History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 156

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 156

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Mr. Springer after his boating days led the life of a farmer mainly, but occasionally dealt in real estate, and withal became a man of wealth. His judgment of the value of lands and other property was excel- lent, and leading operators in his vicinity were wont to consult him when proposing to invest their money. He bore an unsullied character for integrity, was a man of large stature, very energetic, of strong will, and, it is said, never failed to accomplish what he undertook. He was an old-line Whig, and afterwards a Republican, taking earnest interest in politics.

In the spring of 1828 he married Catharine Todd, a widow (whose maiden name was Condon), and who had one child, John O. Todd, who resides in North Union township. Mr. and Mrs. Springer ( who died in March, 1859) were the parents of three daughters,- Ruth Ann, who married Henry W. Gaddis; Kate, married to John Fuller; and Priscilla G., wife of D. O. Cunningham, of Pittsburgh.

JOHN JONES.

Mr. John Jones is the grandson of one of the first settlers of Hummeltown, near Reading, Pa., and the son of John Jones (Sr.), who migrated, with his wife, from Berks County to Fayette County, and settled in Union township in 1792. His mother was Sarah Lincoln, of Quaker ancestry, the daughter of Mor- decai Lincoln, born in the neighborhood of Hummel- town, and of the same stock as Abraham Lincoln, the martyred President. Mr. Jones was born near where

Mr. Jones is a life-long Democrat, but not a poli- tician, always averring that he would not accept political office on any condition. He is, and has been for forty-seven years, a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church, having been steward nearly all that time. During his long life of eighty years he has borne himself with unquestioned fidelity to duty, and enjoys among his neighbors a high character for probity and honorable business dealing.

He was in June, 1826, united in marriage with Jane Van Horn, of Fayette County, who died Feb. 10, 1879, in her seventy-seventh year, and by whom he had five sons and six daughters, all of whom reached majority, and eight of whom are now living.

SAMUEL M. CLEMENT.

Mr. Samuel M. Clement, of English descent and Quaker stock, was born at Camden, N. J., Ang. 8, 1798, and emigrated thence with his father and family to Fayette County at the age of twelve years. He was educated at the schools of Uniontown, and re- sided on a farm in North Union township for a num- ber of years. About 1834 he kept a hotel in the mountains at the old Inks stand, half a mile east of Farmington ; and about 1835 he and a partner took and prosecuted a valuable contract for macadamizing on the National road, a few miles east of Wheeling,

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

W. Va. Leaving the mountains he removed to his farm in North Union township, where he conducted for several years, and very successfully, a woolen-mill, which he subsequently converted into a grist-mill that is still in operation. Mr. Clement died Jan. 8, 1876.

He was a gentleman of genial temperament, jovial, possessed of much humor, and of course was very social. Honest in all his business transactions, he was held in high esteem by his neighbors. He was especially remarkable for the purity of his life, and despised all such vices as profanity. Although not a communicant, he attended and aided in the support of the Baptist Church. In politics he was an earnest Republican, and the very last time he left his house it was for the purpose of going to the polls, as a mat- ter of duty to his country as he regarded it. During the war of the Rebellion he was, though too old to go into the field, one of the most ardent of patriots, giving all his moral influence and much of his time and money to the furtherance of the cause of the Union.

In 1823, Mr. Clement married Miss Rebecca Springer, daughter of Jacob Springer, of Union- town. His wife died only a few months before him, on the 20th of September, 1875. They had nine chil- dren, only one of whom is now living, Miss Eliza- beth Clement, who resides on the old homestead and skillfully manages the farm.

ISAAC BROWN.

Among the active, practical men who have con- tributed to the prosperity of Fayette County is the now venerable Isaac Brown, of South Union town- ship, who was born Jan. 4, 1802, in Georges township, less than a mile from his present home. Mr. Brown's grandfather, Emanuel Brown, came from Germany, and was one of the earliest settlers of Fayette County, whose son Abraham, the father of Isaac, settled upon a tract of land lying near Uniontown, on which Isaac Brown now lives, and one of the most valuable tracts of the region. Abraham, the father, was born on the same spot on which Isaac first saw the light. Isaac was married first to Sarah Hutchinson, Aug. 23, 1829. Sarah died July 30, 1834. By this marriage there were three children,-Mary A., who died in infancy ; Sarah, who died April 6, 1876; and Phebe A., who married Robert Brownfield. They have one living child, Robert. Isaac was married again Jan. 6, 1839, to Mrs. Mary Jane Grier. To them were born four children,-Caroline, Clarissa, Elizabeth, and Isaac Skiles Brown, who married Helen Moore, and resides upon his father's farm. They have two chil- dren,-Carrie May and Isaac. Mary Jane died Sept. 19, 1875.

