SALEM TOWNSHIP - 625 Roup; 1870-72, S. B: Slease; 1872-73, M. B. Pugh ; 1878-75, A. H. Miller; 1875-77, George Orbin ; 1877 -79, W. Johnson ; 1879-81, J. B. Gray ; 1881-82, W. S. Cummings, the present incumbent. The trustees are Dr. J. A. Fulton, Charles Soxman, George Marts, Hugh Brown, and Mr. Anderson. Dr. J. A. Fulton is the assistant superintendent of the Sunday-school, a union school, in connection with the Presbyterian members who withdrew from the Salem Presbyterian Church and united with that st Congruity, but has its services in the Methodist Episcopal Church, Joseph Harvey (Presbyterian) being the superintendent of this union school. COVENANTERS' CHURCH (NEW SALEM). For many years the Covenanters held worship in this town, and during and for some time prior to 1849, Rev. Mr. Cannon was the pastor, preaching the last Sabbath of each month. In August, 1849, when the only house of worship here was the Methodist Church, the people gathered in David Christy's woods, some fourteen rods northeast of where the Presbyterian, Church now stands, to hear Mr. Cannon, but in his stead Rev: John Wilson preached. His sermon was a scorching denunciation of the crying sins of the day and of wickedness in high and low places. There were cake-stands in the wood, where drink was sold, and a young man having imbibed too much, and presenting himself before the audience in a maudlin condition, the preacher gave the young man a severe reproof, and rebuked the authorities for allowing on the Sabbath such sales and exhibitions. This denomination has had no services here for over a score of years, and its members who did not remove mostly connected themselves with the other churches. NEW SALEM. New Salem was settled at an early date, but was not formally laid out and incorporated until 1833. Previous to the laying out of the town, however, about 1810, Hugh Bigham came to the place and started the first store. He laid the first water-pipes from the "Big Spring" to what is now the centre of the town. About 1816, Samuel Bigham and his sister Kate opened the first public-house. She was then the Widow Anderson. Samuel Bigham built the house, which was lately owned and occupied by George Lose, deceased. Prior to 1833 there had been no stated religious services in the town. There was occasionally preaching, however, by Rev. Cannon, a Covenanter minister, and others, sometimes in the school-house, and sometimes in an adjoining grove. The first religious organization was effected in 1833 by the Methodists. Their first edifice, a brick structure, was built the same year, on the site of the present one. In 1844 it fell down, killing a man named Thomas McClung, but was replaced two years . afterwards by a frame building, which remained until 1874, when it was torn down to give place to the one now standing. The name of the post-office was formerly Salem Cross-Roads, and as this name did not indicate the existence of a town, and as there was another post-office in the State called New Salem, it was called Delmont. The site of the town was part of a three-hundred acre tract surveyed to William Wilson by a warrant bearing date of Nov. 8, 1784, of which he died seized. By his will, dated March 7, 1796, it was divided between his sons, George and Thomas Wilson, to whom, a patent was issued Dec. 7, 1812. The children and heirs of William Wilson (who entered the land), viz.: William, Martha, Agnes, George, and Rachel Wilson, and Thomas Young and his wife Mary, Samuel McClelland and his wife Ann, and Jane Elliott, all united in conveyances deeding all their interests in said tract to Thomas Wilson, thus making him its owner in fee simple. He laid out the original town on March 3, 1814, into lots numbered from 1 to 48, inclusive, the survey and plat being made by Isaac Moore. He sold these lots at public sale, and of which lot No. 25 was purchased by Joseph Reed for fifteen dollars. Joseph Reed was born in Lancaster County in 1791, came to Westmoreland County in 1798 with his parents, and in 1814 settled here, building on the lot No. 25 fhe house now occupied by Simon P. Keck, He was the only original purchaser of these lots who owned it, or any of them, at his death. He was the first cabinet-maker in the place, which business, with that of undertaking, he carried on for over half a century, and he buried fifteen hundred and sixty-nine persons. On April 23, 1821, he bought two shares in the Pittsburgh and New Alexandria Turnpike Road Company, for which a certificate, No. 39, was issued to him, signed by its president, James Graham, and its treasurer, John A. Gilchrist. Graham at that time lived at the forks of the road where it joins the Greensburg pike, and Gilchrist was a merchant at Murrysville, being a son-in-law of Gen. Murry, the founder of that town. Joseph Reed was for many years one of the managers of this then noted turnpike company. He died Feb. 22, 1880. He married Ann Christy, by whom he had the following children livlng : Dorcas, married to Samuel Christy ; James, now carrying on the business and trade of his father; Jane; Mary, married to Robert Campbell ; Lavina; George H., who was in the late war and was wounded in the face ; John, mortally wounded at the first battle of Fredericksburg, Va., from which he died at the hospital, near Washington, D. C. ; and Harriet Newell. His wife (Ann Christy) died July 3, 1871. The two oldest houses in town are one owned by Zachariah Zimmerman, on Pittsburgh Street, a two-story frame, just above Snyder's Hotel, which was built in 1814 by a Mr. Hunter, and afterwards occupied by James R. Logan as a store ; and the other one the building owned by S. S. Duffield, and which was built in 1814 by John Potts, on the lot he pur- 626 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. chased that year of Thomas Wilson at his public vendue of the lots for the town. The leading men in the town at its laying out and for some years afterwards were the Bighams, Wilsons, and McKibbens. In 1828 there were but sixteen dwellings in the place and two stores, one kept by W. B. Alexander, in a house now torn down, and the other by James R. Logan, in the old frame building now belonging to Zachariah Zimmerman. Some four years later James L. Clow (still living three miles from town at nearly the age of ninety years) opened a store and tavern in the' present " Duffield House," where in 1828 Benjamin Weaver had an inn. Hugh Misskelly had a cabinet-maker's shop, which was the second one started after Joseph Reed's, opened in 1814. One of the first shoemakers was George Lose, with whom John Hugus went to learn the trade in 1828, but which having mastered he never carried on. The oldest school-house was just back of the Presbyterian Church, in which for several years different Irish teachers taught, whose love for education was excelled by their love of ardent spirits. Edward Geary, father of Governor John W. Geary, moved to this region from Unity township, and was one of the early schoolmasters of the county whose memory is revered by all. Daniel Zimmerman came here before the town was laid out, afterwards bought a lot on Pittsburgh Street and erected his house, in which he carried on his trade of a tailor, the first in the place. In the year 1825 the principal heads of families here were Humes Kelly, who kept tavern where Daniel Potts lives; Mr. Weaver, who had the tavern.at the Duffield place; James McKibben, who had one just above John Hugus' house; Robert Shields, who had a tannery (then just bought of John Hutton) ; Thomas McConnell, John B. Plummer, who carried on a saddlery and harness-shop ; Philip Steimats, Dr. Sterritt (the first physician here), who was the doctor for this whole region ; Thomas Bigham, Joseph Reed, who had a cabinet-shop and made coffins ; James R. Logan, store-keeper ; Mr. Dewalt, whose wife died a few months later ; Hugh and Samuel Bigham, afterwards an associate judge of Armstrong County ; and Thomas Wilson, the venerable squire and founder of the town. Before the Pennsylvania Railroad was built New Salem was a very busy inland town, and being one of the main stopping-places on the Pittsburgh pike, was the centre of much trade and bustle. At one time as high as five lines of stages passed here, and the old-time taverns, with their bustling landlords and hard-worked hostlers, could hardly wait upon the travelers thronging the numerous old taverns that then flourished here. BOROUGH CORPORATION AND OFFICERS. New Salem borough was incorporated by act of Assembly of 8th of April, 1833. The qualified voters of the town, then made a borough, were to meet on the first Tuesday of May in each year, at the house of Henry Hughus, in the said borough, to hold their election for the borough officers, which were to be those then recognized by the law. Their duties and powers were set forth at length in the act of incorporation. It appears there was no election held at the time designated, for an act was obtained as a supplement to this one, April 11, 1835, by which the inhabitants were allowed to meet at the same place for the same purpose on the first Tuesday of May, 1835. Thomas Wilson, Esq., was appointed judge of the election. At this election Henry Hugus was elected burgess, Christopher Amelong constable, and Hugh Misskelly, James R. Logan, James Harvey, Robert Shields, Philip Steimats, and John Deever, councilmen. Jacob Huffman was appointed town clerk. The first ordinance established the footways to be nine feet from the houses on each side of the streets, and provided for their being paved with brick or stone, also provided for draining the town, and declared against the planting of trees on any of the streets or footways, and made those already planted common nuisances. The next officers were elected in 1837, viz.: Burgess, Joseph Reed ; Constable, Michael.Potser ; Council, Hugh Misskelly, James McKillip, Joseph Harvey, William Wilson, Daniel Medsker, Thomas Wilson ; Clerk, Henry Hugus. Since then the following persons have filled the offices named : 1838.—Burgess, J. L. Clow ; Constable, Jacob B. Ament ; Council, Thomas Wilson, James Harvey, George Loee, Joseph Sherbondy, Henry Hugus, Jonathan Remealin; Clerk, Henry Hogus. 1839.—Burgess, Henry Hugns; Constable, J. B. Ameut ; Council, Joseph Harvey, Jacob Earnest, Thomas Wilson, George Lose, Joseph Reed, Hugh Miskelly ; Clerk, J. Huffman. 1840.—Burgess, Joseph Harvey ; Constable, David McCullogh ; Council, Matthew Jack, J. L. Clow, J. S. Ormsby, James Huffniao, David Rankin, John Hug-as; Clerk, Jacob Huffman. 1841.—Burgess, Henry iingus ; Constable, D. McCullogh ; Council, James Carothers, J. R. Logan, James McKillip, J. L. Clow, Simon Ragas, Joseph Sherbondy ; Clerk, Jacob Huffman. 1842.—Burgess, Elias C. Gregg ; Constable, J. B. Ament ; Council, H. Magus, Robert Shields, Nathaniel Kelly, James McKillip, Jacob Earnest, Joseph Reed ; Clerk, J. Huffman. 1843.—Burgess, Jacob Huffman ; Constable, Nathaniel Kelly ; Council, James Borlin, Israel S. Bigelow, David J. Potzer, John Uncapher, John Hogue, William McCall ; Clerk. Jacob Huffman. 1844.—Burgess, James McKillip ; Constable, N. Kelly ; Council, Adam Stygen, George Lose, William McCall, John Unceifer, Jacob Huffman, I. S. Bigelow; Clerk, William McCall. 1845.—Burgess, Robert Shields ; Constable, D. J. Potzer ; Council, Joseph Reed, John Ragas, James Guthrie, Benjamin Truxel, Joseph Sherbondy, John McNeil: Clerk, John McNeil. 1846.—Burgess, Henry Hogue; Constable, D. J. Potzer ; Council, John Zimmerman, Joseph Klingersmith, George Keck, George Lose, William McCall, Michael Pifer ; Clerk, John Zimmerman. 1847.—Burgess, William McCall ; Constable, D. J. Potzer; Council, James Borland, John Hugus, Jacob Huffman, John McNeil, Joseph Sherbondy, Joseph Reed ; Clerk, John McNeil. 1848.—Burgess, William McCall; Constable, James Berlin ; Council, John Hogus, John Zimmerman, James Carothers, James McKillip, George Keck, George Lose; Clerk, James Killip. 1849.—Burgess, David Lloyd ; Constable, James Borlin ; Council, Dr. SALEM TOWNSHIP - 627 John McNeil, Joseph Bead, William McCall, J. B. Ament, D. J. Potzer, Henry Hague. 1850.—Burgess, Simon Hngus ; Constable, Gasper Klingensmith ; Council, James McKillip, Valentine Bossert, George Klingensmith, Philip Hobengh, Joseph Marts, W. W. Logan (also clerk). 1851.—Burgess, George Lose ; Constable, Joseph Kline; Council, Robert Shields, Henry Hogue, W. W. Logan, Dr. John McNeil, Daniel Metzger, James Carothers ; Clerk, W. W. Logan. 1852.—Burgess, George Lose ; Constable, Joseph Kline ; Council, John Hague, James Carothers, John McNeil, Daniel Putts, Joseph Kline, Philip Hobangh ; Clerk, D. J. Potzer. 1853.—Burgess, Cyrus M. Dumm ; Constable, J. Kline; Council, John Hogue, James Carothers, John McNeil, Daniel Potts, Philip Hobaugh, Joseph Kline; Clerk, Joseph Harvey. 1854.—Burgess, George Lessig; Council, John Hague, Joseph Kline, James Carothers, Philip Hobaugh, Daniel Potts. In this year the charter was extended under the general borough law authorized by the General Assembly. The proceedings of the borough from 1854 to 1858 are lost or mislaid. 1858.—Burgeas, George Leseig; Constable, Joseph Kline ; Council, John Hugus, John McNeil, John Saul, H. H. McGinley, G. W. Frick, George W. Alms ; Clerk, John McNeil. 1859.—Burgess, Robert Black; Constable, Joseph Kline ; Council, John Saul, George Klingensmith, George Keck, Joseph Walton, John T. Dickey (also clerk). 1860.—Burgess, W. D. Duffield; Constable, Joseph Kline ; Council, H. T. Metzger, Michael Hawk, George McLaughlin, Simon Earnest, Hiram Hobaugh, Simon P. Lessig; Clerk, H. T. Metzger. 1861.—Burgess, Simon J.. Stick ; Constable, Henry Wagner, Jr. ; Council, Henry Keck, G. W. Leighoer, George Klingensmith, Simon Earnest, Daniel Blose, Cyrus J. Kepple; Clerk, Josiah Harvey. 1862.—Burgess, C. J. Steck ; Constable, Henry Wagner, Jr.; Clerk, Josiah Harvey ; Treasurer, C. J. Kepple. 1863.-Burgess, George W. Frick ; Constable, C. J. Steck ; Council, Henry Hobaugh, George McCray, John Earnest, Simon Hogus, Joseph McQuailltin, Joseph Harvey (also clerk). 1864.—Burgess, Cyrus J. Kepple; Constable, S. J. Steck ; council, William Hugus, James Carothers, John G. Wagner, Simon Earnest, William J. Lightner, Uriah Waugaman; Clerk, W. Hague. 1865.—Burgess, George Lessig; Clerk, H. T. Metzger. 1866.—Burgess, David White ; Constable, S. J. Steck ; Council, Dr. James A. Fulton, J. H. Welty, Charles Harvey, Peter Klingensmith, S. A. Linsenbigler, David Henan ; Clerk, Dr. J. A. Fulton. 1867.—Burgess, John Doncaster ; Council, Simon Earnest, J. H. Welty, Dr. J. A. Fulton, David Henan, Peter Klingensmith, S. A. Linsenbigler; Clerk, Dr. J. A. Fulton. 1868.—Burgess, George Lessig; Constable, S. J. Steck ; Council, Josiah Harvey, Dr. H. P. Hugus, Dr. John McNeil, H. T. Metzger, Peter Klingensmith, C. J. Walton ; Clerk, John McNeil. 1869.—Burgess, George Lessig ; Constable, S. J. Steck ; Council, Josiah Harvey, William Kunkle, Peter Klingensmith, Hiram Hobaugh, Simon Earnest, John McNeil (also clerk). 1870.—Burgess, Peter Klingensmith ; Constable, S. J. Steck ; Council, David Henon, H. Hobaugh, W. L. Kunkle, John McNeil, Josiah Harvey, Simon Earnest ; J. McNeil, clerk. 1871.—Burgess, W. J. Leighner; Constable, John Carson; Council, A. J. Klingeremith, John Welty, Simon Hngns, L. B. Snyder, Riley Walton, Simon Keck (also clerk). 1872.—Burgess, James Reed; Clerk, J. W. Borland ; Council, John Waugaman, John Hauer, Hiram Hobangh, Michael 'talk, J. S. Leighner, John W. Borland (also clerk). 1873.—Burgess, James Reed ; Constable, Robert Dixon ; Council, Zechariah Zimmerman, John W. Borland, Peter Klingensmith, John Earnest, David Henan, John McNeil (also clerk). 1874.—Burgess, John W. Borland ; Constable, R. Dixon ; Council, Z. Zimmerman, Thomas Waddell, Gideon Ginter, Daniel Potts, John Hugus, Peter Klingensmith. 1875.—Burgess, John W. Borland ; Constable, Charles Thompson ; Council, Daniel Potts, John Hugus, Gideon Ginter, Thomas Waddell,'Z. Zimmerman, P. Klingersmith ; Clerk, Z. Zimmerman. 1876.—Burgess, J. W. Borland ; Council, 'Thomas Waddell, Z. Zimmerman, P. Klingensmith, Daniel Potts, G. Ginter, S. P. Earnest ; Clerk, Z. Zimmerman. ic ic 1877.—Burgess, William Hugus ; Council, Daniel Potts, L. B. Snyder, S. P. Keck, Daniel Blose, Robert A. Reed, Charles Harvey ; Clerk, R. A. Reed. 1878.—Burgess, Jacob B. Ament ; Council, Uriah Waugaman, Thomas Kinney, James Reed, Jacob Earnest, John G. Kirker, S. S. Duffield ; Clerk, J. G. Kirker. 1879.—Burgess, .1. B. Ament; Constable, G. W. Haney ; Clerk, James Reed; Council, Henry Hill, John Hngus, Riley Walton, Thomas Kinney, Thomas Waddell, James Reed. 1880.—Burgess, Peter Klingensmith; Constable, Henry Hill ; Council, John Earnest, James Reed, Josiah Harvey, C. A. Huffman, H. B. Anderson, Samuel Shields; Clerk, James Reed. 1881.—Burgess, Peter Klingensmith; Clerk, J. D. Patty ; Council, Thoe. A. Kinney, John Klingensmith, H. J. Branthoover, S. A. Linsenbigler, Albert Earnest, J. D. Patty ; Constable, Henry Hill; Street Commissioner, Thomas kinney. CARMEL LODGE, No. 542, I. O. O. F., was chartered by Elias Wildman, M. W. G. M., and William Curtis, M. W. G. Secretary, May 22, 1858. The Orst officers were : N. G., John Doncaster ; V. G., Robert Black ; Sec., Henry McKeever ; Asst. Sec., J. C. Shaw ; Treas., C. M. Johnston. The following are its Past Noble Grands still members of this lodge : Zachariah Zimmerman, James Nichols, William Hugus, W. P. Humes, George Saul, L. B. Snyder, A. B. Kline, William C. Sloan, J. D. Patty, Josiah Harvey, J. C. Kibler, S. M. Fink, Cornelius Berlin. The officers for 1882 are : N. G., C. J. Brant-hoover ; Sec., C. E. Berlin ; Asst. Sec., L. B. Snyder ; Treas., George Saul. Trustees, William Hugus, L. B. Snyder, J. D. Patty. It meets every Wednesday night in its hall on Pittsburgh Street, in the building erected and owned by the lodge. Number of members, twenty. BOROUGH SCHOOLS. The brick school edifice was erected in 1854, and is on Greensburg Street. The board of directors in 1882 consists of George Keck, President ; J. D. Patty, Secretary ; Joseph Harvey, Treasurer ; L. B. Snyder, J. G. Kirker, Isaac Ringer. The teachers are W. L. Fennel, principal ; Mr. Gordon, assistant; J. H. Ringer, W. H. Hensel, primary department. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. THE McQUILKIN FAMILY. James McQuilkin was born near Edinburgh, Scotland, and arrived in Philadelphia in 1773. He was married in 1780, by Rev. James Power, near Mount Pleasant, to Miss Ann Robison, who was born in the Big Cove of Pennsylvania. Their children were Robert, John, Daniel, James, William, Samuel, Thomas, Joseph, Mary, and Isabella. James McQuilkin died Dec. 2, 1802, and his wife, Ann (Robison), Sept. 18, 1828. Joseph, their second child, was born in Salem township, April 3, 1801, at the head of Thorn Run, where his father had located many years before. One of his brothers learned the blacksmith trade near Pleasant Unity, one that of a carpenter in Beaver. County, two were boot and shoemakers, two 628 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. were farmers, Samuel died, and Joseph remained with his mother until her death. The latter son, Joseph, married, May 31, 1832, Elizabeth Thompson, of Washington. He bought out the interests of his brothers and sisters in his father's homestead place, and resided thereon until 1849, when he removed to New Salem, where, Oct. 28, 1851, he purchased from Valentine Bossart the brick house on Pittsburgh Street. He and his wife united with the Presbyterian Church at Murrysville, in June, 1832, in which they remained until the pastorate of Rev. David Kirkpatrick at Poke Run Church, when they joined. it, where they held membership until Salem Church was organized in 185Q, when they connected themselves with it. His wife died Feb. 25, 1852. He was married Jan. 18, 1853, to Sarah Clark. She was born in 1819, and was the daughter of Moses and Agnes (Humes) Clark. Her grandfathers, Isaac Clark and Mr. Humes, were both emigrants from Ireland, and early pioneers in the county. Joseph McQuilkin was elected justice of the peace in 1862, was re-elected in 1867, again in 1872, and the fourth time in 1877.. He settled the estates of scores of people, and for over a quarter of a century did the major part of the conveyancing for this section of the county. He never had any living children by either of his wives, and died Nov. 6, 1881, leaving the heritage of a good name. He was a great humorist, and kept a diary of important local events that had transpired in this region for over half a century. He was a stanch Democrat in politics, a stern Presbyterian in religious faith, and a man whose public and private record was unsullied by a dishonorable act. THE KLINE FAMILY. John Kline, who had been a Revolutionary soldier, removed from Lebanon County when his son John was a small boy, and settled near Adamsburg, in Hempfield township, on Brush Creek. This son, John, moved to the manor near the church, where he died. John's son, Joseph Kline, was born near Adamsburg, and came to New Salem in 1851, where he has since resided. When a small lad, and plowing with his father's hired man in a field adjoining the battle ground of Bouquette, he saw plowed up many Indian relics, and in one field found well-preserved hair of the Indians, that had lain covered up for over half a century, and was as fresh and flexible as when the Indians were buried. THE HUGUS FAMILY. John Hugus, the first of his name in this county, removed after the Revolutionary war from Northampton County to Unity township. He was of French, Huguenot extraction, and his father had emigrated to this country about 1745. His son Henry married Elizabeth Schwartz, and in 1818 removed from Unity to Salem township, and purchased a farm one and a half miles south of New Salem. Their children were: 1. Catharine, married to Isaac Bosler, who removed to Richland County, Ohio. 2. Margaret, married to George Lose. 3. Sarah, married to George Keck. 4. John. 5. Simon. 6. Isaac. 7. Jacob. 8. Henry. 9. William. Of these, John, the first son and fourth child, was born Dec. 21, 1810, and married for his first wife Ann C. McGinley, and for his second C. A. Ford. He was elected sheriff of the county in 1849, and served three years. In 1876 he was elected to the State House of Representatives, and was far two winters a member of the Legislature. He was in the mercantile business in New Salem for over twenty years, and for a long time carried on a large distillery in Penn township. He subsequently built one near New Salem, which burning down, he retired from the distilling business. His father, Henry, died in April, 1829, and his mother, Elizabeth (Schwartz), in June, 1854, while on a visit to her relatives in Unity township. ROBERT GIVEN. Robert Given, Sr., emigrated from County Tyrone, North Ireland, and after the Revolution, in which he served in a Pennsylvania regiment, he located in Lancaster County. Some years after his arrival in America two of his brothers came to this country, of whom George settled in Chester County, and Oliver in Lancaster, near him. He married Mary Hawk, also an emigrant from North Ireland, and of the Presbyterian faith, while he adhered to the Established Church of England. He died in 1800, and his wife surviyed him until 1847. Of their children, three arrived to mature age,—George, who died in Johnstown in 1861; John, who died in Huntingdon County in 1872; and Robert. The latter was born April 17, 1799, near Sowdersburg, Lancaster Co., and in 1821 came to Westmoreland County. and was several years engaged in teaching a subscription school in Derry township. Although he was not classically educated, he had received a thorough English education, and was one of the most popular and successful teachers in his day. He was married on Nov. 9, 1820, to Miss Mary Taylor, of Mifflin County, who died in 1835. The living children by her were John, now a leading merchant in Iowa City ; Mary, married to William S. Lincoln, of Huntingdon County ; Robert, residing in Fayette County ; Martha, married to Wesley Rose, of Johnstown ; and Elizabeth, married to Marshall Rose, of Sacramento City, Cal. In 1838 he married Eleanor Brown, of St. Clair township, in this county, who bore him the following children : Albert, George, SALEM TOWNSHIP - 629 William, a prominent attorney at Greensburg ; Milton, Anna Maria, Harvey, and Eleanor. His son John served throughout the Mexican war, and was commissary at Vera Cruz. His sons George and Milton were in the Union army in the late civil war, the latter, of Company F, First Pennsylvania Artillery, was killed at Gettysburg battle in July, 1863, in his nineteenth year. Robert Given was commissioned by Governor Wolf in 1831 as captain of the " Armagh Light Infantry," the best-drilled company in the Ninety-ninth Regiment of the Second Brigade, Fifteenth Division, Pennsylvania militia. On Feb. 14, 1835, he was appointed by Governor Wolf justice of the peace for Wheatfield township, Indiana Co., and in 1840 (under the constitution of 1838) was elected to the same position in the same township, receiving his commission from Governor Shunk. In 1857 he was elected magistrate for St. Clair township, of this county, in which he laid out the town of New Florence, and commissioned by Governor Pollock. In 1861 he was elected one of the two associate judges of the Court of Common Pleas of this county, and in 1866 was re-elected to the same judicial position, which was the first re-election in the county of any associate judge. Judge Given on the bench won the esteem of the bar and the people for the ability and impartiality that characterized his rulings and course. When on the bench the president judge was often away, and here it was that his ability and judicial firmness were so signally noted. Judge Given has ever taken an active part in the politics of his country, and been for over half a century a leading man in the counsels of the Democyttic party, with which he has been identified all his life. While a member of no church, his family has been connected with that of the United Presbyterians, but he has ever been a liberal contributor to all in his neighborhood. Since 1821 he has been a resident of either Indiana or Westmoreland County, but for the past twenty-three years has resided in the latter, in which he has owned property in all that time. For over twenty years he was connected with the public works of the State, and aided in the construction of the old Portage Railroad and Pennsylvania Canal, and as a contractor graded three miles of the Pennsylvania Railroad. In 1882 he sold his elegant farm in the southern part of Salem township, and in April of the same year removed to Greensburg, where he shortly after, very suddenly died, full of years and honors,—a noble example of a self-made man who under our free institutions had arisen from a poor boy to competence and high position among his fellow-men. ZECHARIAH ZIMMERMAN. The name Zimmerman is of German origin, and is one of the earliest found in the German settlements of Pennsylvania. In the last quarter of the past century Jacob Zimmerman, of Berks County, married Maria Magdalena, daughter of Chris. Braucher, of the same county. Their son Daniel was there born Feb. 9, 1794, and when a young man removed to Westmoreland County before New Salem was laid out. Here, in Franklin township, he married Rebecca, daughter of John and Anne Elizabeth Waugaman, who was born Jan. 25, 1796. When he came to New Salem he purchased a lot just opposite the grist-mill, on which he erected a house, and in which he carried on his trade of tailoring, the first in the place. He was a strong advocate of the common school system adopted in 1834-35, and for which he fought at the polls and elsewhere to establish. He was identified with the early temperance movements of the day, and was the first man in his neighborhood to raise a building without the use of whiskey. In 1830 he removed to Mercer County, but a short time afterwards removed to Allegheny township, in this county, to a farm he had bought, and on which he died in 1876. His aged widow still resides there at the advanced age of eighty-six years. Their children were : 1. Elizabeth, born Dec. 1, 1816, died aged two years and eleven months. 2. Rev. Jacob (a Lutheran clergyman), born Feb. 2, 1818, and resides in Allegheny township. 3. John, born Mareh 24, 1820, cashier of First National Bank of Greensburg, and ex-prothonotary of the county. 4. George .Washington, born Jan. 5, 1823, died during the Rebellion in the United States service.. 5. Anna Mary,.born Dec. 29, 1825, married to Rev. David McBee, and died April 11, 1869. 6. Zechariah, born June 27, 1828. 7. Sarah, born March 5, 1831, married William Shearer, and lives on the Zimmerman homestead in Allegheny township. 8. Benjamin, born Nov. 9, 1833, died young. 9. Lucinda, born Jan. 1, 1835, married William Artman, resides near Parker, Pa. 10. Amos Lafayette, born Feb. 22, 1838, resides near Leechburg, Armstrong Co. 11. Michael Jonas, born July 24, 1841, died aged sixteen months. Their sixth child, Zechariah, was born in New Salem, and is probably the oldest living person born in that place.. He was raised on his father's farm in Allegheny township (to which his father removed when Zechariah was two years old) until his twentieth year (1848), when he came to New Salem and clerked for his brother John in the latter's dry-goods store about a year. He then assisted in Mr. Redpath's store at Leechburg, after which he kept store at Howellton's Cross-Roads for several years. He then attended Duff's Commercial College at Pittsburgh, and took charge of the company co-operative store in New Salem. Afterwards he was again a clerk in his brother John Zimmerman's store here, and in 1860 opened a drug-store, in whlch business he has continued to the present time. He was married Sept. 630 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. 15, 1853, to Catherine, daughter of John and Catherine (Stotter) Walter. She was born Oct. 20, 1835, and died Feb. 6, 1857, leaving one child, Mary Catherine Walter Zimmerman, born June 24, 1856, and who married Albert J. Steel. On Sept. 1, 1859, he was married to Margaret A., daughter of John and Sarah Jackson, by whom were borne the following children : William John, Jennie Laura, Minnie Rebecca Harbison, and Sarah Etta Bertha. During the late war he was a member of the " Union Rangers," Capt. Duff's company of the militia (Company C, Twenty-second Regiment), which saw several weeks' service on the southern borders of the State. He is a member of Congruity Presbyterian Church, and worships with the congregation here that holds its services in the Methodist Episcopal Church edifice. In 1859 he became a member of Carmel Lodge, No. 542, I. O. O. F., of which he is a Past Noble Grand, and he is a life member of Ancient York Masonic Lodge, No. 225, of Greensburg, where he received its three symbolical degrees in 1863. He has served some twenty-five years as postmaster, first at Crawford's Mills, where he was appointed in 1850 by Nathan K. Hall, Postmaster-General under President Fillmore, and which he held until he resigned and moved away from that locality. In 1863, after John Doncaster, postmaster of this town, was burned out, he was appointed postmaster here, and held the office until March 4, 1881. He is a Republican in politics, and has been twice a candidate (for prothonatary) of his party, in the minority in this county, to help maintain its organization, and each time ran largely ahead of his ticket. He is one of the principal business men of the borough, and is ever identified with all projects for the best interests of the community, whose esteem he enjoys in an eminent degree. ROBERT SHIELDS. Among the early settlers in Franklin County was the Shields family, which had emigrated from the north of Ireland. James Shields was born near Chambersburg, in that county, in 1770, and came to Westmoreland in 1798, locating some four miles northeast of New Salem, in Salem township, on the farm now owned by his son David. He built a house on his two hundred-acre tract of land, to which he added subsequently one hundred and twenty acres more. He married Elizabeth Wilson, of the old,a.nd wealthy Wilson family, near Chambersburg. She was the eldest daughter of her parents, who had seven sons and three daughters. She became in 1872 sole heir of the extensive Wilson estate in Franklin County, embracing some five thousand acres of land, together with other valuable personal property. James Shields died in 1841, and his wife, Elizabeth (Wilson), March 23, 1873, aged ninety-nine years. Their children were Matthew, who died young ; John, living in Franklin County ; Robert ; James, a resident of Chambersburg ; David, residing in Latrobe ; Matthew, living' in Mount Pleasant ; Wilson, also in Mount Pleasant ; Sarah, married to William Ray ; and Mary (deceased), married to James Dickey. Of these, Robert was born in 1893, and when nineteen years of age went to Shieldsburg, where he learned the tanning business with Capt. Benjamin Hill, who there carried on an extensive tannery. In the fall of 1825 he removed to New Salem, where his father had purchased two lots, with a little tannery sunk on them, of John Hutton, the owner, who had started it a few years before. Robert Shields made additio.ns and improvements to the establishment, and carried on the tanning business until 1870, a period of forty-five years. It was on the lots of his present residence on Pittsburgh Street, but the vats have been covered up for several years. He bought out the saddlery and harness-making business of John B. Plumer, which he conducted also for a long time, in addition to a boot and shoe factory carried on by him until the cheap Eastern manufactured goods began to be kept by the stores. He was married Aug. 31, 1826, to Mary Borland, daughter of Samuel Borland, by Rev. Harper. His wife died Feb. 5, 1861. Their children were Elizabeth, born June 19, 1827, was married to George Lloyd, of Latrobe; Lydia Anne, born March 19, 1829, unmarried, and resided at home ; Florinda Patton, born Oct. 3, 1831, married Henry McKeever, and died Dec. 5, 1865 ; James, born Feb. 15, 1833, died young ; Mary Jane, born June 30, 1834, married Samuel J. Paul ; Samuel Shields, born April 26, 1836 ; Sarah, born Dec. 6, 1838, unmarried, residing at home ; David Wilson, born Oct. 4, 1839, died young ; Rachel Maggie, born Oct. 16, 1841, married John F. Humes; William Wilson, born April 1,1843, died young ; Nancy Sterritt, married to Dr. James A. Fulton ; and Robert, an infant. Mr. Shields was raised and educated in the Presbyterian faith, and until 1849 (when the Presbyterian Church was organized at New Salem) was a member of Congruity Church, where for nearly twoscore years he worshiped under the benign ministrations of Revs. Samuel Porter and Samuel McFarren, two distinguished divines of their day. He is the only living head of a family who resided in New Salem in 1825, which was then a small village of but few houses, but a noted stopping-point for stages on the Pittsburgh and New Alexandria turnpike. For over half a century he was very largely identified with its business interests, and contributed greatly to its growth in material resources as well as to the advancement of its educational and religious projects, to all of which he ever aided by his voice and purse. Slnce his residence here he has witnessed the erection of four substantial church edifices, the organization of good schools, and a rapid development of the borough in population and wealth, and in his old age-enjoys the recompense of a busy and well-spent life, enjoying the respect and confidence of his neighbors. SALEM TOWNSHIP - 631 SAMUEL J. PAUL. One of the first magistrates in what was then Washington (now Bell) township was Samuel Paul, Esq., one of the most popular justices of his time. He was of Scotch-Irish extraction, and a man descended from an old family very early settled in the provinces. He married Jennie Porterfield. Their children were Robert ; Mary, unmarried ; John ; Jennie, married to Matthew Callen ; Hannah, married to George Provard ; James ; and Sarah, married to George Spalding. Of these, John, born in 1803, married Sarah, daughter of Samuel and Jane (Laughery) Thompson, of Washington township, on Beaver Run. She was born in 1804, and was the granddaughter of Col. Laughery, who raised and commanded the Westmoreland County company that started to join Gen. George Rogers Clark, and which met an untimely fate in all being cut off and