History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 91

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

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The Freeport Zouaves were organized in 1860. Charles B. Gillespie, captain; William B. McCue, first, and Henry Torbett, second lieutenant; Jona- than Murphy, first, and Absalom Weaver, second sergeant. This company's name appears to have been changed to Freeport Cadets. It entered Camp Orr in September, 1861, was assigned to the 78th regt. Pa. Vols., in which it served creditably during the war of the rebellion.

Two companies were raised here during the con- tinuance of that war, the members of which went some into the 103d, some into the 139th, some into the 14th and 15th cavalry, some into the 5th and 6th regiments of heavy artillery, and others into Mississippi Marine Brigade. A company of Home Guards was organized, of which the late Abner W. Lane was captain.

Since the war an independent company, the Dunc. Karns Rifles, has been organized, which was uniformed and equipped by S. D. Karns.

A large number of both sexes here participated in the humane and patriotic work of furnishing material aid for the wants and comfort of the men in the service. Much was done in this way before any regular organization for that purpose was effected, of which no record was kept, the value of which cannot of course be stated.

THE SOLDIERS' AID SOCIETY

was organized January 31, 1863, and its officers were : President, Mrs. Mary Galbraith ; secretary, Miss Mary Kennedy ; treasurer, Mrs. Anna B. Weaver ; committee on work and expenditures, Mrs. Mary Murphy, Misses Selima Gibson, Hannah McClelland and Fannie Woods, and seventy-three members, beside eighty-four " gentlemen who were always at hand in any emergency." The records

of that society are lost, so that a full and accurate statement of its noble work cannot be obtained. The treasurer has kindly furnished the following facts from some private papers in her possession : Cash, taken in dues and collections, $5 ; from chil- dren's exhibition at Baptist church, May 27, 1863, $27; from exhibition at Presbyterian church, in March, 1864, $160.20. Total, $192.20.

Articles sent to Pittsburgh branch of the Sani- tary commission during the fourteen months end- ing May 18, 1864 : Shirts, 239; sheets, 28; pairs of drawers, 89; pillows, 33; pillow-cases, 109 ; towels, 47; handkerchiefs, 47; lint, 6 pounds ; pads, 112 ; pairs of hose, 86 ; rolls of bandages, 164 ; cans of fruit, 85 ; dried peaches, 6 bushels ; dried berries, 6 bushels ; dried apples, 1 bushel ; onions, ¿ bushel ; books, 135 volumes ; pamphlets, 40 ; packages of papers, 14 ; Elderberry wine, 15 gallons.

The society continued its good work for some time after the collapse of the rebellion, in filiing large orders for arm-slings, the material for which having been furnished by the Pittsburgh branch of the sanitary commission.

BURIAL-GROUND.

The first white person buried within the limits of Freeport was Miss Faits, who was drowned in crossing Buffalo creek in 1794, where Harbison's mill was afterward erected. Her grave was the first one in the old cemetery. David Todd gave half an acre for burial purposes which, with an additional quantity circumjacent thereto, Arm- strong afterward conveyed to certain persons in trust to be used as a burial-ground by the people of Freeport and its vicinity. It in time became filled with graves, so that a new one became neces- sary. Hence originated a company styled "The Freeport Cemetery," which was organized in the winter of 1864, and incorporated by the proper conrt March 16 following. The charter provides, among other things, that the business of the com- pany shall be conducted by five managers, elected annually by members of the corporation, and that all persons who contributed not less than $20 each to the capital stock on or before April 1, 1864, should be members. The managers named in the charter were Dr. David Alter, Samuel Fullerton, Robert Morris, John Ralston and John Turner, who were to serve until the first annual election and until others were chosen. Dr. David Alter was chosen president and John Turner secretary of the board of managers. The other charter members of the company besides the managers were John W. McKee, Conrad Nolf and Jacob

427

FREEPORT TOWNSHIP.

