USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, Vol. I > Part 51
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Company C of this regiment was the only one from Westmoreland county. It was raised by J. J. Wirsing and William Logan, in the townships of Done- gal, Cook and Ligonier. In the summer of 1862 these young men rode through the country and secured about forty enlistments in Cook and Donegal town- ships. Logan was older than Wirsing, and was made captain, while Archibald Douglass was made first and J. J. Wirsing second lieutenant. Before the com-
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
pany had served a year Lieutenant Wirsing was made its chief commanding . officer.
They marched from Donegal to Ligonier, pausing on the way to "camp" at a religious camp meeting then being held near Stahlstown. At Ligonier they were entertained right royally by the citizens for several days while they were adding to their forces, and were drilled in the public square by Captain O'Harra. The Ligonier people then took them to Latrobe in wagons, and they were soon on their way to Harrisburg. But the army was'not needing soldiers then, and the Governor could not receive them. They called themselves the "Foster Guards," named after Hon. Henry D. Foster, of Greensburg. He was a personal friend of Secretary of War Cameron, and in that way Foster had them mustered into the service as Company C of the Eighty-fourth Reg- iment. They were in the battle of Fredericksburg, at Chancellorsville, the Wilderness, Spottsylvania, and with the regiment participated in all the battles up to and including the surrender of General Lee at Appomattox.
The captain of the company, J. J. Wirsing, was wounded seven times, and at the battle of Poplar Spring Church, October 2, 1864, he was so severely wounded that, being left on the field for dead, he was taken prisoner and con- fined some time in Libby Prison. Not being able, because of these wounds, to perform further military service, he was paroled and discharged as a pris- oner of war from the hospital at Annapolis, Maryland, on January 3, 1865.
The Civil War came at a time when there were but few militia organizations in the country. The few that existed formed the basis of regiments that were soon hurried to the front. The southern army were successful in the early part of the war, and this emboldened them to venture into the northern states. The southern border of Pennsylvania was a wealthy agricultural region, was entirely unprotected, and therefore a very inviting field for an invading army. The Reserve Corps had, as we have seen, been called away to assist McClellan. But Pennsylvania had a most excellent war governor, Andrew G. Curtin, who saw the weak condition of our southern boundary and at once called out our militia. This was on the ioth of September, 1862. He recommended the immediate formation of companies throughout the state, and that they should be drilled and instructed in the art of arms. He also recommended that after three o'clock each day business houses should be closed, so that those thus engaged should have more opportunity to prepare themselves for home defense. In many sections this was done. Men enrolled themselves, selected officers, and purchased such arms as they could obtain. There were four companies raised in Westmoreland at this time under the Governor's suggestions. On September roth the southern army was in Maryland, and an invasion of Penn- sylvania seemed very probable. The Governor called for fifty thousand of these militia to assemble at Harrisburg. They marched at once, and many reached Hagerstown, Chambersburg and Harrisburg, where they were put under the command of General John F. Reynolds. But, fortunately, the south-
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
ern army was defeated at Antietam, after which they were driven across the Potomac in great confusion, so the militia were allowed to return home, but not without realizing that they had done their duty. General McClellan wrote Governor Curtin as follows: "Fortunately, circumstances rendered it impos- sible for the enemy to reach Pennsylvania, but the moral support rendered my army by your action was none the less mighty. The manner in which the peo- ple of Pennsylvania responded to your call and hastened to the defense of their frontier no doubt exercised a great influence upon the enemy."
In the four companies raised in Westmoreland county were many who had seen service in earlier campaigns. They were raised in a few days.
