Chapter 17 – Valley Township, History of Armstrong County Pennsylvania

Chapter 17
Valley

Set Apart from Pine — Mills — Monticello Furnace — The Patentees and
Subsequent Owners — Lands of Gen. Armstrong’s Heirs — Doanville Seminary —
Donaldson Nurseries — Troy Hill — The Old State Road — The Collins Lands —
Pine Creek Baptist Church — Methodist Episcopal Church at West Valley — Pine
Creek Furnace — Holland Land Company Warrants — Geological Features

The petition of divers inhabitants of Pine township, praying for its
division into two townships, was presented to the court of quarter sessions of
the peace of this county, at June sessions, 1855. James Stewart, Archibald
Glenn and John H. Lemmon were appointed viewers or commissioners. Their
report, favoring the division, was filed September 13, and confirmed December
13, of that year. It was suggested that the new township to be organized by
that division be called Buffington, and also after some other individual. In
speaking of it to the writer, Judge Buffington remarked that he was opposed to
naming any new township after any living person. He suggested the name of
Valley, inasmuch as its territory is traversed from east to west by the valley
of the Cowanshannock. The court, consisting then of three judges, adopted this
name, and on the last-mentioned day Pine township was divided and Valley
township erected, with the following boundaries: Beginning at the corner of
the cemetery in the borough of Kittanning; thence by the borough line north 52
1/2 degrees east 110 perches; thence along the upper line of said borough
south 37 1/2 degrees east 160 perches to the purchase line; thence along said
line and the townships of Manor and Kittanning south 80 degrees east a
distance of about 8 1/2 miles to the corner of Plum Creek (?), Kittanning and
Cowanshannock townships; thence along the line of Cowanshannock and Wayne
townships north 2 degrees east 4 miles to Pine creek near Peter Beck’s; thence
down Pine creek by the several meanderings thereof a distance of 3 miles and
28 perches to a point near Bossinger’s sawmill; thence south 46 degrees west
113 perches to a chestnut; thence north 89 1/2 degrees west 58 perches to a
white-oak; thence north 72 degrees west 23 perches to a white-oak; thence
north 57 degrees west 24 perches to McAllister’s dam on Pine creek; thence
down said creek by the several meanderings thereof a distance of 2 miles and
132 perches to the Allegheny river at the mouth of Pine creek; and thence down
said river by the different meanderings thereof a distance of 5 miles and 100
perches to the place of beginning.

The records do not show who were appointed to hold the first election of
township officers. The following were elected at the first spring election, in
1856: Justice of the peace, Jas. K. Tittle; constable, Wm. S. Campbell; judge
of election, John B. Starr; inspectors of election, Andrew Wauggaman, John I.
Sloan; school directors, Robert E. Brown, James K. Tittle, one year; Daniel
Slagle, John Robinson, two years; John Howser, Wm. Peart, three years;
assessor, John Robinson; township auditors, Wm. Gillis, one year, Hugh Space,
two years, George Hill, three years; overseers of the poor, Abraham Fiscus,
Abraham Bossinger; township clerk, Geo. W. Speace (sic).

In the northwestern section of this township, west of the bridge across Pine
creek, near Hepler’s blacksmith shop, it is found that James Walker, of
“Mexico” and Philip Essex, afterward of Morgan county, Ohio, agreed,
May 5, 1811, for the sale and purchase, at $4 per acre, of a portion of
“Mexico” contained within specified boundaries, so that Essex might
“have the benefit of the creek.” Essex also purchased about that
time 40 acres “surveyed off the southwest side of Samuel Calhoun’s
land.” He conveyed both of those parcels , the former for $120, and the
latter for $40, to Robert Brown, April 17, 1827, both of which the latter
conveyed to Alexander McAllister, of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania, May 3,
for $200, who erected a fulling-mill in the northwestern part of the parcel
which he had purchased from Calhoun, with which he was assessed from 1829
until 1848-9, and a gristmill, with which he was assessed from 1832 until
1837. Portions of the Samuel Calhoun tracts became vested in Robert Orr, for
some of which a patent was granted to him October 9, 1842. He conveyed 111
acres and 88 perches, consisting partly of the smaller Calhoun tract and
partly of “Amherst,” to Joseph Starr, February 9, 1853, for $892,
and which, with 18 acres and 15 perches of one of the Collins tracts, the
latter conveyed to James Walker, the present owner, January 10, 1857, for
$1,700.27. Orr conveyed a small part covered by that patent, and a part of
“Amherst,” aggregating 213 acres and 66 perches, to George Sheckler,
December 15, 1856, for $756. For several years after 1856 Barton W. Blanchard
manufactured fanning-mills in this part of the township. Passing the small
portion of “Pine Grove,” below Pine creek, on which are the Sloan
mills, was the Steel Semple tract, covered by warrant No. 748, 178 acres and
84 perches, which, having become vested in Robert Brown, the patent therefor
was granted to him May 15, 1828, 106 acres of which he conveyed to Walter
Sloan June7, for $306, and the residue, 78 1/2 acres, in the southern part of
the tract, including the mouth of Hays’ run, to David White, Jr., August 4,
for $130, to which the latter removed from one of the hereinafter-mentioned
Collins tracts. He operated a distillery near the mouth of Hays’ run during a
portion of the time while he resided here. He conveyed 2 acres of this parcel
to John Howard, February 26, 1846, for $25, and 110 acres to Joseph K. and
James A. Lowry, June 20, 1851, for $1,000, on which they erected a two-story
sawmill near the mouth of the run, with a twenty-foot overshot wheel, and a
two-story frame dwelling-house, which buildings, with 2 acres of curtilage,
were conveyed, September 6, 1855, by Joseph Clark, then sheriff of this
county, to John J. Sloan, for $615. Joseph K. conveyed his interest in the
whole parcel to J. A. Lowry, August 11, 1854, and the latter’s interest
therein was conveyed by the same officer to Robert E. Brown, who purchased an
undivided moiety for himself and the other for James E. Brown, December 12,
1855, for $320. That sawmill, not having been used for several years, is in a
state of decadence. Hays’ run, on which it is situated, tradition says, was so
called after an Indian bearing the English name of John Hays, who resided on
it in early times. Indians, probably Senecas or Cornplanters, had a camp on
this stream, about 300 rods in an airline from its mouth, and about two miles
from Pine Creek Furnace, in the early part of this century. Next below that
tract along the river was one of the Collins tracts, elsewhere noticed. Next
below that one was a tract called “Monticello,” 263 acres and 63
perches, including in its southwestern corner the mouth of the Cowanshannock,
the patent for which was granted to Robert Semple, November 22, 1802. He
devised it by his will, dated August 10, 1808, to his wife, Elizabeth Semple,
who conveyed it, August 9, 1809, to Robert Beatty for $900. He erected a
gristmill and sawmill on it the next year, a short distance above the mouth of
the Cowanshannock, with which he was assessed until 1813, which, with the
entire tract, be conveyed to David Loy, of Bedford county, Pennsylvania,
November 2, 1813, who conveyed the same, February 29, 1818, to Robert Brown
for $4,000, which, with 47 acres and 53 perches of the adjoining Nicholson
tract, he conveyed to his son, Robert E. Brown, October 11, 1841. The
two-story brick mansion house was built by him in 1842. Matthias Bowser, a
brother-in-law of David Loy, was assessed with those mills from 1814 till
1819; Robert Brown from then until 1827, and with a distillery from 1826 till
1828; Isaac Cunningham with those mills from 1827 till 1828; John P. Brown
from then until 1837, and Robert E. Brown from 1842 until 1863. He turned out
large quantities of lumber from the sawmill prior to 1859, among which was the
material for the Pipetown, or upper covered, bridge at Pittsburgh. The fall of
water in the Cowanshannock for the first mile above its mouth is over 100
feet. Notwithstanding the advantage of so great a water-power, that large
flouring-mill and the sawmill were taken down in 1866-7, and their material
used for other purposes about Monticello Furnace. This furnace, at first a
charcoal and then a coke hot-blast one, was erected by Robert E. Brown, in
1859, about 175 rods up the river from the mouth of the Cowanshannock. He
conveyed it, with the Monticello, and about forty-eight acres of the adjoining
Nicholson tract, his moiety of the parcel of the Steel Semple tract, which he
had purchased at sheriff’s sale, Monticello island, and eighty acres on the
west side of the river, to McKnight, Martin & Co., March 14, 1863, for
$26,000. The firm name was afterward changed to McKnight, Porter & Co.
They purchased a considerable additional quantity of land containing ore and
coal. Embarrassment caused them to suspend operations at the furnace, in 1875,
and their property, including sixty-eight dwelling-houses for their
operatives, was subsequently sold by their assignees. This furnace was in
almost constant operation from its completion until it went out of blast, and
afforded employment in all its departments to a large number of employees, at
times to about two hundred. Its product aggregated 60,000 tons of pig-iron,
which found a market in Pittsburgh and Kittanning. Between 1866 and 1874
20,000 tons of Lake Superior ore were mixed with the native ores in this
region, producing a superior quality of neutral iron, well adapted to the
manufacture of nails, hoop-iron and tool-steel. Guthrie’s run, which empties
into the Allegheny at the railroad station, was named after a teamster by the
name of Guthrie, whose team of four mules slipped on the ice over the
precipice at its mouth, years ago, causing his and their death. The dismal
hollow along this run has, until within a few years, been a terror to the
superstitious who had occasion to pass it after night. Some have remained away
from their homes all night rather than pass it in the dark. The patent for
Monticello Island, opposite the mouth of Limestone run, in the Allegheny
river, was granted to John Q. Sloan, March 2, 1814, which he devised to
William Q. Sloan, by his will, dated January 18, 1816, who conveyed it to
Samuel Hutchinson, November 19, 1833, and he conveyed it to Robert E. Brown,
August 28, 1849. It once contained between four and five acres, which were
cultivated as late as 1874. The last tree on it, with several feet of the soil
around its roots, was swept away by the ice in March, 1875. A large sandbar is
now the only vestige of that once beautiful island. The Monticello postoffice,
kept at the furnace store, was established July 15, 1864, William Acheson,
postmaster, and was discontinued February 15, 1876. The Allegheny Valley
railroad was extended to this point, and the Cowanshannock station was
established here in the latter part of 1865 or the fore part of 1866. Next
below “Monticello” was the John Nicholson tract, covered by warrant
No. 5163, 400 acres, dated February 15, 1794. He conveyed it, March 9, 1797,
to James Buchanan, and he to Alexander Craig and Robert Patrick, February 6,
1798. They conveyed it to John Patrick, March 18, 1811, for five shillings.
Patrick agreed in his lifetime to sell thirty-nine acres and seventy-one
perches of the northwestern part of this tract to Robert Brown, but died
without executing a deed, which necessitated the proof of the contract after
his death, in the proper court. The residue and 100 acres covered by
application No. 632, made by William Elliott, and adjoining the Nicholson
tract on the east, which Elliott conveyed to Patrick, December 25, 1807, for
five shillings, was subsequently divided into three purparts in proceedings in
partition in the orphans’ court of this county. The one marked “A,”
extending to the Allegheny river, contained 191 acres and 150 perches, which
William Coulter, the administrator, by order of the court, sold to Joseph
Patrick, on the second Monday of May, 1851, for $1,051,15, which he conveyed
to James W. Coulter, November 10, 1846, for $600, who conveyed it to Rev. B.
B. Killikelly, J. E. and R. E. Brown, May 3, 1847, for the last-mentioned sum.
From a recital in the deed from Jeremiah Bonner to Daniel Fish, September 17,
1849, thirty acres of this purpart appears to have been conveyed by Joseph
Patrick to Jeremiah and James C. Bonner, November 10, 1846. The latter
conveyed this parcel to Fish for $121. It was conveyed by John Mechling, then
sheriff of this county, to Philip Templeton, December 12, 1850, for $230, who
conveyed it to James G. Henry, Samuel G. W. Brown and Robert B. Brockett,
January 3, 1873, for $2,000. Brown conveyed his undivided moiety to his
co-purchasers, April 25, for $1,000. This parcel contains several
stone-quarries — it abounds in the Pottsville conglomerate sandstone — it
used to be called Templeton’s “stone farm.” The present proprietors
laid out upon this property the town of Brockettsville, which has not yet
grown into magnitudinous properties; it is still a hamlet of four or five
buildings, in which lots have been laid out. The principal street is named
Modoc avenue. Brockett & Henry conveyed two of these lots, Nos. 16 and 17,
situated on that avenue, to Matilda A. McAnulty, November 5, 1873, for $150.
