History: Part 8 - pp. 82 - 93: S.W. and P.A. DURANT: History of Lawrence County, PA, 1877

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                           1770. --- 1877.
   
   
                     HISTORY OF LAWRENCE COUNTY, PA
   
   
                               --BY--
   
   
                       S.W. and P.A. DURANT.


                  L. H. Everts & Co., Philadelphia
   
   
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
   
   
       NESHANNOCK TOWNSHIP.
   
   [p. 82] This township forms a part of what was one of the original
   townships of Mercer county, of the same name, in 1805. The territory at
   that time included at least three of the present townships in both
   Mercer and Lawrence counties, embracing over one hundred square miles.
   It was one of the thirteen original townships of Lawrence county, and
   then included the whole of Hickory township, with portions of Union and
   Pollock townships, the latter now included in the city of New Castle.
   The present township includes an area of about eighteen square miles, or
   11,520 acres. It is bounded on the north by Wilmington and Pulaski
   townships; on the west by Pulaski, Mahoning and Union; on the east by
   Hickory township, and on the south by the city of New Castle and Union
   township. It is comparatively level in the central and northern
   portions, but more broken and abrupt as it approaches the Shenango and
   Neshannock rivers. There are Fisher's and Camp runs, and on the east are
   two small creeks flowing into the Neshannock. There are considerable
   bottom-lands on the Shenango and Neshannock rivers, which are rich and
   productive. Numerous springs abound in all parts of the township, and
   the water is excellent. Of minerals it has a large share. The greater
   portion of the township is underlaid with coal, which is extensively
   mined in the central portions, particularly in the neighborhood of Coal
   Centre. Fisher's run rises in the coal region, and its waters are
   colored red by oxides from its source to its mouth.
   
   Potter's clay abounds, and on the Watson property a pottery has been
   successfully worked form any years. Sandstone is very abundant along the
   valleys of the two rivers, and a stratum of limestone is found in the
   southern portion of the township. Iron ore is also abundant. Brick clay
   is found in many places. The workable coal lies about fifty feet below
   the surface, and is about four feet in thickness The northern margin of
   the coal lies under a stratum of slate rock about twenty feet thick,
   while the south end of the basin underlies a stratum of sandstone of
   about the same thickness.
   
   A second stratum of coal lies about sixty feet below the first, and has
   a thickness of some three feet. This has been worked very little. Lying
   between the two is a very pure vein of coal, but only about eighteen
   inches in thickness.
   
   The limestone formation lies at about the same elevation as the coal. A
   thin stratum of this stone at the bottom underlies the iron ore.
   
   The coal lies in a nearly horizontal position with a slight declination
   to the southwest. The bottom of the workable vein is somewhat
   undulating. A narrow-gauge railway runs from New Castle into the center
   of this township.* It is used exclusively for the transportation of
   coal. The township produces about 35,000 tons annually. The iron is
   known as "blue ore," and the vein is from six to eighteen inches in
   thickness.
   
   *See history of New Castle.
   
   There is fine water-power up the Neshannock at Jordan's mills, perhaps
   the best on that stream. This is all the water-power within the bounds
   of the township, the smaller ones in the lesser streams having been
   abandoned. There are no towns or villages of any considerable
   importance, with the exception of the mining town of Coal Centre, of
   which notice will be found on another page.
   
   [p. 83] The improvements are generally good, and there are some very
   fine residences. Two of the main roads from New Castle to Mercer pass
   through this township; one by way of the Old Shenango Church, and the
   other a mile and a-half east, passing through the village of
   Fayetteville, in Wilmington township. The last mentioned was the first
   one opened, and was extensively traveled until the other was opened,
   which, being somewhat shorter, took off much of the travel.
   
   There are three church organizations in the township; United
   Presbyterian, Methodist Episcopal and Primitive Methodist, a history of
   which is given elsewhere.
   
   
         EARLY SETTLERS
   
   One of the first settlers in Neshannock township was Thomas Fisher, who
   came from Westmoreland county, according to the statements of Rev.
   Thomas Greer, in November, 1798,* in company with David Riley, a young
   man then living with Fisher. Each man had a gun and an axe, and a couple
   of dogs accompanied them. They encamped the first night in the present
   Lawrence county, at a point about four miles above where New Castle now
   stands, on Camp run, near the Shenango river. They constructed a cabin
   of poles, and built a fire outside, using the cabin to sleep in, for
   fear of the wolves, which were so plenty they were obliged to take their
   dogs inside to save them from destruction by the ravenous beasts. It
   would appear that after selecting lands in the neighborhood, Fisher and
   Riley returned to Westmoreland county, where they staid over Winter, and
   in the Spring of 1799 removed to the valley of the Shenango. They came
   by way of the Youghiogheny, Monongahela and Ohio rivers, and thence up
   the Beaver river in canoes, bringing a few effects with them. Mr. Fisher
   was married, but had no children. A young woman by the name of Rebecca
   Carroll lived with the family, and came with them. Mr. Fisher also had a
   sister, who either came at the same time or some time afterwards, and
   remained with them until her death. Mr. Fisher purchased several farms
   in the vicinity, and improved them more or less, raising several crops
   without fencing. He brought along quite a number of fruit trees, which
   he planted, and some of them are still alive and bearing fruit. The
   Indians were quite plenty in those days, but they were peaceable, and
   disturbed no one. About 1808 or 1810 Mr. Fisher sold his property on
   "Camp run," where he first settled, to Rev. Wm. Young, and purchased
   land about three miles above New Castle, on a small stream now known as
   "Fisher's run," and erected a saw-mill, and afterwards a grist-mill,
   about forty rods from the Shenango river, at the place where the
   "Harbor" road crosses the run. The exact date of the building of these
   mills is not known, but it was somewhere from 1806 to 1810.
   
   *Rev. Thomas Greer married a daughter of David Riley, and received it
   from his lips. The dates do not exactly correspond with Thomas Fisher
   3rd's recollection.
   
   Mr. Fisher and his wife started on a journey to visit friends in
   Westmoreland county some years after their settlement, and Mrs. Fisher
   died suddenly on the road. They were alone, and Mr. Fisher "waked" the
   corpse in a waste-house by the roadside all night. After his wife's
   death two nieces kept house for him. Their names were McDowell. He lived
   on this place until his death, which occurred February 28, 1848, at the
   age of eighty-four years. He was found dead in his bed, and was buried
   in the little cemetry [sic] at King's Chapel. He was a very pleasant and
   affable man, and a general favorite in the community. Before his death
   he gave David Riley and Rebecca Carroll, the latter of whom afterwards
   married Samuel Farrer, each one hundred acres of land.
   
   John Fisher, a nephew of Thomas, was born at Ligonier, Westmoreland
   county, Pa. In 1788. In 1809 he removed to what is now Lawrence county.
   He took charge of his uncle's saw-mill, and operated it for some years.
   His son, Thomas Fisher the 3d, named for his grand uncle, was born at
   the mills in 1809, a short time after he came. He is now living in New
   Castle. Mr. Fisher is a practical surveyor, and has set his compass and
   planted his "Jacob's staff" in all parts of Lawrence county. John Fisher
   raised a company and took it to the field during the war of 1812-15.
   About the year 1817 he and his uncle Thomas erected a fulling and
   carding-mill at Eastbrook, now in Hickory township, on the "Hettenbaugh
   run," which was operated until about 1827. Capt. John Fisher lived at
   Eastbrook until his death in 1841.*
   
   *See history of Hickory township
   
   The Pearsons were early settlers in this township. The family is a very
   extensive one, and were originally Quakers, who came over from England
   with the celebrated William Penn in 1682. John Pearson, grandfather of
   James, Thomas, Charles, Johnson and George Pearson, together with his
   son George, made a visit to the West in the Fall of 1803, coming all the
   way from Darby, seven miles from Philadelphia, in Delaware county, where
   they resided, on horseback, through Washington, Beaver and Mercer
   counties, and returning by way of Pittsburgh. The old gentleman
   purchased altogether, in what is now Neshannock township, about one
   thousand acres of land. On this trip they visited the Fishers, who had
   been here a number of years. Thomas Pearson, Esq., of New Castle, has
   the journal kept by them on this trip. It was most probably during this
   visit that the old gentleman donated about two acres of land for church
   and burial purposes where the United Presbyterian Church stands. He
   granted the land upon conditions that it should be well kept and
   substantially fenced. The old gentleman never resided in Lawrence
   county, but made frequent visits to his lands, which included the coal
   lands on the Peebles' farm and a two-hundred-acre tract some two miles
   farther north, where Bevan Pearson first settled about 1804. The latter
   afterwards removed to Mercer, where he held several offices in the new
   county.
   
   George Pearson at first settled on two hundred acres of his father's
   land. He soon afterwards purchased a tract containing one hundred acres
   of one McClaren, and soon after purchased another tract of the same
   amount of another McClaren. The McClarens were from Ireland, and settled
   here at an early day. Subsequently, George Pearson left this section and
   lived in Charleston, South Carolina, for several years. After his return
   he married Miss Sarah Reynolds, daughter of James Reynolds, who was also
   a Quaker.
   
   It is customary among these people to publish the intentions of a couple
   wishing to marry, in the "Meeting," for some time previous to the
   marriage. In this instance there was no Quaker "Meeting" within many
   miles, and the only roads were bridle paths, and so the young couple
   made a virtue of necessity and employed Ezekiel Sankey, Esq., father of
   E. and D. Sankey, to perform the ceremony, without waiting for
   preliminaries, and the necessary arrangements were soon made and the
   "twain were made one flesh" at the house of Jesse DuShane, in New
   Castle. This was about the year 1810.
   
   The Quakers in the eastern part of the State, hearing of this violation
   of their rules, sent a deputation to the new settlement to persuade them
   that they had done a great wrong, and must confess before "Meeting" and
   have the ceremony performed a second time, according to Quaker usage.
   But the young people concluded they had done nothing very seriously out
   of character, and so refused to comply. They were accordingly solemnly
   read out of the society.
   
   Mr. Pearson lived on his farm in this township until about 1855, when he
   came to New Castle, where he afterwards died at the age of ninety-three
   years. He was a soldier in the war of 1812, and was out in Captain John
   Junkin's Company--"Mercer Blues"--who were with Harrison on Maumee and
   Sandusky rivers. After his return he was twice called out to Erie. It is
   not now known whether he held a commission or not, but it is probable.
   He went once as a substitute for his brother Thomas. He afterwards
   received a land-warrant for his services, which he located in Hancock
   county, Illinois.
   
   Thomas Pearson tells of an old man named Robb, who used to wander over
   the country many years ago. He disappeared suddenly, but as he was
   supposed to have gone to some other part of the country, nobody took
   notice of his absence, or made any inquiry for him. Thomas Falls, then a
   young man, was out hunting sometime after, on what was known as the
   five-hundred-acre tract, when he found the old man's remains on a high
   hill. His body was buried on the spot, which has ever since been known
   as "Robb's Knob."
   
   Mr. Pearson tells of getting lost one night when a boy, and wandering
   around in the darkness until he became tired, when he sat down to rest,
   and, carefully extending his hands, felt the two stones set up at either
   end of old Robb's grave!
   
   Marinus* King and his family, from Bellefonte, Centre county, Pa.,
   settled in the Fisher neighborhood about 1803. "King's Chapel" was named
   in his honor, he being one of the prominent members. He raised a family
   of seven sons and two daughters.
   
   *Spelled Merines on an old subscription paper. We follow the spelling on
   his tombstone.
   
   David Riley, heretofore spoken of, lived with Thomas Fisher until 1807,
   when he married Sarah Richards, and improved the farm adjoining Fisher's.
   
