Chapter 14 – Manor, History of Armstrong County Pennsylvania, Part 4

Chapter 14
Manor
Part 4

SCHOOLS.

The first schoolhouse within what are now the limits of this township was a
primitive log structure, which, according to a rather ancient draft of that
portion of the manor tract purchased by Jonathan Smith, was located a few rods
north of the present site of the Appleby Manor Presbyterian church, on the
Duncan purpart of the manor tract, very near the line between it and the
Cobeau purpart on the right hand side of the Kittanning and Leechburgh road,
facing to the north. It was probably erected, as early as, perhaps earlier
than, 1802, and was for years the only one within a circuit of several miles,
to which the children of this then sparsely settled region resorted for
instruction. The first teacher in it was probably Harrison Cook; the next
—— Conkling, who was succeeded, several years afterward, by one whom his
pupils rather ungraciously called “the old girl.”

He taught there in 1811-12. Hugh Campbell was one of his pupils and the
only one of those who attended that school, so far as the writer has learned,
now living. He had previously taught elsewhere in this county, His names was
pronounced as if it were spelled Girl or Gurl, neither of which is correct.
His name in full is Edward Gorrell. The orthoepy was faulty, as much so as in
our own times is the construction of Horrell into Hurl or Hirl. His name
appears for the first time on the assessment list of Allegheny township in
1811; in 1813 he was assessed with twelve acres of land. In 1814 the assessor
wrote his name as “Gurral.” He may have been a kinsman of Lt.
Gorrell, who commanded the English garrison at Green Bay, in the summer of
1763, when the great Pontiac’s mighty conspiracy was raging, and which,
through the tact and good conduct of its commandment, was the only forest
garrison that was not then overpowered. Perhaps some of that name in and about
Pittsburgh are descendants or other kindred of that early teacher in the
manor.

These were considered, so far as the writer can learn, good teachers in
those times; they were good penmen, and taught thoroughly the few branches
then embraced in the course of study in those early schools. Gorrell’s pupils
say he wrote a very fine, neat and beautiful hand.

That primitive temple of knowledge, in the course of several years, was
abandoned and another log one was erected about sixty rods southwest of it, on
the opposite side of the last-mentioned road, which continued in use after the
adoption of the common school system until 1866, when a frame one was erected,
about forty rods east of it, a few rods below the church, which is still used
for school purposes.

In 1860 the number of schools was 7; average number months taught, 4; male
teachers, 7; average monthly salaries, $20; male scholars, 179; female
scholars, 143; average number attending school, 191; cost of teaching each per
month, 46 cents; amount levied for school purposes, $646.82; amount received
from state appropriation, $87.51; amount received from collectors, $317.01;
cost of instruction, $560; fuel and contingencies, $31; repairs, etc.,$11.

In 1876 the number of schools was 9; average number months taught, 54; male
teachers, 2; female teachers, 7; average salaries per month of male teachers,
$32; average salaries per month of female teachers, $33.29; male scholars,
247; female scholars, 202; average number attending school, 283; cost per
month, 65 cents; total amount tax levied for school and building purposes,
$2,380.68; received from state appropriation, $298.53; from taxes and other
sources, $2792. 75; cost of schoolhouses, viz., purchasing, renting, etc.,
$996.20; teachers’ wages, $1320; fuel and contingencies, $588.16.

CRADLE FACTORY.

The proprietor of this factory for the manufacture of grain-cradles, Thomas
Montgomery, commenced the business in his twelfth year on a very limited
scale, and with a very meager stock of tools. In the manufacture of his first
cradle he used an old drawing knife, a shingle nail, ground sharp for a
chisel, a fire-poker for a bit or boring tool, and a condemned cradling
scythe, which he procured from his brother. His first cradle, thus made, was
used for several years. It won a somewhat extensive reputation, which induced
several of his neighbors to apply to him to make cradles for them. He did so,
they finding the scythes and trimmings, and he finding the wood. They demand
for his cradles increased to such an extent that the boy began to regard
himself as a manufacturer. He collected about $25, with which he purchased, at
Pittsburgh, one and an half dozen scythes, a brace, three bits, three chisels
of different sizes. He also purchased on credit an additional dozen and a half
of scythes from P. H. Laufman, who insisted on his thus taking them, and which
he used in making thirty-six cradles, which were readily sold. The next year
he made 160 cradles – all by hand. He thus continued to manufacture on a small
scale until his father moved from the Manor to near Cochran’s mills, where he
made them about four years-during the latter part of that period at the rate
of 350 annually. He removed thence to near the junction of the Anderson Creek
road and the Clearfield turnpike, in what is now Valley township, where for
nine years, he annually made nearly 600. Thence he removed to Manor township,
where- except two years during the war, on that portion of the lower tract
taken by Thomas Duncan and purchased by Moses Patterson- in connection with
his agricultural pursuits, he had continued to manufacture them at the rate of
450 to 600 each year. He had from first to last made and sold 18,000 cradles,
and still continues to make them.

