USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > History of Perry County, Pennsylvania, including descriptions of Indians and pioneer life from the time of earliest settlement, sketches of its noted men and women and many professional men > Part 27
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The Harrisburg & Millerstown Turnpike Company, with a pike of twenty-six miles, had $25,000 individual subscriptions and a state grant of $40,000, and the Millerstown & Lewistown Turn- pike Company had $70,000 individual subscriptions and a grant of $39,500 from the state. Shares were $50, and the average cost per mile about $2,000.
Before the advent of the canal and railroad the overland traffic was largely done with large covered wagons, known as Conestoga wagons, by reason of their being built at Lancaster, on the banks of the Conestoga. These wagons, usually with a tar can hanging beneath, had four-inch tires and were often drawn by six or eight horses or mules, with jingling bells attached to the hames. Queerly enough the drivers of these wagons fastened the name upon a present-day tobacco product. They liked to smoke to while away the time, and at Pittsburgh there was a great demand for a cigar which would smoke for a long period. As the demand came from these drivers of Conestoga wagons a cigarmaker rolled a long cigar, which he could sell at a low price-four for a cent- and named it the "Conestoga." The product immediately became popular, but the word was too long and became Americanized as "stogies," and sometimes mistakenly called "tobies." To accom- modate these drivers and their teams, road houses sprang up along the turnpike at approximately every ten or twelve miles. There are records which tell of a dozen or more large Conestoga wagons, with six or eight horses each, waiting to be ferried at Clark's Ferry, the western end of which was then at Clark's Run, near the
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centre of present-day Duncannon. The ferry house, or road house, still stands and is occupied by Joseph Smith as a dwelling.
As an example of what was done over the old mud roads, be- fore the building of the turnpikes, in 1817, twelve thousand wagons passed over the Allegheny Mountains to Baltimore and Philadel- phia, each with four or six horses, and carrying a load of from 3,500 to 4,000 pounds. The cost from Pittsburgh to Philadelphia was $7 to $10 per hundredweight. About 1885 the rate over the Pennsylvania Railroad was three-fourths of a cent per mile for each ton, or about $2.60.
When the turnpike was built through the county in the territory which now comprises Howe Township, one of the smallest town- ships in the county, inns or taverns were opened, known as Fahter's Falls tavern, Fetterman's tavern, and Red Hill tavern. The latter became a famous stopping place for the picturesque old Conestoga wagons on which the traffic of the new nation was largely trans- ported. It was later long in the possession of Alfred Wright. Fetterman's was in the building now owned by Heister Moretz, along the William Penn Highway ( now under construction ) where the roads join, and Fahter's Falls (later Juniata Falls) was later kept by John Patterson, and is now known as the Lewis Steckley homestead.
The late Thomas H. Benton, in his "Thirty Years in the United States Senate," in discussing the establishment of the first national turnpikes, from the Atlantic seaboard to the Ohio, says:
"The absolute necessity for a public highway from the Atlantic seaboard to the inland cities of the republic, which were fast springing into existence, in the great West, were so great that the Whigs had no difficulty in procuring the necessary appropriations for the survey, location and construction of a national road from tidewater at Philadelphia and Baltimore to the Ohio."
An act of the Pennsylvania Legislature dated March 29, 1813, authorized the appointment of commissioners "to make an arti- ficial road from Millerstown to the Franklin County line. to go through Mckessonburg, and thence via Daniel Sprenkle's."
The road from Perry County, over the mountains to Concord, Franklin County, was built in 1820. By reference to the chapter in this book entitled Postrider and Stagecoach, it will be seen that during the second year following, 1822, the United States Gov- ernment established a mail route over this new highway, from Clark's Ferry (now Duncannon) to Concord.
The MeClure's Gap road was built in 1821. It connects Landis- burg ( which was then the temporary county seat ) with Newville. Cumberland County. The following bond, etc., is published here as of historical value and will show the names of the commissioners and bondsmen, etc., without further description. It follows;
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TRAILS AND HIGHWAYS
Know all men by these presents that we James W. Allen of Frandford township, Cumberland County and State of Pennsylvania and Benjamin Rice of Tyrone, Perry County and same State (Commissioners appointed by an Act of Assembly for improving the State for to lay out open and improve the road over the North mountain between Landisburg and New- ville at McClures Gap, and Jacob Alter Esquire of West Pennsboro town- ship and James Laird Esquire of Frankford township in the County of Cumberland aforesaid, are held and firmly bound unto his Excellency Jos- eph Hiester Governor of Pennsylvania in the just and full Sum of Eight hundred Dollars money of the United States: To the which payment well and truly to be made to the Said Joseph Hiester or to his legal Attorney or Successor in office, we do hereby bind ourselves our heirs executors, or administrators jointly Severally, firmly by these presents: Sealed with out Seals and dated the fifteenth day of May, one thousand Eight hundred and twenty one.
