USA > Pennsylvania > The Historical journal : a quarterly record of local history and genealogy devoted principally to Northwestern Pennsylvania > Part 12
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and the dimensions are such as to suggest the thought of the old- time " study house."
Within this enclosure stand several wild cherry trees and black haw bushes. The balance of the plat is in sod, with several sas- safras trees (8 or 10 inches in diameter) growing at the further end. Blackberry bushes are scattered all over it.
A number of small undressed stones are in position, as markers of graves. Near the wall, above mentioned, we found lying pros- trate two entire head stones containing inscriptions. These are all there are on the ground. Scattered around are fragments of two others.
The older of the head stones is slate, and the inscription is in good state of preservation. In word and form it is as follows :
Here lyeth ye Body of John Dunbar, who Departed this life Oct. ye 5th, 1745, Aged 51 years.
The other is Hummelstown brown stone. Time and the action of the seasons and the elements have told much more severely on it. Some of the letters are very indistinct, but the inscription may be made out by even a less skillful than " Old Mortality," and is as follows :
In Memory of George Allison, Late husband of Frances Allison. He Dec'd. March 29, 1790, Aged 61 years. Also Wm. Allison, son of the said Dec'd. he de- parted this life July. 18, 1792. Aged 5 years.
We speak of these as the days of " Woman to the front!" But just think of it-an inscription on a tombstone of a hundred years ago reading, " Late husband of." Suggestive, that!
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OLD TIME IRON FURNACES.
THE Butler Herald, edited by Hon. Jacob Zeigler, says: " In 1827 there were six furnaces and one forge in this section of the State, viz., Bassenheim, Beaver County ; Mt. Etna furnace and forge, Butler County ; Bear Creek, Armstrong County ; Oil Creek and Sandy Creek furnaces, Venango County. These works, like those who owned and operated them, have long since passed away and are scarcely remembered by any of the present living. Smelting the iron ore and running the metal into . pigs' was then in its in- fancy, but like every other special industry the present witnesses in it such varied improvements that the primitive state of manu- facturing iron is so swallowed up in modern gigantic operations that it is absolutely forgotten. There may be here or there a per- son who worked about some of these furnaces, but we doubt it. Should there be, however, we will venture to say, that while the recollection of those days may afford pleasing reflections they are nevertheless tinged with the sorrow that the old furnaces have gone into decay. the stacks fallen down, the charcoal man, the bar- row man and the teamster dead, and nothing left but piles of cinders to tell that an iron industry once existed, in its simplest form, in this section. Progress is written on everything, and at this day common observation shows how industries of every char- acter have determined into the hands of capitalists. In an carly day iron furnaces of small capacity were in blast in Butler, Arm- strong, Clarion and Venango Counties. The owners were content with a small production. This they hauled to the river, and in boats or flats floated it down to Pittsburgh where it was sold. With the money goods of the most substantial kind were pur- chased, including a few gaudy ribbons and other notions suitable for girls whose fathers and brothers worked either in the ore banks or in and about the furnaces; ham, flitch, salt mackerel and dried herring, all of which were taken up the river on keel boats to some convenient landing and then by wagons to the country. furnace store. But they are now things of the past. The world moves on, and the people have moved so fast with it that country furnaces and the scenes enacted around them and in them exist only in memory, and scarcely there."
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THE excavation for the foundation of the new steel plant to be erected at Danville has reached a depth of 27 feet from the sur- face. The Intelligencer reports that solid slate rock was reached at that depth, which was necessary to have a firm base for the heavy structure to be built on it. The various kinds of soil passed through to reach that depth show a curious formation. The first is a black swamp muck of 2 feet, then a kind of brick clay. 33 feet; then blue potter's clay. 2 feet to 3 feet, followed by 7 feet of fine gravel, succeeded by a layer of about 2 feet of coarse round river stones, under which was found a 7 foot belt of fine white sand, beneath which was reached the bed of slate rock. About 24 feet beneath the surface the excavators found the trunks of several large trees, one measuring in diameter 3 feet across the butt, while through the adjacent soil were strewn well preserved acorns, butternuts. etc. The conclusion must be reached that these imbedded tree trunks were the remains of a primeval forest that once flourished in the far distant ages, and was overwhelmed and covered up by the debris of a gigantic flood that swept through the gorge of the Susquehanna. Then came accumulation after accumulation, until was formed the ridge upon which Danville stands.
THE SINGER AND THE SONG. MISS H. R. HUDSON, IN HARPER'S.
