History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 97

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 97

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At the time when Mr. Bowman started business in Brownsville all goods were brought over the moun- tain roads from Cumberland to the Monongahela on pack-horses, of which large numbers, loaded with his goods, were frequently seen standing together in the public square opposite his residence, waiting their turn to be relieved of their burdens. The first load of merchandise brought over the mountains by wagon came here in 1789 to Jacob Bowman. The wagoner who drove the team was John Hayden, afterwards a well-known iron-master in Fayette County. The load, which was about two thousand pounds in weight, was drawn by four horses, and the freight charged on it was three dollars per one hundred pounds. Hayden was about a month in making the trip from Hagers- town, Md., to Brownsville and back.

In consideration of his services to the government, Jacob Bowman was appointed under the administra- tion of President Washington (in 1795) postmaster of Brownsville, and held the office until the incoming of Gen. Jackson's administration, a period of thirty- four years. He was prominent in the organization of the old Monongahela Bank, and was its president from its organization under the charter in 1814 till Sept. 26, 1843, when he retired, and was succeeded by his son, James L. Bowman.

The residence of Jacob Bowman was where his son, N. B. Bowman, now lives, on the property called " Nemacolin," for the old Indian chief whose wigwam or cabin (tradition says) was once located on it.

This property he purchased of Thomas Brown soon after his settlement in Brownsville. Until the time of his emigration from Hagerstown to Brownsville Mr. Bowman was a member of the Lutheran Church, but not long afterwards he united with the Protestant Episcopal Church, and remained one of its most in- fluential, liberal, and respected members until his death, which occurred March 2, 1847, at the age of eighty-four years. His wife died two years earlier, March 11, 1845.

The children of Jacob Bowman were the following named : Mary, born in 1788; married Henry Sterling, a planter of St. Francisville, La., and died in 1852. Annie E. Bowman, born May 8, 1790, and married March 12, 1818, to Henry Sweitzer, of Hagerstown, Md. Harriet E. Bowman, born June 16, 1792; mar- ried John Thompson MeKennan ; died March 8, 1832. James L. Bowman, born June 23, 1794; graduated at Washington College in 1813; studied law with John Kennedy; admitted to the bar in 1817; president of the Monongahela Bank from 1843 until his death in 1857. Matilda L. Bowman, born Aug. 13, 1796 ; mar- ried Thomas M. T. MeKennan (member of Congress and Secretary of the Interior under President Fill- more) ; she died March 3, 1858. Louisa Bowman, born in 1798; married Samuel Bell, of Reading, Pa., in 1830; she died in January, 1880. William Robert Bowman, born 1801 ; graduated at Washington Col- lege, Pa., in 1822; graduated at theological seminary, Princeton, N. J., 1825; made deacon in Episcopal Church May 11, 1826; removed in 1827 to St. Fran- cisville, West Feliciana Parish, La., where he organ- ized Grace Church, Feb. 7, 1829; remained at St. Francisville till his death in 1835. Goodloe Harper Bowman, born April 3, 1803; entered trade with his father under the firm-name of Jacob Bowman & Sons ; was subsequently in partnership with his brother, N. B. Bowman; was cashier of the Monongahela Bank from 1830 to 1841; elected president of that institution in 1857, and held the position till his death in February, 1874. Nelson Blair Bowman, born July 8, 1807 ; en- tered mercantile pursuits with his father and brother ; retired from active trade in 1858, but is still a director in the Monongahela National Bank and in the Mo- nongahela Bridge Company. He is living in retire- ment and elegance at "Nemacolin," an eminence which commands a fine view of the Mohongahela River and surrounding country,-the same property which his father, Jacob Bowman, bought of Thomas Brown in 1788.1

William Hogg was contemporary with Jacob Bow- man as an early merchant in Brownsville. He was an Englishman who had been impressed as a sailor on

1 The earliest date under which Jacob Bowman's name is found in the Fayette County records is June 23, 1788, at which time he purchased four and a half acres and four and a half perches of land in Brownsville from Thomas Brown for the consideration of £23. This was undoubtedly the homestead property " Nemacolin," now occupied by Nelson B. Bow man, though the description does not absolutely prove it to be the same.