killed by the Indians. The children of John and Sarah (Thompson) Paul were Samuel Jackson ; Robert Alexander ; William Porterfield (deceased) ; Mary Jane, unmarried and deceased ; Nancy Elizabeth, married to William Jack ; Sarah Maria, married to Rev. J. Molton Jones, pastor of Pine Run Presbyterian Church ; James Laughery, chief clerk in the office of the State superintendent of public instruction ; John Calvin, major in the late civil war and resident of Pittsburgh ; and Hannah Lucy, married to Rev. A. F. Boyd, pastor of Rehoboth Presbyterian Church. Samuel J. Paul was born Nov. 13, 1825, in Washington township, and when one year old his parents removed to the Kiskiminetas River, and shortly after they settled in Bell township on a farm on which is the site of the present village of Perrysville, where they remained until 1839. Then they came to Salem township to a farm below Tree's Mill. He was raised on a farm, and educated in the schools of his neighborhood. After his marriage he resided two years in Loyalhanna township, and then shortly afterwards (in 1856) came to his present farm, which he then purchased, and which lies one mile east of New Salem. The following year he erected his neat cottage residence. He is a general farmer, but in the past has given special attention to stock-raising. He was married Nov. 1, 1849, to Agnes, daughter of Samuel and Nancy (Porter) Jack. She was horn April 3, 1823, and died Jan. 31, 1875. By this union the following children were born : Nancy Jack, born May 28, 1851, married to John C. Davis ; Margaret Jane, born Feb. 14, 1856, married to Dr. Amos 0. Taylor, of New Salem ; John Calvin, born Jan. 16, 1859 ; Sarah Maria, born February, 1861 ; Samuel Jack, born Sept. 2, 1863. He was married June 14, 1877, to Mary Jane, daughter of Robert and Mary (Borland) Shields, who was born June 30, 1834. By this marriage was born one child, Robert Thompson, June 27, 1878. Mr. Paul's father and mother were married in 1824, at the ages of twenty and nineteen respectively, and in 1874 celebrated their golden wedding. They are both living on their old homestead. Samuel J. Paul is a member of the New Salem Presbyterian Church, and a trustee of the same. In politics he is a pronounced Republican, and active for the success of hiS party, though he has never been a candidate for office. His great-grandfather on the maternal side was the celebrated Col. Laughery (or Lochry), who left but two children, Jane, who married Samuel Thompson, and a sister, who married a Mr. McBryar. COL. JAMES L. PAUL. Col. James Laughery Paul, chief clerk of the department of soldiers' orphans' schools of Pennsylvania, was born in 1839, in Westmoreland County, and was the son of John and Sarah (Thompson) Paul. In 1876 he published from the press of Lewis S. Hart, of Harrisburg, a neat volume of five hundred and twenty pages, elegantly illustrated by Frederick Haas, giving an able account of Pennsylvania's soldiers' orphans' schools. It is a book edited with rare ability, and gives a brief historical statement of the origin of the late civil war, the rise and progress of the State orphan system, and legislative enactments relating thereto, with sketches and engravings of the several institutions, with names of pupils subjoined. It also contains engravings and historical sketches of ex-Governors Curtin, Geary, and Hartranft, and many other distinguished persons of both sexes who were connected with the orphan system or engaged in various capacities in the suppression of the Rebellion. Col. Paul enlisted at Pittsburgh Aug. 1, 1861, " for three years or during the war," as a private in Company A, Sixty-third Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, Col. (afterwards general) Alexander Hays commanding. The regiment was assigned to the Army of the Potomac, Third Army Corps, Gen. Phil Kearney's division. He re-enlisted in the field as a veteran volunteer, Dec. 10, 1863, at Brady's Station, Va. ; and when the time (Aug. 1, 1864) for which his regiment enlisted had expired he was transferred to Company I, One Hundred and Fifth Regiment of Pennsylvania Veteran Volunteers, and served with it to the close of the war. While in active service he attained to the rank of second sergeant of his company, and claims no greater honor than that of having faithfully served his country as an enlisted man. Immediately after the surrender of Gen. Lee he was detailed as a clerk in the War Department at Washington, by a special order of Hon. Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War, and served in that capacity until Aug. 24, 1866, when, after having served for an unbroken period of five years and twenty-four days, he was mustered out of the military service under provisions of an order issued from the office of the adjutant-general of the armies of the United States. For gallant and long-continued services in the war for the suppression of the. Rebellion, and as a 632 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. mark of personal regard, Governor John W. Geary, before retiring from the gubernatorial chair, in January, 1873, commissioned him to rank as a brevet lieutenant-colonel, reciting in the commission the names of the following battles in which he participated, viz. : Yorktown, Williamsburg, Fair Oaks, Orchards, Seven-days' Battles, Chancellorsville, Gettysburg, Wapping Heights, Auburn Mills; Mine Run, Petersburg, and also the pursuit and capture of the Confederate army at Appomattox. After the retirements& John Dickie Shryock, chief clerk of the department of soldiers' orphans' homes, in November, 1868, Col. Paul, at the instance of Hon. John Covode, his personal friend, was appointed by Governor Geary to fill the vacant position. Col. Paul's abundant opportunities for collecting materials, and his known industry and ability, are a sufficient guarantee that his book is complete, readable, and reliable. His was the laudable and grateful undertaking to tell how a great State expended over five millions of dollars in maintaining and educating over eight thousand children made fatherless by the casualties of war. He was assisted in the literary finish by Rev. Columbus Carnforth, A.M., who for ten years had been the State inspector and examiner of the orphan schools, and who, like Col. Paul, brought a ripe experience to elaborate the great work in interesting details. JOHN SNODGRASS. John Snodgrass was the only son of William Snodgrass, of Martic township, in the county of Lancaster, Pa., who was a farmer, and Ellen Beggs, a native of Ireland, who was brought to this country by her parents when a child. William Snodgrass, the father of John Snodgrass, was of Scotch descent. William Snodgrass and his wife, Ellen Beggs, had also four daughters,—Mary, married to John Tittle; Sarah, married to John Long ; Elizabeth, married to Andrew Campbell, and Margaret, who never married. William Snodgrass and his wife came to Westmoreland County when their son John was a babe at his mother's breast, John Snodgrass having been born in Lancaster County not long prior to the year 1800. When William Snodgrass first came to Westmoreland County he rented a house from Col. Joseph Guthrie, in Derry township. The next year he purchased one hundred acres of land from Samuel Ramsey, in the same township, then afterwards purchased one hundred acres adjoining the first tract from Joseph Blair, and then thirty acres from Joseph Ross. He died in 1813 or 1814, leaving surviving him his widow and the children above named. His widow died in the fall of 1844. William Snodgrass and his wife were both Old-School Presbyterians, and are buried at Salem Church, in Derry township. William Snodgrass, in the language of his son John, was " an industrious, saving man, and his mother was an extraordinary woman to manage ; she man aged and carried on the farm when the children were small." Such is the description that Mr. John Snodgrass has left of his father, and of that remarkable mother whose great abilities he inherited until, step by step, he became the most prominent and enterprising business man in Western Pennsylvania. His first public enterprise was the construction of two heavy sections on the Pennsylvania Canal, at Newton Hamilton. From about 1837 to 1843 he was superintendent of the Portage Railroad. His clerks were W. S. Campbell, afterwards proprietor of the St. Charles Hotel, in Pittsburgh, and later of the St. Lawrence, in Philadelphia ; and John W. Geary, afterwards Governor of Pennsylvania. After he left the Portage Railroad he bid for and obtained the carrying of the United States mail from Chambersburg to Pittsburgh by stage-coaches, which he continued until the railroad was constructed, and at the same time carried on farming on a large scale, and was the proprietor of two flouring-mills on the Loyalhanna. In 1862 he was the largest land-owner in Westmoreland County, and during the war, in connection with Gen. Markle, Thomas, G. Stewart, Col. Israel Painter, and Charles Hillborn, of Philadelphia, was awarded a very large contract to supply the Northern army with beef-cattle. After the contract was taken the government flooded the country with greenback money. This raised the price (if beef-cattle in the market, and he lost heavily in all the supplies he furnished until his large fortune was nearly all gone. He persistently clung to fulfilling his contract with the government, and went down under the depreciation of the currency, which was something he could not control ; but such was the confidence of his creditors in his integrity that during his life he was not disturbed in the possession or ownership of his large landed estate. He was an ardent patriot, took a deep interest in local politics, and for upwards of twenty years did perhaps more than any other man towards making the county nominations. In 1850 he was nominated for Congress in the district composed' of Westmoreland, Cambria, and Bedford, but owing to a division in the party, and two other candidates running in the same political party, he was defeated, and Joseph H. Kuhns, Esq., was elected a Republican representative from this strong Democratic district. Mr. Snodgrass died in November, 1878, and is buried in the cemetery at New Alexandria. He was a strict Presbyterian, and died in the communion and faith of his father and mother. JOHN WALTER. About the middle of the last century Philip Walter was one of the many emigrants from Germany who came to Pennsylvania. After he had been in this country a few years and got settled he sent to the fatherland and brought over his future wife, whom UNITY TOWNSHIP - 633 he had not seen since she was a little girl of ten years. After his death she married a Mr. Hawk, an early settler near Greenoburg. The emigrant had a son, Philip Walter, who married Catherine Spahr, from which union was born a son, Philip, the third of that name in direct descent of the Walter family. Philip Walter (the third) married Catherine Trout, daughter of Balser and Elizabeth (Ridenour) Trout. Balser Trout had served in the Revolutionary war, and on his arrival in this country first located in Germantown (now a part of Philadelphia), and after the close of the war removed to near Winchester, Va. Subsequently he came to Washington township and located on Beaver Run, where his wife's brother, William Ridenour, had settled a short time previous. The children of Philip Walter and his wife, Catharine (Trout), were John, Margaret, married to William Sdheaffer, Balser, Elizabeth, married to Jacob Conklin, David, Daniel, Catharine, Susan, married to Michael Dewalt, Jacob, Philip, Anthony, and George. The Walter family very early settled on the farm now owned in Salem township by J. Moats, where the Ad Walter mill was the first one built in all this region. The year after the birth of Philip Walter's oldest son, John, Balser Trout and his son-in-law, Philip Walter, removed to the Branthoover farm, which they leased for nine years. At the expiration of this lease Philip Walter purchased the farm (just east of the Moats farm) now ()lined by his son George, and where he died in 1859. His wife died on June 10, 1861, aged seventy-six. His grandfather, Philip Walter (second), was killed in 1807 by the fall of a limb of a tree which he was cutting flown, shortly after which his widow with her four youngest children removed to near Lancaster, Ohio, where she married a Mr. Fetter. On his death she removed to. Indiana and there died. John Walter, the eldest son of Philip and Cathetine (Trout) Walter, was barn Feb. 13, 1808, in Salem township, on the farm now owned by Jacob Moat. He was married Feb. 26, 1833, to Bithynia, daughter of Henry and Catherine Stotler, of Allegheny County. She was born June 9, 1813, and died Feb. 6, 1880. Their children were Catherine, born Oct. 20, 1835, married Sept. 15, 1853, to Zachariah Zimmerman, and died Feb. 6, 1857 ; Lucinda Harriet, born Sept. 6, 1837 ; John Calvin, born July 20, 1840 ; and Benjamin F., born July 7, 1846, and married Sept. 21, 1871, to Maggie J. McKalip. The child of Catherine, married to Zachariah Zimmerman, was Mary Catharine Walter, born June 24, 1856, and who married Albert J. Steele. The children of Benjamin F. Walter are Anna Ewing, born Sept. 4, ,1875, and Ellen, born Jan. 19, 1879. John Walter learned the blacksmith and edge-tool trade with John Steel, and for thirty-seven years carried on this business with great success, both in Allegheny and this county. He purchased the farm on which he resides, known as the old Kirkpatrick farm, in 1832. It was then nearly all in woods, but in 1838 he moved on to it, built a log house, and began clearing it up. In 1848 he erected his present brick residence, just south of Oakland Cross-Roads. Mr. Walter is a Republican in politics, and takes a warm interest in the success of his party, to which he has been so long attached. With his family he is connected with the Poke Run Presbyterian Church, of which he is a trustee. He is a good example of the thrift of the old German stock that settled in Pennsylvania in the past century, and from no capital but his own resolute will and energy has made his life a success, and established a good name among his fellow-citizens. UNITY TOWNSHIP. THE following is the official record of the organization of Unity Township : "January Session, 1789. "Upon the Petition of a Number of the Inhabitants of Mount Pleasant Tp. to the Court, setting forth that from their own experience & observation they are convinced that the Township in which they Reside is much too large for the Conven't Dischge of Many of the Officers' Duty. That they are of opinion that when Townships are sufficiently populous, they ought to be no larger in their extent than the Inhabitants thereof might be generally known to those who may be appointed to Township Offices; That where they are otherwise, it commonly embarrasses the officers in the Discharge of their Duty, & produces too good an apology for improper Delays, and praying that as the Township is sufficiently populous & on an Inconven't extent, That a new Township might be Erected off that end of Mount Pleasant Township which lies next to Loyalhaning Creek, and suggesting the propriety of beginning the line of the New Township at Adam Briney's place, where John Briney lived, on the Hempfield Line, & from thence to run to Sewickley Road, where it passes the late Francis Waddles' Plantation along said road until the place where it crosses the New Road from Archibald's Mill to Greensburgh: and from thence to go by the said New Road until the Line of Donegal Tp., and thence by the Lines of Derry, Salem, and Hempfield T•ps To the place of Beginning, which Township to be erected and so situated, The Petitioners request may be called by the name of Unity, etc.' "Which Petition having been read to & considered by the Court, was granted, agreeably to the Prayer thereof, and Recommended by the Court for the Election of a Justice agreeable to the act of Assembly. " The foregoing Petition and the Certificate of the Recommendation of this Court as aforesaid ; having been Read in Council on the Seventh day of Febr'y, 1789, and on the twenty-third day of Sept'r follo'g an 634 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. order was taken and made thereon, that the division of the said district by the said Court for the purpose afores'd be I the same is hereby confirmed." Unity township has on the north the townships of Derry and Salem, having for its boundary line between Derry the Loyalhanna Creek ; on the east it has Ligonier and Cook townships, with the Chestnut Ridge between them for its dividing line ; on the south it has Mount Pleasant township, and on the west Hempfield township. Although the township of Unity was not one of the original townships of the county, it was a very early one, and as a part of Mount Pleasant township its early history is replete with interest. In the list of taxables which we have given for Mount Pleasant we have many—indeed, possibly a majority of them —who were the inhabitants of that part of the town-, ship which a few years later was Unity. In the history of the churches of this township, and particularly in the early history of the county itself, will be found a due representation of her early settlers. Of these she has just cause to be proud, for among them were for three generations some of the most active and leading men and families of their day. The Loyalhanna River separates Latrobe from Unity, but probably a larger population regard that town as their market town and railroad station from the Unity township side than from the Derry township side. Within its limits are the monastery and college of St. Vincents, and the convent and seminary of St. Xaviers, institutions of which a more extended account is given elsewhere. It also has within its limits the church of the Unity Presbyterian congregation, one of the oldest and most historic in the West; and the graveyaradlese hallowed precincts have been tenderly gu d for a hundred years, wherein have been deposited the mortal remains of men who deserve honor not only because they were just, but because they were the friends and champions of liberty and equality. That part lying against the Chestnut Ridge is, as is all the physical conformation of the