History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 147

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314

USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 147

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At an early day Judge Breading did much to de- velop the infant trade between the western counties of the State and New Orleans by sending annually to that market a flat-boat laden with flour and whiskey, at that time almost the only articles of production and export, though as he was early engaged with John and Andrew Oliphant in the furnace business, they occasionally inelnded salt- and sugar-kettles, hollow-ware, etc.

During the troublous times of the Whiskey Insur- rection Judge Breading, as a law-abiding citizen, used all his influence in maintaining the laws taxing whiskey, notwithstanding these laws were de- struetive to his interest and so obnoxious as to create a rebellion which could be suppressed only by the strong arm of military force. So strong indeed was public opinion against the excise laws that large

amounts of Judge Breading's property were burned by the insurgents. He, in connection with Edward Cook and John Oliphant, was a delegate from Fay- ette County to a convention of gentlemen which met at Pittsburgh, Sept. 7, 1791, to take measures in re- gard to suppressing the Whiskey Insurrection.

Judge Breading was commissioned by the State, March 5, 1785, to survey all the lands then recently purchased from the Indians north and west of the Ohio and Allegheny Rivers to Lake Erie, as also to assist in running the lines between Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Ohio.

Hill farm, before referred to, in 1783, buying at that time the tomahawk right of one Mckibben, who had taken it up and was then living upon it, and " paid out the land" to the State in 1784, and immediately moved upon it, and in 1790 built thereon a stone house, which is in perfect preservation, and is now in the possession of one of his grandsons, George E. Hogg. Judge Breading lived continuously in this house after its erection, and died therein.

Judge Breading was very enterprising, and aside from various other important operations he, in com- pany with others, built at Brownsville, in 1814, a steamboat named the "Enterprise," which was the first steamer built at Brownsville, and which, after making a number of trips to Pittsburgh, was sent down the river to New Orleans and never returned. In 1816 the same persons built a second steamer.

Nathaniel Breading died April 22, 1822, his wife, Mary Ewing, surviving him, and dying Aug. 31, 1845, aged seventy-eight years. Their children, now all deceased, were George; Mary Ann, intermarried with George Hogg; James E., who married Elizabeth Ewing ; Sarah, who married Dr. James Stevens, of Washington, Pa. ; Harriet, who was the wife of Dr. Joseph Gazzam ; Caroline Margaret, who married Dr. Joseph Trevor, of Connellsville and Pittsburgh, Pa. ; Elizabeth, who married Rev. Wm. B. MeIlvaine ; William E., a lawyer, who died in the twenty-fifth year of his age; and two children who died in in- fancy.

Nathaniel Breading and his wife Mary, as also his father, James, and his wife, Ann Ewing, were interred in the Laughlin burying-ground, two and a half miles east of Brownsville, in sight of the National road.

JAMES E. BREADING.

James E. Breading, son of Judge Nathaniel and Mary Ewing Breading, was born at Tower Hill farm, Luzerne township, Fayette Co., Pa., Oct. 19, 1789. While quite young he entered on his long career as a merchant at New Haven, in his native county, then the centre of the largest and almost the only iron in- terest west of the mountains. Thence he removed to Brownsville, and there pursned the same line of busi-

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LUZERNE TOWNSIHP.

ness until the death of his father made it necessary for him to take charge of Tower Hill farm in 1822. He removed to Pittsburgh, Pa., in 1829, where, in connection with his brother-in-law, George Ilogg, and William Hogg, the uncle of George, both of Brownsville, he embarked very largely in the whole- sale trade of groceries and dry-goods. IIerein, by his recognized character for honesty and integrity and his fine business capacities, he was eminently snecess- ful, and secured the confidence and respect of a large community with which he had business relations. He retired, however, some years before his death to enjoy that rest in the evening of bis days to which his long life of activity entitled him.

Mr. Breading was connected with the commissary department during Gen. (afterwards President) Wil- liam H. Harrison's campaign against Tecumseh and his braves. He was for many years connected with a large mercantile establishment in St. Louis as a silent partner, holding the most responsible position in the house.

In 1821, Mr. Breading married Elizabeth, daughter of William and Mary Ewing, and died without issue in Allegheny City, Nov. 19, 1863, his wife surviving him. His remains were interred in Allegheny Cem- etery.

Mrs. Elizabeth Ewing Breading, his widow, now in the eighty-fourth year of her age, resides at Emsworth, a few miles west of Allegheny City, on the Fort Wayne Railroad, where she passes her venerable years in affluent domestic quiet, her life being now given, as her earlier days were in a great measure ex- pended, in literally doing good, and commanding the affection of all who know her.

