USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > History of Perry County, in Pennsylvania : from the earliest settlement to the present time > Part 3
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The following persons were the first grand jurors: William English, Henry Beslin, William Brown, Jacob Weibley and Joshua Jones, Juniata township; Andrew Lynn, Peter Moses, Philip Fus- selman, Christian Simons, Henry Hipple, Thomas Kennedy and John Eaton, Tyrone township; Con- rad Rice, John Milligan, Thomas Milligan, Moses Oatley, Jacob Burd and Jacob Kiser, Saville town-
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
ship; William Albigost, Greenwood township; William Porter, Buffalo township; Samuel Willis, Rye township; Nickolas Burd, John Kogan and Daniel Matzer, Toboyne township.
The list of constables, at this time, were George Fetterman, Buffalo township; John O'Brian, Green- wood; Thomas Martin, Juniata ; Daniel McAllister, Rye; Mathias Moyer, Saville; John Cree, Tyrone ; Abraham Kistler, Tyrone; James McKim, Toboyne.
Robert Mitchell, Thomas Adams and Jacob Huggins were the first County Commissioners.
William B. Mitchell was the first Prothonotary.
The old court-house in Landisburg stood until 1841. It was a log building, erecting for a church, when it was taken and finished for a court-house, and in it Robert Gibson, Esq., still dispenses justice with more ability than is usually exhibited in that office.
Landisburg is the starting point of Rice's stage lines, which carry news to and from Newport from all points on the route.
Duncannon, Petersburg, until 1865, was first settled by a Mr. Miller, who took up ten acres, in which it was included. His house was situated on the point between the Susquehanna river and Little Juniata creek.
The oldest store in the town was kept by a Mr. Vanfossen, then there were only four houses in the place.
The settlers that took up land and came to Petersburg after Mr. Miller were Myers, Young, Fessler, Baty and the widow Armstrong. Philip
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
Sweishler, a German, kept the first hotel. At this time the post-office was kept by Jacob Keiser at Clark's Ferry in the stone store-house.
A Mr. Keaseberry was the first postmaster after the office was moved to Petersburg.
The tories mustered their troops during the Revo- lutionary War on Young's Hill.
The oldest church in Petersburg was the Metho- dist church, which was dedicated in 1838. The first preaching in the town by this denomination was in a Mr. Brooks' dwelling house in 1812.
The Presbyterian congregation of the Juniata church, on the hill west of the junction, included the members in Petersburg, with many who lived on the opposite side of the river in Watts town- ship. Rev. Joseph Brady, whose remains rest in the grave-yard belonging to the church, was the pastor at this time (1838).
The grave-yard on the property owned by Mr Charles Godshall is the oldest Methodist burial ground in the county. The oldest house in the neighborhood of Duncannon was near the position of Jones' mill The brick house there now was built in 1800.
Along Sherman's creek, near the river, are the Duncannon Iron Works, owned by a company which has been in the business for many years in that place. These works consist of a rolling mill and nail factory; the latter is capable of turning out from 800 to 1,000 kegs, 100lbs each, per week. There is an extensive anthracite furnace in opera- tion closer to the river.
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
The extensive flour and lumber mills, recently owned by Major Griffith Jones, have passed into other hands.
A company has purchased an extensive tract of land, and, by means of a building association, is fast creating a new western addition to the old town.
Duncannon public schools have always been among the best in the county.
Newport was laid out as a village of Juniata township in 1814, by Daniel Reider. It was called Reiderville until the formation of Perry county in 1820, when sanguine hopes were entertained that it would be the county seat; hence its name was changed to New Port, which has since been con- veniently modified to Newport.
Its growth was very tardy until the canal was made, since which it steadily improved, until about six years ago, since which it has made good its claims to be the largest town in the county.
It has a deposit bank, a printing office, from which issue the weekly editions of the Newport News, two steam tanneries, one of which is the most extensive in the county, a steam planing mill, marble-yard, three commission warehouses, a boat-yard, and an anthracite furnace just ready to be put in operation. Three churches supply the various congregations. Two of these are large brick edifices on the modern plan, owned by the Methodist and Reformed congregations, while the third is a frame building likely soon to be super- seded by several others, since it is used by the Lu-
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
therans and Presbyterians, and others, on the union principle.