neighboring or contiguous land, rough and hilly ; the surface of the whole township, indeed, partaking of a hilly and uneven character. The lower portion on the western side is drained by the Nine-Mile Run. Between this and the Ridge itself the land is not adapted to agricultural purposes, although some portions of it have been cleared, and, by dint of much labor and toil, clearings have been made and comfortable homes have been rescued from the wilderness of heavy timber, brush, and rocks. Some of the oldest settlements in the county were =Wei as has been said elsewhere, along the crests of these ranges on account of their proximity to the fort at Ligonier, and for reasons of agriculture and subsistence which are not apparent to the present generation but which were moving considerations to the early settlers. Indeed, one of the most common subjects for remark to the observant stranger is the sudden and unexpected appearance of a fine meadow or a blooming orchard, trimmed and cleanly kept, and surrounded by a neat stake-andrider or stone fence, and back of all a neatly-planned, white-painted house and barn, with all modern conveniences, belonging to some thrifty person who has taken hold of one of these old clearings and has made a tasty and profitable home. The portion, however, on the western side of Nine-Mile Run, and lying between it and the Dry Ridge range, is one of the most productive, richest, and best developed of the agricultural regions of the county. The surface of the land here being of heavy limestone, and being for the most fpart specially well cultivated, is known far and wide as one of the best wheat- and corn-producing districts in the State. It bade fair to be a rival of the famous Lancaster district in the production of wheat-grain, and had Westmoreland remained purely an agricultural county there is no doubt that the progress of scientific farming would, in a portion of this township, have been beyond all parallel. But the modern industries and the demand attending them have created• a market for the minerals which lie under the surface, and for the timber which covered it in those portions which had theretofore been regarded as the most unprofitable, and has entirely changed the relative interests of the township ; and while the farming interest; have increased in a due proportion with that interest elsewhere in Western Pennsylvania, yet they are relatively far below the other interests to which we have referred. LUMBER INTERESTS. The lumber interests here were the first to profit by the innovations of the modern age, to wit, the age of the Pennsylvania Railroad. This great thoroughfare, running within sight and of easy distance from the Ridge, was a godsend to the people inhabiting thereon. The first great demand which the company created was that for ties for its road-bed. The large quantity necessary for its construction along the whole of the Western Division was chiefly gotten from the timber taken from the Chestnut Ridge. Then, speedily followed the demand for fire-wood, lumber for cars and for building purposes, not only along the line of the road, but for the people who congregated to the incipient villages at the various stations. Since then the lumber business in this section of the county traversed by the Ridge, of which so large a portion is within Unity township, has largely and regularly increased. It is worth noticing that at the first stages of the business—speaking generally of the lumber business—there was much timber uselessly and needlessly wasted. This perhaps was in great degree owing to its plentifulness, to the inexperienced knowledge of marketing it, and to a wide-spread belief that at no time would it be possible that the demand should be equal to the supply. Since then the enhanced value of the material, the clearing off UNITY TOWNSHIP - 635 of that portion of land contiguous to the railroad, the rise in the price of labor, and the systematic development of the business, together with the capital invested in it, have given the business at the present time well-defined limits. Like in all industries, the capital and the labor necessary to carry it on have flown in together, and although the business is in the hands of comparatively few, yet the volume of its necessary transactions has at no time been so great as it is now, and has been within the last three years, or from the period which dates the revival of business after the panic. COAL INTERESTS. Of a later date hts been the rise and development of the coal and coke business. It was a fact generally known to those of an inquiring mind, which fact was evidenced by the surveys made under authority of the State, that the Connellsville seam of coal lay under the greater portion of the surface of the township, extending across it from northeast to southwest in a well-defined boundary much in the shape of a triangle, with the outcrop on the northwestern side, lying to the east of the Dry Ridge (or Huckleberry Hills) on the southern side of the township, and near the Nine-Mile Run on the southeastern side. The sides of this triangle come nearly together at Latrobe, where the two outcrops are but a few miles apart. The principal coke-works here are the " Monastery Works," owned by Carneige Bros. & Co. These works lie but a short distance from Latrobe, and in mentioning the coal interests of that centre we have dwelt at length on these works, and of the other coal and coke-works of the township. At this time most of the coal lying within this section of this coal measure has been taken up. and is in the hands of capitalists. Operations have been begun in the township to the southwest of Pleasant Unity, and it is altogether probable that within a limited time the whole deposit will be worked. Nor is it unlikely, but altogether likely, that railroad communication will speedily be opened up from the Pennsylvania Road to the Mount Pleasant coal regions. CIVIL DIVISIONS. The political subdivisions of the township are Youngstown borough, Pleasant Unity, and West Latrobe villages, the two first of which are also post-offices, and hamlets Crab Tree, Lycippus, and Beatty, a station on the Pennsylvania Railroad, all post-offices. There are three election districts within its limits, namely, Youngstown (borough and district), Pleasant Unity, and Kuhn's. YOUNGSTOWN BOROUGH. The borough of Youngstown was incorporated by the Assembly by act of 2d of April, 1831. The in habitants entitled to vote there were empowered to vote for the borough officers at an election to be held at the house of John Gibson, on or before the first Monday of the next May. The officers of the borough were such. as the law then authorized. The borough is a separate school district under the common-school system, and it supports a Catholic parish school connected with St. Vincents Monastery. It is also a separate election district, and the voting place for the Youngstown Election District in the township. It is thus, borough and district, one election district for general purposes. Youngstown, the only incorporated borough in the township of Unity, is one of the oldest villages in the county. It was an old turnpike town, situated on the western side of the Chestnut Ridge, at its base, and about midway between Greensburg and Ligonier. The first house near the present town was a tavern, known as Reed's tavern, and it was known along the road as situated on the Nine-Mile Run. There was quite a village here at the close of the last century. It lay along the old Pennsylvania State road, and at the time of the Whiskey Insurrection (1794) some of the troops camped around this public-house at the Nine-Mile Run. Among the first land-owners and settlers of the place was Alexander Young, who owned most of the land upon which the place was laid out and from whom it derived its name. Young built the first stone house here. Part of the town was subsequently laid out by Joseph Baldridge, who was an extensive land-owner hereabouts. Martin West owned land contiguous to the town. He was a spirited citizen, and took much interest in the prosperity of the place at an early date. Sometimes in old papers the place is called Martinsburg, and it was not until the name was given it by the post-office department that it was assuredly known by the name which it now bears. At the early date to which we refer Youngstown was the market-town and the post-office for Gen. St. Clair, William Findley, William Todd, the Proctors, Lochrys, George Smith, and quite a number of other representative men, whom we have elsewhere noticed. These were all public characters. William Todd was a member of the Assembly, one of the Council of Censors, and an associate justice of the Common Pleas. He is one of the common stock of the Todd family of Kentucky and Ohio, who have many distinguished men and women belonging to it, among others the wife of President Abraham Lincoln, who was a Todd. But little skill or judgment—truly no judgment at all—was shown in the laying out of the place and in making provision for the comfort and convenience of the subsequent inhabitants. The lots were measured and numbered for an equal frontage along the turnpike, and a place left for two roads to cross the main street. There was no provision for streets to run parallel with the main street, nor for alleys either to run at angles or parallel with the street. The result was that when it began to be built up it speedily bore the appearance of one of those peculiar American 636 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. villages which were erected only for the exigencies of the turnpike travel. The street was wide and long, and at convenient distances were large spaces belonging to the tavern, and which was a part of the tavern stand," called the " stand" or " yard," for the convenience of the road wagons or coaches. Of the citizens of a later date were Alexander Johnston, Esq., James Keenan, Esq., Judah Case, John Coulter, John Head, Daniel Boribright, Dr. John McGirr, Sr., Dr. George Felix, James Mehan, George Lehmar, and others, the most of whom have descendants whose names are familiar in all the active walks of life, in both local and metropolitan circles. Notice has been elsewhere taken of many of these personages or of their families. One family name, however, has not been adverted to, namely, that of Bonbright, but the celebrity of the firms of Hood, Bonbright & Co., and of Buhler, Bonbright & Co., wholesale merchants of Philadelphia, is so wide and pre-eminent in the commercial centres of the. United States that we need not more than make mention of it as we recall the fact that the active heads of these respective firms—the Bonbrights, James and George—are two of the sons of this Daniel, one of the earliest of the country merchants in this old-time village, where they themselves received their early schooling and business training. At that time Youngstown was the centre for business of certain kinds for a radius of ten miles round. There was then no Latrobe, no railroad ; there were no country stores at convenient distances, besides mills and blacksmith-shops, as now. No comparison can justly be made' between any point of its size and the corresponding amount of business done, for no comparison can aptly be made. The number of those dependent upon the interests of the place, the nature of this dependence, the relative volume of traffic and the relative value of money are elements that go to make up the disparity to which we have adverted. The present Youngstown, although not in numbers so great as the former Youngstown, has no remote idea of going backward. Its situation is everything to be desired. The country surrounding is improving and getting Yearly a higher standard of refinement and comfort. It is within convenient distance of the railroad, and as its citizens work harmoniously with the people of the surrounding section, whose interests and wants are mutual, we may reasonably expect far more solid and durable evidence of material prosperity evidenced. PLEASANT UNITY. The village of Pleasant Unity was formerly called Buzzard's Town, taking its name from a family of Buzzards descended from John Buzzard, an old settler who owned the land upon which most of the village is built. The name is now written Bossart. The place differs not much from other country villages, but lying in the midst of a fine agricultural region, which is also underlaid with coal, its prospects are good. Coal is being mined for coking purposes within a mile of the place, and several projected railroads pass within easy distance. Its inhabitants are favorably known for their morals, thrift, and material prosperity. Good schools have always abounded in this section. It has several churches, and the sentiment of the people is decidedly in favor of temperance. UNITY PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH. Unity Church is situated a mile and a half west of Latrobe and eight miles east of Greensburg, only a few perches from the Pennsylvania Railroad, on the north side. It is among the oldest church organization in Western Pennsylvania. There is no record of its formal organization so far as is known. It is probable that it was gathered by the Rev. James Powers during his first visit to Western Pennsylvania, in 1774. The original warrant for the land held by the trustees is dated March 1, 1774, and was taken in the name of Robert Hanna, Andrew Allison, and John " for the erection of a meeting-house and for a burying-ground for the Presbyterian congregation of Unity, under the care of the Synod of New York and Philadelphia." Thus it is now one hundred and eight years since a congregation was gathered-on this ground and named Unity, and placed on the list of churches in connection with the Eastern Synod. On the strength of the date found in the land-warrant its centennial anniversary was duly celebrated in the year 1874, in connection with the dedication of the present house of worship. During its one hundred and eight years of existence this church has had seven pastors and two stated supplies. Rev. James Powers preached as stated supply for more or less of the time during the first fifteen years. In 1790, Mr. John McPherrin was ordained and installed as the first pastor, from which relation he was released in 1800. Rev. John Black preached as stated supply for two years following, when death ended his labors. Rev. William Speer became pastor in 1803, and continued in this relation till 1829, when he was released on account of failing health only nineteen days before his death. Mr. Robert Henry was ordained and installed pastor in 1830, and continued in that relation until his death, in 1839. Rev. Peter Hassinger was pastor from 1839 till 1844. In 1846, Mr. George Morton was ordained and installed pastor, and in 1848 was released. Rev. Noah Hal-leek Gillett was installed in 1849 and continued pastor till 1868, when, on account of failing health, he was released, only three months before his death. The present pastor, Rev. Daniel W. Townsend, was installed in 1869. Until the year 1839 Unity and Greensburg were united in one pastoral charge, each occupying one-half time. Since then Unity has supported a minister for the whole of his time. With the exception of UNITY TOWNSHIP - 637 a period of about fifteen years this church has enjoyed uninterrupted peace and prosperity. During the unhappy agitation which led to the division of the Presbyterian Church into Old and New School, the spirit of controversy arose here and spread and waxed hotter and hotter until it culminated in division. About thirteen families withdrew from the church and erected a house of worship within hearing distance of the old house, where they maintained separate worship under different pastors and supplies for the space of twelve or fifteen years. But gradually the dissension was healed and preaching in the New School Church was discontinued. Then the members returned to their old connection, and all marks of a second church were obliterated and Unity was united again. The immediate author of this division was one William Norman McLeod, a licentiate of the Reformed Presbyterian Presbytery of Pittsburg, but of doubtful ecclesiastical standing and of suspicious morals. He was an eloquent and persuasive public speaker, and for a while held his followers spellbound; but not long, for as soon as his real character as a man was known he was compelled to leave the field. The agent called of God to restore harmony and good feeling among the people was Rev. Mr. Gillett. He "came to the kingdom for such a time as this." Dr. Donaldson, in his " History of the Churches of Blairsville Presbytery," says, "Brother Gillett was a man of ardent temperament, large heart, tongue touched with fire from the altar of God, and whole soul alive to his office work. He could not only preach warmly and pray fervently, but, what is of no small account, could even sing religion into the melting souls of his people. God created, endowed, and enabled him to quiet commotions, soothe sensitiveness, oil wounds, and heal divisions at Unity." Four houses of worship have been successively built by this congregation. The first was a mere shelter for the preacher, called "Proctor's Tent." The second was a log building, square-shaped at first, but afterwards enlarged by the addition of the length of a log to two sides. The third was a large brick edifice erected about 1830. The fourth and present is a brick edifice, erected in 1874, and is substantial, neat, complete in its finish, and " beautiful for situation." Together with the ground on which it stands, and which is included within the picket-fence, it is estimated at $12,000. The congregation owns the farm, first taken by warrant in 1775, containing seventy acres and in good condition, the land being well cultivated, and having on it an elegant house of worship, a parsonage and stable, sexton's house and barn, both new, a large and flourishing orchard, and cemetery of eight acres. The church and cemetery are held and managed by the same board of trustees under special charter. Most of the families now connected with this church - 41 - are descendants of the original settlers in this community, and of those, who were united with it in its organization