Area History: Fulton County, 1884, Fulton County, PA, Part 5, pp. 632-647

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___________________________________________________________
                                     
                                     HISTORY
                                       of
                                BEDFORD, SOMERSET
                                       and
                                 FULTON COUNTIES,
                                  PENNSYLVANIA.

                  With Illustrations and Biographical Sketches
                                 of some of its
                           PIONEERS AND PROMINENT MEN.

                     Chicago: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1884

                                 CHAPTER LXXXVI.

                                   AYR AND TOD.

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Its Organization - Original Area - Progressive Curtailment - Orthographical 
Changes in Names - Early History and Settlement - Changes in Name of Valley - 
Date of First Settlement - Expulsion of Settlers - Great Cove Devastated 1755 - 
First Public Road - James Buchanan's Birthplace in Old Ayr - The McConnells, 
Where Located - How Land Was First Held - Subsequent Land Titles - David Scott's 
Warrant the Oldest - David Scott as a Public Spirited Man - Earliest Land Titles 
- Early Settlements in (now) Tod township - Early Pioneers - Personal Mention - 
Tradition - First Schoolhouse and Burying-Ground - First Church - Church 
Histories - Iron works and Iron Ores - Ayr in 1773 and 1883 - Ayr and Tod in the 
Great Rebellion - The "Battle of Ayr" - The Women of the Great Cove.

AYR TOWNSHIP - ITS ORGANIZATION - ORIGINAL COUNDS, AND PROGRESSIVE CURTAILMENT.

TO write the complete history of Ayr township and the earlier settlement of the 
territory comprised within its original bounds would be to write the history of 
that part of Fulton county lying east of the summit of Side-

[633]

ling hill, and north of the Maryland line, as well as that part of Huntingdon 
county now embraced in Dublin, Shirley, Tell, Cromwell, Springfield, Clay, and 
part of Cass, and probably part of Union townships of that county; as, also, 
that part of Franklin county now embraced in Warren township (Little Cove), 
parts of Peters and Metal, and possibly part of Fannet townships, covering at 
the time of the organization of Ayr, an area almost equal to the State of Rhode 
Island, and fully double the present area of Fulton county.  To do this would 
exceed the limits prescribed for this sketch and must therefore limit the 
history of Old Ayr - the "Mother of Townships."
  The name of the township has been variously written at different stages of its 
existence.  The first record of it is Aire.  Since then it has passed through 
various styles of orthography, as Ear, Eyre, Eyer, Ayre, Are, Air, and finally 
has settled down, nearly universally, to the more correct and classical AYR; 
although there are still some who adhere to the last preceding orthography - 
Air.
  The territory, as above described, had its first municipal life in Cumberland 
county, as Aire township.  The exact date of its organization is not known.  At 
the time (1750) of the organization of Cumberland county, this territory was yet 
the unpurchased domain of the Indian, but on the 7th of July, 1754, the Penns, 
by their agents, purchased it from the chiefs of the Six Nations and it at once 
became a part of Cumberland county.  The Great Cove and contiguous parts were 
then, and had been for a long time, settled by a considerable number of 
adventurous pioneers, and it is reasonable to assume that as soon after 
"Purchase of 1754" as the case could be reached by court proceedings, the 
township was organized.  The Sessions Docket of the Cumberland county court, on 
the 21st of July, 1761, by the list of constables, shows that there were fifteen 
townships in all the vast territory covered by that county, extending from the 
South mountain to the Alleghenies and from the Maryland line to the Susquehanna, 
and tht Aire, Fannet, Lack, Tyrone, and perhaps one or two others, were the 
organized townships in the then recently purchased territory west of the 
Kittatinny mountain, showing that Ayr had at that date a complete municipal 
organization and was among the first, if not the very first, township created in 
the "Purchase of 1754."
  At October sessions, 1767, of the Cumberland county court, Ayr was divided and 
Dublin township erected out of the northern end, Ayr being thus shorn of nearly 
half her territory.  The next reduction of Ayr was the erection of Bethel 
township, January 12, 1773, shortly after Bedford county was organized.  Belfast 
township came next; the exact date not ascertained, but it was erected prior to 
1795 and not earlier than 1790.  March 29, 1798, the Little Cove, then in Ayr 
township, was detached and annexed to Franklin county.  Licking Creek township 
followed, September 21, 1837.
  Ayr township was now confined, in the main, to the Great Cove, having a length 
of from eighteen to twenty miles and an average breadth of about four miles, and 
thus remained until March 20, 1849, when Tod township, the last, but not the 
least fair, of Old Mother Ayr's family, was born.  This reduced the township, 
that originally covered an area of from eight hundred to nine hundred square 
miles, to about forty-six; and she is yet the fairest of the family.

                         EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND HISTORY.

  Much of the early history of Ayr township is necessarily embodied in the 
general history of Fulton county, to which the reader is referred.  This sketch 
will now be confined to the township as it is at this writing, as nearly as may 
be; but as the Great Cove was a conspicuous factor in the history of the state a 
century and a half ago, and as Ayr township embraced the entire valley until Tod 
township was erected, only some thirty odd years since, in speaking of the Great 
Cove both Ayr and Tod townships must be included.
  In later years the qualifying adjective "Great" was dropped, and this valley 
was known for years as "McConnell's Cove," by reason of the prominence of the 
McConnell families, who were of the earliest settlers.  More recently, however, 
and at the present time, the name universally employed is "Big Cove."
  The precise date of the first settlement of the Great Cove is not known, but 
it dates back certainly twenty years beyond the purchase of 1754, and possibly, 
to 1730.  Benjamin Chambers' settlement on the Conococheague, where Chambersburg 
now is, was begun in that year (1730).  But further westward, under the very 
shadow of Kittatinny, at or in the immediate

[634]

vicinity of the place where Mercersburg now is, and near the gateway through the 
Kittatinny mountain, early known as Larraby's Gap, but now as Cove Gap, was a 
settlement so far antedating Col. Chambers' settlement that the requirements of 
the settlers justified the building of a mill in 1729, by James Black.  From 
this settlement, which in that early day, was probably the farthest west in the 
Cumberland valley, and nearest the border that separated the white settlers from 
the Indian domain, no doubt radiated the early pioneers to the Great Cove 
through Larraby's Gap. The stream of water flowing through that gap, now known 
as Black run, is noted in the early surveys as Larraby's run.
  That this theory of the first settlers in the Great Cove is correct, is 
manifest from the similarity of names.  Allison, Armstrong, Alexander, 
McConnell, Patterson, Reynolds, Stevens, Scott, Smith and others are names which 
appear prominently in the earliest settlements, alike on the western border of 
the Cumberland valley and in the Great Cove, and that both settlements were 
nearly cotemporaneous is hardly controvertible.  It went for naught with these 
intrepid Scotch-Irish spirits that the territory they were invading was yet the 
unsold domain of the Indian.  The love of adventure and the desire to possess 
the rich lands of this beautiful valley overcame all other considerations.  The 
friendly relations at that time existing between the whites and the Indians for 
a time gave the pioneers immunity against molestation of any serious character 
from the red man.
  But in due time he began to regard this intrusion with suspicion and jealousy, 
and trouble came.  Savage though he was, he yet desired to hold sacred his 
treaty obligations with his pale-faced brothers, and so, after years of 
submission to the intrusion, he appealed to the proprietary government for the 
sanctity of the treaty by the expulsion of the intruders, which was done in 
1750, a full account of which is given in the general history, to which the 
reader is directed.  But these rugged frontiersmen again returned, preferring to 
confront danger from the savage foe rather than remain within the pale of 
protection from the provincial government, although much of the finest land in 
the Cumberland valley was yet unappropriated by settlers.  A reasonable theory 
for this is, that in that locality warrants must be obtained and the land paid 
for as a condition precedent to the appropriating it; while in the Great Cove it 
could be had without these preliminaries, and held, perhaps for years, before 
the Indian title would be extinguished and such a demand be made on them.  For 
awhile these things worked out to their expectations with reasonable smoothness.  
As before stated, these lands were purchased from the Indians in 1754, and Ayr 
township was created soon thereafter.  By this treaty and purchase the Indians 
claimed they were defrauded.  They became discontented and lost faith in the 
honor of the white man, whom they had previously trusted.  The French and the 
English were then at war, and the French speedily availed themselves of the 
situation and arrayed the Indians against the English, and after the defeat of 
Braddock, July 9, 1755, turned their savage allies loose upon the frontiers, by 
which the Great Cove was devastated in the latter part of October in that year.  
For detailed account of this and what transpired in the cove during the 
following decade, the reader is again referred to the general history.
  Among the early settlers in this valley, now Ayr and Tod townships, were, 
besides those before named as corresponding to like names in the frontier 
settlements in the Cumberland valley, the McConnells - Adam, Robert, William and 
Daniel.  The McConnells were prominent in, and among the earliest settlers of, 
the Great Cove, but all trace of them has disappeared from the valley and the 
township.  In 1761 William was one of the supervisors of Ayr Township (Reis 
Shelby being the other). In that year the Cumberland county court, on the 
favorable report of the viewers, of whom Francis Patterson and James Smith of 
Ear township were part, granted a "bridle road" from Carlisle, by way of 
Larraby's (now Cove) Gap, to the foot of Sideling Hill, to intersect the 
Provincial road, and ordered the said supervisors of Ear township to open the 
same from Larraby's Gap to said Provincial road, and that they "do have the said 
road completed with all convenient speed."  This, so far as the records show, 
was the first public road opened by order of court through Ayr township, which, 
at that time, was yet unshorn of any part of its original area.  This road, too, 
passed through Stony Batter, then in Ear township, and since become famous as 
the birthplace of James Buchanan, fifteenth president of the United States.

