History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 160

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 160

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" March ye 3. 1784.

" Memerandom of a Bargain mead Between Marey Petters and Wil- liam oldest son and Neal Gillespey, the agrement is thos, that we the above do bargain and seal to send Neal Geallespie the Tract of land which we now poses and all the tenements and boundries of said Land at forty five Shillings pr. Acker the tearm of Peaments the 15th of next October fower hundred Pounds to be Paid in money or moneys worth for this Peament two ton of Iron at teen pence Pr pound and one Negro at Preasment of two men, one hundred pound more to be pead at the same time of this Preasment or Else to Draw In trust for one Year, the Remainder of the Purches money to be Pead in two Peaments-First in the [year] 1786, the Next the year 1788, Each of these Peaments to be mead in October 15th the above Bound marey Petters and william Pet- ters asserts to meak the said Neal Gillespee a proper Right for said land for which we have seat our bands and Seals.

(Signed)

her

" JOHN MA CORTNEY. " MAREY XII PETTERS. mark.' his

" JOHN NIXON. " WILLIAM XIX PETTERS.

mark.

" Acknowledged before THOMAS CROOKS Feb. 25, 1786."

Mr. Gillespie obtained full title and control of "Indian Hill" on the 27th of January, 1787, and we further learn from the description that it was situated " on the west side of the Monongahela River, opposite Fort Buyrd," and adjoining lands owned by Thomas Swearingen and Ebenezer Lane. It has been stated that Indian Peter's residence was on the hill over- looking the town site, and probably the elder Neal Gillespie, too, took up his abode there. However, during the passing of years the latter was laid beneath the sward of the valley, and the Indian Hill farm came into the possession of his son, also named Neal Gillespie.

Ephraim Blaine, grandfather of Ephraim L., and great-grandfather of the Hon. James G. Blaine, was a Revolutionary officer, and lived at Carlisle, Pa., where he succeeded David Hoge as sheriff of Cumber- land County. "June 26, 1765, at seven o'clock in the afternoon," he married Rebekah Galbraith, by whom he had six children, all of whom died young except James. He traveled quite extensively in Europe and South America, and about 1800 came to the West.

Before emigrating he married Miss Lyon, a daugh- ter of Samuel Lyon, of Cumberland County, and set- tled first at Davidson's Ferry, near Muddy Creek, in Greene County. In 1804 he removed to Brownsville, where he opened a store, and where, also, he was elected justice of the peace and occupied the position many years. He afterwards removed to Sewickley, Allegheny Co., Pa., where he owned a farm, which he sold to the Economites, and about 1817 moved to a small farm near Washington, Pa., where he died, leaving seven children, Ephraim L., Jane, Ellen, Ann, William, Robert, and Samuel.2

1 Shute was a member of the Gist settlement, and was there when Capt. John Steele was at Redstone in 1768.

2 Jane, a daughter of James Blaine, married William Sample, the pro- prietor of the Washington Reporter. In 1819 he was elected prothono-

637

WEST BROWNSVILLE BOROUGH.

Ephraim Lyon Blaine was born on the 28th of February, 1796. He emigrated to this country with his father, graduated at Washington College, and married Maria, the daughter of Neal Gillespie, Jr. He became the owner of a large portion of the In- dian Hill tract of Neal Gillespie, and established his residence on the bottom lands fronting the National road, the premises now occupied by John S. Pringle. Later he built at the lower end of the town the stone house still standing, known as the Blaine house, and where James G. Blaine was born in 1830. He grad- uated at Washington College, and after a time re- moved to the State of Maine. The career of James G. Blaine as member of Congress and United States senator from Maine, Secretary of State under Presi- dent Garfield, and himself an aspirant to the nomi- nation by the Republican party for President of the United States, is too well and universally known through the country to need a recital. In September, 1881, during the celebration of the centennial anni- versary of the organization of Washington County, Pa., the following letter from Mr. Blaine was read. As it contains much that is and ever will be of his- toric interest to the people of West Brownsville, and, indeed, to Washington County people generally, this is thought to be a most appropriate place for its inser- tion :

" WASHINGTON, D. C., Sept. 5, 1881.