and early history. In 1768, Wm. Greer, an Irish Presbyterian, settled on a farm one mile from the location of the church. The farm has been owned by his descendants ever since, and is now owned and occupied by a great-grandson, Samuel H. Miller. The date of Mr. Greer's settlement is perhaps the earliest in the immediate community. Then we have the grandchildren and great-grandchildren of the Hunters, Georges, Baldridges, Mullons, Larimers, Sloan, Fletchers, Allisons, Smiths, Tittles, all of whom were among the first gathered into the church. Some names of prominence in the formative period of the church have disappeared altogether. Both name and kin are gone. Col. John Proctor, Judge Robert Hanna, the venerable William Findley, John Morrison, and Archibald Lochry were active and useful members and supporters there, but have no representatives among us now. At first the territorial extent of Unity was without boundary, except that of distance, which placed it beyond access to the inhabitants of the county. But in course of time other organizations of a like order narrowed the field. Still the population of the community increasing rapidly furnished additional material, and the church grew until its membership exceeded three hundred. In these latter days it has suffered a very considerable curtailment. The railroad drew from the turnpike its prestige and patronage, and stunted the growth and crippled the business interests of the villages which had sprung up and flourished beside it. Youngstown has lost most of its Presbyterian families, and is still losing more, whilst Latrobe has increased in population, having become the business centre of the community. In 1852, Unity built a branch chapel for the accommodation of the Presbyterian people residing there and ih her communion, in which the pastor preached regularly. But in 1869 a separate organization was granted them, which in a few months took from the roll of Unity one hundred and fifty or more members. Besides these geographical and ecclesiastical changes the Protestant portion of the population has greatly decreased until it does not include more than one-half of the families, a fact which limits the congregation. But this church is substantial and vigorous notwithstanding, and keeps on her way harmoniously. Her families are mostly well-to-do farmers, owning their farms and having considerable money besides. All the equipments necessary for her use are provided and in good condition, so that, whilst the materials for her increase in numerical strength are limited, no flag of distress is held out. During the past thirteen years there has been an addition to the membership of one hundred and thirty, mostly on profession of faith, an average of ten per year. $30,000 have been expended for house 638 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. and $6000 for benevolent purposes. " But," in the language of her present worthy pastor, " there are other marks of prosperity. We may count the members brought into the church and add up the figures that tell of the amount contributed to the spread of the gospel, but this is but a meagre reckoning of her real character and usefulness, since there are so many influences unseen and outside of all statistics which have gone forth from her midst to make glad the city of our God. It may be justly claimed for Unity that her families have been appreciative patrons of education, perhaps to a degree not excelled by any other farming community in Western Pennsylvania. Many of her sons have creditable standing in the various learned professions, whilst others are educated farmers and business men, and not a few of her daughters are educated mothers or teachers. The example of the fathers has not been lost upon their children, for the creditable custom of giving their sons and daughters an academic or collegiate education is still kept up. "A history of a Presbyterian Church that would omit to mention the eldership would be very imperfect. It is not the place in a brief historical sketch to insert extended biographies, but the elder's office in this church has been held by a succession of noble, godly, efficient men, of whom she is justly proud, and whose names belong to, her history as patrons and pillars of the truth. The names of the first elders, elected some time before 1782, are John Moore, William Waddell, Andrew Allison, and Samuel Coulter. The time appointed for their ordination was July 13, 1782, but news of the burning of Hannastown broke up the meeting, and no record can be found of their induction into office. "The next elders were elected during the pastorate of Rev. John McPherrin. They were Andrew Larimer, William Barnes, William B. Findley, Robert Marshall, John Morrison, and James Montgomery. Findley was a talented and leading public man, being for many years a representative, and for a while a senator in the Congress of the United States. He was a good man and a faithful elder. Andrew Larimer and John Morrison were pre-eminent among their brethren for faith and prayer. "In the time of Rev. William Speer, Joseph Baldridge, David Larimer (son of Andrew), Walter Ferguson, John Sloan, John Taylor, and Edward Smith were ordained elders. In the time of Rev. Robert Henry, Hamilton Beatty, Elias Peterson, James Fulton, and Charles McLaughlin came into office. Of two of these the writer can speak from personal knowledge. Hamilton Beatty and Charles McLaughlin were active, humble, firm, and efficient elders. In the time of Rev. Peter Hassinger, James Bell, Samuel Miller, and John McRight were or dained. They were all worthy and spiritual men. Mr. Miller was a man of strong character, active and efficient in his office work up to the last. Conscientious and judicious, his counsel was sought and prized by his associates in office, and mostly decided any doubtful or debated question. During the pastorate of Rev. Mr. Gillett, Alexander B. Gilmore, James Nichols, and James Douglass were ordained. Mr. Gilmore was a good man and a good elder. Mr. Nichols and Mr. Douglass have been elders in Latrobe Church since its organization. " During the present pastorate the following persons have been ordained, viz., William Larimer, George Smith, John T. McLaughlin, Archibald Fletcher, Esq., and more recently Robert Sloan and James Crawford, all of whom, except Mr. Smith, now a resident o Kansas, constitute the present board of elders. If a full and correct personal history of the men who have held spiritual rule in this congregation could be written, it would be seen that the great majority of them have been intelligent, wise, and efficient office-bearers in God's house and holy men of God. " It is not appropriate nor possible in a condensed sketch to present anything but simple facts and accurate data There is no room to moralize or philosophize. Details must be withheld. Therefore the history of Unity Church, covering a period of one hundred and eight years, is written." REFORMED CHURCH. In the latter part of the eighteenth century the tide of emigration carried a large number of Reformed families over the Alleghenies into Westmoreland County, many of whom settled along the Loyalhanna and its tributaries in the direction of Greensburg and Mount Pleasant. These were visited by Rev. John William Weber in his missionary travels, who preached in different settlements, and organized congregations wherever it was thought advisable. He prepared the way for Rev. William Weinel, who served this church prior to 1820. When Rev. N. P. Hacke, D.D., came here, May 13, 1821, he found a church and a congregation of worshipers. At his first communion in that month the following members partook : Jacob Eiserman, John Brindle, John George Brindle, Jacob Siegfriet, Joseph Smith, Daniel Bonbright, Veronica Brindle, Magdalena Siedler, Philip Shiry, John Knight, Jacob Bott, Catherine Bott, Christens Smith, Elizabeth Kuhns, Eliza Pollins, Esther Nicely. The first child he baptized was Christena Bott, now the wife of Jacob Brinker, of Latrobe. Dr. Hacke was succeeded in 1831 by Rev. Adam Boyer, who held but one communion, November 13th. Then followed several years without a regular pastor. Rev. H. E. F. Voight took charge in the spring of 1833, and continued until 1859. In this year Rev. Christian C. Russell began his labors, aiding Mr. Voight, but gradually he assumed entire charge of the work. He remained until 1863, and during his pastorate confirmed fifty-five catechumens. Rev. E. D. Shoemaker was the next pastor, and held his first communion May 29, 1864. On his resigna- UNITY TOWNSHIP - 639 tion, Rev. C. C. Russell was called the second time, and entered upon his work Aug. 1, 1867. He labored until a reconstruction of charges made it desirable for him to resign, and J. I. Swander, June 1, 1870, entered upon the pastorate of the Latrobe charge, of which Youngstown then became a part. In 1874 a lot on Main, Street was purchased, on which a neat and substantial frame edifice was erected. The building committee consisted of George Fritz, Jacob Brindle, and Jacob Smith. On May 16th of same year the corner-stone was laid, the pastor being assisted by Revs. Townsend and Spargrove, of the Presbyterian Church. On September 19th following it was dedicated, when Rev. George B. Russell, D.D., preached the sermon and assisted the pastor in the ceremonies. The first edifice, a log structure, stood for nearly sixty years. When Rev. J. I. Swander entered upon his pastorate the Consistory was : Elders, George Fritz, Jacob Brindle ; deacons, Joseph Smith, Zachary Fritz, Benjamin Showers. During Mr. Swander's first six years he confirmed forty-five persons, and by his earnest labors secured the erection of its tasteful edifice. ST. LUKE'S CHURCH. The following petition, with the names of the male signers attached thereto, will explain the origin of St. Luke's congregation at Pleasant Unity : "NOVEMBER 17, 1860. "We, the undersigned members of St. Paul's congregation, feeling ourselves aggrieved by the decision of its Consistory, which decision was confirmed by a congregational meeting, held on the 13th of November, 1860, hereby give notice that we intend to complain to the Classis of Westmoreland of the German Reformed Church of said decision, and submit as the ground of our complaint, that some of the members of the Consistory did not understand the nature of our request, which was for Aviles Services every fourth Sunday. We are fully satisfied that what we requested is demanded by the interests of religion and the welfare of our Beloved Zion. And we further give notice that if our request is denied, we will seek for permission to organize a congregation in Pleasant 'Unity, with a view of having it stand in connection with Mount Pleasant charge. "Adam Bair, John Weaver, John Welty, George Barnhart, Dr. Thomas H. Brinker, Jacob Huffman, Henry Gress, Henry Herr, John Helam. alders. "George Bair, Henry Smith, George Fisher, Jacob Perkins, John Fiscus, John P. Fiscus, ar erii.s17scus, John A. Fisher, deacons." The Classis, in February, 1861, finding it impossible to supply the want, granted the privilege of a new congregation, which was organized June. 5, 1862, with about forty members. Adam Bair and John Weaver were elected elders, and Dr. Thomas H. Brinker, George Bair, Henry Gress, and Henry Smith deacons. The new church edifice was completed in 1861, and dedicated Jan. 1, 1862, by services conducted by Revs. G. B. Russell, D.D., H. E. F. Voight, and C. C. Russell. It was made a part of Latrobe charge. Rev. C. C. Russell was pastor until May 1, 1864, when he resigned, and was succeeded by Rev. E. D. Shoemaker. He remained until 1867, when it was associated with itself only, and Rev. C. C. Russell became pastor again. He remained until Latrobe became a part of the charge, and then (1869) resigned. In 1870, Rev. J. I. Swander became pastor. George Welty gave a lot for a parsonage adjoining the church. This congregation has sent forth two Reformed ministers, Revs. T. F.' Stauffer and J. B. Welty. Among the original members deceased are George Barnhart, John Fiscus, John Welty, Henry Herr, John Helam, and Charles Fiscus. All the first officers are yet living, except Henry Smith; Joseph C. Stauffer was a long-time Sunday-school superintendent. Among the late elders were Adam Bair, Dr. Thomas H. Brinker, and George A. Bair ; and deacons, George Fisher, Michael Fisher, and J. Cressinger. The membership is over one hundred communicants, and about an equal number of baptized children. BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES. COL. JOHN WILLIAMS JOHNSTON. John W. Johnston, the ninth son of Alexander Johnston, Esq., deceased, of Kingston House, on the Loyalhanna, in Unity township, whose biography is given in another department of this work preceding this, was born at the homestead of his father on the, 22d of May, 1820. His father removing to Greensburg in a few years thereafter, the first schooling he received was in the county town, which at that time offered superior advantages for a good and substantial education. About the time he attained his majority he entered into the mercantile business in Clarion County, Pa., in which he continued about one year, when he came back to Kingston. He remained here on the farm a short time, when, being appointed deputy sheriff under Michael Hays, he removed again to Greensburg. He continued in this capacity from 1843 to 1846. In 1846, the war with Mexico occurring, he volunteered in the company raised in the county for service, called the" Westmoreland Guards," and was unanimously elected its captain. As its commanding officer, his public services in that campaign are so identified with the services of the company that to give one would be to give the other from necessity. In the chapter on. the Mexican war in this work will be found an extended and detailed account of the services of the" Guards" in the campaign under Scott. After the close of the war Capt. Johnston engaged in the wholesale grocery business in Pittsburgh, but not continuing any length of time in this calling he left it, when he became a contractor in the construction of the Allegheny Valley Railroad. On this road he continued for some two years, when he took a more extensive contract in the construction of the Iron Mountain Railroad in Missouri. On this road he was engaged for five years. Returning to Pennsylvariia in 1858, he remained at 640 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. Kingston House until the breaking out of the civil war. On the first call for volunteers he enlisted with his neighbors in the company raised about Youngstown for three months' service. He asked for no office, but the outspoken choice of his comrades, with whom he was personally acquainted, for their captain was for him. As captain of Company G, Fourteenth Regiment Pennsylvania Volunteers, he took the command to Harrisburg, where they were sworn into service, and where the regimental officers were elected. On the organiiation of the regiment he was made its colonel. This regiment was attached to Gen. Patterson's command, which had control of the Shenandoah Valley. The only place in which this army was engaged in this campaign was at Falling Waters, and here the Fourteenth first manifested that soldierly bearing which they afterwards sustained on many hard-fought fields in various commands. At the expiration of the three months' service, Col. Johnston entered the Ninety-third Pennsylvania Volunteers (raised chiefly in Lebanon County) as its lieutenant-colonel. He was offered its colonelcy, but this he declined in favor of Col. McCarter, under motives of personal considerations. He served under the last enlistment over two years, and then resigned. The services of this regiment during the time Col. Johnston was connected with it, part of the time of which it was under his personal command, are traceable through the services of Gen. Couch's and Gen. Casey's divisions in the Army of the Potomac. Since his services in the army he has resided at the old homestead, Kingston House, and has settled down to the quieter and more peaceable occupation of a farmer. The wife of Col. J. W. Johnston was Miss Sarah Rebecca Byerly. They were married in 1867, and have living a family of two children, a son and a daughter. SAMUEL MILLER. The paternal ancestor, Capt. Samuel Miller, of Samuel Miller, late of Unity township, came with his brother from North Ireland about the year 1760, as near as can be ascertained. The one brother remained east of the mountains, but Capt. Samuel was among the first settlers of Westmoreland. He settled on the place which afterwards attained a wide celebrity from the incursion of the Indians upon Hannastown and Miller's Station, an event familiar to all Westmorelanders, and one of the most prominent in border annals. Capt. Miller's name appears as a prominent settler so early as 1774 among the lists of the petitions to Governor Penn. He was one of the eight captains of the Eighth Pennsylvania Regiment in the Continental line. He was ordered from Valley Forge, Feb: 10, 1778, to Westmoreland County on recruiting service. While here he was killed, July 7, 1778, as appears from the following extract of a letter from Thomas Scott to T. Matlack, preserved in the sixth volume of the Archives (old series); page 673. That portion of the letter is here given, the original spelling and arrangement preserved : " WESTMORELAND, August 1st, 1778. “. . . . . The Indians have made several breaches on the inhabitants of late in different parts of this country. Capt. Miller, of the 8th Penna. Regit , with a party of nine men, chiefly Continental soldiers, were Bringing grain from the Neighbourhood to a Fort, called Fort Hand, about 14 miles North of Hannas Town, on the seventh of last month [July], and on their return were surprised by a party of Indians, who lay in wait for them, and killed the Capt. & seven others." The paper of which we here give a copy appears to have been a deposition made by Hon. William Jack in some contested title arising out of the ownership of the old Miller farm. It was apparently used in evidence, but is no part of the records. It preserves several interesting facts. The writing is in Judge Jack's own hand : " WESTMORELAND COUNTY, ss "Before me, a