The CONDITION of the above obligation is Such that if the above bounden James W. Allen and Benjamin Rice as commissioners above Stated, Shall well and truly apply Such monies as may be put into their hands for the purpose of opening and improving Said Road agreeable to the intent and meaning of Said Law and Settle and adjust their accounts in manner therein directed, then the above obligation to be void, otherwise to remain in full force and virtue in Law.
Signed and Sealed in presence of
Paul L. Peirce
James William Allen (Seal)
John Dickson
Benjamin Rice (Seal)
William McCrea
Jacob Alter (Seal)
Jolını Lefever
James Laird (Seal)
(Indorsed) 28th May 1821. The within bond. and Security are approved in open Court, by the judge thereof.
John Reed
James Armstrong Isa. Graham.
Cumberland County Vs.
I do Certify the above and foregoing to be a true Copy of the original as the Same remains filed of Record in the office of the Court of General Quarter Session of the Peace in and for Said County.
In witness whereof I have hereunto Set my hand and the Seal of the Same Court at Carlisle the 28th May A. D. 1821.
J McGinnis Jr. Clk C. Q. S.
James Allen and Benjamin Rice Commissioners under the 7Ist Section of the twenty-sixth day of March 1821 have received credit in this Office for four hundred dollars the amount expended for the improvement for which money was appropriated in and by that Section. Auditor Generals
Office 27th Match, 1823.
James Duncan Auditor Genl.
The road from the George Barnett farm, on which New Bloom- field is located, to Sterrett's Gap, was laid out in 1824. There was once a military road to the Canadian frontier projected which was to have crossed Perry County. From the Perry Forester of Sep- tember 14, 1826, we note the fact, as follows: "Major Long, of the engineer department, passed through Bloomfield, in this county,
16
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
on Thursday last, engaged in the duty assigned to him by the United States Government, of viewing a national military road from Washington to a point on our northern frontier."
The Act of April 14, 1827, appointed Solomon Bower, Jacob Stambaugh, Jr., and Robert Elliot, of Perry County, and Abra- hamn Waggoner and John Hays, of Cumberland County, commis- sioners to lay out a state road from Landisburg to Carlisle, by way of Waggoner's Gap. The Perry Forester of May 24, 1827, tells of viewers having inspected the Waggoner Gap road and found it to have a grade of only four and one-half degrees, or one-half a degree less than the specifications, which fixes the time of the building of that road. In 1829 Nicholas Ickes, J. Kibler, and Rob- ert Elliott, of Perry County, and William Wharton and Henry Hackett, of Mifflin County, were appointed commissioners to lo- cate a state road from Landisburg, by way of Ickesburg and Run Gap, to Mifflintown. The State Legislature of 1826-27 provided for the opening of an additional state road via Long's Gap, which was built in 1828.
During 1827 and 1829 the Pennsylvania Legislature authorized the opening of roads from Union County to Liverpool; from Innis, Huntingdon County, to Landisburg; from Lewistown to Shippensburg, via New Germantown and Three Square Hollow.
The state road leading from a point opposite Harrisburg to Petersburg, now Duncannon, was opened in 1829. The commis- sion who viewed the route and located it was composed of John Clendenin, A. Wills, Alexander Branyan, R. T. Jacobs and Robert Clark. Even before its construction there was a very rough and stony way along the river, the last vestige of the old Indian trail. Prior to the opening of this state road the main travel was over the mountain, about two miles from the river, via Miller's Gap.
By an act of the Pennsylvania Legislature, of April 19, 1844, John Wily, Robert Mitchell, Jesse Beaver, Thomas Cochran, and Michael Steever were appointed commissioners to lay out a state road from Reider's Ferry (now Newport) to the west end of Mil- lerstown bridge, by the nearest and best route between those points. When Carroll Township was laid out.in 1843 part of the boundary was described as being "along the great road leading to Clark's Ferry," which shows it as a then important highway. Its route lay through Grier's Point and Wheatfield Township.
An Act of February 14, 1845, authorized the Perry County commissioners to pay Jackson Township $250 to help build a road from MeFarland's tannery to the Cumberland County line, its outlet in Cumberland County being at McCormick's Mill.
