History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 164

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 164

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to each one a substantial reminder of his thoughtful care for them. Laughlin was not only a kindly-dis- posed and gentle master to his servants, but he was an earnest and faithful worshiper at the Dunlap's Creek Church, despite the fact that he was not a member thereof. For a long time, however, it was the gener- ally-accepted belief that he was a member, and in- deed the church-members themselves were so con- vinced that he was one of them that they chose him a ruling elder. When they learned from his own lips that he had never been in membership they were surprised and disappointed. That one so devout and regular in attendance upon church meetings could be without the circle did not once occur to them.

John Langhlin was as precise in his dress as in his manners, and as famous almost for his knee-breeches, slippers, silver buckles, and perique as he was for his simple and correct methods of speech and honorable dealings with his fellow-men. He followed the busi- ness of distilling to a considerable extent, and kept his neighbors as well as his own farm-hands well sup- plied with the juice of the grain. An old manuscript in the possession of Mr. Benjamin Phillips purports to be an order from some person (signature missing) upon John Laughlin for the delivery to John Miller of two gallons of whisky "the day he begins to reap, and not before."

John Fulton, who located upon the present Samuel Colvin farm about 1800, died there in 1818. One of the daughters of his son, John L. Fulton, is Mrs. Benjamin Phillips.

The first survey of lands in Fayette County under the law of 1769 appears to have been made to An- drew Linn, Aug. 22, 1769. It lies in what are now Redstone and Jefferson townships, upon the Redstone Creek. The tract, including two hundred and forty- four and one-half acres, was called Crab-Tree Bottom, and is said to have had at one corner of the survey a plum-tree that was spoken of for a long time after- wards as a noted tree because it marked the beginning of the pioneer land survey. It stood upon a bank of the creek, into which it was washed many years ago. The tract named is now owned by J. M. Linn. At the point now occupied by J. M. Linn's mill a grist- mill was built by Andrew Linn's widow in 1796.1

Additional surveys to the Linns in 1769 are quoted as follows :

" To William Lynn two hundred and ninety-three acres called 'Whiskey Mount,' situated on the east side of the Monongahela River, in the new purchase, Bedford County, and surveyed Aug. 25, 1769, by order of survey No. 2847, dated April 5, 1769."

"To Andrew Lynn, in right of Nathan Lynn, 292} acres, called 'Contention,' situated on the east side of the Monongahela River, in the new purchase, Bedford County, and surveyed Aug. 25, 1769, by order of survey 492, dated April 3, 1769."

"To Andrew Lynn, in right of Thomas Pearce, 130} acres, called ' Purchase,' situated on the east side of the Monongahela River, in the new purchase, Bedford County, and surveyed Aug. 26, 1769, by order of survey 1768, dated April 3, 1769." The first-named survey was made by Archibald McClean, deputy sur- veyor, the last two by A. Lane, deputy surveyor.

Some time before the year 1800, Benjamin Phillips (an ex-Revolutionary soldier) came with his wife from New Jersey, in company with Jonathan Hill, for whom he had agreed to drive a team across the mountains. Among Hill's effects was a chest that contained-so relates Mr. Benjamin Phillips, of Red- stone-fully three bushels of silver and gold. The chest was in the possession of Mr. Benjamin Phillips, of Redstone, until within a few years, but where it is now is not known. Jonathan Hill located in Franklin, and built a mill upon the present Samuel Smock place. When he sold his property to Jonathan Sharpless, in 1810, he moved to Virginia, and there died in a lunatic asylum. Benjamin Phillips rented a small place in Jefferson township of Bateman Goe, and worked for the neighbors whenever he got the chance, for he was poor, and strove to get something laid by so that he could buy land for himself. He worked so hard that his health failed, and he spent a season in bed. His wife was, however, just the sort of a wife a man like him needed, for while her hus- band lay ill, and it was for some time, she not only attended to her domestic duties, but worked their small farm, and did it all, too, without calling for assistance from the neighbors. After tarrying a few years in the present township of Jefferson, Benjamin Phillips moved to Redstone township, and located upon the old State road, near the Menallen line, where he opened a tavern. Ultimately he changed his habitation to the farm whereon the widow of David Phillips now lives, and there he died in 1831, aged upwards of eighty-five. The only ones of his children now living are Mrs. Edward West, of Iowa ; Elijah Phillips, of lowa, aged eighty-three ; and Ben- jamin Phillips, of Redstone. Daniel C. Phillips died in 1878, aged seventy-five, and David Phillips in 1881, aged eighty-five.

