USA > Pennsylvania > Fayette County > History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 56
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246
HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
tition with anthracite coal, and that this process, which was at first but an experiment, having already become a successful enterprise, can hardly fail to cause coke in this form to be extensively used as fuel in tens of thousands of households which now know no other than anthracite.
For coking purposes no coal has as yet been dis- covered which is equal in all respects (and indeed it may be reasonably claimed in any respect) to that of the Connellsville basin. Being a soft and porous coal, which crumbles in handling, it is therefore not so well adapted for economical transportation as the harder gas-coal which is found west of the "barren meas- ures," and for this reason the Connellsville coal was, until the development of coke production, regarded as of little value compared with the other, though its location, which is more remote from navigable waters, had its effect as a partial cause of this disparaging estimate.
But when it became the object of operators to man- ufacture their coal into coke, then the conditions were reversed, and the hitherto neglected soft coal became the more highly valued of the two, because of its superior adaptability for coke-making. Its advan- tages over other coals in this manufacture are many. While the cost of mining the gas-coal of the Pitts- burgh bed is seventy-five to ninety cents per ton, the softer Connellsville coal is mined at about one-third that expense per ton. When the Connellsville coking- coal is taken from the mine it is fit for immediate use in the ovens, and is placed in them without any in- termediate process of preparation, while with the gas- coal from the Pittsburgh vein an extra expense of about fifty cents per ton is necessary to crush it by mechanical means, and to free it from sulphur as far as practicable by washing before charging the ovens with it. And finally, when the coking is finished, the " desulphurized coke" (as it is termed) produced from the gas-coal is rated in the market as inferior to coke made from the soft coal of the Connellsville basin. Therefore, while the latter offers such great advan- tages in mining and coking, as well as in the superior quality of its product, it is not probable that attempts will be made to any great extent to utilize gas-coal for coking purposes ; and so long as the coal deposits of this basin remain unexhansted (which must be the case for many years to come) and no new discoveries are made of pure coking-coal in other localities, it seems a reasonable prediction that the Connellsville region must continue to hold a practical monopoly of the manufacture of coke. Reports are frequently cirenlated from time to time of new " finds" of coking- coal, represented to be equal, if not superior, to that of the Connellsville bed ; but no instance has yet been reported (and authenticated) of any iron manufac- turer or other consumer who did not in his purchases give preference to coke made from the Connellsville vein over that produced in any other district ; and it is a fact that the coke made in Fayette County and a
comparatively small contiguous region is recognized and acknowledged, wherever used in any part of the United States, as superior to any other for smelting, and for all the processes of iron-making in which coke is used as a fuel.
In view of the great and ever-increasing magnitnde of the coke traffic of Fayette County, several of the principal railway lines are making vigorous efforts to secure as large a share of it as possible. The Balti- more and Ohio and Pennsylvania Companies are as yet in possession of a monopoly of this traffic, the Southwest Pennsylvania division of the latter road being, on account of its immense coke freights, more profitable in proportion to its length than any other part of the company's lines. A new road in the interest of William H. Vanderbilt's lines is now being very rapidly constructed along the south bank of the Youghiogheny, and thence (leaving that river below New Haven) through the central and south western parts of this county, a principal object being to tap the rich basin of coking-coal over which its route passes. This, as also the extension of the Pittsburgh, Virginia and Charleston road from the mouth of Redstone Creek to the Southwest Pennsylvania road a little north of Uniontown, and the Brownsville and New Haven Railroad, soon to be built between those boroughs, will open a new and extensive territory in the richest part of the coking-coal region. The open- ing of the first two named roads ( which will be earlier completed than the other) will be immediately fol- lowed by establishment of additional coke-works along their lines, and the erection of a very large number of ovens, the construction of which has al- ready been provided for and planned.
