History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 175

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 175

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Nov. 17, 1855, the view and report were confirmed, and the new township ordered to be called Stewart, the name being given it in compliment to the Hon. Andrew Stewart. The first election after the organi- zation of Stewart as a separate township was held at the house of Theophilus Keller, March 21, 1856, and the following officers elected : Justice of the Peace, Thomas Burgess ; Constable, James Leonard ; Asses- sor, James Morrison ; Auditor, John B. Potter. The officers elected in succeeding years are named below, viz. :

1857 .- Assessor, Thomas Thorpe; Auditor, John Holland.

1858 .- Justice of the Peace, Elijah S. Harbaugh; Assessor, Sylvester C. Skinner ; Auditor, Harvey Morris.

1859 .- Assessor. Samuel C. Price ; Auditor, Elijah Harbaugh. 1860 .- Assessor, David Ogg ; Auditor, Samuel Potter.

1861 -Justice of the Peace, James M. Dixon; Assessor, John W. Holland.

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STEWART TOWNSHIP.

1862 .- Assessor, George llarbangh ; Auditor, Elijah Harbaugh. 1863 .- Justice of the Peace, Elijah S. Harbaugh; Assessor, Henry C. Price ; Auditor, James H. Mitchell.

1864 .- Assessor, David Fulton ; Auditor, James M. Dixon. 1865 .- Justice of the Peace, Joseph Williams ; Assessor, Thomas Thorpe ; Auditor, Samuel Potter.

1866 .- Assessor, Sylvester C. Skinner ; Auditor, Emanuel Bis- sell.

1867 .- Justice of the Peace, Sylvester C. Skinner ; Assessor, Joseph Williams ; Auditor, R. J. Sprowl.

1868 .- Justice of the Peace, Sylvester C. Skinner; Assessor, Robert Turney ; Auditor, Samuel Potter.

1869 .- Assessor, Jesse Shaw ; Auditor, Robert Turney. 1869 .- Auditor, Sylvester Skinner.

1870 .- Justice of the Peace, John Ferrin ; Assessor, Francis Morrison ; Auditor, Henry Morris.

1872, March .- Justice of the Peuce, George W. Folke: Asses- sor, Isaac Hutchinson.

1873 .- Assessor, William Griffith ; Auditor, R. J. Sprowl.

1874 .- Assessor, George llarbaugh ; Auditor, Joseph Leonard.

1875 .- Justice of the Peace, Thomas Thorpe; Assessor, Joseph Kinnear; Auditor, S. C. Price.

1876 .- Assessor, Thomas L. Butler; Auditor, Ilugh Nicolay.

1877 .- Justice of the Peace, Francis D. Morrison ; Auditor, John B. Potter.

1878 .- Assessor, F. M. Cunningham ; Auditur, R. V. Ritenour. 1879 .- Assessor, J. V. Rush ; Auditor, Samuel Potter.

1880 .- Justice of the Peuce, Thomas Thorpe; Assessor, F. M. Cunningham ; Auditor, J. T. Lamba.

1881 .- Justice of the Peace, Robert S. McCrum; Assessor, F.

M. Cunningham; Auditor, G. W. Moon; Supervisors of Roads, Thomas Thorpe, George Harbaugh, David Wood- mansee, and S. D. Hall.

The Turkey Foot road, the oldest thoroughfare in the township, was opened about 1803 as a highway between Uniontown and Somerset. All the other roads have a recent origin. The Stewarton post-office was established in August, 1871, with John W. Moon as postmaster. He was succeeded in the fall of 1873 by Andrew Stewart, Jr., and the office was kept in a store which Moon had opened, and which was de- stroyed by fire in 1874. It was removed abont this time to a station farther down the road in Springfield township, known before that time as Yough, retain- ing the name it bore when established. Peter B. Halfhill was appointed postmaster, and his successors have been E. A. Harbaugh and the present, Joseph Herwick. The office has daily mails, and is the ter- minus of the Springfield mail-route. The former station of Stewarton received the name of Yough, but since the removal of the saw-mill and the de- I struction of the store the place has been forsaken, and the station has passed into disuse.

FALLS CITY.

This is the only village in Stewart, and is situated near the centre of the township, on both sides of the Youghiogheny, and at the noted Ohio Pile Falls. It is a station on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, mid- way between Pittsburgh and Cumberland, being about seventy-five miles from either city. There are several

hundred inhabitants, four hotels, stores, etc., as de- tailed in the following pages.

