History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 157

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216

USA > Pennsylvania > Washington County > History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men > Part 157

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The first meetings were held in the Odd-Fellows' Hall, and in 1881 the post fitted up a room in W. H. S. Ritchie's block. The society has at present thirty- two members. The present officers are Alexander Houston, Commander; Charles Draper, Senior Vice- Commander; Robert Kaine, Junior Vice-Commander; John McCahan, Adjutant; James Speer, Quarter- master.

Chartiers Valley Railroad .- In December, 1870, the Chartiers Valley Railroad was finished through to this point, and the succeeding spring to Washington. Since the road has been opened it has done a large carrying trade, both in freight and passengers. Coal, limestone, and milk, besides much grain and produce, are shipped from this point, each of these interests em- ploying many men and requiring considerable capital. The railroad company has here a commodious ware- house and comfortable waiting-rooms in their large depot building.

The Ice Industry of Canonsburg .- In 1874 Samuel Munnell, of Canonsburg, engaged in the ice business, which has since been increased from time to time until it has become quite an important indus- try. The ice is gathered from artificial lakes. The first lake was formed in the year named by construct- ing a dyke around the meadow just west of the railroad depot and north of the railroad. Water is turned into this at the proper time from the mill-race, and by the time it freezes all sediment and impurities have settled to the bottom. The first ice-house erected held about two thousand tons when first housed. Twenty per cent. is allowed for waste. The first crop was sold in 1876. In that year he erected an additional house and stored three thousand tons. In 1878 he built a third addition and stored four thousand tons. At these houses the ice is lifted by a screw-elevator driven by a ten horse-power engine. When in good working order this machine will elevate about forty blocks a minute, equal to two hundred tons an hour, when the ice is from twelve to fifteen inches thick.

In 1880, Mr. Munnell associated with him Samuel Duff, of Pittsburgh, and purchased fourteen acres of meadow lying south of the railroad and directly op- posite the old premises. This firm is known as the Canonsburg Ice Company. Eleven acres of this tract

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

was surrounded with a dyke three-fifths of a mile in length, and ranging in height from two to five feet, with an average width of seventeen feet. In the centre of this dyke is an upright partition of plank two inches thick. The amount of plank required was twenty thousand feet, and to construct the embank- ment required the moving of one hundred and eighty thousand cubic feet of earth. The house used in storing the ice from this lake as first built was one hundred and fifty-five by eighty-four feet, with a height to the eaves of the roof of twenty-seven feet, and divided into five rooms. In 1882 two additional rooms were added, making the building two hundred and seventeen by eighty-four feet in size, with a storing capacity of nearly twelve thousand tons, or sixteen thousand for all the houses owned by the company and by Mr. Munnell himself. There are railroad sidings at all the houses, and the ice is easily loaded into the cars for shipment. The ice is sold at wholesale, and mainly finds a market in Pittsburgh. During the ice harvest fifty or sixty men are given employment. When the houses are filled, the water is let out of the ponds and the meadows used for cropping during the summer.

Rolling-Mill,-About the 1st of April, 1882, an offer was made to the people of Canonsburg by par- ties in Pittsburgh to locate and build a rolling-mill at that point provided the citizens would raise the sum of fifty thousand dollars. An effort was imme- diately made, which resulted in raising the amount necessary by the 3d of May. The parties in Pitts- burgh were notified, and a meeting was called to be held in that city May 11th, at which meeting a com- pany was organized with one hundred and fifty thousand dollars' capital, and the following-named officers : Directors, John Ewing (president), L. A. Meysen (secretary), Charles H. Taylor (treasurer), H. S. Duncan, and Samuel Munnell. A site was soon after purchased of eleven and a half acres of land of William Ewing and S. B. McPeak, situated on the north bank of Chartiers Creek, southwest of the town of Canonsburg and on the Chartiers Valley Railroad. A coal bank is within one hundred yards of the site. Operations were commenced and pushed with vigor in the expectation of having the mill com- pleted and ready for work in September, 1882. The works will at first employ about two hundred men, which force it is expected will be increased as the business progresses.