"JOHN D. MCKENNAN, ESQ. :

" DEAR SIR,-I had anticipated great pleasure in being present at the centennial celebration of the erection of Washington County, but the national sorrow which shadows every household detains me here. I shall perhaps never again have the opportunity of seeing so many of the friends of my youth and so many of my blood and kindred, and you may well con- ceive that my disappointment is great. The strong attachment which I feel for the county, the pride which I cherish in its traditions, and the high estimate which I have always placed on the character of its people in- crease with years and with reflection. The pioneers were strong-hearted, God-fearing, resolute men, wholly, or almost wholly, of Scotch of Scotch- Irish descent. They were men who, according to an inherited maxim, never turned their backs on a friend or on an enemy. For twenty years, dating from the middle period of the Revolution, the settlers were com- posed very largely of men who had themselves served in the Continental army, many of them as officers, and they imparted an intense patriotism to the public sentiment. It may be among the illusions of memory, but I think I have nowhere else seen the Fourth of July and Washington's Birthday celebrated with such zeal and interest as in the gatherings I there attended. I recall a great meeting of the people on the Fourth of July, 1840, on the border of the county, in Brownsville, at which a considerable part of the procession was composed of vehicles filled with Revolutionary soldiers. I was but ten years old and may possibly mis- take, but I think there were more than two hundred of the grand old heroes. The modern cant and criticism which we sometimes hear about Washington not being, after all, a very great man would have been dan- gerons talk on that day and in that assemblage.

" These pioneers placed a high value on education, and while they were still on the frontier struggling with its privations they established two excellent colleges, long since prosperously united in one. It would be impossible to overstate the beneficent and wide-spread influence which Washington and Jefferson Colleges have exerted on the civiliza- tion of that great country which lies between the Alleghenies and the

tary of the county, and later removed to the West. Ellen, also a daughi- ter, became the wife of the Hon. John HI. Ewing, of Washington, where "they resided. She died many years ago. Aan married James Mason, and removed to Iowa. William Blaine died several years since. Robert now resides in Washington, D. C., and Samuel Blaine is a resident of Louisville, Ky.

Mississippi River. Their graduates have been prominent in the putjat, at the bar, on the bench, and in the high stations of public life. During my service of eighteen years in Congress, I met a larger number of the alumini of Washington and Jefferson than of any other single coll ge in the Union. I make this statement from memory, but I feel assured that a close examination of the rolls of the two Houses from 1863 to 1881 would fully establish its correctness. Not only were the two col- leges founded and well sustained, but the entire educational system of the county, long before the school tax and public schools, was compre- hensive and thorough. I remember in my own boyhood that there were ten or eleven academies or select schools in the county where lude could be fitted for college. In nearly every instunce the Presbyterian pastor was the principal teacher. Many who will be present at your centennial will recall the succession of well-drilled students who came for so many years from the tuition of Dr. Mccluskey at West Alexan- der, from Rev. John Stockton at Cross Creek, from Rev. Juhn Eagleson at Buffalo, and from others of like worth and reputation. It was inevi- table that a county thus peopled should grow in strength, wisdom, ant! wealth. Its sixty thousand inhabitants are favored far beyond the average lot of 'man. They are blessed with a fertile soil and with the health-giving climate which belongs to the charmed latitude of the for- tieth parallel,-the middle of the wheat and corn belt of the continent. Beyond this they enjoy the happy and ennobling influences of scenery as grand and as beautiful as that which Inres tourists thousands of miles beyond the sea. I have myself visited many of the celebrated spots in Europe and in America, and I have nowhere witnessed a more attractive sight than was familiar to my eyes in boyhood from the old Indian Hill farmn, where I was born and where my grent-grandfather, the elder Neal Gillespie, settled before the outbreak of the Revolution. The majestic sweep of the Monongahela through the foothills of the Alle- ghenies, with the chain of mountains but twenty miles distant in full view, gave an impression of beauty and sublimity which can never bu effaced.

" I talk thus familiarly of localities and of childhood incidents, be- cause your assemblage, though composed of thousands, will in effect be a family REUNION, where the only thing in order will be tradition and recollection and personal history. Identified, as I have been for twenty - eight years, with a great and noble people in another section of the Union, I have never lost any of my attachment for my native county and my native State. The two feelings no more conflict than does a man's love for his wife and his love for his mother. Wherever I may be in life, or whatever my fortune, the county of Washington, as it anciently was, taking in all the State south and west of the Mononga- hela, will be sacred in my memory. I shall always recall with pride that my ancestry and kindred were and are not inconspicuously con- nected with its history, and that on either side of the beautiful river, in Protestant and Catholic cemeteries, five generations of my own blood sleep in honored graves.

" Very sincerely yours, " JAMES G. BLAINE."

