History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 148

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
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USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 148

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Clames Sloan

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WASHINGTON TOWNSHIP.

cant and twelve to the baptized membership. He organized a Sunday-school May 8, 1864, of which Cyrus Kunkle was elected superintendent, William Weister assistant, J. D. Louffer secretary, and John Yockey secretary and treasurer. It increased until it numbered sixty-six teachers and scholars. Rev. T. F. Stauffer succeeded him in 1867, and was the first pastor of the St. James charge proper. From this time on Pine Run congregation received half of the pastor's time, which gave it new life and prosperity. He resigned September, 1871, to accept of a call to the Wilkinsburg Mission, Allegheny County.

During his pastorate fifty-nine full members were enrolled upon the church-book, and eighty-four chil- dren baptized. He changed the services from the afternoon to the forenoon of Sundays, which revived the Sunday-school, for which he secured a good new library. His successor was Rev. J. B. Welty, who began his labors in September, 1872, but only re- mained one year, having decided to engage in mission- work in Iowa. He added fourteen members by con- firmation and certificate. Rev. John Grant, and then Rev. John McConnell, each served the congregation as supply for a period of six months. The latter re- ceived one by confirmation and three children by baptism. In June, 1875, this congregation was stricken off from St. James' charge and erected into a charge by itself. In July following Rev. Henry Bair became the pastor of this new charge. In 1877 this charge numbered one hundred and six confirmed and eighty-seven baptized members, owned a substan- tial church edifice, and was free from debt. Its offi- cials then were : Elders, John Yockey, Daniel Lauffer, John Gumbert, Sr .; deacons, Simon Kunkle, P. K. Gumbert, Asa Blose; trustees, John Yockey and Simon Kunkle; chorister, J. D. Lauffer. The Sun- day-school then had upon its roll twelve teachers and eighty-five scholars: Its officers were : Superinten- dent, Frederick Wigle; secretary, Jacob H. Yockey ; librarian, P. K. Gumbert; treasurer, John Gumbert, Sr .; choristers, A. B. Hill and J. D. Lauffer.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH.

JAMES SLOAN.

Among the original and good people of this county may be classed the Sloan family, to which Mr. James

Sloan belongs. The old stock came from Scotland and Ireland, and settled in what is now Franklin County, near the Maryland line.

The great-grandmother was captured by the Indians and taken to the Indian village of Kittanning. She was kept a prisoner for two years and a half. When on a hunting expedition with the Indians one even- ing the party came upon a trail; one of the number asked where that trail led to, when one of the Indians said it led to a white settlement,-Fort Wyoming. This was the first chance during these many months to escape. During the night this white woman left the hunting-camp and took the path through the dense woods to the white settlement. She traveled for three nights, hiding herself during the daytime; after great suffering she at last reached Fort Wyom- ing, and returned to her home. The grandfather, Robert Sloan, was born and lived in Franklin County, dying at the age of seventy-eight.

The father of James Sloan, John, came with his wife, Elizabeth, to Westmoreland County in the fall of 1797, and settled in Salem township, on land owned now by ex-Superintendent H. M. Jones. John Sloan and Elizabeth Steel were married in 1795 or 1796. The land through the southern part of the county was owned by one James Campbell, from whom John Steel bought a mill and divided with his brother-ifi- law, John Sloan. There were three sons and two daughters born to John and Elizabeth Sloan, via ..: Robert, John, James, Mary, and Eliza.

Robert Sloan, by trade a wheelwright, bachelor, died near Clarksburg.

John S., a farmer, married Jane Christy, lived on farm adjoining old homestead; died 1878.

Mary, married Charles Mclaughlin, lived near La- trobe; had four children, three still living.

Eliza, married to James McKelvy, farmer, near Clarksburg, Indiana Co., Pa .; still living.

James Sloan, whose portrait is here given, was born in Salem township on May 14, 1806; remained on the old farm fifty years. Married, June 15, 1827, to Miss Margaret Alcorn. Moved in the spring of 1856 to the farm he now lives on in Washington township. Mr. Sloan has five children living,-John, Eliza, William, Nancy, and James. Among his grandchil- dren is A. M. Sloan, Esq., of the Greensburg bar. Mr. Sloan has filled important positions in the county and in the church. He is a clear and steady-headed man.

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FRANKLIN TOWNSHIP.

ORGANIZATION.

THE exact date of the organization of Franklin township, in Westmoreland County, is not fixed by satisfactory record evidence. It was erected, however, between 1785 and 1788, for at the October sessions of 1785 there was no such township, and at the October session of 1788 it is named, as is also Salem, and its constable was in attendance at court.