Chartiers Woolen-Factory .- Some time previous to the war of the Rebellion a few of the leading cap- italists and others of this vicinity agitated the ques- tion of building a mill for the manufacture of woolen goods. As near as can be learned the subject first took shape in the minds of Mr. John E. Black and William McDaniel, Esq., both men of enterprise and excellent business acquirements. Sufficient money was subscribed, a stock company formed (of which John Hays, Esq., was president), and the services of

Mr. H. C. Gleason, a practical wool-worker from Massachusetts, were secured. A brick building, forty by sixty feet, three stories high, was erected on the north bank of Chartiers Creek. The building awaited only the machinery when the war interposed, putting a stop to further operations. In 1866 an agreement was made with George Orth and William Layburn, of Connellsville, to take charge of the works with a view of purchasing. The company purchased one set of woolen machinery complete. Messrs. Orth and Layburn put on twelve hands and commenced work. They were successful for several years, and so continued until 1873, when the com- pany went into litigation, and the works were finally sold to James Craighead, by whom it is still owned. Additional machinery was put in, and eleven hands are now employed. During the year 1881 sixteen hundred pairs of blankets, and six hundred pieces of flannel, thirty-five yards to the piece, were manu- factured.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

W. H. S. RITCHIE.

W. H. S. Ritchie was born in Canonsburg, Wash- ington Co., Pa., June 9, 1850. His grandfather, Hon. Craig Ritchie, was born in Glasgow, Scotland, Dec. 29, 1758. He emigrated to this country in 1772. He early evinced extraordinary talents for business, and soon succeeded in working his way to the position of a successful merchant in Canonsburg. At the age of thirty he secured to himself the possession of a most estimable and valuable wife by marrying Miss Mary Price, a native of Maryland. She died at Canons- burg in 1836. This excellent lady, who became the mother of a large family (fourteen children), pre-emi- nently adorned her station, and greatly contributed to Mr. Ritchie's happiness and success in life. She sympathized with him in his toils and struggles to sustain Jefferson College through its early history ; and her name ought ever to stand with those of Mrs. Canon, Mrs. McMillan, and other noble women who labored and prayed and made such sacrifices for this institution.

Mr. Ritchie's energy of character, business habits, integrity of principle, and general intelligence secured to him a widely extended reputation. He was early elected to the Legislature, and served his country for some years in this capacity. During the " Whiskey Insurrection" he took a decided stand on the side of law and order, and rendered himself so unpopular with some of the leaders of that unhappy affair that he was in danger of their vengeance. Indeed, nothing but his absence in attendance at the General Assembly of the State saved his property from the torch of the incendiaries at the time that Gen. Neville's house

Dr. A.f. Ritchie

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CANONSBURG BOROUGH.

was burned to the ground, as some of the party told the family.

He enjoyed the confidence and especial friendship of Gen. Washington, who often visited him and cor- responded with him, and availed himself of Mr. Ritchie's aid in the management of his landed interest in Washington County. He not only lodged with Mr. Ritchie, and often dined with him, but took many a walk with him along the banks of Chartiers, conferring with him, not only about his own private interests, but the public concerns of the country. He also enjoyed the friendship and confidence of Dr. Mc- Millan, who made Mr. Ritchie's house his home whenever he was in Canonsburg. For more than forty years there was an unbroken intimacy between these good men.

It would be hard to say how much Jefferson Col- lege is indebted to Mr. Ritchie for its successful struggles in its most perilous times. He was one of its first trustees, and secretary of the board for a long time. He also was appointed treasurer at various times, and managed the financial affairs of the col- lege with great judgment and success, often paying large sums in advance from his own pocket. He was by far the best business man they had, and did more in devising ways and means to sustain the college than perhaps all the other trustees together, even in- cluding Dr. McMillan himself. He gave a large por- tion of his time and personal attention in superin- tending the progress of the new building (Providence Hall), and provided from his own resources whatever might be temporarily wanted by the workmen. When, in 1817, every other trustee seemed to despair of the further existence of the college, Mr. Ritchie was un- moved and immovable, and took such energetic steps as reanimated the friends of the institution and se- cured its continuance.

He died June 13, 1833. He was a gentleman of the old school. His dignified and somewhat aristo- cratic manners and his fine personal appearance com- manded respect wherever he might be found. For honesty of principle, goodness and charity, and for self-sacrificing efforts in behalf of Jefferson College, the church of his choice, and the country of his adoption, Mr. Ritchie had no superior in the men of his day. To have so long enjoyed the confidence and esteem of Gen. Washington and Dr. McMillan is a high honor to which few, living or dead, can lay claim. He left behind him a large family of uncom- mon intelligence and refinement. A number of them died in infancy. The Rev. Dr. Andrew Wylie, presi- dent first of Jefferson College, then of Washington College, and lastly of Indiana University, married his oldest daughter. The Rev. Joseph T. Smith, D.D., of Baltimore, married a granddaughter.