Shoop. Arrangements were soon made for the purchase of suitable ground, which culminated in Rev. William Galbraith's conveying to the com- pany, May 18, 1864, for $1,900, nine acres and twelve perches, reserving to himself the coal-right and lot No. 1 in section C, being a part of the tract which belonged to the heirs of Mrs. Mary Weaver, deceased, situated on the hill in South Buffalo township overlooking Freeport from the northeast, and which he had purchased in proceedings in par- tition to No. 34, September term, in the common pleas of this county. The grounds were soon tastefully laid out in sections, lots, walks, streets and alleys, and so decorated as to have become one of the most beautiful and appropriate cities of the dead in this region of country. Many lots have · been sold, though deeds for only six of them are as yet on record, which perhaps fairly indicate the average prices : On June 4, 1864, to William Ewing, lots 19 and 20, 400 square feet, for $40 ; to Robert Miller, No. 21, section C, 480 square feet, for $60, on December 24, to Thomas Harbison, lots Nos. 98 and 121, section A, 320 square feet, for $30; to James Harbison and Jacob Hilyard, lots Nos. 99 and 120, section A, 320 square feet, for $23 ; to Conrad, Anthony and William Nolf and Lewis Foster, No. 12, section C, 480 square feet (sometime during that year), for $80 ; on Septem- ber 8, 1873, to Barbara A. Neff, No. 51, section E, 200 square feet, for $40.

ROADS.

The state road from Kittanning via Freeport to Pittsburgh was authorized by an act of the legislature, and its route, as laid out by the com- missioners, was, with a slight exception, west of an airline from Kittanning to Freeport, along and near which then resided Barnett, Boney, older and younger, McLenaghan, Sipe and Shrader. A review of that part of it in this county being authorized by the act of March 30, 1824, the court of quarter sessions of this county, June 21, ap- pointed Thomas Blair, David Lawson, Robert Robinson, James Douglass, Samuel McKee and James E. Brown to review that part of it between Kittanning and Freeport, and lay out the same on such ground as would not at any place exceed an ele- vation of five degrees from a horizontal line. The confirmation of their report, substituting the river route, so called because the major part is along the right bank of the Allegheny, was resisted by those who preferred the other, or back route, perhaps on account of its location as much as for any other reason. Hence followed remonstrances against the report of the reviewers, and affidavits pro and

con, the partisans of both routes stating facts and expressing opinions favorable to the one which they respectively favored, in regard to suitable ground, average elevation and expense of con- struction. The report was confirmed September 22, 1825, and the road ordered to be opened. It extended to the eastern line of the town of Free- port, which was then between Andrew Arnold's tannery and Benjamin King's house. The only other public road extending to Freeport from the north was the Bear creek one, which must have been laid out before this county was organized for judicial purposes. For many years past the most usual through route from Freeport to Kittanning has been via Center Hill in North, and Slate Lick in South Buffalo township, both for stages, when they were running, and for private conveyances.

By the act of April 14, 1834, the Butler and Freeport Turnpike Company was incorporated. The commissioners named in the charter were William Ayres, John Bredin and Jacob Mechling, and others, of Butler, and James Bole, John Drum, William W. Gibson, Samuel Murphy, J. Noble Nesbett, Thomas Robinson, Jacob Weaver and Henry S. Weaver, of Armstrong county. It was to be commenced within five and completed within ten years, and if not, the legislature could resume the rights, privileges and franchises granted by the charter.

On June 22, 1813, the petition of divers inhabit- . ants of Buffalo township was presented to the proper court, praying for a- road beginning at the Butler county line on the west side of Buffalo creek, at or near the dwelling-house of George Weaver, and thence past Jacob Weaver's mill, to intersect the great road leading from Freeport to Erie. John Craig, Wm. Sloan, Charles Sipe, Nicholas Best, Nicholas Eiseman and Samuel Murphy were appointed viewers, whose report in favor of a road from Weaver's mill to the Free- port and Erie road was presented and read Sep- tember 21, and approved December 22, and the road ordered to be opened twenty feet wide, and, March 22, 1814, the court directed that it be opened as a public road, which was soon done.

