USA > Pennsylvania > Union County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 2 > Part 57
USA > Pennsylvania > Mifflin County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 2 > Part 57
USA > Pennsylvania > Snyder County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 2 > Part 57
USA > Pennsylvania > Perry County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 2 > Part 57
USA > Pennsylvania > Juniata County > History of that part of the Susquehanna and Juniata valleys, embraced in the counties of Mifflin, Juniata, Perry, Union and Snyder, in the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. V. 1, Pt. 2 > Part 57
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Arthur Eccles, two hundred and nineteen acres, November 3, 1766, south of Hoge; now W. J. Evans, David Naylor, E. S. Petit and Wisdom School-house, so-called from the name given to the tract on the patent granted to Robert Eccles.
William MeMullen, westward of the southern part of flogg's survey, warranted two hundred and twenty-two acres, April 4, 1755, and June 8, 1762 ; now Samuel Ebberts, Hugh Davis and others. These were formerly called " Warwick lands." Here formerly lived Joseph MeCoy, one of the most active men in the early enterprises of the Presbyterian Church. It was sold from MeMullen in 1771 to John Cox, and bought by Joseph McCoy, February 22, 1772. West and south of MeMullen lay lands of Merchant John Steele, now heirs of Rev. Thomas Smith. No house on this tract-farmed by Ebberts.
John Stiger's survey, one hundred and seven arres, November 5, 1787, lay next the monn- tain. James Matthias, or Mathews, had one hundred and seventy-four acres, February 19, 1793, near by, now Silas Smith's heirs.
John Gray had a warrant, dated February 8, 1755, for "one hundred and twenty aeres, inelud- ing his improvement on the south side of Tusea- rora Crock, adjoining Robert Hogg and James Gray." This survey was " said to contain two hundred and forty-two acres." " By virtue of the judgment of the Board of Property, and au Order of re-survey from the Surveyor- General, dated April 25, 1796," Williani Har- ris re-surveyed this tract February 6, 1799, "agreeable to the old lines, for John Gray, the heir-at-law of John Gray, deceased," and miade it contain three hundred and eighteen acres. This is the most celebrated tract of land in
Juniata County. (See the appended narrative ou the Gray property ense.)
John Milliken, in the right of James Mc- Connell's heits, warranted three hundred and thirteen acres, April 21, 1791, south of James Gray, and improved at an early day (now John Barnard's and others').
James Gray was a brother of John Gray, whose wife, Hannah, was abducted by Indians. James held his land without any warraut uutil November 18, 1774, when it was said to cou- tain three hundred and thirty-two acres. It lay in the main valley west of that of John. After the death of James the place was divided between his sons, John, Jr., and Hugh, -Johu the lower, and Ingh the upper half. Hugh dying, his tract was left to his son, James, aud a daughter married to James Hughes. In making this division, February, 1812, it was found that the tract had four hundred and seventy-seven aeres, or two hundred and thir- ty-three to each son of James, situated partly in Lack and partly in Milford. When these lands came to be patented, it was found they could not hold all the lands under the old war- rant ; so there was obtained a new warrant in the nanie of James Gray, October 6, 1815, for one hundred and sixteen acres inside the south side of the tract, containing, as the surveyor says, " lands improved at least as early as 1778 (another draft says 1774), if not carlier, and continued in cultivation." James Gray bim- sell, in his day, lived on the upper end of his place. He was to be left in Lack, in 1768, on the formation of Milford; but nearly all his land went into the new township. He died about 1795. His lands are now owned by John Bennett, David Beale, William Gruver, John Leonard and Isaac Books.
It was James' sou, Jomm (and his children after him), who were the active parties in the great law-suit. He is said to have lived a long time in a cave, where the mother of Elder Gilliford formerly resided. Hlad he diligently cultivated the two hundred and thirty-three acres inherited from his father, and attended to bis own business, he might have lived in a good house, and left his children a line estate. Ile sought by law to take his Aunt Hannah's
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farm, and the lawyers ate him up. Seeking more, all was lost.
