History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 181

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 181

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The Charlotte Furnace Company's Coke-Works embrace sixty ovens, located on the Fayette County side of Jacob's Creek, directly opposite their furnace and rolling-mill at Scottdale, Westmoreland County.

The Keifer Coke-Works were started by W. A. Keifer, who built five ovens here in 1871, and shipped the first coke over the Mount Pleasant Branch Rail- road. He subsequently built a large number of ovens additional to the first "plant," but all of them were afterwards demolished and about forty new ones erected, which are now in operation, producing coke for the use of the Charlotte Furnace Company, and operated by W. A. Keifer. The coal is mined by drift, and about sixty tons of coke produced per day. The works give employment to thirty men. They are located on a line with those of the Charlotte Furnace Company, and are in fact a part of those works.

The Fountain Coke-Works are located next above the Keifer Works. They have fifty ovens, producing about seventy tons of coke per day, and are owned and operated by J. D. Boyle.

The Dexter Mines and Coke-Works, owned and operated by J. R. Stauffer & Co., are located on the Stauffer farm, and are the next coke-works above the " Fountain," on the Mount Pleasant Railroad.

The property connected with the works embraces one hundred acres, of which about thirty acres has been exhausted, leaving about seventy acres of coal untouched. The works were built in 1873 by the brothers Stauffer. The coal is taken out by drifting. Forty ovens are in operation here, producing sixty- five tons of coke daily. They are well equipped, having a store-house twenty by thirty-six feet in dimensions, two tanks, the necessary sidings, and eight dwelling-houses for operatives. The works have $25,000 invested in them, exclusive of the land, for which no outlay was required, as it belonged to the Stauffer homestead property. A view of the Dexter Coke-Works, as also of the flouring-mills of J. R. & A. Stauffer, is given herewith.

The Painter Coke-Works are next above the Dexter, on the Mount Pleasant Railroad. These works were put in operation in 1873 by Col. Israel Painter, the location being upon land which he had owned for some time previously. Col. Painter built seventy ovens, and carried on the works till 1878, when he sold the work to McClure & Co., of Pittsburgh, the present proprietors, who added one hundred and fifty- eight ovens, making a total of two hundred and twenty-eight, the number now in operation at these works. The coal is mined by drift, and is of excellent quality for coking.

The Diamond Coke-Works, the most northerly of the works in Fayette County, on the line of the Mount

Pleasant Railroad, were started in 1874 by Lomison & Stauft, who then erected twenty-five ovens, and manufactured coke here until 1879, when they sold the works to the Diamond Coke Company. That company built twenty additional ovens, and carried on the works until 1880, when they sold the property to McClure & Co., who built additional ovens, bring- ing the whole number to sixty-six, as at present. About eight car-loads of coke are produced here daily. Both the " Diamond" and the "Painter's" Works (owned by the same proprietors) are under the superintendence of J. H. Culler.

The mines and coke-works above mentioned are all located in Upper Tyrone township, except the " Henry Clay" Mines, which are in Connellsville.

The H. C. Frick Coke Company own eleven miles of railroad and twenty-nine miles of pit-track, and keep in operation two hundred and nineteen cars, owned by themselves. The company have in their possession about twelve square miles of coal lands and surface in this section, and operate several hun- dred more, besides buying the coke produced by about two hundred and fifty other ovens. They have stores for supplying their miners at Broad Ford, Morgan, and the Summit, and blocks of tenement-houses for miners' occupancy at all their mines. They are now (June, 1881) laying water-pipes for the purpose of furnishing their works with an unlimited supply of water.

· The Spurgeon (formerly Spring Grove) Mines and coke-ovens in connection, are located on Hickman Run, near its mouth. They were commenced in 1864 by Cochran & Keister, their present owners, who have one hundred ovens in operation, and ship ten car-loads of coke daily. They have a store and tene- ments for their workmen and laborers at the mines.

The Jimtown Coke-Works (next above the Spur- geon) are owned by J. M. Schoonmaker. Three hundred and three ovens are now in operation here, and thirty car-loads of coke are shipped daily. A store and tenement-houses for the operatives are owned by the proprietors of these works. J. R. Laughrey is superintendent of these, as well as of the Sterling Mines and Coke-Works, located on the Youghiogheny River.

Next above Jimtown are the "Cora Coke-Works," erected in 1880 by Jacob Newmyer & Sons, compris- ing forty-two ovens in active operation.

For the accommodation of the above-mentioned works on Hickman Run there has been built a rail- road, called the Hickman Run Branch, connecting with the main track of the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- road near the mouth of the run.