   Mr. Riley raised two children--a son and daughter. The latter afterwards
   became the wife of Rev. Thomas Green. Mr. Riley died September 18, 1870,
   aged eighty-five years, and Mr.[sic] Riley on the 20th of February,
   1872, aged ninety-one years. They had lived together sixty-three years.
   In their old age they were taken care of by their son-in-law, Mr. Greer.
   Both their children are dead.
   
   Samuel Ferver came to this location from Beaver Falls in 1806. He was a
   millwright by trade, and erected one or both of Thomas Fisher's mills.
   He married Rebecca Carroll in 1808, and lived on the farm adjoining
   those of David Riley and Thomas Fisher until his death, March 15, 1862.
   His [p. 84] wife was a member of the Methodist Episcopal Church for over
   fifty years. She died August, 1870, aged eighty-seven years. They raised
   a family of seven children--six boys and a girl. They lived together
   over sixty years. One of their son's lives on the old farm; the others
   have moved away. Rev. William Young came at an early day, probably from
   1806-07. He was a native of Ireland, and came from Centre county to this
   township. He was a great preacher of the Methodist Episcopal Church, a
   man of talent and a very acceptable minister among the people. Mr. Young
   died in 1829, aged seventy-four years. His wife died shortly afterwards.
   All these early settlers are interred in the little cemetery at King's
   Chapel. Robert McGeary, from Virginia, settled in the township about
   1803, and remained until his death, at the age of ninety-two years. He
   left a large and respectable family. Lot and William Watson, brothers,
   came from Centre county, Pa., and settled in this township about
   1806-08, on lots numbers 1854 and 1855. William built a large stone
   house about 1810-12, and Lot put up a good brick residence some years
   later upon his farm adjoining on the south. For some years after their
   arrival they lived in log cabins. They were both out in the war of 1812.
   
   Lot Watson held a State appointment on the Philadelphia and Columbia
   railway in 1856. He died a few years ago. Both the Watsons raised large
   and respectable families. William Richards, before mentioned, came,
   according to Mr. Green, in 1802, from Centre county, Pa., with his
   family, consisting of his wife and seven children, three sons and four
   daughters, and two sons-in-law, and located in the King's Chapel
   neighborhood, where the family settled near each other.
   
   Mr. Richards was a Revolutionary War soldier, and an exhorter in the
   Methodist Episcopal Church. He was a large and commanding man, and
   possessed of more than ordinary talent. They are both buried in the
   King's Chapel cemetery. His children are all dead, but some of his
   grand-children live in the vicinity.
   
   His son-in-law, Robert Simonton, came with him and lived in the township
   some twenty years, when he removed to Neshannock Falls, now in
   Wilmington township, or near there, where he lived until his death, at
   the age of about eighty years. He raised a family of five children.
   
   John Rea, another son-in-law of Mr. Richards, who also came with him,
   was a blacksmith by trade, and settled in the neighborhood, where he
   raised the premium family of twenty children, and died at the age of
   eighty years. Many of his children moved away, several died, and a few
   remain in the vicinity.
   
   Hance Greer, father of Rev. Thomas and John Greer, came originally from
   county Fermanagh, Ireland, to America in 1804, and first settled at
   Noblestown, Allegheny county, about twelve miles from Pittsburgh, on
   Chartier's creek. In 1810 he removed to Sewickley bottom, where he
   resided until 1826, when he again removed to Zelienople, Butler county,
   Pa., where he died in 1848.
   
   John Greer, his second son, settled in Neshannock township in the Fall
   of 1821, with his wife and two children. He built a house and moved into
   it in March, 1822.
   
   Mr. Greer, being a man of good ability and an energetic business man,
   acquired a handsome property. He was quite a prominent member of the
   Methodist Episcopal Church, and filled the office of steward at King's
   Chapel for many years. He lives at present with his son, William Y.
   Greer, a well-known citizen and business man. His daughter, Mrs. Ferver,
   lives near him. She raised a family of six children, four sons and two
   daughters.
   
   Thomas Greer, the youngest son , came in 1830, and settled in a small
   farm near his brother. He was a blacksmith by trade, and a man of energy
   and great industry, and soon began to acquire property. At this time he
   owns nearly six hundred acres of finely-improved land, with his
   children, three daughters and one son, settled around him. He has not
   forgotten the Divine command, "Seek first the kingdom of God and his
   righteousness." He has held several positions of honor and trust in the
   Methodist Episcopal Church--was one of the early class leaders, and has
   been local preacher for twenty-seven years. His only son is a licensed
   preacher in the same church. His oldest brother, Robert, settled in
   Johnson, Ohio, about 1850. In 1865 he removed to Hubbard, Ohio, where he
   now resides, at the age of eighty-five. Frederick Reinholdt, from
   Germany, settled in the township in 1828. He was a shrewd son of the
   "Fatherland," and accumulated property with the proverbial thrift of the
   Teuton. He died March 30, 1874, aged seventy-four years. He raised a
   family of three sons and five daughters. His remains lie in the cemetery
   at King's Chapel.
   
   James Stackhouse and family, accompanied his son-in-law, Andrus Chapin
   and wife, settled in the township in 1834. They were all members of the
   Methodist Episcopal Church. Mr. Stackhouse died in 1868, aged
   ninety-five years. His wife died a short time before. They are also
   buried at King's Chapel. Mr. Chapin raised a large family of children,
   who settled near him. The family are members of the Methodist Episcopal
   Church. Mr. Chapin died September 24, 1870, aged sixty-six years. He was
   twice married, but his wives are both dead, also, and are all buried at
   King's Chapel. William Hunt settled in 1830, bringing his aged mother
   with him. He raised a family of four sons and two daughters, and
   gathered a handsome property around him. Two of his children are in the
   West. The others live near where they first settled. Mr. Hunt died in
   1851, and is buried at King's Chapel. His family were members of the
   Methodist Episcopal Church.
   
   Ebenezer Donaldson settled in the township in March, 1819, just after
   the "big snow" of that Winter (1818-19). He made the first improvements
   on the place now owned by his son, John W. Donaldson. His cousin, Isaac
   Donaldson, came some time previous to the war of 1812, and settled the
   tract adjoining to the east. He was out at Erie during the war of 1812.
   Both the Donaldsons were from Westmoreland county, Pa.
   
   Robert Reynolds, from near Hagerstown, Maryland, came to what is now
   Taylor township, Lawrence county, in 1804, and located near what is now
   Lawrence junction, where he remained about one year, when he removed to
   Neshannock township, and settled on the Neshannock creek, about four
   miles above New Castle, in 1805. The land is now owned by James Reynolds.
   
   He bought a claim of 200 acres. Some time previous to 1811 he purchased
   the two-hundred-acre tract where the village of Eastbrook now is, and
   about 1813 sold it to Thomas Fisher, 1st. He served in the war of 1812,
   most probably in Captain John Fisher's company. He returned from the
   army quite sick and broken in health. About 1819 he purchased a farm on
   the old county line, two miles east of New Castle, and removed his
   family to it. He lived upon this place until his death, in 1873, at the
   age of ninety years. His wife died about five years previously. This
   couple raised twelve children--eight sons and four daughters--all of
   them now living except one. When Mr. Reynolds left the old place in
   Neshannock township he rented it for a few years, and then his sons,
   John F. and Wm. F., purchased it, paying the old gentlemen ten dollars
   per acre for it. John F. Reynolds built a "still-house" about 1824, and
   carried on the business for six or seven years, when he gave it up. He
   afterwards, about 1835, sold his interest in the property to his
   brother, and removed to New Castle, and engaged in the business of
   tanning with his brother Robert, but after a short partnership, finding
   it less profitable than he anticipated, he sold to Robert and purchased
   his present farm, then in Shenango township, afterwards in Pollock
   township, and now in the Fourth Ward the city of New Castle. This farm
   consisted of ninety-four acres. Robert lives on Pittsburgh street in the
   same ward. Joseph has always lived in New Castle, where he holds the
   office of Justice of the Peace. He is a bachelor. Isaac lives on his
   father's place, east of New Castle. Michael, the twin brother of Joseph,
   also lives in New Castle, and, as a curious co-incidence, is also a
   bachelor.
   
   Peter studied medicine, and is practicing on the eastern shore of
   Maryland. The sisters, Nancy, Betsey, Mary Ann and Christy Ann, are all
   living, the two last-named in New Castle, and Betsey and Nancy a few
   miles east.
   
   John Moore, from near New Castle, in the State of Delaware, settled on a
   portion of tract No. 1859, now owned by his son, Jesse Moore, about the
   year 1804. He had a wife and two children at the time of his settlement.
   Altogether he raised a family of seven children--three sons and four
   daughters, all but one of whom lived to maturity.
   
   John Moore was a Revolutionary soldier in the American army. He was a
   drummer, and had a brother in the service who was a fifer. Their father
   was also an officer in the army, and served through the war. The sons
   received warrants fro their services, and John sold his warrant and
   located his brother's on the land where he settled. He lived on the
   place until his death, August 15, 1842. He went with Captain John
   Fisher's company to Erie during the war of 1812, and received a land
   warrant of one hundred and sixty acres for his services, which he
   afterwards sold.
   
   The land where he located in 1804 was a fine tract, gently sloping
   towards the southwest, well timbered, and having a great number of
   copious springs in various parts of it. We mention it as a curiosity
   that one of these springs is soft water, while most of the others are
   hard, and some are impregnated with iron, which mineral is found on the
   tract in the shape of nodular or "kidney ore."
   
   Alexander Hawthorne purchased the tract No. 1825, next north of Mr.
   Moore, about 1805-6. He lived for some years at New Castle, but built a
   house and barn on the land, and put on a tenant. Some years late he
   [p. 85] removed to his farm, and lived upon it until his death, in 1864.
   The heirs soon after sold the place and removed to Illinois or some
   other Western State.
   
   David Adams settled on tract No. 1852, about 1825. He had purchased the
   tract some time before, and leased it to one Robert Sankey. Adams sold
   and removed to the neighborhood of Petersburg, Ohio, somewhere between
   1835 and 1840.
   
   Martin Hardin, from the Eastern Shore, Maryland, settled on tract No.
   1836, about 1811-12, and made the first improvements, though he never
   owned the land. One S. R. Smith was the owner, and he allowed Hardin to
   cultivate it and make what he could, provided he kept up repairs and
   paid the taxes. Hardin was industrious, and succeeded in accumulating
   the wherewith to purchase a farm, to which he removed, and remained upon
   it until his death. He bought of a man named McComb.
   
   John Maitland, from east of the mountains, came into the township at an
   early day, and leased or rented land for several years. He finally
   bought tract No. 1870, which had been occupied by one "Billy" Hosier, a
   sort of squatter for a number of years. "Billy" had put up a cabin, and
   "destroyed considerable timber." Maitland moved upon the tract about
   1830, and remained there until his death, about 1865.
   
   The first settler on tract No. 1853 was a man named Cunningham who soon
   after died. His heirs sold to Wm. Sankey the north part of it, and
   Robert Cochran purchased a portion of the south end from Mrs. Lot
   Watson, one of the heirs. Wm. Sankey was the father of Robert Sankey.
   
   Henry Falls purchased the two tracts, Nos. 1854 and 1855, at a very
   early date, and afterwards, about 1806-8, sold them to the Watson
   brothers, William and Lot, the latter taking 1854 and William 1855.
   
   John Young settled on tract No. 1763 as early as 1810. The east half of
   this tract was owned by Dr. Wm. Shaw, of New Castle.
   
   Young sold out afterwards, and removed to Hickory township.
   