Justice of the peace in and for said County of Westmoreland, personally appeared William Jack, Esq., who was duly sworn according to law, did depose and say that Capt. Samuel Miller, who was killed by the Indians in the year 1778, at the commencement of the Revolutionary war actually settled on a plantation now adjoining Peter Eichar, John Sheoffer, John Mechling, and others in Hempfield Town. ship in the County aforesaid, that Andrew Cruikshanks (who married the Widow of the said Capt. Samuel Miller), Joseph Russell, who is married to one of the Daughters of the said Samuel Miller, dec'd, claims the benefit of an act of Assembly passed Sept. 16, 1785, and that the said Andrew Cruikshanks was in the course of the said war actually in pot, session of the said plantation, and was drove away from his habitation on said land by the Indians on the 13th day of July, A.D. 1782, being the same day that Hannastown was burned and destroyed by the Indians, and that some of the heirs of the said Capt. Samuel Miller was killed and taken prisoners on the said day, and that the House was burned and the property in the House by the Enemy, and that afterwards the said Plantation lay waste and vacant for some time for fear and dread of the Indians. Woe. JACK. " Sworn & subscribed before me the 9th day of March, A.D. 1814. " R. W. WILLIAMS." Two of the children of this Capt. Samuel Miller married and left families. Dorcas, a daughter, was married to Joseph Russell, and became the maternal ancestor of the Russell family of Hempfield and Greensburg. The son, Isaac Miller, married Sarah Grier, daughter of William Grier. He lived upon the old homestead, the " Miller's Station Farm," until he died, 28th September, 1805, of a fever, leaving issue,—a daughter, Isabella, and two sons, Samuel (our subject) and Isaac. His widow survived him sixty years, dying on the 13th of April, 1866, in the eighty-seventh year of her age. Samuel Miller was born May 19, 1803, and died Feb. 5, 1879, in the seventy-sixth year of his age. He passed his boyhood on the farm his father had owned, about a mile and a half east of Greensburg. His father dying while he was a mere child left the care of the farm and its management to his widow and his two sons, Samuel and Isaac. These boys, growing strong, industrious, and judicious, soon took upon themselves the entire management, and proved. adequate to their trust. Their early life was thus calculated to develop their characters into sober and efficient men and capable and successful farmers. UNITY TOWNSHIP - 641 Samuel married Priscilla, daughter of James Hurst, of Mount Pleasant township, Dec. 29, 1831. In 1840 he removed to the Grier farm, and occupied it as its possessor until his death. The "Grier farm." belonged originally to William Grier, the ancestor of the Grier family, and whose daughter Sarah was the wife of Isaac Miller, father of Samuel. William Grier, from the beginning of peace in these parts after. Pontiac's war (1764), was engaged as a packer ; that is, one who transported commodities upon pack-horses and pack-mules. When passing along one of the ancient trading-paths leading close by this tract of land, in 1767-68, stopping at a convenient place to lunch and feed his team, he found at a short distance a spring bubbling out from the roots of a large elm-tree. So well pleased was he with the site, and the spring of such marvelous excellence, that he marked the elm, and when, shortly after, the land-office was opened for applications, he, on the 3d of April, 1769, asked for a warrant to issue to him for a large tract surrounding this tree and spring. Upon this tract he settled, and some of his descendants have owned it ever since. The memorable tree, long preserved, with its blazing to be seen, has almost entirely passed away, but from its decaying roots still bubbles the spring perennially which has slaked the thirst of the heated harvest-hands for above a hundred harvests, and which never has failed in the dryest season. This farm lies near the line of the Pennsylvania Railroad, but a short distance from Beatty Station, and about three miles west from Latrobe. The character of a man such as Samuel Miller was is difficult to describe. It was only from intimacy that one could get to understand him. He united in a marked degree traits seemingly at variance with each other. His manners, his conservatism, his scrupulous honesty belonged to the generation of his boyhood, but his activity in behalf of all innovations which were calculated to improve mankind about him, either in morals, in intellect, or in worldly circumstances, were the marked characteristics of a later generation. He was never in a hurry, and he was never behind time; watched well his interests, and at the same time adequately compensated his tenants and his working-men ; was economical, but not penurious. For a full generation, or from the time he came to manhood, he was one of the recognized leaders in his township in those things wherein a leader is required. His zeal for the success and prosperity of the common schools of his district in particular, and for the system in general, knew no abatement as long as he lived. In early life he united with the Presbyterian Church at Greensburg, under the pastorate of the Rev. Robert Henry. Having settled within the bounds of the Unity congregation he united with that church, and in about a year afterwards was elected a ruling elder, which office he filled with great usefulness and acceptance till the time of his death. His pastor, in a memorial sketch of Mr. Miller, has, we think with great aptness too, this to say upon his religious and moral characteristics : " He was a strong, manly, good man, firm in his convictions, decided in speech, and resolute in action. But he was deliberate and reasonable, always open to argument, and when convinced be as gladly embraced another's view and worked with him as if his own way had prevailed. What he wanted at was the truth. He would do what was his duty, or what he believed was his duty, in face of all suspicion. He was devoted to his church with growing zeal to the last—a man of prayer, liberality, and intelligent activity. He would rids miles to talk with his pastor or an elder about some matter of interest concerning the church. He was missed and lamented when taken from the church and community." Priscilla Miller, wife of Mr. Samuel Miller, died Nov. 16, 1862, in the fifty-second year of her age. They rest together in the cemetery of Unity Church. Their children are the following : Sarah (Nelson), now deceased, Martha, Lydia (Baldridge), Rosanna, deceased, Harriet (Thompson), Frances (McKee), Priscilla, Anna, Celia (Boyle), and Samuel H., an only surviving son. Two children, a son and a daughter, died young. WILLIAM T. SMITH. Philip Smith, the great-grandfather of William T. Smith, whose portrait accompanies this sketch, emigrated from Germany when quite a boy, and settled in Eastern Pennsylvania ; from thence he moved into Westmoreland, and married Mary Armel. His son, John Smith, born in 1767, was married to Catharine Shockey. He died in 1807, aged forty years, and his wife died in 1821, aged fifty-three. They had a family of seven children, one of whom died early, but the other six grew up. Four are still living, and are aged from seventy-five to eighty-three years. Of these, William Smith father, was born February 12, 1800, on the farm now owned by and upon which resides his son, William T., who was the second son and the fifth child. William T. Smith was born on this farm in 1830. His early years were passed in the domestic employment upon his father's farm incident to his occupation. He enjoyed no further advantages than were usual to farmers' boys of his day. His early education was not neglected, and he certainly had superior training under his father's roof. The bent of his inclination and his desire to acquire a practical knowledge of men and of the world were evinced and partially and practically gratified in his early manhood. In 1856 he ventured in the stock trade, and manifested judgment and business ability of no ordinary character in taking a drove of Eastern horses to a Western market. These he carried to Iowa. Returning successfully from his speculation, but filled with a desire to know more of Western life and its practicalities, he in March, 1859, again went to Iowa to examine some land which he had there purchased. In this trip be walked one hundred and twenty miles from Iowa City to Story County, returned to Iowa City, and thence came eastward as far as McLean 642 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. County, in that State, where, not far from Bloomington, he engaged with a former Westmorelander to conduct his farming interests. In 1859 he went to Bloomington and took a course at Pratt's Commercial college. In April, 1860, he rigged up four yoke of oxen and started for Kansas, then the Mecca of so many glowing pilgrims who sought a wider and more prosperous field for their activities. But so many had .entered thither that it appeared that the adventure would be fruitless. It appeared so at the time, but in the sequel it proved to be profitable, and was the occasion of an event which rarely happens in this practical world of ours ; for engaging with a Mr. Lightfoot to break a tract of land, he was much disappointed when, having nearly finished his contract, Mr. Lightfoot announced that he had to return to his home in Alabama to sell a slave there to pay for the work. He did so return, but shortly after his arrival there he was taken ill. Then followed the war, and nothing was heard of the land-owner till six years had passed ; but then who can imagine the surprise of him to whom the money was due upon receiving a draft on New York at his home in Pennsylvania for the amount due with interest at ten per cent. added to date, with an accompanying letter from the former employer. Late in 1860, leaving his partner in Iowa, whither they had returned to take care of their stock, Mr. Smith revisited Pennsylvania, but in the spring of 1861 returned to ,Iowa. He then began farming there, and in 1862 married and settled down ; but his. brother Ezra having died from injuries received in battle before Richmond, his father solicited him to come back and take charge of the old farm. This he did, and upon this farm he has made his home, which is a model for neatness, comfort, convenience, and hospitality. But practical as Mr. Smith is in all the walks of life, he possesses in an eminent degree the rare faculty of uniting pleasure and enjoyment with his vocation, and of making these elements of higher social and civilized life instruments for his own worldly success, and, for the wider scope of acquired information. In 1876 he visited the Centennial Exposition at Philadelphia twice, and he went with his eyes open, for not only did he enjoy with all the full measure of his healthful vitality and strong mind the sights at that wonderful fair, and all the places of interest in Philadelphia, and in New York, Baltimore, and Washington, whither his trips extended, but he utilized many of the improvements and later inventions applicable to an advanced system of agriculture, and only feasible and profitable to a farmer of intelligence, a man who could discriminate between theory and practice, and who unites brain with muscle. In 1878, the year of the Paris Exposition, Mr. Smith went to Europe. In company with an invalid relative, he went from Liverpool to London, and thence to Newhaven, whence he crossed the English Channel to Dieppe, in France, where he first touched the continent. From here he went to Paris, and after visiting all the more noted places of interest and curiosity in the gay capital of the world, such as the Madeleine, the Palace de Justice, the Louvre, the Place Vendome with its renewed column, the Cathedral of Notre Dame, with its high altars and famous organ and choir, and the suburbs of the city, Versailles and Rouen, he was forced to abandon his projected tour of Italy on account of the failing health of his companion, and to return home. Of this trip Mr. Smith preserves many gratifying memories and souvenirs. Of these he recalls the peculiar feeling of astonishment he experienced when, upon presenting his letter of credit at the cashier's desk of the Bank of England, he was handed a quill pen with which to write his signature. But above all and more intere_ting are his recollections and observations upon the method of farming in France, and the habits, manners, and customs of the agricultural and peasant class of that country. He brought home with him more enlarged ideas of his vocation, and pronounced preferences for his country and its institutions. In 1880, Mr. Smith made a summer trip to Colorado and the mining regions of the Rocky Mountains, and now contemplates an extended trip to Utah, California, and the Pacific Coast. The judicious farming of such a man as our subject is, as might be expected, a matter of course. Every resource and applicance calculated to develop the productive power of the soil, either by tillage, by the selection of seed, or by the rotation of crops, is brought into requisition. Particularly has he for years devoted time and care to the improvement of his breed of stock, and from this source has he been pecuniarily profited. His home is not only comfortable, but it is much more. On his table and shelves are found books in great variety, and periodicals of all standard kinds are constantly being received in his family. He is truly, in every sense of the word, a model and a representative farmer, and this is all he pretends to be. Mr. Smith was married March 2, 1862, to Miss Maria Wilson, of Washington, Tazewell Co., Ill. In bringing her to Pennsylvania he reversed the usual order of things, as indeed he appears to have done in the most important ventures and transactions of his life. In her he secured not only an intelligent but an intellectual wife and a worthy helpmate. Her great-grandfather, McLure, was of Irish blood, and settled in Tennessee, whence her grandfather moved to Illinois, in Tazewell County, where her father, William Wilson, from Perry County, Ohio, was married to Sarah G. McLure, mother of Mrs. Smith, and where he settled on a farm, on which he remained until his death, Nov. 19, 1857. They have a growing family of intelligent children. UNITY TOWNSHIP - 643 ISAAC GEORGE. Adam George, the progenitor of the Unity township Georges, came out of Germany, and first settled in York County, Pa., and afterwards, about the time of the opening of the land-office (1769), came into Westmoreland and located upon the place known in frontier times as " George's Station," which is now owned and occupied by Peter George, and which is but a short distance from the present "George Station" on the Pennsylvania Railroad. The name of Adam George appears in the lists of signers to the petitions of 1774 to Governor Penn for military protection from the Indians. In the Revolution be was a soldier under the immediate command of Washington ; he also served on the frontier, and although he escaped serious personal injury, yet it seemed as by miracle. He died at an advanced age, and was buried on his own farm. One of his sons, Conrad .George, was in the fort at Hannastown when the village was burned. John, the second son, grew up with great hunting proclivities, and spent much of his early manhood in the chase on the Alleghenies. He married, in Somerset County, Miss Eleanor Campbell about the year 1800. They lived together until the death of Mrs. George in 1860, a period of sixty years, and had a family of six sons and seven daughters, all of whom except one daughter grew to maturity. After his marriage he lived in Mercer County till the spring of 1811, when he settled on the farm now occupied by his son Isaac, whose portrait accompanies this sketch, situate in Unity township, near Beatty Station. He died Sept. 4, 1863, and was buried in Unity Church cemetery. Isaac, the eleventh child of John, was born Oct. 4, 1822, in Unity township, on the farm he now owns mad occupies. He grew up on his father's farm until he reached the age of eighteen, when he went out from the home-roof to learn his trade. After serving an apprenticeship of three years at the carpenter trade, he went to May's Lick, Ky., where he worked at his trade for one year ; thence. to Lexington, Mo., where he continued to work at his trade with good success. At this time occurred the war with Mexico, and under a call for volunteers Mr. George enlisted in the company of Capt. Walton (Company B), in the regiment which, under the command of Col. Doniphan, made that famous march which has immortalized all those who participated in it. This regiment was raised in Western Missouri, near the borders of Kansas. They assembled at Fort Leavenworth, and began their celebrated march across the plains to the confines of Mexico on the 26th of June, 1846. The regiment was called the First Regiment of Missouri Mounted Riflemen ; its colonel was A. W. Doniphan, and it was attached to the division of Gen. Stephen W. Kearney. The march of this regiment, called " Doniphan's March," or " Doniphan's Expedition," is one of the most memorable in modern warfare, and the boldness of its conception and the success in which it terminated brought forth the commendations of all military men and the plaudits of the people throughout the Union. The march will be celebrated to all time in the military history of the nation.. After a march of one thousand miles across the plains through a hostile region the regiment took Sante Fe on the 18th of August, 1846, fought the battle of Brazito, which secured El Paso, crossed the Rio Grande into Mexico proper, marched on towards Chihuahua, which, after the brilliant battle and victory of Sacramento, they captured, Feb. 28, 1847. From there the command was ordered by Gen. Taylor to report to Gen. Brook at New.Orleans, they being allowed to put in the rest of their time in marching homeward, an honor conferred upon them in recognition of their distinguished services to the country, which the general commanding regarded to be so effectual as to be thus publicly acknowledged. From Camargo, on the Rio Grande, ten men from each company volunteered to take the horses of the regiment overland by way of Texas to their homes. Returning home by way of New Orleans, he, with about one-half of his comrades, landed at Lexington, Mo., July 1, 1847, having been honorably discharged.' His parents being now advanced in age he visited them, and out of a. sense of duty to them took 1 On the 22d of May the regiment was reviewed by Gen. Wool in person, accompanied by his staff, and the following order made, viz.: " HEADQUARTERS, BUENA VISTA, May 22, 1847. "The general commanding takes great pleasure in expressing the gratification he has received this afternoon in meeting the Missouri volunteers. They are about to close their present term of military service, after having rendered, in the course of the arduous duties they have been called on to perform, a series of highly important services, crowned by decisive and glorious victories. No troops can point to a more brilliant career than those commanded by Col. Doniphan, and no one will ever hear of the battles of Brazito or Sacramento without a feeling of admiration for the men who gained them. "In bidding them adieu the general wishes to Col. Doniphan, his officers and men, a happy return to their families. " By command of Brig.