Although Falls City has a pleasant location, and the romantic surroundings have given it a favorable reputation among pleasure-seekers as a summer re- sort, its chief claim to distinction lies in its possession of the Ohio Pile Falls, a water-power of the first rank. Concerning these falls a commission of mili- tary engineers, consisting of Col. W. McKee, Col. Roswell Lee, and Maj. George Talcott, who were ap- pointed in 1825 to select a " site for a national armory on the Western waters," reported :

"The Youghiogheny River at this place makes a circuit of nearly two miles around a neck or tongue of land about three- fourths of a mile in length that projects from the foot of a mountain in its rear. At the upper side of this tongue, and near the extreme point of the mountain, is the commencement of the Ohio Pile rapids and falls, which terminate at the lower side opposite the point at which they begin, and six hundred yards distant from it in a straight line. The whole descent is eighty-seven and a half feet. The ground on the lower side, next the foot of the rapids, is advantageously disposed in steps or benches of sufficient width and at cunvenieut distances below each other for the erection of buildings, and the successive ap- plication of the water to machinery in any manner that may be desired. Forty feet of the whole fall may thus be employed at a trifling expense. The bank thee becomes steep and per- pendicular, and the remaining part of the fall could not be conveniently used withont extensive rock excavation. To con- vey the water to this site from above the falls will require a canal of seven hundred feet in length. The first four hundred feet will pass through a strip of river bottom. The deepest cut- ting along the whole route is thirty feet, and occurs in passing a narrow ridge near the middle of the neck, consisting prin- cipally, as is supposed, of rock. A dam four feet high across the river will be necessary to procure a depth of water at the head of the canal sufficient to prevent it from being choked with ice, ur obstructed by drift of any kind. The quantity of water which the river furnishes at this place during an extreme dry season perhaps exceeded one hundred cubic feet per second during the uncommon drought of 1823.

" If we regard the site of these falls, in reference to the secu- rity of the works that might be erected upon it, from freshets, the perfect command of its water-power, aud the cheapness with which it may be employed, it surpasses any that has ever come under our observation. An additional excavation of ten thousand five hundred cubic feet of earth and nine hundred feet of rock would enlarge the canal sufficiently to convey the whole volume of the river to the works at low water, which would fur- nish three times the power requisite for the armory, and still leave unemployed a fall of more than forty feet. This estimate is for three breast and two overshot wheels.

" To these advantages is opposed its want of convenient com- munication, surrounded on all sides by mountains, the adjacent country but sparsely settled, and, with the exception of fuel, including stone-coal, few or no resources for un armory : it is without the means of water conveyance, and, as yet, without roads. How far the weight of this objection ought to be Ics- sened by the probability of any future canal across the moun- tains, passing down the valley of the Youghingheny River, is a consideration that does not properly come within the province assigned us."

The objection to the inaccessibility to the falls has been removed by the opening of the Pittsburgh,

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Washington and Baltimore Railroad, which has here established an important station, with extensive sidings ; while the idea of water communication has not been wholly abandoned, an appropriation for the survey of a canal route having recently been made. The power of the Ohio Pile Falls has been utilized to a limited extent. A further improvement for manu- facturing purposes will probably be made at an early day. The falls and nearly all the adjacent lands are the property of the heirs of the Hon. Andrew Stew- art, and Falls City was laid out for the Stewart es- tate in 1868 by Albert Stewart. The plat embraces about two hundred acres of land, a considerable por- tion of which is on the south side of the Youghio- gheny, connection being made with the northern part by means of a substantial wooden bridge. In the latter part much of the village survey is included within the peninsula formed by the river, which is about three-fourths of a mile in length and elevated a hundred feet above the level of the stream. It is bordered by cliffs, on which grow ferns in the greatest profusion, and this beautiful tract of land has not been inappropriately named Fern Cliff Park. Occu- pying a commanding position in the park is the fine hotel which was erected by the Stewart estate in the summer of 1879, and which was opened for the ac- commodation of summer visitors in May, 1880, under the management of M. W. Lambert. Fern Cliff Park Hotel is a stately-looking frame, thirty-three by one hundred and one feet, four stories high, and sur- mounted by a mansard roof. There are fifty rooms for guests, supplied with gas, water, and electric annun- ciators, and the hotel throughout contains the most approved modern appliances. In the grounds are shady rambles, pleasant walks, and several fountains, which are fed by a reservoir on a hill eighty feet above the hotel. This is filled from the Youghio- gheny by means of a large water-power force-pump. The encouraging patronage given the hotel has in- duced the proprietors to entertain a proposition to enlarge the house to thrice its present capacity, making it one of the foremost summer resorts in the western part of the State.