/ Saumel Wharton, Sr., was a Revolutionary soldier, who was under Wayne at Boston and in every battle from Bunker Hill to the sur- render of Cornwallis at Yorktown, and was never wounded. He anne from Chester County and settled, about 1774, at the Delaney (now Miles) place, and died in 1831. His wife was a Wilson, and both families were originally Quakers. His children were John, Stunnel, William, Robert, Mary (wife of Samuel Meloy) and Sarah (wife of John Middagh). John's descendants moved mostly to Delphi, Ind. Samnel, Jr., moved to Columbiana County, Ohio. William's sons were William and Sam- uel ; the former married Jane Mary Delaney, and has sons, William and Robert. Captain John P. Wharton is a son of Robert, son of Sanmel.
The land of William Anderson lay northeast of Spruce Will post-office. Possessed of squat- ter improvement rights, Anderson settled at a spring, and was commissioned assessor of Lack township, October 28, 1762. He took the first assessment of Lack for 1763. A certificate for himself and wife shows they came from Fagg's Manor, in Chester County, and numerous neigh- bors testify that they " know nothing of him but honesty." On the 10th of July in that year, in the dusk of the evening, " the old man was killed with his Bible in his hand, supposed to be about worship," by a band of marauding Indians, who also killed his son Joseph and a girl brought up in the family. The wife, Mary, was at the time at their former home, in Middle- ton township, Cumberland County. On March 14, 1765, she presented her case to John Pen, and he was pleased to issne to her a special war- rant, No. 88, in which he recites, that Mary Anderson says, " her late husband, March 27, 1760, purchased an improvement of Peter Titus on two hundred acres and made considerable more improvements, and coutinned thercon till Inly, 1763, when, in the late war, her Imsband and Joseph, their son, with a servant, were all murdered at their settlement by the ludians." !
I See third chapter of General History, vol. i. p. 76.
Spares Ina, Sonoons .- There are six pub- lie schools in this township: Centre, Matamoras, Spruce Hill, La Grange, Wisdom and Gap. These houses are all frame. Before 1807 a honse stood near James Okeson's. Audrew Garner, Joseph Highlands, Robert Coulter, Alexander Coulter and John Glasgow were teachers. In 1830 it was known as the Big Spring school-honse and taught by John Gray ; later teachers, John Frow, Alexander Graham, George Morrow, Kelly Patterson, Jane Liggett, Jolm Rutherford and Adam Nelson. About. 1807 an old school-house stood on a lot where Widow Steward lives, and David Powell taught here. In 1817 a house stood on Samuel Mow- cry's land; William Williams taught here. In 1817 a house stood where S. A. Hoffman's wagon-shop now is, and Charles Woodney taught. Another old house stood a fourth of a mile below Conn's store, on the road. Another stood near Samuel Wharton's as early as 1802. The number of children in Spruce Hill attend- ing school in 1884 was two hundred and forty. Spruce Hill has been the birth-place of some men who have their mark elsewhere, -Rev. Joseph Kelly, minister of the Presbyterian Church at Spruce Creek ; Rev. J. II. Barnard,
son of Joseph, now of Kankakee, Ill .; Rev. Jo- seph Patterson, who died in Jacksonville, Fla .; Rev. William A. Patton, formerly of Willing- ford Colored Academy at Charleston, S C.
THE GRAY LAND LITIGATIONS. - The sur- vey of John Gray has connected with it much interesting legal history. Hle had made au im- provement on his tract of three hundred and eighteen aeres prior to the date of his warrant, February 8, 1755.
