Indiana County, Pennsylvania, her people, past and present, Volume I, Part 13

Author: Stewart, Joshua Thompson, 1862- comp
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 930

USA > Pennsylvania > Indiana County > Indiana County, Pennsylvania, her people, past and present, Volume I > Part 13

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HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

feet in the same distance, and would be more gation, navigation in a stream the depth of expensive than a canal.

"The stone necessary for the construction of locks can be found principally in the vicin- ity of the canal ; in some places, however, there will be a difficulty in obtaining stone of good quality-the stone required for aqueducts, culverts, bridges, ete., can be obtained at al- most any point along the river.

"Beginning at Johnstown and extending to the mouth of the Kiskiminetas there was 64 miles of canal and 46 loeks. The estimated cost is as follows :

Total amount of excavation, em-

bankment, etc. $654,124.93 368 feet of lockage @ $600 per foot 220,800.00

35 bridges @ $250. 8,750.00

32 miles of fence @ $480. 15,360.00

$899,034.93

Add for contingencies 10% 89,903.49

$988,938.42

"At this time no complaints were made by any person through whose lands the eanal passed.

"The eleventh mile ran by Rodger's mill at old Ninevah. The line ran between the saw and grist mill. It was suggested that it would be better to move the grist mill below the canal. This was done. The cost of making this mile of canal was $12,808.30.

"The loek at a small town called Abner- ville, east of Centerville, was on the fifteenth mile, and was the thirteenth loek west of Johnstown. The cost of this mile was $3,473.62.

"The thirty-second mile commences at Blairsville, and with the exception of two nel of the Conemaugh was navigated. Rich- short pieces of narrow bottom land, an em- bankment in the bed of the river will be necessary the whole distance, from 6 to 12 feet below. The mile will cost $21,426.60.

"Mile 35 eommenees with a piece of deep cutting, and continues about 12 chains over very steep sideling grounds; the line then continues in the road on a narrow bank to Blaeklick creek, which will require an aque- duct of two hundred feet-surface water 18 feet below and about two feet deep."

The western division of the main line of the Pennsylvania Canal, as it passed along the Conemaugh, frequently opened into a series of slackwater pools in the river. Slaekwater. the time when the tide runs slowly, or the water is at rest; or the interval between the flux and reflux of the tide. Slaekwater navi-

which has been increased, and the current di- minished, by a dam or dams. Nine miles below Blairsville the canal passes through a tunnel over 1,000 feet long, and emerges upon a stone aqueduct across the Conemaugh.

To the travelers passing up the canal, the view of the aqueduct, and the western entrance of the tunnel, with the river and rugged moun- tains above it, is exceedingly pieturesque. Previous to the construction of the canal, the ('onemaugh was a rough impetuous stream, of dangerous navigation.

Before the slackwater dams were built, the rapidity of the water through Chestnut Ridge was such that a heavily loaded boat, after en- tering Richard's Falls, ran a distance of seven miles with the swiftness of the fastest racehorse, and in that distanee were two of the shortest bends that ever a large craft of any kind was piloted around. These were the Spruce Bend and Packsaddle Falls. At the Spruce Bend a ridge of rocks projected almost across the river from the north side, leaving a channel of very little more than the width of the boat, and the bend was so short that as the boat passed her bow was heading straight for the rocks on the north side, not much more than the length of herself ahead. If the pilot missed the exact spot on entering the chute, or a stroke of the oar was missed by himself, or his bowsman, the boat was smashed to pieces and often men killed among her broken timbers, or drowned in the boisterons billows. At a very early day three brothers were lost from a boat that was wrecked on this reef of rocks, and from that cireumstanee they got the appellation of the "Three Brothers," and were known by that name as long as the chan-

ard's Falls were often run by good pilots, by keeping the boat in her proper position while rounding the Horseshoe Bend at Lockport, without the stroke of an oar when entering or passing through, and as we swept down the straight rapids from the mouth of Tubmill to Spruce Bend an awful silence generally prevailed, onr oars held in the proper po- sition to be dipped in the twinkling of an eye, at the pilot's command. As we came to the first bend the orders were given, "To the left." The blades were dipped, and every man's shoulder to the stems. dashed them across the boat with a rapidity that cannot be described. All except the pilot and the bows- man wheeled their backs to the oar and dashed back, followed by the undipped oars in the hands of the pilot and bowsman; the blades

HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

were dipped and every man wheeled with the water almost to our arms, with the raft un- quickness and exactness of rapid machinery, der our feet. As we drifted along she kept and we extended the chute, as if it were pos- gradually rising, until at last, about a mile below the dam, she came to the top of the water, when we quickly reshipped our un- shipped oar and landed safely at Livermore. Thus ended the navigation of the Conemaugh river. sible to add anything to the motion and the strength of the men's nerves. The pilot's voice was heard above the roar of the con- vulsed waters, "Hard to the left," "Hard to the left," "Hard to the left"; and without time to breathe as we entered the Packsaddle, "Hard to the right"; and in the twinkling of an eye every man was on the opposite side of the oars, and all shoulders to their work, dash- ing them in the opposite direction; and with a higher speed than that of lightning train of cars behind time, we passed that awful preci- pice, now to be seen by the traveler on the Pennsylvania railroad. All reeking with sweat, and bosoms heaving with respiration, a shout of joy was raised as we emerged from the Packsaddle. All dangers were then be- lieved to be passed.

Boatmen from Johnstown and Ligonier Val- ley considered all danger passed when they had got safely through Chestnut Ridge, though there were scary places below to those who had seen nothing worse. These were Brown's Dam and Campbell's Dam on the Conemaugh, Kiskiminetas Falls on the Kiskiminetas, and Pockety Chute on the Allegheny river.

"The same year, 1829, the Blairsville Dam, the two dams in Chestnut Ridge, and the two dams in Laurel Hill, were built, and the only boating from Johnstown, or the valley, to Pittsburg afterwards was done on the canal. The canal was located along the end of my father's house. The canal was first com- menced by the filthiest, most ignorant, and uncivilized men that ever Cork emptied into the United States. On the first Sabbath after getting into their shanties, they got out with their shotguns and commenced shooting the poaltry about the barnyard. My father went out and remonstrated, but he was answered: 'Be jabers it's a fra country, an' we'll shoot as minny checkens as we plaze.'

"On the 4th of July a regular old-fashioned celebration was got up at Lockport on the line of the canal. The Irish in attendance far outnumbered all others. While the oration was being delivered they swore they would put the speaker off the stand. They made the attempt but failed. They were driven out of the village, many of them badly used up. They made a threat to take the place on the following Saturday. There were about five hundred men engaged in building the aque- duet. The contractor provided every man with a rifle and ammunition for the occasion. On the appointed day the Irish collected in great numbers on the bank of the river op-

Mr. T. C. Reed gives the following: "The last craft of any kind that was ever run down the channel of the Conemaugh through the Ridge, was a craft of green boards which was built at the foot of Richard's Falls, on the north side of the river. It was getting dark when we had finished building our raft and hanging our bars. Lest the water should fall, to be too low in the morning, we pushed out and ran the frightful falls bends in darkness, having nothing visible but the white foam of posite Lockport, where they came in view of the dashing waves and the rugged mountain over five hundred armed men. They were informed that if they attempted to cross the river they would be shot down. They scat- tered off faster than they had collected.

sides for our guides. Brother Andy was the pilot, and, if I remember correctly, Henry Harr the bowsman, and Robert Riddle and myself the only common hands. We ran safely "On one occasion three of my brothers, three or four hired men, and myself, were going home to dinner from our work at the saw- mill, on the lower end of the farm. We were crossing the fields some rods from the canal. We saw and heard a great commotion, but had no thought of anything unusual, and were passing by as we were in the habit of doing, supposing it to be but a common Irish fray among themselves, when we heard a well- known voice calling out: 'Will you fellows through, landed that night at Blairsville, sold our boards to Noble Nesbitt, to be delivered at Livermore. The Pennsylvania Canal was just coming into existence. We shoved out the next morning, our raft of green boards all under water, except the floor, which was merely on a level with the top of the water. In crossing Campbell's Dam, at the mouth of Blacklick, she dived to the bottom. The dash- ing of the waves would have washed us off if we had not held on to the oars, one of which allow a fellow to be murdered by a set of red- had become unshipped, leaving us to drift at monthed Irish?' It was William Bennett. the mercy of the current, standing in the More than one hundred Irishmen had him sur-

HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

rounded. Their noise could only be compared sheriff.' The contractor was taken to Indiana. to the barking of as many angry bulldogs, but An Irishman from Blairsville bailed him for his appearance at next eourt, and before he left the justice's office he said to the prosecu- tor: 'Now, sur, I've guv bail, and I'll just go home an' set me han's to work, an' we'll pile up all the rails on yer place, an' burn them to ashes.' Before he had finished he found him- self again in the hands of the sheriff, who took him to jail, where he remained a long time be- fore he could procure sufficient bail to release him till court. He was compelled to pay dam- ages, and tanght that a 'fra country was not what he took it to be.' their courage fell far short of the courage of that animal. He had threatened the first man that would come within a rod of him, and they had made their inner circle fully that distance from the center which he oc- cupied. We all ran to his resene, and such a chattering of brogue has seldom been heard. Those who made the first break didn't wait to see whether there were a dozen or a hun- dred of us, and more than one-half of them didn't know why the rest ran. The panic- stricken crowd might be compared to as many sheep with dogs let loose among them. They never stopped to look behind them, till they were out of sight, and how far they ran before they discovered they were not pursued, we never knew.

"There were a great many cart horses used in building the embankment at the east end of the aqueduct. These were turned into my father's grain fields at the back part of the farm after night, and taken out before day- light in the morning; when the grain was nearly ready to be harvested, and before we knew of it, the crop was entirely destroyed. Our horses were poisoned by arsenic being put upon their chopped feed in such quantity that they had eaten but little of their feed. One of my brothers was on horseback on an errand. The feed was ready mixed in the fced box. He came home about dark, and fed all the horses in the stable. The next morning the one he had been riding was ly- ing dead in the stable, and five others were so badly poisoned that some of them never re- covered, but died lingering in misery for some months after receiving the poison.

"About a mile of fence, together with the partition fences, the breadth of the first tier of fields along the river, were burnt in the shan- ties for fuel, and the whole laid waste during the two years of making the canal. The owner of the farm below my father's threatened the contractor with the law, if he would not pay for damage done to his farm. He replied : 'D-n ye, bring on yer sheriff, an' I set me han's on him, an' guv him a good batin, an' he'll not trouble me much.' He brought the sheriff, and the sheriff brought three or four rugged fellows with him from Indiana, and enlisted as many from the neighborhood of the scene of action. As they approached they were met by about one hundred Irishmen, armed with picks and shovels. One of the sheriff's posse drew and presented a pistol, salt and iron, they loaded their horses by which was sufficient, and they didn't bate the bending the bars of iron and hanging them

"Before the Pennsylvania Canal was con- structed, salt and Juniata iron were carried aeross the mountains on packhorses. Two or three of the settlers were furnished with bacon, dried beef, deerskins, venison, etc., and all the horses in the neighborhood. A train of packhorses consisted of from five to a dozen and even more, tethered by a hitching rope one behind the other. The master of the train rode before or followed after the horses and directed their movements by his voice. About fifteen miles per day were traveled in this manner, and each horse carried about two- hundred pounds' burden. The harness con- sisted of a packsaddle and a halter, and the lead horse often had, in addition, a circling band of iron over his withers attached to the saddle and to which were hung several bells. whose tinkling in a way relieved the monotony of the journey and kept the horses from going astray. .

"The paekhorse required the use of a pack- saddle. It was made of four pieces of wood, two being notched, the notches fitting along the horse's back, with the front part resting upon the animal's withers. The other two were flat pieces about the length and breadth of a lap shingle, perhaps 18 inches by 5 inches. They extended along the sides and were fas- tened to the ends of the notched pieces. Upon the saddles were placed all kinds of merchan- dise. Bars of iron were bent in the middle and hung aeross ; large creels of wicker work, containing babies, bed-clothing, and farm im- plements, as well as kegs of powder, caddies of spice, bags of salt, sacks of charcoal, and boxes of glass, were thus carried over the mountains. They crossed Laurel Hill on the road leading from Shrum's mill to Johnstown. By what route they crossed the Allegheny mountains, I do not know. After arriving at the caravan- sary, and exchanging their commodities for

HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

across the packsaddles on the horses' backs. and Louisville, and some was run on down the The salt was carried in large bags of home Mississippi to New Orleans in the same boats manufacture. To protect the salt from rain in which it left the Conemaugh valley. the bags were covered by bearskins. Their homeward journey was performed by the same routine of the eastward trip. Shoppers from Pittsburg went to Philadelphia in squads of eight or ten to lay in their yearly supply of goods and brought them to Pittsburg in this manner.

"The time came at last to relieve the com- munity along the Conemaugh of their annual trip for salt and iron. An enterprising Ger- man, named John Benninger, built a quarter stock furnace and tilt-hammer forge on Tub- mill creek, not far from where Ross Furnace was afterwards built, and another tilt-hammer forge on the same creek, where Bolivar now stands. A considerable amount of bar iron was made by these works, but so brittle that it was unfit for the farmers' use, and the con- sequence was that he failed, and the works were suffered to go to ruin.

