Chapter 23 – East Franklin Township, History of Armstrong County Pennsylvania

Chapter 23
East Franklin

First Township Election – The Early Settlers as Shown by Land Titles –
Tribulations of Thomas Barr as Teacher – An Oil Company Organized in 1870 –
West Glade Run Presbyterian Church – A Notable Law Suit – Allegheny Furnace
Lands – Roads – Coal Mining and Oil Manufacturing Company Organized in 1859 –
Montgomeryville – Cowansville – Middlesex – Union Presbyterian Church
Organized in 1801 – Schools – Rich Hill U.P. Church – Population and other
Statistics – Geological Features – The Township named after Benjamin Franklin

The first township election in East Franklin, held in the spring of 1868,
resulted thus: J.C. Claypoole was elected justice of the peace; Hugh Hooks,
constable; Solomon Hooks, school director for three years; D.C. Quigley and
Abraham Zillefrow, for two years; Henry Blair and John Montgomery,
supervisors; a tie between Franklin Ambrose and Jonathan Geary, for assessor;
John Moore and John Summerville, overseers of the poor; Henry Dougherty,
township auditor for three, Thomas Armstrong for two years, and J.D. Carr for
one year; J.H. Dickey, judge of election; W.G. Cowan and Sharon Mateer,
inspectors of election.

The readers may now in imagination place the Gapen map and the Lawson &
Orr map of surveys before them and follow the writer as her traverses this
township alternately from west to east, and from east to west, beginning at
its southwest corner, in which is depreciation lot No. 271, a square, the
patent for which, called “Strabane”, was granted to Joshua Elder,
May 9, 1791, which he conveyed to McCall and McDowell, March 27, 1795, and in
the partition between them was one of the tracts allotted to McCall, who
conveyed it to George C. McCall, June 23, 1817, and the latter reconveyed it.
One hundred and ten and two-thirds acres of it were conveyed by A. McCall to
John Bowser, June 16, 1830, for $330, and the same quantity to Daniel
Schaeffer, the same day, for the same price. Bowser conveyed 29� acres to
Susannah and Charles McClatchey, which they conveyed to Frederick Bowser,
April 3, 1849, for $300, and 37 acres and 100 perches to Frederick Bowser,
August 26, 1842, for $230, who conveyed the same to David C. Bowser. The
parcel purchased by Schaeffer is still retained by him. A. McCall conveyed 50
acres of the southeast end to John Summerell, June 12, 1834, for $175.

This tract was named after Strabane, a municipal borough and market town in
the county of Tyrone, in the province of Ulster, Ireland, and is situated
opposite Lifford, on the Mourne, which is there spanned by a bridge, near its
confluence with the Finn and Foyle, and is now a railway station. Its trade is
facilitated by a canal from it to the point where the Foyle becomes navigable
for barges of forty tons. Adjacent to Strabane is a salmon fishery. The
population of this town, some years ago, was 4,896.

Adjoining “Strabane” on the east in a large scope of apparently
unsurveyed territory or blank space on the Gapen map, is on the other
depreciation lot No. 276, in shape a rectangular parallelogram, for which,
called “Unequal Contest”, the patent was granted to William Findley,
November 20, 1786, as containing 276 3/10 acres, which he conveyed to Margaret
Peebles, April 24, 1821, for $200, and 111 acres and 55 perches to John
Summerville, October 20, 1827, for $200. Samuel released 121 acres to Francis
Robinson, November 3, for five shillings, who conveyed the same to Sarah
Robinson, November 11, 1831, for $1.

Adjoining “Unequal Contest” on the east is depreciation lot No.
283, another of William Findley’s tracts, 220 4/10 acres, which he conveyed to
David Reed, June 5, 1815, for $200, being the tract on which Reed and his
family had then “resided for several years”, who by his will, dated
May 28, 1838, and registered January 19, 1839, devised the part of it west of
Glade run to his son David, subject to the proper maintenance of the latter’s
mother during the rest of her life, and the payment of $50 to John Reed with
interest thereon from the year 1803. That part of it east of Glade run he
agreed, March 19, 1834, to sell to Jacob Denny, of Pittsburgh, for $338, of
which $238 remained unpaid at his death. No deed for it having been executed
by him in his lifetime, the specific performance of the contract was decreed
by the proper court, December 16, 1839, and his executors, John Reed and John
Summeal, conveyed 104 acres and 91 perches, neat measure, or 98 acres and 110
perches and allowance, according to the survey of B. Meredith, September 8,
1838, to Denny, March 30, 1840, for $313, which was probably the balance of
purchase-money and interest then due. It subsequently became vested in
Alexander McNickle, and was among other parcels conveyed by Chambers Orr,
sheriff, to Robert Buchanan, March 17, 1841, for $136, having then 20 acres
cleared, 5 of which were meadow, a log cabin and small stable, and which
Buchanan conveyed to Isaac Wible, March 23, 1853, for $550.

Adjoining the southern part of No. 283 and the northern part of
“Center Hill” on the east is depreciation lot No. 288, 235 8/10
acres, called “Speculation”, which, like its southern adjoiner,
“Liberty Hall”, became vested in Robert Morris, Jr., who conveyed it
to Wilson Hunt, May 21, 1796, for “five shillings and other valuable
considerations”. It was sold for taxes by John Sloan, then sheriff
Westmoreland county, to Samuel Murphy and James Sloan, October 13, 1807, for
$4.77, and which they released to Hunt, October 14, 1812, for $20. It became
vested in Alexander Colwell, who conveyed it to his brother William, to whom
it was surveyed by J.E. Meredith, March 30, 1838.

Adjoining “Speculation” on the north is depreciation lot No. 289,
hexagonal, 284 acres, called “Pleasant Grove”, whose northwestern
part or tongue extends across Glade run, bounding the eastern part of No. 283
on the north, for which the patent was granted to John McCullough, of
Philadelphia, January 22, 1792, which his executor, Dr. Samuel McCullough,
agreed to sell to Isaac Wible for $2,850, one-half of which was paid before
that executor’s death, and on taking security for the other half Dr. John
McCullough, administrator de bonis non, etc., conveyed the entire tract to
Wible, January 1, 1839.

In and after 1811, Thomas Barr, afterward deputy surveyor for this county,
taught school in a log schoolhouse on that part of “Pleasant Grove”
near the present site of Isaac Wible’s house. His scholars barred him out for
three days from January 1, 182, as related to the writer by one of his pupils.
He attempted to smoke them out by covering the top of the chimney with boards
and placing himself on them. They thrust the long poles, with which they had
provided themselves, up the chimney and threw him off into the snow. With
hair-springs he threw pins at them, from which the eyes of some of them barely
escaped severe and permanent injury. He then ascended the root, tore off some
of the roof-boards, and descended to the schoolroom. Some of the pupils seized
him by his legs and others by his arms and ejected him into the snow. After a
three days’ struggle he capitulated, and signed a written agreement to furnish
his conquerors with a bushel of apples and four or five gallons of cider, with
which he complied.* The door was then unbarred, and the usual scholastic
exercises were resumed in that primitive temple of knowledge.

Adjoining “Speculation” on the east is the Cogley-Ross-Huston
land, heretofore mentioned ,� adjoining the southern part of which on the
east is a tract, a rectangular parallelogram, 100 acres, surveyed to John
McAnninch, on which he settled probably before 1800; with 75 acres of which, 1
horse and 2 cows, he was assessed in 1805, and the next year at $62. He
continued to be assessed with the land until 1834. This is probably a part of
a larger tract which included the heretofore-mentioned Joseph Cogley tracts,
which was assessed to Nathaniel George in 1805, and respecting which Rachel
Jones and John McIninch entered into a written agreement, August 16, 1797, the
substance of which was, that Rachel and John should keep settled for George
for five years “a certain tract of land, situate on Slippery Rock path,
bounded by James Cogley, Sr., N. 87 E. 343, and by Daniel McClelland, 87 W.,
240 perches”, to clear and put under fence 8 or more acres, and convey to
him the remainder of the tract left after deducting 50 acres containing the
improvement to be made by them, for which George was to give them “a
clear deed out of the office”, �5 in store goods and �5 in cash.
George’s inchoate title does not appear from the records to have been
perfected. McIninch conveyed 99 acres to Asa Freeman, April 6, 1834, for $450.

Adjoining that McIninch tract and the northern part of the Huston parcel on
the east is a long and rather narrow tract, 330 acres and 250 perches,
extending to the Allegheny river, which was surveyed to John Scott, on a
warrant dated January 22, 1794. Scott conveyed his interest to Charles
Campbell and James Sloan (“Col.”), May 30, 1799, about which time
the latter settled on it, kept a ferry and the only hotel in this region for
several years, and where he resided when he was appointed a trustee of this
county. He was assessed with 200 acres, 2 distilleries, 3 horses, 4 cattle and
1 ferry, in 1805, at $402; but the next year his valuation was only $250. He
conveyed his interest to Paul Morrow, September 15, 1813, for $1,980; Campbell
conveyed his interest to Robert Brown, October 15, 1821, for $1,100, “on
which Brown and Sloan had formerly resided”, which Brown conveyed to
Morrow, July 13, 1825, for $5,000, to whom the patent for the whole tract was
granted, March 22, 1826. Morrow reconveyed 165 acres of the northern part to
Brown, February 21, 1827, for $2,500, one-half of which the latter conveyed to
his brother, Joseph Brown, September 9, 1836, in “consideration of $1 and
the improvements made on the premises”, who was first assessed with his
ferry across from here to Kittanning in 1833. James E. Brown was first
assessed with Saltworks on this parcel in 1835, and continued to be until
1840, the last two years to his father and heirs, which yielded daily 5 or 6
barrels. Peter Bellas fell into one of the salt-boilers Wednesday, January 29,
1835, and was so severely scalded that he died that evening.

Robert Brown conveyed the undivided one-half of this parcel, and the heirs
of Joseph Brown the other half, to Philip Mechling, October 14, 1846, for
$5,800. There is on the southern part of it an ancient pile of stones, such as
the Indians placed over their dead. Morrow conveyed the southern parcel of
this tract to William Phillips June 10, 1828, who conveyed 154 acres and 158
perches to Asa Freeman, August 10, 1832, for $1,000. Freeman conveyed 72 acres
and 150 perches, partly of this tract and partly of which McIninch had
conveyed to him, included in patent to Freeman, August 10, 1832, to Conrad
Reiter, April 9, 1846, for $442; and 92 acres and 15 perches to John
Portsmouth, April 4, 1852, for $2,302.34, which the latter conveyed to James
Mosgrove, October 2, 1858, for $4,800.

Adjoining the western part of that Scott-Brown-Morrow tract and its western
adjoiner, the Huston tract, for which Freeman probably obtained a patent, on
the north is depreciation lot NO. 293, a rectangular parallelogram, 216 9/10
acres, the patent for which was granted to John McCullough, January 22, 1792,
and which Dr. Samuel McCullough conveyed to James Blair, August 8, 1844, for
$2,169, on which he had resided from 1840, while he was county commissioner.
By his will, dated September 20, 1875 **, he devised 103 acres of the southern
part to his son Joseph, and the residue to his son Henry, subject to an
annuity of $300, to be paid by them to their mother during the rest of her
life.

Adjoining the southern part of No. 293 on the east is a trapezoidal-shaped
tract, rather narrow, extending from the river back on the hill, 201 acres and
55 perches, on which John Cunningham made an improvement and settlement,
probably about 1800, by virtue of which it was surveyed to him by Ross, deputy
surveyor, January 7, 1807, with which he was assessed, and with 1 distillery
and 1 cow, in 1805, at $176. A teacher by the name of Beard taught a school of
thirty scholars, some of whom resided three and four miles distant on Glade
run and else where, in 1808-9, in a log cabin about 16 X 16 feet, on the hill
part of this tract. The patent was granted to him September 10, 1824. He
conveyed 10 acres and 118 perches to his son William, October 8, for $1,000,
at the river, and hence called Williamsburgh, where the latter established his
chain ferry, mentioned in the sketch of the borough of Kittanning, on which a
hotel has been kept by various persons for many years. he and Philip Mechling
were first assessed with their saltworks on this parcel in 1835. They bored a
well the usual depth, but some oil and considerable gas rendered it
unprofitable as a saltwell, and it was abandoned. While it was being operated
Philip Templeton was in the upper part of the derrick one day, when the gas
became ignited, and he was for awhile in danger of being burned. George Monroe
was assessed as a merchant at this point in 1836, and Philip Templeton in
1841. Philip Mechling was first assessed with the ferry here in 1846.

John Cunningham, Sr. and Jr., conveyed 1� acres adjoining the river to
William Boney and William Herron, January 10, 1840, for $12, on which Boney
erected a carding-machine in 1844, with which he continued to be assessed
until they conveyed 6 acres adjoining the river on the east and Philip
Mechling’s parcel on the south, to Robert Robinson, February 18, 1846, for
$360, with the privilege of taking coal from their farm, and which he
christened “Linden” in 1848, from a linden tree on the river bank,
and his preference for the “sage of Lindenwald”, who was then the
presidential candidate of the free democracy, which he conveyed to Philip K.
Bowman, January 15, 1850, for $300, on which the latter and James S. Quigley
were first assessed with a steam sawmill in 1852. Bowman conveyed his interest
in this parcel to Quigley, April 2, 1857, for $2,800, who continued to operate
the mill until he sold the land, mill and several houses to George W. Cook and
James G. Henry for $16,000. His deed to them is dated May 14, 1869. They
operated the mill until Henry sold his interest to James Cathers, which has
since continued to be operated by Cook & Cathers***

John Cunningham laid out the town of Belleville on the hill part of his
tract, nearly equally divided as to the number of lots by the Butler and
Kittanning turnpike, consisting of 46 lots, which were surveyed by James
Stewart January 24, 1855, 33 of them being rectangular parallelograms, each 66
X 165 feet, the others varying in shape and areas. Lots Nos. 39, 40, 41, 42,
43, 44, 45, 46, containing about 2 acres and fronting on the northwestern side
of the Freeport road, were conveyed — — 1863, by John Barnett and Mark B.
Colwell to George Bowser, for $300.

One of the frame schoolhouses of Franklin township was located, a short
distance back from the river, on this parcel, which was abandoned a short time
since, and a brick one erected in its stead on the south side of the
Kittanning and Butler turnpike, on the brow of the hill, on the Cunningham
tract.