Following is a list of the several coke-works in the Connellsville region of Fayette and Westmoreland Counties ( the greater part, however, being in Fayette), on the lines of the Baltimore and Ohio, Southwest Pennsylvania, and Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroads, with the number of ovens now in operation at each of the works. The numbers set against each, indicate their respective locations by reference to correspond- ing numbers on the accompanying map of the coke region. The lines of railway shown upon the map in red are those of the Baltimore and Ohio, those in black the Southwest Pennsylvania, and in green the Pittsburgh and Lake Erie Railroad :
COKE-WORKS LOCATED ON BALTIMORE AND OHIO ROAD AND BRANCHES.
No. Name of Works.
Owners.
Ovens.
1 .. Percy Mining Company.
69
2 .. Mount Braddock
124
3 ... Henry Clay.
H. C. Frick Coke Company ..
100
4 .. Washington
Sample Cochran Sons & Co ...
30
5 ... Tyrone
Langhlin & Co .....
130
6 ... Sterling ..
J. M. Schoonmaker ...
159
7. Jackson .. Jackson Mines Company
64
x .. Fayette.
James Cochran.
100
9. Spurgeon
Cochran & Keister ..
10 ... Jimtown
J. M. Schoonmaker. 303
No. of
COAL
H
FAYETT TE & NEW HAVEN
COUNTY 12
Dunbar
BROWNSVILL
CONNELLSVILLE COKE
DUNBAR FURNACE
BRANCA
COUNTY
> PENN
6
FAYETTE
LEMONT FURNACE
Uniontowny
OUTLINE MAP
PROPOSED S. PA R.R
WEST &
¥SOUTH
OLIPHANT FURNACE
3
2
1
FAIRCHANCE
CONNELLSVILLE COKE REGION SHOWING RAIL ROADS FURNACES AND COKE WORKS April 1st 188 2 Sluipley & Campbell C E. Engraved expressly for this Work
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27
129
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WESTMOREL
Summit
Jacobs Creek.
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15
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Broathford
R. R. S
17
& Connellsville
1000
PGH. DIV
New Haven En
R. R
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"BARREN .\MEASUR EN
23.72
GAS COAL
MONONORDELA RIVER
PITTSBURGH
Newton
BROADFORD AND MỘT
RAIL ROAD
39000
HICKMAN RUN _
Dawson B& O. R. R.
RTVER
15
PD COUNTY
PLEASANT
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
247
ON SOUTHWEST PENNSYLVANIA RAILROAD AND BRANCHES.
No.
Name of Worke.
Owners.
No. of Ovens.
1 ... Bliss and Marshall. 60
2 ... Fairchance Iron Company 36
3 ... Fayette Coke and Furnace Company ..
130
4 ... Redstone Coke Company.
J. W. Moore & Co ... 170
5 ... Chicago and Connellsville Coke Company ...
284
6 ... Lemont Furnace Company .... Hogsett, Hanna & Co. 150
7 ... Youngstown Coke Company ..
240
8 ... Forgeson-
Dunbar Furnace Company ..... 70
89
10 ... Mahoning
Mahoning Coke Company (Limited). 100
11 ... Colvin & Co ...
Colvin & Co. 80
12 ... Auchor ...
13 .. Uniondale
14 ... Morrell
Cambria Iron Company. 400
100
16 ... Pittsburgh and Connellsville Gas-Coal and Coke Comi- pany
295
17 ... Juhuson Farm Coke-Works ....
18. Eldorado ..
W. J. Rainey & Co 225
19 ... Peausville ..
A. O. Tiustnian & Co. 70
20 ... Horne ....
Joseph R. Stauffer .. 20
Dellinger, Rafferty & Co. 50 213 .. Enterprise
22 ... Union.
IFirst, Stoner & Co. 70
23 ... Excelsior.
Warden & Co ... 70
24 ... Southwest Coal and Coke Company
138
25 ... Dellinger, Tarr & Co ...
26 ... Boyle's
Boyle & Rafferty 262
27 ... 'Star
J. M. Cochran's Est 20
28 ... 'Buckeye ..
29 ... Morewood .. Morewood Coke Company
(Limited). 470
30 ... 'Alice.
J. M. Schoonmaker. 200
31 ... Bessemer.
C. P. Markle & Sons 170
32 ... Rising Sun.
