History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 153

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

USA > Pennsylvania > Westmoreland County > History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men > Part 153

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

and in 1874 celebrated their golden wedding. They are both living on their old homestead. Samuel J. Paul is a member of the New Salem Presbyterian Church, and a trustee of the same. In politica he is a pronounced Republican, and active for the success of his party, though he has never been a candidate for office. His great-grandfather on the maternal side was the celebrated Col. Laughery (or Lochry), who left but two children, Jane, who married Samuel Thompson, and a sister, who married a Mr. McBryar.

COL. JAMES L. PAUL.

Col. James Laughery Paul, chief clerk of the de- partment of soldiers' orphans' schools of Pennsylvania, was born in 1839, in Westmoreland County, and was the son of John and Sarah (Thompson) Paul. In 1876 he published from the press of Lewis S. Hart, of Harrisburg, a neat volume of five hundred and twenty pages, elegantly illustrated by Frederick Haas, giving an able account of Pennsylvania's. soldiers' orphans' schools. It is a book edited with rare ability, and gives a brief historical statement of the origin of the late civil war, the rise and progress of the State orphan system, and legislative enactments relating thereto, with sketches and engravings of the several institutions, with names of pupils subjoined. It also contains engravings and historical sketches of ex- Governors Curtin, Geary, and Hartranft, and many other distinguished persons of both sexes who were connected with the orphan system or engaged in various capacities in the suppression of the Rebellion. Col. Paul enlisted at Pittsburgh Aug. 1, 1861, " for three years or during the war," as a private in Com- pany A, Sixty-third Regiment Pennsylvania Volun- teers, Col. (afterwards general) Alexander Hays com- manding. The regiment was assigned to the Army of the Potomac, Third Army Corps, Gen. Phil Kear- ney's division. He re-enlisted in the field as a veteran volunteer, Dec. 10, 1863, at Brady's Station, Va .; and when the time (Aug. 1, 1864) for which his regiment enlisted had expired he was transferred to Company I, One Hundred and Fifth Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, and served with it to the close of the war. While in active service he at- tained to the rank of second sergeant of his company, and claims no greater honor than that of having faithfully served his country as an enlisted man. Immediately after the surrender of Gen. Lee he was detailed as a clerk in the War Department at Wash- ington, by a special order of Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, and served in that capacity until Aug. 24, 1866, when, after having served for an unbro- ken period of five years and twenty-four days, he was mustered out of the military service under provisions of an order issued from the office of the adjutant-gen- eral of the armies of the United States.

For gallant and long-continued services in the war for the suppression of the Rebellion, and as a

Digitized by Google

638

HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

mark of personal regard, Governor John W. Geary, before retiring from the gubernatorial chair, in Jan- ury, 1878, commissioned him to rank as a brevet lieutenant-colonel, reciting in the commission the names of the following battles in which he partici- pated, viz. : Yorktown, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Orchards, Seven-days' Battles, Chancellorsville, Get- tysburg, Wapping Heights, Auburn Mills, Mine Run, Petersburg, and also the pursuit and capture of the Confederate army at Appomattox. After the retire- ment of John Dickie Shryock, chief clerk of the de- partment of soldiers' orphans' homes, in November, 1868, Col. Paul, at the instance of Hon. John Covode, his personal friend, was appointed by Governor Geary to fill the vacant position. Col. Paul's abundant oppor- tunities for collecting materials, and his known indus- try and ability, are a sufficient guarantee that his book is complete, readable, and reliable. His was the laudable and grateful undertaking to tell how a great State expended over five millions of dollars in maintaining and educating over eight thousand chil- dren made fatherless by the casualties of war. He was assisted in the literary finish by Rev. Columbus Carnforth, A.M., who for ten years had been the State inspector and examiner of the orphan schools, and who, like Col. Paul, brought a ripe experience to elaborate the great work in interesting details.

JOHN SNODGRASS.

John Snodgrass was the only son of William Snod- grass, of Martic township, in the county of Lancaster, Pa., who was a farmer, and Ellen Begge, a native of Ireland, who was brought to this country by her parents when a child. William Snodgrass, the father of John Snodgrass, was of Scotch descent. William Snodgrass and his wife, Ellen Beggs, had also four daughters,-Mary, married to John Tittle; Sarah, married to John Long; Elizabeth, married to An- drew Campbell, and Margaret, who never married. William Snodgrass and his wife came to Westmore- land County when their son John was a babe at his mother's breast, John Snodgrass having been born in Lancaster County not long prior to the year 1800.

