USA > Pennsylvania > Huntingdon County > History of Huntingdon County, in the state of Pennsylvania : from the earliest times to the centennial anniversary of American independence, July 4, 1876 > Part 22
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Mount Union was laid out in 1850, by Gen. George W. Speer and John Dougherty, and was designed by the pro- prietors as a place of transfer from their contemplated Drake's Ferry and East Broad Top Railroad, for which a charter was granted by the Legislature in 1849, to the Penn- sylvania canal. The name, Mount Union, concentrates the physical, geological, commercial, mineral and manufacturing features of a wild and beautiful region.
The East Broad Top railroad intersects the Pennsylvania railroad at Mount Union and has added five hundred tons of coal and forty tons of pig-metal daily to the tonnage of the latter. This will be more than doubled when a branch railway of two and a-half miles into the Rocky ridge coal basin and a dozen miles to the iron mines of Fulton county, shall be built.
From a letter written by John Dougherty, esq., to Prof. De- wees, of the State Geological Survey, on the 28th day of Janu- ary, 1875, giving a sketch of the history of Matilda Furnace, opposite Mount Union, in Mifflin county, we take the follow- ing extract in relation to the iron ores of the southern part of Huntingdon county, from the Juniata river to Fort Littleton :
" In the vicinity of Mount Union, fossil ore yielding 40 per cent. of iron can be mined in slopes of 500 to 700 feet above water level.
" In addition to the hard fossil vein worked at Matilda Furnace, three veins of soft fossil; a large mass, 25 feet in aggregate, known as the limestone ore vein; the levant vein and two veins of hematite iron ore, run parallel with Jack's mountain.
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
" Hematite and levant iron ores at the river are too low down to be worked to an advantage, but rise rapidly as you go southward, until these have attained an altitude of 500 feet above the river, ten miles south from Mount Union, and near the line of East Broad Top Railroad, where all these ore veins are found in close proximity, leaning on the east flank of Jack's mountain. A short tunnel would drain and give access to some eight or more veins of iron ore. At this elevation these levant ores yield 50 per cent of neutral iron. Dipping under Aughwick valley, they crop out again along the west flank of Black Log mountain, from Meadow Gap to near Fort Littleton, near which they ter- minate in a limestone dyke, filled with hematite, levant and sublimated iron ores from a molten-mineral basin, the fount of the forces that lifted the Broad Top coal basin from its ocean bed ;- raised the water shed dividing the waters of the Juniata and Potomac rivers; and upturned the edges of the No. 2 limestone (7,000 feet in thickness !) giving access to immense masses of red and brown hematite iron ores in close proximity to the East Broad Top coal measures.
" On the extension of a branch railway of a dozen miles, from near Orbisonia to Fort Littleton, these older, rich and more abundant iron ores will, in connection with the fossil ores of Mount Union, give profitable employment to capital and labor, and throw on the Pennsylvania railway tonnage and travel from the counties of Fulton and Franklin to Pitts- burg a:d Philadelphia, and make it necessary to utilize the water powers of the Juniata river at Mount Union, where a 22 feet fall may be, at small cost, made available for manu- facturing purposes.
" Names," says the Koran, " come from Heaven and are the prophets of destiny." Mount Union derived its name from a union of Jack's and Stone mountains on the west, and Chestnut ridge and Jack's mountain on the east- linked north and south of Mount Union to Jack's mountain.
"Hence Mount Union, the victim of centralization, re- mained in the deep ocean buried, until the day when the mother of Rivers bade her blue-eyed daughter, Juniata,
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cleave the mountains that barred her way to the bosom from whence she sprang."
Matilda Furnace, in the immediate vicinity of Mount Union, built in 1836-7, makes about seventy-five tons of pig-metal per week and gives employment to eighty men Two large steam tanneries, one water-power and one steam grist mill, about twenty workshops, a brick yard, and the several railroads, are a part of the wealth, the prosperity and the business of the place, while three capacious and beauti- ful churches, two weekly newspapers, a town hall and public school building indicate its moral, intellectual and literary progress.
John Dougherty, Esq., one of the proprietors, and a resi- dent of Mount Union, has long had a magnificent scheme for the utilization of the natural beauty and advantages sur- rounding the town. We give in his own language the out- line of his plan for a
"Jet d' Eau and Hotel des Invalides !"