William married Miss S. Dorsey, of Philadelphia ; left one son, Craig D. Ritchie, of Philadelphia. Died in Wheeling, 1838. John married a daughter of Parker Campbell, of Washington, Pa., and died in

Texas, aged seventy years. Ann was wife of Dr. Jonathan Letherman. Mary married Dr. George Herriott, both of whom are deceased.

Catharine was wife of the Rev. Samuel F. Leake, the successor for some years of Dr. McMillan." Eliza was wife of Redick McKee, formerly of Wheeling. Hon. David Ritchie, the youngest son, died in Pitts- burgh.

Craig Ritchie, father of W. H. S. Ritchie, was born in Canonsburg, Nov. 24, 1807, and was educated in her schools.

In the early years of his life he was employed in his father's store at Canonsburg, and foreshadowed in the boy the remarkable talent for business affairs which characterized him through life. In 1832 he moved to Wheeling, W. Va., where he engaged suc- cessfully in the manufacture of glass. He owned the land which for many years was called Ritchieville, but is now known as South Wheeling. Returning to Chambersburg in 1840, he continued to carry on mer- chandising there till 1875, when he sold out to his son, W. H. S. Ritchie, at which time he retired from active business.

He was for more than thirty years clerk and elder in the Chartiers Presbyterian Church, and at an earlier period its Sabbath-school superintendent. He was not only the thorough business man, but he took a deep interest in public affairs, and in all enterprises which looked to the betterment of his native place. He married Mary Ann Chickering, the only child of Lieut. Thomas Balch Chickering, U.S.A. Lieut. Chickering was a native of Dedham, Mass., and the seventh in direct descent from Thomas Balch, the first male child born in Massachusetts Bay colony, 1634. He married Susan (or Susannah), third child of David and Cynthia Swift, who was the sixth in direct de- scent from William Morse, who was born in 1608, emigrated and settled in Newbury, Mass., and died there Nov. 29, 1683. The line is as follows : (1) Wil- liam Morse, (2) Jonathan, (3) Joshua, (4) Capt. Theo- dore, who was born Aug. 20, 1717; died July, 1762, at Falmouth, Mass., (5) Cynthia, twelfth child of Capt. Theodore Morse and Thankful Crocker, married Da- vid Swift, (6) Susan, third child of David and Cyn- thia Swift. Susan Chickering survived her husband sixty years. She died in Canonsburg in 1876.

In all the womanly qualities which mark the excel- lent wife and devoted mother, Mrs. Ritchie has fully sustained the reputation which has been a prominent characteristic of the distinguished families from which she descends. She survives her husband, and is liv- ing with her son, W. H. S. Ritchie.

Their children were Caroline, Frank, Virginia, Mary, Ellen, William Henry Swift, Henrietta, and Susan.

Caroline is wife of Rev. I. S. Hays, D.D., Professor of Theology in the seminary at Danville, Ky.

Virginia (deceased) was wife of the Rev. Robert Miller, a clergyman in the M. E. Church.

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HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

Frank died at Morris Island, November, 1863, dur- ing the war; a captain in the volunteer service.

Mary is wife of Leaman Carothers, a farmer, living near Taylorstown, Washington Co.

Ellen is wife of W. D. Butler, superintendent in the public schools of St. Louis, Mo.

Henrietta is an attendant of the School of Design in Philadelphia.

Susan Moore is wife of C. P. Waugh, a farmer, living near Independence, in West Virginia.

W. H. S. Ritchie received his education in the schools of Canonsburg.

When ten years of age, in 1860, he entered his father's store as clerk, and was for the next ten years thus employed except when attending school. From 1870 he became permanently connected with the business, and for three years prior to 1875 its princi- pal management devolved on him. In 1875 he pur- chased the store of his father, since which time he has carried it on in his own name. In the latter part of 1877 and first of 1878 he built his present large store building, and occupied it in April of the latter year. (A representation of this business block will be found on another page of this volume.) The build- ing and occupancy of a store of its magnitude was the inauguration of a new era in the trade of Canons- burg, and though many of his neighbors prophesied it was too large for the place, the sequel has fully justi- fied Mr. Ritchie's foresight and good judgment. His venture gave at once a marked impetus to the trade of the town. A large trade, which formerly went to other localities, has been drawn to Canonsburg by the increased inducements offered to customers. At the present time Mr. Ritchie is erecting still another brick block to accommodate his increasing business.

Mr. Ritchie is an ardent member of the Republican party, but an aspirant for no office.

He is a member of the Canonsburg Presbyterian Church ; married, Nov. 23, 1872, Sarah J. Miller. Their children are Theodore Morse, Madeline, and William.