James Patrick purchased the purpart marked “B,” adjoining
“A” on the east, containing 196 acres and 110 perches, for
$1,303,05, second Monday of May, 1841, which he conveyed to Abraham Fiscus,
October 14, 1842, for $1, and 125 acres and 99 perches, part of the Henry Reed
tract, which he still owns and occupies. Fiscus entered into an agreement with
James Galbraith, February 2, 1858, to convey the major part of this parcel to
him for some real estate in the borough of Kittanning, and in Paulding county,
Ohio, but having died, the following summer, without executing a deed, his
administrator, by order of the proper court, executed one for 144 acres and 75
perches to Galbraith, the present owner. Fiscus had in his lifetime conveyed
the residue of that purpart to his sons, Christopher and James, who
subsequently conveyed the same to Jackson Boggs, in exchange for other parcels
of land in Kittanning township. John Patrick’s administrator sold purpart
“C,” 160 acres and 30 perches, to Peter Boyers, June 22, 1841, for
$488.57, which included the tract covered by warrant to William Elliott, No.
632, 100 acres, and which Elliott conveyed to Patrick, December 25, 1807, for
“five shillings specie,” that being the only consideration expressed
in the deed. It was in the sharp bend of the Cowanshannock on this Elliott
tract that Patrick built his sawmill, in 1819, and with which he was assessed
from 1820 till his death in 1826. It was assessed for two years thereafter to
Margaret Patrick. It was a very substantial structure. James Thompson, father
of Robert and Henry Thompson, of Pine township, settled here in 1815, and was
assessed the next year as a millwright. James Patrick, a brother of John
Patrick, settled here in 1816, and was first assessed as a single man the next
year. They did the work in the erection of that mill, in which considerable
quantities of oak, poplar, hemlock, cherry and black-walnut boards were sawed,
some of which were three feet wide. Boyers conveyed this entire purpart to
Alexander Colwell, June 7, 1842, for $310, and the latter to Jeremiah Bonner,
June 16, 1861, in pursuance of a previous agreement, for $600, on which, at or
near the site of the sawmill, he erected the Cowanshannock furnace, in 1845,
and with which he and his brother, James C. Bonner, were first assessed in
1846. It was thereafter assessed to the former until 1850, John Hudson paying
the taxes on it in 1849. It was assessed to James E. Brown, and to Brown and
McConnell, and operated by Brown and Barr from 1850 till 1853, when the
assessment list indicates it was “not in blast.” It was a charcoal,
cold blast, quarter stack furnace, eight feet across the bosh, and produced
two and a half tons a day. Jeremiah Bonner erected a large frame gristmill
with three runs of stone and a corn crusher near that furnace, in 1845-6,
which he conveyed, some years since, to James S. Quigley, its present owner.
Next below that Nicholson tract along the river was the one covered by warrant
No. 5847, 216 acres and 18 perches, granted December 8, 1803, to Robert
Patrick, who had probably settled on it soon after the Indian hostilities
ceased. The patent to him is dated February 28, 1816. He was a brother of the
above-mentioned John Patrick. Both of them served as militia men and scouts in
different terms along the valley of the Allegheny river in 1791-2-3. Robert
served one term of two months under Capt. John Craig, and another of two
months under Capt. William Donahue, in 1791; two months in 1792 under Capt.
Joseph Dilworth, and two months as a volunteer under Capt. Elliott in 1793.
The fact of his having rendered those services is verified by his own
affidavit, October 21, and he is corroborated by the affidavits of Col. Robert
Walker and Capt. John Craig, October 31, 1837. Furthermore, the writer
obtained a land warrant for his widow, Barbara Patrick, to which she was
entitled under the act of Congress passed September 28, 1850. By his will,
dated February 2, 1841, and probated February 16, 1846, he provided that his
land should be sold after his wife’s death, and the proceeds, after paying
certain legacies, be equally divided among his children. The executor, James
Galbraith, having filed his declination to serve, Jonathan E. Meredith was
appointed administrator, cum testamento annexo, who, by virtue of an order of
the proper court, sold that tract, less 24 1/2 acres, to Gen. Robert Orr, June
4, 1859, by public outcry, for $4,100, to whose estate it still belongs. The
eastern terminus of the Helms Ferry was near the center of the western or
river line of this track. The above-mentioned 24 1/2 acres are a part of a
trapezoidal portion of the southern part of the tract which seems, on the
connected drafts of this and the tract next below it, to project into the
latter, 13 acres and 102 perches of which Patrick conveyed to James Watterson,
May 7, 1829, for $64.28, on which the latter operated a distillery for several
years. Patrick, by his deed, dated September 29, 1830, granted to Watterson,
in common with all others, the right to travel on a road which he had opened
from the Allegheny river, beginning at a corner at the intersection of the
Olean road with his line; thence by out-lots of Daniel Lemmon north 88 degrees
east 38 perches to a white-oak corner called for in his survey; thence south 2
degrees west by Lemmon’s and James Gibson’s lots to the premises which he had
granted to Watterson, over which all persons were to enjoy the right of way
with equal rights and privileges with himself and without molestation or
hindrance on his part. Watterson agreed to sell this parcel to James Stewart,
who afterward agreed to sell his interest in it to Daniel Lemmon, to whom
Watterson conveyed it, March 28, 1840, for $150-. It afterward became vested
in his son, Thomas McC. Lemmon, from whom it was purchased, as containing 14
acres, by the Catholic Cemetery Company of St. Mary’s church, Kittanning, May
5, 1873, for $3,000. Eight acres have been laid out for the cemetery into five
sections, subdivided into 596 lots, 10 X 20 feet, valued at from $25 to $50.
Four lots, 40 X 40 feet, each valued at $100 The Main or Central avenue and
the Grand avenue around the entire grounds are each 40 feet wide. The rest of
this company’s premises consists of two green plats, one on each side of the
central avenue and west of the above-mentioned sections, with a picnic ground
in the southwestern corner of the southern plat; of a piece of woodland and
ground for building lots west of the green plats, through which a serpentine
road 30 feet wide extends from the western line of these premises to the foot
of the central avenue. Eleven building lots have been laid out, each of which
, except a triangular one, is 50 X 10 feet. Seven of them have been sold at
$150 each. The proceeds of their sales are applied toward paying the purchase
money for the entire premises. This tongue of the Patrick tract on which these
premises are situated has been considerably improved by the Cemetery Company
since it came into their possession. It was naturally a piece of rough, stony,
hilly ground, so much so that it was probably purposely surveyed around and
excluded from the adjoining tract. Patrick also sold 10 acres and 138 perches
adjoining this cemetery parcel on the south to John Mosgrove. Next below the
Robert Patrick tract was the tract *(1) granted to Col. John Armstrong by
virtue of “a proprietary letter to the secretary, dated May 29, 1771,
surveyed November 5, 1774, and the patent was granted by John Penn, March 22,
1775. The major part of this tract lay north of the purchase line of 1768, in
territory which was not purchased from the Indians until thirteen years after
the inception of Armstrong’s title, which, however, has never been
invalidated. The northern end of “Victory,” as this tract was
called, seems to be penetrated by the above-mentioned trapezoidal portion or
tongue of the Robert Patrick tract, as they are presented on connected drafts.
Gen. Armstrong’s executors, James Armstrong and Thomas Duncan, were authorized
by his will to sell all his personal and real estate that might remain after
the payment of his debts and a legacy of �50. The first sale made by them of
any part of “Victory,” after the laying out of Kittanning, was of
“three triangular lots at the northeast corner” of that town, May
19, 1808, for $100. If they were “at the northeast corner,” they
would include a part of the new cemetery. But one of them is the triangle,
formed by a line drawn from the southeastern corner of out-lot No. 27, to the
southeastern corner of Mulberry street, which appears to have been divided
into nineteen small “coal lots,” or “coalbank lots,” as
surveyed many years ago by Robert Orr, Jr., one of which, No. 5, Beatty
conveyed to Matthew Kern, September 10, 1815, for $28. Divers other persons
became possessed of the rest. No. 16 was conveyed by Richard Graham to James
McCullough, Sr., in 1829, which the latter conveyed to Anderson &
Marshall, March 26, 1873, for $60. Coal lot No. 17 was conveyed by Beatty to
John Donaldson, September 15, 1815, for $17. Beatty conveyed another of those
“triangular lots,” “adjoining to Mulberry and McKean
streets,” to David Reynolds, September 15, 1817, for $20, whose
executors, Alexander and Absalom Reynolds, conveyed it to John Scott, April
23, 1849, for $345. Beatty conveyed the other or lowest of those three
“triangular lots,” “beginning at a hickory,” the
southernmost corner of “Victory,” “on the bank of the Allegheny
river; thence up said river 53 perches to the end of Walnut street,”
etc., containing 6 3/4 acres, to George Crawford, September 2, 1813, for $270,
which the latter devised to his daughter Sarah, wife of John A. Patterson, of
Westmoreland county, which, with in-lot No. 169 and the half of in-lot No.
175, in Kittanning, they conveyed to Jonathan H. Sloan, and he conveyed that
triangular lot below Walnut street to Alexander Colwell, William F. Johnston
and Horatio N. Lee, trustees of the Kittanning Iron Works Company, 5 3/4
acres, August 4, 1847, for $2,600, on which stands the rolling-mill. Now the
question is, who erred in describing these “three triangular lots:”
as lying “at the northeast corner of Kittanning?” Was it the person
who drew the deed from Armstrong’s executors to Beatty, or Paul Morrow’s clerk
who recorded it? Dr. James Armstrong conveyed two other parcels, containing
respectively 2 acres more or less, and 2 acres and 16 perches, to Robert
Brown, October 18, 1809, for $130. A part of the description of the former is
“up the river to where the road from Kittanning to Helms’ ferry strikes
the same.” Brown conveyed the other to Robert Stewart, January 1, 1813,
who operated on it the first brickyard*(2) in this part of the county. The
next sales of parcels of “Victory” were by Dr. James Armstrong,
October 25, 1810: To Robert Brown 12 acres, “beginning at a post in the
northeasternmost part of the town of Kittanning,” for $25; and another
parcel contiguous thereto, to David Lawson, 10 acres and 130 perches for
$48.75. Both parcels are described as adjoining out-lots in Kittanning. Brown
conveyed 7 acres and 80 perches, December 30, 1811, and 6 acres and 14
perches, July 19, 1817, to Matthias Bowser, 7 acres of which, parts of both
parcels, Bowser conveyed to David Reynolds, April 19, 1823, for $150, which,
with 8 acres and 4 perches of the 61 acres which the latter purchased from the
Armstrongs, August 13, 1821, make the parcel which Franklin Reynolds conveyed
to the Kittanning cemetery*(3). Lawson conveyed the above-mentioned 10 acres
and 130 perches to Matthias Bowser, January 1, 1812, for $82, which, with the
residue of his purchase from Brown, Bowser’s widow and heirs conveyed to
Thomas McConnell, March 23, 1849, for $845.62, and which the latter conveyed
to James E. Brown, the present owner, September 12, 1851, for the
last-mentioned consideration. Dr. James Armstrong conveyed 22 acres and 102
perches, “contiguous to Kittanning,” on the east, to Paul Morrow,
October 25, 1810, for $226, which the latter conveyed to Thomas Hamilton,
February 19, 1818, for $550. “Doubts having arisen” as to whether
Dr. Armstrong alone “could legally and effectually convey'” this
parcel to Morrow, he and his brother John Armstrong, for the purpose of
assuring Hamilton’s title, subsequently conveyed it to him. Thomas McConnell’s
administrators conveyed “4 or 5 acres” of it and Kittanning out-lots
Nos. 8, 9, 12, 13, 15, in pursuance of an article of agreement dated May28,
1831, to David Reynolds for $1,000. These 4 or 5 acres — 5 acres and 2
perches, as ascertained by a recent survey — are mentioned in that agreement
as “woodland.” This parcel, now owned by Absalom Reynolds, includes
the Reynolds grove. The remainder of these 22 acres and 102 perches was
devised by Thomas Hamilton to Miss Margaret Lemmon, now Mrs. Margaret Nulton.