Another attempted raid on Pennsylvania was made by the southern army, this time under General Lee, in the spring of 1863. This was after his victory over the Union forces at Fredericksburg. There was scarcely any army here to oppose him, and, being several days in advance of the Union army, his expedition was practically without opposition. The general government called for troops from the states nearest, and the call included fifty thousand from Pennsylvania. Our state had become disheartened by the reverses our army had suffered. They were furthermore willing to protect Pennsylvania, but feared the call from the government meant that they should not be allowed to remain here when the invading army was repelled. Little was accomplished till after the battle of Gettysburg. Then the Governor gave them his word that they should not be called on to go out of the state, nor be detained beyond the emergency which called them into the field. He also allowed them to enlist for either six months or during the emergency. There was some reason for this backwardness in enlisting. Our able-bodied men were already largely at the front, and those who were here were badly needed at home, even when there was no invading army to dispel. Our county furnished two cavalry and seven infantry companies for this exigency. The infantry companies were in the Fifty-fourth, Fifty-seventh and Fifty-eighth regiments. The Fifty- . fourth and Fifty-seventh were commanded by General F. H. Brooks, and were stationed near Pittsburgh. The rebel cavalry leader, General John H. Morgan, was then raiding Indiana and Ohio. The Fifty-fourth and Fifty-seventh were sent down the Ohio to apprehend him. It is to the credit of these troops that, though not required to do so, they went out of the state willingly when the success of the expedition and its speedy termination seemed to require it. Many of the Westmoreland troops had seen considerable service in the earlier part of the war. Others introduced into the army in this way enlisted regularly afterward, and went to the front.
CHAPTER XXVIII
The Court Houses .- County Home.
The court house which by our present generation is known as "the old court house," was built in 1854. This was really, in one sense of the word, the fourth court house of the county, though it is usually regarded as the second. The first place of holding court when the county was formed, as has been seen, was Robert Hanna's house. While it was not owned by the county, it served as a court house for thirteen years, and they were very important years in our formative period. The next court house was the temporary structure built when the county seat was first removed to Greensburg. The next was a much
1
SECOND COURT HOUSE, 1801-1854
more substantial building, which has been described in these pages, and which was completed in 1801, and stood until 1854. On May 6th of that year the county commissioners began to remove it preparatory to erecting a new one. The bus- iness of the county had outgrown the old one, and in pursuance of a present- ment from the grand jury, with the sanction of the court, measures were taken for the erection of another.
The courts were held in the Methodist church from the time the old court house was taken down until the new one was ready for occupancy. The con- tract for the new court house and jail was let to Bell & Arnold in 1853, for
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
$39,614. The plans were prepared by an architect named J. Edgar. On further consultation the commissioners saw fit to reject the plans of J. Edgar, and substitute a plan, furnished by Samuel Sloan, an architect of Philadelphia. Sloan's plans were more comprehensive and more expensive, and this required another contract which was made in 1854, by the terms of which the county was to pay $46,700, and a further sum for such improvements or changes as they should make.
On October 24, 1854, the corner-stone of the court house was laid with due ceremony. Many prominent citizens of the county were present to participate, for the event had been widely heralded. Prayers were offered by Revs. Giesey and Valentine, and addresses were delivered by Henry D. Foster and Edgar Cowan, two of the ablest lawyers our county has yet produced. A
THIRD COURT HOUSE, BUILT 1854.
copper box containing copies of the census of 1850, the county papers of that week, Justice Coulter's description of the burning of Hannastown, and other matter which they thus sought to hand down to further generations, was placed in the corner-stone. It was on the southeast corner of the court house, on the corner of Main and West Pittsburgh streets.
The commissioners and the contractors did not get along well together, and in August, 1855, the contract with Bell & Arnold was rescinded by mutual consent of both parties. In the same month a new contract was made with Johnston & McFarland-A. A. Johnston, of Youngstown, and John McFar- land, of Ligonier, Pennsylvania. They agreed that the court house should be finished and ready for use in time to hold the May term of court in it in 1856, and that all of the work should be completed by August of that year. They
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
were to receive $27,688 for their work. They performed the work practically as they stipulated. There were several other smaller contracts in addition to the main ones, such as for shelves, wainscoting, railings, etc., and it is therefore difficult to determine at this late day the exact entire cost. It was about $90,000, perhaps a few thousand more rather than less than this sum, but it did not reach $100,000.
