Chapter 5
Allegheny (now Bethel, Parks and Gilpen)

Division of the Township in 1878-Origin of the name Allegheny-English and French Traders-Conrad Weiser and Christian Frederick Post-The Earliest Land Tracts Surveyed and Seated-Valuation at Different Periods-Names of Pioneers-Churches-Schools-Mills-A Notable Fox Hunt-Old-Time Fourth of July Celebration-Railroad Stations-Towns-Leechburg-Lively Enterprises-Canal Packet Lines-Taxable Inhabitants in 1832-Steamboat Arrival in 1838-The Town Incorporated in 1850-Religious History of Leechburg-Litigation in the Lutheran Church-Education-Physicians-Cemetery-Primitive and Improved Means of Crossing the River-Manufactures-Mercantile and Other Occupations-Soldiers� Aid Society-Secret Societies-Temperance-Population-Borough of Aladdin-In Schools-Oil Works-Statistics-Geology of Allegheny Township

[The township of Allegheny was in existence when the author wrote this volume, and its history is here presented intact, as it, of course, covers the three new townships of Bethel, Parks and Gilpin, erected from the territory of the old one.

A number of the inhabitants of Allegheny township petitioned the Quart of Quarter Sessions, June 3 1878 asking for a division of the territory comprising Allegheny into two or more townships, by the old sub-school district lines as near as was practicable, so as not materially to change the said school districts. Remonstrances were also presented, and the project was vigorously opposed. September 18, 1878, however, the court ordered a vote by the qualified electors of Allegheny to be taken upon the question of division, and fixed Tuesday, November 5, following, as the time. The return of this election, made December 26, 1878, showing that a majority of the voters were in favor of a division of Allegheny into three townships, the court ordered and decreed that the names of the divisions should be. �No. 1, Bethel; No 2, Parks: No. 3, Gilpin.� The day fixed for the first election in each of the townships was February 18, 1879. The place designated in Bethel was at schoolhouse No. 4, known as bethel schoolhouse; and in Parks, schoolhouse No. 1, known as Hill�s schoolhouse. The place originally ordered for the holding of the election in Gilpin was at �Spruce College� schoolhouse, but a subsequent order of the court designated the house of Joseph Lessig as being more convenient. Bethel township was named after the church and schoolhouse which had been for years so called; Parks, after the park family, old and prominent residents; and Gilpin, in honor of John Gilpin, Esq., of Kittanning Borough, who, as an attorney, had assisted the people of Allegheny who favored the division.-EDITOR.]

The township of Allegheny, though having until 1878 an extensive area for a township in these later times, included but a small portion of the territory that once bore its name. Its name was derived from the Allegheny river, which is its western and southwestern boundary. Heckewelder says: Allegheny is corrupted from Allegewi, the name of a race of Indians who are said to have dwelt along a river of that name, and in Allegewinnik, i.e., all the country west of the Alleghenies. The Shawanees called the river Pulawu-thepi-ki, i. e. the �Turkey River place,� or country, according to J. Hammond Trumbull.*

*The writer gratefully acknowledges the receipt of the following letter:

THE WATKINSON LIBRARY
Hartford, Connecticut, December 4, 1877.

DEAR SIR: Mr. F. Vinton, of Princeton, encloses to me your request for the etymology of the Shawano name for the Allegheny river, which you write �Palawu-thep-iki.� This name properly belongs to land (or some locality) on the river, or near it. Palawu-otherwise written Pelewa-is the Shawano name for the Wild Turkey; Miami, piluah; Illinois, pi ewa. Pelewa-sepi, or as a Shawano often pronounced it, Pelewa-thepi, is Turkey River; �Pelewa-thepi-ki, �Turkey River place� (or country).

Whether the Allegheny was so named because of the abundance of wild turkeys, or from the Turkey tribe (Unalachtgo) of the Delewares, I cannot certainly say; but the former is the more probable.

        Yours truly, J. HAMMOND TRUMBULL.�

On the Historical Map of Pennsylvania the upper Allegheny is named Palawuthepiki, and the lower Allegheny, Palawuthepi.

The Indian settlements within the limits of this township were probably visited by English traders from the East, from 1730 until 1749, and thereafter by French traders and agents.

In 1748 Conrad Weiser must, the writer thinks, have passed through the southeastern portion of the present township of Allegheny, on his route to Logstown. It may be remarked, in passing, that he was one of ten children of John Conrad Weiser, and was born at Herenberg, Germany, November 2, 1696. His father and family emigrated to Schoharie, New York, in the summer of 1710, where the Mohawk chief Quagnant became well acquainted with him, and induced his son Conrad to accompany him to his home and learn the Mohawk language. After acquiring a good knowledge of it he returned to his father�s residence, and was now and then employed as an interpreter. In 1729 he removed with his wife and children to that part of the Tulpehocken valley, a half mile east of the present town of Womelsdorf, in upper Heidelberg township, Berks county, Pennsylvania. The Muhlenbergs are among his descendants. He was a prudent, conscientious man. Because of his knowledge of the Indian language and customs, and his being a favorite with the Indians, he was frequently withdrawn from his farm, where he wished to spend the rest of his days after leaving Schoharie, to act as interpreter and agent for the Province. Twenty-five years of his life were thus spent. On June 23, 1748, Anthony Palmer, then president of council, gave him instructions to be followed in his mission to the Indians, at Logstown, from which it appears that the government had promised the Indians who were in Philadelphia in November, 1747, that Weiser should be sent to them early in the spring. A present of considerable value having been provided for them, he was to proceed thither with all convenient dispatch. He and the goods were to be convoyed by George Croghan, the Indian trader, who was well acquainted with the roads to the Ohio. Weiser was instructed, among other things, �to use the utmost diligence to acquire a perfect knowledge of the number, situation, disposition, and strength of the Indians in those parts;� �to use all means in your (his) power to get from them all kind of intelligence as to what the French are doing or design to do in those parts, and indeed, in every other place:� �to make particular inquiry into the behavior of the Shawanese, since the commencement of the war, and in relation to the countenance they gave to Peter Chartier.� He set out on that mission from his house in Heidelberg township, August 11, 1748, passing on his route, Tuscarora Hill, Standing Stone, near Huntingdon, Frankstown, where he overtook the goods, because four of George Croghan�s hands had fallen sick, over the Allegheny hills, past the Clear Fields, arriving at the Shawanese cabins August 23.

An August 25 they �crossed the Kiskeminetoes creek, and came to the Ohio that day.� The point where they crossed the Kiskiminetas must have been at the ford just below the mouth of Carnohan�s (formerly Old Town) run, having the latter name on Reasding Howell�s map, so called from Old Town, on the opposite or Westmoreland side of the river. That must have been the town mentioned in Christian Frederick Post�s Second Journal. Post was a Moravian, unobtrusive and upright, who emigrated from Germany to this state, or province as it then was, in 1742. The next year he went with the missionaries Pyrlaeus and Senseman to Shekomako, an Indian village on the Connecticut border, where he married a baptized Indian woman. He preached the gospel to the Indians for several years. Though abused and persecuted, arrested at Albany and imprisoned in New York, after he was released he preached the gospel to the Indians at Shattock, or Pachgatgoch, in Connecticut, working as a joiner or carpenter. Having revisited Europe he returned to this country, and while at Bethlehem, Pennsylvania, he was induced to deliver messages on two different occasions, in 1738, tot he Western Indians at Cushcushking, an Indian town, or rather four towns at short distances from one another, on Slippery Rock creek, in the northwestern part of what is now the county of Butler, Pennsylvania, in which were about ninety houses and two hundred able warriors. About four years afterward he made an unsuccessful attempt to establish a mission about one hundred miles west of Fort Pitt, and later went to the Bay of Honduras and preached to the more tractable Mosquito Indians.

He set out on his second mission to Cushcushking from Easton, Pennsylvania, October 23, 1758, and proceeded by the way of Bethlehem to Reading, where, on the 27th, he met Capt. Bull, Lieut. Hays, Pisquetoman (an Indian chief), Thos. Hickman, Totintiontonna, Shickalomy and Isaac Still, who had been selected by Gov. Denny to accompany him. Taking in their route Carlisle, Shippensburg, Fort Lyttleton, Raystown, Stonycreek and the Loyal Hannon, where they were gladly received in the camp of Gen. Forbes at Fort Ligonier on November 7. The next day the general had a conference with and made a speech to the Indians, including some Cherokees and Catawbas who happened to be present. Post and his party were detained there until near noon on the 9th for letters which Gen. Forbes was writing, and were escorted thence by Capt. Hazelet and a hundred men through a tract of good land, about six miles on the old trading-path, and again reached the Loyal Hannon, where they found an extensive and well-timbered bottom. Thence they ascended a hill to an advance breastwork about ten miles from the camp, about five miles from which Capt. Hazelet and his command separated from them, and kept the old trading-path to the Ohio. Lieut. Hays, with fourteen men , was ordered to accompany Post and his men to the Allegheny. At three o�clock P. M., November 11, they �came to Kiskemeneco, an old Indian town, a rich bottom, well-timbered, good fine English grass, well watered, and lays waste since the war began.� they fed their horses there, and agreed that lieut. Hays and his party might return. They did so. Post learned after he reached Cushcushking that the lieutenant and four of his men had been killed and five taken prisoner by a party of Indians whom they encountered.

The writer infers that �Kiskemeneco� must have been Old Town, from which the first name of Carnohan�s run was derived, and that Weiser and his party crossed the Kiskiminetas at the ford just below the mouth of that run. According to the recollection of Philip Mechling, who was, in his boyhood, familiar with the Kiskiminetas from Livermore to the Allegheny, that was the only ford between Kelly�s near Livermore, and the junction of those two rivers. In some old deeds land about Leechburgh is mentioned as being a mile or so below �Old Town.�

Coal and two Indian towns on the right bank of the Kiskiminetas are indicated on the historical map of this state, published by the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, thus: �Coal, 1754,� a short distance above the first bend below Leechburgh; �I. T. Kiskamanatas,� at that bend; �I. T.� on the left bank of the Allegheny, a short distance above the mouth of the Kiskiminetas.

Alexander Gordon says that while surveying in 1838 he first discovered the vestiges of a circumvallation about one hundred and thirty rods above the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, on the left bank of the Allegheny. The embankment was then three and a half feet high, and enclosed from two to three acres. White oak trees had grown up on the top or crest, which were then two feet in diameter.

The Indian town at or near this point must have been the one which Capt. Bienville de Celerou mentions in his account of his expedition down the Allegheny and Ohio in the summer of 1749. Its name was Atteques, and it then contained twenty-two houses.

Maj. Denny, in that part of his Military Journal relating to that part of the tour of inspection which he and others made to Fort Franklin, mentions that on Monday, April 28, 1788, he and those with him �passed several lodges of Indians near the Kiskiminetas,� and that he and the others that night �lay five miles above the mouth of that river,� which point is at or near the present White Rock station, on the Allegheny Valley railroad.

Mrs. Elizabeth Snyder, who died a few years since, in her one hundredth year, used to relate that in her girlhood - about 1787-8 - she and her brother went to a cornfield one morning to hoe corn, where they then lived, on the Westmoreland side of the Kiskiminetas, below Saltsburgh, when they were startled by discovering a number of Indians in ambush. She and her brother escaped to the blockhouse in that vicinity. All, or nearly all, the horses of the white settlers in that locality were stolen that night by the Indians. They were pursued the next day by the whites, and overtaken between Pine Run and what is now Logansport, on the land now owned and occupied by her son, Joseph Snyder, where all the horses, except a stallion that was killed, were recaptured. The Indians escaped across the Allegheny at Nicholson�s Falls.

Maj. Eben. Denny mentions in his Military Journal, June 1, 1794: �Two days ago the Indians attacked a canoe upon the Allegheny; there were three men in it. They killed one and wounded the other two, but got nothing. The accident happened five miles above the Kiskiminetas.

Col. Charles Campell, in his letter dated at Greensburgh, June 5, 1794, to Gov. Mifflin, respecting the stopping of the draft for the support of the Presque Isle station, wrote: The Indians, May 30, fired on a canoe between the mouth of the Kiskiminetas and the Kittanning (as he spelled it, �Cattannian�) and killed one man and wounded two. Neither he nor Denny states on which side of the river the canoe was. If on the east side it was in Allegheny, but if on the west side it was in Deer township. This river at that time was the dividing line between Allegheny and Westmoreland counties, and between those two townships from the mouth of the Kiskiminetas to the mouth of Truby�s run, in Kittanning. After mentioning the attack upon Capt. Sharp and his party, he added: �The frontiers seem to be much alarmed at such unexpected news and the signs of the Indians seen on the frontiers. I consulted with Gen. Jack, and we agreed to order Capt. Elliott, of the rifle company, on the frontiers until such time as I could get your approbation, as it will be impossible to keep them from breaking unless they be well well supported.�

Some time during the Indian troubles, 1785-90, while Capt. Miller and Lieut. Murphy and the rest of their company were moving from Hand�s Fort, at the mouth of the Loyal Hannon, in Westmoreland county, to Fort Armstrong, in this county, they met three men between Taylor�s run and Crooked creek, probably at or near Logansport. The captain halted, questioned, and then let them go. The lieutenant and some of the men, thinking that the captain had not questioned them closely enough, sent ensign or sergeant Pursley back for them. They evinced a belligerent intent when they were ordered to halt. He, however, brought them back. Upon further investigation it became evident that they has deserted from the force stationed near bald Eagle�s Nest, probably at Fort Davis, northeast of Milesburgh, on Bald Eagle creek, in what is now the county of Center. Capt. Miller sent him to Pittsburgh in a canoe.