[635]

  Adam McConnell, the father, settled on the land now owned by William Warthin; 
Robert settled on the farm now owned by William M. Patterson, and William and 
Daniel settled on the tract where now stands McConnellsburg.
  The restless spirit of adventure induced William to sell out to Daniel, at an 
early day, and "go west."  Daniel became the founder of the town, died there and 
was buried in the old burial-ground on the farm of Jacob Hykes.  The writer of 
this sketch had some interesting correspondence in 1876 with Adam McConnell, a 
grandson of the founder of McConnellsburg, and then residing in Armstrong 
county, Pennsylvania.  These letters were handed to the general historian and 
their substance embodied in the chapter devoted to McConnellsburg.
  It is pertinent here to say, parenthetically, that the proprietary government 
did not issue any warrants or other rights for land west of the Kittatinny (now 
known as North) mountain prior to 1754, as the Indian title to these lands was 
not extinguished until July 6 of that year, but that much of the land in the 
Great Cove was occupied and held on claims long before that date has already 
been shown and is evidenced by the fact that in 1750 the settlers on these 
Indian lands had become so numerous as to excite the jealousy of the Indians, 
upon whose complaint the proprietary authorities drove these intruders out, or 
so many of them as could be found.  But most of them speedily returned and other 
pioneers rapidly followed.  Among actual settlers, claims staked out were 
religiously respected, and on these claims most of the settlers held their lands 
for years, even after the land was opened to entry.  From the first to the 
present time, with the exception of a brief interval from 1761 to 1769, the 
system of obtaining title to land in this state was by warrant.  Under this 
system the land applied for must be paid in advance, which, even at the low 
price of land, many were not able to do.  To meet this difficulty and to 
encourage rapid settlement and improvement, the proprietaries, in 1761, 
established a system of taking land on "application," by which land was sold on 
indefinite credit, the purchase money running at a low rate of interest, and to 
be a lien on the land.  This system remained in vogue until 1769, and under it 
much of the land in Ayr township, as also in other localities, was appropriated, 
and, with few exceptions, these are the earliest and oldest land titles in this 
valley; but these same lands in most, if not all, cases had been held from ten 
to thirty years on "improvement claims."  This explains the apparent discrepancy 
between the date of early land titles and the earlier settling in the Great 
Cove.  Where persons were able to pay they preferred taking land on warrant, and 
there are some of these titles that date back farther than the application 
titles; notably that of David Scott, warranted in 1749, surveyed 1760, lying 
south of McConnellsburg and "calls" to adjoin William and Daniel McConnell's 
land, which was warranted and surveyed only in 1762, showing that the McConnells 
were in possession of and used that tract of land long before they obtained 
title from the proprietaries.  The evidence of this is that the McConnells were 
among the settlers expelled from the Great Cove in 1750.
  David Scott's is the oldest warrant in Ayr township, so far as investigation 
has revealed.  But David Scott's right to the land was disputed by Samuel 
Burge's warrant, dated February 3, 1755.  Scott settled this difficulty by 
purchasing Burge's claim*  Adjoining David Scott's land on the west is a tract 
warranted to James Galbraith, February 20, 1755, now owned in parts by John B. 
Hoke, G. N. Hoke and others.  Five miles south of this is a tract granted by 
proprietary warrant to William Sloan and Alexander Nisbet, June 11, 1767, which 
is still in possession of the descendants of the warrantees.  Four miles farther 
down the valley, where formerly were the Hanover Ironworks, now Elysian Mills, 
John Rannells, Esq., located a warrant dated June 9, 1763.  About three years 
ago a storm blew down an ancient apple-tree on the property.  The tree was 
slightly decayed at the heart, but so far as could be determined the growths of 
the wood counted one hundred and twenty-three years, making no estimate of the 
decayed part, showing that the land was occupied, improved, and fruit-trees 
planted some years before a warrant was obtained.  The present stone mansion on 
this property was built in 1808.  The original improvements have all been 
obliterated.  The warrants above recited are known as proprietary.
  Distributed pretty thickly throughout the
_______
* In votes of Assembly V. 297, it is recorded that "in 1763 David Scott gave his 
bond to pay and maintain twenty-seven men of a scouting party for three months, 
during which time they repulsed the Indians who made attempts on the Great Cove, 
and the inhabitants got their crops reaped."

[636]