PIONEER SETTLERS.

To William Meanor, Robert Hays, Michael Rugh, Mr. Finley, John Hill, Mr. Stitt, Matthew Gorden, and others belongs the honor of being the first to settle in the township.

William Meanor bought a claim from an Indian for a keg of tobacco and a rifle, and after locating the claim by a "tomahawk survey," built the first house in the township on the farm now owned by John Rubright.

On April 3, 1769, Robert Hays made application to the government for land, and in consideration of forty-five pounds two shillings and sixpence was granted a tract of three hundred and thirty-nine and a half acres. He built a house soon after, within a few feet of the one now occupied by David Steele, which was the second one in the township. These cabins or dwellings were built of logs, with puncheon floors and wooden (stick) chimneys. The furniture consisted of a rude wooden table, split logs for benches, a rifle-rack, etc. The early settlers all came from be- yond the mountains in the eastern part of the State.

For a few years these hardy pioneers prospered. Other settlers came, and the wilderness was gradually being transformed into fertile fields, when the Indians became troublesome, and a warfare commenced which only ended when the savages were driven from the country. In 1778, Michael Rugh and family, con- sisting of a wife, son, and daughter, were captured by the Indians and taken to their camp near the ' is Michael Ringer's orchard. Just on the top of the present Oil City, where they spent the winter. They were taken the following spring to Canada, where they were held for three years. Upon their release they were sent to New York City, and from thence they made their way back to their home, on the farm now owned by John Haymaker. When peace was established and the State government formed, Michael Rugh was elected to the House of Representatives. When his term expired he returned to his farm, where he resided until his death in 1820. His son died

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during his captivity, and his wife in 1809. His daugh- ter was married to Jacob Haymaker in 1794, and her son, John Haymaker, now lives on the place settled by Michael Rugh.

Robert Hays and his son were also captured by the Indians and held for three years. During their stay with the Indians the son acquired such a taste for the wild life of the woods that he was with diff- culty persuaded to leave them, and after his return to the settlements he spent nearly all his time in hunt- ing and fishing. After Robert Hays was released he returned to his farm, and during another raid by the savages he was killed in the doorway of his dwelling.

In early times, when a man wished to settle on a tract of land, he made what was called a "toma- hawk survey" by going around the tract and blazing the trees which would inclose his claim. Possession of the tract for twenty-one years would give him = color of title.

Samuel Sword was the first constable elected. The first schools were established in 1800, in which read- ing, writing, spelling, and arithmetic were all the studies taught. The first grist-mill and store were at Murrysville. Among the first saw-mills was one built by William McWilliams, at which in early times was sawed nearly all the timber for the surrounding meeting-houses.

In the latter part of the last century Patrick Mc- Kinney was an old-fashioned Irish tailor, who peram- bulated from house to house, making what was called home-made cloth coats for the farmers and their sons. He was fond of his cups. About 1805 he went from what was called Burbridge's cabins (where he had a kind of home with an old man named Boyd) to the old still-house. Here he got his coffee-pot filled with whiskey and started for his home, about three-fourths of a mile distant. On his way he was seen by Wil- liam Richey, who was plowing in a field where now

hill he sat down on a large rock that lay close to the bridle-path that went from Walthour's block-house to Carnahan's block-house, the former a short dis- tance southwest of Harrison City, and the latter a little north of Perrysville, in Bell township. Here Mckinney sat down to rest. Here he was found in a drunken stupor by George Hall, who was on his way home from a blacksmith-shop that stood a little way from John Larimer's, and by William Richey, who both tried to carry Pat to his home, but ere they

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reached it his life's spark had fled. He was buried in Riddle's graveyard. His cabin stood near a spring in what was called Samuel McMahan's walnut patch, above Doncaster's old steam-mill.

In 1807 William McConnel married Susan Mc- Henry, where John W. Riddle now lives. His grand- father had forty or more years before entered a large tract of land, on which William erected a log house, near where John Steel's cider-press used to be. John McConnel, son of William McConnel, who settled in this township before the close of the Revolution, mar- ried Nancy McKee, and inherited the five-hundred- acre tract of his father.

About 1776 Jonathan, the father of Jacob Hill, took up a tract of land near the township line now occupied by Geiger, Slocum, Silvis, Steele, Smith, and others. In the spring he went over to Philip Drum's to make some arrangements and get some apple-trees to plant where Lewis Geiger or Adam Huffman lives. On his return Jonathan Hill was waylaid just on the ridge back of Joseph Lauffer's and scalped by a band of Indians. He was buried . near where Drum's Church is. His son, Jacob Hill, inherited all his property and erected an old-fash- ioned distillery.