The rule of Mr. Brown's life has been, "Owe no man anything." He is an acute business man, is

hospitable, and respected by his neighbors for his honesty and charity. He has always been an ardent Democrat, casting his first Presidential vote for An- drew Jackson. His memory is retentive, and he de- lights in relating incidents in the early history of the county. His race is nearly run. and he realizes the truth of the proverbial saying, "Once a man twice a child."

BASIL BROWNFIELD.

Basil Brownfield, one of the most remarkable men who ever lived in Fayette County, or any other part of the world, died at his residence in South Union township, Aug. 21, 1881, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. It is a matter of but little importance from what stock was descended, or where was born and reared, or what special business in life was followed by such a man as he ; for nature gave him stature and intellect of such large proportions as to derelate or distinguish him from almost any special race of men, -made him a giant, a symmetrical anomaly, who might properly look with contempt down upon what- ever ancestral line led up to him, as well as upon his fellow-beings generally. But since Mr. Brownfield left a brief record of what he was pleased to declare his lineage, it is well enough to say here that accord- ing to that record he was of Brito-Scotch-Irish stock, and was the great-grandson of Charles Brownfield, who emigrated to America from Ireland before the Revolutionary war, but whose parents were Scotch Presbyterians, who left their native land and settled in Ireland, and who traced their line back to one George Brownfield, a native Briton, who belonged to Cromwell's horse, and went over to Scotland with the great Protector and his army.

Charles, with other members of his family, settled near Winchester, Va., and finally came into Fayette County through the persuasion of the husband of a sister of his, Col. Bard, the builder of Redstone Old Fort, at the mouth of Redstone Creek. Charles re- mained in the region now known as Fayette County, built a cabin near where stands the present Brown- field Station, on the Southwest Pennsylvania Rail- road ; was several times dislodged and driven away by the Indians, but at last succeeded in fixing his abode. The first fee simple deed on the records of Fayette County is that of Charles Brownfield, granted to George Troutman, and dated Nov. 29, 1783.

Charles married and became the father of Robert Brownfield, who in his turn had a son, Robert Brown- field, Jr., and this latter Robert was the father of Basil Brownfield, our hero, who was born March 2. 1796, on the Brownfield homestead farm, near Smith- field, Georges township. At the age of twenty-four. March 2, 1820, he married Sarah Collins, daughter of Joseph and Margaret Collins, of Union township. She died Oct. 1, 1870, aged sixty-eight years. They had eleven children,-Joseph C., Robert, Margaret C., who married Jehu, son of Col. Benjamin Brown-

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Bare Brown field

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NORTH UNION AND SOUTH UNION TOWNSHIPS.

field ; Mary, who married Isaac Hutchinson, a son of Isaac H., of Union township, but a native of Trenton, N. J., and died Feb. 3, 1857; Eliza, who died on- married July 20, 1853, in the twenty-fourth year of her age ; Sarah N., who married Wm. F. Core ; Ruth, who married Joseph Barton, son of the late William Barton, Esq. ; William N., who for his first wife mar- ried Elizabeth James, and after her death married ' Elizabeth Sackett; Isaac Allen, who married Sarah Burchfield, of Pittsburgh ; Lydia C., wife of Thomas McClelland ; and Harriet Helen, who died March 22, 1870, in her twenty-fourth year.

Basil Brownfield enjoyed some, but little, opportu- nities of early education in the subscription schools, and though quite generally understood by his ac- quaintances throughont life to be, as they expressed it, " unlettered," in the sense of ignorant of books, investigation discovers that he read books extensively, was particularly well versed in ancient history and in the history of his country, and read the Bible so carefully and appreciatively as to be able to quote it fluently and pertinently upon occasion of warm dis- cussion.

fitting to his superb natural gifts. He was doubtless much misunderstood by even those who thought they knew him best; for underlings and the common- ality possess no means of measuring the mental ca- pacity or weighing the moral worth, or, for this mat- ter, touching the bottom of the ingenious diabolism, it may be, of the giants about the outskirts of whose being they hang.