"By some means a road was opened across the mountains to Johnstown, I believe the old Frankstown road-and Juniata bar iron was brought in wagons to Johnstown, and carried to Pittsburg in flatboats at times of high water or freshets. Persons passing along the Cone- maugh river at the present day can form no correct idea of its appearance in the high water before the rocks were blasted out and the slackwater dams built in the mountain passes. I doubt whether a more difficult stream was ever navigated by men of any age. A great many were drowned in proportion to the number engaged in boating. For some years after boating commenced six or eight tons were considered to be a load for a large boat. But one adventurer after another loaded heavier and heavier, until, fifty tons of pig metal were loaded and carried safely by different boatmen.

"Bar iron was the principal loading for boats built at Johnstown. After Westmore- land Furnace, Washington Furnace, and Ross Furnace were built, and the northern turn- pike was completed, boats built on the south side of the river, in Ligonier Valley, were loaded with pig metal, and those built on the north side were chiefly loaded with bar iron, brought by wagons to different boatyards along the north bank of the river. Most of the pig metal stopped at Pittsburg, the great iron emporium of the world, to be manufac- tured into castings; but much of the bar iron went on down the Ohio river to Cincinnati

"The main line of the Pennsylvania Canal with its connecting railroads was opened for business throughout its entire length in the spring of 1834, the branches being opened at later dates. Important and valuable as these improvements were, in the aid they gave to the development of the material resources of Pennsylvania, and in bringing into closer re- lations the whole people of the Commonwealth, it is painful to record the fact that the opera- tion of the main line and its important branches virtually came to an end within thirty years after it began. This ever to be regretted termination of a great and useful enterprise was due primarily to the inefficient and sometimes corrupt management of the en- tire system and next to the competition of the Pennsylvania railroad, the building of which was authorized by an act of the Legislature dated April 13, 1846, and which was com- pleted to Pittsburg on Dec. 10, 1852. On Aug. 1, 1857, the State sold the whole of the main line to the Pennsylvania Railroad Company for $7,500,000, which soon abandoned the great part of the canal.

"Ephraim Stitt, of Blairsville, was prob- ably the last captain to bring through freight from Pittsburg to Johnstown. He brought a cargo consigned to the Cambria Iron Company in 1859. About Dec. 1, 1860, the Mononga- hela, of which George Rutlidge was captain, brought a cargo of salt and grain from Liver- more to Johnstown, and this was probably the last boat to bring a load of merchandise to the latter place. There were no lock-ten- ders at this time. On May 1, 1863, the Penn- sylvania Railroad Company abandoned the canal between Johnstown and Blairsville.

"The first tunnel that was built in the United States formed a part of the Portage Railroad. It was made at the staple bend of the Conemaugh, four miles from Johnstown. The tunnel was made through a spur of the Alleghenies, near which the stream makes a bend of two miles and a half. On the western division of the Pennsylvania Canal, at a place then and now called Tunnelton, about half way between Johnstown and Pittsburg, a tun- nel was built between 1827 and 1829 through one of the foothills of the Alleghenies. This tunnel connected with an aqueduct over the Conemaugh. It was the third tunnel that was built in the United States."

CHAPTER VII MINERAL RESOURCES OF INDIANA COUNTY

THE INDIANA QUADRANGLE

GEOGRAPHY-LOCATION AND AREA

The Indiana quadrangle, which embraces one sixteenth of a square degree of the earth's surface, extends from latitude 40° 30' to 40° 45' and from longitude 79° 00' to 79º 15', and has an area of about 227 square miles. It is situated in Indiana county, Pa., and is named from the town of Indiana, which is in the central portion of the quadrangle.1

TRIANGULATION DATA

The triangulation stations described be- low, determined by the United States Geo- logical Survey, give precise locations for several points within and adjacent to the Indi- ana quadrangle. These stations are marked by stone posts 42x6x6 inches, set about three feet in the ground, in the center of the top of which are cemented bronze tablets marked " U. S. Geological Survey - Pennsylvania."

Kunkle .- On the land owned by Philip Kun- kle: about two miles north of Creekside post- office, near western end of a high ridge having scattered trees on the eastern end.

Coleman .- In White township, about two miles west of Indiana, on land owned by D. Coleman.