In 1831, Ephraim L. Blaine, doubtless anticipating the speedy completion of the bridge over the Monon- gahela, then projected, laid out the original plat of the town of West Brownsville. This plat contained one hundred and three lots, sixty feet wide, and (owing to the abrupt hillside) varying from ninety- three to two hundred and seventy feet deep. Its streets running parallel with the river are Water, Middle, and Main, while those crossing them at right angles are Bridge, Broadway, and Liberty.

Some years later James L. Bowman laid out the addition known as "Bowman's Addition to West Brownsville." This addition comprises sixty-one lots (each sixty feet wide by one hundred and fifty-one feet deep), lying below or to the northward of the original plat. Water, Middle, and Main Streets are continued through it, while its cross streets are Penn and Vine.

Notwithstanding the opening of the bridge over the Monongahela in 1833, but few persons were induced

638

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

to build dwellings in the little hamlet of West Browns- ville until the establishment of Pringle's boat-yard. In the fall of 1842, Ephraim L. Blaine was the Dem- ocratic candidate1 for prothonotary, and was elected. In February of the following year he sold out a large portion of his village property to Capt. John S. Pringle, who at once established an extensive yard for the building of steamboats, etc. The establish- ment of these works brought an increased number of residents, more especially from among those who here found employment. Schools were opened, mer- cantile houses were established, and various minor manufacturing interests also.

The first ferries on the Monongahela River were authorized by the Virginia courts Feb. 23, 1775, then in session at Fort Dunmore (now Pittsburgh). On that day Jacob Bausman was licensed to keep a ferry from his house on the south side of the Monon- gahela River to Fort Dunmore. Michael Cresap was also licensed the same day "to keep a ferry on Mo- nongahela River at Redstone Old Fort to the land of Indian Peter [now West Brownsville], and that he provide a boat." Cresap died in the fall of that year. It is not known by whom the ferry was con- tinued. The lands on the east side of the river came into possession of Thomas Brown, and in 1784 the lands on the west side were purchased by Neal Gil- lespie. In the minutes of the December sessions of Fayette County Court for 1788 is found a report of certain persons appointed to view "the road from Friends' Meeting-House to the ferry at the fort," meaning Gillespie's ferry at Redstone Old Fort, or Brownsville. The landing-place of the ferry in Brownsville is in front of the residence of Henry Sweitzer (now the United States Hotel), and in West Brownsville directly opposite. The old road that led back into the country from the ferry is now unused, but may be seen winding along the bank of the little stream that comes in at that place.

This ferry continued making its landings at this point until about 1820, when the National road was opened to the Monongahela River, and the ferry landing was moved up to the point near where the great highway struck the river in Bridgeport. It was there continued until the bridge across the river was completed in 1833.

Another ferry was established on the Monongahela River by John Krepps in the year 1794. Its landing at West Brownsville was above the boat-yards of Axton and Pringle and directly opposite the present residence of Solomon G. Krepps, at which point the eastern landing was made. This ferry remained in operation until some time after the completion of the Monongahela bridge, and towards the last of its existence a ferry-boat propelled by steam was used upon it.

There was no communication by bridge across the Monongahela River from West Brownsville to Bridge- port until the year 1833, all traffic and travel across the stream at this point being accommodated by the fer- ries up to that time. More than twenty years earlier, however, the project of bridging the river at some point near the mouth of Dunlap's Creek was agi- tated by some of the most prominent men of the vicinity on both sides of the river. In 1810 an act was passed (approved March 20th in that year) "to authorize the Governor to incorporate a company for erecting a bridge over the Monongahela River at or near where the road leading from Brownsville to the town of Washington crosses the same," thus author- izing the location of the bridge at Brownsville or Bridgeport, as might be decided on. The act desig- nated and appointed "Neal Gillespie, Jr., Parker Campbell, and Thomas Acheson, of the county of Washington, Jacob Bowman, Thomas Mason, Charles Shaffner, Samuel Jackson, David Ewing, and Michael Sowers, of the county of Fayette," commissioners to receive subscriptions to the stock of the company to be formed. It was provided and required by the act that the bridge should be so constructed as not to obstruct navigation (except so far as might be done by the erec- tion of the two abutments and three piers in the river), "or in any manner to obstruct the passage over the usual fording-place, which shall at all times be open as heretofore to persons desirous of passing through the same." The company was of course authorized to collect tolls. The bridge to be commenced in three years and finished in seven years from the passage of the act, under penalty of forfeiture of rights and franchises. References to the probable early commencement and completion of the bridge are found in the newspapers of that time; but no work was ever actually done on it, nor does it appear that the bridge site was definitely determined on or the necessary amount of stock subscribed.

