Wayne Township
Armstrong County Pennsylvania
Early Families
Among the earlier landowners and settlers were: Thomas W. Hiltzheimer,
General Daniel Brodhead, John Rutherford, Jacob Peelor, Joseph Marshall, James
Kirkpatrick, John Calhoun, James McGahey, Abel Dindley, James Russell, Thomas
Duke, William Kinnan, Ephraim Blaine, James Hamilton, William Borland, John
Borland, William Kirkpatrick, William Cochran, James Marshall, Noah A.
Calhoun, General James Potter, John Hays, Sr., David Ralston, Thomas White,
James McKennan, Robert Borland, James McQuoun, Watson S. Marshall, Alexander
McClelland, Benjamin Irwin, Robert Martin, Hung Martin, Enoch Hastings, Rueben
Hastings, Robert Beatty, Thomas Taylor, Jacob Pontius, John Hyskell, Joseph
Glenn, John Henderson, Samuel Coleman, Thomas Wilson, Robert Black, Samuel
Black, Archibald Glenn, Lumes Wilson, Samuel Irwin, Joseph McSparrin, Andrew
D. Guthrie, Samuel Wallis, George Harrison, Thomas W. Francis, Edward Tilghman,
Thomas Ross, Peter Thomas, George Scott, William Wirt Gitt, Henry Pratt, John
Butler, Theodore Wilson, George Ellenberger, William Pontius, Samuel Black,
John Gould, John Bargerstock, John Steele, John Hettrick, Adam Baughman, Jacob
Kammerdiener, Peter Kammerdiener, Thoms Smullen, John Alcorn, Alexander White,
James White, John Powers, Joseph Powers, Mrs. Elizabeth McClemmens, Leopold
Drohn, Joseph Clever, Eli Schrecengost, Joseph Schrecengost, John Reesman, Dr.
William Smith, William C. Bryan, Mark Campbell, Michael Clever, George
Harrison, Joseph Thomas, Robert Brown, Jacob Beer, Samuel McGaughey, Jacob
Rupp, Isaac Meason, Robert R. Cross, Hugh Gallagher, William McElhenny,
Frederick Soxman, Adam Rupp, Paul Burti, Benjamin B. Cooper, Jacob Smith, John
McIntire, George Kline, Joseph Buffington, James A. Knox, George Dill, Moses
Dill, and John Brodhead.
Few of these whose names are mentioned were actual settlers. Most of the
earlier settlers occupied and improved portion of these tracks for years
before they knew or could reach those who could grant valid tiles; so there
was a good deal of squatting and occasional shifting of locations.
The earliest settler in the eastern part of Wayne Township, on Glade Run,
was William Marshall, who came from Indiana County. He settled and made and
improvement, erecting a log cabin and barn on the Pickering & Co. tract,
of which he occupied about eighty acres, known in that region as “old
Glade Run farm”.
The only other white settler then within what is now the territory of this
township was James Shields, who occupied a part of the above mentioned vacant
tract, the farm since owned by C. Soxman and James Gallagher, Jr., about four
miles west of south from Marshall’s. The next nearest neighbors were the
Kirkpatrick’s, nearly south, on the Cowanshannock, another family about four
miles to the east, and others not less than ten miles to the north. The
nearest gristmill was Peter Thomas’, about fifteen miles distant on Plum
creek.
Another settler on Glade Run was Joseph Marshall, the eldest son of William
Marshall Sr., he being twenty-two years old when they settled there a century
ago. Their new home in the wilderness was then in Toby Township. Joseph
Marshall, in later years, when the Marshalls in this part of the county became
quite numerous, was distinguished from others bearing the same name by the
appellation of “big Joe Marshall”. He died in his eightieth year in
1859.
The eastern portion of this township received nearly all the settlers in
the first decade of this century. Thomas Wilson was assessed with 300 acres of
land in 1806, being then in Kittanning township, The records show that the
other settlers in this section were Hugh Martin, Alexander and Thomas
McGaughey, James Kirkpatrick, Sr., and John Calhoun, in 1807. Christopher Rupp
in 1805 was the first settler in the vicinity of Echo. Twenty years after he
was the owner of 800 acres of that land.
Several of these earlier owners were of more than passing reputation and
importance in the history of our country. One of them, Ephraim Blaine, was a
resident of Carlisle, PA., in the earlier years of the Revolutionary War. In
the spring of 1777 the appointment of sub-lieutenant of Cumberland county was
tendered to him, which he declined. He was afterward appointed deputy
commissary general for the middle department. In Feb. or March, 1780, he was
appointed commissary general, which position he probably filled until the
close of the war. His name appears in the list of names of men redising at
Fort Pitt, July 22, 1760. He was the great-grandfather of James G. Blaine, the
distinguished United States senator from Maine, who was a native of
Pennsylvania.
John Hays, Sr., was a son of John and Mary Hays, both of whom participated
in the battle of Monmouth, N.J., in the Revolutionary War. He was a sergeant
in a company of artillery, who is said to have directed a cannon at least a
part of the time. When he was carried from the field, his wife was approaching
with a pitcher of water for him and others, took his place by that cannon,
loaded and fired at least once, insisted on remaining, and left with much
reluctance. General Washington either saw or heard of the service which she
thus rendered, and commissioned her as sergeant by brevet. She was in the army
seven years and nine month, serving with her husband. After the war she and
her husband removed to Carlisle, PA., where he subsequently died, and she
married Sergeant McAuley. She died in January, 1832, in her ninetieth year,
and was buried beside her first husband with military honors by several
companies that followed her remains to the grave—-“Molly
Pitcher’s” grave.
Source: The History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania
Contributed for use by the Armstrong County Genealogy Project
(http://www.pa-roots.com/armstrong/)
Armstrong County Genealogy Project Notice:
These electronic pages cannot be reproduced in any format, for any
presentation, without prior written permission.
Return to Wayne Township Home Page
Â
About Author