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

board one of His Majesty's ships, and deserted at Charleston, S. C., whence he traveled to Philadel- phia. There he made the acquaintance of an English gentleman named Stokes, who furnished him with a small stock of light hardware, with which he started out as a traveling peddler. He continued in this busi- ness for two or three trips, and finally, about 1787, came to Brownsville, where he opened a store in the upper story of a building on Water Street, where the rolling-mill now stands. He bought his goods in Baltimore, making his earliest trips to and from that city on foot, generally starting from Brownsville on Sunday morning, and closing his store during his absence. The first mention found of him in the re- cords is his purchase of three lots in Brownsville, Jan. 28, 1796, after he had been here in business for nearly ten years. The lots which he purchased at that time were Nos. 3, 4, and 5 of the original plat, for the consideration of £15. Mr. Hogg was a bache- lor, and by his industry and perseverance during a long period of merchandising in Brownsville accumu- lated a large fortune.

George Hogg, a nephew of William, was an iron- worker in Northumberland, England. About the year 1800 his uncle brought him to Brownsville and formed a business partnership with him, which con- tinned till his death. George Hogg married a daugh- ter of Nathaniel Breading, and they became the pa- rents of four sons and two daughters, viz .: George E. Hogg, now living in Brownsville; Nathaniel B. Hogg, now a resident of Allegheny City, Pa. ; John T. Hogg, living in Connellsville; James Hogg, lost at sea on board the steamer " Arctic;" a daughter, now Mrs. Felix R. Brunot, living in Pittsburgh; the other daughter, who became the wife of William Bissell, died many years ago.

In a deed executed in 1787 by Thomas Brown, con- veying a town lot to Matthew Campbell, the property is described as "situate in Brownsville, alias Wash- ington," by which it is made apparent that an attempt was made about that time to have the latter name adopted for the town in place of Brownsville. No allusion to the name (as applied to this town) has been found in any other place. The lot above referred to ax having been sold to Campbell was No. 1, on Front Street, bounded on the northwest by Trader's Lane. The price paid was £5. The purchaser of this lot was doubtless the same Matthew Campbell who, in December, 1783, was licensed by the court of Fayette County to keep a tavern in Uniontown, and who in 1784 purchased a lot (where the Fulton House now stands) in that town, from Henry Beeson. In 1785 he was licensed to keep a public-house in Men- allen township. Little beyond this is known of him.

Andrew Boggs was the purchaser from Thomas Brown (in June, 1788) of a lot on Second Street, ex- tending through to Market Street, adjoining a lot

owned by Nathan Chalfant. The consideration named in the deed to Boggs is £7 108.

Nathan Chalfant purchased the lot (referred to in the deed to Boggs) on the 23d of June, 1788. It was sixty by one hundred and eighty feet in size, extend- ing from Second to Market Street. He sold it on the 19th of March, 1798, to Andrew Lynn, who, in June, 1815, conveyed it to the trustees of the Presbyterian congregation, and it is the same on which the church edifice of that congregation now stands.

At the same time that Chalfant purchased the lot above named he also bought lot No. 4, on Water Street, adjoining Thomas Mckibben and Holborn Hill. On this lot he lived for many years, and car- ried on an extensive business in boat-building.

Chads Chalfant lived on a farm about one mile out of town, but was the owner of several town lots. In 1804 he donated to the Methodist Episcopal Church the lot on which the present house of worship stands. He also sold the lot which is now occupied by the Masonic Hall.