. When William Snodgrass first came to Westmore- land County he rented a house from Col. Joseph Guthrie, in Derry township. The next year he pur- chased one hundred acres of land from Samuel Ram- sey, in the same township, then afterwards purchased one hundred acres adjoining the first tract from Jo- seph Blair, and then thirty acres from Joseph Ross. He died in 1818 or 1814, leaving surviving him his widow and the children above named. His widow died in the fall of 1844. William Snodgrass and his wife were both Old-School Presbyterians, and are buried at Salem Church, in Derry township. Wil- liam Snodgrass, in the language of his son John, was "an industrious, saving man, and his mother was an extraordinary woman to manage; she man-

aged and carried on the farm when the children were small." Such is the description that Mr. John Snod- grass has left of his father, and of that remarkable mother whose great.abilities he inherited until, step by step, he became the most prominent and enter- prising business man in Western Pennsylvania.

His first public enterprise was the construction of two heavy sections on the Pennsylvania Canal, at Now- ton Hamilton. From about 1837 to 1848 he was super- intendent of the Portage Railroad. His clerks were W. S. Campbell, afterwards proprietor of the St. Charles Hotel, in Pittsburgh, and later of the St. Lawrence, in Philadelphia; and John W. Geary, afterwards Governor of Pennsylvania.

After he left the Portage Railroad he bid for and obtained the carrying of the United States mail from Chambersburg to Pittsburgh by stage-coaches, which he continued until the railroad was constructed, and at the same time carried on farming on a large scale, and was the proprietor of two flouring-mills on the Loyalhanna. In 1862 he was the largest land-owner in Westmoreland County, and during the war, in connection with Gen. Markle, Thomas G. Stewart, Col. Israel Painter, and Charles Hillborn, of Phila- delphia, was awarded a very large contract to supply the Northern army with beef-cattle. After the con- tract was taken the government flooded the country with greenback money. This raised the price of beef-cattle in the market, and he lost heavily in all the supplies he furnished until his large fortune was nearly all gone. He persistently clung to fulfilling his contract with the government, and went down under the depreciation of the currency, which was something he could not control ; but such was the confidence of his creditors in his integrity that dur- ing his life he was not disturbed in the possession or ownership of his large landed estate.

He was an ardent patriot, took a deep interest in local politics, and for upwards of twenty years did perhaps more than any other man towards making the county nominations. In 1850 he was nominated for Congress in the district composed of Westmore- land, Cambria, and Bedford, but owing to a division in the party, and two other candidates running in the same political party, he was defeated, and Joseph H. Kuhns, Esq., was elected a Republican representa- tive from this strong Democratic district.

Mr. Snodgrass died in November, 1878, and is buried in the cemetery at New Alexandria. He was a strict Presbyterian, and died in the communion and faith of his father and mother.

JOHN WALTER.

About the middle of the last century Philip Walter was one of the many emigrants from Germany who came to Pennsylvania. After he had been in this country a few years and got settled he sent to the fatherland and brought over his future wife, whom

Digitized by Google -.. .

gotme apulter

Digitized by Google

Google

Digitized by

633

UNITY TOWNSHIP.

he had not seen since she was a little girl of ten years. After his death she married a Mr. Hawk, an early settler near Greensburg. The emigrant had a son, Philip Walter, who married Catherine Spahr, from which union was born a son, Philip, the third of that name in direct descent of the Walter family. Philip Walter (the third) married Catherine Trout, daughter of Balser and Elisabeth (Bidenour) Trout. Balser Trout had served in the Revolutionary war, and on his arrival in this country first located in Germantown (now a part of Philadelphia), and after the close of the war removed to near Winchester, Va. Subsequently he came to Washington township and located on Beaver Run, where his wife's brother, William Ridenour, had settled a short time previous. The children of Philip Walter and his wife, Catharine (Trout), were John, Margaret, married to William Scheaffer, Balser, Elizabeth, married to Jacob Conklin, David, Daniel, Catharine, Susan, married to Michael Dewalt, Jacob, Philip, Anthony, and George. The Walter family very early settled on the farm now owned in Salem township by J. Moats, where the old Walter mill was the first one built in all this region. The year after the birth of Philip Walter's oldest son, John, Balser Trout and his son-in-law, Philip Walter, removed to the Branthoover farm, which they leased for nine years. At the expiration of this lease Philip Walter purchased the farm (just east of the Moats farm) now owned by his son George, and where he died in 1859. His wife died on June 10, 1861, aged seventy-six. His grandfather, Philip Walter (second), was killed in 1807 by the fall of a limb of a tree which he was cutting down, shortly after which his widow with her four youngest children removed to near Lancaster, Ohio, where she married a Mr. Fetter. On his death she removed to Indiana and there died.