Reference marks: Stone sunk 2 feet below surface of ground in direction of Kunkle station ; distant 10.2 feet to cross on stone. Stone sunk 18 inches below surface of ground in direction of Warner station; distant 12.3 feet to cross on stone.

Rowland .- On a high hill on land owned bv W. S. Rowland; about four miles north of Plumville, in South Mahoning township, and near the line between West Mahoning and South Mahoning townships.

1 The Indiana quadrangle is included in the area surveyed by W. G. Platt in 1877, and his report on Indiana county (HHHH), published by the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, was frequently consulted in the preparation of this account.

Warner .- About three miles southwest of Indiana, in White township, on the highest part of a bare, round-top hill, on land owned by Mr. Warner.

Nolo .- About one fourth mile north of Nolo post office, on land owned by Mr. McCaffery, on high ground, but not the highest point.

Reference marks: Stones set 1 foot below surface of ground, with cross on top, and set on line with Evans and McCoy; distant 10 feet from station.

Strong .- In Cherryhill township, about two miles southwest of Greenville village, on the highest hill in the immediate vicinity, on land owned by H. B. Strong. There is a lone tree on the southwest part of the hill.

Evans .- On Evans hill, Brushvalley town- ship, on land owned by John Evans, on high- est part of hill, cleared of timber with the exception of two small chestnut trees.

Indiana Normal School .- Station mark: Cupola of normal school building.

Widow .- In Blacklick township, about six miles east of Blairsville. on the Blairsville and Ebensburg pike, on a bare hill about twenty rods south of the road, on land owned by heirs of J. W. Thompson.

Watt .- About one mile southwest of Tan- nery and one and three-quarter miles north- west of Parkwood post office, on the highest point of the western one of two hills about the same height and one mile apart. The land is owned by Thomas Watt.

Broadview. - About three and one-half miles north of Shelocta and a few rods east of the Armstrong-Indiana county line, on a high, hare hill, with some timber on the south- west slope. The land is owned by John Russell.

McCoy. - About one mile southeast of Taylorsville, on a bare, round-top hill owned by James McCoy.

Palmer .- About two and one-half miles south of Rochester Mills post office, in Grant township, on a very high, partly cleared ridge, on land owned by Mr. Palmer.

HISTORY OF INDIANA COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA

Reference marks: Stones set 1 foot below Yellow creek, which flows in a narrow gorge. surface of ground, with cross on top, in line The top of the ridge is characterized by a with stations Rowland and McCoy; distant 10 number of knobs, ranging in elevation from feet from station. 1,700 to 1,900 feet. Chestnut Ridge marks the position of an anticline, which will be referred TOPOGRAPHY to below. It is capped by heavy sandstone, blocks of which litter the slopes and make the region difficult of access.

Physiographic Relations .- The two char- acteristic plains of the Allegheny plateaus are represented in the Indiana quadrangle, but their features are so indistinct as to be almost unrecognizable. Chestnut Ridge represents the escarpment which elsewhere divides the lower, western plateau from the higher pla- teau on the east.

West of Chestnut Ridge rounded hilltops and divides, ranging in elevation from 1,250 to 1,400 feet, are thought to mark the lower, western plateau. It is supposed that they are the remnants of a more or less even surface which was produced by long-continued stream action when the entire region was nearer sea level than now, probably in Tertiary time. Later uplift and exposure to subaerial con- ditions have caused such erosion of the country by isolated, rounded knobs. In the southwest as to leave in western Pennsylvania only the present faint traces of the old surface of de- nudation.

The top of Chestnut Ridge is the sole rem- nant in the quadrangle of the older and higher plateau. Remnants of this are strikingly ap- parent in the area lying eastward, in the even- crested sky line formed by the tops of Dias Ridge and Laurel Hill as seen from the top of Chestnut Ridge. It is thought that this sky line marks an old land surface which once constituted an extensive and approximately flat low-lying plain. The geologic date of the formation of this old plain, the last traces of which are now passing away, is not known, but possibly, when detailed mapping shall have progressed across the State to the At- lantic coast, this physiographie stage can be correlated with a similar stage there recog- nized and referred to Cretaceous time.

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Indiana County, Pennsylvania, her people, past and present, Volume I, Part 13

Author: Stewart, Joshua Thompson, 1862- comp Publication date: 1913 Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co. Number of Pages: 930

Author: Stewart, Joshua Thompson, 1862- comp
Publication date: 1913
Publisher: Chicago, J. H. Beers & co.
Number of Pages: 930