Robert Clarke came here from Greene County as early as 1788, at which time he was the purchaser of a lot in this town. He built the house which is now owned by the heirs of George Shuman and occupied as a telegraph-office. Its original site was where the Snowdon House now is, but it was removed about 1823 to its present location by Clarke, who then built the Snowdon House on the spot thus vacated, and lived in it until his death, about 1840. He was con- cerued with Neal Gillespie in the grist-mill and saw- mill on the river, as hereafter mentioned. A daughter of Robert Clarke married John L. Dawson, and another daughter became the wife of Gen. Henry W. Beeson, of Uniontown.

Neal Gillespie was not a settler in Brownsville, yet it seems proper to mention him in this connection, as he was closely identified with the business interests of the place. He was an Irishman who came to the west bank of the Monongahela, and settled upon the " Indian Hill" tract, which had previously been the property of "Indian Peter," opposite Brownsville. He became the owner of the ferry across the river at this point, and operated it for many years. He pur- chased land in Brownsville, on the "Neck," where his landing-place was located, as also the grist-mill and saw-mill (elsewhere mentioned) which he built in partnership with Robert Clarke. A part of his land on the "Neck" was sold March 19, 1829, to Samuel J. Krepps.

Gillespie's daughter, Nellie, married a man named Boyle. They lived in Brownsville in a log house that stood on Second Street in the rear of the Central Hotel. In that house was born their daughter, Maria, who became the wife of the Hon. Thomas Ewing, of Ohio, and mother of the wife of Gen. W. T. Sherman, of the United States army.

George Kinnear, a Scotchman, came to Brownsville before 1788, and purchased several lots located on the

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BROWNSVILLE BOROUGHI AND TOWNSHIP.

east, south, and west of the Public Ground. This property passed to Polly Kinnear, and later to Wil- liam Cock, who sold to J. W. Jeffries. Kinnear was associated in business with James Lang (the auction- eer), who came here in 1790.

Thomas Mckibben was in Brownsville as early as 1788, in which year there was recorded a deed to him from Thomas Brown, conveying certain property in the town. He was a merchant on Market Street, and a justice of the peace, also prothonotary of Fayette County in 1821. No descendants of his are now in Brownsville.

Samuel Workman came here as early as 1790, and started a tannery where now stands the residence of Samuel Steele. James Workman, a son, afterwards built the present Steele tannery. He also kept the tavern, now the Girard House, at the head of Market Street.

The Brownsville post-office was established Jan. 1, 1795, with Jacob Bowman as postmaster. Basil Brashear was here in the same year, and soon after built the stone house now occupied by Mrs. Wesley Frost, opening it as a tavern. This was for years the leading public-house of Brownsville.

Adam Jacobs came in about 1795. He was a mer- chant, and kept a store on Water Street, next below where the rolling-mill stands. A daughter of his married her father's clerk, a Mr. Beggs, with whom she removed to New Lisbon, Ohio. Adam Jacobs, Jr., became a merchant in the town, and father of the third Adam, now known as Capt. Adam Jacobs, who was born in Brownsville, Jan. 7, 1817. He learned the trade of coppersmith and tinner, but commenced steamboating early in life, taking command of the steamer "Exchange" in 1840, when he was only twenty-three years of age. Afterwards he com- manded several boats, the last of which was the " Niag- ara," in 1847. Since that time he has been engaged in the building of steamboats, of which about one hundred and twenty have been built for him. He has always been an active business man, and by his industry and remarkable business tact has accumu- lated a handsome. fortune. There are few, if any, who have done more than he to advance the business interests of Brownsville, and to-day he is accounted one of the most enterprising as well as substantial men of the Monongahela Valley. He has a resi- dence in Brownsville, and another upon his fine es- tate of "East Riverside," on the Monongahela, in the township of Luzerne.

In 1796, Elijah Clark was engaged in boat-build- ing in Brownsville. His yard was on Water Street, north of the site of the United States Hotel. At the same time Capt. T. Shane advertised boat-sheds and boat-yards for sale or to let.

A coppersmith and tin-working shop was carried on here in 1797 by Anthony & Bowman.