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STATISTICS.

The population of Freeport in 1840 was 727; in 1850, white, 1,064; colored, 9; in 1860, white, 1,688 ; colored, 13 ; in 1870, white, 1,632, of whom 165 were foreign ; colored, 8. In 1876 the number of taxables is 493, which ought to represent a population of 2,037.

The assessment list for the last-mentioned year shows : Resident clergymen, 6; physicians, 7;

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HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

dentist, 1; lawyers, 4; editor, 1; justices of the peace, 3; druggists, 4; refiner, 1; tailors, 2; clothiers, 4; shoemakers, 8; broom-makers, 2; lumberman, 1 ; merchants, 25 (according to mer- cantile appraiser's list, 42 ; in 14th class, 35; in 13th class, 5; in 12th class, 2) ; carpenters, 22 ; laborers, 96; boss, 1; butchers, 4; agents, 4; coopers, 5; stone-masons, 4; stone-cutters, 2 ; constable, 1; tinner, 1; foreman, 1; barbers, 2; flagman, 1; clerks, 4; oil-merchant, 1; coal- miners, 6 ; machinist, 1 ; marble-cutters, 2 ; paint- ers, 4 ; conductors, 2 ; wagonmakers, 2; teamsters, 11; bankers, 2; quarryman, 1; plasterers, 2; hotel-keepers, 3; water-hauler, 1 ; blacksmiths, 5 ;

auctioneer, 1; confectioner, 1; baker, 1; lime- dealer, 1; lumber merchant, 1; contractors, 2; clerks, 4; peddler, 1; measurer of lumber, 1; sawyer, I; stationer, 1; foreman railroad, 1; vineyard keeper, 1 ; engineers, 3 ; livery stable, 1; tobacconist, 1; boss cooper, 1; bricklayer, 1; watchmakers, 2; weaver, 1 ; brakeman, 1 ; tinner, 1; flour merchant, 1; photographer, 1; dyer, 1; lumber merchant, 1; miller, 1; eating-houses, 2; insurance agent, 1; car inspectors, 2; foreman at acidworks, 1; cabinetmaker, 1; baker and con- fectioner, 1; furniture dealer, 1; oil merchant, 1; saddler, 1; Freeport Planing-mill Company ; and last, but not least, old gentlemen, 4; gentlemen, 17.

RES. AND TANNERY OF C. MARDORF, FREEPORT, PA,

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CHAPTER XX.

SOUTH BUFFALO.

The "Depreciation Lands " Described - Early Owners of the Soil and Transfers of Title- The Famous Soldier and Pioneer, Samuel Murphy -First School House and Early Teachers - Benjamin Franklin as a Land Owner in South Buffalo- Archibald. McCall-Relies of Antiquity-Clinton's First Masonic Lodge in the County - Blue Slate Church-Slate Lick Congregation, from which Originated the First Presbyterian Church in the County -United Presbyterian Church of Slate Lick -Srader Grove Presbyterian Church - Academy and Other Schools -Temperance-Census Statistics -Geology.

THE DEPRECIATION LANDS.

"THE major part - about three-fourths- of that part of this county on the north and western side of the Allegheny river consists of deprecia- tion lands, a large tract appropriated by the act of assembly of March 12, 1783, for the redemption of depreciation certificates. Its boundaries, as specified in that act, were : Beginning where the western boundary of the state crosses the Ohio river, thence up that river to Fort Pitt, thence up the Allegheny river to the mouth of Mogulbuch- tilon (Mahoning) creek, thence by a west line to the western boundary of the state, thence along it south to the beginning, of which three thousand acres opposite Fort Pitt and an equal quantity on both sides of Beaver creek, including Fort Mac- Intosh, were reserved for the use of the state. The surveyor district assigned to Joshua Elder consisted of the territory between the Allegheny river and a line extending due north from or near the mouth of Bull creek to the northern boundary of the depreciation tract, a portion of which, under a previous allotment of surveyor districts, had been embraced in Stephen Gapen's district.