   James Mitchell, from Franklin county, Pa., settled with his family in
   this township about one mile north of the old Associate Reformed Church,
   in 1806. He had three sons, William, Peter and Thomas. Williams was
   married before he came here. Both the old gentleman and his son William
   died soon after they settled. Their remains lie in the old cemetery of
   the United Presbyterian Church. The old gentleman purchased a farm for
   each of his sons, and they settled near him.
   
   Peter, the second, was married about 1815 to Sarah Wilson, daughter of
   Samuel Wilson, who settled near New Wilmington, about 1806. Peter lived
   on his place until his death, in 1843. He was a prominent member of the
   United Presbyterian Church, and filled several township offices. He had
   four sons, James, Wilson, William and John.
   
   James is living in Outagamie county, Wisconsin.
   
   Wilson and John live in New castle, and William is on the old farm.
   
   Thomas, third son of James, lived and died on a farm in the township,
   where his family still reside. James (the old gentleman) owned and
   operated a distillery when he lived in Franklin county, and wagoned his
   liquor to Baltimore, where he sold it for gold.
   
   Traveling was somewhat dangerous in those days, and he took the
   precaution to bore an auger-hole in his wagon-axel, into which he put
   his gold, and then plugged up the hole. This he considered a "safe
   operation."
   
   John Pomeroy, father of Judge Pomeroy, from Derry township, Westmoreland
   county, settled in the township in 1815.
   
   The McGearys, McCrearys and Gibsons were all early settlers.
   
   William, the oldest son of James Mitchell, had three sons, Wilson, James
   and Joseph. Wilson and James live in New Castle. Joseph died on the old
   farm about 1870.
   
   Peter Mitchell built his second house of hewn logs about 1826. It had
   the first, or one of the first, shingle-roofs in the township. All
   others were made of clap-boards.
   
   These shingles were of shaved pine, and were laid in what was called
   "joint-shingle" style--laid on lath without boarding the roof. It lasted
   in good condition some forty-five years.
   
   
         EARLY MILLS.
   
   James Reynolds, who had been connected with Joseph Townsend in the
   erection of a grist-mill at the Narrows, on the Neshannock, as early as
   1803, sold his interest to John Carlyle Stewart, about 1811, and removed
   to the place now occupied by Jordan's mill, where he purchased a tract
   of two hundred acres, covering the water-power, it being a part of
   Donation tracts Nos. 1897 and 1898--patented by the State, October 18th,
   1786 to John Sullivan, a soldier of the Revolutionary army, who assigned
   his patent to Richard North, in September, 1795. North deeded to James
   Reynolds, March 31st, 1812. At this point, which is probably the finest
   water-power on the creek, Reynolds erected a grist and saw-mill. The
   gearing was mostly of wood.
   
   The grist-mill contained two run of stone, made from material found in
   the vicinity. The bolt was a primitive affair, and was turned by hand by
   means of a crank. The mill was driven by a large breast-wheel. Mr.
   Reynolds carried on the milling business until his death, which took
   place about 1831-32. His heirs, by different deeds dated from 1833 to
   1839, transferred the property to Frederick Ziegler, who tore away the
   old grist-mill and built a new one, still standing. He also built the
   large stone house on the hill, now owned by George Reynolds. The new
   grist-mill contained three run of burrs.
   
   In addition to his other work, Ziegler built a distillery (the same
   building now occupied by Mr. Jordan as a dwelling), which was in
   operation a good many years, in connection with the grist-mill. The
   business was finally abandoned about 1855-56. Ziegler sold the property,
   September 3, 1850, to Wm. F. Reynolds, who built a new dam and tore down
   and rebuilt the sawmill in 1857. In May, 1868, he sold the John G. and
   Peter Reynolds the mills and water-power and forty-four acres of land.
   These parties deeded the property to James Robinson, April 3, 1871. This
   transfer probably included about seven acres of land, and the total
   consideration was about $5,200. Henry Jordan, the present owner,
   purchased the property of Robinson, May 1, 1875. Mr. Jordan has rebuilt
   the dam in a most substantial manner, and made extensive alterations and
   improvements in the grist and saw-mills at an expense of over $2,000.
   The mill is now one of the best in the country, and is doing a good
   business in both merchant and custom work.
   
   The market for merchant flour and feed is mostly at New Castle. At this
   time, February, 1877, the mill is furnishing a large amount of its
   products to the oil regions. The fall at this point is about nine feet,
   and the power is a very permanent one.
   
   The New Castle and Franklin railway crosses the creek at this place
   (where the company has a station), on a truss bridge constructed of wood
   and iron, and the creek is also spanned by a fine iron road-bridge near
   the mills. The creek flows here in a deep, narrow gorge worn through the
   rock, whose precipitous cliffs are overhung by a dense growth of hemlock
   and other trees, making a most picturesque and enchanting locality.
   
   POTTERY.--Johnston Watson, son of Wm. Watson, started a pottery on his
   farm near the United Presbyterian Church about 1825, before his
   marriage. He had learned the potter's trade of one White in Mercer
   county, and had also worked at the business in Beaver county. It has
   been continued to the present time. The clay is found on Isaac Gibson's
   place. The "slip clay" is brought from near Pulaski.
   
   A coal bank on the Watson place is worked for domestic purposes. A mine
   was opened on Thomas Falls' land as early as 1845. At the present time
   it is being worked by Charles Sheriff, who opened a new "slope" about
   1873. Three other mines have been worked-out in this vicinity. It is
   calculated, from careful observation, that the Falls mine underlies
   about three hundred acres.
   
   A small mining town called Coal Centre has sprung up around the shafts
   of the New Castle Railroad and Mining Company. It has one religious
   society--the Primitive Methodists--one Justice of the Peace, Wm. L.
   Pyle, Esq., two or three groceries, several blacksmith and wagon shops,
   and some fifty or sixty dwellings. The business of the people is almost
   exclusively mining.
   
   
         SCHOOLS
   
   Some of the earliest schools in the township were taught on the Watson
   and Barker farms, most probably in the dwellings, from 1812 to 1815. The
   first teacher was Miss Sarah De Wolf, who taught in many parts of the
   country, and was very popular, if we may judge from her record. Miss
   Tidball was also one of the earliest teachers. A school afterwards
   opened in an empty house on the King farm, now owned by Thomas Greer.
   This was taught by John Galbreath, in the years 1816-17-19. A man named
   Andrews succeeded Galbreath, and taught in the years 1820, 1821 and 1822.
   
   A school building was erected on the Barker farm, about forty rods east
   of King's Chapel, where a school was taught by Samuel Richards in the
   years 1823, 1824, 1825. This building was unfortunately burned, but the
   people soon managed to build another, in which James Watson taught in
   1826, and John Maitland in 1827. Mrs. Mary Maitland taught a select
   school for young ladies, where they learned needle-work in addition to
   other things. Mrs. Maitland was a very successful teacher. Specimens of
   the work of her scholars still remain in the neighborhood in the shape
   of "samplers," which are still preserved.
   
   [p. 86] About 1829-30, the school-building near by was moved upon the
   church lot at King's Chapel, where one Gillespie taught in 1831 and
   1832. In 1833 and 1834 William Lockhart was the teacher, and John
   Mitchell also taught.
   
   A school was taught in the Pomeroy neighborhood about 1820, by Thomas
   Gillespie, whom the scholars of those days remember as a terrible fellow
   with the rod. He was in the habit of coming around among the boys
   regularly, and hitting them a good cut over the shoulders with a big
   switch, saying: "Boys, I'll line, and you may sing!" One Holloway and
   Robert Madge were also early teachers.
   
   About 1810-12, a log school-house was built in the eastern part of the
   township, near where John Graham now lives. The first teacher was a man
   named Stoops. At this time (1877) there are five schools in the
   township, with five good buildings, three of brick and two of stone,
   costing an average $1,000 each. The total number of scholars is 264,
   with an average attendance of 159. The total receipts for 1875 were
   $1,828.29, and the total expenditures $1,795.22.
   
   
         "KING'S CHAPEL"*
   
   *By Rev. Thomas Greer
   
   The Methodist Episcopal society known as "King's Chapel," claims the
   honor of having the first organization of this denomination in Lawrence
   county. In 1802* William Richards came with his family from Centre
   county Pa., accompanied by John Rea and Robert Simonton, his
   sons-in-law, and their wives, and settled in the neighborhood of King's
   Chapel. Mr. Richards was a soldier in the American army during the
   Revolutionary war. At the close of the war he had engaged in the iron
   business at Bellefonte. He had been licensed as an exhorter in the
   church previous to settlement in what is now the county of Lawrence, and
   soon after his settlement commenced holding religious meetings in his
   own house.
   
   *According to Hon. David Sankey, in 1804.
   
   At that time Rev. Asa Shinn was the preacher of Shenango circuit, and
   often preached in Mr. Richards' cabin. In 1803 George Askin was on the
   circuit, and under his superintendence a class was formed in the
   Richards neighborhood, consisting of the following persons: William
   Richards and wife, Mary Rea, Robert Simonton and wife, Rachel Fisher,
   Rebecca Carroll (afterwards Mrs. Ferver), and Mrs. Warner. Several
   persons from Edenburg joined the class, and, according to Hon. David
   Sankey, several others from New Castle.
   
   According to Rev. Mr. Greer's information, a class was soon after formed
   by Mr. Richards at New Castle, and meetings were held alternately at
   that place and at King's Chapel.* The following are the names of those
   constituting the class in New Castle, according to Mr. Greer: Arthur
   Chenowith and wife, John Bevin and wife, William Underwood and wife,
   Robert Wallace and wife, and Philip Painter and wife. Soon after, they
   were joined by Michael Carman and wife, and Mr. Carman was appointed leader.
   
   *Mr. Sankey's information places the first of these meetings in 1810, at
   New Castle.
   
   Marinus King and family, from Center county, settled at King's Chapel in
   1804, and joined the class. The meetings were held both at the house of
   Richards and Mr. King, in 1806 and 1807.
   
   William Young and family joined the settlement at an early day, and
   united with the church. Mr. Young was also a licensed preacher and a man
   of more than ordinary talents. Others came to the settlement, and soon
   quite a large community were gathered here. The meetings were now held
   at three places--Rev. Young's, Richards' and King's.
   
   In 1821 John Greer and wife joined the settlement, from Sewickley,
   Allegheny county. Mr. Greer had married a daughter of Rev. William
   Young. He was appointed steward soon after his arrival, and has held the
   office ever since. His house was made a preaching-station alternately
   with the three first mentioned. Some time afterwards a small building
   was erected on the ground where King's Chapel now stands, which was used
   both for church and school purposes.
   
   Thomas Greer and wife came to this locality from Zelienople, Butler
   county, 1830. They had certificates from the church at that place, and
   were received into the church at their new home. Mr. Greer was soon
   after appointed class-leader and exhorter, which positions he held with
   great success until 1852, when he was licensed as a local preacher,
   which position he still occupies. He has also held the office of
   ordained local elder for some years.
   
   In 1835 a new and neat frame church was erected in the place of the old
   one, 30 by 40 feet in size, which was occupied until 1856. During this
   period of twenty-one years the church experienced a revival of religion
   every year, with one or two exceptions. During the first session of the
   Erie Conference, Rev. Bishop Hamlin preached at King's Chapel. The
   session was held in New Castle, and Major Ezekiel Sankey brought the
   Bishop out in a two-horse carriage, accompanied by quite a number of the
   brethren from New Castle.
   