The road across the Blue Mountains at Crane's Gap was for- merly a footpath. In 1848 the road was built, but it is now little used. About a mile farther west from Crane's Gap is a small gap
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known as Sharron's, after James Sharron, who warranted lands about 1769. There was once a road there also, but it was vacated many years ago.
The Act of April 12, 1855, appointed Samuel O. Evans and William Cox, of Juniata County, and Jesse Beaver, of Perry, to lay out a road "from the turnpike gate east of Thompsontown, in Juniata County, down Pfoutz Valley to the bridge over the Cocola- mus Creek, in Perry County." An act fifteen days later, April 27tli, appointed John P. Thompson and John M. Jones, of Juniata County, and Lewis Gilfillen, of Perry County, to lay out a road "from a point on the public road leading from Dunn's Mill to Mif- flintown, at or near Hibbsfield, in the county of Juniata; thence from a point on road leading from Thompsontown to Liverpool, on lands of Christian Coffman, near the bridge over the Cocolamus Creek, in Perry County."
At the April term of court in 1859 viewers were either appointed or reported in the laying out of thirty-four different roads. At the January term of 1861 there were thirty-three, with many at other courts during the intervening period and shortly before and thereafter, which would fix that as the period when the greatest road development occurred.
An Act of March 6, 1873, required the county commissioners to appropriate $300 towards the erection of a bridge over the Big Buffalo Creek, on the road leading from the tanyard owned by Rev. J. J. Hamilton, to Elliottsburg, at Spriggle's fording.
That part of the William Penn Highway directly opposite New- port occupies the old roadway which was often the cause of trou- ble. The original road led from Greenwood Township, over the turnpike across the hill, and by Red Hill Church, to Newport. An act of the legislature was passed March 21, 1865, authorizing the county commissioners to pay $500 to aid Howe Township in making a road recently laid out, from the east end of the Newport bridge to a point on the Harrisburg and Millerstown turnpike, at the foot of Buffalo Mountain. Another act, dated March 20, 1869, author- ized the county to pay $2,000 more towards the same road and to issue bonds for the amount. It named Lewis Gilfillen, Dr. J. E. Singer, and Isaac Wright as commissioners to build it. There was a provision that as soon as $3.500 was contributed the contract was to be let. Michael Hartzell evidently had the contract, as an act of April 24, 1873, required that the county commissioners pay him $1,865 of moneys so appropriated. After the 1889 flood it was again impassable, but was finally rebuilt largely by the progres- sive business men of Newport.
But one new state highway was granted by the Legislature of 1921-22, and that was the one provided for in a bill introduced by Representative Clark M. Bower, of Perry County, providing for
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
a new outlet from western Perry County. The present road, de- scending into Path Valley, has a very steep grade and is a danger- ous route, with the result that it was little traveled. The new route is really a very old one, long since abandoned. It was in use by the pioneers. It leaves Perry County by circling Big Round Top and drops into Franklin County by an easy grade to Burns' Valley and the iron bridge near Doylesburg, where it joins route 45 of the highway system. It opens up a route from Dry Run and Concord which saves forty miles on the trip to Harrisburg. It connects with the Lincoln Highway at Fort Loudon, and to the traveler from the Susquehanna and lower Juniata Valleys it means a saving of forty miles on a westward trip. It passes through the Tuscarora State Forest and through a mountainous section un- equaled in Pennsylvania for beauty.
The reader can readily realize the discomforts of travel in those early days, yet they had no terrors for even a woman when she had the blood of the brave coursing her veins, as the following will show: Peter Hartman, an early settler, had married Elizabeth Oelwein, of Chester County, a relative of Gen. Anthony Wayne, and who had inherited the vigor and indomitable bravery of the Wayne family. In the summer of 1794, when her first child was but six months old, she started from Buffalo Mills (located in what is now Saville Township, Perry County) on horseback with the baby, and traveled 120 miles to see her relatives in Chester County, using bridle paths where there were no roads. Being a tactful woman she met with kindness all along the route. This was a most remarkable journey in that day and under those circum- stances. There are many Perry Countians of to-day who can be proud that they have coursing in their veins the same blood as that of that Revolutionary hero, General Anthony Wayne.
In those pioneer days, Perry County territory, with the methods of travel then available, was as far from Philadelphia as the Mis- sissippi Valley is to-day, with our really wonderful and speedy railroad trains. In fact, a letter will now go from Philadelphia to Denver, Colorado, in the same length of time that was then re- quired to carry it from Philadelphia to Carlisle.