The bills of credit issued both -by congress and by this commonwealth depreciated between 1777 and 1781 from one to nearly one hundred per cent. The difference of opinion as to the degree of de- preciation and the consequent cash value of those bills of credit, the chief portion of the money then in circulation, caused much confusion in the settlement of accounts between both individuals and public officers. The act of assembly of De- cember 18, 1780, provided that the hereinafter mentioned certificates of depreciation, given to the officers and soldiers of the Pennsylvania line in the army of the United States in payment for their services, should be receivable at the land office of this state, equal to gold and silver, in pay- ment of, if they should wish to purchase, unlo- cated lands, and the act of April 3, 1781, adjusted

the scale of the depreciation of these bills of credit. at from one and a half to seventy-five per cent, varying each month from 1777 to 1781, and in accordance with that scale certificates, called cer- tificates of depreciation, were issued to those officers and soldiers for the indebtedness of the state to them. The above cited act of March 13, 1783, also provided that the unreserved portion of the tract of depreciation lands should be laid out thus: The surveyor-general, in accordance with such directions as should be given him by the supreme executive council, should cause it to be laid out into lots of not less than 200 and not more than 350 acres each, numbering them in numeri- cal order. As soon as the whole tract, or a hun- dred lots of it, were surveyed, the surveyor-general, secretary of the land office and receiver-general were directed to sell them, in numerical order, at such times and places, and under such regulations, as should be prescribed by the supreme executive council. The amounts bid at these sales were to be paid into the receiver-general's office either in gold or silver or in those certificates; whereupon, and on the payment of the expenses of surveying and the fees of the different offices, patents should be issued to the vendees, and whatever specie the receiver-general thus received he was to pay into the state treasury for the purpose of redeeming such of those certificates as remained unsatisfied at the close of these sales. Three pounds and ten shillings, including the wages of chain-bearers and markers, were allowed for laying out and returning the survey of each lot into the surveyor- general's office, to be paid in specie before the patent could be issued. But very few lots or par- cels of that depreciation tract were sold until after the passage of the act of April 3, 1792, re- specting the provisions of which enough has already been given in the sketch of the Holland Land Company. (See Madison Township.)

Settlements on this side of the Allegheny river

430.

HISTORY OF ARMSTRONG COUNTY.

did not begin to be rapidly made until the latter part of 1795. Although the settlers were then safe from Indian hostilities, there was danger of intestine troubles, disturbances and conflicts among the settlers themselves in their eagerness to acquire inchoate titles to favorite tracts of land. Hence it was that Judge Addison wrote to Gov. Mifflin, March 11, 1796: "The idea of a new county ought to be fixed and prosecuted as soon as possible. I dread the consequences of the flood of mad people who have gone over the Allegheny and Ohio to make settlements ; their number is inconceivable, and they will, perhaps, be dangerous, unless law can be brought in among them. The establish- ment of a new county and a seat of justice there, with the additional number of officers that would be occasioned by that, would awaken and keep up a sense of submission, and have a good influence on conduct and tempers which otherwise may give rise to some apprehensions." All the territory be- tween those rivers and the western line of the state up to Lake Erie, the reader will remember, was then included in Allegheny county. In a pre- vions letter to the governor, February 3, Judge Addison had intimated: "Indeed, I should think that in all the unsettled parts boundaries of coun- ties and sites of county towns ought to be ascer- tained beforehand and purchases made of 600 or 1,000 acres to be laid ont in in-lots and out-lots, and the profits to be applied to academies." Thins it will be seen the question of organizing a new county or new counties out of that territory had then begun to be agitated. That agitation may have awakened in David and William Todd the hope that the town, which they laid out a few months later, might become the seat of justice of some one of those prospective counties.

