History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 170

Author: George Dallas Albert, editor
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VILLAGES.

There are several flourishing villages along the bank of the Youghiogheny River, and on the railroad which runs through the township, following the course of the river. The principal one of these is

SHANER'S STATION,

a place inhabited by the employés of the coal com- panies. Very extensive coal-works are operated in and around the place, and it derives its existence mainly from this source. It contains several stores, railroad depot, post-office, and other evidences of sub-

stantial prosperity. A lodge of L. O. L., No. 78, was instituted here in 1881.

SUTERSVILLE

is on the site of the old Suter homestead, and is a village laid out by Eli Suter, a member of this old family, that has resided in the vicinity of the village for many years.

GUFFEY'S STATION

was named after A. Guffey, an early and prominent settler. It has a distillery, several stores and shops, and near it are large coal-mines.

Buena Vista, Armstrong, and Moore's Stations are all hamlets on the railroad.

The Youghiogheny Railroad stations in this town- ship are Sewickley, Marchand's, Cowan's, Millville, and McGrew's, of which Cowansburg is a growing village.

THE COAL COMPANIES

now in successful operation are those of Penn Gas- Coal, N. J. Bigley, Scott & Co., and C. H. Armstrong, giving employment to eight hundred men.

THE GREAT FLOOD.

July 26, 1879, witnessed one of the greatest fresh- ets ever known in this region. Mrs. John Daily, residing between Shaner's and Guffey's Stations, was drowned. She and her sister had become frightened at the sudden rise of the water, and fearing that their home would be washed away by the water closed the house and left. Mrs. Daily's sister left first, and had succeeded in safely crossing the run ; but Mrs. Daily, in attempting to cross, was overtaken by the flood, carried down by the stream, and drowned. The cul- verts were all washed out, Robbins', Guffey's, and Shaner's Stations, and all trains for hours delayed. The Buena Vista school-house was swept away, and two dwellings at Shaner's coal-mines carried off. The stone bridge at Guffey's was completely washed away, with four hundred feet of the track, and the school- house near the track carried across it. One car was wholly smashed. The storm began with the falling of hail, followed by torrents of rain, and the Youghiogheny Railroad became the scene of great devastation. The storm and flood extended to other townships, and in Rostraver the farms suffered greatly by washes. Tinker Run and Brush Creek Valleys suffered by the inundations largely, and, taken alto- gether, this section of the county was never before visited by such a destructive flood.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES.

THE MILLIGAN FAMILY.

John Milligan was born in Ayrshire, Scotland, and came to this country before the Revolution, liv- ing for some time near Carlisle, in the Cumberland Valley, where he tended a mill. He often ground

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KEENER HOUSE

KEENER HOUSE.

KEENER HOUSE, D. C. KEENER, PROPRIETOR, SUTERSVILLE, WESTMORELAND CO., PA.

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Milliam Guffey

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SEWICKLEY TOWNSHIP.

flour and meal for the Continental soldiers during that stormy period. Here he married Mary Adams, and in 1780 came to Westmoreland County, and lo- cated on the farm of John Carnahan, now known as the " Willow-Tree Farm." He then patented four hundred acres of land in Sewickley township, sharing with other first settlers the trials and hardships of pioneer days. He served for many years as justice of the peace, and married more couples than any magistrate in the county. The long and tedious ceremony of Revs. Dicks, Power, Swan, and later, Patterson, being almost a terror to young people, many visited him where a short ceremony was per- formed. He raised three boys and five girls. Of the former, Alexander died in 1860; John, in 1872; and James, born in 1790, is still living. Jane, the eldest daughter, married Col. David Nelson, of Crawford County, and Nancy married Richard Simmons. Mrs. Mary Myers, a daughter of Col. and Mrs. Nel- son, is now living in her eighty-second year. Of Richard Simmons' children, one daughter married Mr. Jamison, Margaret married Samuel Miller, and Ann married Hon. William Hutchinson, the last two of Fredericksburg, Ohio. John Milligan, the emi- grant, went in 1802 to New Orleans with a boat-load of flour, but it souring on the voyage down the rivers, and finding it there to be unmerchantable, he shipped it to Liverpool, England, and traded it off to starch- makers, and invested his proceeds in various merchan- dise to bring back to this country. While in the old country he visited his native place in Scotland, and when he returned to America he was accompanied by his brother, James Milligan. The latter was a noted minister of the Associate Reformed Church, and one of the best known of the early anti-slavery agi- tators and persecuted abolitionists. He was located several years in New England, and while pastor of a church in Ryegate, Vt., was rotten-egged by a mob of excited pro-slavery men. His son, Rev. A. M. Milligan, of Pittsburgh, was burned in effigy in Greensburg for daring to raise his voice in behalf of the oppressed negro slave, and one Sabbath morning, on coming there to preach, his eyes were greeted with a very large cartoon, on which was drawn the picture of a big burly negro woman and a tall, gaunt figure standing over her, and below the inscription, "Milligan kissing the nigger." But this fearless de- fender of oppressed humanity soon saw the shackles torn from the Southern slaves by the wicked Rebel- lion inaugurated by their selfish and cruel policy.