The court house was erected on the same lot which its predecessors had occupied, viz .: the northwest corner of Main and West Pittsburgh streets. It had a beautiful facade on its southern end. It was about twenty feet from the pavement line on both streets. Its dimensions were one hundred and thirty feet in length along Main street, by sixty-two feet in width along West Pitts- burgh street. Two of its sides, the eastern and southern, were built of cut sandstone, while the other two were of brick, covered with cement to resemble stone. The approach to the building from the south was by twelve or fourteen large stone steps which extended along the whole end of the building. The main passage on the first floor was cruciform, the stem extending north and south from end to end of the building, with the transept in the center of the building, running east and west. The cruciform passage was ten feet wide throughout, and was very prettily floored with tile. The lower story was used entirely for offices of the county officers. There were two stairways leading to the second story. A large double one at the south end was used by the pub- lic generally, while a smaller one at the north end was used mostly by the judges, attorneys, etc. The main part of the second floor was used as a court- room. It was about fifty-four by sixty-two feet, and in addition to being used as a court room was used for all kinds of public meerings. It was for many years the largest room in Greensburg, but by political meetings, public lectures and even during the trial of important or sensational cases, was fre- quently crowded to overflowing. The ceiling was twenty-four feet high, and the acoustic properties were always bad. The facade on the south end and the large dome surmounting all, added greatly to the appearance of the build- ing, and rendered it indeed a most handsome structure. It was used until the business of the county again outgrew it, and then after several presentments from grand juries practically condemning it, it was finally razed to the ground in the summer of 1901.
In connection with it when it was built was also a jail and a residence for the sheriff of the county. Prior to its being built in 1854, the sheriff rented his own house, and sometimes did not live near the jail. But a new law provided that the county should furnish a house for him, in close proximity with the jail, and hence the building of the sheriff's residence in connection with the jail in 1854. They were west of the court house with an alley between it and them. They were both inferior buildings, and were condemned by several grand juries long before the court house built at the same time had passed its day of usefulness. They were both taken away in 1882, and a splendid
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
double structure costing about $150,000 was erected in 1883. While this was being done the prisoners were kept at the county home, two and one-half miles south of Greensburg.
The old method of maintaining the poor pursued by Westmoreland county authorities, that is, of boarding them over the county at such terms as could be arranged for, was neither satisfactory nor economical. Accordingly, on the passage of the act of April 5, 1849, a new and better system was inaugurated. The act allows the purchase of a farm, the erection of buildings, and provides for the election of directors, the appointment of a physician, etc. By the act which applied to Westmoreland county alone, Benjamin Byerly, John Kuhns, Sr., John Trout, Samuel Hill, Thomas Trees, John C. Plumer, Henry McBride, Robert Hitchman, Joseph Budd, John McFarland, John Hill, Joseph Cook, Joseph Jack, John A. Hays and Jacob Dible were appointed commissioners and charged with the duty of purchasing, on or before the first day of January, 1850, such real estate as they thought proper for the accommodation of the poor of Westmoreland county. Another section provided that a vote should be taken in October, 1849, in the county, with tickets marked "For a Poor House," and also tickets marked "Against a Poor House." If a majority voted in favor of the poor house the act was to take effect, otherwise to be con- sidered null and void. The election was held, and the people decided in favor of a poor house, and the commissioners named in the act proceeded to carry out its intents and purposes. They purchased one hundred and eighty acres from William Snyder, about two and one-half miles south of Greensburg, in Hempfield township, for $6,000. They took possession of it on April 1, 1850. Three directors were elected in the fall of 1850, who proceeded to erect a building on this land suitable for the reception of the poor of the county. They expended $9,092.24. It was a very creditable building considering the small amount of money expended on it, and, with a few outbuildings added later, served its purpose very well. But on August 20, 1862, it was totally destroyed by fire. The contents of the building were nearly all saved. The unfortunate inmates were brought to Greensburg and kept in the jail till arrangements could be made for them elsewhere.