Cove and within the present limits of Ayr township are lands granted from 1766 
to 1769, both inclusive, on application, with present owners' names, where 
definitely known, given in brackets in the following resume, running from 
McConnellsburg southward: Daniel McConnell - partly in Tod - [D. T. Fields, et. 
al.], James Liddle; James Cunningham (two tracts) [Christian Martin, Jacob 
Hykes, et al.], David Scott (two tracts besides the one on earlier warrant), 
Robert Hammel, Martha Hunter, "alias Swan, alias Scott," James Poak, James 
Galloway [William Nesbit, J. G. Tritle, et al.], Adam McConnell [William 
Warthin], John Kerr [Rev. F. W. McNaughton, J. Finlay Johnston], Robert 
McConnell [William M. Patterson and Rev. F. W. McNaughton, at Webster Mills], 
Bryan and John Coyle [John F. Kendall], Owen Owen [the old Taggart place], James 
and John McKinley [late Col. James H. Johnston, John Sowers], James Wilson 
[Joseph B. Mellott], Mary Brackenridge [John Hege], William Beatty [Widow 
Hendershot].  Returning to Webster Mills, thence down the Cove creek, noted in 
the early surveys as East Branch on Licking creek, we have, first under this 
system of granting rights, the tract granted to William Smith, Samuel Findley 
and William Marshall [patented to Daniel Royer, and now owned by Rev. L. 
Chambers, Benjamin Fisher, George Mellott, Dr. P. McCauley Cook, et. al.], 
Jeremiah Stilwell [Mrs. Magdalena Pott's heirs], Samuel Gib [Jonathan Hess, et 
al.], James Mitchell [Thomas Humbert].
  Next to the few proprietary warrants previously noted, these application 
rights are the oldest within the present bounds of Ayr township.  This system of 
granting lands on indefinite credit was abandoned some time during 1769, and 
thenceforth land was sold only on warrants and for cash, and the titles to all 
lands in this township, as elsewhere, granted after 1769 rest on warrants.
  In that part of the Great Cove north of the turnpike and now embraced in Tod 
township, the settling was cotemporaneous with that part south of the turnpike, 
and the lands there were settled and held in like manner before the 
extinguishment of the Indian title, and subject to the same interruptions by 
both the civil authorities and the Indians.
  Among the oldest, if not the very oldest, land-office rights within Tod 
township is the farm of the late Dr. Jacob S. Trout, deceased, which was granted 
to John Queery by proprietary warrant, dated September 8, 1755.  Adjoining this 
is the farm of George C. Scott, originally granted to Alexander Queery on 
application, dated May 8, 1767; and the farm of John M. Sloan, originally 
granted to James Rhea on application dated April 2, 1767.
  In the northerly end of the Great Cove, in Tod township, the early settlements 
were cotemporaneous with those in and about McConnellsburg, warrants for land on 
Licking Creek Flats having been issued as early as 1762-3 to Patrick Maxwell, 
James Maxwell, David McCrory, Edward Head, Bigger Head, Edward Lingenhead, et 
al.  Much of these lands now belong to the descendants of the late David Fore, 
deceased, of later advent into the Great Cove from Maryland, and who, in 1828, 
was one of the representatives in the legislature of Pennsylvania from Bedford 
county.  About a decade later, his brother, H. H. Fore, was also elected to the 
legislature.
  In the northerly end of the Great Cove (Tod township), on land now owned by A. 
J. Fore and formerly known as the Comerer farm, there was, in the time of the 
above-named early pioneers, erected a private stockade fort, as a refuge for the 
frontier settlers during Indian disturbances.  A similar fort also existed on 
the farm of the late James Kendall, two miles south of McConnellsburg.
  This territory, until recently in Ayr, but now included within the bounds of 
Tod township, can justly be proud of two of its sons, who have won distinction 
and honor in science and statecraft.
  Prof. John H. Tice, of St. Louis, Missouri, recently deceased, grew to manhood 
here, and went hence to wider fields to seek fame and fortune, and was 
successful in both.  He was in every sense a self-made man, and became prominent 
as an electrician, meteorologist, astronomer and mathematician.  Interesting 
incidents of his boyhood could be related if space permitted.  Among his school 
companions and neighbors he was accounted lazy.  They did not know the active 
brain of the boy, but have since learned to know him as a man of superior 
talents and of indefatigable industry and energy.
  Hon. Francis Jordan, like Prof. Tice, is essentially a self-made man, and, 
like him, sought wider fields, but within his native state.  He

[637]

was born where Rev. Mr. Rose lives, in (now) Taylor township, this county.  He 
early came, with his father, to the Cove, and grew to manhood on the farm now 
owned by Daniel E. Fore, Esq., in Tod township.  Thence he went to Bedford and 
studied law.  In due time he was sent to the state senate, where he speedily 
took rank among the able men of that body, and from that time forward he was a 
conspicuous figure, not alone in his own section, but throughout the entire 
state, in politics and statesmanship.  He was among the earliest to espouse the 
cause of the new-born republican party, and with energy and ability fought its 
battles in its dark days, and contributed largely to win for it a place in the 
arena of national politics.  His services, talents and statesmanship were 
recognized by his friends, and he was brought prominently before the people as a 
candidate for governor.  But being a man of unswerving integrity, incapable of 
stooping to the intrigues of the professional or "practical" politician, he 
twice failed of the nomination which he had so richly merited at the hands of 
the party he helped to cradle into existence and nurture into vigorous and 
triumphant manhood.
  Mr. Jordan received his political inspirations and training in the Henry Clay 
school of politics, and believed in the principles and rectitude of that great 
man who said he "would rather be right than be president"; and on this principle 
he has uniformly acted.  He was, during the two terms of Gov. Geary's 
administration, secretary of the commonwealth; and the writer of this heard Gov. 
Geary say that Mr. Jordan was "an able, conscientious, clearheaded statesman, a 
wise counselor and a just man."
  Besides this, Mr. Jordan has held other position of honor and trust, in which 
large responsibilities were involved, with entire acceptability to others and 
credit to himself.
 With the close of Gov. Geary's terms of office, Mr. Jordan retired from active 
politics, has since then resided at Harrisburg, has devoted himself wholly to 
his profession and has built up a large and lucrative practice from all parts of 
the state.
  At the time the present Chief-Justice Mercur was nominated for judge of our 
supreme court, the next highest on the last ballot was Francis Jordan, and close 
up to the figure that nominated Mercur, although he was not a candidate and his 
name had not been mentioned for the place until a few days before the meeting of 
the convention.
  Mr. Jordan is an honor to his native county and state, and Tod township, the 
youngest and fairest of "Old Mother Ayr's" family, may justly feel proud of her 
honored and distinguished sons, Francis Jordan and John H. Tice.

                                 EARLY PIONEERS

  As already stated, the precise date of the first advent of pioneers into the 
Great Cove is involved somewhat in uncertainty.  Amid the haze that veils the 
early part of the century and a half that has lapsed since that time, we must 
deduce facts from cotemporary events and concurrent history.  Dates of the 
oldest land titles in this case, at least, cannot establish the point of time 
when the pioneers began settling west of the Kittatinny mountains, as no 
locations by sanction of the provincial authorities could be made before the 
Indian title was extinguished.  This was the policy of the Penns.  Non-
descriptive warrants might have been issued which the warrantee might have 
purposed to plant in this valley; as may have been the purpose in David Scott's 
case, but no survey would or could be made by any authorized surveyor until the 
title to the land was obtained from the aboriginal owner.  Scott's warrant was 
issued in 1749, and the inference is that he had already located in this valley, 
but the survey thereon was not made until 1760.  As it is, this is the oldest 
official survey in the valley - John Queery's not having been made until 1767.  
That Scott had been here more than a decade before he had his survey made, 
selected his location and then obtained the warrant, its date (1749) proves.  
That others were in the valley long before that time as settlers is established 
by record.*
  The widow Margaret Kendall, with her two sons, John and Robert, came in very 
early; tradition among her descendants, in the fourth and fifth generations now 
living in the Great
______________
* Gov. Patrick Gordon, who died in 1736, wrote: "The progress of the white 
population toward the west continued to alarm and irritate the Indians.  The new 
settlers, impatient of the delays of the land office, or unable or unwilling to 
pay for their lands, or in search of richer soil, sought homes in districts to 
which the Indian title had not been extinguished.  Especially was this the case 
with the Scotch-Irish, who had seated themselves * * * in the Great and Little 
Coves * * * and at the Big and Little Conolloways, * * * and rapidly increased, 
in despite of the complaints of the Indians, the laws of the Province, or the 
proclamations of the Governor."  This establishes the settlement of the places 
above named, prior to 1736, and, if, in that year, the settlers had so increased 
as to "alarm and irritate" the Indians, it is entirely safe to say that the 
settlement of the Great Cove began, certainly, as early as 1730, and probably 
earlier - contemporaneously with the settlement at Mercersburg, which was prior 
to 1729.

[638]