Markle & Son ... 103
33 ... Emma ..
J. W. Overholt (agent). 36
34 ... West Overton
A. C. Overholt & Co. 110
35 ... Trotter Connellsville Gas-Coal Com-
pany. 200
36 ... Connellsville Coke and Tron
Company
200
ON PITTSBURGH AND LAKE ERIE RAILROAD.
No. |
Name of Work.
Owner.
No. of Ovens.
1 ... Fort Hill.
W. J. Rainey & Co 88
1 In Westmoreland County ; all others on this road as indicated are jo Fayette.
2 Numbers 21 to 34, inclusive, are in Westmoreland County, all others on this line are in Fayette.
CHAPTER XXIII.
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS-POPULATION.
Roads and Bridges-National Road-Navigation- Population of the County by Decades.
ROADS.
16 ... Eagle
17 ... Summit. 18 ... Franklin ...
B. F. Keister & Co ...
130
56 19 ... Tip Top ..
20 ... Clinton
James Cochran & Co ...
44
21 ... Valley
H. C. Frick Coko Company ...
60
21 ... W. A. Keifer.
24 ... Fountain ..
T. D. Boyle.
50
25 ... Dexter
Joseph R. Stauffer & Co.
40
26 ... Painter's,
McClure & Co.
228
27 ... Diamond.
McClare & Co ..
66
Mullen, Strickler & Co ... 82 281 .. Mallen ...
291. Standard.
A. A. Hutchinson & Bro. 360
120
30 ... Stewart Iron Company
Owners.
No. of Ovens.
11 ... Cora'.
John Newmeyer .. 42
12 ... Frick
H. C. Frick Coke Company ... 106
164
14 ... White
148
15 ... Foundry.
74
80
46
.6
142
H. C. Frick Coke Company ....
152
22 ... Charlotte Furnace Company ..
40
IN all new and undeveloped sections of country the first step in the direction of public internal im- provements is the opening of roads. The first attempt by white men to open or mark the route of a road within the territory now embraced in the county of Fayette was made by Col. Thomas Cresap, of Oldtown, Md., in the year 1750. He was employed by the Ohio Company to select and mark a route for their proposed traffic between their base of operations at Wills' Creek (Cumberland), Md., and their objective point at the site of the present city of Pittsburgh; and so, in exe- cution of this mission, he set out from Wills' Creek in the year mentioned, with the old chief Nemacolin as a principal guide, and assisted by several other In- dians, and proceeded northwestwardly over a route not materially different from that afterwards traversed by Washington and Braddock in their respective cam- paigns until he reached the west base of the Laurel Hill, in what is now Fayette County (at or near the place now known as Mount Braddock), from which point, instead of turning northeast towards the pres- ent site of Connellsville, as the later military road did, he proceeded on, to and down the valley of Red- stone Creek to its mouth, where his work ended, for it was proposed at that point to abandon land carriage and take transportation down the Monongahela to its confluence with the Allegheny.
Col. Cresap, however, neither built nor opened any part of the proposed road, but merely selected its route, and indicated the same by blazing and mark- ing trees, and occasionally rearing piles of stones as landmarks at prominent points. But in 1753 the Ohio Company sent out a party of pioneers, who " opened the road,"3 though they made it little more than a bridle-path for the passage of pack-horses. A few months later (in Jannary, 1754) Capt. William Trent, with a small company of men in the employ of the Ohio Company, marched over the road, and further improved it as they passed. At its western terminus, the mouth of Redstone Creek, they built the "Han- gard" store-house for the company (as before noticed), and then passed on down the river to commence build- ing a fort for the company at the Forks of the Ohio.
In 1754, Washington with his little army, on the campaign which ended in the surrender of Fort Ne- cessity on the 4th of July in that year, passed over the same road, and improved it so that it was passable for wagons and light pieces of artillery to the west
2 Washington, in advocating this route in preference to the more north- erly one through Redford for the passage of Forbes' troops in 1758, said, "The Ohio Company io 1753, at a considerable espense, opened the road," etc.