T'
'HE rapture of a song
Rose over crowded ways, And thrilled the passive days, And stirred the idle throng.
I sought the singer long, And found-a grass-grown grave, With naught to mark it, save The memory of a song.
The happy flowerets, wed To June, were blooming nigh ; Infinite heights of sky Were glad above the dead.
Low in my heart I said, " What need of lettered stone ? The singer died unknown, And the song lives instead."
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Two Dollars per Annum, in Advance. Single Numbers, Twenty Cents.
A monthly publication, devoted entirely to the preservation of scraps of local history in Northwestern Pennsylvania, with reference occasionally to statistics, finance and manufactures.
Address all letters and communications relating to literary matters, subscrip- tion or advertising to
JOHN F. MEGINNESS, Editor and Publisher,
WILLIAMSPORT, PA.
WILLIAMSPORT, AUGUST, 1887.
VERY LONG OWNERSHIP.
The lot of ground, Nos. 320 and 322 Penn Street, and extend- ing to Alleghany Street, in the borough of Huntingdon, where Hon. J. Simpson Africa now resides, has been in the occupancy of his family for ninety-six years. Michael Africa, grandfather of the present owner, moved from York County, Pennsylvania. to Huntingdon in the spring of 1791, and on the 4th day of Novem- ber of that year purchased the property. The title papers indi- cate that a house was built on the Alleghany Street front in 1775, which was removed in October, 1859. It was the oldest house then standing in the borough and Mr. Africa had an "ambrotype" taken of it just before the work of demolition was commenced. An engraving was subsequently made and inserted in the " History of Huntingdon and Blair Counties."
These lots in the original plot are subject to an annual ground rent of $1 each. The deeds from the proprietor reserved the rent and contained a condition that the purchaser should within three years "make, erect, build and finish on said lot of ground one substantial dwelling house of the dimensions of eighteen feet by twenty-four at least, with a good stone or brick chimney," &c. &c. Mr. Africa has the ground rent receipts from the first Monday of September, 1775, down to date, excepting one here and there lost in transmission from hand to hand. Paper money was not re- ceived. The proprietor could exact annually, " One Spanish milled piece of eight of fine silver, weighing seventeen penny
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weights and six grains at least, or value thereof in lawful money of this State." A bill of sale dated the 15th of April. 1785. evidently drawn by some one of German extraction, describes the property thus : " A certain House and Lot of cround Situate in the Town of Huntington or Stanting Stone."
It is rare in towns in Central Pennsylvania to find the title and occupancy of real estate to remain so long in one family. Six generations of the family have from time to time made this property their home.
Hugh Crawford, who became an officer in the Provincial service in the early Indian wars, was the first white claimant of the land upon which Huntingdon stands. Rev. William Smith, D. D., provost of the College of Philadelphia (now University of Penn- sylvania), laid out a town in 1767 and gave it the name it now bears. For many years before it was known as "Standing Stone." A borough charter was granted March 29, 1796. The county of Huntingdon was erected from Bedford by act of the General Assembly passed September 20, 1787. To-day Huntingdon has about 500 taxables and the value of its real estate is $913,000.
THE FIRST MAIL TO FRANKLIN AND ERIE.
Under date of August 15, 1795, Major Craig writes to Colonel Stephen Rochefontaine, Commandant of Fort Presqu' Isle: "It is found necessary to establish a regular communication between this Post (Fort Pitt) and Presque Isle, and I am now making arrange- ments for a weekly mail to arrive at Presque Isle on Thursday the 27th instant. and on the same day of every week afterwards unless it should be found from experience necessary to make alterations in this business." Under the same date Major Craig wrote to Frederick Haymaker at Cassawago: "It is found necessary to establish a regular communication between this place and Presque Isle, and in order to carry this business more effectually into exe- cution, you are hereby directed to engage two good men in whom full confidence can be placed to carry a weekly mail from Fort Franklin to Presque Isle; one of these men will attend at Fort Franklin on Monday evening, the 24th instant, and receive the mail from Pittsburg which he will on Tuesday deliver to you at
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Cassawago; you are then to dispatch the other man with the mail to Le Bonf at which place he will arrive on Wednesday and pro- ceed on to Presque Isle on Thursday where he will deliver the mail to the Quarter Master, wait for the dispatches being made up and return to Le Bœuf on Friday, to Cassawago on Saturday. where the mail is to be put into the hands of the other runner who will on Sunday deliver it to the Quarter Master at Fort Franklin, and there wait the arrival of the mail from Pittsburgh. The compensation for the above service not to exceed that made to the men employed as spies, viz., 833 cents equal to 6-3 per day, the men finding their own provisions. &e."