WILLIAM GUFFEY.

William Guffey was born in Sewickley township, Westmoreland County, Pa., Jan. 16, 1821, the fourth in a family of eleven children of James and Hannah (Scott) Guffey.

His parents were both of Irish descent.

William Guffey, his great-great-grandfather, emi-

grated from Ireland with his family about the year 1738, and eventually settled in Westmoreland County, Sewickley township, and was the progenitor of the many families of the name in Western Pennsylvania. He died in Sewickley, January, 1783.

His son, James Guffey, born in 1736, was two years old when his father emigrated. He was twice mar- ried. His first wife was Margaret, daughter of Wil- liam and Margaret Campbell. His second wife was a Miss Findley. "By his first wife he had three chil- dren, viz. : John, Polly, and Bell. By the second, Sarah and William. James Guffey died March 9, 1806, aged seventy years; his first wife, Margaret, May, 1791. John Guffey, son of James, was born in Sewickley, Aug. 6, 1764. His first wife, Agnes Lowry, was born April 18, 1773.

Eleven children were the fruit of this union, viz. : James, William, Anna, John, Robert, Joseph, Alex- ander, Margaret, Isabella, Mary, and Nancy.

By his second wife, Rebecca Stewart, he had two children, viz. : Benjamin and Stewart. John Guffey was for many years justice of the peace, and spent his whole life on the place now owned by Maj. Dick and occupied by Jesse Husband. He was a man greatly beloved in his family, and highly respected by all who knew him.

James Guffey, eldest son of John, and father to William, was born at the old Guffey homestead Dec. 15, 1791. He was a soldier in the cavalry troop under Gen. Joseph Markle in the war of 1812, and was engaged in the battle of Mississinewa. Soon after his return from the army, April 20, 1813, he. married Hannah, daughter of James and Mary P. Scott. The latter was born March 6, 1791, in Eliza- beth township, Allegheny County, Pa. Her father at the age of seventeen emigrated from Ireland and settled in that township. After his marriage James Guffey settled upon the place now owned and occu- pied by his son William and daughter Sarah Jane. A log house had been built upon the place, but the land was cleared and improved and the present brick residence was built by him in 1833. He died here March 22, 1841. His wife survived him many years. She died at the homestead June 10, 1878.

Their children were as follows: John, born March 24, 1814, married Harriet Ingraham ; three children living, viz., James G., Mary M., and Hannah S. Mary P., born May 23, 1816, wife of Jacob Funk, died Sept. 21, 1842. James Guffey Funk, her son, died from exposure in the army during the last war. James Scott, born Aug. 2, 1818, married Mary F. By- erly Oct. 20, 1844; a farmer living in Elizabeth town- ship, Allegheny County, Pa .; two children living and three deceased. The latter were Henrietta, Mary J., and Martha R .; the former, Hannah S. and James Adam. William, subject of this sketch; Zacheus, born July 25, 1823, died at the homestead Sept. 22, 1842, a cripple for the last twenty years of his life ; Joseph, born Nov. 20, 1827, died Aug. 1, 1828; Nancy

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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

L. and Margaret Ann, twins, born July 31, 1829. Nancy died March 30, 1837, Margaret married to E. R. Griffith, now & farmer in Rostraver township. Mrs. Griffith died May 25, 1876 ; three children, Sam- nel C., James G., and John W. Sarah Jane, born March 6, 1832, always lived at the homestead, and since her mother's death has kept house with her brother William; Rebecca, born Feb. 27, 1836, wife of John Freeman, a farmer in Ligonier township; five children, George, James, Sarah Jane, John, and Anna Lucinda.