John Walter, the eldest son of Philip and Catherine (Trout) Walter, was born Feb. 18, 1808, in Salem township, on the farm now owned by Jacob Most. He was married Feb. 26, 1888, to Bithynia, daugh- ter of Henry and Catherine Stotler, of Allegheny County. She was born" June 9, 1818, and died Feb. 6, 1880. Their children were Catherine, born Oct. 20, 1885, married Sept. 15, 1858, to Zachariah Zimmerman, and died Feb. 6, 1857 ; Lucinda Harriet, born Sept. 6, 1887; John Calvin, born July 20, 1840; and Benjamin F., born July 7, 1846, and married Sept. 21, 1871, to Maggie J. McKalip. The child of Catherine, married to Zachariah Zimmerman, was Mary Catharine Walter, born June 24, 1856, and who married Albert J. Steele. The children of Ben- jamin F. Walter are Anna Ewing, born Sept. 4, ,1875, and Ellen, born Jan. 19, 1879. John Walter learned the blacksmith and edge-tool trade with John Steel, and for thirty-seven years carried on this busi- ness with great success, both in Allegheny and this county. He purchased the farm on which he resides, known as the old Kirkpatrick farm, in 1882. It was then nearly all in woods, but in 1888 he moved on to it, built a log house, and began clearing it up. In 1848 he erected his present brick residence, just south of Oakland Cross-Roads.

Mr. Walter is a Republican in politics, and takes a warm interest in the success of his party, to which he has been so long attached. With his family he is connected with the Poke Run Presbyterian Church, of which he is a trustee. He is a good example of the thrift of the old German stock that settled in Pennsylvania in the past century, and from no capital but his own resolute will and energy has made his life a success, and established a good name among his fellow-citizens.

UNITY TOWNSHIP.

THE following is the official record of the organiza- tion of Unity Township :

"January Session, 1789.

"Upon the Petition of a Number of the Inhabitants of Mount Pleas- ant Tp. to the Court, setting forth that 'from their own experience & observation they are convinced that the Township In which they Reside is much too large for the Conven't Dischge of Many of the Officers' Duty. That they are of opinion that when Townships are sufficiently popu- low, they ought to he no larger in their extent than the Inhabitants thereof might be generally known to those who may be appointed to Township Offices; That where they are otherwise, it commonly embar- rasses the officers in the Discharge of their Duty, & prodnoes too good an apology for improper Delays, and praying that as the Township is sufficiently populous & on an Inconven't extent, That a new Township might be Erected off that end of Mount Pleasant Township which lies

next to Loyalhaning Creek, and suggesting the propriety of beginning the line of the New Township at Adam Briney's piace, where John Bri- ney lived, on the Hempfield Line, & from thence to run to Sewickley Road, where it passes the late Francis Waddles' Plantation along maid road until the place where it crosses the New Road from Archibald's Mill to Greensburgh : and from thence to go by the said New Road until the Line of Donegal Tp., and thence by the Lines of Derry, Salem, and Hempfield Twps To the place of Beginning, which Township to be erected and so situated, The Petitioners request may be called by the name of Unity, etc.'

"Which Petition having been read to & considered by the Court, was granted , agrecably to the Prayer thereof, and Recommended by the Court for the Election of a Justice agreeable to the act of Assembly.

" The foregoing Petition and the Certificate of the Recommendation of this Court as aforesaid; having been Read in Council on the Seventh day of Febr'y, 1789, and on the twenty-third day of Sept'r follo'g an

Digitized by Google

634

HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

order was taken and made thereon, that the division of the said district by the said Court for the purpose afores'd be & the same is hereby con- Armsed."