Cove, says that her advent into this valley occurred "not later than 1735."  The 
truth of this tradition will hardly be challenged when it is stated that right 
around the primitive hearthstone of this lion-hearted, brave woman, her 
descendants have reached the sixth generation.  This daring woman came from 
Maryland, and laid her hearthstone and reared her altar in the wilderness, on 
land now the property of Hon. Daniel Logan.  There she died and was buried in 
1750.  A rough stone was erected at her grave, on which was rudely carved, 
"M.K., 1750," which the ravages of one and a third centuries have nearly 
effaced.
  In the same year, 1750, her son Robert was one of the white settlers evicted 
by the sheriff of Cumberland county as an intruder on Indian lands, and, with 
others, was placed under bond to the proprietaries, not to trespass farther on 
the Indians' domain.  John, with others, no doubt, eluded the sheriff and 
remained.  Subsequently Robert sold his landed interests to John and emigrated 
to Kentucky.  On the adoption of a slavery constitution there he moved to Ohio 
and is the progenitor of an almost innumerable line of descendants in Ohio, 
Indiana, Illinois and Iowa, while many of John's descendants, a numerous 
progeny, have adhered to the Great Cove with remarkable tenacity and have been 
prosperous.  It is a noteworthy fact that the proprietary right to the land 
first settled on by the widow Kendall (and held in the family for fifty years 
without title) was not obtained from the state until April 13, 1785, when it was 
warranted in the name of Robert Kendall.
  Of others among the early pioneers the names have already been mentioned in 
recounting old land titles; many of these have long since disappeared from the 
Cove, and of many others not even a trace of blood remains under other names.  
The names of others of the early pioneers still preserved in Ayr township 
directly are Alexander, Hunter, Hess, Kendall, Nelson, Patterson, Pittman, Sloan 
and Taggart.  Indirectly, the Gibsons and the Coyles are represented by the 
Kendalls, Alexander Nesbit by John Peoples and the Nelsons and Conrads, John 
Kerr by Jacob S. Pittman's family, and the Rankins by the Misses Mary and Nancy 
Hunter.  The Alexanders, among the very earliest of the pioneers, have all 
disappeared except the family of Andrew, the last of the old stock of the 
Alexanders in the Great Cove.
  The name of Hunter is still preserved in George A. Hunter, grandson of the 
original plant in this valley, and son of David Hunter, who was a picturesque 
character in this township during the latter part of the last and the first half 
of the present century; a useful man in the community; a man of large public 
spirit and untiring energy, always engaged in enterprises profitable to himself 
and affording remunerative employment to mechanics and laboring men.  He was a 
representative in the legislature in 1836, when this was yet Bedford county.
  George A. Hunter, on his mother's side, is a direct descendant from the 
Cromwells.
  William Sloan settled here sometime during the Indian disturbances, between 
1755 and 1764; was, with others, driven out by Indians, but returned to his 
"claim" as soon as quiet was restored by Col. Boquet's victory over the Indians 
in 1763 and their complete subjugation in 1764.  His name is still preserved in 
his posterity of the second, third, fourth and fifth generations, now residing 
on the original homestead.
  Charles Taggart, though not of the earliest, was among the ante-revolutionary 
settlers in Ayr township and was a patriot soldier during that struggle, was 
taken prisoner, carried to England and endured great suffering; returned to 
America, and was subsequently a captain in the troops called out to suppress the 
whisky insurrection.  The sword he wore still remains in the family.  The name, 
once numerous, survives now only, in the Great Cove, in the daughter and only 
child of the late Charles Taggart, the last of the old race of that name.
  Of others of the original pioneers, the Stewarts, Smiths, Reynolds, Gibs, 
Stilwells, McKinleys, McClellans, Poaks, Hammells, Galloways, and many others, 
there is neither record nor tradition from which to collate either incident or 
biography.
  Col. William Patterson was a native of Scotland.  He was one of the pioneers 
of the cove, and located on the farm now owned by his grandson, Thomas 
Patterson, of McConnellsburg, long prior to the revolution.  The family were 
several times driven from their home by the Indians.  William Patterson was an 
orderly sergeant in the revolutionary war; served in the first legislature under 
the constitution of 1799.  He dined by invitation with President Washington, and 
was commissioned a justice of the 

[639]

peace and colonel of the militia by Gov. Mifflin.  He died upon the old 
homestead, aged nearly one hundred years.  His son Jeremiah was born in the cove 
in 1776; he died in Ohio.  Jeremiah, John, William and Thomas were the sons, and 
Jane (Patterson), Polly (Morrow) and Sally (Proudfit), the daughters.  John 
lived and died on the old homestead, and Thomas on an adjoining farm.  Two sons 
of Thomas are residents of the county - Thomas, of McConnellsburg, and William 
H., of Webster's Mills.  A third son, John, now deceased, lived in this county.
  John Hendershot was born and reared in Bethel township.  In 1844 he married 
Elizabeth Powell.  In 1867 he removed from Bethel to Ayr township, having 
purchased three hundred and thirty acres of land in the "corner."  Mr. 
Hendershot died in 1873.  His widow still resides upon the farm, which is 
managed by her son, Isaac P. Hendershot, who also has a reputation as one of the 
best hunters in Fulton county.
  The Pittmans, of Scotch descent, were among the earliest settlers in the cove.  
Their location was in Ayr township, near the present site of Pott's gristmill.  
Samuel Pittman was born in Ayr township in 1797 and died in 1883.  He married 
Mary Smith, of this township, and reared a family of six children: Susanna 
(Cypher), Margaret (Eberly), deceased, George, Jacob, Elizabeth (McGovern) and 
Sarah (Snyder).  Jacob married Sarah Ann Kerr in 1861.  He is one of the 
prosperous farmers of Ayr township.
  James H. Johnston, born in 1796, came from Franklin county in 1823 and 
purchased two hundred and forty acres of land, upon which he settled.  Mr. 
Johnston was a man of remarkable physical strength and intellectual vigor.  He 
once walked from his home in Ayr township to Leavenworth, Kansas, and returned, 
making seventy miles per day.  He took with him only forty dollars, and of this 
he had eighteen dollars left when he reached home.  During the war he was one of 
the most patriotic men in the county.  When he was seventy years old he walked 
from his home to Bloody Run (Everett) to notify Gen. Milroy that the rebels were 
approaching the Big Cove.  Mr. Johnston also possessed a mind stored with 
valuable knowledge.  For ten years he was engaged as a contractor on the 
Chesapeake & Ohio canal and on the Baltimore and Ohio railroad.  He was married 
in 1823 to Nancy Rankin, of Franklin county, who, at the age of eighty-two 
years, still survives him.  Mr. Johnston died in 1879.  Children: Marion E. 
(Johnston), Thomas, Mary A. (Huston), Archibald W., John, Ann (deceased), J. 
Walker, Samuel H. and Anna C.  J. Walker Johnston enlisted in Co. F, 77th regt. 
Penn. Vols., in 1861, entering the service as a private; he was promoted to 
first lieutenant.  He resigned and returned home in 1865.  The same year he 
married Eliza J. Morrow, of Allegheny county, Pennsylvania.  Mr. Johnston is 
engaged in farming, and owns six hundred acres.
  John Peoples, Sr., and his son James came from County Donegal, Ireland, to 
Virginia, where they remained a few years, then settled in Ayr township, Fulton 
county, about 1802.  John Peoples, Sr., purchased two hundred acres of land from 
Alexander Nesbit.  In 1832 he died, at the age of eighty-six.  His children were 
Mary, Peggy, Susan (Gaut), Jane and James, all now dead.  James married Susan 
Nesbit in 1804.  He inherited his father's farm.  His children were Jane 
(deceased), Mary (Nelson), John, Alexander, Johnson, David (deceased), Martha 
(deceased) and Rebecca (Conrad).  John Peoples, son of James, was born in Ayr 
township in 1809, and has resided on the old farm all his days.  He owns five 
hundred acres of land.
  James F. Johnston, son of Archibald Johnston, was born and reared in Ayr 
township.  In February, 1881, he married Elizabeth M. Morrow, of Urbana, Ohio.  
In March of the same year he purchased the farm of one hundred and ninety acres, 
on which he now lives.  Mr. Johnston was engaged in school-teaching for several 
years.
  Vandall Stouteagle was born in Ayr township in 1818.  He learned the milling 
trade of Andrew Fox at Webster Mills, and has since followed that occupation.  
He married Mary Bowers, of Ayr township, in 1846.  Children: Rebecca (Ott), 
Edward, George, Anna (Willis).  Edward Stouteagle learned the miller's trade 
with his father and still follows it.  He also has a farm of one hundred and 
five acres.  In 1868 he married Martha Lynch, of Ayr township.
  John B. Patterson was born in Ayr township in 1818.  In 1847 he purchased a 
farm of three hundred acres on Big Cove creek.  The follow-