William Guffey has spent his whole life on the place of his birth, receiving the education afforded by the common school of the neighborhood. A bachelor uncle, William Guffey, was half-owner with his father of the homestead farm, and upon his death, which occurred Oct. 2, 1840, he willed to his nephew Wil- liam a portion of his property. This uncle lived and died at the homestead. By will of his father his property was placed under the control of his mother until her death. After his father's death, which oc- curred when he was nineteen years of age, he man- aged his mother's affairs. The farm was worked by his brother, James Scott, up to the year 1876, when the latter removed on to his farm in Elizabeth township. From twenty-one years of age Mr. Guffey has suf- fered from heart-disease, on which account he has not been able to engage in the hard work incident to the carrying on a farm. Upon the death of his mother he and his sister Sarah Jane purchased of the rest of the heirs their interest in the homestead. He employs to work the farm Mr. John C. West, whose wife, Anna Mary, daughter of Samuel and Catharine Henderson, had lived with Mr. and Miss Guffey from the time she was eight years of age, and was married at the homestead May 2, 1878. The family at pres- ent consists of Mr. and Miss Guffey, Mr. and Mrs. West, and their two children, Sarah Louisa and Mary Catharine.

The Guffey family in politics have always shown an unbroken Democratic front. It is said that at one time there were twenty-one Democratic voters in the family in the township of Sewickley. Mr. Guffey is no exception to this rule. Both he and his sister have for many years been members of the West New- ton Presbyterian Church. Honorable in all business transactions, hospitable to all comers, charitable to the poor, of a genial, social disposition, Mr. Guffey well deserves the high estimate in which he is held by the community in which he has spent his days.

CAPT. CALEB GREENAWALT.

Capt. Caleb Greenawalt was born in Sewickley town- ship, Westmoreland County, Pa., June 1, 1830. The family on the father's side are of German, on the mother's of English origin. His grandfather, Jacob Greenawalt, a native of Lancaster County, Pa., moved from there in the latter part of the last century, and

settled on a farm in Sewickley. He married Martha Brenneman, the issue of which union were four sons and five daughters, viz. : Daniel, Abraham, Martha, Jacob, Maria, Nancy, Fanny, Henry, and Susan. All were married, raised families, and all are deceased. Daniel Greenawalt, the eldest child, and father of the captain, was born in Sewickley, Sept. 3, 1796. He married Feb. 20, 1821, Emily, daughter of Caleb and Ann Squibb. The marriage ceremony was performed by the Rev. Mungo Dick, and his address to the young couple upon this occasion is said to have oc- cupied one hour. Mrs. Greenawalt was born in the neighborhood of Connellsville, Pa., Sept. 4, 1798. Her father was among the first operators in devel- oping the iron interests in Western Pennsylvania. After his marriage he settled on what was known as the "Brown's Ferry tract" of land, situated on the Youghiogheny River, in Sewickley township, and containing one hundred and ninety-six acres. Here all of his children were born. He died March 9, 1838. His wife died at the residence of her son Caleb, April 26, 1868.

Their children were as follows: Martha, born Nov. 10, 1821, wife of Capt. J. B. Copeland, a farmer in Audrian County, Mo., three sons and four daugh- ters; Jacob, born Nov. 16, 1823, died Jan. 1838; Ann Eliza, born April 9, 1826, wife of Robert Hamilton, moved to Iowa, where she died July 27, 1867, four sons and two daughters; Angeline, born Feb. 24, 1828, wife of O. H. McAlister, M.D., residing in McAlisterville, Juniata Co., Pa .; Caleb, subject of this sketch; George, born June 30, 1832, died Aug. 16, 1833.

Capt. Caleb Greenawalt has always lived on the place of his birth, having come in possession of the homestead farm by inheritance and by purchase from the rest of the heirs. He received the education af- forded by the common school of the neighborhood. When a boy he made an occasional trip on coal-boats bound for Cincinnati and Louisville, but most of his minority was spent on the farm. From the first breaking out of the Rebellion he took a lively inter- est in all measures looking to its suppression. With Col. J. B. Copeland, his brother-in-law, he raised a company for the three months' service, which was not accepted, but the company subsequently enlisted in the three years' service as Company F, Twenty- eighth Regiment, Pennsylvania Volunteer Infantry. He was mustered in as second lieutenant at Camp Coleman, Philadelphia, July 6, 1861, by Maj. Ruff, of the United States army. He was promoted to first lieutenant, and subsequently to the captaincy of the company. The company was attached to Gen. Banks' division of the army, and was first located at Point of Rocks, in the regiment commanded by Col. John W. Geary. While here, Sept. 24, 1861, they were attacked by the rebels, the first skirmish in which he was engaged. A similar affair again oc- | curred October 2d, between. Point of Rocks and

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Caleb Greenawall

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SEWICKLEY TOWNSHIP.