The only indication of any land having been taken up prior to 1792, on reading Howell�s map of that year, is the word �Montgomery�s� in the forks of the Allegheny and Kiskiminetas rivers. John Montgomery, Sr., took out several warrants for tracts of land in this township.

From the ancient map of this county, elsewhere mentioned, it appears that within the present limits of this township, as nearly as the writer can trace them on that map, seventy-eight tracts had, before that map was made, been surveyed on warrants, the names of the warrantees and the number of acres being written on the respective tracts. The names Mf those by whom the various tracts were seated, according to an early list in the commissioner�s office, will be found below, within parentheses:

John Elder, 182.1 acres; John Collier, 313 acres; David McKee (Peter Shaeffer), 264 � acres; J. Heckman (P. Heckman), 10 acres; John Barrickman, captain of the drafted compnay from this county in the war of 1812, 100 acres; James Beatty (himself), 125 1/4 acres; Martha Maris, 308.8 acres*; Hugh Glenn, 402 � acres; John Wigton (Wm. Highfield), 403.2 acres; ______________________________________________________ *The patent for this tract was granted May 26, 1784, to Mary Paul, ex'x, and Joseph B. Paul, ex'r of John Paul, for 1 pound 1s 4d.. The warrantee's name, as mentioned in the patent is Matthew Maris, and the tract is called "Matthewsborough." The entire tract was conveyed by Paul's heirs to Peter Klingensmith, the present owner, November 11, 1849, for $3,705. The White Rock station A. V. R. R. and schoolhouse No. 12 are on this tract.

James Glenn, 460 acres; John Glenn, 465 � acres; John Morrison (Jacob Williams), 415 � acres; Nicholas Bray (William Kelly), 125.1 acres; Margaret Wigton (Geo. Wolf), 394 1.2 acres; Samuel Cochran, 110 acres; Gen. Alexr. Craig, of Westmoreland county, Pennsylvania, 275 acres; John Pinkerton, 424 acres; Geo. Bartram, 410.7 acres; Ann Crisswell (Robert Walker), 452 acres; Alexr. Walker, 248 acres, purchased from Alexr. Clark; Sam�l Walker, 212.6 acres, purchased from Thos. Burd; Enoch Westcott, 419 � acres; Sam�l Waugh (Sam�l Stitt), 394.4 acres; Francis Bailey (Sam�l Stitt) 394.4 acres; Charles Vanderen (Henry Girt), 363.8 acres; John Steele (Jacks), 322.8 acres; Joseph Parker, member of assembly in 1777 (Wm. Stitt), 317.7 acres; Geo. Risler (- Neale), 380.8 acres; Griffeth Jones (Henry Klingensmith), 350.7 acres; James Campbell, 219.7 acres; Jeremiah Pratt (John Hawk), 425 1/4 acres; Sebastian Fisher (P. Klingensmith), 322 acres; John Vanderen (- Hickenlooper), 358 acres; Geo. Ingram (Philip Klingensmith), 329 acres; Thos. Campbell (Jno. Hill), 305 acres; Geo. Isebuster (Jas. And Jno. Jack), 315.7 acres; Charles Campbell, member of assembly in 1777 (James Anderson), 245.3 acres; Hugh Cunningham, 269 acres; Archibald McKatten, 213.8 acres; Michael Barrickman, 218 � acres; James Crosby (Jas. Fitzgerald), 7 3/4 acres; John Montgomery, 50.4 acres; John Hawk (same), 400 acres; Isaac Vanhorn, who was a captain in the 6th Pa. Regt. In and prior to 1782, 412.9 acres; John Vanhorn, Jr., 404 � acres; John Vanhorn, Sr., 365.9 acres; Mary Gibson (Jno. Klingensmith), 355 acres; John Conrad (Sam�l Stitt, Jr.) 332.1 acres; Sam�l Evans, 338 acres; Robert Caldwell 377.9 acres; Thos. York (Geo. Elliott), 342 acres; John Brown (Jacob Beck), 357.8 acres, partly in Burrell; Barnard Macho, 430 acres; Amelia Grover, 437.2 acres; Wm. Smith (Jno. Shall), 386 � acres; Thos. Wood (Wm. McAllister), 124.2 acres; Jacob Reese, 360.4 acres; Lambert Cadwallader, 314 3/4 acres; Wm. Hamilton, 314.7 acres; James Mease, 314.7 acres; Geo. Clymer, 314.9 acres; Sam�l Meredith, member of the assembly from Philadelphia in 1778 (Wm. Jack), 322 acres; Thos. Cadwallader (Robt. Hanna), 322 1/4 acres; - Hesselgesser, 75 3/4 acres; Jno. Montgomery (Robert Parks, 226 acres, 20 perches; Sam�l Crosby, 60 acres), 286 acres 20 perches; John Montgomery (Sam�l Crosby), 270.8 acres; A. Marshall, 212 acres, 23 perches; Hugh Cunningham (Assemus Boyer), 106 1/4 acres, in a bend in the Kiskiminetas, next above Henry Armstrong tract, which contained about 212 acres; Jacob Hawk (Jno. Stitt), 62.10 acres; Jno. Cadwallader *

(*John Cadwalader, above-mentioned, was a native of Philadelphia, was the commander of a corps of volunteers at the beginning of the revolutionary war, nearly all of whom were afterward commissioned officers in the Pennsylvania line. He was promoted to the rank of colonel in one of the city battalions, and then to that of brigadier general, and commanded the Pennsylvania troops participated as in the winter campaign of 1776-7. He was a volunteer in the battles of Princeton, Brandywine, Germantown, Monmouth, and in other actions, and received the thanks of Washington, whose confidence and esteem he had deservedly won. He was appointed to command one of the divisions into which the army was separated when Washington determined to attack the British army at Trenton, but the ice in the Deleware river prevented both him and Gen. Irvine, the commander of another division, from crossing in time. He, however, succeeded in crossing the next day after Washington�s return, and pursued the beaten foe to Burlington. Congress appointed him, in 1778, general of cavalry, which appointment he declined, because he was satisfied that he could be more iseful to the position which he then held. He died February 10, 1786, aged forty-three. Lambert Cadwalader was commissioned by order of congress as colonel of the 4th regt. Pa. Inf. October 25, 1776.

Samuel Meredith was major of the 3d battalion, Gen. Cadwalader�s brigade.)

(Alexr. Hanna), 320 acres; Adam Moyer (Jno. Waltenbaugh), 332 � acres; Andrew Hamilton (George Waltenbaugh), 306 acres, partly in Kiskiminetas township; Thomas Barclay, 306.6 acres; Samuel Printz, 309.6 acres; John Wilson (Philip Schutt), 357.6 acres; William Smith (Jno. Scholl), 386 � acres.

Some, if not all, of these tracts were designated by particular names in the patents. For instance, the Lambert Cadwallader tract was called �Oxford;� the William Hamilton tract, �Hampton Court;� the James Mease tract, �Presburg;� the James Vanhorn tract, partly in Burrell, �Sincerity;� the George Clymer tract, �Flint castle;� the Samuel Meredith tract, �Mingrelia;� the Samuel Printz tract, �Richland;� the John Cadwallader tract, �Campus Major;� the Thomas Cadwallader tract, �Tascony;� - perhaps Tuscany; the Jacob Reese tract, �Springfield;� the John Montgomery tract (Above Leechburgh), �Farmers� Delight;� the Adam Moyer tract, �Union Green;� the Hugh Cunningham tract (in a bend of the Kiskiminetas), �Cornfield;� the other Hugh Cunningham tract (on Elder run), �Poplar grove;� the Archibald McHatton tract, �Rich Hill;� the Isaac Vanhorn tract, �Parnassus;� the Charles Vanderen tract, �Charlesburgh;� the Sebastian Fisher tract, �Rislersburgh;� the Martha Maris tract, �Marthasborough;� the Alexander Craig tract (Logansport), �Bird Bottom;� the John Wilson tract, �Wilsonburgh;� the Charles Campbell tract, �Bloomfield.�

At a critical period of the Revolutionary War, when there was great danger of the dissolution of the American army for want of provisions to keep it together, a number of patriotic citizens of Philadelphia gave their bonds to the amount of �260,000 in gold and silver for procuring them. They were procured, the army was kept together and our independence finally achieved. Though the amount of these bonds was never called for, the lending of these men�s credit, at that juncture, answered the purpose as well as the money would have done if they had advanced it.* Among those who thus patriotically subscribed, were the above-named Thomas Barclay, James Mease and Samuel Meredith, who each subscribed �5,000. Barclay was American consul at Paris in and about 1784.

  (*The Statesman, an old Pittsburgh paper.)

In 1804, the valuation of some of those tracts were: Sebastian Fisher, 40 cents; John Vanderen, 65 cents; George Ingram, 50 cents; Thomas Campbell, 65 cents; Charles Campbell, 65 cents; John Montgomery (all his tracts), 75 cents; John Vanhorn, Sr. and Jr., 50 cents; Thomas York, 50 cents; John Brown, 65 cents; Barnard Macho (or McCoo), 50 cents; Amelia Grover, 40 cents; James Vanhorn, 50 cents; William Smith, 40 cents; Jacob Reese, 50 cents; Lambert Cadwallader, 40 cents; James Mease, 65 cents; George Clymer, 65 cents; Thomas Cadwallader, 40 cents; Hugh Cunningham, 50 cents; John Cadwallader, 40 cents; Adam Moyer, 65 cents; Andrew Hamilton, 50 cents; John Wilson, 50 cents.

In 1876, the assessment of the land embraced in the John Elder, Montgomery & Stewart, and John Collier tracts, at and around Schenly station, in the forks of the Allegheny and Kiskiminetas rivers, varies from $15 to $800 per acres which, in 1804, was assessed at from 40 to 65 cents per acre. Along Taylor�s run - so called after Robert Taylor, who was killed by some Indians and buried opposite the mouth of a small run, on land now owned by A. Grantz, two miles and ten rods in an air line from the mouth of Taylor�s run, where a stone with the initial letters of his name on it is still standing - and at and around Kelly�s station land is now assessed at from $3.50 to $6 which, in 1804, as the Gleem and Wigton tracts was assessed at from 40 to 50 cents per acre; the Nicholas Bray tract, at the junction of Crooked creek and Allegheny river, was then assessed at 40 cents, now at $5 per acre; in the central part of the township, then from 50 to 65 cents, now from $4.50 to $9.50; above Leechburgh, along the Kiskiminetas, �Farmers� Delight,� then 75 cents, now $11 per acre.

The assessment lists show a gradual diminution of the number of unseated tracts - very gradual for a number of years. In 1837 the number of such tracts returned by the assessor was sixteen, thirteen of which were returned in the names of the original warrantees, viz: Robert Caldwell, Lambert Cadwallader, Barnard Macho, John Vanhorn, Wm. Smith, John Wilson, Enoch Westcott, Amelia Grover, Mary Gibson, Adam Moyer, J. Vanhorn, Andrew Hamilton and John Wigton, i.e. in most of these instances parts of the original tracts. In 1846, 168 acres of the Barnard Macho tract were returned on the last time as unseated. Parts of two other tracts were returned as unseated in other than the names of the original warrantees. In 1876, only four parcels of land, aggregating 52 acres, are returned by the assessor as unseated.

