Part 22

FRANKLIN, county seat, population 9970, named for Benjamin Franklin, was laid out by William Irvine and Andrew Ellicott, state commissioners, in 1795, on a plateau where a few Seneca Indians were living in comparative security, with a lookout on the highest point of the highest hill, giving views up and down the two beautiful rivers. Being a conservative town, the original city plan has been closely followed, descendants of the early white settlers are living on their own lands from original surveys. Courthouse, Renaissance, brick, in center of a fine wide park, contains portrait of John Morrison, first town crier; near by is Soldiers’ Monument, marble shaft surmounted by an eagle; on the pedestal are carved names of Venango County soldiers killed in the Civil War; opposite is the _Franklin News_ office, Renaissance, good modern construction.

[Illustration: VENANGO COUNTY]

St. John’s Protestant Episcopal Church has fine Tiffany windows; the Presbyterian, Baptist, and Roman Catholic churches all have good architecture and stained glass windows. Fine Armory Building. Original lock and dam are preserved intact, in an early canal extended to Franklin, from the “Feeder” Canal several miles below Meadville, on French Creek, its course is plainly seen at many places along the creek; five old bridges that were swept away by fire and ice have been replaced by modern structures; one is called the “Washington,” concrete, handsome design.

Three early frontier forts were here, sites marked by monuments and tablets, Fort Machault, French, Elk Street near Sixth Street, 1753-59; Washington came here on way to Fort Le Boeuf, 1753; this fort had a share in the maneuvers that precipitated “the great seven years war” and dissipated the dreams of an extended French empire; the expedition which brought on actual hostilities was organized and received its impetus at Fort Machault. French troops passed through, and often a thousand Indians lingered here. Fort Venango, Elk Street at Eighth Street, English, 1760-63, captured and burned by the Indians during Pontiac’s war; and Fort Franklin, on Franklin Avenue west of Thirteenth Street, built by United States 1787-96, later abandoned; also the Old Garrison, on bank of French Creek near junction with Allegheny River, erected by the United States after Fort Franklin. This city has never failed in a military crisis; during the war of 1848, George C. McClellan led the “forlorn hope” which captured the fortified buildings at Chepultepec, making the taking of the palace possible.

Six miles down the river is “Indian God Rock,” on which are still seen Indian picture writings; near this rock, Celeron, a Frenchman, under orders from the governor of Canada, is said to have buried one of the engraved leaden plates, placed at various points from Lake Erie to the Mississippi River, as marks of renewal of French possession. Opposite is a bald mountain, from which are fine views of river scenery; among the hills are numerous caves and ravines, a lovely ravine is Glen Fern south of Franklin; Monarch Park, halfway to Oil City, is a well-equipped pleasure ground. OIL CITY, on Oil Creek, population 21,274, so named because it was the center of the oil industry after discovery of petroleum in 1859. In early days, “Seneca Oil” was obtained from the Indians, who gathered it by spreading their blankets in Oil Creek, the surface of which was covered with oil.

Hasson Park, with forty acres of natural wooded area, has rustic, stone, arch gateway at Bissell Avenue entrance. In Christ Protestant Episcopal Church are memorial windows by Lamb, New York. United States Post Office at the corner of Seneca and Clifford Streets, built by the Government in 1906, Romanesque, gray brick and stone. Carnegie Library, built, 1904, modified Romanesque, gray brick and stone; architect, Charles D. Bollon, Philadelphia. Five bridges over the Allegheny River include the original suspension bridge and “The Petroleum,” said to be finest in strength and dimension north of Pittsburgh; in 1892 a large petroleum tank caught fire and burning oil spread over the water in the creek, it also set fire to the buildings, and many lives were lost. From Franklin and Oil City, public highways, now under state control, lead along streams and over uplands of great beauty.

[Illustration: IRON FURNACE--OIL CITY AND VICINITY

When the iron and steel industry started, iron furnaces such as the above were built near deposits of bog ore, and the product shipped by the river to Pittsburgh long before railroads arrived or cities appeared]

XXXII

WARREN COUNTY

Formed March 12, 1800; named for General Joseph Warren, who fell at the Battle of Bunker Hill in 1775; land is varied, with mountains, plains, and narrow valleys; the Allegheny River flows through, with tributaries large enough for floating rafts or propelling machinery. The beautiful Kinzua Hills, east, are nearly 2200 feet above tidewater, over them is the famous Kinzua Viaduct, said to be the highest in the world. Early industries were lumber and oil, now they are chiefly agriculture and manufacturing.