The first public-house in the place was kept op- posite the grist-mill, in the south part of the vil- lage, by Elijalı Mitchell, about 1858. Subsequent

The completion of the railroad in 1871, and the urgent demand for hotel accommodations, caused Andrew Stewart to transform a large farm building into a public-house. It received the name of the " Ohio Pile House," and was opened by W. Brown and John Shepard. It is at present kept by Kimmel Hardin. Daniel Coughenour has been the keeper of a public-house for the past four years, and others have entertained the public for shorter periods.

The first goods at Falls City were sold by Thomas Jackson, for Andrew Stewart, in the old hotel build- ing some time about 1856. A. E. Meason & Co. next had a store at the tannery, where they were succeeded by Samuel Price, Moses Freeman, Potter & Browning. In 1871, F. T. Browning built his present store-house, which he has since occupied for mercantile purposes. The same year Joseph Williams began trading at the . Falls, moving here from Meadow Run, where he had kept a store for fifteen years, being the first in the township. Since 1878 he has occupied his present building. George D. Livingston has also been in trade since 1872, and George W. Anderson since 1875, each having a respectable trade.

The railroad station at Falls City, called Ohio Pile, was opened in March, 1871, by Samuel Potter, Jr., as agent, with Thomas Armstrong as telegrapher. The latter was appointed to both offices in 1872, and was relieved in 1873 by Lewis Johnson. In April, 1875, B. R. Field became the agent, but was relieved July, 1877, by E. A. Jordan. He served until June 22, 1879, when the present agent, C. L. Harrington, was appointed. Soon after the railroad was opened the Adams Express Company established an office at Ohio Pile, with Thomas Thorpe as agent. Since 1875 the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad has carried on the express business in connection with its railroad in- terests. The shipments at Ohio Pile are chiefly lum- ber and other wood exports. The entire business aggregates fifteen hundred dollars per month.

For many years the settlers of Stewart received their mail matter from Bryant's, on the National road, and later from Farmington, on the same road. The post-office at Falls City was established about 1856, with the name of Pile Falls, and Samuel Price as postmaster, who kept it at the store of Meason & Co. He was succeeded by Samuel Potter, Jr., who in 1871 removed the office to the railroad station. About this time the name of the office was changed to Falls City. Potter was succeeded, in May, 1878, by the present postmaster, Thomas Thorpe. The mail ser- vice is by railroad twice per day. Previously the mails were carried on horseback from Farmington to Donegal several times per week.

The first physician regularly located in Stewart was Dr. H. Y. Brady, who came to Falls City in the fall landlords were Theophilus Keller, J. H. Mitchell, ' of 1869, and has since heen a practitioner there. He Moses Ferrin, Nathan Joliffe, Jesse Hardin, and Redmond Bunton, during whose occupancy the house was destroyed by fire.

graduated at the Jefferson Medical College in 1865, and practiced, previous to locating here, at Youngs- town and Latrobe. For two years from 1874, Dr. Hugh Nicolay was in practice at the Falls, and for a few months in 1879, Dr. D. O. Bassett. For the past year Dr. S. D. Woods has practiced dentistry at Falls City.

VARIOUS INDUSTRIES OF THE TOWNSHIP.

Agriculture and lumbering are the chief pursuits of the people of Stewart, many of the citizens being engaged in carrying ou both. The mountain streams

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STEWART TOWNSHIP.

afford many water-powers, which were early sought out and improved to meet the wants of the pioneers. Nearly every neighborhood had its saw- and grist-, or rather corn-mills, which have gone to decay so long since that in many instances no authentic account of them can be given. The latter were generally "tub" mills, a simple arrangement whereby the stone was caused to revolve as often as the wheel, and the grind- ing capacity was consequently small. To this class belonged the mills of Aman Shipley, on Laurel Run ; David Askins, on Meadow Run; and the McGrew mill, on Jonathan's Run, all built some time about 1790. With the increase of population came better facilities, and soon good mills were built on the sites of the old ones, or on other seats on the same streams. On Laurel Run were the mills of Henry Gilmore and Isaac Hutchinson, both of small capacity. In 1832 Samuel Potter built a grist-mill on Meadow Run, which was supplied with two sets of stones, and was in every respect an improvement on the mills pre- viously in the township. A saw-mill was also built by Potter, and both were operated by him until 1852, when they became the property of John B. Potter, his son, who yet carries them on, although both mills have been much improved, the former having now three runs of stones, and being reputed a first-class mill.