Unity township has on the north the townships of Derry and Salem, having for its boundary line between Derry the Loyalhanna Creek; on the east it has Ligonier and Cook townships, with the Chestnut Ridge between them for its dividing line; on the south it has Mount Pleasant township, and on the west Hempfield township.

Although the township of Unity was not one of the original townships of the county, it was a very early one, and as a part of Mount Pleasant township its early history is replete with interest. In the list of taxables which we have given for Mount Pleasant we have many-indeed, possibly a majority of them -who were the inhabitants of that part of the town-, ship which a few years later was Unity. In the history of the churches of this township, and par- ticularly in the early history of the county itself, will be found a due representation of her early settlers. Of these she has just cause to be proud, for among them were for three generations some of the most' active and leading men and families of their day.

The Loyalhanna River separates Latrobe from Unity, but probably a larger population regard that town as their market town and railroad station from the Unity township side than from the Derry town- ship side. Within its limits are the monastery and college of St. Vincents, and the convent and semin- ary of St. Xaviers, institutions of which a more ex- tended account is given elsewhere. It also has within its limits the church of the Unity Presbyterian con- gregation, one of the oldest and most historic in the West; and the graveyard, whose hallowed precincts have been tenderly guarded for a hundred years, wherein have been deposited the mortal remains of men who deserve honor not only because they were just, but because they were the friends and champions of liberty and equality.

That part lying against the Chestnut Ridge is, as is all the physical conformation of the neighboring or contiguous land, rough and hilly ; the surface of the whole township, indeed, partaking of a hilly and un- even character. The lower portion on the western side is drained by the Nine-Mile Run. Between this and the Ridge itself the land is not adapted to agri- cultural purposes, although some portions of it have been cleared, and, by dint of much labor and toil, clearings have been made and comfortable homes have been rescued from the wilderness of heavy tim- ber, brush, and rocks. Some of the oldest settlements in the county were made, as has been said elsewhere, along the crests of these ranges on account of their proximity to the fort at Ligonier, and for reasons of agriculture and subsistence which are not apparent to the present generation but which were moving con- siderations to the early settlers. Indeed, one of the most common subjects for remark to the observant

stranger is the sudden and unexpected appearance of a fine meadow or a blooming orchard, trimmed and cleanly kept, and surrounded by a neat stake-and- rider or stone fence, and back of all a neatly-planned, white-painted house and barn, with all modern con- veniences, belonging to some thrifty person who has taken hold of one of these old clearings and has made a tasty and profitable home.

The portion, however, on the western side of Nine- Mile Run, and lying between it and the Dry Ridge range, is one of the most productive, richest, and best developed of the agricultural regions of the county. The surface of the land here being of heavy limestone, and being for the most part specially well cultivated, is known far and wide as one of the best wheat- and corn-producing districts in the State. It bade fair to be a rival of the famous Lancaster dis- trict in the production of wheat-grain, and had West- moreland remained purely an agricultural county there is no doubt that the progress of scientific farm- ing would, in a portion of this township, have been beyond all parallel. But the modern industries and the demand attending them have created. a market for the minerals which lie under the surface, and for the timber which covered it in those portions which had theretofore been regarded as the most unprofit- able, and has entirely changed the relative interests of the township; and while the farming interests have increased in a due proportion with that interest elsewhere in Western Pennsylvania, yet they are rela- tively far below the other interests to which we have referred.

LUMBER INTERESTS.

The lumber interests here were the first to profit by the innovations of the modern age, to wit, the age of the Pennsylvania Railroad. This great thoroughfare, running within sight and of easy distance from the Ridge, was a godsend to the people inhabiting thereon. The first great demand which the company created was that for ties for its road-bed. The large quantity necessary for its construction along the whole of the Western Division was chiefly gotten from the timber taken from the Chestnut Ridge. Then, speedily fol- lowed the demand for fire-wood, lumber for cars and for building purposes, not only along the line of the road, but for the people who congregated to the in -. cipient villages at the various stations.