There being only trails at first the horseback method was the only one available, even for the transportation of weighty products. Pack horses, each of which carried a burden of about two hun- dred pounds over the mountains, were usually in groups of fifteen, with two men in charge. In passing along hills and mountainsides the loads frequently came in contact with the ground. About 1800. at Harris' Ferry, five hundred horses were fed and rested during a single night, which shows the extensiveness of the traffic.
With roads came that first vehicle, known as the "gig," and in use when the new county of Perry came into being. Then came
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the carriage, known as the "Dearborn," for milady, and to be suc- ceeded by all varieties of carriages and buggies down to the fash- ionable "Jenny Lind," even to this day in use. Our century, how- ever, has brought the motor vehicle into popular use, and the auto- mobile is more common to-day than was the good carriage of forty years ago. As early as 1906 there were but 48,000 in the entire United States, but to-day (1920) the total approximates almost 6,000,000. In the interim the bicycle was a popular vehicle for personal trips, enjoyment and business from about 1890 until the advent of the automobile, but its use is now chiefly confined to business trips of a few blocks.
"Pack Saddle Path," known to all hunters as far back as they can remember, starts at the lower end of Lew Run, in Tyrone Township, and crosses the Kittatinny Mountain to the Wagner farms in North Middleton Township, Cumberland County. Evi- dently this run should be called Lewis Run, as tradition says that a colored slave named Lewis is buried near the run.
On March 24. 1851, an act of the Pennsylvania Legislature au- thorized the formation of the Millerstown, Andersonburg and New Germantown Plank Road Company. The capital was to have been $25 per share, and the number of shares 800. The road was to pass through Ickesburg. The commissioners named in the act were Samuel Black, Robert Elliott, Isaac Kinter, Wm. B. Ander- son, Thomas Boal, Andrew Shuman, W. Blair, James Milligan, Samuel Liggett, Simon Kell, James Irvin, Jacob Shuman, Kirk Haines, T. P. Cochran, Jacob Bixler, W. I. Jones, G. W. Parsons, Wm. Rice, Solomon Bower, and George Black.
A plank road was once projected from a point upon the Penn- sylvania Railroad, via New Bloomfield, to New Germantown. By an act of the Pennsylvania Legislature, dated April 12, 1851, the Sherman's Valley Plank Road Company was incorporated, with forty-three stockholders. Section I of the act reads :
"Be it enacted, etc., That Henry Rice, George Stroop, James Macfar- land, Benjamin McIntire, Jonas Ickes, David Lupfer, H. F. Topley, George Barnett, Sr., John Campbell, Conrad Roth. Jr., John R. McClintic, George B. Arnold, Finlaw McCown, Alex. B. Anderson, A. C. Kling, Wm. A. Sponsler, John A. Baker, John B. Topley, Samuel McKnight, C. W. Fisher, Lindley Fisher, John Charters, Joseph Bailey, James Black, Jacob Smith, Samuel Leiby, Joshua E. Singer, John W. Bosserman, John Demaree, John Beaver, Wm. T. Shively, Jesse L. Gannt, George S. Hackett, Daniel Gannt, James F. McNeal, John Rice, David Adams, Joseph McClure, James Kay, John Ritter, John Tressler, Wm. B. Anderson, and Solomon Bower be and are hereby appointed commissioners to open books, receive subscriptions, and organize a company by the name and style of 'The Sherman's Valley Plank Road Company,' with power to construct a plank road from such point on the Pennsylvania Railroad as a majority in value of the stockholders shall determine, through New Bloomfield, to New Germantown, Perry County, with all the authorities and subject to
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
all the provisions and restrictions of the act regulating turnpike and plank road companies, passed the 26th day of January, 1849, and its supplements, excepting so much thereof relating to tolls as discriminates in favor of wheels of the width of four inches and upwards; and the said company shall have power to regulate their tolls within the limits prescribed by said act, without reference to the width of wheels in any case, and ex- cepting also such other portions of said act as may be inconsistent there- with."
The capital stock was made 550 shares, the par value of which was $20. Privilege was given to use any road then in existence, save that twenty feet was to be left for the public use, free of toll as before, and the proportionate cost of the part used to be paid for. The road was never built. Many of the older people of the present generation well remember these men, some of whom lived until very recent years.