TEMPERANCE.

The vote, February 28, 1873, for granting a license to sell liquors, 34;
against it, 85.

POSTAL.

The Ross’ Mill postoffice was established June 16, 1843, George Ross,
postmaster. The only one now within the limits of this township is the one at
Rosston. It was established June 5, 1858. The first postmaster was Thomas
McConnell; the present on is John C. Christy.

POPULATION.

According to the census there were, in 1850, white, 754, and colored
inhabitants, 11; in 1860, white, 1210; in 1870, native, 1,013, foreign, 58.
There has been a considerable accession of colored persons, employes and their
families, at the quarry, since the taking of the last census. The present
number of taxables is 426, making the present population 1,967, exclusive of
Manorville, whose population was included in that of the township in 1850 and
1860.

ROSSTON

is a town or village on the Ross tract, extending from the mouth of Crooked
creek up along the left bank of the Allegheny river, on its west side, and the
Allegheny Valley Railroad on its east side. It was surveyed and laid out into
thirty lots for Washington Ross-hence its name- by James Stewart, September
18, 1854. Its shape, by reason of the curvature of the railroad and the bend
in the river, is nearly lanceolate. Lot. No. 30, the one between the southmost
street and the mouth of the creek, contains 1 acre and 70 perches. The width
of the east ends of each of lots Nos. 1, 2 and 3, fronting on Railroad street,
is 66 feet and 10 inches, and that of the eastern ends of all the rest, except
No. 19, is 66 feet. The width of the western ends of lots Nos. 14, 15, 16, 17
and 18 is 66 feet each; of lots Nos. 12, 13 and 19, 68 feet each, and that
of the west end of No. 11 and east end of No. 19 is 65 feet. Their lengths
vary, the greatest being 277, and the least 100 feet. The plan of this town
shows four streets and two alleys to have been laid out. Water street is 40
feet wide, and extends along the river, between two unnamed streets, which
intersect it, north 44 degrees east 672 feet. Railroad street extends from the southmost street north 50 degrees east 332 feet to an alley, thence north
44 degrees east 342 feet to the northmost street, and thence north 34 3/4
degrees east to the upper extremity of the plot. The two alleys are each 12
feet wide, and cross each other at right angles nearly midway between the
northmost and southmost streets. At the upper extremity of the plot is a
parcel of ground that was not laid out in lots, containing 100 square perches,
which Anthony Kealer purchased for an acre more or less for $100, by deed
dated March 3, 1863.

On lot No. 22, fronting on Water street, which is the third lot below the
northmost street, that is, the street extending from the railroad station west
to Water street, now known as the Heigley lot, was the site of Fort Green,
elsewhere mentioned. Some of its outworks extended back on to lot No. 9. The
first sales of lots appear from the records to have been made November 25,
1854, to John Isamon, No. 1 for $106; to Jacob Isamon, Nos. 3, 27 and 28 for
$281, averaging $93.66 for each.

A steam sawmill was erected by Messrs. Washington Ross and George
Householder on lot No. 30, which cost $3,000. Ross purchased Householder’s
interest in the mill, and afterward, September 23, 1859, sold it and that lot
to Andrew J. Faulk for $4,500. Faulk reconveyed the same to Ross, April 1,
1861, for $4,000, who conveyed the same, April 8, 1867, to William T. and
George Reiter for $6,300, from whom it was subsequently passed by public sale
to Elisha Robinson, Jr. For the first three years its capacity was such as to
enable the proprietors to saw 3,000 feet a day. Afterward, by the introduction
of the muley saw, the capacity was increased to 10,000 feet a day. The
Allegheny Valley Railroad afforded an extensive market of the stuff sawed
until the completion of the Bennett’s branch or Low Grade division. A large
quantity of the lumber sawed here was also used in the construction of boats
or barges, which was carried on at Rosston for several years. The number of
employes in the mill, which was run by steam, and the boatyard was from
fifteen to twenty.