DAVID BREADING.

David Breading, who was the son of James and Ann Breading, was one of the early settlers of Fayette County, moving thereinto in 1794 from Lancaster County, Pa. He entered the army as a private in 1776, and passed the winter at Valley Forge, and was afterwards made an officer of the commissary depart- ment, wherein he continued during the remainder of the war of the Revolution, except for a short time while he was aide-de-camp to Gen. Maxwell in the battle of Monmouth, during which Mr. Breading was witness of a notable incident in the military career of the " Father of his Country." While the battle was progressing, Gen. Maxwell, thinking that the divis- ion general, Lee, was not conducting his forces as he should, sent Breading to Gen, Washington, then in a distant part of the field, to inform him of the state of affairs. Washington on receiving the dis- patch asked, " Young man, can you lead me to Gen. Lee ?" Breading replying, "Yes, general," Wash- ington promptly said, " Well, you lead and I will follow," and soon Breading became witness of the se-

vere reprimand which, as is well known, Washington bestowed npon Lee, curses and all.

In 1785, Mr. Breading married Elizabeth Clark, of Lancaster County, Pa., and moved to Luzerne town- ship, Fayette Co., in 1794, as above noted. He had a large number of children, the majority of whom died of yellow fever, at about the same time, in Vincennes, Ind. The only surviving member of David Bread- ing's family is Maj. Clark Breading, who resides at Uniontown, and at whose death, he having no male issue, the name of Breading of this stock will become extinct. Maj. Breading has a daughter, Mrs. Dr. O. E. Newton, of Cincinnati, Ohio.

WILLIAM EWING.

William Ewing, one of the early day eminent men of Fayette County, was born May 19, 1769, in Peach Bottoms, York Co., Pa. He was the son of George Ewing, who was a brother of the Rev. Dr. John Ewing, of Philadelphia, a great scholar and an able minister of that period, and for many years profes- sionally connected with the University of Pennsyl- vania. Dr. Ewing was a man of great scientific at- tainments, and was commissioned to run the southern line of Pennsylvania.

William Ewing, who for some time resided with his uncle, Dr. John, and under his direction had made considerable progress in studies, including that of medicine, following his brother Nathaniel (afterwards of Vincennes, Ind.) and his two sisters, who preceded him by about two years, left York County, and came as a surveyor into Fayette County about 1790, when he was about twenty-one years of age, and took up a tract of land and built thereon a house in which he lived, and wherein he died in 1827.

He married, in 1791, Mary Conwell, daughter of Jehu Conwell and Elizabeth Stokeley (her family perhaps coming from New Castle, Del.), a woman of great spirit, natural talent, and energy. She became the mother of a large family, widely scattered and occupying influential positions in society. Their children were Hon. George Ewing, born Feb. 27, 1797 (afterwards of Houston, Texas) ; Judge Nathan- iel Ewing, born July 18, 1794, of Uniontown ; Hon. John H. Ewing, born Oct. 5, 1796, of Washington, Pa. ; James, born April 18, 1807, of Dunlap's Creek, Pa .; Mrs. Elizabeth Breading, born July 9, 1799, and Mrs. Maria Veech, born Aug. 22, 1811, of Ems- worth ; Mrs. Ellen J. E. Wallace, born Jan. 23, 1819, of Allegheny City ; Mrs. Louisa Wilson, born March 8, 1802, of Uniontown; Mrs. Mary Ann Mason, born Feb. 24, 1816, of Muscatine, Iowa; and Caroline, born April 20, 1804, and who died in infancy.

William Ewing was one of the early settlers of the Dunlap's Creek district, Fayette Co., together with other of the now "old families" who came from York and Lancaster Counties,-the Breadings, Conwells, . Crafts, Davidsons, Finleys, Hackneys, Peterses, Wil-

652

HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

sons,-all associate names well known among the early inhabitants, and in these times also.

William Ewing and his son, John H., of Washing- ton, constructed the National road between Hills- borough and Brownsville. He was appointed by the Governor of the State a justice of the peace, and held that office with great credit to himself and satisfaction to the public until the constitution of the State made it elective.

He was a man of strong mind and excellent judg- ment, together with great physical strength ; an active and enterprising business man, who kept up close re- lationships with the prominent characters of his day. He was a Federalist in politics, and often took an active part, especially in the Ross and McKean cam- paign of 1800.