On the same stream the manufacture of splint chairs is carried on by George P. Potter. The fac- tory has been in successful operation since 1860, and several hundred fine chairs are made annually. Be- low that point, also on Meadow Run, Reuben and Christmas Leonard carry on a splint-chair factory ; and more than sixty years ago their father, Benjamin Leonard, carried on this industry in the township, some of the chairs he then made being yet in use.

On Beaver Run, a branch of Meadow, James Dean had a saw-mill at an early day, to which Samuel Pot- ter ingeniously added a grist-mill about 1828, the stones being taken from a neighboring hillside.

On Cucumber Run, Andrew Briner had saw- and grist-mills of small capacity forty years ago, which have not been operated for the past twenty-five years. At the forks of the same stream Joseph Price had a mill, which has not been used for a score of years; and above the Andrew Briner mill Joshua Briner had a saw-mill, which was discontinued about 1865.

On Jonathan's Run, among the mills of a later period, were those of B. Rush, built about 1868, and which are now operated by Patton Rush. On the upper waters of that stream are the mills of Matthew McMillan.

A number of portable steam saw-mills have been erected at various points in Stewart, and have been very useful in working up the heavy timber in the localities where they were located. Several of these were at the "low place" on Meadow Run. In 1874, for a few years, Samuel Halderbrant had a good mill in operation there, when he removed it to Bear Run,

where it was operated a few years longer. The Browning mill was at the "low place" next, and was removed from there to Falls City. Its cutting ca- pacity was five thousand feet per day. A year later John Wesley Moon erected the third mill at the " low place" and engaged largely in the manufacture of all kinds of lumber, staves, and headings. He constructed a tramway to the " long hollow," two and a half miles distant, for the purpose of conveying logs to his mill, and cut up an immense amount of timber. The tramway yet remains, but the mill has been removed to Somerset Connty. At Stewarton, four miles below Falls City, Andrew Stewart, Jr., had a large and well appointed saw-mill in operation several years after 1871, the logs being conveyed thither by a long tramway; but the mill has been removed and the interest there abandoned.

Henry Fry attempted the first improvement of the water-power at the Ohio Pile Falls on the Youghio- gheny, now the site of Falls City. Forty years ago he built a hewed-log dam nearly across the stream a short distance above the falls and put up the frame of a saw-mill, but before he got it in operation a freshet swept away his dam, causing him to abandon his project. Hon. Andrew Stewart made the next improve- ment, putting up saw- and grist-mills. A dam was built four hundred feet above the falls, and a wooden trunk laid to convey the water to the mills, which were destroyed by fire before being set in motion. The buildings were immediately restored, and the grist-mill yet remains, the saw-mill above it having been removed. The former had first an overshot and the latter a flutter wheel, but in 1865 Albert Stewart supplied their places with three Rainey turbine- wheels, increasing the power to one hundred and thirty horses. The grist-mill was also supplied with more machinery, and is now adapted to the new process of grinding. It is operated by Albert Stew- art, and the planing-mill, which he built in 1865, has also since been kept in operation by him. The latter is supplied with good machinery, but has a limited capacity. Both mills are well patronized.

The Falls City Pulp-Mill was put in operation in September, 1879, by the present proprietor of the works, Wilson W. Hartzell. Having secured a lease of a large water-power from the Stewart estate, on the site of an old saw-mill above the falls, he increased the already large power by building a dam across the river four hundred feet in length. A building thirty by eighty feet was erected and supplied with two American turbine-wheels of three hundred horse- power to operate machinery to reduce spruce and poplar wood to pulp for paper-making by the Otter- son & Taylor process. From three to four cords of | wood are consumed each day, and the capacity of the works enable the production of three car-loads of pulp per week, aggregating about ninety thousand pounds. Employment is given to twelve men when the works are run day and night, and a good market

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

is afforded for an abundance of wood which was here- The Fayette Tannery, at Falls City, was built in 1853 by the firm of Fuller, Breading & Meason, the latter being the only resident partner. The buildings were put up by Samnel Potter, and the tannery placed tofore comparatively worthless. The raw material is brought to the works in cord-wood size, freed from bark, the heart, and black knots, and is then reduced to two-foot lengths. It is next sawed into blocks | in charge of Aaron Walter, as foreman of the twelve half an inch in thickness, when it is ready for the crusher. Atter crushing, the material is by succes- sive processes reduced to a smooth pulp, so finely worked as to be almost impalpable. From the last of these processes it comes out in even sheets like thick paper and of a whitish color. These sheets are put up in sixty-pound bales and shipped to market. The pulp is nsed in the manufacture of paper, by mixing with other materials, as straw and rag pulp, producing a good quality of printing-paper at a smaller cost than paper made wholly of rags or straw. The superintendent of the works is William V. G. White.