The reader's attention is now directed to a com- paratively small part of that territory, to the com- paratively small remnant of Old Buffalo, now embraced within the limits of South Buffalo town- ship. Passing near to and above the northeasterly boundary line of Freeport, on the map of original tracts or lots as they are termed in the deprecia- tion district, is a portion of No. 71 or " Friend- ship," 72 acres of which David Todd agreed, August 30, 1810, to sell to Jacob Weaver for $360. That written contract and payment of part of the pur- chase money in Todd's lifetime having been satis- factorily proven before the court of common pleas of this county, Henry A. Weaver, administrator of Todd's estate, in accordance with the provisions of the act of March 31, 1792, executed a deed to the purchaser, January 2, 1815. Jacob Weaver established a distillery on this parcel in 1812.

Hugh Brown, the early merchant at South Bend, on Crooked creek, near whose store David Todd had resided, having obtained a judgment against the latter before a justice of the peace, on which was issued a scire facias quære executionem non to No. 16, September terin, 1813, in the court of com- mon pleas of this county, to Henry A. Weaver, Todd's administrator, on which judgment was con- fessed. The debt was $20.98, and the costs $8.93. A writ of fi. fu. or execution having been issued and no goods and chattels belonging to the defendant's estate having been found, Sheriff McCormick levied on his interest in No. 71, or "Friendship," in the hands of the administrator, and sold the same to Jacob Weaver for $500, his deed being dated December 22, 1814. The real quantity which Weaver acquired by that purchase appears from his subsequent conveyances to have been 65 acres, which and the 72 acres he had agreed to purchase from Todd in his lifetime, as above mentioned, amounted to 136 acres of " Friendship," which be- came vested in him in his own right, except an un- divided half part of the 72-acre parcel which he held in trust for the wife and children of Henry A. Weaver, to which he applied $262.62 of the. $400 which Peter Hobach, of Greensburgh, had de- posited with him to invest for their use in such property as he should deem fit, having invested the remaining $137.78 in the purchase of in-lots Nos. 87, 93, 94 and 128 in Freeport. He afterward, April 6, 1818, conveyed his own undivided half that 72-acre parcel, except 2 acres conveyed to James Loughrie, to Henry Smith Weaver for $700, and all of the 65-acre parcel for $600. Thus it was that all of the latter and one-half the former be- came a part of Henry S. Weaver's estate, and the other half of the former a part of the estate of the wife and children of Henry A. Weaver, together with one-half of the profits arising from the dis- tillery which Jacob Weaver had established there- on in 1811 or 1812-he was first assessed with it in the latter year-and which continued to be assessed to Henry S. Weaver for several years after his purchase. That distillery was sitnated six rods below the Fifteen-mile point, on the river route of the road from Kittanning to Freeport. The first point after that Fifteen-mile one, mentioned in the report of the viewers, dated September 21, 1824, is "continued six perches to stillhonse," which was 147 rods above the then eastern line of the town of Freeport. All of the 65-acre parcel he- came vested in Mrs. Emily White, who, with her husband, John White, conveyed it to James B. and John Heagy, April 1, 1859, for $4,000. The other parcel remained undivided; proceedings iu partition

431

SOUTH BUFFALO TOWNSHIP.

No. 34, September term, 1860, in the court of com- mon pleas of this county, were had. This portion of real estate embraced in that partition was found, on a more accurate survey than had before been made, to contain 79 acres and 138 perches; not hav- ing been taken by any of the heirs, it was ordered to be sold. Sheriff Sloan conveyed it to Rev. Will- iam Galbreath, June 5, 1862, for $2,875.05, of which the latter conveyed 2 acres and 107 perches along the Kittanning and Freeport road and ad- joining the Protestant cemetery to Bisbop Dominee and his successors in trust for St. Mary's church of Freeport for the purposes of a cemetery, Decem- ber 1, 1863, for $621, on which has since been laid ont an appropriate and beautiful city of the dead. He conveyed 9 acres and 154 perches between the W. P. R. R. and the river and adjacent to the southeastern part of the borough of Freeport to Patrick Meenan, January 16, 1864, for $1,000, on which the latter has since laid out the town of Meenanville, which, according to the assessment list in 1876, contains nine taxables. The last con- veyance of a portion of " Friendship" appears to have been of 43 acres on the Freeport and Kit- tanning road and Heagy's line to Jobn Prager, April 20, 1866, for $325.

