writer by onet of Guld's descendants, being its vanguard, ad- vanced to Buffalo creek, ascended it a short dis- tance, where they crossed to the opposite side, and there observed eight Indians and a Frenchman. Either Carnahan or Jack was in advance of the other two. When he saw the Indians dodging behind trees, he ran toward the point near the month of the Kiskiminetas, where the rest of the party had halted. The other one followed him. Guld approached the chief of the Indian party, leveled his flintlock rifle at him, which missed fire. He then ordered Carnahan and Jack to come to his aid. They refused. He then attempted to

* James S. Bole and Wm, S. Ralston.

* Kittanning township.

+ Capt. William C. Beck.

402

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

follow them, but was overtaken by the Indians, one of whom advanced near to him with an up- lifted tomahawk. Guld dropped his gun and held up both his hands. Then the Indian whom he attempted to shoot said something to his as- sailant, which induced the latter to change his tomahawk to his left hand, seize Guld's right arm, and force him violently toward the chief and the - Frenchman. All of the Indian party except those two pursued Carnahan and Jack. Guld, under- standing the French language well enough to con- verse with the Frenchman, informed him that there was a large body of men a short distance ahead of his fleeing comrades, fearing that a fight might ensue and he he scalped. The chief having been informed of that fact, signaled the pursuers to return, which they did, two of them wearing Carnahan's and Jack's hats, which the latter had lost in their flight. The Indians, after a brief par- ley, separated into two squads, one of which advanced up the right, and the other the left bank of the creek, one of them taking Guld along as a prisoner. The two squads kept nearly opposite each other, by means of signals, as they proceeded up the creek, and united during the night. When they encamped, they confined their prisoner by a stake at each shoulder and one at his feet, and an Indian as guard on each side of him. He was thus kept and guarded about two weeks en route to the lakes and Detroit. Having remained a prisoner about three years, one day while the party that had charge of him were out hunting, he had a quarrel with a squaw who attempted to tomahawk him, escaped, and traveled about eighty miles the first day and night; and subsisting on a small quan- tity of dried venison which he had taken with him, and crab-apples and roots which he gathered by the way, he finally succeeded in reaching his friends east of the Allegheny river.

Some time prior to the establishment of perma- nent peace by Wayne's victory over and treaty with the Indians, a blockhouse was erected on the Alle- gheny, about 120 rods above the mouth of the Buffalo, which is now on Water, below Fifth street, Freeport. Its commandant was Capt. John Craig, whose command consisted of forty or fifty men, most of whom were inexperienced soldiers, " raw recruits," and were addicted, before they had been tried, to boasting how easily they could de- feat the Indians. They were "brave in words," and continued to be until they were tried. Gordon and Mehaffey, two old rangers, determined to test their pluck. With the consent of the command- ant, they were marched one day to the spring on the hillside north of the blockhouse. Gordon and

Mehaffey, disguised as Indians, having posted themselves among some rank iron-weeds just below the spring, yelled and whooped and shook those weeds, which so frightened those raw soldiers that they hastily threw their guns down in the road and rushed pell-mell into the blockhouse, to which Gordon and Mehaffey returned in the evening by the way of the "eddy" and over the river bank, and were refused admittance by those soldiers be- cause they feared the presence of Indians below the bank, who would rush into the blockhouse if it were opened. The commandant finally ordered Gordon and Mehaffey to be admitted. When those soldiers learned from them that they were the only Indians in those iron-weeds near the spring-when they realized how readily they had allowed them- selves to be alarmed by that piece of " bush whack- ing "-that they had so needlessly proved them- selves " cowards in the field," they hurriedly left the blockhouse. Craig said a regiment couldn't have kept them there after they saw how easily they had been scared.

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 85

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