Among the early settlers were the Wilsons, Bor- lands, Humes, Bethunes, Riddles, Wallaces, Beemers, Ramaleys, Andersons, Walps, Hamiltons, Dices, Lairds, Longs, Elwoods, Fergusons, Hays, Pattersons, Mccutcheons, Haymakers, Berlins, McCalls, Rughs, Kings, Chambers, Snyders, Kuhns, Oglees, Teogers, McAlisters, Tallants, Wigles, Dibles, Beacons, Parks, and Taylors.

About 1820 and 1825 the original surveys or large farms had mostly passed into the hands of the second generation. Four, five, and sometimes six hundred acres composed an original farm, but by 1835 they were all subdivided among the heirs.

The most prominent of the early schoolmasters was William Masters, a man of small stature, but of resolute will and energy.

Old George Ament used to boast that he could go through the township on a good frosty day and tell with exactness at every barn whether the thrashing was done by the day or by the bushel without inquiry, but simply by the difference in the stroke of the flail, the stroke in the one case being so much quicker and more vigorous than in the other.

The venerable widow of John Reager still lives at her old home just north of Sardis Post-office, in the northwestern part of the township. She is ninety- three years of age, and recollecte all the incidents of the Indian massacres in the country that happened seven or eight years before her birth, as narrated to her by those who witnessed or participated in them.

THE BERLIN FAMILY.

In 1794 one of the soldiers who came from Eastern Pennsylvania in the army to put down the " Whiskey

Insurrection" was Jacob Berlin. He got a furlough in Pittsburgh to come out to that part of Franklin town- ship now included in Penn, to visit his uncle, Jacob Berlin, who had settled there some twenty years before. He so liked the country that in the spring of 1795 he returned with his wife, formerly Miss Eve Carbaugh.

He finally settled between the Fink and Lauffer farms. His children were four daughters and six sona, viz. : Polly, married to Henry Smith, Catharine, to Jonathan Keithler, Lydia, to Daniel Knappen- berger, Sally, to George Detter, John, Frederick, Jo- seph, Samuel, Powell, and Elias, of whom Powell removed to Forest County, Frederick to Clarion, and John to State of Ohio. Col. Elias Berlin, the youngest son, was born in 1803, and married Sarah, daughter of George Ament. His children were four boys and five girls, viz. : Israel, Henry, Joseph, Cornelius Elias, Mahala, married to Nicholas King, Maria, Esther, married to Joseph Lauffer, Katy Ann, to Isaac Ringer, and Seruah, to James Chambers. His brother John served in the war of 1812. His farm is on the Pitts- burgh and New Alexandria turnpike. He killed sev- eral wild-cats, bear, and deer when a boy in this township, and picked up many bullets on the battle- field of Bouquet, where the Indians were defeated.

THE BORLAND FAMILY.

John Borland was born in 1750 in County Antrim, Ireland, and came to America the first time about 1769. He crossed the ocean five times. He returned to Ireland in 1775, and was prevented by the Ameri- can Revolution, then just beginning, from returning until 1781, when he brought with him his two broth- ers, Samuel and Matthew, the former settling on the Manor (now Penn township), and the latter locating in Washington County. John came to Franklin township in 1790, and entered some five hundred acres of land, part of which is the homestead of his son, Maj. Thomas Borland, who was there born in 1805. His neighbors were Charles Wilson (owning the lands now possessed by Judge John W. Riddle) and David Crookshanks. He married in 1791 Mar- garet, daughter of William Carnes, who lived two miles out on the Manor. His wife's brother married a daughter of Charles Wilson. John Borland had a very extensive distillery twenty rods below the pres- ent Borland homestead, in the hollow. His children were John, William, Rachel (died young), Andrew (became a printer and went to Missouri), James (owned the place where Cornelius E. Berlin resides), Samuel, Thomas, and Margaret (married to William McQuaid). Thomas, the only survivor of these chil- dren, married in 1847 Jane, daughter of Robert Wil- son, of Salem township. John Borland bought his land of William Ellison, Jr., in 1790, for ten shillings per acre, which had been entered by Ellison at the same time that A. M. Boyd entered his tract. John Borland, Jr., was in the war of 1812, and served at I the siege of Fort Meigs under Gen. Harrison. The

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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

first school-house in this neighborhood was on the Borland farm. It was built in 1799, and in 1812 was removed to another part of the farm towards the Manor. Samuel Milligan was its teacher for over six- teen years, who received six dollars a year from each scholar by subscription. John Borland died in 1830, aged eighty years, and his wife, Margaret (Carnes), in 1861, aged ninety-seven. His sister, who married Judge Potts, of Johnstown, died shortly afterwards.