Mr. Benjamin Phillips remembers a story told to him by his mother of her trip with her husband to New Jersey upon horseback on a visit to her parents, only a few years after they (the Phillipses) had come to Southwestern Pennsylvania. Mrs. Phillips carried her babe before her upon her horse, while Mr. Phillips had likewise a load, and thus on horseback they jour- neyed across the mountains by way of a road that for | a great part of the distance was no better than a mere path through forests. Her experience had the effect of urging her to forswear forever any more journeys from Pennsylvania to New Jersey, and so she per- suaded her parents to remove westward, which they shortly did, much to their daughter's gratification.

In 1780, Thomas Gallagher came from east of the

1 See history of Jefferson township.

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

mountains with a wife and two children, and with them first found a home in the West in the loft of a spring-house on Ebenezer Finley's farm, in Redstone township. Mr. Gallagher had bought the land known as the James Black tract, but the tenant upon the place was not prepared to move out of the farm-house, and so until the following spring Mr. Gallagher and his family had to get along as best they could. Thomas Gallagher was commissioned, Oct. 18, 1813, as adju- tant of the Ninety-first Regiment. He was taken ill in service and came home to die. Gallagher oc- cupied a portion of a tract of six hundred acres taken np by Robert Evans. Nov. 25, 1771, the proprietors of Pennsylvania patented to Robert Evans two hun- dred and fifty acres in the forks of Dunlap's Creek and Four-Mile Run, joining lands of John McKib- bin's, and including a stony spring to the eastward of Thomas Scott's cornfield, in the county of Bradford. Of Thomas Gallagher's grandsons now living, J. M. and W. K. are citizens of Redstone, and E. T. a resi- dent of Luzerne. J. M. Gallagher, now a farmer near Merrittstown, was a merchant in the last-named place from 1845 to 1856. His wife is a granddaughter of Sam Brady, famous in the olden time as a scout and Indian-fighter.

Capt. John Moore, a famous figure in Redstone's early history, was a settler as early as 1770 in the southern portion of the present township, upon a farm until recently owned by John and William Moore. Capt. Moore came ont to prospect, and lived six weeks in a hut. During that time he devoted himself to hunting and land-looking, and saw no human being until one day at the end of six weeks he encountered old Billy Davis, who was living in German township, and who, like Moore, was living in a hut alone while considering the matter of making a new home in the wilderness. Capt. Moore had a large family of chil- dren. Their names were George, John, Aaron, Rezin, Ezekiel, Rachel, Hannah, and William. Rezin and William settled in Redstone. William was never married. Rezin had ten children. Of them living now are John M., Mrs. Samuel Herron, and William R. Capt. Moore served in the war of 1776, and won a record for more than common bravery. Upon the old Moore place in 1778 he planted an apple-tree that still bears largely of fruit. He brought it over the mountains along with a half-dozen others in his sad- dle-bags. Capt. Moore died in Redstone, and was buried on the old Moore farm.

the David Fuller place. Mr. Frost was grandfather of Mrs. W. R. Moore. He was married three times, and died in 1834 upon W. R. Moore's farm. His son, J. L., who died in Redstone in 1869, had ten children. Eight are now living, and of the eight all save one live in Fayette County. Jacob Hibbs is supposed to have come from Loudon County, Va., to Redstone as early as 1780. Lacey, the only one of his sons to make Redstone a permanent home, married Sallie, daughter of George Kroft, and lived at first on the farm now owned by Aaron J. Hibbs. He died in 1819. He had five sons and three daughters. The only son now living is Samnel C. Hibbs, of Redstone. William Ball, one of Redstone's pioneer blacksmiths, had a shop in 1809 near Redstone Creek. He died in 1865. His widow still lives in Redstone.