It extended southwardly between the borough line and the eastern line of
“:Victory,” across the old state road and the hollow back of the
present court-house, to a point in Mrs. Margaret Colwell’s orchard, where the
intersection of these two lines forms an acute angle. The triangular parcel of
it south of the hollow, containing 60 perches, more or less, was conveyed by
John F. and Margaret Nulton to Mrs. Colwell, November 24, 1869, for $500. The
reservoir of the Kittanning water-works is in the northeastern part of the
parcel north of the hollow. This parcel was traversed diagonally by the
Anderson creek road, from a point a few rods north of the present jail, before
the opening of the Clearfield turnpike. That road was opened and laid out by
virtue of the act of assembly of January 27, 1819, and extended from
Kittanning to Anderson’s creek to intersect the road from Belle Fonte to Erie,
Pennsylvania, with a bearing of 58 1/4 degrees east through Valley township.
that creek flows from the northwestern part of Clearfield county and empties
into the west branch of the Susquehanna, a short distance above Curwensville.
The sum of two thousand five hundred dollars was appropriated by the act of
April 26, 1821, for opening that road, to be expended in Clearfield,
Jefferson, Indiana and Armstrong counties, in proportion to the distance it
extended through each. For the amount expended in this county the governor was
authorized to draw his warrant in favor of James Hannegan and Joseph Marshall.
The other portions of “Victory” were not sold by the Armstrongs
until the lapse of a decade from the last of their above-mentioned sales.
They, however, leased parts of it in the meantime, for instance, to Michael
Mechling, that part between what they had sold along the northern line of
Kittanning and the parcel since occupied by Rev. B. B. Killikelly, and still
higher up between the present bed of the Allegheny railroad and the base of
the hill. The lessee had the use of what he cleared and fenced, for five
years, according to Philip Mechling’s recollection. The part near the hill was
covered principally with white-oak timber and the portion westward to the
river, with hickory, black-walnut, chestnut, beech, buttonwood and some maple.
The trees were thrifty. The annual yield of white and black walnuts, of a
large size, was abundant. Before and after 1805 a wagon road extended from the
stone quarry along the base of the hill, over which the stone obtained from
the hillside, back of where Quigley’s sawmill now is, for building the first
jail of this county, was hauled. When it became badly cut up it was abandoned
and another one substituted near where the railroad track now is, which
continued to be used until the Olean road was laid out along the river bank.
General Armstrong’s devisees, his sons James and John, in the course of the
interval during which they made no sales of parts of “Victory,” laid
out two ranges of lots or parcels, exclusive of what they had sold,
“above and adjoining the town of Kittanning,” and between the river
and the hills, which were surveyed by Adam Elliott. The first range contained
thirteen and the second seventeen of those parcels. The original draft of the
first one is not accessible to the writer. Its date is not given in any of the
recorded conveyances of the parcels contained in it. The two parcels, conveyed
to Brown October 18, 1809, are mentioned in the deed as “fragments.”
Were they fragments of parcels that had already been laid out? Had that first
range been laid out before the date of that deed? The date of the second range
is given on the draft: “Surveyed for Doctor Armstrong, November the 21st
1818, by Adam Elliott.” The sales of the unsold portions of
“Victory” were brisk during a few days in August, 1821. On the
—— day of that month James and John Armstrong conveyed to Robert Brown
parcel No. 1, in first range, lying along the northwestern part of the borough
of Kittanning and the Allegheny river, containing 9 acres and 65 perches,
including the 2 acres, more or less, which James Armstrong had conveyed to
Brown, October 18,1809, for $470, on which he resided from 1821 — in which
year he built his frame house — until his death in ——-; to Robert
Stewart, 14th, 2 acres and 16 perches which Brown had conveyed to him, and in
addition thereto 24 perches, making 2 1/4 acres, for $7.50, which was, of
course, the consideration for the last-mentioned 24 perches adjoining the
northwest side of the parcel to which they were annexed. On the 13th the
Armstrongs conveyed parcel No. 2, adjoining the last-mentioned one on the
northwest, containing 5 acres and 25 perches, to Samuel S. Harrison for about
$213, which he conveyed to David Reynolds, December 31, 1829, for $350, 1 acre
and 144 perches of which Franklin Reynolds conveyed to George H. Fox and
Valentine Neubert, March 28, 1872, for $3,800, and two days later Ross
Reynolds conveyed to them 4 acres and 108 perches for $9,350, the aggregate
quantity containing 1 of the 2 acres and 24 perches which Isaac Scott
purchased August 1, 1831, off the east end of the parcel next above this, and
conveyed this acre to David Reynolds. Fox and Neubert laid out the land thus
purchased by them into 66 building lots April 1, 1872. The shape of the plot
is nearly that of the letter L, and it contains 6 acres and 90 2/10 perches,
as surveyed by Wm. E. Roe. The areas of the lots vary somewhat, all of them
being, respectively, less than one-quarter of an acre. Four of them are
trapezoidal, the rest are parallelogramic, 37 being rectangular. Chestnut
street, 60 feet wide, extends through the center of the stem part of the
letter L from the public or Olean road to the ground contiguous to the
Allegheny Valley Railroad, which is intersected, diagonally, by alleys 12 feet
wide, about 7 rods from each of its extremities, between which are other
alleys 10 feet wide, skirting the northern and southern extremities of the
lots on each side of that street. An alley 12 feet wide extends from Chestnut
street along the western extremities of the lots in the foot or lower part of
the letter L, the upper or northern one of which is skirted by an alley of the
same width. Forty-eight of those lots have been sold, a few of which the
vendors were obliged to take back because of the inability of the vendees to
pay for them. Twenty-one dwelling houses have been erected on this plot. All,
except two substantial brick ones, are frame, varying in size and quality. The
proprietors have not given this town a name, but others call it Germantown and
Dutchtown. Philip Mechling remembers that he cultivated tobacco on this parcel
before its first sale by the Armstrongs. Parcel No. 3 adjoined the
last-mentioned one on the north, which the Armstrongs conveyed to Samuel
Matthews, as containing 5 acres and 35 perches, August 14, 1821, for $208.75,
whose executor, John R. Johnston, conveyed it to Robert Brown, August 2, 1831,
of which the latter conveyed the 2 acres and 94 perches above mentioned to
Isaac Scott, September 24, who obtained therefrom the clay which he used at
his pottery in Kittanning. This tract, at least the western end of it, is
noted as the seat of an institution of learning, established by Rev. Bryan B.
Killikelly, May 1, 1837, under the name of the Doanville Seminary, designed
chiefly for the education of females. It, with twenty-two other similar
institutions, was incorporated by act of assembly, passed April 16, 1838, by a
typographical error as Deanville Female Seminary. The trustees therein named
were B. B. Killikelly, Joseph Buffington, Alexander Caldwell (Colwell), Robert
E. Brown, George W. Smith, William P. Rupp and William F. Johnston of this
Charles C. Gaskill of Jefferson and Daniel Stannard of Indiana county. Among
the necessary corporate powers granted, the teachers or a majority of them
were authorized to enforce the rules and regulations adopted by the trustees
for the government of the pupils, and to grant, by the order of a quorum of
the board of trustees, such degrees in the arts, sciences or other branches
thereof to such pupils and others who, by their proficiency in learning, or by
other distinction, they might have thought were entitled to them, that is, to
such as were usually granted at other similar seminaries, or which the
trustees or quorum of them might have thought right and proper, and to grant
to the graduates their certificates under the common seal. This seminary
having come within the provisions of the fourth section of the Acts of April
12, 1838, namely, of having at least two teachers and forty pupils, it
received the annual state appropriation in quarterly payments, as provided by
that section of that act, until the close of the summer session of 1839, by
which it was also provided that appropriation to each of the female seminaries
thus incorporated should continue for only ten years. The principal of
Doanville Female Seminary, Rev. B. B. Killikelly, relinquished his charge of
it at the close of that session, with sixty-two pupils, including boarding and
day scholars, a goodly number of whom were from adjoining counties, and spent
several years as a missionary in the West. The school edifice was the present
brick mansion, which Robert Brown, Mrs. Killikelly’s father, had erected in
1836. Mrs. Eliza Warren and her daughters had charge of this institution from
1839 until the spring or summer of 1843, without the benefit of the state
appropriation. Rev. B. B. Killikelly, having returned from the West, reopened
a school in the same edifice in the fore part of April, 1849, which he named
the Minnesota Point Seminary, the charter of the former one having expired by
limitation in 1849. The present frame annexes were erected at different times
thereafter. Aided by competent assistants, he continued his principalship
until April 4, 1855, when the number of boarding and day pupils was 160. It
was then at different times for a few years under the charge of Revs. Hall and
Carter. After filling the rectorship of two Episcopal churches and the
principalship of a female seminary, Paradise, Lancaster county, Pennsylvania,
Rev. Killikelly returned, and by the request of various residents of
Kittanning, reopened his school at this point, which he then named Glen Mary,
May 2, 1863. His last term closed November 28, 1865, with 110 pupils on the
roll. His chief assistant, Miss Bechton, continued to take charge of the
school on her own account until her death. She was succeeded by Miss Lena
Hughes, and she by B. B. Killikelly, Jr., the present assistant rector of
Emanuel Episcopal church, Boston, Massachusetts*(4), until it was transferred
to the control of Lambeth college, Kittanning. Parcel No. 4 lay next above No.
3, and contained 4 acres and 40 perches, which the Armstrongs conveyed to
James Reichart, August 14, 1821, for $150. They also conveyed, the same day,
parcel No. 5, 4 acres and 75 perches, adjoining No. 4 on the east, to John
Reichart for $156.40, who conveyed it to Archibald Dickey, December 29, 1827,
and Dickey to James Reichart , April 28, 1828, and the latter to David
Reynolds both 4 and 5, March 8, 1835, for $700, whose executors conveyed the
same to James Mosgrove the present owner, November 14, 1863, for $1,863, on
which a race course has recently been prepared. Passing for the present James
Monteith’s purchase in this first range, the Armstrongs conveyed 3 acres and
30 perches of parcels Nos. 10, and 11, lying in the eastern tier of parcels,
to David Johnston, August 14, 1821, for $139.37 1/2, and the same day to
Alexander Colwell the half of Nos. 10, 11, 12 for $318.75. Johnston conveyed
his portion, January 3, 1827, for $160, and Colwell his, August 24, for
$338.75, to David Reynolds, to whom the Armstrongs conveyed as follows: Parcel
No. 13, 12 acres and 44 perches, adjoining parcel No. 1 on the west and the
present road along the northern line of the borough of Kittanning to the new
cemetery, and a larger parcel, 61 acres and 7 perches, northewesterly of the
last-mentioned one, August 13, for $980; the next day, 3 acres and 30 perches,
parts of parcels Nos. 11, 12, for $159.37 1/2; and, May 10, 1822, in pursuance
of a previous agreement, 155 acres adjoining “Sloan’s old
improvement” on the east and the Robert Patrick tract on the north, being
the residue of “Victory” “after selling to sundry persons in
small parcels” all then unsold for $1,031.67. This and the
above-mentioned 61-acre parcel he called his “Federal Spring farm,”
which, with the adjoining parcels which he had purchased from the Armstrongs,
he devised to his sons, Franklin and Ross Reynolds, the greater portion of
which they have devoted to agricultural purposes. The latter, in April, 1866,
erected a stone limekiln at a point on the face of the hill fronting the
river, on his purpart, about one hundred and fifty rods in an airline nearly
north from the northeastern corner of the borough of Kittanning. It is 80 feet
in length and 25 feet in hight, and 15 or 20 feet in width, containing four
kilns, with a capacity for burning 800 bushels of lime a day. The material
used is the ferriferous limestone, which is quarried along the brow of the
hill down around and beyond the point, at the residence of Franklin Reynolds,
facing what was formerly called the “Bowser’s Hollow,” from which to
the kiln and thence to the Allegheny railroad extends a narrow railway.