On June 11, 1756, the Indians took Big- ham's Fort, situated a few miles west of Gray's land, an account of which will be found in Chapter III. of this work, entitled " Settlements and Massacres," page 69. They carried off Hannah, wife of JJohn Gray, and a three-year- old child named Jane, whom Gray had left in the fort while he and another person went to Carlisle on business. As Gray was returning to the fort a bear ran across his track, fright- ened his horse and threw him off. In couse- quenee of this accident he was detained some
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JUNIATA COUNTY.
time on the road in readjusting his pack, and when he returned to the fort he found that it had just been burned and every person in it either killed or taken prisoner. Among those carried off' were Francis Innis and wife and George Woods. John Gray joined Colonel John Armstrong's expedition against Kittanning, in September following, in hopes of hearing from his family; but he returned to his former home in Bucks County, where he died, leaving a will dated April 12, 1759. This will provided as follows :
"I give unto my sister, Mary Gray, one full half of my plantation on Juniata river, in Tuscarora valley, to betaken off the side lying next to my brother, James Gray's plantation, upon this condition, that she pay to my nephew, John Gray (son of James Gray), the sum of £5 in one year after my decease, and in considera- tion of her making no demand of £18 of any of my heirs or legatees, or of my estate now or forever, which €18 I formerly borrowed of her. The other half of my said plantation I give nnto my loving wife, Hannah Gray, and my daughter, Jane Gray, to be divided between them, share and share alike; but in case my said wife should die before the exception of this my will, or never return from captivity, then her part both of real and personal estate bequeathed to her to remain to my daughter Jane. And if it should so happen that my daughter Jane should die, or not return from her captivity, and my wife return and survive her, so, in like manner, that part given to my daughter shall remain in my wife and her heirs for- ever."
Mary Gray was executrix of the will.
The widow, Hannah, hid in the wagon of a trader in some deer-skins, and escaped. Having returned, she took possession of the property, and was taxed for it in 1763. Her husband's sister, Mary, it seems, did not accept the devise, at least did not comply with the condition, as the following receipt signed by her, dated An- gust 19, 1760, shows : " Received of Hannah Gray the sum of sixteen pounds, it being in full of all debts, dues and demands against the es- tate of John Gray." As Hannah paid the claim and interest on which Mary's half was made conditional, she and every one else considered her as the owner of the land. About 1771 she married Enoch Williams. They resided on the plantation, and were taxed for the whole tract for many years. They had no children. Their right of ownership was undisturbed for twenty-
five years. In 1764 Colonel Bouquet marched an army to the Muskingum, in Ohio, and forced the hostile tribes to surrender the captives held by them. Among those recovered were a large number of children scarcely able to recognize their parents. Those unable to tell where they belonged were taken to Philadelphia, and per- sous who had lost children were notified. Mrs. Gray went and brought back a girl which she said was her Jane. The identity of this child became a matter of dispute.
Mary Gray never qualified as executrix, and there was a citation to her, on April 22, 1790, to appear at the register's office in Bucks County, in order to undertake the trust reposed in her by the testator. This she refused to obey, and Enoch Williams was appointed administra- tor of the estate March 16, 1791. This legal disposition of the estate did not prevent the coming storm. John Gray, the deceased, had a brother James, who settled above him, his resi- dence being on the border of the present Tusca- rora township. James had a son, John Gray, Jr., who desired to secure Mrs. Williams' land, which twenty-five years of hard labor by Enoch Williams, her husband, had made very valua- ble. John Gray, Jr., somehow managed to get possession of a house on his Auut Mary's half of the land. Measures were at once commenced to cjeet him. On November 9, 1796, Enoch Wil- liams and his wife, Hannah, sold David Beale two hundred and fifty acres in trust for the benefit of said Enoch and Hannah, in their sep- arate capacity, as if they were not man and wife, all damages arising from the ejectment suit then pending against John Gray to be for the sole use of Mes. Williams ! The price was tive shillings and other valuable considerations. Once Mary Gray relinquished all her right to the half of this tract to her poor sister-in-law, and took sixteen pounds in full of all claim> against the estate. In course of years this sym- pathy ceased. Hannah lived with another man, and busy-bodies were circulating the story that the child she had taken was not her own. Young John persuaded his Aunt Mary to give him a deed for her half of the place, May 21,
! Deed Book C, p. 359.