DR. JAMES GLENN DICKSON.

Dr. James Glenn Dickson was born in Fayette township, Allegheny Co., Pa., Feb. 15, 1825, the third in a family of five children of William and Margaret (Glenn) Dickson. After marriage, his grandfather, George Dickson, at an early day settled near what is now Greensburg, county-seat of Westmoreland County, but eventually moved to Fayette township, Allegheny County, then in the "backwoods." The family were several times driven by the Indians back to the settlement near Greensburg, and at one time their log cabin was burned and their crops destroyed. He had three sons and four daughters, all of whom were married and, with one exception, raised families. He and his wife died at the homestead in Fayette, and both are buried at the Robinson's Run Church.

William Dickson, father of the doctor, was the youngest of the seven children. He was born in Fayette in 1790, and fell heir to the homestead upon the death of his father. He was one of the heaviest and most successful farmers in the region, and one of the first in Western Pennsylvania to introduce fine- wool sheep. He took decided interest in church and political affairs. He was an elder for many years in the Associate and subsequently in the United Presby- terian Church.

He was twice married. His first wife was Marga- ret Glenn, whose family were among the earliest settlers of Allegheny County. She was born in 1791. Their children were Rachel, George, James G., Mary J., and William A. Rachel is wife of Robert Potter, surveyor and farmer, living in Noblestown, Allegheny Co. George is a resident of Pittsburgh, has followed farming, but at the present time follows surveying as a business. Mary J. is wife of James Clark, a retired farmer living in Canonsburg. William A. is a farmer living near Midway Station, on the Panhandle Railroad.

The doctor's mother died Nov. 18, 1852, aged sixty- one. His father married for his second wife, in. 1857, Susan Aikin, who died March 1, 1872, near Nobles- town, Pa. He died March 18, 1872. He and both his wives are buried at the Robinson Run Church.

Dr. Dickson received his primary education in the district school of his neighborhood. He prepared for college under the instruction of the Rev. John M. French, pastor of the Associate Church of Nobles- town; entered Jefferson College in 1843, and was graduated from that institution in 1847. His first two years in college were under the presidency of Dr. Matthew Brown ; the last two of Dr. Robert J. Breck- enridge. Among his classmates were the Rev. J. R. W. Sloan, D.D., Rev. Davis Carson, D.D., and Rev. A. G. Wallace, D.D. His class numbered sixty members. In 1858 he commenced the study of medi- cine with Dr. J. V. Herriott, of Canonsburg. He attended his first course of lectures at the Jefferson Medical College, Philadelphia, in the winter of 1849- 50, his second course in the following winter, re- ceiving his medical diploma from that institution in the spring of 1851.

In the summer of the same year he began the practice of medicine at Mount Jackson, Lawrence Co., Pa., where he remained about one year. In 1852, at the solicitation of his old preceptor, Dr. Her- riott, he returned to Canonsburg, and entered into a partnership with him, which continued about two years, when Dr. Herriott removed to Philadelphia. Upon the return of Dr. Herriott, after an absence of a number of years, Dr. Dickson again became associated with him in practice, which arrangement continued about three years, when Dr. Herriott moved to Valparaiso, Ind., where he is still living.

Since that time Dr. Dickson has been alone in his profession, having now an unbroken practice in Can-

I M Alexander

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CANONSBURG BOROUGH.

onsburg of thirty years, the longest period of any physician of the place. The only vacations taken during the time were one week spent in the oil regions and one week at the Centennial. Few, if any, phy- sicians in the county have a larger or wider range of practice, his ride averaging for many years twenty miles per day. Nature, as well as education, united with rare powers of physical endurance, have made him the successful physician. His cheerful, sympa- thetic manner, equally with his superior skill in ad- ministering remedies, at once command the respect and confidence of his patients.

The doctor united with the Associate Church of Noblestown in 1845. He has been a member of the Chartiers United Presbyterian Church since his resi- dence in Canonsburg. In politics a Whig and Re- publican. He married, Sept. 4, 1857, Margaret H., daughter of Alexander and Mary (Miller) Buchanan. Mrs. Dickson was born Feb. 28, 1828, in North Stra- bane township.

Their children are Mary, Jeannette, and William Alexander. The former is a graduate of Washington Seminary ; the latter is a student at Duff's Mercan- tile College.

DR. J. W. ALEXANDER.