But want of space forbids our enlarging on this head. Many legends and stories of more or less truth and some fancy are current regarding Mr. Brownfield's peculiarities, his methods of operation, his eccen- tricities, his heroic struggles against his foes, his vic- tories, his sagacious demeanor under defeat, turning it often into victory, etc. ;- such tales, as everywhere, cluster about the memory of extraordinary men; but they mostly lack verity in details, and can hardly be crystallized into permanent history.

Mr. Brownfield's great experience as a litigant made him conversant with the arts of the practice of the law, and gave him very considerable knowledge of common law principles and of the statutes of the State, and his fine intellect was not slow to take the measure of the attorneys who swarmed about the Fayette County courts. He held the most of them in royal contempt. To his mind they were pigmies, and he was wont to say, among other things, of those attorneys and pettifoggers that they were " not fit to feed stock," a declaration which had its great weight with his acquaintances, and probably its effect npon the career of the luckless attorneys, for such men as Brownfield make "public opinion," and, it may be said, the law too. And here a well-authenticated tale regarding him, a peculiar fact in his history, such as possibly never had place in the history of any other man, may be pertinently narrated. The gist of it is this, that Brownfield, in his large-hearted good nature and consummate adroitness, as well as dominating wisdom, was accustomed to freely feed and shelter in his own house his most active, belligerent foes, har- boring and nursing them while they were bitterly " lawing" him (to use the provincialism of the county ) in the courts. These men were mostly "savages," too, from the mountains, who not only accepted his courtesies when extended, but, knowing his good na- ture, often quartered themselves unceremoniously upon him, turning their horses into his pastures, and betaking themselves to his table and fireside, when they came down to town to wage legal war upon him. He at one time owned many thousands of acres of land in the mountains, and here and there made clearings therein, put up cabins, and got tenants to occupy them. Almost invariably these fellows quar- reled with him, launched suits at law for one cause or other against him, and in the midst of their bitterest legal fights camped at his fireside, as above related.

Mr. Brownfield commenced his active business life (dating from about twenty years of age) equipped with little " book-learning," but with extraordinary native intellect, a marvelously retentive memory, and an herculean body. By industry, rare tact, with which from the beginning he was gifted, and by economy, he made his way steadily on to fortune, so that at the age of about thirty-five he was accounted wealthy in the local sense. But at about forty or forty-five years of age, burdened through unfortu- nate free-hand indorsements and universal bail-giv- ing for others, prompted by his great benevolence, he became financially embarrassed, and mortgaged much of his real estate, but finally managed to lift his bur- dens. But during this period of financial difficulty his business complications became numerous and vex- atious, and a career of litigation in his history was inaugurated which won for him a remarkable distinc- tion in the courts, and which continued till the day of his death,-a career in which he was for the most part the victor, by one means and another. Litiga- tion became a recreation to him, obviously a necessity to his happiness. Strong-willed, aggressive, evi- dently feeling that great intellect, massive muscles, and tireless endurance are "gifts of God" to men with which to fight the battles of life, and the assertion of a powerful manhood a very duty, Mr. Brownfield made of course hosts of enemies to himself, but he had an army of friends; and there was another body of people, neither friends nor foes, who stood aloof, admired the prowess and diplomacy of the man, how- ever much they might have questioned the propriety of some of the weapons with which he fought. These were wont to descant about what a throne this provin- The reader who admires the tender Christian kind- tnes which Mr. Brownfield surely evinced under such cial demi-god might have occupied in the world if his ness, the forbearance, the benevolence, and other vir- education in literature and the sciences had only been

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

extraordinary circumstances must not suspect him of having indulged in childlike simplicity and imbecility in all this. He knew not only how, with the Chris- tian graces, to draw the temper and dull the edge of his adversary's sword or turn the point of his stiletto, but how as well to catch him at fault, put him in re- pose, and woo from him the details of his plot and circumvent him. He understood, in short, that it is better to have a legal foe at your fireside and quietly study his weapons than to keep him at bay and be unconscious all the while whether or not he carries dynamite torpedoes in the shape of "testimony" of peculiar coinage, etc., which he may cast and explode under your feet at any time. Mr. Brownfield's great benevolence was not of the crude, undisciplined, un- discriminating kind, though it was often spontaneous and hearty ; but his great brain was ever supreme, and probably even his occasional religious zeal was never so hot-tempered as to set his good sense agog.

