History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 43

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 43

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172

HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

It bought farms, as now it frequently loses them, and the consideration which passed for many a tract of land now of great value was chiefly made up in whis- key and whiskey-stills. A great proportion of the Glade road, six ; between the Pittsburgh road, inclu- very foremost mon of the early settlements were en- gaged in its manufacture, of which we shall have oc- casion to say something in our relation of the Whiskey Insurrection. But this is not all : the contributions to the support of some of the early ministers were paid to church committees, in some instances, in spirits of domestic manufacture, and in the district beyond the Youghiogheny, in that district where churches were more plentiful, they recall instances where it paid the debts of the church.

Its manufacture was in the earliest times immedi- stely under the control of the courts, although an excise law was enacted in Pennsylvania in very early times, as farther on we shall see. But these excise laws were not in force, for upon a prosecution and conviction the State usually remitted the penalties, and during the times of the Revolution the justices from time to cime allowed those engaged in the traffic on the frontier to do so without paying the fines which were imposed.1

The courts, we have seen, licensed the keepers of public-houses, fixed their number, and regulated the price of the several liquors and the price of lodging. It would be a curious diversion to follow up the prices put upon whiskey by the gill from 1773 to the begin- ning of our century. It would be the "indicator" for all marketable products. Without going over the whole ground, we observe that of the rates fixed at the July sessions of 1783 " diet and meal was one shilling sixpence; oats per quart, two and one-half pence ; hay, twenty-four hours, one shilling three pence;" while in 1802 the court fixed whiskey at three pence per gill, oats at two pence by the quart, and hay for a horse by the night one shilling.'

At March sessions in 1795 we see that " the court proceeded to regulate the number of tavern-keepers for the county for the year ensuing." They then al-

1 In the Quarter Sessions there is the record of several informations made against Edward Cook, Esq., one of the justices, for distilling spirita. These were generally quashed by the court or thrown out by the jury. See July session, 1779.

(Record) July session, 1784:

"Phila., Sat. June 19, 1784. . . . Certain persons convicted of selling spirituous liquors. . . . It was ordered that in consideration of the pe- culiar distresses to which the Inhabitants on the frontiers have been re- duced during the late war, the several & respective fines as judged to be paid to the use of the State by Persons before mentioned be remitted. " Extract from the Minutes.

"JAMES TRIMBLE for JOHN ARMSTRONG, Junior, Treasurer. "Copied Angust 9, 1784, by James Brison."

A justice could not keep an inn or tavern, but their relatives might. Hanna had his daughter, Jean Hanna, recommended to sell spirituous liquors at more than one of the sessions.

" These are the rates for 1783 fu full :

Diet and meal 1/3

Hay, 24 hours 1/3

Spirit toddy and bowl. 1/6

Oats per quart ...... 21/d. West India rum and bowl 13

Pasture, 24 hours. 8d. Whiskey per half pint. 10d.

Strong beer per quart. ×d. Whisky toddey wud bowl. 13 Cyder per quart. 1/.

lowed eight for the town of Greensburg ; for the Glade road, inclusive, and south of it, eight ; between the Pittsburgh road (the old State mad) and the sive, and the north, twelve: in all, thirty-four. The number fixed in March, 1796, for the county was forty.'

We do not know whether it arose from observation, experience, or an intimate knowledge of the peculiar connection between our judicial system and our great staple which impelled Achilles Murat, when a visitor here, to say in jest that " whiskey was the best part of the American government." At one time it certainly was a very important element in the government. As a factor in politics, and as a lubricator to assist the civil machinery to run easier, its importance was long recognized. Among the traditions of the bar one still remains how the old-time lawyer kept a bottle in his office, and how, when the attorneys met together in the prothonotary's office to make up the trial-list, there were always a bottle of whiskey set on the table and a hundred toby cigars. The same was invariably done when the sheriff held his inquisition for the extension or partition of real estate, and the whiskey and cigars were all the pay the jurors received, and all they expected to receive. After a time the whiskey was discarded, and they were restricted to dinner and cigars. The only fee the constable looked for in keeping the window on election-day was enough whiskey for himself and for his friends to drink at the expense of the standing candidates; and, indeed, about the only proper expense the can- didate was put to was to supply the electors with the stimulant.