" On the double-crested summit of Jack's mountain, one thousand feet in height, overlooking the borough of Mount Union, rises a large volume of pure water, amply sufficient to supply a hotel and hundreds of cottages on the terraced sides of this mountain, and also a Jet d'eau five hundred feet in height, and thence falling into fish-pond and bath, 'a thing of beauty and a joy forever.'
" An Alpine way, via Jet, cottages, hotel and fountain- head, and thence through mountain vale and summit crest, with Kishacoquillas valley on the west, the Juniata valley, deep down below, on the east, hills succeeding hills, like waves on storm-tossed ocean, the 'Blue Juniata' wending its way around river bend and through valley and gorge, en- circling the borough of Mount Union, from whence comes upward the hum of industry, blended with hymns of praise, tolling of bells, the clang of hammers, splash of water- wheels, the voice of locomotives and trains of cars on Ma- tilda Furnace, East Broad Top and Pennsylvania railways, running north, south, east and west, through these four gate- ways of commerce into and out of this centre of art and in-
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
dustry. Pullman palace cars launched around curves like planets on the tangents of their orbits and freighted with immortal souls, conducted hither by the attraction of the beautiful, halting to plume the wing, and view this magic scene ere they soar hence to Heaven.
"The whole wide earth to God-heart bare, Basks like some happy umbrian vale, By Francis trodden and by Clare, When Greatness thirsted to be good, When Faith was meek and Love was brave, When Hope by every cradle stood, And rainbows spanned each new-made grave !
"We invite the lovers of the beautiful, useful and good, on whom Fortune has smiled, ambitious that their names shall reverberate along the line of generations, to aid in building this fountain and palace of an industrious, commo- dious and civilized social life."
The history of the present site of Shirleysburg during provincial times is given in preceding chapters, relating to Aughwick and Fort Shirley. The town as first laid out by Henry Warner, extended from the lot adjoining the Baptist meeting-house to Hon. Wm. B. Leas' residence ; the lower or northern part was added by Samuel McCammon, and the southern part by Milliken and Cooper. In its early days, Shirleysburg was the most important town southeast of Standing Stone or Huntingdon. At that point was gathered every spring, for review and inspection, the militia from all the surrounding territory, now embracing Shirley, Crom- well, Dublin, Tell, Springfield, Clay, Tod, Carbon, Cass and Union townships. It is now an important station on the East Broad Top Railroad.
CHAPTER XXXVIII.
FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP -- AGRICULTURAL AND MINERAL WEALTH -- IRON WORKS-POST OFFICES-SPRINGFIELD TOWNSHIP-FIRST SETTLERS-THEIR CHARACTER-EARLY SCHOOLS AND CHURCHES-PUBLIC IMPROVEMENTS- CAUSES THAT HAVE RETARDED THE DEVELOPMENT OF THE RESOURCES OF THE TOWNSHIP.
Franklin, the first township formed after the erection of the county, extends from the Little Juniata river on the southwest to the Centre county line on the northeast, and from the summit of Tussey's mountain on the southeast to Warriorsmark township on the northwest. The principal stream is Spruce creek, rising in the township and flowing the entire length of it, through one of the most fertile val- leys in the State, to the Little Juniata. The productiveness of the rich limestone land of this valley is apparent in the prosperity of the agricultural community. It is in this por- tion of the county, including West, Porter, Morris and War- riorsmark townships, in addition to Franklin, that the farm- ers are preeminently the wealthy class. Their dwellings are of the most substantial character, their barns too commodi- ous for any other than a country where the crops spring from the soil as they do there, and everything betokens that the land owner may there possess all that can contribute to his comfort and happiness.
The township is also rich in iron ore, the mines having been worked since the latter part of the last century. Hun- tingdon Furnace was built in the midst of these deposits in 1795 or '96, and two other furnaces, Pennsylvania in the northern part of the township, adjoining Centre county, and Barree in Porter township, are also supplied with ores from them. Five forges have been built at various times on Spruce creek, within five miles of its mouth. They are all noted elsewhere. None of them are now in operation.
Several manufacturing establishments have been erected within recent years-the Stockdale Woolen Mills by W. D.