ONE HUNDRED YEARS.
On the 28th of June, 1887, Mrs. Eleanor McConnell, residing in Hanover Township, Washington County, attained her 100th year. She was born in Uniontown, June 28, 1787, and experienced all the trials and adventures that usually came to the carly settlers in Western Pennsylvania. Her father. August Moore, came from Ireland many years before, and settling in the East, had finally moved to the frontier, as that part of the country was then called. Her mother's name was Belinda Dawson, and her grandfather was also grandfather of the Hon. John L. Dawson. The Moores and Dawsons are now numerous in Western Pennsylvania and Eastern Ohio. In 1807 Mr. Moore removed to Hanover Township. It was here that Mrs. McConnell was united in marriage with her husband, Mr. John McConnell. At the period of their marriage it is said they suffered from the depredations of hostile Indians, and were on their wedding day compelled to take refuge in the great wooden block- house erected in the township. Her husband owned much farm land, and to store away his harvests he built the first barn in Wash- ington County. When the slavery question began to agitate the country he became a leader among the Abolitionists in the Western portion of the State. Mr. McConnell died in 1879, aged 97. Mrs. McConnell has been for eighty-six years, or since October. 1801, a member of the Cross Roads Presbyterian Church in the township, and is warmly attached to the church. She is the mother of a large family, and has lived to see seven generations of her kindred-from her grandfather to her great-great-grand-
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children. She has eight children living. They are John McCon- nell, of Paris, Pa .; Belinda, wife of W. W. Porter, of Uhrichs- ville, O .; Mrs. Elizabeth Johnston, of Pittsburgh ; James McCon- nell, of West Virginia; Assenarth Ann, wife of W. Blair, Bur- gettstown ; Mrs. Mary Brocks, Pittsburgh ; Dr. W. H. McConnell, Portage, O., and Mrs. Hannah Lockhart, of Hanover Township. Her grandchildren and their descendants will number seventy- eight. Mrs. McConnell still retains all her mental faculties to a remarkable degree. At 95 years she made a log-cabin quilt which took the first prize at the Burgettstown fair and is still in posses- sion of the family.
MENTION was made in the June number of THE HISTORICAL JOURNAL of the death at Muncy of Henry Harris, a venerable colored man. who was born in slavery in 1800. It was also said that he purchased his freedom from his owner, the elder Senator Bayard, of Delaware, father of the present Secretary of State. This assertion is denied by Mr. Bayard, who, in a letter to Mr. Brice, editor of the Sunbury News, says :
SIR: He was purchased by my father about 1832, and was by him emanci- pated freely and without the slightest cost at the end of eight years. After his emancipation he remained a servant, receiving wages, in my father's family until he went to Philadelphia, where his career was marked by strange and sad vicissi- tudes that made him an object of pity and charity. The whole story of the pur- chase of his freedom is without foundation, he never paying one cent in any way to acquire it ; and, except during the period when he was working for wages as a domestic servant, his inability to take care of himself brought him into great sor- row and trouble. His "slavery," so-called, was almost nominal, for during that period he made frequent visits to my mother's family in Philadelphia, where he went and came almost at will.
Very respectfully yours, T. F. BAYARD.
IN the article on " Slavery in the West Branch Valley," printed in the June number of THE HISTORICAL JOURNAL, it was stated that John Knox, who settled near the mouth of Larry's Creek, owned slaves. Mrs. Jane Russell, his daughter, who resides in Jersey Shore, says that her father never owned slaves. He had, on the contrary, much sympathy for the negroes and always em- ployed them about his place. This fact probably gave rise to the impression that he was a slave-holder.
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LITERARY NOTES.
REV. T. J. FREDERICK recently published a pamphlet of fifty pages giving a Historical Sketch of the Lutheran Churches in Nippenose Valley, which is a valuable contribution to local his- tory. The subject matter was originally delivered as a sermon in the Valley Churches, of which he is the pastor. The trials and tribulations of the early settlers are described, and the various ministers who labored in the valley are named. Copies can be obtained by addressing the author at Oriole, Lycoming County, Pa.