That the change in sentiment respecting the use of intoxicating drink has been great, and that the change has been for the better is an averment which perhaps will not be gainsaid. At one time it was here con- sidered to the detriment of a man in public business to be an avowed temperance man. Half the best farms now owned by men who are prohibitionists were once purchased by the proceeds of the whiskey- still. He was an exceptionally prominent man of the neighborhood who did not either manufacture or sell whiskey. The very great proportion of people used whiskey as a beverage without compunction of con- science; and those who had compunction of con- science evidenced a wonderful liability to be bitten by snakes. The frequency of snake-bites was indeed a matter of unexplainable curiosity for a later and more pious generation. But great as are the evils of in- temperance at this day, there is no better evidence needed to measure the opinion and the sentiment of the ruling element in that particular than to observe who compose the class now addicted to public intem- perance and compare it with the drinking class of fifty and eighty years ago.

3 Jouin M. St. Clair had order issued in June, 1797, for license.

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SALT, WHISKEY, EARLY MILLS, AND FURNACES.

Grist-mills were few compared with whiskey-stills, but there were some of these erected by the earliest settlers. Several were known at points in 1771, but it was not for many years that these mills ground any- thing like the full amount of grain raised. There were many small hand-mills, which, being movable affairs, were carried about from one part of the coun- try to another. The grist-mills themselves were but one-horse concerns, and truly in some places, where the water-power was not enduring, the wheels were turned by the machinery attached to the tread-wheel. The first mills were called tub-mills, taking the name from the tub-shaped hopper into which the grain was put, and from which we have the names of Tub Run and Tub Creek, given to various streams.

Among the reasons advanced by the petitioners in some of the first petitions for roads was the necessity of having them to get to mill. It is recited in one of these that the inhabitants had to go twenty miles to Henry Beeson's mill, and in all probability they would ever have to do so. This mill was a tub-mill, and the pit of it is still visible in Uniontown. Beeson was a blacksmith, and made his customers dig at the race while they waited till their plow-irons were sharpened. This mill was said to have been the second one in the region now of the county of Fayette, Philip Shute's mill on Shute's Run being the first. These were before 1773.

St. Clair had a mill on Mill Creek, in Ligonier Valley, running about this time. A notice of St. Clair's mill may be seen in the Quarter Sessions' docket for 1774. St. Clair had built a mill some time before that in Cumberland County. About this time William Bracken built a mill on Black Lick, and about 1773, Samuel Moorhead commenced building & mill on Stony Run, on the other side of the Kiski- minetas, but before it was completed the settlers thereabout were driven off by the hostiles. The next year they returned and finished it.

There were several mills about this time along the streams which empty into the Ohio on the south side, and not far from the Point. Saw-Mill Run was known by that name prior to 1771. Among the other mills within our own county or immediately near were Cherry's mill, afterwards Lobingier's, on Jacobs Creek; Machlin's mill, on the Youghiogheny ; Den- niston's mill and Soxman's mill, both of these on the Loyalhanna, the former on the site of New Alex- andria, and the latter below Latrobe; Jones' mill, on Indian Creek ; Wallace's mill, on the Conemaugh ; Perry's mill, either upon or near to the Kiskiminetas; and Irwin's mill, on Brush Creek. Perhaps not one of these had stone burrs. Judge Addison in his charge to the grand jury of Allegheny County on Sept. 1, 1794, remarking the unprecedented growth and development of the country for some few years, says that three years before, or about 1791, there was hardly a burr mill-stone in this whole country, and then there were perhaps a dozen.

When the boy took his grist to mill he usually waited till it was ground, and sometimes the miller would keep him overnight. The rule was to take a day going to mill. The mention made in the petition quoted of going twenty miles to mill may appear un- usual, but it was not unusual, and even fifty years later than the date of that paper a neighbor was thought to be favorably situated who lived within five miles of a mill.

The water-mills could not, on an average, work more than six months in the year. The only intima- tion we have yet met with of a wind-mill for grinding is in a letter dated at Pittsburgh, July 25, 1784, from Maj Craig, in which he says he is convinced their best plan is to build a wind-mill at the junction of the rivers instead of a horse-mill to do the grinding for their distillery, and at other times for the in- habitants. At that point there was always a breeze up or down the rivers.1

The pioneer firm in the iron industry of Western Pennsylvania was Turnbull, Marmie & Co., who had been extensively engaged in the metal and hollow- ware business in Philadelphia previously, and who for a time carried on their two establishments in con- junction. Among the first and most enterprising mercantile houses in Pittsburgh was the firm of Craig & Bayard. Soon after the Revolution these formed a copartnership with Turnbull, Marmie & Co., and in addition to putting the stills and mill castings of this latter firm on the market, erected a distillery, built a saw-mill, and controlled the salt- works on the Big Beaver. The marked success which the firm met with in this new region of country in- duced them to try the venture of a furnace west of the mountains. Accordingly, about 1790, the works of this firm were in process of erection upon Jacobs Creek, four miles from its mouth on the Fayette side, near Garhart's mill-seat. This was the first furnace in the West. It went into blast Nov. 1, 1790, In 1792 they filled an order for four hundred six-pound

1 In these mills that went by horse-power the farmer had sometimes to furnish the horses as well as pay the toll. Gradually in some parts the milis came to do as much business as the taverna. In some fostances they were converted into taverns.