Along the Youghiogheny River above Dawson, on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, are a number of mines and coke-works. The first of these (passing from Dawson towards Broad Ford) is the Fayette Coke-Works, now owned by James Cochran,

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Graff, Bennett & Co., and the Manchester Iron and Steel Company. A few ovens were built and put in operation here as early as 1842 by Campbell & Mc- Cormick. The present works were commenced in 1866. They now number one hundred and twenty- five ovens, and are under the superintendeney of James Cochran, a principal owner.

The Jackson Mines are situated on the main line of the railroad east of the Fayette Works. They are owned by J. K. Ewing, James Cochran, Sample Cochran, and J. T. Cochran, under style of " Jack- son Mines Company." Sixty-four ovens are in oper- ation, producing an average of seven car-loads of coke daily.

Next east are the Sterling Mines, owned by J. M. Schoonmaker, and under the superintendency of J. R. Laughrey. One hundred and fifty-nine ovens are in operation here, producing seventeen car-loads of coke daily.

The Tyrone Coke-Works of Laughlin & Co., next east of the Sterling Mines, have one hundred and thirty ovens. Next above these are the Washington Mines, the last of those located between Dawson and Broad Ford. They are owned by Sample Cochran & Co. The number of ovens now in operation is thirty-two.

The manufacture of fire-brick in Fayette County was begun as early as the year 1830 by Jacob Ander- son, who is now living at Rochester, Pa. He com -. menced the business about one mile from Connells- ville. The brick he made were loaded upon flat-boats and floated down the Youghiogheny River to Pitts- burgh ; there they were used in furnaces, mills, etc. The business was continued for many years by differ- ent persons, among whom were Thomas Ewing, Clem- ent Smith, Henry Wather, William Graham, John Kilpatrick, John T. Hurst, Jackson Sprigs, and several others. But it was not until the business of coke manufacture became the leading business of the county that the real value of the fire-brick made here was recognized. When the fact became known by practical tests that as the Connellsville coal makes the best coke now known in this country, so the nearer to the town of Connellsville the fire-brick are made the better they are adapted to the use of coke-ovens, ! and the interest has been carried to such a degree of perfection by some of the operators that they make as many as six different compositions in making the brick for one oven. There are two different kinds of fire-clay used in these brick,-plastic or soft clay, and flinty or quartz clay. These are put in in such quan- tities, as experiment has demonstrated in their use in the brick, as are best suited to the place the brick are to occupy in the oven. The flint clay is about as hard as limestone, and is of close, fine grain, taking a pol- ish like marble. It is placed in a large metal pan, a stream of water is turned upon it, and two large rol- lers revolve around in the pan, causing the clay to grain

the size required, when the proper quantity of plas- tic clay is added, making the whole mass into a pasty substance. It is taken out of the pan and moulded and dried on a hot floor made for that purpose, then the brick are set in kilns and burned about five days and nights. They are then ready for the market. It is also necessary in making some of these brick to calcine a part of the clay before using it. The busi- ness is carried on extensively by Joseph Soisson and Worth Kilpatrick, a view of whose works is shown in this book. They are located about two miles from Connellsville, at Moyer Station, on the Southwest- ern Pennsylvania Railroad. These gentlemen are thoroughly posted in their business, and have been obliged to increase the capacity of their works sev- eral times during the last three years. They send some of their bricks six and seven hundred miles from the place of manufacture, which is an indication that they are becoming widely known as thorough, progressive, and responsible business men.

The fire-brick works of J. M. & L. Cochran are on the line of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, between Dawson and Layton Station. They have a capacity for manufacturing ten thousand bricks per day. They are used chiefly in the construction of coke-ovens.

RAILROADS.

The main line of the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad ( now under lease to the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad Company) runs the entire length of the south boundary line of the two townships on the north bank of the Youghiogheny River. It has stations at Broad Ford, Dawson, Laurel Run, and Miltenberger. Branches connect with this main line; one, the Hick- man Run, connects at a short distance above Dawson, and is entirely used for the transportation of coke from the coke-works in that region. The other is the Mount Pleasant Branch, which connects at Broad Ford and extends to Mount Pleasant. This branch is used largely for coke, but also has a heavy passen- ger traffic. Along the entire line of this road are located coke-ovens, and the amount of coke shipped daily is immense. The stations in Upper Tyrone are Broad Ford, Morgan, Tinstman's, Fountain, Overton, and Everson, at the iron bridge.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

JAMES COCHRAN.