Philip Fought, a German, emigrated to America to escape the turmoil incident to a religions commotion in Germany, and settled in Chester County, Pa. About 1780 he moved to Fayette County, and made a settlement in Redstone township upon a seven-hun- dred-acre tract of land, now comprising the four farms that are owned by James Fought, Daniel Craft, Mathias Hess, and John L. Reisbeck. James Fought's place in Redstone, always owned by a Fought, is now in the third generation of succession in the name. Mr. Philip Fought, who was singular in his dress, and appeared invariably in attire fashioned in a peculiar style of his own, established a wagon-shop, blacksmith- shop, and plow-shop upon his farm, and carried on the business with perseverance until old age ended his la- bors. Of the elder Fought's family of six children there were four sons,-James, William, George, and Philip. George was a soldier under Mad Anthony Wayne at Stony Point, where he was wounded in the left arm, rendering it useless. Some time later he took a boat- load of supplies down to New Orleans, where he died of yellow fever. James and William died in Virginia. Philip died on the old farm in Redstone in 1860, aged eighty-two.

Joseph Gadd located in 1800 npon the S. C. Hagerty farm, a half-mile west from Tuckertown. He died in Redstone in 1852, aged seventy-nine. One of his daughters married William Hatfield. Isaiah Ste- phens was an early comer to the place now owned by Joseph Gadd, who married one of Stephens' dangh- ters. Thomas Hatfield, grandfather of Joseph Gadd, fought under Jackson at New Orleans. The wife of the elder Joseph Gadd (first named above) died on the present Joseph Gadd place in 1875, aged ninety-six years. Isaiah Stephens died on the same farm in 1814.

Abraham Landers, a settler about 1790 in the southern portion of Redstone, was one of the early sawyers at Ebenezer Finley's saw-mill. His children numbered four. They were named Polly, Sallie, The McCormicks were among Redstone's early settlers, and among the most esteemed. James Mc- Cormick settled in Jefferson in 1780, and died there in 1847, aged eighty-five. John C. McCormick, one of his sons, was born on Dunlap's Creek, where his Abraham, and Jacob. Polly was the mother of Mrs. W. R. Moore. James Frost, to whom a place called " Lapland" was surveyed Feb. 5, 1784, was a promi- nent pioneer in Redstone. When but seven years of age he came to the township with his step-father, father was at one time a settler. John C. was a William Rose, who located on what is now known as . house-carpenter as well as farmer. His farm, south

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of Cook's Mills, was during his possession thereof regarded as a model. He was an ardent Presbyterian, and with others founded the Central Presbyterian Church of Menallen. He died in 1876. Of James McCormick's seventeen children the living are seven in number.

Griffith Roberts, of Chester County, with a family of four children, traveled westward over the moun- tains in company with William Jeffries and family about the year 1800. Roberts made his home in Redstone township, on the farm now occupied by John Hibbs, in Pleasant Valley District, and bought by Roberts of Anthony Sills. Jeffries settled in Union township. Mr. Roberts was a stone-mason and plasterer by trade, and upon his settlement in Redstone pursued that occupation with great indus- try. George Chalfant, a lad whom Roberts had brought west with him, worked and lived with the latter, and became a skillful mason. George Chal- fant bought a farm in 1809 of Cavalier Wheaton. There he died in 1858, aged seventy-six, and there his son Finley now lives. Mr. Roberts himself did not live in a very magnificent house, for it was, as a matter of fact, simply a log cabin with a clapboard roof; but he constructed good houses for other peo- ple, and is said to have done his work exceedingly well. He plastered a house in Bridgeport about seventy years ago, and the plaster is as firm and smooth now as it was when put on. Mr. Roberts died in 1825, aged eighty years. His only son, Grif- fith, married a daughter of Edward Morris, who lived in the Finley settlement.