William Ewing died Oct. 21, 1827, of what perhaps would now be called typhoid fever. He lies buried in the Conwell family graveyard, on the old homestead farm of Jehu Conwell, and is remembered as one of those substantial, honorable, public-spirited men of whom the community was justly proud.

ALEXANDER GIDSON.

The progenitor of the Gibsons of Luzerne town-' ship was one James Gibson, who migrated from Ire- land in 1770, and located in Chester County, Pa., and engaged in farming. He followed his vocation until 1776, when he entered the Continental army and served until the surrender of Cornwallis. After the surrender he found that two of his brothers were soldiers in the British army, having been pressed into the service by the mother-country. At the close of the struggle they settled in Virginia, and their de- scendants nearly all reside there. James Gibson's home continued in Chester County until 1790, when he emigrated to Southwestern Pennsylvania, and set- tled upon a farm in Luzerne township, where his son Alexander afterwards lived and died, and which is now in possession of Mr. Oliver Miller. James Gib- son was married to Margaret Lackey in 1792. They had six children, of whom Alexander, the subject of this sketch, was the third. He was born June 8, 1797. Ilis early life was spent upon his father's farm, and received his education in the country schools of that period. He began work for himself at the age of twenty years, engaging in wagoning from Wheeling to Baltimore, and in 1820 changed his route to and from Baltimore to Nashville, Tenn. Here he, in company with Levi Crawford, now living in Luzerne township, spent two years trading with the Cherokee Indians. In 1823 he returned to Pennsylvania, sold his team, and purchased a farm. On the 24th of June, 1824, he was married to Mary Hibbs, of Redstone township. To them were born six children, four of whom are living, viz. : James G., married first to Mary Rodgers. They had two children,-John A. and Mary R. Mary died in 1860. He was married again June 25, 1867,

to Rebecca J. Haney. Margaret J., married to Wil- liam H. Miller; Mary A., married to Oliver Miller. They have two children, Albert G. and Emma V. Albert M., married to Alice Frey. They have one child, Nellie.

The most of Alexander Gibson's active business life was spent in farming and stock-dealing. He was industrious, a good manager, and accumulated enough property to give each of his children a fair start in life. He never sought political preferment. He was prompt to perform what he promised, and was highly esteemed by his neighbors. He was eminently a man of peace, and never had a lawsuit in his life. He was for many years an active member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and his Christian life challenged the respect of those who knew him. He died July 12, 1875, and his remains rest in the Hopewell Ceme- tery. His wife, Mary, died Jan. 25, 1876.

BENJAMIN COVERT.

The progenitor of the Coverts in the United States was one Abraham Covert, who came from Holland to the colonies about 1707. Of his family nothing is now known except that he had a son Abraham, who raised a family of eight children,-four sons and four daughters. The sons were Abraham, Isaac, John, and Morris. These four sons in time became widely separated. Abraham remained East, while the others sought their fortunes in the West. John settled north of Pittsburgh. Morris first lived in New Jersey, and there married a Miss Mary Mann. After his mar- riage he moved to Col. Cresap's estate on the Potomac, in the State of Maryland, where he resided some years. About the year 1780 he moved to Fayette County, Pa.,. and located about three miles west of Beesontown, now Uniontown, where he purchased a farm of three hundred aeres for eight hundred and fifty dollars, on the old Fort road leading to Redstone Old Fort. Here he lived and died, and raised a family of eleven children,-six sons and five daughters. The oldest son, Joseph, married Nancy Borer, of Harrison, Ohio, where he lived and died. The second son, Abraham, married Catharine Black, and they removed to Har- rison County, Ohio. The third son, John, married Amy Doney, and lived on the Monongahela River, in Luzerne township, Fayette Co., and died in his ninety- third year. The fourth son, Morris, was an itinerant Methodist preacher. He married Nancy Purcell, of Chesapeake Bay, and died near Clarksburg, W. Va., aged about sixty years. Jesse, the youngest son, married Henrietta Gibson; resided principally in Fayette County, Pa., and died at the age of fifty-five.

Benjamin Covert was born July 10, 1799, on the old homestead, where he grew to manhood. He married Abigail Randolph, and removing to Harrison County, Ohio, in 1820, settled on the Stillwater, and there resided until 1830. Two of his children, Rich- ard and Mary, were born there. He next removed

ALEXANDER GIBSON.