In a few days a contract was entered into with Lyon & Bierer to erect a new building, or rather to rebuild the old one, for the brick walls had been but slightly injured by the fire. The new structure cost $5,716.50. It was one hundred and fifty feet long and fifty feet wide, and was three stories high. A writer in 1865 speaks of the abundance of wood and stone coal on the farm, and says :
"The house is therefore well heated at a small cost. The inmates have good clothes and shoes when necessary. They are allowed three full meals each day, consisting of bread, soup and vegetables and flesh. At two of the meals they are given fresh meat and coffee. One plug of tobacco is given every week to those who use the weed, and to those
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
who work more tobacco is given according to their needs. When heavy work is to be done such as harvesting and thrashing, the steward gives whisky in moderate quantities to those who require some stimulation. There are one hundred and fifteen men, women and children in the poor house, and the number increases in the winter time and dimin- ishes in the summer time. Of the present inmates forty-four are women, fifty men and twenty-one are children. There are twelve insane and idiotic women and girls, and six insane and idiotic men and boys."
This second building was destroyed by fire in December, 1878, and im- mediately afterwards a much larger and more modern building, the one now in use, was constructed on the same location.
CHAPTER XXIX
Agriculture.
As has been seen by the reader who has followed us through these pages. for the greater part of the time since Braddock cut his rude way across our county, our inhabitants have been chiefly engaged as tillers of the soil. Our pioneer farmers found the country almost entirely covered with a dense forest. To cut this away and let the sunlight shine in, that the seeds planted might spring forth and bear fruit, was their first and most onerous duty. For more than a century the wealth of our county consisted almost entirely in the value of the soil, viewed from an agricultural standpoint. The hills and valleys were prized then not for what lay beneath the su face, nor for what they might bring as building sites, but solely for the value of the crops of grain which they could produce, and the live stock which might be bred and fattened upon their yearly outgrowth.
Our early farmers and farm makers have sometimes been censured by our present generation for what is termed the profligate destruction of timber in the first half of last century. In this a great injustice has been thought- lessly done them. In no other way could the country have been developed and its real wealth made known. Each section had to be of necessity self-sus- taining, and, to make it so, their first duty was to tame the land and bring it under the hand of cultivation. The privations and hardships of the early farmers are scarcely appreciated as they should be by the present generation, which has reaped from their labor more than they themselves did. It is neither true nor fair to say that, while they were wresting a scant livelihood from the surface of the earth, they were ignorant of mines of marvelous wealth which lay concealed beneath their feet. The coal, iron, gas, rock, etc., which have since contributed so much to the wealth of the county, were without value in their day, and without the preliminary labor performed by pioneers, would necessarily have remained valueless for all time.
In the early days of Westmoreland agriculture the product was largely rye, a cereal which was not only suited to the new ground, but which could be readily converted into whisky, for which there was always an open market.
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
Most farmers were, therefore, interested in opposing the tax on whisky, which brought about the Whisky Insurrection. Moreover, the new ground was, in their opinion, better adapted to the cultivation of rye than of wheat, though this statement is not borne out by later experience. Early in the last century, when turnpikes and canals opened up a transportation to the eastern cities, our farmers began to raise more wheat and corn than they needed for home consumption, and shipped the flour East in barrels. Turnpikes also fos- tered the raising of live stock, and droves of cattle, horses and sheep became in some seasons of the year almost an every day occurrence. Thus it was that good roads have in the past proved to be the salvation of rural communities. The people of the county are now alive to this matter, and the next decade will undoubtedly see much advancement in good road making.
Railroad building, which began in Westmoreland county with the latter half of the last century, added a new impetus to agriculture. With increased facilities for transportation the farmer learned to raise the crops best adapted to his soil. These he could readily dispose of, and with the income could pur- chase such commodities as he and his family most needed. During the civil war, when prices were high, they relaxed somewhat from this rule, and tried more or less to produce on the farms such commodities as their families stood in greatest need of. With a great army in the field to clothe, wool advanced in price till it sold readily at one dollar or even more per pound. The West- moreland farmer readily adapted himself to the new situation, and thousands of hills were forthwith dotted with sheep.