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JUNIATA AND SUSQUEHANNA VALLEYS IN PENNSYLVANIA.
1803, thus renewing or setting up a claim which she had abandoned many years before. Han- math Williams, eu July 11, 1803, sold to Davil Beale all her rights to the half of these three lumdred aeres, as vested in her by the deed of trust of November 6, 1796, for two hundred and fifty dollars. David Beale, being thus armed with the title claims of Mrs. Williams, in conjunction with Enoch Williams' legatees, pressed the ejectment suit they kad instituted, and succeeded in dispossessing John Gray, Jr., and afterwards placed David and John Fred- crick as tenants upon the place. The dispute was all confined to that half of the survey de- vised conditionally to Mary Gray. Au ejectment suit was brought by John Gray, Ir., in August, 1810, against the Fredericks, then in possession under titles derived from Williams and his wife. In October, 1815, a jury rendered a ver- diet in favor of the defendants. Au appeal was taken by Gray to the Supreme Court, which, at a session held at Sunbury, Inne 4, 1817, re- versed the decision of the lower court, and sent the case back for re-trial. In the mean time there was a great change in the title of the Enoch Williams half of the estate.
Enoch Williams, by his will dated April 19, 1802, devised his estate to legatees, and his in- terest in the half of the land was sold to satisfy the judgment of Messrs. Hale, Duncan & V'atts, his lawyers, who got tired waiting, the land being then vested in Zachariah and David Williams, surviving obligors of Edward Wil- liais, on Angust 21, 1821, and was bought in by Hale and deeded over to John Norris, of Mifflin County, for two hundred and sixteen dollars. Enoch Williams had died about 1803, and Mrs. Williams also died not long after. Beale and Norris thus became directly the inter- ested parties in the suit. On May 20, 1823, it was tried again, and the verdict was for the plaintiff's, for one-half of the place as devised to Mary Gray on the side next James Gray, with six cents damages and six cents costs. It was then again taken to the Supreme Court. Julm Gray having died, his heirs, under John Com- min, continued the suit. The land in dispute was that part which was devised to Mary Gray. The judge ruled that there being no actual sur-
vey dividing the place, James and Hannah were tenauts in common, and that in such case twenty-one years of peaceable possession did not give title unless an actual ouster was proved. The case was taken to the Supreme Court, and, at Sunbury, June 30, 1823, the decision of the lower court was reversed. This case, as decided by the Supreme Court, is printed in 10 Sergeant & Rawle, page 182 to 188. The next trace found was in what was then called the Circuit Court, May term, 1827, and then again at May term, 1832, it says : " Judgment as per agreement filed." The agreement is signed by John Cuunnin, Robert Barnard, John Norris and Joshua Beale, and by the attorneys. The two first represented the minor children of John Gray ; and Joshua Beale, the heirs of David Beale. This re- markable compromise of conflicting claims reads: " And now to wit, May 7, 1832, by consent, judgment is to be entered for Plaintill' (now John Gray's heirs) for the one-fourth of the tract of land for which this ejectment has been brought-the line to eross N. 872 W .- the defendants to pay docket costs and the plaintiff's to file no bill." This compromise ended the contest for the Mary Gray half of the place. The part gained by the Grays paid but a small part of the costs.
There was an ejectment suit instituted by William McKee against John Frederick and Samuel Kirk, January term, 1817. Frederick and Kirk were mere reuters, holding the place at the time. The girl that Mes. Hannah Gray (now William-) had taken as her own, aud always treated as her own, married a man uamed Gillespie, and they sold the property inherited from Mrs. Williams to a clergyman, uamed William MeKce, of Washington, D. C., and he sold it to his nephew, William MeKce, son of Jolin, already named as married to Mary Hogg.