William Crawford was a merchant in Brownsville in (and probably before) the year 1800. His store

was on Market Street, where Jacob Sawyer now lives. His wife was a daughter of Thomas Brown.

Valentine Giesey, the son of a Lutheran clergyman who emigrated to America in 1776, and settled at Berlin, Somerset Co., Pa., where this son was born, came to Brownsville about the year 1800, and went into trade here. On the breaking out of the war of 1812 he entered the service as a sergeant in Capt. Joseph Wadsworth's company, of which he afterwards became captain. After his return from the war he re- opened the mercantile business, and also became very popular as a military man and a politician. He died in 1835, and was buried in the Episcopal churchyard. He had two sons and two daughters, but none are now living.

James Blaine was a man who traveled quite exten- sively in Europe and South America, and afterwards, in 1804, settled in Brownsville, where he opened a store, and where he was also for many years a justice of the peace. He was a man of dignified bearing, and held in high esteem by his fellow-townsmen. In 1818 he removed to Washington County, where he lived during the remainder of his life.

George Graff, a carpenter and cabinet-maker, came from Allentown, Pa., to Brownsville in 1806. He lived on Front Street, where his son Joseph now lives.

George Johnston, a native of Monaghan County, Ireland, landed in Philadelphia with his wife in August, 1805, and thence moved to Hickory, Wash- ington Co., Pa., where his uncle resided. There he remained until the following spring, his son John having been born in the mean time. Mr. Johnston then removed to Brownsville, where he commenced business as a weaver in a house that stood where Dr. J. R. Patton now lives. He had a family of eight children, of whom John was the eldest. He (John) learned the trade of carpenter with George Graff. IIe has since been prominent in the affairs of Brownsville, and has often been elected to offices in the borough. He is still living here, on the corner of Morgan and Front Streets. Two other sons ( William and James) and a daughter of George Johnston are also living in Brownsville.

In 1807, Alexander Simpson was established in Brownsville as a manufacturer of surveyors' instru- ments and other fine work of similar character.

Abraham Underwood, a Quaker, left Baltimore in 1808, with his wife and three children, bound for Cin- cinnati, over the then usual route by way of Browns- ville. Arriving at this point, and finding something of a Quaker settlement here and in the vicinity, they abandoned their original intention and remained in Brownsville. Mr. Underwood was by trade a tailor, and he soon opened a shop on Front Street, west of Jacob's Alley. The family remained in Brownsville from 1808 until 1834, when he removed to Mononga- hela City, Pa.

Philip Worley came from Virginia to Brownsville

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HISTORY OF FAYETTE COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

about 1808, and took up the business of boat-building. His mother kept a cake-shop in the "Neck," where the vacant lot is, just below the hardware-store of James Slocum. Worley died a few years later, and his widow married Thomas Brown, son of Basil Brown, Sr. Daniel Worley, a son of Philip, was a clerk in Robert Clarke's store. He married a daughter of James Tomlinson, and in 1815 was employed as master of one of the river-boats owned by his father- in-law. In 1823 he and Tomlinson, with their fami- lies, moved to Cleveland, Ohio, where they settled, and where their descendants are still living.

Eli Abrams settled here about 1812. His grand- father, Henry Abrams, was a settler at Turkey Foot as early as 1768, being mentioned as such in the re- port of the Rev. John Steele, made in that year. Eli, on his arrival at Brownsville, was employed in the nail-factory of Jacob Bowman, on Front Street. Afterwards he married a daughter of Martin Tiernan, and kept a store on the "Neck." He became a jus- tice of the peace, and filled that office with honor for many years. Two of his sons (Dr. James Abrams, dentist, and Decatur Abrams) are now living in Brownsville. Another son, Lewis Abrams, lives about a mile outside the borough.