Pittsburgh is the market for nearly all the lime made here. The usual number
of employees is twenty-five. James Monteith purchased the following parcels of
“Victory” from the Armstrongs: Nos. 6, 7, 8, 9, lying in a tier
between the above-mentioned No. 5, now between the railroad and the hill, 15
acres and 40 perches in the first range, and parcels Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, 21 3/4
acres, in the second range, lying on the south side of the road or lane
extending eastwardly from the river, August 11, 1821, for $1,197.50. The
Armstrong county fair-ground and Camp Orr, heretofore mentioned, were located
on the southern and major part of No. 1, in this second range. The
dwelling-house on the upper part of this parcel was the one in which Monteith
resided in Kittanning, whence it was removed. Mrs. Mary M. Johnston, widow of
Gov. Johnston, was born in it. Adjoining the upper side of that road or lane
was another tier of parcels, second range, Nos. 5, 6, 7, 8. No. 5 was next to
the hill and No. 8 next to the river. The Armstrongs conveyed Nos. 7, 8, 11
acres, to James Pinks, August 13, 1821, for $300, which he conveyed to
Monteith, July 29, 1825. No. 6, 4 acres and 2 perches, was conveyed to Robert
Speer and Hugh Rogers the same month for $135, equal moieties of which they
conveyed to Henry Roush and Matthias Bowser. Roush’s interest became vested in
Alexander Colwell by sheriff’s deed. William F. Johnston, who was elected
governor of Pennsylvania in 1848, and Dr. John Gilpin were Monteith’s
sons-in-law. After they became tenants by courtesy of the parcels vested in
him, they purchased this parcel from Colwell and from Bowser’s heirs, and
other parcels, as will be seen. No. 5, four acres and two perches, was
conveyed to Samuel S. Harrison, August 13, 1821, for about $130, which he
conveyed to Matthias Bowser, April 19, 1828, for $115, whose heirs conveyed it
to Johnston & Gilpin. One of the Valley township schoolhouses is located
in the southeastern corner of this parcel. Next above that tier was No. 9, 9
3/4 acres, conveyed to Thomas Hamilton, August 13, for $195, whose surviving
executor, James Hamilton, of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, in pursuance of an
agreement of Thomas McConnell, his co-executor, deceased, conveyed it to John
Mechling, April 3, 1837, for $400, who, after clearing it, conveyed it to
Robert Orr, January 12, 1842, for $600, by whom it was conveyed to Gilpin
& Johnston, March 4, 1843, for $1,000. They also purchased and sold two
other parcels further up in this range, so that now the northern limit of the
Gilpin & Johnston farm is No. 9. This farm was leased to John Donaldson
for a term of eleven years, which has been extended. The lessee in his
lifetime planted upon it, on portions above and below the lane extending
through it, and on both sides of the railroad, a varied and extensive nursery
of different kinds of fruit, evergreen and shade trees, the culture of which
has been continued in the interest of his heirs since his death. This nursery
consisted, in the centennial year, of 300,000 trees of different kinds, over
2,000 plants, three hot-houses, and 100 sashes of hot-beds. The annual sales
are about 20,000 trees of all kinds, among which are those yielding the
leading varieties of the best fruits, which find a market not only in this
county and state, but in New York, Michigan, Indiana and other states; 25,000
greenhouse plants; 2,000 of various species of roses, and a general assortment
of vegetables. The number of employees engaged in the packing seasons, spring
and fall, is about twenty, and at other times fourteen. Next above lay No. 10,
9 acres, No. 11 (its southeast corner being the southwest corner of the tongue
in the Robert Patrick tract), 3 1/2 acres, No. 12, 3 3/4 acres, which were
conveyed to John Mosgrove, August 11, 1821, for $700.50, which became vested
in Joseph Mosgrove, who purchased 10 acres and 138 acres off the lower end of
the tongue of the Robert Patrick tract, the four parcels aggregating 27 acres
and 18 perches, of which he conveyed to Ross Reynolds a portion off the lower
side of No. 10, and on which the latter erected, in 1870, a clay-mill, with a
steam engine of eighty horse-power, in which thirty tons of fire-clay are
daily crushed, ready for the Pittsburgh market, and four small frame cottages
for employees on that part of this strip between the railroad and the river.
Joseph Mosgrove and Andrew Arnold some time prior to 1854, agreed upon the
purchase and sale of these last-mentioned parcels and the latter erected the
present large frame cottage on No. 10, but had not quite completed it when an
arrangement was made between them by which Mosgrove conveyed to Frederick G.
Creary 25 acres and 128 perches, including the cottage, May 11, 1860. Creary
took possession in 1855, and commenced the erection of a steam sawmill and
gristmill on the river bank, about 50 rods above the lower line of No. 10,
which cost $30,000, with which he was assessed only once and then in 1858.
Both mills had probably been in operation a year or more when, on the very
night after the finishing touch had been given to their fine machinery, they
were destroyed by fire, supposed by Creary to have been the work of a spiteful
incendiary who had been seen about the premises that day. Creary conveyed all
of what had been thus conveyed to him, except a small parcel sold to John A.
Colwell, to James S. Quigley, the present owner*(5), January 2, 1869, for
$6,500, who, the next spring, erected a shinglemill, which saws 12,000
shingles in twelve hours; his steam sawmill in 1870, in which he saws from
6,000 to 10,000 feet of all kinds of bill lumber a day, and his cooper-shop in
1873, in which when in full operation the daily production of kegs was 250;
all three are situated on and near the sites of the burnt mills. Nearly
opposite these works, on the brow of the hill included within the limits of
this Quigley property, is a chalybeate spring of considerable strength, whose
water has not yet been analyzed. So far as the writer can judge from its
taste, it resembles that of a similar spring at Stoneboro, Mercer county,
Pennsylvania. Along the base of the hill are several one-and-a-half-story
frame dwelling-houses, erected by Quigley for his employees. Above No. 12 were
Nos. 13, 14, 15, each 3 3/4 acres, which the Armstrongs conveyed to James
Gibson, August 13, 1821, for $112.50, which he subsequently conveyed to Gilpin
and Johnston, they to Jackson Boggs, and he to Edward S. Golden, the present
owner. The remaining parcels of “Victory” were Nos. 16-17, north of
No. 15, which became vested in Daniel Lemmon and which are now owned by his
son, Thomas McC. Lemmon. The second range contained, according to Ellicott’s
survey, 86 acres. Adjoining “Victory” on the northeast was a tract,
190 acres, that once belonged, according to the map of original tracts, and
the list of warrantees and owners, to David Lawson and Samuel S. Harrison. but
it does not appear to have been assessed to them. James Patrick remembers
having heard that it was conveyed, or it was agreed that it should be
conveyed, to his father, John Patrick, by Alexander Craig; that it was claimed
by George Ross, who brought either an ejectment or an action of trespass
trespas quaere clausum fregit, which was tried after his father’s death, and
resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff. John Donaldson was assessed with 200
acres of it in 1822, and afterward with 100 acres, until 1837. His right was
founded on settlement and improvement. There appears to have been no granting
of title thereto by the commonwealth until June 10, 1836, when a warrant was
granted to Robert Donaldson, on which a survey was made by J. E. Meredith,
June 24, for 123 acres and 11 perches. It was thereafter assessed to Thomas
Donaldson, who conveyed it to James Mosgrove, June 9, 1863, for $4,760. A
portion of this tract on the ridge was traversed in the early part of this
century by the old Helms’ ferry road, which crossed the purchase line a short
distance from the late residence of John Reichart, the Sloan tract near where
James Sloan, Jr., settled on the parcel now owned by Simon Truby, that part of
the Reed tract and of James Patrick’s farm, now used as a German Catholic
cemetery, across the Donaldson tract, the northeastern corner of
“Victory,” and the Robert Patrick tract, to the Allegheny river.
There were no guide boards in these early days. Initials were in some
instances cut on trees to indicate the direction to certain points. It is
remembered that the initials “D. H. F.” for “David Helms’
Ferry” were cut in several trees at different points along that road. It
is related that a traveler, not knowing their significance, observed these on
a tree out toward Christopher Oury’s place. Looking at them a few moments, he
concluded, at least so he said, that they stood for
“Devil-Hell-Fire,” declared he wouldn’t travel that road any
further, and changed his course. Adjoining that on the east was the Henry Reed
tract, 286 acres, traversed by the Cowanshannock, with several curves
diagonally from the southeast to the northwest, dividing it nearly into equal
portions. The patent to Reed is dated February 21, 1786. He devised it to his
children. It became vested by release, September 12, 1812, in Robert Brown and
Nathaniel Stewart. It was sold for taxes by Samuel Matthews, county treasurer,
to Robert Brown. Stewart’s interest passed by sheriff’s sale, June 19, 1817,
to Thomas Blair, who seven days afterward, conveyed it to Henry Jack, and he
to Brown, August 7. Brown conveyed the entire tract to Andrew Arnold, January
24, 1833, for $3,000. Reed’s administrator having released the interest of all
the heirs to Brown, January 5, 1836, the latter reconveyed this tract to
Arnold ten days afterward, who had conveyed 100 acres to James Watterson,
April 16, 1833, for $1,000, which Watterson conveyed to Abraham Fiscus, April
4, 1842, for $1,500, and which Fiscus exchanged with James Patrick as before
mentioned, 72 acres and 80 perches of which the latter conveyed to Jeremiah
and James C. Bonner, June 19, 1845, for $700, and 6 acres and 94 perches to
Frederick Biehl and seven other German members of St. Mary’s Catholic church,
Kittanning, January 30, 1875, for $1,000, three acres of which they conveyed,
April 16, to the Rt. Rev. M. Domenec for $1, “in trust for laying out,
holding and using the same under such rules and regulations as the bishop of
Pittsburgh or his successors may, from time to time, make and prescribe, as
and for a Catholic burial place, to be known and designated as the ‘German St.
Joseph’s Cemetery.'” Indians must have encamped or had a small village on
that part still retained by Patrick, where his orchard now is, for among the
relics found here were many beads, arrowheads, gunflints, several tomahawks,
stone bullet-molds, three pipes, and an ovate net-sinker with two transverse
grooves. Arnold conveyed 222 acres and 66 perches of this Reed tract, to
Jeremiah Bonner, December 9, 1845, for $2,000, which, with what he purchased
from James Patrick and some other contiguous land, aggregating 188 acres and
156 perches, Bonner conveyed to Benjamin Glyde, July 2, 1853, for $500, which,
having become vested, through the intervention of a third party in Mrs. Annie
Glyde, she conveyed 46 acres and 61 perches to John Fairley, February 28,
1861, for $940; 63 acres and 101 perches to Mrs. Nancy R. Bowman, November 18,
1864, for $1717.87; and 44 acres to Mrs. Jane B. Finlay, November 9, 1875, for
$800, and portions to Henry Bush. Adjoining the purchase line on the north,
“Victory” on the east, and the Reed and Donaldson tracts on the
south, was the Sloan tract, 400 acres, with which James Sloan, Jr., a son of
one of the trustees and one of the first commissioners of this country, was
first assessed in 1807 at 50 cents an acre. His title was gained by settlement
and improvement. He probably settled on it in 1805-6 — on that part, now on
the north side of the Clearfield turnpike, heretofore owned by John F. Nutting
and wife, but now by Simon Truby, where he built a house, cleared the land
around it, and planted an orchard. In 1808 he was assessed with the same
quantity of land as in the previous year at $1 an acre, and one horse and one
cow at $16; total, $416. Sloan conveyed three contiguous parcels between the
purchase line and the old state road in the southwestern part of this tract to
Robert Beatty: 2 acres, April 7, 1809, for $14; 1 acre, June 6, for $4; and 13
1/2 acres, April 5, 1810, for $39. “Wood-lots” are occasionally
mentioned in the records as being “near the borough,” of which Nos.
1, 5, 8, 9, 15 belonged to Robert Brown, Sr., prior to and after June, 1822.