-Gen. Wool : " IRWIN McDowzrz,.A. A. A. Gen." When Gen. Taylor received authentic information of the fall of Vera Cruz, the capitulation of the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, and the capture of Chihuahua, he published the following order to the troops under his command : " HEADQUARTERS, ARMY OF OCCUPATION, " CAMP NEAR MONTEREY, April 14, 1847. "The commanding general has the satisfaction to announce to the troops under his command that authentic information has been received of the fall of Vera Cruz and of San Juan de Ulloa, which capitulated on the 27th of March to the forces of Maj.-Gen. Scott. This highly important victory reflects new lustre on the reputation of our arms. "The commanding general would at the same time announce another signal success, won by the gallantry of our troops on the 28th of February near the city of Chihuahua. A column of Missouri volunteers, less than one thousand strong, under command of Col. Doniphan, with a light field battery, attacked a Mexican force many times superior in an intrenched position, captured its artillery and baggage, and defeated it with heavy loss. "In publishing to the troops the grateful tidings the general is sure they will learn with joy and pride the triumphs of their comrades on distant fields. "By order of Maj.-Gen. Taylor : " W. W. Buss, A. A. A. G." 644 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. charge of their affairs. He bought their farm, and has continued to own and reside upon it unto the present time. By energy and industry he has made for himself a haven of rest, wherein he may safely and peacefully anchor the rest of his days. In addition to farming, he has been rather extensively engaged in the lumber manufacture, and for years has carried on saw-milling profitably. On the 26th of December, 1853, Mr. George married Miss Mary Ann, daughter of Hon. Samuel Nixon, of Fayette County, a man of honorable standing, who served three terms in the Legislature of the State, and ten years as associate judge of Fayette County: Mrs. George, a woman, of energy and piety, has contributed not a little to her husband's success. They have raised a family of two sons and three daughters. While in Kentucky Mr. George united with the Disciple Church. His wife was a member of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. After their marriage they attended the Presbyterian Church of Unity, with which they also united with their children. Mr. George is a man of quiet manners, of consistent morals, and of liberality. He makes himself useful in church work when he is Called upon to lend a helping hand. He is exact and scrupulously honest in his dealings, has keen discernment and quiet energy. No man in his neighborhood has had better success in any calling than Mr. George has had in his. The fruits of his diligence, tact, and Christian uprightness, which he now enjoys, are a liberal and increasing worldly portion, the esteem of his neighbors, and a virtuous and intelligent family. SOUTH HUNTINGTON TOWNSHIP HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP proper was among the original townships, organized April 6, 1773. Its boundaries as at first defined were : " To begin at the mouth of Brush Run, where it empties into Brush Creek ; to go along Byerly's path to Braddock's road ; thence along said road to the line of Mount Pleasant township ; thence with the line of Tyrone and Pitt-town townships to the beginning." The officers elected at the first election in the township were George Shilling, constable ; James Baird and William Marshall, overseers of the poor; David Vance, supervisor. Huntingdon township remained as originally created until January, 1790, when the court ordered that it should be divided into North and South Huntingdon, agreeable to the annexed petition, etc.: "Upon a petition of a number of inhabitants of Huntingdon township to the courts, setting forth that they labor under a variety of inconveniences for want of a division of said township, and praying for a division agreeably to the districts laid off by the commissioners, etc., which hiving been read the same was continued under advisement at April Sessions, read and continued at July Sessions, and now, to wit, April Sessions, 1790, tho; same having been taken under consideration, it was thereupon ordered by the court that the same be confirmed agreeably to the prayer of said petition." The first constable of South Huntingdon (as this new part was called) was William Waggale. The township was again subdivided in 1798, and East Huntingdon was formed. The present boundaries of the township are north by Sewickley, northeast by Hempfield, east by East Huntingdon, south by a part of Fayette County, and. west by the Youghiogheny River. The surface of the township is diversified, in some parts quite hilly, in others rolling, with an occasional plateau of level land. It contains a vast amount of coal. Several rich and influential corporations for the development of this caloric commodity have their works scattered over the township, notably in the borough of West Newton. The Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad runs along the Youghiogheny the entire length of the township, its chief revenue being derived from the transportation of coal. In several parts excellent stone abounds, and that, too, of the finest quality for building and other purposes. The first settlers were the Millers, Shulls, Finleys Waggales, Plumers, Blackburns, Markles, Rodarmels, and others heretofore mentioned. George Plumer (born Dec. 5, 1752, died June 8, 1843) was one of the first, if not the first, as it was reported, white child born west of the Allegheny Mountains under the British government. He was at one time shut up for four days and nights in Fort Du Quesne under the Indian chief Killbuck, and noted a successful stratagem of two Indians on the Allegheny River in decoying a couple of whites, one of whom was killed ; one of the Indians was also killed by a shot from the fort. He was a member of the State and National Legislature, and served with credit and honesty. He was also a ruling elder of the Presbyterian Church, and exercised a good influence for purity, harmony, and the general prosperity of his church. CHURCHES. THE PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH OF SEWICKLEY is one of the oldest Presbyterian Churches in the western part of Pennsylvania, being one of the original churches of the Old Redstone Presbytery. It is sup- SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP - 645 posed to have been organized as early as 1776 by the Rev. Dr. Power. He continued to be their pastor, in connection with Mount Pleasant, till Aug. 22, 1787, when he resigned the pastoral charge of Sewickley, which continued vacant until, in union with Long Run, it became the pastoral charge of the Rev. William Swan, Oct. 16, 1793. It again became vacant Oct. 18, 1818. In January, 1821, the congregation, having united with Mount Pleasant, presented a call to the Rev. A. o. Patterson, who was ordained and installed at Sewickley, April 18, 1821. Dr. Patterson was dismissed Oct. 8, 1834. These churches having dissolved their connection from a persuasion that each of them was now able to support a pastor, Sewickley, in April, 1836, gave a call to the Rev. William Annan, who was installed their pastor in June following. From weakness of health, Mr. Annan was compelled to resign his charge in the June following. In December, 1839, the Rev. J. B. McKee was installed pastor, and continued till April, 1842. After a short period the Rev. Richard Graham became the pastor, and continued till 1850. In 1852 the Rev. Cyrus Riggs became pastor, who was succeeded by the Rev. J. H. Stevenson. The congregation of Sewickley was much weakened by the organization of a separate congregation in the borough of West Newton. Besides this there are but few congregations which have been diminished so much from emigration as this one. It is still, however, a flourishing one, and although not composed of a great number of members, yet those are of a thrifty, intelligent, and worldly able class. The present building is the second one erected. It is built of stone, the first one having been built of logs. It is situated in the township of South Huntingdon, but just across the Sewickley Creek from the township of Sewickley, and had its name long before the township of the same name was formed. There is a burying-ground attached to the church, in which repose the last remains of three generations of the "race of men." Taken all in all, it is an object of the utmost historic interest in the township, and a spot round which gather many interesting local associations. The first building was one of those built in the most primitive style, and in all probability it was erected out of the trees growing round in the space of a week. For many years it had no stove, and the people of the congregation in winter sat shivering from the cold winds that blew through the open cracks. When the first stove was introduced it was regarded with suspicion. • The stove had seen service before, probably in one of the New England States, for it was a Yankee innovation. Besides this, we should not call it a stove at all, for it was but the lower part of the bowl, and the smoke from the burning wood used in it had to find vent through a hole in the roof. Among the curiosities of the churchly annals of the Old Redstone Churches is one of the subscription papers signed by the subscribers of this congregation to the salary of the Rev. Mr. Swan, when money was scarce and grain just beginning to be a marketable commodity, owing to the water communication offered by the nearness of the Yough, and the flat-boat connection with New Orleans. For the consideration of their raising the one-half of the Rev. Swan's services as pastor they " agreed to pay the amount set opposite their names, the one-half in cash, and the other half in produce at the following rates, viz.: wheat, 4 shillings per bush., rye at 3s. per bush., corn at 2s. 6d. per bush., to be delivered at such place or places within the bounds of the congregation as said minister or a treasurer chosen by the people may appoint. Witness our hands, this 17th day of August, 1792." 1 PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, WEST NEWTON. Previous to 1835 the Presbyterians of the town were compelled to worship at Sewickley Church, nearly three miles in the country. In that year they united with the Lutherans, and jointly erected a one-story frame edifice on Vine Street. This new church building was under the charge of the Sewickley Church, whose pastors supplied its worshipers with stated preaching. In January, 1851, the West Newton Church was organized with seventy-one members from the parent (Sewickley) church, most of whom resided in the town. The same year the congregation purchased the interest of the Lutherans in the church building. In 1875 preliminary steps were taken for the erection of a new church structure, which was completed and dedicated May 10, 1879. Its pastors have been: 1851-55, Watson Hughes ; 1855-57, Daniel Williams ; 1857--63, A. 0. Patterson, D.D.; 1864-69, 0. H. Miller ; 1870-74, Henry Fulton ; 1874 to present time, J. C. Maloy. The ruling elders have been : 1851, William Brookens, deceased ; Dr. F, M. McConaughey, removed ; M. P. Smith, removed ; Thomas Robinson, deceased ; 1858, Thomas Ray, in office ; Andrew Robertson, in office; Robert Guffey, deceased; 1866, J. C. Plumer, deceased ; Paul Hough, deceased ; H. D. Smith, in office ; 1868, John McKenery, in office; 1870, R. W. Hunter, removed ; 1876, William Plumer, in office; Alexander Rankin, in office. The Sunday-school superintendent is George Plumer. Its church edifice is an elegant brick structure, most centrally located on Main Street, with lecture-room in the basement. METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, WEST NEWTON. The congregation was organized Feb. 28, 1839, by Rev. Samuel Wakefield, D.D. Supply preaching was had until 1840 in the old school-house, when a small brick structure was erected on Second Street, which is now owned by C. P. Markle & Sons, and occupied as dwellings by tenants. The new brick edifice was 1 Records and “Old Redstone." 646 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. built in 1880, and is the finest one of this denomination in the county in size, elegance, and finish. Its architect was D. Knox Miller, and the contractors Deeds Brothers. Its cost was twelve thousand five hundred dollars. Its spire is one hundred and fifty feet in height, and its bell weighs one thousand three hundred pounds. This church is now a station, but at first was in a circuit embracing Connellsville, Mount Pleasant, and a large area of territory. Its pastors have been : 1840, T. Baker, S. B. Dunlap ; 1841, W. Long, H. Hill ; 1842, George Sisson, M. A. Ruter; 1843, S. Wakefield, D. L. Dempsey ; 1844, J. Moffett, D. Hess; 1845, J. Moffett, - Sharp; 1846, Fribbey, Sharp ; 1847, H. R. Kern, M. A. Ruter; 1848, S. Wakefield, M. A. Ruter; 1849, S. Wakefield, J. Beacom ; 1850, C. Thorn. (All the above are deceased but Revs. Lang, Wakefield, and Dempsey.) 1851, J. Mancill, ____ Rankin ; 1852, J. Mancill ; 1853, E. B. Griffin; J. L. Stiffey ; 1854, E. B. Griffin, M. J. Montgomery ; 1855, D. L. Dempsey, J. A. Miller; 1856, J. McCarter, J. A. Miller; 1857, Samuel Wakefield, S. Burt; 1858, J. D. Knox, S. Burt; 1859, J. D. Knox, W. A. Stewart; 1860, J. J. McIllgar, W. A. Stewart ; 1861, J. J. McIllgar, J. A. Pierce ; 1862, Z. S. Weller, R. Cunningham ; 1863-65, W. W. Roup; 1865, M. J. Montgomery ; 1866-69, W. A. Stewart; 1869-71, J. Meacham ; 187174, J. J. Hayes ; 1874-77, W. Darby ; 1876-79, S. Wakefield ; 1879-8; H. H. Pershing. Of the above since 1851 all are living but R. Cunningham. The present incumbent, Mr. Pershing, was born in Indiana County in 1843, and has been fifteen years in the ministry. In 1882 the church officials are : Trustees, Eli C. Leightly (president), Samuel Coldsmith, Stevenson Pollock, James B. Seacrist, Henry B. Goldsmith, Samuel M. Wallace, Gersham B. Horner; Building Committee, E. C. Leightly (president), Dr. B. H. Vankirk, Randle McLaughlin, J. B. Seacrist, Samuel Coldsmith ; Sunday-school Superintendent, Hon. Eli C. Leightly. The first Methodist sermon was delivered by Rev. S. Wakefield, Sept. 28, 1838, and was followed by stated supplies until Conference sent regular pastors two years afterwards. The original members were Jacob Longanecker and wife, James McGrew and wife, Matthew Carter and wife, David Banford and wife, and two others, eleven in all. Meetings were often held in Funk's saw-mill until the erection of the first church edifice in 1840. The first trustees were Jacob Longanecker, James McGrew, Benjamin Stewart, Randall Johnston, Samuel Hammond, Luke Beazel, and Rev. George Household. AFRICAN METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH, WEST NEWTON. This congregation has a neat church edifice on corner of Centre and Locust streets, where services are held every third Sunday by Rev. G. C. Sampson. Its Sunday-school meets at 2.30 P.M., and the weekly prayer-meetings are held Wednesday evenings. CHRIST EVANGELICAL LUTHERAN CHURCH, WEST NEWTON. This congregation was organized Jan. 1, 1830. Preaching was held for five years in the old schoolhouse, and in 1835 it united with the Presbyterians, and erected a one-story frame edifice on Vine Street. Here services were held until 1851, when this congregation sold out its interest in the Vine Street building, and in the same year erected on that street its present brick edifice. The pastors have been : 1830-47, Jonas Mechling ; 1847-58, W. S. Emery ; 1855-65, Samuel B. Lawson ; 1865-66, J. P. Hentz; 1866-81, H. J. Lemcke. The congregation numbers one hundred and twenty, and its Sunday-school has twenty teachers and one hundred and four scholars. CHURCH OF GOD, "BETHEL," WEST NEWTON. The congregation was organized in 1842 and 1843, by Elder J. Dobson, and a brick edifice erected in 1852, on the site of tile present parsonage. The present brick building was built in 1879. Among the early pastors were Revs. Dobson, Hickerell, D. Wirtz, J. M. Domer, B. F. Bolton, Grim, and P. Loucks. The latter preached here several years. He was born in this county, March 1, 1828, and was the son of John Loucks, whose father, Peter Loucks, emigrated from Bucks County, and purchased a farm on which Scottdale now stands, where he farmed until his death in 1825. John, his third son, purchased the old homestead near Stonersville in 1826. He married in 1816 a Miss Basler. Rev. P. Loucks was converted in his twenty-third year. He attended the Mount Pleasant College, then under the supervision of the United Brethren, and taught school winters. He married the youngest daughter of John Fox, of Mount Pleasant, who came to this county when there was but one house where Mount Pleasant now stands. Her mother, Frederica Carolina Sherbus, was from the canton of Kirchheimlanden, from whence