Edward Morris was especially noted for being a large man. His weight was three hundred and thirty pounds, and that of his daughter, who married Grif- fith Roberts, Jr., three hundred and twenty. Morris moved from Redstone to the State of Ohio. Griffith Roberts died in 1819. His son, Judge Griffith Rob- erts, lives now in Bunker Hill District, Redstone township.

in which place they lived until their two children, Samuel and Elizabeth, were born. Jonathan was a blacksmith by trade, having served an apprentice- ship of seven years. He settled on Big Redstone in 1796, in which year the firm of Sharpless & Jackson erected the famous Redstone paper-mill, it being the first paper-mill west of the mountains, and first lived on the Gillespie farm, where West Brownsville now stands, but Jackson in a short time converted an old stable into a house on the paper-mill grounds. His second wife was a daughter of Peter Miller, of Red- stone. He died Jan. 20, 1860, at the Redstone home- stead, in the ninety-third year of his age, his first wife having died in May, 1823, and of the death of his second wife we have no date. He left eleven chil- dren. Those who were living in 1870 were William, Sabina, Edith (Mrs. Pierso]), of Mehaska County, Iowa, and Priscilla (Mrs. Morgan Campbell), of Scottdale, Westmoreland Co., Pa.

William Sharpless was born on the Redstone paper- mill farm, Feb. 7, 1797. He was married to Mary Colvin, Oct. 23, 1823, who was born Jan. 30, 1802, and died Aug. 12, 1870. He had no children, and was in the paper business most of his life. The pro- duct of his mill was widely known as the standard paper of the country. The old paper-mill was burned many years ago, and on the ground now stands what is known as the Parkhill flouring-mill. He was long a member of the Baptist Church, and the present edifice, well known as the Redstone Bap- tist Church, was erected chiefly through his individ- ual effort and means. He died Nov. 22, 1881, at the residence of Capt. S. C. Speers, Allen township, Washington County.

Among other prominent members of the sect in that locality may be named Theodore Hoge, Peter Miller, James Veech, Samnel Vail, Joseph Wood- mansee, and Micajah Smith. These were instrumen- tal in erecting a log meeting-house in what is now known as Centre School District, and there the Friends regularly assembled for many years. By and by the ranks began to grow thin, and the number of Friends had dwindled away in 1856 to less than half a score. In that year the meetings were discontinued, and with the death of Jonathan Sharpless, in 1860, passed away about the only remaining evidence of the ex- istence in the neighborhood of a community of Friends. A graveyard laid out by the Quakers at the church is still used occasionally, though it is a neglected spot, where broken and crumbling head- stones and rankly growing weeds contribute to the appearance of desolation. But few of the head-

There was a pretty numerous settlement of Quakers along Redstone Creek where the stream separates Redstone township from Jefferson and Franklin, and the members of this settlement, coming in about the year 1800, were located in each of the three town- ships named. Among these people the most promi- nent personage was Jonathan Sharpless, who lived first in Redstone, afterwards in Jefferson, and lastly in Franklin, where he died. He was a quaint, blunt- spoken Quaker, who always said what he meant, and for whom his brother Quakers felt a very high esteem. The first of the family who emigrated to this country were John Sharpless and two brothers from Wales, , stones bear any inscriptions, but simply initials rudely who came with William Penn. They took up a thou- cut. Two stones record the burials of "Mr. Sharp- less" and "Joseph Sharpless." Others are marked W. P .; P. C., Esq .; C. M .; J. P .; D. C .; C. P .; E. S. F .; and H. sand acres of land in Chester County, about twenty miles from Philadelphia. John had a son Joseph. He also had a son Joseph, who was the father of Jonathan, who emigrated to Fayette County. His first wife was Edith Niccolls, of Wilmington, Del.,