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
& J. D. Isett, at the mouth of the creek, and an axe factory by John Q. Adams, one and-a-half miles further up.
There are three post-offices and villages in the township, Colerain Forges, Franklinville and Graysville, and one on the opposite side of the river, Spruce Creek.
Springfield township, situated on the southern border of the county, was erected in 1790, from Shirley and Dublin. It is bounded on the north by Cromwell, on the east by Dublin, on the south by Fulton county, and on the west by Clay township, and contains two post-offices, Meadow Gap and Maddensville. Traversed from north to south by the Black Log mountain, the land is generally elevated and rolling, although there are considerable tracts of rich alluvial bottom along the streams, of which the principal are the Big Aughwick, Sideling Hill and Little Aughwick creeks.
In the early part of the present century, Springfield town- ship was a vast forest, slightly broken by occassional clear- ings on the bottom lands. One of the earliest clearings was made by John Bailey, a Revolutionary soldier, who settled on the banks of Aughwick. The first settlers on that stream besides Bailey, were William Jones, William Ward and John Robertson, not one of whom has a representative in the township at this day. What is known as "the Big Meadow tract" was warranted, surveyed and patented at a very early day in the names of Lukens, Lennox and Woods. It is situated near the village of Meadow Gap, and contains four hundred acres.
The early settlers were principally from Maryland, of which class were the Browns, Stains, Lanes, Cutshalls, etc., who are still represented by numerous descendants. The Maddens and Ramseys are of Irish, and the Wibles of German descent.
Hugh Orlton was one of the first settlers on the ridges. He took up land at an early day and had it patented. This tract was bought from Orlton by Richard Lane, in possession of whose descendants it still remains. Orlton built on it a house, the first roofed with shingles in the township. It was
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
a substantial structure and has but recently given place to a more modern and commodious dwelling.
The tenenents of the settlers were generally constructed of unhewn logs, roofed with clapboards, and consisted of a lower story and a garret. The floor was either the earth itself or what was styled a "puncheon floor," made of staves or rough boards, and the chimneys were of wood.
In this wilderness the first settlers hunted and began the cultivation of the soil. Their cattle and hogs roamed the woods and furnished milk and animal food, without much labor or attention on the part of their owners. The streams, especially the Aughwick, abounded with fish, and shad, sal- mon, etc., were captured in large quantities, with a primi- tive net of large dimensions, made of brush tied together with hickory withes.
There was no saw mill in the township. Boards were split from the log with axes. The material for clothing was raised by the inhabitants. A new home-spun suit was considered good enough for any society or occasion. The women were usually attired in a linsey petticoat and short sack. Mocca- sins were a substitute for shoes.
The people were for the most part a healthy, hardy, rug- ged race, unlettered, but generous, courageous and hospita- ble. A few schools, supported by subscription, were scat- tered at wide intervals through the township. Dilworth's Spelling Book was the principal authority in orthography, and the Testament the only reader. One of the first of these schools was taught in a hut near Meadow Gap; the teacher was a pedagogue named Pike.
The nearest church was at Three Springs, now Saltillo, the pastor being Samuel Lane, of the Baptist denomination. He was a man of more than ordinary energy and public spirit, giving several lots of land in and adjacent to the town- ship for church and burial purposes, some of which are still used in accordance with his design. From him are descended the Lanes, of Springfield, Clay and Shirley townships. The late Hugh Madden, Esq., also gave a lot for educational pur- poses, upon which a school house has been erected.
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
The first grist mill in the township was built by Robert and John Madden, at Meadow Gap. The former also erected a mill near the junction of the Sideling Hill and Aughwick creeks. Much clearing of land was accomplished through the agency of the iron manufacturers, who used the wood for the making of charcoal. They denuded large tracts of their timber and rendered them available for the plow. The principal road was the old furnace road to Bedford. The first township road led from Orbisonia to Fort Littleton. Others followed in succession, and all parts of the township are now accessible by roads kept in as good condition as is usual in rural localities.
Owing to its isolation from railroads and other public im- provements, this township has not afforded a promising field for the establishment of manufactures of any kind, and the development of its resources has consequently been retarded. Nevertheless, much has been done in improving the face of the country and in the advancement of agricultural indus- try and interests. The church and the common school have been at work and a corresponding increase of intelli- gence is manifest. The present population of the township exhibits as great a contrast to that of a century ago as do the past and present of any other township in the county.