Paul Frowman bad a mill near the Monongahela, probably on Char- tiers Creek, as appears from the appointment of road viewers, January sessions, 1774. John Cavett's mill is mentioned as early as 1773. It was between Aneas Mackay's plantation (" Dirty Camp") and the Vir- ginia (Braddock's) road, as to styled in petition,-Le., on Brush Creek.

One of the Perrys had a mill on the east side of the Monongahela quite early, and William Perry's mill was on the Loyalhanna, and the mill-seat and a saw-mill were on a very old improvement. This was afterwards owned by Jolin Kirkpatrick, who purchased it at sheriff's sale in 1792.

Samuel Moorhead commenced building a mill on Stony Creek, as be- fore mentioned (beyond the Conemangh), iu 1773, "where Andrew Dixon's mill was afterwardis situated, but before it was completed the settlers were driven off by the Indians. They fled to what was called the Sewickley Settlement." (History of Dauphin County.) Gen. Charles Campbell in 1792 had a mill on Black Lick Creek, now in In- diana County.

Before grain was ground in mills turned by horse- or water-power it was ground lo band-mills or broken in a mortar.

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174 HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

shot for Maj. Craig, for the use of the garrison at Pittsburgh.1

For some years the furnace did a large busi- ness. It was, of course, the centre of capital and labor for that whole region,-a region which, in part, at this day is rugged and uninviting, and which had not from the first attracted to it a community noted for thrift or energy. It controlled the price of labor for the whole locality, and furnished employment for many hands. But the firm went under, for what rea- son, outside of indiscreet management, is not known, and at this day the half-crumbled-away stone stack, with weeds and hazels and vines growing about it, is as picturesque a sight as one meets with in that coun- try. Connected with it is the romantic story of Mar- mie, the sporting Frenchman, who committed suicide by jumping into the open mouth of the burning fur- nace, after driving in his dogs of the chase before bim. Shamed in living, and broken in hope, desire, and fortune, he met the fate of the unfortunate, dying by his own hand. Many stories may be gathered from credulous persons in the neighborhood, who have heard them by the winter fires, about the strange sights which have been seen, and the strange noises heard by nights propitious for them in the haunted and abandoned place. Here they will tell you, if not in the language yet in the spirit, how, in the foggy moonlight,

"The spectre huntsman of Onesti's line, The hell dogs, and their chase,""

"shadowed their mind's eye." So abhorred and so secluded became the place that-so it is credibly as- serted-for a long time a gang of counterfeiters pur- sued their calling unmolested and unwatched among its ruins.

Between the erection of this furnace and the close of the century there were other furnaces erected in Fayette County, the Oliphants indeed claiming the first one blown in, but we think without sufficient authority.' Perhaps the first one, after Turnbull & Marmie's, within our county was the Westmoreland Furnace, near Laughlinstown, in Ligonier Valley, on

Laurel Run, a branch of the Loyalhanna, which was built about 1792 by John Probst, who also built a small forge about the same time. Neither the furnace nor the forge was long in operation, both probably ceasing to make iron about 1810. On the 1st of August, 1795, George Anshutz, manager of West- moreland Furnace, advertised stoves and castings for sale.

Gen. Arthur St. Clair, who prior to that time had engaged in the iron business east of the mountains, built Hermitage Furnace, on Mill Creek, two miles northeast of Ligonier, on the road to Johnstown. The date of the erection of this furnace is not accu- rately known, but it may be fixed between 1808 and 1806, for the reason that at the first date St. Clair ceased to be Governor of the North western Territory, and in 1806 the furnace was in blast, as is witnessed by an advertisement in the Farmer's Register of Nov. 21, 1806. The advertisement was headed " Hermitage Furnace in Blast," and was signed by Henry Weaver & Son, who were general merchants in Greensburg at that time. It read as follows:

" The subscribers, being appointed agente by Gen. A. St. Clair for the male of his castings generally, and for the borough of Greensburg ex- clusively, give notice that they will contract with any person or persons for the delivery of castings and stoves for any number. of tons on goed terme. Samples of the castings and stoves to be seen at their cloro in Greenebarg any time after the 20th instant."