9 ... Hill Farm
Morgan, Layug & Co ... 109
Reid Brothers. 76
15 ... Wheeler.
66
116
No. Name of Works.
13 ... Morgan
248
HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
side of Laurel Hill. "In 1754," he says, " the troops whom I had the honor to command greatly repaired it as far as Gist's plantation, and in 1755 it was widened and completed by (en. Braddock to within six miles of Fort Du Quesne." The road, as " coin- pleted" by Braddock, extended from Gist's (Mount Braddock ) northeastwardly to and across the Youghio- gheny at Stewart's Crossings, a little below the pres- ent horongh of New Haven ; thenee in the same gen- eral direction to Jacob's Creek, the northern boundary of this county, and on through Westmoreland to the Monongahela. Gen. Braddock made it in its entire length, practicable (though barely so) for the passage of his heavy wagons and artillery, and it was for more than four years afterwards the only road which could be called such within the territory now Fayette County.
In the fall of 1759 Col. James Burd erected the fort which bore his name, where the borough of Browns- ville now is, and opened a good military road to it, commencing at Gist's plantation on Braddock's road, and thence running on the old route opened by the Ohio Company (and partly improved by Washington a few miles west of Gist's in 1754) four-fifths of the distance to the mouth of Redstone, after which it left the old route and bore more westwardly to the month of Dunlap's Creek. This road was for a number of years the main thoroughfare to the Monongahela River, though some travel came over "Dunlap's road," which was much inferior to the military road built by Burd, and, in fact, hardly more than a pack- horse path. It left Braddock's road at the summit of Laurel Hill, near the Big Rock, and extended to the Monongahela at the mouth of Dunlap's Creek.
A road which was of considerable importance in early years was that known as the "Turkey Foot road," or "Smith's' road," running from Shippensburg to Uniontown. The east part of this road was being constructed by Col. James Burd during Gen. Brad- dock's march to the Monongahela in 1755. It passed from Shippensburg through Raytown ( Bedford) west, and was intended to pass by Turkey Foot and join Braddock's road in what is now Fayette County, for the purpose of facilitating the transportation of sup- plies to the army. It had been opened at great labor and expense to the top of the Allegheny Mountains, eighteen miles east of Turkey Foot, when the cow- ardly Pennsylvania Dutch wagoners eame flying back from Braddock's field with the fearful tidings of the great disaster, and thereupon the construction par- ties engaged in building the road joined in the flight, and the work was abandoned. Nothing more was
done upon it until after 1760, when its construction was resumed and the road completed to Turkey Foot, and was afterwards extended by a route passing a little south of Sugar-Loaf Mountain and by Dunbar's camp to Uniontown. From there it was opened to Jackson's or Grace Church, from which place it was identical with the old Brownsville road.
One of the earliest roads in this region (other than those already mentioned) was one prayed for in a pe- tition presented to the court of Westmoreland County at the April term of 1773, viz. : " A publick road to begin at or near the month of Fish-Pot run, about five miles below the mouth of Ten-Mile Creek, on the west side of the Monongahela River (it being a con- venient place for a ferry, as also a goed direction for a road leading to the most western part of the settle- ment), thenee the nearest and best way to the forks of Dunlap's path and Gen. Braddock's road on the top of Laurel Hill."
The viewers appointed on this road were Jobn Moore, Thomas Scott, Henry Beeson, Thomas Brown- field, James McClean, and Philip Shute. This was the first petition for a road presented to the court of Westmoreland after the erection of that county. At the same time a petition was presented for a road from Washington's Spring to Sewickley.
" A Road from near Redstone Old Fort to Henry Beeson's Mill, and thence to intersect Braddock's Road near the forks of Dunlap's road and said road on the top of Laurel Hill," was petitioned for by in- habitants of Tyrone and Menallen townships at the April sessions of 1774. Richard Waller, Andrew Linn, Jr., William Calvin, Thomas Crooks, Henry Hart, and Joseph Grayble were appointed viewers. One reason given by the petitioners for desiring this road was that some of them were frequently obliged to carry their corn twenty miles to the mill of Henry Beeson at Union Town, "and in all probability, at some seasons of the year, will ever have to do so."