If Mr. Brownfield at times forgot his great virtues of benevolence, great social virtues, and rigid sense of justice and stooped to the use of questionable arts in his life warfare, it must be said in his defense that he was surrounded by a corrupt set of men, some of them, too, men of comparatively good education, able jurists, for example, who when off the bench kept the ermine spotless by hanging it away out of sight while they systematically wallowed in the mire of business hypocrisies, and attempted to, and sometimes did, plunder Brownfield himself,-in short, surrounded by pious knaves of all kinds, and of a high degree of " respectability," and who, like Basil himself, be- longed to churches which were for the most part cages for unclean birds; and Brownfield was, in a sense, compelled to fight these wretches with their own weapons, and learned of them what may have been bad in his life and ways. It is safe to say that with his large nature he was always better than his surroundings.

That the poor, who through his whole life enjoyed his largesses, sorely felt his loss and tenderly mourned him dead, speaks volumes for the man. And it should be added regarding him that he so profited by the in- iquities which he discovered hidden under the cloaks of his fellow church-members and members of com- munions other than his as to be aroused to strong suspicion that church membership is not necessarily a sure road to "glory." Indeed, he was bitter in de- nunciation of some church-members, and as he had floubts at last about the existence of an orthodox " hell," he seemed to think that there could be no suitable home for them in the future.

But even Basil Brownfield, who potently "lives after he is dead," the favorite public sobriquet of whom. " Black Hawk," a name which when associated with his will and brawn bore terror to evil-doers, living and to live on forever in history, even this " Black Hawk" Basil must not be allowed too much space in this history, though eventful and wonderful

was his life, and this sketch must come to a close. Per- haps nothing more fitting in its ending could be added than the following extract from an obituary notice of him, published editorially in the Genius of Liberty of Uniontown, Aug. 25, 1881, four days after Mr. Brown- field's death :

" His neighbors bear testimony that he was a man of good impulses, and was always ready to forgive an injury when he was approached in a proper way.

* ** * *

" His physiognomy had the impress of greatness strongly marked in every lineament, and we venture to say that no man ever lived and died in Fayette County with a stronger cast of expression. Mr. Brownfield was a pleasant and agreeable gentleman, and his home was always open for the reception of his friends aud neighbors, and whilst he was always able to impart correct knowledge of the secular things that had transpired around and about him for more than threescore and ten years, he was notable as a good listener, which is a sure indication of a well- balanced mind."

This was written of the wonderful man when near the close of a life of eighty-six years, in far-length- ened old age, when most men of like years would be passing through secoud childhood into the nursed infancy of drivelling dotage. Brownfield had no peer in his domain, and nature's monarchs, unclassi- fied, spring from and found no races. Their histories, like their lives, are grandly individuate, and other men record but cannot imitate them.

J. W. MOORE.

Mr. J. W. Moore, a portrait of whom appears in this work, is a resident of Greensburg, Westmoreland County, in which county he owns extensive tracts of coal lands, and has other possessions, but he is also largely interested in the manufacture of coke in Fay- ette County, especially at the coke-works of J. W. Moore & Co., in South Union township.

WILLIAM BARTON.

William Barton, who was born in New Jersey, Sept. 13, 1795, of Quaker stock, and of English ancestry, came into Fayette County with his parents at about twelve years of age. He enjoyed good advantages of education for the times, and in early life was occupied for some years as clerk and manager of a furnace in I'niontown.

On Nov. 28, 1824, he married Mrs. Hannah Collins Foster (born Oct. 28, 1795), widow of John Foster, a captain in the regular army in the war of 1812, and daughter of Thomas Collins, of Uniontown, who was a colonel in the same war, and at one time sheriff of Fayette County, a man of great business capacity. Soon after marriage Mr. Barton settled with his wife

WILLIAM BARTON.