James Cochran, of Dawson Station, is one of the most remarkable of the self-made men of Fayette County, a man of clear understanding, of great en- ergy and indomitable will, but of a generous nature, tender-hearted withal, and, in short, a fine example of robust, hearty manhood. He is in both lines of Scotch-Irish extraction. Both his paternal grand- father, Samuel Cochran, and his maternal one, Eze-

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TYRONE-UPPER AND LOWER TOWNSHIPS.

kiel Sample, came to America from the north of Ire- land. The latter settled in Westmoreland County, and died there. The former settled near Lancaster, Pa., and moved into Fayette County when Isaac, the father of our James, was quite young. About 1815 Isaac Cochran married, in Westmoreland County, Ro- sanna, daughter of Ezekiel Sample, before named, and took her to his home in Tyrone township, where he led the life of a farmer, and where his family of five sons, of whom James was the fourth in number, and four daughters were all born, James being born Jan. 15, 1823.

James attended in childhood the subscription schools till he was about thirteen years of age, when his mother died, and he then left home and went out to shift for himself, to try "the battle of life" in the school of experience, which Mr. Cochran emphatic- ally declares to be " the best school that anybody ever attended." At the outset he engaged himself to a farmer to help him "put in seeding,"-that is, to sow his fields ; and for pay the farmer gave him "an old, worn-out, long-tailed blue coat," which the boy's pride would not allow him to wear. So he went home across the fields in shame and anger. He would work for that farmer no more. He next hought, on credit, some red flannel for a " wa'mus,"- i.e., a sort of buttonless wrapper,-and got, also on credit, from Sample Cochran, his brother, lumber for a flat-bottomed boat large enough to carry a hundred tons of sand, built the boat, and sold one-half of it to Sample to pay the lumber bill, and then went into partnership with him in washing sand at their uncle's bank near the present village of Dawson, prepara- tory to carrying it to the glass-makers at Pittsburgh. For this load they got two dollars a ton; and they sold the boat, and had as the result about a hundred dollars apiece in pocket, which sum, Mr. Cochran says, was more of a fortune in his young mind then than are now to him all his present possessions. They continued boating, carrying sand, glass-stone, cinders, etc., mostly to Pittsburgh, for several years. Thereafter he and his brother and uncle, in the sum- mer of 1842, feeling quite rich, leased two coke- ovens at what is now styled Fayette Works, and made two boat-loads of twenty-four-hour coke, having themselves previously made two boats, which they loaded. A boat held 6000 bushels With their loaded craft they left for Cincinnati, Ohio, April 1, 1843, without money, and with no shelter over their heads, and with no place to lie for rest except on the coke. At Pittsburgh they bought, on credit, pro- visions, for which they paid on their return. Below Pittsburgh the coke got on fire (from a fire built for cooking purposes upon a quantity of sand laid over the coke), and they found that the more water they poured upon it the lower the fire went, and they were obliged to dig down and get out the embers. At this period little was known about the "character" of coke and how best to handle it. Having gathered

lumber along down the river, when they arrived at Wheeling they made a shanty over the coke and so secured shelter. Arrived at Cincinnati, they were obliged to lie there for several days before they could dispose of the coke, and allow Miles Greenwood, a foundryman, to try it. He used the same quantity which he had before used of the Monongahela coke, and finding theirs much better than the latter kind, bought both loads, paying seven cents a bushel, half down, and giving for the other half his notes, which he paid before maturity. This was the first of the Connellsville coke ever sold for money.

Mr. Cochran has ever since been engaged in man- ufacturing coke. He is the principal of the firm of Cochran & Keister, owning the Spring Grove Works, of one hundred ovens, on the old Huston farm, at Dawson. He is also owner of a large interest in the Fayette Works (one hundred ovens), which he has conducted since 1866, and is interested in the Jack- son Mines, in Tyrone township, his son, John T., being in charge of the same. He is concerned in two works in Upper Tyrone, the Franklin Mines and the Clinton Mines, both of coking coal. In company with John H. and George R. Shoenberger, Solomon Keister, N. A. Rist, and his three sons, John, Philip G., and H. T. Cochran, he owns in Dunbar township over twelve hundred acres of bituminous coal lands, lying mainly on the line of the new Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad, now in process of building.

As an item of interest in the history of navigation on the Youghiogheny River, it should not be over- looked that during a portion of his life, extending from about 1846 forward for twenty-five years or so, or as long as boating was done on that stream, Mr. Cochran safely piloted boats down its dangerous channel, on occasion, three or four times a year. This was a work which but very few men had suffi- cient skill to do.