Mr. James Norris, who has gathered for us the facts presented in this sketch of Springfield township, expresses his obligation to Mr. Thomas Duffey, one of its oldest in- habtants, for much of the information. Mr. Duffy was born in the township and has lived in it for the space of eighty- three years. His memory is still clear and
" His old age is, like a lusty winter, Frosty but kindly."
CHAPTER XXXIX.
UNION TOWNSHIP-TROUGH CREEK, SMITH'S AND HARE'S VALLEYS-THE STREAMS-THE TORY HARE-MAPLETON -- MORRIS TOWNSHIP-WATER STREET-SPRUCE CREEK OR GRAYSPORT-UNION FURNACE.
Union township, situated immediately south of the centre of the county, is bounded on the northwest by Juniata and Penn townships, from which it is separated by Terrace mountain; on the northeast by the Juniata river, separating it from Henderson and Brady ; on the southeast by Jack's mountain, on the opposite side of which is Shirley township ; and on the south by Cass.
Between Terrace and Jack's mountains are Sideling hill and Clear ridge, dividing the township into three valleys, Trough Creek, Smith's and Hare's. Streams flow through the last two valleys in a northeastwardly direction, falling into the Juniata below Mapleton. Trough creek rises on Terrace mountain, flowing towards the southwest, and after passing through Cass township into Tod, turns towards the northwest and empties into the Raystown branch in Penn township. Its waters, with those of the latter stream and the Juniata, after making a circuit, with their various wind- ings of more than a hundred miles, pass along the end of Terrace mountain, within a few miles of their source. At the time of its formation, Union township included nearly the entire valley of Trough creek.
Hare's valley takes its name from Jacob Hare, a tory who resided and owned a large tract of land in the valley during the Revolutionary war. Although he did not take up arms against the colonists, he was active in contributing aid to the British cause, and was suspected of being engaged in the murder of Loudenslager, who was on his way from his home in Kishacoquillas valley to join a company that was being raised for the continental service at Standing Stone. The people became so much incensed against Hare, that both of his ears were cut off by Captain Thomas Blair's rangers,
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
who had pursued Weston and his band of tories on their ex- pedition to Kittanning. Hare, and his brother Michael, were attainted of treason and their lands confiscated, but the latter were restored to them after the war, because they had not made an armed resistance to the cause of Independence. It is said that Jacob Hare died on his possessions in Hare's valley.
The post offices in Union township are Calvin, Colfax and Mapleton.
The principal part of the ground upon which the borough of Mapleton is situated belonged to Col. John Donaldson, who caused the first lots to be laid out. It was incorpo- rated August 18th, 1866 The only manufactory of any importance is a large steam tannery, owned by the estate of Jeremiah Bauman, deceased. The quarrying and crushing of glass sand on the opposite side of the river from Maple ton, is an industry that gives employment to a number of men, and adds to the business of the place. A large public school building and three churches, Methodist, Presbyterian and United Brethren, are evidences of the intelligence and morality of the people.
Morris township adjoins Blair county and is separated from it by Canoe mountain on the northwest, Fox run on the southwest, and the Frankstown branch of the Juniata on the southeast. Its other boundaries are the Little Juniata river, between it and Franklin township, on the north, and Tussey's mountain, separating it from Porter township, on the east. The latter division is a spur usually known as the Short mountain, about two miles in length, extending from one river to the other. The Pennsylvania railroad passes through a tunnel in the northern end of it, half a mile below the village of Spruce Creek.
The greater part of the township consists of an elevated plateau, to which has been given the name of Canoe valley, from the mountain enclosing it on the west. It has a fertile limestone soil, which yields generously to the hand of culti- vation.
One locality in this township, Water Street, is mentioned
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
by John Harris in his "account of the road to Logstown," in 1754. The old Indian war-path passed through it, and Conrad Weiser was there in 1748. It derived its name from the fact that a stream of water literally flowed through the street. During the Revolutionary war, General Roberdeau had a landing there, from whence lead ore, mined in Sinking valley, was shipped east to be melted, and where stores were received for the miners and troops at Fort Roberdeau.