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NICHOLSON TOWNSHIP.

on the old Collins farm, which eventually became by inheritance the property of Mrs. Barton, in South Union township, where he prosecuted farming all his life, adding to the farm by the purchase in 1830 of an adjoining tract equal to it in size. Mr. Barton became a considerable stock-raiser withal, and for twenty years or more ran a distillery, the products of which had a great reputation all along the line of the Na- tional road when that thoroughfare was at the height of its glory.

He was an old-line Whig, afterwards a Republi- can, and took great interest in national politics par- ticularly, and though confined to his house mainly for the last eighteen years of his life, he always caused himself to be carried into town to deposit his vote. He died Nov. 6, 1865, while the war of the Rebellion can be said to have been hardly settled, and during that struggle watched its course with intense anxiety, but with full confidence from the first in the ultimate success of the cause of the Union. He was a genial

man and noted for his thorough integrity in business, his word being all the " bond" his neighbors needed of him. He took great interest in the public schools, and was a director for a number of years. Mr. Barton was a great reader and an independent thinker, and was never attached to any religious organizations ; in fact, was distrustful of if not opposed to such organi- zations.

Mr. Barton died leaving four children, one daugh- ter and three sons, all now dead save one son, Mr. Joseph Barton, who served as a private in the First West Virginia Cavalry during the war of the Rebel- lion, and who owns the old homestead, in which with his family resides his aged mother, an intelligent woman, still hearty and active, occasionally walking to town even in coldest weather, a distance of two miles, over a road too rough at times for horses to travel with safety to limb, and one of the wretchedly bad roads too common in the county and a disgrace to the people of Uniontown.

NICHOLSON TOWNSHIP.'

NICHOLSON lies south of German and north of | George Craft, of Redstone, and George Dawson, of Springhill township. Its area is over twenty square Brownsville, were appointed commissioners. A favor- able report was made, and approved Dec. 11, 1841. On the 11th of June, 1842, objections were filed, which were confirmed by the court on the 2d of Jan- uary, 1843, and thus the proceedings of Dec. 11, 1841, were rendered void and of no effect. miles, and its topography is similar to that of all the western portion of the county. Along the river, from the mouth of Georges Creek to that of Jacob's Creek, the river-bluffs crowd close upon the river, in many places leaving scarcely enough space to form a road. From Jacob's Creek down to Catt's Run are the broad flats known as "Provance's Bottoms." The principal stream, next to the river, is Jacob's Creek, near the centre. Georges Creek receives several con- siderable affluents on the south, and Catt's Run several small ones on the north. The soil is generally very fertile, being for the most part heavy limestone. Wheat, corn, oats, and other grains are produced in great abundance.

Nicholson township was formed of territory taken from the old townships of Springhill, German, and Georges. The first movement (unsuccessful) towards forming a new township from parts of these town- ships was made a little more than forty years ago, as follows :

At the September term of court, 1841, a petition was presented "of divers inhabitants of Springhill, Georges, and German townships for a new township, to be composed of parts of the aforesaid townships, to be called ' Gallatin.'" Thomas Boyd, of Bullskin,

The effort was renewed with success in 1845. At the June session of the court in that year, "On the petition of divers inhabitants of Springhill, George, and German for a new township, to be composed of parts of the aforesaid townships, to be called ' Nich- olson,' James Paull, James H. Patterson, and Jacob Murphy were appointed commissioners. . .. to lay out a new township to be called Nicholson out of parts of Springhill, George, and German townships." On the 19th of August, 1845, these commissioners re- ported,-

" That a new township should be made within the following boundaries, to wit : Beginning at the month of Georges Creek : thence up the same to Robert Long's fulling-mill ; thenco along the Morgantown road to a point at or near Rev. A. G. Fair- child's; thence by a road as far as Bonaparte Hardin's : thence by a straight line to the northwest branch of York's Run to a stone-pile near a white-oak ; thence [by various courses and dis- tances] to a stone in Catt's Run, westwardly of Jacob Emley's, and on land of George Defenbaugh, about three perches from a spring-house : thence down Catt's Run to the land or farm of John Peundstone, where the road crosses said run; thence by

1 By James Ross.

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

said road, running north of said Poundstone's house, nearly due west to the Monongahela River; thence up said river to the place of beginning."

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 156

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