Wayne Township
Armstrong County Pennsylvania
Early Families

Among the earlier landowners and settlers were: Thomas W. Hiltzheimer, General Daniel Brodhead, John Rutherford, Jacob Peelor, Joseph Marshall, James Kirkpatrick, John Calhoun, James McGahey, Abel Dindley, James Russell, Thomas Duke, William Kinnan, Ephraim Blaine, James Hamilton, William Borland, John Borland, William Kirkpatrick, William Cochran, James Marshall, Noah A. Calhoun, General James Potter, John Hays, Sr., David Ralston, Thomas White, James McKennan, Robert Borland, James McQuoun, Watson S. Marshall, Alexander McClelland, Benjamin Irwin, Robert Martin, Hung Martin, Enoch Hastings, Rueben Hastings, Robert Beatty, Thomas Taylor, Jacob Pontius, John Hyskell, Joseph Glenn, John Henderson, Samuel Coleman, Thomas Wilson, Robert Black, Samuel Black, Archibald Glenn, Lumes Wilson, Samuel Irwin, Joseph McSparrin, Andrew D. Guthrie, Samuel Wallis, George Harrison, Thomas W. Francis, Edward Tilghman, Thomas Ross, Peter Thomas, George Scott, William Wirt Gitt, Henry Pratt, John Butler, Theodore Wilson, George Ellenberger, William Pontius, Samuel Black, John Gould, John Bargerstock, John Steele, John Hettrick, Adam Baughman, Jacob Kammerdiener, Peter Kammerdiener, Thoms Smullen, John Alcorn, Alexander White, James White, John Powers, Joseph Powers, Mrs. Elizabeth McClemmens, Leopold Drohn, Joseph Clever, Eli Schrecengost, Joseph Schrecengost, John Reesman, Dr. William Smith, William C. Bryan, Mark Campbell, Michael Clever, George Harrison, Joseph Thomas, Robert Brown, Jacob Beer, Samuel McGaughey, Jacob Rupp, Isaac Meason, Robert R. Cross, Hugh Gallagher, William McElhenny, Frederick Soxman, Adam Rupp, Paul Burti, Benjamin B. Cooper, Jacob Smith, John McIntire, George Kline, Joseph Buffington, James A. Knox, George Dill, Moses Dill, and John Brodhead.

Few of these whose names are mentioned were actual settlers. Most of the earlier settlers occupied and improved portion of these tracks for years before they knew or could reach those who could grant valid tiles; so there was a good deal of squatting and occasional shifting of locations.

The earliest settler in the eastern part of Wayne Township, on Glade Run, was William Marshall, who came from Indiana County. He settled and made and improvement, erecting a log cabin and barn on the Pickering & Co. tract, of which he occupied about eighty acres, known in that region as "old Glade Run farm".

The only other white settler then within what is now the territory of this township was James Shields, who occupied a part of the above mentioned vacant tract, the farm since owned by C. Soxman and James Gallagher, Jr., about four miles west of south from Marshall's. The next nearest neighbors were the Kirkpatrick's, nearly south, on the Cowanshannock, another family about four miles to the east, and others not less than ten miles to the north. The nearest gristmill was Peter Thomas', about fifteen miles distant on Plum creek.

Another settler on Glade Run was Joseph Marshall, the eldest son of William Marshall Sr., he being twenty-two years old when they settled there a century ago. Their new home in the wilderness was then in Toby Township. Joseph Marshall, in later years, when the Marshalls in this part of the county became quite numerous, was distinguished from others bearing the same name by the appellation of "big Joe Marshall". He died in his eightieth year in 1859.

The eastern portion of this township received nearly all the settlers in the first decade of this century. Thomas Wilson was assessed with 300 acres of land in 1806, being then in Kittanning township, The records show that the other settlers in this section were Hugh Martin, Alexander and Thomas McGaughey, James Kirkpatrick, Sr., and John Calhoun, in 1807. Christopher Rupp in 1805 was the first settler in the vicinity of Echo. Twenty years after he was the owner of 800 acres of that land.

Several of these earlier owners were of more than passing reputation and importance in the history of our country. One of them, Ephraim Blaine, was a resident of Carlisle, PA., in the earlier years of the Revolutionary War. In the spring of 1777 the appointment of sub-lieutenant of Cumberland county was tendered to him, which he declined. He was afterward appointed deputy commissary general for the middle department. In Feb. or March, 1780, he was appointed commissary general, which position he probably filled until the close of the war. His name appears in the list of names of men redising at Fort Pitt, July 22, 1760. He was the great-grandfather of James G. Blaine, the distinguished United States senator from Maine, who was a native of Pennsylvania.

John Hays, Sr., was a son of John and Mary Hays, both of whom participated in the battle of Monmouth, N.J., in the Revolutionary War. He was a sergeant in a company of artillery, who is said to have directed a cannon at least a part of the time. When he was carried from the field, his wife was approaching with a pitcher of water for him and others, took his place by that cannon, loaded and fired at least once, insisted on remaining, and left with much reluctance. General Washington either saw or heard of the service which she thus rendered, and commissioned her as sergeant by brevet. She was in the army seven years and nine month, serving with her husband. After the war she and her husband removed to Carlisle, PA., where he subsequently died, and she married Sergeant McAuley. She died in January, 1832, in her ninetieth year, and was buried beside her first husband with military honors by several companies that followed her remains to the grave----"Molly Pitcher's" grave.

Source: The History of Armstrong County, Pennsylvania

Contributed for use by the Armstrong County Genealogy Project (http://www.pa-roots.com/armstrong/)

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