she came in 1817, when but twenty years old, all alone, without any relative or acquaintance on board the vessel, and was married to Mr. Fox in 1820. Rev. P. Loucks was licensed to preach in 1858, and subsequently made missionary trips to New England. He died in 1881. The present pastor is Rev. J. S. Marple, whose predecessor was Rev. J. W. Bloyd. In 1881 Mrs. John Mellender donated to the congregation the parsonage, a neat frame structure, which she had built at a cost of $1200. It adjoins the church edifice. The present church officials are : Elders, S. P. Obley, Jacob Schoop, Samuel Brewer ; deacons, Henry Young, Charles Obley ; Sunday-school superintendent, H. A. Obley. The membership is one hundred and ten, with an appointment at Sutersville. The membership at first consisted mostly of Germans, who worshiped in private dwellings, but after the great revival conducted by Rev. Mrs. Beecher, now Rev. Mrs. SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP - 647 Werts, large additions were made of the English community. UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH, WEST NEWTON. The congregation was organized and the brick church edifice erected in 1851. The pastors have been : 1851, Alexander Ferguson ; 1851-58, D. H. Pollock ; 1859-62, W. L. McConnell ; 1864-72, J. D. Walkinshaw ; 1872-81, W. R. Stevenson, since when there has been no pastor. The first elders were H. T. Hanna, Joseph McMillen, John Wallace, John Martin, Robert Patterson, and the present elders are Joseph McMillen, H. T. Hanna, J. H. Campbell, J. A. Dick. The Sunday-school superintendent is Alexander Dick. Before 1850 preaching was held in the old school-house, Methodist and Presbyterian Churches by occasional supplies. WEST NEWTON. At the August session of 1837 a "Petition signed by a number of the citizens and lot-holders in the village of West Newton having been presented to the court, praying that the said village may be incorporated into a borough, was by the court laid before the grand jury for their concurrence, and the grand jury reported That the conditions prescribed by the act of Asilembly of the 1st of April, 1834, entitled " An Act to provide for the Incorporation of Boroughs," have been complied with, and certified it as their opinion that it is expedient to grant the prayer of the petitioners." A draft or plot of the boundaries of the borough as prayed for was appended to said petition. But the court refused to confirm the report of the grand jury. 1 In an act of Assembly passed 8th of February, 1842, was a section in relation to West Newton borough which read as follows : "That so much of the third section of the act of the 1st of April, 1834, entitled 'An Act to provide for the Incorporation of Boroughs,' as requires applications for the incorporation of boroughs to be laid before the Grant'Jury, be, and the same is, hereby repealed as respects Westmoreland County, in the case for an application for the incorporation of West Newton, in said County, and the Court of Quarter Sessions of said county is hereby authorized to incorporate West Newton into a borough on application at their first term, if the said court think proper so to do." After the passage of the above enactment—namely, at the August sessions of 1842—the citizens of the village again presented their petition to the court praying for incorporation of the borough (which in its bounds differed not much from the former one). The plot had been surveyed in January, 1842, by J. Stokely, and a plan was furnished the court with the petition. On the 26th of February, 1842, the court decreed that the prayer of the petitioners should be granted, and the borough was declared a corporation. The first election was ordered to be held at the school-house whereat the township elections were then holden. By an act of the 14th of March of the same year it was acknowleged as a borough in the legislation relative to the election of an assessor and an assistant 1 "And now, to wit, June 1,1838, Court decline to confirm the Report of the Grand Jury. By the Court, George T. Ramsey, Clerk." assessor. At the same time it was erected into a separate school district. The limits of the borough of West Newton were extended by the Court of Quarter Sessions, upon the petition of the inhabitants, by an order of the court of May 27, 1850, confirming the action of the grand jury in that behalf. By an order of the court of 3d September, 1853, the privileges of the act of Assembly of 3d of April, 1851, were extended to the borough. BOROUGH OFFICERS. The officers of West Newton in 1842 were : Burgess, Alexander Plumer ; Council, Andrew B. Funk, James Nicol's, David Shrader, Dr. John Hasson, William Linn ; Clerk, James B. Oliver. Since then the burgesses have been : 1844. John Swern. 1845-47. Joseph Stokely. 1847-49. John C. Plumer. 1849-51. Samuel B. Weimer.  1851. Andrew G. Oliver. 1852. Isaac McLaughlin. 1853-55. E. W. Dumm. 1855. Thomas Hibben. 1856-58. Samuel B. Weimer.  1858. Samuel Brenneman. 1859. E. W. Dumm. 1860. George H. Bear 1861. Alexander Plumer. 1862. Jacob Everitt. 1864. Alexander Plumer. 1865. James A. Dick. 1866. J. M. Schroyer. 1867. I. N. Downs. 1868-70. E. W. Dumm. 1870. James Hamilton, Sr. 1871. I. N. Downs. 1872-74. T. R. Reed. 1874. A. G. Oliver. 1875-77. E. W. Dumm. 1877. Philip Rohland. 1878. Henry Croushore. 1879. J. H. Schroyer. 1880-82. Henry Croushore. 1863. Philip Rohland, Jr. The officers in 1882 are : Burgess, Henry Croushore ; Clerk, Randall McLaughlin : Treasurer, Dr. J. Q. Robinson; Council, David Markle, Robert Taylor, Jacob F. Streicher, S. Burkhart, Jacob Schoof, Randall McLaughlin ; Justices of the Peace, J. Campbell, John Swern ; Constable, Edward I'. Campbell. LOCATION. The valley of the Youghiogheny from McKeesport to Connellsville and beyond teems with towns, villages, and hamlets, from which, though unsightly tipples and slack-piles banish all show of beauty, and myriads of coke-ovens, like miniature volcanoes, obscure the sun and paint " palace and hovel," patrician and plebeian, a monotonous black, yet, with the whir and roar of machinery, the hideous shriek of the steam-whistle, and the long line of heavy-laden trains, tell of the highest temporal prosperity. Lying in the busy valley, midway between Pittsburgh and Connellsville, about fifteen miles from the mouth of the Youghiogheny, is West Newton, on the southwestern slope of a hill descending abruptly to the Youghiogheny River, in the midst of a fertile and diversified country. By the Pittsburgh Division of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad communication is made easy in every direction. PIONEERS, ETC. Its early settlers were men of good birth, cultivation, and intellect, prominent, among whom were the Markles, Jonathan and George Plumer, and Anthony Blackburn. Like most other towns in Pennsylvania, the. original settlement of Scotch, Irish, and 646 - HISTORY OF WESTMORELAND COUNTY, PENNSYLVANIA. Yankees was augmented at a later day by many Germans, and still later by foreigners of almost every 'nationality. It was laid out in January, 1796, by Isaac Robb, who came from New Jersey many years previous, and entered the land now comprising its site. When in the " Whiskey Insurrection" of 1794 the army marched through Robb's farm it threw down his fences, and he would not put them up again. But he thereupon made a lottery and sold off the lots for a town. Its survey and plotting were made by David Davis and a Mr. Newkirk. The founder of the town, Isaac Robb, subsequently traded down the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers as far as New Orleans on boats. In 1807, while his boat lay at West Newton, he started one night when the river was rising to walk ashore to see if the fastenings were all right, but in the dark accidentally walked into the water and was drowned, although he was a splendid simmer. His grandson, J. N. Robb, a prosperous farmer, lives about .a mile from town. Notwithstanding the original proprietor of the town named it West Newton, it was universally called " Robbstown," in honor of its founder ; but in 1835 the original and proper name was restored to it, and by which it has been since known. Before 1796 it was called Simrall's Ferry. There have been three additions to it,—first, Nicholson's, on the east ; second, Fulton and Baugh-man's, on the north ; and third, Baughman's, on the south. The earliest settlers in the country near the town were the Markles, John Crellis, Anthony Blackburn, Sr. and Jr., and George Plumer. Jonathan Plumer came out as commissary under Gen. Braddock's expedition in 1755, and returned in like capacity under that of Gen. Forbes. His son, George Plumer, was born in 1762, near Fort Pitt, and married a daughter of Col. Lowrey, Lancaster County. He was a Presidential elector in 1820, and a member of Congress from 1821 to 1827. The first settlers in the town were Isaac Robb, John Hill, John Anderson, William McClintock, Mr. Warren, Isaac Morgan, Andrew Fulton, David Morton, Edward Hill, and George Rolds. The oldest male citizen now a resident is William Plumer, born in 1800, and the oldest female is Katy Ann Kain, born in New Jersey in 1803. Her mother was a Luker, sister of David Luker. She came here when a little babe, and has resided here ever since. The oldest house is a log structure built by William Shreader, and now owned by Henry Croushore. It was a farm-house, but is now included in the corporation. The oldest house in the town as originally laid out is the old William Brookens dwelling, but which has partially been remodeled. In 1805 there were not over ten or twelve dwellings here, of which one was the tavern, standing where the paper-mill is, and where Edward Hill kept for public entertainment. Another was a tavern kept by Joseph Vankirk, on the site of Obley's confectionery-shop. Another was the William Brookens house, and a fourth one was that of David Morton. The first brick house was erected by Dr. James Beatty. on Vine Street. Dr. James Beatty was the first resident physician here, and after him came Dr. Henry B. Trout. Dr. Smith, however, who lived on the other side of the river, practiced largely here. The subsequent regularly settled physicians to 1849 were Drs. Abner G. Marsh, John Hasson, F. M. McConaughy, and J. K. Robinson. Dr. Hasson settled here in 1836, and died in 1873. Dr. Robinson was born in Rostraver township in 1817, and was the son of Thomas and Achsa (Bailey) Robinson. His grandfather, Alexander Robinson, was an early settler, and came from Lancaster County. He came here in 1846, read medicine with Dr. Hasson, graduated at the Medical University of New York in the spring of 1849, and immediately located here. He married Catherine, daughter of Hon. I. F. Krebs. The first store was opened by a Mr. Snodgrass in 1797, the second by Robert Fulton and James Kirker as partners in 1802 (who soon removed to Zanesville, Ohio) the third by John Gambrell in 1805, the next by John Rowan, and afterwards one by John Latta, who removed to Cincinnati, Ohio. Subsequently George and Alexander Plumer carried on the mercantile business. The first blacksmiths were Jeremiah Ong and his brother-in-law, Samuel Reed. Afterwards William Reed had a shop. The first nailer was John Anderson, and the next one William McClintock, who made by hand the wrought nails. The first saddler was James Smith, who had his shop on Water Street. William Anderson was the first cooper, and Frederick Steiner the first hatter. The first cabinetmaker was John Robb, the second David Luker, and the third William Brookens. The first painter and chair-maker was a Mr. Cannann, and the second a Mr. Cox.. Joseph Vankirk, who kept a tavern, was a surveyor, and also the first postmaster. The town began to improve in 1806, from which time until 1820, when the National road was completed, there was immense shipping by keel-boat to Pittsburgh. Upon the slacking of the Youghiogheny River travel by steamers was large ; the first steamer to make trips was the " Tom Shriver." When the dams were swept out this trade became impracticable, and boats no longer landed regularly at the wharves. Surveys were made through here for the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal, but were ineffective. A much more important navigation scheme was that of the transatlantic canal, agitated in Congress and among the people. It was to follow the Youghiogheny to its head-waters, thence cutting through the mountains a very short but terrible rugged way to the waters of Wills Creek, a tributary of the Potomac. This scheme likewise failed. The Pittsburgh and Connellsville Railroad was opened in 1855 from West. Newton to Connellsville, SOUTH HUNTINGDON TOWNSHIP - 649 fifty-eight miles from Pittsburgh, on the Youghiogheny River. Its president and superintendent was Oliver W. Barnes, assisted by D. W. Caldwell. At West Newton connection for passengers and freight for. Pittsburgh was made by the steamer " /Bohan." The morning train left for Connellsville at 8.30 A.M., reaching there at 9.50 A.M., in time for the stage for Uniontown. The fare from Pittsburgh to Connellsville was $1.75, and to Uniontown $2.25. A train left Connellsville at 6 A.M. for West Newton, and connected with the steamer at 8.30 A.M., in time to reach Pittsburgh at 1 P.M. The local freight and passenger train left Connellsville at 12.80 P.M., and returning left West Newton at 5.30 P.M. The opening of this road had an important bearing on the history and progress of the town, and was hailed with delight by its citizens, many of whom, as well as the people in the surrounding country, took stock in it, and liberally subscribed for its building. From that time the town has steadily increased in population and business. On April 2, 1853, the town, by a vote of ninety-eight to twenty-five, subscribed six hundred dollars to the building of the " Hempfield Railroad," which, however, was never built. THE TOWN IN 1855. This year West Newton assumed a new appearance in its trade and progress. The following hotels were kept: Youghiogheny House, corner Main and Second Streets, by George McCune; the Mansion House (just opposite), by Henry Drum ; and the Exchange Hotel, corner Main and Water Streets, by A. Lowry. The physicians were Drs. John Hasson, Franklin M. McConaughy, and J. K. Robinson. The merchants were John Bell, M. P. Smith, Dick & Brother, and A. F. Stevenson; E. C. Leightty, George Armstrong, and Solomon Stough were grocers and druggists ; John Andy manufactured tobacco, snuff, and cigars ; H. C. Griffith and Samuel Coldsmith were saddlers and harness-makers ; Douglass & Mattox were coopers ; P. Paul was painter and chair manufacturer; Brookens & Megrail were cabinet-makers and undertakers ; and William Sykes, dealer in boots, shoes, hats, caps, etc. ; E. W. Dumm was the fashionable tailor and draper ; S, B. Stough, surveyor and conveyancer; George Armstrong, postmaster; W. M. Sykes kept oyster-saloon and confectionery; and M. Fry had a boot- and shoe-and hat- and cap-store ; S. G. Smutz was the daguerrean artist, who "took likenesses, colored or plain, on short notice and in the best manner." SCHOOLS AND TEACHERS. The first school-house near the town was just north of it, and on land now owned by the heirs of Charles Robinson, and was built about 1795. Its first teacher was a Mr. Grim, who was succeeded by William Blackburn, Nathaniel Nesbit, and William Baldwin. It was a round log house, with earthen floor and clapboard roof. The windows were greased paper on sticks, and the chimney was in the centre and started from the joist. In 1809 a school-house was built on the farm of John Caruthers, and its first teacher was William Baldwin. The first school taught in the town was in 1816, by N. Ruggles Smith, in a cabin, which proving too small for the number of scholars it was changed to a larger log building of Col. James B. Oliver. In 1818 the first school-house was here built. It was an eight-square structure, and when erected the best in the county. The first teacher in it was N. Ruggles Smith afterwards principal of the Greensburg Academy. Among his successors was ex-United States Senator Edgar Cowan. The present school building, an elegant two-story brick building, was erected just after the late war. In 1882 the school board is George Plumer, president; Dr. A. 0. Orr, secretary ; Dr. F. H. Patton, treasurer ; Benjamin Howard, Dr. J. Q. Robinson, and John Rial. The teachers are : Principal, Prof. J. A. Johnson, sixth room ; William S. Vandike, fifth room ; Miss Fanny J. Swem, fourth room ; Miss Josie Shutterly, third room ; Miss Mary Guffey, second room ; Miss Ella Lawson, first room. ORDERS, SOCIETIES, ETC. WEST NEWTON LODGE, No. 440, I. O. O. F. This lodge was chartered June 10, 1851, by George S. Morris, M. W. G. M., and William Curtis, M. W. G. Sec. The charter members and first officers were : N. G., T. R. Hazzard ; V. G., Eli C. Leightty ; Sec., John Klingensmith ; Asst. Sec., E. W. Dumm ; Treas., George Armstrong. The following are the Past Noble Grands yet members of the lodge : John Baer, James Baer, B. D. Baer, John Beamer, Michael Darr, A. T. Darr, Amos Eisenman, Morrison Fulmer, H. B. Goldsmith, B. Getchy, William Heidersdorf, Eli C. Leightty, William Miller, Martin Nahar, Leonard Nahar, P. J. Rohland, J. G. Ruoff, Simon Sampson, J. A. Stevenson, J. G. Steiner, R. M. Thomas, S. M. Wallace. The officers for 1882 are : N. G., J. H. Brundage ; V. G., Wilhelm Lehna; Sec., A. T. Darr ; Treas., B. Getchy ; Asst. Sec., Amos Eisenman ; Trustees, Martin Nahar, P. J. Rohland, J. M. Baer. WEST NEWTON COUNCIL, No. 521, ROYAL ARCANUM. This council was chartered April 30, 1881, by E. A. Keyes, Supreme Regent, and W. O. Robson, Supreme Sec. The charter members were F. H. Patton, A. W. Orr, E. P. Campbell, John Hancock, John M. Wilson, John Darr, T. J. McElroy, James G. Guffey, James Emery, H. A. Douglass, W. W. Gregg, J. R. Porter, John Ingraham, John S. Douglass, William B. Miller, A. O. P. Guffey, Joseph C. Gregg, S. M. Wallace. The officers for 1882 are : P. R., A. W. Orr ; R., J. T. McElroy ; V. R., William Miller ; O., F. H. Patton ; Chap., _____ Gregg ; Sec., E. P. Campbell ; Col., J. Wilson ; Treas., A. O. P. Guffey ; G., John Hancock ; S., J. P. Hamilton ; Trustees, James Guffey, John Brown.