Some of the above-mentioned warrants are dated in 1792-3. Others may have been of dates varying from 1769 and onward. Alexander and Samuel Walker were among the earliest settlers in the northern part, on the south side of Crooked Creek; James Cunningham, a revolutionary soldier, in the northwest corner, at the junction of that creek and the river; Philip Bolen and James Coulter, along Elder Run and the present Kittanning and Leechburgh road, on lands now owned by I. Turney, Hiram Hill, J. Lessig, J. G. Allshouse, two or three miles north of Leechburgh; John Klingensmith, on the hill below Leechburgh; Philip, Peter and Nicholas Klingensmith, farther down and back from the Kiskiminetas; Wm. Hill, between James Coulter�s, now Hiram Hill�s above-mentioned, and the Kiskiminetas; Wm. Hum, in the vicinity of the last; Conrad Hauk, Sr. and Jr., about a mile southeast of White Rock Ferry and Station; Samuel and David Hill, and John Carney, in the southeastern part, along and near Carnahan�s Run; Jacob and William Hesselgesser, and Robert Hanna, on the river above Leechburgh, at and near �Farmers� Delight�; John Hawk, about a mile and a half northeast of Leechburgh, including the farm nnow owned and occupied by Henry Truby; john, Samuel, and William Stitt, along and near Taylor�s Run, two miles more or less back from the river; Eliah Eakman, in the eastern part of the township; William Beatty, on the Margaret Wigton tract, adjoining the Manor; Thomas Gallagher carried on a distillery for many years in, probably, the northeastern part of the township; and Peter LeFevre kept a ferry a little below the mouth of Carnahan�s Run, on the Henry Armstrong tract, called �Woodland,� from 1805, and perhaps from before 1800, until 1825, when he left this county. LeFevre�s Ferry was a prominent point in early times. The warrant for the Henry Armstrong tract, or �Woodland,� is dated November 8, 1784. Armstrong conveyed his interest therein to John Guthrie December 3, who conveyed the same to Michael Rugh April 5, 1798, who obtained a patent therefor February 17, 1806. Rugh conveyed 213 acres to Peter LeFevre March 25, 1807, for �1,059 and 15 shillings, who conveyed 22 acres and 122 perches thereof to Daniel Kepple August 10, 1808, for $67.91, and the residue to Jacob Drum, April 2,1825, for $1,528, who conveyed to William Williams, May 10, 1825, for $8,000, who conveyed to Paul Morrow August 10, 1826, for $8,000, who subsequently conveyed it to John Y. Barclay, John Kuhns, and Hugh Y. Brady, together with all the rest of his real estate for the main specific purpose of paying off what he owed the Westmoreland Bank of Pennsylvania, who conveyed it to E. M. Bigham, from whom it passed, under the sheriff�s hammer, to Jacob Hill, who conveyed it to Hugh Bigham, who sold an undivided moiety to William P. McCulloch. The last two conveyed it to James Hunter, from whom it passed by deed to James Shauer, the present owner. Those twenty-five persons appear from the assessment list to be the only taxables within the present limits of Allegheny township, in 1805-6. The population within those limits must have then been about one hundred and twenty. The population of Allegheny township in 1810, when it included all the territory between the Kiskiminetas and Crooked Creek, from the Allegheny to the Indiana county line, was 820; it was 1,443 in 1820, and 2,966 in 1830. In 1840, after Kiskiminetas township had been detached from it, the population was 1,839; in 1850, whites, 2,504, colored, 2; in 1860, whites, 2,493, colored, 3; in 1870, exclusive of Leechburgh and Aladdin boroughs, whites, 2,563, colored, 5. Between the census of 1850 and that of 1860, (in 1855), a part of the territory of Allegheny was detached and included in that of Burrell township. The number of taxables this year (1876) is 674. If there are four and three-fifths persons for each taxable, its present population is 3,200.

CHURCHES

The first church organized in this township is the Crooked Creek Presbyterian, designated in the last township map, �Union Church,� located between the second and fifth bends in crooked creek above its mouth- a little more than half way from the neck of the second to the fifth-on the road leading from the southern part of Manor township across that creek, at a ford therin to the mill formerly owned by Robert Walker (of A.), but now by Held & Kough. Just when it was organized is uncertain, but probably by the old Redstone Presbytery, prior to 1825. �I first visited the church of Crooked Creek,� wrote the late Rev. Dr. Painter, �in the summer of 1834. The people had ceased to attend church among themselves, and though they had commenced, some years before, to erect a church, *they had not finished it. They had cut and hewed and put up logs for a large church, and had it under roof ; the places for the doors were cut out, but the house never had a floor, or doors, or windows, and the wide places between the logs had never ben closed. When I first saw it. I noticed some sheep reposing on the ground within the log enclosure ; in fact, the building appeared to be the resort of all kinds of cattle that grazed through the woods ; they had free ingress into it, and egress out of it.� That edifice was made tenantable, and for a few years Dr. Painter gave that church one-sixth of his time. It soon revived and began to prosper. It was statedly supplied for awhile by John Kerr, a licentiate of the Washington Presbytery, and since 1841 it has been under the pastoral charge of Revs. Levi M. Graves, William Colledge, G. K. Scott, and Perin Baker, the present pastor. It was incorporated by the court of common pleas of this county, June 21, 1843, and the trustees named in the charter were James C. Kerr, William McKee, Hamilton Kelly, Andrew Jack, and Robert Walker (of A.), who were to continue until the election, on the first Monday of the then next June. Its present membership is 84 ; Sabbath-school scholars, 40. A neat, new frame edifice was erected, partly on the site of the second log house, in 1869, and is designated �Union Church.� It is 45X40 feet, and neatly furnished.

(*A log edifice built by Alexander Walker, in 1820; another log edifice was built in 1840-1, about fifteen rods from the first one.)

The other three churches in this township are Lutheran. Zion�s is situated in the forks, near a branch of Elder run, the fourth from its mouth, as indicated on Pomeroy & Co.�s map of the township. The church was incorporated by the proper court December 19, 1849. The officers named in the charter were Henry Isensee, pastor, John Torney and Henry Wanamaker, elders, Griffith Baker and Jonathan Moyer, Deacons, John Allshouse and Henry Klingensmith, trustees, and the last named, treasurer. The present number of members, 150; Sabbath-school scholars, 100. The edifice is frame.

St. Paul�s is in the southeastern part of the township, near the main eastern branch of Carnahan�s, formerly Old Town, run. Members, 75; Sabbath-school scholars, 70.

Bethel, situated near the head of a small branch of Taylor�s run, on the Amelia Grover tract, about two and a half miles in an air line southeast from the mouth of the latter, or Kelly�s station. It is a neat looking frame structure, which was erected in or about 1848. Church members, 128; Sabbath-school scholars, 100. This church was incorporated by the proper court June 24, 1848. The trustees named in the charter-Rev. David Earhart, Samuel Mansfield, Joseph Snyder, Peter Wareham and Jacob Kieffer, to continue until the last Saturday in March, 1849.

Prior to 1826 preaching was in baarns and under shade-trees, and sometimes in private houses.

SCHOOLS

About 1812-14 a log schoolhouse was erected west of the present Kittanning and Lechburgh road, opposite the mouth of a short branch of Elder run, and abut one hundred rods from the present schoolhouse, near Abraham Klingensmith�s residence. Among its first teachers, if not its firstt, was James Stitt. About the same time another similar house was erected on the east side of a branch of Carnahan�s run, being the first designaated on the above-mentioned township map, one hundred and twenty rods above its junction, and the same distance northwesst of the graded schools. The first teachers were John Criswell and Samuel Taggart. Mrs. Alexander Gordon, of Leechburgh, is one of its surviving pupils. Another schoolhouse was erected, perhaps a little later, about seventy-five rods east of St. Paul�s Llutheran church, in the forks between an eastern branch of Carnahan�s run and a little spring run. Townsend Adams was the first teacher. The next school was taught in a log schoolhouse, which was erected in 1820-1, on land then belonging to Robert Orr, Jr., and afterward owned by Andrew Stitt, one and a half miles from Kelly�s station, or mouth of Taylor�s run, on the road leading therefrom to the Bethel church. Its first teacher was Henry Girt. There was a log schoolhouse near the Presbyterian church in 1830-1, in which Robert Walker and Samuel Simoneral taught. The only other school before 1835, when the free-school system was adopted, as the writer is informed, was kept in a schoolhouse about two miles north of Jacksonville, or Bagdad, in or near the forks of the run that empties into the Allegheny, a little below the head of the island, near Donnelly�s station. The branches taught were generally those mentioned in the general sketch of the county.

Upon the adoption of the free-school system the township was divided into sub-districts, in each of which a hewed log schoolhouse, with glass windows, was erected. The distance from one schoolhouse to another was about two miles. At a later period, before 1856, those log houses gave place to frame ones, except one which was brick, near Klingensmith�s mill. The first graded school in a rural district, in this county, was established in 1858 by the directors of the Allegheny school district. The number of scholars in the school in the southeastern part of the township, near Stitt�s, now Marshall�s, mill, on Carnahan�s run, about a mile and a half northeast of its mouth, became too large for one school, or at least for one room. The directors were petitioned to establish another school in another part of that portion of the township. Instead of doing that they graded the school-two grades-and erected a new building adjoining the old one. That experiment proved to be successful. The county superintendent in his annual report, dated June 20, 1859, referred to it thus: �From information derived from the directors, teachers and some of the citizens in its locality, and from my own observation, I conclude that the pupils in both departments were more diligent in their studies, more ambitious to excel, and derived more benefit from the instructions of their teachers, last term, than they ever had before the school was graded.� Yet the directors had the pleasure of being brought before the court, on an application of a few citizens to have them removed, for trying that successful experiment. The court very properly dismissed that application at the costs of those who made it.

In 1860 the number of schools was 15; average number months taught, 4; teachers all male; average salaries $22; number male scholars, 442; female, 319; average number scholars attending school, 437; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 48 cents; amount tax levied for school purposes, $1,826.70; amount tax levied for building purposes, $304.45; total amount levied, $$1,826.70; received from state appropriation, $155.04; received from collectors of school tax, $1703.46; cost of instruction, i.e. whole amount of teachers� wages, $1,320; fuel and contingencies, $135.07; cost of schoolhouses, purchasing, building, renting, repairing, etc., $428.92.

In 1876 the number of schools was 16; average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 5 female 11; average salaries of males per month, $34.80; of females, $34.40; number of male scholars, 400; of female, 314; average number attending school, 344; cost per month, 86 cents; total amount of tax levied for school and building purposes $4,039.80; state appropriation, $567.13; total receipts, $4,687.92; paid for teachers� wages, $2,914.50; fuel, collectors, contingencies, etc., $1,041.53. Total expenditures, $3,956.03.

MILLS

Alexander Walker built a grist and sawmill, before 1805, near the second bend above the mouth of Crooked creek, about three-quarters of a mile southeast from the bridge across that creek on the Kittanning and Leechburgh road. He was not assessed with them after 1824. His death occurred in 1826. John Walker was assessed with a gristmill, probably that one, in 1830-1. As that was the only gristmill in early times, in that region, that could be operated all the year round, it was resorted to by people from a great distance in times of low water in other streams. Michael Mechling and others used to take their grists there in canoes from Kittanning, and found it difficult to row up the creek on account of its rapid descent. Grists were also taken by the same means to Hill�s mill on the south side of the Kiskiminetas. In 1836-7 Robert Walker (of A.) erected a grist-mill about a mile and a half east of the other, in the lower part of the most easterly bend or loop of the creek, with which he was first assessed in 1838, it being then rated at $500. The mill-seat is rock and was prepared by blasting, which was done by Jacob Waltenbaugh, who is now upward of ninety years of age. A tunnel for a head-race, 160 feet long, 4 feet wide and 41/2 feet from base to top, was about the same time excavated by blasting through sand-rock and slate from one side to the other of the lower part of that bend, or peninsula, by two Englishmen by the names of Allison and Porter, who happened along there at that time, for the sum of $1,600. The time spent upon that work was six or seven months. That mill is still in operation, being now owned by Held & Kough.

Philip Klingensmith�s sawmill was erected in 1817 and his gristmill in 1828, both on the last-mentioned run, on the high ground northh of the Kiskiminetas, which were continued in operation until 1852-3. They were on the George Ingram tract, the arrant for which is dated December 17, 1784, 3291/2 acres of which Klingensmith purchased from Joshua Elder, to whom a patent therefor was issued April 28, 1789, by deed dated November 7, 1802, for ^350. There must be a mistake in the description in the patent, for which reason it is here specifically and somewhat at length referred to. The patent describes this land as a �tract called �senior,� on the waters of the Kiskiminetas, in Pittsburgh township, Westmoreland county.� Now, Armstrong township was organized April 6, 1773, as heretofore stated, and a part of its southern boundary was from the mouth of the Loyal Hannon down the Kiskiminetas to the Allegheny, thence up the Allegheny to the Kittanning, thence with a straight line easterly, etc., so that this Ingram tract must have been in Armstrong instead of Pittsburgh-or rather Pitt-township in 1784, when the warrant was issued, and in 1789, when the patent is dated. By deed dated March 22, 1822, Philip Klingensmith, Sr., and Catherine his wife conveyed 232 acres and 67 perches of that tract to Philip Klingensmith, Jr., for $700.