   A large number were added to the church during the period between 1835
   and 1856, and the house became too small to accommodate the wants of the
   society. In 1856 the frame church was removed, and the present brick
   structure erected in its stead. The new church is 40 by 50 in
   dimensions, and in its erection the altar was placed as near as possible
   upon the sacred spot occupied by the old one. It was in this house that
   Ira D. Sankey, the famous singer, made a public confession of the
   Christian religion, and untied with the society. Mr. Sankey was
   converted under the labors of Rev. J. T. Boyles.
   
   The following list gives the names of the various preachers who have
   been located at this place:
   
   In 1802 this was in the Shenango district of the Pittsburgh district,
   and Baltimore Conference. Rev. Thorton Fleming, presiding elder, and
   Rev. Asa Shinn, circuit preacher.
   
   Itinerant Ministers: 1803, George Askins; 1804, Joseph Hall; 1805,
   Robert R. Roberts; 1806, James Reed; 1807, James Watts and Thomas
   Church; 1808, James Charles; 1809, Jacob Dowell and Eli Towne; 1810,
   James Watts and James Rheuark; 1811, Abel R. Hooper; 1812, William Knox;
   1813, Jacob Gurwell; 1814, John Elliott; 1815, John Summerville; 1816,
   Robert C. Hatten and _____ Cecil; 1818, D. D. Davidson and Samuel Adams;
   1819, Philip Green; 1820, Ira Eddy and Charles Elliott; 1821, Samuel R.
   Brockaneer; 1822, Thomas Carr; 1823, Thomas Carr and Job Wilson; 1824,
   Henry Knapp and Joseph S. Barris; 1825, Samuel Adams and James Babcock;
   1826, Alfred Brunson; 1827, Charles Thorn and J. Nott; 1828, Samuel
   Adams and William C. Henderson; 1829, Joseph W. Davis and Jacob Jenks;
   1830, Richard Armstrong and Jacob Jenks; 1831, John Scott and Richard
   Armstrong; 1832, D. C. Richie and Ahab Keller; 1833, Thomas Thompson;
   1834, R. B. Gardner; 1835, William Carroll and Thomas Thompson; 1836,
   Ensign B. Hill and Thomas Graham; 1837, Ensign B. Hill, L. Barton, Rufus
   Parker and Samuel Heustead; 1838, Samuel Ingraham; 1839, John Luccock
   and Samuel Ingraham; 1840, D. W. Vorce, Thomas Stubbs; 1841, David Vorce
   and Thomas Stubbs; 1842, M. H. Bettis and Foster Morse; 1843, Caleb
   Brown and Henry S. Winans; 1844, John Robison and John McClane; 1845, B.
   S. Hill and M. Luce; 1846, B. S. Hill and John W. Hill; 1847, J. W. Hill
   and J. R. Lyon; 1848, Henry L. Winans and J. Lyon; 1849, J. Crum and R.
   Norton; 1850, J. Crum and S. Hubbard; 1851, J. W. Hammond and P. W.
   Sherwood; 1852, John Graham and A. S. Dobbs; 1853, John Graham and David
   Roberts; 1854, R. A. Carothers and S. Wilkinson; 1855, R. A. Carothers;
   1856, H. H. Moore; 1857, J. T. Boyles, S. K. Paden and ______ Chapman;
   1858, J. T. Boyles; 1859, R. M. Bear, E. Bennett, S. K. Paden and J. C.
   Ault; 1860, S. K. Paden and J. C. Ault; 1861, R. M. Bear; 1862, N. M.
   Shurick; 1863, N. M. Shurick; 1864, J. G. Thompson; 1865, J. G.
   Thompson; 1866 and 1867, T. G. McCreary; 1868, R. Beatty and S. K.
   Paden; 1869, A. P. Colton; 1870, J. S. Card; 1871 and 1872, J. K.
   Mendenhall; 1873, L. E. Beardsley; 1874, J. Crum; 1875, J. Crum; 1876,
   A. M. Lockwood.
   
   The present membership is about seventy. The society supports a
   Sabbath-school with twelve officers and teachers. It has a small library.
   
   
         KING'S CHAPEL.
   
   The church-building is plainly and substantially finished, and is
   furnished with a fine organ, presented to the society by William Y.
   Green, and a fine communion service, the gift of Mrs. R. A. David and
   Mrs. Thomas Greer.
   
   The society also owns a very neat parsonage, well fitted up and
   comfortable, situated nearly opposite the church-building on the west
   side of the road. A fine little cemetery, beautifully shaded with
   evergreens, lies in the rear of the church, and here many of the pioneer
   settlers of the region are buried. The cost of the church-building was
   about $3,000, and the parsonage about $1,600. The latter was erected in
   1870. Rev. A. M. Lockwood, the present pastor, resides in Edinburgh.
   
   It is worthy of especial notice that this society has not had a church
   trial in the past fifty years.
   
   
         PRIMITIVE METHODIST CHURCH.
   
         The Primitive Methodists first began to have meetings at Coal
         Centre, about 1866. The first local preachers were William Borle,
         Henry Blews, Edward Blews, Jr., and Samuel Simon. The original
         society consisted of about ten members. These preachers have
         officiated monthly. Rev. Thomas Dodd was the first itinerant who
         preached here, about 1870. He staid only a short time. The second
         itinerant preacher was Benjamin Barrar, who staid with the society
         for two years, when he was succeeded by Rev. Thomas Bateman, who
         is located at New Castle, and has charge of several congregations
         in this [p. 87] and other counties. He preaches at Coal Centre
         once a month. The local preacher holds service every alternate
         Sabbath. The present number of members is about twelve and a small
         Sunday-school is assembled through the summer months.
   
         The society has numbered as high as twenty members, but hard times
         and the consequent removal of some of the people to other
         localities has reduced it to the present comparatively small number.
   
   
         SHENANGO CHURCH (UNITED PRESBYTERIAN).
   
   The history of Shenango congregation is, for about a quarter of a
   century, the history of almost the entire Associate Reformed
   Presbyterian Church in the boundaries of what is now Lawrence county.
   With the exception that the Mahoning congregation, near the Ohio line,
   is of cotemporary origin, all the other Associate Reformed congregations
   in these bounds are of later date. To most of them Shenango stood in the
   relation of a mother church.
   
   The white frame house of worship stands three and one-fourth miles north
   of New Castle, on the road to Mercer via New Wilmington. Around it stand
   primeval oaks, and behind it slumber many of the dead that once
   worshipped within its walls. The lot was donated for church and burial
   purposes by John Pearson, of the Society of Friends, who had obtained
   titles among the earliest to a large tract of land lying between the
   Shenango and Neshannock creeks, on a portion of which long resided his
   son, George Pearson, who died a few years ago in New Castle at a very
   venerable age.
   
   Of those who organized Shenango Church, and constituted its early
   membership, none, perhaps, settled in the wilderness earlier that
   1805-6. The names of James Mitchell, Hugh Brahan, John Cunningham,
   William S. Rankin (afterwards of Mercer), Jean Sankey (wife of Ezekiel
   Sankey, and grandmother of Ira D. Sankey, Mr. D. L. Moody's celebrated
   evangelistic co-laborer), George Kelso, Dr. Alexander Gilfillan,* Robert
   McGeary, Mrs. Jane Cubbison, wife of James Cubbison, with others, seem
   to have settled in 1806, or soon after, and to have been from the first
   supporters, and then, or even after, communicants in the new
   organization. An occasional minister of the Monongahela Presbytery, from
   the neighborhood of Fort Pitt, as the new borough of Pittsburgh was
   still called throughout the country, rode through these and other
   opening settlements in Northwest Pennsylvania, giving them an occasional
   Sabbath's or week-day's preaching. Among these were Rev. John Riddell,
   D. D., and Rev. Mungo Dick, who were men of great ability and learning.
   But it was not till 1811 that this community of Associate Reform people
   received a pastor, and then his labors divided equally with Mercer and
   Mahoning congregations. How long before this date the congregation was
   regularly organized, is not known. Their first pastor, James Galloway,
   first preached to them and other new stations in the Northwest, in the
   Summer of 1810. His first records extant show that in 1813 the session
   consisted of Hugh Braham, John Cunningham and Wm. S. Rankin; but James
   Mitchell, who died in 1812, had been an elder in Franklin county before
   his arrival, in 1806, and was from the first an earnest friend of the
   Shenango enterprise. The next record of the eldership shows that in 1821
   Rev. J. L. Dinwiddie ordained as elders, Peter Mitchell, son of James
   Mitchell, and Walter Oliver, who had immigrated some years before to
   Shenango Valley.
   
   *Dr. Gilfillan settled in New Castle in 1813.
   
   James Galloway, the first pastor, and the earliest Associate Reformed
   minister settled in Northwestern Pennsylvania, was born August 4, 1786.
   His family removed that year from Big Cove, Bedford county, to Mount
   Pleasant, Westmoreland county. He was born in the latter place. He had
   graduated at Jefferson College in 1805, had entered for a legal course
   in Greensburgh, but upon the death of his legal preceptor, had placed
   himself as a candidate for the ministry under the Monongahela
   Presbytery, and afterwards had enjoyed the excellent training for four
   years of that distinguished theologian and pulpit orator, John M. Mason,
   D. D., in the Associate Reformed Seminary in New York City. He was
   licensed to preach, June 28, 1810. He was eminently social in his
   qualities, of lively wit, of tender sensibilities; in the pulpit
   earnest, grave and edifying. His visit to the new settlements was most
   acceptable. December 17 a call was made out for him by the three
   congregations of Mercer, Shenango and Mahoning. The Presbytery placed it
   in his hands February, 1811. An appointment was made for his ordination
   and installation for April 10, in the Shenango settlement. There was as
   yet not church. The preaching had mostly been conducted hitherto in
   Peter Mitchell's house or barn, four and a-half miles north of New
   Castle. It was a raw, cold morning. The Presbytery, whose members had
   ridden through from Fort Pitt, or its vicinity, had hoped the exercises
   would be at a near point, perhaps in New Castle itself. They arrived
   late, and found the appointment in the barn, which was already crowded
   with people, many of the audience being from Mercer, fourteen miles
   north, and Mahoning, thirteen miles west. Thus was ordained the first of
   a long line of pastors in the Associate Reformed Church of this region,
   and placed officially by the Presbytery over their people in what now
   comprises territorially the entire counties of Mercer and Lawrence. The
   barn still stands; but since then it has been taken down and put up
   again a rod or two distant from its former site.
   
   Under Mr. Galloway's ministry, the lot donated by John Pearson was
   occupied by a small, log building, put up by the sturdy settlers in the
   Spring of 1812, and first used for worship before it was yet floored. On
   this ground, in that year, the Lord's Supper was first dispensed. The
   corners of this log building were four large boulders, which can still
   be seen just north of the present church. When the latter was erected
   the logs were removed to the northeast corner of the lot, and did
   humbler service for years as a school-house, which at last fell into
   disuse and decay.
   
   Mr. Galloway had hard service in so extensive a charge. He had to fill
   his appointments often by crossing the Neshannock, Shenango and other
   streams when they were swollen with rains; and not unfrequently did his
   horse swim the Shenango, while his master, seated in a canoe, held the
   bridle-reins. A deep-seated cold followed his preaching in wet clothes
   upon one occasion after such exposure. He never got well, though he
   continued his labors for months while gradually growing worse, till, in
   April, 1818, he resigned his charge. The 21st of May he died. His home
   had been in Mercer, and there he lies buried. His wife was Agnes Junkin,
   whose father, Joseph Junkin, was one of the earliest members of his
   Mercer congregation. They were married March 12, 1812, by his
   brother-in-law, Rev. George Buchanan, Associate Reformed pastor in
   Steubenville, Ohio. They had three sons, two of whom survived him, and
   one of whom, nineteen years later, succeeded him in the pastorate of
   Shenango. Mrs. Buchanan and Mrs. Galloway were sisters of Dr. D. X.
   Junkin, present pastor of the First Presbyterian Church of New Castle.
   