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MENALLEN TOWNSHIP.

to a farm on Short Creek, in the same county. There he remained three years, and there his youngest daughter, Elizabeth, was born. He then moved to a farm in Luzerne township, Fayette Co., Pa., which he purchased from George Custer. It contained two hundred and fourteen acres, and cost him two thou- sand six hundred and fifty dollars. Here he has re- sided for forty-eight years, doing good as the Lord prospered him, "by helping to build churches in the Bend and at the Landing, and sustaining the ministers of his church, as well as contributing to the support of others." He has been an ardent Meth- odist 'for sixty-four years. His father and mother

were Methodists, as were also his brothers and sisters. They are all dead, having lived and died meek and humble Christians. He alone of the family survives, in his eighty-third year.

His children are Richard, who resides on the old homestead; Mary, married to D. H. Wakefield, of Jefferson township, Fayette Co., Pa .; and Elizabeth, married to Joshua Strickler, of Luzerne township. With but little intermission he has held an office in the church during the entire time of his membership. His start in life was a strong constitution. He has always been noted for his sobriety, indomitable energy, frugality, and rectitude of purpose.

MENALLEN TOWNSHIP.

MENALLEN, one of the most prosperous agricultu- , given by him in his report to the Governor on his ral townships of Fayette County, contained in June, 1880, a population of 1461. The assessment for 1881 gave the total valnation subject to county tax as 8626,827, a decline of $25,044 as compared with 1880. The township is bounded by Redstone and Franklin on the north, Georges, South Union, and German on the south, Franklin, North Union, and South Union on the east, and German and Redstone on the west. Menallen has as yet no railway line, but that famed highway known as the National road crosses it from east to west, and is a great convenience to the people. There are three small post-villages in the township, -Upper Middletown (or Plumsock), on Redstone Creek ; New Salem, six miles westward therefrom ; and Searight's, on the National road, five miles west- ward from Uniontown. Mill streams are abundant. Among them are Redstone Creek, Dunlap's Creek, Jennings' Run, and Salt Lick Run. The surface of the township is uneven. Coal and iron ore are found in great quantities, but beyond supplying the wants of home consumers do not contribute to local wealth, for the reason that lack of railway transportational facilities puts out of the question the matter of profit- able mining operations. The valuable coal and iron interests of Menallen, however, will soon be devel- oped, as a result of the opening of the Redstone Branch of the Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston Railroad, which passes along the northeast border of the township, and is now near completion.

EARLY SETTLEMENTS.

Of the considerable number of settlers who were found located in the Redstone Valley when the Rev. John Steele made his tour of observation in this re- gion, in the spring of 1768 (and whose names were

return east), it is not known which or how many of them were settled within the territory that now forms Menallen township, though there is no doubt that some of them were living within its boundaries. A very early settler, and not improbably the first within the township of Menallen, was William Brown, who came here in 1765. His children were Sarah, George, Mary, James, Alexander, Alice, and John. The last named (and youngest) is now living in Kansas, at the age of ninety-six years. Little beyond this has been ascertained of the history of this first settler, William Brown. The tract on which he settled is now a farm owned (but not occupied in person) by his great-grandson, Richard H. Brown, of Frank- lin township. As early as the year 1765 the Rev. James Finley, then living upon the Eastern Shore of Maryland, came out through Southwestern Penn- sylvania on a tour of exploration in the service of the church with which he labored, his mission being pre- sumably to learn how the people of that region were supplied with the means of religious worship. He was accompanied on his journey (made on horseback) by a Mr. Philip Tanner, a fuller by trade, whose ob- ject in undertaking the exenrsion was the looking for a favorable land location. This object had likewise something to do with Mr. Finley's journey, for he had a family of six sons, and he conceived the idea that perhaps he might find for his boys a place where they might grow up with a new country and lead a life of independence. Mr. Finley is supposed to have been the first minister of the gospel to penetrate west- ward of the mountains for the purpose of spreading the influences of religion among the inhabitants. Army chaplains had been there before him, but they could scarcely be classed in the same category. He

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

preached wherever he found a place and opportunity, and returning to the same country subsequently on similar expeditions in 1767, 1771, and 1772 became well known. In 1771 he selected some lands lying in Redstone and' Menallen townships, and in 1772 brought out his son Ebenezer, a lad of fourteen, whom he intended to be trained in the hardy experi- ence of a pioneer. With his son he brought also a few negro slaves and Samuel Finley (not related to the Rev. James), to the latter of whom he gave the charge of the lands and the guardianship of young Ebenezer.