! This lady is the " old Mrs. Mekce," a witness at some of the trials. It has been published that she " spoke with a rich Irish brogue," and " an one occasion became quite garrulous, and entered into the history of the valley, lo the great amusement of the court," and that "she de- seribes the spurious girl us a big, black, ugly, Dutch Jump, and not to be compared to the beautiful Jenny Gray " Mrs. Melser was native-born, and no doubt a woman of
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JUNIATA COUNTY.
The record shows that, after many postpone- ments, the case came up for trial at Lewistown May 28, 1823, when the following jury was impaneled : Philip Gilmore, Thomas Elliot, Henry Dinnire, Nathaniel Cummingham, James North, Geo. Sigler, Aquilla Burchfield, Angus- tine Wakefield, Jas. Jacobs, Patrick MeCahan, James Baily, dames Brisbin. On the 29th Mr. Hale moved to discharge the jury " on account of improper conduct of the plaintiff and some of the jurors sworn in the trial of this cause." The jury was discharged at the cost of the plain- tiff. On March 19, 1825, a jury returned a verdiet as follows : " We do find for plaintiff the upper half leased to dohms & Hills ; also one divided half of lower part, now supposed to be in possession of Samuel Kirk ; to be laid off by an artist on the ground." This verdict, certainly based on a belief in the genuineness of the girl taken by Mrs. Williams, and on the validity of the title derived from her as a law- ful heir, was rendered by the following jurors, than whom the county contained no better men : Amos Gustin, John Adams, Jolm Beatty, Jr., Francis HI. Kinsloc, David Brought, John Rob- ison, John Crissman, John Maxwell, Stewart Turbett, John Gettys, William Kerr and Gab- riel Lukens. This verdict gave MeKce the Mary Gray half and half of the other part. 11 new trial was granted December 24, 1828, and on June 27, 1829, the case was removed by habeas corpus to the Circuit Court, the final decision of which, on May 3, 1833, was in favor of the defendants ; and thus terminated forever the most celebrated land litigation in the his-
education, culture and refinement. As her son was claim- ing the land through Mrs. Gillespie's title, it is a very un- likely story that she spoke of her as above stated. The same writer says : " Her historical developments so much interested one of the jury at Lewistown, an old settler himself, that he, forgetting the restraints of a juryman, sent for the old lady to come to his room at the hotel, and enter more at large into the days of auld lang syne. The old man was a little deaf, and the old lady's voice could be heard throughout the house. One of the counsel, whose side of the case wore rather a discouraging aspect, over- heard the old lady, and the next morning exposed the poor juryman, amidst a roar of laughter from the court and bar. The case, of course, had to be tried before another jury."
tory of this county, and perhaps having no equal in the annals of the State.
In the mean time David Beale had also died, leaving a will dated May 21, 1827, in which he authorized the sale of this land in case of a favorable termination of the snit. Accordingly, his sons, his executors, sold the undivided hall to William Okeson for three thousand two Indred and eighty-five dollars, April 1, 1836 ; and John Norris sold his half to the some pur- chaser for three thousand five hundred dollars, March 29, 1836 ; and it is nearly all held by his son to this day. Samuel Gray was the only male descendant of John Gray, Jr., party to the suits here described. He removed to Mifflin- town and kept a hotel, and at his death left no male descendants.
The last trial of this cause was before the Circuit Court held in Mifflintown. The names of the jurors and the papers connected with it conld not be found. Samuel Creigh was present, and on May 2, 1833, wrote to his brother Alfred an account of the suit, which had just then closed. This account was published by the Pennsylvania Historical Society about a year afterwards, and was the basis of the numerons narratives which have since appeared.
CHAPTER XIII.