WARREN, made county seat in 1819, was first laid out by General William Irving and Andrew Elliott, state commissioners in 1795; population 14,272; in 1800, first sawmill in the county was started which is said to have made the first raft of lumber ever floated down the Allegheny; it also sawed lumber in 1805 for Jackson’s Tavern, in which George W. Fenton, afterwards governor of New York, in 1806, taught school, until the schoolhouse of round logs with openings covered by oiled paper for windows, was ready. Courthouse, built, 1825, was first brick building in the county. A suspension bridge crosses the Allegheny here, built about 1871; near entrance to bridge is the Soldiers’ Monument, granite, erected in 1909, on which are inscribed the battles of Warren County men in Civil War. Bronze monument to General Warren and his soldiers is in the west park, dedicated, 1910, placed by the

[Illustration: WARREN COUNTY]

Joseph Warren Chapter, Daughters of the American Revolution. Memorial Library, classic, Doric; architect, Wetmore, New York, is on site of residence of Francis Henry, Esq.

TIDIOUTE, population 1065, in midst of most picturesque surroundings, hills 500 to 700 feet high, covered thickly with forests, where the Allegheny River makes a beautiful curve, crossed here by a suspension bridge built between 1860-70, was famous as an oil-producing community, and the center of a large and excited population, now a quiet residence of wealth and refinement. Also on banks of the Allegheny is the Cornplanter Reservation, given to the great Seneca chief and his heirs for ever, as a reward for military service and influence during the War of 1812; in 1866, the State Legislature authorized the erection of a monument here, inscription, “Gyantwahia, The Cornplanter, Died at Cornplanter Town, Feb. 18, 1836, aged about 100 years.”

[Illustration: BUTLER COUNTY]

XXXIII

BUTLER COUNTY

Formed March 12, 1800; named in honor of General Richard Butler, born in York County; natural scenery is varied, with hills, knolls, and ridges, intervening valleys and broad, fertile fields, while many streams dash over rocky bottoms in all directions and flash their clear waters in the sunlight. The county is rich in old traditions. In 1753, Washington passed through over the Indian trail extending from site of Pittsburgh to Franklin, Venango County; Lafayette stopped here overnight, and many stories of hairbreadth escapes from Indians are related, among them that of Massy Harbison and her baby, who after seeing two of her children killed and scalped, almost starved for days, but finally escaped; the descendants of that baby still reside in the county. Robert Morris owned about 100,000 acres of land in this region. Chief industries, notably its large output of oil and gas, also manufactories; the Standard Steel Car Works, one of the largest plants in the United States, and the Standard Plate Glass Works.

BUTLER, county seat, population 23,778; laid out in 1803; rectangular, sheltered on all sides by hills; on the top of a small knoll is the public square, with fountain, walks, grass plots, and flower beds; it contains the Soldiers’ Monument, dedicated in 1894 to “Our Silent Defenders”; facing the park is the Courthouse, Gothic French style, with a high tower, stone, built in 1885; architect, James P. Bailey, Pittsburgh; remodeled in 1908 by J. C. Fulton, of Uniontown; interior has mural paintings, representing historic scenes in Butler County; the Woman’s Club furnished a rest room for women here in the basement. Two interurban street railway lines from Pittsburgh have their terminus near this point. Within two squares is the Post Office, built, 1914, Grecian; light brick with granite Ionic columns; architect, Oscar Wenderoth. Opposite is St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Church, English-Gothic, with stone tower 180 feet high; constructed of beautifully colored local sandstone in the rough, trimmed with the same stone dressed smooth; roof, variegated shingle tile; architect, John T. Comes, Pittsburgh; interior has mural decorations by the Christian Art Guild; the altars are known as “Tryptich,” said to be the only ones of their kind in America; the sanctuary is considered among the richest and most complete in this country; stained glass windows from George Boos, Munich, Bavaria. St. Peter’s German Catholic Church has stained glass windows from Munich, made by Meyer & Company, who also made windows for St. Peter’s Protestant Episcopal Church.