Feb. 24, 1848, Mr. Cochran married Miss Clarissa Huston, daughter of Joseph and Mary Ann Hazen Huston, of Tyrone township, by whom he has had eleven children, seven of whom, six sons and one daughter, are living.

STEWART STRICKLER.

Stewart Strickler, the only son of Jacob Strickler, a farmer of Fayette County, was born at New Salem, near Uniontown, Feb. 17, 1812, and received a com- mon-school education. When he was sixteen years old his mother died, and his father breaking up house- keeping, Stewart and his eight sisters, all younger than himself, were scattered among their relatives. In the spring of 1830, Stewart hired out to John Smiley, a farmer, at six dollars per month, and stayed with him till Christmas, after which he began ped- dling chickens and eggs, which he carried down along the Youghiogheny River in a very simply-con- structed boat made by himself of boards, giving away

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

the boat when he had sold his merchandise, and walking back, making such a trip every few weeks during the year 1831. Early in 1832 he began work- ing about for different persons at making rails and washing sand (which was taken to Pittsburgh to the glass-makers).

In the latter part of 1832 Mr. Jacob Strickler got his children together again, Stewart with the rest joining him on the old place, known as the Jimtown farm, where he (Stewart) remained till 1835, when he married Mary Newcomer, of Tyrone township, and bought a piece of land from his father at Jimtown, and built thereon a house and barn and commenced farming. In 1837 the great financial panic came, aud found Stewart badly in debt for his farm (he says times were then so hard that he had to pay fifty cents in "shinplasters" to see a quarter in silver). He struggled on till about 1840, when times began to improve, but farming being poor business, he found it necessary to exercise his brain-power, and began to conjure up ways to enable him to pull through and get out of debt. Here let us remark that in an early day there had been an iron furnace at the mouth of Jacobs' Creek, known as Turnbull Furnace, but then long abandoned and in ruin. Near it was a huge pile of cinders, containing a great amount of iron unextracted from the ore. Mr. Strickler conceived the notion of taking the einder to iron-works in Pittsburgh, bought it for fifty cents a ton, built a large flat-boat, on which he carried the cinder to the city, and there sold it for four dollars and a half a ton, and afterwards sold his boat, making something on it. This enterprise stimulated him to plot aud plan still further, and early in 1842 he bought ten acres of coal land on the Youghiogheny River, at the point now called Sterling Coal-Works, built six ovens, and began making coke, which he shipped by flat- boats to Cincinnati, Ohio. He carried on this busi- ness successfully for several years. About the same time there were others engaged in the business, but they were not successful, and became discouraged and gave it up. About 1855 Mr. Strickler bought eighty acres of coal land, known as the John Taylor farm, and began improving it with the intent to carry on the coal business as before, but on a larger scale.

In 1857 the Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad was completed, and Mr. Strickler put into operation on his place eighty coke-ovens. At this time he built a side-track from his works to the main line of the railroad, for the purpose of shipping coke and coal to Graff, Bennett & Co., of Pittsburgh, keeping their furnace going from 1860 to 1864, with two thousand bushels per day. He then sold a third-interest in his business to the above-named firm for $35,000, a few months afterwards selling the balance to Shoen- berger & Co. for $45,000.

Somewhere between 1835 and 1840 Mr. Strickler bought all of his father's old farm, paying $30 per acre. In the spring of 1864 he sold it to J. K. Ewing for 8200 per acre, the latter afterwards selling it for over 8400 an acre.

In 1867, Mr. Striekler removed with a.portion of his family to Middle Tennessee, near the Cumberland Mountains. He is the father of eight children, two sons and six daughters, the eldest of whom, Mrs. Caroline Hill, died in March, 1879. His wife and the rest of his children are living. Three of the daugh- ters reside in Tennessee. Two sons and two daugh- ters live on the farm formerly owned by John Smiley, for whom and where Mr. Strickler worked in 1830, as above related. The children living in Fayette County are Mrs. Maria Boyd, Lyman, Dempsey, and Mrs. Martha Herbert. Those in Tennessee are Mrs. Harriet Ramsey, Mrs. Kate Thompson, whose hus- band is a physician, and Miss Deccie F. Strickler, the latter residing with her parents.