" A road from Thomas Gist's to Paul Froman's mill, near the Monongahela, and thence to his other mill on Chartiers' Creek," was petitioned for at the January sessions of 1774 of Westmoreland County Court, and was ordered laid out. This road led from Mount Braddock, northwest, by way of where Perry- opolis and Fayette City now stand, to Froman's Mill, on Mingo Creek, Washington County. It was called " Froman's road."
A road " from Beeson's Town [Uniontown], in the Forks of Youghiogheny, to the Salt- Works [on Jacob's Creek ], and then eastward to Bedford Town," and a road from Beeson's Town to Col. Cook's [Fayette City ], were petitioned for in the sessions of January, 1783 and 1784, respectively.
At the first session of Lord Dunmore's ( Augusta County, Va.) court, held at Pittsburgh, Feb. 22, 1775, a number of viewers were appointed, among whom were Capt. William Crawford and Van Swearingen, residents within the present territory of Fayette
1 It received the name of " Smith's road" from the fact that James Smith, a lad of about sixteen years, while employed with the party that wore building it on the Alleghenies in 1755, was captured by the Indians and carried a prisoner to Fort Du Quesne, where he saw the departure of the French and Indian force that defrated Braddock at Turtle Creek. and also witnessed the horrid scenes that were enacted on their return from the fatal field.
249
INTERNAL IMPROVEMENTS.
County, to view a road petitioned for, " to run from Providence Monnce's [ Mounts'] Mill, by Ansberger's Ferry, to Catfish Camp." Mounts' Mill was in what is now Connellsville township, and Catfish Camp was the same as the present town of Washington, Pa.
A road from the foot of Laurel Hill, by William Teagarden's ferry (on the Monongahela), to the month of Wheeling Creek (Virginia), was ordered by the same Virginia court, on the 17th of May, 1775. The starting-point of this road, at the foot of Laurel Hill, is not designated, but it was of course in what is now Fayette County, as the place where it was to cross the Monongahela was not far above Brownsville. The first road viewed and laid out by order of the court of Fayette County, in December, 1783, was that from Uniontown to the mouth of Grassy Run, on Cheat River, this being part of a road which had been petitioned for to the Westmoreland County Court (before the erection of Fayette), to run from Stewart's Crossings (Connellsville), throngh Uniontown, to the Cheat. It was ordered to be opened, cut, cleared, and bridged, thirty-three feet wide.
A petition was presented to the same conrt for "a road from Union Town to the Broadford on the River Youghiogeni," and another "for a Road from the mouth of Whitely's Creek, on the River Mononga- hela, to David Johns' Mill, and thence to Daniel McPeck's." The conrt at the June sessions of 1784 ordered this road to be opened, cut, cleared, and bridged, thirty-three feet wide. This was known as the Sandy Creek Road.
At the September sessions of 1784 there was pre- sented to the court :
"The Petition of Sundry of the Inhabitants of Fayette County and others, showing to the Court that as the intercourse from Redstone Old Fort along the River side is now very con- siderable upon account of the number of Bouts for Passengers which are almost continually building in different parts along the river side, and as there is now a very good grist- and saw- mill at the mouth of big Redstone, and no Waggon road as yet laid off from Redstone Old Fort to the Mill, nor from thence to the mouth of little Redstone and to Colonel Edward Cook's. As the Petitioners conceive that a good road in that direction would be of general public utility to inhabitants, and likewise of great convenience to Strangers, the Petitioners therefore pray the Court to appoint six men to view the said Road, and if necessary to lay ont the same from Redstone Old Fort to the mouth of big Redstone. from thence to the mouth or near the mouth of little Redstone, aud from thence to Colonel Edward Cook's. Whereupon it is considered by the Court, and ordered, that Bazil Brown, Senior, Samuel Jackson, William Forsythe, William Goe, John Stephens, and Andrew Linn, Junior, do view the ground over which, by the prayer of the Petitioners, the said Road is desired to pass, and if they or any of them see it necessary, that they lay out a rond according to the prayer of the said Petition, the nearest and best way the ground will admit of, and with the least injury to the settlements there- abouts, and make report of their proceedings therein by courses and Distanees to the next Court."