The ruins of the stack are still lying about the site. They are but a few hundred yards from the former residence of the general, whence he dated his cor- respondence still preserved in the " Archives." It was by the side of the old military road to Hannas- town, and not far off the track of the highway may be discovered along the hillside.

In 1810, in the storm that wrecked the worldly for- tunes of this illustrious citizen, Hermitage Furnace passed out of the hands of Gen. St. Clair, and for some time thereafter it stood idle. In 1816 it was again started by O'Harra & Scully, under the management of John Henry Hopkins." In October, 1817, Mr. Hopkins

1 From a petition at the April session of 1790 it appears that the iron- works at Jacobs Creek were "then erecting," and were known as " Al- liance Furnace."

The firm was then composed of Messrs." Halker, Turner, and Marmio, and the ruins of it, as stated, are to be seen at this day. The two former were Philadelphia merchants, and the latter a Frenchman, who came to America during the Revolution as the private secretary of Lafayette, who liked the country and remained in it. The iron manufactured was known as the cold short iron, the only grade then produced from our native ores.

2 Don Juan.

3 For much information on the subject of iron industry we are in- debted to James M. Swank, Faq.'s very interesting and instructive "History of Iron-Making and Coal-Mining in Western Pennsylvania," wherein the subject is treated to its full extent.

Mr. Swank, on local misinformation, locates Westmoreland Furnace on the Four-Mile Run.

Col. John McFarland, a prominent contractor in his earlier days, but now retired and residing in Ligonier, reported that he used iron made at the Westmoreland.

John Henry Hopkins was subsequently the bishop of Vermont, and president bishop of the Episcopal Church in America. He was justly distinguished in his day for learning and plety. He created a great sensation about the breaking out of our civil war by the publication of a work giving a scriptural view of slavery. He was a member of the Pan- Anglican Council at Lambeth Palace, and was created a doctor of civil law by the University of Oxford. In his life by his son there is narrated his experience as clerk and manager at Hermitage Furnace, and a graphic account of his trip from Ligouler to Youngstown, in which their coach broke down in the night, and the party were compelled to walk a distance down the Ridge to the shelter of the village inn.

AXEL-The early axes were rude and clumsy affairs to those which we now have. They were two, three, and four times as large. The first imported ones were the Yankees axe, from about 1812 to 1820. They were sold at from six to ten dollars. They were single-bitt, and the double-bitt did not come into use till ten years after.

NAILS .- Shortly after the beginning of the century there were in dif- ferent parts of the county regular " nailers" engaged in the manufac- turing of nails for house-work, etc. In 1817 nails were cut in Indiana borough. Here are some of the prices: 2-inch shingling nails, 37}{ cents per pound ; clap-board, 25 cents per pound ; brads, 18 cents per pound.

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left the furnace, himself a bankrupt, and it has never since been in operation.

Mount Hope Furnace was built in 1810 in Donegal township, by Trevor & McClurg. Washington Fur- nace, near Laughlinstown, was built about 1809 by Johnston, McClurg & Co. It was abandoned in 1826, and rebuilt in 1848 by John Bell & Co. It was in blast as late as 1854, and in 1859 was owned by L. C. Hall. Jonathan Maybury & Co. owned Fountain Furnace before 1812. The firm was dissolved Aug. 19, 1812. Kingston Forge, erected in 1811 on Loyal- hanna Creek by Alexander Jolinston & Co., went in operation early in 1812. Kingston is about two miles northeast of Youngstown on the turnpike, and about three miles east of Latrobe on the Ligonier Valley Railroad.

Ross Furnace, on Tub-Mill Creek, in Fairfield township, was built in 1815 by James Paull, Jr., Col. J. D. Mathiot, and Isaac Meason, Jr., and abandoned about 1850. It made pig-iron stoves, sugar-kettles, pots, ovens, skillets, etc. Another furnace in Fair- field township was built a short distance below Ross Furnace, on Tub-Mill Creek, by John Benninger about 1810. He also built a small forge on the same stream where the borough of Bolivar now stands. Both the furnace and forge ceased to make iron soon after they were built, the forge running until about 1816. When short of pig iron it sometimes made bar iron direct from the ore, which was obtained near by. In 1834 a manufactory of axes and sickles was established at Covodesville, on Tub-Mill Creek, above Bolivar, by William Updegraff. The business was continued for eight years by Mr. Updegraff.