In 1780, Samuel Grable came from the Eastern Shore of Maryland and located a tract of about six

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

hundred acres in the present township of Redstone. Mr. Grable's property was known as the "Maiden's Bower," and was patented to him in 1785. He lived on what is called the Beal place, and died there in 1811. His children numbered nine. His sons were David, Samuel, and Philip. David removed at an early day to Kentucky. Samuel, Jr., and Philip re- mained on the old farm and died in the township. Philip married a daughter of Jeremiah Downs, who in 1787 patented land lying in Redstone, upon the creek where William Norcross now lives. In 1795 Philip bought of Peter Rothwell the place on which Earhart Grable now lives, Rothwell himself living then where Thomas Canfield now resides. The Ear- hart Grable place Rothwell had got from Zelah Rude. who was living on it in 1789. Two daughters of Philip Grable, aged respectively eighty-one and eighty-two, are at present living with their brother, Earhart Grable.

Mentioning as among the early settlers of Red- stone the names of Samuel Wheaton (now living in the township at the age of ninety-three), Barig Bra- shears, John Tate (who died in 1799), James Winders, Stephen Randolph, Timothy Smith, James Frost, the Hibbs families, and Christopher Perkey, we come to Samuel West, who established a wagon-shop near the river in Luzerne township before 1800, and after gain- ing much fame and profit in the business moved over into Redstone, and located as a farmer near the place now occupied by his son James. The last named has been constantly engaged since 1831 in the manufac- ture at his farm of wagons and carriages, in which business he is still largely employed.

two are living,-Leonard in Fayette, and Philip in Westmoreland County. J. A. Noble, living now in Redstone, located in 1863 upon his present farm, which was patented in 1796 by Thomas Jones. Mr. Noble worked as a glass-cutter at the Albany Glass- Works, on the Monongahela, in 1832.

On the 28th of February, 1785, Alexander McClean, deputy surveyor, surveyed a tract of laud to Elizabeth Briscoe, in trust, containing 297 acres. MeClean de- scrihed the land as " situated on the north side of Burd's road, and on the new road leading to Pearce's mill on the Redstone Creek, in Menallen township, Fayette County." He adds this note to John Lukens, Esq., surveyor-general : "This survey was made in order to give a proper representation of a controversy between Thomas MeIlroy and Elizabeth Briscoe, in trust for her children. MeIlroy had obtained a war- rant, which I had executed previous to this coming to hand, and which is caveated by her attorney, viz., Jacob Beeson. It appears that all of MeIlroy's pre- tensions to a right previous to the warrant was a pen raised three logs high and his name marked on a tree. Edward Todd also caveats the acceptance of this survey as well as that of MeIlroy's, alleging some kind of equitable right to a part of it."

William Price came to Fayette County from Wash- ington County, Pa., in 1797, having received a patent for his land June 27, 1796. Of his eight children the sons were Joel, William, Harmon, David, Isaac, and Ilenry. Joel Price had six children. He died in Redstone, Nov. 4, 1864. His three sons-W. D., T. B., and H. W .- are still living.

In 1809, Johnson Van Kirk ( whose father, William, was a Revolutionary soldier) rented a piece of land near Merrittstown, and farmed it until 1816, when he moved into the Finley settlement in Redstone, where he had purchased two hundred and thirty acres of ! Truman, Joseph Truman, and William Sharpless