The most prosperous days of Water Street were while the Pennsylvania canal was in successful tide of operation. But since it has been closed and abandoned, the place has lost all importance, trade and travel having been diverted to points on the line of public improvements, a few miles northward, The business once attracted to Water Street by the canal is now drawn to Spruce Creek by the Pennsylvania railroad.
At no other place in this rugged county has the hand of nature been so abrupt in its works as at Spruce Creek. If we are to interpret the designs of the Creator from what seems to be the external evidences of them, we may believe that it was part of His plan that man should dwell there in the heart of the mountains and that the narrow strip of level land lying along the Juniata was placed there to tempt him to do so. Imagining that the first white man who ventured to it, had followed the old Indian war-path to Water Street and crossed from thence the plateau that divides the two branches of the Juniata, what was the view presented to him when he reached the crest of the hill overlooking the river and the site of the present village ? Though he may have traveled long through an uninhabited country, he had seen nothing more wild, more grand, more beautiful. The stream for more than a mile of its course above the bend at the base of the Short mountain was visible, except when hidden by the dense and luxuriant forest growth. Perhaps his atten- tion was first attracted to the long ranges of elevations sur- rounding him on every side and towering still higher than the one on which he stood, and to the peaks rising here and there and adding to the variety of the outline. And when his eye turned from that scene to one beneath it, he could
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
scarcely perceive that there was anything below the hillside but the silver thread of water winding among the dark green of the pines and hemlocks. But on descending, in the course of his footsteps, to the river, he found a strip of ground, not exceeding two hundred feet in width at any part, and not a mile in length, terminated at each end by the river sweeping around and hugging closely to the foot of the hills. Small as it was, it must have been regarded as a prize for purposes of cultivation. Directly opposite was the mouth of a creek coming down from among the mountains and passing a short distance above its confluence with the river, through a nar- . row defile, which widens into a small valley, forming a level space of limited extent.
The village of Spruce Creek proper, or Graysport, as it was originally named, stands on the south side of the Little Juniata, but as it is so intimately connected with the other side of the river that the two form but one community, I shall treat them accordingly.
James Gray became the owner of the land on which the village is situated under a purchase from John Cannon, but the interest of the latter being afterwards sold at Sheriff's sale, was bought by John McCahan, of Huntingdon. A con- troversy arose between Gray and McCahan concerning the title, which was compromised, and a deed executed by the latter to the former on the 15th day of April, 1820.
Gray had a tannery, not on the part upon which he sub- sequently laid out the village, but at the upper or Gray's fording, on land now owned by Michael Low. Until recently, a great willow tree stood there, which had been planted by Matthew Gray when a boy, the stump of which remains.
As to the origin of the place and the advantages and in- ducements offered to purchasers of lots therein, I take the following advertisement from the " Huntingdon Gazette" of April 8th, 1824 :
TO MECHANICKS.
The subscriber, having lately laid out a SMALL VILLAGE, called GRAYSPORT,
at the Bridge over the Little Juniata & opposite the month of Spruce Creek, offers for sale the LOTS at a very reasonable price, and on
-
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HISTORY OF HUNTINGDON COUNTY.
terms which will be advantageous to purchasers. The situation of this place holds out many indncements to industrious mechanicks who are actuated by that manly spirit of independence which prompts man to acquire property of his own, that he may not be subject to the capricions will of others. It is situated in a healthy part of this county on a navigable stream, and is intersected by the great road (which is much traveled) leading, by the way of Northumberland, from Philadelphia to Pittsburg : is surrounded by Iron works within a very short distance in every direction, and within a few perches of a Grist and Saw-mill turned by a never-failing stream of water. Ma- terials for building can be obtained here at a very trifling cost, there being good building stone, which can be had in abundance, without quarrying, on the adjoining lands of the subscriber, within a few perches of the Lots ; and these he will .permit purchasers to appropri- ate to themselves for building purposes without charging for the same.
The one half of the purchase money will be required to be paid in hand, the residue one year atter the purchase, without interest. JAMES GRAY.
March 1st, 1824.
The bridge mentioned as crossing the river at that point had been erected about the year 1819. It stood until 1846, when it was removed for the erection of a new one. The latter remained there but a short time, being taken away by the great freshet of the 8th of October, 1847. After the flood a third one was built, which is still standing.
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