Pennsylvania has long been noted for bad roads, but on May 31, IGII, a bill passed the Pennsylvania Legislature creating a State Highway Department, and since that time various bills have been passed for the rebuilding of the state highways, which have been taken over since the passage of the original act. The voters of Pennsylvania at an election in 1919 voted to bond the state for fifty millions to help construct roads. Through Perry County runs two great highways of the state system, the William Penn High- way and the Susquehanna Trail. As a part of this great expen- diture, during 1920 a contract was let by Lewis S. Sadler, chief of the State Ilighway Department, for the construction of 41,753 feet of eighteen-foot road from the west end of Clark's Ferry bridge (in Dauphin County) to the line between Watts and Buf- falo Townships (in Perry County). The contract went to Mac- Arthur Bros. Company, of New York, at $481.784.55. It is built of one-course, reinforced concrete, and is almost eight miles in length, over six miles of which are in Perry County. The present governor, Wm. C. Sproul, was always interested in better high- ways, and while a member of the State Senate many years ago, fathered the "Sproul Good Roads Bill." He may be said to be the pioneer good roads enthusiast of Pennsylvania.
CHAPTER XV. OLD LANDMARKS, MILLS AND INDUSTRIES.
W HEN the pioneers first delved into the forests of what is now the county of Perry and hewed from them their primi- tive homesteads which soon blossomed forth with vege- tables and grain, they, of necessity, had to cross the Blue Monn- tain to the Cumberland Valley to have their grain ground into flour and meal. But that condition was short-lived, for at their very doors was the force of streams flowing away, which, if dammed, would drive the machinery of innumerable mills. Thus came the building of the first mill. The lands were not open to settlement until 1755, it will be remembered ; and after Brad- dock's defeat in June of that year, the Indian uprising drove prac- tically all the settlers out of the territory until it was thought safe to return. The Roddy (Waggoner) mill was built either during the first year of settlement, 1755, or in 1762, the year of the re- turn of the pioneers, as it was taxed in 1763, while Perry was under the jurisdiction of Cumberland County. Its history is as interesting as the story of Paul Revere or other tale of province or colony with which all are familiar. When the war whoop of the wily red men resounded through the forest, the valuable mill- stones imported from France were taken from their places and sunk in the mill race until all danger had passed and it was safe for the family to return.
The flouring mill was one of Pennsylvania's original manufac- turing industries and remains one of importance to this day. Dur- ing the growth of the Perry County territory there have been many mills erected, and until the advent of the steam mill this section had more mills than any other in Pennsylvania. There was a reason for this in the many water-power locations available, for be it remembered that Perry County has more springs and streams than any other, when its comparatively small extent is considered. Of some of these mills the history follows, or is contained in the chapters of the various townships, but as earlier records are few and far between, there will be omissions, of course.
On a map published in 1791, when the first governor, Thomas Mifflin, was in office, no less than ten gristmills are located by name, and there are a number merely marked "mill." At the mouth of the Cocolamus Creek, in Greenwood Township, was Shade's mill, now the J. Keely Everhart mill. Above Duncan's Island, on the Susquehanna, is one designated as Vaux's mill, and
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA
at Berry's Falls ( Mt. Patrick) a third. Along the entire length of Sherman's Creek there are four mills, three being merely marked "mill," and the fourth designated as West's, now known as the Gibson mill, and owned by S. V. Dunkelberger. On Fish- ing Creek Shortis' mill appears at the source, and Kineris' mill at its mouth, where Marysville is now located. On the Little Juniata two are marked, near its mouth, probably being the Duncannon mill and the old Haas mill. In the Cove one is also marked. At Buffalo Creek's headwaters Linn's mill is designated, and near "Buffaloe Hills" is Robinson's. At the mouth of the Little Buf- falo is English's mill, later known as M. B. Eshelman's, and now as the T. H. Butturf mill.
As early as 1814 two townships in western Perry, not to men- tion the other large extent of the county, had twenty-eight grist- mills, Toboyne having ten and Tyrone eighteen. In 1792 the county territory had thirteen flour mills. When the county was erected, in 1820, there were forty-eight.
There is record of Marcus Hulings, an early resident of Perry County, being authorized to erect a dam and mill at the mouth of Sherman's Creek, on September 15, 1784. While there is no rec- ord of its building, yet it was probably then already built, as the great ice flood in the winter of 1784 is recorded as having "swept away gristmill of Marcus Hulings, situated on Sherman's Creek, three-fourths of a mile from its mouth," according to the diary of Jacob Young, Sr. It either had been built prior to its authori- zation, as the year 17844 appears in both cases, or was under con- struction at the time, if Mr. Young's date is correct. The authori- zation date is from the public records.
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