North of " Friendship " lay "Union," or No. 70, which extended westwardly to Buffalo creek. David Todd's undivided half of it having become subject to the liens of two judgments, one in favor of John Donaldson, for $9, and the other in favor of Francis Harbison, for $4.89, was sold in the hands of the administrator by sheriff McCormick on writs of vend. ex., and conveyed by him to George Armstrong, of Greensburgh, December 21, 1813, for $140. Armstrong's interest in it became subject to the lien of a judgment in favor of the Westmoreland Bank, for $2,350, passed under the sheriff's hammer, and was conveyed by Jacob Mechling, the then sheriff of this county, to Will- iam W. Gibson, September 12, 1827, for $260, who for the same consideration transferred it, January 1, 1828, to Andrew Arnold and James Bole, and they, the same day, conveyed 120 acres and 42 perches of the west end to William Painter, for $400, and 91 acres and 128 perches of the east end to James, John and Lindsay Patterson, for $400, an instant gain of $540. The other half of "Union " became vested in Mrs. Armstrong, an heir of William Todd, and was sold in parcels by her and her husband, as heretofore mentioned.

Adjoining " Union " on the west was deprecia- tion lot No. 35, called " Plombiers," which origi- nally contained 201 acres, partly in Butler county, the patent for which was granted to Claudius An-

tonius Bertier, December 14, 1786, whose widow and heirs conveyed it to James Bole, April 12, 1815, for $700. Bole conveyed 101 acres of the east end to Thomas W. Carrier, October 27, 1815, for $562, having previously conveyed 100 acres of the west end, on which a sawmill was then erected, to William Girt. The eastern part of " Plom- biers" must have become reinvested in Bole, though the records do not show how, for he con- veyed it, together with 60 acres and 17 perches of depreciation lot No. 34, which Archibald McCall had conveyed to Daniel McBride, and the latter to Bole, November 26, 1818, and the undivided half of 107 acres and 5076 perches, of "Union," which Armstrong had conveyed to Bole, January 27, 1829, to John A. Stearns, July 24, 1834, for $5,000, on the latter parcel of which James Bole, Jr., was first assessed with a sawmill, in 1816, and with a gristmill in 1819. Those three parcels were con- veyed by Stearns to Benjamin F. King, April 30, 1840, and which King conveyed to Abner W. Lane as containing 150 acres, more or less, Jannary 1, 1842, for $8,500, except the quantity that had been conveyed to James and Peter Clawson, on which were their salt-works, which were first assessed in 1837, and, including the grist and saw mills erected by Bole, Lane conveyed two acres of the McCall- McBride-Bole parcel to John M. Orr, July 30, 1858, for $600; portions of the three parcels which he had purchased from King, partly in Butler county, about 55 acres, including the mills, to John Hilnes and Samuel Kurtz, May 20, 1862, for $4,000; and a small quantity, excepting the ground on which the public schoolhouse No. 10 is situated, to A. & C. Mardorff, August 19, 1867, for $400, on which their tannery is located, with which they were first assessed in that year. Lane having died intestate, abont December 29, 1868, letters of ad- ministration were granted to his widow, to whom an order was granted by the court to sell three small parcels, aggregating 6 acres and 76 perches, for the payment of debts, two of which, containing 2 acres and 65 perches, she sold for $325, and ob- tained an alias order for the sale of the other. Her letters of administration having been vacated, March 6, 1871, John Boyd was appointed adminis- trator de bonis non, who laid out the town of Lane- ville on such portions of the decedant's estate as remained unsold, April 14, Thomas Magill and J. G. D. Findley, surveyors, consisting of 53 lots of various shapes and dimensions, skirted on the east by the Butler branch of the West Pennsylvania Railroad, on the west by the Freeport and Butler turnpike, and traversed from north to south by Main street, and a public alley west of the street,

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History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania, Part 91

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