The county has numerous fine, concrete bridges; Butler Viaduct is the largest, 1060 feet between the approaches connecting East Wayne Street with Center Avenue across a deep ravine, built in 1915 by the Fort Pitt Bridge Works. Two miles northeast of town is a pleasure park of natural beauty in a wooded valley, well equipped with dining rooms, ball grounds, lake for boating, etc. Five miles from Butler on the heights above Herman Station is ST. MARY’S MONASTERY, Gothic, built by the Capuchin Fathers, of which St. Fiedelis College forms a part. SAXONBURG was laid out in 1832 by John Roebling, here he lived and manufactured the first wire cable, which he used in constructing suspension bridges that made him famous, notably the Brooklyn Bridge across East River, New York. At EVANS CITY, on a grassy knoll in the cemetery, is the Soldiers’ Monument; Quincy granite shaft, surmounted by an eagle standing on a globe, the names of forty-five soldiers are inscribed on it; dedicated, 1894.

On the same road is HARMONY, an old historic settlement, founded by George Rapp of Germany; who organized a society known as Harmonites, they purchased 5000 acres of best farm land along the Connoquenessing Creek, amid beautiful scenery, and formed a communistic colony; all money and goods went into a common fund; all worked together in harmony and concord; the quaint old cemetery is surrounded by a wall four feet thick; at the entrance is a gate consisting of one large stone which turns on a pivot; more than one hundred of the sect are buried here; high up on the bank, above the creek, is a curious stone formation called “Rapp’s Seat,” here, tradition relates, “Father Rapp” used to sit and oversee the work carried on by the community; the tourist is well repaid for the climb by the beautiful view from that high point. Another historic place is known as the “Old Stone House” on Mercer Turnpike, ten miles north of Butler, used as a tavern in the eighteenth century; here in 1843, an Indian named “Mohawk” killed Mrs. Wigton and her four children.

A State Normal School with fine large buildings and wide, shady campus is at SLIPPERY ROCK. About 1792, numerous depredations by Indians were quieted for some time by General Brodhead’s expedition to the head waters of the Allegheny River with Captain Samuel Brady’s help, a notable Indian fighter; his leap of 23 feet over the waters at Slippery Rock, 20 feet deep, with Indians back and front, gained the praise of the Indian chief, who said, “Blady make good jump.” At WEST SUNBURY an agricultural school has lately been established.

[Illustration: VINEYARD HILL

Harmony Rapp’s seat is back of the tree. The path leads to it.]

XXXIV

MERCER COUNTY

Formed March 12, 1800; named for General Hugh Mercer of the Revolutionary War, who was killed in the Battle of Princeton; rolling land, well watered with springs and creeks; coal underlying one-fourth of land in the county; chief industries are iron, steel, and agriculture; early settlers were Scotch-Irish. In 1812, Mercer County people were frequently called upon to aid in defense of Erie; the whole county would be aroused in a day by runners; in a few hours most of the men, whether militia or volunteers, would be on the march; one call came on Sunday, while service was being held in the courthouse; the sermon was suspended, news announced, benediction given, and immediate preparation for march commenced; at another time, news of threatened invasion came in the middle of grain harvest; the response was immediate, only one old man was left in the town.

MERCER, county seat, population 1932; was once an Indian village of seventy lodges; no settlement was made here until after Wayne’s victory over the Indians in 1795; it was laid out in 1803, on two hundred acres of land given by John Hoge of Washington County. The courthouse, built, 1909, colonial; brick, stone, and concrete; is in center of the public square of three acres; interior finished in white marble; mural painting in dome by Edward Everett Simmons, represents Power, Innocence, Guilt, and Justice; in the courtrooms

[Illustration: MERCER COUNTY]

[Illustration: MURAL PAINTING IN THE DOME OF MERCER COUNTY COURT HOUSE

_Painted by Edward Everett Simmons_]

on second floor are symbolic mural paintings, “Criminal Law,” by Vincent Aderente, and “Civil Law,” by Arthur Foringer, made in 1911; panels 11 by 12 feet; in the judges’ chambers is a portrait of Honorable Henry Baldwin, former member of the Mercer County bar, and Justice of the Supreme Court of the United States, 1830-44. On courthouse grounds is the monument, granite and bronze, to soldiers of Mercer County in the war of 1861-65.