John Stitt�s gristmill was erected in or about 1819 on Carnahan�s run, a mile and three-fifths northeast, in an air line from its mouth, and his sawmill in the same locality in 1826, which continued to be operated by him, his widow and one of his heirs until 1866, and since then by Thomas M. Marshall. �Just as good as wheat at Stitt�s mill� used to be a common saying in that region. John Hill�s sawmill was erected about 1819-20 and was continued in operation several years, probably on one of the runs about midway between Leechburgh and Donnelly�s station. Jacob Riggle�s sawmill was erected in 1839-40, somewhere in the forks of the Allegheny and Kiskiminetas, and appears to have been operated until about 1858. Levi Klingensmith�s sawmill-now a steam mill-has been operated since 1855-6, near the mouth of the first run above Donnelly�s station, and Hill, Seaman & Co.�s steam sawmill for several years at White Rock. Of late years a portable steam sawmill has been used in different parts of the township. Beatty�s sawmill went into operation in 1855-6 at Center Valley, on Taylor�s run, about a mile and a half from its mouth. Both it and a gristmill are in operation there now.

OTHER INDUSTRIES

In 1835 there were ten salt wells in operation from the mouth of Carnahan�s run, along the Kiskiminetas to a few miles below Leechburgh. The next year there were two less. In 1837 there were two new ones. The number was considerably diminished in the course of a few years. There were about three on the Kiskiminetas in 1854, and for several years after, and one on the Allegheny in 1853 was continued a few years thereafter.

The North American Oil Works were established by a joint stock company in 1856 and were located on the right bank of the Kiskiminetas, about 200 rods above its mouth. Oil for illuminating purposes was manufactured from cannel coal, which abounds in pots rather than regular strata in that region. The coal was placed in revolving retorts, which were heated by external coal fires. Thus the coal in the retorts was roasted and its oleaginous matter expelled in the form of gas, which was conducted into a number of iron pipes several inches in diameter, which were placed horizontally and side by side in reservoirs of cold water, where it was condensed into the form of crude oil, which was conducted into large tanks, from which it was drawn off, refined, and prepared for burning by the use of chemical agencies and suitable apparatus. The capacity of these works was from 1,500 to 2,000 barrels a month. The subsequent discovery and abundant supply of petroleum in Venango county and elsewhere proved a death-blow to the manufacture of oil from coal, which resulted in the stoppage of those works, which was severely felt both by their owners, who had invested in them a large amount of capital, and by a large number of employes, who were thus thrown out of employment.

The Penn Oil Works were established on the Allegheny, about one hundred and twenty-five rods above the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, in 1865. Their capacity for refining crude petroleum is about 5,000 barrels per month.

The chief industry is of course agricultural. The number of mechanics needed in such a population, though by no means large, has been adequate to their wants. A carding machine was established by Joshua Cooper in 1824, at what is now donnellly�s Station. It is notable that Isaac David was assessed in 1807 as a bookbinder, but where his place of business was is not known to the writer.

On the side hill facing the Kiskiminetas, a short distance above Leechburgh, are two vineyards, one containing about 200 and the other about 300 vines, from which several barrels of wine have annually - that is, in some years - been produced. Farther up the river, near the first bend above Leechburgh, is a noted point called �Lover�s Leap,� whence it is said, a loving but disappointed maiden precipitated herself, the cause of her rashness being different from that of the beautiful Indian girl, the daughter of an Indian chief, who, to avoid marrying against her will, threw herself from another �Lover�s Leap,� a projecting rock six or seven hundred feet high on the east side of Lake Pepin, some fifty years ago, in the presence of her tribe.

The assessment list for 1876 shows as follows: laborers, 160 (one of whom is assessed with a piano); coal-miners, 19; carpenters, 6; blacksmiths, 5; millers, 3; shoemakers, 2; coopers, 3; teachers, 3; singing teacher, 1; book-agent, 1; railroad agent, 1; dispatcher, 1; clerk, 1; plasterer, 1; mason, 1; sawyer, 1; tailoress, 1; teamster, 1; wagonmaker, 1; disabled persons, 3; old man, 1. The rest of the taxables are engaged in agricultural and mercantile pursuits.

The mercantile appraiser assessed twelve as merchants of the fourteenth class, one of whom was exonerated from paying license because not engaged in the business, and one in the thirteenth class. Total in both classes, 12.

GREAT FOX-HUNT OF 1828

In accordance with previous arrangements, a fox-hunt occurred on Friday, March 11, 1828. The circle commenced at Long run, in Kiskiminetas township; thence up that run to Jno. Shirley�s; thence to Jacob George�s; thence in a straight line down Crooked creek to its mouth; thence down the Allegheny river to the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, and thence up the same to the mouth of Long run. The closing of inner circles were closed by strewing straw lightly around at or near Robert Criswell�s, on Carnahan�s run. The distance from the center to the inner circle was one-fourth of a mile, and to the outer circle one-half a mile, both having been marked by straw or blazing the trees. Seventeen or eighteen red foxes were taken in the course of that hunt.

EARLY FOURTH OF JULY CELEBRATION

The anniversary of our national independence used to be observed in a proper manner by more or less of the citizens. The chronicle of the celebration of July 4, 1838, has casually come to the writer�s notice. On that occasion the Armstrong Light Dragoons and a large number of citizens assembled at �Farmers� Delight,� the residence of the late Robert Parks, along the first bend in the Kiskiminetas above Leechburgh. David Kuhns was appointed chairman, and Alexander Gordon secretary. After various evolutions by the dragoons, they partook of an excellent dinner. The Declaration of Independence was read, and thirteen sensible and patriotic toasts were submitted and unanimously approved. There were only two volunteer toasts, one of which was complimentary to Mr. and Mrs. Parks and expressive of the thanks and gratitude of the assemblage to them, as host and hostess, for their liberality and bountiful repast, and the other complimentary to the Armstrong Light Dragoons for their correct and gentlemanly deportment, reflecting upon them honor and the admiration of their fellow citizens.

THE CANAL

The southern border of Allegheny township was skirted by the Pennsylvania canal, the construction of which, from 1826 till 1829, and its subsequent operation gave a vigorous impulse to agricultural and other interests of the people of and caused a more extensive and rapid emigration to this township than had previously been the case. The facilities for transportation of passengers and freight which it afforded are now offered by the West Pennsylvania division of the Pennsylvania railroad, on the opposite or Westmoreland side of the Kiskiminetas.

RAILROAD STATIONS

Schenley, named after Capt. Schenley, who owns, or did once own, the land around it, is a short distance above the mouth of the Kiskiminetas. It is on a tract of land which, it is said, was surveyed to Montgomery and Stewart March 25, 1769. It is on the tract designated on the ancient county map as the John Elder tract. Aladdin is nine-tenths of a mile above Schenley, on the John Collier tract. Donnelly�s is a little over a mile and a half above Aladdin, on the John Barrickman tract. White Rock is three miles and four-tenths above Aladdin, on the Martha Maris tract. Kelly�s is a mile and two-tenths above White Rock, at the mouth of Taylor�s Run, on the James Glenn tract. Logansport is two miles and two-tenths above Kelly�s, on the Alexander Craig tract.

TOWNS

The town of Crosbysburgh was laid out on the James Crosby tract, which adjoins the John Montgomery tract, called �Farmers� Delight,� on the south, in perhaps before 1816, for, on the 27th of June, of that year, Alexander Duncan paid James Crosby thirteen dollars as the consideration for two lots, Nos. 7 and 8, each 66 by 65 feet, fronting on the main street, and adjoining land of Robert parks on the north. The patent to Crosby for this tract, containing seven and one-half acres, is dated July 28, 1817, and the deed for those two lots June 13, 1818.

The town of Jacksonville, known for many years by the name of Bagdad, but which is now called New Jacksonville, was laid out about 1828, on the Michael Barrickman tract, which originally consisted of 218 � acres, which Barrickman conveyed by deed from the commonwealth to John Hill, except the mill-seat and six acres and 150 perches, February 17, 1814, of which hill conveyed ninety-six acres to Michael Shoop, November 28, 1814, which Shoop conveyed to John Hill for use of Michael Kiestler, August 1, 1814, which the latter conveyed to Samuel Kiestler December 1, 1843. This town is on each side of Elder or Klingensmith�s run, near its mouth, along the right bank of the Kiskiminetas, two and a half miles above its mouth. The first assessment of seated property in jacksonville was made in 1832, viz.; Catherine Byers, one lot, $15; John Klingensmith, Jr., one house and lot and one head of cattle, $33; John Stoll, one house and lot, one head of cattle, $108; John Shoop, two cattle, $41; George Walter, one house, four lots, one head of cattle, $58; Philip Walter, single man, $50; Peter Yingst, shoemaker, one house and one lot, two cattle, $266; Samuel Yingst, shoemaker, single man, $75; total $596. The first list of unseated lots was in 1835, when two such lots were each assessed at $10. This town was in its most flourishing condition while the salt works there and in its vicinity and the canal were in operation.

Kelly�s Station, established June 14, 1860; Hamilton Kelly, first postmaster. Schenley Station, established May 30, 1862; Peter Eakman, first postmaster.

By act of March 29, 1813, the elections were directed to be held at the house of Eliab Eakman. Sometime after the organization of Kiskiminetas township, the place for holding them was changed to the schoolhouse in the central part of the township, near Abraham Klingensmith�s, where it now is, on the Charles Vanderen tract, called �Charlesburgh.�

LEECHBURGH

This town was formerly a part of Allegheny township, in a deep bend of the Kiskiminetas, on its right bank, a little more than five miles above its mouth, is situated on the southern part of the John Vanderen tract, the warrant for which is dated February 10, 1773. White Matlock obtained a patent for 192 � acres in the southern part of that tract, dated August 12, 1783, which had been surveyed to James Walker October 13, 1773. Its subsequent owners were William P. Brady, Jacob Mechling, a brother of Michael Mechling, one of the first settlers in Kittanning, Frederick Sleiff, Joseph Hunter, Matthew Shields and David Leech. It was, it is said, once called �Friendship.� In several of the deeds by which it was afterward conveyed from one to another, it is called �White Plains.� It had been occupied by but very few persons before the construction of the Pennsylvania canal. A log cabin was erected some, perhaps ten or fifteen years before the completion of the canal, near a spring of good water on the east side of the tract, and a small patch was cleared about the same time. Michael Moorhead and Joseph Hunter, the latter a drover, were among the earliest, if not the earliest, of its settlers. The deed from Matthew Shields and wife to David Leech for one hundred and seventy-two acres of that tract is dated October 16, 1827, which Joseph Hunter had previously agreed to sell to Leech & Trux, but being unable to make a good title, Trux became wearied with the delay and insisted on seeing the article of agreement, which, when he got hold of it, he destroyed by putting it in the stove, whereupon there was a dissolution of the partnership between Leech and him. They had entered into a contract with the canal commissioners for building a canal-lock which the engineers had located on that land, and for building a dam five hundred and seventy-four feet long and thirty-six feet high across the Kiskiminetas, adjoining that lock, which was at first called the �Big Dam,� but afterward the Leechburgh dam, and dam No. 1. By reason of that dissolution Mr. Leech acquired, through the interposition of Matthew Shields, a title to that tract of land, on which, in 1828 or thereabouts, he laid out the town of Leechburgh. He was a native of Mercer county, Pennsylvania, whence he came to Sharpsburgh, Allegheny county, where he had another contract on the canal, and thence to �White Plains.� The route of the canal was surveyed in 1826, and in 1828-9 boats commenced running on it from Pittsburgh to Blairsville.

A high freshet, about November 18, 1827, caused considerable damage to the works along the Kiskiminetas. One-half of the �Big Dam� was swept away, and the tow-path was considerably damaged, causing a loss of six or seven thousand dollars.

After the completion of those public works Mr. Leech was authorized by the proper authorities to use water from that dam for the purpose of running a sawmill, gristmill and woolen factory. In 1829 he was assessed with a sawmill, and in 1839 with it and a gristmill, and in 1831 with only the former, after which he does not appear to have been assessed with either. He built the passenger and freight boats of the first line of the canal from Pittsburgh to Blairsville, and used as a boat-yard the lot on the northwest corner of Canal and second streets, which is the one now next east of K. K. McKallip�s dwelling house, and William Gosser�s blacksmith shop on the northeast corner of Market and Second streets, was the one used by the builders or workmen. The work was superintended by Captain Cole.