One of the early grist-mills of Redstone stood upon the Redstone Creek, just north of where the Baptist Church stands, and upon land patented in 1794 by John Gary, who was the mill proprietor. The mill- site was occupied in 1836 by Levi Colvin, Morris

land of John Moore's heirs. This John Moore was with a paper-mill. When the floors were laid the mill was dedicated by religions services by Rev. Mr. Speer, in the presence of a large company of guests. Sharpless & Co. continued the business until 1845, when John Taylor bought out the Trumans, and as then formed the partnership of Taylor, Sharpless & Colvin endured until 1850. William Sharpless then retired from the firm, but in 1860 purchased the en- tire interest in the mill and became its sole proprie- tor. He experimented in the manufacture of straw paper, but his venture was not successful, and after a brief experience he abandoned the mill, which stood idle from that time. a man of considerable note among the pioneers, and was especially famous as a skillful manufacturer of spinning-wheels. Johnson Van Kirk lived in the Finley settlement until his death in 1870, at the age of eighty-three years. Three of his sons now reside in Redstone. They are named Zenas, Theodore, and Elijah. Zenas lives on a place patented by Robert Evans in 1775, and sold by Evans to Thomas Gallaher in 1799. George Gallaher carried on at that place at one time a distillery of considerable importance. Leonard Lenhart, living now on the pike in Red- stone, settled on the place in 1860. His father, Michael Lenhart, came over the mountains about 1800, and The following tavern-keepers were licensed in Red- stone between 1798 and 1800: John Bartlett, Amos Wilson, Jonathan Hickman, Francis Griffith, Peter Kinney, in September, 1798 ; Elias Bayliss, Decem- ber, 1798; George Kinnear, September, 1799; Tobias Brown, December, 1799; John Richards and Herman Stidger, in June, 1800. locating first on the Yough, removed soon after to Cookstown, where he set up as a wagon-maker. Michael was drafted in 1814 into the military service, but the war closed before he was called npon to go. Upon one of his periodical trading trips down the 'Butler and Samuel Salter, September, 1799; James Ohio he was taken ill and died near Cincinnati. He had twelve children ; five were sons, and of them

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The National road traverses Redstone township, and in the days of its liveliest travel imparted much animation to that portion of the township lying along its course. Previous to the days of the National road, however, there was a State road, over which a great deal of traffic passed, and upon which there were in Redstone several taverns This road entered the township near the site of the Menallen Cumberland Presbyterian Church, and passing towards the west along by the place known as the old Colley tavern stand, traversed thence to Brownsville, about the course now pursued by the National road. One of the earliest taverns on that highway in Redstone was a house kept by Benjamin Phillips before the year 1800. Morris Mahler kept a tavern a little south of Phillips' place, where a man named Green, and suc- ceeding him John Piersol and Robert Johnson, kept the Green Tree inn in a log house that stood upon the farm now occupied by Nathan Phillips. There was also old Peter Colley's tavern farthier along on the State road, and still westward the Red House tavern, on the present G. H. Bowman place, where Matthias Hess lives. Cuthbert Wiggins (known for short as "Cuddy") was the landlord of the Red House as far back as 1810. That house is now and has been for as long as any one can remember the voting-place for Redstone township. The stone house in which Elijah Craft lives was built in 1817 by Wilkes Brown for a tavern, and a stanch, compact house it is even at this day. It stands a little back of the pike now, but when. built was upon the old State road. Wilkes Brown, Thomas Brown, and Basil Brown were early comers to Fayette County, and in Brownsville and vicinity, reaching into Redstone, owned a great deal of land. Taverns were also kept on the old road by William Hastings (where Leonard Lenhart lives), and by some person on the Higinbotham place, east of the Red House. There were indeed taverns in great abundance, such as they were, but they were at best nothing to boast of. Business was, however, brisk, for travel was lively, and besides freight traffic there were stages too, but the stage-houses were elsewhere than in Redstone. Tradition repeats tales of robbery and even murder when speaking of the old State road, and refers especially to one old dreary wayside inn where travelers were often despoiled, aud where a peddler was once robbed and murdered; but such stories ofttimes attach to the past of historic high- ways, and there is doubtless in them, as in this case, a liberal amount of fiction.

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 164

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