One of the boundary lines of the hereinafter-mentioned parcel conveyed by him
to James E. Brown, April 3, 1835, is given thus: “Thence by sundry
wood-lots,” etc. On upper margin of the copy of the plan of Kittanning,
printed by James Alexander, in the county commissioners’ office, is the plan
of 34 lots, made with pen and ink, 18 of which are, seemingly, south, and the
rest north of the hollow back of the present court-house. There are two
alleys, each 12 feet wide, intersecting each other at right angles on the
northern side of the hollow. The whole seems to adjoin the eastern line of the
borough of Kittanning, from the southeastern part of out-lot No. 19 to a point
66 feet below the southeastern corner of out-lot No. 27. The writer cannot
ascertain that any such lots were ever laid out on any part of the Armstrong
tract. They were probably laid out in the southwestern part of the Sloan
tract, and although they appear in the above mentioned pen-and-ink plan of
them to be on both sides of that hollow and the “old state road,”
they may have all been on the south side, and were perhaps on the three
parcels conveyed by Sloan to Beatty, which parcels subsequently became vested
in Alexander Colwell, to whose estate they still belong. These lots
undoubtedly adjoined the eastern line of “Victory,” for, in 1839 and
for a few years afterward, John Donaldson was assessed with 4 1/2 acres, which
the entry in the proper column of the assessment lists indicates to have once
belonged partly to the Armstrong tract, and partly to land at some time
theretofore owned by Beattty. Those 34 lots were probably laid out by the
latter about the time he laid out his heretofore-mentioned coal-lots. James
Patrick remembers having, when he was a young man, hauled wood from and plowed
the one owned by Donaldson. The foregoing is the only knowledge respecting
those lots which the writer has been able to glean from records and the oldest
inhabitants. Sloan conveyed 17 acres to Paul Morrow, July 1, 1809, for $56,
and agreed to sell to him 180 acres, more or less, the residue of the tract on
which he then lived and which he held “by virtue of his actual residence
thereon,” May 5, 1810, both of which parcels Morrow conveyed to Robert
Brown, November 28, 1815, for $300, on which the latter planted a small
orchard near where the reservoir of the Kittanning water-works now is. Brown,
having purchased from James Buchanan “by his articles of sale” 200
acres contiguous thereto, conveyed 300 acres to John Brodhead, July 14, 1817,
for $1,800, which subsequently became revested in Brown by sheriff’s sale. He
conveyed 29 acres and 75 perches bordering on the purchase lien to Robert
Brown, Jr., December 10, 1831, for $300, who conveyed the same to Rev. Joseph
Painter and Darwin Phelps, September 18, 1838, for $350. Robert Brown, Sr., in
accordance with an agreement made between him and Alexander Colwell, March 27,
1819, conveyed to the latter 150 acres, part of the “tract settled by
James Sloan, Jr.,” “including Sloan’s improvement,”
“surveyed by R. Orr., Jr.,”: June 17, 1828, for $900. This tract
appears on the map of original tracts as having belonged, when the map was
made, to Robert Brown, Sr., and the heirs of Thomas H. Sloan — the southern
part to the former, and the northern to the latter. The commonwealth granted a
patent to the former for the southern part, January 31, 1828, and for the
northern part, November 9, 1831. He conveyed 150 acres southeast of the
present route of Walker road, lying on each side of the Clearfield turnpike,
to James E. Brown, April 3, 1835, for $300. Thirteen acres and 83 perches of
this tract, embraced in the last-mentioned patent, on the northwest side of
the Walker road, became vested in Mrs. Mary M. Killikelly, which she conveyed
to James G. Henry, in pursuance of a previous agreement, September 19, 1873,
for $4,055.63. He, Daniel A. Daugherty, Frederick Hague, Marshall B. Oswald,
and Robert G. Curren conveyed all the coal therein to George B. Daugherty,
December 23, 1875, for $700. Troy Hill is the name given to the town laid out
on this parcel by its proprietors. It is a pentagon, yet almost a
parallelogram in shape. Its twenty-eight lots, with alley and avenues, were
surveyed by Robert S. Slaymaker, in 187-. Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4, varying from 250 to
260 feet in length, and from 82.5 to 82.91 feet in width, constitute the
northern tier of lots fronting south on Dogwood avenue. Fronting that avenue
on the north are Nos. 5, 6, each 144 by 82.5 feet. Adjoining No. 6 on the west
are Nos. 7, 8, each 115 by 72 feet, fronting west on Wabash avenue, — the
north side of No. 7 adjoining Dogwood avenue. South of 5, 6, 8 are Nos. 9, 10,
11, 12, 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, each 280 by 100 feet, fronting west on Wabash
avenue, No. 17 adjoining Spring on the south. South of Spring avenue, —
between it and Kentucky avenue — is another tier of lots, Nos. 18, 19, 20,
21, 22, trapezoidal, their sides varying in length from 145 to 216 feet, and
their ends from 56 to 57.2 feet. South of Kentucky avenue, and between it and
Cemetery avenue, is another tier of lots, Nos. 24, 25, 26, 27, 28, all
trapezoidal except 24, which is nearly a scalene triangle. Their sides vary in
length from 165 to 221.10 feet, and their ends from 50 to 58.25 feet. No. 24’s
sides are respectively 170, 165 and 58 1/4 feet long. No. 23 is a rectangular
triangle, its perpendicular being 80, and its base 50 feet, on the
southeastern side of Cemetery avenue. No. 1 sold for $255; No. 4, $265; Nos.
5, 6, 7, 8, (aggregated), $425; No. 9, $175; No. 13, $225; No. 15, $250; No.
16, $250; No. 17, $265; No. 24, $300; No. 25, $300; No. 26, $300, Nos. 27 and
28, $690; and No. 23, the little triangle on the outside of Cemetery avenue,
$100. Wabash avenue extends from the northwestern end of Kentucky avenue along
the western side of the town, north 2 3/4 degrees west 1773 3/4 feet to the
western end of Dogwood avenue. Cemetery avenue extends from the southwestern
corner of the town north 88 degrees east 330 feet along the southern end of
the town, thence its course is about northeast between Nos. 23 and 24. The
alley is 20, and each of the avenues is 60 feet wide. Vestiges of the old
state road are still visible on the southwestern part of this tract. The
laying out of this road was authorized by the act of assembly of April 4,
1805. By the act of March 31, 1806, the sum of $5,000 was appropriated for
opening and completing it. It extended from Blair’s gap, then in Huntingdon
county, through the towns of Ebensburg, Indiana, Kittanning, Butler to the
western boundary of this state at or near the place where the Mahoning branch
of the Big Beaver creek crosses that boundary. The amount appropriated was
apportioned among the counties which it traversed, according to its length or
distance in each. The amount thus apportioned to this county was $1,040.
Although the law required one of the three viewers to be a practical surveyor,
that road must have been , at least along some parts of the route, laid out on
very unfavorable ground, respecting which loud complaints went up to the
legislature, whereupon the act of March 26, 1808, was passed, authorizing the
courts of quarter sessions of Armstrong and Cambria counties to appoint six
disinterested and reputable freeeholders to view such parts as passed through
these two counties, and if their report should make alterations in the route
they were to be confirmed by the courts. Portions of the territory of the
Sloan tract became historical before the purchase line, its southern boundary,
was run; before the inception of his title to it, and before the boundaries of
any other tract in what is now this county were indicated by the surveyor’s
compass and chain. At early dawn on the 8th of September, 1856 (sic) the minor
portion of Col. Armstrong’s force, which had not then been “brought over
the last precipice,” when the front had “reached the river
Allegheny, about 100 perches below the main body of the town,” was
ordered to march along the top of the hill from its end, “at least 100
perches and so much further, it being daylight, as would carry them opposite
the upper part, or at least the body of the town,”, that is, across the
western part of the Davidson-Buffington tract and the purchase line, to that
part of this tract a few rods north of the old state road hollow, where it
halted, whence it and the main force below “the last precipice,”
were simultaneously, from their respective points, to attack the town.*(6)
Philip and John Mechling remember seeing Jeremiah Lochry, soon after they came
to Kittanning, from their father’s door on the north side of Market near Water
street, point out the hollows down which he, said, Armstrong’s force,
separated into three detachments, descended. He was reputed to have
accompanied Armstrong in his expedition to Kittanning. Whether he did or not,
he was evidently mistaken as to there having been three detachments and as to
their having reached the town through the ravines in the adjacent hill. His
statement does not accord with Col. Armstrong’s report, written at Fort
Littleton six days later after the action. Such would have been an unwise
order for any commandant to make, because of the danger of one or more of the
detachments being hemmed in and captured or destroyed, if, as it was possible
might have been the case, the enemy should become aware of their approach. It
may, then, be reasonably presumed that the detachment on the hill descended a
few rods north of the ravine back of the courthouse, through what is now Mrs.
Nulton’s field, which would be the direct course to “the body of the
town.” Capt. Hugh Mercer was taken to “the top of the hill”
immediately after he was wounded. It is not stated in Armstrong’s report
whether his company was one of the three on the hill. If so, he may have been
taken to that part of the hilltop north of the ravine. If, however, his
company was one of those that descended “the last precipice” and
made the attack upon and through the cornfield, as he was wounded “early
in the action,” he was probably taken to a point not far north or south
of the purchase line, on either this or the Davidson tract, whence some of his
men represented they could take him “into the road a nigh way.” Col.
Armstrong proceeded, after the houses were fired, probably to the hill part of
this tract north of that ravine, “to have his wound dressed and blood
stopped.” It may be presumed that, as he beheld from this point the
landscape below, he conceived the idea of adding “Victory” to his
acquisitions. At this point he received information from the English prisoner,
who had escaped, that twenty-four warriors had started eastward the night
before, which intelligence induced him and his force to proceed instantly to
the relief of Lieut. Hogg and his detachment at Blanket Hill. Adjoining that
tract on the east was one called “Roan,” 531 1/2 acres, for which a
lottery warrant No. 109 was granted to Maj. Isaac Craig, May 17, 1785, and the
patent May 5, 1789. He was born of respectable Protestant parents near
Hillsborough, County Down, Ireland, whence he emigrated to Philadelphia in
1767, where he followed his trade of house-joiner until the beginning of the
revolutionary war. Having been appointed a captain of marines by the
authorities of Pennsylvania, he sailed in the sloop-of-war Andrew Doria, Capt.
Nicholas Biddle, in Commodore Hopkins’ squadron, to the island of New
Providence, in the West Indies, where they seized and brought home a large
quantity of much-needed arms and munitions of war. Craig was appointed, soon
after his return, a captain in Col. Thomas Proctor’s artillery regiment, and
participated in the capture of the Hessians at Trenton, and in the battles of
Princeton, Brandywine and Germantown. He accompanied Gen. Sullivan’s
expedition up the Susquehanna against the hostile tribes of the Six Nations,
and was afterward ordered to Fort Pitt, then under the command of Col.
Brodhead. After the close of his military service he made Pittsburgh his
permanent place of residence, and the historical writings of his son, Neville
B. Craig, are regarded as standard authority respecting early events in and
about that place. Dewalt Mechling, of Greensburgh, Pennsylvania, must have
settled on that part of “Roan” a short distance, perhaps twenty or
thirty rods, west of the run which flows northeasterly past the western side
of Meranthaler’s, formerly Taylor’s, grove, into the south side of the
Cowanshannock, and about seventy-five rods southwesterly from that creek, on
the line of the old road which intersected the old state road at the head of
the ravine back of the present court-house. He must have settled here very
early, perhaps between 1784 and 1790 — the precise time cannot now be
ascertained. He erected a shanty and cleared a patch of the level ground,
respecting which he repeatedly inquired of his grandson, Philip Mechling, on
the latter’s occasional visits to Greensburgh after his removal to Kittanning.