The first boat that passed Leechburgh on the canal was a packet, built near Saltsburgh, probably at Coal Port, which made a fine display, having on board banners and music. About two weeks afterward one of Leech�s boats was launched and started for Pittsburgh. She was detained a considerable length of time below Freeport, in consequence of a break in the embankment at the aqueduct. After the water was let into the canal above Leechburgh a boat was drawn out of the river into the canal, run up to Johnstown and loaded with fifty tons of blooms. On her return, while passing through the tunnel, says Morris Leech, she was filled with about three tons of stone and clay. When about one hundred yards below the tunnel, hundreds of tons of earth, etc., fell from the tunnel into the canal, which shut off the water below it, so that the boat did not reach Leechburgh until nearly a month afterward. Soon after the breach at the Freeport aqueduct was repaired, a prize of five hundred dollars was offered to the proprietor of the boat that would first arrive at Pittsburgh. Harris and Leech were the contestants. The former�s boat was light packet, and the latter�s - the Gen. Leacock - was a much larger and heavier one. Harris was confident that his smaller and lighter boat would win the prize. On the first of July, about four miles above Pittsburgh, Leech�s was within a mile of Harris�. The next day Leech�s men cut poles, peeled the bark off them and laid them across the canal, in which there was then only six feet of water. By the aid of one hundred men, relays of the poles, five yoke of oxen and ten horses the boat was kept up out of the mud and moved onward. When Leech�s horses came abreast of Harris� boat, an extensive and fierce fight between the crews of the two boats began. When Harris discovered that he had to contend with superior numbers, he proposed that he would give up the contest if his contestants would quit fighting and permit his boat to go to the rear. On a signal being given by Leech all fighting ceased, and his hundred muddy men plunged into the clear water of the Allegheny and washed. The next day all hands aided with the poles in hauling Harris� boat to the rear and starting her up the canal. On the fourth of July tables were set in the hold and under canvas on the deck of Leech�s boat, on which a sumptuous dinner was served to five hundred persons, including Gen. Leacock, then canal superintendent, who presided, engineers and a karge number of Pittsburgh merchants. Such was the finality of the first trip of the first of Leech�s boats that reached Pittsburgh.

The number of freight and passenger boats then built was four, viz: Pioneer, Capt. Monson; Pennsylvania, Capt. Cooper; DeWitt Clinton, Capt. Joshua Leech; Gen. Leacock, Capt. Robert King. The cabin for passengers in each was in the center.

A part of the dam was swept away July 7, 1831, by a sudden and heavy flood in the Kiskiminetas, causing a cessation of canal navigation for the rest of that season. A new lock and dam were located by engineers about sixty rods below the former ones and within the limits of the town. At the letting the contract was awarded to Thos. Neil of Tarentum, Pennsylvania, for about $16,000. He had scarcely entered upon the performance of his part of the contract when the commissioners turned it into a state job, the cost of which, says Alex. Gordon, is known to very few persons, if any. From November 10, 1831, and throughout the principal part of the following winter, the weather, most of the time, was very cold, which caused a large accumulation of ice in the river, which broke up February 10, 1832, with a high flood that carried away the lock, the northern abutment of the dam, and did much damage elsewhere. That abutment had to be repaired and a new lock built before navigation could be resumed on the canal.

David Leech, Robert S. Hays, George Black, Geo. W. Harris, and Wm. F. Leech, constituting the copartnership of D. Leech & Co., of which David Leech was the traveling agent, subsequently established distinct lines of freight boats and packets, or exclusively passenger boats, which they continued to run until the canal was superseded by the Pennsylvania railroad. Travelers on the Pennsylvania canal in those times will not likely forget that company�s packets and their attentive and obliging captains.

David Leech, having purchased the right to ise water from the dam, erected, in 1844, a sawmill, a large gristmill, with four runs of stone and expensive machinery, the walls in the first or lower story of the latter being stone, and those in the other stories brick, which subsequently became vested in Addison Leech, who conveyed the same to the present owners, R.D. Elwood & Bro.

In addition to the above-mentioned enterprises the founder of Leechburgh was, soon after he settled here, engaged in the mercantile business; he and his sons were afterward extensively engaged in the same business. He was, still later, from 1853 till 1856, engaged as an active member of the firm of Leech, Chamberlain & Co., in the construction of the Allegheny Vally railroad from Pittsburgh to Kittanning. His vigorous constitution began to yield to the weight of years, the numerous cares and responsibilities of his active life and to the approach of disease, in 1857, and he died November 3, 1858, regretted and esteemed at home and abroad.

The growth of Leechburgh as a town commenced with the construction of the canal. The first brick house in it was built in 1830 on the corner of Third street and Basin Alley, by Solomon Moore. The first separate assessment list of its taxables was made in 1832, viz.:

John Brown, lot No. 87, land 125 acres (Martin�s), one head of cattle, valued or assessed at $833; Joshua cooper, lots No. 78-9, one head of cattle $58; Samuel Dickey, one house and lot, one horse, one head of cattle, $223; George Dupehorn, lots Nos. 83, 96, one head of cattle, $108; Daniel Freeze, lot No. 36, one head of cattle, $108; John Fee, blacksmith, lot No. 49, one head of cattle, $283; Wm. Hickenlooper, lot No. 117, one head of cattle, $208; Jacob Hill, lot No. 10, two cattle, $616; David Kuhns, lots Nos. 98-9, two horses, one tanyard, one head of cattle, $286; Christian Grove, head of cattle $8; Malcolm Leech, lots Nos. 38 and 31, $225; John R. Long, lot No. 12, one head of cattle, $408; James McBride, lot No. 84, one head of cattle, $183; William F. Martin, hatter, $100; Peter Nees, lot No. 3, one head of cattle, $108; Samuel Philliber, lot No. 30, $50; Matthew Taylor, tailor, lots No. 69, 101, one head of cattle, $108; Peter Ulam, cabinet maker, lot No. 11, one head of cattle, $508; Robert Walker, hatter, $100; Peter Weaver, shoemaker, one head of cattle, $33; David Weaver, one head of cattle, $8. Total valuation, $1,198.

STEAMBOAT ARRIVAL.

On Friday, May 18, 1838, the steamboat New Castle made a trip up the Kiskiminetas as far as Leechburgh with a large number of passengers, on account of a slip in the canal above Freeport. She left the same day with about 150 passengers. The dam at that point prevented navigation higher up that stream. By the act of April 13, 1791, providing for the opening of sundry roads and improving sundry navigable waters, the governor was empowered to contract with certain individuals or companies for improving among others the Kiskiminetas river from the mouth of the Loyal Hanna to the second falls, inclusive, and thence to the Allegheny river, and the sum of �250 was appropriated for improving the navigation of the former and of �100 for improving that of the latter portion of this.

THE TOWN INCORPORATED

By the act of March 22, 1850, this town was incorporated into a borough, included within these boundaries, viz.: Beginning at a buttonwood on the Kiskiminnetas river south eighty degrees, east seventy perches, north twenty degrees, east sixty-five perches to a post corner of land of D. Leech; thence by same south sixty and a half degrees, east one hundred and twelve perches to a post; thence south five, east seventy-nine perches to a black oak (fallen) on the bank of the river; thence down the said river the several courses and distances of the same to the place of beginning.

The first election, as provided by the charter, was to have been held on the first Friday of May in that year, and on the first Friday of March thereafter until 1874, since when, by the constitution of 1873, it, in common with the elections of the cities, boroughs, and townships, has been on the third Tuesday of February. The burgess and town council elected on the first Friday of May, 1850, and their successors are made a body politic and corporate by the name, style, and title of the burgess and town council of the borough of Leechburgh, and have and possess and enjoy all the rights, liberties, franchises and privileges of a borough incorporated in pursuance of �an act to provide for the incorporation of boroughs,� passed April 1, 1834. It is also provided by that charter that the constable of the borough shall perform the duties of high constable, but that the burgess and town council may authorize the election or appointment of a high constable if they deem it expedient. The other officers elective by the voters of the borough are two justices of the peace, a judge and two inspectors of election, assessors, overseers of the poor, agreeably to the laws of this commonwealth; and three school directors at the first election, one to seve one year, one for two, and one for three years, and one annually thereafter, who must perform the same duties and possess the same powers as those elected under the general laws of this commonwealth.

There does not appear to have been a borough election held on the first Friday of May, 1850. At the spring election of that year, however, Alexander Gordon had thirty-five and Jonathan Hettrick twenty-six votes for justice of the peace.

David Leech was elected the first burgess and Addison Leech, J. Thos. Johnston, Jonathan Hettrick, Wm. R. Garver, and Jacob Ulam were elected the first councilmen, at the spring or borough election in 1851 and the municipal government of Leechburgh was soon thereafter inaugurated.

CHURCHES

There appears to have been preaching at Leechburgh by both Lutheran and Presbyterian clergymen early in its history, before either the organization of any church there or its incorporation into a borough. The early Lutheran clergymen who preached here were Rev. Michael Steck, Sr. and Jr., Adam Mohler and Jacob Zimmerman, and later (in 1844), David Earhart.

There was preaching here by a Presbyterian clergyman (Rev. Samuel Caldwell) at times for about a year before the organization of the Presbyterian church, which appears to have been first in the chronological order of church organization. Rev. A. Donaldson, D. D., in his sketches of the churches of Kittanning Presbytery, presented at its April session in 1873, at Elder�s Ridge, says: �Leechburgh, in an irregular way, had become a preaching point for a brother no in the presbytery of Blairsville, which, therefore, sent the writer to the village to inquire into the case. Having done so, and reported that an organization there was needed, it was effected April 24, 1844.� That church was thereafter supplied by Rev. Levi M. Graves, Messrs. John Steele and John Black, licentiates; Revs. Andrew McElwain and William F. Keane, and Thos. S. Leason (a grandson of the Mrs. Leason elsewhere mentioned). The last named was the settled pastor from 1851 until 1859 when, by reason of �an unhappy and obstinate feud arising, the relation was dissolved.� Rev. J. E. Caruthers was immediately settled as pastor for half time until 1864, and from that year until 1871 his whole time, when the state of his health required his removal west. He was succeeded by the present pastor, Rev. David Harvey Sloan, for three-fourths of his time. The present church edifice was erected in or about 1850 on the northwest corner of Main and First streets. It has been several times repaired. Membership, 178; Sabbath school scholars, 130.

The Hebron Evangelical Lutheran church was organized November 21, 1844. The present brick edifice was erected in 1845, on the north side of Back, at the head of Second street. The pastors since its regular organization have been Revs. David Earhart, Louis M. Kuhns, Jonathan Sarver, and the present one, F. T. Hoover. Membership 188; Sabbath-school scholars, 80. This church was incorporated by the court of common pleas of the county June 22, 1848. The trustees names in the charter who were to continue until the election held on the last Saturday of March, 1850, were Rev. David Earhart, George Kepple, Jacob Trout, Thomas Van Tine, Abraham Heckman, Andrew Ashbaugh, Jr., and Samuel Shuster. The charter provided, among other things, that the pastor or pastors should be in communion with some Evangelical Lutheran Synod in the United States. That portion of the charter was amended by the same court, March 15, 1864, thus: �The pastor or pastors of this congregation shall be members of some Evangelical Synod of the Lutheran Church in the United States.� In 1860 or 1861 this church received an accession of eighteen or twenty members from the Zimmerman charge, consisting of two churches a mile or two apart in Westmoreland county, they retaining their church organization there so far as church property was concerned. Congregational unity continued until March, 1868. To understand the cause of the schism which followed, it is necessary to bear in mind that the General Synod of the Lutheran church in the United States, organized as shown by the testimony in 1821, once embraced the territory of the principal portion of the United States, but now it embraces all north of the Mason Dixon line; that the General Council embraces all of the United States and Canada; and that a portion of the District Synods seceded from the General Synod, and organized, in December, 1866, at Reading, Pennsylvania, an ecclesiastical body known as the General Council, which adopted its constitution at a meeting held in Fort Wayne, Indiana, in December, 1867. The original Pittsburgh synod was organized in 1845, and incorporated by act of April 18, 1846. From the organization of that synod this church was a constituent part of it. At a regular meeting of that synod, held at Greenville, Mercer county, Pennsylvania, in October, 1867, after discussing the question whether it would still adhere to the General Synod or attach itself to the General council, a majority of its members resolved to join the latter. The minority declined to do so, but immediately met, elected officers, and then adjourned to meet at Worthington, in this county, on the fourth of the then next ensuing December. They held a session there of three or four days. Thus there were two bodies, each claiming to be the Pittsburgh synod, one adhering to the General Synod and the other to the General Council.