A tract of land was purchased and laid out in lots by Mr. J. B. Habecker. This part of the town attracts considerable business now. These lots will doubtless soon be improved through the ef- forts of a building association recently organized.
Newport has tasteful and commodious hotels, kept by gentlemanly and intelligent proprietors. But it cannot truthfully be avoided that her educa- tional interest is below par. This is not owing to the want of a large and commodious school build- ing, for that was erected in 1866, on a plan which compelled the admiration of all her sister boroughs, but a lack of fostering interest by her entire com- munity has caused the failure, in part, of every edu- cational project which contemplated permanency.
In 1840 Newport was next to Liverpool in the number of its population. It then had 423, and Liverpool had 454 inhabitants.
New Buffalo was laid out as a village of Buffalo township, Perry county, in 1800, by Jacob Baugh- man. It is situated on the west bank of the Sus- quehanna river, nineteen miles above Harrisburg.
It has been a town of steady growth, and con- tained in 1840 between thirty and forty dwelling houses and 200 inhabitants. The location is pleasant, surrounded on either side by charming natural scenery.
The present county seat was fixed upon by the fourth set of "disinterested persons" provided for in the act of separation, and named Bloomfield, on
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
account of that being the title given to the tract of land in the patent. The set of commissioners who concluded this important work, were Messrs. Lay- cock, Sheets, Pearce and Jenks. Bloomfield was auspiciously appropriate for the new town from the fact that its original plot was marked out in a clover field when in full bloom in the month of June, 1822. It is healthfully located in the narrow, fertile and beautiful Mahonoy Valley, twenty-six miles from Harrisburg, and five from the Central railroad.
Large brick church edifices have been erected by the Reformed, Lutheran, Methodist and Pres- byterian congregations.
A brick school-house, sufficiently large to ac- commodate all the pupils, has been erected recently. -Bloomfield Academy, more fully noticed under Ed- ucational History, continues its good work at this place. It is now owned by William Grier, Esq.
The manufactories of the place are a steam tan- nery and a foundry.
The Perry Forrester, for August, 1826, contains the following description of the place: "New Bloomfield has eighteen buildings besides from twelve to fifteen shops and stables." The offices and public documents of the county were removed to Bloomfield on the 12th and 13th of March, 1827.
The Forrester, in 1829, gives the population of Bloomfield at 220, the number of dwellings, twenty- nine, and the shops and offices, twenty-one.
The court-house, erected in 1824-5, was remod- eled in 1867-8. It is now well adapted for the
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
purpose. A large clock has been placed in its cu- pola by the citizens of Bloomfield, aided by the county commissioners.
There are four printing offices belonging to as many weekly newspapers.
The President Judge of the Ninth Judicial Dis- trict resides here.
The people are social and intelligent.
Marysville was laid out by Theophilus Fenn, the proprietor of the land on which it is built, as a vil- lage of Rye township, and up to April 12, 1866, was never incorporated, when it was incorporated as Haley, which was the name given to the post-office for a year or more. Since its incorporation, Marys- ville has improved so rapidly that it now ranks third in the county in number of population.
The round-house of the Northern Central railroad is located here, and added to this there is an exten- sive " shifting-yard."
Two railroad bridges cross the Susquehanna at the eastern and western termini of the town. The eastern bridge is on the line of the Pennsylvania Central, and the western on that of the Northern Central. There are two railroad stopping-places, one a regular depot, and the other merely a stopping- place. The depot is called Marysville, and is at the extreme west of the town, where the railroads cross each other.
A block-house was built at the end of the Central railroad bridge to guard it from the attacks of rebel nvaders during the late war.
Marysville has a fine location, which, added to its
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
proximity to Harrisburg, and the other probabilities of its rapid improvement. will cause it to be, in the extent and variety of its business, and the number of its inhabitants, the largest town in the county, in 1880. Marysville public schools are kept in opera- tion from six to seven months of the year.
Loysville, formerly called Andersonville, was laid out in 1840, by Michael Loy. The commo- dious Academy building, north of the town, which was erected by Mr. John Tressler, continued to be liberally patronized as a higher institution of learn- ing, until the 8th of May, 1865, when it was select- ed for a Soldiers' Orphan School. After it had been in operation four or five years as an orphan school for the children of deceased soldiers, the Tressler heirs sold the building to the Lutheran Church, since which it has been continued as Loysville Orphan Home, receiving as many soldiers' orphans as could be accommodated without crowding out the church orphans. There were 83 in this Home on the 31st of May, 1871.