Mr. Strickler is now over seventy years of age, and notwithstanding his serious labors in life and many dangers encountered, from some of which he barely escaped with his life, he is in good health and in full possession of intellectual vigor. He is respected by his wide circle of acquaintances as a man of strict integrity and of nobility of heart. Not only can he look back upon a life well spent, triumphant over early and great difficulties, but he is also entitled to enjoy the reflection that through his excellent judg- ment, advice, and influence not a few persons in the region where he spent his most active days are also successful, enjoying, many of them, the blessings of wealth.

WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP.

WASHINGTON, occupying the northwestern corner of the county, is, with regard to territorial area, one of the smallest of Fayette's townships; but it is one of the largest with regard to population, if we include with it the boroughs of Belle Vernon and Fayette City, both of which lie within its boundaries. The population of the township proper, however, was but twelve hundred and fifty-seven by the census of 1880, while that of the two boroughs was by the same census two thousand and thirty-one, Belle Vernon having eleven hundred and sixty-four, and Fayette City eight hundred and sixty-seven inhabitants.

The boundaries of Washington township are the Westmoreland County line on the north, Jefferson township on the south, Jefferson and Perry on the east, and the Monongahela River on the west. The assessed valuation of the township in 1881 was $413,- 460, or a gain of $15,000 over the valuation of 1880. Rich in agriculture, Washington has also valuable coal deposits, that await only the creation of railway transportation within the township borders to be made available. At present coal-mining is confined to the river district, where the mining and shipment of coal has been a profitable business for upwards of forty years. The only noticeable mill-stream in Washing- ton is the Little Redstone, which empties into the Monongahela just above Fayette City.

a man. In 1772 he began the erection of a preten- tious mansion, constructing it entirely of the lime- stone that was found in abundance on his land. In 1776 he moved his family into it, and there it still stands a substantial edifice. After Col. Cook's death, his son James occupied the mansion as his home, and now James' son, William E., lives in it.

Edward Cook was one of the most extensive of land-owners in Southwestern Pennsylvania. He had altogether about three thousand acres, located in Washington, Westmoreland, and Fayette Coun- ties, and occupied now in part by the farms of Joseph Brown, John B. Cook, William E. Cook, Mrs. John Brown, Mr. Montgomery, the site of Fayette City, and numerous other tracts. The patent for the tract called " Mansion" was issued to Col. Cook, and de- scribed the tract as four hundred and two acres, situ- ated in Fayette and Westmoreland Counties, surveyed in pursuance of a warrant issued to Col. Cook, Dec. 17, 1784. A patent for " Mill Site," on the forks of William Lynn's run, was issued in 1796. Col. Cook was a resident of the county from 1771 until his death, in 1812, and during that time achieved considerable public distinction. He was a member of the Pro- vincial Congress convened in Carpenter's Hall, Phila- delphia, June 18, 1776, that drafted the first declara- tion of independence presented to Congress, June 25, 1776 (see " Journal of Congress," vol. ii. p. 230) ; was a member of the State Constitutional Convention that convened Sept. 28, 1776; was the first commissioner of exchange, and appointed sub-lieutenant of West- moreland County March 21, 1777. He was one of the founders of Rehoboth Church, a member of its first session, its first representative to the Redstone Presbytery, and the Presbytery's first representative to the General Assembly. Jan. 5, 1782, he was ap-

Important by reason of his connection with the his- tory of Washington township and Fayette County, and also with that of the nation, Col. Edward Cook deserves first mention in the chronicle of Washing- ton's early settlement. He was born in Chambers- burg in 1741, and in 1770 made his first journey west of the mountains in search of lands, for he was at that time the possessor of considerable means. He brought with him also a stock of goods. When he made his location, near the present line between Fayette and ' pointed lieutenant1 of Westmoreland County, to suc- Westmoreland Counties, he built a log cabin near the ceed Col. Archibald Lochry (who had been captured and killed while on an Indian expedition). It was from this appointment that Col. Cook received his military title. He aided in fixing the boundaries of Fayette County, and was a member of the commission that located the county-seat. Nov. 21, 1786, he was appointed justice of the peace, with a jurisdiction that reached into Washington County. April 8, 1789, he present home of his grandson, John Cook, and in one corner of it opened a small store. The country was new then and stores were not easy to reach, so that when the opening of Cook's store became known among settlers within a radius of many miles they gladly gave to him their patronage. Cook kept also a house of entertainment, where such few travelers as happened that way might find rest and refreshment. Under the law he charged six and a half cents for a 1 This office gave him command of the militia of the county and the management of its military fiscal affairs. horse's feed, and twelve and a half cents for feeding

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 181

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