REV. J. P. BULL has just issued in handsome style, at Towanda, his little volume of one hundred pages, entitled Pulpit and Pew of Western Bradford. It is illustrated with three portraits of prominent clergymen, Rev. W. S. St. Clair, Rev. A. S. Morrison and Rev. Joel Jewell. The book, which is gotten up on an entirely new plan, embraces a history of each of the churches of Western Bradford, which is intrinsically valuable, and the infor- mation of which cannot be found elsewhere. It also embraces a number of the author's dialect poems, which have attracted wide attention and have appeared in various quarters. He has embraced a description of "Troy's Temples," "Canton's Congregations" and "The Regions Beyond," which includes the churches of the townships of Canton, LeRoy, Granville, Armenia, Columbia, Springfield, Burlington, West Burlington, South Creek and Wells. These sketches are well and suggestively written, and will be prized by those obtaining the book. The dialect poems are a real attraction and show the talents of the versatile author in a pleas- ing light.
REV. A. A. LAMBING, A. M., of Wilkinsburg, Pa., recently trans- lated the Register of Fort Duquesne from the French and issued it in a neat pamphlet of a hundred pages. The Register embraces the period between July, 1753, and December, 1758, and the French text is printed on alternate pages. The learned author. has given an introductory essay and copious notes, which greatly enriches the work. A few copies are yet on hand. Price, $1.
A CURIOUS little volume, entitled Extempore on a Wagon, has just appeared from the Lancaster Intelligencer press. It is a mc-
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trical narrative, translated from the German, of a journey from Bethlehem to the Indian Town of Goshen, Ohio, in the autumn of 1803, by George Henry Loskiel, Moravian Bishop. It is published by Samuel H. Zahm & Co., of Lancaster.
D. B. LANDIS, of Lancaster, is compiling a history of the Landis relationship in Lancaster County from its earliest period. He will devote considerable time in properly preparing it for the press, and asks the co-operation of all the Landis to be found in the country. He deserves credit for his undertaking, which is no easy task.
DR. W. H. EGLE, State Librarian, is contributing a series of valuable biographical sketches of members of the Constitutional Convention, of 1787, to the Pennsylvania Magazine of History.
HON. M. S. QUAY, United States Senator elect, has promised THE HISTORICAL JOURNAL an article on Old Fort McIntosh soon.
DR. GEORGE G. WOOD is preparing a paper on the Indian antiquities of Muncy Valley.
NEARING THE END OF A CENTURY.
EDITH C. BAILY, of Jersey Shore, writes : John Hamilton was born in Pine Creek Township, Clinton County (then Lycoming County), in October. 1800. She says : He was one of a family of eleven children, whose parents were persons of great intelligence, benevolent and religious. It is said of the mother of Mr. Hamil- ton, in whose school days girls were not expected to proceed farther than the " three R's, reading, 'riting and 'rithmetic," startled the school by bringing a geography; just think, a geog- raphy, and insisted upon studying therein, a feat considered far too strong-minded for one of the weaker ses.
Mr. Hamilton received his education in such schools as were kept at that day near his home. Naturally thoughtful and studious, his education continued after the boy became a man, and in the toils and cares of increasing years, he has found society and re- source in the books of his choice, and in his own well stored mind. .An original and independent thinker, he has made public and national affairs a study, holding intelligent views on the great questions of the day. A man of fearless spirit and high religious
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principle, he has not paused to ask as to the popularity of any cause or movement, but only as to its righteousness. It is of such material as this that martyrs are made. He was an anti-slavery man when to be such was to be evil spoken of, cold shouldered, esteemed a fanatic. or, as more modern phrase puts it, a crank. Doubtless our friend had his full share of such unpalatable diet : doubtless advice was plentifully poured out as to moderation. and the great unwisdom of advocating a cause so unpopular. but just as surely as he believed in the right, so steadily did he bear testimony against the wrong, while his far-reaching vision saw the time when by tears and by blood only the cause might be removed.
Mr. Hamilton is a man of large sympathy and kindly heart, ever ready to succor the needy and him that hath no helper. The wrongs of the Indian have ever been a sorrow to him, and in their evangelization he takes the interest of a philanthropist, as well as the added personal feeling for the work of a brother, Rev. Wil- liam Hamilton. who has labored in Nebraska for fifty years among this people, so darkly sinned against.
An old time Whig, later he naturally became a Republican, with which party he is identified. By early training and choice a Presbyterian, in life and example he is more and better, a consist- ent Christian, a thorough temperance man, whose good works are known of all. A friend at my elbow says that if he were not so good a Presbyterian he would have made an excellent Quaker, and indeed the sight of that venerable form, now bowing with the weight of so many years, and the mild, thoughtful face, is very sug- gestive of the old friends who face the meeting, and shake hands to indicate its close.