Adjoining that tract on the north is depreciation lot No. 302, 274 acres
and 71 perches, the patent for which was granted to Andrew Porter in January,
1792, who conveyed it to his son, George B. Porter, March 18, 1812, for $1 and
“natural love and affection”, who by his will, dated March 25, 1830,
devised it to his wife, Sarah II. Porter, who conveyed it to Peter Graff, June
24, 1850, for $3,224.72. The latter conveyed 138 acres and 100 perches of the
southern part to Joseph Brown, May 26, 1851, for $1,612. Brown laid out the
town of Linden, called after the parcel so named by Robert Robinson, into —-
lots, each fronting 6 rods on the river and extending back to the brow of the
hill, and containing nearly an acre, and which were surveyed by J. E.
Meredith, Monday, March 24, 1851. Brown conveyed 150 perches, with the
privilege of drifting and mining coal, iron ore, limestone, etc., the width of
this parcel, through to the line between this and the tracts adjoining it on
the west, to Hugh Campbell, May 29, 1851, for $198; two small parcels,
aggregating 1 acre and 156 perches, with like mineral privilege, to Alexander
Colwell, the same day, for $250. Graff conveyed, in pursuance of a previous
contract, 132 acres of the northern part to J. Alexander Fulton, January 6,
1865, for $6,276, on which the latter planted a valuable orchard, and made
other improvements, in the interval of several years between the date of the
agreement with and the conveyance of Graff to him, and then conveyed the same
quantity, known as “Clara Vista”, to Robert Criswell, January 7, for
$16,000, to whose estate it still belongs. Adjoining No. 202 on the west is
depreciation lot No. 292, 249� acres, “on the waters of Beaver
creek”, which was surveyed by Joshua Elder, October 21, 1785, and was
sold at public auction to John McCullough, who released his interest therein
to Andrew Porter, to whom the patent for it, called “Hop Yard”, was
granted January 22, 1792, and which was included in the latter’s gift to his
son, George B. Porter. The latter, adjutant-general of Pennsylvania, conveyed
it to George Beitz, Jr., of Manor township, Lancaster county, February 14,
1828, for $873, from whom it was sold by Jacob Mechling, sheriff, who conveyed
it to Pherson Campbell, September 26, 1829, who was the next year assessed
with a distillery. He conveyed 124� acres to John Brown, the present owner of
most of this parcel, December 27, 1830, for $374.25. The latter sold 21 acres
and 13 perches of the southeastern part to William McAninch for building him a
barn, which Margaret McAninch, as surviving administratrix of her husband’s
estate, conveyed to Gabriel P. Lobeau, December 30, 1837, for $120. This
parcel of “Hop Yard” afterward became vested in James P. Wick, who
conveyed it to James E. Brown, January 16, 1846; Brown to John Morgan, June
14, 1847, for $400; Morgan to Robert R. Fleming, April 5, 1850; and Fleming to
John Donaldson, to whose estate it belongs, April 1, 1854, for $630, who, soon
after his purchase, planted upon it a large nursery, containing various
species of the fruits that flourish in this region, and of evergreens, which
aided essentially in introducing into various parts of this county a better
quality of fruit.

Pherson Campbell assigned the other portion of “Hop Yard”,
together with his other property, April 14, 1832, to Peter Rummell, for the
benefit of his creditors, directing that a judgment in favor of Robert and
Chambers Orr be first paid out of the proceeds of sale. Before he found a
purchaser it was sold by Chambers Orr, sheriff, to Rummell, who conveyed it,
125 acres, to Jonathon Whitesell, the present owner, January 1, 1839, for
$1,000.

Adjoining “Hop Yard” on the west is depreciation lot No. 291, 210
acres, the patent for which, called “L’Orient”, was granted to Peter
B. Audibert, and was included in Sheriff Brown’s sale to Joseph Audibert, who
conveyed it to Gabriel P. Loeben, May 20, 1817, for $1,200. The latter
conveyed 150 acres to Michael Red, December 28, 1819, for $1,100, for which,
it is presumed, was not paid, as Red reconveyed to Loeben, February 13, 1821,
for the same consideration. Loeben conveyed all of “L’Orient” to
Alexis Jordell, April 29, 1822, for $800, which the latter transferred to
Bakewell Page, February 17, 1827, for $1 and other “valuable
considerations”, as the record shows. But the record also shows that
Loeben conveyed all of No. 291, “L’Orient”, to William Shultz,
January 22, 1833, for $1,000, who conveyed it to James Thompson, April 13,
1837, for $2,700, who, by his will, dated April 9, 1855, and registered April
21, devised it to his son, James A. Thompson, the present owner.

This tract was, of course, called after the seaport of that name, 350 miles
southwest from Paris, on the bay of Port Louis, at the mouth of the river
Scorf, in the department of Morbabon, France.

Adjoining “L’Orient” on the west is depreciation lot No. 290,
included in Joseph Audibert’s sale to Loeben, who conveyed the northern part
of it, and the southern part of depreciation lot No. 306, 177 acres and 138
perches, to Joseph Boney, February 5, 1839, for $1,760. The latter conveyed 6
acres and 110 perches, to George Bowser, April 12, 1852; 20 acres and 38
perches to John Bradford, October 5, 1854, for $621; and 124 acres and 101
perches to John M. Thompson, November 25, 1855, for $3,395. Loeben’s executor,
James Armstrong, conveyed 50 acres of the southern part of No. 290 to Anna
Regina Erfmans, September 17, 1852, which she conveyed to James Noble, August
12, 1867, for $700.

Joseph Audibert, by Loeben, his agent and attorney, conveyed 10 acres, in
the central part of the tract, to George Bowser, January 5, 1836, for $50, on
which, or on the parcel which he purchased from Boney, he erected a sawmill in
1841, and a gristmill in 1843, which and these 2 parcels he conveyed to John
Burford, April 17, 1852, for $1,000, and which the latter, together with 42
acres which he had purchased from Jonas Bowser, April 6, 1853, and 28 acres
and 38 perches, from Boney, October 5, 1854, conveyed to James Noble, March
14, 1856, for $4,000****

In pursuance of a previous call, a meeting of landowners was held Saturday
afternoon, May 28, 1870, at James Noble’s house, the object of which was to
consider the practicability of organizing an oil company, to develop the
territory along Glade run. It was a respectably large assemblage, and
considerable enthusiasm was evinced. Fifty acres of land and $1,000, it was
stated, had already been subscribed to drill a test well at some point on that
stream. Among those present were ex-Governor Johnston, Judge Boggs and the
writer. The two former were quite sanguine that a test well or two would
develop oil in the valley of Glade run. The writer, in the course of his
remarks, referred to the geological features of this valley, as found in
Rogers’ Geology of Pennsylvania, from which he concluded that the first,
second and third sandrocks, of the Venango region, if present here, are
respectively 1,150, 1,350 and 1,550 feet, more or less, below the bed of that
run, and directed the attention of those present to the undulation, which
Rogers says “is suspected to pass from Scrub-Grass creek through the
neighborhood of Allegheny Furnace, causing local northwest dips”, and to
the general fact “that these undulations of the strata are in the form of
long, parallel waves, resembling much those great continuous billows called in
dynamics ‘waves of translation’, and by seamen ‘rollers’,” and queried
whether there is not too much undulation of the subterranean strata for the
generation of oil. The experiments since made on Buffalo creek and David
Reed’s farm seem to indicate that such a geological condition is more adapted
to the generation of gas than oil. The proposed project of sinking a test well
in this valley was deferred until the one on the Reed farm was drilled, which
yields no oil, but an abundance of gas.

Adjoining the southern half of No. 290 and the northwestern part of the
McCullough-Wible tract on the west is depreciation lot No. 282, called “Lamie
Bay”, one of the Audibert tracts, which Loeben as attorney-in-fact
conveyed thus: 29 acres and 46 perches to Alexander B. McGregor, October 9,
1832, for $100, which, with 20 acres 157 perches additional, he conveyed to
Thomas Armstrong, March 5, 1839, for $600; 50 acres and 53 perches to David
Reed, March 9, 1839, for $400, and 100 acres to Joseph D. Bowser, November 2,
1840, for $450.

Adjoining “Lamie Bay” on the west is depreciation lot No. 277,
201 acres called “Out-lot”, the patent for which was granted to
William Lindley, November 20, 1786, for �5, who conveyed one-half of it to
Margaret Peebles (who was first assessed in Buffalo township with 1 horse and
2 cows in 1806 at $32), adjoining her other land on which she then resided and
including “an improvement made by Samuel Claypoole” where he then
resided, June 30, 1810, for $150, which she conveyed to John Reed, October 30,
1833, for $5, “natural love and affection”, and his covenant to
maintain her during the rest of her life” in such a manner as a woman of
her age requires”, and to afford her a proper Christian burial.

The Glade Run, latterly called the West Glade Run, Presbyterian church was
organized at the house of John Reed on this parcel of “Out-lot”,
December 27, 1845. Its first elders were John Craig, William Cratty and John
Patton, with Rev. John Stark, moderator, who was its stated supply about ten
years. Rev. George Cairns was installed as its pastor in 1856, who was
succeeded by Rev. John V. Miller from 1859 until 1864. It was then dependent
on occasional supplies until the present pastor, Rev. A.S. Thompson, was
installed for half time in 1867. Its number of members is 65; Sabbath-school
scholars, 80. Services were held for several months in the schoolhouse on this
parcel. The present church edifice, frame, was built by David J. Reed in 1846,
on ground conveyed by his father, John Reed, to the trustees of this
congregation.

The other half of No. 277 was conveyed by Lindley to Samuel Huston,
September 29, 1810, which, having become vested in William Huston, was
conveyed by him to James Noble, November 20, 1851, for $1,400, who conveyed it
to Van Buren Bowser, January 20, 1868, for $2,450.

The next tract on the west of “Out-lot” is depreciation lot No.
270, 203 9/10 acres, called “Portsmouth”, included in the purchase
by McCall and Dowell from Joshua Elder, May 9, 1791, and allotted to McCall in
the heretofore-mentioned partition between him and McDowell, which he conveyed
to his son, George A. McCall, July 8, 1834, for $500, who conveyed it to James
and John Noble, March 6, 1839, for $1,100. “Portsmouth must have been
seated by William McLaughlin prior to 1805, for in that and the next year he
was assessed with it, one distillery and one cow at $96.

This tract, like places of the same name in this country, was so called
after Portsmouth, a noted seaport in the English channel, 72 miles southwest
of London.

Adjoining “Portsmouth” on the north and the present township line
on the west is a tract on the Gapen map, a rectangular parallelogram,
“408” acres, surveyed by Gapen to Joseph Baldridge, but the warrant,
dated September 10, 1805, and the patent for which the latter were granted to
William Noble, Sr., July 13, 1806, called “Huntingdale”, in
consideration of his having made it appear that he had made, or caused to be
made, a settlement thereon, who conveyed 100 acres and 80 perches to William
Noble, Jr., May 3, 1839, for $100. This parcel, after his death, was appraised
July 23, 1873, in proceedings in partition as containing 109 acres and 73
perches, at $7,790.30, and was conveyed by his heirs to the present owner,
Adam Stewart, April 13, 1874, for $9,000. John and William Noble must have
acquired an interest in a part of “Huntingdale”, for they conveyed
151 acres and 54 perches of it to William Noble, Sr., being the same on which
he then resided, July 8, 1831, for $5 to each and divers other good causes. In
an amicable partition, July 4, 1845, James Noble released 67 acres of western
part of that parcel to Jane and Mary Noble, and they by the same deed released
to him 85 acres and 48 perches of the eastern part. Robert Noble conveyed 28
acres and 151 perches of it to John Richey, April 5, 1865, for $1,275.

Adjoining “Huntingdale” on the east are depreciation lots Nos.
278 and 279, the latter being the northern one, called “Polignac”,
201 7/10 acres, one of the Audibert tracts included in Sheriff Brown’s sales
to Joseph Audibert, and of which he by Loeben conveyed 75 acres to John
Houston, June 21, 1837, for $337.50; 25 acres and 25 perches to Jacob Swigert,
August 11, for $112.50. Seventy-five acres of the southern part having become
vested – the records don’t show how – in John G. Dieterly, he conveyed the
same to William Noble, Jr., April 1, 1853, for $1,875, which the latter
conveyed to John Richey, October 24, 1868, for $3,700, who conveyed the same
to the present owner, Paul McDermitt, April 21, 1874, for $8,000.

This tract was evidently named after Melchoir de Polignac, abb� and
afterward cardinal, who was born in 1661, of a distinguished family, in
Languedoc, France.

Adjoining “Polignac” on the south is depreciation lot No. 278,
called “Walnut Bottom”, included in survey by Joshua Elder, March
12, 1783, purchased at the Coffee house, Philadelphia, by John McCullough,
released by him to Andrew Porter, to whom the patent was granted January 22,
1772, and given by him to his son, George B. Porter, March 18, 1812, who
conveyed it to James Hindman, August 12, 1824, for $855, which was
subsequently divided between him and William Hindman by a central line run
from north to south by J.E. Meredith. James Hindman conveyed 105 perches of
his purpart to Mark Colwell, Robert Hindman and Robert Wible, trustees of the
West Glade Run Presbyterian congregation, July 18, 1872, for $1, adjoining the
parcel which John Reed had previously conveyed to the church.

Adjoining “Walnut Bottom” on the east is depreciation lot No.
281, an Audibert tract called “Oleans”, included in the sheriff’s
sales to Joseph Audibert, and in the sales from him to Loeben, who conveyed
100 acres to Abraham Bowser, October 9, 1832, for $200. He died intestate, in
April, 1853. This parcel of “Orleans”, containing 105 acres and 97
perches, was in proceedings in partition valued at $1,399.36, November 21,
1854, and was taken by him son, Benjamin S. Bowser, the eldest of his eleven
children, who conveyed 100 acres of it to John M. Thompson, April 1, 1862, for
$2,300.

Loeben conveyed 45 acres of “Orleans” to Samuel Bowser, December
22, 1835, for $100, and the same quantity to Jacob Flanner, seven days later,
for the same price.

This tract was named after the city of Orleans, situated on the river
Loire, in France.

Adjoining “Orleans” on the north is depreciation lot No. 280, 201
7/10 acres, which was surveyed October 18, 1785, and the patent for it, in
which it is called “Great Meadow”, one of the lines of which is
mentioned as “crossing Beaver creek”, was granted to Richard
Freeman, October 4, 1786, who, at the time of his death, was a resident of
Washington, District of Columbia. Samuel Bowser settled upon and improved,
cleared four or five acres of that portion of it at and around the falls in
Glade run, and built a small cabin, about 1805. He was living at the falls
after harvest in that year. He built a small cabin a few rods west of the
falls and south of Slate Lick run and the present turnpike road from
Kittanning to Butler. Joseph Bowser testified that, when he came out in 1805,
Samuel had his small one-story cabin with one room, about fifteen or twenty
rods from the run, with a turnip-patch south of the cabin. He was first
assessed on the Buffalo township list with 1 horse and 1 cow, at $20, in 1806,
and opposite his name, in the column headed “Title of Land”, is the
word “sold”, and the next year with the same and 200 acres at $80,
and “Imp.” in the title column, with which quantity of land he
continued to be assessed until 1816, and for some time thereafter with only
100 acres. He and David Flanner, September 7 of the last-mentioned year,
entered into a written agreement, remarkable for its brevity and informality,
and want of an express consideration, by which the former sold to the latter
“his improvement”, and agreed “to give up his settlement
against the 1st of May next, and the half of the survey where he pleases to
have it;” that is, Bowser agreed to sell to Flanner the one-half of
“Great Meadow”, either north or south of Slate Lick run, which the
latter might prefer. Bowser having left in pursuance of his agreement, Flanner
moved on to the improvement, which consisted of four or five acres of cleared
land and the cabin, and occupied the house which he erected – a cabin house
which he bought for sixteen days’ work and built an addition to it – about
forty rods northwesterly from the junction of Glade run and Slate Lick run,
between the latter and the present turnpike road, his stable or barn being a
few rods southeast of the house, south of that road, according to J.E.
Meredith’s draft of his survey of “Great Meadow”, made May 29, 1845.
Flanner continued to occupy and improve the part south of Slate Lick run until
about 1832. There was a primitive log schoolhouse a short distance north of
the mouth of Slate Lick and west of Glade run, which was an old one when first
occupied by William Burnheimer, who cleared some land and made shoes for the
neighbors, in or before 1822, possibly the house in which James Barr, Jr., had
taught from 1805 till 1808.***** Burnheimer’s successor in that house was
Peter Toy, who resided there from 1825 until the spring of 1833, during which
time he cleared some land and paid the taxes. Both were tenants under Samuel
Bowser, who then claimed the whole of “Great Meadow”.

Anthony Cravenor, another claimant of this tract, then a single man, came
upon it, as early as 1825, and proposed building a mill, and was first
assessed with 100 acres of it, 1 horse and 1 cow, in 1832, at $226. He boarded
for awhile with Flanner, became a steady resident in 1833, and afterward built
a house, a few rods north of Slate Lick run and northeast of Flanner’s house.
He claimed, while boarding with Flanner, to have a foreigner’s title, and
wished Flanner to co-operate with him in acquiring possession. That title
consisted of three deeds from Francis and Simon Freeman and others,
heirs-at-law of Richard Freeman, of the county of Wicklow, Ireland, to
Cravenor, releasing and quit-claiming their respective interests in
“Great Meadow”, dated February 28, 1831, for $300; from Richard B.
Freeman, September 22, for $13; and from Anthony Wilson and wife, of Elverston,
county of Dublin, June 8, 1832, for $1. The first-mentioned of these deeds was
executed by James Stewart, formerly of Neury, Ireland, but then of Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, who was a “general European agent”, by virtue of a
power of attorney, which was duly executed and acknowledged before E. Butler,
“Sovereign of Carlo”, in the county of Carlo, Ireland, September 16,
1830, which was recorded in Armstrong county, March 3, 1831. The other two
deeds were executed by the grantors in Ireland, and their signatures were
proven by Stewart’s affidavits, made before an alderman of Pittsburgh.
Cravenor, having thus acquired the proper title to the whole tract, purchased,
as he insisted, the interest which Bowser had acquired in it by his
improvement and settlement. While Toy was living in the old schoolhouse,
Bowser told him that he had sold the north half to Cravenor; and he told James
Noble that he had sold the northern part to Cravenor, who, he said, had paid
him and had got his deed for it’ and there was some evidence that Cravenor had
said that he bought only the half of the tract north of Slate Lick run from
Bowser; but that deed is not recorded. Bowser brought an action of assumpsit
against Cravenor to No. 15, June term, 1828, in the common pleas of this
county, and obtained a verdict and judgment for $264.55, December 25, 1829,
which probably originated from their agreement about this land. Cravenor, it
seems, did not go on to this tract so much for farming as for building a mill,
which he began to do soon after his advent, and located it several rods below
the mouth of Slate Lick, and east of Glade run. He cut logs for it on both
sides of Slate Lick. The walls of the lower story were clay and stone, eight
feet high. Some if not all the stonework and the raising of the second story
were done by “frolics”, as the gratuitous labor of neighbors was
called. Several of the pieces of timber had become so much decayed that some
of the men, who were helping to put them in their places, were in danger of
being killed. The head and tail races were dug. The work progressed very
slowly for about twelve years, yet it was “merely the shell of a
mill”, and was never completed. Its roof having become very rotten, the
whole building was torn down about 1865, and Robert Armstrong procured some of
the logs for the sills of his house. Cravenor also set out an orchard of
twenty trees on a hill, and cleared land south of Slate Lick run.

Flanner, after clearing fifteen acres and building a house on the part of
“Great Meadow”, which he had purchased from Bowser, and after
learning the nature of Cravenor’s claim to the whole tract, “threw up the
old article and gave up the land to Bowser”, but not by writing. It was
merely a parole recision of Bowser’s above-mentioned conveyance to him, and he
was permitted, if he so wished, to remain on eight or nine acres and pay
one-third of the crops raised thereon as rent to Bowser. He, however, left
soon after Cravenor became a permanent occupant.

Hence arose long-continued litigation between Bowser and Cravenor and their
heirs respecting the title to the southern half of “Great Meadow”,
or that part of it south of Slate Lick run.

 

Bowser instituted his action of trespass, etc., for mesne profits to No.
97, March term, 1844, in the common pleas of this county. The writ not having
been delivered to the sheriff, an alias summons to No. 42, June term, 1844,
was issued and served. The case was ruled out and arbitrated Tuesday, February
11, 1845, at the house of David Reynolds, Kittanning, and the award of the
arbitrators for $140.80 and costs in favor of the plaintiff was filed February
27, from which the defendant appealed. A jury having been called in this case,
June 16, 1846, the plaintiff became nonsuit. Bowser issued an alias summons in
ejectment to No. 9, March term, 1845, for 100 acres and 12� perches of the
southern part of “Great Meadow”. A jury having been called and
sworn, January 16, 1846, rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff for
“one hundred acres to be laid off the south side of the tract No. 280, to
commence at the western side of the tract at Slate Lick run, thence down said
run to Glade run; thence down the southwest side of Glade run till an east
line crossing Glade run, to the eastern boundary of the tract, will include
the hundred acres, and the defendant to be entitled to the mill and water
privilege attached to the mill”. Judgment was entered on the verdict, and
the same day a writ of error to the supreme court was filed.

The court below (White, P.J.) instructed the jury thus: “If the fact
is that Cravenor came into possession under Bowser’s tenant, he is in the same
situation, and the law regards him as Bowser’s tenant, and he must surrender
the possession to him when called on for that purpose, and this whether Bowser
has a title or not, and the defendant cannot retain possession, although he
may have purchased a better title”, which instruction was the only error
assigned. The opinion of the supreme court was delivered October 23, by
Coulter, J., who, inter alia, said: “As an abstract proposition the
doctrine of the court is unquestionable law. The error consists in the
application of it to the facts of this case”. The syllabus of the opinion
is: A written contract for the purchase of land, in part executed by entry and
improvements made, cannot be rescinded by a verbal agreement and surrender of
the instrument, the vendee remaining in possession under a verbal agreement to
occupy as tenant. And the entry by one having a better title with the consent
of the vendee continuing in possession under such agreement, and with notice
thereof, is not subject to the rule which estops one entering by collusion
with a tenant from setting up an adverse title against the landlord.

There having been that error in the instruction of court below, the
judgment was reversed and a new trial awarded.

The death of Cravenor having been suggested, June 26, 1847, his
heirs-at-law, Anthony and John Cravenor, were substituted, and their guardian,
William Noble, was admitted to defend, June 23, 1848, and on the 26th a jury
was called and sworn, which rendered a verdict in favor of the defendants.

Bowser having brought another action of ejectment to No. 27, September
term, 1850, for 112 acres and 12 perches, a jury was called and sworn June 21,
1852 (Knox, P.J.), which rendered a verdict in his favor for that portion of
land embraced in the writ lying south of Slate Lick run, according to the
draft made by J.E. Meredith, and for the defendants for the residue of the
land embraced in the writ. In that draft the central line of “Great
Meadow” extends from the point at which its western line is crossed by
slate Lick run due east across the western bend and falls of Glade run to its
eastern line, leaving several acres, on which were Flanner’s house and barn
and a portion of the turnpike road to the north of it. That line was run at
the instance of Bowser in 1844, and at the instance of Cravenor in 1845. A
writ of error to the supreme court was filed July 13; record returned November
25; judgment affirmed, and under a writ of habere facias possession was
delivered to Bowser February 11, 1853.

That, however, was not a finality. John S. Cravenor, who had purchased his
brother Anthony’s interest in this land, brought his action of ejectment to
No. 32, March term, 1864, against David S. Bowser and about a dozen others,
heirs-at-law of Samuel Bowser, deceased, to recover the 100 acres south of
Slate Lick run, Judge Buffington having been concerned as counsel in this case
before his election and appointment, it was tried before Judge Campbell, of
the 18th judicial district, at a special court held at Kittanning, in
November, 1866. The jury was called and sworn on the 20th, and rendered a
verdict in favor of the plaintiff for the land, the above-mentioned 100 acres
described in the writ. Judgment having been entered on the verdict, a writ of
error to the supreme court was filed December 11. The record was returned
January 18, 1868, with the judgment reversed and a new trial awarded.

A part of the earlier history of this case is that a son and son-in-law of
Samuel Bowser, October 26, 1846, induced Flanner to sign an assignment to
Bowser of all his interest in the land to which he was entitled under that
informal written agreement of September 7, 1816, for $1, and “divers
other and sufficient considerations”. That was while the first case was
in the supreme court, and was there decided favorably to Cravenor as above
stated. After Judge Buffington, who was then of Cravenor’s counsel, returned
from Pittsburgh, he and Governor Johnston conferred and sent for Cravenor and
Flanner to come to them. In the course of the interview Flanner stated he
signed the above-mentioned assignment under the impression made upon his mind
by those who solicited him to sign it that he was signing merely the old
article of September 7, 1816, and not selling out or transferring his interest
under it. His statement was reduced to writing and signed and witnessed. Both
of Cravenor’s counsel then advised him, after fully explaining his
relationship to the title and of the reversal of the judgment in the supreme
court, to execute a conveyance to Cravenor of all his right, title, interest
and claim of, in, to and out of that tract of land for $50, which he did, and
the money was paid. Thus it became an important question whether Flanner’s
interest was that of a purchaser or tenant, and consequently whether he
transferred to Cravenor a purchaser’s or tenant’s interest in that disputed
territory. It was insisted in this, the third, trial in the court below, that
as there was no consideration expressed in the contract of September 7, 1816,
and none shown in the evidence, it was on the part of Bowser a mere voluntary
engagement without any equivalent, and not enforcible at law; that that
contract, being executory, might be rescinded by parole, and if the jury
believed from the evidence that it was delivered up to Bowser, and that
Flanner afterward left the land and abandoned all claim to it, there was a
sufficient evidence of a rescission of the contract, and any subsequent
conveyance made by Flanner was void; that if the jury believed from the
evidence that Flanner, after taking possession of the land under that
contract, attorned to Bowser as his landlord, or agreed to pay rent to him, or
fixed upon himself any other character than that under which he had entered,
he thereby abandoned his equities under that contract, and his possession was
referred to his new agreement and would inure to the benefit of Bowser, and if
he and Flanner had held adverse possession for twenty-one years, Cravenor
could not recover; that if Cravenor was a mere boarder in Flanner’s house, it
was not such an entry as would justify the possession of Flanner, or suspend
the running of the statute of limitations, although he might be the holder of
the legal title; that until he did some act indicative of his intention to
claim the possession, or declared he entered for the purpose of taking
possession under his title, and if the possession of Bowser and his tenants to
that of Flanner was exclusive, adverse and continued for twenty-one years
before such entry by Cravenor, the statute of limitations would be a complete
bar to Cravenor’s right to recover in this action. The court held that there
was no consideration mentioned in that contract, but whether any had been
shown by the evidence was referred to the jury, but the defendants had given
evidence that Flanner gave up his possession because he was unable to pay the
purchase money, and although no consideration was proven, if he entered and
made valuable improvements on the faith of that agreement, he would still have
an interest that could be enforced; that the loose declarations of Flanner, as
to changing his possession from a purchaser to a tenant were insufficient to
establish the relation of landlord and tenant; that it he entered as a
purchaser in 1816 under that contract he could only become a tenant of Bowser
by a conveyance good under the statute of frauds and perjuries, a parole
surrender of the article and possession alone would not divest his title, and,
therefore, the possession of Cravenor under Flanner would not inure to Bowser
unless under the agreement of 1846; if Bowser and Flanner had the adverse,
exclusive and continued possession of the whole land for twenty-one years, it
would confer a good title against all the world, and that a mere casual entry
of the holder of a legal title would not stop the running of the statute, but
as soon as done with the claim of right and exercising acts of ownership, it
would suspend the running of the statute.

Those rulings of the court were among the errors assigned, and were all
affirmed. Another error assigned the admission of the above-mentioned power of
attorney to James Stewart in evidence. The ruling of the court in that respect
was affirmed.

The only ground on which the judgment was reversed was the admission of
Flanner’s unsworn written statement, along with his and Judge Buffington’s
depositions. That statement was made to show that Flanner’s transfer of his
interest to Bowser was procured by fraud. Says the supreme court (Thompson,
C.J.), “it was hearsay of the most objectionable kind, and should never
have been offered.*** A charge of fraud, such as it contained, would, in a
case in which there were any facts for the jury, be likely to be damaging. It
is possible it did not harm, but it is very probable it did. This assignment
of error we think is sustained, and on account of it the judgment must be
reversed”.

This case was retried before Judge Sterrett of Pittsburgh, at a special
court commencing on the fourth Monday of February, 1870. The jury was called
and sworn March 3, and rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff, on which
judgment was entered and to which a writ of error was filed March 30. The
second was returned, with the judgment affirmed, January 16, 1872, and
possession was subsequently delivered to John S. Cravenor, who brought his
action of trespass, etc., for mesne profits to No. 50, June term, 1872, and
the defendants by their attorney confessed judgment, August 26, 1873, for $300
and costs, and thus ended the litigation about the southern half of
“Great Meadow”, which commenced nearly thirty years before its
close.

 

Another name by which No. 280 was commonly known by the early settlers was
the “Glade Run Falls Tract”. There is a hamlet at and near the falls
now called “Walkchalk”. A drum-band was organized here a few years
since. John Cravenor on a certain occasion remarked respecting that band, that
if he had command of it he would make its members “walk chalk”.
Hence the modern name of this point. The grangers several years ago erected a
two-story frame building here for a hall, but on account of differences among
them it has never been used for that purpose.

Adjoining “Great Meadow” and the northern part of
“Orleans” on the east is depreciation lot No. 306, called “Morlaix”,
pronounced Mor-Lai, 210 3/10 acres, one of the Audibert tracts which became
vested in Gabriel Philibert Loeben, who conveyed 103 acres and 11 perches to
Peter Toy, January 21, 1836, for $200, having been previously occupied by
Bowser, to which Toy removed from the old schoolhouse on “Great
Meadow”. Loeben conveyed 40 acres and 8 perches, with 3 acres and 68
perches of No. 305, to James Armstrong, October 13, 1840, for $656.25, and as
attorney-in-fact of Christopher Garnier, of L’Orient, France, 43 acres and 75
perches, with 6 acres and 82 perches of No. 303, June 10, 1846, for $300. This
tract was named “Morlaix” after a town in the department of
Finisterre in France.

Adjoining “Morlaix” on the east is depreciation lot No. 305, 211
7/10 acres, with 200 acres of which Michael Starr was first assessed in 1810
at $200, and with which he continued to be assessed until 1817, when it was
transferred to G.P. Loeben, having been included in Sheriff Brown’s sales to
Joseph Audibert, who by Loeben, his attorney-in-fact, conveyed it to James
Laubie, “sojourning in the city of Pittsburgh”, April 29, 1822, for
$800, who conveyed it to Loeben, June 4, 1823, for the same consideration, and
which, with small parts of three other adjoining tracts, 219 acres and 57
perches, the latter conveyed to James Armstrong, October 13, 1838, for $3,285,
which quantity was included in his devises by his will dated July 5, 1859, and
registered August 6, 1866, to his sons John, Robert and Thomas, subject to the
payment by John and Robert respectively of $300 to his daughter, Mrs. Ann
Eliza Coventry, and with which they are still assessed.

Adjoining No. 305 on the east are depreciation lots Nos. 303 and 304. The
western part of the former adjoins “Hop Yard”, and the eastern part
depreciation lot No. 302 on the south, which, projecting a few rods above
“Hop Yard”, the eastern part of 303 extending to the river, is
somewhat narrower than its western part. The other lot, also extending to the
river, is a rectangular parallelogram. Both were include in Sheriff Brown’s
sales to Joseph Audibert, and descended to Marie Toussant Audibert, “as
sole heiress at law”. She, by her will dated December 11, 1840, and
registered at L’Orient, France, February 15, 1841, devised No. 303, called
“Quiniper”, to Christopher Garnier, of the city of Nantes, which he
empowered Loeben to sell by his letter of attorney in French, the
acknowledgment of which before Charles P. Dasnier and his colleagues, notaries
public, at L’Orient, April 16, 1841, which was translated by Lewis V. Carron,
who swore that his translation was “correct and faithful” before
Thomas Steele, alderman of Pittsburgh, February 9, 1846. Loeben, as
attorney-in-fact, and James Miller, of Bedford county, Pennsylvania, entered
into a written contract for the sale and purchase of 299 acres and 69 perches,
February 26, 1847, for $4,500. The former executed and delivered to the latter
a deed therefor August 30. Loeben, as attorney-in-fact, conveyed 27 acres and
53 perches of this tract to Daniel Lemmon, August 24, 1848, for $327.75.

Joseph Audibert, by Loeben, his attorney-in-fact, conveyed 28� acres of
No. 304, called “Audibert”, after its patentee, Peter Benignus
Audibert, to Daniel Lemmon, January 21, 1828, for $156, and Marie Touissant
Audibert, by Loeben, attorney-in-fact, conveyed 127 acres and 155 perches of
“Audibert” to Lemmon, August 24, 1848, for $446, probably in
pursuance of an agreement made prior to her death. Lemmon probably settled on
the smaller one of these parcels ten or eleven years before it was conveyed to
him, for in 1817 he was assessed with two tracts, each 200 acres, in what was
then Buffalo township, one of them and 2 horses and 3 cattle at $248, and the
other at $200. He kept a hotel in the eastern part of “Audibert”,
its sign, with two cross-keys, having been painted by James McCullough at his
shop in Kittanning, April 7, 1828, and he was first assessed with his ferry at
this point in 1827. He retained those two parcels, the westernmost one
containing the small parcel which had been part of No. 303, until his death,
after which, in proceedings in partition they, without regard to their
original quantities were divided into two purparts. The western one marked
“A”, containing 114 acres and 111 perches was valued by the inquest,
September 20, 1852, at $16.08 an acre, and the other one marked “B”,
40 acres and 94 perches, at $13.41 an acres, as surveyed to Daniel Lemmon’s
heirs by J.E. Meredith, October 19, 20. His surveys on these days included
those of several other tracts on both sides of the Allegheny river. The court
decreed purpart A to John H. Lemmon, and purpart B to Mrs. Margaret Nulton,
December 20.

The Allegheny Furnace lands consisted chiefly of several depreciation lots,
lying north of “Audibert”, for all but one of which patents were
granted to John Nixon, Sr., December 14, 1786, and others May 28, 1788. The
northern adjoiner of “Audibert” is No. 309, on the eastern part of
which David Helm settled probably about 1797 and established a ferry, which
became in those early times a prominent point. As early as, probably earlier
than, 1805 Helm was assessed with 259 acres, 1 horse, 1 cow and 1 ferry, at
$120.75. Divers citizens of Buffalo, Sugar Creek and Toby townships presented
petition to the court of quarter sessions of this county, representing that
they labored under great inconveniences for want of a public road from David
Helm’s ferry to intersect with the old Franklin road at a path “known by
the name of Bullock path”, That application was held under advisement
until March 18, 1807, when John Corbett, Elijah Mounts, Alexander McKean,
Abraham Stanford, Thomas and William Thompson were appointed viewers. At the
next June sessions Jacob Anthony, John Heffler and Christopher Reichert were
substituted for Mounts, Stanford and Thomas Thompson. A remonstrance of sundry
persons was presented, December 26, setting forth that the viewers had laid
out the road neither on the best ground nor along the shortest route, and
prayed for persons to be appointed to review that road from James Watterson’s
ferry to David Helm’s ferry, and William Cochran, John Foster, James Matthews,
Robert McDonald, Thomas Thompson and James Watterson were appointed reviewers.
Their report was held under advisement from March till June sessions, 1808,
when the court did “not approve”. The petition of a number of
inhabitants of this county was presented to that court at March sessions,
1807, setting forth that they labored under great inconveniences for the want
of a road from David Helm’s ferry to Joseph Brown’s, opposite the town of
Kittanning, a distance of about two miles; that it frequently happened that
the river was passable at one of these places when not at the other; and that
by the then only route it was a distance of six or seven miles “over
prodigious hills”. Robert Brown, William Cochran, David Lawson, James
Matthews, John Orr and James Sloan were appointed viewers, whose report in
favor of the proposed road, with a draft of its courses and distances, 2 miles
and 192 perches, abated June 6, was approved nisi, September 24, and
“confirmed of the width of 33 feet”, December 24.

The petition of a number of the inhabitants of Sugar Creek township was
presented at June sessions, 1810, praying for a road from David Helm’s ferry
to the bend of the Allegheny river opposite the mouth of the Mahoning.
Frederick Christman, David Helm, James Matthews, Robert McDonald, Robert Orr,
Jr., and James Thompson were appointed viewers, whose report in favor of the
proposed road, 7 miles and 26 perches, with a draft of the courses and
distances, was approved June 21, and confirmed as a public road, 20 feet wide,
September 19. It having been represented to the court at December sessions,
1810, by inhabitants of Kittanning and vicinity that there was need of a road
from Helm’s ferry on the east side of the Allegheny river, where the road from
Kittanning intersected the road from Ourey’s up the river to Robert Beatty’s
grist and saw mills at the mouth of the Cowanshannock, Matthias Bowser, Adam
Elliott, Daniel Lemmon, Michael Mechling, John and Robert Patrick, viewers.
Their report in favor of the road, with a draft of its courses and distances,
1 mile and 40 perches, was read and approved, March 18, 1811, and confirmed as
a public road, 33 feet wide, June 20. Helm was last assessed in 1815, and then
with two tracts of land, each 200 acres, 1 horse and 2 cattle, at $222, but
not with the ferry for several years before. He left this part of the country
soon after his last assessment. Peter Humman was first assessed in the Buffalo
township list with 150 acres, 1 horse, 2 cows and a ferry, in 1814. Did he
succeed Helm at this point ?

This and several other adjacent tracts having become vested in Alexander
McNickle, he erected the Allegheny furnace in the northeastern part of No. 309
in 1826-7, went into blast in the latter part of July, 1827, and with which he
was first assessed, together with 700 acres, 10 horses, 2� yoke of oxen in
1828, at $5,950, and with a tanyard in 1831, and a ferry in 1834. James W.
Biddle, who had previously erected Rock furnace, had some connection with
McNickle either in building or operating the Allegheny furnace, which was a
hotblast charcoal one, whose capacity was about 15 tons of metal a week, which
was transported to Pittsburgh, its nearest market, in flatboats. McNickle was
last assessed with this furnace in 1836, which, before the next assessment,
went out of blast. It and all the lands belonging were conveyed by Chambers
Orr, sheriff, to Robert Buchanan, of Cincinnati, Ohio, December 17, 1841. This
tract is described in the sheriff’s deed as containing 250 acres, 50 of which
were cleared, and 15 were meadow. The buildings and other improvements were: A
hewed log house, with a kitchen annexed, a store-room, two small buildings,
one of which was frame and the other of round logs, used as a warehouse, a
large smokehouse, a large quarter stack furnace, first rate, i.e. at $3,000, a
twelve-inch cylinder engine, with the necessary buildings attached, furnace
and coalhouses, blacksmith and carpenter shops, 1 kiln, 14 log-cabins, each
one-story, and 2 stables, all which brought #1,000 under the sheriff’s hammer.
Buchanan conveyed 179 acres and 32 perches of the western part of No. 309, a
long, narrow tract extending westward to the Kittanning, Middlesex and Brady’s
Bend road, to Robert O. Quigley, October 16, 1856, $942, 125 acres and 58
perches of which he conveyed to Joseph R. Ambrose, December 10, 1858, for
$2,757.55, 32 acres and 113 perches of which Ambrose conveyed to George W.
Burford, September 25, 1859, for $327, and about 96 acres to Obadiah Barnhart,
the present owner, June 26, 1876, for $9,000. Buchanan conveyed 5 acres and 10
perches of the southeastern part to Thomas McLemmon, January 20, 1858, for
$75.93, and the residue of 63 acres on which the furnace was situated was
included in his sale to Darwin Phelps.

About May 1, 1859, Rev. John N. Dick, James Dick, James T. Dickey, ____
Duff, Marcus Hulings and James S. Quigley organized themselves into a company
for the purpose of mining cannel coal and making coal-oil, for which purpose
they erected suitable buildings near the site of the stack of the Allegheny
furnace, put in position four corrugated cast-iron retorts about 8 feet long
and 4 feet in diameter, opened a seam of coal of good quality about 18 inches
thick, made from 80 to 100 barrels of crude oil, and sold $200 worth, which
they lost. The company also erected a refinery, which caught fire and was
destroyed. Their losses aggregated about $7.000. Another obstacle was the
development of petroleum in 1860. So that company ceased its operations.

Adjoining the western part of No. 309 on the north is depreciation lot No.
310, included in the Nixon purchase, on which John Bish settled in 1806, when
he was first assessed in Buffalo township with 1 cow at $6. He was first
assessed with 40 acres of this tract in 1808, and 200 acres in 1809. He
resided on it until 1819, when he left it. This tract in the sheriff’s sale to
Buchanan was bid off at $280. Adjoining on the east is No. 311, which was bid
off at that sale at $250, 25 acres of which Buchanan sold to William Toy.
Adjoining No. 311 on the north is depreciation lot No. 313, 246 4/10 acres,
called “Clover Hill”, the patent for which to Nixon is dated May 28,
1788, and the consideration expressed is �18 9s 9d, which Nixon’s heirs by
their attorney-in-fact conveyed to Dr. John Gilpin, July 6, 1857, for $1,500.

Adjoining “Clover Hill” and No. 311 on the east is depreciation
lot No. 312, 248 3/10 acres, called “Arragon”, the patent for which
was granted to James Stokes, December 14, 1786, for �59 19s 4d, which he by
his will, dated August 5, 1828, directed his executors to dispose of either at
private or public sale. They conveyed “Arragon” to Alexander
McNickle, April 27, 1836, for $1,900, which brought $100 at sheriff’s sale.
This tract was named after Arragon, which was, until about 360 years ago, the
second principal division of Spain. “Arragon” is traversed in a
southeasterly course by Organ’s run, so-called after John Organ, who settled
on it probably before 1800. He was assessed with 244 acres of “Arragon”
and 1 cow in 1805 at $61, and the next year with the same and 1 horse, at $71.
His last assessment on this side of the river****** was with 200 acres and 1
cow in 1808, at $200.

Buchanan conveyed to Darwin Phelps all of “Arragon”, the residue
of “Clover Hill” after selling 100 acres of it to Loeben Tarr, 63
acres of No. 309, 199 acres and 110 perches of No. 310, 215 acres, the residue
of No. 311 after selling 25 acres of it to William Toy, aggregating 876 acres
and 110 perches, December 13, 1858, for $8,500, who conveyed 71 acres of
“Arragon” to James E. Brown and James Mosgrove, December 22, 1863,
for $1,500; 29 acres and 7� perches thereof to Loeben Tarr, April 4, 1864,
for $590. There is at present a public schoolhouse on that part of “Arragon”
at the cross-roads near Organ’s run.

Phelps conveyed the rest of the lands which he had purchased from Buchanan,
835 acres, to McKnight, Martin and others, of the Monticello Furnace Company,
July 30, 1860, for $12,000, 810 acres of which the assignees of McKnight,
Porter & Co. conveyed to the present owners, James E. Brown, James B.
Beale and Grier C. Orr, November –, 1877.

Adjoining Nos. 309 and 310 on the west, and No. 305 and “Morlaix”
on the north, is depreciation lot No. 308, 218 acres and 141 perches, called
“Sainte Marie”, included in Sheriff Brown’s sales to Joseph Audibert,
123 acres, and 106 perches of which the latter by Loeben, his
attorney-in-fact, conveyed to Peter Bowser, October 16, 1837, for —–; the
consideration in the deed is blank, and the receipt is for purchase money
mentioned in the deed. Bowser conveyed 68 acres and 155 perches of this parcel
to Robert Campbell, May 18, 1847, for $758.60, who by his will, dated — —,
1865, and registered July 21, 1873, devised his parcel to his wife during her
widowhood, and after her to his two daughters equally, or to the survivor of
them; and in the event of his having children born after the making of his
will, they were to have each an equal share.

Audibert, by his attorney, conveyed 66 acres and 132 perches of
“Sainte Marie” to William Toy, December 28, 1845, for $200, who, at
an advanced age, still resides on that portion of this parcel, in the angle
formed by the intersection of the Kittanning, Middlesex and Brady’s Bend road,
and the one extending northwesterly and southwesterly from the one along the
Allegheny river to the Kittanning and Butler turnpike.

Adjoining “Sainte Marie” on the west is depreciation lot NO. 307,
218 8/10 acres, called “Toulouse”. It descended to Marie T. Audibert,
who, by her attorney, Loeben, conveyed it to Anna Regina Erfmans, September
13, 1845, for $1,500; and the latter to James Miller, the present owner, March
13, 1868, for $5,250.

Loeben, as attorney-in-fact, conveyed 50 acres and 25 perches, parts of
“Sainte Marie” and “Toulouse”, to Jacob Bowser, January
21, 1836, for $100.

This tract was named after the ancient city of Toulouse, which is situated
on the Garonne river in France. Adjoining “Toulouse” on the west,
and “Great Meadow”, “Polignac” and “Huntingdale”
on the south, is a hexagonal tract, 397 acres and 100 perches, called “Campbelltown”,
on which John Campbell, father of Hugh and Nathaniel Campbell, made an
improvement, March 12, and a settlement April 9, 1796, and which was surveyed
to him by Ross, deputy surveyor, June 11, 1802, and for which the patent was
granted to Campbell November 20, 1807. He conveyed, June 6, 1808, 150 acres to
Jonas Bowser, for $260, and 114 acres and 9 perches to Adam Bowser for $228.
The former by his will, dated July 1, 1846, and registered March 7, 1848,
devised all his real estate, including his parcel of “Campbelltown”,
to his wife during the rest of her life and widowhood, and, after her death or
marriage, to her son, Henry Stauffer. The latter, by his will, dated October
4, 1850, and registered June 12, 1852, devised his parcel of “Campbelltown”,
on which he then lived, to his daughter, Priscilla, wife of James Russell.

Campbell also conveyed 50 acres of “Campbelltown” to David
Claypoole, who conveyed the same to Adam Bowser, March 23, 1816, for $200,
which he conveyed to John Swigert, July 26, 1833, for —, who conveyed the
same to William Boney, August 23, 1840, for —, and which he conveyed to
Abraham Bowser about March 3, 1845, for $350, which, having become vested by
proceedings in partition, in Matthias S. Bowser, he conveyed to Peter Bowser,
September 11, 1862, for $1,000.

Campbell conveyed what was left of “Campbelltown”, after selling
the foregoing parcels, to Abraham Swigard, January 31, 1814, for $300, two
shares of which, and whatever other real estate he owned, he devised to his
son Jacob, by his will dated March 15, 1830, and registered May 27, 1832, and
one share to each of his other four children.

Adjoining “Campbelltown” on the west is the eastern portion of
the Barr-Scott tract*******, 84 acres of which Scott conveyed to Margaret
Herron, February 5, 1828; she to James S. Herron, August 19, 1851; he to John
Richey, February 28, 1865; he to Robert Huston, April 1, and Huston to A.J.
Nicholson, the present owner, September 14, 1869, for $3,500.

Adjoining that eastern portion of the Barr-Scott tract and the western part
of “Campbelltown” on the north is a tract, hexagonal, nearly a
rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise north and south, 202� acres, with
which, and 200 acres other land and 2 horses and 2 cows, John Mann was first
assessed in 1814, at $856, to whom a warrant issued November 24, 1828, and to
whom this tract was surveyed by Robert Richards, deputy surveyor, April 25,
1829. He conveyed 207 acres and 63 perches thereof to William Patton, May 2,
1829, for $600 – one of the adjoiners being John Kerr, who held “the
residue of the tract of which this is a part”, to whose sons, William and
John, this parcel as divided by J.E. Meredith, May 21, 1863, still belongs.
The portion of the tract covered by that warrant which Kerr held adjoins the
Patton portion on the east, a rectangular parallelogram, 202� acres, with
which John Kerr was first assessed, in 1822, at $150. He and his brothers,
James and William – a trio of bachelors, – remained in possession until their
interest in it passed from them by sheriff’s sale, being the same which
Chambers Orr, sheriff, conveyed to William Wylie, June 23, 1841, to whom the
patent was granted March 8, 1844, and which he conveyed to John N. Wylie, the
present owner, November 7, 1853, for $1,600, 111 acres and 60 perches of the
northern half of which, as surveyed by J.E. Meredith, August 15, 1874, he
conveyed to his son, William Wylie, for $200 “and natural love and
affection”.

Adjoining the Kerr-Wylie parcel on the east and the eastern part of “Campbelltown”
and the western part of “Toulouse” on the south, is a tract a
decagon in shape, 348 acres and 46 perches, on which John Titus, Jr., made an
improvement, in May, 1792, and a settlement, in March, 1796, and which was
surveyed to him by Deputy Surveyor Ross, July 7, 1801, for which the patent
issued to Titus, March 9, 1826, which he conveyed thus: 100 acres to Timothy
Tutus, November 29, 1826, for $16, in the southwest corner of which is
schoolhouse No. 8, of the old Franklin school district; 100 acres to Jenkins
Reese, April 7, 1829, for $300; 82 acres and 8 perches to Simon Steelsmith,
November 9, for $290, and 82 acres and 154 perches to Gabriel P. Loeben, April
28, 1840, for $200. Steelsmith conveyed his parcel to Peter John, June 19,
1830, for $200, but the records do not show how it passed from him. Loeben
conveyed 41 acres and 20 perches to Peter Bowser, —-, 1845, for $471.50, and
82 acres, more or less, to William Bowser, November 27, 1848, for $800. The
Timothy Titus parcel appears now to be owned by Peter Titus; the Jenkins-Rees
parcel by Wilson Bowser, and the Steelsmith-John parcel by Peter Bowser.

Adjoining the northern part of the John Titus tract on the east is a
hexagonal tract, nearly a rectangular parallelogram, traversed west of its
center by Glade run, on the Gapen map, “Elijah Rabb”,
“410” acres. Thomas Herron made an improvement in the western part
of it in August, 1796, and a settlement in November, 1797. It is said that he
inadvertently built his cabin first beyond the western line on the Robert
McDowell tract, from which he removed when the mistake was discovered, and the
question of boundary was settled after a course of litigation. It was surveyed
to Herron by Ross, deputy surveyor, as containing 399 acres and 71 perches,
June 15, 1802. The patent for it, called “Union”, was granted to
Herron and McCall, May 16, 1807. They afterward made partition, and McCall
conveyed, or released, 150 acres of the western part, traversed by a western
tributary of Glade run, September 3, 1829, the whole of “Union”
having been included McCall’s conveyance to George Clymer McCall, of June 23,
1817, and the latter’s subsequent reconveyance. The McCall purpart was
included in the sale from McCall’s heirs to William F. Johnston, 100 acres of
which he conveyed to John Ambrose, April 15, 1852, for $702.32; 90 acres and
104 perches to John Neil, October 21, 1853, for $725.50.

Adjoining the main portion of “Union” on the south is the main
portion of a tract, a rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise east and west,
traversed by Glade run, with “Absalom Woodward” and “400”
acres and “152” perches on the Gapen map, and on the other
“Thomas Willard” and “390”.52″. Thomas Willard, of
Woodbury township, Bedford county, Pennsylvania, came on to it about July 22,
1797, and he and John Titus, who was then living on the tract adjoining it on
the west, entered into a written agreement, on that day, by which the former
agreed to sell to the latter all his right therein for �60 Pennsylvania
currency, of which the latter agreed to pay �20 in hand and the remainder on
May 15, 1798, and to make an actual settlement agreeably to law. Willard
immediately made an improvement, which was followed by his actual settlement,
December 9, 1797, on which he soon erected a small log gristmill. Ross
surveyed this tract to him, as containing 390 acres and 52 perches, June 14,
1802, with which, 1 mill, 2 horses and two cows, he was assessed, in 1805, at
$182, and he continued to be assessed with the land, mill and 1 horse until
1810. He and his son John entered into a written agreement, March 27, 1808, by
which he transferred to John all his land on Glade run, 390 acres and 53
perches, the mill, the old improvement, all houses and buildings thereon, his
horses, cattle and sheep, in consideration whereof John agreed to give his
father a house, the site to be chosen by himself, in which to live, to furnish
him annually with 25 bushels of wheat, 10 pounds of coffee, 20 pounds of
sugar, 400 pounds of pork, the use of and feed for 2 cows, a horse for him and
his wife to ride when they wished; John to keep one-third of the land himself,
and divide the rest equally between his two sisters Hannah and Sarah when the
latter should arrive at the age of 18 years, and give each of them a good bed,
2 cows, a good horse and 2 sheep. John ceased to be assessed with the mill
after 1812.

The warrant for this tract was issued to McCall and Titus, May 20, 1806, on
which another survey was made December 13, and the patent, in pursuance of the
above-mentioned sale of Titus’ interest, was granted to McCall and Willard
March 20, 1818. John B. Mann and Hannah his wife, and Henry Shoutz and Sarah
his wife, released their interests in the Willard purpart of this tract, 150
acres, to John Willard, April 9, 1821, for $50; he and Mann and his wife
released their interest in 50 acres to Shoutz, the same day, for $50; and
Margaret Willard, widow, John Willard, and Shoutz and wife conveyed 100 acres
to John Y. Stewart, April 23, 1822, for $325, which he conveyed to Esther
Boyd, Sarah, John and William Neil, August 22, 1833; they, by their
attorneys-in-fact, to Loeben; he to Henry Fluck, of Bedford county, April 13,
1836; his executors to Christian Bowser, 104 acres and 40 perches, July 4,
1850, for $1,570.26, and he to Harvey Dougherty, 110 acres and 58 perches, for
$—; and Bowser to Robert Dougherty, 50 acres, April 5, 1851, for $850.

The McCall purpart was sold by Sheriff Robinson on a judgment for $85.66
debt and $7.87� costs in favor of John Titus, 240 acres, of which 14 were
cleared, to John Y. Stewart, the date of the deed being March 22, 1822, for
$222, which was reconveyed to McCall, who conveyed 100 acres to Abraham
Cornman, June 22, 1839, for $500. The other portion was included in the sale
to Wm. F. Johnston, who conveyed 142 acres and 159 perches to Robert
Dougherty, July 11, 1850, for $1,001.

Adjoining “Union” on the east, and the eastern part of the
McCall-Willard tract on the north and east, is an octagonal tract, 359 acres
and 106 perches, called “Moran”, with a long, narrow, rectangular
tongue extending south between the McCall’Willard tract and depreciation lot
No. 314, with “Sold Lots” on the Gapen map, on which Andrew Milligan
made an improvement, November 10, 1793, and a settlement in January, 1798, and
which Ross, deputy surveyor, surveyed to him July 8, 1801. Milligan conveyed
“Moran” thus: 203 acres and 70 perches to Archibald Moore, April 2,
1804, for “nine pounds and forty cents”, who was assessed, in 1805,
with 400 acres at $100, and, the next year, with the same and 1 horse at $120.
By his will, dated February 13, and registered February 26, 1852, he devised
all his real estate, subject to the maintenance of his son William during the
rest of his life, to his son John, who still retains it.

Milligan also conveyed 156 acres and 36 perches of “Moran” to John
Wylie, April 2, 1804, for �22 9s. 11d, which having become vested in William
Wylie, he devised it by his will dated 22d, and registered March 27, 1858,
“150 acres more or less”, on which he then lived to his son William,
to whose estate it belongs.

Adjoining that southern tongue on the east and the main portion of
“Moran” on the south is depreciation lot No. 314, called
“Wheatfield”, 246 4/10 acres, the patent for which was granted to
John Nixon, of Philadelphia, May 28, 1788, who by his will, dated December 4,
1807, devised it to his five children, each one-fifth, who by Charles Willing,
their attorney-in-fact, conveyed it, “found to contain 258 acres and 115
perches”, to William Montgomery, December 16, 1847, for $1,811, 100 acres
and 50 perches of which his executors conveyed to Robert R. Fleming, the
present owner, September 10, 1856, for $1,454.53, on which is schoolhouse NO.
11 – Moore’s – of the old Franklin school district, between which and the
Allegheny river the writer was caught, while on a tour of official duty, in
the heaviest part of the rainstorm that caused the flood of March 17, 1865.
The rain ceased and the sun shone cheerfully soon after he entered the
schoolroom. This is the place designated for holding the elections in East
Franklin township.

Adjoining the main portion of “Moran” on the east is the southern
part of a tract, nearly a rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise north and
south, traversed near its center from west to east by a tributary of Limestone
run, with “William Todd, Esq.” and “429.58” acres on the
Gapen map, but on the other the name of “John Mateer” and the same
number of acres. Mrs. Rosannah Mateer made an improvement and settlement on it
in 1807, and having married a young Irishman by the name of McCune, much
younger than she, who after a while left her and married another woman in
Washington county, she was assessed with 400 acres, 1 horse and 1 cow, in
1808, at $131, and with which she continued to be assessed until her death. By
her will, drawn by Dr. Samuel McMasters, dated July 31, and registered August
23, 1826, she devised the farm on which she then lived to her son, Samuel
Quigley McCune, who transferred his interest to Johnathan H. Sloan. Todd’s
interest became vested in Archibald McCall, and Mateer’s in Johnathan H.
Sloan, and the patent for the entire tract was granted to them, as tenants in
common, October 29, 1829. Sloan took 193 acres and 3 perches in the partition
between them, which McCall conveyed to him July 8, 1830, and which he conveyed
to William McCollim, Sr., October 21, 1831, for $637.50, 102 acres and 56
perches of which the latter conveyed to William McCollim, Jr., June, 1850, for
$1,000.

McCall conveyed his purpart thus: 19 acres and 2 perches to Robert Brown,
Frederick Rohrer, Philip Mechling and Simon Turney, trustees of the Protestant
Episcopal and Evangelical Lutheran churches of Kittanning, October 20, 1830,
for $1; 180 acres and 124 perches to Joseph Tarr, April 5, 1837, for $994.

Adjoining the southern part of that McCall-Sloan tract is a nearly square
one, 211 acres, adjoining “Arragon” on the south and the northern
part of “Clover Hill” on the west, without boundary lines, but
bearing on its face “William Todd, Esq.” on the Gapen map, but on
the other within boundary lines, “Dan’l Lemon”, whose father settled
upon it in 1797, but soon after removed to Lexington, Kentucky. It became
vested by patent, April 12, 1838, in his son Daniel, who before his death
conveyed the principal portion of it to his son Thomas. Purpart “D”,
72 acres and 48 perches, was not taken by any of his heirs in the proceedings
in partition, but they joined in releasing their respective interests to
Joseph Lemmon, January 30, 1865, for $00, that is $50 to each, who afterward
conveyed it to his brother, Thomas, to whom it is now assessed at $648. Daniel
Lemmon agreed to sell 89 acres to Nathaniel Richey, July 11, 1834, who
transferred his interest to William Richey, to whom Lemmon conveyed the same,
May 27, 1846, for $150, which Richey conveyed to George Rummel June 13, he to
John Campbell July 23, 1849, and he to Thomas Ingram, March 11, 1857, for
$1,400.

Adjoining that Lemmon tract and “Arragon” on the east is a tract
in shape a trapezium, traversed southeasterly in a meandering course by
Limestone run, which in its southeastern part empties into the Allegheny, so
that the southwestern part of it was left in Buffalo when Sugar Creek township
was organized in 1806, the mouth of Limestone being the eastern point of the
line which then divided these two townships. Much of this tract on the Gapen
map is included within boundary lines within which is “Wm. Todd,
Esq.”, but on the other map is included a larger area with “Fred’k
Tarr” and “371�”. The warrant for this tract was granted to
Todd April 15, 1794, who conveyed it to James Matthews, March 3, 1809, for
$1,000, and the latter to Frederick Tarr, April 20, 1811, for $1,856.50, with
which, 2 cows and 2 horses he was first assessed that year at $259.50. He
erected his sawmill thereon in 1813, which was afterward assessed to his son
Joseph. Frederick Tarr resided on this tract when he was appointed and
commissioned a justice of the peace for district NO. 5, then consisting of
Buffalo township, by Governor Snyder, March 26, 1817, and was qualified two
months thereafter. He and Samuel Richey entered into an agreement, June 4,
1815, for the sale and purchase of a portion of this tract bounded by a
“condition-line marked on the creek (Limestone), on a Spanish oak, an elm
and plum tree, to run in a straight line by those three marks across the
tract, and bounded by lands of Daniel Lemmon, John Quigley and Christian
Shull”, for $3 an acre. Richey paid Tarr before the latter’s death
$372.95, the full amount of the purchase money, but as the vendor did not
execute a deed for that parcel before his death, the vendee proved the
contract and payments in the court of common pleas in this county, which the
court, December 24, 1835, ordered to be recorded as provided by the act of
March 31, 1792. That parcel was afterward known as the “Richey
Farm”. Having died intestate in 1825, on application of the
administratrix and administrator the orphans’ court, March 18, 1835, ordered
100 acres of the upper end to be sold for the payment of debts, but the
records do not show that any report of the sale was made. 228 acres and 17
perches of this tract were in proceedings in partition awarded to Joseph Tarr,
December 18, 1837, which he conveyed to Alexander Colwell, August 29, 1838,
for $3,000, which the latter agreed to sell to Morris P. Hicks, who conveyed
his interest to Henry J. Arnold, October 7, 1854, for $6,000, and Colwell
conveyed his interest to Arnold, March 27, 1856, for $4,560.

Adjoining that Todd-Matthews-Tarr tract on the east is a hexagonal one on
the Lawson & Orr map, 340 acres, the eastern part of which is traversed in
a southerly course by the first run above Limestone, which, having been sold
for taxes, was conveyed by Samuel Matthews, county treasurer, to William
Brown, March 19, 1814, for $105, which Brown conveyed to John Quigley and John
Sloan, March 23, for $29, which they conveyed to Christian Shull, of
Westmoreland county, September 20, for $40, and which Shull agreed to convey
to Frederick Tarr as containing 366 acres more or less, for $1,300, who agreed
to convey 200 acres of the central and northern part to William Orr, December
30, 1816, for $1,000, but as the patent was not granted to him in his
lifetime, and not to his administrator and administratrix until April 19,
1831, Orr did not get his deed until September 22, then next. He conveyed this
parcel to William Zillafrow, March 22, 1833, for $887.62�, who conveyed it to
his son Abraham, April 6, 1850, for $1.

A log schoolhouse about 20 X 24 feet was erected on the left bank of
Schoolhouse run, on this parcel, about 1815, among the teachers in which were
Joseph Bullman, George Forsyth and Robert Kirby, whose pupils numbered from 35
to 40, some of them living from 1� to 2 miles distant. Those of them known to
be now living are John and Montgomery Patton, James S. Quigley, Mrs. Margaret
Richardson, Mrs. Mary Tarr and Abraham Zillafrow. The present schoolhouse is
situated about 60 rods east of the site of that old one, on or near the line
between that Orr-Zillafrow parcel and “Montreal”.

Frederick Tarr and John McAfoos entered into a written agreement, January
21, 1817, for the sale and purchase of 150 acres, as they estimated the
quantity, of the southern part of this tract, “to be run agreeably to a
line that had been run between William Orr and McAfoos, and to continue up the
run on the side near to John Q. Sloan’s field, agreeably to a course that
Robert Orr run”. The terms of that agreement were that Tarr should pay
Mrs. McAfoos $500 as her dower, probably in the 110 acres on the Cowanshannock
creek, which her husband in the same agreement covenanted to convey to Tarr,
and $300 to McAfoos, in all #800. That line between those two parcels extended
south-westerly from a point on the eastern line of the tract about 115 rods
above the point where it touches the river, across the run nearly the same
distance above its mouth to the western line of the tract, the Orr parcel
containing 240 and the McAfoos 100 acres, their names being on their
respective parcels on that map.

Adjoining that Shull-Tarr tract on the east, in the bend of the Allegheny
river, is a tract, 427� acres, surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to Robert
Cooper, who conveyed his interest to McCall, and he, having paid the purchase
money to the commonwealth, obtained a warrant of acceptance for that survey.
But, as he could not obtain a patent for it without the improvement,
settlement and residence thereon, required by the act of April 3, 1792, for
the purpose of complying with that legal requirement, McCall agreed to convey
150 acres of it to William Little, in consideration whereof the latter gave
the former, August 12, 1796, his bond in the penal sum of $500, conditioned
for improving, settling and residing on this tract, building thereon a house
fit for the habitation of a family, clearing, fencing and cultivating 8 acres
thereof before February 12, 1797, and paying “one penny” on the
delivery to him of the deed. There are these inscriptions on the Gapen map:
“Rob’t Cooper, 427�”, and “Patented to A. McC. & Wm. C.,
431.96”. But on the other map is this inscription: “A. McCall &
James Sloan, Jun’r, 431�.” It was surveyed to McCall and William
Cochran, by Ross, deputy surveyor, May 1, 1805.

The patent for this tract called “Montreal” was granted to McCall
and William Cochran, who had probably bought Little’s interest, February 6,
1809. They made partition, and McCall conveyed to Cochran the 158 acres, April
4, 1816, when it then adjoined Robert McDowell, William Sloan and the
Allegheny river. Cochran released 281 acres and 96 perches to McCall, April
18. Cochran was first assessed with 400 acres of “Montreal”, 3
horses and 4 cows, in 1806, at $244; and the next year with two horses and two
cows less, at $197. He conveyed his purpart of “Montreal” to James
and John Q. Sloan, October 19, 1819, for $750, which James Sloan, of Buffalo,
New York, conveyed to Jonathon H. Sloan, August 1, 1883, for $700, and which
the latter conveyed to Robert O. Quigley, April 5, 1872, for $3,135. McCall
conveyed 109 acres and 39 perches of his purport of “Montreal” to
James Patton, November 18, 1833, for $546.22, and the residue, 169 acres and
79 perches, was included in the sale of McCall’s heirs to William F. Johnston,
who conveyed the same to John Swigert, November 5, 1855, for $1,525.50, one
hundred and three or four acres of which the latter conveyed to Robert O.
Campbell, to whose heirs it belongs, April 18, 1860, for $2,500, and 3 acres
and 157� perches to Esther M. Zillafrow, April 13, 1861, for $200.

This tract was named after Montreal, meaning Mount Royal, either the island
or the city in Canada.

Adjoining the Shull-Tarr tract and “Montreal” on the north is a
hexagonal tract, “424�” acres, which was surveyed by Gapen, deputy
surveyor, to Samuel Cooper, November 7, 1794, whose interest was purchased by
Archibald McCall, who obtained a warrant of acceptance, July 3, 1795. John
Carroll and John Orr having commenced an actual settlement on it, they and
McCall, by his attorney-in-fact, Thomas Collins, entered into a written
agreement, the terms of which were that they should continue their settlement
five years, to furnish proof of it and render the necessary assistance for
obtaining the patent, and he to make them a deed for 80 acres adjoining the
land then occupied by them and Christopher Ober, and they to make a deed to
McCall for the remainder of the tract, which was surveyed to them and McAll by
Ross, deputy surveyor, May 1, 1805. Carroll transferred his interest to Orr,
who agreed, August 21, 1815, to convey 100 acres or more off the northeast
corner of this tract, including Robert McDonald’s improvement, to John Quigley
for $1 per acre, the deed for which was made by Robert Orr, Jr., and Samuel C.
Orr, John Orr’s administrators, June 19, 1827, to John P. Quigley, whose heirs
conveyed 20 acres thereof to John A. Quigley, January 10, 1850, for $–. 225
acres and 108 perches of the McCall purpart of this tract were included in the
sale by McCall’s heirs to William F. Johnston, 75 acres and 30 perches of
which he conveyed to Mary Bowser, July 11, 1850, for $175; 67 acres and 20
perches to Charles Merrill, July 10, 1852, for $469.87; 137 acres and 104
perches to Abraham and Leonard Cornman, August 31, 1854, for $903.55. Merrill
conveyed 17 acres and 20 perches of his parcel to James S. Cochran, October 2,
1854, for $700, and the rest to Solomon Hooks; A. Cornman conveyed 87 acres
and 20 perches of his parcel to Matthias Bowser, November 22, 1854, for
$1,254, which he afterward conveyed to Hooks; and 25 acres and 30 perches of
Mary Bowser’s parcel was conveyed by J.E. Meredith, who was appointed a
trustee by the orphans’ court of this county to sell her real estate, to
Thomas McConnell, June 7, 1860, for $155, and which the latter conveyed to
John Claypoole, Jr., June 2, 1869, for $200. Solomon Hooks conveyed the two
parcels which he had purchased from Bowser and Merrill to Jacob Toy, February
1, 1865, for $1.

Adjoining that Cooper-McCall-Orr tract on the north is another hexagonal
one, 437 acres and 71 perches, surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to John
Cooper, Jr., on which Thomas McClymonds settled, probably before 1800. He was
assessed with 200 acres of this tract and 4 cattle in 1805, at $82. Robert
McKinley also settled about the same time on the other part of it, and was
assessed with 200 acres, 2 distilleries, 2 horses and 1 cow in 1805, at $166,
and the next year, with the land, 1 distillery and 2 cows, at $170; in 1807
with 100 acres, 1 distillery the last time, 1 horse and 1 cow, at $191, and
the last time with the land as unseated, in 1809. The next year William
Kiskadden was assessed with 400 acres of it, 1 horse and 1 cow, at $216,
afterward with 100 acres, and the last time with that, or any other quantity
thereof, in 1815.

This tract was surveyed to McCall and McClymonds by Ross, deputy surveyor,
May 5, 1805, and the patent for it, called “Perseverance”, was
granted to them and McKinley, May 11, 1807. McClymonds probably disposed of
his interest either to McCall or McKinley, for the latter conveyed 237 acres,
September 20, 1821, for $1 and in consideration of the partition made between
him and McCall, to E.J. DuPont, de Nemons, who was then McCall’s assignee, by
whom it was reconveyed to McCall, January 17, 1833, and was included in the
sale by the latter’s heirs to William F. Johnston, who conveyed the
northeastern portion to John P. or George L. Davis, or both of them, and which
was conveyed by Sheriff Sloan to Ross Mechling, September 7, 1861, for $610,
which the latter conveyed to George Neff, April 4, 1862, for $1,112, and he to
Henry Ekis 100 acres, a small portion of which is in Washington township,
December 28, 1864, for $1,800. Johnston conveyed 68 acres and 10 perches of
“Perseverance” to John Ruffner, April 1, 1856, for $576.75.********

Passing southwesterly across “Perseverance” and the McCall-Orr
tract to the latter’s western adjoiner, is a nearly rectangular parallelogram,
lengthwise from east to west, 420 acres and 49 perches, for which a warrant
must have been issued to John Heaton, for on the Gapen map Heaton’s name is
inscribed on the face of this tract, and on the other map, his and John
Quigley’s names. It was seated by John Quigley, who was assessed, as a single
man, with 400 acres in 1805-6 at $100.

Adjoining that Heaton-Quigley tract on the north is one, a pentagon, nearly
a rectangular parallelogram, without full boundary lines on the Gapen map, but
having “John McKissick” on its face. On the other map the names of
James Gibson and John McKissick, and 407 acres and 34 perches. McKissick
probably occupied or claimed a right to this tract some time between 1792 and
1796, when Gapen surveyed adjoining tracts. Gibson was assessed with it as
unseated as early as, perhaps earlier than, 1805, at $100, to whom the patent
for it was granted, April 19, 1820. Dr. James Hutchinson, of Philadelphia,
also had an interest in it – perhaps he purchased McKissick’s. His heirs and
Gibson made partition, and the latter conveyed to the former 207 acres and 34
perches, August 5, 1820, for $1. Gibson conveyed 200 acres and 16 perches of
his purpart to Frederick Christman, November 1, 1834, for $400, which he and
George F. and John Dodd agreed, December 13, 1847, to sell and purchase for
$2,200. Jacob Myers and his wife having acquired an interest therein, they and
George F. Dodd conveyed 106 acres to Robert and Sarah Coleman, March 19, 1863,
for $1,300, 99 acres and 92� perches of which Dodd conveyed to Joseph
Higgenbotham, April 14, 1866, for $1,500.

Adjoining that McKissick-Gibson-Hutchinson tract on the north is a tract,
416 acres, a rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise east and west, the northern
portion of which is in what is now Washington township, which was surveyed by
Gapen, deputy surveyor, to Jared Ingersoll, who probably transferred his
interest to Dr. James Hutchinson. It was settled first by Daniel Henry, who
was assessed with 400 acres and 1 cow in 1805-6, at $106. The patent for it
was granted to him, March 25, 1824. He and Hutchinson’s heirs having made
partition, he released their purpart to Randall Hutchinson, November 25, who
conveyed an undivided half to Mrs. Margaret Pepper, and the other to Israel P.
Hutchinson. Mrs. Pepper’s executor conveyed her half to Israel P. Hutchinson,
who conveyed thus: 113 acres and 38 perches to John D. Wolf, May 12, 1852, for
$900; 184 acres and 81 perches to Robert and William McCutcheon, December 5,
1853, for $1,387.50; 73 acres and 62 perches to William Bowser, December 28,
1855, for $770.57; 108 acres and 140 perches to John McGarvey, January 18,
1853, for $690, which and three other parcels, aggregating 182 acres and 100
perches, the latter conveyed to Thomas McCracken, September 28, 1855. An
oil-well was put down here by the Monticello Oil Company.

Daniel Henry conveyed his purpart, at least a part of it, to Alexander
Duncan, September 13, 1824, who conveyed the same to John P. Davis, April 21,
1834, who conveyed it to David Flanner, who conveyed 38 acres and 60 perches,
including ten acres which had been conveyed to him by John Bowser, to William
Wiley, April 15, 1840, for $100, which, with 5 acres that David had conveyed
to David Flanner, Wiley conveyed to McGarvey, June 30, 1841, for $190.

Adjoining that Henry-Hutchinson tract on the west is a heptagonal one, 403
acres and 136 perches, on which Andrew McKee settled, probably in 1797, and
was assessed with 400 acres, 1 horse and 1 cow in 1805 and 1806, at $131. He,
by virtue of his improvement, settlement and residence on it, had a joint
interest in it with Francis Johnston. In the partition between them, McKee
took the southern part, the chief portion of which is in what is now East
Franklin township. In the latter part of 1814, or early in 1815, McKee and
John Christman agreed to sell and purchase the former’s interest, and the
latter built his gristmill on Limestone run, with which, 400 acres, 1 horse
and 1 cow he was first assessed in the last-mentioned year, at $307. He built
his sawmill five years later. McKee obtained the patent, April 19, 1820, and
conveyed to Christman 201 acres and 148 perches, June 27, for $1,100. By his
will, dated December 11, 1860, and registered March 13, 1862, he devised his
real estate********* equally to his daughters. The Johnston purpart is chiefly
in what is now Washington township, of which 78 acres and 70 perches were
conveyed to Thos. Laird, April 1, 1834, for $75.48; 101 to Jacob Toy, October
26, 1839, for $505; 50 acres and 150 perches to Oliver Leard, the same day,
for $254.70; and 28 acres and 8 perches to John Montgomery for $75.

Adjoining the Johnston-McKee-Christman tract on the south is the one, a
pentagon, 304 acres, on which John Montgomery made an improvement and
settlement, about 1797, with which and 3 cattle he was assessed in 1805, at
$72, and the next year, with 2 cattle less, at $66. The patent for this tract
was granted to him April 18, 1831, and he conveyed 200 acres of it to Henry
and Philip Christman, May 28, for $400, on which they built their grist and
saw mills in 1834. Montgomery, by his will, dated March 4, 1832, registered
December 4, 1837, devised his real estate to his son John, who conveyed 119
acres of this tract to Jacob Bowser, September 15, 1848, for $1,071.

In 1851 Montgomery laid out the town of Montgomeryville, consisting of 17
in-lots and 7 out-lots, 14 of the former 66 X 165 feet. The out-lots, except
1, contain, respectively, much larger areas. The streets, Washington and
Jefferson, are each 30 feet wide. The bearing of the former is south 74�
degrees east, and of the latter, north 13 degrees east. The lane is 26 feet
wide, with a bearing south 33 degrees west. Union street is 16 feet wide, with
a bearing south 3 degrees east. Another street, not named in the plot, between
the southern tier of in-lots and the out-lots and the southeastern tier of
in-lots, 26 feet wide, with a bearing of north 74� degrees west. The town,
surveyed by James Stewart, lies between the parcels conveyed to Jacob Bowser
and the Christmans. The conveyances of but few of these lots have as yet been
recorded. The prices of the in-lots appear to have varied from $12.50, $17 to
$103.33. Montgomery conveyed 4 acres and 122 perches, within the limits of the
town, to Johnston Best, April 25, 1867, for $325. Joseph Lemmon conveyed lots
Nos. 5 and 7 to Daniel Hufham, February 2, 1866, for $250.

A log schoolhouse was built on the site of Montgomeryville, about 1830, one
of the teachers in which was Robert Kirby, among whose pupils were Samuel
Mateer and James S. Quigley.

Adrian postoffice was established here, June 26, 1862; James Hughes,
postmaster.

Adjoining that Montgomery tract on the west is a heptagonal one, 434 acres
and 134 perches, on which James McKee made an improvement and settlement about
1797. He was assessed with 400 acres as a single man, in 1805, at $100, and
the next year, as married, and 1 horse and 1 cow, at $121. Philip Anthony
conveyed 108 acres to McKee for $400, which he conveyed to Anthony Montgomery,
October 17, 1812, for $600, who reconveyed to him 108 acres of the
southwestern part, May 20, 1813, for 5 shillings and his bonds for $500.
Montgomery conveyed his interest in the entire tract to John Mateer, December
12, 1822, for $900. John Buchanan, who had obtained a warrant for this tract,
February 13, 1794, conveyed his interest to the heirs of Francis Johnston,
June 18, 1823, for $1. Montgomery conveyed his interest in the 400 acres to
John Mateer, December 12, 1822, for $900. The patent was granted to Alexander
W. Johnston, executor, in trust for the heirs of Francis Johnston, and to John
Mateer, October 18, 1833. Partition having been made between them, Johnston’s
executor released 18 acres and 71 perches to Mateer, December 26, who released
the residue to that executor in trust for the heirs of his testator.

The Johnston purpart was conveyed thus: 78 acres and 70 perches to Thomas
Leard, April 1, 1834, for $75.48, which Thomas Leard, Jr., conveyed to John
Leard, the present owner, August 27, 1867, for $1,270.60; 101 acres to Jacob
Toy, February 26, 1829, for $805; 50 acres and 151 perches to Oliver Leard,
the same day, for $254.70; and 28 acres and 80 perches to John Montgomery, for
$75.

Mateer conveyed his purpart to his son Samuel, April 10, 1855, for $3,100,
who conveyed it to Jonathan H. Quigley, August 18, 1856, for $3,800, who
conveyed it to Esther and Rosannah Quigley, the same day, for the same amount,
which they conveyed, as containing 240 acres and 24 perches, to David C.
Quigley, June 1, 1857, for $2,800 “and other valuable
considerations”; 30 acres and 108 perches of which he conveyed to Jacob
Toy, March 15, 1859, for $90.80; and 25 acres to Abraham Frick, October 31,
1860, for $50. Quigley, with whom William H. Leard and James Wylie and their
wives joined, conveyed 109 acres and 9 perches to Robert Ralston, April 6,
1867, for $6,362.50, which, except 50 acres and 50 perches conveyed to Esther
Quigley, he conveyed to James Long, April 26, 1873, for $6,000.

Adjoining that McKee-Montgomery tract on the west, or rather the southwest,
is one, an equilateral, though not a rectangular, parallelogram, 95 acres, to
which Andrew Milligan acquired title, on which he probably settled in or about
1797. He was assessed 200 acres and 4 cattle, in 1805 and 1806, at $112, to
whom the patent was granted April 4, 1834. He having died intestate, leaving a
widow and three children, Rachel Milligan, one of them, conveyed his interest
to William M. Lyons, 141 acres and 41 perches, December 3, 1857, for $1,000
and some other conditions with regard to maintenance, to whom Ezekiel M. and
M.M. Lyons, children of Mary Lyons, n�e Milligan, conveyed their interests,
March 13 and July 20, 1858, for $125 each.

Adjoining the Milligan tract on the south and west is an octagonal one, 342
acres, on which Frederick Razor must have either lived, or to which he claimed
title, for his name is on it on the Lawson & Orr map, though it does not
appear on the assessment list of either Sugar Creek or Franklin township. The
warrant for it was granted to James Buchanan February 13, 1794. Buchanan sold
his interest to John Milligan September 18, 1808, 102 acres, which his son
James sold to Robert Brown, of Kittanning, June 29, 1810, and the remaining
102 acres to Jesse Young April 2, 1806, which Young sold to Thomas Leard,
February 15, 1812, for $409, “six hundred weight gross of iron” to
be paid in hand to Young, and the residue to Milligan. This tract was surveyed
to Buchanan June 24, 1815. Leard released all his interest in the entire tract
to Brown, December 16, 1817, for $1, and having paid all the purchase money
which he had agreed to pay to Young, most of it to Brown, the latter having
obtained the patent for the whole tract conveyed to Leard. Brown conveyed 228
acres and 60 perches of it to Benjamin Ambrose, May 5, for $500, on which he
resided during the rest of his life, and which, by his will dated August 16
and registered August 27, 1847, he devised to his son John, who was required
to pay $1,000 to his executors and receive $400 from them, which was to be his
full portion of his father’s estate, and release to his brother Franklin the
200 acres elsewhere on which John then resided. Brown conveyed 113 acres of
this tract to Thomas Leard, May 24, 1819, for $450.

Adjoining those Milligan and Brown tracts on the north, 399 acres and 146
perches, a southern strip of which is in East Franklin township, the major of
which will be noticed elsewhere.********* This tract became vested in Jacob
Steelsmith, who conveyed the portion in this and a small portion in Washington
township, both portions being then in Sugar Creek township, 116 acres and 116
perches, to Simon Steelsmith, April 6, 1818, for $50, who conveyed the same to
Michael Fair, November 24, 1821, for $100, and which his administrator, by
virtue of a decree of the proper court for the specific performance of a
contract made in his intestate’s lifetime, conveyed to the present owner,
William Fair, April 8, 1867, for $1,000.

Adjoining the James McKee, Anthony Montgomery and Francis Johnston tract,
and the Andrew Milligan tract, 95 acres on the south, and “Moran” on
the north, is one nearly a rectangular parallelogram, lengthwise east and
west, 394 acres, claimed by William Wasson. When Gapen made the survey of its
eastern adjoiner to William Todd, the patent for which adjoiner was, as before
stated, granted to McCall and Johnathan H. Sloan. This tract, on the Lawson
& Orr map, bears the name of “Elizabeth Leasure”, on which she
probably settled about 1797, and with which and 1 horse she was assessed, in
1805, at $168; and the next year with the land and 1 cow, at $164. She
disposed of her interest in this tract by her verbal declarations, which were
made late Saturday night, before July 26, 1826, in the presence of her
brother, Benjamin Leasure, William Montgomery and Archibald Moore, who were
then at her house. She expressed a wish to have her will drawn, her brother
having gone to Montgomery’s before midnight to get some candles, a pen and
ink. Montgomery asked her how she would leave her property. She answered that
she would leave her property. She answered that she would leave “all her
effects, land, cattle and all, to her son, Joseph Wasson”. Moore asked
her if she allowed “Wasson to be her whole (sole) executor”. She
replied: “To be sure”. Leasure and Montgomery designated Moore to
write the will, but there being no paper in the house, the latter went to his
own house for it, and his spectacles. On his return, he and the others thought
she was too ill to be again disturbed; hence her will was not written. But the
statements of her brothers, Montgomery and Moore, respecting her verbal
disposition of all her property were sworn to before the register of wills of
this county, Philip Mechling, August 5, 1826, who admitted her declarations,
thus proven, to probate, as her nuncupative will. Benjamin and John Leasure
conveyed their interest in this tract, which, it is stated in their deed,
“was settled by Benjamin and Elizabeth Leasure, to George Leasure, March
18, 1842, for $1 and “natural love and affection”. To settle the
question of title, George Leasure brought his action of ejectment against Hugh
J. Wasson to No. 98 of June term, 1842, in the common pleas o this county,
which was tried, and the verdict of the jury, September 20, 1843, was in favor
of the plaintiff for the land embraced in the survey made for Wasson, May 6,
1837, lying “north of the dotted line, marked ‘Richards’ line, on the
diagram returned with the verdict”. Both parties then agreed to release
to each other the portions of the tract according to the finding of the jury;
so the northern part was ordered and decreed by the court to Leasure and the
southern part to Wasson, a warrant having been granted to the latter, March
27, 1837.

Leasure conveyed 40 acres of his purpart to Nicholas Best, May 10, 1848, for
$200, which his executors conveyed to William Wylie, May 15, 1852, for $800;
126 acres and 50 perches to William Wylie, September 3, 1852, for $615. Wasson
conveyed 200 acres of his purpart to Dr. John Gilpin, September 13, 1844, for
$600, which the latter conveyed to John and Robert Wasson, December 18, 1848,
for the same price.

Adjoining that Wasson-Leasure tract on the west and “Union” on
the north is one, a rectangular parallelogram, 436 acres and 51 perches
lengthwise east and west, on which is the name of David Todd on the Gapen, but
of Thomas Milliken on the other map, on which the latter made an improvement
in August, 1793, and a settlement July 5, 1797, to whom it was surveyed by
Ross, deputy surveyor, June 22, 1802, the patent for which was granted to
Milliken, January 28, 1807. Widow Milliken and Thomas Milliken (or Milligan)
were assessed with 600 acres, 2 horses and 4 cows in 1805 and 1806, at $344.
Thomas Milliken conveyed 200 acres adjoining the east bank of Glade run to his
son Andrew,*********** August 17, 1849, for $1, “and natural love and
affection”, which he still owns, and by his will, dated June 11, and
registered July 5, 1853, devised all the rest of his real estate to his son
James as long as he and his sisters Mary and Sarah lived together, but if they
separated he was to give them 50 acres along the Kittanning road. James
Milliken conveyed 64 acres of his purpart to Thomas Leard, Jr., March 31,
1863, for $2,010.

One of the early primitive schoolhouses, said to be the second one within
the limits of this township, was located on this tract about 20 rods east the
present site of Andrew Milliken’s house about 1819, in which Archibald and
William Moore, John Reed and George Speers were teachers. Samuel Mateer was a
pupil of that school in 1829.

Adjoining that Milliken tract on the west is a hexagonal one which was
surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to “Joseph Clark”,
“403.80”, as shown by his map, on which Robert McDowell made an
improvement and settlement in February, 1798, to whom it was surveyed by Ross,
deputy surveyor, June 22, 1802, as containing 429 acres and 38 perches, with
400 acres of which and 1 horse he was assessed, in 1805-6, $185, the increased
quantity resulting from a protraction of the survey westward from the
northwestern portion of the Gapen survey, making it a tract with nine sides,
the patent for which was granted to McDowell, March 16, 1808, one-half of
which he conveyed to Thomas Barr, August 17, 1810, “for a valuable
consideration”. McDowell’s last assessment on the Sugar Creek township
list was in 1809, and Barr was thereafter assessed with 400 acres until 1818.

Two hundred and seventy-eight acres and 80 perches of this tract having
become vested in Archibald McCall, descended to his heirs, who, by Chapman
Biddle, their attorney-in-fact, conveyed the same and two other parcels of
other tracts to Reuben Burghman, Peter Graff and Jacob Painter, who conveyed
89 acres to John Shearer, August 1, 1859, for $834.

Adjoining that Clarke-McDowell tract on the west is, on the Gapen map, an
octagonal one, nearly a parallelogram, which Gapen, deputy surveyor, surveyed
to “Robert Williby”, August 25, 1794, as containing 421 acres and
136 perches, on which Williby made an improvement, which he conveyed to
Archibald McCall, who paid the purchase money to the court and obtained a
warrant of acceptance, July 3, 1795, on which John McDowell made an
improvement and settlement, March 1, 1796, to whom it was surveyed by Ross,
deputy surveyor, May 5, 1801, as a decagon containing 439 acres and 145
perches, about one-fourth of which is in what is now West Franklin township,
with 400 acres of which, 1 horse and 2 cows he was assessed in 1805-6 at $232.
His house was the place designated for holding elections in Buffalo township
from 1803 till 1811. McCall conveyed this tract to his son, George A. McCall,
June 22, 1835, for $500, who for the same consideration conveyed it to
McDowell, September 26, by A. McCall, his attorney, to whom the patent was
granted May 27, 1837, who conveyed 100 acres and 126 perches to John Moore,
May 20, 1842, for $400; 150 acres of it to Matthew McDowell, May 18, 1848, for
$150, which the former had conveyed to Thomas Barr, May 10, 1816, and which
the latter reconveyed, May 18, 1848, for $150, partly in West Franklin
township, in which is his sawmill on Long run. Matthew conveyed 5 acres of his
parcel to Andrew Messenheimer, August 24, 1853, for $90; 13 acres and 150
perches to Abram Young, June 3, 1854, for $408, and 71 acres and 108 perches
to VanBuren Bowser and Samuel Stambaugh, October 31, 1865, at $1,380.

Adjoining that Williby-McAll-McDowell tract on the north is the one
surveyed by Gapen, deputy surveyor, to “David Bead”,
“402.8” acres, a rectangular parallelogram, traversed from its
north-eastern corner in a southerly meandering course by Long run, as it
appears on the Gapen map, about one-fourth of which is in what is now West
Franklin township, but on the other map, “Samuel Robinson”,
“402” to which Robinson acquired an inchoate title by an early
improvement and settlement, with 400 acres of which he was assessed in 1805 at
$100, and the next year, with the land and 1 horse, at $115. He conveyed 150
acres, “including his improvement on the waters of Long run”, to
William McAdoo, December 21, 1812, for $100, which the latter conveyed to
Conrad Helm, November 18, 1814, for $300. A portion of this tract became
invested in McCall to whom the patent was granted, October 2, 1833, and was
included in the sale from his heirs to William F. Johnston, who conveyed 54
acres and 20 perches of it to Helm, who, by his will, dated April 5, 1862, and
registered April 7, 1864, devised the same and the parcel which he had
purchased from McAdoo to his son George, to whom the two parcels, or the major
part of them, still belong.

Adjoining that McCall-Robinson tract on the east is one not fully defined on
the Gapen map, with the name of “Wm. WIliby”, but on the other a
rectangular parallelogram, 399� acres, with the name of “Wm.
Cowan”, who made an improvement and settlement on it, May 6, 1796, and to
whom it was surveyed by Ross, deputy surveyor, June 14, 1802, which Jacob
Mechling, sheriff, sold on judgment in favor of John Cowan, Sr., for $2,000
debt, and $9.41� costs, to whom he conveyed it, September 17, 1827, for
$1,000, to whom the patent was granted August 24, 1829, who, by his will dated
May 24, and registered December 16, 1841, devised his mansion-house and 100
acres to his son-in-law, William Porterfield, which the latter conveyed to
John Cowan, Jr., January 16, 1845, for $100, on which the latter opened his
store. John Cowan, Sr., conveyed 53 acres and 30 perches to Philip Cowan,
August 23, 1840, for $2, in a meadow of which was the frame schoolhouse, No.
9, of the Franklin district, in which John Cowan was the first teacher, and
which was not so easily accessible as a temple of knowledge should be. The
present schoolhouse is of brick and is on a more eligible site, on the west
side of the public road from Kittanning to Middlesex. Philip Cowan conveyed
this parcel, reserving that schoolhouse lot (No. 9), to Nicholas Cloak, April
4, 1865, for $3,100.

John Cowan, Sr., conveyed 97 acres and 6 perches of the eastern or
northeastern part of this tract to John Cowan, Jr., August 23, 1831, for $1,
which he conveyed to William McClatchey, November 20, 1848, for $1,600, along
the eastern border of which he laid out the town of Middlesex, and 16 lots
were surveyed by J.E. Meredith, May 15, 1849, each 18 X 4 rods, 8 on each side
of the public road, called Main street, 60 feet wide, with a bearing north �
degree west. Irwin street is of the same width with a bearing south 88�
degrees west. The alleys are 16� feet wide, one of which intersects Main
street between lots Nos. 5 and 6, and Nos. 12 and 13.

The Cowansville postoffice, John Cowan, postmaster, was established here
August 8, 1849.

The prices for which some of the lots in Middlesex sold appear in the
following conveyances: McClatchey to Samuel F. Crookshanks, lots Nos. 6 and 7,
June 16, 1849, for $100; to William H. Foster, No. 4, April 1, 1851, for $50,
and Foster to John T. Ehrenfeld, May 11, 1867, for $1,000; to A.H. McKee,
April 3, 1855, No. 11 for $400; to Rev. David Hall, lots Nos. 21 and 22,
November 9, 1864, for $1,175; to Charlotte Thompson, November 16, No. –, for
$50; to Joseph Rumbaugh, November 17, Nos. 22, 24, for $55; to James Foreman,
August 13, 1856, Nos. 2, 3, 12, for $2,500, which he conveyed to Ignatius
Dougan and Wm. H.H. Piper, September 5, 1858, for $—, and they to James T.
Wilson, July 11, 1862, for $2,000; to A.H. McKee, No. 10, July 21, 1862, for
$100.

The site of Middlesex and the circumjacent territory very early became a
prominent point by the organization of the Union Presbyterian church here by
the Presbytery of Erie, in 1801, in this then so sparsely inhabited region
(about one settle to every 640 acres) that many of the men, women and children
who first attended its services had to travel from four to seven miles, and
afoot for want of passable roads. Those people were generally well clothed,
and the fashions were then so durable that their articles of clothing were
worn out before they were abandoned. Very little can be learned respecting the
earliest membership of this church, save that the number was small, but they
were zealous in their efforts to plant Presbyterianism in this part of the
wilderness.

The first edifice, log, with chestnut pulpit and puncheon floor, must have
been soon after erected on the five-acre parcel of land, within the limits of
the 100 acres and 77 perches of the John Cowan tract, conveyed by him to Wm.
Bell, and which after divers transfers now belongs to James H. Dickey, which
John Cowan, Sr., probably gave to the church, to which it still belongs, and
on which is the cemetery, at the eastern terminus of Irwin street. That
edifice must have been erected in the latter part of 1801, or in the fore part
of 1802, for Jacob Mechling, one of the commissioners heretofore mentioned,
who were appointed to examine sites for public buildings in this and some
other counties,************ says in his diary, on Sunday, June 6, 1802:
“Proceeded toward Butler county, 7 miles” (from Kittanning) “to
Boyd’s meeting-house — heard him preach”. That was then called
“Boyd’s Upper Meeting-House”, and was so called in a certain road
petition as late as 1845. The cemetery on that five-acre parcel is nearly
coeval with the church, and the first person buried in it was William McKee.

The presbytery met, June 16, 1802, within the bounds of Union congregation,
and ordained and installed Rev. John Boyd as pastor.************* He,
moderator, and James Barr, Charles McClatchey, William Nobel and Joseph
Shields, elders, constituted the first session. During Mr. Boyds’s pastorate,
one-half time, nearly of eight years, till April 17, 1820, this church
prospered. After he left, the pulpit was supplied for about a year by Rev.
Robert Lee, and was thereafter vacant four years. The next pastor was Rev.
John Redick, who, having been licensed by the Presbytery of Erie, at
Meadville, October 20, 1813, was ordained and installed by the same presbytery
pastor of the Slate Lick and Union churches, September 28, 1815, at Slate
Lick, which he served alternately until the autumn of 1848, when he resigned
his charge on account infirmities, the membership of Union church having
varied during his pastorate from 50 to 100. The annual salary paid him by each
church was $150.

Rev. George Cairns was ordained and served as pastor of Union church about
two years. After a vacancy of three years, Rev. David Hall, D.D., was ordained
here, July 20, 1856, as pastor of both Union and the Brady’s Bend churches,
during whose pastorate the membership of Union church was from 100 to 150. He
was dismissed at his own request in November, 1866. The vacancy continued
until July 1, 1868, when Rev. John M. Jones became the pastor, whole time. His
pastorate closed October 1, 1873. Then ensued another vacancy until April 1,
1876, when the present pastor, Rev. W.J. Wilson, entered upon his pastoral
duties, and was ordained here June 14, and became the pastor also of the
Midway church in Sugar Creek township, one-half time to each. The present
number of members is 74**************; Sabbath-school scholars, 50. A weekly
prayer-meeting and a woman’s missionary society are also connected with this
church. This church was incorporated by the decree of the court of common
pleas of this county, June 7, 1871, as “the Union Presbyterian
congregation of Middlesex, composed of the pew-holders of the Union
Presbyterian Church”.

The old log edifice continued to be used until about 1820, when a frame
addition was annexed to its eastern end, making the length about 70 feet, with
the pulpit on the south side. That edifice was crushed by a heavy fall of snow
on the roof on New Year’s night, 1840. A frame edifice, 60 X 40 feet, with a
ceiling 12 feet high, was erected the next summer, which cost $1,400. The
congregation, realizing the necessity of a new edifice, prepared in the summer
of 1873 for its erection on the lot fronting Main street on the west and Irwin
street on the north, and adjoining the five-acre parcel on which the old ones
were located, the same lot which McClatchey conveyed to William Fair, which,
after several transfers, became vested in John Fair, who conveyed it to C.A.
Foster, John and Thomas Leard, Thomas V. McKee, William Patton and William
Wylie, trustees, February 3, 1873, for $330, on which a two-story from one was
erected on the same site the next summer, at a cost of $4,000, which was soon
dedicated by Rev. Thomas D. Ewing.

The second schoolhouse, a primitive log one, said to be the first part of
East Franklin township, was situated a few rods west of the old log Union
church edifice, near the line between the tracts surveyed to John and William
Cowan, in which the first teacher was James Jannegan. Among the pupils who
attended school there were Andrew Milton and Philip Templeton. It was torn
down by some persons to whom it was obnoxious. Another log schoolhouse, in
which a subscription school was taught, was erected on the Dickey parcel of
the John Cowan tract, about thirty rods southeasterly from the preceding one,
in which the teachers were Miss Martha Irwin, Robert Kirby, James McDowell and
John Cowan. Among the surviving pupils that have come to the writer’s
knowledge is Mrs. Samuel Rumbaugh.

After Franklin township was districted under the present school system, the
children of MIddlesex and vicinity attended the above-mentioned school NO. 9,
in Philip Cowan’s meadow, until the present brick house was erected near
Kittanning road.

Select schools in which the Greek and Latin languages and some of the
higher English branches, besides the common ones, were taught, have been from
time to time liberally patronized, of which Rev. William F. Ewing was one of
the principals.

About seventy rods north of Middlesex, at the crossroads, is the Rich Hill
United Presbyterian church, which was organized as an associate church about
1811, according to the recollection of some old residents, for the records
were destroyed by the burning of the house in which they were kept. Its first
pastor was Rev. John Dickey, a native of the county of Derry, Ireland, who was
partly educated at Dublin, and partly at Glasgow, and who continued to be its
pastor until his death, in 1849. The first heads of families belonging to this
church were William Blaney, John Cowan, Archibald Dickey, Stewart Henry,
Thomas Herron, Thomas Milliken, Robert Orr, Sr., John Y. Stewart, James
Summerville, Philip Templeton, Sr., John Young, and others, whose names the
writer has not ascertained, who occupied portions of an area of about ten
miles square. Its earliest members of session were Robert Orr, Sr., and Philip
Templeton, Sr. Thomas Milliken and John Y. Stewart are known to have been
chosen at the second election, and William Dickey and William McGarvey, at the
third election, in 1836.

The second pastor was Rev. William Smith, who was ordained in 1849, and
released in 1859. Moses Dickey, James Henry, David McGarvey and John Templeton
were chosen members of session at the fourth election, in 1851. The third
pastor was Rev. Thomas M. Seaton, who was ordained in 1861 and released in
1870. John Cowan, James H. Dickey, Thomas Herron and George Pence were chosen
members of session at the fifth election, in 1861, all of whom and William
McGarvey, chosen at the third, and James Henry and John Templeton, chosen at
the fourth election, still survive.

The present pastor, Rev. John L. Grone, was ordained in 1872.

The first religious services of this congregation were conducted by
itinerant preachers in the barn of Philip Templeton, Sr. After awhile a tent
was erected on the site of the present burying-ground, from which the minister
spoke, the congregation being seated around on logs. The first church edifice,
erected here in 1820, was of hewn logs, about 32 X 28 feet, which was used
until 1849, when the present frame one was erected. The largest membership of
the Rich Hill church was 109 in 1851. In 1876 it is 69; Sabbath-school
scholars, 39.

The third schoolhouse in the immediate vicinity of what is now Middlesex, a
primitive log one, was located near Rich Hill church, in the latter part of
the second decade of this century, in which John Dickey was the first teacher.
He was a theological student, and returned to Ireland and became a preacher.
The next teacher in this house was T. Stewart, during whose term of teaching
it was crushed by some of the pupils mounting the roof. James Spear afterward
opened a school in the Union Presbyterian church. The next schoolhouse
hereabouts was the one heretofore mentioned, near the spring on the Dickey
parcel of the John Cowan tract.

The Rich Hill United Presbyterian church edifice is situated on the
southern part of the tract for which a patent was granted to David Johnston,
February 4, 1815, who conveyed 101 acres and 140 perches of it, mostly in what
is now Sugar Creek township, to Rev. John Dickey, December 6, for $355, of
which the latter gave to the congregation the lot used for church purposes.

Mrs. Nancy Cowan by her will, dated May 29, and registered July 24, 1872,
bequeathed $50 to this church.

The population of Franklin township, in 1840, was 1,713. In 1850: white,
2,405; colored, 5. In 1860: white, 2,877; colored, 10.

The population of East Franklin, in 1870, was : white, 1,448; colored, 3;
native, 1,391; foreign, 60. The number of taxables, in 1876, is 398.

According to the mercantile appraiser’s list for 1876 there are 4 merchants
in the fourteenth and one in the thirteenth class in this township.

Schools in 1876 — Whole number, 10; average number months taught, 5; male
teachers, 8; female teachers, 2; average salaries of male teachers per month,
#33.18; female teachers, $31.88; male scholars, 235; female scholars, 234;
average number attending school, 353; cost per month, 75 cents; tax levied for
school and building purposes, #3,000; received from state appropriation,
#343.17; from taxes, etc., #2,961.83; cost of schoolhouses, $1,054; paid for
teachers’ wages, $1,645.38; paid for fuel, $497.37. All the schoolhouses in
East Franklin school district are now substantial brick ones.

The school statistics for Franklin township, in 1860, are — Whole number
schools, 16; average number months taught, 4; male teachers, 13; female
teachers, 3; average salaries of male teachers per month, $17.61; average
salaries of female teachers per month, $17.66; male scholars, 414; female
scholars, 370; average number attending school, 476; cost of teaching each
scholar per month, 42 cents; amount levied for school purposes, $1,675.36;
amount levied for building purposes, $358.45; received from state
appropriation, $211.46; received from collectors, $1,768.81; cost of
instruction, $1,128; fuel, etc., $188; cost of schoolhouses, $382.

The occupations, agricultural exclusive, of the people of East Franklin, in
1876, were: Laborers, 57; carpenters, 10; merchants, 7; miners, 6; teachers,
5; blacksmiths, 4; sawyers, 4; millers, 3; masons, 3; teamsters, 3; tenants,
3; ministers, 2; painters, 2; clerk, 1; cropper, 1; grocer, 1; cripple, 1;
daguerreotypist, 1; innkeeper, 1; gunsmith, 1; ferryman, 1; physician, 1;
shoemaker, 1; speculator, 1; wagonmaker, 1.

The vote of East Franklin township, February 28, 1873, stood 101 against
and 61 for granting licenses to sell intoxicating liquors.

The geological features: The surface rocks consist of lower barrens, lower
productives and the Pottsbielle conglomerate. A large quantity of Freeport
coal is represented, but in many places is obscure by reason of its reduced
size. The Freeport limestone is more easily recognized than the coalbed. Along
Glade run, however, the upper and lower Freeport coalbeds are large. The
Johnstown cement is also here represented, but of little value, except as
means for identification. The ferriferous limestone is along the river front
through the entire length of the township, and its ore is on top. The ore has
been extensively worked by the Allegheny, American and Moticello furnaces. The
Pottsville conglomerate is from 60 to 75 feet thick. The river gravel,
including rounded pebbles of gneiss and granite, are found on the slopes near
the old Allegheny furnace, 100 feet or more above the present river channel.
An ancient island in the river can be distinctly traced by means of this
gravel and sand deposit, 20 feet thick above Loeben Tarr’s house, in the
vicinity of the old Allegheny furnace. The Freeport sandstone is very
prominent along the river front in this township. It makes a line of cliffs 40
feet high, opposite Kittanning. The upper Kittanning coal appears directly
below it, but is small and unaccompanied by the Johnstown cement, and the
middle Kittanning coal is not seen at all in this vicinity. The interval
between the lower Kittanning coal and the ferriferous limestone undergoes some
instructive canges in this locality. At Loeben Tarr’s the distance between the
two is 13 feet. On the hill, directly below Judge Boggs’ residence, the same
interval is 50 feet, while opposite, at Ross Reynolds’ quarries, not more than
30 feet intervene between the two. The Clarion coal, one foot thick, is
represented at the foot of the hill, where the Worthington road begins to
ascend toward the west.

Structure. – An anticlinal axis runs lengthwise through the township, which
it enters near Mongomeryville and leaves in the neighborhood of Center Hill.
The southeast dip from the Craigsville axis is sharply felt near Middlesex in
the northwest corner of the township. – Platt.

The following sections are from Rogers’ Geology of Pennsylvania: At
Allegheny Furnace – top of the hill – shales, 70 feet; coal, 3 feet; unknown,
probably shales, 42 feet; Elk lick coal, pure coke vein, 4 feet; unknown, 40
feet; upper Freeport coal, 2� feet; Freeport limestone, nodular iron ore, 1
foot; unknown strata, containing o�litic (egg-shaped) iron ore, 80 feet;
lower Freeport coal, 3 feet; shale, limestone in nodules; brown and black
shale, with nodular ore, 55 feet; Kittanning coal, 3 feet; shale, with nodular
ore, 27 feet; ferriferous limestone, overlaid by ore, from 30 to 40 inches
thick, 14 feet; brown and blue shales, with argillaceous ore, 40 feet; Clarion
coal, impure, 3 feet, is 135 feet above the Allegheny river. The Tionesta or
Sharon coal is said to have been found.

A little farther down the river: Shale; upper Freeport coal; shale, 10
feet; Freeport limestone, 6 feet; shale and yellow sandstone with vegetable
remains, 40 to 50 feet; blue shale in the river, 18 feet.

The Franklin election district and Franklin township were of course named
after Benjamin Franklin, whose illustrious public life is so familiar to the
generality of readers, that it is superfluous to give anything of his history
in this connection.

* Vide Plum Creek.
� Vide North Buffalo.
** Registered, June 9, 1877.
***The mill was burned in October, 1876.
****James Noble, by his will, dated August 22, and registered September 29,
1878, devised his farm, consisting of the above-mentioned parcels, to his
wife, during the rest of her life, and after her death, one-half to his son,
and the other half, “share and share alike”, to his three daughters.
*****Vide West Franklin.
******See Red Bank township.
*******Vide West Franklin.
********Elizabeth and Mary McKinley conveyed 48 acres and 35 perches of this
tract to Solomon Hooks, April 6, 1877, for $1,000.
*********See Washington township.
**********Who by his will, dated June 28, 1879, registered April 24, 1880,
devised to his sons Ross and William the western portion of the original tract
where was the old mansion-house in which his father had lived, and 40 acres
off the part on the east side of Glade run on which he, the testator, was then
residing, which quantity he directed to be equally divided between them, and
to his youngest son Andrew the rest of the farm on which he was living at the
date of his will, and to his son John the 50 acres which he bought off the
Leasure tract.
************Vide Freeport, Kittanning borough.
*************Vide South Buffalo.
**************Afterward increased to 85.

Source: Page(s) 496-521, History of Armstrong County,
Pennsylvania by Robert Walker Smith, Esq. Chicago: Waterman, Watkins &
Co., 1883.
Transcribed March 2001 by Lisa Strobel for the Armstrong County Smith Project.
Contributed by Lisa Strobel 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.

Source: Page(s) 496-521, History of Armstrong County,
Pennsylvania by Robert Walker Smith, Esq. Chicago: Waterman, Watkins &
Co., 1883.
Transcribed March 2001 by Lisa Strobel for the Armstrong County Smith Project.
Contributed by Lisa Strobel 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.

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