George Dawson was a son of Nicholas, and grand- son of George and Elenor Dawson, who were settlers in the township of Union (now North Union). Their son Nicholas removed to Kentucky, where his son George was reared to manhood. About 1813 he (George) returned to Fayette County, Pa., and settled in Brownsville with his wife and two children (John L. Dawson, who afterwards became a prominent pub- lic man, and a daughter, who married George Ash- man), occupying a house on Front Street, now owned by Mrs. Sweitzer. Ile was the Brownsville agent for a salt company, and became interested in the con- struction of the National road, being the contractor for the building of the heavy stone-work on the river- side of that road in its approaches to the Mononga- hela. He was also the owner of large tracts of land in Ohio. Ilis children, besides the two before men- tioned, were as follows: Louisa, who married Gen. George W. Cass ; Ellen, who after her sister's death became the second wife of Gen. Cass; Samuel Ken- nedy Dawson, who became an officer in the United States army, and is now on the retired list, living at Eastport, Me .; Mary, who died at the age of about twenty years; Elizabeth, married Alfred Howell, of Uniontown ; Catharine, married Alpheus E. Willson, of Uniontown, president judge of Fayette County court ; and George, the youngest, who married a daughter of Alfred Patterson, of Pittsburgh, and is now residing in Louisiana. George Dawson, the father of this numerous family, died in Brownsville a few years ago. None of his descendants are now living in the borough.

John Snowdon, a young Englishman, came to Brownsville about 1820, with a wife and two chil-

dren. He was a blacksmith by trade, and commenced work here with John Weaver, who, however, was a man of very little account, and the work of the shop was chiefly done by Snowdon. His industry soon at- tracted the attention of George Hogg (himself also an Englishman), who asked young Snowdon if he could make an English oven. His reply was that he could if he had the necessary iron, which was there- upon procured for him by Mr. Hogg, and the oven was produced as desired. At that time stoves were nearly or wholly unknown in this section, and Mr. Snowdon was called on to make several of them, which he did. After a time Mr. Hogg asked him why he did not start a shop of his own, and received the very natural reply that it was because he had not the capital. Mr. Hogg then furnished him with an anvil, bellows, and all other needed articles which he could not make, and he opened a blacksmith-shop where John R. Dutton's store and residence now is. The new shop received an unexpectedly large patron- age, and many articles in the machinery line were re- quired, whereupon, after a short time, a machine-shop was added. At first the necessary castings were pro- cured from William Cock, at Bridgeport, but it was not long before Snowdon added a foundry and pattern-shop to his other works. In 1827 he built at these works the engines for the steamer " Monongahela." In 1831 he built larger shops where the rolling-mill now stands. These shops were burned and rebuilt below the site of the rolling-mills. In them the engines of the iron- elad " Manayunk" were built. The building of the rolling-mill and its subsequent history will be found in another place in the history of the borough.

Mr. Snowdon, who was for a period of more than fifty years a resident of Brownsville, and in the ac- tive part of his life one of the most enterprising men of the borough, was born at Martin, near Scarborough, in Yorkshire, England, March 2, 1796, and died in Brownsville on the 25th of January, 1875. His son, J. N. Snowdon, is the present postmaster of Browns- ville.

Henry J. Rigden, a "watchmaker," came from Georgetown, D. C., in September, 1817, and opened a shop on Front Street, Brownsville. IIe was after- wards elected justice of the peace, and filled the of- fice for fifteen years. For several years he was in the State service as clerk for the superintendent of canals at Erie, l'a., but had his home at Brownsville during that term. He also held the office of postmaster at Brownsville during the administration of President Polk. He still resides in Brownsville, which has been his home for sixty-four years.