Mr. Hamilton has resided all his life on his farm, near the old home where he was born. He was twice married, his first wife being a daughter of Isaac Smith, a prominent citizen ; his present wife was Miss Allen, of Clinton County. Of his seven sons, two served during the war for the Union, the older of whom suffered both wounds and imprisonment; the younger laid down his brave young life in one of the later battles.
RALPH ELLIOT, a retired merchant of Williamsport, was born November 22. 1798, in the town of Fritlick, County Tyrone, Ire-
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land. In 1812 he came to the United States with his parents in the sailing ship Radies. The voyage occupied twenty-seven days. and for three days and nights they were in an ice floe. They landed in New York May 2. 1812. His father settled in Kensing- ton, at that time a suburb of Philadelphia, and there the subject of this sketch worked in a cotton factory for one dollar a week for six months. He afterwards went to school and did light chores on his father's farin for some years. In 1820 he came to Wil- liamsport and settled in Newberry, which then bid fair to become an important town. He opened a store, which he carried on for two years, and then removed to Williamsport in 1822, and built a briek house on the corner of Third and Court streets, where he carried on the mercantile business until 1841. May 22, 1832, he married Miss Mary Gibson, daughter of William Gibson, of Arm- strong Township, Lycoming County. Six children were the fruits of this union, all of whom are living. In 1841 he moved on a farm beautifully situated on the banks of the West Branch of the Susquehanna, in Armstrong Township. March 1, 1855, his wife died. In 1864 he sold his farm to John MeRea, of Oil City. and moved into Williamsport. Two years later (1866) he pur- chased the large brick house he now occupies, on the corner of Third Street and Market Square. It was built by Judge Hepburn and is one of the landmarks of the city. Mr. Elliot united with. the First Presbyterian Church in 1867, and on the 12th of De- cember, 1872, he married Miss Elizabeth Fritz, daughter of John Fritz, deceased, formerly of Williamsport. Mr. Elliot is 88 years and nearly 8 months old and enjoys reasonably good health for his age. His mother was 92 years old when she died.
LEVELS above mean tide in the Atlantic Ocean, at Huntingdon and vicinity :
Feet.
Track of P. R. R. at Huntingdon Station
621
Summit of Terrace Mt. South of Huntingdon. 1652
" Tuscarora Mt. South of. Huntingdon 1926
Broad Top City, Huntingdon County. 1997
Summit of Grave Mt. South of Huntingdon. 2170
" Round Knob " 2304
" Tussey's Mountain S. W. " 2323
66 " Jack's Mt. North of Juniata River 2354
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RIPE SHEAVES GATHERED BY THE REAPER.
MRS. RACHEL HUMPTON, who died at the residence of her daughter, in Jersey Shore, on the 8th of June, 1887, had attained the ripe age of 89 years. 5 months and 23 days. She was a native of Sadsbury Township, Chester County. Her faculties were won- derfully preserved up to the time of her death, and slowly was the earthly tabernacle dissolved.
JOHN ARMSTRONG REED, the "oldest inhabitant" of Lewisburg, died in that place June 18, 1887, aged 90 years and 29 days. He was born May 19, 1797, on a farm near Pottsgrove, Northumber- land County, and settled in Lewisburg in 1819. In early life he learned the trade of a plasterer at Milton, and when he died twenty-four of his relatives followed the same occupation. His father, William Reed, was an officer in the Revolutionary army and was with a party that started to the relief of Wyoming before the massacre. They were within a few miles of the place when the Indians commenced their bloody work. Mr. Reed's family were among the earliest settlers in the West Branch Valley. His grandfather lived near where Lock Haven now stands when the French and Indian war broke out. It is related that at one time the Indians came upon the family so suddenly that they had barely time to escape. In their hurry to get away deceased's aunt, then a babe, was left asleep under a large upturned kettle. As the savages rushed up they struck the kettle with their tomahawks, but did not discover the infant. She was afterwards found un- harmed and lived to reach the age of 93 years.
IN THE HISTORICAL JOURNAL for June brief mention was made of the death of Mrs. Elizabeth Africa, the oldest resident in the borough of Huntingdon. Since that publication was made fuller information concerning the history of that remarkable lady has been received from a trusted friend. He says: "She died on the 10th of April. 1887. Her eyesight was never impaired and up to within a few days prior to her death she moved about the house and garden performing light duties that she had been long accustomed to. On Sunday afternoon, a few hours before her demise, she received visits from numerous friends and conversed with them. Her death was calm and peaceful.
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