The Falls City Shook-Factory is owned and carried on by M. Weakland, of Confluence. At the latter place the manufacture of shooks for the West India trade was begun about ten years ago, and has since been carried on at other points at Falls City since 1875. That year Matthias Smith opened a shop in which five men were employed, and which, after a few years' operation, became the property of M. Weak- land. Shooks have also been made on Jonathan's Run by Matthias Smith and Beniah Guptell, and the | yearly product in the township has been about 2000 shooks, made chiefly out of the best oak. It may here be explained that the term "shook" is applied to an unfinished or skeleton barrel or hogshead. The staves, after being riven from the log, about thirty-six inches long, and duly seasoned, are shaved into the desired size, then bent into shape and regularly set up, as for a barrel ; but instead of being headed up they are knocked down, the staves, being numbered, are baled together, the bundle forming a "shook," which, with the addition of heads and hoops, are quickly trans- formed into barrels or hogsheads in a country where stave materials do not abound. In other words, the skeleton barrel is shipped to the West Indies from the United States, and is returned filled with rum or molasses.

The Falls City Spoke- and Hub-Works, Brison Rush and John Meeks proprietors, occupy a build- ing thirty by thirty-six fect and two stories high. The factory was erected in the summer of 1875, work being commenced August 8th of that year. Sixteen days later the establishment was burned to the ground, but was rebuilt so that work was resumed in October, 1875, and the factory has since been successfully car- ried on. The building is supplied with a sixteen horse-power engine, which operates a spoke-lathe, hub-machine, mortising-machines, etc., which enable the production of 225 sets of spokes and 200 sets of hubs per month. The firm also manufactures in- cline rollers for coal roads, and gives employment to five men.

or fifteen hands employed. In time Alfred Meason bought Breading's interest, and the business was car- ried on by him, with Charles Stone as foreman. Next came the firm of Meason, Wade & Co., who carried on the tannery until 1873, Harlan Hickland being the foreman. For a period the tannery was idle, but in April, 1877, the firm of James Callary & Co. suc- ceeded to the business, but were followed, in June, 1879, by the present mannfacturer, Owen Sheekley, as lessee from the Wade estate. Originally the tan- nery was operated by the waters of Meadow Run, but its diminishing volume caused the substitution of steam in 1869, and the motive-power is at present for- nished by a sixteen horse-power engine. The build- ing remains much the same as when erected, the tannery proper being one hundred feet square and three stories high. The bark-house is fifty by one hundred feet. In all there are seventy vats for tau- ning belting-, hose-, and sole-leather with oak bark one hundred heavy hides per week being tanned. In connection with the tannery is a convenient office, half a dozen dwellings, and a business house, in which the proprietors of the tannery had stores years ago, when this place was the centre of business at the Falls.

Potter's coal-mine, opened in 1877, and operated by Thomas Potter, is about one mile southwest from Falls City, and on the mountain-side, four hundred feet above the level of the Youghiogheny. The vein is about five feet in thickness, and the main entry has been driven to the length of five hundred feet. The mine has ten sideways, each about one hundred feet long, and the yearly product is about thirty thousand bushels of good mountain coal, free from sulphur and burning freely. The mine is underlaid with a stratum of fine limestone, which is rarely found in the town- ship, and the presence of fire-clay and iron is also noted. Although the Potter mine is the only one in Stewart which has been developed to any extent, coal is found in many localities, and small banks have been opened on the south and the west of the Youg- hiogheny by Martin Mitchell, Reuben Thorpe, Hugh Corriston, Summers McCrumb, John Potter, George B. Potter, and others. On the north side of the river, Harrison Weaver, Emanuel Bisel, and others have coal-banks, but in most instances the demand for their prodnets is very limited.

Within the past few years considerable attention has been directed to fruit culture, and orcharding promises to become an important industry. The or- chard of Francis M. Cunningham, two miles south- west from Falls City, is the largest in the township. He began fruit culture in 1874 with an orchard of twenty apple-trees, to which he has added from year to year until his orchard at present embraces 1200

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 175

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