The Humes Hotel, at the northeast corner of the Public Square, built, 1817, then known as “The Hackney House,” oldest hostelry in the county, had as guests Marquis de Lafayette in 1824; his room, No. 12, is open to guests; President Taylor and Buchanan, and General John B. Gordon of Georgia also visited here. The celebrated Harthegig healing springs, named after an Indian chief, is near Mercer; Indians claimed it healed them of many diseases. HOPE MILLS was the birthplace and the early home of George Junkin, D.D., who was father-in-law of General Stonewall Jackson; his father was a captain in the War of 1812. GROVE CITY is a picturesque college town, being the home of Grove City College, founded by Dr. Isaac C. Kettler. Buhl farm, near SHARON, is a recreation park for citizens of Shenango Valley and has club house, swimming pool, golf, tennis, and baseball grounds.

[Illustration: ARMSTRONG COUNTY]

XXXV

ARMSTRONG COUNTY

Formed March 12, 1800, and named for General John Armstrong, who commanded the expedition against the Indians at Kittanning in 1756, and destroyed their town; a hilly and well-watered region with fine farming lands on bottoms and hills. Bituminous coal and limestone are found in all parts of the county; cannel coal of excellent quality, oil, gas, and iron ore; the plate-glass industry at Ford City is said to be the largest in the world. Historic places are, site of Fort Jacob; Battle of Blanket Hill; and point where Washington and Gist crossed the river, not marked.

KITTANNING, county seat, settled in 1804; population 7153; on site of an Indian village of same name; later it was one of the French and Indian forts, extending via Venango and Fort Le Boeuf to Erie. An Indian trail left Horse Shoe Bend at Kittanning Point, Blair County, and came through Cambria County to Cherry Tree, Canoe Point, Indiana County, crossing from there to Kittanning. The courthouse, jail, and sheriff’s house are built together, of fine cut stone from Catfish Quarry, Clarion County, cupola, 108 feet from the ground, foundations, 7 feet wide, sunk in solid rock 24 feet below the surface; architect, James McCullough, Jr., Kittanning, built, 1870-73.

At MAHONING, in 1780, was a fierce encounter with the Indians by General Brodhead, commander of Fort Pitt, and Captain Samuel Brady, and another encounter at Brady’s Bend. Captain Brady fought in the Revolution, at siege of Boston, in the massacre at Paoli, and in 1779 was ordered to Fort Pitt. FORD CITY, population 5605, has statue of Colonel J. B. Ford, father of plate-glass industry. Several fine churches are here.

XXXVI

INDIANA COUNTY

Formed March 30, 1803. Named for Indians; early settlers, mostly Scotch-Irish, who not only had the Indians to contend with, but also venomous reptiles and beasts of prey, with which the country abounded; near the cabin door one would hear the quick snap of the viselike jaws of the wolf, one could see the panther crouching in a tree, or the catamount glaring from a thicket. Chief industries, agriculture and coal mining; entire county is underlaid with bituminous coal of finest quality; glass and brick-making are important; electricity and natural gas solve the heating and lighting problems.

INDIANA, county seat, laid out in 1805; population 7043; courthouse, in center of town, brick and gray stone, Renaissance, built, 1871, jail in same style joins it, built, 1888. Town hall, brick with Cleveland limestone trimmings, Renaissance, built, 1913, architect, H. King Conklin, Newark, New Jersey. Savings and Trust Company, white brick, Renaissance. Presbyterian Church, semi-Gothic, Hummelstone, has fine windows, one by Dodge, New York, formerly with Tiffany. United Presbyterian Church, Moorish, brick, built, 1851. State Normal School, northeast of town on high ground beautifully kept, buildings all of stone or brick, modern school construction, contains good reproductions of famous paintings and replicas of celebrated sculpture, distributed throughout the

[Illustration: INDIANA COUNTY]

[Illustration: THE DEVIL’S ELBOW, EAST OF INDIANA

One of the most picturesque spots in the county

_Illustration loaned by “The Indiana Progress,” Indiana_]

buildings as a decorative and educational element; portrait of Jane E. Leonard, principal since opening in 1875, artist, H. S. Stevenson, Pittsburgh, was given by the alumni; and interesting class windows in Leonard Hall, given by three separate graduate classes, makers, Rudy Brothers, Pittsburgh; near the borough is Devil’s Elbow, one of nature’s beauty spots.

Armstrong Spring, an old Indian camping ground, on Indian Trail, “Kittanning Path,” which passed north of the Rice Hill, west to this spring, in private property, and through normal school grounds to Kittanning, Armstrong County; over this trail Lieut. Colonel John Armstrong was sent with seven companies against Indians, at the battle of Blanket Hill, Kittanning, in 1756. Two miles west on Kittanning Pike is site of Clark’s blockhouse, first building in the county, the spring and part of old stone fort are still there, not marked.