It was probably the first improvement made north of the purchase line in this
county. Whether he abandoned it because of Craig’s better title, or because of
the dangerous proximity of the Indians, the writer’s informant has never
learned. Craig conveyed all of “Roan” to Jacob Lowery, September 15,
1791. Lowrey on the one part, and Thomas Taylor and Alexander Blair on the
other part, entered into an agreement for the sale and purchase of this entire
tract, March 19, 1816, at $6 per acre. Blair, three days afterward, released
all his interest therein to Taylor. The latter by several articles of
agreement, dated, respectively, March 29 and April 17, 1816, and January 10,
1818, agreed to convey three parcels, aggregating 317 acres and 30 1/4 perches
to David Reynolds for $2,227.15 1/2, and, March 25, 1826, authorized the deed
therefor to be made by Lowery to Reynolds. Lowery conveyed 208 acres to
Taylor, March 1, 1828, for $4,132.89, so that Lowery seemingly received
$3,179.54 more than the price agreed upon between him and Taylor and Blair,
while the quantity of land ultimately conveyed by him to Reynolds and Taylor
was 14 acres and 9 3/4 perches less than the patent calls for. Taylor conveyed
6 acres and 142 perches to Thomas Hamilton, March 7, 1829, for $165.30. He
agreed, January 2, 1833, to sell 103 acres on the south side of the
Cowanshannock to his son John, but having died intestate, without executing a
deed, a specific performance of his agreement by his administrator was
subsequently decreed by the proper court. John Taylor conveyed this parcel to
Thomas and Matthew Montgomery, March 26, 1857, for $2,000, on which the
manufacture of grain-cradles was carried on for nine years. They conveyed this
parcel to George W. Nulton, the present owner, July 21, 1863, for $2,800, at
the forks of the roads, on which he recently erected a two-story frame house
for a hotel. The rest of “Roan,” which Tomas Taylor, Sr., purchased
from Lowery, became vested by proceedings in partition in his daughters,
Esther and Martha Taylor, and Isabella Merganthaler, the last-named now owning
the whole purpart. A large, pleasant grove, now called Merganthaler’s remains
on this last-mentioned parcel, between the Cowanshannock and the Kittanning
and Clearfield turnpike, in which a Methodist camp-meeting was held about the
middle of June, 1833, the Sabbath day exercises of which were somewhat
interrupted by a swarm of bees alighting on one of the trees, which Thomas
Taylor, Sr., persisted in capturing. The Grangers have erected one of their
halls in this grove. The portion of “Roan” purchased by David
Reynolds has been disposed of since his death by his executors: To Alexander
Colwell 93 acres and 109 perches, south of the Cowanshannock, February 25,
1856, which he conveyed to Dr. T. K. Allison, the present owner, April 7,
1863, for $3,000, and 129 acres and 77 perches to John and John H. Burleigh,
March 23, 1857, for $2,530, which the latter, after his father’s death, and
after having erected a two-story frame dwelling-house and made other
improvements, conveyed to Judge Buffington, January 18, 1869, for $8,000. Next
east of “Roan” was “Williamsburgh,” 307 acres, on both
sides of the Cowanshannock, and adjoining the purchase line on the south,
“in line of districts Nos. 1 and 2 in the late purchase.” The
warrant was granted to William Amberson. He was appointed commissary of
purchases for Westmoreland county early in the summer of 1780. President Reed
wrote to him August 5, among other things: “Having already quota’d the
counties within the state, we must do the same by yours, and do therefore
direct you to supply the garrison” (at Pittsburgh) “with 50 barrels
of flour, 500 bushels of Indian corn and 100 gallons of whisky per month.
After the plentiful harvest which has been gathered in that county, as we are
informed, we hope no difficulty will occur to prevent you getting this supply;
but if there does, you must impress it. We have no other means of effecting
it, and we trust we shall stand both excused and justified in taking this
measure, if indolence and avarice interpose their baneful influence. Amberson
conveyed his interest in “Williamsburgh” to William Turnbull, to
whom the patent issued, July 17, 1793. He conveyed this entire tract and
“Pine Grove”*(7) to Wm. Peart, September 7, 1806, for $4,000, who
thereafter occupied it for a number of years. Dr. Abner Bainbridge, who, after
Peart’s death, married his widow, resided on it in 1814-15-16. Peart conveyed
it, in pursuance of an article of agreement, to Philip Mechling and Simon
Torney, September 19, 1826, for $3,944. George Wilt was assessed with it from
1829 till 1832. Torney having released his interest to Mechling, November 11,
1830, the latter conveyed 201 acres and 19 perches to William Cunningham, June
7, 1836, for $2,900, which the latter’s executors subsequently conveyed to
James K. Tittle, the present owner. Mechling conveyed the residue of “Williamsburgh,”
136 acres. to John Hood, April 14, 1837, for $1,500. Next east of “Williamsburgh”
was the tract called “Hickory Grove,” 302 acres, covered by warrant
No. 496, to Robert McClenechan, May 17, 1785, to whom the patent issued,
August 7, 1787. Peter Richards settled on this tract in 1806, and was first
assessed with 150 acres, and two horses and one cow, $150, in 1807. He was
commissioned by Gov. Snyder a justice of the peace, March 3, and was sworn
April 15, 1809. His district was designated both in his commission and oath as
No. 3, and “composed of Kittanning and Middlesex townships.” John
Davidson, who then resided in the town of Kittanning, was at the same time
commissioned and sworn as a justice of the peace for the same district and
townships, and William Kirkpatrick, who then lived on the Pickering & Co.
tract No. 25, in what is now Cowanshannock township, was commissioned a
justice of the peace, and sworn May 10, 1813, and his district was designated
as No. 3, “composed of the township of Middlesex.” Nowhere else in
the records of this county has the writer seen a mention of that
“township of Middlesex.” McClenechan conveyed “Hickory
Grove” to Samuel and Michael Mechling, August 17, 1814, for $1,500. The
latter’s share became vested in his son Philip, who conveyed it — 155 acres
and 51 perches — to John Hood, April 10, 1837, for $2,040. The former built
the two-story brick mansion on the north side of the turnpike opposite the
deep southern bend in the Cowanshannock in 18–. He died intestate, and his
share of “Hickory Grove” was divided into three purparts, one of
which, “C,” 48 acres and 148 perches, was conveyed by his
administrator to James Douglass, December 9, 1857; “A,” 81 acres and
68 perches, was taken at the appraisement, $20 per acre, by decedent’s son
Samuel, and “B,”, 72 acres and 49 perches, $18 per acre, by
decedent’s son Daniel, both of whom have since disposed of their interests
therein to others. Hood conveyed 53 acres and 53 perches to Rev. Joseph
Painter, November 5, 1851, for $400, and 100 acres and 68 perches to Robert
Dougherty, March 13, 1851, for $800; Dougherty to Robert McFarland, March 16,
for $1,100, and McFarland to John Robinson, March 20, 1854, for $2,000, who
made valuable and substantial improvements before his death. Southeast of
“Hickory Grove” was a triangular tract covered by warrant to William
Elliott, No. 74, 143 acres and 70 perches, with which Henry Schrecongost was
first assessed in 1834-5. Adjoining that Elliot tract on the east was one
occupied by Jacob Bumgardner as early as 1806; he was first assessed with 300
acres in 1807. He agreed, March 10, 1814, to convey his improvement right to
250 acres, which he warranted to be vacant, to Henry Schrecengost for $300,
for which the latter obtained a patent January 17, 1831, and conveyed 100
acres to Peter Schrecongost, April 1, 1835, for $500. The Collins lands
consisted of nine contiguous tracts, each containing 440 acres, covered by
warrants to Stephen Collins of Philadelphia, some, if not all, of which are
dated July 3, 1795. Collins was one of the number of citizens of that city who
took the oath of allegiance to Pennsylvania and the United States June 25,
1778. Tract No. 3804 lay between “Monticello” on its southwest and
the Sample-Brown tract on its north, fronting along the central part of the
eastern bend in the Allegheny river between Cowanshannock and Pine creeks. It
became vested in Henry Chapman. John Campbell settled on it in 1824. It was
sold by Chambers Orr, sheriff, on a judgment against George Cadwallader,
Chapman’s administrator de bonis non, and conveyed by him to Thomas
Cadwallader, September 20, 1833 , being then occupied by Campbell, with 15
acres cleared and a cabin and stable erected on it. Cadwallader conveyed 135
acres and 129 perches to John Campbell, December 11, 1833, for $251.50; 101
acres and 15 perches to Joseph Campbell, January 5, 1834, for $202.06; to
Samuel S. Harrison, Robert Robinson, James E. Brown and Thomas McConnell, 73
acres and 27 perches for $146.30, on which, about 200 rods below Hays’ run,
two salt-wells were bored by spring-poles about 800 feet deep. Considerable
oil was brought up in the sand-pump from between 700 and 800 feet, as stated
by James Campbell, who bored the upper one, which burned nicely on the surface
of the water collected in a trough. No salt was made from the upper one until
it was tubed. The lower well was bored by William Burns and produced about
seven barrels daily for a few years. These “salt works” were first
assessed to F. Rohrer & Co., in 1838, and to Robinson & Harrison in
1839. Portions of the machinery used in manufacturing the sale were on the
ground long after the wells were abandoned. Cadwallader conveyed 25 acres and
39 perches of this tract to William S. Campbell June 4, 1840, for $50, and 37
acres and 23 perches to H. N. Lee, January 30, 1854, for $94. Other portions
were occupied by Thomas Irwin, Sr. (weaver), and Thomas Irwin, Jr., from and
after 1836-7. Tract No. 3805, called “Darby,” adjoined the preceding
one on the south and the Reed tract on the east, on which Alexander
Schrecongost settled in 1812-13. Collins having transferred his interest in it
and in Nos. 3806 and 3807 to Jeremiah Parker of Philadelphia, the patents for
them were granted to the latter July 10, 1799, and subsequently devised by him
to his son, William Parker, who conveyed 170 acres off the northern part of
“Darby” to Thomas B. Erwin, June 1, 1829, for $405, which he
conveyed to Jacob Millison, Sr., April 16, 1846, for $1,600. After the
latter’s death a portion of it became vested in James Walker, who exchanged it
to Joseph Starr for the farm, heretofore mentioned, over toward the mouth of
Pine creek. That devisee conveyed other portions of Darby: To William Burns,
May 12, 1830, 62 acres and 139 perches for $156.06; 120 1/4 acres to Thomas
Wallace, January 31, 1834, for $323.12. Thos. Taylor conveyed 13 acres and 152
perches to Archibald Marshall in trust for Thomas Taylor Marshall, November
21, 1839, for $1 and “natural love and affection.” Adjoining
“Darby” on the east was tract No. 3806, of which and of No. 3807,
Parker conveyed 202 acres and 35 perches to James Moorehead, August 6, 1829,
for $306; all but about 8 acres became vested in Samuel Black, who conveyed to
John F. Ross, May 29, 1857, for $3,900, and Ross, after making valuable
improvements, conveyed the same to Robert Banks, April 4, 1876, for $11,500;
141 acres and 78 perches to Archibald Marshall, September 7, 1836, for $350.
No. 3807, called “Chester,” lay north and northeast of 3806, which,
as above stated, became vested in William Parker, who conveyed portions of it:
To David White, Jr., 126 acres and 25 perches, June 1, 1829, for $7,200; White
to Alexander Colwell, and Colwell to Jacob Millison, October 3, 1846, for
$1,200; Parker to Hugh Speace, 136 acres and 133 perches, February 16, 1831,
for $429. Three hundred and forty acres were assessed to Anthony Schrecengost
in and for a few years after 1815. No. 3808 lay east of 3804 and north of
“Chester,” and with 3804 passed by sheriff’s sale to Thomas
Cadwallader, and was described in the writ on which it was sold as occupied by
George Forsyth, with 30 acres cleared, and a cabin, house and stable on it in
September, 1833. Forsyth was first assessed with 25 acres, probably of this
tract, in 1815. Thomas Cadwallader’s executrix, Mary Cadawallader (sic),
conveyed 109 acres and 65 perches to Robert and William McCutcheon, October
19, 1846, for $275. Her executor, George Cadwallader, to Daniel L. Forsyth,
185 acres and 19 perches, April 11, 1854; for $370, 18 acres and 15 perches of
which Forsyth conveyed to Joseph Starr, August 31, 1855, for $181. Dr. W. A.
Burleigh was assessed with the residue of what Forsyth purchased, from 1859
until 1861, during which time he operated on it a distillery. Forsyth’s
interest passed by sheriff’s sale to Thomas McConnell and Andrew J. Faulk, who
conveyed it to James B. Walker the present owner, July 8, 1865, for $2,000.