   The second pastor, Rev. James L. Dinwiddie, D. D., was ordained and
   installed over the Shenango and Mercer congregation, at Mercer, November
   22, 1820. He also resided in Mercer. He was born in Adams county,
   February 23, 1796, and had pursued his college studies, but without
   being graduated, at Washington College. After Dr. Matthew Brown,
   President of Washington, became President of Jefferson College, the
   board of the latter conferred the honorary degree of A. B. upon him, and
   at a later date the degree of D. D. These honors were well bestowed. He
   was one of the most finished scholars of his church. He was a man of
   brilliant mind, of perfect address socially, and in the pulpit eloquent.
   It was a sad day in Shenango Church when, after a ministry of thirteen
   and a-half years, he preached his last sermon preparatory to the
   acceptance of a call in Philadelphia (Sixth Presbyterian Church.) The
   Philadelphia charge he resigned seven years afterwards, rejoined the
   Presbytery by which he was ordained, and became pastor of the Second
   Associate Reformed Church, of Pittsburgh, and Professor of Biblical
   Literature and Sacred Criticism in the Theological Seminary, Allegheny.
   His pastorate in Pittsburgh, after a term of two years, was relinquished
   in April, 1844, to devote himself more entirely to his professorship, to
   which he had been elected September 13, 1843. In the midst of his
   labors, when he was just fifty years of age, he was struck with
   paralysis of the brain, February, 1846. He never recovered his splendid
   powers. He died in Baltimore suddenly, from a second stroke, February
   11, 1849.
   
   Mr. Dinwiddie, soon after his settlement in Mercer, had married Miss
   Rachel Cochran, in Allegheny county, whose brother, Robert Cochran, has
   long been a prominent citizen of New Castle. Mrs. Dinwiddie was the
   mother of one son and two daughters. She died six years after her
   marriage. The son died in infancy, in Mercer. Mary died in her early
   womanhood, in Pittsburgh. The other daughter, Mrs. Frances Smith, wife
   of Henry M. Smith, Esq., now of New York, still lives. In 1849 she and
   her husband lived in Baltimore. In their home in that city her father died.
   
   Mr. Galloway's pastorate in Shenango ended in 1818, and Mr. Dinwiddie's
   in 1834. Important changes had meanwhile taken place in the northwest.
   The country had greatly developed and the churches had gained by this
   growth. The Associate Reformed Church, as well as the others, had made
   decided progress. A pastor had been settled in Erie, in 1812--Rev.
   Robert Reed--who died in that city after a pastorate of thirty-two years.
   
   In Butler, Rev. Isaiah Niblock, D. D., had commenced in 1819 a long
   pastorate of forty-five years. In 1820 two congregations were formed on
   the borders of Shenango: one at Mount Jackson, five miles southwest of
   New Castle; the other at Slippery Rock, now called Centre, five miles
   southeast. At Centre and Harmony a pastor settled--Rev. James Ferguson,
   and [p. 88] an arrangement was made for him to preach part of his time
   in New Castle, but his pastorate only lasted from September, 1823, to
   April, 1824. Rev. David Norwood was afterwards settled as pastor over
   Center, Mount Jackson and Mahoning. He resigned his charge October 16,
   1833. In Crawford county Rev. S. F. Smith had been settled as pastor, in
   1828, over the congregation of Sugar creek and Crooked creek, a relation
   which continued till his death, March 10, 1846.
   
   Out of these five pastorates, with several other congregations (the
   whole number being fourteen), a new Presbytery was formed. It was
   constituted in Mercer on the first Wednesday of January, 1829, called
   the Presbytery of the Lakes, and territorially occupied six counties. Of
   all the original congregations in these bounds, not one has been the
   mother-church of so many new congregations as Shenango. Up till the
   union of 1858, seven congregations had been formed on its borders or
   within its original territory. In addition to Center and Mount Jackson,
   already mentioned, in the year 1840 Eastbrook was organized to
   accommodate those members who lived across the Neshannock, and in the
   same year was also formed the Deer Creek or Beulah congregation, west of
   the Shenango, from which locality attendance at Shenango Church had
   become very difficult, owing to the fact that the completion of the Erie
   Extension canal had, by means of the dam at New Castle, made a pool or
   level extending for seven miles up the stream, that destroyed all the
   original fords for this distance.
   
   Later, namely, 1849-51, during the pastorate of Rev. R. A. Browne, three
   more congregations--New Castle, New Wilmington and the Harbor--were also
   struck off from Shenango, as will be seen further on in this article.
   And so far had the church grown in these six counties of the northwest
   that in 1852 an act of Synod provided for the erection of two more new
   Presbyteries, called the Presbyteries of Lawrence and Butler. The
   Presbytery of Lawrence was organized at New Castle, in the Associate
   Reformed Church, on Jefferson street, April 20, 1853. Rev. John Neil,
   pastor of Mount Jackson and Center, preached the opening sermon from
   Heb. xiii, 17, and constituted the Presbytery with prayer. Mr. Neil was
   elected moderator, and Mr. Browne, clerk. Three other ministers, with
   these, constituted the Presbytery, namely, Robt. Wm. Oliver, pastor of
   Beulah and Bethel (Mercer county); Wm. Mehard, pastor of Eastbrook and
   New Wilmington, and John P. Chambers, without charge. The Presbytery
   included thirteen congregations, four of which, however, were located
   outside of the county. At the union of 1858 the Lawrence Presbytery was
   merged into the United Presbyterian Presbytery of Mercer; and still
   later, Shenango and all the congregations south of that latitude to the
   Ohio river, were merged again in a new Presbytery, called Beaver Valley,
   which was erected November 7, 1871.
   
   This episode gives a brief view of the history of Shenango Church in its
   surroundings and relations. What remains to add has reference to its own
   spectal [sic] history. From the resignation of Rev. James L. Dinwiddie,
   1834, till 1841, with the exception of one brief pastorate of a year and
   a-half, the congregation of Shenango was a vacancy, its pulpit filled
   only by supplies from the Presbytery of the Lakes. The pastorate
   referred to was that of Rev. John Mason Galloway, who has already been
   mentioned. He was born in Mercer, January 8th, 1813, and was five years
   old when his father, the first pastor of Shenango, died. His uncle,
   George Junkin, D. D., who was long eminent in the Presbyterian Church,
   took early charge of his education, the collegiate part of which he
   completed in Jefferson, graduating there in 1832. His theological course
   was begun at Princeton Seminary, Allegheny. He was licensed April 13th,
   1836, by the Presbytery of the Lakes, and by the same Presbytery
   ordained and installed pastor of Shenango Church, May 23d, 1837. New
   Castle, in the pastoral arrangement, was taken of the following year, he
   married Eleanor J., daughter of Rev. George Buchanan, of Steubenville,
   Ohio, and in the following August demitted his charge to the Presbytery,
   and accepted a call from Paris, Va., near Steubenville. He remained
   pastor till 1855, and for the four last of these years was also
   Associate Principal of the Steubenville High School. He afterwards, in
   1857, became pastor of the Presbyterian congregation of Clearfield,
   remaining in charge till ill health induced him to force his resignation
   on his unwilling congregation, in 1835. His wife and six out of ten
   children survive him. As a man he was quiet and unobtrusive, of great
   kindness of disposition, and courteous and dignified in his social
   relations. He was a good scholar and careful student, and in his pulpit
   ministrations faithful and instructive. His sudden resignation of his
   Shenango charge dampened the rising hopes of his people; and his term of
   pastoral service was too brief to leave many fruits.
   
   He was succeeded by Rev. Thomas Mehard (the fourth pastor) who was
   ordained and installed June 30, 1841, in Shenango Church, over the
   united charge of Shenango, Eastbrook and Beulah, the two latter, as
   already stated, having been organized the previous year. Beulah was
   first known as Deer Creek. Some years later the congregation decided to
   change their place of worship to West Middlesex, three miles distant,
   but a portion of the members remained to worship in the old building,
   and are now the Reformed Presbyterian Congregation of Beulah. Mr. Mehard
   was a graduate of the Western University, Pittsburgh, and of the
   Associate Reformed Theological Seminary, Allegheny. He was genial in his
   disposition, agreeable in his address, and pleasing and edifying in the
   pulpit. His ministry was full of labors and fruits, with large promise
   of future usefulness, when, suddenly, at the close of his fourth year of
   pastoral duty, he was called away by death. The stroke startled the
   entire community as well as his congregations and his wife, who was left
   with two infant daughters to mourn his loss. He died at his home in New
   Castle, July 16, 1845. His remains, alone all of all the pastors, lie
   interred in Shenango grave-yard. A neat obelisk marks the grave. He died
   aged twenty-nine years.
   
   The ruling elders prior to this, in addition to those already mentioned,
   were Joseph Kissick, of New Castle; James A. McLaury, of New Wilmington;
   James Hutchison, James Mitchell and James Neal. These constituted the
   session at the close of Mr. Mehard's ministry and during the next
   pastorate, with the exception of James Neal, who had removed to New
   Castle, where he held his membership in the Reformed Presbyterian
   congregation, and afterwards in the United Presbyterian, in which he died.
   
   The fifth pastor of Shenango, succeeding Mr. Mehard a year after his
   death, was Robert Audley Browne. Mr. Browne was born in Steubenville,
   Ohio, December 3, 1821; was graduated at the Western University, 1839,
   and the Associate Reformed Seminary, Allegheny, 1843; licensed by the
   Monongahela Presbytery in his twenty-first year, and ordained without
   charge by the same presbytery, December 31, 1844. He was at that time
   stated supply in the Second Associate Reformed, now Third United
   Presbyterian Church of Pittsburgh. A fuller notice of Mr. Browne will be
   found in another part of this history. He visited the congregations of
   Eastbrook three and a-half years, and of Shenango over thirteen years,
   demitting that congregation to the Presbytery, January 9, 1859. The last
   ten of these years his pastoral charge included the congregation of New
   Castle nearly all the intervening period. When he entered on his
   pastoral work in this part of what was then Mercer county, it was
   evident that the growth of population and change of its business centers
   had left the Associate Reformed Church with-out organizations at several
   desirable points. Of these, New Castle, a growing town, was the most
   important. An organization was effected here by order of the Presbytery
   (Lakes), December 25, 1849. The same Winter one was similarly formed in
   New Wilmington. By these organizations the session of Shenango was
   reduced to two elders, Messrs. Mitchell and Hutchison, and its
   membership diminished from over one hundred to forty-nine. From having
   one-half of their pastor's time they were able to retain him only for
   one-fourth. They were still further weakened a year or two later by the
   organization of the Harbor congregation, four miles distant, on the
   other side of the Shenango pool or slackwater, though in general their
   number during the years before 1859 ranged at about fifty communicants.
   
   The union of the Associate and Associate Reformed Presbyterian Churches,
   agreed upon in 1858, occurred during Mr. Browne's pastorate. It brought
   Shenango into closer relations with a number of Associate congregations
   in this region, though it added but little strength to the membership.
   