Baldwin Furnace, on Laurel Run, near Ross Fur- nace, is said to have been built by James Stewart about 1810. It ran but a short time. It was named after Henry Baldwin, afterwards a judge of the United States Supreme Court, but then a leading lawyer of Pittsburgh. He may have helped to build the fur- nace.

Goldon, in his "Gazetteer of the State of Penn- sylvania," states that in 1832 there were in operation in Westmoreland County one furnace, Ross, operated by Col. Mathiot, and one forge, Kingston, operated by Alexander Johnston, Esq. These early furnaces before named shipped pig iron by boats or arks on the Conemaugh and Allegheny Rivers to Pittsburgh, much of which found its way down the Ohio River to Cincinnati and Louisville.

Other furnaces in Westmoreland County were Mount Pleasant, a very early furnace; California,

built by Col. J. D. Mathiot and S. Cummins about 1852, on Furnace Run, a branch of the Loyalhanna, about a mile above the mouth of the run ; Oak Grove, 'built in 1854 by Col. John Clifford, near Ligonier, and owned in 1857 by James Tanner, of Pittsburgh ; Valley Furnace, at Hillsview, nine miles south of New Florence and about five miles north of Ligonier, built by L. C. Hall & Co. in 1855; Laurel Hill, about three miles below Baldwin Furnace, on Laurel Run, after its junction with Powder-Mill Run, commenced in 1845 or 1846 by Hezekiah Reed, and finished about 1849 by Judge J. T. Hall, of Centre County, and sub- sequently owned by various parties; Conemaugh, on the stream of that name, about eight miles west of Johnstown, built in 1847 by John C. Magill, Hon. Henry D. Foster, and Hon. Thomas White, and sub- sequently operated by George Rhey; Lockport, built in 1844 by William D. and Thomas McKernan, brothers, at the town of that name, twenty miles west of Johnstown, subsequently owned by William Mc- Kinney, of Lockport, and finally falling into the hands of Dr. Peter Shoenberger; Ramsey, built in 1847, on the Kiskiminetas, about four miles west of Saltsburg, Indiana Co., by Frederick Overman, for Dr. J. R. Speer, of Pittsburgh, its owner.

These early furnaces made principally all kinds of hollow-ware, such as skillets, pots, kettles, Dutch ovens, stoves, sugar-kettles, as well as grates, andirons, and plow-castings. The high price of iron conse- quent on the war with Great Britain in 1811 and 1812 led to the erection of those which were put up at that time. The pig from some of these was sent to Pitts- burgh to be forged, but others forged their own. The return of peace, and the more advantageous facilities offered by other furnaces near cheap water portage, depressed the industry here. Under more favorable auspices it recovered, but again was the business utterly prostrated, and the first indication of the iron revival within our county was when the Southwest Railway was located and under way of construc- tion.

All the above furnaces have been abandoned. There is only one furnace in the county now in operation, Charlotte, built by Everson, Knapp & Co., at Scottdale, in 1873, where the firm of Everson, Ma- crum & Co. built a rolling-mill in the same year.

This subject has been brought down to a later time than we have been treating of, but we thought it better to follow this arrangement and elsewhere treat of the iron industry since its revival in more modern times.

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HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA.

CHAPTER XXXIV.

PRIMITIVE ROADS AND METHODS OF TRANSPOR. TATION.

Something on Roads in Great Britain, and of Indiaa Trails in America- Knowledge displayed by the Indians in their Selection of Routes- Their Manner of Traveling-Of their Trails Best and West, North and South-The Routes of the First Whites westward of the Moun- taine-Indian Remains along these Routes in Westmoreland, and Me- morials of their Presence in Names of Streams, Hills, etc .- Nemaco- lin's Path-The Catawba War Trail-The Kittanning sad Juniata Pathe-The different Termini of the Aboriginal Pathe-Of the Indica Villages and Abiding-Places here-The Ohio Company's Road-Brad- dock's Road-Bard'e Road-The Motional Road-Forbes' Road-Old State Road-Chartered Turnpike-Old Militar'y Roede-Method of Transportation used in the Armies -- Want of Roads to the First Set- tiere-First Road Petitions, 1773-Dimeulty in getting to MOI-Im- portance of keeping the Public Boads in Repair-Maaser of Travel and Method of transporting Merchandise on these Roads-Pack- Horses and Pack-Saddles-What a Pack-Saddle is-Rates for carrying -Remarks on one of the " Lost Arts"-How they went to War, to the Assembly, to the East for Guode, and a-Courting.

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History of the County of Westmoreland, Pennsylvania, with Biographical Sketches of Many of its Pioneers and Prominent Men, Part 43

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

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