Harper's Ferry, on the Baltimore and Ohio Rail- road, October 16th. His company was in the spir- ited engagement at Bolivar Heights, in which the first sergeant and one private were wounded. The regiment was ordered to Edwards Ferry, with the in- tent of participating in the battle of Ball's Bluff, but did not reach there in time to engage in the battle. The regiment was next employed in guarding the Potomac River, the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, and Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, between Nolan's Ferry and Antietam Aqueduct, his own company being located on the Maryland side opposite Harper's Ferry, a most important post, dividing the lines of the contending forces.

Rocky Face Mountain, Ga., May 8, 1864, in which one sergeant and four men of his company were wounded ; Resaca, May 15, 1864; Pumpkin Vine Creek, May 25, 1864, and on same day New Hope Church, where two privates were killed and six wounded, continuing for seven days and being under fire the whole time. He was in the battles of Pine Knob, Pine Hill, and Lost Mountain, June 14th ; Mud- dy Creek, June 16th ; Nose's Creek, June 19th ; Kolb's Farm, June 22d, in which seven men of his company were wounded; Kenesaw Mountain, June 27th ; Mari- etta, July 3d; and was honorably discharged the ser- vice July 20, 1864, arriving home on the 27th.

From this brief resume of Capt. Greenawalt's army experience it will be seen that he participated in most of the notable battles of the war. From first to last he was impressed with the idea that the Rebellion must be fought down, and it would be difficult to find any one who more thoroughly practiced what he preached. On this account he uniformly declined to accept clerical or any other position which would take him from the fighting ranks, and fought against all attempts to transfer his best men from the ranks to such positions. For the number of engagements in which he participated he was exceedingly fortu- nate in receiving no severe wounds, and with the ex- ception of an attack of typhoid fever in August, 1861, he enjoyed remarkable health during his entire term of service. It is said the best soldiers make also the best citizens. Capt. Greenawalt is no exception to this rule. As a thorough, painstaking, and successful farmer he ranks among the first in a township of good farmers. To the original homestead tract he has added the Caldwell farm, adjoining it, and another farm of one hundred and fifteen acres in the same township. In politics he has been a stanch supporter of the Republican party since its organization. He has been for fifteen years a justice of the peace in his township, and was candidate of his party for the State Senate in 1876. He married, Dec. 7, 1864, Mary M., daughter of William M. A. and Elizabeth S. (McFadden) Bell.

The captain was detailed to construct the rope ferry over which the advance of the army crossed the Potomac, Feb. 24, 1862, and remained in charge of the same until the 1st of May following. He then returned to his regiment, then located at Rectortown, on the Manassas Gap Railroad, being engaged in guarding a distance of fifty-two miles of that road, a duty quite necessary and not a little dangerous, but with very little glory. He was in the battle of Cul- peper, Aug. 9, 1862, and under Gen. Pope was en- gaged in very many of the skirmishes and battles along the Rappahannock River and Orange and Al- exandria Railroad, ending with the second battle of Bull Run. After the battle of Antietam, Sept. 17, 1862, in which his regiment and company lost heavily, the company having a sergeant and four privates killed and seventeen wounded, the regiment occu- pied Harper's Ferry and Bolivar Heights. He was in the famous battles of Chancellorsville, May 1, 2, and 8, 1863, having both lieutenants wounded se- verely, and two corporals and seven privates prison- ers, and Gettysburg, July 1st, 2d, and 3d, having five men wounded. Following up Lee's retreating army until it had recrossed the Rappahannock and Rapi- dan, the regiment stopped at Raccoon Ford, on the latter river, where it remained until the Eleventh and Twelfth corps were detached under Gen. Hooker and ordered to join the Army of the Cumberland. After assisting to open up communication with Chat- tanooga and the Army of the Cumberland, and par- ticipating in the different skirmishes incident thereto, A. M. CARLINE. he took part in the glorious battle of Lookout Moun- A. M. Carline was born in Baldwin township, Alle- gheny County, Pa., June 23, 1840, the fifth in a family of six children of Adam and Elizabeth (Miller) Carline. His grandfather emigrated from England and settled in Baldwin township, where he kept an inn on the Brownsville road. He was twice married, and by his first wife he had four sons. tain ("battle above the clouds"), Nov. 24, 1863, in which three of his men were wounded, and the next day that of Missionary Ridge, pursuing the retreating rebels all of next day, and on the 27th of November, at Ring- gold, Ga., on Taylor's Ridge, where a lieutenant, sergeant, and two privates were killed, and quite a number wounded, thus ending the campaign of 1863. Adam Carline, father of A. M., was four years old when his parents emigrated. He was a carpenter, and followed that trade during his life. Upon the death of his mother a division of the estate was made be- tween Adam and Jacob, the only children then living. Adam Carline lived and carried on his trade in Pitts- During the winter of 1863-64 his company veteran- ized, with headquarters at Philadelphia, Pa., where its decimated ranks were filled with excellent re- cruits. In March, 1864, it again took the field, and engaged in all the battles and skirmishes from Chat- tanooga, Tenn., to Atlanta, Ga., notably that of . burgh a number of years, but the last years of his life