   The sixth pastor was Rev. William Findley, D. D., born in Mercer and
   reared under the ministry of Rev. James Galloway and Rev. James L.
   Dinwiddie. He was a graduate of Jefferson College and of the Associate
   Reformed Seminary, Allegheny; was licensed by the Lakes Presbytery, 16th
   May, 1832, and after visiting the churches in South Carolina and
   elsewhere, was ordained by the same Presbytery, and installed pastor
   over White Oak Spring and Prospect congregations in Butler county, at
   White Oak Spring Church, May 25, 1837. In 1857 he became Professor of
   Latin Literature in Westminster College, and resigned his charge and
   removed to New Wilmington. In 1867 he was transferred to the office of
   General Agent of the College. This office he resigned in 1871, and after
   supplying the churches by Presbyterial appointment for some years,
   settled, in 1876, at Chesley, Ontario, where a new and active
   congregation in the United Presbyterian Presbytery in Stamford have
   erected for him a church and parsonage. He is in [p. 89] the vigorous
   use of his powers, clear and forcible as a thinker and reasoner, and
   strong as an expounder of the Scriptures.
   
   During his term as Professor in Westminster College, he held for over
   six years, conjointly, the pastorate of Shenango congregation, namely
   from July, 1859, till April, 1866.
   
   The seventh pastor was Rev. R. T. McCrea, a student of Westminster
   College, from Blacklick station, Indiana county, who graduated from the
   college in 1863, and from the United Presbyterian Seminary, Allegheny,
   in 1866. He was ordained by the United Presbyterian Presbytery of
   Mercer, at Shenango church, and installed pastor of Shenango and Lebanon
   congregations, November 9, 1869. He resided near his Lebanon Church,
   Worth, Mercer county. August 26, 1873, he resigned his Shenango
   congregation, and afterwards Lebanon also. He is now laboring in the
   ministry in Iowa. He is a young man in the vigor of his powers. During
   his pastorate of four years, the roll of Shenango was increased to
   seventy members, a point it has not again reached, after the necessary
   decrease consequent upon an intermission of regular pastoral care.
   
   Since July 4, 1875, the congregation have been happy in having secured
   and retained, in connection with the Harbor, the services of Rev. A. Y.
   Houston, who, however, has not been formally called or installed as
   pastor. Mr. Houston is a man of experience, prudence and fidelity. He
   was ordained and installed in his first pastorate, that of Peter's
   Creek, Allegheny county, February 17, 1858. Since that time he has been
   pastor successively of the United congregations of Palestine and
   Clarkson, Ohio, and of Ryegate, Vermont. Shenango numbers at present
   about fifty members.
   
   A few changes remain to be recorded in the Session. In 1855 James
   Mitchell removed, and was received into membership in the New Castle
   congregation, June 24, 1865. Previous to this date, the only other
   remaining elder, as yet recorded in this notice, James Hutchison, had
   transferred his connection to the First United Presbyterian Church of
   New Wilmington. But, meanwhile, John Graham, Matthew Irvin and Thomas
   McCreary had been ordained elders, and still later, Alexander F. Shaw
   and William Mitchell. Death and removals have reduced this number, till
   Thomas McCreary and William Mitchell only remain to constitute this
   Session. Mr. Irving is living in New Castle; Mr. Shaw removed to New
   Wilmington. Mr. Graham died in 1875, having apparently fallen dead
   suddenly in one of his own fields, where, some time after, his body was
   found, with his cattle surrounding it.
   
   The history of the first church edifice has already been given. The
   second still remains. It was built in 1826, in the midst of Mr.
   Dinwiddie's ministry. The builder was Hugh Bingham, who, by his first
   marriage, was the father of Hon. John A. Bingham (at present minister
   for the United States at the court of Japan), and by his second marriage
   became the husband of the widow of Rev. James Galloway. He was an elder
   of the Mercer congregation, and an estimable man. The contract, as
   illustrative of the hardships of the times and the scarcity of money,
   provided that the builder, for enclosing and flooring the house,
   forty-two by fifty-three feet square, was to receive in payment "good
   and sufficient subscription lists" to the amount of $518, and that,
   instead of cash, wheat, at 66 2/3 cents per bushel, and other products
   of the county at proportionate rates, should be a legal tender. This
   building, thus contracted and paid for, with its small windows and
   eight-by-ten glass, has an antiquated look today. Its pulpit was located
   in front, between the doors, a style of church architecture preferred by
   Mr. Dinwiddie, but not always by his hearers, who, if they entered late,
   were thus forced to face all who were in their seats before them. Now,
   however, the pulpit is in the rear, and the seats have been faced about.
   The contract for building did not include the pews, and therefore, at
   the opening for service, families provided their own seats according to
   their preferences as to style and material, and without regard to
   uniformity, which made the interior present an odd appearance till one
   became accustomed to it. In one case, the head of a household, who had
   located his seat well up toward the pulpit, and furnished it with legs
   too long for convenient range of vision to those who sat behind him,
   afforded some amusement to his fellow worshipers by his change of
   countenance when he entered the meeting house one Sabbath morning and
   found his seat had been lowered to a level with its neighbors. Few of
   the many who travel the Mercer road past this modest country church,
   know why a finer building has not taken its place. The congregation has
   been many times depleted and shorn of its strength. Prior to the union
   of 1858, seven communities, in whole or part from its membership, had
   formed new colonies and built ten houses of worship, leaving their
   parent congregation too weak to renovate and modernize their sanctuary
   or erect a new one in its place. But to many, near and far, who have
   worshipped there in the quiet Sabbaths of more than half a century,
   pleasant and sacred memories cluster around the old.
   
   ------------------------------------------------------------------------
    
                             PERRY TOWNSHIP.
   
   [p. 89] This was one of the original township of Lawrence county, its
   position being the southeast corner, on the east side of Slippery Rock
   creek. Owing to the creek being the boundary line, the township is
   somewhat triangular in shape.
   
   The surface is generally very uneven, the hills rising to a height of
   several hundred feet above the waters of Slippery Rock, and the valleys
   between them are usually narrow.
   
   The soil is generally fertile, and the different grains and fruits which
   the country produces are here grown are here grown in profusion. It is
   well known that throughout Western Pennsylvania the summits of the hills
   are almost equally fertile with the lands in the "bottoms." General
   Washington noticed the fact when on his tour to Fort Pitt and down the
   Ohio to the mouth of the Kanawha river, in 1770. He speaks of it as follows:
   
   "The lands which I passed over to-day were generally hilly, and the
   growth chiefly white oak, but very good notwithstanding; and, what is
   extraordinary, and contrary to the property of all other lands I ever
   saw before, the hills are the richest lands, the soil upon the sides and
   summits of them being as black as a coal, and the growth walnut and cherry."
   
   Those lands were in what is now Fayette county, Pa., in the region about
   Councilsville, on the Youghiogeny river, but the fact holds good in
   other portions of Western Pennsylvania as well.
   
   The township is watered by numerous streams, most of which are branches
   of Slippery Rock creek. The most important of the smaller streams is
   Camp run, which flows in a southerly direction through the eastern
   portion of the township, and enters the Conoquenessing creek in Franklin
   township, Beaver county, Pa. This stream affords considerable power. It
   takes its name from the fact that the settlers along it had a great many
   "sugar camps," the "sugar trees" standing very thick in the valley.
   Hickory timber was also plenty, and the name "Hickory run" would have
   been just as applicable.
   
   Along all the streams are rugged and precipitous banks, and in many
   places the scenery partakes of a wildness and grandeur beyond
   description. Along Slippery Rock creek the frowning bluffs rise to a
   height of four hundred feet, their sides covered with huge fragmentary
   masses of sand rock and a dense growth of hemlock. Away down below, the
   waters of the stream rush impetuously over a rocky bed, and occasionally
   foam and dash down a steep and narrow rapid, or tumble with angry
   commotion over a low ledge, each particular drop of water seemingly
   furiously struggling with its might to become first among its sisters
   whirling onward to the sea. In every spot along the Slippery Rock the
   scenery is delightful, and it is by no means necessary for the
   inhabitants of the land to go beyond its banks to find a grand
   culmination of nature's beauties. The gray old sandstone, with its mossy
   surface, occasionally shelving and forming a gloomy recess underneath,
   the rugged fragments, piled in reckless confusion, the somber hemlocks,
   and humbler though not less beautiful laurel, the occasional dripping
   brooklets, their waters falling carelessly over the rocky banks, the
   larger stream, with its swift rushing waters dashing madly down the deep
   and narrow gorge, combined, make a picture worthy the pencil or brush of
   the artist, and one that, once seen and appreciated, is not easily
   forgotten.
   
   A large portion of the township, including a trip something over a mile
   wide along the Slippery Rock creek, has but a very few settlers, and in
   this region the timber yet shows much of its primitive beauty and
   luxuriance. As a whole the township is well timbered, having advantages
   over many others in that respect.
   
   Much of the territory along Slippery Rock creek has been leased by oil
   companies, and a number of wells have been bored, not always resulting
   satisfactorily, however. The oil is of a fine lubricating quality, and
   always brings a good price in the market.
   
   About 1863, Smith & Collins put down a well about two hundred feet deep,
   a quarter of a mile below the wells now operated by the New Castle Oil
   Company. This well produced about four thousand barrels, when it gave
   out, or rather was "drowned out." It has been leased by parties living
   at New Castle, and will possibly be cleaned out, and pumping again be
   commenced.
   
   Before this well was sunk one had been bored in the middle of Slippery
   Rock creek, about twenty feet deep, but was not long used on account of
   being too much troubled with water.
   
   After the Smith & Collins' well was sunk, a man named Lawrence bored one
   two hundred and thirty feet deep, which proved to be the best of all. It
   flowed and was pumped for some time at the rate of two hundred barrels
   per day, being for a time a "regular gusher." It yielded altogether some
   [p. 90] fifteen thousand barrels. It has not been worked for some time,
   but will be cleaned out and started again by interested parties.
   
   A number of wells were put down after this, and one known as the
   "Anderson well" pumped from fifty to seventy-five barrels daily for some
   time.
   
   At present (December 1876) there are three wells in operation, the
   "Barnes well," called now "Perseverance No. 4," yielded about ten
   barrels daily, and the other two producing together some thirteen
   barrels, making twenty-three barrels the daily production of the three
   wells.
   
   New wells are talked of in the vicinity, and the general opinion among
   oil men is that the lubricating article exists here in paying
   quantities, and only awaits the sinking of wells by sanguine capitalists
   to prove its existence, and increase the value of property in the vicinity.
   
   An Armstrong iron bridge, manufactured at New Brighton, Beaver county,
   Pa., was built across the creek, at the wells, about 1870, and is a
   strong, substantial structure.
   
   Among the resources of Perry township, not the least is its coal. This
   article abounds throughout the township, and except where the vein
   approaches Slippery Rock creek, is of an exceedingly fine quality. The
   upper vein is worked principally, and averages about four feet in
   thickness, except as it approaches the creek, where it becomes thinner.
   It is worked in a number of places, and, besides the local supply,
   considerable is used at the oil wells and elsewhere.
   
   Iron ore is also found, in quality very rich. It abounds in considerable
   quantities on the farm of James Aiken, and that neighborhood. Below the
   upper coal vein is a vein of fire-clay, averaging some three feet in
   thickness, and below that both bog and kidney ore are found.
   
   Limestone also abounds, but owing to its lying next the iron, and being
   more or less impregnated with and gradually merged into it, is worth but
   little for burning, and is valueless for building purposes. Daniel Lutz
   and William Wimer own a quarry and kiln, and burn considerable. The
   stone is loose, round and flaky, and lies in thin strata. It is
   bluish-gray in color, and, in burning, considerable waste or "core" is
   left, which does not burn, and renders it necessary to use a large
   quantity of stone in order to procure much lime.
   
   A large portion of the lands in Perry township are in what was known
   originally as the "Chew district." Benjamin Chew, of Philadelphia, had
   secured a tract of land in the southern part of what is now Lawrence
   county, including portions of Big Beaver, Wayne, Shenango, Slippery Rock
   and Perry townships. It was surveyed into four-hundred-acre tracts, and
   each settler on a tract was entitled to half for settling. The balance
   was sold at a small price and in quantities to suit purchasers. The Chew
   tract was four or five miles in width and some eight or ten miles in length.
   