PORT ROYAL BOROUGHI (PERRYSVILLE).1
THOMAS and James Wilson were sons of George Wilson, and were born in Armagh, Irc- land. George died in 17-16, and his wife, Jane, in 1776. James, after spending some years at the mouth of Licking Creek, removed to Virginia, where he died in 1808. Thomas was a justice of the peace in Cumberland County, and one of the men who helped drive out squatter tres- passers on the umpurchased lands of the In- dians in 1750. Ile took up a large tract where Port Royal borough is situated. One tract was warranted February 3, 1755, and had two hundred and forty-two acres ; the other, June 9, 1763, had one hundred and six acres. The
1 By A. L. Guss.
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JUNIATA AND SUSQUEHANNA VALLEYS IN PENNSYLVANIA.
lower fraet he called " Armagh " and the other " Addition," surveyed, April 26, 1765, by William Maclay. George Armstrong's land bonded above on the river. Wilson moved on his lands in 1771, and assumed prominence in the carly settlement. He was called " Thomas Wilson, Creek," to distinguish him from the one at the mountain. His son George, sheriff of Mifflin County in 1791, and his grandson, Sheriff W. W. Wilson, of Mifflintown, recently deceased, were men well known in their day.
Henry Groce bought two hundred and twen- ty- three acres, April 27, 1812, at the month of Tuscarora Creek, and laid out a town, April 15, 1815. At that time Commodore Perry's fame was on everybody's lips, in consequence of his great victory on Lake Erie, in which several of the Juniata boys had participated. Hence the town was called " Perrysville" until 1874, when it was changed to " Port Royal," which before this had been the name of a post office established at Saint Tammany town. It was removed to Perrysville about the time the rail- road was built. It is a common notion that the post-office was called Port Royal because the name " Perrysville" was already applied to an office in Allegheny County, but this is a mistake. When the office was established it was not in Perrysville ; and, besides this, prior to the canal and railroad, Saint Tammany was a much more important point than Perrysville. Its history will be found under the head of Turbottt township. The railroad company changed the name of the station December 1, 1875. The borough has no record of the change.
The town was incorporated April 1, 1843, and it first appears on the tax-lists as a separate district in 1856, prior to which date it was in- cluded in the Milford township assessments. J. W. Rice, Samuel McFadden and George McCulloch are named in the act to give proper notice of the first borough election under the incorporation, Before the incorporation Grove sold the farm to Benjamin Kepner, but excepted the lots numbered 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 12, 16, 17, 18, 19, 23, 21, 25, 13, 62 and 65. This was April 16, 1827, and it is fair to infor that he had not sold more than these eighteen lots
up to that date. The plan of the town is recorded at Lewistown, in book M, p. 53, September 13, 1815. The post-office was moved to town in 1848, where it was kept by Robert. Logan and afterwards by Dr. G. I. Cuddy, Jolm B. Hen- derson, John Lukens, John M. Thompson, James M. Alter, James Wharton and Miss Maggie Wharton.
The first store was kept by Benjamin Kep- ner in a stone house next the river, and said now to be the oldest house in town. Gideon Thomas built the warehouse owned by Noalı Hertzler. The borough contains three churches, an academy, four stores, two hotels, three con- fectioneries, a drug-store, a foundry, planing- mill, printing-office, bank and other business places and one hundred and thirty-five dwell- ing-houses.
PUBLIC SCHOOLS, -- The first school-house at Perrysville stood on the river-bank, on a lot now owned by William Wagner. John Gish tanght here. It was burned in 1825. School was kept in it as early as 1816. The second honse was where Mrs. Henderson's house stands. The third, and first under the free school system, stood opposite Buck's store. Another house was on Middle Street, and cost one hundred and fifty dollars. John Me- Laughlin and David Powell taught in it before 1834. The borongh was organized as a sepa- rate school district April 5, 1856. The direc- tors were Solomon Kepner, Jacob Koons, Isaac Frank, Adam Holliday, Richard Bryon and George W. Jacobs. The present school build- ing was erected in 1870. The lot cost two him- dred and twenty-five dollars, and the house about fifteen hundred dollars. It is a two-story brick, and has three rooms. There were one hundred and seventy-one pupils in 1884.
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