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ing year he married Ann G. Hunter, by whom he reared one child, Thomas E.  Mrs. 
Patterson died in 1853.*  In 1858 Mr. Patterson married Isabel N. Milligan, of 
Mercersburg, who survives him.  Children: John L., William C., Mary C. and 
Bessie.  Mr. Patterson died in 1862.  His widow and children reside upon the old 
homestead.
  John Sowers was born in Frederick county, Maryland, and came to Bedford county 
in 1826, when but sixteen years of age.  He learned blacksmithing with his uncle 
in St. Clairsville, and worked at his trade in that place until 1834.  He then 
located at Webster Mills, where he followed his trade until 1845.  He then 
purchased a farm, which he sold in 1856, and in its stead bought three hundred 
and fifty acres of Barney Howser.  Mr. Sowers was married in 1834 to Margaret, 
daughter of Paul Bloom, of Timber Ridge.  Children: Eleven, of whom six are 
living, viz.: John, David, Jacob, George, Martha J. (Wagner) and Matilda 
(Helman).
  Conrad Glazier, a native of Germany, came to Franklin county, Pennsylvania, at 
the age of twenty-one.  In 1862 he settled in Ayr township, having purchased of 
Jacob Laymaster a farm of two hundred and fifty acres.  Mr. Glazier has followed 
farming all his life.  His farm, well improved, is situated in the picturesque 
spot known as the Corner, in Ayr township.  He was married in 1849 to Barbara 
Klock, of Franklin county.  Children: Catharine (Duffy), Rebecca (Carbaugh), 
Tobias, Priscilla, Jeremiah, Anna and Conrad.
  Benjamin Fisher, an old resident, was born in Fulton county in 1804.  He was 
the son of Ludwick and Elizabeth (Crawford) Fisher.  His father died in 1856 and 
his mother in 1858.  Benjamin learned the millwright's trade, when a young man, 
in Allegheny county, Maryland, and until 1860 was engaged in its pursuit.  He 
then purchased a woolenmill of S. & J. Robinson, at which he is still engaged in 
the manufacture of woolen goods.  Mr. Fisher's mill is 32 x 38 feet, three 
stories in hight.  It contains five carding-machines, one hundred and ninety-two 
spindles, and one full set of woolenmill machinery.  In 1832 Mr. Fisher married 
Sarah Reader, of Ayr township, by whom he had two children - Elizabeth (Pittman) 
and Mary C.
  Edward E. Parker was born in Newark, New Jersey, and has resided in Newark, 
Philadelphia and Lancaster.  In 1869 he came to Fulton county, Ayr township.  In 
1876 he married Ella M. Crouse, of this township.  Mr. Parker is engaged in the 
manufacture of agricultural fertilizers.  He has held various township offices.
  A. J. Craig, son of William and Sarah Craig, was born in Ayr township in 1829.  
His father came to this country about 1820 and settled in Thompson township.  In 
1844 he purchased some real estate in Ayr township, on which he settled and 
remained until his death, in 1870, aged eighty-four years.  His wife died in 
1862, aged about seventy-two years.  They left six children.  A. J. Craig has 
been county auditor, and is at present justice of the peace.  He is a wagonmaker 
by trade, but has followed farming for the past five years.  He was married 
twice: first to Catharine Horr, who died in 1862, and, second, to Anna Carbaugh, 
who died in 1882.
  Philip Snider was born in Bavaria, Germany, in 1800.  In July, 1833, with his 
wife, Christina Donah, and his family, he emigrated to America and settled in 
Schellsburg, Bedford county, Pennsylvania.  He had learned the shoemaker's trade 
in Germany, and followed it in Schellsburg until the fall of 1835.  He then 
moved to Martinsburg, Blair county, where he resided until 1837.  He next 
located in the Great Cove, near McConnellsburg, and followed farming and 
shoemaking until his death, in 1877.  He was the father of twelve children, six 
of whom reached mature years: Jacob, Charles, Catharine (Rotz), George, Anna 
(Peck) and David.  George Snider, now a farmer in Tod township, was born in 
Schellsburg in 1834.  He worked, farming for his father until 1865, when he 
married Sarah B. Pittman and moved to McConnellsburg, where he resided a few 
years.  He then resumed farming, and in 1877 bought his present farm of one 
hundred and twenty-five acres.  Mr. Snider served as county treasurer in 18--.  
In October, 1882, he was appointed county commissioner, to fill the unexpired 
term of George McGovern, resigned.

                                   TRADITIONS.

  These are few, and are shrouded in the mists of many decades.  Tradition says 
that after the destruction of the Great Cove in 1735 by Indians, some soldiers - 
a captain and seventeen men - sent across the mountain to scout and relieve such 
of the white settlers as might be found in distress, if any, were gathered at 
the spring on the now Archibald W. Johnston farm, 
_____
* Descendant Bill Patterson's records show a death date of 6 October 1882 for 
John B. Patterson, not the 1862 death date reported in this history.

[641]

preparing breakfast, when they were surprised by Indians and all massacred, and 
were buried in an orchard on that farm.
  Of the many captives taken in the Great Cove by the Indians, or of those 
slaughtered during the eventful years following the defeat of Braddock, the 
names of but few have come down to us even through tradition.  The wife of John 
Martin, Mrs. William Alexander and a Miss Knox were among the captives.
  The final and complete triumph of Col. Boquet over the Indians in 1764 secured 
the surrender of all the captives in their hands.  Among these was Mrs. Martin, 
whose husband met her at Fort Pitt after nine years of captivity, and returned 
to the Great Cove.
  Tradition also tells of a battle with the Indians in early times in the 
Narrows (near Big Cove tannery), and a mound of stones is pointed out at the 
place of burial of the slain.  This tradition recites that a band of Indians 
encamped in that wild gorge and around a fine spring near by, and from thence 
made forays into the settlement; that a company of soldiers sent in pursuit came 
upon them, front and rear, in this narrow defile and attacked and routed them.  
This occurred after the destruction of the Great Cove in 1755, and while the 
Indians temporarily reoccupied the valley, and from this point made incursions 
into the settlements in the Cumberland valley.
  The burying-ground at Big Spring is reputed to be the first regular place for 
interment in the Great Cove.  Tradition recites that after the first general 
slaughter of white settlers by the Indians, in 1755, a number of the victims 
were gathered and buried there, and from that time to the present it has been 
continued as a place of sepulture; and there repose the ashes of many of the old 
pioneers.
  There, too, was built the first schoolhouse in the valley, and was long 
continued for school purposes, until it fell into decay.  An old lady, now 
nearly an octogenarian, and of remarkable vitality and memory, says her 
childhood recollection of that schoolhouse is that nothing remained then but the 
ruins of the chimney, and that the schoolroom had then long before been 
transferred to the "loft of a stillhouse" in the immediate vicinity.  From her 
ancestors she learned that the school teachers were employed by the year, and 
that to this "Primitive Aire Township College in the Wilderness" pupils came 
from some distance, "bringing their provisions and bedding, remaining from 
Monday to Saturday, and eating and sleeping in the schoolhouse."

                                 EARLY CHURCHES.

  Presbyterian. - The first house of worship built in the cove, so far as 
anything is known on the subject, was erected (about two miles southward of 
where McConnellsburg now stands) on land then belonging to James Cunningham, the 
original owner, but now the property of Jacob Hykes.  All trace of this church 
building has long since disappeared.  What denomination built the church is not 
certainly known.  Some claim that it was built by the Covenanters, and others 
that it was by the Presbyterians.  Nor is the date of its erection known, but 
that it was built at an early date is self-evident, as those sturdy Scotch and 
Scotch-Irish who first settled the Great Cove would not long be without a place 
of worship, whether Covenanters or Presbyterians.  The very early building of 
this church is further evidenced by the following petition, a duplicate of which 
is at hand, but which, unfortunately, is without date.  This deficiency, 
however, is supplied, as to the period of time, by the names appended, running 
from Edward Head, in the extreme northerly end, and embracing the names of many, 
as Scott, Cunningham, Queery and others, who were here certainly prior to 1750.  
In the case of some of the petitioners, they had disposed of their property 
prior to the revolution and disappeared from the valley.  Associating, 
therefore, this event with the names of the petitioners, and taking the era in 
which they were prominent in this valley (Ayr and Tod townships), it is entirely 
safe to assume that this petition was gotten up, and that that church was built, 
prior to the revolution, and quite as safe to say that it transpired during the 
decade between 1760 and 1770.  The following is the petition, verbatim:
  "To the Revd. Presbitery of Dunigall that is to meet at Rocky spring the 11th 
inst.  The humble supplication of the Inhabitants of the Great Cove Humbly 
Sheweth.  That we cannot Enough Lament Our Deplorable Condition for the want of 
the Publick Ordinances; we have not had one supply almost these Six Months & we 
know not what to do; we are well acquaint with the Revd. John Black and know 
that it was not for the Lucre of gain that Caus'd him to take