   When the territory in Western Pennsylvania was first surveyed, a body
   consisting of eight tracts of four hundred acres each--two tracts north
   and south, and four east and west--was put down on the surveyor's map as
   "depreciated lands," or lands not fit for settling. These became known
   as the "eight tracts," a name they still retain, and were located
   principally in the northern part of what is now Perry township. As these
   lands are equal, if not superior, to any in the township, it is possible
   that the surveyors, with an instinctive foreknowledge of the future
   value, reported them in the manner they did in order to deceive
   settlers, and sometimes settle on or speculate in the tracts themselves.
   But if such were their designs they were speedily frustrated when the
   settlers began to come in and choose those tracts first of all. It is a
   fact that the earliest settlements in the township were made on these
   same "depreciated land," and some of the best improvements to-day are in
   this locality.
   
   
         EARLY SETTLEMENTS AND SETTLERS.
   
   About the year 1796 Matthew Murray settled on tract number four, two
   hundred acres, and was the first settler on the place. The old homestead
   is now owned by Daniel Thomas. Mr. Murray came from Maryland, with is
   wife and seven children. Five children were born after he made his
   settlement, the first one, Thomas, very soon after they came, said to
   have been the first white child born on Slippery Rock creek. Mr. Murray
   served in the Revolution, and was in the Light Horse under "Light Horse
   Harry Lee," while the latter was with General Francis Marion. Two of Mr.
   Murray's sons, Matthew and William, were out at Black Rock during the
   war of 1812, and two others, James and John, were with General Harrison,
   at Fort Meigs and vicinity. Matthew Murray, Sr., died in 1827; his wife
   died in 1812 or 1813.
   
   During the years 1797 and 1798 a number of settlers came in, and after
   that the filling up of the township proceeded more rapidly.
   
   James Stewart, Robert Young, William Scott, Thomas and Marvin Christy,
   and Robert Stewart, came during the two years above mentioned, and
   settled in the same neighborhood. The Christys and Robert Stewart
   settled just across in Butler county, and the others in what is now
   Perry township, Lawrence county.
   
   James Stewart came in 1798. He was originally from what was then Adams
   county, Pa., and for a while stopped in the valley of Pigeon creek,
   Washington county. When he came to Lawrence county he located on a farm
   in the northern part of Perry township. His son, Matthew Stewart, owns
   the old homestead, but does not live upon it. Mr. Stewart was a tall,
   athletic man, and could stand and jump over "anything he could lay his
   chin over." His father, Matthew Stewart, had served in the Revolutionary
   war, and though not as tall as his son, was fully as active, and very
   quick. He is said to have run and jumped over a covered-wagon while in
   the army during the Revolution. James Stewart's daughter, Joanna, born
   April 24, 1801, is the wife of Wm. Gealey, Sr., now living in Plain
   Grove township, Lawrence county.
   
   Robert Young was from Ireland, and he and William Scott made a
   settlement on the same tract. For a long time there was considerable
   strife between them as to which one the tract belonged. They finally
   settled the disputed by dividing the tract, and afterwards lived
   amicably as neighbors. Young had made improvements near the center of
   the tract, and when the division was made, Scott took a strip off each
   side in order to allow Young to keep his improvements.
   
   William Scott's oldest son, John, served in the war of 1812.
   
   A peddler, named John Fulton, came in 1797, and settled on the east side
   of Slippery Rock creek, at the spot where the stream is crossed by what
   is known as "Harris' Ford." Fulton was in some way connected with the
   Harris family, from whom the ford derives its name.
   
   James Stewart, a different personage from the man already mentioned,
   came from Peter's Creek, Allegheny county, Pa., and settled on the farm
   now owned by Andrew Powell, in 1796 or 1797. He came with his father and
   mother. His father, John Stewart, served in the Continental army during
   the Revolutionary war, and fought in the battle of Brandywine, September
   11, 1777, the battle resulting in the British army making a triumphant
   entry into the city of Philadelphia. James Stewart was not married when
   he came with his parents, but some time previous to the war of 1812 he
   married Nancy Morrison, whose parents lived on Camp run. John Stewart
   lived a number of years after the settlement, and died aged over seventy
   years. James Stewart served as captain in the war of 1812. He was a
   great hunter, and took extreme delight in the sports of the chase. He
   had a rifle which he called "Old Danger," which carried a ball weighing
   nearly an ounce.
   
   A man named Hawkins was the original settler of the farm afterwards
   owned by Andrew Elliott, and now by William Curry, of Pittsburgh.
   Hawkins must have been out previous to the year 1800. He made the first
   improvements on the place, sold it to Elliott, and left the country
   before 1812. Mr. Elliott located on the place the 2d day of May, 1807,
   and in 1812 taught school in a log school-house which was built on his
   place. The original tract, as settled by Hawkins, consisted of two
   hundred acres.
   
   Among the first settlers in the southern portion of the township were
   Charles Dobbs, William Morton, and others, who located along the line at
   present dividing the counties of Beaver and Lawrence.
   
   Job Randolph settled on Camp run about 1805. He was at that time a young
   man, and was married after he came to the township. He, with his
   parents, when but eight years of age, came from near Princeton, New
   Jersey, the family settling first in Washington county, Pa., and
   afterwards removing to Beaver, now Lawrence county. John Randolph, a son
   of Job Randolph, is now living at Princeton, in Slippery Rock township,
   Lawrence county. This son laid out the town of Princeton, naming it
   after the old dwelling-place of the family. John Randolph was one of the
   first commissioners of Lawrence county.
   
   Some time previous to the war of 1812-15, probably about 1810, Amos Pyle
   came with his family from Peter's Creek Valley, Allegheny county, Pa.
   The family consisted of himself, his wife and six children, and four
   more children were born after his settlement, making ten in all. Mr.
   Pyle had been here about 1807-8, and made some improvements on the
   place, and also built a saw-mill on Camp run. After he brought his
   family, he built a log grist-mill on the run, on the site of the present
   mill owned by Caleb Pyle. Mr. Pyle's brother, Caleb Pyle, Sr., came with
   him, and served as a lieutenant in the war of 1812. The Pyles were
   originally from England, and settled first in Chester county, Pa. When
   they came to their new home on Camp run, "wolves, bears and rattlesnakes
   were plenty," and though the [p. 91] date of their arrival was some time
   after the country around them was first settled, the dangers of living
   in the western forests were but little lessened and it behooved the
   settler to keep sharp watch and ward over his family, lest some prowling
   wild beast might make a sad inroad among them, or some lurking reptile
   cut off one of their number by striking with his poisonous fangs.
   
   Amos Pyle's wife was an eye-witness of the battle of Bunker Hill, and
   her father, William Wright, was in the ranks of the Americans that day,
   fighting manfully for "Liberty and Independence."
   
   Edward White came early to the township, and settled on a four-hundred
   acre tract. White built a couple of small cabins and barns, all of logs,
   on the tract, and then left it. A colored man named Caesar Mercy then
   got a man named Sturgeon, living in Pittsburgh, to go and make further
   and better improvements. White returned and tried to hold the place by
   virtue of the improvements he had made, but Mercy's (or Sturgeon's)
   improvements were superior, and White had no show for at least a part of
   the tract.
   
   In 1825 John Weller purchased two hundred acres of Mr. Sturgeon, and
   located on the land. The balance of the four-hundred-acre tract is now
   owned by George H. Magee, William Weller, James Brandon and J. H.
   Mitchell; the latter party lived in Philadelphia, and on breaking out of
   the oil excitement, purchased a small piece of ground, intending to bore
   for oil, but his purpose was never carried out.
   
   George H. Magee, owning a part of this tract, came to the township about
   1837, and purchased two hundred acres of Robert Aiken, locating and
   living upon it ever since. He had previously lived on the Conoquenessing
   creek, in Butler county.
   
   Robert Aiken came from the Youghiogheny valley, seven miles above
   McKeesport, in April, 1804. He brought four children with him, three
   boys and one girl, and purchasing land of Edward White, located upon it,
   near where the present residence of George H. Magee stands. Mr. Aiken
   raised four children after he came to the township, viz.: Robert,
   Margaret, John and Eliza Jane; Robert was born in 1806. The other
   children were Ann, born in 1798, at the old home on the "Yough;" James,
   Andrew and William. Mrs. Aiken died in 1835, aged sixty-six years, and
   Mr. Aiken in 1850, at the age of eighty.
   
   Jacob Van Gorder came from New Jersey about 1806, and settled on
   Slippery Rock creek, on a farm now owned by his sons. He built a
   saw-mill some time after he came, and some time between 1845 and 1850
   erected a grist-mill, still standing and operated by his sons, who also
   have a saw-mill, shingle-mill, &c. The land in the neighborhood is all
   in the "Chew district."
   
   Elias Van Gorder, brother to Jacob, came in 1808, and settled on a farm
   now owned by Smith, Collins & Co., a Philadelphia firm. He bought the
   land of a man named Neely. It was originally settled by one Pearsol, or
   Kirkendoll, or some such name. Elias Van Gorder brought three or four
   children with him. He went to Erie in Captain James Kildoo's company,
   during the war of 1812, and died there. This company was raised in the
   neighborhood, and had members from Perry, Slippery Rock, Wayne, and
   other townships, and probably some from Butler county.
   
   
         ROADS.
   
   The first road in the township was one which was intended to run through
   to old Harmony village, in Butler county. Its route was from the spot
   where the iron bridge at the oil well now stands, through the old
   Freeman farm, at the Butler county line, thence on to Harmony. It was
   cut through Perry township to the county line, but was never met from
   the other side, and consequently never finished. Trade went in those
   days almost exclusively to Harmony, and when a road was opened it was
   well traveled, but finally business took a start in New Castle, and was
   pushed so briskly that Harmony lost much of its custom, which went to
   New Castle, and the old road grew up to brush.
   
   A petition was afterwards circulated for a State road, which was finally
   viewed from New Castle to Zelienople, Butler county, and partially cut
   through, on a part of the same track the old road followed.
   
   Another State road was located on nearly the same line, varying a little
   from it in some places, but a petition was got up, and the road annulled
   and vacated, and the road laid which now runs from the oil-works down
   along the hollow, up the hill past J. H. Van Gorder's residence and the
   site of the old Covenanter Church, and on to Zelienople.
   
   The Wurtemburg and Portersville State road was laid out about the time
   the county of Lawrence was created, 1849-50.
   
   Matthew Stewart built a grist-mill on the "run" which flowed through his
   farm, very early, and a road was laid south and southwest from it,
   probably intended to go through to Beaver town. Part of the road is
   still in the "Eight Tract settlement." The old mill contained one run of
   stone, and succumbed to the ravages of time many years ago.
   
   
         MILITARY RECORD.
   
   From the foregoing paragraphs it will easily be seen that the patriotism
   of the settlers was of that quality which is up and doing at the scent
   of danger. The early comers to the township had among their number
   several veterans of the Revolution--those who fought to keep alive the
   spark of that liberty which had been so boldly asserted as the rightful
   possession of the colonists--and their children roused themselves to
   action, and preserved the honor of their country and fame of their sires
   when the foot of the usurper was the second time placed upon the necks
   of the still struggling offspring of liberty. The region operated in by
   Generals Harrison, Scott and others bears silent witness to the heroism
   and patriotic ardor of the "Sons of Freedom," and the country has
   remembered her children who sprang to her defence in that hour of need.
   
   After the war of 1812-15 was over, and peace once more "spread her wings
   'neath the banner of stars," militia organizations and volunteer rifle
   companies were kept up for several years.
   