In April, 1866, Rev. Jonathan Sarver was elected pastor of the Hebron Evangelical Lutheran church for a term ending April 1, 1867. He was then in connection with the General Synod, but afterward became an adherent of the General Council and was aware that some of his congregation were for that reason opposed to his being continued the pastor, by agreeing to employ him for another year. After examining the above-mentioned amendment to the charter, he thought he could not properly be the pastor of a church that did not belong to a District Synod attached to the General Council. For he said in the course of the hereinafter-mentioned testimony: �The reason which would force me to leave the congregation was, that I was not and could not be connected with any synod in connection with the General Synod.� The question on the amendment to the amendment of the charter was considered by the members of the congregation and by the council, and notice was given from the pulpit that a congregational meeting would be held on March 5, 1868, to determine whether the congregation would be in favor of changing the amendment of 1864, so as to read: �That no minister shall be eligible to the office of pastor of this congregation unless he be a member of the Pittsburgh synod of the Evangelical Lutheran church, or connect himself with it as soon as possible after his election, and a failure to do so connected shall be considered a resignation of his office as pastor of this congregation,� and to remove and repeal in both supplement and charter everything inconsistent with this amendment. The meeting was held and the vote stood fifty-seven for and forty-two against the proposed change. A petition in favor of and a remonstrance against the proposed amendment were presented to the court of common pleas of this county. The court refused to grant the prayer of the petitioners. The majority, however, continued to hold the church edifice and other property, and the pastor and council unanimously refused the use thereof to the minority or adherents of the General Synod, who thereupon employed a pastor and used the academy building for a while as a place of worship, still claiming that they were the lawfully constituted Hebron Evangelical Lutheran church of Leechburgh. Their council and trustees on April 24, 1869, filed their bill in equity in the court of common pleas of this county, No. 49, June term, 1869, against the pastor, council and trustees of the general council portion of the church, in which, among other things, they alleged or charged that they, the plaintiffs, were the duly elected council and trustees of that congregation; that the congregation was, by its connection with the Pittsburgh synod, still in connection with the General Synod; that the defendants had dissolved their connection with the General Synod and connected themselves with the General Council who have departed from the faith and doctrinal basis of the General Synod, and adopted a doctrinal basis widely different from that of the General Synod; that the defendants were not the legal pastor, council and trustees of the congregation; and that the said pastor persisted in the possession of the church property and the exclusion of the plaintiffs. The bill concluded with the prayer that the defendants and all others of the General Council be restrained form the use of the church property, and that the plaintiffs be restored to the possession thereof, and for general relief.

On the other hand the defendants, in their answer to the plaintiff�s bill, averred that the Pittsburgh synod was only incorporated by the legislature by act of April 18, 1846; that said synod was organized in January, 1845, and the congregation of the Hebron Evangelical Lutheran church of Leechburgh participated, through its then pastor, Rev. David Earhart, in its organization, and that it had ever remained a part of the Pittsburgh synod, and never in connection with the General Synod except through the Pittsburgh synod and its connection therewith; that the Pittsburgh synod united with the General Synod in 1853, and in 1866 legally and orderly dissolved that connection; that the only connection a congregation can have with a General Synod is through a District Synod; that such connection is a matter of choice; that the withdrawal of the Pittsburgh synod from the General Synod was orderly and legal, and involved no departure from the faith of the church or violation of charter or constitution, but a closer adherence thereto; that the defendants� pastor was the legal pastor and the other defendants were the legal council and trustees, and that the plaintiffs were secessionists. That answer denied all schism on the part of the defendants� pastor; that any synod has control of church property; and that the defendants had not ousted or excluded the plaintiffs from the congregation or church, but alleged that the plaintiffs voluntarily withdrew therefrom. The answer concluded with a prayer that the plaintiffs� bill be dismissed with costs.

During the pendency of the case for several years testimony was taken on both sides, filling one hundred and thirty-two printed octavo pages, on the questions as to which of these two divisions of that church adhered most closely to the faith and doctrinal basis of the Evangelical Lutheran church in the United States, and as to which of those two divisions was legally entitled to the use and control of the property belonging to the Hebron Evangelical Lutheran church of Leechburgh. In the latter was involved the question raised by the defendants touching the validity of the above-stated amendment of 1864, their counsel alleging in his history of the case that it was �slipped through� under pretense of amending the charter of the church so as to embrace an academy property, and referring to certain testimony adduced by the defendants in support of that allegation, which was denied by the plaintiffs� counsel in their counter history of the case, who used certain other testimony iin support of their denial. That question was argued by learned counsel on both sides on the application to change that admendment by the substitution of the one above-mentioned, voted for by a majority of the congragational meeting March 5, 1868. It was claimed that the petitioners for and the remonstrants against that charge were, respectively, in the majority. Judge Logan, in giving the reasons of the court of common pleas of this county for not allowing that change of the amendment of 1864 to be made, said: �Our duty, however, is but the exercise of a judicial function in determining whether, under the laws of the land and of this corporation, the amendment demanded can be granted, and we shall refer to doctrinal questions only as they may be necessary to guide us in this inquiry. * * * It seems to be conceded on all hands that the Pittsburgh synod �(the body to which the petitioners for that change and defendants in the bill in equity belong)� is not connected with the General Synod, but with the General Council of the Lutheran church. It may be further stated that the General Synod and General Council, whilst both claiming to be within the Lutheran church, are yet in antagonism, neither yielding recognition or obedience to the other. * * * We do not at present say what might be the effect were this an application to set aside that decree� (allowing the amendment of 1864). �It is enough to say that here the question can not be inquired of. But more: This amendment was acted under for almost, if not quite, three years, and it is held� (by the supreme court) �In the Commonwealth ex rel. vs. Cullen et al., 1 Harris, 140, that a single unequivocal act may be patent enough conclusively to establish assent. We are compelled, therefore, to regard this as an existing and valid provision of the charter, and in that light must examine this application. * * * Of course this is not a possessory action, but its effect is to give title under which possession enforced.� Having cited two cases in which the supreme court of Pennsylvania holds that �\The title to the church property of a divided congregation is in that part of it which is acting in harmony with its own law, and the ecclesiastical laws, usages, customs and principles which were accepted before the dispute began, are the standards for determining which party is right,� and that it is �unimportant on which side the majority is.� That learned judge further said:� By this rule we are bound. * * *The charter of this congregation, to the extent of its expression, was the law of the corporation before and at the time this dispute began. To that charter we must look for any expression of ecclesiastical law, usage, custom or principle relating to the present question. Within that charter and that part of the amendment of 1864 before quoted we find that the pastor or pastors shall be members of some Evangelical Lutheran Synod, which shall be in connection with the General Synod, etc. This, than, was a constituent part of the law of the congregation at time the dispute arose, and as to the subject of which it treats, is controlling. The present amendment is, by its preface and its terms, as stated in the petition, to change and repeal this part of the charter by the substitution of a new synodical connection, consistent with the views of the petitioners, and is asked as a right because claimed by a majority of the corporation. With which side is doctrinal right in this controversy, we can not inquire. It is enough for us to know that at least a large minority of the corporation desire to maintain a connection consistent with the terms of the charter as existing when the dispute began, and to that end resist this application. To allow this amendment would be but to take this church property from those who have followed the law of its charter, and give it to those who seek by this amendment �(proposed in 1868)� to establish a new law. To do this would be in violation of the announced opinion of our supreme court. This amendment cannot, therefore, be granted.�

From the law and the facts as above abstracted, the reader will perceive why the same court, December 14, 1871, finally adjudged and decreed in the above-mentioned bill in equity, among other things, that the defendants should deliver to the plaintiffs the church building, the lot of ground thereto belonging, with the appurtenances, and the books, records, and effects of that church, within twenty-five days of that date; enjoined that no pastor who is not in synodical connection with the general synod from officiating as pastor in that church, unless regularly elected its pastor by the congregation agreeably to its constitution and charter; and restrained the defendants from preventing or in any manner interfering with the occupation of the church by the plaintiffs and others who are qualified members thereof, adhering in faith and practice to a church in connection with the General Synod, yet saving to the defendants the subsequent rights, after compliance with the degree, to avail themselves of chartered rights and privileges in church and property under and subject to a synodical connection, as expressed in the charter and its amendment of 1864. The case was taken to and affirmed by the supreme court. The cost followed the event of the case. That controversy appears to have been a sincere and earnest attempt of both parties to maintain there respective rights, legal and ecclesiastical. The result of it was, as is usual, the development of bitter feeling, and of division of that church into two.

The General Synod branch retained the original church edifice and other church property, and employ a pastor of there own faith. The General Council branch erected, in 1872, an elegant and commodious church edifice, brick, on the south side of Main street, on the third lot east from Mulberry alley, and they still retain Mr. Sarver as their pastor. Membership, 200; Sabbath-school scholars, 150.

The exact date of the organization of the Methodist church has not been ascertained. Services were held for a while in the small schoolhouse. About 1846, a brick edifice was erected on the southwest corner of Main street and Spring alley, which has since been replaced with a frame one. Membership of Leechburgh circuit, 225; Sabbath-school scholars, 175.

A Baptist church was organized in 1783. A church edifice, situated on the southwest corner of Third street and Siberian avenue, was commenced in 1875, which is not yet completed. It is frame, 40 x 40, and Gothic in style of architecture.

SCHOOLS

The first one was taught by John Faulk, in a small frame schoolhouse, which was erected by David Leech at his own expense, before the free school system was inaugurated. In the latter part of March, 1830, a large number of the inhabitants of Allegheny township met in that schoolhouse to witness the exhibition of the pupils who had previously been taught by a Mr. Lee. Their performances were said to have been highly creditable. After their conclusion, N. P. Cooper, R. Criswell and S. Dickey were appointed a committee to draft resolutions, which having been presented, were unanimously adopted. They expressed the pleasure and admiration of the meeting for the public spirit evinced by David Leech in his manly and spirited exertions to promote the welfare of the people of this place, and tendered him their thanks for his liberality in erecting, furnishing and supplying with fuel at his own expense a large and commodious schoolhouse for the exclusive use of the pupils of this place. A larger one-story frame schoolhouse was erected by the school directors in 1843, on the southeast corner of Main street and Bridge alley, which continued to be used for school purposes until a few years since, when the use of the Lutheran Institute building was secured therefor until the completion of the present public schoolhouse, which was erected in 1875, on an acre lot bounded by Siberian avenue, First street, Back street and Spring alley. The area of this creditable temple of knowledge is 85 x 54 feet. Its basement story, with stone walls nine feet high, is the same area. The superstructure consists of two stories, with brick walls. The hight of ceiling in the lower is thirteen, and in the upper story is sixteen feet. The areas of the schoolrooms in the lower story are, respectively, 34 by 25 feet. In the upper story is a hall for public exercises, 58 x 51 feet, the remaining portion of it being reserved for additional schoolrooms when they may be needed. Each room is well lighted and is supplied with nice patent furniture. The requisite outbuildings have been erected. With proper labor, attention and expenditures, whether voluntarily contributed by the pupils of the school and the people of Leechburgh, or by the school directors at the public expense, the grounds around that schoolhouse can be made a beautiful and attractive campus. The entire cost of the ground and buildings thus far is about $15,000.

In 1860 the number of schools, 1; average number of months taught, 6; teacher, male; average monthly salary, $22; number male scholars, 30; number female, 40; average number attending school, 47; cost of teaching each scholar per month, 31 cents; amount tax levied for school purposes, $143.74; teacher�s wages, $121; fuel and contingencies, $10; repairing schoolhouse, $8.

In 1876 the number of schools, 4; *average number months taught, 5; male teachers, 1; female teachers, 3; average salaries per month, male $70; female, $41.67; number male scholars, 152; number female scholars, 119; average number attending school, 191; cost per month, 52 cents; total tax levied for school and building purposes, $2,802.79; state appropriation, $332.84; total receipts, $3,667.86; paid for teachers� wages, $1,243.50; fuel, collectors and contingencies, $1,177.21; total expenditures, $3, 723.88.
(*That is a graded school of four grades.)

In 1857-8 the Leechburgh Institute, an institution for the education of both sexes in the higher grades of learning, was established by people of Leechburgh and vicinity. A two-story brick building of suitable size was erected on lot No. 124, on the north side of Back street, in which there was for several years a flourishing school under the charge of David McKee, now connected with Thiel College, and other principal teachers. The deed for that lot from David Leech to the trustees in trust, etc., is dated August 5, 1857. The consideration therein expressed is �for the furtherance of education and for the sum of one dollar.� The size of the lot is 60 x 120 feet. It was conveyed �for the purpose of erecting thereon suitable buildings for an institution of learning.� A company was organized, which appointed a board of trustees, who caused the building to be erected and assumed the discharge of such other duties as usually pertain to such a board. In the preamble of an act relative to certain real estate in the borough of Leechburgh, approved June 28, 1871, it is alleged that a company by the name and style of the Leechburgh Institute, etc., �was incorporated by the Court of Quarter Sessions of Armstrong county.� That court had not the power and authority to incorporate an institution of that kind. If incorporated by the court it must have been by the court of common pleas/ It does not appear from the records of that court to have been incorporated. That preamble further sets forth that that company became insolvent and its real estate was sold at sheriff�s sale, and the proceeds thereof were applied to the discharge of the debts of record against the company; that the sheriff did, on the 4th day of June, 1862, make and deliver a deed for such real estate to Edward S. Golden, who on the 30th day of June then instant, did transfer, set over and assign all his right, title, interest and claim thereto to the then board of trustees and their successors in trust for themselves and others interested by virtue of their written agreement. Wherefore it was enacted that the title which passed by the sheriff�s deed be ratified and confirmed, and that the trustees be authorized and empowered to sell that lot and the buildings thereon, with the appurtenances, and to execute and deliver a deed in fee simple to the purchaser or purchasers thereof, and distribute the proceeds of sale amongst the stockholders in proportion to the stock held therein by each one. By deed, dated November 4, 1872, the trustees conveyed that property to J. Henry Bergman for $1,000. That institution was chiefly under Presbyterian control.