IIenry Sweitzer, long a prominent citizen of Browns- ville, was a native of Doylestown, Pa., and at the age of sixteen years removed to Washington County, Md., where he remained for many years, during which time he was elected sheriff of that county and member of the Legislature. In 1818 he married Ann E. Bowman, daughter of Jacob Bowman, and removed to Browns-

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BROWNSVILLE BOROUGH AND TOWNSHIP.

ville, entering at once into mercantile business and real estate transactions. He built the stone house on Water Street (now the United States Hotel), which was his residence for many years, and in which all his children were born. One of his sons, Gen. J. B. Sweitzer, of Pittsburgh, is now prothonotary of the Supreme Conrt of Pennsylvania, Western District. In the war of the Rebellion he entered the service in July, 1861, and became colonel of the Sixty-second Pennsyl- vania Regiment, succeeding Col. Samuel W. Black. As senior colonel he commanded the Second Brigade, First Division, Fifth Army Corps, Army of Potomac, and served through the campaigns of Mcclellan, Burnside, Hooker, Meade, and Grant to the close of the conflict. Nelson B. Sweitzer, also a son of Henry, graduated at West Point in 1853, and entered the reg- ular army. He served in Mcclellan's campaigns as personal aide on the staff of that general, and was afterwards placed in command of cavalry by Gen. P. H. Sheridan. He is now (June, 1881) in command of Fort Clarke, on the Rio Grande, in Texas. Wil- liam, another son of Henry Sweitzer, and a native of Brownsville, is living in Washington, Pa.

INCORPORATION OF TIIE BOROUGHI, AND ERECTION OF THIE TOWNSHIP, OF BROWNSVILLE.

Brownsville was erected a borough by an act of Assembly passed Dec. 14, 1814, and approved Jan. 9, 1815, by which act it was provided and declared-

" That the town of Brownsville, in the county of Fayette, shall be, and the same is hereby, erected into a borough, which shall be called 'the Borough of Brownsville,' bounded and limited as follows : Begin- ning at the east abutment of Jonah Cadwallader's mill- dam," . .. and running thence by various courses and distances to low-water mark on the Monongahela River at the lower end of the town ; thence up the river to the mouth of Dunlap's Creek, and up the Creek to Cadwallader's mill-dam, the place of begin- ning."

The act provided that the electors of the borough should meet at the house of Jacob Copland, and there elect one chief burgess, one assistant burgess, seven re- putable citizens to form a Town Council, and one high constable. Accordingly, "at an election held at the house of Jacob Coplan, in the Borough of Brownsville, on the first Tuesday of April, A.D. 1815, agreeably to an act of the General Assembly of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, passed the 14th day of December, 1814, for incorporating said Borough," the following- named persons were elected : Chief Burgess, Thomas Mckibben ; Assistant Burgess, Philip Shaffner; Coun- cilmen, William Hogg, Basil Brashear, John S. Du- gan, John McCadden, George Hogg, Jr., Israel Mil- ler, George Dawson; High Constable, John Jacques. These were the first officers of the borough of Browns- ville.

" April 8, 1815 .- The Burgess and Town Council met at the office of Michael Sowers, Esq., and took

the oaths of office, and proceeded to the Council Room in Basil Brashear's tavern, where William Hogg was elected president of the Council, and John McC. IIazlip, clerk."

At the April term of the Court of Quarter Sessions of Fayette County in 1817 a petition of a number of inhabitants was presented, praying for the erection of a township to be called Brownsville from a part of Redstone township, to include the borough of Browns- ville and a small territory beyond the limits of the borough and east of it, and to extend from Dunlap's Creek to Redstone Creek. Upon this petition the court appointed Jacob Bowman, Esq., John Fulton, and Griffith Roberts viewers to examine into the matter and report. In August of the same year this committee reported to the court that they had per- formed the duty assigned them, and agreed on the boundaries of the proposed township of Brownsville, to be erected from the territory of Redstone, viz. : " Beginning at the mouth of Dunlap's Creek ; thence up the same with the meanders thereof to the west end of Miller's mill-dam ;" thence by a great number of recited courses and distances from Dunlap's Creek to Redstone Creek; "thence down said Creek to the Monongahela River, and up the said River with the meanders thereof to the place of beginning." This report was accepted and confirmed, and at the Novem- ber sessions of the same year the court ordered the erection of the new township, with bounds as reported, " to be called Brownsville Township."

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History of Fayette County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 97

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