Mrs. Cadwallader’s executor to James L. Cunningham, 89 acres and 45 perches,
January 8, 1860, for $223. No. 3809 lay north and east of “Chester,”
south of which lay No. 3810, and west of that, No. 3811. Patents for these
three were granted to Zaccheus Collins, July 3, 1795. His only child, Anne,
married Gen. Daniel Parker, and died before her father, leaving two children,
Charles Collins and Sarah Ann Parker, in the latter of whom by her father’s
intestacy and her brother’s devise, these tracts became vested. She married
Clement Hill, of Upper Marlborough, Maryland, and with her husband conveyed
parcels of these tracts as the records show: 123 3/4 acres of allotment 1 of
subdivisions of Nos. 3809-10-11 to George Wilt, August 22, 1850, for $795; 116
acres and 123 perches, “lot No. 8 of the subdivisions of tracts Nos.
3809-10-11,” to Anthony Schrecongost, August 22, 1850, for $—–. The
first schoolhouse in what is now Valley township was erected on his farm. The
place for holding elections has been at his house on this parcel ever since
the erection of this township; 48 acres and 150 perches of No. 3809 to A.
Colwell, December 9, 1852, for $196; 41 1/2 acres of 3810 to Emanuel
Schrecengost, July 11, 1854, for $240; 160 acres and 12 perches of the same to
Joseph Harris, August 16, 1857, for $835; and 84 3/4 acres of 3811 to George
Miller, August 1, 1861, for $427. Henry Schrecengost probably settled on No.
3810 in 1811, for he was assessed the next year with 1 horse and 1 cow at $11;
in 1813 with 40, and afterward 440 acres of this tract. Samuel Schrecengost
was assessed with 1 horse and 2 cows in 1826, with 133 acres in 1827, and 440
of No. 3811 in 1828. The parcels now owned by Joseph Mosgrove and Patrick
McAfee, belonged to Henry Schrecengost’s estate. Tract No. 3812 lay between
3809 on the south and “Amherst” and “Mexico” on the north.
James Hall was first assessed with it in 1829. It was conveyed by sheriff’s
deed along with 3804 and 3808, which lay between it and the Allegheny river,
September 20, 1833, to Thomas Cadwallader, occupied by David Hall, 30 acres
cleared, with a square log house and daub barn, who conveyed16 acres and 146
acres of it to Henry Cunningham, May 15, 1834, for $34; 140 acres and 96
perches to Alexander Colwell, April 11, 1838, for $307.20; his executrix to
James McClure, 52 acres and 16 perches for $130; and her executor, 100 and 105
acres and 19 perches to William Croyle, June 12, 1834, for $370. The Pine
Creek Baptist church is the outgrowth of occasional itinerant preaching in
this region before and regular preaching after 1836. There were occasional
supplies by Revs. Thomas and Wilson. The church was organized with ten members
in 1830, on which occasion Revs. Wilson, McCumber and Scott officiated. The
first church edifice, frame, 24X32 feet, was erected on the last-mentioned
Collins tract in 1841. The present one, a neat frame, 38X45 feet, has been
erected on the site of the old one during this centennial year. The original
members of this church were Joseph Davis, Daniel Hepler, Sarah Hepler, James
Hall, Nancy Hall, Margaret Walker, Harriet Peart, Robert Walker and Tabitha
Walker. There was quite a large body of vacant land, as presented on the map
of original tracts, extending from the southern line of the eastern portion of
“Mexico” between the Collins lands and the Elliott tract No. 74 on
the west and the Holland lands covered by warrants Nos. 3047, 3032, 3023, 3003
to the purchase line. The southwestern part of it borders on the eastern side
of 74 and the southwestern part of Collins’ 3810, and is the
Bumgardner-Schrecengost parcel above mentioned. Adjoining that parcel on the
east and north lay one containing 400 acres, with which and three horses and
two cattle Conrad Schrecengost was first assessed in 1807 at $310, which , in
pursuance of an agreement made in his lifetime, his heirs conveyed to Daniel
Schrecengost, September 6, 1844, for $500, on which the latter erected a
two-story brick house, which for several years he kept as an inn, a few rods
east of which is one of the public schoolhouses of this township. In 1872-3, a
company consisting of twenty members sunk a well for oil on the southern part
of this tract to the depth of 1,920 feet, which proved to be a dry one. A
large vein of gas was struck at the depth of 1,005 feet. The well after it was
abandoned was plugged. In 1875, an attempt was made to clean it for the
purpose of piping the gas to Kittanning, to be used as fuel in the iron-works
and water-works. So much matter of one kind and another had been thrown into
the well, it was so much clogged up that, after the expenditure of $10,000,
including the expense of drilling the well, the attempt was abandoned. A
diminished quantity of gas is still emitted. Frederick Yockey settled on that
vacant land north of the last-mentioned tract, in 1807, and was first assessed
with 200 acres at $75, and one horse and one cow at $16, in 1808. He obtained
a warrant for 383 acres and 103 perches February 22,1836,on which the survey
was made April 9. Military musters were occasionally held on his premises. The
seventh battalion of volunteers, Findley Patterson, Major, was notified by
James McCullough, Sr., of Kittanning, adjutant, to meet at Yockey’s house at
10 o’clock A.M., on Wednesday, September 10, 1834, completely armed and
equipped for training. The German Reformed Church edifice is located on this
Yockey tract. It is a frame structure, 36X40 feet, which was erected in 1850.
This church, called the Mount Union, was organized by Rev. L. B. Leberman in
1851. Its pastors have been: Rev. F. Wire from 1853 till October, 1853; Rev.
E. Shoemaker in 1860; Rev. R. R. Duffenbosker from May 30, 1862, till —–;
Rev. J. F. Snyder in 1865; Rev. J. J. Pennypacker from 1867 till 1872, and
Rev. D. S. Duffenbosker since June 1, 1873. Its membership is 83;
Sabbath-school scholars, 60. Another portion of that vacant land, north of
Yockey’s was settled by George Waugaman in 1811, with 40 acres of which, with
one horse and cow, and as a weaver, he was first assessed the next year at
$34. His warrant for 201 acres and 113 perches is dated February 22, and the
survey March 3, 1836. Patents for some other portions were granted: To John
Davis, March 29, 1827, for a tract including the parcel now owned and occupied
by Daniel Davis, at whose house the Davis postoffice, he being the postmaster,
was established July 14, 1857; the portion now owned and occupied by Daniel
Slagle, at whose house the West Valley postoffice, he being the postmaster,
was established April 22, 1861, to which the Davis office was then changed;
and the parcel of 5 acres and 8 perches conveyed by Daniel Davis to Levi Davis
in March, 1868, for $225. The Methodist Episcopal Church edifice, frame, was
erected in 1873 on that part of that vacant land now owned by George Boringer,
who conveyed an acre to the “Trustees of the Pine Creek Methodist
Episcopal Church, July 22, 1873, for $1. The church was organized in 1846, and
until the completion of the present edifice services were held in the house
about 75 rods northeast of it, which was built for both church and school
purposes, and known as the Furnace schoolhouse, which is situated in the
southeastern part of “Mexico.” Another portion of that vacant land
was included in the patent to Alexander Colwell, June 14, 1836, and which,
with a portion of the parcel which he had purchased from the Holland Land
Company, he conveyed to Jacob Sleese, Sr., aggregating 196 aces and 27 perches
, April 18, 1848, for $508.50, 126 acres and 38 perches of which the latter
conveyed to his son Jacob November, 25, 1851, for $100. A warrant for 116
acres and 80 perches, in the northwestern part of that vacant land, was
obtained by Joseph Davis March 27, on which the survey was made July 3, 1837,
adjoining “Mexico” on the north, Sleese on the east, Waugaman on the
south, and the Collins tracts, Nos. 3809 and 3812, on the west. He sold it to
Peter Mobly. That belt of vacant land was bounded on the north by a narrow
strip of “Mexico” south of Pine creek. In the west end of that part
of Valley township north of Pine creek, near the junction of the Pine Creek
& Dayton Railroad, Daniel Hepler settled in 1828, and was assessed the
next year as a blacksmith and with one cow at $81. William White conveyed to
him 40 acres and 58 perches, on which his blacksmith shop was erected, January
21, 1839, for $120. James E. Brown and James Mosgrove erected Pine Creek
Furnace in the east end of the part of this township north of Pine creek, in
1845-6, hotblast, steam charcoal, ten feet across the bosh-stack and
thirty-three feet high; made its first pig-metal in July, 1846; used charcoal
until 1863, when the hight of the stack was increased to forty feet and the
fixtures were improved; commenced making iron with coke in 1865.*(8) The
capacity of this furnace is fifty-six tons of forge metal out of limestone ore
from beds in the coal measures for miles around. In 1869 Brown & Mosgrove
built a three-foot gauge railroad from the north of Pine creek to the furnace,
a distance of four miles, for transporting ore and metal from and to the
Allegheny Valley Railroad, which has proved to be very successful. It is
designated on the township map the Pine Creek & Dayton Railroad, so named
because the people of the borough of Dayton, in this county, and of the valley
of Pine creek, have evinced considerable interest in its extension to Dayton,
but as yet without securing the requisite pecuniary means. Subscriptions
reaching $30,000, one-half the required amount, were made for this purpose in
1871. Allotment No. 3 of the tract covered by the Le Roy & Co. warrant,
No. 3036, was in the northeast corner of this township, which was occupied
first by Adam and Thomas Beer, Daniel Guld and George Williams in the latter
part of the first decade of this century. Martin Kneas, a volunteer in Capt.
James Alexander’s company, followed the last named and occupied the cabin
which he had built. Benjamin B. Cooper conveyed 153 acres and 121 perches of
that allotment to James Hannegan, the first court-crier in this county, June
7, 1819, for $191.34, with which and two horses and two cattle, he was first
assessed in 1816. It is the same land which his heirs released to William
Peart, March 18, 1850, which point the latter named Oscar, where the Oscar
postoffice, Francis Martin, postmaster, was established, July 25, 1861, and
where a store had been opened several years before. Cooper conveyed 160 acres
of allotment 2, same warrant, to Hannegan, April 4, 1817, for $192.19, and
Wilhelm Willink et al., 174 1/2 acres of allotment 4, same warrant, December
19, 1827. The portion of the Le Roy & Co. tract, No. 3047, south of Pine
creek, was in what is now Valley township. Parts of the parcels conveyed to
Alexander and James White border on the south side of this stream, which were
mentioned in the sketch of the southeastern part of Pine township. Alexander
White erected a gristmill in 1828 and a sawmill in 1831, with which he was
assessed from 1829 and 1832, respectively, until 1838. He and William Love
entered into an agreement for the sale and purchase of these mills and 180
acres of adjacent land, September 11. Love went into possession soon after and
was first assessed with that property in 1839. After Love’s death White
executed a deed therefor to William McCain, executor in trust for Love’s
heirs, devisees and legal representatives, March 1, 1849, for $2,000. Joseph
Barker, miller, Thomas McConnell and Joseph L. Reed acquired an interest in
this property in 1845-6, and Barker was assessed with the mills for several
years from 1846. He and McConnell and Reed acquired from Noah A. Calhoun a
grant of one-half the water-power used in running these mills, October 21,
1847. Barker conveyed the one-half of the 48 acres and 13 perches on which
these mills are situated, March 31, 1857, for $500. The mills were assessed to
Secrist from 1861 till 1868, since which time they have been assessed to
Francis Martin, by whom they are still operated. James White — distinguished
on the assessment list by the title of Major from James White, of David —
erected in 1837 a carding-machine and fulling-mill some distance below the
grist and saw mills erected by his brother Alexander on the parcel of 3047
purchased by him on the south side or left branch of Pine creek. After
operating them for about a year he employed William Gillis, skilled and
experienced in these branches of business, who advertised in the Kittanning
papers, May 9, 1839, the “Pine Creek Woolen Factory,” in which
“carding and spinning” were done, and “wool manufactured into
cloth, satinet, flannels, blankets, cassimeres,” and other articles.
Before these works were started the people of this region had their carding
and fulling done in the southern part of Indiana county. James White conveyed
157 acres and 92 perches, allotment 5, tract 369, warrant 3047, to John Adair,
May 2, 1845, for $1,700; Adair conveyed the same, “together with
machinery for a woolen factory, carding machine, two spinning jennies, one
power loom, picker, shearing machine, one stove, fulling stock, press power,
one hand loom, and other machinery,” to James E. Brown, February 25,
1846, for $100, who reconveyed the land to White, April 14, 1847, for $1.