The Lutheran �Leechburgh Institute,� commonly called the Lutheran Academy, was incorporated by the court of common pleas of this county, March 15, 1864. Its charter and a supplement to the charter of the Hebron congregation of the Evangelical Lutheran church of Leechburg were conjoined and granted together. The applicants for the charter of this �Institute� stated that they were �desirous of establishing a good academy or high school,� the object of which was to be �to afford to both sexes opportunities for acquiring a knowledge of the common and higher branches of education.� The prescribed number of trustees was nine, six of whom were to be regular members of the Evangelical Lutheran church and to be elected by the Lutheran congregation of Leechburgh and other subscribers or contributors to the institute. A three-story brick edifice, containing six schoolrooms, with cupola and bell, was soon after erected. This institution was in a flourishing condition for several years. Among its instructors were Revs. David McKee, D. M. Kemmerer and Samuel F. Breckenridge. It began to languish after the commencement of the controversy in the church and was closed in 1869.

Both of those Institutes were, during their two brief careers, efficient promoters of education, and quite a large number of pupils of both sexes availed themselves of their advantages. It is probable that one alone might have been permanently prosperous if established on such a basis as to have commanded the support of the different denominations.

MEDICAL

The first resident physician was Dr. George W. Marchand, who was succeeded by Drs. J. P. Pullard, William Wilson, J. Kiers; John T. Crawford, who removed to Kittanning, studied law, was admitted to the bar, entered the military service of the United States in the late war of the rebellion, and died of disease contracted in that service; T. C. McCullough, who has been for many years a resident physician of Kittanning; Washington Reynolds, who also removed to Kittanning, where he practiced his profession until his death; W. L. Morrow, who removed to Freeport; R. P. and J. A. Hunter, J. A. Armstrong and J. A. Carson.

CEMETERY

The Leechburgh Cemetery Company was incorporated by the proper court September 5, 1864. The charter provides that its capital stock consist of one hundred shares at $25 a share, which can be increased to two hundred shares by the corporators holding a majority off the shares. The annual election of its officers is held annually on the first Monday of May. This company, among other things, is authorized to purchase land not exceeding twenty acres within a mile of Leechburgh for cemetery purposes, and to borrow money not exceeding $5,000. Bonds given for such borrowed money are not to be liens on the cemetery ground, but only upon the proceeds of the sale of lots. The ground belonging to this company at present consists of two lots, nearly, and is situated between Back street and Siberian avenue, and nearly midway between Spring and Bridge alleys. Lots have been laid out and a number of them have been sold, but as yet regular streets and walks have not been opened. The former, at least some of them, are appropriately adorned. The grounds generally are susceptible of being made a beautiful resting place for the dead. The old cemetery adjoins the new one, fronting on Siberian avenue.

CROSSING THE RIVER

The primitive means of crossing the Kiskiminetas was by ferrying in canoes and larger boats. More convenient facilities were needed. By act of 7th of April, 1832, the Governor of this commonwealth was authorized to incorporate a company to erect a bridge over that stream, on the big dam, at Leechburgh. The capital stock consisted of 200 shares at $25 each. The books for subscription were to be opened on the 1st of the then next October, and the company was required to commence the work of erecting the bridge in two years, and to complete it within five years after the passage of the act, or forfeit to the commonwealth the rights, liberties and franchises granted by the charter, but these portions of that act were repealed by the act of April 10, 1845, and the time extended to January 1, 1846. A bridge was built, by contract with Hugh Callen, on trestles, which, having become unsafe, was removed, and one with stone piers and abutments was erected in its place, which was carried away by a high flood, September 28, 1861, and replaced by the company in the summer of 1862. It was swept away by the heavy ice-gorge, March 15, 1875. A difference of opinion and controversy had arisen between the bridge company and the hereinafter-mentioned iron works company respecting the tolls which the latter was to pay. The former, May 20, 1875, presented their petition to the court of common pleas of this county, praying that their charter might be disannulled, which was resisted by the latter. After argument and due consideration of the law and the facts involved, the court granted the prayer of the petitioners, July 21 of that year, and appointed the writer a trustee to sell all the lands and other real estate then owned by the former. Thereupon the Kiskiminetas Bridge Company was incorporated by the Governor of this commonwealth by virtue of a general act of assembly, with a capital of $25,000. The property of the Leechburgh Bridge Company was sold by public outcry by the trustee, at two o�clock P. M., on Thursday, August 19, 1875, to the Kiskiminetas Bridge Company, for the sum of $2,301, which sale was confirmed by the court, September 6, 1875, and the trustee was ordered, on payment thereof, to execute and deliver to the purchaser a proper deed of conveyance, which was accordingly done. The new company immediately contracted for the repairing of the piers and abutments and raising them several feet higher than they had previously been, and the erection thereon of a superstructure partly of iron and partly of wood, all which was completed so that the new bridge began to be used on the then next Christmas day, and it has been in successful operation ever since.

MANUFACTURES

The supply of the various kinds of mechanics, such as are usual in every town, has kept pace with the growth and wants of the population of this borough. John Taylor�s tannery, between Main and Back streets, and Spring alley, and the Lutheran Institute or Academy lot, was established by David Kuhns, in 1828, as appears from the assessment list. That is the first year in which he was assessed with a tan-yard.

Rogers & Burchfield having purchased at what were then considered low rates divers lots in Leechburgh, and a considerable quantity of other land, partly therein and partly in Allegheny township, erected in 1872 and 1874 extensive iron and tin works, consisting of six single puddling furnaces, two knobbling fires, one refiner�s fire, six heating furnaces, four sheet heating furnaces, three annealing furnaces, two pairs of muck rolls, two pairs of sheet rolls, two pairs of tin rolls, two pairs of cold rolls, one pair of muck shears, two pairs of sheet shears, one blast cylinder with engine complete, five cylinder boilers and one Allen engine of about 350 horse-power. The quantity of finished iron made per month was two hundred and fifty tones, the quality of which was equal to the Juniata charcoal made iron and number one stamping. All the other was equal to the best brands of sheet iron. The tin works, consisting of three stacks, were built in 1874. Their daily product was ninety boxes of excellent tin. The number employed in the manufacture of iron and tin was one hundred and fifty. They were suddenly thrown out of employment by the suspension of those works September 19, 1875. The rolling-mill and other buildings are situated in the southwestern part of the borough, between Main, Third and Canal streets.

By act of March 23, 1872, Canal street was vacated between the southwest corner of lot No. 19 to Main street; Market, between Third and Canal streets; and Brown alley, between Main and Market streets. That act provides that the borough shall not be charged with any damages therefor.

A large store belonging to the Siberian Iron Company is situated on the southwest corner of Third and Market streets.

Coal was used at first for fuel, which was abandoned and gas substituted, of which the well on the opposite side of the river, from which it is conducted through iron pipes, affords an abundant and apparently exhaustless supply. It is much cheaper than coal, and being free from sulphur, makes a much better quality of iron than can be made with bituminous coal. Besides it is used for illuminating the town at night, which is done by means of a perpendicular gas-pipe extending upward thirty-five feet more or less, near the rolling-mill, from the top of which jets of burning gas make a large and brilliant flame, whose light extends a great distance. That gas-well was developed in 1871 by an oil-well company, composed largely, if not entirely, of citizens of Leechburgh, who drilled for oil, having been induced to do so, as the writer is informed, by the knowledge of the sandrocks and other strata which they gained from the geological articles that had previously appeared in the Union Free Press. The depth to which that well was drilled is 1250 feet and that of the gas vein about 1200 feet from the surface.

Brickmaking is carried on in a yard on a lot fronting on Canal street, nearly west of the intersection of Third and Fourth streets, with which a dry-house is connected, by a joint stock company.

MERCANTILE AND OTHER OCCUPATIONS

There are, according to the mercantile appraiser�s list, this year eighteen stores, of which seventeen are in fourteenth and one in the thirteenth class. Under this head are included drug stores, groceries and merchant tailor establishments.

The appraisement list for this year shows the number of ministers to be 4; physicians, 3; mill foreman, 1; puddlers, 8; rollers, 5; heaters, 5; shearers, 2; shinglers, 3; knobblers, 7; pickler, 1; tinmen, 3; teacher, 1; surveyor, 1; clerks, 7; agents, 5; contractor, 1; miners, 23; laborers, 58; wagonmaker, 1; brickmaker, 1; cabinetmaker, 1; brick merchant, 1; stonemasons, 2; blacksmiths, 4; shoemakers, 9; carpenters, 9; tinners, 3; grain merchant, 1; cabinetmakers,2; engineers, 2; baker, 1; farmer, 1; barber, 1.

The postoffice was established November 18, 1829. The first postmaster was David Leech; the present on is Israel Putnam Kerr.

SOLDIERS� AID SOCIETY

A humane and patriotic spirit animated the people of Leechburgh and vicinity during the war of the rebellion. Considerable quantities of lint and clothing and fruits were forwarded tot he army by them before any regular organization was effected. The first meeting of the Soldiers� Aid Society was held probably in the spring of 1862, shortly after the battle of Malvern Hill. It is regretted that the minutes of that society cannot be found, because without them a full and accurate presentation of its good work cannot be made. Immediately after that battle three large boxes of sanitary stores were sent with Rev. L. M. Kuhns and Addison Leech to the wounded soldiers. As those gentlemen were not allowed to pass beyond Washington, those stores were detained until Mr. Kuhns, as chaplain, succeeded in forwarding them to Fortress Monroe, where they were handed over to the hospitals. In July of that year the contributions of this society were sent tot he Soldiers� Aid Society of Philadelphia, and afterward to the Pittsburgh branch of the sanitary commission.

As the records cannot be found and as the reports of its doings were not published, it is very difficult to form a correct estimate of the industry and liberality of its members and the value of the contributions made by others. One of its treasurers, Mrs. Mary Watson, told the writer that she remembers distinctly of four or five hundred dollars being in the treasury at one time, which, and all other moneys belonging to the society, were judiciously expended in procuring materials to be made up by the members, and other needed articles. It is altogether probable that the aggregate value of the labor performed by this society and the contributions made through it, if a pecuniary estimate could be made of them, might justly be set down at several thousands of dollars. The following is taken from a letter of one of its members: �I must say, for the size of the place and the means of the people generally, the amount sent elicited some very complimentary letters from officers of the commission. Everything was prepared with great care and liberality, and evinced the patriotism and industry of the ladies of Leechburgh and vicinity, of whom Mrs. John Klingensmith, Mrs. William Parks and Mrs. Henry McKallip were particularly efficient in collecting materials and working; indeed, all did a full share.�

The society persisted in doing the good work until the necessity for it ceased. Most, if not all, of its meetings were held at the residence of Mrs. Addison Leech, who was one of its devoted and efficient members.

SOCIETIES

I.O.O.F. Lodge No. 650; instituted March 12, 1869; members, 70.
Knights of Pythias, instituted in 1871; members, 66.
Order of American Mechanics, instituted in 1873; members, 68.
Order of United Workmen, instituted inn 1874; members, 42.
The hall of both these lodges is the Lutheran institute building.
The Leechburgh Banking Company commenced business in February, 1873.

TEMPERANCE

The sentiment of a large number of the people has been for years adverse to the granting of licenses for the sale of intoxicating beverages, which demanded the special act of March 27, 1866, prohibiting their sale within the borough limits. The old time temperance organizations at times existed. The Bay Leaf Lodge of Good Templars No. -, was organized December 19, 1868, flourished and languished, having had a membership of -. At the election, February 28, 1873, the vote on the license question stood: for license, 6; against license, 77.

POPULATION

The number of inhabitants in 1860 was, whites, 358; colored, 1. In 1870, whites, 350; colored, 18. The number of taxables this year is 280. If there are four and three-fifths persons for each taxable, the population this year, 1876, is 1,288.

BOROUGH OF ALADDIN

This municipality was taken from Allegheny township and incorporated as a borough by the court of quarter sessions of this county June 8, 1867. Its boundaries were prescribed thus: Beginning at a black oak, thence north 26 � degrees west 22.7 perches to a post; thence north 63 � degrees east 72 perches to a post; thence south 26 � degrees east 28 perches to stones; thence south 63 � degrees west 42 perches to a post; thence north 26 � degrees west 5.3 perches to a post; thence south 63 � degrees west 22.7 perches to the place of beginning, containing eleven acres and ninety-seven perches.