Loysville has a large brick church, owned by the Reformed and Lutheran denominations. About one-half mile south-east of Loysville, is the farm and houses appropriated for the use of the poor of the county. The old buildings, two or three in number, have been superseded by the most expensive edifice in the county, estimated to cost, when entirely fin- ished, upward of $30,000.
Andersonburg is a post-village of Madison town- ship, and was so named on account of the land formerly belonging to Judge Anderson.
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
About three-fourths of a mile to the north-east are the grounds and buildings of the justly-cele- brated Andersonburg Soldiers' Orphan School. The extent of ground was reported on the 3Ist of May, 1871, to be twenty-four acres, and the num- ber of pupils enrolled, 133.
Hon. Martin Motzer has been the principal since the organization of the school, and so satisfactory has been the treatment of the wards entrusted to his care, that complaint against the school has never been heard abroad.
Blain .- William Douglass built the mill from which the name of the post-office (Douglass' Mill) was obtained. He soon after built the stone house occupied at the present (1872) by Mr. Jeremiah Hench., This stone house and an old log house which was torn down about six years ago, constitu- ted what was known as Multicaulisville.
The original part of Blain was laid out on land granted by warrant in 1765, to James Blain. That part of the village west of Main street, was laid out on land originally granted by warrant, in 1762, to Abraham Mitchell, and the north part was warrant- ed to James Morrison, in 1766.
In the spring of 1846 Francis W. Woods sold three acres of land to Dr. William Hays, which he divided into twelve lots and sold them out to dif- ferent parties. John Seager and William Shively erected the first house in the fall of 1846.
The first post-office was kept by William Doug- lass. Capt. David Moreland and Anthony Black succeeded. In 1840 Anthony Black got the name
.
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
of the post-office changed to Multicaulisville, to ** commemorate his great speculation in the morus multicaulis or Italian mulberry trees, which he was engaged in selling at ten cents each.
Soon after Blain was laid out in 1846, James and Francis W. Woods got the name of the post-office changed from Multicaulisville to Blain, and from the post-office the village was named.
The site of Blain is naturally the prettiest in the county. This fact seems to be recognized, for we find improvements here not found in any other town in the county. It is the only town into which and along whose streets water is conveyed in pipes. The buildings are mostly new, elegantly and substantially built and neatly painted.
It has a select school in charge of Prof. Gard. C. Palm, and one of the finest churches in the county. This church belongs to the Lutherans and Presby- terians, and was built to take the place of a venera- ble old building erected in 1816. The old folks of these congregations were very loath to exchange the old church even for such an elegant new one, from the fact that it seemed to link them to the past. The shingles that covered it were carried across the Conecocheaque Mountain on the backs of pack-horses. Their fathers and mothers reared this temple, and they did not like to see it de- stroyed.
New Germantown, a post-town of Toboyne township, was laid out by Solomon Sheibley, and named to commemorate Germantown, near Phila- delphia. It is twenty-three and a quarter miles
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
from Bloomfield, and is the western terminus of Rice's stage route in the county. It contains several stores and churches, a tannery and a school-house, in which a graded school is kept open during the free school term.
Ickesburg and Eschol are the post-villages of Saville township. The former is the older, and is the starting-point of Mr. Samuel Rice's stage, which makes a round trip on alternate days from Millerstown and Newport carrying the mail to and from Donnally's, Eschol, Milford and Markelville.
Eschol was formerly known as "Shuman's." It was early settled by Mr. Andrew Shuman, who gave the land on which St. Andrew's Lutheran Church is situated.
Donnally's mills is a post-village of a half-dozen houses in Tuscarora township. Geo. W. Lobaugh, Esq., keeps a store and a post-office at this place, and metes out justice to deserving offenders.
Milford and Markelville are post villages of Ju- niata township. Each contains a store in which the post-office is kept.
The former was called Jonestown after its earliest settler and first postmaster, Joseph Jones, Esq. Markelville was formerly known as Bosserman's Mills until Mr. George Markel so changed the place by his enterprise and thrift that it was named after him.