James White died intestate, leaving only as next of kin his full brother,
Alexander, who conveyed those 157 acres and 90 perches to Brown & Mosgrove,
the present owners, May 15, 1853, for $1,106. Adjoining allotment 5 on the
west was allotment 4, 112 1/2 acres of which became vested in John W. McLinn,
which, excepting ten acres and the water-right in Pine creek between them and
the eastern boundary of McLinn’s parcel, his administrator, by virtue of an
order granted by the proper court for their sale, conveyed to James E. Brown,
October 3, 1846, for $325. McLinn had agreed, September 14, 1841, to convey
those ten acres and that water-right to William Gillis, which that
administrator conveyed to him when he conveyed to Brown. Gillis has, since his
purchase from McLinn, carried on his woolen factory on that part of these ten
acres a few rods below the mouth of Dill’s run. Other parcels of allotment 4
consisted of a part, the west end of that allotment, of the 86 acres and 42
perches which Willink & Co. conveyed to Alexander Colwell March 23, 1835,
and included in the latter’s conveyance to Jacob Sleese; and 112 acres to
George W. Mechling, May 30, 1836, for $56.15. Passing to the southeastern part
of this township is the territory covered by the warrant No. 666 to William
Findley, 328 1/2 acres, a strip of which is in Cowanshannock township, the
patent for which was granted to him May 24, 1796. Mrs. Mary Black, one of his
devisees, conveyed 200 acres of it to Isaac Rhea, April 9, 1833, for $600,
with which he was first assessed in 1840. The rest of the territory of what is
now Valley township was covered by Holland Land Company warrants: No. 3003
extended west from the Findley tract No. 666 along the purchase line to the
southeastern part of the above-mentioned belt of vacant land, and contained
990 acres. It will be readily identified by the following: B. B. Cooper
conveyed 171 acres and 131 perches of allotment 3 to George Gravenor, April 8,
1817, for $199, he having been first assessed with 211 acres in 1812; Willink
& Co. to Daniel McAfoos, 118 acres and 117 perches, April 19, 1827, for
$59.37; to Richard Gravenor, 110 1/4 acres, September 19, for $55; to William
McIntire, 151 1/4 acres adjoining the Findley tract, September 17, 1828, for
$25.90, which McIntire conveyed to George Somers, April 12, 1836; to Benjamin
Schrecengost, 188 acres, October 1, 1830,. for $70., and to Findley Patterson,
149 acres and 25 perches of allotment 5, March 19, 1833, for $87.50, on which
he was that year assessed with a sawmill. He soon after erected the present
grist-mill with two runs of stone, in which was made the first flour shipped
from this county to Philadelphia and Baltimore, which, with this parcel of
land, passed by sheriff’s deed, June 21, 1848, to Thomas Sturgeon, who
conveyed the mills and land to John Kammadinier, March 7, 1855, for $4,000.
The expense which the latter incurred in attempting to operate the gristmill
by steam embarrassed him so that this property again passed under the
sheriff’s hammer, when David Patterson became the purchaser, to whose estate
it now belongs. The public schoolhouse No. — is on this allotment. The
Greendale postoffice, George Bowser, postmaster, was established here February
7, 1867. While Findley Patterson resided at this point, then in Pine township,
he was elected county commissioner in 1837, one of whose duties it then was to
view, value and grade all the unpatented lands in the county. He was elected
state senator in 1838; appointed revenue commissioner in 1843; elected member
of assembly in 1844 and 1845, and was elected and re-elected speaker of the
house of representatives; and in 1847 he was again appointed revenue
commissioner to represent this and Indiana counties, and was chosen president
of the board. He was also a member of the board of school directors, first of
Kittanning and then of Pine township during the greater part of his residence
in this county, and was captain of the Wayne township artillery company and
major of the regiment, and was appointed in 1857 receiver in the land office,
Kansas, for four years. His maternal grandfather was William Findley, a native
of the north of Ireland. He came to this state when he was a young man; served
in the American army during the revolution; after its close he settled in
Westmoreland county; was elected a member of the legislature of this state, of
the constitutional convention of 1790, and was a member of congress 1791-9 and
1803-17. To distinguish him from Gov. William Findley, who was contemporaneous
with him in public life, he was called “Congress Findley.” He was
the author of “A Review of the Funding System,” published in 1794,
“History of the Insurrection of Western Pennsylvania,” 1796, and
“Observations” vindicating religious liberty. He was the warrantee
and patentee of various tracts of Findley lands, mentioned in the sketch of
Cowanshannock township, the one in Valley and of several on the west side of
the Allegheny river in this county. Adjoining the last-mentioned tract was the
Le Roy & Co., No. 3023, 1,000 acres, of which B. B. Cooper conveyed 207
acres and 70 perches, allotment 6, to Phillip Gravenor, April 8, 1817, for
$275; 103 1/2 acres to George Gravenor, December 21, 1818, for $240. Willink
& Co. conveyed 126 acres, allotment 3, to John Howser, July 2, 1827, for
$63.25, which was subsequently purchased and occupied by George Leighley; 113
acres, allotment 5 to George D. Shaeffer, March 7, 1830, for $56, with which
and as a blacksmith he was first assessed in 1831; 74 acres and 141 perches,
allotment 4, to Jacob McAfoos, March 24, 1831, for $37.50, with 111 acres of
the allotment he was first assessed in1811, and on which he had probably
resided since 1806, and 74 acres 141 perches, December 23, 1835, for $37,50,
and he to George Schrecengost, February 3, 1841, for $300; 126 acres and 64
perches, allotment 1, to Jacob King, January 19, 1835, for$63.25, 110 acres of
which were subsequently owned by Andrew and then by Joseph Mosgrove, who
conveyed the same to Aaron Black, January 24, 1855, for $800, and the latter
to John Rutter, except 10 acres, January 24, 1866, for $1,800. The next tract
to the north was Le Roy & Co., No. 3032; 1,000 acres was parceled: B. B.
Cooper to Alexander McElwain, 100 acres, allotment 3, October 7, 1819, for
$200, and Willink & Co. 55 acres and 24 perches, June 20, 1827, for $28;
B. B. Cooper to Francis Dill, 155 acres and 98 perches, allotment 2, September
20, 1820, for $311.16, and Willink & Co. 112 acres, allotment 1, June 1,
1832, for $56, both of which parcels Richard Dill conveyed to Charles Moore,
Jr., March 3, 1868, for $4,000; Willink & Co. 162 1/2 acres to Jacob
Howser, July 3, 1827, for $81.25, subsequently occupied by George Howser; 167
acres and 52 perches to George Stiffey, October 7, 1828, for $83.75. East of
No. 3023 lay the western portion of Le Roy & Co., tract No. 3022 of which
Willink & Co. conveyed 120 acres of allotment 2 to William Powers,
September 12, 1831, for $255; 97 acres and 154 perches of allotment 1 to Jacob
McAfoos, March 8, 1837, for $90; 176 acres and 110 perches, allotment 5, to
Abraham Beer, August 7, 1842, for $126.50, which he had occupied since 1826. STATISTICS

The people of this township voted, February 28, 1873, on the question of
granting license to sell intoxicating liquors: Against, 103; for, 41.

The mercantile appraiser’s list shows four stores in the fourteenth and one in
the eleventh class in 1876. Occupations other than agricultural, according to
the assessment list for 1876: Furnace managers, 2; laborers, 102; miners, 5;
teamsters, 4; carpenters, 3; shoemakers, 3; blacksmiths, 2; hucksters, 2;
millers, 2; bookkeeper, 1; bricklayer, 1; butcher, 1; clerk, 1; coker, 1;
cooper, 1; grocer, 1; harness-maker, 1; marble-cutter, 1; pit-boss, 1;
printer, 1; school-teacher, 1; sexton, 1. The population in 1860: White,
1,551; colored, 1. In 1870: Native 1,665; foreign, 156; colored, 0. Number of
taxables in 1876, 460, giving about 2,116 of a population. Schools, 1860:
Number schools, 9; average number months taught, 4; male teachers, 5; female
teachers, 4; average monthly salaries of male teachers, $16.60; average
monthly salaries of female teachers, $16; male scholars, 210; female scholars,
156; average number attending school, 246; cost of teaching each scholar per
month, 42 cents; tax levied for school purposes, $674.10; tax levied for
building purposes, $421.32; received from state appropriations, $104.64; from
collectors, $561; cost of instruction, $572; fuel, etc., $62; repairs, $10
1876: Number schools 13; average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 5;
female teachers, 8; average salaries of male teachers per month, $28.60;
average salaries of female teachers per month, $26.75; male scholars, 316;
female scholars, 305; average number attending school, 240; cost per month, 61
cents; tax levied for school and building purposes, $3,309.12; received from
state appropriations, $412.92; from taxes, etc., $2,160.57; cost of
schoolhouses, $210.70; paid for teachers’ wages, $1,785; fuel, etc., $284.24. GEOLOGICAL
FEATURES

The uplands have a thin covering of lower barren rocks. These are the
measures which make the summit of the ridge which the Anderson Creek road
traverses. The lower productive measures are exposed along the Cowanshannock
and Pine creeks throughout the entire township. The hills skirting the river
from Kittanning borough to the mouth of Pine creek and beyond consist mainly
of these rocks. The Pottsville conglomerate, sixty feet thick, rises to the
day over an area extending from Quigley’s mill nearly to the mouth of Hays’
run, and this rock makes the sandstone bowlders(sic) along the river’s edge.
The upper Freeport coal and limestone, the lower Freeport coal, the upper and
lower Kittanning coals, the fireclay underlying the lower Kittanning coal, the
ferriferous limestone and the fireclay underlying it, have all in turn been
developed. The ferriferous limestone is above the Cowanshannock from John C.
Rhea’s property nearly to below the Hague schoolhouse, between it and the
Robinson farm, and is above the waters of Pine creek a like distance and
extending to Pine Creek furnace, and supports here the buhrstone ore; along
the river front it is continuous above water-level from the southern to the
northern end of the township. The structure is somewhat complicated by the
gradually diminishing force of the anticlinal axis, which crosses the river
near the site of the old Allegheny furnace. This gradual decline of the axis
gives to the rocks a southwest dip down the river rather than the usual and
normal incline toward the northwest and southeast. Another and well-developed
anticlinal crosses the Cowanshannock near Greendale, where it lifts the
Pottsville conglomerate to daylight, and it crosses Pine creek near Oscar
postoffice. –W. G. Platt

A slight undulation is suspected to pass from the neighborhood of Scrubgrass
creek through the neighborhood of Allegheny Furnace, crossing local northwest
dips. — Rogers. The ferriferous limestone is seen on Reynolds’ farm, one mile
north of the borough, where the Kittanning coal is twenty feet above it; on
Nulton’s land, north of the court-house, it is four feet thick, and is divided
by a thin slate about one foot from the top. Rogers The following is an
analysis of a piece of perforated red ore, obtained from John C. Rhea’s farm,
the above-mentioned part of the Findley tract No. 666, by F. A. Genth, Jr., of
the University of Pennsylvania: Ferri oxide, 77.10; ferrous oxide, 0.43;
manganous oxide, 1.02; alumina, 2.47; silcic acid, 7.17; phosphoric acid,
0.38; carbonic acid, 0.47; water and organic matter, 11.23. = 100.27. FOOTNOTES:
1. See its boundaries in general sketch of the county.
2. See sketch Kittanning borough.
3. See sketch of Kittanning borough.
4. Since assistant minister of Trinity church, Boston, on the Green
foundation.
5. Quigley conveyed the cottage and 1 acre and 143 perches to Rev. T. D.
Ewing, July 31, 1878, for $4,000.
6. See general sketch of the county.
7. See sketch of Pine township.
8. It continued with coke until June, 1879, when it went out of blast, the
price of pig-iron being then $16 to $17 per ton.

Source: Page(s) 364-372, History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania by
Robert Walker Smith, Esq. Chicago: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883.
Transcribed May 2001 by James R. Hindman for the Armstrong County Smith
Project.
Contributed by James R. Hindman for use by the Armstrong County Genealogy
Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/armstrong/)

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