The site of this borough is on the upper or northern part of a long narrow tract, originally surveyed to John Montgomery and Alexander Stewart, March 23, 1769, which lay between the John Elder, John Collier and Robert McKee tracts and the Allegheny river. To that upper part of the Montgomery and Stewart tract, Peter Shaeffer acquired the title by occupancy, and is included in the warrant issued to him, dated December 3, 1824, and in the patent to him, dated June 8, 1836, and portions of which he conveyed, July 11, 1855, to David Boyd, viz., 60 acres and 37 perches for $249.25, and February 17, 1859, to Thomas Donnelly, viz., 11 acres for $2,450. The former conveyed his tract, September 10, 1859, to Thomas J. Brereton, J. Thos. Johnston, H. Brady Wilkins and Charles H. Shattuck for $1,125; the last-named confirmed his title thereto to the others, viz., Brereton, Johnston & Co., May 10, 1860, and the latter conveyed his tract, June 4, 1860, to that company for $10,000. The Aladdin Oil Works, or Refinery, were erected by that company in 1859 for the manufacture of oil from cannel coal by the same process as that of the North American Oil Works in Allegheny township. About 1863 they commenced distilling petroleum. From 1870 until 1876 these works were run by Dr. H. W. C. Tweddle for manufacturing refined and lubricating oils and paraffine. They were then purchased by the Standard Oil Company. The quantity of crude oil consumed in those manufactures was about 8,000 barrels a month. The number of men employed was from thirty to forty. The crude oil has been for some time received by a pipe line from the oil wells. The operation of the oil works has been suspended and resumed several times since they were built. Some of their products at the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia so attracted the attention of some of the foreign visitors and scientists as to induce them to visit Aladdin and examine the works.

Natural gas was first discovered in Leechburgh in 1870 by Jos. E. Beale and others while drilling a test well for oil, and was first utilized for the manufacture of iron in the Leechburgh Iron Works in 1872, being conducted into the furnaces by pipes leading into the mill from the wells. A patent has been asked for and is yet in litigation in regard to the same. It has since been used for the manufacture of iron near Pittsburgh by parties who laid a pipe line some eighteen miles from the producing wells to their works. It is also now in use for the manufacture of steel by the open hearth process by Jos. E. Beale in his West Pennsylvania Steel Works at Leechburgh, the place of its first utilization. It is acknowledged by all who have any knowledge of it to be the finest fuel for the manufacture of iron or steel ever discovered; being so free from all the injurious ingredients of which coal is compose, and being so easily controlled and applied makes it invaluable for the purposes named. It can also be applied for burning brick, smelting iron ores and purposes of that kind, so that the vicinities where it is found, that are convenient to transportation, have advantages for the manufacturing of steel and iron that cannot be competed with.

The first election was held by order of the court at the office of the Aladdin Oil Company, December 18, 1861. E. B. Barton was elected the first burgess, and Babteste Scott, P. Donnelly, D. Shair, William Gilman, and James Boyle, the first councilmen.

The vote on the license question was ten for, and none against, granting licenses to sell intoxicating liquors.

SCHOOLS

A frame one-story building was erected, probably in 1867-8, which is used for a free school and for religious meetings. The first school report is for the year ending first Monday of June, 1869.

In 1869 there was one school; No. Months taught, 5; female teacher, 1; salary per month, $28; male scholars, 19; female scholars, 12; average number attending school, 23; cost per month, $1.16; amount tax levied for school and building purposes, $177.28; received from tax collectors and other sources, $218.28; from state appropriation, $8.50; cost of instruction, $140; fuel and contingencies, $30.25; cost of schoolhouse, $39.83; balance on hand, $8.23.

In 1874 there was one school; number months taught, 4; one female teacher; salary per month, $28; male scholars, 8; female scholars, 14; average attendance, 19; cost per month, $1.48; from state appropriation, $8.16; from taxes and other sources, $164.98; total, $173.14; cost school houses, etc. $24; paid for teacher�s wages, $112; for fuel, contingencies, etc., $18.30; resources, $10.68. There has been no annual report since 1874.

STATISTICS

Population in 1870, native, 23; foreign, 6; total, 29. Number of taxables this year 17, and the population, 78.

The assessment list for 1876 shows thus : Oil refinery, $11,000. Occupations - managaer, 1; refiner, 1; stillmen, 2; laborers, 7; firemen, 2; mechanic, 1; miner, 1.

GEOLOGICAL

The formations just below the mouth of the Kiskiminetas are, it is presumed, quite similar to those just above its mouth. They are, therefore, given as indicating what are immediately above.

�On the lands of Mr. Stuart and Mr. Dodd, on the east side of the Allegheny, below the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, the slaty cannel coal is separated from the bright bituminous bed by from six to eight feet of slate. The cannel stratum averages five feet in thickness. The Freeport sandstone beneath forms massive ledges along the railroad. On the east side of the Allegheny the coals are at a much higher level than on Buffalo creek, owing to a local rise in the strata, but there can be no difficulty in identification. A proximate analysis of Dodd�s cannel coal by Dr. Alter, develops thirty-four percent of volatile matter. From twenty-two pounds of the coal he obtained thirty-three ounces of crude oil, a gallon of which yielded one ounce of paraffine, besides coal tar, lighter oils, benzole, etc.

�One and one-half miles above the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, are fine exposures of the Freeport sandstone, dipping both west and north (falsely bedded, perhaps). Two and a half miles above its mouth, the Upper Freeport coal is about one hundred and eight feet above the canal, due east and twenty-five feet higher than at Freeport. Four miles above the mouth at (what used to be) Otterman�s and Cochran�s salt works, the Freeport sandstone has passed the fourth axis and descended below water level, dipping southeast. There the Upper Freeport coal is sixty-nine feet above the canal, all the strata below it being shales. At the canal level are black shales from four to five feet thick. The mass os shales dips up the river rapidly, and at the same time changes into sandstone beds still interstratified with shales.

�A fourth of a miles below� Leechburgh �the following section exhibits the coal at a much lower elevation� than there : Descending from the surface - �shale, 9 feet; Upper Freeport coal, 3 feet 3 inches; shale, 22 inches; coal, 7 inches; shale, 3 feet. Freeport limestone, blue, 2 feet; soft sandstone, 1 foot; shale 17 feet to bed of Pine run, not much above slack water.

�This appears to be about the middle line of the Fourth Basin. In the middle of the basin both coal and limestone seem thin and irregular.

�At Leechburgh, five and a fourth miles above the mouth of the Kiskiminetas, above which is a gentle undulation of the strata, the following section of rocks was obtained at the quarries: Sandstone and shale, 16 feet; Upper Freeport coal, 4 � feet, 63 feet above slack water; blue-black shale, 14 inches; light shale, 6 inches; coal, 4 inches; light shale, 14 inches; iron ore, 3 inches; Freeport limestone, 1 foot; calc slate, shale, 3 feet; shale and large chunks of limestone, 3 1/3 feet; limestone, 32 inches; shale, with calcareous nodules and flags, 5 feet; calcareous shales, 6 feet 8 inches; shale, sandstone, etc., 3 feet; sandstone, 1 foot; shales, a little bituminous, 1 foot; blue ferriferous shale, 7 feet; shale and sandstone, 6 feet; massive Freeport sandstone, 42 feet; Lower Freeport coal, interstratified with slate, 4 feet.

�The Freeport sandstone, near the water�s edge, is a fine quartzose conglomerate, containing vegetable impressions and pebbles of nodular carbonate of iron, of all sizes, and so numerous as to compose the whole mass of the rock for a thickness of 6, 8 or even 10 inches. A slip appears to combine with the original oblique bedding of the sandstone to express to the eye of the spectator an unconformity of stratification at the upper limit of the sandstone, and upon its apparently upheaved edges rests the calcareous slates and coal above. Something similar may be observed elsewhere along the Kiskiminetas, at a point seven miles below Saltsburgh.

�At the salt works, half a mile above Leechburgh, the upper Freeport coal, three and a half feet thick, covered by sixteen feet of shale, is sixty-two and a half feet above slackwater and sinks to an altitude of fifty feet for the next two miles up the river, and is there three and a half feet thick, covered by two feet of black slate and this by eight feet of sandstone.� (Rogers� Geology of Pennsylvania.)

It is inferrible, then, that Leechburgh is near the synclinal axis of the Fourth Basin,* i. e. the line along which the opposite descending strata meet. The Fourth Basin lies between the anticlinals of the Fourth and Fifth, or the axes of the Third and Fourth Basins. The anticlinal of the Fifth, or axis of the Fourth Basin, passes northeast and southwest about two and three-fourths miles to the northwest of Leechburgh on to the Kiskiminetas. The distance by a straight line from the anticlinal of the Fifth Basin through Leechburgh is about ten and three-fourths miles. If there are oil-bearing rocks in the Fourth Basin the oil in them will be tapped at a less depth on the slopes that at the center of the basin, that is, the line along which the strata of each descending slope meet. The northwestern slope of the Fourth Basin appears to be about seven and three-fourths miles from the respective anticlinals to its center, or synclinal axis. The difference in the depth of a particular rock or stratum at the center and along the slopes up to the anticlinals will of course be in proportion to the degree of ascent from the center to the anticlinals, provided no local changes occur to vary the regular interval between water-level and the desired rock or stratum.

     (*According to the geologists there was in the formation of the various strata a great wave from north to south, but between the Allegheny mountains and the highland in Erie county, Pennsylvania, there were six minor cross waves from northeast to southwest, which they call the Six Coal Basins. The synclinal of a basin is its bottom, or the line along which its opposite slopes meet; its anticlinal is the line along the top or crest of it southeastern slope; and its axis is the line along the top or crest of its northwestern slope. )

About 75,000 perches of sandstone have been taken out of the quarries near Jacksonville, or Bagdad, and sent to marker, by Samuel Bowers and his employes, worth $3 a perch delivered on the canal boat.

For the geological features or indications of the northern part of Allegheny township the reader is referred to those elsewhere given as those along Crooked creek.

The following is a record of the Leechburgh gas well, furnished to J. F. Carll, of the Second Geological Survey of Pennsylvania, by Joseph G. Beale : The well mouth is about fifteen feet below the level of the West Pennsylvania railroad depot at that point. Conductor, 22 feet; sand rock, 50; limestone, with gas and water, 6; fireclay, 12; soft, loose shale, 200; blue pebble, 60; sandstone, white, 15; pebble, dark, 12; soapstone, 18; blue rock, 5; red rock, 8; slate, dark, 35; sandstone, white, with a little salt water, 75; slate, blue, 60; soft blue rock, 100; sandstone, gray, 20; soapstone, 100; rock, soft and changeable, with salt water, 152; sandstone, white, 30; shale, 200; blue rock, hard shells, 20; pebble and sand rock mixed, present gas vein, 30; blue rock and hard shells, 20; depth of well 1,250 feet. The great flow of gas is about 50 feet above the bottom of the well and comes (observes Franklin Pratt, assistant geologist in charge of the second geological survey of Armstrong and several other counties) from the first sand rock. No coal beds are mentioned as having been passed through in drilling this well, yet coals were struck in boring various salt wells between that point and the Allegheny river. The flow of gas is apparently as strong now as when it was first struck.

Levels above tide, at stations on the West Pennsylvania Railroad, along the left bank of the Kiskiminetas. The datum is the mean tide in the Schuykill river at the Philadelphia Market street bridge. Add seven feet to each to ascertain its elevation above the mean Atlantic Ocean level; Helena, 1010 feet above tide; Salina, 948 feet; Northwest, 887 feet; Roaring Run, 820 feet; Apollo, 816 feet; Townsend�s Summit, 880 feet; Grinder�s (near Leechburgh), 820 feet; Bagdad, or Hill�s Mills, 773 feet; Allegheny, or West Pennsylvania Junction, as corrected by J. F. Carll, 790.64 feet. (Ibid, N.)

Along the Allegheny river , between the above-mentioned Junction and Crooked Creek; Northwest, inside corner of north abutment of Kiskiminetas bridge, 793.21 feet above ocean; opposite mile post, 795 feet; bench mark on lower inside corner of north wall of culvert, 795.3 feet; opposite Aladdin station, 792.9 feet; opposite mile post, 786 feet; opposite mile post, 779.6 feet; B. M. on upper inside corner of south abutment of bridge No. 32, 779.8 feet; opposite mile post, 784.3 feet; B. M. on lower inside corner of north wall of culvert, 781.7 feet; opposite White Rock Station, 782.4 feet; opposite mile post, 780.4 feet; B. M. on lower inside corner of north wall of culvert, 778 feet; opposite Kelly�s Station, 780.6 feet; opposite mile post, 781.3 feet; B. M. on �Hickory Right,� 315 feet north of 35th mile post, 794.32 feet; opposite mile post, 784.3 feet; B. M. on lower inside corner of north wall of culvert, 782.7 feet; opposite Logansport Station, 785 feet; opposite mile post, 785.5 feet; opposite mile post, 787.9 feet; B. M. on upper inside corner of south abutment of bridge No. 38, 789 feet.

Source: Page(s) 105-155, History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania by Robert Walker Smith, Esq. Chicago: Waterman, Watkins & Co., 1883.
Transcribed June 2000 by Linda Mockenhaupt for the Armstrong County Smith Project.
Contributed by Linda Mockenhaupt for use by the Armstrong County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/armstrong/)

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