Dr. J. W. Alexander was born in North Strabane township, Washington Co., Pa., April 15, 1815. His grandfather, Samuel Alexander, emigrated from Ire- land in 1763, and settled in Chadd's Ford, Chester Co., Pa. He married a Miss Wilson, by whom he had three children, two sons and a daughter, all born at Chadd's Ford. In 1785 he moved his family to Allegheny County, where he patented three hun- dred and sixty acres of land, situated two miles from the present village of Bridgeville. Both he and his wife died and were buried in this place.

His son, Joseph Alexander, father of the doctor, married Elizabeth West in 1807, and in 1808 he pur- chased a farm in North Strabane township, Washing- ton County, of one hundred and forty acres, partly improved. He lived on this place until his death, which occurred March 23, 1828, aged sixty-two. His wife survived him many years ; she died in 1869, aged eighty-seven.

Their children were Mary, Samuel, Elizabeth, Jo- seph, West, and Susan. Mary was wife of James Mahood. Samuel married Mary Van Eman; has one child living, Elizabeth. Elizabeth was wife of John Dixon, living at Milan, Rock Island Co., Ill. ; two children living, George and Emma. Susan was wife of William McA. Quail, a farmer in North Stra- bane township; three children, Huston, Elizabeth, and Annie. All the brothers and sisters are deceased.

Dr. Alexander passed his boyhood working on his father's farm. His primary education was received at the common school in Canonsburg. He prepared for college at the preparatory department of Jefferson

College, which he entered in 1835. He remained three years in college, taking the full course, with the exception of the Greek language. In 1838 he entered as a medical student the office of Dr. J. V. Herriott, at Canonsburg, with whom he studied three years. He taught school, however, at Hollidaysburg nine months of that time. He attended a course of lec- tures at Jefferson Medical College in the winter of 1839-40. Commenced the practice of medicine in Hillsboro', Washington. Co., in 1841, and continued there until 1861. He passed the examination of the State board, Aug. 6, 1861, and was commissioned as surgeon January, 1862. Received the appointment as surgeon of the Twenty-sixth Pennsylvania Volun- teer Infantry. After the battles of Fair Oaks and Seven Pines, he was assigned to duty as surgeon of the Eighty fifth Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry, which position he held three months. He was relieved from this position, and Oct. 20, 1862, was appointed surgeon of the Fifteenth Pennsylvania Cavalry, Col. William J. Palmer commanding, with which regiment he re- mained until the close of the war. He was mustered out of service at Nashville, Tenn., June 21, 1865.

With the exception of a slight flesh-wound, re- ceived at the battle of Seven Pines, the doctor came out of the war unscathed. . The regiments in which he served were in many of the severest battles, and the duties of his position were often most arduous and exhaustive.

Prior to the war the doctor had removed to Canons- burg, and upon being mustered out he returned to that place, where, after a rest of about two years, he resumed the practice of his profession, and has ever since been one of its leading physicians.

He is a member of the State Medical Society, also of the Washington County Medical Society, at one time president of the latter.

At the present time (1882) he is physician to the Morganza Reform School.

In politics, first a Whig, and a Republican from the organization of that party. He was chairman of the first county convention of that party ; was a mem- ber of the Legislature of 1853 ; has been a trustee of Jefferson Academy for ten years, a member of the Canonsburg Presbyterian Church nine years, and an elder for the last seven years.

In all matters affecting church or state the doctor has most decided opinions, and if the occasion re- quires is abundantly able to defend them. For his friends he always has a warm side; those who are not he is apt to let severely alone. He married, June 18, 1844, Mary Ann, daughter of John and Elizabeth (Morison) Horner. Mrs. Alexander was born in Hanover township, Washington County. Her father's was one of the old families of Northamp- ton County, Pa. Their children are Mary Elizabeth, Joseph, Margaret, Laura, and William H.

Mary Elizabeth is the wife of Thomas Yates living in Washington, Pa.

CALIFORNIA BOROUGH.

THE pleasant and growing borough of California is located on the west bank of the Monongahela River, just above the mouth of the small stream known as Pike Run, which separates it from the old borough of Greenfield, and is distant five miles below Browns- ville, fifty miles by rail and fifty-five miles by river from Pittsburgh, and twenty-three miles from Wash- ington, the county-seat. Its site is one of great nat- ural beauty, and not surpassed within the confines of the Monongahela Valley.

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History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 157

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N Publication date: 1882 Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co. Number of Pages: 1216

Author: Crumrine, Boyd, 1838-1916; Ellis, Franklin, 1828-1885; Hungerford, Austin N
Publication date: 1882
Publisher: Philadelphia : H.L. Everts & Co.
Number of Pages: 1216