   About 1820, a rifle company called the "Rifle Hornets," or Hornet
   Rifles," was organized under the law which exempted the members from
   further military duty after a continuous service of seven years. The
   company had a membership of from forty to fifty men, armed with common
   rifles, each furnishing his own uniform and arms. The uniform was a blue
   capote, or frock, with red facings and white fringes, red sash,
   citizen's hat with white plume and pants. Alexander Morrison and J. H.
   Van Gorder were at one time officers of this company, the former ranking
   as captain and the latter second-lieutenant. The company was made up of
   men from the immediate vicinity.
   
   During the war of the rebellion the township was largely represented,
   her sons going forth to do battle with the country's worst enemy, a
   civil one--an enemy whose force was made up of children of men who
   distinguished themselves in the Revolution, the second war with Great
   Britain, the Seminole war in Florida, and the war with Mexico, children
   who disgraced the proud escutcheon of their forefathers, and struck with
   venomous malignity at the roots that government to which they owed their
   all. In this war of a nation's children--a war between brothers--many
   who entered the service from Perry were maimed for life, and others
   await to-day the final trump from the grassy graves on Southern fields,
   where they shall gather once more with the dear ones who mourn them.
   
                   On old Virginia's sacred soil;
                     On Carolina's storied ground;
                   By Georgia's frowning mountain walls,
                     Which one the camp-fires lighted round;
                   On Lookout's hoary, cloud-capped crest,
                     And by the waves of Tennessee,
                   Where sleep the nation's noblest, best,
                     Who died to set their country free;
                   In Alabama's sunny clime
                     And Louisiana's tropic groves,
                   Where, in the far off, ancient time,
                     Opposing hosts with valor strove;
                   By Vicksburg hills and dark Yazoo,
                     Whose banks with battle-echoes rung;
                   In canebrake and by deep bayou;
                     The dreary cypress-swamps among;
                   On every spot o'er all the land
                     We celebrate in martial song.
                   And where the mighty, glorious, grand
                     Old Mississippi rolls along,
                   The valiant ranks of patriot dead,
                     Who in the bloody conflict fell,
                   And lying lowly--hushed their tread ?
                     And, while their noble deeds we tell,
                   Let each receive a tribute just;
                     From one and all a heart-felt tear
                   To mingle with their sacred dust,
                     And tell them they're remembered here.
                   They sacrificed their lives to win
                     A line on Fame's eternal scroll,
                   And aye their record bright shall shine
                     Resplendent from their martyr's goal. 
   
   
         SCHOOLS.
   
   In the Fall of 1805 a school-house was built of round logs just across
   the line in Beaver county, on land owned by William Thompson. This was
   the first school-house in the neighborhood, but owing to some dispute it
   was burned down before it was occupied.
   
   Another one was built immediately on the same site, also of round logs,
   and stood for a number of years. The first teacher was John Ker (or
   Kerr), who was living on the Sturgeon place with his mother, and owned
   no land. He was of Irish descent, and was not very popular, though a
   good-[p. 92] hearted man. Owing to the scarcity of teachers he was
   welcomed, however. His greatest fault was gross mis-pronunciation.
   
   A school-house was built about 1812, on land now owned by William Curry,
   of Pittsburgh, then owned by Andrew Elliott, who was the first teacher
   in the building. The settlers in the neighborhood had two sites picked
   out for the location of the school-house, and it was agreed among them
   that the one that had the most pupils subscribed should be the place to
   build it. Robert Aiken settled the matter when it came his turn to
   subscribe, by putting down five pupils for the Elliott location, and
   there the school-house was built. The children who attended this school
   were dressed in blue linsey, and were familiarly called the
   "Eight-tracts Blues." Mr. Aiken was a good as his word, and sent five
   children.
   
   Some time previous to the year 1808 a house was built on land now owned
   by Samuel McElwain. It was built for a dwelling, and used for school
   purposes about 1809-10. The first teacher was an Irishman named Samuel
   Sterrett, who lived where James Smith now lives. School was only kept in
   this building two or three terms.
   
   At an early date a school-house was built on the west side of Camp run,
   in the southern part of the township. A man named John Hines was
   probably the first teacher.
   
   Another one was built of logs on the old Robert White farm. This was
   later, about 1825-26. James H. VanGorder taught in it six months, and
   others taught both before and after him. It was used until 1834, when
   the law establishing free-schools was passed, and it was abandoned.
   
   After the school-law came in force, school-houses were built twenty feet
   square, the first one being north of the old James Morton farm. Teachers
   at that time were scarce, and but few of them were competent, and people
   hired what they could get, from sheer necessity.
   
   The second house under the school-law was built about 1836-37, on the
   State road leading from Wurtemburg to Portersville, about two and
   one-half miles from Wurtemburg. It was built "on the bounds of the
   road," and no land was leased or bought upon which to erect it.
   
   The next one built on the Armstrong farm, but was moved to a more
   central location, on the Andrew Elliott land, where the present
   school-house stands. The house is now known as the "Elliott school-house."
   
   Another was built on the southeast side of the creek, at Wurtemburg, one
   on Camp run, and another in the northeast part of the township.
   
   In 1875 there were five schools in the township, with an enrolement
   [sic] of two hundred and two children of school age, of whom one hundred
   and eight were males, and ninety-four females. The average attendance
   for the same year was one hundred and forty-nine.
   
   Four of the school-houses are new frame structures, about thirty by
   forty feet in dimensions, and warm and commodious. Two more will
   probably soon be built, after which the township will have no reason to
   be ashamed of its school facilities.
   
   
         CHURCHES.
   
   Mountville United Presbyterian Church was organized as an Associate or
   Seceder Church, in 1808 or 1810. Rev. Mr. McClintock probably organized
   it, as he had preached in the neighborhood as early as 1798, and was
   instrumental in effecting the reconciliation between Robert Young and
   William Scott, mentioned in a preceding paragraph. After this, Associate
   Reformed preachers occasionally held forth in the neighborhood also, and
   the early meetings were held at private houses--a Mr. Young's, Mr.
   Scott's and other places, and, during warm weather, in barns.
   
   Among the founders of the Associate congregation were Robert Young,
   William Scott, Thomas Christy, Robert Aiken, John Frew, Job Randolph,
   James Stewart and James Vance, who were all pioneers in the settlement
   of the neighborhood.
   
   About 1810 a small church was built of round logs, on land now owned by
   Daniel Thomas, which was the farm next adjoining the John Fulton place.
   A small graveyard is located near the spot, on what was the Fulton
   property, but only has three or four persons buried in it.
   
   The log church was used until 1822, when a frame church was built near
   where the present one stands. This last building was erected in 1840,
   and stands on the hill west of the residence of James Aiken. The ground
   was donated by Robert Aiken, including four acres. About five acres are
   now owned by the society, they having purchased additional ground for
   burial purposes, &c.
   
   As before stated, Mr. McClintock preached the first sermon, but was
   never settled as pastor. The first settled pastor was Rev. Alexander
   Murray, who preached as early as 1809, but was probably not settled
   until a later date. Mr. McClintock possibly preached a few times in the
   old log church, as an assistant to Mr. Murray. The latter preached to
   the congregation until 1845, when he died, in the thirty-seventh year of
   his ministry. He was buried in the present graveyard.
   
   After Mr. Murray died, the church was supplied by different ministers,
   until Rev. Joseph McClintock was settled, which was in 1847-48. He staid
   nine years, and after him came Rev. Andrew Irons, who became unable to
   preach soon after he was settled, through failing health. Mr. Irons came
   in the Spring or Summer of 1857, and after his health failed, had the
   church supplied for a while out of his own wages. He died near the close
   of December, 1863, and was buried December 31st of that year, the day
   preceding the memorable "cold New Year's day."
   
   Rev. John Donaldson was the next pastor; he came in June, 1865, and
   ceased his labors with the congregation in 1869. After this the church
   was supplied until the Summer of 1874, when Rev. John Patterson was
   called and is the present pastor. The church is flourishing under his
   charge, and he is much respected by his congregation. Mr. Patterson was
   installed over a new congregation called "Camp Run," formed from
   portions of Mountville and Wurtemburg congregations; they built a
   church, a frame structure, in 1874. It stands two miles below Pyle's
   grist-mill. Before it was finished, Mr. Patterson preached in an
   old-fashioned "tent" for a while. The congregation was organized with
   over fifty members.
   
   In Mountville Church the membership is something over one hundred, being
   about as large as it was before the Camp Run congregation was organized.
   
   A Sabbath-school was started in Mountville Church very early, and has
   been kept up most of the time. It is now in a better condition under Mr.
   Patterson's administration than it ever was before. The church was named
   "Mountville" by Rev. Alexander Murray, soon after it was built. It had
   previously been known as the "Eight Tracts Church."
   
   About 1840 a Covenanter or Reformed Presbyterian Church was built near
   the present residence of J. H. Van Gorder. It has a frame building, and
   was finally abandoned. In 1875 it was removed. The first pastor of the
   church was probably Rev. Thomas Guthrie. In 1859 this congregation
   removed to Wurtemburg, in Wayne township, and organized as a United
   Presbyterian Society, which is still continued under the pastoral charge
   of Rev. John D. Glenn. Their church, a large frame structure, was built
   in 1860, and stands on the hill west of the town of Wurtemburg.
   
   
         RETROSPECTIVE.
   
   A glance at the progress of the country, from the advent of the pioneer
   to the present day, will well repay all who choose to contemplate the
   numerous and wonderful changes.
   
   The "settler" in the wilderness came with his worldly goods "packed" on
   horseback across the mountains, fording streams and running imminent
   risk of his life and the lives of those dear to him. Life in the
   backwoods cabin was dull of danger; wild animals prowled through the
   forest; dangerous reptiles basked in by-places ready to strike an
   intruder; neighbors were miles away; the provisions for the use of the
   family were largely supplied by the rifle of the hunter, and hardships
   and trials were manifold. With the filling up and clearing of the
   country, new improvements were introduced, and gradually but surely the
   development of the region has progressed to the present.
   
   The first "grubbing" was done with an old-fashioned "hilling hoe." The
   country included in a portion of Perry township was a kind of flat, or
   "bench," covered with a thick, scrubby growth of hazel, plum, &c. The
   land had probably been cleared up by the Indians long before the whites
   came in. For many years carriages were unknown, and but few wagons were
   brought in, and those of the "Dearborn" pattern.
   
   After a time distilleries were built in many localities, and "whisky
   flowed free as water." These old times, and old institutions and
   implements, are replaced by newer and better ones, and the present teems
   with the intelligence and spirit incident to the rapid advancement of
   the country.
   
   Moses Matheny built a grist-mill on the south side of Slippery Rock
   creek some forty years ago, and it was afterwards sold to a man named
   Taylor, who converted it into a woolen mill. Taylor sold out to Joseph
   Hyde, Esq., and Hyde sold to A. F. Schweinsberg. Schweinsberg kept it
   for some time, and it finally became the property of Amos Pyle. No work
   has been done in it since Schweinsberg owned it. It is a frame building
   of considerable size.
   
   Part of the village of Wurtemburg lies in Perry township, and the
   post-office has, at different times, been kept on this side also, but is
   now in that portion of the village which lies in Wayne township. Some
   fine residences and one store are located in "South Wurtemburg."
   
   [p. 93] The bluff on the south side of Slippery Rock creek, at the bend
   opposite Wurtemburg, is three hundred and ninety feet high, and very
   steep. It is told that a blind horse once fell over the top and rolled
   to the bottom, bringing up safe and sound, but probably somewhat bewildered.
   
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