The following is the essential part of each sec- tion of an Act erecting part of Cumberland county into a separate county to be called Perry :
SECTION Istenacted that from and after the first day
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
of September, 1820, all that part of Cumberland county lying north of the Blue Mountain, begin- ning on the summit of the Blue Mountain, where the Franklin county line crosses the same and run- ning thence along the summit thereof an eastward- ly course to the river Susquehanna, thence up the west side of the same to the line of Mifflin (now Juniata) county, thence along the Mifflin county line to the Juniata river, thence along the summit of the Tuscarora Mountains to the Franklin county line, thence along the Franklin county line to the place of beginning, be and the same is hereby declared to be erected into a separate county to bc called Perry.
SECTION 2d declared that after September Ist, 1820, the inhabitants of all that part of Cumberland county thus separated, should have all the rights and privileges to which the inhabitants of other coun- ties are entitled under the laws of the Common- wealth.
SECTION 3d enacted that the several courts in and for the said county of Perry, shall be held at such house in the town of Landisburg, as may be desig- nated by the commissioners of said county, to be elected at the next general election, until a court- house shall be erected in and for said county as is hereinafter directed, and shall then be held at said court-house, at which place the returns of the gen- eral election shall be made.
SECTION 4th transferred all suits pending in the courts of Cumberland county, on the first day of September, 1820 between residents of Perry 3
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
county to the Courts of Common Pleas of Perry county, to be continued in said courts as if origi- nally begun there, except that the fees on the same due to the officers of Cumberland county, shall be paid to them when recovered by the sheriff or pro- thonotary of Perry county ; and the prothonotary of Cumberland county shall on or before the first day of September next, purchase a docket and copy therein all the docket entries respecting the said suits to be transferred as aforesaid, and shall on or before the first day of November next, have the said docket, together with the records, declarations and other papers respecting said suits, ready to be delivered to the prothonotary of Perry county; the expenses of said docket and copying to be paid by the prothonotary of Perry county, and be reim- bursed by the said county of Perry, on warrants to be drawn by the commissioners of Perry county on the the treasurer thereof. All certioraries to or appeals from justices, where the parties have resid- ed in Perry, which have been returned to the Court of Common Pleas of Cumberland county, at any time after the 22d of March, 1820, to be transferred to Perry.
SECTION 5 th provided for the equitable distribution of the taxes collected in Perry county by the of- ficers in Cumberland county, until the proper of- ficers were appointed or elected to take charge of the financial affairs of Perry.
SECTION 6th required the sheriff, treasurer, pro- thonotary, and all such officers, whether appointed or elected, to give such surety for the faithful per-
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
formance of their duties, as they are obliged by law to give in Cumberland county.
SECTION 7th made it the duty of the sheriff, coro- ner, and other officers of the county of Cumber- land, to exercise the duties of their offices within the county of Perry until similar officers shall be created therein.
SECTION 8th. The inhabitants of the county of Perry shall elect one representative, and the county of Cumberland two, until otherwise altered, and in conjunction with Cumberland county one senator to serve in the Legislature of this Commonwealth, in the same mode, under the same requisitions, and make return thereof in the same manner as is directed by the fifteenth section of this act.
SECTION 9th. That the Governor be and he is hereby authorized and required, on or before the first day of September next ensuing, to appoint three discreet and disinterested persons, not resi- dents in the counties of Cumberland and Perry, whose duty it shall be, to fix on a proper and con- venient site for a court-house, prison and county offices within the aforesaid county of Perry, as near the center thereof as circumstances will admit, hav- ing regard to the convenience of roads, territory, population, and the accommodation of the people of the said county generally; and said persons, or a majority of them, having viewed the relative ad- vantages of the several situations contemplated by the people, shall on or before the first day of Sep- tember next, by a written report under their hands, or under the hands of a majority of them, certify,
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
describe and limit the site or lot of land which they shall have chosen for the purpose aforesaid, and shall transmit the said report to the Governor of this Commonwealth ; and the persons appointed as aforesaid, shall receive three dollars per diem for their services out of the moneys to be raised in pursuance of this act : Provided always, That be- fore the commissioners shall proceed to perform the duties enjoined on them by this act, they shall take an oath or affirmation before some judge or jus- tice of the peace, well and truly, and with fidelity to perform said duties without favor to any person, according to the true intent and meaning of this act. (The Governor to appoint the commissioners to review the site fixed by former commissioners.)