[642]

so much pains to Qualify himself for the Ministery for he might made more 
another way; but it was to Serve God and the Souls of Men.  Therefore we have 
Joined Unanimously to Call & invite him for Gods Sake to come & take the Care of 
Our Souls Upon him for we are in a perishing Condition & almost past Recovery.  
We know that this is not a presedented Call or done According to form; but we 
are sure that it is a Lawfull & an Honest One; & we hope the Rev. Presbitery 
will look upon it as such - & we hope that Mr. Black will see that he will have 
a greater Opportunity of Doing Good here than he could any Other place we know 
of; for he will have an Opportunity to go where he thinks he can the most good & 
sow the Seed beside all Waters & on the best Soil where he may Expect a good 
Crop & a plentifull Harvest.  And tho' his income be small yet him that fed five 
Thousand with five Loaves and two Fishes will Multiply his small stipends so 
that he will have more to Leave to his Children than some that has Treble his 
income for he has promised that there is none who forsakes any thing for his 
sake but he will make it up to them. - We have sent Our Trusty & well Beloved 
friend James Galloway to attend the Rev. Presbetery, and Show Our Subscriptions, 
and act, and do for us as though we were all present - We Cast ourselves on your 
Care with our Sincere prayers that the Almighty God the father of our Lord Jesus 
Christ may Direct you for his Glory and the good of his Church."
  David Scott, Daniel McConnell, Alexander Queery, James Galloway, John 
McKinley, Edward Head, Bryan Coyle, James Cunningham, Francis Patterson, John 
Cunningham, James Liddle, James Alexander, James Gibson, Wm. Alexander, Richard 
Stevens.
  Twenty-six other names are appended to the call, most of whom, with the above, 
appear in the early land titles in the Great Cove, but are omitted to save 
space, while the others are not found of record and are unknown, even by name, 
to the present generations in the valley.  This, so far as ascertainable, is the 
first record of church organization in the Great Cove among the early pioneers.  
The Presbyterians have at present not church organization in the valley outside 
of McConnellsburg.
  Associate Reformed (Seceders). - At a very early day, and probably 
cotemporaneously with the Presbyterians, as above noted, there were in this 
valley a number of people who were members of other branches of the Presbyterian 
family of churches.  These were Covenanters (Reformed Presbyterians) and 
Seceders (Associate Presbyterians), who depended for gospel ministrations on 
supplies sent them from elsewhere, and for a time worshiped in houses, barns, 
and in the open woods. At some time - there is no record preserved, if ever kept 
here - these two bodies united and formed the Associate Reformed Church, taking 
part of the name of each, and were successively supplied by Rev. Matthew Linn, 
Rev. John Young and Rev. John Linn, until about 1821-3, when Rev. Thomas B. 
Clarkson, a straight Seceder (Associate Presbyterian), made his advent in the 
Great Cove, preached, organized a Seceder church and gathered most, if not all, 
the Associate Reformed people into the Seceder organization.  Rev. Clarkson 
remained with his people as stated minister until some time in 1827.  In 1828, 
Rev. F. W. McNaughton was installed as pastor of the congregation, which, in the 
following year (1829), built for itself a substantial house of worship near 
Webster Mills.  For some years prior to this time the Associate Reformed and its 
successor, the Seceder congregation, worshiped first, in the Presbyterian church 
in McConnellsburg until debarred there, and then in the Lutheran church, in the 
same place, until the completion of their own house.
  Rev. McNaughton continued as pastor until 1858, at which time the congregation 
numbered about fifty communicant members.  In that year the union of the 
Associate Reformed and the Associate Presbyterian (Seceder) churches was 
consummated, taking the name of United Presbyterian.  The majority of this 
congregation went into the United church, but about sixteen declined going into 
the union, and maintained the old (Seceder) organization, with Rev. McNaughton 
as their minister, worshiping alternately with the United Presbyterians in the 
old church until 1879, when they built a place of worship unto themselves.  Rev. 
McNaughton continued to minister for this congregation only about one year.  
After this the pulpit of the Seceder church was without a stated minister until 
August, 1877, when Rev. S. B. Houston settled among this people as pastor.  His 
congregation at this time numbers about twenty-three communicant members.  Their 
new house is a plain but neat and attractive place, and is a credit to the 
Christian liberality of the small congregation.
  United Presbyterians. - At the time of the union which gave rise to this 
church, Rev. James Bruce became the pastor of the congregation in this valley 
and remained so for three or four years.  He was succeeded by Rev. R. G. 
Ferguson, who continued about six years, and 

[643]

then Rev. James E. Black followed, continuing until the close of 1882.  The 
pulpit at present is vacant, as to a settled pastor, but is filled at stated 
periods by able "supplies."  The present communicant membership of the 
congregation is about forty-five.  A new church edifice, more centrally located, 
is in contemplation in the near future.
  Lutheran Reformed (St. Paul's Evangelical Lutheran Church, Ayr township). - 
The organization under this name is of recent origin.  In December, 1849, near 
Big Cove tannery, Rev. William Kopp organized the congregation, the schoolhouse 
serving as a place of worship until 1871, when a neat church building was 
erected near the same place.  The original members of the newly organized 
congregation were Henry Unger, Jr., George Eitemiller, John Comerer, Philip 
Krichbaum, Joseph Pence, William Pence, James Montgomery, James Glenn, John 
Bechtel, Jacob Pence, Susan Unger, Margaret Eitemiller, Sophia Glenn, Catharine 
Krichbaum, Susan Pence, Eleanor Pence, Mary Montgomery, Hannah Suffacool.  For 
list of the several pastors who ministered to this congregation, the reader is 
referred to the history of the Lutheran church in McConnellsburg.  The present 
communicant membership is twenty-six, with Rev. B. F. Kautz, as minister.
  The Hebron congregation of the Reformed church was first organized in 1843 by 
Rev. Jacob Shade.  Among the original members were John Besore, Jacob Finafrock, 
Christian Conrad, Samuel Deem, Christian Hege, David Crouse, Jacob Lane, 
Sebastian Deem, Daniel Conrad, Joshua Stevens, John N. Irwin, Mrs. Eliza Deem, 
Esther M. Irwin, Agnes J. Irwin, Mary A. Washabaugh, Mary Ann Conrad, et. al.
  They first worshiped in a schoolhouse in that part of the township known as 
"The Corner," but in 1844 the congregation built a house of worship in the same 
locality.  This congregation, with its sister congregations in the charge, has 
repeatedly been without a stated pastor, and was, during such intervals, 
supplied from Marshall College, at Mercersburg; Rev. H. Harbaugh, D.D., Rev. 
Bernard C. Wolff, D.D., Rev. Philip Schaff, D.D., Rev. E. E. Higbee, D.D., and 
others from among the faculty and students of that church school, filling its 
pulpits on such occasions.  The stated pastors of this congregation have, in the 
order named, been: Revs. Jacob Shade (organizer), Aaron Wanner, Jeremiah Heller, 
Henry Wagner, Moses A. Stewart, D. G. Klein, John G. Wolff, Casper Scheel, C. F. 
Hoffmeier, D. W. Gerhard, J. S. Shade and J. Alvin Reber.  The last named 
removed hence a year or more ago, and since then Rev. W. M. Deatrick, of 
Mercersburg, has been regular supply to the Hebron congregation.  The present 
communicant membership of Hebron is about forty.
  The Methodists (Methodist Episcopal) have no church edifice in this township, 
but are quite numerous and have regular conference appointments, and worship 
statedly in schoolhouses.  Rev. J. C. Hewitt is the present minister.
  A sect of Dunkards (German Baptists) have a membership and a stated preaching 
in this township, worshiping in schoolhouses and the houses of the brethren.
  The old Dunkards, without any prefix or affix to their name, are also 
represented in Ayr by a few families.  This sect eschews church buildings and 
worships in houses and barns, some of the brethren being selected from time to 
time to conduct divine services among them.  They are a very devout, 
conscientious, Christian people.
  First Mill. - There is no evidence to fix definitely the site where, or the 
date when, the first mill was built within the present limits of Ayr township, 
but tradition locates the site at or near the confluence of the Meadow Spring 
run with the Cove creek, in the immediate vicinity of Dr. Cook's residence, a 
short distance below Webster Mills, which is probably correct. Later a mill was 
erected on the site where now is Benjamin Fisher's woolen-factory, and which 
appears on the assessment in 1773.