At the next following December sessions the viewers
made their report on this road, and it was ordered laid out. Among the numerous other roads petitioned for in the early years (many of which, however, were never opened) the court records show the following :
1784 .- Road from Miller's Ferry, on the Monon- gahela River, to the Widow Moore's, on Sandy Creek, to join the Maryland road.
" Road from Josiah Crawford's Ferry, on the Mo- nongahela River, to Uniontown." This road ran to Samuel Douglass' mill and to Dunlap's Creek at Amos Hough's mill, intersecting the road from James Craw- ford's Ferry to Uniontown.
1787 .- " Road from Moorecraft's Ferry, on the river Youghioganie, to Cornelius Woodruff's on Chestnut Ridge-granted."
"Road from the Monongahela River, opposite to the mouth of Pike's Run, to join the road from Swearingen's Ferry to Uniontown."
"Road from Redstone Old Fort to the southern line of the State."
1788 .- "Road from Friends' Meeting-House to Redstone."
" Road from Zachariah Connell's (Connellsville) to Isaac Meason's, on Jacob's Creek."
1789 .- " Road from Isaac Jackson's to Stewart's Crossing and Connell's Ferry."
" Road from Union Town to Robert McClean's Ferry on Monongahela River."
" Road from the ferry of Thomas McGibbins, just below the old Redstone Fort on the Monongahela River, to Septimns Cadwallader's Grist- and Saw- Mill, and from there to intersect the road from the Friends' Meeting-House to the ferry aforesaid, near the month of Joseph Graybill's Lane."
"Road from Brownsville, by Samuel Jackson's Mill, in a direction to Gebhart's Mill on Jacob's Creek."
1790 .- " Petition for a private road from Griffin's Mill to the great road from Jonathan Rees' Mill to Hyde's Ferry, at or near the house of Enoch Abra- hams."
1791 .- " Road from Jacob's Creek Iron-Works to John Van Meter's Ferry."
1793 .- " Road from the ferry on the Monongahela River, at Frederick Town, to the road from James Crawford's Ferry to Uniontown."
1794 .- " Road from Kinsey Virgin's Ferry towards Brownsville."
" Road from Davidson's Ferry, on the Mononga- hela River, to the Union Town Road."
" Road from the County line to Alliance Furnace."
" Road from Meason's Iron-Works to the mouth of Big Redstone."
"Road from Krepps' Ferry to the bridge at the mouth of Dunlap's Creek."
" Road from Joseph Neal's Ferry, on the Monon- gahela River, to the Sandy Creek road-granted."
" Road from Jasper Elting's, at the foot of Chest- nut Ridge, to Mr. Smilie's fording."
250
HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.
1796 .- " Road from Redstone Old Fort, by McFar- timus Cadwallader, and Andrew Porter to repair the land's Ford, on Cheat River, to Morgantown."
It would of course be impracticable, if not well- nigh impossible, to give an account of the multitude of roads which have been opened from time to time in later years, but mention of some of the most im- portant ones will be found in the histories of the sev- eral townships.
are found at various times having reference to the building of bridges over the different streams in the county as follows :
Jan. 7, 1796 .- Samuel Jackson received £50, being the last payment on a bridge constructed by him over Redstone Creek.
March 12, 1801 .- The commissioners addressed a letter to the commissioners of Westmoreland County on the subject of a proposed iron bridge across Jacob's Creek.
April 9, 1801 .- Letter received from the commis- sioners of Westmoreland, requesting a meeting of the two boards, with Col. Isaac Meason, on the bank of Jacob's Creek, on the next following Tuesday, "to consult and complete contract relative to James Fin- ley, Esq., undertaking to erect an Iron Bridge over Jacob's Creek, and it is agreed that John Fulton and Andrew Oliphant proceed to business."
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