On the 16th of March, 1830, the Monongahela Bridge Company was incorporated, with a capital of $44,000. The corporators were George Hogg, James L. Bowman, Valentine Giesey, and Robert Clarke, of Fayette County ; Daniel Moore, Jesse Kenworthy, Ephraim L. Blaine, John Ringland, and Thomas Mc- Kennan, of Washington County. By the terms of the . incorporation William Davidson, George Craft, Isaac Meason, and Andrew Oliphant, of Fayette County, and John Park, Jr., William Berry, and John Wat-

1 During the heat of the canvass which preceded the election in 1842 it seems to have been a mooted question whether the Democratic candi- date for the office of prothonotary was a member of the Catholic Church or not. To prove or disprove an assertion publicly made the Catholic priest officiating in the neighborhood was appealed to, who promptly furnished the following forcible aud, to say the least, unequivocal cer- tificate, which was afterwards displayed in the public prints of that day : " This is to certify that Ephraim L. Blaine is not now and never was A member of the Catholic Church, and furthermore, in my opinion, he is not fit to be a member of any church."

Notwithstanding the brond and perhaps unwarranted assertion of the reverend father here quoted, Mr. Blaine finally became a member of the denomination mentioned. He died June 28, 1850, and his remains now le buried beside his wife's within the shadows of the Catholic church edifice at Brownsville, Fayette Co.

639

WEST BROWNSVILLE BOROUGH.

son, of Washington County, were appointed commis- sioners to locate the site of the bridge. These men, taking into consideration the great amount of travel and traffic then coming to the river over the National road, fixed the location at the point where that road strikes the river in Bridgeport, and where the bridge now spans the stream.

Books were opened for subscriptions to the stock in July, 1830, and the requisite amount was soon ob- tained. The contract for building was awarded to Messrs. Le Baron & De Mond, at $32,000, with $5000 additional for the approaches. They commenced work in the fall of 1831, and on the 23d of November received the first payment of $500 'on the contract. Apparently the work was not pushed very vigorously, for the bridge was not completed until 1833, the first tolls being received on the 14th of October in that year.

The bridge is a covered structure, of wood, six hundred and thirty feet in length, in three spans, standing on two piers in the river between the abut- ments. For almost half a century it has stood firm against the ice and the numerous great floods in the Monongahela, the most remarkable of which was, perhaps, that which reached its most dangerous point on the 6th of April, 1852. The bridge has always been a very profitable investment to the stockholders, but more particularly so in the palmy days of the National road, before the railways had diverted its travel and traffic into other channels. The first offi- cers of the company were George Hogg, president ; Thomas McKennan, secretary; James L. Bowman, treasurer. Mr. Hogg was succeeded in the presidency by James L. Bowman, whose successor is George E. Hogg. The following-named gentlemen are the pres- ent (1881) officers ; Managers, George E. Hogg (presi- dent), J. W. Jeffries, Capt. Adam Jacobs, Eli J. Bailey, N. B. Bowman, Joseph T. Rogers, George W. Lenhart; Secretary and Treasurer, William Ledwith.

Robert Mckinley, Esq., was born at Cumberland, Md., something more than half a century ago, and first settled at West Brownsville in the year 1847. He remembers that among those then living here were James Moffit, justice of the peace and surveyor ; Ephraim L. Blaine, who lived in the brick house now owned by Solomon Watkins; Jacob Bennett, a New Orleans trader, or rather one who traded in produce at various points along the Monongahela, Ohio, and Mississippi Rivers from Brownsville to New Orleans; John S. Pringle, master boat-builder; Thomas H. Hopkins, who kept hotel in the building now known as the " Nichols House ;" J. E. Adams, boat-builder ; John Gregg, and George Morrison, the latter of whom was then engaged in the sale of dry-goods, etc. Mr. Mckinley established a grocery-store during the first year of his settlement here.

The boat-yard of John Cock and Leonard Lane- hart was started as early as 1848, and at the time

the town was incorporated (1849) there were many other prominent residents, whose names are found attached to a petition praying that the town be in- corporated.