CHERRY TREE, on Susquehanna River prominent point on old purchase line, in treaty of William Penn with the Indians at Fort Stanwix, 1768, also called “Canoe Point”; from here, the Indians carried their canoes to the Allegheny River at Kittanning, sixty miles away; a direct line between these two points formed part of the boundary of lands acquired from the Six Nations. Where original Cherry Tree stood is the meeting point of Indiana, Cambria, and Clearfield counties, monument erected by county commissioners; designed by E. F. Carr & Company, Quincy, Massachusetts, unveiled 1894; Governor Beaver made the address; inscription, “This monument is erected to mark Canoe Place, the corner of the Proprietaries Purchase from the Indians by Treaty at Fort Stanwix, New York, November 5, 1768.” In the southeast is a tunnel, part of old portage railroad through spur of Alleghenies, where the Conemaugh makes a bend of two and one-half miles. Near are Aurora Falls, for sixty feet over rock and through a picturesque gorge to the Conemaugh River (Kiskiminetas) which forms southern boundary, tributary streams fall twenty to thirty feet to the mile.

Near ARMAGH is the old Buena Vista Furnace, one of three operated in southeast section in the early forties, relic of the early iron industry when ore was taken from the hills, melted into pig metal, and transported to the markets over the old Pennsylvania Canal. BLAIRSVILLE, on proposed William Penn highway, settled, 1819, population 4391, named for John Blair of Blair’s Gap. First United Presbyterian Church, Tudor Gothic. LUZERNE is said to have largest electrically equipped coal (bituminous) operations in the world, and develops power to other operations within a radius of twenty-five miles. SALTZBURG, settled in 1817 by Andrew Boggs, is near site of an Indian village, beautiful Kiski Falls are here; several wells producing salt of excellent quality were put down from 1813 and later. ELDER’S RIDGE, academy, stone, built in 1816, was the first state vocational school in Pennsylvania. The underground railway was in active operation in Indiana County during the latter days of slavery.

XXXVII

CAMBRIA COUNTY

Formed March 26, 1804; named by early Welsh settlers for the Cambria Hills in Wales; has been called the Switzerland of America. Here are many places of historic and scenic interest. The old Kittanning Trail crossed the country in the north through Ashville, where there is an Indian burial ground. Near Carrollton is Hart’s Sleeping Place; he was a signer of the Declaration of Independence; the British made special exertion to take him a prisoner, so he wandered through the woods, sleeping in caves, being constantly hunted by the enemy. South is LORETTO, a quaint old mountain town with one street, and an almost entirely Roman Catholic community, founded by Prince Demetrius Gallitzin, who brought a colony of settlers into the Allegheny Mountains about 1796, and labored as a missionary in this district for forty years; he died in 1840; the church he built here has been rebuilt in a costly manner by Charles Schwab in honor of his birthplace. St. Francis College has the tomb and monument of Prince Gallitzin in grounds. Southeast is GALLITZIN at western end of a tunnel two-thirds of a mile long on the Pennsylvania Railroad, 2160 feet above sea; a bronze statue of the prince is here. PRINCE GALLITZIN SPRING, with a monument near by, is along the State Highway near Summit, on top of the Alleghenies.

Beyond is CRESSON, a noted and beautiful summer

[Illustration: CAMBRIA COUNTY]

[Illustration: MONUMENT TO THE UNKNOWN DEAD OF THE JOHNSTOWN FLOOD]

resort; here is Mount Aloysius Academy and the State Tuberculosis Sanatorium No. 2. EBENSBURG, county seat, laid out in 1805; population 2179, is also a summer resort; through the woods and around the lakes of this region the rhododendrons grow as tall as trees and are gorgeous in their bloom. Descending along the upper waters of the Conemaugh, numerous vestiges are seen of the old Portage Railroad, a series of inclined planes, connecting the State Canal at Hollidaysburg east and Johnstown on the west. Dickens wrote of the scenery along the canal, “Sometimes the way wound through some lonely gorge like a mountain pass in Scotland.” Many dams, which are really lakes, have been built by manufacturers, the largest is three and one-half miles long, surrounded by wooded hills with here and there a waterfall.