Since then the lumber business in this section of the county traversed by the Ridge, of which so large a portion is within Unity township, has largely and regularly increased. It is worth noticing that at the first stages of the business-speaking generally of the lumber business-there was much timber uselessly and needlessly wasted. This perhaps was in great degree owing to its plentifulness, to the inexperienced knowledge of marketing it, and to a wide-spread be- lief that at no time would it be possible that the demand should be equal to the supply. Since then the enhanced value of the material, the clearing off

Digitized by Google

635

UNITY TOWNSHIP.

of that portion of land contiguous to the railroad, the rise in the price of labor, and the systematic develop- ment of the business, together with the capital in- vested in it, have given the business at the present time well-defined limits. Like in all industries, the capital and the labor necessary to carry it on have flown in together, and although the business is in the hands of comparatively few, yet the volume of its necessary transactions has at no time been so great as it is now, and has been within the last three years, or from the period which dates the revival of business after the panic.

COAL INTERESTS.

Of a later date has been the rise and development of the coal and coke business. It was a fact gener- ally known to those of an inquiring mind, which fact was evidenced by the surveys made under authority of the State, that the Connellsville seam of coal lay under the greater portion of the surface of the town- ship, extending across it from northeast to southwest in a well-defined boundary much in the shape of a triangle, with the outcrop on the northwestern side, lying to the east of the Dry Ridge (or Huckleberry Hills) on the southern side of the township, and near the Nine-Mile Run on the southeastern side. The sides of this triangle come nearly together at Latrobe, where the two outcrops are but a few miles apart.

The principal coke-works here are the "Monastery Works," owned by Carneige Bros. & Co. These works lie but a short distance from Latrobe, and in mentioning the coal interests of that centre we have dwelt at length on these works, and of the other coal and coke-works of the township.

At this time most of the coal lying within this sec- tion of this coal measure has been taken up and is in the hands of capitalists. Operations have been be- gun in the township to the southwest of Pleasant Unity, and it is altogether probable that within a limited time the whole deposit will be worked. Nor is it unlikely, but altogether likely, that railroad communication will speedily be opened up from the Pennsylvania Road to the Mount Pleasant coal regions.

CIVIL DIVISIONS.

The political subdivisions of the township are Youngstown borough, Pleasant Unity, and West Latrobe villages, the two first of which are also post-offices, and hamlets Crab Tree, Lycippus, and Beatty, a station on the Pennsylvania Railroad, all post-offices. There are three election districts within its limits, namely, Youngstown (borough and district), Pleasant Unity, and Kuhn's.

YOUNGSTOWN BOROUGH.

Monday of the next May. The officers of the bor- ough were such as the law then authorized.

The borough is a separate school district under the common-school system, and it supports a Catholic parish school connected with St. Vincents Monas- tery. It is also a separate' election district, and the voting place for the Youngstown Election District in the township. It is thus, borough and district, one election district for general purposes.

Youngstown, the only incorporated borough in the township of Unity, is one of the oldest villages in the county. It was an old turnpike town, situated on the western side of the Chestnut Ridge, at its base, and about midway between Greensburg and Ligonier. The first house near the present town was a tavern, known as Reed's tavern, and it was known along the road as situated on the Nine-Mile Run. There was quite a village here at the close of the last century. It lay along the old Pennsylvania State road, and at the time of the Whiskey Insurrection (1794) some of the troops camped around this public-house at the Nine-Mile Run.

Among the first land-owners and settlers of the place was Alexander Young, who owned most of the land upon which the place was laid out and from whom it derived its name. Young built the first stone house here. Part of the town was subsequently laid out by Joseph Baldridge, who was an extensive land-owner hereabouts. Martin West owned land contiguous to the town. He was a spirited citizen, and took much interest in the prosperity of the place at an early date. Sometimes in old papers the place is called Martinsburg, and it was not until the name was given it by the post-office department that it was assuredly known by the name which it now bears.

At the early date to which we refer Youngstown was the market-town and the post-office for Gen. St. Clair, William Findley, William Todd, the Proctors, Lochrys, George Smith, and quite a number of other representative men, whom we have elsewhere no- ticed. These were all public characters. William Todd was a member of the Assembly, one of the Council of Censors, and an associate justice of the Common Pleas. He is one of the common stock of the Todd family of Kentucky and Ohio, who have many distinguished men and women belonging to it, among others the wife of President Abraham Lin- coln, who was a Todd.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 153

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

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