The Rev. Mr. Finley himself never became a resident of Fayette County. He lived in Maryland until 1783, when he accepted a call to preach for a church in Westmoreland County, Pa. There he remained in charge of the congregation until his death in 1795. Ebenezer Finley grew to manhood and prospered. He became an owner of much land in Redstone, German, and Menallen townships, but had his home in Red- stone. A more extended reference to him will ac- cordingly be found in the history of that township, where he died in 1849, aged eighty-eight years. In 1826 his son, Ebenezer, Jr., moved into Menallen, and settled upon some of his father's land. There he still resides, hale and hearty, although nearing his eightieth year. He and his excellent wife celebrated in 1876 the golden anniversary of their wedding, and on that occasion gathered within their hospitable mansion friends, relatives, and children even from distant parts of the country. The reunion was a joy- ons and memorable one. Another son of Ebenezer Finley the elder, living in Menallen on a portion of the early Finley purchase, is Eli H., whose home is near the village of New Salem. There is an amusing story told of the appearance of Rev. James Finley and Philip Tanner in the Dunlap's Creek Valley. It recites that Messrs. Finley and Tanner rode up to the house of Capt. John Moore, of German township, and upon their near approach were espied by Capt. John's youthful son Aaron, who, running as fast as he could into the house, cried ont almost breathlessly to his father, " Pap, pap, there he two great men out there. I know they're great men 'cause they've got boots on." Evidently "men with boots on" must have been rare objects in that country at that day.

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stood for many years, and was long a place where the Friends assembled regularly for worship. After a while, however, the members of that sect, lessening by deaths and removals, became so few in number that meetings were discontinued, and by and by the meet- ing-house was demolished. The graveyard, thickly dotted with old headstones, is still used for its orig- inal purpose.

Joseph Mendenhall was a prominent figure in Men- allen's early history, and although he was known as a Quaker, and attended at the Quaker meeting-house, he was said to exhibit at times a boisterous disposi- tion utterly at variance with the peaceful tenets of the Society of Friends, and is indeed reported to have gone so far on more than one occasion as to swear roundly. Mr. Mendenhall came from Philadelphia directly upon the close of the Revolution, and settled in what became the Mendenhall school district, on a stream, and at a place called to this day Mendenhall's dam, where he built a saw-mill. He claimed to have been a captain in the Revolution, and for that reason, more perhaps than for any other, he was known as "the fighting Quaker." His greatest delight was to be chosen supervisor, so that he might follow the bent of his inclinations, or hobby more properly, towards the working of the township roads. He was township supervisor many successive years, and always filled the office with the highest credit. Al- though he was generally chosen without much oppo- sition, he worked hard at each election, and invari- ably carried to the polls a jug of whisky, upon the contents of which he and his adherents would make merry over the result. The jug, and sometimes more than one, bore a prominent part in the supervisors' highway labors, for he ever made it a point to pro- vide whisky at his own expense for the refreshment of those whom he called to the work of repairing the roads. Inasmuch as he frequently had as many as fifty or sixty men laboring at that business at a time, his expenditures for whisky must have amounted to a considerable sum. Mr. Mendenhall lived to be ninety-four years old.

James Sidwell, a Quaker, came from Martinsburg, Va., in 1790, and made his home upon a tract of three hundred acres of land that he had bought of Benja- min Whaley, who had bought the land of the pat- entees, Grant, Pitt, and Buchanan, to whom the patent

There were many of the Society of Friends among the early settlers of Menallen. They came from Vir- ; was issued April 24, 1788. Upon that land now lives ginia soon after the close of the Revolutionary war, Hiram H. Hackney, grandson of James Sidwell. The latter had but two children, and they were daughters. Hedied on his Menallen farm in 1815, aged seventy-seven years. One of his daughters married James Stevens, and moved to Indiana. The second became the wife of John Hackney, of Luzerne, who settled on the Sidwell homestead. and in considerable numbers located in the neighbor- hood of New Salem, in Menallen, German, and South Union townships. Among them were James Sidwell, Joseph Mendenhall, William Dickson, John Hack- ney, Caleb Antram, Abraham Vail, John Woods, the Campbells, and many others. At Sandy Hill, on Jennings' Run, upon the road between New Salem Although James Sidwell himself took no part in the Revolutionary struggle, all of his brothers-to the number of three-fought through the campaigns with conspicuous gallantry. There was a Quaker named and Uniontown, the Quakers built at an early day (as early as 1784, and perhaps before) a log meeting- honse, and laid out a graveyard. The meeting-house |

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 147

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885 Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1314

Author: Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : L.H. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1314