                            IRON ORES AND IRONWORKS.

  Iron ores of different varieties, in great profusion and inexhaustible 
quantities, exist in the Great Cove - Ayr and Tod townships - but are 
unavailable and valueless on account of the absence of railroad facilities to 
utilize this dormant wealth.  With railroad development the iron industry would 
become a prominent feature in this valley and would add many hundreds of 
thousands of dollars to its wealth.  Until then it must lie idle and worthless.
  During the first third of the present century extensive ironworks - extensive 
for that time - existed in Ayr township at, now, Elysian Mills.  These works 
were known as Hanover.  They

[644]

were carried on until 1847, when the business, paralyzed by adverse 
congressional action of the proceeding year, became unremunerative and were 
abandoned.  Since then the iron business has had no place among our industries.  
John Pott was the last ironmaster at these works.  The dismantling process began 
even the year previous, when the forge was torn away, and on its site he erected 
Elysian Mills.  Nothing now remains of the once busy Hanover Ironworks, except 
the old, bare furnace stack.

                            TAXABLES - 1773 AND 1883.

  In 1772, two years after this territory had been erected into Bedford county, 
and when Ayr township yet covered all of its original area, except that taken 
off by the erection of Dublin in 1767, and still including the Little Cove and 
parts of Peters and Metal townships in, now, Franklin county, the number of 
taxables, according to the assessors' return for that year, numbered one hundred 
and sixty-one, and the aggregate amount of tax levied for that year was sixty-
five pounds, sixteen shillings, sixpence.  William Hart was collector, and James 
Pollock, William Parker, James Smith and Richard Wells were assessors.  Of these 
one hundred and sixty-one taxables, forty can be identified, certainly, as then 
being within the present limits of Ayr township, as follows: Jacob Alexander, 
William Alexander, James Alexander, Thomas Armstrong, "Dr." Allison, William 
Beatty, Mary Brackenridge, James Cunningham, John Cunningham, Bryan Coyle, John 
Fitzpatrick, James Galloway, William Gaff, James Gibson, Robert Hamble, Jacob 
Hendershot, John Kendall, Conrad Kastner, Abraham Lowry, James Liddle, John 
McClelland, John Hook McClelland, John McClelland, Jr., Adam McConnell, William 
McConnell, Esq., Daniel McConnell, Alexander Nesbit, Widow Owens, Frances 
Patterson, Richard Pittman (one sawmill), Richard Pittman, Jr., Daniel Ryer 
[Royer] (one gristmill), Richard Stevens, William Smith, William Sloan, David 
Scott, Benjamin Stevens and Thomas Stevens.  In the list is Moses Reed, one 
sawmill and gristmill, the location for which has not, so far, been ascertained.
  Either a number of taxables were missed in this assessment, or they had died 
or emigrated, and others whose names are not identified with the early 
settlement had taken their places.  It is pertinent here to note, in further 
proof of the deductions of the writer, as to the period of that dateless 
petition to the Donegal presbytery, that in this year (1773) a number of the 
names of the early landowners in the Cove, to that petition, do not appear on 
the assessment; that they had either died or emigrated, and that they had signed 
that petition at some time prior to 1773.  A few among the number of the 
prominent men in the Cove, whose names are attached to that quaint petition, but 
non est in the assessment of 1773, are Robert Gibson, Benjamin McClelland, John 
McKinley, Adam Linn, John Coleman, Alexander Queery and Edward Head.
  At this time, one hundred and ten years from the time of that assessment, Ayr 
township's area is reduced to about forty-six square miles, as against over 
three hundred then, including the Little Cove, etc.  In 1882 her taxables 
numbered three hundred and fifty-three within her present bounds, and her 
aggregate state and county tax amounted to one thousand four hundred dollars, in 
round numbers, while of the county tax she alone pays very nearly the one-fifth.

                             WHO NAMED THE COUNTY.

  At the time of the passage of the act creating Fulton, Bedford county was 
represented in the lower house by John Cessna and Samuel Robinson, the latter a 
citizen of Ayr township.  Mr. Cessna antagonized the measure, while Mr. Robinson 
earnestly favored it and by his untiring zeal and personal efforts secured the 
passage of the measure through the house of representatives.  The proposed name 
of the new county was Liberty.  When the bill, as passed by the house, came to 
the senate, it was found that that body was inimical to the erection of any more 
counties in the state, and that the measure would not pass through that branch.  
There were two senators, William F. Packer, of Lycoming county, and Charles 
Frailey, of Schuylkill county, who were old, life-long and personal friends of 
John Pott, a citizen of Ayr township, but formerly of Schuylkill county.  These 
senators antagonized the bill.  Mr. Pott, who was enthusiastic for the new 
county, went to Harrisburg and made a personal appeal to his friends, who 
consented to support the bill, but Senator Packer requested the privilege of 
naming the county, which was readily accorded him.

[645]

  When the bill came up for consideration in the senate, Messrs. Packer and 
Frailey moved "to amend the bill by striking out the word 'Libery,' wherever it 
occurred throughout the same and inserting in lieu thereof the word 'Fulton,'" 
which was agreed to, and, thus amended, the bill passed the senate by the favor 
of Senators Packer and Frailey.
  In this effort Mr. Pott was earnestly seconded by Representative Robinson, to 
whose efforts the passage through the house is wholly due.
  This statement makes no invidious discrimination against other citizens who 
were active and zealous in their efforts for the new county, and free with their 
means to secure the public buildings at McConnellsburg.  It was a mere 
occurrence of events that placed Mr. Pott in the position that enabled him to 
render this service to his fellow-citizens.  He never blazoned this service in 
behalf of the new county, but now that he is no longer among the living actors, 
and having been a citizen of Ayr township, his part in the creation of Fulton 
may properly be told in this sketch.

                              AYR IN THE LATE WAR.

  The citizens of Ayr township have extraordinary reasons for remembering the 
great rebellion of 1861.  The township did not lag behind other places in 
sending volunteers and filling up its quotas on the several calls for soldiers 
for the Union armies.  There were but few families in the township in which 
there were arms-bearing men that were not represented by one or more in the 
patriot armies.  So closely was the community drained of its able-bodied men, 
that our industries (the chief being agriculture) suffered largely for want of 
laborers.  In several instances, entire families were in the service, notably, 
Glenn's; every male member of the family, James, John, Jacob B., Andrew and 
George W., all brothers, and the husbands of two of their sisters - David 
Montgomery and Henry Washabaugh - were all in the Union army.  Jonathan Hess' 
only son, Frank W., entered the service on the first call for troops, as captain 
of infantry; after expiration of three months' term, he entered the cavalry as 
second lieutenant, rose to the rank of major, and is now captain in the regular 
army.  All arms-bearing men of the Fox family, John, Jacob and Abram, were 
"out."  Other instances of wholesale soldiering, in Ayr, equally worthy of 
mention, exist, but want of space forbids enumerating all.
  While the township was thus depleted, with its strong men at the front, it 
offered a tempting field to the rebel freebooters who made frequent forays 
across the unprotected border and visited this people with oft-repeated and 
severe spoliations. Houses were sacked, barns, stores and mills plundered and 
individuals robbed.  Farmers saw their own horses hitched to their own wagons 
and loaded with their produce and driven away, in long cavalcades, across the 
unprotected border to rebeldom; their cattle, sheep and swine driven off in like 
manner; their lighter vehicles, carriages, etc., loaded with household goods, as 
bedding, wearing apparel and luxuries - involuntary "aid and comfort" to the 
enemy.  Neither age, nor youth nor sex was respected by the ruthless plunderers; 
men were compelled, helpless and defenseless, at the muzzle of the pistol, to 
deliver their purses and valuables, and some were disrobed on the public 
highway; women were despoiled of their jewelry and many little cherished 
mementos, more prized than money; and even children were robbed of their 
pennies.  These things occurred not once or twice, but repeatedly.  First came 
Jenkins, in June, 1863.  For several days wild rumors of "rebels coming" 
prevailed, and farmers had moved their stock to places of security.  A scout was 
sent out to ascertain the foundation of the rumors.  He returned and reported 
"not a rebel this side of the Potomac."  Farmers, thus reassured, returned with 
their stock and felt secure.  At early dawn next morning, Jenkins' hordes 
swooped down from the mountains into McConnellsburg, and soon his freebooters 
were scattered everywhere, up and down the valley, gathering in the booty from 
the farmers who had been lulled into repose by the report of the scout.  The 
marauding column was spread out from mountain to mountain, and swept down 
through Ayr township like a cyclone, cleaning up things generally, and passed on 
to and across the Potomac, carrying with it, out of the Great Cove, about three 
hundred horses and a large quantity of other stock.  This was just at the 
approach of harvest.  Considerable grain was destroyed, but Jenkins' main object 
in this raid was stock.  Having secured this, with many wagons which he had 
loaded with grain, etc., he passed on, leaving the farmers crippled,