THE RIDDLE FAMILY.

John and Robert Riddle, brothers, came from the north of Ireland about 1767, and first stopped with Charles Wilson, whose wife was their aunt. They both served in the Revolution, and Robert died in camp. After the close of the war John married Isa- bella Gaut, and settled on land where " Burnt Cabin Summit" is, now owned by Thomas McQuaid. He died in 1793. His children were John, Robert, and Mary, whose first husband was a McMaster, and sec- ond John Gordon. Robert, the second child, married Mary, daughter of John Williamson, of Salem town- ship. His children were Nancy, Susan, Isabella (married to John Mock), and Judge John W. Riddle. The latter was born in 1812, and married in 1838 to Margaret Jack McMahan. In 1864 he was elected a representative in the State Legislature, and in 1871 was chosen for five years one of the associate judges of the Common Pleas Court. His father, Robert, died in 1863, aged seventy-eight years.

THE WILSON FAMILY.

Charles Wilson settled in Westmoreland County before the burning of Hannastown. He had five hundred acres of land in Franklin township (of which the Judge Riddle farm is a part), and four hundred acres near Beaver. His four daughters were respec- tively married to Samuel McMahan, William Jack, Matthew Jack, and James Carnes.

THE SNYDER FAMILY.

In the last quarter of the past century Matthias Snyder with his wife, Betsey (Kuhns), came from Northampton County, and settled in Hempfield town- ship, four miles south of Salem. They located on the farm where their son Daniel died in 1881. Mat- thias died in 1813, and his wife in 1816. Their chil- dren were Molly, John, who settled near New Alex- andria, where his family is; Peter, who removed to Missouri ; Jacob, Daniel, and Jonathan, living with his nephew, Joseph Snyder, near New Alexandria. Of these, Jacob Snyder was born March 16, 1797, and in 1823 married Mary, daughter of Frederick and Christina (Harmon) Marchand. His children are Daniel, Lavina, married to Levi Long; Sarah, married to Ebenezer Steel; Susan, Jonathan, Rev. Jacob F., and Matthias. He learned the carpenter's trade with Jacob Dry, whom he helped to build the frame house in Salem that formerly stood where Mrs. John Quilkin's present brick residence is. Jacob!

Dry was a noted builder in his day, and erected the Union Churches at Manor and Brush Creek. Jacob Snyder came in 1831 to Franklin township, and set- tled on the farm on which he now resides. He pur- chased it from the assignees of the Greensburg Bank that had failed. It was a part of an original tract entered by John Moore, who willed it to his son Isaac. His father, Matthias Snyder, served in the Revolution. His son, Rev. Jacob F. Snyder, has been a prominent minister in the Reformed Church since 1865. He preached a year and a half in Arm- strong County, and since then in this, residing in this township near his father's residence and the scene of his labors.

THE HUMES FAMILY.

John Humes, an early emigrant from north of Ireland and a soldier in the Revolutionary war, set- tled at its close in this township with James Gibson. His land was a tract called "Southampton," con- sisting of two hundred and twenty-eight acres and one hundred and fifty perches, which had been sur- veyed by a warrant dated Aug. 26, 1786, to James Gibson, and for which the patent was issued March 22, 1804. His children were James, John, born May 20, 1797; Thomas, still living in New Salem ; Nancy, married to Moses Clark ; Jane, married to Mr. Humes, of Crawford County ; Ann, married to John McCall ; and Margaret, married to Isaac Clark, of Ohio. John Humes was in the war of 1812, and was wounded in the leg. The family has ever been members of the Seceders' Church. John married for his first wife Elizabeth, daughter of William Park, Dec. 27, 1821. She was born Sept. 15, 1802. Their children were William P., born Aug. 22, 1826, and postmaster at Manor Dale; James G., born Nov. 24, 1827 ; John F., born July 10, 1831. His second wife was Sarah, daughter of John Watters, born March 9, 1800, whom he married Feb. 12, 1835. By this union were born the following children : Thomas McQuilkin, Jan. 19, 1837; Mary Jane, Nov. 7, 1838, and married to George R. Ramaley ; and Jeremiah, who died in infancy. John Humes died May 27, 1869, and Elizabeth (Park), his first wife, Nov. 10, 1833. The land settled by John Humes, the emi- grant, was some three hundred acres, overrunning the original survey, and is nearly all owned now by his three grandsons, William P. and James G. Humes and George R. Ramaley.

THE DUFF FAMILY.