Incorporation .- In the spring of 1849 a new era dawned upon the little village. With a population1 of nearly four hundred inhabitants, it was determined to apply for a borough charter,2 and accordingly & petition to that effect, signed by John S. Pringle, Ephraim L. Blaine, and forty-seven other citizens, was presented to the Washington County Court of Quarter Sessions. At the May term of that year the court ordered that the application be placed before the grand jury, which body having considered the mat- ter just and expedient recommended that the prayer of the petitioners be granted. Thereupon,- during the August sessions of 1849, the following order was placed upon record :

"Petition for the incorporation of the Borough of West Brownsville, Aug. 29, 1849, the report of the grand jury is confirmed, and the court decree the erection of a Borough agreeably to the prayer of the peti- tioners and order the same to be recorded in the recorder's office of the county at the expense of the applicants, and from henceforth the said town or village be deemed an incorporated borough, and shall be en- titled to the several rights, privileges, and immunities conferred by the act of assembly in such cases made and provided, subject to such modi- fications as may be hereafter made by the Legislature."

First Borough Election .- The first election for borough officers took place at the school-house in West Brownsville on the 20th day of October, 1849, when the following-named officers were elected : Joseph Taylor, burgess ; John S. Pringle, Leonard Lanehart, Elisha Griffith, Elijah A. Byland, and Joseph D. Woodfill, Town Council; Greenbury Mill- burn, high constable; Thomas McDonald and Robert Wilson, judges of election ; Fayette Hart, inspector ; William White and George Gehoe, clerks.

At the first meeting of the Council, which was held Oct. 23, 1849, James Moffitt was appointed clerk to serve for the term of one year, and at a subsequent meeting, held Nov. 13, 1849, John Whitmer was ap- pointed street commissioner, and D. D. Whitmer treasurer. The first ordinance (which required the street commissioners to employ some competent sur- veyor to make "two town plats of the borough") was adopted Dec. 1, 1849.

Subsequent Borough Officers .- The principal borough officers elected and appointed annually since 1849, so far as we have been able to obtain data, have been as follows :

1830 .- John Gregg, burgess; John Cock, D. D. Williams, James Gregg, John Wilkins, and James Pierce, councilmen.

1851 .- Thomas MeDonald, burgess ; William Corwin, John Cock, Robert Wilson, Joseph Pierce,3 and Isaac Gardner, councilmen.

1 The borough of West Brownsville, according to the United States census returns, had 477 inhabitants in 1850, 613 in 1860, 547 in 1870, and 570 in 1880.

" Until incorporated as a borough the town included portions of East Bethlehem and East Pike Run townships.

3 Removed, when in January, 1832, James A. Hill was appointed to fill vacancy.

640

HISTORY OF WASHINGTON COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

1852 .- James Moffit, burgess; John Gregg, Duncan Campbell, James Coburn, John McClary, and George Gehoe, councilmen.

1853 .- James A. Ilill, burgess ; D. D. Williams, Robert B. Wilson, Wil- liam H. Wilkins, Jesse Calvert, and D. W. C. Harvey, councilmen. 1834 -Isaac Garner,1 burgess; John Johnston, John G. Taylor, John Whitmer, and Jacob Ryan, councilmien.

1855 .- Thomas McDonald, burgess; John Cock, William Corwin, Con- rad Ilartranft, James Patterson, and Philip Stearn, councilmen.

185G -Elijah Bylund, burgess; John Starr, J. E. Adams, John Wilkins, Philip Stearn, and J. P. Brock, councilmen.

1857 .- John G. Taylor, burgess ; Robert Mckinley, Thomas M. Hopkins, John MoClary, Thomas Cock, and George Brandhoover, councilmen. 1858 .- Samuel Lopp, burgess; William Wilkins, George Herrington, A. J. Smalley, Robert Houston, and G. D. Coburn, councilmen.

1859 .- John McClary, burgess; J. E. Adams, Conrad Hartranft, John Cock, Thaddeus C. S. Williams, and Thomas Houseman, councilmen, 1800 .- J. E. Adams, burgess; James Storer, James Patterson, Thomas McDonald, and Thomas F. Cock, councilmen.

1801 .- Thomas Gregg, burgess : Jabez French, Samuel B. McCrory, Jon- athan Ryan, Thomas Aubrey, and Robert Houston, councilmen.

1862 .- Thomas II. Hopkins, burgess; Thomas Aubrey, Robert Houston, Elijah Byland, John Wilkinson, and Thomas F. Cock, councilmen. 1863 .- D. D. Williams, burgess ; John S. Gray, J. E. Adams, John Starr, Thomas McDonald, and Jacob W. Ullery, councilmen.

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History of Washington County, Pennsylvania : with biographical sketches of many of its pioneers and prominent men, Part 160

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