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and harvest at hand, resulting in heavy loss.  Well pleased with his success, 
Jenkins' troops paid the valley a second visit, but with not quite so much 
success.  Besides Jenkins, the valley was raided by Mosby, Imboden, O'Brien and 
McCausland; the last, governed by less principle and honor than any of his 
predecessors.  Besides the forays by the freebooters, the valley was also 
visited by a brigade of Lee's invading army, just before the battle of 
Gettysburg, remaining two nights and one day.  All these visits and the 
resultant spoliations seriously and disastrously affected the industries of the 
community, and in some cases brought utter ruin to individuals.  These oft-
repeated forays and captures of the farmers' horses and other stock largely 
curtailed farm operations and, in the same degree, affected all other business.  
In brief, everything was paralyzed; a feeling of uncertainty and insecurity 
prevailed during these eventful years and all was discouragement to active 
industrial efforts.  The husbandman could "sow," but with reasonable certainty 
that the marauders would come and "reap" the results of his labor.  Yet, with 
all of these spoliations, hindrances and discouragements which an unprotected 
people on an undefended border suffered, while their brethren more remote from 
this scene of danger and unrest, and secure, were reaping a rich harvest, they 
never wavered in their loyalty and patriotism, as is attested by the number of 
soldiers sent to the Union armies, and by the prompt responses, in full measure, 
given to every demand made on them, out of their depleted stores and exchequers.
  Stuart's column of Lee's invading army, which was quartered on this community 
for nearly two days, was of a different character from that of the guerrillas 
who preceded and followed it.  They were governed, measurably, by the rules and 
laws of civilized warfare; they foraged and subsisted largely on the community, 
which is the result and consequence of war, but many acts of vandalism were also 
committed, not laid down by Vattel as admissible.  These men came to fight; did 
fight; got whipped; acknowledge it; went back, and stayed away.
  The freebooting class, from Jenkins the ravager to McCausland the incendiary, 
came not to fight, but to steal and destroy.  These marauding bodies were 
composed mainly of adventurers, whose only object was plunder and the torch.
  All the legitimate burdens of the war the border people bore in full measure 
with the balance of the state, while these spoliations, worse in kind and 
greater in degree, they suffered over and above and beyond the communities 
secured against these forays.

                               THE BATTLE OF AYR.

  Ayr township is not without war incident, aside from the frequent raids.  
Within her present bounds was fought a decisive little battle in 1863.  In the 
latter part of June of that year, just after Stuart's columns had hastily 
decamped to join Lee on his move to Gettysburg, a squad of from eighty to one 
hundred of Imboden's freebooters, under command of Capt. Irvine, boldly and 
suddenly entered McConnellsburg one morning.  There was a scouting party of 
thirty-two men of Co. A, 1st N.Y. Cav., commanded by Capt. Jones, in the town at 
the time, just arrived from Bloody Run (Everett).  Not anticipating the enemy 
near, they were dismounted and resting.  The alarm came, "The rebels are 
coming!"  Capt. Jones quickly rallied and mounted his men, saying, "I'll fight 
them"; filed into the street by which the rebels were then advancing; slowly 
retired toward the west end of the town, the enemy cautiously following.  Capt. 
Jones suddenly faced about and started on a charge.  The rebel command to charge 
was futile.  The freebooters had come to plunder, not to fight, and, though 
outnumbering Jones three to one, they broke and ran.  Jones and his men spurred 
on in hot pursuit, overhauled them in a chase of about one mile, brought them to 
bay, fought them, whipped them, killed two, wounded several, captured thirty-two 
men and thirty-three horses, and had no casualty himself but one man wounded.  
The charge started in McConnellsburg, but the scene of conflict, death and 
victory was in Ayr township, and there on the battlefield the dead are buried.  
It was the "battle of Ayr," a splendid battle between unequal numbers, the odds 
being three to one against the victor.  Capt. Jones promptly removed his 
prisoners to Bloody Run, now Everett.  In the afternoon of the same day the 
rebels returned, reinforced to three hundred to four hundred.  They pretended to 
hunt Capt. Jones, but showed no anxiety to find him.  To a blustering rebel 
officer Mr. John W.

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Greathead proposed that if he was really anxious to meet that officer, he and 
the others would inform Capt. Jones by telegraph of his desire and he (the 
rebel) should have his wishes gratified, but the valiant officer only muttered 
imprecations on the "-- Yankee --," wheeled his horse and rode away.  He wasn't 
anxious for the interview; was content with plundering, and then slunk away, 
keeping a sharp lookout, fearing "Capt. Jones of the 1st N.Y. Cavalry" might 
suddenly "bob up" somewhere, greatly to the rebels' discomfort.

                         THE WOMEN OF THE GREAT COVE.

  Any sketch of Ayr and Tod townships and the borough of McConnellsburg (and in 
this they are inseparably interwoven) would be incomplete without at least a 
passing tribute to the devoted patriotism of the women of this valley during the 
war.  In response to the calls from the Christian and Sanitary Commissions for 
hospital stores, they acted promptly and efficiently, and contributed freely and 
largely of clothing, bandages, lint, prepared fruits, delicacies, etc.  Willing 
hands, prompted by loyal hearts, were busy preparing and collecting these 
stores.  On several occasions it required great tact to conceal these from the 
plundering enemy, and on one occasion some of these stores did fall into the 
enemy's hands.  Nothing daunted, these irrepressible, loyal women promptly set 
to work to duplicate them, as far as possible, and speedily supplied what had 
been confiscated by the raiders.  It would be impossible to name all the noble 
spirits engaged in this work, and to name a few would be invidious 
discrimination, but it will not be deemed invidious to name the present of the 
Ayr Township Tributary Soldiers' Aid Society, Mrs. Margaret Kendall, nee Logan, 
who had three sons in the army.  After the raid that captured some of the 
society's stores, and when few horses were left in the valley, the younger 
members traveled on foot on this mission of mercy.  McConnellsburg was the 
central depot for the valley, but the Ayr township stores were first gathered at 
the president's house.  There were left on the Kendall property an old horse 
that the rebels did not think worth capturing and a rickety old cart of no use 
to them.  With this team the society's president conveyed the stores to 
McConnellsburg, she accompanying and aiding in the work of forwarding.  Tod 
township and McConnellsburg also were liberal in their contributions to the 
Christian and Sanitary Commissions, each vying with the others in the 
performance of a patriotic duty.  For earnest, loyal devotion and patriotic 
liberality this beautiful valley, so fearfully sacked and plundered during the 
years of the war, can challenge comparison with any other community in the state 
and maintain its claim.  No discrimination is here intended, as what is claimed 
for the Great Cove can, in kind, be claimed by other parts of the county.

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