John and Alexander McIlduff were two brothers who came from Ireland and settled in this township about 1780, on a tract of three hundred and thirty- one acres, " with an allowance proportioned to six per cent.," in pursuance of a warrant dated Aug. 26, 1786, which tract was surveyed by John Moore, dep- uty surveyor. It was bounded then by the lands of William Callan, Peter Hill, Philip Drum, James Gibson, and Michael Hoffman (or Joseph Work-

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man's). This tract is now owned by John, Robert, William, and Mary Duff and Ebenezer Steel. The name Mellduff was, after a few years, changed to Duff. John McIlduff had two brothers,-Oliver and Alexander. His children were Alexander, born 1788, and died in 1854; John, Robert, and Ann, married to John Watt. Of these, Alexander mar- ried Mary Lusk, who came from Ireland with her parents when she was only three years old. By this union were born the following children : John, Mary (unmarried), Ann, died single, William, Elizabeth, married to William Chambers, Alexander (deceased), Margaret, married to John Doncaster, and Matilda, married to Dr. James C. Laughrey, of Pittsburgh.

John Duff and his wife built their cabin and cleared a small corn-patch, and the following year, when they were walking out one Sunday evening, leading their little and oldest boy by the hand, and were returning from their walk, they saw a smoke arise towards their cabin, when he ran forward, by good luck only far enough to get a glimpse, when he saw it in flames and surrounded by Indians. Mr. Duff, with his wife 'and boy, hid in the thicket all night. At this invasion of the savages many of their neighbors were massacred and Hannastown burned. Many of the offspring of the ancestral Duffs have been and are still prominent in the professions of medicine and divinity, and among the former is Dr. J. H. Duff, of Pittsburgh. John McIlduff (after- wards changed to Duff) was the foremost man in the Seceders' Church in this region, and gave the lot for the old log meeting-house and graveyard from his vast estate.

THE CHAMBERS FAMILY.

In 1725 five brothers of the name of Chambers, emigrants from Ireland, settled on the Susquehanna River, in Dauphin (then Lancaster) County. After- wards this family removed to the Cumberland Valley, where its descendants laid out the town of Chambers- burg. One of the line of this family, John Chambers, located at the beginning of the century in Washing- ton township, where he resided when he married Annalena Humes, daughter of John Humes, of this township. Their eldest child was William Chambers, born near Manor Dale, Feb. 14, 1818. He was mar- ried in 1848 to Elizabeth, daughter of Alexander and Mary (Lusk) Duff. His children are James Alexan- der, John Humes, Mary Elizabeth (deceased), and Sarah Jane, married to Washington Hill. He was elected in 1879 on the Democratic ticket as one of the county jury commissioners, which position he still holds. His maternal grandfather, John Humes, was once chased by the Indians to the block-house, and was so hotly pursued by one of their number that he turned around and struck the savage in the face with his hat, which baffled him for a minute or so, and thus enabled him to reach the house, only a few rods away. Once when out hunting his horses, which had got loose and wandered off, he was pursued by the

Indians, but taking the creek he got home safely, al- though the bullets from the enemy's guns grazed his clothing. At one time, when plowing, an Indian dog approached him, which he killed, and took from it a ring fastened to its neck by its master, who was near, and soon approached with several of his comrades, but jumping on his horses he escaped to the block- houses before the savages could get within shot of him.

THE HAYMAKER FAMILY.

Another prominent and early settled family was that of Haymaker. Jacob Haymaker, the noted justice of the peace in olden times, was the father of John, George, and Michael, who all became wealthy farmers and leading men of the township. The squire possessed a fine farm, now in possession of his son Michael and the heirs of George (lately de- ceased). As a magistrate he was peculiar, and his manner of dispensing justice was so different from the methods of justices of the present day that it is worth relating. He had his term of court, or law-day, once a week. All suitors appeared on that day, and the court being duly opened he announced it as his opinion that the best way to proceed was for all par- ties to settle amicably and they would feel better af- terwards. He would hear no case before every effort had been made to settle it, and invariably postponed the hearing to facilitate this purpose until after din- ner. The dinner was always ample, and both side : made to join and dine with him, and if they were all temperate people, a little old rye distilled in the neighborhood would be dealt around as an appetizer. This good cheer and the squire's good humor and urgent advice to settle generally had the desired effect, if not before dinner, very soon after, and when the only obstacle to the settlement was the squire's costs he canceled them. Such practice was not cal- culated to enrich the squire. The more of it he had the poorer he was likely to get, but the products of his farm were large and he enjoyed his way and had the respect and esteem of the people. Although of German extraction, he sided with the English class in sentiments and social habits.

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 148

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor Publication date: Publisher: Number of Pages:

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
Publication date:
Publisher:
Number of Pages: