Mahoning Township
Armstrong County Pennsylvania
History
Mahoning Township
Mahoning township was established in 1851 being formed from parts of
Madison, Pine, Wayne and Red Bank townships and contains about 25 square
miles. The earliest white settlers were William R. Hamilton and John Kuhn in
1787. Mahoning Iron Furnace was built in 1845 by the Colwell brothers.
In 1833, David Putney purchased 1,000 acres from the Holland Land Company and
became the founder of Putneyville.Oakland
This town was called “Texas” in 1848 by Joseph Moorhead, the
owner of the tract. It was changed to Oakland by William R. Hamilton in 1854,
who laid out the lots and make the sales. The assessment for Oakland in 1850
gave the number of taxables as eight and the total valuation as $772. The name
was changed to Distant in 1918. The Oakland Classical & Normal
Institute, under the principalship of Lebbins J. Shoemaker, A. B., a graduate
of Princeton, was opened in the first story of the Red Bank Baptist Church of
Oakland in 1877.South Bethlehem
William R. Hamilton founded the town of South Bethlehem in 1874 on land
purchased from the Holland Land Company by Lewis Daubenspeck in 1811.Â
The population of Mahoning Township in 1860 was 1,446. The number of taxables
in 1876 was 426, indicating a population of 1,954.
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