Other lots were sold at various times for different prices. For instance,
lot No. 22, the site of Fort Green, was conveyed to Emmanuel Heigley for $51,
and Nos. 15 and 16 to Jacob Spencer for $100, both on February 6, 1858. Lots
Nos. 2, 4, 6, 7, 8 were conveyed to Andrew J. Faulk, afterward governor of
Dakota territory, November 25, 1859, for $420, averaging $84 each. At a later
period, February 16, 1863, Nos. 13 and 14 were conveyed to George C. King for
$90. There have been several transfers of lots Nos. 9 and 10, from Ross to
George Bovard, July 29, 1856, who soon afterward conveyed to Joseph L. Reed,
and in which Thomas McConnell acquired an interest, which he released to Reed,
who conveyed the same, including the storehouse erected by McConnell and Reed
on No. 10, to James Ross, February 17, 1863, for $2,200, whose collateral
heirs conveyed both lots to John Christy, August 31, 1867, together with two
other small parcels out of the town plot, for $2,500. No. 10 has been the site
of the only store in Rosston. The first storehouse erected on it, while in the
possession of Christy, was destroyed by fire on the night of August 30, 1974.
The present structure, better and more substantial than its predecessor, was
soon afterward erected on the same site, which is on the corner of Railroad
street and the northmost cross, or as it is called in some of the records,
Market street, opposite to which, on the east end of lot No. 11, is the
Allegheny Valley Railroad warehouse, in which, when emergencies require, a
telegraph office is kept in operation.

Rosston is not an incorporated or separate municipality. For all municipal
purposes it is part and parcel of Manor township, and its inhabitants are
liable for their proportionate part of the township taxes. There is no
schoolhouse within the limits of the town plat, but there is one a few rods
east of its eastern boundary, where the children of Rosston and of the
southwestern part of the township resort for instruction, the cost of which is
paid out of the township school tax for five months in the year. The cost of
maintaining a “summer school” is raised by subscription; such
schools are also called “subscription schools,” the teachers of
which, in some places, are too often ill-qualified for the important work of
teaching young children, whom some, aye, too many, unreflecting parents think
such teachers can properly instruct. The truth is, that class of pupils
require the most intelligent, skillful and faithful teachers, so that the
foundation of the educational work may be thorough and soled. The best and
most experienced and skillful teachers are selected in Prussia for the
youngest scholars.

There is not as yet any church edifice in Rosston. The schoolhouse is
occasionally used as a place of public worship by different religious
denominations. The number of taxables shows the population of this village to
be about one hundred and seventy-four. Various occupations: Merchants, 2, one
doing business elsewhere; teachers, 2; boss, 1;

brakemen, 3; carpenters, 2; laborers, 12; conductor, 1; mechanic, 1;
saddler, 1; cobbler, 1.

Slabtown is a hamlet in the northwestern corner of the township, with a
population of about ninety. The chief occupation of the men is that of
laborer.

THE BOROUGH OF MANORVILLE

was formed out of a part of the Thomas Duncan purpart of the Manor tract
and a part of “Rebecca’s Hope,” or the Rebecca Smith tract.
Twenty-four lots were laid out for John Sibbett “in the town of
Manorville,” June 28, 1854, lying between the present eastern boundary of
the borough and Water street, and between the northern boundary of the manor
tract, which extends through the borough along the center of a “lane 22
feet wide,” as designated on the plat of the borough, and which is
between H.M. Lambing’s shop and dwelling-house – between that lane and the
unnamed street, 35 feet wide, extending from the eastern line of the borough
past the Copley brickyard and James Cunningham’s store to Water street. At and
before the time of laying out these lots this place was called Manorville,
obviously from the manor. The northern line of the manor tract is about
equidistant from the northern and southern lines of the borough, but the
southern portion being considerably wider than the northern, the major part of
the borough was taken from what was formerly that tract. Those Sibbett lots
appear from the plat to be the only ones that have as yet been numbered.
Arnold and others laid out lots at different times on that part of the borough
taken from “Rebecca’s Hope.”

The taxables of Manorville were first assessed by themselves, or
separately, in 1851.

The construction of the Allegheny Valley Railroad a few years thereafter
gave the chief impetus to settlements here.

The first petition for incorporating this place into a borough was
presented to the court of quarter sessions of this county, December 7, 1865,
but was not approved by the grand jury. A second one, signed by two-thirds of
its taxable inhabitants, was presented at June sessions, 1866, which having
been approved by the grand jury and having laid over the time required by law,
the court ordered and decreed June 6, 1866, that the village of Manorville be
erected and incorporated into a body corporate and politic, to be known and
designated as the borough of Manorville, with the following metes and bounds:
Beginning at a red oak on the bank of the Allegheny river; thence on the line
between Calvin Russell and P. F. McClarren south 68 degrees east 28 perchers
to the Allegheny Valley Railroad; thence along said railroad 17 degrees east 5
8/10 perches to a post; thence by land of John Shoop south 68 degrees east 20
perches to a post; thence by land of Chambers Orr, now of Adam Reichert, north
14 degrees east 64 perches to a post; thence 68 degrees west 1 perch to a
post; thence north 14 degrees east 56 perches to a post; thence north 10
degrees east 27 perches to a post; thence by land of Arnold’s heirs north 77
degrees west to said railroad; thence along said railroad north 19 degrees
east 35 � perches to a post; thence south 61 degrees east 4 perches to a
post; thence north 25 degrees east 3 perches to a black jack; thence south 68
degrees east 7 perches; thence north 10 degrees east 34 perches to a chestnut;
thence north 68 degrees west 13 perches to a post on the bank of the Allegheny
river; thence down said river south 28 degrees west 80 perches, and 22 degrees
west 130 � perches to a red oak and the place of beginning.

The first election of borough officers was directed to be held at the
public schoolhouse in Manorville, on Saturday, June 23, 866, of which 10 days’
notice was ordered to be given by Alexander Cunningham, the then constable of
Manor township, and James Cunningham was appointed judge, and William Copley
and Joseph D. Brown were appointed inspectors of that election. The subsequent
elections were ordered to be held at the same place.

The following borough officers were elected at the first borough elections:
Burgess, Joseph M. Kelley; town council, Jesse Butler, Calvin Russell, David
Spencer, Peter F. Titus and Samuel Spencer; justices of the peace, John
McIlvaine and A. Briney; school directors, for three years, David Spencer and
Dietrich Stoelzing; school directors, for two years, A. Rhoades and M. M.
Lambing; school directors, for one year, R. C. Russell and Jesse Butler; high
constable, Jonas M. Briney; borough auditors, Robert McKean, Milton McCormick
and W. M. Patterson; judge of election, Joseph M. Kelly; inspectors of
election, William Copley and H. M. Lambing; assessor, David Spencer; overseers
of the poor, James Kilgore and George W. Shoop.

If the minutes of the town council and the ordinances passed during the
first few years after the incorporation of this municipality are extant; they
cannot be found by the present clerk of council, so that what the council did
in those years has not been ascertained. The records, since they have been
kept in the book now used therefor, do not show that there has been any of
what may be termed municipal legislation of notable interest. Indeed, the
affairs of the borough seem to have moved along with but slight control of
specific rules and regulations.

The first resident on the territory within the present limits of
Manorville, after the revolutionary and Indian wars, was probably William
Sheerer, who, about 1803, established a tannery on a small scale, at the foot
of the hill just below and adjoining the northern line of the manor tract,
with which he was assessed in 1805-6-7 at $15. He was the clerk of the general
and presidential elections in Allegheny township in 1804. He was also assessed
with one horse at $10, making his total valuation $25 for each of those years.
He must have abandoned his tannery and removed thence in 1807, as that is the
last year in which his name appears on the assessment list. For 1805-6 it is
on the assessment list of Allegheny township, and for 807 on that of
Kittanning township, which, the reader will bear in mind, was organized to
September, 1806.

What is now the site of Manorville remained unoccupied by any permanent
settler for many years after Sheerer left. It was swampy and covered with
thickets of laurel.

The Lambing brothers settled here in 1830, and were first assessed in
Kittanning township, the next year, viz.: Matthew Lambing, with 1 head of
cattle, $18; John Lambing, with 50 acres (of Rebecca Smith tract), $100 and
“young man”, 25 cents,”

Michael Lambing, “young man, 25 cents;” Henry Lambing, 3 horses
$60, 1 head of cattle, $6, and “young man, 25 cents,” total, $66.25.
Manorville was then a wilderness of swamp and thickets. In 1832 John Lambing
was assessed with the same 50 acres as in the previous year, also with a
distillery, total, $375; and Michael Lambing, as shoemaker, at $50. That
distillery was situated near the foot of the hill, a few rods above the
northern line of the Manor tract, with which was connected a run of stone for
chopping the grain used in distilling. The mill part must have been adapted
during that year to grinding grists, for in 1883 John was assessed not only
with the distillery, but as a “miller, ” and Henry with a steam
mill. For a year or so afterward, the land assessed to John and the distillery
were rented to John West, and afterward the mill was assessed to Henry, and
the distillery to Matthew Lambing. The mill had a capacity for grinding sixty
bushels in twenty-four hours. It and the distillery ceased to be operated
about 1840-1. Since then, these almost first settlers have carried on their
respective trades – one a shoemaker and the others carpenters, cabinetmakers
and machinists.

Josiah Copley began the manufacture of firebrick in 1847-8, and continued
it until 1858. It was thereafter carried on by his sons for two or three
years, and then by his brother, William Copley, until the latter’s death, and
since then by William S. Copley. The brickworks are located on land belonging
to Miss Eliza Sibbett, between the railroad and the hill, on the south side of
the street, extending from the latter past the railroad station to water
street. They have a capacity for making 3,000 bricks a day. They were
destroyed by a fire, but were soon after rebuilt. The number of employes was
at first fifteen, which was subsequently reduced about one-third by the use of
improved machinery.

The late Andre Arnold, about 1850, established a tannery on a somewhat
large scale, about 35 rods north of the northern line of the Manor tract, on
that part of the 62-acre tract which he purchased from Robert Speer, lying
between the railroad and Water Street, with which he was assessed from 1851
until 1855. The next year it was assessed to A. & H. J. Arnold. Its
valuation varied form $600, in 1851, to $1,000 in 1853, and to $1,200 in 1856.
It was assessed to H. J. Arnold in 1859 at $2,000, and in 1862 at $1,500. It
was first assessed, after their deaths, to Mrs. Isabella Arnold in 1865. The
Arnolds carried on the manufacture of fire-brick, the father from 1852-3 till
1856, the brickyard being assessed, each of those years, at $50; and another
year thereafter by father and son, the valuation being $500. The tanning was
done on the old slow process of keeping the hides in the vats a year- those
for sole-leather eighteen months. The number of layaway vats was about
forty-five. The capacity of the tannery was 3,500 sides of leather a
year-sole, upper, harness and bridle leather, including 1,000 sides of
calfskin.

Dietrich Stoelzing was first assessed as proprietor of this tannery in
1867, and as owner in 1868. He came here in May, 1863. From then on during the
continuance of the

war 5,000 hides were tanned yearly, making 10,000 sides of leather for the
United States government, which was used for gun-slings and cartridge-boxes.
During the first year after the close go the war this tannery turned out
10,000 sides of harness leather, and the next year 5,000. Then followed the
tanning of cupleather at the rate of 2,500 sides annually. He commenced the
process of tanning in air-tight vats, or vessels, in 1875.

The number of employes during the war, and a year or two after its close,
was twelve, and since 1867 from four to six.

The apparatus consists of forty-eight lay-away vats, four lime-vats, four
leach-tubs, four bates, one large cistern, two posts, six handlers, one
stopping-wheel, one steam-pump, and a steam-engine of twenty-five horse-power.
The tanhouse is a large two-story frame structure.

While making leather for gun-slings and cartridge boxes the hides were kept
in the vats six weeks, afterwards six months, and now on the vacuum plan, tow
weeks for heavy belting and sole-leather, and only four days for calfskins.
The idea of tanning on this plan originated, as the writer is informed, with
one Davis, of Allegheny City, Pennsylvania, in 1868. Stoelzing tried it then
and made a success on a small scale, but could not make large vats or vessels
air-tight, i.e., he did not make it a success on a large scale. In 1875 J. J.
Johnston, patent agent, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, took out a patent in his own
name for a large, air-tight vat. Stoelzing put up one of that kind in his
tannery at Manorville, and made it successful beyond his expectations. The
process of tanning by the vacuum method is this: After the hides are prepared
in the usual way they are suspended in the air-tight vat; the vat is then
closed and the air exhausted, so that the pores of the hides are opened and
the liquor from the bark is absorbed, the pressure being at the rate of ten
pounds per square inch, the liquid rising, of course, to fill the vacuum
caused by exhausting the air. The liquor is changed until the hides are
completely tanned. It is made by placing ground oakbark in an air-tight
swinging circular leach; when filled with the bark the air is exhausted and
spent liquor is forced in from below with a pressure of ten pounds per square
inch; after standing an hour the leach is turned half around, so as to reverse
its ends; after standing another hour the liquor is run into the airtight vat;
the bark remains in the leach, and whatever liquor remains in it is expelled
by a pneumatic pressure of twenty-five pounds per square inch, caused by
pumping the air in on the top.

The leather thus tanned is of better quality and greater weight than is
that tanned by the old process. The leaching extracts almost instantaneously
all the tannic acid contained in the bark.

In the spring of 1861, J. C. Crumpton established an oil refinery on a
tract about 20X15 rods, next below the brick-yard and railroad station,
between the railroad and an alley extending along the easterly line of the
borough, and a tank lot between the railroad and Water street. The capacity of
its still was at first only thirty barrels, or sixty a week, as there were but
two runs in that time. During the proprietorship or superintendency of Benny,
several stills were added, varying in capacity from 80 to 250 barrels. Between
1867 and 1870, while Oliver B. Jones was proprietor, another still, with the
capacity of 500 barrels, was added. During those years the refinery and ground
were assessed at $7,000, and the tank lot at $600. The capacity was not
subsequently increased. The proprietorship passed from Jones to King, Barbour
& Goodwin, who gave it the name of the Federal Oil Works. John B. Barbour
and Edward L. Goodwin sold their undivided two-thirds interest in these works
to the Standard Oil Company May 18, 1876 for $8,000, by whom they have been
removed to some other point down the river.

MERCANTILE.

Henry J. Arnold opened a store near what is now the upper part of the
borough, on the river side of the railroad, in 1855, which was continued by,
at least assessed to, James Daugherty until 1862. James Cunningham opened his
store, opposite the railroad station, in 1864-5, which is still open. John
McElwain kept a store in the Arnold storeroom in 1867-8. These are probably
the only mercantile houses that were ever within what are now the borough
limits. This year, only one, and that in the fourteenth class, appears on the
mercantile appraiser’s list.

Manorsville has not yet been adorned by a church edifice. Religious
services are occasionally held by different denominations in the schoolhouse.

SCHOOLS.

The first school in what are now the limits of this municipality was opened
in a log dwelling house, built by James Kilgore, probably a year or two before
the adoption of the common school system. That house was situated in the rear
part of the oil refinery lot, or between the railroad and the hill, a few rods
below the brickyard. It was a pay or subscription school, taught by William
Stewart. The next one, nearest to Manorville, was a one-story dwelling,
converted into a schoolhouse, on the lower side of the Leechburgh road, near
its intersection with the river road. Tin 1853 a frame schoolhouse was erected
by the school board of Manor township, at the head of School or Butler street,
in the Sibbett plot, near the hill, which was several years afterward moved
from its base by a land-slide. The present school-building is a substantial
frame, painted white, 38 X28, ceiling 12 feet, with a cupola and bell, erected
by the last-mentioned board in 1862. The first annual report of Manorville was
for the school year ending June 1, 1868, for which year the statistics are:

School, 1; number months taught, 5; male teacher, 1; salary per month, $50;
male scholars, 40; female scholars, 39; average number attending school, 49;
cost per month, each, 77 13/100 cents; levied for school purposes, $315.18;
levied for building purposes, $121.22; received from collector, etc., $355;
from state appropriation, $21.08; cost of instruction, $250; fuel and
contingencies, $54.94; repairs, $4.82.

Statistics for 1875 are here given: School, 1; number months taught, 5;
male teacher, 1; salary per month, $50; male scholars, 37; female scholars,
28; average number attending school, 51; cost, each, per month, 92 cents; tax
levied for school and building purposes, $339.99; received from taxes, etc.,
$430.78; from state appropriation, $38.69; teacher’s wages, $250; fuel,
collector’s fees, etc., $86.98.

TEMPERANCE.

The temperance element has for several years been strong. The vote on the
question of granting license was 85 against, and 34 for it. A Good Templars’
lodge was established in 1873, which continued to flourish for a year and a
half, into which among others a goodly number of juveniles were initiated,
some of whom had not secretiveness enough to keep secret the passwords and
other private matters of the order, which was one of the reasons for
disbanding.

RESIDENCES.

There are pleasant sites for residences with extensive views of fine
scenery on the extended line of hill adjoining the borough on the east. Rev.
Gabriel S. Reichart, the zealous and faithful Lutheran missionary and pastor,
elsewhere mentioned, has resided on one of the subdivisions of the Thomas
Duncan portion of the manor tract, about one hundred and seventy rods back
from the railroad since his return from his pastorate in Philadelphia. Josiah
Copley was a resident near the brow of the hill, where he lived many years,
when he invented at least one of his modes of navigating our western rivers
with steamers in low stages of water. The cottage built some twenty or more
years since by the Sibbetts, is a few rods below, which, with eighty-seven
acres and fifty perches of land, they conveyed to the late Chambers Orr, who
conveyed the same, together with forty-two acres and fifty-two perches of
other contiguous land, to Mrs. Emma R. Reichert, wife of Gabriel A. Reichert,
Jr., April 6, 1871, for $18,000. It is now called “Reichert Hall.”
The grounds around it have been tastefully improved.

POPULATION.

The only census taken since the organization of this borough is that of
1870, by which it appears there were then 316 native and 14 foreign-born
inhabitants. The number of taxables in 1876 is 86, from which it is inferred
the population now is 395. The assessment list for the same year shows the
occupations to be: Laborers, 23; merchants, 3, two of whom do business out of
the borough; carpenters, 3; tanners, 3; coopers, 2; teamsters, 2; brickmakers,
2; teacher, 1; cabinet-maker, 1; plasterer, 1; shoemaker, 1; blacksmith, 1;
coaldigger, 1; butcher, 1; refiner, 1.

POSTOFFICE.

The Manorville postoffice was established January 27, 1864, and James
Cunningham was the first and he is the present postmaster.

GEOLOGICAL.

Near the mouth of Crooked Creek, the Freeport limestone is within fifty
feet of the Allegheny river.

A cutting on the railroad, one-third of a mile below the rolling-mill,
which is in the lower part of Kittanning borough, well exposes the small
coalbed next above the Kittanning seam, from 9 to 19 inches thick, divided in
the middle by a thin band of slate, immediately underlaid by a band of impure,
somewhat indurated, fireclay, 2 to 10 feet thick, through which are scattered
nodules of rough thick ore. Beneath the fireclay is an irregularly stratified
mass of highly micaceous sandstone, the natural color of which is blue, but
when weathered is chiefly light olive-green and reddish brown, containing
regularly marked vegetable forms, over which are dark-blue shales, 25 feet
thick, weathering rusty brown, in some places curiously distorted, become more
compact and silicious toward the top, and a thin layer of bituminous shale and
coaly matter is interstratified with the mass-dip southwest 2 degrees to 3
degrees. About thirty feet above those small coalbeds, on the Buffington land,
is another coalbed, 4 feet thick when regular, but which in some places in the
mines thins away to a mere streak. Thirty feet above it the Freeport limestone
is nearly six feet thick; ten or fifteen feet above this the upper Freeport
bed, 3 feet thick, contains 2 3/4 feet of available coal. The strata rise
northwest.

The following imperfect section was partially leveled in the little ravine
below the borough of Kittanning: Green shale, 2 feet; light blue shale, 2 �
feet; upper Freeport coal, 5 feet; unknown, 6 feet; Freeport limestone in
fragments; unknown (shale, etc.) 40 feet; brownish-gray slaty standstone, 8 �
feet; blue and gray shale (6 to 8 feet exposed), 25 � feet; coal, 4 inches;
shale, brown, passing into sandstone, 5 feet; gray slate, 3 feet; unknown
(shale) 29 feet; shale, 5 feet; arenaceous shale, 4 � feet; sandstone, white
above, slaty below, 14 feet; blue slate, 3 feet; bed of sandstone, 4 to 6
inches thick, immediately upon the Kittanning coal, 3 feet; unknown, 24 feet
to the road, and 15 feet more to the river, at low water. (First geological
survey of Pennsylvania.)

The small coalbed above specified as being next above the Kittanning seam,
from 9 to 18 inches thick, because of its insignificant size was not known to
be persistent throughout the country, as has been shown in the course of the
second geological survey. It has been proven by. J. C. White, who has charge
of the district composed of Beaver, North Allegheny and South Butler, not only
to be persistent but to increase in bulk westward, culminating as the great
Darlington cannel coalbed, in Beaver county. It has also been found by
Franklin Platt, another member of the geological corps, as a large and
workable bed throughout Jefferson and Clearfield counties, and he has traced
it into Cambria county. It is properly called the “Upper Kittanning
coal” in the Allegheny valley series, and the “Darlington
Cannel” in Beaver county, because “at Darlington the bed seems to
acquire its maximum size and importance.” (Second geological survey,
Pennsylvania, Q.)

Levels above tide: Opposite Rosston station, 788.4 feet; opposite mile post
783.5 feet; opposite mile post, 789.8 feet; opposite mile post 797.6 feet;
opposite Manorville station, 796,9 feet; bench mark on outside corner of south
wall of culvert No. 42, 794.4 feet; opposite mile post, 43 miles above
Pittsburgh, 804.7 feet. (Ibid, N)

On May 31, 1872, Andrew J. Dull leased from William M. Bailey and several
other heirs of the late Richard Bailey the exclusive right to operate for and
remove all the limestone and iron ore, etc., on 93 acres, being the heirs
purparts, for the term of twenty years, on condition that he would commence
operations on or before April 1, 1872, and pay the lessors eight cents a ton
for all the limestone which he should remove therefrom. On March 27,1873, he
took a similar lease from David Spencer for twenty acres of his land
contiguous to the Bailey premises, but higher up Fort run, at six cents a ton
for limestone.

Operations under the Bailey lease were commenced in February, 1872, and, of
course, later under the Spencer lease. The following facts were obtained from
Joseph R. Smith, the superintendent of the quarry and the store connected with
it. The stone quarried thus far is the Freeport limestone, interstratified
with three layers of slate, each about twelve inches thick. The aggregate
thickness of the three layers of limestone is about fifteen feet. The number
of employes for the first year and a half after the quarrying was begun is
135, forty of whom were colored men who were formerly slaves in the Shenandoah
valley, Virginia. The average number of employes since then has been about
seventy-five. The quantity of limestone annually quarried and shipped by the
Allegheny Valley Railroad to Pittsburgh until 876 has been about 48,000 tons.
The pay rolls show that during the same period the amount paid for wages
monthly has been $4,000, and an equal amount for freight. From 1872 till 1875,
the amount paid as freight from this quarry exceeded the amount received by
the Allegheny Valley Railroad as freight from all sources during the first
three years after it began to be operated. This limestone is used for fluxing
in the manufacture of iron. The quarrying thus far has been along the course
of the right-hand bank of Fort run, a distance of about 200 rods up that run
from the face of the hill looking toward the Allegheny river. A branch
railroad, intersecting the Allegheny Valley road about twenty-five rods below
Fort run, has been constructed along the valley of that run, a distance of 275
rods, including the length of a branch to that branch, which is about
twenty-five rods, over which the limestone is transported, without
transshipment, en route to Pittsburgh.

The Baileys formerly operated a kiln on a limited scale, in which limestone
from that vein was burned. It was a draw-kiln. The lime was used as a
fertilizer and for building Seven thousand bushels were sold in one summer for
the latter purpose in Kittanning, besides a considerable quantity for both
purposes in the surrounding country.

Source: Page(s) 310-345, History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania by
Robert Walker Smith, Esq. Chicago: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883.
Transcribed January 1999 by Donna Mohney for the Armstrong County Smith
Project.
Contributed by onna Mohney for use by the Armstrong County Genealogy Project
(http://www.pa-roots.com/armstrong/)

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