SECTION IOth provides for the collection of taxes and the preparation by the commissioners elect for the erection of the necessary public buildings at the place designated by the aforesaid commissioners.
SECTION IIth. Perry county with Cumberland, Franklin and Adams to elect one member of Con- gress.
SECTION 12th. Perry annexed to the Southern District of the Supreme Court.
SECTION 14th. The County of Perry to be an- nexed to and form part of the Ninth Judicial Dis- trict of this Commonwealth.
SECTIONS 16th, 17th, and 18th. Prisoners to be committed to the Cumberland county jail until a building for the purpose is erected in Perry county, or for three years.
SECTION 19th. The poor of Perry county to be
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
kept at the place provided for them in Cumberland county.
The foregoing is an abstract of the Act of Sepa- ration of Perry from Cumberland county, passed March 22d, 1820.
Hon. John T. Reed, a Senator from Westmore- land county at the time of his appointment, was the first President Judge who held courts in Perry county.
The expenses of Perry county from the 4th day of November, 1820, to the 30th day of January, 1821, both days inclusive, was $4,555.34.
The receipts and expenditures from February Ist, 1821, to February Ist, 1822, was $10,580.02 ; from the 8th of January, 1822, to the 7th of Jan- uary, 1823, $12,056.19; from January, 1824, to January, 1825, $13,992.62 ; from January, 1825, to February, 1826, $13,644.52; from February, 1826, to January, 1827, $12,832.51; from January, 1827, to January, 1828, $12,555.36; from January, 1828, to January, 1829, $12,059.08 ; from January, 1829, to January 4th, 1830, $11,200.87; from January 4th, 1830, to December 31st, 1831, $16,071.28; from January 6th, 1832, to December 31st, 1832, $16.353.71 ; from January Ist, 1833, to December 31st, 1834, $16,167.34; from January, 1866, to January, 1867, $23,131.54 ; from January, 1867, to January, 1868, $27,826.57.
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
SECTION II .- THE WAR RECORD.
CHAPTER I.
REVOLUTIONARY WAR, 1775-83.
ENGLEHART WORMLEY, of Tyrone township, died on the 28th of August, 1827. He participated in the disastrous battle on Long Island, and the sub- sequent engagements which followed. He was never injured during his term of service.
ANDREW BURD, of Greenwood township, entered thearmy as a fifer-boy when but fourteen years old and served the faithful seven, being discharged when he had just attained his majority.
BENJAMIN BONSALL, SEN., of Greenwood town- ship, died in 1845, aged 89 years. He served in the militia during the "freezing and starving " winter at Valley Forge,
THOMAS BROWN, of Tyrone township, was a Revolutionary soldier, and so thoroughly imbued with love of his country that he made provision in his will for the reading of the Declaration of In- dependence over his open grave, after which a minister was to pray for him and his beloved country.
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
EDWARD DONNELLY, of Buckwheat Valley, Tus- carora township, served in the militia.
ALEXANDER GAILY, of Penn township, died in Cove Valley on the 13th of November, 1842, aged 102 years. He served in the Revolutionary army.
FREDERICK WATT, a Revolutionist, was at the massacre of Wyoming, where he served under Colonel Zebulon Butler, who "boldly met and bravely fought the combined British, Tory and Indian force of thrice his number." In this engagement he was wounded in the mouth.
He settled in Watt's Valley, Miller township, to which he gave his name, and there resided until his death.
ANDREW LYNCH, of Tuscarora township, served in the Revolutionary army, but of what date or length of term, whether volunteer or militia, we could not learn.
BENJAMIN ESSICK, of Liverpool township, died at the advanced age of 93. He served in the militia.
DAVID FOCHT, was a Revolutionary soldier, and one of the first settlers of western Perry county. He lived in Jackson township.
WILLIAM HEIM, the father of Rev. John William Heim, removed from Mahanoy township, North- umberland county, to Jackson township, Perry county, in 1815, where he died on the 2d of March, 1856. He was the last surviving hero of the Revolution living in the county. He died aged 95, and his funeral was attended by one hundred and fifty riders on horseback. Mr. Heim is said
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HISTORY OF PERRY COUNTY.
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