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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

were spent on his portion of the farm in Baldwin, where he died in 1844. The children of Adam and Elizabeth Carline were as follows, viz. : Joseph A., born April 2, 1832, connected with the police force of Pittsburgh ; James W., born - -, 1836, died Adam M., subject of this sketch ; Millicent G., born - 1842, twice married; first husband, John Peter- son; second - Elder, now living in Alliance, Ohio.

His mother married for her second husband Daniel W. Morgan. By this union there were two children : Benjamin, deceased, and Kate, wife of James W. Smiley, living in Kansas. His mother died at his residence in Suterville, Dec. 25, 1880, and is buried in the West Newton Cemetery.

Having received the education afforded by the common school, at the age of ten Adam M. Carline became a clerk in the store of J. P. Stall, on Water Street, Pittsburgh, with whom he remained until the death of the latter, about ten months; then was em- ployed in the store of his brother, Joseph A., first on Grant Street, then on the corner of Fourth and Lib- erty, next as clerk for John Grazier, on Smithfield Street; two years at each of these places. He then returned to his brother's store. For one season he was employed as second clerk on the steamer "Grand Turk," plying between Pittsburgh and Cincinnati.

At the age of nineteen, in company with Robert Mar- tin, firm Carline & Martin, he purchased his brother's store, and carried on the business until the spring of 1861. Aug. 9, 1861, he enlisted as a private soldier in Company H, Fifth Pennsylvania Volunteer Cav- alry, and continued in active service until near the close of the campaign of 1863, when, having been confined by disease contracted in the army for a num- ber of months, returned home, January, 1864, on a sick furlough, and was honorably discharged at Pitts- burgh, May 28th of the same year. When he had re- covered from his illness he was employed by the gov- ernment until the spring of 1865 in shipping stock from the yards at Pittsburgh.

April 1, 1865, he moved to Suterville, where for nearly seventeen years he has carried on a successful business in general merchandising.

In politics he is Republican. He married, June 22, 1865, Amelia, daughter of John and Eliza (O'Con- nor) Battie. Mrs. Carline was born near Sharpsburg, Allegheny Co., Pa., Feb. 5, 1839.

Mr. and Mrs. Carline are members of the Presby- terian Church at West Newton. Their children are Elizabeth, born June 10, 1866; John Hasson, born Aug. 18, 1870; Eleanor Kate, born July 10, 1872; Adam Morris, born Nov. 29, 1874; William Thomas, born Oct. 18, 1876, died July 25, 1878.

LOWER AND UPPER BURRELL TOWNSHIPS.

ERECTION, BOUNDARIES, ETC.

LOWER AND UPPER BURRELL TOWNSHIPS were erected in 1879, by the division of Burrell into Upper and Lower Burrell townships.1 The original Burrell

1 The petition of divers citizens, inhabitants of the township of Bur- rell, respectfully represent that they labor under great inconvenience and disadvantage for want of a division of said township into two town- ships by a proposed line commencing at a marked rock on the right bank of Puckatos Creek, near a walnut-tree, about twenty-five rods above the residence of William Parks, and running thence north forty- two degrees east until it intersects the line dividing the townships of Allegheny and Birell, near the residence now or late of Matthew Young, it being the same line which divides said Burrell township into two election districts.

Therefore your petitioners pray the court to appoint three impartial men commissioners to inquire into the propriety of granting a division of said township.

And now, Dec. 22, 1877, petition presented to the Court of Quarter Sessions of said county, and the same order to be filed, and James B. McFarland, John Steel, and Robert S. Sproul appointed commissioners to inquire into the propriety of granting the prayer of the petitioners and to make a plot or draft of said township and the division line pro- posed to be made therein, if the same cannot be fully designated by natural lines or boundaries, and to make report to the next term of the said court, together with their opinion as to the expediency and pro- priety of granting the prayer of the petitioners, as directed by the act of . Assembly.in such case made and provided. Per Curiam.

township was taken from Allegheny township, and organized in 1852. It was named in honor of Judge J. Murry Burrell, who was president judge of the court when it was erected.

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 170

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

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