As a general proposition the hills are well adapted to grazing, and the alluvial deposits which form the river and creek bottoms produce luxuriant crops of corn, oats, rye and grass, while wheat is more readily produced on higher ground. In the course of a century rye, from holding the highest place among the cereal products of the county, has taken the lowest. Following up the idea that the farmer should produce the commodity best suited to his soil we have hundreds of farmers who produce little else than milk, which our railroad facilities enable them to ship readily to the town markets. Still others produce cattle or horses almost exclusively.
The great strides which the county has made in the last quarter of a cen- tury in mining, manufacturing and railroad building, prompt us sometimes to almost forget that we are still strong in agriculture. By a table found else- where in these pages, it will be learned that the assessed value of the rural communities for the year 1905 was $42.488.766, while that of the borough was $31,858,814. But this is not an entirely fair statement, for many coal works are assessed with the township property, though they have really no connection with agricultural wealth. But no such objection can be urged to the Report of the Census Bureau for 1900. From the Census Bulletin on Agri- culture, No. 207, issued June 24, 1902, (page 3) we collate the following facts relative to farm statistics in Westmoreland county. There were at that time
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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY.
5,402 farms in the county, of which all but sixty were supplied with farm buildings. The aggregate acreage of these farms was 515.729, or a fraction over ninety-five acres for each farm. This is about nine acres more than the average acreage of the farms of the state. The value of the land, exclusive of the buildings, was $20.786,820, while the buildings were valued $8,527.570, the total valuation of farms and buildings being $29,314,390, or $5,426 per farm. There were $1,419,530 invested in farm implements and machinery, and $2,867.619 worth of live stock, making a total valuation of farms, buildings, machinery and live stock, of $33,531,539. This shows an average value of farms, including buildings, machinery and live stock, of $6,207. The gross income of these farms, not including products fed to live stock, was $3.776,966, or an average of $884 per farmi.
There is, in fact, only one item in which we seem to fall below other coun- ties that might reasonably be compared with Westmoreland, and that is in the amount of money expended annually for fertilizers. We expended $65.600 to that end during the year, as against $172,680 in Montgomery county; $366,- 700 in Lancaster county ; $337,160 in Bucks county, and $370,380 in Chester county. The solution of this is partly due to the fact that Westmoreland is so generally underlaid with limestone that but little expenditure is necessary for fertilizers. Our soil, moreover, being naturally rich in potash, needs little more than the application of lime in its caustic form to free the potash and make it available to growing plants. The phosphoric acid necessary in the produc- tion of the cereal crops we grow is comparatively cheap, while, in the other counties named, many farmers are engaged in market gardening, and therefore need a fertilizer which induces a large leaf growth. They must therefore re- sort to the use of more nitrogen, which is the most expensive element of plant food found in the market.
CHAPTER XXX
Iron.
Iron was manufactured and used by man, though in a primitive manner, in the earliest ages of antiquity of which we have any knowledge. It was per- haps first used in Western Asia, the original home of the human race. Tubal- Cain, who was removed from Adam but seven generations, is described in the first book of the Bible as "An instructor of all artificers in brass and iron." In a revised edition of the Bible he is called "The forger of every cutting in- strument of brass and iron." The Egyptian civilization is the oldest of which we have any knowledge, dating back even to the second generation after Noah, and its earliest literature is replete with references to the making and using of iron, although modern research has discovered but little iron ore in Egypt. Herodotus, the Father of History, makes mention of iron tools being used in the construction of the pyramids, speaking of their use not as a novelty, but rather as a matter of course. Thebes and Memphis are cities of such great antiquity that their origin is lost in the twilight of obscurity, yet antiquarians believe that sickles were used in those days, and that the butchers of Thebes and Memphis used tools of iron and steel. The Historical Society of New York has a helmet, a chain armour, breast-plate and other pieces of iron, that are known to be over three thousand years old, and yet they evince consider- able skill in their manufacture. Pieces of iron were taken from under the obelisk which was brought to New York from Alexandria in Egypt in 1880, yet it was erected fifteen hundred years before the birth of Julius Caesar. Iron was known to be used among the Chaldeans, the Babylonians and the Assyr- ians, who flourished in the age of the early Egyptians.
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